Homes of Chesaning I: East Village Survivors

So far in our attempts to understand the historical layout of Chesaning, the focus has been almost exclusively on commercial buildings, rather than homes. The reason for this is that there is always going to be a much greater amount of publicly available information on local businesses as opposed to private residences.

Businesses always seek to promote their services to as large an audience as possible, using any and every means available. Their presence is recorded in directories, gazetteers, advertisements, and self-produced promotional materials.

Local news sources are also more likely to cover changes to the local commercial landscape, as these can have wide-ranging impacts throughout the community.

The history of a private dwelling, on the other hand, is revealed almost entirely through personal recollections and stories passed down within families or shared between neighbors. But there is often a little bit of information about private dwellings that can be gleaned from the public records, and that is what we will be covering today.

One intriguing detail that can be seen when looking at the 1877 map of Chesaning is the presence of a few structures that are a close match to some currently extant homes.

One such example is the home located at 123 South Canal Street.

The modern layout of the home is difficult to make out due to both the low resolution of the satellite image and the surrounding tree cover. But there is a Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from 1935 that shows us the home in greater detail.

Comparing these two images, both buildings appear to be very similar in shape and location. If we were to assume that the southern extension seen in the second image is a later addition built onto the original house, along with the front porch, then they seem more or less identical.

Further evidence that this is the same house is provided by the real estate marketplace Zillow, which lists this home’s date of construction as 1880. While it may seem strange to rely on a commercial website for the purpose of historical research, Zillow does draw its information from local municipal and county records.

It seems improbable to me that the home that was located here in 1877 would have been torn down and replaced with a nearly identical structure in the three years between 1877 and 1880.

What’s more likely is that 1880 is simply the earliest date at which this sort of information began to be reliably recorded, and so became the default construction date for homes that actually date to an earlier time period.

I am confident that the home that appears on the 1877 map of the village is the same one that shows up on the Sanborn Fire Insurance map from 1935, and that it has managed to survive down to the present day.

Here is a list of all the homes in the East Village section of Chesaning that also appeared on the 1877 map of Chesaning, based on the same line of reasoning.

123 South Canal Street

This home was occupied by George Wilson (1848-1919) and his wife Aveline Brewer (1842-1909).

George was born in New York, but came to Michigan at the age of 16 and settled in Fenton, where he found work as a metal caster. He remained there until moving to Chesaning in 1877.

George was the co-owner, along with his brother Andrew Wilson (1844-1918), of the Chesaning Foundry, a blacksmith shop located just across the road, at the southwest corner of Broad and Canal Streets.

144 South Canal Street

This house was occupied by a carpenter named Cyrus Fauble (1834-1907), his wife Catherine Franks (1838-1899), and their five children.

Cyrus was born in Ohio, but came to Chesaning with his family in 1869. He worked as a carpenter here for twelve years, making enough money to return to Ohio and purchase his own saw mill.

He later returned to Michigan in the 1890s and become a successful landowner in the Durand area.

Catherine was trampled to death by a cow in 1899.

204 Commercial Street

This house was occupied by Sheldon Patterson (1830-1913), his wife Samantha Swift (1835-1907), and their two sons.

Sheldon grew up in Ohio, worked as a blacksmith in Flint for a time in the early 1850s, and came to Chesaning sometime in the late 1850s. He worked in the lumber business for 15 years, and was also employed as a mason.

He joined the Union army at the start of the Civil War and served from 1861 to 1866, during which time he participated in over 50 battles and skirmishes.

402 Center Street

This home belonged to Christian Moessner (1834-1924), a dealer in boots and shoes.

He lived here with his wife Catherine Berg (1842-1881), their three children, and his elderly father Johann Martin Moessner (1805-1883).

Moessner was from Wurttemberg, in Germany, where he learned the trade of shoemaking as a boy. He arrived in America in 1851 and spent two years working in Grand Rapids before moving to Owosso, and finally settled in Chesaning in 1863.

He was a leading member of the local Evangelical congregation, which was organized in 1871 and held meetings in a rented hall until 1877, when they built a church at the corner of Commercial and Center Streets.

It’s probably no coincidence that the new church building was directly across the street from the home of Christian Moessner, as he not only helped to fund the project, but also supervised its construction.

520 Center Street

This home belonged to Henry McCormick (1845-1919), who lived here with his wife Mary Jane Dodge (1851-1897) and their two children.

Henry had been born in Ohio, but came to Chesaning when his parents moved here when he was nine years old.

He appears to have spent most of his time in Chesaning working in the lumber industry, and was also active in local politics. He spent over twenty years serving on the village council, and also spent time as village president.

104 North Main Street

This home was occupied by Joseph Eldred, M.D. (1837-1918). His family at the time consisted of his wife Elizabeth Tubbs (1839-1925) and their two sons.

Joseph Eldred was born in New York, but came to Michigan with his mother when he was only four years old. He spent five years in Genesee County, before moving to a farm in Pontiac.

After five years of farm life, he went to Ypsilanti and began attending the Michigan State Normal School (now Eastern Michigan University), working during the summer and attending school in winter.

In 1858 he began the study of medicine under a local physician down in Hartland, Michigan, later graduating from the medical department of the University of Michigan.

He arrived in Chesaning in May of 1862. This was still early enough in the town’s history for him to become just the fifth doctor to regularly practice medicine here.

"An old pioneer who rode through the solid wilderness on some new cut-out road or trail; would go as far as he could see on horse-back, then hitch his horse to a tree and go the rest of the way on foot, walking on logs through mud and water to see a patient."

Place of the Big Rock, Mark & Irma Ireland, pg. 302.

Joseph also served as the local postmaster for a time, and for many years operated a drug store that was located on the northwest corner of Broad Street and Saginaw Street.

Dr. Eldred’s home was built by local carpenter and furniture maker Oliver Walker (1832-1909).

103 South Main Street

This home, built in 1870, was occupied by the family of Anson Sheldon (1830-1890).

Anson had been born in Ohio, but after the death of his father (when Anson was only four years old) his mother remarried and the family came north and settled in Shiawassee Town.

Anson was later adopted by his uncle (at the age of nine), and spent the rest of his childhood back in Ohio. While there he learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner.

He returned to Michigan at the age of eighteen, and moved back in with his mother and stepfather. His work as a builder often brought him north to Saginaw County, and by the mid-1850s he had permanently relocated to Chesaning.

Shortly after his arrival, he partnered with local businessman James Fuller (1821-1861) in constructing the so-called “little mill”, a sawmill that once stood on the site of Cole Park.

The firm of Sheldon & Fuller lasted for several more years, until the death of Mr. Fuller, at which point Anson transferred his attention to farming.

His farm stretched from where his home is located on Main Street, all the way to the East end of Broad Street, and the Big Rock now stands on what was once his property.

His opinions were always his own, he seldom asked the advice of others and in the main was right, but when convinced that he was in error acknowledge his mistake gracefully. He always took upon himself the hardest work and most laborious task. Indulgent to his family, he took much pride and delight in denying himself that his family might have opportunities and pleasure and entertainment. A man of robust frame and constitution, he seldom complained and never knew what sickness was...

Chesaning Weekly Argus, May 31, 1890.

The Chesaning Argonaut

Homes of Chesaning I: East Village Survivors

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Archives

Categories

Recent Posts

Recent Comments