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The Polish community in the Cedar area, Centerville Township,
originally consisted of three small settlements- Schomberg, Bodus,
and Isadore. As in Poland, the towns were about one or two miles
apart. Many of the Polish immigrants who eventually settled in the
Isadore area had left their native land from just west of Gdansk or
from Poznan (Posen). Upon arriving in America, they first settled in
cities such as Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Toledo to
earn money to purchase land through the Homestead Act. Around 1868
the first few families came to Leelanau County from Milwaukee.
As the first generation retired from the farm and more
Polish people moved to the area, many people settled in the
largest community, then known as Cedar City, in Solon |
Main Street in Cedar, July 4, 1918 Unknown Photographer
Courtesy of Leelanau Historical Museum Archives |
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| Township. In approximately
1885, Lumberman Benjamin Boughey, Cedar's founder, named it Cedar
City because it was in a cedar forest. The depot on the Manistee and
Northeastern Railroad continued to be known as Cedar City, long
after August 15, 1893 when the post office named simply "Cedar" was
established. The main
street of Cedar looks today much as it did 50 years ago. The
businesses occasionally change and now only a few of the owners'
names
or operators presently reflect the Polish background of the early
1900's. People still identify this place as being a Polish
community. In 1905, the Cedar State Bank was begun,
which survived the Great Depression, but closed in the late
1930's. The bank building was later used for the offices of
the Leelanau Telephone Company. Every July, since 1975,
Cedar is host |
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Main Street in Cedar, July
4, 1918 Unknown Photographer
Courtesy of Leelanau Historical Museum Archives |
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to the annual Cedar Polka Festival, which began in
1975. |
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References: |
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Wikipedia. "Solon County, Leelanau Township,
Michigan"
To
visit, click here. |
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Lucia Novak. "The Polish Legacy in Cedar, Michigan"
www.leelanauhistory.org. |
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"Cedar
City Mich." (1909)
Almost all
of the land around Cedar has been stripped of its forests in this
photo.
The wood
was needed to rebuild Chicago after the great fire of 1871. |
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"Entering Cedar Mich." (1949)
As late as
1949, Main Street in Cedar was still an unpaved road through town. |
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"Air View of Cedar.
Michigan" (circa 1962)
The back of this postcard
reads: "Cedar Michigan is located in Leelanau Co. 14 miles Northwest
of Traverse City in
the 'Land of Delight.'
The winding Cedar River flows through the town and empties into Lake
Leelanau
where canoeing, boating,
and fishing are very popular." |
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Old Burry's Restaurant located at the main
corners (circa 1960's-1970's)
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If
you have any questions, or comments, or would like to have
your business listed, please
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Company. |
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