CHAPTER X.

Flint RIVER VILLAGE, 1837-1855.

The progress of Flint in the years 1835-1837 was typical of the progress in Genesee county and Michigan as a whole, a growth which was both cause and effect of the general mania of wild speculation in lands and village lots to which Flint and Genesee county were not exceptions. The story of wild-cat banking in the Michigan of this period has been told in the portion of this work devoted to the state's history; it was under the general banking law of march, 1837, that Genesee county began its lessons in financiering. The county then had a population of less than three thousand people, of whom about three hundred were in the Flint settlement at the Grand Traverse. Here were situated The Farmers' Bank of Genesee County and The Genesee County Bank. Both of them were banks of issue; officially connected with these and other banks of the county were Delos Davis, John Bartow, Charles C. Hascall, Robert F. Stage, and Robert J. S. Page. The notes of these banks circulated, however, for but a short time; all banks in the county suspended payment in 1838, on the decision of the supreme court relieving the stockholders from any liability touching the redemption of the bills of the bank. Flint and Genesee county suffered their full share of the hard times which followed in the wake of this lamentable experiment in every settlement in Michigan.

A PERIOD OF ADVANCEMENT.

But the years following recovery from the financial panic of 1837 were a period of marked development in the history of Flint. The lands especially on its south and southeast were being rapidly settled and pioneers were pushing northward to the Flint river and beyond. The establishment of the land office at Flint greatly promoted immigration to the vicinity. The surplus of wheat and corn demanded better facilities for grinding and a market nearer than Pontiac or Detroit, and in 1837 a grist-mill was established in Flint where the Saginaw turnpike crossed the thread river. For some years this was the only grist-mill within reach of settlers for many miles around Flint and was of vast importance in the development of the region. A saw-mill had been in operation since 1830. A second saw-mill was built by Stage and Wright in 1836 on the south bank of the Flint river near where the present Grand Trunk depot stands. Flint has become a little industrial center, destined to achieve a great future in manufacturing. The Hydraulic Association, in which Chauncey S. Payne was senior partner, followed soon with another mill. The Stage and Wright mill was sold about 1840 to Messrs. Stevens and Pearson, and when John Hamilton became sole Proprietor, he added, a bout 1844, a grist-mill; in 1852, his son, William, became sole proprietor. In 1850 the Flint mills sawed 5,200,000 feet of lumber. In 1854 there was four steam mills and three water mills, with an aggregate capacity for cutting 16,800,000 feet of lumber, which established permanently Flint's reputation as a lumber market.

To facilitate communications and transportation to and from Flint, to stimulate trade, and to increase immigration to the neighborhood, increased attention was given to roads and railroads. In 1837 the Northern Railroad Company was chartered. Although this virgin effort was fated to end little more than preliminary work for an indifferent wagon-road, it raised the hopes of pioneers who had already settled along its route and attracted the attention of others who were in search of new homes. In 1839 a stage line connected Flint with the new railroad from Detroit, at Birmingham. In 1843 the railroad reached Pontiac. Stages were run from Flint to Fentonville from 1856 on, to connect with the new railroad being built through there by the Detroit & Milwaukee Railway. The next year was organized a Flint company looking to a railroad through Saginaw to the northwest, which marked the beginning of the Flint & Pere Marquette. Previous to the completion of these hopeful projects the Indian trails furnished primitive passageways through the forests, and were soon improved to become the first new roads over which the pioneers from the outlying settlements journeyed to Flint for lumber, flour and other merchandise. A plank road was built south through Grand Blanc to connect with the northern terminus of the Holly, Wayne & Monroe Railroad, at Holly. Another was laid to Fenton to connect with the Detroit & Milwaukee railroad. A third was built to Saginaw. The river also furnished an outlet to some degree. In a local paper of March 27, 1852, appears the following item:

"Port of Flint--Arrivals and Departures.
Departed, scow 'Kate Hayes', Captain Charles Mather."