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Red Jacket, like every other mining town, rose from the ashes

Photo: Keweenaw National Historic Park This lot on the corner of 5th and Portland is where John Dymock established the Red Jacket branch of the Baer &Dymock meat market in 1868, in partnership with the Baer brothers of Hancock. The meat market and the Bastian building on the corner both survived the great fire of 1870. The market eventually took over the Bastian building, gaining frontage on 5th Street. Around that time, the existing building was constructed.

Changes in leadership bring changes in company policy. When Edwin Hulbert was the president of the Hulbert Mining Company, he permitted the operation of a privately owned general store on the mining company property. Although the details are complicated, in 1867, Hulbert was ousted from his position, the company was re-organized as the Calumet Mining Company, and Alexander Agassiz was named president. When Agassiz arrived in Michigan to develop the mine, he made it clear he did not want commercial businesses on company land. When he was able to acquire the property on which the Hecla Mining Company, a general store on that land was shut down, also. Agassiz, understanding the need for these establishments for his workers, permitted them to remain. A bank, a meat market and a hardware store were located on company land at the time, but they were dislocated, stated historian Arthur Thurner in his his 1974 publication “Calumet Copper and People: History of a Mining Community, 1864-1970.” The bank and the meat market relocated, he wrote, but the hardware store eventually closed.

To the west of the Calumet Mining Company was an old claim called the Red Jacket Mining Company, also referred to as the Portland. While history states that the Portland was incorporated into the Calumet Mining Company, other sources state that Hulbert owned it. The History of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, published in 1883, explained it this way: “Mr. Hurlbut (Hulbert), having disposed of his interests in the mineral land then owned by him, reserving, however, the surface of the land upon which this village now stands. This mine and village were thus named after the celebrated Indian chief Red Jacket.” The same source stated that Hulbert built the first building in 1856, when he erected a log boarding house, which was kept by Arthur Donald.

Although Fifth Street was originally planned as an alleyway, in 1868, John Dymock built a Red Jacket branch of the Baer and Dymock Meat Market, on the corner of Fifth and Portland streets. Dymock and the Baer Brothers already operated a meat market in Hancock. Although The History of the Upper Peninsula stated that Hulbert’s boarding house was “near the middle of the street,” that location description is incorrect. Other sources state Richard Bastian had purchased it as a boarding house and his residence. Dymock built the meat market on the corner, immediately adjacent to the boarding house.

In July, 1867, Agassiz’s wife and two children arrived at Red Jacket. The area was described by writer Edward B. Smith as “a rough primitive community with little to offer in the way of comfort beyond the bare necessities of life. The ‘hotel’ was scarcely more than a log cabin on the edge of a primeval forest rising directly behind it.”

The following year, John Green built this building, selling mining supplies and general stock. Some time before that, Edward Ryan expanded his Hancock business by opening a store in Red Jacket. If fact, a list of early business owners of Red Jacket almost reads like a Who’s-Who of Hancock. Ryan, Peter Ruppe & Son, J. Wertin & Sons, H. L. Hennes, Peter Holman, Max Bear and Dymock, all expanded their businesses from Hancock to Red Jacket.

Joseph Wertin, Jr. opened a branch of the J. Wertin & Sons General Store in Red Jacket in 1869, expanding their business from Hancock, which they started in 1867.

The Calumet Order, No. 271 of the Masons was organized in 1869, with thirteen charter members.

These pioneer businessmen were ambitious and apparently overly zealous in their optimism as they slapped buildings together out of wood in their haste to capitalize on this new and promising mining location. Hulbert had platted the village, surveyed the street, and was thorough in his planning — almost. Like the other pioneers of Red Jacket, he had overlooked on very important element: fire protection. They would come to realize this in a very shocking way.

The fire came from the brush in the spring of 1870. It destroyed two-thirds of the fledgling village. Thurner wrote that the fire was fought by “a dozen men with a meager water supply,” while hundreds fled with what possessions they could salvage.

Ruppe was among those burned out, but in no way was he discouraged. Thurner, in his essay “Red Jacket/Calumet: The First Century, published in the Calumet” published in 100th Anniversary publication in 1975, wrote that “Ruppe, junior, with his usual energy, was the first one to drive a nail.” He built was describes as a shanty opposite his old store and was soon selling. Fitzgerald and S. Davey quickly built temporary shanties.

“J. Hirsch and Bat. Shea are building on their old sites.” he wrote.. Ed Ryan was burned out, but he purchased another store that had been operated by the Union Company, operating out that until he got his new store completed.

While not burned, other businesses were badly damaged, including the Streeter & Brothers Bank and MacDonald’ Drug Store. Idenberg’s Clothing Store, and the Northrup and Kurbin Store were damaged, too. Baer’s & Dymock’s Meat Market was left standing, and Bastian’s home, formerly Hulbert’s boarding house, was saved, Thurner wrote, when the roof was covered with wet blankets.

All of this involved only the village of Red Jacket, however. It was not a very large village, but it catered to an ever-increasing population as Agassiz raced to hire more men and build more houses. It quickly became something of a confusion when in 1866, the Houghton County Board of Supervisors voted to separate the northern half of Franklin Township to create a new township to named Calumet Township. Where did Calumet stop and Red Jacket begin?

As Agassiz built more worker housing, divided into neighborhoods, names like Blue Jacket, Yellow Jacket, Albion Location, were applied to them, surrounding Red Jacket on all sides, except the north. The entire area became collectively known as “Calumet,” which was clustered in the middle of Calumet Township. By 1870, just three years after mining in the area began, Calumet Township, including Red Jacket, boasted a population to 3,182 people; the Calumet and the Hecla Mines employed more than 1,200 men.

Calumet Township was created out of the north half of Franklin Township, by a vote of the Houghton County Board of Supervisors in 1866. The major mover behind that was Ed Hulbert’s brother, John.

Once the village of Red Jacket rebuilt and continued to expand its businesses, although it was a small village, comprising just 26 blocks, it served an area far larger than itself, and by the time the village was incorporated in1875, the commercial district occupied half the village.

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