Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Saline
    Saline
    Saline
    Ebook154 pages40 minutes

    Saline

    By Susan Kosky

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Since settlers first arrived in the early 1800s, the city of Saline has developed into a strong community with deep cultural roots. This informative book documents Saline's development and progress, exploring settlement, transportation, agriculture, architecture, business, and education through rare archival photographs. Author Susan Kosky takes readers on a detailed visual tour of Saline's rich history, revealing the remarkable people, places, and events that have shaped the area and made it what it is today.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439631249
    Saline
    Author

    Susan Kosky

    Susan Kosky has an M.S. in Historic Preservation from Eastern Michigan University and is a member of numerous historic preservation organizations. Also a member of the Saline Area Historical Society and the Washtenaw County Historical Society, she serves as the manager of the gift shop at the Museum on Main Street.

    Related to Saline

    Related ebooks

    United States History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Celebrating Black History on Staten Island

      Apr 1, 2020

      Celebrating Black History on Staten Island
      2 min read

    • Article

      Cast in Iron?

      Apr 2, 2020

      Cast in Iron?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Looking Back 200 Years

      Mar 16, 2020

      Looking Back 200 Years
      4 min read

    • Article

      Mosaic

      Mar 24, 2020

      Mosaic
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Midwest Main Street

      Apr 5, 2022

      The Midwest Main Street
      5 min read

    • Article

      Presenting The Panhandle

      Mar 1, 2022

      Presenting The Panhandle
      4 min read

    • Article

      Frio Town, Texas

      Sep 24, 2019

      Frio Town, Texas
      3 min read

    • Article

      Pieces Of History: The Story Of Gee’s Bend

      Aug 4, 2021

      Quilts are what propelled the small community of Gee’s Bend into the headlines, so it is fitting their quilts tell the Gee’s Bend tale… Long before the quilts of Gee’s Bend hung in museums of Fine Art, the women of Boykin, Alabama were making quilt

      6 min read

    • Article

      Equality On The Plains

      Oct 1, 2019

      Equality On The Plains
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Other Billie

      Dec 4, 2018

      The Other Billie
      5 min read

    • Article

      West Words

      Sep 29, 2020

      ‘The greater portion of the laborers employed by us are Chinese, who constitute a large element in the population of California. Without them it would be impossible to complete the western portion of this great national enterprise within the time req

      3 min read

    • Article

      Hawkinsville, Colorado

      Nov 8, 2022

      Hawkinsville, Colorado
      2 min read

    • Article

      Buried histories

      Oct 4, 2022

      Buried histories
      14 min read

    • Article

      Gene Autry in Oklahoma

      Mar 5, 2024

      Gene Autry in Oklahoma
      6 min read

    • Article

      Cherry Creek, Nevada

      Jul 28, 2020

      Cherry Creek, Nevada
      3 min read

    • Article

      Accessing BC History in 2020

      Dec 4, 2020

      Accessing BC History in 2020
      11 min read

    • Article

      Front Words

      Sep 15, 2023

      Happy 90th anniversary to City of Vancouver Archives. Its collection captures the city’s story through 7.2 million photographs, 6,800 maps, 2,800 audio recordings, documents measured in kilometres and terabytes of digital material. How did it begin?

      4 min read

    • Article

      Chief Buffalo Goes to Washington

      Dec 4, 2023

      Chief Buffalo Goes to Washington
      16 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Saline

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Saline - Susan Kosky

      Collection.

      INTRODUCTION

      Saline in the twenty-first century is a growing community. As in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, new families are continually moving into the area, bringing their cultures and histories with them. Hopefully this book will introduce them to the Saline that was—and for the old timers, will be a source of fond memories.

      The Saline River was named by early French fur traders and explorers who derived its name from salt reserves found in the area. Before pioneer settlement in the 1820s, the French, Native Americans, and many animals were attracted to the region because of the salt. In 1817, the Saline area was one of six sections of land conveyed to the University of Michigan, still in Detroit, by Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi Indians as a potential site for educational benefits for Native American children. The Saline site was eventually rejected, and a salt spring along the Rouge River chosen instead. Salt reserves have been documented on two known area sites: 8784 Saline-Macon Road, once the Ruckman-Finch farm, and 550 S. Ann Arbor, once the home of A.W. Barr.

      Mr. Barr found Native American artifacts on his property, however the location of burial grounds or a village has never been found. Canoes could come to Saline from Lake Erie on the Saline and Raisin Rivers, so it is possible that Native Americans camped here, but did not establish a village. In a piece from the 1886 Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collection, F.A. Dewey recounts his 1829 travels through the Saline area, noting the salt springs and the remains of a military barracks from 1814 used by General Harrison’s army to defend the area from Indian attack. Orange Risdon, the man who surveyed the Detroit to Chicago Road (now US-12), also documented Native American villages on his 1825 survey map. The closest to Saline at that time was in the Macon area. In fact, the Detroit to Chicago route that Risdon surveyed as a military road was the Great Sauk Trail, one of six Native American trails in the Saline area.

      Risdon came to Michigan in 1823 and apparently liked the Saline area enough to eventually make it his home. Although Leonard Miller is credited with building the first log cabin in the area on the Saline River near the salt springs in 1826, Orange Risdon is celebrated as the founder of Saline.

      Returning to the area in 1824, Risdon purchased 160 acres of land in Section 1 of Saline Township. In addition to building a house in 1829 on the west end of his property, much of Risdon’s land was eventually donated for various buildings. North-south roads to Ann Arbor, Tecumseh, and Monroe crossed the Chicago Road, making it an ideal site for settlement. Platted by Risdon in 1832 to be six city blocks with the Chicago Road as its main street, the hamlet was officially called Saline, named after the river running through it.

      Settlement in Saline took place from approximately the 1820s to the 1850s. Pioneers came primarily from the eastern states, many by way of the Erie Canal, which was completed in 1825. Access to the area using Native American trails and the Saline River encouraged settlement. Homes, churches, and businesses gradually formed the community of Saline. In 1848, Haywood’s addition stretched the hamlet to the west. The surrounding townships of Lodi, Pittsfield, York, and Saline gradually became a patchwork of farmsteads, cultivated fields, and woods. Country schools began to dot the area. During this period farmers engaged in subsistence farming, growing and making what each family needed to survive, and sharing or bartering with neighbors if there was an excess in production.

      In 1866, contiguous portions of Lodi, Pittsfield, York, and Saline Townships incorporated to form the Village of Saline. Two things happened in the second half of the nineteenth century that influenced the lives of Salinians. One was the industrial revolution in the United States and its innovative tools, which enabled people to create new styles in architecture, build new businesses, and survive life on the farm a bit easier. Agriculture evolved into a business rather than just a means of survival. The second occurrence was the arrival of the railroad in 1870,

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1