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The Douglas Family

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Thomas Edgar (T. E.) Douglas was born and raised in Canada. He later moved to Saginaw, Michigan, where he worked for his uncle as a bookkeeper in the lumber mill. In 1891, T. E. Douglas married Martha Husted of West Branch. They lived in West Branch for two years and moved to Grayling in 1893, where T. E. was manager of the R. Hansen Lumber Company. Their two children, Margaret and Edgar, were born in Grayling.

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Around 1898, T. E. Douglas built the saw mill and store (which had living quarters attached) in Lovells. His father and mother, Joseph and Charlotte Douglas, moved to Lovells from Canada about this time. Joseph managed the mill for T. E. and Charlotte ran the store. This store/home burned around 1902 and they rebuilt in 1903. In addition to the mill, there was also a blacksmith shop (the mill had about 12 teams of horses). T. E. also kept from eight to ten milk cows which furnished milk for the hotel, as well as the store.​​

T.E. Douglas
T.E. Douglas & Margaret
Martha Douglas
Martha
Margaret

The store carried groceries, meat (from Chicago), shoes, clothing (mostly for men), and hats. Margaret remembers what a good time they had when the hat box would come in. The mill generated electricity for the hotel, as well as for the mill. The mill at Lovells burned twice and each time T. E. rebuilt. At times there would be as many as 100 men employed, those at the mill, plus those working in the camps.

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Around 1908, T. E. and Martha Douglas and their children, Margaret and Edgar, moved to Lovells. They moved into the store/home and T. E. built a house for Joseph and Charlotte next door (house where Jim Douglas lived). It was said of Joseph Douglas - you could number his friends as everyone who had ever met him, He was known as an honorable and respected businessman.

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A passenger train ran once a day from Grayling to Lewiston. Margaret recalls when she was about 8 years old that every Saturday morning she and Martha Stillwagon would take the train to Lewiston for a music lesson. They would go to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bowman (Pete Bowman worked in the mill and Mrs. Bowman helped cook at the mill boarding house). Mrs. Bowman's sister would come in from the country to give the girls their lesson. They would catch the train back to Lovells around noon. One day a week this train would take the spur to Johannesburg instead of to Lewiston. You con still see the old railroad bed along F-97 going to Johannesburg.

Margaret and Edgar attended school in Lovells through the 8th grade. Children at that time had to go to Grayling to take an exam to receive a passing cer­tificate. Margaret recalls that she was so nervous when she went for this exam that she spilled a bottle of ink on her dress. The superintendent, Mr. Smith, who was a friend of her father, tried to calm her down and told her not to worry, that the ink would come out.

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Margaret went to West Branch for her four years of high school. She stayed with her grandparents and aunt, Margueritte Husted, who was teaching in the public school at that time. To finish her education, Margaret attended Olivet College for one term, but had to return home when Edgar became critically ill with a ruptured appendix. She then transferred to the college at Ypsilanti and completed the two year course required to receive her elementary life­ teaching certificate. She later received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Ypsilanti.

Edgar finished his four years of high school in Gray­ling, where he boarded with the Regan family. He later attended the University of Michigan.

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When the hotel was being built in 1916, Margaret recalls that she would go to stay with her Grandma Husted in West Branch; staying two or three weeks at a time. When she got lonesome, someone would come to bring her home. When the hotel was com­pleted, it had 20 guest rooms, a large living room for guests, dining room, store, post office, plus family liv­ing quarters. Margaret recalls many times they would have well over 50 guests; they would have to put up cots in the pavilion and at times even had six cots in the attic.  Margaret remembers the beautiful mink cape that her father had made for her mother from mink trap­ped on the North Branch, some caught on the island.in front of the hotel.

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Martha Douglas
Margaret Douglas and Martha Stillwagon
Edgar Douglas

Probably no one realized at the time that T. E. Douglas would be so important to Lovells. Through his foresight, Lovells changed from a lumbering town to a haven for fishermen and hunters. Through his efforts, the hotel attracted such famous people as Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, John Horace Dodge and Charles Nash, all automotive pioneers. Other important people who were guests at the hotel were Detroit's Mayor Marx, Albert Pochelon, Detroit florist, P. F. H. Morley, Saginaw hardware merchant and George Leykauf, a German china artist. Ford, Morley, Pochelon, Nash and Leykauf all built places in the Lovells area.

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In 1916, the North Branch Outing Club (NBOC) started up with headquarters in the hotel. Ford was one of the original founders of the famous AuSable Trout and Game Club. Margaret recalls her mother telling that they used to fry as many as 500 trout on one night. They had a book where a record was kept of the number of fish fried for each party. Fishermen would bring in their catch during trout season and the hotel has a special icebox with 75 trays, each tray bearing the fisherman's name. (T. E. applied for a patent of the icebox, but someone had just had one like it patented.) At that time a person could catch 50 fish in the morning and go out in the afternoon and get another 50. T. E. had a man who made boxes for the fishermen to ship fish to friends or family back home. Margaret recalls how very hard her mother worked; she made all the bread - did all the cooking-would make 12 to 14 pies a day.

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The hotel had many unique guests, one in particular was a Dr. Grover from Columbus, Ohio, who landed the first airplane in Lovells in 1927. His son would fly Dr. Grover to Lovells for a week of fishing, returning at the end of the week to pick him up. The plane would land on the field in back of the hotel.

Edgar Douglas married Beulah Collin in 1927 and they had two sons, Tom and Jim, both born in Grayling. Edgar and Beulah lived in Lovells and Edgar managed the store.

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The club established a good relationship with the Department of Natural Resources. It was decided to feed the deer each year from December through March, if necessary. The D.N.R. helped by providing truck and driver to collect the alfalfa. Hay was brought into Lovells not only for the club but for members who wanted to feed on their own property. A route was established for the Hook & Trigger feeding: Black Hole, Pender Park, the Swamp and one spot on Lovells Road. In time, policy changed within the D.N.R. and the members had to use their own trucks to get the alfalfa. The feeding increased every year and it was apparent that healthy deer were very visible.​

Deer Feeding at the NBOC

Over the years the club has helped the D.N.R. in various ways by putting up blue bird boxes and wood duck boxes along the river. The group has tried to be helpful to the community; helping with the building of the fire hall and the baseball park. They had a part in the 1976 parade with John & Alice Campau demon­strating solar cooking with solar heat directed by a magnifying glass. When the fish hatchery in Grayling opened again, the club donated a picnic table that was made by members. The club provided a good raft, made by members, for use at Shupac Lake. After several years it was removed by the D.N.R. because it was considered dangerous.

In 1972 Abbott Walker became secretary/treasurer due to the death of Harold Richards. We have lost many dedicated members with the passing of the years.

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In 1973, the club voted to give women the opportunity to become members. It was a successful move. Many women were interested in the birds and animals, in the preservation of the wetlands and some were fisherpersons and hunters.

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This material which spans the years 1945 to 1963 and 1970 to the present day was taken strictly from the minutes of Wm. T. Miller (1945 to 1963) and Abbott Walker(l972-1990).

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