Port Huron High School - Student Yearbook (Port Huron, MI)

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itself connected with the rest of the civilized world and celebrated the year by becoming incorporated as a city. At the outset and for a long time after the growth of Port Huron was greatly hampered by the existence of two reservations within what are now the city limits, the Military Reservation on the North side and the Indian Reservation on the South side of Black River. The Indian Reservation ex- tended up Black River from just east of Military Street bridge far enough to take in what is known as the Campau tract. The Indians occupied but a small portion of this Reservation which had been made in the treaty of !M)7 which Gov. Hull made with the Chippewas and some other tribes. At most the Indian use was occasional only, the tribe wandering from place to place in different seasons of the year, and in 1836 the government made another treaty with the Chippewas, buying their rights in this land, and in 1839, the land was sold at auction, and it became a part of the settlement. The Military Reservation was attached to Fort Gratiot and came down to Suffern or Grandview Street and extended as far North as State Street, the fort itself being a short distance South of the latter street. The fort dur- ing most of its existence was merely a collection of officers houses and bar- racks for the men surrounded by an ordinary fence, and was not intended for defense. A few roads were permitted to run through the reservation but the settlement on the North was in the township of Fort Gratiot and subse- quently became a part of Port Huron. A large part of the Reservation was sold under authority of Congress in 1871 and was rapidly built up and the fort abandoned finally in 1879. For many years the only railroad in Port Huron was the Grand Trunk and its station was on the river bank just South of State Street, and in 1867 a street car line was built up Huron Ave. to the river bank and then along the bank to the Grand Trunk Station. Extensions were later made across Black River and down to Griswold Street and in 1886 the power to operate the line was changed to electricity and thus Port Huron became the second city to continuously use electric motive power for street cars. The foregoing are the salient points of the early history of Port Huron. The later history is within the memory of so many living men and women, and preserved in the newspapers of the city, that it need not be recounted here

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Port Huron- - Tomorrow ‘‘Nature gives cities opportunities, but the energy and intelligence of men make them great.” No city in America today is offered greater oppor- tunities than is Port Huron for legitimate industrial advancement. Port Huron is a thing alive, throbbing with human energy: growing, changing every day toward something different. What will this some- thing be? Do you want your city to realize its best possibilities? Cities do not grow, they are built. This is true literally as well as practically, because city building today is as much scientific business as any professional or commercial enterprise. To a greater or less degree success depends upon knowledge, organiza- tion, co-operation, and the keen, active interest of every one who calls that city his or her home. As citizens we are like a big family, or, to express it in business terms, we are stockholders in a corporation. We have invested our money, our labor, and our ingenuity in our city, and because of these investments we have assummed responsibilities: a duty has been placed upon our shoulders that we cannot shirk or neglect. With every municipality, service is the aim. That, indeed, is the aim of all legitimate business. And the founders, whether of a business or a city, would feel very keenly disappointed if all of the “stockholders” were con- tent merely to increase their money getting abilities. Quite true, financial returns are what we all seek and desire, but, busi- ness, money, profits are not the end in business. . They are the means by which men live and man is on earth to live, not merely make a living. Consider if the “stockholder” in a municipality, or a business, would devote all of the days and years of his life to business, became as engrossed in it or so eager for larger gains that no time was allowed for the joys and duties of life and no will for the responsibilities of citizenship. Such a man may die worth many million dollars and be rated a business success. But As a man he would be a failure. Port Huron’s greatest immediate needs can be summed up under the following headings. 1. A business method of municipal administration. 2. A definite City Plan. 3. A more adequate water supply. 4. Improved health service. 5. Increased hospital facilities. 6. Modern methods of sew- erage and waste disposal. 7. Vocational Education. 8. Supervised play-