Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2026 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== USGenNet Data Repository Notice: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ============================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ============================================================================= History of Bay County Michigan pub. H. R. Page & Co., Chicago - 1883 [p. 68-70] The name and fame of JAMES G. BIRNEY have long since passed into history, and the connection in which he appears in this work is only a trifling incident in his life, although the name of BIRNEY has been associated with all the progressive opera- tions of Bay County for a quarter of a century. JAMES G. BIRNEY was a native of Danville, Ky. His early life was surrounded with all the comforts and advantages which wealth could command. He received a finished education, graduating at Princeton, N.J., in 1810, and afterwards pursuing the study of law. He began the practice of law at Danville, his native place, and soon after was elected a member of the Legislature of Kentucky. His next field of labor was Huntsville, Ala., where he attained distinc- tion as a lawyer, and was elected solicitor-general of the state. In 1828 he was one of the presidential electors selected by the Whig party of Alabama. About this time he made a profession of religion and became an influential member of the Presbyterian denomination. By inheritance and purchase he became the owner of slaves, and had a cotton plantation carried on under his direction. Soon after this his mind became engaged upon the subject of slavery as a question of morals, which resulted in an espousal of the doctrine of immediate emancipation. Carrying at once into practice the belief he adopted, he executed deeds of manumission for each and all of his slaves. From this time on he battled for the emancipation of a race, and to free his country from disgrace and disaster. Bravely enduring the insults of his fellowmen, and the thick dangers that beset his pathway, he prosecuted his work with courage and vigor. The impression which his noble and courageous conduct made at that time was fitly described by DR. COX, of New York, who said: - "A BIRNEY has shaken the continent by putting down his foot; and his fame will be envied before his arguments are answered or their force forgotten." In 1839 his father died, leaving a large estate, consisting of land, money and slaves. His sister and himself were the only heirs. He requested that all of the negroes might be computed at their market valuation as a part of his share. This was assented to, and he immediately emancipated all of them. In 1840 he visited England as one of the vice-presidents of the World's Convention, and in May of that year was nominated for the Presidency by the Liberty party, and at the election received 7,000 votes. It can be readily understood that MR. BIRNEY'S large fortune had become greatly reduced in his conflict with a great but popular wrong. About 1840-'41 he became one of the owners of Lower Saginaw, and wishing to look after his interests here, and also to find retirement for a time, he decided to remove to this place. In the Fall of 1841 he arrived at Saginaw City, where he remained during the Winter. At this point we quote from the recollections of JUDGE ALBERT MILLER, as follows: "I first saw MR. BIRNEY in the Summer of 1841, when he and C. C. FITZHUGH, ESQ., made their first visit to Saginaw, accom- panied by DR. DANIEL H. FITZHUGH, who at that time knew well and highly estimated the advantages possessed by the Saginaw Valley. Some time after they returned to their homes, I heard MR. FRASER say he had just received a letter from DR. FITZHUGH, in which the Doctor stated that MR. BIRNEY'S friends were all endeavoring to dissuade him from taking up his residence at Lower Saginaw, but MR. BIRNEY had fully made up his mind to settle here with his family, and that at a certain time they might be expected to arrive. At the time of MR. BIRNEY'S arrival with his family at Saginaw City in the Fall of 1841, at so low an ebb were all the business interests of the valley that the Webster House, one of the largest hotels in Michigan at that time outside of Detroit, built in 1837, was no longer required to accommodate the traveling public or the people of the city, but had for some time been standing unoccupied. MR. BIRNEY and his family occupied the Webster House as a private dwelling during their residence at Saginaw City, which I think was about one year. Previous to this time, MR. BIRNEY, DR. FITZHUGH and MR. FRASER had purchased the stock of the Saginaw Bay Land Company, which company owned the JOHN BILEY reserve, and had laid out the town of Lower Saginaw, and they became the successors of that company, and the title was conveyed to MR. BIRNEY, and he acted as trustee till a division of the property was made between the stock- holders. On the 4th July, 1842, while MR. BIRNEY resided at Sagi- naw City, a few of the inhabitants gathered at Jewett's Hotel and had a dinner, and while discussing the question of doing some thing in honor of the day, it was proposed to invite MR. BIRNEY to give us an address. The late NORMAN LITTLE and the writer were appointed a committee to wait on MR. BIRNEY, and extended the invitation to him. On performing that duty, MR. BIRNEY replied that he could say or do nothing to honor that as the anniversary of the birthday of American Independence and Freedom, for that day would not have arrived till the release from bondage of the three or four millions of American citizens who were then held to service by their oppressors. We invited him to come, and he chose his own theme for a discourse. He came and addressed us eloquently on the subject of emancipation, which he at that time considered of so much importance that he spent the best part of his life and for- tune to promote it, and which has since proved to be of more im- portance to the people of the United States than perhaps he ever anticipated, for it brought on a war which convulsed the country from ocean to ocean, and caused mourning in almost every family in the land. "After removing to Lower Saginaw in the Spring of 1842, MR. BIRNEY, aside from looking after the interests of the Saginaw Bay Company, for which he was trustee, engaged in stock raising and agricultural pursuits generally. He brought here a fine herd of blooded cattle from the stock of MR. SULLIVAN, of Ohio, which has been celebrated for its purity. That importation has served greatly to improve the grade of stock in Saginaw and Bay Counties. MR. BIRNEY was a kind neighbor and a benevolent man. Some parties in Bay City are much better off now than they would otherwise have been had it not been for the assistance rendered by MR. BIRNEY in securing to them real estate in the early settlement of the plat. During the latter part of MR. BIRNEY'S residence here, after his health failed, he mingled very little in society, and he finally left for the East, where his earthly career was terminated before his earlier anticipation with reference to the growth and import- ance of Lower Saginaw were realized, and before the day arrived which he would have considered the birthday of American Independence." MR. BIRNEY'S residence here was the building that was origin- ally the block house that the Saginaw Bay Company built on the corner of Fourth and Water Streets, and was fixed over for MR, BIRNEY'S use. In 1843 MR. BIRNEY was again nominated for the Presidency, and at the election in 1814 received 62,300 votes, and in 1845 received 3,023 votes for Governor of the state of Michigan. As elsewhere stated, MR. BIRNEY used to conduct religious ser- vice in the little schoolhouse, and this practice was continued until others came in to carry on the work. In 1855 he returned East to Englewood, N.J., for the purpose of educating his son, FITZHUGH BIRNEY. He remained there until his death, which occurred November 23, 1857, at the age of sixty- five years. He did not live to see the triumph of the great cause to which his life was devoted, but another generation have wit- nessed it and given his name its proper place. One of his bio- graphers says of him: - "No man ever more mildly spoke the words of truth and soberness than he. He reviled no man. A rule which uniformly guided his own conduct, and which he habitually urged upon his own household, was to speak evil 'of no man.' Often he has been known to rebuke a disparaging remark concerning his bitterest opponent. His sin was that he was a generation in advance of his day." MR. BIRNEY'S successor in Lower Saginaw was his oldest son, now JUDGE JAMES BIRNEY, of Bay City. He purchased the interests of his father at Lower Saginaw, and also made large purchases of land from the government. MR. JAMES BIRNEY is a native of Dan- ville, Ky. His collegiate education was obtained at Centre College, Kentucky, and at Miami University, Ohio. At the latter institution he graduated in 1836, and during the two succeeding years was em- ployed in the University as professor of the Greek and Latin languages. During the next two years he attended the law lectures of JUDGE STORM and PROF. HITCHCOCK, of the Law School of Yale College, at New Haven, Conn. He subsequently removed to Cin- cinnati, Ohio, and entered upon the practice of law. He devoted himself to this business, and became distinguished as a successful practitioner. While in New Haven MR. BIRNEY married MISS MONLTON, step-daughter of NATHANIEL BACON, of that city. Of this marriage there were five children, only two of whom are living. In 1856 MR. BIRNEY came to Lower Saginaw to look after his real estate interests, and in the Summer of 1857 removed his family here, and at once interested himself in the development of the town and county. His first important public service in the interest of the new settlement was to procure the passage of a bill in 1857 changing the name to Bay City. He was elected a state senator in 1858, being nominated by the Republican Senatorial Convention more as a compliment than otherwise, the district, which extended to the Straits of Mackinaw, being Democratic. The portion of Saginaw embraced within Bay had always been regarded as the Democratic stronghold, but MR. BIRNEY received all the votes of the county but five given for the regular Democratic candidate, and a few scattering votes for a stump candidate. The volume of session laws of 1859 contains some fifty acts he presented for his district, every one of which was adopted. One of the measures which has had an important bearing upon the interests and devel- opment of the Saginaw Valley and the Tenth District, which MR. BIRNEY secured the passage of, was the bill giving a bounty for the manufacture of salt. The bill proposed the payment of 5 cents a bushel, but MR. BIRNEY presented its merits in such favorable light that 10 cents was granted. In 1860 MR. BIRNEY was nominated by the Republican State Convention for lieutenant-governor, and elected by over 20,000 majority. He was received with great favor as president of the Senate. During his term as lieutenant-governor, a vacancy oc- curred in the office of circuit judge, and the Governor tendered the appointment to him. It was accepted, and he presided as circuit judge in a most acceptable manner during the next four years. The circuit embraced Saginaw, Midland, Gratiot, Isabella, Iosco and Bay Counties. He was unanimously renominated by the Republican Judicial Convention, but the district having a Demo- cratic majority, he was not re-elected, and returned to the practice of his profession. In 1871 MR. BIRNEY established the Bay City Chronicle, and in 1873 it was issued as a duly. It was published until after MR. BIMEY'S departure for the Hague, when it was merged into the Tribune. In 1872 GOV. BALDWIN nominated MR. BIRNEY to PRESIDENT GRANT as Centennial Commissioner for Michigan to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Declara- tion of Independence in 1876. He did not serve upon the commission, having been appointed December 17, 1875, as United States Minister to the Netherlands. He went to his charge in the Spring of 1876, and served his country with distinguished ability and fidelity until he resigned the post a short time since. MR. BIRNEY has always been one of the most devoted citizens of Bay City, and has done all in his power to promote its growth and welfare. Few public improvements have been made that he has not aided. He was prominently connected with the enterprise of securing the first railroad, and also the state and other public roads in the county. He is a gentleman of the broadest culture, and ranks high as an orator. The eldest son, JAMES G. BIRNEY, distinguished himself in the army as captain of the Seventh Michigan Volunteers, and died while an officer of the regular army in 1869. ARTHUR BIRNEY conducted the Chronicle for several years, but after it was merged in the Tribune, he retired from journalism, and in 1879 accompanied his father to Europe. After an absence of eight months he returned, and went to Montana, where he died in January, 1882. ===============================================================================