Trumbull Homestead Photos

Lewis Elston (left-most), Nancy (Farren) Trumble, Mary (Fisher) Elston (seated), Emma Elston, Maybell Elston, and Vet Trumble at Gaylord, Otego Co., Mich.

Left to right: Sylvia Trumble, Nancy (Farren) Trumble, Emma (Trumble) Elston (standing), Betty (Sylvia's daughter), and Maybell Elston.

Photo taken between 1975 and 1980 of ruin of log house between Ewen and Bergland in Ontonagon Co., Mich., where Maybell Elston grew up.

The Trumble Log House North of Gagetown

The family was working in the antiques trade in the Detroit area during the boom years of the twenties; when the Great Depression hit there was no market for antiques so my Lois Wilson and her parents closed up their house in the city and removed to the family homestead in Huron County. On the farm they could produce what they needed to live on and so weathered out the Great Depression. The old farm house was already being used by family members (it had never ceased to be a working farm) so Lois and some of her family moved into the old log cabin her great-grandfather had built 50-60 years earlier when he settled in the area.

This Cabin was built by one of the Trumbles (Andrew or one of his children) after they moved to Gagetown ca. 1868-9. The exact date of construction is unknown but it was probably following the disasterous fire of 1881 which destroyed so much of the Thumb area. The accompanying photograph of Mr. Edsel Kinney (Lois Virginia Wilson’s first husband) was taken in 1948. The cabin passed out the the Trumble family in 1950 when it was sold to Stanley Gordon, Esq. of Detroit. Mr. Gordon moved the cabin a few feet from its original location onto a concrete slab, connected electrical service and running water, as well as covering the logs with modern siding. The cabin was still standing as of October 1989.

Below and right: Photos of the old Trumble log house, taken in the summer of 1983.