ARCADIA
BEAR LAKE
ONEKAMA
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MANISTEE
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Cemetery tour tells story from 1918 pandemic By Lyle Matteson Arcadia Area Historical Society In August 2010, local historian Bonnie Hughes conducted a cemetery tour at Conway Cemetery just south of Arcadia, Michigan. As she approached headstones for the Argue family her mood grew somber, and she said, “This is a very tragic story. ... Arcadia was being ravaged by the Spanish Flu in 1918. Maybe you all heard about it. These people were living down near Pierport, the Argue family.” Neighbors who had not seen the family for a while became concerned. Bonnie continued, “They noticed an odd smell by the house, so somebody went in and checked.” The entire family of two adults and ten children “were so sick they couldn’t get up to get help, and of course there were no telephones in those days.” The story evolved over the years, but here are the details we can piece together from death certificates, U.S. Census data, and what we know today about the disease and its impact specifically on one local family. THE 1918 PANDEMIC The Spanish Flu outbreak began in 1917, but the peak occurred in the second wave in 1918, when the flu mutated into a much more virulent form in military camps. When soldiers traveled to other camps or returned home, they spread the disease. An estimated 500 million people were infected worldwide, and 50 million died including 650,000 in the U.S. Just in October 1918 an estimated 195,000 Americans died, at least 418 in tiny Manistee and Benzie counties. More people died from the Spanish Flu than from combat in World War I. Symptoms of this scary disease first appeared as a common cold that grew more and more debilitating. • Stuffy nose; • Sore throat; • Headaches and body aches; • Fever; • Cough; • Pneumonia; • Gasping for air; • Hemorrhaging from the nose, eyes and ears; and • Blue or black skin resulting from oxygen deprivation.
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ARCADIA AREA HISTORICAL MUSEUM 3340 Lake St. Arcadia, Michigan 49613
Currently closed due to COVID-19 Visit: www.ArcadiaMI.com Contact: Lyle Matteson at (231) 428-1153 An autopsy would reveal heart and lungs double the normal size. The lungs were filled with a bloody, frothy fluid. Victims of the disease drowned in fluid-filled lungs. In mid-October of 1918, Michigan’s State Board of Health ordered the closing of all churches and “places of public amusement.” Schools were not included in the order, but most closed anyway. Some buildings such as cold-storage plants and schools were converted for other uses, for example, as temporary morgues. Bonnie said, “They laid them out at Pierport School.” People were warned about the dangers of coughing and sneezing. They were encouraged to avoid crowds and unsafe practices, wear masks in public and stay home if they got sick. (Sound familiar?) People often wore small bags of camphor to try to ward off the disease.
Carrie Argue’s death certificate. The 16 year old died of Spanish Influenza and Bronchial Pneumonia. (Courtesy photo/Arcadia Area Historical Society)
ARCADIA’S DOC JAMIESON CARED FOR ARGUE FAMILY Many nurses and doctors had been drafted for WWI, so there was a shortage of medical professionals. Arcadia was fortunate to have Doc Jamieson. He served as a doctor, surgeon, pharmacist, dentist and psychologist. A medical journal referred to him as Manistee County’s “Grand Old Man of Medicine.” Doc Jamieson traveled all over the area in a carriage pulled by his trusted horse named Dan. Doc’s daughters said Dan learned his way around the area so well that, at the end of a long day when Doc was falling asleep in his carriage, he knew Dan would take him home back to the barn.
A 1918 influenza warning poster from the U.S. Public Health Service. “Do not spit on the floor or sidewalk.” Was that so common that people had to be told not to do it? (Courtesy photo/Arcadia Area Historical Society)
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Doc Jamieson cared for the Argue family and many more in the area, and even though there was little 1918 medicine could do, to his credit Thomas Argue (1874-1923), Melissa Fenwick Argue (1878-1922) and six of their 10 children survived the pandemic. We do not know exactly what Doc Jamieson did to treat people who had the Spanish Flu, but there were no antibiotics, flu vaccines or respirators he could use. Doctors monitored temperature and general physical condition. Typically, patients were encouraged to stay propped up in bed to avoid choking. They gargled with salt water, used throat sprays and took aspirin. They used cold compresses to try to reduce fever. They often used home remedies. Some doctors tried injecting patients with blood plasma from patients who had recovered, called “convalescent plasma,” with mixed results. Some tried using quinine for the fever, which did not work. No one really knew how to fight the virus itself or that the disease was even caused by a virus. FOUR OF 10 ARGUE CHILDREN DIE On Oct. 20, 1918 at 11 p.m., 16-yearold daughter Carrie Argue died of Spanish Influenza and Bronchial Pneumonia. The death certificate signed by Doc Jamieson says he attended to Carrie from Oct. 13 until her death. An undertaker named J. Maire attested that she was buried barely two days later on Oct. 22. The other sisters’ death certificates specified Pierport for the village where the death occurred. Note the names of the father and mother shown as death certificate items 10 and 12. Thos Argue and Matilda Crawford
(Top Left)Matilda Argue died on Oct. 26, 1918. Pictured is her cemetery marker at Conway Cemetery. (Courtesy photo/Lyle Matteson)
(Top Right)Vida Argue died on Oct. 30, 1918. Pictured is her cemetery marker at Conway Cemetery. (Courtesy photo/Lyle Matteson)
(Bottom Right)Donnis Argue died on Oct. 23, 1918. Pictured is her cemetery marker at Conway Cemetery. (Courtesy photo/Lyle Matteson)
(Bottom Left)Carrie Argue died on Oct. 20, 1918. Pictured is her cemetery marker at Conway Cemetery. (Courtesy photo/Lyle Matteson)
Argue were Carrie’s grandparents. Were they filling in for Melissa and Thomas who were still too sick or mournful to handle this? (Courtesy of Ancestry.com) On Oct. 23 at 1:30 a.m., just over two days after Carrie died, her 8-year-old sister Donnis Argue died the same way. Doc Jamieson had been attending to her since the 14th, but she too succumbed to Spanish Influenza and Bronchial Pneumonia. She was buried the next day, Oct. 24. Three days later the flu struck the family again. On Oct. 26 at 8:20 p.m., their 18-year-old sister Matilda Argue died of Spanish Influenza and Bronchial Pneumonia. She was buried the next day, Oct. 27. Four days after Matilda died, sister Vida died. On Oct. 30 at 9:15 p.m., 20-year-old Vida Argue, Thomas and
Melissa Argue’s first born, succumbed to Spanish Influenza with Bronchial Pneumonia. She was buried the next day, Oct. 31. In just 10 days, Thomas and Melissa Argue lost four of their children. The rest of the family -- mother,
father, and six children -- survived the pandemic of 1918, and life went on. The influenza outbreak in the U.S. was essentially over by the summer of 1919. Communities reopened. On Nov. 9, 1919, Melissa Argue gave birth to son Arthur Earl Argue.
Some Things Get Better With Time.
1940
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Arcadia’s Dr. David Jamieson (1867-1939) (Courtesy photo/Arcadia Area Historical Society)
2020
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The Bear Lake Museum is located inside the former Baptist Church in Bear Lake. (Courtesy photo/Bear Lake Area Historical Society)
A brief history of Bear Lake BEAR LAKE MUSEUM 7750 Main St., P.O. Box 7 Bear Lake, MI 49614 Open hours: 1-4 p.m. Saturday through September Visit: bearlakeareahistory.org Facebook: Bear Lake Area Historical Society Inc. or Bear Lake Museum Contact: Joyce Valentine at (773) 396-6269 4
Bear
mill, to mention a few. There By Kathrine Schafer were also physicians, a dentist, an Lake Area Historical Society attorney, two hotels and several
The Village of Bear Lake was platted on 88 acres in the spring of 1874 by George W. Hopkins and David H. Hopkins and by the 1900s it was a bustling area. The village consisted of about 75 buildings which held businesses that enabled local residents to have all of their needs met without leaving town. Besides the lumber mill complex that provided work for the residents, there were stores offering dry goods, groceries, blacksmith, wagons, harness, shoemakers, barber, drug store, tin shop, meat market, flour
boarding houses. The village boasted three church organizations, Methodist Episcopal Church, Baptist Church and Adventist Church. The Methodist Episcopal Church was the first to erect their building in 1882 on the northwest corner of Stuart and Lynn streets. They shared their church with the Baptist organization every other Sunday so that both religious congregations would have a place of worship. The Baptist Church secured a deed to the northwest corner of Main and Virginia Streets in 1884
from the Hopkins Mfg. Company with the intention to build a church. A few years later, in the March 23, 1878 edition of the Manistee Times & Standard, it was reported that “The Baptist Society is preparing to build a church.” Little is known of the Adventist Church other than the location which was on the northwest corner of Wise and Potter streets. At long last, in the July 10, 1886 edition of the Manistee Sentinel it was reported, “The new Baptist Church building is commenced and will be pushed rapidly to completion.” This building served as the
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The Filer Fibre plant in the early 1920s.
A photograph of American Box Board circa 1950s.
Bear Lake’s local artist, Charlene Myers, commemorated the Baptist Church and the old Methodist Church buildings in a series of water colors which now hang inside the Bear Lake Museum. (Courtesy photo/Bear Lake Area Historical Society)
gathering place for the Baptist congregation until rising costs of maintenance forced them to abandon the structure in the fall of 2004. The Bear Lake Area Historical Society, Inc. in 2014 embraced the job of caring for the building to offer the public a museum for housing local history. Under the guidance of the Board of Directors for the Society, the Bear Lake Museum has flourished with the generous donations of artifacts and memorabilia by “Bear Lakers.” The most recent preservation project completed by the society was the refurbishing of the stained glass windows in the church building. Although no exact date can be found, old photos clearly indicate these windows have been in the building for over 100 years. Many, many panes were either cracked, missing, or had been replaced by clear glass. The glazing was severely compromised and paint was chipped so badly that the bare wood was
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exposed. Each window has now been restored over the winter months by a local craftsman, John Nugent, who spent many hours scraping, reglazing, priming and painting each one. Windows were removed one at a time, completed, then re-hung. In order to protect these irreplaceable windows, the storm windows also required attention as many were simply missing. Aanother local craftsman, Sam Robe, constructed new storm windows in the same manner as the originals. This restoration project was possible through the generosity of several donors who offered to sponsor a window. Each donor is commemorated on a brass plate located on the inside sill of their sponsored window. Another donor stepped forward and provided the necessary funds for the storm windows. A plaque has been hung inside the nuseum in honor of the sponsor.
Circa mid 1950s and shows work ers of American Bo x Board moving piles of lumber using cranes.
1866: One of the area's 15 sawmills was founded in 1866 by D.L. Filer & Sons in an area now known as Filer City. 1915: Elihu G. Filer agreed to contribute land and $50,000 to the construction of a pulp mill in Filer City. 1916: Filer Fibre Company was organized. 1947: Filer Mill became a part of the American Boxboard Company. 1959: American Box Board Company consolidated with Ohio Box Board Company and Central Fibre Company including their Mapes Molded Pulp Company subsidiary to form the Packaging Corporation of America. 1965: A further consolidation Packaging Corporation of America became a part of Tenneco.
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Spirit of the Woods Conservation Club guarding the future since 1939 By Gene Lagerquist Brethren Heritage Museum On a cold night on Dec. 6, 1939, a group of local businessmen and sportsmen met to discuss the state of hunting and fishing in the Manistee County. They quickly progressed to form a conservation organization that would address those issues. They highjacked the name Spirit of the Woods from the Manistee News Advocate, which was running an outdoor page at the time with that moniker. The paper changed their outdoor page to Around the Campfire The fish barrier is pictured from a point downstream, circa 1946. The water level on the other side of the pipe barrier would have been 6 to 8 inches deeper. Only the wood ramps and pivots and everyone seemed satisfied. The for netting are left in place. (Submitted photo/Gene Lagerquist) group elected local businessman, H. E. Anderson as their leader and set dues at $1 per year. As the year 1940 Carpets began, they boasted 22 members. • Shaw The club often met at the Eagles establishment in the beginning. One • Southwind of their first efforts was to join with • Mohawk a Grand Rapids club in the purchase • Aladdin of a quantity of pheasant eggs. • Milliken These would be placed under several chicken hens at local farms. When Vinyl Floor the pheasants hatched it was hoped the young birds would drift out into Styles include: the wild and establish a population for hunting. A similar project was • Armstrong considered with rabbits. • Mannington At the March meeting, Emil • Congoleum Rengo of Kaleva urged the club to QUALITY put a trout screen into the Bear Also: INSTALLATION Creek at Potter’s Bridge in Dickson Township. This screen would stop • Waterproof the migrating fish from entering the Vinyl Planking small creeks that form the creek and • Vinyl Tile provide spawning grounds for the popular brook trout. It was felt that • Solid the rainbow and suckers came into Hardwood Flooring these headwaters and ate most of • Ceramic Tile the brook trout eggs and fingerlings, thus depleting their numbers. Potter’s Bridge is where Coates Highway crossed Bear Creek and is the place where the club now has its 308 Parkdale Ave. • Manistee lodge and grounds. At the same meeting, Sheriff Barry Holmgren reported that he Mon. - Fri. 8:30 - 5:30 • Sat. 9:00 - 12:00 had received about 300 pounds of wild rice and celery seed. This could be planted to create better feed
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Open hours: By appointment Contat: Iola at 231- 477-5533 or Janet at 231-477-5526 for wildlife throughout the county. Holmgren announced that the seed could be picked up at the county courthouse. By the end of 1940, work had begun on the fish barrier in Bear Creek. An engineering firm from Grand Rapids had been hired to develop the plans for the structure. The material cost of this barrier was about $400 to the SWCC. It should be noted that at this time $800 would buy you a new car or a small house, so this was a fiscal challenge. The physical work for the fish barrier was performed by the Civilian Conservation Corps which had an established outpost in Brethren, only a mile or so away from the site. The barrier consisted of three concrete abutments in the stream -- one on each end and one in the middle. A strip of concrete was laid on the stream bed between the abutments with one-inch holes formed in a straight line from shore to shore. A thick railroad rail was laid from one end to the other about three feet from the surface. In early March metal pipes were stuck into the holes in the cement and tied to the rail. They were spaced an inch or two apart, forming the barrier to the fish, but allowing the water to flow past them. The project was completed in 1941, which was during the early years of World War II. Many food stuffs were rationed, including meats and other sources of protein. The locals
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soon discovered that those suckers that came up Bear Creek were stopped at the barrier. For weeks there would be thousands of fish schooled up close to the structure. The locals then constructed square dip nets, about 10 feet across, that they lowered to the bottom. When the fish swam over the net in good numbers, they lifted the net up capturing several dozen fish. This allowed them to swing the net over to the shore and remove the catch, all in a matter of a few minutes. Very soon, the Dickson Town Board designated a man an overseer for this bonanza. Each family that signed up could take all the fish they could net for one hour. Smoked, canned or fresh, those families made good use of the bounty of Bear Creek. The overseer was also charged with the authority to compel all netters to return any trout inadvertently scooped up. How tightly this was enforced is still debated. After the war, the CCC camps were closed down. About 1950 Reino Lagerquist and some of his many sons moved the chow house from the Stronach camp down to the Bear Creek site for the club lodge, which still stands. By this time the organization had learned that they had not erected their fish barrier on Consumers Power property as they believed. The local farmer who held the deed had erected no trespassing signs along the roadside. This large clue forced the SWCC to approach the farmer and purchase the 40 acres that they had been using. Membership dues went up that year due to this unfortunate inattention to detail. In the early 1950s, the Manistee County Road Commission was moving a dragline crane along Coates Highway on a lowboy trailer. When they crossed Potter’s Bridge, it gave away and the trailer and crane fell into the stream. It was decided after the equipment was removed, that a new bridge would be constructed with a few less curves in the highway. That bridge is still in use today, while the old bridge site has a narrow walk bridge traversing Bear Creek. This was placed into use in the 1970s and connects several hiking trails to the lodge side of the stream. The ’80s saw the establishment of the trail system now in use. Virgil and June Rose were instrumental in these trails and identifying much of the fauna along them. A few years later it was noted that there were no wheelchair accessible trails at the
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grounds. Several years of hard work paid off with the creation of Mickey’s Trail, a concrete walkway of onefourth of a mile of Bear Creek. This trail has several fishing platforms that extend over the stream, offering access for the disabled to one of Michigan’s Blue Ribbon Trout Streams. The 1990s saw the creation of the Summer Field Camps for youths. This project was initiated by Dr. Pat Travis/Asiala and she led those efforts for many years serving hundreds of children. They work, play and learn in the forest and stream that makes up the club grounds. They witness and identify many types of trees, plants, animals and insects, all in the course of the weeklong experience. The last few years has seen the club expand on the field camps. Efforts to reach more children and age groups are being made. The new camps go canoeing, fishing and hiking along the Big Manistee. They also join with Big Bear Sportsmen’s Club for gun and archery training with fishing on Portage Lake another favorite experience. The club has partnered with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians in an effort to expose area youth to the teachings and sports of the Native American children and their elders. None of the trail building, field camps, and outdoor learning would be possible without strong support from our membership, gracious donors and the Manistee County Community Foundation. The Minger Family Endowment Fund has afforded the SWCC the means to expand on the playground that is the Bear Creek Watershed. If anything has changed at the SWCC it is not the facilities nor the grounds. It is the philosophy that man is in charge of nature. We no longer think that we have the knowledge or foresight to put barricades in our stream. We should not introduce animal or bird species that are not natural to the ecosystem here. It is the club’s belief that we live within nature. If we protect it, it will provide the fish and game that our users desire. If we spoil her with chemicals and poor environmental practices, we all will suffer. Information for this article is drawn from archives of the Spirit of the Woods Conservation Club. Many of these details are from reports published in the Manistee News Advocate.
Pictured is one of the fishing decks for persons with physical challenges. It is connected to Mickey's Trail, which is a concrete walkway that circles the lodge and ends back at the parking lot. (Submitted photo/Gene Lagerquist)
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The Marilla 1922 Standard school has been repurposed as Marilla Township Hall, community center and the Marilla Museum & Pioneer Place. (Courtesy photo/Marilla Museum & Pioneer Place)
And the school bells rang MARILLA MUSEUM & PIONEER PLACE
9991 Marilla Road Copemish, MI
Open hours: To be determined; presently closed due to pandemic; call before visiting Visit: marillahistory.org Contact: Bob and Jan Thomas at (231) 362-3430 8
By Jan Thomas Marilla Museum & Pioneer Place In the newly formed community of Marilla that was still struggling to survive, establishing a “proper” school was no doubt one of the last things on the settlers’ minds in 1866. Life was harsh in this northeastern Manistee County region. There were fields to be cleared and barns, cabins, chicken coops and pig sties to be built. What about a safe, reliable water source? Digging wells, building windmills, making a spring house to preserve foods and a myriad of other tasks were overwhelming.
The work of preparing the ground, sowing the seed and harvesting was back breaking work and wasn’t always enough to sustain a family. Until the pioneering families reached a point of feeling more comfortable and confident in their newfound land, it would have been difficult to consider building churches, schools, roads, stores and initiating township government. People were so busy; they scarcely knew what to tackle next. It required every available hand and resource to carve out a livelihood in the wild land. Survival was a family and community “together” affair. As time went on, the people tackled the job of building an
engaged community that was intent on providing its citizens everything needed to pursue a better life for all. Education was important to the pioneers and certain key people helped to make it happen. One of those was Leander Hall who advocated for the official designation of the community as a township. This effort bore fruition when Marilla Township was formed in 1870. This allowed a government to form and therefore taxes to be collected to support the building and maintenance of a school. A total of $505.22 was allocated to support educational purposes. The very first Evens school was
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a simple, crude log structure. Nonetheless, it was a beginning of Marilla’s educational journey. At a community “Founder’s Day” celebration in 1939, one of Abraham Evens’ sons offered an interesting description of the setting. He related that the school had hewn basswood slab floors and desks. An unusual feature was that the desks faced the wall and the pupil’s backs were toward the teacher, Miss Jennie Pope. The cracks between the rough floorboards were large enough for the slate pencils to drop through. The boys were periodically asked to tunnel under the schoolhouse to retrieve them so that lessons could be carried on. In time, eventually four oneroom schools were built in Marilla Township. They were numbered and named. Evens School was school district #1, Marilla School #2, Clark School #3 and Gilson School #4. They were simple wooden framed buildings and according to archival photos appeared attractive and substantial. According to the Michigan 1870 census, there were 45 school age children listed in the township. It is interesting to note that if we jump ahead to 1940, there were 44 students attending the “consolidated” Marilla Standard School. In the years between those two dates, the student numbers fluctuated with some being much higher than the 45 in 1870. By 1873, the student population had grown to 67. In an article written by S.W. Fowler, editor of the Manistee Times & Standard newspaper in February 1881 following a winter’s ride through the township, he offers the following description of the Evens School: “A little further was a handsome schoolhouse, painted white, with double French windows, and furnished at the top with a large bell. A good board fence surrounds the premises, containing a good well and a large playground. Miss Nettie Hanniford had just closed the school. She gave good satisfaction”. In the northeast portion of the township, the Clark school district was organized in May 1871. On Sept. 4, the citizens voted to lease 49 acres of ground on which to use for school purposes. One might suppose that there was a house on the property, perhaps in need of repair to be used for educational needs. Archival records indicate that the first Clark School was a “house school”. Citizens were asked to raise $10 to fix a house for the school. The length of the school year varied from four months to eight months. Recognizing
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The Marilla Standard School No. 2 was built around 1920. It was the “new” consolidated school replacing the four one room schools in Marilla Township. (Courtesy photo)
the need to improve the situation, in 1880 the residents approved the construction of a new schoolhouse for an expenditure of $400. An interesting thing to note is that it took three specially called meetings before there were enough votes to buy one copy of “Yoggy’s Anatomical Study”. Perhaps the controversy indicated that parents were concerned about the detailed graphics of the human body. The Clark School won the trophy at the Manistee County Fair for its 1935 school exhibit. Eventually Clark School was absorbed into the Mesick school district due to its proximity to the Wexford County line. By 1901, a teacher’s salary was a mere $35 a month. To earn that salary, the teacher had to effectively educate up to 50 plus students all across the grade levels, assume janitorial duties, and keep the stove stoked with wood. Older students stacked and carried wood to be used for heating.
Teachers usually boarded with Marilla families. A problem occurred when one of the male teachers decided to “live” at the school. This was greatly frowned upon and he was dismissed from his duties. Beginning in 1910, a proposal was made to build a large new school that included two large rooms, cloak rooms and a full basement level. It took years of persistence for education minded citizens to at last have the people vote in the affirmative to indeed construct this new “consolidated” substantial red brick school. In 1921, this exciting process began, the one room schools closed their doors, and this new school became Marilla High School. It included primary grades through 10th grade. If students chose to continue their education beyond that, they attended and graduated from Copemish School. By 1922, students were excited to move into their new school. The
school year increased from seven to eight months and finally to nine months. In this agriculture-based community, increasing the school year was a difficult step because all hands were needed, even young ones, to assist families with preparing ground, seeding, and harvesting. That’s why something called “Potato Vacation” during the fall potato harvest time was instituted that would last from one to two weeks. It probably was not what one ordinarily would herald as a real vacation. Getting down and dirty, having an aching back from lugging heavy containers filled with potatoes, and enduring the rigors of harvesting was not your typical vacation. Even though there was long controversy about the building of the new school, the community soon began to view the Marilla Standard School and the Marilla Church of the Brethren as the “happening” places, the hubs of the community. Important things happened there; everything
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The Marilla Church of the Brethren was originally founded in 1897 as the First Baptist Church of Marilla. Many of the early pioneering families were members of this congregation. (File photo)
The salt block of Buckley & Douglas at the east end of Sixth Street burned in 1920. Ruggles & Rademaker Salt Company built their beginning in 1921. In 1927, Ruggles & Rademaker built a new grainer block. On December 22, 1930, the Manistee News Advocate announced that Morton Salt Company had bought Ruggles & Rademaker at a public auction.
1956 1956
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happened there. Marilla people didn’t go beyond their community often. Although when the M. & E. railroad reached Marilla, they were able to venture out some. According to teacher Amanda Stark’s 1923 record book, she was teaching students English, algebra, American History, general science, geometry, physical geography and botany. For independent reading, these were some of the selections being read by her students: Ellen Bump’s list includes “Heidi” by Spyri, “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” by Wiggin, “Hoosier School Boy” by Eggleston, “Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch” by Wiggin, and “Freckles” by Gene S. Porter. Harris Grossnickle read “Riders of the Purple Sage” by Zane Grey and “School History of World War.” Ruth Howes included in her list of reading “Heritage of the Desert” by Zane Grey as well as the same books on her friend Ellen Bump’s list. Cornelius Ebey read “Heidi,” “At the Foot of The Rainbow” by Gene S. Porter, “The True Story of U.S. Grant” by Brooks, and “Ivanhoe” by Scott. These were her ninth and 10th grade students, one of whom was 13 years old because she was advanced two grades. Douglas Spencer attended Marilla ® School when he lived with his aunt and uncle for a period of time. In
Today
his writing included in “Marilla Living”, he shares some interesting information about the importance of bells in the community: “Yes! There was a large bell housed in a cupola on top (of the school). All the students waited our turn to ring the bell, 9:00 am starting school, recess, noon dinner, and day’s end about 3:00 pm. Don’t remember any fire drills. On rare occasions, there was a fire in the community, and everyone rang their bells. I don’t remember any farm that didn’t have a bell, the tone of each was all different. As you grew older, listening to the bells, you knew who was talking to who. Good idea! Bells have been around for centuries and used for many occasions.” When members of the community decided that they wanted their “boys” to have a sports program which Marilla could not offer; the decision was made to close Marilla High School in 1948. There were gains for the students made by this choice, but a lot was lost as well and new adjustments needed to be made. Some of the “old timers” still call the building “the schoolhouse”. Through the years, the building has been repurposed as the Marilla Township Hall and also contains the main museum of Marilla Museum & Pioneer Place. A lot of things happen here. Voting, township government, operation of a food bank since 1980, a Meals on Wheels dining site, cooking classes, exercise sessions and community gatherings keep the old school active. It still contains its original hardwood floors echoing the footsteps of little and big feet. The blackboards, high ceilings and old-style school lamp fixtures still dangle on long chains high above our heads. It has changed through the years, but it still looks like a school. It still has the old school bell atop its roof that rings occasionally during events. When the schools serving Marilla Township closed their doors for good, the citizens must surely have lamented not hearing the bells that beckoned their students and others to their doors. The schools were not only places of learning, but along with the churches, they were the lifeblood of the community. Students who attended Marilla Township schools played, learned, laughed, cried and worked together. They reached adulthood together, some married each other and had families together, some remained in the community, and lasting friendships were made in rural America.
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Kalevala Murals a product of the Great Depression By Cynthia Asiala Kaleva Historical Society The Kalevala is considered the national mythology of Finland. It was compiled and edited by Elias Lonrot during the mid-1880s. The poem consists of 50 runos or cantos and 22,795 lines. The poem tells the story of a people from the very beginning of the world to the introduction of Christianity. The Kalevala has been translated into 48 languages and has been an important cultural inspiration for the Finnish people for many years. The Kalevala Murals came about because of a project initiated by President Theodore Roosevelt during the Great Depression. The National Youth Administration (NYA) opened an office in Manistee in 1935 under the leadership of Harry Armstrong, a retired commercial artist. The overall goal was to create and place some type of artwork in each of the communities in Manistee County. Since Kaleva was founded by Finnish settlers in 1900, it was natural that the creation of the Kalevala Murals was the project chosen for this community. Armstrong created the six scenes from the Kalevala on 2-foot by 8-foot pieces of plywood and area young people including Andrey Engstrom, Ray Robleski, Frances Ellis, Dorothy Boulee, Margery Newman, Florence Lopnow and Gladys Anderson painted them in oils. Great publicity of the project led to the dedication of the murals at the Kalevala Festival on Sept. 28, 1940. A parade in which the NYA had its own float was the opening event in the town’s 40th anniversary celebration. After this unveiling the murals were hung in the Kaleva High School gymnasium where many students pondered them over the years. When the gym was torn down the murals were transferred to
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KALEVA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 14551 Wuoksi St. Kaleva, MI 49645
Open hours: Saturdays Memorial Day weekend through October
Visit: kalevami.com Contact: Cynthia Asiala at (241) 299-4484 or (231) 362-2080 the Kaleva Historical Society. The Bottle House was purchased in 1983 and became the home of the Kaleva Museum. There the murals found their permanent home in the back entrance of the Bottle House. A new project of the Kaleva Historical Society and local artist, Tricia Boucha, is to re-create three of the murals in glass mosaic form and place them on the Sculpture Walkway. Placing the tiny pieces of colored glass that the artist uses to duplicate the murals is truly a work of art. Tricia moved to Kaleva because she was drawn to the artworks she saw around the community, many of which were done by the service learning classes of Brethren High School in the late 1990s. There have been other pieces done by metal artist, Andy Priest, placed on the walkway over the past few years. The completed mosaics will form a triad at the south end of the walkway and will be lighted from within the triangle. The Manistee County Community Foundation has given the Kaleva Historical Society a grant to complete the project. Tricia is donating her artwork to the community because it is something she “likes to do”. It is notable that the murals painted by the young people were given to the village 80 years ago.
Harry Armstrong created the six scenes from the Kalevala on 2-foot by 8-foot pieces of plywood and area young people painted them in oils. (Courtesy photo/Cindy Asiala)
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A view of the harbor in Onekama circa 1890. (Courtesy photo/ Manistee County Historical Society)
The Onekama directory of 1883 By Steve Harold Manistee County Historical Society One of the final stops made by the publishers of the 1883 Manistee County Directory was Onekama. Here, Hulbert & Faulkner found one of the earliest settlements in the county and provided directory users with the following account: “O-NEK-A-MA is located in the south-west corner of the township on the shore of O-nek-a-ma (Portage) Lake. The National government has selected this place as a harbor of refuge and have expended about $150,000 in improving the entrance. The amount of appropriation still on hand will, it is thought , make it one of the best and safest harbors on the east shore. “There are three saw mills, a shingle mill and planer, hotel, several stores, blacksmith and wagon shop, tinsmith shop, good school house and a number of comfortable dwellings. “O-nek-a-ma attracted the attention of the first settlers as a place likely to become important, because of its splendid water power facilities and beautiful location, as well as the wonderful stories told by the Chippewa Indians whose planting ground was a little distance north of the health-giving qualities of its waters. The Indian name of the lake being O-nek-a-ma-eugh, or the Lake of Many Springs, was doubtless given because of the great number of small streams that flow from the
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MANISTEE COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM 425 River St. Manistee, MI 49660
Open hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday (days of the week vary by season) Visit: www.manisteemuseum.org Contact: Mark Fedder at (231) 723-5531 innumerable springs welling up from the base of the high land that surround O-nek-a-ma Lake. “About the year 1842 Joseph Stronach built a small saw mill, (water wheel) and it was operated a few years by Mr. Stronach and afterwards by Harper and Stronach. Mr. Stronach was drowned by falling out of a sail boat on Lake Michigan, after which the mill lay idle and fell into decay. It was bought and rebuilt by Hannah & Rockwell. A water mill occupied the site until the occupants of the farms bordering on the lake, who were annoyed by the constant overflowing of their lands, set to work and cut a channel between the lake and Lake Michigan. While the farmers spoiled O-nek-a-ma as a
water power to operate machinery, they opened up the best harbor of refuge on the lake. “The first settlers to locate permanently were Nathan B. Pierce and his family, and John Daily and wife, who came from Crown Point, Essex County, New York, in 1856. Little had been done in the way of improvements up to that time, and while the early settlers were delighted with the beautiful country, and the great abundance of fish which with the lake was stocked, their life was by no means as free from care and worry as the enthusiast after the picturesque in nature would imagine. To be sure, the O-nek-a-ma Lake would appear to the eastern disciple of the gentle Isaac Walton as an unwarranted exercise of the license allowed the most truthful persons in narrating extraordinary fishing adventures. To illustrate how plenty fish were in the lake, John Daily told the writer that he killed, with one shot from a single barreled gun, 7 pickerel, the smallest of which weighed 2 pounds. If the settlers could live on fish alone they would enjoy a delightful time; but their eastern civilization demanded bacon, tea, coffee, sugar and bread. To get these necessaries of life required money, and the easiest way then to make money was to make shingles, and how easy that was can be easily imagined when it is remembered that after the trees were cut down and sawed into the required lengths for shingle bolts they were split into
shingles, tied up into bundles of 250, carried on the back down to a boat on O-nek-a-ma Lake, rowed across to Lake Michigan, taken out of the boat, then carried across the strip of land that divided the lakes to a boat on Lake Michigan, they were then towed along the beach to the north of Manistee River, up the river where they were unloaded and sold for $1.50 per 1,000, in trade. In the return trip they would bring back whiskey, tobacco, tea, coffee, sugar, pork, corn meal, salt, flour, calico, and fixings for the women folks. A trip to Manistee on the beach, in winter, for supplies was not thought very desirable, so as a rule, ample supplies were put in early in fall. The first grist mill in the country was put up by Mr. Pierce. It was a small affair, able to grind about 8 bushels corn per day. “For a health and pleasure resort O-nek-a-ma has no superior in the northwest. The fishing is unequaled, a finer body of water for boating is not to be found anywhere, the lake being about four miles long and two miles wide with an average depth of 25 or 30 feet. Persons fond of hunting can find plenty of small game in the surrounding woods. “O-nek-a-ma is 9 miles from Manistee City, with which it is connected with a daily mail. During the season of navigation a small steamer, carrying passengers and freight, makes daily trips beside the Goodrich Transportation Company’s steamers make semi-weekly trips.”
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Sailing ship, exhibits highlight history of church and area Submitted by Old Kirke Museum The Old Kirke Museum has a beautiful hand-carved sailing ship hanging from the balcony over the sanctuary of its building, which is the oldest Danish Lutheran Church in America. This lovely, old sailing ship was hand-carved by Gilius Rasmussen and presented to the congregation of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church more than a century ago. In the coastal town churches in Denmark, ships such as the one at the Old Kirke are often found and looked upon as ornamental. They also have a symbolic meaning, and it is this: Christ is the captain of “the second Ark” (the Holy Christian Church) and will lead the ship safely into the harbor. As Anne-Grethe Krogh Nielsen wrote in her Jan. 24, 2016, article for the Danish Lutheran Church and Cultural Center of Southern California, “The customs of displaying ships in the sanctuary
THE OLDE KIRKE MUSEUM
304 Walnut St. Manistee, MI 49660
Open hours: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. first two Saturdays of the month, July to October and Thursday mornings in July and August Contact: oldkirkemuseum@ gmail.com or John Hanson at (231) 723-2744
began a long time ago in the Catholic Churches of Europe and it became a custom in Denmark after the reformation. In Denmark there is a fleet of 1,200 ships sailing in the waters of the Danish churches, and
Ships such as this one at the Old Kirke Museum have a symbolic meaning: Christ is the captain of “the second Ark”. (Courtesy photo/ Old Kirke Museum)
We have been happily serving Manistee County since our Grandfather Harlen Linke opened in 1941.
Linke’s Body Shop 14
423 Parkdale Ave. Corner of M-55 & US-31 Manistee • 723-7206
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there are many different models, sizes and shapes ... It goes back a long time in Nordic Religious and Pagan traditions and Christian Religious tradition. (And there is) even one more modern component to the symbolism: as these ships also are the bearers of the recent history of Immigration from the Nordic countries to the US. Quite often the church ships were gratitude gifts from sailors who survived dangerous trips on sea. In some villages with strong sailor traditions the ships could be a way of protecting and praying for the ships and their crew. “In the landscape of Denmark, the findings of gravesites from the
Bronze Age (1800 – 500 before Christ) tells us the story about ship shaped gravesites. These are big monumental stones placed in a ship shaped circle. The ship was in that age the most powerful and glorious symbol of the connection between this world of humans and the other world of the Gods. There is a marvelous finding in a small village of Funen, LADBY, that not just found the ship shaped stone setting, but literally found a ship buried in the ground. A wealthy man was buried in his ship with horses, equipment and weapons. The ship was the connection from here to there, from the world of humans and death to the world of Gods and eternity.”
The Old Kirke Museum’s ship was dedicated on Christmas Day, 1885, 17 years after Our Saviour’s Church was built. In 1970 the church became a museum, and today it is known as The Old Kirke Museum and retains its beautiful sanctuary as well as a new exhibit space on the lower level. The exhibit space permanently houses the priceless Madsen Lumbering Dioramas and also has two changing exhibits each year. This summer and fall, “Hats Off to the Ladies”, celebrating 100 years of women’s suffrage highlighting accomplished Manistee women and the hats they wore, will be on display.
The Old Kirke Museum has a hand-carved sailing ship hanging from the balcony over the sanctuary of its building, which is the oldest Danish Lutheran Church in America. (Courtesy photo/ Old Kirke Museum)
The hand-carved sailing ship that hangs from the balcony at the Old Kirke Museum was dedicated on Christmas Day, 1885. (Courtesy photo/ Old Kirke Museum)
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This sailing ship was hand-carved by Gilius Rasmussen and presented to the congregation of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church more than a century ago. It is located in the Old Kirke Museum in Manistee. (Courtesy photo/ Old Kirke Museum)
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l e s m o S
Lumber Co.
Serving Manistee County Since 1920
In about 1919, three brothers, Harvey, Hurshel & Raymond began a logging salvage on the Manistee River using oxen, horses, steam machinery and manpower. In 1925 they named their business Somsel Brothers and operated a sawmill at 3 locations on the Manistee River. Several years later, Hurshel purchased this 1927 Chevrolet truck to aide in the logging operations at the river and in 1931, Somsel Brothers opened their first retail lumberyard in Kaleva. In 1956, Somsel Brothers incorporated to form Somsel Lumber Company and is still serving Manistee County and surrounding areas as a 4th generation family business. The truck eventually retired until 1999 when it was brought out of storage and restored to its original condition.
14261 Nine Mile Rd • Kaleva 16
231-362-3103 REMEMBER WHEN • JULY 2020