Written by Kate Tobbe Ptak.

TIMES IN GENERAL

Now that I have introduced W.P. Kavanaugh to you, I am going to review the exciting times that W.P. lived in.  Hopefully this will refresh your memories of the advance of technology and it’s impact on daily life. 

The Industrial Revolution, begun in the 1750’s, made it possible to use mechanical equipment to make life easier. Rather than relying on exclusively human made, animal powered, or wind and water powered means, by using machines, people and goods were able to get around more quickly and easily, more things were produced, transported, sold, and used. In 1769 Watt’s separate condenser model introduced the way for the steam engine to be invented.  After that breakthrough, other major changes include:

1804: The first steam locomotive

1831: Electricity harnessed as a useful power source

1835: Natural gas first used industrially - the beginning of oil drilling and production

1859: First successful gas engine

1878: Gas engine became a commercial success

1879: The light bulb

1885: Engines for the “horseless carriage” – the prototype of the modern automobile

1895: Radiotelegraphy – wireless communication for long distance person to person messaging

Due to these and many other developments, all major industries were affected: agriculture, automobiles, chemicals, communications, commercial fishing, metals, military, printing, textiles, and transportation¹.

BAY CITY – BEGINNINGS TO THE DAYS OF W.P.

Let’s recall that lumber was king at the time of the founding of Bay City in 1865. Lake Huron and the Saginaw River proved an excellent highway for the lumber that was cut in the north woods. Soldiers came home after the Civil War looking for work and became lumbermen. They spent November through March up in the lumber camps where alcohol and women were not allowed. So, with the spring thaw about 5,000 lumbermen who had been working non-stop in brutal conditions, came to Bay City to spend their $150 paychecks².

Image: Local Bay City Bar during the lumbering era. (Source: Bay County Historical Society) 

 

Hell’s Half Mile on Water Street, along Bay City’s waterfront, was where these lumbermen would come to spend their paychecks on alcohol, hotels, entertainment, women, and shows.  When their money ran out, they would then farm, work in the sawmills, or find any other work they could. The cycle would repeat year after year².

A major development that sparked a sharp increase in industry and population was the arrival in 1867 of the first railroad that connected Bay City to Saginaw and from there to the rest of southern Michigan and the country. In 1886, a common carrier railroad line extended to the north from Bay City to Alpena. Bay City was a community growing in population and industrial diversity, guaranteeing survival for the future.

The growth and diversity of business and industry was reflected in the population figures from the U.S. Census.  In 1870, the citizenry of Bay City totaled 7,064 and 10 years later, the figure nearly tripled to 20,693. By 1890, the population had grown to 27,839. Every business needed cheap labor, and a large influx of immigrants arrived to fill the need. They brought with them their language, their customs, and their faiths, which meant new churches sprang up in just about every neighborhood. Along with those churches, many denominations had their own parochial schools, but it was St. James Catholic School, from grade one through twelve, built in 1873, that contained the first parochial co-educational high school in America.² St. James was the Irish parish in Bay City and the school was attended by W.P.'s children and the Kavanaugh grandchildren.

Bay City was thriving, originally fueled by the logging industry. The use of Lake Huron and its rivers by the logging industry to move logs from the lumber camps to Bay City had damaged a thriving fishing industry. This practice seriously impacted the natural fish hatcheries and habitats along the shoreline, the rivers and river mouths. In the 1890s, the logging industry began to fade, and the fish population began to recover³.

More industries evolved, including coal mining, railroads, commercial shipping and commercial fishing, which became a leading industry along Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay, which were teaming with fish. Bay City/Essexville became a center for processing fish to be delivered locally and beyond.

 

Image: Busy Day in Bay City (Source Bay County Historical Society)  

Other industries included flooring manufacturers, carriage makers, many of those evolving into manufacturing cars and trucks, and livery shops that evolved into gas stations and auto repair businesses. As the population grew, there was an additional need for clothiers and tailors, household items, furniture and dozens of other manufactured goods, and retail stores².

As a young boy, W.P. witnessed all the excitement of new inventions that changed how Bay City grew as a boom town.  He may have even arrived by train.

In 1884, at the age of 14, W.P. left the family home and went to work as a laborer. I think that as an enterprising young man he saw opportunities to take advantage of all the options for building a business career in a thriving Bay City.

I also think he may have worked for the next two years in many businesses, possibly finding seasonal jobs, learning about many industries and commercial businesses.  He may have even spent a season or two on a fish boat, learning the everyday practical aspects of that business first- hand. 

In 1816, when he started to work for Sol Richardson, he may not have known that this was going to be the industry that he would be involved in for the rest of his life.  This job introduced him to the commercial business side of the fish industry.  That coupled with some possible experience on a fish-boat, would set him up for his quick building of a multi-faceted business stretching all along the western Lake Huron shores, processing and shipping fish locally and as far as New York City’s Fulton Fish Market.

 

Sources: 

1      https://www.britannica.com/technology/history-of-technology/The-20th-and-21st-centuries

2      https://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/2015/07/bay_city_at_150_lumber/ruled_a.html

3      https://www.hrwc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Michigan-Fisheries_-200-years.pdf