of New Baltimore; that he was either killed by the Indians or died from exposure, and the secret of his treasure's hiding-place died with him. Many searches have been made by infatuated individuals after this treasure, and many believe that the ghostly shade of the deceased Captain guards the treasure trove so jealously and has such power of moving its location, that all search is in vain.

RAILROADS AND NAVIGATION.

At an early period in the history of the county, the thoughts of the settlers often adverted to the existing necessity for either a canal or railroad to lead their civilization into the bleak interior. The ideas of the settlers were theoretically correct, but impracticable because premature. Many great works were completed on paper. Not only was a canal to lead from Mt. Clemens into the heart of the wilderness, but also a railroad was to connect that little city with the land of the fierce Kishkawko. A few of the day-dreams of the period assumed practical shape, but the financial crisis of 1837 placed a quietus on enterprise, and even reduced the wild-cat banks to nothingness. For a few years the people battled manfully with the trials of that period of depression, rose superior to them, and ultimately succeeded in surpassing even the highest notions of their earlier years. Fort St. Joseph Road.--At this period-1798–1800-the means of communication with Detroit was by way of the river and lake. The Gratiot Turnpike had not then been projected or opened. This was surveyed long after, in 1827, and cut through the next year as a road of communication between Fort Detroit and Fort Gratiot, at Port Huron, and the head of the St. Clair River. In connection with the history of this turnpike, the traveler of modern days can scarcely appreciate the difficulty of the opening of this highway. We need not tell that from Detroit to Port Huron was one vast stretch of forest, with slough-holes, pit-falls, swails and mud, at such frequent intervals as would appall the traveler of to-day. It is said that about the site of James Patton's house, some four or five miles north of Mt. Clemens--now a high, dry and pleasant location--the road passed through a swamp, which, in the wet season, furnished the wild duck and swan with a swimming-place, and consequently the Indian with a splendid hunting-ground for bird

game.

A few rods below the Carl farmhouse, three miles south of Mt. Clemens, was another slough, that would have compared well with the one described by John Bunyan in his "Pilgrim's Progress." It was two days' journey then from Detroit to the settlement at Huron River or Mt. Clemens. This was then a trading-post and stopping-place for those whose business called them to and from Detroit and Port Huron.

The Saginaw & Mt. Clemens Railroad. So early as 1835, these villages dreamed of great deeds, and actually witnessed the organization of a company having for its object the construction of a railroad from Saginaw City to Mt. Clemens, via Lapeer. The capital stock of those railroad builders was $1,000,000. With this sum of money, the company promised to begin work within four years after the charter would be granted; to complete ten miles of the track within eight years; forty-five miles within fifteen years; and the

whole distance of ninety miles within forty years. This company operated a banking establishment in connection with its railroad business, and a few rods of the road were graded at Mt. Clemens.

De Tocqueville visited Mt. Clemens and Indian Village-now Romeo-in 1831, and pointed out almost precisely the railroad routes now in operation.

In 1822, the first stage line was established in Michigan, between Mt. Clemens and Detroit, in connection with the Steamer Walk in the Water.

From Mt. Clemens to Sault St. Marie, the Territorial road from Mt. Clemens up the North Branch of the Clinton, following as near as practicable the route of an old survey by Romeo; thence on the most eligible and direct route to the seat of justice in the county of Lapeer; thence to the town of Saginaw, to the northern extremity of the peninsula, and thence to the Sault St. Marie, in the county of Chippewa, was authorized to be laid out in 1839. Horace H. Cady, of Macomb, Daniel Le Roy and Nathaniel Squires, were the Commissioners appointed to carry out the act.

At the same time, there was ordered to be laid out a Territorial road from Romeo to Port Huron. Roswell R. Green, Horace Foot and Thomas Palmer were the Commissioners appointed to establish such road.

The Clinton & Kalamazoo Canal.-The amounts appropriated for the construction of this public work equaled $40,000 in 1837; $205,000 in 1838; and $60,000 in 1839; aggregating $305,000 Of this sum, $115,202.92 were expended in 1838-39, leaving the balance, $189,797.08, unexpended. The estimated expense of connecting the head of the canal from Mt. Clemens to Rochester, in Oakland County, a distance of sixteen miles and sixtyfour rods, was $253,919. The estimated expense of connecting the head of the canal at Mt. Clemens with Lake St. Clair, by way of the river between Mt. Clemens and the city of Belvidere, was $37,915.75. The amount actually expended on the sixteen sections of the canal up to November 4, 1839, was $101,640.28. In a letter dated May 21, 1839, Civil Engineer Hurd advised the cutting of an aqueduct across the little peninsula on which the village of Frederick was located, which advice was criticized in a letter signed by J. M. Berrien, J. S. Dutton and Tracy McCracken, under date July 8, 1839.

Sault St. Marie Canal.-Under the act for the regulation of internal improvement and for the appointment of a Board of Commissioners, Rix Robinson, of Kent County, was assigned as Commissioner in charge of the construction of the Northern Railroad, the Saginaw Canal, Sault St. Marie Canal, the canal round the rapids of the Grand River, and the improvement of the Grand, Kalamazoo and Maple Rivers. Tracy McCracken was appointed Engineer on the Sault St. Marie Canal and other improvements. Fifty thousand dol lars were appropriated for constructing a ship canal at the Sault in 1837, but of this sum only $2,952.93 were expended up to the close of December, 1839, although it is reported that a sum of $5,000 was advanced to the contractors.

This subject becomes connected with the history of this county on account of the contractor, and the greater number of his men being old settlers here. For that reason, it obtains something more than mention in these pages.

THE WEEKS CONTRACT,

"An agreement made the 7th day of September, 1838, between James Smith and Urial Driggs, of the first part, and Aaron Weeks, of the second part, the party of the first part in consideration of the stipulations herein contained, do agree to assign their interests to an equal and undivided third of a certain contract executed by Rix Robinson, as Commissioner, for constructing the canal at the falls of Sault de St. Marie.

"The party of the second part, in consideration of such assignment, doth agree to turn into the said company the vessel called the Eliza Ward, of seventy or eighty tous, to be completely rigged and seaworthy, and to be used and owned by the said parties jointly.

"The second party also doth agree to bear one-third of the expense of constructing the canal, and receive one-third of the net profits, in case there should be any, and to bear onethird of the net loss. He also agrees to devote one-half of his time in superintending construction of said work, to furnish flour, pork and other materials necessary to carry on such work, at the prime cost and charges, to be paid out of the first moneys received from the said Commissioner." This agreement was duly signed by James Smith, U. Driggs, A. Weeks, on the day named above, and further signed by Rix Robinson, Acting Commissioner of the Works, at Detroit, April 19, 1839.

ACTION OF THE UNITED STATES TROOPS.

By some strange oversight, the Executive of the State Government or the Commissioners of Public Improvements permitted the contractors to repair to the Sault St. Marie with their men without consulting the Indians, who were owners of the land on one side, or the United States, the owners of the land on the other side. The affair is reviewed in the following testimony of the prime actor in the drama, given December 30, 1839, which was furnished o the Secretary of the Treasury:

"Aaron Weeks, of Mt. Clemens, county of Macomb, being duly sworn, doth depose and say that he is one of the contractors on the Sault de St. Marie Canal; that in April last, he employed James B. Van Rensselaer to assist him in the construction of said work, and to take charge of and oversee the hands on the same during his absence; and that the said Van Rensselaer, with about fifty men, provisions, tools and necessary implements, repaired to the Sault a few days before this deponent; that this deponent arrived at the Sault de St. Marie on Saturday evening, the 11th day of May, A. D. 1839; that on Sunday morning, the 12th of May, the day after his arrival on the ground, Lieut. Root called on this deponent and handed him a written notice, prohibiting him to proceed with the work. This deponent then went and conversed with Lieut. Root on the subject of commencing operations on the canal, when Root replied that he was not prepared to argue the question whether it would be an injury or a benefit to the United States, but he should not go on with the work, as his orders were positive. This deponent then wrote to said Lieutenant, and received a letter in reply from Capt. Johnson. The second day after the receipt of this letter, this deponent, with about forty men, commenced operations on the canal by removing the obstructions on the line and by commencing digging, when Capt. Johnson, the

officer in command at Fort Brady, ordered out a company of regulars, armed with muskets and bayonets, and marched them down to where the said men were at work. The Captain ordered the men to stop work. This deponent, in reply, remarked to him that he could not, as he was under contract with the State of Michigan to complete the work by a certain time; that Capt. Johnson then marched his men down the line to a point where Van Rensselaer had some men at work digging, and commanded the men to desist labor; some of the men felt disposed not to obey, whereupon Capt. Johnson stepped up to one of the foremen, James Sherrill, with his sword drawn, and wrested from him the spade with which he was working, saying that his orders must be obeyed, remarking that upon one side of the mill-race was an Indian reservation, and that the other belonged to the United States. Upon this, the men ceased work, and Johnson marched them off the line of the canal. And this deponent would further say that, after being thus interrupted and prevented in the prosecution of this work, and finally driven from the ground, through the direct interference of the military of the United States, he was compelled to abandon the work and leave there with his men."

This statement was sworn and subscribed to before Richard Butler, Notary Public, of Macomb County, December 30, 1839.

Similar statements were made by James B. Van Rensselaer and John Levake, sworn to before Justice Richard Butler. In Mr. Weeks' letter to Hon. William Woodbridge, dated Mt. Clemens, December 11, 1839, the affair was very fully explained. From October, 1838, to May 12, 1838, he estimated his expenditures on the contract at $7,047.52.

RAILROADS.

Detroit & Shelby Railroad.-The line from the Grand Trunk Railroad to Utica of the Detroit & Bay City Railroad runs on the embankment, thirty years old in 1872, constructed by the Detroit & Shelby Railroad Company. An embankment was built so long ago as far as Utica, and was found to be in a good state of preservation, and needed but slight changes to make it fit for the modern railway. On the old road, flour and other products were brought to Detroit from Utica, the cars being drawn by horses, and the old Detroit & Pontiac depot being used as the terminus. The road was something of a primitive affair, but was far more serviceable than the ordinary dirt road, which was usually in very bad condition. In not more than two or three spots does the embankment seem to have been plowed down, and over this section of the line neither the cutting of trees nor grubbing Gurdon C. Leech, Richard L. Clarke and others were the projectors of

was necessary.

this primitive railroad.

The Michigan Division of the Grand Trunk. -The line of the railway known as the Port Huron, Detroit & Chicago Branch of the Grand Trunk Railway was completed in the autumn of 1859. The entire expense of construction and equipment was borne by the gigantic corporation known as the Grand Trunk Railroad Company of Canada. The Michigan Division enters Macomb County at the southeast corner of Richmond Township, and traverses the county in a southwesterly direction. The company have stations at the fol

lowing places: Ridgeway, Baltimore Station (now New Haven), Mt. Clemens and Utica Plank. The road has proved of substantial advantage to every part of the State and county not otherwise accommodated with a railway outlet, while the connection has proved invaluable to merchants and shippers, and thereby to producers generally, in affording a competing route to the East, as well as connection with points not reached by any other line. The main branch runs from Port Sarnia to Portland, Me., a distance of 802 miles. The Michigan Division runs from Port Huron to Detroit Junction, a distance of fifty-nine miles, making a total length, under the Grand Trunk corporation, of 861 miles. The Detroit & Bay City Railroad. -This railway is under the control of the Michigan Central Railroad Company. It enters Macomb County near the center of the southern boundary of Warren Township, and traverses through the townships of Warren, Sterling and Shelby, in a northwesterly direction. It leaves the county about the center of the western boundary of the latter township, and enters the adjacent county of Oakland. The stations of this company within the limits of Macomb are Warren, Glenwood, Spinnings and Utica. This division is 115 miles in length, and passes through a rich agricultural region, while the lumber and salt trade contributes very materially to swell its traffic.

The Michigan Air-Line. -The Michigan Air-Line project was originally designed as a short line from Chicago to Buffalo, and was intended to run across the State from Chicago, striking the St. Clair River just above the town of St. Clair, and there connect with what is known as the Canada Southern. The Michigan Central, which aided in building so much of this line as lies between Jackson and Niles, and furnished almost the entire This capital with which it was built, finally made it a feeder for Detroit and the Central. road enters Macomb County in the southeast corner of Richmond Township, then traverses the townships of Armada and Washington. There are stations on this line within Macomb County, called Ridgeway, Armada, Romeo and Washington. This branch line is twenty-six miles in length. It cost the people of the townships through which it runs a snug sum of money, but the benefits which will be derived from the road ultimately will doubtless compensate in a large measure for the heavy tax its construction imposed upon many individuals. That railroads in general are a benefit no one will deny, but some are constructed at an immense sacrifice to property-holders, and the remuneration, in actual value, is oftentimes imperceptibly slow in development. But on the whole, railroad enterprises, when conducted by persons who have the welfare of the several communities through which they shall pass at heart, are means of much good, and vice versa when instigated, carried on and controlled by speculators, who look only to their own personal aggrandizement. As a public emolument, railroads ought to become as popular as they are generally successful.

CLINTON RIVER.

In 1870, the channel of entrance to this river was very shallow, the shoalest place showing only three and a half feet of water, while the river was ten feet in depth. A project of improving the river was adopted in 1870, the object being to afford a channel fifty feet wide at bottom, with a depth of eight feet, and in the execution of the improvement,