Wexford County History

One of the most progressive counties in Northern Michigan, Wexford is practically only about forty years old, for prior to 1869 about all there was to it was the little settlement of Sherman, near which were a grist mill and a sawmill, with a number of settlers further to he east in the town of Colfax ; the State road running from Northport in Grand Traverse bay to Newaygo county through almost unbroken forests and crossing the Manistee river near Sherman; and the skeleton of a county body centering also in Sherman and loosely put together in 1869. In 1872 the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad passed through the county, leaving Clam Lake and Manton villages and other evidences of hope, confidence and growth in its wake. From that year the solid and sustained life of Wexford county really commences, and very early in her history there were evidences of an awakening to the possibilities of her responsive soil and to the fact that it was destined to produce far more than pine and hardwood forests. The first agricultural fair was held at Sherman in October, 1874, and a very creditable display was made in vegetables, hay and grain, but owing to the newness of the country the only fruit shown was a plate of grapes grown by H. J. Carpenter. The first mowing machine brought into Wexford county was purchased by Jerome Bartley in the summer of 1876. Prior to that time all the hay and grain raised in the county had been cut with the scythe and the cradle. Such facts as these are adduced to illustrate the "newness" of Wexford county and prove the rapid and substantial nature of her progress.

Physical Features

Before going further into the history of the county, it seems best to have a general foreground of its present civil and physical body, the former feature being well presented in the last statistics of population compiled by the United States census bureau.

Wexford county is composed of sixteen surveyed townships, 576 sections of 640 acres each, or a total of 368,640 acres. Of the total it is estimated that 118,927 acres are already in farms and fruit lands and that fully 200,000 more are available for agricultural purposes. This is not an exaggerated statement: ''One of the most remarkable features of our county is the uniformity of the soil, which is a warm, responsive, sandy loam, usually underlaid with clay at varying depths. As a result of the diverse hardwood forests there has accumulated several inches of rich leaf mold which has aided in making a soil which is fertile, loose, porous, easy to work, never bakes, never bogs, needs no draining and holds moisture. Soil of this type, combined with our climate, forces all vegetation to a wonderful degree, and, while the growing season is about two weeks later, and about ten days shorter, than in Ohio and Indiana, all crops mature more quickly, and developing faster, they have a quality and tone and flavor that is far superior. Farms can be seen in this area which have been steadily cultivated for thirty years without a pound of fertilizer, and are still producing two or three tons of clover to the acre, two to four hundred bushels of potatoes, twenty to thirty bushels of wheat and eighty to one hundred and fifty baskets (on the cob) of corn to the acre. Native, as it were, to this soil are all of the northern fruits and berries, vegetables, seeds, vines, grains, grasses, and clover and alfalfa do especially well. Out of eighty Michigan counties, Wexford stands eleventh in the matter of good roads.'' Cadillac and Hobart in the southeast, Manton in the east, Buckley in the north, Henrietta and Boone in the center and Mesick in the west, are all surrounded by a productive and prosperous agricultural community.

Although well watered, Wexford county is not so generally supplied with lakes and streams as some of the sections of Northern Michigan in the Grand Traverse and Huron regions. Big and Little Clam lakes in the southeast are its largest bodies of water, although there are many other smaller lakes, all of which probably cover ten sections of the county. Its most important river is the Manistee which enters the county about a mile south of the northeast corner, running thence nearly west about eight miles when it turns to the southwest, leaving the county about two miles north of the center of the west line. Pine river, one of the largest branches of the Manistee, runs for several miles through the southwest corner of the county, and there are many fine creeks in other sections which afford excellent mill sites and assist in watering the country.

In general, the surface of the county may be characterized as rolling. There are large tracts, however, that are level or only gently undulating, while in some of the townships there are hills that are worthy of the name.

Building of the State Road

During the years 1836 and 1837 the United States surveyors had reached the territory now known as Wexford county, in their preliminary or township line survey, but it was not until the year 1840 that a name was given to that part of the state known as townships 21, 22, 23 and 24 north, of ranges 9, 10, 11 and 12 west. The first name to this territory was Kautawabet, supposed to have been an Indian name, but it was afterwards discovered that the name had no particular significance and in 1813 it was changed to Wexford, in response to a strong Irish element which was in legislative evidence and which created names for Antrim and Emmet counties as well.

"It was some twelve or fifteen years after the township lines had been established before the government found time to divide the townships into sections," says Wheeler's ''History of Wexford County" ''This work would doubtless have been done sooner had there been any demand for the land, but no one then would have taken land in Wexford county as a gift, while on the prairies, in states farther west, it was difficult to make surveys fast enough to meet the demands of the constantly flowing stream of people from the east. Soon after the section lines had been run an effort was made to secure the building of a state road through from Muskegon or Newaygo counties (the settlements in these counties being then the most northerly on the south side of the 'Big Woods') to the new settlement opening up around the shores of the Grand Traverse bay. This effort was crowned with success when the legislature of 1857 passed an act authorizing the construction of a state road to be called the Muskegon, Grand Traverse and Northport State Road. This name was afterwards changed and when the road was finally built it was known as the Newaygo and Northport State Road. Not much was done toward the construction of this road until 1860."

As the opening up of Wexford county was chiefly due to the survey of the state road through its dense forests space in this history cannot be better utilized than by reproducing extracts from a letter written by Perry Hannah, one of the fathers of the Grand Traverse region: "In the winter of 1853-4," he says. "I made by first trip to the 'outside' world on snow-shoes. Soon after the first of January, 1854, I left Traverse City, when there was hardly a single house outside the limits of the city to Grand Rapids. The snow was plump three feet deep, light as feathers, and not a single step could be taken without the Indian snow shoes. I furnished myself with two Indian packers for carrying supplies. It took six days to make the trip from here to Grand Rapids. The first settlement we reached was Big Rapids, some five or six miles this side of the forks of the Muskegon river.

"The wolves got on our track before the first night 's camping. They were not troublesome to us in the least until we had made our camp fires in the evening; then a tremendous howl was set up and continued during the whole night. We were not in the least troubled as to their contact with us, but they broke up our sleep. As soon as we left our camp in the morning they followed us and picked up any scraps that might be left. They continued with us till we were out of the woods.

"There was not a single sign of a trail of any kind to travel by, which compelled us to constantly use our compass, as very little sunshine can be seen at that season of the year beneath the thick timber that then shrouded the whole country. This was the most tedious journey I ever experienced in the early days of Grand Traverse.

''In the winter of 1856-7 I was a member of the state legislature. When the legislature adjourned, early in the spring, some of the members came and shook hands with me and said 'I suppose you have to go on to your home all the way by stage.' This was very amusing to me, coming from state legislators, when I knew that my trip had to be made 'afoot and alone' through the long woods.

"In 1857 I was appointed one of the commissioners to assist in the work of laying out a state road to be called the Muskegon, Grand Traverse and Northport State Road. Before we started the survey on the line, I concluded it would be a good move to have the route looked out, so I engaged a hardy old pioneer and hunter to go from Traverse City south and look over the line through Wexford county. After being absent for some ten days he returned, and in answer to my questions regarding the feasibility of the line his reply was. 'First rate, it could not be better. I tell you, Mr. Hannah, if we get a settler through to Grand Traverse on that line we will be sure of him. By golly! them hills, they be awful big, and they all slope this way, and the settler that gets there will never go back over those hills. ' While the hills over the state road are pretty 'tall the old hunter got a pretty poor impression on his first trip from the state-road point of view. Today we consider that Wexford county is not all hills, but is, much of it, the best land we have in the state.

"Next is a little incident in building our bridge over the Manistee river. George W. Bryant, who lived in our village, had located the land where the bridge was to cross the river. I had let the contract to Godfrey Grelick, a sturdy old German, to build the bridge. Mr. Bryant notified Mr. Grelick that in building the bridge over the Manistee river he must not cut a single tree on his land. The old German, meeting him on the street of our village one day, told Mr. Bryant in very emphatic language ' If you come where we do make dot bridge and I see one tree grow on top your heat, by golley ! I cut him off. ' It is needless to say that Mr. Bryant's land furnished all the timber of that bridge.

"What a wonderful change in the last fifty years in Grand Traverse and Wexford counties. Traverse City today has a population of twelve thousand, and the Newaygo and Northport state road is lined with many beautiful farms."

First Settlers and Institutions

The making of this state road progressed very slowly and was not opened through Wexford county until 1863, the bridge mentioned by Mr. Hannah being completed in the following year. This was the direct cause for the coming of Wexford county's first settler, B. W. Hall, who for several years prior to 1863 had been in Newaygo county. He located in what is now Hanover township. Its first permanent and "leading citizen" was Dr. John Perry who, in the spring of 1863, located on the northwest quarter of section 6, town 23 north of range 11 west and there built a log house for a family home. His homestead became a part of the Sherman village site. Dr. Perry, the first physician and the second postmaster in the county, died in 1875.

Closely following Dr, Perry were Robert Myhill, and Aaron Baker, who settled in what is now Springville. In June of the same year, 1863, Lewis Cornell, Blon Cornell, James Wart and William Masters selected lands in Wexford, and in the following fall brought on their families, forming the nucleus of w4iat has since been known as the Cornell settlement. Mr. Masters was the first postmaster and opened a store and boarding house — none other short of Traverse City.

When the summer of 1864 closed there were some twenty families in the county, nearly all living within two miles of the state road. In the spring of 1865 the settlement of what is now Sherman received numerous additions, some coming by boat and some overland. During the summer of 1865 an arrangement was made by which Jacob York, one of the new comers who had a horse and wagon, made weekly trips to Traverse City to take out and bring in the mail for the settlement, and also to such errands and bring in such light articles of merchandise or freight as he could in his light wagon. By common consent the house of William Masters, on the state road, was chosen as the place for leaving and receiving letters and parcels, and his house soon came to be called the ' ' post office. " Later in the year Mr. Masters was appointed postmaster and a mail sack was furnished in which to carry the mail, but the settlers had to pay Mr. York for his services for a year before the post office department would consent to establish a mail route to the new settlement.

The first school house built in Wexford county was made of logs and was situated near the county line between Wexford and Grand Traverse counties. It was put up by volunteer work on the part of those interested in having a school, and the first teacher, Zylphia Harper, was paid under the old system of rate bill, for as yet there was not even a township or school district organization in the county. This school house was, a few years later, the scene of the first law suit ever held in Wexford county. It was a case of assault and battery between Jay J. Copley and Myron Baldwin and grew out of the holding of the second caucus in Wexford county. The case was presided over by I. U. Davis, one of the justices of the peace elected at the" first township election held in the county.

The first sawmill was built by John H. Wheeler in the summer of 1S66 near what is called Wheeler creek about two and one half miles northeast of the village of Sherman. It was the first frame building in the county. The following year Mr. Wheeler and J. J. Copley each built a frame house, the first in the county.

Lewis J. Clark, who died in 1877, was the pioneer business man of Sherman, coming to the town corners in 1867. The next year he built the first frame building where Sherman now stands. He occupied this building with a store until 1871 when he retired from business. The post office of Sherman was established in 1868 with John Perry as postmaster. In 1869 L. J. Clark was appointed postmaster and the post- office was moved into his store.

After the settlers began to raise grain an important question arose — how to use this grain to the best advantage for the benefit of themselves and their families. The nearest grist mill was at Traverse City, twenty-six miles distant. In 1868 Oren Fletcher purchased land near Sherman and erected the first flouring mill in Wexford county. Thus commenced the settlement of the problem.

In 1867 the first settlement in the town of Colfax was made, the first settlers being Charles Soper and Mr. Lameraux. The first house erected within the territory first comprising Colfax was built by Charles Soper, and the first, and for several weeks the only white women residing therein were Mrs. Soper and her daughter, Mrs. Warner. During the summer and fall quite a number settled in the western part if the town, and before the year had elapsed the whole territory now comprising Colfax was well settled up by a thriving, enterprising people

The settlement from its very commencement was known as Unionville, from the fact that more than nine-tenths of the male inhabitants at that time had served in the Union armies during the Civil war. Another reason for the name was the unity of feeling among the settlers at that time. When the town was organized the name was changed to Colfax.

The County and County Seats

In 1840 that portion of the state embraced in towns 21, 22, 23 and 24 north, of ranges 9, 10, 11 and 12 west was laid off as a separate county and designated by the name of Kautawaubet. In 1843 the name was changed to Wexford.

Wexford county, up to the year 1866, was attached to the township of Brown, of Manistee county, for assessment and judicial purposes. At the annual meeting of the board of supervisors of Manistee county in 1866 the whole county of Wexford was organized into a new township, to be known by the name of Wexford. It was ordered that the first election should be held on the first Monday of April in 1867, when a full set of township officers should be elected. Previous to this time none of the numerous voters in the county had cast a ballot since they had resided in the county.

Civil and political matters continued to depend upon Manistee until March 30, 1869, when the state legislature passed an act enabling the voters to organize an independent government. This act divided the county into four townships: Colfax, Hanover, Springville and Wexford, and Missaukee county was attached to it for municipal and judicial purposes. The county seat was fixed in township 24 north, range 12 west, ''at or near Manistee bridge," and the commissioners appointed to locate it were H. J. Devoe, I. U. Davis and E. C. Dayhuff. At the first election held April 5, 1869, 129 votes were polled, and the following chosen as officers : Harrison H. Skinner, sheriff ; John H. Wheeler, county treasurer; Leroy P. Champenois, county clerk and register of deeds; Isaac N. Carpenter, judge of probate; 0. H. Miller, prosecuting attorney; C. Northrup, superintendent of schools; R. S. MeLain, surveyor.

At a special meeting of the board of supervisors held in January, 1870, the matter of building a court house was decided upon, and a committee appointed whose duty it was to advertise for sealed bids for its erection in accordance with plans and specifications prepared by William Holdsworth, Sr., of Traverse City, the cost not to exceed five thousand dollars, exclusive of the foundation which was under a separate contract. J. H. Wheeler was the successful bidder for the court house job and the preparatory work was entered upon at once. One great reason why the work of building a court house was begun so soon after the county was organized was the fact that the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad was already pushing its line northward and it was feared that unless some building was erected for county purposes some town might spring up along the line of the railway which would be a successful rival of the settlement ''at Manistee bridge." It was thought that by erecting a $5,000 court house and jail, not to be used for any but county purposes, that the seat of justice would be ''spiked'' down at Sherman. As will be seen, these plans were of little avail.

During the summer of 1870, while the frame of the court house was being erected and enclosed, the county officers performed their duties at their residences. Two or three other houses also went up. Mr. Clark made an addition to his store and the village grew apace. The first session of the circuit court was held in a little log hotel kept by Sylvester Clark.

At the annual meeting the board of supervisors in 1871 a resolution was passed authorizing the superintendents of poor to purchase a poor farm on section 16, in what is now Antioch township. This was done and the following summer a large two-story building was erected in which to care for such unfortunates as might become a county charge.

But all this time the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad had been steadily creeping up through the wilderness from the south and Sherman might have seen the handwriting on the wall when, in 1871, George A. Mitchell platted the village of Clam Lake in anticipation of the iron horse which snorted through the eastern sections of Wexford county in the following year, leaving the county seat far to the west on the old state road.

At the annual meeting of the board of supervisors in that very year, 1872, Chauncey Hollister, supervisor from Clam lake township, introduced a resolution to remove the county seat from Sherman to the village of Clam Lake. This resolution was defeated by a vote of four yeas to five nays. Not daunted by this defeat, Mr. Hollister renewed his efforts at the January meeting of the board in 1873, but the result was more disastrous than before, there being but three votes for the resolution to six against.

In 1872, with the building of the railroads, Manton, or Cedar creek as it was at first known, was placed on the county map, and in June, 1876, the county board was equally divided on propositions to move the county seat either to Manton or the village of Clam Lake.

When it became known, some time in March, 1877, that the village of Clam Lake had been transformed into a city under the name of Cadillac, and that after the first Monday in April she would have three members on the board of supervisors, steps were at once taken to checkmate this new scheme for the removal of the county seat. An effort was even made to fix the seat of justice in the territorial center of the county as far removed from the railroad as Sherman.

Space forbids an attempt to go into the details attending the ceaseless contentions between the old county seat and the new aspirants, the villages of Clam Lake and Manton; but on the seventeenth resolution for a change which had been offered in the board the supervisors voted in favor of Manton at their meeting in October, 1881. By the organization of six new townships, however, Cadillac secured the upper hand, and in the April election of 1882 the people voted, by 1,363 to 636, to move the county seat thither, and there it has remained.

Probably these words of an old citizen express the common-sense view of the situation on the county seat question: ''For many years following the removal of the county seat from Manton to Cadillac there remained a bitter feeling on the part of those who had 'loved and lost,' and even yet there occasionally crops out a tinge of this bitterness, but nearly all parts of the county have come to realize that the present location is the proper one and the most convenient for the majority of those whose business calls them to the county seat.''

Early History of Cadillac

The first clearings in the forest which presaged the rising of the future village of Clam Lake and city of Cadillac were made for the camps which were used in the construction of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad through the county in 1871-2. In March, 1871, Messrs. Holbrook & ]May started a store in a little log building on the eastern shore of Little Clam lake, the first permanent structure of any kind to be erected on the present site of Cadillac. The same gentlemen afterward built a two-story store on the corner of Mason and Mitchell streets in which they conducted a thriving business for a number of years.

Colonel J. C. Hudnutt was the civil engineer in active charge of the railroad survey, and when he received orders from his superiors to swing around the eastern end of Little Clam lake, instead of passing between the two lakes as was first intended, he rightly concluded that a town would arise at that point. Being a forehanded man, he acted accordingly. In the words of John H. Wheeler who was personally cognizant of the incident which he relates: ''With this idea in view, he decided to buy any or all land bordering on the eastern shore of the lake and for this purpose he started for the government land office, then located at Traverse City, in the fall of 1871, to ascertain what there was in that locality that could be purchased. The only road to Traverse City then was the State road running through Sherman and as the stage was the only conveyance it took two days to make the trip from the northern end of the railroad, which was then just this side of Big Rapids, to the land office.

'"The Colonel stopped over night in Sherman and in conversation with some of the business men of that village casually remarked that he was on his way to the United States land office 'to buy a city.' I. H. Maqueston, one of Sherman's first merchants, boarded at the hotel, and overhearing this remark of the Colonel 's adroitly drew out the facts that the 'city' was yet in embryo, but that it was to be built on the eastern shore of the Little Clam lake. So while the Colonel was enjoying a much-needed night's rest, Mr. Maqueston started for Traverse City, where he arrived in the middle of the night. How he found the residence of the register of the land office, or how much he gave him to leave his warm bed and go to the land office at that unseemly hour of the night, will probably always remain a mystery, as both have been dead for many years, but certain it is that when Colonel Hudnutt reached the land office the next day he discovered that government lots 1, 3 and 5 of section 4, in Clam Lake township, or rather what is now Clam Lake township, had been sold to L. J. Clark and I. H, Maqueston, of Sherman. This was the land upon which the original village of Clam Lake was platted."

Not long after Maqueston & Clark, of Sherman, became proprietors of the land on Little Clam lake which was to be the village site, George A. Mitchell, an Indiana merchant and an old soldier who was thereafter to become identified with every leading movement in her advancement, in his travels through this new country noted the advantages of the location from a business and lumbering standpoint. He therefore bought the land and in October, 1871, a few months before the railroads reached the locality, platted the village of Clam Lake. In January, 1872, a post office was established with John S. McLain as postmaster ; the stage thus being set for the grand entry of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad. Six months after Mr. Mitchell started the village of Clam Lake his wife paid him a visit, and thus describes her journey and what she found at the end of it: ''It was in March, 1872, I accepted Mr. Mitchell's invitation to visit Clam Lake (now Cadillac), it being then about six months old. We took the G. R. & 1. road at Kendallville, Ind., came to Grand Rapids and remained over night, as Mr. Mitchell had business to attend to. Next morning resumed our journey, and as there was but one coach for the passengers it was soon crowded full of men, but few women, and the further we came the less in number. We passed through a new rough-looking country, and after leaving Reed City there were no clearings, just the track through a wilderness of tall pines. After much jolting about we reached Clam Lake, tired and hungry. There were two places where food and lodging could be had, one a log house near where the sash and blind factory now stands, the other also a log structure, but larger, stood just north of McAdie & Co.'s. foundry, fronting on Lake street, and was called the "Mason House.'' There were very few divisions on the first floor, one sleeping room and the kitchen, the remainder was used for general purposes. Across one end was a long table with benches for seats, where food was served, always the best the town afforded. On the upper floor a small room was partitioned off for Mr. Mitchell, the remainder of the floor being occupied by beds.

"There were the usual buildings that start a town, the general store, blacksmith shop and post office, with plenty of energy. My first visit was limited to a few days on account of the accommodations, but as the town grew rapidly, better accommodations could be found, and I enjoyed spending several weeks with Mr. Mitchell particularly in the summer. Finally, in December, 1876, we decided to make Cadillac our home."

Village and City Corporations

Two years after the village of Clam Lake was platted by Mr. Mitchell, the voters living within the tract decided to be incorporated. This action was taken April 15, 1874, and the circuit judge according to law issued on order declaring the village duly incorporated. The first election, May 11th of that year, resulted in the selection of J. Shackleton for president of the village board, David A. Rice clerk, and L. 0. Harris, F. W. Hector, Daniel McCoy, George Holbrook, A. N. McCarthy and J. W. Cobbs, trustees. Two months afterwards the supreme court declared the general law under which the incorporation was effected to be unconstitutional and these officers were therefore thrown out of office; but in the following winter the legislature incorporated the village and they were virtually reinstated.

In the winter of 1877 efforts were made to get a city charter under the name of ''City of Cadillac'' and an act was introduced in the state legislature for that purpose. So skillfully was this work done that Wexford county had a city within its boundaries before half a dozen of the citizens, outside of those living in the village of Clam Lake, knew it. The first city election was held on the first Monday of April, 1877, at which the following officers were elected: Mayor, George A. Mitchell; marshal, Horton Crandall ; clerk, Lorenzo Ballou ; treasurer, D. F. Comstock; collector, Horton Crandall; street commissioner, Charles Cole; school inspectors, Levi O. Harris, three years, Jacob Cummer, two years, Charles M. Ayer, one year; justices of the peace, H. N. Green, four years, E. F. Sawyer, three years, J. B. Rosevelt, two years, Robert Christensen, one year; aldermen at large, M. J. Bond, two years, D. W. Peck, one year.

The act of municipal incorporation provided for dividing the city into three wards (now four) and giving to each ward a supervisor, who, of course, was a member of the county board of supervisors, thus giving to the township of Clam Lake a representation of four on the board, one from the town and three from the city that was within the limits of the town, except a little strip that was taken from the township of Haring. There were only about six or seven hundred people in the new city, the school census for the previous year showing but three hundred and fifty children of school age in the entire township of Clam Lake, including the village. But the city of Cadillac had her eyes set on the county seat and argued that she would have a better chance to secure it as a city than as a village. As we have seen she realized this ambition within five years, after several hard campaigns against Sherman and Manton.

Death of George A. Mitchell

The year following her incorporation as a city, Cadillac mourned the accidental death of her founder and steadfast friend, George A. Mitchell. Although a city, the place was yet in its infancy and the main streets were encumbered with the stumps from which the pine trees had been cut. Mr. Mitchell had a shingle mill at that time on Pine street, and while returning to his home from the mill on August 5, 1878, he was thrown from his buggy, his head striking against a stump by the roadside, rendering him unconscious and causing his death, from concussion of the brain, three days later. He died on the 8th of August, and his death was a severe blow to the community He was a very public-spirited man, having donated sites for the different churches in the village and giving liberally of his means toward the erection of religious edifices. When the War of the Rebellion commenced he was given the appointment of paymaster. He proved such a competent and energetic official that when the war closed he had risen to the rank of brevet lieutenant colonel. During his services in this position he received and paid out millions of dollars for the government, and it was said of him that his accounts always balanced to a cent. It had been one of his greater desires to see the county seat located at Clam Lake and he had reserved block ''F" of the original plat for such purpose, but his death came nearly four years before the change was made.

When the county seat was removed to Cadillac in 1882, the second story of the building then owned by Fred S. Kieldsen was rented for county offices and court room. This building stood on the site now occupied by the city hall. The county continued to occupy the second floor until 1887, when it rented the second floor of the Labor & Cornwell building, which it occupied for several years. When the Masonic fraternity decided to erect a temple in Cadillac a committee was appointed to confer with the board of supervisors with a view to having the second story of their proposed building fitted especially for the use of the county, provided the county would contract to rent it for a period of ten years at a rental to be agreed upon between the contracting parties. This arrangement was carried out, and in March, 1890, the county moved into its new quarters, where it has remained until the present time. The new quarters consisted of a large court room, commodious supervisor's room, a suite of three rooms for the clerk and register of deeds, two rooms for the prosecuting attorney and one each for the judge of probate, sheriff, treasurer and superintendent of the poor. One or two attempts have been made to have the board of supervisors pass a resolution submitting to the people the question of bonding the county house, but without success.

The Present City

Cadillac has been twice reincorporated as a city -- in 1885 and 1895 -- and is divided into four wards. She is now a well built, progressive municipality of about nine thousand people and, as seen by the census figures already published, has nearly doubled her population within the past twenty years. She has long ago outgrown the status of a crude lumber city, but, as the events of her progress have proven, it was her good fortune to have around her both forests of soft and hard wood; for as the pine gave out her manufacturers learned the use and value of the hard woods. Gradually her industries in this line increased in bulk and variety and the territory from which the raw material was drawn greatly expanded. But Cadillac learned her first lessons in the manufacture of hardwoods when the supply was at her doors. These products now include not only lumber, but more finished articles such as cooperage, furniture, woodenware, veneer, flooring, last blocks, handles and carriage stock. An outgrowth of her hardwood industries also appears in the form of plants devoted to the manufacture of wood alcohol, acetate of lime and other chemicals. Charcoal and pig iron are in the list, as well as potash and cement blocks, not omitting the plants found in every growing modern community which manufacture flour, which saw and plane lumber, make boilers and turn out other necessities of present-day activities. As the city has a large outside trade and is the center of a very productive agricultural district, the fact is readily explained that the freight credited to Cadillac constitutes about one-fourth the total receipts of the Grand Rapids & Indiana road north of Grand Rapids. The Ann Arbor road also adds her facilities of convenient shipment and transportation. The business of the city is financially handled through two good banks, of which the Cadillac State Bank with a capital of $100,000 is the oldest and largest.

The Cadillac State bank was the outgrowth of the private institution started by D. A. Blodgett & Company in 1883. The first one was established by D. F. Comstock in 1876. In 1895 :\Ir. Blodgett withdrew from business in Cadillac and it was then that the Cadillac State Bank was organized.

As a corporation Cadillac possesses most excellent systems of water supply, electric lighting, fire protection and public education. Her first system of water works was inaugurated by H. N. Green in 1878. The mains laid at that time were of wood bound with iron, the largest having only six inch bore for water. In 1893 a franchise was granted to W. W. Cummer to furnish a water supply for thirty years. The wooden mains were then replaced with iron pipes, the largest of which are twelve inches in diameter, and the entire system reconstructed along modern lines.

About the time that Mr. Cummer secured the water franchise he established an electric light plant, using the same building that contained the pumping outfit for his dynamos. In 1902 a gas company was organized and mains laid in the principal streets of the city. Gas is furnished for heating as well as lighting. So that the citizens can pay their money and take their choice either of gas or electricity.

The schools of Cadillac had their origin in the little class which met in a log building owned by Mosser & White in the spring of 1872. A fractional district had been organized from parts of Clam Lake and Haring townships, and in June of that year a small building had been erected on the square donated by Mr. Mitchell for school purposes. The census taken in September, 1872, gave the number of children of school age at one hundred and twenty-five. A larger building was erected in 1876 and in 1890 the present Central school was completed, replacing the one built in 1881 which had been destroyed by fire. Besides the Central there are now four good school buildings for the accommodation of the different wards.

The Methodist and Presbyterians of Cadillac erected church buildings in 1873; the Swedish Evangelical church was established in 1874; the Free Methodists organized in 1875; a Baptist society was formed in 1876: St, Ann's Catholic church was founded in 1881; the Congregational and Swedish Mission churches opened in 1882; the Swedish Baptist in 1883 and the German Evangelical Lutheran in 1884. Later forces for religion and morality which have entered the local field are represented by the Seventh Day Adventists, Christian Scientists and Salvation Army.

Manton

There appears to have been a village plat of Cedar Creek laid out before 1872 and including the site of Manton, but it was not recorded until after the railroad plat of Manton. The first settlers came in with the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, in 1872, but the plat was not made a matter of record until 1874.

Ezra Harger and George Manton were the first persons to see the advantage of having a village at this point, having reached that point on a prospecting trip in the summer of 1872. Mr. Harger purchased twenty acres of land and put up the first building in the place, which he filled with merchandise in the fall. William Meares also became interested in the place during the same fall and both he and Mr. Manton put up store buildings before the winter set in. Mr. Manton was a shoemaker by trade, and his stock of goods was mostly in that line, and he also had a shop in the rear end of the store for making and repairing footwear. The next year a saw-mill was erected and a hotel.

The first religious service held in the new village was held in the railroad depot by the station agent, H. Brandenburg, in the winter of 1872-3. Mr. Brandenburg was a Methodist and during the summer of 1873 organized a class of eighteen members. He was appointed local preacher in August of that year.

The first school building in the village was erected in 1873. A term of school had previously been taught in a private dwelling house by Mrs. 0. J. Golden.

Early in this year a post office had been established with 0. P. Carver as first postmaster.

So rapidly did the settlement grow that in 1877 it was supporting three good hotels and five general stores and had two sawmills in operation. In that year it was incorporated as a village, and held its first local election in the following February.

During the past twenty years Manton has nearly doubled in population, its inhabitants at the present time numbering some eleven hundred. The village has some of the best agricultural lands in the state around it and is a brisk trading center owning its own electric and water works and having wide and well-paved streets; a substantial bank, pretty opera house, $16,000 Union school, township library, two sawmills, stave and flour mills, a pickle factory, last block mill and a goodly array of business houses. The religion and morals of the community are also well conserved through the activities of four churches.

Harrietta

The village of Harrietta was platted in April, 1889, by the Ashleys, who were building the Toledo & Ann Arbor Railroad. Gaston and Campbell platted an addition in April, 1890, and a year later the Ogden addition was platted. The first ''boom'' the town had was upon the arrival of Gaston and Campbell, who built a sawmill and manufacturing establishment for the purpose of making novelties from the hardwood with which the village was surrounded. They bought expensive machinery and quite large tracts of land and started out with every prospect of success, but the hard times overtook them and failure followed. Other more substantial enterprises came in later, and the place has largely recovered.

The village was incorporated in 1891 under the name of Gaston, which so grated on the nerves of the Ann Arbor Railroad that its officials threatened to discontinue the station unless a return was made to the more euphonious Harrietta. Accordingly, in 1893, the legislature rechristened it Harrietta. The village lies in both Boon and Slagle townships — the larger part in the former. It has an up-to-date graded school, a substantial bank and is the center of a fair country trade.

Sherman

The old county seat and village of Sherman corners on Antioch, Hanover, Springville and Wexford townships, a portion of her site being in each, but her total population is less than three hundred. The early history of the settlement has already been given. In 1869 the site was platted by Sanford Gasser as the village of Sherman, which at that time comprised one house and one store, the latter kept by Lewis J. Clark. **Dr." John Perry also lived near by.

In January, 1870, the first effort looking to the organization of a church society was made. Presiding Elder Boynton, of the Methodist Episcopal church, visited Sherman, accompanied by Rev. Mr. Cayton, a Methodist minister living in Grand Traverse county, and perfected arrangements for preaching services every alternate Sunday, which were to be conducted by Mr. Cayton. At first these meetings were held at the home of L. P. Champenois, and later at the Maqueston hall until the school house was built in the fall of 1871, when that was used for church purposes. Soon after Mr. Cayton entered upon his work the first sacramental service in Wexford county was held at the home of H. B. Sturtevant, the only communicants being Mr. Sturtevant, his wife Rhoda and T. A. Ferguson. At the Methodist Episcopal conference held in the fall of 1870, Rev. A. L. Thurston, who had located a homestead in Thorp (now Selma) township, was designated as '* supply*' for the church work at Sherman and held regular meetings there, unless prevented by the inclemency of the weather. His home was about sixteen miles from Sherman and it was no easy task to cover the distance upon such roads or trails, as existed at that time, especially in the winter months.

In 1869 Hon, T. A. Ferguson, the first lawyer in the county, settled here and built a house. His first suit was held before Isaac N. Carpenter, Esq. The first term of the circuit court was held in August, 1869, Hon. J. G. Ramsdell on the bench.

In 1870 the village plat was purchased by Mr. Sanford Gasser. In 1872 the court house and jail were built, and the various interests of a business community began to gather. During this year Lewis J. Clark built the pioneer drug store and occupied it a short time. William Mears was also one of the early merchants of the place.

But the fortunes of Sherman commenced to decline when the Grand Rapids & Indiana line passed far to the east of her through the county, in 1872, and another hard blow was dealt when she lost the county seat to Cadillac ten years later. She was chartered as a village in 1887 that it might be possible to issue bonds for the purpose of securing connection with the Ann Arbor road which was then being pushed from Harrietta, Wexford county, to Frankfort, Benzie county. Although the village was chartered, an election held in May, 1887, and the bonds issued, owing to a decision of the state supreme court, it was found difficult to negotiate them and they were returned to the village authorities. The result was the expected spur was never built from the main line, but instead the village and railroad station of Mesick was established which has served to cut into the trade which would otherwise have centered at Sherman.

Mesick, Buckley, Boon and Yuma

The village of Mesick, on the Ann Arbor road, a few miles south- west of Sherman, was platted in February, 1890. It was incorporated in 1902, its first election being held on the 5th of March, the following officers being chosen: R. M. Harry, president; F. E. Rice, clerk; W. W. Galloway, treasurer, and B. C. Halstead, assessor. As stated, it is quite a shipping point, as it provides railroad and banking accommodations for much of the adjacent country. Mesick has the Springville township library, and there are four churches established in the midst of her people.

Buckley, on the Manistee & Northeastern railroad, in the northern part of the county, is of still later birth, its act of incorporation as a village dating from 1907. It is the center of a good country trade and provides the farmers and fruit-raisers of quite a district with banking accommodations. The lumber, planing, shingle and feed mills at Buckley also add to her local importance, while her four churches indicate the prevailing tone of her citizens.

Boon in the southern part of the county, and Yuma in the western, both stations on the Ann Arbor line, were platted respectively in 1889 and 1893.

Source: History of Northern Michigan by Perry F. Powers.  Chicago: Lewis F. Publishing, 1912.
Submitted by: Colleen Pustola 11Feb2013