Framed Portrait of Olive Beebe
Henry Clay Cole & Olive Beebe
Henry Clay Cole, who this General Store is named for, was known by many as the Grand Old Man of Summit Township. He was born in 1841, in the State of New York & came to Mason County in 1867. He Married Olive Beebe in 1875, & their pictures hang together in the General Store. They had six children.
Mr. Cole enlisted in Co. M., Third Michigan artillery of the Union Army at Hillsdale, Michigan in 1862 when he was 21 years of age. He became ill with pneumonia & was discharged, but re-enlisted in Detroit in 1864. Mr. Cole saw action in several major engagement of the Civil War, among them Chickamauga & the fighting at Knoxville, Tennessee. At the time of his death, he was Mason County's oldest War veteran.
After his service in the Civil War, he came to this region in search of land for a farm. In the company of Martin Hitchcock, he walked from Whitehall in 1867, & they examined the location & the soil of several tracts before deciding. Finally, Mr. Cole purchased 80 acres in North Summit Township where he built his hand-sewn log home & lived there until after the death of his wife in 1917. The Mason County Historical Society moved the structure to the Village in ????, in one piece from the area near the Pumped Storage Project.
During his lifetime, Mr. Cole served on the county board of supervisors from Summit Township for 40 years. "His was more likely than not to be the deciding voice on important questions & that his decisions were usually right & in accord with public welfare as attested by the habit his constituency formed of sending him back" (Ludington Daily News 07/03/34).
He also served two terms as sheriff of Mason County, which at that time was as long as the law permitted a man to serve in consecutive years.
Framed Portrait of Olive Beebe
Henry Clay Cole & Olive Beebe
Henry Clay Cole, who this General Store is named for, was known by many as the Grand Old Man of Summit Township. He was born in 1841, in the State of New York & came to Mason County in 1867. He Married Olive Beebe in 1875, & their pictures hang together in the General Store. They had six children.
Mr. Cole enlisted in Co. M., Third Michigan artillery of the Union Army at Hillsdale, Michigan in 1862 when he was 21 years of age. He became ill with pneumonia & was discharged, but re-enlisted in Detroit in 1864. Mr. Cole saw action in several major engagement of the Civil War, among them Chickamauga & the fighting at Knoxville, Tennessee. At the time of his death, he was Mason County's oldest War veteran.
After his service in the Civil War, he came to this region in search of land for a farm. In the company of Martin Hitchcock, he walked from Whitehall in 1867, & they examined the location & the soil of several tracts before deciding. Finally, Mr. Cole purchased 80 acres in North Summit Township where he built his hand-sewn log home & lived there until after the death of his wife in 1917. The Mason County Historical Society moved the structure to the Village in ????, in one piece from the area near the Pumped Storage Project.
During his lifetime, Mr. Cole served on the county board of supervisors from Summit Township for 40 years. "His was more likely than not to be the deciding voice on important questions & that his decisions were usually right & in accord with public welfare as attested by the habit his constituency formed of sending him back" (Ludington Daily News 07/03/34).
He also served two terms as sheriff of Mason County, which at that time was as long as the law permitted a man to serve in consecutive years.