May 20, 2023 by jcormack

The renovation of the William McCormack House!

I am back and very anxious to restart the telling of the story of the Michael McCormack family!

Today, I want to share an exciting development concerning the former William McCormack house in Otter Lake, Michigan. For most of us, the picture below is the shared vision of the McCormack house. I got this view from Google Maps. Unfortunately, as you can see below, the front of the house isn’t in good shape.

Several weeks ago, on Apr 13, a woman named Julie Devine contacted me through Pinterest. She had bought the William McCormack house in Otter Lake last year and wanted to get some history of the house. She had tried another distant cousin on Pinterest, but apparently, that person never returned her messages.

As we can see in the picture, the house was very run down. The grass was all over the place. So, before her family and friends started the front and side yards, this is what the front and side yards looked like.

Julie is doing a COMPLETE renovation, I believe, both inside and out. But unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the house inside before she started. But I have a video of a tour of the inside that Julie gave after the demo was almost completely finished.

Restoring McCormack Manor -Tour

Julie has a channel over at YouTube named the “McCormack Manor Restoration.” She has many more videos of other parts of the house, like the basement, the windows looking into the cellar, and different sections of the house.

I have talked to the last two people that have actual memories of the house, inside and out. They are both thrilled that someone is caring for their grandfather’s home better.

Here are some pictures of the house in her better days;

The caption that I have is “McCormack House – 1882.” Reason unknown.
The McCormack House front door. Date 2022.
William E. McCormack in front of the house. Date unknown.
Date unknown.
The McCormack House in winter. It was taken from an Otter Lake centennial booklet published in 1973.

I have reached out to Julie to offer my help in some way with her research on my great-grandfather’s house. I share the hopes of all of William McCormack’s descendants that his house be returned to its former glory. In Julie Devine, I believe we have someone with the right desire to do what is necessary to restore the house!

Good luck, Julie!

February 3, 2019 by jcormack

Happy Birthday, Alta McCormack!

I would like to apologize to all my followers and McCormack family members for being so absent for so long! Life just got in the way! I will be more active in the future! I also would like to apologize for not having something new for everyone to read. That new content will be forthcoming!

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I would like to honor my grandmother on her birthday! I wish I could add more than I did here. Happy birthday once again Grandma!

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Happy birthday, Grandma! Alta Lyleth (McCormack) Ford was my grandmother. My grandmother was born on February 3, 1902, in Otter Lake, Michigan almost 2 years before her younger sister, Ruth (I wrote about Ruth’s birthday in the post, Happy Birthday, Aunt Ruth! Alta’s siblings were Merle and Ruth. Alta was the middle child. Here is the best picture I have of my grandmother;

Young Alta McCormack

I don’t know much about her childhood. However, I do know that she attended high school in Flint, Michigan. Flint isn’t too far from Otter Lake. I just wonder where she stayed while attending high school. When she was in her early 20s, with her sister Ruth and perhaps a church group(?) went to Europe for several weeks. I started to post about the trip. During the trip, my grandmother kept a diary of what happened. It was very interesting to read my grandmother’s thoughts on the trip. I think she attended what would become Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan where she became a teacher. That is a profession that she shared with my dad. On July 30, 1932, she married Aubrey Ford. She and Aubrey had three children; Nancy Jane, William McCormack, and Richard Curtis. Sadly, my uncle “Dick” died in 2012. From what I have gathered from informal talks with my dad, my grandmother’s marriage to my grandfather was not very good. So in September 1954, she divorced him. It was funny because when I was growing up, we never talked about my grandfather. He was never discussed at my grandmother’s. I do have one story about my grandmother I would like to share. It must have been when I was 5 or 6 years old. We would visit my grandmother’s house in Garden City, Michigan. She had a squarish house. When I got there, I would ask either my parents or my grandmother to time me while I ran around her house. I would take off like a bat out of hell. Which for a little kid of 5 or 6 was pretty fast! When I got back to the “starting line” I would always ask the timer how did I do? They would always tell me “you ran faster than last time” or something like that. Little did I realize at the time that they were lying to me! They never timed me! I am so hurt! Sadly, my grandmother died in May 1986 while I was stationed in California. I think because I was getting out in a couple of weeks, I couldn’t make the funeral. She is buried in the Otter Lake Cemetery in Otter Lake, Michigan next to her parents, William E., and Lavina Jane (Hemingway) McCormack. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you learned something about my family!

May 14, 2017 by jcormack

Mother’s Day for the McCormack women!

This is a slight rewrite of a post I wrote last year. I think it is pretty good and I will like to recognize all the McCormack mothers even with a reused post.

Happy Mother’s Day, Ladies!

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Today is Mother’s Day and I would like to celebrate the McCormack women below and others who are not shown and talked about here. I must add that other than my grandmother, Alta McCormack Ford, I have not met any of these women. I was inspired to write this post because of a friend of mine, Michelle Ganus Taggart over at her blog, A Southern Sleuth, and her post, Mothers and Grandmothers. Thank you, Michelle!

The first McCormack woman that I would like to celebrate is the matriarch of the McCormack clan, Catherine (Paine/Payne) McCormack. Briefly, I know that she was born in Ireland. There is a “suggestion” out there that she was born in either County Cork, Ireland or Cork the city. She was married before marrying Michael McCormack but as far as I know, her first husband died leaving her young widow without any children. In 1853, she married Michael and gave birth to her first child, my great-grandfather, William E. McCormack. What really stands out to me is that soon after he was born, he and his parents left Ireland to the United States via Liverpool, England. When they left Ireland, William was maybe 4 or 5 months old. At that time, the trans-Atlantic trip took about six weeks. Even now, traveling with an infant is not easy. Also, they made the trip around October/November of 1853. The weather couldn’t have been the greatest! The next thing that really impresses me about her is that she followed and gave Michael 10 total children of which 9 lived to adulthood. She moved from Kentucky – the “rumor” is that her brother lived in Harrodsburg, Kentucky – to Ypsilanti, Michigan to London, Ontario then back to Ypsilanti then up to northern Michigan and finally living in the same village as her first son, William.

Catherine McCormack

The second woman that I would like to celebrate is my great-grandmother, Lavina Jane (Hemingway) McCormack. As I have mentioned before, she is my connection to the famed Hemingway name. What stands out to me about her is that the circumstances in which she came into the McCormack clan. She and William lived in the same village, Otter Lake, prior to the marriage. So, she must have known William’s first wife, Lura before she died unexpectedly and William and Lura’s daughter, Grace. It seemed that she handled things with grace. She and William had three beautiful children of which my grandmother, Alta McCormack was one of.

Lavina Jane (Hemingway) McCormack

The next woman that I would like to remember here is my grandmother, Alta Lyleth (McCormack) Ford. She was born in Otter Lake, Michigan in 1902 and was the middle child of William and Lavina. One of the things that I remember about her is when I was a little kid is that me and my family would visit her at her house. She had a corner house in Garden City, Michigan. I would run around the house and my parents or grandmother would “time” me. Little did I know at the time is that none of them timed me. I am crushed! (haha!) I would also stay a few days with her every summer as a young kid. I remember helping her do some work on her garden that she had in her backyard. There were a few stories about her childhood but sadly I really don’t remember any of them. I am working on a post about her trip to Europe in 1925 with her younger sister, Ruth. Sadly, she died while I was in the service (Army) in California in 1986 and a few years before I really got into my McCormack family history. She could have been a real treasure trove of knowledge.

Young Alta McCormack

The next woman that I would like to talk about is Ethel (Davis) McCormack. She was the wife of Henry Peacock McCormack, the only child of John Michael and Gertrude (Peacock) McCormack. The biggest thing that impresses me about Ethel, besides being a rather small woman in stature, is that she like her grandmother-in-law, Catherine, she had 10 children of which one is still alive! Anytime, a woman has 10 children, that is simply amazing! When her youngest child was born, her oldest was 21 years old!

Ethel (Davis) McCormack

The final woman that I would like to tell you about is Elizabeth Jane (Rohr/Dimmick) McCormack. I have written about her before – Celebrating Women’s History Month – Elizabeth J. (Rohr) Dimmick McCormack – but I will try to briefly tell you about her. Her story is very impressive. Very. She had married Edward J. McCormack, son of Michael and Catherine in 1886. In 1898, he died. At the time, they had four children. Here’s the kicker. She was pregnant with their last child. Northern lower Michigan in the winter is not a nice place. For a young woman with four children and another one on the way, it can be brutal. Well, she bought a general store in Mio, Michigan and raised her kids. She never remarried either. To top everything off, when she was 69, she “adopted” her two of her granddaughters. They were 7 years old and younger. Something else, huh? I thought so too.

Elizabeth Jane (Rohr) McCormack behind the counter of her general store

I don’t want to have “favorites” here, but Catherine McCormack and her daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Rohr McCormack are two very impressive women. I am very proud that they were a part of the McCormack legacy.

I would like to mention two additional women. My mother and sister. My mother is something special and to I owe much. My sister is something else too. She and her husband had four kids of their own. About 5 or 6 years ago, they adopted three sisters.

Happy Mother’s Day to the women that I talked about here and to the rest of the McCormack mothers that I couldn’t mention due primarily to time and space!

I would like to thank you and everyone else for stopping by! I hope you learned something new and special.

November 26, 2016 by jcormack

Happy Birthday, Aunt Kate!

Once again, I am doing something I don’t like to do. I am going repost my previously published post about my great grand-aunt Kate, but since I haven’t been able learn anything new and I do want to honor the memory of my great grand-aunt Kate. I do wish that I could have met her while she was alive and well. I wonder what kind of lady she was. Thanks!

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Today is my great grand-aunt Katherine “Kate” Fidelia (McCormack) Ingleright’s birthday. Katherine was the youngest of 10 children of Michael and Catherine McCormack. She was born on 26 Nov 1870 in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Katherine (McCormack) Ingleright [1]

On 19 Jul 1899 in Lapeer, Michigan she married Leon Ray Ingleright of Niles, Michigan. For most of the next ten years, she and Leon lived with her parents in Otter Lake. [2] Sometime before the 1910 census, her husband who was a doctor, got his own practice or joined one in Rose City, Michigan. [3][4] As far as I know, she and Leon had two wonderful children, Violet Cassie and Leon Ray, Jr. They were born in 1901 and 1903 respectively and both in Rose City. At sometime between the 1920 and the 1930 censuses, Katherine and her family moved to Niles, Michigan. [5] They and their descendants would make Niles and the southwestern corner of Michigan their home up to the present.

There is one reason that my Aunt Katherine is special to me. She and I share the same birthday. I was born 91 years after her. In fact, she was still alive when I was born. But my parents had no knowledge of her branch of the McCormack family.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you learned something!

Footnotes;

1. picture of Katherine Fidelia (McCormack) Ingleright, , 2009, privately held by Jeff Ford, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Lebanon, Tennessee, 2009
2. 1900 United States Federal Census, Otter Lake, Marathon Township, Lapeer County, Michigan, population schedule, ED 43, Pg. 7B, dwelling 173, family 173, Michael McCormack, digital image, Ancestry.com, http://search.ancestry.com, accessed 6 Feb 2011, citing Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.
3. 1910 United States Federal Census, Rose City, Ogemaw County, Michigan, population schedule, Ward 3, ED 38, Pg. 250, dwelling 3, family 75, Leon R. Ingleright, digital image, Ancestry.com, http://search.ancestry.com/, accessed 1 Dec 2012, citing Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
4. 1920 United States Federal Census, Rose City, Ogemaw County, Michigan, population schedule, Ward 3, ED 280, dwelling 54, family 55, Leon R. Ingelright, digital image, Ancestry.com, http://search.ancestry.com/, citing Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
5. 1930 United States Federal Census, Niles, Berrien County, Michigan, population schedule, Ward 3, ED 12, Pg. 235, dwelling 71, family 84, Leon R. Ingleright, digital image, Ancestry.com, http://search.ancestry.com/, citing Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.

May 8, 2016 by jcormack

Mother’s Day for the McCormack women!

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and I would like to celebrate the McCormack women below and others who are not shown and talked about here. I must add that other than my grandmother, Alta McCormack Ford, I have not met any of these women. I was inspired to write this post because of a friend of mine, Michelle Ganus Taggart over at her blog, A Southern Sleuth, and her post, Mothers and Grandmothers. Thank you, Michelle!

The first McCormack woman that I would like to celebrate is the matriarch of the McCormack clan, Catherine (Paine/Payne) McCormack. Briefly, I know that she was born in Ireland. There is a “suggestion” out there that she was born in either County Cork, Ireland or Cork the city. She was married before marrying Michael McCormack but as far as I know, her first husband died leaving her young widow. In 1853, she married Michael and gave birth to her first child, my great-grandfather, William E. McCormack. What really stands out to me is that soon after he was born, he and his parents left Ireland to the United States via Liverpool, England. When they left Ireland, William was maybe 4 or 5 months old. At that time, the trans-Atlantic trip took about six weeks. Even now, traveling with an infant is not easy. Also, they made the trip around October/November of 1853. The weather couldn’t have been the greatest! The next thing that really impresses me about her is that she followed and gave Michael 10 more children of which 9 lived to adulthood. She moved from Kentucky – the “rumor” is that her brother lived in Harrodsburg, Kentucky – to Ypsilanti, Michigan to London, Ontario then back to Ypsilanti then up to northern Michigan and finally living in the same village as her first son, William.

Catherine McCormack

The second woman that I would like to celebrate is my great-grandmother, Lavina Jane (Hemingway) McCormack. As I have mentioned before, she is my connection to the famed Hemingway name. What stands out to me about her is that the circumstances in which she came into the McCormack clan. She and William lived in the same village, Otter Lake, prior to the marriage. So, she must have known William’s first wife, Lura before she died unexpectedly and William and Lura’s daughter, Grace. It seemed that she handled things with grace. She and William had three beautiful children of which my grandmother, Alta McCormack was one of.

Lavina Jane McCormack

The next woman that I would like to remember here is my grandmother, Alta Lyleth (McCormack) Ford. She was born in Otter Lake, Michigan in 1902 and was the middle child of William and Lavina. One of the things that I remember about her is when I was a little kid is that me and my family would visit her at her house. She had a corner house in Garden City, Michigan. I would run around the house and my parents or grandmother would “time” me. Little did I know at the time is that none of them timed me. I am crushed! (haha!) I would also stay a few days with her every summer as a young kid. I remember helping her do some work on her garden that she had in her backyard. There were a few stories about her childhood but sadly I really don’t remember any of them. I am working on a post about her trip to Europe in 1925 with her younger sister, Ruth. Sadly, she died while I was in the service (Army) in California in 1986 and a few years before I really got into my McCormack family history. She could have been a real treasure trove of knowledge.

A young Alta McCormack

The next woman that I would like to talk about is Ethel Davis McCormack. She was the wife of Henry Peacock McCormack, the only child of John Michael and Gertrude (Peacock) McCormack. The biggest thing that impresses me about Ethel, besides being a rather small woman in stature, is that she like her grandmother-in-law, Catherine, she had 10 children of which one is still alive! Anytime, a woman has 10 children, that is simply amazing! When her youngest child was born, her oldest was 21 years old!

Ethel Davis McCormack

The final woman that I would like to tell you about is Elizabeth Jane (Rohr/Dimmick) McCormack. I have written about her before – Celebrating Women’s History Month – Elizabeth J. (Rohr) Dimmick McCormack – but I will try to briefly tell you about her. Her story is very impressive. Very. She had married Edward J. McCormack, son of Michael and Catherine in 1886. In 1898, he died. At the time, they had four children. Here’s the kicker. She was pregnant with their last child. Northern lower Michigan in the winter is not a nice place. For a young woman with four children and another one on the way, it can be brutal. Well, she bought a general store in Mio, Michigan and raised her kids. She never remarried either. To top everything off, when she was 69, she “adopted” her two of her granddaughters. They were 7 years old and younger. Something else, huh? I thought so too.

Elizabeth McCormack behind the counter of her general store

I would like to mention two additional women. My mother and sister. My mother is something special. My sister is something else too. She and her husband had four kids of their own. About 5 or 6 years ago, they adopted three sisters.

Happy Mother’s Day to the women that I talked about here and to the rest of the McCormack mothers that I couldn’t mention due primarily to time and space!

I would like to thank you and everyone else for stopping by! I hope you learned something new and special.

November 26, 2015 by jcormack

Happy Birthday, Aunt Kate!

I don’t like to repost previously published posts, but since I haven’t been able learn anything new and I do want to honor the memory of my great grand-aunt Kate. I do wish that I could have met her while she was alive and well. I wonder what kind of lady she was. Thanks!

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Katherine (McCormack) Ingleright [1]

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you learned something!

Footnotes;

November 16, 2015 by jcormack

New Otter Lake Postcards Pt. 1

Hello once again! Today, I would like to start a short series of posts about four postcards featuring scenes of Otter Lake, Michigan that I recently bought on Ebay. Over the next few weeks, I will be introducing you to my newest additions to my McCormack family postcard collection.

The first one that I would like to show you is of a view looking down Detroit Street towards Otter Lake. There are quite a few things that I find interesting about this postcard. The first, which really “bothers” me, is that there is NO date anywhere on this postcard. However, I think I can at least guesstimate a beginning date. The car on the right side (of the road) is, in my opinion, a Ford Model A. That car was first introduced in Oct 1927. The next thing that I used to ID a starting date is the square sign above the end of the (horse hitch) or the middle of the first building. It is an IGA or Independent Grocers Alliance sign. They were founded in May 1927. Those are about the only things that I can see that could be used to assign a date to this postcard.

Looking down Detroit Street with the McCormack building on the left. [1]

Since most of the obvious date indicators in this postcard start in 1927, I will use 1930 a rough date for this postcard. The building on the left with the Purol gas pump in the front at one time house a general store operated by my great-grandfather, William E. McCormack. At the end of the buildings is another Purol gas pump and I think it maybe in front of the store (at one time) operated by William S. Hemingway, the older brother of my great-grandmother, Lavina Jane (Hemingway) McCormack, William’s second wife.

I hope you learned something new and thanks for stopping by!

Footnote;

1. Postcard of Detroit Street in Otter Lake, Michigan, , 2015, privately held by Jeff Ford , [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Lebanon, Tennessee, 2015

November 4, 2015 by jcormack

New Otter Lake Postcards Pt. II

I am finally getting around to continuing the series on my Otter Lake postcard collection. But this postcard really isn’t about the McCormacks. The “marquee” is for the Hemingways. They were a local family big in the Otter Lake area.

The W. S. Hemingway store [1]

The W. S. here would be William Sohmer Hemingway, the older brother of my great-grandmother Lavina (Hemingway) McCormack. I believe that I can make one identification in the picture above. Comparing the man at the corner of the front of the building to other pictures I have of the Hemingway clan I believe that the man is W. S. Hemingway. The one thing that I don’t know about this picture is the date. If the man at the corner of the store is indeed William S. Hemingway, then he was born in 1872. Then I am guessing that this picture was taken about 1900 to 1910. Maybe. In 1907, due to a lighting strike and explosion due to dynamite being stored in the building, the building was destroyed. So, I have narrowed the time period down to sometime before 1907. For a local tie-in, William’s sister, Lavina and her family lived two or three blocks to the left of the store as you look at it.

Thanks for stopping by and even though this post really wasn’t about the McCormacks, I hope you learned something interesting!

Footnotes;

1. Postcard of the W. S. Hemingway store in Otter Lake, Michigan, 2015, privately held by Jeff Ford, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Lebanon, Tennessee, 2015

July 8, 2015 by jcormack

Happy (Belated) Wedding Anniversary!

Hello once again! Today, even though I am a day late, I want to mark the wedding anniversary of my paternal great-grandparents, William E. McCormack and Lavina Jane Hemingway! They were married on 7 Jul 1897[1] which would make yesterday their 118th wedding anniversary! Can you imagine that being married to the same person for 118 years? The information that I have says that they were married in Otter Lake, Michigan where both of them lived at the time. I wonder if they got married at one of the local churches? St. Johns perhaps?

Lavina Jane (Hemingway) McCormack

William E. McCormack

Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you learned something interesting!

Footnote;

1. “Michigan, Marriages, 1868-1925,” index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NQQQ-FVV : accessed 16 Sep 2012), Wm. E. Mccormack and Lavina Hemingway, 7 Jul 1897.

March 29, 2015 by jcormack

The William E. McCormack general store postcard

Last Monday, 23 Mar 2015, I wrote about how I won an Ebay auction [1], for a postcard [2] showing the general store of my great-grandfather, William E. McCormack located in Otter Lake, Michigan. Btw, the store is still standing although it looks radically different looking now.

Postcard showing the William E. McCormack Store in Otter Lake, Michigan

The front of the postcard is relatively good shape with the exception of the handwriting in the lower right quadrant and the “code” in the lower left qaudrant.

The rear side of the postcard showing the William E. McCormack store in Otter Lake, Michigan

As shown in the first picture, this postcard has definitely been used. There are several things that we can tell from looking at the back. First, the postcard was published by the Backenstose Bookstore of Pontiac, Michigan. They published a series of postcards featuring Otter Lake that I have collected many of. Second, this postcard, as all the rest of my Otter Lake collection, was printed or made in Germany. Third, the postage was an amazing 1 cent stamp! Considering fact #4, as it appears to me, the postmark date of 23 Sep 1908 maybe charging one cent wasn’t all that amazing. From my brief research into when the stamp and postcard was printed, it appears that this particular stamp and postcard was in use from 1907 to 1914.[2] After 1914, due to World War I, postcards for use in the USA were not printed in Germany anymore but in England or the United States. Earlier, I mentioned a “code” on the front in the lower left corner. To me, it appears that the code is AGG131. As of the time of the writing of this post, I don’t know what that “code” means. Perhaps someday I will decipher and transcribe the message on the back of the postcard.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you learned something!

Footnotes;

1. “Winning an Ebay auction!”,
2. Postcard of the William E. McCormack general store in Otter Lake, Michigan, , 2015, privately held by Jeff Ford , [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Lebanon, Tennessee, 2015
3. “Tips for determining when a U.S. postcard was published”, Center of Southwest Studies, Ft. Lewis College, Durango, CO. revised 7 Aug 2006, visited 29 Mar 2015.

The Otter Lake Express

Telling the story of the Family of Michael McCormack

Otter Lake

The renovation of the William McCormack House!

Happy Birthday, Alta McCormack!

Mother’s Day for the McCormack women!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Kate!

Mother’s Day for the McCormack women!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Kate!

New Otter Lake Postcards Pt. 1

New Otter Lake Postcards Pt. II

Happy (Belated) Wedding Anniversary!

The William E. McCormack general store postcard

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