The Sawmill Escapade

In 1890 there were four brothers named Moiles, John, George, Henry, and James. They were from Saginaw, Michigan and set up a large sawmill in Detour, Michigan. The four brothers invested everything and carried a large debt. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to secure enough logs to make the sawmill profitable even though they had been running a large logging operation. They were then lent even more money from a firm in Alpena. $70,000 more. It was looking like they would never be out from under debt’s heavy load.

Henry Moiles, the less than honest lawyer in the family came up with an idea to save the company from their creditors. They would steal their own sawmill and take it to Canada! The brothers agreed and they began work to remove the equipment at spring breakup. They went back to their home in Saginaw and acquired a tug, named Tom Dowling and two barges to carry the equipment across the water. They brought them up Lake Huron. They had used the excuse that they were bringing lumber back with them to lower Michigan after they had it milled.

Behind closed doors, men were at work dismantling every bit of the mill machinery. A story was spread that the mill equipment needed maintenance and they were dismantling some of it to be shipped for overhauling.

The money from Alpena financed the operation having been told that it was for improvements. They even sent along a pair of watchmen to oversee the improvements. The brothers managed to keep them away from the mill far enough they didn’t catch on. Liquor worked for one and the other was called away on a false emergency. The brothers hired someone to rush in and exclaim that the man’s wife was having a baby. They then doctored the horse so it would get ill when the watchman was part way home. He had to walk five miles to his house to find his wife still fine and still pregnant.

With both watchmen out of the way, the brothers and their crew began loading every piece of the mill onto the barges. Engines, boilers, tramways, everything right down to and including the nails. They left nothing. The total value of the property left behind was less than five dollars. The entire project was finished loading by 1:30 in the morning. The tug and barges moved out into the night. They were now pirates.

By dawn they had made about 7 miles. The drift ice was thick and the tug was having difficulty moving through them. By 4:30 in the afternoon they crossed the international boundary near Whiskey Point on St. Joseph Island. They were now in Canadian water and they felt safe.

Meanwhile, the watchman had returned to find everything gone. At this time the tug and barges were still in sight. He hastened to the telegraph office to contact his superiors in Alpena and send a message to sheriff McKenzie at Sault Ste. Marie. Unfortunately, the wires had been cut. The Moile brothers had been very thorough.

The tug had now become ice-bound and wasn’t moving at all. It was the second day and word had finally reached the sheriff. The watchman had made it to Pickford and put in a call. The sheriff put together a group of deputies and had a tug of his own. Accounts differ on whether the Sheriff came from the Sault or was forced to go to St. Ignace due to ice clogging the St. Mary’s River. But, the result was he was headed for the Moiles.

John Moile was captain of the tug and saw the pursuit coming. As they gave chase, Moile became increasingly worried that the sheriff would be able to get a line on one of the barges and pull it back across the border. Moile grabbed a rifle and proceeded to the tug’s stern. He shouted to the sheriff that if he attempted to board the tug or the barges, that he would drill such a hole in his body that his friends would be able to see next Christmas though it!  Consequently, the sheriff was convinced while being unsure where the international boundary really was and well outnumbered by the Moiles and their crew. He turned back to the mainland.

The small fleet was locked into the spring ice for three days. An offshore wind kept them trapped. Finally the wind shifted and they were able to make their way into Worsley Bay. Eventually they would reach their destination of Johns Island in Georgian Bay in northern Lake Huron. They had no trouble with Canadian customs, paid a duty of $6,000 and set up their mill at Moiles Bay.

The brothers operated their mill for a few years before they were bought out by another milling company. The Alpena company that they owed the money to bought up much of the surrounding forest in Canada and refused to sell any of the wood to the Moiles. The brothers never did make much money running a sawmill and were grateful to get out.

If you liked this story, there are more like it in my book Piracy on the Great Lakes.

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