....continued from Paulding Co., Ohio
Now I am nearing the time when my father George Emrick (Sr.) lost his job of farming this land which belonged to Mr. Barney Moening, who had been a wonderful landlord. He had just sold this land to some Jewish folks from Illinois who had got all the land they could buy in Paulding County. My father thought he could stay right on working for them but they said they were using farmers from Illinois to work this land and left my father out in the cold.
About this time my father met an old friend, Joseph Benson, a Civil War veteran who had moved from Ohio up to Michigan. He told my father about 80 wild acres in Gladwin County, Michigan that he didn't need and would sell it to my father. In the latter part of August 1905 both my parents, my sister Erma (Woods) and I went to Gladwin to look over this 80 acres. We stayed at the north end of Joe Schulz's Mill pond with old friends Mr. & Mrs. O. E. Wineman. They were the parents of my own brother-in-law, A. P. Wineman who had married my oldest sister, Stella Henrietta. They also had moved up to Gladwin from Ohio and my brother-in-law, A.P.,worked in a shingle & stave mill at the North end of Shultz's Mill Pond.
Soon after we arrived Mr. Wineman secured a livery team with a double buggy and we all took a ride out to this wild land. It was in the North 1/2 of the NW 1/4 of Section 25, Gladwin township, North range 1 West. That puts us west of the Meridian line or M-30 as it is now called. All land descriptions in the County of Gladwin are named either East or West of this M-30 Meridian. My father, George Sr., took along a good spade from town so he could test the soil in different areas that he could get to on this woodsy 80 acres. My father took many samples of dirt and was satisfied to buy the piece if the price was not too high. Mr. Benson said the land cost him $500 plus two train tickets at $13 for both; My folks decided to buy it. We went back to Ohio and in September (1905) Erma and I went back to school.
My father and my sister Ida (who was not yet married, and a good cook) went back to Gladwin and rented a tar-papered shack 40 rods west of the NW corner of this 80 acres. They hired Jonathan Eagleson and Cash Johnson to do the building of our first new home. Stone had to be gotten and I believe Mr. Benson let my father haul stone from his cleared farm just 1/4 mile east of the McClure Cemetery. That farm was stoney enough so that whatever they took was not missed at all! Those two men could do carpentry and masonry; a fine job at both.
We find that the chimney starts at the ground with a foundation all it's own. The wall which holds up the house was very wide at the bottom and plenty wide at the top for the plate. That wall was sure built to last! I saw it when the man who owns the house now (1970), opened a hole through on the SE corner to pipe the flowing well into the house to have water in his kitchen. Mrs. Ernest Cronk, who looks after the house when the owner is gone, took us in one Sunday and showed us the house. It was near 1970 when she allowed us to look at the outside of the old home; it had aluminum siding on it at that time. When the house was finished so it was able to be locked my father and sister Ida came back to our home in Paulding Co., OH.
While I was in Gladwin (1905) I saw the big two story brick school on Bowery. It was built just up to the plate with no rafters on it yet. Later I recall seeing it torn down and took a picture of it as it was being razed. It was in the Winter and I think we still have the picture; as we never destroy pictures! I still have pictures of the little school building where sister Stella lived. Stella and her husband A.P. Wineman were then living in the first school building Gladwin City ever had. It set on the block west of and adjoining the block where the (1905) new school was built. Well, I think this about brings me to the place where we began to get ready to move to Michigan.
About the last day of March or April 1st, 1906 we began to pack and haul all we owned from Holcombville to Paulding, a distance of about two miles. My father asked for two boxcars to be spotted on a siding that had a team track accommodation. We need to fit all our household goods and all our farm machinery on those two cars. One of the last things to go was the farm wagon. Two of my older brothers, Phillip Lamasters E. and George Clarence E. were allowed free transportation with the two boxcars to tend to the live stock which needed feed and water every eight hours. The freight train started north on the C.N.R.R. the next morning and the rest of the Emrick family ( 9 children, 2 parents) followed the next morning in a passenger train headed for Bay City, Michigan then to Gladwin, Michigan by the end of the second day.
The wagon was unloaded first and put in shape for hauling. The horses and cattle were all driven or led to the Livery Stable which was then called "The 10 Cent Feed Barn". The same building still stands and is occupied by Behnke Automotive Supply. Our stock was housed in the extreme east end of that very long building and it was not the nicest place to milk the cows as the manure was so deep; but at least they were off the street! The horses were kept in a cleaner, warmer place in the same building. After the chores of milking the cows both night and morning the milk was taken to the little school building where Stella and A.P. lived. We stayed there until everything could be hauled out to the wild land where my father had build the house where we were to live. I also slept in that house when I wrote my 8th grade examinations in 1910 and also in 1911. Mr. & Mrs Wesley Hawley and their two daughters Eva and Jessie were renting it those two years. Each of those years required my staying in town for two nights. I will add that Mrs. Lily Hawley and daughters Eva and Jessie are still alive at this time (August, 1973).
You may wonder why I wrote my 8th grade examination twice? It was because I was only 13 years old the first time and one of the school examiners was Prof. Floyd E. Armstrong. He said if I passed and went to on to High School that I would be too young at graduation time. He did not know that my parents were too poor to send me to High School, so I took the 8th grade subjects over the second time and thanks to F.E. Armstrong, I was the beneficiary. I never held a grudge against him and at age 65 I met him many times in the Highland Cemetery where I worked and he would come from Mt. Pleasant to visit the graves of his first wife, who was a Parker girl, and his second wife who had been Ollive Wagar (Hugh Wagar's wife). Both were on the same lot and Hugh Wagar was also interred there. Floyd Armstrong was the last of these four to pass away.
Now I better get on with the task of getting the two RR cars of our belongings out 7 1/2 miles to our wild 80 acres. It was early April when we started to haul our stuff out to the home; it was not easy to find any good roads. In fact, there were none. Every swamp on the road had been filled first crosswise. Snow and spring rains had caused most all logs to rise and float on top of the water. These were called Corduroy Roads and now they were impassable. So how do you suppose we got to our home? This is where we found out what kind of neighbors we were going to live by.
We could get to Marshall Cronk's home fairly decent but then the roads floated away, but not too far; just off the right of way. The neighbors then came with teams of horses and scoop scrapers and began to haul sand from the road side down to where the logs had to be replaced. Some of the men had "Pike Poles" with a sharp spike in the end and they would throw that into the end of a log and pull real easy. The log would float back to where it had been the year before. The others would then shovel sand on top of it to hold it in place. As soon as all the logs had been placed in this swamp or low spot, the teams could then walk across and the scoop scrapers could be dumped right on the road-way without much shoveling by hand. The team could also be driven right across and bring a load of sand from the other end of the corduroy. That made it fast (?) work to get that piece of the road passable.
The biggest job of this road repair and the small stream called the Little Tobacco river. Up stream on this creek it drained quite level onto farm land owned by Harry Nettleton, William Ogg and Fred Robinson. When the time came for extending this creek it was sold in pieces of a certain amount of rods to a piece. It was then an open drainage ditch known as the OGG Drain. It extends due west to Hockaday Road through Walter Robinson's.
I would like to name the good men that helped us get over
these corduroy spots in the Highway.
They were: Harry Nettleton, John Card, Marshall Cronk,
John Foran and John Eltrop. These men
had good teams and plenty of equipment and I am sure they had all
worked in the lumber woods before buying this land to make farms
for themselves. This last stream, the Tobacco, was only about 40
rods from our home and the last job of road repair.
******* THE END..............
This story was originally typed by Wanda Lee Brown Oard, daughter of Clarence and Alna Mae Breault Brown who was the son of George Emrick Sr's daughter, Hannah Elizabeth (mrd. to George Elbert Brown). The Emrick Homestead still stands at 260 W. Ridge Rd. Clarence Brown lives in the area. The Emrick 'Clan' hold their (60th) Family Reunion in Freeland, Mich. at the old 'Lions Club' on Park St.
The story was completed (?) around August, 1973 and "Uncle" Harvey died on the 10th of January 1974. Those of you that knew Harvey Tucker Emrick of Gladwin can realize that his story would probably not have ended here. He was known for his "Will Rogers" style (and not brevity). This 'short' story is dedicated to him, his wife Ethel Naomi Fries (d.14Dec1977), and to their daughter Ruth Arlene Emrick Lattimore (d.14Apr1997) who gave me his last 'story'.
Last Update: 23Sep97 Email: D.L.Emrick
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