EARLY BUSINESS PLACES |
William Hannah built the first boarding house in Pickford where Lipsett's Garage is now. About 1903 he sold it to Jack Stanley. Jack Stanley was in the boarding house until about 1911. He sold it in 1913 and moved to Hannah, Alberta, with his wife and three daughters, Lottie, Edna, and Hazel.
Frank Taylor built a hotel that was called the Central Hotel on the corner where the telephone office now stands. It was built right out to the corner as there were no cars then.
In the spring when the camps broke up and all the men were coming back home, they would come to Pickford and take the stage to the Sault, Rudyard, or wherever their homes were. Many nights they would not be able to make room for them. Frank Taylor built the hotel and Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Blair took care of it for quite a few years. Then Mr. and Mrs. Robert Crawford and family moved in. The children were Frank, Edith, Myrtle, and Margaret. The Dan Smiths operated the hotel for a time. Mr. and Mrs. Albert Bumstead were the last to operate it, (Just across from the hotel was the grocery and dry goods store owned by Frank Taylor and Dave Beacom. Alf Roe had a barber shop right where the old restaurant burned and Andrew Taylor lived just to the west of that. Doctor Webster had a very nice home and office just about where the Harrison Drug Store stood.) Harry Best operated a grocery store for a number of years and after his death, Mrs. Best sold to Bud Watson who operated it until ill health forced him to sell.
The C. W. Pickford store was started by C. W. Pickford. It was one of the first businesses in Pickford and in Chippewa County. After about seven years of operation, Pickford sold out to David Beacom and F. H. Taylor. In 1891 Taylor bought out Beacom. Taylor later sold to E. S. Taylor, who in turn sold to the Hossack Brothers and F. J. Smith. Two years later E. S. Taylor bought from Hossack and Smith. He remained owner until 1920 when H. M. Hamilton and J. R. Watson purchased the store from him. In 1928 fire destroyed the building which also contained Dr. Fox's office, a dry goods store, and apartments. When the building was rebuilt in 1929, a shoe department was added with Otto Watson as manager.
In 1945 Max Hamilton took over the grocery store from his father. In 1954 Willis Galer purchased the grocery store from Max Hamilton. In March, 1966 Bob McDonald purchased it from Willis Galer.
In 1958 Douglas and Jean Batho purchased the dry goods store from H. M. Hamilton.
When Otto Watson died, his son, Bill, took over the footwear department and in 1936 Bill bought the building. He added an addition to the south of the building in 1964 giving all the businesses storage room. Bill then expanded his business with a branch store in the Sault when he purchased Sam Roe's shoe business. In 1969 Bill Watson took over the grocery store from Bob McDonald and with the help of Bill McDowell in charge of the meat department, Irene Nettleton, groceries, and Caroline Ordiway, drugs and bookkeeping, Watson operated it until 1970 when it closed.
He then remodeled the downstairs. The Bathos moved the dry goods store into what had been the shoe and grocery stores. The shoe store then moved into what had been the dry goods store. The remodeled stores reopened early in 1971.
The PICKFORD CLARION began publication in 1905. Mr. E. E. Baldwin was editor and publisher. He came here from Munising where he worked on the MUNISING REPUBLICAN from 1895 until 1901. Mr. Baldwin used the printing industry to work his way through high school. He later attended Michigan State College. The CLARION was a six column, eight page paper and published on each Thursday afternoon. It had a good circulation and the business places of the community were loyal to its support with weekly advertising. Mr. Baldwin was, assisted in the publication of the paper by his wife during the thirteen years of its existence. On one occasion when the editor and his family were on a vacation, the CLARION was issued for two weeks by the Hon. Charles H. Chapman, Judge of Probate for Chippewa County, who was a veteran in the newspaper business in the Soo.
At the time the CLARION was established, the only means of transportation was horse-drawn vehicles. It was several years before the first motor-drawn vehicle was used on the Pickford Stage route by the late S. G. Wilson. In those days it was a four or five hour drive between the Soo and Pickford and in the winter months the trip often took six to eight hours. The operation of the PlCKFORD CLARlON was suspended in 1918. For two years Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin turned their attention to job printing in Pickford. After that time their printing business was moved to the Soo.
The first barber shop in Pickford was owned and operated by Harold Fash in 1897. His shop was located near the Harrison Drug Store. His trade was mostly farmers and town folks of Pickford vicinity.
Later came Bert Smith who became the town's barber in 1918. He moved his shop from place to place until he moved it next to the Pickford Grocery. Later he had a small barber shop built close to his home.
His old shop next door to the Pickford Grocery was operated by Simon Schwartz who moved here and set up his business in 1956. In 1971 Mr. Schwartz moved his shop to its present location in his home at the southern edge of Pickford.
The first blacksmith shop in Pickford was operated by Belchers in the year 1887. It stood on the west side of M-129 on the corner near the light. The second shop was owned by Dave Stevens about 1897. It stood between the Dry Goods store and the river.
O. S. Roe opened his shop in 1910 across from the Lipsett Garage. Adam Roe worked with O. S. Roe and opened his shop in 1920 where the Co-op store is now.
Hugh Carr and John Carr operated the last shop in Belcher's old one. Some of the work they did was shoe horses, fix wagons, and general farm machinery.
Lipsett Garage was started in Pickford in 1912 by the late Verne L. Lipsett. For several years he sold Ford products and in 1917 began selling Chevrolets which have been sold by Lipsett Chevrolet since that time.
The dealership building was constructed in 1918 on Main Street and it was here that Lipsett Chevrolet has conducted business ever since. A partnership between Tigner Shoberg and V. L. Lipsett was formed many years ago and continued until 1960 when a new partnership was formed by Tigner J. Shoberg and Wayne Shoberg. This continued in operation until 1970 when the business was incorporated and is currently operating under the name of Lipsett Chevrolet, Inc. under the management of Norman Garvey.
In November, 1970, the main dealership building was completely destroyed by fire end a new modern facility was constructed on the same site early in 1971. Throughout the years Lipsett Chevrolet has provided employment for up to 20 employees in the Pickford area.
The Barish store in Pickford was started in 1911 by Joe Barish. The building was located next to Cameron's Drug Store. In the spring of 1913 Ben Oberman and Max Barish, Joe's brother, went into partnership with him. In those days money was scarce, so customers paid for goods with butter and eggs. Butter was $0.25 a pound and eggs $0.15 a dozen. Either Ben Oberman or Max Barish took these products to the Sault to sell. Their transportation was limited to stage or horse and wagon. The trip usually took a day.
A few months after going into partnership together the three decided to open a branch store in Sault Ste. Marie. It was located at 321 Ashmun. They later formed another partnership under the name, Barish Brothers Company. The Soo store did so well they closed the Pickford store. Shortly after Ben Oberman and Max Barish bought out Joe Barish's shares, thus leaving only two partners.
The Pickford Creamery began in 1929 as a cream station located near the present site of the feed mill. George and Jack Gough were the owners of the creamery, which produced butter and ice cream. In 1936 it became the Pickford Creamery, Inc. Some of the officers were Jack Gough, president; Ford Beacom, treasurer; and George Quinnell, secretary.
In 1950 the Pickford Creamery was moved to a new building on M-129 three blocks south of Main Street. It added cheese to its products at this time. The building had been built for the Stella Cheese Company in 1941, but didn't start production till 1950. Mr. Bert Jeske became the new manager and in 1957 he bought the Pickford Dairy and moved it into the creamery building. The management changed again in 1959 when Mr. Reginald Wilson became manager.
Then the creamery and building was sold to Lovegrove and Talsma of Golden Producers. When it closed, the property was leased in 1968 to William Murphy and son who operate the Economy Store, a new and used furniture and appliance store. In 1970 they added a Laundromat facility to the store.
The Pickford District is located in the eastern portion of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and falls entirely in Chippewa and eastern Mackinac counties. Sugar Island, Neebish Island are included in this district. The western boundary of the district follows north from Lake Michigan on the line between ranges five and six west, then north to Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior. The original office in this district was set up in the summer of 1941, located in the Gogomain Swamp eight miles east of Pickford. In 1947 the district office was moved to the Pickford Post Office building. The district supplied spruce, balsam, and peeled poplar pulpwood for the Neegara, Wisconsin, and Kimberly, Wisconsin Mills, and also the Munising, Michigan Mill of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Yearly a considerable number of peeled cedar posts and rough cedar bolts were developed on the district operations. The posts were sold to various buyers who trucked them to lower Michigan and Ohio markets. The rough cedar bolts were generally purchased by local sawmills and shingle mills. A company-operated portable sawmill was in operation in the district from January 1948 to January 1951.
A few years later the Kimberly-Clark office in Pickford was closed and all business was transacted through the office on Charles Road in Newberry, Michigan. After the closing of the Pickford office, two men carried on the business for the company, which consisted of buying and cutting pulpwood on Kimberly-Clark's land and on private land. Dale Reich marked out timberlines and set up cutting operations on company land and Kinnee Ames purchased roadside pulpwood from private timber owners for Kimberly-Clark. During this time, Kimberly-Clark planted white and black spruce, red and Norway pine seedling trees on some of their land. The company had a quota of 250,000 trees to plant each year. Extra help was hired for this project. About 1965 they started harvesting these trees for Christmas trees and about this same time the company ended its planting program. These trees had to be sheared each year as they grew, so they would be nicely shaped when ready for harvesting for Christmas trees. The trees were cut, graded as to size, and tied and then shipped by truck to lower Michigan buyers.
Operations on Kimberly-Clark land at Pickford ceased in 1967. The company still owns about 17,000 acres in the Gogomain Swamp. Hardly any timber cutting took place on this land until the winter of 1970-71, when a timber jobber from Newberry started cutting hardwood logs on Kimberly-Clark land in the Gogomain Swamp. These logs are being hauled by truck to the sawmill and chip mill, which Kimberly-Clark purchased from Barrett Company in 1968 and which is located at Newberry. Lumber is sawed from these logs and the remainder of the log which isn't suitable for lumber is made into chips which are shipped by rail to plants located elsewhere and these chips were used for making paper and other products.