The brothers and their business prospered, especially after the Great Fire of 1868, when the Spear dock was the only commercial dock to survive.

In time, the brothers founded separate businesses. J.W. Spear became a grocer while F.B. Spear remained in mercantile shipping, trading in coal, wood, grain and building supplies.

The firm became F.B. Spear & Sons in 1898 when Franklin Bennett Spear Jr. and Philip Bennett Spear joined their father. Eventually grandsons Phillip Bennett Spear Jr. and George Northrop Spear carried the company into the next generation.

From 1900 to 1929 the Spear Coal Dock operated just off Main Street. In 1929, the company built a state-of-the-art coal dock on the former Grace Furnace site, at what is now Mattson Park in the Lower Harbor. The dock, which cost $125,000 to build, had a six-ton bucket and a capacity of 4,000 tons per day.

A lake freighter is unloading coal at the Spear dock, possibly 1950s. (Photo courtesy of the Marquette Regional History Center)

In 1975, the dock closed with coal shipments shifting to the new coal-unloading facility at the Upper Harbor. George Spear offered the dock to the city of Marquette in his will, writing that he hoped the area could be used for recreational purposes.

Under the guidance of Ellwood Mattson, the dock was converted to green lawns and recreational facilities.

Piles of coal on the early Spear dock contrast with the masted ships. (Photo courtesy of the Marquette Regional History Center)