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

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY.

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was then but a smallplace, not nearly as large as Bay City is now.
Here he rented some rooms for his family until he could go into
the country and find a location for a farm. By the advice of the
late John R. Williams, an old Albanian who was living in Detroit,
he decided to go to Saginaw. After seeing his family settled, he
started with my two brothers, Robert and the late James J., for
Saginaw, with a horse and wagon which we had brought with us.
It was some time before we heard from them; my mother became,
quite anxious. At length James returned with the horse and
wagon, accompanied by a young man whose name was Miller.
This was the first time I ever saw the honored President of our
society. My father wrote to my mother that he had bought a
piece of land containing 125 acres, of a Mr. Ewing, a halfbreed title, on the north side of the river and east of Saginaw
street, now in the city of Flint, comprising at present a portion of
the 1st ward of that city, for $125.
" My mother hired a man by the name of Mosher with his team.
to take the familv and household goods to Flint river, as it was
then called. We took our own horse and wagon, and were three
days in reaching Grand Blanc. We could go no farther with the
team, as this was the terminus of the wagon road. There was a
bush road cut on the Indian trail down to the Flint river, by which
sleighs had gone through in the winter. My mother paid off the
teamster, and lie returned to Detroit. We here left what little
household goods we had, and the next morning started for the
Flint river, my mother and the smaller children riding in the
wagon, and the rest of us going afoot. We had to cut away the
brush and trees on each side of the trail to let our wagon pass
through. It took us all day to reach the Thread, which is one and
a half miles south of Flint river, and a hard day's work it was,
although the distance accomplished was but six miles. Here we
moved into a little log house until my father could build something suitable to live in on the place he had bought. With the
assistance of my brothers he soon built a house on the north bank
of the river, and on the east side of what is now Saginaw street,
near where the north end of the bridge now is. John Todd lived
on the south bend of the river, and on the west side of Saginaw
street. The late Judge Stowe lived about 40 rods below on the
north bank of the river, in the old Indian trading house of Jacob
Smith. These three houses constituted what is now the city of
Flint.
" After getting his family settled, my father turned his attention
to securing provisions for the winter. There was plenty of venison
to be got of the Indians, but there was no pork in that part of the
countrv; so he and George Oliver, now of East Saginaw, started
down the Flint in a canoe for Saginaw, to try to buy some pork,
and at the same time to see the country. They were gone 10 or
12 days. They finally bought some pork of a man by the name
of McClelland, I believe. They then commenced their return, and
on the way up the river camped on the old ' Indian Field,' about