Fenton City

The Founding of Fenton 

            The year was 1834, William IV was on the throne in England but in three more years, when she was 18, young Victoria would become Queen. In France, between the two Napoleons, Louis Philippe of the house of Bourbon-Orleans was King and in Germany, the musical giant, Beethoven had been dead for seven years. In America, Andrew Jackson was president, and thousands of people, families and land speculators, mostly from the Eastern states, were thronging into the territory which was to become the State of Michigan in 1837. The settlers were willing to fight Michigan’s swamps, mosquitoes, ague and forests for future home sites. Among them was Clark Dibble.

            Although a survey of Michigan had been made in 1815 by the Surveyor General of the United States, the report was to discourage settlers for several years. Evidently the surveyors did not venture too far, or far enough, from the Detroit area, since they concluded there were “so many swamps, lakes and so much poor land, that not more than one acre in a hundred…would admit…of cultivation.” Quarter sections of land were at first sold for $2 an acre but in 1830, Congress had reduced the price of land to $1.25 per acre and passed the “squatter act” under which settlers could preempt 80 acres for $100 and pay for their claims over two years time.

            In a record of Fenton’s founding, dated 1876, it states that the settlement’s origin may be said to have been the result of accident. “Dibble in penetrating the wilds of Michigan, his destination being what is now known as Grand Blanc, missed the trail and wandered to the spot now occupied by our flourishing village. “Mr. D. however pushed onward to his destination (Grand Blanc) where he found Dustin Cheney, Loren Riggs and John Galloway, and to whom he gave such a glowing and elaborate description of the place that they with their families were induced to pull up stakes and come hither.

            “Mr. Cheney and family were the first to arrive; being the first white settlers in what is now the village of Fenton. During the month, which was April 1834 he was joined by Dibble, Gallaway and Riggs. Cabins were soon erected and Clark Dibble built a sawmill the same year.” The record states that these pioneers were soon joined by others “among whom were Richard Donaldson (Or Uncle Dick as he was better known) and family, P. H. McOmber and family, E. Larned, W. Remington, Walter Dibble, E. Pratt and A. Bailey.” J.C. Peck, a descendant of Clark Dibble, wrote a slightly different version of the founding for a 1951 village directory, indicating that the discovery was no accident, but a definite search for promising settlement. This is the version, which was mostly used when the Independent observed its 100^th year of publication in 1968.

            Clark Dibble, son of a veteran of the War of 1812, came west with a group of neighbors from New York state, arriving at Detroit when a land boom was on. Practically pushed out of town to make room for more immigrants, the group traveled to Pontiac and thence into the wilderness to the north. Finding a likely spot at Grumlaw (Grand Blanc), they started to range out from there in quest of a site for a settlement. An explanation here of “Grumlaw”: The French pronunciation of “Grand Blanc” was too much for the Yankee newcomers. They soon mumbled it into “Grumlaw” and it never returned to its original French pronunciation. Although Grumlaw faded with the pioneers, it has now turned into Grand “Blank” Grand Blanc was on the Saginaw Trail, an Indian Trail that led from Detroit through an immense swamp the pioneers called “Dismal Swamp.” to higher ground. The Saginaw Trail continued to Grand Blanc to Flint where travelers crossed the river at the “Grand Traverse” and proceeded to Saginaw. From Grumlaw Dibble traveled as far south as White Lake. On the way back, following only Indian trails, he ventured into what is now know as the Tyrone hills, and on the banks of the Shiawassee river he chose a site for a future city. Dibble registered his claim in March, 1834 and convinced several of his friends to leave Grumlaw and establish Dibbleville. Dustin Cheney built the first log house, locating it on the northwest corner of what is now Adelaide and Shiawassee avenue. Dibble meanwhile, erected a dam and saw mill just east of the present spillway, and Dibbleville was born.

            About 1870, Henry C. Riggs wrote a series of reminiscences, “Historical Incidents” of which only a fragment now exists. In it he named other early settlers not named in other accounts. They were Robert Winchell, George Dibble, Alexander Galloway, William Gage and Hanibal Vickery. These men, he wrote, along with those previously mentioned, camped for about a month on a flat south of the mill where they were engaged in erecting log cabins for their families. Under ordinary circumstances, it took one man 10 days to build a log cabin. Riggs agrees the Cheney cabin was the first to be built and which was “shingled with elm bark.” News of the tiny hamlet reached Pontiac and Detroit and soon many real estate promoters came to “take a look”. Clark Dibble’s optimism on the future of the site must have been justified because in a few years more than 600 settlers had arrived. Among them was William M. Fenton a brilliant and enterprising young lawyer, and his friend and associate Robert Leroy. They came from Pontiac to look and to buy. They made a deal with Dibble to buy the entire town site including all of Dibble’s land, and a good share of what is now downtown Fenton. He sold them the mill with its water rights, also. It was Judge Daniel Leroy (Robert’s father) who advised them to buy Dibble’s land.

            Dibble moved several miles out into the country in the vicinity of White Lake road and US-23 and started another settlement called Dibble. There he built a tavern on the Trans-Michigan Turnpike and put up wayfarers and sol firewater to the Indians. The Indians called him “Cockawaisaw,” a name having some indirect relation to the wind. The new hamlet that Dibble built did not last for many years. Dibble and his dog, in 1846, went out to cut down a giant oak tree to make the sills for a new building. He was startled to see his dog in path of descent of a tree he had just cut and rushed to drive him to safety, as the tree fell. Ironically, Clark Dibble was mortally injured, but the dog escaped. Dibble is buried in an unmarked grave in the southwest corner of the old Fenton cemetery.

            William Fenton and Robert Leroy in 1837 platted the village with limits from South street to Roberts street, from East street to West Street. The plat was drawn on pine board that is hanging today at the Phillips public library. The story goes that Fenton and Leroy played a game of cards (it’s supposed to be seven card stud) to see for whom the new town would be named, the loser having the main street named for him and having the choice of naming the other streets. Fenton won, so the town was named Fentonville, and Leroy named some of the streets for members of his family. For its first 20 years the village was huddled around the intersection of Leroy and Shiawassee avenue, the rest of the area being uncleared except for small plots used to raise food and for a home here and there. The new settlers found business was brisk. More important, the village was made an overnight stage stop. Traffic moving up the military road that connected Detroit with the army cantonment at Saginaw paused in Fentonville. It was necessary to cross the mill pond on a floating bridge off of Mechanics street (Now E. Shiawassee street). On this street near the Leroy street intersection the first store (owned by Robert Leroy )was built. This became the important business section. The Riggs House (1837) was built just north of the intersection of Leroy and W. Shiawassee Street. Stage and wagon convoys put up for the night in Fenton and then proceeded out Shiawassee road to White Lake road, west of town, and then to Lake Michigan.

            In the Riggs memoirs he writes that when the village plat was made by LeRoy and Fenton, the survey being made by Captain Hervey Parke, “landmarks” were found on only two of what was then supposed would be the principal streets. Along these, posts were placed as to the rest, “it was a paper village.” Riggs also gives two explanations as to why LeRoy street angles to the east and leaves it up to the reader as to why it occurred. “Some say,” he wrote, “that whiskey was retailed in an early day where the angle commences on the west side of the street, that travelers going north would stop in imbibe. “Then starting north, would make leeway eastward until they got across the creek and then would right up and make due north. In this way prescriptive rights were acquired and others followed in the footsteps of their predecessors.” The other reason, Riggs wrote, was that others said that where LeRoy street angles was the best place to cross the creek on foot and there was an early cow path established there. This meandering path of the herd finally became the highway of man. Thus by a combination of causes, the main street in the village was established crooked.

            Henry Riggs, who is named as a resident in the earliest Gazetteer (1856 -57) mentioning this area, had a varied career. He was listed during the years as a land agent, agricultural implement dealer, justice of the peace and in real estate, but he ended as an attorney, which he was, when he wrote his historical incidents of early Fenton.

            The coming of steam railroads gave rebirth to Fenton. As soon as the railroad surveyors drew their last line on the rough maps, residents started moving to the north side of the river, to be near the new depot location. Acreage was forgotten as a unit of sale. LeRoy street was sold by lots, even though they were covered with underbrush. They had doubled in price. Houses were torn down to make way for business blocks. Remington’s brick yard (North rd. at the Shiawassee River) was hard pressed to keep up with the demand for bricks. Few villages in the state experienced such a rapid building boom. The railroad reached Fenton in 1856 and terminated here for some years. The round house occupied property between E. Caroline street and the present depot.

            In the 1856-57 Gazetteer, Fentonville is described in these words; “A post village in Genesee county situated on the main branch of the Shiawassee river and on the line of the Detroit & Milwaukee Railway, 54 miles northwest from Detroit. “There is a plank road to Flint, 16 miles. This village is surrounded with a rich farming county. Chief products are wheat, corn, oats, potatoes, etc. There is also an abundance of fruits; the best point on the Detroit & Milwaukee RR. The produce from a large extent of the country is shipped from this point eastward on the railroad. There is contemplation of a plank road in from the lumber districts to southern Michigan, passing through Fentonville, Ann Arbor etc. in a direct route through a very health country. “The village contains three churches, four hotels, six dry goods stores, two hardwares, six groceries, on foundry, two carriage factories, two livery stables, one Masonic lodge, one IOOF, one railroad station, and has five mail routes three daily, one semi weekly and one weekly. The population in 1852 was 500; in 1856 was 1,600.”

            The Gazetteer for 1860 says the village “contains four protestant churches, three select and one union school, Masonic Lodge, IOOF Lodge, one newspaper, “The Peninsular Dispatch,” published by H. V. Yates and issued on Thursday; one private banking house, 25 stores and 10 manufacturers of various kinds, besides numerous and varied mechanical trades, and professions. Population is 1,500. The post office was established in 1839, C. H. Turner present postmaster.”

            For 1863, the Gazetteer gives the distance from Detroit by railroad, 50.5 miles: fare $1.55; from Chicago, 258 miles; fare $6.64. “Four mails per day are received. The village is the terminus of the Saginaw, Flint and Fentonville stage route. It is an important wool and grain market, ranking next to Pontiac. The new town hall building on the north side of town has just been completed and is creditable evidence of the enterprise and public spirit of its citizens.” The Gazetteer lists “four churches, a woolen factory, a cotton batting factory, a quite extensive concern doing a large business; machine shop, iron foundry, saw and grist mills, three hotels and about 20 stores. “The Peninsula Dispatch,” a weekly paper is published here by Charless C. Colbrath at $1.50 a year. Population of the village is 1,500. Postmaster is Dexter Horton.”

            After the railroad reached Fentonville, it became an important shopping center. Wagon trains came down from Flint, Saginaw and the north to ship to all parts of the world. No railroads had reached those towns as yet but the railroad in Fentonville continued its way westward until it reached Grand Haven. From then on it was known as the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee railroad. In the Henry Ford Greenfield Village collection is an old handbill that states, “Excursion from Detroit to Fenton by D.G.H. & M.R.R. - from Fenton to Saginaw by stage.”

            In 1863 the village was incorporated as “Fenton” and although the newspaper railed against the “ville”, it still continued by force of habit, the post office finally yielding in 1886.

            The civil war halted progress in Fenton temporarily. However, the village was still an important terminal. Soldiers from Flint, Saginaw, Bay City and the north marched over the toll road to the village to entrain here to fight the “Rebels.”

            The post-Civil War days brought the industrial age to Fentonville. A mill that produced 200 barrels of flour a day, the Fenton Woolen Mills that had national distribution, the Walker Pump works that made and installed water systems in many cities, all had their headquarters here. So did a whip socket factory that prospered with the infant horse drawn vehicle business in Flint. A. J. Phillips produced pumps, snow shovels, and later, screen doors, reaching recognition by installing screen doors and window screens on the White House in Washington.

            In the early 1900’s Fenton made its bid as the hub of the Portland cement business. Three large mills, the Aetna on Lake Ponemah; the Egyptian. On Silver Lake reached full production while the Logan cement works on Runyan Lake failed to materialize. A railroad spur from Fenton to the Runyan Lake site can still be traced.

            Fenton has moved slowly from an isolated rural village to a suburban community. The growth of the automotive industry in Flint had a profound effect on the quiet village that became a bustling shopping center for many miles around.

            The unexcelled lakes in the area and hills first attracted resorters but who now make their homes here year around. New subdivisions with mostly brick homes, new shopping centers outside the “downtown” area have come into existence along with super highways which whisk people into town as well as out. The population more that doubled what it had been for years.

            Fenton became a city March 2, 1964 when voters approved a city charter with a council city manager form of government. By expansion to the north and west, the city made up twice the area of the Fenton village limits.      Harry Lemen, who had served 31 terms as village president, was elected mayor of the new city. Elected as councilmen were Tom Sullivan, Harold Skinner, Dr. R. Noble Peckham, Daniel Cotcher, Raymond Hunt and Paul Bottecelli. City of population was given in May 1964 as 8,068.

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