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"E PLURRIBUS UNUM": THE UNIFICATION OF MUSKEGON
By Lowell B. Dana, March 1926
Submitted by Anita Pugh and Bill Moore
The history of Greater Muskegon's development
into its present status is a story of the gradual merging of many settlements
into three corporations, viz. Muskegon, Muskegon Heights and North
Muskegon. Cities are built through
consolidation of units and this consolidation is usually carried on to the
point of greatest profit to the inhabitants, unless barred by geographical
barriers, or inassimilable differences.
The first settlements were made by
adventurous traders, explorers or trappers at various points around the
lake. By 1861, at the time Muskegon was organized as a village, there were
many groups of people, more or less separated from each other. Lack of easy transportation made intercourse
between settlements rather difficult and tedious. Each community developed a sort of local spirit individual
characteristics of its average citizens.
Taking these villages in order starting
at the big lake we will first describe Port Sherman. This group had been first permantly settled by Fred Drexilus,
who had the only real house there in 1850.
There were a half dozen white people living there and about four or five
hundred Ottawa Indians. The road to
Bluffton wound around the sand hills on the Muskegon Lake side as at
present. The road around the shore of
Lake Michigan and through the park was used later. The village developed steadily from this time on. The lighthouse was first built and the
channel deepened in 1855. In 1871 this first structure was torn down and
rebuilt. The coast guard was
established in 1878. The first saw mill
was built near the Muskegon Lake end of the channel about 1856 by Smith,
Fowler & Company. Mr. Smith was Dennis Smith, father of
Lawrence A. Smith and Mrs. F. W. Wilson. LeMieux had the mill, which was sold
about 1864 for $28,000 to S.A. Browne
and Associates and this afterwards became the Browne & Nelson Mill. Most of the inhabitants were people employed
in the neighborhood. There were
employees of the sawmill, sailors and ship owners, fishermen, the lighthouse
keeper, and later the coast guard.
Captain Eastman, a tug-owner, and Captain Nicholas Inglis,
who owned a schooner, were prominent men.
The Sherman House was built in 1874 by Captain Fuller and was
always crowed by resorters in the summer.
Many Chicago people came to Port Sherman to resort or camp even prior to
1870. Several French Canadian families
came in about this time, the descendants of whom still live there, namely, the Cardinals,
Nedeaus and Beauvais. The
original plat of Port Sherman was called the village of Laketon. The Community affairs were mostly settled at
the Browne & Nelson Mill office or
at Joseph Bulger's saloon. At an early
date the guess was that the future city would be at the mouth. According to Henry H. Holt, land at
the mouth and at Bluffton was once selected by a commission as valuable
endowment for the National Government to give the State University at Ann
Arbor.
Next east of Port Sherman was
Bluffton. Prior to 1880 this village
had been built around the sawmills of Wilcox
& Company, Addis, Day &
Lattimer and Olson & Jones. The
Muskegon Post Office was first established at Bluffton in 1838 with Henry Penoyer
as Postmaster. For quite a time
Bluffton was the center of the whole community, but population soon centered 4
1/2 miles east, at the present corner of Market and Terrace Streets. The customs office was moved from Bluffton
to Muskegon about 1879 and caused much complaint by shippers who had to take
the trip for clearance papers. The
earliest name for Bluffton was Millville.
It had been a trading post since 1812.
French Canadians predominated here at an early date. By 1880 Mike Sullivan had the
principally saloon and community center.
A Catholic chapel was built here prior to 1880 and stood until recently
on the hill back of Pasco's present place.
Bluffton had a strong local pride and was
an important trading and lumber center for a long time. Some of its most prominent citizens were
T.V. McNiff, H.V. Rifenberg and Edward Miner. The eastern limit of Bluffton was about the
site of the west end of the country club grounds.
A void of wilderness separated Bluffton
and Lakeside, its next neighbor to the east.
In 1870 Lakeside consisted of a string of shanties or small houses along
Lake Street. The Bluffton Post office
was established in Lakeside and called Ryerson. Most of the population was employed in the sawmills of Perley
& Company, A.V. Mann & Company and Essau Tarrant.
The three villages of Port Sherman,
Bluffton and Lakeside formed the bulk of Lakeside Township. It was a portion of Muskegon County set
apart from Laketon Township, which had been organized in 1865, and was bounded
on the north by the channel, south by Township of Norton and east of Muskegon
Township. The split from Laketon
Township came in 1875 when it was apparent the lake was a natural geographical
boundary. The first meeting of Lakeside
Township was held in A.V. Mann & Company’s office in 1875. The first board of inspectors were J.W. Moon,
A. M. Allen and F.H. Smith.
Lakeside village was incorporated in
1883. There was a strong community life
in Lakeside. Macabees and Good Templar
Lodges were prominent. The Swedish
element predominated although there were quite a few Germans who came in the
80's. The village maintained
prohibition for a long time and one of the objections to coming to Muskegon in
1889 was the fact that it was wet. The
streetcar line, however, made it easy to get to either Pinchtown or Bluffton
for an "eye opener" and this objection lost force. In 1880 the population of Lakeside Township
was 1702. Some of its notables were
J.W. Moon, Seth D. Estes, Newcomb McGraft, Geo. J. Tillotson,
Hiram Parker, P.P. Misner and many others. Lakeside village ran about to Ruddiman's
Creek.
East of Ruddiman's Creek was
Pinchtown. George Ruddiman
settled here in 1840. He planted an
orchard on the hill on the East bank in 1848.
Ruddiman made the original plat of
"Pinchtown". This plat dates
from about 1872 or 1873. Mr. Ruddiman
was evidently much interested in the presidential campaign of 1872. This is indicated by the street names he
selected, Greeley Street, Brown Street and Grant Street, appearing on the
map. Brown Street was doubtless named
after Mr. Greeley's running mate, B. Gratz Brown. Grant, of course, was named after the
general and successful presidential candidate of 1872.
Montgomery Street beyond Laketon on the
west was dubbed Washington Street on the Ruddiman plat and what is now the
western extension of Palmer Boulevard was called Lincoln Street. It will be seen the Mr. Ruddiman was
an admirer of American notables.
The name of Brown Street was later
changed to Moore Street and the name of a former 8th ward alderman was
substituted for Grant. Division
Street on the Ruddiman plat is now Robinson Street, in honor of the man who
invented the name "Pinchtown".
It is said that some asked Mr. Robinson,
who fifty years ago combined the job of mill bookkeeper and keeper of the
Lakeview House and saloon on Lakeshore Drive at the corner of Robinson Street,
what they would call the new village which developed quite rapidly after the
plat was made. "Call it
Pinchtown", Robinson replied.
"It's pinched in between Muskegon City and Lakeside.
For many years Jim Robinson made
Pinchtown famous. The big hall in his
Lakeview House was the scene of all of the local prize fights and cock
fights. Being outside of the city
limits there was no ban on prize fighting and no closing hours for the saloon. The sheriffs of those days were tolerant and
it was commonly accepted that Pinchtown was the proper place for prize
fights. No less a notable than Jake Kilrain
once fought there. When Lakeside was
annexed Pinchtown also came into the city and gradually with the decline of
lumbering the old resort was abandoned.
Robinson started a saloon uptown, but died many years ago. He was a wonderful penman and for years
clerk of Muskegon Township. It was said
that the fact that there was always lots of treating at the bar was quite an
inducement to voters of the township who for years made this out of the way
corner of Muskegon Township the place of holding the annual town meeting.
East of Pinchtown was woods at an early
date. The settlement about Brewery Hill
and along the lakefront was a separate community as early as 1862. Mr. F. Newmeister first operated a
brewery on the hill and a little later.
In 1876 O.G. and G. Meeske took over the brewery and enlarged
it. G. Nineman came into the
firm a year later. In 1878 most of the
hill was farmland owned by Alexander Rodgers, Sr., and W.H. Bradley. The north side belonged to C.J. Hamilton
& Company and the Thomas Turnbull estate. About 30 families were supported by the brewery payroll in
1880. A brickyard was established here
at an early date and later abandoned.
The building of the McCracken, Hovey
& Company mill in 1881 followed soon afterwards by the Michigan Shingle and
Lumber Company mill developed Brewery Hill and the land between there and
Pinchtown quite rapidly.
Muskegon was organized as a village in
1861 and on July 8, of that year Lyman G. Mason was elected
President. The first election was held
in the basement of the M.E. church. The
charter, as a city, came in 1869. At
the first election Chauncey Davis was elected Mayor. The charter was amended in 1871, revised in
1875 and amended again in 1879.
Pine Street was the business Street until
after the fire of August 1, 1874. The
first plat of the city drawn up in 1849 stretched in a wedge shape across the
central business district of today. The
south end was about at the present corner of Miller Avenue and Second Street
and the boundary ran directly to Third Street at the present site of St. Paul's
Rectory. Thence the line ran directly
to a point near the present Post office following a line a few rods west of
Hunter's Plumbing Shop to Muskegon Lake.
It then followed the lake shore to a point nearly opposite the foot of
Pine Street, then ran directly back to present corner of Miller Avenue and
Second Street, everywhere intersecting lots, streets and buildings as at
present laid out. In 1864 Muskegon
Township had a population of 2712 mostly in the village. The next six years saw the most rapid growth
in the history of the city as in 1870 the Township had jumped to 6006
population according to the census of that year.
There were many distinct neighborhoods of
settlements on the outskirts of this first plat. Each had a sort of unity and maintained its local loyalty for a
long time. Some of the settlements
called by their characteristic names were:
The settlement along Myrtle Street, east of Spring Street, which
consisted mostly of Hollanders who did manual labor in the saw mills, this was
known as "Dutch Town". Many
of the old country habits and styles of dress were preserved in this community for
a long time, among them the use of wooden shoes. Some people gave this settlement the more aristocratic name of
"Amsterdam". Another Dutch
settlement around the present section of Third Street, near Monroe and Merrill
Avenues, was known as "Rotterdam".
The Dutch inhabitants of these towns were rather slow to mix and the
absorption of these districts was gradual over a period of time.
Another settlement was under and above
the Jackson Street Hill called "Killgrubbin". It contained a preponderance of Norwegian,
though in general the group was cosmopolitan.
Michael Dwyer, about 1860, ruled over Killgrubbin as a sort of
"Mussolini". Another name for
the upper part of this settlement was "Norwegian Hill", later it was
known only as the First Ward. The first
Township meeting was held in 1838 at Newell & Wilcox house near the present
site of Damm's hardware. Uppertown was
the old business district between Pine Street and Second Street.
Middletown was rather poorly defined in
its limits, but was the next portion west of Second Street extending down to
about Sixth Street.
West and north of Sixth Street was
Lowertown. This section comprised the
lower land of the city.
These last three sections were not
particularly dominated by any group or nationality, but were the general run of
citizens in all walks of life.
On the outskirts of the city in 1870
between Getty Avenue and a stretch about 1/2 mile out the Old Grand Rapids road
as the City is now laid out, was Bucktown, spirited from the City by a long
stretch of small oaks. These settlers
were gardeners, laborers, and clerks.
Before the Heights boom there were half a
dozen houses on south Terrace Street on the old Ferrysburg road, along which
were those of F.F. Clark, Oscar Lyons, E.E. Tyler and
others.
There was a small settlement south of the
G. R. & I. railroad on Peck Street.
William Collier was there in 1874 and Maffett's vineyard
was near the Street named after him.
Henry Street, for a mile south of the
present city limits, had a scattered settlement as early as 1870. The prominent men of this group were Hubert Stein,
Patrick Crowley, Patrick Dowd, Edward Reynolds, Frank Young,
Edward Pett, Joseph Gunn, W.J. Pingree, Charles McGregor
and others. This settlement worked out
its own problems and almost like a village.
At the head on Mona Lake there was a
group of houses and the Water Mill was on Big Black Creek as early as 1850.
Muskegon City Railway Company was one of
the biggest factors in eliminating community boundaries. It was organized in 1883 and rapidly placed
about 11 miles of track in operation.
It was first used as a horse car line.
By 1890 the system was electrified and was substantially, the same as at
present (1926) with the exception of the Mona Lake and Jackson Street Hill
additions. The Pine Street line also
ended at the entrance to Evergreen Cemetery.
The car barns were built in 1891 and employed about 60 men. With the Street Railway and the gradual
diversification of industry, people were able to go greater distances for daily
employment. Intercourse between the far
sections was more frequent and boundaries were less closely maintained.
Muskegon Heights was the direct result of
a syndicate of business men formed in 1890 known as Muskegon Improvement
Company. There were few settlements in
the present limits of Muskegon Heights prior to this time except the one around
Maffett's Vineyard. The section was
laid out into lots, ten acres were reserved for parks and 110 acres for factory
sites. The first lot sale was held May
12, 1890, and 2800 lots were sold at $130.00 each. One mile of pavement on each of Jefferson and Peck Streets and
one-half mile on McKinney Avenue were put in.
The city was incorporated as Muskegon Heights January 2, 1891, and by
1892 had 1300 inhabitants and a factory payroll of $20,000 per month. From the rather late start Muskegon Heights
has grown to its present size and importance.
It has weathered many depressions and stagnation periods. Many industrial plants that promised much
have gone out of business and have been forgotten. New industries have come in and have grown so that we now have a
very prosperous and permanent city with unlimited possibilities for expansion.
The city government at the Heights is
spending money on much needed improvements, but there are still some problems,
which will have to be worked out rather carefully. Among these is the problem of water supply. Many citizens of the Heights are employed in
and own property in Muskegon and visa versa.
The cities are separated by governments only.
Returning to Muskegon the western portion
of Ottawa Street grew right along with Muskegon and was part of it. C. & W. M shops, now the Pere Marquette
shops, came in the latter part of the 70's and employed some settlers in this
part of the town. Lumber workers formed
most of the balance of this section.
Around the mouth of the Muskegon River
was the Muskegon Booming Company grounds and there were a great many shanties
and amphibious homes. The inhabitants
were mostly employees of the booming company, loafers, trappers, and there were
some Indians. The booming company was
chartered in 1864. At its high point
this company had 900 men with an annual payroll of $200,000. The earliest white settlement group on the
North Side started in August 1837 when one Jonathan H. Ford began
building a water mill at the mouth of Bear Lake. Afterwards this spot was occupied by the Ruddiman Flour
Mill. A few houses gradually sprang up
here and there were several sawmills there prior to 1880. This developed into "Picket Town".
Bay Mills had a dozen houses when the
mill was abandoned in 1893. There were
several Polish people employed in this mill but they have scattered.
The eastern section of the north side was
known as Reedsville and was platted very early by Archibald Reed. This is one of the earliest if not the
earliest plots on the lake. The first
house was built by James Drahan in 1847. The John Ruddiman saw mill was here in 1850.
The village of North Muskegon was
incorporated in 1881 and E.C. Misner was elected president. Geo. D. Farr, Treasurer, N.L. Downie,
Clerk & Assessor and Wm. Wells and Mr. Malloch,
Justices. Transportation to the south
side was by ferry boats. Bridge built
about 1867. The population was largely
employed in the mills, although there were several farmers. The only large mill prior to 1880 was that
of Torrent and Arms.
Regarding the consolidation of these
settlements, it was apparent that all the south side of the lake had the same
main interests. All needed fire
protection, water, and police protection.
Paving had to be done and the elimination of boundaries by easier
transportation and a spreading together of dwellings made this evident to the
population.
At a meeting of the city council in
January 1889, a committee reported in favor of the annexation of Lakeside
Township. Lakeside people had voted in
favor of it. The assets of the village
were reported to be in good shape, including a water system and fire protection
apparatus estimated to be worth $25,000.
The committee also recommended that steps
be taken to annex sections 36, 31 and 32 of Muskegon Township. This portion of the township included
territory between Laketon Avenue and Sherman Boulevard and Henry Street and
Pinchtown community. Had this plan been
carried out there would have been no Heights question to solve.
The committee asked for further time to
consider a proposition to annex North Muskegon.
The North Muskegon proposition was
dropped and nothing came of the proposal to annex the tree sections of Muskegon
Township.
The annexation of Lakeside was formally
consummated March 15, 1889. Pinchtown
was acquired in 1895.
The land surrounding the City of Muskegon
as first chartered was gradually taken into the city until present limits have
been reached. One of the acquisitions
not generally mentioned was the 110 acres north of the channel. W. H. Deweese had a translake
proposition also a belt line railroad and he claimed it would be of advantage
for the city to control both sides of the channel. This strip was added in 1893.
Other men interested in this project were George Irwin, F.JH. Holbrook,
D.D. Irwin, and A.F.Temple.
The land between the Grand Trunk and
Pennsylvania railroads from Getty Avenue to about Catholic Cemetery was added
in 1917.
The city will undoubtedly extend in many
directions as settlements are built up.
Some promising groups now are settlements east of Getty Avenue, south of
limits around Jackson Street also the Henry Street District.
North Muskegon is now a flourishing
city. It has many problems which should
make it willing to be annexed. Muskegon
would welcome this addition and the new road planned will help bring this
proposition to a head.
The Heights would be a valuable city to
join with Muskegon. Both cities would
be benefited, and the expansion would be natural, as there are no physical
obstacles. There seems to be no reason
for postponing this union. Revision of
the City Charter might be necessary but the plan could be made mutually
advantageous.
One objection might be the fact that the
merger will throw the representative districts of Muskegon and Muskegon Heights
out of balance with the County. The
first district now comprises Muskegon City and the second contains Muskegon
Heights. Population of first in 1920
was 36, 7866 and of second 25,792.
Muskegon Heights had 9514 of the second district. By throwing the Heights and Muskegon
together the first district would have 46, 280 and the second 16, 278 or a
little more than one third. This could
not be avoided because the State Constitution forbids the division of a city
for representative district purposes.
This should not be a serious difficulty.
A union of Muskegon, Muskegon Heights and
North Muskegon estimated at 55,000 people would bring Muskegon's population
ahead of Bay City, Jackson, Kalamazoo, and very nearly up to that of Saginaw. This would give us the advantage of unity
and give Muskegon a little greater significance.