Michigan Family Farms and Farm Buildings: Landscapes of the Heart and Mind

Chapter 10. The Rheault Farm

chapter 10  The Rheault Farm Early in the morning on the Fourth of July, 1988, we drive through the town of Lake Linden on our way to meet Mr. Reuben Rheault and his wife Margaret. Bootjack Road winds around from the city of Lake Linden, east of Houghton/Hancock, and along the shore of Portage Lake to Princess Point. We do not know if the farm is active or has any significant, traditional barns or buildings of interest. Bootjack Road has few farms, mostly housing, but on reaching the Rheault farm we know we are in luck. The farmhouse is to our right on beautiful waterfront property facing Torch Lake.1 There is a very large, traditional gable-roofed barn opposite the farmhouse, and it looks to be in active use. We are greeted at the side door by Mrs. Rheault and invited into the kitchen/dining area. We immediately launch into a conversation about the farm. Both Reuben and Margaret are animated and equally involved. Reuben recently had a heart attack. Margaret obviously knows a lot about their farm, is engaged in its work, and is taking an increasingly active role. Early Settlement Reuben tells us: “My father was proud of the Centennial Farm designation .” Clearly the longevity of their farm is a source of satisfaction . The farm was established in 1866 by Reuben’s grandfather and granduncle, who came from the little town of Joliette, near Three Rivers in Quebec. Both Reuben’s and Margaret’s families are of French Canadian origin. Although Reuben has never visited Joliette, in 1952 his mother and father did. They found a few families with the same name there. Reuben tells us: “I never did hear what possessed them to come this far. The French people were great lumberjacks . Woods people. They kept coming along with the woodworking industry. Woods were their main source of business and working as lumberjacks. When the mines came, in later years, it was mainly the Italian, Austrian people that were miners, and again the French The Rheault Farm 165 people were the woods people. And then, later, the Finnish people moved in, say early 1900s.” Margaret elaborates: “Everybody on this road just about was French, very little deviation from the French. But if you were to look at all the names that went to school with us there were a lot of Finnish people by then. So somewhere in that 50-year period it changed.” Reuben continues: “Grandpa and his brother homesteaded. They came in the spring or summer of 1866 and stayed here and built the first house in the hills back of the woods there. It was long gone when I was a kid, but we know where the site is. They came by boat. They saw the creek and followed the creek till they found the spring. There is a big spring back there. Then they knew they had good water . So they decided to build near the spring. And they cleared the land by selling the wood to the mining company. The following spring my grandpa went back, got married, and came back with my grandmother. They settled back here, and they had a total of 13 kids.” The Farmhouse The breakfast/dining area of the farmhouse where we are talking is the oldest part of the house. Reuben tells us: “This part was built 116 years ago. My dad said this part is built out of logs. They hurried to 166 michigan family farms and farm buildings Margaret and Reuben on the front porch of the farmhouse, 2004 build it so his oldest sister, the first one, was born in it. They built in the winter and hurried up to get it closed so that she could be born there. My dad was born in this house. I have never left this house.” This anecdote places the farmhouse completion at 1871. The family probably lived in the original log house while this house was constructed. They show us an early photograph of the farmhouse. The big hay barn is also in the picture along with a narrow road dividing house and work area. Reuben tells us: “The roads started to get opened in the thirties. That was with the horses and wooden rollers. You put a sleigh over it. They would do that in the spring for the wagons. I don’t remember opening the road with horses. What...