This is a family full of stories. Esther and I will
certainly be talking more in the future.
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| Photo of cherry harvest, taken by traveling photographer |
In 1880, Esther’s grandmother Della Mae and grandfather Benjamin moved into old
lumber shack. This structure was only supposed to be temporary. Lumbermen built
quick structures and left when the trees were all cut. Grandfather Benjamin built a house which was completed in 1935. Unfortunately, Grandmother never got to live in house.
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| The lumber shack that the family lived in before the house was built. |
Four children were born live in the old lumber shack. Three boys lived, Ward, Leo, and Joe; and one little girl who died. The water came from the Betsie River,
which Esther's Grandmother had to carry up the hill. Benjamin DeLong was a preacher who sometimes left
to go to Florida twice a year (on horseback!) for revivals and left his wife
behind with the two oldest boys doing housekeeping in Lake Ann. For a couple of cents a day, Grandma survived
as a cleaning woman or washer women.
Joey was only 7 when his mother died. She didn’t live much
past 40 years old.
When Ward DeLong was only 2 years old, there was an
accident. Stumps were still on hill from lumbering. Ward was playing at the
bottom of the hill, and someone was cutting a log at the top of the hill. The
log rolled down the hill and crushed ward against a stump, crushed his head,
smashed it, and because I t was still rolling it pulled his face down on one
side. He was in a coma for over a month and had convulsions. His mother, Della Mae, did
not sleep. She did her best to give Ward nourishment, water or broth so he wouldn't
die of starvation. She called many doctors from all over the county. All the
doctors told her ward wouldn't make it, his whole head was crushed and the bone
structure was in pieces. She would try to manipulate the bones back into shape
gently every day, which would send the child into convulsions. She somehow
begged and got a doctor to come all the way down from Traverse City to see
Ward. The doctor got there, looked at the child and instantly went into a fury.
He had come all the way down for nothing.
He shook the child and kind of squished up Ward’s head and said “Look!
You had better pray that this child dies because if he lives, he will be no
better than a vegetable!!!” And he left in disgust. Grandmother spent the month
praying
Ward is the only child of the family who graduated college
(Benzonia Academy), and served in both WWI and WWII. He was a miracle!
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| Ward was playing at the bottom of this hill when the accident occured. |
The property just off Forrester Road in Benzonia was only 40 acres. The family was poor. But the farm has
stayed in the family since purchased. The house was built using dead-head
lumber drawn up from the Betsie River by Esther’s father Leo DeLong. He told her that was
the thing that made him happiest. He designed the contraption to pull up the
logs himself, and pulled up quite a lot of old sunken logs up to use for lumber
and firewood.
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| Leo DeLong and his contraption |
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| The sled all loaded to go the the mill. The children are all from a nearby school house. The house pictured behind the team is the Ehman farm. |
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| Some of the dead head lumber Mr DeLong brought up, waiting at Rice's Saw Mill, now the Merrill's mill on Grace Road |
