The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1903-03-07
OF
EARLY DAYS.
Authentic HissSfy If Csystaf
q gFalls by the man who
Built the Town.

plated by John Pumpelly very
competent Engineer and very
honorable gentleman. and believe no
town in the state was surveyed aud
plated with greater care and accur-
racy. Col J. H. Howe and myself
bought the land the town stands ON of
Angus Smith. and later on decided it
TO the Crystal Falls Iron company, an
organization formed by N. X. Fair
bank. Col Howe and myself and some
other Chicago Capitalist.
The summer and fall of 1881 was very
rainy. and although we had 700 men
at work OF the railroad grade, it was
not completed until the summer of
1882 and work continued on the grade
all winter, and really to better ad-
vantage then during the fall.
During the fall of 1881 / built my
house at the upper end Of Superior
Avenue (now owned by Mr.. Roberts
Sales Of town lots were quite numerous
nearly all the first settlers buying lots.
and putting up buildings among them
d. G. Lockwood built the Lockwood
House. $. ID. Hollister store buildine,
Doucet a saloon, Uren meat market
and dwelling. I built store building
ia company with Asa Leopold. land
our first months sales were over
Sl3 0OOl l.. D. Rowley. Gotlieb
Urban. Doctor kimball Bannerman.
70 o Welch. Bowers Capt Schwartz
Justified, Wand nlague, Lachapelle AMI
some others bult dwellings, or stores,
ml ths place looked quite like VII
lage At dis time Mr. O. T Roberts
ana Frank scadden came
The saw mill could hardly furnish
the lumber as fast aa required Money
was very plentiful and every body had
some. During the entire building Of
the railroad Marsh Lindsay was pay
master and book keeper and at times
we carried box full Of money along
the grade on pay day that took four
men To carry when the box was strlI (
on two poles
The post Office was opened Feb 1882
my daughter Julia +. Hollister T. M.
mIve my family to Crystal Fal;
in January 1882 and the first religion
services were held in April that yeai
at MY luse and later On in Doucets
: Hall, Doucet closing his alool during
n services. During this time | la,
Il charge of the Crystal Falls Iron com
+ pany's buisness the Mastoion AN,
}. Paint River, mires and the Grea
e Western mine besides several explora
o tions The Great Western Iron compan
n was orginazed by S. G. Hall Jnlian N
% Case, S. d. Hollister and myself Hal
10 was iumberman from Muskego
Mich and Julian NJ Case was clerl
ia Longy ears office az Marquette Th
|, exploring work was done by Captai
q Raher About this time John Park
o built a warehouse ON the II. II. sidin
n and the Paint river was full Of logs il
!. the spring, people taking their Dime
q along TO stay at the falls all day to Sc
n the log jam. broke and see the log
q pile over the falls, sight intleed, tina
j. will never he repeated.
!, We made maple sugar back of on
d house that spring and had lots of fui
= sugaring off
il The whole townsite and the land
. adjoining wero covered with heav!
it growth Of hardwood timber on Tn,
i uplands, and with pine and cedar OF
e the lower portions and IL was quite
Is job TO open the streets for travel an,
e build roads to The mines
. While grading the railroad a curiou
thing happened that took me lon
time to unravel The engineer II
: direct charge Of the grade was namet
! Peterson, one OF the most disagreeabl
! mon | ever came in contract with
: Instead " helping the work along he
! did everything 10 hinder and dis
! Conrage me, but he was discharge,
= when tho work was completed. he toll
4 me one day ] was the only contractor
who did not furnish the engineer /
bottle OF whiskey once IN while, an,
thinking he might he more reasonable
/ sent to Col Howe TO send me o
Q demiiohn Of whiskey for Peterson o
Z the cheapest grade he could buy Wher
j the demijohn arrived at Florence 4
q prominent lumberman then. now q
9 merchant OF Crystal Falls thought
r this must be something extra, coninl
. from Col Howe. lwho was good
d judgel and this luInbermsn got pos
Q session OF the demijohn in the transfer
and took IL over 10 the saloon, had
the contents changed for the poorest
whiskey they had and in this shape II
: was delivered TO Peterson. wether he
gained or lost by the change I never
found out. but Am sure the party
y -