USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 54
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The Mining Engineering building is 134 by 53 feet, three stories in height, and is built of brick and stone. In the center of the building there is a tower which curries a large steel tank at the top, thus provid- ing a water supply for the hydraulic laboratory, which is located in this building. There are eight floors in the tower which are used for experi- mental work in hydraulics. There are also in this building a mining engineering laboratory, a very large mapping and instrument room, a model room and mining lecture room.
The Metallurgy building is a three-story building of stone and brick, extreme dimensions 82 by 3415 feet. It is equipped with furnaces and apparatus for laboratory work in assaying, in metallurgy and in ore- dressing. There is also a collection of ores, metallurgical products, re- fractories and fuels used for demonstrating the lectures and for study. There is to be provided a separate furnace building, equipped with a hlast-furnace for actual practice in smelting ores.
Generous friends of the College of Mines, including members of the Board of Control, have joined with the staff and students in providing the College with a handsome building to be used as a College Club House and Gymnasium. This building was completed in the winter of 1906. It is commodious and admirably adapted to serve its dual pur- pose.
The gymnasium is 45 by 90 feet in the clear and 24 feet from floor to ceiling. A running gallery is suspended 11 feet from the floor, 22 laps to the mile. The lighting both for day and night use is exception- ally good. There is also the necessary locker and bath.
The power plant, located close to the lake shore, is housed in a stone building 86 by 53 feet, which contains engine, boiler and coal storage rooms. From this building concrete service tunnels connect with all buildings and distribute light, heat and power.
The Library and Museum building is a fire-proof building, granted by the legislature of 1907, which now houses the library and the geolog- ical and mineralogieal museum collection. It contains also the business and executive offices of the college. It has a brick exterior, with tile and concrete interior construction. The muin part is 130 by 49 feet and consists of basement and two stories. This contains, on the first floor, a beautiful and well lighted reading room, with convenient offices for librarian and assistant, and the business and executive offices. The en- tire second floor is occupied by the geological and mineralogical museum. A wing, 59 by 43 feet, contains the book stacks in three stories, the sec- ond of which communicates, through the delivery space, with the reading room. Modern equipment has been installed throughout the building.
OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE VILLAGE
The village of Houghton had its inception in the enterprise of Ran- som Shelden, who made his first visit to its site in 1845. During the winter of that year he came from L'Anse, but in the following spring went to Portage Entry, fourteen miles distant, where he erected a ware-
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COLLEGE MINING STUDENTS ON A TRIP
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HIGH SCHOOL. HOUGHTON
CLUB HOUSE, HOUGHTON
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house and several dwellings and located his family in 1847. He did business there as a trader until the fall of 1851. when he removed to the location of the Quincy mine. Then in 1852, in company with C. C. Doug. Inss, who purchased all the mining lands along Portage lake (including the present sites of Houghton and Hancock), he erected what was then deemed a model store building known as "Shelden's Store." This was the first structure erected on the ground now occupied by Houghton. Capt. Richard Edwards and Joseph Wallnee soon followed Mr. Shel- den, and in 1853 W. W. Henderson built a saw mill. In 1854 Mr. Douglass came over from Hancock, and in December of that year the settlement hind so grown that Ernest F. Pletschke platted and surveyed a part of the northenst quarter of section 36 into town lots.
On November 4, 1861, with a population of 854, Honghton was in- corporated as a village, its site then embracing the Pletschke plat and a strip of land to the south of it. At the first election, held at the of- fice of John Atwood, December 2d of that year, the 185 voters of the village chose the following officers: President, William Rainey; clerk. John Atwooil; treasurer, William Harris; assessors, Seth Reese and Alexander Pope; trustees. William Miller, Edward Roma, George Ful- ler, James D. Reed, Richard M. Hoar and Jay A. Hubbell; street com- missioners, Thomas M. Hubbell, Edwin Berrer and Ransom Shelden.
In 1860-61 a volunteer fire department was organized by Richard M. Hoar, and the hand-engine then purchased in Detroit was the last of that pattern to be used in the Michigan metropolis. About 1872 the Houghton department bought a steam fire engine and 2,500 feet of hose, and from that time has improved its system of fire protection until it is now thoroughly adequate.
Houghton is a good church town. Among the first denominations to organize was the Catholic in 1859, and the St. Ignatins is still per- haps the strongest religious body in the village. In connection with the church work is a flourishing parochial school. The Methodists con- dneted a mission in this locality as early as 1854, but did not ereet a church for some years later. The Episcopalians scowed a church over the bay from Hancock and, after considerable tribulation in mid-wa- ter, or mid-ice. it was placed on safe ground in Houghton.
Both the Masons and Odd Fellows, who have erected such handsome temples at opposite ends of the village, organized their original local lodges in 1860. The pioneer lodge of the former was Houghton No. 218, which first met over the Pope & Hurris store, while Mesnard Lodge No. 79. I. O. O. F., organized January 18, 1860, held its first meeting at the house of Joseph Wallace,
The Houghton Mining Gazette, long ime of the most substantial and anthoritative organs of the mining industries of the Upper Pen- insula, is founded upon the Portage Lake Mining Gazette, established in June, 1859, by J. R. Devereaux.
The first pioneers of Honghton who had cast their lot upon the banks of Portage lake, where the village now stands, had no mail facilities
Vol 1-31
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nearer than Portage Entry, fourteen miles away at the lower extremity of Keweenaw bay, and so called because it was at the point where Por- tage river enters Portage lake. On October 10, 1851, the first postof- fice in this part of the county was established at Portage Entry, which was then only a small hamlet of half a dozen houses and perhaps twen- ty-five people, Indians included. Ransom Shelden continued there as postmaster and store-keeper until the postoffice was discontinued in Au- gust, 1853. The present postoffee at Houghton was established May 22, 1852, with William W. Henderson as its first postmaster. It is now an office of the second elass, with money order and international depart- ments, and the large amount of business transacted through it is an- other evidence of Houghton's substantial standing.
CITY OF HANCOCK
Although an incorporated city of nearly double the population of llonghton, Hancock is still affectionately called its "twin sister," the two being only naturally divided by Portage lake, which at this point is about half a mile in width. Artificially connected by the fine pass- enger bridge and that of the Copper Range railroad, they are virtually one community. As stated, Hancock lies on the northern declivities running down to the lake. It is the offspring of the Quincy Mining Com- pany, the land upon which the city stands being originally owned by C. C. Douglass, who sold it to the mining company, of which he was a member and the first agent. In 1859, the village, then in Portage town- ship (now in Hancock) was platted by Samuel W. Hill, then agent of the Quiney Mining Company, being laid ont upon their land on sections 26 and 35, township 55, north of range 34 west.
The first building erected on the site of Hancock was a log cabin built in 1846, and stood about midway up the slope toward the Quincy mine. It was built at that point to hohl what was known as the Ruggles mineral claim. In 1852, when Mr. Douglass came to temporarily reside on the land which he had purchased, besides this log cabin there were two other similar houses in the ravine just north of the old smelting works. In one of the latter lived James Ross, connected with the Quiney mine. Although Mr. Donglass continued to reside in his log house on the slope of the bluff only until 1854, then transferring his labors and influence to the development of Honghton, he was the first individual owner of land on the present site of Hancock. Another early comer was S. M. Boswell, who, in 1852, made a preemption claim on the land cast of the city, where the old Pewabie stamp mill formerly stood. The first building erreted in Hancock for mercantile purposes was put up by Leopold Brothers in 1858. They came from Eagle Harbor and Eagle River as soon as the village was platted and started its pioneer store,
The first election of village officers, under the charter granted by the board of supervisors, was held at the office of William Lapp, March 10, 1863, and the following were chosen: Henry C. Park, president ; William Lapp, clerk ; P. T. Tracy, treasurer; Dennis Dean, Samuel F.
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Leopold, William R. Noble, P. G. Tracy, Thomas Wallace and James D. Reed, trustees; David Saar and M. W. Fecheimer, assessors; Pat- rick Felbey, marshal. There were 196 votes cast.
Hancock felt the impetus caused by the opening of the Red Jacket mine in 1867. but almost met its Waterloo in the terrible fire of April 11, 1869, which swept away about three fourths of the entire village, including its most substantial business houses. But the outlook of the mines was still all that could be desired, and its citizens therefore re- built the burned area within the year after the fire, and by 1871 the town had recovered its lost ground. The fire taught the lesson of a nee- essity for protection against future calamities of a like nature, aud in March. 1871, a fire department was organized with a small hand-engine as its nucleus. Early in 1873 the village purchased a double-cylinder
HIGH SCHOOL, HANCOCK
stemn fire engine. At the present time the city has modern apparatus, including four hose entts, and its water supply is drawn through half a hundred hydrants located at convenient points iu municipal area. Both its water and electric light systems are up-to-date and meet all popular demands.
In 1861 that portion of Portage township in which the village of Hancock was located was organized into Hancock township. Hancock was first incorporated as a village by legislative act, in 1875, and dur- ing the succeeding twenty years repeatedly amended. That period was a season of great progress, during which, especially, its educational sys- tem was thoroughly organized. Its union school was first conducted (1869-75) in a frame building which stood on the slope on Franklin street, but in 1875 an elegant structure, costing $30.000, was erected on that thoroughfare, at the west end of the village and then outside the
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corporate limits. It was vencered with brick over frame, with a solid stone foundation, and at the time was one of the finest school houses in the county. The city is now provided with a handsome High School and three other good ward buildings, besides five parochial schools.
Of course, the churches and benevolent societies of the place had taken root long before Hancock received its corporate body from the legislature in 1875. The Methodists had organized in 1860. and the Catholies and Lutherans in 1861 and 1866-the latter two denomina- tions being represented by St. Ann's Catholic church and St. Peter and St. Paul's German Lutheran. Steps had also been taken to found the First Congregational church in December, 1861, and the society was formally organized in the following spring. The Masons organized their first lodge at Hancock (Quiney No. 135) in January, 1862, and the Odd Fellows entered the local field as Mystic Lodge, in August, 1867. The Sons of Hermann established themselves in 1865. The An- cient Order of Hibernians is one of the oldest divisions in the state, having been instituted several years before the legislative incorpora- tion of the state society in 1879. These two organizations are still well representative of the strong German and Irish element so characteristic of Houghton. In this connection should be mentioned the prominence which the Finnish nationality has attained among the miners who re- side at and near Hancock. They not only have their churches, their lodges and their musical organizations, but have organized (1902) a flourishing life insurance association.
The city, as a whole, is both a community of churches and of lodges; and is also an amusement-loving place, as is evident by its first-class opera house, seating some 1.400 people, which stands on a prominent approach to the eity and is known as Kerredge Theater.
The newspaper press of Hancock dates back to November 12. 1870, when Archy J. Scott and Alex Hamilton started the Hancock Times. On May 1. 1872 (the Times had suspended in February), the North- western Mining Journal made its appearance in Hancock, being the forerunner of the Erening Journal now published.
By aet of the Michigan legislature, March 9. 1903, Hancock was in- corporated as a city, the rapid growth of the place for the past twenty years being fairly indicated by the figures of the national census enn- merators, who gave her a population of 1,772 in 1890, 4,050 in 1900 and 8,981 in 1910. By wards the figures read: Ward 1. 1,697; Ward 2, 2.139; Ward 3, 2,107; Ward 4. 3,038.
Important as the industries of the great Quincy Mining Company still are to the prosperity of Hancock, the city has long since outgrown the stage where its very life depends upon any one enterprise. It is both the immediate gateway and the outlet for the most productive see- tion of the great copper range, north of Portage lake, being on the Cop- per Range, Mineral Range and Keweenaw Central roads, all of which connect with the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic line, as already ex. plained. Naturally. the Keweenaw' Central, which has hecome one of
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the great feeders of the copper country, has its headquarters in Han- cock. The Houghton County Street Railway Company, which was in- corporated in 1900 with a capital of $750,000, closely connects the city with Houghton and with the entire northern copper towns to Calumet, the Quincy & Torch Lake road branching from its main line.
The eity is the seat of several foundry and machine shops, the cen- ter of quite a sandstone industry, and its main street is lined with hand- some stores. In other words, it is a modern, progressive community, resting mainly upon the pronounced stability and great growth of the copper industries.
CALUMET AND RED JACKET
In the minds of the general public, Calumet is pietured as a well- defined industrial corporation; whereas, it is only a postoffice. The handsome community north of the village of Laurium, which is the headquarters of the grand operations of the Calumet & Heela Min- ing Company, is Red Jacket, which is duly recognized as the village by U'nele Sum's census takers and by every authority of law. In 1889 what is now known as Laurium was incorporated as the village of Calu- met, but the present name was assumed in 1895. On the other hand as Red Jacket and Calumet postoffices have been consolidated for many years under the latter name, all standard maps make the record of Calumet instead of Red Jacket; so the former has become, by far, the best known name.
The village of Red Jacket was given this name because of the old copper mine opened, in 1867, near its present site, and which is now designated as the Red Jacket vertical shaft of the Calmnet & Heela mine. Its bottom now rests about 5,000 fect below the surface, the first one hundred feet of which was sunk by E. J. Hurlbut. then the owner of the land, in the year named. The original company was the Port- land, or Red Jacket, the latter being the name of the noted Indian chief. After a few months of prospecting Mr. Hurlbut disposed of his inter- ets in his mineral land, reserving the surface rights which afterward were embraced in the village site. This father of the place came to the locality in 1856, when he built a log boarding-house, which was for many years ocenpied as a village residence. Others came-Northrup & But- ler to open the first general store and D. T. Macdonald, the first drug store, in 1869.
Red Jacket village was organized under a special act of the state legislature passed in the winter of 1874-75. under which its first election was held April 10th of the latter year and resulted as follows: Presi- dent. Peter Ruppe, Jr .; recorder, James H. Kerwin; treasurer, James Mailin, Jr .; assessors, Richard Bastian and James Sullivan; attorney, John Powers; marshal, J. C. Pearce; trustees, George Wertin, Henry Northy, D. D. Murphy, Martin Foley, Michael Borgo and Joseph Her- mann. Soon after the election a fire department was organized, to guard against a repetition of the sweeping conflagration of 1870 which
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MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL, CALUMET
CITY HALL AND OPERA HOUSE, CALUMET
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destroyed two-thirds of the village. The village' paid department is now not only well organized, with two steam engines, but, as previously stated, enjoys the added security of protection from the complete fire department maintained by the Calumet & Heela Mining Company, which promptly responds to calls from Red Jacket, Lanrium and other towns and locations, which comprise what has been designated the "40,000-man mining eamp of Calumet."
In the sketch of the Calumet & Heela mine, mention has also been made of the splendid publie library founded and maintained by the company and the numerous churches and school houses established on its splendid "location," chiefly through its initiative. The water supply of Red Jacket or Calumet, is also obtained through one of the three systems maintained by the mine owners, the village pumping sta- tion being at the shore end of the water works road, five miles west of the corporation. The Calumet & Heela hospital, founded by the min- ing company for the care of its employees in 1870, is also an institution of which the town is proud. Perhaps the handsomest building in the village is that occupied as a City Hall and Opera House, and the most striking, for unique architecture, the Calumet & Hecla library. It also has a $60,000 opera house, handsome outside and within.
The racial conglomeration represented in the industrial populace which mainly depends on the Calmmet & Hecla interests for its sup- port is well illustrated in the local press. The Calumet News, organ of the English-speaking element, occupies a thoroughly equipped office and plant. It was founded in 1881. The large Finnish quota is voiced in Paivalethi, published by a company incorporated in 1900; the Swedes have their Posten, the Slavonians their Glasnik, and the Italians their Minatore Italiano.
To provide against every contingency of strikes and riots which can- not be handled by the mine management, or civil authorities, the village represents a somewhat important military center. It is the headquar- ters of the Third Regiment, Michigan National Guard, and that com- mand is represented locally by Company E, which has a good armory in the village. The schools of Red Jacket village and the Calumet & Hecla location are embraced in Distriet No. 1. and are about sixteen in number, including a fine High and Mannal Training School. The min- ing company erected the first building for educational purposes in 1867, and in 1869 was introduced the graded system. In 1875 a large build- ing was erected by the Calumet & Heela people, and since then the great corporation has never rested in its efforts to provide school and other educational advantages to the children of its employees, heartily cooper- ating toward that end with the village, township and county authori- ties. The building of the fine school in 1875 was the real beginning of the present well organized system of publie instruction which has so benefitted the community. E. T. Curtis. afterward in charge of the school, has this to say of its importance: "School District No. 1 was or- ganized September 2, 1867, under the general school laws of the state,
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and reorganized as a graded distriet September 6, 1869, at which time seven teachers were employed. The rapid growth of the place led, in 1875, to the construction of the present school building, one of the largest in the country, fitted with every modern convenience. This building, centrally sitnated is 196 feet in length by 100 in width, three stories high. It has a public hall, an office and library, museum, lab- oratory, music room and eighteen school rooms. The museum is devoted to exhibits of native minerals, birds, etc., classified for study, and con- tains a collection of corals, shells, etc., scientifically arranged and pre- sented by Prof. Alex. Agassiz, as well as many East Indian curiosities. products and utensils from Capt. Valentine JJoy, of New Bedford, Mass- achusetts, and others. The whole building is heated by steam and due attention is paid to ventilation and proper lighting. It accommodates 1,200 students. This ample and well built structure, which makes so conspicuous a part of the town. was designed, constructed and fur- nished by the Calumet & Heela Mining Company and rented by them to the district, and stands as a witness of the liberality and good will of the officers and stockholders of that corporation toward their employees."
The growth of Red Jacket village for the past twenty years is thus exhibited, on the authority of the United States census: Population in 1890, 3.073; 1900, 4.668; 1910, 4.211.
VILLAGE OF LAURIUM
Laurinm, adjoining the Calmmet & Heela location and Red Jacket vil- lage on the south, has a population of over 8,000 people and has the dis- tinetion of being the largest incorporated village in the United States. It is an extension of the Calumet mining eamp, although its wide, clean streets, neat houses and well-built stores give little evidence that most of its dwellers are mine workers. It is on the direct line of the Copper and Mineral Range railroads, as well as of the Houghton County Elee- trie Street Railway, about a mile from Calumet postoffice and four miles northwest of Lake Linden, the location of the Calumet & Hecla stamp mills. Laurium has its own two banks; its newspaper (Italian Miner, established in 1896) ; fire department, including a good steam engine; six churches; four public schools, a commercial college and the Sacred Heart parochial school, and two water systems-one for domestic use, in which the supply is drawn from Lake Superior, and another from a dam, used for fire and sanitary purposes. Its publie hall-Palestra-seems quite elassie and is an index of a large Italian element.
As stated in the sketches of the mines, the village originated in the Laurium Mining Company, which is still existent, and was first ineor- porated as Calmnet. It has been known as Laurium since 1895.
LAKE LINDEN AND HUMELI.
The village of Lake Linden, in Schoolcraft township, was organized in 1868, the year following the erection of the first Calumet &
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Hecla stamp mill, and incorporated in 1885. It is now a prosperous com- munity of 2.325 people. Lake Linden stands on the western shore of Torch lake, an arm of Portage lake, and is five miles southeast of Calu- met. and ten miles northwest of Houghton. It has five churches, a good opera house, a newspaper (Natire Copper Times), and is closely con- nected with the Copper and Mineral Range railroads, as well as with the county electric system, by means of the Hecla & Torth Lake railroad. Lake Linden is, in fact, an np-to-date community.
Hubbell, formerly known as South Lake Linden, is now a separate incorporated village of over a thousand people, and is the special site of the Heela smelting works and the stamp mills of the Quiney, Osceola, Tamarack and Ameek mines. A planing mill and also other minor in- dustries are also located there.
Among the early pioneers of the Lake Linden region were Peter Ro- besco and Joseph Robesco, (Frenchmen), Joseph Gregory, E. Brule, J. B. Toupont and the Beasley brothers. The earliest settlement was in 1851, aud two years later Alfred and James Beasley came to the local- ity, and built houses for themselves as well as the first hostelry. called the Half-Way House, at the north end of the lake. The place, how- ever, did not obtain its start until the Calumet & Hecla interests com- meneed to plant themselves on the western shores of Torch lake in 1868. The first school building was ereeted in 1867; the St. Joseph's Catholic church was the pioneer religious society and organized in 1871. On July 23, 1868, the Lake Linden postoffice was established, that government de- partment having reached the third class.
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