USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people; its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume III > Part 10
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PHILIP B. KIRKWOOD
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trunks were burned. Returning to Negaunee, he subsequently bought Dr. Cyr's interest in the drug store, and was here actively engaged in business until 1907, when he was forced to retire from active pursuits on account of ill health. With his wife he subsequently made a brief visit in California, but passed away soon after his return to Michigan, dying at his home July 27, 1907.
Philip Boys Kirkwood was quite active in public affairs, being one of the leading members of the Republican party. He was township su- pervisor before the incorporation of the city of Negaunee, and was after- wards mayor of the city eight terms. He was identified with the estab- lishment of various public enterprises, and was the father of the City Water Works and of the City Lighting plant. Fraternally he belonged to Negaunee Lodge, No. 202, F. & A. M .; to Negaunee Chapter, R. A. M .; to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He married, in Negaunee, Michigan, in 1871, Marion E. O'Donoghue, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, June 21, 1844, and is now a resident of Negaunee. Of her five children but two are living, namely : John R., of Nebraska, and Philip B. T.
After completing the course of study in the public schools of Ne- gaunee, Philip B. T. Kirkwood attended the Military Academy at Dela- field, Wisconsin. He began his active career as a clerk in his father's drug store, to the ownership of which he succeeded on the death of his father, having been sole proprietor of the establishment since April 2, 1909. Here he is carrying on a substantial business, having one of the cleanest, best-stocked and most up-to-date drug stores in the Upper Peul- insula. Mr. Kirkwood is a Republican in his political affiliations, and is a member of Negaunee Lodge, No. 202, F. & A. M .; of the Knights of the Maccabees; of the Royal Arcanum; and of Negaunee Lodge, No. 1106, B. P. O. E.
Mr. Kirkwood married, February 2, 1904, Agnes M. Goodrich, who was born in New York state, of French descent. Her father, Moses Goodrich, was born in France. Coming to Negaunee, Michigan, in the spring of 1882, he secured work at the Pioneer Iron Furnace, and was there accidentally killed a few weeks later. He married Aurilla Saint Nee, who was born in Canada, and of their six children Mrs. Kirkwood was the youngest. Her mother died in December, 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Kirkwood are the parents of two children, Marion Aurilla and Philip Boys.
JOHN SENTER, one of the oldest of the pioneers of the Lake Superior copper region, can look in retrospect over a long, active and useful life; and now at the age of eighty-seven years is clear-minded and alert, has at his command an almost inexhaustible fund of early history, and is in short one of the most interesting men to be en- countered in the Northern Peninsula. He was born at Peterboro, New Hampshire, December 15, 1823, when James Monroe was pres- ident of the United States, his parents being George W. and Mary Steel Senter. Peterboro is a manufacturing town about sixty miles distant from "the hub of the universe," and there Mr. Senter was reared and educated. When a little under twenty he came west and accepted a position in the office of Gen. James Wilson, Surveyor Gen- eral of Iowa and Wisconsin, this distinguished gentleman being a relative of Mr. Senter. General Wilson belonged to the legal profes- sion and at one time was a member of the lower house of the United States Congress, representing New Hampshire. For three years, from 1842 to 1845, Mr. Senter acted as one of General Wilson's clerks
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and made his residence for the greater part of the time at Dubuque, although his duties required a good deal of travel over Iowa. In the fall of 1845 he returned to New Hampshire and spent the winter at General Wilson's home, and the following summer he and his patron returned to Iowa. Their stay there, however, was of short duration for the General had become interested in the first copper company, The Lake Superior, which was under the captaincy of Martin Coryell of Pennsylvania, and the young man and the elder came on to the Northern Peninsula of Michigan, locating at Eagle River. They made the trip on the first trip of the "Julia Palner," a side-wheeler and the second steamer that ever traversed the waters of Lake Superior. The first steamer, the propellor, Independence, had made one trip the year previous.
General Wilson had an interest in three leases covering three square miles each in what is now included in Keweenaw county, and in Eagle River Mr. Senter located and there made his home for forty years. In the first year Mr. Senter worked in the office of the Lake Superior Copper Company and also did some engineering and survey- ing. In the spring of 1847 he went back to New Hampshire for a visit. Upon his return to Eagle River he engaged in the mercantile business for a time, and also served as deputy to Postmaster Coryell. On September 28, 1847, Mr. Senter himself received the appointment as postmaster, which position he held until 1855. Life in the newly opened district was fraught with difficulties and at the close of nav- igation in the fall, the copper district became entirely cut off from the outside world, except for an occasional messenger on snow shoes who penetrated the isolation, bringing news and even more substan- tial comfort. Mr. Senter remembers the first steamer, the side- wheeler "Illinois," which came through the canal on July 17, 1855.
Mr. Senter carried on his mercantile business until 1856 and in the meantime, in 1848, had accepted the agency for E. I. DuPont, deNe- mours & Company, the largest powder manufacturers in the world. He at one time on account of the extensive mining operations found it profitable to carry on four stores in the Northern Peninsula. He retained his connection with E. I. DuPont until 1900. He also bought and sold mining stocks and is still interested in them. He is very well-to-do, owning real estate in Houghton and adjoining counties and having various other financial interests.
In the good old days of "gallant Henry Clay," Mr. Senter was a Whig and when that party passed out of existence he gave his alle- giance to Republicanism. For eight years previous to the Civil war he served as treasurer of Houghton county, Keweenaw, Baraga, and Ontonagon counties being then included under that caption. He was also a member of the Mining School Board until his resignation. Mr. Senter is a valued member of Ontonagon Lodge, No. 67, A. F. & A. M.
Mr. Senter was married at Detroit October 17, 1867. the lady to become his wife being Miss Lizzie T. Porter, a resident of Ypsilanti, Michigan. Her parents were David and Nancie Jane Porter. Mr. and Mrs. Senter have two sons and a daughter. Albert Wilson is assistant in the assay office of the Calumet & Hecla Smelting Works; Henry Mortimer owns and conducts saw and planing mills in Colombia, South America ; and Mrs. James B. Cooper is a resident of Hubbell, her husband having charge of the Calumet & Hecla Smelting Works. Mr. Senter makes his home in Houghton, his residence being situated in the eastern part of town. He has only within the last few years abandoned an active business life and is now enjoying the
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pleasures of an honored retirement. He is somewhat handicapped by poor eyesight, the sight being gone from one of his eyes.
W. J. BLOY, a resident of Calumet, where he is engaged in the furni- ture and undertaking business, is regarded as one of the most reliable men in his line in this part of the country. He has been in the under- taking business longer than any other man in Calumet and he is the second oldest furniture dealer in the place. Although Mr. Bloy was born in Devonshire, England, March 3, 1859, he has lived in America almost all his life and is to all intents and purposes an American, his parents having emigrated in the year of his birth. The father, Will- iam Bloy (born 1836), and the mother, Mary Jane (Burn) Bloy, were both natives of Devonshire, where they were married. The father had previously visited America, and returned home after a six weeks' voy- age with favorable reports of the new country. So well had he been impressed with America resources that he brought over his family and located in the Upper Peninsula in Ontonagon county, where he went to work with the National Mining Company. After remaining in their employ for ten years, he became associated with the Bohemian Mining Company and was with them for nine months, or until his removal to Calumet, Michigan. Here he entered the employ of the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company in the capacity of shift boss at Red Jacket. He was with them at the time that he met with the accident which ended his life, falling from the bucket a distance of one hundred and fifty feet and being instantly killed. He was well-known and had the respect of his numerous friends and acquaintances. His wife still sur- vives him and at the age of seventy years, resides at the corner of Scott and Eighth streets. She is the mother of eleven children, five of whom lived to maturity, W. J. being the eldest. The others are Henry; Lena, wife of Alfred J. Giles; John F .; and Annie, wife of Fred Tamblyn.
When W. J. Bloy had finished his education in the public schools of Calumet he went to work in the Centennial Stamp Mills and was afterwards employed in the company's store. His next position with Ruppe & Sons continued for nine years and at the end of that time, in 1889, he embarked in business on his own account, establishing furni- ture and undertaking concerns in Calumet and Red Jacket. He has built up an excellent business, having a large and well selected stock in the furniture department, and being unusually well equipped as a mortuarian, with three hearses and a full line of funeral supplies. In 1908 he arranged with florists in different cities so that in connection he is able to supply friends with fresh cut flowers. In 1895 he built the fine and commodious structure in which his building is located. This is of brick, 42 by 145, three stories in height and all floors being used for business.
In 1885 Mr. Bloy was united in marriage to Miss Bessie Pearce, daughter of Richard Pearce, for many years a resident of Red Jacket. He was a native of England, but came here at an early date and was widely known in this locality. After the death of his wife he returned to England. Mr. and Mrs. Bloy are the parents of five children: Wil- bur A., associated with his father in the furniture business; Blanche ; Ruth; Irma; and Lydia. Mr. Bloy is possessed of considerable valu- able property and has a fine residence in Laurium. He is a member of Hecla Lodge, No. 90, I. O. O. F.
EPHRAIM W. ALLEN .- The present treasurer of the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railway Company has been identified with this road,
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under its various changes, from the time it was established to the pres- ent, and he is one of the well known citizens and representative busi- ness men of the city of Marquette, where he maintains his official headquarters and which has been his place of abode since 1880.
Mr. Allen traces his lineage back to English extraction and the family was founded in America in the seventeenth century. His grandfather, Ephraim W. Allen, in whose honor he was named, was a prominent newspaper man in Massachusetts, where he founded the Newburyport Herald. It is worthy of note that he had as an apprentice in his newspaper office and as a member of his family for a number of years William Lloyd Garrison, whose name is well known in his- tory in connection with anti-slavery agitation.
Ephraim W. Allen was born in the historic old town of Salem, Massachusetts, on the 18th of September, 1853, and is a son of Rev. Ephraim W. and Anne (Ham) Allen, the former of whom was born in Newburyport, that state, in 1813, and the latter in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1818. The father died in 1896, and the mother passed away in 1909, at the venerable age of ninety-one years. Of their six children four are now living,-Mary, Martha, Ephraim W. and William S. Rev. Ephraim W. Allen an able and honored clergy- man of the Congregational church, was educated at Amherst College and at Andover and Yale Theological Seminaries, and was actively engaged in the work of the ministry for more than half a century. He passed the closing years of his life in New York city, as did also his wife.
Ephraim W. Allen passed his boyhood and youth in the states of Massachusetts and Maine and after availing himself of the advan- tages of Berwick Academy, at South Berwick, Maine, he continued his studies in the public schools at Haverhill, Massachusetts. In the latter place he initiated his independent career as a proofreader in a newspaper office. In 1876 he came to Michigan and located in the city of Detroit, where he was employed for several years on the Detroit Free Press. Prior to this he had learned the moulder's trade, at Providence, Rhode Island, with a company in which relatives were interested, and early in 1880 he went to Kansas City, Missouri, where he was bookkeeper in a banking institution for a few months. at the expiration of which, in the autumn of the same year, he came to Mar- quette, where he assumed the responsibility of opening the books in connection with the construction work of the Detroit. Mackinac & Marquette Railroad. He later was retained as auditor of the com- pany after it had instituted the active operation of its line. and under the various changes that have since occurred in the control and man- agement of this railroad he has served either as auditor or treasurer of the operating company. He is the present treasurer of the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railway Company, whose system represents the outgrowth of the original line mentioned, and his long retention of office offers the best evidence of the estimate placed upon his services. In politics Mr. Allen gives his allegiance to the Republican party and both he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church.
On the 23d of March, 1881, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Allen to Miss Susan Dyar, who was born at Romeo. Macomb county, Michigan; a daughter of John W. and Sarah (Beekman) Dyar, the former of whom was born in Vermont and the latter in New Jersey. Mrs. Allen was the seventh in order of birth in a family of eight chil- dren, and of the number five are now living. Mr. Dyar was a rep-
P. G. Gryou!
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resentative merchant of Romeo for many years and there both he and his wife continued to reside until their death. To. Mr. and Mrs. Allen have been born four children,-Hugh McM., Philip T., Win- throp D., and Margery,-all of whom are living except the eldest son, who died at the age of eighteen years.
REGINALD C. PRYOR is one of Michigan's native sons, and as an enter- prising citizen is a credit to his nativity. He was born in the village of Eagle Harbor, in Keweenaw county, July 27, 1867, his parents being James and Isabella J. (Chappell) Pryor, both natives of England. A sketch of the life of the father who emigrated to America about the middle of the nineteenth century, settled in Houghton, and became a man of property and prominence, appears elsewhere in this volume.
In his boyhood Mr. Pryor attended the village schools of Houghton and graduated from the high school in his sixteenth year. After leav- ing school he assisted his father for a year, and then taught country school for a year after when he entered the Michigan College of Mines at Houghton where he pursued a three years course. He also served successfully as instructor in mathematics, drawing and mineralogy in the Michigan College of Mines, his connection with the faculty of that institution being of one year's duration, after which he took a special course at Harvard college for a year. After leaving Harvard College he was employed as assistant engineer by an English Corporation doing exploratory work at Isle Royale Island and remained with them until they closed operations. He then opened a mining engineering office at Houghton and continued in this line until 1901. During this time he was engaged as mining engineer for the Franklin, Huron, Centennial and Arcadian mines, was also engaged in examining and reporting on mines of this region, also had charge of exploratory work at Mich- ipocation and at the old Belt Property in Ontonagon county for Eastern capitalists. In addition to mining work he acted as village engineer for different villages in Houghton county, as well as carrying on a general land surveying business.
In the fall of 1898 and the early winter of 1899 he secured options on lands which were sold to a representative of the Standard Oil Co. and which later formed the Miners Copper Co. These holdings now form the principal producing portion of the Isle Royale Copper Companies property.
In 1901 Mr. Pryor interested some friends and organized the Wheal- kate Mining Co. upon property which has the underlay of the Baltic Lode and adjoins the Baltic Mine. He cleared a portion of the surface of this property and platted the town of South Range which has since become a mining town of some commercial importance. He was also one of the organizers and the first president of the Citizens National Bank of Houghton, and the promoter and organizer of the South Range Bank of South Range.
In 1903 Mr. Pryor secured options on lands in section 15, town 54 north of range 34 west, near Houghton and located the Baltic lode. Later he organized the Superior Copper Co. and took over this prop- erty. Mr. Pryor become president and manager of the Superior and remained so until its sale to the Calumet & Hecla Mining Co.
In 1905 he was instrumental in the organization of the Lake Copper Co. which took over the lands of the old Belt Mining Co. situated in Ontonagon county, of which property he was chosen president and manager. It was due to his initiative that the diamond drill was used in exploring the eastern lodes of the copper bearing series at this prop-
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erty and finding what is now known as the Lake lode near the eastern sand stone, a portion of the copper bearing range which has given some of the principal producers of this region.
He interested Messrs J. H. Rice, and R. M. Edwards with himself in acquiring lands adjacent to the Lake Property from which were formed the Algomah, North Lake. Indiana, Fire Steel and Bohemia Mining Companies. In 1902 he became interested with his father and his brother John C. Pryor and with them organized the Houghton Lumber Co., John C. Pryor becoming manager of the property.
Mr. Pryor was married June 29, 1893, to Miss Annie J. Weir, daughter of Andrew Weir, a resident of Houghton. In 1904 a fine residence was erected by them on College Avenue, this being one of the most elegant dwellings in the best residence portion of the town. Mr. Pryor is the possessor of much other valuable property, most of which is in Houghton county. He gives his support to the Republican party, but has never been an office seeker.
CHARLES D. BLANCHARD .- During the many years that Charles D. Blanchard has been a resident of Marquette, he has taken a warm in- terest in local progress and improvements, winning for himself an en- viable reputation as an honest man and a desirable citizen. He has ably filled many public offices, since 1889 having served as justice of the peace. Coming from substantial New England stock. he was born, February 3. 1839, in Hampden county, Massachusetts, being the young- est of the five children born to Eleazer and Eliza (Dorchester) Blanch- ard. His parents were natives of New England, his father having been born in Rhode Island, and his mother in Connecticut.
Losing his father when a small child, Charles D. Blanchard had few school advantages, obtaining his education largely through read- ing, observation, and contact with the world and the world's people. At the age of ten years he began life as a sailor boy, going to sea with his uncle, Captain Lorenzo Blanchard. In 1852, when but thirteen years old. he went around the Horn on a whaling ship to California, thence to Honolulu, Hawaii. There deserting the vessel, he went on a sailing vessel to San Francisco, where he shipped on the clipper "Fly- ing Squall" for New York City. The clipper, an unusually fast boat, broke all records on that voyage, making the run between the Golden Gate and Sandy Hook, off Highland Light, in a little more than eighty- two days. Leaving the ocean service in 1855, Mr. Blanchard began sailing the Great Lakes, in 1856 coming to the Upper Peninsula with a two hundred and seventy-five ton vessel, which he loaded at Mar- quette, Michigan, with iron ore, the process of loading taking twenty- one days.
In May, 1861, Mr. Blanchard enlisted in the United States Navy, and on November 7, 1861, took part in the expedition that captured the earthworks at Port Royal entrance, and there raised the Union flag. He served in the Navy until September, 1862, and in 1863 enlisted in the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, later being transferred to the One Hundred and Eighty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until September, 1865.
Returning home, Mr. Blanchard sailed the lakes, as owner and cap- tain of steam and sailing vessels. until 1877. On September 12. 1878, he was appointed inspector of hulls at Marquette by John Sherman, secretary of the treasury, and held the office until 1888, when he was displaced by Grover Cleveland, president, for partisan reasons. In 1888 Mr. Blanchard was elected superintendent of the poor of Mar-
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quette, at the same time being appointed county agent of the Board of Correction and Charities. In September, 1889, he was elected justice of the peace, and these offices he has since held, succeeding himself each term.
Mr. Blanchard is a prominent member and past grand commander, of Albert Jackson Post, No. 300, G. A. R., of Marquette. An active member of the Masonic Order, he has held all the offices in the Grand Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons of Michigan, in 1895 serving as grand high priest.
In 1867, Mr. Blanchard married Mary Waring, and of the five children born of their union, four are living, namely: Edna, wife of Charles R. Hilton, of Boston, Massachusetts; Fred C., of Salt Lake City, Utah; Olive, wife of Harry L. Gray, of Lewiston, Idaho; and Chester A., who is in San Francisco. Mrs. Gray was graduated from the University of Michigan, and previous to her marriage was a teacher in the State Normal schools of Missouri and Idaho.
FRANK HAUN .- The demise of Frank Haun of Dollar Bay on March 2, 1910, removed from the locality an old resident and one who had enjoyed a good deal of prominence and the esteem of his associates. Up to within a few weeks of his death he was president of the Cit- izens' National Bank of Houghton and was serving as postmaster at Dollar Bay, having first been appointed to the latter position in Cleveland's first term and again during Mckinley's administration and continuing from that time on. Mr. Haun was a German in nationality, having been born at Kromminthal, Bavaria, Germany, July 13, 1840. He came to America with his parents who located at Eagle River, August 14, 1853. They subsequently removed to the old Phoenix mine where the father was engaged to do the carpentry work. They made several changes, stopping for awhile at the Bay State Mine and then at the Eagle River Mine. Young Frank's first employment was in the North American Stamp Mill, of which Cap- tain Paul was then the agent.
In 1858 the parents left the Lake Superior region and went to Iowa where the father bought a farm and engaged in farming. Frank Haun had received a rudimentary education in the Fatherland and went to school in Iowa that winter, this being the only school he attended in the new country. As he remarks in a sketch of his life which he wrote shortly before he died, and from which these notes are in part taken, "It was a small country school, but it was better than the Lake Superior place for there was no school there at all." In the following spring he found work upon a neighboring farm and the next year the family went back to Lake Superior. He and his brother found work upon the farm of one Charles York, whose estate lay just north of the Phoenix Stamp Mill, the occupation of the two young men consisting in chopping wood and clearing land in which they persisted for a year. They then went to Portage Lake and found employment in the Grand Portage Lake Stamp Mill, Mr. William Harris of the firm of William & Harris being the stamp. boss. Following this Frank worked in the Quincy Mine with the carpenters and then as a blacksmith, and although he had tried so many lines of work he was then but twenty years of age.
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