This week is a little postscript postcard for Sammon’s Landing at the John H. Hill’s Little Point Sable summer retreat.
The postcard shows what is titled “The Reception Committee.” It shows the Peach Ridge Pier, as utilized in the early 1900s. The 800-foot-long pier is crowded with the titular committee, men and women with cottages on the bluffs, welcoming in a new shipment of tourists. Even with such a small photograph, you can still appreciate the length of the pier as it fades into the distance and finally ends somewhere out of view.
This postcard was actually sent as a letter, and the envelope is addressed to a Miss Etta Haland, living at 22 Williams Street in Amsterdam, New York. The envelope is postmarked twice, first in Muskegon on August 29, 1905, and then in Amsterdam the following day.
The postcard reads:
“Dear Etta, Yours received & was so glad to hear from you. We are at our summer home. I am nursing baby well from the cholera infantum. Had a worse siege than last year. I will write when I get home. We expect to go this week.
Jessie”
Cholera infantum is the historical diagnosis of acute gastroenteritis in infants. This childhood illness was common in densely populated areas with high humidity. Considering that many of Hill’s vacationers were from Chicago, it would make sense that the poor little girl might be in such a state coming from such a big city. Knowing what sorts of illnesses can be spread from highly congested and poorly sanitized living spaces, it's no wonder that the Little Point Sable cabins and other vacation spots like it were advertised as places to escape for one’s health.
Finally, here’s one last postcard of the Peach Ridge Pier in its final days. On the beach sits the dilapidated fruit shack, from which the shambling skeleton of the pier creeps out into the Lake. Also from the water, we can see two parallel rows of bricks or timber, used to help drag boats ashore, probably the main route for shipments on Sammon’s Landing as the pier disintegrates beside it.
The postcard is undated, but I reckon it's the 1900s or 1910s, judging by the autochrome color photograph. The colors - a subtle gold sky fading into blue - paired with the caption “Lake Mich. by Moonlight at Pt. Sable” makes this sunset on the pier a rather melancholic one. To be fair, this postcard fits the mood, as does the previous letter’s end-of-August note.
