Charles W. Chesnutt to Michigan Public Service Company, 16 June 1931
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June 16, 1931
Michigan Public Service Company,
Ludington, Michigan.1
Gentlemen:
I received your circular letter of recent date with reference to electrical service in my cottage at Idlewild.2 I seem to have mislaid the letter, but I shall desire the service on the terms suggested.
You undoubtedly have the location of the cottage, since you have been furnishing us power ever since you were serving Idlewild. It is on the lake, almost directly opposite the clubhouse3 and next to Henry Gregory's place.4
We expect to be there by June 22nd, and should like to be able to use the light at that time. Andrew Merlack5 of Baldwin has the key, if you have any need of it.6
I think I got your address correctly as Ludington, but, if not, I have sent a copy this letter to L. E. Myers,7 at Scottville, with whom I have heretofore dealt in regard to the matter.
Thanking you in advance, I remain,
Sincerely yours, CWC:ESCorrespondent: 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.
1. Ludington, Michigan, is a former lumber town and port city located on Lake Michigan's eastern shore, about 40 miles west of Idlewild, Michigan, where the Chesnutt family spent summers. It attracted tourists to the Lake Michigan beaches, inland lakes, and area forests as early as the 1890s. [back]
2. 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]
3. The clubhouse on Idlewild Lake's Williams Island was one of the Idlewild resort area's first buildings, dating back in its earliest form to 1916. There, the summer residents would gather for parties, dances, movie showings, and church services; Chesnutt occasionally spoke at the Sunday Forums held there, including in July 1931 (Susie J. Bantom, "Idlewild," Lake County Star [Baldwin MI; July 24, 1931]: 3). [back]
4. Like the Chesnutts, Henry Gregory (1875–1948), a contractor from Detroit, Michigan, had purchased several small lots at Idlewild in 1924, and his cottage at 14180 Lake Drive next to Chesnutt's was built in 1926. [back]
5. 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. [back]
6. Baldwin, MI is a village that serves as the county seat of Lake County, less than four miles from Idlewild, Michigan, where the Chesnutts bought land in 1924 and built their cottage. In 1930, about 500 people lived in Baldwin, but it had a railroad station, a weekly newspaper, and amenities for tourists in the area. [back]
7. 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]
