An Historical Sketch
By James R. Scholar
August 1, 1967
On the southern shores of Lake Superior, protected by the Keweenaw Peninsula on the west and Huron Point on the east, is one of the largest bays on the lake. At the southern foot of the bay nestle the present villages of Baraga and L'Anse. They are located right on the shore of the lake but are protected by high rising hills on the east, west, and south, thus being open mostly to winds from a northerly direction. Both overlook the Keweenaw Bay and so have a view of a body of water which was described by Captain James Bendry, one of the area's earliest settlers, as being comparable in beauty to the Bay of Naples which he had visited as a member of a ship's company plying the Mediterranean in the 1830's.
The villages of Baraga and L'Anse and Baraga County which we know today are a far cry from the place of the same names back in the 1830's because of the shifting of names and land areas. To go back into history of the land in this area before it was organized into Michigan governmental units would simply be repeating what other historians have already written. It will be sufficient to say that the western two-thirds of the Upper Peninsula became a part of Michigan on January 26, 1837 when President Jackson signed the bill making Michigan the 26th state to the Union. This portion of the Wisconsin Territory was awarded to Michigan in a comprise which saw Ohio obtain title to the "Toledo Strip". No legal action was taken with this territory until March 9, 1843 when a legislative act was passed dividing the U.P. into Mackinac, Chippewa, Marquette, Schoolcraft, Delta and Ontonagon counties. The present Baraga county was included in the Ontonagon county of that period.
On March 19, 1846 this act was amended to make all that part of the state "embraced between the north boundary of township 49, the line between ranges 37 and 38 west and Lake Superior, together with islands in said lake west of the county of Schoolcraft, shall be laid off as a separate county, to be known and designed as the County of Houghton". As originally formed, Houghton county comprised the present Keweenaw and Baraga counties, and on May 18, 1846 it was organized into three election precincts or townships known as Eagle Harbor, Houghton, L'Anse. By a legislative act of March 16, of the following year the area was reorganized into the townships of Copper Harbor, Eagle Harbor, Houghton, Portage, Algonquin and L'Anse. Regardless of the date of formation of election precincts, however, the first election took place in this area on July 4, 1848. It wasn't until 1875 that Houghton county lost the Algonquin and L'Anse townships when they were combined to form the county of Baraga.
The county land description in 1875 as given by Sawyer is evidently in error as it omits one whole range of townships, range 32 west, from the description of the county which follows: Range 30 west, townships 50, 51, 52 and 53 north; Range 31 west, twps. 47 thru 53; Range 33 west, twps. 47 thru 51 north and that part of twp. 52 north east and parts of 47, 51 and 52 north east of the Sturgeon River; Range 35 west, parts of twps. 47, 48, 49 and 50 north east of the Sturgeon River.
The present description of Baraga county, which is bisected by the fifth correction line running east and west, as taken from Michigan Conservation Dept. map is as follows: Range 30 west, twps. 50 thru 53 north; Range 31 west, twps. 47 thru 53 north; Range 32 west, twps. 47 thru 53 north; Range 32 west, twps. 47 thru 53 north; Range 22 west, twps. 47 thru 52 north; Range 34 west, twps. 47 thru 53 north; Range 35 west, twp. 51 north and east 1/2 of twp. 47 thru 50 north.
The present description of Baraga Township includes Range 33 west, twps. 51 and 52 north; Range 34 west, twps. 49, 50 and 51 north; Range 35 west, twps. 49 and 50 the east 1/2, with the village of Baraga being located at the intersection of sections 27, 28, 33 and 34 of townships 51 Range 31 west.
Before any specific locations were established and named, the whole bay area was known as L'Anse which some people interpret from the French as to mean an arc or curve and others take it to mean the foot of the bay. Regardless of the meaning, however, L'Anse originally took in the area south of Portage entry on both sides of Keweenaw Bay. The whole area was one of poor soil, pines, beaches, swift running streams and some fur bearing animals which were just enough to keep a few Chippewa Indians living in the area. Naturally the furs taken by the Indians were of interest to the trappers and trades on the lakes and settlement of the area began with the establishment of an American Fur Company trading post at what is known as Assinins by a man known only as Dubay. Little else is known about Dubay. though his last name only is referred to at various times in relation to the area. Even the date of the establishment of the post is unknown. It may be taken to be before the 1830's, however, because of the declining fur trade in the 1830's and the movement of the American Fur Companies headquarters, by John Jacob Astor, from Mackinac to St. Louis to take advantage of the fur trade in the west which was just opening at the time.
Besides Dubay, the other early settlers of the area included trappers and missionaries with the first mission in L'Anse being established by a Chippewa Indian who became a converted Methodist and taken the name of John Sunday. He opened a mission in 1833 on the east side of the bay north of present day L'Anse and later opened another in 1835 at Ottawa Lake. Not withstanding these first settlements, the first person known to have visited this area was Father Rene' Menard S. J., who had been here back in 1660 and who later disappeared while going from L'Anse to Fond du Lac with only one guide from whom he became separated and lost. Father Menard was followed later by Father Claude Allouer who visited the area in 1666.
From this point we have a blank period until the arrival of Dubay and the American Fur Company. Present in the area during the 1830's was a Canadian born man by the name of Peter Crebassa, who had also came to this area because of the fur trade and married an Indian girl referred to as Nancy Crebassa took up his residence on the east shore of the bay. One of the reasons for locating on the east shore was probably the fact that the Methodist mission established by John Sunday was there and had a concentration of Indians nearby. This mission was being served at the time by Rev. John Clark who labored there from 1834 to 1837. The next Methodist minister on record available was the Rev. John H. Pitezel who served from 1844 to 1846. It is not known why the Catholics, who were usually the first to try to bring religion to an area, were preceded to this particular location by the Methodists.
In 1836 Peter Crebassa was appointed as representative trader by the American Fur Company and moved from Dubay's on the west side of the bay to just north of present day L'Anse. Crebassa apparently served the American Fur Co. for a goodly number of years in various places such as L'Anse, La Pointe, Fond du Lac and Rainy River before he severed connections with the company and set up a trading post of his own at what is now Zeba. He was appointed postmaster of the area in 1852 and served in this capacity for thirty years, moving his building to the present L'Anse area in 1871 upon completion of the M.H.&O. railroad. The building at present, 1967,m is serving as a jewelry store and is about to be torn down to make way for a a newer and more modern building. (Note the building was moved to the present day, 1995, Curwood park.)
It was through the efforts of Crebassa and his wife, Nancy, that Father Baraga, a Catholic missionary, was brought to Keweenaw Bay and the white settlement of the area really started. Knowing that Father Baraga was spending a lot of time at Father Allouez's mission and chapel at la Pointe, Wisconsin, Peter Crebassa wrote several letters to Father Baraga pleading with him to make at least a visit to L'Anse and was immediately and warmly welcomed by Crebassa and his wife who housed him in their own home while he was there. They made two rooms available for his use, one for sleeping and the other for holding religious services. Father Baraga was very disappointed and discouraged with what he found at L'Anse, poor soil and very poor Indians who used L'Anse mostly as a summer home area. There was a very close affinity between the L'Anse Indians and those at Lac Vieux Desert, about 80 miles to the south. It was at Luc Vieux Desert that most of the Indians spent the winter months, coming north to the shores of Lake Superior for the fishing and berrying during the summer months. The trail from L'Anse to Lac Vieux Desert is still existent and is well marked as an historical site. The beginning of the trail is just below the famous Precambrian Red Rocks which are visible from highway U.S.41 between L'Anse and Baraga.
In his labors to improve the lot of the Indians and keep them in one place year around, Father Baraga convinced some of them to live in houses like the whites for the sake of cleanliness and health. In his building program he got some help from the Indians and managed to build twenty-two small houses, a small church, a dwelling for the missionary and a small school for the Indians which was supported by the government. The government furnished further aid to the program of helping the Indians help themselves by furnishing the mission with a government farmer in the person of Charles Carrier. Carrier was also the father of the first child born on English speaking white settlers in Baraga and possibly in the U.P. west of Mackinac. The child was born in the spring of 1844 and counted as another possible first when it died in 1846. The second birth was that of Sarah l. Brockway, later to become Mrs. Scott. She was born on July 17, 1844, the daughter of W. H. Brockway. Father Baraga continued to serve the mission at Dubay's place until he was appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Sault Sainte Marie in 1853. He did, however, continue to make periodic visits to the bay as attested to by several of his letters to people in the area.
In the line of religious aid to the area the other man who was prominent was Father Terhorst who was assigned to the mission by Bishop Baraga in 1861. Because L'Anse was still first in his heart, Bishop Baraga assigned Terhorst to the mission as recompense for a strong friendship and as a tribute to his ability and previous work at other missions. Remembering that L'Anse of those days was always understood to mean the Mission or Assinins as it is known today, we find the Father Terhorst made his first diary entry at l'Anse on May 30, 1861. He was to remain here until his death on October 4, 1901. Among Father Terhorst's material accomplishments in the area, besides spiritually serving the people from both sides of the bay, we find that shortly after arriving at L'Anse he added a couple of rooms in the rear of the old stone church to be used for a school purposes, he was very instrumental in getting the first sisters to the mission in 1865; in 1872 he built a church at present day L'Anse; he built the present stone church at Assinins in 1873 then torn down the old one and built a parsonage with the rocks; in 1881 Terhorst built an orphanage for boys at the mission site; and in 1886 he built the first church at present day Baraga on a site donated by Anthony girard. This church at Baraga was altered in 1902 and turned to face the east as it does at the present time.
Moving from religious influence on the area to the general white settlement and growth we find that a Canadian born half breed, M. Zowland, better known as "Wartrap", was the first permanent settler of Baraga. He moved to the area for hunting and trapping and entered a tract of land in 1846. "Wartrap's" first home on the bay was a little bark hut which he later replaced with a more permanent log cabin. Little else is known about Zowland, but it is thus evident that he was here when the area's most prominent settler and developer made his first visit to Keweenaw Bay in 1845 and his first visit to Baraga in 1850. This man was Captain James Bendry who is generally regarded and accepted as the founder of the village of Baraga because of his contributions to the area until his death in 1895. The follow sketch of Capt. Bendry's life and achievements will serve as a guide to the general development of the village and the surrounding area from as far north as Houghton on the west shore and Pequaming on the east shore down to the foot of the bay. Most of the following sketch is taken from a clipping of the Houghton Mining Gazette of October 1895 containing an obituary of Capt. Bendry. The author and exact date of the clipping are unknown. It is in the possession of Idabel St. Germain of Baraga, a grand-daughter of Capt. Bendry.
James Bendry was born in Wooten-Bassett, Wiltzshire, England on June 6, 1822. He left home at the age of 12 and shipped as a cabin boy abroad a merchant ship plying the Mediterranean. It was during this time that he visited the Bay of Naples with which he later compared the foot of Keweenaw Bay. In 1836, at the age of fourteen, Bendry went into the American Merchant service and sailed to many foreign ports including Liverpool, New Orleans, the West Indies and Africa. Coming to America in 1841 Bendry sailed the Great Lakes until he was shipwrecked just off New Buffalo in Lake Erie while serving abroad the brig Indiana. After this incident he made his way to Sault Sainte Marie where he shipped abroad the propeller Independence in 1845. The Independence was the first steamer on Lake Superior and because of the late date she sailed from the Soo she only made one trip to La Pointe, Wisconsin and back before she tied up for the winter at the Soo. On this voyage Bendry served as wheelman for the trip which also included a stop at Eagle River on Keweenaw point to discharge passengers and cargo. A list of passengers and crew on this first trip included C. C. Douglass, the Spencer family, Captain Albert Averill, Firstmate Samuel Moody, Chief Engineer Thomas Ritchie, Assistant Engineer Rufus Durham, Pilot Capt. Stannard, Steward Lewis Marvill, Cook Stafford and wheelsman James Bendry.
Capt. Bendry spent the winter of 1845 at the Soo and in 1846 he married a Chippewa women of good intelligence and character by whom he had eleven children. The years until fall of 1850 were spent working out of the So. In the fall of 1850 Bendry decided to make a trip up Lake Superior in the schooner Siskiwit which he now owned. His wife insisted on going along and taking their two children with them. This was the party which ran into severe storm off the Keweenaw Peninsula and had to take shelter deep in L'Anse Bay for the night. Morning found the vessel icebound and Bendry had no choice but to winter at Baraga with his wife and two children. Bendry built a log cabin and next spring when he returned to the Soo he entered his tract of land at the U. S. Land Office and returned to Baraga where he made his home off and on until his death.
Capt. Bendry's list of accomplishments now become more tangible as we find that in 1851 he established a sawmill on the Fall River in L'Anse which had a cutting capacity of 33,000 feet per ten hour day. This mill operated until it burned in 1878. In 1860 Bendry moved to Houghton where he built a deck and established a lumber business which he operated for about three years before returning to L'Anse in 1863 for a year of general farming. In 1864 Bendry moved back to Baraga where he built the first steam operated sawmill in the vicinity. This mill was still operating in 1883 at the rate of 10,000 feet per day. He also purchased and operated a brick yard in L'Anse in 1864. While owning and operating the Baraga and L'Anse sawmills and brick yard it seems that Capt. Bendry also built and operated a trading post in Baraga and engaged in shipping between L'Anse and Houghton as evidenced by a letter from Bishop Baraga dated April 9, 1866, L'Anse ws, requesting passage on the following Tuesday or Wednesday, from Capt. Bendry, to Portage Lake. James Bendry was also instrumental in the development of the Houghton and Hancock copper mines as he operated a freight service by barge and tug from Portage Entry to the mines until the Portage Canal was completed in 1873. He was one of the chief promoters of the canal even though it cost him the most profitable business of his life.
During this period of shipping to the copper mines Capt. Bendry took time in 1871, along with Charles A. Palmer and S. L. Smith, to plat the village of L'Anse. Bendry owned the land where the village of L'Anse now stands and was also a large shareholder in the townsite company. The original plat of the village contained twelve streets named Front, Main, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, Menard, Bendry, Division, River, Broad, and Railroad.
After the opening of the Portage Canal and the demise of the mining freight business Capt. Bendry turned his attention to the movement of freight and passengers between Houghton and L'Anse. This made it possible because of the completion of the Marquette, Houghton and Ontonagon railroad to L'Anse by the M.H.&0. in 1872. Bendly continued in this freight business until 1883 when the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic railroad was completed to the Copper Country after being run through Baraga and connected with the railroad in L'Anse. After 1883 he continued in the general towing business with the steam tug John Ely which he owned and was master of.
While engaged in all of the foregoing operations the indomitable spirit and drive of Capt. Bendry allowed him to find time to serve for 20 years as the first supervisor of Baraga Township after it was organized; to be chairman of the Canvassing board for the first county election held in 1875; and to be elected as the first Assessor of the village of Baraga after its incorporation by the state in 1891. He was also a director of the Baraga village school in 1885. After a full and varied life Capt. James Bendry passed away at the age of 73, from pneumonia, on October 14, 1895.
The general development of the Baraga area can now be filled in around the life of Capt. Bendry. In many cases accurate dating of items is impossible because of a fire in 1916 which destroyed the village town hall and most of the village and school records from the earlier period. An intensive examination of county land abstracts would probably do much to rectify this situation, however, and place more accurately buildings, dates and ownerships.
Early businessmen in Baraga are hard to date, but we find that the first merchant in town was said to be Ethan A. Critchfield while Henry Houghton was given the distinction of being Baraga's first postmaster. This was the same Henry Houghton who was to serve later as inspector for the first board of officers for the first school district including the village of Baraga. Another early pioneer was Jacob F. Shatter who moved to Baraga in 1866 and kept the Baraga Hotel for a number of years. Other early pioneers of the area were Augustus Bradshaw, John Hand, Luther Giddings and a Mr. Phillips, although their involvement as businessmen is not clear at this time. In 1870 it was said by some that Baraga was foreseen as a new Chicago and a wild lumbering boom resulted only to be stifled by the national panic of 1873. This could in part account for the Baraga population growth by 1880 to 400 people. Having some shipping going out of Baraga, and L'Anse for that matter, brought about the building of a lighthouse just north of Baraga and a little southwest of Sand Point. A lighthouse, of course, diminished the dangers to navigation and in a small way encouraged later shipbuilders to locate at Baraga. In fact, the United States government still listed Baraga as an official Great Lakes port from 1926 to 1935. According to notes of Lambert from a 1882 publication, Baraga had twelve dealers and tradesmen and two steam sawmills located there in 1882.
It was in 1883 that things seemed to start moving for Baraga. In this year it received its first connection with newer methods of land transportation. The Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic railroad was extended through Baraga and connected with the M.H.&0. which had been completed as far west ofMarquette as L'Anse by 1871. This gave Baraga connections with the rest of the U. P. as well as the Copper Country and it was no longer cut off when the bay froze over in the fall. It was also in 1883 that the first passable dirt road, 15 feet wide, was built. About this time, also, Baraga's first newspaper was established although information about this venture is very slight.
Probably because of Baraga's growth during the early 1880's the small farming settlement of Carlson was established approximately five miles to the west of Baraga and named after the first settler in that area in 1871. A market for Carlson's farm products was found at Baraga and of course Baraga served Carlson with other merchandise and services
Sawmills, which were of much concern to the area, seem to be the least agreed upon subject in Baraga's history. Following Bendry's steam operated sawmill in 1864 we find the next company to establish a mill there was the Sturgeon River Company which set up in 1883. This mill was later purchased by the Nestor brothers ofSaginaw who continued to operate it for a number of years. The Nestor mill was supposedly capable of turning out about 40 million board feet annually and was in completion with John Finck's mill which put out approximately nine million feet of lumber yearly. The Nestor's influence on Baraga continued in later years because of the shipyards which they established for building barges. The Nestor barges were built by men from the Saginaw Bay city area of the Lower Peninsula who were brought to Baraga by the Nestor's for that purpose. The barges were in the 150 to 200 foot class and were designed to carry about one million feet of lumber per trip. The launching of the first vessel, the George Nestor, took place on August 10, 1887 near the site of the present day Mobile gas station and, as described by the Mining Gazette, the launch was seen
In line with servicing the growing population of the village, D. J. Norton opened the first drug store in Baraga and hired John Gerald Real as manager. Real worked for Norton until 1890 when he opened his own drug establishment and operated it until 1898 when he became interested in travel and left Baraga for a few years. After a brief spell out of the state, J. G. Real returned to the village and became county treasurer in 1902. A fellow merchant of Real's was Alex Martin who was the proprietor of the McKinley Hotel from 1895 to 1899 when he became proprietor of the Vendome Hotel.
For additional merchants and enterprises in operation in 1929 see appendix A. Initial dates for these businesses are not available but they would cover, in a general way, the growth of industry and trade in Baraga. Not listed in the appendix is the Baraga County Journal which, as near as can be determined, was the first published in Baraga in 1911 and for about fifteen years served the area along with the Houghton Mining Gazette, L'Anse Sentinel and the Marquette Mining Journal.
Probably the most outstanding industry ever established in Baraga is that of the Pettibone Michigan Corporation, a division of nationally known Pettibone-Mulliken Corp. of Chicago. Pettibone established a plant in Baraga to manufacture the 1954 brainchild of Baraga's own Phillip La Tenderesse. The brainchild was an hydraulically operated log and lumber handler designed for rough woods and sawmill work. It is being used in countries all over the world as well as all over the United States for its originally designed purpose and also in Viet Nam as part of Baraga's contribution to the war effort. During the 1966 Michigan Week festivities, the Pettibone Carry-Lift was named as Michigan's out-standing product of the year. This industry has revived the economy of the area and the village with its 1,000 plus population by employing over 400 men in the main plant and in the numerous feeder subsidiaries throughout Baraga village and township.
Moving from business and industry in the area to the village itself, we find that from the time the village of Baraga was separated from the township and incorporated in 1891 as a separate unit of government the system of government has remained unchanged up to the present day. The same offices, except for that of pound-master, have been voted for in every election since the second Monday in August, 1897. In that election the following men were picked to run the community:
- President of Board: George Hadley
- Clerk : S.B. Davenport
- Treasurer : John Mcintosh
- Two Year Trustees: Phillip Foucault, Anthony Gerard and T. A. McGrath
- One Year Trustees: James McMahon, Nelson E. Pennock and J. J. Byers
- Street Commissioner: Peter Gerard
- Assessor: James Bendry
- Constable: D. J. Golden
- Pound Master: James Golden
Again, because of the 1916 town hall fire, we find little of value or interest on the activities of these early local politicians. In fact, Baraga has come to be looked upon as a unit of government which is very stable because of the lack of extraordinary problems which it encounters.
No town's history is complete without a resume of its educational background. The people of the area were still a part of Houghton county when the first school district was formed in 1858 to serve the L'Anse precinct. In 1881, six years after Baraga county was formed, School District #1 was established to encompass sections 1,2,3,11,12, township 50 north, Baraga 34 west and sections 33,34,21,and 27 of township 51 north, Range 33 west, which included the present village of Baraga. The first officers of the board were: Director John Hind; Superintendent Thomas McGillan; Inspectors John Funke and Henry Houghton.
Though this was the first school district formed, the first school was taught in Baraga about 1867 at Captain Walford Bean's home on Main Street and the first school house was built about 1869 with a Miss Newcombe as the first teacher in the new building. This occurred two years before the first school was built in L'Anse village on block four in 1871.
This first school system remained ungraded until 1891 when ten grade levels were set up and it wasn't until 1900 that the 11th and 12th grades were added to the curriculum. The early students were allowed to progress through their readers as fast as their ability allowed and most of them left school after the fifth or sixth reader was mastered.
An overall description of school life in the 1880's can be found in a letter from Mr. Fred Begole, which was written to Supt N. J. Martin in 1929. Mr Begole was a teacher at Baraga from 1885 to 188 and states that teaching was not a profession then as it is now, but a stepping stone to law or business. The directors of the school in 1885 were Thomas McGillan, Anthony Gerard and Capt. James Bendry and it was these men who Mr. Begole induced to add a 12' x 14' entrance hall to the old school building. The hall, with its benches around the walls, was used for students helpers to hear the lessons of the youngsters.
In those years a teacher was examined by a county board before being allowed to teach. In 1885 Mr. Norton Sr. and Mr. Dennis Norton of L'Anse were the examiners. The system was set up so that a third grade certificate holder was re-examined every year, a second grade certificate holder was re-examined every two years and a first grade certificate holder every three years. Mr. Begole managed to obtain a first grade certificate.
The first two years at Baraga Mr. Begole had no assistants and the size of his job is indicated by the fact that in the school year 1885-86 he enrolled 77 pupils ranging in age from 5 to 21 years in ages and the school year was ten months long. Help in instructing the youngest had to come from the older children who in turn had their own lessons to learn and recite. In the school year of 1887-88 Mr Begole did manage to get an assistant in the person of Miss Kitty Curry of L'Anse who was in her first year of teaching. Though the school remained ungraded it was divided that year into a primary and grammar grade. Besides learning, school centered activities were numerous. They included plays, exhibitions, school concerts, skating, sledding, hay rides, baseball, roller skating, dancing and sometimes a dog sled trip to a local lumber camp on Saturdays. It was also during Mr. Begole's tenure at Baraga that the school's first musical instrument was purchased. It was an organ purchased with funds raised by the students and had the Misses Lizzie Bendry and Lizzy McCillan as organists.
The first annual commencement and graduation exercises for the school took place on July 1, 1891, the same year that Baraga was first organized as a village. The exercises took place in the town hall with the members of the first graduating class being Emma McRandle and Mary E. Doran.
W. Schafer was principal when the first class graduated and when Baraga became a village that same year he was made Superintendent to work with the school board. This first school board included President S. D. Price, Clerk S. D. Davenport, Treasurer John F. Nestor, Trustee Martin Cosgrove and Inspector John Funke.
It is interesting to note here that education was less interest to boys and income of more value at the time indicated by the fact that of 35 graduates from 1891 through 1911 only ten were boys. The first boys to graduate was William McRandle in 1898. During this period, also, the years 1892, 1894 through 1897, 1899, 1901 and 1890/5 saw no graduating classes. From 1906 to the present day, however, every year has seen a graduating class and the class of 1966 marked the 75th year of operation for the organized school district. An oddity occurs in this stretch, however, when the class of 1919 was graduated at Christmas time of 1919 instead of June because an influenza epidemic prevented the class from completing their studies in June as scheduled.
School buildings in Baraga proper, besides Capt. Bean's home and the one built in 1869, have been erected in 1892, 1910, 1932 and a new elementary school now being erected and scheduled for operation in the fall of 1968.
Such then is the sketch ofBaraga as viewed by an outsider. Gaps remain which can only be filled by intensive and time consuming research and the locating of pieces of information which come to light from time to time simply by accident. This sketch, however, along with the research done, has proven that Baraga has been here for a long time, is here and will be here for many years to come.
Appendix A: BARAGA MERCHANTS OF 1929*
John N. Cote Oakland-Pontiac-International Trucks and Farm implement dealer.
John Beck Beck's General Store
Hugh Nesbitt Dressed Lumber and Shingles
Baraga County Insurance Co. Getzen's Variety Store
Francis Ross Stew's Place; lunch-candy-ice cream
A. Matero and Sons
Royal N. Cliche Candy and Cigars
Kent's Transit Line Party busses (sic). Taxi and Drayage
Baraga County Telephone Company, Houghton and Baraga Offices
Cohls Department Store
Henry F. Simpelmann -- Baraga Drug Store
Martin Oil Company
Leo A. Barry -- Superior Service Station
Wanttaja and Uusitalo Contractors and Builders
Baraga Lumber Company
Matt Getzen -- Soft Drinks
C. C. Holmes -- Baraga Hotel
Carl Nord -- Nord's Groceries and meats
Albert Bitschenauer-- Tonsorial Parlors
* All of the above were contributors to the 'Otawaga, 1929 Baraga High School yearbook from which the list was taken.