Grand Blanc
Grand Blanc
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Originally named as Grumlaw for a fur trader by the name of Fisher, which is Indian for "Big White". An early Indian campground that was settled by Jacob Stevens and family in 1823. His son Rufus opened a trading post here in 1826. Grand Blanc experienced growth as a lumber town in 1863 when the railroad came through. Incorporated into a city in 1930. The oldest land entries in the present Grand Blanc Township were made, July 17, 1824, by parties from Livingston and Ontario counties, New York. From Livingston were William Thompson and Charles Little; from Ontario, Samuel B. Perkins. The purchases were made on sections 9, 10 and 15, amounting in all to five hundred acres. Section 15 was the first section to be entirely bought up, the last purchase being made prior to July 4, 1829. The lands of the entire township had been taken up by 1836, excepting, of course, section 16, which was school land. The first white settlers in Grand Blanc were Jacob Stevens and his family who came to the township in the spring of 1823. Besides Mr. Stevens and his wife, the family consisted of two sons and five daughters. They had arrived in Detroit from New York in August, 1822, and first settled in Oakland County, on the Saginaw trail, where they made some improvements; but finding their land title defective, they sold out and removed to Grand Blanc. Rufus W. Stevens, the son of Jacob Stevens, traded with the Indians in a log house situated on the site of the later Grand Blanc Hotel. He became the first postmaster of Grand Blanc. In 1830, he commenced a saw-mill, and soon after a grist-mill, on what became known as the Thread Mill property. These mills performed a most important function, for years supplying all the people living between Pontiac and Saginaw. In the early thirties, Stevens moved to Flint and became identified with the milling interests there. In October, 1825, Edmund and Rowland B. Perry entered lands situated upon sections 11 and 14. In the following February, Edmund removed some of his family here from Avon, Livingston County, NY, and the rest of the family in 1826. He was a native of Rhode Island, an educated Quaker, possessed of great energy and force of character, a respected citizen and a kind friend who believed in doing good without ostentation. His granddaughter, Isabella, was the first white child born in Genesee County. Other settlers of Grand Blanc prior to the winter of 1830-31 were Edward H. Spencer, William Roberts, George E. Perry, Judge Jeremiah Riggs and sons, Joseph McFarlen, Jeremiah Ketchum, Caleb S. Thompson, Jonathan Dayton, Caleb Embury, Ezekiel R. Ewing, Washington Thompson, Phineas Thompson, Judge Jeremiah R. Smith, Silas Smith, R. T. Winehell, Clark Dibble, Jonathan Davison and Pearson Farrar. Caleb S. Thompson relates that at the time of his arrival in 1829 there were about forty-five persons in Grand Blanc, all of whom, with one or two exceptions, were from Avon, Livingston County, NY. Edward H. Spencer had a rough log house, and about one acre cleared and planted to corn, potatoes, etc. The Stevenses had some forty acres under cultivation and there were some fifty or sixty acres in cultivation in the Perry settlement. Judge Riggs and his sons had also made a good beginning. Thirteen lots lying along the Saginaw road and seven lots on Perry Street had already been purchased and ten more eighty-acre lots were entered during the remaining part of the year 1829. The Saginaw road was laid out and staked so that it was easy to find it, but no work had been done upon it. The traveled highway, which followed the Indian trail, went rambling around through the woods, avoiding hills and swamps, and was quite a comfortable wagon road. The streams and low places had been bridged some time previous by the United States soldiers stationed in garrison at Saginaw. After 1830, settlers began to come in rapidly, mainly from western New York. In 1833, the township was organized, and the first election, which was held at the house of Rufus W. Stevens resulted in the choice of the following officers: Supervisor, Norman Davison; clerk, Jeremiah R. Smith; assessors, Rufus W. Stevens, Lyman Stow and Charles Butler; justices of the peace, Norman Davison, Lyman Stow and Jeremiah R. Smith; constable and collector, Augustus C. Riggs; highway commissioners, John Todd, Edmund Perry and Jonathan Dayton; constable, Elijah N. Davenport; trustees of school lands, Loren P. Riggs, Clark Dibble and James W. Cronk; commissioners of schools, Jeremiah Riggs, Jeremiah R. Smith and Norman Davison; school inspectors, David Mather, Paul G. Davison and Caleb S. Thompson; director of the poor, Edmund Perry; overseers of highways, District 1, George Oliver; District 2, Jonathan Davison; District 3, Norman Davison; District 4, Ira Dayton. The village of Grand Blanc was one of the earliest village centers in the county. As early as 1826, a post office was established, with Rufus W. Stevens as postmaster. His house was also the first public tavern in the place. The first regular store was opened by Robert F. Stage and Ira D. Wright in 1835, with a stock valued at twenty thousand dollars, though this was moved to Flint in 1836. The first school was a small frame building built by Edmund Perry, Sr., about 1830, and Miss Sarah Dayton taught the first school there. The earliest church societies were the Baptist, Congregational and Methodist, all organized by 1835, with goodly congregations. |
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