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

CHAPTER XII.

LUMBER INDUSTRY.
The history of the rise of this industry throughout the Valley of
the Saginaw must be as interesting as the trade itself is
magnificent in its proportions. Never, perhaps, have the forests
of any land approached the pine woods of Northeastern Michigan
in extent or quality; never have they afforded such a field for the
lumberman's enterprise, and never vet have so many advantages
been conferred, directly, upon a single district as those conferred
by them upon this region. The great industry may be said to have
been inaugurated in 1834, when the first saw-mill in the Valley
was erected in Saginaw City by Harvey Williams, for the purpose
of supplying the early settlers with building materials, as the
manufacture and shipment of lumber as a commodity of commerce
from the Saginaw river had not at that time been thought of.
Ephraim S. Williams joined ' Uncle" Harvey in this enterprise
immediately after the latter erected the building and put in the
machinery. It is stated that this milling concern was located
south of the city mills, where the salt blocks of the Williams
Brothers are located. The machinery was manufactured at Detroit
by Harvey Williams, and was sufficient to run one muleysaw, and
the single run of stone for custom grinding. This latter appendage of the mill was used to crack corn for the inhabitants: wheat
was seldom or never introduced. The fly wheel was the same
used on the old steamer "Superior," the second steamboaton the
lakes, about the year 1820. It was 11 feet in diameter, and in the
steamer was fixed on a shaft distinct from the main shaft, and was
geared to make three revolutions to each revolution of the paddle
wheels. This large wheel and other machinery was brought overland fiom Detroit in 1834, by Mr. Williams. The difficulties attendant on the journey may be conceived from the fact that the
sleighs, on which the machinery was loaded, were drawn through
the Clinton river five times in a distance of nine miles. The first
lumber ever manufactured in Saginaw Valley was cut at the Williams mill, solely for home consumption, for at that time the idea
of manufacturing pine lumber for export was but slightly, if to any
extent, entertained. Mr. Bennett owned the mill a year or so,
and afterward the property again came into the hands of E. S. &
G. D. Williams, who held it until it was burned, July 4, 1854.
This was the pioneer mill and pioneer property of the Valley.
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