In 1923, Stanley Newton published “The Story of Sault Ste. Marie and Chippewa County.” This is part twenty-five of a continuing series about the history of Sault Ste. Marie and the area in its early years. I have left punctuation and grammar intact. – Laurie Davis
Village Prospered
Mr. Fowle was impressed with the natural advantages of the place and its possibilities, and in 1883, with his brother-in-law, Mr. E.H. Mead, opened the Chippewa County Bank on Water Street. Prospective stockholders were scarce, and the business was hazardous. The nearest railroad, express, and telegraph were sixty-five miles away, and the winter road led through swamps and forests. There was no way to transfer funds in the winter season other than to take them in person.
But the village prospered, and so did the bank. Capitalized at $10,000.00, it continued as a private bank until 1886, when it was reorganized as the First National Bank of Sault Ste. Marie. Under this name, it has continued to the present, having grown under the guidance of Mr. Fowle and Mr. Mead and their successors until, at the time of Mr. Fowle’s death, its resources were about two million dollars.
On the night of August 9th, 1886, fire broke out in a saloon on Plank Alley, and consumed nearly all the buildings on the south side of Water Street, and a number of others on Portage. Over half the business buildings of the village were burned. The bank premises were destroyed, but the bank safe’s contents were found to be uninjured, including some $25,000.00 in currency. Business was resumed in the former office of Attorney H.M. Oren, but the safe had been warped by heat, and its doors had to be opened daily with a pickaxe and closed with a cedar post battering ram. This safe was in use as the bank’s depositary during the boom of 1887, and it frequently held as much as $100,000.00 in currency.
The fire of ‘86 and another in ‘96 were a blessing in disguise to Sault Ste. Marie. They forced the business center over to Portage Avenue and to Ashmun Street, and brought much new and better construction in that district. The first fire was followed by a short-lived but whirlwind boom in 1887. Waterpower canal projects were underway, the D.S.S. & A. Railway reached the village that fall, the C.P.R. bridge was being built, and work on the Poe lock was commenced the same year. The village was situated on one of the world’s greatest waterways; there was a potentially splendid farming country behind it, with great supplies of timber. Its shipping facilities were excellent, and it appeared to be due for a boom. When Mr. H.M. Oren wired from St. Ignace that fourteen boomers were there, in mink-skin coats and plug hats, trying to get conveyances to the Soo, local property owners resolved to maintain stiff prices and require payments of at least one-half in cash.
Real Estate Boomed
Practically all the property in the village changed hands within ninety days after the arrival of the plug hats, and at prices never reached before or since. For instance, there was the old White House, which stood on Portage Avenue opposite the Park Hotel. The oldest inhabitant cannot remember when this building was erected. It must have been built prior to 1845. We know that the building and the lot on which it stood, sold in 1867 for $350.00. This did not include the piece of land behind it, extending through to Water Street. This was formerly owned by Mr. Jack Riley, who once offered to swell it for a pair of boots. The proposition was refused. But later, Mr. Henry La Londe paid Mr. Riley $26.00 for it. In 1887, Mr. La Londe sold the combined properties for $31,500.00.
In a few weeks, the boom was over, and the boomers disappeared, while the townspeople endeavored with more or less success to return to normalcy. The community, which had organized as a village in 1874, with Peter Barbeau as its first president, now felt strong enough to assume a city’s status, and a city charter was applied for and received from the State Legislature. The first city election was held in 1887, and Otto Fowle, Republican, contested the mayor’s office with Geo. W. Brown, Democrat. The latter won, but two years later, Mr. Fowle was the victor.
The First City Council
The following gentlemen composed the first city council of Sault Ste. Marie: W. B. Cady, H. L. Newton, A. E. Bacon, E. J. Pink, George Blank, S. F. Howie, Malcolm Blue, Jos. S. Burchill, H.M. Oren, J.E. La Montagne, A. F. Hursley, and E.J. Penny.
Mr. Fowle took a leading part in the public affairs of the city and county and was one of the best citizens, Sault Ste. Marie ever had. In 1890, he was active in promoting the issuance of city paving bonds for $25,000.00. In the advertisement for the sale of these bonds, the population of the city in that year was stated to be approximately 9,000. In the same year, the Board of County Supervisors voted to bond the county for $25,000.00 for the purpose of constructing a gravel road from Sault Ste. Marie to Pickford.
As far back as 1850, the harnessing of the enormous waterpower in St. Mary’s River had been mooted. In the fifties, Samuel Whitney of New York had taken title to the old Methodist Mission property and had acquired an interest as well in the Bendrie Claim above the falls. These, the proposed terminals of a water-power canal, were approximately three miles apart, and they constituted the ends of a depression where the water had passed around the falls in ages gone by.
In the seventies, Henry Seymour, a lumberman, interested Detroit parties in a water-power project. They took over the Whitney interest, but their titles were defective and could be perfected only by legal means. Pending these, they engaged Colonel Duffield, a Detroit engineer, to make surveys, plans, and estimates for a power canal. The State Legislature passed a bill clearing the way for the organization of a water-power company.
Company is Formed
Local agitation for water-power development continued until 1885, when the village voted $40,000.00 to construct a water-works system, the same to be operated by water power. A construction company was organized by Otto Fowle and William Chandler, and they were joined by Frank Perry, Louis Trempe, P.M. Church, George Kemp, Joshua Greene, Geo. W. Brown, Henry Seymour, and R.N. Alams.
Availing themselves of the legislative act mentioned, they took over the locations held by Mr. Seymour and the Detroiters and acquired some intermediate right-of-way property. They soon spent the $40,000 appropriation and $20,000 more with it. They had set out to establish a water-power canal, not to make money out of the project, and having used up their cash resources, they cast about for further help and succeeded in interesting a syndicate of western capitalists. Certain rights were transferred, granting to St. Mary’s Falls Water Power Company a franchise to construct and maintain a canal and penstocks for water-power purposes across and through the streets, highways, lanes, and alleys of the village of Sault Ste. Marie, and setting aside certain lands within the village for the purpose of establishing the canal.
The new owners agreed to spend $50,000 in construction work within twelve months from March 1887, and an additional $50,000 within eighteen months from that date. If they failed to do this, they bound themselves to return a majority of the stock to the three trustees of the selling company. It was proposed to increase the width of the canal to 150 feet, and more land was purchased for that purpose. The boom of 1887 was on, owners held their property at fabulous prices, and a perfected title to the mission farm alone, at the lower end of the proposed canal, cost the promoters $60,000.
The syndicate failed to fulfill the terms of its contract, and matters again came to a standstill. Then it proposed to find $100,000 more to be used in actual construction, provided the citizens of Sault Ste. Marie would do the same. This was done, and work was started once more. The $200,000 partially completed the canal, and operations ceased. A country-wide financial depression ensued, the company could not bond, and the outlook appeared black indeed.
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