USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 44
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The first building of note erected was the Tilden House, named in honor of Samuel J. Tilden and built by the Chicago & North-Western Railway Company and the N. Ludington Company. It was opened to the public Christmas day, 1864, and the great New Yorker himself was among its earliest guests.
For a number of years the peninsula that forms the site of Es- canaba was known as Sand Point, and the first light house at its ex- tremity was erected in 1867. But, although Escanaba had been the county seat since 1861 and had been incorporated as a village in 1866, with the exception of the Tilden House, there were still only a few modest buildings scattered over the swampy ground upon which now stands the well-built but somewhat elongated city. In the latter year was born the first white child in Escanaba, Martin L. Dunn, which was a bright augury of a steady increase in population. But the grand facts which stood for permanent progress and growth were established communications by rail and water, and developing facilities for receipts and shipments through her lake port.
Escanaba was reincorporated as a village by the County Board of Supervisors in 1883; by legislative act, incorporated as a city during the same year, and reincorporated in 1891. It is really located on a point of land dividing Green bay from Little Bay de Noc, which ac- counts for the unusual length of its main business street (Ludington) for a place of its size and population. By the last national census (1910) this is given by wards as follows: First ward, 734; Second ward, 1,- 147; Third ward, 1,776; Fourth ward, 1,939; Fifth ward, 3,209; Sixth ward, 2,599; Seventh ward, 1,790. Total, 13,194.
GREAT ORE DOCKS
Escanaba rightly claims one of the best harbors on the lakes, it be- ing three miles wide at its entrance and of sufficient depth to float the largest freighters built. The city is one of the largest shippers of iron ore in the world. There are now six huge, electric-lighted docks on the water front, furnished with all the powerful and ingenious hoisting and transfer machinery of the day, at which thirty vessels can be loaded simultaneously. They have a capacity of 95,000 tons; some 20,000 tons can be shipped every twenty-four hours, and the actual shipments amount to nearly 6,000,000 tons yearly. Near by are also large com- mercial docks, principally for the handling of coal. The Reiss Coal Company controls this branch of the heavy freight handling, and can transfer 3,000 tons daily from vessels to the docks and cars. These coal docks are among the largest on the lakes. At the water front of Es- canaba is seen the most imposing evidences of her importance as a growing port of the Upper Peninsula.
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GREAT SHORT LINE
Through the Goodrich, Arnold and Escanaba & Gladstone trans- portation companies, and the Chicago & Northwestern and Escanaba & Lake Superior railroads, the city has ample connections, both by land and water, with all parts of the country; and her electric-traction sys- tem is unexcelled by any other city of her size in the state. The claim has been made, backed by strong proof, that no short-line road in the northwest exceeds the Escanaba & Lake Superior in amount of business transacted. or efficiency of operations. Organized in November, 1898, for use as a small logging railway, it had at beginning but twenty-six miles of track. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul wanted an entrance
ONE OF ESCANABA'S GREAT ORE DOCKS
into Escanaba. The value of this port as an ore shipping point had been proven and the big line found in the smaller one an excellent op- portunity to gain the end desired.
The Escanaba & Lake Superior, was therefore extended from Wat- son to Channing, making the main line sixty-five miles in length. Since that time the company has built logging branches into the timber at different points until the present length of the road is one hundred and fifty miles. It connects with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul at Channing, the Chicago & Northwestern at Escanaba and the Soo Line at North Escanaba. The following, from the Escanaba Daily Mirror, completes the sketch of this road in which such just local pride is taken :
"Because of its excellent situation in the midst of several great lines the company is able to handle freight with great rapidity. Through their connection with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul they are in a position to carry freight to this city from Chicago in twenty-four hours, exactly the same time consumed by the Chicago & Northwestern
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Railrond. Therefore the merchants and business concerns of the city have thrown their business towards the local road until the amount of freight carried has been doubled and trebled in the past few years. By connecting with the Soo Line at North Esennaba the company is able to handle freight from Minneapolis and St. Paul in twenty-four hours, and this is also an accommodation which has made the road a favorite with every buyer and shipper of the city and vicinity. The Escanaba & Lake Superior Railway is the outlet to Little Bay de No- quet and the great lakes for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Panl. By joining traffic arrangement with the road mentioned all ore passes over their tracks to the big St. Paul docks nt Wells.
"The main offices, round house and machine shops of the line are located nt Wells. Another roundhouse at Kates, the headquarters of the northern branch helps quarter the locomotives in constant use. Four hundred and fifty cars are the extent of the company's rolling stock showing what an enormous business this short line road is doing today. Two switch engines are employed on temporary logging branches and do nothing but place empty enrs at the I. Stephenson Company's camps and hnul loads from the logging camps to Kates. Main line trains run from Wells to Kates with empty logging cars, returning with heavy londs. During the winter months there are six or seven trains daily which do nothing but handle poles, posts, ties, hemlock bark, chemical wood and pulp wood, together with similar forest products for the I. Stephenson Company's mills and other concerns along the line. Daily passenger service is maintained between Escanaba and Channing and the mixed trains also carry passengers from Escanaba to the many camps.
"The locomotives used on ore trains weigh 110 tons each and haul from sixty-five to seventy-five fifty-ton cars very easily.
"The Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad was the first to install a composite telephone line in connection with the telegraph service. This system, which has been adopted by many of the larger roads throughout the country, allows messages to be sent from the dispatch office to any point along the line between stations. Thus a conductor may stop at one of the booths, miles away from the next telegraph key and talk with the dispatcher's office at all times.
"The company also conduets its own private exchange, extending the entire length of the line. This is connected nt Escanaha with the Michigan State Telephone systent, giving the various points along the road the same advantage as that enjoyed in the city.
"Four hundred men are constantly in the employ of this railroad. In offices, on the various branches, engaged in the actual work of op- erating the many trains and in extending tracks into new locations. The payroll is one of the Inrgest in the Upper Peninsula and is a valu- able asset to Escanaba."
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POWER, LIGHT AND WATER
One of the strongest features of the metropolitan activities of Es- canaba is evineed in the extended interests of her Traction Company, which not only supplies the city with complete service but operates in- terurban lines to Flat Rock, Wells, the Soo line depot in North Esca- nuba, and Gladstone, nine miles north. But the broad importance of the Escanaba Traction Company as a developing agent of the city and county is scarcely indicated by its name, for by the consolidation of the original corporation with the Escanaba Power Company it owns most valnable water powers for sixteen miles along the Escanaba river. To meet its extended interests n reorganization of the Escanaba Trac- tion Company was effected, several years ago, with the capital stock of $500,000. Its main power plant on the Escanaba river, four miles from the city, furnishes power to the traction system and light to Escanaba and Gladstone. Various industries also purchase the power at a rea- sonable rate, and the company is rapidly developing this field of its activities. The power plant mentioned has a capacity of 12,000 horse power and is one of the finest and most expensive plants of its kind in the northwest. The dam and power house are built on a solid rock foundation, of concrete reinforced with steel. The dam itself is 24 feet high, 24 feet wide at the bottom and 600 feet long. One year was spent in its construction and 35,000 sacks of cement were consumed. The total cost was $200,000 and the dam is practically indestructable. An- other dam, with a capacity of 2,500 horse power is to be built one mile further up the river.
Escanaba water is as good as its electric light, and is generously distributed through a modern system of mains over twenty miles in ex- tent. The water is drawn from the cool depths of Green Bay,-sixty feet from the surface, through a two-engine pumping station, which has a daily capacity of 3,000,000 gallons, with a prospective capacity of twice that amount. The supply is thoroughly filtered before it passes into the city mains. It is first pumped into a receiving tank or settling basin. All foreign elements sink to the bottom and are pumped ont into the discharge pipes. The cleansed water is then pumped from the settling basins, of which there are two in number with a capacity of 4,000,000 gallons each, by centrifugal raw water pumps into other set- thing basins where it is treated and prepared for filters. Passage be- tween the settling basins and the eight filters, of 4,000,000 gallon ca- pacity is through 20-inch pipes. For twenty-four hours the water lies in these filters and is then discharged into the clear water wells from which there are two twenty-inch separate and distinet snetion lines, one behind directly connected with the present pumps and the second being held in reserve for the new pumps which soon must be installed. During a time when fire pressure is on it is unnecessary to turn the water through any channels other than the ones mentioned. The filtered water passes through the mains continually, irrespective of the demand made upon the plant.
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OLD FLAT ROCK DAM AND MILLI. NEAR ESCANABA
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Further to give a general idea of what the visitor will find at Es- eanaba. The city has seventy-five miles of streets, over half of which are paved with asphalt and stone, and more than fifty miles of concrete sidewalks. It has a modern fire department and a thoroughly organ- ized system of popular education, comprising a magnificent high school (cost of building $110,000) and five ward schools. A public library, two city parks, three banks, two daily and three weekly newspapers, fourteen churches, two parochial schools, two hospitals, and all the rep- resentative societies of a secret, benevolent and social nature demanded by the man and woman of the present day. Being the seat of justice of Delta county, its court house is one of the most imposing and pleas- ing public buildings of the city.
Escanaba is a city of beantiful homes, as well as of commercial and industrial enterprise, and one has but to pass along Michigan avenue, which fronts upon the bay, to realize the truth of this statement. Along the south shore of Little Bay de Noquet the city has preserved a beau- tiful stretch of land, studded with great trees, and these grounds are being improved into pretty and restful resorts.
SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES
The public school system is a striking proof of the city's standing among the progressive communities of the Upper Peninsula. It was not many years ago when the entire teaching corps consisted of two teachers who conducted a school for the entire juvenile population of Escanaba in a two-story frame building on the present Franklin school grounds. During the past decade the population has increased so rap- idly that adequate educational facilities were demanded, and at the present time, there are six crowded ward buildings, substantially con- structed, besides the magnificent High School. Pupils of the lower grades are taught in the Franklin, the Jefferson, the Barr, the Wash- ington and the Webster schools. The Franklin formerly contained the High School, as well as the various grades. At the present time it is a twelve room building containing all the grades below the High School. In this building is the eighth grade for the entire city with an enroll- ment of one hundred and fifty pupils, the work being conducted on the departmental plan similar to the work in the High School. The Barr building with ten departments, the JJefferson and Washington schools each with eight departments contain all of the grades below the eighth. The Webster School at North Escanaba, a four-room building, contains the grades below the seventh.
The following, from the industrial edition of the Daily Mirror, published about a year ago, is an adequate description of Escanaba's $110,000 High School, one of the finest and most complete institutions of the kind in the Upper Peninsula: "The crowning part of the local school system is the High School which ocenpies the new building erected two years ago. In all respects this building is considered one of the finest in the state where every provision has been made for suc-
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cessfully carrying on of the work of the various departments. In ad- dition to the departments required for carrying on of the ordinary work of the school, there are provided well equipped departments for music, drawing, cooking, sewing and commercial work. All of these are pro- vided with the latest and best things necessary for carrying on the work. The auditorimn has a seating capacity of six hundred pupils and for entertainments double that number ean he accommodated. The High School stage is as complete as many opera houses. The gymna- sinm is large and commodious and supplied with dressing rooms with
DELTA COUNTY HOSPITAL, ESCANABA
all of the conveniences of bath, toilets, and so forth. The laboratories for carrying on the work of the science department, are provided with what is necessary to do the most effective work. A modern heating, lighting, and power plant adjoins the building and is equipped and operated so as to keep the rooms of the High School heated, lighted and ventilated in the most sanitary manner.
"The High School faculty consists of eighteen ladies and gentle- men. all of whom are trained experts with ample experience in the work they are doing. They are graduates from the various leading universities of the country and come to this city with the recommen- dations of the faculty of the various universities and colleges which they represent. The enrollment of the High School at the present time
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is over four hundred which is considered phenomenally large for a city of this size and is due somewhat to the large number of boys and girls who are attracted here from the country and neighboring towns and villages, by the educational opportunities afforded here. There are about one hundred and fifty entering the High School this year and seventy-one members of the senior class, which is fully twice as large as the number graduated from many cities of the size of Escanaba.
"This High School is accredited to the North Central Association of Colleges which admits those who complete a preparatory course of study here to enter any of the colleges and universities in twelve states. When the High School building is completed as was at first contem- plated, by the addition of the manual training plant, the city of Es- canaba will have a system of schools to which every loyal citizen can point with pride and in which the boys and girls of this city can be suitably trained for successful life."
The pioneer church in Escanaba is St. Joseph's Catholic, the first publie services of the charge being held in the open air on the lake shore. Rev. Father Dale conducted them in 1864, when Escanaba was a forlorn little hamlet in the swamp. The corner-stone of the present house of worship was laid in 1873, and ten years later the church was transferred to the Franciscan fathers of the Cincinnati province, since which its growth has been rapid. Its parochial school is one of the larg- est institutions of the kind in the northwest.
In 1888 St. Anne's church split off from the mother body, which it has since rivaled, and in 1901 the English speaking element of St. JJo- seph's church also formed a separate organization known as St. Pat- rick's. The latter erected one of the largest and most costly church edifices in the city, in 1902, valued at about $60,000.
The Presbyterian is the oldest Protestant church in the city, hav- ing been organized by Rev. G. W. Lloyd in 1866. Services, however. had been conducted in the house of S. H. Selden in 1864. The society has occupied three houses of worship, the present being dedicated in December, 1899, and costing $30.000.
The Methodists organized in 1870, with Rev. William Mahon, of Marquette, as their pastor, and formed a regular society in the follow- ing year. Its first building was erected in 1873. and the one now ocen- pied several years afterward. The nucleus of St. Stephen's Episcopal church gathered in 1877, and the Baptist church is of still earlier date.
ESCANABA INDUSTRIES
It remains but to enter somewhat more into detail regarding the leading industries of Esennabu, in order to complete a description which has only included the strong features of its life as a eity.
The Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company has division head- quarters in Escanaba, and has 750 men on its payroll, which amounts to over $50,000 monthly. It also has its tie-treating plant and its ore docks here (already deseribed).
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COURT HOUSE CECANAHA MICH
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ESCANABA PUBLIC LIBRARY
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The Escanaba Manufacturing Company is said to represent the largest (wooden) butter dish, pie plate and clothes-pin factory in the would. Its daily output amounts to over 1,800,000 butter dishes, 720,- 000 clothes-pins and 75,000 pie plates. The company is affiliated with a large logging concern-which is quite necessary, considering the fact that its plant consumes 8,000,000 feet of timber every year. The Es- canaba Manufacturing Company is the outgrowth of a small concern founded at Racine, Wisconsin, in 1895 with a capital of $15,000. The plant has suffered several times from disastrous fires, but nothing has permanently interrupted the remarkable growth of the business.
The National Pole Company, with branches in fifteen of the largest cities of the United States, has its headquarters in Escanaba and its officers all reside there. The telegraph and telephone pole business is of recent origin, in comparison with many other lumbering indus- tries, and the National Pole Company of Escanaba is only about four years old. Some twenty-two years ago the Pittsburg & Lake Superior Iron Company purchased large holdings of timber lands in Delta and Menominee counties intending to use the wood in making charcoal. In clearing these tracts large cedar swamps were found, and from this discovery originated the institution which is today, with its operations extending from Maine to the Pacific coast, in Washington, the largest of its kind in the world. The logging headquarters of the company are at Whitney, Michigan, and at this point it also conducts a model farm of 600 acres. The company maintains its own camps and fleets of boats, its operations being too extended and too complex to warrant a detailed description in a work of this character.
Among other leading industries may also be mentioned the Ste- gatlı Lumber Company, the Chatfield Brass & Iron Works, the Oliver Iron Company, the ore crushing plant, Erickson & Bissell, dealers in timber prodnets, and the Mashek Chemical & Iron Company. The last named plant is built entirely of concrete and brick and is devoted to the manufacture of acetate of lime and wood alcohol. The former is the basis of acetone and acetic acid, which are used in the manufacture of high explosives. Fully thirty per cent of the wood alcohol and sixty per cent of the acetate turned ont by the Escanaba plant are exported, linge consignments going abroad for the use of the British army. These products are all made from birch, beech and maple cord wood. Or- ganized in 1903, this company fond an immediate sale for its refined wood products and retort alcohol, and is now manufacturing 1,000 gal- lons of alcohol and seven tons of acetate of lime daily. The work goes on, night and day.
The plant of the Richter Brewing Company is also a leading in- dustry of Escanaba. Organized in 1900, the company built a fully equipped brewery in that year, comprising a large four-story brick brew house and a bottling house. The equipment of the plant include : modern refrigerating apparatus, of the ammonia type, and a plentiful supply of pure water drawn from a deep artesian well drilled by the company. The brewery is at the west end of Ludington street.
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In conclusion-a word about the Escanaba Business Men's Associa- tion ; for, although it has only been organized since March, 1907, it has been n promoter of the city in many substantial ways. As an organiza- tion it has already accomplished much in calling attention to the nd- vantage of Escanaba as an industrial town; in the establishment of the county's fine road system; in the improvement of shipping facilities and the betterment of the internal affairs and conditions of the city.
GLADSTONE
Gladstone is a city of 4.211 people (census of 1910), located on the west shore of Little Bay de Noquet, seven miles north of Escanaba and on the main line of the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie rail- rond. Its chief source of water communication with the county seat is through the Escanaba & Gladstone Transportation Company, where two well-equipped steamers touch at all points of trade, business and pleasure along the shores of Big and Little Bay de Noquet and Green Bay. Like Escanaba, Gladstone stretches its corporate body along a charming peninsula. It was incorporated as a city in 1889 and re-incorporated in 1893. its initial growth being stimulated by its being made the water terminns of the Soo line, with the consequent ercetion of grain elevator and flour, iron and coal docks.
But the largest single agency contributing to the growth of Gladstone Las been the Northwestern Cooperage & Lumber Company, which, more than a quarter of a century ago commenced to operate a small stave mill on the present site of the city. The founder of the mill and the vast business of the concern of today was I. N. Bushong. Through all the seasons of panie and depression which have shaken other like industries it has steadily progressed, and even during the late period of stringency and uncertainty it continned to employ 1,000 men on full time and wages. For many years the company has maintained its own camps, and from their own holdings they ent the timber which is worked into stares, hoops, heading and Imber. At Gladstone they also operate their teams and crews for supplying their mill with the necessary timber. This de- partment, outside of the operations of the plant, entails the labor of sex- eral hundred men, the company probably employing as many men in the woods as any one concern operating in the timber country. The mill is operated by the power plant owned by the company and comfortably heated by steam. While the main offices of the company are at Glad- stone, large branches are conducted in Minneapolis, New York and Bnf- falo.
In August, 1908, the cooperage plant and shingle mill were com- pletely destroyed and the plant was crippled, but a force of men was promptly put to work laying the foundation for conerete and steel stine. tures which were to replace the old buildings. Steel roofs were built over the new mills and they were made as thoroughly fire proof as hu- man ingenuity could devise. Concrete floors were also established in ull the mills. The new bnihlings and yards, together with the older struc-
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tures, cover fifty acres of ground. This company owns its own steam- ship and sailing vessel doeks. is in close touch with the railways and con- trols the best facilities for shipping by either rail or water. The Marble Safety Axe Company is auother standard and prosperous industry long planted at Gladstone. Some thirteen years ago Webster L. Marble, a sportsman, inventor, and, as has since been proven, a business man, lived at Gladstone, and commenced to turn ont a few axes from a little shop in the rear of his house which he designed as an implement to be easily carried and handled by either hunter or woodsman. Ilis ideas and his axe "took" with the people of the vicinity, and iu 1898 he entered into partnership with F. H. Van Cleve, whose financial support, combined with Mr. Marble's practical and inventive talents have resulted in the plant which now covers 24,000 square feet and mannfactures about sixty specialties forming the items in the outfit of every up-to-date sportsman, camper or woodman. The business is no longer confined to Delta county, or the Upper Peninsula, or Michigan, or the United States, but has ex- tended to Europe.
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