CAPT. DANIEL BEASER, one of Ontonagon's oldest pioneers, and one of her most active and enterprising citizens of today, was born near Buffalo, N. Y., July 24, 1825. He was brought up in the city of Buffalo until fifteen years of age, when having cultivated a taste for travel and adventure by reading of the voyage and discoveries of such men as Capt. Cook, he determined to go to sea; not being able to secure his father's consent, he took "French leave," and shipped on a whaler for New Bedford. He made a four years' cruise, during which time he visited many places of which he had read, and participated in some curious adventures in the Arctic regions. He returned to Buffalo in 1845, and engaged in sailing. On April 6. 1848, he came to Ontonagon, and ran a small schooner between Ontonagon and Eagle River, carrying the mail. He was first mate on the schooner Fur Trader two seasons; was then given the command of the schooner Seaman, which he sailed four seasons, running between Lake Superior and Detroit, carrying copper and coal. In 1855, he brought up the side wheel steamer James Carson, built in Cleveland, Ohio. This craft was ninety feet long, eighteen feet wide, and drew twenty inches of water. After getting here, the river was found to be filled with driftwood at several points, so much so as to stop navigation, and a hole was knocked in the bottom of the Carson the first trip. Mr. Beaser then went to work and cleaned out the river, so that the Carson made regular trips to the American landing, ten miles up, towing up the river barges with supplies for the mines, and meeting barges there loaded with copper on their way to Ontonagon. The summer of 1855 was a very cold one, and winter came in early, snow falling to the depth of eight inches the 15th of October. Mr. Beaser relates a curious incident of this season. The day after this snow storm, eight miles up the river, he saw a farmer cutting his oats with overcoat, mittens and fur cap on, eight inches of snow on the ground. After this snow storm, however, several weeks of fine weather followed. Mr. Beaser sailed the Carson on the Ontonagon two seasons, and subsequently followed the business of sailing some years. In the fall of 1864, he gave up sailing, and engaged with the Lafayette Mining Company in charge of explorations in the Porcupine Mountains; was with this company two years. He also spent two years as agent of the Carp Lake Mine; he was also instrumental in opening several other copper mines, besides two silver mines in the Iron River district. In 1867, he was appointed State Commissioner to lay out the military road from Ontonagon west to the Montreal River. He laid out the State road south from Ontonagon to the State line of Lake Vieux Desert. At the time he first began mining, he owned about 11,000 acres of mineral lands; he has owned an interest in every one of the mines that he has opened. He has now consolidated four silver mines containing 423 acres, lying in the center of the Iron River Silver District, into one corporation, and has associated with himself some Eastern capitalists in the work of developing the silver district. In July, 1881, he sent two tons of silver to New York, where it was carefully tested, and yielded something over $200 per ton. Mr. Beaser participated in the organic election of Ontonagon, April 2, 1849, and it was through his personal effort and enterprise that the machinery of civil government was put in motion in Ontonagon at that early day. There was no one nearer than Eagle River qualified to administer an oath or to qualify the officers elect for the discharge of their duties. Mr. Beaser was one of the Justices elected, and determined to proceed to Eagle River and qualify. There was no road at that time between the two places, which are seventy-five miles apart; started on his return; when near the portage or what is now the canal, he was overtaken by night and retired to the shore to camp; after starting a fire a little distance from the shore, he returned to the lake for some water for his tea, and was much surprised to find his late path and the large body of ice on which he had lately traveled drifting far away, and a wide stretch of water intervening. Congratulating himself on so lucky an escape from certain death, he ate his frugal supper and retired to his couch of boughs. He arrived safely in Ontonagon in due time. Having arrived in Ontonagon, Mr. Beaser was enabled to administer the oath of office to the various town officers. This is a true history of the manner in which civil government was established at Ontonagon and of some of the hardships and trials that befell the man who had the enterprise and nerve to make a trip of 150 miles alone, along a desolate shore where there was not a cabin on the whole route to afford a shelter. The early settlers of Lake Superior had to be of pretty stern material and many of the older ones have passed through scenes and adventures that were they recounted, would read like a romance.

JAMES T. BOND, general merchant, P. 0. Greenland, was born in Cornwall, Eng., and emigrated to America in 1850. He spent five' years at Vienna, Canada, and, in 1855, came to Ontonagon County, Mich. He worked at the Toltec Mine a few months, and then at the Flintsteel awhile. He then "went below," and was absent till the fall of 1856; on his return, he engaged at the Minesota Mine, and remained in the employ of that company a year and a half. He then moved to Maple Grove village, and opened a hotel in a little log house. A few months later, he leased the principal hotel in the place, which he named the " Eagle Hotel," which he subsequently bought and still owns. He kept the hotel till 1872, when he leased it and engaged in his present business. Mr. Bond carries a full stock of dry goods, groceries, hardware, hats and caps, boots and shoes, flour, feed and grain; in fact keeps almost everything. He has held various local offices; has been Superintendent of the Poor of Ontonagon County three years; Commissioner of Highways. and Assessor nine years, being the present incumbent.

CHARLES F. BUTTON, attorney at law, was born in Aurora, Ill., November 22, 1856. He received his primary education in the common schools of that town; he then attended the Wayland University, at Beaver Dam, Wis., where he prepared for college; he afterward attended the Chicago University, completing his freshman year. In 1875, he went to Marquette, Lake Superior and began the study of law in the office of Hon. D. H. Ball; he spent six years in that office, and was admitted to the bar of Marquette circuit in January, 1882; he came to Ontonagon May 30, 1882 and opened his present office.

CAPT. HENRY BUZZO, deceased. The subject of this sketch was born in Cornwall, Eng., in 1819; he went to Ireland in early life where he was engaged in mining. He came to America in 1847, and spent three years in mining operations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In 1850, he came to Lake Superior, and accepted the agency of the Ridge Mine, in the Ontonagon district. He was subsequently agent of the Toltec, Indiana, Aztec and Algomah Mines. Capt. Buzzo was married in Kirkabright, Scotland, in 1846, to Miss Eliza Maclachlan. Six children were born to them, of whom five are living. During his residence on Lake Superior, he was a punctual and popular correspondent of the London Mining Journal, and also for several other papers. He was a gentleman of fine literary attainments, and an accomplished statistician. He held various local offices, and, at the time of his death, which occurred February 11, 1881, he was serving his second term as Treasurer of Ontonagon County. He was a man who was always reliable; was scrupulously honest; he was severely conscientious in the discharge of every duty, liberal, just and kind; he was always a champion of the rights of the working man, and was deservedly popular. During the latter years of his life, he resided at Ontonagon.

JAMES M. BUZZO, machinist and mechanical engineer, is the son of Capt. Henry Buzzo, late County Treasurer of Ontonagon County. He spent his boyhood days in Ontonagon, and, in 1866, went to Detroit, where he served a regular apprenticeship as machinist. Early in 1873, he accepted an appointment as machinist in the United States Navy. He cruised three years in the North Atlantic Ocean, and about seven years in European waters. Gen. Grant was a passenger on his vessel, the man-of-war Vandalia, while on his Eastern trip. Mr. Buzzo was transferred to the United States Flagship Trenton, and returned to Ontonagon in the fall of 1881.