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HISTORY OF ALPENA COUNTY BY WILLIAM BOULTON IN 1876
Among other passengers were George X. Fletcher and family, J. R. Beach, William Pulford, Timothy Crowley and family. Miss Lockwood, and the writer of this sketch. None of the newly arrived settlers were much impressed by the appearance of the town as viewed from Miller's dock. Where was the city they had heard so much of during the past week or so? The people did not call the few saw-mills and houses that were scattered about at wide intervals a city. Wasn't the main city further up the river? No, the few houses and mills constituted all there was of Alpena in 1864. The new settlers considered themselves sold, and there was no concealing the fact that they were much disgusted at the prospects before them. In what place were the brick stores, paved streets, fine residences, and churches that form the component parts of a city? They were in the future, and existed then only in the imaginations of the enterprising founders.
The city at that time, as we remember it, consisted of Oldfleld's mill, Fletcher's mill, Boggs' hotel, and a group of buildings known as salt block, two mill boarding houses, and less than a dozen private dwelling houses, on the north side of the river; the south side being represented by Lockwood & Minor's mill, the Island mill, the Lester mill, three barn looking stores, a court-house, and about twenty or thirty dwellings or boarding houses. The only respectable private residence was a building owned by Mr. Murray,
situated on the lot now owned by Maltz & Co. on Second street.
Michigan
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