Harmony Hall

The Thomas Family Ancestral Vacation Cottage

by

Visit from the Crystal Lake Cousins!

This week we had a lovely visit from Mary (Stewart Vallance) and Ed Franco. They made the trek over from beautiful Crystal Lake…about 1:45 according to Mary. Mary’s father ,Theodore Vallance was a great favorite of all the third, fourth and some of the fifth generation HH members. Grandmother’s little brother, Teddy, was on the faculty at Penn State among many other accomplishments. He and aunt Jean had three children, Beau, Harvard and Mary. All three still frequent the Crystal Lake cottage and visits back and forth used to be a yearly event. We are going to resurrect this tradition.

It was a rainy day in northern Michigan, ideal for visiting in front of the fire. We had a lovely lunch of lemon chicken soup, salad and brownies.  cousinslunch2 cousinslunch1In addition, Mary brought along the 1904 love letter correspondence between Maude Perkins and Graddy Vallance, Grandmother and Teddy’s parents. She also gave a us few thumb drives with the letters digitized.

Overall, it was a great visit and we promised to make it happen again. Next time over on Crystal. Jeff, Sam and I flew over Crystal Lake on our way home, via MSP. It’s got the color of Torch. It’s also close to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park and several great new bike trails. We’ll make a day of it next year, sometime in July 🙂

cousins2It is interesting to note that since Teddy was so much younger than grandmother, Mary is a first cousin of the Twins and my first cousin once-removed, the same relationship between me and Felicia.

by

Life after the Twins

Both Janie and Charlotte (Auntie La) have been gone for more than a year now. Their spirits are definitely still here. I spend a fair amount of time looking over my shoulder mom. They were born in 1929 to William Huston Thomas and Charlotte Valance Thomas and lived very full impressive lives, spawning the bulk of the 5th generation of the cottage. Three willow trees were planted in their honor in the front of the cabin in the thirties I believe. The middle tree was removed in fairly quick order since it was interfering with the view of the lake and more specifically the sunset.
Now the other two trees are gone. They had also lived out full lives (for willows). The north tree stump remains. Rather sizable since it’s diameter required a bigger saw than the tree guys had. That’s ok. We are entertaining suggestions on that stump. A viewing platform? An artistic carving? 20150826_203526_resized
From the shore the view is different, but there is more lake view. The south tree, removed last year) is already quite bushy and will soon block the view of the barbarians.
The view from the lake is a little sad. My whole life on the lake was “look for the green and white cabin between the two willows”. I’ve told that to untold numbers of visitors….oh well. Now we are the property next to the very long ling of boats. Even easier to see (thank you SC).

Login Etc