Black history in Ontonagon

Ontonagon can rightfully lay claim to being the oldest European settlement on the south shore of Lake Superior,  however there have been significant contributions by Black residents to the village’s development.

Noel Johnson, a run-away slave, was brought to Ontonagon in 1849 by Cyrus Mendenhall, a Quaker abolitionist of Cleveland, Ohio. Mendenhall was involved in early mining ventures in the Ontonagon area, including the LaFayette Mine in the western part of the Porkies.

Noel Johnson, and his wife Mary Ann and young son, Theodore, who are listed in the 1850 census, lived in the village and Noel spent some time prospecting. He who found a rich vein of mass copper along the ridge east of Rockland. He reported his discovery to his benefactor, Mendenhall who then attempted to contact Johnson’s former owner in Missouri. William S. Pemberton, the slave’s owner, had died, but Mendenhall was able to purchase the run-away slave family for $250 from the estate and then arranged for a writ of emancipation. Noel Johnson was then free to file a claim for his discovery. Johnson died in 1853, shortly before a second child, a daughter, was born. Noel’s widow soon remarried and left the area. The two minor children were taken to Cleveland and educated there. Theodore died at the age of 18, but the surviving child, Louisa, inherited the residuals of her father’s estate. From the explorations of a Black run-away slave came the formation of Mass Consolidated, the largest producer of copper in Ontonagon County from 1899-1919.

A second Black personage of note was the late William Madison Hill. Hill arrived in Ontonagon in about 1850 but always claimed that he was born a  free man in Fredricksburg, Virginia, then a slave state. He operated shoe repair business in Ontonagon and, as time went by, he quietly acquired considerable property holdings in the business district of the village. He was known as being very generous, and extended credit to many who did not pay him what was owed.

At the time of the destruction of the village in August of 1896, he was burned out and lost most of his property holdings. He managed to rebuild his business and died at Ontonagon on Nov. 18, 1907 at the age of 80. He never married. His business was located at 227 River Street on the site of the former Wagar’s Restaurant.