Looking Back
Compiled by Ryan Schlehuber

Students pose in front of the Hudson Township School in Rexton for the 1919-1920 school year. (Photographs courtesy of Linda Livermore)

115 Years Ago

The St. Ignace News

Saturday, September 24, 1892

Mrs. Benjamin Harrison is in better health. She is at the White House now.

City Clerk Gennell has a crab apple tree in full bloom at the present time.

"Billy" Dunn came home from Les Cheneaux last Sunday. He reports a good season at the islands.

City Marshal Faut has collected $205 poll tax and 80 days labor and $64 dog tax so far this season. He is a "hustler."

The repairs on the Episcopal Church have been completed and it is hoped that the bell will soon be in place.

On account of the cholera scare, quite a number of the Island cottage people are preparing to remain there all winter.

One day this week, C.V. Grondin and Frank, his brother, sailed their Mackinaw boat from Chambers' dock to Rabbit's Back in fifteen minutes.

A consolidated school was built in 1925 for students in Hudson and Hendricks townships. The building has long been torn down, and now a residence is on the site.

The hotel Muskellunge, at Les Cheneaux, burned to the ground last Sunday night with all its contents. Mrs. Jamieson closed the hotel the night before for the season, and was all ready to come home. The loss is estimated at $5,000; insurance, $1,500. The hotel was built three years ago and was the finest resort building at Les Cheneaux. Mrs. J. has the sympathy of the entire community. It was undoubtedly the work of an incendiary.

Advertisement - Petoskey Normal; fourth year begins Sept. 26th. You can prepare at the Normal most thoroughly and in the least possible time. For teaching, for business, for reporting, or for college. Send for Northern Educator, M.O. Graves, M.A., Prin., Petoskey, Mich.

90 Years Ago

The St. Ignace Enterprise

Thursday, September 27, 1917

Roast beef, steaks, in fact all cuts or dishes made from beef, will be missing from the Tuesday menus of dining cars on railroad trains beginning October 2. Wheat bread will not be available to patrons of dining cars unless it is specially requested. These rulings, made by the American Association of Dining Car Stewards, are the result of efforts to aid the government food administration's program of conservation.

Cornelius Sullivan, a Soo saloon keeper and known all over this end of the peninsula, was convicted in the U.S. district court at Marquette last week of selling liquor to soldiers and sentenced to serve a year in prison and pay a fine of $1,000. Harry Young, his bartender, must serve 90 days in Detroit.

Burglars gained entrance to the post office and the L. Winkelman department store Monday night, making a small haul in both places.

The farewell dance at the Astor House on Mackinac Island given by Mr. Wm. Fitch for our boys leaving for Camp Custer was a great event.

The Islington Hotel in the Snows closed Tuesday, September 25.

So many people seem to be going out to Detroit and elsewhere for the winter that it will lessen the population of the Snows materially during the winter months.

50 Years Ago

The Republican-News

& St. Ignace Enterprise

Thursday, September 26, 1957

An open house celebration aboard five Michigan state ferries at the Straits will signal the end of the ferry service and the opening of the Mackinac Bridge.

Reverend Milton Nelson, Marinette, Wisc., president of the Superior conference of the Lutheran church, will be here Sunday to officiate at the laying of the cornerstone of the new Zion Lutheran Church here. The ceremony will commence at the conclusion of the 11 o'clock morning church service.

Another "first" for the Mackinac Bridge - the first prisoner to cross the Mackinac Bridge was William Franklin, who was arrested by state police in Petoskey and returned here to jail Monday by Sgt. Paulson and Detective Morrison, charged with breaking and entering the Mackinac Bridge Authority offices last week. He was brought by patrol car.

Louis Grondin, Ducky Smith, and Pete Spieles, outstanding high school baseball stars in St. Ignace, went to Detroit with their manager, Red Smith, to try out for the Detroit Tigers baseball team.

35 Years Ago

The Republican-News

& St. Ignace Enterprise

Thursday, September 28, 1972

With negotiations completed and contracts signed here this week, Michael Shiels, general manager of J.F.B. Manufacturing Company, Inc., announced the establishment of a new industry in St. Ignace. J.F.B. will occupy the former Mackinac Steel Erection Company building, which has been leased from Ray Christiansen. They will engage in making electrical wiring assemblies for the automotive industry and expect to employ 50 to 75 people during the first nine months of operation.

Edward Fenlon, for twenty years judge of the 33rd judicial court, has announced his candidacy for another term in the coming November 7 election.

St. Ignace City Police, accompanied by State Police Detective Seppanen, investigated bones excavated near the Lloyd Steiner residence on Huron Street, which were uncovered when digging was being done on a sewer line. The bones were sent to Lansing by the Michigan State Police.

15 Years Ago

The St. Ignace News

Thursday, September 24, 1992

Grand Hotel purchased Stonecliffe's restaurant and nine-hole golf course Friday, September 11, fulfilling a purchase agreement signed last May and blessed by the bankruptcy court for the troubled Stonecliffe Resort.

Cedarville racer Jack Bickham won his first American Power Boat Association national championship at Wakefield July 26 to August 1.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The St. Ignace News is seeking original prints or reprints of old photographs depicting areas in the Eastern Upper Peninsula to be scanned into the archives and for the Looking Back column. Photographs to be loaned or donated to the Michilimackinac Historical Society can also be dropped off at The St. Ignace News.