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Finding Aid

Collection Name: Portage Entry Quarries Company Collection
Collection #: MS - 053

Type of Material: Correspondence, Ledgers, Drawings
Size of Collection: 2.2 Cubic Feet
Accession Number(s): 108; 04-003A

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Scope and Content Note:
This collection contains business correspondence, ledger books, and photographs.

An extensive deposit of reddish brown and white stone, called Potsdam or Lake Superior sandstone, outcrops along the eastern shore of the Keweenaw Peninsula. George Craig, Senior, first identified the rock?s potential commercial value in the late 1860s or early 1870s, according to different reports. Despite the quality of the sandstone, Craig was unable to develop the necessary capital to open and operate a successful quarry.

In 1883, John Henry Jacobs, for whom the village of Jacobsville is named, obtained a lease on the Craig property and began quarrying operations as Furst, Jacobs and Company. Jacobs? other regional business interests included Wolf & Company Quarry in Marquette, later called the Marquette Brownstone Company. Jacobs? father-in-law, Peter Wolf, marketed the attractive Keweenaw stone, which came to be known as Jacobsville sandstone, in Chicago. The stone was a desirable building material and was used extensively in residential and commercial buildings throughout the United States. Jacobs maintained a financial interest in the Keweenaw quarrying industry until 1902.

At one time there were four quarries operating at Portage Entry. By 1899, Furst, Jacobs & Co., which bought out a number of small operations through the years, and Portage Red Stone Company merged and reorganized as the Portage Entry Quarries Company. By 1919, the best beds of stone that could be economically removed were depleted, and large scale quarrying operations ceased at Jacobsville. During the days of peak production, the sandstone quarries at Portage Entry were the third largest industry in the Copper Country.

This manuscript collection is comprised of two separate accessions. The bulk of this collection (Acc. #108) relates to James W. Wyckoff?s tenure as superintendent of the Portage Entry Quarries. It was donated by the Houghton County Historical Society. Jim Lusk donated a single letterbook dating from 1893 (Acc. #04-003A).

The Wyckoff collection was processed by Ryan Cooper in 2006. Julie Blair created the finding aid for the Portage Entry Quarries Company Manuscript Collection, MS-053.

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Material Removed:
Architectural drawings were removed from the collection and placed into the Oversize & Map Collection. They are indexed as ?Portage Entry Quarries Company drawings.?

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Additional Resources:
Copper Country Vertical & Photo Files ? Quarries & Quarrying
Monette, Clarence J. The History of Jacobsville and its Sandstone Quarries. Lake Linden, Michigan: Welden H. Curtin (1976).
Biographical Record. Chicago: Biographical Publishing Co., 1903, p. 403, entry on John Henry Jacobs.

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Index Entries:
Jacobs, John Henry
Jacobsville Sandstone
Portage Entry Quarries Company
Quarries
Sandstone
Wyckoff , J.W.

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CONTENTS:

3 Boxes

Acc. #	Box #:	Fldr #:	Description:
108	1	1	Correspondence 1905-1906
108	1	2	Correspondence 1905-1906 (cont.)
108	1	3	Correspondence 1905-1906 (cont.)
108	1	4	Agreements 1903-1904
108	1	5	Correspondence 1905-1906 (cont.)
108	1	6	Correspondence 1905-1906 (cont.)
108	1	7	Correspondence 1907
108	1	8	Correspondence 1907 (cont.)
108	1	9	Correspondence 1907 (cont.)
108	1	10	Correspondence 1907 (cont.)
108	1	11	Correspondence 1906 A-Z
108	1	12	Correspondence 1906 A-Z (cont.)
108	1	13	Correspondence 1907 & Etc.
108	1	14	Correspondence 1907 & Etc. (cont.)
108	1	15	Correspondence 1907 & Etc. (cont.)
108	1	16	Correspondence 1907 & Etc. (cont.)
108	1	17	Bills 1907-1908
108	1	18	Correspondence With Chicago Office 1908-1909
108	1	19	Correspondence 1907-1908 & Etc.
108	1	20	Correspondence With Chicago Office 1908-1909 (cont.)
108	1	21	Correspondence With Chicago Office 1908-1909 (cont.)
108	1	22	Correspondence 1918 & Various Other Data
108	1	23	Various Books (Time Books, Grocery Charge Books, Etc.)
108	1	24	Various Books (Time Books, Grocery Charge Books, Etc.)
108	1	25	Various Books (Time Books, Grocery Charge Books, Etc.)
108	1	26	Various Books (Time Books, Grocery Charge Books, Etc.)
108	2	Book 1	Personal & Business Expenditures Ledger
108	2	Book 2	Journal of Payments (January 1904 ? January 1908)
108	2	Book 3	Small Journal of Payments (Various Dates)
108	2	Book 4	Day Book for Traverse Bay Redstone Co. & Portage Entry Quarries Co.
108	2	Book 5	Day Book for Personal and Business Expenditures and Bank Deposits
108	2	Book 6	Day Book for J.W. Wyckoff Expenditures 1906
108	2	7	Xerox copies of Photos that remained with Houghton County Historical Society
108	2	8	Miscellaneous Correspondence, Bank Statements, Inventory, Etc.
108	2	9	Correspondence of Mostly 1899-1900
108	2	10	Miscellaneous Correspondence, Inventory, Statements, Bills of Lading, Etc.
108	2	11	Miscellaneous Correspondence, Inventory, Statements, Bills of Lading, Etc.
108	2	12	Miscellaneous ? Inventory, Etc. (Various Years)
108	2	13	Miscellaneous ? Inventory, Etc. (Various Years)
04-003A	1	1	Letterpress book, 1893

 

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