Vol 46 Businesses of Warren Michigan Area Through the Years
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Vol 46 Businesses of Warren Michigan Area through the Years The earliest known businesses were skilled hunters and skilled arrowhead makers who traded their services for other items. Next were the hair sellers. Both the French and British paid for furs and scalps. Animal pelts and human scalps were traded. Thousands of innocent persons were murdered. After the Americans got firm control this stopped. We then had rule of law rather than rule by brute force. Next ax men and chain men worked with the surveyors in 1817. Log cabin makers were rewarded with food and drink. Next came the sawmill operators. Soon store operators, brick makers, brewers and tavern keepers set up in good locations. Inn keeping was soon added as business minded people decided to profit from good locations. Sometimes hunters were paid usually by barter for being back fresh meat. Can't forget soldiers who secured the peace many of whom died in the process. Land speculation no doubt paid off. At least three names stand out. Mr Shubael Conant a Detroit merchant was a shrewd business man. The Government was selling swamp land for one half of the standard price of $2.50 per acre. He bought a lot of land in SW Warren.and resold them for great profit. The Groesbeck families who were the first buyers in Warren Township It seemed that at one time or another they owned many parcels of land all over Warren Township. And third was Walter Piper much later on in time who developed the Baseline and Van Dyke Areas. There were lots of others. Farmers sold land to developers who created subdivisions. Some of our oldest businesses, if you want to call then that, were our churches. In the late 1840s groups of families sometimes got together to hold religious doings. The Methodist, Baptist, Catholic St Clement and St Pauls were the first. My churches founded list has 204 churches in Warren Township but there were and are a few more. Many have disbanded. New ones continually form. The most widespread business was agriculture. Farmers raised plants and animals both for subsistence and to sell to others. First there ware scrub farms which were little plots of broken ground in clearings and between trees. This occurred from 1830-1860. Farmers girdled the trees to kill them and allow sunlight to get to the crops below. Eventually the trees were cut down. Then there were stump farms which was plowed ground between the many tree stumps. As the stumps were eventually cleared these farms became known as improved farms. This was for most farms after 1850. Farmers later began to specialize. Some raised cattle or sheep and others specialized crops. After 1910 or so the area became filled with truck farms who sold their produce to the Detroit markets. Other early businesses were of course the blacksmiths,who made things of iron. Examples: horse shoes, pokers, heavy rings, knives, axes, shovels, hoes, big forks, barrel rings, heavy shears, cutting blades and repair parts for ploughs and farm implements.. These were usually heavier items. The tinsmith made things usually of thin metal. Examples are lamps, buckets, pails, tubs, racks, utensils, tin boxes. Coopers made things of wood such as buckets, barrels which could hold fluids or store things securely. The tanner tanned animal hides so that they became useful items such as clothing or storage containers. Other early occupations were brewers, mill operator, soap makers, brick makers, carpenters, painters, seamstress, tailors, harness makers, maple sugar makers, teachers, preachers, wagon and buggy makers. 4601 Doctors were few and far between and often before 1900 had little to no medical training. People did not have money to pay them so they were paid in meals, chickens, eggs etc. Also it should be noted that there were very few reliable medicines. The treatment was sometimes worse than the affliction. Specific businesses Well the oldest business/occupation was that of Farmer Preacher Abel Warren who settled nearby in 1824. He was followed by the early settlers whose occupation was land clearer and farmers and slightly later livestock raisers. See list on page 19 on Volume one. We know that the Grosbecks started a saw mill business early on. There were acres of trees and people needed boards to construct houses. Of course at first log cabins were made but this often took over fifty trees and cut boards were at least needed to make a door.. Wood had to also be cut to make shingles. Using cut boards used less trees and although still labor intensive was a little easier using cut lumber. Holes had to be bored and wood pins installed and beams notched to fit everything together as there were no nails. Hartzig, Trombly and Grobbel and other families had brick making businesses. January 26, 1837. In Washington, DC, President Andrew Jackson signed the bill making Michigan the nation's twenty-sixth state. At this time Warren was just beginning to be settled. Soon saw mills were set up to cut logs into boards which were better for building. Detroit. Eastern Market was founded in 1841. Out farmers sold produce there. The population of Warren Township was 249 in 1837, 337 in 1840, and 421 in 1845. The new immigrants were mostly farmers, from New England. “On April 3, 1837 an undetermined number of citizens met at the home of Louis Groesbeck to organize the government of Hickory Township…This first meeting chose as its Chairman Avery Denison; as its Clerk, Samuel Gibbs; as Election Inspectors, Louis Beaufait, Alonzo Haight, and Jenison Glazier.” The first township officers were: Supervisor was Samuel Gibbs, Clerk Alonzo Haight; Justices of the Peace, Alonzo Haight, Lyman Rhodes, Samuel Gibbs, and John Barton. The town board was made up of Samuel Gibbs, Alonzo Haight, John Barton and Lyman Rhodes. There was no treasurer for the first two years. Also elected were three Assessors, three Highway Commissioners, two Overseers of the poor, three Constables, three Commissioners of Common Schools, and a Tax Collector. Louis Groesbeck was one of the overseers of the poor. (from Warren Township Records) Public officials were almost always part time. One exception to that was the county sheriff. The earliest report of a Dr was from the 1850 census which showed Carlos Glazier 30 physician. There was a Dr William Simonds born April 3 1830 in Canada. who practiced in the late 1870s and perhaps sooner. He often got paid in chickens according to his family which historian Wes Arnold interviewed. He died Nov 11, 1898 of an injury and drowning. Dr Garrison was a local doctor but became ill for sometime about 1878. Dr Garrison recovered and returned to his practice in 1879. Dr John C Flynn 1850-1910 came to Warren in 1882 but due to illness moved to Colorado in 1883. He came back to Warren upon regaining his health and continued his practice. And there was Doctor W H Smith MD who has a big monument in Warren Union Cemetery showing Oct 1856-Dec 1899. Then there was Doctor Edward W LaDoucour 1869-1927. After that there were many doctors. Several merchants set up on Mound at Chicago Road. Later the village had gasoline lamps installed for evening lighting with A.C Lyons as lamplighter. He had 4602 married John Beebe's daughter and was also the village clerk just after his brother in law Charles Beebe. There were dozens of merchants over the years. Charles Franklin Peck had a store on SW corner of Mound and Chicago Rd. Perhaps the most prominent were the Mason brothers. But all the money in the world could not stop scarlet fever from killing some of their children. It appears they started as blacksmiths, then expanded into making wagons then buggys. The buggy was how folks got around back then. Later on, a drawing of their carriage factory appeared in a local atlas. They also had a general store with clothing and other common items. In 1879 Mason added agricultural implements. George Bolam who was one of the earliest settlers put in 35 years as a civil servant and for awhile was called “King of Warren.” John and Dave Wilson built a grain mill and coal depot with water for the trains at the rail road tracks to the east of the village. They sold out to A V Church who sold it to the Warren Farm Bureau which ran until 1922. It was organized into a stock cooperative called the Warren Coop opening in 1924. The Harwood family operated a Lumber yard and saw mill near there. We know there were at least three churches in Warren Village and more than one tavern. There was a Warren Hotel. An old village map lists The Warren Canning Company. There were several dairy creameries at different times. A distillery is mentioned in some literature but I couldn't find the name. The village white smith (tin smith) was first John (James) L Beebe, then James Strong then Joseph Langel. Arnold Harwood was a very prominent person in Warren Village for over 25 years. I replaced his missing marker, if the Warren hysterical grave robber gang haven't stolen it yet as they did several veterans memorials listing those who died for our freedoms and are buried in Warren Union Cemetery. They even ripped out Warren's Unknown Soldier's memorial off of a grave. See cemetery pages for details. Arnold Harwood ran the main lumber yard and was a pastor of the local ME church for 25 years. He was also a justice of the peace.