New Summer Homes

Sand Island will be the scene of considerable activity the coming summer in the line of the erection of new summer cottages. A party of St. Paul people recently purchased West Bay from Edwin Bonde and will plat it into small tracts upon which several new cottages will be put up. Governor and Mrs. Fifield spent Sunday last at Camp Stella.

Well, as it happened, that “party of St. Paul people” did not build several cottages, but instead pooled their resources and built one big place. Included in the group were Charles Buechner and Henry Orth, two of the Midwest’s most successful architects of the era, and they went to town designing the perfect rustic summer place.

The West Bay Lodge still stands one hundred years later– one of the lesser-known historic treasures of the Apostle Islands.

West Bay Lodge Under Construction

The Lodge Today

LaPointe Light Station, May 15, 1898

Run signal A.M. thick smoke. The mainland is all on fire. In hopes to get rain. Steamers out 3 out 2 in. Variable light clear P.M. Barometer 29 = 22 68.

LaPointe Light Station, May 15, 1910

Run signal, very smoky.

Raspberry Island Light Station, May 15, 1910

Commenced painting the roofs of buildings and ran signal all day for smoke. Fierce forest fires raging through this country on the main land.

Raspberry Island Light Station, May 15, 1917

Tending signal for smoke and doing some outside painting.

And for a view from the mainland:

Bayfield County Press May 15, 1908

The worst forest fires to occur in this vicinity for years raged in the woods adjoining the city the latter part of last week and it was only through the intervention of a good old rainstorm that greater damage was not done in the burned territory. Although there were several large fires raging the one which proved more dangerous was that about three fourths of a mile north of this city along the bay shore between Red Cliff and the pest house.

I’d like to find out more about this “pest house.” Anyone? Bueller?

This fire is said to come all the way down from the Raspberry River country and burned over a vast territory consuming standing timber and ties piled in its path. The fire threatened to destroy the pest house and the outskirts of town but the rains saved these places.

Another large fire was the one which burned over the country around Pike’s quarry.

That is, between Bayfield and Washburn.

This fire swept over the hill back of the quarry and did not stop until reaching the lake, threatening the camps of Sang and Miller and the residence of L. S. Carver.

Homesteaders also reported large fires west of town and the necessity of much labor on their part to save their property from destruction.

The Ashland “Knights of Liberty” Wednesday night gave their third victim in five weeks a coat of tar and feathers when they grabbed Wm. Landraint, former income tax assessor, took him to Fish Creek, and after practically disrobing him, applied the tar and feathers.

The victim was on his way home to supper at about 5:30 o’clock when a group of men jumped from an automobile on Second street west, picked him up, handcuffed him, and drove him to the woods near the creek between Ashland and Ashland Junction.

Landraint who had served as income tax assessor for this district for a number of years…

Note that we are talking an established member of the community, not just some marginal “recent immigrant with a funny accent” type.

…was recently refused reappointment by the state tax commission after a hearing at which he was charged with acts and statements which his accusers held disloyal if not seditious.

Upon returning to the city Landraint went immediately to Sheriff Kleinsteiber, who proceeded to get someone to relieve the victim of his handcuffs.  He called on locksmith, who, when told why he was wanted, refused to come and declared that he hoped Landraint “rotted.”  Another man was asked to file them, and in expressing his opinion said he hoped the cuffs were made of hard ground steel, so that they could not be filed off.  Finally Dave Mackie, a locksmith, was secured and Landraint was again free to use his hands.

The tar and feathering incident of this week is the third one to occur in Ashland within five weeks, the first victim having been Professor Schimler of Northland College and the second, Adolph Anton, a bartender.

This was the same era when Ranger Sue’s grandparents changed the spelling of their family name to make it sound “less German.”

Marine News of the Week

The steamer Daniel J. Morrell left Duluth last Saturday on her way to the lower lakes; when near Sand Island her air pump became disabled and she headed for Bayfield under check, arriving here early Sunday morning. She dropped her anchor and the chief engineer came ashore in one of the life boats, bringing with him the broken part of the disabled air pump. After repairs were made the steamer left about two Sunday afternoon.

I did a double-take when I read this: THE Daniel J. Morell? The Daniel J. Morell that went down in 1966, in a tragic precursor to the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald, nine years later?

Couldn’t be!

But indeed it was. Turns out the Morrell was built in 1908, and was 58 years old when she broke in two in a violent Lake Huron storm.

The last known picture of the Daniel J. Morrell,
taken four days before it sank.

From Wikipedia:

Making the last run of the season with her sister ship the SS Edward Y. Townsend, the Morrell became caught in winds exceeding 70 mph and swells that topped the height of the ship (20-25 foot waves). During the early morning hours, the Townsend made the decision to take shelter in the St. Mary’s River, leaving the Morrell alone on the waters north of Pointe Aux Barques, Michigan, heading for the protection of Thunder Bay.

At 2 am, the ship began its death throes, forcing the crew onto the deck, where many jumped to their deaths in the 34 degree Lake Huron waters. At 2:15 am, the ship broke in two, and the remaining crewmen loaded into a raft on the forward section of the vessel. While they waited for the bow section to sink and the raft to be thrown into the lake, there were shouts that a ship had been spotted off the port bow. Moments later, it was discovered that the looming object was not another ship, but in fact the Morrell‘s aft section, barreling towards them under the power of the ship’s engines.

Yikes!

The two sections collided, with the aft section continuing into the distance. In the words of writer William Ratigan, the remnants of the vessel disappeared into the darkness “like a great wounded beast with its head shot off”.

Only one man survived from the 29-man crew: watchman Dennis Hale, who clung to a makeshift raft for 36 hours with three shipmates. Having scrambled from his bunk when the alarm sounded, Hale faced the November ordeal wearing only boxer shorts, a coat, and a life preserver, yet managed to survive as his three companions succumbed one by one to the cold. Though the Morell had no chance to send a distress signal before it broke apart, it eventually became apparent that the ship was overdue, and a Coast Guard helicopter was dispatched to search for it, finally locating Hale.

A little more research brought out an interesting connection: the ship’s namesake was not a company executive or steel magnate, as seems to be the most common practice, but a Congressman from Pennsylvania. Among other things, Mr. Daniel Johnson Morrell (1821-1885) happened to be a member of an exclusive club which owned a resort complex on a man-made lake in the hills above Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Can you tell where this is going?

Yes, Mr. Morrell was a member of the notorious South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, which owned the dam whose failure caused the death of some 2,200 people in the catastrophic Johnstown Flood of 1889. However, unlike other club members who seem to have ignored the hazards posed by their dam, Mr. Morell apparently recognized the danger and tried to do something about it. Again, from Wikipedia:

Morrell insisted on inspections of the dam’s breastwork both by his own engineers and those of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He joined the club in order to keep a watchful eye on the matter. Unfortunately, his warnings went unheeded, and his offer to effect repairs partially at his own expense was rejected by club president Benjamin Franklin Ruff.

Daniel Morrell died four years before the flood, missing the opportunity for a world-class I-told-you-so.

The things you find when you start digging!

Fishing activity: Frank Shaw has moved from LaPointe to Ashland Bay to put in pound nets. O’Malley and Shaw (of LaPointe) will have 2 or 3 nets at Lighthouse Point and 6 or 8 at Sand Island this season. Joseph Sexton will be going to Michigan Island to fish.

Frank Shaw is widely considered to be Sand Island’s first white settler, though there are others with grounds to dispute this claim, depending on one’s definitions. Shaw set up a fishing camp on the island in the 1870s, but maintained residences elsewhere (LaPointe, then Bayfield) for many years, finally taking up full-time residence on the island around 1897. Meanwhile, during the 1880s, at least two fishing families briefly made their homes on the island, those of John Baptiste Justice and fisherman Joseph Neveux. Even lighthouse keeper Charles Lederle lived year-round on the island for at least a part of the decade, and by the mid-1890s, there were several Norwegian immigrant families at East Bay.

Joseph Sexton, meanwhile, decided to put fishing on the back burner, taking a job as Assistant Keeper at Outer Island in 1886, then gaining promotion to Keeper of the LaPointe light three years later, holding the position until 1921. While Keeper, he continued to supplement his income by fishing now and then, and also found time to sire eleven children.

Keeper and Second Assistant E. Luick and Robert Carlson arrived at Station at 1:30 PM. Left Bayfield on the 7th at 11 AM, and as their was to much ice to get through , we had to make for Michigan Island and stoped their overnight. The wind was fresh all night from the South, so it blowed the ice out; that [and] with hard work we got here. We had started on 2nd of May, but got to Presqual Island. Stoped all night and had to turn back next day as it was all ice and wind NE, so it left us bound in Bayfield till May 7, and Keeper and Robert Carlson got a severe cold off the first trip so Robert was very sick for a few days. Got the Light in running order May 8 at 7:10 PM; found every thing in good order.

And opening-up woes continue!

Noteworthy also for the assistants mentioned: both Emmanuel Luick and Robert Carlson would soon become two of the best-remembered keepers in the history of the Apostles.

Recent Sand Island Rescue of Two Men

…The U.S. Coast Guard launch commonly called “the 40 footer” took off from its Bayfield mooring for Sand Island to light the light there for the season shipping period. Unable to approach Sand Island, a skiff was lowered and two men, Richard LeLievre and John Greenwell proceeded to Sand Island. While attending their duties there, an already heavy squall became more severe. Huge waves filled the skiff with water. The two men were unable to battle the raging “big lake” and found it necessary to inform the crew aboard the launch that return was impossible at that time.

The officer in charge radioed the Bayfield Coast Guard station and a truck with another skiff was dispatched to Sand Bay. Because of the continued heavy sea, it was useless to attempt to reach the launch. In the meantime, Howard Palm, of White Bear Lake and owner of a cabin on Sand Island, offered to reach the launch with his boat. Acting Chief Richard Sellisen was taken safely to the 40 footer by Palm, who then proceeded to Sand Island.

After a search for the two men stranded on the island, Palm returned to the launch to report that he could not locate the men. Palm’s boat then developed engine trouble and was towed to Sand Bay by the launch. Under the command of Sellisen, the launch managed to find harbor on Sand Island and further attempt to locate the men were made. Loud hailers, electrical communication devices, were employed call to the men, thinking that they may have hidden from the storm and could not be seen. There was no response. The launch circled the entire island and returned to Sand Bay.

The group commander in Duluth was notified and a helicopter was dispatched at 5 AM Tuesday in search of LeLievre and Greenwell. The men were soon spotted. They had walked along the beach in search of shelter; finding a cabin they withdrew from the storm and were both out of sight and sound of the searchers. Upon hearing be “copter” they stepped out of the cabin and were readily seen.

The Bayfield C.G. station was notified that the men were safe and a skiff was lowered to pick up the men. Due to the exceptionally dense fog, heavy seas, wind and rain, the whole operation was hampered. After reaching the men, the boat took more than five hours to reach the Bayfield mooring.

SW Breeze & Clear cold The Tender Marigold left Bayfield at 5:15am with Keepers and some Assistants on. After passing through lots of ice and breaking away with the Marigold we finely reach Raspberry Island Light. But could not get to the dock so had to land them on Sand beach. From this we turned for Devil Island Light. We land the man at the Stone dock.

“The stone dock” ie, the rock landing near the northeast tip of the island. Until recently, there were cleats fixed to the rocks enabling boaters to tie up and visit the lighthouse, but four or five years ago, the park decided to dispense with them for reasons I still find hard to understand.

In any event, if President Obama decides to visit the Apostle Islands, he won’t be able to stop and picnic on the Devils Island ledges the way President Coolidge did. Or maybe a Presidential visit might motivate the park to restore the landing.

But I digress.

We left at 9:21am for Sand Island after passing much heavy float ice we came to very heavy ice 1/2 mile from the station where at stopped and held the Tender where we put the things in the row boat n dingy and pulled it over the ice to make land. We found holes & had to be very careful not to drop through. The Ice was many feet hight.

The Tender left at 2:00pm for Outer Island. Keeper E. Luick opened the Station for the season.

A bit of back-tracking there- wonder why. Ice issues, perhaps?

Left Bayfield 7 A.M. Arrived at station 10 A.M. Found things in good order. The channel filled with ice. Came around by the mainland. Got the lights ready to light. The people that lived on the point all flocked see us.

Here it is, into May now, and there is still ice in the bay and lighthouses to open. And did you catch that- “the people that lived on the point?” That’s Chequamegon Point, at the tip of Long Island. People used to live there. Here is one of them: young Adeline LeBel in her pretty new dress and best shoes, circa 1926.

Boat builder Valli launched his yacht last Saturday and the universal verdict is that she is a beauty. The trial trip was to have been taken to Michigan Island but owing to the unpleasant state of the weather the trip had to be abandoned. She proves a fine sailor however and will be in great demand when the tourist season commences.

Ed Vallely (1848-1933) was surely one of the most memorable characters in the Chequamegon region’s history. Not only was he an exceptionally skilled boat builder, he was also a prominent rebel against traditional gender norms. His obituary noted,

…Perhaps the most outstanding eccentricity which made him well known was his habit of wearing high-heeled shoes. He made the shoes himself and put on them the high heels such as are worn by women. Having small feet, the imprints of his shoes were those of a girl.

Many years ago his peculiar habits of dress were more pronounced than of late years. At times he would put on a kimona and his high-heeled shoes, do his hair up in brightly colored ribbons and go downtown.

Another observer noted elsewhere that Vallely made particular effort to color-coordinate his outfits, and that a close look often revealed him to be wearing a woman’s corset beneath his outer garb.

At the age of 85, Ed Vallely built himself a coffin in the shape of a boat and ended his life by hanging. All indications are that he was a well-liked and accepted member of the community up to the end, and he left no explanation for his decision.