My grandparents, Peter and Bessie Soteroplos, rented the property we now own from Ruben Hitchcock beginning in 1924-25. Peter purchased this property in 1932.

The same basic structure (main building) was there when my grandparents first rented and later purchased the property and has been added to, renovated. winterized, etc. until the present.

There were 5 children, Nicholas, Katherine, Georgia, Thea and Theodore (Ted)–in that order.

Grandpa Peter died during WWII. The property went to all 5 children. In the late 1940s-early 1950s, Ted purchased the property from his siblings.

The story goes (truth or legend, but all my Soteroplos cousins heard the same story) that during the winter Mr. Hitchcock hauled the main building across the ice of Lower Cullen from Nisswa (then a village). He put it up on blocks, added a screen porch on the front and small kitchen on the back. There was a boat shed in front close to the shore, an outhouse in back, some sort of drain field and an outside hand pump–primed every spring–even when I was very young–early 1950s. Later the hand pump was inside the kitchen. In the early 1960s, a series of renovations and additions began and continued into the late 1980s/early 1990s. However, the main structure is still the same.

I spoke with my Aunt Georgia (Ted’s sister, now 97) and she told me that for two years instead of renting from Mr. Hitchcock, they rented from the ” Johnsons”–property to the north of us (toward the Channel). Georgia thought the Johnson property was originally owned by the Bolgers–I have no way of being sure of that.

The property to our south (now the Cronin’s), if my aunt’s memory is correct, was owned by Dr. Rutherford. It eventually became part of the O’Shaughnessey’s group of cabins.