The Duluth News-Tribune ran an interesting article that caught our eye about the various places named Ely in our area and if they are connected or not. Of course, we’re pretty partial to the city of Ely, Minnesota and all that goes on here.
Now, to be sure, there are other locations named Ely, including one in Iowa, one in Nevada and one in England.
Periodically we receive news releases meant for newspapers in Ely, Nevada and the Ely in Cambridgeshire across the pond. Each time we let them know they have reached us in error.
The Duluth News-Tribune story covered the city of Ely, Ely Lake, just outside of Eveleth, Ely’s Peak along the Superior Hiking Trail and Ely Island in Lake Vermilion near Stuntz Bay.
We know the original name for Ely, Minnesota was Florence, named after the daughter of Captain John Pengilly, who helped establish the community and the Chandler iron ore mine.
But since there was already a Florence, Minnesota there had to be a change. In 1888 that change was made, one year after the post office here was established.
In a book by Ely historian Lee Brownell, the name change was made in honor of Samuel P. Ely - a mining and railroad developer who died in 1900, having never set foot in the city named for him.
“Samuel P. Ely is also the name of a shipwreck that occurred against the west breakwater in Agate Bay, Two Harbors, in 1896, according to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society. The schooner ship was believed to have been built to carry iron ore and was named for the same mining magnate. It sank with no lives lost after being towed by a steamer ship from Duluth to Two Harbors and was hit with rough winds and high waves. The ship was released and hit the breakwater, where it then sank,” the DNT wrote.
Ely’s Peak was named for Rev. Edmund Franklin Ely, a missionary from Massachusetts who moved to Minnesota to minister to the Ojibwe people living in the region in the 1830s and 1840s.
Ely Lake was formerly called Cedar Island Lake, St. Mary Lake, and Forbes Lake. Nobody is really sure why the name change was made.
Ely Island in Lake Vermilion apparently is named after Samuel Ely.
“So in the end, it does seem like Samuel P. Ely is behind most of the Elys in the area - and none of them are directly named for the region in England,” the DNT concludes.
Yes, that may be true, but there is no doubt the best Ely of all is the one covered by the Ely Echo 52 weeks a year.
