George Nicholson and the White Marble Lime Company

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Blasting preparation at the WML company quarry in Manistique. Photo courtesy Gulliver Historical Society, Leon Nicholson collection.

     The son of Irish immigrants, pioneer Manistique industrialist George Nicholson was born on February 8, 1852 in Hartford, Wisconsin. As a young man, Nicholson 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. Read More...

The Prohibition Era (1918-1933)

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Sheriff Jack Hewitt (left) and Deputy Matt Kasun (rt.) with confiscated still. Photo courtesy the Lundstrom Collection.

     The die was cast on November 8, 1916. Michigan voters went to the polls and overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the Michigan State Constitution prohibiting the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages. In an era prior to women’s suffrage, the statewide tally was 353,378 dry to 284,752 wet.  The state prohibition amendment became the law in Michigan eighteen months later on May 1, 1918.

     The immediate impact of state prohibition was to put local saloons, along with hotel bars and restaurants out of the liquor business. Those businesses that didn’t close their doors were converted to soft drink parlors, billiard rooms or lunch counters. These new establishments became popular places for social gatherings, but also fell under increasing scrutiny by law enforcement officials. The ratification the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution in January of 1919 ushered in national prohibition one year later on January 17, 1920.   Read More...

The Rose Brothers Stores (1892-1906)

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The Rose Brothers first store built on the corner of Oak and Cedar Streets (1900-1903).

     Manistique merchant Harry Rose was born in Russia in February of 1865, where the Tsar’s treachery and authority knew no limits.  Impressed by his older brother’s glowing letters about unlimited opportunity in America and freedom from religious persecution, he immigrated to the United States. Rose settled first in Marquette, Michigan in 1884, joining his older brothers, Leo and Jacob.  He spent his first eight years in America working as a clerk in his brother Jacob’s store. During these years he became fluent in English as a second language, to go along with his native Yiddish. Read More...

Camping on Indian Lake in the Gay 90’s

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A turn of the century era group camping on Indian Lake.

     Camping at Indian Lake was all the rage for Manistique residents during the 1890’s and early 1900’s. An orderly row of tents lined both sides of a broad street near the present Bishop Baraga Shrine and cemetery.  Clear and pleasant tasting drinking water was readily available from a nearby spring. Fresh milk and eggs for breakfast could be purchased at the Miller farm, which then occupied the future site of the Arrowhead Inn (now just a faded memory). In the evening, the campers gathered around the large bonfire which illuminated the grounds; while musicians with violins and harmonicas accompanied a chorus of campers singing the popular “Gay Nineties” ballads of the day. The children spent their days playing, swimming and eating homemade ice cream and their evenings roasting marshmallows and popping popcorn. Read More...