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| Who would even think that two tiny little spots in the road could be named after such a famous author? Yet we find in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan a community called Rudyard just north of the Mackinac Bridge and 130 miles to the west, another community called Kipling. |
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| Maybe we should start at the beginning. In the late 1800’s the flour millers in Minneapolis were the Pillsbury’s and the Crosby’s and Washburn’s that were later purchased by General Mills.
They were having a difficult time getting their grain to the mill and their flour to market because they were so dependent upon the railroad. The railroads at the time were completely dominated by Chicago. So much so that Chicago would even negotiate the price of grain with the farmer and leave the flour miller at the mercy of the railroad. The flour millers were very frustrated and decided to build their own rail line to a safe harbor in Lake Michigan. Their choice of Lake Michigan was because their market for flour was Buffalo New York and the shipping season was longer than Superior. |
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| They put together entrepreneurs and stock holders and bought all of the right always and started laying track toward Lake Michigan. The U.S. Senator from Minnesota was Wm. Washburn and he toured Lake Michigan to find a safe harbor that was not being used by Chicago for shipment. At the time Green Bay and Escanaba had been shipping goods for several years with the Chicago Rail Roads. Senator Washburn came upon a safe Harbor called Saunders Point. He negotiated the transfer of 120 acres of land from Richard Mason and Frank Van Cleve to establish a rail yard and flour and coal dock. He went back to Minnesota and they continued to lay track. |
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| Unfortunately they didn’t quiet make it to Saunders Point and they ran short of money. The Vande Builts had promised monies but they were tied too close to the Government contracts in Chicago. So a team of financers went to Montreal Canada. In the 1800’s Canada was under British rule, so British currency was negotiated to finish building that rail road to Saunders Point. But the Montreal discussion said “you will bring that rail road to Sault St. Marie Canada,” that gave the Canadian Pacific Rail Road access all across North America.
The rail road arrived at Saunders Point in 1887 and within five months, there were 1200 people. Senator Washburn came back to the community and encouraged them to name their new city after the current Prime Minister of Great Britain, William Ewert Gladstone. |
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| The City of Gladstone at one time was the largest producer of milled flour in the Midwest.
The rail road was named The Minneapolis St. Paul Sault St. Marie Rail Road (The Soo Line)
Frederick D. Underwood was the superintendent of the new Rail Road and he named Gladstone’s adjacent rail siding after Rudyard Kipling. |
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| The Cleveland Cliffs mining company had a smelter that they had closed in Fayette in 1891. They then opened a new smelter and blast furnace in Kipling in 1892. The Furnace not only smelted iron ore but charcoal and chemicals were made on site. 350 men worked three shifts. The plant operated until 1924. There were six large Boarding Houses in Kipling and company houses that lined the roadway for a mile. Two bars, one being J.P. Carlsen, Curio Shop and Tavern, a post office, the Haga and Green store, a club house and a school were a part of the town site. |
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| Rudyard is a farming community 130 miles away. Yet it is on the same rail line. It is in Rudyard that the horses are housed from Mackinaw Island for the winter. It is also the location of hay production for the horse’s summer and winter. |
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| Kay Robinson, a friend of Rudyard Kipling, traveled to Vermont to visit and told Kipling about the rail sidings that Underwood had named. Kipling immediately sent a letter to Mr. Underwood and it read “My friend Kay Robinson showed me a folder of your RR in which appear the stations “Rudyard and Kipling.” Robinson tells me to that Kipling may someday have a great future before it in the iron ore way. This immensely flatters my vanity: and I write to beg you to send me a photograph if possible, of either Rudyard or Kipling or preferentially both. I shall take a deep interest in their little welfares. Rudyard I gather is already a post office but I have not heard of Kipling. Please encourage the development of Kipling. Give him an express and telegraph office and a new water-tank and if ever he has a restaurant let it be know for the best coffee on the line. Tell him if he is big enough – to avoid strikes and bloodshed, never to open the wrong switch and to be careful about his grade crossings. Some day I hope to be able to come out and see him and his brother. In the meantime and with many thinks for the splendid way in which you have given me a circulation, believe me.”
Very sincerely yours, Rudyard Kipling. |
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| Kipling also hand wrote a poem about both locations, on the back of one of his pictures and sent it to Mr. Underwood. I have always called the poem “My Sons in Michigan.” Some have said “My Twins in Michigan”
But having the history of the area, the poem takes on a real significance: |
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“Wise is the child who knows his sire,
The ancient proverb ran,
But wiser far the man who knows,
Where and when his offspring grows,
For who the mischief, would suppose
I’ve sons in Michigan??? |
Yet I am saved from midnight ills,
That warp the soul of man,
They do not make me walk the floor,
Nor hammer at the Doctors door;
They dear in wheat and iron ore.
My Sons in Michigan. |
O, Tourist in the Pullman Car
(By Cooks or Raymond’s Plan)
Forgive a parent’s partial view;
But maybe you have children too-
So let me introduce to you
My Sons in Michigan.” |
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| Rudyard Kipling |
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| Today almost all of the Company Houses are gone and the Post Office burned in 1935. The school was torn down in 1972 and there is only one original boarding house still standing. It has been lovingly restored and opened as a Bed and Breakfast. The Kipling House.
The Kipling Bar (J.P. Carlson’s) and the Quick Stop (Haga and Greens Store) are still operating.
The Furnace Site still has a natural deep harbor and only one building left from CCI on approximately 30 acres.
The people who live in Kipling number about 150 and they are very proud of their community and its history. |
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| Ann Jousma Miller |
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