Big Pine Island Lake

Big Pine Island Lake, Grattan Township, Kent County, Michigan

The story goes this way:

My great-grandfather John Irving Weeks on his wedding day

One of the "islands" of Big Pine Island Lake

My great-grandfather, J. I. Weeks, owned property in Grattan Township, Kent County, Michigan. He also owned lake front property across Lincoln Lake Road on the shores of Big Pine Island Lake.

My great-grandmother, Jessie, sitting on the family's boat

The family's dock on Big Pine Island Lake

My grandmother's generation of children walked across the road all summer long to swim and boat on the lake. My grandmother met my grandfather while boating on the lake.

My grandmother, Eva, and grandfather, Clifford, on the Lake

About the same time, the family was growing up and J.I. wanted to send his girls to "normal" school to become teachers. This was very radical thinking at the time. Girls just didn't go to college; but he wanted this for his daughters, so he sold the lake property to raise money to send the girls off to college in Ypsilanti.

Here is an 1896 Plat Map that shows the land along the shores of Big Pine Island Lake and the home property across the road.

Detail of 1896 Grattan Township Plat Map

The story goes that the new owner didn't like the way the Weeks kids still came over to the lake property and treated it as their own. "You don't own this land anymore," he would say. "Go on home!" Knowing the cantankerous nature of the family, I doubt if they did.

Detail of 1921 Grattan Township Plat Map

Here's a map from 1921 that shows the land still owned by J. I. Weeks, which makes that story somewhat "iffy" because my grandmother was married in 1915. Stories get "embroidered" over time. I suppose there is some truth to the story. It's hard to tell who bought the land or when. Perhaps the Byrnes or Youngs bought the property. I can't find any later Plat Maps to check this out. I do know that the Byrnes and the Weeks family's married quite a lot in the previous generation...

One more family mystery to solve in the future...