Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2022 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/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== A History of Northern Michigan and its People, Vol I by Perry F. Powers Lewis Pub. Co., Chicago, 1912 p. 532-535 First Settler and Settlement MARVIL SECORD, whose death occurred in October, 1886, at his old homestead at the Forks, now Beaverton, was the first settler of Gladwin county. He was then within a few days of his eighty- fifth birthday, vigorous in health and active up to the time of the accident which was the direct cause of his death. He had spent most of his life in the woods, but was so popular and straightforward that after he came to Gladwin county and had passed his eightieth year the lumbermen and citizens forced him into several offices which he honored. The Gladwin County Record, to which much credit is given to the following historical sketch, published an interesting bio- graphy of this interesting old pioneer, from which the author makes liberal extracts. Mr. SECORD was born at Brantford, Ontario, October 16, 1801, and came to Michigan with his father, mother and family at an early age, removing from near Hamilton, Canada to Ann Arbor, and thence to Owosso, Shiawassee county, of which place he was a resident many years, and where he was married four times. His third wife, who came with him to Gladwin county, died in 1881, from the effects of a fall from a bridge upon hard ice. He was thereafter married to a Mrs. CYNTHA HOFFMAN of Sterling. Mr. SECORD'S early life was spent with his parents in the usual life of the frontier. When a small lad he accompanied his father into one of the Indian wars of the northwest, in which he made himself useful in various ways. At Owosso, Shiawassee county, for a long period he was engaged in conducting on a large scale a gunsmithy and wagon and carriage shop, upon which business the war and the Jackson wagon works (which manufactured wagons cheaper than could be done elsewhere) brought disaster. Mr. SECORD therefore determined to change his location, and, with his family, he went from Owosso to St. Charles by wagon and by steamer "Little Nell" to Saginaw; thence to Midland upon the then noted steamer "Belle Seymour." Midland at that time was a small hamlet. J. S. EASTMAN kept a small trading post on the dock at the lower bridge, and JOHN LARKIN and G. F. HALL were rival landlords. At or about the same time, JOHN EASTMAN also kept a store on the site of the present Star Mills. Mr. SECORD here met with an accident, a dog biting one of his hands so he could not use it. Here, after some persuasion, he hired two Indians to take himself and family to "Dick's Forks," upwards of thirty-five miles distant, and after a week's hard journey in a canoe, they landed at their destination. The route at that time was an unbroken wilderness. At Eden- ville, then generally known as "16," DAVID BURTON and JACOB HAGAR had located, and JOHN McMULLEN opened a lumber headquarters which was merged into a hotel, near the site of the present Axford House, soon after. A lumberman from Maine named LEDBETTER, had commenced operations in the vicinity of "16," but no logs had been run north of that locality. In September, 1861, in the manner narrated, Mr. SECORD and family, consisting of his wife (formerly Mrs. GOODWIN, whom he had married the year before), his daughter JULIA, son SETH, and three step-children, landed at Dick's Forks, so named from the fact that a man named DIXON owned the land there, and surveyors had cut the name on a tree, located at the junction of the Sugar and Tittabawassee, on section 28, town 19, 1 east. Hunters had reached this point before, but only a small number. Mrs. SECORD, his wife, was the first white woman, however, who had come to this county. She was a woman of many noble qualities, intelli- gent, refined and heroic. Here she assisted her husband to build up a pleasant home, where during many years, with his family he] was "monarch of all he surveyed," only a small number of settlers penetrating the county for quite a number of years. The occupation of hunting and trapping, which Mr. SECORD fol- lowed during the first three years of his residence at Dick's Forks, was at that time quite lucrative, and he thereby averaged $900 annually during that period, in one year reaching $1,150. During his second winter in the woods, while fifteen miles from home, he accidently shot himself in the ankle, and was carried home on a litter. A doctor was brought from Midland, but he was unable to extract the ball, which was never taken out. Mr. SECORD related many interesting anecdotes of his experience in the woods. Dogs brought into the neighborhood by outside hunters usually came up missing, and 'twas said they had been caught on SECORD'S "sharp sticks;" besides many fictitious tales were told in re- lation to the old hunter. In 1863 the pioneer entered the homestead upon which he resided until death. About that time in the vicinity of the Forks, the first lumber operations were commenced. PEARSON & CRAIG, partners, the former from Buffalo, the latter from Maine, with SAM SIAS of Midland, as foreman, were the first to lumber in that locality. Marsh hay at this time became a valuable commodity, bringing $40 per ton, and Mr. SECORD spent the summer season in cutting hay and the winter in trapping. With assistance of his boys and hired help, he sometimes earned $600 per year from the hay, be- sides quite a snug sum from trapping. Mr. SECORD was somewhat of a genius in mechanical arts, and at an early day invented and manufactured a single barreled, muzzle loading gun, with which he shot twice with once loading. This gun was a number of years before the famous reloading guns ap- peared. The old hunter and farmer was slow to push forward for official positions, but his popularity with the lumber boys, who were wont to stop at his place and delighted to do him honor, as well as the cordial feeling held by many permanent settlers, placed him in the offices of supervisor of Gladwin township and judge of probate of the county by decisive majorities. These offices he filled with good judgment and clean hands. The de- ceased was of a hospitable and generous nature, and thereby made many friends. Although he had for so many years led the wild life of the woods, he retained a veneration for sacred subjects and during his last years was not ashamed to be known as a Christian. It is certainly no discredit to Gladwin county to acknowledge MARVIL SECORD as her first settler. ===========================================================================