THE FIRST BRICK BUILDING.

It was in this period that the first brick building was erected in Flint. In 1844, Alexander Ward, a brick maker, came to Flint. His operations and those of his sons and others associated with them have made a continuous record in that industry down tot he present time. John Zimmerman was one of Ward's apprentices, who at the start was just a German lad, unable to speak a word of English. They first used clay along the borders of Thread creek at the head of Church street, but later worked over many blocks on both sides of Saginaw street, from Eighth street south. This industry has played a very significant part in the history of Flint. It has for its monument many large stores, schools, churches, homes and factories. The story of the two first brick buildings for business in Flint has been well told by Mr. M. S. Elmore:

"With one's municipal pride stimulated anew almost any day when on walks abroad in our fair city, to discover new structures not before seen, lofty, imposing, picturesque or pretentious, the homes of vast enterprises, or the dwellings of contented citizens, one who has noted through developing decades this evolution in architecture is apt to remember the distant days when brick and stone were less in evidence in building, and but little appeal was made to the aesthetic fancy of the beholder. Nor does it seem so long ago that this condition obtained in the future Vehicle City.

"There seems to be diversity of opinion regarding the priority of two brick buildings, each thought by some to have been the first structure of brick for business purposes in the place--the Cumings or Crapo store, on north Saginaw street, and the building once known as the Hazelton store, on south Saginaw street, west side near First street. this building, now three stories high, and occupied by Campbell & Ingersoll, music dealers, and George E Childs, jeweler, was originally built with steep gable roofs, pitching to front and rear, above a second story and big attic. I remember it well, although both this and the Cumings buildings were built before I came to Flint. Various authorities agree that the 'Scotch store' of Cumings & Curren was built in 1851-2, while I have been informed by an old citizen familiar with the event. Hon. Jerome Eddy, that the Hazelton stores were built in 1854; the building was thought to be quite a marvel in architecture. It has been said that George Hazelton and George W. Hill joined in its construction; but this I do not find substantiated. The stores were originally occupied by the Hazelton brothers; the south store for dry-goods, by George; the north store by Homer and Porter, with hardware. George W. Hill afterward occupied the stores with furniture and undertakers' wares for many years, before being improved by an additional store and modern roof.

"The corner or north part of the 'Scotch store,' as it was known, was occupied by Cumings & Curren as a general store in the fifties; and someone else, probably Jerome Eddy, was selling goods in the south half of the building.

"It should not be forgotten that, at the time of which I write, the north side of the river was the popular side, and was confidently expected to remain the principal section for business in the hopeful hamlet and future city. Real estate controversies, familiar to the citizens of that time who remain, were regarded the unhappy and effectual means of driving business and building to the south side. This will account for the existence, during the earliest history of the town, of thriving shops on the north side, when D. S. Fox, W. O'Donoghue, the Deweys;, Witherbe, Jerome Eddy, William Stevenson, Cumings & Curren, O. F. Forsyth, and others, as also for two taverns, believed to have settled the best locations in the town for future success and prosperity.

"The 'Scotch store' was sold to Hon. H. H. Crape, proprietor of the Crapo lumber mills and business, and was for many years conducted in its interest and for its benefit.

"Capt. Damon Stewart, too well known as a native to require an introduction, talked with me entertainingly of this old building when asked for data, saying, 'I ought to know, for I helped to carry the brick,' and he seems to have been generally useful for so young a lad. An experience of the builder that could scarcely be had in this day, was to discover, when ready for it, that he could find no timber long enough for so big a roof, and the completion of the building as planned was achieved only after men had gone into the woods, far up the river. Young Stewart ('Damon' will make his recognition easy) was one of the 'gang' on a job that proved 'strenuous.' The time was in January and the water was low in the streams, so that often dredging had to be resorted to, to float the logs to deeper water. Much of this cold work was done while wading; yet it was more comfortable, he declared, than working in the cold on land.

"Captain Stewart tells of an incident which occurred while the walls were being built, where in one of the bricklayers, an unpopular fellow, was one day late, and one of the men seeing him coming, mischievously or viciously threw the mason's trowel into the space between the outer and inner layers of brick, emptying a full trowel of mortar on the tool; and, added Captain Stewart, 'today it might be found in the south wall, near the three windows, which were not there at that time.' Interest has been added to the foregoing story by a fortunate statement of George C. Willson, that this trowel was found in the wall, during recent changes in the building, as Mr. Stewart predicted, and, I believe, is now in Mr. Willson's possession. (A Free and Accepted Mason might fear that the symbolical uses of the trowel had hardly been exemplified in this incident.)

"Bit I think the strangest story in connection with the Cumings-Crapo store comes from George C. Willson, under whose management the building its, and is yet to be told. It now appears that during all this half-century of momentous years, the prosaic and plain structure we have thought of, and spoken of, as the 'Scotch store' or the 'Crapo store,' had secreted from the ken of mortals, a romance. While men did come and men did go, during the years when lovers have had time to be born, to have found their affinity, wed, divorced, and died; when passers-by have daily looked upon the severe and angular aspect of this familiar pike; this act in an unpublished drama was waiting for its recall. Hidden, irrecoverably, it was believed, in the fastness of a rude and narrow sepulchre, was found a small box in the wall, containing numerous letters, written in a style of chirography that indicates the writer to have been an accomplished lady; the composition of the letters in language one might expect from the pen of a school teacher, which she evidently was. These epistles tells only one side of a story, the fair writer often complaining that she had received no replies to her letters. They were written from Hampton, Michigan and Mount Morris, New York, under date of 1849 and 1850 to James Curren, who was at that time associated with his brother-in-law, Mr. Cumings, in the mercantile business in Flint. Cumings & Curren were then erecting the brick building at the corner of North Saginaw street and Second avenue, which was for years familiarly known as the Crapo Variety Store, and later occupied as a 'general store' by Pomeroy Brothers. While remodeling the building in the fall of 1898 for the manufacturing plant of the Flint Gear and Top Company, the letters above referred to were found in the west wall, in a round wooden box, together with a lock of hair, and a card on which two hands were clasped, entwined with ribbons with the inscription" "True friendship," and date June 10, 1849. On placing these letters between walls of brick and mortar, Mr. Curren undoubtedly sought to hide forever all traces of a sweeter sentiment which he wished to banish from his future life. Shortly afterward he sailed for Australia, where, we understand, he met with reverses, returning home to die. George Willson had the peculiar pleasure, during the fall of 1905, of delivering the box with letter enclosed to the original writer, a resident of Flint, and an interesting invalid of advanced years. those incidents invest the ancient Cumings-Crapo-Durant & Dort buildings with more than a cold commercial atmosphere for future dwellers of the north side when passing by it.

"The patronage enjoyed by these first stores in Flint was not limited to the radius of a few miles, between county towns, or less, but trade invited the sparse population from long distances every way, when days were required to come and return. Produce, furs, butter and eggs, maple sugar and berries were brought to exchange for goods, and the stores on the north side of the river did a thriving business.

"The Brent family, whose great farm was located three or four miles below Flushing, were quite distinguished for their wealth and position. It is said that they and their neighbors were accustomed to come to 'the Flint' by boat on Flint river, propelled by Indians, to exchange produce, furs and Spanish dollars for goods, which being loaded into their boats, they could return to their homes with less effort, by the helpful course of the current. It is likewise currently believed tht these native boatmen loaded themselves with fire-water, sometimes, imbibing with the fluid a sportive disposition to tint the little town a warm Indian red; but they were usually peaceable, sturdy and skillful men with oar or paddle."