Over a Century on Walloon: The Wilhoit/Ice/Smith Family

The Wilhoit family arrives at the lake on the Tourist passenger boat in 1914.

Trammel Ice, neighbor Chip Frentz, Charles Wilhoit, Barbara Ice Smith and Barbara Frentz enjoying a fishing expedition on Walloon, circa 1950. (Photos courtesy of the family)

By Lauren Macintyre

Like many other families, it was a honeymoon that first brought the remarkable Wilhoit/Ice/Smith family to Walloon. This honeymoon, however, took place more than 125 years ago, when businessman and banker Charles Wilhoit, Sr. brought his bride Louise Wisehart via train from Middletown, Indiana to Petoskey in 1896. Already in love with each other, they soon fell in love with the Petoskey area, buying land and building a cottage on what is now Lake Grove Road. The area was not only beautiful, the pure air of Walloon was also good for Charles’s hay fever and asthma.

Traveling to Walloon was a bit challenging in those days. First, they took an overnight train from Indiana to Petoskey, then transferred to the local train called the “Dummy” which took them to the Walloon Village at the foot. From the Village, the Wilhoits and their children loaded all their trunks on that most famous of Walloon passenger boats, the Tourist, for the final part of their journey to the West Arm. The Tourist stopped at the landing of the very popular Lake Grove Hotel, and from there the family walked to their nearby cottage.

Later in 1907, preferring a lakefront that was lower and closer to the water, the Wilhoits built a different cottage nearby on what is now known as Lake Grove Trail, formerly called Indiana Avenue. They still took the Tourist to their cottage, but now they would disembark at the Baer’s Den Hotel landing instead. It is this new cottage, humorously dubbed “Nod-a-Way” by Charles, that has remained in the family for 115 years and six generations.

The Wilhoits’ daughter Catharine, a teacher, married Trammel Ice, a farmer from Mt. Summit, Indiana, and continued the Walloon tradition. Catharine and Trammel had a son, Richard, and daughter, Barbara. When Richard was in England serving in WWII, he fell in love with a petite, vivacious young lady named Joan Matthews from Devon, England, and promptly asked her to marry him. Joan came to America on the Queen Elizabeth, and married Richard in

a double wedding with Richard’s sister Barbara and her fiancé Phillip Smith, also a WWII veteran. In 1947, Joan made her first visit to Walloon, and immediately fell in love with that, too.

Richard and Joan went on to enjoy a rich, fulfilling life in Indiana, always punctuated with visits to the family cottage, Nod-a-Way. Richard, who earned a degree in agriculture from Purdue, had an impressive career in farming and as an inspector with the Indiana State Department of Health; Joan served as a teacher’s aide while raising their family. Although Richard’s agricultural work kept him extremely busy, his annual sojourn at Walloon — taken for 92 summers — was always the highlight of his year. Together Richard and Joan had three children, Jennifer, Joe and Jill, and enjoyed a 75-year marriage that only ended last fall with Richard’s death at age 98.

Meanwhile, Richard’s sister Barbara and husband Phillip both went on to distinguished careers, living overseas for many years. Phillip was an official with the U.S. Agency for International Development while Barb was an elementary teacher and administrator, serving as a principal in Brazil and Virginia. Although their careers took them to Bolivia, Brazil, Nepal, Columbia and Peru, the one constant in their life was always Walloon. Eventually, Barb and Phil decided they needed a place of their own on the lake and in 1965 purchased a cottage three doors north of Nod-a-Way on Lake Grove Trail, which served as their main residence for many years and remained in the family until 2013.

Over the years, the family, which included their three children Scott, Deby, and Trammel, bought land and two other cottages on Lake Grove Trail. These included the Ratliff cottage and 47 acres of land on both sides of Lake Grove Road, which they purchased in 1978. They built a year-round house on the site of the Ratliff cottage and made some of the land available to nearby cottagers. Scott and his wife Dibby currently live in this house, three doors south of Nod-a-Way.

Education and public service have long been the hallmark of careers in the Wilhoit/Ice/ Smith family. Joe Ice and Jill Ice Cook, and their late sister Jennifer Ice Bell were all teachers, continuing the family tradition begun by their grandmother Catharine. Their cousin Scott Smith worked with the federal Agency for International Development in designing agriculture, education, health and disaster relief programs. Always interested in environmental programs, Scott also worked for The Nature Conservancy and served as a board member of the Walloon Lake Trust and Conservancy. In 2017, Scott was awarded the Damschroder Award by the WLTC. Scott’s sister Deby Smith Armstrong was a nursing instructor while his brother Trammel Smith worked as a recruiter for defense/ intelligence agencies.

Sadly Phil passed away in 2007, and Barbara in 2011. Before she passed away, however, Barbara chronicled her family’s remarkable history on Walloon and her fascinating life abroad in a book of memoirs entitled We Took the High Road. This book includes a captivating record of the complete Wilhoit-Ice-Smith family history and daily life on Walloon.

Today Joan Ice, the last of that great generation of the Ice family, is a spunky nonagenarian with a twinkle in her eye who still loves spending time in that 1907 family cottage, serving as the keeper of all those heartwarming family memories. Standing in front of the picturesque old stone fireplace in the cottage she noted “I actually remember when this fireplace was built by George Depew with stones from the lake.” There have been various additions to the cottage, but today the original house is still very recognizable. Today siblings Joe Ice and Jill Ice Cook own Nod-A-Way.

Cherished for 115 years, Nod-A-Way has been home to six generations of the Wilhoit/ Ice/Smith family, many of whom never missed a summer on the lake. As Barbara notes in her book, “How we love Walloon — all the great times we had in the four cottages on Lake Grove Trail that we did live in...we sure enjoyed living our lives in Michigan on Walloon more than any other place in the world!”

Joan Ice, summer 2021, in front of the fireplace in Nod-A-Way

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