John Fisher came to Leelanau County from Wisconsin in 1854. He and his wife Harriet were prominent in the Glen Arbor/ Empire area and notably offered shelter to the crew of the Westmoreland that went down in the Manitou Passage.
The following is an excerpt from an article provided by the Empire Area Heritage Group published after the shipwreck. The name of the publication is unknown.
On Dec. 5, 1854, the steamer Westmoreland left her docks in Chicago with $10,000 in gold and many barrels of wine. Outside the harbor of Chicago the ship encountered three inches of new ice. She broke through without apparent damage. But in breaking through she did serious injury to her seams. The hurt was not apparent until a storm broke on the Michigan side and near the site of the present Frankfort. It was discovered that the ship was sinking.
All Hands Called
Capt. Clark was his mate, Paul Pelky, called all hands out in a desperate effort to save the ship. But the lumberjacks in the height of the storm had found access to a barrel of “high wine,” locked themselves in the cabin and processed to make merry at what proved, for them, a part in which Death sat at the head of the table.
The sailors escaped in a lifeboat and came ashore at Platte River Point. The others went, boisterously, to meet the God of Storms.
•••
The Fishers had erected a cabin, had sown and gathered one harvest on their tiny clearing in the forest only a few months before the Westmoreland sank — practically at their very door.
Haven Sought
The party of seamen who landed their lifeboat divided into two parties to seek a habitation. One group went from Otter Creek to the Betsie river without finding any sign of man. The other found mule tracks in the freshly fallen snow and followed them to the Fisher cabin.
Here, because many of them were suffering from frozen feet and hands, they stayed two weeks. Two cabin girls remained all winter. One later married a settler in the county, and has descendants living there.
“I dimly remember the arrival of the party, but I vividly recall my mother cutting up buffalo hides and making shoe packs for the men whose feet were injured,” Mr. Fisher said. “I remember the mate, Paul Pelky, telling over and over the story of the drunken lumberjacks who would not help save the ship that carried $10,000 in gold. But the details of where she sank I got later.”
It was in Escanaba that Mr. (Frank) Fisher (son of John and Harriet) rediscovered Pelky, the only man besides the captain who could make an intelligent reckoning of where the ship lay, with its golden burden on the bottom. For years the boy’s imagination had been stirred by the gold, and he sought far and wide for the man who might give a clue as to where to search.
The Mate’s Story
“Pelky told me, in a saloon in Escanaba, that the ship had followed the regular steamer lane until the discovery that water was pouring into the hold through the damaged seams and forced her to make for shore,” said Mr. Fisher as Karl W. Detzer, the novelist, and I sat beside him on the banks of the Crystal River. Mr. Detzer lives with his charming collaborator, Clarice Detzer, on the shore of Lake Leelanau, where husband and wife join in producing accurate and beautiful interpretations the half lake-faring and half-farming community.”
•••
Frank E. Fisher was the keynote speaker at the Old Settler’s Picnic on Aug. 3, 1921.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: We are now celebrating the 28th anniversary of this picnic gathering. Twenty-eight times now we met here to celebrate and build up a grand organization. So great in its purpose to renew the life-long friendship of those near and dear to us all.
These picnic gatherings serve as a great avenue to social meeting of friends. It serves to educate in many channels of prosperity. We learn from others’ experience what has cost them many hours of thought and labor. We get from our neighbor in a few words the best method of farming, fruit growing, stock raising and a general information, which getters our conditions.
The great forest crop which nature was lavish in its gift to Leelanau County is fast disappearing, which furnished a great resource to the early settlers. Now that this source of revenue resource has ceased, the farmer must rely on the production of the soil. To keep the soil production is something of great importance.
Leelanau County has the richest deposits of fertilizer of any in the state. There are 11 townships in this country, and every township has deposits of marl, which is worth millions to the soil, if taken and made use of. While a member of the board of supervisors, I recommended the purchase of the necessary machinery to lift out this marl at county expense, and let the farmer have it to build up his soil. This outfit would cost about $1,500. I recommend this instead of paying a county agent $3,500 a year. I hope the people in this country will united in bringing this about.
The government has made thorough experiments on this marl and find it is just what out soil wants. The project would double the farming products of this country. Instruct your supervisor to bring this matter to a quick conclusion.
The resort business is putting Leelanau County on the map. The asset valuation goes up with every cottage and enterprise that is built in the county. The good roads we are building will do more to advertise this resort county than anything else we can do. A proposition is being considered to put in electric machinery at the Fisher Water Power and run a wire around Glen Lake. Electricity is almost indispensable. At this stage of progression, we must keep pace in all things or drop out and let others pass us.
To the resorters who come here to spend the summer, and enjoy this clean, healthful atmosphere, we invited you to come again and bring your friends.
I will call your attention to a few improvements which have gone ahead in the last year. D.H. Day has landed a State Park at Glen Haven, and the necessary buildings are being built to meet the necessary requirements of a State Park.
Mrs. Doctor Hooper, who purchased the resort property of F.E. Fisher, has a $10,000 hotel nearly completed, with all furniture now at hand to furnish the hotel.
Mr. Ocker has moved his hotel back from the road, and added fine improvements, which makes it an attractive place … Mrs. Gregory, owner of the Gregory Hotel, has built a fine tennis court in connection with her hotel.
Dr. Fralick has been instrumental in starting a large golf grounds close to our picnic grounds, which will be a big drawing card to this country. Mr. Briant, of the Ford Auto Sales Co., Traverse City, has bought a boat air plane, and will sell air planes from now on at Traverse City. Glen Lake will make a fine landing place for the Boat Air Plane which you can expect to see in the near future.”
