Life in Omena

The main house at the Clovers ca. 1900 – Courtesy Omena Historical Society The other half of the story of Jeannette and Sidney….is the story of our twice postmaster, Sidney Keyes. Sidney was born in Branch County, Michigan in 1839, and was raised on a farm. In 1847 when Sidney was 8, his parents moved to Iowa where they remained for twenty one years. By 1868, when Sidney was 29 years old, he had watched his older brother William suffer the death of his wife not once but twice, (not until the age of nearly 50 did William finally marry… Read More »

1912 snowplow buried in snow in Sutton’s Bay. Courtesy worthpoint.com In the past when a snowstorm came, the romanticized view is that everyone got out their horse and cutter and sailed along with jingle bells ringing. The reality though was often very different. The invention of the snow shovel might have been a reaction to the terrible Schoolhouse Blizzard of 1888 which struck the entire Midwest. Snow and ice caused 235 fatalities. The blizzard came unexpectedly on a relatively warm day. Many people were caught unaware, including children in one-room schoolhouses. The following year, 1889, the “scrape and scoop” snow… Read More »

Omena School 1910 – Courtesy Omena Historical Society Life was tough for little kids in the 1800’s. And in the winter, it was tougher. The first “school” in Traverse City was a renovated log building that had been used by logging crews during the winters of 1851 and 1852. It was a “rustic” structure located in a wooded and undeveloped area at that time. Sometimes class was interrupted by garter snakes coming up through cracks in the floor. Schools in Omena consisted of Craker School built in 1860, and the Omena School built in 1863. Bass Lake School followed in… 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 »

Although Omena’s Post Office was established in 1859, it has moved around a lot. Originally it was in the Dougherty manse, where mail was simply left in a pile on the parlor floor. Apparently its distribution was left to anyone who came in. But in 1859 Aaron Page was appointed postmaster. For the next 22 years the post office was in his boarding house above the village. Andrew Anderson and Sidney Keyes took turns doing postmaster duties next, Keyes taking over first in 1881. He constructed a more elaborate individual box system for the mail while it was at his… Read More »

Car trouble on Shab-wah-sung Boulevard in 1922. – Courtesy of Omena Historical Society What becomes of an Omena tradition when a main road changes it’s path? The old Shab-wah-sung road is that road. It once ran around Omena Point on the shore, having been built for horse and buggy traffic. The shore road ran from the village of Omena all the way around the end of the Point to the Ray cottage where it diverted into the woods. In the early days it was used for deliveries, and for bringing people to the hotels from the steamers which brought them… Read More »

Ernie Barth and his sister Irene in 1936 or 37. This is the oldest known photo taken inside the Barth store according to Ernie’s son Wayne, who donated this photo. Around the turn of the 20th century, Paul and Christina Barth had a son who would grow to be the future of the Omena Country Store. Little Ernie Barth was one of four children. He and his sister and brothers, Robert, William, and Irene, grew up very much a part of the life of the store and the village. Ernie goes off to War When he was a young man… Read More »

Barth store and home circa 1915-1925 – Courtesy Omena Historical Society Once upon a time, when big steamers pulled up to the docks in Omena and horses and wagons met them to carry their cargo to the local stores, stores sold all the things which the people could not grow or make themselves, and only that. Fresh meat and produce were brought in by the local farmers to trade for shoes, cloth, cooking utensils, hardware and many other things that they couldn’t produce themselves. Orders were filled over the counter, the store keepers measured and weighed and wrapped the purchases…. Read More »

Martha Rule, Janet Graph, and Jack Stevenson on the beach with their dog. Courtesy Omena Historical Society The people of early Omena and surrounding areas loved their dogs. At least most of them did. Dogs went everywhere with their owners: the beach, the store, the train station, and they didn’t seem to be kept behind fences or on leashes. Dogs in Mrs. Dougherty Kitchen! Mrs. Dougherty had mixed feelings about dogs, especially when large packs of them ran rampant through her kitchen while she was trying to cook. “Maria Dougherty was at the mercy of every traveler and visitor, expected… Read More »