Station: Stronach, MI

Stronach was settled about 1841 as Paggeotville. The name was changed to Stronach in 1841 with a saw mill being built there. It was a station on the Pere Marquette railroad about five miles southeast of Manistee at the south tip of Manistee Lake.

Photo Info: Top, a passenger train stops at the PM depot at Stronach. Note that the depot was built on posts high off the ground which was unusual. An old train order mast is in front of the building. [Mark Worrall collection]

Notes

There are several references in early newspapers to the schooner "J.A. Stronach", which transported lumber to Chicago and other Lake Michigan ports. [DFP-1879-0401]

Stronach was the temporary terminus of the branch from Walhala until three bridges were built across the Manistee River. A temporary ferry boat and carriages ran between here and Manistee in connection with the trains.

There were large quantities of  lumber and shingles, and a salt well. [DFP-1881-1214]

Time Line

1886. R.G. Peters gives $200,000 for W.B. Remington's interest in the Stronach lumber company of Manistee and his pine lands in Lake County. [WEX-1886-0121]

1886. The mill boarding house of McKillip & Co. burned Monday. Loss of $1,500 insured. [DFP-1886-0914]

1886. John Stronach, land broker, has been arrested at Manistee by a sheriff of Louisiana on a charge of embezzlement, by requisition from the governor of Louisiana. [AR-1886-0917]

1872. Moses Hayward, while working on the rollway of Mr. Butters, met with an accident resulting in his death. He was engaged in breaking the rollway and got entangled with the logs, was carried with them in their downward course to the river and held under water until he was drowned. [DFP-1872-0425]

1877. John Osker, fireman for the Stronach Lumber Co. was drowned on Friday night. He was crossing the Manistee Lake with a horse and cutter and drove into an opening made by the removal of ice in filling ice houses. Another man, with Osker, was rescued after being in the water an hour, nearly frozen to death. [DFP-1877-0213]

1885. The water powered saw-mill, boarding house, barn, store building and warehouse belonging to the estate of Paul Carmice, situated at Old Stronach, burned this afternoon. Loss was $20,000 insured for $4,000. The fire originated from forest fires which are raging in the northern part of Mason County. Fire is threatening the destruction of portions of Peters' logging railroad. [DFP-1885-0571]

Industry

• Butters rollway - (xxxx-1872-xxxx)
• McKillip & Co. saw-mill (xxxx-1886-xxxx)
• Paggeott & Thorson's Mill - (xxxx-1870-xxxx)
• Stronach Lumber Company - (xxxx-1874-xxxx)