Happy 150 Clare County!

One of the earliest documents relating to Clare County history forms the Farwell City Company. It was formed in 1870 as a joint stock company by prominent businessmen Gurdon Corning, Lorenzo Curtis, Edmund Hall, James Hay, Thomas Merrill, James Pearson, Erza Rust, and Ammi Wright. Theses businessmen, lumbermen, and mostly millionaires invested widely in many business ventures, of which Farwell was one. Several streets in Farwell are named for founding members of the company.

Farwell was once the largest and most important community in Clare County. As the first county seat, it was the beginning of county government and a hub of lumbering and business activity. Farwell was off to a prosperous beginning, and many businesses came to Farwell to serve lumber camps, settlers, and new farmers. This was interrupted in July 1877 when the courthouse burned in a suspicious fire. The cause of the fire was never determined, but it sparked controversy and debate that continues today.

A temporary courthouse was put in use, and the squabble began over where to locate a new one. The county seat was sought after as it brought jobs, business, and prominence to wherever it was located. Clare and Farwell both lobbied for the county seat. The Michigan legislature had passed a law that county courthouses must be as centrally located as possible. Though it was still a wilderness, the town of Harrison, in the middle of the county, was being planned as the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad was making its way north.

There are conflicting stories about influential lumbermen like Winfield Scott Gerrish paying his men in drink to go to the polls for keeping the county seat in Farwell. His logging railroad was nearing the Budd Lake area as he continued to clear lumber and profits from his Lake George & Muskegon River Railroad. This story was likely newspaper fodder to rally the farmers against lumbering and business interests by claiming men like Gerrish could influence their men to vote anyway they wished.

The Farwell Register editor James “Jeems” Holden and Clare County Press editor Alvarado Goodenow fanned the fires of contention in their papers, turning Farwell and Clare against each other. The mudslinging grew personal, and much more was made of it than the real issue at hand-where to locate the courthouse.

Eventually, the vote was accepted that the courthouse would be located in the future town of Harrison. This move likely saved the future City of Harrison, as by 1920 it had a population of only 400. Without the county seat it would have become a four corners ghost town.

Farwell was officially incorporated as a village in 1879. The City of Clare and the City of Harrison became incorporated as cities in 1891.

If one is raised in Clare County and wonders where the fierce rivalry between community’s stem; it’s much more than just high school sports. For over 150 years, three small communities have vied for the dubious honor of the best town in the county.

The lumbering industry gave way to oil, farming, tourism, and small industry. Train service made it easy to travel to the Clare county area, and later the automobile made tourism successful by bringing city dwellers up north to north to enjoy hunting, fishing, boating and other outdoor sports year-round.

 All three communities and their historic neighborhoods have weathered the ups and down of the economy, recessions, wars; good times and bad to be called home.