Beaver Island’s Historical Divide

April 22, 2016

Two Identities Get Along Just Fine on the Island Today

Perhaps no place in Michigan comes with a more interesting and fraught past than Beaver Island. It’s a history of two vastly opposed identities: Mormon temperance and Irish imbibing.

Once, the island was home to a Mormon king, a charismatic and despotic leader who commanded that his followers adhere to his strict, splinter brand of Mormonism. James Jesse Strang’s followers were chased from the island following his assassination in 1856 and, since then, the place has cultivated an Irish identity, one that’s survived to this day.

Patrick McGinnity, executive director of the Beaver Island District Library, is raising money to start a microbrewery called Whiskey Point Brewing Company in St. James, the island’s one and only town. McGinnity hopes to celebrate the island’s history with goodtasting craft beer.

WHISKEY POINT, TAKE ME HOME

McGinnity believes the island’s history rivals its beaches and natural beauty as far as its power to bring people there.

“I think it’s something we have to embrace, otherwise we’re missing out on one of the biggest things that could draw people to the island,” he said.

The Whiskey Point Brewing name refers, not just to a claw-shaped peninsula that encloses the harbor around St. James, but also to a crucial moment in the island’s history, when tensions between the Mormons and the Irish reached a boiling point.

Strang wanted to rid Beaver Island of alcohol; before he arrived, Irish settlers used whiskey as currency in their trade with Native American fishermen. As Strang shored up his hold on the isle, he sought to put an end to that trade. Strang believed the Irish took advantage of the Native Americans; he maintained they weren’t even trading them whiskey, but instead, they peddled a counterfeit home-brewed swill concocted of alcohol, red pepper and tobacco.

The struggle’s crescendo came in the early 1850s with the “War of Whiskey Point,” when Strang used a cannon to register his disapproval of the trading relationship. The action routed the Irish and other gentiles, first away from St. James and, eventually, off the island.

Local historian Alvin LaFreniere said no one was injured in the “Whiskey Point War,” but it served its purpose.

“Strang had a cannon and he fired one shot across the harbor at the gentiles,” LaFreniere said. “And that was the war. There may have been a few gunshots fired. I don’t know.”

It helped that Strang had already killed one gentile for refusing to pay an illegal tax Strang demanded of non-Mormons, he said.

“He proclaimed himself the saint of Beaver Island, but he was no saint,” LaFreniere said.

THE HISTORY OF STRANG

Long before history began recording what happened on the island, it was home to Native Americans. Artifacts have been found that pre-date the Ojibway, who called the island home when the first white traders arrived.

Great fishing and trapping and a natural harbor have always attracted people. In 1848, it attracted Strang and 25 followers. They were living in Wisconsin and were looking for a place they could call their own.

Strang was born a Baptist in 1813 and moved around seeking his fortune and his place in life. He was ambitious and demonstrated divine aspirations long before he converted to Mormonism. According to the forward of the “Diary of James J. Strang,” written by Russel Nye in 1961, “Young Strang confides to his diary that he had ‘great designs,’ that he is filled with dreams of ‘royalty and power’ as great as any ‘Caesar or Napoleon.’” At other times in the diary, which Strang kept between the ages of 18 and 23, Nye wrote that a more modest and thoughtful Strang emerged who wanted to dedicate his life to Christian service.

Strang met the founder of the Mormon religion, Joseph Smith, just before Smith was assassinated in Nauvoo, Ill., in 1844. Strang claimed to have had a divine vision and to possess a letter from Smith naming him the new prophet. He feuded with Brigham Young over who was the true heir and Young took his followers west while Strang took his to Wisconsin, and then to Beaver Island.

Over a few years, Strang and his followers slowly took over the island; they grew to outnumber the fishermen and Native Americans, and prohibited alcohol.

On July 8, 1850, Strang proclaimed himself king, the only instance in the history of the United States when a monarchy appeared within its borders. Strang demanded residents follow his strictures and tithe to his religion, and over several years, non-Mormons moved away.

That stirred resentment on the mainland, where Strang became increasingly unpopular. He also used his position to become elected to the state legislature in 1853.

Strang’s success and his rigidity made him more and more hated among non-Mormons.

In 1856, Strang was assassinated by disgruntled former followers and the culprits were not even tried after being arrested and brought to Mackinac Island. Two men were fined 50 cents each for the crime, Lafreniere said.

After Strang’s death, the Mormon population was forcibly removed from Beaver Island, by some accounts via a half-drunk Irish mob.

IRISH RETURN; TOURISM FOLLOWS

Many rushed to fill the void on the island, taking advantage of the fruits of the sober, hard work of Strang’s followers. They cultivated the farms planted by Mormons and lived in the buildings Strang’s followers had constructed.

By the turn of the century, there were 2,000 residents on the island, fewer than in Strang’s day, but more than today. In 2010, the year-round population was 657.

The mostly Irish residents thrived through the island’s logging days, which saw the land nearly clear-cut, and through the Great Depression, when fishing, fertile soil and an enclosed economy sheltered residents from greater troubles.

It wasn’t until World War II, when overfishing and invasive species saw the fishery collapse, that the population struggled and dwindled as residents headed to the mainland to find work. The island’s population declined slowly after that, until the 1960s when Beaver Island was discovered by tourists as a summer getaway.

Today, residents are hoping for another reinvention. McGinnity said the rebound from the recession of 2008 has yet to reach Lake Michigan’s Emerald Isle.

“The big news everyone is hoping for here is that we’re on the cusp of an economic recovery,” McGinnity said.

ONE MORE WHISKEY BAR

Today, Whiskey Point is a place where high schoolers make champagne toasts when they graduate. McGinnity, who moved to Beaver Island when he was 8, got married on Whiskey Point. He hopes to increase the number of bars on the island from five to six.

“One of the challenges for opening new businesses here has become our yearround population,” he said. “We’re pretty much at the max of how many liquor licenses we can have.”

A shortage of licenses was made worse a few decades ago when one of them was sold to a business downstate.

That’s what makes McGinnity think his business plan is a good one. Because he will apply for a special microbrewery license, it will expand the number of businesses open on the island and it will increase the number of places to get a beer for the first time in decades.

“One of the things we’re hoping to do is try to get a community center kind of feel to it,” McGinnity said.

Kitty McNamara, director of Beaver Island Historical Society, said she hopes Mc- Ginnity is successful. The island could use more businesses, she said. And she sees Mc- Ginnity’s ambition as a sign that a new generation is taking over.

“I think any kind of a new enterprise, especially one being developed by somebody in that younger generation, is awesome. I think it will help the diversity of the economy,” she said.

McGinnity is in the first phase of fundraising to begin the brewery, working to raise $25,000 to build a one-barrel electric brew house.

He said his first step will be to develop beer recipes. Later, he hopes to open a licensed brewery.

For more information visit whiskeypointbrewing.com