User:Apino31/sandbox

History
In 1848 Michigan had suffered from a smallpox epidemic that feared the entire community of people. Chief Peter Waukazoo and Reverend George Smith moved the community as well as the Ottawa Mission up to the Leelanau Peninsula on boats or canoes. When the settlers had reached their destination they called it Waukazooville. Another man named Deacon Joseph Dame had come to Waukazooville in 1854, he had decided to change the name to Northport at this time.

Northport was the largest town in Leelanau County for quite a while in the 1800’s and 1900’s.Several general stores were built in the town in 1859 that had items such as cloth, thread, needles, foods, axes, etc. There was no doctor in town at this time so Reverend Smith was called on to deliver babies, help the ill, & numerous other things.

1850’s were a very hard time for Northport as they had to sit back and wait to see how The Civil War unfolded. By 1861 though they could not just wait anymore, only a few men enlisted and were soon shipped out. As the year had gone on, they began recruiting more men from Northport who ended up coming along.Hard times came and went for the men in the war & the families back in Northport. Finally April 9th 1865 came around and the soldiers had gone back to Northport due to the end of the war.

The planting of crops, as well as growing, was a hard time for the people of Northport in the late 1800’s. Having sanitary food was a necessity that sometimes was lacking in Northport. Many people that ended up living in Northport came from New York or Canada where the crops & economics were going down the drain.The fishermen, farmers, and other community would gather on the bay and cut chunks of ice for fisheries, hotels, or even private homes.

The Cherry industry that is so prevalent in Northport today had just begun in 1853 on Reverend Smith’s farm. Farmers began producing cherries so much within those first few years that cherries were being shipped to nearby cities for their markets.By the 1960’s cherry industry took a turn. In 1853 cherries were being harvested by hand or mechanically operated limb shakers, by 1970’s most farmers were using mechanical trunk shakers due to the damage that the tree was undertaking.