The Path to Pine Grove
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
(Figure 1) Different types of faunal remains are scattered along the area of the Saginaw Trail. These remnants from the Late Woodland Period offer insights into the animals that once traversed the land and were hunted by the area’s indigenous peoples. Animals of the area include muskrats, beavers, raccoons, bears, and elk. These deer bones from the site of Tyra were reworked into tools.
(Figure 2) Projectile points excavated slightly off the path of the Saginaw Trail. These hunting materials are considered from the Late to Middle Woodland period. But it’s possible that some may date to the Archaic and Paleo-Indian periods.
(Figure 3) The trails of Michigan were sometimes cold and unforgiving. As snow falls peacefully will travelers find safety?
(Figure 4) French fur traders often intermingled with Native Americans, learning their language and adapting to their culture to make trading easier. Here, we see an example of a coureur de bois wearing a mix of indigenous and European clothing. Slinging fur pelts over his shoulder and equipped with a musket and hatchet, he prepares to go back to work. (Photo from of the Illinois State Historical Library)
(Figure 5) An image of a fur trader in a trading post with his pelts. The hunt for beavers nearly caused the animals extinction. Hundreds of thousands of pelts were being sent to Europe annually. Why beavers? The beaver pelts were used to make high fashion hats, but that’s not all. Europeans even believed that rubbing beaver oil on your head would improve your memory! (Photo from the Library and Archives of Canada, c. 1890-1900)
(Figure 6) Once settlers began making the Michigan Territory their home, they started constructing log cabins using surrounding trees. The area around Pontiac was mostly pine trees. The white pine specifically was so popular to Michigan’s lumber industry that it became Michigan’s state tree. (Photo from the book, “The Beginner’s American History)
(Figure 7) An example of a plank road. These roads made it easier for transporting goods to-and-from Detroit to Pontiac. (Photo from the Minnesota Historical Society, c, 1930)
(Figure 8) Michigan’s twelfth governor, Moses Wisner, looking dignified in his gubernatorial portrait. He served one term as governor from 1859 to 1861. What responsibilities do you think a governor has?
(Figure 9) Image of the Moses Wisner residence from 1857. Wisner affectionately referred to his home as Pine Grove because of the abundance of pine trees and land. What nickname would you give your home based on its surrounding traits?
(Figure 10) Image of the Moses Wisner house on Pine Grove as its seen today. How does it compare to the previous image of the home?
(Figure 11). A stove leg c. 1840 excavated from the Pine Grove site between 1975-1976. The portion of stove could have been from an older part of the house that was knocked down during renovations. What items do you have in your kitchen right now? Do you think you and Governor Wisner would have the same kitchen appliances back when he lived on Pine Grove in the mid-1800s?
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
An Icy Beginning
In roughly 10,000 B.C, the area that would later be called Michigan was covered in glaciers. As the glaciers slowly and unevenly receded, they left behind the swamps and wetlands that began to cover Michigan’s interior. A new ecosystem developed and attracted large animals, such as mammoths and mastodons, as well as smaller game animals like beaver and muskrat. As the larger animals migrated, they created small trails that allowed for prehistoric hunters to follow and hunt them. Eventually, these trails became trading routes and used by the indigenous peoples. The trading routes were passed down through generations. In turn, remnants of the past were also left behind on these trails, including projectile points used to hunt and worked bone. One of the most well-known Native American footpaths was the Saginaw Trail. (Figures 1 and 2).
Trading on the Trails
The first Europeans to penetrate through Michigan’s interior were the French in the 1600s. Using Native American trails, they began to hunt and trap animals, such as beaver and fox, for their fur. The animal that appealed the most to them was the beaver, from which they could make expensive fur coats and hats. The French and the indigenous peoples intermingled on the trails and became trading partners, the native population would provide furs to the Frenchmen in exchange for items like needles, metal hatchets, clothes and blankets, and—probably the most destructive—alcohol. These Frenchmen were referred to as coureurs des bois (French for “forest runners”) or voyageurs. A coureur de bois was an independent fur trader who learned the practices and languages of the indigenous communities to better trade with them. While voyageurs were the ones hired by trading companies to transport the furs long distances by canoes. The French maintained a stronghold in Michigan until the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 when the British claimed it as part of their victory. After the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the land became a part of the United States. (Figures 3-5).
Developing the Path to Pontiac
A U.S. survey of the Michigan Territory conducted in 1815 declared the interior swampy, barren, and unfit for settlement. Consequently, Territorial Governor Lewis Cass arranged a second survey of the territory to make it more appealing for potential settlers. Cass also enlisted the help of several wealthy Detroiters to invest in Michigan’s outward expansion. They formed the Pontiac Company on November 5, 1818, the purpose of which was to “purchase a large tract of land and plat a new town in the wilderness.” One day later, Stephen Mack, one of the company’s members, purchased more than 1,200 acres of land along the Saginaw Trail. They named the plot of land Pontiac. Its location along the Saginaw Trail—which connected the Saginaw Valley to Detroit—became a prime location for settlers, businessmen, and merchants. An abundance of trees around the area contributed to a thriving lumber industry, as well as materials for log cabins, and plank roads. Plank roads allowed for easier transportation for horses and carriages and were built along the Saginaw Trail. (Figures 6 and 7).
Governor Moses Wisner, Pine Grove, and the Saginaw Trail
One notable man who made his home along the Saginaw Trail is Moses Wisner. Wisner was born in Springport, New York, on June 3, 1815. During his youth, he attended common school while working on his parent’s farm. In 1837, he purchased land in Michigan in Lapeer County with the goal of becoming a farmer. He failed miserably. He later moved to Pontiac to study law and moved back to the Lapeer to practice law after being admitted to the Bar. Then-Governor William Woodbridge appointed Wisner to serve as the Prosecuting Attorney for Lapeer County in 1841. Wisner relocated back to Pontiac in 1844 and purchased land along the Saginaw Trail. The land already had a small homestead located on it. Wisner and his wife, Angeolina, moved onto the property and began renovations on the Greek-Revival style home. They developed it into a working farm with several out-buildings, including an outhouse, smokehouse, and root cellar. When he was elected Michigan’s twelfth governor in 1858, Wisner adapted his home to accommodate his responsibilities as governor as there was no governor’s mansion in Lansing at the time.
He declined a run for governor for a second term, instead opting to organize the 22nd Michigan infantry for the American Civil War. He and the 22nd Michigan Infantry left Pontiac for Kentucky on August 25, 1862. He left the property to his wife, Angeolina. Wisner later died of typhoid fever on January 5, 1863, in Kentucky. Angeolina maintained Pine Grove until her death in 1905. The Pine Grove property was passed onto her daughter and granddaughter, Jessie Wisner Clark and later Florence Clark Wallace, respectively. In 1945, Mrs. Wallace sold the house and outbuildings to the Oakland County Pioneer and Veterans Historical Foundation. The sale also included many Wisner family furnishings.
Today, Pine Grove consists of 4 ½ acres of land and is still operated by the Oakland County Pioneer and Historical Society. The society is still offering tours of the home located on 405 Cesar Chavez Avenue. The Wisner home was listed on the Michigan State Registry in 1956 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. (Figures 8-11).
Sources
“A Brief History of Pontiac, Michigan.” Pontiac Transportation Museum. https://www.pontiactransportationmuseum.org/the-city-of-pontiac-a-powerhouse-of-industrial-history/
Durant, Samuel W. (1877). History of Oakland County, Michigan [online]. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co. Available from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/bad1021.0001.001
“THE FRENCH FUR TRADE.” Michigan State Department of Geography. http://geo.msu.edu/extra/geogmich/furtrade.html
Hinsdale, Wilbert B. (1931). Archaeological atlas of Michigan [online]. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Available from http://name.umdl.umich.edu/1265156.0001.001
Mason, Philip P. (1959). Michigan Highways from Indian Trails to Expressways [online]. Ann Arbor: Braun-Brumfield. Available from https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015009793467
Miller, Joan R. (2006). Moses Wisner, 1815-1863: The life and times of a gentleman farmer, attorney, military leader and twelfth Governor of Michigan. Charleston: BookSurge Publishing.
Muhammad, Allison June. "A Bioarchaeological Study Of A Prehistoric Michigan Population: Fraaer-Tyra Site (20sa9)" (2010). Wayne State University Dissertations. Paper 50.
Pielack, Leslie K. (2018). The Saginaw Trail: From Native American Path to Woodward Avenue. Charleston: The History Press.
“Pine Grove.” Gordon L. Grosscup Museum of Anthropology. http://www.clas.wayne.edu/anthromuseum/Pine-Grove
“Plants & Trees.” The Department of Natural Resources. https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-350-79135_79218_79615---,00.html
Rubenstein, Bruce A., and Lawrence E. Ziewacz. (2014). Michigan: A History of the Great Lakes State. Fifth edition. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.
Wisner, George Franklin. (1918). The Wisners in America and their kindred: A genealogical and biographical history [online]. Baltimore, MD. Available from https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=TNlfAAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PP1
Figure 1. Faunal remains, worked bone and antler. Tyra Collection Artifacts, Gordon L. Grosscup Museum of Anthropology, Detroit. http://www.clas.wayne.edu/anthromuseum/Tyra-Collection-Artifacts
Figure 2. Projectile points. Hunter Site Artifacts, Gordon L. Grosscup Museum of Anthropology, Detroit. http://www.clas.wayne.edu/anthromuseum/Hunter-Site-Artifacts
Figure 3. Cooper, Dennis Glen. View of the Trail to Saginaw. 1930. Dennis Glen Cooper Collection, Wayne State University Libraries, Detroit. https://digital.library.wayne.edu/item/wayne:MSS-004-002-021
Figure 4. French fur trader. Teaching with Digital Content, Illinois Heritage Association, Illinois. https://digital.library.illinois.edu/items/b309a3e0-0d92-0135-23f6-0050569601ca-6
Figure 5. Mathers, C.W. and Ernest Brown. Canada's earliest Industry. Colin Fraser, trader at Fort Chipweyan, sorts fox, beaver, mink & other precious furs. c. 1890-1900. Ernest Brown Collection, Library and Archives of Canada, Ottawa. http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=3371698&lang=eng
Figure 6. Montgomery, David H. A Settler’s Log Cabin. 1892. In book The Beginner’s American History. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18127/18127-h/18127-h.htm#chap5
Figure 7. Old Plank Road. 1930. Photographs, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul. https://collections.mnhs.org/cms/display?irn=10733010
Figure 8. Moses Wisner. (n.d.) In Wikimedia Commons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Wisner#/media/File:Mwisner-1-.jpg
Figure 9. Hess, F. 1857 Map – Buildings – Residence of M. Wisner – Pontiac. 1857. 1857 Oakland County Plat Maps, Oakland History Center, Pontiac. https://www.ocphs.org/1857-oakland-county-map/
Figure 10. Jameson, Andrew. Wisner House Pontiac MI. 2010. In Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wisner_House_Pontiac_MI.JPG
Figure 11. Metal – stove leg. Pine Grove Artifacts, Gordon L. Grosscup Museum of Anthropology, Detroit. http://www.clas.wayne.edu/anthromuseum/Pine-Grove-Artifacts