A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE
KAWKAWLIN RIVER
CONTRIBUTED BY TINA VANOCHTEN
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1880-1920’s
Seidler’s Corner
*Seidler’s located on Garfield and Seidler Roads, on the south bank of the Kawkawlin River. It never did have a
post office but was a good size settlement and a
very busy crossroad in the 1880's to 1920's. It claimed a hotel, saloon, livery stable where travelers from
southern Michigan stopped to rest horses on the way to Crump in Garfield Township. Henry Seidler ran a hotel,
livery stable and a general store and was known for his good meats. There was also a blacksmith shop and
cheese factory, two lumber and stave mills owned by Archambeau and Trowbridge located on the south branch
of the Kawkawlin River. (p.47)
Beaver
*Beaver, on the North Branch of the Kawkawlin on the intersection of
Nine Miles and Parish Roads, developed because Polish families built
St.Valentine Church. They moved into farm land but first worked in the
lumber woods. Catholic mass has been said in the home of John Nowak by
missionaries. Enough Polish settlers found homes in the area that Jahn
Zboralski donated land for church purposes. More land was purchased
from Ed Tucholski, The church, school and store and blacksmith
shop were established. It never had a post office. (p.48)
1910
*The North Branch of the Kawkawlin River runs through south western
Garfield township and had the Soper Mill, Karbowski and Duford Mills on its banks. LaForest, Confer and the
Skelton Mills were not on a waterway. The Saginaw Division Lumber Company at Crump was the largest and
Princing Mill, one Mile west and one mile north, was the most famous for the tragic saw mill explosion in 1910.
(p50)
McCaskill
*On the north branch of the Kawkawlin River, west of Crump, a post
office was named for Thomas McCaskill, mill owner, who was the first post master on June 13,1900. The office
operated until March 15,1901. (The Michigan manual 1901 shows this short lived post office) (p.51)
*The area on the western shore of Saginaw Bay became famous for it's
beautiful sandy beaches after fishermen had made it known. Later the
Detroit and Mackinaw Railroad brought many picnic groups to the beach
Area from Bay City and Saginaw and elsewhere. Picnic baskets, watermelons, ice cream freezers, all would be
loaded in the baggage car and off a happy group would go for a day of swimming, games, contests and a big
picnic meal. There were a lot of hands to turn the crank of the ice cream freezer and lot of tongues to lick the
dasher! Groups also came by boat and by wagon to these beautiful sandy beaches after the turn of the century.
(p 54)
Historical information taken directly from the book: Ghost Towns and Place Names of Bay County by
Odeal Sharp; Copyright 1974, Museum of the Great Lakes 1700 Center, Bay City, Michigan, Historical
Booklet No. 1
*An Indian settlement took the name of the Chief or Headman
BOKOWTONDON-Kawkawlin River Area (p. 22)
*Kawkawlin was a name derived from the Indian language (p.11)
*The Indian name for Kawkawlin was
U GUH KON NING or 'place of pike fish' (p. 42)
1819
*The Saginaw Treaty of 1819 negotiated by Lewis Cass with the Chippewa Indians opened the lands of
Saginaw Valley to the white man for $1.25 per acre. Indians withheld from the sale, large reservations
about the mouth of the Saginaw and Kawkawlin Rivers.
-6,000 acres on the north side of the Kawkawlin River(p. 21)
1837
*Judge Albert Miller, James Fraser ,and James McCormick built the first sawmills on the Saginaw and
Kawkawlin Rivers in 1837-44. (p.17)
1839
*William Hemingway became first settler in Section 32, township of Monitor, followed by Joseph Dill in
1839. They reached their land by going up the Kawkawlin River in a dug out canoe. (p.36)
1847
*The first church in Bay County was a Methodist Indian Mission established in 1847 on Euclid Avenue
North of the Kawkawlin River. (p.22)
1844
*In 1844 the second sawmill built in Bay County was erected on the Kawkawlin River by lower Saginaw
promoter James Fraser and Associates. (p.41)
1855
*"In 1855 Kawkawlin had 2 mills, 5 cottages, 2 log huts, several Indian wigwams and 100 million
mosquitoes," stated an early settler. A famous dynamite factory was once located in Kawkawlin. (p. 42)