Background
John Munro Longyear was born on April 15, 1850 in Lansing, Michigan, United States. He was the son of Harriet (Munroe) and John Wesley Longyear, a congressman and jurist of some distinction.
(First hand account of the wilderness of the upper peninsu...)
First hand account of the wilderness of the upper peninsula of Michigan in the 19th century. Illustrated with photos & maps.
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Businessman explorer philanthropist
John Munro Longyear was born on April 15, 1850 in Lansing, Michigan, United States. He was the son of Harriet (Munroe) and John Wesley Longyear, a congressman and jurist of some distinction.
Longyear was educated in the Lansing public schools, in the preparatory departments of Olivet College at Olivet, Michigan, and of Georgetown College at Washington, D. C. , and in Cazenovia Seminary at Cazenovia, New York.
Forced by ill health, Longyear sought outdoor employment and scaled and shipped lumber in the Saginaw Valley. In the spring of 1873 he joined an expedition into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to examine and report on the widely scattered state mineral reserve lands. The steamer Rocket landed the party at Marquette, then with a population of about three thousand in an almost unbroken wilderness. The explorations proved so interesting to him that he decided to spend the next five years in an extensive study of the timber, water power, and mineral resources of the Upper Peninsula. He acquired an extraordinary knowledge of the country's resources, which helped him to become, in later years, the trusted agent and associate of capitalists.
The first large concern to appoint him its agent, in 1878, was the Lake Superior Ship Canal, Railway & Iron Company, now the Keweenaw Land Association, whose extensive holdings he continued to direct until his death. His magnetic survey of Menominee and Gogebic iron ranges in 1880 and 1881 led to unusual success in the development of iron and iron ore. By 1912 the Gogebic range was producing three million tons annually. In 1885 he investigated the possibility of valuable deposits in the Mesaba district of Minnesota and brought back findings that resulted in contracts made with the Wright & Davis Lumber Company, Ex-Governor Pillsbury, James J. Hill, and the United States Steel Corporation.
In addition to all this he had a share in exploring and developing a high-grade bituminous coal deposit at Longyear City, on the Arctic island of Spitzbergen, which he continued to hold even after Norwegian bankers bought out all other interests during the World War. He also maintained an unflagging interest in the "Longyear Process" for utilizing lowgrade ores, which is still in the course of development. Among his many connections, he was president of a bank, president of a button company in Detroit, and joint owner of a score of large property holdings controlling some three million acres.
He was also active in public affairs, a leader in the Michigan taxpayers' association, mayor of Marquette in 1890-1891, and patron of education. He was a member of the board of control of the Michigan College of Mines for twenty-four years and was also a member of the corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Longyear was best known for the opening and development of the Menominee and Gogebic iron ranges. Among his numerous contributions were gifts to hospitals, colleges, libraries, and high schools. In 1919 he helped establish a printing plant for the blind in Los Angeles, which became the printing department of the Braille Institute of America. He also founded the Zion Research Foundation of Brookline, Massachusetts, and presented to the Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, the park which separates it from Huntington Avenue.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
(First hand account of the wilderness of the upper peninsu...)
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
Longyear was president of the Marquette County Historical Society and a member of many other organizations.
On January 4, 1879 Longyear married Mary Hawley (Beecher).