USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people; its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume III > Part 70
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He continued in the lumber business until 1861, when that part of Canada was overrun by fugitives from the United States, a majority of whom migrated to escape military duty in the Civil war. A "ske- dadler" having appeared who was glad to take Mr. Curry's position for less than a third the salary paid him, Mr. Curry decided to move on. He went first to Detroit, Michigan, and thence to Houghton where he found himself caught as in a trap by the close of navigation. Winter having set in, he could get no farther, nor could he get back, except by a march on foot through an unbroken wilderness to Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The Quincy & Pewabic mines were then being operated the year round, however, and there being nothing else to do, he got a position teaming for the Quincy Mining Company. Following this, he decided to learn the mining business and started at the bottom as a common miner with hammer and drill in the Old Albany & Boston Mine under Capt. John Hoar.
Two years later, he left the copper country and went to Marquette to take a position with the Grant Mining & Mfg. Co., and exploration company backed by such men as Peter White, Samuel J. Mather and others. He then took charge of a small iron mine owned by E. B. Ward of Detroit, who was represented by H. G. Williams. Through his acquaintance with Mr. and Mrs. Williams, Mr. Curry first met Mrs. Williams' sister, Elizabeth Stoup of Ann Arbor, Michigan, whom he married in 1867.
After the panic of '73, Mr. Curry moved to Ishpeming where he lived until 1880 when he made explorations in the Menominee Range and opened up the Curry Mine now owned and operated by the Pen Mining Company. The Metropolitan Iron & Land Co. was organized in 1880, Mr. Curry being one of the organizers and S. P. Burt of New Bedford, Massachusetts, its President. After the death of Mr. Burt in 1885, Mr. Curry was made president and general manager of the Met- ropolitan Company.
Under Mr. Curry's able management, the policy of looking for a profitable mine in the Felch Mountain district was abandoned and an option on property owned by A. L. Norris of New York, situated on the unopened deposits of iron ore in the Ontonagon Range was procured,
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and the company's energies were thereafter confined to opening up this wonderful deposit of Bessemer iron ore which bids fair to prove the largest and richest deposit in this country. With the growth and de- velopment of this mine the city of Ironwood has grown from a wilder- ness to be one of the finest cities of Northern Michigan.
With Mr. Curry's management the company first began to earn dividends. Fifteen thousand tons of highest grade ore were marketed at a profit the first year the mine was opened. Inside of seven years it was the greatest ore producer in the world with an output of a million tons a year. This enormous production was made possible by the im- proved methods of mining by a system of timbering and caving from the surface introduced by Mr. Curry. He kept his company earning big dividends for its stockholders and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to labor to and through the panic of 1896, when there was not another mine on the whole Gogebic Range which was not either idle, or in the hands of a receiver.
But the era of big consolidations was at hand, and Mr. Curry's Com- pany was caught up by the general wave, although it had over a million dollars overplus in its treasury when it was acquired by the Oliver Mining Company, which has since operated it as one of the subsidaries of the great steel trust.
Since losing control of the Metropolitan Iron & Land Company, Mr. Curry has continued to live in Ironwood, where he is the largest individual tax payer, being actively engaged in looking after his ex- tensive holdings of real estate.
Always an earnest supporter of the principles of Democracy, Mr. Curry has taken an active part in politics. While a resident of Ish- peming he served as a member of the board of aldermen and also rep- resented his district in the state legislature. Since coming to Iron- wood he has been the candidate of his party for Congress and also for lieutenant governor, being defeated for the latter by only 8,000 votes. A thirty-second degree Mason, Mr. Curry is a member of the Ahmed Temple, Order of the Mystic Shrine.
GEORGE A. RAPIN .- The worthy representative of a well-known pio- neer family of Mackinac county, Michigan, George A. Rapin, of St. Ignace, is active in public affairs, and is now rendering excellent service as sheriff of the county. A son of John B. Rapin, Jr., he was born April 7, 1875, on St. Helen's Island. His grandfather, John B. Rapin, Sr., emigrated from Canada to Illinois, in 1858, settling in Chicago, where, during the same year, his wife died with the cholera, leaving a family of children, among whom was their son, John B. Rapin, Jr. The father married his second wife in Montreal, and in 1865 removed to Mackinac Island, where he was engaged in fishing for a number of years. In the meantime, however, he purchased land, and on the farm which he im- proved spent the remainder of his life, passing away at the venerable age of eighty-seven years.
Born in Montreal, Canada, in 1847, John B. Rapin, Jr., accompanied his parents to Chicago in 1858, and there completed his early education. He subsequently learned the cooper's trade in that city, and on coming with the family to Michigan in 1865 worked at his trade on Mackinac Island for awhile, during his leisure time employing himself in fishing, a profitable industry in those days. He lived a few years on Saint Helen's Island, after which he purchased a tract of wild land in Macki- nac county, and having erected a log house began the arduous task of hewing a farm from the wilderness. Succeeding well in his labors, he
HORACE J. STEVENS
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replaced the original log cabin with a good frame house, and placed a large part of his land under culture. Later, in order to give his chil- dren better educational advantages, he erected a house in St. Ignace, and there spent the long winter seasons, his summers being passed on the home farm. He was a man of prominence, serving as the first su- pervisor of Berrout township, as township treasurer, and for many years being a member of the local school board. He was a steadfast Democrat in politics, and a consistent member of the Roman Catholic church. He married Mary Metty, who was born on Mackinac Island in 1850, their union being solemnized in 1872. Twelve children blessed their marriage, eight boys and four girls, and of these ten children are living, George A. being the second child in succession of birth.
Spending his boyhood days on the home farm, George A. Rapin ob- tained his first knowledge of the three "Rs" in the primitive log school- house, with its limited accommodations. Beginning life as a wage- earner at the age of sixteen years, he was engaged in hewing railroad ties winters, and on a farm summers for five or six years, after which he was employed in bridge building on the South Shore Railway for a time. In 1899 Mr. Rapin embarked in the carriage business on Mackinac Is- land, continuing it for seven summers. Being appointed in 1903 under sheriff, he served for two years under Thomas E. Dolan, after which he was first a fireman on the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railroad, and later a scaler of lumber. In November, 1908, he was elected to his present responsible position as sheriff of Mackinac county, an office which he is filling ably and satisfactorily. He has never swerved from the political faith in which he was reared, being a straightforward Demo- crat, and is a valued member of the Roman Catholic church.
On June 1, 1903, Mr. Rapin was united in marriage with Katherine V. Gallagher, a daughter of Cornelius and Sophia (Bushey) Gallagher, the former of whom was a native of Ireland, while the latter was born and reared on Mackinac Island. She is the second child in a family of six children, of whom three sons and two daughters are living. Mr. Gal- lagher came to the United States with his parents when young, and here learned the trade of a millwright, which he followed for some time, al- though for the past few years he has been successfully engaged in tilling the soil. He is a member of the Roman Catholic church, while in politics he is affiliated with the Republican party. Mr. and Mrs. Rapin have three children, namely : Katherine I., George A., and Mary A.
HORACE J. STEVENS, a national authority in copper in all its phases -scientific and practical-and since 1901 known especially as editor and publisher of "Stevens' Copper Handbook," is a native of the Empire state, born at Conewango, New York, January 5, 1866. A son of David and Louise (Young) Stevens, he received his early education in the common schools and in an academy. In his seventeenth year he commenced to teach school in the country, later being employed as carpenter, fireman, pumpman, engineer, miner and timekeeper at the Beaufort mine, Michigan. This period of his practical experience cov- ered the years 1884 to 1889; also his initiation into mining literature as a reporter for the Marquette Mining Journal. Afterward Mr. Stevens became manager and owner of the Peninsula News Bureau, whose head- quarters were at Ishpeming and Houghton, Michigan; and this varied experience thoroughly paved the way for the establishment, in 1901, of his annual Handbook, which has since been generally recognized as the highest authority on matters relating to copper mining and manufactur- ing, wherever the industry is conducted. Office of publication and . residence of the editor, Houghton, Michigan.
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ALVAH LITTLEFIELD SAWYER, of Menominee, was born at Burnett, Dodge county, Wisconsin, September 16, 1854, of New England parent- age. He is of English descent, his ancestors having come from Birming- ham and settled in Massachusetts in 1648. One branch of the family settled at and founded Orford, New Hampshire. Hiram Sawyer, father of Alvah L., was of the Orford branch and was born in 1814. In 1836 he married Barbara A. Wilson of Haverhill, New Hampshire. In 1845 Hiram Sawyer migrated to Wisconsin and there settled upon a home- stead which thereafter remained the family home at Burnett. He built a log house, and in 1846 returned to New Hampshire for his family and took them (his wife and four children) to the new home, where he there- after always took an active part in matters of public interest. He was unusually interested in educational matters and prominently connected therewith, being a member of the school board a great many years. In 1866 he represented his district in the Wisconsin legislature. There were twelve children in that pioneer family, seven of whom, four broth- ers and three sisters, are still living. They are Hiram W. Sawyer, law- yer of Hartford, Wisconsin; Mrs. Mary S. Childs of Casselton, North Dakota; Ransom J. Sawyer, druggist, of Menominee, Michigan; Mrs. Hannah S. Mayhew, of Burnett, Wisconsin; Alvah L. Sawyer, the sub- ject of this sketch ; Mattie S. Sherman, of Billings, Montana, and Lewis M. Sawyer, druggist, of Bloomington, Illinois. Hiram Sawyer died in 1888 and Barbara A. Sawyer passed away at the old home in 1905.
As was the case with most farmer boys in those days, the Sawyer boys worked on the farm, but attended school winters, and what time they could be spared in the summer season. Alvah L. Sawyer received an academic training at what was then Wayland Institute, at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and then, after teaching school for one year, began the study of law in 1876, in the office of his brother, H. W. Sawyer, at Hartford, Wisconsin, having read law during his year of teaching. He was admit- ted to the bar of Wisconsin in November, 1877, and in June, 1878, re- moved to Menominee, Michigan, and entered upon the practice of his profession in which he has ever since been engaged. On starting he suc- ceeded to the practice of Judge Ingalls, who was then principally en- gaged in mining. In 1882 Byron S. Waite came to Menominee and en- tered into partnership with Mr. Sawyer, under the firm name of Sawyer & Waite, and in 1893 Wm. F. Waite was admitted to the partnership, and the firm name became Sawyer, Waite & Waite, so remaining until 1895, when Byron S. Waite removed to Detroit and the firm name again became Sawyer & Waite. It so remained until 1904, when the part- nership was dissolved, since which time Mr. Sawyer has practiced in- dividually, with the exception of one year when Fred H. Haggerson was his partner and the firm name was Sawyer & Haggerson. Mr. Sawyer has been president of the Menominee County Bar Associa- tion for the past fifteen years and still holds that position. He has served several years as school trustee, and eight years as library trustee, and is now filling his seventh year as president of the Board of Trustees of Spies Public Library. He was city attorney five years, having had the honor to be the first appointed to that office after the incorporation of the city, and he held the position during the years when most of the public improvements found their beginning. He has been always a Democrat but has not sought official preferment, rather giving his attention to his private practice.
Hle was married, in 1880, to Josephine S. Ingalls, daughter of the late Judge Ingalls, and they have had six children, four of whom are now living-Kenneth I. Sawyer, county engineer of Menominee county,
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Michigan; Meredith P. Sawyer, a senior law student in the Michigan University ; Wilda A. Sawyer and Margery I. Sawyer, students in the local high school. Irma, the second child, died an infant, and Gladys B., the third, died in 1907, while a senior in the high school.
Aside from an extensive law library, Mr. Sawyer has a large and well selected private library and enjoys one of the many pleasant Menominee homes.
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