How Budd Lake was Named-Harrison, Clare County, Michigan

If you have family history in Clare County that you would like to share contact Angela Kellogg at 989-539-7496 or editor@clarecountycleaver.net

Saxton Park (Budd Lake) Harrison Michigan

229 E Beech St
Harrison, MI 48625

Place names are important to historians. How things are named is always interesting and historically telling. Recently, a Budd family descendant came to the Cleaver office with a letter that proved the naming of Budd Lake in Harrison after the Budd family.

Before Harrison was named, the lake was called Budd Lake.

In January 1878 the Times Herald and the Lake County Star reprinted news from the Farwell Register.  “The Board of Supervisors of Clare county at their late session, voted to remove the county seat from Farwell to Budd Lake, near the geographical center of the county.” Few copies of Farwell Register exist so fortunately news was often reprinted from newspaper to newspaper.

By November of 1878 the name Harrison still wasn’t being used but the name of the lake was still Budd.
The Clare Press reported, “The committee appointed by the Board of Supervisors to locate the county seat, have been making an Examination of the ground, and from present appearances will probably make two reports, one favoring the vicinity of Budd Lake, and the other a location as near the center of the county as the nature of the ground will admit.”

 The family story in the letter outlines several Budd brothers living near Budd Lake in the mid-1870s.

“When Isaac, and his wife Cornelia were building their log cabin, Isaac was on the roof laying shingles, when in the distance he could see sun shining on a lake, that no one knew was there, because of his discovery, it was named Budd Lake.”

We can appreciate this family story for it’s storytelling drama for the benefit of the next generations. However, the lake was on surveys and used by Native Americans on the trace to and from Isabella and Roscommon counites. The story is not unlike many other white settler tales since Columbus discovered the new world. A wonderful family lore for naming a place.

While there were no permanent Native American settlements on Budd Lake, the Trace, also called the Isabella Trail led many settlers through the region and many modern roads follow the same path.

What is not in dispute is that the lake Harrison was built around was named Budd for the Budd families that settled early in the area. No one has ever challenged this fact and there was no need to prove it.

The brothers were born in England, immigrated to Ohio and later to Clare County. Several were civil war veterans homesteading land. Their homestead claims were in Greenwood Township but it’s entirely possible they built cabins close to Budd Lake. Farming was not feasible until the land had been timbered off.

Most of the property around Budd Lake was bought by the Wilson Bros. for logging purposes but not until at least 1879 when their Vernon Township operation moved to Harrison.

The letter and a typed history of the Budd family was donated to the historical collection at the Harrison District Library by Dawn Humphrey, a Budd family descendant.