All the hot weather we’ve had led me to re-read the 19th century Boizard letters written during the winter time in Glen Arbor. Exploring how some early white settlers got through the cold, snowy winters here offered an instructive perspective on the heat. I also wanted to continue to mine the letters for references to the Civil War, as the Boizard letters offer many informative first-hand descriptions.
Marietta Boizard, March 2, 1868, visiting Chicago, to Charles Fisher, her future husband, in Glen Arbor: “I have received Five very Pretty Valentines this year, but not one of them came from Glen Arbor.”
In this article I will continue to examine life during the Civil War through the first-hand accounts found in the fascinating Boizard letters, written between 1855-1888, and found in an old house in Glen Arbor. My focus here is on the letters written to and from Mr. John Oliver Boizard, who lived in Chicago from 1864 until his death in 1870, while his wife, Eleanor, and daughter, Marietta, lived in the woods across from the northern shore of Fisher Lake.
On Friday, May 6 at the Glen Arbor Township Hall, the Empire Area Heritage Group will present “The Boizard Letters” at 7 p.m. A half-hour video presentation will feature recollections of Julia Dickinson and Joan Bolton, who found over 100 letters written before, during and after the Civil War between a husband in the service, and his wife who stayed behind in Glen Arbor to fare for herself and her small child.