History of the Region

William Craker with his egg basket. He brought eggs to the store and got groceries which he carried home every day. Photo courtesy Leelanau Historical Society It says a lot about a man’s character that he took care of an eagle for 14 years. William A. Craker, “Delly” to his many friends, captured the eagle while he and his family were living in Maple City in 1917. He named it “Megizzewas”, and kept it for 14 years until it escaped. What does it take to take care of an Eagle? First of all, an eagle isn’t a pet. The most… Read More »

Bert Russell and his son Dell with customer Furn Charter, one of the first two women to get haircuts at Russell’s Barber Shop. Courtesy: Dell Russell and History of Leelanau County. When Albert Freeland cranked up the Victrola to play after dinner music for the enjoyment of the guests at the Freeland Resort, he wanted to look his best. Besides operating the Victrola, Albert was a “genial host and an excellent conversationalist.” The guests would dress up for dinner in their “afternoon dresses”. Albert would get his beard trimmed at Russell’s Barber Shop. Bert Russell opened his barbershop in Northport… Read More »

Dog sleds on their way to Mackinac. Winter is closing in on Omena. The ice is forming on the bay…and on boats left too long on the water. In the 1850’s they welcomed the ice as it made travel easier. Roads were no more than paths, and after the snow fell became impassable as it got deeper. Travel over the frozen bay was often done, with sometimes disastrous results. From Rev George Smith’s diary, March 2, 1858 “Started 11AM for Traverse City-stopped at Mr. Millers (Omena) an hour, also 1 hour at R. Lee’s …near Mr. Norris’ we broke in… Read More »

Early photo of the main road in Peshawbestown. There are many spellings of this little village. Courtesy Weengush Odeimin “We have a terrible sickness here at this place,” wrote Francis Blackman of Peshawbestown. Writing to the Mackinac Office of Indian Affairs on November 9th, 1881, he went on to say, “most everybody is sick…except two little girls who cannot do much of anything. We need lots of help at this place.” Out of food, barely able to keep enough firewood on hands to keep warm, he was pleading for supplies, “flour, pork, cornmeal and tea.” Smallpox was killing them one… Read More »

Maude the train – Courtesy of Omena Historical Society. There were two Maude’s in early Leelanau Township. One was a train. This early train was slow, dusty, and FRIENDLY. It stopped if someone along the way needed help. It would back up if you forgot something. If a person could not get to the depot, the train would stop anywhere along the line where a passenger was waiting. Several times the train spotted a fire along the way and blew and blew its whistle to alert people. During the thirties and forties, the train, with its old locomotive, was affectionately… Read More »

The body of Miss Deborah DeCostello, aeronaut, who drowned in Lake Michigan October 1st, was found Saturday by Joe Black on November 6th”, reported the Empire Journal in 1920. Female daredevil Deborah DeCostello, 27, had come to Empire to entertain as part of the county fair. She was to jump from the bi-plane wearing her parachute (which were unheard of then) on the 29th and 30th of September but was unable to because the weather was very bad as it sometimes is in September. Even though she was offered $400 NOT to jump after the fair had ended, she insisted… Read More »

Omena was not the only little town in the county to have failed businesses. On our Facebook page last February 19th we told about Bidleman’s Gas Station which was only in business from 1935-1939. We also talked about Queenie Smiths Brothel which was only in business for a year, 1949-1950. And don’t forget the little church that couldn’t make it, Omena Congregational Church which struggled off and on from 1886 to 1931 which I posted about on August 10, of this year. But there was a nearby business that failed not once but three times, leaving its waste products in… Read More »

Dr David Goodale, MD, was brought to Traverse City in 1853 mainly to manage the large boarding house of Hannah and Lay, a large company needing housing for its employees. He soon realized he was needed as a physician, being the only doctor in residence in the village. Courtesy Grand Traverse Legends, by Robert E Wilson Sickness was unknown to most of us,” wrote Amalia Kropp in the Bohemian language used by the people of North Unity on the western side of Leelanau County in 1856. “There wasn’t any doctor here to begin with, but if anyone got sick, we… Read More »

If you wanted to get a large pie, say 3 feet in diameter, into a car for a trip to the President of the United States at his summer residence, how would you do it? If you were Frank Burkhart, Tom VanPelt’s Great Grandfather, and the car was, say, a 1926 Lincoln, you could just flip up the windshield and slide it in! And you could ask your son, Hugh, to drive it on the uncertain early roads of 1926 and deliver it to the President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, at his summer residence. Wallace Keep, who had… Read More »

Nels and Alvin Fredrickson planting potatoes by machine in the early 1920’s. Randa Fredrickson Collection, A History of Leelanau Township. Before cherries, there were potatoes. Children had a two week “vacation” from school in the fall to help dig them. They were loaded onto wagons and hauled by horses to warehouses near the docks in Omena, Sutton’s Bay and Northport, where long lines waited their turn to get unloaded. Potato buyers ran along these lines shouting their price offerings. Sometimes there was trouble. The Leelanau Tribune of September 17, 1875 reported the following, “Monday evening, Mr. E. P. Taylor drove… Read More »