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“Looking Backward”

 

History of Merrill and Jonesfield Townships

Saginaw County, Michigan

 

Memories That Shaped the Township

As Seen through the Eyes

Of a Pioneer Son

 

W.G. Shannon

ã2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

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About the Author

Wilfred Grenville Shannon was born June 2, 1887 on the family farm on Fenmore Road in Merrill, then called Jonesfield Township, Michigan. His parents Robert Shannon Jr. and Mary (Gauley) Shannon were Jonesfield pioneers. Robert Shannon Jr. was descended from an Irish clan that migrated from Ireland to Grenville (Argenteuil County), Quebec, Canada, and then into Michigan in the 1870s.

Wilfred attended the Jonesfield schools and developed an interest in Merrill history. He was the only boy in the entire graduating class of Merrill High School 1904, consisting of seven girls and him. One of his classmates, Kate Shannon, was his first cousin. 

            Wilfred had one sibling; a sister named Mary Lenore. Wilfred and Lenore lost their mother to heart disease in 1913 and their father to pneumonia in March of 1917. Wilfred took over operation of the family farm and less than a month later, on April 16, 1917; he married the love of his life, Caroline Musette Warner. She was the daughter of Richland Township (Hemlock) shoemaker Emory B. Warner and Caroline E. Perkins. Wilfred and Caroline had a total of seven children, three sons: Robert Emory, Grenville Jerome (Jimmy), and John Francis and four daughters: Joyce Elaine, Jean Beverly, Ruth Mary and Judith Ann. Caroline Shannon passed away in 1949, laid to rest near her parents in the Richland Township cemetery. Wilfred remained unmarried the rest of his life.

 In his adult years, Wilfred preferred using his initials and signed his name on everything as “W.G. Shannon.”  W.G. drafted the original manuscript of this book, most likely between 1959-1961 when he was actively involved in the genealogical documentation of his family line with his cousin, Jeanette Gillie (Wallace). His contribution left a priceless trail of family information, intermingled with his personal wit, humor and interjections, making each piece a family treasure.

            W.G. was a respected Saginaw County historian; antique collector-dealer, land surveyor and oil lease entrepreneur. During the Prohibition years he served as a Border Patrol Inspector at the crossing between Detroit and Ontario. In his later years, W.G. possessed what was said to have been the largest private collection of antique hobnailed glass in the Midwest. He was a man of simple pursuits, lofty goals, wit and wisdom, always ready to enhance a conversation with a humorous quip or historical quote. He was a lifetime member of Merrill Lodge 411 of Free and Accepted Masons, serving as Worshipful Master in 1923. His lifetime of exploits stirred accolades, laughs and backslapping long after he was gone from this earthly world.

            W.G. passed away in Saginaw, Michigan on December 8, 1962, taken by a heart attack. He spent the previous night talking with his daughter Ruth Mary, sharing his memories of his life and family. He was exceedingly proud of his children and their accomplishments in life. As each name passed his lips he smiled and nodded his head reinforcing his pride in being the father of seven whom carried the Shannon name with honor.

            W.G. was laid to rest in the Shannon family plot in the Lakefield Cemetery in Merrill, next to his mother and father. He was long mourned by his family and many in the community. His humble headstone was engraved with the Masonic emblem, honoring his lifetime of service, paving his way into the New Jerusalem.

Kevin O’Brien, Grandson 2002 a.d.

 

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The Humble Beginnings

 

In the 1860’s the only other road entering Jonesfield was “Tannehill Indian Trail.” It entered Jonesfield at the southeast corner of section 34, proceeding northwest to the southwest corner of section 27 east of Harold Siler’s house, crossed over into section 28 about 20 rods[1] west of the section line, continuing northwest to section 21 and then into Wheeler Township. Tannerhill Road from St. Charles was used to transport logs to the local sawmills. The remains of this road can still be found in sections 28 and 21.[2]

The first lumbermen in Jonesfield were the stave crews.[3] After oil was discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in the early 1860s, stave crews roamed all over the northern states looking for prime oak suitable for high quality staves. Many older readers will remember the blue 42 gallon kerosene barrels of oil that came to Merrill by the carload. The first stave crew came to Merrill about 1868 and stayed until the 1880s. Michigan had some of the finest oak ever grown. On sections 21 and 28 of Jonesfield, oak trees that were felled by the stave crews lay on the ground. Some were 75-100 feet long and four feet in diameter. The stave crews would fell a large oak tree, cut a four-foot block off of it and split it. If the block split straight they blocked out the rest of the tree up to the first branches. If the block split crooked or twisted, they left it where it lay as waste.

            After the barrel crews left, the French Canadian square timbermen arrived. The men, rugged and hard working brought the names Sova, Bebow, Winters, Archambault and many more to the landscape. They cut and sawed oak logs up to 24 inches square and 40 feet long. These timbers were lashed between large pine logs and floated upriver to Bay City where the English timber ships waited to load the oak bound for England. Oak timber will not rot if buried at least four feet underground.[4]

            The English started burying oak for ships timber starting around 1816 and the practice continued until about 1880. Today, England has more “Grade-A” oak buried than is growing in the United States today.[5] The wood is value[6]less because they do not use it for ships anymore. By  then the steel drum was replacing the wooden barrel. Steel ships followed. Then came the tank car and now the truck. Society has left wooden construction of most things, except housing, to history.

The first settlement in Jonesfield proper was Meridian City founded by W. E., around 1867.  It consisted of a stream, a sawmill, a company store, a large boardinghouse and twenty small houses inhabited by folks with names and reputations long gone from memory. W. E. Glasby’s mill was built for the purpose of sawing planks for the Plank Road. The location was about two blocks east of the line between sections 27 and 28, behind where Harold Siler’s house stands.[7]

            After the Glasby mill closed, Merrill took an awful beating. The population went from 650 down to 350 and did not come back for years. The Allie White family, the Mahoney’s, the Brannigan’s, the Johnson’s, Ryan’s and many other pioneer families left

 

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the area. Some went to Central Lake where the new mill was built to saw large Northern Michigan Elm, much different from the Saginaw Water Elm. Other families migrated south toward Flint and points in Genesee County, Michigan.

            By that time, farming in Merrill was off to a good start. Dairying and beef were coming along. Pork raising was a big item. Pat O’Toole, Joe McLure, Cal Sylvester, John Robert Shannon, the Fleming’s, Keenan’s, Ballien’s, Madden’s and many more kept anywhere from ten to 150 pigs on their farms. Any one of the pioneer farmers had more pigs than an entire half of Merrill does now.

The population of Jonesfield Township in 1870 was 194. Taxable land totaled 1,542 acres. Improved land listed was 252 acres. Livestock was listed as three horses, 35 cows, 40 “miscellaneous cattle,” 38 pigs and 32 oxen. Only animals capable of being used for work or food were to be counted. The only transportation to Saginaw was on foot, horseback or horse-drawn carriage, when the dirt roads were firm enough to hold them.

W.E. Glasby’s sawmill stood on the southwest quarter of section 27, currently the corner of Johnson Street and M-46, next to the Village Hall. The Glasby mill fed the Plank Road construction. The planks were three inches thick, twelve inches wide and sixteen feet long. Joseph Wilson and John McLean hauled the planks from the mill to the Richland Township line where the Jonesfield contribution to the Plank Road was completed. W.E. Glasby had a second mill in Richland Township (Hemlock) which supplied cut planks for the six-mile Thomas Township to Jonesfield Township portion, using 31,680 individual planks. In addition to that task, the Glasby mill also cut one-inch lumber for siding. The milk house and residence that formerly stood on the Fales’ farm were built of lumber from the Glasby mill. Pine logs were hauled in from sections 24, 27, 28 and 33, to meet the blade and satisfy local appetite for housing and barns.

 The “Plank Road” now known as M-46, had been cut through about 1865, giving a reasonable route of travel to Saginaw. The wooden and level planks kept wagons from sinking.  The Plank Road, from Jonesfield Township, also proceeded west to St. Louis, Michigan.  It was about fifteen miles and 79,200 planks long. It was completed in 1870. A stage line was started for travel between St. Louis and the Randall Post Office, about three miles east of Hemlock. Another team of fresh horses was used for the return trip to St. Louis. Travel time by stage from Jonesfield to Richland Township was about three hours, as long as the roads were dry and passable. This mill was built for the purpose of sawing planks for the Plank Road. Meridian City was established about 1867 and was at its peak about 1869. After the Stagecoach Company abandoned it, the Plank Road rapidly fell into disrepair.

The next groups of permanent settlers were the families of A.G. West 1863 and Alex Fales 1868. The families of Joseph Wilson, George and Anson Moulton, Thomas Fleming, John Madden, A.B. Bloomer, John McLean, Joel Nevins and Thomas Sweeny settled there sometime around 1878.

In 1868, A.J. West purchased 220 acres in section 28 of Jonesfield Township. Mr. West had the vision to see that if a railroad were ever built it would have to bisect section 28 on account of the swamp on either side.

            The first road laid out by the residents of Jonesfield was the centerline between sections 26 and 27 and sections 22 and 23, followed by side-roads leading off the

 

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Centerline.[8] John Codd and his brother-in-law chopped and cleared trees to form the road that is still known as Codd Road between sections 11, 14, 10, 15, 9 and 6.

            The road known as Eastline was laid out about 1865. The Westline was not opened between sections 21 and 22 until about 1894. When Alex Fales homesteaded his property on a knoll in the northwest quarter of section 28, white maple trees three feet across grew wild. Acres and acres of the trees grew for the taking. The Tannehill Road from St. Charles to Mount Pleasant, Michigan passed the same grove eons ago. The local Indians used to peel bark from it for their canoes.

Some of the Jonesfield native pine cut for the Plank Road came from this grove. The cut logs were rafted to Saginaw where they were milled into usable lumber. The big Jonesfield fire of 1871 wiped out a lot of it. Ten years later, the big fire of 1881 finished the rest.  The locals salvaged a lot of the dead and burned timber as late as 1888. Many of the barns in Merrill were constructed of the fire killed pine and hemlock trees. In 1869, non-residents were farming over 60% of Jonesfield. Sewell S. Avery’s father owned almost all the east half of section 33. The Eddy and Day family farms along the railroad were just a few of the actual Jonesfield residents.

Most of Jonesfield’s eighty or so original farms have long been sold and resold many times over. Descendants of the original owners occupy just eight of them. Those are Clarence Wall in section 10 on the southeast corner of Fenmore Road and Dice Road. Descendants of William Fleming are still in section 10, near the northeast corner of Fenmore Road and Frost Road. Frank J. Madden, descendant of Patrick Madden, farms section 14 on the southeast corner of Merrill Road and Frost Road. Elizabeth Sweeny, descendant of Thomas Sweeny, owns the northeast corner of section 14 at Merrill Road and O’Hara Road. Elmer Frost, Walt Frost and Louise Frost in section 14, descendants of Roland Frost, work the northwest corner of Chapin Road and O’Hara Road. William Hogan, descendant of Denis Hogan, farms a lot in section 14 at the southwest corner of Frost and Chapin Roads. Anson Moulton and Jack Ellis, descendants of George Moulton, farm two lots in section 36, on Steel Road just south of M-46.

The first doctor in Merrill was E.H. Hillyer, a medical officer during the Civil War. No one knew if Doc Hillyer ever completed actual medical school. He came from Canton, Ohio and settled in Merrill about 1869 or 1870. Between 1870 and 1890, Merrill saw a string of physicians come and go, mainly because of money. A doctor should be able to support a family on his wages alone, but the only way many survived was by farming like their neighbors. Small town life meant sacrifice.

Over in section 36, an old Irishman, whose name escapes me, built a house he planned on his own, with the back door and stove in perfect line. The old guy always thought efficiency was lacking in the modern home of the 1880s. Every few weeks he would venture out and cut a tree that measured 18-20 feet. He dragged it home by horse and wagon. He stuck one end of the tree in the stove and let the remainder stretch out the door, moving the tree forward as it burned. Fortunately the idea never really caught on, because it took a lot of trees to heat a home with the door always standing open in the snowy winters of the state. I don’t know why the old guy didn’t chop the tree into workable slabs that could be stacked in the woodshed or outside the door. Then again, it was characters like this that made for humorous stories when the temperatures dipped and folks stayed home,

 

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heating and cooking their place with “modern” luxuries like oil or kerosene stoves and heaters.

 

The Township is Created

 

At a meeting held March 19, 1873, the County Board officially declared that “town 12 north of range 1 east, be created into a township, to be called and known by the name of Jonesfield,” honoring the township’s first settlers, Edward “Johnny” Jones and his wife Catherine (DuForce) Jones. They remained lifelong residents of the township until their deaths; Edward at 96 and Catherine just one month shy of 107 years.

The middle branch of Swan Creek waters the district. The Saginaw Valley and Saint Louis Railroad runs through sections 5, 6, 7, and 8. The public highway, the only good road in the township, runs almost parallel with Iron Road (presently unidentified). At this time, the northern portion of Jonesfield was considered as unsettled.

The County Board ordered that the first annual town meeting be held in the District 2 schoolhouse in section 28 near M-46 and Fenmore Road, at nine o’clock in the morning on the first Monday of April 1873. Joel Nevins presided over the meeting.  Nevins, Alexander Prale and Arnold J. West, were the three electors of the new township.

The principal officials of the township from the date of incorporation were given as: John Clune 1873, Joel S. Nevins 1874-1875, E.C. Hill 1876-1877, John McLean 1878, J.W. Robinson 1879, and Joe W. Nevins 1881. The earliest manufacturing district was formed when A.J. West built a sawmill sometime between 1868 and 1874, to support the booming lumber industry. A second mill, by a man named “Creek,” was there too, but no further information is offered.

In the early days of Jonesfield 1873, the population of 194 meant farming was a hand to mouth operation. No one had an actual team of horses. They may have had two or three horses but no matched pairs. Lyman Morris, who lived on the Peter O’Toole farm, had the first bunch of good horses, one black, one white. They were also saddlers and were the only real riding horses in the town for years.

D.W. Greene had a “pole road,” so called, that ran across section 27, turned west about where the Coppen’s house now stands on section 22, crossed section 21, angling across William Wierouch’s and Lee Siler’s into Gratiot County, and then northwest into Porter Township. This road consisted of round cross-tied logs with eight-inch diameter black ash rails pinned to the ties. The cars had concave wooden wheels that gripped the round ash rail. The road was used to haul logs in the summer. Sleighs were used in the winter. The motive power was horses or oxen and sometimes both. Remains of the “pole road” can be found on Frank Howley’s farm and in parts of the Coppen’s farmland too.

On a nice morning around June of 1874, two roughly dressed men carrying bundles, got off the 8:30 a.m. train at Greene’s Mill. They immediately started walking north on the centerline going as far as the Midland County line. They turned east and proceeded to cover the north side of Richland Township, the south side of Ingersoll Township, the south half of Mt. Haley Township, the east half of Porter Township, part of Wheeler Township and all of Jonesfield. They returned to Greene’s and stayed there for a day or two. Then they went walking west on the Plank Road for about two miles. They followed the planks and turned south toward Emerson Township and then on into Lakefield and Bryant Townships.

 

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 Many an eye was cast upon them, with folks nervously wondering whom they were as the men paced and tallied their steps.

            The two men turned out to be Frank L. Hood and R. V. Parsons of St. Charles, Michigan. Parsons had a small hoop or stave mill there. After their walk and calculations both men went to Saginaw where they estimated the Jonesfield area possessed about 25,000 acres of number one elm, soft maple and basswood, enough to run a stave and heading mill for fifty years.

Frank Hood returned to Greene’s Mill where he bought the George Smith lot of 240 acres in section 26, which is now McSewen’s farm in Jonesfield Township, and the north 40 of the W. P. Stacey farm, now known as the McNier farm. Most of the Stacey farm was covered with a stand of elm and soft maple. Parsons purchased part of the west 80 acres of the Smith place from Mr. Hood. That quarter was plotted and is where the present village of Merrill now stands.

 

The Post Office

 

The first postmaster of Jonesfield was A.B. Bloomer. The office was at Green’s Mill. When the office was moved to West’s Mill, George Docket became postmaster. The first postmaster of Merrill proper was A.C. Melze. The post office was set up in the Melze store along the west wall. After the election of Grover Cleveland in 1885, E.H. Hillyer was appointed postmaster. Hillyer eventually moved the office to the Eben Gould building that once stood where the air pump at the Pure Gas station is now.[9] When William McKinley was elected president in 1897, he appointed Dr. J.H. Hudson who moved the post office to where the Monitor building is now. Dr. Hudson sent for his niece to become the assistant postmaster. She met and later married a handsome local chap named R.T. Maynard. After her term as assistant postmaster was completed, Mrs. Maynard became the cashier for the local bank. Both of the Maynard’s moved to Saginaw around 1918 where both passed away within the last couple of years.

In the horse drawn days, the snow sometimes got so deep the carriers could not make their deliveries for several days at a time.  In the spring the mud was almost worse. In the dry summer months the dust would fly sometimes nearly choking people as they walked down the streets. Around 1900, the town businessmen, under the leadership of Pat O’Toole, E. Massecare and most of the more progressive farmers, petitioned for a vote on a $20,000 bond issue to Macadamize[10] the Centerline Road. The vote was very close. In fact so close that the initiative hinged on one vote. That vote came from a man named John Doran, a non-citizen who was allowed to vote. The initiative passed but was immediately taken to court. The circuit judge threw out the Doran ballot but declared the election valid as passing.  John W. Ederer was county road commissioner at the time. He built the first mile and a half to Vashaw’s corner the first year. The second year the road was extended to Method’s corner. Each year after that the road was extended another mile north and by 1911 the last stretch from Wagner’s to Gorman’s corner in the northeast corner of section 3 was finished.

Accommodations for travelers were pretty sparse in Merrill’s early days. J.W. Porter operated the Stop-Over-Hotel and Barn near the Jonesfield and Richland 

 

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Township lines. The barn is still standing on the R.W. Douglas farm in Richland, about a block south of the railroad.[11] The trip from Porter’s hotel to St. Louis was about six hours. The “Eastern Terminal” was the stage house that stood at the corner of Throop and Water (now N. Niagara). The “West Terminal” was the commercial house in St. Louis.[12]

            From 1855 to 1910, M-46 was impassable in the spring and fall. From the railroad crossing West, over a slight hill was a good road. From Dick Doyle’s house to about the block plant, the mud in the road was anywhere from six inches deep to bottomless where many wagons and carriages sank into it. The only drainage for the township was the middle branch of Swan Creek and a natural watercourse now known as the Whitmore Drain.

When A.J. West settled in 1868