Stories & Tales of the Michaelis Family
Stories & Tales of the Michaelis Family |
George Michael Michaelis
By Walter Michaelis & Fred
Richter
George Michael Michaelis, youngest child and son of Henry John Sr. and Catherine Ruff Michaelis was born in Paxico, Wabaunsee County KS April 20, 1873. George's older brother Joseph was the first white child born in the county and attended the Indian missionalry school there, and very possibly, so did George. Also, it is reported that George later attended a Catholic seminary with the intention of becoming a priest.
George farmed with his father until he moved to Indianapolis to work as a carpenter for his older brother Floribert. His sister, Elizabeth, had married and moved to California in the Los Angeles area. He visited there and fell in love with it. Returning to Kansas, he married Augusta Schott on May 15, 1900 at the age of 27. Augusta was born in Davenport, Iowa and had moved from their farm with her parents to a farm in Newbury, Ks. She worked as a maid for a wealthy family in Manhattan, Ks before meeting and marrying George. George moved to California with his new wife, settling on Santa Catalina Island.
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George (left) w/ large black sea bass. |
There he started a fishing charter business and shared a stand on the beach with "Indian Joe" where they booked the fishing parties. Indian Joe was known as the best fisherman on the island and taught George the trade. Santa Catalina and the little town of Avalon are a story in itself which I will not cover here. It has been developed into a very famous resort, hosting many celebrities as residents. But, in 1900 it was mainly undeveloped, rocky cliffs, with little water available. The children attended school on the mainland, 27 miles across sometimes very treacherous water. George can be considered a true pioneer, being among the first year-round settlers on the island.
They moved to California and located at Avalon, Catalina Island where he owned and operated a charter boat fish camp. One frequent visitor was Zane Gray who would arrive with several of his friends on his sail yacht and rent the entire camp for two weeks. In 1906 George had three small boats and had some of his brothers(one was his brother Joseph) and cousins there to help operate them. They were fishing at Santa Cruz Island and the boats were too small to sleep on so the men camped on the beach and George remained with the boats. That night a storm came up and the men ashore could not get out to their boats. George pulled up anchor and went around to the lee side of the Island to ride out the storm. When he returned after the storm two of the boats were sunk at their moorings and one was washed up on the beach. All the boatmen were safe.
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Crowds on
the boardwalk by aquarium, |
They lost their home in Avalon in the Fall of 1915 when over half the town burned down. George was on the volunteer fire department when he discovered their house was going to be destroyed. He rushed to the house but when he arrived it was engulfed in flames and burning out of control. All their belonging were lost and he was unable to salvage anything from the fire. George, Augusta and four children moved into a one-room barn for a short period. No electricity or water. In 1916 they moved their few belongings in the Juanita to a two bedroom house they rented in Wilmington, Ca. Wilmington was adjacent to San Pedro and is now the Los Angeles Harbor. Shortly after that George lost the boat in a foreclosure to pay off his debtors. WW I was coming and he went to work in the shipyards in San Pedro just missing the draft.
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Michaelis Fish Camp |
After the war he was furnished a boat by a tuna canary in Wilmington and fished on shares for Albacore. During that time he was fishing the San Clemente Channel, which is about 26 miles South of Catalina, he would visit an old friend that ran a fish camp at Mosquito Harbor on San Clemente. He bought the camp in 1921. It had a large dinning room and kitchen, 7 tents for guests, plus sleeping quarters for himself and son Walter. The camp could accommodate 14 people. Late in the season of 1925 a fire started on the kerosene stove and the camp went up in flames. And that put an end to the Michaelis Fish Camp. Not too long after the fire the Navy took the island over and moved everybody off, including the sheep ranch and all the sheep they could round up.
Some years later, and out of work, he got on the WPA program and was sent to San Clemente to work for the Navy. In April 1939 he died in a hotel room in San Diego and is buried in the family plot in Wilmington along with his wife Augusta, and daughter Lillian.
George and Augusta had 4 children, all born at Avalon, Catalina: Juanita Elizabeth, born Nov. 4, 1901 who is still living at the age of 97 in a nursing home and doing very well. The oldest living Michaelis of that generation; Bertha Catherine was born Sept. 23, 1904 and died Jan. 11, 1974 in San Diego, Cal.; Lillian Mary was born Nov. 16, 1906 and died April 21, 1917 in San Pedro, Cal.; Walter John was born Aug. 25, 1911 and is still living.
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