Phyllis Begens Collection

Phyllis Begens is a direct descendent, the great great granddaughter, of an original South Manitou Island pioneer family, the William Burtons.

William Burton and his brother Hubbard Blackman Burton are thought to have arrived on the island during the 1830's. Both brothers were involved with maritime activities operating out of Cuyahoga County, Ohio which eventually became the port city of Cleveland. William, a former Captain of canal boats and steamships at Lake Champlain, might have been serving as a steamship company agent, while Hubbard was probably still principally employed as a ship's Captain.

They came to the island to establish a wooding station for steamboats navigating the Manitou Passage on their voyages principally between Lake Erie ports and Chicago, Illinois. That eventually grew into a small port community near their dock, which was known as "Burton's Wharf." While William and Hubbard Burton were probably never really island settlers ¹, evidently maintaining permanent residences in Ohio City (Cuyahoga County) and Wisconsin, the Burton family, mostly through various descendants of William Burton, was represented on the Island for at least sixty years.

Documents

• "To Noonie and Nellie" ~ A Poem by William Burton (1866)
  

  ---

• Letter: Eunice Marsden to James Carr ~ South Manitou Island, March 3, 1864
• Letter: Eunice Marsden to James Carr ~ South Manitou Island, March 22, 1864
• Letter: Eunice Marsden to James Carr ~ South Manitou Island, April 13, 1864
• Letter: Eunice Marsden to James Carr ~ South Manitou Island, August 14, 1865
• Letter: Eunice Marsden to James Carr ~ South Manitou Island, June 18, 1866
• Letter: Lucy-Boyd Rice Burton to Nellie Marsden ~ "Detroit, March 29" (c. 1881)
  

  ---

• Newspaper Clip: Death Notice for William Burton (1872)
• Newspaper Clip: Death Notice for Charlotte (Mrs.William N.) Burton (1882)
• Newspaper Clip: Death Notice for William N. Burton (1895)
• Newspaper Clip: Death of Martha (Burton) Pierce (1907)
• Newspaper Clip: Death of Eunice (Burton) Carr (1909)

Photographs

This collection includes the following images:

• PB001.jpg: View 1 of "Round Lake" (now Lake Florence.)
• PB002.jpg: View 2 of "Round Lake" (now Lake Florence.)
• PB003.jpg: View 3 of "Round Lake" (now Lake Florence.)
• PB004.jpg: Looking south down Ohio Road, probably from Chicago Road junction (using present road names.)
• PB005.jpg: Burton children (names not given), probably near Burton's Wharf.
• PB006.jpg: William Burton home by the bay on South Manitou Island.
• PB007.jpg: The children of Eunice Naomi (Marsden) Felver (William Burton's granddaughter.) From the left: Walter, Lawrence, Nellie, Kate and Ruth. (Nellie Felver was the mother of Phyllis Begens.)
• PB008.jpg: Eunice Marion (Burton) (Marsden) Carr, daughter of William Burton (Great Grandmother of Phyllis Begens.)
• PB009.jpg: Nellie (Marsden) Wolverton — "Aunt Nell" (granddaughter of William Burton; aunt of the children in image PB007.)
• PB010.jpg: Eunice Naomi (Marsden) Felver (granddaughter of William Burton; mother of children in PB007.)

[1] William Burton, up to now, has been presumed to have been the first settler on South Manitou Island.