Connections at the Court House

 Last week, I was doing research on the owners of the cottages on Sand Lake. For background, my family has had a cottage on the west shore of Sand Lake in Lenawee County for over 60 years, but most of these cottages were built in the 1880’s by farmers and businessmen from Lenawee County. My family lives in 2 of the 13 cottages built on lease land from the Brighton-Marsh family. Since they are built on Lease Land the sale of the house (personal property) is not required to be registered with the county, so tracing their histories takes ingenuity and a lot of digging. I helped my dad in the 1990’s to search the tax assessment records and we figured out quite a bit, but we are still unsure about 4 cottages and whose names go with which cottage. Something sparked me to think about this now and I contacted the Lenawee County court house to ask if they might have different records. The Deputy Register of Deeds offered that it might be possible and welcomed me in.

The Court House

A few years back when I was doing different research in Lenawee County I was directed to the “new” County Court Building, a 1978 boxy uninspiring building, so that’s where I first went last week. It turns out that the old County Court House was recently refurbished and the Register of Deeds office is now housed on the first floor of this building. I was so happy because it is an absolutely beautiful 1885 Romanesque Revival building and was excited to have a reason to go in.

It is just as striking on the inside as it is the outside. I would love to work in this building with the vaulted ceilings, wood, plasterwork, and ceramic tile floors. I know that some people prefer the new austere, white, windows, and stainless steel look, but for me, I prefer the craftsmanship of the 1880s!

Register of Deeds Office

As for the Sand Lake research, the 4 hours didn’t really net much. Of the cottages that I searched, there were no records of sales, but I did find 4 lease agreements (which also don’t have to be registered) but for some reason these 4 were. They were from 1887 (one of the first, if not the first!), 1905, 1908, and 1943. They are interesting but the true value was finding a name in 1908, Nellie Palmer Wilcox, that was completely new to us. Turns out, she was the wife of a Austin Wilcox, but curiously the Lease is not tied to his cottage but another cottage previously owned by Miner Finch. (A mystery I am now investigating!!)

But since my husband’s family is from Lenawee County, I took some time to search for some records for them. I was able to find, in one easy place, the “Location of Lands Book” that had lists by section and township of each of the land sales from the federal government to pioneers. (You are not allowed to take photos while in the office, so I could only hand record the information.) I was able to find Joseph Howell (1830 & 1833), James Wheeler (1833), and Abner Spofford (1824 & 1832) land records, Jim’s g-g-g-grandfathers and g-g-g-g-grandfather. It also identifies where they were living at the time, such as “Seneca County, NY”.

More Searching

The Register of Deeds office may not have answered a whole lot of questions, but it did spark my curiosity about the Sand Lake Cottage owners and what connections there were among the owners. I have been spending the last week searching the family histories of all of the names that I do know and the connections are actually more like a web! I won’t bore you with the details here’s just one example Jonathon Howland (1833-1899) was the uncle to Lewis Cass Baker (1844-1917) through his sister Almeda Howland (1812-1897) and during the same years, the Howlands and LC Baker’s two different cottages on the shore! 

So, while I was searching the lives of these men, I came across a reference to one of those books of history and biographies I’ve written about before. (Illustrated history and biographical record of Lenawee County, Mich by Knapp, John I., & Bonner, R. I. (Richard Illenden) 1903. Adrian, MI.) I decided to search for some of Jim’s relatives, too, and came across the most interesting biography of his great-great-grandfather Dr. George Howell.

Back to the Court House

In addition to learning that his wife, Ann Amelia Remington, attended Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) in the 1860’s and that he attended Hillsdale College in the late 1850s before attending medical school at the University of Michigan, I learned that he played a significant role in the building of the Lenawee County Court House! Dr. Howell was elected (and re-elected) Supervisor of Macon and served on the Board of Supervisors in the 1880’s and was appointed to the committee on public buildings. The original court house had burned in 1852 and they were using Dean’s opera house. He offered the resolution to submit to the voters to raise the money ($50,000) to build a new court house on March 22, 1882. Without his resolution and associated politicking, we might not be enjoying this beautiful example of Romanesque Revival architecture and its Register of Deeds office! 

Lenawee County Court House, c. 1885

So I come full circle and back to the Court House!