USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 66
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Louis Dobeas, already mentioned, has a large general store, with ex- tensive warehouses for the storage and handling of farm products, and besides deals extensively in real estate.
E. A. Barker also has a general store, Hans Paulson a meat market. Joseph Baril a blacksmith shop, and George Brock, a livery stable. A substantial farming community furnishes an important backing for the business portion.
Cedar River is the oldest settlement on the Bay shore, and has been mentioned as having had the pioneer saw-mill of the real lumbering era, and the history of that inill has already been traced to the firm of S. Crawford & Sons, who now own and operate it. Its out in 1919 was sixteen million feet of huber, principally hemlock, tamarack and white pine, but with some white cedar, basswood, eh, ash, maple, birch and spruce. The ent of shingles during the same year was fourteen million, and of hemlock and fine lath five and one-fourth million, and the gro-s valne of the ent about $235,000, besides a large amount of bark, poles, posts, ties and pulp wood. The mill has a daily capacity of 100,000 feet of lumber. 150,000 shingles, and 50.000 lath in ten hours, The company has an up-to-date logging outfit including traction road en-
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gine and cars with steam loader, etc. This Company also owns and op- erates a large general store and is practically the owner of the village. There is a good hostelry called the American Hotel, and one general store belonging to Jacob Rosenberg, while the government maintains a light-house station at this point.
The village of Nadeau is located abont thirty-six miles north of Menominee on the Chicago & North-Western Railroad, and was named for its founder, Barney Nadean, Sr., who was appointed the first post- master there in 1880, and who built a mill, established a business in general merchandising and was a dealer in lands and general forest products. His sons, under the firmn name of Nadean Brothers, have suc- ceeded to the business, which is quite diversified and comprises the running of two farms in one of which there is one hundred acres cleared und in the other. three hundred aeres and on which they raise registered Jersey and Polled Durham eattle. They continue to operate the mill and eut about three million feet of mixed lumber and three million cedar shingles per year, besides dealing in other forest prodnets. They also have a large well stocked general store.
Gideon T. Werline is a prominent citizen and was last year a candi- date for member of congress for this district. Ile has recently retired from mercantile business and deals in real estate. He is also president of the Powers bank.
Mr. S. J. Matheys deals in general merchandise and farm imple- ments and operates a small mill in the neighboring village of Carney ..
August Jean located here about twenty-five years ago as a carpen- ter and cabinet worker, but now conduets a small custom saw and plan- ing mill and manufactures sash, doors and mouldings. The village has a blacksmith in the person of Joseph Servias, while Louis Kuenzel con- duets a cabinet shop and does a painting and decorating business.
The village of Carney is a railway station in Nudeau township sur- rounded by a good farming country, and is a substantial agricultural village. Peter Garrigan is a representative man of the villiage and a general dealer in real estate. O. E. Blomquist is postmaster and con- duets a general store. David Goldberg also has a general store; R. T. Esterbrook a meat market and Jule Duquaim is the village blacksmith; while the Hotel Girard furnishes good accommodations to the public.
The village of Bagley is also a rural settlement and has a store owned by Henry Wachter.
The village of Stephenson is the largest settlement in the county outside the City of Menominee and is an incorporated village within the township of thut name. It has formerly had quite extensive saw- mill interests but the last mill has given way to what is destined to make this a permanently substantial town-her agricultural surround-
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ings. It has a High School and fine churches. Its general merchants are W. B. Winther, David Goldberg. Frank Lienna, Mrs. A. N. Loth and Carl Bergvall. Dr. Edward Sawbridge is proprietor of a drug store and engaged in the general practice of medicine. Charles De Mille & Son have a hardware store and blacksmith shop. The village has a flour mill, a creamery, a good bank and a weekly newspaper. The latter is the Stephenson Journal, of which Messrs. Woessner and Mur. son are proprietors. The Stephenson Bank was organized in 1902 with a capital stock of $20,000.00 and does a thriving business. Dr. Edward Sawbridge is president and W. B. Winthers, vice president. There are also in the village two livery stables kept by Fred Bartells and William Carley.
Daggett is another village in the township of Stephenson which in addition to its agricultural surroundings, has quite a business settle- ment. Perrizo & Sons are among the early settlers and have a large general store, operate a saw-mill at Talbot, and do a large general bus- iness in the various kinds of forest products. Other dealers in general merchandise are John Dunham & Son, Weng and Son, and Nelson Bros. The Kessler Land Company deals in lumber and cedar products, as do also the firm of Nelson Brothers above mentioned. Dr. R. D. Landshorough is engaged in the general practice of medicine and has a drug store. The village also has a creamery and is the location of a Standard Oil Station.
Powers is a junction point on the Chicago & North-Western Railway where the Menominee Range Branch leaves the main line. Charles E. Bradner is one of the very earliest settlers and has a general store. William Corry is a dealer in agricultural implements. Kell Brothers conduct a hardware store and George Prince has an undertaking estab- lishment. The Powers Bank was organized under the state laws Octo- ber 26. 1910, with u empital stock of $20,000,00, and has deposits of $60,000. G. T. Werline is president. Nichols Peterson, vice president, and F'. J. Witmeyer, cashier. The Fontanna Hotel is a popular stop- ping place at this junction point.
Spalding, once the location of one of the large saw-mills of the Spalding Limber Company, is now left withont a mill and is a rural station with two stores, of which Nicholas Peterson und Frank Beatson are proprietors. The village also has a erenmery and hotel, the Spald- ing House.
At the village of Wilson in the town of Spalding. M. Harris, Jr., is postmaster und conducts a general store. William Belfrey deals in gen- eral merchandise and meats, and the National Pole Company maintains a branch of its business.
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In the township of Harris, the village of Harris has one store, which is conducted by Michael Harris, ex-member of the legislature from this district. In addition to his mercantile business Mr. Harris handles general forest products, and the output of the Tuttle Shingle Mill at Indian Town. The forest product business condneted by Mr. Harris is quite extensive and amounts to about $10,000 in a single season. Mr. Harris has been a resident of that locality since 1875. George De- Langhary was appointed the first postmaster of Harris in 1880, but re- signed three years later, since which time the office has been held by Mr. Ilarris or his son. The postoffice was first called De Langhary, but the name was changed to Harris in 1900. Mr. Harris has been supervisor from his township for many years and is vice president of the Bark River State Bank.
In the township of Ingallston, on or near the Bay shore, are several saw mills including that of Wolfgang Stauber, and that of Hayward Brothers, the Intter of which is at Zeiser Bay. The Arthur Bay mill and store are the property of Charles Zeiser, while about four miles in- land from that point is a mill owned and operated by Frank Algeyer. The products of these various small mills other than a supply for the local demand, are shipped by water from the various Bay shore points.
On the Wisconsin & Michigan Railroad the village of Nathan is in the center of a growing farming community, and Charles Wilkins is there a dealer in merchandise, lumber and general forest products. Eugene Houte is proprietor of n hotel and there is a blacksmith shop and meat market. At Natham Junction, a branch of the railroad runs to Museauo Inn, a populur outing place on an island of that name in the Menominee river.
Faithorn is the junction of the Wisconsin & Michigan with the Min- neapolis. Sault Ste. Marie and Atlantic railways. Mr. George Harter and his son Clarence own practically all the business in the village, in- cluding the snw-mill, quite a large general store and a hotel. Some of the best farms in the county are in the vicinity of this village.
Cedar is a stntion on the Menominee Range branch of the Chicago & North-Western Railway, and here Charles Johnson is postmaster and conducts a well stocked general store from which he supplies a large and growing farming community.
The village of Hermansville was founded in 1878 when C. J. L. Meyer of Fond du Lac. Wisconsin, started a suw and shingle mill for the pur- pose of sawing up the pine and cedar timber on lands purchased by him. Mr. Meyer operated this mill until 1883, sending most of the product to Fond du Lac to stock his sash and door factory. In 1883 Mr. Meyer organized the Wisconsin Land & Lumber Company, which acquired the
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mill and land holdings, he being the principal stockholder. In 1886 and 1887 the company began plans and experiments to utilize their hard- wood timber. Up to this time there had been little, if any, hardwood cut and practically no maple had been used for flooring. In the early stages of manufacture of maple flooring. it was customary to match the Inmber as well as possible with the machines then on the market and after it was laid to traverse and cross plane it to bring it to a uniform surface. This was not only very tedious, hard work but was too expen- sive to admit of its general use. The machinery used for the hard rock maple of the Upper Peninsula developed so many defects that flooring shipped in long strips had to be ent into short pieces when laid, and a large percentage thrown away. The idea was conceived of cutting ont all the defects at the factory and shipping nothing but clear or serviceable flooring. all of which could be used. As no machinery was then made that would successfully work the hard rock maple, a series of experiments in machine building was undertaken which resulted in the special ma- chinery now producing the justly celebrated I X L maple flooring. All the difficulties of uneven matching were overcome and these machines now produce a flooring whose uniformity of machine work has not been equaled by any other make. In 1887 the company built a second saw-mill and commenced the erection of a large maple flooring factory.
In 1889 the company became involved in the failure of C. J. L. Meyer at Fond du Lac and Chicago and for two years was in the hands of an assignee for the benefit of its creditors. But in 1892 a settlement with the creditors was made and the property returned to the Wisconsin Land & Lumber Company, who operated it during the following three or four years under considerable difficulty.
In 1896 Dr. Geo. W. Earle acquired practically all the bonds and stock of the Wisconsin Land & Lumber Company and its progress has been steadily upward ever since. Up to this time the company was operating under the laws of Wisconsin, but in 1900 the present organiza- tion was effected under the laws of Michigan with a capital stock of $1.000.000 fully paid in. The company owned over 60,000 acres of land, which was selected for its hardwood timber and much of which is uncut, besides controlling much additional stumpage, and last year it purchased the large holdings of the William Mueller Company, so that it can readily see a supply for its mills for more than twenty-five years to come.
In addition to the I X L maple and birch flooring, the company handles all the pine, hemlock, tamarack and cedar timber, cedar posts, poles and pilings, spruce and hemlock pulpwood that grows on the land they eut each year. These amount to an enormous traffic. Over ten thousand ears were loaded for shipment and received loaded with logs and other forest products last year. The company owns practically all the buildings in the village and takes pride in keeping the village clean, and beautifying the grounds. They have planted shade trees and have etideavored in every way to make the village attractive to other employes and a credit to the county. For the past twenty years the company has
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been selling its lands to settlers after the timber has been removed, and has settled several hundred families. These lands were in most instances sold on small payments and long time, and the results have been very gratifying. In addition to its very extensive lumber business, the com- pany maintains a large general store, and is developing some fine farms. George W. Earle is president and Edwin P. Radford general manager of this company.
The firm of Nieman, Pipcorn and Roll have a large general store at this place and are doing a thriving business. A very substantial and rapidly growing farming country adds much to the trade of this manu- facturing village. The village is unincorporated and is a part of the township of Meyer, so named in honor of the founder of the Wisconsin Land & Lumber Company.
Gourley is a milling station, on what is locally termed Indian Town Branch, a branch of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company. This station is at the point where the railroad crosses Cedar river, and here is located a mill of the Mashek Lumber Company for the manufac- ture of both lumber and shingles. This company is a prominent institu- tion of Delta county, but comes to Menominee county for a considerable portion of its product.
La Branch is a station on the Metropolitan Branch of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, which is now the scene of a branch of the business of the Wisconsin Land & Lumber Company of Hermans- ville, that company having recently acquired the plant and extensive timber land holdings of the William Mueller Company which formerly operated here.
Whitney is a station on the Metropolitan Branch of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, and the location of the woods branch of the business of the Nat nal Pole Company which has its main business at Escanaba, Delta county. II. W. Reed is manager of the company's busi- ness at this point, where, in addition to its lumbering interests, it con- dnets a large store. This is also the center of a large area of very rich farming land in which many fine farms are being developed. The National Pole Company has a very fine farm at this place, and in addi- tion to a fine apple orchard theretofore started, it has this year planted several hundred trees.
COUNTY GOVERNMENT
In briefly sketching the history of Menominee county it is interesting to know that the place first designated for holding circuit court was the hall of the Quimby House and the county offices were located in the dwelling now occupied by Mr. Edwin Quimby. The comparison of this humble beginning with the handsome court house of the present is a striking illustration of the substantial advancement and growth of the county.
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In the early days this portion of the Upper Peninsula was a part of Mackinac county. As the county seat was about three hundred miles dis- tant by land through a trackless wilderness it is not probable that much official business was transacted. A shorter route in the summer season was to journey thither by Mackinac boat but that means was not reliable; and it must needs be very important business that would cause a resident of Menominee to visit the county seat. For this good and sufficient reason it is said that much was left undone that should have been done. Be- fore the organization of Menominee county it was common report on the Wisconsin side of the river that Menominee had neither law nor gospel, owing to the fact that the worst elements of the community could not be punished by law except at great disadvantage, trouble and cost.
In 1861 an act was passed by the legislature organizing the county of Bleeker, which act was approved by Austin Blair, the War governor, on March 18th of that year. Delta county was organized about the same time. Bleeker county, so called, was attached to Marquette county for judicial and other purposes until properly organized and its boundaries defined. It was a wise provision, for the people of Menominee would have nothing to do with the county of Bleeker and for a period of two years this district was connected with Marquette county. There were reasons for this, of course. The legislation had been procured by an ambitious young man named Anson Bangs. He divided the district into three towns, Anson, Adario and Meneshake, one being named after him- self. The county he had named after a young lady in New York state whom he expected to make his wife, a Miss Bleeker.
Section 3 of the act, located the county seat in section 34, town 32, range 27. This would be up the Bay shore where Mr. Bangs had a clearing. A. F. Lyon, James McCaffery and Charles McLeod were the commissioners appointed to locate the county seat. At the townships election on the first Monday of May, 1861, the proper county officers were to be elected, and were to enter upon their duties tl a first day of June. Charles MeLeod, Nicholas Gewehr, John G. Kittson and Anson Bangs were constituted the board of county canvassers for the election. But the people refused to organize under the provisions of the act.
Two years later, in March, 1863, an act was passed and approved or- ganizing the county of Menominee. The new act repealed the first twelve sections of the act "to organize the county of Bleeker," and located the county seat in town 31 range 27, and John Quimby, Nicholas Gewehr and E. S. Ingalls were appointed commissioners to locate the same. The site selected by the commissioners was the block opposite the Hotel Me- nominee, bounded by Main and Kirby streets, Grand and Ludington avenues. However, no county buildings were ever built on "court house square," which is another story. Judge E. S. Ingalls had much to do with organizing the county, and he it was who was sent to Lansing in 1863 to get the Bleeker act repealed and the act organizing Menominee county passed.
The first county election was held on the first Monday in May, 1863, Vol. 1 -- 30
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FIRST OFFICERS OF MENOMINEE COUNTY
S. P. Saxton
E. S. Ingalls
John Quimby
S. W. Abbott
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and the county officers then elected were to hold office until January 15, 1865, or until their sneeessors had qualified. The board of county can- vassers was composed of John G. Kittson, Nicholas Gewehr and John Quimby, and the board was empowered to approve of the bonds of the county officers and to administer the necessary oath of office. The newly elected sheriff and clerk were to designate a suitable place for holding the district court of the county and suitable places for the county offices. The places so selected were the hall of the Quimby House and the sitting room of the residenee now owned and ocenpied by Edwin Quimby. All records which were necessary to appear on the county register's books were transcribed from the records of Mackinac and Marquette counties.
The county was attached to the district court of the Upper Peninsula, and was a part of the representative district which also comprised Mar- quette. Chippewa, Schoolcraft and Delta counties. It belonged in the Thirty-second senatorial and Sixth congressional district. The taxes of 1862 were paid over to the county treasurer of Marquette county, and amounted to about $500.
The county in 1863 was divided into two townships. Menomince and Cedarville. The township elections were held on the first Tuesday in April. The voting place for Menominee townships was at the residence of John Quimby. . Samuel M. Stephenson was elected supervisor.
The county election was held at the stated place in May. The officers then elected were John Quimby sheriff, Salmon P. Saxton, county clerk, S. W. Abbott, county treasurer, E. S. Ingalls prosecuting attorney, judge of probate and circuit court commissioner. These officers duly qualified and entered upon the duties of their respective offices. Thus Menominee county became an organized county possessed of all the privileges, and corporate rights and legal existence belonging to all or- ganized counties of the State.
THE COUNTY IN THE CIVD. WAR
Before the organization of the county as has been said, there was little of government here, but the fact is that the residents as n class were patriotic and law-abiding and on comparatively few occasions was the peace seriously disturbed. Some important history was made at the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion which does not appear to have found place in any records pertaining to this county or of the State, and that is as to the part taken by the people of Menominee at that time. The records of the state pertaining to the Civil war show that Menominee furnished nineteen volunteers in 1864. That being the first year after the county's organization, of course, no record of the earlier volunteers would be credited to it. However, eighty-two volunteers went from this then small pioneer community, and from information given by some of those who are still living, and who responded to the first call for troops, we learn that Judge Ingalls was called upon to furnish a cer- tain number of men to fill out a company in the Twelfth Wisconsin Regi- ment, and that he secured the required number within abont an honr.
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Other Menominee men joined other Wisconsin companies, and organiza- tions in various other states. The following is a list of names of all who went from Menominee so far as the same can now be learned from in- quiry, and their respective companies and some of the special engage- ments in which they participated: John Devine, Charles Ackerman, John Ackley; Lieutenant Dean Ring, Eighteenth United States Regi- ment ; Lieutenant Octave Tetrot, Gilbert Moreau, John Chappee, John Kittson (killed in Sherman's march to the sea), Seventeenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry; Sergeant George H. Kittson, Alfred Beach, Peter Durocha, Joseph De Coto, Jerome De Coto, Frank Levine, Louis LaPlant Wapenipinas (the "Beaver"), Louis Secor, Henry Levine, Alexander Premo, Peousha Monetakakimo, Odillion Benoit, Paul Appetanaquet, Michael Mulharon, Gustoff C. Miller, Twenty-third Michigan Volunteer Infantry ; Sergeant Bartley Breen, Thomas Breen (lost an eye at bat- tle of the Cumberland), John W. Theriault (three months in Libby prison), James Reo, Joseph Bart Shevalere, Sergeant Frederick Hacker- man, John Farley, Patrick Crane, George Clark (in prison at Anderson- ville; died in hospital after exchange), Frank Dousey, Michael Wall, Patrick Ennis, Jerry Daily, Canute Canuteson, Thomas Gaynor, William Enright, Nieholos Grosman (died in Richmond prison), John Davis, Michael MeIver, Eleventh Wisconsin Battalion; James Morman (killed at Fort Hudson, Louisiana), Patrick Quinlin, Willard Ebbs, John Bebo, Octave Flasure (lost leg at Fort Hudson), Company H, Fourth Wis- consin Volunteer Infantry ; Samuel C. Hayward, William Martin, Jack MeClemans, William Hamilton and Sergeant John Avery, Company F, Fourteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry ; William Hooper, John Ham, Sixteenth United States Regulars; John McIvers, United States Regulars (regiment unknown) ; Andrew J. Easton, James C. Sherman, Lorenzo Richardson, Albert Lyons (lost an arm and died at Atlanta in hospital), Michael Mellen, Edward Leake (wounded; still carries bullet in his head), Terrance Cassidy, Archibald Goodlet, Daniel Nason, Daniel Bundy, Lieutenant Harlan P. Bird (wounded), Alexander McCollam (died in service), Louis Brown, George T. Pease (wounded at Atlanta), Louis Chappee, Alexander Loughery and Alexander Patton. Company F. Twelfth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry; Thomas Davy, One Hundred and Sixth New York Volunteer Infantry ; Richard Dowsey, Fourth Ken- tucky Cavalry; Frederick Brandizer (was in Andersonville prison), Ferdinand Gable (killed at battle of Mills Spring, Kentucky), Timothy O'Leary, Conrad Arnold, Twenty-first Illinois Volunteers (Grant's Regi- ment ) ; Goodlet Goodletson (regiment not known). John Westfall (re- ceived seventeen wounds), Company D, Third Wisconsin Volunteer In- fantry; James Lyons. Third Wisconsin Cavalry (present at the capture of Jefferson Davis).
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