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New Swanzy’s beginnings, Part 1

Pictured is John Q. Adams and his family. (Photo courtesy of the Marquette Regional History Center)

The year was 1908 and Teddy Roosevelt was President. Orville and Wilbur Wright had made their historic flight at Kitty Hawk only five years earlier, and the world was still six years away from the beginning of World War I.

Locally, the new town of Gwinn was well underway with its construction having been started the previous year. Two hundred men were busy building the streets, laying water lines, sewers, and even rerouting the East Branch of the Escanaba River away from the new Smith Mine just south of the village.

Mining on the Swanzy Range (soon to be renamed the Gwinn District) expanded beyond its origins near Princeton. A flurry of new mines were being built or in the planning stages. The Smith Mine had opened in 1907, and the Kidder Shaft, nearby, was being sunk. Likewise, the Francis Mine near Johnson Lake was being constructed- it would open in 1913- and plans were underway for the Gardner and Mackinaw Mines, which would open in 1911 near Rice Lake.

Extra workers were needed to build the towns, run the markets, work on the railroads, and dig the ore out of the ground. William Mather, of CCI, had planned the “model town” of Gwinn, in part, so that it would attract quality workers to this remote part of the country.

Gwinn was designed to have neatly laid out streets and “fire-proof” brick buildings in its commercial district. It would have churches, a hospital, and a community center. In a further effort to attract families there could be no saloons, houses of ill-repute, nor pig sties.

The company would soon relent on part of that-allowing for one saloon. The women of the night and pigs, either day or night, were still not welcome.

And everywhere there would be trees and shrubbery, highlighted by a tree shaded boulevard through the center of town.

As appealing as that might have sounded to so many people, Gwinn was still going to be a “company town” and some people either chafed at having the company so involved in their lives, wanted more room, or just wanted to live or do business elsewhere for a variety of valid reasons.

Perhaps it was inevitable then, that someone would provide an alternative to Gwinn and the other CCI owned properties in Princeton and Austin.

In 1872, attorney John Q. Adams had moved to Negaunee from Connecticut. Within two years, he was elected circuit court commissioner and in 1876 he was elected to the first of three two-year terms as prosecuting attorney for Marquette County.

In 1907, aware of the developing boom in Forsyth Township, the 70-year-old Adams teamed with his 40-year-old son, Eugene W. Adams, and a minority partner, Henry E. Sorenson, to form the Don Iron Company. They bought 160 acres in Forsyth Township; the southwest quarter of Township 45, Range 25.

It’s uncertain whether originally they ever intended to mine the property. The land under New Swanzy lay outside the ore bodies in the area and presumably they would have known that. Eugene Adams said that it hadn’t been their intent to plot the property but they received so many inquiries from people wishing to purchase small parcels that they decided to put the land on the market.

So, in 1908, as the construction of Mather’s model town was in full stride, the Adamses and Sorenson platted out a 40-acre portion of their property a quarter mile east of Gwinn and named it “the Town of Swanzy”. The town site allowed for 700 lots, 50 feet wide and 142 feet long. The younger Adams reported that the first hundred lots would be sold at very low prices.

Four streets ran north and south; Pearce, Mitchell, Billings, and Smith Streets. Three avenues ran east and west; Stephenson, Maas and Anthony. According to an article in the August 29, 1908 “Daily Mining Journal”, the roadways were named after early mining pioneers in the region.

The main business avenue was named for Marinette, Wisconsin lumber baron Isaac Stephenson, who also was involved in the Stephenson Mine in Princeton.

Maas Avenue was named after J. B. Maas of Negaunee who was interested in the early development of mines in the area. There is some speculation that this is a typographical error and that the name was actually “I. B. Maas.” No biographical information could be found on J. B. Maas but was available on I. B. Maas who owned a hardware store in Negaunee and had been involved in leasing mine properties since the 1870s.

Anthony Avenue was named after Edward Anthony, an Englishman who had moved to the United States in 1857. He fought in the Civil War and was captured during the second battle of Winchester, spending three years in Lynchburg and Belle Isle prisons as a prisoner of war. He moved to Negaunee after the war and opened a harness shop there. He later formed the Negaunee Glucodine Works which supplied blasting powder for the mines.

Pearce Street was named after Wallace Pearce of Sharon, Pennsylvania, who was one of the original owners of the tract on which the Princeton Mine was located. He was also Forsyth Township Supervisor from 1872-1874.

Mitchell and Billings streets were named after George Mitchell, who was one of the early explorers in the range, and Frank Billings, who managed the business affairs of the Tod-Stambaugh Company locally.

Smith Street was named after a land looker who worked for Isaac Stephenson, and who, with Stephenson, claimed to have discovered iron ore near Princeton.

In addition, the new town was home to two rail lines. The Marquette, Munising and Southeast Railway extended its line from Little Lake to Princeton, bisecting New Swanzy from east to west between Stephenson and Maas Avenues. That line later became the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railway (LS&I).

In 1912 the Chicago and Northwestern Railway (C&NW) built a spur running north and south from the Northwestern Mine at Johnson Lake to their branch line connecting Princeton to Old Swanzy. This new section of tracks for the C&NW ran just to the west and parallel to Pearce Street.

Expectations had been that a rail station would be built on the C&NW railroad line on land just to the west of the town, heading toward Gwinn, but it never came to pass.

To find out more about what was built in the new village, check back next week.

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