Searching collections:
NOTE: Click on any image to view it in a larger size.
Photo from postcard, published by L.L. Cook Company of Milwaukee (Postcard donated to the Archives of Michigan by Barbara Zimmeth)
Calumet Street, Lake Linden, circa 1910-1920 (Donated to the Archives of Michigan in 1991 by Janice Beebe)
Calumet Street, Lake Linden, Circa 1935. Image from postcard, originally published by L.L. Cook Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Postcard donated to the Archives of Michigan in 1991 by Barbara Zimmeth)
Today’s blog is about Lake Linden (Houghton County), Michigan. I selected Lake Linden because it is the hometown of my maternal grandmother, Viola Baril Cimini (Today is the anniversary of her 1904 birth.).
The daughter of French Catholic immigrants from Canada, Viola migrated to Detroit, met my grandfather on Belle Isle, married, gave birth to my mother (her only child) in 1925 and built a home on the east side of the city (c 1927). That home always included extended family – from Detroit, up North, or Italy. During the Depression, Grandma became a career woman and continued to work until she was sixty-five. She loved the movies, especially if the star was Errol Flynn. She never learned how to drive and took bus vacations out West. Grandma always impressed me as someone who looked ahead, not behind. So I know very little about her Lake Linden years. However, thanks to my mother, postcard images of that village, collected by my grandmother, became part of our Main Streets Collection. We are currently digitizing images from that collection.
Calumet Street, Lake Linden, circa 1935. Image from postcard, originally published by L.L. Cook Co. of Milwaukee, WI. Postcard donated to the Archives of Michigan in 1991 by Barbara Zimmeth)
Lake Linden, which is located at the head of Torch Lake , gets its name from the linden trees surrounding that lake and lining community streets. When the area was first settled (1851), it was known as Torch Lake. In 1867, the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company encouraged community growth by establishing a stamping plant to process copper ore. The area post office, known as Linden Lake, was established in 1868. The village itself was organized in 1868, but not incorporated until 1885. By 1882, Linden Lake transposed to Lake Linden.
On May 20th, 1887, a devastating fire, that started in a building located on Calumet and First Streets, destroyed seventy-five percent of the village. After the fire, the village council established a fire code that required buildings within certain limits to be constructed of either brick or stone and covered with metal, gravel, or slate. A portion of the rebuilt Lake Linden became part of the United States National Register of Historic Places on July 16, 2009.
There is an engine in Greenfield Village called the Torch Lake, from the Calumet and Hecla Company!
As a native of Lake Linden, now living in the Detroit area, your article and postcard collection brought fond memories to mind for me. I recognize those street scenes as little has changed on Calumet Avenue since those pictures were taken. I trust I graduated from high school and grew-up with several of your Baril relatives!
My grandfather, Peter Lequyea (Lecuyer) was born in Lake Linden in 1879 and lived there until 1905. He and his brother, Cyrille, worked as Copper Washers in the stamping plant before he left. He worked aboard the ship Angeline from 1905 to 1907, went to Ashtabula, married Anna Louise King in 1907, moved to Cleveland, opened a restaurant, kept it running until about 1935. Worked as a head waiter after that. Visited Lake Linden and other places in MI in 1946 with his wife, Anna, my father Tellys Peter Lequyea and my Mother Ruth Kinat Lequyea.
He went to Florida in 1947 or 1948 to build a retirement home for my grandmother. Apr 1950, he had a heart attack and died.
I have pictures of him on the Lake LInden baseball team and of his graduation from St Joseph’s school, if you’re interested. I do wish I could find pictures of has father Joseph Lecuyer and his mother Julia (Julienne) Beauchamp Lecuyer.
Hi Dennis,
I’d be interested in seeing the photos of your grandfather. I too had relatives, last name Bissonette born around 1879 in Lake Linden and I’m always curious to see photos from that time period. Thanks.
John Mills, did your family live on Tunnel Strret? I knew the sweetest little couple there in the late 60’s. I can’t remember their first names.
How nice. Loved to see the old postcards. We never saw Lake Linden in winter!
My grandfather Joseph Laroche worked for Hecla Stamping mill for 50 years. I Spent many 4th of July at my grandfather home 1 block from city hall where they rang a bell every noon the week of the 4 th and all the kids would come running and get a ticket worth 50 cents good for spending at local Lake Linden merchants. Loved the 4th of July main street parade and all the events they had on the fourth back in the 50’s. They had nice teen dances at night on 2 nd floor of city hall or firehouse on Main st. How times have changed from the good old 50 and early 60’s.
We always say that maybe gramps and my uncle and father{at the corner } in the shot w the horses and wagon..They lived up the hill.Annd ,Grandma thought those were village horses for the rubbish patrol.
My grandmother was born in 1896 in Lake Linden and her last name was Bissonette. I am currently researching the area.