Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette
During Christmas, 1914, the village of Houghton’s first municipal Christmas tree was set up on this property which, in 1914, a vacant lot owned by the Ransom Shelden estate. Since that time, Dakotah Street, to the right of the utility poles, was later renamed Bridge Street. Years later, the city of Houghton terminated the north end of Bridge Street at the intersection of Montezuma Ave.

While the war in Europe raged across the front pages of the local newspapers, and communities and businesses struggled to support each other, the residents of the Copper Country were adamant in their determination ensure the Christmas of 1914 would be better than that of the previous year, even if there was little money for the celebration — or so it initially was believed. With or without money, this year the children would have a Christmas.

Christmas 1913 was still fresh and raw in residents’ memories. The disaster that occurred at the Italian Hall, in Calumet, on that Christmas Eve was not publicly talked about the following season. If it was, it was in hushed whispers that were not recorded to history. Even the Daily Mining Gazette, which delighted in taking jabs at the Western Federation of Miners and its members who had engaged in the 1913 labor strike, did not mention the Christmas of 1913. For 1914, Christmas would be different.

The outbreak of war in August had crippled the copper market by Sept., forcing the smaller copper producers in the region, like the Winona and the Hancock mines, to shut down entirely. Larger companies, like Copper Range, Quincy and Calumet & Hecla, reduced operating to two weeks per month while they also reduced wages by 10%. Yet somehow, from somewhere, money for Christmas still managed to materialize, most likely being brought by the Christmas spirit.

With the approach of the holiday season, churches throughout the region became more determined to infuse the Christmas spirit into the hearts and minds of their congregations, particularly the children. Nearly every church in the region hosted elaborate Christmas programs featuring their Sunday school members and, in most cases, extended invitations to the general public. Churches, however, did not have a monopoly on Christmas.

Retail stores up and down the Keweenaw Peninsula advertised sales, in particular offering children’s items at as much as 50% off. Residents responded.

During the first week of Dec. a committee of Houghton women, led by a Mrs. John W. Black, announced the “biggest Christmas party ever arranged in the village,” which would include a giant Christmas tree. The Houghton mayor was very enthusiastic at Black’s idea and promised the Public Works Department personnel would go into the woods and personally select a giant tree. The tree was to be set up in a vacant lot on the corner of Shelden and Dakotah (now Bridge) streets, owned by the Ransom Shelden estate. The purpose of the party, Black said, was “make the whole of Houghton participate with Houghton children in a widespread expression of the sentiments that the day helps to keep alive.” As the plans grew, so did the spirit. It would grow to include the Range towns, as well.

Meanwhile, on Dec. 5th, Levine’s Dept. store, on Shelden Street, invited the town’s children to attend its opening of its display of Christmas toys and novelties. The owner of Levine’s had a tradition of maintaining a Santa Clause post office at his store and he asked the kids in town to write letters to Santa and bring them to his Santa’s post office, promising that he would personally see to it that Santa received every letter. It is almost certain Levine saw to it that each child who delivered a letter to the special post office received a little something on Christmas.

Although the mining company officials in the Copper Country remained in the far background in December, at least one company, Calumet & Hecla, paid its workers in plenty of time for Christmas shopping. On Dec. 20, business owners in the Torch Lake towns reported trade for the 1914 Christmas shopping season as on par with other seasons, and far more than they had experienced during the previous season. Hancock merchants reported the same three days later.

At the same time, charities such as the Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul and the Associated Charities all expressed appreciation for donations during an economically depressed time.

In Calumet and Laurium, several charities, at least a dozen churches, fraternal organizations and others, partnered together to gather lists of needy households, which were largely received from neighbors of those families. The organizations, including St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Salvation Army, Calumet Associated Charities, the Laurium Nickel Club and the Finnish Nickel Club, then investigated each of the cases to determine if they were actually needy. They then worked together to distribute hundreds of Christmas baskets, each containing meals for several days. In cases of extreme need, clothing and fuel were also distributed. The same charities had conducted the same task a couple of weeks earlier in the Houghton-Hancock area.

In Hancock, the high school and the Epsworth League of the First Methodist Episcopal Church partnered to promise every child, regardless of family finances, would receive a visit from Santa Clause. The promise was kept.

Around the middle of December, Mrs. Black’s Christmas celebration committee faced a critical dilemma when a serious question arose: In the event that Santa Clause could not be attend to distribute the gifts to the community’s children, could they find a suitable mere human to impersonate the well-known saint? Committee members concluded that he should be a bachelor, because a married man missing from the celebration might raise suspicion of an imposter. Sheriff James Cruse was considered, but he had to be present to manage the crowd. The problem was serious enough to draw the attention of the Daily Mining Gazette, which reported on it.

While the village mayor promised Mrs. Black a tree, Mike Messner, who lived in Atlantic Mine and owned a logging operation, said that although he did not live in Houghton, he would like to contribute the tree. He delivered a 35-foot, beautiful evergreen. It was the first municipal Christmas tree in the history of the village of Houghton.

Decorating it began on Dec. 23, when Houghton County Electric Company employees arranged more than 400 electric lights on it. Other decorations also adorned the tree. The decorating took two days and was completed just a few hours before the celebration was set to begin.

In spite of single-digit temperatures and a biting wind, the Christmas Eve celebration was an enormous success. More than 2,000 children attended. When the lights were lit at 7 p.m., the children massed around the tree to sing Silent Night, accompanied by a coronet. In spite of the committee’s worries and concerns, Santa Clause did show up, coming down Dakotah Street hill from Hurontown behind a matched team, rather than reindeer. There were so many children at the celebration that he required dozens of assistants from the crowd to distribute the packages of candy and an orange to them all.

Along with Santa Clause came carol singers from the Painesdale and Trimountain Methodist Episcopal churches, to join the festive evening, adding their legendary Cornish choral singing to the event on Main Street.

On Christmas Day, the Orpheum Theater, in Hancock, presented two Christmas programs. The first, from 2:30 – 4:30 p.m., was for children. The second was from 8 – 11 p.m.

Although Christmas in 1914 arrived on a Friday, so many events had been planned and organized that those that could not be conducted on Christmas Day were celebrated on Sunday, the 27th, including special church services, Sunday school programs, and of course, every community was offered the enjoyment of Methodist church carol singers.

Despite all the odds against it, Christmas 1914 was huge throughout the Copper Country. The Christmas Spirit, prevented from coming the year before, came back to the Copper Country in its fullness.

The economy in Dec. 1914 was scarcely better than it had been the year before. But, businesses throughout the district reported sales far surpassing the previous year. Charities received donations enough to permit the purchase of thousands of dollars in food, clothing and fuel to provide for thousands of families. Houghton began a tradition of its municipal Christmas tree that year, thanks to Mrs. John Black, the mayor of Houghton and Mike Messner, of Atlantic Mine that continues to this day. The communities surrounding the Calumet & Hecla Mining Co., so ravaged by the strike the previous year, welcomed the return of Christmas the next year, with the help of its churches, charities, clubs and fraternal organizations. It was, indeed, a merry Christmas — an unspoken promise to those families devastated by the disaster the previous Christmas that it would never again be repeated.

And with the conclusion of this Christmas 2022 installment of Copper Country’s Past and People, its author and the entire Daily Mining Gazette staff, wish you a Merry Christmas, accompanied by the same spirit of that Christmas of 1914, 104 years ago.