120 YEARS AGO

The St. Ignace News Saturday, January 30, 1892

The recent snow storm has spoiled the skating in the bay.

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Ex-marshal P. A. Paquin has been dangerously ill all week.

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The “Sun-flower” club have their gymnasium ball in running order.

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Dr. Jessup, of Mackinac Island, is reported seriously ill at that place.

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Four traveling retail jewelers were in town on Thursday last, all bound for the lumbering camps.

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We have been requested to announce that there will be dancing school at Mulcrone’s hall next Thursday night.

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C. J. McArthur went to Cheboygan on Monday night last in response to a telegram announcing the death of his sister, Mrs. A. P. McKinnon.

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The Volatile Club met at the residence of Mrs. C. H. Wilber on Thursday evening last, where the usual amusements were indulged in until 1:30 o’clock, when all left for their respective homes.

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Hiram Bushnell, of Marquette, who, with other gentlemen recently purchased the Connolly gypsum lands at Long Pointe, arrived in the city Tuesday night. Wednesday he was busy all day purchasing supplies, hiring teams and men and otherwise preparing for the initiatory operations. Wednesday three other interested gentlemen arrived from Marquette, bringing a car-load of machinery – consisting of an engine, boiler, large diamond drill and other appliances. Thursday, two of Lennon’s teams took the party to Long Pointe, where a force of men was at once put to work making a camp and building an engine room. One team remained to assist with the work while the other has since been kept busy moving the machinery, etc., from this city to the scene of operations. Mr. Bushnell and his partners paid $6,000 cash for the lands referred to, and being men of experience, they are confident they planted their dollars in the right place. As soon as everything is ready, prospecting will be commenced and continued until they know just how large a bonanza they have. If everything pans out as expected, of which there is little doubt, the manufacture of adamant on a large scale will be begun as early as practicable and the factory for grinding the raw material and making it ready for market will be located right here in St. Ignace, newspaper reports to the contrary notwithstanding. This will necessitate the erection of a large building and will give employment to a large number of men. Long Pointe is opposite St. Martin’s Island, about seven miles from this city.

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L. Pauly, P. Mulcrone, W. E. MacAdam, Frank Daniel, Sam Palliser, Walter Wing, Arthur Hamell, P. Dolan and E. H. Hotchkiss, who were all sick with the grip the first of the week, are around again.

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Queen Victoria has prohibited smoking in Windsor Castle.

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The railroad coming from Naubinway to the camps of N. Holland & Co. will be connected with the road running out from Newberry, the distance being only 1 mile. This will give the Furnace people a fine outlet for their products, also making a water port for the receiving of coal and freight. This will likewise be a great benefit to the people of both towns.

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Nine prisoners in the county jail.

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Ten female Italian peddlers arrived in the city Friday morning.

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A 36 pound trout was captured near Graham’s shoals one day this week.

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A number of St. Ignace boys attended a dance given in the Lake View House, Brevort Lake, last evening.

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The Mackinac Lumber Co. have had a gang of men busy all week sawing and decking large quantities of ice.

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Capt. L. R. Boynton went to Detroit last Sunday evening on business connected with the construction of the new ice crusher.

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Ewin will have four new saw mills in a very short time, with a total capacity of 360,000 shingles and 50,000 feet of lumber a day.

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Geo. Cooke writes from Gilchrist that he is comfortable in a lumber camp and that he will not return until the “flowers bloom in the spring.”

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Dr. Campbell received the sad news on Thursday last that his mother was dangerously ill at her home in Canada, and he left the same evening for her bedside.

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Landlord Spice of the Russell House is the possessor of a wooden chain made by a prisoner in the county jail that is worth seeing. The work is simply fine, notwithstanding the fact that it was made with a jack-knife.

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Insurance adjustors refused to settle the L. L. Metzger clothing store loss in the Sault Ste. Marie national bank building fire. The insurance amounted to $7,650. They allege irregularities in the books and the action has caused a sensation at the “Soo.”

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Crawford Dolmage, formerly of the Sherwood House, this city, later of the Muscalonge Hotel, Les Cheneaux, is now a resident of Chicago and enjoys the distinction of being not only the best looking, but the youngest Cable car conductor in that big city.

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The community was shocked to learn yesterday that a member of Judge C. R. Brown’s family had attempted to commit suicide by turning on the gas in a tightly closed room. As the “member of the family” in question was a pet squirrel which was shut in a room by mistake and opened a burner while climbing around on a gas fixture, the shock didn’t last long and the squirrel is the only one who feels bad now – he didn’t know that gas smelled so badly nowadays. – Mining Journal.

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From Naubinway: Mike Quinn has purchased himself a roadster.

All the saloons and butcher shops are putting in ice that measures 22 inches in thickness.

Henry McCann, of St. Ignace, was in town this week, dunning people who owe him for board. “Pay up,” says Hank, “or I’ll never let up.”

A sneak thief stole a shirt in front of Wertheimer’s clothing store one evening last week. Marshal Murray ran him down and he is serving 60 days in the country jail.

Holland & Co. are going to build a large planning mill as soon as ground thaws enough to allow them to lay the foundation. They have a large stock of barrel heads on hand to plane.

The pipes in two of our residences have been frozen up, but our water works is a success. Now “city dads,” we have everything in readiness for the protection except this – a fire company.

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Gainer’s Camp Notes: Naubinway, Mich., Jan. 24, ’92.

Ed. News. – I am pretty well settled in my position as cook for the boys of Gainer’s camp. Supplies are plentiful and consist of beef, pork, oleo, butter, syrup, pickles, tea, sugar, dried apples, beans, rice, flour and a collection of spices, furnished by one of St. Ignace’s hustling grocers – T. J. Cravens. I am given full liberty to ring the changes, as I have time and ability, and if I don’t return to my home in St. Ignace in the spring in good animal condition it will be almost a crime, for in this shanty nobody ever dreams of “muzzling the ox that tread out the corn,” and while feeding and watering others, for a Cooke to go short himself, he’d be a fool, or lacking capacity. Your subscriber may be a little foolish, but there is too much “Hinglish you know” about this child to lack capacity to eat three good meals a day, with odd bites between each as opportunity offers.

We are all in good health here – but I would advise men who are troubled with idleness, lameness or sickness to loaf around the city – it is much pleasanter in my way of thinking, and I ought to know.

Among the amusements in camp we have good singing, clog dancing, card playing, with a little music interspersed – also, political and religious essays. So you can see we don’t waste our time wondering whether Chile will lick Uncle Sam or viseversa. We are a jolly crowd, if French is spoken and sung.

D. W. English, the St. Ignace merchant tailor, paid us a welcome visit last Saturday, and got several orders for clothing, with the promise of additional orders when he comes again.

Potatoes are very plentiful and cheap in this vicinity.

I cannot spare the time necessary to write to each and all of my St. Ignace friends, so I would feel grateful if you would kindly say that as its not convenient for me to make a call in person or by individual letter, that I shall greet them occasionally through the columns of The News.

Enclosed find a list of persons who desire your paper. More will follow with each letter.

Your Constant Reader.

George Cooke.

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A stock company was formed in Sturgeon Bay this week to construct a steam ice boat. The boat is to be large enough to carry seventy-five passengers and twenty five tons of freight. It is to be placed upon runners, the shoes of which are to be ten inches wide. Captain Ed Cox, the patentee, is confident that the boat will cover twenty miles an hour with the greatest ease. It is expected to have the boat completed within thirty days and if it proves successful, it will be run from Sturgeon Bay to Green Bay via Menominee, making daily trips. – Menominee Democrat.

80 YEARS AGO

The St. Ignace Enterprise

Thursday, January 28, 1932

No Pullman car conductors cross the straits now, the porters collecting tickets of the passengers and are the whole cheese on the Pullmans, so to speak. Now this information would be passed by without local interest were it not for the fact that Bert Kelly’s smiling face will be missed. For a quarter of a century or more, Kelly has had the run as a Pullman conductor between Mackinaw City and the Soo, and six mornings of the seven during the week he had descended from his car to the station platform, smiling and greeting his friends, and telling the latest story, and he always had a new one. Bert probably has a speaking acquaintance with more people than any other Pullman conductor in the United States, and his popularity extends to wherever and to whom he is known.

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Twenty-three years in the business in one stand is the record of D. O. Vigeant of the Yellow Front, making him, with the exception of one, the oldest business man in continuous business in St. Ignace. The exception is Joe Loundraville, the barber, so Don says. Don is entitled to all the credit to be gotten out of his record. He has probably put in more working hours during those 23 years than any man in the city, or many other cities. He begins his labors in the store between 7 and 8 o’clock, a.m. and, with the exception of an hour taken at noon, is on the job until 10 or 10:30 at night, bringing his supper to be eaten between times in the store. These hours are kept on Sundays as well as week days. The L. Winkelman store has a longer record than the Yellow Front, but Mr. Winkelman is no longer a resident of St. Ignace, but of Detroit. Notwithstanding his strenuous life, Mr. Vigeant is healthy and as full of pep as a youngster of 20, and if one fails to note the gray steaks in his hair, he would not be taken for a man who has led a strenuous life for nearly 40 years, serving time in the Soo and other places before opening the Yellow Front.

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Our neighbor, the St. Ignace Enterprise, used our observation about the possibility of Carp in the waters around our city being responsible for the absence of perch, since the carp have appeared so plentiful. We don’t object to that at all because it is just a suggestion that may cause someone to learn that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to allow the commercial fishermen to make it a real business to rid our waters of those pesky carp when they appear in droves, roiling up the water like hogs and driving all other fish away, but we do object to their giving credit to others. However, we are not awfully feverish about it, because it just gets it that much nearer the attention of a great lot of fishermen as there are many of them living in and around St. Ignace and these carp driving out the perch and destroying spawning grounds may cause them, too, to investigate the problems. Carp find a ready market in some places and they are a good looking fish. They seem to thrive and multiply fast in northern Michigan waters and are becoming quite plentiful, maybe the time is not far away when they will be as valuable as any commercial fish. It was only a few years ago that sturgeon was not considered edible and they were hauled out on the fields for fertilizer, but all this is changed now. First they started for the fish meat itself, until it became known that their eggs were valuable and then began catching them for their eggs, which were shipped away and made into caviar, and then the demand grew to such an extent that they demand a bigger price than almost any other fresh water fish except brook trout, and now Michigan’s laws close all waters to sturgeon fishing. That’s just the way our tastes and our habits change. – Cheboygan Observer.

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The weather conditions this winter have made it possible for the Chief Wawatam of the Mackinac Transportation Co. to forego the installation of her forward engines, used when the heavy ice forms in the straits. This installation usually takes place early in the winter, but so far there has been no ice to buck, the passageway not even having been skimmed over. A wonderful winter, in which the country’s scientists have been unable to account for the unusual weather conditions.

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A cave-in on both sides of the embankment at the approach of the trestle at the ore dock caused necessary repairs. G. A. Litchard had the contract and filled in with gravel and boulders.

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George W. Tennant, chef with the Byrd expeditions to both the north and south poles, is constantly enlarging his reputation as a caterer and his services are in great demand. It was he who prepared the Masonic feast last week and next week will have charge of the M. E. supper.

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Jimmy Berry, 5, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Berry of the Soo, fell into the water power canal Friday and was drowned. His 2-year-old companion and 3-year-old sister were the only witnesses to the drowning.

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From Mackinac Island: Rowboat traffic to Bois Blanc still continues, with no ice to hinder.

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From Cedarville: The slogan contest which is being conducted by the local Chamber of Commerce for a suitable phrase that would lend itself for advertising purposes, is increasing in importance as the appointed day for its close, February 1, comes nearer. The contest is open to everyone, only slogans not more than ten words in length can be entered, and the author of the slogan, selected by the committee to be the most appropriate for the purposes of the Les Cheneaux Association, will receive a prize of $10.00. Come on with your slogans!

80 YEARS AGO

The Republican-News

Saturday, January 30, 1932

St. Ignace gas station owners at Monday night’s open council meeting went on record almost unanimously as unfavorable to the city’s plan of moving back the gas stations along State street at the owners’ expense.

The gasoline vendors considered the project too expensive and advance the point that they felt the council was discriminatory in its action. The owners feel that with themselves, several buildings on the southerly side of State street also are on city property and that they should be considered in the “backing off” plan as well.

Council members reiterated to these objections with the argument of spacious, improved appearing water front and sufficient space for angle parking on one side of the street.

Mayor Charles Mulcrone advances the proposition that now that the state dock will presumably remain where it is, and the state was willing to invest money in property improvements if it were moved, that likely the state would invest the same amount to improvement of the present site. If this were assumed, he visualizes a lovely lake shore boulevard with no building obstructions on the lake front. It would be a two lane drive with, perhaps, attractive gas pumps, shrubs and grass lawn between the lanes. Mr. Mulcrone creates this picture with the belief that eventually it will be an actuality; and this action of the council is but the beginning of an attempt to arrange a solid unit of St. Ignace effort to push the state’s improvement project.

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The St. Ignace fire department had their annual blow-out in their club rooms on Tuesday evening. This year it took the form of a stag party and oyster supper combined. Chief Moore gave a history of the department since its organization almost 50 years ago. Mayor Mulcrone spoke on the efficiency of the department and its equipment. Mr. O. P. Welch, who has often gone out of his way to give the boys a feed, when fighting fire in his neighborhood and who has supplied coffee and sandwiches many times, was called on for a few remarks. He spoke entertainingly. Songs were sung by several members, and Frank Ahlich, dialectician, told some of his inimitable stories. It was a real party.

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Only a few years ago at this season, rural residents would be jacking up their cars, deflating the tires and locking the garage doors for the winter. It was then that the horse turned to his lost glory, for the necessary trips to town would be made in the old-fashioned bobsleigh, and not a tire track would be seen.

Less than a decade ago, however, the state highway department began a snow removal program on a small scale. Every year since has seen the program extended, and now for the first time every mile of the road system will be cleared within a few hours after each heavy snowfall.

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Speakers at the upper peninsula tourist and resort conference, held last week in the new Mather Inn and sponsored by the U. P. Development bureau…estimated that it was worth $14,000,000 a year to the peninsula and said a recent federal survey shows that in 12 months more than 500,000 automobiles, coming from outside of Michigan, were driven over trunk line highways north of the Straits of Mackinac…

The average number of persons riding in each of the 500,000 cars was 2.68, most of them remained in the peninsula from three to eleven days and 46 per cent of them stopped in hotels.

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From Mackinac Island: It was necessary to take away the privilege given Mackinac Island people to go out into the wood lots on the Island and collect and make fuel of dead and down timber. The favored ones got to cheating, cutting down live trees and taking liberties otherwise not approved of, and they required so much watching the work was stopped.

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From Naubinway: From the looks of things, the fishermen will have to fill their ice houses with snow if the weather keeps on the way it has been.

We see by the paper where the Hiawatha Club has traded some more land with state for some state land. If the state of Michigan does not wake up before long, there will be no need in selling a man a license to hunt or fish, because it will be of no use to him. We believe that if the state would keep what land they have and hold down on these clubs, the state would be 100 per cent better off.

50 YEARS AGO

The Republican-News and St. Ignace Enterprise

Thursday, February 1, 1962

Nearly 40 persons representing Parent-Teacher associations and schools in eastern Mackinac county attended a special meeting held in the Gros Cap school last Thursday to hear Wilfred Clapp, assistant superintendent of public instruction, discuss school reorganization.

Districts represented were the Townships of Moran, St. Ignace and Brevort and the City of St. Ignace.

Mr. Clapp, in his talk about reorganization, annexation and consolidation, opened his talk by outlining briefly the history of schools and how districts were organized.

He emphasized that the laws under which districts were organized were enacted 100 years ago to fill the need for an eighth grade educational program.

“Times have changed during the past century,” said Clapp. “Society today demands a minimum of a high school education and because of the increased educational needs, school districts organized under the 100- year-old law are no longer adequate.”

He said that 20 years ago there were more than 7,000 school districts. That number has been decreased to 1890 today indicating a rate of decrease of about 150 to 200 per year. The number of districts has decreased but little lately except to justify and guarantee that all children will have the opportunity to attend and graduate at a high school in their own districts.

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The heaviest fall of the lightest snow this winter occurred Monday night. Six inches came in about two hours with the temperature near 20 above. Highways were plugged at times during the night when a 50- mile an hour wind followed the snowstorm. Even a Jeep was reported bogged down in drifts that reached the windshield and the motor shorted out. Cars were drifted in on the roads and remained until plows and heavy trucks were able to clear them. Tuesday dawned clear and five below zero following the wind. Principal local streets were open after a night-long campaign against the drifting snow.

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Two days of mild weather and a couple of hard blows broke the ice bridge to the Island all apart last week end. Open water showed Saturday morning all the way to the end of the Dock No. 2 here.

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Army Pfc. Richard E. Bentley, 19, of St. Ignace, and Sgt. David J. Andress, 25, of Mackinac Island are scheduled to participate with other personnel from the 9th Infantry in Exercise Great Bear, a joint U. S.-Canadian winter maneuver in Alaska, Feb. 12 to 21.

Bentley is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph K. Bentley…Sgt. Andress is the son of Mrs. Gladys Andress.

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George Yshinski, son of Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Yshinski, arrived home on Sunday from Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., where he was discharged from the army.

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Pfc. Ronald E. St. Antoine, son of Mr. and Mrs. George St. Antoine, is presently serving with the army in Germany.