HISTORY OF TUSCOLA COUNTY

 

Page 174

 

TOWN OF WATERTOWN

     Watertown was set off from Millington by the board of supervisors at a meeting held January 6, 1857.  The first election was ordered held on the first Monday of April, 1857, at the house of Jethro Johnson, and Andrew Fitz-Gerald, Nathan M. Berry and Curtis Coffeen were named as inspectors of election.

DESCRIPTIVE.

     The articles describing the physical features of Watertown and its early settlement are from the pen of Hon. Enos Goddrich, a well known citizen of the town.
     “Watertown is designated by the government surveys as town 10 north, of range 9 east.  It occupies a position midway between the village of Vassar on the northwest and the city of Lapeer on the southeast, and is on the summit between the waters of Flint and Cass Rivers.  According to the minutes of survey of the once contemplated East Saginaw & St. Clair Railroad, made in 1873, under the superintendence of William B. Sears, chief engineer of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad, the highest elevation crossed between Flint and Cass Rivers is on the northwest quarter of section 28 in Watertown, and a few rods north of Cedar Lake, when the altitude was found to be 300 feet above the Saginaw River at South Saginaw.  Cedar Lake on the same quarter section was found to be 270 feet above the water of the Saginaw.

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“STREAMS AND SPRINGS”

     “In consequence of its location on the divide between Flint and Cass Rivers, Watertown has no large streams of water, but this deficiency is made up by an abundance of small, pure and rapidly flowing spring brooks.  The northwest part of the township is drained by the small tributaries of Goodwin’s Creek, a stream for many years celebrated as the scene of extensive lumber operations of Avery & Murphy, and out of which they have floated some of the choicest pine timber that ever grew on Michigan soil.  Out of this small stream, by the aid of dams to treasure up the water for the time of need, these enterprising men have driven into the Cass River as high as 13,000,000 feet of logs in a season.
     “The pine has nearly all departed and gone out to seek the markets of the outside world.  Those who are familiar with the nature of the pine (which, by the way, is the emblematic tree of our State) have learned that the best of pine never grows on poor land.  Poor sandy soil in many cases produces a great growth of pine in quantity, but on such land the timber is very liable to be ‘punk rotten’ and defective.  But where the soil is rich and produces (as it does here in Watertown) a thrifty growth of beech, sugar maple, basswood and rock elm timber, interspersed with pines, we find what is known among lumber dealers as the ‘cork pine,’ the trees being very large, tall and remarkable free from limbs.  Various instances have occurred, where from seven to nine thousand feet of saw logs have been taken from a single tree..  Formerly Avery & Murphy had nearly one hundred million eet of pine in Watertown, but the quantitiy has now been reduced to about five millions.  That the reader may judge of its superior quality it need only be stated that in the spring of 1872 Avery & Murphy sold at one sale to a large dealer of Detroit, Mr. Merrill, twenty-five million feet of logs, a large part grown in Watertown, for the round sum of $300,000, being  twelve dollars a thousand feet in the log.  In the southeast part of Watertown also once stood a choice tract of pine timber, which has all disappeared.  It was here that E. J. White, of Lapeer, and Mr. Brockway, of Saginaw, sold in the spring of 1871, to the late Gov. Crapo, 1,200 acres of pine lands for $62,500.  When it is considered that a haul of five miles is necessary to reach the waters of the Flint River, the value of the timber from this tract of land may be better appreciated; and, if we are not misinformed, Thomas foster took ten thousand feet of saw logs from one tract and fifteen millions from the whole tract.  But the monarchs of the forest are gone from Watertown, and with the exception of almost five million feet standing in the southwest part of the township, there is none left.
    “The soil is varied, as is usually the case in every township in the State, but the prevailing surface soil is dark gravel, and the whole township may be said to be underlaid with a clay subsoil.  Here and there the clay crops out upon the surface, and in some cases it sinks to the depth of four or five feet, but over a large part of the township it is deposited at the bottom of the furrow, where it can be brought up with the plow and mixed to suit the taste of the cultivator.   The gravelly surface soil above alluded to is varied in its character, sometimes loamy, sometimes aluminous, but in most cases the silicates predominate.  Clover luxuriates upon it, and in no place this side of Kentucky does the blue grass flourish more luxuriantly or adhere more tenaciously when it once gains a foothold.  An inherent moisture almost everywhere pervades the soil, even on the highest ground which renders it proof against drouth, except in the most extreme cases.

“AGRICULTURE

Is rapidly taking the place of the lumbering interest, and, let no one thank, that in a town of so much good pine there could be no good farming land.  On the contrary, many whole sections were almost exclusively timbered with beech, maple and basswood, and even where the scattering pine grew we find some of the choicest of farming land.  As an illustration of this fact I would state that the enterprising Thomas Foster, widely known as a breeder of blooded horses, and one of the owners of the world renowned ‘Mambrino Gift,’ is opening up a farm on the Crapo pine land, which bids fair to become one of the finest in the State.  This farm, besides possessing the choicest of soil, is watered by Elm Creek and a large number of never failing springs.

     “The ‘Spring Hill’ farm of Avery & Murphy on sections 28, 29 and 33, is also looming up into large proportions,, and will perhaps ultimately be the largest farm in the township.

“THE HOME OF THE BEAVERS.

      “Among the relics of antiquity, the beaver dam is frequently to be met with in a remarkable state of preservation.  Elm Creek, which heads in Cedar Lake and flows in a southeasterly direction to the Flint River, abounds in these ancient remains.  In one place, upon the farm of the writer, is to be found one of these beaver dams distinctly traceable, fifty-six rods in length.  But the beavers and the red men have departed.  The deer, the wolf, and the panther have no longer a home among us.  Man, the ‘lord of creation,’ is unscrupulously appropriating to himself those privileges which for countless ages have belonged to the beasts of the forest.
     “For my own part I confess that it is not without some feelings of regret that I look out from year to year and behold the primeval forest fading away before the woodman’s ax.  I have been an active instrument in producing this cha. ge, and yet at times I feel as if there was something sacrilegious in this waging a war of extermination upon the works of nature.  Often has my heart thrilled to the sentiment of the poet Ossian, where he says:
     “The murmur of thy streams, O, Lora, brings back the memory of the past.  The sound of thy woods, Garmallar, is lovely to my ear.’
      “There is no place like the woods for day musings and profound contemplation.  If it be true, as Fenimore Cooper remarks, that, ‘To admire the works of nature is to worship the Being who created them,’ then have I been a devout worshiper from childhood to youth, and from manhood to age.  My earliest recollections are associated with the woods, and in after life from scenes of amusement-from the halls of legislation-from the haunts of crowded cities my thoughts and feelings and sympathies have reverted back to the primitive scenes of nature.  From the heartlessness and ingratitude of ‘a stormy and unstable world’ it is sweet to flee away to the woods, the lakes and the streams; and, lying down upon the mossy bank, to cast far upward a gaze upon the deep blue sky, and contemplate and beauty of that Being ‘whose house is not made with hands, eternal n the heavens.’”

LAND ENTRIES PRIOR TO 1860

SECTION 1.          Sarah r. Patterson, November 1, 1853
                                Vincent H. Lewis, May 6, 1854
                                John Turner, May  16, 1854
                                Ira s. Begel, November 11, 1854
                                Chas. Dickerson, December 6, 1854
                                Wm. H. Leggett, December 20, 1854
                                Alexander Carr, January 5, 1855
                                John Smith, April 3, 1855

SECTION 2           John Turner, May 16, 1854
                                Featherston Colling, November 20, 1854
                                Jas. A. Rogers, December 6, 1854
                                Benjamin Fox, July 28, 1855

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SECTION 3           Royal C. Remick, February 7, 1853
                                John A. Grant, November 14, 1854
                                Featherston Colling, November 20, 1854
                                Joseph Colling, November 20, 1854
                                Jas. L. Carr, January 5, 1855
                                Henry Fox, July 17, 1855

SECTION 4           Royal C. Remick, August 13, 1852
                                Franklin Wright, February 9, 1856
                                Alphret J. Glynn, June 26, 1856

SECTION 5           Royal C. Remick, August 3, and 13, 1852
                                Royal C. Remick, February 7, 1853
                                Thos. Duncan, October 10, 1855
                                Royal C. Remick, April 11, 1859

SECTION 6           Royal C. Remick, August 3 and 13, 1852
                                Royal C. Remick, November 6, 1855
                                Royal C. Remick, November 1, 1859

SECTION 7           Royal C. Remick, August 3 and 13, 1852
                                Royal C. Remick, February 7, 1853
                                Charles Merrill and Royal C. Remick, March 25, 1856

SECTION 8           Royal C. Remick, August 13, 1852
                                Royal c. Remick, February 7, 1853
                                Thomas Duncan, October 10, 1855

SECTION 9           Royal C. Remick, February 7, 1853
                                Chester Baxter, October 6, 1853
                                Benjamin Decker, March 5, 1854
                                Orial Inman, April 10, 1855
                                Samuel P. McNeal, October 30, 1854

SECTION 10         Anson Read, April 18, 1854
                                John Turner, May 16, 1854
                                Moses Bradley, July 3, 1854
                                Eratus A. Wood, July 3, 1854
                                James Dockerty, November 10, 1854
                                Joseph Colling, November 20, 1854

SECTION 11         Elijah W. Way, February 20, 1854
                                Adorno Johnson,  April 14, 1854
                                John Turner, June 3, 1854
                                Franklin A. Wright, October 26, 1854
                                Nahum N. Wilson, January 27, 1855

SECTION 12         John Punderson, February 15, 1854
                                Lewis Sweitler, November 11, 1854
                                Andrew Fitzgerald, December 25, 1854
                                James McCartney, December 25, 1854
                                Hiram Greenman, April 3, 1855
                                Walter Fitzgerald, April 4, 1855

SECTION 13         John Punderson, April 18, 1854
                                Edmund Elward, September 25, 1854
                                Jacob W. Brown, October 12, 1854
                                Patrick O’Neill, November 1, 1854
                                Jacob W. Brown, September 1, 1854
                                Nathan Potter, March 5, 1856

SECTION 14         William W. Turner, May 16, 1854
                                Marinda G. Manwaring, June 8, 1854
                                David C. and Sam’l Goodsell, September 27, 1854
                                Charles Turner, April 4, 1855

SECTION 15         Chester Baxer, March 9, 1852
                                Nahum N. Wilson, June 8, 1852
                                Anson Read, April 18, 1854
                                Wm. W. Turner, May 16, 1854
                                Jospeh Moon, December 2, 1854
                                James Decker, September 3, 1855

SECTION 16         A. L. Kinney, May 15, 1855
                                J. Sheffield, June 16, 1855
                                C. Sheffield, June 16, 1855
                                A. L. Kinney, June 16, 1855
                                D. Laymon, July 2, 1855
                                Preserved Sweet, April 14, 1856
                                John H. Markell, May 26, 1856

SECTION 17         Christopher Gugerty, December 25, 1854
                                Jacob Decker, June 16, 1855
                                David J. Traver, August 15, 1855
                                Edward H. Thompson, May 10, 1856

SECTION 18         Edward H. Thompson, May 10, 1856

SECTION 19         Chester Baxter, August 29, 1853
                                Merial Henry, May 6, 1857

SECTION 20         Samuel Parker, February 17, 1852
                                Chester Baxter, November 24, 1853
                                John Patterson, July 2, 1855
                                Wm. Fitz simmons, April 9, 1856

SECTION 21         John McCartney, October 18, 1851
                                Ira Davenport, May 6, 1854
                                John Turner, May 16, 1854
                                Roswell D. Miller, July 2, 1855
                                Samuel Pendill, August 11, 1855

SECTION 22         Chester Baxter, March 9, 1852
                                Chester Baxter, August 29, 1853
                                Jospeh Moon, December 2, 1854
                                Robert B. Conklin, January 2, 1855

SECTION 23         Chester Baxter, February 17, 1852
                                John N. Wilson, April 25, 1853
                                Enoch J. White, May 7, 1853
                                Silas Murch,, December 2, 1854
                                Robt. B. Conklin, January 2, 1855
                                Geo. Turner, April 4, 1855
                                Edmund Turner, March 5, 1856

SECTION 24         Chester Baxter, August 29, 1853
                                James H. C. Blades, March 8, 1854
                                Geo. Turner, April  4, 1855
                                Nathan Potter, February 1, 1856
                                Nathan Potter, March 5, 1856

SECTION 25         Enoch J. White, December 15, 1852
                                Enoch J. White, January 5, 1853
                                Enoch J. White, April 18, 1853
                                Albert Cosby, July 27, 1855
                                Nathan Potter, February 1, 1856

SECTION 26         Enoch J. White, December 17, 1852
                                Nahum N. Wilson, June 8, 1852
                                Enoch J. White, January 6, 1853
                                Enoch J. White, May 7, 1853
                                Chester Baxter, August 29, 1853
                                Enoch J. White, July 25, 1854
                                Nathaniel M. Berry, October 24, 1854

SECTION 27         Chester Baxter, February 17, 1852
                                Nahum N. Wilson, September 22, 1852
                                Chester Baxter, August 29, 1853
                                Ira Davenport, May 6, 1854
                                Enos Goodrich, September 24, 1855
                                Enos Goodrich, February 7, 1856

SECTION 28         Chester Baxter, February 7 and 17, 1852
                                Chester Baxter, August 29, 1853
                                Horatio Belcher, August 3, 1855
                                Anthony Walling, September 5, 1855

SECTION 29         Chester Baxter, February 7, 1852
                                Samuel Wilson, March 9, 1852
                                Nahum N. Wilson, June 8, 1852
                                Chester Baxter, October 6, 1853.

SECTION 30         Chester Baxter, August 29, 1853

SECTION 31         Chester Baxter, August 29 and 31, 1853

SECTION 32         Calvin C. Waller, December 19, 1836
                                Chester Baxter, October 6, 1853

SECTION 33         Calvin C. Waller, December 19, 1836
                                Alva Bishop, January 23, 1837
                                Chester Baxter, February 7, 1852
                                Chester Baxter, May 21, 1852
                                Nahum N. Wilson, June 8, 1852

SECTION 34         Samuel P. Snow, February 17, 1852
                                Chester Baxter, May 21, 1852
                                William W. Turner, May 16, 1854
                                Isaac Davis, August 28, 1855
                                Enos Goodrich, September 24, 1855
                                James Day, December 20, 1855
                                Dwillis M. Johnson, April 27, 1859
                                Jasper Johnson, September 20, 1859

SECTION 35         Enoch J. White, July 25, 1854
                                Augustus Welch, October 7, 1854
                                Enos Goodrich, September 17,1855
                                Curtis Coffeen, September 26, 1855
                                James Congdon, October 27, 1855

SECTION 36         Enoch J. White, December 15, 1852
                                Enoch J. White, January 5, 1853
                                Jesse H. Barber, December 20, 1853
                                Enoch J. White, February 11, 1854
                                Augustus Welch, October 7, 1854
                                Samuel Sabin, June 8, 1855
                                Curtis Coffeen, September 26, 1855
                                Jeremiah Chapman, October 20, 1855
                                John Schuman, January 26, 1856