Charles W. Chesnutt to Mary Dickerson Donahey, 6 September 1932
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September 6, 1932
Mrs. William Donahey,
Grand Maria
s,
Michigan.
My dear Mary:
I received your several letters from time to time, and Bill's check1 in payment of your taxes and to apply on the Delahunte taxes.2
I am looking forward to seeing you and Bill when you make your fall visit to Cleveland. If you could stay a day or two, we might have a meeting of the Chester Cliffs Company.3 Kindly let me know if and when you are coming, so that I can issue the necessary notices.4
We enjoyed a very pleasant summer at our place in Michigan,5 and have no doubt whatever that you did the same at yours.6
Family all join me in regards.
Yours very truly, CWC:MKCorrespondent: Mary Augusta Dickerson Donahey (1876–1962) was a White journalist and author of children's books. She was originally from New York City and worked for the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer from 1898 to 1905. She married the cartoonist William Donahey (1883–1970) in 1905 and moved with him to Chicago, where she wrote children's and young adult books, cookbooks and newspaper columns. The couple befriended the Chesnutts in the early 1900s, when they were part of the Tresart Club and the Chester Cliffs Club.
1. William (Bill) Donahey (1883–1970) was a White writer and cartoonist from Westchester, Ohio. After graduating from the Cleveland School of Art in 1903, he briefly worked for the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, where he met and married Mary Dickerson Donahey (1876–1962) in 1905 and became friends with the Chesnutts. The couple joined the Chester Cliffs Club and had a cottage on their land. After 1905, the couple moved to Chicago, where he worked for the Chicago Tribune and produced a widely syndicated comic strip, the "Teenie Weenies," which ran intermittently from 1914 until his death, and became the basis of an advertising campaign for a canned-goods company in the 1920s as well as for several books he co-wrote with his wife. [back]
2. Mary Ellen Delahunte (1870–1951) was a White woman who lived in Cleveland most of her life. In 1921, she purchased a plot of land from A. Frank Counts (1881–?) and his wife Eula (1869–1942), members of the Chester Cliffs Club. The Counts had not consulted the other members of the Club and gave Delahunte the impression that she was not responsible for property taxes or repairs relating to the property. This led to conflicts within the Club regarding Delahunte's unpaid tax bills. [back]
3. Since 1903, the Chesnutts owned a plot of land near Chesterland in Geauga County, about 20 miles east of Cleveland. With a group of friends, they had formed the Chester Cliffs Club (or Company) as a corporation to jointly purchase 11 acres of land to build summer cottages. Until ca. 1921, Chesnutt's family typically spent their summers at Chester Cliffs (where they acquired their own cottage in 1916) before beginning to vacation in Idlewild, Michigan. [back]
4. A reference to the Chester Cliffs Club, a small stockholding corporation founded in September 1903 by Chesnutt and ten friends who were "stockholders," in order to purchase 11 acres of land near Chesterland, Ohio, 20 miles from Cleveland in northwestern Geauga County, to spend their summers away from the city. Summer cottages were built by three of the parties, and in 1916 the Chesnutts purchased one of these. Stockholder meetings were called every fall, even as eventually, only three families seem to have remained: the Chesnutts, the Donaheys (who were living in Chicago after 1905), and the Counts. In 1921, Frank Counts (1881–?), a Cleveland lawyer who was the longtime secretary and treasurer of the Club, and his wife Eulalie (Eula) (1869–1942) sold a lot with a cottage to Mary Ellen Delahunte (1870–1951) without consulting the other members, causing conflicts about property tax and upkeep for years. Shortly afterwards, Chesnutt, as the club president, took on the responsibility of reminding members of tax payments and calling the annual meeting. The corporation was never legally dissolved. [back]
5. After discovering it in 1921, the Chesnutts spent every summer in Idlewild, in Lake County, MI, about 380 miles west of Cleveland. Idlewild was a popular lakeside resort for hundreds of Black families from the urban Midwest from the 1910s to the 1960s, when racism excluded them from many White resort towns. In the spring of 1924, Chesnutt purchased a plot of land, and had a lakeside vacation home built (14240 Lake Drive; completed in 1926). [back]
6. William Donahey (1883–1970) and his wife Mary Dickerson Donahey (1876–1962) went to Grand Marais on Michigan's Upper Peninsula for their summer vacations. They owned an unusual cottage on Grand Sable Lake: the barrel-shaped Pickle Barrel House, built for them in 1926, evoked William Donahey's Teenie Weenie cartoons and advertising illustrations. In 1937, the Donaheys no longer found it feasible to live in it, and it was moved to Grand Marais in 1937 as a tourist attraction. [back]
