A  Short Dunn H istory  by Sarah Dunn Johnson

My grandparents, John and Bridgett Dunn, came to Glen Arbor in 1857 with their eight children (Rody, Bill, Steve, James, Liza, Mary, Anne, and Winnie). John and Bridgett originally came from Ireland and through Canada before settling here. While in Ireland, John had gone to the boat to bid Bridgett farewell, which resulted in his getting on the boat and coming to Canada with her, and they were married there. They lived in Glen Arbor for about two years, and then they homesteaded the Dunn Farm in 1860 under the Northwest Ordinance Act. The farm became officially theirs in 1865 with the Presidential signature of Ulysses Grant.

The Dunns timbered the land to prepare it for farming, as the cedars were so dense, there was no knowledge of the lake for some time. They farmed across the present road 675. The horses and modest plows could work the land while today's equipment would not be able to function in the rough terrain.

The Dunns built a log house where the large crabapple tree now stands at the south end of the house. Their closest neighbors were probably as far away Dorseys to the south and Glen Arbor to the north. They also built a milk house over a creek that ran to the lake. Here they kept the milk on shelves, as it would sit, cream would rise and be used to make butter. This was refrigeration.

At this time, there were a number of Irishmen who cut wood on the hill in back of the farm. They named this Limerick Hill after the Irish Limerick. The cord wood was used to fire the steam cabin of boats that plied the lakes. It would be taken by sled to Glen Arbor and Glen Haven and sold to the boats on Lake Michigan.

There was no Catholic church in the area when Grandma and Grandpa Dunn first settled here. Two missionary priests, Father Zoren and Father Morach, would come occasionally to say mass in the different homes. The people in the area would gather in the various homes in which the priest was visiting to participate in the mass.

My grandfather always told the story of the woods around the property being so dense that a man once stopping by to borrow a saddle lost sight of the trail, and by the time he caught sight of the trail again, he had lost his horse.

The Dunn children grew up and all married. Two of the boys went to the Dakotas to live. One of them has five daughters, and they all proved up on the homestead there. The rest of the children remained in northern Michigan. James married Katherine Doran, daughter of Patrick, a wheel wright, and Sarah Doran, who also lived on a farm in the area. To this union were born three daughters, myself, Sarah, and my sisters, Margaret and Cornelia. By 1889, James and Katherine lived in a farm house in Empire township in which I was born. My father soon returned to the homestead and took charge of the farm. By this time, the log cabin was gone and part of the house now standing was built.

When we first returned to the farm, as my father told it, he looked up the hill and saw a huge bear. He called to the tenant and told him to bring the gun. The young man ran back to get the gun but stopped first to kiss his wife, and by the time he returned, the bear had taken off, nowhere to be found. (I can imagine Grandpa Dunn being madder than a hornet.)

During my father's day, the area people began an annual picnic on August 3. This was Casson Freeman's birthday, and all of the people would bring their basket picnics. This day is still celebrated on the Old Settler Picnic Grounds in Burdickville.

Mrs. Nancy Helm receives the credit for building the chapel on the Old Settler Picnic Grounds, for it was she who got people out for the building bees and fund raisers.

My sisters and I attended the local one room school house, and at the age of nine, I was sent to Chicago to school where I lived with my aunt. I was in Chicago off and on through Junior High and High School, but I always returned home for the summers. After Attending Ferris Institute, I began teaching school at age eighteen. I taught grades one through eight in the one room school in Burdickville. Of those still in the area, Harold Holden was in my classroom.

Teachers in those days who were not college graduates would begin teaching with a third grade certificate which lasted one year and would then receive a second grade certificate which lasted three years. We had to go to the county seat in Leland to be tested and receive these certifications.

We always seemed to make our own amusements. We would go to dances, horseback riding and sledding, ice skating, but my father was a good skater and often skated across the lake. During the cold winter months we would wear heavy animal skin coats made from horse-hide and bear skin.

George Johnson of Empire and I were married in 1913. George was a cigar maker at this time and we lived in Empire as our three children, James, Patricia, and Cornelius were growing up. Later George became president of the Empire State Bank, and we also returned to the Dunn Farm where my parents were still living. The farm house had been added onto and turned into a resort, and three cottages had been built on the lake. I worked with my mother and father running the resort. The present structure was completed in the late 1920's so as to accomodate the many friends and resorters who stayed here during their summer vacations. Some of the people who vacationed at the farm and eventually purchased property around the lake were the Cooks, Bridges, Schillings, and the Goodells.

When the resort began, refrigeration was furnished by means of ice boxes. Chunks of ice were cut off the lake in winter and preserved in sawdust in an icehouse to be used to fill the iceboxes in the summer.

We continued to have our own dairy products, including ice cream, eggs, chicken, meat and baked bread for the resort. We also canned our vegatables for the winter months.

The hands on the farm helped me to construct the sugar house and its present sight, and we proceeded to have our first run of maple syrup. We continued to make it for many years. We sold some of the syrup and kept what we needed for the resort.

As the children began to go away to school, George maintained his interest in politics. He had many political friends whom he supported, among which was Post Master General Summerfield who would visit George at his cottage on Lake Michigan or here at the farm with Mrs. Summerfield. I shared George's interest in the political party, and I renewed my support strongly last year as Connie Binsfield sought and won the as representative of our district.

My eldest son, James, graduated from the University of Michigan medical school and became an orthopedic surgeon in Colorado, where he continues to practice and lives with his family.

Cornelius graduated from the University of Notre Dame as a metallurgist and settled in the Chicago area with his family. He now resides in southern Michigan.

Patricia attended Michigan State College and then lived in Grand Rapids with her husband and family. They moved to Traverse city several years ago when her husband became president of the Empire National Bank.

This piece was given to me by Lyn Ryan Johnson. I do not know how she came by it or how many times it might have been retyped. Lyn told me once that Patricia was running the resort but I have not had contact with anyone there and do not know the present status.