O’ME – O’MY Skeeter Ice Boat Club sailor Chuck Edwards at the 1952 Northwest on Lake Monona, Madison, WI
A Surprise in the Mail: Part 2
I’ve been going through the scrapbook that recently arrived in the mail and finding photos that are in need of stories to go with them. We are lucky to have iceboaters who are willing to take time to share what they remember. Jane Pegel is one of them. I sent her this photo and she wrote back with the following information:
O’ME O’MY was Chuck Edwards. An absolutely outstanding sailor and a very nice guy. Chuck’s family had a home on the north shore of Geneva Lake and Chuck successfully raced C scows beginning in the 1930’s.
Buddy [Melges] told me last winter that Chuck Edwards was the first person to realize that weight of the C scow was important.
In Skeeter Ice Boat Club records, I found Chuck —
1939, Season standings 5th
1940, winner of the Nye Trophy
1950, Season standings, 2nd.
Chuck and his wife lived in a gorgeous house on Lac LaBelle in Oconomowoc, close to the dam. When I was sailing in regattas at LaBelle I would stop in to chat with Chuck. Chuck’s son, George, had a rumble seat C Skeeter with a Nite mast and sail. The last time I saw Chuck and his wife was at Cuppy Goes’ funeral. Cuppy also was a C scow champion, actually had a fast sail that had originally been Chuck Edwards’ sail. Cuppy was born in December, 1917. I imagine Chuck Edwards was close in age to Cuppy.
A package recently arrived here at iceboat.org containing an old scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings and black and white photos of the Madison iceboating scene from the late 1940s through 1950s. Herb Krogman may have assembled this historic scrapbook and Renegader Jerry Simon has volunteered to look through it to help confirm my suspicions.(By the way, if you sent this to me, please send send me an email so that I can thank you!)
In the meantime, here are a few photos for now. I’ll continue to scan and post more in the coming weeks.
Thanks to the iceboat and sailboat groups for their support of Bill in conjunction with his induction in the Madison Sports Hall of Fame.
Bill really appreciated the support, from e-mails, phone calls and personal contact. He really hopes this broke “the ice” for his beloved sport(s).
The area sailing community turned out in force for Bill Mattison’s induction into the Madison Sports Hall of Fame on June 7, 2017 at the Monona Terrace Convention Center. Jane and Susie Pegel represented Geneva Lake’s Skeeter Iceboat Club, the Harkens, Perrigos, and Carole Miller were there from Pewaukee, and a big contingent from the Green Lake Ice Yacht Club added to the fun of the evening. The above video was produced by the Madison Sports Hall of Fame and was shown as part of Bill’s induction. Don Sanford and Steve Holtzman deserve a lot of credit for their efforts that resulted in this wonderful evening. Thanks to John Hayashi for taking the social photos.
Debbie Bierman and Lauren Norton GLIYC
Bill Mattison, Will Perrigo, and Peter Harken
Mimi Hayashi, Linda Baumann, and Rhonda Arries
Sue & Ken Whitehorse
Jane and Susie Pegel
Don Anderson & Paul McMillan
Will Perrigo, Joe & Lauren Norton, Peter Harken, Mimi Hayashi, Carole Miller, Deb Whitehorse, Doug Kolner
The Charles Bernard Boathouse Stern Steerer iceboat fleet on Lake Mendota. Frank Lloyd Wright’s elementary school is in the background. Though the photo dates from 1895, Wright would have seen the same boats on Lake Mendota back in the 1880s. Photo from the Bernard scrapbook collection.Notation by Carl Bernard.
On the anniversary of the great architect, Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday, the Madison Children’s Museum is hosting a 3 day event that will include an exhibit dedicated to the iceboat models he made as a boy. The exhibit dates are June 7 – 10. Learn more about it at their website.
Wright moved to Madison when he was 12 years old in 1879 and lived near the Bernard Boathouse, the center of ice sailing on Lake Mendota. He attended Lincoln School which was also on Lake Mendota, a few doors east of the Boathouse, where stern steerers gliding across the lake would have been a common sight. What a distraction and inspiration that must have been for the students!
Model iceboats made by William and Carl Bernard.
One of Wright’s biographies mentions that he made model iceboats as a boy. Though none of Wright’s boyhood iceboat models exist, a sophisticated model made by William Bernard (and restored by Bill Mattison) is in the collection of the Wisconsin State Historical Society. Read about that on the WSH website.
I suspect that Wright, along with many boys in the neighborhood, would have spent time at the Bernard Boathouse watching Charles and William build boats. It would have been an exciting place for a boy with an inclination to become an architect.
The roof of the Unitarian Meeting House.
We know from a recording of Carl Bernard in the Wisconsin State Historical Society archives that when he was in Madison, Wright continued to drop in on the “boys at the Boathouse”. It could have been at the Boathouse where learned of master carpenter and iceboat builder, Frank Tetzlaff, famous for his part in building the MARY B stern steerer. In the early 1950s, Wright’s complicated roof design for Madison’s Unitarian Meeting House was proving difficult to build. It was Frank Tetzlaff who “helped translate” Wright’s plans.
Frank Lloyd Wright, much like the aviator Charles Lindbergh during his brief stay here, was drawn to the sport of iceboating and the people in Madison who were obsessed with building and sailing them.
