Subject: Re: Information
From: "Mark H. Kubacki" <[email-masked]>
To: "Patty and Mike Finan" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2007 13:15:10 -0500

I found this from the Deckerville library online. 
Mark Kubacki
3925 Day Road 
Kinde, MI 48445
Huron City Historian

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Patty and Mike Finan 
  To: Mark H. Kubacki 
  Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 1:10 PM
  Subject: Re: Information

  Thanks, Mark! Most of it we have in our tour guide document but it was well written. Where did you find it?

  Patty
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Mark H. Kubacki 
    To: Patricia Finan 
    Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 1:08 PM
    Subject: Information

    Patty
    I had found some information that you maybe interested in  
    Of the men who came into the county later we shall speak as we give the history of the various townships of the county. Huron being one of the earliest organized and embraced nearly all of the territory of Huron County. Many years before any permanent settlement was formed the present site of the village of Huron City was occupied by fishermen. In 1837 Theodore Luce erected a saw mill on Willow Greek, the Indian name of which is Wet-to-bee-wok. Later Mr. Brakeman, of Port Huron bought the mill and after operating a year or two sold it to Dowling & Forbes, also of Port Huron, and they in 1856 sold to R. B. Hubbard & Co. This firm continued operations here until the fire of 1871 destroyed their mills, docks, store, and the entire village. The loss to the company was a very heavy one. Their large warehouse on shore and another one on the dock filled with grain and lumbering supplies, the entire stock of clear lumber for the year, a large quantity of shingles, [an bark and cedar posts were entirely destroyed. Immediately after the fire the firm rebuilt and continued their business until 1878, when R. B. and Watson retired from the company leaving Langdon Hubbard the sole owner of this immense business. The forest fires of '71 found the township an almost unbroken forest of very heavy timber, principally pine, hemlock, beech and maple with scattering cedar, black ash, elm and bass wood. In that fire most of the timber was killed and in the course of a few years fell in such dense masses that it was almost impossible for man or beast to pass through it. In fact fences were unnecessary except

    10

    along the roads. When the fires of 1881 came along this timber was in prime condition for the great fire which in its march swept everything before it, Langdon Hubbard alone lost $250,000 in this conflagration. But Mr. Hubbard, with his accustomed energy set to work, immediately rebuilt his store and also a flouring mill, saw mill, shingle mill, blacksmith shop and several other business enterprises of the village besides giving his attention to farming.

    THE BEGINNING OF HURON CITY

    Prof. William Lyon Phelps gave a splendid history of this well known pioneer in the memorial services held in his honor at Huron City a few years ago. He said: "The history of this town is simply a history of his life for 40 years. He built a road straight through the forest for 16 miles to Verona. His lumber business grew to gigantic proportions. Hundreds of men were in his employ. They cut timber in the winter, floated the logs down Willow Creek, sawed them into lumber, placed it on Mr. Hubbard's cars and took it to the end of the pier where it was loaded on his boat, the 'Huron City' and sent it to Detroit, Cleveland and Sandusky." Mr. Hubbard first bought land in the county in 1853. Among the men who came to Huron City in the '50's was Dr. Dickinson, who worked as a lumberman for two years for Mr.Brakeman. When the Civil War broke out in'61 he enlisted. At the close of that struggle he entered a medical college in Cincinnati from which he graduated and again became an inhabitant of Huron County.

    The name of Andrew Shaw is a familiar one to all pioneers. He came in 1850 and in 1858 bought 109 acres of government land. Was appointed keeper of the light house by President Lincoln and at his death was the oldest settler in Huron township. The first life saving station was at Huron City in 1876. Five of the captains who had charge there are well known through

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    out the county: Kiah, Morgan, Ferris and Oliver. Captain Kiah's story of the attempted rescue in April 1880, of the scow Sally McGruder, when the entire crew of the life savers lost their lives but him, is as thrilling as any sea story ever published.

    Mark Kubacki
    3925 Day Road 
    Kinde, MI 48445
    Huron City Historian

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