A MAJOR CLARE COUNTY HISTORIC FIND

A MAJOR COUNTY HISTORIC FIND

The Clare County Historical Society announces a unique donation. A log mark of Ammi W. Wright believed to be from about the 1870’s.   Following contact made by CCHS Member Nelda Murphy with Mike and Karen Johnson on October 2, CCHS members Andy Coulson and Jon H. Ringelberg met at the Johnson’s farm in Sheridan Township.   

The Johnson farm is on the Tobacco River where it is believed that Ammi W. Wright, a lumber baron, had a logging roll-way and a 400 acre farm.  The AMI log-mark is mentioned in an 1893 logging lien record in the Clare County Circuit Court records.   It is not recorded in the Clare County Log Mark Register which has a first entry as of October 9, 1879 that year being the year the courthouse was built in Harrison.

Karen Johnson found the log-mark near the former location of the old barns and silos on the farm about 5 years ago.  The Johnson’s donated the AMI log mark to CCHS where it will be displayed.

Log marks were used to brand log ends for identifying their owner when logs were floated down rivers and streams to be sorted at mills. Log marks are to Michigan what cattle brands were to the grazing states of Western America.