The Marblehead lime kilns were erected in 1891.
Pioneer Manistique industrialist George Nicholson was born on February 8, 1852 in Hartford, Wisconsin, the fourth child in a sibling group of five. His parents, George Nicholson Sr. and Fannie White, were natives of Ireland, having settled first in New York before moving west to Wisconsin. As a young man, George Nicholson Jr. attended business school in Appleton, Wisconsin. His first venture into the world of commerce came in Graysville, Wisconsin, where he operated a general merchandise store. After relocating to Chilton, Wisconsin, he opened a clothing and dry goods store and also had interest in a grain elevator.
Nicholson married Elizabeth Gray of Harrison, Wisconsin, on Christmas day, 1876. It was in the early 1880s that Nicholson entered the lime business, becoming a partner in the Western Lime and Cement Company, growing in experience and expertise in this specialized field. During the winter of 1888, Nicholson explored the length of Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula on snowshoes looking for dolomite formations, before crossing Green Bay to Fayette and Garden in the Upper Peninsula.
Drawn finally to Manistique in 1889 by the presence of extensive dolomite deposits and the availability of slab wood fuel from three sawmills; Nicholson established the White Marble Lime Company.
Circa 1902 photo of employees of the White Marble Lime Company and a stone crusher at one of the company’s quarry and lime kiln operations (Leon Nicholson Collection).
In 1889, Nicholson built a six kiln lime plant in Manistique which stood along the west side of the current quarry pool in Central Park. Two years later he built the two kiln plant at Marblehead east of Manistique. Dolomite limestone was burned and made into quicklime at both Manistique and Marblehead. The process began in the limestone quarries where men loaded five ton cars by hand and were paid $0.15 per ton. Crushed limestone was transported to the top of the kilns on elevated rails where the rocks were unloaded into the top of the kilns using manual labor. An intense fire on both sides of the bottom of the kilns “calcined” the limestone transforming it into raw slate which became white powder when cooled. Lime was drawn from the bottom of the kiln at four hour intervals. This was accomplished by men using steel hooks to pull the hot lime into wheel barrels, one piece at a time. Lime was sold either in the form of raw slate, or it was hydrated by mixing water with powdered lime.
Quicklime had several uses in the construction trade. It was used for mortar in limestone rock foundations, chimneys and for plastering the inside of homes by mixing with water and sand. Lime and crushed stone from Schoolcraft County was shipped by rail to all sections of the United States. Very little quicklime is used today as it has been supplanted by waterproof products such as Portland cement.
White Marble Lime Co. hydrating plant and kilns located on Maple Street, west of the current quarry pool in Central Park. Slab wood, which was used as fuel, was piled where the football stadium, track and field are presently.
In 1900, Nicholson conducted an analysis of limestone near Blaney that revealed extremely high calcium content. He purchased 160 acres in Mueller Township and commenced quarry operations there. High calcium limestone was used in making paper and is also important in the steel making process.
The name for the quarry near Blaney was eventually changed to “Calspar” to avoid confusion with “Blaney Park” and “Blaney Junction.” Calspar is a made-up name. The first three letters come from the word calcium and the last four letters refer to the railroad spur.
A little community grew up in the vicinity of the Calspar quarry. It consisted of two streets of homes; a company bunkhouse; a boarding house; a general store and post office; and a two room schoolhouse. The village was home to 40 families and the post office served approximately 400 citizens in the area. The post office was in operation from 1926 to 1936. Most residents moved away by 1935 and many of the homes were moved to Gulliver.
Nicholson also contracted with the Chicago Lumbering Company to take all of the company’s cedar and spruce off of its enormous timber holdings. Nicholson built a shingle mill in Manistique on the east bank of the Manistique River, north of the Soo Line tracks. Nicholson’s first shingle mill was destroyed by fire in 1913 but was quickly rebuilt. The shingle mill was in operation in Manistique for 23 years before it was dismantled in the early 1920s.
Cedar lumber yards were established at Masonville in Delta County and at Manistique and Whitedale. The company’s extensive cedar operations supplied all the ties for the Soo Line Railroad and its western extensions.
In May of 1924 the lime plant at Marblehead was completely destroyed by fire. The blaze was believed to have been started by a spark from the kilns that carried to one of the buildings and went unnoticed until it was too late. The buildings were all wooden structures and were extremely dry. A rock crusher near one of the buildings, and several Soo Line railroad cars were also lost. The arrival of the fire department kept the blaze from spreading to the wood piles and cedar posts.
The firm experienced financial difficulties in the early 1920s due to increased labor costs and market conditions, and was reorganized in 1924 as the Manistique Lime and Stone Co. In 1928, Inland Lime and Stone Company acquired the land surrounding the Calspar quarry and built a large plant and docks at Port Inland near Seul Choix for the shipment of crushed limestone to Green Bay, Indiana Harbor and other ports.
Nicholson was a shrewd and intelligent businessman who had the habit of telling people exactly what he thought, no matter the consequences. He built wisely and was a major employer in Schoolcraft County. Along the way he acquired the nickname “Lime Kiln Johnny,” but no one dared refer to him that way in his presence.
George Nicholson died on July 11, 1938 in Manistique at age 86. His wife Elizabeth preceded him in death on June 19, 1927.
Circa 1902 photo of employees of the White Marble Lime Company (Leon Nicholson Collection)