History!
[From the book]
History of the Feinauer Family and Their Descendants 1825 – 1960 (Kerr Printing Company, Bay City, Michigan. 1960
Life History of Johann Michael Feinauer
Johann Michael Feinauer was born September 17, 1825 in Oberschlauersbach, Mittelfranken, Bayern, Germany. At the age of twenty-three, he came to America to make his home. He migrated as far inland as Lower Saginaw, Which is now known as Bay City, Michigan. In the pioneer days they ahd no census takers so the only form of record that was kept was in the church book.
The day that all the names were signed to the church book Johann and another single man went to Saginaw. Buth the married people, seventeen in number, had their names recorded in the Frankenlust Church book.
In a week or so the two came back to Lower Saginaw again. The first winter Johann worked for a blacksmith named Geiger at Hermansau. When spring came the mill looked better to him so he worked with Mr. Hecht at what is now Frankenlust.
The next winter he turned fisherman and cook on a boat with a Frenchman. He also cleared some woods, chopping down trees where our Bay County Court House now stands.
Now that summer had come again and the days were longer, they had a little more time to think of friends and relatives in Frankenlust, but the only way they could get to see them was to use a canoe or raft to cross the Saginaw River.
It wasn’t very long before Johann had made one of his own. One day a Frenchman named LeReaux borroed the canoe to go to Saginaw. He had paddled quite a ways when he noticed something swimming in the water towards him. He started climbing into the canoe and Lo! and Behold, it was a bear. Mr. LeReaux did all he could to keep the canoe from tipping over until the bear was inside. He took his oar and hit with all his might and the oar bursted. Afraid as he was, he jumped into the water and swam to shore and ran back to Johann and the rest of his friends to tell of his experience.
The men went back to get the canoe. The bear was dead in the canoe. After bringing the bear and the canoe back all the way, Mr. LeReaux wanted nothing of it. Mike took the bear and skinned it. He took it to his sister Christina Weiss in Frankenlust and tacked it up in the log house.
They really intended to dry it, but it was not tanned so it was runined. Now he went back to Hecht’s Mill again to cut shingles. After working for a while he decided to buy a farm.
As soon as $200 could be gotten together, he bought a farm across the road from the Michigan House on the present West Side Saginaw Road. He didn’t have this farm long when he sold it to Postmaster Schmidt for $200 and bought four lots on 10th and Waters Streets. He then built a house and worked at Catlin Mill as tail sawyer but it wasn’t long before he was promoted to head sawyer.
The urge to own a farm was still there and he soon bought another forty acres on the Ridge Road. Here he moved his family after he had cleared some land and built a house. He did not stay long on this farm with his family when he sold and moved on the west side of the river.
More to come…….
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