Early Memories of Saugatuck, Michigan : 1830-1930
Author: Heath, May Francis
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Grand Rapids, Mich: 1930

JAMES H. BANDLE

James Harvey Bandle was born in New York and moved at the age of thirteen years, with his parents, to Illinois. He went to California in the Gold Rush of 1849, returning to Lockport, Ill. and in April of 1875 came to Saugatuck with his family — from the deep black soil of Illinois prairie to the sand fruit land of Michigan, where the mud did not "roll up on the wheels," and the children could be near school. He never regretted this move where he lived until his death.

He purchased a large tract of land just north of the village, a part lying in the village, and as soon as possible had orchards of apples and peaches, and later he built "Bandle's Dock" where the fruit boats stopped for his fruit enroute to Chicago and Milwaukee.

He was an ardent Green backer, jovial, though loving an argument; very well read and logical in his views.

His real interest, however, lay in fruit and the study of its problems made him for many years president of Saugatuck and Douglas Pomological society. He also platted and developed Bandle's Addition to Saugatuck.

With the decline of the fruit business, Mr. and Mrs. D Bandle began to utilize as a Summer Resort their large modern home on the Kalamazoo; beginning in 1891 those first few people from Chicago, marked a new era of success and the well known resort, Riverside Rest has never left the ownership of the Bandle family.

Mrs. Janet Bandle was active in business and home life, a frail woman, but a strong character, kind, friendly, motherly and children of the earlier days still remember her with deep affection.

Born in Canada of sturdy Scotch Presbyterian parents, she was nevertheless, a loyal American and loves Saugatuck as her home.

Mrs. Bandle died in 1912 and many improvements still attest to her ardor for the beauty and development of Saugatuck’s north end of town.