Finding Mrs. Boizard

By Barb Kelly
Sun contributor

I became a Boizard geek after reading The Boizard Letters: Letters From a Pioneer Homestead (1993) and I’ve explored several themes in those letters in this summer series of articles. In this final article in that series, I mention things I’ve found and areas still in need of further looking. One of the things I have found in my search for Mrs. Boizard is her tombstone in Maple Grove Cemetery. The concreteness of that granite slab carved with her name still gives me a thrill. I chuckle each time I drive past the cemetery and say: “I’m writing about you again, Mrs. B. Who knows if what I’m saying is anything like you at all, but I just want you to know.”

One of the more tantalizing clues about the personality of Mrs. Eleanor Boizard, who was an early white settler of Glen Arbor, is found in her obituary. Mrs. Boizard lived from 1828 until 1911. Her obituary reads: “Another pioneer gone, Grandma Boizard, who has been sick and a great sufferer passed away March 29, 1911…” That phrase “great sufferer” both tickles and intrigues me. It seems a gloomy way to be remembered. But what did it mean that Mrs. Boizard was a “great sufferer”?

One thing we find is that it meant she was easy prey for charlatan doctors. A woman who moved from Fort Myers, Fla, to a barely established 1860s Glen Arbor because she thought it would be better for her health here is probably desperate for anything to work. And this is where an infamous Dr. Derk Yonkerman comes into the picture.

Among the Boizard memorabilia housed in the Empire Area Museum is correspondence to Mrs. Boizard from Dr. Yonkerman, who practiced in Kalamazoo. An Internet search reveals that Dr. Yonkerman, who was actually a veterinarian, was one of the better-known quacks of the time. He advertised, “Consumptives, There is Hope For You!” and peddled a “medicine” he called Tuberculozyne. Unfortunately, Mrs. Boizard was taken in by Dr. Yonkerman, from whom she purchased and used Tuberculozyne through mail order for at least a year, until their relationship came to an abrupt halt. In a letter dated December 10, 1903, he tells her that he must immediately go out of business, though he realizes, “the disappointment this decision will bring to many.”

Another characteristic we find in Mrs. Boizard is a level of dissatisfaction which escalates throughout the Boizard correspondence. Her husband toiled away in Chicago, barely making enough to survive on, yet regularly sent support money and goods by ship to Glen Arbor for Mrs. B and their young daughter, Marietta. In one letter she thanked him for sending peaches, but wishes they had been pickles instead. In another she berates him for sending the wrong color material for a dress (“Why did you get it so dark?”). And so forth. There is a rhythm in the letters of her demands, his tries, his missing the mark, and her telling him so.

Many things we find in the Boizard letters are ripe for research. 1860s building materials, food and food storage, how the mail worked, are just some that come to mind. Also, from old plat maps we know the boundaries of Mrs. Boizard’s property and there is at least one clear remains of an earthen and wood foundation on that land. I would love to see National Park do archeological and architectural research in that area, if they haven’t already.

Second, several ships are mentioned by name in the Boizard letters. These boats carried people, lumber and goods across the Great Lakes in great numbers. Most of these boats can be studied further. For example, when Eleanor and Marietta travel to Chicago to spend the winter of 1867 with Oliver Boizard, they go by the propeller boat Oswegatchie from Glen Haven to Chicago. From an 1867 newspaper article about this boat we learn: “She is not only beautiful and symmetrical in mold, but she is as strong as wood and iron can make her. Her staterooms, cabins, saloons, etc., are all in keeping, being fitted up and furnished most admirably. Persons or families traveling upon her will find themselves surrounded by all the comforts of a good hotel. She has sixteen double staterooms richly furnished, while nothing can be in better taste and more comfortable than her ladies cabin and all its apartments.” 24 August, 1867.

I think one of the lessons of history is humility. We can’t pretend that we really know the object or person of our study, try as we might to look for them. But we discover such treasures along the way! Thank you, Mrs. Eleanor Boizard, for writing those letters long ago.

This GlenArbor.com article was sponsored by the Glen Lake Manor, where you can take in the view of Little Glen Lake while enjoying dinner.