Logging the Tatch farm, which must have been what Samuel’s land looked like as it was being logged. Logging is dangerous work!
Photo credit Omena Historical Society
Poor Samuel Doe met with an untimely end here in Omena. Arriving in Omena in 1875 with his wife Laura (Sparrow) Doe. He opened a small store a little east of where Lavender Lane is now.
Soon after that he bought land on what is now Tatch Road, next to his old friend and previous sailing companion Rufus Tatch.
In 1880, just five years after arriving in Omena, Samuel was clearing his land to begin farming, wearing moccasins as he worked, and when a tree fell toward him, he slipped and fell in its path.
There is a marker in the Omena Cemetery for Doe and lists Samuel, Laura and Robert as being buried in unknown Graves at Northport.
Laura and Robert were children of Samuel and Laura. Records suggest that Robert died of Scarlett Fever at the age of 5 and his sister Laura died a month later at the age of 7. Cause of death was not mentioned.
Find A Grave had this information:
Samuel H. Doe
Birth: 1840 Monson, Piscataquis County, Maine
Death: 16 Feb 1880 (aged 39) Leelanau Township, Leelanau County, Michigan*
Burial: Omena Cemetery, Omena, Leelanau County, Michigan
Parents: Nathaniel Doe (1793-1848) and Sarah J Spencer (1799-1865)
* Killed by a fall off a tree, aged 39. In the Maine 1863 Civil War Draft Register, Samuel Doe, 25, is listed as a mariner. In the 1870 Census he and Laura were living in New Tier, Cook County, Illinois. He was listed as a “carpenter”