Name/Title
Kendall family and Elk Horns cottageEntry/Object ID
2025.09.13Scope and Content
Kendall family research collected by Chris Yoder for article about the Kendall family's Elk Horns cottage.Context
The cottage is at 3089 Lakeshore Drive in Douglas.
My Cottage Name Series "Elk Horn Lodge"
-contributed by Chris Yoder
The Elk Horns Today
The Jun 5, 1903 issue of the Commercial Record reported:
“The Kendall cottage is now completed, and J. C. Kendall, with wife and two daughters, will occupy it at once. It is one of the finest summer homes at the Lake Front, and will be called “Elk Horn Lodge,” named after a pair of elk’s horns which Mr. Kendall secured on one of the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains in one of his many trips to Colorado.”
“J. C. Kendall” (he really went by “Charles John Kendall”) was born Jul. 6, 1848 in Cleveland, OH to Civil War Captain John C. Kendall and wife Sarah Buttz. He married Elvira Augusta Ellet, daughter of Civil War union General BG Alfred Washington Ellet and Sarah Jane Roberts on Aug. 26, 1873. BG Ellet commanded the Mississippi Marine Brigade and was involved in the siege of Vicksburg, MS and other major battles. After the war, BG Ellet returned to working as a civil engineer and became involved in railroad development, settling in El Dorado, KS.
Charles and Elvira had: daughter Sarah Ellet, b. Aug. 6, 1874 in Osage City, Kansas; a son Charles b. 1876 who died young; and daughter Mary Ellet, b. Mar. 26, 1886 in Topeka, KS. The two girls are mentioned in the Commercial Record article.
The cottage was built as a summer place to which they would come from their home in Chicago. Charles was at different times a store clerk, merchant, and commercial agent and was in 1914 associated with the Santa Fe RR, possibly a connection facilitated by his father-in-law’s post war occupation. A 1914 article in the Chicago Tribune credited him with a plan by which after the seasonal closure of the steamship line from Saugatuck many bushels of fruit and produce were arranged to be sent by electric rail from Saugatuck to Holland where it could be transported on the Graham and Morton Line for distribution to the poor in Chicago.
Photo caption: Sarah Ellet Kendall, 1923 Passport Photo of Mary Valentine
Older daughter Sarah never married. She developed tumor in the brain and died in Cook Co, IL on Oct. 20, 1911. Younger sister Mary Ellet married in Chicago on Jan. 19, 1910 to James Alden Valentine (son of Ezra G. and Bertha (Alden) Valentine – Bertha was a 7th generation descendant of Mayflower passengers John Alden and Priscilla Mullens – ancestors shared with your author Chris Yoder). I’d like to thank Mary’s descendant Peter Nerber for sharing the family photos included in this article.
Both girls had formal training in Europe as artistic book binders and it is understood that they may have given some lessons in the Saugatuck community during their stays. The magazine Fine Books and Collections reported in a 2012 article that Yale University’s Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library has received a significant and generous gift of hand book bindings by the Kendall girls, it details:
Mary Ellet Kendall Valentine and her sister, Sarah Ellet Kendall, traveled to England in the early years of the twentieth century to study bookbinding with T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, proprietor of the Doves Press and Doves Bindery. An early supporter of women’s rights, Cobden-Sanderson took a young American woman as his first pupil in 1895 at a time when it was unusual to find a woman working in the bookbinding trade. His political sympathies led him to train a series of female students and his only requirement was that they dedicate a year to learning the art and skill of bookbinding. The Kendall sisters trained with Cobden-Sanderson from 1907 to 1909 and on returning to America they opened the Golden Bindery in the Fine Arts Building in Chicago. Sadly, Sarah Kendall died a few years later. Her sister Mary Ellet Kendall married James A. Valentine in 1910 and continued to produce bindings into the 1920s.
The Valentine Collection consists of full leather bindings with gold stamped decorations that showcase both the technical and design skills of Mary Valentine and Sarah Kendall. The intricate patterns are influenced by their Arts and Crafts training, yet also show a tendency toward Art Deco and other modern influences. The collection includes bindings executed jointly by the sisters, as well as solo work by Mary Valentine. Many of the bound books were gifts to the sisters from Cobden-Sanderson and are inscribed.
The Newberry Library in Chicago has an archive of correspondence, dated July 30, 1900 to Sept. 29, 1910, principally from Mary Ellet Kendall in Europe and Chicago, to Cornelia Ewing in El Dorado, Kansas. It includes correspondence from 1904-1906 which documents a first trip to Europe by Mrs. Kendall and her two daughters, Mary and Sarah. A second trip in 1906 takes them to England, where Mary and Sarah study bookbinding at the Doves Bindery with Cobden-Sanderson, and their letters from this period (1906-1907) include descriptions of their work at the bindery. In October 1907, the Kendalls begin a new apprenticeship with French binder Jules Domont (1847-1931) in his studio in the Quartier Latin in Paris.
Photo caption: Complements of Find A Grave
Charles Kendall died in Walpole, MA Nov. 17, 1927 and was cremated. His widow Elvira died the following year. Both are buried in the Union Cemetery, Waukegan, IL. Mary Kendall Valentine died at the same location age 42, Jan. 24, 1929 and is buried in the Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, NY.
Photo caption: Elk Horn Lodge- complements of Tom Bredemann
This Lakeshore Drive cottage, remains today and all the subsequent owners have retained its original name. Joseph & Ellen Bredemann bought Elkhorn in 1945 and is located at 3089 Lake Shore Drive. Joseph and Ellen were personal friends with Whittier and May Felker who developed Felkers Subdivision in that part of Douglas, MI. The only real physical change was that sometime before 1957 Joseph moved the front outside porch from the front to the South side of the house and had a bay window installed to increase the natural lighting inside. Above the fireplace are written the words “All hands that blow shall make this fireplace glow.” That, as well as the antlers, is original with the cottage.Collection
Family HistoryCataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2025.09Source or Donor
Yoder, ChrisAcquisition Method
Donation, unconditionalCredit Line
Items scanned by Chris Yoder or Jack Sheridan for the SDHC family history group.Dimensions
Dimension Description
digital assetLocation
* Untyped Location
Digital data in CatalogItRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Kendall, J.C., 3089 Lakeshore/Elk Horn cottageGeneral Notes
Note
Emailed from Chris Yoder, May 2025
The Kendall cottage on lakeshore has an interesting story I was preparing for a SHS newsletter, but never felt I had an approval from the current owners. Mr Kendall brought a set of elk horns with him back from the west and they still hang over the fireplace in the living room.The father in the owning family was concerned that if the History Center became interested they might try to declare the place as "historic" and it would inhibit their ability to do things to the property in the future. [Note: The SDHC cannot interfere with property ownership rights] The article was never finalized or published as I recall. Not sure if the Brendemans still own it as recently as April 2020 son Tom Bredemann [Tom Bredeman] was sending me emails with info about adjacent properties there are the end of Center St, never did anything with that either although it is still in my email archives. Bredemann's own a car dealership in the Chicago area.Create Date
May 29, 2025Update Date
September 5, 2025
