Chatham

Chatham is a small agricultural community in Alger County's Rock River Township located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in west-central Alger County.  It is situated among many small lakes, marshes and streams, including "Slapneck Creek," about a mile to the north, which suggests a component of the local ecology that likely once was a challenge to early settlers. 

James "Jim" Finn is credited with naming the village Chatham, after Chatham, Ontario, the headquarters of Sutherland Innis. He built a lumber camp in Chatham in 1896.  That same year the Munising Railway Company brought rail service to town which later ran on to Little Lake.  This one measure proved to be the most significant development in the township's history.  The railroad later became the Lake Superior and Ishpeming (LS&I).  Sutherland Innis, the lumber company that had camps in the area, collaborated with the Munising Railway Company in platting a village at the point where the railroad intersects the Rock River township road. 

Chatham received a station a year later and got a post office. It was developed under supervision of the president of the Cleveland Cliffs Mining Company, W. G. Mather.

The town was becoming an important point.  The Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, the Northwestern Cooperage and Lumber Company (Buckeye Company) and T.G. Sullivan had established lumber camps in the area. One of the major reasons why Chatham and Rock River Township were formed was because of the rich virgin forests that covered the lands, luring the railroad and logging companies to the area.  People came from far and wide for the rich timber that surrounded the area, and lumber companies soon sprang up to harvest the wood.  It wasn't long before railroads connected one town from the next, and Chatham's lumber was being transported across the country.  Initially only cedar for telegraph and telephone poles was in great demand, but that later migrated to hardwoods which were required in huge amounts at charcoal plants and hemlock for its bark at the tannery in Munising.

As cut-over land became available, land agents became active, selling acreage to future farmers.  Land could be bought for as little as $5.00 an acre.  Chan Brown and John Gatiss were agents for Northwest Cooperage and Lumber Company; Henry Hillman and Mike Skytta sold for CCI.

Settlers of various ethnic origins tended to settle in compact groups - the Swedes near Chatham, a few French east of Cold Springs, and the Belgians in Rumely.  The largest group, the Finns, settled throughout the township.  Settlers came from many lands and after brief stopovers elsewhere, chose Rock River for their future homes.

The first settler in Chatham, G.A. Lindquist, arrived in 1896 from Rock Kilns, eight miles to the north.  Others who came around the turn of the century were Andrew Anderson, Andrew Johnson, Oscar Sandstrom, Charles Carlson, John H. Gatiss, Gust Lintula, Sr., John Kamppinen, Sr., Abel and Isaac Maki, Claus Schevenius, Ivar Samuelson, Gust Zeno, Chan Brown, August Swanberg, Joseph Hill, Sr., Joachim Hill, Andrew Mattson, August Anderson, Charles Johnson, Eric Hyde, John Nykanen, Isaac Tunteri, Gottfried Johnson, and Charles Johnson (better known as Kamara).

Probably the oldest house still in use in the Chatham area is the one built by an Italian, Garbalino, several years before 1900.  It later became the home of the John Lintula and later Swen Lindfors family.

The Upper Peninsula Experiment Station at Chatham has a long history in developing improved practices of agriculture and raising livestock tailored to U.P. conditions. The station began in 1899 when the Michigan legislature recognized that soil and climate in the U.P. were different from the rest of the state and decided this area needed special study. The legislators appropriated $5,000 for the State Board of Agriculture "to carry on such experiments pertaining to agriculture" as, in its judgment, would be most beneficial to the agricultural interests of the U.P. After extensive surveys, members of the Board accepted from the Munising Railway Company a donation of 160 acres of land north of Chatham. The railroad company also agreed to "stump, clear, and grub" twenty acres so that immediate field demonstrations could begin. The railroad was trying to attract settlers who would need rails to ship goods on. The donation probably was seen as an "investment" of sorts.  Leo M. Geismar was the first superintendent of the station, holding that position from 1900 to 1912. Others who followed were R.G. Carr, B.E. Householder, D.L. McMillan, G.W. Putnam, J.G. Wells, Russell Horwood, William Cargo, S. MacCallum King, C.J. (Jack) Little, Gary Greathouse, Daniel Hunt, and Ben Bartlett.

Other early businesses were Hillman's store and land office, John Nymark's dry goods and clothing store, Anton Johnson's general store, Frank R. Hill's store, Joachim Hill and Ivar Samuelson's saloon, Joachim Hill's boardinghouse, a bakery shop, a creamery, and a saw mill. William Mead had the first blacksmith shop in 1903. Ed Fortune and Sol Spielmacher also ran blacksmith shops.

Of those earliest businesses in the village, only the depot, the town hall, the Pacific Hotel, and the homes of John Seppi, Jr. and Henry Norman are still standing.

The main street through Chatham early in the century was little more than a wagon trail. It was not until 1916 that board sidewalks were replaced by concrete walks.

Telephones started becoming a reality in Chatham by 1904 as Stan Brown built a line connecting the village with Michigan Bell line at Rock River, which soon extended to the camps of Trenary. After Brown's original store burned, he rebuilt and the telephone switchboard was located there for several years.

The Alger County Infirmary, "the Poor Farm," was built in Chatham in 1907. The farm was made up of 80 acres, and was located on the south side of the village. The main house had living quarters for the superintendent and his family, large rooms for the men, a barn and other farm buildings. The residents were usually homeless, former lumberjacks and those who were able worked on the farm. Much of the food required was produced there. Superintendents of the infirmary were Frank Featherly and Sergius Wolkoff.  In 1945 the farm was discontinued and the house converted to apartments.

In 1907, a jail was added to the previously built Chatham town hall and in 1910 the Standard Oil Company was granted a permit to build a storage tank on Munising Railway Company property.

In March 1915, Morgan Jopling, Hugh Gallop and Michael Walin of Marquette were granted a franchise to build an electric light system in the village. Also in 1915, $1000 was appropriated by the township board to construct a building for the Alger County Fair. C.C. Brown furnished the electricity for them. Built by George Leiphart of Munising and designed by Chan Brown, the structure featured a unique truss system without cross beams. After the fair was discontinued in the early '30's, the Hippodrome was still used for dances and other social events. The building was completely renovated around 1940 for use as the Eben High School gymnasium. Fire, however, destroyed the Hippodrome in 1945 and the land is now owned by the Richmond and Hawley Sawmill and Lumber Company.

While most of the original places of business in Chatham were no longer in existence, Issac Tunteri, an early Chatham resident, continued his operations well into the '30's. His original business, lost in the fire of 1925, was soon replaced. Tunteri and his wife continued operating the Pacific Hotel for several years. Since he retired, the store has been owned by Elmer Salminen, Dick Williams, and now by the Chatham Co-Op.

Bakery shops in the village have been owned and operated by Gus Syrjanen and Toivo Partanen. One bakery was bought by Earl Brown in 1948 and converted to a 4-lane bowling alley. In 1957, Bruno Lindfor and Leo Lammi bought the alleys and operated them until 1961 when Harold Johnson became the owner, and he in turn, passed them on to Bob Salo. The building, no longer used as a bowling alley after 1987, later served as a Youth Center and a Video shop. The building was eventually demolished to make way for a parking lot for the Village Pub.

Joe Brisson's Sandwich Shop was originally a pool room built by Toivo Kallio in the late 1920's. With the repeal of prohibition in 1933, Brisson began operating a tavern there. He retired from the tavern business around 1960 to devote more time to his logging operations.

The Richmond Oil Company, a fixture in the community for years, is now the Norman Oil Company. Other petroleum dealerships in Chatham have been operated by Leslie Kellan, Charles "Murphy" Little, Henry Norman, and Steve Norman.

Vern Richmond, a long-time Chatham resident, was one of Alger county's most active and successful businessmen. He was born in Algoma, WI, in 1890 and moved to Chatham in 1920, having previously lived on a farm north of Winters. He began working for Standard Oil in 1922 delivering gas. His widow, Opal, recalls Vern using horses to deliver gas and oil supplies often as far north as Deerton. About that time, he also had the mail route from Chatham to Trenary. Opal was frequently called on to drive their Model-T mail truck.  After working for Standard Oil ten years, Vern started his own company as a Standard Oil dealership. Later, he switched to Phillips 66 and finally to Cities Service. In 1948, he bought the former Rumley schoolhouse and moved it to Chatham. He converted the building to a general hardware store and had his gas company operations centered there.  Vern died in 1952.

Government census figures reveal that from a total township population of 365 in 1900, the number rose to 1450 in 1920. 

Chatham became an incorporated village in 1964, governed by a five-member elected council. George Leppamaki was the first village president.