Looking Back: Charlevoix Sentinel editor Willard Smith's suffrage stance
CHARLEVOIX — One hundred and fifty years ago, Charlevoix Sentinel editor Willard A. Smith kept up his interest in the temperance movement then dominating the country's news.
Not that he was for abolishing all types of alcoholic beverages, but that a moderate and balanced viewpoint should be maintained. He enjoyed a good relaxing brew as much as anyone could.
July 25, 1874: "There is more poison in a cigar, or two sticks of colored candy, than in a glass of lager beer. Temperance people should fight all these harmful things."
In the same issue, he sort of slunk off with his tail between his legs for having waffled in his turnabout stance for women's suffrage in the previous week's issue, indicating that he was not quite ready for a woman's right to the ballot. Whenever Willard had to make an embarrassing admission that he might be not on the majority wavelength, he often deflected away from his opinion by referring to himself in the third person. That had happened not long before when he couldn't believe he had been embarrassingly walloped at the polls for a county position he was sure he would win. Willard pretended to be someone writing from Torch Lake on that one.
And now--"The Discussion. We believe our champion (himself) was outnumbered on the occasion of the discussion Saturday evening, on the subject of female suffrage, and as we had no reporter present, we are forced to accept the popular verdict that he was beaten in point of argument. Gen. Thorpe and Major Green appeared in behalf of the ladies and plead [sic] their cause eloquently. A vote was taken, which we believe resulted in a majority in favor of female suffrage."
Nice try, Willard.
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Fifty years later, on July 16, 1924, the Charlevoix Courier reported that the popular 280-foot passenger liner North American, which came here often, had run aground on Gray's Reef north of Beaver Island with about 350 aboard. They were excursionists, enjoying a cruise between Chicago and Duluth at the far end of Lake Superior on a Wednesday afternoon when the weather turned violent throughout northern Lake Michigan. Fog, 45-mph winds, high seas and powerful rains caused the boat to go off course and crash onto the reef. But luck was with the vessel, because that particular spot had enough water over it to keep the liner partly buoyant, if stuck. With so much more water pouring out of the sky and flowing down from the Straits of Mackinac overnight, by Thursday morning the North American could gun its propellors and force its way off the reef into deeper water and on to Mackinac Island. There, examination of the hull discovered remarkably little damage.
The week before that, Charlevoix's world-renowned master builder in stone Earl Young began his career with the first of several advertisements for his initial major project, the development of 85-lot Boulder Park on Lake Michigan just west of town.
As an enticement to invest in one's dream vacation house and property, Earl offered "Warranty Deed and Abstract of Title with each lot and the owner of one of the first ten deeds recorded is to receive a NEW FORD COUPE FREE."
Fifty years after that, the Charlevoix Waterfront Art Fair pulled off a coup when it announced that an original Andrew Wyeth painting would be displayed in East Park on Aug. 10. At the time, Wyeth was at the pinnacle of his fame as America's "most popular contemporary painter." (Charlevoix Courier, July 24, 1974)
The 1967 painting, called "The Sweep," was loaned courtesy of the Flint Institute of Arts.
"This egg tempera panel depicts the shore of a Maine landscape, but it could just as well have been painted in northern Michigan. Atop the stone wall dominating the foreground lies a sweep, a long oar used in Maine for beaching a boat the last 100 yards. A cluster of spruce trees at the left focuses on a small distant building. The property is that of the artist. Mr. Wyeth has expressed his own pleasure with the painting, being particularly gratified with the subtlety of tones in the leaden sky with exactly the effect he was after."
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Looking Back: Charlevoix Sentinel editor Willard Smith's suffrage stance
