After the Settlers Came 

Partial History of August Bargehr in Big Rock, Michigan

AUGUST BARGEHR was from Insbruck, Austria and his wife Caroline Liedermann
was from Vienna. The Bargehr's and baby daughter Thoma came to the Big Rock
area in the fall of 1878. August Bargehr homesteaded the SW 1/4 of Section 7, T30N,
R2E and he received title to the land on January 30, 1885 at the Detroit Land Office.
They had a daughter Anna born on October 1, 1883. Caroline Bargehr died after
giving birth to twins Alfred and Caroline on October 30, 1885. Unable to care for
four small children and also run his farm,  August Bargehr sold his land to Joseph
Remington on July 7, 1886 and returned to Innsbruck, Austria. August Bargehr
served as the American Consul at Insburck and he died on May 12, 1912.

    The small community of Big Rock was one of several small towns that sprang up in
Montmorency County during the 1880's. Most of these towns were basically logging
camps, their economies tied directly to the logging industry. When all the trees were
cut and the loggers moved away the towns disappeared. Big Rock, however, was
settled mainly by farmers who came to live permanently on the land. Big Rock was
named after a large granite boulder that is located on the Big Rock Historical Site 5
miles west of Atlanta. 

    The old Meyer family oral history tells us about the first two families that settled at
Big Rock. This oral history was written down in 1966 by Ross Stevens from an
interview with Henry Meyer and this narrative was published in the Montmorency
County Tribune on February 2, 1967. According to this history the first two settlers
were August Bargehr of Innsbruck, Austria and Charles Meyer of Oldenburg,
Germany. The two men had met and become friends while attending college in
Vienna. In the summer of 1877, because of poor economic conditions in Europe, the
two men decided to come to the United States which they had heard was the land of
opportunity and freedom. So they packed up all their possessions and they bought
tickets on a boat to New York. Bargehr brought his wife, Caroline (Liedermann)
who was expecting a child and Meyer brought his wife Louise (Knacht) and small son
Hans. Caroline Bargehr gave birth to daughter Thoma shortly after arriving in New
York. The men had heard that there was government land available in Michigan so
they traveled to Detroit where there was a Government Land Office. There they were
told that there was land available in Montmorency County in northern Michigan so
they left their families in Detroit and they took a boat up to Alpena. Accompanied by
a government surveyor they hiked 45 miles to what is now the Big Rock area and
located their land. They then returned to Detroit and they applied for their homesteads
on October 19, 1877. They and their families then boarded a train to Otsego Lake and
there they hired a wagon and a team of oxen to take them into the wilderness. They
travelled east on the state road that ran to the Otsego/Montmorency county line and
then they took a narrow wagon trail that went across Montmorency County and on to
Alpena. By the time they got to the William Proctor homestead in Section 2, T29N,
R1E it was November and the snow was starting to fall so they pitched their tents and
camped on Proctors land.

    During the winter they surveyed and started cutting a road from Proctors to their
homesteads in Section 7, T30N, R2E. As the men weren't experienced woodsmen it
took them almost a year to complete the road. They then hired another wagon and
team of oxen to bring their families in. In September of 1878 they pitched their tents
beside a spring that was just west of the present Meyer house. As it was too late to
build a log house before winter set in they stayed in the tents that first winter. Getting
food supplies was a big problem as the nearest store was 30 miles away in Otsego
Lake. Bargehr and Meyer didn't have horses or oxen so they had to carry in all their
food supplies in heavy packs on their backs. During the winter when the snow was
deep this was a very difficult task. During the fall and early winter they hunted game
but in the depths of the winter game animals would have been hard to find. The oral
history says that during that first winter the families almost starved to death. Bargehr
and Meyer's problems were compounded by the fact that they were totally isolated
and there were no other settlers living near them that they could turn to for help. But
the next year things improved as more settlers began to arrive.

    According to Lewiston in the Lumbering Era by Herman L Miller, the State of
Michigan began building a road from Torch Lake to Alpena in 1869. By 1873 this
road had been built as far east as the Montmorency/Otsego County line. This road still
exists and is known as the Old State Road. Merchants in Alpena then cut a wagon
road across Alpena and Montmorency Counties to connect with this road. They could
then get their supplies in the winter when Lake Huron froze by having them shipped
up to Otsego Lake by train and then hauled to Alpena by horse and sleigh. The Alpena
to Otsego Lake wagon road and the road cut by Bargehr and Meyer provided access
to the Big Rock area and other settlers began arriving. Peter Dickman, George
Kingsland and Manley Otto are know to have arrived by 1879. Seth Gillet, Charles
and Frank Hilderbrant and Joseph and William Remington had arrived by 1882. At
least nine more had arrived by 1883 including Jeremiah Mckenzie, John and George
McClenathen and Clarence A Rice. And 13 more had arrived by 1887 including
Alonzo B Valentine, George W Manier and Moses Beltz.

    The first official mention of Big Rock was on March 22, 1882 when Seth Gillet
opened a post office by that name. The exact location of this post office is unknown
but from an old photo it was in a log building that looked to be on the same site as the
later store. An archeological dig at the Big Rock Historical Site showed that another
building may have sat on the site. However, this post office was closed and transferred
to A J West's new town of Atlanta on October 2, of that year.  The first recognized
town in the area was called Remington and began on May 26, 1884 when William H
Remington opened a post office by that name. No traces of this town now exist but it
was believed to have been near the lake. An 1884 Michigan Gazetteer shows the town
had a population of 12 and consisted of a store, post office, hotel and flourmill. 
William H Remington was the storekeeper and post master, Seth Gillet was the
hotelkeeper and August Bargehr was the flourmill operator. Bargehr's flourmill was
located beside a creek and was powered by a waterwheel. To provide more power
Bargehr built a dam across the creek that created a small lake that is now know as
Lake Inez. Gillet's hotel is believed to have burned in 1885 but the store near the lake
was maintained until about 1894.

   The town was renamed Big Rock when Wallace Gillet opened a post office by that
name on December 14, 1885. This post office was probably located in the log building
near the big rock. In November 1885 Set Gillet filed for a homestead on 120 acres that
included the 40 acres where the big rock and post office were located. Gillet built a
log house beside the small creek that was just east of the big rock. An 1887 Michigan
Gazetteer shows the population of Big Rock was now 20. Charles Meyer now had a
blacksmith shop and there was now a school as C A Rice was now the school
inspector.

   As more families with children came into the area the need for a church and a
school arose. On August 16, 1887 Clarence A Rice and his wife Emma, Joseph
Remington and his wife Mary and Sarah J (Monroe) Speiss met at the C A Rice home
and the Big Rock  Church was formed. Also about 1887 the Burrows and Rust
Lumber Company donated 2 acres of land to be used as a school ground and a small
log school that held 7 pupils was built. It was later replaced by a larger frame building
that held 30 pupils.  A frame building was built across the road from the post office
that was used as a Grange hall and community building. Dances, suppers and
community meetings were held there. In 1896 the small frame Big Rock Church that
sat on the hill just east of the big rock was completed. The little village was now
complete. Big Rock was not a true village with closely grouped houses but was a
spread out rural community with the nucleus at the site of the store, school and
church. Most of the people who lived at the Manier Road settlements, the west side of
Kellyville and the Baker Road settlements got their mail at the Big Rock post office,
attended the Big Rock Church and considered themselves Big Rock residents.

    William H Remington became postmaster again on November 29. 1889. An 1893

Michigan Gazetteer shows Big Rock, population now 30, as a thriving community
with a post office, general store, blacksmith shop, sawmill, lumberyard, church and
school. There was a three times weekly stagecoach service to Atlanta and Gaylord.
The gazetteer shows William Remington as postmaster and general store owner and
Levi Decker was the lumber merchant, Moses Beltz, James Remington and Clarence
A Rice were Justices of the Peace. Eber Monroe was the school teacher and Alonzo B
Valentine was the County Surveyor. The small steam powered sawmill was located
just east of the creek and the big rock.  Ashbel P Monroe became postmaster on
December 13, 1893 and his post office was located at his house  that sat on top of the
hill just west of the big rock. Jesse D Rogers became postmaster on January 6, 1896.
As the 1903 plat map shows that he owned the 40 acres where the big rock was
located, his post office was likely in the old log building.

    On May 19, 1904 William H Remington became postmaster for the third time and
about this time he bought the big rock site. The old log post office was torn down and
a larger frame post office and store building was built. He also built a two story house
behind the store and a big red barn near the creek. The house burned in 1913 and
living quarters were then built onto the west side of store. Most of the houses built by
the first settlers were probably small log houses. But once the sawmill was brought in
lumber was readily available and larger frame buildings began to be built.  In 1890 a
two story house was built on the Manier homestead and another two story house went
up on the Meyer homestead. In the 1890's Clarence A Rice built a two story house on
his homestead and James Remington built a large Victorian style house across the
road. 

    Three other schools were built in the Big Rock area to accommodate the scattered
population. The Kellyville school was two mile north east of the store and served the
people in that area. The McKenzie school was two miles southeast and served the
people who lived along what is now Baker Road. From the 1880's to the 1930's there
were three different school buildings on the Manier Road. The first was just west of
the Manier homestead. When it burned a second school was built one half mile west.
This school apparently burned and a third school was built across the road from where
the first school sat. Another notable building near Big Rock was the County Poor
Farm house. In the 1890's George Kingsland sold most of his homestead to
Montmorency County and a large three story house and a large barn were built. The
inmates worked the farm to pay for their keep.

    Telephone service was available at Big Rock by the early 1900's as a photo of the
store taken about 1912 shows a telephone pole just east of the building. In this early
telephone service all the phones were connected together in a party line. Listening in
was a common practice and, needless to say, no one had any secrets in those days. On
September 30, 1920 the Big Rock post office was closed and all mail deliveries were
made from the Atlanta post office. By the 1920's automobiles became a common
mode of transportation at Big Rock. An auto repair shop was built across the road
from the store by Joseph H Remington and a gasoline pump was installed in front of
the store. The auto shop closed about 1935 and the building was then used as a feed
store and storage building.

    If you mentioned hearing chugging railway engines and train whistles at Big Rock
to an modern resident they would think you had stayed out in the hot sun too long. Yet
the people of Big Rock were familiar with the sights and sounds of trains passing
through during much of the first 50 years. There were two railroad lines built into the
Big Rock area. The first was a narrow gauge line that was built by the lumber
companies in the 1880's or 1890's to haul out the pine timber. This railroad came
down from the north, from an area near Valentine Lake. Some evidence of it could be
seen in the 1940's but no traces of this line now exist.  

    The second was a standard gauge line that was built by the Michigan Central
Railroad to haul out the hardwood logs cut by the Kneeland-Bigelow Company.  This
line came north from Lewiston to Gaylanta Lake and then down the K-B Valley to the
K-B store. It then looped south around the hills southwest of Big Rock and then came
north, crossing the main road just east of the church. There was a Y 1/4 mile north of
the store where the trains could be turned around. A spur line branched off south of
the K-B farm and ran north, crossing the road 1/2 mile south of the C C Rice farm and
ended at a big banking ground. Another spur ran south from the K-B store and along
the west side of McCormack Lake. There was another Y just north of the K-B store.
There was also a spur that ran east to just south of the Baker farm. These railroads
were used mainly for hauling logs and people had to go to Lewiston for passenger
service. However, the conductor would let some Big Rock people ride in the caboose
at times. After the hardwood logging ended the trains stopped running and the rails
were pulled up in the 1930's. The last train whistle echoed over Big Rock in the
summer of 1934.  

    Although pine logging operations provided an early boost to the economy of the
community of Big Rock, it was the hardwood logging by the Kneeland-Bigelow
Company that had the biggest effect. By 1900 almost all of the pine timber had been
cut but there were was still a large amount of hardwood timber in the Big Rock area.
The Kneeland-Bigelow Company was formed in 1902 and began buying up the
hardwood land. The 1903 plat map shows that the company owned large tracts of land
to the west and southwest of Big Rock. (A complete history of the Kneeland-Bigelow
Company and their operations is in "Lumbering in Early Twentieth Century
Michigan" by Herman L Miller). The Kneeland-Bigelow Company set up their
headquarters and company store 3 miles southwest of Big Rock and this area was
known as Bigelow or K-B. A number of logging camps were set up in the Big Rock
area. To gain extra income many of the Big Rock farmers worked at the logging
camps during the winter. Most of the hardwood logs cut in the Big Rock area were
hauled by train to the Kneeland-Bigelow lumber mills in Bay City.

    To feed all the lumberjacks working in the logging camps, the Kneeland-Bigelow
Company established a farm in the Big Rock area where they raised Aberdeen Angus
beef cattle. It was said that the K-B loggers were the best fed lumberjacks in all of
Northern Michigan. Kneeland-Bigelow bought the old John McClenathen homestead
where the main farm buildings were located. In 1920 they built a huge barn that was
the second largest in Michigan. The farm also included the S1/2 of section 13 and the
north 1/2 of section 24, T30N, R1E in Vienna Township. These areas were large
fields where hay was grown to feed the beef cattle in the winter. In the summer the
cattle foraged over the hills southwest of Big Rock.

    In 1929 the Kneeland-Bigelow Company shut down all their logging and farming
operations. However they retained ownership of large tracts of land until the 1970's.
With the end of the logging operations the economy of Big Rock fell into a decline.
The Great Depression of the 1930's made things even worse. Although most of the
Big Rock farmers were a able to ride out the depression, making ends meet was hard.
A photo of the Big Rock Church taken in 1936 shows the building to be run down and
in need of a coat of paint. The Big Rock area schools were closed about 1930 and the
children were then bussed to Atlanta. The Big Rock school burned in the summer of
1935 and all the other school buildings were torn down or moved. The McKenzie
school building was used as a community building for Big Rock for a while and was
later moved to the Montmorency County Fairgrounds. The old grange hall was torn
down about 1933 and the salvaged lumber was used to build a new house on the Beltz
homestead. In the summer of 1937 the machinery and boiler of the old sawmill was
moved to the hollow at the north side of the lake by Hans Meyer. Hans said he would
like to fire up the old mill but he died before the second growth timber got big enough
for saw logs. The mill sat there for a number of years gathering rust and was finally
sold as scrap iron.

    The history of the Big Rock store nearly ended in the summer of 1936 when a big
fire swept through the community. The fire started in a field 1/4 mile west of the store
and quickly engulfed W D Rice's barn. Hundreds of burning shingles from the barn
roof were blown eastward by the strong wind setting fire to the back of the store, the
barn and the shed that housed the sawmill. Burning shingles from the Big Rock barn
added to the windblown firestorm and fires were set as far east as Atlanta. By forming
a bucket brigade, store owner Emory Remington and several neighbors saved the store
building. Fire crews arrived from the Michigan Department of Conservation and they
were able to put out the fires and prevent them from spreading into the woods.
Luckily the fire stayed on the south side of M-32 and the Big Rock Church survived
without a smudge. It was also fortunate that the fire consumed mostly outbuildings
and fields and no one was killed or seriously injured. The fire burned a cabin just
south of the store but the elderly couple living there managed to get out. By 1937
business had got so bad that Emory Remington sold the store and left the area. This
ended the Remington family's prominent associations with Big Rock that lasted for 55
years. The store was purchased by Charles Harrison and he ran it about 10 years and
then sold it to Harvey Basch. 

    In the 1940's electric power finally came to Big Rock. Prior to this time the people
used kerosene lamps and lanterns for light and most household and farm chores were
done by hand. Even a radio was an expensive luxury as they had to be powered by
expensive batteries. In the 1930's some people installed wind powered generators
called "Windchargers" on top of their houses which provided enough power for a few
light bulbs. When the winds were calm it was back to the kerosene lamps. Some
people also installed gasoline powered generators that provided a more reliable but
still limited source of electricity. About 1942 the Presque Isle Electric Co-Op in
Onaway built power lines through the area and the store, church and most homes were
connected in the next few years. 

    Traces of the logging industry, long a part of the community, have now all but
disappeared. The sites of the logging camps and the routes of the railroads are now
overgrown with trees and brush and are very difficult to find. The buildings in the
logging camps had disappeared by the 1930's. The many acres of pine stumps that
marked the location of the groves of big pine trees that stood in the Big Rock area in
1875 have now rotted back into the earth. However, some of these areas have been
replanted to pines and are now growing pine forests. The site of the K-B farmstead
and several other farm fields have also been planted with pines. Many of the houses
and barns built by the early settlers are now gone and almost all of the small farms are
no longer worked. A few old buildings have been preserved at the Montmorency
County Fairgrounds. One is a small frame house that was built in 1882 by Asa C
Smith across the road from the C C Rice farmhouse. The other is the McKenzie
school that sat 2 miles southeast of Big Rock. It was moved to the fairgrounds in
1984.

    Several prominent buildings that survived the Depression were torn down in the !
940's, 50's and 60's. The Alex Speiss house was torn down  about 1940 and the James
Remington house about 1960. The big Kneeland-Bigelow barn and the other farm
buildings were torn down about 1950. An old two story building and the remains of a
log building that both sat in the hollow at the north side of the lake were torn down in
the late 1940's. The two story building was an early Meyer house and the log building
may have been William Remington's first store. Another old building sat beside the
road near the Meyer house. Charles Meyer and later Hans Meyer used this building
for a blacksmith shop from about 1887 to the 1940's. It was torn down in the 1950's.
The County Poor Farm was closed in 1942 and about 1945 Joseph and Alma Mouch
bought 87 acres on the east side of the property. They converted the large house into a
bar and restaurant that was know as Mouch Acres. They sold the business about 1955
and it was then known as 7 Acres. The old Poor Farm house burned about 1970 and
the area where the farm buildings sat is now a gravel and cement plant. 

    The Clarence A Rice house and the Wilfred D Rice house still stand and are
maintained in good condition. The W D Rice house is notable as it sits on the land that
Burrows and Rust bought in 1868 and is the oldest privately owned land in the Big
Rock area. The old Meyer house and the Manier house still stand. The Manier house
is notable as  a member of the Manier family still lives there. It has been fully restored
and inside it looks very much the way it did in the around 1900. The first modern
house, as it was wired for electricity and had indoor plumbing, was built by Clarence
and Ruth Rice in 1938. The barn on the property was built in 1902. Both still stand 1
mile west of where the Big Rock store once was. The old auto repair shop and feed
store burned around 1960 and the store was closed for good in 1964. The old store
building burned on April 7, 1964. The area where the store once stood, including the
"big rock" was dedicated as a State Historical site on May 25, 1991. This site is 5
miles west of Atlanta on the south side of M-32. Almost all of what was once old Big
Rock has now disappeared into the past. One other pre 1900 building still standing is
the Big Rock Congregational Church. The church has been enlarged and modified
over the years but the original frame building is part of the present structure. Except
the church, all eleven of the buildings that once stood on or near the historical site are
now gone. Only the original landmark, the big rock that was discovered by the early
timber scouts, remains unchanged.