LIFESTYLE

Charlevoix news from 1872: Creamers, cops and an editor's travels

David Miles
Charlevoix Historical Society
Northern Creamery Company building on Clinton Street.

One hundred fifty years ago, Willard A. Smith, editor/publisher of the Charlevoix Sentinel, accompanied by friends hopped on the tug Commodore Nutt to take a jaunt of discovery over to Little Traverse (Harbor Springs) and Bear Creek (Petoskey).   

The Nutt had been the first powered boat ever to part the waters of Pine Lake (Lake Charlevoix) a few years prior. June 29, 1872, Sentinel (excerpted): “Up Little Traverse Bay. . . . Many objects of interest met our eye on the way up, which we never saw before. Our attention was called to ‘Big Rock Point,’ so-called from a monstrous rock, which tradition says was thrown from the shore (by a monstrous human) in bygone times. When, upon inspection, we found that the rock projected ten feet above the water, and measured fourteen feet across, we concluded that the tradition lies somewhat. We cannot consistently believe any such yarn.” The Big Rock is still there, giving its name to a small point of land upon which was once situated Michigan’s first nuclear plant. 

“After a run of two hours we reached Bear Creek, which is directly opposite Little Traverse Harbor. Upon landing we saw nothing but a rattle-down Catholic Church, just astern of which was a burying ground, which is said to contain bodies closely packed and three deep. We guess this is tradition also.” After a brief sojourn there, Smith and friends re-boarded the Nutt for the trip across the water to “. . . Little Traverse Harbor (where) we found everything bustle and confusion, the streets and dock being lined with (people). Little Traverse village is not much to boast of, but it is nestled down in one of the romantic spots on the Great Lakes. The perfectly land locked harbor cannot be excelled. After begging another handful of peanuts at one of the many shops with which the village was filled, we prepared for our return. . . . and then we pointed our bows homeward, entering the river (Charlevoix’s lower channel) at dusk.”

Part of this same journey can still be made today, with the return of the small steamer that runs now in summer between Petoskey and Harbor Springs. 

Fifty years ago, the June 28, 1922 Charlevoix Courier reported a crime spree that passed through Charlevoix. “BANDITS ROB BAY SHORE MAN. Take Groceries and Twenty-Five Dollars from Him. Mackinaw Police Catch Them, Relieve Them of Their Booty, and Let Them Go. Five large automobile loads of daylight bandits are unusual even in these strenuous days of outlawry, and in peaceful Emmet County they are rarer than purple monkeys, but they arrived yesterday. The cars were filled with itinerant folk, mostly men, and as they drove up from the south and reached a point two miles above Bay Shore they encountered a Charlevoix county farmer who had just bought a consignment of groceries in Petoskey and was jogging his tired horse homeward.

“Two of the cars passed on, but the other three stopped, one directly in front of the astonished farmer, one beside him and the third behind him. The occupants searched him, took $25 in cash and then relieved him of all the groceries. He went to Charlevoix, notified the police there, and they informed the Petoskey authorities who sent the alarm out all along the line to Mackinaw City.” All five cars bore Massachusetts license plates. 

“In Mackinaw there was another robbery, but it was by the police there who were awaiting the bandits’ arrival. The outlaws were searched and all their money was taken from them in settlement, it being considered cheaper to arrange matters thus than to incur the expense of shipping the crowd back to Petoskey, getting the actual thieves identified, and holding a trial. The thieves were glad to admit their guilt and give up the loot.

“The outfit passed through Charlevoix Tuesday, but were not allowed to stop. The bunch has left a like record all the way up the southern part of the state. They have been driven from place to place, arrested, and then some. But still they manage to keep on the way to some place not (previously forewarned).”

The accompanying photo shows the Northern Creamery Co. building at 103 Clinton Street half a block from downtown, which had gone up in 1920. For some reason, it had not processed all that much of the locally produced milk and cream. The same Courier now reported that “Local Creamery Doing Excellent Business.” Apparently its proximity had slowly convinced the area farmers and dairymen that they could indeed trust their local businesses, and didn’t have to ship their products out. “’Gold Coin’ butter is at present the chief product of the creamery, while ‘McCool’s Famous Ice Cream and sweet cream is disposed of locally. The weekly butter production will average better than 3,000 pounds, and practically every pound of it is consumed by the home market.  (Cream) purchases running from three to four hundred gallons per week are received from outside sources.” 

The building went on to become the home of Novotny’s Plumbing & Heating for decades, and is currently the site of the Charlevoix Circle of Arts small parking lot.