David Brobst, a retired Ohio school music teacher, holds a collection of vintage postcards his great-grandparents collected during their travels throughout the United States, including a few from Michigan's Eastern Upper Peninsula. Mr. Brobst and his family have been long-time summer residents of the Les Cheneaux area. In his attempt to learn more about his family history in the Les Cheneaux Islands, David Brobst of Hessel and Pickerington, Ohio, along with his daughter, has been sorting many old postcards that his great grandparents collected during their travels throughout mostly the mid-western states. He stores the postcards in a plastic container, organized by state.

Mr. Brobst knows people are fascinated by old images that depict how communities used to be, which also show how far they have advanced today.

"I think it's important to show the history of these places to people," he said, in sharing the collection with readers of The St. Ignace News. "We can not only enjoy these old postcards, but we can learn from them. I think it's important for me, my family, and others to share stuff like this with everyone."

One of the postcards in the Brobst collection depicts an old log house on US-2 in St. Ignace that was called "The Old Halfway House," which sold Native American hand-made crafts. The proprietor of the business was Nes-Wab No-Quay, according to the postcard. (Postcard courtesy of David Brobst) The postcards include St. Ignace, Mackinac Island, Mackinaw City, Les Cheneaux, Sault Ste. Marie, Tahquamenon Falls, and Pellston.

He also has a small collection of oversized postcards that measure more than 11 inches by five inches. The pictures on large postcards depict Les Cheneaux scenes.

Mr. Brobst has been able to trace his father's side of the family in the Les Cheneaux area to 1850 and on his mother's side, the Wagners, to the 1840s.

His great-grandparents, the Reverend Harry and Mrs. Elizabeth Brobst, were in the area since the turn of the century. Rev. Brobst pastored a Catholic church in Coldwater, Ohio, from 1905 to 1924, and finished his career in Columbus, visiting the Les Cheneaux area every summer. Both were originally from Ohio, but had traveled to many states, and the collection of postcards tells the story.

The Brobst family established a home in Hessel in 1907-08, while the Wagners built a cabin in Hessel in 1922. The two families lived right across from each other on Pickford Avenue.

Elizabeth Wagner Brobst purchased land near the water in Hessel but, fearing the water would rise too much, she sold it and purchased property farther up the hill, near M-134. The shoreline property was purchased by Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church.

Mr. Brobst's oldest daughter of three, Deanna Wilson of Lewis Center, Ohio, has been helping her father track their family's history at courthouses here and in Ohio.

Mr. Brobst is a retired elementary and secondary music teacher for schools in Whitehall, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. He taught for 30 years. He resides in Hessel in the L.A. Wagner cabin with his sister, Lenore Lutz of Columbus, every summer.