Beaver Island and Michigan - Subject Cards  J-P

Land

Mar. 28, 1836 - the Ottawa & Chippewa nations ceded to the U.S. most of the N.W. part of the Southern Peninsula. Beaver Island was included.
 
1836 - Treaty of Washington - title to NW quarter of S. Peninsula & N. Penn. east of
Escanaba River gained.
1836 - Cedar Point & 1842 La Pointe Treaties ceded copper country & W. of Escanaba
River. Thus by 1842 Indian title to all of Mich. extinguished.
First land office - Detroit, 1818
 
As need arose, land offices established in Monroe, Saginaw, & Kalamazoo. The land
surveyed by the government under the Ordinance of 1785. The pertinent survey "the Michigan survey" - all of Mich. & Ohio lying N. of Maumee River.
 
Real estate -
(1850 & 1860 census)
Michigan: increase in value - 330.13%, from 60,000,000 to 257,000,000 (approx.).
National: increase in value - 126.45%
 
Beaver Island - Origin of Name
Indian name - "A-mic-wag-ain-dod;" translation - "Where the beavers live, their home." A group of islands lying in the vicinity of each other, northwest of Grand Traverse Bay, in Lake Michigan.
- E. O. Wood, His. Mackinac, p. 625[1]
 
[In] Pre-Mormon [Times] -
"The Indian title to the land had been extinguished (in 1847 when Mormons first came), but the gov. had not yet thrown it open for settlement. Some 20 or 30 Indian families were still living on the Island; white occupation was confined to a trading establishment on the N. side of the harbour. Its owners were some N.Y. men, who under the name of the Northwest Co. were engaged in trading with the Indians & the fishermen of the adjoining region...chiefly they were cultivating pre-emption right to their location in the harbour." (K. of St. J., p. 81)
This is just plain not true - the N. Harbour establishment was Cable - NW Co. was across. At this time James Cable was in Cable's Bay & there were fishermen who came every summer. [- HC]
 

The 1st survey of public lands was made in the eastern part, on the Detroit River & vicinity, and was made in 1816. The land was brought on the market in 1818. The northern part of the southern peninsula was laid out in 1840.
Previous to 1820 the price of the public lands was fixed at $2 an acre, 1/4 down & the balance in 3 annual payments. The system proved unsatisfactory, & the credit system was abolished & the price reduced to $1.25 an acre.
Michigan admitted to the Union on Jan. 26, 1837.

In 1840 the northern part of the S. Peninsula was laid off into unorganized counties attached to the county of Mackinac.
In 1847 the Beaver Islands were __ected into a township by the name of Peaine. It was not organized until 1850, when the Mormons established a local government and occupied the offices.
The Traverse Region (1884)

 

From a letter from the Commissioner, State Land Office, to Gov. Baldwin, dated Oct. 1, 1872:
"It may be of interest to remark that the swamp lands are not in all cases what the term swamp literally signifies, but that many of them are susceptible to being converted into the most productive farms, and that the state offers them free to all (italics in letter) who comply with the terms of the law, and without the payment of a dollar in money.
The primary school lands consist of section #16 in each township, and these are held for sale at $4.00 per acre."

- Rev. Stephen Byrne, Irish Emigration, p. 108[2]
(This is a book put out in 1873 by the Catholic Publication Society of
N.Y., with information for Irish emigrants.)

 

In 1840 what had happened in Ohio was now occurring in newer regions: surveyor, squatter, settler advancing into the wild land, farmer clashing with speculator... Over the continent went the philosophy strenuously shaped in the Ohio Valley, the principle that the public land was the people's land. The Harrison law [see below] led ultimately to the law of 1862, when Abraham Lincoln, whose father had moved onto government land across the Ohio, signed the Homestead Act in the conviction that the American destiny called for "settling the wild lands into small parcels so that every poor man may have a home." It all ended in the final land rush to the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma in 1893.

- Walter Havighurst, Wilderness for Sale, p. 357-58

 
Harrison Law - proposed by W. H. Harrison, became law May 10, 1800, it provided:
1. Sale of half-sections (320A[cres]) at established price of $2.00 an A, to be paid in
installments over 4 years. Amended in 1804 to allow a settler to buy a minimum
of 16A for an $80 entrance fee, followed by annual payments of $80 for the next
3 years (still $80 an A).
2. Land offices established under the law in the midst of the wilderness.
 
In 1820 a new land law offered 80A tracts at $1.25 an A.
 

1807 - Intrusion Act penalized & dispossessed squatters on public land. Could not be
enforced & soon forgotten.
1830 - Pre-emption Law - settlers who had cultivated land in the public domain could
purchase as much as 160A @$1.25 [per acre]. A temporary law renewed
throughout the '30s.
1841 - Pre-emption Act - permanently legalized settlement before purchase. Squatters'
rights firmly established.

- Walter Havighurst, Wilderness for Sale, p. 115-16

 

Preemption Act
The Preemption Act of 1841 authorized squatters to purchase at the minimum statutory price as much as 160A, provided they paid up before the land was authorized for competitive bidding. To extend this valuable privilege, squatters organized to intimidate outside bidders, & thus to enable members of the claims club either to postpone payment, or to buy at their _____, 2, 3, or 4 times as much land as the law permitted. Not at all uncommon was the sale by squatters of undeveloped claims to later settlers. Along with the large-scale absentee speculation, a universal figure on the land frontier was the petty resident speculator.

- Carstensen, The Public Lands, p. 46

 
Preemption Act, 1841; repealed 1891. $1.25 an acre at the end of 14 months residence. Preemption right established by the construction of a dwelling house & the making of improvements. It secured the settler his right to purchase, at the minimum price, before the date of the general sale of the tract of which his land was a part.
This was not applicable after the Homestead Act [see below] & the discontinuance of general sales. So - the preemptor was to file his declaration of intent to purchase within three months after settlement upon the land, or in case it was not surveyed at the time of settlement, within 3 mos. of the filing of the survey plat, & should make payment within 18 mos. of this declaration.
 

Homestead Law

Signed May 20, 1862 by Pres. Lincoln. [A settler could] acquire 160A, free of all charges except a minor fee when filing a claim. Must live on the land 5 years before getting title.

 

Bounty Land - War of 1812
"Land warrant was not transferable, and the beneficiary was obligated to make use of it to the extent of locating land & getting a patent before he could sell it."
Number of bounty warrants issued, War of 1812 - 29,186; acres - 4,845,920.

- Hubbard, His. of Public Land Policies, p. 130
The insistent demands of old veterans & their heirs & assignees forced practically every administration between 1812 & 1862 to relax stipulations & extend date [dead?] lines for the establishment of claims. The central land office continued to honor these claims to the end of the 19th century in considerable numbers. By that time between 70 & 100 million acres had been assigned for army warrants of the Rev. War & the War of 1812 alone, largely on the basis of laws passed as late as 1847 & 1855.

- Carstensen, The Public Lands, p. 15 (W. Lib.)[3]
After 1842 Rev. & War of 1812 warrants were honored for any land open to public entry. The 1855 law extended the 160A allowance to almost every veteran not included in the previous laws. Fourteen days service or participation in 1 battle was required. 1852 & 1858 - Congress declared land warrants assignable.
- Ibid., p. 113-14

 
(Pertinent) land offices & dates opened:
1847 - Sault Ste. Marie
1854 - Duncan
1857 - Marquette
East Saginaw
1858 - Mackinac
Traverse City
1878 - Reed City
 
1888 - Grayling
 
 
 
1 Edwin Orin Wood, Historic Mackinac: The Historical, Picturesque, and Legendary Features of the Mackinac Country, vol. 1 & 2. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1918.
2 Stephen Byrne, Irish Emigration to the United States. New York: Arno Press, 1969 (reprint of 1873 edition).
3 Vernon Rosco Carstensen, The Public Lands: Studies in the History of the Public Domain. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1962.
 

Laws & Legislation

​Liquor -
Michigan's 1850 constitution prohibited the sale of intoxicants in the state, "but it was so ambiguous that no one including the legislature & the supreme court knew what it meant."
1861 - permission was granted to manufacture liquor if it was to be sold out of the state.
1867 - in a state-wide referendum the people defeated an effort to clarify the constitution.
In this situation the local custom had precedence; commercial establishments which sold liquor operated without fear of the law.
[- no citation given for this entry]

Lighthouses

​ Harbor Light (built 1856)
Keepers
Lyman Granger, 1856-1860; when Mrs. Williams came back around 1857. There was
a Granger sheriff at Mackinac (K. of St. J., p. 125) a not the same - this man
was lighthouse keeper on Boblo before coming to B.I..

 

Peter McKinley, 1860-1869; he resigned in 1869

Van Riper, 1869; in 1870 the new tower was built & the dwelling repaired. The light was changed from white to red.

Mrs. Williams (Mrs. VanRiper when first appointed), [1870?]-1884; she was
appointed to succeed her husband on his death. She kept the job after marrying
Mr. Williams. She left for Harbor Springs in 1884. (In 1874, "Beaver Island
Girls," the Harbor lightkeeper is referred to as "she".)

Mr. Winter was here in 1915 & remained until the light was made automatic.

 
At the Head (started 1851)
Keepers
1st - Henry Van Allen; Strang says he left after being caught stealing Mormon nets
(An. & Mod. Mack., p. 68). In 1882 he was proprietor of the Island House on
Mackinac.
2nd - Mr. Loaney (Luney)
(after Mormons)1
3rd - Capt. Appleby of Buffalo, assisted by his nephew Frank Blakeslee (land transfers
Sec 20 T37 R10, in '61; also '67 & '68 in Sec 21 T37 R10).
4th - Harrison Millar, 11 years or more, was there in 1881; assisted by his nephew
Edwin Bedford; there in 1874 (see "Beaver Island Girls").
5th - William Duclon - there 8 years, then transferred to Eagle Bluff.
6th - Dominic (II), with Tom Bonner as assistant.
 

Edward Lasley was listed in his death record of July 17, '96, as "lightkeeper." He & his wife, a Native American, are supposed to have lived at the Head. Was he an assistant keeper? Lizzie Gallagher remembers him as a lightkeeper at the Head - so does Nonie.

Nonie says Paddy Mary Ellen worked on this lighthouse - it must have been an enlargement of living quarters, or when the foghorn was put in.

 
Ludlow Hill, in his interview in 1896, said, "I had secured the post of lightkeeper... The place paid very poorly - I think not to exceed $500 per annum - but this was coveted by the Mormons." (This must have been the Head Light, as the Harbor Light was not built until '56. He must have had it after Van Allen & before Luney.)
 
1 It is not clear whether this refers to Mr. Luney or Capt. Appleby. See Ludlow Hill, below, in same entry.
 

Livestock

Horses

The 1st team on the Island was brought from Elk Rapids by Hugh & Denny Boyle.
Pat Bonner says the first horses were small, really ponies, but tough. There were oxen before there were horses.
Hardwick brought horses from Green Bay.

Oxen

The 1st team brought by Philip (Big Phil) Gallagher; they came from Wisconsin. The 2nd team was brought a year later by Dan Boyle.
 
Cattle grazed on unfenced woods & clearings & sold to mainland -
Estimates:
1913 - 1300
 
1947 - 350

Local Government

1847 - B.I. erected into Peaine Township; 3 meetings held in year & unable to organize.
Three white families on Island "temporarily settled in the township;" 4 or 5 white men
with Indian wives; several French half-breeds; 20 or 30 single men who had families elsewhere & were spending the winter on B.I.. The township organization was granted at the instance of Col. Fisk of Rochester, N.Y., who had commenced a fishing establishment on a large scale, investing $10,000. These men monopolized all the offices, although they neglected to attend to business until -

1850 - Mormons elected majority of officers
1851 - Mormons elected all the other officers
1853 - Emmet & Charlevoix counties united under name of Emmet

 
- Strang, An. & Mod. Mack., p. 38

Lumbering

P. 62, 114
As early as 1845 steamers called for refueling. Cable's dock (where did I get this?). As late as June 1882 the steamer Champlain called for wood (Life S. S. report at the Museum).

The way the economy worked - they fished in the summer & cut cordwood & hauled it to the docks in the winter. With no horses or oxen they probably got it to the beach, loaded it in boats, & got it to the dock that way. This checks with Mary Conaghan Vesty's description.

The Mormons cut cordwood & erected a steam mill for sawing lumber. By 1900 the southern 2/3 of the Island was in large holdings - the Irish had moved to the northern 1/3, with 90% of the northern 1/2 held by the Irish.
Sweet's Mill on Sand Bay - it must have been running in 1891, because Pat Mulroney was killed there at that time. It stood on the shore property, just across from the end of Hannagan's Rd..

Beaver Island Lumber Co. - the largest operation - hired more than 100 men:
Mill brought in the fall of 1902 - capital $75,000
Put into operation 1903
Ceased operation 1915
Since 1900 - the Antrim Iron Co. cut large acreages for chemical & charcoal wood. The logs were shipped to Mancelona for processing.
Present mill - gets out hardwood for crochet mallets & balls.
B.I. Lumber Co.:
W. E. Stephens, Pres. Payroll: $3,000 per month
John S. Stephens, Vice-Pres. 60 men in woods
- both came from Freesoil, Mich. 60-70 at mill
5-10 transporting timber

A daily capacity of 30,000 feet of hardwood by June; also a single machine with a
capacity of 75,000 feet per day. The output of both during the first season amounted to
500,000 ft. [of] lumber, 2,000,000 shingles.
 
Bought on B.I. 9,000 acres of timber, to be cut in 7 years.
13 miles of narrow-gauge RR
By 1905 a capital of $200,00
Chief markets Chicago & Milwaukee
 
Mrs. Williams says the Boadman Co. was operating in Traverse City when they went there in the summer of 1853 after the Battle of Pine River.
 

The narrow-gauge road's rails were taken up as soon as one field was played out & moved to a new area where needed. Compared with standard-gauge roads, these undersized roads were inexpensive. A locomotive could be bought for $4,000, flat cars no more than $169, & to prepare & metal the right-of-way averaged no more than $4,000 a mile. The old problem of getting logs from the place where the tree fell to the skidways where they could be put on carriers remained. To an extent this was solved by use of the "big wheels" - a pair of wagon wheels ten or twelve feet in diameter, which could straddle a felled tree or several logs, lift one end of the load off the ground, & so make it possible for a team of horses to drag the timber to the place where it could be loaded. A factory in Manistee made thousands of these big wheels during the last quarter of the 19th century."

- Bruce Catton, Waiting for the Morning Train, p. 115-16[1]

Beaver Island Lumber Co. -
Organized Dec. 27, 1902, capital $75,000.
President - W. E. Stephens
Vice President - John S. Stephens
Secretary/Treasurer - G. Kitsinger
([the two Stephenses] came to B.I. from Free Soil, Mich., where they had
operated a mill for 10 years)
Mill had daily capacity of 30,000' of hardwood lumber; put in operation June 19, 1903. Also a shingle machine with capacity of 75,000 per day. Output of both above in first season - 500,000' of lumber, 2,000,000+ shingles. Much of this first lumber used to construct company buildings - offices & houses.
Bought 9,000 acres of land on B.I., to be cut in 7 years (also purchased "a vast amount of timber coming from other sources").
Constructed 13 miles of narrow-gauge RR.
Plant & schooners & other property "at this time (1905) represents a capital of $200,000."
Employed 125 men: 60 in the woods, 60-70 in the mill, others employed transporting timber. Payroll: $3,000 per month ($24.00 per person per month, average!!!).
Chief markets: Chicago & Milwaukee, between which & the Island the company runs its own steamers.
A stave mill added, with capacity of about 25,000.
 
Northern Michigan
 
 
1 Bruce Catton, Waiting for the Morning Train: An American Boyhood. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972.

Mackinac Island

[see also Fishing; Fur Trade]
 

"The permanent population is composed of French, Indians, & halfbreeds, with a few businessmen; besides the officers & soldiers stationed in the U.S. garrison on the hill above. The articles of export consist almost entirely of lumber, fish, peltries, & Indian fabrics, while the boats make their short stops for wood, fish, etc..."

- Daniel S. Curtis, in Western Portraiture (1852),[1] quoted in His. Mich.

 

(From a journey made in the summer of 1848)
"Mackinaw (ac) was a miserable fishing village, composed almost exclusively of timber houses, many of which were occupied by Indians, half-breeds, & a low class of whites. In the vicinity of the lakeshore there are also many half-naked Indians living in tents. Some of these tents were constructed of cotton cloth & others of wood covered with reeds. Driven from the neighboring shores by the mosquitoes, black gnats, & other venomous insects, the savages took refuge here, where there are no insects of any kind. At Mackinaw the Indians support themselves by fishing until the cold season made it possible to return to their homes on the northern peninsula."

He speaks of a Mr. King, a very large man, postmaster of the post (fort); also, in a footnote, of a Rev. Eleazer Williams, who was on the island with a school for Indians maintained by the Episcopal Missionary Society in earlier times.
"The Island of Mackinaw is about ten miles in circumference; a considerable portion is cleared & cultivated in grain, grass, & vegetables. The grass, indigenous to the soil, is similar to the blue grass of Kentucky, & I nowhere out west saw richer milk or sweeter butter."

- John Lewis Payton, Over the Alleghenies & Across the Prairies (1870), p. 187-88

 

Strang on Mackinac -
The poorer classes are exceedingly dissipated. Their only change is from dissipation to want, and from want to dissipation. Ten times more liquor is drank in Mackinac than any other town of the same population. Among the half-breeds, who formerly made up most of the population, the deaths are as two to one birth, and the class are rapidly disappearing. The Irish, who are supplying their places, are running the same race.

The business of the American Fur Company has ceased. Their mansion is now the Grove House [this must be the place bought a few years after 1856 by James Cable. -HC]; the fur store is a warehouse, and the other buildings are going to decay. The Protestant mission has been abandoned. The county, shorn of its magnificent proportions, has lost its consequence by the growing up of other settlements in its vicinity of more enterprise & better prospects. The fishing business, which grew up in Mackinac as its other trade was failing, is being rapidly transferred to other points, more convenient to the fisheries.

The steamboats, which formerly stopped at no place in the region except Mackinac, now stop more at other points than there... The Indian payments are reduced to a trifle and will soon cease, and the fortress is reduced from an important military position to a mere hospital to recruit[?] the health of soldiers long employed in sickly climates.
The progress of decay is stayed a little at present by the retail trade, and the very extensive sale of liquors. But the retail trade is preserved only by the convenience of docks and storehouses, which will soon be supplied by rival places, and the sale of liquor impoverishes rather than enriches any place.

An. & Mod. Mac., p. 21

 
Names of army officers listed in D. H. Kelton, The Annals of Mackinac:
 
The 4th Infantry was stationed at the Fort from 1848-1851 -
 
Bagley, E.V. 1848 - W. N. R. Beal, Bvt. 2nd Lt.
Bailey, J. H. C. H. Larnard, Capt.
Beal, W. N. R. H. Dryer, 2nd Lt.
Brown, Jas. B. 1849 - J. B. Brown, Asst. Surgeon
Byrne, John J. C. Tidball, Bvt. 2nd Lt.
Cuthbertson, J. 1850 - C. H. Lamb, Asst. Surgeon
Dryer, H. 1851 - D. A. Russell, 1st Lt.
The 4th Artillery was there 1852-1856 -
Greland, J. H. 1852 - T. Williams, Capt.
Larnard, C. H. G. W. Rains, 1st Lt.
Lamb, C. H. J. Cuthbertson, 2nd Lt.
Russell, D. A. J. H. Bailey, Capt. Med. Dept.
Rains, G. W. 1854 - Jos. B. Brown, Asst. Surgeon
Terrill, W. R. 1855 - J. H. Ireland, 1st Lt.
Tidball, J. C. 1856 - E. V. Bagley, 2nd Lt.
Wheelock, J. W. W. R. Terrill, 1st Lt.
Williams, T. J. W. Wheelock, 1st Lt.
John Byrne, Asst. Surgeon
The 2nd Artillery, 1857-1860 -
1857 - G. D. Bailey, 2nd Lt.
A. Elzey, Capt.
H. Benson, 1st Lt.
1858 - H. C. Pratt, Capt.
J. F. Head, Med. Dept.
H. A. Smalley, 2nd Lt.
1859 - G. L. Hartsuff, 1st Lt.
W. A. Hammond, Capt. Med. Dept.
1860 - A. Hartsuff, 1st Lt. Med. Dept.
G. E. Cooper, Capt. Med. Dept.

- except for Bailey there is no cross here with the other two lists[2]
 
Names listed by J. R. Bailey in Mackinaw (Mil. Lib.):
Allor Cook, J. H. Haring, Samuel K. Mulcrones
Arnold, Geo. T. *Couchois Hoban Bros. Murray Bros.
Austrian Davis, John W. Holdens McCarty
(& son)
*Bailey, John R.
(& son) Desbro Hamblins McGulpin
Bailey, Jonathan N. Dominick Hubert McIntyre
Bates Donnelly Jones McLeods
Becker, John Doud Johnson, Wm. M. McNally
*Bennett Drew Kanter, Edward O'Malley, Chas. M.
Biddle Early, Michael Kev_n, P. C. Overall, H. W.
*Brogan *Fenton, C. B. King, Jonathan P. Piret, Rev. A. D.
Bromilow Foley Kirtland Preston
Birchard, L. Y. B. *Franks, Edward A. La Chanse Rainville
Burdette Gallagher Lapeen, Shomin Read, John G.
*Cable, James F. Gaskill Leopold Rice
Chambers Granger Louisignaw Root, Arian R.
Chapman, Bella Gravereat Lyon Saltsonstall
Cheniers Gray Lasley Scott, William
Guilbault, Edward Madison, Wm. Stockbridge, F. B.
Martineau *Sullivan, Wm.
Metevier
Tanner
Taylor
*Todds
Toll
Truscott *on Kelton's list
*VanAllen, Henry
Wendells
White, Peter
 
Names in advertisements in Kelton, Annals of Fort Mackinaw:
 
*Capt. H. Van Allen - prop. Island House
*Dr. John R. Bailey - MD & druggist
*Capt. James Bennett - Bennett's Wharf
C. Y. Bennett - attorney, St. Ignace
P. D. Bissell - Ed., St. Ignace Republican (newsp.)
*John R. Brogan - clerk, Astor House
Mrs. David Carson - prop. Mackinac House
*James F. Cable - prop. Astor House
*Alfred G. Couchois - carpenter
*E. A. Franks - prop. Mission House
*C. B. Fenton - store
Gurdon S. Hubbard - real estate (Chicago address)
H. M. Mason - drugs, St. Ignace
? McDonald - St. Cloud Hotel
W. E. Smyth, Jr. - jeweler, St. Ignace
C. W. Smyth - furniture, Cheboygan
Rev. M. C. Stanley - Rector, Episcopal Church
*William Sullivan - clerk, Bennett's Wharf
*Horace N. A. Todd - drugstore
A. M. Withrow - hardware, St. Ignace
 
*on John R. Bailey's list in Mackinac
 
St. Anne's Parish -
The Wisconsin Historical Society published the register of St. Anne parish in 1908. It consists of the birth records of the parish, 1695-1821, & the marriage records, 1725-1821. There are no Irish names even at the last. The name Dousman does appear. The names are largely French, with many Indian women.
 
In a story, "Jeanette," by Constance Fenimore Woolson, in Scribner's magazine of Dec. 1874, she wrote of the French half-breeds on Mackinac Island - "They held themselves aloof from the Irish of Shanty Town," and talking of her heroine - "She had all the pride of her class; the Irish saloon-keeper with his shining tall hat was nothing to her."
 
Many of the earlier traders we hear about were Irish:
John Askin, who had come to America as a youth of 19, settled in [the] Mackinac area as
a trader in 1764.
 
John Johnston (of the Sault) was Irish. He got his grant of land in 1792.
 
 
 
1 Daniel S. Curtiss, Western Portraiture, and Emigrants' Guide; A Description of Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa; with Remarks on Minnesota, and Other Territories. New York: J. H. Colton, 1852.
2 The heading of this entry, the stationing information, & the list on the right are written in pen, while the list on the left is written in pencil & appears to have been added later. The two lists are not related clearly to one another in the arrangement of the original.
 

Mail Service

Air service

First air service - December 1930
(See notebook I for boats)
 

Newspaper article, Dec. 25, 1930 [this is taken from a clipping inserted in the original manuscript; the name of the newspaper is not noted]:

"Mail Service by Airplane -
Two Trips Weekly to St. James"
Thursday of last week the first of a series of mail deliveries was made to St. James on a schedule to be followed by two weekly trips over the air route between Charlevoix and St. James, during the winter period.
In past years the service between the two terminals, from the close until the opening of navigation, has been a source of annoyance to the postal authorities as well as unsatisfactory to Beaver Island residents and patrons generally having business or social relations such as necessitated the use of the mail service to conduct satisfactorily.
Heretofore following the close of the season of navigation all classes of mail accumulated for days in the local office awaiting an opportunity for forwarding to its St. James destination and later shipped to Cross Village, where after other delays, after the formation of an ice route, the mail was taken by team to St. James at infrequent intervals.
The air route established for the winter period appears to be the logical solution of the many years old winter problem and the twice a week schedule if carried out, and no doubt it will be, makes for an ideal arrangement and one that should be satisfactory to postal patrons.

Postmasters

Established as a 4th Class P.O. Jan. 13, 1849
Name changed to St. James, Oct. 10, 1854
Discontinued Mar. 6, 1868
Re-established as 4th Class Dec. 19, 1868
Made 3rd Class July 1, 1845(?) 1945?
High Island had a 4th Class P.O. established June 5, 1913 & discontinued June 15, 1914. Gladys Hill, P.M..
Nomad was established Mar. 10, 1917 & discontinued Oct. 31, 1833. Julia Cole, P.M..
Postmaster Appointed
Charles R. Wright Jan. 13, 1849
Peter McKinley Sept. 19, 1851
Dennis Chidester Feb. 24, 1852
Edward Chidester June 27, 1856
Bradner Curran Aug. 1, 1856
James McKinley Sept. 19, 1857
D. D. Lobdell May 16, 1861
John O. Mala Dec. 1, 1862 (could this be O'Malley?)
Charles R. Wright Nov. 20, 1863 (Sarah McKinley speaks of mail every week under Chas. Wright)
This is blank Dec. 19, 1868 [see above, "discontinued Mar, 6, 1868"]
George Miller Nov. 4, 1881
James Gibson Dec. 6, 1881
Ida Gibson Apr. 2, 1903 ah this must be Mamie McCann
Michael J. McCann July 3, 1903
William W. Boyle Jan. 23, 1923 (acting)
William W. Boyle Mar. 9, 1923 (commissioned)
Frank J. Nackerman Aug. 15, 1939 (acting)
Frank J. Nackerman Feb. 20, 1940 (commissioned)
 

Michigan History - Chronology

1760 - British took over Detroit. The storehouses contained half a million dollars worth of
furs, a large proportion beaver, which were used as standard exchange by French,
Americans, & British. The British prized this traffic so much that they discouraged
settlement. By royal decree it was declared unlawful to survey or acquire land either by
patent or grant, or to purchase it from Indians.
- Writers' Project, Michigan, p. 39
1782 - Treaty with England [Treaty of Paris, 1783, ending Revolutionary War]
1796 - British troops left Detroit
1805 - Territory of Michigan organized
1812 - Mackinac & Detroit taken [by British, War of 1812]
1813 - Perry's victory on Lake Erie won Michigan back, & Detroit reoccupied by Americans,
with Col. Lewis Cass left in charge. The close of war marked the beginning of
the development of Michigan when Cass & civil government returned. Not only
had the war retarded its development before, but also the policy of the British of
retarding settlement in favor of the fur trade. The founding of a university & of
a newspaper in the summer of 1817 were signs of the new trend.
1813-31 - Cass governor (later Michigan Senator, 1845-57)
1818 - 1st public sale of land, & also opening of steam navigation on the Lakes
1821 - Cass negotiated treaties with Indians, getting title to more than 1/2 the Lower
Peninsula. Immigration slow because early government surveyors said almost the
entire region was impenetrable swamp. Cass toured entire region by canoe &
horseback & publicized desirability of land for settlement. There were no roads
until Cass got Congress to authorize building of five roads by the War Dept. as a
military provision. Under Cass's tutelage Michigan was transformed from a
remote & alien outpost into a vigorous, if still nascent, American Commonwealth.
1825 - Erie Canal opened
1830 - Fur trade reached its peak; within another 10 years agriculture & lumbering were
destroying the haunts of fur-bearing animals.
1834 - census taken to prove they had the 60,000 inhabitants needed for statehood - 82,273
enumerated.
1835 - [Michigan state] constitution adopted
1837 - admitted as a state; Upper Peninsula given in place of disputed "Toledo Strip." At the
time of admission there were towns throughout most of the southern section,
agriculture was securely established, lumbering had begun, a survey of the
mineral deposits of the north ordered. [However the economy was] mainly
agricultural, wagon roads few & poor, no RR had been completed, no cities
except Detroit, & few newspapers. The forests were considered an evil & were
being cleared in the southern counties. [This was the year of the Panic caused by
the overproduction of paper money by unregulated banks (anyone could open a
bank). Pres. Jackson ruled that public land could only be bought [with] coin, &
banks failed all over the country.][1]
1855 - Soo Canal finished
1857 - another year of economic crisis
1882 - school attendance for all under 14 [became] compulsory

Population:
1837 - 174,467
1880 - 1,636,937 (75% rural)
1900 - 2,420,982
1930 - 4,842,325 (68.2% urban)
 
1 Final bracketed statement in original
 

Midwives

Mary Ellen Roddy Gallagher - she smoked a pipe (see her card under Roddy)
Mary (Mrs. Patrick) Malloy (maiden name Mooney) - this is the one who lived to be 108; she
smoked a pipe.
Susan Gallagher - her husband was William, of the Tyrone Gallaghers, & she was the mother
of "Big Willie." This is wrong; she was married to Mike Mahal Rua.
Bridget Boyle ("Big Biddie") - "Red Hughie" was her son.
"Big Mary" - Maria says she was Mary McDonough & that her maiden name was Carmody.
Mrs. Vesty Vesty says she was a sister of the 1st Vesty, and that she was Mrs. Carmody, a
widow with two girls & a boy. This is right (not Maria), because the parish record shows
the marriage to Carmody. She smoked a pipe.
Mrs. Lasely - she was at the Head; house #43; she was a Native American; Lizzie Gallagher remembers
her being called in when a relative was sick & how she went into the woods & got herbs
she prepared.

Nonie - she spoke of how good the midwives were (for Mary Ellen, see her card under Roddy). She also spoke of how good they were to call at the house in the months before the birth to see how things were going.

 

Missions and Missionaries

Early Catholic missions:
1669 - 1st Catholic church erected on Michigan soil by Father Dablon at Sault Ste. Marie
1670 - St. Ignace mission started by Father Dablon
1671 - Father Marquette founds St. Ignace at present site
1705 - Jesuits abandon St. Ignace
1760 - French leave fort at Mackinac
? - Mission at L'Arbre Croche; long period Indians left to themselves
1825 - New Catholic mission set up in 1827 in Little Traverse - church built
 
Early Protestant missions:
Mackinaw -
1802 - Mackinac; David Bacon 1st Protestant missionary; Connecticut Missionary
Society; stayed until 1804
1823 - 1st Protestant mission on Mackinac; Wm. Montagne Ferry; United
Foreign Missionary Society
1825 - Mission Home built
1831 - Mission Church built
1842 - Protestant Episcopal Church started
 
Grand Traverse -
1839 - Mission of Presbyterian Board; Peter Dougherty & John Flemming; continued
Until Civil War, when financial considerat___ of the Board, had to abandon it.
 
Father Zorn -
(1860) "From the mission [at] St. Ignace I went in a birch canoe to the Indian village of Cross Village, where a noble German missionary of the Third Order of St. Francis, Rev. Seraphim Zorn, labors zealously among the Indians for the honor of God & their salvation. He has learned the language in a comparatively short time. Mackinac & St. Ignace are mixed missions. In these two places there are Indians, half-breeds, Canadian French, & Irish, but in Cross Village all are Indians."
 
- Antoine Ivan Reznek, His. of the Diocese, p. 151 [or 157]
Names (Personal)
[See also "Gaelic Language"]
 
The use of "white" as a term of endearment is at least as old as the 15th century. As an Irish colloquialism it may have been influenced by Irish "ban" (white), which is similarly used.
[- no citation is given for this entry]
 
Nicknames -
"Sockidy" Rickster "Ropa Docha" (burnt rope)
"Willie-so-Quick" Rickster Paddy Heela (his wife's name was Heela) -
(always says when asked to this must be wrong - his wife was
do a job, "Yes, I will do it Bridget Paganog
so quick."
Shabby Town Rd. (must be Patty Bocha McCauley (must be Paddy
Angeline's Bluff) Baca)
Dominic Gallagher - "the long one" "Bowery" once said he wished he was back
"Pidgie" (chased by a pigeon when a in the Bowery (Pat's story is better)
child & ran to her mother, calling Dunmores, whose family came from that
"pidgie, pidgie") county in Ire. (there is no such county in
Owen (Dominic's brother) - "the Ireland; this must be the Don Mors)
black fellow" "Salty," whose sire was a salt-water sailor
Peter (another brother) - "the white (wrong)
fellow" "Brine" - a brother of Dunmore (this must
"Philippine," so called because he Brian)
had sailed in the Philippines (I
question this)
Harlem & Doney were in competition
as to who was the best clog-dancer
on the Island
 
- J. Gordon Heckler, in the Milwaukee Journal, Jan. 10, 1932

Names (Personal)

[See also "Gaelic Language"]
 
The use of "white" as a term of endearment is at least as old as the 15th century. As an Irish colloquialism it may have been influenced by Irish "ban" (white), which is similarly used.
[- no citation is given for this entry]
 
Nicknames -
"Sockidy" Rickster "Ropa Docha" (burnt rope)
"Willie-so-Quick" Rickster Paddy Heela (his wife's name was Heela) -
(always says when asked to this must be wrong - his wife was
do a job, "Yes, I will do it Bridget Paganog
so quick."
Shabby Town Rd. (must be Patty Bocha McCauley (must be Paddy
Angeline's Bluff) Baca)
Dominic Gallagher - "the long one" "Bowery" once said he wished he was back
"Pidgie" (chased by a pigeon when a in the Bowery (Pat's story is better)
child & ran to her mother, calling Dunmores, whose family came from that
"pidgie, pidgie") county in Ire. (there is no such county in
Owen (Dominic's brother) - "the Ireland; this must be the Don Mors)
black fellow" "Salty," whose sire was a salt-water sailor
Peter (another brother) - "the white (wrong)
fellow" "Brine" - a brother of Dunmore (this must
"Philippine," so called because he Brian)
had sailed in the Philippines (I
question this)
Harlem & Doney were in competition
as to who was the best clog-dancer
on the Island
 
- J. Gordon Heckler, in the Milwaukee Journal, Jan. 10, 1932

Organizations & Peddlers

Organizations

P. 65, 100
Union, p. 105
 
Many organizations, p. 111
 

Peddlers

Frank Bloom is recorded as dying June 29, 1912, of "acute enteritis;" occupation peddler;
parents Zanslag & Susan DeKoaker. He was born in the Netherlands, age 35-5-0,
married.
 
This is in the county records, Charlevoix. Did he die suddenly on the Island?