Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1881-09-14

cola counties, by fire, last week, 80 thu
il will not be necessary for lis to pal
ticularize in that matter, but we Civ
the following article from the Detroi
Evening News of the 9th:
"The general outline of the lowe
peninsula Of the State Of Michigan Il
seen on the maps, bears stricking re
Semblance to a hugh mitten-the dee
indentation of Saginaw Bay into tn
heart of the State aiding the fancie'
shape and marking off the thumb, n
it were, portion know Us the Huron
peninsula.
AS it is in this so-called Huron pen
insula, where the heaviest of the fire
of this memorable week have occurred
a few words about the country devaste,
may not be out of place.
The Huron peninsula consists %
the counties of Huron, Sanilac an,
Tuscola, which have an aggregate pop
ulation Of 72,169, whose materia
wealth rs represented by the equaliza
ton of personal and real property j,
over S17,000,000. No part of the
State of Michigan has been less reluc.
tant to yield itself to the hand of ma
terial progress than has this peninsula,
and yet so dense has been the growth
of timber in the swamps and along the
water courses Of Sanilac and Huron,
that the work of entering upon and
developing the country has been slow
and tedious, and after the lumbermen
had stripped the land of it, treasures
Of pine there were many years when
the progress Of opening the interior,
back from the shore farms and towns,
was by no means strong V marked
The State was 10th to believe that
there was any use in building State
roads through those counties, or that it
woulG pay to drain the huge swamps,
and the consequence was that until
within few years the population of
Huron and Sanilac counties was chiefly
along the shores Of Lake Huron and
Saginaw Bay. Travel into and through
those counties was difficult and uncom-
Portable, and outwardly there was little
10 attract the attention Of settlers, but
gradually the tide of immigration stole
up the water ways, roads were opened,
farms cleared, lands drained by State
and county aid, and when the year
1871 opened it found Huron, Sanilac
and northeastern Tuscola rapidly filling
up with hardy Polish and Canadian
settlers, with here and there down
east Yankee or sturdy scandinavian
family. Up to that time these settlers
had not accumulated much property,
but all they had was there, and when
the scourge of fire in 1871 drove them
into the lake, hundreds and thousands
of them were left beggars, with moth
ing they could call their own but the
lands and certain ash heaps that show
cd where once their homes had been.
The close of 1873 found the most of
them as well off as they were before
and in many cases even better of-for
the open handed charity Of the State
and nation had rehoused and re-en-
couraged them, and had also restocked /
their farms, while the fire had in hun
Ilreds of cases been blessing in dis
guise, clearing thousands of acres, much
10 the betterment of hundreds of land |
lolders-for your average emigrant
: not much of a woodsman, and it .
axes generation of them to evolve
rom 'grubbers' to choppers.
Prosperity has since smiled upon
his region, new railroad has pene-
rated its inner Businesses, farms, good
Dads, school houses, churches, cross
Dad hamlets, and railroad stations have
prung up as if by magic from amid
he jungle. Sanilac and Huron coun-
les have each removed their county
eats from the extreme outer limits of
leir respective holdings to central,
Interior points where good county build
lgs and prosperous towns have sud
emily grown, and where, alas, one of
hese towns has more suddenly been
cked up in the flames.
"And this was the condition of this
istrict up to the awful change of Sep
ember, 1881. Prosperous, growing,
eveloping its unsurpassed agricultur-
resources with one hand and with
ne other beckoning and welcoming !
lrther immigration from across the
aters.
The news columns Of this paper have
nee Monday last been telling the aw-
Il tale of the terrible devastation that
as fallen upon the people of this re-
on. Nothing like it has ever be-
lien a similar community in these
nited States. Looking over the pub
she'd reports one sees that the fires {
ust have originated in the Immediate
gion about the northwestern town
lips Of Sanilac and over the boundary !
Huron county The well known >
Irelessness Of settlers in the work of
Irning summer fallows for the pur- .
use of clearing land is the prime fac !
r to which the horror will be justly /
larged. The spread of the flames Il
As rapid, and the parched condition v
the earth aided the work of destruc-
N, and ere the people dreamed of