The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1917-03-23
CLOS 5OTH BIRTHDAY
TUESDAY, MARCH 20
CHRISTENED BY LEGISLATURE ON
MARCH 10Th. 1867
Village Was Known as Varney and the
Railroad Station Bore Title
of Pine Run


a slow but steady growth, has come to
be recognized as one of the most enter
prising and prosperous villages of her
size in the state, a reputation in which
every one of her citizens may and does
find cause for pride. 1t is history of
fifty years of life and enterprise and
making common cause in the upbullding
of community, the result being the
attainment of benefits for all.
The first settlement on the site or the
present village was made by L. L.
Dean, who started a saw mill, near the
stream and in the depth of the almost
unbroken forest where the mill pond
now Yields but its annual crop OF ice,
but where in those early days and long
subsequently, it turned the whirling
saws that ate into the hearts OF the
mighty pines, while the busy sounds of
industry usurped the silence and SOL
itude of ages. For may years after
the advent of Dean and his saw mill no
further settlement was made on the
present site Of the village and Mr.. D..
X. Frost, who came with his father 10
Pine Run in 1855. says that at that time
Deans mill and one or two shacks
about it were about the only visible
signs of civilization in the immediate
neighborhood. He says that the road
way, now known as Vienna St, was
then bordered on either side by scrub
timber, stumps, burned and fallen tree
trunks, and that he nas picked blacE.
berries over the entire site Of the pres
ent business section. At that time
Pine Run was a thriving village, for
pioneer days, claiming possession OF the
post office, blacksmith shop, a store
or two, and four saloons, or rather two
saloons and two hotels In which latter
refreshment for man and beast was
provided, not all the beasts, by any
means, finding refreshment IN the
stables. Stage coaches enroute from
Flint TO Saginaw made regular stops at
these hotels and at others which at ire
quent intervals lined the entire route.
In 1861 the Flint & Pere Marquette
r. r. was constructed and the sign
borne by its first station was quite
naturally Pine Run, between which vii
lage and the depot bus line furnished
conveyance for mail and passengers.
But it was inevitable that close to
the station and convenient to the ship
ping facilities of the railroad an elevat-
or, mills and other business enterprises
should find locations and in this fact
Clio had its beginning.
So far as we can learn, about the
first mills, other than Deans. were
shingle mills, or rather factories, for
the shingles were made by hand. Bolts
of nice, straight grained white pine of
the requisite length were brought to
these shops, rived or split into thin
slabs and then shaved by hand into
shingles. Not long afterward shingle
saws were employed that would pro-
duce hundred shingles in the time re-
quired to make one by hand, but the
quality of the hand made article has
never been improved upon and now.
after the lapse of fifty years. a few OF
them are still in service. 1t is said that
in the early days nearly every settler
engaged to a greater or less extent In
the shingla making industry and had a
''back forty" where from time to time
he could select timber suited to his pur.
pose. but if he did not possess the
''back forty" it did not greatly deter
his activities as he simply went out and
cut tree on some other persons forty.
Timber was plentiful in those days,
beautiful, majestic white pines, and
the shingles that were made from them
afforded one of the most ready means
of getting money, at time when II
was very scarce indeed. About the
only present reminders of the existence
of the monarchs of the forest that once
hourished over goodly portion Of this
section of Michigan are the pine STUMP
fences that still survive, long lines OF
whtened skeletons, stretching gaunt
arms aloft as if in token of the surren.
der Of even the giants of inanimate ma
tnre to the irresistible activities OF
men.
Il seems probable that the first grair
buyer to locate here was MIR. Varncy
and as his place of business was along.
side the railroad, the little settlement
quite naturally borrowed his name, by
which it was more or less generally
known for a time Varney's elevator
was really not an elevator at all. II
was a little rough-boarded building,
with wide caves, modest predecessor OF
the same style of architecture which
has lined the railroads even until the
present, aud was moved from its or
. .inal location to the banks of the
L. ~reck where for years it served as the
ice house of Ole Peterson, being de.
molished only last summer. We ere
told that |. M. Beeman also bought
grain in the same building.
Inc SJOIY VI HoW Cllo CdinS W BSt iCs
present name has been told in former
issues of The Messenger, but possibly
it will bear repeating. briefly. at this
time It appears that some OF the
early business men were Of the opinion
that the town had outgrown its early
name of Varney; possibly its namesakt
had gone away and the place knew hin
no more, but at any rate there was {
demand for another name. There
dwelt in the village at that tine one
Colonel Hill, proprietor of the Rever,
House, a man of scholarly inclinations
who wanted to name the town Clio
after one of the Grecian muses.. But
the Colonel's appeal in favor of the
classic title made little impression upor
the very matter of fact male frequent
ers of his tavern and doubtless the