Freeland High School - Victorian Yearbook (Freeland, MI)

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if they happened to be short of cash. A sympathetic listener and practical advisor, she acted much like a mother to many of the lumbermen and earned the nick- name of Mammy . The pine floors of Mammy Freeland's Hotel and Tavern were worn rough by the hobnailed boots of the lumberjacks, and the rough and tumble legends of the lumbering era became part of Freeland's heritage. As life of the day centered more and more around Freelands a man named George Trusdale, a black- smith, wagonmaker and shoe maker, who had settled near the new hotel conceived the idea of moving the Jay postoffice from Loretto to his place. Andrew Jack- son was then President and although he had been a Dem- ocrat he was elected by the Republican party on a Co- alition ticket. Trusdale thought his best chance of sec- uring the post office lay in being a Democrat. He had been a Republican for many years, but he forgot his old political views and allied himself with the Demo- crats. Events proved him to have been wise in his pl- ans and he succeeded in securing the removal of the postoffice from Loretto to his own settlement which was still without a name. . Since the road from Midland to Saginaw was im- passable most of the year, the logical means of trans- portation was the river. Canoes were very popular. Then came pole boats and a 25 ton side-wheel steamer nam- ed Midland City began making three trips each week to Saginaw but it proved too heavy for the river at low water. In 1859 the Belle Seymour arrived to run the river. Trade was excellent and this boat made regular trips from the time of her purchase until 1867. For awhile there was little at Freeland but the lit- the group of buildings as it was simply a stopping place for lumbermen and those working on the river drives. However in 1867 the Flint and Pere Marquette Rail- road was built from Saginaw westward and passed close to the village and stimulated the growth of the tiny community. Stores and an elevator sprang up near the railroad tracks a few blocks east of the hotel. Although the community surrounding the hotel was shown on maps of the period as the Village of Tittabawassee it was referred to by lumbermen as Freelands or just plain Freeland. On January 16, 1879 the government rec- ognized the popular name and changed the name of the postoffice from Jay to Freeland much to the joy of its citizens. The year 1914 was a disasterous year for Freeland. Two fires one in January and another in July virtually destroyed the east side of Main Street. The fire losses were in the thousands of dollars and most of the build- ings were either uninsured or only partially insured and as a consequence the business district was never rebuilt. In January of 1923 fire destroyed the old Freeland Hou- se, a landmark of the lumber days when lumberjacks made it a halfway house between Saginaw and Midland stopping there to sing the praises of Mammy Freeland. No insurance was carried on the pre-civil war structure. All that now remains of the old buildings on Main St- reet before 1900 is the Old Valley Telephone Office which is now the Mausoleum Office and Rodeitchers which was built by Charles Bishop at the turn of the Century. Forward Advisor... | Mr. J. Perry Co-Editors | Vicki Rohde, Joyce Penney Business Manager Cheryl Smith

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TITTABAWASSEE TOWNSHIP Tittabawassee Township is the second oldest of Sag- inaw's 27 townships. It received its name from the name of the river which flows through it. The name Tittabaw- assee was originally Tittabawasig an Indian word which has been given several translations but the one most li- kel y is parallel with the bay. It was to be years after Lewis Cass, that patriotic father of the Territory and State, who with the help of Louis Campau, negotiated the famous Treaty of Sag- inaw in 1819 with the Chippewa Chiefs that turned ov- er to the white man a tremendous chunk of eastern Mi- chigan before the easterner seriously considered sett- ling in the vast new Michigan Territory. After the open- ing of the Erie Canal in 1825, speculators and settlers slowly began to trickle in. The first property sold in Tittabawassee Township was in the year 1833. By 1837 there were 7 families in the township. Of course, Tittabawassee Township at that time consisted of all territory north of Saginaw and was comprised of parts of what is now Midland, Gratiot and Bay Counties. After struggling along in an unequal contest with nature to bring the land to a state of cultivation, the settlers decided to organize a township and at the home of Obadiah Crane on April 5, 1841 such a meeting was held with Obadiah as Chairman. Much of lumbering in the Saginaw Valley in the early days was done on the upper stretches of the Tittabawassee River and as a res- ult lumberjacks and river men were continually passing between Saginaw and the camps up the river. All the traffic passed either by boat on the river or by the riv- er road which was impassable a good portion of the year. The traffic over this natural route attracted shrewd tradesmen who ministered to the needs and comfort of the travelers and at intervals along the river, stores and taverns sprang up. In no instance did a settlement arise but merely clusters of two or three log or frame build- ings. Such a group was built in the 1850's on M-47a short distance southeast of the geographical center of the township. It consisted of a tavern, general store and a few houses and was known as Loretto. There was also a postoffice there officially known as Jay and named after the postmaster Jefferson Jacquith who settled jin this area in March 1839. A second group similar to this one also existed at a point a little north of Loretto where a surprising pol- itical manuver occured which gave it prominence and also its name. A bit of partisan politics, with a post- office as the stake was the opening chapter in the hist- ory of the Village of Tittabawassee known to most peo- ple as Freeland. Garrett and Elizabeth York Freeland arrived in this area in 1854 from New Jersey. They built their first log hotel on the west side of the river which they oper- ated for about five years when it was destroyed by fire. They moved across the river and built a wood structure on the southwest corner of Main and Washington Streets where the Standard Station now stands. Freeland's Ho- tel soon became very popular because of Elizabeth Fr- eeland's tasty cooking and colorful personality. Lumber- jacks filled the hotel every night, never being refused

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TABLE OF CONTENTS i, Introduction. . . . dën . . ..... .1-4 Mr. James Perry II. Forward ° ° ° ° ° + +. Mr. James Perry Mrs. Barbara Williams II. Student Involvement. ..........2 Academics and Activities. . . . . . . 6-41 Cheryl Smith Wendy Schlicker Sue Rogalski | ` Jean Schlicker Pat Salas u Wendy Wasalaski (Phot graf Dean lla im raph We s Oleszewski (Photogra hy) ІМ People Am Scott Marylyn Scott Senior Directory . . . 2, ... 9980 Faculty. k e s — ‚.. 20-91 Joyce Penney (Photography) Don uplow ` 227. y Koscielniak ` | Julie Card U oe e e «107-112 VI. Harold ЖР - 7 арһу STUDENTS IN CHARGE OF SECTION