By ANGELA KELLOGG-HENRY

Cleaver Managing Editor

In 2021, I wrote an article about a baggage tag from the Johnson House I purchased in an online auction. The brass tag dated from Harrison’s earliest history, the building and operation of the Johnson House, now the Harrison District Library.  The Johnson House of Harrison operated from May of 1880 through the 1890s when it was purchased by Daniel Lockwood and the name was changed to the Lockwood House.

That first baggage tag was found by a man named Mark and his father Archie. Their hobby throughout the 1970s and 80s was weekend warrior treasure hunters. Mark cherishes those days they got up at 5 a.m. to enjoy their hobby together. In retirement he is sorting through some of those treasures, researching history and thankfully with this item, selling them.

Earlier this spring I fielded a message from the Clare County Historical Society’s Facebook page inquiring if we had any information about something a family had found while clearing trees near Hubbard Lake. Imagine my surprise when they sent a photo of a brass baggage tag from the Johnson House!

This tag was #6 and exactly the same as the one I had purchased in 2021. While coat checks and baggage tags aren’t unusual, one that is over 145 years old and from a business in a rough and tumble logging town are very hard to come by. I never dreamed something like that would exist and now we have two!

Shantyboys, as lumberjacks were generally called before 1900 did make their way from camp to camp so it’s not a complete surprise something like this could end up several hours away from Harrison in the middle of the woods. The family assured me they were going to metal detect the area and let us know if they find anything else.

Article published in 2021

Brass Baggage Tag Stands the Test of Time

Every once in a while, a piece of history pops up that makes me stunningly happy that it exists. Recently, I purchased an unusual piece of Harrison history on an auction site.

While coat checks and baggage tags aren’t unusual, one that is over 140 years old and from a business in a rough and tumble logging town are very hard to come by. This brass tag is from the Johnson House of Harrison that operated from May of 1880 through the 1890s when it was changed to the Lockwood House.

The brass tag was made by John Robbins of Boston. How it got from Harrison into the hand of a metal detector who rescued it near Saginaw is anyone’s guess. We can fictionalize a shanty boy (as lumberjacks were called in the 1880s) that checked his belongings at the Johnson House but somehow left Harrison with the baggage/coat check tag but without his property. Maybe it was a hasty retreat from the saloon or a street brawl, as Harrison was famous for in its lumber heyday.

The tag was found by Mark and his father Archie. Their hobby throughout the 1970s and 80s was weekend warrior treasure hunters. Mark cherishes those days they got up 5 a.m. to enjoy their hobby together. In retirement he is sorting through some of those treasures, researching the history and thankfully with this item, selling them.

The Johnson House opened on May 24, 1880 according to the Clare Press. The building is still standing today as part of the Surrey House, soon to be the new home of Harrison District Library. The southern half and third story were added after 1900.

After it was built it went through many remodels as the rough and tumble business of feeding and sheltering gruff businessmen and entertaining shanty boys took its toll. In the 1880s Harrison had the reputation of being Michigan’s “toughest” town. It was then a sprawling metropolis of 2,000, containing 22 saloons, a dozen restaurants, 5 hotels and many business houses.

The local newspapers report things like “one day during court week mine host Southwick, of the Railroad House, Harrison, fed 275 persons, and the Johnson House, also, was chock full and running over.” and “the Johnson House, at Harrison is doing a thriving business. It is destined to become a popular resort for Clare county people.”

The tag will join the historical collection at the library. We assume no luggage can be claimed in return for the #94 brass baggage tag.

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