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

190

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY.

would cut the wood. Walter partly concluded he would 'settle
things now;' but on second thought, as the master held up one of
those blue beeches, with the remembrance of past experiences, he
concluded to help saw the wood. My father had sent an Indian
down the day before to tell me to come home, and help with the
spring work. At recess that afternoon, we commenced our job on
the six cords of wood, I sawing and Walter splitting, while the
boys all stood around laughing at us. That night I got Thomas
Simpson to bring my books out of school, and the next morning I
started for home with the Indian. Some two months afterward, I
came down to Saginaw. At noon-time I thought I would step
over and see the boys. There was Walter sawing wood. He said
he had jumped thejob three or four times, and every time he had
got a whipping. Finally he had concluded to finish it up.
" A few years ago, I was talking with an old friend in the city of
Flint, and he said, 'Have you seen Walter Cronk?' Ireplied, 'No;
not in over 25 years!' 'There he is now,' he said, 'coming up the
street. See if lie will know you.' When he came up, my friend
said, 'Walter, do you know this man?' He looked at me a moment, and said, ' Yes. He made me saw six cords of wood over
30 years ago, and I got three whippings besides.' Walter and I
have been, and continue to be, the best of friends ever since our
school-boy fight nearly 40 years ago.
" In the winter of 1837-'8, Mr. B1each, the school-master, very
kindly offered to teach us to sing, evenings, if we would get up a
class. We accordingly formed a class of 12 scholars, six girls and
six boys. Among the girls was one whom I will call Sally. She
was homely, her parents were very poor, and she could not dress
as well as the rest. As a consequence, she was very much slighted
by the rest of the girls. It was no more than gallant that we
should see the girls home after school, but none of the boys
wanted to go home with Sally. The first two or three evenings
she went home alone. This we thought would not do; so we agreed
to go out in the hall and draw cuts, to see who should go home
with Sally; and I was the unlucky individual. We continued to
draw cuts, and four times out of five it fell to my lot to go home
with Sally. At last I began to think Sally was not so bad-looking
after all. Then I told the boys I did not care to draw cuts any
more; that I would take care of Sally. Sally is now one of the
most highly respected ladies in the Saginaw Valley, and is at the
top of the ladder, while most of those who felt themselves above
her are at the bottom.
" My father continued to live in what was called the 'Garden
of Eden' until 1841, when he and my brother James J. bought
out Capt. B. K. Hall's interest in the Old Portsmouth steammill,' formerly built by Judge Miller and others. Captain Hall
had been for many years of his life commander of a packet ship
on the ocean; thinking that he could make his fortune lumbering,
he removed to Portsmouth, but because of hard times and want of
expe'ience, lie lost all his property. He sent his family back to