A history of Pickford Area Pioneer Families Daniel Morrison

First Barber Shop

The first barber shop in Pickford was owned and operated by Harold Fash in 1897. His shop was located near the Harrison Drug Store. His trade was mostly farmers and town folks of Pickford vicinity.

Later came Bert Smith who became the town's barber in 1918. He moved his shop from place to place until he moved it next to the Pickford Grocery. Later he had a small barber shop built close to his home.

His old shop next door to the Pickford Grocery was operated by Simon Schwartz who moved here and set up his business in 1956. In 1971 Mr. Schwartz moved his shop to its present location in his home at the southern edge of Pickford.

Blacksmiths

The first blacksmith shop in Pickford was operated by Belchers in the year 1887. It stood on the west side of M-129 on the corner near the light. The second shop was owned by Dave Stevens about 1897. It stood between the Dry Goods store and the river.

O. S. Roe opened his shop in 1910 across from the Lipsett Garage. Adam Roe worked with O. S. Roe and opened his shop in 1920 where the Co-op store is now.

Hugh Carr and John Carr operated the last shop in Belcher's old one. Some of the work they did was shoe horses, fix wagons, and general farm machinery.

Lipsett Garage

Lipsett Garage was started in Pickford in 1912 by the late Verne L. Lipsett. For several years he sold Ford products and in 1917 began selling Chevrolets which have been sold by Lipsett Chevrolet since that time.

The dealership building was constructed in 1918 on Main Street and it was here that Lipsett Chevrolet has conducted business ever since. A partnership between Tigner Shoberg and V. L. Lipsett was formed many years ago and continued until 1960 when a new partnership was formed by Tigner J. Shoberg and Wayne Shoberg. This continued in operation until 1970 when the business was incorporated and is currently operating under the name of Lipsett Chevrolet, Inc. under the management of Norman Garvey.

In November, 1970, the main dealership building was completely destroyed by fire end a new modern facility was constructed on the same site early in 1971. Throughout the years Lipsett Chevrolet has provided employment for up to 20 employees in the Pickford area.

Barish Brothers

The Barish store in Pickford was started in 1911 by Joe Barish. The building was located next to Cameron's Drug Store. In the spring of 1913 Ben Oberman and Max Barish, Joe's brother, went into partnership with him. In those days money was scarce, so customers paid for goods with butter and eggs. Butter was $0.25 a pound and eggs $0.15 a dozen. Either Ben Oberman or Max Barish took these products to the Sault to sell. Their transportation was limited to stage or horse and wagon. The trip usually took a day.

A few months after going into partnership together the three decided to open a branch store in Sault Ste. Marie. It was located at 321 Ashmun. They later formed another partnership under the name, Barish Brothers Company. The Soo store did so well they closed the Pickford store. Shortly after Ben Oberman and Max Barish bought out Joe Barish's shares, thus leaving only two partners.

Pickford Creamery

The Pickford Creamery began in 1929 as a cream station located near the present site of the feed mill. George and Jack Gough were the owners of the creamery, which produced butter and ice cream. In 1936 it became the Pickford Creamery, Inc. Some of the officers were Jack Gough, president; Ford Beacom, treasurer; and George Quinnell, secretary.

In 1950 the Pickford Creamery was moved to a new building on M-129 three blocks south of Main Street. It added cheese to its products at this time. The building had been built for the Stella Cheese Company in 1941, but didn't start production till 1950. Mr. Bert Jeske became the new manager and in 1957 he bought the Pickford Dairy and moved it into the creamery building. The management changed again in 1959 when Mr. Reginald Wilson became manager.

Then the creamery and building was sold to Lovegrove and Talsma of Golden Producers. When it closed, the property was leased in 1968 to William Murphy and son who operate the Economy Store, a new and used furniture and appliance store. In 1970 they added a laundromat facility to the store.

Kimberly-Clark of Michigan, Inc.

The Pickford District is located in the eastern portion of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and falls entirely in Chippewa and eastern Mackinac counties. Sugar Island, Neebish Island are included in this district. The western boundary of the district follows north from Lake Michigan on the line between ranges five and six west, then north to Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior. The original office in this district was set up in the summer of 1941, located in the Gogomain Swamp eight miles east of Pickford. In 1947 the district office was moved to the Pickford Post Office building. The district supplied spruce, balsam, and peeled poplar pulpwood for the Neegara, Wisconsin, and Kimberly, Wisconsin Mills, and also the Munising, Michigan Mill of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Yearly a considerable number of peeled cedar posts and rough cedar bolts were developed on the district operations. The posts were sold to various buyers who trucked them to lower Michigan and Ohio markets. The rough cedar bolts were generally purchased by local sawmills and shingle mills. A company-operated portable sawmill was in operation in the district from January 1948 to January 1951.

A few years later the Kimberly-Clark office in Pickford was closed and all business was transacted through the office on Charles Road in Newberry, Michigan. After the closing of the Pickford office, two men carried on the business for the company, which consisted of buying and cutting pulpwood on Kimberly-Clark's land and on private land. Dale Reich marked out timberlines and set up cutting operations on company land and Kinnee Ames purchased roadside pulpwood from private timber owners for Kimberly-Clark. During this time, Kimberly-Clark planted white and black spruce, red and Norway pine seedling trees on some of their land. The company had a quota of 250,000 trees to plant each year. Extra help was hired for this project. About 1965 they started harvesting these trees for Christmas trees and about this same time the company ended its planting program. These trees had to be sheared each year as they grew, so they would be nicely shaped when ready for harvesting for Christmas trees. The trees were cut, graded as to size, and tied and then shipped by truck to lower Michigan buyers.

Operations on Kimberly-Clark land at Pickford ceased in 1967. The company still owns about 17,000 acres in the Gogomain Swamp. Hardly any timber cutting took place on this land until the winter of 1970-71, when a timber jobber from Newberry started cutting hardwood logs on Kimberly-Clark land in the Gogomain Swamp. These logs are being hauled by truck to the sawmill and chip mill, which Kimberly-Clark purchased from Barrett Company in 1968 and which is located at Newberry. Lumber is sawed from these logs and the remainder of the log which isn't suitable for lumber is made into chips which are shipped by rail to plants located elsewhere and these chips were used for making paper and other products.