Michigan's County Courthouses

Ogemaw County

145 WeSt BRancH—the ubiquity of the image of chief Ogemaw in the county named for him suggests a deep and abiding respect and love for him as a figure. a casual walk through the Ogemaw county courthouse unmistakably reveals the great presence of his memory. His name was Ogemaw-Ke-Ke-to, and he was born in . He was elected chief of the tittabawassee band of Ojibwa in  and spoke for them at the treaty conferences of . He also spoke before congress in  a few short years before he died in Bay city in . He was a tall, handsome , and eloquent man. He was buried wearing a colonel’s uniform and a medal that the president gave to him. In  the county adopted Millie Miller’s impression of him as the official insignia of the county. She crafted a large wooden likeness of him, which is in the lobby of the current court. His visage appears in the circuit court seal and in watermarks on county and city stationery. His face is on the county flag, appearing on a white arrowhead on a spruce green background. an oil painting of him hangs near the main stairway along with images of the county’s earlier courts. His likeness was on the ceremonial shovel used at the groundbreaking of the current court. Ogemaw’s lines were drawn in , the year that its namesake died. It was attached at various times to Mackinac, cheboygan, Midland, and Iosco counties before it was independently organized on april , . West Branch, which was named for its location off the Rifle River, offered use for three years of a two-story twenty-by-forty-foot building if the county located its seat there. the county counteroffered, requiring ownership of the building and a basement or separate building with two jail cells measuring at least twelve by twenty feet. West Branch balked but reconsidered and accepted the terms when a rival location expressed a willingness to meet the county’s terms. the court was built in West Branch and occupied on July , . West Branch became a village in  and a city in.Regularimprovementsweremadetothecourthouse over the coming years. On January , , the treasurer was instructed to obtain fire insurance for $,, which proved fortuitous after a fire shortly thereafter on april  destroyed the courthouse, jail, and sheriff’s residence. the insurance company disputed its obligation, alleging that the county overestimated the actual value of what it lost.a final settlement of $,. was reached.Meanwhile, the county sought temporary facilities. It purchased a fireproof safe for records and cages for prisoners. In October it bought a building known as the old schoolhouse for a jail from M. H. French for $,. In april  the county decided to borrow money to rebuild on the site of the burned buildings using their foundations. a contract for two new brick buildings costing $,. was signed, and glanfield and Sims completed the new courthouse late that year. the jail had ten cells, plus a cage in the attic for female prisoners. the county struggled for years to properly heat the courthouse, using wood and then coal. In  it was connected to city water and electricity. For a time the source of water for the buildings was a windmill pump. no action was taken, and votes for new projects were rejected in the coming decades. a new jail for about $, was completed and dediOgemaw County OgeMaW cOunty 146 cated December , . the old jail was used for county offices until it was demolished in . Finally, as Ogemaw county approached its centennial, voters on May , , approved a new courthouse by a vote of , to . gust construction company of cedar Springs submitted a winning bid of just over $ million. Finish hardware in the amount of $, was approved. the cornerstone was laid in , and the building was completed the following centennial year. Steve F. gerganoff designed the structure. a plaque inside the building does not mention gust. But it does credit L. g. Fenerli as the professional engineers and S. F. Sonk associates, Inc., as the consulting engineers. the two-story brick building is a good example of its contemporary architectural style. columns of windows with metal bracing blend in with the brick and the lining of the flat roof. Lettering reading “Ogemaw county Building” appears on each side of the building but the rear. a painting of the red brick courthouse and jail that the county building replaced hangs in the courtroom above the witness box, which is dead ahead of the...