Events of 100 Years Ago in Ontonagon Recalled by Files
By Charles Willman

With 1959 now past history, going back 100 years should be of interest to many readers of this column rather than reviewing happenings and conditions of the present day.  A study of Lake Superior Miners of 1859, records on file with the Historical Society, Probate Court records and proceedings of the board of supervisors have revealed the following:

In 1859, James K. Paul, 'first settler and founder of Ontonagon, had been here for 16 years, married for 10 years and had one adopted son, Willis.  He and his wife, Amanda were operating the Paul House, a very respectable hostelry where lodging and food were available but no liquor--much more genteel than the "Deadfall Tavern" where he entertained the early prospectors and voyageurs prior to his marriage.

James K. Paul had, during the previous year, deeded the Public Square to the County as a site for county buildings.  During this year of '59, a jail had been constructed on the Square, but a one-story building for county offices was not  built until 1860.  The County Clerk and Register of Deeds office and the Court Room were in the Fire Hall, and the County Treasurer and Judge of Probate had offices in the basement of the Bigelow House.  Money set aside for a court house was used during the Civil War to pay bounties to volunteers and held up building this structure until 1886.

County officers were Daniel Goodwin, District Judge; John B. Schick, Probate Judge; Daniel Plummer, Sheriff; Henry R. Close, Clerk; Richard Moyle, Treasurer; and A.H. Hanscom, Prosecuting Attorney.  The Poor Commission consisted of Peter Mitchell and George C. Jones of Ontonagon and William Peck of Rockland.  On the board of supervisors were Joseph Coulter of Algonquin Township.  Alonzo C. Davis, Pewabic, Jason B. Townsend, Rockland, James Grierson, Greenland; and Edward Sales, Ontonagon.

The Ontonagon-Rockland Plank Road was completed in 1859 and operated as a toll road.  Our present U.S. 45 was much improved and opened to the traveling public in 1959 and is taken pretty much for granted.  But it would seem that our Creator had this project planned in His scheme of things by sending the prehistoric miners to this area several thousand years ago, and later Samuel O. Knapp, founder of the Minesota Mine, and others who, in their quest for copper, produced the huge rock piles at the mine sites, which yielded over 100 million tons of rock necessary to form a solid foundation for a roadbed on the moving clay of the Military Hills.

In 1859 a ferry, operated by one Philip Yost, was the means of crossing the Ontonagon River at the mouth, for there was no bridge.  In a special election held in 1855, the voters emphatically said no on the proposition of building a bridge across the river.  It appears that the first drawbridge across the "Sloo" was built in 1860.  A petition signed by J.K. Paul, Alfred Meads, Thomas Stripe, Geo. C. Jones, Henry Selby and many other citizens of the day, requested that this bridge be located at the foot of Chippewa Street rather than at Ontonagon Street as planned because it was more central and would accommodate the public more generally.  In spite of this petition, the supervisors apparently located this bridge at the foot of Ontonagon Street where the present crossing now stands.

In a February, 1859, issue of the Lake Superior Miner, Edwin Emmons (one of 21 voters in first election held in 1849) advertised: "Line of Stages to the Mineral Range--Through to Maple Grove in Three Hours."  The fare to Maple Grove, now known as Greenland, was $1.00 and daily trips were made.  In the same issue E. Sales & Col, who also operated a meat market, advertised a through line to Wausau, Wisconsin at $15 per passenger and 20 pounds of baggage.  "Only two nights out of a settlement, on the entire route," the ad said.

The Lake Superior Miner was being published weekly by George D. Emerson and Joshua W. Crozer, who founded the paper in 1855.  The paper at that time was taken up almost entirely by mining matters and advertisements with very little of local news recorded.  One issue of 1859 reports the sale of mining shares for 10 days as follows:  Central--2945 shares, $7-1/4 - $7-1/8.  Most active on the list: Minesota--25 shares, $98 - $90-1/2.  The Titus suit still depresses the price.  On the 14th a few shares were sold at $95-1/4.  There is no disposition on the part of those best informed to sacrifice their interests by selling at the current rates; National--only one sale of 100 shares at $60; Quincy--285 shares, $22 - 20-1/2.  Very scarce and wanted at $21.  Ingot copper, 23-1/2 to 23-3/4 cents cash.  Foreign advices indicate an advance in price.

Worship services were conducted at the First Presbyterian Church at 10-1/2 a.m. and 6-1/2 p.m. on Sunday, by Rev. J. Irwin Smith, who came here in 1854 and established this church.  The Episcopal Church held Lay Services at 10-1/2 a.m. with Alfred Meads and James Burtenshaw as lay readers.  The Rev. Lawrence Dunne, the first permanent Catholic priest at Ontonagon (1854), was serving the parish at St. Patrick's Church.

On Friday, July 15, 1858 at 10 o'clock in the evening, one William Chibnall, who operated the Arcade Saloon and Billiard Room at the foot of Carson & Close's pier in a building owned by J.K. Paul, and several friends went to the mouth of the river to bathe.  Chibnall drowned during this nocturnal expedition.  Among the claims filed in probate of his estate was one by Thomas Stripe--for labor at $25 per month, amounting to $16.66, on which payment of $1 cash and 1/2 barrel of fish, $4 had been credited, leaving a balance of $11.66 due him.

The first school in Ontonagon had been built in 1858 on the site of the Ontonagon Memorial Hospital and was being used by some 320 students.  O.E. Fuller of Maine was the principal and there were three other teachers.  In October 1859 the school board resolved to include the entire township of Ontonagon in School District No. 1, but the action was declared illegal as the area of a school district was limited by statute to 9 congressional sections of territory.

The firm of Hoffman and Voelker was dissolved by arbitration during this memorable year of the past.  Nicholas Voelker, grandfather of John D. Voelker, Supreme Court Judge, continued in this business of manufacturing "an Excellent Article of Present Use and Stock Ales" at the Ontonagon Brewery.

Mail, coming to Ontonagon by way of Green Bay and Marquette, was held up quite frequently when it was misdirected to some other distant point.  One of the mail carriers of that day was Joel D. Millard (grandfather of Warren Millard, our present superintendent of public works for the Village) who traveled long distances on foot and by dog train.  Luke Welch, a youth of 16 years, carried mail on foot between Ontonagon and Wausau, Wisconsin.

Yes, those were the "good old days"--when they did not have such weighty problems as whether or not perliferrous (this is a new word and spelling may not be correct) paper was used in the manufacture of a certain cigarette (believe it or not Dr. Samuel S. Walbank raised tobacco here in 1859 for his own cigars), or if the bleach and detergent they were using was being used in the right machine.  Nor were they affected by Sputniks, and such, probing the heavenly bodies, or health-affecting fall-out from the skies.  No, they had none of these to divert them from their main problem of survival--but survive they did and managed it without all these complexities connected with our present day comforts of living.