USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 46
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ONOTA
Less fortunate than Old Munising was Onota, located on the bay shore several miles west of Munising, and now only known as a post- office and an obscure station on the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic line. It was the original county seat of Schooleraft county, and was also the seat of justice in 1877 when the town was literally swept from the earth by fire. At the time of the casualty a large blast furnace, owned by W. L. Wetmore, was in full blast, and Onota was a village of five hun- dred people with a bright ontlook. It was a very dry season and the woods around had been fiercely burning for several days. On May 31, 1877. a strong wind sprung up from the south and drove the flames into the village with such fury that in a few hours it was but a mass of smouldering ruins. The only three buildings left standing-a church, a schoolhouse and a saloon-have since burned, and all that remained of Onota were some ruins of the furnace and the vault in which the county records were kept at the time of fire. Within recent years but few build- ings have been erected in the locality, and Onota is really a ruined and deserted village.
The following is from an account of the country written in the early eighties : "Onota, the original county seat of Schooleraft, as established in 1848, is situated on Grand Island harbor, on the south shore of Lake
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Superior, 145 miles west of Sault de Ste. Marie, forty-four miles east of Marquette. The first settlement was made there in July, 1869. when a blast furnace was established. The smelting of iron commenced in the spring of 1870, the furnace producing 3,498 tons of pig iron. In 1871 the product was 3,597 tons. In 1872 a second stack was built and blown in December of that year. In 1877 this industry was allowed to fall (reason, as has been seen, the devastating fire of that year). It was known as the Bay Furnace, operated hy a company formed under that name. The carly settlers were S. L. Barney. L. HI. Keeper. F. Blackwell, furnace clerk ; John G. Blackwell, county clerk ; Zephyr Boyer, county treasurer; John Frink, judge of probate; H. D. Pickman, physician ; D. Ranken, coal dealer; Christian Sackrider and William Shea, of the fur- nace company's force."
NEW MUNISING
Timothy Nester is generally spoken of as the father of New Munising. It was in the year 1894 that he arrived on the shores of the bay to look over the grounds and weigh the prospects for a progressive town at the foot of the harbor. He at once saw the advantages of this sheltered and commanding location, and naturally, as a practical man, one of his first steps was to visit Au Train, then the county seat, to get definite informa- tion as to land titles. At that time he met F. L. Baldwin, aferwards edi- tor and owner of the Munising Republican and now of the Escanaba Journal. A decade later, in 1904, Mr. Baldwin told the story of the founding of Munising in these words: "The writer, who was then (1894) at Au Train, approached Mr. Nester and asked for a statement of his plans for publication. His reply was: 'I cannot say anything at the pres- ent time more than that I mean no harm for Alger county.' This state- ment was printed at that time, and this was all that was known in a publie way until July, 1895, when Mr. Nester arrived at East Munising with engineers, camp equipage, ete., and the active work of railway con- struction was begun.
"The above few lines will give an idea of the conception and birth of the present village of Munising. No one will ever know the hours of toil, days of tramping through woods and swamp, the going from city to city, the discouragements and delays encountered by Mr. Nester in carry- ing his project for a town on the shores of Munising bay to a successful culmination. He had long dreamed of the new Munising, and through his indefatigable efforts the town sprang into existence almost by magic.
"Nine years ago last Jnly (written in 1904) the site of the village of Munising was a dense wilderness, the haunt of the deer. the bear and other wild animals native to this country. The forest was partly cleared away during the fall of '95, the town site was platted, and in November the first village lot was sold to Robert Peters, now of Marquette, who erected the store building now at the corner of Superior and Maple streets. Other buildings quickly following were the Hotel Munising, built by E. W. P. Weiss, the Elliott building on Lym street, the True-
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MUNISING FALLS
FALLS ON MINER'S RIVER
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man building and the store building now owned by Mrs. A. Chambers. The people began flocking here from all sections of the country early in January and in March a census, which was taken preliminary to the in- corporation of the village, showed a population of more than 500 people. The village was incorporated by action of the board of supervisors on the 8th day of May, 1896. The first election was held on June 1st, when the following officers were elected : president, Timothy Nester ; clerk, Horace J. Lobdell ; treasurer, Robert Peters; assessor, John McMillan ; trustees, two years, John J. Hansen, T. E. Bissell. C. E. Moore; one year, Anthony Ferguson, Edward Burling and Samuel Johnson.
"The growth of the village during the summer of 1896 was phenom- enal. In September the population was greater than it has ever been since, a conservative estimate at that time being 3,000. The population has been constantly changing during the past eight years, so that today there are but few of our 2,500 people who went through the trying ex- periences of the early days of Munising. The village is now the county seat of Alger county, and the beautiful new county buikling at the head of Elm avenne is the pride of every citizen."
The figures of the last United States census indicate that Munising was never more prosperons. if such may be ganged by population: as the figures for 1910 credit the village with 2,952 people, against 2,014 in 1900. It was incorporated as a village by the County Board of Super- visors in 1905.
The Munising railway runs from the county seat to Little Lake, a distance of thirty-eight miles, where it connects with the Chicago & Northwestern system, and places Munising in close touch with the mar- kets of the world. It also connects with the Duluth, South Shore & At- lantie Railway at Munising Junction ; with the Minneapolis. St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie at Eben ; and there is direct rail connection with Mar- qnette, Negannee and Ishpeming over the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Com- pany railway lines.
THE CLEVELAND CLIFFS IRON COMPANY
The second and most substantial period of Munising's development was inangurated by the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company, which, in 1900, purchased all the property interests of the La Porte and Cleveland parties in the village, and, under the vigorous and progressive policy of President W. G. Mather has since been promoting not only Munising, but the industrial and agricultural advancement of the entire county. Its land holdings in Alger county alone aggregate 300,000 acres, two- thirds of which is fine timber lands located within a convenient distance from Munising. The company aims to locate woodworking establish- ments, with Munising as a central manufacturing and shipping point, and then in supplying the factories with timber the lands will be cleared and settled by farmers. The company owns and controls the Munising railway and the Marquette & Southeastern railway and is largely inter- ested in the Lake Superior & Ishpeming railway, besides owning the
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greater portion of the hardwood lands through which they run. These railways make connection with the Chicago & Northwestern railway, the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic railway and the "Soo" Line. They have their own lake terminals at Marquette and Munising. as well as access over the connecting lines to Escanaba, Gladstone and Manistique, affording in this manner first class opportunities for directly reaching all markets.
The railway lines owned by the Cleveland-Cliffs company run through heavy timber, comprising ehn, black, yellow, white and enrly birch, curly and birdseye maple, heech, ash, cherry, hasswood, hemlock, cedar, tamarack, balsam and spruce. The land is level or gently rolling and the soil is a rich loam, producing. when cultivated, wheat, rye, oats, bar- ley, peas, clover and timothy in great abundance, while vegetables and fruits grow luxuriantly and yield enormously.
Grand Island presents an even more attractive illustration of the characteristic enterprise of the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company, which aims to make its beautiful lakes, rockbound shores and stretches of forest and glade, one of the most magnificent summer resorts in the conmiry. Those who come for either rest or recreation will find it in abundance, and the very spirit of Hiawatha hovers over it, as Longfellow himself lived upon Grand Island while his immortal Indian romance was yet un- written. The Cleveland Cliffs Company has not only covered the island with fine drives, hut established a great game preserve, having for years past been stocking their lands with deer, elk, Rocky mountain sheep, an- telope and Belgian hure, as well as various kinds of game hirds.
Among the newest of the industries in the village to be fathered by the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company are large and modern veneer works.
Mr. Williams was the earliest permanent settler on Grand Island, and a numerons family sprung up around him. One of his daughters had married and located near him. In the fall of 1845 she came to the locality, accompanied by her lover in a small boat to Kewawenon, 120 miles, and they were one of the first couples to be married from what is now Alger county. Rev. Mr. Pitezell performed the ceremony.
The largest manufactory at Munising is operated by the Munising Paper Company. It is perhaps the largest plant of the kind in Michigan and one of the most extensive in the United States. Its daily output is about seventy tons, with an ultimate capacity of 110 tous, and it has over 200 men on its payroll, which amounts to $150,000 annually. The pro- cess of manufacturing paper from wood pulp is generally understood ; its details are beyond the scope of this sketch, which is simply to empha- size the magnitude of the Munising plant and its importance to the vil- lage. The plant was completed in 1904 and is in three groups of build- ings-the sulphite fiber mill, the paper mill and the power honse, all built of stone and concrete. The plant is run by steam, electricity being the motive power. Fire protection service is provided in a complete hydrant system, operated by two pumps of 1,000-gallon per minute capacity each. The fire apparatus is in a separate building adjoining the boiler house,
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and as the water mains at the mills are connected with the village mains, Munising itself is doubly protected.
Other leading industries: Shingle and tie mill, with a daily capacity of 200,000 shingles and 1.500 ties; a saw and shingle mill, with a daily capacity of 50,000 feet of lumber. 200,000 shingles and 1,500 ties, and a brick yard, a short distance ontside the village limits.
The hotels of Munising rank high, the Beach Inn being one of the best-appointed summer hostelries in the Upper Peninsula. The village has electrie lights, modern water works and sewerage system, a $40,000 court house, $60,000 high school, two newspapers, a sound bank, and six churches, with all other advantages demanded by intelligent, progressive and moral citizens.
THE PICTURED ROCKS
The country around Munising and throughout the county is attract- tive both from a picturesque standpoint and from the viewpoint of those
SECTION OF PICTURED ROCKS
who are looking for homes or opportunities to establish themselves in this part of the Upper Peninsula as fruit raisers, truck farmers, hay and forage producers or livestock men. The picturesque ontlook has been well covered, with the exception of a description, from the pen of a modern writer, of the wonders of the Pictured Rocks, whose fantastic panorama commences to unroll a few miles northeast of Munising. The reader may admire the descriptive narrative penned by the first explor- ers who waxed poetie over them, and may also compare it with the fol- lowing mixture of poetry and fact from the pen of the widely known authoress, Constance Fenimore Woolson :
"The Pictured Rocks stretch from Munising harbor eastward along the coast, rising in some places to the height of 300 feet from the water, in sheer precipices, without beach at their bases. They show a constant succession of rock-senlptures, and the effect is heightened by the bril- lianey of the coloring-yellow, blue, green and gray. in all shades of
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dark and light, alternating.with each other in a manner which charms the traveler, and so astonishes the sober geologist that his dull pages blossom as the rose. It is impossible to enumerate all the rock pictures for they succeed each other in a bewildering series, varying from differ- ent points of view and sweeping like a panorama, from curve to curve, mile after mile. They vary, also, to various eyes, one person seeing a castle with towers where another sees a caravan of the desert; the near- sighted follow the tracery of tropical foliage, the far-sighted pointing out a storied fortification with a banner flying from its summit. There are, however, a number of the pictures so boldly drawn that all can see them near or far, even the most deadly practical minds being forced to admit their reality. Passing the Chimney's and the Miner's castle, a detached mass called the Sail Rock, comes into view; and so striking is the resemblance to a sloop with the jib and mainsail spread, that, at a short distance out at sea, anyone would suppose it a real boat at anchor near the beach. Two head-lands beyond this. Le Grand Portal, so named by the voyageurs, a race now gone, whose unwritten history, hanging in fragments on the point of Lake Superior and fast fuding away, belongs to what will soon be the mystic days of the fur trade. The Grand Por- tal (after standing for untold ages the Grand Portal collapsed during a big storm several years ago) is 100 feet high by 168 feet broad at the water level; and the cliff in which it is ent rises above the arch, making the whole height 285 feet. The great cave whose door is the Portal stretches back in the shape of a vanlting room, the arches of the roof are built of yellow sandstone, and the sides fretted into fantastie shapes by the waves driving in during storms, and dashing up a hundred feet to- ward the reverberating roof with a hollow boom. Floating under the Portal, on a summer day, voices echo back and forth, a single word is repeated and naturally the mind reverts to the Indian belief in grotesque imps who haunted the cavern and played their pranks upon rash in- triders.
"Farther toward the east is La Chapelle of voyageurs. This rock- chapel is forty feet above the lake, a temple with an arched roof of sand- stone, resting partly on massive columns, as perfect as the cohmmmed ruins of Egypt. Within, the rocks form an altar and a pulpit: and the cliff in front is worn into rough steps upward from the water, so that all stands ready for the minister and his congregation. The colors of the rock are fresco, mosses and lichens me the stained glass; and, from be- low, the continuous wash of the water in and ont through the holes in the sides, is like the low, opening swell of an organ voluntary.
"The Silver Cascade falls from an overhanging cliff 175 feet into the lake below. The fall of Niagara is 165 feet, ten feet less than the Sil- ver, which is but a ribbon in breadth, compared to the 'Thunder of Wa- ter.' The Silver is a beautiful fall and the largest among the pictures; but the whole coast of Superior is spangled with the spray of innmner- able casendes and rapids, as all the little rivers, instead of running through the gorges and ravines of the lower lake country, spring boldly
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over the cliffs, without waiting to make a bed for themselves. Undine would have loved their wild sparkling waters."
Grand Marais, a Lake Superior port a few miles east of Point au Sable; Wetmore and Eben Junetion, on the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic line, the latter at its junction with the Soo road running sonth to Escanaba; Trenary. a station on the latter line, and An Train, are also points in the county worthy of mention.
AGRICULTURE AND THE EXPERIMENT STATION
The agricultural possibilities of Alger county are great, and abundant proofs of this statement have been furnished by the experiment station of the State Agricultural College at Chatham. That invaluable institu-
CHAPEL ROCK AND BEACH
tion, during the ten years of its existence, has demonstrated for the ben- efit of the people of this section that timber lands need not long lie fal- low before being brought under the plow. It has also proved the adapt- ability of the county to the growth of alfalfa; the feasibility of the fall planting of potatoes, and the reliability of that crop, as well as of sugar beets, under average conditions of climate. Beets are even left undis- turbed in the ground over winter, with no deterioration of their sugar- producing qualities. It has also been shown that the expensive process of mulching strawberries, which elsewhere is rendered necessary as a winter protection, is not only superfinons here, but is apt to be injuri- ous; for the same plants which thus treated gave practically no yield have, when unmulched, produced as high as 4,300 quarts per acre. The station farm has proved that the conditions of soil and climate found in Alger county point to that section as a fine country for the production of small fruits, roots and vegetables, and, under the thorough manage- ment of Leo M. Geismar, preparations are being made to condnet prae- tieal experiments on livestock. The farm proper consists of 160 acres,
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only a small portion of which has been sufficiently cleared for plot work, or for the extensive propagation of seed corn from varieties which Mr. Geismar has bred and acclimated. No work with livestock has yet been commenced, although the plan is to begin the erection of barns in the near future, and commence experiments in this field. on the 620-acre tract which has recently been donated for that purpose.
Neither should the stranger to Alger county imagine that the coun- try is all an experiment from the agricultural and horticultural stand- points ; for it has many well-developed farms, orchards and berry tracts. and the former drawbacks of inadequate markets and means of trans- portation have been overcome by the building of its railroads and its adoption of the county road systemt. Chatham led in the latter move- ment and had the first macadamized roads built in the county.
The experiment station at that point is so closely allied to the agri- cultural future of Alger county that this is considered an appropriate place in the narrative to give proper credit for its establishment. " While the necessity for an Experiment Station was recognized and agitated for a number of years prior to its establishment," says the Munising Republican, "the final work for securing it was largely performed by the people of Menominee county through their then representative W. J. Oberdorfer, a progressive and energetic farmer of Stephenson. The impossible task of selecting a site which would suit everybody was per- formed in 1899, and the strongest opponents who have since visited the station have unanimously recognized the wisdom of the selection. Chat- ham at that time was a town with two frame buildings and two or three log buildings, the remnants of a former lumbering camp. There was no industry, no business in sight, and for nearly two years or more, no improvement was visible except that which had menuwhile been made by the Experiment Station. Chatham today might still be waiting 'for something to turn up,' were it not for the development work inaugu- rated at that time under the masterful generalship of President W. G. Mather of the Cleveland Cliffs Tron Company; and thus it comes that Chatham today with its three large stores, its dozen or more modern buildings, its three story hotel built of solid stone, its splendid school building. its more than one hundred substantial farm buildings within a radius of two miles, stands as a living monument of wint may be ex- pected from capital wisely invested with a view to future returns. No doubt the Experimental Station is in a small measure responsible for this local development, for if on account of it President Mather selected Chatham as his first objective point, it is because no man appreciates more keenly than he that the future of Alger county lies in its vast agricultural resources. The work of carrying out the details of future experiments had been entrusted to the present superintendent, Leo M. Geismar, who on April 28, 1900, arrived with orders to plow und plant twenty acres of the experiment farm."
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TYPICAL COUNTRY HOME IN ALGER COUNTY
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GROWTH IN POPULATION
The first national census covering Luce county was for the year 1890, and the three comparative enumerations including the one of that year present these figures:
TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGE
1910
1900
1890
AuTrain Township
409
484
284
Burt Township
1,373
1.927
177
Grand Island Township
52
Limestone Township
413
275
Mathias Township
528
314
Munising Township, including Munising Villge 3.547
2,277
288
(Munising Village)
(2,952)
(2,014)
Onota Township
147
226
161
Rock River Township
1,206
365
328
Total of the county
7.675
5,868
1,238
LUCE COUNTY AND NEWBERRY
Luce county was set off from Chippewa in 1887, and at the first elec- tion, held April 20th of that year, the following officers were chosen : Sheriff. A. G. Louks; clerk and register of deeds, Ambro Bettes, treas- urer, Fred. J. Stewart; proseenting attorney, S. N. Dutcher; surveyor, William J. Aclen ; coroners. S. J. Fraser and Sanford Helmer.
Early in 1882 the site of the present village of Newberry was an unbroken wilderness, but within a few months a elearing of about thirty acres had been made for the site of the Vulcan Furnace and cottages of those to be connected with the enterprise. Within a year twenty or thirty neat houses stood occupied and a general store, 24 x 85 feet, was in operation. This was opened by Weller & Burt. A boarding house for the regular employees, with the upper story of the building arranged for transients, was built opposite the store, on Handy street, and in the second story of the store reading rooms were also opened for the fifty or sixty workmen employed. The furnace buildings were all on the north side of the railroad tracks, all of their foundations being of sandstone.
Five years after the founding of Newberry on the furnace enterprise the Newberry Nors, in its first number, briefly reviewed the prospects of the village, which, it is needless to add, were pronounced bright. It referred to the platting of Newberry five years before under the super- vision of W. O. Strong, and land commissioner of the Detroit, Mackinac & Marquette railroad, and referred in glowing terms to the enterprise of A. G. Lonks, the first sheriff of the county. The article mentioned with pride its $5,000 school building; that the Vulcan Furnace was eat- ing np timber at the rate of a thousand acres annually, and that the railroad, which was a narrow gange from the furnace to the timber supply, intended soon to extend its line south, across the peninsula, to
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Lake Michigan. Besides the furnace industry, the town's growth relied on a good Inmber, pile and pole business, and such agricultural products of the surrounding country as hay, peas and oats.
Newberry. which had been incorporated os a village in 1885, has been the county sent from the first, and is now a growing community of 1,182 people, or more than a quarter of the entire population of the county. The main street of the place has a number of substantial inod- ern brick stores, well stocked, and the surrounding country has all the good marks of a rich agricultural district. Newberry is on the main line of the Duluth. South Shore & Atlantic road, fifty-five miles northwest of St. Ignace and fifty-six miles southwest of the Son. It has been called the "gateway to the deer-hunting grounds of Michigan," but this is more in the line of general description than in the nature of any explanation of her favorable prospects. Both her water works and electric light plant are village property. She has five churches, a good school, opera house, and a prosperous weekly newspaper (Newberry News).
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