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The following history is taken from an autobiography of Grace Meyer, 1999.
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We looked for a place that we could make a living and we looked in northern Wisconsin. We found a place on Seven Mile Lake. It was a deserted boys camp. We put money down on it and, in the meantime, we had sold the 1844 Mobile Avenue rooming house in Chicago. But, after we put the money down, the man changed his mind as he thought he could get more for it than what he had offered it to us for. We talked to him but he would not sell it to us. We hired a lawyer from his town, Manitowoc Wisconsin, and he had to sell it to us. We paid $10,000.00 for it and that also included the woods across the street. So, we moved to Eagle River Wisconsin on March 7, 1945. There was still snow on the ground.
We hired a big truck to move us and we pulled a trailer behind our car, which was full of stuff too. We were ahead of the truck and in Antigo the trailer broke. We waited for the truck and they loaded the stuff into the truck.
We moved into the big house and cleaned it up. It was all a mess.
Then we started building Cottages. There were 2x4's inside and canvas covers over the screens in front. We made 16 cottages out of it. We had a crew of carpenters headed up by Larry Stamper.
By the time summer came and it was time to rent, we had them ready. We bought the furniture on time and also some second hand furniture which we hauled from Chicago.
After the men were through working in the evening and on the weekends, Ralph and I would clean things up , as everything was a mess. We were busy and very tired at times but it was an interesting time.
Ralph took care of the renting. Arlene Stein was in the information bureau in Eagle River and she helped us a lot in case we had an opening. Ralph went to town every day and got Arlene a cup of coffee and a doughnut. He always stopped at Jim's Cafe, the restaurant across the street from the information bureau. (Now Fay's Dinky Diner)
We had such nice customers.
We had the resort for 26 years. They came from babies on up. Some were married and had babies and came every year. These children grew up at our resort. It was a nice business.
After Labor Day, when most of the renting was over, Ralph would go into the woods and look for Christmas trees. We would buy them, cut them and take them to Chicago for sale. We usually made $1,000 on them and that would pay our taxes which were about $600. After the trees were sold, we would go to Loma Linda California.
Merle and Clem Moses lived in Clearwater Lake Wisconsin, they were builders and had two brothers that lived in Loma Linda. Ralph would work for them and I would do colporteur work with Vesta Olmstead and Orville Small, all from Clearwater Lake.
A few years later we decided to go to Corpus Christi Texas. We did not work there. We had a little money then which got us through the winter without working.
After that we went to Florida because our friends the Stampers were wintering in Eustis Florida, we stayed there for two winters. We rented a house and befriended Harry and Jannika VanKouteran. They were Dutch.
By 1965-1967 we were trying to sell the resort but it did not sell. So in 1968 we locked up in Wisconsin and headed for Chicago to be with Ken and Roberta. We first stopped in Marshfield Wisconsin to see the heart doctor for Ralph and it was pretty good. We got a motel room that night and I came down with the flu. I said to Ralph, "we had better get two beds so you don't get it." The next day I felt much better but Ralph had the flu too. I said "how can we go to the kids with this flu, lets go back to the resort." Ralph said, " all the water is turned off, we can't go back." We went to Ken and Roberta's with the flu. Roberta said, "don't worry, I'll give the kids a lot of vitamin C and they will be alright." We went to the doctor in Antioch with Ralph and he was sick, but a few days later he said, Let's go! I said, " oh no, you don't feel good enough." Yes, he said, we're going. So off we went.
We drove one day and it was fine, the second night we stopped in Byron Georgia at the Magnolia Motel and Ralph died that night in the motel.
Aggie andj Dick came up to Byron and we went to Chicago. Ralph was buried in Mound Emblem cemetery. Then I went back to Florida with Aggie and Dick and stayed with them that winter.
I went back to Eagle River and my sister Annie and her husband Eef came from Holland to be with me. Annie helped me all summer and at first Eef was so unhappy. Then Annie brought him down to the beach where everybody sat and he was happy. He talked to everybody but he could not speak english. He painted everything in the little tool house, even the tools, it looked so nice.
In the fall we all went to see a friend in south Florida, then to Chicago and then to Holland.
The next year I was alone but one of the neighbors on the other side of the lake helped me very much.
In 1971 I sold the resort to Bob and Elaine Otterstatter. They made their payments every month. I moved to Florida and bought the duplex we live in now. After a while, not too long, I bought the duplex next door.
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