Lake Street history

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Saugatuck Douglas Historical Society

cr1976031102ALookAtLakeStreetYearsAgo.jpg 360KB

cr1976031102ALookAtLakeStreetYearsAgo.jpg 360KB

Name/Title

Lake Street history

Entry/Object ID

2024.01.43

Scope and Content

March 11, 1976 Commercial Record reprint of a letter written by E.L.L. Leland recounting Lake Street. The letter is undated. After a mention of Stephan A. Morrison, Leland names all the people he remembers living on Lake Street, moving from east to west.

Context

I will start with the lower end of Lake Street. Where the VanOss family now live was the home of Sam Clipson who owned and operated a brewery. Where the Janis hotel is was a planing mill operated by Henry Bird the father of C. E. and Henry Bird, Jr., C. E. Bird being the father of Carl Bird. Where the Burns live was the home of John Powers a log man for the Griffin and Henry saw mill. The Powers were known about town as Johnnie Poo and Banty. Across the street was widow Rutty and her two offspring Grace and Earl. Next was Silas Barney, a teamster. Next is Amos Gardner. I think he built the Ralph Clapp home and I also think his daughter was Ralph's first wife. And now comes the Sam Shafers and the last I heard their son George was still with us. Now comes the Howards, the Gleasons, Levi Tuttle and Ab Williams. He lived in the home now used by the Gardners. Next was B. M. Ade attorney who liked his liquor. Somewhere in comes Jimmie Wizoon and Ben Rainey who was a shoe cobbler. Dr. Cook is next in line. He probably built and lived in what is known as the J. H. Pear home. He had two sons Ed. and Vid. Ed. was the leader in the Saugatuck brass band and I think Vid was a dentist. Next comes the Griffin and Henry saw mill. Those that worked there were John Powers, John Lundgren, Martin Van Leuwen, John Loomis, the three Saunders Joe, Frank, and Turney. Henry Randall was the engineer and Andrew Schuman operated the shingle saw. The saw mill was located where the Ed-Mar hotel is now. Next was the Joe Randall blacksmith shop. On the corner where the Erickson blacksmith shop is was the John Blink grocery store. Across the street west was the Union House owned by a Mr. Gates who had the first bicycle in town. Now the important part to me is the home of Joe Dempski where I was born 84 years ago. This is where I saw something to remember. My mother took me out of bed on a very cool Fall night and took me to the front window to see a torch light parade. It being a presidential election year in which Chester A. Arthur was elected. Next we come to the Morrison tannery. when it was first built it was operated by wind mill power to grind the hemlock bark for tanning. Later steam engine power replaced the wind mill and John Doran was the engineer. Grandfather Morrison prepared the calf skins hides for shipment to Boston for the manufacture of gloves and womens shoes. My pappy worked on the heavy hides as a skiver. Next we have the Hotel Butler which was built about 77 years ago by Sam Guard and pardner from Allen and was operated as a flour mill for several years and then sold to W. H. Phelps, father of the late Ross Phelps and Pearl Phelps Brown now of New Jersey. I suppose I have made some errors. If so I will stand corrected. Now in closing I want to tell you of two families tha that lived in Saugatuck many years ago. I will call them the Smiths and Jones. Mrs. Smith was well known for the fine bread she made so she had quite a few customers. Mrs. Jones, a widow, and her daughter Minnie were one of them. Minnie always called on Saturday for their bread and on this particular cold winter morning when she called Mrs. Smith said "I am sorry the bread is late today, but Willie was late in get ting up. (Minnie) what has Willie got to do with it? Mrs. Smith told her that Willie's bed was always nice and warm when he got up so she put the bread in the bed between the sheets so it would raise. Minnie didn't call anymore. Moral of this story is don't tell so much.

Collection

Newspapers

Cataloged By

Winthers, Sally

Acquisition

Accession

2024.01

Source or Donor

Yoder, Chris

Acquisition Method

Donation, unconditional

Notes

These Commercial Record newspaper clippings — scanned by Chris Yoder in the 2000s — had been available on the pre-2023 SDHC website. The content has been moved to this online catalog for safekeeping. Publication dates are indicated in the year/month/day/page file name. For example "cr1938102801Description.jpg" = Commercial Record, 1938, October, 28th, page 01

Location

* Untyped Location

Digital data in CatalogIt

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

Simmons, Dorothy, Simmons, William "Bill" R. 1890/1-1966, Morrison, Stephen A. Jr. 1815-1905, Hotel Saugatuck/900 Lake/Twin Gables Hotel/Singapore Country Inn, Clipson, Samuel 1826-1905, Janis, Jack, Powers, John 1850-1933, Gardner, Amos 1842-1907, Clapp, Ralph W. 1874-1953, Tuttle, Levi 1829-1921, Cook, Dr. James Burnett 1913-1892, Pear, Dr. John Henry 1864-1926, Griffin & Henry Lumber Yard/Griffin & Henry Sawmill/Griffin & Williams/Stockbridge & Johnson/Wells & Johnson/M.B. Spencer Mill, Lundgren, John M. 1845-1908, Loomis, John W. 1828-1912, Randall, Henry J. 1864-1957, Schumann, Andrew J. 1841-1932, Blue Tempo/349 Culver/Ed-Mar/Louis Beuerle Hotel ?-1976, Blink, John, 246 Culver/Restaurant Toulouse/Reed's Livery/Union House, Dempsey, Joseph "Joe", Dornan, John T. 1850-1936, Phelps, Waterman George Grandison 1849-1934, Brown, Pearl (Phelps), Phelps, Rutherford Ross 1893-1958

Create Date

June 22, 2024

Update Date

June 22, 2024