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Montmorency County
- University of Michigan Press
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134 atLanta—the ravage of fire has on more than one occasion fallen upon Montmorency county. It dodged the promethean scourge once in when records were hastily removed from the burning courthouse only to see virtually all of them lost the following april when the temporary facilities burned down. times were not always so rough for this county, which was in first called cheonoquet for an Ojibwa chief whose name means “Big cloud.” In the name was changed to its current form, though some sources ended it with an “i” instead of “y” as it appears now. there are at least two possible namesakes. the Duke of Montmorency, High admiral of France, in bought the lieutenant generalship of canada and soon thereafter sold it without ever setting foot in north america. the other figure was Montmorency-Laval, the first Roman catholic bishop of canada, serving from to . as a part of Michigan, the territory was attached to cheboygan and then alpena county. the Legislature organized Montmorency on May , . Brush creek, which later became Hillman, was the county seat. It is on the eastern edge of the county toward alpena and Lake Huron, where sizeable settlement first took root in the county. Meanwhile, Lewiston in the west and atlanta in the middle of the county wanted to wrest the seat from outlying Hillman. a civil War veteran who saw similarity between this Michigan terrain and the valley in georgia named atlanta for its Southern counterpart. a vote to move the county seat was defeated in . With the help of Lewiston, atlanta tried again and prevailed in . Lewiston’s support was strategic, however, for it viewed atlanta as a stop along the way for the march of the county seat from Hillman to Lewiston. Waiting only a year, it apparently won a vote in while atlanta was constructing a courthouse. But fraud was uncovered, the vote of albert township was thrown out, and atlanta narrowly hung on to the county seat, where it has remained ever since. the brick courthouse, which featured a small clock tower, was completed, and it served its function without incident until a cold, windy, and wintry day in . On January at about : p.m. a fire started in the belfry and began to work its way down the building. a newspaper account surmised that burning soot ignited the dry birds’ nests and rotten wood up there. the building burned as a crowd gathered and the ableMontmorency County the courthouse in atlanta before its recent renovation the courtroom as it appeared in 2005 MOntMORency cOunty 135 bodied frantically evacuated the structure of its contents. they did a remarkable job, saving most of the vital records. Some furniture was smashed in the effort. a strong wind caught some loose papers and sent them like large snowflakes across the street east of the conflagration. trucks pulled up and whisked what was salvaged to various safe locations about town. the county was left to gather what it could from the safes in the smoldering ashes and to marshal together its dispersed property in some temporary facility. the tunnel underneath the community center, which also housed the local schools, was selected, and the choice proved fateful. In april the community center burned down too. this time the records could not be saved. Several weeks earlier in January the records of the local newspaper were lost in a separate fire. Montmorency was left reeling. the fact that many if not most able-bodied men were away for the war effort contributed to the poor timing of each of the fires. Later, purchasing materials for building anew also proved difficult in war time. Interior doors were particularly difficult to acquire. a bond issue passed by a vote of to in april for funds for a new courthouse. Insurance proceeds and a number of loans meant that no outside help was needed. the township hall served as the temporary court, and a vault was constructed to house records. county leaders selected a portion of the exposed foundation of the ruined community center as the site of the new court. It was completed in by contractor grant McReady. the brick structure boasts a symmetrical front facade facing north onto M-, the principal east-west road. a wooden sign with a large county seal bearing the names of the three locales that vied for the seat stands on the grounds, along with a flagpole. the rear of the building attaches to a large judicial annex and health...