The French Canadians of Michigan: Their Contribution to the Development of the Saginaw Valley and the Keweenaw Peninsula, 1840-1914

Chapter 2: The Development of the Saginaw Valley and the Keweenaw Peninsula, 1840-1914

Chapter 2 The Development of the Saginaw Valley and the Keweenaw Peninsula, 1840—1914 In a few years these impenetrable forests will have fallen; the sons of civilization will break the silence of the Saginaw; the banks will be imprisoned by quays; its current, which now flows on unnoticed and tranquil, through a nameless waste, will be stemmed by the prows of vessels. We are perhaps the last travelers allowed to see the primitive grandeur of this solitude. ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, 1831 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SAGINAW VALLEY, 1840-1900 It was in these highly prescient terms that Alexis de Tocqueville, on a journey to the Saginaw Valley in 1831, foresaw the future development of the region,l He saw correctly. In the half-century that followed, the valley would witness encroaching settlement which, along with the beginnings of forestry development, radically changed its physiography and transformed this frontier zone into a major region in the Michigan lumber industry,2 Settlement of the Valley With its immense forest resources and its proximity to the vast network of the Great Lakes, Michigan was well placed to become a primary force in American lumber production,3 The Saginaw Valley, which lies at the heart of this forested area in eastern Michigan, had all the elements required to grow into one of the state's most important lumbering centers. Located at the mouth of the Saginaw Bay, the valley possessed a 29 30 CHAPTER TWO network of waterways ideal for this type of development. Numerous well-nourished tributaries drained an area of nearly 6,000 square miles (8,880 km2 ), heavily forested in white pine, before emptying into the leisurely flowing Saginaw River, whose 20-mile (30 km) length was a perfect site for sawmills,4 Also, the Saginaw Bay offered direct access to Lakes Huron and Erie, enabling the production of the valley to easily reach the markets of the East,5 But until the middle of the 1830s, there was no incentive to develop the valley, since the first lumber-producing states, such as Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania, could furnish all the wood that was needed,6 and several more years passed before the right set of conditions arose across the continent to stimulate development of the valley's timber resources. The Saginaw Valley was settled gradually. Established as a county and opened to settlement in 1822, the valley had only 892 inhabitants in 1840.7 The difficult access to the heavily wooded and swampy region and its reputation for unhealthiness discouraged settlers from moving there in significant numbers before the 1830s,8 Still, some settlers dared to move there early in the nineteenth century, among them many of French Canadian origin,9 As early as 1815, Louis Campau, in the service of the American Fur Company, was assigned to Saginaw City to establish commercial relations with Amerindian tribes and set up a trading post, Campau built the first building in the valley,10 Several months later, as trade with Amerindian peoples picked up, the management of the American Fur Company sent Jean-Baptiste Desnoyers , another of its French Canadian employees, to Saginaw City to assist Campau in his activities,11 Alexis de Tocqueville, passing through the region in 1831, reported that the population was limited to about 30 white settlers of Canadian, British, and American origin, living in four or five log houses,12 The population of the valley, although it had more than doubled from 1830 to 1837, was still under 1,000 in the latter year, having risen from 400 to only 920 inhabitants. Many of these new arrivals in the 1830s were of French Canadian origin. For example, Jos Tromble, from Wayne County in Development of Valley and Peninsula 31 the southeast part of the territory, settled in the valley in about 1828-30.13 Having come to work in the fur trade, he acquired a piece of land north of Saginaw City on the eastern bank of the Saginaw River, near the mouth of Saginaw Bay. This location was first called "Lower Saginaw" and was later renamed "Bay City" in 1859.14 He set up a general store and his business seems to have been profitable. Following Jos, Leon Tromble came to settle in 1831. An inhabitant of Detroit and a former fur trader, Leon worked as an agricultural officer for the American government. He built a house on his own near the...