Porter’s Landing

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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 photo from the 1920’s it is a beautiful summer’s day, about noon based on the shadows. Nine girls wearing loosely fitting, white, short-sleeved blouses with black sashes and knee length black bloomers are laboring up Horn Road in the heat, up the “view hill” from Porter’s Landing on Lake Leelanau. Most of the girls wear wide-brimmed white stetsons. The caption states that the girls were part of a camp, Camp Oshibwa, and they are on an excursion. This was the start of my investigation. This snapshot, this fascinating slice of life from over 100 years ago, inspired me to start digging. I wondered who these girls were, and what it was like to be young and alive under the sun on that beautiful day so long ago.

I knew nothing about Camp Oshibwa. But I knew that Porter’s Landing was named after John Porter of Omena. John Porter came to teach with Reverend Peter Dougherty at Grove Hill School in Omena in 1854, when he was 28 years old. He had been a teacher and a farmer in his home state of Pennsylvania. Porter’s uncle, Andrew Porter, was in charge of the Indian Mission in Bear Creek (Petoskey) in 1854. Mr. John Porter remained a teacher in Omena until 1861, then moved to Section 11 in Leland Township (East Leland), where over time he had purchased 356 acres of prime farmland.  John Porter, in his time, was township supervisor, justice of the peace, township treasurer, highway commissioner and county surveyor. Many of his legal records still survive.

Sometime after the Civil War Mr. Porter and the Reverend George Thompson of Leland seem to have started a small church, called “Concord”, probably situated in Mr. Porter’s house or the Horn Road schoolhouse. Records from 1867 indicate that Reverend Thompson preached there intermittently, relying on good ice to cross over in the winter, a time of relatively easy travel. In 1867 Thompson records 5 males and 6 females in the small congregation. Further research will likely reveal more. John Porter lived a long and respected life, dying in 1904 at the age of 78 and is buried with his family up the hill from his farmhouse, in the East Leland Cemetery on Horn Road.

Fast forwarding to the turn of the century we find that there is a rustic resorter community which has established itself in East Leland. Thanks to a trove of marvelous old photos, an old diary from 1908, a reminiscence by Warren R. Smith, another by Barbara Trueblood Abbot and an unpublished manuscript by Maryellen Gould Hadjisky I was able to piece together a picture of resorter life in East Leland in the early days. It seems that the very first visitors to East Leland came before the turn of the century, but only started coming in any significant numbers some time after 1900, probably venturing on from the Fountain Point Resort on South Lake Leelanau. This paper by necessity will limit itself to the beginnings of the East Leland community. I hope others will read this and add to the story.

The early resorters rented camping sites from Mr. Porter for 5 dollars per summer and he stored their tents in his barn for them until they returned the next summer. The tents were on platforms in the woods near the shore. According to a reminiscence by Warren R. Smith “Mr. Porter may have sold a few lots directly to occupants but he sold most of his Lake Leelanau frontage to Mr. Best (Maro the Prestidigitator) who bought a lot of other lake frontage, and most of us bought from him or his widow.” And who were these intrepid campers? Mostly they were college lecturers and their families who came up Lake Michigan by ship from Lake Forest, Illinois. The early names include the following families: Atkins, Bridgman, Burlap, Stanley, Locy and Gould. Their camps were rustic and their days were long and filled with the physical labor of a camper. According to Barbara Trueblood Abbot: “The air on arrival from downstate always brought on deep breaths and murmurs of appreciation for that clear and unpolluted inspiration, faintly scented with the smell of the pine and balsam, both fresh, and from the fires burning in the stove and fireplace.”

Mostly they arrived at their final destination by boat, at Porter’s Landing, the public access that still exists at the end of Horn Road. Large steamboats were able to dock there, such as the SS Leelanau coming from Fouch’s Landing at the south end of South Lake Leelanau, piloted by Captain VerSnyder (see photo). At the time the roads into East Leland were mostly swampy, and land travel was very difficult as compared to boat passage. According to Warren R. Smith the summer of 1908 “was the one when some farmers from down the lake were angered at the height of the water was kept and blew up the dam with dynamite, lowering the water six feet, more or less. There was water only in the channel in the river and the beaches along our shore were 50 more feet, as I remember from dragging a heavy farmer’s boat out over the beach.”

Also worthy of note is the Indian Trail which existed along the shore of this part of Lake Leelanau, which Mr. Porter insisted be maintained and respected as a right of way for everyone. According to Warren R. Smith, “When we arrived there was a very well defined trail along the lake shore, said to have been an Indian trail from prehistoric times. There are many traces of it still extant. It ran right through our kitchen and it was not unusual to find somebody who was out for a stroll going through our kitchen. Also, I can remember that we came in for some criticism for having obstructed one of the old landmarks. Some of the strollers were doubtless guests from the Linebargers, who for many years had a summer resort-hotel, the only such enterprise in the East Leland.”

What did the resorters do all day and how did they get by? Farmers from Leland and environs would make regular stops at Porter’s Landing, with vegetables, fruit, eggs and butter. Baked goods and other vegetables could be had from Mrs. Richard Steffens, and butter came in large crocks from Spinniken Brothers. Fish were still abundant in the lake and made for great eating. Drinking water came from a spring at the base of Horn Road carried by hand to individual camps. All other water was carried up from the lake until wells started being dug, mainly in the 1940’s. There were no refrigerators or even ice boxes in the early days so resorters relied on spring boxes kept in running freshets. For many years there was ongoing building, adding on, and modifying of the camps, which also took up much time. Shopping trips to Leland by boat also filled up the days, and Leland was the place to mingle with other resorters, young and old. It is said that Leland folk had it easier.

Another popular activity was picnicking. According to Warren R. Smith
“The Gap [at the north end of Lake Leelanau] was the most popular spot for young and old. We could get there by rowboat or with motorboats towing a string of rowboats. The Gap was said to have been an early attempt to cut a canal between the two lakes, the effort being discontinued when the difference in lake levels was observed. More probably it was merely for a road down to the pier which once stood there and sand was blown out by wind to present level.” Baseball games were played “in the Owens lot” and hide and seek was popular amongst the youngsters. In this close-knit community everyone knew each other and the feeling must have resembled an extended family reunion. Most of the camps had a piano and singing was a favorite pastime. In a time before radios people made their own music. Many a quiet summer evening ended with groups of people in canoes in the middle of the lake, singing old favorites. Later this tradition was transferred to the Leland Country Club.

But what of Camp Oshibwa? Clara Porter Atkins (no apparent relation to John Porter) started the camp in 1920. Clara’s daughter, Eleanor, is probably the photographer responsible for the photographs of the girls of the camp. The Atkins family first came to East Leland in 1901, making them one of the earliest. In 1920 Mrs. Atkins and her husband, Professor Martin D. Atkins, were divorced; he subsequently died in 1924. The camp was in operation at least until 1926. It is not clear who attended the camp but it seems possible that the girls who attended were all East Leland summer resorters. Activities at the camp included water sports, hiking, nature walks, drama and singing. Also evident from the photos are girls dressed up as pirates, so many kinds of fun were on offer.

In addition to photos of Camp Oshibwa I have included some photos of other scenes from the early days of East Leland: well-to-do young men posed on docks, scenes of campsites, and more. I hope you enjoy looking at these photos as much as I did when I first discovered them. There are many more. And there are many more stories that came out of East Leland in the early days. Hopefully someone will be inspired to tell the story in more depth, but for now here is a taste of the early days of East Leland at Porter’s Landing.

(Details of Clara Porter Atkins’ life from Leelanau Enterprise, 19 July 1973, and ancestry.com, thanks to Marsha Buehler; thanks to the help and support from the Leelanau Historical Society; thanks to Andrew White for providing me with access to papers from the American Home Missionary Society, where details of Reverend George Thompson are to be found. All other sources as mentioned, unpublished.)

Reverend Peter Dougherty

News From Omena, July 1857

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Letter to Walter Lowrie from Peter Dougherty, Grove Hill, 17 July, 1857
Transcription and commentary by Mark Smith, secretary, OHS

• In which we learn that Reverend Dougherty is ready to sever ties with the Presbyterian Board unless something can be done about Mr. Porter. •

Reverend Peter Dougherty

Reverend Peter Dougherty

In a previous post, News from Omena, January 1855, we learned of the hardships and challenges Reverend Peter Dougherty faced in organizing and running Grove Hill School, Dougherty’s residential school for Native Americans.  This 1857 letter from Peter Dougherty to Walter Lowrie, corresponding secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, comes a little over two years later and chronicles the infighting between Reverend Dougherty and John Porter over the running of the school.

In Reverend Dougherty’s introductory paragraph he praises Miss W. A. Isbell, Teacher of Female Department, and bemoans her imminent loss due to her heavy work load and low pay. This would be a recurring theme in Dougherty’s letters to Lowrie: the difficulty in recruiting and retaining good staff.

In the second paragraph Dougherty begins to come to the point: he wishes for the Board to change the terms of his employment or to discontinue employing him.  As the letter goes on the source of this ultimatum becomes clear.  At first Dougherty asks for more family time, which means a manse for his family to call their own, a place away from the daily running of the institution (where they currently lived). He also wants to be freed from the running of the school so that he may concentrate more fully on his pastoral duties as a minister to a wider flock.  But really, these wishes are merely the preamble for his main complaint.

Paragraph three bluntly introduces the main source of Dougherty’s dissatisfaction: “I supposed from your letters to me that I was considered in charge here and was responsible for the proper management of the institution.”  This is a delicate matter which Dougherty confronts head on.  Who is in charge of this school, me or Mr. Porter?  It is really quite bluntly put. To complicate matters further, it must be mentioned that John Porter, Teacher of Male Department, was a nephew to Andrew Porter, who was with Dougherty on Old Mission before being sent to Bear Creek (Petoskey) in 1852 to start a mission there. Andrew was Walter Lowrie’s nephew and John was Andrew’s nephew. John Porter arrived on the scene at New Mission in 1854.

Porter claims to have the “right of the entire control of the boys” and does not acknowledge Dougherty as his superior.  Dougherty makes his contempt of Mr. Porter clear, indicating that Porter is not really interested in the hard work of the school (“he got some what tired of the school and found the confinement oppressive”), and that Porter has vowed never to go back inside the school again, instead now to be in charge of outdoor work, for which, according to Dougherty, Porter acknowledges no superintendence (“you are not the boss of me,” in other words).  Dougherty then relinquishes any responsibility for the outdoor work.

In paragraph four we learn that Mr. Porter has been working as Deputy Surveyor for the county.  This job takes him far afield and leaves the rest of the staff short-handed.  The job of surveyor paid $3 per day, which was more than could be earned at the mission. Mr. Joseph Glenn, farmer, and George Craker, assistant, are both of the opinion that Porter’s frequent absences are “unfair”, and in fact George would have left by now (writes Dougherty), had it not been for assurances on Mr. Porter’s part that he would give up surveying.  But Mr. Porter did not give up surveying.  In fact, Porter seems to have been in direct communication with Walter Lowrie and it seems as if Walter Lowrie has told Porter that he does not need to account for his time, and that his pay at the mission would not be docked when Porter was out surveying: “He [Porter] said when he left the institution he intended to report the time thus lost, but that you had written to him he need not make any account of time thus lost.”  In finishing Dougherty softens his criticism somewhat (“I may have wrong views on the matter”) but still manages to imply that Mr. Porter does not really care about his job at the Mission.

The last part of Dougherty’s letter thanks the Board for all its many kindnesses, before circling back to Dougherty’s initial request to be relieved of the duties of running the institution (the school), in favor of just being a minister, which is already enough.  Dougherty seems to be laying down a marker for the Board.  He wants a house for his family and he wants nothing more to do with the school.

It would not be until 1862 that George Craker was appointed Mission Farmer, replacing John Porter.  Mr. Porter and family settled in Leland township and remained, and Porter continued surveying at least as late as 1884.   Mr. Dougherty remained as superintendent and eventually built a house for himself and his family at his own expense, remaining in Omena until the mission is discontinued in 1871.

To sum up, in this 1857 letter from Reverend Dougherty we witness the cauldron of petty rivalries and slights which made the running of Grove Hill School even more difficult than it might have already been.  And here is another thing to consider .. John Porter’s wife, Annis McElvain, was Mary McConnell’s sister.  Mary (McElvain) McConnell, cook and laundress at the school, was later married to George Craker, who was nine years younger than her.  In other words, in addition to John Porter’s relationship to Walter Lowrie, other relationships also determined the fault lines of daily relations at the school.  It wasn’t just the weather, the isolation, and the physical challenges of survival that made the job hard.  It was also infighting.  In fact, the infighting almost led to the closing of the school in 1857, when Reverend Peter Dougherty officially expressed his wish to be relieved of the burden of running it.

But he stayed on.  He worked it out. He persevered for the good of his flock.

And this is why primary sources are so fascinating and so important.  In the letters of Reverend Dougherty we see a man frustrated with the complications and hardships of his life NOW, not merely the summation of a life well-lived.  There was nothing pre-ordained in his success. Fortunately Reverend Dougherty found a way through the crisis and continued his mission to the Native Americans, otherwise we would have no story to tell at all.  By the end of 1858, with the assistance of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, Reverend Dougherty would supervise the building of both a new manse and a new church in Omena.

Thanks to Marsha Buehler, Archives and Exhibit Committee Chair, for help with background biographical info and advice
Here is the letter, and below is the transcription.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Walter Lowrie, Esq.
Grove Hill, July 17th, 1857

Dear Sir

I have our vouchers ready which I will forward with this, with a report of expenses. Miss Isbell would prefer if you would forward her salary to her friends in New Haven. The amt. of her bill her a [?] $19.13. She still complains of her hard service and says she can’t continue to do it another winter. After you wrote to me I saw her and the matter was talked over among the females and Mrs. McConnell assisted her for a time, why she did not continue or whether she will resume I have not learned. Miss Isbell is most industrious, takes good care of the girls, their clothing too, and deserves great praise for the time and labor she gives to them but others may feel that her plans impose more labor than is necessary. All are quite well – the school is going on regularly, not as full as last winter. Our supplies came the 15th. The season has been cold and backward but is now warm growing weather. Our wheat is fair and will if saved nearly furnish our bread for the next year.

After much reflection I feel it a duty to myself and family to signify my wish to have my relation with the board changed, either to have my relation discontinued or so changed that I can live out of the building. It is necessary to have early hours for family work and meals, which imposes on females and small children very early rising or to grow up without even the form of devotion. So with breakfast small children have to be furnished with meals out of time which interferes with the regular work of the dining room & kitchen. Again – with my time occupied as it is every day I find scarcely any time to instruct or take care of my children. Besides these things and the feeling that the members of the church and families here are neglected there are certain things here which I am not satisfied with and which brings me in collision with others and makes me feel I would rather withdraw and let others take the management of the institution.

I supposed from your letters to me that I was considered in charge here and was responsible for the proper management of the institution. After Mr. Porter came we consulted together and agreed on some rules by which the children should be governed. These rules were disregarded and he claimed to have the right of the entire control of the boys, that he had no instruction that there was to be any Superintendence and he did not acknowledge any. As to his management of the boys I say nothing further than I disapproved of it. After he got some what tired of the school and found the confinement oppressive and I became disabled and proposed to take the school he said he would not go in the school again but would take the outdoor work as I wrote to you. After entering in these duties he claimed the same independence he had in the school and told me as to the office of Superintendent he did not know how I had it unless you saw me exercising it & gave me the title because I had assumed the office as there was no Superintendent in other missions. I then relinquished all those matters to him and do not wished [sic] to be considered as responsible any further for out door matters.

The chief source of dissatisfaction with him has been his claiming and exercising the right of leaving the business of the mission to do frequent jobs of surveying. He has accepted the office Deputy Surveyor of the county. He has frequent calls to survey roads, village plots and lots of land from six to twenty miles distant. His doing so produces dissatisfaction. Mr. Glenn spoke of it as unfair and George this spring would have left on this account when the took charge of the farm if I had not persuaded him to remain and Mr. Porter told him he would give up surveying. I do not think it fair that one should have the right to drop the business of the mission and hiring out at $3 per day while others have to devote all their time to the institution, even if a substitute should be hired but when I suggested that it would be but right to allow the time, thus taken, to that and as much extra help had to be hired. He said when he left the institution he intended to report the time thus lost but that that you had written to him he need not make any account of time thus lost. I may have wrong views of this matter but with my views I do not feel well to have matters go so and others dissatisfied and complaining, causing them to feel if those who are regarded as heads here can neglect the interests of the mission for private gain they do not much care how matters go.

These are in a sense little matters but they cause irritation and lead me to the decision to separate myself from the institution and when freed from the responsibility I will not feel constrained to interfere, and those little heart burnings will be avoided.

With regard to the board, we are entirely satisfied and feel grateful for all the kindness we have experienced. My conviction is that duty calls for more time to be devoted to the members of the church and families about here. I do not see a clear indication to leave these people unless the Board do not feel able to sustain a missionary separate from the school. I do not think it would cause as much additional expense as you named if you can get a suitable man with a small family. I make this statement now that you may have time to consider the matter & secure some one – and if I go out of the institution and remain, I may make some arrangements for a place for my family to live.

Mr & Mrs. Beatty were at North Port last Saturday but the boat left before we got there so we did not see them.

Respectfully yours
P. Dougherty