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.
Reading Mrs. Boizard’s mail served as a window through which I could look for glimpses of the thoughts, activities, relationships, commerce and struggles of people living in Glen Arbor just as the town became established in 1856. What we are shown when reading the Boizard letters is how some families lived and loved and partied and struggled 150 years ago in the very town we all love and visit or live in now. We also get a sense of how some things haven’t changed all that much in 150 years.