My Aunt Suzie found some great RPPCs (real photo postcards) in the family collection from Harrison, Michigan. I’ve scanned both the front and back, so you can see my great grandfather’s lovely handwriting. I’ll be posting another three of these cards in weeks to come.

My great grandparents, Alfred C. (b. 1892, d. 1954) and Hulda E. Thorne (b. 1892, d. 1983), had a cottage up in Harrison on Budd Lake. Harrison was originally founded as a lumber town, with sawmills located on the shores of Budd Lake. It’s a small town even today (the population was 2,114 at the 2010 census).

1947. Bldg at extreme left is the old Hughes Bros. Store (Ellis & Elmer) now owned by Mr. Brown. Bldg. on far corner is State Savings Bank. Mr. Weatherhead,  Cashier.

Harrison is a very small town. With just a few names, it’s fairly easy to track people down.

One of the ladies at Harrison Realty, Bernadine (Hughes) Hecker was daughter of Elmer Hughes. From the Harrison Realty website, “Elmer Hughes, who with his twin brother Ellis Hughes and Fred Weatherhead were some of the first developers in Harrison as noted by the Hughes – Weatherhead Subdivisons in the City” (Fred Weatherhead was also the cashier at the bank as noted on the postcard).

The Harrison District Library has scanned in the centennial history. The writing is well worth the read in its entirety, but I’m taking a few paragraphs out here for you (Timber and Rail Dominion of Old, Harrison Michigan, Centennial May 28 1881, 1981 pages 3-4):

“Near the turn of the century identical twin brothers, Elmer and Ellis Hughes, short, dark, stocky men with small mustaches, opened the Hughes Brothers’ Store. For three decades they enjoyed prosperity only to see things fall apart during the Great Depression. At about the same time their cousin by marriage, a retired school teacher, who had spent most of his adult life in the Philippine Islands, invested some money as as well as a suppressed desire to be a business man, into the Hughes Brothers’ Store. This many was Johnny Brown.

When Johnny Brown joined the business the store consisted of three ramshackle frame buildings with false fronts, which were joined on the inside by double doors. It was a true general store selling shoes, clothing sporting goods, hardware and groceries. The place was known for its distinctive odor, which consisted of a mixture of kerosene, vinegar, leather, peanut butter, horse liniment, fresh ground coffee, the oil on its rolling floors, a leaking furnace, and a thoughsand other smells, not the least of which came from a crowd of customers who made a habit of hanging around just to keep warm. No other store ever smelled exactly like the Hughes Brothers’ Store. Brown instituted some changes to modernize the place. Counters were reshuffled, and there was a great flurry of sweeping, mopping, and painting. But once the improvements were completed, the place could still be described in almost exactly the same terms as before. As far as the smell was concerned nothing changed.”

The centennial history notes that the bank building, which was constructed on the south corner of Main and Second Streets, was demolished in the late 1970s. Fred Weatherhead died in 1952. Hughes Brothers’ Store is long gone as well.