It was Marguerite’s grandpa, Samuel G. Rogers who first set up the original homestead moving there from Ontario. To do so, Samuel traveled to Traverse City and chose 80 acres along the Jordan River off the map. According to the family, it took several days of searching for survey markers until he found the correct spot. Crops were planted, land was cleared, and a cabin built by the end of September, 1869. He then returned to Canada to bring his new bride, Eleanor, back to the land. Eleanor was barely 17 years old and when they arrived in October, the ship that brought them was too big to continue past Charlevoix so they transferred to another sailing ship that took them to the mouth of the Jordan River. Then they took a canoe to what is now the boat landing on Rogers Road just outside of East Jordan and a short walk from their new home.
In February of that year, the young couple needed supplies.

The story goes that Samuel ice skated all the way to Charlevoix to retrieve flour, bacon, and salt (more than 16 miles all told). The couple had five children and the family made a living at first farming with oxen and later, with Clydesdale horses. Eleanor would spin the wool from their sheep and made socks for Samuel until they were both in their 80s. Hay has always grown abundantly.

The youngest of the children was Samuel E., Marguerite’s father, born in 1881. Samuel E. began the second generation of beef, pig, and dairy operations. But World War II made the next line of succession unclear. “I had one brother who wanted to keep the land farming, but he never returned from the war,” Marguerite explained. While Marguerite and, later, her husband Donald Stokes, had helped with the farming before the war, the meat operation was discontinued in wartime and she and Donald moved down state where Donald worked on essential war materials.

But the call of the North was too strong. As soon as the armistice was declared in 1945, the Stokes returned to the Valley with four-year-old Carolyn and eight-year-old Roger, living in the farmhouse.“Donald didn’t like the factory work at all and I came up with the idea that we needed to keep the farm, which was just fine with him,” Marguerite said. Marguerite had a vision of herself returning north to be a farmer. “Not a farmer’s wife…a farmer!” she emphasized. But soon she was asked to replace a teacher who had become ill, and Marguerite continued teaching in the East Jordan community for many more years.

Roger Stokes recalls a youth of hunting, fishing, trapping and planting Christmas trees, some of which still stand today. “I loved the farm and learned to love the outdoors in general,” Roger said. Roger spent the summers of 1944 and 1945 with his grandparents on the farm and he can remember working outside the day they heard the church bells ringing to declare the war’s end. After college, he recognized the difficulty of making a living on the land and chose a career that took him out of state. But he always hoped that somehow the farm would stay as it was.

Carolyn remembers having the run of the land and knowing “pretty much every speck of it.” After meeting in college, she and her husband Bill Ashley first lived in New England. But again, the Jordan Valley called and the Ashley Family finally came back to the region to stay, at first living in the village of East Jordan. After Donald died, Marguerite remained on the farm and kept varying aspects of it going. But as the upkeep became more difficult, the family came up with a good plan that brought Carolyn and Bill permanently back to the homestead to live and care for Marguerite. As part of this arrangement, Bill is able to pursue a life-long dream as a ceramics artist with his shop just down the road.

“When the torch was more or less handed to us to carry on, we were first a bit overwhelmed,” Bill said. “But I have found a home here. My spirit is comfortable here. My roots have been planted here.”

Acknowledging what a painstaking decision it was to determine the land’s future, both the Ashley and Stokes families feel that working with Little Traverse Conservancy to create the nature preserve was the right fit for them. “The integrity and straight forwardness of the staff made all the difference to us,” Bill said. As a family, we are very happy with the situation as it is now and we thank LTC for enabling us to protect this beautiful piece of land for future generations to enjoy.”

In addition to thanking the families, Little Traverse Conservancy acknowledges the following for making this project happen: the J.A. Woollam Foundation, several funds from the Charlevoix Community Foundation, North American Wetland Conservation Act program, Taylor Endowment Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas McMullen, Jasam Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Dow, Frey Foundation, and American Commercial Lines.

photo above: Samuel G. and Eleanor Rogers, the original homesteaders