Omena History

Leo Pewash and Dorothy with their dog standing in front of the Ice Cream Shop. Not sure if this was in April, but since he is in shirtsleeves. and Dorothy has a coat on, it might have been. Courtesy Omena Historical Society April can be hard. It may be snowing or sunny and warm. The one thing for sure is that when April comes we are all so ready for it to be spring. It was even harder in the 1800s. Food and firewood were running low, the weather was still cold, and the grey skies were affecting peoples mental… Read More »

The coming of cars in the 1920s changed life in Omena for the old and the young. For the locals who made deliveries of ice and food, and the summer people who wanted their independence from train and boat travel. The passenger and steamers, as well as the smaller tourist vessels, gradually disappeared. Scheduled train service diminished too, as people grew to prefer the freedom that automobiles provided. Kids could get a drivers license when they were fourteen in Michigan. Driving provided a chance to expand their horizons for teens eager to leave the confines of their cottages and families…. Read More »

Vehicle stuck in the mud – Courtesy American history.si.edu Around 1900 if the road was in excellent condition, and the team of horses were as well, a stage could make the trip to Traverse City leaving Northport at 6AM, Omena at 7, and Sutton’s Bay at 8:15 and arrive at 11AM. Sometimes there was a lot of dust making it hard to see what was coming. There were no traffic laws, but the stage driver put a little bell on the neck yoke of the horses that could be heard for a quarter of a mile so people knew he… Read More »

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 »

The view from the second story of the Post Office: dirt roads and the Anderson Dock. – Courtesy Omena Historical Society This is a story of tragic deaths, a disabled child, land barons, and a postmaster who came and went and came again… and the Omena Post Office. In 1881 Jeannette and Hiram Ballard owned considerable timber land, at least 770 acres around Mougey and Bass Lakes. They lived in Evanston, Illinois with their 2 sons. Harry, who was mentally disabled, and Charles, who was four years younger than Harry, In Evanston in May of 1883 the father Hiram died,… 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 »

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 »

Wally’s Omena home, at the corner of Omena Point Road and Lake Street – Courtesy Omena Historical Society There was once a little boy whose parents got divorced, and as sometimes happens, what followed was frequent moves with his mother and little sister from Detroit, to Chicago, to New York, and back to Detroit. Because he was small and thin, he was often targeted by school bullies. Omena Summers He started coming to Omena in the summer as a small child, and came to think of it as his home…where he was from. He had many happy adventures here. Here… Read More »