USA > Michigan > Grand Traverse County > Sprague's history of Grand Traverse and Leelanaw counties, Michigan embracing a concise review of their early settlement, industrial development and present conditions...to which will be appended...life sketches of well-known citizens of the county > Part 43
USA > Michigan > Leelanau County > Sprague's history of Grand Traverse and Leelanaw counties, Michigan embracing a concise review of their early settlement, industrial development and present conditions...to which will be appended...life sketches of well-known citizens of the county > Part 43
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Besides Northport village, Leelanaw township embraces the village of Omena and its adjoining beautiful summer resorts, lo- cated on New Mission bay, further mention of which will be made later.
Omena was for many years the point where the late Lewis Miller had a store and
did a large business in handling furs which he bought from the Indian trappers and hunters.
LELAND.
The village of Leland, the present county seat of Leelanaw county, is located on Lake Michigan at the mouth of Carp river. Pre- vious to 1848 and a few years after there was an Indian village located on the hill a little north of the present village. In that year Antoine Manseau and John I. Miller pros- pected about this part of Michigan in search of a desirable location for a mill site, and located land at the mouth of the river. Noth- ing was done with the property, however, un- til 1853, when Mr. Manseau and his son, An- toine, came and built a saw-mill on the river. A dam was constructed and the mill put in cperation. Mr. Manseau and his son came in June. The following September John I. Miller arrived and settled on his land a little north of the mouth of the river. He was the first postmaster of Leland, and held the office until 1861, when he was succeeded by Simeon Pickard, who came here from Northport and engaged in the mercantile business. .
In 1859 Mr. Manseau sold out to Cordes & Thies, who built a dock and also put up a saw and grist-mill. In 1861 Christopher F. Reynolds came to Leland and built a dock and engaged in the wood business, which he carried on for about ten years. Messrs. Pickard & Barton afterward built another dock.
Leland is quite exposed to winds from the north, which makes it difficult to keep docks standing, being carried away by the fierce gales and shoving ice. The result is that since the almost entire winding up of the
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wood and lumber business at this point the docks have all disappeared.
The first religious worship at this point was conducted by Rev. Father Mrack, the first Catholic missionary to locate in the county, in 1855. After him came Fathers Young and Herbstrit. In 1870 the Holy Trinity Catholic society built a church.
In July, 1865, the Congregational society was organized by Rev. George Thompson, at one time a missionary to Africa, who lived here at the time. A church building was erected at a cost of two thousand five hundred dollars, which was dedicated in the winter of 1872. For several years the society was in a flourishing condition, but later, from deaths, removals. and other causes, it became unable to support a minister, and a union was formed with the Methodists. The church is now owned and carried on by the Methodist Episcopal church. There is a Lutheran society, with a church building, in the place instituted at about the time the Congregational church was built.
The village is in school district No. I, of the township of Leland, which was organized soon after the first settlers located here.
In 1869 a company of Detroit men began the erection of an iron furnace, which was completed and commenced operations the following year. The company was known as the Leland Lake Superior Iron Company. The company gave employment to a large number of men, but did not prove to be very successful in carrying out and prosecuting its business, for, early in the summer of 1872, its entire capital of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars had been sunk, and the property was sold to Captain E. B. Ward, of Detroit, who assumed an indebtedness of one hundred and ten thousand dollars. Ward
sold a half interest to W. G. Thompson, and the firm name adopted was E. B. Ward & Company. The furnace was rebuilt and op- erated, and was twice burned and rebuilt. It finally passed into the hands of another com- pany, that operated it for a time, but failed to make it pay, and today nothing is left of the institution except some heaps of ruins. This furnace, which promised to be of great ad- vantage to the village of Leland and the sur- rounding country, in reality proved a curse, and it is doubtful if the village of Leland would not be in a much more flourishing con- dition than it now is if the iron furnace had never been built.
The county seat of Leelanaw county was removed from Northport to Leland in 1882. Since that time a building for a court house and county offices has been erected, and also a substantial jail building. Leland has one newspaper, the Enterprise, which was estab- lished at Northport in October, 1877, by B. H. Derby. Two years later William C. Nel- son took charge of it, and has edited and pub- lished it ever since. Soon after the change in the county seat it was removed to Leland, January, 1883. There were several years during which time the Enterprise was the only newspaper published in the county. There are now three others.
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- PROVEMONT.
This is another small village in Leland township, located at the narrows of Carp lake by Mr. A. De Belloy in 1867. Here Mr. De Belloy, at the head of a company known as The Grand Traverse Bay Mineral Land As- sociation sunk a well, hoping to strike oil, but failed to do so. They did, however, at the
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depth of some seven hundred feet, secure a flow of artesian water, said to possess valu- able medical qualities. There is a store and postoffice here, and also a large Catholic church and convent. The Mainstee & Northeastern Railroad was recently com- pleted to this point, which will doubtless add much to its importance.
MAPLE CITY.
This village is pleasantly located in the midst of a flourishing farming community in sections 2 and 3 of Kasson township. The reason for the location of this village was the abundance of fine maple timber that grew in the forests about, which attracted the at- tention of some Ohio parties who were look- ing for a place to locate a factory for the manufacture of maple shoe pegs. They pitched upon this point. The factory was es- tablished here and was operated for several years. In 1875 William H. Crowell pur- chased it from J. T. Sturtevant and manufac- tured shoe pegs until the establishment was burned in 1880. This ended the shoe peg in- dustry, but in 1882 Mr. Crowell built a saw- mill, to which he added a planer and shingle machinery. In the meantime the settlement had grown to be a flourishing village, with postoffice, stores, blacksmith shops, hotels and various other industries.
Maple City has a good school building, a Congregational church and a Friends meet- ing-house, both of which societies are in a prosperous condition.
The fair grounds of the Leelanaw County Agricultural Society are located here, with good, substantial buildings.
GLEN ARBOR.
The village of Glen Arbor is located on the shore of Lake Michigan, Sleeping Bear bay, in section 23 of the township of Glen Arbor. The first settlers in the village were John E. Fisher and Dr. William H. Walker, who came from Wisconsin in 1854. They landed on Manitou islands and came to the mainland with their families in small boats .. The next season George Ray landed here with two families from Ashtabula, Ohio, bringing with them a saw-mill. They were landed from the propeller "Saginaw" August 28, 1855. This was the first steamboat that ever made a landing in this bay. The next summer Mr. Ray, with a partner, commenced the construction of a dock, which was com- pleted in 1857, and was afterwards known as the Central dock. In 1860 this dock passed into the hands of Captain A. W. Rossman and M. D. Todd. In 1860 Thomas Kelder- house built another dock in the northeast part of the bay, about three miles distant from the Central dock. In 1865 C. C. McCartey built another dock in the northwest part of the bay, which afterwards passed into the hands of the Northern Transportation Com- pany, of Cleveland. There are at present two docks at this place, one known as Fish- er's dock, and the other belongs to the Glen Arbor Lumber Company.
Like Northport, Glen Arbor was for many years a regular stopping place for steamers to wood, and in the early days a good many settlers found their way into the Grand Traverse region by the way of Glen Arbor. It is now a flourishing little village. Immense amounts of wood and hardwood logs have been taken from the shores about
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Glen lake and towed across in rafts and on scows to a point where the lake comes within less than a mile of the lumber mills and dock at Glen Arbor and are moved across to the mill and dock on a tramway built for that purpose.
The first sermon preached by a Baptist minister in Glen Arbor was by Rev. A. Joy, who landed there July 5, 1863. He was at that time, by reason of age and infirmities, past his active and constant labors in the min- istry, and came to the region for the purpose of finding a home for himself and family for his declining years. He was, however, dis- posed to do for religion in a general way and for his own, the Baptist denomination, in particular, whatever was in his power. As this morning was Sunday he stopped at one of the first houses that looked like affording a home for the day. The place at which he stopped was the home of Mrs. Dorr, and he learned that she and the other ladies were engaged in an effort to sustain a Sunday school, and at the appointed time he accom- panied her to the place of assembling. This was a small unfinished house, one room of which was occupied by their weekly school. He found present three ladies as teachers and about fifteen children. Mr. Joy made an appointment to preach in that room at five o'clock in the afternoon, and there were pres- ent at the preaching services between twenty and twenty-five persons.
The Congregational church at Glen Ar- bor was organized August 11, 1867, by a council, and Rev. Daniel Miler, who had for many years been a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church, was ordained as pastor the year following.
GLEN HAVEN.
Glen Haven is another flourishing little village, located about two miles west of Glen Arbor in section 10, also in the township of Glen Arbor. The exact date of building a dock and commencing the wood and lumber business at this point we have not at hand, but it was a few years after the settlement at Glen Arbor.
D. H. Day has a fine dock, saw-mill and store here, and has been doing an extensive business for several years in the manufacture and shipment of hard-wood lumber. The logs are taken from the country about Glen lake and towed in rafts to a small bay that comes to within about a mile and a half of the dock on the great lake near which his mill is located, and are transferred to the mill and thence to the dock by a tramway owned and operated by Mr. Day. He is also the owner of a fine steam tug that he uses to tow the rafts on the lake with.
SOUTH MANITOU ISLAND.
South Manitou island is now a part of the township of Glen Arbor. There is a fine harbor on the east side of the island, in which vessels often take refuge during stormy weather on Lake Michigan. A dock was built in this harbor at a very early day, at which many steamboats called for wood. The island has some fine farming and fruit land, which is being rapidly improved. Many summer visitors pass a few months on the island. What is said about the land of this island for farming and fruit growing is also true of North Manitou and the Fox islands.
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Manly through the efforts of Mr. D. H. Day, of Glen Haven, a cable has recently been laid by the United States government between the harbor on South Manitou and the mainland at Glen Haven, which is of great importance to the shipping interests, as vessels are frequently disabled and seek the harbor for safety, and are often obliged to send to points on the mainland for assist- ance. The government has for several years maintained a life-saving station on North Manitou island. i
EMPIRE VILLAGE.
Empire is an incorporated village in sec- tion 19 of the township of Empire. It is on high ground on the shore of Lake Michigan. The first settler at this point was John Larue, whose coming to the region has already been mentioned. Marvin La Core and Mr. Ayles- worth were also early settlers here.
The Empire Lumber Company has docks and a large lumber plant at this point that they have operated extensively for many years. The company owns large tracts of hard-wood lands in the township and also in the townships adjoining on the south in Ben- zie county. The company has constructed a railroad from their mills back through their timber, over which they transport the logs to their mills. Passenger trains are now run over this road and the Manistee and North- eastern connects with it at Platte, Benzie county. This gives the people of Empire an outlet by rail to the outside world.
BURDICKVILLE.
This is a little and prettily located village located in a good farming community near
the northeast corner of Empire township in sections I and 12. It has a store, postoffice, church, schoolhouse, etc.
GOOD HARBOR.
This is a small village just over the line from the township of that name, in the north- west corner of Centerville township, on Lake Michigan, Good Harbor bay. The Schom- berg Lumber Company owns and operates a dock and saw-mills at this point. There is an extensive deposit of marl not far from this point suitable for the manufacture of cement.
FOUCH.
This is a station on the Manistee & Northeastern Railroad at the head of Carp lake in section II of the township of So- lon. At this point boats running between the head of the lake and Leland connect with the Manistee & Northeastern. It is pleasant- ly located and is much sought by resorters and fisherman.
SOLON.
This is a station situated near the cen- ter of Solon township on section 24, at the junction of the Manistee & Northeastern with its Provemont and Omena branch. It is the center of a fine farming community.
CEDAR RUN, OR RUTHARDT'S SIDING.
This is a small station on the Manistee & Northeastern near the southeast corner of . Solon township on section 34. It has a fine and well improved farming country around it.
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CEDAR.
Cedar is a station on the Provement branch of the Manistee and Northeastern in Solon township, about three miles southwest from Solon station. It has a saw and shingle-mill, hotel, store, blacksmith shop, etc.
GREILICKVILLE.
This point is sometimes called Norris- ville, from the fact that Mr. Norris was the first person to settle there, although the Grei- licks came soon after. It is pleasantly lo- cated on the shore of Grand Traverse bay about two miles north of Traverse City, in the township of Elmwood, in section 28. Seth H. Norris located land at this point and built a saw-mill here about 1852. In 1854 G. Greilick built a saw-mill here. In 1862 his sons, Anthony, John and Edward, built a saw-mill and soon afterwards built docks which they operated for many years, finishing up their lumber business only about two years since. Walter Greilick, a son of John Greilick, has owned and run a store here for several years. The mill built by Mr. Norris has been rebuilt and made into a first- class flouring-mill, which is now run by a son, John Norris, and his partner.
SUTTON'S BAY.
This village has a charming location at the head of the bay by the same name, which is a branch of Grand Traverse bay, setting in some three miles from the main body of water in a southwesterly direction. The vil- lage was named in honor of H. C. Sutton, the early owner of the land upon which it is located. It began to be known about 1865
as Suttonsburg, but a few years after as Sutton's Bay. It is now an incorporated village.
In the spring of 1871 Rev. Father A. Herbstrit, a Catholic priest, made a purchase of about six thousand acres of land on Sut- ton's Bay, and laid out a village which he called Pleasant City. He planned to estab- lish a Catholic college and convent and many secular kinds of business, but made a failure of it, except that he did build a church and establish a school. By 1880, however, notwithstanding the failure of Fa- ther Herbstrit to carry out his plans, the village had grown to be a lively place of about two hundred and fifty people, and contained four stores, two hotels, a brick school-house, a saw-mill, printing office, and was doing an extensive trade in shipping wood.
Since that time, while the wood and lum- ber business has greatly fallen off, the place has become a great market for farm produce. Many thousands of bushels of fruit and po- tatoes are shipped from here every year. The village has continued to grow and improve in importance. While the newspaper, the Tribune, which was printed here in 1880, has disappeared, others have taken its place. The Sutton's Bay Bazzoo was published semi-occasionally by Sam. Cooley, but this too has finally disappeared, and now the Sen- tinel is keeping the outside world informed about what Sutton's Bay is doing.
PESHABATOWN.
This is an Indian village, named after the chief Peshaba, who was at the head of the settlement that located here, and who has been mentioned in connection with Fa-
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ther Mrack's missionary work among the Indians. It is located about midway be- tween Sutton's Bay and Omena in sections 2, 3 and IO. There is a school and a Cath- olic church here.
CAT'S-HEAD LIGHT.
Cat's-head Point, on which is located Cat's-head Lighthouse, is by road about nine miles from Northport, and is ever an object of interest to visitors, although its light- house does not offer the picturesque features so often possessed by these beacons of dan- gerous shores, being simply a strong, com- modious dwelling for the keeper and his family, having a small tower in which is kept, in the immaculate spotlessness ever re- quired by Uncle Sam, the great revolving globe of light that safeguards the approach to Grand Traverse bay.
Previous to 1853, when this light was es- tablished in the homely old brick tower that preceded the present structure, this bleak and dangerous coast was left without any aid to the mariner who might seek to find en- trance to the great bay that offers the safety of its sheltered harbor from any wind that blows. The bleaching bones of many a gal- lant craft that may still be seen where they were cast up by the furious waves beating up- on that pitiless shore, show signs of a few of the tragedies of half a century ago. On June 25, 1852, the Rev. Mr. Smith, with his wife and three children started in a small boat for Black River, with the object of placing the two older children in school. Mr. Smith's diary gives a few interesting pages regard- ing the trip. He says: "We sailed to the mouth of the bay, then towed against a strong head wind to Cat's-head-which is a
bluff, covered with cedar, projecting from the point into the lake a short distance, con- nected with the Point by a low reef of sand and small stones, mostly lime. It forms a grand waymark for navigators, being seen at a considerable distance, and is the last point on the lake shore as it drops off to- wards the mouth of Grand Traverse bay, which opens about three miles east. Here the 'Tribune,' a large, new schooner, loaded with wheat, went down with all on board. Not one was left to tell the tale of woe. None of the bodies have ever been found. The masts now lie on shore, broken off at the deck. When we moved here, three years ago, one mast which we saw was doubtless still standing in the vessel. It had , been chopped off. It is a gloomy reflection that such a vessel should go down with all on board, never more to be seen in this world." Three days later, after lying wind-bound at Cat's-head, he writes: "Being calm, we started without breakfast a little after sun- rise and rowed to Louis' village, where I got some potatoes and a tent left there for us, then moved to Onumuneese village, where we met Pepequa and learned from him that all was well at home. We are now two and one-half miles from home, directly west, after nearly four days' absence."
It may be of interest to note here that through severe storms, in which they were almost wrecked, by hard rowing and tow- ing, the little family finally reached their destination on July 17, almost a month after leaving their home, on a journey that now can be accomplished in less than half a day. No wonder that he thanks God fervently for their having been safely preserved from the perils of the deep.
In October, 1853, we hear of the arrival
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of Deputy United States Marshal Philo Beers, and on the following season of his being established as first keeper of Cat's- head Lighthouse. Previous to his coming to Grand Traverse Mr. Beers had served a term in the state legislature from Kent coun- ty. After settling in Leelanaw he was in 1858 again elected to the legislature, when he was succeeded as keeper of the lighthouse by his son, Henry Beers, who occupied the position until the election of President Lin- coln caused a change to be made, and Dr. Shetterly, a Republican keeper, was appoint- ed. It was about this time that the old light- house tower was torn down and the more modern building erected.
· Mr. Beers enjoyed the doubtful pleasure of sharing in the romantic adventures of those who during those years suffered from the raids of those pirates of the inland sea, Joe Smith's Mormon followers, who had es- tablished their temporal kingdom on "The Beavers beyant," and went forth to lawless pillage at their own sweet will. Many a tale is told by the early settlers of the mainland of what is known as "the Mormon raids." With their fleet of swift winged vessels, their sails tan-colored to shield them from observation at night, they would swoop down on the unsuspecting settlers slumber- ing quietly in their beds, and relieve them of any undefended property "with neatness and dispatch." Many a cargo of young stock, sheep, hogs, or fish and nets did these marauders bear away in spite of all precau- tions or watchfulness. Mr. Beers had on one occasion to lament the loss of all his nets and their contents, and on another oc- casion of all the lighthouse supplies. The very names of the dark-sailed fleet savor of
the buccaneer spirit, with their bold irony ; and one can imagine the lawless enjoyment with which they swooped down like some gigantic hawk and bore away their prey to the safe borders of their island kingdom. "Night-hawk," "Dark-Cloud," "Fly-by- night," "Dread-Naught," these were some of the appropriate names of the sturdy craft that, rigged wing and wing, would come tearing down into the bay and go again with none to stay. Many a night men lay in waiting for them, but generally those were the nights when they went elsewhere, as very few encounters are recorded.
But all this is long ago. It is a placid life that is led by the keeper of Cat's-head Light in these days, broken only by the storm king's rage as the great breakers bel- low on the shore, or the mournful cry of the fog whistle recently added to warn ves- sels away from the coast. The old Indian villages are all passed away, a few neglected burial places being all that is left to mark their former existence. The trails, and even the old "Carp river road," the first ever traveled here, are lost. Quiet farmsteads dot the shore from Leland to Cat's-head and on beyond, but not a village crowns the stretch of bluffs that make that grand shore where blue Lake Michigan shrouds her mys- teries. There the great eagles still build their nests, the wild sea gulls float like great pond-lily blossoms upon the waves, or soar aloft when storms are nigh, uttering their weird cry of fierce delight, but the white beach bears no more the wrecks of dauntless schooners and frail sail vessels. The old sail traffic is almost passed away with the vanished years. The many steamers, and the railroads that, like the trail of the serpent,
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have wound their sinuous length through every vale and hamlet, have taken from us the old time voyageur, and the bluff, brave
sailors of the past; albeit, good troth, we have now a choice of swift journeys, and of deaths !
CHAPTER V.
RESORTS AND RAILROADS OF LEELANAW COUNTY.
The summer resorts of the entire Trav- erse region have become of so much im- portance that a history of any portion of it would be quite incomplete without giving them some notice. Of these attractive places Leelanaw county has quite a number.
Spring Beach is in Elmwood township on the west shore of Grand Traverse bay, one mile north of Traverse City.
Traverse Beach, which is located three miles north of Traverse City, on the west shore of the bay, is naturally a very attractive place. It bid fair at one time to become a very popular resort. The grounds were beautifully laid out, a fine and commodious hotel, commanding a fine view of the bay, was built, but soon after its completion the owners became financially embarrassed, and the property passed into other hands and the resort has not been open for business for two years. The present owners, instead of trying to develop and make something of a most beautiful location that nature has done much for, appear to be satisfied with ex- pending their energies in fighting against the payment of their local taxes.
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