About this time King Strang decided to build a residence for himself. He
made the plans and called it the "King's Cottage." The King came to our
house asking my father to go to the harbor and help build his house. He
wanted him to do the framing, and father, not being very busy, and not
liking to refuse the King, went. Father was gone about six weeks, coming
home often to see how we were at home. He boarded at the house where
there were four wives. The King's Cottage was built very strong. A story
and a half high with a porch across the front. The wide hall went right
through the center, with massive strong doors at front and back, and
with an open stairway. On each side of the hall was a large room, two
bedrooms, hall and closets upstairs. A white picket fence about the yard
with a nice garden spot on the hillside. It was a pleasant, cosey home,
and the location was most beautiful, looking out on the harbor and Lake
Michigan. The house was in the midst of a lovely grove of forest trees,
maple, beach, oak and scattering evergreens. The cottage was built under
the small hill or terrace on a level flat and just a short distance from
the docks and stores. When we arrived after the Mormons had left the
island the house was in good repair. My father and mother occupied it
two years, being the first ones to live in it after Strang's death.
Strang had started a large addition to the cottage before he died, which
was much larger than the cottage itself. The addition was put at the
back of the main building, made of logs hewed on both sides, containing
eight rooms. But like the cottage itself, it has gone to decay. Strang
remarked, "I am getting so many wives I have to enlarge my house."
While father was there Strang invited him to dinner one day in his own
home, as he said he wanted him to see how a man could get along with
several wives. My father went and had a fine dinner, and Strang was very
gay, entertained with many jokes and stories. The four wives had very
little to say, but were smiling and pleasant and seemed very anxious to
please the King.