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From:  HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN and Its People, by Perry F. Powers, Pub.
1912.

FOUNDING OF ONAWAY

"..the county was not started on its modern highway of progress until the
early eighties had come into history and the nucleus of the city of Onoway
appreared as half a dozen houses in a forest clearing.  Among the first to
select its site for a home was Thomas E. Shaw.....It was upon his farm which
he located in 1881 that a large part of Onaway was platted. In August, 1882,
School District No. 2 was organized. ....Mr. Shaw was the first teacher,
lining up a class of seven pupils in the winter following the orgainzation of
the district.  He was also the first hotel keekper and became the first
postmaster in 1883.  He held all the township and most of the county offices,
founded the stock farm which has helped make Onaway well known as one of the
hustling communities of Northeren Michigan, and built up both his health and
his fortunes.

Three years after Mr. Shaw's arrival came Merritt Chandler, a Michigan
lumberman who tranferred his operations while still a young man to (it says to
 but it looks like it mean from) Cheboygan county and the northern part of
the lower peninsula.  In his explorations for the location of timber lands he
drifted into this part of the state and was so impressed with its advantages
that in 1884 he built a residence at Shaw postoffice, around which had spring
up a little cluster of houses.  Mr. Chandler opened the first general store
there, using a part of his residence for the purpose, and in 1886 moved his
family into the building.  With the growth of his business he provided a
separate building for his sotre, and from his enterprise was finally evolved
the Onaway Mercantile company.  In 1870 Mr. Chandler first engaged in the
construction of state roads, his first contract being the section from
Petoskey to Presque Isle, seventy eight miles.  In payment for various works
of this nature he was ceded about 40,000 acres of timber lands distributed
throughout the northern counties, but mainly near Onaway.  This was the basis
of his large and successful transactions both in hardwood and agricultural
lands which resulted in the founding of Onaway's industrial prosperity and
widespread benefit to the entire county.  Mr. Chandler's means and influence
were the chief forces which brought the railroad to Onaway and built its
opera house.  He also erected the Chandler House and has been the strong and
relable friend of churches and schools.  To complete the reasons which his
friends have always advanced to claim for him the title "father of Onaway,"
he selected the word from Longfellow's "Hiawatha."  As Onaway means "awake,"
no name could be more appropriate for this brisk little city."

REMARKABLE GROWTH

"Onaway was incorporated as village in 1899 and as a city in 1903.  It has
set a mark for rapid growth among the towns of Northern Michigan and on this
point, is is only necessary to recall the census figures of 1900, which gave
its population as 1,204, and compare them with the enumberation of 1910 -
2,702.  ..............."

"The material progress of Onaway has been mainly along industrial lines, and
from this point of view she is a solid, pushing little city of mills and
factories.  Most of her manufactories are founded on the hardwoods of which
the county is still too prolific.  Her largest plant in this line is tht
operated by the American Wood Rim Company, of which E.J. Lobdell is
president, its products being bicycle and automobile steering-wheel rims.
 The Lobsdell & Churchill Manufacturing Company also run an extensive plant
for the turning out of hardwood lumber.  At Onaway are concerns for the
manufacture of shingles, staves, hoops and cooperage of all kinds; heading
and planing mills; flour mills, creamery, and foundry and machine shops.  The
city is the trading center for a lagre district, which also transacts its
business through the Onaway State Savings Bank and the Onaway State Banking
company, each of which has a capital of $25,000.

As has been intimated, Onaway realized a fair item of business from the
summer travel which comes to her doors and passes through them into the
spendid country of lakes and streams in her immediate vicinity.  Good judges
have pronounced the Black and Rainy rivers as among the best trout streams in
Northern Michigan."