Ben Gero – Manistique’s First Car Dealer (1902)

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Benjamin Gero (right) in his battery powered Oldsmobile, circa 1901, Courtesy Ben Gero III collection.

     Born on Nov. 9, 1862 in Potsdam, New York, Benjamin Gero’s business career and civic contributions can only be marveled at today. He is best remembered as the owner of the “Gero Theater” in Manistique, but his accomplishments were many and varied. The death of his father when Gero was only nine years old and the necessity to support his mother and younger brother fueled his quest for achievement.  When he was 15, he left home for Michigan, finding work at Cheboygan in the lumber industry. With steady employment, the family joined him there and established a home. By the time Gero turned 21, he had risen to the position of lumber inspector for the Martin Stillman Lumber Company in Cheboygan.  Coming to Manistique in 1890, he began his remarkable career here as an independent lumber inspector. Read More...

Life Members Sought to Help Fund New Museum

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The former laundry building in the 1880’s when a wooden bridge spanned the Manistique river.

     The Schoolcraft County Historical Society has begun a capital campaign to fund a new museum.  Hundreds of artifacts relating to the rich history of Schoolcraft County are stored away in the society’s archive building, inaccessible to the public—all for the lack of a suitable place to display them.

     The former Manistique Lumber Warehouse building, located at 301 River Street, dates back to the 1880’s when all the property in town was owned by the Chicago Lumbering Company and a wooden bridge spanned the Manistique River. Now however, the building must either be torn down or moved to make way for the highly anticipated extended boardwalk project along the Manistique River.  Read More...

George Holbein and the Tribune Newspaper

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George Holbein at his desk in the newspaper office.

     George Holbein was born on August 16, 1864 at Dennison Station, Summit County, Ohio.  He was the fourth child in a sibling group of eight born to Elias and Lydia Holbein. Only four of George’s siblings survived to adulthood.

     George’s father, Elias Holbein was a skilled leather worker who crafted saddles and harnesses for horses. Elias was an educated man who was active in his German Reformed Church congregation, where he served as deacon, secretary and Sunday school superintendent. He was praised as having “an even temperament and a genial spirit.” Read More...

County’s First Newspaper on Display

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The first issue of the Schoolcraft County Pioneer printed on cloth. The newspaper is on display at the M-Bank Arts and Cultural Center.

  Wright E. Clarke came to Manistique in April of 1880 and immediately began the publication of the county’s first newspaper, the Schoolcraft County Pioneer. The first issue of the paper (Vol. 1, No. 1) was printed on April 29, 1880. The newspaper was printed on cloth for its superior durability, enabling it to be passed around and read by more people.

   In the fall of 2019, the Schoolcraft County Historical Society was contacted by Michelle Doucette of Connecticut, who is a very distant relative of Dr. Edith MacLeod, granddaughter of Wright E. Clarke. Dr. MacLeod had preserved a number of items pertaining to the Clarke family, including tin type photographs, letters and documents, and most precious of all, the first edition of the Pioneer, printed on cloth. These items were all donated to the historical society by Mrs. Doucette from the Dr. Edith MacLeod collection. The newspaper is in remarkably good condition after 140 years. A generous donation from Maurita Holland enabled the historical society to have the cloth newspaper transported to a fabric conservator in Washington D.C. where it was cleaned, wrinkles removed and mounted in a protective box that could be used for display. The newspaper was returned to Manistique just prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. The survival of early cloth newspapers is a rare occurrence. We are indebted to generations of the Clarke family for having so diligently looked after this early piece of Schoolcraft County history. Read More...