HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
PIONEER LIFE ILLUSTRATED.
In the following biographical reminiscences will be found an interesting and faithful portrayal of pioneer life in the Saginaw Valley.
THE MCCORMICK FAMILY
James McCormick, one of the very early settlers of the Saginaw Valley, was born near Albany, N. Y., May 25, 1787. His father, Archibald McCormick, was born in Galloway, Scotland, in the year 1757. When he became of age, he left his paternal roof and went to Ayreshirem where he married a Scotch lassie by the name of Mary Cummings, and rented a small farm near the birth-place of the Scottish poet, Robert Burns. He emigrated to America in the year 1778, where the subject of this sketch was born. Here he purchased an old Norman patent of 700 acres of land, four miles southwest of the city of Albany, on the Normanskill Creek. Here James McCormick received his early training, working on the farm in Summers and going to school Winters. Here he worked, helping to clear the farm, until he was twenty-four years old, when he married Miss Ellen Garratt, daughter of Robert Garratt, of Otsego County, N. Y., one of the old pioneers of that county, and founder of Garrattsville. His father had promised to give him a farm out of his 700 acres, when he married, but he recanted and said a heretic should have none of his property, as James McCormick had previously left the old Scotch Presbyterian Church and joined the Universalists. This was a sin the old gentleman could never forgive, until a few hours before his death, when the last words he said were, “I Cannot die in peace, I have wronged my son James; I have never given him anything, and he has done more for me than all my boys” James bought a farm adjoining his father’s, where he accumulated a handsome fortune for a farmer in those days. In 1830 he went on bonds with some friends to the amount of $16,000, which he had to pay, and had to sell his fine farm to pay his obligations. After settling up he had but $300 left, with a large family to support. In the meantime, two of his brothers had got their father to deed them all his real estate cutting James off without a dollar. This exasperated him so, that he determined to go to the far West as it was then called.
He left Albany the 1st of May, 832, with his large family, consisting of Robert, James, Ann, William R., Elizabeth and Sarah. Joseph, the second son, had previously gone with a friend to Kentucky. Says William:
“Well do I recollect that memorable journey. My boyish life was full of anticipations of the future. It was the happiest day of my life when we went aboard of the canal boat to go West. But my mother was sad. No doubt she was thinking of the beautiful home she had left and the misgivings of the future, with her large family to commence anew in a new country. We were seven days in reaching Buffalo and a pleasant time we children had.
“At Buffalo we were transferred to the steamboat “Superior,” and my father bought a steerage passage for his family to Detroit, including a horse and wagon we had brought with us, for which he paid $50. When the boat left the wharf hundreds of people stood on the shore waving handkerchiefs and bidding their friends adieu. There were but three steamboats carrying passengers on the lakes at this time. We were three days and nights in reaching Detroit, with a fair wind all the way, and as the steamboats carried spars in those days, this increased our speed very much. It was published in the papers at the time, that it was the quickest time that had been made between Buffalo and Detroit.
“At Detroit my father hired some rooms for his family. This house was situated near the river bank, in an old pear orchard, and in rear of where the Biddle House now stands, and as we had brought no furniture with us we took our meals from the top of a large chest. Detroit at this time contained about 3,300 inhabitants.
“After my father had got his family temporarily settled, he, with brothers Robert and James J., took the horse and wagon we had brought with us, and started in the country to look for a farm. In his walk around the city he had met and formed the acquaintance of the late John Fr. Williams, who advised him to go to Saginaw.
“They finally started for Saginaw. They went as far as Grand Blanc, where they were obliged to leave the horse and wagon, as there were no roads any further. So they hired pasture of Rufus W. Stevens, an Indian trader, for the horse, and started on foot on the Indian trail for Saginaw. They went as far as Flint River, where they stopped with a man by the name of John Todd. Here they stayed a few days, as they liked the country very much, and decided to locate here.
“The United States Government at this time had commenced building a United States military road from Detroit to Saginaw, as Michigan was a territory and under the control of the General Government at this time. A man by the name of Davis had taken the contract of the government to build the bridge across the Flint River. He employed my father and brother Robert to work on the bridge, while brother James J. planted some potatoes. This must have been some time in the month of June, 1832. Soon after this my father purchased of a Mr. Ewing a “half-breed” title to one hundred and twenty-five acres of land on the north side of the river, and on the
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east side of what is now Saginaw Street, now the First Ward of the city of Flint, but could find no house for his family, as there were but two houses there at this time, one occupied by John Todd, on the south bank of the river, and the other the old Indian log trading house of Jacob Smith, on the north bank, some twenty-five rods below where Lyman Stow, afterwards Judge Stow, of Genesee County, then lived. So my father got a small log building near the Thread River, one and a half miles south of Flint River, for his family until he could build on the land he had bought. He then sent my brother James J. back on the Indian trail to Grand Blanc to get the horse and wagon, and remove the family from Detroit to Flint. My father got a young man by the name of Miller to go with him, as James J. was then only fifteen years old. This man Miller is now the Hon. Judge Albert Miller, of Bay City, and late president of the State Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan, who, prior to this, had come up from Saginaw to teach a school for the little settlement at Grand Blanc. They arrived in Detroit on the third day, as the roads in those days were almost impassable. We all went to work, packing up our little household goods. My mother hired a man by the name of Mosher with his team to carry a load to Grand Blanc for $25. There was great excitement in our little family to see our new home among the Indians.
“We started from Detroit for Flint River, some riding and some walking, and all walking where the roads were bad. This must have been the fore part of July, for I recollect the celebration of the 4th was a few days before we left, at the old capitol building, which was then away out on the common, having been built in 1825, and was located some little distance northwest of where the soldiers’ monument now stands. At any rate, there were no buildings near it. But to proceed with our journey. The roads were very bad, and we only got across the Swamp to Royal Oak the first day. That part of the country laying between Royal Oak and Detroit was in those days called the Swamp, and of all roads I ever saw I think this was the worst. The next morning we proceeded on our journey. The country become more broken, and the rods better, and that night we reached a little log house on the bank of a pretty lake, where a man by the name of Fuller had settled. This is now Springfield. We started early the next morning and at night reached Grand Blanc, and stayed all night with a man by the name of Rufus W. Stevens, who kept an Indian trading house, or store, for trading with the Indians for furs. Our father and oldest brother had come up from Flint River to meet us, and how glad we were to see them. Here Mr. Mosher, the teamster, left us, as he could go no further, this being the end of all wagon roads. From here to Flint was nothing but a narrow road cut to let sleighs pass through in Winter, but not wide enough in many places for a wagon. We started early with our one horse wagon, my mother and the larger children walking, while my father and elder brother went ahead to clear the road. We worked hard all day, and at night, tired and worn out, we reached the Thread River, six miles from where my father had prepared a temporary abode for his family. Consequently, this was the first wagon that had come through to the Flint River.
“We lived here a short time until my younger brother, Archibald, was born, October 31st, he being the first white male child born between Grand Blanc and Mackinaw. My father soon built a house on the land he had bought, which now comprises the Fist Ward of the City of Flint, where he soon removed. After getting his family settled he began to look around for provisions for the Winter. There was plenty of venison to be had of the Indians, but there was no pork in the country.
“Finally he and a man who had moved into the country, by the name of George Oliver started down the Flint River in a canoe for Saginaw, to buy pork for their families. On their way down the river they encamped on the old Indian fields about seven miles south of what is now Bridgeport, and about fourteen miles from Saginaw, by the road, and twenty-five by the river.
“My father took a great fancy to this old Indian field, which contained about 150 acres, without a stump or a stone, and all ready for the plow.
“Here he could raise enough to support his family. The Indians had abandoned it years before, because the grub worms ate their corn as it sprouted from the ground which they attributed to the wrath of the Great Spirit. They left it, and made new corn fields farther up the river. On my father’s return home he said to my mother that he would sell his place the first opportunity, and remove down the river on the Indian fields, where he could raise more extensive crops, as the soil was much riher. Finally, in 1834, my father sold his place for $600, and thought he was making a great speculation, as he had only given $125 for it two years before.
“He then negotiated with Ton-dog-a-ne for a lease of 640 acres, including the Indian fields, for a term of years, for the nominal price of twenty-five bushels of potatoes and twenty-five bushels of corn, per year.
“These Indian fields were within the reservation of the Indian chief, Ton-dog-a-ne, of the Flint River band of Indians, which comprised over 7,000 acres.
“We then moved down the river to the Indian field spoken of before, and arrived at that place the second day, unloading our canoes after dark. We had no place to stop, but we went to work and built a large fire, and made a tent of blankets for my mother and the children. I recollect a circumstance that night which made me feel very bad, and which I cannot even now recall without a sense of pain. My mother was sitting on a log close by the fire, crying. We asked her what was the matter. She said ‘she never thought she would come to this-no roof to cover her and the babes’ –for at this time some of the children were quite small. She had known better times, as they say. My father had been the owner of a handsome estate near Albany, and the house over which my mother presided was as delightful as any which at that time graced the banks of the noble Hudson. It was a fate which a mother’s heart could not easily bear, to see that beautiful home sold to satisfy the demands of a New York broker for whom my father had undersigned; to see the toils of a lifetime brought to ruin; to see the hopes of the future all struck down by a rude and cruel blow; and to turn her face and steps toward the wilderness of the great West, there to seek, with such strength as might be left, to partially retrieve the fortune that had been so suddenly wasted to redeem another’s name and obligation. Hard, hard indeed, was it for her when the darkness of that memorable night surrounded her in the great forests and she wept because there was no roof to shelter her babes from the weather.
“The next morning we all went to work, and on the second day we had quite a comfortable shanty to live in. We then began the construction of a log house, which we soon finished, when we tood down our shanty and moved into the house, where we lived many years. There was a black walnut flat just above the fields, of beautiful timber, which we made into rails, and fenced the 150 acres with black walnut rails; -a rather expensive timber for rails at the present day. Our first year’s crop was excellent. The second year we sold 1,000 bushels of corn to the American Fur Company, to be taken to Lake Superior for the Indians. The only drawback we had was in converting our grain into flour. A grist mill had been built at the Thread, one and a half miles south of Flint. We had to take our grain, in a canoe up the river some thirty-five miles, and then get it drawn to the mill and back to the river and then
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come down the river home. It usually took us four days to go to mill and back, camping out every night, and the hardest kind of work at that. This work always fell on my brother James and myself, for though a boy, I could steer the canoe and my brother would tow it over the rapids with a rope. Our feet used to get very sore waling in the water so much. When Winter came on it was impossible to go to mill, as there was no road, so in the Winter evenings we all took turns pounding corn in a mortar- made in the end of a log, sawed about three feet long with a hole in one end to pound corn in, similar to what the Indians used to pound corn in in those days.
“Many of the old settlers of Saginaw will recollect how, in coming down the river, they made their calculations to reach our house to stay all night without camping out, and how happy they were when they got there, for at that time it was the only place between Flint and Saginaw where they could stay over night without camping out. There was nothing but a
TRAIL OR BUSH ROAD BETWEEN FLINT AND SAGINAW,
and part of the year it was impassable, especially for ladies; consequently most of the travel went up and down the river in canoes and skiffs.
“In 1835 my father went back to Albany, his native place, and was eleven days in reaching his destination. He considered it a quick passage. This was before the age of railroads. When he returned, he brought a mill, something like an old-fashioned coffee mill, but five times as large; the hopper would hold about a peck and had a handle on each side. This was a great thing in those days, for with it we could grind a bushel of corn in an hour. We now threw away the old mortar and stopped going to mill, as we had a mill of our own.
“This year we had two neighbors, and they used to come in the evening to grind their corn at our mill, which was worth its weight in gold to that little settlement.
“A circumstance happened at this time that I will give, if you will have the patience to hear me. My father being of a poetical turn of mind, the day after he came from the East, sat down on the bank of the river and composed the following verses, which I have taken from his note book of poems:
“Down
the banks of Flint River,
This beautiful stream,
Where
my cottage remains,
I’ve
returned home again.
And
who, in his senses,
Can
help but believe
That
this was the garden
Of
Adam and Eve.
“Here
the fields yet remain,
With
the corn hills in view,
And
the bones we dig up
Which
Cain no doubt slew;
And
the soil is so fertile,
Of
Adam and Eve.
“Some
apple trees here yet
As
relics remain,
to show that a gardener
Once
thrived on this plain”
And
in those fine days,
E’er
a snake could deceive,
How
happy here lived
Old
Adam and Eve.
“The
natives we saw here,
Were
forced from this plain
By
a curse, which they say
On
it yet does remain;
And
in all their looks
We
can plainly perceive,
That
these are descendants
Of
Adam and Eve
“Here
the cherubims stood
With
their wings widely spread,
Lest
Adam should enter,
And
eat of that bread.
Here
the wild sporting deer
Yet
the hunters deceive,
That
once furnished bacon
For
Adam and Eve
“Here the lofty
black walnut,
With its
boughs spreading wide,
And the
elm and hackberry
Grow side
by side;
And a
mound gently rises
Whereon we
perceive,
That once
stood the altar
Of Adam and
Eve.
“But far from this place
Have those characters flew,
And we bid them a lasting
And farewell adieu,
In confidence thinking,
And still shall I believe
That this was the garden
Of Adam and Eve.”
“In 1836 (this was wild cat times) the country was overrun with persons looking land; in fact the people had gone land crazy. My father’s house was crowded with land speculators. As there were only three rooms in the old log house, it was necessary to make what is called a ‘field bed’ before the old-fashioned fire-place, which would hold from ten to fifteen. On one occasion we had got out of flour, so my father started my brother James and myself to Saginaw in a canoe for some. At that time there were three ‘drift woods’ in the river, one sixty, one thirty-five and one twelve rods long. Around these we had to draw our canoe and carry what we had. At Saginaw we purchased two barrels of flour for $18 per barrel. On our return it commenced raining and rained all day. We paddled till late in the night up the Flint River to find land high enough to permit us to build a fire and dry ourselves and lie down; but we did not sleep long, for in the middle of the night the water raised so that our camping ground was under water.
“We had to take to our canoe and sit in it until daylight, so we could see to go ahead. We soon arrived at the drift wood. Here we had another obstacle to contend with. How to get our flour around was a question, as the mud and water were about four inches deep, and carry the barrels we could not. There was no other way but to roll them around in the mud and water. We arrived home that night with our two barrels of flour covered all over with a coating of mud.
“The next Winter my father sold his crop of corn to parties in Saginaw for $1.50 per bushel. As usual, my brother James and myself drew it down on the ice to Saginaw, and got our pay in bills on the Flint Rapids Bank. A few days after our return home my father started for Flint, and found, after his arrival, that the Flint Rapids Bank was a wild-cat concern and had failed a day or two before. Thus was all our
HARD YEAR’S LABOR GONE.
“The next year the Indians were terribly afflicted with smallpox; forty-seven of them died at the Indian village above my father’s house, and all through the country they were dying by scores. At Green Point, at the mouth of the Tittabawassee, several were left
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unburied, and were eaten up by the hogs. To add to the horrors of sickness and death, they were starving, as there were not well ones enough to hunt for the rest.
“My father sent word to the Indian village above him, that they must not starve, but to bring down their canoes to the upper end of the field, above the house, where they would find plenty of potatoes, corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes, etc., piled up on the bank of the river, and when they wanted more, come to the upper end of the field and shout, and they could have all they wanted.
“My father continued to supply them with food until they recovered and could provide for themselves. This favor they never forgot, for, said they, ‘if it was not for our white brother, ‘ as they used to call my father, ‘we should have all starved to death.’ Soon after this they called a council of the chief and head men and made a new lease to my father of one section of land 640 acres, where he then lived, on the lower end of the reservation, for the term on ninety-nine years. This lease was signed by the chiefs and head men of the nation, in presence of Judge Devenport and others, as witnesses.
“This was done in gratitude for what my father had done for them, when they had the small-pox and were starving; which corroborates an old saying, and a true one, that an Indian never forgets a favor, which I have in a great many instances experienced.
“Soon after this Henry R. Schoolcraft, the superintendent of Indian affairs, was sent on by the government to make a treaty with the Indians to cede the several reservation lying on the Flint, Shiawassee, Tittabawassee and Cass Rivers to the United States government.
“The chiefs and head men of the different bands of each reservation were notified by Mr. Schoolcraft to meet him in council at Flint, to negotiate for a sale of their reservations. A treaty or sale was made to the government of all the reservations except the Flint River Reservation. Ton-dog-a-ne and his band refused to sell their seven thousand acre reservation on the Flint River, unless they sold subject to a lease they had given to James McCormick, of a section of land, 640 acres, on the lower end of the reserve where he then lived.
“This Mr. Schollcraft, the government commissioner, refused to do. Then, said the chief, Ton-dog-a-ne, and his head men, ‘We will not sell our lands unless our white brother is provided for; we will not sign the treaty.’ The treaty was then broken up in regard to the Flint River Reservation. Subsequently, Mr. Schoolcraft, through his interpreter, Capt. Joseph F. Marsac, notified Ton-dog-a-ne, and his band that he would purchase their reservation subject to the terms specified. With this understanding the chief, Ton-dog-a-ne, and the head men, signed the treaty, with full confidence that Mr. Schoolcraft had done as he agreed, and that their white brother was provided for. This afterwards proved not to be the fact, as he had left it out of the treaty altogether. The government afterwards sod the land occupied by Mr. McCormick, to which he thought he had a just title by the treaty, and he was ejected therefrom.
In 1841 James McCormick removed to Portsmouth, now South Bay City, and in company with his son, James J. McCormick, purchased B. K. Hall’s interest in the old Portsmouth steam mill, formerly built by Judge Albert Miller and others, and commenced the manufacture of lumber. This was the second mill built on the Saginaw River. James McCormick shipped the first cargo of lumber that ever went out of the Saginaw River. It would run 60 per cent uppers, and he sold it in Detroit to the late James Busby, brother-in-law of the late James Fraser, for $8 per thousand- one third down, and the balance on time. The vessel was the “Old Conneaut Packet, “Capt. George Raby, and the cargo consisted of 40,000 feet. Clear lumber was then selling at the mill for $10 in store trade, as there was no money in the country. So you see lumbermen did not get rich in those days. They only opened the way for those that came after them to make their fortunes. The early pioneers came into the valley twenty years too soon to get reach. But then, again, what would our beautiful Saginaw Valley have been to-day but for the perseverance, the privations and the hardships of these early pioneers?
James McCormick aend his son, James J., continued the manufacture of lumber up to the year 1846, when James McCormick died. He died at the old homestead, April 2, 1846, deeply regretted by all the old pioneers. His wife continued to live at the old homestead, dispensing her hospitality to all who came, as there was but one public house in the lower end of the valley, at this time. She lived here until 1854, when her children insisted she should break up housekeeping and live with them the rest of her days, which she did. She died at her daughter’s, Mrs. Ohn Malone’s, in the township of Taymouth, Saginaw County, July 22, 1862, beloved by all who knew her.
Her remains, together with her husband James McCormick, have been removed to Pine Ridge Cemetery, where a suitable monument has been erected by friends to those old pioneers’ memory, with the following inscription:
TO THE MEMORY OF
JAMES AND ELLEN MCCORMICK,
Pioneers of the Saginaw Valley. They pitched their tent in the Wilderness in
1832, and planted a vineyard; but the Master called them hence e’er they gather
the fruit!
“An honest man is the noblest work of God!”
Judge Albert Miller alwo writes as follows:- “I knew James McCormick from the time he came to Michigan until he died, and upon perusal find the foregoing sketch to be a correct review of his life. He was a man who possessed rare natural gifts, and integrity and benevolence were conspicuous traits of his character. I have reason to remember him kindly for his many acts of kindness, and noble traits of character.”
Robert McCormick, eldest of James McCormick, is yet living, and is a farmer in Illinois.
Joseph, the second son, was never identified with the Saginaw Valley, having left Albany when a boy, in 1831, for Kentucky, where he was a heavy contractor for many years. He died in Kansas some years since.
Sarah, the third daughter of James McCormick, is the wife of Medor Trombley, of South Bay City, one of the pioneers of Michigan, having been born in the state; also of Illinois Regiment, and was promoted to orderly sergeant. At the battle near Island No. 10, he was promoted to second lieutenant. At the battle of Stone River he took command of his company, and for bravery on the battle field in capturing a battery, he was promoted to captain. He was soon after taken prisoner, but was exchanged, after fearful suffering. He came back and reported for duty. He asked leave to go home to recruit his health, as he was almost a walking skeleton, and also to get recruits to fill up his company , which was granted. He soon recovered and with his company filled with new recruits, he reported for duty, and joined the army on it march to Atlanta. At the bat-
Page 26
tle of Kenesaw Mountain the enemy had a mask battery which was making sad havoc with our troops. Gen. Bradley sent for Capt. McCormick to take that battery, saying he took the battery at Stone River and he knew he would take that. He took the battery, but fell on the breastworks, pierced with seven balls, a martyr to his country.
Andrew V. McCormick, the youngest child of James and Ellen McCormick, was the first child born in what is now the Township of Taymouth, Saginaw County, December 20, 1836. In 1854 he went to Illinois and commenced farming. He also enlisted in the Union army and served until just before its close, when he was wounded and retired from the service. He is now a wealthy farmer in Kansas.
Elizabeth, the second daughter of James McCormick, married Orrin Kinney, a farmer, a well-known citizen of the Saginaw Valley, and an old pioneer, being identified with all of its early developments. They still live on their farm, with the present limits of Bay City, surrounded by their children and grandchildren.
JAMES J. MCCORMICK.
The following biographical sketch of the late James J. McCormick is by Judge Albert Miller, who was his intimate friend for forty years:
“James J. McCormick, third son of James McCormick, was born near Albany, N. Y., in January, 1817, and was in the fifty-sixth year of his age a the the time of his death, which occurred in Bay City, November 25, 1872
“My first acquaintance with Mr. McCormick happened in this wise: - In the Summer of 1832 I started on foot, from Saginaw, for a journey to Detroit, having with me a draft on James Abbott, of Detroit, upon which to raise money to purchase some land from the government; but when I arrived at Flint, I learned that my draft had not been properly endorsed, and that I should have to return to Saginaw and get the endorsement before I could raise the money on it. While at Flint I was introduced by the late E. R. Ewings, Esq., to Mr. James McCormick (father of the late J. J.), who, although a stranger, kindly volunteered to loan me the money, so that I could proceed to Detroit and purchase the land I was anxious to secure. Mr. McCormick’s family at that time resided in Detroit, and he was about sending his son, James J., to Detroit, with a one-horse wagon, and I was offered a free ride, which, under the circumstances, was highly appreciated; for at that time there was no public conveyance on any portion of the road between Saginaw and Detroit. In passing over the road on that journey with James J. McCormick, a familiar acquaintance was formed, which ripened into a strong friendship for each other, which lasted while time lasted, with him, and the severance of which is a great grief to myself. Afterwards the family removed to the Fling River, and engaged in farming. James J., being the eldest son at home, bore the brunt of the hardship in supplying the family with the necessaries of life, every article of which, that was not produced from their own farm, had to be transported either from Flint or Saginaw, sometimes in a canoe, sometimes on horseback, and at other times, when neither of the above mentioned modes were available, the men were obliged to carry them on their own backs. James early evinced a good business talent, and for some tie previous to becoming of age, transacted all his father’s business. While the family resided at Pewanagowink, James J. went to Kentucky, where he was engaged with an elder brother on a railroad contract. While there he became acquainted with Miss Jane Shelton, an amiable young lady of prepossessing appearance, whom he married and brought with him on his return to Michigan. After his return he resided a short time at Penwanagowink, before removing, in 1841, to Portsmouth. At that time there were but few families residing in this vicinity; but the business enterprise of the Messrs. McCormick soon made a change in the appearance of the place. They repaired the old Portsmouth mill, and commenced the manufacture of lumber, and not finding a ready sale for it, they erected buildings for different persons in this vicinity, on contract, furnishing all the materials, and by that means used up considerable of their lumber. They erected buildings for James G. Birney, Joseph Trombley, Medor Trombley and Capt. Joseph F. Marsac. The ground upon which J. J. McCormick built his palatial residence was purchased, with a small house upon it, from Capt. Marsac, and paid for by erecting buildings for the Captain on other lands. In 1846, James McCormick, Sr., died at Portsmouth; and after that James J. carried on business for himself till 1848, when the writer bought an interest with him in the old mill, and we were connected in business till the Spring of 1849.
“It was during the last mentioned period that the writer became more fully acquainted with the industry, integrity, and sterling manhood of the late deceased. During the whole course of our intiate business relations there was never an unpleasant word passed between us. We labored then with our own hands, each taking our turn at the saw with our employes, and attending to our business matters while they were asleep; but there was never a time when Mr. McCormick was not willing to bear his full share of the burden neither do I know of an instance where he desired to appropriate more of the proceeds of our joint labor to himself than he was willing to concede to me. Mr. McCormick was ambitious, and where the news of the discovery of gold in California first reached him, he became anxious to participate in the goen harvest that awaited those who would brave the dangers and undergo the hardships necessary to be endured by those who would reap it. The dangers, privations and hardships of the journey had no terrors for hi his only misgiving being in leaving his wife and children behind; but after making provision for their support during his absence, he procured an outfit, consisting of a yoke of oxen and a wagon, on which was loaded the necessary articles to be used on his journey, which he ferried across the Saginaw River on a raft of flattened timber, about the middle of March, 1849, and thus started alone to traverse the then almost unknown track across the continent to the Pacific Slope. He joined some acquaintances on the way, with whom he journeyed a portion of the distance, but was separated from them before reaching their destination, one of whom, Mr. Alfred Goyer, of Genesee County, he met, after having been in California a year, at a spring, where they were both watering their horses. They did not recognize each other till after inquiries were made as to their former residences, when they learned each other’s identity.
“After that I believe they remained together, and returned home in each other’s company after an absence of two years and a half, or thereabouts. I know but little about Mr. McCormick’s success in the mines. I know he brought home some money with him, with which he commenced the lumber business, building a mill near his late residence, at which he has been successfully engaged in the manufacture and sale of lumber till about the year 1871, when he sold his mill to Mr. Webster. Mr. McCormick’s first wife died in 1854, leaving three children, one daughter and two sons, two of whom survive their father,- the daughter, who is now the wife of Mr. Bassett, of the firm of Bassett, Seed & Co., and the youngest son. Mr. McCormick’s eldest son, at the breaking out of the Rebellion, entered the army of the Union, where his health was ipaired, in consequence of which he died, in 1867. Mr. McCormick married, for his second wife, Miss Matilda Wayne, who died in 1880.
“Mr. McCormick was a member of the first Council of Bay City, and was mayor of the city in 1869. In 1868 he erected the McCormick Block, on Water Street. He was also part owner of the
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Opera House. Few men had more personal friends, and his death left a vacancy difficult to fill. He was a prominent member of the Masonic Order, and had received the highest degree possible in this country.”
WILLIAM R. MCCORICK, another son and one of the very early pioneers of the Saginaw Valley, and Bay City, was born near the city of Albany, N.Y., August 16, 1822. He came with his parents to Michigan in 1832, and first settled at Flint, Genesee County. In 1834 his parents removed to Saginaw County and settled near the Indian village of Pewanagowink, where he helped his father on the farm up to 1837. For a short time after his parents removed to this place there were two other settlers, a Mr. Hayden, and Mr. Nelson, but they soon removed to Saginaw; then their nearest neighbors were Messrs. Charles and Humphrey McLeans, of Pine Run, some fifteen miles off.
So all the playmates William had when a boy were the young Indians. He often joined them on their hunting excursions, and became so familiar with their language, that, in the Fall of 1837, he was employed by Messrs. Coburn, Dixon, and others, as Indian interpreter and clerk in their store, at Green Point, at the mouth of the Tittabawasse River, for trading with the Indians for furs, in opposition to the American Fur Company at Saginaw. While at this point he read everything of book kind he could find in that outpost of civilization, and while here he improved all his leisure time he could, to acquire an education. After remaining here for some time, the company failed, not being able to compete with the extensive firm of the American Fur Company, which was backed up by John Jacob Astor, of New York City.
After the company had failed he returned home to help his father on the farm another year, when he wanted to do for himself. He wanted to go to Illinois to his brother’s as he had got tired of living in the wilderness, where he could not get an education or make any money; but his father objected, saying it was a long journey and he would have to stage it most of the way. So, to compromise with him he got a place in Saginaw, with Maj. Mosley, who lived in one of the block houses inside the old fort, where he was to do chores night and morning for his board, and go to school through the Fall and Winter. In the Spring of 1838 he returned home again to help his father on the farm. In June, 1839, after the Spring work was all done, he again asked his father to let him go to his brother’s in Illinois, and he again objected. This worked on his mind so much that he determined to go, let the consequences be what they might. So in his father’s absence, he got his clothes, put them in a pack on his back, and with what little money he could raise he started on foot. He went to Detroit, and then took the old Chicago road, which he followed as far as Laporte, Ind., when he left it and turned south to Valparaiso, when his money gave out and his feet became so sore traveling that he could go no further. Here he went to work until his feet got well, when started again for Vincennes, Ind., near where his brother lived. This was a long tramp.
The next Winter his father made his sons a visit, and William returned home with him with a span of horses and a wagon. It took eighteen days travel for the return trip home. He remained with his father on the farm until 1841, then with his father removed to Portsmouth, now Bay City, where he remained until 1846, when he was offered a situation with a wealth uncle East, where he married a Miss Angelica Wayne, of Albany Co., N.Y. and after some years returned to Bay City, where he has since resided. In 1860 a company was formed in Portsmouth, of which Mr. McCormick was one of the stockholders, to bore for salt. Mr. McCormick was elected superintendent and secretary, with full power to proceed with the work to see if salt water could be found. It proved to be a success. Salt water was found at the depth of 600 feet, and the manufacture of salt was soon commenced. This was the first salt well in Bay County. Afterwards Mr. McCormick turned his attention to the inspection of lumber, which he followed up to 1873, when he was offered the deputy state salt inspectorship, which he held up to 1882, since which time he has turned his attention to the care of his real estate. No man is better known in Bay County than Mr. McCormick, the oldest pioneer living in the Saginaw Valley, except Judge Albert Miller. He has filled many positions of trust and responsibility, to the entire satisfaction of the state and county, and is yet a hearty, jovial old gentleman. He has lived to see Bay County grow from one house to a population of over twenty thousand inhabitants. He still resides at the old home he built many years ago, corner of McCormick and Twenty-third streets, surrounded by his children and grand-children, with the comforts of life around him.
In 1832 Mr. McCormick made, a journey from Flint to Saginaw, in company with one Col. Marshall. During this trip the Indian propensity for fire-water was illustrated by a young son of the forest who assisted them in getting their canoe across a shallow place in the river, and in return for his kindness was given a pull at the canteen. The party proceeded with their journey, and after going a distance of about twelve miles, halted for dinner. Just as they had settled down to their meal up came the Indian who had assisted them in the morning. Upon inquiry it was found that he had came the distance of twelve miles for another drink of whiskey. While at Saginaw, Col. Marshall wanted to go to the mouth of the river, and Mr. McCormick accompanied him. Of this trip, he says: “As we proceeded down the river, in our canoe, we found great quantities of ducks; the river was fairly black with them. We met an Indian who had killed thirty-seven at seven shots with a ‘squaw gun.’ The first house we saw after leaving Saginaw was a two story log house below where Carrollton now stands, called the Mosby House. The next house we came to was a small log house on the bank of the river, near where the Wooden Ware Works now stand, at South Bay City. This was occupied by a Frenchman named Masho, who had married a squaw, and had a large family of children. We continued down the river two or three miles, and came to a little clearing on the bank of the river, where we found a log house standing near the present corner of Water and Fourth Streets. This was where Leon Trombley lived. These were the only two houses where the city of Bay City now stands.”
Mr. McCormick has devoted a great deal of time and careful attention to the collection of early history pertaining to the Saginaw Valley. He has a large portfolio of manuscript, which he has prepared at leisure, and which contains large amount of valuable and interesting history relating to the Saginaw Valley during the last fifty years. A number of his sketches are given in this work, and will be found faithful and interesting representations of pioneer life. He has six children, all living in Bay City.
H. W. McCormick is a lumber dealer and inspector, and has been in business here about fourteen years.
W. J McCormick is a lawyer, in good practice, and Louis H. is a lumber inspector.
The eldest daughter, Matilda, is the wife of Mr. F. B. Chesbrough, extensive lumber manufacturer; and the two other daughters, Hattie and Addie, live with their parents.
THOMAS ROGERS was born in Scotland, October 16, 1804. His father emigrated to Canada in 1818, and settled some five miles north of Toronto, where Thomas learned the trade of blacksmith and machinist. Here he married Miss Elizabeth Wilcox, November 13, 1828, where he lived until the Patriot war broke out, when he and his brothers espoused the side of the Patriots. His brothers were arrested and taken to Kingston and put in confinement in the
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fort as prisoners of war, or rebels. Shortly after, one of the brothers scaled the fort and made his escape to the United States. Shortly after, the two other brothers were released and returned to their homes. Thomas, the subject of this sketch, came to Michigan in 1836 or 1837. At Detroit he met our old fellow pioneer, Harvey Williams, now of East Saginaw, who employed him to go to Saginaw to help put the machinery in a mill that the Messrs. Williams were then building at Saginaw City, which was the first mill on the Saginaw River. After working here for some time, Mr. Rogers was employed to go to Portsmouth, now South Bay City, to put the machinery in a mill that was then building there by Judge Miller, now of Bay City, B. K. Hall, and others. This was in the month of October, but what year it was we have no record, but think it was in 1837 or 1838. The next July he started back for his family and removed them to Portsmouth, where he moved them into a little log house on the banks of the river, which stood where Albert Miller’s upper salt works now stand. After running the mill a short time, the hard times came on and the mill was shut down as there was no sale for lumber, and the mill remained still for some time, when B. K. Hall sold his interest to James McCormick & Son. When Mr. McCormick removed his family from his farm above Saginaw and commenced running the mill, again, Mr. Rogers was employed to put the machinery in order and to do the blacksmith work. Prior to this, Judge Miller had got a mail route established between Portsmouth and Saginaw, and the mail came once a week. Judge Miller was postmaster and Mr. Rogers was deputy. Mr. Rogers did the machine work in the mill besides carrying the mail once a week to and from Saginaw. He was to have the proceeds of the office for carrying the mail, which did not consist of over three or four letters and two or three papers at a time. In the Summer he went in a canoe and in Winter he carried it on foot, walking on the ice, making about twenty-eight miles travel to and from Saginaw, which was not a big paying contract. Nevertheless, it was kept up for years, until settlers became more plenty, when Mr. Rogers was relieved and the government established a regular mail route to connect with the regular Winter mail to and from Sault St. Marie and Mackinaw, which was brought to Lower Saginaw with dog trains over two hundred miles, by half breed Indians. After James McCormick bought the mill Mr. Rogers continued carrying the mail and doing what little blacksmith work there was to be done for the few settlers. Mr. Rogers removed from Portsmouth to Lower Saginaw, now Bay City, in 1842, and built a small house on what is now the corner of Center and Water Streets, where the Shearer Block now stands, and built a black smith shop on the opposite side of Water Street, where the Griswold Block now is, where he worked at his trade many years. In the Summer of 1852, Mr. Rogers went up alone on the prairie some three or four miles above Bay City to cut prairie hay, and was there taken sick with the cholera, where he would have soon died had not Orrin Kinney and Archibald McCormick, who were returning home from cutting hay found him. They soon made a litter of two poles and a blanket and brought him home, but he only survived a short time. He died August 9, 1852, much respected by all the old pioneers who had shared with him in his joys and sorrows, and in the trials they had all passed through. Mr. Rogers was a sincere Christian in the latter part of his life. He left a wife and seven children, viz.: Peter L., Hial B., Ester, Bettie, John A., Ellen and Thomas J. Peter L., is at Deadwood, D. T; Hial B. died in 1867; Ester is the wife of Charles B. Cottrell, of Bay City; John A. is at AuGres, Mich., engaged in the shingle and mercantile business; Ellen is the wife of F. W. Lankenau, of West Bay City; an Thomas J. is now in Texas.
And now in regard to this noble man’s wife! I fear I am inadequate to do her justice. It would take a better pen to portray her many acts of benevolence, her many acts of womanly devotion to suffering humanity and to the pioneers and their families in the hours of sickness and death in those early days that tried men’s souls.
MRS. ELIZABETH ROGERS, wife of Thomas Rogers was the daughter of an eminent physician, Dr. Wilcox, of Wattown, N. Y., who afterward moved to Toronto, Canada. She was born November 12, 1809. When a young girl she attended her father’s office and filled his prescriptions. she became a great student, and to such an extent did she pursue the study of medicine that at the age of eighteen she was often consulted by her father on different cases, and it was that which fitted her in after years to be of benefit to the settlers of the Saginaw Valley. At the age of nineteen she became the wife of Thomas Rogers. After residing for a time near Toronto, she came with her husband to Michigan in 1837-38 and settled in Portsmouth, now South Bay City.
From 1837 to 1850 she was the only practicing physician to the early settlers. At all hours of the day or night, when called upon you would find her at the bedside of the sick and dying. Through storm or snow rain or shine, it made no difference to her. Sometimes on horseback, sometimes on foot through woods. She felt it to be her duty, and like an angel of mercy, she did it, and would have continued to do so, but as settlers began to come in, also doctors came. She still visited the sick of a few old settlers, for they would have none other but her. There was scarcely a birth for twenty years but what she was present. In that dreadful year of the cholera, which swept off so many of the inhabitants, she was at the bedside of the sick and dying, administering assistance and comfort without money and without price. Yes, without any remuneration, for she made no charge. She felt it a duty she owed her fellow creatures, and nobly did she do it. Oftentimes the settlers would send her something, and she would accept it thankfully. Your humble servant was once taken with the cholera. She was immediately sent for, and but for her I might not now be here to pen these few lines as a tribute to her memory. Some time since, in conversing with the old lady, she said, “How things have changed.” “Yes,” I answered, “we have seen Bay City and its surroundings rise from three or four families to a population of 20,000.’ “No,” she said, “I do not mean that; but there are no such noble hearted men and women now, as among the early pioneers. It seems almost as if God had chosen such men and women to make the beginning here, or it never would have been done.” I thought she was right.
She said, “When we first came here, we lived in a little log house on the bank of the river, and the wolves howled so at night we could not sleep. I have looked out of my door many a time in the middle of the day, and have seen a pack of wolves playing on the opposite side of the river where Salzburg now stands.” One day two Indians who had been drinking came to her house while her husband was away to work some miles from home. She fastened the door. They demanded admittance and told her if she did not open the door they would break it down. They went to the wood pile, got the ax and began braking in the door. She seized an iron rake, opened the door and knocked the first Indian senseless; the other ran off. This is only to show what a courageous woman she was. When circumstances required, she was as brave as a lion, and when her sympathies were called into action she was as tender as a child. Mrs. Rogers died in Bay City, July 16, 1881.
CROMWELL, BARNEY was born in Swansea, Mass., September 9, 1807, was married to Miss Belinda Peirce, January 3, 1830. The first year they lived in Swansea, when Mr. Barney
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removed to Warren, R.I., where he lived five years. Mr. Barney was by occupation a millwright, and being tired of the life he was then following, and having no prospects of bettering his condition where he then was, he determined to go West. He made provisions for his wife and child and they were to remain at Warren, R. I., while he would go West to try and better his condition. He started in 1836 for Michigan; arriving at Detroit he inquired in what part of the Territory there was the best prospect of lumbering, as he wanted to get work as a millwright, and was told that the Saginaw Valley would be eventually, as then there was the most pine in that region. So he start on foot for Saginaw. When he arrived there he could find no employment at his trade, but was told that parties had commenced a mill at Portsmouth. Mr. Barney obtained work here and followed it one year. The next year he returned to Rhode Island for his family, and brought them to what was then Lower Saginaw, now Bay City, and moved into the old Indian trading house of Leon Trombley, which stood on the bank of the river near the corner of Water and Fourth Streets, near where the large hardware store of Forsyth & Pierson now stands. This Indian trading house was a small affair, -too much so for the comfort of his family. He moved into the block house near by. Here their daughter Mary E. Barney was born May 22, 1838, the first female child born in what is now Bay County, late wife of Alfred G. Sinclair, of Bay City. Mr. Barney continued to live in this block house some four or five years, when he sold out to the late James G. Birney, who was afterward candidate for the Presidency, in 1844, on the Abolition ticket. While Barney lived in this old block house he had occasion often to go to Detroit in Winter for supplies for himself and others, which would take him nine days to make the trip. What a difference from the present time! Now we can go and do our business and return the same day. Mr. Barney then bought a farm and moved on to it, which was situated where Dolsonville now stands, comprising what is now the First Ward of Bay City. The old farm house is still standing, and the fields he once tilled are now covered over with streets and buildings . After residing on his farm for a few years, he went into partnership with the late James Fraser, in building the Kawkawlin Mills, and in lumbering on the Kawkawlin River, where he soon after removed with his family, and where he lived until his death, which occurred November 30, 1851. He left a noble record after him for uprightness and fair dealing with his fellow men; he was one of the most industrious men I ever saw; he never could be still while there was any thing to do. He was just the man James Fraser required to assist him in carrying on that extensive business. His widow is still living with he son- in-law in Bay City, at the age of seventy-five, one of the few noble pioneers that are left.
ONE OF THE INDIAN TRADERS.
Among the well known characters in the Saginaw region at an early day was Michael Daley who now lives in Bay City. Stories of his extraordinary feats of pedestrianism in his younger days are still upon the lips of the old settlers.
Mr. Daley was born in New York City, May 24, 1825. He came to Saginaw in 1837, then a boy of twelve years old. He soon procured work in a tannery, grinding bark by horse power, at the salary of $5 a month. After working some time, he saw the necessity of getting an education, and he went to live with Capt. Malden, who kept a tavern in the old block house, corner of what is now Court and Hamilton Streets, originally the barracks where the soldiers were quartered while building the fort. He was to do chores nights and mornings for his board, and go to school. He continued to live with Capt. Malden until 1843, during which time he had picked up a good deal of the Indian language. He was then employed by Harvey Williams to go to the mouth of the Kawkawlin River to trade with the Indians at his trading post, and also to attend to his fishing business, where he soon learned to speak the Indian language fluently, and he felt competent to go into business on his own account. In 1846 he started in business for himself and was very successful up to 1855. He had previously purchased real estate in Bay City, where he built a nice residence in 1857, and married a Miss Longtin an old pioneer’s daughter. He has kept on buying and selling real estate up to the present time. Mr. Daley has been a great sufferer for years with rheumatism, caused by hardships and exposure, fishing and trading with the Indians in his younger days. He has often taken his blanket and pack on his back in the Winter, as this was the season for buying up fur, started on the ice from the mouth of the Saginaw River and followed the west shore as far north as Mackinaw, picking up all the fur he could on the route. On one of these excursions he came from Lake Superior to Mackinaw just as the dog train was starting with the mail for Saginaw, accompanied by two Indians or half-breeds on snow shoes. He said he would go with them. They told him it was of no use, as now white man could keep up with them, as they calculated to go over fifty miles a day. He said he would try it. So they started, the half-breeds doing their best. Mr. Daley kept up with them for over 150 miles, when he left them and came into Saginaw some time ahead. When they arrived they made inquiries for the little white man. When they were told who he was they replied “o! we have heard the Indians tell about the little white man that beats all the Indians traveling or running.”
Mr. Daley is living in a neat residence on Washington Street, enjoying the fruits of his labors.
CAPT. JOSEPH F. MARSAC, one of the original pioneers of Michigan and the Saginaw Valley, died at the old homestead in Bay City, June 18, 1880, aged about ninety years. No man was better known in the Saginaw Valley or more universally respected by all classes for his amiable qualities as a gentleman of the old school.
Capt. Marsac was born five miles above Detroit, in the township of Hamtramack. His exact age cannot be ascertained, as the records have been lost.
But at the battle of the Thames, in 1812, he commanded a company, and must have been at least twenty-one years old. In conversation with Mr. King, an old gentleman of West Bay City, in regard to Capt. Marsac’s age, he said:- “I was born in Detroit in 1800, and consequently I was a boy of twelve years when the army left Detroit to pursue Proctor, and I distinctly recollect seeing young Marsac at the head of his company, as at that time I knew him well.”
These facts make it certain that at the time of his death Capt. Marsac was ninety or more years of age. He told me a short time before his death that he thought he was ninety-two years old.
His ancestors originally came from France. The original name was De Le Marsac and his was originally one of the noble families of France. The army was pursuing Proctor up the Thames before the battle was fought; the commanding general wanted to send some dispatches to the garrison at Detroit. He called James Grosebeck, a man well acquainted with the Indian character, to be the bearer of the dispatches. The Indians being all around them, Grosebeck declined to go unless young Marsac would go with him. Finally Grosebeck and Marsac were dispatched. They had to skulk around and travel nights to avoid straggling parties of Indians. They finally reached Detroit and delivered their dispatches and started to return, when they met couriers bringing the news that the battle had been fought and won. “Then, said the captain “ I was mad, for I had lost a good fight.” Although, no doubt, he had done a greater service for his country.
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Soon after this, Capt Marsac and his company were sent to Fort Gratiot to work upon the fort, and from there to Fort Malden, where he remained until the time of his enlistment expired, when he returned home to assist his father on the farm.
In 1816 he was employed by Kinzie Prichard and others to go to Chicago as interpreter and sell goods to the Indians. Chicago then consisted of five houses, including the trading post. He started on horseback on an Indian pony and took the Indian trail for Chicago. At the Indian village on the St. Joseph River, near where Niles now stands, he traded his pony with the Indians for corn, which he loaded in canoes, with which he proceeded down the St. Joseph River to its mouth, and then around the south shore of Lake Michigan to Chicago, where he remained in the employ of the fur company some time. After his time had expired he returned to Detroit on foot.
In 1819 he was called by Gen. Cass to go with him to Saginaw to make a treaty with the Chippewa Indians of northern Michigan. He accompanied Gen. Cass on horseback to Saginaw, while a small schooner had been dispatched around the lakes with a company of soldiers to protect them at the treaty, for some of the Indians still preferred war to selling their lands. After the treaty Capt. Marsac returned to Detroit in the vessel that had brought out the troops.
Gen. Cass and Capt. Marsac were always the greatest of friends, and to this the latter was indebted for the many offices of trust he held for many years under the Government, which he always filled with the strictest integrity. During many years he was engaged in the custom house in Detroit and other public offices.
At the breaking out of the Black Hawk War he received a captain’s commission from Gov. Porter, and raised a company of Indian fighters and started for the seat of war, with his company, on Indian fighters and started for the seat of war, with his company, on foot, as there was no other conveyance in those days. When they had nearly reached Chicago, news came that Black Hawk had been captured, and a courier was dispatched by Gov. Porter, ordering Capt. Marsac, with his company, to return.
In 1836 or 1837 he was employed by the government as Indian interpreter, to assist in making a treat with the Indians of the Saginaw River and its tributaries for the sale of their reservations to the United States Government, which took place where the city of Flint now is.
In 1838 he emigrated to Lower Saginaw, now Bay City, where he was appointed by the Government Indian farmer for the Saginaw River and it tributaries, which position he held for many years; until he was superseded by the late James Fraser.
No man in the Saginaw Valley was so well known as the late Capt. Marsac for his unbounded hospitality and fund of anecdote, and no man is so missed from the community in which he lived. He has left a record that his children may well feel proud of: “An honest and noble man, respected by all who knew him.
THERESA REVARD, wife of the late Capt. Joseph F. Marsac, was born at Grosse Point, above Detroit July 22, 1808, and in 1829 was married to Capt. Joseph F. Marsac, of Hamtramack, by whom she had six children, viz: Charles, Octavius, Mrs. Leon Trombley, Mrs. William H. Southworth, Mrs. Thomas J. McClennen and Mrs. George Robinson, all of whom now live in Bay City.
Mrs. Marsac was a remarkable woman for the times in which she lived, and no woman was more dearly loved by the early settlers, for her motherly kindness encircled them all. Her house was a resort for the poor and afflicted; her chief aim was to alleviate the suffering of others. None knew her but to love her. She died at the old homestead in South Bay City, August 9, 1881, deeply mourned by all pioneers, and through her death earth lost a noble woman-heaven gained a saint. Her memory will be sacredly treasured in the annals of the Saginaw Valley pioneer life.
REMINISCENCE OF CAPTAIN WILSON.
Capt. John Wilson, one of the early pioneers of the Saginaw Valley, was born in Jefferson County, N. Y., September 30, 1804. In his younger days he followed the occupation of sailing and fishing. In 1837 he left his family for the season to engage in the fishing business at Thunder Bay Islands, in Lake Huron, where he removed the same year. While he was there he had occasion to visit Saginaw for supplies and was so well pleased with the country that he determined to make it his future home. He soon made preparations to remove his family to Lower Saginaw, as it was then called, (now Bay City), which he did, November 16, 1840, after a cold and tempestuous voyage, none too soon, as the river froze over the next night after his arrival and remained frozen all Winter. He removed his family into a little log house on the river bank in Portsmouth near where Albert Miller’s upper salt works now stand.
This Winter he spent in hunting and trapping, and was very successful, as game was very plentiful in those days. He continued to live in this little log house until he bought a piece of land of Capt. Joseph F. Marsac, lying between what is now Eighteenth and Twenty-first Streets, on the river, comprising twenty-seven acres, where he removed in the Spring of 1842, to make room for Mr. McCormick, who had purchased the property where he had lived. In the Winter of 1842-43 he superintended the rebuilding of the little schooner “Mary,” of forty tons burthen, at Saginaw, for Smith & Little, and the next Spring took command of her in trading between Detroit and Saginaw. This was the first regular trading vessel to the Saginaw Valley, and he continued in command of her until the Fall of 1844. When on his way from Detroit to Saginaw, late in the Fall, laden with goods for the few white settlers and Indian traders, he was caught off the mouth of Saginaw Bay in a terrible storm, and his little vessel was driven across Lake Huron to the Canada shore, and was wrecked. It being late in the season, snow falling heavily, and the vessel covered with ice, Capt. Wilson and his crew suffered untold hardships.
At Saginaw there was great excitement, for they knew that the little vessel could hardly withstand that terrible storm, and moreover all the provisions and goods for the few settlers for the Winter were lost, and there would be much suffering. Anxiously for weeks did the settlers watch for that little craft and her crew, until all hope failed, and Capt. Wilson and his crew were given up as lost. But fortunately this was not so. Capt. Wilson, seeing no other method of saving himself and crew, determined to beach her. She struck a rock, however, some distance shore, and went to pieces, the captain and crew being washed ashore on part of the wreck on the Canada shore some eighty miles north of Goderich. There were no inhabitants there at this time nearer than Goderich.
They finally procured a fire and built a small hut with such materials as they could get together from the wreck that had washed ashore, and commenced picking up such portions of the cargo as came ashore intact, especially the barrels of flour, in order to save as much as they could for the owners. When they had secured all they could, they left one of the crew in charge and started for Goderich on foot along the beach. They had saved a package of socks and they put on four or five pairs each, believing they could get through snow and water better, although the most of them had their feet frozen. After several weary days they reached Goderich, but being unable to procure conveyances, they started on foot for Detroit, which placed they had left six weeks before. Here they received assistance, and again started on foot for Saginaw, as there were no conveyances in those days, and they were necessitated to travel very slow, as their feet were very sore. On reaching Saginaw they were received with great joy, as they had long been given up as lost. To add to Capt. Wilson’s distress, his eldest daughter had
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died in his absence. He now settled down and commenced improving his land and set out a fine orchard, of which he took great care, little dreaming that in after years it would be cut down to make room for the buildings and streets that cover his old homestead at the present time. Capt. Wilson and his amiable wife were much respected by all the old pioneers. He was very hospitable, and would never owe a man a dollar if it was in his power to pay it. His word was as good as his note. By his frugality and the advance of property he accumulated a competency for old age.
Capt. Wilson had fourteen children of which seven are living, viz:-Mrs. J. A. Wansey, of Marine City; Mrs. G. L. Howard, of West Bay City; Mrs. H. Laraway, Mrs. Wm. Gordon, James D. Wilson, Mrs. E. T. Bennett, of Bay City, and George B. Wilson, of Chicago. Capt. Wilson died at the old homestead in Bay City, August 21, 1879, and his amiable wife soon followed him.
Their remains lie in the Pine Ridge Cemetery, and a suitable monument has been erected to their memory.
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