WALTER AND TILLIE STEERE

In 1908, Walter and Tille Steere came to Orchard Gardens where she worked as a cook for the Doc. Benham household. Mrs. Steere, as household cook, would get very angry at Doc's eldest son, Kinglsey. As the story goes, this young boy was mischievous and always under foot, and his favorite prank was playing in the flour bin, adding anything from a cat to pieces of pumpkin to its contents.

The Steere's bought property on Orchard Lake from Mr Benham and built a store. The first small store was located hear the Sea Girt Inn, which has since down. Later, they built a larger store near Judicial Road and Orchard Lake, which became a community gathering place for everything from school board meetings, to a temporary school room. The Ladies Aid held meetings there and for a while the store housed a local church on Sundays while a building was being constructed.

Orchard Lake was once dotted with little floating islands that would drift, from time to time, to the shoreline. A teacher, Diane Williams, remembers her first fight of Tillie Steere in her billowing nightgown, up to her hips in the lake, with a long pole pushing a wayward island back so it wouldn't ruin her private beach.

On one occasion when Walter decided to fix a leaky roof, Tillie was found holding on for dear life to a rope tied to Waster's middle, to prevent him from falling off the other side.

Times were hard, so Tille found a way to earn a little extra money for herself---she bought a slot machine. She kept it in her kitchen, since such things were illegal in Dakota county at that time. Mrs Steere loaded it with pennies to make it more enticing to others who would put in their nickels and try their luck. Diane Williams, the teacher, once placed one nickel in the machine and hit the jackpot. Tillie nearly went up in flames, her profit was all gone!

She was quite close with her money, so legend has it, so to tease her, some of the neighbor men would put their small change on her ever-burning old range. Tillie would yell when she touched the hot coins and finally learned to scrape them off.

Tille will probably be remembered most for an act she put on in a very popular minstrel show at the Orchard Lake School. Tillie was a very, very large lady and harps were not easily obtained in those days, so Tillie chose to play a "bed spring". Her song was "Give Yourself a Pat on the Back", which Tillie tried to do, but her weight prevented it and she never quite succeeded.

We pat Tillie and Walter on the back as we remember what a great and colorful part of "Steele's Store" played in our past.

June Dille