Special to the Journal
Preston’s Cafe, located at 112 W. Washington St., in the city of Marquette, is pictured. (Photo courtesy of the Marquette Regional History Center
MARQUETTE In the late 1840s and early 1850s, five Jeffrey brothers and their families arrived in Ontonagon.
Born in Connecticut between 1812 and 1828, Asa, Richard, Josiah, Horace and Charles Jeffrey had African and Native American roots.
In the east, the family had been active in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and in social reform movements, including the Underground Railroad, temperance organizations, and activist groups that fought against legislative restrictions on African and Native American freedoms.