George Pack Jr. (1794 in
Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada – April 15, 1875 in Pack's Mills, Michigan) was a businessman, landowner, sawmill operator, and postmaster on the
Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The town of
Pack's Mills of which he was also postmaster, was named after him. Pack's son,
George Willis Pack
George Willis Pack (born 1831, Peterboro, New York; d. August 31, 1906, Southampton, Long Island, New York) was a second-generation timberman on Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Building on his father's legacy, over the course of several decades, Pac ...
; grandson,
Charles Lathrop Pack
Charles Lathrop Pack (May 7, 1857 – June 14, 1937), a third-generation timberman, was "one of the five wealthiest men in America prior to World War I".Eyle, p. xv He owed his good start in life to the success of his father, George Willis Pack, ...
; and great-grandson,
Randolph Greene Pack
Randolph Greene Pack (1890 in Cleveland, Ohio – December 25, 1956 in Greenwich, Connecticut), was an American philanthropist.
Early life and education
Randolph Greene Pack, son of Charles Lathrop Pack, grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, at the tur ...
were to follow him in the timber business in Michigan, New York and beyond.
Early life and family
Pack had moved to Michigan from upstate New York, in 1848. Born in Canada, Pack had first moved to
Jefferson County, New York, with his father, George Pack Sr., and 10 of his siblings, including brother
John Pack.
From Jefferson County, Pack removed to
Madison County, New York, to be near the parents of his wife, Maria Lathrop Pack. After a few years "near Maria's father, Abram Lathrop, in Madison Clounty; they then moved twelve miles away to
Peterboro
Peterboro, located approximately southeast of Syracuse, New York, is a historic hamlet and currently the administrative center for the Town of Smithfield, Madison County, New York, United States. Peterboro has a Post Office, ZIP code 13134 ...
", about east and south of
Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
*Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
*Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
**North Syracuse, New York
*Syracuse, Indiana
* Syracuse, Kansas
*Syracuse, Miss ...
. In search of new opportunities, he used proceeds from the sale of a farm near
Watertown, New York, to purchase just outside
Lexington, Michigan
Lexington is a village in Sanilac County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,178 at the 2010 census. The village is located within Lexington Township.
Geography
* According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a ...
.
With ten children in tow, George and Maria Pack boarded "an
Erie Canal sidewheeler
A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...
ndrode it to the end of the line at Buffalo and from there headed up Lake Erie to
Lake Huron
Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...
, disembarking at Lexington, on the eastern shore of the Michigan thumb, overlooking Lake Huron", where they spent the next 13 years.
Business career
It was while in Lexington, that Pack made his first investment in timber. He "paid $1,600 for 720 acres of timberland near the
Black River. The acreage was located ten miles north of Lexington, near a town called Farmers, now known as
Carsonville".
Pack opened his first sawmill in
Washington Township, in 1856. The second was opened just a year later, in the same township. The town of
Pack's Mills was established nearby. A grist mill and then a flour mill followed soon thereafter. By 1876, "sixteen hundred acres would be in the Pack name".
[Eyle, p. 5.]
References
* Eyle, Alexandra. 1992. ''Charles Lathrop Pack: Timberman, Forest Conservationist, and Pioneer in Forest Education''. Syracuse, NY: ESF College Foundation and College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Distributed by Syracuse University Press. Available
Google books
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pack, George Jr.
1794 births
1875 deaths
Businesspeople in timber
History of forestry in the United States
Businesspeople from Saint John, New Brunswick
People from Sanilac County, Michigan
People from Peterboro, New York
People from Watertown, New York
Emigrants from pre-confederation New Brunswick to the United States