The following news items are reprinted from the Manistee Daily News for the week ending May 1, 1915 and are compiled by Teena Kracht from the newspaper archives of the Manistee County Historical Museum. Read more of her 100 Years Ago column at www.manisteenews.com:
“The fence that has surrounded Sands Park for the past 45 years is being removed to the Fifth Avenue Park to protect the new roads thereabouts from the sand storms.
“The fence was first built in 1870 and has been regarded as a landmark to many visitors of Sands Park.
“With league baseball a dead issue in Manistee for this year at least, efforts are being made by local sportsmen to promote the organization of an independent city league, with a view to furnishing patrons of baseball in this city with fast Saturday afternoon contests between the clubs composing the circuit, while on Sundays an all-star team will be picked to represent the city against the fastest semi-pro and traveling independent teams in this vicinity.
“Independent baseball has furnished whole heaps of fun for cities lots larger than Manistee, and with the proposal of this organization every fan in the city interested should turn out to boost and help make the movement a ‘go’ from the opening bell. Monday night at 8:30 is the time; Haidt’s Billiard Parlor the place.
“What Housewives Should Be Doing. Put out window boxes and make a cheery outlook for yourself as well as your neighbor. Don’t forget a kitchen window box for chives and parsley.
“See that the menus change with the season. Include plenty of green and fresh vegetables.
“Set one day aside for repair day.
“PORCH HAMMOCKS are getting quite a play. Lawn swings will soon be put into commission.
“THE HOARSE BLAST of the foghorn department us up all through last night. The weather was a bit ‘thick’.
“FRANK DeCAIR is confined to his home by illness, and this is especially tough luck in view of the propinquity of the trout season.
“TROUT FISHERMEN could hardly restrain themselves today. The weather gave them the fever right. And the opening of the season is still a week away. Tough luck!
“MISS VERNABAUMGARDNER, Filer City, was hostess to a party of eight couples at a marshmallow roast last evening. Light refreshments and dancing were also enjoyed.
“JULIUN FINNER, victim of the peculiar accident Thursday morning in the Buckley & Douglas mill lies in Mercy sanitarium in a very weak condition and with chances for life but little improved. He suffers materially from loss of blood.
“GORDON JOHNSON’S orchestra will be an added attraction Saturday and Sunday afternoons at the Palace of Sweets. The orchestra will render a fine program each afternoon and evening for the further delectation of the soda water drinkers.
“WILL DANIELS, Tom Libby, Jake Piotrowsky and G. W. Rose composed a party which motored up to the dam at High Bridge today, to watch the big steelheads and rainbows trying to jump the rapids. Photographer Hanselman got some lively action pictures.
“BOY SCOUTS are aggressively pushing the sale of tickets for the presentation at the Gem theatre next Thursday and Friday of the Boy Scout film show, ‘Adventures of a Boy Scout.’ They hope through this means to secure sufficient funds to pay for their equipment and camping paraphernalia.
“Gem Theater Tonight. THE WORLD FILM CORPORATION PRESENTS Most Famous and Interesting Actress on the American Stage LILLIAN RUSSELL in the play in which she scored her greatest Broadway success ‘WILDFIRE’ by George Broadhurst and George V. Hobart. A Shubert Feature in Five Acts. 7:30 and 8:50 p.m. Admission is 10 cents.
“Electric Theater Tonight ‘THIRTEEN DOWN’ A two part Essanay with FRANCIS X. BUSHMAN and BEVERY BAYNE and a PATSY BOLIVER comedy which will please everyone, and especially the children. 5 cents—Always—5 cents.
“The Hotel Onekama in the up-county village of that name is undergoing extensive repairs preparatory to the opening of the summer resort season.
“A new roof adds greatly to the outward aspect of the hotel, and all the rooms are being handsomely repapered and repainted. This improvement, with the extensive additions to the Portage Point Inn at the other extremity of Portage Lake, should make the Onekama resort region one of the most favored in Michigan this season.
“The village of Onekama, in the heart of the Michigan summerland, has not a vacant habitable house in the town.
“People from outside points who desire to locate there find difficulty in securing even temporary lodgings while seeking or building permanent ones. Onekamans believe that their town offers a splendid opportunity for the investment of spare capital in the building of houses and summer cottages for rent. “Cakes ‘like mother used to make’ are hardly in it with the latest confection offered by the Hornkohl Bakery.
In accord with its policy that the best is none too good for the public, and that busy housewives can better employ their time than in baking cakes, anyway, the Hornkohl Bakery has installed a special battery of new machinery for turning out its latest product.
“This is offered in a neat, sanitary package, wax-paper-wrapped and boxed, under the alluring caption of ‘Aunt Mary’s Fine Cakes,’ eight ounces, guaranteed 100 per cent pure, in five varieties at 10 cents per. As most of us remember it, ‘Aunt Mary’ held the cake baking laurels of the family. A new and toothsome cream doughnut is another new product of Hornkohl’s.
“THE OLD ADVOCATE building, stripped of the false work which has concealed the work in progress, presents a more pleasing exterior since the improvements following the fire of Feb. 26. The steep, rickety stairway to the basement print shop has been changed and now leads down from inside the building, instead of offering a sidewalk pitfall to unwary pedestrians. Archie Cots will have a fine store front for his tailor shop when the alterations to the interior are completed.
“Death last Saturday afternoon came as a welcome relief to the tortured body of Julius Finner, the sawyer who was the victim of a terrible accident at the Buckley & Douglas mill Thursday, when a jagged wound was torn in his side by a knot flung from a saw near the one at which he was working.
“Immediately following his injury he was removed to Mercy hospital, where such relief as could be was given him, although at no time was any strong hope entertained for his recovery…
“Finner was born in Filer City 31 years ago. He is survived by his widow and four children, the oldest of whom is five and the youngest two weeks of age….
“The first ‘floater’ of the season hereabouts was discovered by fishermen at the head of Manistee lake, near Stronach, late Saturday afternoon, when a body which was later identified as that of John Blocker, who had been missing since November 8, last, appeared upon the surface.
“Calvin A. (Puss) Palmer, a few years ago one of Manistee’s best known citizens, former postmaster, state insurance commissioner under Governor Chase S. Osborn, and now president of the Inter-State Fire Insurance company of Detroit, spent yesterday and today in his old home town.
“In addition to transacting some legal business, Mr. Palmer was busy renewing old acquaintances, and the sight of his genial features brought frequent hails of ‘Hello, Puss!’ and ‘How-de-do, Mr. Palmer.’ Then followed friendly reunions and exchange of reminiscences, in which the remark, ‘Those were the good old days,’ was often heard.
“’Every board and every square of cement I step on recalls a bit of history to me,’ said ‘Puss.’ ‘It sure seems good to be here again. There never was, and never will be, for me, a town like Manistee.’
“Everybody told Mr. Palmer he was looking fine. And younger, if anything, than when he left Manistee a few years ago. And they all meant it, at that. He expects to return to Detroit tonight.
“contracts for the various improvements at Orchard Beach has all been awarded, and work was begun there with a whoop this morning.
“A small army of artisans, including carpenters, painters, roofers, decorators and road builders went at the undertaking right off the bat today, in a manner which left no doubt that the contemplated improvements will be complete in detail and particular on the date set for the opening of the resort—May 30.
“Six weeks or more in advance of the time established by precedent and custom for the recognized opening of the resort season, the tide of summer travel to the hospitable eastern shores of Lake Michigan appears to have set in in earnest.
“The Northern Michigan steamer ILLINOIS, yesterday on her northbound trip had aboard a party of about 20 people from Chicago who came over to open their cottages for the season. The destination of most of these was Frankfort.
“Automobile tourists dusted up the Pike as though it were already midsummer. By land and water the summer visitors are beginning to arrive, and it looks as though they couldn’t be stopped if anyone tried to do so.
“Weather records for this season of year in Manistee have been established during the past three days. Never before within the memory of the oldest inhabitant has Manistee in April experienced three days so continuously warm as Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
“The temperature, after hovering in the altitudinous notches between 70 and 80, attained its zenith at 7 o’clock last evening, when 82 was registered. This mark of 82 was the maximum for the period, with 62 as the minimum. It is like three days filched out of late June and weather wiseacres apprehend that later we’ll have to pay the penalty for the premature enjoyment of midsummer weather. Sunday’s sun was undeniably hot, and the roads were scorched and dusty. The need of rail was readily recognized.
“People who feared to take a chance on donning lightweight stuff sweltered in their heavy flannels. Many recruits were enrolled to the army of bee-vee-dee regalia, and straw hats blossomed out profusely on the streets.
“It was—and is—red hot summer. The motor boats were out in numbers, and gleeful small boys slid nakedly off the dock into the refreshing waters.
“The temperature at noon today registered 72, mild by contrast with the fervor of Sunday’s heat, while a fine, invigorating breeze fanned the city, which also was in marked contrast with Sunday’s sultry conditions.
“It is great weather. But a good warm rain would improve it.
“A NEW SODA FOUNTAIN for the Hall Drug Store arrived from Chicago by boat freight yesterday.
“THE ‘SKEETER’ SQUADRON was out in force yesterday, and Manistee Lake hummed all day to the churning of chugging motor boats. Pretty nearly every small craft in the harbor was in commission.
“DRIVING HIS NEW CAR into a rig driven by Frank Nalipinski while attempting to pass on the road yesterday afternoon, Fred Balsam escaped injury as did the rig driver, but the latter’s vehicle was badly smashed up.
“JOHN STRONACH, JR., after a winter on the road in theatrical enterprises, is home for the summer. He breezed in Saturday night, as enthusiastically as ever a Manisteean, and wanting to know immediately what the base ball prospects were—or are. John’ll start something in that direction if anyone will.
“’THIS WAS SOME WHIZZER of a day,’ said Tony Piotrowsky of the City Drug Store last night, while enjoying the cooling breezes set in motion by the electric fan. ‘We were out at 5 o’clock this morning scouring the country for cream and couldn’t get half enough. We had to turn down a lot of orders for ice cream for no other reason.’
“The Briny Inn, beginning next Sunday, will serve its famous Sunday dinners as the noonday meal instead of in the evening as has been the custom during the winter. This is done with a view to the better accommodation of summer visitors, and the date is the same as that appointed for the opening of the M. & N. E’ summer Sunday excursion season.
“Thievery on the north side has been causing the police department untold trouble for some time, but last night three men who are believed to know their share of what has been going on in this line were cornered by the police and now await arraignment before Justice Erb tomorrow.
“Complaints from pedestrians and more conservative automobile drivers have been reaching the city authorities with great regularity since the opening of the motoring season, and announcement is made today that drastic measured are to be taken to safeguard the public from accidents that are so liable to result from these indiscretions on the part of reckless drivers.
“City authorities claim they have been far too lenient in the past in allowing auto drivers the streets of the city as speedways, and that as long as the reckless driving keeps up arrests will be made.
“Another important matter to be straightened out at once by City Manager Ruger is in regard to the muffling of motor boats. Most of the owners of motor boats have complied with the law in muffling their exhausts, but whether they have muffled them enough is a question. The noise certainly is not pleasing to passengers in the boat and could be stopped without much extra trouble or expense on the part of the owners.
“The initiative toward a beautiful river front for Manistee has been taken, and the vagrant, forlorn hope we recently expressed for an improvement of this nature now assumes the aspect of a definite possibility.
“The two transportation companies [Pere Marquette Line and Northern Michigan Transportation company], which are in closer contact with the situation, naturally than any others, have already given their word to clean up thoroughly their docks and the strip of lawn adjacent thereto, and Mr. [Gust] Kitzinger, who has quite a contiguous strip facing River street from the north, has directed that this be gardened up a bit, planning to set out an attractive posy bed there.
“Mr. [Harry J.] Aarons on his property several blocks up the river, is manifesting a disinterested public spirit that should serve as an inspiration to other possessors of river frontage. Workmen have already been set at the task of clearing [his vacant land] of rubbish, and when this work has been accomplished and a flourishing crop of burdock rooted out, he proposes to sow grass seed on the series of levels and slopes.
“Nor is this the full extent of his intentions. Mr. Aarons announces that he hopes to soon be able to convert it into a small city park, with benches conveniently arranged, and he is co-operating with business men of the neighborhood, leaded by Louis Haidt, in planning a series of Wednesday evening band concerts to be given there in the pleasant months.
“But in between the points mentioned there is a long and messy looking stretch of river-edge bad lands which reflect no credit on this community, and which give visitors, especially those who come by water, a decidedly unfavorable impression of the city.
“A cleaned-up river front would enhance the property values along the city’s main thoroughfare, beside adding immeasurably to the communal peace of mind. The men with the rake, the shovel and the paint brush could be kept busy here to good purpose.
“Fire breaking out this morning on the roof of the cottage adjoining the county poor farm gave volunteer firemen in that vicinity a stubborn fight until the arrival of the Manistee fire department, and for a time threatened to destroy the home of the 50 or more inmates of the home.
“The roof of the cottage was entirely burned off, the place water-soaked and some of the furniture removed was badly damaged. Superintendent Eugene Wexstaff estimated the damage at between $250 and $300, fully insured.
“The farm home is situated just 500 feet west of the cottage, and in view of the strong wind blowing the work in holding the flames there is regarded as remarkable. At the present time there are in the home 52 inmates, a number of whom are bedridden or infirm.
“Any semblance of panic on the part of the fear-stricken inmates of the home was averted by the cool-headed presence of mind on the part of Matron Wexstaff, who allayed the fears of her charges while her husband directed the operations of the fire fighters.”
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