History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY.

411

made required him to commence on the State salt spring land; but
that it was his opinion that the center of the basin would be found
at or near the mouth of the Tittabawassee river, about two miles
above the present site of East Saginaw. And after the work was
abandoned by the State, Hon. Norman Little and others continued
firm in the belief, founded upon their confidence in the opinion of
Dr. Houghton, that a shaft had only to be sunk to a depth of from
600 to 1,000 feet to find strong brine at any point in this vicinity.
But the experience of the State led them to believe that it was no
idle task to make the experiment, and that whoever should take
the risk would be obliged to invest a large sum, which, in case of
success, would benefit his neighbors as much as himself. Dr.
Plessner prepared salt from surface brine in 1849; others made similar experiments. Thus matters stood until the session of the Legislature in 1859, when abill was introduced to appropriate $10,000
to aid in the development of salt springs in the Grand River Valley.
As soon as the pendency of this bill was known at East Saginaw,
a public meeting was called, and the unjust discrimination in favor
of Grand Rapids was bitterly complained of. It was believed that
the chances of success at Saginaw were at least equal to those of
Grand Rapids. As the country became better known about Saginaw, it was found that the surface indications of the existence of
brine were abundant, and were found existing in the greatest profusion at about an equal distance from the point selected by Dr.
Houghton as the center of the basin, and almost in every direction
from that center. With such a knowledge, it is no wonder that
the action of the Legislature in its exclusion of Saginaw Valley
from consideration in this matter, aroused the people to a sense of
the injustice of an exclusive grant in favor of the Grand river district, and resulted in the important meeting of January, 1859.
THE GOVERNED GOVERN.
A meeting of the principal men of the two Saginaws was held
in the office of Charles R. Mott, Jan. 26, 1859, over which Dr. Geo.
A. Lathrop presided; W. L. Webber was secretary. The question
of confidence in the opinions of Dr. Houghton was fully discussed,
and to the credit of the participants in the debate, the ideas of the
State Geologist fully sustained. Hon. Norman Little, Morgan L.
Gage, Dr. Lathrop and W. L. Webber were appointed a committee
to draft a petition to the Legislature asking that the State would
aid and protect the salt industry of the Valley. The labors of the
committee were crowned with success. Not only was the bill of
appropriation for Grand river cast aside, but another, favorable in
its every feature, was passed, exempting all property in connection
with salt works from taxation, and granting a bounty of 10 cents
per bushel on all salt manufactured. The terms of this act were