The Historical Society of Michigan members and visitors gathered at Alpena Community College (ACC) for presentations from keynote speakers, one of which was Michelle McClellan, the Johanna Meijer Magoon principal archivist at the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library. Bentley spoke about women who lived and worked in Northeast Michigan during the lumbering era in her Saturday keynote, titled “Women, Work, and Community in Northern Michigan.”

McClellan featured four women who had roots in Northeast Michigan — Margaret Turner Wise, Elizabeth Ann Newcomb Cole, Katie Link Herron, and Estella Jane Herron Cochran. These women worked and lived in lumbering camps at some point in their lives.

“The history of lumbering … it’s a story about the environment, it’s a story about business, it’s a story about technology,” McClellan said. “It’s not always something we think about when we think about the history of women and the family, but that’s what I’m going to be talking about today.”

McClellan explained that many “permanent communities like Alpena” were established as a result of the lumbering industry. She added that it was common for men and families to relocate to Michigan from the east coast of the country as the lumbering industry fizzled out there.

News Photo by Kayla Wikaryasz On Saturday, Historical Society of Michigan members and visitors are seen attending a keynote lecture at Alpena Community College as part of the 151st Michigan History Conference. Michelle McClellan, the Johanna Meijer Magoon principal archivist at the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library, led a lecture called “Women, Work, and Community in Northern Michigan.”

“A number of, especially the men, they came from that northern tier of New England states, and as lumbering was ending there, they came west to Michigan to apply their skills here,” McClellan said.

The women featured in McClellan’s keynote all worked as cooks in lumbering camps in Northeast Michigan. Wise, for example, worked as a cook in a camp with her sister.

“One winter, she and her sister cooked for 50 men,” McClellan said. “We don’t know for sure what winter, but she cooked for 50 men. I think what can be sure is that the conditions were not that great, that that would have been a lot of work.”

Likewise, Cochran began working in lumber camps when she was 11 years old, according to McClellan. She explained that this was mostly due to her father’s death and after her brother was caught in a cave-in.

“She recalled, ‘With a tragedy and a near tragedy the year I was eight, I grew up fast,'” McClellan said. “She was farmed out whenever an older sister or sister-in-law needed help. So she’s this capable, young girl, and she goes to help … this is really a family operation … you’re not just an individual, you’re part of a family.”

McClellan noted that a common theme among these women was reverence for education, as many of them completed school through eighth grade. The women also viewed Alpena and Northeast Michigan as “a frontier” and “a land of opportunity.”

Because of the booming lumbering industry in Alpena, the women also frequently noted how Alpena was always covered in sawdust and sidewalks were laid over “mud and mire.”

Wise, for example, did not like the recreational activities that were present in Alpena, which McClellan described as “uncouth.”

McClellan closed her presentation by describing these women’s lives as filled with ever-changing circumstances that forced them to be adaptive and resourceful. She explained that the women featured in her presentation were very mobile, traveling across state and and country to find community and opportunity in Northeast Michigan, all the while raising a family.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.