1229 8^th Street

Architecture:

Style: Folk House

Description: This is a two-story wood frame structure with wide aluminum siding, both horizontal and vertical, and a cut stone foundation. The roofline is front gabled. A narrow vertical window is located in this gable. The porch has modern metal supports and railing. On the south side is a one story semi-hexagonal bay on a brick foundation.

Significant Period:

Construction Date: by 1860’s

Architect/Builder: Unknown

Context: Bethuel Clinton Farrand paid property taxes 1864, and lived here until at least 1873. June 2, 1874 was the water service turn on date. B.C. Farrand was born December 13, 1820 in Auburn, N.Y. The family came to Detroit in spring of 1825, then Ann Arbor in the fall where there were only ten or twelve families. His father Bethuel was the first Judge of Probate for Washtenaw County. His siblings were Jacob S., Dr. D.O., and James B. Farrand of Detroit. His twin sister was the widow of ex-governor Parsons of Michigan. B.C. began to study law in 1839 in Detroit in the office of Morey & Taylor, then with Jay & Potter. Admitted to the bar in 1843, he located to Palmer the county seat, later St. Clair. A year later, the partnership of Bethuel C. Farrand & Lorenzo M. Mason formed in Port Huron. Lorenzo went to Detroit six years later and Bethuel engaged in lumbering. B.C’s family lived in a two story home on the Fort Gratiot Reserve in 1848. The Samuel Edison family later lived there. In 1851 B.C. bought as much as 33,000 acres of timber in Burtchville and Grant Townships. He built a steam mill at Lakeport, a village he laid out and platted. One of the largest mills in the county, it was “supplied by logs brought in on a logging railroad, one of the earliest constructions of that kind in the country.” He had losses and after the panic of 1857, dismantled the mill. He resumed law in 1857, and held the office of prosecuting attorney for two terms, was city clerk, and secretary of the village of Port Huron. He married Laura W. Whitman in 1845. She died in 1852. He married Helen M. Wheaton of New Haven, Conn. in 1854. She was the principal of a young ladies school in Detroit for some years. She originated the idea of forming the Port Huron Ladies’ Library Association. His children were Caroline Laura, Emma Mary, Sarah, Nellie N., Fannie C., Bethuel Clinton, jr. and Helen M. In 1881, Elliot Stephenson lived there. Anthony Flynn, a clerk at Barrett and Goulding, resided about 1888 to 1893. John Cronan, manager of Cronan and Company, insurance and real estate, lived there about 1899 to 1901. Daniel Reilly, superintendent for Aikman Bakery, resided there in 1904. Mrs. Lauretta Begg lived there from 1906 to 1907. Thomas J. Myron, of the customs office, lived there with his wife Carrie in 1909 to 1910. Leonard Cummings, factory salesman for the Port Huron Engine and Thresher Company, lived there with his wife from 1913 to 1918. Samuel and Amelia Moskowitz lived there in 1920. Albert and Amaretta Sperry lived there from 1921 to 1933. Samuel Shewitz lived there in 1936 and William MacDonald in 1938.