In recent months [in the Summer of 2017], the land at the north end of Lake Arcadia was cleared to prepare the grounds for the planned Swan Resort. Excavation revealed old pipes, rails, and other artifacts reminding us of the long history of that site.

Its Story Began with Sam Gilbert

In the 1860s when Sam Gilbert explored the area, he drew a map showing 40-50 acre Indian farms along the northeastern shore of what would be Lake Arcadia, but nothing yet along the northern shore. That land was part of the area he simply called “good land.”

Sam Gilbert's Arcadia Sketch
This is a closeup view of Sam Gilbert’s map that shows the portion of what would become Lake Arcadia, which he called Bass Lake. Click here to see his entire map.
-- Arcadia Area Historical Society

 
Early Arcadia Area Pioneer Sam Gilbert
-- Arcadia Area Historical Society

Next Came Henry Starke

When marine contractor Henry Starke arrived in the 1870s, he saw the potential for millions of board feet of lumber, a small lake that could hold logs, and, with a channel through the narrow sand bar separating the lake from Lake Michigan, a safe harbor he could use for shipping his timber products to other settlements along the Lake Michigan shore. So he bought timber land and land in the area originally known as Starkieville. In 1880, he cleared the site at the north end of the lake and built a large sawmill.

The Starke Land & Lumber Company (SL&LCo) used a narrow gauge railway to haul logs to the mill. It initially ran north from the sawmill and then east along what is Oak Street today, across what is M-22 today, and into forest land farther east. The railway’s route changed as needed to reach new stands of timber. Eventually it would use four trestles to cross deep ravines on its way to a settlement called Malcolm. 

The Starke Sawmill
This is the view north from Lake Arcadia circa 1890 showing the sawmill for the Starke Land & Lumber Company.
-- Arcadia Area Historical Society

Large trestles are costly to maintain, and the narrow gauge’s steep route east limited the railway to going uphill empty and coming back downhill carrying logs on a scary ride. In 1893, the conversion to standard gauge rails began, and a new flatter route was selected to avoid the need for expensive trestles and provide many more stops along the way to add farm produce and passengers to the railway’s mix of transported products. This new route with standard gauge rails and equipment became the Arcadia & Betsey River Railway (A&BRR).

Making Furniture

Like many other lumbering towns, by the early 1900s, the SL&LCo was running out of trees. In 1906 when the sawmill burned down for at least the second time, the board decided to “sell it all:” the remainder of the buildings, equipment, timber land, everything. They sent a Mr. Donat out to find a buyer, but he met with representatives from the Fox & Mason Furniture Company, who convinced him and eventually the SL&LCo board to go into the furniture business instead. The Arcadia Furniture Company was born. They cleared the site at the north end of Lake Arcadia and built the company’s furniture factory. 

The Arcadia Furniture Company’s factory was a large facility with the three-story factory building, a mirror works, and eleven other structures covering the entire site and part of the area east of what is Lake Street today. Back then Lake Street ended at the sprawling furniture factory. 

Returning with a Load of Logs
This is the narrow gauge train on one of several large trestles returning to the sawmill with a load of logs. 
-- Arcadia Area Historical Society

The factory employed many Arcadians for nearly half a century before closing in 1953. The main factory building was used for a while after that as a turkey factory, but that too burned down in the late 1950s killing thousands of turkeys. More recently, the site was used as a campground, and the former Mirror and Glass Works building was used to provide shower and restroom facilities for campers.

The Furniture Factory
This is the factory for the Arcadia Furniture Company. It is on the same site as the old Starke Land & Lumber Company sawmill. Note the water tower behind the main building.
-- Arcadia Area Historical Society

 

Another View of the Furniture Factory
This is a ground level view of the furniture factory looking across the north end of Lake Arcadia. You can see farmland in the foreground about where Sam Gilbert saw it much earlier in his travels.
-- Arcadia Area Historical Society

So what can we learn from the site today? 

A few years ago if you looked closely, you might still have found a concrete block from the demolished Mirror Works. Like a number of other buildings in Arcadia, each block had a characteristic appearance based on the fact that each was made using the same kind of Sears & Roebuck block making machine. According to their catalog, “…one man could make from 100 to 150 perfect blocks per day…” 

Excavation of the site revealed buried standard gauge rail. The A&BRR had a station at the northeast corner of the factory with sidings and an engine house nearby. The rails ran from the factory showroom south along the northeast corner of Lake Arcadia before heading east out of town through the swamp. 

But what happened to the older narrow gauge rail? One answer: rebar! The furniture factory had a water tower sitting on four huge concrete blocks. When the blocks were crushed, narrow gauge rail was found inside being used as rebar to strengthen the blocks!

We can’t wait to see what else is uncovered at sites around the Arcadia area.

Water Tower Supports
This is a personal photo from 2000 when the water tower supports were still visible. When the supports were removed to make way for new construction, narrow gauge rail was found being used as rebar.

When people hear “Arcadia Days,” they think of the annual three-day Arcadia Daze festival with music, food, beer, arts & crafts, an auto muster, a parade, and more. Arcadia Daze is a community-wide entertainment event that also serves as a homecoming and fundraiser for several groups in town.

Arcadia Days in 1918 was very different from today’s Arcadia Daze. Back then Arcadia Days was an educational event held on a Thursday and Friday in April primarily at the Arcadia High School. An article in the Manistee News Advocate dated April 6, 1918 described the event as a “farmers’ convention” with local speakers and experts from Manistee and Michigan Agricultural College (M.A.C), now known as Michigan State University.

Arcadia Days included lectures on agriculture, citizenship, and self-improvement. Music by the school band and the glee club, readings, and flag drills provided breaks between lectures. Cash prizes were given for the best examples of schoolwork, farm produce, and food. Except for the cash prizes, which were small by today’s standards, the program was free to the community as it was part of the M.A.C. extension service offered many times throughout the state.

The topics and awards give us a glimpse into the issues and attitudes in America during WWI, when rationing was necessary and patriotism was at a peak. Home economics subjects taught nearby at the Methodist Church included “War Bread” and “Meat Substitutes.” A student could win 50 cents for the best penmanship or the best composition on “Doing Our Bit.” A dollar was the prize for the “Best Prepared Substitute for Mixed Wheat Flour.”

Program Agenda

Program Cover
for Arcadia Days 1918
This is a four-page document identifying the topics, schedule, and speakers involved in the event.
-- Program courtesy of the Arcadia Area Historical Museum

Program Page 2: Day 1
Note the mix of lectures with musical interludes and readings.

What we know about the speakers:  E. M. Gerred was the county school commissioner. Henry Mauntler was on the Arcadia school board. Frank Sandhammer was the county agricultural agent. G. H. Coons of Arcadia was a plant disease expert. The rest were probably local except for Dr. A. F. Hess of Manistee.

Not listed in the agenda was the "food conversation exposition" given at the Methodist church by Miss Cora Evans of M.A.C. Extension. As described in the Manistee News Advocate from April 6, 1918, "The school program consists of the actual mixing and cooking of war foods before the audience while the demonstrator explains every process."

Program Page 3: Day 2
The program continued with much the same format as day 1. That included more presentations and lectures on agriculture, self improvement, and Red Cross work along with a flag drill. On Friday evening, cash prizes were presented for a variety of academic and 4H-style categories.

 Prizes Awarded

 



Program Page 4: Awards
After two days of lectures and presentations, cash prizes were awarded in three divisions: School Contests, Farm, and Home. Most prizes were less than $1. The top prize was $2.50 for the student with the best rural school exhibit. Note the topics of interest in 1918 when WWI was still raging: a composition on "Doing Our Bit," "War Bread," and finding substitutes for wheat flour and meat.

After the awards were given, entries in the Home Division were sold to the highest bidder.

Henry Mauntler, a seventeen-year-old immigrant from Germany, was a witness to and participant in key events in the early history of Arcadia. Telling Henry Mauntler’s story tells much of Arcadia’s story.

Henry Comes to America

Heinrich Friedrich Mauntler was born in northwest Germany on November 23, 1850. He was the seventh of nine siblings, at least five of whom died as young children.

On July 3, 1868, seventeen-year-old Henry Mauntler arrived in America. He left Bremen, Germany on a ship called the Republik bound for New York traveling with his aunt Maria Engel Mauntler Eggert, her husband, and their three younger children.

Henry Mauntler and the Eggert family went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Eggerts eventually opened a furniture store there. We don’t know what Henry did in Milwaukee early on, but according to the 1880 US Census, Henry made a living as a liquor salesman, and we do know he was active in the church and sang in the choir. 

On September 28, 1873, Henry married Maria Engel Behrens. While in Milwaukee, they had four children: Anna and Alfred, who died very young; Frieda; and Amanda. In 1881, Henry, wife Maria, Frieda, and Amanda moved to Arcadia, Michigan, where Henry started working for the Starke Land and Lumber Company. In Arcadia, the Mauntlers had two more children: Hulda and Ida.

Henry Helped Start the Lutheran Church

The German settlers who arrived in Arcadia were firmly resolved to form a Lutheran congregation, and on the December 25, 1881, the congregation was formally organized under the name "The evangelical Lutheran congregation of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession in the town of Arcadia, Manistee County, Michigan."

The church’s constitution was adopted and signed by the following members: Henry Starke, Henry Mauntler, Theodore Ebert, L. Worch, J. Gerndt, W. Vosz, H. Lindenschmidt, A. Joppi, E. Bohms, and F. Bohms. The first officers were President Henry Mauntler, Treasurer Theodore Ebert, Secretary H. Lindenschmidt, and Elders J. Gerndt and L. Worch.

Initially this congregation had no pastor, so members of the congregation read prepared sermons and scripture lessons on Sunday mornings and special church festivals. Until 1888, services were conducted in various homes and buildings including the log cabin near the Starke home, the upper rooms of the Company Store, which Henry Mauntler managed, and the public school.

Henry Managed the Starke Stores

In the spring of 1866, Henry Starke made his first purchase of timber land, and by 1883 he owned a large sawmill and around 2,000 acres in northern Manistee county. In Arcadia he built a large, beautiful home on 1st Street and used the basement as a grocery store primarily for his workers. Henry Mauntler managed that store.

In 1893, Henry Starke incorporated the Henry Starke Land and Lumber Company. The original stockholders included Henry Starke, Maria Starke, Theodore Ebert, Charles Starke, Henry Mauntler, Adolph Hasse, and John Weldt.

Under Henry Mauntler’s management, Henry Starke’s basement store grew into a large general store at the west end of Lake Street. This Company Store as it was called handled merchandise from clothing, hardware, and building materials to produce and groceries. The 1887-1888 Gazetteer also lists Henry Mauntler as an insurance salesman. The store included the town’s post office and the express office for the Arcadia and Betsie River Railway. 

Henry Starke’s home on First Street in Arcadia
On the lower left corner of the photo, note the stairway to the basement where the store was. Henry Mauntler managed this store.
– Arcadia 1880-1980

The Henry Mauntler & Company General Merchandise Store

In 1906, after the sawmill and basket factory burned, the Starke Land and Lumber Company began to sell their remaining assets. Henry Mauntler and Henry Behrens, Sr. bought the store. The store still included the post office, and Henry Mauntler became the official postmaster from December 26, 1906 to December 10, 1918, when he was replaced by William H. Ebert.

Henry Was on the Board of the Arcadia Furniture Company

In 1906, after the Starke Land & Lumber Co. sawmill burned, instead of selling all their assets, the board of the Starke Land & Lumber Company decided to go into the furniture business with the Fox & Mason Furniture Company. The Arcadia Furniture Company was born. 

The Company Store 
At the west end of Lake Street was the Company store. After 1906, the store became Henry Mauntler & Co, Dealers in General Merchandise.
– AAHS Collection

Ad for Henry Mauntler’s store 
– Arcadia 1880-1980

The 1908 catalog listed the officers and directors of the new company. Henry Mauntler was President, although his name was misspelled “Mountler”.

Henry Was on the Arcadia School Board

In 1909, the Arcadia school board consisted of Dean Hull, Henry Mauntler, and Luther L. Finch. According to Arcadia the Beautiful: Diamond Jubilee: 1880-1955, “Much credit is due these men for their foresight in looking forward to the needs of the community.”

The Arcadia school district had four country schools. When the population in Burnham declined, the Burnham school was moved to 4th and Division in Arcadia next to the Arcadia school, and together they became known as the Twin Schools. With increasing enrollment and the need for higher education, the board decided to build a school that would support grades 1-12. So, in 1910, the school board arranged to move the Twin Schools and begin construction of the Arcadia High School.

The Factory for the Arcadia Furniture Company
This is a view east from the back of the factory. Note the Lutheran Church in the background. 
– AAHS Collection

Henry’s Later Years

According to the 1910 US Census, Henry was a naturalized citizen who could speak, read, and write English. Earlier census forms we found did not capture this information, so we don’t know when he became a citizen officially.

Late in his life Henry Mauntler became the president of the Arcadia State Savings bank. Harvey Grund, known to many as the manager of the Grund sawmill, was his clerk and would become president after Henry’s death.

The Arcadia High School at 4th and Division
Henry Mauntler was a member of the school board when this school was built and Arcadia could support grades 1-12. 
– AAHS Collection

On December 7, 1921 at the age of 71, Henry Mauntler died from diabetes mellitus and pneumonia. He had come a long way from a village in northwest Germany, and now he was singing with the angels.

The Arcadia State Savings Bank and Martineau Drug Store
The bank is the building on the left. 
– AAHS Collection

In August of 2010, local historian Bonnie Hughes conducted a cemetery tour at Conway Cemetery just south of Arcadia, Michigan. As she approached headstones for the Argue family her mood grew somber, and she said "This is a very tragic story. ... Arcadia was being ravaged by the Spanish Flu in 1918. Maybe you all heard about it. These people were living down near Pierport, the Argue family." Neighbors who had not seen the family for a while became concerned. Bonnie continued, “They noticed an odd smell by the house, so somebody went in and checked." The entire family of two adults and ten children "were so sick they couldn't get up to get help, and of course there were no telephones in those days."

The story evolved over the years, but here are the details we can piece together from death certificates, US census data, and what we know today about the disease and its impact specifically on one local family.

The 1918 Pandemic

The Spanish Flu outbreak began in 1917, but the peak occurred in the second wave in 1918, when the flu mutated into a much more virulent form in military camps. When soldiers traveled to other camps or returned home, they spread the disease. An estimated 500 million people were infected worldwide, and 50 million died including 650,000 in the US. Just in October 1918 an estimated 195,000 Americans died, at least 418 in tiny Manistee and Benzie Counties. More people died from the Spanish Flu than from combat in World War I!

Symptoms of this scary disease first appeared as a common cold that grew more and more debilitating.

• Stuffy nose
• Sore throat
• Headaches and body aches
• Fever
• Cough
• Pneumonia
• Gasping for air
• Hemorrhaging from the nose, eyes, and ears
• Blue or black skin resulting from oxygen deprivation

An autopsy would reveal heart and lungs double the normal size. The lungs were filled with a bloody, frothy fluid. Victims of the disease drowned in fluid-filled lungs.

In mid-October of 1918, Michigan's State Board of Health ordered the closing of all churches and "places of public amusement." Schools were not included in the order, but most closed anyway. Some buildings such as cold-storage plants and schools were converted for other uses, for example, as temporary morgues. Bonnie said, "They laid them out at Pierport School."

People were warned about the dangers of coughing and sneezing. They were encouraged to avoid crowds and unsafe practices, wear masks in public, and stay home if they got sick. (Sound familiar?) People often wore small bags of camphor to try to ward off the disease.

1918 Influenza Warning Poster
“Do not spit on the floor or sidewalk.” Was that so common that people had to be told not to do it?
-- Courtesy of the US Public Health Service

Arcadia’s Doc Jamieson Cared for the Argue Family

Many nurses and doctors had been drafted for WWI, so there was a shortage of medical professionals. Arcadia was fortunate to have Doc Jamieson. He served as a doctor, surgeon, pharmacist, dentist, and psychologist. A medical journal referred to him as Manistee County's “Grand Old Man of Medicine.”

Doc Jamieson traveled all over the area in a carriage pulled by his trusted horse named Dan. Doc’s daughters said Dan learned his way around the area so well that, and at the end of a long day when the Doc fell asleep in his carriage, he knew Dan would take him home back to the barn.

Doc Jamieson cared for the Argue family and many more in the area, and even though there was little 1918 medicine could do, to his credit Thomas Argue (1874-1923), Melissa Fenwick Argue (1878-1922), and six of their ten children survived the pandemic.

We do not know exactly what Doc Jamieson did to treat people who had the Spanish Flu, but there were no antibiotics, flu vaccines, or respirators he could use. Doctors monitored temperature and general physical condition. Typically, patients were encouraged to stay propped up in bed to avoid choking. They gargled with salt water, used throat sprays, and took aspirin. They used cold compresses to try to reduce fever. They often used home remedies. Some doctors tried injecting patients with blood plasma from patients who had recovered, called “convalescent plasma,” with mixed results. Some tried using quinine for the fever, which did not work. No one really knew how to fight the virus itself or that the disease was even caused by a virus.

Four of Ten Argue Children Die

On October 20, 1918 at 11 pm, 16-year-old daughter Carrie Argue died of Spanish Influenza and Bronchial Pneumonia. The death certificate signed by Doc Jamieson says he attended to Carrie from October 13 until her death. An undertaker named J. Maire attested that she was buried barely two days later on October 22.

On October 23 at 1:30 am, just over two days after Carrie died, her 8-year-old sister Donnis Argue died the same way. Doc Jamieson had been attending to her since the 14th, but she too succumbed to Spanish Influenza and Bronchial Pneumonia. She was buried the next day, October 24.

Three days later the flu struck the family again. On October 26 at 8:20 pm, their 18-year-old sister Matilda Argue died of Spanish Influenza and Bronchial Pneumonia. She was buried the next day, October 27.

Four days after Matilda died, sister Vida died. On October 30 at 9:15 pm, 20-year-old Vida Argue, Thomas and Melissa Argue's first born, succumbed to Spanish Influenza with Bronchial Pneumonia. She was buried the next day, October 31.

In just ten days, Thomas and Melissa Argue lost four of their children.

Life Goes On

The rest of the family -- mother, father, and six children -- survived the pandemic of 1918. The influenza outbreak in the US was essentially over by the summer of 1919. Communities reopened. On November 9, 1919, Melissa Argue gave birth to son Arthur Earl Argue.

Carrie Argue's death certificate.
The other sisters’ death certificates specified Pierport for the village where the death occurred. Note the names of the father and mother shown asitems 10 and 12. Thos Argue and Matilda Crawford Argue were Carrie’s grandparents. Were they filling in for Melissa and Thomas who were still too sick or mournful to handle this?
--Courtesy of Ancestry.com

The Daughters' Cemetery Markers
-- Personal photos taken at Conway Cemetery near Arcadia, Michigan

Donnis' Death Certificate

Matilda's Death Certificate

Vida's Death Certifiate