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Thank for the 009m of M. A.

MICHIGAN STATE COLLEGE

Byron 8. Root:
1951

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A HISTORY OF A LUMBERED COUNTY

By

Byron S. Regtz

A THESIS
Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies of Michigan
State College of Agriculture and Applied Science
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS

Department of History
1951

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express my deep gratitude to Professor
Madison Kuhn, whose unfailing guidance has made the
writing of this thesis a pleasure, and to the other
members of the Department of History for their encourage-
ment and advice. I would also like to acknowledge the
help rendered by Mr. Howard E. Thompson, whose permission

to use his collections was deeply appreciated.

Byron S. Reetz

MtCHIGAN

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Location of Oganaw County

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Fig. 2. Oganaw County Today

TAELE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGELENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
INTRODUCTION. . . . .'. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
CHAPTER
I. A PINE. LUMBERING COLILIUNITY . . . . . . . . 4
II. THE DECLINE OF LUMDERINC AND EMERGENCE
OF AGRICULTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
III. OGEMAW DEVELOPS A DIVEHSIFIED ECOUOMY. . . 91
CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

APPEIIDIXO o o o o o o o o o e o o o o o o o o o o e 131

Figure
l.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Location of Ogemaw County

Ogemaw County Today

Physiographic Map of Ogemaw County
Indian Remains in Ogemaw County
Ogemaw County in 1875

Railroad Map of Ogemaw County
Population Growth and Decline
Organization of Townships

Schools of Ogemaw County

INTRODUCTION

Ogemaw County is located on the edge of the high
plains area in the northern part of the Lower Peninsula
of Michigan about twenty miles northwest of Saginaw Bay
and forty-five miles north of Bay City, the nearest
urban center.

Originally, Ogemaw County was covered with a magnifi-
cent forest of pines and hardwoods which remained untouched
'until nearly eighty years ago when the railroad reached the
county. Within twenty-five years the pine had been lumbered
off by absentee lumber companies, which disposed of their
lands to hardwood lumber operators, farmers, and land
speculators or allowed them to revert to the state for non-
payment of taxes.

Farmers had appeared on the scene almost as soon as
the lumbermen, and for many years toiled to clear their
land and produce small crops. Many of these pioneer
farmers were forced to work in the lumber camps during the
winter to earn money to pay their taxes and buy the
necessities they could not raise. Nearly two-thirds of
the soil of the county is very poor, however, and large
numbers of farmers discovered that they had settled on
land that was worthless for agricultural purposes.

‘Upon the arrival of the farmers, schools and churches

were erected and law and order were demanded, but the saloon

continued to be one of the most popular places in the
villages as long as lumbering remained an important industry.

With the exhaustion of the pine resources emphasis
was shifted to the lumbering of hardwood and swamp timber.
Local business men made attempts to attract more farmers
and other industries to the county, and for a time their
efforts were successful. Population and the number of
farms increased until shortly after the beginning of the
twentieth century.

Education was improved -- new schools were built,
nine months of classes were held instead of three or six,
and a system of grades inaugurated. The number of churches
had increased as had the number of fraternal organizations,
all providing their share of leisure time activities.

As the last of the timber supplies were exhausted
the sawmills were moved away, and many farms were abandoned.
The depopulation of the sandy plains had started even
earlier, and whole townships were left with hardly any
inhabitants. As settlers moved away much of the land
reverted to the state, and because there were no buyers
for much of this land thousands of acres were set aside
into state and national forests, game refuges, and for
other public purposes. Schools, churches, health services,
and other service organizations suffered as a result of the
deteriorating economy.

Shortly before 1920 the faint beginnings of the resort

business were evident, and before long it became an important

source of income. Though retarded by the depression of
the 1930's the tourist industry has grown rapidly since
1940.

The discovery of oil in 1933 helped to mitigate the
depression in the county, and after the coming of the Second
World War the economic condition of the county has greatly
improved. Agriculture has become more prosperous, and
several small industries have been founded. Nevertheless,
much of the money needed to operate the schools and provide
other necessary services has continued to come from the
state.

Large numbers of rural schools have been closed and
their pupils transported to village schools where better
facilities are available. The automobile has changed
the recreational habits of a majority of the people, but
fraternal, church, and school organizations continue
to furnish a large part of the leisure time activity.

Provided a serious economic depression does not
develOp Ogemaw County appears to have finally succeeded

in discovering a new economic base to replace the long

dead lumbering industry.

CHAPTER I
A Pine Lumbering Community

Located on the edge of the high plains area in the

northern part of the Lower Peninsula, Ogemaw County is

about twenty miles northwest of Saginaw Bay and forty-five
highway miles north of Bay City, the nearest urban center.
The county is typical of the lumbered counties in northern
Michigan that have undergone a period of prolonged economic
stress since the passing of the lumbering industry.

The surface relief is similar to that of the area
around the Great Lakes that was once covered with glaciers.
Because of the glaciers there are numerous local differences
in soil fertility and topography. (See Fig. 5)

In the northwest corner of the county is found a large
area of sandy plain of very low fertility, high, level and
dry, and covered with jackpine, scrub oak, poplar, sweet
fern, and huckleberry brush. Running diagonally across the
county from southwest to northeast is a hilly, sandy belt
of low natural fertility supporting second growth stands
of low value deciduous trees, some hardwoods, Norway, and
white pine. A rolling, fertile till-plain extends along
the southern and eastern limits of this hilly belt and
here are located some of the best farms in the county
intersperced with forests of maple, ash, elm, birch,
poplar, and some pine. ‘Another section of poor soils is

found in the low, sandy plain in the south central section.

corresponding with the Rifle River valley and the upper
reaches of the Tittabawassee River basin. Much of this
area is low and wet and is covered with swamp forests while
the remainder is made up of a mixed forest of Jackpine,
poplar, oak, and other pines and hardwoods. In the south-
east section of the county lies a gently rolling till-plain,
which is the location of another prosperous agricultural
area with scattered forests of hardwoods intermingled with
poplar and pine. All three sandy areas are characterized
by wide stretches of wild land and are dotted with the
remains of abandoned farms recognized by their sagging
fences, apple orchards, lilac bushes, and crumbling foun-
dations.

The northeastern part of Michigan had a very sparse
Indian population, and Ogemaw was no exception. This was
the result of several reasons including the poor quality of
the soil, lack of wild rice in the streams and lakes, and
the general isolation of the area.

There are but few Indian remains in Ogemaw County that
suggest an ancient Indian culture. Most interesting are
four pre-historic earthen enclosures, lying near the Rifle
River in Churchill Township, which one althor asserts date
back at least one hundred years before the discovery of
America in 1492.1 These are not the only Indian remains
to be found in the county. Two groups of mounds and a slush

 

 

1. Fred L. Dustin, Re ort on Indian Earthworks in Ogemaw
County, Michigan (Bloomfield Hills Mich., I952), pp. 1-25.

bed where pottery was made have been discovered in Klacking
Township and an isolated mound on the western side of
Churchill Township.2 (See Fig. 4)

The east branch of the Mackinaw Trail connecting Saginaw
with the Straits passed through the western part of the
county, and the Rifle River Trail entered the county from
the south, followed the river to its source, and quite
probably continued on to join the Machinaw Trail.5 The
Rifle River Trail was later extensively used by lumbermen
and settlers coming into the county with teams of horses
and yokes of oxen.

Nevertheless, in historic times the Indian population
of Ogemaw County has been very small and played a decidedly
minor role in the development of the county. Census figures
for the Indian population of the county are evidently quite
inaccurate because only nine Indians are listed for Ogemaw
County by the State Census of 1884, four by the United States
Census of 1890, and twenty by the 1894 state census. The
only Indian settlement in Ogemaw County of any importance
following the arrival of the lumbermen was located by the
Dease lakes in Hill Township. Yet, the 1884 census which
gives the Indian population by townships does not denote any
Indian population for 3111 Township.

The Indian families in the Dease lakes vicinity lived in

 

2. W. B. Hinsdale, Archaelogical Atlas of Michigan (Ann
Arbor, 1951), pp. 52- 33.
3. ed Dustin, "Old Indian Trails in the Saginaw District,
Michigan, Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letter,
Pa ers, XVIII (1932), p. 7.

log cabins and had a small log church. They were very
friendly with the white settlers, and many of the Indian
men worked in the neighboring lumber camps.' However, when
the forests had been cleared, leaving no hunting grounds and
no work except that of farming, the Indians moved away.
Today many of their log cabins have been converted into
summer cottages by city dwellers -- even the old log church
has been equipped with a cement foundation, oil heat, and
electricity.

Although the Indians and their predecessors had occupied
the territory for unknown centuries they had not altered
the fundamental pattern of nature. At the time the white
man began to show an interest in Ogemaw County it was still
a virgin wilderness.

When Michigan.became a state in 1857 the area that was
to become Ogemaw County was a virgin wilderness, totally
uninhabited except for a few Indians, and as yet neither
mapped nor surveyed. The whole territory between Saginaw
and the Straits of Mackinaw was as wild as it had been in
1819 when by the Treaty of Saginaw the United States Govern-
ment secured title to the Chippewa lands in East-Central and
Northeastern Michigan.

Saginaw, sixty miles south of Ogemaw County, was merely
a rough frontier village which Bela Hubbard, who had visited
the place in 1837 as a member of the Michigan Geological
Expedition under Dr. Houghton, described as consisting of

fifty frame houses, four stores, two warehouses, a church,

and two steam sawmills. The stockade of the fort built in
1820 was still standing. The fever of speculation had
already been at work for Mr. Hubbard tells of a huge hotel
being built in Lower Saginaw (now Bay City) that was large
enough to house half the county and of the village of
Midland, "located" opposite the forks of the Tittabawassee
and Pine rivers, that contained not one building.4

Interest continued to mount concerning the vast forested
area, and in 1840 the Michigan Legislature proceeded to lay
out the entire portion of the Lower Peninsula into counties.
Among these was Ogemaw which like many of the others was
given an Indian name. Luckily, Ogemaw escaped the fate of
most of these counties which had their names changed three
years later. Thus, Kanotin became Iosco, Mikenauk became
Roscommon, Shawono was renamed Crawford, and many others
were given manufactured or locally meaningless names.

Ogemaw County derived its name from the famous Chippewa
chief Ogemaw-ge-gato, who in 1819 eloquently opposed the
proposals tendered by General Cass at the Saginaw Conference
and asked him, "Shall we sell from.under them (women and
children) the spot where they spread their blankets?"5
However, he was not able to contend with fire water and
silver and the Indians voted to sell their lands.

As the pine disappeared in New England and Pennsylvania

4. Bela Hubbard Memorials of a Half Century in Michigag
and the Lake Region ( ew or , 1888 , pp. 75-84.

5. Pioneer Directory of the Sa inaw Valle for 1866 and
1867, as taken from.George E. ButterTield, Bay County,,Past
and Present (Bay City, 1918), p. 64.

 

 

the lumber operators there began to show more and more
interest in the Michigan pineries. Timber cruisers were
sent out by the lumber firms and speculators and shortly
the land in the more accessible areas of Michigan -- the
Thumb, Saginaw Valley, and the Huron Shore Region -- were
taken. Sawmills multiplied, slowly at first and then more
rapidly, and by 1854 there were approximately twenty-seven
sawmills on the Saginaw River.6
As the pressure on the pine reserves in the Saginaw
Valley increased more attention was shown to the vast forests
to the north of Saginaw, and the government began to press its
surveys of the many unorganized counties. Three years before
the government surveying party had completed its task in
Ogemaw County in 1856, the first land patents had been
issued for land within the county. The first lands patented
were located in T. 21 N., R. 1 and 2 E.; T. 22 N., R. 2 and
5 E.; and T. 25 N., R. 5 and 4 E, and were taken by Eber B.
Ward of Detroit, Volney A. Ripley of St. Clair, and Joseph
Copeland of Pontiac. In keeping with the problem of trans-
pcrtation the land in the southern part of the county
generally was taken before the land in the northern part.7
Some of the first land was directly purchased from the
Federal Government at $1.25 per acre, but much of it was
secured in other ways. Originally all the lands in Michigan'

were the property of the United States Government. A number

 

6. George W. Hotchkiss, History‘of the Lumber and Forest
Industry of the Northwest (Chicago, 18985, p. 94. .
Tract Book of Ogemaw County," Ogemaw County Register

of Deeds Office, West Branch. -

10

of acts were passed by Congress largely for the purpose

of disposing of these lands as rapidly as possible. Among
the more important affecting Ogemaw County were the School
Land Grant Act of 1856 which authorized the government to
transfer Section 16 in each township to the states for
primary school purposes; the Swamp Land Grant Act which
gave certain swamp lands to the states; the acts author-
izing land grants for railroad and canal construction; the
Homestead Act; the Merrill Land Grant Act granting lands
for agricultural colleges; and the acts giving land to the
veterans of various wars and Indian campaigns.

Following the visit of the government surveyors the
only tenants of the forests were deer, bear, and other game,
and an occasional stray hunter or land locker. Tracts of
pine were located, but were too far distant from the base
of supplies to permit much lumbering until a railroad could
be built.

As long as there was no permanent population govern-
nwntal jurisdiction over Ogemaw County was shuttled between
several counties. At first Saginaw County held legal
authority over Ogemaw, but when Cheboygan County was organ-
ized in 1855 Ogemaw was attached to it for judicial and
municipal purposes. Then in 1859 the unorganiZed counties
of Ogemaw and Roscommon were annexed to Midland Township
for all municipal and taxable puproses "until set off

into other townships.” However, in 1867, the same year

that the first attempt at settlement was made, Ogemaw

11

County as a separate entity was abolished and was incorpor-
ated into the organized county of Iosco. The only limiting
factors of the act were that the area formerly called
Ogemaw County should become part of Tawas Township until
the Iosco County board of supervisors should determine how
to divide the area and that all highway taxes collected
should be applied to the Construction or improvement of the
road running from the Tawas settlement in a westerly
direction.

Striking out overland from the mouth of the Pine River
in modern Arenac County in 1867, William.H. Edwards, a
lumberman, worked his way across to a location on the Titta-
bawassee River in T. 21 N., R. l E., a distance of about
forty miles. Here he built a log house, and made a small
clearing in connection with his lumbering operations.
However, no efforts were made by others to follow Mr. Edwards'
example until 1869 when Henry Cramer located a farm in T. 21
N., R. 4 E.8

These were but isolated cases. The real opening of
the cOunty had to await the coming of the railroad. The
real character of the county in 1869 can be illustrated by
the sojourn of George Sherman on Peach Lake. Mr. Sherman
stayed there four months, hunting and trapping, without
meeting a single person.9

A majority of the first settlers were drawn to Ogemaw

 

8. West Branch Times, Industrial Edition, 1889, p. 2.
9. Howard H. Thompson, Unpublished data.

12

County by its forests and not its agricultural lands. A
dense forest originally covered the area, except for a
small acreage of open bogs and some relatively open land in
the dry, sandy plains in the northwestern part of the county.
Several types of virgin forest existed because of natural
conditions such as soil, drainage, and relief. Most
prominent was the mixed pine and hardwood forest where
common hardwoods were found in association with white pine,
hemlock, and Norway pine. This was located on the better
soils characterized by the till-plains and parts of the
hilly region. On the light, sandy soils in the northwest
part of the county was found a forest composed almost
entirely of pines -- Norway, white, and jackpine. Also of
considerable importance was the swamp forest composed of
balsam fir, cedar, tamarack, and elm because approximately
20 percent of the land is swampy or permanently wet.10

The lack of transportation was the greatest hindrance
to the development of the county. None of the rivers
serving the county were large enough to permit the bringing
in of supplies by water and so e11 the necessities needed
for lumbering operations would have had to be brought in
by wagon over poor trails.

The first trail into the county was not blazed until
1867 when William H. Edwards succeeded in making his way
to the Tittabawassee River in present day Edwards Township.

The amount of lumbering carried on at his location there

 

10. J. O. Veatch and others, Soil Survey of Ogemaw
Count Michigan, U. 3. Dept. of Agr. Bul. 28,ISEries 1925
'(Washington, 5.0., 1928), p. 904.

15

for the first few years is unknown.

In 1867, there were apparently many persons who still
believed that the forest area to the north of Saginaw and
Bay City was destined to remain a wilderness for generations.
At a meeting held in Bay City about that year to consider
the advisability of assisting the Jackson, Lansing and
Saginaw Railroad in extending its line to Wenona, Dr.
Fitzhugh, one of the largest landed proprietors of Bay
City, expressed the opinion that it would be one hundred
years before it would be necessary to extend the road
farther north.11

However, the officials of the Michigan Central Rail-
road, who had acquired control of the Jackson, Lansing and
Saginaw, realized that the pine of northern Michigan would
have a ready market. In 1870, they began to push the rails
into the northern forest and the lumbermen followed. In
the interior region north of Bay City the railroads were
the preCursors of civilization and industry. Where the
rails went the lumbermen followed and they in turn led the
way for the part and full time farmers.

Reaching Wells Station (now Alger), just below the
southern boundary of Ogemaw County in 1871, the railroad
prompted the first real exploitation of the county's pine.
A party of Ohio capitalists, after inspecting the area in

 

11. Geo. W. Hotchkiss, History of the Lumber and Forest
Industry of the Northwest, p. 520:

14

T. 22 N., R. l E. had secured a large tract of land there,
organized the Ogemaw Lumber Company and started lumbering
in 1871. The company erected a sawmill by a huge natural
spring and named its settlement Ogemaw Springs. Dr. Gees L.
Nauman, Ogemaw County's pioneer physician and one of its
most versatile citizens, was secretary of the company and
he came to the new sawmill village to help manage the
business. In the same year Wright and Weidman commenced
lumbering operations near present day West Branch, made
some clearing, and built a log house which was used as
headquarters for their business in the county until 1875.12

Railroad officials energetically pushed the extension
of the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw and by mid-summer of
1872 the line had been completed to West Branch, thirteen
miles above Wells. Some six hundred men were employed in
construction work and as much as five miles of track was
said to have been laid in four days.15 During the same
year the railroad was completed through the village of
Ogemaw Springs and on into Roscommon County.

Lumbering activity in the county increased rapidly
following the construction of the railroad. George W.
Hotchkiss and William H. Edwards, first lumbermen in the
county, began building a sawmill about four miles north of
Wells and commenced sawing operations in the summer of
1872. This mill had a capacity of 50,000 feet of lumber

per day and the settlement became known as Greenwood.

 

12. west Branch Times, Industrial Edition, 1889.
15. Lumberman's Gazette (Bay City, Mich.), August, 1872,
p. 180 .

15

Mr. Hotchkiss had been editor of the Saginaw Courier, a
Democratic newspaper that had not proved profitable.
After leaving Ogemaw County Mr. Hotchkiss went to Chicago
where he became editor of the Northwest Lumberman, and
later wrote his history of the lumbering industry.

The railroad established a station on the west branch
of the Rifle River, named it West Branch, and for a time
used it as a base camp for construction work.14 In Sep-
tember, A. A. Sage and Company of Lapeer started building
a saw and shingle mill on the railroad eight miles north
of West Branch and the mill village of Beaver Lake was
born. (See Fig. 5) This sawmill was described as being
thirty by eighty feet in size and of 30,000 feet daily
capacity. The mill was powered by two steam engines, each
having two boilers and the cutting gear consisted of one
seventy-two inch circular saw. The firm employed forty
workers, whose daily wages ranged from $1.25 to $5.50 and
the total investment of the company in this enterprise was
but $15,000.15 This mill seems to be rather typical of the
mills erected in Ogemaw County.

There were no large sawmills built as the big pine
owners already had their mills in Bay City or Saginaw, and
floated their legs down the Rifle, Au Gres, or Tittabawassee
rivers or occasionally, after 1874, sent them by logging

train to the mills. This was true of all large landholders

 

14. Lumberman's Gazette, August, 1872, p. 1.
15. LEmbermanrsGazette, February, 1875, p. 61.

16

such as H. W. Sage and Company, Pitts and Cranage, Keystone
Company, Henry Gamble, the Rust's, Folsom and Arnold, E. Y.
Williams and Company, Chapman Brothers, the Eddy's, and
Thomas Merrill. This absentee ownership proved very costly
to the county because all the profits were spent in the
Cities of southern Michigan or New York, Pennsylvania, and
Boston, and Ogemaw was left with nothing to show for the
hundreds of millions of feet of pine lumber that had been
removed from the county.

Thus, lumbering activity cannot be measured by the
number of sawmills in operation. The amount of timber cut
on the Rifle River in the winter of 1872-75 up to February
was said to total 85,750,000 feet. Some of this would
have been out in Arenac County, but a large part must have
been in Ogemaw. Of the total, B. W. Sage and Company cut
4,000,000; Keystone Company - 8,000,000; Henry Gamble -
2,500,000; A. Rust and Company - 7,000,000; G. P. and B.
Chapman - 4,500,000; and Pitts and Cranage - 4,500,000
feet.16

The next month's issue of the Lumberman's Gazette
reported that over a hundred million feet of logs and
fifty million feet of long timber had been put in the
Rifle. This was more than could be handled though, for
only 80,872,607 feet of logs were able to be rafted from
the Rifle River Boom in 1875. This was about 20,000,000

 

16. Lumberman's Gazette, February, 1875, p. 55.

17

feet more than in the preceding year. The increase of logs
rafted from the Au Gres River Boom showed an even larger
increase for the same period -- 65,281,256 feet in 1875 as
compared to 25,870,742 for 1872.17 The actual cut of two
sawmills in Ogemaw County in 1875 was 7,000,000 feet, with
5,000,000 given as the cut of the Hotchkiss mill and
4,000,000 for the mill at Beaver Lake.18

But in the grip of the Panic of 1875 the hustle and
bustle of the lumbering industry in Ogemaw County was
partially stilled. The Ogemaw Lumber Company at Ogemaw
Springs faced reverses, went into receivership, and was
finally forced to close down. H. W. Sage and Company, along
with others, took advantage of their large reserve stock of
logs and did no cutting in the winter of 1875-74. To add
to the misfortune the Hotchkiss mill and the surrounding
village burned in a forest fire and was a total loss.. Mr.
Hotchkiss left Ogemaw Countyshortly after and others
rebuilt the mill.

The demand for pine lumber continued to grow and in
1875 the amount of logs rafted from the Rifle River Ebom
had increased to 92,128,200 feet in contrast to the
58,687,000 feet taken to the mills in 1874.19

The Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad's advertising

 

17. Lumberman' s Gazette, December 1975, p. 185.
18. Michigan Secretary of State, Census for the State

of Michi an 1874 (Lansing, 1875), p. 288.

I9. 5. B. McCracken, The State of Michi an Embraci
Sketches of Its History. Posiiion, and Industries (Lansing,
m, p. 420

18

campaign to sell the remainder of its land grant lands
continued, and in 1875 it owned over 24,000 acres in Ogemaw
County for sale and it estimated these lands to contain in
excess of 78,000,000 feet of pine.20 The railroad originally
had received over 42,000 acres of land in the county in

1861, and by 1875 had disposed of all its holdings in the
southern tier of townships.

Ebcause the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw was the only
railroad in the county and it traversed the western part,
that section developed much more swiftly than did the
eastern half. Of the ten communities to secure post offices
prior to October, 1882 all but one were definitely in the
western sector and a majority were lumbering settlements.
Greenwood, Ogemaw Springs, Beaver Lake, and Piper were
sawmill towns exclusively, while Churchill (now Rose City),
Damon, and Lane (now Lupton) were trading centers for
agricultural populations as well as being lumbering villages.
West Branch was the trading center for a vast area, and
Slayton and Campbell's Corners were rural agricultural
communities. In 1880, over two-thirds of the population of
the county was found in the western half of the county.21

The heavily pine timbered region around Greenwood
was reported to be the locale of thirty or forty camps

employing about two thousand men during the lumbering

20. Guide to the Lands in the State of Michigan,kNow
for Sale,—Comprised in the Grant of—over 600,900 Abres to
the Jagkson4_Lansing_and Saginaw R.R.’Co. (Mason,IMich.,
18757,'p.‘l2.

21. U. S. Bureau of the Census, Tenth Census of the
United Statep: 1880, Population, Vol.II, p. 219.

19

season. Their cuttings were principally sent down the
Rifle and Tittabawassee rivers to the mills at Bay City

and Saginaw. In the village of Greenwood were found two
general stores, a sawmill, and a saloon. Though.West
Eranch at first had no sawmill it rapidly became a thriving
trading and service village for the entire area. In 1879,
it could boast two large mercantile stores -- both branches
of Saginaw wholesale firms, two newspapers, drug store,
hotel, a physician, lawyer, wagonmaker, carpenter, and a
shoemaker. Beaver Lake had a saw and shingle mill and a
general store all operated by the lumber firm of Cutting
and Damon and a hotel, while Ogemaw Springs had its mills
and a general store. The small hamlet of Churchill had

a large general store, sawmill, and the only flour mill

in the county?2 Campbell's Corners and Slayton were rural
post offices serving small agricultural populations.

The eastern section of the county was not to remain
isolated, however. In 1870, Charles H. Prescott, a
lumbermen from Maine and Pennsylvania, purchased about
10,000 acres of land on the Rifle and Au Gres rivers in
Ogemaw, but he did not undertake to operate until he moved
to Bay City in 1878. In that year he and C. D. Hale of
Tawas City formed the Lake Huron and Southwestern Railroad
Company and commenced building a narrow guage line from

Tawas to the southeastern part of Ogemaw County. Nineteen

 

22. Michi an State Gazetteer and Business Directory,
1879 (DetroiE, I879T: passim.

20

miles of track were laid the first year but Mr. Hale became
financially embarrased the following year and the road went
into receivership. Mr. Prescott secured full control of
the line in 1880 and renamed it the Tawas and Bay County
Railroad. The main line was extended two miles and Ogemaw
County was reached. The terminus of the road was at a
station called "County Line." .

According to the Census of 1880 the Tawas and Bay
County Railroad had twenty—one miles of main line and four
miles of siding and had cost $54,155.86 to construct. The.
road was bonded for $50,000 and had other debts totaling
$4,612.44 and the earnings for the previous year had been
$25,509.51. The logging character of the line is revealed
by a breakdown of its income. Passenger revenue amounted
to only $804.11 while the earnings from freight were
$22,705.40 secured from 1,406 tons of provisions and 58,605
tons of lumber and forest products. One item of expense
for the year was $400.00 used to buy 500 cords of wood for
fuellzs Such was the beginning of the Detroit and Mackinac
Railway system.

Mr. Prescott evidently found the railroad too much to
operate by himself and in 1881 sold the line to'a party headed
by Gen. Russell A. Alger. They proceeded to extend the line
to Wells (now Alger) on the Michigan Central, as the Jackson,

Lansing and Saginaw was by then called, converted the system

 

25. U. S. Bureau of the Census, Tenth Census of the
United States: 1880, Transportation, Vol. IV, assim.

21

to standard guage, and renamed it the Detroit, Bay City,
and Alpena Railroad.

Several sawmills sprang up on the new section of the
line. VOne of these was Prescott which at first was known
as Camp Six. Two sawmills were built on the site and hotel
and grocery store quickly followed.

The 1880's were, in general, a decade of great activity
in the county. As the popularity of logging railways in-
creased many parts of the county which had remained
relatively untouched became centers of lumbering operations.
The cost of logging railroads was not excessive in the
'eighties: total expenses for building and grading a mile of
road, using thirty-five pound steel, was approximately
$4000; locomotives could be purchased for $3,500 to $4,000
and logging cars for $175.24 Thus, many branch lines were
built and even entire new railway systems in a few cases.

A logging railway had a very unstable existence, for as

soon as the pine was lumbered off the rails would be taken
up and moved to a new location. The pattern of the railroad
grades at the terminus of an abandoned spur often looked
like a many tined fork for the main line of the spur was
made to serve as large an area as possible. (See Fig. 6)

The first extensive construction of logging railways
took place along the course of the Michigan Central Rail-

road. The Hauptman Branch south of West Branch.reached

 

24. Howard H. Thompson, Unpublished data.

22

westwardly into the large holdings of D. Wright and Company,
successor to the firm of Wright and Weidman, andiwas in time
pushed onward into Roscommon County. C. H. Plummer acquired
control of the mills and lands around Ogemaw Springs about
1881 and he built a large amount of railroad into his
holdings. Probably the best known of all was the Thompson
Branch which connected the mill'town of Piper with the
Michigan Central at Beaver Lake. There were, in addition,
many shorter spurs leading Off the main truckline into the
surrounding forest.

Piper was quite typical of the sawmill villages found
in northern Michigan that were owned entirely by one company
or lumberman. Piper was exclusively the lumbering town of‘
Frank M. Thompson who owned about 4,000 acres of pins in
the vicinity. Founded in 1881 or 1882 the village was the
home of over a hundred persons in 1889 and consisted of a
general store owned by Thompson, blacksmith shop, school
house, community hall, the houses of the employees, and
the saw, planing, and lath mills. The mills, lumber yard,'
and logging operations provided employment for an average
of eighty men of whom twenty-three had their families
living in the village. This mill had sawed 54,000,000 feet
of lumber by October, 1888.25 When the timber was finally
exhausted in 1891 the town was completely abandoned, and
later settlers in the area tore down the homes and store

for building materials.

 

25. West Branch Times, Industrial Edition, 1889.

23

In 1886, the Detroit, Bay City and Alpena Railroad
built the Loon Lake Branch from its main line in Iosco
County to the northern part of that county. It cut through
a small portion of Goodar Township, Ogemaw County, and a
stationwas established just inside the Ogemaw County line.
This was first called Thompson Station, but when the post
office was opened in 1889 the name was changed to Hunt, and
later to South Branch. Several camps were located in the
vicinity and South Branch was said to have had seven
saloons at one time. A spur off the main branch ran into
the hills three miles southwest of South Branch where by
1889 Alvin Maltby had begun extensive hardwood lumbering
operations. The mill at Lupton was built following the
construction of the Maltby switch, though even then the
lumber and shingles had to be hauled by wagon over three
miles to the rail head.

The most ambitious logging railway program in the
area was carried on by the J. E. Potts Salt and Lumber
Company of Au Sable. Mr. Potts owned several thousand
acres of pine land in the Au Sable River basin and much of
it was miles from the river. In 1888, the company began
the construction of its narrow guage lines which were in
time to blanket the Au Sable valley. Much difficulty was
encountered because it was decided to commence construction
work at Potts (later McKinley) on the Au Sable River in
Oscodn County which was many miles from the nearest railroad

point. Therefore, the first logging engines and the steel

24

rails were shipped by rail to Piper and from there were
hauled by horses to Potts. The locomotives were dismantled
at Piper and assembled after reaching headquarters. They
were days in getting the boilers to Potts because every few
miles the sleighs would tip over and then they would have
to be reloaded. An attempt was made to float the rails
down the Au Sable on scows from Grayling, but that proved
unsuccessful as some of the scows capsized.26

Nevertheless, the company succeeded in their endeavor
and by July 17, 1891 had at least 106 miles of railway in
operation.27 One line, twenty-eight miles in length,
spanned the pine plains between Potts and Damon, then a
thriving village in the northwestern part of Ogemaw County.
Over nine miles of the main line was located in the northern
part of Ogemaw County where the Potts company owned con-
siderable land, plus many miles of spurs and sidings. One
of these sidings terminated about four miles northwest of
Churchill and farmers in the locality took hay and other
farm produce they had for sale there where it was loaded
on cars and taken to the lumber camps.28

The building of these railways greatly accelerated
the exploitation of the pine reserves. In 1884, the amount
of lumber sawed in Ogemaw County totaled 18,000,000 feet

 

26. Howard H. Thompson Unpublished data.

27. Michigan Railroad Commission, Aids,_Gifts,gGrants
and Donations to Railroads including_0utline ofTDevelopment
and Successions in Titles toRailroads in Michigan (Lansing,
1919), pp. 110-111.

28. Howard H. Thompson, "My Neighborhood" (1945),
typescript Manuscript, in collections of Howard H. Thompson.

25

and 5,000,000 shingles and 4,000,000 pieces of lath were
also cut.29 This does not include any products from logs
cut in the county but sawed in mills outside. By 1889, the
end of the pine was in sight and business men evidently were
beginning to worry about the future of the county. In that
year the business men sponsored a special "Industrial
Edition" of the West Branch.23mgg extolling the industrial
and agricultural potential of the county.

The early agricultural development of Ogemaw was closely
associated with the lumbering industry. Many of the early
settlers worked in the lumber camps during the logging
season, and spent the summers clearing a small farm which
they had often purchased from one of the lumber companies
after the pine had been removed or proving up their home-
stead. Life for the first years was hard and money was
extremely scarce. One of the factors helping the pioneer
‘ settler was the low cost of building materials. One
pioneer plains homesteader reported buying enough fine logs,
cut and hewn ontflo sides, to build a house 16 x 24 from
Cutting and Damon for four dollars!50 This cabin when
completed had one large room downstairs, an upper story
reached by a ladder, and two windows.

The first actual farmers, headed by John Klacking,
Christopher Reetz, and Horace 5herman, began to arrive in

1872 and they settled chiefly in two areas -- one group

 

29. Howard H. Thom son, Unpublished data.
30. "Pioneer Days,‘ incomplete newspaper clipping in
collections of Howard H. Thompson.

26

north of Campbell's Corners and the other going farther north
into Damon and Rose townships. Many of these first settlers
trekked into the county behind yokes of oxen using the old
Rifle River Indian Trail.

There were two contrasting lines of development in the
agricultural settlement of the county. Some of the farmers
settled on the better lands characterized by a mixed hard-
wood and pine forest while the remainder homesteaded the
sandy, relatively open plains region in the northwestern
part of the county.

The reasons why settlers passed by the better lands and
tried to farm the poorest soil in the state probably appeared
quite valid at the time. Most of the early agricultural
settlers homesteaded land and did not buy land from one of
the lumber companies. Hence they had to locate on the lands
open for homesteading and by 1870 most of the better lands
were in the hands of lumber companies and land speculators.31
The lands not taken were generally located in the north-
western part of the county where the land was too poor to
even grow good pine. Many of the homesteaders evidently
stopped at the Land Office in Saginaw on the way northward
and picked out their farm before seeing the land.:52 The
worthless quality of the land on the plains was not yet
widely realized, and it took much less time and labor to
clear the plains land than it did the hardwoods land. The"

 

51. "Tract Book of Ogemaw County," Ogemaw County Register
of Deeds Office. _

32. Entry of May 18, 1872, Diary of Hiram Hodge,
typescript excerpts in collections of Howard H. Thompson.

27

early lumbering development had been along the railroad in
the western part of the county and Ogemaw Springs and Beaver
Lake were both in the poor land region.
I The number of farms grew steadily but slowly during the
'seventies and 'eighties. The first influx of agricultural
settlers arrived in the late 'seventies, with most of them
homesteading lands in Foster, Damon, Beaver Lake, and
Klacking townships.

In 1874, there was a total of nine farms in Ogema
"Township," at that time including all the territory in
four townships. The number of farms for Edwards Township
is not known, but only five acres of wheat and four acres of
corn had been harvested in that township in 1875. The only
farm livestock reported in the latter township were five
horses and four oxen while Ogemaw Township had nine horses,
two mules, eight oxen, and six milch cows.z’:5

By 1880, there were 225 farms in the county containing
a total of 50,644 acres although only 4,150 acres were of
improved land. Of the total number of farms 155 were larger
than 100 acres in comparison to 27 farms in the 40 acre
class.34 This shows that the homesteader, who usually
secured 160 acres, as yet far outnumbered the farmer who
bought a forty or an eighty from one of the big landlords.

Five years later the number of farms had increased to

575 with 9,662 acres of improved land out of a total 41,271

 

55. Michigan Secretary of State, Census for the State

of Michi an 1874, assim.
54. U. 3. EEreau o the Census, Tenth Census of the

United States: 1880, A riculture, Vol. 5, pp. 62-65.

 

 

28

in farms. Foster Township, which probably has the poorest
farm land in the county, had more farms than any other town-
ship, with Klacking Township, also having a high percentage
of sandy land, second. The meager subsistence of many of
the farm families can be ascertained_from the cold, unimagi-
native census data. The average yield of wheat was only
10.9 bushels per acre for the county as a whole -- kept so
low because the average yield was but 7.78 bushels per acre
in Foster Township where over one-third of the wheat was
raised. Livestock was scarce, each farm averaging but one
horse and one milch cow. Of the total number of farms,
each averaged but three acres of wheat, 2.5 acres of oats,
1.2 acres of potatoes, and 4.7 acres of hay for the year
1884.35

The number of farms totaled 527 by 1890 and the acreage
of improved land had almost doubled since 1885. The size of
the farms had radically changed since 1880 and in 1890 there
were more forty acre farms than any other 3129.56 Acreage
of all farm.crops had increased significantly and the
average yield per acre of wheat had risen somewhat. This
was undoubtedly due to the fact that many of the plains
farms had been abandoned by that time.

The settlement of the dry, sandy plains land was one
of the tragedies incident to the development of Ogemaw

 

55. Michigan Secretary of State, Seventh Annual Re ort
Relating to Farms and Farm Products, 1884-85 (Lansing, E8853,

passim.
56. U. S. Bureau of the Census, Eleventh Census of the

United States: 1890, Agriculture, Vol 5, assim.

29

County. Beginning in 1877 the homesteading of the plains
continued apace until by 1885 there were approximately 150
farms located in the area. These homesteaders tried to grow
the common crops of the time such as wheat, other grains,
potatoes, and hay, but after the first creps had been
harvested the yields grew less yearly. The first crop of
wheat was usually good, but the succeeding harvests became
poorer and poorer and finally the farmer was forced to
abandon his lands. The depopulating of the plains agri-
cultural lands had begun already by 1889 and the poor quality
of the soil was being recognized as is shown by the following
quotation taken from the West Branch Times: "The jackpine
plains which occupy the northwestern part of the county,
extending north into Oscoda and westward into Roscommon,
are condemned by some and pronounced productive by others.
We believe the day is coming and that it is not far distant,
when every acre of these plains will be settled and made to
produce a fair crop every year."57 In another place the
editor makes the statement that there is room for several
hundred farmers on the plains land of Ogemaw County. Words
and fears of apprehensive business men could not stop the
exodus, however.

Farming on the better lands in the county was generally

successful, and once the settler had cleared some land he

was able to secure good harvests. Weeds were almost unknown

in the early years and insect pests were less prevalent than

 

57. West Branch.Times, Industrial Edition, 1889.

30

on the sandy plains. Hay and potatoes were the staple crops
for several years because those products were easily sold
to the lumbercamps and prices were good. Hay was said to
have sold for twenty dollars a ton and potatoes for a dollar
a bushel. As late as 1889 the selling price of those
products was reported to be about 25 percent above the market
price in southern Michigan.38
By that time wheat, oats, rye, peas, and buckwheat were
becoming important crops, and the numbers of livestock
were growing rapidly. The West Branch Tlmgg was on firmer
ground when it announced that'Ogemaw County was especially
adapted to stock raising than it was in predicting Ogemaw
was destined to become one of the best wheat producing
counties in "this excellent wheat state." Showing interest
in the future of agriculture, the Ogemaw County Agricultural
Society was organized in 1885 and annual fairs were held
thereafter.
Farm.tenancy was no problem during the early history
of the county. In 1889, 222 of the 225 farms located there
were operated by their owners according to the census, and
ten years later the number of farms rented had increased to
only twenty-two out of a total of 495. One interesting

phenomenon in the county's agricultural history was the

establishment of a few large farms by lumber companies and

operators. ‘W. H. Edwards, the pioneer lumbermen; Thomas W.

 

ee.‘wsst Branch Times, Industrial Edition, 1889.

51

Hayes, foreman and general manager of the lumbering business
of D. Wright and Company; Charles Woods, a highly successful
lumber jobber; C. H. Prescott and Sons; and D. wright and
Company were among the first to have large, well improved
farms. These two firms showed more concern over their
properties and the development of the county than did most
of the absentee lumber companies.

The Forest Home Farm owned by D. Wright and Company,
and located near West Branch, included four hundred acres
of cleared land, a large house, three barns, horse barn,
carriage barn, granary, hog barn, tool house, and hen house.
An orchard of a thousand trees had been planted and over
one hundred cattle and fifty hogs were kept. A spring of
pure water was piped into the house and the farm had a well
equipped creamery for butter making. The Prescott Farm
situated in Richland Township also contained about four
hundred acres of improved land and had a good house and two
mammoth barns. Mr. Prescott was especially alive to the
possibilities of stock raising and he kept Holstein and
Hereford cattle, Clydesdale horses, and sheep.39 The
original purpose of these two large farms is not known.
Possibly they were developed to help in promoting the sale
of the firms' lands, to help provide provisions for their

lumber camps, and perhaps even as a kind of hobby for the

owners. The Prescott farm has remained in the ownership

of the family to this day and is one of the leading Here-

 

59. West Branch Times, Industrial Edition, 1889.

32

ford cattle breeding farms in Michigan.

Although agriculture was decidedly of secondary im-
portance in the lumbering economy prior to 1890, it did
influence the social, moral, and educational structure of
the county. Farms meant a higher proportion of women and
children, and the agricultural element of the population
was more inclined to demand law and order and desire churches
and schools than was the floating p0pulation attached to the
camps and mills.

The population of Ogemaw County totaled but twelve
persons in 1870. In 1874, the population, as far as can be
determined, was 207 located in Edwards and Ogemaw town-
ships.40 Edwards Township reported 58 inhabitants, 54 of
whom.were men, and probably nearly all employees of the
mill at Greenwood. Ogemaw Township had a total population
of 149 including 50 females.41 This preponderance of males
can be attributed to the almost exclusive lumbering
activity of the county. The farming settlement made north
of Campbell's Corners in 1872 helps to explain the larger
number of women in Ogemaw Township. Between 1874 and 1880
population increased on an average of 284.5 persons yearly,
as the census of 1880 shows a total population of 1,914.

(See Fig. 7) Ogemaw County was still a man's world as males

 

40. Only two townships were organized at that time, the
remainder of the county being included in townships located
partially in Iosco County of which Ogemaw was then a part.

- 41. Michigan Secretary of State, Census for the State
of Michigan4,1874, pp. 64-65.

55

made up over 61 percent of the population.42

By 1884, population had spurted to 5,657, a 90 percent
increase in four years. The number of women also continued
to rise proportionately. The youthful character of the
population is evident from the figures that disclose the
average age in the county for males was 24.8 years and for
females was 20.8 in comparison to 29.4 years for males
and 28.9 for females in Lenawee County.45 Population
continued to increase for the next six years and stood at
5,585 in 1890. In three townships a decline had already
set in -- Foster and Beaver Lake especially had lost
heavily quite in contrast to Damon, the third one of the
plains townships which, showing an increase of 715 persons
since 1884, was in 1890 the most populous township in the
county.44

The ratio of foreign born to native born remained
remarkably stable during the early period of the county's
history. In 1880, the foreign born comprised 59.6 percent
of the population and ten years later was only 1 percent
lower, which.was above the average for the state as a whole.
Canada and Newfoundland supplied by far the largest number
of immigrants, and most of them apparently were English
speaking. The French Canadian element never seems to have

been important in the county. In 1880, with a total of

42. U. S. Bureau of the Census, Tenth Census of the
United States: 1880, Population Vol.‘I, assim.
5. c igan ecretary of_State, Census for the State
of Michigan, 1884 (Lansing, 1886), Vol. I, assim.
44. U. S. Bureau of the Census, Eleventh ‘ensus of the
United States: 1890, Population, Vol. I, Part 1, p. 191.

34

758 foreign born in the county, Canada was the birthplace
of 569 and Germany was second supplying 85. Ireland,
England, and Scotland followed in that order. In 1890,
these same five countries were the birthplaces of nearly
all the foreign born in the county. Consequently Ogemaw
did not have a problem of trying to assimilate a large
alien population as most of the foreign born already spoke
the English language and were acquainted with many of the
democratic customs. The only important non-British group
were the Germans who usually adapted themselves to American
ways with considerable ease.

The German element tended to settle on farms in two
main areas, northern E'dwards Township, and north of Campbell's
Corners, both of which had fertile soil. The West Branch ‘
Times in 1889 spoke highly of these two groups stating,
"These people have the industry and thrift’characteristic
of this nationality and they are improving their farms
faster than any other settlers in the county." The German
group in Edwards had not come directly from Germany but
had stopped in Bruce County, Ontario for a time, and
Saginaw County, Michigan had been the home of many of the
Germans in the Campbell's Corners group for a few years
prior to their arrival in Ogemaw.

Over half of the native born population in 1880 had
been born in Michigan, and New York state supplied more
than half of the remainder. Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont

were the homes of several of the settlers with a few coming

35

from Massachusetts, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Illinois.45

In many instances whole groups seemed to emigrate to
Ogemaw and settle in one neighborhood. 0ne of the earliest
examples was the colony from Roscoe, New York that founded
the Churchill settlement in 1872—75. Included in this group
were William, Allan 5., and Alciabides Rose, Charley Barber,
Sherman Neal, Hiram Borden, George Crippen, Sr., Allan Cook,
Levi Stewart, Wesley and Chester Cochran, and Scott White.46
Later many other New Yorkers settled in that same vicinity.
In 1879, a community of people belonging to the Society of
Friends came to Ogemaw County from Ohio and founded the
settlement of Lane, which was later renamed Lupton in honor
of one of the leading families of the group. The West
Branch Times in 1889 mentioned, "This neighborhood is
eSpecially noted for the good feeling and fraternal relations
existing among the families." Lupton was known as the
community where "peace and harmony prevail."

Though peace and harmony were gradually coming to all
the communities in the county by 1889 that was by no means
the rule during the 'seventies and early 'eighties. The
pioneer days witnessed some strange scenes and law and
order were almost unknown. A gang of sixty or one hundred
lumberjacks would frequently swoop down upon the town and

run things to suit themselves for awhile. Nearly every

 

45. U. S. Bureau of the Census, Tenth Census of the
United States: 1880, Population Vol. I, p. 514.

46. Lillie Andrews,wwHose City in the Rough," type-
script Manuscript in collections of Howard H. Thompson.

36

village had at least one saloon -- some had several -- and
they were never closed day or night, Sunday or holiday.
Whiskey and the mail were often passed out over the same
counter. Fights and rows were common when the woodsmen
came to town, but there was said to be a surprising lack
of "downright crime."

1 However, in 1878, a great deal of excitement was
caused when the bartender at the West Branch House shot
and killed Tom Hayes, described by the West Eranch Timgg in
1889 as a "woodsman who was a terror to this whole north
country." According to the Tlmgg the bartender, a young
nephew of the hotel's proprietor, had refused Hayes a drink
because he was drunk and Hayes then started over the bar.
He paid no attention to the revolver brandished by the bar-
tender and was shot. The bartender was acquitted by a
coroner's jury, who found the shooting to be justifiable
homicide.

By 1889, West Eranch was trying to forget its riotous
past and the Tgmgg proudly stated, "For morality, order,
and good government, west Branch is much above the average
new town. All business places are closed on Sundays. I
Saloons are closed at nine in the evenings, and there is a
general absence of black-guardism or rowdyism."

After the pioneer farmers arrived the county began to
take on a more permanent appearance. The first school in
the county was erected in the farming settlement north of

Campbell's Corners, and men teachers were secured for the

57

first two terms. The third teacher in the school was Mrs.
John Freed who left her home in St. Clair County and came
into the wilderness to teach. She did not receive any pay
for one year as there was no money in the district treasury,
but she stayed at the school for three years. At one time
she had as many as fifty-seven pupils on her roll, and many
of the pioneers could always recall that they had received
much of their formal education from her.‘16 With so much
work to do the boys were often unable to attend school for
any length of time and many of them had no more than three
or four years of "book learning."

New districts continued to be formed as the county grew
in population. The West Branch Times in 1889 could report:

So soon as a few settlers have made an
opening in the forest, their petition goes in
for the organization of a school. Men who
had no opportunity in their day of even
getting the rudiments of an education, are
as a rule, anxious that their boys and girls
shall grow up intelligent and useful members
of society, and the school tax is paid more
willingly than any other of the taxes. The
wise foresight of our state fathers in pro-
viding a one mill tax and a primary school
fund, greatly assists the pioneer in main-
taining a school.

In 1878, thirteen school districts had been organized
and 126 pupils were attending school and by 1890 there were
forty-three organized districts, forty-one of which actually
were maintaining a school, with 1,124 pupils enrolled.

School revenue also increased sharply. In 1876, district

 

46. Marinda Weir, "A History of Ogemaw County," type-
script Manuscript, Rose City Public Library. -

38

taxes collected amounted to $2,507.55 and $754.60 was
received from the State mill tax, while in 1890 district
taxes alone had risen to $10,950.94. The first primary
money received in 1880 by Ogemaw schools totaled only
$52.94 but this same source provided $1,559.55 in 1890.47
Ogemaw County never had a large number of log school
houses in contrast to many of the older counties in the
state. This was undoubtedly because of the low cost of
constructing frame buildings in an area where pine lumber
was so cheap. The school house in District No. 1 of Damon
Township was built for a total cost of $550.00 in 1875.
School was held sometimes for only three or four months
out of the year though by 1885 the average for the county
was six months. This was often divided into two terms --
a "summer" term of four months and a "winter" term of two.48
The first graded school in the countthas at the village
of West Branch and was probably instituted about 1884, and
a new four room.school was built in 1887. Prof. B. Bennett
became principal of the new school and was largely respon-
sible for increasing the enrollment in the high school
department. He went around the countryside urging the
young people who had finished their work in the district
schools to come to the high school at West Branch.

Although, Churchill was smaller than many of the

 

47. Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Re orts, 1876-1890, passim.

48. "District Director' 3 Book, " School “istrict No.
2, Hill Township, Ogemaw County, 1885-1905, passim.

59

settlements in the county it had the first resident minister,
Reverend Bullock of the Methodist denomination. Allan S.
Rose, proprietor of the prosperous general store and small
sawmill in the village, later built the parsonage and a
large community building which was used for church services.
The first church was built by the Congregationalists in
West Branch in 1881, however, and was followed by a Method-
ist church four years later. Membership and attendance
Tat the Methodist church outnumbered that of the Congrega-
tional church in 1889, though the Catholic Society was
larger than either. Other denominations began forming
L organizations so by 1890 there were thirteen though only
eight had church buildings. The thirteen.organizations
included two Methodist, three Baptist, two Roman Catholic,
and one each of Congregational, Friends, Latter Day Saints,
German Lutheran, Wesleyan Methodist, and Free Methodist.
These were all found in rural farming areas or in villages
with a relatively permanent population. There is nothing
to indicate that such.lumbering communities as Greenwood,
Ogemaw Springs, or Ti‘eaver Lake ever had a church, though
itinerant preachersheld services occasionally.

None of the large lumber Operators ever lived in
Ogemaw County so the leadership of the social, economic,
and political life of the county rested mainly with the
business and professional men. George N. Hauptman, who
directed the activities of D. Wright and Company and was one

of the owners, spent some of each year at the company's

4O

farm.near West Branch and he evidently encouraged the
formation of the west Branch Business Men's Association
and the Ogemaw County Agricultural Society.49 Mr. C. H.
Prescott, though he did not reside in Prescott, helped found
the Baptist Church there.50 However, the county, township,
and village offices were held by such men as Dr. C. L.
Nauman; lawyers S. V. Thomas, D. P. Markey, Devere Hall,
and Nelson Sharpe, all of west Branch; Allan S. Rose,
business man from Churchill; and C. J. Phelps, a farmer
from Foster Township. The county usually voted Republican,
but the Democrats had considerable strength and.often
succeeded in electing a few popular men to county office.
Governmental organization in Ogemaw County proceeded
in much the same manner as that of other Michigan counties.
In 1875, when Ogemaw was still part of Iosco County, the
townships of Edwards and Ogemaw had been formed largely due
to the efforts of George Hotchkiss of the Greenwood'sawmill
and Dr. C. L. Nauman of the Ogemaw Springs mill. In 1875,
the state legislature organized Ogemaw as a separate
county and the first county elections were held the follow-
ing spring. Thereafter, townships were created as the
population warranted though there seems to have been no
population requirements. The first census taken after

Damon and Hill townships were organized, showed that the

 

49. West Branch Times, Industrial Edition, 1889.

50. Clyde M. Campbell, "The Prescott Community" (Un-
published Master's Thesis, Department of Sociology,-
Michigan State College, 1954), p. 62.

41

former had a population of 260 while Hill had but 50 in-
habitants. By 1888, the last township had been organized,
for a total of sixteen. (See Fig. 8)

The principal problem connected with the governmental
operation of the county was the collection of taxes from
the giant absentee lumber companies who often complained
about the valuation of their lands and of the excessive
taxes. The tax rolls of the 1870‘s and 1880's show numerous
cases where the companies had paid their taxes under protest,
and the rolls for the 'seventies especially indicate that
the township supervisors were unable to find out who owned
much of the land. There are many examples of taxes paid
on tracts of land whose ownership was listed as unknown.
Henry W. Sage and Company actually requested a rebate on
its school taxes paid in at least one school district in
1888. The school board of District No. 2, Hill Township,
in that year adopted a resolution, at a special meeting
called for the "purpose of considering the proposition
of H. W. Sage and Co.," stating that the school tax of the
company was excessive and agreed to give a rebate of $100.00
to it.51

Community life in 1889 was still largely centered
around the lumbering of pine, but almost everyone realized
that the pine would soon be gone. There were eleven villages
or hamlets and all were dependent on the lumbering industry

to a great extent. The business men of these communities

51. "District Director's Book," District No. 2, Hill
TOWTIShipo - .

42

fearing they would lose their livelihood when the pine was
gone unless more settlers were brought in had the West
Branch Times print a special edition in 1889 for distri-
bution in southern Michigan and out-of-state.

Though called the "Industrial Edition," it was chiefly
for the purpose of inducing farmers to come to the county
as attested to by these headlines: "Ogemaw County -- the
Banner County of Northern Michigan, Over 200,000 Acres of
the Best Farming Lands," and "From $100 to $1,000 Will
Purchase an Eighty." ‘

The paper frankly stated:

The preparation of this edition of the
Times has involved much care and time.
It is prepared with the thought that
our county needs advertising. The out-
side world are unaware of the great
advantages of Northern Michigan. Men
are passing us by and going to the far
west where they have agriculture only
to depend upon. Mixed industries tend
to the greatest general prosperity.
With a view to arrest a portion of the
tide of western emigration and to induce
home seekers to inspect our lands, this
volume has been issued.

The paper spoke in glowing terms of the general
prosperity of the county and though admitting that the pine
was nearly gone affirmed that the "supply of hardwood is
almost inexhaustible," and predicted it would be the basis
of industry in the county for years to come. That the
editor, perhaps, realized the supply of hardwood was not
inexhaustible was evident in this statement, "Now every
tree represents value and none of it can afford to be

wasted." The editor assured the readers that there was

43

enough hardwood on nearly every forty to provide the settler
a good living until he could get his land cleared and into
crops.

Optimism seemed to overflow from every paragraph in
the paper. The.£;mgg was justly proud of West Branch, the
prosperous county seat (it had been incorporated as a
village in 1885) with its new school and county buildings,
bank, opera house, three churches, public library, four
hotels, three weekly papers, three physicians, a dentist,
veterinary surgeon, six lawyers, and six fraternal organi-
zations. Many stores lined its broad streets, and there
was a flour mill, McCrossen Cart Manufacturing Company
plant, brewery, soda water plant, wooden bowl factory, veneer
plant, brick yard (unperfected it‘s true), wagon works, two
sawmills, and a planing mill to provide employment. In
addition a paper mill and a stave and heading mill were
said to be among the possible future developments. The
future of West franch, a town of 1,500 (not the 2,000 the
paper claimed) inhabitants, seemed secure. As the Michigan
State Gazetteeg_remarked, West Branch was the "most prosper-
out town on the Mackinaw Division of the M. C. R. R., and
is surrounded by the finest farming land in Northern
Michigan."52

Other villages in the county deemed by the West Branch

Times to have promising futures were Churchill and Prescott,

 

52. Michi an State Gazetteer and Business Directory.
1889-90 ( etroit, 1889), p. 1855.

44

both in good agricultural areas. The future of such
communities as Ogemaw Springs, Beaver Lake, Damon, and Piper
was not painted so brightly, probably because the editor

had the recent example of the almost total disappearance

of Greenwood, another lumbering village.

One interesting scheme being discussed was the piping
of water from the giant spring at Ogemaw Springs to Bay
City and Saginaw, and C. H. Plummer, owner of the spring,
was trying to persuade those cities to put their money in
this pipeline rather than in municipal water plants. The
Michigan Central Railroad was said to have completed the
first twenty-five miles of its survey for the proposed
railroad to run from Beaver Lake to Alpena. Apparently,
Ogemaw County business men were not the only ones who
expected northeastern Michigan to remain a thriving and
prosperous region after the pine was gone.

The people of Ogemaw County were watching the pine
lumbering era draw to a close with a feeling of what can
best be described as "hopeful anxiety." They were not sure
just what the future would bring, but they generally be-

lieved that their good fortune would continue.

CHAPTER II

The Decline of Lumbering and Emergence of Agriculture

In the thirty year period following 1890 a great change
came over Ogemaw County. That year had found the life and
economy of the county geared largely to the tempo of the
pine lumbering industry. The pine was almost gone, but
great tracts of hardwood and swamp forest remained to be
exploited.

At the same time the hardwood sections of the county
were entering an era of prosperity, the plains area was
rapidly becoming a deserted, abandoned region. There was
little but pine on the plains land and that was disappearing.
In 1891, the mill at Piper was moved out and the town
abandoned that year. The following year Davison Brothers,
who had owned stores at Beaver Lake and Damon and M10 and
McKinley in Oscoda County, sold all their property and
moved out of the state. They sold their holdings at
Damon, consisting of five hundred acres of land, general
store, hotel, and barns (used to house the horses for their
stage line), to A. J. Warner, a local farmer, for five
hundred dollars. '

Damon Township, having more inhabitants than any other
in 1890, was so quickly depopulated that in 1893 the town-
ship was vacated and attached to the bordering townships of
Rose and Foster by the board of supervisors. Foster Town-

“ship had a population of 167 in 1890 but in 1894 had only

46

136 persons despite the addition of half of the former
township of Damon. Eeaver Lake Township, likewise showed

a great decline, with a population of 97 in 1894 as compared
to 284 in 1890. The mills at Ogemaw Springs, the county's
first settlement, were moved away and the post office dis-
continued in 1893.

The State Census for 1894 reported a total of five
sawmills; five saw, shingle, and lath mills; one saw and
planing mill with sash and door factory; and seven shingle
mills in the county. All but one of these mills were small
with low valuations. A typical sawmill had a valuation of
$1,700, hired twelve employees, and was idle about seven-
and-a-half months in 1893. Most of the mills were idle six
months out of the year or more and consequently total wages
paid were small. Daily wages at the mills ranged from
$1.20 to $1.47 for ordinary labor and up to $2.40 for
skilled mechanics.

As long as any pine remained little interest was shown
in other kinds of timber, but as the pine stands grew fewer
the lumbermen turned to logging off what remained. Prior to
1885 the mills refused to cut hardwood lumber and the
farmers, clearing their fields, found no sale for hardwood
logs. In 1884, only 8,383 feet of hardwood lumber was cut
in the county as compared to some 18,000,000 feet of pine.5:5
Within five years the first significant hardwood operations

 

53. Howard H. Thompson, Unpublished data.

47

had been started by the Maltby Lumber Company, in the
northeastern part of the county.

During the 'nineties the importance of hardwood
lumbering grew swiftly and soon surpassed that of pine.

In fact, the northern part of the county showed a much
higher level of pmmerity from 1890 to 1910 than it had
ever enjoyed in the pine era. This was because the pattern
of hardwood lumbering was not identical with that of the
earlier period. Instead of the bulk of the holdings lying
in the hands of a few absentee lumber operators who took
the pine out of the county to be sawed, the hardwood
tracts were owned, generally, by smaller concerns, often
locally owned, which.manufactured the product within the
county. This was, perhaps, largely because the hardwood
logs could not be floated down the rivers as the pine logs
had been.

‘In 1892, Myron H. and F. F. French, West Branch
bankers, and Allan S. Rose, Churchill business man, formed
the French Land and Lumber Company, capitalized at
$100,000. This firm secured approximately 17,000 acres of
hardwood lands, mostly in northern Ogemaw County and pro-
ceeded to establish the town of ”Rose City." Rose City
was platted a half mile east of the old village of Churchill
and the people gradually moved to the new location.

Rose City's prosperity was assured when, in the same
year the town was platted, the French Land and Lumber Company

began the construction of a large heading and stave mill

48

for the meiing of barrel heads and staves on the creek
flowing through the village. This mill cost the company
around $75,000. In the same year a new store was erected
for Allan 3. Rose in the center of the town. The agreement
for the construction of this building specified that "one
store building three stories high, forty-eight feet wide

by eighty feet long, the ground floor to be built for store
purposes ..., said building to cost when completed not 131;
than four thousand dollars."54 The cost of building in
Ogemaw County was still very low.

With the building of the heading mill and the pro-
jection of other industries in the Rose City area, the
Detroit, Bay City and Alpena Railroad decided to extend
its line from.Maltby to Rose City. It solicited aid for
the construction of this extension from the townships
lying adjacent to it and from the farmers and property
owners living within the area to be served. As a result
about one hundred farmers of Ogemaw County executed promis-
sory notes payable to the Detroit, Bay City and Alpena
”when the said railroad is completed and trains running
thereon." The Township of Rose bonded for $5,000, and
business interests contributed large sums making a total
of nearly $35,000 paid entering into the construction of
the branch, in addition to the right of way which.was

54. Agreement entered into by Allan S. Rose and
Horatio S. Karcher, parties of the first part and Helen
Rose, party of the second part October 18, 1892, type-
script copy in collections of Roward H. Thompson.

49

granted for nominal sums.55

The branch extension was pushed energetically by the
company; the construction gang reached the townsite of
the new village of Lupton on November 1st, and the first
regularly scheduled train ran from Emery Junction on the
main line, to Rose City on January 1, 1893.56 As a result
of a reorganization, the Detroit, Pay City and Alpena
became the Detroit and Mackinac Railway about that time.

Rose City experienced an immediate growth in build-
ing activity. There had been but a general store, Sawmill,
flour mill, and a hotel in the town prior to 1892, but by
1895 it had two general stores, three hotels, flour mill,
a drug store, physician, hardware, restaurant, dry goods
store, meat market, two blacksmiths, barber, and two
sawmills with two more located near thetown.57

In 1892, Levi R. Lupton, a minister of the Friends
Church as well as a thorough going business man, conceived
the idea of establishing a town whose cornerstones would
be Christianity and temperance. He secured the assistance
of his brother Isaac, George T. Stanley of Selkirk (where
another colony of Friends had settled just previously),
and Leander Hole of Ohio and they formed the firm of

Lupton.Erothers and Company and built the first store in

 

55. Erief for the State of Michigan and for Protest-
ants, before the Interstate Commerce Commission, Abandon-
ment by the Detroit and Mackinac Railway Company of the
Rose City E'anch, June 6,1929.
56. Carl R. Henry to Howard H. Thompson, February 29,
1944, "Correspondence," in collections of Howard H. Thompson.

57. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Director ,
1895-96 (Detroit, 1895?, p. 1451-52. ' ' "L

50

the new village, which was located just south of the old
settlement of Lane. The post office was moved to Lupton in
1893, and several sawmills were in time erected in the
vicinity.

The French Land and Lumber Company went into bank-
ruptcy in 1897, largely because of the failure of the
French bank at West Branch, and the heading mill at Rose
City passed into the hands of J. R. Raible who owned other
mills at Pinconning, Alpena, and Midland. Later the mill
was purchased by the Greif Erothers Cooperage Corporation
of Cleveland, Ohio and the mill was kept in excellent
working order. This was the largest mill of its kind in
Michigan, and was composed of four industrial sections --
stave, heading, hoop, and shingle -- with the heading
division being by far the most important. The mill was
powered by four steam engines, and had three turners,
producing 18,000 sets of heading per day.58 Wages were
low with the men.receiving $1.00 to $1.25 per day, and
they were paid but once a month.

A mild sort of lumbering boom rippled over the county
shortly after 1900, and new camps and mills were built.
Even the jackpine plains felt some of the renewed activity,
as lumbermen moved in to cut the jackpine which the
earlier operators had passed by. The general level of

prosperity of the plains area can, perhaps, be shown by

 

58. J. R. Raible to Howard H. Thompson, August 5,
1944, "Correspondence," in collections of Howard H. Thompson.

51

the following illustration. For two years Mr. and Mrs.

A. J. Warner, who owned the store and hotel at Damon, leased
their business while they cooked for the men in the Cross
Brothers camp located near there. U. M. Guilford was one

of the most important lumbermen on the plains during this
period and he cut but 1,000,000 feet of jackpine lumber

from 1902 until 1906.

More important were the hardwood and swamp timber
operations, and of the twenty saw and shingle mills found
in the county about 1905, thirteen were located in the
northern part.59 The records show that a large number
of spurs and sidings were constantly being built and taken
up off the Rose City'Pranch of the Detroit and Mackinac
Railway in Ogemaw County from 1900 to 1908.60 The Detroit
and Mackinac contemplated extending the Rose City Branch
through to Mio, Oscoda County, where a large hardwood mill
was to be built,61 but the idea was never put into
execution.

The entire area lying between Rose City and South
Emanch was systematically worked over. Among the most
important operators were Briggs and Cooper, Prescott and
Miller, and the Eastman and Robinson Lumber Company.
Briggs and Cooper bought large holdings north of Lupton
and in 1903 built a logging railroad into their timber.

 

59. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Director ,
1905-06 (Detroit, 1905), passim.
. Detroit and Mackinac ailway 00., Annual Re orts,
1897-19306 passim.
61. Saginaw Valley Notes," American Lumberman
(Chicago), Nov. 8, 1902, p. 21.- -

52

This railroad was unique because part of it was standard
guage and the balance the more common narrow guage. This
arrangement created a big problem as the logs and lumber
had to be transferred from narrow to standard guage cars;
consequently, a third rail was added so either guage cars
and engines could be used.

In 1905, Briggs and Cooper sold their timber, rolling
stock, and part of their railroad to the Prescott-Miller
Company who for some reason proceeded to abandon this
railroad. The next year the Detroit and Mackinac built
a spur from Rose City into the same area for the company.
By that date logging railway construction was a relatively
simple task. It was reported:

In a new country like this it is often

necessary to run a temporary road out

into the bush to clean up the timber,

and the officers (of the D. and M.)

think nothing of building twenty or

thirty miles this way. The steam

shovel had made this a relatively

cheap undertaking. The earth is

lifted wholesale and deposited on

flat cars and these cars are cleaned

off by an apparatus that looks like a

snow plow that is fitted at the rear

of the train and is drawn forward by

the locomotive sweeping the earth off

every car as it passes over. 2_
Miller's Mill (as the company's mill was called) was
located two-and-a-half miles east of Rose City. Comprising
the settlement were the large mill, a general store, a

boarding house, and the homes of several families.

 

62. Detroit and Mackinac Railway 00., Annual Repqgg,
1901, p. 20.

55

One of the largest hardwood sawmills in the area was
Robinson's Mill located northwest of South Branch.
Originally, this area had been lumbered of its pine by
the McCraw Lumber Company which in 1907 sold its rights
to Samuel A. Robinson and S. E. Eastman. A new mill was
erected and a logging railway twenty-two miles long was
built from South Branch northwesterly into Oscoda County.

Lumbering operations did not actually get under way
until 1909, but a fair sized community soon sprang up
around the mill. The company maintained a general store,
the post office -- the settlement was known officially
as Goodar, and the two large boarding houses for the
single men. It also built many rough, tar-paper houses
which it rented to the men with families for four dollars
per month. The second floor of the store was used for a
hotel. .

”Altogether, the Eastman and Robinson Lumber Company
employed about two hundred men of whom sixty-five to
seventy-five worked in the mill and lumber yard. The re-
maining men worked in one of the two camps -- one a few
miles from the mill and the other located about half-way
between the mill and M10.

Wages were on a par with other wages in the area
with common laborers paid at the rate of $1.00 per day
and if they lived at one of the boarding houses this was
deducted from their pay. A few of the skilled mill

workers received four dollars and the mill superintendent

54
$6.00 per day.65

When run at capacity the mill could saw from fifty to
sixty thousand feet of lumber a day, though the monthly cut
averaged from 1,000,000 to 1,250,000 feet. Three boilers
were used to provide power to run the saws and a dynamo
which furnished about 175 lights for the settlement.

Having a large number of families living around the
mill the township found that a school was necessary. This
school, called the Goodar School, had all the limitations
and inconveniences that could be associated with a mill
town school. There sixty or more pupils were crowded into
a one teacher school, and the equipment was very meager.
One of the first teachers at the school recalls that text
books were very scarce, and the only ones available were
old and worn. She had to use a worn green window shade
for a blackboard. Many of the pupils were from transient
families and had not attended school regularly making the
school difficult to handle.

A teacher's life in such a community left much to be
desired and so one teacher seldom stayed more than two
years. The location was quite isolated and if the teacher
missed the logging train or hand car into South Branch
on Friday afternoon she had to walk over three miles to
the Maltby station where she could board the train for
Rose City.

Other areas in the county experienced a revival of

 

63. Pbrnice Anthony "Robinson's Mill" (1945), type-
script Manuscript, Rose ity Public Library.

55

lumbering activity, too, as is shown by the following news
items from the American Lumberman: "John Tolfree is putting
in 2,000,000 feet of hardwood logs in Ogemaw County for
the Gale Lumber Company, at West Branch. The mill of the
Gale Lumber Company is being repaired and will start oper-
ations again this week;"64 and "The old Squires and
Stirling sawmill on the Rifle River, five miles east of
West Branch, and which is owned by James Norm, will be
places in commission early in January and will manufacture
lumber, lath, and shingles. Mr. Norm calculates that he
has enough timber to run the mill three or four years yet."65

The towns of Lupton and Rose City boomed between 1900
and 1910 in contrast to West Branch which lost population
between those dates. In 1905, Rose City could boast three
general stores, meat market, two hotels, two physicians,
two drug stores, a milliner and dress-maker, shoemaker,
two confectionery shops, photographer, jeweler, dry goods
store, bowling alley, livery, barber, dentist, lawyer, two
saloons, cheese factory, restaurant, hardware, furniture
store, two blacksmiths, flour mill, a bank, weekly news-
paper, new twelve-grade high school, Methodist and Epis-
cOpal churches, and a telephone exchange. There were two
nearby sawmills in addition to the large heading mill, the
town's most important industry.

Though it had a population of only four hundred around

 

64. "In the Eastern Michigan Woods," American Lumberman,

December 20,1902, p. 34.
65. "Eastern Michigan News," American Lumberman,

December 27, 1902, p. 20.

56

1905 it was the largest town near the lumber camps to the
north and east, and the two saloons were kept busy. Rose
City had a reputation in keeping with.a lumbering town.

Rose City was unfortunately divided into two govern-
mental units because the township line separating Rose
and Cumming townships passed through the very center of
town. Consequently, neither township would spend any
money on the main street or other improvements. Petition-
ing the State Legislature in 1904, the residents asked
for a city charter, which was granted in the following
spring, and Rose City was incorporated as a fourth class
city. The first ordinance passed by the new city council
was one to regulate the opening and closing hours of saloons
and other places where liquor was sold. It stipulated that
all such places could open at 6:00 A. M. and must be
closed at 10:00 P. M.

The hardwood lumbering era was probably fully as color-
ful as was the earlier period, although there were no
longer the dangerous logging drives down the Rifle River.
Many are the stories told of events -- some comic, some
of death and superstition -- that took place in the Neil
McDonald, Dick Evans, Hank Ash, and other camps during that
period. The work was still long and hard, and the men
worked in the woods from dawn 'til dark and never saw their
lodgings by daylight except on Sunday. In fact, one lum-
berjack once remained in camp over Sunday just to see what

it looked like in the daytime.

57

There was always more or less revelry going on in
camp for the lumberjack was always the practical joker.
A typical game with which they enlivened their evenings
was called "Scuddy." It was played by blindfolding a man
and having him.turn "bottoms up" to the crowd. Anyone
could hit him and he could earn his release only by guessing
correctly who had struck the blow. From dire necessity,
the men came to know what to expect from.each man.

But the lumberjack had his superstitious side, too.
A lumberjack was killed one day when a tree branch fell
down, breaking his neck. Having nothing but a horse and
dray to haul out the body, the men went to the nearest
house and got a horse and concord buggy. One of the men
wrapped the dead man up in a blanket and held him in a
sitting position on the seat, while the other led the
horse because he was afraid to ride in the buggy with a
dead man. After reaching camp, a couple of the lumberjacks
got their dead comrade ready for burial. They were dis-
turbed because the stove poker, which hung on the wall back
of the stove kept swinging. The camp boss said this
swinging was a sign of bad luck. After several trials,
they got the swinging stopped -- and then were just as
perturbed when they couldn't start it swinging again.
After this a man out his foot; and, as the men kept
seeing a black cat in the woods, many of them quit this

camp 0 66

 

66. Adelia Lince, "Tales from the Skidways," type-
script Manuscript, Rose City Public Library. _

58

Working in the mills was a dangerous occupation, too.
The whirling saw, flying knots, fans and pulleys, and
bursting boilers all helped add to the numbers of injured
and killed. The boiler at the Thomas Campbell mill in
Rose City burst one day, blowing one of the workers to
bits, and another man was killed in the heading mill
when his clothes became caught in a huge fan. Many
fingers and occasionally an eye were lost there and many
men suffered broken bones.

The woodsmen were generally known to like their
liquor and they found ways of quenching their thirst. On
Saturday night most of them headed for the saloons in Rose
City, South Branch, or elsewhere, and often when one of
the men had to go into town during the week for some
purpose his buddies would give him money to buy liquor
to bring back. On the road between Robinson's Mill and
South Branch lies Whiskey Spring. Legend has it that,
whenever, a lumberjack or mill hand was returning to the
mill from South Branch he had to sample the whiskey.
Whiskey Spring made a good stopping place. There the spring
water could be added to the liquor making full jugs to
carry back to camp.

The lumbering era was drawing to a close in Ogemaw
County, however. In 1910, Miller's Mill sawed its last
leg, and one by one the others were forced to close down.
Robinson's Mill, the last of the big sawmills, was moved
away in 1914 when its timber resources had become depleted,

and in 1916 the Greif Brothers Heading Mill in Rose City

59

was shut down. The expense of bringing in logs from out-
side was too great. Thereafter, lumbering operations
virtually ceased with the exception of the occasional
small operator with a portable sawmill.

It is interesting to note that the reports of the
county superintendents of poor suggest that the peak of
unemployment in the county did not appear until about
1905. Relief expenditures for families or persons not
living at the poor farm.remained approximately the same --
averaging $517.99 per year -- for the period from 1885 to
1900, and in the latter year only nineteen families or
persons received such assistance. However, by 1905 the
relief load had increased to forty-six and $1,804.11 was
spent. The numbers on relief and the amount spent remained

about the same for the next ten years, and then diminished

somewhat for in 1920 only twenty received aid amounting

to $1,421.15. The average number of persons living at

the poor farm varied from six to fourteen, though.much

more money was spent for maintaining the poor farm than

for outside relief.67 These reports cannot give a com-

plete measure of unemployment because many families were

cared for by neighbors rather than by the county.68
The economic problems of Ogemaw County multiplied

after 1890 rather than tending to diminish. Most important

 

67. Michigan Secretary of State, Abstracts of the
Annual Reports of the County Superintendents of‘Poor, 1880-
1920 (Lansing), assim.

68. prard E. Thompson, "My Neighborhood," p. 5.

60

was the land question. As the pine was lumbered off,
actual value of the land fell greatly, and on the plains
practically vanished. Not only did the valuation of the
taxable land decline, but, in addition, thousands of acres
of land was allowed to revert to the state for non-payment
of taxes. There had been some tax delinquency from'the
time the county was first organized, but by 1885 it had
reached alarming proportions.

In that year the total amount of taxes that were not
collected reached the sum of $14,631.74. Some townships
were affected much more than others; the amounts ranging
from $2138.01 in Ogemaw Township to $2,410.90 in Hill. The
big offenders were the lumber companies, who believed that
the amount they would receive from selling their lands
would not compensate them for the expense and bother in-
volved. One of the few large lumber concerns to attempt
selling their holdings after the pine had been removed was
H. W. Sage and Company, which turned over its lands to
the Sage Land and Improvement Company. Among the owners
who failed to pay taxes in 1885 was the Jackson, Lansing
and Saginaw Railroad, which apparently despaired of ever
selling some of its remaining lands in the northwestern
part of the county.

The amount of taxes left unpaid annually remained
remarkably constant after 1885 and by 1910 had declined
only to $11,191.36. By 1900, the Sage Land and Improvement

Company had begun to let some of its unsold lands go back.

61

In that year in Foster Township slightly over $630.00 in
taxes were collected while $1,058.94 were allowed to go
delinquent.69
Much of the land reverting to the state was worthless,
because it was valueless for agricultural purposes and little
or no interest had been aroused in favor of commercial
forestry. On November 8, 1907, the state owned 39,418 acres
of reverted and unsold land in Ogemaw County, 11 percent
of the total land area. This was below the figure for most
of the surrounding counties, however, as 27 percent of
Oscoda County, 18 percent of Alcona and Crawford counties,
and 16 percent of Iosco and Roscommon counties had
accumulated to the state. By June 30, 1908, total state
lands in Ogemaw County had risen to 41,599 acres.'70
Faced with the problem of utilizing thousands of
acres of land for which it had no sale the state author-

ized the formation of the Ogemaw State Forest in 1914,
located north of West Eranch. A large area of the forest
had been planted to white, Norway and jack pine by 1920.
For the ordinary citizen it was risky to plant pine
plantations because of the uncontrolled fires that swept
over the plains every summer. History of the early forest
fires in Ogemaw County is similar to that of nearly every
lumbered county in Michigan. It is the story of lumber

 

69. "Delinquent Tax Return Rolls," 1885-1910,
Ogemaw County Treasurer's Office.

70. Michigan Commission of Inquiry, Tax Lands and
Forestry, Report to the Governor and Legislature of the
State (Lansing, 1908}, pp. 8 and 41-42.

62

operators creating vast areas of slashings, followed by
fires buring this slash, and many thousands of acres were
burned during the peak of the lumbering era. For more than
a decade following the turn of the century, forest fires
were prevalent, some from land clearing, some from lumber
operations, and many were set by natives to improve the
huckleberry crop on the sandy plains. Large fires burned
over thousands of acres in 1891, 1902, and again in 1911.
Those of the latter year were particularly bad -- even the
high school at West Branch was closed so the boys could go
help fight the raging fires. These fires had a devastating
effect on the future prosperity of the county because it
destroyed the small pine which could have furnished
marketable timber by the 1930‘s or 1940's.

The amount of land put up for sale due to non-payment
of taxes increased steadily after 1885, and in 1900 and
again in 1901 four full pages of the HeralggTimes was
needed to list the descriptions of tracts being offered at
the annual tax sale. By 1904, the list was much smaller,
but following 1910 the amount of land offered for sale
began to increase once again:71

The state land policy of attempting to get the revert-
ing lands off the hands of the state, by offering them for

sale or homesteading, and back on to the tax rolls as

 

71. "Tax Sale Records," 1885-1919, Ogemaw County
Treasureris Office. ‘

65

quickly as possible resulted in many evils. The lands were
seldom bought by purchasers who had any intention of living
on the land, but rather for speculative purposes or for

the timber that remained on it.

A study made of the state land sales in nineteen
Michigan counties, including Ogemaw and the surrounding
counties of Iosco, Alcona, Crawford, Roscommon, and Oscoda
showed that over 82 percent of all the land sold had been
purchased by land speculators from large cities or towns.
The larger purchases in Ogemaw County included: John
Tolfree, West Branch banker and lumbermen - 7,158 acres;
Michigan Manufacturing and Lumber Company of Holly -

3,521 acres; U. M. Guilford, West Branch lumberman -

2,124 acres; and the Flint Land Company, Ltd. - 3,304
acres. There were many sales involving from four hundred
to eight hundred acres made to individuals living within
the county as well as to downstate purchasers.72

This accumulation of land in the hands of speculators
resulted in some of the most flagrant cases of misrepre-
sentation and out-right fraud in land sale history.
Speculators from Chicago, Detroit, and other cities bought
land for platting into resort developments or for small
holdings for farming, fruit raising, and similar purposes.
They paid almost nothing for this land, and then sold it

for as high as fifteen to twenty dollars per acre.

 

72. Michigan.Commission of Inquiry, Tax Lands and
Forestry, Re ort, pp. 51-59.

64

An example of such an occurence in Ogemaw County was
King's Addition to Beaver Lake. Albert W. King of Chicago
secured some land adjacent to the abandoned lumbering town
of Beaver Lake and in 1905 proceeded to plat this into
several thousand lots 125 feet by 25 feet in size. An
elaborate plat map of the addition was drawn showing plots
reserved for a school, hotel, depot, and park and with
streets having such names as Ogemaw Boulevard and King's
Avenue. Actually, there was no lake within miles of the
location and the soil was the poorest of sand. The number
of lots sold is not known, but the first addition approved
in May, 1905 was followed by King's Second Addition to
Beaver Lake in July.75 By 1910, several pages of the "Tax
Delinquent Return Roll" for Foster Township were needed
to list the delinquent lots, and the names of the owners
suggest Eastern or Southern European ancestry. Most of
the lots were probably sold to poor workers in Chicago.

Perhaps, even worse than the selling of worthless
lots was the advertising campaign launched after 1890
to lure farm settlers to the cut-over regions of Michigan.
Speculators were joined by the state government, "develop-
ment" bureaus, and local business men's associations in
publishing alluring advertisements lauding their worthless

lands as being among the best farming lands in the nation.

 

73. "Plat Book of Ogemaw County," Ogemaw County
hegister of Deeds Office.

65

Ogemaw County was advertised but not with quite the
reckless disregard for the facts as was done by some of
the northern business men's associations and development
companies.

The French Land and Lumber Company of Rose City
sponsored this advertisement in 1897:

"ROSE CITY"

This beautiful little town situated at
the terminus of the Rose City Branch is the head-
quarters of the French Land and Lumber Company.
They are offering for sale the finest farming
lands in Northern Michigan.

The farming lands of Ogemaw County and
especially in the vicinity of Rose City are the
very best in the State. he County has an
almost unlimited quality‘of unimproved real
estate for sale at from $4 to $8 per acre.

The soil is rich clay and well watered by
springs of the purest water in the world.

These lands in the vicinity of Rose
City where factories, business houses,
churches, an excellent graded school, and
railway communications made a most desired
location.

Residence lots in town sold on $25
payment.74

How did the facts fit this description? It was true that
Ogemaw had some of the finest farming land in Northern
Michigan. A classification of Ogemaw‘s soil on the basis
of its natural character and agricultural value indicates
that 13 percent is first class land, soil on which agri-
culture can be carried on as a business, and with a profit
in normal times, and 22 percent is second class land which

ordinarily can be depended upon to produce fair crops.75

 

74. Detroit and Mackinac Railway Co., Unnamed brochure
(Bay City, 1897). '

75. J. O. Veatch, Agricultural Land Classification and
Land Types of Michigan, Mich. Agr.‘Exp. Sta. Eul. 231 (East
Lansing,Revised, Oct. 1941).

66

Unfortunately, however, for any purchasers inveigled into

buying land by that advertisement, the lands of the French

Land and Lumber Company were located generally in areas

of second and third class soil. The implication that all

the soil in the vicinity of Rose City was a "rich clay"

was misleading, to say the least, inasmuch as the best

land in the area had already been settled. Only the

more hilly and less fertile lands were left, in the main.
The following advertisements, describing land in

adjoining Roscommon County are typical of the advertising

used to sell land in this region.76

We have a glorious climate, the best water on
earth, and easy cleared land which produces as
much money per acre as any in the United States
or Canada. Come and be one of us.
Wm. F. Johnston
Roscommon, Mich.
(Secretary of Roscommon
Business Men's Association

Roscommon County will grow more and better wheat,
oats, rye, speltz, timothy hay, clover seed, beans,
field peas, potatoes, cabbages, sugar beets, turnips,
and rutabagas to the acre than any other County in
the State, or in Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio ....

Our land will pay double the value per acre that the
average high priced land of Illinois, Indiana and
Ohio does. And yet such land can be bought for
$6.00 an acre up.

Chicago Offices: 607 Atwood Bldg. St. Helen Develop-
ment Co.
Corner Madison and Clark Streets. St. Helen, Michigan
This company, the St. Helen Development Company, built
large chicken coops on several of the plats it offered for

sale and sold them for chicken farms. They were soon

 

76. Michigan Commission of Inquiry, Tax Lands and
forestry, Report, pp. 48-50.

67

abandoned, however as the soil was too poor to grow feed.

Ogemaw County joined the Northeastern Development
Bureau, which was organized in 1910 to advertise northern
Michigan. One of the first brochures of the bureau simply
and rather truthfully stated:

One of the central counties .... Ogemaw is distinctly

a farm, fruit, and dairy county, especially the

latter. Probably no county in the state has as

many small lakes, rivers, and creeks, and flowing

wells of purest water as Ogemaw, which together

with its great variety and abundance of both

wild and tame ggasses, combine to form an ideal

dairy section. - ’

Although neither the county nor any local organizations
evidently tried to lure settlers to the plains area of the
county (with the exception of the "Industrial Edition" of
the West Branch Times in 1889), the general advertising
of the area aided unscrupulous promoters to sell the plains
land. They sometimes bought farms that were about to be
abandoned for as little as fifteen dollars for a 160 acre

homestead and sold them at prices ranging from 100 to 150

times the price.

One real estate agent was said to have paid $25.00
for 160 acres of land in Ogemaw which was afterwards sold
to a party in Ohio for $3,500.00, and in the deed the agent
reserved 125 maple trees when there wasn't a maple tree
within seven miles.78 The real value of this plains land

can be illustrated by the example of one pioneer homesteader

77. Northeastern Michigan Development Bureau, A Land of

phoeveioped Possibilities (any City, 1910), p. 12.

I“ 78. Michigan State Board of Equalization, Proceedings,
1896 (Lansing), p. 81.

68

in Foster Township who in 1889 had traded his farm on

which he had worked for ten years for a cow and a horse,

and considered he had got the best of the bargain. At

the time of trade the farm included ninety acres of cleared,
fenced land, frame house and barn, wagon shed, well,

chicken coop, and pig pen.79

The state was also guilty of inducing new settlers
to take up farms on worthless plains sand. After 1893 the
state was able to open much of the tax reverted land for
resettlement even though it was realized by many groups
that such sandy lands were of no value for agricultural
purposes. Between 1903 and 1911, 10,700 acres of this
land located in T 24 N., R.il E. (original Foster Township)
was sold by the state at an average price of seventy-three
cents an acre. Of this total nearly 6,000 acres were
purchased by four men undoubtedly for speculative purposes,
while the remainder went to twenty purchasers evidently
for agricultural purposes.80 Thus, the state was respon-
sible for a second tragedy on the plains and several:fam-
ilies were to face financial disaster.

The efforts of the various agencies and associations
to attract homeseekers to the area achieved remarkable
success. The population of the county jumped from 5,638
in 1894 to 9,121 in 1904, and the number of farms increased

 

79. Paul A. Herbert, "The Development of a Marginal
Land County in Northern Michigan" (Unpublished Ph.D. disser-
tation, Department of Forestry, University of Michigan,
1941), p. 18.

80. George S. McIntire, "A History of Tax-Delinquent
Land in Township 24 North, Range 1 East, Ogemaw County,
Michigan," Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters,
Pa 6T3, XXV (1959), pp. 429-510

69

over 83 percent.81 Nevertheless, the increase in population
was not evenly spread over the county. The depopulation of
the townships with the poorer soils continued and between
1895 and 1903 three more townships were vacated.

The increased number of farms was one of the most
promising portents for the future of the county. As late
as 1896 it was claimed that the county had to import large
quantities of flour, hay, meat, and feed to supply the

demand in excess of home production.82

As time passed,
not only the number of farms in the county increased, but
the farms already in existence were improved. While the
number of farms had increased 83 percent from 1894 to
1904, the valuation of farm land and buildings was
bettered by 109 percent, the value of implements by 210
percent, and the value of farm livestock had increased
276 percent.8:5
The agricultural growth of the county continued
rapidly until by 1910 there were 1,283 farms located in
the county, the highest ever counted with the exception
of the depression year of 1935. With total farm property
valued at $3,696,987, the county showed a healthy increase
of 196 percent for the preceding ten year period. Although

the number of farms remained stationary between 1910 and

1920 (there were two less in 1920), the valuation of farm

 

81. Michigan Secretary of State, Census for the State
of Michigan, 1894 & 1904, passim.

82. Michigan State Board of Equalization, Proceedingg,
1896, p. 81. _

83. Michigan Secretary of State, Census for the State
of Michigan, 1894 & 1904, passim.

70

preperty continued to increase significantly. By 1920,

the average value of farm land in Ogemaw County was $19.86
per acre as compared to $9.55 in 1910. However, this was
far below the state average of $50.40 an acre. The pro-
portion of the land area in farms increased from 15 percent
in 1890 to 26 percent in 1904, to 39.5 percent in 1910, and
reached 44.8 percent in 1920.84 Much of this increased
activity and the increase in value was because of the rise
in farm prices and land values brought on by the First World
War.

The most significant development in agriculture over
the period from 1890 to 1920 was the great increase in the
numbers of livestock kept with corresponding rises in the
production of hay and grain, with the exception of wheat
which declined after 1904. In 1920, there were 12,180 head
of cattle in the county as compared to but 2,525 head in
1890. The number of sheep increased from 810 to 10,643,
swine and poultry fourfold, and each farm averaged better
than three horses.

The amount of land in hay crops grew from 4,418 acres
in 1890 that averaged less than a ton per acre to 22,209
acres in 1920. In that year more than 80 percent of the
hay crop consisted of clover and the average yield was
nearly one-and-a-half tons an acre. The acreage of cats,

corn, field peas, barley, and rye all showed considerable

 

84. Less than half of the land in farms could be
classed as improved, however, In 1920, only 40.3 percent
of total farm land was improved and some of that was not
plowland.

71

increases.

By 1920, dairy products were by far the most important
source of farm income, whereas in the 'nineties wheat,
potatoes, and hay had been raised for the chief cash income.
The sale of livestock became more important, and though

potatoes, wheat, and field beans were raised their relative

importance in the over-all picture was much less.85

The emphasis on livestock and dairy farming, perhaps,
resulted from necessity. With only 13 percent of the soil
randed as first class the anount of good crop land was
strictly limited. However, second class land, which com-
prises approximately 22 percent of the land in the county
and some of the third class land86 can be used for pasturage
and to raise hay. Because of the glaciated character of
the soil there are wide local variations in fertility, and
each farm tends to have an area better suited for pasture
than for any other use.

Along with the increased stress on livestock and
dairy farming went the need for larger farms. Thus, there
were more farms in the eighty acre class than there were
forty acre farms in 1910 though the latter was in second
place. However, ten years late, while the eighty acre farm

was still the most prevalent, second place went to the

 

85. U. S. Bureau of the Census, Eleventh Census of the
United States: 1890, Agriculture, Vol. 5, passim; and‘Four-
teenth Census of the United States: 1920, _griculture,

Vol. 6, 'Part 1, passim.
86. Third class land makes up 25 percent of the total

land area.

72

farms in the 100 to 174 acre category, and the even
larger farm was becoming more numerous.

As the size of the farm increased, and more machinery
was needed the number of mortgaged farms grew as well as
the amount of farm tenancy. By 1920, of the farms reporting,
nearly twice as many had mortgages as did those without,
but the average mortgage was not excessive -- 27.3 percent
of the total value of the farm. The number of owner
operated farms declined from 92.7 percent of the total in
1900 to 85.9 in 1920.

Although the population of the county declined between
the years 1904 and 1910 and again between 1910 and 1920,
the large increase in the number of farms tended to dis-
tribute the inhabitants more evenly over the county,
excepting the jackpine plains area in the northwest corner.
As a result the townships of Ogemaw and Mills were reorgan-
ized in 1913 and 1914 respectively.

The peak of population in the county was reached in
1904 when 9,121 persons were enumerated by the state census
of that year. United States census data for 1910 showed a
population of 7,947, a decline of 13 percent, but there-
after the outward migration slowed down. From 1910 to
1920 the loss of population was but 2 percent. The decline
for the sixteen year period from 1904 to 1920 can be
attributed to the ebb of the hardwood lumbering industry
which had passed its height in 1906 and had virtually

ceased after 1916.

73

It is interesting to note that in 1904, the year the
county reached its peak of population, both the village of
West Eranch and the unincorporated town of Rose City
petitioned the state legislature for city charters which
were granted the following year. Both of these towns,
which were the two most important service and merchandising
centers in the county, suffered much more population loss
than did the county as a whole. West Branch showed a
loss of 13.4 percent and Rose City a decline of 35.3
percent from 1910 to 1920 as compared to 2 percent for
the county as a whole.

In keeping with the change from a lumbering to an
agricultural economy the character of the population was
also altered. The preportion of foreign born white people
in Ogemaw County, which in 1890 had been 38.1 percent as
compared to 26 percent for the state, declined much more
rapidly than the rest of the state. By 1920, the percentage
of foreign born whites was 15.3 percent, though 64.4 percent
of the native born had a least one parent of foreign birth.
Canada still led as the homeland of the great majority with
Germany and England following. The 1920 Census indicated
for the first time a sizeable ethnic pocket of Central
Europeans in the county as the Hungarians had become the
fourth largest group of foreign born. They settled mainly
on some of the poorer land in Mills Township and to a
lesser extent in Richland and Logan.

The number of males in comparison to the number of

74

females also declined after 1890. Whereas, according to
United States census data males made up 60.8 percent of
the population of the county in 1890 (52.1 percent for the
state) by 1920 they represented but 51.8 percent of the
population, which was less than the state average. The
percentage of females in the county rose most rapidly
from 1890 to 1894, rising nearly 6.5 percent, but after
that the change was gradual.

The change over from a lumbering to an agricultural
way of life did not change the dominant position of the
Republican Party. Rather the party was more securely in
control than previously. The Herald-Times in 1896 remarking
on the large crowd at the Republican Caucus in West Branch
stated that such a turn-out showed that the people were
interested in their duties.8r7

Records show that in 1912 over 81 percent of the
registered voters were Republican. For that year the
qualified voters of the county included 1,401 Republicans,
215 Democrats, 63 Socialists, 36 Prohibitionists, and 3
Independents. Some of the townships showed such wide
ranges as 141 Republican-5 Democratic and 154 Republican-
5 Democratic. Two of the townships had more Socialists
registered than Democrats.88 There did not appear to be
any trend which would aid in explaining why voters regis-

tered as they did. A careful study of the poll list of

 

87. The Herald-Times (west Branch), March 6,
88. "Enrollment Record, Ogemaw County, 1912
Ogemaw County Clerk's Office, passim.

1896.

75

Klacking Township showed that the plains farmers were about
as strongly Republican as were the farmers on the good
lands. A slight tendency was noted for the German Catholics
to remain Democratic while the German Lutherans had

become fiepublicans, however.

The increase in population and the number of farms
helped greatly, however, to change the way of life and the
outlook of the county.

A plat atlas of the county printed in 190389 showed
most of the land had passed out of the hands of the pine
lumber companies and was owned by hardwood operators or
by farmers. Showing the trend was the example of George
H. Plummer, who was said to have owned most of the township
of Ogemaw and village of Ogemaw Springs in 1889, but who
in 1903 owned only 680 acres in the township and no land
whatever around abandoned Ogemaw Springs. Instead John
Tolfree, a West Branch banker and hardwood lumber operator,
owned more than 3,200 acres in the township.

Quite a contrast was provided in the pattern of owner-
ship in West Branch Township (T. 22 N., R. 2 E.) as compared
to that in Hill and former Ogemaw townships. In West
Branch Township, with a high percentage of good farming
' land, the largest contiguous tract of land was 280 acres
owned by the Sage Land and Improvement Company. However,

that company owned about 7,700 acres in Hill where the soil

 

89. P. A. and J. W. Myers, Plat Book of Ogemaw CountyL
Michigan, (Minneapolis, 1903).

76

was less fertile and more hilly, and former Ogemaw Town-
ship, with similar soil and surface features (without the
lakes, however), was owned by a few large landholders.

The inability of the original owners to sell some of
their plains land was typified by the Jackson, Lansing and
Saginaw Railroad (M. C. R. R.) which still owned more than
2,000 acres of land in original Foster Township (T. 24 N.,
R. l E.) in 1903. The state, also, owned Section 16, the
primary school section, apparently never having been able
to dispose of it. Only five occupied farm homes were
signified on the map of the township.

With the increase in population also came an increase
in the number of organized school districts in the county,
and a large rise in school attendance. In 1890, there
were forty-three districts and by 1910 the number had
been enlarged to fifty. The actual number of new districts
was more than seven, however, because two townships, Foster
and Goodar, had become township units.

Faced with a tremendous loss in population, Foster
Township could not afford to maintain schools in the seven
organized districts located within its boundaries, and in
1897 succeeded in getting the state legislature to pass
a law making the township a single school district. The
law stated that the district would be a corporate body
known as "The Public Schools of the Township of Foster,"
and that the board of trustees would have the authority‘

to close any schools deemed necessary. Goodar Township

77

became a township unit district shortly after the turn of
the century.

The number of pupils enrolled in the schools in Ogemaw
County increased greatly from 1900 to 1905 and then rose
rather slowly until, in 1915, 2,473 pupils were attending
school. This was the peak of school attendance in the
county, and following 1915 the enrollment dropped steadily
for many years. By 1920, it had declined 20 percent from
the 1915 figure.90

As enrollment increased the quality of education also
advanced. Though the school at West Branch had been graded
in the mid-eighties, it was not until 1895 that other
districts began to follow suit. One of those to do so in
that year was the Rose City school. At that time the school
was yet a one-room, one-teacher school with an enrollment
of sixty-nine pupils. The teacher was paid the sum of
$280.00 for the nine months of school, and total expendi-
tures were but $1,685.00 for the entire year.91 However,
that same year the construction of a new building was
commenced which.was opened as a ten grade school with two
teachers. The first high school class of two members grad-
uated in 1898 with an impressive commencement program. The
essays -- "Elements of Success" and"Life's Pathway" -- read

by the graduates were almost lost amid three recitations

 

90. Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Reports 1890-1920 passim.

91: Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Report. 1895, passim.

78

presented by other pupils, two addresses, two mandolin
duets, songs by four individuals or groups, and the
presentation of diplomas.

Enrollment in the Rose City school continued to rise
and in 1905 an addition was added to the building and it
became a full twelve grade school and five instructors were
employed.

Other village schools in the county were also affected.
In 1895, there were but fifteen pupils attending the Lupton
school, while by 1903 a new brick building was built, a
four year high school added, and three teachers were needed.
In 1916, however, the eleventh and twelfth grades were
discontinued and pupils wishing the full high school course
were sent to Rose City. Prescott similarly experienced an
increasing attendance and although a new school had been
built about 1886 it was necessary to enlarge it in 1890
and add.an0ther teacher for a total of two, which, it was
believed, would be enough for all time. However, in 1912,
a third teacher was hired, and in 1915 a new two story
brick building was erected. It was not until 1917 that a
ten grade curriculum.was put into effect and 1921 when the
last two grades were added.92

The growth of the West Branch school was even more

remarkable. Increasing from an average enrollment of

101 in 1884 to 581 in 1910 the school saw many changes.

92. C. M. Campbell, "The Prescott Community," pp.
75-76. '

79

The number of teachers increased from two to twelve, and
a new high school was built. Attendance slipped between
1910 and 1915 and even more during the next five years.
By 1920, only 315 pupils were enrolled which was a smaller
total than in 1890.93 Part of this decrease in enrollment
can be attributed to the opening of St. Joseph High School
in West Branch in 1916.
During this period some of the more prosperous rural
districts built brick or cement block school houses, and
a few had enrollments large enough to warrant two teachers.
There evidently was a lack of interest in secondary
education as high school attendance records remained small
for the entire period. In 1905, there were 68 high school
pupils enrolled at West Eranch and 31 at Rose City. Though
the former had 125 high school pupils in 1915, its total
had declined to 95 by 1920, and Rose City had only 39.94
Teachers' salaries were low, considerably under the
average for the state as a whole, but were as high as those
of other counties in the area. The average monthly salary
in 1890 of men teachers in Ogemaw County was $37.43 and
$31.73 for women. Thirty years later the average monthly
wage had advanced to $88.60 and $70.97 for men and women

respectively. The superintendent of the West Branch school

 

93. Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Re orts, 1884-1920, passim.
94. Ibid.

80

received but $750.00 for the year 1904-05.95

Teachers were, as a rule in the rural schools, paid
even lower salaries and were paid at irregular intervals.
Not until 1908 did a teacher in District No. 4, Rose Town-
ship, receive $50.00 per month and the teacher who followed
got only $45.00. In addition, one of the pupils was paid
the sum of $2.00 per month in 1908 for doing the janitor
work.96

It was not customary to have nine months of classes
in most of the schools until after-1900. About that time
the rural schools began to have school from September to
May rather than the old two term system.

Annual expenditures of the school districts remained
low though they increased steadily after 1890. Teaching
expense was the most important item as the budget of a
school in 1891 shows. In that year the district paid
out $249.50 for teachers wages, $13.50 for books, $2.40 --
insurance, $2.20 -- digging well, $4.26 -- fuel (wood),
$3.00 -- clearing grounds, $9.00 -- board members'
salaries, and $15.87 -- other expenses. Total expenditures
for the year amounted to $299.73, but in 1910 this same
school had expenses amounting to $530.30 with $405.00

going for instructionflr7 Village school expenditures were

 

95. Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction,

Re orts 1884-1920 passim.

96: "District,Assessor's Book," District No. 1, Damon
Township, 1891-1913, passim. District No. 1, Damon Town-
ship became District No. 4, Rose Township in 1893 when the
eastern half of Damon was merged with Rose.

97. "District Assessor's Book," District No. 1, Damon
Township.- See footnote N0. 96.

81

almost as low proportionately. Rose City, with a ten grade
school in 1900, spent only $1,369.96 and $4,058.90 in
1915 when it had twelve grades. Disbursements of the West
french school, however, increased from $3,961.36 to
$13,372.54 for the same period.98

Most of the increase in funds needed to operate the
schools after 1900 was secured from greatly enlarged
primary payments though district taxes rose, too. The
amount of the primary payments increased more than tenfold
between 1900 and 1920 while the sum of the district taxes
collected raised less than four times the amount levied in
1900. The dependence of the schools on state aid had
begun.99

The district school of the time undoubtedly fell far
short of meeting the standards required of schools in the
southern part of the state. The local school board,
usually, was made up of three of the leading farmers, whose
only interest seemed to be the hiring of the teacher and
buying wood for the winter. As a result books were scarce,
teaching equipment was generally lacking, and educational
advantages were meager. The county school commissioner
seldom was able to make more than one or two visits to a

school during the year because of transportation problems.

Nevertheless, the pupils who received their education in

 

98. Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Re orts, 1890-1920, passim.
99. Ibid.

82

these schools got the fundamentals of reading, arithmetic,
spelling, history, and geography, and many went on into
business, teaching, and other professions.

The years following 1890 saw an increase of several
churches within the county -- many of them located in the
countryside and, therefore, serving the rural population.
Following the turn of the century the Congregational
Church in West Branch, faced with a falling membership
and the difficulty of keeping a pastor, disbanded, and its
building was taken over by the Free Methodists several years
later. The Protestant Episcopal denomination established
churches in West Branch and Rose City, and by 1913 the
latter town also had Lutheran and Free Methodist churches

as well. However, the Methodist Episcopal churches in
both towns seem to have remained the larger of the Protes-
tant sects.

The rural churches in the county were all of Protes-
tant denominations with the exception of St. Joseph's
Catholic Church at Klacking Creek which had been one of
the first churches established. Among the country churches
organized after 1890 were a Friends, three Methodist Epis-
copal, two Latter Day Saints, two Free Methodist, and a
German Baptist Brethern. The latter church was built by
a colony of members of that sect who settled in Logan Town-
ship in 1905 and for many years had a loyal congregation of

about one hundred members.100

 

100. C. M. Campbell, "The Prescott Community," p. 63.

83

Leisure time activities of the people of Ogemaw County
did not change radically from 1890 to 1920, though that
period saw the beginning of commercialized recreation.
However, most of the activity remained centered about the
many fraternal organizations and the churches.

Each community had at least one lodge or society and
most had several. In 1889, West Branch had chapters of
Masons, Odd-fellows, Knights of Pythias, Grand Army of the
Republic, and the Order of Eastern Star, and soon the other
villages and farming communities in the county had their
complement as well. In the countryside the Grange and
the Cleaners, a life insurance organization, were most
popular. The monthly meetings of the Gleaners were held
at the home of one of the members, usually alternating
from one home to another; the local Granges commonly had
halls. The whole family attended and enjoyed singing,
dancing, games, and pot luch suppers following the meetings.
The Farm.£hreau had secured a large membership by 1920,
and actively tried to provide many services to its members
and other farmers.

The social events of the county probably were typical
of those occurring in the village of Lupton, which were as
one writer recalls:

There were the delicious ice cream socials and

the oyster suppers, gotten.up by the W.C.T.U.

ladies to raise money with which to pay for

their hall, the dances at the Maccabee Hall,

and the occasional public installations of

the Sir Knight Maccabees, in all their re-
splendent regalia. Coupled with these were

84

the Minstrel shows and the Medicine shows, the

local temperance programs, and the revival

meetings, with coasting and skating parties to

give the needed variety.101

Another form of recreation enjoyed by many were the
excursions to Tawas Bay sponsored each Sunday during the
summer by the Detroit and MaCkinac Railway, and less frequent
ones to Bay City.

By 1905, West Branch and Rose City each had its
bowling alley and billiard hall and the moving picture
theater had arrived in West Branch before 1913. Within
a few years Rose City and Prescott had motion picture
theaters set up in converted store buildings, too. The
ice cream parlor, soon to become such a popular American
institution, was in evidence by 1905.102

With the end of the lumbering industry in sight

attempts were made to start other businesses in the county.
One of the first was the portland cement industry. Two
different attempts were made about 1900 to establish cement
plants, one in Edwards Township and the other near Lupton.
The Hecla Portland Cement and Coal Company of Day City
built a large plant on Edwards Lake in Edwards Township,
and a five-and-a-half mile branch of the Michigan Central
was constructed to connect the factory with the railroad.

Several Negroes were brought in to do the work, and for a

 

101. Adelia Lince, "Memories from the Pine," typescript
Manuscript, Rose City Public Library.
102. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory,

1905-1915, passim.

85

brief time a small settlement complete with store prospered.
This plant depended on the marl deposits of Edwards Lake
for raw material, and the company owned most of the land
around that lake and in addition large tracts on nearby
Lake George and Chapman Lake.103 However, the effort
failed and within a short time was abandoned. The en-
deavor of the Lupton Portland Cement Company to set up a
plant on North Lake met with even less success.

Around 1911, the Rose City Chemical Products Company,
a corporation, was formed by Ohio people to manufacture
turpentine from pine stumps. At first a large supply of
stumps was accumulated at Island Lake, north of Rose City,
and the cement foundation for a plant was built there. For
some reason this start was abandoned and a large steel
manufacturing plant was built in Rose City. However, only
a few gallons of turpentine were ever made, because the
company explained that the peculiar reddish color of the
turpentine prevented its sale. Nevertheless, it was be-
lieved by some local persons that the officers of the
company never intended to manufacture any turpentine.

Other portents for the future were the Chicago Last
and Die Company plant and a combined machine shop and
planing mill which had been established in West Branch
before 1905 and remained there for several years.

Keeping pace with the agricultural development of

 

103. P. A. and J. W. Myers, Plat Book of Oggmaw County,
Michigan.

86

the county were the erection of two elevators in West
Branch and one each in Rose City, Prescott, and Lupton.
Six banks, all privately were operating in the county by
1913, and West Branch and Rose City each had a cheese factory.
The first sign of what was to become one of the most
important factors in the future prosperity of the county
was the appearance by 1913 of the first garage in the
county, located in Prescott. Roads remained in poor con-
dition for many years. Most of the roads in the county
were under the supervision of the townships, and the
farmers were allowed to work out their road tax. Conse-
quently few roads ever received any gravel, and in the
clay areas were mostly impassable in the fall and spring.
At the time the state had little money to spend on
roads and the only state highways prior to 1920 were
numbers 55, 76, and 30. State highway 55 followed rather
closely the route of the old Tawas and Manistee State
Road across the central part of the county except that for
a distance deviated south to reach Prescott and then con-
tinued on to Whittemore in Iosco County. The only highway
entering the county from the south until shortly before
1920 was number 30 which connected West Branch with
Gladwin. Around 1918, Highway 76 was built between West
Branch and Standish where it connected with the Pay
City road. Needless to say, these state highways were in
about the same conditions as the local roads.

Nevertheless, the first beginnings of the tourist

87

industry were to be found though the railroads were de-
pended on for transporting any venturesome vacationer

into the county. Even before the Jackson, Lansing and
Saginaw Railroad had been completed as far as the Straits
of Mackinaw the potential value of the area as a vacation-
land was being discussed. In 1872, the Jackson News said:

This road is opening up a section of the country

that for wildness of scenery and picturesque

beauty cannot be suprassed in this country, by

penetrating these vast old forests . . . those

solitudes are soon to echo with the shrill

scream of the locomotive, and those beautiful

lakes that for ages have nestled in those

dark forests, will soon be the scenes of happy

parties from the highest circles of civili-

zation. As soon as the railroad is completed

a ride to Mackinaw and a visit to the inter-

mediate points of interest will be one of the

most.delig8£ful of summer trips that can be

imagined.

“Unfortunately for Ogemaw County and the entire area
the "vast old forests" were soon to be a broken, twisted,
unsightly mass of slashings and stumps or of burned and
blackened acres. ‘Under such conditions a prosperous
tourist trade did not develop.

The first actual resort development in the county
evidently was started at Peach Lake, about three miles
east of West franch, before 1889. There the Bay City Camp
Meeting Association laid out grounds for their annual grove
meetings, erected cottages, and a large dining hall waS‘

built at the edge of the lake.105 However, this site was

 

104. Jackson News, 1872, requoted from the Lumberman's
Gazette, August 1872, p. 18. .
'105. West Branch Times, Industrial Edition, 1889.

88

abandoned after a few years and a more permanent resort
development was still several years in the future.

The first recreational literature stressed the good
hunting and fishing to be found in the area. As early as
1885 Greenwood was described as being one of the best
points on the Michigan Central Railroad for sportsmen,
"game of all kinds being found in great abundance."106

The Detroit and Mackinac Railway early began to ad-
vertise the excellent fishing and hunting to found along
its line. Around 1897, the railroad published a pamphlet
extolling the outdoor sports in which the fishing and

hunting around Rose City, Lupton, and Prescott were men-

tioned. The sportsmen were told that they could find good

hotels, liveries, and guide services at either of the
three towns.107 In an 1898 brochure Rose City was said
to be in the midst of some of the best trout fishing in
the territory.108

Sage Lake, the largest lake in the county, seems to
have been the locale of the first two summer resort hotels
in Ogemaw. These were the Ranger House, Operated'by J. E.

Ranger who also had a store in connection with the hotel,

and one owned by A. H. Erown who had several cottages in

 

106. Michigan State Gazetteer and Business Directory;
1885 (Detroit,'l885), p. 896.

107. Detroit & Mackinac Railway Co., Unnamed tourist
brochure (an City, 1897), Transportation Library, Univer-
sity of Michigan. '

108. Detroit & Mackinac Railway Co., The Birth of
0c ueoc: a Le end of Pres ue Isle County, Michigan and
Other Tales (Detroit, 1898), Michigan Historical Col-
lectiSns, University of Michigan.

89

addition. Rates were low -- only one dollar per day -- at
both places, possibly reflecting the small patronage.109

More important to the county were the individually
owned cottage resorts, because they meant an important
addition to the taxable real estate. The first bona fide
cottage development was Crystal Beach Park, platted in 1914
on Bush Lake in Mills Township. This venture evidently
met with some success for in the next year Huffman's
Addition to Crystal Beach Park was platted as were Eymer's
Outing Grounds on Sage Lake and Grand View Park on Bush
Lake. The year 1917 saw two new developments and another
in 1919 ended the resort platting for the decade.110 These
early developments were platted mainly for local use; the
business and professional men of the nearby townsand villages
erected most of the first cottages, but they did open the
way for a more widespread movement in the 'twenties.

The budding resort business could not be expected to
provide the income which had been lost to the county when
the last of the timber disappeared. As already noted
thousands of acres of land were not suitable for farming
and had been abandoned and much of this same land had
little to recommend it for recreational purposes. Though

farm prices were high because of conditions engendered

by the war, signs of agricultural decline could be noted

 

109. Detroit & Mackinac Railway Co., Health and
Pleasure Resorts, Inexpensive Outings and Vacations (Bay
City, n.d.), Transportation Library, University of Michigan.

110. "Plat Book of Ogemaw County," Ogemaw County
Register of Deeds Office. .

 

90

such as the closing down of the cheese factory in Rose
City.

Thus, as the people of Ogemaw County entered the
'twenties the future of the area did not appear as bright
as it had in 1889. With vast stretches of uninhabited
land, hundreds of poorly developed farms, and a declining

population further economic distress appeared inevitable.

CHAPTER III
Ogemaw Develops a Diversified Economy

As the inhabitants of Ogemaw County paused momentarily
on the threshold of the 'twenties they were riding the high
tide of propserity engendered by the First World War.

Market prices of farm produce were still high and land
values had climbed steadily. The average farmer optimis-
tically believed his good fortune would continue, and as
Ogemaw was almost exclusively an agricultural county by
1920 the "good times" were reflected over the entire county.

The prices of farm land had risen magically during
the war until by 1920 farm land values had more than
doubled from the 1910 amount. High prices continued
until 1921, when the market price of produce dropped
in the aftermath of the short depression that began in
1920. However, land prices did not fall accordingly.

The average value per acre of farm land in 1925 was $18.61,
having declined by $1.25 per acre from 1920.111
During the land boom many farmers from Southern

Michigan had purchased farms at the inflated prices. A
one hundred acre farm in Klacking Township, which had cost
its owner $4,000 in 1906, was sold in 1919 for $9,000.

The new owner was unable to make the payments required by

 

111. U. S. Ehreau of the Census, United States Census
Of Agriculture: 1925. The Northern States, Part 1, p. 607.

92

the contract because of the decrease in farm prices, and
some four ywars later the former owner once again had the
farm.

Though the number of farms had declined between 1920
and 1925, acreage of land actually in crops did not fall
greatly which suggests that the farms on the poorer soils

were once more being abandoned. Nevertheless, the value

of crops harvested in 1925 was less than a third of that
in 1920.

The number of farms continued to decline during the
last five years of the decade so that by 1930 only 985
were in existence.112 Halted by the great depression

beginning in 1929, the downward trend was stopped and

soon was reversed as large numbers of city laborers began
returning to the land where living costs were lower. In
1935, with the nation still in the throes of the depression,
1,312 farms were enumerated and more land was found in
farms than at any other time in the history of the county.
However, the amount of cropland harvested did not increase
greatly and there were fewer cattle, hogs, and sheep than
in 1930.115

Such a condition meant that many of these "new" farms
were farms in name only and were not capable of supplying

even the necessities of life to the operator and his family.

 

112.'U. S. Bureau of the Census,r Fifteenth Census of the
United States: 1930, Agriculture, Vol. 11, Part 1, passim.
ll3.‘U. S. Bureau of the Census, United States Census
of Agriculture: 1935, Vols. I and II, passim.

93

Consequently, they were forced to seek assistance, adding
to the numbers on relief.

However, in the late 'thirties as the wheels of in-
dustry began to turn at an increasing tempo the marginal
and part time farmers began returning to the cities. By
1940, the number of farms had dropped to 1,080, and then
increased slightly to 1,093 in 1945.114 The amount of
cropland harvested has remained remarkably stable since
1925 indicating that agricultural land usage has undoubt-
edly reached its optimum development.

The farms found in Ogemaw County today are, on the
whole, in much better condition than they were fifteen or
twenty years ago. This has been brought about by a variety
of reasons -— one of the most important necessarily being
the great increase in farm prices. In 1932, wheat had been
selling for 40 cents a bushel, oats at 16 cents per bushel,
beans at $1.50 per hundred weight, pork at $3.45 and beef
for $3.25 per hundred weight, and butterfat at 21 cents
per pounds.115 Prices had increased by 1936, but they were
still low with the market price of wheat at 85 cents a
bushel, oats at 24 cents per bushel, beans - $1.90 per
hundred, butterfat - 35 cents a pound, alfalfa seed - $9.00
a bushel, and eggs - 20 cents per dozen.116

With the beginning of the Second World War in 1939

 

114. U. S. Ehreau of the Census, United States Census
of Agriculture: 1945, Vol. I, Part 6, pp. 30- 31.

115. Campbell, "The Prescott Community," , p. 49.

116. Ogemaw County Herald (Nest Branch), January 30,
1936.

94

farm prices began to advance steadily and in general
reached their peak in 1948. They did not decline greatly,
however, as in 1951 wheat was bringing $2.20 per bushel,
oats - 89 cents per bushel, beans - $6.50 per hundred
weight, eggs - 39 cents a dozen, and alfalfa seed - $37.80
per bushel. Of even more significance was the good prices
for livestock. Hogs were selling at $21.50 per hundred,
medium to good steers for $26.50 per hundred up, good to
choice veal calves at $38.00 to $41.50 a hundred, and

cull sheep were bringing more than choice ones did during
the depression.117 Good dairy cows -- grades not pure-
breds -- were bringing as much as $390.00 at farm auction
sales.

High livestock prices were most important to the
economy of the county because the trend toward dairying
and livestock raising which had already started before
1920 was very pronounced by 1951. Farmers have been
made to realize that they will not only make more money
from livestock, but also that their land is not suited to
cash-crop farming. This change has been brought about
through the help of the county agricultural agent, 4-H
club work, and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration
and Soil Conservation Service. '

The importance of the livestock and dairying industry

was evident from the 1945 census. The value of all crops

 

117. Ogemaw Countngerald, April 26, 1951.

95

harvested had been $1,571,845, while only $194,608 of this

amount was sold, but the value of all livestock and live-

stock products sold amounted to $51,203,973.118
By 1945, the principle farm enterprises in order of

their monetary importance were: dairying, hay, and beef

cattle, with poultry, sheep, hogs, oats, and wheat also

of major importance. As far as crops were concerned,

their acreage importance had changed little since 1925.

In 1944, 57.5 percent of the cropland was in hay with corn,

oats, wheat, beans, and potatoes following in that order.

The acreage of wheat increased during the war because of

government requests for that product, though the production

of potatoes has declined steadily over the years. Over

half the hay grown was classed as alfalfa and the sale

of alfalfa seed had become a major source of farm income.
Attempts had been made to grow sugar beets, flax,

and fruits but without notable success. Soil and climate

features were not suitable and the expense of transporting

the product to the distant processing plants was too great.

The raising of cucumbers has been important at times,

particularly during the 'twenties and again after 1940.

Although the West Eranch.21ggg in 1889 had prophesied

that Ogemaw would become a great fruit county the number

of fruit trees (apple, cherry, pear, plum, and peach)

declined from 31,303 in 1920 to 20,853 in 1940, increasing

 

118. U. S. Bureau of the Census, United States Census
of Agriculture: 1945, Vol. I, Part 6, pp. 54-55 & 104-105.

96

again to 25,486 in 1945. Nearly all the trees are found

in small orchards on the regular farms, the 1945 census
classifying only five fruit farms. Over four-fifths of

the trees are apple, and cherry trees account for over

half of the remainder. Apples, cherries, and pears bear
quite regularly, but the danger of unseasonable frosts
probably will prevent the growth of commercial fruit farming
on a large scale. However, the constant improvement and
development of more hardy varieties may in time change

the situation.

The improvement of agricultural practices and the
awareness of the people of the need for changes has shown
a lack of consistency. Though the services of a county
agricultural agent had been engaged by the Ogemaw County
Farm Bureau in 1919, as late as 1923, one-third of the
members of the county board of supervisors voted against
appropriating $1,200.00 to meet the county's share of the
expenses of the agricultural agent.119 The county has
never secured a full time 4-H club agent, but shares one
with Arenac and Iosco counties. As a result the amount of
time the agent can spend in the county is limited, and
enrollment of club members has remained lower than it
otherwise might have been. Though the first 4-H club was
formed in 1922 only 96 projects were completed as late as

 

119. Ogemaw County Board of Supervisors, Proceedinggg
1923-24.

97

1935. Between 1935 and 1943 the number of projects completed
averaged 337, and then jumped sharply to 732 in 1944 when
additional interest was aroused because of the war effort.
Difficulty has been experienced in keeping up enrollment
due to the increased number of closed rural schools, but
this complication can be overcome as is shown by the 4-H
club program in the Rose City school.

However, many changes have occurred which point to
the greater prosperity of the agricultural segment of the
county and to the better utilization of natural resources.
The number of dairy farms increased from 211 in 1930 to
351 in 1945, the number of livestock and poultry farms
from 113 to 177, while the total number of general farms
decreased from 459 to 213. The average farm has continued
to increase in size. The number of farms of less than
100 acres decreased from 652 to 428 between 1925 and 1945.

The increasing use of expensive machinery has made
it imperative for the farm operator to enlarge his acreage

of crop land. The number of tractors on Ogemaw County farms

has grown from 96 in 1930 to 490 in 1945, but the total
number of automobiles and trucks on farms has shown less
increment. That much of the machinery had been purchased
after 1940 is shown by the 105 percent increase in the
value of farm.implement and machinery for the five year

period from 1940 to 1945.120 Along with the augumented

 

1203 U0 S. Bureau of the Census, United States Census
of Agriculture: 1945, Vol. I, Part 6, pp. 30-31.

98

use of machinery has gone a tremendous decline in the
number of farms hiring farm labor (375 in 1925 vs. 79 in
1945). The number of farms reporting the use of electric-
ity and having running water, bathrooms, and radios has
grown phenomenally. The number of telephones in farm
homes is the only convenience which has shown a decline.

This decline in the number of telephones can partially
be explained by the rise in telephone rates. When tele-
phone service cost but one dollar per month nearly every
farm along a line had a telephone, but when rates were
raised in the ‘thirties great numbers of subscribers had
their telephones removed, and many of the lines were aban-
doned. Ogemaw County has only one Michigan Bell exchange
(at West Branch) while those at Rose City, Prescott, and
South Branch have been small independent companies. Mich-
igan Bell has greatly expanded its farm line service since
the end of the Second World War, however.

Interest has also been shown in improving the strains
of livestock and in bettering the yields of crops. Fairly
large numbers of registered cattle have been secured --
among the most popular being Holstein, frown Swiss, Here-
ford, and Shorthorn -- and the Michigan State College Ram
Truck has for years made scheduled stops at West Eranch so
local sheep raisers could buy better sires. Ogemaw County
Hereford breeders were among the leaders in organizing the
Northeastern Michigan Hereford Calf Association. This

organization was formed to promote the raising of feeder

99

cattle in the area, and since 1945 has held annual Hereford
calf and feeder sales at West Eranch where members can sell
their young cattle to those interested in fattening the
cattle for market. The cattle are also judged for quality
prior to the sale. New varieties of grains have been tried
and the use of commercial fertilizers has become more
widespread.

In spite of the great improvement in the overall
agricultural situation there were still many indications
of poor, unrewarding farms. The 1945 census classified
211 farms in the county as subsistence farms, those that
produce only enough for the home use of the family leaving
little for sale. As late as 1944, 503 farms were reported
whose total value of farm products sold or used by the
farm household for the year was less than $1,000, while
the median farm had an agricultural income of $1,500 to
$2,499. Though farm tenancy has not become a major problem,
the number of mortgaged farms continued to remain large
with 43.4 percent of all owner operated farms having mort-
gages in 1940. This was diminution from the 1930 total,
however, These and other similar indications show that a
large fraction of the agricultural population of the county
does not enjoy a very prosperous existence.

One of the most significant facts to emerge from the
data of the 1945 census was the almost complete abandonment
of the sandy plains fer agricultural purposes. Foster Town-

ship, actually two-and-a-half townships in size, was the

100

121 Original Foster

location of only one farm in that year.
Township (T. 24 N., R. 1 E.) which had some seventy-nine
farms in the early 1880's had not one in 1945.

As already noted the depression of the 1930's adversely
affected the agricultural economy of the county by lowering
farm prices and forcing large numbers of city dwellers to
attempt farming the sub—marginal lands. Luckily for Oge-
maw County two entirely different causes tended to
mitigate the effects of the depression on the county as
a whole. These were the tourist industry which had become
fairly well established by 1930 and the discovery of oil
in 1933.

The tourist trade became an important factor in the
prosperity of the county during the 'twenties. The general
thriving conditions of the cities coupled with the improve-
ment of automobile transportation motivated large numbers
of urban dwellers to become interested in acquiring summer
cottage sites. Ogemaw County, lying not too far distant
from the industrial centers of Michigan and Ohio, was in
a favorable location for early deve10pment. The county
has a total of 179 lakes, of which 121 are larger than
five acres in area. It has been estimated that 63 of
these have 52 miles of good shore line capable of resort

122
development.

 

121. U. S. Ehreau of the Census, United States Census
of Aggiculture: 1945, Photostats of data relative to Ogemaw
County minor civil divisions.

122. Michigan Department of Conservation, Land Econ-
omic Survey, "Forest and Economic Heport of Ogemaw County"
(Lansing, 1923). - .

101

In 1923, the Land Economic Survey found cottage de-
velopments on twenty-two lakes with only about four-and-
a-half miles of shore line actually developed. During the
decade of the 'twenties, however, seventeen more lakeside
subdivisions were opened, though the tempo was slowed down
decidedly by the depression -- only seven plats being
established from 1930 to 1940.12:5

The depression brought a slackening in resort con-
struction, but it did usher in the era of the rambling
tourist who stayed but a day or two in one place and then
moved on. The state truck lines into the county had been
greatly improved by 1930. Highway 76 had been paved as
far as West Branch and M-33 was constructed from M-55 to
Rose City in 1925 and from Rose City north to Rio in 1926.
Commencing in 1932 the Ogemaw County Road Commission began
taking over the township roads, a task that was completed
by 1936. This was the real beginning of better roads in
the countryside as the roads were then graded and graveled,
and snow was removed in the winter.

Much more attention was shown to the tourist trade
by the business men after the advent of the depression than
before. Merchants at West Branch promoted a Trout Festival
in the spring beginning in the early 'thirties while an
annual Partridge Festival was sponsored at Rose City start-

ing in 1934. These occasions were complete with contests,

 

123. "Plat Ebok of Ogemaw County," Ogemaw County
Register of Deeds Office. .

102

parades, and entertainment and drew large crowds. A model
tourist park on Houghton Creek was established in Rose
City in 1934, also, and was noted for its log cabins,
rustic dining pavilion, baseball diamond, and shuffle-
board and tennis courts. Indicative of the change was

the action of the county board of supervisors which in
1933 voted to become a member of the East Michigan Tourist
Association. County membership in the old Northeastern
Michigan Development Bureau was dropped completely in 1938,
probably reflecting the opinion that it was almost impossible
to attract industry to the county, but tourists would

come. The Ogemaw County Tourist and Sportsman's Associa-
tion was organized in the late 1930‘s and in co-operation
with other county agencies advertised Ogemaw County as the
"all-year Sportsman's Paradise." The fishing in its many
lakes and miles of trout streams, the hunting of deer and
small game, and the attractions of its thousands of acres
of wild land were all pointed out.

The Civilian Conservation Corps did much to make the
area more attractive to campers and sportsmen during the
'thirties. Trout streams were improved, camp grounds
complete with tables and stoves were built on Ambrose
Lake in Foster Township and on Island and Loon lakes
north of Rose City, and many acres of plains land were
planted with pine which in time Will add much beauty to
the area and provide employment to a number of men.

The war brought an end to the organized festivals,

103

but it also put dollars into the pockets of the city worker
once again. Starting in 1940, renewed activity was shown
in resort development, and in the following ten years no
less than forty-two subdivisions were platted and opened
for sale -- fourteen in the year 1946 alone. This same
period saw large numbers of cabins erected far from any
lake shore as well, to be utilized mainly as deer hunting
abodes. It is hard to estimate the importance of the deer
hunting season, but a veritable army of red-garbed men
(and women) descend on the county each fall, taxing the
facilities of the county to their utmost. In 1943, the
ladies of the Rose City Community Club, due to the short-
age of restaurants in the town, served over four thousand
meals during deer season. Meals have been served every
year since in the Rose City Community Building, a beauti-
ful log building constructed with federal funds during

the depression, but the success of the first year has
never been equalled.

In 1948, the Ogemaw County Ski Park was opened
providing a source of winter tourist revenue, and a winter
sports carnival is held annually. Fishing through the
ice has become very popular, and because the roads are
kept free of snow many cottage owners have begun the prac-
tice of coming up for week ends during the winter where
formerly they had kept their cottages closed for several
months out of the year. 1

The Rifle River Area, a 4,277 acre tract of land

104

enclosing the headwaters of the Rifle River, will undoubt-
edly in time become a popular recreational area. This
expanse of wild land, which was purchased by the State
Conservation Department in 1944 for $75,000, was orig-
inally the summer estate of the late automobile manufacturer
Harry M. Jewett, who spent about a quarter of a million
dollars in constructing fences; building roads, a beauti-
ful log lodge, and other buildings; improving the waters;
and rearing pheasants. Located about fliur miles east of
Rose City the area has nine lakes varying from an acre-
and-a-half to 125 acres in size and many miles of trout
streams. In 1950, the Conservation Department began a
$200,000 improvement program for the upper watershed of
the Rifle River to restore the river to its original trout
fishing productivity.

It is undeniable that the tourist industry has become
one of the greatest sources of income for the county. Its
importance to the merchants in the towns and at the cross
roads can hardly be imagined. During the off-season the
theater in Rose City goes on a two or three night a week
schedule, the bakery, hotel and self-serve laundry close
their doors, and other stores and service establishments
experience a distinct loss of trade. The remaining villages
and towns of the county show the same reliance on the
tourist trade, though the merchants of-West Branch, which
is the banking and service center for a wide area, are

somewhat less dependent on the summer trade for their

105

livelihood.

The widespread ownership of resort property has con-
tributed greatly to the enlargement of the tax base of the
county. The valuations of the three townships of Mills,
Foster, and Hill, which have experienced a large part of
the resort construction, have increased much more than
have the valuations of the other townships. Between 1915
and 1951 taxable property had increased 490 percent in
Mills, 360 percent in Foster, and 319 percent in Hill as
compared to 150 percent for the county as a whole.124

The first test oil wells in Ogemaw County were drilled
in 1932 in Horton Township, but the first producing well
was not completed until July 20, 1933 and that was located
in.West Branch Township. Initial production was rated
at only 190 barrels per day, but a wave of drilling and
speculation was touched off that brought several new resi-
dents to the West Branch area and induced considerable
construction work. Oil production in Ogemaw County has
never been great and the size of the West Branch field was
limited. By August 1936, there were 128 wells producing
2,300 barrels of petroleum a day, and though the number of
active wells had increased to 225 in 1943, daily production
had diminished to 1,350 barrels.125 An oil refinery was

 

124. Ogemaw County Ebard of Supervisors, Proceedingg,
1915-16 and April session, 1951, passim.

125. Margaret Koopman and Rupert Koeninger, eds.,
"Rural Life in Ogemaw County" (Central Michigan College,
1945), mimeographed, p. 17.

106

built in West Branch in 1936 which has a capacity of 1,500
barrels of crude petroleum.per day, but the plant was so
constructed that it could be Operated profitably on a 500
barrel run.]'26

Although output has continued to decline, exploratory
drilling still goes on and a small field in Foster Town-
ship was discovered recently. The Arenac Field, located
about four miles south of Prescott, was opened in 1937 and
has been connected by a pipeline to the West Eranch.re-
finery.

The tourist and oil industries were unable to provide
employment for everyone in the county who was out of work
or to be of much assistance to the average farmer. Even
before the depression had commenced, signs that the economy
of the county was deteriorating were in evidence. The
number of farms had declined greatly after 1920, no in-
dustry had replaced the dormant lumber and timber industry,
and the elevator at Lupton and one of the Rose City banks
were discontinued. As early as 1926 the Detroit and
Mackinac Railway had petitioned the Interstate Commerce
Commission and the Michigan Public Utilities Commission

for permission to abandon its Rose City Branch. Though
denied at that time, the railway renewed it plea in 1929.
According to the railway's freight tonnage on the branCh
had declined from 21,656 tons in 1921 to 11,258 tons in

126. Ogemaw County Herald, January 30, 1936.

107

1925, but then increased to 23,202 tons in 1928 and 29,771
tons for the first ten months of 1929.127

Despite the advance in freight tonnage and the protests
of the state attorney general's office that public aid had
been granted the railway at the time of the construction
of the branch, of the line's unfair method of apportioning
tonnage and revenue to its branches, and of the hardships
which would ensue to the people along the branch if it was
removed, the Interstate Commerce Commission gave the
Detroit and Hackinac permission to abandon the branch to
both interstate and intrastate commerce because the
Michigan Public Utilities Commission refused to concur in
the decision. The Interstate Commerce Commission granted
the request because it declared there was no indication of
any possible future developments along the branch, which
certainly seemed true at the time. Nevertheless, this

action has probably destroyed any chance for factory con-

struction in Rose City or other villages on the former
branch in this era of decentralization of industry.

Though the removal of the railroad did not make the
depression any more severe, it was a sign of the lack of
industry to make use of the large numbers of unemployed.
Other signs of the depression were not lacking, either. In
1933, the board of supervisors passed resolutions asking

the federal government to expand its forestry projects, and

 

127. Interstate Commerce Commission, Reports, Vol. 133,
pp. 158, and Vol. 162, p. 210.

108

the state to finish paving M-76 between West Branch and
Roscommon and to extend the time limit for paying taxes for
the year 1933. The following year the board asked the
Civil Works Administration to raise its quota for Ogemaw
County because it was "entirely too low to take care of
approximately 1,600 registrations registered with the
National Reemployment Commission."128

‘Unemployment was a serious problem in the county after
1930, as many unemployed city workers returned to their old
homes adding to the numbers on the relief rolls. For the
fiscal year ending October 1, 1930 the county spent a
total of $7,476.52 for relief, of which $4,412.05 went
for expenses of the county poor-farm, while for the year
1955 the county paid out $47,268.64. By 1955, though
there were still 567 persons listed on the unemployment
rolls the cost of relief'to the county had dropped because
of increasing federal help. In that year the county spent
but $9,446.63 in oomparison to $84,228.54 spent by the
Federal Government'for direct and work relief.129

That the depression did not end until after the
Second World War had started seems evident, for as late
as the year ending July 1939 the direct relief load of
the county was $21,365.55 which had been reduced to

91,972.82 by 1942. Though unemployment has not been serious

 

. 128. Ogemaw County Beard of Supervisors, Proceedings1

1933-34, passim.

129._0gemaw County Board of Supervisors, Proceedings,
1230-31 -- l935-36,_pgssim.

109

since then the budget of the Ogemaw County Social Welfare

Bureau for 1951 amounted to $22,600.00, showing how diffi-

cult it is to cut down on governmental expenses.130
The hotel and the elevator in Rose City burned

during the mid—thirties and were not rebuilt, and while

a second elevator had been erected in Prescott in the early

'twenties it was only operated part time during the de-‘

pression. Both banks in Prescott and the one at Rose City

went into bankruptcy and never reopened.

The land problem, already serious before 1926, became

even more grave after 1925. In 1923, less than 5 percent
of the total land area of the county was owned by the
state or Federal governments. In two years, -- 1927 and
1928 -- however, 27,960 acres of reverted tax lands were
deeded to the Conservation Department by the auditor
general, and by 1940 the state held 77,597 acres of land
in Ogemaw County as well as 4,497 platted lots.151 The
total has declined somewhat since, though in 1945 the
state and federal governments combined owned about 23
percent of the land area.152 Much of this land lies in
the Ogemaw State Forest, the Ogemaw State Game Refuge, and

the Huron National Forest, and so is not for sale.

The large governmental holdings in Ogemaw and similar

 

130. Ibid., 1950-51.

131. Michigan Department of Conservation, Biennial
Re orts, 1927-1928 and 1939-1940, passim.

132. Ibid., 1945-1946, pp. 69-70; and Lauren H. Brown,
Michigan Farm Crganization and Practices4_Type-of-Farming
AreaI9,‘MiCh. Agr. Exp.“Sta.'Spec._Bul. 336 (E.'Lansing,
Feb. 1946), p. 30.

110

counties took such a large percentage of the land off the
tax rolls that in 1917 the state legislature voted to pay
five cents an acre annually on all tax homestead and swamp
lands held by the state. This was increased to ten cents
in 1927 and at the same time it voted to give twenty-five
cents per acre on all state forest and game preserve lands.

Land held for speculation constituted 55 percent of
the total in 1923 when the Conservation Department con-

133

ducted its survey, and five years later over 7,000 acres

was owned by land companies and approximately 6,100 acres

134 Much of this land was allowed to re-

by various banks.
vert for non-payment of taxes during the depression. Though
large amounts of land continue to be purchased by persons
living outside the county, their motives are usually differ-
ent, since they are generally purchasing the land for their

own use as hunting or fishing grounds or cottage sites

rather than buying it for speculative purposes.

Population had fallen steadily after 1904 reaching a
low of 6,595 persons in 1930. Because of the homeward
trend caused by the depression, the increment of oil field
laborers, and the increasing tourist industry, population

raised to 8,720 in 1940 and to 9,281 in 1950, an all-time

high for the county, not even surpassed during the lumbering

 

133. Michigan Department of Conservation, Land Economic
Survey, "Soil and Agricultural Report of Ogemaw County"
(Lansing, 1923). _

134. Michigan Department of Conservation, Land Economic
Survey, "Ownership Maps of Ogemaw County" (Lansing, 1928).

111

era. Census data for 1940 disclosed that the foreign born
element of the population had fallen to a mere 7.9 percent.
Most of them had come to the United States several years
previous for there were only forty-nine foreign born under
thirty-five years of age.

The depression affected politics in Ogemaw County as
it did throughout the nation. As late as the November
election in 1930 the Republican candidate for governor
showed a three to one lead over his Democratic Opponent in
the county and the Republican candidate for United States
Representative had a majority of sixteen to one. However,
the tide began to turn somewhat and Franklin D. Roosevelt
was able to secure majorities, albeit rather small (1,774
to 1,631 in 1936), in 1932 and 1936. A Democratic county
sheriff and county clerk were also elected, but that was
about the extent of the Democratic victories. By 1938,
the Republicans were firmly in control once again except
for the county clerkship which was not recaptured until
1944. Republican majorities have never been as large

155 West Branch

since 1938 as they were previous to 1932.
which has a large segment of its population connected

with the oil industry has been more heavily DemoCratic than
the rest of the county, as a rule. The president of the

refining corporation has been the titular head of the city

 

135. Ogemaw County Ebard of Canvassers, "Reports,"
1930-1950, passim. _

112

and county Democratic organizations and was mayor of West
french for several years.

Retail and wholesale trade and manufacturing have all
shown large gains since 1930. In that year 101 retail
outlets were located in the county with sales amounting
to nearly $392,000,000,“56 but the special census of busi-
ness in 1933 disclosed that there were but 77 stores
with sales of $1,076,000.137 By 1946, the number of
retail and service establishments had increased to 184

which reported sales of $8,295,000.138

Between 1930 and
1948, the number of food stores increased from 16 to 50,
restaurants and lunch rooms from 5 to 36, and gasoline
stations from 14 to 29. No better proof is needed of the
great importance of the tourist to the county.

The number of wholesale establishments has kept pace
with the growth of the county, too. There were 13 in 1930
as compared to 21 in 1948 while sales had grown from
$550,698 to $3,871,000. Manufacturing has also shown great
progress with the number of plants increasing from 4 in
1959 to 12 in 1947.139 In the latter year there were 116

employees who earned $287,000 in salaries and wages.

Many kinds of manufacturing establishments are found

 

136. U. S. Bareau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of
the United States: 1930, Distribution,_V61._1, assim.
‘137. U} 8. Bureau of the Census, Census of merican
Business: 1933, Retail Distribution, Vol. III, p. 26.
138.‘Hand MONally Commercial Atlas and Marketing
Guide, 82nd Edition (New—York, 1951), p. 216.
139. Rand McNally Commercial Atlas and Marketing
Guide, 82nd Edition, p. 217.

 

113

in the county. Among them are two milk plants, soda pop
plant, three sawmills, refinery, furniture factory, box
factory, and a precision tool plant. The latter, a large
factory in.West Branch which went into production in 1950,
employs two shifts of workers.

A majority of the new stores and manufacturing plants
have concentrated in West Branch and Rose City, and both
towns look much more prosperous than they did ten or fif-
teen years ago. Since 1940, twenty-one businesses have
been established at Rose City including a hotel, motel,
two cabin camps, cheese plant, two sawmills, and a garage
and automobile agency. In 1951, there were fifty business
places at Rose City in comparison to thirty-seven in 1905
at the height of Rose City's lumbering activity. West
Branch has shown an even larger increment for the same
period with approximately 150 business establishments140
against 87 in 1905. The other villages of the county and
sites of greatest resort development have also benefited.

The period since 1920 has seen a marked change occur
in the educational system of the county. The one room
school has been disappearing gradually -- some being
absorbed into village school systems while other school
districts have closed their schools and transport their
pupils.

It has been already noted that the peak of school on-

 

140. West Branch Telephone Directory, April, 1951.

114

rollment had been reached in 1915 and as the numbers of
school children dwindled many of the districts discovered
they had neither the school population nor the income to
afford keeping their schools open. This was first true
in the sandy soil areas of the county and during the
'twenties several of the schools were closed, never to be
reopened. The number of rural districts maintaining school
remained about forty-two, however, for a number of years.
It was not until the early 'forties that their rapid
decline had set in, and by 1945 only twenty-five rural
schools were open, which had further dropped to twenty-
four in 1950.141 (See Fig. 9)

There were, in 1951, only two public high schools in
operation in the county. The West Eranch school has
shown the most remarkable growth of any school in the
county -- its enrollment increasing from 315 in 1930 to
834 in 1950 and the number of instructors from 12 to 32.
The Rose City school remained small until in 1943 when a
reorganization took place and a township unit was formed.
Other districts have been annexed and by 1948 it was the
largest district in the county with respect to land area.
In 1950, the school's attendance was 383 and 16 teachers
were employed as compared to 163 pupils and 7 teachers in

1930.

 

141. Ogemaw County School Commissioner, School
Directories, 1930-1950, passim.

115

The high school at Prescott burned in 1941 and never
was replaced because of the refusal of the voters to
approve the financing of a bond issue. Consequently,
the high school pupils are transported to Sterling,
though a grade school has been built. This was in direct

contrast to the action of the people of the district at
Rose City, whose school burned in 1945. There, plans for
rebuilding were started immediately and a new high school
was ready for occupancy in 1948. The cost of maintaining
a high school in the modern age is a heavy burden on the
taxpayers because of the low valuations. While most of
the rural school districts had a tax of but six mills

in 1950, the school tax of the West Branch district was
set at twenty—five mills and the Rose City district was
collecting a twenty-four mill levy. The consolidation

of rural school districts with these two high school dis-
tricts would appear to be the logical way of dividing the
tax-burden more fairly, as most of the rural school grad-
uates must attend one of these schools if they are to
receive the benefit of a high school education.

Financing of education has become increasingly the
responsibility of the state. The inability of the dis-
tricts of the county to support a school with the many
classes and services demanded by modern education is
shown by a breakdown of the receipts of the school districts.

In 1925, $54,625.19 was collected in district taxes and

116

$37,898.00 was received from the State Primary Fund. By
1947, only $32,736.31 was secured from the district school
levy,twhile $35,258.00 was obtained from the Primary Fund
and $111,034.95 in other state aid.l42 There is not a
district in the county that could maintain a school on the
scale it does today without this help from the state. Some
of the districts have valuations as low as $56,875.00.

The physical plant of the West Pranch school was
augmented by two large additions in 1950, and is one of
the finest in the state for a school of its size. The
facilities at Rose City are not as good, however, and the
Community Building must be used for a gymnasium. The
high school curriculum in both schools has undergone con-
siderable revision, and today emphasis is placed on vocation-
al courses in agriculture, home economics, and commercial
subjects.

High school enrollment has continued to remain rather
' low; the percentage of pupils completing high school is
lower for the county as a whole than for the two districts
maintaining high schools. The difference is particularly
noticeable in comparing the large rural area included in
the Rose City district with the remainder of the county
(excluding West Eranch). The consolidation of districts

seems to increase the high school enrollment. The median

 

142. Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Reports, 1925-1947, passim.

117

number of school years completed by county residentstwenty-
four years of age and older in 1940 was only 7.9 for men
and 8.4 for women. This relatively low educational attain-
ment was probably due to transportation difficulties, to
the low economic status of residents, and, perhaps, even a
lack of appreciation for the benefits of a secondary
education.

Small community libraries are located in both West
Branch and Rose City -- the former dating from the 1880‘s,
but the one in Rose City was not established until 1936
and began as a WPA recreation project. The library at
Rose City is frequently used by resorters. Circulation
of both libraries runs heavily to pOpular fiction.

The number of Protestant churches has been increased
by the growth of the more evangelical sects such as the
Church of the Nazarene, Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ,
and the Fundamental Baptist. Meanwhile, many of the old
rural churches had disappeared by 1951. There were twenty-
eight church organizations of which twenty had resident
ministers -- only one, St. Joseph‘s Catholic Church in
West Branch, had a congregation large enough to necessitate
two pastors. .Ten churches are located within the immed-
iate vicinity of West Branch, three in Rose City, two
each in Prescott and South Branch, one each in Lupton and

Selkirk, and the remainder are country churches.14‘:5

 

143. Ogemaw County Herald, April 26, 1951.

118

Leisure time activities have not changed greatly
since 1920 except that motoring has opened an entirely
new form of recreation which has become more and more
popular over the years. Increasing numbers of the
population have taken motor trips to distant states, and
the Sunday picnic at one of the nearby lakes has become
commonplace. A number of combined taverns and dance halls
have been Opened since the repeal of prohibition, and the
motion picture theaters are well attended.

Nevertheless, much of the social life of the county
has continued to center about the various lodges, organ-
ized groups, churches and schools. Many of the old
organizations such as the Grange, Maccabees, Gleaners, and
Knights of Pythias have entirely disappeared or have
become moribund. New societies and clubs have taken their
place, however, and bowling leagues, home economics clubs,
veterans' organizations, 4-H clubs, and similar groups
have built up active memberships. The Farm.Ehreau has
increased in strength, and West Eranch, Rose City, and
Prescott all have active chambers of commerce. Many of
the communities sponsor baseball and basketball teams,
but the tendency has been for the sports programs of the
high schools to fill that need. There is a serious lack
of an organized youth recreational program, which becomes
especially pronounced during the summer months.

On the whole, however, the economic situation and the

gay of life of the inhabitants of Ogemaw County has shown

119

a decided improvement in the past fifteen years. Agri-
culture has become relatively stabilized, the petroleum
industry remains important, and the future of the tourist
industry and of manufacturing appears good. Even the
lumbering industry has revived within the past ten years
as the harvesting of second growth timber has gotten
underway.

The author of a study in 1940 stated that if the
natural resources of the county were developed to the
maximum degree possible, the county would be able to

support a population of 16,000.144

A large part of this
great increase would have to depend upon the lumbering
industry, but there are still great tracts of open wild

land which have not been replanted to pine. Moreover,
there is no widespread appreciation of this failure to re-
establish the productive capacity of the thousands of
acres of sandy soil and the resultant benefit that would
accrue to the county if the waste land could be put back
into use.

Though, there are many opportunities for future de-
velopment, they are of a nature that will not bring great
wealth to the county as the factories have to the cities
of southern Michigan. It is difficult to see how Ugemaw

County will ever entirely free itself from a dependence on

 

144. P. A. Herbert, "The Development of a Marginal
Land County in Northern Michigan," p. 127.

120

the state to help maintain its schools, health and

welfare services, and roads at minimum standards.

CONCLUS ION

Ogemaw County, in the period of eighty years since
its first settlement, has passed through several stages
of economic development. First the lumbering of its pine
forests was the major activity, and that was replaced by
an economy based on hardwood lumbering and farming. As
the importance of lumbering decreased, agriculture became
the major source of income. .Within the past thirty years,
however, the tourist, petroleum, and manufacturing indus-
tries have helped to restore the prosperity that was lost
when the lumbering industry disappeared.

Political control of the county has been held almost
exclusively by the Republican party. Though the Democrats
had considerable strength before 1890, their position
declined steadily thereafter until the depression of the
1930's, when they succeeded once again in electing a few
candidates. Since 1958, however, the Republican party
has regained its traditional ascendancy. Political leader-
ship of the county has been supplied mainly by business
and professional men and a few influential farmers.

The quality of education has steadily improved since
the time many districts could afford only three months of
classes during the year. More children are attending high
school since large numbers of the rural schools have been

closed and their pupils transported to village schools.

122

The automobile and the growth of commercial recreation
has altered the old pattern of leisure time activity, but
Ogemaw County has many rural and village social organi-
zations.

Although history has recorded many changes in the
way of life of its people, Ogemaw is still, essentially, a

rural county.

BISLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

The writing of history for a small specified area
necessarily limits the amount of material from which the
historian can draw data for his monograph. Though the
settlement of Ogemaw County began only eighty years ago
it proved difficult to find information concerning the
early period of the history of the county. The old
newspaper files have been destroyed, nearly all the old
settlers had passed away, and because of the small popu-
lation little has been published that relates to the county.

The information available can be classified into a
number of distinct categories. One of the most important
sources of information on the early history of the county
is the large amount of material found in the collections
of Mr. Howard E. Thompson of Rose City, who has gathered
information from old newspapers, letter, interviews, and
other sources. The county archives and governmental re-
ports tell the story of land acquisition, tax delinquency,
population growth and decline, and give other similar data.
The few fugitive newspapers, magazine articles, and the
promotional literature help to record the flow of events
and reveal contemporary ideas and problems. Three doc-
toral and one masters theses and several term papers have
provided some information on a variety of topics, while

a few general histories of Michigan and the northern

124

have supplied background information. A small number of
maps and atlases were of much assistance.

The following bibliography is a selection of the
materials found to be the most valuable in the preparation
of the study. First are listed the general works used in
briefly surveying the field for background material. Next
are presented the archival and governmental sources of
information. These are followed by the newspapers,
periodicals, and pamphlets used in obtaining information
and recreating the spirit of the past, and next are
noted the formal studies which have been written about
Ogemaw County or the immediate area. Finally, the maps

and atlases are discussed.

General Works

 

The single, most valuable study of the cut-over

region ever written is Harold Titus, The Land Nobody,Wanted:

 

the Story of hichigan's Public Domain, Michigan Agricultural
Experiment Station Special Bulletin 552 (East Lansing:
Michigan State College, 1945). Of the histories the most
complete treatment of Northern Michigan is found in Perry

F. Powers, A History of Northern Michigan and Its People
(Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1912). Also of some
assistance was George E. Eutterfield, ed., Pay County,

Past and Present (Bay City: C. and J. Gregory, 1918). Some
material relative to Ogemaw County is located in George W.

Lotehkiss, History of the Lumber and Forest Industry of the

125

Northwegp (Chicago: Geo. W. Hotchkiss & Co., 1898), and
incidentally Mr. Hotchkiss lived in Ogemaw County for a

short time in the early 1870's. The best treatment of the
Indian occupation of the county is found in Wilbert B.
Hinsdale, Archaeological Atlas of Michigan (Ann Arbor: Univer-

.L

sity of Michigan Press, 1951).
Official Records and Publications

A wealth of information was gleaned from the county
archives located in the County Courthouse at West Branch.
Unfortunately, these records are scattered in several
vaults and rooms with little or no foresight having been
used in placing the records in the different places.
However, the_"Tax Rolls," "Delinquent Tax Return Rolls,"

"Tax Sale Records,"

Board of Supervisors "Proceedings,"
school records, and similar documents yielded materials
in their respective fields. Many of the records date back
to 1876, but the Board of Supervisors, "Proceedings" go
back only to 1907 while the election reports and school
directories are but for the years following 1929. The
"Proceedings" of the board of supervisors give an ex-
tremely good picture of the many problems faced by the
county, and show the level of taxation and valuation of
the minor civil divisions and county expenditures. One
interesting document is the "Ogemaw County Enrollment

Record, 1912" which lists all the registered voters in the

county by name, voting precinct, and political party pref-

126

erence for that year. Another is the "Plat Book of

Ogemaw County" which shows the information relative to all
village and resort plats which have been established in
the county. The "Tract Book of Ogemaw County" lists each
land description with the name oft3he person who first
acquired it and the date.

A panorama of district school development is pre-
sented in the "District Director's Book," District No. 2,
Hill Township, which covers the period from 1885 through
1905 and is in the possession of Rose City High School,
Rose City, Michigan; and in the "District Assessor's
Book," District No. 1, Damon Township, 1891-1913, owned
by Mrs. Delia Richardson, County Superintendent of Schools,
West Branch.

Photostats of the "Records of the Appointment of
Postmasters, Ogemaw County, Michigan," from the Records of
the United States Post Office Department were secured from
the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

A number of reports have been issued by special
commissions of the state government and the various state
departments which bear on the history and problems of
Ogemaw County. The Michigan Commission of Inquiry, Tax
Lands and Forestry, Report to the Governor and Legislature
of the State (Lansing, 1908) deals with the problems of tax
delinquency and the reverted lands. The Michigan Railroad
Commission, Aids,_Gift§, Grants, and Donations to Railroads

Including Outline ofADevelopment and Successions in Titles

127

to Railroads in Michigan (Lansing, 1919) gives a concise
summary of railroad building and changes in the county

up until that date. The Michigan Department of Conservation,
Biennial Reports, "1921—1922-- ."; Michigan State Board of
Equalization, Proceedings, "1875-1936."; Michigan Superin-
tendent of Public Instruction, Reports, "1876- ."; Michi-
gan Department of State, Annual Abstracts of the Reports

of the Superintendents of the Poor, "1880-1938."; and

 

Michigan Secretary of State, Annual Reports Relatingto

 

Farms and Farm Products, "1879-80-—1903-O4." were all very
helpful. I

An excellent guide to the acts passed by the state
legislature concernign counties and minor civil divisions
is Dennis E. Alward and Charles S. Pierce, Index to the
Local and Special Acts of the State of Michigan, 1803 to
$231 (Lansing: Robert Smith Company, State Printers, 1928).
The texts of these acts relative to Ogemaw County are
recorded in Michigan 5331, "1840-1875" and Michigan nggl
5931, "1875-1915." '

Statistics of population, agriculture, business, and
manufacturing are found in U. S. Bureau of the Census re-
ports beginning with the 1880 enumeration. In addition
the condition of agriculture is further recorded in U. S.
Bureau of the Census,'United States Census of Agriculture,
"1925- ." (Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing
Office). The Michigan Secretary of State, Census for the

State of Michigan, "1874-1904." (Lansing) reports on many

128
items not found in the United States Census.

Newspapers,_Periodioals,_P§mphlets

 

Though at least five different newspapers -- Ogemaw

Countngourna , West Branch Herald, West Branch Times,

West franch.Democrat, and the Qgemaw County Rgpublican --

 

had been published in West Branch, the Rose City Review

in Rose City, and the Prescott Enterprise in Prescott prior

to 1920 all the old files of these newspapers have been

destroyed. Only a few isolated copies were available.

Among these, however, was a copy of the West Branch TEQQQ,

Industrial Edition, 1889, owned by Mr. Arthur J. Eabcock

of West Branch. This special edition is the most valuable

source of information on the early history of Ogemaw

County. The Lumberman's Gazette (Bay City, Mich.), of

which only the first three volumes (July 1872 - Dec. 1875)

were available, and located in the Michigan State Library,

Lansing, records the opening of the lumber industry in

Ogemaw County. The growth and decline of villages and

towns is shown in the many editions of the Michigan State

Gazetteer and Business Directory (Detroit: R. L. Polk & Co.).
The Detroit and Mackinac Railway Company, Annual

I!

Reports, "1897- . present a picture of activity along its

branches in the county.

Formal Studies

 

A complete report on the soil and climatic conditions

129

of the county as well as much history is J. O. Veatch and
others, Soil Survey of Ogemaw County, Michigan, U. S. De-
partment of Agriculture Bulletin 28, Series 1925 (Washing—
ton, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1928).

An excellent account of the development of Ogemaw
County particularly with reference to land use and forestry
is Paul A. Herbert, "The Development of a Marginal Land
County in Northern Michigan" (Unpublished Ph.D. Disserta-
tion, Department of Forestry, University of Michigan,
1940). Of special interest is Clyde M. Campbell, "The
Prescott Community" (Unpublished Master's Thesis,
Department of Sociology, Michigan State College, 1934),
which reviews the social economic, and political history
of that area of the county. Relating briefly to the county
are Charles M. Davis, "The High Plains of Michigan" (Unpub-
lished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Geography, Univer-
sity of Michigan, 1955) and Elwyn Martin, "Land Types of
the Saginaw Drainage Basin" (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation,
Department of Geography, University of Michigan, 1949).

Several papers relating to Ogemaw County history have
been written by members of extension classes conducted
by Central Michigan College within the county. Bernice
Anthony (Mrs.), Robinson's Mill" (1949), typescript manu-
script, Rose City Public Library, vividly portrays the
existence of a hardwood lumbering mill town. Life at the
turn of the century‘in a small village in the county is

recalled in Adelia Lince (Mrs.), "Tales from the Skidways"

130

(1949) and "Memories from the Pine," typescript manu-
scripts, Rose City Public Library. 'Howard H. Thompson,

"My Neighborhood" (1945) typescript manuscript, private
collections of Howard H. Thompson, tells of the development
of a rural area. The collective report of a class is
Nargaret Koopman and Rupert Koeninger, eds., "Rural Life

in Ogemaw County" (Central Michigan College, 1945),

mimeographed booklet.

Maps

The oldest map of any value for the study of Ogemaw
County is H. F. Walling, ed., Atlas of the State of Michi-
gan (Detroit: R. M. & S. T. Tackabury, 1873), Michigan
State College Library. The growth of post offices and
railways can be found on the maps on the flyleaves of
the various editions of the Michigan State Gazetteer and
Business Directory. P. A. and J. W. Myers, Plat Ebok of
Ogemaw County, Michigan (Minneapolis: Consolidated Pub-
lishing Co., 1905), imperfect copy in Michigan Historical
Collections, University of Michigan, shows land ownership,
roads, schools, and other data. of special value were the
maps printed by the Michigan Department ofConservation,
Land Economic Survey including "Cover Map of Ogemaw County,
Conditions of 1925" (1923), "Soil and Lay of the Land Map
of Ogemaw County" (1925), "Ownership Maps of Ogemaw County"

(1928), and "Tax Delinquency Map of Ogemaw County" (1950)..

APPEND IX

132

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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High Plain 5:??? Rolling Uplands
E2259?! Hilly Belt (git? Snooth Rolling
Uplands

[:3 Low Central Plain
Fig. 3. Physiographic Map of Oganaw County*
*Adapted from Michigan Department of Conservation,

Land Economic Survey, "Soil and Agricultural Re-
port of Ogemaw County? (Lansing, 1923‘).

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fig. 4. Indian Remains in Ogemaw County*
*Adapted from Wilbert B. Hinsdale, Archaeological Atlas

of Michigan(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
1931).

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135

 

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