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| Edward E. Ayer |
This month, we have to pass the very western end of Geneva
Lake and the village of Fontana to begin our journey back toward the town of
Lake Geneva by following the south shore of the lake. We first pass the Harvard
Club, a settlement we will return to later, then come to the Oaks, home of
Edward E. Ayer and his wife, Emma Burbank Ayer.
Mr. Ayer lived a colorful and adventurous life from the time
he was born in Kenosha, WI in 1841, when the state was still only a territory.
His father owned a general store and blacksmith shop, but was also somewhat of
a speculator and had the ingenuity to purchase land near where a train depot
was to be built and constructed a hotel there. He also had a hand in planning the new
village of Harvard, IL, just over the state border from Geneva Lake. Edward was
educated in the first school in Harvard which he is noted as saying that books
were scarce and he only recalled learning from reading the Bible and the works
of Josephus.
Once grown, he headed west, first to Nevada where he worked
in a quartz mine and then to California to join the First California Cavalry
Volunteers.
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| The Oaks--the somewhat modest home of millionaire E. E. Ayer |
At the end of his service he returned to Harvard to join up
with his father’s business of supplying railroad ties to the railroad
companies. Shortly after returning to Harvard he met and married Emma Burbank
and they eventually moved to Chicago. By then he was an avid collector of art
and books, and became involved with the Newberry Library and the Art Institute
in Chicago.
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| A rustic bridge at the shoreline of the Ayer estate. That could be E.T. Ayer himself standing on the bridge. |
In 1875, Mr. and Mrs. Ayer acquired a very large plot of land next to the Harvard
Club and built a modest summer residence. Over the years, additions were made to
the home, but never was it as opulent as some of the others on the lakeshore.
The land attached to the home was massive and it wasn’t long before the Ayer
Farms were well known for being the best developed in Walworth County.
Edward Ayer died in 1927, but his wife Emma returned to the
estate every summer for the next five years until she passed away. Their
daughter kept the home until 1941 when it was sold to a church group. Today the
Abbey Springs subdivision sits on the site. However, if you drive along Lake
Shore Drive next to the property, you will see the stone wall that was built
around the land when Ayer first built his home there.
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| Abbey Springs Subdivision on the land that was once The Oaks |
If you are interested in learning more about Edward E. Ayer
and his unique background, you can find several articles and a detailed
biography by searching his name on Google.
Resources:
Lake Geneva Newport of the West; Ann Wolfmeyer & Mary
Burns Gage, 1976
The Live of Edward E. Ayer, Frank Lockwood, 1929
Wikipedia. Org
Lake Geneva in Vintage Postcards; Carolyn Hope Smeltzer
& Martha Kiefer Cucco, Arcadia Publishing, 2005
A native
of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, author Pamela S. Meyers lives in suburban Chicago
with her two rescue cats. Her novels include Thyme for Love and her 1933
historical romance, Love Finds You in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Love is All We Need (the sequel to Thyme for Love) will release soon Her novella What Lies Ahead is part of a novella collection, The Bucket List Dare, which is now
available on line in both print and eBook formats. Second Chance Love from Bling!, an imprint of Lighthouse Publishing
of the Carolinas, will release in January 2017. When she isn’t at her laptop
writing her latest novel, she can often be found nosing around Wisconsin and
other Midwestern spots for new story ideas.
Another interesting post. Thanks for sharing.
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