Guest Registry Offers Glimpse at Early 1900’s Hospitality

By ANGELA KELLOGG-HENRY

Cleaver Managing Editor

The latest item to be acquired in the history collection at the Harrison District Library is a guest register from the Lewis House in Harrison. The register is dated 1907-1908 when T. Proctor Rose (1863-1919) operated the hotel. Rose had a son named June William that was born in Harrison in 1899 and later held many positions serving the community.  The library has many early photographs that come from the Rose family donated by June and his wife Fern.

Rose was first a clerk at the Lewis House in 1894. The Clare Sentinel runs an item in October of 1894 that Rose is leaving for the Upper Peninsula, specifically Menominee county to find a hotel opening. He obviously returns as manager and the guest register during his reign quite amazingly had made its way back to Harrison.

The guest register is a large well-used ledger after 118 years of use and presumed storage. The register only accounts for two years at the hotel and is just over half full of guest entries. The remaining pages of the book were utilized as an accounting register in the years 1949 and 1950 by someone unknown. No page was wasted!

In August of 1903 the Clare Sentinel reports: “The Lewis House and Mrs. Burch [Christina Buch] have several resorters stopping with them. The pure air, pure water, beautiful park and lake appeal to them as a good place to pass a few weeks here each summer.” The item foreshadows the popularity of the northern part of the county as a tourist attraction just a few decades away. Christina Buch ran a hotel in Farwell and later ran the Johnson House during the lumber era. I’ve written about Buch in the past and her amazing career as an unmarried hotelkeeper.

Also in 1903, under the management of James O’Connor and Son the Clare Sentinel announces that the Lewis House will soon be heated by steam and that a feed barn and livery will be added.

From the notes in the register there were between 15 and 17 rooms in 1907/8. Many names are recognizable as early Clare County politicians, businessmen and visitors of family that lived in the area. Names were signed as well as where the guest lived. While it doesn’t seem like the guests lived faraway-Temple, Clare, Farwell, and Mt. Pleasant, most travel was still by train or horse. If court was in session for a few days to a week in Harrison, the county seat would be full of people and many stayed at the Lewis House! Hardly a day goes by without several guests at the hotel and sometimes a dozen.

An interesting guest is entered only as “J.H. Bennett Big 4 Tent Show” in 1907. According to the newspapers of the time this show was a vaudeville tent show sometimes with moving pictures included that traveled with the “Hurst Family colored troupe” and a brass band.

A few names are intriguing including “Old Dad” from Reed City and Happy Hooligan from Mt. Pleasant. Others using their actual names and prominent citizens also stayed at the Lewis House; the Wilson family, Ben Carpenter, the Morrissey family, John R. Brown, the Hughes family and many more.

As you might assume the Lewis House was built by a Lewis, Charles H. Lewis just before 1890. The newspapers name so many managers after Lewis it’s hard to keep track! Henry Heisman manages it next. Heisman held many positions in county government. He was the Cornet Band director and was a key player in early Harrison history-namely as the undertaker that was tasked with moving the notorious Jim Carr’s remains. That’s another story.

The Clare Democrat and Press report a glowing review of Heisman’s establishment in their October 3, 1890, issue, “One of the best managed and nicest little hotels in Michigan is the Lewis House, at Harrison, under the management of the well known and genial Henry Heisman. The hotel is a model of neatness and very convenient , sets a better table than is usually set in a large city hotel, and the Landlord Heisman sees to it that his guests do not do without what they want, hence the house is enjoying the cream of patronage. Clareites visiting Harrison will do well to remember this.”

Before Proctor takes over and this guest register is used, the rates were $1.50 per day, and the Clare Sentinel notes a special is offered to teachers attending examinations the rate of .75. Proctor’s guest registry lists $2.00 per night and record guests payments.

The hotel through many other managers and landlords until purchased by Charles Bingham in 1916, remodeled and renamed the Commercial Hotel. The Clare Sentinel gave a description of the opening: “Last Saturday evening marked the opening of the Commercial Hotel. Each guest received a carnation flower and Te-Ka Crush refreshing drink. Campbells Orchestra furnished music during the evening. Mrs. Ellis Hughes and H. Gardner rendered a vocal duet which was very much appreciated. At the close of the entertainment the young people engaged in dancing. Altogether the evening was one of great enjoyment and all due, to the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Chas Bingham who make it a study of ‘how to please their guests’ and of which the evidence of their success is proven beyond a doubt.”

Bingham ran the hotel until he put it up for sale in 1923 and moved to Walled Lake to run a hotel resort called the Pioneer Inn. C.L. Krause takes over management. The building burns down at an unknown date but is mentioned in Bingham’s obituary in 1951.

Hotels and boarding houses also played several roles beyond offering meals and overnight accommodation in the early 1900s. Often visiting doctors, eye doctors, and others offering their services would do so at a local hotel. They would advertise their goods or services for specific dates and see their patients and customers at the hotel. With few rural hospitals hotels were often used as places to convalesce during and after an illness.

Another interesting historical fact about the Lewis House is that it held Harrison’s first bowling alley. Not the multi-lane automated lanes we know today, but one wood lane complete with bowling pins. This bowling alley was installed by the Staup Bros. in 1903. Staup installed bowling alleys all over Michigan in the early 1900s.

To view the Lewis House guest book, contact Angela Kellogg-Henry at the Harrison District Library at akellogg@hdl.org, or at the Cleaver office. Genealogical lookups are also available. A full transcription of the names in searchable digital format will be conducted.