Looking Back
Compiled by Ryan Schlehuber

A 1907 scene of Mackinac Island’s downtown district from the East Bluff viewpoint. (Postcard courtesy of Bob Cole)

115 Years Ago

Saturday, August 2, 1890

On Monday morning last, Richard Brown, the loan agent, took his family to the Island in a small boat, intending to spend the day. They found outdoor life so pleasant, however, that they concluded to remain another day. This fact caused numerous rumors to be put in circulation to the effect that Mr. Brown and family had been drowned, but they turned up bright and smiling Wednesday morning.

Base ball match at the Fort grounds tomorrow afternoon. Island team vs. Cheboygan Diamonds.

Chief Architect Hawks and a carload of Michigan Central officials were here last week looking over the necessities in the way of enlarging the Grand and bringing about other improvements for the next season that will give to Messrs. Hayes & Osborn, the popular proprietors, every facility for catering to the increasing thousands who yearly come to Mackinac.

90 Years Ago

Thursday, August 5, 1915

Tuesday being a bad day on the water, the steamer Algomah canceled three other trips between Mackinac Island and Mackinaw City. The gasoline boat Ida L. canceled all her trips, which left Mackinac Island without any mail or papers.

A secret service man from Washington spent the last three weeks of July at Mackinaw City watching the handling of the Island mail at Mackinaw City and by the gasoline boat. He conducted himself like a summer tourist and hardly anyone “go onto him” until after he had paid his board bill and left town.

The steamer Huron was in port last week with 140 passengers aboard. Charles Thorne, who has many friends here and in St. Ignace, is steward on the Huron , which is noted for its table service under his direction.

50 Years Ago

Thursday, August 4, 1955

Kathleen Mary Dennany, daughter of Mrs. Murray Dennany of Mackinac Island and Plymouth and James R. Dennany of Kalamazoo, was united in marriage with Charles Lewis McDonnell, son of Mr. and Mrs. Paul McDonnell of Memphis, Tennessee July 30, 1955, at Ste. Anne’s Church with Rev. Father Joseph Ling singing the nuptial mass.

Children of the first and second grades of the Thomas Ferry School will receive their second polio shots on Friday at the court house in St. Ignace.

35 Years Ago

Thursday, August 6, 1970

3,200 glass plate negatives depicting historic Mackinac area were donated to the Mackinac Island State Park Commission by Maria Moeller, who used to run the Moeller Import Shop, which now houses Windermere Imports. The negatives were found in the attic. The photographs were done by W.H. Gardiner, a Detroit photographer who worked on the Island during the summers from the 1890s through World War I. He maintained a studio where the Windermere Imports is now.

The long struggle by Mackinac Islanders to get a resident doctor finally ended on July 25 with the arrival of Dr. James Fraser, who, with his wife and children, will make Mackinac Island his new permanent home.

Three badly-needed Island road improvements to assure safety and to relieve congestion are on the agenda as top priorities of the Mackinac Island State Park Commission, and $153,000 request for this improvement is being submitted to the Upper Great Lakes Council. The request is for funds to relocate and reconstruct Grand Hill, Fort Holmes Hill, and for the building of a new 20-foot paved road to the Island’s airport.

30 Years Ago

Saturday, July 5, 1975

Town Crier

The City Council has ordered police enforcement of city ordinances stipulating that loaded garbage drays may not be parked in residential areas. The order came at the council’s July 2 meeting following complaints received by the Council that violations of the ordinances were still common in Harrisonville. The City Council, at their June 25 meeting, had allowed loaded drays to park at the old burner site on State Park land west of Harrisonville in an effort at removing loaded drays that had been parked overnight in the Harrisonville residential district.

The dray lines have argued that the burner site was not protected against vandalism and that the road to it was not suitable for the “high-rise trash wagons to traverse.

The parking of loaded drays overnight is necessitated, in part, from the landfill area’s being closed at 6 p.m. before drays are able to complete their last pickup of the day. Garbage pickup during the day along the downtown routes, the dray line operators have argued, would be difficult owning to the congestion of tour buggies and tourists.

15 Years Ago

Thursday, August 2, 1990

Coming to liven up the Mustang Lounge last week was Hilt Fraser, of Sarnia, Ontario, who brought along his guitar to accompany his singing of favorite ballads. Gary Albrightson joined him. Hilt was accompanied by his wife, Barb, and grandson, David.

Doud column: Last week, an article in the Mackinac Island Town Crier on the tour of

Island cemeteries noted that the graves of Samuel and Rachel Lasley (1775 and 1773) are the Island’s oldest.

The article was of special interest to Catherine Bourisaw, whose late husband, Morton, father to Francis Bourisaw of Mackinac Island and Cheboygan, and Catherine Schadel, of Buffalo, New York, was a descendant of the Lasley family.

The Bourisaw family is said to be the oldest family on the Island.