Winfield Scott Gerrish

Winfield Scott Gerrish, deceased, son of Hon. N.L. Gerrish, of Cadillac, and brother of Mrs. Rose Quigley, of Evart, was born Feb. 15, 1849, in Lee, Penobscot Co., Maine. He was early trained in the details of the lumber business in all its branches, his father being engaged in that business in Maine during his early boyhood. In 1857 he accompanied his parents to Wisconsin, whence, in 1861, they removed to Croton Township, Newaygo Co., Mich.

Hon. Nathaniel L. Gerrish, now of Cadillac, was born in Dover, Maine, Feb. 16, 1819. He grew to manhood amid the influences of the leading industry of the Pine-Tree State, and was a born and bred lumberman, passing his entire life thus far in the various avenues of that branch of business. He was married Feb. 12, 1843, in Lee, Penobscot Co., Maine, to Caroline Gatchell, and they became the parents of four sons and three daughters, namely: Ebenezer W., Rose A. (Mrs. Quigley), Winfield Scott, Leslie F., Mary A. Abner H. and Esther C. The son, W.S., when 12 years of age, was in strong and active boyhood, eager to begin his share in the work of the world, and, with his inherited tastes and inclinations, was trained by association and circumstances in the business to which his father devoted his life and mabitions. Young Gerrish was primarily educated in the public schools, and in 1864, when 15 years old, was sent to Grand Rapids, to the academy, where he remained one season, receiving meanwhile an appointment as cadet in the naval school at Annapolis. He matriculated there in 1865, but, finding the career of a midshipman distasteful and irksome, with his father's approval he abandoned the position at the end of his first year, and returned to Michigan to enter upon an active business career as a lumberman.

He was 18 years old in the winter of 1867, and during that season he began operations as a lumberman on his own responsibility, and took a contract to "put in logs" on the Muskegon, along which line he operated during the remainder of his life. In 1869 he settled at Hersey, where he was a resident eight years. In the autumn of 1873, he made an extensive logging contract with Messrs. Avery & Murphy, to put in a large amount of logs on the Tom and Dock Creeks, in which he experienced difficulties of an unusual character, chiefly of which was the shrinking of the streams to the proportions of a rivulet, an obstacle which required the building of dams and draining of lakes to raise the building of dams and draining of lakes to raise the creeks to a height necessary for the accomplishment of the business. The terms of the contract were finally fulfilled, and the reputation Mr. Gerrish won for perserverance under embarrassments that would have daunted and baffled men of larger experience, was infinite value to his future career. John L. Woods, the veteran developer of the lumber interests of the north of Michigan, becoming interested in the pluck and perserverance of the young lumberman, and recognizing the value of his predominating traits of character, made him a proposition to take an interest in a tract of 12,000 acres owned by him on the upper waters of the Muskegon, which he accepted, believing it to be the opportunity of his life, and which afforded a broad field for the exercise of his abilities. In 1874, associated with E.H. Hazelton and others, he purchased a large tract of timber land in town 18 north, 5 west, Clare Co., Mich., a location considered practically worthless for lumbering, as it lay remote from the river. While attending the Centennial at Philadelphia, in 1876, he observed in Mechanic's Hall a small Baldwin locomotive, whose operations usggested to his practical mind its feasibility as an accessory to the chaievement of a lumber project in Clare County. A vivid picture of a horse that could draw logs without snow painted itself on his imagination, and he returned home with perfected plans for the accomplishment of the enterprise. In January, 1877, the first logging railroad in the United States was built, and connected Lake George in town 18, 5, with the Muskegon River, a distance of six miles. Within the following year the road was extended. During the first year it was operated, the "put" was 20,000,000 feet; with the new facilities in 1879 the "put" reached a maximum of 114,000,000. In the spring of that year Gerrish & Woods bought an interest in the Hamilton mill at Muskegon, where the former fixed his residence in 1880. Mr. Gerrish, within that year, purchased a share of the Wilson mill at Muskegon and continued to hold a proprietary interest in several shingle-mills. In 1880, also, he made a purchase of the Saginaw Bay & Northwestern Logging Railroad, buying the route in company with W.J. Miller. During the next two years the firm transported 90,000,000 feet of logs annually on its track.

In 1879 Mr. Gerrish passed the most active year of his business career. He banked and put into the Muskegon River 130,000,000 feet, and in the year following put in 100,000,000 feet. During these two years he was recognized as the champion individual logger of the world. The maximum number of men employed by him in his varied interests in 1880 was 4,000 in round numbers.

Mr. Gerrish was married July 1, 1869, to Lina W. Probasco, of Croton, Mich. He died in Evart, May 10, 1882, at the residence of his sister Mrs. Rose A. Quigkley. He was a man of the keenest moral sensabilities, and an earnest advocate and promoter of temperance principles. He was himself an abstainer from the use of liquor in the strongest sense, never tasting it in any form. At the time of his death he was engaged in the construction of an elegant residence at Muskegon, at a projected cost of $30,000.

The publishers of thos work take a peculiar satisfaction in presenting the portrait of Winfield Scott Gerrish. It is a perpetual memorial to the life and influences of its prototype, and adds a special value as does the record of his busy career. see the page preceding the commencement of this sketch.

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