In an earlier blog post called Road Trip Through Our Family History, I mentioned some photos that I found labeled as Faught Lake. If you remember the photos also suggested that this lake was named after my 2nd great grandmother Mary Anna Faught.
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Since I found these photos and wrote the previous blog post, I have been searching for a "Faught Lake", with no luck. Until this last weekend. On August 29th, we had a McKenzie Family Reunion. During that reunion, I asked others if they had ever heard of a Faught Lake in Montmorency County. No one had heard of a Faught Lake, however, a couple of my relatives knew of a Foch lake.
Ken McKenzie, my 1st cousin once removed, had a plat map of Montmorency County and was able to point out Foch Lake on the map.
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Foch Lake
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Foch Lake - Close up
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This was an interesting turn of events, so I decided that I would investigate further when I got home from the reunion. Well, Sometimes the genealogy stars align and you receive the information you need, just when you need it. I was lucky enough to have this happen.
I had previously ordered a homestead application file for George Faught, my 3rd Great Grandfather, from the National Archives. Well, after the 8 hour trip from Michigan to Wisconsin, I checked the mail and there it was. After reviewing the documents in the file, I realized that George Faught had entered a homestead application for 160 acres of property located in Township 32N, Range 1 East, Southeast quarter of Section 28. The Document below is a portion of the homestead application file that shows the description of the land. The image next to it shows where George's property would have been located.
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Homestead application for George Faught
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Location of George Faught Homestead and Foch Lake
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As you can see Foch Lake is clearly a large portion of the land that George homesteaded. This property later transferred to Mary Anna (Faught) Mckenzie after George's death in 1905. More on this in a later post.
Foch Lake is really Foch Lakes — two natural basins each more than 20 feet deep. Decades ago, around 1948, the state dammed Foch Creek and flooded the area, transforming the two small bodies of water into one, 85-acre impoundment.
Although, I would love to say that I was able to find definitive proof that this lake was named after one of my ancestors, at this point in time I can't. There does seem to be a possible connection between the name Faught and Foch. However, the fact that my 3rd great grandfather (George Faught) and 2nd great grandmother (Mary Anna (Faught) McKenzie) both owned the land that the lake now occupies seems like pretty good proof.
Even if Foch Lake was not named after one or more of my Faught ancestors, I do believe that I found the reason that my grandmother, Edna Jean (Burt) McKenzie, believed that it was.
This is just another great example of how listening to the clues from family stories can help you to put the pieces of your family history together in new and exciting ways.
