Name/Title
Sailing from Ohio to Michigan 1862Entry/Object ID
2023.50.35Scope and Content
[This account was written by Ellen I. (Upham) Smith of Saugatuck in about 1912. She was about twelve years old when she made the voyage.]
From Ohio to Michigan by Sailing Vessel
Fifty years ago we came to Michigan, not as Pioneers but as early comers. To look back through the mists of fifty years requires some fortitude. Fifty years! It is gone! It is as a tale that is told! In 1862 when we started for the then far west our country was in the throes of a Civil War.
My father, Captain Upham, bought the Carrie Woodford, a sailing vessel, and made the voyage in her. It was in the balmy month of June we started from Lorraine, Ohio, a town about 20 miles from Cleveland. My grandfather was here at Saugatuck waiting our coming. Grandmother and my aunt were to come with us, coming from Rochester, N. Y. by rail. There were 10 of us relatives: Grandmother, Father who was the captain, Mother, Sister, Brother, Uncle, Aunt, 3 cousins and last but not least, the hired girl.
At last we were aboard ready to sail. Father gave orders to let go the lines and amid the good-byes of friends on shore and the cheery song of the sailors making sail we were at last outward bound for our new home in the west. Grandfather's flattering descriptions of this country to my father induced us to come and they all came true.
We sailed through Lake Erie, beautiful sunny days and moonlit nights. Thence through the delightful Detroit River, Detroit on the American side and Windsor on the Canadian. Sights of beauty and interest meeting the eye all the way. We sailed merrily on into Lake St. Clair, then into St. Clair River where father stopped and tied up to a dock near a sand bank to take in ballast for father had started out without ballast which was a dangerous thing to do as the Woodford was very cranky. Having been built for a steamboat and afterwards converted to a sail vessel, but there was nothing available till we reached this place. It was a Sunday toward evening when we stopped so the next morning the sailors commenced loading her in the hold to a certain depth and trimming her properly so she sat easily in the water and was more seaworthy.
Whilst this was being done we fished, even grandmother took a hand in this sport which was sport indeed as we caught them fast as we could pull them up, great silver beauties. The water was so clear we could see the rocks on the bottom and the fish playing about them and when they nibbled our bait.
Soon we were on our way again. We were often becalmed. Not a breath of wind which is trying to the captain and grew monotonous to us so we resorted to many things to while away the time. Now we enter Lake Huron where we were nearly run down by a passing steamer in the night but father ran on deck with a torch which is made and carried for that purpose.
We had no boat of any kind which made it doubly perilous. A vessel always carries a yawl but father had spent so much money in buying the vessel and fitting out and provisioning her up and the cost of moving and war time prices that he had no more to spare. We encountered a storm on Lake Huron. Father called all hands on deck to shorten sail. Quick decisive orders were given and promptly executed but none too soon for as soon as all was taught [taut?] and trim the squall struck us and the vessel lay over as though she never would recover herself but she did rise upon a mountain wave only to be engulfed in the depths again. We were all sick in the cabin, but I climbed the companion way and on top of the cabin and curled up in a coil of rope to see what was going on,. Two men were at the wheel and father shouting orders and the men flying to his commands. Everything was dark and leaden and the sun which was hidden behind black and ominous clouds looked occasionally with a lurid and wicked eye. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon the storm began to abate but a heavy sea [was] rolling when we approached the straits of Mackinaw. Here we experienced some rough weather.
Sailing grew smoother as we came down into Lake Michigan. When we came abreast of Charlevoix we were caught in a dense fog. Throwing the lead line firing gun- fire on shore- coming out with scow. Next morning unloading ballast. Securing load of staves and heading. Going ashore. Meeting Lady of Ireland, the few inhabitants which consisted of about 6 families also some workingmen and one Indian. After the dance and the vessel loaded we got under weigh for Chicago. Father laid his course on the west shore of Lake Michigan sailing along the rich farming country of Wisconsin passing Kenosha, Ravine and Milwaukee. Arriving at Chicago we discharged our cargo of staves and heading. Here father had an opportunity of buying a yawl boat very reasonable so he purchased it. The good luck of getting the load at Fox Island gave him more funds to deal with. Finally we cleared for Saugatuck. When we reached this port we stood outside waiting for a tow for the harbor was very crooked and difficult to take. Pretty soon out came a little steamboat. She seemed to be modeled after a pumpkin seed. She was something like the A. R. Heath which navigated our river for several years, so we gladly gave her a line and she towed us along. As we came in it was a desolate looking entry with those barren sand dunes and when we came in view of Singapore with its huts and saw mill mother burst into tears thinking that our destination but we did not stop and coming round the bend fair Eden appeared before us and our fears and tears were dashed away and we drew up to the dock where the Pavilion now is, Grandfather and many others were there to greet us. Here in Saugatuck we met some of the most kind people we had ever met. We were cordially welcomed.
We adopted Michigan as our home and have never regretted it.
Michigan, my Michigan!Context
In 1870 Ellen Isabel Upham was married to Charles T. Smith who had been a sailor with her father, Captain J. N. Upham, on Lake Erie before enlisting in Company E., 60th Ohio Infantry Regiment of the Union Army. After he received his honorable discharge Smith Joined Captain Upham at Saugatuck. He also served many years on Captain Britain's barges as marine engineer and on the boats of the Rogers & Bird Co. Ellen and Charles Smith had six children. In 1879 the partnership of Upham & Smith was involved in a trade with the Wallin family which had run a tannery in Dingleville or Wallinville on Goshorn Creek. Wallin received an interest in a tug and several scows owned by Upham & Smith in exchange for the large home which the Wallins had built near the mill. The Smith family moved into the old Wallin home and lived there until 1925. Ellen Smith died in 1930. The Wallin/Smith home still stands at 6473 135th Avenue, just north of the Clearbrook Golf Course club house on the west side of the road.Collection
SDHS NL Inserts, Nautical, Family HistoryCataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2023.50Acquisition Method
Found in CollectionNotes
SDHS Newsletter insert pagesLocation
* Untyped Location
Digital data in CatalogItRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Smith, Ellen Isabel (Upham) 1849-1929, Upham, James Nelson 1826-1914, Smith, Charles Thompson 1846-1892General Notes
Note
This information was OCR text scanned from SDHS newsletter supplements. A binder of original paper copies is catalog item 2023.50.01Note
[the 2nd column of SDHS newsletter insert page 74 includes this text and three low-resolution images of a sailing ship and two autograph book pages]
AN OLD AUTOGRAPH BOOK
A second item brought in by Smith relatives from Spring Lake was an autograph book that belonged to Lucien B. Upham, usually called "Bess" or "Bessie;" son of Captain J. N. Upham. Most of the autographs date from his school days 1884 to 1886. One long page of advice for life is from Lizzie Hamilton, one of his teachers. Steve Moreland gives his address as "Singapore Mich." and another friend, Kattie Brower of Holland, decorates the page with a sailing vessel named the L. B. Upham. Both Upham and his brother, Sherman, earned their Master's papers and sailed on the Great Lakes.Create Date
November 9, 2023Update Date
November 18, 2023
