The Proud History of the Nelson’s Shoe Store

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The Ekstrom & Nelson Shoe Store circa 1910. SCHS Photo.

     Emil Nelson was born on November 23, 1870 in Erikstad, Sweden. A cobbler by occupation, he immigrated to the United States in 1891 and settled in Manistique. Shortly after his arrival, he opened a shoe shop on Oak Street. Then in 1901, he entered a partnership with Axel Ekstrom, a fellow Swedish immigrant, and together they established the Ekstrom & Nelson Shoe Store on South Cedar Street.

     Axel Carl Ekstrom was born in Karlstad, Sweden on December 7, 1866. He immigrated to the United States in 1882, coming directly to Manistique. He first obtained employment as a janitor at the Lakeside School, a job which he held for about one year.  He also worked for the lumber company for a time as a lather. Prior to his partnership with Emil Nelson, Ekstrom operated a bicycle shop—bicycling being hugely popular in the late nineteenth century. The two men remained in business together from 1901 until 1916. Then, in 1916, the partnership was dissolved for reasons that have been lost to history. Emil Nelson started his own expanded shoe shop, opening Nelson’s Shoe Store just south of the original store on Cedar Street. Ekstrom remained in the retail shoe business until 1921. Then, in 1923 he established the Lakeside Grocery Store which he managed until his death in April of 1934. Read More...

The Manistique Bakery

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The original William Mueller bakery is pictured above with William Mueller standing (far left). SCHS image from the Mike and Van Mueller collection.

     William Mueller was born in Wurttemberg, Germany on July 7, 1869 and was orphaned in early childhood. While still in his youth he was apprenticed to a baker. In 1890, when he reached the age of 21, he emigrated to the United States which he viewed as a land of freedom and opportunity. At that time the rulers of Germany pursued a policy of conquest and were often at war with their European neighbors. William applied to the German government for permission to visit his brother who was living in England.  His request was approved, but when it came time for him to return to Germany, he emigrated to America instead. Read More...

The C. L. Company General Store

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      The first Chicago Lumbering Company general store was built in the early 1870’s near the old saw mill.  The company store was the only place to purchase the basic necessities. August Klagstad remembered his mother buying denim at the company store which she used to sew jackets and overalls. The few hundred pioneer residents of Manistique depended on the store to meet their most basic needs, including their daily bread. The store was stocked with a large number of provisions in the fall to provide for the residents and camp employees during the long winter months. Then, on the bitterly cold evening of January 13, 1881, an unbelievable catastrophe occurred. The company store burned to the ground. Read More...

Manistique’s Early Hospitals

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The flat above the A. S. Putnam Drug Store on the corner of S, Cedar and Walnut served as a hospital from the 1890’s to late 1930. SCHS Photo.

     In the days before large medical facilities and regional trauma centers, Manistique’s sick and injured were cared for in small, private hospitals, usually owned by the physician who treated patients there. During a 1949 interview, Dora (James) Middlebrook recalled some of Manistique’s earliest hospitals. Dora was a pioneer resident of Manistique, having visited in the 1870’s with her father, Ebenezer James, founder of the Jamestown mill. She later became the bride of William Middlebrook. Read More...