The Hodge Foundry Lake Superior Iron Works
Collection # MS - 052
Ledgers, 1880-1902 (incomplete)
1.0 Cubic Feet
Accession Number:
03-043D
Scope and Content Note:
This collection consists of three business ledgers from the Hodge Iron Foundry,
also called the Lake Superior Iron Works. The ledgers cover three periods
ranging from 1880 to 1902. The ledgers do not run concurrently. Within the
ledgers are itemized accounts of work done for many of the copper mining
companies and other businesses throughout the Keweenaw Peninsula.
Orders for stamp shoes comprise a large portion of the records. Chilled iron
stamp shoes were a specialty of the foundry. Advertising for the company boasts
that Hodge stamp shoes were shown at the World?s Columbian Exposition of 1893,
the Chicago World?s Fair.
Samuel F Hodge came to the Keweenaw in 1869 or 1870, according to varying
accounts. He established the Lake Superior Iron Works in Ripley, Michigan, soon
after his arrival. It was the second foundry in the area and catered primarily
to the three stamp mills in the vicinity, the Quincy Mill, the Pewabic Mill,
and the Franklin Mill, all located in Ripley. The foundry works were located
between the Pewabic and Quincy mills along the industrial waterfront, near
Hancock, Michigan.
Charles J. Hodge carried on the business after his father?s death. The Portage
Lake Foundry & Machinery Company bought out the Hodge Iron Foundry in
approximately 1904 and began advertising chilled stamp shoes as one of its own
products thereafter.
The ledgers were part of the collection of James O?Meara, a noted local
historian from Nisula, Michigan. The collection was received from an anonymous
donor following O?Meara?s death in 2003.
Additional Resources:
Copper Country Vertical Files - Foundries
The Copper Handbook (advertisements)
Polk Directories for Houghton County (advertisements)
Reeder Photograph Collection: #C172B (Box 29)
Sanborn Insurance Maps
Index Entries:
Charles J. Hodge
Copper Mines
Foundries
Hodge Foundry
Iron
Lake Superior Iron Works
Mills and mill-work
Samuel F Hodge
CONTENTS:
3 Boxes
Box 1 ? Ledger
Indexed accounts 1880-1884
General ledger 1883
Payroll accounts
Box 2 ? Ledger
Indexed accounts 1886-1888
Box 3 ? Ledger
Indexed accounts 1890-1902
Return to Inventories for Specific
Collections
