This continues a series adapted from the book, “A Port Oneida Collection,” Volume 1 of the twopart set, “Oral History, Photographs, and Maps from the Sleeping Bear Region,” produced by Tom Van Zoeren in partnership with Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear. Here we continue with a look at the old Warner Farm, which was along Thoreson Road across from the Thoreson Farm.
August Warner, the “bastard” son of Katie Poertner discussed in the previous installment, grew to manhood in Port Oneida, married Rosie Haas of South Manitou Island, and during the early decades of the 1900s built a new farm along Thoreson Road. Many years later, his grandson, Gene Warner, recalled a visit to the old farm: My Dad and I never got along well. During the first five or six years of my life, he was at sea (WW II) and when he came back he decided that I’d been raised by “those goddamned Kelderhouses” (my mother’s side of the family). We therefore rarely did anything together, or spoke to each other. He hardly ever spoke about his early life to anyone, anyway. But when I was about sixteen (1956), for some reason he decided to take me “up north” deer hunting. My grandparents, August and Rosie Warner, were then living in Glen Haven, so it was as much of a visit as a hunting expedition.
One day we got into the car, and he drove over towards Port Oneida, then turned off on a back road (Thoreson Rd), and finally into the yard of an old farm. The place was occupied by a couple of old guys he called “the Brammer brothers.” (I’ve forgotten their first names.) He seemed to know them quite well and sat there in their kitchen talking over old times for a couple of hours. The place was really rustic and drafty. It put me in mind of places seen on the old “Gunsmoke” TV series. I went out for a little while and walked around the farmyard, which also looked quite run-down, not seeing any livestock or any other signs of farming activity.
