Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the Dec. 19, 2013 Enterprise.
The Gill family left a significant footprint in Leelanau Township. William arrived from England in 1855. His son Wilbur grew up here, and in the 1870s, father and son bought large tracts of forested land in the area that became named after them, Gills Pier.
They built a plank road down to the shore from the Leland road, and they did, indeed, build a very large pier to serve their big steam sawmill. From there ships loaded with lumber, potatoes, and other things from this area sailed to Chicago and Milwaukee. The pier was on Lake Michigan, of course, and was subject to all the rough water and storms, not having a breakwater.
The Gills also built a boardinghouse for their mill workers and lumberjacks, and a general store. Soon, a small village grew up around the pier area, including a school, Gills’ own cottage, and some other houses. A post office occupied a corner of the store.
The Gills also owned a lumber- carrying ship, which Wilbur named the “Alice M. Gill” after his daughter. (There is gossip that it was the culprit that hit the schooner “Kimball” in the dark night off Point Betsy, when a forest fire raged on shore and visibility on the water was zero. The Kimball stopped, but was hit by another ship and sank with all hands. Nobody ever admitted guilt, but the locals speculated that it was the “Alice M. Gill” because she came into port with paint the same color as Kimball on her hull).
Wilbur Gill was the last big lumberman in the county. He ran his sawmill until 1900, when he sold his dock, store and other buildings to a company that planned to build a big resort on the site. He moved the sawmill to Beaver Island, where unfortunately, it burned down. (The resort never became a reality, the land reverted to the Gills and was later divided into lots and sold.) The school consolidated with the Northport School.
Meanwhile, after the store and post office down by the shore closed, Knute Nelson built a general store where the Happy Hour is today. Later, Andrew Nelson, Knute’s father, used the building as his home, and built on the front part. After the Nelsons, the Nils Halseth family moved into the house. (Nils is Dick Hanson’s greatgrandfather, and this is a clip from the Leelanau Enterprise September 13, 1883: On Saturday last, between 10 and 11 O’clock a.m., Wilbur F. Gill and a Norwegian named Nels Oleson (also known as Nils Halseth) launched a small skiff in the lake at Gill’s pier and started to row out to the schooner Walhallow, which was lying at anchor. There was a heavy sea running, and when about 15 or 20 rods from shore one of the oar pins broke letting the boat swing around and she swamped. Each of the occupants took an oar, and Wilbur succeeded in swimming ashore, but the Norwegian gave out and was drowned. Deceased leaves a wife and two children and was 33 years old. (His widow later married Andrew Fredrickson).
In 1936, Joseph Korson opened the Happy Hour Tavern in the same building in the Gills Pier area.
In 1877 William and Martha Gill hired an architect from Washington and built a large and palatial home in Northport at the southeast corner of Main and Waukazoo streets. The story is that Martha insisted on having the closets built that the architect had designed. Local builders were loath to waste space on closets, and after failing to persuade them, Martha finally sat on the staircase with a shotgun until they built and finished her large closet. (Before that, everyone just had a row of hooks behind the door, or a freestanding wardrobe).
Alice Gill grew up and married Hugh Scott, and their son David later inherited the house. It still stands today, and many Scott descendants have grown up there. Now it is owned by Pat Scott, daughter of David Gill Scott and his wife Harriet.
The Gills have made a lot of interesting history here.
