USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 57
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THE NORTHERN PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN
and one-half miles from the northern to southerly limits. The principal industry is iron mining and the various iron mines in the vicinity give employment to over 1,000 men.
As a place of residence, Bessemer will compare favorably with any town in the iron and copper country. There are already quite a num- ber of fine residenees on the prominent streets, while new buildings are being erected every year and the cool bracing atmosphere from the sur- rounding country and Lake Superior, combines to make this one of the healthiest towns on the Gogebie range. The facilities for travel and communication with outside points afforded by the three railways are equal to any, including a dozen passenger trains daily, while the tele- graph, long-distance telephones, and all other accessories of a modern city made Bessemer a good place either for business or residence.
The city is located on the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic, Wiscon- sin Central and Chicago & Northwestern railroad lines. It is lighted by electricity and has well equipped water works, using direct pressure from tank located on the Oliver Iron Mining Company's property at an elevation of one hundred and seventy-five feet affording an abundant supply of the purest water for domestic and fire purposes, for lawns and watering streets. The fire department is also well equipped for the purpose, including fire hall, hose wagon, team, etc.
On the principal streets are many substantial business houses, all en- joying a prosperous trade, and Bessemer contains a chartered bank and one weekly newspaper ( Bessemer Herald); also a public library ; an opera house, seating 500. a city hall : hospital and five churches, in- cluding those of the Catholic, German Evangelical. Methodist, Presby- terian and Swedish Evangelical denominations. The education facili- ties comprise four ward schools and a high school employing over thirty teachers and having a large attendance.
The year following its incorporation as a city Bessemer had 2,566 people ; 3,911 in 1900 and 4,583 in 1910, Its population by wards in the year last named was as follows: Ward 1, 970; Ward 2, 790; Ward 3, 1,055; Ward 4. 468; Ward 5. 1,300.
SHIPMENTS FROM THE GOGEBIC RANGE
According to the last figures of the Lake Superior Mining Institute, the shipments of the mines of the Gogebie range have never approached that record, as witness:
MINE
TONS ORE
Anvil
22,927
Ashland
259,612
Atlantie
124,845
Aurora
144,631
Brotherton
103.090
Carey
224.251
Castile
26,982
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Colby
170,095
East Norrie
470,119
Eureka
115,662
Germania
152
Iron Belt
44,560
Ironton
277,594
Mikado
99,195
Montreal
191,611
Newport
1.008,354
Norrie
182,317
Ottawa
100,223
Pabst
179,987
Pike
22,174
Sunday Lake
93,712
Tilden
154,506
Yale ( West Colby)
71.458
Total
4,088,057
The non-producing mines in the county in 1909 were the Chicago, Davis, Geneva, Hennepin, Jack Pot, Meteor, Palms. Puritan and Shores.
THOMAS F. COLE
Probably no one man connected with the iron industries of the Upper Peninsula has achieved a wider fame for the successes both of practical mining and of vast executive and promotional abilities than Thomas F. Cole, for some years a resident of Duluth and heavily interested in the great copper mines of Montana and Arizona. Aside from his remark- able achievements, the most striking feature of Mr. Cole's career is that he has been a great figure in both the worlds of iron and copper. The story of his life-and he is still a man of vigorous middle age -- has been told by Horace J. Stevens in the Houghton Mining Gazette, and it in- cludes so much of interest pertaining to the specific history of mining in this region that it is substantially reproduced. Moreover, Mr. Cole first came into wide prominence as head of the great Chapin and Norrie mines ; consequently, his interesting and remarkable record is here given :
Born forty-four years ago, in Keweenaw County, Michigan, of English parents, at a time when copper mining was more active in that district than is now the case. young Cole was left fatherless at the tender age of six years by an accident in the Phoenix mine which cost his father's life. Though but a small child in years, there already existed in his breast the courage and persistence so often shown in later years. He was the ellest of an orphan family of small children, and as such it became necessary for him to take up life's battle in deadly earnest, at an age when children of the present generation are just leaving the kindergarten. He did not shrink, and at eight years of age was working on the rock-piles and abont the mill« of the Phoenix and Cliff mines-hard labor for a small boy. but neces- sary to be done. to help keep the wolf from the door of the little cottage where his mother and the younger children kept a home-a real home, despite the harsh fate that had deprived the household of its head and natural protector.
From wash-boy in the Cliff mill, at eight years of age, young Cole advanced
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gradually to positions of greater responsibility and better pay. Forced to leave school at an age when he had but mastered the alphabet, the boy never faltered in the determination to gain an education, and never neglected an opportunity to learn from books as well as from contact with the world into which he was thrown so young. Odd hours were improved with zeal, and with a persistence that never flagged. As a consequence, young Cole entered manhood with what was fully the equivalent of a common-school edneation, and, what was of far greater importance, he had, in securing this education, by his own efforts, withont the aid of teachers, laid the foundation of studious habits, and learned, early in life, that all obstacles can be surmounted by those who strive, with undivided effort, for any goal that is within reason,
While securing an education, in the sense that the word is commonly used, by his own unaided efforts, at odd hours, after days of exhausting labor, young Cole was gaining a wider and deeper education by actual contact with the world. Nothing so conduees to early maturity of mind as placing a man's burdens upon a boy's shoulders, provided the shoulders do not break beneath the load. While still in his teens the lad attracted the favorable attention of his superiors by two quali. ties which have been retained undiminished to the present day. The two things that marked him out as separate from the common run of boys abont the mine and mill were his unflagging zeal ns a worker, at whatever tasks were set him, and his determination to learn all that there was to be learned about his work and everything connected with it. At fifteen the boy left the mill, attracted by higher wages, always needed in a household where there were so many small months to fill, and became a brukeman on the Hecla & Torch Lake Railroad-a big con- tract for a mere boy, but one that he filled satisfactorily. On the railroad, which was owned by the Calmmet & Hecl Mining Company, the boy's zeal as a worker, and his insatiable thirst for knowledge, attracted the attention of those above him, just as had been the case before, at the Phoenix and Cliff mines, and it was decided that he was fitted for better things. Given a place as office hoy, within two years he was a vulned clerk, forging to the front because he never tired of work and courted rather than shunned the hardest tasks to be found. The Chapin, then as now, was the largest iron mine of the Menominee range, and when a good man was needed for chief clerk and cashier. at a property employing upwards of a thousand men, young Cole was selected for the place, on the strength of his work at the Calumet & Hecho. despite the fact that he was not yet legally of age.
At the (Impin his experience was much the same as before. Each position seenred was better than the one before, but ench was made the stepping stone for something higher. As an office boy at the Calmmet & Hecla, none of his duties were neglected, but he was also preparing himself as un expert accountant, At the Chapin, as chief accountant, his work was always perfectly done, but, with the inborn strength of a strong man, he reached out for other worlds to conquer, and somewhat to the surprise of those about him who were not quick of wit, it was but a few months before every detail of the business was at his fingers' ends. Ferdinand Schlesinger, of Milwaukee, known fifteen years ago as the iron ore king, bad gathered onder his control, several small iron mines on the Menominee range. He wanted a man to manage them, and despite the protests of his friends that "Tom Colr" was merely a boy, made him superintendent. How well this confidence was justified was shown by the surprising manner in which the Schlesinger iron ore interests grew. The most was made of the old mines, new mines were added, small mines became big mines, and within a few years Ferdinand Schlesinger. with Thomas F. Cole as his manager despite his less than thirty years, became the largest miner of iron ore in the United States, and the older mining men reased to speak of Cole us a boy.
In 1893 the panic was felt with blighting severity on the Lake Superior iron ore ranges. Cole was then at Negannce, with general charge of the Schlesinger interests on the various manges, Ilis end of the work had been well done, but Schlesinger, though a shrewd man and of prophetie vision, took a chance at the wrong time. He bad expanded beyond his capital, and when the panie came was in ro condition to withstand the storm, It was then that the whole burden devolved upon Cole, Money for men and material was lacking, railway freight bills were unpaid. #ltspdicion was rife and when the railroad companies attached the stock piles of the Queen mit.es, at Negannee. for unpaid freight bills of large amount, it was believed that the end had come. It was then that Cole showed two other attributes-courage urd loyalty of the highest order. His efforts to save the sitna. tion were incessant. Twenty hours daily work were his usual hours for some Vol. 1-38
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weeks. Every effort was made by him to keep the ship afloat. Personal appeals to the men at the mines were met with a ready respouse, for the men who worked with him and under him knew the man, and believed in him. No general, fighting a rear guard action to permit the drawing off of a defeated army ever displayed more courage or tactical ability than did Cale in fighting a brave but hopeless battle for his employer. For six weeks he kept the Queen mines going, though bankrupt. His own small savings were thrown into the fight, without hesitation. Urgent demands for cash were met with his personal checks, until his own funds were exhausted-and then the inevitable happened-the mines closed down, and Cole began work instantly to see that the workmen, who had trusted him and followed him, were paid in full, and promptly, which was done.
The modern employe who combines great ability with the loyalty that stops at no personal sacrifice is not so common that he is likely to be overlooked, and since the panic of 1893, Thomas F. Cole has been a marked man, as there are in- stances where n defeat is more glorious than a victory. Schlesinger fled from his defeat to Mexico, where he succeeded in partially recouping his fortunes within a few years, and Cole was left without a job-but not for long. Such men do not go begging for work, and congenial employment as a mine superintendent was offered him quickly, on the neighboring Gogebie range, where the same qualities that he had displayed before speedily brought recognition. Within a few years he was at the head of the great Norrie and other mines, and mining more ore than he had ever secured for Schlesinger. The Steel Trust was organized, and the position of vice-president of the Oliver Iron Mining Company, which is the iron ore end of the trust, was offered to Thomas F. Cole, and accepted. Within another year he was made president of the company," which is the greatest metal mining corporation in the world, and which employed nearly twenty thousand men and shipped twenty million gross tons of iron ore during the year 1905-enough iron ore to load a fleet of one-thousand-ton steamers reaching, if connected by the ordinary 600 foot tow line, from New York to Liverpool, or to load a solid rail- road train reaching from New York to San Francisco with enough ore left over to load another railroad train reaching from Lake Superior to the gulf of Mexico.
Most men, not yet turned forty years of age, arrived at the head of the greatest metal mining corporation of the world, would have been satisfied to rest upon their laurels, but not so with Cole. Endowed with a wonderful physique and a superabundant and never-failing supply of energy, there always stretched before him new things to do. The task set him as president of the Oliver Company would have occupied an ordinary man to the exclusion of all other matters. The Oliver was, when Cole took charge, merely a collection of mines and companies without coherence, method or solidarity. Suspicion was more common than enthusiasm. and from superintendent down to miners the feeling was one of fear, rather than of confidence. How thoroughly all this has been changed in five years is known to those conversant with the iron industry. The good men have been kept-and every man has been given a fair chance, and possibly a little more, to prove him. self a good man. Of the nearly twenty thousand employes of the Oliver Company. every man knows he will be given a square deal, all the way through. There are few employes of the corporation unacquainted with the president by face and voice, and a memory like wax to receive and like iron to hold has helped Mr. Cole to remember not only the faces but also the names of thousands of his employes. System has been installed where chaos reigned. Order has been evolved in every department, and the change has been brought about with such a lack of friction that the company kas the loyal and enthusiastic support of its employes. To those who are disposed to criticize all trusts, on general principles, as robbers and op- pressors, it may be stated that the Oliver Company pays higher average wages, to more men, and furnishes steadier work, than ever was the case in the iron fields before its organization. If it be objected that this is an ex parte statement. and that the men themselves might tell a different story, it may be further stated that the Oliver Company has hal no strikes. There is no need of any. Any em- ploye with a grievance, whether real or imaginary, will be given n respectful hear- ing by any superintendent, and. if he wishes, can take it to the president himself, and be sure of receiving justice.
In March, 1899, a company of Calumet, Michigan men, formed a little explor- ing company to attempt developing a copper mine in Bisbee. Arizona. As a former resident of Calumet, T. F. Cole was of the number, and although officially but a director, he has been the strong man of the combination from the first.
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GROUP OF GOGEBIC COUNTY MINERS
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THE NORTHERN PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN
IRON WOOD CITY
The founding of Ironwood on the substantial prospects of the Norrie and Ashland mines has already been noted, as well as the prompt build- ing of the Chicago & Northwestern line to the promising mining camp. Bingham & Perrin, who had a contract with the railroad company to furnish supplies for the construction camps, erected the first store, on Ayer street, in 1885, and continued to conduct a prosperous business for years. The next business firm was the Ironwood Store Company, who erected a store building at the corner of Ayer and Norfolk streets, which at that time was known as the "Company's Store." Other business men soon followed, the village growing rapidly, and in 1887 was incorporated as the village of Ironwood when the population was over 1,000.
The first church in Ironwood was the Presbyterian on Marquette street which was built in 1886,-the first pastor being Rev. D. S. Banks, of Winnebago Presbytery, who came to the Range in 1885, holding re- ligious services at Bessemer and Hurley in November of the same year. In February, 1886, the Union Presbyterian church of Hurley and Iron- wood was organized, being composed of thirteen members. The Iron- wood Presbyterian church, however, was separately organized the follow- ing year with eighteen members who built a frame church on the present site, while the fine building now standing was erected in 1905 and com- pleted early in 1906 at a cost of $17,000. The next church organizations were the Catholic and Methodist. The Methodist church was established in Ironwood in 1887. the pioneer pastor being Rev. Samuel R. Williams, who organized a branch of that denomination and built a frame church the same year while the present fine edifice at the corner of Mansfield street and MeLeod avenue was built in 1892 at a cost of about $17,000 and dedicated in December of that year. There are now two Methodist churches in the city, the other being the Jessieville Methodist at the east end which was built in 1892.
The first school (known as the district school) was started soon after the village plat was formed in 1887. the pioneer school teacher being Miss Gertie Fitzsimmons. The next teacher was Professor Carus, who was succeeded by Professor L. L. Wright, who organized the high school system and was superintendent of the Ironwood schools for eighteen years; served for five successive terms as county superintendent of schools; was, several terms, president of the state board of education and has been state superintendent of publie instruction since November. 1906.
After the incorporation of Ironwood as a village business of all kinds grew rapidly, people coming in from all parts and new business houses and residences were erected in all parts of the village. The great fire of September 17. 1887, however, which consumed a large part of the busi- ness section changed the center of business. Suffolk street becoming the principal business street. In 1889 Ironwood was incorporated as a city when the population had reached 5,000, and thereafter, with the won-
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derful development of the mining properties within its limits, and adja- cent to it, the municipality advanced by leaps and bounds. By 1890 the national census recorded its population as 7.745: 1900, 16,738, and 1910, 12.821. The city is divided into eight wards, whose population is as fol- lows: Ward 1, 1,935; Ward 2, 1,016; Ward 3. 1.065; Ward 4, 1,289; Ward 5. 1,222: Ward 6, 2,284; Ward 7. 1.065; Ward 8, 2,945.
Ironwood has a fine location for both business and residential pur- poses, being sitnated on the Chicago & North-Western and Wisconsin Central railroads and on a branch of the Montreal river, six miles south- west of the county seat. It is also connected with Bessemer by a well- equipped electric road, which operates to Hurley, Wisconsin. Besides being the most important mining center on either of the ranges, Ironwood is the headquarters of a number of lumber mills. Its principal streets are well paved and provided with cement or stone sidewalks, and both its stores and residences are sightly evidences of prosperity and prog- Tess. A number of industries are about to add to this growth, among which are enterprises about to be launched by the Republie Iron & Steel Company and the Wickwire Steel Company.
The city is lighted by electricity and gas, a large plant for the manu- facture of the latter having been completed in the spring of 1911 at a cost of about $100,000. These gas works supply both Hurley and Iron- wood. The Michigan city has also a well equipped water works and fire department; an opera house with a seating capacity of six hundred; three banks, two hospitals, several good hotels, two weekly newspapers (Ironwood News-Record and The Ironwood Times), also quite a large number of business houses on the principal streets, all enjoying a pros- perous trade.
Among the principal buildings may be mentioned the City Hall and Public Library. The latter contains over five thousand volumes, being the gift of Mr. Carnegie and was built at a cost of $15,000; the city hall costing $40,000 was erected in 1890, and the fine High and Mannal Training School, erected in 1908, cost about $35,000. There are nine other schools, all of which employ a staff of teachers and have a large at- tendance. The educational facilities are equal to any in the state and graduates from the High school are prepared to enter the university.
Ironwood provides churches for all its various nationalities. The Methodist. Presbyterian and Episcopal societies embrace the bulk of the English-speaking congregations; of the two Catholic churches, one is Polish and the other is supported by the Irish-American. French and German population : then there are the Swedish Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist churches, and one German Lutheran organization.
Wakefield is a mining town of between seven and eight hundred peo- ple, located on the Chicago & North-Western line, six miles east of Bes- semer. It is the headquarters of the Sunday Lake, Mikado and Castile mines. This is an early-settled locality, and Wakefield has been an in- corporated village since 1877.
Ramsay. almost midway between Bessemer and Wakefield, is the lo-
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cation of the Enreka mine, operated by the same concern (Castile Min- ing Company) which owns the Castile and Asteroid properties.
INCREASE IN POPULATION
Gogebie county has steadily increased in population since its terri- tory was set off from Ontonagon in 1887. In 1890 it had 13,166 people ; 16,738 in 1900 and 23,333 in 1910, its comparative increase for these years, by cities and townships, being as follows :
Bessemer City
4.583
3,911
2,566
Bessemer township
1.166
817
680
Erwin township
699
Ironwood City
12.821
9,705
7,745
Ironwood township
632
459
562
Marenisco township
493
111
225
Wakefield township, including Wakefield village
2.474
1.438
782
Watersmeet township
465
297
606
IRON COUNTY
Organized as a cut-off from Marquette and Menominee counties in 1885, Iron county is most significantly named, as it shares with Dickin- son the vast output of the Menominee range. More than 2,600 men are employed in its mines, representing probably one-half of its total popn- lation. The three large centers of the iron industries are Iron River and Stambangh, which are practically one town, and Crystal Falls; these are located, respectively, southwest and southeast of the center of the county. The Iron River distriet represents the heaviest producers.
THE IRON RIVER DISTRICT
The first discovery of iron ore in the Iron River district is accredited to Harvey Mellen, a United States land surveyor, whose field notes under date of August 8, 1851, describe the ocenrrence of an "outerop of iron ore five feet high" on the west face of Stambangh hill, 52 chains north of the southwest corner of section 36, township 43 north, range 35 west. " While the occurrence of ore was thus early made known," says R. C. Allen in his 1910 report to the State Geological Survey. "mining did not begin until thirty-one years later, when Mr. Mellen's discovery became the site of the Ion River mine. The opening of the district dates from the fall of 1882. when the Chicago & North- Western Railroad reached Iron River with a spur from Iron River Junction (now Stager) and shipments be- gan almost simultaneously from the Iron River and Nanaimo mines.
"The history of the mining industry in this district is divided nat- urally into three periods-the first embraces the years 1882 to 1893, the second 1894 to 1898, and the third 1899 to date. During the first period the only important shipments were the Iron River and Nanaimo mines. The Beta was opened in 1886. the Sheridan in 1889 and the Hiawatha in 1893. The total shipment from these mines, including 2,092 tons from
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IRON COUNTY MINES-CASPIAN, DOBER AND BALTIC
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a prospect known as the Shellen, was only 1,136.444 tons, of which the Sheridan is credited with 56,813 tons and the Nanaimo 12,566 tons. The largest output for a single year was 180,340 tons in 1889." Mr. Allen chiefly accounts for this slow expansion of mining in the Iron River field because of the non-Bessemer character of its ores. Mining capital was largely attracted to the newly-opened deposits of Bessemer ores in the Vermilion and Penokee-Gogebie ranges. Other physical con- ditions stood in the way of quick development. The rocks in which the ore oceurs are buried beneath thick deposits of glacial drift; exposures are few and scattered, and ore-bearing rocks can be reached in most cases only by drilling or deep pitting. Yet had the early discoveries been of more promising character there is no doubt that active development would have followed, despite the natural difficulties involved in explor- ing a heavily wooded and deeply drift-covered region.
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