Remembering Our Ancestors Through Genealogy

A History of Iron County Michigan by Jack Hill Published in 1955, "A History of Iron County Michgan" gives the history and other interesting facts about this Upper Peninsula county. The book was originally printed in two columns. In order to improve the readability of the pages on a web browser it was converted to single column by combining every two original lines. With this exception the transcription was done without changes or corrections. Chapter 20 - Bates Township

110     HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     Chapter XX     BATES TOWNSHIP      Bates Township is one of the original five Townships of the County and was granted organization privileges in 1885 under the same Legislative Act that provided for the separation of Iron from Marquette County. At the   HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     111   outset the Township extended from the Brule River on the south to the present north boundary of the County when Iron River Township gave up townships 42-34, 43-34, 44-34 and the north half of township 44-35 and Republic Township released townships 45- 35 and 46-35. The new Township embraced an area of 98,930 acres and had a valuation of $922,724. The first election was held in the home of Olaf Helgemo in the early part of July and the inspec- tors of this election were Mr. Helgemo, Alexander Leclair and Andrew Peterson. Officers elected at this time were Charles Olson, supervisor, Ferdinand L. Kleyenstober, clerk and August Krans and Ole Benson, Justices of the Peace    It is unfortunate that the early Township records have been des- troyed or misplaced and were not available for study. The following brief history is compiled mainly from meager bits of material en- countered in the County archives and from information received from early settlers.    This Township enjoyed the greatest early concentration of permanent farm settlement when good lands became available through on overselection of grant lands as mentioned elsewhere in this work. The settlers were mainly of sturdy Scandinavian stock who made their way to the frontier from the stopping-off center at Norway, Michigan in 1882. Of the ten births recorded for the year 1885, eight were listed as of Swedish parentage, one German and one French. The occupations of the fathers were listed as: Homesteaders 7, Land 2, Dead 1. The families were large as a rule and many hardships were endured in carving the homes out of the wilderness. The head of the family usually worked in the mines dur- ing their operation in the summer work.    The earliest settlement was confined largely to Town 43, Range 34. Here we find the homes of Charles and Gustav Olson on Sec- tion 1; John Ault on Section 9; Peter Johnson and Isaac Hen- drickson on 11; the Peter Carlson, John Benson, Andrew G. Erick- son and the Rydberg families on Section 15; the Hall, Smith and Kleyenstober families on 19; Andrew Erickson, Olaf Anderson and Nels Hanson on Section 21; August Krans, Olaf Benson, Charles Gustafson and Peter Nordin families on 23; John Greenlund, Olaf Helgemo and August Ericksons on 27 and the Edward Shoquist, Adolph Gustafson and John Nelson families on Section 35. Most of these lands were occupied prior to 1885.    In the year 1886, Supervisor Olson certified to the County Clerk that the following funds had been voted for Township and school purposes for that year, Contingent Fund, $4,620, Highway Purposes, $1,468, which was divided by districts as follows; for Town 42-34, $448, Town 43-34, $398, and Town 44-34, $622. A one mill tax to be assessed on the valuation of the Township to be used for building purposes was also voted and certified by the District Board of School District No. 1. The limits of this School District were not defined but under prevailing laws, no school dis- trict could contain more than nine compactly situated and contiguous sections of land. Special laws enacted for the Upper Peninsula Townships in 1891 paved the way for the present single school districts of today. Compulsory education in Michigan did not come until 1895. The members of this first School Board were, Carl J. Gus- tavson, Moderator. Olaf Helgemo, Director and John Erick Green- land, Assessor.    For the year 1887, the following funds were provided; Highway im- provement and construction, 50 cents on each $100 valuation or approximately $4,600, Contingent Fund, $1,000, Poor Fund, $1,500, Cemetery Fund, $1,000, and for School District No. 1, the sum of $500, which was divided as follows, Teacher's wages, $200, Repairs, $200, and Office Services, $100. The school for which these appropriations were made was situated near the center of Section 27, T 43 R 34 and is reportedly   112     HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN   the first educational institution in the Township.    By the year 1890, the Township had a population of 594. The hard times of the following decade however, forced many to leave the area and in 1894, the population had dropped to 377. In 1900 the census showed 402, in 1904 a further increase to 488 and in 1910 it had returned to 573.    The sparse and wide distribution of settlement necessitated the erection of other schools. In the year 1900 there were five in addition to the one in Section 27. These were situated on Sections 7, 9, 11 and 19 in Town 43 Range 34 and one on Section 29 in Town 44 Range 34.    While the presence of iron ores has been known to exist in the Township since 1882, only three mines have been developed to productivity to date. None however are active at this time. The Chicagoan Mine situated on Section 26-43-34 was originally ex- plored by the Paint River Mining Company in 1882 under Dr. D. M. Bond. In the year 1909, the property was developed by the Munro Iron Mining Company and a total of 1,234,339 tons was shipped. The Bates Mine was developed in 1910 by the Bates Mining Com- pany and became one of the moderately large producers. The property was subsequently taken over by the Hanna Ore Company and the mine was temporarily closed as unsafe in 1948. The Rog- ers mine was opened in 1912 by the Rogers, Brown Ore Company and was operated under the Munro Iron Mining Company. This mine became one of the largest producers of the district and was taken over by the Hanna Ore Company in 1926.    With the development of the Rogers Mine, an attempt was made by George Washington Earle to establish a townsite on his lands south of the mine on the west half of the southwest quarter of Sec- tion 28-43-34. The site was platted and mapped in September 1913 and the town was named Earle. The town, for unknown reasons, failed to materialize and was later abandoned. Dr. G. W. Earle was a native of New York state and assumed the direction of the Wis- consin Land & Lumber Company of Hermansville in 1889.