William George Cowell Letters

Collection — sc_box: MS 1, Folder: 31

Identifier: MS-365

Staff Only

Collection Scope and Content Summary

Letters, 1854-1856, sent to William George Cowell, one of a group of men to lay out a town site at Superior, Wisconsin. Includes typed transcriptions of correspondence from apparent investors, acquaintances and friends discussing land sales, debts due and news of shared friends.

Dates

1854-1856

Access

Available for use in the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections.

Biography

William George Cowell was born in England, circa 1828. Emigrating to Canada, he found work in the Mica Bay mines until 1853 when he was hired in Sault Ste. Marie to accompany a group of city planners to lay out a town site at Superior. Cowell's job was to explore the copper range south of Superior which had previously been explored for minerals in the 1840s by the Union Company and the American Mining Company. Cowell's various jobs included Superior's town supervisor, mine captain at the Fond du Lac Copper Mine, platting an addition to Duluth and proprietor of the town Buchanan on the North Shore. In 1858 he mysteriously disappeared with foul play suspected until he appeared working at the silver mines at Zacatecas, Mexico.