The following is an excerpt from “Meet Me At The Dock in Greilickville, Grand Traverse Bay” by author Kathleen Firestone.
Copies of her books are available at local book stores or directly from her.
Greilick’s 36-foot schooner Lake Forest (U15578) had been built in 1869 at Little Sturgeon, Wisconsin, by B. Spears. She had sunk with a load of corn at Hammond Bay, Lake Huron, in 1878, but was raised and repaired. Greilick Brothers bought the schooner in 1880 and may have still owned her when she was based in Charlevoix in 1882. Her home port in 1883-85 was in Milwaukee.
Greilick Brothers had a dock and warehouse in Milwaukee, which some of their lumber products were shipped. John Greilick’s son Walter supervised the Milwaukee business for a long time.
The Goodrich Dock continued even after Godfrey Greilick died tragically while working on it in 1874. It still appeared as the Goodrich Dock on the 1881 Leelanau County Explanation to Township Plans map.
Pioneer Theresa Greilick died Aug. 5, 1886. Godfrey and Theresa Greilick had left a family of good citizens, by way of their children, just as Seth and Nancy Norris had done.
Joseph Greilick, the oldest of the Greilick sons, worked several years for Hannah, Lay & Co., which backed Greilick’s Sash & Door Company in Traverse City, at the foot of Division Street. Greilick soon became sole owner. Joseph Greilick died in 1892. Greilick Manufacturing was incorporated in Traverse City, in 1915, by the widow and sons of Joseph Greilick and became known as “one of the best furniture factories in the state.”
The railroad made it to Greilickville in 1892, after Manistee lumberman Edward Buckley had begun laying the Manistee & Northeast (M&NE) tracks in 1888. It began in Manistee and stretched as far as Fouch, to Greilickville, and doubling back to Traverse City. A spur was laid to the Greilick sawmill for picking up lumber and agricultural products.
In May, 1900, John M. Grund and James M. Gillett opened Traverse City Bricks Works on Gillett’s dock. This was 25 years after Markham had begun making bricks at the location where Greilicks had started the whole brick-making endeavor. They were all quite the businessmen. As lumber inspectors, Grund and Gillett were already familiar with the local industries. While some bricks could be shipped from a dock, other brick orders left on the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad (GR&I). Before the Greilickville connection, the railway had arrived in Traverse City in November, 1872, and met with the M&NE arm which extended into Leelanau in 1892, near the brick plant.
During the time of Grund & Gillett’s operation in Greilickville, Daniel E. Carter became owner of the Goodrich Dock, and it was now the Carter Dock. Usually, things went well when cargo was loaded from docks to waiting vessels, but a sturdy dock and a worthy boat were just as important as the dock wallopers who did the loading, evidenced by the following report in the Traverse City Morning Eagle.
“The schooner Volunteer was loaded with bricks from Grund & Gillett brick yards Tuesday and at night, while at Carter’s dock, she sprung a leak and went to the bottom in about 12 feet of water.
Somewhere, out from Carter Road, Grund & Gillett bricks may still be buried in the sand of Grand Traverse Bay.
John M. Grund and James M. Gillett, were also shippers in Traverse City, with an address of 125 E. Front Street. *** Another of the original Greilick brothers, John Greilick, died in 1898. His son Walter carried on the family tradition of lumberyard worker, merchant and successful farmer in Greilickville. He was also a visionary and bought stock in Superior Oil Company in California. He may only have guest that oil deliveries from other companies would someday make their way to Greilickville were associated with businesses in Traverse City, and some who lived in the city owned businesses in Greilickville.
David Carter was a jeweler and watch maker who moved to Traverse City 1866, having been a respected jeweler in Benzie and Manistee Counties. Carter and his wife Cora had sons, Lawrence and John Carter or D.E. Carter, as he usually listed himself, bought the dock of Reuben Goodrich. Carter also bought a woodworking factory in Greilickville, which may seem to show opposite interests — the delicate work of jewelry making and the scrubby work of forming lumber into products. But Dan Carter was interested in fine living. He invented and patented the “Victory” reclining chair and manufactured it at his Elmwood Manufacturing Company plant. Present Carter Road gets is name from D. E. Carter and the Carter Dock which extended into Grand Traverse Bay at this location.
The Joseph Greilick mill in Traverse City continued even after the death of its founder. The Traverse City Morning Record of June 18, 1899 reported, “The schooner Harvey Ransom brought a cargo of pine lumber from the Beavers yesterday for the J.E. Greilick Co., and will take back a load of sash, doors, and building materials. The J.E. Greilick Co., has bought quite a supply of pine lumber from the Beaverse and the Ransom will make several trips with it before it is all delivered.”
The third Greilick brother, Edward, died August 2, 1899, at the age of 53. The years of pioneering the 1800s were almost over.
