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A History of Dunham Lake: Part 3

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After The Pioneers

By Carolyn Richards

As you all remember, our previous narrations of the history described the earliest days at the lake, through settlement in the nineteenth century up to 20^th century. This section will take you through the combining of properties, the establishment of the bird sanctuary, and the woods, especially on the eastside.

Terry Gannon

 After The Pioneers

         Between 1830 and 1860, our country experienced rapid growth, and many new states were admitted to the union. In this area, new families arrived, some left, the children intermarried and often inherited their parents’ land. Highland Corners (now West Highland) had a general store, a blacksmithy, a post office, and an assemblage of families. Hartland was a bustling town with three general stores, a hotel, harness shop, grist mill, and saloon, and carriage makers, cooper (barrel maker), and cobblers. The area farmers raised corn, wheat, buckwheat, oats, and horses, sheep, and hogs.

            In 1865, Henry Wallace and his wife Hannah Bailey bought the Carey arm on Dunham Road. The house was near the present Dunham Hills golf course entrance. They had left Ireland during the potato famine. He had been a plumber In New York City, and developed consumption (TB) from all the underground work. His doctor told him to move out West and start farming. He moved west---to Michigan!

            The Wallaces had four children: Sarah, Alexander, Hannah, and Henry Milton. Henry Milton Wallace (known as H.M.), born in 1872, didn't like farming as a little boy. He hated the smell of the barn. But he loved to feed the chickens, ducks, and geese. He got his eighth grade education in the school down the road. He spent many hours reading under a tree. H.M. loved trees and planted the apple trees that today are along the driveway to the present clubhouse.

         His dad only believed in an eighth grade education, so after that, H.M. ran away and walked to Hartland High School in town. No doubt sensing defeat, his dad said, "If you're dead set on going to high school, you might as well use the horse in the barn." And so he did. He began Michigan Normal in Ypsilanti in 1891 and taught at his former grade school for two years. H.M. then attended U of M and got his Bachelor of Law degree in 1896 and his masters in 1897. After a time in Alaska forming a gold mine corporation, he started a law practice in Grand Rapids, specializing in corporate law. He was a genius at setting up corporations. He also set up some oil and gas companies. In 1907 his mother died and H.M. moved to Detroit to practice law. In 1908 his dad died. His sister Sarah had married and moved to Cohoctah, but Alexander and Hannah had stayed home to run the farm and care for their aging parents. When his parents died, H.M. wanted no part of the farm, rejecting his portion of the estate and accepting $1 in payment.

            Hannah married that year and moved to Milford. Alexander married the following year and continued to run the farm until he developed Bright's disease and was going blind. In 1915, H. M. traded the two rooming houses he owned in Ann Arbor for the farm. Alexander ran the houses, keeping boarders there.

             It was at this point that the very unique development of our subdivision began. Henry Milton Wallace owned the farm on Dunham Road and became a key figure in preserving our pure lake and enhancing beautiful setting for the future.

        Henry Milton Wallace (H.M.) loved the Dunham Road farm where he was born and raised. He lived at the Plaza Hotel in downtown Detroit, but he became a gentleman farmer! He didn't own a car, so he hired a taxi to bring him out to his farm. He ran the farm as a hobby. It was his recreation, a place to come on weekends and in the summer and a natural setting to bring his friends.

         Being a corporate lawyer, he incorporated the farm that first year, 1915, as Lakeview Farms Company "for the conduction of general agricultural business." He formed General Supply Co. so he could buy fencing and equipment at unbelievable discounts. He formed the Lakeview Nursery so he could buy trees at low prices. He hired people to run the farm and improve the property. He got rid of the old equipment his brother Alex had held together with baling wire, and fixed up the house. He never did put a bathroom in it. That much modernization, he felt, would be sacrilegious!

          Over the next years he bought up as much of the land surrounding the lake as he could.

         He raised chickens, peacocks, ducks and domestic geese, breeding areas, and planted an orchard.

         H.M. took a special liking to one of his men, Jack, or P.L. Fordyce. He [Jack] was faithful and honest, and H.M. made him the superintendent.

         By 1921 he [H.M.] had acquired all of the land surrounding the lake except for Hair's and the north end, Stewart's at the northeast corner, Belknap's at the northwest corner, Lee's 10 acre woods (Parkway Court) and a two acre subdivision, Eureka Heights, at the south end. 

         The very important process of the joining together of various parcels of land had begun, a process setting ours apart from other area lakes. Next, H.M. would change his Lakeview Farms Company into a wildlife preserve.

            Between 1921 and 1925 however, all of these Lakeview Farms Co. land parcels, plus the Belknap property were sold to the International Migratory Bird Preserve (I.M.B.P.), an Arizona corporation formed by Wallace. Shares were sold, but the corporation never made a profit. In fact it lost a lot of money. It was still Henry Wallace's hobby.

            Why did Wallace change the ownership of his lands to this new corporation? First, the tax laws in Arizona were more favorable. Second, if there were any legal disputes, they would be tried in a federal court, not a local one. H.M. believed he would have a fairer chance at the federal level.

            Third, being a bird lover, H.M. had become a friend and admirer of the illustrious Canadian conservationist, Jack Miner. Miner was the founder of the bird sanctuary system in North America. He became the pioneer bander on this continent. He banded birds and kept a record of when and where the birds were shot and killed, thus securing authentic migratory information on seasons and routes. His lectures inspired many new sanctuaries to spring up, like the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary and the Mayo Bird Sanctuary and probably the I.M.B.P. here at our lake.

            The State Conservation Commission had the power to establish state wildlife sanctuaries on privately owned lands when the owner filed for permission. And H.M. did. The original dedication as a state game refuge was in 1923 for five years and then again in 1927 for 50 years.

            This was a busy time at our lake. H.M. hired more people to care for his retreat. His superintendent, Jack Fordyce, brought his parents up from Indiana to stay in a house near the stream on what is now Murray Hill. This also became H.M.'s retreat house and a lot of effort went into improving that home.

            Jack's brother, Russell, and his wife Rose also came. They lived in H.R. 's Dunham Road homestead. Jack and his wife Lena lived in a farm house on Dunham road near Fenton road, and for a time in the Belknap house at the northwest end of the lake where Briar Hill makes a sharp turn. Part of the chimney foundation of that house is still visible.

            A German family, the Fultons, lived in a house at the southwest end of the lake near Konas' present property on Parkway.

            Many of the old oaks were cleared out on the east side. There was a small sawmill there to cut the trees into boards. The lumber was stacked up and used for docks and buildings. Over $50,000 was spent on reforestation. The trees were purchased from Lakeview Nursery by the trainload and unloaded in Highland.

            Between 1924 and 1927 more than 40,000 trees were planted on the high east side of Dunham Lake in Oakland county. Norway, Scotch, red and Austrian pines, arbor vitae, white fir, Norway, Douglas and blue spruce. Twenty to twenty-five acres of predominantly black walnuts (from seeds from China) were planted on the east side, alternated with Scotch and red pines. Several thousand other trees, all specimens, were planted in scattered high shore line and low drainage areas.

Coming in the Winter issue: the stocking of the bird preserve, memoirs of an early resident, and discussions of Eureka Heights, Lee's Woods, and much much more. Wow! That should be enough to warm the cockles of your heart during the frosty months.