charlevoix county history preservation society · winter 2010 page 2 volume 5, number 4 from the...

serving the

Charlevoix County History Preservation Society

946 N. Advance road, Boyne City, Michigan 49712

www.cchps.info Winter 2010 VOLUME 5, NUMBER 4

MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND

PLAN now TO ATTEND OUR UPCOMING MEETINGS!

Monday, March 22Monday, March 22Monday, March 22Monday, March 22nd nd nd nd , 2010 , 2010 , 2010 , 2010 ———— 7:00 PM 7:00 PM 7:00 PM 7:00 PM

Point and Shoot … History! Speaker: Jerry Hummel

Lower Level Community Room Boyne District Library, Boyne City, MI

Monday, April 2Monday, April 2Monday, April 2Monday, April 26666thththth, 2010 , 2010 , 2010 , 2010 ———— 7:00 PM 7:00 PM 7:00 PM 7:00 PM

Doing Oral History … Stress Free, Enjoyable, & Priceless Speaker: Mark Postma

Lakeview Manor Common Room 451 Water Street, East Jordan, MI

Monday May 24Monday May 24Monday May 24Monday May 24thththth, 2010 , 2010 , 2010 , 2010 ———— 7:00 PM 7:00 PM 7:00 PM 7:00 PM

History of Native American Basketry — Focus: Transitional Basketry in Michigan

Speaker: Karen Lewis Greensky Indian Mission Church — Susan Hall

There is no charge for these events

Everyone — members, friends, and visitors — is welcome.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Georganna Monk, President [email protected]

231-582-5326

Raechel Wright, VP [email protected]

Jane Prebble, Treasurer [email protected]

231-582-6202

Tony Duerr, Secretary [email protected]

231-237-9298

Patrick McCleary [email protected]

231-348-8255

Mark Postma [email protected]

Gerald Hummel

[email protected] 231-533-4405

Cheri Leach

cheri@ ravenhilldiscoverycenter.org

231-536-3369

Hannah David [email protected]

231-536-7103

Curious about this image? Read about it inside.

A member of the History Society of Michigan A member of the Michigan Oral History Association

Winter 2010 Volume 5, Number 4

From the President’s Pen… Dear CCHPS members and friends, This is the easiest letter I have ever written. If there were a difficult aspect, I’d say it is that I cannot write “THANK YOU” large enough!! The response to our end of the year solicitation letter has been wonderful! At a time in our country’s history when we have such tough choices to make regarding which organizations to support, I am proud to know that so many of you feel our mission to preserve Charlevoix County’s history for future generations is important too. To the many members who volunteered this past year to help make our historical programs so outstanding and well attended…again, THANK YOU! YOU have given us the encouragement to jump into 2010 with our running shoes on! So, while many take this time of year to relax, the CCHPS board of directors has been very busy planning a 2010 itinerary of exciting programs for our members. The March and April programs focus on demystifying our 2 long standing projects: Digitizing the old records found in the township halls, and our oral history project “Voices from the Past”. These are CCHPS’ oldest ongoing history preservation projects and we hope you will enjoy seeing the progress we’ve made, learning how easy it is do, and best of all, join us in the fun. We have almost lined up all 9 programs for 2010! We continue to chisel away at ongoing projects like Undine, Park Avenue Prowl, and the 1910 Water Works Building. We are also very close to finding a home for CCHPS! So sit back, put your feet up, and read all about it! Oh, and if you can’t find this newsletter to refer to later, just hop online and find it and everything else you need at our website: www.cchps.info.

Respectfully submitted,

Georganna Monk

Welcome… We now have over 70 members!! We would like to extend a big welcome and thank you to all of our members, new, returning, and renewing. Your support makes it possible for us to “preserve the past for the future.”

Website Updates… We’ve had nearly 700 visits to our new website since its debut last March. Visitors have looked at about 2000 pages. People from all over the U.S., and from several foreign countries, including Qatar, Russian Federation, Finland, Germany, the Philippines, Ireland, and Canada, have visited. Of course, most of our visitors are from Northern Michigan. Don’t forget you can go to our website to purchase books of local historical interest by Michigan authors too.

Wondering who our members are? Wondering whether you ever paid your membership dues? We keep a list of active members on our website. Select “About Us” and then “Members.”

Check often for new information – we update the site every week at least. www.cchps.info

The Contribution Only You Can Make …

You have talents and gifts, interests and passions. Our projects need you! Now that winter is here and our busy summers are a distant memory, do you have a few hours to give CCHPS? Take a minute to look over some of our programs and projects. We’ve listed them in previous newsletters and they’re on our website. See one that interests you? Let us know. No experience necessary. And here’s another secret: it’s fun! Grab a couple of friends and make it a party. Call any board member to see how you can help!

Organizational Details… Since our last newsletter, we have welcomed a new Board member, Mark Postma. Mark graduated from East Jordan High School and still lives in the area. We are fortunate to have Mark on the board – he has years of experience on the East Jordan Chamber of Commerce, and yes, he is the former mayor of East Jordan. You can find out more about Mark by reading his biography on our website. Select “About Us” and then “Directors.”


Upcoming Program Particulars … POINT AND shoot … HISTORY! Monday, March 22, 7:00 PM

With the advent of point and shoot cameras, the opportunity to use digital photography to save and share historical documents and objects is within everyone’s reach. It’s easy, fun and rewarding.

Jerry Hummel, who has done extensive digitization for CCHPS, will share his experience in digitizing local documents and information on simple equipment and easy techniques you can use. He will discuss how, using digital photos, you can save images of institutional and family documents, make them more accessible and share them with people in your interest group.

See examples of what CCHPS has already digitized in various townships.

Bring your point and shoot camera and try out the techniques on sample documents and artifacts.

Join us on Monday, March 22nd, at 7:00 pm in the Community Room (lower level) of the Boyne District Library, and don’t forget your camera! Jerry can be contacted at 231-533-4405 if you have any questions about this program.

DOING ORAL HISTORY … STRESS FREE, ENJOYABLE, AND PRICELESS Monday, April 26, 7:00 pm We all know people with great stories and life experiences. Don’t find yourself wishing you had saved their stories in their own words when it’s too late.

Join Mark Postma, local history enthusiast, as he shares methods to take away the stress by simplifying the process. Learn how to choose questions tailored to your project and interviewee and see what new and inexpensive technology and software can do to free you from dragging around a tape recorder, and help you make your project everything it can be!

Mark invites anyone who would like to contribute a bit of oral history for our CCHPS collection to come to the program. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to make saving those “Voices from the Past” for your own family and for that of Charlevoix County stress free, enjoyable, and priceless!

This program will be held Monday, April 26th, at 7 PM in the Lakeview Manor Common Room at 451 Water Street (M-32) in East Jordan. The entrance to the parking area is off Echo Street, 100 yards from M-32 intersection. (Echo Street is 2 tenths of a mile EAST of intersection of M-32 and M-66 and 2 tenths of a mile WEST of Bridge and Sportsman’s Park.) Mark can be reached at 231-536-7929 or 231-675-4050.

HISTORY OF NATIVE AMERICAN BASKETRY -- FOCUS: TRANSITIONAL BASKETRY IN MICHIGAN Monday, May 24, 7:00 PM This program by noted preservationist and collector Karen Lewis will be held at Greensky Indian Mission Church in Susan Hall. We will publish details of this program in our next newsletter. Don’t forget to bring your baskets and your friends.

Charlevoix County’s Contribution to WWI Retired Sheriff George T. Lasater has not retired from writing the about our county’s veterans. After his very successful publication “Charlevoix County’s Contribution to WW II” , he is researching the stories of WWI and Korean War veterans in hopes of publishing two more books. He welcomes information on all veterans and is looking in particular for photographs and information about the following 15 WWI vets who died as a result of non-combat injuries or illnesses. He asks that anyone with information to please call him at 231-582-7001. George A. Crouter Henry Johnecheck Joseph Price Clyde Ray Solomon Robert M. Ashmore Clinton B. Sedgeman Christie C. Empey Joseph Pletka Gibberd, UNK Harry Potter Harold J. Cole Leland M. Hibbard Dean Elliot Scroggie Jr. Joseph Thomas Earl C. Burt


What’s New With the Park Avenue Prowl… Charlevoix officials are still discussing the future of the Lennie Ingalls home at 108 Park Avenue. Meanwhile, Raechel Wright submitted a preliminary application to the State for a determination of the building’s eligibility for historic designation (including many photographs taken by Georganna Monk), and here is Robert Christensen’s reply:

I see the house meeting the criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in the following two ways:

The house appears to meet national register criterion B for its direct association with Ben Campbell. The preliminary questionnaire for the house explains that Charlevoix’s early history is all about water – shipbuilding, shipping, docks, fueling ships, and the people who carried on all of this activity. Campbell seems to have played a significant and essential role in Charlevoix’s maritime history during the later nineteenth century when as a shipbuilder. The questionnaire refers to two specific ships, the schooner W. A. Smith and tug that became the Ben Campbell. Campbell also has direct associations with the house as its builder and partial owner through his marriage to the house’s original owner, Lennie Beers Ingalls. The questionnaire doesn’t state specifically that Ben and Lennie Campbell lived there following the marriage; if so, there’s another direct association.

The house also appears to meet criterion C for its architecture. With its two-story, side-gable, one room deep, center-entrance form, the house exemplifies a vernacular house form known as the “I-house” (for the long and narrow form) that was in common use along the eastern seaboard and was brought to the Midwest with the westward migration. I-houses are not rare in Michigan, but this one appears from the photos to be more intact than most that we see. If there are other examples in Charlevoix, I don’t know how many. In any event, as the fourth oldest house in Charlevoix, it is presumably the oldest example.

The charlevoixparkavenue.com website shows that the oldest homes in Charlevoix form a cluster along Park Avenue in the immediate vicinity of this house and the Congregational Church is also very close by. This sounds like a key historic resource for Charlevoix to me. The website doesn’t show current photos of all these houses, but it seems to me there is at least the potential for a small historic district in this area that could encompass all these early Charlevoix buildings. A district, particularly one with a local designation, would make the federal and state rehab tax credits available for these houses.

For our history buffs, here are excerpts from the Preliminary Application:

The Ben Campbell house was built in 1870 by ship-builder Ben Campbell for 21-year-old widow Lennie (Magdalena) Beers Ingalls, whom he later married. Campbell and his partner, Samuel See, had been part of the Mormon settlement on Beaver Island. They are known to have built the 50-foot schooner W.A. Smith (named for the editor of the local newspaper, who had arrived in 1869 by stage and on foot with his printing press on his back), and a tugboat for captain and fisherman Geik Geiken, who years later renamed the tug the Ben Campbell.

The home is the 4th-oldest structure in Charlevoix. It stands on the first block of what was then called “Main Street.” The oldest building in Charlevoix is across the street; its neighbor to the east is the second-oldest, and its western neighbor is the third-oldest. Across the street from its western neighbor is the First Congregational Church, which was built in 1883 and is on the state Registry of Historic Sites. Many of the prominent pioneer families lived on Main Street, and many of their homes still stand.

Lennie’s father, Philo Beers, had been the builder and second lighthouse keeper at Northport; he arrived in Charlevoix in 1865, purchased land on the Pine River channel, and built what is now the oldest building remaining in Charlevoix, now 103 Park Avenue. In Charlevoix, he was the postmaster, the probate judge, and a druggist. Lennie’s house is across the street from Philo’s. It is part of a partially-intact pioneer settlement one block from Round Lake, one block from the Pine River Channel, and one block from Lake Michigan, in the heart of the Pine River settlement that became Charlevoix.

Lennie’s husband Almon’s death was the first one recorded in Charlevoix County. Her son’s birth shortly after the death of her husband was the second one recorded in Charlevoix County. Lennie eventually married Campbell, and the home stayed in the family until the city purchased the property in 1995.

We should emphasize that the history of Charlevoix is the history of water. Early settlers, both Native and European, arrived by water. They made their livings by the water. The town was originally called Pine River after the river that connected its large inland lake to Lake Michigan. Father Charlevoix’s book about his travels in the area in the late 1600s describes the site of the future settlement, and the small island (probably “Fisherman’s Island”) that lay just off its coast. “King” Jesse Strang’s Mormon settlements on the mainland, and more famously on Beaver Island, shaped the communities that followed. Ship builders, ship captains, people who built docks or provided lumber to power steamships, were the leaders of their communities. Ben Campbell was one of these men. We also believe that the story of Lennie is the story of all pioneer women. They endured hardships we can hardly imagine. A cast bronze monument in our local cemetery (built, coincidentally by Samuel See, Ben Campbell’s sometime business partner), has four sides. The first side memorializes Lennie’s first husband, Almon Ingalls, who died at the age of 28. The second side memorializes her infant son, “Ally,”


who died before his second birthday. The third side memorializes her beloved father, Philo Beers, who died a year and a half later. And the fourth side memorializes the daughter she and Ben had, the daughter who died at age nine, and whose “light” they “seek in every corner of the house.” Preserving that house ensures that that the stories of pioneer women such as Lennie are not lost.

The Park Avenue Prowl’s website is www.charlevoixparkavenue.com.

Grants The Grants Committee is working on proposals to help fund several projects. The newest one was actually resurrected from a year ago. We will soon have a place to work, a home, and that will make this project possible.

Collections Management – we will set up a computer, scanner, copier, storage, and everything else we need to get all of the records we’re collecting cataloged and stored properly. Once we get that completed, we’ll be on our way to making all of this information accessible to you for your use and enjoyment.

1910 Water Works Building – Exciting Update: On January 26, 2010, Boyne City City Manager Mike Cain requested approval by City Commission to do two things: 1) Obtain detailed estimates for restoration, involving two different experts who have both offered their services free, and 2) Seek an Infrastructure Capacity Enhancement Grant covering much of the cost of restoration, based on the building being re-purposed as a water booster pump station. CCHPS will seek grants to build a history display in the building, thereby contributing

to the match required for the City’s grant. 11January 26, 2010, City Manager Mdo two things:

Past Program Highlights… CHARLEVOIX COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY’S 3RD ANNUAL RESEARCH & RESOURCES OPEN HOUSE

On Saturday, October 24, 2009 in conjunction with Family History Month, CCHPS teamed up with area organizations and businesses to share information and resources with the public to assist with their family history and genealogical research. This event, which was free to the public, was attended by more than 50 people. A big thank you to CCHPS members Donna Moll (pictured), Doreen Monk, Hannah David, Jerry Hummel and Jane Prebble. Extra special “Thank-Yous” go to CCHPS member Retired Sheriff George T. Lasater who was one hand to sign copies of his book “Charlevoix County’s Contribution to WWII”, and to CCHPS board member and President of CCGS, Patrick McCleary for organizing this event. We were not only able to share with the public CCHPS mission and projects and programs, but to enlist 5 new members that day! Mary Ann Scott was the winner of the 1837 map of Michigan drawing that we sponsored. Please plan to attend the 4th Annual “Research & Resources” Open House in October 2010!

ANNUAL HOLIDAY DINNER AT THE JORDAN INN

Our Holiday Dinner, complete with guided tour of the historic Jordan Inn in downtown East Jordan held on Monday, November 16, 2009, was nothing short of spectacular! Twenty-eight people attended the event organized by our CCHPS Treasurer, Jane Prebble.

Jane also donated the door prizes for the evening, won by Linda Gremel and David Miles. After a fabulous meal, Inn owner Jane Krumholz gave a brief history of the Inn and surprised each attendee with a booklet “Letters of Hattie Jamison and William Pitt Porter 1880-1881” which she prepared especially for our event.

Following Jane’s presentation, she led us on a tour of this beautifully restored home in East Jordan. This memorable evening concluded our programs for 2009.


November 27 Marks the Closing of the Tannery Bob Morgridge, local historian and retired history teacher, wrote the following article in 2009. He is currently doing further research about the Tannery. He welcomes any information, pictures, and memorabilia anyone may want to share with him, in particular, about the interior workings and layout of the Tannery. Bob may be reached at 231-547-6936 or at [email protected].

Upon the site of the Harborage Condominiums once was located the Boyne City Tannery Company. This coming November 27th commemorates the closing of the leather-making business 40 years ago.

The history of the Tannery began somewhere around the turn of the century, when two men got together. One was William H. White, Boyne's most prosperous lumber baron. The other was a-30-year old experienced Canadian tanner, William Sutherland Shaw. The self-made lumberman persuaded the imaginative tanner to come to Boyne and look over the possibility of erecting a tannery. As Shaw surveyed the site he realized that the construction of a tannery was a good deal for both. The White Lumber Company was virtually swimming in hemlock bark, and for Shaw, the bark was

virtually free. This was important because in 1901 hemlock bark was the critical agent in the process of converting raw hides to leather.

So, on May10, 1901, workmen began digging the foundations for the Tannery.

The Tannery was involved in the operation of transforming a stiff, hairy hide into flexible pieces of shoe leather. The hides came here mainly by rail from Africa, Australia and South America—especially Paraguay and Argentina.

In 1902, the BOYNE CITIZEN reported that Shaw had a $150,000 capital investment in the Tannery. He had 75 men on the payroll, paying them an average of $1.85 per day. He needed 500 cords of hemlock bark per month to tan 2,500,000 pounds of leather worth $500,000. From 1901 to about 1925 the processing method used at the Tannery was called vegetable tanning, meaning hemlock bark rather than some other chemical was used in the tanning process. People throughout the United Stated walked on the shoes whose soles were produced in Boyne.

Over the years Shaw was always willing to experiment in order to improve the efficiency of his operations. Sometimes he disappeared for months at a time, to return with new ideas on how to improve the process of tanning leather. It is said that he went to other tanneries around the country and worked as a common laborer to borrow their methods. Some say he was recklessly extravagant in his attempts to improve his operations and had to be held in check for the sake of economy over modernization.

Shaw was considered deeply religious, humanely polite, an astute businessman, and highly interested in civic affairs. Although he traveled with the best of company, hosting many gala events at his home, he was, at the same time, a person unperturbed at finding grease under his fingernails. The late Herb Schneider recalled that Mr. Shaw could be walking somewhere in the Tannery and see an employee having a problem. He’d removed his suit coat, and get on his hands and knees trying to help the employee fix the problem.

In 1938, he sold his interest to the Howe Leather Company in Boston, a company he had business connections with throughout his leather-making life. He moved to Oregon and his home was vacated. The Boyne City burial records state that his ashes were sent from Oregon to be placed beside his wife in the Maple Lawn Cemetery on July 28, 1973. The records stated that he died at 76 years of age which would make his death around 1945.

The Tannery survived the passing of the lumbering era, persevered during the chaos of the depression and stubbornly remained the backbone of Boyne's economy for 68 years. Finally, due to the development of the synthetic shoe goods and the demanded implementation of necessary, but costly pollution control equipment, the Tannery was forced to close. With the demise of the Tannery, on November 27, 1969, the last remnants of Boyne’s lumber era faded into the past.

Photographs accompanying this article, from the top:

Cliff Inman sounding the whistle on the last day of operation The Tannery prior to its razing Workmen digging the foundations for the Tannery, May of 1901


Your local libraries — a great resource A library -- what better destination could there be for a low-cost winter outing? Most libraries have county and state biographical histories; local history compilations; census records; and free access to Ancestry.com. Each of the five public libraries in Charlevoix County has its own charm. The best way to learn about them is to pay a visit, of course, but we thought we’d tell you about some of the resources available to aid you in your research. The Beaver Island District Library has collections on Beaver Island, the Irish, Michigan, the Great Lakes, and local newspapers since 1955. It’s located at 26400 Donegal Bay Rd., Beaver Island, 231-448-2701. The Boyne District Library has a great genealogy collection, including periodicals such as Ancestry, Internet Genealogy, Family Tree Magazine, and Family Chronicle; books from Genealogy Online for Dummies, From My Grandmother’s Chest of Drawers, Tracing Your Family History, Discovering the History of Your House and Your Neighborhood, and Discover Your Roots. It also has a copy of Snyder / West Family Reunion: September 18, 2004, by CCHPS president Georganna Monk. Local newspapers are available on microfilm; and birth, death, and marriage records for Boyne City are available. The library is located at 201 E. Main St., Boyne City, 231-582-7861. The BDL has a good website as well: http://www.boynelibrary.org/index.html The Charlevoix Public Library’s Michigan Room is set aside for the study of the culture, literature, science, and history of northern Michigan. Two recent additions to the room are a color scanner and digital microfilm machine. The scanner will scan color or black & white photographs, slides, and documents, and save them to a flash drive. It has OCR (optical character recognition) software so scanned documents can be saved as editable files as well as image files. The library has documents dating to the 1860s on microfilm, and the new reader allows for better focusing and manipulation. It will also scan film and slides to a digital format, and will print, copy, and save information to CDs or flash drives. As part of the Charlevoix Oral Traditions Project, the library has 30 DVDs filmed in high definition by local videographer and interviewer Ric Pierpont. Read the brochure about this project here: http://www.charlevoixlibrary.org/research/documents/OralTraditionsBrochure22008.pdf The library has a number of other resources. For example, All of the obituaries from the Charlevoix Courier, the local newspaper, from 1900 to the present, have been scanned, indexed, and placed online. The library is located at 220 Clinton St., Charlevoix. The website is http://www.charlevoixlibrary.org. The Crooked Tree District Library has two branches, one in Walloon Lake at 2203 Walloon St. (231-535-2111) and the other in Boyne Falls at 3008 Main St. (231-549-2277). The best way to find out what these libraries have to offer is to visit them. Their website is http://www.crookedtreelibrary.org. The Jordan Valley District Library is another library that requires a visit. Among its offerings are the Historical Image Gallery, the Charlevoix County Profile, and access to the Michigan Genealogy Web. The library maintains an alphabetical obituary file, and a set of binders with collected and assorted local history articles sorted by subject. Of special note is a great new tool for searching old newspapers, part of the Michigan Newspaper Project. The library sent all of its microfilm of newspapers out to be scanned. The result is a collection of newspapers in pdf format, which are text searchable. The collection begins with the 1902 Charlevoix County Herald and runs through the 2008 editions of the East Jordan Journal. While there are some gaps and missing papers, it has become a wonderful tool for anyone searching for historical events or family history. Selections may be printed at the library, or if you can access your email online, you can send them to yourself or anyone else. The library is at 1 Library Lane, East Jordan, 231-536-7131. (Located in the parking lot of East Jordan High School.) The Google Library – is this local? Well, yes. It’s as close as your personal computer, or the one you use at your local library. Google has a newspaper archive search that is free. Go to Google (www.google.com) and click on NEWS. Then scroll down and click on “Archives.” In an advanced search you may choose a span of time, specific words, language, and whether you are looking for free content, or are willing to pay for articles. A timeline will show up with your search results that diagrams the number of articles by the span of years in your search. Google has many other services that could be of help. Try Google BOOKS, and then see what’s available for “American History.” Be careful with Google – it can be addictive!

WINTER 2010 - VOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 CHARLEVOIX COUNTY HISTORY PRESERVATION SOCIETY 946 N. Advance Road BOYNE CITY, MI 49712


A Special Invitation…

The Mission of the Charlevoix County History Preservation Society is to promote understanding and appreciation of the heritage of the people of Charlevoix County through collaboration with the townships thereof and the public by searching out, collecting, preserving, and interpreting artifacts of historical and cultural significance. Membership in the Charlevoix County History Preservation Society is open to anyone interested in the mission, objectives, and purposes of the society. Would you, or do you know of someone who would, be interested in taking part in the preservation of our county’s history. Participation may be in a variety of ways… but it all starts with taking the first step. Won’t you please take that step and join us? Collector- Individual: $15.00 Collector- Family: $25.00 Preserver: $50.00 to $99.00 Protector: $100.00 to $499.00 Collaborator: $500.00 and above.

Charlevoix County History Preservation Society is a nonprofit corporation that has been recognized as exempt under §501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Check with your tax advisor to determine what portion of your dues are tax deductible.

Please direct all membership dues to:

CCHPS 946 N. Advance Road Boyne City, MI 49712.

charlevoix county history preservation society · winter 2010 page 2 volume 5, number 4 from the...

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