If the young people of the Copper Country were leaving the region soon after they graduated from high school, as sources claim, a long-standing tradition had prepared them well for the new world they would enter.

From the earliest days of the region’s frontier phase, a strong emphasis was placed on the education and religious instruction of the children in the mining locations.

Toward the turn of the 20th century, larger, wealthier mining companies were accused of including public schools in corporate paternalism strategies, but in the earlier years, that wasn’t so — at least not exactly. At locations where mining companies built a school, they did so because it was expected of them — there were no municipal governments to do so.

For some companies, a school was a proud commitment to community excellence. For others, a school was an obligation that was a drain on corporate profits from which the stockholders would derive no benefit.

From a social standpoint, schools were as important to a feeling of community unity as churches, both of which served vital cultural roles.

Churches provided their members with a sense of cultural identity and spiritual comfort in a new land crowded with other, and unfamiliar, ethnicities. French Catholics in Eagle Harbor, for instance, worshiped as they had done in Canada or in France. They worshiped, prayed, read the Bible, and sang French songs in their native language. While German Catholics worshiped in similar fashion to the French brothers and sisters, their native language, native songs and native culture, were tailored to them. The Cornish immigrant families held close to their Methodist tradition, and for other immigrants from Great Britain, there were Episcopal churches in nearly every community.

In many instances, the mining companies donated property for building a church, as well as providing monetary contributions for construction. At the Minesota mine, in Ontonagon County, the company donated land in its company neighborhood, then constructed a Cornish Methodist church on the property. It became known as the Church on the Hill. Similarly, the Central Mining Company built a Cornish Methodist church in its town, on Stagecoach Road.

Mining company officials considered church building as a wise investment, believing that churches created a stable community. Most mining companies invested in schools for the same reason.

The Central Mining Company was organized in 1854 and was already in full production within the year. The company rented a building from the nearby Northwestern mine for use as a school, until it became too crowded. When its student population overflowed the building, two additional classrooms were equipped in the basement of the Methodist church on Stagecoach Road.

The company finally built the Central School in 1879. A three-story, graded school, it contained four classrooms and an auditorium on the third floor. The school, with its auditorium, also came to serve as Central’s community building.

The Cliff mine, owned by the Pittsburgh and Boston Mining Company, about five miles from Eagle River, was the location of the unincorporated village of Clifton, where the Clifton School District was organized in 1859. Because the mining company could afford it, it constructed the school, supplied it with books and literature, then rented it to the township.

The Calumet and Hecla Mining Company made its public schools a point of pride. The company’s Summary of Operations for 1895, reported erecting two new school houses that year, and two years later, followed up with:

“We have also erected for the use of the Township High School a commodious building, two floors of which will be equipped as a Manual Training School, and put into commission in the fall.”

When the facilities were destroyed by fire in August, 1905, C&H President, Alexander Agassiz announced: “We are replacing these by a large fireproof building of greater capacity than the former buildings.”

The company’s 1916 Semi-Centennial publication boasted of the pride C&H took in providing the community’s children first-rate facilities:

“More than 20 years ago it built and furnished one large central building capable of seating twelve hundred students,” the publication stated, “and it has since erected ward or district school houses as fast as the necessities of a rapidly growing population have demanded. Recently a large house for manual training has been provided, while a school for cookery is now either completed or in the process of erection. These buildings are kept in good repair by the Company, and rented to the school district at a very low rate, the object being to insure ample accommodations and to keep pace with modern conditions.”

Other, less prosperous companies, like Franklin, for example, invested in community schools, but not nearly as extensively or as elaborately as C&H. C&H could afford to invest lavishly in community academics.

The Quincy Mining Company, like others, wanted to provide a good, well-equipped school to its township residents, and so built a school. If not outstanding, it was at least adequate for the residents of Quincy Township. It was built in the Frenchtown Location, with a capacity of 150 students.

The Historic American Engineering Record, Quincy Mining Company, HAER MI-2, reports that the company owned the vast majority of the property in Quincy Township and was therefore the major taxpayer to the township. Legally, support of the township’s school district was the company’s responsibility. As a result, Quincy openly dictated the management of the township school.

And when it opened its stamp mills on Torch Lake, in its community of Mason, in Osceola Township, the company found itself obligated to build a school there, too. Osceola Township was not as willing, however, that the Quincy should have full dictatorial power. The school became a partnership between the company and township. The company would build and own the school, select its teacher, and supply the coal. The township would support the school with township taxes.

In the early days, companies invested in schools simply because they had to, just as they had been compelled to build housing communities. If a mining company wanted a stable workforce and a peaceful community, churches and schools were central to that goal. Some company management teams, though, looked as schools more as an investment than a paternalistic manipulation. C&H, for instance, believed that by investing in a manual training center, it was preparing its own future workforce. The children of the miners and company workers would, it was assumed, follow their fathers into company employment; the company would ensure those current students would become well-trained and educated workers.