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Benzie County
- University of Michigan Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
21 beulah—like a partygoer hopping from one social affair to the next, the benzie County Courthouse has made many stops throughout its history. It is only fitting that one of its incarnations was a former recreation and entertainment center called “the Grand.” but the origins of benzie, like most other counties, were humble, not grand. It was organized on march 30, 1869, and about three weeks later the supervisors met in a schoolhouse in benzonia. a group intent on founding a Christian center of higher education first settled the area, choosing a name from the latin “bene” for “good” and the Greek“zonia”for“place”to indicate that they found a good place to live. For a time it was also called herring Creek. the name of the county began with the Native american name for the local river: unszigozbee,which referred to a local duck species and meant saw bill or merganserduck river. the French translated the name to riviere aux bec scies, which was corrupted in english to betsie river, which is its present designation. For the county name, the more refined benzie was preferred. In July 1869 the vote for county seat gave benzonia 75, homestead 237, and Frankfort 194 votes, which meant no clear majority. In 1870 the county population was 2,184. Frankfort won the second round of voting in october 1869 over homestead by 301 to 265. one account described the contest as “characterized by a great deal of bitterness and foolishness”—two vices that, according to some observers, would not soon leave benzie’s confines. In Frankfort the supervisors met at theVictory saterlee hotel,a two-story frame building at the corner of third and main. the courthouse was another two-story frame building at second and main that the Doaby brothers built. benzonia offered incentives if it were voted the new county seat. some voters were willing to move out of Frankfort but not willing to relocate in benzonia’s township limits. so in 1872 the compromise location of a mile east of benzonia, where nothing resembling civilization had taken root, won the vote. Frankfort won the first tally, but illegal ballots were allegedly cast, and the board of canvassers rejected the vote and certified a vote for removal. the legality of that action was questioned in protracted litigation, and the michigan supreme Court ultimately upheld it. by then the actual removal of county property to the new seat had already happened. a contemporary account pulled no punches. “the present site furnishes a striking illustration of the follies men are capable of when prompted by a spirit of jealousy or spite.” the l-shaped frame county building was in an isolated spot one mile from any hotel, post office, or place Benzie County beNzIe CouNty 22 of business.the circuit judge ordered that court would convene in a suitable place in the village of benzonia. County business slowed during the seat struggle, with some board members, depending on their allegiance, meeting in different parts of the county and refusing to transact business in other parts. after the judge’s order, court held its sessions at Case’s hall in an upper floor in the heart of benzonia’s downtown. benzonia held the seat for twenty years, but it was no honeymoon . bond issues for a courthouse and other county buildings were rejected. In 1891 the board of supervisors considered nine different sites for a new county seat. the inconvenience of the seat’s location and the ramshackle appearance of the county building precipitated in 1894 a vote of 1,060 to 795 in favor of removal to Frankfort at the western edge of the county. Frankfort’s public school,a frame building,was offered and converted into a court and county offices. a jail was built next door. there is a lighthearted story of an unsuccessful escape attempt at one of benzie’s many jails. the inmate viewed the ceiling as flimsy and therefore a good escape route. but he discovered more layers beyond the first one he penetrated, so he gave up the effort. When his attempt was discovered, he quipped that he just wanted to help the jail keeper dig his potatoes. benzie again grew weary of the location of its county seat and sought to dispatch the outlying Frankfort. an effort to move to thompsonville, where the ann arbor and Pere marquette railroads intersected, but not in a central location in the county, failed in 1906 by a...