Notes on Saugatuck 1880
301
These beautiful lines from the classical British poet who has so graphically painted Scottish history, romance, and scenery, were recalled to our memory when revisiting Saugatuck on the 5th inst. We made our first trip to the mouth of the Kalamazoo river in 1811, some thirty-nine years ago, going down the river in a small Indian canoe, and stopping with Stephen D. Nichols and William G. Butler, two of the pioneers of civilization in that then wilderness region. We spent two or three weeks in exploring the sheets and pyramids of sand of Singapore (which was then quite a commercial point), the wild and romantic scenery of "Bald Head," which is almost an unknown land to Saugatuckians to-day, as well as taking jaunts on the lake beach, north and south of Kalamazoo river harbor. We were charmed in those primitive days with the wildness of the country, the beautiful lake views, and the sylvan aspect of the whole region from Kalamazoo lake to the mouth of the river. By the way, the term "Saugatuck" is an Indian word, and means the mouth of a river. 'The original name of the present town was Newark, which was changed to Saugatuck, March 7, 1861, when the Hon. F. B. Wallin represented Allegan county in the legislature. William G. Butler, the pioneer white man of Saugatuck, came there in 1830, and was killed in the village of Saugatuck in 185%. His son, Major James G. Butler, is an extensive tobacco manufacturer of St. Louis, Missouri, and served throughout the war as an officer of the 3d Michigan cavalry. A pioneer contemporary of Mr. Butler, Mr. Stephen D. Nichols, for several years light-house keeper at the mouth of the river, still lives. His successor, Samuel Under-wood, who officiated for twenty years, has now retired to private life and resides in Saugatuck village. Saugatuck township was organized in 1836 by an act of the legislature under the name of Newark, and embraced the territory of Laketown, Sangatuck, Ganges, Casco, Fillmore, Manlius, Clyde, and Lee, eight towns, of which it is today the natural business center. The town has two incorporated villages, Douglas and Saugatuck, one situated on the northern side of the river, and the
![303: Prior to Mr. Butler's settlement in Saugatuck, there was an old peach orchard in the vicinity of Douglas which must have been planted by the French or Indians long before the white settlement of Saugatuck.
This so-called " Peach Orchard" was situated between 'Town's Point and St. Pierre's Point, about a mile and a half from Douglas. Old river boatmen recollect this peach orchard well. It covered the territory of the former wild cat City of Breeze whose lots were sold in New York city during the wild cat mania, and raps of which were such a curiosity among the pioneers, with its public buildings, parks, water power, etc.
We rode for miles along the banks of Lake Michigan and nothing could be seen but peach orchards, except a very few cultivated farms and beautiful groves of natural growth forest trees. One of these groves is owned by Mr. Stephen A. Morrison, one of the pioneers of Saugatuck, at a spot known as "Lake View." It is a most enchanting spot, and it is here the churches and Sabbath-schools have their picnics during the beautiful summer weather.
[a classy poem]
Up to November, 1879, some 1,200 acres of land in Saugatuck township were set to peach trees, of which 400 acres were bearing.
At 100 trees per acre, and five baskets per tree, these 1,200 acres would show an annual yield of 600, - 000 baskets.
Within a year the peach orchards of Saugatuck have been greatly
extended and many more trees planted. Saugatuck promises to be the greatest peach town in the Michigan fruit belt. The most extensive bearing peach orchards in Saugatuck township are on the south side of the river. We explored one of these farms, that of Robert M. Moore, which consists of ninety-five acres. On ten acres Mr. Moore has 4,000 bearing trees, which look in a fine, thrifty condition.
At the time of our visit he was thinning the fruit from the trees one half,--this process improving the fruit in quality and size. We never saw such a prolific yield of fruit before in any portion of the country we have ever been from Michigan to Texas. Mr. M. has a new orchard of thirty acres, but these trees will not bear fruit vet for two vears to come. The land is in a fine state of cultivation and is plowed two or three times a year. Mr. Moore's](https://d8e7jbdw4fu0e.cloudfront.net/4124/b49d2411-afb6-11ee-97d8-09cf2a30e68f-vUU1dQG.lg@2x.jpg)
![304: peaches are in good demand at Chieago, and are branded " Mountain Rose Fruit Farm."
Williams & Son have a very fine fruit farm of forty acres, with 4,000 bearing trees. Thomas Gray has 3.000 bearing trees, and James Crouse 2,000 trees. We might go on and enumerate the tree statistics of several other fruit growers in this vicinity, but want of space forbids our doing so at this time. But we will name a few of these pomologists: 'They are P. Purdy, Sophia Shultz, Robert Reid, F. C. Kile, William Corner, William Cummings, Joshua Weed, Dresser and Patchin. On the north side of the river are several fine peach orchards, but we did not visit any of them.
Among those orchards is that of O. E. Wells, who has 4,000 trees which bear this year, we are told. John L. Coats has 2,000 trees, George Kingsley, of Chicago, 3,000, and D. L. Barber 2,500 trees. To show the importance of this interest to Sangatuck we have only to mention the shipments of fruit made from the two villages last year:
[table]
The shipments of fruit for 1880 bid fair to be much larger than for 1878.
The lake breezes and water front of the Kalamazoo river and Lake Michigan are most conducive to fruit culture, especially in the case of peaches. 'The fruit belt of Allegan county, from Saugatuck to South Haven, is the finest fruit region in the world; 100,000 acres at least have been planted this season between Fennville and South Haven. Fennville and vicinity is in itself a fine fruit region, and we noticed during our recent visit there some large fruit farms, but did not stop long enough to gather any statistics, and shall depend on our Fennville correspondent to do justice to the subject. But last year Fennville exported by the Chicago & West Michigan railway 132,500 baskets of peaches.
We learn that Mr. James McCormick of Manistee, has sold the growing peaches on his fruit farm (ten acres) for $2,000, and says he has lost 82,000 by the transaction. This shows that there is money in the business.
SHIP-BUILDING.
The steamer C. Ward is now in the stocks and in course of reconstruction. She is owned by R. C. Brittain, and is to be lengthened twenty-seven feet, and completed in time for the shipment of peaches. Tiro more vessels are being built at Saugatuck, which by the way, is quite a ship-building point, the best kind of ship-timber being abundant in the neighborhood of Saugatuck. Ship-building began early in Saugatuck, James MeLaughlin having built the "Crook," a lumber vessel, in 1837, we believe. From that time on a number of vessels have been built at Saugatuck, among the first of which were the "Octavia," a lake vessel, and a flat-bottomed steamer called the C. C. Trowbridge, which was found when constructed to be too large a craft for river navigation, and was soon hauled off the river.
RIVER NAVIGATION.
In the olden time when we first visited Sangatuck, there was a large Indian population on the banks of the river, and it was no unusual sight to see their beautiful birch bark canoes and dugonts on each side of the river; but now](https://d8e7jbdw4fu0e.cloudfront.net/4124/b49d2412-afb6-11ee-97d8-09cf2a30e68f-vUU1dQG.lg@2x.jpg)
![307: county is really the creme de la creme of this great fruit region--the paradise of western Michigan. The grand scenery with which Nature decorates herself on the banks of the Kalamazoo and grand old Lake Michigan, near whose shores these orchards arise, presents a prospect that would inspire a poet.
[another classy poem here]
While at Fennville we called upon Mr. Matthew O. Wilson, and were shown sixty-four colonies of bees and his mode of culture and care of those useful and industrious insects, which Mr. W. handled just as carelessly as printers do type or editors pens. Last year Mr. W. with fifty-five hives raised 1,250 pounds of honey. The country in this neighborhood seems well adapted to bee culture.
Speaking of bees, J. Fenimore Cooper's novel, "Oak Openings," describing the natural beauties of the Kalamazoo river at this season of the year, will be found an attractive work, describing as it does, the whole of western Michigan's primitive ornaments with a master pen, telling all about the Bee Hunter and his hairbreadth escapes, by land and water, from Indians during the war of 1812.
SAUGATUCK AND ITS ANTIQUITIES.
There is no doubt of the Kalamazoo river having been visited by white people at an early period; by Father Marquette and many of the French Jesuits and voyageurs in their explorations of the lake regions as far back as 1675, when Marquette was taken ill and returned to Mackinaw as he coasted along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan in a small boat. In 1679 the St. Joseph river was discovered by Chevalier La Salle. La Salle built a fortified trading post at St. Joseph, which he called the Fort of the Miamis, from which post the Indians of the Kalamazoo river probably received their supplies and bartered their peltries. In 1686 the Fort of the Miamis was changed to Fort St. Joseph, on site of the old fort. In 1697 the Miamis were driven from the St. Joseph river and this region of country was dominated by the Ottawas and so continued to do with the Pottawattamies for nearly 130 years, when, September 8, 1815, they disposed of their lands in Michigan to the United States and were placed on reservations. During the war of 1812 these Indians fought on the British side, but after that war was concluded made a treaty of peace with the Americans.
Cooper's novel, "Oak Openings," is a fine romance on the Indian occupation of the Kalamazoo river valley, and ought to be placed in every school district library in this county.
In taking an excursion down the river on board the Fanny Shriver, from Saugatuck into Lake Michigan, Mr. Wallin pointed out to us the spot where the Bee Hunter dashed two barrels of whisky down a spur of Mount Baldhead at the east end of the pier and facing the light-house near the field of wild rice where the Bee Hunter was trying to secrete himself and canoe. We quote from Cooper's novel that portion which relates the Bee Hunter's capture by hostile](https://d8e7jbdw4fu0e.cloudfront.net/4124/bdfdce60-afb6-11ee-97d8-09cf2a30e68f-vUU1dQG.lg@2x.jpg)
