Carl Faust, 100, of Mackinaw City Recalls Early Years in Area
By Paul Gingras

Carl Faust of Mackinaw City celebrated his 100th birthday Monday, April 23. Mr. Faust, originally from Gehau, Germany, has been active in the community since 1947. He is highly regarded by Mackinaw City residents and members of the St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Cheboygan, where he has been a member since 1948.

In 1927, Carl Faust looked out over the churning waters of the Atlantic Ocean. He was 19 years old, a craftsman from Germany on a boat to Canada. As his ship cut through the watery divide, he turned 20, a milestone on a journey that gave him time to consider his future. Mr. Faust was following in the footsteps of friends, young men who emigrated before him, seeking new lives, new experiences, leaving their homeland for an unknown future.

Now invisible behind him was his village, Gehau, an agricultural community of about 40 houses. Ahead was North America, in particular, the City of Detroit, where he would eventually begin his new life.

Mr. Faust now lives in Mackinaw City, having traded Detroit for northern Michigan in 1947, said his daughter, Annamarie Buggell of Novi.

A hearing impairment makes conversation a challenge for him, she added, but it didn't stop her father from celebrating his 100th birthday Monday, April 23, at the Mackinaw Senior Center, where dozens of residents turned out to honor him.

Mr. Faust communicated by writing on a board, showed off a little by straddling chairs backwards, and demonstrated the sense of humor he is known for, said his goddaughter, Mim Schneider of Mackinaw City.

In the midst of hugs and slaps on the back, people would occasionally speak to him directly, and he would respond with a jovial "I hear you not," and laugh.

Mr. Faust's original home of Gehau was a typical German village, Mrs. Buggell said. The houses varied in size and shape, but something set the Faust house apart from others: It was the first with a telephone. In 1914, the phone rang and the family was told that World War I had begun. Carl was sent to inform the mayor, and like a town crier, the mayor announced the onset of the war to the village.

Mr. Faust lived with his father and mother, Wilhelm and Anna Martha, who were farmers. He had an older brother, Georg, and a younger sister, Annemarie. The family owned a small grocery store, guest house, and pub.

After completing eighth grade in Germany, Carl went on to trade school and became a cabinet maker. He was an active young man who participated in gymnastics and a rifle team, Mrs. Buggell said.

The German custom for the oldest son to inherit the family home was probably part of his decision to emigrate, she added.

Sponsored by a Canadian farmer, Mr. Faust made his way to Ontario, where he worked to pay off his passage across the Atlantic. He was the only member of his family to leave Germany, but he was happy to come to North America, where he eventually crossed the border to the United States and took a job as a model maker for Fisher Body, a division of General Motors.

In Detroit, he met Fred Grebe, who had immigrated from the German village of Machtlos, near Gehau and had also paid his passage by working on a Canadian farm. The two men had not met in Germany, but their families almost certainly knew of each other, Mrs. Schneider said.

When Fred and Pauline Grebe were married, Mr. Faust was invited to be an usher in the wedding.

He met Amalia Pshigoda in Detroit and the two married in 1835 at her the home of her aunt and uncle in St. Joseph. Their daughter was born in 1945.

It was the Grebes who first decided to migrate north, where they received the Fausts as visitors for several years. In 1947, the Faust family followed. Mr. Faust built Spruce Lodge on US-23, between Cheboygan and Mackinaw City. There, the family settled into what Mrs. Buggell describes as a life of hard work and serious responsibility.

Mr. Faust's decision to move was engendered, in part, by his frequent visits north, Mrs. Schneider said. Small communities were probably more appealing than big cities, both for Mr. Grebe and Mr. Faust, owing to their upbringing in small villages, she added.

The Fausts' daughter joined the family business early in life. At two years old, her first task was to empty the lodge wastebaskets.

The family ran the motel for 40 years, tapping the stream of tourists who traveled the highway each summer. Like any job, it had its ups and downs, Mrs. Buggell said.

She describes her father as a hardworking man who enjoyed the travelers passing along the road. He spent almost all of this time working, sparing just a little time for deer hunting, she said.

The Spruce Lodge began as seven cabins. Later, Mr. Faust added a four-unit motel. All were log-style buildings that fit into the woodsy landscape along the highway.

When it comes to woodwork, Mr. Faust is a perfectionist, and he proved his prowess when he helped rebuild Cheboygan's St. Thomas Lutheran Church in the early 1950s.

"He did a lot of work on that building," Mrs. Buggell said. He produced the altar rail, balcony rail, and ornamental woodwork near the organ grates. Mr. Faust also helped with bricklaying and stonework.

He began at St. Thomas in 1948 and remains a member of the church today, said Pastor Harry "Budd" Wagner, who met Mr. Faust when he began preaching at St. Thomas in 1973.

"He has been a dear friend for almost 40 years, like a grandfather helping me learn and grow," he said.

The pastor describes Carl and Amalia Faust as "very conscientious and disciplined in their faith" which, for Mr. Faust, reaches back to a German Lutheran church in 1907.

Amalia Faust died in 2001, at age 95, leaving their daughter with memories of a family that pushed her to succeed.

As a child, Mrs. Buggell attended Mackinaw City Public Schools, which had two buildings, one for kindergarten through seventh grade students, and another for eighth through 12th grade.

Her father encouraged her to go to college, she said, an opportunity he never had. She attended Lake Superior State University for one year, which was then a wing of Michigan Technological University. Later, Mr. Faust supported her decision to go to Michigan State University, where she earned a degree in physical science and became a computer programmer.

Her father is as proud of this achievement as he is of his granddaughter, Susan Buggell, 29, who serves in the U.S. Army, Mrs. Buggell said.

In recent years, Mr. Faust has been a regular visitor at the Mackinaw Senior Center, where he eats dinner several times a week. He often visits the Schneiders and reflects on the old days in Detroit.

"He talks a lot about the past," Mrs. Schneider said, especially his experiences in gymnastics.

"He was very athletic," she recalls. "Once, I saw him walk all the way across the yard on his hands. Perhaps that's why he has remained so supple."

To this day, Mr. Faust strolls along US-23, helping keep his old stomping grounds clean.

"He is kind of a neatnik," Mrs. Schneider said, "always has been."

At his birthday party, Mr. Faust was very happy, she added, receiving a flood of cards. Each visitor also wrote down a favorite memory of him. His daughter will compile a book for him from the material.