ESCANABA — William “Big Bill” Bonifas and his wife, Catherine Bonifas, were a power couple whose legacy lives on in Escanaba perhaps stronger than any other. After her husband’s death, Catherine donated money for schools and more from the Bonifas lumber fortune.

Bill first came to Garden in the Upper Peninsula from the small European country of Luxembourg in 1886. It was likely that he immigrated after his older brother John, and that their two younger brothers — James and Isaac — and four sisters followed in the few years succeeding.

“And if you’re wondering why they all chose to come to the Garden Peninsula, it probably had a lot to do with an uncle who had come here prior to the 1880s, I think, establishing a farm in the Garden area and suggesting to his young relatives (that) if they wanted to come to America, a good place to settle would be in the Garden area,” said Dr. Charles Lindquist, historian.

Bill began working for his uncle, cutting down trees to create more farmland. It soon became clear that “Big Bill,” who was over six feet tall — especially impressive in the 1880s — and very strong, was built for that sort of work, and for many years he was a successful lumberman.

During a recent presentation about the Bonifases, Lindquist told a few stories about Bill that have become something of legend.

There was at least one instance when an equine team was struggling with a load of lumber. Bill himself strapped on a makeshift shoulder harness and, working alongside the draft horse and mule, got the load of lumber where it needed to go, the historian relayed.

Another story that illustrates Bill’s strength revolves around a boxing match. Bill and his brother John had gone to Escanaba to see a series of bouts, including a headlining match between a renowned boxer from Milwaukee and an Escanaba man. But when the time came for their fight, the Escanaba man was nowhere to be found.

“Bill stripped down to his trousers, got in the ring, and then in the second round unloaded a haymaker and knocked the Milwaukee boxer straight out,” Lindquist said.

Meanwhile, Catherine Nolan, also an immigrant, had settled in the U.P. after leaving her hometown in County Carlow, Ireland. The hardworking woman found employment at a boarding house in Garden, and before long, she met Bill. The two were married in 1894.

Aside from their uncle’s farm, the first family business Bill and his siblings operated was called Bonifas Brothers. They were based near Garden and dealt with a lot of cedar, said Tom Jerow, history buff and descendent of the Bonifases.

Cecilia Bonifas — Bill’s sister and Jerow’s grandmother — was the vice president of Bonifas Brothers and helped run the sawmill at Little Harbor on the east side of the Garden Peninsula.

“As early as the 1890s, Bill and his brothers were beginning to gain a reputation as good producers of bulk wood railroad ties and posts in the Garden area, and this would continue into the 1900s,” Lindquist said. “But as Bill could see, if he wanted to continue as a serious lumberman, it was time to look for new areas to harvest lumber in.”

Beyond his physical strength, Bill possessed another talent that would help make him rich — identifying valuable timberland.

Since the U.P. had been logged heavily over the last half a century, much of the prime wood had already been harvested. When few hardwoods remained, though they were preferable, Big Bill also knew which softwoods would produce good timber, and bought land accordingly.

After brothers John and James died of typhoid, Bill and Isaac went to the western U.P. and continued their logging success.

The business called “Bonifas Brothers” continued to operate in Garden before eventually fading away, but the “William Bonifas Lumber Company” began and became even more fruitful. A large part of this company’s success can be attributed to a partnership with a producer of paper-based goods that remains a big name today.

“Realizing that pulpwood supply is the backbone of the paper industry, the (Kimberly-Clark) Company in 1907 joined forced with William Bonifas in the organization of the William Bonifas Lumber Company or Watersmeet, Michigan, purchasing a large supply of hemlock and spruce timber,” reads a 1922 booklet produced by Kimberly-Clark for its 50th anniversary.

One major land purchase Bill made in the western U.P. came around 1910, when he bought 33,000 acres for $425,000, Lindquist said.

To the dismay of some historians, there are rumors that Bill wasn’t good about adhering to straight-line borders when cutting trees from square plots of land; instead, the “squares” would have rounded-out sides, giving the lumbermen more than they technically should have taken.

“But all of them did that back then,” some may reason.

There can no question that Bill turned great profit. In addition to a house in Garden, he also had a home on Lake Shore Drive in Escanaba — previously owned by John Christie of the Ludington Hotel — a summer house in Miami, and a great lodge on Lake Gogebic that was built from logs and lumber out of his mill in nearby Marenisco.

Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone and Thomas Edison were all guests at the Gogebic lodge, reported the Daily Press in an homage to the Bonifases in 1948.

Catherine was said to be a kind, generous and hardworking woman. Even when the Bonifases became wealthy and lived more lavishly, she did the housework herself. She was active in St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and in 1939 was honored by Pope Pius XI for her donations to St. Joe’s in Escanaba and St. Peter’s in Marquette.

The couple didn’t have children, but they did have a boarder who ended up being a key part of the business and continued to live with Catherine after Bill passed away in 1936.

Mary E. Hogan was a schoolteacher who rented a room from Bill and Catherine when she came to Garden. She began to help out with the business and ultimately became a massive asset to the William Bonifas Lumber Company.

“In not too much time, Mary Hogan was not teaching anymore. She became a secretary and then the treasurer of Bill’s business, and in time, she also became a person her boss listened to when it came to investing some of that money he was piling up,” said Lindquist.

“That Mary Hogan, she was amazing,” said Jerow. “She was the one who diversified his investments.”

It was Hogan who advised that Bonifas invest in Fisher Body, which made quality carriages and ended up merging with General Motors in 1926.

Before the end of their lives, the Bonifases had amassed a large sum of money, and they set about giving it away.

Lindquist estimates that between 1932 and the lumber baron’s death in ’36, Bill began speaking with St. Joseph’s and asking what they needed. An auditorium and gymnasium was suggested, and after Bill died, such a structure was built to accommodate St. Joseph’s school. The building was converted to the William Bonifas Fine Arts Center in the 1970s.

Bonifas money also provided for the construction of a new church building for St. Joseph’s parish.

The Bonifases had befriended the Lemmer family — also from Luxembourg, as Bill was — who owned a tavern in Escanaba. The Lemmers’ oldest son, John, worked as a lumberman for Bill before becoming a teacher and then the superintendent of Escanaba schools.

After her husband died and she held the fortune, Catherine consulted John Lemmer to ask what needs he thought the community had. Because of Lemmer’s suggestions and Catherine’s generosity, the Bonifas legacy funded the building of multiple educational facilities in Escanaba.

The opening of Catherine’s will made the front page of the Daily Press on May 29, 1948. She had gifted over $2.5 million — worth about $33 million today — to the community around Escanaba. Most went to schools and churches. John Lemmer was named executor of the will.

Catherine left $820,000 to the Escanaba school district for the erection of a senior high school, a school for handicapped children, scholarships, and the maintenance of the technical school that bore her name (she had overseen its construction in life).

One of John Lemmer’s goals had been to open a junior college, and Catherine specified that $100,000 of the money she left to the Escanaba school district be put to that use. It allowed for the formation of what became Bay de Noc Community College.

To the Diocese of Marquette, Catherine gave $805,000. Of that, $600,000 went towards the construction of Holy Name Catholic Central High School, which opened in 1954, and $100,000 was for a Catholic old folks’ home.

Other donations Bill Bonifas’s widow bequeathed included $300,000 to the City of Escanaba for government buildings and youth recreational facilities; $250,000 to Marquette University in Milwaukee; $50,000 to St. Norbert’s College in DePere, Wis.; $50,000 to the local Knights of Columbus; and $25,000 to St. Francis Hospital.

“The name of Bonifas will live long in the annals of Michigan and Wisconsin history, not alone because of the success achieved by Mr. Bonifas, but because of the many philanthropies that have been made available through Mrs. Bonifas,” wrote Charles Broughton for The Sheboygan (Wis.) Press in 1948. “Some people die and are soon forgotten because they leave nothing constructive designed for the welfare of human beings. Not so with Mr. and Mrs. Bonifas. Mr. Bonifas worked hard amassing an immense fortune, and after his death the one ambition of his widow was to give in his name. The will only partially tells the story of the good that she has done through the years.”

The couple was buried in a mausoleum in Holy Cross Cemetery, near a chapel that Catherine had also provided for.

The Bonifas mausoleum in Holy Cross Cemetery was restored in 2008 and given a new memorial stone that acknowledged “respect to the memory of area pioneers William and Catherine Bonifas, whose unprecedented legacy and generosity to Delta County will benefit generations to come.”