Around 1934 my parents divorced while we were living in Sault Sainte Marie. My grandfather George Edward Griffin and his friends built a three bedroom place for my mother and the seven Laundry children, two boys and five girls. We lived there until the late thirties and never returned to live there again, only to visit. My grandparents George and Armilda (TROMBLEY) donated the property to the Jesuits and that was how the fist Catholic Church was started. Grandpa and his friends helped revert our house into a the first Catholic Church on the island.

When my grandfather passed away in 1946 on the Island, he was the first person to be buried near the church; then my grandmother and their daughter Ella Coons. My Great-Grandfather Peter Trombley is buried in a small plot a little distance from there. His infant granddaughter is buried next to him. He died from small pox.

My husband and I visited Neebish Island on 26 May 1994 and found (our house) the church was in the process of being torn down, and the Trombley/Bergen house was burned down because of being an eye sore. My great-grandfather Peter Trombley and great-grandmother Armilia FURTAINE homesteaded in the big house that was sitting on the hill from our little house, and they ran the first grocery store and post office on the island until they went bankrupt. My grandfather George was the store keeper and grandmother Armilda was the post mistress. Louis Bergen brought the place for a summer home. Sometime in the thirties my mother and Louis Bergen married and then the eight of us moved into his house until his death.

Sold the place and moved to Detroit and Washington State. After my husband's death, my son and I visited the island on 18 Aug 2002 with our cousins, and at that time the lot was vacant. My son and I returned to the island again on 22 May 2003, and in the spot where the Catholic Church stood was a summer cottage.

- Submitted by Patricia (LAUNDRY) La Fever