CAPT. THOMAS D. JAMES, agent of the Minesota Mining Company, was born in Cornwall, Eng., in 1832; was brought up a miner, and, in 1853, emigrated to America. He spent three years in the East, and then removed to Dodgeville, Wis., where he was engaged in lead mining till 1861, when he came to Rockland, Mich., and engaged as a miner at the Minesota Mine. Three years later, he was appointed captain at the Evergreen Bluff Mine, where he spent one and a half years. He then returned to the Minesota as, captain; on the resignation of the agent captain, William Harris, he was appointed agent in his place, and has held that position ten years. Mr. James has been Supervisor of Rockland three years, and has held other local offices.

BENJAMIN JEFFS, merchant, was born in the city of London, Eng. He came to America in May, 1856; spent a short time in New York City, and then removed to Canada. He remained a year and a half in that country, and then came to Lake Superior, coming direct to Rockland; he established his present business in 1861, and has conducted it continuously to this date, 1882. Starting in a small way, he has, by his energy and enterprise, built up one of the most extensive establishments of the kind on the lake. His line is general merchandise in the fullest extent of the term, as he keeps in stock everything merchantable, from a reaper to a paper of pins, dry goods, groceries, hardware, stoves and tinware, queensware; hats, caps, boots and shoes, ready-made clothing, sewing machines, threshing machines, farming implements, wagons, buggies, harnesses, glazed sash, blinds, doors, etc., flour, feed, grain, meats, furniture, etc. Average stock, $30,000; maximum stock, $50,000. Mr. Jeffs, to encourage trade from abroad, runs a platform spring passenger wagon to the neighboring town of Greenland, distant six miles, and to the neighboring mines for the accommodation of his customers. Agricultural pursuits are limited in this region, but Mr. Jeffs has already sold four threshing machines, one reaper and eight mowers. He also has a farm of 250 acres, 100 of which are improved and under cultivation. He has a tract of fourteen acres in the village, and other village property. Mr. Jeffs is a self-made man, who by energy and strict attention to business, has achieved success. In addition to his other business, he does something in the broker's line, and buys and sells Government bonds. He has also held various local offices.

LATHROP JOHNSON, deceased, was one of the earliest pioneers of Lake Superior of 1846 and of Chicago, in 1834; he was born in Cazenovia, N. Y., July 26, 1802; he was married March 20, 1825, to Sophia Sage, of Fredonia, N. Y.; she was born in Burlington, Vt., in 1806. In September, 1834, he moved to Chicago, and bought an unfinished hotel, on Lake Street, between Clark and La Salle, which he finished and called the New York House. Mark Beaubien was his nearest neighbor; he kept the first livery stable in Chicago, and ran the first stage between Milwaukee and Chicago; he left Chicago, and went to Eagle River, Lake Superior, in 1846, and kept hotel there two years. In the spring of 1848, he moved to Ontonagon, and purchased the Government Mineral Agency House, and opened it as a hotel and called it the Johnson House, the first hotel in the place; he kept hotel in that house until 1874, when he leased it; his death occurred July 2, 1881, and his wife died January 11, 1882; he left a family of five children; the youngest child, Elizabeth A., now Mrs. F E. Adams, of Ontonagon, was the first white child born in Eagle River; born in October, 1847.

VEBEN L. JOHNSON, merchant, is the son of Lathrop Johnson, deceased, who was one of the pioneers of Ontonagon; he was born near Chicago, Ill., November 17, 1845. In 1847, he accompanied his parents to Lake Superior. They lived at Eagle River till 1848, when they moved to Ontonagon, where he has since resided; he enlisted in the late war, in October, 1862, as a private in Company A, Twenty-seventh Michigan Volunteers; he served three years, or till the close of the war. On his return from the army, he engaged in farming and jobbing; he has served as Highway Commissioner three years. In the summer of 1882, he started a small grocery and general store.