Leelanau County History

Leelanau county with its 227,200 acres of area constitutes that sharply defined peninsula which juts out from the northwestern shoulder of Northern Michigan between the deep waters of Lake Michigan on the west and those of Grand Traverse bay on the east. The great bodies of water which embrace the county on three sides affect the climate to the great comfort and advantage of the people and the region of their residence; for the summers are not as warm in Leenanau or the winters as cold as in most places in the state of the same latitude.

Eighty-three per cent of this county was once covered with maple, beech, elm, birch, oak and other hardwoods, and ten per cent was swamp land, but most of the heavy timber has been cut away, and one-third of the county is now in cultivated farms and orchards. More than 138,000 acres have been set aside for agricultural purposes, and the rolling uplands of the northern sections are ideal for the raising of fruit. Apples and peaches flourish, as well as alfalfa and all forage crops, and the abundance of lakes and streams throughout the county, with the equable climate, make dairying a growing industry.

Leelanau Characteristics

Leelanau county is an aggregation of hills, valleys, plains, forests, lakes, headlands, inlets and islands, one of the most picturesque regions of Northern Michigan and warmly favored by the sportsman and summer resorter. The county is an irregular triangle in shape, its greatest length being thirty-nine miles and its greatest width, along its southern boundary, twenty-two miles. It has a shore line of more than one hundred miles. The most striking interior features of the county center in the valleys of Carp and Glen Lakes. The late Professor Winchell thus speaks of the topography of Leelanau county: ''Some parts of the county present hills of somewhat formidable magnitude. Most of the northern part of the triangle is decidedly rough. The ridge of land separating Carp lake from Sutton's bay attains an elevation of nearly four hundred feet above the bay. Carp lake is a beautiful sheet of pure water, resting in the bosom of hills, which with their rounded forest-covered forms furnish it a setting of surpassing loveliness. Except for a short space on the east side south of the narrows the shores of the lake are occupied by dry and arable land. The region between Glen Arbor and Traverse City is substantially an undulating plateau, lying at an elevation of about three hundred feet above the lake. Glen lake is surrounded by hills, which attain an elevation of two hundred and fifty to four hundred feet.

''North Unity is a bold bluff of clay and sand, formed by the wasting of the lakeward side of a prominent hill by the action of the waves.

''Sleeping Bear Point is an enormous pile of gravel, sand and clay, which has been worn away on its exposed borders till the lakeward face presents a precipitous slope rising from the waters to an elevation of five hundred feet, and forming with the horizon an angle of fifty degrees. Back from the face of the bluff is an undulating plateau of clay, pebbles and sand covering an area of six or eight square miles, over which the only signs of vegetation are a few tufts of brown, coarse grass with scattered clumps of dwarfed and gnarly specimens of the balm of Gilead, a miniature desert lying three hundred and eighty feet above the lake. Across this waste of sand and clay the wind sweeps almost incessantly, — sometimes with relentless fury — driving pebbles and sand into the shelter of the neighboring forest, and causing the stunted poplars to shrink away in terror at its violence. The pelting sand has polished the exposed surface of the larger fragments of rocks to such an extent that they reflect the sunlight like a mirror. Their surfaces are sometimes worked into furrows, pits and grotesque inequalities in consequence of the unequal hardness of different portions of the stone. The 'Bear' proper is an isolated mound rising a hundred feet above this desolate plateau and singularly covered with evergreens and other trees, presenting from the lake the dark appearance which suggested to the early navigators the idea of a bear in repose."

The Carp Lake Region

Carp or Leelanau lake, a fine body of water twenty-five miles long and from a few rods to three miles wide, cuts longitudinally through the two eastern tiers of townships to Lake Michigan by way of the Leelanau river. The entire shore on both sides is indented with bays into which empty some fine trout streams. Cedar river, a cold spring brook, empties into Carp lake near Cedar and is one of the best of the trout streams. Carp lake itself supplies to the sportsman virtually every fish known to the waters of Northern Michigan — Mackinaw trout, black, green and speckled bass, white fish, pickerel, muskellunge, perch, sunfish and speckled trout. A special feature of the fishing on Carp lake is the deep water trolling for Mackinaw trout.

Around Carp lake, or Lake Leelanau as it is becoming known are springing up summer camps and cottages and its future as an attractive and popular resort country is assured. The entire region well upholds the translation from the Indian name Leelanau, ''Delight of Life." Leland, the county seat, is located between the head of Carp lake and Lake Michigan.

The Glen Lake Region

This includes the southwestern townships of the county, and some of the most picturesque, romantic, fertile and progressive sections of its territory. An interested enthusiast speaks thus in 1911: ''Glen lake, from one to three miles wide, seven miles long — is abundantly stocked with fish, bass, lake-trout, pickerel and perch. Yearly, since 1893, the spawn from the state fish hatcheries is planted in the lake and the brook-trout stream that empties into it after passing through Atkinson's pond at DeGrawville. For beauty scenery Glen lake is classed as the equal of Lake George and by some even of Lake Como. It is fast becoming a great resort lake. Many hotels and cottages are beginning to line its shores and it is destined to soon be one of the most popular resorts in Michigan, accessible by railroad to Empire and by the Northern Michigan Transportation Company's steamers to Glen Haven. The roads throughout the region surrounding the lake are good, thus making automobiling a delightful pastime.

"On the north shore of the western end of the lake is one of the finest private forestry propositions in the state of Michigan. Fourteen hundred acres are covered with second growth birches, elms, maples, basswoods, oak and pines. These trees are now forty years old and beneath their shade-giving branches are beautiful walks and drives. The forest is the property of D. H. Day. To the south of the lake are several pieces of virgin timber that are being preserved and that prove a fairy world to all lovers of the woodland. Elsewhere there is already all too little of the 'forest primeval.

"Over-towering the inland lake on the west is the celebrated ' Sleeping Bear. ' This is one of the points of greatest interest in the state. The stretch of sand dunes, reaching from Sleeping Bear Point to Empire, eight miles to the southward, with its wide expanse of ever changing hills and ravines and with a sandy surface that is so hard that it can be driven upon, is a glorious place for resorters and picnic parties to while away dreamy summer days. From the top of the Bear a beautiful view of Lake Michigan is to be had. At the northern extremity of the Bear is a United States life saving station, which furnishes much of interest to visitors. The north and south Manitou islands are places for the excursionist and explorer. They are admirably located for days' outings as they can be reached from Glen Haven by launches.

''The Glen Lake Valley reaching from Burdickville to Maple City contains some of the best lands in Leelanau county. This valley lies entirely in Kasson township, within the limits of which have been found some of the finest stands of hardwood timber in the country. This fact is a testimonial to the richness of the soil. Down the valley is a good road to Burdickville where is located a large warehouse at which all kinds of produce is received for shipment and is bought. Freight is here loaded on cars, ferried across Glen lake to the railroad at Day's mill, hauled to his dock on Lake Michigan and forwarded by the Northern Michigan Transportation Company steamers to Chicago and other lake points."

It may be added that lands in Empire, Kasson and Glen Arbor township are especially well suited to the raising of fruits; that fine orchards are being planted and the proprietors locating. Neither is the Glen lake region a new country. It is well settled, has good roads, telephone service, rural delivery and well established schools and churches ; in a word, it is a good region for those looking for homes.

Property Besides Empire, in the Glen Lake region, the only other incorporated villages are Northport and Sutton's Bay on Grand Traverse bay, places of about four and five hundred people respectively. North Manitou island is civilly attached to Leland township and South Manitou to Glen Arbor.

The assessed valuation of property for 1910, as equalized, is as follows: Real estate, $2,597,207; personal property, $420,170; total, $3,017,377.

First Settlers

It is claimed by some that the first white settler within the present limits of Leelanau county was a Frenchman named Nazaros Dona, who lived about two miles south of the present site of Leland, then called Shemacopink. It is not probable, however, that he lived there except while engaged in fishing, or that he could be considered a settler of the county.

In 1847 John Lerue came from Chicago to the Manitou islands in search of health. At that time there was a pier, or wharf, on each of the two islands where passing steamers used to call for wood, the one on the north island being owned by Mr. Pickard, that on the south by Mr. Barton. On the north Manitou were two fishermen without families. The lighthouse was kept by a man named Clark. There were no white men at that time in Leelanau county. Farther south, at the mouth of the Betsey river, there was living a white man named Joseph Oliver, with an Indian wife, who supported his family by trapping and fishing. There were no Indians living on the Manitous, but they frequently came there to trade. Finding the climate favorable to his health, Mr. Lerue commenced trading with the Indians, and the next year moved his establishment over to the mainland, locating at what was then called Sleeping Bear bay, now Glen Arbor, and was probably the first permanent white settler.

Northport Founded

The most prominent figure in the earliest history of Leelanau county is that of the late Rev. George N. Smith, a minister of the Congregational church who had spent ten years in missionary work among the Indians of Black river, Ottawa county. Visiting the bay in the summer of 1848, with some of the Mission Indians, he selected a location on the shore some distance north of the site of the present village of Northport.

The arrival and the first experiences of the party are related by James J. McLaughlin, long a resident of Elk Rapids, and a son of James McLaughlin. ''It was a beautiful morning,'' he says ''in the early part of June, 1849, that the schooner 'Merrill' rounded Cat Head Point and stood up the bay. She had on board three families that were to make the first commencement where Northport now stands — those of James McLaughlin, the owner of the vessel, who was in the employ of the government; Rev. George N. Smith, missionary and teacher among the Ottawa Indians, and William H. Case, a brother-in- law of the owner of the vessel. These parties had been ordered by the government to Grand Traverse, then almost unknown to white men, with an Indian mission from Allegan county in this state. It seemed to us, as we gazed upon the beautiful scenery that met our eyes at every turn, that we had found the 'Eldorado.' The forests were unbroken; the axe of the white man had not marred its beauty; the beach of the bay was not strewn with the refuse of the sawmill, but all lay in the state that Dame Nature had kept it, beautiful beyond description.

"The place decided upon as the point to settle was near the creek where Northport is. The vessel was anchored off there the morning of the 11th of June. The men, armed with their axes, went ashore to prepare to build a house. The women and children enjoyed a walk on terra firma once more. Soon the sound of the axe broke the stillness of the forest, logs were cut, the ground cleared and everything made ready for the first raising on the west side of Grand Traverse bay But right here arose a difficulty; the logs were cut for a house nineteen feet square, good sized logs too and there was no team to haul them with. We couldn't go to the neighbors and borrow one, for the nearest neighbors were fifteen miles away and they across the water. But the pioneer is generally equal to the emergency; at least he was in this case. The vessel was now resorted to and blocks and ropes were brought ashore and a purchase rigged, by which, with the help of every man, woman and child that could pull on a rope, the logs were hauled into their places, and the house began to rise, and in the course of two or three days it was ready for the roof. Right at this point we found there was no roof ready, but taking a few boards that were in the vessel we stuck one end in a crack, the other on a beam, thus obtaining a sort of a shelter for the beds. We learned that lumber could be obtained at the head of the bay, the schooner was started for some, and in a short time we had a very fair house.

First Fourth in Traverse Region

''It seemed a very short time before what should come along but the Fourth of July; the glorious old Fourth, and that must be celebrated in good old style ! But what were we to do ? We had no cannon, no flag, nor any of the prerequisites necessary for celebration; but an old man-of-wars-man that had left the vessel to stay with us on shore, brought to light a red flannel shirt, and with a sheet for the white, he soon made a respectable flag. The morning of the Fourth was ushered in with a salute from all the guns we could muster, and our flag flying. The whole force of the settlement, numbering fifteen all- told, started for a picnic on the little island out in the bay. We ate our dinner, spent the day pleasantly and toward night returned home well pleased with ourselves and everybody else. Thus passed the first Fourth of July celebration in the Grand Traverse region, a small beginning, but as full of patriotism and love of country as any that has ever been held since. With early fall preparations were made for a long northern winter, supposing of course that in this high latitude, we would have at least six or eight months of winter; but we were agreeably surprised to see the fall months pass away, and no snow until the 12th of December, and instead of the cold dreary winter we had anticipated it was a mild, pleasant winter that would compare favorably with that of the south part of the state. There was but very little ice in the bay, and not enough at any time to obstruct navigation. The spring opened early, the first of April finding the snow and every vestige of ice removed, and the ground ready for the farmer .to go to work; but there were no farmers to go to work.''

About fifty families of Indians followed their missionary to the site of the present Northport. A log schoolhouse was built and an Indian village there established, named Wau-ka-zoo-ville in honor of one of their noted chiefs. During the first years of his residence, Mr. Smith devoted himself solely to mission work among the Indians, but afterward he organized a Congregational church among the whites of which he was pastor for many years. His death occurred on the 5th of April, 1881, after a brief illness caused by long-continued physical exposure, and his remains were buried near the home he had hewed out of the forest on the shore of Grand Traverse bay.

First Years of Growth

The development of Leelanau county was very materially retarded by an extensive Indian reservation, lying in the midst of an active white population. This reservation was made a few months after the settlement of Northport. It extended from the village of Northport south to township 28, and embraced the entire county as far west as range 13 west, leaving only the small triangle north of Northport as the sustaining back country for that village. The term of reservation expired in 1866.

In 1858 and 1859 farmers began to come in slowly, and from that time development was steady. Leelanau county was mentioned in the winter of 1862 as follows: 'The county of Leelanau embraces the entire peninsula formed by Lake Michigan and Grand Traverse bay and extends south seven miles below the mouth of Betsie river. It is bounded on the east by Grand Traverse bay, on the west and north by Lake Michigan, and on the south by Manistee. It has eighty-six miles of lake and forty miles of bay coast. There are five organized townships, viz: Leelanau, Centerville, Glen Arbor, Crystal Lake and Benzonia. Leelanau contains 720 whites and 319 Indians; Centerville 411 whites and 237 Indians; Glen Arbor 252 whites, no Indians; Crystal Lake 127 whites, no Indians. Total: 1,603 whites, 554 Indians; grand total, 2,157. As Benzonia was only organized last fall we have no means of knowing its number of inhabitants. It includes the Benzonia or Bailey colony, where it is in contemplation to build a college. Many of the best lands in the county are held by and reserved for the Indians, which has greatly retarded its settlement.

''The village of Northport is in the township of Leelanau. It is pleasantly situated on a safe and capacious harbor of the bay. About ten miles from its mouth, and is the largest village on the bay, containing four hundred inhabitants. The old Indian village of Wau-ka-zoo-ville and Northport are now one and the same, the Indians having sold out and abandoned it. It is an important wooding point for the propellers trading between Chicago and the lower lakes, and has two extensive wharves, five stores, three hotels, several saloons, one sawmill and a number of mechanic shops.

''The new Indian mission under the charge of Rev. Mr. Dougherty is also in this township. It is delightfully situated on a commanding eminence of the bay six miles south of Northport.

"Centerville joins Leelanau on the south and extends nearly to the head of the bay, and westerly from the bay to Lake Michigan. It embraces Carp lake — some eighteen miles long, and from one to two miles wide — a beautiful sheet of water abounding in choice varieties of fish.

"The principal business point is Leland, at the confluence of Carp river with Lake Michigan. Messrs. Cordes & Thiess have an extensive wharf here for wooding propellers, and they have also a saw and gristmill. John I. Miller has a beautiful farm in the immediate vicinity of the bay, among which are those of James, Robert and Thomas Lee, Messrs Bates, Sutton and Cumberworth. Further up the bay Mr. Norris has a tannery, a gristmill and an excellent water power.

' ' Glen Arbor lies north and west of Traverse City and is an excellent township of land. The settlement is mostly on the western side of the town in the vicinity of Lake Michigan. There are two villages. Glen Arbor and North Unity, the latter a German settlement. Glen Arbor is at the cone formed by Sleeping Bear Point and is a wooding point for propellers. ' '

At the time the foregoing was written Leelanau county had just been born as a civil and political body.

County Organized

In 1840 that portion of the state lying west of the county of Omeena and of Grand Traverse bay, including the Manitou islands, was laid off and designated as the county of Leelanau. It was attached to Grand Traverse county for judicial purposes. It was not regularly organized, however, until in the winter of 1862-3, when the legislature passed the enabling act.

An Act

To organize the county of Leelanau and define the county of Benzie : "Section 1. The people of the state of Michigan enact that all that part of the county of Leelanau which lies north of the south line of township 28 north shall be organized, and the inhabitants thereof shall be entitled to all the rights, privileges and powers to which, by law, the inhabitants of other organized counties in this state are entitled.

''Section 2. At the township meeting to be held in the several townships in said county on the first Monday in April next there shall be an election of all the county officers to which, by law, the said county may be entitled, whose term of office shall expire on the first day of January, A. D., eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and when their successors shall have been elected and qualified.

"Section 3. The board of county canvassers under the provisions of this act shall meet on the second Tuesday succeeding the day of election, as herein appointed, in the village of Northport in said county at the house of Joseph Dame or at such other place as may be agreed upon and provided by such board, and organize by appointing one of their number chairman and another secretary, and shall thereupon proceed to discharge all the duties of a board of county canvassers as in other cases of the election of county officers as prescribed by the general law.

"Section 4. The location of the county seat of said county shall be determined by the vote of the electors of said county at a special election which is hereby appointed to be held by the several townships of said county on the first Monday in June next. There shall be written on the ballots then polled by the qualified electors of said county, one of the following names of places, to- wit : Glen Arbor, Leelanau or Northport, and that one which shall receive the greatest number of votes shall be the county seat of the county of Leelanau.

''Section 5. It shall be the duty of the several boards of township inspectors in each of the townships of the said county to conduct the elections authorized by the provisions of this act and to make returns thereof in accordance with the general provisions of law for conducting elections in this state, so far as the same may be applicable thereto.

"Section 6. The board of county canvassers for the special election for locating the county seat shall consist of the persons appointed on the day of such special election by the several boards of township inspectors, and said board of county canvassers shall meet on the second Tuesday succeeding the day of said special election at the house of Otto Thies, in the village of Leland, and having appointed one of their number chairman, and the county clerk of said county acting as secretary, shall proceed to canvass the votes and determine the location of the county seat in accordance therewith, and it shall be the duties of the clerk of said board to file a copy of the determination of said board as to the location of the county seat, signed and certified by him, and countersigned by the chairman, with the secretary of state and with the township clerks of the several townships in said county.

"Section 7. All that part of the county of Leelanau which lies south of the south line of township 28 north, shall be and remain the county of Benzie, and the several townships thereof shall be attached for civil and municipal purposes to the county of Grand Traverse.

"Section 8. The secretary of state is hereby directed to furnish the township clerk of the township of Leelanau with a certified copy of this act, and it shall be the duty of said clerk to give the same notice of the elections to be held under the provisions of this act that is required by law to be given by the sheriff of unorganized counties.

"Section 9. That the said county of Leelanau when so organized shall be attached to the tenth judicial circuit, and the judge of said circuit shall hold courts in said county as be law in such cases made and provided.

"Section 10. All acts and parts of acts contravening the provisions of this act are hereby repealed so far as any provisions therein may conflict with this act.

''Section 11. This act shall take immediate effect.

"Charles S. May, President of the Senate. "Sullivan M. Cutcheon, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

"Approved February 27, 1863. Austin Blair, Governor."

Northport, First County Seat

The first business operations which led to the founding of the present village of Northport were inaugurated and advanced by Joseph Dame, a New England and New York lumberman who, in 1840, became a trader with headquarters at Mackinaw City, He carried on a trade in lumber, clocks and general goods and was employed by the government as a teacher of the Indians. From Mackinaw he finally moved to Old Mission, Grand Traverse bay, where he was employed in teaching farming to the Indians. Ir. Dame remained there until 1845 when he went to Wisconsin and bought a farm in Spring Prairie, Walworth county. He made his home there seven years and then returned to the Traverse region, and, leaving his family at Old Mission, bought a tract of land where now stands the village of Northport. He commenced the construction of a dock, engaged in trade and platted a village to which he gave the name it still bears. Writing at that time to the New York Tribune he gave such a description of the country that it speedily attracted attention, and from this and other causes the tide of immigration turned in his direction. His coming and labors eventuated in opening the neighboring country to settlement, and making Northport the distributing point of travel and supply. Mr. Dame built and conducted the Traverse Bay Hotel, the first house erected for the care and entertainment of the public. He also commenced the construction of a wharf in 1853, which was afterward completed by H. O. Rose.

Northport received quite an access of population within the following few years. In 1856 a sawmill was running, and Mr. Rose, in partnership with Amos Fox, had established quite a business in supplying the steamers with wood for fuel. By 1858 they were handling from 13,000 to 15,000 cords of wood on their Northport docks, being under regular contract to supply the boats of the Northern Transportation Company plying between Ogdensburg and Chicago. They also shipped hemlock bark and cedar posts, and these lines of industry and trades were taken up by others who located in the village, or built docks for that purpose in the vicinity. The first settlement on the site of Northport is said to have been made June 11, 1849, but Mr. Dame was its first permanent and substantial citizen.

In 1855 Northport was organized into a school district — the first in the county — and in the following year a small one-story frame building was erected to accommodate the few scholars in attendance. The post office was also established in 1855.

Of course the first religious exercises conducted on the site of Northport were by Rev. Mr. Smith, the Congregational minister, as already stated. In 1858 Rev. Lewis Griffin organized the Methodists into a class, and in 1863 the Congregationalists formed a regular society.

Thus were laid the foundations of the trade and industries, the educational and religious institutions, and the general community life of the village of Northport, the seat of justice from the organization of the county in 1863 to the year 1882 and which was incorporated by the board of supervisors of Leelanau county in October, 1903. Wilber E. Campbell being its first president.

The village of Northport has one of the best harbors in Grand Traverse bay and has railroad facilities over the Grand Rapids & Indiana line. With active flour and lumber mills, still maintaining quite a fishing trade, and backed by a country which is productive of fruit, vegetables, seeds and grain, Northport is one of the most promising centers of population in Leelanau county. The village transacts its business through the Leelanau County Bank, enjoys electric lighting and shows its moral stamina by supporting six religious organizations — one Methodist, one Congregational, one Catholic, one Swedish Mission and two Norwegian Lutheran.

Leland, Present County Seat

Leland has been the county seat of Leelanau county from 1882 to the present time. It lies at the mouth of the Leelanau river, about midway along the shore of Lake Michigan, and, although not an incorporated village, has a population of some four hundred. Its nearest railroad point is Provemont, four miles to the southeast on the Manistee & Northeastern railroad, with which it has stage connections. Aside from being the county seat, Leland has a canning factory and a shingle and sawmill, and still maintains quite a fishing trade; shipments include fish, hardwood lumber and railroad ties. It has a light and power plant, a township library, a good school and two churches.

The story of the founding of Leland is the usual narrative of "ups and downs." In 1848 Antoine Manseau and John I. Miller, both lumbermen, prospected in the Grand Traverse region in search of a desirable location for a sawmill. Mr. Manseau partially decided to locate at a point just above Traverse City, afterward called Norrisville, but the land being entered ahead of him he and Mr. Miller located at the mouth of the Carp river. At that time there was an Indian village on the hill near where Mr. Miller's house afterward stood, but the Indians soon left believing that the land had all been bought by white men and would soon be seized by them. But nothing was done at this point until June, 1853. when Mr. Manseau and his son Antoine arrived and built a sawmill on the river. A dam was also constructed and the mill put in operation.

In the following September, John I. Miller arrived and settled on the land which was long his homestead. The elder Manseau died in 1856 and his widow in 1860, and Antoine, Jr., moved to a locality near Sutton's Bay. Mr. Miller was the first postmaster at Leland, and held the office until June 1861, when he was succeeded by Simeon Pickard.

The first religious worship at Leland was conducted by Father Marak, one of the early Catholic missionaries, who began to visit the place in 1855. After him came Fathers Young and Herbstrit. In 1870 the society. Holy Trinity, built a church edifice.

Mr. Miller and the Manseaus were soon followed by John E. Fisher, John Porter, li. S. Buckman, John Bryant, Sr., Frederick Cook, Dr. W. H. Walker and George Eay. A pier was built, several stores erected, the water power was improved, and several mills put in operation. In March, 1867, the dam was carried which seriously interfered with business for some time. Great expectations centered in the iron furnace erected by Detroit capitalists in 1869, but early in the summer of 1872 the property was sold to Captain E. B. Ward, who interested others in the enterprise. Although the plant was twice burned and rebuilt, and employed quite a number of men it is said to have proved a detriment to the town, as the company controlled a large amount of village property which it kept out of the market and barred, in a way, from improvements. Leland became simply a creature of the iron company, whose furnace was finally abandoned. Her later history is chiefly connected with her position as the county seat since 1882.

Empire and Surrounding Country

Empire

Empire in the southwestern corner of the county near Lake Michigan is the largest of the three incorporated villages of the county. It is on the line of the Empire & Southeastern railroad and is quite a lumber, fruit and produce market. A large hardwood manufactory is also located here. A good bank (Empire Exchange), well organized school, two churches and a number of general stores also add to the life and standing of the village.

Empire had its beginning in a mere opening in the forest made upon its site by John Larue who brought his family into the country in the fall of 1851, soon after John Dorsey located at Glen Arbor. With years it developed into a brisk lumber town, and still later into the trading and banking center of a fine fruit and farming region. Of late years the Empire Lumber Company, under its various managements, has been the strong stay of the village, particularly in its development of hardwood manufacturing. The basis of the industry, with its business auxiliaries, was laid in 1887 when the T. Wilce Company bought the mill formerly operated by Potter & Struthers. Extension of the plant and docks, building of the railroad and other improvements followed and made Empire a fine little town. The company has also invested in thousands of acres of timber lands in Empire and adjoining townships, and altogether has been a strong promoter of the best interests of the village and the entire Glen Lake region.

Empire became a village by an act of the county board of supervisors passed in October, 1895, and the first election held December 2nd of that year resulted in the choice of E. R. Dailey, manager of the Empire Lumber Company, for president; Fritz Rohr, clerk; Dr. S. A. Gates, treasurer; William Sullivan, assessor, and I. Nurko, R. Sullivan, James Daly, A. E. Willard and George Taylor, trustees. Michael F. Horen was the first village marshal.

Sutton's Bay

This village, incorporated in 1898, is located on the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad and is at the foot of the body of water from which it is named — Sutton s bay being at the head of the West arm of Grand Traverse bay where it joins the main body. It has a charming location, but its business is largely confined to lumber. Like Northport its earlier trade centered in cordwood and railroad ties, the former being supplied to the steamers of the Great Lakes. It ha now a good sawmill and the usual minor industries of a small village and is the trade center of a considerable agricultural district, its transactions being conducted through the Leelanau County Savings Bank. The village has a thoroughly organized school system and three churches — the Catholic, Congregational and Lutheran. The Catholics also have a parochial school and a convent conducted by the Sisters of St. Dominic. Sutton's Bay dates from the middle sixties, the following mention of the place being made in January, 1866 : ' ' A new village has also sprung into existence near the head of Sutton's bay, which, in honor of Mr. H. C. Sutton, the former and early owner of the soil upon which it stands, has been christened Suttonsburg, and bids fair to become quite a boy within a few years; and if it does not then the fault will be itself, for nature had dealt nobly with it. The bay, at the head of which this village is built, is a body of water four or five miles in length, and about two miles in width; is tributary to Grand Traverse bay, intersecting it from the west about twenty-four miles from its junction with Lake ]Michigan; is deep enough to float any steamboat on the lake. Extending in a southwestern course, as it does, there is but one direction from which the wind can approach and be at all violent; and then it is not sufficiently boisterous as to materially affect boats lying at its dock. The site of the village is a pleasant one, gradually rising from the bay and extending westward over an even, fertile piece of land, broad enough for a city of an untold number of inhabitants. Suttonsburg is situated about three and a half miles from the geographical center of the county, and therefore, if the county seat should ever be removed from Northport, will probably be the point fixed upon by a majority of the people for its permanent location.''

Provemont

Four miles west of Sutton's Bay, on the Manistee & Northeastern Railroad, is Provemont, which, although not an incorporated village, is a banking center for the county seat and also a shipping point for a considerable area of country. It has a saw and gristmill, a good school and is a neat little place. Provemont is also the seat of a Catholic convent and school conducted by the Sisters of St. Dominic.

Along in 1867 Provemont was a place of considerable notoriety. A. De Belloy was an early settler there and in the year mentioned the Grand Traverse Bay Mineral Land Association sunk a well but failed to strike oil. Afterward an artesian well produced some mineral water, but neither oil nor water brought the expected development of the village and the region around.

Omen A and Peshabatown

Omena is a pretty summer resort located on the West arm of Grand Traverse bay five miles south of Northport and the same distance north of Sutton's Bay. To be more specific, it is on the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad and also on the shores of New Mission bay. Omena is on historic ground, also ; at that point Rev. Mr. Dougherty of Old Mission built the little Presbyterian church to serve as a nucleus for his labors among the Indians. And his work, even among the Chippewas, lives after him, for some of the children and grandchildren of those he converted and educated live along these shores, intelligent, moral and industrious men and women.

At the head of Sutton's bay, also on the line of the railroad, and a few miles south of Omena, is Peshabatown, or Pshawbatown, the only pure Indian village in Michigan — a memorial to the faithfulness of Father Marak, who, in 1849, brought hither from the Soo his little band of Christianized Chippewas. Here a little community of their descendants, cultivating their patches of corn, beans, potatoes, squashes and pumpkins, or weaving their simple but beautiful basketry. As described by the Detroit Free Press of February 12, 1911: 'Two long rows of log cabins, built in 1849, comprise the village. They show the battering of nearly three-quarters of a century of tempestuous northern winds and snows. Altogether the aggregation of buildings presents a forlorn and dilapidated appearance, with broken window panes, stuffed here and there with rags to keep out the cold. And in the midst of this desolation the old church and cloister stand like derelicts on a dead sea. Adjoining the church, and right in the center of the village, is the cemetery where lie all of the Pshawbatown dead who have departed for their happy hunting grounds. Like all the rest of the village, the cemetery has the same deserted appearance. Mullens, milk- weed and thistles grow in the space between the graves and clamber over the toppling crosses which mark the last resting place of once mighty Ximrods of the forest and add the finishing touches to a typical Goldsmith's deserted village.

''The one street of Pshawbatown is one and a half miles long. The reason of this is that the houses were built on the old Indian trail, which follows the indentation of the shore. A few of the houses scatter back toward the hills that form a background for the village, that are cold and bleak in the winter, but cool and green in the summer, and beautiful beyond description in the autumn when Neenabushoo has spilled his paint pots of crimson, russet, and gold over the hills and surrounding woods.

"The doors of the houses all fasten with a latch string, a piece of bent wire hooked over a nail or an occasional padlock. Outside the door of every house is a big iron kettle, one-time property of someone's ancestor, which swings over a fire by a heavy iron hook and chain. During the summer the Indians cook their food over the fire just as they did in the days when they lived in wigwams. They also cling to their legends and their traditions, and no amount of baptism can wash away their superstitions concerning their manitou (the great spirit,) and their miehibous (genii of the water) ; and their lullabys of today are the same that the gushnas (grandmothers) of a hundred years ago crooned to their papooses.

"The only building in the village that looks as if it had been built since the days of Noah's ark is the school, which was erected by Father Marak so that the nuns might teach the children. Since the departure of Father Marak this has become a district school, receives its share of the state primary money, and has a board who hires teachers and looks after the requirements just as all the other district school boards of Leelanau county do. The school board is composed of the following red men: Sam Chippewa, director; Pete Nanago, moderator, and William Macsauba, treasurer. There are twenty-five pupils enrolled, all of them Indian children. The school is taught by a pedagogue who must show the Indian board that she holds a third-grade county certificate, and she must sign a contract for the full term of nine months, which means complete isolation for her from early fall until she locks the school in the late spring."

Glen Arbor and Burdickville

These are centers of early settlement in Leelanau county, particularly the former. In the summer of 1851 John Dorsey located at Glen Arbor. In the fall of that year John Larue brought his family into the country, spending the following winter at Northport, Soon after Mr. Larue's arrival, Mr. McLaughlin, who had previously been engaged in building A. S. Wadsworth's sawmill at Elk Rapids, removed from Northport to that place, leaving the original number of three families at Northport — Smith's, Case's and Larue's. In the spring of 1852 Mr. Larue returned to his former location at Glen Arbor. John E. Fisher and Dr. William H. Walker arrived in 1854. They landed on Manitou islands and came to the main shore with their families and goods in small boats. The next season George Ray landed here with two families from Ashtabula county, Ohio, bringing with him a small sawmill. They landed from the propeller ''Saginaw," August 28, 1855. That was the first boat that ever made a landing in this bay. Though next summer Mr. Ray, with a partner, commenced building a dock, which was completed in 1857 and afterward known as the Central Dock.

In the late fifties William Burdick came to the site of the place which bears his name, and built a saw and grist mill, which burned about a decade later. In 1867 John Helm located on the present site of Burdickville, southeast of Glen lake, established himself there as the keeper of a general store and built up a fair business. S. S. Burnett was a later merchant of the little settlement.

Source: History of Northern Michigan by Perry F. Powers.  Chicago: Lewis F. Publishing, 1912.
Submitted by: Colleen Pustola 8Feb2013