Iron
Subtitle: A river, a town, a county, a mine, a family
Edition: 1st ed edition
Publisher: West by Southwest
Published: 2000
Language: eng
Format: Unknown Binding
Number of pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9780970251305
Subjects: History; Iron River (Mich.); Zyskowski, Constanty
First sentence: In searching for knowledge of his great grandparents, who were poineers in his hometown of Iron River, Michigan, the writer came to document an intriguing story of family solidarity, tragic deaths, betrayal, winning of a fortune and murder.
Description: Introduction

There are thousands of stories linked to the history of Iron River, Michigan dating back to 1881. Many of these have been preserved in the writings of families and local historians.

Many have been lost to time. A new story has been documented through the discovery of detailed court records in the archives of the Michigan Supreme Court. It begins with the arrival of a Polish family in 1884. They endured the hardships common to immigrants of that time and were victims of  betrayal by a trusted missionary priest and a group of local attorneys one of whom used privileged information in an attempt to take a new-found mineral fortune from them. The court transcripts document the words of the family, the rogue priest, and well known historic figures who played a role in the early growth of the Iron County and the village of Iron River. Among them Judge Richard C. Flannigan, E.P. Lott, the founder of the Iron County Reporter, Michael Kelley, owner of the first General Store, Vincent Drozdowski, a local farmer, Rudolph Ericson, a mining superintendent, Peter Michaels, a butcher, M.S. McDonough a local attorney, and many others. 

In addition to the ordeal of their betrayal, the family lost members due to a diptheria epidemic, complications of childbirth, a mining accident, and finally an unsolved murder that triggered a manhunt unprecedented in Iron River.    

The startling and sometimes puzzling revelations of court records, contemporaneous local events recorded in the local newspaper and other documents present the reader with an unique view of early Iron River and its colorful inhabitants.