USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 33
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67
The maximum freight traffic for a single day was on August 26, 1907, when 487,649 tons of freight passed through the locks at the Soo, on 121 vessels. This vast weight, if transferred to a railroad, would load 24.382 freight cars to their full capacity of 20 tons each, which would require 609 engines to haul them, if divided into trains of 40 cars each. If consolidated into a single train of cars it would be 110 miles long-greater than the distance from Saginaw to Detroit, Saginaw to Port Huron, or Saginaw to Jackson.
The total weight of freight locked through at the Soo in a single season (April 12, to December 15, 1910), was 124,726,436,000 pounds.
The writer leaves the reader and the "School Master" to determine how long a train of cars would be if the season's freight were trans- ferred from boats to cars; and how many days it would take that train to pass a given point running constantly, night and day, at the rate of 20 miles per hour.
The largest single cargo was carried by the "D. J. Morrell" in 1908. It consisted of 13,978 tons of iron ore, equaling in weight an army of 186,373 men. The largest cargo of Inmber was shipped on the "Wahnupitae" in 1887. She was owned by the Saginaw Lumber Company and the Emery Lumber Company; loaded at Duluth and unloaded at Tonawanda and consisted of 2,409,800 feet. The largest enrgo of wheat passed through the locks at the Soo on the "I. S. De Graff" in 1908. It consisted of 422,000 bushels and was of the value of half a million dollars. To grow this single cargo of wheat would require a field of 28,013 1/3 acres, with a goverment average of fifteen bushels per acre. In other words, it would take nearly forty-four square miles of land, growing a government average erop of whent to fill this boat once. But if the yield of whent should be fifty-one bushels per acre-such as was grown by Joseph N. Welsh, in Dafter township ten miles from the locks in 1910-the arie ge necesary to supply a single cargo for this boat would be reduced to 8,27412 acres, or slightly less than thirteen sections. The Welsh field of wheat forms a subject of illustration herein, and is proof of the agricultural value of lands in the Lake Superior district.
The summary of the traffic through the locks in 1910 may be taken as a general illustration for preceding years, and the years which shall follow; except, of course, it is greater than for preceding years, and is expected to be less than in the years to follow. The total tons of freight passing through the locks for 1910 were 62.363,218. The total value of that freight was $654,010,844 or an average of $10.49 per ton. It was carried at a freight cost of sixty-two cents per ton for trans- portation, and the average distance it was carried was 840 miles. The to- tal amount paid for carrying freight was $38,710,904, and the total nom- ber of registered vessels which carried this freight was 877. The value of these vessels was $134,698,500; being an average of $154,000 each,
Digitized by Google
Dig zed by Google
LARE 2 FAIL
UNION PASSENGER DEPOT AND DOCK, SAULT STE. MARIE
252
THE NORTHERN PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN
some being much more valuable than that, and others less. The total mile-tons was 52,405,535,136, and the average cost per mile per ton was .74 mills.
The greatest distance run by any of these great freighters in any single season was 45,340 miles in 1902-a distance equal to nearly twice the circumference of the earth.
The greatest amount of freight carried by one boat in one sea- son was 339,151 tons in 1907, and the greatest number of mile-tons was 280,610,200 in 1909.
The American canal and locks were operated 224 days, and the Can- adian canal and locks were operated 248 days, which might be taken as a fair yearly average. The American vessels were ninety-four per cent and the Canadian vessels were six per cent. The average number of ves- sels per day passing through the Poe lock was 38; through the Weitzel lock 25, and through the Canadian lock 32. The total number of passen- gers transported through the locks was 66,933, of which American vos- sels carried thirty-eight per cent and Canadian vessels sixty-two per cent. No charge is made by either government for passage of vessels through the canals and locks. Each government treats the boats of the other precisely as it treats its own.
THE RAPIDS
The water of Lake Superior is discharged over a rocky incline of about eighteen feet, in the distance of about three fourths of a milc. This outlet is about one half of a mile wide, and many boulders or rocky projections in the incline cause the madly rushing waters to be tumbled and torn to foam. At no place is there a precipitous fall. The national boundary line is midway between the shores.
The Indians called this place Ba-Wa-Ting, or Pa-Wa-Teeg, which, in the Chippewa language means, "shallow water pitching over rocks." In the French language is was called La Sault, meaning "the jump," or "the leap." The river formed by the outlet of Lake Superior, of which the rapids are a part, was named "Gaston," in honor of the brother of Louis XIII, king of France. But Father James Marquette changed the name of the river from "Gaston" to St. Mary on his arrival here in 1668; which was the birth year of the present Soo, being the first settlement in Michigan and thirty-three years before the settle- ment at Detroit. The rapids being a part of the river, were spoken of in French as "La Sault de Ste. Marie," which, being literally trans- lated into English, means "The jump of the St. Mary." The "La" was never much in use, and the "de" was not in general nse; except in the name of the postoffice at this place. And while the city and the postoffice each took its name from the rapids, the city has ever been known as Sault Ste. Marie; while the postoffice was named Sault de Ste. Marie, until the latter part of the year 1903, when the "de" was omitted by order of the postoffice department ; and the official name of the postoffice from that date has bren the same as that of the city, which
Digitized by Google
253
THE NORTHERN PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN
now literally means in English, "Jump Saint Mary." In short, the place is generally spoken of as the "Soo," which Anglicized name was first officially recognized by local act No. 488, of the laws of 1905, when the name of the township adjoining the city was changed from "St. Mary's" to "Soo" by the Michigan legislature.
Many who do not understand the French, pronounce S-A-U-L-T as though it were spelled without the letter "u" in it-salt, a saline prod- uet. This is error. It is properly prononneed "So," with the "o" long and sharply accented. While in the name of the township and the name of the city (as familiarly spoken) the "oo" has the same sound as in the final syllable in Kammazoo. A letter addressed to the "Soo," comes as readily through the mails as though the full French name "Sault Ste. Marie," were used in addressing it. But those who speak of it as "The Soo" should not forget the real meaning of the word, as referring to the waters of the St. Mary's river jumping down the rocky incline of the outlet of Lake Superior.
The persons living near the rapids were referred to in the early times by French as "saulteurs." From the earliest knowledge we have of these rapids they were filled with whitefish, as was Lake Superior and its whole river outlet. The water being shallow in the rapids the Indians were, and still are, able to scoop these whitefish out in great numbers. When the French explorers first visited the rapids about two thousand Indians made their homes here, largely because they could, for the most part, subsist on the whitefish they caught in the rapids. They also congregated here in great numbers for religious purposes,
believing that Manitou, the great spirit, dwelt under the rapids and that the enormous boulders which lay all along the shores were, for the most part, hollow and filled with the souls of their departed friends. The French Jesuit fathers-the explorers of the early days-came among these Indians bearing aloft the cross of Christ and preaching the pre- cepts of His religion. For the most part they were received kindly by the Indians, who slowly adopted the new faith, which generally took the place of their strange and unreasoning superstitions.
The fur traders of the Northwest Company and the American Fur Company, with their commercialism, bringing instead of the cross of Christ, Iscodawabo (which literally means, "fire water"), or Mushku- agomee ("strong drink"), being ardent spirits to which the native In- dian took more readily than to the cross. Plenty of these liquors with some trivial merchandise of bright and pleasing colors, were given by the fur traders to the Indians for their furs. Such change of commodi- ties greatly demoralized the Indians and incited them to theft, murder, and all manner of crimes, yet greatly enriched the fur companies. Through it John Jacob Astor became the first millionaire in the United States and laid the foundation of the wealth of the Astor family. The early white settlers of the Soo were largely French, who intermarried with the Indians, and civilization through such settlement and inter- marriages began, Later, an influx of Canadians came, and now abont three-fourths of the Sooites are from Candn.
Digitized by Google
254
THE NORTHERN PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN
Visitors at the Soo are delighted with the exhilarating pastime of "shooting the rapids"-as it is popularly called- or passing down the turbulent chute of waters, in birch bark canoes with Indians for pilots. These "Che-maun" boats of the Indian-like the Indian himself-are passing from view, and soon will remain only in history. They are made from the rind of the birch, sewed together with the fine fibrous roots of the cedar or spruce, and made water tight by covering the seams with boiled pine pitch, the whole being distended over and sup- ported by very thin ribs and erossbars of cedar, curiously carved and formed together, turned up at each end like gondolas and often fanci- fully painted. They are so light that two persons may readily carry one, yet strong enough to bear up a ton's weight on the water.
There was much valuable timber in the vicinity of the Soo, and the soils were rich and fertile. Many an interesting ancedote has come down from these early settlers who first made a start in the logging camps, which was afterwards followed, as is usually in new countries, by clear- ing the land for agricultural purposes.
A descriptive story of the early logging times at the Soo is told in French dialect, and published for the first time as follows :
DREAMS OF DE LONG AGO.
'Tis hard forget dose Shankya tams W'en I was strong an' young : Dove days we of'en broke de jams, An' h'ole French songs we sung, For, w'en 1 sleep right een ma dreams Dose days com' back to me, An' som 'tams too cet realy seems 1 hear de falling tree.
I see de Shankya combouse blaze ; I see dat fire glow, She's sem 'nin b'out her warmin rays,
Joust Jak long tam ago; De men h'ar sittin roun' de camp Som' smoke w'ile odders chaw; One grin's hee's h'ax beside de lamp, An'oider files hee's saw.
Der too up'l'on dore bunks above
Dey re' singin som h'ole song Of cruel war or ten'er love Wit chorons loud an' long; An den der's some' dats playing cards Right der nex' to de wall Day 've got a pack an' chose der pards. Now soon dey'll start to quar 'll.
An nex' I bear de fiddle soun' An see de boys advance; Dey bow an den dey circle roun; Den start dat "h'ole stag dance" Dey're pretty h'awkward for a spell Unteel dey re' getting warm Den "hoe eet don, "' an laff an yell Der noise mos' drown de storm,
Digitized by Google
255
THE NORTHERN PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN
I'm feelin hongry many tams For dose h'ole careless days I'm Jonesome too to break de jams An see de comboose blaze; I can't tell w'y I feel like dat For I've got happy home But yet dose dreams dat com' at nat Dey mak' me want lo roam.
I hope dat feelin weel pas' h'off For I'm too h'ole I guess; An w'en a man ees h'ole an sof; Dats lam' he took hee's res'; We can't h'all tam' be young it seems ;- Mos' peop' fin' dat was so. Bes' t'ing I try an stop dem dreams Bout days of long ago.
THE LOCKS
The Soo locks are the largest and most famous in the world. The first lock at the Soo was built in 1797 while General Washington was yet living. It was 38 feet long and 8 feet, 9 inches wide; was located on the Canadian side: with a lift of nine feet, and was destroyed by United States troops in 1814. Oxen were the motor power employed to propel "vessels" through it. It has recently been reconstructed as a "keepsake." The first lock on the American side was constructed from 1853 to 1855 by the state at a cost of $999,802.46. There were two tan- den locks, each with a lift of 9 feet, 350 feet long and 70 feet wide and having a depth of 111% feet of water.
The present Weitzel lock (nearest the city) was constructed by the United States at the cost of $2.150,000. It was in conise of constrne- tion from May 1, 1873, until it was opened to navigation September 1. 1881. It is 515 feet long. 60 feet wide at gates, and has a chamber 80 feet wide. Its depth is 3916 feet, with a lift of 18 feet, and has 17 feet of water over miter sills. Its capacity is 1,500,000 cubic feet. It was named in honor of Gen. Godfrey Weitzel, the engineer in charge, who had gained fame with General Butler at New Orleans.
The Canadian lock was constructed between 1888 and 1895 and is 900 feet long. 60 feet wide and has 22 feet of water. It accommodates about thirty per cent of the freight traffic and about fifty-seven per cent of the passenger traffic passing the Soo.
On August 3. 1896, the new Poe lock was completed on the Amer- ican side at a cost of $4.763,865. the work of construction having been in progress nine years. It is 800 feet long, 100 wide and has 22 feet of water over miter sills. It occupies the place of the "Old State Lock." It can be filled and emptied in seven minutes. It was named in honor of Gen. Orlando M. Poe, engineer in charge of construction.
The three loeks above referred to and now in use are insufficient to accommodate the growing traffic passing the Soo, and work on another and much larger lock adjoining the Poe loek, and between it and the rapids, has just been started. Its cost will be about $6,000,000. The expenditure of this vast sum of money within the city of Sault Ste.
Digitized by Google
1
THE NEW WAY-WAITING TO BE PUT THROUGH THE LOCKS
1 1
.
Dig zed by Google
1
1
257
THE NORTHERN PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN
Marie cannot but stimulate industries generally for the next few years. The United States Government has expended in all about $15,000,000 and the Canadian Government about $5,000,000 in "aids to navigation" at and near the Soo; in the construction of locks, canals, and in deepen- ing channels.
The passage of more than one hundred boats per day through these great locks affords a fascinating and bewitching study for visitors; while a study of the locks themselves and their mechanism leads them to an appreciation of the marvels of American engineering.
THE CITY
From 1668 when the first white settlement was permanently estab- lished at the Soo, until 1874, when the village of Sault Ste. Marie was incorporated, the town was a dreamy, though picturesque, colony made np of Indians, French, and persons of English extraction and their admixtures.
The city was incorporated in 1887, and the present census shows a population within the city of 12,615, while Chippewa county (the sec- ond largest in area in Michigan), in which the city is situated has a to- tal population of 24,472.
Its early history is replete with deeds of daring and cruelty of the warlike Chippewa Indians, But the civilizing influences of the white man have got in their deadly work among them, and only a few pure- bred specimens of the "noble red man" and the "beautiful Indian maiden" remain among us; though traces of their blood may be seen in many of our good citizens. A group picture, showing the better edu- cated, progressive and respected half-breed accompanies this sketch, and may be said to be a typical illustration of the connecting link between Indian savagery and a higher civilization at the Soo. Each of these five men pictured in the group was noted for his good influences over the people from whom he descended, and his tenchings by means of moral suasion and precept were of great and lasting value to the community.
The early history of the Soo is rich in the nomenclature of its great men. Its soil wus stained by the blood shed in Indian wars and mas- saeres. Many of the spots famous in its early history are yet well known. Among them is the place where Brule, the explorer of Lake Superior, landed at the foot of the rapids in 1629, being the same place where Nicolet landed five years later, shown in a picture taken about sixty years ago, which forms a subject of the general history of this work.
Another is the house in which Schoolcraft resided and wrote much of his famous history. It still stands and is a subject elsewhere of illus- tration.
The location of the early-constructed fort is well marked, and the new government building containing the postoffice, customs office and immigration office stands within the lines which marked the famous old fort.
The ancient burying ground of the Indians on the brow of the hill Vol. 1-17
Digitized by Google
GOOD CITIZENS OF INDIAN BLOOD
From left to right: I'pper row-John Boucher and Louts Cadotie; lower ron-Milward Shaw -www.baw. Cubogam, or Chief Marquette: and John Giurnne, who was a friend of Nrhooleraft, carried the man from the Sag to the Suo, worked on the old state locka, and was superintenilent of the County Poor Farm for twelve years
Dig zed by Google
259
THE NORTHERN PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN
at the foot of Bingham avenue now forms a part of the government park along the river front. In 1905 the semi-centennial of the opening of navigation through the loeks was observed at the Soo. As a memorial of the occasion there was erected on the very site, so sacred to the minds of the early Chippewas, a magnificent granite shaft with tablets of bronze recording permanently the history of the locks. Incidentally it marks the very spot known as "the flag episode" in the life of General Cass, and the ravine, on the east side of which he halted his troops and over which he personally crossed to where the British flag floated from a high staff-but from which the British had fled to the opposite side of the river in Canada-is still preserved in the park. The flag was guarded by savage Indians whom the British had left in charge, the chief of whom stood as thongh paralyzed by fear and amazement, while the brave general personally cut down the flag which had illegally floated on American soil for so many years, after the ratification of the treaty which permanently made this territory the property of the United States. This shaft was designed by Stanford White, and was about the last. if not the very last, of that great architeet's designing before he fell a victim of the insane assassin, Harry K. Thaw. Many an other historie place which links the past to the present time is also preserved. No city in the state has a more interesting past; a more charming pres- ent, or higher hope of future thrift.
AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES
Its commercial hope rests upon the sure basis of more than 800,000 acres of rich farming lands within the county, which are producing through the culture of the sturdy farmer the very best apples, potatoes, roots, oats, barley, wheat, peas, grass, and hay, to be found anywhere. Chippewa county, in which the Soo is located, although having but one-tenth part of its area yet onder cultivation, already is producing a quarter of a million dollars worth of seed peas annually; also 22,000 tons of prime timothy hay for sale annually beyond what the farmers feed to their livestock ; while it holds the highest record for the perfec- tion of its dairy products within the state.
In recent years these lands have yielded as high as 51 bushels of wheat per acre. 93 bushels of oats, and 750 bushels of potatoes; and all over-weight. These facts prove what has long been conceded-that the further north vegetable life can be developed, the better that develop- ment.
Added to these agricultural possibilities are those of the tremendous water-power of the famons rapids, now abont to be utilized for the first time, and which furnish nulimited means of cheap service in power to be supplied for manufacturing industries, and warrant the belief that there is in store for the Soo a bright commercial future; these conditions, coupled with the fact that the pure air and chemically-pure water pre- vent all forms of bilious disorders and cure hay fever and asthma in a night, make the Soo not only a famous summer resort, but a delightful place in which permanently to dwell.
Diggilzed by Google
CHIPPEWA COUNTY OAT FIELD, YIELD 93 BUSHELS PER ACRE
Dig zedby Google
CHAPTER XIV A KINGDOM WITHIN A REPUBLIC THE RISE AND FALL OF KING STRANG AND HIS KINGDOM
The history of the Upper Peninsula has contained more than the or- dinary of eurious incidents occasioned largely by the individualism of the men at the helm on each particular occasion. At the dawn of her statehood the strange incident of the Toledo war was one, but a still more uncommon experience within the Upper Peninsula was that of the government of King Strang, on Beaver island in the county of Mackinac, in the decade beginning with 1846.
The southern shore of the easterly part of the Upper Peninsula is skirted by an archipelago which is made up of the three groups of is- lands known as the Beaver, the Fox and the Manitons. They were within the range of travel of most of the early visitors to and settlers in this portion of the country, and it is with the Beavers that this por- tion of our history has principally to deal. As the main island of this group. Beaver island is within easy reach of Mackinac, which has been prominently connected with the history of the state from its very be- ginning. it can readily be understood that the natural advantages and scenic beauty of the islands early attracted attention. There are twelve islands in the group, of which "Big Beaver" is the largest, being about twelve miles in length north and south, and with about six miles as its greatest width. Others in the group are ornamented with such eom- mon names as Garden. Hog. High, and Gull, while, to one, we find was given the classic name of Paros, and to another the apostolie Patmos. This group of islands has from the earliest, and still has the reputation of furnishing the best fishing along the lakes, being the natural home of the Mackinac tront. Big Beaver was possessed of many advantages, including beautiful hanks which rise gradually until the surface of the island stands at an altitude of from forty to eighty feet above the lake. Within the island are numerous beautiful lakes, one of which covers over one thousand acres of land; and the whole island was finely tim- bered, so that it stood out invitingly to all passers-by upon the waterway of the straits, the main highway of travel in those early days.
261
Digitized by Google
262
THE NORTHERN PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN
This country was still comparatively new and wild in 1846, and there were but few inhabitants; those of the islands in question heing fish- ermen and traders. Thus it was in that year when James Strang first visited the place and decided upon it as the site whereon to establish his kingdom.
To the strong individualism of Strang alone, and the fact that the conntry was then new and but semi-civilized, must be attributed what- ever of sneress attended his pretentious effort ; and for a time it had the appearance of being entirely successful. While the incident may be withont a parallel in the history of republican government. there are many features thereof akin to the efforts of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and John Alexander Dowie.
James Jesse Strang was born in Scipio, Cayuga conty, New York, March 21, 1813, the son of a farmer, and a descendant, it is claimed. of Henry D. L'Estrange, who came from England with the Duke of York. It is highly probable that he inherited some of the ambitions, as well as the characteristics of his pioneer ancestors of the seventeenth century, and that his christian name was in memory of the king from whom the duke obtained his valuable patents; and his mother's maiden name, likewise, was James. The planting of those ambitions in the new and virgin soil of the west resulted in the events of this chapter.
Strang was edneated in the common schools at Hanover, New York, to which place the family removed when James was a child. Like other farmer boys of his time he found that the matter of acquiring an edu- cation required persistent work which had to be accompanied by the ordinary work of the farm, but he was persistent, and as he grew to- wards the years of manhood he took up the reading of law while still at work on the home farm. He early acquired the reading habit, and being possessed of a retentive memory, he became well informed on matters in general. As a lad he was conspienons in the rural debates of the times. By those who knew him then he was described as a young man of excentric ideas, and fluent language, with an abundant knowl- edge of his own worth and an unconquerable ambition for distinction. He was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-three, having tanght school as a means of support during a portion of the time in which he pursued the study of the law. He seems to have heen restless under his early ambitions, and during his early career in the state of his birth he practiced law at Mayville, edited a paper at Randolph, and was post- master at Ellington. He was married to Miss Mary Perce, and with her removed to Burlington, Wisconsin, in 1843, where he entered into the practice of law in partnership with C. P. Barnes.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.