History of the Saginaw Valley: Its Resources, Progress and Business Interests |
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afford American Fur Company banks Bay City Bay counties bayou beautiful block Board bottom lands brick building built Carrollton Cass river church commenced corner DEALER Detroit E. S. Williams early East Saginaw excellent farming lands feet of pine fish Flint & Pere forests furnish Genessee street German Hall Hoyt Huron Indian Jackson Lake Lansing & Saginaw located logs lumber and salt lumber region manufacture Martin & Wheeler Michigan Midland Norman Little Oakland county organized Pere Marquette pine lands plank road portion present rafted rich Sagi Saginaw Bay Saginaw City Saginaw county Saginaw railroad Saginaw river Saginaw Valley Salt & Lumber Salt and Lumber Salt Company Sauble Sauble river saw mill season settlers Shiawassee Shiawassee river ship soil splendid staves stream timber Tittabawassee Tittabawassee river town tract trade tributaries Tuscola Tuscola county vessels vicinity village W. L. P. Little Wenona wild woods
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Page 23 - ... both these races. They are gregarious in their habits. In cutting trees they go in pairs, and very few of them are willing to live in separate huts or away from the camp. They sleep along the sloping side of the house, with their feet inwards, toward the central fire, which is kept burning during the night. They dispense with prayers and preaching, and make little account of Sunday. A few have books, but the taste for reading is not general; mending clothes and sharpening axes, with such amusements...
Page 23 - nourishment," they get, on an average, about $1 per day for their labor. The whole gain of a lumberman in his winter's work is about $100, which a new suit of clothes and a few weeks of sport in the spring generally exhaust. The life of lumbermen is like that of sailors, and very few lay up the fruits of their toil. In character, the men are quite as good as the average of those who lead a roving life. A large number of them work in the mills in •the summer season. Some go on farther west, and...
Page 22 - ... fish, bread and tea, are the most approved articles of diet. Coffee is not generally provided, and the delicacies consist chiefly in the wild game which the woodmen themselves may chance to catch. There is plenty of this to be had, if there were time to take it, for the woods are still full of squirrels, rabbits, coons, deer, and black bears, whose flesh is not unpalatable; the streams, too, are full of fish. But the men are too busy in their craft to do much fishing or hunting, and are content...
Page 22 - Suttlers are not allowed upon the premises, and the men have usually no money to buy liquor. They are paid by the day, and supplied with suitable food by their employers. Pork and beans, dried fish, bread, and tea are the most approved articles of diet. Coffee is not generally provided, and the delicacies consist chiefly in the wild game which the woodmen themselves may chance to catch. There is plenty of this to be had, if there were time to take it; for the woods are still full of squirrels, rabbits,...
Page 7 - Pitcher that the winter of 1822-'3 was very cold, and much snow fell. " When spring came on the rapid solution of it caused a great flood in the Tittabawassee and other tributaries of the Saginaw, so that most of the prairie between the post and Green Point was under water.
Page 24 - ... are so great, and so many markets are calling for a supply. The waste will go on. The owners of the land will use their opportunity, and will let the future take care of itself. They would not be American, if they should voluntarily curtail a profitable business, in view of spreading it over a longer succession of years. It is more probable that new mills will be built than that those already built will reduce their production or their capacity. The warning is not new. It was uttered years ago,...
Page 23 - Of the 400,000,000 feet of lumber received at Albany by the canal, a very large part came from Michigan. The tonnage of vessels engaged in this traffic is larger than the tonnage of many of the commercial cities. Probably as many vessels pass up and down the St. Clair river daily, in the height of the lumber season, as pass by Boston Light.
Page 22 - lot" which they are to work upon, taking care to get a dry soil in the neighborhood of some spring or brook ; they build a log house, and cut a road to the nearest stream, on which the logs must be floated down. The log houses are large enough to accommodate from twenty to fifty persons. In the centre a raised fireplace is built, directly under the apex of the roof, and the only chimney is a tunnel above this fireplace. The work of wood-cutting begins as soon as the road is finished and the ground...
Page 22 - In some places acres of the bank are white with the refuse sawdust. From the opening of the season in April or May to the close in November the stir of industry is incessant. But the summer life of the river depends upon the winter life of the forest. Year by year, as the wood is cut off, the lumberman has to go farther in from the main stream, and the log has a longer journey to make before it gets to the mill. The first party of woodmen usually go out in November, as soon as the ground begins to...
Page 31 - ... Saginaw Valley. We do not propose to enter into a lengthy article upon the lumber trade, but will present facts and figures in regard to it, some of "which we have compiled from authentic sources, and others we .have obtained ourself, from headquarters direct. The first saw mill in the Saginaw Valley was built at Saginaw City, during the year 1832, by Gardner D, and ES Williams. A portion of the machinery used in this mill was taken from the -old " Walk in the Water," the first steamer that navigated...