Mayville, Tuscola, Michigan

Copyright © 1998 by Bonnie Petee. This copy contributed for use in 
the USGenWeb Archives.  

 

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MAYVILLE IN NOVEMBER, 1867

Taken from, "The History of Tuscola County," H. R. Page Co., Chicago, 1883. 


In November, 1867, a visitor to the place made the following notes:

"A little more than a year since where the little village of Mayville now stands, the
forests had just been leveled and not a single human tenement marked the locality.  At
that time no one had suspected that a little town would spring up on the corners where
the heavy timber cumbered the ground just as the woodman's ax had left it.  Now,
however, the appearance has changed.  A commodious hotel on one corner solicits the
weary traveler to participate of a liberal hospitality which for moderate fare is provided
for himself and beast. The proprietor, Walter Tubbs, provided ungrudgingly, moves
among his guests with an easy and congenial manner which makes you feel at home, and
on leaving resolve that you will come again some time.  Directly south from the hotel and
on the opposite corner stands the first building erected here.  It is a store owned by Mr.
Crittenden which contains a fair assortment of goods, and the postoffice, himself being
postmaster."

"The largest amount of trade, however, is at C. Coffeen's on the corner east from
Crittenden's.  Here Mr. Coffeen has a neat store, and just now it is well stocked with a
good selection of goods.  We were surprised on being told by Mr. Coffeen that he very
frequently retailed over $400 worth of goods in one day, and that there had scarcely been
a day during the fall in which his sales had not overgone $100.  He deals in produce, and
in another part of this paper will be found the selling and purchase prices of the staple
articles in which he deals.  It is chiefly through the efforts of this enterprising gentlemen
that the improvements at Mayville have ben made.'

"Dr. E. A. Shepard, M. D., a graduate from Ann Arbor, is erecting, and has nearly
completed, a drug store and office, and will in a few days offer a stock of drugs to the
public.  A boot and shoe store, the property of A. J. Simpson, is just completed, in which
four men are employed manufacturing custom work."

"In front of a shop, new, and as yet unfinished, we observed a lumber wagon perfectly
complete to the last coat of varnish on the 'end board,' on which was painted, "A.
Lockard, Maker, Mayville.'

"There are two blacksmith shops, one paint shop, one shop for all work, one photograph
room, and eight or ten dwellings.  It is expected that a cabinet-ware room will be opened
this fall, and a grist and shingle-mill to be run by steam will be established another
spring."

"The surrounding country presents an attractive surface, and is destined to furnish some
of the very best farms of our county, and as an agricultural district it is not surpassed by
any region of similar extent.  Many farms embracing hundreds of acres begin to wear the
appearance of age and a high degree of culture.  Numerous and beautiful wheat fields,
thrifty young orchards, meadow lands, and substantial buildings meet the eye in all
directions.  These things plainly foreshadow the future of this part of Fremont."

March 31, 1868, William Turner and Leonard Fox platted the village, which has had a
steady growth from that time to the present.











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