Horace H. Pike

Adapted from Cheboygan Democrats 9 June 1900

DEATH OF H. H. PIKE. 
The popular host at Topinabee passed away at a ripe old Age. Mr. H. H. Pike, the well-known owner of the Pike Hotel, died at his hotel at Topinahee, Mich., Tuesday, June 5,1900. This is a brief statement of the end of one of northern Michigan’s best-known resort hotel men. His place is well known for its natural beauties for those who are seeking rest and recuperation from the busy life. The remains were taken to Niles, Mich., his former home for interment. Mr. Pike was 78 years old and has been very feeble for four or five years. At the time of his death he had released the active management of his house, but was around most of tne time. H. H. Pike came to Topinabee in the summer of 1880, and purchased 86 acres of land. This was before the railroad was extended through this section of the country, but he had watched the progress of the road and was satisfied that it would strike his location. In October 1881, he began the erection of his hotel, the Pike Hotel, and had it completed in July, 1882, when it was immediately opened, though he did not move here until June 1888. With the exception of about five years Mr. Pike had been in the hotel business since 1866, when he built the Pike Hotel in Niles, Mich. He had become very well known to the traveling public throughout the central states. In his early days at Niles, when railroads were scarce, eastern commercial men would come to his hotel and drive over a large scope of country to meet their customers. He was always accommodating to this class of men who gave him a wide reputation. Mr. Pike was a native of Burlington, Vermont, and first came to Michigan in I860 when he located at Niles.