Whatever Became of Jacob Smith? and other family stories of Lorraine Helen Kesler

In 1819 a fur trader named Jacob Smith built a shanty in the woods and is forever known as the founding father of Flint. He may have been the first to find it but it was Lorraine Helen Keslers Howland family the whaling Quakers from Dartmouth Massachusetts who made something of it. Howland Russell a 3rd great grandfather purchased 230 acres of forest land in 1835. Today the acreage is bordered by Dort Highway Saginaw Street Carpenter Road and Pierson Road. Howland lived on Russell Road (now East Russell Ave.) and raised horses in nearby Russellville (best remembered for its famous ballroom). His cousin Henry Howland Crapo arrived next. At the time of his death in 1869 Henrys sawmills in Flint produced 90 million feet of lumber each year. He had been Mayor State Senator and was Governor of Michigan at the time. Since the trees were all gone Henrys grandson and heir William Crapo Durant went into the buggy business. His Flint Road Cart Company sold more buggies than any other company in the world and Flint became known as the Vehicle City. Then . . . it was in Flint Michigan on September 18 1908 that Billy Durant Dallas Dort and Charlie Mott establish the General Motors Corporation of New Jersey later the General Motors Corporation of America.