Margie Thompson Silven is a 2nd cousin, twice removed of mine. The following was taken from the book "Flory History" and is a transcription of her experiences as told by Margie in 1979 at age 88 years of age. Some of the more personal family information has been removed. Claude Flory I was born in Chief Lake, Michigan. Chief Lake was not large enought to be called a town. There was a general store, blacksmith's ship and a post office. The storekeeper traded goods for butter and eggs. Manistee was about 18 miles away. The folks around Chief Lake sold butter, eggs and honey in Manistee in the summer. I understand that Manistee is now a city. Ludington was a resort place. Every summer several hundred vacationers would show up at Epwort Heights in Ludington. Each family had a cabin, and the business people loved these summer visitors. Chief Lake was a farming center. There was also a little bit of logging. Tannersville was a town five miles from Chief Lake, and that is where we went to school. In the winter time we could go to school on the hard crust which formed on top of the snow. There was a big sawmill in Tannerville. It was called the Keyser Mill. The school was of the one room variety with about 40 children of all different ages taught! by one teacher. About 500 Finnish people moved to Chief Lake and bought land. We went to visit many of the Finns. They invited us all the time, because they were very anxious to learn English. We received a lot of invitations. The Finns had their own town, named Keleva. It is still on the map, as is Manistee. Our farm was three miles from Chief Lake and eight from Kaleva. When I was nine years old we moved to Manistee. Jerome had married and he took the farm over. He was my brother. Jerome was the last one to live on the farm. My brother Frank was the first one to go to the far west. He went to Orting, near Puyallup, Washington, then Alex went next. I told you about the general store in Chief Lake, well, I remember the name of the store keeper. It was Moen, his wife always wore a sailor's hat, and every one said, it was because she had horns, and did not want anyone to see them. My grandmother was Julia Grime Fleury. I believe she was about 14 years old when! she came from France. She used to visit us and stay three months of the year. She, like other visitors, would get off the train right at our house. Grandmother was stylish and always had the latest in clothes. She had a very small waist line and was very proud of it. My brother Frank would help her tightly lace and button her into her clothes, and because that made her waist look even smaller. She smoked a pipe, and men loved to talk with her, I guess she was a pretty good conversationalist. Grandmother always had money. Her folks brought it from France. Her parents bought a farm in the United States as soon as they arrived, and paid cash for it.

Am a McCary and Weaver surname descendant who helped settle Brown Township starting in1869 when they arrived from Williamsburg area of Dundas County, Ontario. Many times have walked to Chief and the Lake. Enjoyed your description and history of this ghost villiage of long ago. Chief was about two miles north and one-half mile west of the Robert A. McCary 40 acre farm on Archer Rd. section 11, Brown TWP. This is what Info: I have. "CHIEF LAKE: a village in Brown Township with a post office since 20 December 1881, when Jacob Laisey became it's first Postmaster. Its station on the M. and N.E. Railroad was named Chief Lake; the village is 1/2 mile east. 1910 population 100. Railroad name 'Chief'. 1917 pop. 170. E. McCurdy, Postmaster; E.L. Reynolds station agent. Had 2 blacksmith shops; 2 general stores; meat market; millinery shop; hotel and livery; creamery; dairy store; pickle station; 2 sawmills; confectionery; feed and cider mill. Ed Kinny was listed as a "Dentist and Oculist". Info: from a book in the Library in City of Manistee. Doug Spencer - 'The Family Digger' ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ----- Original Message ----- From: "CLAUDE FLORY" <claudeflory@sbcglobal.net> To: <MIMANIST-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 3:37 PM Subject: [[MIMANIST]] Experiences of Margie Thompson Silven > Margie Thompson Silven is a 2nd cousin, twice removed of mine. The following was taken from the book "Flory History" and is a transcription of her experiences as told by Margie in 1979 at age 88 years of age. Some of the more personal family information has been removed. > Claude Flory > > I was born in Chief Lake, Michigan. Chief Lake was not large enought to be called a town. There was a general store, blacksmith's ship and a post office. The storekeeper traded goods for butter and eggs. Manistee was about 18 miles away. The folks around Chief Lake sold butter, eggs and honey in Manistee in the summer. I understand that Manistee is now a city. Ludington was a resort place. Every summer several hundred vacationers would show up at Epwort Heights in Ludington. Each family had a cabin, and the business people loved these summer visitors. Chief Lake was a farming center. There was also a little bit of logging. Tannersville was a town five miles from Chief Lake, and that is where we went to school. In the winter time we could go to school on the hard crust which formed on top of the snow. There was a big sawmill in Tannerville. It was called the Keyser Mill. The school was of the one room variety with about 40 children of all different ages taught! > by one teacher. About 500 Finnish people moved to Chief Lake and bought land. We went to visit many of the Finns. They invited us all the time, because they were very anxious to learn English. We received a lot of invitations. The Finns had their own town, named Keleva. It is still on the map, as is Manistee. Our farm was three miles from Chief Lake and eight from Kaleva. When I was nine years old we moved to Manistee. Jerome had married and he took the farm over. He was my brother. Jerome was the last one to live on the farm. My brother Frank was the first one to go to the far west. He went to Orting, near Puyallup, Washington, then Alex went next. I told you about the general store in Chief Lake, well, I remember the name of the store keeper. It was Moen, his wife always wore a sailor's hat, and every one said, it was because she had horns, and did not want anyone to see them. My grandmother was Julia Grime Fleury. I believe she was about 14 years old when! > she came from France. She used to visit us and stay three months of the year. She, like other visitors, would get off the train right at our house. Grandmother was stylish and always had the latest in clothes. She had a very small waist line and was very proud of it. My brother Frank would help her tightly lace and button her into her clothes, and because that made her waist look even smaller. She smoked a pipe, and men loved to talk with her, I guess she was a pretty good conversationalist. Grandmother always had money. Her folks brought it from France. Her parents bought a farm in the United States as soon as they arrived, and paid cash for it. > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > > >