Empire, Michigan 49630
March 1994
GREETINGS ISLAND FRIENDS!!
It's been a beautiful winter in northwest Michigan. We're experiencing record snowfalls and low temperatures. Lake Michigan's bays and shorelines have been "iced in" for some time now. I imagine South Manitou's bay is ice—bound as well. It's a great time to read accounts of winter life—saving service operations on the island. Gerald Crowner relates an eerie tale of a late January thunderous gale, which sent a frozen ice sheet mass onto the harbor's shoreline jamming windrow after windrow onto the shore. An experience, enhanced by his position in the lookout tower, no doubt! Rita Rusco tells a tale of a "winter crossing" on Lake Michigan from North Manitou to Leland ... when the lake was frozen. Can you imagine a 4 hour journey riding on a horse—drawn sled ... meandering a course between and around icebergs and rough frozen lake ice? What an adventure!
I'm sure all of us have experienced adventure on the Manitou Islands. If your memories can somehow be recorded, we'd all love to relive them with you! The Memorial Society was formed to preserve OUR history so we may pass it on to future generations.
Please consider passing on your memories of the Manitou's to future generations of Memorial Society members!generations.
Kathy Bietau
Editor
Summer will be with us soon. Although it doesn't look like it outside here in Michigan, the calendar tells us otherwise. I thought I would share with you some of Society's project plans and ideas for the Island:
1. We hope to be able to replace the woven—wire fence around the cemetery on South. We have to determine if the fence material is available comercially.
2. I spoke with Ray Kimpel, from the National Park, about putting up a replacement picket fence on the Price girls grave site. He didn't see a problem with this idea.
3. Ray also reminded me that the Memorandum of Agreement between Sleeping Bear Dunes N.L. and the South Manitou Memorial Society still needs to be signed. I plan on getting this done by July of this year.
4. I also asked Ray about the possibility of the Society assisting with the rehabilitation of the Schoolhouse. His answer was that an architectural study would need to be done first before any restoration/rehabilitation could begin, same as the Lighthouse.
Those are the immediate goals for this coming spring/summer. I hope to see you at the Annual Meeting/Picnic in Empire.
Sincerely,
Paul Rocheleau
President
"Stop at Bill Haas's for blacksmith work and shoe repair"
"Stop at Tobin's store for groceries and meat"
"Honor roll students with A's and B's..."
These are some of the items in the island 4—5 page ditto, School News.
The above represents one item included in the Betty Kramer Collection on South Manitou Island, given by Roy Kramer to the Memorial Society for its appropriated preservation.
Other items in the collection include:
-notebooks of ‘80 years ago in Leelanau County clippings', along with other articles, brochures, letters.
-photographs
-negatives
—Lottie Tobin's 1929 Postmaster Cash Book
-Township and general election tally sheets for 1938, 1940.
—voluminous letters to Bertha Peth — giving glimpses of island life — "Bertha, do you have enough wood and food - are you warm enough?".. ."Send me 12 Chinese walnuts located...". . ."No, you sent the wrong ones."
—Farm & Fireside, Dec. 1925 (5¢ a copy) with article about Beck's prize Rosen Rye international awards.
-and much much more....
One island researcher has already been fascinated with the 'richness' of the collection.
Several archival repositories are being investigated in the Leelanau area. After a location is determined, other Society members may be interested in placing their family records, photos, etc. in the same location. This would preserve their family history, as well as make for a "rich" island resource.
Copies of unmarked photos in the Betty Kramer Collection will be on display at the Annual Meeting/Reunion Picnic this summer. Perhaps some members can help identify these photographs?
Some photocopying of the materials is being done, with the idea of creating a Society notebook, and possibly a notebook for the Island Museum.
We have the following individuals to thank: Margaret Braden, Joanna Smith, Sylvia Kruger and President Paul Rocheleau for developing these recommendations. Margaret Braden and Paul Rocheleau will be visiting local area "repositories" to determine the proper placement of the Collection, and future Island materials.
Please see Update — Betty Kramer Collection Article in this Newsletter.
SOUTH MANITOU ISLAND MEMORIAL SOCIETY
ISLAND OUTING
It's time to begin planning the
2nd Annual Island Outing!
SUNDAY JULY 31, 1994
Would you like to join us this year?
I'll need to know by April 1st how many people would like to participate so we can make transportation plans.
Please respond to me by mail or phone with the following information:
Name /s and number in group.
Please contact me if you have an interest in participating in the planning of this years Outing.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Kathy Bietau
P.O. Box 99
Empire, Michigan 49630
(616) 326—5118
NEWS FROM:
SLEEPING BEAR DUNES NATIONAL LAKESHORE
Ray Kimpel Reports:
The National Park Service is gearing up for another busy season ... maybe I should say "gearing down". The budget process is presently in full swing and the rumors are not good. Most Government agencies are going to share in the "streamlining" that is going on. The Department of the Interior will have to part with over 700 permanent positions over the next two years. The NPS will attempt to do this in central offices (Washington and Region) by moving younger persons now working at these locations to the field as vacancies occur in parks. There is talk of "early out" opportunities for persons nearing retirement eligibility. Besides personnel cutting, other program funding will suffer also. The funding for the SMI Lighthouse Historic Structures Report is on the back burner again. This will set back the eventual lighthouse restoration all of us have been hoping for. To counter some of the shortfalls that will be created there is new emphasis on forming partnerships with persons and groups that share our interest in preserving park resources. On this note, if you happen to hear of any individual or corporate investors that would like to help with the SMI project, steer them in our direction.
I will continue to work with Society President Paul Rocheleau on formalizing the NPS/Society relationship. We hope to have something ready for signing at the next annual membership meeting.
Another setback. The Lockman Outdoor Ed. Center in Traverse City has closed. The marking and fencing of any additional homestead grave sites on either of the Manitou's will require the efforts of other interested persons/groups.
R. Kimpel, 2/94
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
UPDATE ... UPDATE ... UPDATE
Research for a possible site for deposit collection of South Manitou Memorial Society artifacts, letters, and documents continued on Feb. 19-21, 1994. Kathy Bietau, Judy Fogle and Margaret Braden visited the Leelanau Historical Museum (Laura Quackenbush) in Leland and the Empire Heritage Museum (Dave Taghon) in Empire.
Since Betty Kramer died and her husband gave her collection of memorabilia to the Society, our first consideration has been to find a permanent place to house it. This idea took seed and has the potential of becoming a permanent collection of artifacts which represent a unique way of life.
The following were some of the concerns we considered when talking to Dave and Laura: The interest expressed for the Island and its history; the capability and the capacity of the physical structures; the expansion plans; the expertise of the staff; any formal policies of donations, collections, and loans; the financial picture.
We would like to continue researching other possible sites and discussing the information we've gathered before making a final decision of where to place the Betty Kramer Collection and, a more far—reaching decision where to place the South Manitou Memorial Society Collection.
If you have thoughts or suggestions on this, please contact:
Margaret Braden
9815 Trevina Ct. Fort Wayne, IN 46804
219—432—4817
OR:
Paul Rocheleau
5437 S. Crawford
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858 517—773—3595
Thanks,
Margaret Braden,
Vice—President
Paul Rocheleau submits the following article from the Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun - dated Feb. 10, 1994 —
INCREASE IN PARK FEES WOULD FUND REPAIRS
Washington (AP) - Last year, Ivan Miller collected $225,000 for the federal government but he didn't get to keep a dime.
This year, President Clinton wants Miller, Superintendent of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan, to collect even more money. As an incentive, Miller can keep some and use it to fix dilapidated camping areas, fill potholes and make long—postponed repairs.
Clinton's budget proposal would raise entry fees and user fees at national parks and public lands by $32 million — a minuscule part of his $1.52 trillion budget proposal and one of the few items that would take money directly from people.
Officials say the choice is simple: Pay a few more dollars to camp at or visit a national park or see closed trails, dirty restrooms and fewer rangers.
"We're strapped right now for cash, and it costs us money to collect money that we can't keep," Miller said in a telephone interview.
The administration has not yet determined where fees would be raised and by how much. Fees of up to $10 per vehicle are charged at about half of the parks in the national system. Park Service spokesman John Quinley said.
Legislation containing the specifics should go to Congress this spring.
But Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, whose department oversees the Park Service, said federal facilities in cities, such as Independence Hall in Philadelphia or the Washingtcn Monument in the District of Columbia, would still be free.
That means the increases woit2d most likely fall on visitors to some of the biggest rural attractions, such as Yellowstone National Park or the Grand Canyon, and campers in parks and national forests.
Even if Congress approves the increase - a similar proposal was rejected last year — the extra money won't solve everything.
The president's budget would give the National Park Service $1.4 billion. To fix everything in the massive system would cost at least an additional $2.2 billion, according to figures collected from individual parks by an advocacy group.
Congress rejected a similar request for higher fees last year.
"There is no evidence at this point that the climate is different," said an aide to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Congress has been very reluctant to raise those fees."
Administration officials said they hoped offering to keep some of the money in the parks where it is collected would sway Congress and would encourage park workers to do a better job collecting the fees since they'd have a stake in the take.
Babbitt got a personal look at the collecting problem last year, when he visited the Great Falls Park in Virginia and found no one at the entrance to take his money. When he asked about it, the superintendent said she was one of three employees on duty and the other two were on emergency calls.
"How do you propose I collect them, or would you like to collect them yourself?" Babbitt said she asked.
*Howard Walter Jolmson*
of California
Born October 4, 1915
Entered Into Rest August 27, 1993
We extend our deepest sympathies
to the family and friends
of Howard Johnson
and feel honored to have known him.
*Esther Margaret Morse*
Esther was born Oct.28, 1900 in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan — the daughter of Andrew James White and Clara Nell (Ferris) White.
Her childhood years were spent in lumber towns, her father owning a lumber mill and moving from operation to operation. The first location was in Cedar Run, Almira Township. Next they moved to the west side of North Manitou Island, to operate the A.J. White and Son Sawmill at the newly established town of Crescent, around 1908.
Esther attended school in the "old saloon" at Crescent.. .which had been converted to a school and church. She has fond memories of her childhood on North Manitou. She told me about the JOSEPHINE DRESDEN, Capt. Charles Anderson's sailing schooner, wrecking on the beach at Crescent. She used to play with her friends in the wreckage, strewn along the west side shoreline. Capt. Anderson replaced the DRESDEN with the J.S. CROUSE and provided service again to North Island. Esther told me she used to ride back and forth to North Manitou on the CROUSE. She remembers sleeping on the deck next to Captain Anderson's desk on many a crossing to the island. Those years as a child on North Manitou instilled in Esther a strong love for the great lakes, its lore and especially North Manitou's lumber town of Crescent.
She moved from the island, later marrying William Morse on Oct.19, 1919. Thus, beginning her lifelong attachment to "mainland" Leelanau County.
I met Esther in the summer of 1991, in the middle of Lake Michigan - just offshore "Miller's Beach" on North Manitou. Her family had taken a day trip to the island and had engine problems with their boat. I assisted in towing them back to Leland. It was a beautiful moonlit night ... with calm seas and plenty of time to reminisce about her "island days". We discovered I was the "Park Service Kathy" she had been listening to on her scanner for a few years. I discovered she had lived in Crescent as a young child. We learned that we both shared a love for the same stretches of North Manitou shorelines and the same (but so different now) town of Crescent.
Esther died on Jan.1, 1994. She was 93 years of age! I will miss her friendship.
We offer her family and friends our deepest sympathies.
by Kathy Bietau
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION: DATE:
NAME:
ADDRESS:
CITY, STATE, ZIP:
DONATION:
____ $100.00 ____ $50.00 ____ $25.00
____ $10.00 ____ OTHER
RELATIONSHIP TO SOUTH OR NORTH MANITOU ISLAND:
The South Manitou Memorial Society is a non-profit organization.
"I REMEMBER WHEN ..."
by JUDY FOGLE
Bea Burdick
Her husband, Fred, introduced me to her in 1982, at the Marina. She found out that I had been staying at the Shapley cabin all week with three small children and myself. My husband had arrived on the island the day before I was to leave, so we invited them to dinner; one where everyone brings something to eat (which I was to learn was the "thing to do on South Manitou").
They (Fred, Bea, and Doris Shirk) ) all arrived at dinner time (when the sun starts going down). After dinner we shared island stories (even though I only had a weeks' worth to share).
When they got up to leave, Bea said, "Judy, don't call yourself a camper, because you are now an "islander". It was like being crowned a Knight of the Round Table.
Wayne Shirk
I met Wayne and his wife Denise in 1983 at one of those "dinners". Wayne brought his famous island leek soup with a little beer in it. It tasted wonderful!
He and Denise told us about going to sunsets upon the dunes, how to find leeks, and how not to get poison ivy.
One day a group of us went on a private tour, in the big dune buggy. Doris was giving the talk, and Wayne would whisper to me exactly what she would say before she said it. I wasn't sure who was giving the tour!
Jack Phillips
I had heard about the kayak man for years, but didn't meet Jack until about 1990. He came in his bright yellow kayak, and joined us at one of those dinners for fish caught out of Lake Florence. He really seemed to enjoy the guitar playing later, especially Bea Raynor's "island song".
The next year he came out to our campfire one evening with his spiral notebook in hand, ready to take history notes of my familys' past on the island. He seemed so disappointed when I didn't come from a past generation.
But, while we waited for the children to come back from the Ranger's Station with the Rangers, it got dark. Pretty soon, strange noises started to occur. We decided it must be those rangers and kids trying to frighten us. We called out their names, but they didn't respond. The sounds were getting closer. There were no flashlights. Again, we called out names and no one responded. Then the noises turned to someone taking a big stick and banging the trees as it came closer to the campfire. Jack and I became alarmed and we were scared. We kept asking, "Who's there?" Then those kids and Kathy Bietau jumped in from behind us and said, "Boo!" And Chuck Kruch jumped into the firelight area laughing at us.
Her husband, Fred, introduced me to her in 1982, at the Marina. She found out that I had been staying at the Shapley cabin all week with three small children and myself. My husband had arrived on the island the day before I was to leave, so we invited them to dinner; one where everyone brings something to eat (which I was to learn was the "thing to do on South Manitou").
They (Fred, Bea, and Doris Shirk) ) all arrived at dinner time (when the sun starts going down). After dinner we shared island stories (even though I only had a weeks' worth to share).
When they got up to leave, Bea said, "Judy, don't call yourself a camper, because you are now an "islander". It was like being crowned a Knight of the Round Table.
Wayne Shirk
I met Wayne and his wife Denise in 1983 at one of those "dinners". Wayne brought his famous island leek soup with a little beer in it. It tasted wonderful!
He and Denise told us about going to sunsets upon the dunes, how to find leeks, and how not to get poison ivy.
One day a group of us went on a private tour, in the big dune buggy. Doris was giving the talk, and Wayne would whisper to me exactly what she would say before she said it. I wasn't sure who was giving the tour!
Jack Phillips
I had heard about the kayak man for years, but didn't meet Jack until about 1990. He came in his bright yellow kayak, and joined us at one of those dinners for fish caught out of Lake Florence. He really seemed to enjoy the guitar playing later, especially Bea Raynor's "island song".
The next year he came out to our campfire one evening with his spiral notebook in hand, ready to take history notes of my familys' past on the island. He seemed so disappointed when I didn't come from a past generation.
But, while we waited for the children to come back from the Ranger's Station with the Rangers, it got dark. Pretty soon, strange noises started to occur. We decided it must be those rangers and kids trying to frighten us. We called out their names, but they didn't respond. The sounds were getting closer. There were no flashlights. Again, we called out names and no one responded. Then the noises turned to someone taking a big stick and banging the trees as it came closer to the campfire. Jack and I became alarmed and we were scared. We kept asking, "Who's there?" Then those kids and Kathy Bietau jumped in from behind us and said, "Boo!" And Chuck Kruch jumped into the firelight area laughing at us.
George Thompson and Beatrice (Thompson) Holmes shared the following information with me regarding their parents, THOMAS EDWARD THOMPSON and HATTIE ELSIE BECK.
Thomas Edward Thompson was born in Norway in 1879. It is believed his father died at sea before his brother, Tarral Theodore, was born. After their father's death, their mother, Petrine Gesine (Gabrielsen) Thompson immigrated to America. During the voyage she met a childhood friend, also from Norway, Bernt Sakarias Johnson. Gesine and Bernt Johnson were married in Whitehall, Michigan, on November 8, 1885.
Edward and Theodore Thompson were left behind in Norway with their grandmother until Gesine could send for them. The two boys arrived in America in approximately 1887, joining the Johnson family in Whitehall. Shortly thereafter the family moved "up north" and settled on South Manitou Island.
Thomas Thompson lived in Grand Rapids for a short period working for the railroad. He married Hattie Beck in 1900. Their first child, Beatrice, was born on South Manitou Island on September 11, 1904. Their son, George Thompson, was also born on South Manitou Island on March 1, 1907. Both Beatrice and George were born in August Beck's home on the island. The Thomas Thompson home on the island is presently being used as the museum.
Thomas Thompson fished the pond nets and also delivered the mail sailing between the island and Glen Arbor. The first mailboat he purchased was named after his daughter, Beatrice. Thomas delivered the mail until his death on June 14, 1910.
Thomas Thompson died in a drowning accident just off the shore of South Manitou Island. He was sailing with his son George who fell overboard. Thomas jumped in the water and was swimming to shore with George when they went under. The Life—Saving Service came to the rescue saving George but they could not resuscitate Thomas. Thomas is buried on South Manitou Island.
Beatrice remembered her father as being a good provider but strict. Thomas played the violin and taught Beatrice to sing, "Marching Through Georgia", and "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah".
After her husband death, Hattie took over the post office on the island. In order to provide for her two children, Hattie, also washed and ironed the clothes for the men in the life-saving service. Hattie was an excellent cook and cooked the meals for the men in the life—saving service. Beatrice said her mother was a good house-keeper and beautiful seamstress. Hattie provided for her family for two years on her own before remarrying. Hattie married William Barnhart who was serving in the life-saving service on the island.
The family left the island in 1919 when William Barnhart was transferred to the Charlevoix Coast Guard Station. They lived in Charlevoix until the 1930's when Mr. Barnhart was again transferred to the Grand Haven Coast Guard Station.
Hattie (Beck) passed away on February 8, 1987, in Grand Haven Michigan. She was 104 years old and is buried in Ludington, Michigan.
Respectfully submitted by Sandra (Thompson) Black.
 Thomas E. Thompson |
 Hattie Elsie Beck |
Copyright 1994/1995 Vol.5, No.1