The Legg Cottage, perched on a hill overlooking Omena Bay. – Courtesy Omena Historical Society
For years when I’d ride my bike down Ingall’s Bay Road I’d see a little cabin with a sign by the door that said “HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD”, which seemed obvious, since it was by the side of the road, not by the bay, not in the woods, just by the side of the road. I wondered about it.
Mrs. Clemwell Lay and her mother hulling strawberries with their maid, Inga in 1911. – Courtesy Omena Historical Society
In 1910 Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Lay came from Marshalltown, Iowa to visit Leonard Wheeler, who was a relative, and to vacation at Wheeler’s Sunset Lodge in Omena. Mr. Wheeler regularly took guests in his horse and wagon to Ingalls Bay for swimming since the sand beach there was superior to other area beaches. Then Lays loved Ingalls Bay, bought two lots, and built their summer house.
Then in 1911 the Lay’s friends, Ira O. Kemble and his wife Caroline, came from lowa to visit, and they in turn bought two lots west of the Lays. With the help of two Indians, the Kembles built their cottage. in 1913.
The Dining Facility
By 1915 the Lay and Kemble families had built their own dining facility on land owned by Ira Kemble across the road from their cottage. The first summer after it was finished a cook came from Chicago to cook in the little dining facility, and a little later the Garthe girls came from Northport to help her. As the Ingalls Bay summer colony grew, so did the interest in their dining hall. Soon most of the Ingalls Bay families were dining there, too. This is the house known through the years as “The House by the Side of the Road”.
The Lay’s also had a chauffeur in the early years named George. This must have been in the early 1920s. Roads, although rough and potholed, were beginning to be graveled. Cars were new, but not that dependable. And the Lay’s needed help with driving so George came to Omena with them to be their driver. George slept in a “very fancy” tent with a wooden floor which even had shoe racks built right in which was set up in the Lay’s back yard. George was one of the men who helped Mrs. Lay wheel her organ down the sidewalk when she played for her sing-alongs with other cottagers at the beach. He helped out in other ways as well as driving. His wife likely helped the family out in the cottage as well.
Hired Help a Necessity
Mrs. Legg and guests on the Legg beach. – Courtesy Omena Historical Society
Nearly all the cottagers had help, whether live in help or just during the day. Help with cooking and cleaning and looking after the children was possible, even necessary, because it didn’t cost much, and because life was harder: cooking over a wood stove, laundry in a wash tub, and keeping track of children.
General and Mrs. Cutcheon found themselves appreciating their help one cold Omena fall. We are “wholly dependent upon our good old Nellie for cooking and general care”. Mrs. Crutches wrote, “We find her very resourceful…she is one of our family and shows her good sense in various and practical ways.”
Part of the Family
Versey Legg sitting on the cement bench by the sidewalk near the Legg cottage. – Courtesy Omena Historical Society
Clara Pierson even writes herself into her children’s books as an industrious housewife and mother of three, and then writes her housekeeper into the book as “the best of family friends and companions.”
Versey Legg, the big man with the big voice, could only be in Omena on weekends during the 1920’s, but he never missed a weekend, taking the sleeper train from Detroit overnight on Friday nights and returning on Sunday nights. Since this left his mother alone much of the time, he arranged for a young man, a senior in high school or a freshman in college, to come up to their cottage for the summer and do odd jobs, cut firewood, mow the grass and keep his mother company. And on weekends, when Versey was there, it was the young man’s job to turn the crank on the ice cream bucket paddles on Saturdays.
Help from Europe
Not all the hired help were from the states. The Newman sisters always had Swedish girls living with them to help. The Palmers had a “capable woman” named Ruth, and the Crabtrees had a chauffeur, even though once they arrived in Omena, he had very little driving to do.
All this help were housed wherever the family could put them. Sometimes it was on the third floor if there was one, or in small rooms near the kitchen or children’s rooms. General Greirson built a little building next to the icehouse for his hired man. I bet that was a cool sleeping arrangement.
The most popular maid was Sally who lived with the Rule family. She was so well loved everyone went in to visit with her when they came to call. She was kind about cleaning up after the children in the kitchen, which no doubt increased her popularity with the family. Some help, like Ella at the Smith’s up on Omena Heights, became a second mother to the children, dishing out warm-hearted discipline when it was needed.
The farms around Omena also had hired help. Outside work was done often by a “hired man” who lived with the family, the women often had help from a neighbor girl or relative.
Solle’s Bookshop where Wag the dog spent his winters. – Courtesy Omena Historical Society
Wag the Dog
Even Wag the dog had his own helpers. Wag was a beautiful farm collie Pat Kulick bought from a farmer one summer in the 1930s with the $5 she had been given for her sixth birthday. When the family returned with Wag to Pennsylvania that fall, they saw that Wag loved to chase cars, which soon caused him to get a broken leg. They looked for a solution knowing if they did not, worse was going to happen to Wag sooner or later.
The next fall when they left Omena, they left Wag with a farmer, but Wag kept running away. The following fall when they were getting ready to leave, Gordon Solle, the son of the owner of Solle’s Bookstore, asked if he could keep Wag for the winter. That ended up being the perfect solution. When Pat and her family arrived every spring, Wag would be overjoyed to return to their cottage with them. He would dig holes in the sand, and retrieve rocks from the lake bottom. But when fall came, Wag went happily back to Solle’s Bookstore. Wag had his own ”help.”