Name/Title
Grace Wilson memoir/notesEntry/Object ID
2025.01.29Scope and Content
Two and a half page typewritten memoir or interview notes, possibly by Mike Sweeney. The text is unsigned but is about Grace (Cobb) Wilson, spouse of William "Dodie" Wilson. Grace Wilson was the president of the Saugatuck Women's Club and supported the Community Hospital. She and her husband ran the Wilson Coal Company, the Kozy Koffe Cup, Wilson's Cone Shop, and the American Twisting Company.Context
The eccentric text begins with the Grace Cobb being born at Shackhuddle on the Grand River near Ada, Michigan. He father worked dragging logs with horses, later at a tannery in Holland, and still later cutting ice out of Black Lake... until refrigeration was invented. After a mishap with her brother and horses, the father was invited by a man named Kyle to care for horses "where the Crane Farm was". Grace went to school with the Hamilton girls and Belle Schuham in Douglas and switched to the Saugatuck school for 11th grade but never graduated. The family moved to Ann Arbor but she remained in Douglas.
Grace met her husband when she and Nina Wick were down on the dock of the Pokagon Inn peeling potatoes. The steamer Anna C. Wilson ran into the dock, dumping Grace, the potato peelings and everyone else on the dock into the river. Captain William "Dodie" Wilson fished her out and they married.
Grace lived on Mary Street near Wickwood. Her husband operated a coal and lumber office. When John Aliber died and sold his house down the street, and Dodie inheriting after the death of his father, she expressed a desire to restore the cement-block house. A trainload of bricks that spilled at New Richmond supplied cheap materials.
The text mentions that the Anna C. Wilson was sold to Morton Salt, then ran from Jackson Park to the Chicago Municipal Pier, before ending its days in St. Joseph, Michigan; Dodie's brother Frankie was a good swimmer/lifesaver who saved many lives and ran the Saugatuck beach house. Dodie's parents were born in Singapore. Dodie born in building next to Old Rail, then build a white stucco house, then a factory, was original owner of American Twisting.
The account includes Grace's courtship with Dodie and rival Jack of Belvedere Farm, purchasing the Singapore Bank building, Isadore Schuham, the Kozy Koffee Kup, posing as an artist's model at Ox-Bow, and her sons Garth and Bill running the Wilson's ice cream shop.Collection
Family History, Commercial businesses, NauticalCataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2025.01Acquisition Method
Found in CollectionArchive Items Details
Creator
Wilson, Grace (Cobb) 1897-1992Location
Filing cabinet
Files Family HistoryRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Wilson, William J. "Dodie" 1893-1972, Anna C. Wilson (ship) 1912-1943, John A. Aliber (boat) 1897-c1927, Pokagon Resort/Inn 1899-1901, Wilson, William P. 1861-1940, Hamilton, Capt. Walter D. 1862-1916, 317 Butler/Saugatuck Gallery/Singapore Bank Book Store/Kozy Koffee/Variety Shop/Aliber Grocery/Moore Building, 325 Butler/Santa Fe Trading Company/Old World Bakery/Rosemarie/Wilson Ice Cream, Wilson's Coal Yard, 100 Lucy/William Johnston, 246 Culver/Restaurant Toulouse/Reed's Livery/Union House, Belvedere Inn and Restaurant/Belvedere Estate/3656 63rd Street, Schuham, Isadore ?-1930, Wilson, Garth 1917-2003, Wilson, William J. "Bill" 1915-1992, Wilson, Frank Ellsworth 1890-1923Create Date
August 3, 2025Update Date
August 3, 2025
