A tribute to a Port Oneida icon
Charlie Miller, Port Oneida Jack of All Trades Photo: “Charles Miller Sr loading hay c 1935 ED.jpg” Photo caption: Charlie Miller (Senior) 1935
This continues a series adapted from the book, “A Port Oneida Collection,” Volume 1 of the twopart set, “Oral History, Photographs, and Maps from the Sleeping Bear Region,” produced by Tom Van Zoeren in partnership with Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear.
Here we continue with a look at the old Frederick & Margretha Werner Farm, at the end of Miller Road, focusing on Charlie Miller who took over the farm in the third generation: John & Maggie Miller’s (previous installment) son Charlie lived his life on this farm—one of those old Port Oneidans who seemed to know how to do just about anything. In addition to running his considerable farm operation, he worked as a builder, mechanic, school bus driver, and as a property assessor for the county. “He was a surveyor too. He did that later on when he couldn’t make enough on the farm. He had to work at something else. He surveyed in the most hilly township in the county— Centerville” – his son Charlie (Junior). Mr. Miller also served as a county commissioner and as township supervisor. “He probably knew everybody up there [Leelanau County] at one time.”
Charlie’s daughter, Mary Lou Stuber, recalled her father’s spirit. As can be seen, he had lost two fingers and part of his right hand in the gears of a “sweep”--one of those long poles with a horse or team on one end walking around and around to power machinery. “He managed just fine—That’s just the way Dad was. You didn’t think that much of it.” Added neighbor Leonard Thoreson, “Them two fingers, he could grab a grain sack—Oh, I suppose it bothered him, but he was as strong as an ox.”
Charlie liked to explore. On Sundays the family would go for a drive. “He’d see a little road and say, ‘Hmm, I bet I know where that comes out.’ As long as there wasn’t a tree in the way any thicker than that [a few inches], that road was fair game and he’d drive through there; and sure enough, we’d come out right where he said.” Mary Lou said. “(Charlie Jr.) liked to fish. He did a lot of fishing when he had time; and he built a rowboat for fishin’.” They used it on the Crystal River, Bass Lake, and Shell Lake.
Sometimes Charlie went out for lake trout on Lake Michigan with his neighbor Joe Brunson in Joe’s motorboat. “When I was just a little tyke, probably about five or six years old—maybe seven— I snuck aboard his boat when they were goin’ out on the lake. They were going out to the light ship. They had a light ship there at that time, where the lighthouse is now. Art Basch and my dad and Joe, they all went out there to see it. I hid under the thing in front, in the bow. I used to get some lickin’s from him—probably for good reason.”
Fishing partner Joe Brunson was also Charlie’s shop buddy. They spent much of each winter maintaining and rebuilding their farm machinery in Charlie’s garage/workshop, which he had adapted from the old house after building a new one.
Running a farm in that time and place could be difficult, and Charlie (Junior) remembered that his dad could be “awful rough and gruff and everything. At times he would get mad at the cattle; and I remember one time he drove one of the calves to death. Just chased it down. It’s a wonder he could keep up with it. He got mad at it ‘cause it broke in the cornfield; and he went and killed the calf. He got so mad he just drove that darn calf to death.”
Leonard Thoreson remembers a time when he was over visiting his pal Charlie (Junior), on a very cold winter day. Charlie (Senior) was trying to water the cattle. “The cattle didn’t want to go down to the trough, it was so cold. Charlie got mad, and he hit one with a shovel. He broke her horn off. It scared the hell out of me, I remember that. And I went home. I remember it was a stormy, cold day. I think Charlie had even shoveled a path down there so they could get down. If you felt that water, it would freeze on you. No cattle would drink it. It was blowing that day! I took my coat up over my head and I went [home] over the hill!”
