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

THE HAILE AND COLLINS FAMILIES

What is now known as the Lake Shore Manor was settled in the early thirties by James C. Haile and his wife, Martha, coming from New York. They built a large frame house which was noted all through western Allegan County for its entertainment and hospitality and "Uncle Jimmy Haile" was known and liked by every settler.

They were the parents of three children all deceased. Their daughter, Julia Haile, married John Phillips, whose son, James Phillips, and wife (Eva Edridge) reside in Saugatuck.

Amos Haile, brother of James C. came to Kalamazoo in 1844 to practice law, but in ill health he came to his brothers on the shore and found employment in Artemas Carter's store in Singapore. Mr. Carter begged of him and his wife to run the boarding house, which they did; and to them was born Eliza Haile, the first white child born in Singapore. Mrs. Haile loved to talk of the old boarding house, how after her first meal was prepared, she rang the dinner-bell to call the mill-hands and in came several Indians, they, too, wanting some white squaw's food—how at first the Indians frightened her though she soon learned they were friendly. She also tells that James Fennimore Cooper lived at the boarding-house when he was studying Indian ways and romance for his story "Oak Openings."

After Eliza, were born to this couple — William, Charles and James, all deceased, and after the death of Amos Haile. Mrs. Haile became the wife of Sprague Collins of Ganges and their home was "Collinswood" where lives Mrs. Al Johnson, their daughter who was born and has spent her life in this home.

The Collins family are of English descent, and from the Harley Collins family we learned that the grandfather was a drum major in the English army in the Revolutionary war and was taken prisoner by the colonists who treated him so well that he joined their side and served in the American army during the remainder of the war.

Mrs. John Goodeve was Sarah Collins, sister to Sprague and Harley; the Goodeves, too, came to Ganges in the early forties.