The Lapeer Area

By Catherine Ulrich Brakefield

Legends about the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Nepessing Indians have left an indubitable mark upon the Lapeer area. Streets, rivers, and towns sing out the melody of their ageless legacy, just as those first settlers of Lapeer left their footprints upon the towns and cities for generations to follow. Like a comfortable rocker, the lyrics of hospitality linger, whispering of a way of life not easily left within the pages of a history book. Frugal, yet compassionate, these early pioneers shared their meager provisions and scant shelters with the tribes and wayward travelers alike. Lumberjacks sawed and farmers harvested their crops, threshed their grain, raised their barns, and worshipped together. Feuds never lasted and families never parted. The people of the Lapeer area worked, voted, and played together, creating a place of beauty for the generations they would never know. The gentle rolling hillsides still ring with their music, whether it is the moccasin footsteps of the first hunter, the boot-clad lumberjack or farmer, or the European tradition of riding to the hounds-for here the panoramic view of the Lapeer area comes alive with heritage, horses, and hills.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Dec 13, 2006
• ISBN: 9781439617038

Catherine Ulrich Brakefield

Catherine Ulrich Brakefield has been a member of the Metamora Hunt Club for 15 years and is a writer for the LA View newspaper in Lapeer and Michigan Traveler magazine in Breckenridge. She is also the author of a historical romance novel, The Wind of Destiny.

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INTRODUCTION

In the early summer months of 1831, the vast forests along the Flint River called La Pierre beckoned to two brothers from New York, Alvin Nelson and Oliver Hart, to explore the area. In November of that same year, Alvin Nelson Hart brought his family, brother-in-law George Ball, Joel Palmer, and Joseph Catout to the area to settle. Oliver Hart would arrive later. The second settlers to appear were a group lead by Jonathon R. White and others soon followed. Tough and resilient, these families of Puritan and New England stock came with dogmatic determination to tame the primitive regions of this new wilderness that Hart named Lapeer. Lapeer would later become the name to officiate a new county on February 2, 1835, which would eventually consist of 18 townships, seven villages, and two cities.

In spite of deprivation, sickness, isolation, smallpox, and influenza, these early settlers stubbornly accepted their circumstances with good humor and perseverance. Long-established names like Hart, White, Tuttle, and Lofft have reared generations here who have become farmers, doctors, lawyers, sheriffs, and politicians. Many residents worked at Lapeer’s railroads, foundries, churches, and the Lapeer State Home and Training School, an asylum for the feebleminded and epileptics, became the largest facility of its kind in the state and one of the largest in the nation.

In this pictorial journey of the Lapeer area, you will learn about the staunch dedication and determination of the people. Even the bitter rivalry between the Hart and the White families, which comprised two generations, produced a favorable outcome with many cultural advantages for the city. Although Lapeer was a village in 1833, both R. G. Hart and Henry K. White avidly worked together to encourage the incorporation of Lapeer as a city in 1869. While Whitesville no longer exists and the White family failed in achieving a permanent courthouse, Alvin Nelson Hart’s courthouse still stands today as the oldest working courthouse in Michigan, and Henry K. White became one of the founders of the First National Bank of Lapeer.

Ingenuity, hard work, and a ready sense of humor turned the wilderness of woods and swampland into productive thoroughfares for prosperity. Flour mills and lumber mills, logging camps and countless farms, and two foundries and a factory kept the Flint River and Farmers Creek busy with products and produce. With the advent of the railroad, a second venue for markets increased productivity for farmers and businessman alike.

Although the growth of the Lapeer area was substantially slowed with the onset of the Civil War, men responded eagerly to the call to bear arms in an effort to reunite the states and free the Southern slaves. Many families and sweethearts faced the hardships of their menfolk’s death both on the battlefield and in the prisons.

In April 1887, over 6,000 immigrants traveled through Lapeer on crowded trains to Wisconsin and the Dakotas. Then the train would stop just north of Nepessing Lake, which was then called Oaklet.

It took another 10 years for the newspapers to decide just how to spell that old Native American name that honored the Nepessing Indian, once a powerful and prosperous tribe who by the late 1800s had dwindled down to one, Chief Wau-be-ka-kuk (Gray Hawk). But that is yet another story that you will read about between the pages of this book.

Join me in this pictorial history of the Lapeer area and learn why a part of this 173-year-old city is still fondly remembered as Piety Hill.

One

EARLY YEARS

During one bitter winter, the Nepessings faced starvation when a smallpox epidemic weakened the tribe. Still convalescing, Chief Wau-Pe-Seng set out in full regalia to the neighboring village for help. He never made it. Halfway between the villages, his wampum belt, beads, and silver necklace were found, the only things the wolves had left. His son, Chief Pam-quong (Thunder Storm Passing), became the leader of the tribe, less than half in number. Around 1845, the Native Americans were moved to the reservation. Chief Pam-quong moved to the tribal village between Almont and the St. Clair River where Chief Wa-Wiah-Sum (Lightning) was born. Chief Lightning received the name William Chatfield from the Bradley missionaries in the mid-1800s. He passed away in March 1884, and his son, Chief Wau-be-ka-kuk (Gray Hawk), Peter Chatfield, became the last chief of the Nepessing tribe. Peter Chatfield is seen kneeling in the front row, middle, holding his trombone with the Chippewa Indians on Walpole Island. His mother, Weng-Be-Queh, was born on Walpole Island. (Courtesy of Deborah Smith Lawson.)

The Hart brothers used this tree as a landmark in the summer of 1831 during their first expedition into the uncharted regions of what is now Lapeer. They buried their burned-out coffeepot beneath the base of this elm tree, and the tree became a landmark and symbol of Lapeer’s pioneering spirit for years to come. A plaque now marks the spot where the elm once stood. (Courtesy of Don and Pat McCallum.)

Although Alvin Nelson Hart named the new town Lapeer, Jonathon R. White platted Whitesville one month before Hart finalized his paperwork for Lapeer. Each relied on waterways to set their town’s boundaries. The post office of the divided villages moved back and forth, depending upon who was the postmaster. The first post office was in Whitesville, at the home of Minor Turrill, the first postmaster. Twice a week mail was delivered to the Whitesville post office from Royal Oak through Orion. The carrier, a Mr. Rose, traveled on foot and then by horseback or buggy. This letter, from the Whitesville post office, is dated September 23, 1835. (Courtesy of the LCHS.)

Quality white pine trees allowed the timber industry to thrive in Lapeer County. Lumber camps like this one sprung up overnight, and sawmills provided added industry and employment. (Courtesy of Ervin Haskill and the LCHS.)

The Pontiac Mill Company erected a sawmill and a boarding shanty. This rustic house was managed by