Skip to content

The Chesaning Argonaut

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Resources
  • Downloads
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Resources
  • Downloads
Facebook Camera-retro

Chesaning in 1877, Part 3: Riverside

Our investigation of the 1877 layout of Chesaning continues as we leave the east village behind, heading west toward the downtown area, and crossing over the bridge across the Shiawassee.

This narrow, one-lane wooden bridge was the first structure to carry traffic over the river, and traveler’s were charged a toll to cross. Its exact date of construction is unknown, but was likely sometime around 1850.

Broad Street & Bridge
Broad Street looking west across the river (1878).

Here we have a photograph showing many of the wood frame buildings that made up the original downtown, and everything lines up surprisingly well with the details we see the map of the village from 1877.

  1. Blacksmith Shop
  2. Grocery Store (?)
  3. Black Smith Shop
  4. Saloon
  5. Grocery Store
  6. Billiard Hall & Restaurant
  7. Dry Goods & Grocery Store

On the north side of Broad Street, starting at the bridge and moving west, we have the blacksmith shop (1) belonging to Daniel Smith.

The next building comes with no label or description, but this may be the grocery store (2) belonging to Avery Trefry (1839-1908).

Trefry was a native of Nova Scotia, and had partnered with his brother in a mercantile business for several years before coming to Chesaning. He operated a local grocery store here throughout much of the 1870s, until he left for California.

A.P. Trefry has completed an ice house and wood room. It is a neat building and is well painted. He has also enlarged his store, all of which improvements indicate a prosperous business.

The Chesaning Argus, October 31, 1877.

The are no other nearby structures that appear on the 1877 map, but the Sanborn Insurance survey of Chesaning from 1893 does show an ice house and storage building close to this location, which is why I am going to tentatively identify this location as Trefry’s grocery store.

The next building was another blacksmith shop (3), this one belonging to to Edwin Hewitt (1839-1918).  Edwin was born in Grand Blanc, and came to Chesaning sometime around 1871.

Then we have the saloon (4) of Henley Cutting.  The photo above shows a comparatively large, two story building, so it must have served some additional function.  Other sources list Henley as operating a hotel, livery, restaurant and billiard hall.

The grocery store (5) was owned by Daniel Cummins (1824-1899).

Daniel Cummins was born at Newstead, in New York state, and spent most of his life there as a farmer.  He had attempted to enlist in the Union Army, during the Civil War, but was rejected on account of an unspecified physical disability.

He came to the Chesaning area in 1869, where he continued his previous occupation as a farmer.  He then became active in the manufacture of hoops, before eventually opening a mercantile store.

Llewellyn Homer (1850-1906) owned the billiard hall & restaurant (6), which was also listed as a saloon in other sources. Llewellyn is elsewhere identified as the proprietor of a meat market, so this location may have served that purpose as well.

Llewellyn was born in Pennsylvania, and came to Chesaning with his widowed father in the early 1860s. He later enlisted in the Union Army at the age of only fourteen and served with the 29th Michigan Infantry until the end of war.

L.L. Homer
L.L. Homer

It’s no surprise that the largest building on the block belongs to Chapman Bros. dry goods and grocery store (7).

The brothers were George Lyman Chapman (1837-1924) and William Henry Harrison Chapman (1841-1908), both of whom were the sons of local founding father George Washington Chapman (1812-1881).

Originally from Massachusetts, the family were among the first persons to settle in the area, arriving here all the way back in 1842. They spent much of their early childhood in Chesaning, until 1847, when their father returned to New England to resume his previous career building railroads.

The family returned to Chesaning in 1859, after which time George L. Chapman spent his summers on the family farm, and his winters teaching in the village schools.

He later moved to Ohio, where he found work as a construction foreman with a railroad company. He once again returned to Chesaning, in 1866, and opened his first store at this location, in partnership with brother-in-law George Hipple (1833-1914).

George Chapman acquired a new partner, James Helme, when George Hipple returned to Pennsylvania, and the store was moved into a building just across the street, at the southeast corner of Broad and Front Streets.

William Chapman followed his family on their journey from New England, to Chesaning, and back. He took up the family trade of building railroads, and spent three years working on construction projects in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.

He then returned to Chesaning, and took charge of a sawmill in Albee Township, which he ran for three years. William Chapman later opened his own dry goods store in partnership with Henry Bentley (1821-1901), a local merchant of longstanding.

This new store was on the same corner as his older brother George Chapman’s original store, meaning that for many years the two brothers were in direct competition, and owned stores directly across from one another.

George Chapman sold his shop to the Gould brothers in 1874, but soon returned to the grocery business after buying Henry Bentley’s stake in William Chapman’s store, making the brothers partners, instead of competitors.

  1. The Ark
  2. Commercial Building
  3. Commercial Building
  4. Hardware Store
  5. Dry Goods & Grocery Store

Standing at the southwest corner of the bridge, and overlooking the Shiawassee River, was a large, square wooden building that was originally intended to serve as a luxury ho-tel.

It was called The Ark (1), and local historian Mark Ireland offers an evocative descrip-tion of this remarkable structure.

There were galleries one above another on 3 sides, and one corner was built out over the water like a wharf. The front entrance opened into a spacious lobby and the plans included a kitchen, dining room, and store rooms on the main floor with bedrooms upstairs for guests who would come from neighboring towns on special occasions. They would watch the watersports from the galleries and in the evening would go down the outside steps where a fleet of pleasure boats would be waiting to take them up the river for a moon-light ride.

Place of the Big Rock, Mark & Irma Ireland (1966), pg. 412.

Sadly, this was all just fanciful storytelling, for in the end the hotel was never completely finished, and never opened for business.

Its owner, Ralph Curtis (1808-1885), had grown up on his family’s farm in rural New York state.

He attended school at Gaines Academy, a local institution of learning, where he acquired quite the comprehensive education. He was described as being a man of books, poetry, music, and art, and worked as a portrait painter for eight years.

He was married in 1834 to Alice Wood (1820-1850), and the couple had two children together, a son named Ralph Edwin Curtis (1838-1864), and a daughter named Mary Louisa Curtis (1840-1841), who died while still only an infant.

The Ark
The Ark

Ralph Curtis brought his family to Michigan in 1844, where they settled on a farm near Flint.

Ann passed away in November of 1850, at the age of thirty, and Curtis never remarried. Their son went on to enlist in the Union army, and died from the wounds he suffered in a battle near Richmond, Virginia.

Ralph Curtis left his farm in 1865 and traveled to Upper Cananda, to dispose of another farm that he owned there.  He then came to Chesaning, where he purchased three differ-ent local farms, and started construction on a hotel.

...but in this his plans were thwarted by disappointments and he never fin-ished it. In this great lonesome looking building he has had rooms and called it home, living alone, with exceptions of tenants at times, in other parts of the building, for the past 18 years...

The Chesaning Argus, February 27, 1885.

The two commercial buildings (2, 3) are not labeled on the 1877 map, but I suspect that one of them may have contained the printing press and publishing office of The Chesaning Argus.

The hardware store (4) was operated by the firm of Griswold & Co., which consisted of John Griswold (1808-1886) and Joseph Austin (1829-1886).

Dealer in heavy and shelf Hardware, Iron, Steel, Nails, Glass, Putty, Stoves and Agricultural Implements. Manufr of Tin, Copper and Sheet Iron Ware.

Atlas of Saginaw Co. Michigan, F.W. Beers (1877), pg. 126.

Joseph Austin was a tinsmith from Massachusetts who arrived in Chesaning near the end of the Civil War, and soon opened a hardware store at this location.  It was said to the have been the first such store in the village.

John Griswold grew up in New Hampshire, but left home at a young age, and went on to become a sawyer in the lumber industry. He came to Michigan in 1836, as part of a group of workmen who were brought here to construct a dam and sawmill at Owosso.

He was then hired by the Owosso and Saginaw Navigation Company as a construction foreman, helping to clear obstacles from the river, building tow-paths, and making other improvements.

This led to him starting his own operation using flat boats to carry cargo and passengers between Owosso and Saginaw. He played an important role in Chesaning’s early development by delivering much needed supplies, and became the primary means through which mail from the outside reached the settlement.

Chesaning began to grow into a proper village thanks to his efforts, and in 1848 he finally brought his family here from Owosso and became a permanent resident.

He later started a stagecoach service, but eventually left the transport business entirely and opened a general store.  He then left the general goods business in 1872 and bought into Joseph Austin’s hardware store.

The grocery store (5) on the corner is listed in the 1877 atlas as belonging to the firm of P. Gould & Son, a partnership consisting of Philetus Gould (1814-1899) and Frank Gould (1850-1933).

Philetus Gould grew up on his family’s farm in New York state, but came to Michigan in 1837.  He lived in Ann Arbor for two years, where he worked as a mechanic, before moving to a farm in Battle Creek.

He sold this farm in 1866 and spent two years living in Owosso before finally settling in Chesaning.

Philetus Gould became a prominent member of the local community, and was involved in numerous successful business ventures. He was partial owner of a sawmill in Albee Township, owned most of the land between South Street and Liberty Street, and built the town’s first grain elevator.

In 1874, George L. Chapman sold his general store to the firm of Gould Bros.

I don’t know whether this was Philetus Gould and a sibling, or his two sons Frank Gould and Frederick Gould (1840-1911). But, whatever the case, this firm would later become P. Gould & Son.

Ownership would continue to evolve, however, as the first issue of The Chesaning Argus featured an advertisement for the store under the name of Gould & Oliver.

gould.oliver

This new partner was almost certainly Edward Oliver, who was married to Clara Gould (1848-1938), the daughter of Philetus Gould.

More changes were in store for the business, as Gould had apparently decided to replace the original structure with an entirely new building.

Mr. P. Gould has the work for his new store building well under way. The building is to be 22 x 80 feet, two stories high, and one of the best business buildings in the village. He is making a great improvement in the street by filling up the low place near his new building.

The Chesaning Argus, October 31, 1877.

I believe this new store is the same one later referred to as the Masonic building.

The upper story of the store is known to have been used as a hall by the local chapter of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and may have later been used for the same purpose by the Chesaning lodge of the Freemasons.

This photo of the corner of Broad and Front Streets from the 1920s may show the Gould & Oliver store (built in 1877).

Turning the corner, we come to a pair of buildings that, based on their size and shape, were likely both commercial buildings of some kind.

  1. Commercial Building
  2. Commercial Building

The map does not have a label for either building, although the property where they are located belongs to someone with the last name of Leonard.

I suspect that one of these buildings is the one referenced in the following notice from the local newspaper.

Mr. Libby has removed his paint shop to the Leonard building, and is ready for business again.

The Chesaning Argus, December 29, 1877.
Facebook
Twitter
PrevPreviousChesaning in 1877, Part 2: The Dam
NextChesaning in 1877, Part 4: Hotel BlockNext

2 Responses

  1. gordon thorsby says:
    November 3, 2022 at 7:47 pm

    Hey great stuff. I didn’t see your first two and will go back and look at it. I have been focusing on residents and soldiers from town. If OI may pose a couple of comments for further thought. The photo of the river with the mill. Could that be a backwards picture? It seems that it is backwards? Is it taken from the broad street bridge? Ed Patterson worked at the sawmill in 1861.

    I dont know if you had discussed the Old Post Hotel. I have photos. Lew was a proprietor in that hotel or another.

    Lew according to my research was 17 when he enlisted in 1864 in East Saginaw in Co.G 3rd Mich Cavalry along with about 60 other men from the area. I have a note that he could have been 15 but it means that 1) he would have to have been born in ’49 (I show birth in 47), and the army rejected 16 year olds, let alone 14 or 15. Ask Nate Burtch of Brant who was arrested after joining the 14th Mich and getting to Kentucky. He spent 30 days behind bars before sent back to Brant. Some 16 year ols got away with because of their size.
    Lou also retailed fine liquors and cigars.

    Reply
    1. Jason Argo says:
      November 6, 2022 at 11:27 am

      You’re right that the photo may be reversed, but I believe that if the photographer was facing southeast, then there would be other buildings in the photo. The photographer also appears to be hanging out over the river, which would make sense if they were standing on the balcony of The Ark facing northeast.

      The Post Hotel (Waverly House) was indeed covered in an earlier article on the east village section of town.

      If by Lew you mean Llewellyn Homer, then I have at least three sources that list his DOB as 1850. One of these is a history of Saginaw County that was published in 1881, and contains a short biography of Llewellyn that specifically mentions he enlisted in the army at only 14 years of age.

      Either he lied about being older than he really was when he enlisted back in 1864, or lied about being younger than he really was when retelling the story years later.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Archives
Categories
Recent Posts
  • Chesaning in the News (1874-1877)
  • Chesaning in the News (1871-1873)
  • Chesaning in the News (1859-1870)
  • Marvil Secord (1801-1886)
  • Chesaning Township (1877)
Recent Comments
  • Randy Neumeyer on Chesaning Township (1877)
  • Carol Otte on Chesaning Township (1877)
  • Jason Argo on The Chesaning Argus, November 14, 1877
  • Logan fulk on The Chesaning Argus, November 14, 1877
  • Karin Smith on Chesaning Township (1877)

The Chesaning Argonaut

Facebook Camera-retro