William Craker with his egg basket. He brought eggs to the store and got groceries which he carried home every day. Photo courtesy Leelanau Historical Society
It says a lot about a man’s character that he took care of an eagle for 14 years. William A. Craker, “Delly” to his many friends, captured the eagle while he and his family were living in Maple City in 1917. He named it “Megizzewas”, and kept it for 14 years until it escaped.
Megizzewas – Does anyone know what that means in the Indian language? Photo credit, Omena Historical Society
What does it take to take care of an Eagle? First of all, an eagle isn’t a pet. The most you can expect from an eagle is tolerance. It’s illegal now to keep an eagle, but this was 1917 and there were no laws about it then. But to keep one, first of all, it’s hard! Eagles eat a lot, and it has to be whole animals. Roughly a bunny a day. And what they don’t eat, you have to clean up and dispose of before it starts to rot. Then there’s eagle poop. You need to keep its enclosure nice and clean.
And then there’s exercise. Even if you keep him in a large space such as a barn, you should take him out every day to free-fly him for at least a couple of hours. Eagles can be very dangerous as they have a fearsome arsenal of weaponry and very small brains, so be careful around them. It takes a lot of patience and hard work. Delly had that.
Delly was one of three sons of George and Mary Craker. One of his brothers, little Alonzo, died when he was ten of scarlet fever. The little sled Alonzo built himself and loved to go sledding on, was left hanging in the attic of the farmhouse where it stayed all the years that the Crakers lived there. No one could bear to take it down. The loss of little Alonzo was felt by everyone in the family, and no doubt affected little Delly.
The Crakers, William and Carrie, on their 69th wedding anniversary. – From a newspaper article in the Leelanau Enterprise
After Delly got married, he left Omena for a brief time and went to North Dakota. When he came back to the county, he found work in the Maple City area where he worked at the Leelanau County Farm.
This was a farm the Leelanau County bought to house poor residents who could not care for themselves and to give them a chance to take part in meaningful farm and domestic work. These people had nowhere else to go in 1907. There weren’t any programs to help those in need. The nearby farmers called it the “County Farm” rather than the “Poor Farm” and remembered it as a community effort. It had a warm and friendly, large family feeling. They were proud to be part of community that cared for its neediest folks.
Jacob Aghosa worked with William Craker to keep the Sunday School program going at the Omena Presbyterian Church from 1925 on. Photo credit Omena Historical Society
When Delly returned to Omena where he had spent his childhood, he brought the eagle with him. It became a local legend and attracted quite a bit of attention with the local visitors. Delly became active in the Omena Presbyterian Church as an Elder, and worked with the Indians. With only summer ministers at the church beginning in 1925, Delly took charge of the Sunday School Program with Jacob Aghosa, making it a year round program for whites as well as Indians for the next 30 years until his death at the age of 94. When he died in 1957 he was the last white man in the area who could speak the Indian language fluently. He was a man who cared for others.
And the eagle? It escaped in 1957. No doubt those eagles we see circling over the sparkling bay on warm afternoons are the descendants of “Megizzewas”.