The Summer Resort that Started on a Shoe String (Part 3)

Written by Mrs. Fred (Bertha) Coburn

There are always some bad and unhappy experiences in everyone's lives. The third summer at the cottage Bud was ten years old. He was playing with the tire pump (he liked to see the dust fly when he pumped it), but the plunger came out and his hand went down on the tube. It split his thumb open. I was so glad Fred was there that day with the car. He took Bud into Fremont to the hospital. Infection got into the bone and Bud lost his left thumb. We called him Buddy until he was quite a big boy. The first night after he was injured, I noticed he was having a bad time getting to sleep. Finally he called out, "Mom, I can't get to sleep, I can't suck my thumb." I said, "Try the other one." He said, "I did, but it doesn't taste good." Because of the infection in the bone, Buddy suffered all summer and didn't get a chance to swim as much as he would have liked to.

It took the first summer to get the grounds cleared so one could see the lake and see what the lots were going to be, and it was not until the summer of 1924 that the place was surveyed. Three cottages were built then, and it began to look like a summer resort. Fred's brother, Sam, built one but sold it in 1928 to the Davis family of Hinsdale, Illinois. Mrs. Davis came up and stayed all summer. She had four children the same ages as ours, and they sure lived it up. Mrs. Davis still owns the cottage and comes up every summer. There was a big tree over in the Meece's pasture and the children all carved their initials on it. They called it the carving tree. As the years went by and more and more children came to the lake, they each had to carve their initials or names on the tree. After 40 years the tree met with a disaster. The Meece's had both died years before and Standish McDonald bought the farm for pasture land for their cows. That was fine for awhile, but a boy at on of the cottages had a dog, and he used to take his dog over to the pasture and chase the cows. He got a kick out of that, but McDonald's son did not. He came over and asked that we keep dogs out of his pasture because it was making his cows jump the fence and come over to his farm which was across the main road into Fremont, and the traffic was dangerous to the cows. The boy refused to obey and finally McDonald's took the cattle out. One day my grandchildren were at the cottage, and they went over looking for the carving tree, and it was gone. Farmer McDonald got even by cutting the tree down. To the children that came to the lake in the summer, that was the first thing they wanted to see, the carving tree, to see if any new names were on it. It as a great disappointment to them when it was gone.

The years were going by fast; more cottages were built, but there was no electric in there for 18 years. Everyone seemed to get along with the kerosine lamps and the gasoline lamps and lanterns. Most of the people used their cottage just weekends, but Mrs. Davis and I stayed all summer. We washed clothes together, canned (fruit and vegetables which we could get at the farmers) together and enjoyed it all.

Then came the stock market crash of 1929. Things started to change. Money was scarce, and it got worse. Soon it was welfare and WPA. We were lucky we did not have to go on welfare, but we lost the cottage on the Point by mortgage foreclosure. We felt it was better to hang on to our home and the barber shop, so the cottage had to go. Our last summer on the Point was 1932. By then our oldest daughter had graduated from Creston and was working at housework. Bud graduated in 1933 and joined the CCC. Don went into the barber shop to learn the barber trade from his Dad. He stayed with his Dad for 30 years in the shop.

After losing the cottage on the Point, we didn't know what to do about the boat business. We had all the lots along the outlet and back in the woods that were clear of any mortgage. Fred brought all the boats back and piled them up by the street. It was a good thing the surveyor had put that street in when he surveyed the first plat. Fred built a dock there in the spring of '33, and we started all over again. This project was tougher than the first. Money was scarce and you couldn't borrow a dollar from your best friend or brother. I told Fred if he could borrow a tent from his cousin, I would go up and stay in it and take care of the boat business. He thought about it and one day he saw a pile of hardwood flooring that had come out of a factory piled up across the street from the shop. He went over and asked the man if it was for sale, and the man said he could have it for $5.00. Fred took it and hauled it to the lake in his trailer. First he made a floor, 10 x 12, then used the rest for siding, leaving a space up around the top for some screen. He put in rafters, but didn't have money to get roof boards, so he borrowed a tent from his cousin and put it on the top. Believe me it got us through the summer. Marian, the yougest daughter, then 13 years old, stayed with me during the summer, and we rented a few boats and at that time every penny counted. At least we hung on to our business. Fred was not a carpenter and every thing was done from "scratch." The next summer someone wanted a building torn down. It was called an ice jitney. The man said if Fred would tear it down, he could have all the lumber free and that is how he got the lumber to pu another room on the one room shack. He had managed to get enough lumber somewhere to put a roof on the first room and took the tent off before the winter snow came. The two rooms worked fine for six years. In September of '38, Fred had more ideas, and he had learned quite a bit about carpenter work, so heplanned to enlarge the place. First he built a cement foundation 12 x 34 feet; large enough to take care of the two rooms and another bedroom. He got our two sons and two son-in-laws to help him, and they jacked up the two rooms, put some rollers under them and started to push, pull and turn the two rooms around until they got them up on the foundation. Fred wanted to cottage to face the lake when done, that is why it had to be turned around, as well as lifted up and put into place on the foundation. As I watched them doing that work all by hand, I thought we are really living as the pioneers did. The enxt weekend Fred and Bud built a patio 10 x 15 in front of the two rooms. They mixed the cement by hand and was working hard trying to get it troweled and smoothed over. It was 10:00 at night, and they were working by the light from a gasoline lantern. The cement turned out real good and two years later a porch was built over it.

As soon as Fred realized he could make a new start back where we were now, he tore the ice house down and moved it back to our new place and continued putting up ice every winter unticl we could get electric appliances.

The two rooms were all set on the foundation in the fall of '38, and the next spring Fred bult a kitchen and back porch on it. It took all summer as he was only taking one day a week off from the barber shop, but his brother, Sam, and cousin, Lee, helped him and in turn Fred helped Lee with the log cabin he was bulding. In 1940, Fred added another bedroom and the front portch which kept him busy all that summer.

In June of '41, there were 10 cottages built, and Consumers Power Company agreed to come in with electricity. It was goodbye to our kerosene lamps, but I kept them anyway for we often had electrical failures from electric storms and the lights would be off for hours.

We had a disappointment with the electricity because of the wa breaking out in the Decmeber of '41. All electric appliances were frozen, and we couldn't get refrigerators for the cottages, so Fred still had to cut ice and pack it in the ice house until 1946.

During the war, lumber was hard to get (that is good, dry lumber). Driving back and forth from the lake to the barber shop, Fred had noticed a large pile of lumber in a farmer's yard. He knew it had been there two years, so it would be dry. It was in the rough, just as it had been sawed fromt he trees and was knotty pine. Fred asked the garmer if it was for sale. He said, "Yes, it was anad he could have the whole pile for $200.00." Fred took it and with his trailer, he hauled it to Newaygo to have it planed and sanded, but the man said he couldn't sand it as he was too busy, so Fred hauled it to Grand Rapids to a lumber company and had it sanded. They couldn't tongue and groove it, so he had to take it to another place to get it completely finished, so he could put it on the walls of the cottage. The summer of '46 was spent finishing the living room with beautiful knotty pine. As he was working along, he built a knick knack cupboard for my clock, radio, etc. He also built in some book shelves under the chimney. The chimney was in the center of the room and took care of the cookstove in the kitchen and the heating stove in the living room.

(To be continued)