Formation of Tuscola County
In 1835, several tracts of lands were purchased of the Government in what is now the township of Tuscola, and in June of the following year the first permanent settlement was made in that part of the county by Mr. Ebenezer Davis, whose family was followed by several others a few months later. The lack of roads and markets, and the remoteness of all the privileges of civilized and cultivated society, was so discouraging that the growth of these settlements was small for many years. In 1850, there were only 291 inhabitants in the whole county, and only 300 acres of improved land. From that time forward, the county has settled up more rapidly. In that year the present county was set off from Saginaw county, to which it had been attached for Judical and Representative purposes in 1840, and organized into a separate county bearing it's present Indian name. (From the History of Tuscola County, MI, H. R. Page and Co., 1883, Chicago, IL).
Caro Masonic Temple
This two-story Italianate commercial building was erected in 1879. One of the first brick buildings on Caro's main street, the structure built by businessman and philanthropist Charles Montague as a bank and general store. When the building was enlarged in 1887, the entire second floor became the Masonic Temple. On December 27, 1887, Rufus C. Hathaway, Grand Master of the Free and Accepted Masons of Michigan, dedicated the temple during a gala ceremony.
Tuscola County Courthouse
Peter DeWitt Bush (1818-1913), the second permanent resident of the village of Caro, donated the site for the village courthouse square in 1866. Then he, along with two other pioneer settlers, moved an old frame church to the site to serve as the county's first courthouse. In 1873 the county replaced the former church with a brick courthouse that served the community's needs until 1932, when the present Art Deco style structure was completed. Designed by Detroit architect William H. Kuni and built by Cecil M. Kelly, a Caro native, the courthouse is faced with Indiana limestone. Situated on the same site as the old brick courthouse, this $180,000 structure was completely paid for when it was dedicated on January 24, 1933, by means of a one-mill, five-year tax levy.
Elkland Township Hall
This hall was built in 1881 as the center of government activity for Elkland Township. Erected at a cost of $2,600, it was the first brick structure in Cass City. Local timber and brick supplied by the Depews Brick Kilns were used throughout the hall. Serving as the town's cultural center since 1965, this building has housed township gatherings, a newspaper office, lodge functions and a basketball court in years gone by.
First Presbyterian Church of Caro
Twelve person organized the First Presbyterian Church of Caro in December 1878. The Reverend Edward P. Clark, the Presbyterian minister at Vassar, conducted the organizational meeting with the assistance of the Reverend R.P. Shaw of Bedford, Indiana. For the first year, this small group of Presbyterians held their worship and prayer services in the homes of members. Then, in 1880, they erected their first house of worship on Lincoln and Pearl streets. The present limestone and brick church was begun in 1902 and dedicated on December 13, 1903. It has had no structural alterations since construction. A regal structure, it features a corner tower and stained-glass windows.
Gilford United Methodist Church
In 1887 a camp meeting led by the Reverend David Arnold resulted in the establishment of the Gilford United Brethren in Christ Church. Henry Shannon and John Cragg had invited Arnold to preach to area settlers. In 1889, Charles and Naomi Phipps donated land for a church building. Church members laid the cornerstone that year. In 1968, through a merger with the Methodist denomination, the name became the Gilford United Methodist Church.
Indian Dave Please see Indian Dave
Millington School District No. 2
In 1856 Millington's first school, a log building, was erected. Between 1866 and 1867 the number of school-age children doubled, and a frame school was built on land obtained from David Lane, owner of the town's first sawmill. In 1884 Millington citizens decided to build a modern brick building; however, public opinion was split on whether to locate the new school east or west of the Michigan Central Railroad tracks. An election was called to decide the issue. Local lore credits "east sider" Joe Gravell with driving his team of horses through the town calling voters to the polls. East side advocates won and the school was built on this site. Between 1947 and 1970 eighteen rural schools consolidated to form the Millington Community School District.
Peninsular Sugar Refining Company
The beet sugar industry in Michigan began growing rapidly in the late nineteenth century. The declining lumber industry had cleared thousands of acres of land suitable for the cultivation of sugar beets. In 1897 farmers were encouraged further to grow this new crop when the state legislature offered a bounty to producers of one cent for each pound of sugar made from Michigan beets. Soon numerous beet sugar factories appeared. Many of then were in the Saginaw Valley area where both climate and soil were satisfactory for growing sugar beets. One of the companies started in this era was the Peninsular Sugar Refining Company at Caro. Organized in 1898, it was first called the Caro Sugar Company. Today it is the oldest beet sugar factory still operating in Michigan.
The Peninsular Sugar Refining Company owes its success in part to the willingness of area farmers to grow sugar beets. A German firm built the factory in 1899 on land donated by the community. A newspaper, the Tuscola County Advertiser, publicized the venture and Charles Montague, a local businessman, raised capital for it. Farmers hauled tons of beets to the Caro factory in horse-drawn wooden-wheeled wagons and sleighs. In October of 1899, the company embarked on its first season of beet sugar production. In 1906 Peninsular Sugar merged with several other companies to form the Michigan Sugar Company. With Charlie Sieland as superintendent, the Caro factory became known as a training ground for sugar craftsmen. Today Caro's modern automated equipment is housed in the original factory.
Trinity Episcopal Church
This skillfully designed board and batten Gothic Revival church, first served local Episcopalians in 1880. The congregation had been formed in 1871, the year the town was incorporated. During the 1870s Caro grew to be a major commerce center for the Thumb Area. By the 1920s, however, church membership dropped and the building was sold to the Nazarenes. In 1974 preservationists saved the church from demolition.
Tuscola County Advertiser
The Tuscola County Advertiser began publishing on August 21, 1868. The city's oldest surviving business establishment, it was founded by Henry G. Chapin, a native of Conesus, New York. Chapin edited and published the paper for twelve years. The paper began with a circulation of 300, and by 1986 it had reached 14,200 readers. The newspaper has received over seventy Awards of Excellence from the Michigan Press Association and was honored as Michigan's outstanding weekly newspaper by the University of Michigan Press Club in 1983.
Tuscola County Fair
On March 11, 1882, thirty-three years after the nation's first state fair was held in Detroit, the Tuscola County Fair was organized as the Caro District Agricultural Association. On September 19-22, 1882, the fair hosted its first agricultural, industrial, educational and recreational exhibition. Always a primary agricultural attraction, the county fair has displayed new farming equipment and methods, animals, produce and handicrafts on this site for the past century.
Vassar's Logging Era
Here on the Cass River, March 1, 1849, four men led by Townsend North and James M. Edmunds found a suitable place to build a dam and start a town, which was named for Edmund's uncle Matthew Vassar, later the founder of Vassar College, New York. The growth of the town for the next thirty years was based on lumbering and its many related industries. Cork pine, the best variety of white pine, grew in abundance along the Cass River and was much in demand. These kings of the forest grew to a height of 150 feet, a diameter of three or four feet. The wood was light, strong and easy to work with. Millions of board feet were marketed all over the world especially in America's prairie states. With forest depleted, a diversified economy developed here -- agriculture, manufacturing and commercial business.
Watrous General Store
Aaron Watrous and his crew of loggers came here in 1852 to cut the virgin pine of the Cass River Valley. In 1860 he platted the town naming it Watrousville, and a few years later constructed this building as a general store. The flagpole in front is thought to have been erected during the 1864 presidential campaign. Watrous died in 1868, and in 1882 the building became the Juniata Township Hall. Since 1972 it has been a museum of the Watrousville-Caro Area Historical Society.
Watrousville United Methodist Church
Circuit riders, who traveled through local villages, served the Watrousville United Methodist Church when it was established in 1856. The congregation became known as the Wastrousville Charge in 1861. In 1865 the first trustees of the congregation then called the First Methodist Society of Watrousville, were elected. Construction on the congregation's first church began in 1871 and was completed in 1873. The church burned on October 31, 1937, and a near replica was built in 1938 on the same site.
Frankenhilf
In 1849 Pastor Ferdinand Sievers of Bay County purchased over fifteen hundred acres of virgin forest here in Tuscola County to establish a colony of immigrants from revolution-torn Germany. A year later two families under the leadership of Pastor Herman Kuehn settled in this area. They named their community Frankenhilf, combining Franconia, a district of Bavaria, and hilf meaning assistance. Despite severe hardships, the colony slowly grew and in 1851 organized St. Michael's Lutheran Church. Vexed by the seemingly odd name of the fertile farm area, postal authorities referred to Frankenhilf as "Richville" which became the village's official name in 1862. St. Michael's Lutheran Church, the nucleus of the early colony, still holds worship services in both English and German.
Caro was originally known as Centerville when it was first settled in 1855. However, the first police station that was established was called Tuscola Center. The two different names caused much confusion and annoyance. After many years of controversy, the name Caro (short for Cairo, Egypt) was decided upon in 1869. In the early 1900's, Caro's huge sugar refining company became the second largest beet sugar factory in America. The formula for the soft drink Pepsi-Cola was devised by one of the factory's early employees.
Native People, the Chippewa and Ottawa, knew Caro in English as High Banks, which might be translated into their language as "Bagdanak". South of High Banks were the Indianfields with their large stock of potates, corn, and squash. Caro and the area around Caro have always been known for their cultivated fields. William Sherman, a shantyboy who worked in the local lumber woods and settled in Caro in 1852 with his father, Samuel, suggested in 1868 the name Cairo, which was shortened to Caro, to be used by the young, growing village, which was then known as Centerville. Caro had also been known as Podunk and Sherman's. William Sherman was a student of the history of Cairo, Egypt, and helped name Caro, Michigan, for that city at a time when Caro was just becoming fully organized. Caro became the county seat of Tuscola County. Latin "cola" means seat or cultivated farm and is related to a small hill--or "colline". Tuscola may be a Chippewa/Ottawa/Latin word for the farm or hill on the flatland. The Egyptian name Cairo means "the settlement [the camp] harries" and was named for Mars, or Aries, the God of War [and Agriculture]. To harrow means both to farm and war. The word Cairo, hence Caro, is connected with a sitting place or quay. Caro is located on a natural quay, or small hill, near the Cass River, and lies just above a tableland.
The first settler in the area was Amasa Clay in 1852. He became the first postmaster of Fairgrove. The name came from a grove of trees that stood just west of the present village
History of Unionville, Michigan
On July 15, 1875, land was assigned to Marvin W. Kramer by President Franklin Pierce. Mr. Kramer named the site "Kramertown". The name would not stay in use. Other early settlers include the families of Mathias Bitzer, Leo. Rumple, Wesley Hess, Daniel Marvin, Horace Marvin, Almon Achenbach, David Clark, Jacob Gould, Allen Brewer, John Covey, and William Davis. Many of these family names still exist in the area. The settlement would later be named Unionville in honor of town in Ohio. Unionville became incorporated as village on April 1, 1853. Some of the following events took in place in the early years of the area. Horace C. Marvin built the first home made of logs in 1854. Reverend Klumph preached the first sermon in the home of Samuel B. Covey in 1855. Mr. Covery and his son-in-law, William Davis started selling general merchandise from Mr. Covey's home in 1856. Mr. Covey also became the first postmaster of the area in 1858. On September 12, 1855, John Brewer was the first child born. Dr. Granger came to Unionville as the first physician in 1867. After Unionville became incorporated in 1853, Horace Marvin became the first village president. The first council meeting was held on May 1, 1879. The first village ordinances included "livestock prohibited from running at large," "no fire crackers" and "The national game of ball playing prohibited on business streets." While farming was usually the first occupation of settlers in the area, many would turn to lumbering because it paid more money and not as hard to do. Thus lumbering is the first big industry in the area. After the clearing of the forests due to lumbering and the fires of 1871 and 1881, lumbering ended and farming took over as the major industry of the area.
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