This continues a series adapted from the book, “A Port Oneida Collection,” Volume 1 of the two-part 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 a look at the Goffar Farm, along M-22 on Lake Narada.
After the original owners of the Goffar Farm sold it and moved to Traverse City, the farm was purchased by Julius Prause, who owned a farm a short way north, along the shore of Shell Lake. Exactly who among that family lived where, and when, is unclear. Julius and his wife Barbara had 11 children who came of age during this time, so there are a lot of possibilities.
By 1912 it was Julius’ son Albert and his wife Ida who owned the Lake Narada farm. Ida was from the large Dechow family, and in 1919 they sold the place to her sister Olive and Olive’s husband Milton Manney. (Albert & Ida then purchased the two farms across the lake, as described in Chapter 23.)
Olive Manney and her family are depicted in the reminiscences of Dechow family historian Don Dechow: “Aunt Olive was born in 1889 in the new frame house on the plateau (at the Dechow Farm on School Lake). She was the last of the children of John and Ellanora, and perhaps the only child that had no child-caring chores . . . Olive told about how she and her sister Sophia shared the two little bedrooms over the kitchen, while her mother kept quilt-making supplies in the big room adjoining, including “down” from the ducks. One of their tasks was stripping “down” from the feathers to have it ready for pillows and quilts and comforters ...
“(After finishing high school) Olive went to Chicago where she roomed with her older sister May, who had a large home on the west side of Chicago in the Oak Park area. She worked for Montgomery Ward and Co. Another person roomed with Aunt May then. Milton Claire Manney was a handsome, intelligent, bright young electrical engineer who had a degree from Drexel University of Pennsylvania. He worked for the Northwestern Railroad. These young persons met there and they must have fallen in love since they married in the Congregational Parsonage in Oak Park on October 14, 1912. A son, Milton Veon was born in 1914.
“Aunt Olive was expecting a second child and she had young Milton to care for. She came to Leelanau County, where daughter Ardis was born. Northwestern Railroad officials wanted to send promising young Milton to Brazil to “map out” and develop a railroad system there. He refused the offer and came north to be with his wife and family. His training and education allowed him to become one of the leading educators in Leelanau County for many, many years.
“During the late teen years of the 1900’s the Manney family purchased the big Julius Prause home on M22 [what we know as the Goffar Farm] . . . Aunt Ida and Uncle Albert were living in the Kirchert place on the other side of the little lake that divided the properties. The lake was landlocked between the two properties. These two homes were about 1/2 mile apart. A dispute arose about the ownership of the lake and a civil suit was filed. This created hard feelings in these families as well as in other related families. I do not know how the suit was settled. Relationships, once bruised, healed rapidly, and eventually the families were closer than ever. . .
“Uncle Milton used his broad talents in the classrooms of the area and roomed out, returning to his family home on weekends . . . In 1937 Milton and his family moved back to Cleveland Township and he became Superintendent of the Glen Arbor school system, where he remained until the late 1940’s. He was also the athletic coach and had fine, competitive basketball teams . . .”
To be continued . . .
