Comings and Goings – Article 2 - Loch Haven Newsletter May 1993

COMINGS AND GOINGS

by Tommy Dicken

This is the second installment of Early Loch Haven as Remembered by Dick Edwards:

It was two years before my house was completed, mostly with amateur labor: the plumbing, wiring, and brick chimney were the only professional jobs. During the summer of 1952, Harold and Evelyn Trafton and I sat on their front terrace one afternoon and decided that it was time for Loch Haven to have a civic association. We approached all the residents at the time and got about 25 to agree - and that was the start of the Loch Haven Civic Association.

About that time, a group of people camped out on the corner property opposite mine. They left trash and burned bark from a huge old oak tree and were otherwise undesirable for neighbors, so I called Sudye Mellichampe to find out who they were. She said they were expected to buy the corner lot the next day. I bought it and three others adjoining that very evening. I had to build on them; so I put up three houses that set the tone for this neighborhood. I used all local help, which at the time could be picked up at Collinson's Corner store: nine men, including an excellent bricklayer, who became foreman; an expert carpenter; a good wall finisher; and the rest helpers. These three houses turned out so well that others followed, till I had done about twenty.

After eight years I gave up the business. Ray and Irene Sooy bought the largest house, the Herb Duffys bought the small one, and a couple of owners had the corner house now occupied by the Wolfes. 

One man who kept coming to the corner house I originally built was Adm. Glenn E. Trester, to see the sort of work we were doing. He advised that he owned 3 acres in Larkington on Brewer Creek and offered me the chance to build for him. That was how we got to build other than the first three houses. The Trestors and I became good friends; a few years later, when I retired from airlines flying, we started a small boat business that became Glenn-Ed Boat Sales in Eastport.

Most of the people I've mentioned were the first settlers in Loch Haven. The next group included Mrs. Howard at the top of the hill; Dean and Jane Hoffman and Dean's mother, Evadence; Mr. and Mrs. George Jacobi; Mr. and Mrs. Lanier McLachlen; Vince and Milda Lowman; the Salmones; the Schnicks; Vaughn and Ginny Wilson; and then many more.

After Several Years of slick muddy roads, we finally got the county to install paved roads. The road from Route 214 to Loch Haven curved halfway in and became single lane. During Hurricane Hazel (1952 or '53) we were without power for three or four days. I had a full freezer, so all the neighbors came and ate, and we grilled meats on the fireplace. We got water from a hand pump on a lot at the top of the hill, a lot that was not yet built upon...(To be continued in the next issue.)