Charles W. Chesnutt to Andrew Merlack, 16 June 1931
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June 16, 1931
Mr. Andrew Merlack,
Baldwin, Michigan.
Dear Mr. Merlack:
We are expecting to leave here for Idlewild1 next Monday night, June 22nd, going by boat to Detroit, and arriving in Idlewild Tuesday afternoon or evening, June 23rd. I have written to the Michigan Public Service Company at Ludington2 and to Mr. Myers at Scottville,3 asking them to have the power on by that date.4
Please open up the house and put on the shutters, as usual, see that the tank in the attic is clean, and that the pump is in working order, and get the boat down to the pier. If the pier has been put out of order by the ice during the winter, please fix it up.
Hoping to see you next week, I remain,
Sincerely yours, CWC:ESCorrespondent: Andrew Merlack (1875–1945) was a Polish immigrant who came to the United States in 1903 with his wife Josephine and worked as a carpenter. He moved to Baldwin, Michigan, in 1918, built his own home outside of town, and worked as a contractor and builder. While it is not known whether he built the Chesnutts' house in Idlewild, he was employed for several years by them to make improvements and repairs to the property in between their summer visits.
1. Starting in 1922, the Chesnutts spent every summer until Chesnutt's death in Idlewild, in Lake County, Michigan, about 380 miles northwest 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 resort towns. In the spring of 1924, Chesnutt purchased a plot of land, where he had a summer home built in 1925. [back]
2. The Michigan Public Service Company was a private company that provided electricity to a number of rural communities in western Michigan. Consolidated from 1890s predecessors in 1923 and incorporated in 1927, it had an office in Ludington, Michigan. It had only been providing power to Idlewild since 1929. [back]
3. Lina E. Myers (1887–1936) was an electrician for the Michigan Public Service Company based in Scottville, a small town near Ludington, Michigan, about 30 miles from Idlewild. [back]
4. See Chesnutt's June 16 letter to the Michigan Public Service Company. [back]
