Bay County, Michigan - Chapter 8: Greater Bay City.-1865-1905, 1905 (part 1 of 2)

Chapter 8: Greater Bay City.-1865-1905

Remarkable Evolution of the Bay Cities from Booming Frontier Lumber Communities to Hives of Varied Industries-The Rise and Decline of the Lumber and Salt Industries-Municipal Improvements-Public Buildings and Business Ilock -The Revival of the LumberIndustrv-The Center of America s Beet Suo'r INDL stkv-Chemical Factories, Chicorv Mills and Varied Industries- DisTovERv OF Coal-Iron and Steel Industries-Mammoth Ship-Building Plants AND DrTdocks-Fish AND Game-TheFight FOR Consolidation-The first Officers of Greater Bay City - The Charter.

The year 1905 will ever mark a memorable epoch in the annals of the thriving communities situated on the banks of Michigan's mightiest inland stream, who, in this year of grace have joined together that which man should never have kept asunder! In April, 1865, Bay City began its corporate existence as one of 'Michigan's most promising cities, and just 40 years later West Bay City, the enterprising sister community on the west bank of the Saginaw, unites its energies and destinies with the older community, creating by this happy union a flourishing city of approxiinately 45,000 people. Drawn hither by the splendid '^advantages for commerce and industry offered by the Saginaw River for seven miles inland from Saginaw Bay, these early pioneers and town builders yet allowed that very same river to nominally divide them, for separate corporations have existed during all these years on opposite sides of the river.

During this very month of March, 1905, the Journal of Geography, while discussing the war between Russia and Japan, and the eventual boundaries dividing the disputed empire of Alanchuria. has this to say about rivers as a dividing line: "The Amur River, rimning through a broad and fertile valley, nommally divides the lowland politically into two parts - Russian Siberia on the north and Manchuria

And Representative Citizens Rivers Are The Diameters Of Communities

AND NOT THEIR CIRCUMFERENCE! That trade, and with it all the rest of modern life, gravitates toward the rivers, and there mingles, and therehy unifies the life of the country on both sides! It will be as dit^cult to keep the people on opposite sides of the river Amur divided, as it was to keep the river Rhine German on one side, and French on the other ! Navigable rivers, while good barriers in time of war, are fatal to continued separation in time of peace!"

If that is true of a mere boundary line, it comes home with even more force when applied to sister communities, who like Brooklyn and New York City, or like the two Bay Cities, are bound together by the closest ties of social intercourse, business relations and mutual interests. Time and experience is therefore bound to wipe out these imaginary dividing lines, and unite for collective effort and joint advancement all the people living on the same great waterway for identical reasons.

The most progressive and far-sighted citizens of both communities had for 30 years recognized the advisability of uniting these corporate interests, but local pride, the ultra-conservative obstructionists, who exist in every community and who ofttimes wield a restraining influence for good, who in this instance were perhaps misguided, yet perfectly honest and sincere in their opposition, together with minor personal interests, served to keep us asunder for 25 years, and nearly encompassed the turning back the wheels of progress for another 20 or 30 years, through the "railroaded" repeal act of the Legislature in January, 1905, upsetting all that had been accomplished with wisdom and patience in the joint action of the

But the rising generation of young men, witli progressive ideas, with no ties to a venerable but obsolete past, rallied to the support of the stalwart leaders of the consolidation movement of other years, and through the keen business judgment, wise counsel and decisive action of Michigan's beloved chief executive. Governor Fred iNI. ^^'arner, they snatched victory for Bay City's union from the very jaws of ignominous defeat.

And so in April, 1905, by the election of its first officials, the charter of the new and greater city becomes operative! A new metropolis has been added to the list of great cities in the commonwealth of Michigan, and Bay City, West Side, and Bay City, East Side, become one good, strong and united community, to take that high place in the sisterhood of our country's great cities, to which these people have long been entitled by force of numbers, industry and natural advantages. Just as 40 years ago, the incorporation of Bay City, East Side, as a city gave new impetus to the business and social interests of that pioneer community, so in this year of grace. 1905. these united Bay Cities must and will take on new vitality, new ambition, new energy and rise to that high plane of progressiveness and prosperity, which in view of the city's splendid location, unbounded natural resources and intelligence of its people must be all its own, if we but do and dare, and pull together with a will!

But let us pause a moment, to see how this community of half a hundred thousand, with other thousands still without the corporate limits of Greater Bay City, came and grew and prospered. Turn back the pages of time, 50 years. Where stands to-day the really magnificent City Hall, fit to be the capital of a kingdom.

there stood in 1855 the crude wigwam or barl< hunting-lodge of Nau-qua-chic-a-me, the chieftain of the Chippewas. A spring clear as crystal welled up beneath a shady nook, and meandered westward to the great river, which rolled beneath the shadows of the pines northward into an equally mighty bay. The wise men of his tribe were wont to assemble on the very spot for counsel, where 50 years later will assemble the councilmen of the Greater Bay City. Little did the red men dream what changes the next half century would bring forth. And almost as difficult is it for us to mentally turn back the wheels of time and call to mind that primitive hunting lodge, with its sage warriors and councilmen of the aborigines. Nau-qua-chic-a-me in 1854 was more than three score and ten, and a warrior :

As monumental bronze, unchanged his look, A soul that pity touched but never shook ; Trained from his tree-rocked cradle to his bier, The fierce extremes of good and ill to brook. Impassive - fearing but the shame of fear - A stoic of the woods - a man without a tear.

In the earliest sketch of Bay City, compiled under authority of the Common Council of Bay City in 1875-76, by Alderman George W. Hotchkiss, Nau-qua-chic-a-me is given the foremost place among the Indians met by the pioneers of Bay City. "He was well and favorably known to all the white settlers of the valley. His honesty and friendship were proven in numberless instances." His band of Indians usually camped amid the pretty grove on the west side of the river, a veritable paradise for the natives. But the sage chief is said to have preferred the solitude of his lone hunting-lodge on the spot, where oddly enough, in the years to come, the business of a great community was to be transacted. Whenever the chieftain had important matters to bring before his leading warriors, he would assemble them near the "deerlick," where busy squaws and romping youths would not disturb their deliberations. Daniel A. Marshall.^ ex-alderman and city accountant for years, came here in i860, and among his many interesting reminiscences, his recollection of this old chieftan, as he would troop into the young settlement with two or more squaws at his heels, and a jolly "Bu-shuu" greeting for all he met, is a refreshing recital of pioneer days.

About 1855 the grow'ing community reached southw^ard along the river front, and the "deer-lick" no longer offered solitude, and with silent regret the Indians retreated farther into the wilderness, appearing periodically at the little government pay-station on the banks of the river, where the Detroit & INIackinac Railway bridge now spans the deep waters, and visiting the stores of the pale faces for the commodities which even their fathers never knew\

Poor Lo! The first and last dollar of his government pay invariably went for fire-water, and when on such rampages, the wild, discordant shrieks and war-whoops would make the night hideous in the settlement. Brawls with fatal results occasionally followed these debauches, and the pioneers always breathed easier when the red men vanished again in the vast forests to the west and north of Bay City. The tavern and store-keepers invariably held most of the government cash by the time Poor Lo was ready to retreat, and hence the red men were not unwelcome guests. Nor did they often molest unoft'ending pale faces. Their brawls were usually with their own race, or with equally untamed bushmen of the frontier type. Often the pioneer mother in the wilderness of the valley would be startled by the silent approach of moccasined feet, but we know of no single instance, where the lonely wife or children were injured or even molested by these roaming warriors. The oldest settler tells us, that the Indians were consumed with curiosity about the life and deeds of the pak faces. They would stop at the log hut in the primitive forest clearing, to watch the little pale faces play, to inspect the cooking of the housewife and to partake of the viands that were so new and inviting to him. but all this as a rule unobtrusively. The early historian of Bay City approved the kindliest sentiments about the Indians, "who held their course, silent, solitary and undaunted through the boundless bosom of the wilderness." His hunting expeditions vied in -distance and danger with the pilgrimage of the knights errant, traversing vast forests exposed to the hazards of lonely sickness, ferocious beasts, lurking enemies and privations. In a frail bark canoe the Indians darted over the Great Lakes and the rushing rivers, ever retreating before advancing civilization, but here still, with a lofty contempt of death, and a fortitude strengthened by their accumulating afflictions. The Chippewa could face death, but he could not face the buzzing of the sawmill and with the other frightened denizens of the forest he left these scenes forever.

The mighty river the red children of the forest loved proved their undoing here, years before the other sections of the State in the same latitude became thickly settled. The Saginaw River furnished an easy means of reaching this wealth of forest and prairie, and an equally ready highway to the markets of the world. It is therefore small wonder, that in the primitive and pre-historic periods, no less than in the colonial period, it drew the human race to its shores. The stream, which Longfellow has immortalized in "Evangeline," during its entire tortuous course cannot lay claim to natural charms or much pastoral beauty. Its waters are rather murky, the result of sweeping the rich alluvial lowlands on its journey to the great bay. The current is not swift, except during spring freshets or after prolonged rainfall in the valley. The earliest pioneers found it more beautiful, when stately pines and tangled vines framed its low banks, and a carpet of sweet and beautiful wild flowers extended to the water's edge. The ridge along its west bank was particularly attractive, with its rich covering of green, and with luxurious wild flowers running riot beneath the wide-spreading branches of the scattered monarchs of the forest. The tepees of the Indians were then the only signs of human habitation on that side of the river, while often the antlered tribes of the forest trooped down to the water's edge in the more secluded spots, and packs of wolves romped along the shore within sight of the early East Side settlers. Then as now, it was indeed a "Silent River :"

With the advance of the very forces attracted by this navigable river, its shores became even more prosaic. The earliest known clearing was made by the German frontiersman, Jacob Graveroth, who came West for the Astors, in quest of furs and trade with the In- dians, about 1825. He married a daughter of Kish-kau-ko, a Chippewa chief of the band that then made this valley their rendezvous. The Trombleys found him living with the Indians when they first visited the site of Bay City, and many amusing stories are told of his droll wit and good humor. He was well liked by the Indians and did a thriving business as their trader and interpreter. The next clearings were made by the Trombleys and the farm instructors the government sent to the Chippewas, in the hope of teaching these huntsmen and warriors the arts of peace.

But the valley remained practically silent and unknown to the outside world, until four master minds came and saw and appreciated its wealth of resources. Judge Albert ]^Iiller from his frontier home at Saginaw City, James Fraser from his fine farm on the Tittabawassee, Hon. James G. Birney, of Kentucky, and Dr. Daniel Hughes Fitzhugh from New York State, were w-ithout a doubt the first to see and take advantage of the deep-water harbor, and the value of the timber lands, where stands today the metropolis of Northern Michigan.

Foremost among the four stands the late James Fraser, "the man on horseback," the most energetic figure in the early annals of Bay City. He it was who personally inspected every foot of the valley lands, ceded to the government by the Indians in the treaty of 1837. Over Indian trails and trackless wastes without a guide, save for the stars of heaven, he blazed a w-ay as he rode through the primeval forest, or skirted the shores of river and bay in frail bark canoe, determined to know the exact lay of this virgin land. He was a familiar sight to the roving Indians, who admired his restless energy and indomitable pluck. They called him "Little Wizard" and in after years had reason to know that the appellation was well merited. He could not wait for the long drawn out councils of government officials and Indians about the sale of their last remaining reservation in the valley, but took what he found ready.

The John Riley Reserve of 640 acres, given by the government to Stephen V. R. Riley for his assistance in securing the first treaty of 1 81 9 from the reluctant Indians, was the only available site for a city near the mouth of the placid Saginaw River. For its purchase Mr. Fraser organized the Saginaw Bay Company. John Riley would not sell without the consent of his aged father, then postmaster of Schenectady, New York, and this old frontiersman with hair whitened by the snows of more than 70 winters brought about at Detroit the sale of what is now the heart of Bay City, for the then enormous sum of $30,000. The company, led by Mr. Fraser, at once laid out the plat of the new town, constructed a warehouse, planned a hotel and actually started it, and a dock was built for the vessels, which the projectors felt certain would soon be doing business in the settlement they called Lower Saginaw. But with President Jackson's order, requiring specie payment for all government lands, the financial panic of 1837-38 swept the promoters of this new town from the height of prosperity to utter ruin. Their fondest hopes were destined to be more than realized, but it was not for them to reap, where they had tilled so well.

James Fraser alone managed to tide over the disastrous years, and he alone was destined in the years to follow, to profit by his own foresight and keen business judgment. During those years he was ubiquitous. He seems entirely insensible to fatigue, hunger or cold. When the land office was still in Detroit, it was a common thing for him to ride to Detroit, a distance of more than 100 miles, in one day and often without even changing horses. Even this terrible ride did not finish his day's work on some decisive occasions. Finding some message or some word from Lower Saginaw or the Tittabawassee, upon his arrival at his home in the settlement above the Ijar, he would at once mount another horse, and plunge again into the wilderness, defying the storms of Nature no less than the terror of savage beasts or lurking Indians. His force of will and sagacity always brought him safe through all dangers, though like St. Paul of old he could recite in the eventide of his busy life the many instances when he passed close to the dark valley of death. Death by drowning, by falling trees, by snake bites, by his horse stumbling over an obstacle in the inky darkness of the dense woods, by the breaking of a frail bridge over a deep gully, and a hundred similar dangers, encompassed him. but he always escaped with hardly a scratch. One of the pioneers of those early days recalled meeting Eraser early one morning on the trail over the Cass, riding his horse at speed, knee deep, through the mud, a handkerchief taking the place of a hat, which had been lost in his mad ride through the woods in the darkness of the night, covered with mud, his face scratched by the branches of obstructing trees, yet greeting cheerily those he met. In March, 1850, Mr. Eraser learned that his eldest son was very sick at Detroit. Mounting his favorite horse "FairPlay," a mount worthy of its master, there began a wild race with death. The trails and roads were in their very worst condition, yet horse and rider plunged along, mile after mile. When "Fair Play" was about exhausted, he changed his mount, and in a little less than nine hours Mr. Eraser was at the bedside of his dying son.

Just at Joseph Trombley and Michael Daily were the walking marvels of Michigan in their day, just so James Eraser was the premier horseman. With the land ofiice at Detroit, or later at Elint, as a goal, and a choice parcel of land at stake, there was none who would dare to compete with James Eraser for the prize. At Cass Crossing there lived for years a solitary settler. Often in the dead of night he would hear a horse and rider go thundering by and cross the bridge at top speed, and in the morning he would tell travelers that "James Eraser passed last night."

Horse and rider have long since halted at the end of life's journey. The wilderness through which they journeyed by day and by night is no more. The trails they followed have become the highways of commerce, where the iron horse and the electric spark have been harnessed to serve humanity. The solitary cabins they passed in the stillness of the night have grown to be large cities, alive with industry and enjoying the comforts of a civilization for which pioneers like James Eraser blazed the way.

In 1834 the second of the trio who really called the first community into being. Dr. Daniel Hughes Eitzhugh, came into the valley to buy the land which he wisely calculated would soon be the El Dorado of the Northwest. He joined forces with Mr. Eraser, and while not a permanent resident here still contributed much to the early development of the settlement and future Bay City. His son, Charles C. Eitzhugh, came in 1841 to look after the large landed interests of his father, and in this year of grace, 1905, is still a resident of the city which he has seen grow from the humblest beginnings to a hive of varied industries with nigh unto half a hundred thousand souls.

Judge Albert Miller lived for some years at Saginaw City, Init he realized the difificulty of moving heavy-laden vessels over the Carrollton sand-bar, and therefore concluded that the harbor city would have to be built nearer the mouth of the river. liis judgment has been amply verified by subsequent events. He bought a large tract of land from the Trombleys in July, 1836, and at once laid out and platted the village of Portsmouth, now the south side of Greater Bay City. He built and operated the first sawmill, securing the machinery at an enormous cost of time and money. It proved to be the corner-stone of the industry, which for 30 years was the mainstay and wealth producer for the people of Bay City. He taught the first school here in 1835, was judge of probate of this county from 1835 until 1844, and represented this county in the Legislature, 1847-51. He continued in the lumber and real estate business to the end. He was one of the promoters of the first salt-well, and took an active part in securing the first railway for Bay City.

The fourth and most illustrious of the projectors and creators of Bay City canje somewhat later than his business associates, but Hon. James G. Birney had behind him such a distinguished career, that the mere fact of his removing to this wilderness in search of solitude and to start life anew attracted attention. From the day in 1841 when with Dr. Fitzhugh and James Fraser he visited Bay City for the first time, this far-off nook of the universe became a familiar spot to the outside world. Mr. Birney was a scion of one of Kentucky's most illustrious families. Born at Danville, he was surrounded by all the comfort and luxury of the paternal plantation. Educated at Princeton College from which he graduated in 1810, the world looked bright indeed to the young lawyer, then on the threshold of his noble career. He began the practice of the law at Danville, was elected Representative to the Legislature of Kentucky, and later removed to Huntsville, Alabama, where a broader field opened for his professional career. In 1828 he was presidential elector of the Whig party for Alabama. At this time he owned a cotton plantation with a large number of slaves. He was a devout Presbyterian, and the agitation against slavery impressed him keenly. He was soon at the parting of the ways. He must chose between his principles and his fortune, and he bravely sacrificed everything for the cause of liberty and equality. To preach emancipation was not enough. He must practice what he preached. So he gave each of his slaves deeds of manumission, gave up his plantation and began the battle for the down-trodden black race. Unlaunted by the sneers and insults of his relatives, friends and neighbors, in great personal danger, he carried on his good work. Cursed at home, he was eulogized the world over for his fearless self-sacrifice. Dr. Cox wrote at the time : "A Birney has shaken the continent by putting down his foot ! His fame will be en\ied before his arguments are answered, or their force forgotten !

A poor old slave, infirm and lame ; Great scars deformed his face ! On his forehead he bore the brand of shame, And the rags that hid his mangled frame Were the livery of disgrace ! But alas ! What holy angel Brings the slave this glad evangel ? And what earthquake's arm of might Breaks his dungeon gates at night? 'Twas a "Birney!"

His father died in 1839, leaving a large estate in land, money and slaves. Judge Birney requested his sister to compute all the slaves at their market value as part of his half share. This done, he immediately emancipated all of them. In 1840 he was at London, England, being vice-president of the World's Liberty Convention, and that same year he was nominated for the presidency by the Liberty party, receiving 7,000 votes that were counted, and other thousands that were ignored by the powers that were.

his estates, together with his other large expenses in his fight against a great Ijut popular wrong, had greatly reduced his fortune. Hence he listened willingly enough to Dr. Fitzhugh's invitation to "come West," invest what he had left at the mouth of the Saginaw River, and rest up. So in 1841 James G. Birney brought his family to the wilds of Michigan. The Webster House in Saginaw City had been idle since the panic swept the country in 1837, and here the Birneys started life anew, until their quaint little cottage could be made habitable at Bay City. On July 4, 1842, Judge Birney was the orator of the little settlement. He said he could never celebrate "Independence Day" properly, until the four million slaves of the South had been released from bondage! For 15 years thereafter he wrote and preached the gospel of human liberty and equality. He was again nominated for the presidency in 1844, receiving 62.300 votes, and in 1845 received 3,023 votes for Governor of Michigan.

When the last sumqions reached him on November 23,, 1857, at Eagleswood, New Jersey, the good cause seemed as far oft as ever. In a few years, however, his countrymen by the blood of thousands of heroes purchased the freedom of the slaves, and brought victory for the good cause. Foremost among the great leaders of that movement will ever stand the name of one of the founders of Bay City, imperishable as the human liberty for which he dared all : James G. Birney. And one of his greatest attributes was this : "He spake evil of no man !" Flis only sin was this, that he was a generation in advance of his day. Much of the early development of this community was brought about under his leadership of this great and good man. He shared with the other settlers all the dangers and privations of their frontier life. He hewed down the timber for the rail fence that kept his fine herd of blooded cattle from wandering into the vast forest beyond. The fine dairies of today owe much to this importation of blooded stock by Mr. Birney. As trustee of the reorganized Saginaw Bay Company, together with James Eraser and Dr. Fitzhugh, he planned and worked for the development of the natural resources of Bay City, and to attract settlers. Here his wishes were partly realized, when in 1855 ill health compelled him to give up the rigors of pioneer life for the balmy airs of the Atlantic.

It will require no great flight of imagination to understand what it meant for James G. Birney to leave behind him all the comforts of life, to begin life anew in the malaria and mosquito breeding lowlands of Bay City during those early years. There was nothing in the settlement to attract him, save solitude, work and future prospects.

With his coming a new spark of life animated Bay City, or Lower Saginaw as it was still called. The McCormicks came and operated the Miller mill in the South End; Judge Campbell conducted the Globe Hotel ; Captain Marsac and Captain Wilson made their homes here, and slowly but surely the population increased, and the wilderness vanished before the pioneer's axe. During the winter of 1850, Judge Miller, C. L. Russell and Capt. Lyman Crowl erected a much more modern and capacious mill in the South End, with houses for their employees, and a small building for church and school purposes. The first school house was built in 1844 on First street and Washington avenue, in which Mr. Birney held religious services for the handful of neighbors. In 1847, James h'raser, Hopkins and Pomcroy built a sawmill, J. B. and B. B. Hart went extensively into the fish business and Henry W. Sage inspected the valley for which in later years he was destined to do so much.

and Lower Saginaw had assumed definite proportions. Among the South End pioneers we find tlie Trombleys, Miller, McCormick, Marsac, Wilson, Braddock, Stevens, Daglish, Southworth, Beckwith, Wilmot, Watrous and Ira Kinney, the last named still living on the old homestead on Cass avenue. O. A. Marsac, city recorder for 12 years, O. A. Watrous and H. N. Watrous are sons of those pioneers. Curtis Munger and Ed. Park opened a store in 1848, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Carney opened the boarding house for the Eraser mill, while Dr. Daniel Hughes Fitzhugh, Alexander McKay and family and J. W. Putnam erected cozy homes. Among the other permanent arrivals were Clark Aloulthrop, Thomas Whitney, John Drake, S. Drake, and George Carpenter, whose descendants still honor the community their fathers helped to establish.

In 1850-51 another group of enterprising pioneers was added by the arrival of William John and Alexander McEwan, who built and operated a sawmill ; Henry Raymond, James Watson and Charles E. Jennison came and enterel the mercantile business. Mr. Jennison is the only survivor, and the business he estabhshed 55 years ago is being continued to this day by his sons, only on a much larger scale. Dr. George E. Smith was the first permanent medical practitioner here, while James Fox opened the first law office. Jonathan S. Barclay w'as then building the Wolverton House, which was the post office, theater, town hall and ballroom combined for the little settlement for many years.

The tug "Lathrop," owned and sailed by Capt. Benjamin Pierce, was the forerunner of that vast fleet that in after years handled the immense log rafts and lumber barges that completely covered the great river. Capt. Darius Cole also became interested in river navigation, and soon crafts of all descriptions were fulfilling the fondest expectations of the projectors of this community at the mouth of the river.

Ere James G. Birney bade farew'ell to the settlement he helped to create, he witnessed the erection of the Catholic Church on Washington avenue, between Second and Third streets, in 1 851; the Fay mill, William Peters' mill, H. M. Bradley's mill, in 1852 ; the Methodist Episcopal Church, on W^ashington avenue, between Seventh and Eighth streets, in 1855. All these buildings and industries brought mechanics and laboring men, and the village was growing apace. In 1854 the first ship was built here by George Carpenter and J. A. Weed, a fishing schooner named "Java."

In 1855 Tom Dodge built a hotel on Third and Saginaw- streets, which then as now was a favorite resort for the lumber jacks and dock wallopers. The buildings here and on Washington avenue were in a little swamp, and during spring freshets could only be reached by boat. The young folks in the settlement held dances at Dodge's hotel, with a usual scarcity of girls, but the old settlers tell us gleefully that even a blanketed Indian would be pressed into service on such jolly occasions.

In 1856, Hon. James Birney came to take the place of his distinguished father in the wilds of Michigan, and he immediately agitated changing the name of the village. Accordingly he drew up a bill Avhich was passed by the State Legislature in February, 1857. providing "That tlie name of the village of Lower Saginaw, in the township of Hampton, be, and the same is, hereby changed to Bay City." James Eraser and Charles B. Cottrell came in 1856 to reside here permanently. In 1857 the glory of the tallow' candle vanished before the kerosene oil lamps, first exhibited as a curiosity to the villagers at Cottrell's store on Water and Second streets! About this time "Deacon" J. H. Little tried his luck in this lumber town, later going into the grocery business. In the year of grace 1905 he bobs up serenely as a supervisor from the 13th Ward of Greater Bay City! In 1852 an epidemic of cholera swept over the vallev, Thomas Rogers, first blacksmith, justice and mail carrier of this settlement, being among the first victims. His wife, daughter of Dr. Wilcox, of Watertown, New York, had studied medicine in her youth, and for many years was the only medical adviser in the village. During this epidemic she did heroic work, being among the sick and dying at all hours of the day and night. She is one of the heroic figures m the pages of our pioneer histor}'.

During these years Hon. James Birney bought considerable property in Bay City, which he added to his father's former estate, and share in die original Saginaw Bay Company. He was for years the leading spirit in matters of- education, public improvements, and the promotion of the community's welfare. He was for years the most prominent citizen of Bay City, serving his constituency in the State Senate, 1858-59; was lieutenant-Governor, 1860-61; circuit judge, 1861-65; United States commissioner for the Centennial at Philadelphia in 1876, and later United States Minister to the Netherlands, 1876-81. He established the Chronicle as a weekly in 1871, and in 1873 as a daily. His eldest son, named after his illustrious grandfather, James G. Birney, ser\-ed with distinction through the Civil War, as captain of the Seventh Michigan Infantry, and died while serving with the regular army in 1869. Just as the grandsire planned and planted the first rugged settlement, just so his son planned and worked for the rapidly growing young city. He, more than any other perhaps assisted in securing the first railroad, the State roads and the public libraries. He W'as a firm believer in booming the citv, and ne\er lost an opportunity to praise its superb qualities as a place for business, health and recreation. His example can be followed with profit by generations yet to come.

1858, the village of Bay City assumed new dignity, and the county-seat residents felt the impetus of new vitality. The projectors of the little community provided land for the county buildings, for parks and for churches. The site for the Court House and Jail, with the adjoining parks, proved a particularly happy selection. But the first county officials met in a building owned by James Eraser, located on the river bank at the foot of Fourth avenue, until 1868, when the present Court House was built at a cost of $40,000. The little wooden Jail on Sixth street, between Water and Saginaw streets, was wiped out in the great fire of 1863, and was replaced by another wooden building on Seventh and Monroe streets, which was used until 1870, when the present commodious County Jail and sheriff's residence was erected. This building is a two-story structure, of white brick, with iron-lined Jail, the cells of boiler iron being two stories high in the center of the main room, with large corridors between the gratings and the outer wall. The upper story has apartments for female prisoners and fraudulent debtors. The whole structure is furnished with all modern appliances assuring the health and comfort of the prisoners. The Jail building also cost originally $40,000.

In this year of grace 1905 the Court House hardly suffices for the protection of the county records and the housing of the county officials. Thousands of dollars have been spent on the building in past years, and again within the last year for a new heating apparatus and other renovations. The county at the time it was built had about 15,000 inhabitants; in 1905, with ail influx of farmers and settlers, it has nearly 70,000, and an effort is again being made to secure a more modern Court House. Twice before, the proposition to bond the county to replace this landmark of pioneer clays has been decisively voted down by the citizens, but each time with less opposition, and the time is not far distant when Bay County will have to secure a larger and more modern Court House. In its day it was the model adopted by many of the younger surrounding counties.

While speaking of the county's public buildings and comparative growth, a review of the last State tax statistics will be opportune. The valuation estimated by the State Board of Tax commissioners was $26,077,673 ; the valuation by the Board of Supervisors was $23,312,308. The valuation as equalized by the Board of Equalization, $32,000,000 ; the aggregate of State tax paid, $54,139.91, the percentage according to equalization being ,02027. The assessed valuation of Bay County, then mainly the city of Bay City, at the time the Old Court House was built was $1,166,475. The assessed valuation in 1871 was $2,725,600, amount of tax, $3,141 ; assessed valuation in 1881, $11,- 000,000, amount of tax, $25,394.10. These figures carry with them a comparison of the growth of city and county values as the forest has been gradually replaced by farms, villages and an enterprising united city.

The availability of Bay City as a manufacturing and shipping point was first appreciated by the men in the lumber industry. The vast forest on both sides of the river, the 12 miles of river front with the deep-water channel, and the cheap and convenient means of securing a seemingly inexhaustible log supply and equally easy and cheap access to the markets of the world, brought into life the greatest lumbering community the world had ever seen. In 1859, when Bay City began its corporate existence as a village, there were but half a dozen sawmills, but from that time forth they sprang up all along the river front, as well as on adjacent streams. The fishing industry furnished employment to many men and furnished a good share of the exports from this frontier village. Then came the discovery of the vast salt basin, and the success of these salt-wells can be understood when we note that in 1865 the salt production of Bay City alone amounted to 259,061 barrels. That same year the sawmills cut 154,- 727,945 feet of lumber. The rapid development of these kindred industries brought with them a growth of wealth and population during the next 15 years, almost unprecedented in the annals of our country.

The city of Bay City was chartered in 1865, and the days of the pioneer were done. From that eventful year, when peace again came to bless our land, and thousands of the veteran soldiers took up government lands here and elsewhere, or entered into the promising mercantile field, this community not only turned over a new leaf in its municipal history but also began to mutliply its industries and population at a rate that attracted the attention of the world. From that time the records of the community are no longer the personal reminiscences of the hardy pioneers, but rather the record of collective effort, mammoth business enterprises, and advancement in every line. Bay City had become almost at a bound a booming frontier lumber town ! The opening of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad to Detroit in 1867, marks another epoch in the city's growth and development. In 1868 the village of Wenona across the river, now the West Side of the united city, came to the front through the building of the Jackson-Chicago branch of the Michigan Central, and in 1871 the Bay City-Detroit Branch

It will be interesting here to recall that Bay City had 810 people in i860; 3,359 in 1865; 7,064 in 1870; 13,676 in 1874 and 17,003 in 1876. In 1880, through the national census, the city was heralded far and wide as having a greater percentage of increase in the decade 1870 to 1880 than any other city in the country, and but two at all approached the ratio. The ne.xt 10 years showed a healthy growth, but as every available site along the river front was taken up by sawmills and lumber yards, and as the supply of logs was giving out under the buzz of countless saws, there was no longer room for the rapid multiplication of mills and population that had marked the preceding 10 years. Bay City, East Side, had 27,839 people in 1890, an increase of 7,146 during that decade, being an increase of 34.5 per cent. During the first four years of the next decade the city continued its steady growth, the State census of 1894 showing a population of 30,042. Then came the fatal blunder at Washington, by which Congress raised the import duty on Canadian lumber to $2 from $1. The log supply which during those years had been gradually receding further north, and since 1890 was largely coming from the Georgian Bay region in Canada, was at once shut off by the retaliatory measures of the Canadian government, and with one stroke of the pen the flourishing lumber industry of Bay City and the west shore of Lake Huron was doomed. Hence we find that the Federal census of 1900 shows a loss for Bay City, as compared to the State census of 1894, being only 27,628, a loss of 0.8 per cent. These figures indicate the growth, boom and decline of the lumber industry, which laid the foundation of the city.

Equally instructive are the assessment values of these several periods : The valuation in i860 was $530,589; in 1865, $663,000; in 1870, $1,166,475; '" 1874, $1,700,250; in 1880, $7,722,310; in 1882, $9,084,436. This is the high mark reached during the days of the lumber and salt booms. During this year of 1882 there were shipped from this port 582,- 147,000 feet of lumber, 112,281,000 shingles, 22,000,000 lath, 440,000 barrels of salt, besides staves, hoops, shocks, railroad ties, cedar posts, pickets, barrels and 7,853,032 feet of pine and oak timber ! The growth of the lumber industry to these magnificent dimensions is illustrated in the comparative figures of lumber experts. In 1863 there were shipped 25,730,889 feet of lumber; in 1868, 217,165,340: and 252,- 862,785 feet were exported in 1870. While these figures are from the customs office on the East Side, they include the shipments from the West Side as well, and a review of the share taken in developing this city by the "fair bride"' of 1905 will be in order.

The proud citizens of the new city of Bay City in 1865 could not see much with which to consolidate on the west bank of the river. To the north was the village of Banks, now in the 1 2th Ward, with sawmills, salt-blocks, and fish houses ; then came a long stretch of primeval forest, where stand today the industries and homes of the 13th Ward; then another straggling village just building up around the mammoth new Sage sawmill, now the 14th Ward; again two miles of wooded ridge, now the 15th Ward ; and then the hamlet of Salzburg, now the 1 6th Ward, with its still independent neighbor, Portsmouth, now the Seventh Ward, on the east bank of the river.

Each of these four villages had aspirations and municipal governments of its own, and watched with jealous eye the growth and ambitious of their little neighboring cominunities. Joseph Trombley's 2,000 acres at Banks ini8o eluded the village which contained Whitney's mill, Moore, Smith & Company's mill, George Lord's mill, each having salt works in connection, while Beckwith & Sinclair and Leng & Bradfield operated large salt-blocks. Crosthwaite's shipyard began the industry there, that since has grown to mammoth proportions on the West Side. John Weed also built boats in Banks for the lake trade. Two taverns, four cooper shops, one general store and several fish houses are enumerated as the business places of Banks in 1865. W. F. Benson opened the first post office in 1864, serving a village population of 511, beside a few scattered farmers. Wenona, today the heart of the West Side, did not become settled until the Henry W. Sage sawmill, originally known as the Sage & Mc- Graw mill, was erected. The village plat of 116 acres cost that firm $21,000, and its excellent location at once brought it into prominence. John Hayes, then superintended the only scow available for moving horses, cattle and wagons across the river, and his good wife dealt out beverages to thirsty travelers at their home on the west bank of the river. Mrs. Hayes was a typical tavern-keeper of those early days. Dan Marshall, the pioneer and present city accountant, recounts gleefully how Mrs. Hayes would personally and drastically chastise travelers who were poor pay, "ruling the roost" with an iron hand. This lone tavern did a booming business during 1864-65 when Wenona was just coming to life, and then had to give way before more modern and pretentious hotels.

The west bank of the river was more swampy and low than the east bank, and this probably accounts for the earlier settlement of the less attractive east shore, back from the river. This was due to the gradual change of the course of the river, which did its best, year after vear, to straighten out its tortuous course.

Hence the Sage mill was built almost entirely on spiles driven into the murky river bottom, and the great lumberyard was laid out on a swamp that was entirely filled in with refuse from the mill and city. In 1905 it is no uncommon sight to see poor people going over the surface, picking up the chips and slabs dried by the passing years, yet never rotted.

Few communities in this country have grown more rapidly than did the village of Wenona, started in 1864. By 1865 the county began the building of the plank road west to Midland, while the State extended the State road on the west bank from Saginaw to Wenona, and opened a road north through the government's swamp lands, since drained and cultivated. The Third street bridge was built in 1865, for foot passengers. A post ofiice and telegraph office were established in Wenona, and the Presbyterian Church built. The Sage store and other business places sprang up over night, and the population multiplied rapidly.

Wenona was incorporated in 1 867. An old painting of this frontier village shows Indians in gaudy paint and picturesque wigwams in the foreground, and all the bustle and enterprise of a booming lumber town in the background. The steamer "Emerald" and schooner "Tuscola" are loading lumber and other supplies at a primitive dock. The same kind of a scene would suffice to call to mind Salzburg, the village two miles further down the river. Wenona records for 1867 the cutting of a canal from the west channel through the Middle Ground to the river, which west channel has since been entirely filled in, save for the wharves between the lumber docks with their deep-water channels. A shingle-mill, salt-block and sawmill for cutting ship timber were erected that year on the Sage property.

^^'est Side, who in 1905 is one of the foremost physicians of Miciiigan, beloved antl respected by tlie community in which he has practiced for more than half a century. With George A. Allen, James A. McKnight, E. T. Carrington, David G. Arnold, Lafayette Roundsville, H. H. Aplin antl a few others, he shares the honor of being one of the incorporators of Wenona, later W'est Bay City, and living to see the one great and united city become chartered in April, 1905. To few mortals it is given to celebrate such an anniversary.

The world-famous Sage mill cut 22,601,- 051 feet of lumber during 1867, and commemorated the close of the season's work with a banquet for the hundreds of employees at the Bunnell House. Among the improvements by the Sage company in 1868 was the erection of a two-story business block, 30 by 80 feet ; a warehouse, 24 by 60 feet ; a two-story boarding house, 30 by 80 feet; a two-story brick office, 20 by 60 feet; a tenement house, 400 by 24 feet, two stories high, divided into 25 suites, each with its own back yard and wood-shed ; and 23 houses of various sizes for the use of the employees. It was estimated the company had invested over one million dollars in the village within three years aftqr its operations were begun in W'enona.

The main event of 1868 was the completion of the passenger station for the Michigan Central Railroad, to-day the road's freight station on River street. It is 200 by 40 feet, roofed witli slate, was built by George Campbell and cost $10,500. Slate roofing was quite popular at that time, chietly because of the fires which periodically swept over these lumbering towns.

The first train schedule is interesting reading in 1905. In 1868 trains for Jackson and Chicago left at 9 A. M. and 2 140 P. M., with an accommodation train at 8 P. M. for Saginaw. Trains arrived at 8 :30 A. M., and i 150

Faxon's Hall, was the only jjublic meeting place, and the Methodists held service there. A new brick school, 60 by 30 feet, with wings 10 by 30 feet, all two stories high, accommodating 360 scholars, was built on the Midland plank road at a cost of $10,700. Supt. A. L. Gumming opened the school January 27th with 180 scholars. Miss Stocking taught the intermediate department, and Miss Lester, the primary class. The Irwin House at the bridge approach, and the Bunnell House, just completed, were the town taverns. The planing mill of D. G. Arnold & Company, two stories liigh, 44 by 82 feet in dimensions, was the second large industry in Wenona, beginning operations in 1865. By 1868 the village claimed nearly 1,000 inhabitants and built over 1,000 feet of sidewalks. There were no vacant houses and lots 50 by 100 feet, on Midland street, sold for from $150 to $2,000. New industries rallied around Wenona, bringing more people, and new business houses.

While the last of the three villages to begin life on the West Side, A\'enona soon surpassed its suburban villages and in 1877 absorbed Banks and Salzburg, and became the sister city of West Bay City, and in April of this year of grace, 1905, becomes Bay City, West Side.

In 1865 when Bay City began its municipal existence as a city, the hamlet of Salzburg occupied a prominent place on the landscape to the southwest. That elevated and wooded location was a favorite spot for the Indian campfires, and the first white settler was Benjamin Cushway, sent here by the government as blacksmith for the natives. Finding nothing doing in the agricultural line, he turned trader and interpreter, and for years did a thriving business among the red men and early pioneers. In

1842, Capt. Solomon S. Stone and wife came by canoe from Detroit, and settled in a wigwam on the deserted Indian tield just west of the approach to the present Lafayette avenue bridge. For three years he tilled this field, with much better success than the Indians, and by catching and selling muskrat and beaver skins accumulated enough money to buy Stone Island, where he lived until his death in 1883.

Dr. Daniel Hughes Fitzhugh in 1837 selected the site of Salzburg as a very promising location for future settlement, and bought large tracts of land along the river front. His judgment was soon verified, and by 1865 the hamlet was alive with industries. In 1862, Dr. Fitzhugh platted part of his land from the Lafayette avenue bridge north to the section line, and since the main industry was the manufacture of salt at that time, he named the village Salzburg, in honor of the many German settlers, and after the great salt-mine city in Austria. Dr. Fitzhugh built the first salt-block in 1862, while similar industries were located by the Huron Company, Johnson & Walsh and Hill & Son. Laderach Brothers started their hoop and stave mill in 1861. Stone's mill was built in 1865, and in 1866 cut 2,500,000 feet of lumber. Jacob Laderach and M. A. and A. H. Root operated shingle-mills. M. A. Root i^ still an honored resident cf the East Side. John Arnold & Company, and the Huron Company operated sawmills.

In 1868 the property of the Huron Company was secured by John W. Babcock, one of the most interesting figures in our pioneer annals. Born in New York in 1831, his family came to Washtenaw, Michigan, in 1835. In 1 85 1 he determined to try his fortune in the wilderness, and with nothing but a compass for his guide started for Bay City. He camped out alone in the dense forest three nights out of five; the other two were spent with settlers in lone cabins he chanced to pass. He camped one night with Indians upon the site of future Salzburg, and concluded that it was a good place to live. But for the time being there was nothing there for him to do. He helped to clear a number of farms in that vicinity, for the late James Fraser, and assisted in clearing the way for Center avenue. He took the contract for building a portion of the Tuscola plank road in 1858, built the Bay City, AuSable and Duncan State road, 155 miles, 1861-65 and drove the first team from the north to Bay City. The larger portion of his pay consisted of 72,000 acres of government land, of which he held a portion and sold the scrip for the remainder. In 1867 he built the military wagon road from Fort Howard in Wisconsin to Fort Wilkins, in the Upper Peninsula, over 178 miles, receiving three sections of land per mile, a total of 348,060 acres. During all this time his home was in Salzburg. In 1868 he determined to purchase the sawmill, salt-block, boarding house and tenement houses of the Huron Company, valued at over $100,000. He gave 2i3r 600 acres of his Wisconsin government land for this fine property, and traded the remainder for improved farm and other property. Although the hard work of this pioneer in the wilderness allowed him but little time for school, he was typical of that sterling race of self-made business men, equal to every emergency, and rising to every occasion. Where today young men rely on a college education for a guide through life, these rugged settlers could rely only on their own resources, energy and diligence.

By 1868 there were more additions to the kettle salt-blocks of Salzburg ; Charles C. Fitzhugh, Tallman & Parmalee, Fisk & Clark and the Chicago Company were added to the hamlet's enterprises. The post office was established in 1868, stores multiplied, and George

In 1875 Wenona made an unsuccessful attempt to extend her boundaries so as to include Salzburg, but not until 1877 did the hamlet become part of the new city of West Bay City. To this day the region lying south of the section line, including all of the i6th Ward of Greater Bay City, is popularly known and marked on railroad maps as "Salzburg." Frederick Neunian, for more than 24 years justice of the peace of the West Side, was born in Salzburg in 1857, and is one of the few living residents who have seen this thriving suburb grow from a few salt-wells and farms to its present prosperous and populous condition.

Thus we find the West Side finally united. Banks has expanded to the south, Salzburg has reached out to the north, and Wenona has reached out in both directions, until the homes and lives of the three villages have become so interw'oven that there was really no longer any dividing line and the Legislature of 1877 m^de one community on the west bank of the river.

The same forces w'ere at work during all these years on the East Side, and by 1873 there w"as really no longer a dividing line between Bay City and Portsmouth, and by act of the Legislature the village of Portsmouth, now the Sixth and Seventh wards of Bay City, ceased its corporate existence, and became an integral part of the busy city, then extending almost from the mouth of the river for five miles south along the river bank.

The extension of the Michigan Central Railroad, due north from Bay City to the Straits of Mackinac, opened new fields of trade and commerce, and made the two Bay Cities a most important railroad center. As early as 1880 the Chamber of Commerce made an effort to bring the mineral wealth of the Upper

Peninsula to Bay City, for the forge and smelter. Had the copper and iron interests know^n the unlimited coal supply lying only 150 feet below the surface, there is no doubt but that the natural advantages for these great industries would have been complete, and that Bay City would have become the "Pittsburg of the Northwest." But strangely enough all the boring for salt-wells went obliviously through these veins of coal, and no one took the trouble to bore especially for coal, and hence the ore from the Upper Peninsula passed down Lake Huron, past its natural harbor on Saginaw Bay, to Ohio and Pennsylvania ports, where coal was plenty. Bay City was too busy sawing lumber and making salt, to bother about other and more permanent industries. How many times since then, the older business men have regretted the opportunities thus missed. How much better it would have been for Bay City, East and West Side, if some of the lumber here produced had been turned into the manufactured article, thus giving us the varied interests, which later were so sadly missed. Even so the Bay Cities were just cresting the tidal wave of the lumber boom when these first consolidations gave them rank with the good cities of the State and country.

West Bay City's business center was on Alidland and Linn streets, the Sage, Babo, Aplin, Allard, Campbell, Moots and Bank blocks giving the young city a substantial trade mark. South of the Sage mill were the railroad docks, then came the large shipyard owned and operated, then as now, by Capt. James Davidson. North of the Sage mill was the Ballentine shipyard, the gypsum factory of Smith, Bullard ,& Company (whose gypsum supply came from Alabaster, Michigan), and the Litchfield sawmill.

gained by two leaves from the West Side post office receipts. When Henry H. Alpin became postmaster of Wenona in 1869, there were 38 mail boxes; by 1883 there were 1,089, ^'""^ the annual receipts had increased from $800 to nearly $9,000.

Churches and schools multiplied rapidly to meet the constantly increasing demand, and the flimsy buildings of the frontier settlement were gradually replaced by more substantial and imposing structures.

Chief among the new buildings of 1883 was the Sage Library, built and equipped by Henry \V. Sage, who made much of his immense fortune in the "Big Mill" on the West Side. Aside from a few public parks, this is the only large public benefaction ever left either of the Bay Cities, and cost something like $50,000. Many fortunes were made here, but this library alone remains to show, that at least one of the rich lumbermen cared something for posterity, and desired to be honored and remembered amid the scenes of his business success and life's work. This lack of public spirit on the part of the men and families who accumulated millions of dollars, when they sheared the valley of its timber supply, has for years been keenly felt and deplored by these communities. Would that the Bay Cities had found among their pioneer lumbermen more public spirit and more loyalty to the towns ! Would that among that long list of millionaire lumbermen whose fortunes were made through the superior advantages of the Bay Cities, there had been at least one more Henry W. Sage.

After the consolidation of the West Side villages in 1877, things moved swiftly for the public good. In 1882 the Holly water-works plant was begun, arid operated until 1902, when the new and modern pumping station was erected on the beautiful and historic shores of the Kawkawlin, with the intake pipe extending well into the clear water of the bay off Tobico. By that fine engineering feat the West Side has solved its own water supply problem for many years to come, and the East Side may now profit by the foresight and good judgment of the West Side. That new station is planned to supply a population of 75,000.

In 1869 the fire steamer "Defiance" was purchased, with S. A. Plummer as chief, and a company of volunteers. This proved unsatisfactory, so a paid department was organized, and after the union of the three villages each ward was given one hose company, the three, with the steamer, comprising the department over there until 1905. John Charters was the first city fire chief, and Lafayette Roundsville, the first engineer.

West Bay City had 3,000 people in 1877, and by 1883 had increased to over 8,000. The Federal census of 1890 showed a population of 12,981, and that of 1900 marked a slight increase, despite the fact that the West Side suffered, along with the entire valley, from the closing down of many sawmills, by giving the West Side 13,119 people. The new city laid many miles of cedar block pavement, established an electric light plant, began an excellent sewer system, and laid thousands of feet of sidewalks. The long stretch of river front makes the building of roads and sidewalks an expensive detail of municipal affairs, for there is still much vacant property within the wide reaches of the corporate limits. The heavy bonded indebtedness of the West Side in 1904 is largely due to this fact, and it nearly caused the defeat of consolidation, for the East Side is better situated in this respect and hence has less indebtedness.

By the union of Portsmouth in 1873, the East Side became one solid and substantial city. In 1865 when the city was first organized, the limits were the Saginaw River on the west and nortli, Madison avenue on tlie east and Columbus avenue on the south. By 1873 these Hmits had expanded to reach from Cass avenue on the south to Essexville on the north, and from the river to Trumbull street on the east.

The bulk of the business was still being done along Water street on the river front, but in the last 10 years a gradual change has come o\er the city. Center and Washington avenues are becoming the most popular locations for the retail trade, while Water street is becoming the wholesale and distributing center of Greater Bay City. No street in the country is better situated for manufacturing institutions or warehouses than Water street. Just 300 feet west is the deep-water channel of the river, wliich in the wholesale district is lined with w arehouses and docks.

In 1864 the Bay City Council had granted a street car franchise to a syndicate of Milan, Ohio, capitalists. In February, 1865, the first board of directors of the Bay City & Portsmouth Street Railway Company was elected as follows : James Eraser, Nathan B. Bradley, William ]\IcEwan, Myron Butman and George Campbell. During 1865 William McEwan superintended the construction of the track along Water street from Third to 35th street, on which horse cars began running in November, 1S65. In 1874 a new syndicate took over the street car system and extended the track to McGraw's mammoth mill on the south and to Essexville on the north. A light T-rail was laid, over which railroad cars could be moved, and the foundation laid for the splendid belt line system which now circles down the river front and around the entire city a belt of steel that provides fine factory sites, ready means of transportation, and an easy interchange of traffic and cars between the several roads entering Bav Citv. At first the street cars used these

When electricity replaced the horses, the lines of track were much changed. From the "Y" at Essexville the trolley line follows Woodside avenue to Sherman, to First, to Washington, to Columbus, to Garfield, to Lafayette, to Cass, to Harrison, a distance of five miles, and touching from north to south the principal business streets. A loop is made around the business district, on Water from Third to Center, to Washington, to Third, and west across the Third street bridge to the heart of the West Side. The Center avenue line extends from Water east to the city limits, where another "Y" furnishes an easy mode of usin£ the double tracks, which are laid on Center and Washington avenues on the East Side, and on Midland and Henry, on the West Side. Another branch line extends on Columbus avenue from Garfield to the Tuscola stone road. The West Side lines run from Midland south, down Center street to the State road in Salzburg, north on Henry to South Union, to Washington, to Banks, and Wenona Beach, six miles from the Court House. The street car service is excellent, the equipment is modern and wellhandled in every respect, and really years in advance of other features of municipal con\-enience. The interurban electric line to Saginaw and Detroit enters the city over a fine bridge south of the North American Chemical Company's plant, and carries freight as well as passengers. An immense power house was erected in 1903 on Water street near loth streets, which will meet all electric power requirements for years to come for both lines.

When the street car system gave up the Water street tracks, they were used exclusively for handling freight, and a number of the sawmills on that belt line depend entirely upon their log supply by rail. This is clue to the fact, that the logging" camps are now so far in the interior, that it is cheaper to build branch railroads into the heart of the hardwood timber belt to the north, than to transport the logs to rivers to be rafted down to Lake Huron and thence to the Saginaw River. Hence the railroad traffic has increased annually, while the river tratTlc has fallen off.

This belt line passed the big McGraw mill at the foot of 40th street, then the largest mill in the world ! The official chronicler of the centennial year, 1876, tells us that the mill had cut more than 800,000 feet of lumber in a single day, and that the average cut per day was worth $11,000 at the prevailing prices of lumber, and the big Sage mill on the West Side, with recent additions, was then but little behind this record. By 1876 the local log supply had been exhausted, and logs were being rafted from the Tittabawassee and Cass rivers to the south, and from the streams on Saginaw Bay to the north.

The city was well supplied with boiler and machine shops to supply the needs of the busy mills. The East Side then had "jy manufacturing establishments, employing nearly $5,000,- 000 in capital, while the rest of the county had 35 other manufacturing plants, with a capital of nearly $2,000,000. On the East Side were 28 sawmills, with 34 circular and 21 gang saws. The lumber manufactured in 1876 was worth over $4,000,000, while the lath and shingle shipments were worth over $150,000. Then there were 27 salt-wells, producing annually about 400,000 barrels of salt, at $1.40 per barrel ; 27 planing-mills : three wood-working establishments; the Michigan Pipe Company's plant : the Bay City woodenware works, which has since expanded, and is in 1905 the largest and best equipped in the world ; five machine shops, including the Industrial Works,

The chronicler with the eyes of a seer predicted the building of a railroad north, skirting Lake Huron, since verified by the completion of the Detroit & Mackinac Railroad as far as Cheboygan in 1904, and still reaching north. His prediction of a road east to the "Thumb" of Michigan is to be verified in 1905 by the building of the Bay City & Port Huron Railway, via Caro and Cass City.

The farms adjacent to Bay City were steadily increasing in numbers and resources, although the agricultural interests of our suburban townships were still in their infancy 30 years ago.

The business blocks and public buildings in 1876 were far and away ahead of those of other and less progressive cities of the country. The four-story Westover Opera House Block then contained the State Bank, Bancroft & Company's dry goods store and many offices. The theater was pronounced at that time one of the most commodious and modern in Michigan. Fire w-iped it out some years later, and a larger and handsomer office building, the Phoenix Block, has risen from the ashes. The old opera house was replaced by a new theater, on Sixth street and Washington avenue. In 1903 the interior of Wood's Opera House was gutted, in one of the fiercest conflagrations that ever visited this city. Eugene Zaremba was killed by falling brick. Within a few months this loss was straightened out with the insurance companies, and the Washington Theater has arisen in its place, more beautiful and artistic than before.

The Arlington on the West Side, the massive four-story Fraser, the three-story Forest City, the Campbell, the three-story Astor and the three-story Rouech on the East Side were then, as now, popular and up-to-date hotels.

witli many smaller hostelries in both cities. The New Republic House, built since then, destroyed by fire in 1901, has been entirely rebuilt, and a large addition in 1904 makes it one of the largest and most modern hotels in the State, while the Oriental on Jefferson avenue, built in 1904, is a pretty and unique addition to the city's public buildings and hostelries. The old Welverton and Globe hotels are still standing. The city had many substantial business blocks 20 years ago, of which the following are still standing in 1905 : The Cranage Bank, Cottrell, Hine, Munger, Union, Watson, Averell, IMcCormick, McEwan, Jennison, Birney, and two Shearer Park blocks. Among the notable additions to these business blocks in recent years are the Crapo, Ridotto, Hawley, Rosenbury, Norrington, Baumgarten, Beck, Commercial, Central, Concordia, Eddy, Elks', Fay, Griswold, Harmon & Vernor, Hurley, McDermott, Maxwell, Moran, Kaiser, New Griswold, New McEwan, Obey Pacaud, Plumsteel, Root, Simon, Stewart, Taylor, Tierney, Van Emster, Warren, Washington, Heumann and New Hurley Blocks. The fact that none of these many blocks are lying idle indicates the business activity of the East Side. Some of the older blocks, in locations somewhat off the modern trend of business affairs in the city, are in use simply for the lack of better and more desirable locations and more modern buildings. Cottage Hall on Madison avenue. Trades Council Hall on Water street, Moran Hall on Harrison street, and the Bay Theater Hall (on the West Side) are more recent additions to the public buildings of Greater Bay City. The Elks' Hall, facing Center Avenue Park on the southwest, and the magnificent new home of the Bay City Club fronting the same park on the northwest, are the two most noteworthy ad- <litions to the citv's architecture and social life in 1904. The Bcrtch Block on Washington avenue and the Gustin, Cook & Buckley Block, at the foot of Washington avenue, are the last and very substantial additions to the city's permanent buildings.

The business directory of Bay City for 1885, just 20 years ago, is as enthusiastic about the prospects and progress of this city, as the earlier local chronicler. Some of the blocks here enumerated were built during this year, and in addition many smaller business places and many handsome residences. It was estimated that nearly $400,000 was spent for such improvements during that year. The assessed valuation was $7,722,310, which was probably not much more than half of the real value. In that year the 32 mills in both cities cut over five million feet of lumber, together with 52 million shingles, and 13.399 car-loads of salt were shipped during one year. The Pere Marquette handled nearly 79 million pounds of exports, and nearly 36 million pounds of imports; the Michigan Central shipped over 76 million pounds of exports, and almost 32 million pounds of imports. Since that time the latter road has made Bay City the center of its mammoth business north of Detroit. A beautiful passenger depot graces the terminal at the foot of Jackson street, with an immense freight depot at the foot of First street. On the West Side are miles of side-tracks in the freight yards, with a large, modern roundhouse, and pretty passenger station just below the Washington viaduct, the latter built jointly by the West Side and the railroad company.

In 1885 there were seven wards on the East Side, each having two aldermen. The city recorder drew $1,300, with $1,000 bonds; the city treasurer, $1,400, with $150,000 bonds for the city, $60,000 bonds for the School Board, and $50,000 bonds for the county ; the comptroller, $1,400, with $10,000 bonds. The alderi8S men appointed the city attorney, with $600 salarj' per annum ; city surveyor, $3.75 per day ; street commissioner, $2.50 per day, and poor director, $425 per annum. The Board of Education looked after the schools, then as now the Board of Water Works looked after the city's water supply and the Police Department was managed by the mayor and four police commissioners, with Nathaniel N. Murphy, as chief. This veteran in 1905 manages the police force of the united cities with the office of superintendent. The Fire Department was managed by a Council committee, with Robert J. Campbell as chief engineer, with hose companies in the First, Second, Fourth and Seventh wards and the hook and ladder truck in the Fourth Ward, the center of the city. There were 35 fire-alarm boxes. But one disastrous fire has in all these 20 years gotten beyond their control, the terrible South End fire of 1893, which wiped out all the mills, stores and homes from the river to Jennison, and from 28th to 32nd streets. Judge Sanford M. Green presided over the Circuit Court. The immense local salt output required three salt inspectors ; William R. McCormick, the esteemed pioneer; Charles H. Malone and W. R. Wands, the last named still living on the East Side. The city had three banks, - the Bay City, First National and Second National banks. The Bay City Bank (incorporated July 19, 1 87 1, with $100,000 capital, had George Lewis as its president. George H. Young, the cashier in 1885, is the present president of this bank, with capital increased to $50,000. The First National Bank, incorporated in 1864, capital and surplus in 1885, $200,000, had these officers : James Shearer, president ; Hon. Nathan B. Bradley, vice-president; B. E. Warren, cashier; F. P. Browne, assistant cashier. In 1905 we find Mr. Browne still cashier of this institution, Charles A. Eddy is president and F. T. Norris vice-president. The Second National Bank (incorporated in May, 1864, had capital and surplus amounting to $140,000 in 1885; the following were the officers. William Westover, president : A. Chesbrough, vice-president ; Orrin Bump, cashier; and Martin M. Andrews, assistant cashier. Mr. Bump became president when the bank was reorganized as the Old Second National Bank, and so continued until ill health compelled him to retire in 1903. Air. Andrews is the present cashier; James E. Davidson, president ; and Frank T. Woodworth, vicepresident. The Commercial Bank with a capital of $100,000 has been organized since then, as has the Bay County Savings Bank with a capital of $50,000. John Mulholland, cashier.

A ferry line connected Banks, Bay City and Salzburg, the "Hattie Brown," "Hubbard" and "H. C. Hull" taking care of the passengers. The electric cars have long since replaced the river craft. There were steamer lines running regularly to Saginaw, to Oscoda and Alpena, Caseville and Sebewaing, Detroit and Buffalo, Toledo and Cleveland. A dozen harbor tugs handled the logs and tow barges in the river. The railroads and changing fortunes of the cities have long since driven most of these river and lake craft to more congenial ports. Telegraph and telephone companies came early to this thriving lumber town, and in 1905 Bay City has two excellent telephone systems, reaching every part of the State and country, and two telegraph companies, with similar connections, all over the globe.

About 1885 the government was made to see the importance of Bay City as a port of entry, and through Hon. Spencer O. Fisher, ably assisted by Hon. H. H. Aplin, the handsome and commodious Federal Building was secured on Washington avenue, the square in- eluding Fourth avenue and Adams and Tliird streets. Here is the post office, internal revenue office, customs office, and office and court room of the United States District Court for Eastern Michigan.

Bay City has long enjoyed several pretty public breathing places. Carroll Park, on the eastern city limits, with its casino and primeval forest kings, with modern landscape gardening, is a beautiful place for recreation and a quiet hour. Less pretentious but equally shady are Madison Park, Washington Park, Central Park and Broadway Park, while the Oak Grove on the East Side, Wenona, Oa-at-ka and Reservation beaches on the West Side are ideal resorts and camping grounds on Saginaw Bay. Wenona Beach is the "Coney Island of the Lakes." An immense casino, with continuous vaudeville performances all season, with boating, bathing, dancing, and all the other attractions that go to cheer the heated term of summer, are here within the reach of every one, the car fare for the round trip of 12 miles being but 15 cents. It is the delight of the people who cannot afford the time or expense of visiting more expensive, even if not more attractive, summer resorts on distant shores.

Six public schools, and the High School, together with a number of good parochial schools, furnished the educational facilities of Bay City 20 years ago. The old High School is today the Farragut School, and the increasing population has made necessary the handsome Washington School of the nth Ward, the equally attractive Lincoln school of the Eighth Ward, and the Woodside School, a frame building destroyed by fire in March, 1905. The new High School, on Madison avenue and nth and Jefferson streets, was expected to answer all purposes for many decades. But despite many additions this building is again crowded to the limit, and with the admission of the West Side scholars a new building will be at once imperative.

The city's first cemetery was located on what are now Columbus avenue and Saginaw street, which in 1845 was away out in the wilderness. Potter's field was on nth street and Washington avenue, and excavations in both these vicinities to this day bring to light many skeletons of early pioneers, whose last resting places had become obliterated in the ruthless course of events. Since then the West Side has created a beautiful city of the dead in the Oak Ridge Cemetery on State street and the Kawkawlin stone road; the East Side, in the Pine Ridge, Eickemeyer and St. Patrick's cemeteries. The latest addition is the Elm Lawn Cemetery, planned and laid out by local capitalists on Columbus avenue, from Park to Li\-ingstone avenues. Its shady nooks, well-kept lawns, and artistic landscape gardening, with a massive stone entrance arch, and office, with a large stone vault for public use, ivy grown and on a central elevation, with a number of costly private mausoleums and vaults and many artistic monuments, combine to make Elm Lawn one of the most beautiful, as well as most extensive and modern of the last resting places for our beloved departed.

In 1904 the East Side had expanded to 11 wards, the West Side to six wards. On the East Side the management of municipal affairs had been consigned by the Council largely to municipal boards appointed by the aldermen. The public lighting plant was in charge of the Board of Electric Control. The water-works system was in charge of the Board of Water Works. In 1872 the people voted to issue bonds to the amount of $327,000, for establishing the Holly water-works system, and the only fault the citizens have to find with that action was the lack of provision to pay oft' the indebtedness so incurred. In 1905 the city still continues to pay the very higli rate of interest in vogue 30 years ago, and it is estimated that the original cost of the plant has been largely paid by the city in interest on the debt, without reducing that indebtedness itself. The intake pipe was placed near Oak Grove, but was not extended far enough into the bay, so that with the gradually receding waters of the lakes, the supply of late years has suflfered, much river water being pumped to make up the deficiency. The consolidated cities will have to solve the East Side water problem at no distant day, and it is hoped the large and modern water-works plant on the Kawkawlin, owned and operated by the West Side, can be made to supply both sides of the river. The old system on the East Side was built under the supervision of Andrew Walton, William Westover, William Smalley, H. M. Bradley, Andrew Miller. Thomas H. McGraw and Thomas Cranage, the last named being still in active business on the East Side. The first secretary of the board, E. L. Dunbar, has an enviable record for public service, for in 1905 he is still the efficient head of this department, which has during the last 33 years laid many miles of water mains, only recently replacing the worn-out wooden pipes with iron mains and has ever given ample fire protection to the city and a cheap water supply to private and commercial consumers. Bay City's water system has been a model for many cities in the country, and one of the best managed of our city departments. The city's sewer system has been excellent from the first, the slope back from the river being just sufficient to provide the necessary drop, and the ample water supply and swift running current of the river have done good service. The sidewalks of plank are in 1905 giving way to permanent cement walks, which cost but little more than the now costly lumber, are much more durable and will save the city thousands of dollars in losses

When Bay City and Bay County were in the midst of an unlimited log and lumber supply, the roadways were covered with planks or cedar blocks, even the central country roads being covered with thousands of feet of plank, that at going prices in 1905 would represent a very large municipal fortune. In recent years both sides of the river have supplanted the cedar blocks with paving bricks, asphalt and bituminous macadam road surfaces, on permanent crushed stone and cement foundations. While somewhat more costly in the first instance, they assure the city permanent and modern roadw'ays for all time.

The increasing cost of lumber has made brick and cement the preferred materials for modern residences and business places, and many such buildings are in course of erection in 1905. Holy Rosary Academy on Lincoln avenue, the parochial residences of St. Boniface and St. James churches, and the new Pere Mar- (|uette Station, finished in 1904, are samples of this new style of architecture.

Bay City has undergone many changes in its 40 years of municipal existence, not the least being the gradual disappearance of the small, crude shacks, that housed the early pioneers, and were the result of the city's mushroom growth during the boom of the lumber industry. Slowdy but surely these flimsy structures have given way to more modern and more substantial business places, factories and homes, so that the sons of early Bay City, who wandered from their native heath, can but wonder at the changes for the better in evidence on every hand, when they come back to the city of their birth and youth.

ant Episcopal Church, and the First Methodist Episcopal, Broadway Baptist, Patterson Memorial, Salem Evangelical, Zioii Evangelical, Immanuel German Lutheran, Central Methodist Episcopal, Trinity German Lutheran, Fremont Methodist Episcopal and South Baptist churches on the East Side, and the First Baptist, l*"irst Methodist Episcopal, Westminster Presbyterian, Notre Dame, St. Mary's German Lutheran, and the Tabernacle on the West Side are among the modern houses of worship, that have within the last 20 years replaced their primitive predecessors.

No less advantageous to the city is the comparison of the original public school buildings with the present roomy, handsome and substantial structures, where the youth of the city are being taught by a most competent staff of teachers. The old wooden school on Adams street is today a carriage factory, while the handsome Dolsen School has taken its place on Sherman street and Fourth avenue. The little school on First and Washington, the first in the city, has been replaced with the modern Sherman School on Woodside avenue and Sherman street. Farragut School has lately been remodeled. The Garfield School on Eraser and 22nd streets has received a large addition, making it one of the most modern and commodious in the city. An adtlition will this very summer have to be Iniilt to the Fremont School, which took the place of a wooden structure destroyed by the great fire. On the West Side, St. Mary's Parochial School is a late addition. The Kolb School is a new and large brick structure, and another new school has just been completed on Center and Thomas streets.

The East Side Fire Department Headquarters on Washington avenue are being remodeled in 1905: The Chemical No. i, and one hose company are stationed here, while an even more pretentious brick hose house on Washington and Columbus avenues contains the ladder truck and one ho.se company. Other modern fire-fighting models are the Fifth Ward Hose House on Lafayette avenue, and the i ith Ward Hose House on Johnson street, where a combination chemical and hose cart is housed. The First and Seventh ward companies also have roomy and well-equipped homes. Tlie West Side Fire Department is not so well housed, and its three companies have a vast territory to cover, but both departments have an excellent record for efficiency.

In the palmy days of the lumber industry the danger of disastrous fires was very great and, on innumerable occasions, prompt and heroic work by the fire laddies has saved millions of dollars worth of property. As more substantial structures replace the old flimsy buildings, which were mere food for fire, the chances for injury at the hands of the fire demon are being lessened, and the Fire Department of Bay City, East Side, as now constituted will meet all requirements for many years to come. The alarm system is the very latest and has proven absolutely rapid and reliable. The fire-fighting apparatus is the very latest obtainable, and under the veteran fire chief, Thomas K. Harding, who for more than 20 years has been at the head of this department, after serving before that in subordinate capacities, the fire demon finds his master on every occasion, when he applies his flaming torch. The loss from fire during the year 1904 was trival. compared to that of earlier years.

Equally marked has been the change in the population and police comparisons. In the pioneer days the frontier ruftians and intoxicated Indians were the dread of the peace-loving settlers. As the red men Ijecame less numerous, a rough and ready class of seafaring sailors joined forces with the adventurous lumber jacks. Circuit Judge Shepard only recently re- called the fact, that less than 30 j-ears ago it was a risky thing to visit the Third street bridge or the Water street resort district, unarmed and unattended! Murders, assaults, hold-ups and free for all fights were the rule, rather than the exception ! The Good Templars did their best to overcome these evils by a concerted campaign against the rum evil of those days, but quite ineffectually. C. C. Chilson was one of their most earnest leaders, and more than once he was assaulted by saloon rowdies, and on at least one occasion was shot at and nearly killed by a drunken ruffian, who thought to avenge Chilson's anti-saloon work. The writer was a newsboy in 1883-85, and he well recalls the riotous life among the lumbermen even at that late day. Prize fights were the daily attraction at some of the Third street resorts. Gaudy women catered to the thirsty in other resorts, or sang and danced on rough board stages, while below them on rough board floors, covered thick with sawdust to absorb the tobacco juice and on occasion the blood of the brawlers, a mixed array of rough men and equally coarse women caroused and careened. Going down Third street on any afternoon, evening, night or early morning, one could hear the shrill music of the fiddle or bag-pipe, the melodeon and accordion, while spiked feet danced in such unison as their maudlin drunk owners could command on the floor cleared for the time being of chairs and crude benches, such as comprised the typical music hall or saloon furniture. To the credit of those tough and rough lumber jacks I want to say, that although they could easily tell by my broken English my foreign birth, they seldom spoke harshly to me, and then usually liquor had mastered their finer sensibilities. Not once during those years of the sailor and the frontiersman, do I recall being molested in my calling as newsboy. Certainly not one of those coarse hands ever was raised to strike the busy newsboy. On the other hand I often secured some large coin for the Ez'cniiig Press, with the curt admonition, "never mind the change," and however crude or coarse may have been their revels, there went home from them a little lad, happy because of their generous hearts, and because their generosity was sure to make other hearts lighter ! With the passing of the lumber industry these lumber jacks have gone across the border to Canada, where Bay City lumbermen in the year 1905 find them just as hardy, and industrious, but also just as riotous and boisterous as they were in their palmy days in Bay City. During those early years the life of the policeman was ever in danger, and more than one fell at the post of duty, while others were maimed and injured while trying to maintain peace and order in the tough district.

Other and better days have come for our trusty officers of the law. In the ranks today are some of the veterans of those trying times. Supt. Nathaniel N. Murphy, Capt. Mathew Ryan, Sergt. George A. Hemstreet ; Samuel E. Catlin, William E. Toles, John W. Mulholland, George Traub, Joseph Ratcliff, patrolmen ; Ex- Capt. William Simmons, Henry Houck, constable and Ex-Capt. Andrew D. Wyman, now special officer on the Detroit & Mackinac Railway, were on the department during the years of transition, and the oldest among them took part in many of the stirring dramas enacted in the tenderloin district of the lumber town. The force to-day has a national reputation for efficiency and many crooks of national notoriety have wandered thus far but no farther ! Tramps and wandering pilferers shun this city like the plague, and the main duties of the policemen are now directed into more peaceful but none the less useful channels. The truant officer, health officer, tax collector, and the various city departments find their readiest assistants among the blue-coated guardians of the peace. This department, too, has reached a stage of development and efficiency that will require no addition in numbers or expense for many years to come.

Just as 20 and 30 and even 40 years ago, the citizens of these communities prided themselves upon the efficiency of their several municipal departments, in their varying stages of progress and development, so in this later year, 1905, we have every reason to feel proud of our departments of learning and culture, of public water and lighting service, of the transportation, telephone and telegraph service, of the public health and judicial departments, of our lire fighters and peace guardians ! It has been said time without number, and as often demonstrated by facts and figures, that no community of equal size in this or any other country is more healthy, more peaceful, or has more of the comforts and conveniences of municipal life, than these very same twin communities, united forever by the vote of their people in 1903, and by the joint election on April 3, 1905, made the fourth city of Michigan, Greater Bay City. Time and space forbid following the tide of events in the expanding metropolis of Northern Michigan ; a fleeting review brought up to date must suffice.

In 1890 the lumber and salt industries of Bay City, were at the zenith of their development. The cities prospered and grew, and the rural districts were rapidly being settled. The market gardeners found no trouble in disposing of all they could raise, and money seemed plenty. But dark clouds loomed up on the horizon. The tariff tinkering at Washington, following some fickle work at the polls of the voters, who apparently wavered for a time on both the tariff and the money questions, caused one of those periodical and yet almost inexplicable financial depressions or panics, such as had passed twice over the destinies of Bay County, leaving manufacturers and merchants bankrupt and many happy homes on the verge of ruin. At the very time that hundreds of residents of Bay County enjoyed the feast of arts, of science and culture, at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, this new peril began to sweep the country from ocean to ocean, and this booming lumber community was not long in feeling the effects. There was little or no demand for the finished product and at the same time the log supply was becoming more and more distant, and hence more expensive.

Just as this depression in the business affairs of our country gave way to a general revival, and the lumber industry on the shores of the Saginaw River and Lake Huron was looking forward to better things, the wiseacres at Washington dealt the industry its death blow, by passing the bill making the duty on lumber from Canada $2, or just twice what the experienced lumbermen insisted it should be. Retaliation was both speedy and fatal. The Canadian log supply was cut off by a prohibitory export duty on boom sticks and logs. One after another, the great mills along the river shut down, most of them never to open again. The Eddy mills were dismantled and the valuable machinery removed to Canada. The Georgian Bay region was the Mecca for Michigan's lumbermen. There they bought up every available tract of timber and erected the mills that were driven from their native land by the misguided wisdom of Congress.

Lumbermen in other portions of the country amassed fortunes by the results of the very same law that killed the lumber industry in Eastern Michigan. This fact has led many of the sufferers to attribute the $2 tariff to sinister motives, and their own ruin to the greed of other sections of the country. The ]Michigan lumbermen insist that the lumber industrv in other sections of the country could have been benefitted, without sacrificing the mills and the entire industry along the Canadian border. But regrets and vituperation alike were vain.