The author is indebted to many people for their assistance in preparing this Early History of Killdeer Island and without whose help it would not have been possible to preserve much of the material for posterity.
First, I must thank my wife Mary who although not a native spent many summers on the Island with our children and was able to corroborate many of the events narrated by my parents which my failing memory needed.
Next I am indebted to my son Bernard Jr. who proofread the text and corrected my many errors. Matt Chabot, a life long native of Webster as well as a long time friend, provided the photographs for the illustrations as well helping me recall certain past events. He thought the vehicle used by the Killdeer Development Company to transport people to see the property was a Pierce Arrow, while I thought it was a Cadillac.
The confusion trying to recall the make of vehicle may lie in the fact that it might have been a standard chassis with a special body made by a company famous for making custom bodies, Waterhouse-Webster. Since Mr. Waterhouse had purchased property from the Killdeer Company, they may have reciprocated and arranged to have a special body built on a standard chassis. It is known that they built bodies on Pierce Arrow chassis and such a vehicle would boost Webster and attract the attention of buyers. This is pure conjecture.
Continuing my acknowledgments after my usual digressions which persist to the end I must thank Lynn McLauglin, who has a large collection of old post cards from many sources and which served to refresh my memory. Leonard and Janet Malser have pictures of early Killdeer parties which they found in the Jumbo. They reviewed an early text and made suggestions. The largest source of information is to be found in past issues of The Webster Times which has accurately reported local events for many years. The old copies of the Times have been microfilmed, and while the Corbin Library has microfilms of all editions their viewer has been out of order for the past year and it was necessary to view them at the Nichols College Library, for which the author is grateful.
Stanley, the Town Of Webster Engineer made available old maps of Killdeer Island none of which provided any information, not on the Sperry Buell 1920 Survey. Elmira Surozenski, the present Secretary of the Killdeer Island Club, made a membership list of charter members in 1930 available.