SALT ENTERPRISE IN MICHIGAN. 273 



The gypsum business at that point grew into an indus- 

 try of large importance. 



I proceed now, from a sense of duty to the interests 

 of truth, to make some statements aimed at a certain 

 little popular delusion. Soon after the successful issue of 

 the salt enterprise in the Saginaw valley, certain ancient 

 wiseacres gave it out that Dr. Houghton had always held 

 the Saginaw valley to be the center of the salt basin of 

 the peninsula. They had been personally intimate with 

 Dr. Houghton. He was the orif^inal discoverer of the 

 existence of salt underneath the valley. So they dwelt 

 on the far-seeing sagacity of Dr. Houghton, and dilated 

 on the interest of the delayed fulfillment of his predic- 

 tions. The pseudo-tradition went into the newspapers. 

 Then it was copied into the pamphlet histories of salt 

 development. Then it outcropped in official reports, and 

 went on record from the pens of men who only knew 

 that such claims were afloat. 



Now Dr. Houghton was a man of superior scientific 

 sagacity and attainments. He held an honorable position 

 among the scientific men of his time. His name reflects 

 luster upon the history of the state. Moreover, he was 

 industrious. He was abundant in feasible and plausible 

 projects. He had a wise tact in the management of men, 

 and in gaining success. He never seemed to give utter- 

 ance to all he knew. He left the impression that he 

 held an immense reserve of knowledge, which his inter- 

 viewer was at liberty to magnify according to fancy. It 

 was undoubtedly a prudent spirit which restrained pre- 

 cipitancy in the enunciation of opinions or ""conjectures, 

 and kept his counsels to himself until completely prepared 



to put them into execution. It left every person at liberty 

 18 



