Life is full of delightful twists and turns.
Ruby Calista Blakely's photo album, Petoskey, 1916
This little photo album arrived in my mailbox in a plump package of stories and genealogical research, all the way from Oklahoma. When I held it in my hands, I felt as if I were touching Civil War veteran Daniel Blakely’s coatsleeve. The album belonged to his granddaughter, Ruby Calista Blakely, and was sent to me by Ruby’s daughter, Georgia Perkins, who is delighted that someone in Eastport is interested in Blakely family history.
When I opened the album to the first page, I saw someone I knew.
Maud Evans (Ayotte) poses on a stump in an Upper Peninsula logging camp, c. 1915
Maud Evans Ayotte was the great-granddaughter of Civil War veterans Luther G. Evans and Adelia Hoyt Evans. She and her sister Dessie were among Ruby’s best friends. The little album is filled with pictures of them in the full bloom of youth, just as all of them were falling in love, getting married, having babies. One of those babies, Nora Ayotte Metz, still lives on the north end of Torch Lake. I took myself off to her house with the album, and we went through it page by page, Nora providing running commentary.
A tar paper shack and a tent - worker housing at a U.P. lumber camp, c. 1915
Look! There’s the lumber camp in the UP! They used to live in tents even during the winter. They’d put up a smaller tent inside a larger one to help keep the snow out. Later on they had a company house.
Nora's Uncle Lynn and Aunt Dessie and her parents Maud and Joe Ayotte, c. 1915
There’s my father and mother, and that’s Aunt Dessie and Uncle Lynn. I don’t think I have that picture.
So then we had to go through some of Nora’s pictures, and one thing led to another and pretty soon the whole afternoon was gone. We found more treasures, about Blakelys and Smiths and Mudges and Pearls, and . . . they’ll keep for another post. One last photo from Ruby’s album:
Dessie Evans and Ruby Blakely Feb 3 1913
Torch Lake Views 
Kathy
March 20, 2010
But WHERE in the Upper Peninsula?? Inquiring minds want to know. What a delightful gift. You must be pleased as punch. Could you sleep after you received it?
Gerry
March 20, 2010
Oh yes, I slept very well. I just put the album under my pillow.
I think the photos were probably taken in a lumbering camp in Luce County, in Columbus or Pentland Township. A little later the family lived in Bergland, on the shores of Lake Gogebic. They were not so very far from L’Anse. By then they had a proper rowhouse, a step up from the tarpaper houses. Also not so very far from the notorious Hurley, Wisconsin–a place with a reputation that lingered well into the middle of the last century, when I was growing up in Rhinelander. I heard stories about Hurley that would have made me blush if I’d been old enough to understand them.
Fee
March 21, 2010
Lovely to see history with people rather than just places.
Gerry
March 21, 2010
Thank you, Fee. I think pictures of people–especially ones like these, where they’re clowning around for the camera–reveal a lot. (I, um, love the pictures of places too.)
Cindy Lou
March 21, 2010
What a wonderfully delightful gift! And to be able to share it and all the stories with someone who was there….an even more priceless gift! I love the last two photos – especially the one with all four people – they’re all smiling and laughing with joy. In so many older pictures, everyone is so stoic – because they have to sit still for the camera for so long?!?! This was a treat and I don’t even know the folks.
That’s one of your greatest gifts, Gerry – the ability to make your home and the lives of the people you share it with come alive for me!
Gerry
March 21, 2010
Thank you, Cindy Lou–what a nice thing to say.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the people who lived around here 150 years ago, and to their descendants. My sense is that the very grim portraits of the late 19th century had as much to do with their lives as their cameras. But perhaps we’ve simply become better at dissimulation.
Kathy
March 21, 2010
I’ve heard stories about Hurley that make me blush, too!
Gerry
March 21, 2010
And people think all the Wild, Wild was West. Ha. The Wild, Wild North was sumpin’ else, wasn’t it!
Preston
March 21, 2010
A hundred years from now, such folks as you and me will be looking at similar photos; only it will be us that are in them.
Gerry
March 21, 2010
Along with our assorted animals.
Louan Lechler
March 21, 2010
I love old pictures of somebody else’s relatives. I have been known to buy them at flea markets, just to keep them from being lost. I have chosen them carefully and have personal feelings for them. My sister found and gave to me, recently, a small leather photo book tied with a leather ribbon, very much like the one you have. On the front, there is a floral image and it reads, Kodak Views, Petoskey. The name, Hazel M. Strong, is arched across the back. Interesting.
Gerry
March 21, 2010
I’ll bet it’s from the same era. I’ll look for Strongs among my rapidly expanding community.
chris
March 22, 2010
Hi Gerry
I’m here in florida and I can just hear the excitement in your words!
I too am exploring my ancestors, all of them from this area, Cedar, N. Manitou Isl, T. C.
I compliment you on the extensive work you do for all of us. This takes so much time and I know you love sharing.
thanks.
chris
Gerry
March 22, 2010
I am having a wonderful time. I’ll bet you are, too, lollygagging on the beach. I’ll be very interested to learn about life on North Manitou. Maybe we should have a local history club–we could have coffee and regale each other with the misadventures of assorted branches of the communal family tree.
Kevin Holtz
July 27, 2011
Hi Gerry,
Found your blog and love it. Funny we started visiting the Torch Lake area with friends and found out recently I have a lot of old family history up there. My grandmother was Anna Mae Blakely and my mother is named Melissa after Melissa Jane Foote. Anyway love the pic’s and the little bits I find.
Thanks,
Kevin
Gerry
July 27, 2011
Well for heaven’s sake. Nice to meet you, Kevin. You will find numerous little bits about the Blakely family here on Torch Lake Views, and some big bits, too. There’s more about them over at the Wilkinson Homestead museum. I hope you’ll let me know when you plan to be in the area–I’ll show you around and make you tell me stories all at the same time. Your great-great-great grandmother’s brother was the George Martin that “my” Civil War veterans named their GAR post after. I can show you the flag with his name on it, and I can show you the land your great-great-great grandparents homesteaded. Imagine that.