Ernest LaPointe was born on 29 June 1903 in Swede Town at Red Cliff, Wisconsin, where his father worked in the Roy’s Point saw mill. He was delivered at home by Dr. Hannum. (Swede Town was located where the old Isle Vista Casino was situated.) It consisted of about 20 houses, some painted, on either side of a dirt road with board sidewalks. There was no ice and water was delivered daily by the lumber company. They shopped at the company store or Antoine Buffalo’s store. (GPS coordinates of Swede Town are Map datum NAD 27 Conus 15 T 0668512 5191231.) He was the youngest of 13 children. He spoke french at home and attended the Red Cliff Catholic School into the eighth grade. The family moved to Bayfield after his father was killed in the saw mill in 1908. He was 8 years old and living in Red Cliff when he received a post card on 24 August 1911 from his cousin Leona in Bay City, Michigan. He received his First Communion from Father Agathe Anklin at St. Francis Church in Red Cliff on 21 April 1912. In the fall of 1912 he moved with his family from Bayfield to Roy’s Pointe. Because of World War I, he was allowed to work on the Tug Bayfield at the age of 15 and was on the boat at Toledo, Ohio when the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918. The 1920 census shows Eli, Harry, William and Ernie living with Louise on Red Cliff Road in Bayfield. The brothers were all listed as being employed at a lumber mill, Ernest, 16, as a laborer. He worked as a carriage rider in the Weber mill 10 hours a day for $3.00-3.50 per day, worked several years as a crane operator for Allis Chalmers in Milwaukee, spent several seasons working as a second cook on the ore carrier Charles C. West, one winter as cook for the Schroeder lumber camp on Oak Island, and worked in the Wachsmuth shingle mill in Bayfield. This would have to have been the Wachsmuth (old Pike) mill in Bayfield since both of the mills at Roy's Point and the mill at Red Cliff were shut down (two having been destroyed by fire) by then. He was working there when the last log was sawed and the mill shut down in 1924. He received License 155563 to pilot boats less than 65 feet in length on 15 Jun 1929. He captained one of the four “pickup” boats for the Bayfield Fish Company, where he met his future wife, Mildred, who worked as a stenographer for Mr. Howard W. Elmore of Chicago at his Bayfield Fish Company. On 1 April 1930 he was single and lived with his mother Louise, his brother Philip and his widowed sister Beatrice and her four children in a house Beatrice rented for $12 a month on Broad Street in Bayfield. ®194 He married Mildred Elaine Anderson in Duluth, Minnesota on 13 August 1930. He paid $2.25 for the marriage license on 6 August 1930, was married by a Baptist minister and had their marriage blessed by the Catholic priest in Bayfield. He worked at other odd jobs, including smoking and peddling fish in Ashland and Ironwood, until he and Philip got jobs on a fishing boat on 28 Mar 1932. Mildred and Ed Saussele bought Ernie’s first boat ,"The Chinook”, on 26 September 1932 from the bankrupt Bayfield Fish Company for $1000, and Ernie used it for several years first as a ferry between Ashland and Bayfield, then as a trolling boat and as a "pickup" boat, buying fish from the fishermen on the Islands and selling it to the Hadland Fish Company of Bayfield and to fish companies in Duluth, Minnesota. The Bayfield County Press of 22 July 1937 reported that “Saussele & La Pointe have started passenger service on the ‘Chinook’ which makes regular trips daily among the island fishing stations. The boat has been equipped with passenger accommodations. She leaves the dock at the foot of Broad Street.” From 3 November 1933 to 25 May 1935 (except for winter layoffs) he worked on dredges in Duluth-Superior for the Union Construction Company. He and Milly lived in an apartment at the Euclid Hotel in Superior. On 17 January 1933 they traded their old Ford for a new Plymouth. On 6 January 1936 they bought a Model "B" Ford coupe. On 26 January 1937 he bought a Whippet truck. In 1935 he had a shirt size of 14 1/2 to 15 and a 32 inch waist. On 25 May 1935 he started pound netting lake trout and whitefish for himself as well as using the Chinook as a "pickup" boat. His Wisconsin Commercial Fishing License was #263. He fished herring and owned and operated the Bayfield Fish Company dock and slip now owned by the Boutin’s, and salted herring for the Dormer Fish Company of Menomonee, Michigan in the later 1930’s. He daily gill netted tons of herring during the herring run in November in Bayfield, and, when Bayfield would become ice bound, he would move the nets and boats to Duluth, Minnesota to extend the herring season. The most herring he ever caught being 535 tons in one season. The herring were gutted and salted for eating, and in later years he sold the herring he caught for mink food to Adolph L. Langenfeld’s Associated Fur Farms of New Holstein, Wisconsin. (During World War II, Bayfield’s entire daily catch of 15,000 pounds of filleted herring was sent to the US Army, with the herring waste sold for mink food). On 20 May 1937 the Bayfield County Press reported that “LaPointe & Saussele were successful bidders on the Tug Charlotte which was owned by the Bayfield Fish Company. This steam tug has been out of service for several years. At the present time the men are pumping it out and will determine whether or not the boat will be put into commission.” After at least two attempts the Bayfield County Press reported on 17 May 1938 that Halvor Reiten had successfully refloated “The Charlotte”, which they then sold to the Fulton Construction Company of Superior. On 23 September 1938 Ernest and Ed Saussele bought "The Seabird" in Waukegan, Illinois, which he used for fishing, trolling and because of it's iron hull, as an icebreaker. On 11 December 1938 Allison Boutin was captain of "The Seabird" when it sunk Ted Bodin's new 40 foot boat "Donna Marie" 15 miles east of Duluth. Both boats were herring fishing in the fog and ice, and the “Seabird” hit the “Donna Marie”, which was lifting nets, at about 6 knots. Ernest ended up buying the sunken boat for $1850. ®195 On 13 April 1939 he began what would be many years of representing Bayfield County at their booth at the Minneapolis, Chicago and Milwaukee Outdoor Shows. He and his brother Philip bought their own fish dock and slip (Lots 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 of Block 118, City of Bayfield) from J. P. O’Malley on 3 Mar 1942 and 13 September 1943 for $500. They named it the LaPointe Brothers Fish Company and fished with pound nets for lake trout and whitefish with their own four boats, and bought fish from three other fishermen. They bought Lots 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, and 18, Block 55, City of Bayfield, (the farthest north beach) from Eleanor and Al Miller and the City of Bayfield for $550 on 8 March 1947, which they used for a marine railway and for winter boat storage. They bought Lot 1 and the east 1/2 of Lot 2, Block 59 from the City of Bayfield and Bayfield County for $300, which in 2007 still contains the root cellar they used for storage of their nets. They sold the root cellar property on 18 July 1960. Ernest and Mildred purchased Lots 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20, Block 56, City of Bayfield for $850 from K. P. "Red" and Carol Bates on 19 April 1948, and on 28 July 1955 resold them to Stewart and Marion Aiken. On 30 April 1942 the Lullaby Furniture Company of Stevens Point, Wisconsin’s subsidiary Northern Hardwood Veneer of Butternut, Wisconsin started to log Outer Island. Northern Hardwood Veneer arranged for “The Chinook” to make daily supply stops at Outer Island that year. Ernest captained “The Chinook” and later Laurie Nourse, Sr., took over “The Chinook” while Ernest captained the 76 foot Northern Hardwood Veneer’s tug “Elmar II” on trips pulling rafts of logs from Outer Island to Ashland, Wisconsin and on trips to Houghton, Michigan. He left the “Elmar II” shortly after 4 July 1942, to return to his fishing business. On 16 July 1942 Bayfield was flooded by 8 inches of rain, and Mayor Fay Bigelow turned the job of handling the emergency over to Ernest, who was President of the City Council. Lots of sand and rocks were washed into Ernest’s slip, leaving some boats high and dry, but the Chinook was at the City dock and so he was able to use the Chinook to pull the Seabird, which was at the lake end of his slip, out of the sand. On 11 Dec 1942 the Chinook was tied up at the Northern Cold Storage dock in the Duluth harbor after unloading it’s last herring catch of the season. About 6 A.M. the interior was gutted by fire and the night watchman, Vernon Gilbert Johnson, 21, of Bayfield, was killed. Ernest and Philip had Mike Lafernier build them a cabin at Frog Bay in 1943 on land they leased from Mr. Melberg for $100 a year. (The entrance road to 92310 Frog Bay Road is at GPS coordinates of Map datum NAD 27 UTM Zone Conus 15 T 0668417 Easting 5197034 Northing). Mr. Melberg cancelled the lease on 7 November 1990. On 8 October 1996, Mildred signed the papers giving the cabin to the Melbergs. Ernest and Philip owned an adjacent, but landlocked forested 40 acres of land (the NW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 less highway right of way of Section 7, Township 51 North, Range 3 West ) which they purchased from Bayfield County for $80 on 4 September 1943, and sold to Mr. David Johnson of Madison, Wisconsin on 12 March 1981. On 6 August 1945 he bought a speedboat, which he sold on 19 July 1948. On 1 July 1946 he rented a building in Ironwood, Michigan to start a fish market which was to be run by Hjalmer “Yelly” Edwards. In September 1946 Ernest was captain and Roger Stahl was chief engineer of LCT 203 “The Pluswood” from Bruce Mines, Ontario, to Oshkosh, Wisconsin with 225 tons of logs for the Lullaby Furniture Company. From 5-11 June 1947 Ernest was captain and Roger Stahl chief engineer when “The Pluswood" was brought from Green Bay, Wisconsin to Bayfield. On 25 December 1947 they bought a Kaiser Automobile. In 1949 he sold one of the fish dock lots to the U. S. Government for a Coast Guard station for $100. Fishing declined, so on 9 October 1951 he bought a store in Chicago, and moved the family there where they lived with Mildred’s parents at 8821 South Sacramento Avenue, Evergreen Park (he soon sold the store on 28 March 1952 and moved back to Bayfield). On 15 October 1951 he sold his ½ share of 172 mink located at the Dooley Fur Farm in Bayfield to his brother Philip for $2150. On 1 April 1952 he bought out his brother Philip’s share of LaPointe Brothers Fisheries for $5000. The boats he owned were the "Chinook” (a 50 foot 18 net ton wood gas boat , hull #223826, built in 1924 at La Pointe, Wisconsin by John Peterson for Leonard Seeberger who operated it as a ferry and sold it in 1928 to the Bayfield Fish Company). Mildred bought the Chinook from her employer Mr. Elmore’s bankrupt Bayfield Fish Company for $1000 on 26 September 1932 and they operated it as a Bayfield-Madeline-Ashland ferry until 1934. Mildred owned it in partnership with Ed Saussele of Ashland until Ernest and Mildred bought out Mr. Saussele on 12 Nov 1941. He burned the hull of the "Chinook" at the East Dock in Bayfield on 26 March 1963; "Wasp” (a 32 foot long wood gas double ender boat hull #36E297), which Ernest converted from a life boat to a gill net boat in the early 1950s. He burned the “Wasp” at the same time he burned the “Chinook” on 26 March 1963); "Seabird” (a 60 foot 13 net ton charcoal iron gas boat hull #117013 built in 1900 by the Johnston Brothers at Ferrysburg, Michigan), which he bought on 28 August 1938 in Waukegan, Illinois from Flora Lange of Chicago, Illinois for $5000. On 8 December 1951 he sold the "Seabird" to the Zenith Dredge Company of Duluth who rebuilt it as the tug “Jerry M.”, installed a larger engine-a 250 horsepower Fairbanks-Morse and used it to haul the dredge “Grace M.” for 22 years; it then was dry docked for 10 years before being bought by the Duluth Maritime Museum; it was to be displayed inside the “S. S, William A. Irwin” but would not fit so was then sold to Jim Melin from Ashland who installed a Cummins diesel engine and later sold it by auction for $25,250 on 6 October 2015. "Sand Island" (a 30 foot 7 net ton wood gas boat hull #239138 built in 1939 at Bayfield by Evan Christensen for Herman Johnson, Sr.), which he bought from Herman Johnson Sr. for $1750 on 10 Dec 1943 and by 1950 sold to Allison Boutin. It sits on the property of Robert Halvorson in the Town of Russell; "Dis-Un-Dot” (a 31 foot 8 net ton wood gas boat hull #239053 built by Frank Muhlke in 1938 at Bayfield), which he bought from Arthur Kron of La Pointe, Wisconsin for $3000 on 26 March 1947 and sold on 11 July 1962; it was converted to a garbage scow for use in Duluth, Minnesota. "South Twin” (a 36 foot wood 10 net ton gas boat hull #238948 built in 1938 by Evan Christiansen at Bayfield for Lenus Jacobson). He bought it from Jacobson's estate for $1500 on 5 Jun 1952, and it is now on display at Peterson’s Market in Red Cliff); "NuPi” (a 26 foot long wood gas boat hull #36A666 built in the 1920’s for Henry Johnson, Sr.) which was bought by the LaPointe Brothers in the 1940’s. Ernest was nicknamed "Junior” or "Nun” and his brother Philip was nicknamed "Pit”, so "NuPi"; "North Cape” (a 22 foot long wood gas boat hull #36B5 built about 1920 by John Peterson in La Pointe, Wisconsin); 4 rowboats; a pile driver; and a speedboat. He sold the fishing dock and buildings on 28 September 1963 to Fred C. Harries of Ashland, and it is now owned by Bay Fisheries of Bayfield. On 22 September 1937 they rented a home at 141 North First Street in Bayfield, which belonged to Mrs. Marjorie Benton. When she returned to Bayfield in 1956, after she retired from teaching, they built a Capp Home for $7,050 across the street on the lots they owned on the southeast corner of First Street and Rice Avenue. While building the house they rented the apartment over the Lullabye boat house in Bayfield from 3 Jun 1956 until they moved into their new house on 20 November 1956. On 2 August 1957 he left Bayfield for Ogdensberg, New York to begin a new career as a Captain and later as an Engineer on tugboats dredging the Great Lakes (sometimes with his nephew Roger Stahl who got him into Local 16 in Detroit of the Licensed Tugmen’s Protective Association of America). From 15 August 1957 to 19 June 1961 he worked for Dunbar and Sullivan as they drilled, blasted and dredged the rock in the up bound channel from Lake Huron to the Sault Locks and he lived at Box 82, Riverside Drive, Sault Saint Marie, Michigan. The summer of 1961 he worked out of Erie, Pennsylvania for Western Dredging. In 1962 he lived at 37910 Mallast Avenue, Mt. Clemens, Michigan as they dredged the channel the length of Lake St. Claire. On 6 December 1963 they again rented the home of Mrs. Benton at 141 North First Street in Bayfield. They purchased that home at 141 North First Street, (Lots 9 and 10, Block 57, Town-site of Bayfield), Bayfield, Wisconsin 54814 for $10,000 on 23 February 1971 from Harold J. and Marjorie Benton. In 1964 he was in Toledo, Ohio and Buffalo, New York and in 1965 in Ontonogan, Michigan for Zenith Dredge. From 18 October 1965 to 3 May 1968 he worked at the DuPont plant in Barksdale, Wisconsin. Starting on 13 May 1968 he was again working on tug boats in Superior, Wisconsin and Bay City, Michigan for Dunbar and Sullivan. On 24 January 1969 he bought a "Snow-Scoot" snowmobile, one of the first in Bayfield, which his grandchildren loved. During 1970, 1971 and 1972 he worked in Rochester, New York as they laid an out fall sewer pipe in the floor of Lake Ontario. In 1973 he again worked out of Sault Saint Marie, Michigan. During 1974 and 1975 he worked out of Huron, Ohio, and Lake St. Claire for Western Dredging, and Rochester, New York for Dunbar and Sullivan where he captained "The Sachem" until he retired on 20 December 1975. On 12 April 1980 he had a heart attack while visiting Yvonne and David Moody in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was on the Bayfield City Council and Bayfield County Board for 14 years. He was also on the Bayfield City Planning Commission and the City Harbor Commission. He championed building the boat launching ramp in Bayfield, which was dedicated and named for Ernie La Pointe on 1 October 1988. From 5 September to 16 September 1985, David and Yvonne Moody took he and Mildred on a trip to Quebec to visit the towns of his ancestors. He received a head injury 16 Feb 1988 from falling down the basement stairs in his former home on the southeast corner of First and Rice in Bayfield while baby sitting the Greenlee’s dog Tasha. He never regained consciousness and died on Leap Day, 29 February 1988. GPS coordinates of his grave site in Bayfield are Map datum NAD 27 UTM Zone Conus 15 T 0665406 Easting 5186809 Northing

What was the address of the dairy store in Chicago? Was he involved in a paternity suit? Ernest LaPointe-father, Ruby Henkel-mother, Ellen LaPointe-daughter, age 78 in 2009, son Dean E. Paulcheck, 9135 Marissa Trail, Wonder Lake, Illinois 60097-8192 age 57 and Barbara E. Paulcheck nee Leisch, age 61 in 2009. 815-728-9135, cell 815-355-0176
dpaulcheck at gmail.com bpaulcheck at gmail.com
Roger Stahl on 10/14/2009 says that Grandma and Beatrice were mad at Ernie for involvement with Snookie Rochon.