Hancock

Hancock, a city of Houghton county, Michigan, U.S.A., on Portage Lake, opposite Houghton. Pop. (1890) 1772; (1900) 4050, of whom 1409 were foreign-born; (1904) 6037; (1910) 8981\. Hancock is served by the Mineral Range, the Copper Range, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, and the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic railways (the last two send their trains in over the Mineral Range tracks), and by steamboats through the Portage Lake Canal which connects with Lake Superior. Hancock is connected by a bridge and an electric line with the village of Houghton (pop. in 1910, 5113), the county-seat of Houghton county and the seat of the Michigan College of Mines (opened in 1886). Hancock has three parks, and a marine and general hospital. The city is the seat of a Finnish Lutheran Seminary—there are many Finns in and near Hancock, and a Finnish newspaper is published here. Hancock is in the Michigan copper region—the Quincy, Franklin and Hancock mines are in or near the city—and the mining, working and shipping of copper are the leading industries; among the city’s manufactures are mining machinery, lumber, bricks and beer. The municipality owns and operates the water-works. The electric-lighting plant, the gas plant and the street railway are owned by private corporations. Hancock was settled in 1859, was incorporated as a village in 1875, and was chartered as a city in 1903.

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