forty men, French and Germans, and put them on a sail vessel for Marquette. At the Sault he stopped off and was taken with the cholera and died in a few days. Graveraet and Harlow set the men cutting coal wood. It was curious to see them chop; never having used an ax, they clinched the handle of the ax tight and held on, not slipping either hand. In cutting down a tree, they chopped all around the tree, and when weakened so as to fall, it went the way it leaned. There were forty men in a huddle, aud when the tree started a yell was given so that every one could run for his life. To chop off a log they stood on the ground, if the log was ever so large. But the little machine shop went up, and brick making and building went on.

About this time the Cleveland company represented to the commissioner of the land office at Washington in what manner Graveraet, Moody and Mann had taken and retained possession of their mine, and the commissioner awarded the mine to the Cleveland company. When Moody and Mann heard of the result they packed up and joined the Marquette company at the lake. When the land about Marquette came into market John Burt appeared at the land office at the Sault to enter his "little location," but Graveraet opposed him so sharply that Burt settled the matter by giving him half of the mining right.

son.

Mr. Jones came up to take charge of the Jackson property in the latter part of the summer of 1849, and Charles Johnson and myself left for JackWhile at the Sault we entered what is now known as the thirty six acre plat, in the city of Marquette, but yielded one half interest to the Cleveland company. That entry covered the land where the M. II. & O. merchandise dock, the great ore dock, and the Iron Bay furnace now stand.

I spent the winter of 1849 and '50 in Jackson, and in the summer of 1850 disposed of my warehouse and some other property, together with my Jackson mining company interest, and in the fall prepared to move my family to Marquette. I left my dwelling to be rented, and most of my furniture to be sold, and Charles Johnson and myself and families left for Lake Superior. We boarded with A. N. Barney, who kept a sort of hotel on the ground where the Nothwestern hotel afterwards stood. We soon finished off a small one story dwelling of two rooms and four small bel rooms on the ground floor, where the Burt block was afterwards built. That building was removed to give place for the Burt block and placed on the west side of the manufacturing shop, as a paint shop, on Main street, about half way from Front street to the first depot of Marquette. That building escaped the great fire of 1868, which took every building I had in Marquette, and every building on Front street from Superior to Michigan street.

Mr. Jones' management of the Jackson mine and forge was not very profit

able. He got more on his hands than he could carry. S. H. Kimball and General Curtiss, with other New York friends, bought up most of the stock; they leased the forge and mine to two brothers, Benjamin and Weston Eaton, of Pennsylvania, and they came on and took possession, bringing with them teams and supplies; but they found that four horse teams in this snowy country would not work. The snow path would not hold up more than what one team could haul. They made iron and carried on the works two or three years and then failed, losing all they had.

The Graveraet and Harlow company went on making bloom iron for two or three years, but it did not succeed as they expected. Fisher became tired of furnishing money and nearly failed himself, having furnished over sixty thousand dollars. They finally failed and turned over their entire property to the Cleveland company.

It was now evident to both the Jackson and Cleveland companies that there was no money in making iron in an old fashioned forge, and they turned their attention to shipping the ore.

In the spring of 1852, I went to the Sault, and met Heman B. Ely, with his engineers, coming to Marquette, for the purpose of surveying a railroad from Marquette to the mines, having made a contract with the Jackson and Cleveland mining companies to transport their iron ore from the mines to the lake at a much less figure than the ore has ever been carried since. His contract did not specify when the road should be finished, but it was to be pushed as fast as he could do it. The survey went on, and he built a dwelling, which is now a part of the Ely house, near Whetstone brook, and an office near by. The work progressed slowly but surely; after a time, the companies became impatient at his slow progress, but his reply was; "I am doing as fast as I can pay up." (He always paid promptly). But the Sault canal was to be built, and the companies were anxious to be in readiness to ship ore. Finally the Jackson company brought on some supplies for commencing a plank road, and the Cleveland company joined them. It was said the move was made to frighten Ely so as to surrender to them. Ely didn't frighten, however, but kept steadily digging away. The parties had several meetings in my parlor. Ely said to them that he was doing as fast as he had means, but if they would furnish him the money he would push it on as fast as possible. They said to him, they would take the controlling stock and furnish the money. This he refused, but said he would let them have just one half and no more. That they would not do, and the meeting broke up. The plank road was begun and pushed with vigor, but the two companies soon collided, the plank road getting on to Ely's line, that was on record, and there were several suits between them in the District court. The

ore companies had Mr. Walker, of Detroit, but Ely was his own lawyer, and Ely always came out ahead. The plank road took possession of the wagon road whenever it was convenient, and in some places where teams could not get around the place they were obliged to travel on the plank road. One Saturday night Mr. Ely sent to the stable for his teamster, Plumtree, a burly Frenchman; when he came Mr. Ely said to him, he wanted him to take a load of supplies up to his men at the Eagle Mills in the morning. Plumtree said Himrod had put up several gates on the plank road at points where a team could not get around them and had put locks on them, and they were all locked up that afternoon. Mr. Ely was a rather slow and deliberate speaker; he said, "Mr. Plumtree, I want you to take a load of supplies tomorrow morning to my men at the mills, never mind the gates." This was spoken in such an emphatic tone Plumtree seemed to understand it and said, "Yes, yes; I will do it." Sunday morning Plumtree loaded up his team, taking his ax along with him. That was no unusual thing, for most of the teamsters in that day carried an ax to use in case of accident. He took the load up and returned. Monday morning there was quite a commotion in the plank road camp. Some one had cut down all the gates and thrown them

off the road. Parties were at once sent out to find out who dared to cut down Himrod's gates. They brought word that no one but Plumtree with Ely's team could be heard of. He had been seen going up and back, but no one else had been seen on the road, and there was no doubt that he was the man. Mr. Plumtree was promptly arrested upon a warrant for cutting down the gates, and brought before the court, Mr. Ely appearing for Plumtree. Several witnesses were produced and proved beyond a doubt that Plumtree went up the road and back with Ely's team, but no one saw him cut down the gates, and the court discharged the prisoner. The gates were never put up again.

The plank road was finished and the strap rail laid in 1855. I took the contract for excavating what is known as the Jackson cut, in the winter of 1855-6. The Sault canal was to be opened in the spring, and the owners of the plank road were anxious to be ready to ship ore. I was obliged to work night and day to have it ready at the opening of navigation. The bed of the cut was twenty feet wide, with sloping banks. All was completed in due time, and the track laid through it onto their dock where the Grace furnace now stands. The canal at the Sault was opened early in the summer and forty or fifty mule teams landed at Marquette. They were put to hauling ore from the mines, but it was soon found the road was a failure. Generally the teams did not reach Marquette from the mines until 12 o'clock at night. Some one of them would break down, and that would hinder all behind it.

They had

no turn-outs, so as to pass each other and it was difficult to pass on one track, as has been found by all railroads. They divided their teams, stationing one half at the mines, meeting at Eagle mills; but the road was a failure. More ore could have been hauled on wagons without the rail. In this summer Ely landed the "Sabastapol," the first locomotive ever landed on this shore.

In 1856 a grant of land was made by Congress to aid in the construction of railroads from Marquette and Ontonagon to the state line, which included the road from Marquette to the mines.

Senator Sumner was at my house the year before, and he said to me that whenever Lake Superior needed anything from Congress, if I would write him, he would do all he could for us. When this land grant was asked for, I wrote him, asking him to do what he could for it, which he cheerfully did. Heman B. Ely died in the fall of 1856, but the railroad was pushed through, and completed to the mines in the following summer.

In the winter of 1857 I was in Cleveland, and the Elys telegraphed me to charter a vessel to take a locomotive from Buffalo to Marquette in the spring. I was greatly surprised to find that there were only two vessels large enough, the E. C. Roberts and the De Soto. I chartered the E. C. Roberts, which was then in Buffalo.

I left Detroit for Marquette the first day of May, 1857, on the steamer North Star, and did not arrive at Marquette until the third of June. The steamer had to force her way through ice for six or eight miles. The last piece of ice was seen floating in the bay on the morning of the third day of July, 1857. A company of men to commence the pioneer furnace came on that steamer. That summer Dr. Ely came to take the place of his brother Heman in building and running the railroad. When the locomotive reached Eagle Mills, the ore companies made arrangements with Dr. Ely to take their ore at the mills, while they delivered it that far with mules. After the locomotive reached the mines the ore was all shipped over the railroad. The mules were sent away, the strap rail taken up, and the plank road was abandoned to the public and made a very fine wagon road. From this time the ore companies made money rapidly, mining and shipping ore. The "Little Location," as it was first called (now known as the Lake Superior Mine), in 1886, just thirty years from the start, produced over two hundred thousand tons of ore. The whole product of the Lake Superior iron mines, in 1886, was three million, four hundred and sixty thousand tons.

LIFE IN THE COPPER MINES OF LAKE SUPERIOR.

BY JOHN H. FORSTER.

Mining in the upper peninsula of Michigan is not essentially different from mining elsewhere. But when we contrast this leading industry with those pursuits which engage the attention of the busy people of the lower peninsula of the same commonwealth, there are so many radical differences in modes, customs and habits, that it may not be out of place, nor opposed to the general purposes of this society, if I attempt to place before you some of the more marked peculiarities of the upper country. This paper is in the same line as those which I have already had the honor of reading before this society. In those papers it was my desire and aim to give a general description of the so called Lake Superior country in connection with pioneer settlement in that interesting section.

The pioneer miner found that vast territory, washed by the great lake, a dense forest land. The timber was heavy and the underbrush so thick and tangled as to resemble a jungle. This dense growth was a very great hindrance to preliminary exploration and a most serious obstacle at the beginning of a mine enterprise. Consequently, the first thing to be done in opening a mine was with ax and firebrand, to ruthlessly sweep off the native forest to prepare the way for the miner's cabin, the shaft and engine house. No thought of agriculture-the cultivation of the soil thus laid bare-was entertained by these sturdy pioneers. Worshipers of the subterranean god, Pluto, they held, as they now do, the attractions of those gentle goddesses, Ceres and Pomona, in small esteem. The pick, hammer and drill were their potent weapons in their attacks upon the earth's solid crust. Mining for copper and iron was their sole business; all of their energies were cxpended thereupon. The progress made was slow. They encountered many difficulties, met with many discouragements, endured many privations. Vast sums of money were expended; there were successes and failures. Buried in the depths of the woods, remote from other settlements, with no society except that of the rudest kind, living in huts, with only the necessaries of life at command, often on short rations, without newspapers, and with a letter mail arriving