166 



CITIES, AMERICAN. (PORT HURON.) 



pea-nut crop of Virginia and North Carolina is 

 also handled in Petersburg ; 6 factories for as- 

 sorting, cleaning, and preparing the nuts for 

 market being in operation in 1885, with output 

 valued at $900,000. During the season of 1890- 

 '91, 1,750,000 bushels were sold, realizing $1,250,- 

 000. The Atlantic and Coast Line Railroad 

 and the Norfolk and Western pass through the 

 city; while the Upper Appomattox Canal, for 

 half a century one of the great feeders of the 

 city, controls 100 miles of water-way with ample 

 facilities for manufacturing enterprises, and is 

 exempt forever from taxation by city, county, or 

 State. Daily transportation is afforded by two 

 lines of steamers. In 1889 the receipts of the 

 city treasury were $329,248, and the disburse- 

 ments $320,667 ; of which $7,308 were for the 

 fire department, $15,511 for police, and $24,500 

 for public schools. The assessed valuation of 

 real and personal property in 1890 was $9,706,- 

 445, and the rate of taxation $1.60 per $100. 

 The total bonded debt of the city was $1,223,200. 

 Of this amount $100,000 were incurred in build- 

 ing water works. Two high schools and 9 grain- 

 mar schools employ 53 teachers ; and 3,288 chil- 

 dren are enrolled. There are also 2 female col- 

 leges. The churches number 16. The streets are 

 well paved, with fine shade-trees, and there are 

 many elegant residences and spacious parks, 

 adorned with lakes of pure spring water, stocked 

 with fish, and beautified with flowers and shrub- 

 bery. The manufacture of cotton in 5 factories 

 is second only to that of tobacco. Fertilizers 

 also are made, and the granite quarries furnish 

 superior stone, which was used in building the 

 Rip Raps, the United States Custom House in the 

 city, and the State Central Lunatic Asylum in 

 the suburbs. Much is also shipped for monu- 

 ments. Three flour and 5 corn mills are in 

 operation, the former run by water and the lat- 

 ter by water and steam power ; and 3 bark and 

 sumac factories have $100,000 invested as capi- 

 tal and employ 150 persons, while 5,000 are occu- 

 pied during several months in gathering and 

 curing the leaves of sumac. Three foundries 

 manufacture tobacco and cotton presses, locomo- 

 tive arid stationary engines, boilers, saw, grist, 

 and sumac mills, elevators, steamboat works, 

 dredges, castings, forgings, and all varieties of 

 steam and hydraulic machinery, as well as agri- 

 cultural implements, finding their markets 

 throughout the Southern States. There are also 

 silk mills, factories of bags, shirts, shucks, but- 

 ter boxes, berry baskets and crates, hats, brooms, 

 and candies, and bottling works. Gas and elec- 

 tricity are employed in lighting, and street rail- 

 ways run from the center to the suburbs of the 

 city. There are 1 national, 1 savings, and 1 pri- 

 vate bank. 2 public libraries, and 2 daily, 5 

 weekly, 1 bi-monthly, and 1 monthly paper. Pe- 

 tersburg was settled in 1733, and built on the site 

 of an Indian village destroyed during Bacon's 

 rebellion. It was incorporated in 1748, and a 

 second time in 1781. During the civil war it 

 was a strategic point of great importance. 



Port Huron, a city of Michigan, the county 

 seat of St. Glair County, on the most easterly 

 point of territory in the State, at the head of St. 

 Glair river and on both sides of Black river, 

 three miles from Lake Huron. The first white 

 settlement was made in 1686 (a French military 



post) and maintained for two years. In 1790 

 7 French families settled on a favorite camping 



f round of the Indians. The place was originally 

 nown as Desmond, but the name was changed 

 to Port Huron in 1837, and in 1857 the city was 

 incorporated. In 1859 the Grand Trunk Rail- 

 way was completed from Detroit, and the con- 

 struction of the Port Huron and Lake Michigan 

 Railroad was begun ten years later. In 1879 

 the first section of the Port Huron and North- 

 western was opened to Croswell. which in 1889 

 was purchased by the Flint and Pere Marquette. 

 'The Erie and Huron Railway terminates at Sar- 

 nia, Canada, opposite the city, and in 1891 the 

 great submarine tunnel was opened between 

 the two cities, connecting the Grand Trunk Rail- 

 way of Canada with lines under Grand Trunk 

 management in the United States (see " An- 

 nual Cyclopaedia," for 1890, page 283). More than 

 75,000 cars pass throiigh Canada yearly, requir- 

 ing manifesting and inspection at Port Huron, 

 and over 1,200 cars arrive laden with foreign 

 merchandise under consular seal for transporta- 

 tion to the interior, valued at $1,000,000. The 

 city is the headquarters of the customs district 

 of Huron, and the amount of duties collected in 

 1890 was $54,545.53. For the year ending June 

 30, 1891, the amount was $180,815.32. an increase 

 of $126,269.79, attributed to the building of the 

 international tunnel. The exports to foreign 

 countries in 1890 were $10,447,553, and for 1891, 

 $9,026,239. The imports for 1890 were $2,082,- 

 124, and for 1891, $2,809,932. Thousands of 

 immigrants enter the port yearly. For the year 

 ending June 30, 1891, the arrivals of vessels at 

 the port werel,006, with a tonnage of 264,481 tons, 

 and the departures were 1,032, tonnage 283,751. 

 The total number of vessels owned in the dis- 

 trict is 443 ; by the city proper. 58. Nearly 800,- 

 000 people are carried annually by the ferry com- 

 panies. The territory covered by the city is 

 about 5 square miles. The assessed valuation 

 is $4,738,750, of which $825,900 is personal and 

 $3,914,850 real estate, on a valuation of 50 per 

 cent. The population in 1880 was 8,884, and in 

 1890, 13,543. There are nearly 12 miles of 

 streets, mostly paved with cedar blocks, but a 

 few graveled, and the sewerage mileage is the 

 same. Water works, costing $300,000, were 

 erected in 1873, and consists of two sets of pump- 

 ing machinery, with 34 miles of mains and 174 

 fire hydrants. Two paid companies constitute 

 the fire department. There are 3 handsome 

 parks within the city limits 1 presented by the 

 United States Government, of 21 acres, and an- 

 other containing a hospital and home. Another 

 park, 2 miles north, is reached by an electric 

 railway. Another electric line of street railway 

 is projected. There are 13 churches and 8 pub- 

 lic-school buildings, with 42 teachers and an en- 

 rollment of 2,500 in 1890. There is also a busi- 

 ness college, an academy (Catholic), and several 

 parochial schools, also 1 private, the total en- 

 rollment being 700. The residences number 3,- 

 500, and there are 531 other buildings. There 

 are several public halls and an opera house. 

 Four banks (1 national and 2 savings) have ag- 

 gregate capital of $385,000. One daily and 5 

 weekly newspapers are published, also a monthly, 

 the organ of the Michigan Maccabees. The 

 United States Signal Office is in the Federal 



