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 44
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 44
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Lee's Point, located on the west shore of the bay, about twelve miles north of Trav-
erse City, is a delightful spot, and will in time become a much sought resort.
Omena, which is one of the most delight- ful summer resorts in all northern Michigan, is located on the western arm of Grand Traverse bay, about twenty miles north of Traverse City, five miles south of Northport. As has before been stated this now famous resort was originally the seat of the late Rev. Peter Daugherty's Indian mission. It is situated on a high point of native forest, threaded with beautiful woodland drives and shady walks. There are now here many handsome cottages, to which additions are being made every season. There are two fine hotels. The Inn, which is located near the beach, and the Hotel Leelanaw, located on the bluff and commanding a fine view of the bay and surrounding country. Besides being reached daily by a line of steamers, Omena is now reached by the Traverse City, Leelanaw & Mainstique Railroad, and the Manistee & Northeastern will doubtless soon be extended from Provemont to this point.
All of the territory about Omena bay is fast becoming a big and popular summer resort. On the west side of the bay is The
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Clovers, embracing five or six beautiful and commodious cottages, the property of S. A. Keyes, which are filled every season to their utmost capacity.
Northport, which has been quite fully de- scribed in another part of this work, has been popular as a resort with a certain class of persons who have sought the quiet of a pleasant, invigorating nook away from the worry and bustle of business in which to spend a few of the hot days of summer, but it has been so far away from connection with the outside world by railroad, that the great bulk of visitors have not found it sufficiently easy of access to suit them. Now, however, since the completion of a railroad to this point, Northport is likely to soon become one of the most frequented resorts on the bay.
Northport Beach is a beautiful location just north of the village, upon which a large and beautiful hotel, with modern appoint- ments, was completed in the spring of 1903. It promises to become very popular with tourists and resorters.
Northport Point is a beautiful wooded point three miles from Northport, which separates Northport bay from the waters of Grand Traverse bay. The point is a mile in length, from five hundred to six hundred feet in width, and, at the narrowest point, is about two hundred feet wide. The location is an ideal one. A fine and well managed hotel is located here, called Cedar Lodge.
Fouch is a station on the Manistee & Northeastern Railroad, eight miles from Traverse City, at the south end of Carp lake. There is a hotel here. It is a popular resort for fisherman. Between Fouch and Bingham, on the east shore of Carp lake, there are a number of private summer re-
sorts owned by Traverse City people, and the number is being added to every year.
Fountain Point is a resort on Carp lake, about six miles from Fouch, located on the east shore of the lake near the Narrows, at the point where many years ago a fine flow- ing well was obtained in an attempt at bor- ing for oil. There is a good hotel here, open during the resort season only.
Provement, which is located at the nar- rowest point of Carp lake, now, that a branch of the Manistee & Northeastern Railroad is completed to it, is likely to develop into a popular resort.
Leland, located on the high ground at the inlet between the head of Carp lake and Lake Michigan, has become quite an attrac- tive point for summer visitors. It is reached by steamers on Carp lake running from Fouch, connecting at that point and also at Provemont with trains on the Man- istee & Northeastern Railroad.
Northland Beach occupies a well-selected location about a mile on the water front on the east shore of the Leelanaw peninsula. It can be reached by stage from Northport. Many cottages are being built at this resort,
Bingham, located on the east shore of Carp lake, bids fair to become a resort of considerable importance, since the comple- tion of the Traverse City, Leelanaw & Man- istique Railroad which has a station at this. point.
Burdickville, on the east shore of Glen lake, has for several years been patronized by a number of summer resorters. It is a retired, but very pleasant location.
Empire, located on the shore of Lake Michigan, since it can now be reached by railroad, will doubtless become a resort of importance. "
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The South Manitou island resorts have been patronized very liberally by Chicago people for a number of years. There are two resorts on the island, established by the Garden City Sand Company, one in the harbor on the east side and the other at the south end. Now that the island is connected by telegraph with the mainland, these re- sorts will doubtless be still more extensive- ly patronized.
LEELANAW RAILROADS.
Until the Manistee & Northeastern Rail- road was extended from Manistee to Trav- erse City Leelanaw county was entirely with- out railroad facilities. That road only reached two towns in the county, Solon and Elmwood, giving them two stations, Fouch and Solon. In the spring of 1903 a branch of this road was completed from Solon through Centerville and into Leland town- ship to Provemont, upon which passenger trains are now run regularly. Another ex- tension of the Manistee & Northeastern road in Benzie county to Platte gives railroad connection with Empire by way of the Em- pire Lumber Company's road.
The Traverse City, Leelanaw & Manis- tique Railroad was completed from Traverse City to Northport the present season, and regular passenger service was inaugurated on it the latter part of June, 1903. This road runs through a fine farming and fruit coun- try. After leaving Traverse City stops are made at the following stations: Hatch's Crossing, Bingham, Fountain Point, Sut- ton's Bay, The Clovers, Omena and North- port. The railroad company has had built a fine car ferry, having a capacity for carrying thirty-two cars, and elaborate cabin accom- modations for a large number of passengers. A slip is being constructed at Northport for this boat, which it is expected will be com- pleted by the first of September, when the ferry will commence making regular trips across the lake between Northport and Man- istique, where it will connect with railroads for all parts of the Upper Peninsula.
The establishment of this line to the Upper Peninsula will be of great interest and benefit, not only to Leelanaw county, but to the entire Grand Traverse region, providing a short line and quick transportation for the fruit products of the region to the Upper Peninsula towns, where a good market for them is always to be found.
CHAPTER VI.
OLD PIONEERS OF LEELANAW COUNTY.
William Gill was born in England in 1823 and came to the United States in 1849, and to Northport in 1855. He came to north- ern Michigan an invalid in search of health, and engaged to some extent in farming. In 1863 he began a mercantile business at Northport, which he successfully conducted for many years. In 1863 he was appointed postmaster of Northport, which position he held for over twenty years. He also held the office of county treasurer for fourteen years, and various town offices. He was married in 1851 to Martha Easterbrook, by whom he had four children. He died a few years since.
Jesse Morgan was born in the state of Vermont and came to Old Mission in 1849. He was engaged in farming, and in 1857 came to Northport and bought a farm. He enlisted in 1861 and served in the Army of the Potomac till 1864, when he died of dis- ease contracted in the service, leaving a widow and two sons.
Simeon Pickard, deceased, was born in Madison county, New York, in 1825. He came to North Manitou island in 1846 with his brother, Nicholas, and engaged in sup- plying boats with wood. At that date the travel was all by the lakes, as there were no railroads through this part of Michigan.
Boats called at the island daily, each way, and the small colony increased rapidly. There were no white people living on the mainland between Manistee and Presque . Isle on Lake Huron except at Mackinaw Island. There was at this time an Indian village where Leland now stands, contain- ing about three hundred persons. They used birch-bark canoes and often visited the island to fish and buy goods, as there was no place where they could trade nearer than Mackinaw island. In 1854 Mr. Pickard built a pier and established a wooding sta- tion on the west side of the island. He sold out and moved to Northport in 1857, and two years later moved to Leland, where he engaged in mercantile business, which he conducted for several years. Mr. Pick- ard served as postmaster of Leland for sev- en years, and was register of deeds for the county four years.
Nicholas .Pickard was born in Madison county, New York, in 1817. In 1846 he came from Buffalo, where he was engaged as his uncle's agent in supplying wood to steamboats, to the Manitou islands and es- tablished a station for the supply of wood to steamers plying between Chicago and Buffalo. There were at this time but two or three families on North Manitou and a
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wood station on South Manitou. In 1847 he sold his interest in the business at North Manitou and removed to Buffalo, where he remained two years and returned to North Manitou, engaging again in the wood busi- ness and operating a saw-mill; his family residing in Buffalo during the winters and on North Manitou summers. He removed to Leland in 1873 and constructed a pier on his property at that point, still continu- ing his business on North Manitou. He died in April, 1876.
The Rev. George Nelson Smith, prac- tically the first white man to penetrate the beautiful peninsula now known as Lee- lanaw county, was born at Swanton, near St. Albans, Vermont, October 25, 1807. Of a strongly religious type of character, such as was then a common outgrowth of the old Puritan stock of rugged New Eng- land, we find recorded in the daily diary kept by him from his boyhood until the end of his life, that, "At the age of six, when I was, in common with the rest of my father's family, given to God in baptism, the spirit of God strove with me and brought before me in thick array the sins which I had committed, but my heart not being sufficiently subdued I continued in sin, wishing to be happy yet unwilling to be saved." A sad instance of infant deprav- ity! And it was not until 1828 that he finally united with the Congregational church of his native town, and while contin- uing his course of education at the St. Al- bans Academy, began his study for the min- istry to which he felt himself inexorably called.
On July 4, 1829, he was married to Miss Arvilla A. Powers, of St. Albans, a cousin of Hiram Powers, the sculptor.
They remained in St. Albans until May, 1833, when learning that a Congregational colony was about to emigrate to Kalamazoo county, Michigan Territory, and believing that the new west offered a grander field for spiritual labor than the older land of his birth, Mr. Smith joined them and started on the long, tedious journey, which by steamboat, canal boat and team took twenty-one days and seventy dollars in gold to land himself and wife and infant son at Gull Prairie, now Richland, Michi- gan.
On February 15, 1834, he was invited to unite with the St. Joseph's presbytery, then holding its first session. This he did, with the understanding that he was to preach and receive his support from that body during the season. But he records that after receiving twelve candles to study by he heard no more about support.
But after his ordination, in February, 1836, he began missionary work in the southern part of Michigan under the Home Missionary Society of Detroit, and it was during this time that his attention was first drawn to the Indian mission work by a let- ter in the Christian Herald giving an ac- count of the labors of a missionary among the Indians beyond the Rocky Mountains. Of this Mr. Smith writes: "As I read this letter I long to be there, and my soul burns within me to engage in this holy work!" And no doubt it was this that led him to begin his work among the Indians of Mich- igan, in which he continued to the end of his life.
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His efforts among them resulted in forming a colony at Allegan, which in 1839 removed to Black River, now Holland City, where they remained ten years. These were
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years of great hardship and suffering. Sickness and death were added to the lone- ly isolation from all the society and com- forts of civilization. Little ones were born and buried. But four out of ten survived the trials of those dreadful years, and to those the wolves of hunger and privation were fa- miliar visitors. Only through trackless for- ests, by canoe along lake and river, and on the backs of Indians along the narrow trails, could supplies be obtained, and storms often caused much delay in their transportation, so that the scanty stores often failed entirely, and the invalid wife and little childreen, alone for days in the wilds, suffered for food.
On one occasion a long continued storm detained the boats until all the supplies in the little home were exhausted. Mrs. Smith was sick, her three children, the eldest but eight years old, were hungry and discour- aged; no one was near to aid them, when there came feebly in an old Indian wo- man, more than ninety years old and almost blind. She too was waiting for her friends to come with their supplies. When she heard that the little ones had no food she ex- pressed her sympathy and went away. After some time she returned, bringing about a quart of wintergreen berries that she had gathered, saying that they would keep the poor little children from starving till their father came; as it fortunately did.
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Another time they were left until the only thing they had to eat was a soup made of the young ears of corn grated up, cob and all, as the kernels were not grown enough to eat. Yet never through all their bitter years does one page of Mr. Smith's diary breathe a complaint or regret. His was the spirit of the early martyrs, ready to cheer- fully suffer or die for their convictions. To
him the conversion of souls was paramount to all other considerations.
Ever a kind and loyal husband, father and friend, of the utmost probity of char- acter, leading to his filling many public posi- tions of trust, intelligent and well read on all subjects of public interest and ready to as- sist in every progressive movement, yet his religious zeal made him regard all things else as of minor importance. To his austere character the hardships and trials of his daily life were but trivial difficulties to be met and overcome. They caused neither wavering nor repining, "nor shadow of turning." As a celibate priest he would have been an ad- mirable example. As a husband and father let him be credited with the fact that no word of his indicates that he ever for a mo- ment felt that he was sacrificing his family for his cause. He simply gave them as a part of himself for the accomplishment of the one great object.
His wife, as loyal to the duties of wife and mother as he to his chosen work, bore with cheerful heroism the sufferings that he accepted with a zealot's joy. But to her, a delicate and cultured woman, life was a long martyrdom of soul and body, whose history is written only on the pages of the recording angels.
Another problem soon arose before them, as their children reached the age when the question of their education became impor- tant. It was no small matter at that time to send their children away from home to seek the advantages now so easily secured, as traveling facilities were difficult and ex- penses many, and it required much courage and self denial to send them far from home and alone. But in 1851 they sent their son and one of the two older daughters to Oli-
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GRAND TRAVERSE AND LEELANAW COUNTIES.
vet, and after two or three years there, to Oberlin College, where they continued un- til 1858. The son, George, after his gradua- tion studying for the ministry and con- tinuing in that office until his death in 1897.
During all the earlier years of the settle- ment of Leelanaw county Mr. Smith was the only physician here. Having studied medi- cine with an uncle in Canada while very young, he had acquired sufficient knowledge of drugs to enable him to successfully treat such cases of illness as occurred in his own family and among the white and Indian set- tlers of the county.
He was the first judge of probate of Grand Traverse and Leelanaw counties, holding that office for many years. He also held many other public offices, besides preaching continuously to both white and Indian congregations, to the end of his life. During his earlier work for the Indians he made use of an interpreter; but in many ways this was an inconvenience, and he soon acquired sufficient knowledge of the Indian language to enable him to preach to them in their own tongue. At first he conducted services for the white and Indian population together, preaching first in English then in Indian. But as the white settlers continued to arrive and make homes at Northport the little log schoolhouse soon became over- crowded, and finding that the Indians were being crowded out Mr. Smith concluded to cease the preaching in English lest his mis- sion work should suffer. But the village people then decided to secure his services for a church organization of their own, and in 1856 he became the minister of the Congre- gational society of Northport, helping to form the church organization, and later giv- ing them the land on which to erect their
church and assisting to build it, remaining as their minister until in the 'seventies, and also preaching at Carp River, now Leland, as well as at other places.
Mr. Smith died at his old home in April, 1881, his wife surviving him until April,. 1895. Two daughters are still living, Mrs. Mary J. Wolfe, of Traverse City, Michigan, and Mrs. A. A. Powers, of Northport. These two, with Mr. James McLaughlin, of Elk Rapids, and his sister, Mrs. A. Young, of Traverse City, Michigan, being the four survivors of the first colony of white set- tlers in Leelanaw county, who met face to face at the recent meeting of the old settlers of Grand Traverse bay, for the first time in over fifty years.
Among those closely identified with the early church work of the Grand Traverse region was the Rev. Solomon S. Steele, who was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in No- vember. 1812, coming to the Grand Traverse region in November, 1859, as pastor of the Methodist Episcopal churches at Traverse City and Old Mission, and also as presiding elder of the district, which at that time in- cluded "all the territory lying between Mack- inaw and Muskegon." Over this extent of district there were at that time but ten preachers.
Mr. Steele's labors took him over a wild and varied field, and the pioneer preacher was in a position to not only taste the joys of or- dinary pioneer life, but to add to it all the flavors to be drawn from the adventures inci- dent to traveling by any means possible through vast tracts of wilderness, with means of subsistence almost as precarious as that of the birds and beasts. He might find a bed and supper at the end of the day, or he might lie rolled up in his blanket with only
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the starry heavens for a canopy, and his sup- per only "that stuff which dreams are made of."
Pioneer history, and particularly mis- sionary pioneer history, is never dull read- ing; or at least it would not be if it could ever be faithfully and fully written-which it never was and never will be. The chance incidents that we hear repeated or write down are life a few shining beads upon a rosary. But the real days that were lived were every one of them a history of fierce, determined endeavor, and of battle against obstacles that left a mark upon the lives that lived them like the dents of bullets against the walls of a fortress. All honor to the brave hearts that bore the marks!
It will be interesting to condense here a few facts and incidents in Mr. Steele's life as told by himself :
"I was licensed to preach in New Britain, Connecticut, in the fall of 1836, and with an older brother immediately began the work of holding meetings. A small village, Farm- ington Plains, was where we begun our ministry. No Methodist meetings had ever been held here. On reaching the school- house we found it. packed, even the doors and windows occupied by a curious crowd. Had a circus been advertised instead of a religious meeting the excitement would have been no greater. We closed the services with the announcement that another service would be held at two o'clock. As the hour drew near people from all directions, and in all manner of conveyances, were seen hur- rying to the school-house. The crowd out-> side was equal to that inside.
"I will make no attempt to describe the feeling with which I arose to open this, my first meeting. We continued these meetings
to the beginning of autumn with unabated interest on the part of the people. During all of our visits we were not asked by any to take so much as a cup of cold water, in- variably taking our lunch with us. At pres- ent the very grove in which we ate our lunch dinners is the annual camping ground for thousands of worshipers.
"Entering the itinerant ministry was to me an important event. It occurred in 1839. From New Britain I came to Huron, Ohio, in 1837, intending to offer myself to the Ohio conference. I was surprised to find Huron within the bounds of the Michigan conference. Palmer Mission, Michigan, was the place of my first appointment. Palmer was at that time the county seat of St. Clair county. My circuit embraced all settlements between Lexington, on Lake Huron, and Mt. Clemens, on Lake St. Clair; also the villages of Port Huron, Palmer (now St. Clair), Newport and Algonac. At Newport and Belle River was witnessed the greatest display of saving grace. At the latter place our meetings were held in a private house, which was nightly thronged with a multi- tude of people, coming from miles away, on foot, on horseback, with oxen and sleds, the mothers carrying their babes in their arms, perhaps to find no place to even stand within the house, on their arrival. Everything pos- sible was done to make room for the nightly increasing crowd. The beds were piled one on top of another, and everything else on top of the beds. The floor separating the upper and lower apartments was removed from the middle, making galleries of the sides above, to which the younger people climbed upon a suspended ladder.
"My wife, leaving her domestic cares with her mother, and riding on horseback
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behind me thirty miles over roads where no carriages could go, rendered me valuable service at this wonderful manifestation of saving grace. The whole people, with very few known exceptions, professed to be con- verted at these meetings. My entire receipts for this my first year's salary were less than one hundred dollars. To make my situation more embarassing, the fifty dollars of mis- sionary appropriation to the mission was paid to me in 'wild cat' money, which was nearly worthless. I went to the circuit with fifty dollars in my pocket and a good horse, and left it with no money and two hundred dollars in debt for the support of my family of six persons and the transcient company which in those days always found welcome at the parsonage.
"After two years on the Palmer mission I was by the bishop assigned to the Utica circuit. From Port Huron I sent my goods by water to Detroit, taking my family direct to Utica by land. Upon sending men with teams for my goods at Detroit, they found them with an attachment upon them, so that they could not be moved until the sum for which they were held, sixty dollars, was can- celled. Without my knowledge the men who went for the goods reported the case to John Owen, who, with the assistance of other noble Methodists in Detroit, released the goods by the payment of the debt and sent them with the men to Utica. This debt was occasioned by the loss of a pony which I borrowed for the use of a friend of mine who proposed to accompany me around the circuit. Stopping at Newport we put our horses in a pasture. Being told that the pony was a notorious jumper we tied him head and foot. Upon going to catch him in the morning he jumped the fence, plunged
into the river to swim across and was drowned.
"My next field of labor was the Oakland circuit. All things considered, this was the most notable field of labor in my entire min- istry. Over three hundred persons professed to have been saved. It was the year of the great Millerite excitement, 1843. I baptized in the spring of this year eighty-three per- sons in one day-part of them at a lake north of Oxford Corners, part of them at a lake in Brandon, some by sprinkling, some by pouring and some by immersion. This was. a year of the greatest suffering on the part of the family. They saw a time when they had: nothing but potatoes to eat, and the last po- tato being cooked. Because of our living in the country it was difficult for the stew- ards to reach us on account of the severity of the winter and the depth of snow. No money was looked for in those years. Some- times store orders would get our groceries and the stewards were expected to supply our provisions. The only money received was from the collections at quarterly meet- ings, which was divided between the preach- ers and presiding elder."
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