Leaves of Menominee

"If you don't know your history, then you don't know anything.

You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree."

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-- Michael Crichton 

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This blog explores the history of northern Menominee County, Michigan, through the lens of my family. The Perras, Gamache, Benson and Christensen families were early white settlers of Nadeau and Meyer Townships in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They belonged to communities of French Canadian, Swedish and Norwegian immigrants who logged the pine and hardwood forests and farmed the newly cleared land.

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In 1904, this blog features the diary entries of Minnie Gamache, then a 20-year-old single woman living near Hermansville, Mich. For more about Minnie, see "About Minnie's Diary" at the link above.

I want to honor the indigenous people who lived in these lands before white settlers arrived. French explorer Jean Nicolet first encountered the friendly native people in 1634 near the mouth of the Menominee River. For thousands of years, they fished and gathered wild rice throughout what we now call "Menominee County." Their descendants today live on a reservation in Wisconsin.

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The stories found here are based on facts gathered from family memories and historical records. They include both tragedy and heroism. Some scalawags will make appearances now and then.

"Leave" your comments and thoughts below. I would love to connect with others who have memories and history to share from northern Menominee County.