My City February 2022

MYHISTORY

George H. Durand 1874-75 Very few Flint mayors had an impact on both national and state levels as large as that of George H. Durand. Born in a small village in the Catskill Mountains of New York in 1838, Durand began his life as a farmer but

Alexander McFarland 1875-76 Also one of the more recognizable names in Flint and Genesee County, Alexander McFarland (or McFarlan) was born in 1812 and came to Flint from New York in the early 1840s. In 1850, he started the lumber –rm of Hazelton & McFarlan and purchased a mill. His mills burned a total of three times and each time, McFarlan built bigger and better. Soon, his mill and the one owned by Henry H. Crapo were the most successful in Genesee County. McFarlan began to purchase land and established a farm in Mt. Morris.“ere, he employed a man named Charles W. Nash, who went on to become president of General Motors in 1915. In 1871, McFarlan became president and the leading stockholder of Citizen’s National Bank. His son-in-law, Robert J. Whaley – who made the initial loan to a young Billy Durant and his partner J. Dallas Dort in 1886 – would soon succeed him as president. McFarlan was also instrumental in developing Flint’s downtown. In 1871, he developed a subdivision south of McFarlan Street and a year later, –nished the McFarlan and Co. North addition. In 1875, the city purchased a small tract of land which was made into its –rst park. McFarlan gifted the park with an ornamental fountain and the park was named in his honor. McFarlan Park today sits on the point where Saginaw and Martin Luther King Avenue merge. During the end of McFarlan’s term as mayor, the Flint Journal was started by Charles Fellows and Washington Irving Beardsley. Alexander McFarlan died in 1881 and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery. ®

as soon as 18 years of age, he left his family for the newer wilds of Michigan. Durand spent time teaching in Oxford, Oakland County, before meeting and studying law with William Fenton. He was admitted to the bar in 1857 and immediately opened a practice in Flint. He served on Flint’s Board of Education from 1862-67 and in 1874 was elected as a Democrat to the 44th U.S. Congress. In Congress, he served as chairman of the Committee on Commerce. In 1892, he was appointed one of Michigan’s presidential electors, as well as Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.“e next year, he was named president of the Michigan Bar Association and also appointed Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the famous Chinese and opium smuggling case in Oregon. From 1893-96, Durand worked as prosecutor in opium smuggling cases along the Paci–c, convicting nearly all defendants.“ose on trial included a relative of a U.S. senator, a chairman of the central committee for politics, a customs collector in Portland, a special agent of the treasury department, and others. It was said during his national memorial that in the opium cases, Durand “scored one of the most signal and complete victories in the history of American courts.”Durand died in 1903 and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery. During his time as mayor, Durand oversaw the construction of Flint’s –rst high school building.“e city of Durand, MI is named in his memory.

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