John C. Liken / John C. Martini House

John C. Liken, one of Sebewaing’s most prominent citizens, came there in 1865 from New York State, where he had owned a cooperage. Drawn by Michigan’s forests, he opened stave and sawmills in Sebewaing, Unionville, Akron, and Fairgrove, and his firm, John C. Liken and Company, handled a variety of commodities carried by the company’s fleet of ships to Bay City and markets in New York. In 1874 he built a downtown commercial block with four storefronts. Sebewaing’s first telephone line, installed in 1883, linked the store with Liken’s flour mill and depot, and in 1901 the company received a ten-year contract to supply the town with electric power generated at the mill. In 1913 Liken’s son-in-law Richard Martini took over the business. Liken also built five houses, one for each of his children. Built in 1890-95 in the Stick Style, this house was intended for his daughter Mary and his son-in-law and business partner, Richard Martini, but they never lived there. Instead, their oldest child, John C. Martini, moved into the house with his wife, Tillie Kemp, in 1909. John C. Liken retired in 1913, leaving control of the business to the Martinis; Richard became president and John succeeded him. The Liken and Martini families were integral to Sebewaing’s development, and this house remains the only historically intact structure associated with Liken.

Sebewaing, Michigan · United States