People of Omena

Anyone coming into Leelanau County on M-22 during the 1918-19 pandemic was stopped at the township line by Mary Frazier Freeland for a health assessment. The township line was conveniently right in front of Mary’s home at Freeland Road. March was National Woman’s History Month, and we celebrated Mary. Mary was one of the first 9 women to work in an Army Battlefield Hospital tent in the Spanish American war. Not only did she nurse most of the county during the 1918 pandemic, but she also founded the Omena Women’s Club in 1915, one of the state’s oldest women’s clubs…. Read More »

If you walk around the side of the little old church in Omena, you come to an overgrown cemetery. And if you look for it, you will see a beautiful little headstone that says, “Frank A. Morgan, Son of J. D. and A. G. Morgan, Died Feb. 16, 1863: Age 9 yrs. 4 mos.”. There is a beautiful little rose carved above Frankie’s name. Who was little Frankie Morgan? In 1852 before Frankie was born, his parents moved here at the same time. Rev. Dougherty moved to Omena with his band of Indians. However, Jessie and Ann settled in Northport… Read More »

Stone Entrance to cave and home of Mary and Big Joe of Ahgosatown. Photo courtesy of Annette Deible and Alice Littlefield History is slippery. Take Mary Big Joe for instance. Mary was an Indian woman who lived on the north side of Ahgosatown about a mile north of Omena. She lived in a cave dug into the hillside with a stone entrance she built herself. Mary and Big Joe, came from the Indian settlement at Onumunese near today’s Gill’s Pier in the early ’30’s. They lived in Ahgosatown during its later years, according to Elizabeth Craker Armstrong, a local historian…. Read More »

Members of Company K, Michigan Sharpshooters, rest under a tree in 1864. – Photos courtesy Michigan Radio.org A little bouquet of flowers appeared every spring on the grave of an Indian boy, Thomas Miller, who had been killed in the Civil War. Thomas had enlisted as a young boy with the other Indians of our area into Company K, the Michigan Sharpshooters as they were called. They had tried to muster at the beginning of the Civil War but were denied. By 1863, with the Union forces not doing well, the Army reversed their decision and welcomed Indians into their service…. Read More »

  Outdoor Movies in Omena? What a great idea! But it was not just for the fun of it that the Kimmerly’s and John Putnam decided to try outdoor movies one summer in Omena. Bea and Myles Kimmerly took over Anderson’s store in 1947 and for the next eleven years they lived over the store and worked hard, carrying a little bit of everything, from potatoes to kerosene, catering to everyone from resorters, and cottagers, to migrant workers who came to town to harvest cherries and apples. It was a short season that could “make or break” the store. But… Read More »

  What did the family do for fun growing up at Villa Marquette? There were eventually ten children surrounded by Jesuit priests and academics. But this interesting family found ways to have fun that were enjoyed by all. One thing they did was raise pet crows every year. The boys and Chester would “steal a one from a nest and raise it from a baby. As soon as it was able to fend for itself we would let it go and they always stuck around all summer,” Mary Hallett Stanton told me. “They all learned to say hello, and all… Read More »

This 16-foot by 40-foot partial hull made a reappearance on the Lake Michigan shoreline near the end of the Dune Climb path a few years ago. It is believed to have been from the General Taylor, a wooden steamer that was stranded near Sleeping Bear Point in 1862. It is not known if this was the shipwreck Rev. Dougherty walked to seeking flour, but it could have been. There were many shipwrecks in this area during this time. – Courtesy Historic ipse, Record-Eagle article. When Rev. Dougherty heard there had been a shipwreck on the shore of Lake Michigan somewhere… Read More »

Omena Fire House before renovations When women get left behind, things happen. Omena’s fire station was built on land donated by the Society of Jesus in 1963 to the Leelanau Township specifically for a fire station. It was big enough for one fire truck and had barely functioning bathrooms. About that time, the men of the village were meeting at the Harbor Bar across the street to play poker, and the wives began to feel left out. They decided to meet at the Fire Station pulling up chairs next to the fire trucks for coffee and euchre while their men… Read More »

Eliza working on a mat. photo credit: U of M Bentley Library, Ruth Craker collection and Weengush Odeimin Blind Eliza Sah-Gah lived in a little house in Ahgosatown where she was born in 1910. Little is known about her besides her excellent mat weaving skills. She was part of a group of highly skilled basket weavers in Ahgosatown who, with what must have been much patience, taught her mat weaving. There are many examples of baskets made by Ahgosatown women at the Eyaawing museum, but none by Eliza. Perhaps they all were used by locals and wore out. Mats were… Read More »

Druggist Edward Miller and Ahnequet Quah with unknown Indian people, probably taken at his store on Front Street. Photo credit: History Center of Traverse City Edward Eugene Miller was the son of a fur trader from Canada who moved around eventually landing in Old Mission where he was a fur trader and government interpreter of the Odawa language In 1852 Rev. Dougherty and many of his Native American followers moved across the bay from Old Mission and established their New Mission in what would become Omena. The New Mission church was dedicated in 1858. Edward as a little boy attended… Read More »