Singapore, Michigan

It was a casualty of erosion after the surrounding woods were deforested—exacerbated by the need for lumber to rebuild several Midwestern cities and towns ravaged by fires in 1871.

It was founded in 1836 by New York land speculator Oshea Wilder, who hoped to build a port town to rival Chicago and Milwaukee.

There are a few known full sheets before they were cut into individual notes, sometimes signed and sometimes unsigned by the bank president or authorized personnel at the time.

[6] Artemas was more innovative than his brother, and very soon after arriving, he and Stockbridge built the first three-masted schooner on Lake Michigan, dubbed the Octavia, to carry lumber from Singapore to Chicago.

After fires swept through Chicago, Holland, Peshtigo, and Manistee and Muskegon Michigan in late 1871, the area around Singapore was almost completely deforested to supply lumber for rebuilding.

Just as the "cow kicking over the lantern" story was born out of the Great Chicago Fire, this event also gave birth to a legend.