Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. 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 U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== PIONEER HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY, MICHIGAN by Florence McKinnon Gwinn Huron County Pioneer & Historical Society, 1922 [page 33] CHAPTER III EARLY TOWNSHIP HISTORY THE VILLAGE OF UBLY The village of Ubly is situated in Bingham town- ship. D. H. PIERCE platted the town and met with suc- cess in his scheme of establishing the place by offer- ing a substantial inducement to business men to make this a point for their operations. (3) Mr. PIERCE was a heavy loser in the fire of '81. The names of J. B. MADILL, ALEX PIKE, ALFRED PAGETT are all connected with the history and business life of this town. PARIS TOWNSHIP Back in 1856 we find CASIMER SMOLENSKI locating land in Paris township on which he erected a building for his future home. From that time this section of the county setteld rapidly. The greater portion of the set- tlers were Polanders who are very thrifty. PETER PAWLOWSKI in recent years wrote several sketches of this township's early history for The Huron County Tribune, which no doubt are the most reliable records we have. Therefore we quote freely from these ------- (3) Huron County Album, page 417. [page 34] PIONEER HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY interesting stories of pioneer days and of those who par- ticipated in the development of the township. Mr. PAWLOWSKI says: "In the year 1854 three Polish families emigrated to Huron County from Canada. They were JOHN WOYTLEWICZ, AMBROSE CHUKNOWSKI and AN- THONY SLAVICK. These early settlers were men of great courage and determination and soon demonstrated this is reclaiming the marshy land which under their care- ful and painstaking mode of cultivation rapidly became very productive soil. In the year 1855 Mr. PAWLOWSKI'S father, STEPHEN PAWLOWSKI, landed at Forestville, Sani- lac County, with some tools and provisions which he had to carry on his back, fording streams, crossing marshes and going around swamps which he could not cross, to make the first improvement on his farm. Returning back to Canada and speaking of felling the trees he said he had only "cut a hole in the sky". A year later he re- turned with his wife, but she like many others of the pioneers' wives had to remain alone in the woods for months in the winters while the husbands worked in the lumber camps. At such times Mrs. PAWLOWKSI carried her supplies on her back from Forestville, a distance of 18 miles. Another pioneer was JOHN PYONK, who walked 100 miles to get his cook stove. He took it apart at Forestville and carried it home one piece at a time. Miss BINENZA, now Mrs. CHARLES WORCHOCK, quite a frail girl at the time, made over 60 18-mile trips for supplies for her parents and later for herself. Some of the fruit trees in Mr. PAWLOWKSI'S orchard were brought in on her back. This orchard is the oldest one in Paris. The forest abounded with all kinds of game. Deer were very plentiful. When Mr. S. PAWLOWSKI was build- ing his second log house, JOHN WOYTLEWICZ shot a deer from the building they were working on. Often they had to get up at night to scare the deer away from de- stroying the crops. There were hundreds of wolves and almost any night one could hear them howling in the dark, deep forests. [page 35] PIONEER HISTORY OF HURON COUNTY The first mail was brought into Paris from Forest- ville. Eight years later a turn pike was built to Cato, now Charleston, and later to Minden. In 1869 a grist mill was built which relieved the housewives, as most of the grinding before that time was done with a 100-pound stone. In 1874 a saw mill was built by SUSALLA Bros., at Parisville, and this helped the men out. Before this they sawed the lumber by hand. Paris township was organized in 1861 with DONALD CURRY as supervisor. STEPHEN PAWLOWSKI'S farm was valued at $100 at that date. The forest first of '71 and '81 destroyed the timber and half of the settlement. It wiped out an entire family except the father, who was absent. JAMES SHAW came to this township in the early sixties. He lived in Paris at the time of the Polish re- bellion against conscription in 1863 and his home was visited by the U.S. troops. ==========================================================================