Are you interested in history? I mean bare-knuckle, primary source, deep dive history? If so, you are in for a treat here, with a recent and previously unpublished essay by Eliot Singer, scholar and friend of OHS. Family lore has it that the Wakazoos were originally located in Manitoba. Andrew Blackbird, whose father was Makade-binesi, Read More
David Patrick by Lynn Spitznagel Sutton He was just a little Scotsman, not much more than 5 feet tall, but David Patrick’s influence is felt to this day in Omena. David was born in 1886 in Fifeshire, Scotland, and had one brother, James, two years older than he was. David, James and their father, John, Read More
Snow Blind! Transcription and commentary by Mark Smith, OHS secretary The following letter was written by Reverend Peter Dougherty in March of 1852 to Walter Lowrie, former U.S. Senator and (starting in 1838) the corresponding secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. Lowrie was Reverend Dougherty’s supervisor and Dougherty depended on the organization for Read More
Rebuilding the Barn by Lynn Spitznagel Sutton There were many ways to move a building back in the 1900s. You could put it on rollers and roll it. You could saw it apart at the corners and move it wall by wall. You could take it apart and use the materials to make a house Read More
Porter’s Landing by Mark Smith, OHS secretary A few weeks ago while doing some local history research I happened on some photographs in the archive section of LHSM. One photograph showed a group of teen girls in East Leland walking up Horn Road, back when it was still sandy and prone to washouts. In this Read More
Life on the Leelanau Peninsula, winter, 167 years ago Transcription and commentary by Mark Smith, Secretary, OHS ••••••••••••••••••• Jan 26th, 1857 Walter Lowrie, Esq Grove Hill Dear Sir, I enclose to you the vouchers [bills and receipts] for the past six months. The weather has been unusually stormy and a large quantity of snow has Read More
A few weeks ago fellow researcher Eliot Singer decided to collect and transcribe many relevant documents relating to the Grand Traverse region prior to the Civil War. Amongst the treasures he found is a recently digitized slew of documents from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Eliot has put forth a Hurculean effort with these transcriptions, Read More
New Mission, Jan 27th, 1854 Rev. J. Leighton Wilson [Secretary for the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions located in New York] Dear Sir Your kind letter was received a few days since. Words of kindness and sympathy strengthen us in hours of trial. Our mercies have been very many, of trials it is not important Read More
The Story of Grove Hill School, updated March 2023 By Mark Smith, Omena Historical Society (for a pdf version of this essay click here) Part One, Old Mission The Early Days This paper explores the history of Grove Hill School, the boarding school for local Odawa and Ojibwe people opened in Omena, or New Read More