My name is Horace H. Pike. Some people also know me as Henry Pike. As the “founder” of Topinabee, I am pleased to offer some of my recollections. If my memory fails after all of these many years have passed and an inaccuracy creeps into my tale, I will not be offended with a simple correction on your part.
I am sure many of you know me only as the proprietor of the fine hostelry, Pike’s Summer Tavern on Mullett Lake in Topinabee. I have many other stories to tell.
I am an experienced business man of many years having bought a saw-mill with a flutter-wheel about 1860 from Mr Luman Northrop of Chickaming Township in Berrien County. I was involved in the lumber business there, operating in cooperation and partnership with the Wilkinson Company who built Pike’s Pier on Lake Michigan to ship lumber to Chicago and points beyond. From Pike’s Pier a horse-drawn railway extended about three miles to the southeast corner of section 14 carrying lumber, cordwood and railroad ties. I also operated a lumber yard in partnership with Mr J.M.K. Hilton and eventually bought my partner’s interest. I later operated the Pike House, a fine all brick hostelry in the town of Niles, also in Berrien County.
Michigan Central Railroad operated a steam sawmill in Chickaming Township from around 1847 and later built a pier at New Buffalo to ship the township’s fine white and red oak ties. The lumbering business in Michigan moved north and harvesting the great white pine forests of northern Michigan fueled the rapid growth of Cheboygan County. Michigan Central Railroad was in competition with other rail lines to extend tracks north to the great sawmill City of Cheboygan and on to Mackinaw. With good advice that the Michigan Central Railroad had already done preliminary scouting for a rail line on the west side of Mullett Lake, I personally ventured to Cheboygan County in the late 1870’s.
I found the beautiful chain of connected streams, rivers and lakes that had been used by the natives for centuries to traverse by canoe and portage from Little Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan to the mouth of the Cheboygan River on Lake Huron. All of this watershed, starting virtually at the eastern slope of the dunes on the shores of Little Traverse Bay in Emmet County in the west and the headwaters of the Sturgeon and Pigeon rivers flowing north from the higher elevations in Otsego County flowed into and through this wonderful lake named after federal surveyor John Mullett who surveyed this area with William Burt only 40 years prior.
It was not by accident that around 1879, having personally explored Cheboygan County, I saw an opportunity to develop a summer resort on the shores of beautiful Mullett Lake. I purchased a sizable amount of land on the western shore of Mullett Lake, 80 acres more or less, and set about construction of the grand hostelry now known as Pike’s Summer Tavern.
Michigan Central Railroad proceeded with the construction of the rail line on the western shore of Mullett Lake to Cheboygan and beyond to Mackinaw by 1881. The depot was constructed between 1881 and 1882 and the locale, known until then as Portage, deserved a more unique name.
Having lived in Niles, I was aware of the history and lore of the great Peace Chief of the Potawatomis, Topinabee. The Potawatomi Tribe lived on the St Joseph River near Niles, Michigan and the Potawatomi Trail stretched 200 miles from Detroit to the shores of Lake Michigan. Chief Topinabee was a main signer of many early treaties and his name first appeared as “Thu-pe-ne-bu” on the Treaty of Green Ville in 1795. Twelve tribes attended this treaty signing in July of 1795 and the Potawatomis numbered 340 warriors and chiefs; second in strength to the 381 Delawares in attendance.
The Potawatomis did not have a single “Great” Chief, instead being a tribe made up of loosely associated bands who for the most part cooperated with one another. Topinabee, “he who sits quietly”, named as a child because he did not cry as other babies did, was born in 1758. The Reverend Isaac McCoy records the death of Topinabee, one of the principal Chiefs of the Potawatomis, on July 26, 1826, “The principal chief fell from his horse under the influence of ardent spirits, and received an injury of which he died two days later”. Chief Topinabee died near present day Niles, Michigan.
Topinabee, despite his inglorious death, was nevertheless a “Great Chief” of his tribe. He was documented as a great warrior and battle tactician. He negotiated treaties on behalf of his people with the “long knives” and travelled to Fort Wayne, Detroit, and met President Washington at Philadelphia with other Tribal Chiefs in November of 1795. He was signatory to many treaties in what was then known as the western frontier; part of what we now call the great State of Michigan. I was proud to forever memorialize his name at this great summer resort founded on the shores of Mullett Lake.
With no immodesty intended, having been a successful lumber man and hotelier in Berrien County, I set forth to build a Summer Tavern in the tradition of the great taverns of New England. It would be both a way-station and a destination for travelers exploring the great (to be continued)
