Dan Seavey, has been described as a lumberman, Great Lakes pirate, liquor smuggler, and the operator of a gambling ship.
Born in Portland, Maine in 1865, Seavey ran away from home at the age of 12, and began sailing the Great Lakes by age 20. Seavey stole a two-masted schooner full of cargo at Chicago, and sailed to Frankfort, Michigan. It was later reported he made a business of killing deer on Summer Island in Lake Michigan and sold the meat in Chicago off this same schooner, and was never caught. Rumor had it, also, that many men had been rolled off Seavey's vessels into the icy waters of Lake Michigan whenever he was displeased. Some local townspeople believe to this day, that Seavey was never convicted because local law enforcement, were afraid of him.
A French-Canadian, "Black Alex" who had come down from Quebec, knew nothing of the traditional reading, writing, and arithmetic, but was number one for living off the land. He was an excellent trapper, fisherman, and made his own jellies from blueberrys, raspberrys, and cranberrys.
Alex raised a family with his wife, Lizzie, but he never held a full-time wage earning job for any amount of substantial time. Game wardens set traps to catch Alex poaching, however, he was never convicted, even though he had been arrested several times. "Black Alex" never sent his children to school, and there is no record of his actual surname in Canadian, Iron River, or Iron County records.
Jim Murphy was one of the most respected and skilled surveyors of the North. Born in 1868, in Canada, Murphy worked for the Kirby, Carpenter-Cook Lumber Company. He acted as timber cruiser, estimator, camp foreman, surveyor, and supervisor all at one time. He is known for being the hardest worker of the county.
"H' African Bill" a "Cousin Jack" Miner at the Doberman Mine, and veteran of the Boer War, preferred to work the surface level of the mining business. "Bill" bragged so much about his Victoria Cross for bravery, his fellow miners began to believe his stories, untrue, especially since he would refuse to work underground.
One day, someone stripped ore too close to the surface rock, and exposed a high sulphur content to the oxygen in the air. Spontaneous combustion started the sulphur to burn and heavey sulphur fumes drove miners out very ill. For two weeks fumes went uncontroled and sent men home, finally it was decided to pump the fumes out by way of air and water pressure.
John Saderna, an Italian and Tony Shubat a Slav, volunterred to get the pumps set up underground. The mine supervisor Paul Jones looked to "African Bill" and spoke, "Here's your chance to prove that story about the Victoria Cross, Bill".
Saderna, Shubat, and "Bill" waited their turn to go down and pump the water and air into the shafts. The men followed instructions for two cycles, then the pumps stopped. Shubat worked to restart the pumps and after ten minutes, Saderna stated it was too dangerous and he was going back up to the ground level. Shubat and "Bill" stayed for only five more minutes, when suddenly Shubat fell face down in the dirt. "Bill" dragged Shubat to the lift and dumped him in the "skip." Two workers followed down when "Bill" did not come to the surface, the pumps were going, but "Bill" was lying with his wrench in his hand, and had died at his underground post.
The following day, Jones went through "Bill's" belongings for some clue to contact relatives. In a badly worn envelope he found a letter of personal acknowledgement from Lord Kitchener to William Malet for heroic and distinguished service beyond the call of duty. "African Bill" had indeed, recieved the Victoria Cross.
There were three black men in the community of Jackson, all born in slavery and all escaped North, through, the "underground railroad". Joe Herrin first worked as a night watchman at the Minckler's Iron Foundry (owner, Paul Minckler). His watchman's shack was located near the back of the lot, on the low lying grounds near Airey's Butcher Shop In the Spring 1896, thaw floods had covered the shack and completely ruined Airey's Butcher Shop, however no one ever knew how Joe Herrin had survived, even though he could not swim.
Darius Falkner, a former slave, was the owner of a draying business. His team of horese were the envy of all horse owners in town. He was the town veterinarian, without a dipolma, Falkner, was still called upon whenever an animal needed attention.
Ed Lott, Jr was the town's most successful horse trader. When local option came to Michigan; the state of Wisconsin was still serving liquor. Lott opened a saloon just across the border opposite the Michigan town, Pentoga Here Lott made a sizeable fortune and replied when asked, "Well, if I didn't do it, someone else would. I might as well make it while it lasts."
The most notorious gambler and bawdy house operator, (a bawdy house is another way of wording prostitution) was Dave LeRoy.
Mrs LeRoy, was a pillar in the local Church and apparently knew nothing of her husband's business. One frequent customer, Dick Rogers, often causing trouble with his drinking and fighting, was lying with someone else's woman. When LeRoy came into the house, to handle the trouble, Rogers pulled a revolver and shot LeRoy three times. He died near his doghouse, where he kept dogs to protect his place from police raids. Rogers was convicted, and sent to jail.
Carrie Jacobs-Bond was the most distinguished citizen of Iron River. She was born in Janesville, Wisconsin in 1863. A trained musician and skilled china painter, she became the wife of Dr Frank Lewis Bond, who began his medical practice in Iron River in 1881.
With the help of a friend, Walter Gale, Carrie Bond organized Bond Publishing Company with her son as partner. She composed several songs including "A Perfect Day", which resulted in the sale of over five million copies. Others: "To A Wild Rose", "I Love You, Truely", and "Just a 'Wearyin' For You".
The pines of Northern Michigan still house millions of this nations citizens and it's iron ore; bridges streams and sends skyscrapers soaring into the sky in hundreds of cities, a thing Iron River should be proud of today !
