Historically speaking
Cornish miners were the best

(Photo courtesy of the Negaunee Historical Society)
NEGAUNEE — The best of the early miners that came to Negaunee came from Cornwall, England. They came here because they were natural miners and had experience in the tin and copper mines of Cornwall.
They had a roving nature and could endure great hardship and loved to delve in the bowels of the earth. By 1850, Cornwall was the largest copper producing district in the world and produced two thirds of the world’s supply of copper.
It was said that Cornwall had 50,000 miners. The European copper boom reached its peak in the late 1880s when the bottom fell out of the market due to copper discoveries near Lake Victoria in Africa and tin in Malaysia.
Hundreds of thousands in Cornwall faced disaster. They had no alternative but starvation and mass migration. It was historic that just about then the great dopper and iron discoveries in the Upper Peninsula so desperately needed skilled miners. By the end of the century, the mining population of Cornwall took their skills to the Upper Peninsula.
The old Cornish despised the easy way of life. for centuries they had known the rock bound, wind swept barren land. They knew rock, gravel, sand and stone and could live on scrub and granite. They became a people of tough endurance and had the ability to withstand hardship, hunger, poverty and cold.
And they had the will to overcome it. They fit in fine with the primitiveness of Negaunee at the time. The Jackson mine people were fortunate to get these men and practically all the supervisory jobs were given to the Cornish.The Cornish were an independent lot but they gave the greatest respect to the mine “Captain” who also was Cornish.
These “Captains” were the authoritative underground bosses. Miners would always tip their hats to the captain and always addressed him as Captain. These early Cornish miners had an uncanny sixth sense to follow the vein of ore and could produce efficiently with a minimum of waste.
The Cornish men were always known as “Cousin Jacks” and the women as “Cousin Jennies.” In Negaunee and other early mining towns the English did not want to be classified as such. The Cornish made a great contribution to our taste buds in their Cornish pasty.
This is a meat stew made and baked in a crust. The cousin Jennises used a suet crust and cut up beef, “taters,” turnip,and a bit of parsley. It was an ideal meal for the miner, as it was a whole meal in one. And with a cup of “tay” (tea) it was a satisfying meal. These Cornish ate a pasty daily. The pasty was not wrapped in foil or waxed paper, it was placed in a cloth bag which also could be used to wipe the ore from your hands, brought home,washed and used again.
At the mine, the miner warmed his pasty and tin dipper of tea on a “miners” stove, which was a common shovel held over two candles. In time all Negaunee families learned to enjoy pasties. ThesSwedes would say that their pasties had a cousin jack tsate, but a Swedish shape.
There was a knack to roll the crust correctly. The Cornish had a dialect of their own. They left out the “h” where it should have been and put it in where it wasn’t needed. They twisted the English language and had many strange words and expressions. They always referred to the mine as “she” and they referred to eating as “I must take my meat.”
They were a superstitious group and feared a dog howling in the night, or finding a bird or a bat in the house. The Cornish loved wrestling and had a variety of their own. Each contestant wore a canvas coat with a rope sewed around the bottom.
Hands could only grasp the rope and then pushing and twisting began. The winner had to make three points of his opponents’ body touch the ground. The referee was called the “stickler.” The Cornish were devout Methodists. John Wesley came to America in 1743 and was greatly respected. He built chapels in every town. Captain Mitchell of the Jackson mine was the major contributor to the Methodist church in Negaunee.