RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE • 1829-1915 v V B - ' .. RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE 1829-1915 BY ISAAC STEPHENSON S CHICAGO PRIVATELY PRINTED 1915 .s Copyright, 1915, bv ISAAC STEPHENSON DEC -6 1915 I.A4 1673 J , PREFACE undertaking to set down, so that others may read, INthe recollections of my own personal experiences dur- ing three-quarters of a century or more, it is not my purpose to trespass upon the field either of the historian or of the commentator by attempting to interpret the events which came directly or indirectly under my ob- servation. Nor is it my purpose to point a moral. What I have written is no more than a concise narrative of what be- fell me, of the difficulties I encountered, the disappoint- ments I suffered and the triumphs I achieved, the fortunes and misfortunes that were dealt out to me by my control- ling destiny. There are few men living who have had so varied, cer- tainly so long, a career as I. It is a far cry from the agita- tion over the northeastern boundary controversy in 1839 to the vicissitudes of latter-day politics in 1915. Many things have happened within that space of time. The greater portion of the country has been transformed from a wilderness into a cultivated and settled area. Railroads have intersected it; cities have been built; and its vitality has awakened to the pulsations of a highly organized com- mercial life. In that epoch of progress I moved as an individual with the flowing stream, but I no less than the others have seen something of the changes that have been wrought, the decay of old customs and the growth of new, the suc- cession of problems from meeting the rigors of the wilder- 5 6 PREFACE aess to the adjustment of social and economic relations in the complex civilization of to-day. If this viewpoint from a lengthy perspective will enable anyone who may read to measure with greater accuracy of vision the ad- vantages and disadvantages of the shifting present, I shall count what I have written as of some value. The migration of the lumbermen of the Maine and New Brunswick forests — in the early part of the last century the greatest center of the industry in the world — is one of the interesting phases of the pioneer period of American history. They blazed a way with restless energy into the timbered wilderness of Pennsylvania, of Wis- consin and Michigan, of Minnesota, of the mountain region of the far West and finally of the Pacific coast. From ocean to ocean the tide has moved within the span of my own lifetime. A part of that course it was my lot to travel. I jour- aeyed from Maine to Boston by sea, from Boston to Albany by train, from Albany to Buffalo by canal-boat and thence over the (ireat Lakes, the main thoroughfare from the expanding West, to Milwaukee before the railroads ex- tended beyond Buffalo and many of the great cities of the country were more than a name. Of the early settle- ment > along Greeu Bay and the northern peninsula of Michigan struggling for foothold on the verge of what seemed to be almosl illimitable Forests I have watched the growth, and the wilderness I have seen melt away before the encroaching si retch of farms. My experiences were, in large measure, the experiences of those who sel the pace of achievement under these con- the forests, in the ditions. 1 worked with them exploring logging camps, on the rivers and at the mills, and sailed with them on Lake Michigan as seaman, mate, and master. PREFACE 7 Favored by circumstance, I covered wider fields than most of them. From the time I fell under the eye of my mother's cousin, Christopher Murray, at Murray Castle, Spring Hill, New Brunswick, when I was four years old, it was my good fortune to attract the attention and enjoy the confidence of many men. I came to the West as a member of the household of Jefferson Sinclair, the greatest practical lumberman of his time; was associated in business witli William B. Ogden, at one time mayor of Chicago, also one of the towering figures of his day; and numbered among my friends Samuel J. Tilden and a host of other men of large affairs — lawyers, railroad builders, bankers, manufacturers — who set the seal of their energy upon the broadening destiny of the country,—pioneers, no less, of their kind. By reason, no doubt, of the knowledge I had gained of conditions in northern Wisconsin and Michigan and the training I had received at the hands of Mr. Sinclair, a score of offers of employment were made to me by men who desired me to take charge of lumbering, mining, land, and railroad-building enterprises. It is possible, therefore, that some idea of the difficulties these men en- countered and the ordeals through which they passed may be gathered from this narrative, although it is a purely personal one, my own story told in my own way. Whether a comparison of the present manner of liv- ing with that which prevailed in those early days would point the way to reforms I doubt much. Changing stand- ards offer a cloak for lapses from hard-and-fast rules of conduct, and the judgments of one generation are held not to apply in another. None the less the necessity which confronted these hewers of wood and drawers of water was a wholesome stimulant. The long days of hard work 8 PREFACE bred sturdy, it Qoi facile, character — a lesson which no age is too advanced in wisdom to learn. In this time of social and economic readjustment it mighl tie well to remember that their achievement was due to industry and thrift and that the opportunity which looms Large in retrospect was less apparent in their im- mediate environment than that which the future now seems to hold. Too often, as I see it, the background of toil and strug- gle is left to hazy outline while the results of their labors are blazoned forth in vivid colors. Accordingly is the measure of their compensation exaggerated and the ex- tent of their effort minimized. What allurement did the prospeel of an isolated wilderness possess for those who tinned their faces westward? The prairies stretched for almosl countless miles to regions unmapped and unex- plored. The pine forests had no bounds. With such abundance mere possession availed nothing. The only wealth to be obtained was wrested from them by grind- ing labor; and these men labored from dawn to twilight, valorous, undaunted, and unafraid. I have seen this period of construction pass and the chief function of government change, for the moment at least, from the stimulation to the regulation of effort. In I lie cycle of progress and growth of a country so blessed with abundance as ours, this, no doubt, is necessary. Adroitness lias in too many cases been made to serve the purposes of toil. Hut in the light of the philosophy of my own experience I should choose my steps carefully lest I pul upon honest effort an unnecessary burden or take from it its just reward. Progressivism and reform ;ne .1 resonanl shibboleth. I should demand from those who crv it olher credentials than a loud voice. PREFACE Whether, when viewed from the perspective of a hun- dred years hence, it will be observed that greater progress was made in the earlier years of the nineteenth century than in the earlier years of the twentieth, I shall not pre- sume to predict. I only hope that progress has been made, is being made, and will continue to be made without let or hindrance and that the problems of life will be met and solved as they arise, to the happiness and contentment of human kind. Isaac Stephenson LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ISAAC STEPHENSON Frontispiece JEFFERSON SINCLAIR Facing Page 18 DANIEL WELLS 90 WATER MILL ON THE ESCANABA RIVER, BUILT IN 1844 . 106 WILLIAM B. OGDEN 104 AWAITING THE ARRIVAL OF THE NORTHWESTERN DIRECTORS AT THE MOUTH OF THE MENOMINEE RIVER IN 1S67 . 188 CONTENTS CHAPTER I My great-grandfather, Andrew Stephenson, emigrates from Scotland to Ireland and becomes owner of farm and flax- mill in Raphoe, Donegal County — Robert Stephenson, my grandfather, in charge of property — The Ulster blood — My father, Isaac Stephenson, born in 1790 — Difficulties in Ireland — My father sails in 1809 for America — Life in New Brunswick — Takes charge of Loyalist estates — Colonel Allen — The Murrays and Spring Hill — Colonel Wilmot — Father marries Elizabeth Watson — Colonel Miles and my birth-place, Maugerville — Resi- dence at Hartland, Nevers estate, and Greenfield . 17 CHAPTER II Life along the St. John — Farming, lumbering, and vessel building —Home life and the schools — "Frolics" — The Aroostook War — Beginnings of the lumbering industry — Masts for the Royal Navy — Ton timber — Disap- pearance of the forests — Necessity for husbanding resources 29 CHAPTER III Beginning of my lumbering career in 1840 — Camp on the Shiktehawk — Routine of the logging camps — Dif- ficulties of contractors — Family removes to Aroostook County, Maine — Conditions in Aroostook and Yankee operations — Jefferson Sinclair, Napoleon of Maine lum- bering industry — Use of oxen in logging — Log drive down the St. John River in 1844 — Journey to Bangor over old stage route 42 11 12 CONTENTS CHAPTER IV Departure with Sinclairs for Milwaukee in 1815 — Journey From Bangor to Boston and Albany — Discomforts of railway travel — Inland voyage over Erie Canal — We encounter storms on Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan — Milwaukee seventy years ago — Difficulties of pioneering 56 CHAPTER V Mr.