A grave of one of the many veterans discussed during the Ishpeming Cemetery Tour is pictured. The headstone reads “Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Tour attendees learned of notable Ishpeming residents who helped to shape the town from the Ishpeming Area Historical Society & Museum. (Journal photo by Trinity Carey)

ISHPEMING — The small cities of the Upper Peninsula are known for their rich history, which can be seen in the sandstone buildings and old mine shafts, but in the cemeteries are the stories of those instrumental in writing the local history.

The Ishpeming Area Historical Society & Museum on Tuesday evening hosted a tour of the Ishpeming Cemetery, located along North Second Street, to discuss notable Ishpeming residents and others who helped to shape the town.

Leading the tour was Karen Kasper, vice president of the society.

“It’s our history,” Kasper said. “If we don’t learn about it, then it gets forgotten. I think it’s worth preserving because Ishpeming has a long history and there were a lot of really interesting things that happened and it’s worth talking about.”

The tour started at the tombstone of John Penglase, who was born in Cornwall, England, in 1848. He emigrated to the Keweenaw area in 1865 and began working in the mines. In 1870, he moved to Ishpeming and continued to work as a miner for some time before purchasing property at 113 S. Main St. An 1886-1887 directory listed the property as a saloon. In 1900, Penglase was elected as Marquette County sheriff, and he wasn’t the only saloon owner to go on to serve as sheriff, Kasper said.

In 1915, Penglase rebuilt his property and erected the brick building that is still on Main Street today, which now serves as a fitness center. During its time, the first floor of the building was occupied by the JCPenney Co. while the second floor was an Elks Club, as Penglase was a member. The Elks logo can still be seen on the tile landing for the stairs leading to the second floor, Kasper said.

Penglase died July 4,1925, and outlived two of his three wives and at least six of his children.

The final resting spot of a man familiar to most Ishpeming residents because of the Ropes Gold Mine, Kasper said, was another stop on the tour. Julius Ropes born in 1835 was an early pioneer of Marquette, settling in the city at just 20 years old. He is known for his discovery of gold in 1881, but he was first a store owner in the Chocolay area. He went on to work at a drug store and became the first chemist in the area and opened his own drug store in 1866 in Ishpeming. In his free time he would explore land north of the city, which led him to first discover marble before coming across gold. He began the Ropes Gold and Silver Co. in 1883 and shipped $645,792 worth of gold from the mine. The mine closed in 1897 when the price of gold fell and the process of extracting the mineral became too expensive, Kasper said.

“Despite the amount of gold that was taken from the mine it never managed to turn a profit as the cost of extracting the metal from quartz was too high,” Kasper added.

Still out of the many gold mines, Ropes was the most successful because gold was shipped from the mine. He was also instrumental in creating the Ishpeming school district in 1873 when the charter to form a school district and city government was granted.

The grave of John Lindbom, a coffin maker himself, was another tour stop. Born in Sweden in 1854, Lindbom emigrated to Ishpeming in 1878 and entered into a partnership with his brother as plasters and bricklayers. Eventually he converted a property on Pearl Street into a hardware store where he began selling a line of coffins and became an undertaker. When he retired, his son-in-law with the last name Bjork took over the hardware store and turned it into a modern funeral parlor. This was most likely the first funeral home in the area and took part in the trend away from having funerals in the private home. While the original building burned in a fire, the Bjork & Zhulkie Funeral Home still exists on North 3rd Street in Ishpeming.

One of the more recent graves visited was that of Lois G. Tucker.

“Lois is perhaps the person on this year’s tour that the participants of the tour might remember,” Kasper said. “I certainly remember her as she was my seventh-grade English teacher and also my homeroom teacher.”

Born in 1910, she graduated from Ishpeming High School in 1928 and attended Normal State Northern School where she received her bachelor’s in education. She went on to teach in the Ishpeming schools for 40 years. After her time as a teacher, she was a historian and involved in many local organizations. She passed May 18, 2002, the same day as another Ishpeming school teacher, Ebba Eklund.

Kasper said the tour is an opportunity for residents and others to learn about citizens of Ishpeming who were at one time big names in the area. Ishpeming was a melting pot of nationalities and is full of interesting individuals and stories, she added.

“A lot of times I get people here who say: ‘Oh I walk the cemetery all the time.’ And I tell them: ‘Well, this is a chance to find out interesting stories about some of the people who you walk around.’ It’s just to find out about some of the citizens of Ishpeming in former years,” Kasper said.

The last cemetery tour of the season will take place at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Cost is $5 and the tour will last about an hour. The tour will be canceled if there is inclement weather. The group will meet at the sexton’s office, located in the front of the cemetery. Proceeds benefit the Ishpeming Area Historical Society & Museum.

Private tours will be offered through the month of September for a group of at least five people. Contact the society for more information.

Trinity Carey can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206.