Contributed by Jody Doran
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Contributed by Jody Doran |
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Just finished typing up this story written by Grace Bahel Pregitzer for the 1972 Goodfellows Edition published on 16 Dec 1972 and thought I would share it with you.
A lot of history of Onaway that many living today might not know.
Early History of Onaway
Merritt Chandler, who was the founder of the Onaway Settlement, was born in 1843 of Quaker ancestry near Adrian, Michigan, and was educated in a Quaker Seminary
in southern Michigan. He began lumber operations in Cass County in 1870, later he entered the road building business, and because he was interested in developing
this northern Michigan region, he moved to Cheboygan where his brother William lived, edited and operated the Northern Tribune.
After viewing this section of land, Merritt Chandler reported that from the Rainy River to the western end of Presque Isle County was a virgin forest of solely large
Sugar Maples, immense Elms and Basswood. The land was gently rolling, watered with silvery brooks and beautiful rivers.
But there were no roads. Although the country was appealingly beautiful, it offered a host of natural hazards to the road building crews and contractor.
First, work was possible only in the summer, and even then, the crews had to contend with heavy rains, mosquitoes, flies and swampy land. But Chandler
was an optimist and an efficient operator.
He offered to build roads for $175.00 per mile, and as soon as his contract had been approved, he went to work with a crew of 35 men in the summer of 1880.
In 1882 the East-West portion was completed.
In 1881 the westernmost part of Presque Isle County was organized as Allis Township. Then Chandler built the County Line Road north to Black Lake and south
to the southern line of Allis Township. This road intersected the East-West Road at the present location of Onaway. Chandler had built 70 miles of road and
for his services he received 40,000 acres of beautiful hardwood lands.
Using the land acquired as his primary resource, and by managing and releasing his holdings discreetly, Chandler attracted business and industry to Onaway.
Because Chandler’s brother William was editor of the Cheboygan Northern Tribune, he could get attention called to the many points in favor of this vicinity
for agricultural purposes and to the immense lumbering operations, which would continue for several years and insure a good home market for all the produce
that could be raised.
In the summer of 1881 immigrants to Presque Isle County arrived in droves, 31 in one week alone, and Allis Township drew its share of this influx. One of the
new settlers was Thomas E. Shaw, brother-in-law of Chandler. Shaw had been a professor of math and natural sciences and a student of Theology at Princeton
Seminary and when his health began to fail, he sought the less strenuous life of northern Michigan.
In 1882 Shaw taught the first one room log school with 7 pupils. The school stood where Leslie’s Marathon is situated. Shaw’s home was across the corner where
Gilbert’s Sales now stands. He was also the first postmaster. In 1884 Dr. John Young built his home on the northwest corner of Allis Township. The original
building still stands there and is occupied. Dr. Young was Allis Township’s first physician.
In 1886 Chandler moved to his first new home across from Shaw (his brother-in law) where the Carolee Motel now stands. That same year Mr. and Mrs. Chandler platted
the village they called Onaway. It was composed of a few settlers, a Post Office; Friends Church and a general store called The Mercantile, where Jeffrey’s
Hardware is and the main part of the store is the original building. It was two stories high and not so wide as now.
Many stories were circulated about how Onaway got its name, but only one seems reasonable. Chandler and Shaw, being literate men, knew of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s
“Hiawatha,” a romantic poem of northern Michigan and Wisconsin Indian lore. Chandler, most likely, selected the word Onaway (Onaiweh) meaning “awake” from
the poem. The word is taken from “Song of Chibiabaas” at Hiawatha’s wedding feast. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, early educator of upper Michigan, did a lot of research
work on Indian lore of Michigan-Wisconsin and found that the word Onalweh was a Chippewa expression meaning awake. Longfellow used Schoolcraft’s notes in writing
“Hiawatha” and the excerpt reads, “Onaway awake Beloved, Thou the wildflower of the Forest…” Now that Chandler first spelled Onaway “onaiweh” as the Indians did,
seems to support this version of how Onaway was named.
By 1897 Onaway had one Saw and Feed Mill and a population of 35. It took 10 or 11 years for Onaway to live up to its name.
In 1898 my father, Dr. C.W. Bahel- he was also a druggist- settled here with his family.
Between 1898-1903 Chandler’s policies bore fruit. 1899 saw six manufacturing mills listed in Onaway and a population of 513, and that same year it was incorporated
as a village. In 1901 the Detroit and Mackinac railroad went through Onaway to Tower. Now Onaway had 7 mills producing various kinds of lumber and boasted a
population of 1204. That same year Huron Handle Manufacturing Company moved from Alpena to Onaway and soon became the chief employer and backbone of the
community.
In August of 1901, the Lobdell Bailey Company of Marietta, Ohio bought the entire factory and by 1902 this company furnished 65% of all the finished bicycle
rims in the world.
By then the newly incorporated City of Onaway included 2 Opera Houses with seating capacities of 1500 and 700 persons, 2 public halls and a theater. Mr. Bush,
who owned one of the Halls advertised his Saturday night dance in this manner: ``Come one, come all, with any reputation at all, Bush’s Hall.”
Other businesses expanded at a similar rate and 1st Street from State Street to the Depot filled up so fast with business places that my father bought the corner
lot where the Credit Union and Gamble Store now stand and built our first one-story home on the corner and started to build what is now the Gamble Store for his
drug store. But he could see that the four corners of State and First streets were soon to be filled and business was pushing west on State Street, so he sold
the Gamble Store building and bought where Burns Insurance is now. My father’s building was wood; He spent 56 years as Druggist and as Optometrist. Our home was
moved from its first location east on State Street, the upright was added and that was my parent’s home until they passed away.
One tall fir tree standing on the south side of State Street in the second block is the tree my mother pulled up by hand when on a picnic and planted it there.
That brick building, today housing Browning’s Shell Gas and Laundromat, was the home of Onaway’s first newspaper called Onaway Outlook, which started printing
in 1898. Opposite from there, where the Northland Bar stands is the site of Onaway’s first Hardware Store which was owned and operated by Fox and Steel. The
Grainger Grocery Store building was originally the Harmon Brother Dry Goods Store, at that time the building was two stories high.
Onaway had a two story hotel on the corner next to the Depot, and one called “The Greenwood” on First Street. The Colonial Hotel was a three story building on
the corner where the Dairy Queen now stands.
The present Arnold Porter building is an original building from the old days. It was first called the Abbott Building and housed a mortician who sold new and
used caskets.
I came to Onaway in January at the age of twelve and attended school on the second floor of the Mercantile (Jeffrey Hardware) and finished the 8th Grade. At
that time grades 9 and 10 were held in the Hose House. Then the first frame constructed school was built where Booth’s Body Shop now stands. Later that same
building was moved west of its original site and an exact replica was built on the east side of the block. The first Onaway high school graduation from this
building was in 1901. The first graduate was Miss Nettie Tower who now lives in Midland, Michigan.
In 1903 I graduated with Ella Botsford. Our graduation was held in the Grand Opera House which was at that time where Tony Moll Inc. now stands. The building
seated 1500 and in the summer was a roller rink.
In 1903 the Onaway State Bank was established and started into business.
Onaway’s first Methodist Church was built on land donated by Dr. John Young. It was enlarged in later years. The Lobdell family provided the church with a pipe
organ which was first played by Mr. Tisdale, publisher of The Onaway Outlook.
My sister Blanch was a music teacher and at one time had 85 piano students.
Onaway had in addition to its public schools a large Catholic school which operated until 1925. It still has the Seventh Day Adventist school which began in 1904.
In 1904 Onaway’s population reached 2, 408. Merritt Chandler had created a city he could look on with pride.
But fires hurt both the lumber supply and the city. The 1926 disastrous fire that consumed the American Wood Rim Company (successor to the Lobdell Bailey Plant)
severely hurt the town’s economy. But the town has endured.
Memories of the prosperous early days still remain with many residents, and these memories have contributed much to Onaway’s permanence.