Having concluded our series observing the recent passing of Port Oneida/Glen Arbor favorite son Leonard Thoreson, we return to the adaptation of the book, “A Port Oneida Collection,” Volume 1 of the two-part 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 Frederick & Margretha Werner Farm, at the end of Miller Road, focusing on Kathryn Miller--a city girl who came to live in Port Oneida:
Kathryn Frances Pold was a Chicago seamstress who had a business doing custom sewing and embroidery. She loved to travel and hike in natural areas. During a 1922 trip through northern Michigan, she found her way to the Seldom Inn, along M-22 north of Glen Arbor. There two things changed her life: she decided that “there isn’t any place that can compare with Leelanau County,” and she met Charlie Miller.
The Chicago businesswoman and the young Port Oneida farmer fell in love, and eventually married. They first tried living in Chicago, where Kathryn’s established business was. Charlie went to work at a candy factory. Before long though, they realized that “the city wasn’t for him,” and they came to live with Charlie’s family at the end of Miller Road.
