My parents, Fred and May Cady apparently bought our cottage at Linwood Beach in 1926 when I was two years old. They bought it from people named Germain who lived in Saginaw. There was a lady I met later whose married name was Tuohy who apparently was a Germain. I can remember that when we first lived here there was no Boutel Road and we always came down Cottage Grove Road to get here.
We would come out in the spring and take the shutters down. They were over every window. Then in late May or early June my mother would get some help and come out and clean the place. We would move out here right after school got out. When I was little I wouldn’t come back to Saginaw, (our home) till Labor Day. I can remember we had an outhouse as there was no water line. We did have electricity from my earliest remembrances. We had a kerosene stove and a big wood fired stove with a flat ironed top that you could cook on top of; you could also bake in it. The only heat was from a fieldstone fireplace and the cast iron stove in the kitchen.
The old original cottage was two stories with porches half way around. It would appear that the very original was added on to. There were five bedrooms upstairs. The downstairs had a kitchen, dining room and a large living room.
A wooden dock was put in every year. Some of the neighbors’ docks were quite long. There were no boat hoists and boats were anchored out past the sandbar. During Northeasters, they frequently broke loose, washing up on shore causing much havoc.
Places that I can remember that were here earliest on, were:
Wolfarth, Boutel, Wendland, Walther, Rieder, Antel, vanant lot, Johnston, Baumgarten, Blanton, Wendland, Kinane, Eyere, Dodge, Hiss, Curry, Bagwell and McCann. I also remember the Gardner Girls, Garber, Anderson, Beardsley and Weadock cottages.
One of the nice things about living at Linwood in the summer was that the neighborhood was full of friends.
The Carl Billmeier family arrived not too long after we did. They were our first neighbors to the south for many years. There was an empty weed and willow filled lot to our immediate south with a little ridge full of poison ivy on the water side. It was low and marshy towards the road. The kids were Chuck, Margie and Elyse. We have remained friends throughout our lives.
The Martin Wendland family lived a few cottages to the north and their kids were Marty and Tweeter (Andy).
We also hung out with Charles and Dutch (Ralph) Heid.
Our family consisted of: mother, May; father, Fred; sister, Geraldine, who is four years older than me; brother, Fred (Sonny), who is almost two years older than me; brother, Dean, who is six years younger than me; and brother, David (Bots), who is nine years younger than me.
As kids we always seemed to be busy. On the sunny days we played along the shore or in the sand. There wasn’t any muck. The water had a brownish color that we just accepted. It wasn’t super clear and with water up to your knees you could just see your toes. The bottom was sandy, not many stones or weeds. There seemed to be a lot of clams that moved along the bottom and you could follow their tracks. The sand was in ripples like the waves. I can remember building sand castles where you let the wet sand drip through your fingers to build fancy towers. Another favorite game was to build sand castles with roads and tunnels and let golf balls run on them by gravity.
Rainy days seemed to be spent playing cards, usually at Billmeir’s with Mrs. Billmeier (Elsie) being the director. Fish and Old Maid were great favorites.
Billmeier’s also kept a tin boat that belonged to Uncle Elmer. It was lighter than the usual wooden boat so it was easier for us to get in the water. I can remember we also had found several boats that had gotten washed up during storms.
My first sailing experiences were to row out as far as we could on strong Northeasters, put up a beach umbrella and come sailing back in. My dad had a boat called a SeaSled that had a sled-like front rather than a pointed front. It had a 12-HP mother called a Lockwood. One used a rope starting cord and people behind you had to beware of the flying end. My dad loved to go perch fishing and practically every Sunday he would go out and sit for hours catching fish. I wasn’t much of a fisherman, though.
The other Sunday morning pastime was softball, when lots of guys of all ages would play. The ball diamond was near the corner of Kobliaz and North Boutel Roads. Kobliaz was the farmer who owned that land and lived where the Hugo’s on Cottage Grove now live.
The following information provided by: Dick Weadock via facebook message
Weadock’s Linwood Park is south of Boutel.
Plat map dated August 1929, lots number from south to north.
Lots 28-31: Weadock
Lot 36: W. H. Beardslee
Lot 39: Ezra Deibel
Lots 40-41: Edward H. Knoops
Lots 42-44: Guys S. Garber
Lots 46-47: H. M. Denyes (from probate records)
Lots 30-31: Arthur Boutel 1936
Lots 32-33: Benjamin Boutel 1936
Lot 35: John Kinnane 1934
Lot 54: Edith and Helen Gardner 1940
These two old photos of the beach cottages were given to Frank Wolfarth Walsh by
Frank Starkweather in 1981.
Anyone who wishes to help identify the cottages in the above photos, please do so.
Doc Cady is a serious sailor as shown in this photo dated July, 1973. It was scanned from an Ektachrome slide.
A Kodachrome transparency dated 1972 was the original source of this photo. It was taken at the "North Channel" and was processed by Hite Photo Film Service, scanned by Rachael Walsh on a Crosley scanner to PC.
