Rogers City was named after William L. Rogers ol Xew York, owner of the'section of land on which
the village was laid out. Mr. Rogers, so far as we
know, may never have seen the place. Certainly he
Simon Herres. Dr. Pfanneschmidt is described as
a large dignified man who wore heavy flowing side burns. He was dentist as well as doctor and for his dentistry he used an instrument much like a small
contributed nothing to the village other than his name, and possibly his blessing. His partner in mill, timber and land, was Albert
canthook in place of a forceps. The instrument was
Molitor. Mr. Molitor lived here and operated the
tistry was confined mostly to extraction of aching
business of the linn which included a store. Prob
ably he should be credited with being the founder of the village. He was evidently a man of good education, for his time, and apparently was a man of dominant personality. He incurred the wrath of some of his neighbors in surrounding townships,
inserted under the ailing tooth and when the proper leverage was applied something had to give. Den
teeth and little thought was given to fillings and the finer art of today. There was no anesthetic
except possibly a drink of whiskey, which may have C] been shared equally between doctor ami patient. (
night as he worked in his store. His body was
Calcite was originally known as Crawford's T" Quarry, ,'t was founded by brands Crawford who came to the Quarry around 1860 to invest in tim ber and timber land. He was assisted by his sons Leonard, Thomas and Francis. The younger men
taken to Detroit where he had a wife and one sou
played an active part in business and political life
some years after the village was founded over real or fancied grievances, and was shot down one
living. He was buried there in Elmwood cemetery. The village of Rogers City was laid out by Ed
ward Molitor and he drew the first maps. He was
a brother of Albert Molitor and as a civil engineer was later with the lake survey.
When Rogers City first came into being it occu
in the early days of the Ouarry.
The Ouarry was a station for the- wood burning tugs which came north to low the big lumber laden schooners down to lower lake ports, and tremen dous quantities of cordwood were cut and loaded at
pied the first two blocks on First street, between
the Ouarry dock to feed the boilers of the tugs. Later it was an important shipping point for forest
Huron Ave. and Erie Street. At the e.ni\ of Huron Avenue the Molitor dock extended out into the
products of all kinds until the passing of the timber
lake. The Kitchen House, the first hotel, wdiich
to be revived at a later period as Calcite. In the early days the Ouarry was about the same size as Rogers City and there was a great deal of competition between the two (daces. Stores were run by tin- Crawfords and by William llagen. both
later burned and was rebuilt, stood on its present site.
A row of houses on both sides of the street occu
pied the two blocks. The only saloon was that of Mother Wendy (we can find no other name). This was the first building east of Michigan Avenue on the lake front side of the street.
The first courthouse was housed in the building next the Wendy saloon, no doubt not by design
when the town withered and passed away, only
of whom had their homes there. The first court
house was built there and a school building served for both school and church purposes. Among resi
but certainly handy. This was later known as the
dences were those n\ William Dueltgen, Ludwig (Ireka, Stephen Kelley (who also had a blacksmith shop). Tom Lamb and others. The quarry had its
Oscar Smith residence, in the same block and on
own dock over which passed thousands of cords of
the opposite side of the street was the finest resi
wood and huge quantities of cedar.
dence in town, that of Henry Clothier. The post office was located there.
The petition for incorporation of the village,
which we find in the first record book still a part of the city records, bore the names of twenty-one leading citizens: J. Paul Mayer, George P. Kitchen. James Meredith. Charles Haywood. Albert .Moli tor. Charles I'lannochmidt. William II. Buckner. Frank Sommers, William 11. Kitchen. Fred Horn.
William Mathies, August Wenzel. Ernest Papke, August I'omuierenka. Rudolph Streich. Henry Wen/el, (i. Davidson. Henry Clothier. Samuel Blake. John Rich and Joseph LaLonde. Some years later the village, grew back from the lake as far as Third Street. The store of Herman
Hoeft & Son was built (now the. McCutcheon store).
Ed and James Krskine had a store in wdiat is now the [OOF building and the Larke Drug store was erected at the corner of Third and Huron. The first
store of Priedrieh Bertram was in the tiny building
A short distance north
was the
Raul
Bittner
Brewery together with Mr. Bittner's residence and that of Morris I-'ischer. In the earliest days the product of the brewery was rowed up the lake, by boat to Rogers City but when a road connected the two towns at a later date the old style brewerv wagon with its big team of draft horses was u>a\ for transport. The Fischer residence years later was to become the first office of the Michigan Limestone ยงi Chemical Company.
Rogers City had its mills and both villages were born in the dense forests of white and Norway pine, white cedar, hemlock and heavy hardwoods. The forests brought the lumbermen and the rich soil of the hardwood bind the early settler. The lumber men and the sturdy pioneers came about the same time, the former to harvest the timber, the latter
to make permanent homes in a new wilderness. The greater part of the new settlers were Germans and
next tin- Brooks hotel in the block east, "the larger
Poles, immigrants from the old world seeking to homestead the land recently surveyed by the fed
Bertram brick store at the corner of Third and
eral government.
Erie not being erected until some years later. The
As the two towns grew the rivalry between the two blossomed. Records show that the early poli
first courthouse, which burned later, was built in
the present courthouse square. The first doctors were Charles Pfanneschmidt and
ticians brought about the building of a courthouse
at the Ouarry. Then the county organization was 7