USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 49
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The statue shows the figure of the heroie priest-explorer in an erect attitude, and looking forward as if for some discovery. The emblems of his religion, which in the first statne were objectionable to some, have been replaced by a map and a compass, which he holds in his right hand. The map is one of Michigan, Wisconsin and the great lakes, and is a particularly appropriate symbol, for Marquette is given the eredit of making the first map of this country. His left hand is shown gracefully holding his robes.
Photography being an art unknown in the explorer's time, and painted portraits rare, the sculptor had no authentic pictures to guide him in carving the features, but he was greatly aided by Father Meyer, of St. Louis, Missouri, secretary of the Jesuit order, who placed at his disposal some rare writings of other early fathers, Marquette's contem- poraries and associates, which contained descriptions of the missionary's personal appearance. In dress the statue is absolutely correct, as the garb of the Jesuits today is the same as it was in the seventeenth con- tury. The order has not altered its distinguishing costume in the slight- est particular. "Copy this." said Father Meyer, giving the sculptor a Jesuit robe, "and your statue will be correct."
The Marquette statue was cast in Italy in the very best kind of bronze. It has a much higher percentage of copper in its composition than is contained ordinarily in bronze for statues, and this makes it finer, more valuable, durable and beautiful. It will remain bright and glistening for years, and it will never turn black as many bronzes do.
On each side of the pedestal is a panel or bas relief. One represents the landing of Marquette at Presque Isle. He is seated in a birch bark canoe and with him are two Canadian Indians. The other bas relief rep- resents him teaching a multitude of natives.
The statue is set on a pedestal, the foundation of which is a natural rock. On this rises the pedestal proper. The first two steps of it are in Portland cement, laid under the supervision of Clarence Coleman, en- gineer of the government breakwater. On top of these are the cut stone courses, Marquette Raindrop, with their lettering, the work of James Sinelair. The complete pedestal is strong and graceful in its ontlines. On the front of the pedestal, cut in and gilded, appears the inscription: "James Marquette, intrepid explorer." On the back of the pedestal, similarly cut, are the words: "Presented to the City of Marquette, July
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15th, 1897." The rock base, pedestal and monument together rise to the imposing height of twenty-four feet. The rock itself is four feet above street level, the pedestal stands twelve feet and the statue eight, heroic size.
PRESQUE ISLE
The Presque Isle of Father Marquette's time is a high headland, about two miles to the north of Marquette, extending boldly into the lake and easily accessible by the electric cars of the Marquette & Presque Isle Railway Company and over fine roadways. It comprises about four hundred acres and, as its name implies, is "almost" an island. Some thirty years ago this magnificent tract of land was deeded to the city of Marquette by the federal government for a publie park, and its natural beauties are such that little has been found necessary other than to trim
BRANCH STATE PRISON AND HOUSE OF CORRECTION, MARQUETTE
away the luxuriance of nature and make the beauty spots accessible by drives and walks. Back from the lake, at the summit of one of the many hills, is Park cemetery, her beautiful "City of the Dead," which was founded in 1872 by a donation made for its purchase by Peter White.
UPPER PENINSULA STATE PRISON
On the shore of Iron bay, at the approach to the breakwater, is the United States life saving station, completed in 1890, and directly across the bay to the south loom the brown stone and brick buildings of the branch State Prison. Its plant is just within the southern city limits.
This institution, combining the functions of a House of Correction and State Prison, is under the general management of a state board of control, of which the governor is an ex-officio member, and the active
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superintendeney of a warden-the latter office held for a number of years past by James Russell. It was organized, by legislative aet, in 1885, with an original appropriation of $150,000. The first board of control consisted of Cyrus G. Luce, governor; Eli B. Chamberlain, Ed- win Z. Perkins and J. M. Wilkinson. Its original warden was O. C. Thompkins, formerly of the Jackson state prison. On June 22, 1889, the buildings were ready for occupancy and the first prisoners were re- ceived, at which time nearly $206,000 had been expended on the plant. At the present time the grounds, which face the lake, comprise 24412 acres; value of the plant, $315,697; number of inmates. 325. The cur- rent expenses for the biennial period amount to $136,868; receipts $141,326, of which $55,807 represents the carnings of the prison. The inmates are employed in the manufacture of clothing, shoes, overalls and box shooks and in the improvement of the grounds.
NORTHERN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL
Geographically and socially opposite the Branch State Prison, in the northern portion of Marquette, stand the beautiful buildings of the Northern State Normal School. This institution was established by an act of the State Legislature in 1899. The first session of the school opened on September 19th of that year, recitations being conducted in the city hall at Marquette. In July, 1900, the school was moved to the Normal building which had just been completed. In June, 1902, a new science building was completed. The life certificate was issued to students who had completed the required course of study. in June, 1902. A new library building begun in May, 1904, was completed September 1, 1904. The faculty, which at first consisted of six instructors, has in- creased in number to over twenty. The school has been materially strengthened by the liberal appropriations made at the last two sessions of the legislature. In addition to the rural school course and the graded school course, a life certificate course is pursued by a majority of the students. Prof. James H. B. Kaye is president.
In May, 1902, an affiliation with the State University was effected by which Normal graduates in the life certificate course are given a lump credit of fifty-six hours at the university, this being the same credit that is granted to graduates of the State Normal College.
The school is located on Normal Bluff on the northern edge of the city. Street cars running directly in front of the grounds give easy connection with various parts of the city. The campus consists of twenty aeres of ground overlooking Lake Superior, and is of great natural beauty.
The buildings are three in number, two of which are owned by the state, while the third was erected by private parties for the exclusive use of the school. The Longyear Hall of Pedagogy which was completed in June, 1900, and destroyed by fire in December, 1905, has been re- placed by a modern fireproof structure, which was completed in the spring of 1907. It consists of three stories and a basement. It is built
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of Marquette sandstone. The interior is constructed of steel and con- erete and finished throughout in natural birch. The most modern meth- ods of heating, ventilating and lighting are used. In this building are located the class rooms of the training school, the assembly hall, with a seating capacity of 350, the class rooms of several of the departments, and the offices of the secretary and president.
The Peter White Science Hall, completed in June, 1902, contains laboratories for departments of natural science, physical science, psy- chology and geography. The building was carefully planned as a sci- ence hall, and affords ideal laboratory opportunities for the study of botany, zoology, physiology, geography, geology, physies, chemistry and experimental psychology. The science building, like the Longyear Hall, is built of Marquette sandstone. The laboratories are large, well lighted, and well ventilated. In the basement are located the physical lab- oratories, dark room and work shop. On the first floor are the chemical and physical store rooms, the large chemical laboratory, a private lab- oratory, weighing room, and three recitation rooms. On the second floor are located the commodious biological laboratory. a fine growing room, chart and supply rooms, a private laboratory and three recitation rooms.
An annex to Peter White Science Hall has been built and is now in use. This contains recitation rooms and a well equipped gymnasium. Courses in physical training, both for men and women, have been ar- ranged. and will be given under the best of instruction.
The dormitory, erected at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars by Messrs. Longyear and Ayer for the exclusive use of the school, is an ideal students' home. The building is lighted by electricity, and heated by steam. The living rooms are large, well lighted, and pleasant. The dining room is large, with seating capacity for one hundred fifty per- sons.
The library is growing rapidly, and now numbers thirteen thousand books, very carefully selected. Seventy-five standard periodicals are regularly taken. The library is equipped with complete sets of twelve standard periodicals.
With the completion of the science hall, the school is now provided with laboratory facilities second to none among western normal schools. The building has been carefully planned with reference to completeness and convenience of arrangement, and is thoroughly equipped with ap- paratus for the departments of Natural Science, Physical Science, Geog- raphy and Psychology.
Previous to the fire in December, 1905, the school was particularly fortunate in the thorough equipment of its Art department. A patron of the school contributed one thousand dollars annually for several years, and by means of this fund the Normal School came into possession of nearly two hundred framed portraits and reproductions of pietorial classics, together with a number of pieces of fine statuary and a valu- able collection of art portfolios. The drawing room was well equipped with casts, models and still life.
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A large part of this equipment was destroyed by fire, but the State Board of Auditors allowed a sufficient sum for the replacing of the art collection.
This has been done, and the school has again a splendid art collec- tion, consisting of pictures and statuary.
The institutions of Marquette are so many and so worthy that mere mention can be made here of such as the United States Marine (St. Mary's) and St. Luke's hospitals; the Marquette County Poor House, located at the south end of Division street; St. Peter's (Roman Catho- lie) cathedral and the Protestant Episcopal cathedral of St. Paul's and other churches. It was largely through Peter White's efforts that Mar- quette was made the bishopric for the diocese which embraces the Upper Peninsula with the exception of the island of Mackinac. In this connec- tion the following seems appropriate, showing at a glance the notable gifts made by Mr. White to the city of his love and long residence: "Mr. White was one of the freest handed givers in the state. No wor- thy cause was ever referred to him without receiving generous assist- ance. His gifts to his home city have been munificent, comprising the opening up of Presque Isle by the building of the road to it, subsequent to the deeding of the park to the city by the government, his liberal gifts to the Peter White public library that bears his name, and others. Largely by reason of his generous gifts the city is able to enjoy the handsome library structure at its service today. St. Luke's hospital is now conducted in a building and on a lot originally deeded over to the trustees by Mr. White for the establishment of a non-denominational hospital, from which no needy patient should ever be turned away. For other canses, the erection of churches, the assistance of worthy under- takings of all kinds, Mr. White's hand was constantly in his pocket. Nor did his gifts end at the boundaries of his home city."
NEGAUNEE
The founding of Negaunee, through the operations of old Jackson mine, from 1846 to 1857, have already been described.
The wagon road from Negnanee to the Carp was converted into a plauk road and subsequently rails laid for a horse railroad, on which mnles were used as motors. A few years after the construction of this railroad an engine was brought by boat to Marquette, and although the mule drivers threatened to bar it out of the country the lake captain landed his labor-saving "injine" at the point of a revolver.
With the erection of the Pioneer Furnace in 1857, the advent of the Marquette & Bay de Noqnet Railroad and the opening of the Soo canal, all the iron interests sprang into importance, among the first of which was the Jackson mine. In 1865 the demand for iron was brisk and reg- ular, and to this period Negaunee traces the foundation of her pros- perity.
Not until the spring of 1865 was the village regularly platted, at
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which time the Pioneer Company and J. P. Pendill caused two separate plats to be made ; the plat of the former was named Iron, while the Pio- neer Company ealled its village by the Indian name of Negaunce. On these plats, together with a portion of the Jackson lands, the city of the present mainly stands.
In the fall of 1865 the village was incorporated, a town hall and jail built at a cost of $10,000 and a large school house projected. In 1866 a union school was erected at a cost of $8,000; and in May of the follow- ing year was issued the first number of the Manufacturing and Mining News, with A. P. Swineford as editor. The Negaunce Iron Herald, which is still published, was founded in 1873. In 1874 the burning of the Pioncer Furnace created a local panic, which the city organization of the previous year could not allay, but since then, as the center of various prosperous mines operated by the Cleveland-Cliffs, Oliver and other companies, it has become a prosperous community.
It is now a eity of 8,460 people, distributed between five wards as follows: First ward, 1,618; Second, 1.421; Third, 1,037; Fourth, 2,225; Fifth, 2,159. It is on the main line of the Duluth, South Shore & At- lantic railroad, and connected by an electric line with Ishpeming. Ne- gannee is the headquarters of the land office of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, which occupies one of the largest and best built structures in the eity. Its opera house, eity library and school buildings are also creditable, its High School completed in June, 1909, at a cost of $120,- 000 being one of the most modern and pleasing structures of the kind in the Upper Peninsula. Its site is the entire half block fronting Peck street, and having Teal Lake and Pioneer avenues as its western bound- aries. Besides giving the High School the facilities it had long needed, the new building permitted the inauguration of manual training and domestic science.
Commencing with the basement, the gymnasium is 62x71 feet in size, with hardwood floor. The running track, formed by the circular balcony. is twenty-two laps to the mile. At either end of the gymna- sium are the toilet rooms, lockers and dressing rooms, the boys' section being immediately under their wardrobe on the main floor above, and the girls' section having a corresponding position at the east end of the building. Shower and tub baths, with hot and cold water connections, are provided in the equipment, which is as complete as modern sanitary science can devise. In fact, the gymnasium is properly considered one of the finest and largest in the Upper Peninsula, and is also utilized as a class reception hall.
The whole of the space and facilities furnished by the north half of the central portion of the ground floor and all of the two wings are assigned to manual training and domestic science.
On the second floor one will get more closely in touch with the rou- tine work of the High School, for it is here, in the south half of the building. that the assembly room, with its present accommodations for 250 pupils so arranged that the capacity may be practically doubled, is
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found. This, as might naturally be expected, is the largest and in many respects the finest room in the building. Its dimensions are 64x91 feet and it has n height of about 25 feet at the stage end and 22 feet at the east or balcony end. It will be seen that for size it would answer the needs of any medium-sized theater; in fact it is designed to be used for entertainments.
One of the conspicuous features of the assembly room is the monster program clock which is on the wall just to the right of the stage where it is in full view of every student. This master clock is electrically con- nected with gongs in every class room in the building, and onee the programs are arranged the periods may be governed down to the very minute. In this room, as indeed all others, it would appear that not the most minnte detail had been forgotten, as witness the bulletin board, an artistic thing in itself, upon which typewritten or other notices may be fastened with thumb tacks.
In the west wing, on the second floor, are located the school offices. These comprise n general office room, the superintendent's private office and the meeting room for the Board of Education. These rooms, of course, are not only commodions but afford every facility for the con- venient dispatch of business. It may be mentioned in particular that the equipment includes a large vault, wherein my be safely kept the school records and the even more important documents relating to the business affairs of the district.
Close to the superintendent's office is a switch board which gives control by separate switches of all lights in the mnin front portion of the building. The principal's office is located at the opposite end of the building, on this floor, being directly over the Teal Lake entrance, and adjoining it is a teachers' retiring room, a cozy rest place with an at- tractive eastern exposure, while a similar apartment is provided for the high school girls.
The main commercial room with typewriting room connected is lo- cated on this floor and faces Peck street; the remainder of this floor, in all three street fronts, is divided into suitable recitation rooms for high school work. Opposite the assembly room and with two entrances is the mathematics room, with an abundance of black-board room. There are five other class rooms on this floor, each averaging twenty feet square.
The above description of the building will also give a good idea of the complete modern curriculum offered by the Negannee High and Manual Training School.
This institution is attended by 178 pupils, the remaining 1,250 schol- ars attending the ward schools being divided as follows: Case street school, 600; Park Street, 350; Jackson Street, 300.
ISHPEMING
The site of the city of Ishpeming was known in the early mining days as the Lake Superior Location, taking its name from its parent, the Lake Superior mine. This was organized in 1853, with a capital
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stock of $300,000, which was afterward increased to $500,000. Its orig- inal estate, located within the corporate limits of Ishpeming, consisted of 120 aeres in sections 9 and 10, town 47, range 27. With the years this property has developed into what has become known as the Lake Superior Iron Company's group of the Oliver Mining Company.
Besides the large Hartford mine of the Oliver Company, and the Mass mine, of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, the following are op- crated at Negannee: The Rolling Mill mine, by the Jones & Laughlin Ore Company, covering eighty acres, employing 145 men and shipping 130,000 tons of ore annually ; the Cambria mine, by the Republic Iron & Steel Company, employing 120 men and producing nearly 100,000 tons yearly, and the Lillie mine, operated by the same company, which employs about half as many men with a proportional output; the Em- pire mine, by the Empire Iron Company, which has 65 employees and where last yearly production is 108,993 tons; the Breitung Hematite mine, operated by the Breitung Hematite Mining Company, which em- ploys 145 men and produces about 116,000 tons of ore annually; and the Mary Charlotte Nos. 1 and 2, operated by the Mary Charlotte Min. ing Company (Breitung group), employing 277 men and shipping an- nually about 260,000 tons of ore.
For seven years one legal complication followed another before the Lake Superior Iron Company rested secure in its title to the Ishpeming lands. The first to take possession was Dr. J. L. Cassells, of Cleveland, who, in 1846, filed on a claim one mile square, which included not only this tract but the property of the Cleveland Iron Company. In the following year the doctor abandoned his claim and left the country. and his property was "squatted" on by parties representing both the Cleveland and Lake Superior concerns. After the organization of the old Marquette Iron Company, in 1848, that corporation leased the lands (as it claimed) from the rightful owners, and after a long con- troversy in the courts the Interior department of the national govern- ment accorded the right of purchase to Lorenzo Don Burnell, of whom the Cleveland Iron Company bought its original traet. What berame the Lake Superior mine was elained and held by Mr. Graveraet, in he- half of the Marquette Iron Company, and his ninety-nine years lease was purchased by the Lake Superior Iron Company, which filed its articles of incorporation March 13, 1853.
During the first twelve years of the city's life, its site was the Lake Superior Location. The first store was established in 1860 and the post- office in 1863, both occupying the old Ishpeming Honse. Robert Nelson. the founder and original proprietor of the town, was its first merchant ; also erected a slaughter house and established the first meat market.
In 1869 Mr. Nelson purchased the site of the city from the Cleveland Iron Company (which had been organized in 1853 and been actively mining since the following year) and during the summer of that year platted and laid out the site into lots. Ishpeming had adopted its present name in 1862. It is a Chippewa word signifying a great ele-
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MINERS' HOMES AND GARDENS AT ISHPEMING
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vation, or "heaven," although some of the early settlers persisted in calling it "Hell Town."
In the fall of 1869 Ishpeming was incorporated as a village, with Capt. G. D. Johnson as president, and the first town election was held that year in the old town hall of the Lake Superior Location. James MeLeon and a Mr. Ryan were then and there elected to the respective offices of justice of the peace and town marshal.
Prior to the laying out of the town by Mr. Nelson the only building erected on its site was the Lake Superior foundry, but afterward the place grew rapidly for several years. In 1873, when it is said to have gained a population of 6,000, it was incorporated as a city, and Capt. F. P. Mills was honored with the mayoralty,
Other early mines by which the young city benefitted were the Lake Angeline, opened in 1863; New England, in 1864; the New York, in the same year, and the Barnum, in 1867. But its abounding prosperity was to receive a rude shock in the terrible fire of April 19, 1874, and the panie of the same year. In three hours the fire had swept away two solid squares, comprising the principal business district of the city, and property valued at $130,000, about a third of which sum was covered by insurance.
About this time the city's first newspaper appeared, however, to cheer on the community, in the Iron Home, the first number of which appeared April 16th, three days before the fire. It was published by a stock company and edited by Col. F. D. Lynn, but in 1880 retired from the field in favor of the Iron Agitator, which had been established dur- ing the previous October by George A. Newett and John MeCarty. The latter retired in 1882 and Mr. Newett assumed the helm-he who has since made Iron Ore one of the best mining journals and general news- papers in the Upper Peninsula. Ishpeming has two other newspapers- the Peninsula Record and Superior Posten (Swedish).
The Ishpeming of 1911 is one of the most important mining centers in the Lake Superior district, having within its corporate limits eight large mines, a smelting furnace, boiler works, carriage and wagon fac- tories and other industries. It is the active mining eenter of the great Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Mining Company, and its auditing and engineer- ing offices are in a well-constructed building at Ishpeming. The Oliver Iron Mining Company also has some of its largest interests in and near the city.
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