THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa; Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI. 
AUGUST 2006, Volume 42, Number 1.  Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES:  SHAY, BENSCHOTER, VAN BENSCHOTEN, DUNCAN, SNYDER, BRADLEY, QUACKENBOSS, PROBASCO, O’MARA, SHOEMAKER, McCAUL, McKENNA, GOODMAN, CSONKA, HUBBARD, HICKEY, ENDRES, STEINBERG, SCHNABEL, PIERCEFIELD, GREEN, RICHARDSON, PEPPER, KING, KINSMAN, VanHOUTEN, WATERS, CAITLIN, KAMP, STOEL, TERPSTRA, SMITH, DUITS, PLOMP, PLAKMEYER, LEIK

RECENT DEATHS:

ROBERT NORTON BENSCHOTER, 82, widower of Lonnie (Bea) BENSCHOTER, brother of Mary Lou DUNCAN, James BENSCHOTER and the late Donald BENSCHOTER, Jr., son of Winnie Belle SNYDER & Donald A. BENSCHOTER, son of Bertella BRADLEY & John M. BENSCHOTER, son of Mary M. & Oliver P. BENSCHOTER, son of Diana & Cornelius Van BENSCHOTEN.

   Winnie was daughter of Eva M. PROBASCO & Henry P. SNYDER, son of Mary C. & George W. SNYDER.  Eva was daughter of Dora B. QUACKENBOSS & Benjamin PROBASCO, Sr., son of Mary S. & Jacob PROBASCO, Sr.  Bertella was daughter of Mary A. & John M. BRADLEY.  All these families settled in Sebewa Township before 1860, and Don & Winnie used two flats of pansies every Memorial Day just for close relatives. Robert Norton served in the U.S. ARMY in WWII and later lived in Texas.  Buried in East Sebewa Cemetery. 

THOMAS STEPHEN O’MARA, 83, husband of Norma Louise SHOEMAKER McCAUL O’MARA, father of Onnette McKENNA, Colleen GOODMAN, David, Phillip, Patrick, Robert, Stephen, and Thomas O’MARA and the late Susan CSONKA, brother of Marie O’MARA, Pauline HUBBARD, Rosemary HICKEY, Eugene O’MARA, and the late Lawrence O’MARA, son of Emma ENDRES & Frank Roman O’MARA, son of John O’MARA & Pauline STEINBERG, daughter of August STEINBERG & Rosanna SCHNABEL, daughter of Anton & Regina SCHNABEL.  Tom served in WW II, worked at Scheidt’s Hardware in Lake Odessa, Chrysler Trim Plant in Lyons, and his son Phil’s Plumbing, Heating and Hardware business in Ionia. 

NORMAN A. PIERCEFIELD, 79, husband of June SCHNABEL PIERCEFIELD, father of Lucinda GREEN, Edward and Gary PIERCEFIELD, brother of the late Pearl RICHARDSON, Gordon PIERCEFIELD, LeRoy PIERCEFIELD, Wanda PEPPER, June McCAUL, Wayne PIERCEFIELD, Jerry PIERCEFIELD, Janet KING, Bonnie KINSMAN, Patricia VanHOUTEN, Wilma WATERS, and James PIERCEFIELD, son of Thelma CAITLIN & William PIERCEFIELD.  Norm sold cars and farm machinery, retired from 22 years at Oldsmobile, spent much of summers at their cottage on the island of Lobdell Lake, near Argentine & Fenton, MI, where he was president of the Association for 32 years, and spent winters in Florida.  Buried in East Sebewa Cemetery. 

CLARA KAMP STOEL, age 85, & JEROLD STOEL, age 82, died 7 days apart, he first.  Parents of an infant daughter Patricia, and Shirley TERPSTRA, Gene STOEL, Jim STOEL, Kathy SMITH, Ken STOEL, and Anita DUITS.  JEROLD was preceded in death by three brothers and was son of Sadie PLAKMEYER & Louis STOEL.  Clara was preceded in death by two brothers and was daughter of Wilhelmina PLOMP & John KAMP.  He served in the Air Force in WW II, and was a farmer, carpenter and school bus driver for the Lakewood School District.  They are buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

LEIK FAMILY UPDATE:  Ed LEIK has purchased the George-Floyd-Gordon EVANS farm on Emery Road in Danby Township, but will not be turning his hand to the plow.  In fact that recently remodeled house is for sale.  The EVANS and connected GIBBS families are two of the oldest in Sebewa.  See Volume 24, Numbers 1-2-3-5, 1988-1989, for the EVANS story.  See elsewhere in this issue for Ed LEIK’S life story.

RETIRES AFTER 19,000 HRS IN COCKPIT:

   UPS Captain Ed LEIK ended a 38-year career in military and commercial aviation with a last time at the controls on a March 8^th flight between Houston and Dallas, a day before his 60^th birthday and mandatory retirement.

   Ed is a 1964 graduate of St. Pat’s and earned an MSU degree in 1968 as well as a pilot’s license in the Air Force ROTC.  He then spent a year at Williams AFB, AZ, flying various jet trainers and thereafter was assigned to the C-141 transport which he flew from McGuire AFT, NJ to Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia, including many missions to Vietnam.

   Ed joined Eastern Airlines in 1973 flying out of New York and Miami to cities in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean.  He left Eastern Airlines to join UPS in 1998 shortly before Eastern’s demise.  He has been flying as a captain at UPS since 1990.  In commercial aviation Ed has flown the Boeing 727, the Boeing 747 and the Airbus A-300.  He has also piloted executive jets.

   After 5-years of active duty in the US Air Force, Ed then served with the Air Force Reserve C-141 squadron in Charleston, SC for 17 years, retiring in 1989 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

   Ed estimates that he has had 19,000 hours in the cockpit (equivalent to eight hours daily for 6.5 years) since flying a Piper Cub at Michigan State and has traveled to all the continents including missions between New Zealand and McMurdo Sound, Antarctica.  His UPS flights have been within the continental U. S. Asia and Europe.

   Ed and the former Maria CODINA have two daughters, Maryfaye and Christina, and plan to divide their time between their home in South Florida and the family farm at Portland.

   Ed says his retirement will be focused on new adventures—travel, tree planting and other pursuits.  As Captain LEIK reflects on his career, he states that “it has been my privilege to serve in the US Air Force on behalf of our country”.  Furthermore, he says the Air Force experience allowed him to pursue a rewarding career that was always exciting and enjoyable.

EPHRAIM SHAY’S DIARY  1861-1863    Continued

   Monday, March 25^th, made sugar, a thunder shower came over, the first of the season.  Tuesday 26^th – at work all day in sugar bush.  Wednesday 27^th – made some sugar – rainy.  Thursday 28^th – at work in sugar bush – rainy.  Friday 29^th – snowy in morning – gathered some sap and made sugar.  Saturday 30^th – worked in sugar bush.  Sunday 31^st – staid with Uncle Eph all day. 

   Monday April 1^st – making sugar.  Tuesday 2^nd – making sugar.  Wednesday 3^rd – making sugar.  Thursday 4^th – making sugar.  Friday 5^th – warm day but sap run but little.  I went over to Uncle Ben’s bush and shot at a mark with him and Mr. SHOWERMAN.  I beat.  Saturday 6^th – no sugar weather forenoon, went to the P.E.  Afternoon with Uncle Ben went on a little scout through the north woods, saw three deer but shot none.  Sunday 7^th – staid with Uncle Eph all day.

   Monday 8^th – Father and family arrived in Sebewa.  I was very much pleased to see them.  Father seemed in good spirits.  Tuesday 9^th –visiting – no sap weather.  Wednesday 10^th – killed a few squirrels and viewed some land.  Thursday 11^th – viewed land.  Friday 12^th – boiled some sap for vinegar – shot at a mark with Uncle Ben, nearly tie, a little in my favor.  Saturday 13^th – staid to Uncle Eph’s to be present to the school teacher’s examination.  Priscilla (his sister) was examined and got a certificate.  No other certificates given.

   Sunday 14^th – Father came to Sebewa with Grandma (Mary PROBASCO) and Aunt Jane and George.  Mr. CERLEDGE fetched them up.  I had to deliver my sugar on the 15^th and as Uncle Eph did not want to take it down, I put it in with Mr. CERLEDGE and paid him for taking it to Muir, and I went along.  Uncle Henry’s folk were abed when I got there, so I staid at the tavern.

   Monday 15^th – delivered my sugar neatly packaged at the depot according to my agreement with Mr. RICHARDS.  Only had 240 lbs, was to deliver 300 but did not have it made.  I then viewed some land N.E. of town, in afternoon returned to Sebewa.  Tuesday 16^th – staid with Uncle Eph in forenoon.  Afternoon went with Uncle Ben to see some men about building an addition to his house, on the way saw a few deer.  Wednesday 17^th and Thursday 18^th – made vinegar.

   Friday 19^th – viewed some land in the north woods.  Saturday 20^th – in forenoon made vinegar, afternoon went to help Mr. STEBBINS raise a barn.  Sunday 21^st – staid until noon with Uncle Eph, in afternoon staid with Uncle Ben.

   Monday 22^nd – made some vinegar, commenced to scald my buckets.  Tuesday 23^rd – stored my buckets, packed my trunk and went to Muir with Uncle Ben, took a stroll and viewed some land N.E. of Muir, thought the soil was too sandy, afternoon viewed the steam saw mill.

   Wednesday 24^th – went over to Lyons in forenoon.  4:20 PM took the cars for Grand Rapids to get a situation as a machinist, retired at 8 o’clock.  Thursday 25^th – applied for a situation, all business too dull.  Friday 26^th – an officer wanted me to enlist – I saw his Co. drill.  Saturday 27^th – at 9:10 left for Muir, arrived at 11:20 AM.  Afternoon attended a meeting to raise recruits – I enlisted for three months.  Sunday 28^th – attended church in Muir, staid with Father.

   Monday 29^th – met the do. In Lyons, we endeavored to elect officers but failed, the Muir boys went home thinking to join the Ionia Co.  But shortly the Lyons chaps came over, came to terms, and we elected an excellent Captain, not so good 1^st Lieut.

   Tuesday April 30^th – at 9 o’clock met the Co. in Lyons, drilled until 1:00.  At 2:00 met and drilled until half past four.  Wednesday May 1^st drilled.  Thursday 2^nd drilled, Friday 3^rd drilled.  Saturday 4^th drilled in forenoon, afternoon we was presented with a flag then marched to Muir.  Elder ERRETT made a speech – then friends bade adiew – much feeling exhibited – took cars to G. Rapids, went to hall, from there to hotel, staid all night.  Sunday 5^th – marched up to Fair Grounds and went into quarters – it rained some in afternoon.  I found a pile of straw which I made my bed.  Jacob (Uncle Henry PROBASCO’S son) was my bedfellow – it was my first experience as a soldier.

   Monday 6^th awoke in good spirits – drilled in morning.  During the day wrote two letters, one to Priscilla and one to Cousin Sarah.  Tuesday 7^th – drilled until 9 o’clock went to stand guard.

   Wednesday 8^th discharged from guard duty at 10:00 AM.  Was just getting around to go to town when a Telegram dispatch came to hand that Father was dying.  I hasted with speed to the Depot but the train had left.  I telegraphed to know how he was at 12 o’clock.  Answer “The doctor says he cannot live”.  The news was so sudden and unexpected, I felt as if I was dreaming.  I could not realize the awful fact that my father was dying.  I staid at the Depot all day waiting for some passing train, at 10 o’clock left for Muir.  Engine broke down and had to return.

   Thursday 9^th – at 4 A.M. got started and arrived in Muir at 7 A.M.  I got out of the cars, looked up the hill, hardly dared to hear the result.  Met Delia (his mother’s youngest sister, Melissa Cordielye PROBASCO, was only four years older than him).  She said Father was dead.

   I seemed to be dreaming, so sudden was the news.  I went to his room.  Met Aunt – I felt choked, could not speak.  Aunt uncovered his face, which looked as calm as if he was sleeping.  But taking the cloth from his forehead disclosed a frightful wound.  Oh such feelings as I experienced standing before my father’s corpse.  I had but a few days before left him in sorrow, thinking that my return was doubtful.  I was starting with many chances of being killed.  He stayed at home in peace, but how widely different the result.  I am summoned beside his corpse instead of his being called to receive mine.  While still looking at him little Arty and Velma came in.  Too young to value their loss, they commenced to tell me how “The mill hurt Pa” but seemed to think he would soon wake up.  Arty went to his feet and touched them exclaiming “Poor Pa” “Poor Pa”.  I then left the room and going in bedroom I gave full vent to my feelings.  I began to realize my loss.

   In a land of strangers without a father to guide and counsel me, my mother left with a large family, just having moved to Michigan without a permanent home.  The world before me looks dark.  Had Father died a natural death, I could easier be reconciled.  But a death brought on by the carelessness of a hired man, not really a hired man, but a lout of the town who came in the mill and took without request or leave the place my brother (Theodore) was at work.

   Then by carelessness letting a bolt touch the saw, my father’s life was lost.  To think what must have been Father’s feeling when the bolt struck him.  To hear how he, unable to stand, sat down on the floor leaning against the side of the mill, his head drooping down on his breast, the blood streaming from the wound, sitting helpless.  The frame which held his spirit broken; it just took leave of its former tenement.  What must have been his feelings if he was sensible of his situation.  Those who saw him think he never knew what it was that killed him.

   He that morning had left the house in excellent spirits, his business was paying well.  He saw prospects ahead of happiness, at the usual hour he commenced his work and while he engaged in supporting his family, at that very time he was making money to use when too old to work.  In an instant quick as a flash of lightening he is summoned before his maker.

   What must have been his impression when so unexpectedly launched into the realities of his future home.  Is there in that land of Glory a thought of the world left behind.  Could he look back and see us performing the last ceremonies to the dead?  Or was he occupied greeting his old acquaintances who had preceded him.  His father maybe was showing him the beauties of his new home.  Oh there is more cause to shout for joy than weep when a good man dies.

   To be sure it is hard to part – but the joy of his meeting his friends in his future home, a home where endless ages may pass and no changes occur save the continued advancement into the knowledge and goodness of God.  Oh it must be the most satisfying change that man can ever experience to be brought face to face with Him.  To be face to face with the Star of Perfection, to see his hands scarred with the ragged spike thrust through by the envious Jews.

   To see the Savior of man, the One thru whom and by whose exertions all are enabled to visit and remain in a land where there is no sorrow, a land in which each moment bears with it more happiness than can be experienced in all ages on earth.  To see the old Patriarchs of whom it is so much pleasure to read, to receive from their lips the experience they passed through.

   In this world it is a source of great pleasure to view nature’s work, day by day to see a very trifle of magnitude of the created world.  When the thought of what will be seen at the last change of man comes to mind, the pleasure to be experienced, I feel as if to want him again a mortal would be selfish.  I feel that he is gone on a journey on which all are traveling and that I will overtake him in a few days.  Yes they may be few, judging from the past instance, although I am young, well, and to all earthly knowledge destined to live my “three score and ten”.

   Friday, May 10^th – attended the funeral at 10 AM  Afternoon went to Lyons and bought some flour.  Saturday 11^th remained in Muir.  Sunday 12^th – went to Meeting.  Monday 13^th – I went up into Sebewa in forenoon.  Afternoon I commenced repairing a house of Uncle Eph’s in which to move Ma.  Busy 14^th, 15^th, 16^th repairing the house.  Friday 17^th went after a load of her stuff with Uncle Ben’s oxen.  Saturday 18^th returned with a load – bought sash and lights (windows with glass) (cost 2.70).  Sunday 19^th – staid with Uncle Eph.

   Monday 20^th and 21^st still busy at the house.  22^nd commenced to make garden.  Worked on the house some 23^rd and worked in the garden.  24^th worked in the garden forenoon, afternoon attended Mr. PLANT’S funeral.  After funeral I looked at Mr. Green’s farm.  25^th I looked as some land in forenoon, afternoon worked for Lucius SHOWERMAN planting corn.  Sunday 26^th at home most all day, called to Uncle Ben’s and Uncle Eph’s through the day.

   Monday 27^th – made a lounge in forenoon, afternoon planted corn for Uncle Eph.  Tuesday 28^th – went to Muir to get a letter, found none, went out 2 ½  miles to view Mr. ROBINSON’S land, it did not suit me, too hilly.  Wednesday 29^th – went to Ionia in the morning having staid all night with Mr. ROBINSON.  I talked with Mr. WILLLIAMS concerning a piece of land in Sebewa that Mother wished to purchase, he being the agent to sell it.

   Went to Muir from Ionia on the morning train, came home in afternoon after getting the letters I expected.  Thursday 30^th – prepared corn ground and planted some corn.  Friday May 31^st – planted potatoes in the morning, it commenced to rain some.  Saturday June 1^st bargained with Uncle Ben for a piece of land, but only if second parties relinquished it.  Went to P.U. in afternoon.  Sunday 2^nd staid at home.

   Monday 3^rd – prepared to leave home.  4^th left home at 3:30 AM.  Arrived in Muir 1:23 – Uncle Eph brought me.  At 4:20 PM left for Grand Rapids, cost me 97 cts.  Went up and ate supper with Sgt of 3^rd Mich Regt.  I thought some of joining it, but finally concluded to go further west to look for a farm.  I staid at the Depot and took the train for G. Haven at 2:42 AM Wednesday (expense .95).  Left G. H. on boat 4:20 PM, arrived in Milwaukee about 10 AM Thursday (expense 2.30).  Had to stay there until next day, as my trunk had by mistake been left at Grand Haven.  Strolled through town all day.

   Friday 7^th – left Milwaukee for Chicago at 2 AM, arrive at 9 AM (fare 2.30).  Attended the funeral of Stephen A. DOUGLAS.  I last saw him at Tiffin, Ohio.  How little I thought that I now should see him on his last resting place.  He was buried on the lot he expected to build his residence on.  It is a beautiful place overlooking the lake.  The Illinois Central railway passes under the bank between it and the lake.

   Left Chicago at 8:12 PM for Peoria (fare 2.00).  Staid all night at Chenoa to wait for connecting train to Peoria, left at 12:30 and arrived at 3:30 PM Saturday.  Made inquiries of many business men for the whereabouts of my connexion D. SHEY and found a man at the Virginia House who knew a man by the name of SHEY.  Staid at Virginia House.  Sunday 9^th – went to the M. E. Sunday school and to Meeting.  Was introduced to my host – the superintendent – a fine man from all appearances.  Monday 10 – took packet for Pekin.  Went out to Circleville, from there to Dellion, started for Pekin.  Put up for the night with a farmer.  I found two men by the name of SHEY, no relation of mine.

   Tuesday 11^th 0 returned to Pekin, examined assessor’s books.  Visited Haines Machine Shop.  Sent my trunk to Peoria by packet.  I went up on foot and got a chance to ride most of the way with a farmer.  Staid all night in the suburbs.  Wednesday 12^th – examined two assessors books there also.  Stopped at the hotel, overheard conversation concerning a Regt forming at St. Louis.  Made inquiries, found a Co. was forming in Bloomington, concluded I would like to join it.  Made up my mind to go down at any rate, took cars for Bloomington, joined the Co.

   Thursday 13^th – shipped my trunk to Mich., addressed to Uncle Ben by express.  Had a Co. election, elected B. A. SMITH – Capt. J. W. WHITE – Lieut.  Received some shirts and drawers donated by the ladies.  Took a walk after supper, felt quite sober or rather realized I was just about to enter in a service fraught with many dangers and hardships and perhaps for the last time spending an evening of quiet and peace in Bloomington.

   Friday 14^th June – left Bloomington at 1 o’clock AM. Arrived in St. Louis about 9 o’clock AM.  Went into camp at a park, elected 2^nd Lieut. F. BLELAPP, appointed noncommissioned officers and then went down to the arsenal and were sworn into service by Mayer SCHEFIELD for three years or during the war if sooner ended.  Saturday 15^th – went through the usual drill.  Sunday 16^th – went back to arsenal and trained in that large brick building.

   Monday June 17^th – while on drill today we received news of trouble in town, as a segment of Home Guard was marching through town they were fired on by a group near the Recorders Court which was then in session.  The H. G. returned the fire with serious effect.  June 18^th drilled as usual, several recruits came in from Bloomington.  19^th and 20^th drill.  June 21^st was detached as clerk for Quartermasters. But by Commander’s request was still in drill 22^nd.  Sunday 23^rd drilled some also.  Drilled 24^th, 25^th, 26^th, 27^th, 28^th 29^th.  Sunday 30^th – Meeting in the Grove, excellent Union sermon on text First Peter 13^th chapter 13^th – 15^th verses.  Monday July 1^st – an accident happened by which a man was killed last night.  The Lieut. Of the guard was showing a sentinel how to handle his piece, when it accidentally went off, killing him.  That same evening as I was looking out the window of my quarters, which were near the front gate in the corner of the large brick arsenal, I saw the flash of a pistol and saw two men running.  One a Dutchman, was the one who shot, and the other was one of the soldiers of my Co.  No harm was done in this case, but there is lots of keen talk running that it originated about a ferry girl, as soldiers term them.

   June 2^nd – drilled as usual.  3^rd did peliece duty cleaning up the grounds preparatory to celebrating the Anniversary of American Independence.  Thursday July 4^th – attended celebration in Arsenal.  The day was ushered in by the usual National Salute.  Capt. Charles McDONALD read the Declaration of Indpendence.  Col. BLAND made a speech.  Lieut. Col. PECKHAM also spoke and others made remarks.  In evening I went into the upper story of the brick building (my quarters) and amused myself by watching the different fireworks in various parts of the city.

   July 5^th & 6^th drilled as usual.  Sunday July 7^th – attended Meeting in Grove by the arsenal.  On 8^th, 9^th & 10^th usual drill.  The Ill. 20^th left for Cape Girardeau on 10^th.  On 11^th, 12^th, 13^th occupied in drill.  On 14^th Col SMITH left with 4 Companies of 8^th Missouri and 4 Companies of Home Guards for North Missouri.  Monday July 15^th – drilled.

   On 16^th at 2 o’clock A.M. an alarm beat and all fell in line – went in Arsenal – found alarm false.  Drilled in ranks in forenoon.  At 2 PM a prisoner was brought in charged with shooting at train of cars containing Col. SMITH’S command.  7:30 JACKSON’S Quarter Master arrived in prison.  7:43 seven………prisoners came in guarded by H.G.  As they came up the street numbers of small boys surrounded them.  Some men seemed anxious to see a live Secesh (secessionist).  They were charged with burning a R. R. Bridge.

   Wednesday 17^th – my birthday – drilled in forenoon, at 1 PM received marching orders, at 2 we left our Quarters for North Missouri R.R. Depot to join Col. SMITH in North Missouri.  Quite a coincidence, on the day I am 22 years old I start on my first expedition to defend my country’s honor & flag.  Reached St. Charles about 9 o’clock, sent a detachment up the R.R. to prevent any news of our approach from getting along the line.

   Thursday July 18^th – early in the morning took a train after first putting all the rolling stock of the road in possession of the Home Guards and was not molested.  At nearly all the stations Union sentiments were shown, waving of handkerchiefs, most probably owing to fear for our safety, as when Col. SMITH passed along.  At about noon we joined our comrades at Mexico (Missouri).  Twenty four of my company stood guard at night.

   I heard beating of drums about 9 in the evening, supposed it was the enemy’s camp, who hearing of the reinforcements sounded the alarm & left.  We kept up the utmost vigilance expecting an attack.  Friday July 19^th – about 9 o’clock my Co. started on a scouting expedition expecting some fun.  When about 3 miles from camp we saw some horsemen in the distance, gave chase, they eluded us.  Skirmished through the woods, cornfields & came suddenly on a house before which stood two horses.  In the house were three men, looked a little suspicious, but we passed on.

   Just after leaving the house we saw a Secesh (secessionist) pass on horseback at fast speed.  Tried to get a shot but failed.  About same time two of the boys found each a gun secreted in the brush near the house.  Capt. Then ordered the men and horses captured.  Corp. STONE and myself took the lead.  I came up first and took possession of one of the horses, STONE the other.  Sgt. MARSH came in with a file of men and took the men prisoners. We then started towards camp, examined all houses on the way.  One house had several men in it, no arms were found.  Did not make them prisoners, although I think we had ought to have done it, as undoubtedly they were Secesh.

   Saturday July 20^th – about 11 AM an alarm was sounded and all fell in.  A moment later it proved to be a Regt. Of troops (21^st Ill) coming down on a train from the west.  During afternoon a detachment of cavalry was needed to go to reinforce a Regt. Of H. Guards of St. Louis at Fulton.  The cavalry with us refused to go, as their enlistment had expired.  So my Capt volunteered with as many men as needed, and about 4 o’clock we started.  Saw a few straggling horsemen, fired on one of them but missed.  Did not follow as we feared an ambush.  Sunday 21^st – at 12:30 AM arrived in Fulton (MO).

   Rainy all day.  Col. HAMAN’S Regt. came in town and stopt owing to the rain.  Monday 22^nd – left at 8 AM for Mexico (MO), took a circuitous rout hoping to fall in with the Rebel Haris, but failed.  Saw several suspicious-looking persons, but none armed.  Are in Mexico at 2 PM.  Tuesday 23^rd – left for St. Louis Home Guard at Montgomery and our men who had removed there accompanied us.

   (Total loss to Secesh about 60 to 100, our loss 2 killed, 4 or 5 wounded.)  Wednesday 24^th – arrived in Arsenal about 4 AM was up all night, very tired and sleepy.  (My CO. did not get in a fight, being on other duty out to Fulton.  Most of the fighting was done before we were ordered away from the Arsenal.)  Left Arsenal for camp at Fair Grounds, were to be there at 12:13 AM.  Thursday 25^th – had company drill and Battalion in afternoon.  Friday 26^th – company drill.  Saturday 27^th – marched down to Genl. FREMONT’S Headquarters and was inspected by him.

   Afternoon received Marching Orders – embarked on the Desmoines and left for Cape Giraldeau about dusk.  Sunday 28^th – arrived at Cape about 4 AM, by 9 AM took up Quarters in a large Grist Mill on bank of the river.  29^th 30^th and 31^st the usual drill.  August 1^st made a monthly return to Co.  A rumor in camp that a part of our Regt had orders to leave for Cairo, not true however.  2^nd & 3^rd drilled.

   Sunday 4^th – a rumor that the enemy were approaching, commenced throwing up fortifications.  Continued on 5^th, 6^th, 7^th working on entrenchments, mounted some cannon.  8^th working on entrenchments.  August 9^th – pickets gave the alarm about 4 AM. fell in line, supposed the enemy were upon us, firing all around town.  Expected enemy every moment, Col. Went out with 4 Cos. To meet them.               TO BE CONTINUED

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Our research & writing labors are free.  But to those of you who feel inclined to send $5 about once a year for postage and printing costs, we say Thank You.  It’s not mandatory, but appreciated!  Many of you are supportive in other ways!

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa; Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI. 
OCTOBER 2006, Volume 42, Number 2.  Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES:   PIERSON, BULKELEY, WILLIAMS, SMITH, SAWTELL, SHAY, COBB, EDGEL, BENDICT, WARREN HULL, SWARTHOUT, SIBLE, COURSER, FRIEND, HALL, HOPPOUGH,  FORD, SPEAS, ESPINOZA, BEVAN, TAFOYA, RAYMOND, SAYER, PRYER, WADSWORTH, PORTER, FRIEND

RECENT DEATHS:

RUTH JEAN COBB EDGEL BENEDICT, 71, widow of Bernard EDGEL and wife of John BENEDICT, mother of Kim EDGEL, Connie WARREN and Shannan HULL, sister of Donna SWARTHOUT, Ronald, Larry and Robert COBB, Jr., daughter of Laura SIBLE & Robert COBB, Sr.  Jean & Bernie ran the gas station, general store & lawn mower repair shop at Little Venice on M-50 at the east edge of Sunfield Township, where she was also Township Treasurer for many years.  She married John BENEDICT in 2005 after both were widowed.  John’s first wife was Marge COURSER BENEDICT, great-great-granddaughter of Sebewa Township pioneer settler, John FRIEND.  Jean is buried in Sunfield Cemetery. 

JEROME (JERRY) FRANK HALL, 67, husband of Betty Lou HOPPOUGH HALL, father of Betty Jo FORD, Benjamin and Jerome HALL II, brother of John HALL, Joanne SPEAS, Ethel ESPINOZA, Kathryn BEVAN and Susan TAFOYA, son of Ethel RAYMOND & Ellsworth HALL.  Jerry farmed in Berlin and Orange Townships and operated Jerry’s Septic Service for 30 years.  Jerry is buried in BALCOM Cemetery.

FRONT PAGE PHOTO OF REV. JOB PIERSON, CLIMATOLOGIST, LIBRARIAN, MAN OF WORDS

REVEREND JOB PIERSON 1824-1896

   The original of the cover photo hangs on the wall in the back hall of Ionia Presbyterian Church.  Job PIERSON was a minister in Ionia July 12, 1868 – July 12, 1878.  While active in many religious and civic projects, he is perhaps best remembered for keeping the first and ongoing records of the daily weather statistics in Ionia, including readings of the river level, temperature highs & lows, rainfall & snow water equivalents.  This task has been carried on for the past 13 years, in her back yard off Reimer Drive and on State Street Bridge, by Ionia Librarian Jane SAWTELL.  Jane grew up in Holland, MI, and says she was interested in climatology since she was in Junior High, when she wrote a theme paper on the subject.

   JOB PIERSON was born in Schaghticoke, NY, February 3, 1824, son of Clarissa BULKELEY and Job PIERSON, Sr., an attorney in Rensselaer County, NY.  District Attorney and United States Congressman.  After graduating from Williams College, Williamstown, MA, and Auburn Theological Seminary, Auburn, NY, the younger Job was pastor at Corning, NY, 1847-1849, West Stockbridge, MA 1849-1850, and was married to Rachel WILLIAMS SMITH of Gloucester, MA, in 1849.

   He was appointed pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Catskill, NY, 1850-1853, and Pittsford, NY, 1853-1856.  After a trip to Scotland, he was appointed pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Victor, NY, 1857-1863.  In 1863 he was appointed to First Presbyterian Church in Kalamazoo, MI, and to Ionia First Presbyterian in 1868.

   Job PIERSON was a trustee of both Olivet College (Congregational), where he received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree, and Alma College, (Presbyterian) where he became Librarian after leaving Ionia in 1878.  While there he completed and submitted 46,000 quotations to the Oxford English Dictionary.  This was an effort continued by several editors over a period of nearly 70 years to catalog and annotate every word in the English Language at that time, fully defined, with preferred, variant, and obsolete spellings all listed, along with origins and pronunciations.  Job retired from Alma College in 1892, but continued his work on the Oxford English Dictionary until his death February 3, 1896.  Begun in 1860, the Dictionary was completed in 1928 and was 15,490 pages of single-spaced print defining 414,825 words!  A revised edition in 20 volumes was published in 1989.  The next edition could well be a million words in 40 volumes, but will be on dictionary.com instead!

   Job reportedly also contributed some 400 items to the Encyclopedia Britannica of his day.  These would have been longer articles than the 46,000 items he prepared for the Oxford English Dictionary.  But being unable to verify this contribution in any contemporary edition, we do not present this report as fact.

EPHRAIM SHAY’S DIARY 1861-1863     Continued:

   Alarm proofed to be false, caused by a party of pickets mistaking their comrades for the enemy, resulting in the killing of one and seriously wounding two more.  Saturday August 10^th – working on entrenchments.  Sunday 11^th – attending the funeral for one of my comrades.  I acted as one of the guards.  Fired the usual salute (three rounds) over the grave.  12^th and 13^th worked on entrenchments.

   Wednesday 14^th – I volunteered to mount picket with Lieut., had no adventure.  Thursday 15^th – being hungry we concluded to have breakfast.  We went to an old Secesh and Lieut. Ordered our breakfast and feed for horses.  After breakfast scouted the country and returned to came about 11 AM.  Found my Co. on board the S. B. Hannibal City ready to go on an expedition up the river.  I dismounted, got my stationery box, gun & accouterments and arrived at the wharf just as the boat was starting.  The stern swinging near the wharf, I gave my box to a soldier – who threw it on board, my gun to another, and making a spring, caught on the edge of the wheel house and by exertion climbed on board.

   Received three letters, which one of the boys had got in lost mail; one from Priscilla, Catherine, and John RICHARDS.  Arrived at St. Geneviev, disembarked, took double quick and surround the town.  I acted as sentinel.  I being up all night was very sleepy and got permission to sleep a short time.  Friday 16^th – passed the day doing business for the Major, I being his clerk for the expedition.  In afternoon I copied a proclamation for the printing office to publish.  After its publication we embarked and left for St. Louis, after taking from the bank 58 thousand dollars, or rather nearly 59 thousand.  On 17^th copied a report for Genl. FREMONT giving particulars of our transactions.  I remained on board boat all day.  Sunday 18^th – remained on board the boat, at 6 PM left for Cape Girardeau.  19^th arrived at Cape at 4 AM.  20^th, 21^st, 22^nd, 23^rd, 24^th, 25^th spent at drill and finishing fortifications.

   Monday August 26^th – had a heavy march, went 7 miles to rout enemy which was reported there.  Commenced to rain, could go no further, as orders were strict to go to a certain toll gate.  Had to return in the rain, mud got very deep, had knapsack and accounterments besides wet clothes to carry, which with the mud worried us very much.  I never was so near given out in my life.  27^th, 28^th, 29^th spent finishing fortifications.  30^th about dark marching orders arrive and at 9 we started.  Arrived and surrounded the town (of Jackson) before daylight.  My Co. took quarters in a vacated house, had lots of fun.  A regular dance in evening, about midnight the house sounded like a menagerie.  Someone woked and commenced to imitate a cat, others as fast as they woke up commenced imitating other animals.  One a dog, another a turkey, some crowded like a rooster and such a mess of different imitations in the dead of the night sounded laughable enough to make the most crusty crack a smile.

   Saturday August 31^st – remaining in Jackson, boys had lots of adventure.  Some women they had sold themselves by a fair bargain to some handsome lad, others engaged to be married as soon as the war closed.  Sunday September 1^st – at about noon scouts reported troops approaching, all fell in line.  Proved to be Genl. PRENTISS with his command.  He made us a speech, told us to let no secessionist insult us.  Left at 2:00 for Cape Girardeau, made the march in 3 hr. 30 min.

   Monday September 2^nd – commenced making out Muster Rolls, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th busy making muster rolls.  Friday 6^th not doing much of anything – a little drill.  Saturday 7^th – received marching orders and struck out and encamped just on the edge of town.  Monday 9^th through Monday 16^th occupied with usual business of camp life.  Tuesday 17^th Capt. SMITH arrived from Bloomington.  Wednesday 18^th – was alarmed at 11 o’clock, had to sleep in arms, at daylight out on color line.  Many citizens leaving for the country Thursday 19^th through Monday 30^th.

   Tuesday October 1^st through Sunday 6^th all spent with no occurrence of any note.  Principal doings were drill and throwing up fortifications.  Changed our camp from west to east side of town on the bank of the Tennessee.  Monday 7^th – heard heavy cannonading all day.  Tuesday 8^th through Monday 21^st all spent with usual routine of camp life.  On 21^st received orders to march, left at 8 PM, marched to Viola, 19 miles distant, by 3 AM on Tuesday 22^nd.  Left again about 2 AM on 23^rd and arrived in camp 11 AM about 1 mile from Viola.  For the first time, except once in Ohio when washing sheep for Uncle John DRAKE I took a swallow of the liquid, I got very tired and could hardly go any farther.  We had been marched with but one rest and that only of about 10 minutes.  My Capt, although a temperate man, had a flask of liquor and induced me to take some.  Did it because under the state I then was in I thought it necessary.  Evening of 23^rd had toothache very bad, went to hospital to have it extracted.  Doctor broke it off, which increases the pain.  Had to use chloroform to get out the rest.

   Thursday October 24^th – wrote Priscilla a letter.  Friday 25^th through Sunday 27^th usual occupations of camp.  Also 27^th had a dress parade before Genl SMITH’S headquarters, returned to Genl WALLACE’S headquarters and he made a short speech.  Told us that there was a regiment of Secesh calling themselves the Missouri 8^th and possibly we might meet them.  The boys seemed crazy with delight when he told them that if they said so, he would get a meeting of the two regiments.  To a man they cried out “Do it! Do it!”  Boys were all excited thinking they had sport ahead.  Monday 28^th – Col. SMITH sent a challenge to the Col. Of the Secesh 8^th Missouri to meet him on equal footing anywhere between Mayfield and our camp.

   Tuesday 29^th – Mrs. FREMONT rode through camp, rumored that we are to leave for Cairo.  Wednesday October 30^th till Monday November 18^th spent as usual in camp with drill and inspections and on 18^th fell in line with Brigade and marched out 4 or 5 miles in country then returned.  November 19^th – company drill.  Wednesday 29^th at 2 o’clock fell in line and went down on the bank of the Ohio.  Viewed the review of the 23^rd Ill Chicago Artillery and Cavalry.  In evening all the boys of our camp got out and commenced to yell like crazy men.  The yell was answered by all camps within hearing.  Soldiers in all parts, wherever they chanced to be, answered, and the Secesh, thinking something was about to happen, were scared nearly to death.

   Thursday 21^st – went through the form of a review.  22^nd company drill and 23^rd Capt SMITH went to Bloomington.  Sunday 24^th through Thursday 28^th spent in company drill when weather would permit, it being quite cold part the time.  29^th hail & sleet, very uncomfortable.  30^th ground white with snow.  Lieut PECKHAM left with his Co. for an expedition up the river to Caseyville, Illinois. 

   Sunday December 1^st to Saturday 14^th occupied with Co. drill, and on Sunday the 15^th the whole Second Brigade met on our drill grounds.

   To clear off the brush and trees for lots of space (for drill), we would take a large rope, tie it to the top of a large tree, and then all get hold of it and by digging a little around the roots, pull it up and draw it off from the grounds.  Have seen about 1000 on the rope at one time, great sport!  Several times the rope broke.  In the end a string of perhaps a hundred trees were piled on the ground.

   Sunday December 15^th – started with inspection in morning, then wrote letters to Priscilla and Grandma.  Meeting at 2 o’clock heard a Union preacher driven from the South.  Then the Dress Parade at 4 and the Col took us down on the levee to drill us to see if we had forgotten it.  Monday 16^th – Second Co. Kentucky boys left for Smithland.  Brigade continued pulling stumps.  I did not go out.  Tuesday 17^th – Battalion drill at 10 o’clock.  18^th usual camp occupations – retired early.  At 9 PM order came to prepare for an expedition.  Dressed myself, got ready, fell in line with Co.  Went to Genl WALLACE’S headquarters, joined a Co of Illinois under Major ELSTIN with 11^th Indiana and marched on.  Arrived at Eddysville 4 AM on 19^th.  Sourrounded a house this die of town (took one prisoner).  Then went to town, surrounded it.  Found armed force of Secesh Cavalry, left in afternoon.  The day before some of the boys got some Secesh  trophies.  One got a sash which had a Secesh flag on it, beautifully finished, worth at least $23.  The way he found it was, as he was passing a house a man standing in the yard asked what his business was.  He replied that he was in search of traitors.  The man said he would not find them, but that before tomorrow night every Union man in turn would be hung and he would help do it.  Frank, with gun in hand, closed the fence to take him prisoner.  The Secesh took to his heels and went in house, Frank in pursuit.  As Frank was searching a room under the stairs, he saw the sash and kept it.  The Secesh got out of his sight and he could not find him.

   I had no particular adventure.  Once the party I belonged to thought we had surprised a camp, as we saw a fire resembling a camp fire and also heard a gun, as if giving an alarm.  But on coming up it proved to be a man butchering hogs.  We embarked on a boat at 11 AM and arrived at Paducah at 4 AM on Friday 20^th.  21^st thru 24^th nothing but drills.  Wednesday December 25^th – no drill in evening, heard a scuffle out in camp, saw a Sgt taking a man to the guard house.

   Prisoner attempted to run, Sgt fired at him with his revolver, but missed.  A wonder that the ball could go through camp without hitting someone.  It passed over the heads of two boys in one tent, passing through the tent near the top.  It was a carelss piece of work, proper enough to shoot the prisoner for trying to get away, but dangerous among so many.  Friday 27^th – commenced to book up clothing in account, make out receipt bill.  28^th making out Muster Roll to muster in for payment.

   Sunday 29^th – busy on clothing account muster rolls, and Brg Genl WALLACE went on a scout with 200 Cavalry.  Monday 30^th – this morning at 1 o’clock Genl WALLACE was near Camp Beauregard, returned to Viola.  Secesh came up on trail and fired on him at Viola.  He being in command was principal mark.  After the first fire, he turned to them and told them if they wanted to get him, they must make better shots, then put spurs to his horse and got out of the way.  He chose a position out in a field to await attack, but enemy fled after first fire, there being 4 times the number of enemy.

   He sent for reinforcements.  Genl SMITH sent out 11^th Indiana, 9^th Illinois, and orders positive to return immediately without fail.  WALLACE bit his lip at such orders, but needed to obey.  He with his reinforcements could have easily whipped the Secesh, but if they should also be reinforced, it might lead to a premature battle, which would spoil the plan of taking Columbus.  Perhaps he did well in obeying, had he been the victor he would have been court-martialed.  Two Cos of the 8^th now went out to sustain the pickets if necessary.  Night passed quietly.  Tuesday 31^st – usual drill, I worked on Muster Rolls in afternoon.

   Wednesday January 1^st, 1862 – in morning was mustered for pay, no drill or fatigue duty today, boys had lots of sport.  I was in town twice during the day, saw Corpl HAYES (now a 1^st Lieut. in Indiana 11^TH) who was so conspicuous in a skirmish party of 13 against about 73 of the enemy.  They killed 42 and lost but one man, and he was killed after they left.  Being wounded, he was left at a private house, where the Secesh found and killed him.  HAYES was wounded also, but got back to camp.  He is a large man about 40 years old.  About noon a number of boys mounted on mules, armed with everything imaginable from a clip & a pair of revolvers to wooden swords, included no two dressed alike, nor any two with the same kind of weapon, made lots of sport.  They called themselves the Secesh Cavalry.  In the afternoon a lot of boys calling themselves the Secesh Infantry visited our camp, clad similar to the cavalry and if possible more comical.  Some of our boys got a pair of wheels of different sizes, mounted a log on it, and went down town performing all the drill of a light battery.  The whole town was all excitement, sports of all kinds helped to make a Merry New Year.

   January 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, spent making Quarterly Returns, finishing Muster Rolls and squaring Clothing Account.  7^th drill & making out requisitions, drew my quarterly amount of stationery at night.  As I sit writing a band is serenading one of our officers not 100 feet from me.  The music is excellent.  Wednesday 8^th – a very rainy day.  I have been principally engaged in writing this diary.  Thursday 9^th – warm, damp, foggy day, roads very muddy, spent day getting ready to march.  Orders came about 9 AM to be ready at 3 PM, but it was postponed until tomorrow morning.  Can get no clue as to our destination, but guess is we are going to prevent reinforcements from going from Bowling Green, to Columbus.  I guess an attack on Columbus is meditated.  Have heard heavy guns firing occasionally through the day.

   Friday morning 10^th – 23 minutes past 5 I have had my breakfast and only wait the order to march.  It is a pleasant morning, warm but very muddy.  I expect that it will be the last morning spent by many in Paducah.  Appearances look as if a formidable blow was about to be made, which will make Succession tremble, I hope.  Preparations have been going on long enough to be ready, although I fear we are not.  I may be mistaken, but from the best information I have, our force is too small to make a short battle, and it will be long and bloody.  One must surely conquer.  The boys are all excitement getting ready.  The wagon is here and I must soon go help load it.  Each takes 4 tents and about 6 or 8 days’ provisions.  Yesterday provisions were being loaded all day at the Post Commissary.  Nearly all the supplies have left.

   No mail came last night, but I must stop writing.  It is now evening and I am no nearer Camp Beauregard or Columbus than I was this morning, although our wagon was loaded, our knapsacks packed, haversacks with 48 hours provisions in them.  Still our preparation was useless, as the march was contramanded, were in line at 8 AM, went down to headquarters, got all in readiness, waiting for the command forward, when we were ordered back to quarters with instructions to be ready at a moment’s notice.  On Daily Parade this evening an order was read countermanding the previous order and to march at 8 AM tomorrow.  What all this means I cannot tell.  The roads were very bad today, being extremely muddy from recent rains, and about noon the weather looked threatening, in fact it did rain some.  I was much disappointed, thinking this morning the time for an advance had come.  Perhaps this is but a delay, we are still ordered to be ready at any moment.  Each man must have two days provisions in his haversack all the while.  For now it is bedtime.

   Saturday, January 11^th – 12:30 PM had Co. drill and dress parade this forenoon, no order to march yet, expecting it hourly.  The reason we did not go yesterday, as near as I can learn, is that 17,000 troops to have arrived at Cairo yesterday did not come, consequently the delay.  General WALLACE was ordered to Cairo day before yesterday and he received orders to have the forces in Paducah in marching order.  At 4 AM yesterday he returned and did so, but by 4 o’clock received a dispatch to defer marching until 8 AM.  He did so and at 8 we were in line.

   No order to advance arrived, so we came back to camp for dinner.  A boat brought orders to be ready to march as soon as the 17,000 from up the river reach Cairo, and now we are momentarily expecting the command.  The telegraph line did not work yesterday, owning to being blown down, it is now all right.  8:30 PM news came by the boat that their 13,000 troops are crossing at Cairo, Il.  All the while about 18,000 of our troops are expected at Cairo from up the river at any moment.  In all probability we will leave this place tonight or tomorrow.  This evening about 2 PM one of the Indiana 11^th boys was killed by a clerk in a grocery store a few steps from our camp.  From what I hear, the soldier was drunk and asked for some liquor.  While the clerk was getting it, the soldier took a bottle which was near and poured the whiskey into his canteen and then started to go out.  The clerk saw him and threw a weight at him, knocking him down, and as he was getting up again, threw another, striking him near the right temple, which caused his death in a short time.  I hear they have caught the fellow and that he will be hung tomorrow morning.  This fell ow is known to be a strong secessionist and killing the soldier as he did is thought to make him a hero.

   Sunday 12^th – morning warm and comfortable to go around in short sleeves, evening uncomfortably cold with overcoats on.  Have heard nothing of the fellow who killed one of the Indiana boys last evening.  Expect that he is in the Provost Marshall’s Guard House.  No move has been made yet, hourly expecting orders to fall in line and take up the line of march.  Papers brought by today’s mail say that the movement now on foot is destined up the Tennessee River.  I think not, though it may be so.  The plan is a favorable one, but my guess is the movement will go straight down the Mississippi to Columbus, KY.

   Sunday January 19^th – I never saw as bad roads as we traveled yesterday and today.  We have worked hard both days and gained only about 2 miles, it’s discouraging.  Tonight we encamp in a pleasant place in the openings.  We are now in a Secesh neighborhood, the headquarters of Clay KING and his band.  Two wealthy Secesh only a few roads ahead from our camp have left with all their movable effects such as could be got away with.  Half their meat, groceries, beds, and such were left behind, which the boys use.  Also much of their stock, all the sheep & hogs.  Such are the effects of civil war, I hope it will soon cease.  Monday 20^th – today, by cutting our roads through the woods, we succeeded in making a good day’s march.  Passed several Secesh houses which were known by the owners leaving them.  The Union men staid at home glad to see us.  Passed through a nursery and encamped nine miles from the Tennessee River.  Tuesday 21^st – reached the river, found the gun boat LEXINGTON and the transport WILSON awaiting us, commenced unloading commissary.  Wednesday 22^nd – finished unloading.  The gun boat went up to Fort Henry once or twice through the day, examining the fort.  They threw a few shots at a Rebel boat DUNBAR, which they met coming down the river last evening to reconnoiter.  Also at some pickets on shore, some at the fort.  Thursday 23^rd – left camp for a march to Paducah.  By gun boat last night orders came from Genl. GRANT to return to that battle.  The boys all wanted to take Fort Henry, but we could not disobey orders, so returned.  Reached Paducah on Saturday 25^th about 3 o’clock PM.

   Sunday 26^th – resting from our march.  The rains lately have raised the river very high.  I feel rather dull today, a long march has quite an effect.  A rumor that we (8^th Missouri) are to join Jim Lane’s command.  The 55^th Illinois came here while we were away and they say they are to take our place.  Things look a little as though we are going to leave.  The paymaster is here and I guess we will get our pay soon.  I received five letters last night, one from Priscilla, one from Jane, one from Kate, one from Zella, and one from Jay.

   Monday 27^th – writing letters, went to levee a short time, concluded to get a transfer to our gun boat if possible.  Wrote a letter to Commodore FOOTE.  Milo & Frank are going with me if we can get the transfer.  Tuesday 28^th – today have been busy getting the payrolls signed and clothing accounts signed.  Received our money up to Dec 31^st.  Boys having a boisterous time, their money is being spent very freely.  I can hardly believe my eyes when I see boys, who have worked so hard & undergone hardship, get their money then spend it as freely as if it cost nothing.  I believe many a boy will contract habits while soldiering which he will never entirely overcome.  What an account the causes of this war will have to face at the final day.

   Wednesday 29^th – rainy day, did nothing but a little writing.  Thursday 30^th – Capt SMITH being appointed Quartermaster for 2^nd Brigade, detached me to act as Forage Master.  Friday 31^st – issued hay & grain orders, quite busy.

   Saturday February 1^st – busy issuing orders and receiving hay & grain, 2^nd issued but little, it being Sunday, all issuing delayed to Monday except urgent cases.  Went up to Co. D 8^th Missouri a short time visiting at hospital, after supper wrote letter to Jay HENDERSON.  Rumors that we march tomorrow, no orders here yet to that effect.  Monday 3^rd – issuing forage orders.  4^th – issuing orders and packing Quartermaster stores to move.  TO BE CONTINUED.

PORTLAND OBSERVER, February 22, 1912:  Clarence SAYER of Sebewa has been appointed Ionia County agent for the Everitt and R. C. H. motor cars. 

PORTLAND OBSERVER, February 20, 1936:  Dr. & Mrs. Roy PRYER of Danby left this morning for the South.  They will go to Melbourne, Florida, where they will spend some time with Mr. & Mrs. L. H. WADSWORTH. 

PORTLAND OBSERVER, February 17, 1886:  Several guests were invited to Squire Porter’s residence Thursday evening to celebrate the 17^th birthday of his son Wellie.  (Wellington married Morna FRIEND, second youngest daughter of John FRIEND, both families being from Sebewa).

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa; Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI. 
DECEMBER 2006, Volume 42, Number 3.  Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins: 

SURNAMES:  ANDREWS, YATES, DRUMMOND, BLUNDY, WILDER, MINIKEY, YATES, WOODBURY, WILSON, HAGEN, HOPKINS, JACKSON, COLE, RICHARD, PORTER, FRANKS, HART, HAGER, SOUTHWELL, LOWE, HALLADAY, INGALLS, TERRILL, HALBERT, AVES, SWILER, KASSNER, FOX, ENGLE, SUTTON, AUSTIN, BEVER, TOWNER, LEAK, BULLING, DAY, WOODS, GREINER, CATT, VanHOUTEN, MARTIN, STEPHENS, SANFT, HILL, MEYERS, WHITE, BUCK, BRADEN, RYDER, CASSEL, WHORLEY, HOFFMAN, FENDER, BRUNDAGE, KNISELY, SCHLOSSER, FRANKS, SHANNON, ENGLISH, WHITE, CAHOON, SHAY, GREEN, BLANCHARD, SPAULDING, HOLLON, CHIEF OKEMOS, INGALLS, TALLANT, WILLIAMS, HATCH, SHERMAN, ABBOTT, KINNIE, CAHOON, HOOKER

RECENT DEATHS: 

DOROTHY M. MINIKEY ANDREWS, 82, widow of Raymond ANDREWS, mother of Michael ANDREWS, Stuart ANDREWS who once lived in Sebewa, Kristine YATES, Pamela DRUMMOND of Ionia and Deborah BLUNDY of Sebewa, and the late Evelyn WILDER, sister of Lyle MINIKEY, Ruth WOODBURY, and the late Donald MINIKEY, Opal WILSON and Helen HAGEN, daughter of Fred & Eva HOPKINS MINIKEY.  Formerly employed at Chrysler Lyons Trim Plant, she continued in home crafts of sewing, knitting, painting and woodworking. 

HAZEL MARGARET JACKSON COLE, 76, widow of A. Russell COLE, mother of Faith RICHARD and John PORTER, sister of Hugh JACKSON, Hertha FRANKS, Hope HART and the late Helen HAGER, Hilda PORTER and Harold JACKSON, daughter of Frank A. JACKSON & Golda A. SOUTHWELL, daughter of Henry SOUTHWELL & Minnie LOWE, daughter of Henrietta & Dayton Otho LOWE, son of Clarissa & Egbert Y. LOWE, who owned and operated in partnership with Ionia County Clerk Charles L. HALLADAY, the sawmill located on Sebewa Creek at MUSGROVE Hwy, nest to the proposed Coldwater, Marshall & Mackinaw Railroad bed, and originally built by Jonathan INGALLS’ son-in-law and grandson-in-law, John F. TERRILL and Anson W. HALBERT.  Hazel was buried in Sunfield Cemetery, the LOWES and SOUTHWELLS are in East Sebewa Cemetery. 

MARJORIE MARIE AVES SWILER, 83, widow of Harold KASSNER SWILER, mother of Wayne Arlo SWILER, Lorraine Lois SWILER, Linda Louise FOX, Carol Lynn ENGLE and Doris Jean SUTTON, sister of Ottice Elaine AUSTIN, Norma Lucille BEVER and Mary Christine TOWNER, daughter of Arlow AVES & Mildred LEAK, daughter of Hermine BULLING & Edwin LEAK, son of Mary Ann DAY & David LEAK, son of Christopher LEAK & Mary WOODS, who came to Sebewa Township from Donington, Lincolnshire, England, before our Civil War.  Arlo AVES was son of Estella GREINER & Charles AVES, son of Harriet CATT & Charles AVES, Sr., son of Elizabeth AVES.  Estella GREINER was daughter of Christina & Peter GREINER.  Marjorie & Wayne were lifelong farmers and world & national travelers.  Buried in North Eagle Cemetery, the LEAKS and AVES in West Sebewa Cemetery. 

GORDON LEE VanHOUTEN, 74, husband of Phyllis MARTIN VanHOUTEN, father of Deborah STEPHENS and Stephen VanHOUTEN, brother of Ruth Ann SANFT, David VanHOUTEN, Alice HILL, Louella MEYERS and the late Bud WHITE, son of Alma BUCK & C. Wayne VanHOUTEN, son of Amanda BRADEN & John Jacob VanHOUTEN, son of John Henry VanHOUTEN & Betsey Ann RYDER, daughter of Elsia E. & Stephen RYDER, who came to Sebewa Township in 1854, just before the birth of John Jacob VanHOUTEN in 1855.  Gordon sold cars at BERGER Motors in Ionia and WITTENBACH Motors in Lowell, and played in The Proper Strangers band for thirty years and then at the Commission on Aging. 

JULIA LORENA CASSEL WHORLEY, 92, widow of L. Carlton WHORLEY, mother of William C. WHORLEY, James T. WHORLEY and Alice Yvonne WHORLEY, sister of the late Elta HOFFMAN, Jennie FENDER BRUNDAGE, Emma KNISELY, Alice SCHLOSSER and Joseph CASSEL, daughter of Florence FRANKS & J. Franklin CASSEL, son of Catherine & James CASSEL.  Florence FRANKS CASSEL was daughter of Julia SHANNON & Andrew FRANKS, who settled in Sebewa before 1891.  Julia was a farmer all her life, was a housekeeper in Lansing before marriage, retired after 27 years at General Tire and its predecessors in Ionia, and was an avid reader all her life.  Buried in Easton Cemetery.

FRONT PAGE PHOTOS:

   Worcester ENGLISH was first to locate in the permanent settlement in Boston Township, in January, 1837 and the second settler was Timothy WHITE who arrived in March that same year.  Mr. WHITE opened his home for weary travelers and all down through the years it was known as WHITE’S Tavern.  This farm has remained in the family since and is presently owned by his great-great-grandson and wife, James FRED and Jacqueline CAHOON.  DESIGNATED A SESQUICENTENNIAL FARM IN 1987.

EPHRAIM SHAY’S DIARY 1861-1863   Continued:

   Wednesday February 5^th – started for boat at 12 o’clock AM, left at one, and now at 8 PM are near our stopping place, as lights are seen ahead.  Thursday 6^th – boys are all excitement, getting 2 days rations and preparing to leave the boat.  Rumors that the enemy have evacuated the Fort after burning everything inside it.  Also that a Secesh General is 10 miles out in the country stuck in the mud.  I do not credit them.  At 11 o’clock the 11^th Indiana takes the lead, nest Chicago Artillery, then (our) 8^th Missouri.  The balance of the Regts I cannot tell the names of from here. 

   At 11:45 AM the signal to prepare to go to the front is run up.  It consists of 4 flags, the uppermost being 2 blue stripes, one white, one red.  Next flag all white, next white with a small square of blue in the corner, the last has 2 red and one white stripe.  At this signal all the boats commenced to fire up and at 12 started.  At 12:30 the gun boats are under way, the 5 ironclad boats ahead, the 3 wood gun boats behind.  The TYLER in the center, CONESTOGA on the left, LEXINGTON on the right.  1:30 PM the ball has commenced, the gun boats have opened fire on the fort.  1:50 firing grows heavier.  There goes a broadside.  I can see the smoke as the breeze blows it eastward, and I hear nothing from the Infantry watching the fight.  2 PM – there goes the 128 pound gun in the fort, now the firing is not so heavy, now it increases.

   The troops from the east side have only half of them gone from appearances.  Our Regt is on the west side.  Now that they have orders to fall in, they do it with a yell of delight.  The Regt is now in motion, it is 2:16 PM, light firing continues.  The WHB is coming down the river.  The Capt is waving his hat, the news is good I guess.  The firing has nearly ceased, the WHB is now going back.  A gun boat is floating down, it is the ESSEX.  The WHB goes up to the gunboat and seems to speak to her.  2:50 PM – the firing has ceased, the fight has lasted about 80 minutes.

   It doesn’t seem possible that the fort is taken so soon, staid on board the boat.  Friday 7^th – early the ferry BULLET crossed the river, coaled up, and went to the fort.  I got off and examined the fort, saw the effects of cannon balls, saw the rifled cannon – the only one in the fort – bursted, also some of the men which it killed.  One had his head and arms blown off, another his skull mashed, another his throat nearly cut off, and all were burned black by the powder, their clothes entirely off around their breasts.  Saw the prisoners, about 80, got a complet idea of the fierce power of the balls from the gun boats, as I saw one which was half buried.  Saw many shotguns, knives, a Secesh Col’s uniform.

   Within about an hour after landing at the fort, we crossed the river and lashed fast opposite our camps, or rather Fort Helman, I believe that is the name of it.  Saturday 8^th – remained on the boat.  Sunday 9^th –remained on boat, going back and forth to camp occasionally.  Monday 10^th – same.  Tuesday 11^th – removed to camp on hill just behind the unfinished fort.  Wednesday 12^th – straighting up the tent, drawing some forage, and wrote a letter to Jim.  Lieut. WHITE gave me a letter which came from Jim.

   Thursday 13^th – busy in tent in afternoon running balls for revolver. Some boys here had a little skirmish with the enemy today.  From what I hear, it appears that 12 men sent in word that they were Union men and wanted to take the oath of allegiance and would meet at a certain school house 3 miles distant from camp.  Accordingly, by the Col’s orders, the 28^th Illinois sent a Co. of armed men out there.

   They had hardly got to the place mentioned, when some 4 or 5 hundred Secesh Cavalry surrounded or attempted to surround them, but our boys soon cleared out and fetched the 12 men prisoners into camp.  Some boys of my Co. were out on a foraging excursion today and were fired on by 11 mounted men.  They returned the fire with but little damage apparently, one horse seemed wounded.

   The forces which went to attack Fort Donaldson are today having hot work from reports.  I lean that our gunboats shelled them out of the fort and that our infantry had them surrounded.  About 17,000 on each side are engaged.  We have 10,000 on the opposite side of the river.  Lieut. WHITE was within 4 miles of the fort today, he told me what I have written.  He says our loss most probably will be heavy.

   Friday 14^th – this morning about 43 o’clock our Regt. and Indiana 11^th left camp for Fort Donaldson, the fight continues there with much spirit.  They took only their blankets, haversacks, etc.  The winter snow evens the ground and melts but little.  Towards noon very heavy fire, which continued for several hours, was heard.  Occasional heavy guns are heard till late in the night.

   Today I bought a stove.  It is a regular cooking stove with oven & it cost $10.00  I am so situated I cannot hire my cooking, and unless I have things convenient, cannot do it myself.  My partners will bear half the expense.  Saturday 15^th – snowed a little more last night, heavy firing heard all night, which continues today.  Our troops are now doing the heaviest fighting ever done in the United States.  I only wish I could be present with my comrades, but someone must attend to things in absence of the Regt. and I do not know as I am any better to do it than anyone else.  I hear rumors, but cannot credit any of it.

   Cold day melting only a little on the east side of the hill, can hear heavy guns yet at 10 o’clock PM.  Sunday 16^th – heard firing this morning, rumor came in camp that our boys were hotly engaging the enemy.  Yet another rumor came in camp tonight that the fort is ours, that the enemy surrendered at 10 AM today.  Also that Capt. SWARTHOUT was killed.  Later rumors state that Col. SMITH is killed.

   I do not credit the report, although it may be true.  8 o’clock PM a very bright and large illumination visible in the direction of Fort Henry.  Drums or rather martial music and bands are heard over near Fort Henry.  I think it is a jubilee over the fall of Fort Donaldson. I think the illumination is also an exultation over the fall of a Secesh stronghold.  Monday 17^th – news of Fort Donaldson still arrives, I can hardly credit all I hear.  My Regt. got back to camp tonight.  I had a splendid supper for some of my Co. officers.  I have not time to write particulars of the fight.  Tuesday 18^th – busy turning over horses and moving, at 2 AM, stores down near the river.  My Capt. is now QM of all forces this side of the river at Fort Helman.

   Wednesday February 19^th – busy issuing forage and opening books for forage accounts.  Thursday 20^th through Friday 28^th usual work of issuing forage.  Saturday March 1 through Tuesday 4^th issuing forage.  Wednesday March 5^th – Capt. SMITH transferred.  All QM & Commissary stores transferred to F. BILAPP, former QM of 8^th Missouri.  Thursday 6^th – commenced packing up all stores preparatory to embarking on S B to go on an expedition up the Tennessee River.  Got everything which we wished to take with us on S.B. TELEGRAPH NO. 3.  By dark, balance of QM and Commissary turned over to QM of 2^nd Illinois.         TO BE CONTINUED

SUGGESTED COLOR TOUR – Saturday, October 21, 2006:

1.  Greenview Point – travel from Ionia through Lyons on Riverside Drive to this park, named in honor of Governor Fred W. GREEN of Ionia, who often stopped there on his way to or from the Capitol in Lansing, 1927-1930.  Back then M-21 ran along Riverside Drive south of the river.  Circle back through Lyons to:

2.  Muir – Superior (Main) Street – once a manufacturing town for doors, window sashes, and blinds (shutters), there were three large sawmills along the river-front south of Superior Street.  Logs came down the Maple River in Springtime high water and were separated by men with pike-poles who rode them.  Then take HAYES & BORDEN Roads to:

3.  Hubbardston and Matherton – quiet gristmill towns on Fish Creek, above the Maple River.  Vandals burned the stately, but long-closed mills.  Travel on down Hubbardston Road past:

4.  DEVERAUX Sawmill – a large, modern, state-of-the-art, lumber manufacturing concern on Hubbardston Road at Nickelplate Road, and on to:

5.  Pewamo – plotted by Ionia’s John BLANCARD and named for his childhood American Indian playmate, it was once home to a large Allis-Chalmers farm machinery dealership.  Jig & jog east on Park Road, south ¼ mile on Clintonia Road, and west on DEXTER Trail to:

6.  SPAULDING Cemetery – a pioneer cemetery on DEXTER Trail near SPAULDING Road, named for Perry SPAULDING’S and Barb SPAULDING HOLLON’s ancestors, who lived across the corner on what has long been the Carl KRAMER farm.  Come south seven miles on SPAULDING Road to Looking Glass Avenue and jog east into Clinton County on Clintonia, Cutler, Monroe, Howe, and Peake Roads, to get across the Looking Glass River and back into Ionia County.  Then south on Charlotte Hwy. to Towner Road, west to Okemos Road, and south to:

7.  SHIMNECON (Me-Shim-Ne-Conning) – site of a former American Indian village/campground.  Chief OKEMOS is buried there.  There is a monument for the chief’s grave and an Indian Mission church, store, and Danby Township Hall once stood there.  Back-track to Charlotte Hwy and across the beautiful new bridge to MUSGROVE Hwy. and west to:

8.  Jonathan INGALLS’ grave – 0.4 miles south on KEEFER Hwy., this is for Sebewa Township’s very own Revolutionary War Veteran.  There are just four buried in Ionia County – Snow Cemetery, Letts Cemetery, and Smyrna Cemetery have the other three.  Kent County has only one and there are only 137 total in Michigan.  Then north on KEEFER, west on BIPPLEY Road, skipping past one mill site and railroad bed on to MUSGROVE Hwy. to:

9.  Sebewa’s second dam and mill site on Sebewa Creek – where one little old mill still exists.  Then on west to SHILTON Road and:

10.  Sebewa’s new Township Hall – a short tour includes the nice restrooms available, plus gas heat, air conditioning, handicap parking and entrance at ground level, all the comforts for election workers.

 MORE HISTORY OF BOSTON TOWNSHIP: 
(Editor’s Note:  In February 1991 and August 1998 The Sebewa RECOLLECTOR carried articles on the founding of Boston Township, Ionia County, in 1837, and the first platting of Saranac in 1835-1836, which was never recorded.  The first Boston settler was Worcester ENGLISH, in January 1837, followed by Timothy WHITE in March 1837, then James TALLANT and Jesse WILLIAMS in May 1837, and Harvey HATCH in 1843.  ENGLISH, TALLANT, WILLIAMS, and HATCH were married to four of the five sisters of Timothy WHITE.  ENGLISH arrived first, so the community  was known as ENGLISH Settlement for a while, otherwise it probably should have been called WHITE Settlement in honor of the women.  This issue has a reprint from the Ionia County News of April 8, 1927, telling the story by a woman who was there almost from the beginning.)

   Mrs. Harriet HATCH SHERMAN, 86, well-known former resident of Boston Township, who now resides with her son, George SHERMAN, in Grand Rapids, has written an interesting article for the NEWS on historical incidents of many decades ago.  She describes the hardships and modes of living when the south part of Boston and most of Campbell Townships were a vast wilderness.

   She has many relatives in Ionia County, and a host of friends.  The homesteads mentioned in the story are on the new M-16 in Boston Township, near the overhead bridge (railroad – west county line).

   (The Robert KIETZMAN family owns the Worchester ENGLISH farm.  The J. Fred CAHOON family owns the Timothy WHITE farm next west, with 170 unbroken years of family ownership.  The Harvey HATCH farm was next west of Timothy WHITE and has long been the PARSONS family farm.  The James TALLANT and Jesse WILLIAMS farms were across the road from WHITE and have been split several times.)

   Her (Mrs. Harriet HATCH SHERMAN’s) story is as follows, (written in 1927):

In the Fall of 1843, my father, Harvey HATCH, with his family left the town of Monroe, Ashtabula County, Ohio, for the far west Michigan.  Friends and neighbors gathered at the old home to say good-bye, for they never expected to see us again.  They all cried and felt bad, but after the last good-bye was said, with a crack of the whip and a “get up” to the oxen, the covered wagon started on the long journey.  The women and children rode, while the men walked and drove the cattle.  I was only four and one-half years old, so will write as I remember the happenings of the trip and after arriving in Michigan.

   They used to let my older brother John and me out of the wagon to pick wintergreen whenever we came to some.  The wagons would soon be out of sight in the thick woods, then he would tell me we would never see the wagons again and that the bears would get us.  Then he would have to stay in the wagon a while.  I remember them tell when we got to the other side of the Maumee Swamp, which was near Toledo, that we were well on the way and that was the worst of going west.  Everyone dreaded the swamp.  I cannot tell how many days it took to reach the swamp, but when we reached there we stayed at what was called in those days a tavern.

   I must tell you a story about the Maumee Swamp, which took place several years later.  It was told at the South Boston Grange Hall by an old lady from Lowell.  She said they were driving from the State of New York to a place in Michigan called Sandstone (a Township in Jackson County, east of Parma).

   When they reached the Maumee Swamp they put up for the night at the tavern.  The next morning they started through the swamp, but at night went back to the same tavern and spent the night.  This they did for five days and nights, and I have often wondered if the oxen were hitched to the wrong end of the wagon.

   Well, to return to our journey. I think we were a little more progressive, as we went straight through and never turned back.  The next thing was to reach the “settlement” as it was called.  We came by way of Battle Creek and Whitneyville.  Our last night on the road was at John CHATTERDON’S, near CRONIER’S Corners, two miles east of Whitneyville.

   The next I remember hearing them say, we had struck the turnpike, which was near the NEEDHAM farm.  From there we went east until we reached the top of HATCH Hollow, where we had our first breakdown.  It was just night and there we were in the woods.  It was dark and cold and snowing a little. There was no other way but to walk, so brother Oscar took me on his back and started on the Indian trail, the only road to our Uncle Timothy WHITE’S, a mile and a half.

   I remember I heard a hoot owl and I was afraid, but brother said “That is only a bird; it won’t hurt you”.  I thought it made the biggest noise of any bird I ever saw.  But after a while he said he could see a light, and we were soon at Uncle Tim’s back door.  We went in and there was a big fire in the fireplace.  It looked good to us for we were cold and hungry.  Aunt Roxinda soon had a hot supper ready.  Uncle Tim started out with his oxen and tin lantern to help the rest find their way to the house.

   The next morning the neighbors came to see us.  They were all aunts, uncles and cousins.  Just before we arrived an uncle, Jessee WILLIAMS, had died, which cast a gloom over the settlement.  My father then took up his own homestead, just west of Uncle Tim’s, the lands joining.  The first thing was to clear a place and build a house, so they went to work and soon had us the largest log house around – we had two rooms (!).  We moved in when our household goods came.  They had been shipped by boat from Conneaut, Ohio, to Grand Haven, Michigan, where they were transferred to the river boats and sent to Grand Rapids, then our folks had to drive there and get them.

   The next 4^th of July, the first celebration ever held in Ionia County was held at our house, which stood exactly where the Parson’s house now stands.  They brought a cannon from Grand Rapids and hired a man by the name of Thomas HOWE to fire it.  It made quite a noise.  The celebration lasted all day and at night the partition was taken out of the house and they danced until broad daylight.  Talk about good things to eat!  Well, you should have been there.

   The next year the celebration was held in Ionia, but we children could not attend, so we decided to have one of our own.  We took soft soap and scrubbed our corn crib out so we could have a tavern; then we borrowed Mrs. TALLANT’S big wooden cradle for the women to put their babies in.  The boys got all the caps (for guns) along the street and got a big stone ready for the cannon.  About 10 o’clock my father got about 25 or 30 of us children lined up for the big parade.  For drums we had woodchuck hides stretched over hoops, and a hog’s bladder filled with stones to shake, tin pans to bang, etc.  Well, we marched up the road and back.

   Then my brother would lay the caps on the big stone and hit them with a hammer – that was our cannon.  We sang songs, spoke pieces, and had lunch.  Then my mother would sing, then we’d fire the cannon again, and so on all day.  I think it was the best celebration I ever had.  I remember a little Indian boy being there.  We thought he would do something, but all he did was sit under a tree and laugh.

   The next thing that happened was the drowning in PRATT Lake of Mr. KINNIE and Orvis ABBOTT, a cousin.  At that time there was no cemetery.  They didn’t know where to lay those bodies, so my Uncle Tim WHITE gave to the Township of Boston the southeast corner of his farm, with the understanding that all lots were to be free.  So Mr. KINNIE and Mr. ABBOTT were the first to be laid to rest in the South Boston Cemetery.

   Now I will tell you how Boston got its name.  One of the first families to settle here was James TALLANT.  He came from the City of Boston, Mass.  He used to be a coachman for a Dr. PARKER there, and Mr. TALLANT’S brother was Mayor of Boston, Mass., so the people gave the Township the name BOSTON also.

   We used to call what is now CAMPBELL Township “Over in the Timberland” for there was not a family there. But after a while word reached us a family had moved into “The Timberland”.  My father and uncle Tim WHITE said they must go over, hunt them up, and make a road to them.  They found them.  They had built a small shanty to live in.  Their names were Martin and Perry CAMPBELL, and their sister, Mrs. HINES.  So they began to talk about giving the timberland a name.  Someone said to name it after the first settlers, so it was called CAMPBELL Township.

   About this time Uncle Tim WHITE began to talk about building a new house.  So the men went to the pineries in the winter and cut the logs and sawed the timber.  In the spring it was floated down the river.  It took a long time for all the work to be done by hand.  In those days the house was framed on the ground, then when it was ready they would have a raising, all the men in the neighborhood would get together and put up the house.  Well, the raising day came for Uncle Tim’s house.  My father bossed the job and the other men had pike poles.  He stood in front of the raisers with his hat in his hand and would shout “All together – he! ho! he!” – and then up it would go a little, then the men would rest on their pike poles.  Then “All together – he! ho! he!” – and so on until it was in place.  Then when the frame had all been put in place, the men lined up in front of it, took off their hats and gave three cheers for Lady POLK.  POLK was President from 1845 to 1849, so it must have been about 1847 or 1848 that the house was built.  POLK was a Democrat and so was my uncle.

   The house is still standing and has never been out of the family since they settled there in the spring of 1837.  One of Uncle Tim’s daughters, Mrs. Ora MORTON, lived there all her life.  Since her death several years ago, his great-granddaughter, Mrs. Maurice CAHOON, and husband are living there.  The same brass knobs are on the doors that were put on when the house was built.  I sat all day on the rail fence across the road and watched the raising of the house.

   The next thing to mar the pleasure of the place happened in the month of May.  We had a cyclone which blew our house roof off.  I had two brothers sick in bed with the ague, and all the men in the neighborhood had gone to PRATT Lake to wash sheep, which was the custom in those days.  As soon as it stopped raining the neighbors came to see if we were all right. 

   Then they began to worry about the men at the lake.  After a while we saw my father coming.  He looked worried and Mother said “Where are the rest, are they killed?”  But they were all right and when he found out we were all safe, he said he must go back to the lake, for at the time the storm struck, Ephraim, my brother, was on the lake in an Indian Canoe and they had not seen him since.

   “But don’t worry” was all he could say.  I shall never forget how my mother prayed for the safety of that boy.  At night he came home.  The storm had taken his paddles, he just had to sit still and let the canoe go as it would, finally bringing him to shore.  You may know how thankful we all were.

   Someone, in writing about the HATCH family some time ago, said they lived on the corner where the South Boston M. E. Church used to stand.  This is not correct, for when the HATCHES owned that place the house stood exactly where the Parson’s house now stands and the corner was an Indian camping ground.  There I spent many happy days playing with the Indian children.

   Now I will tell you something about Lowell, as it is now called.  Uncle Tim WHITE rented his farm to Mr. Sears STORY and moved to Flat River, as we called it then.  There was not a bridge across the Grand River then.  There was a stage running from Grand Rapids to Portland that carried mostly land-lookers.  They had to have a stopping plane, so Uncle Tim built and ran the first tavern, which stood where the PULLIN Block now stands (in Lowell).  About this time they called the town Dansville, after a fur trader by the name of Daniel MARSAE.  Not many liked this name, so they talked about another.  Mr. WHITE came from Lowell, Mass., so some said “Let’s honor him by calling it Lowell”, which name still remains.

   Then they began to talk about a bridge across Grand River, for in the summer they had to ferry at the mouth of the Flat River and in the winter they crossed on the ice near where John LEWIS now lives.  So the upper bridge was built.  Then came the steamboats.  Some thought people were crazy to think of such a thing, but not long after that the “Daniel BALL”, the “John BALL” and the “Humming Bird” came steaming up the Grand, and I rode on all of them.

   Next came the railroad, the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee, the first cars I ever saw.  I went to Frogville, two miles east of Lowell, near the Henry ALDEN farm, where the road ended at that time.  There was a man by the name of Ben WRIGHT that ran the bus between Lowell and Frogville.  I also remember the first postmaster in Lowell, Frank WHITE’S grandfather.  In those days it cost 10 cents to send a letter to Ohio, all letters were sealed with red wax.

  I have heard the blowing of the stage horn, the screeching of the boat whistles and railroad engines, the whooping of Indians, the whistle of the Whip-poor-will, howling dogs at cooning and the howl of the wolf.  I have seen the slaying of the bear and the deer.  I have felt the sting of the flea and mosquito, which gave us plenty of exercise, have felt the shake of the ague, but non hindered old age.

   I haven’t told you how pleased everyone was when we heard C. S. HOOKER and son John were talking of going to Flat River to build a grist mill.  When it was built and ready for grinding, we felt that our bread was at our door, as when we first came to Michigan everyone went to Kalamazoo for flour and provisions, taking a week to go with the ox team.  Later a mill was erected at Ionia, then at Lowell. 

   I have not mentioned that Flat River was an Indian village, so will tell you a little of the Indians.  Every year they raised Indian corn, then when it was ripe they had a “Green Corn” dance, which was a great affair.  A white dog was killed, cooked with the corn, and Indians came from far and near to the feast, which lasted into the night. 

   We could hear the tom-toms at our house.  Then, when they drew their payment of $25 and a blanket each, young and old, they would go to Grand Rapids and stay until their money was gone.  Then they would come back with only the blankets and some twisted tobacco for the men.  The squaws would have their blanket, a string of beads, and a few yards of Indian calico so thin you could strain water through it and not get it wet.

   And now, children, I will tell you how we used to slide down hill.  We had no boughten sleds.  Sometimes a half dozen children would get on a long board and someone would shove it down the hill.  One winter I slid down hill in a round wooden bowl, which took a good oarsman to sail it, and when spring came there was no bottom in the bowl nor heels on my shoes.  When we settled in Boston there were 43 aunts, uncles, and cousins living within one mile, ten children in our family, and I am the only one living of all those families (1927).             END

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa; Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI. 
FEBRUARY 2007, Volume 42, Number 4.  Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES:  BROWN, LIVINGSTON, GUY, RUSSMAN, POHL, THELEN, SCHNEIDER, FEDEWA, SIMON, NAHRGANG, BARTON, BAILEY, LIPPENCOTT, GOODWIN, PIFER, BYER, BRZEZINSKI, VROMAN, KUKLEWSKI, CALENDER, REED, GALLANDT, MEGGS, DAVISON, GORSUCH, HARWOOD, CHIEF COBMOSSA, CAMPAU, CU-CUB-BAH-MOO-SA, SHAY, FAHRNI, STANNARD, WHITE, CAHOON, GOULD, EATON, McCAUL

RECENT DEATHS:

 MARIAN F. BARTON BROWN, 88, widow of Burton BROWN, mother of Jan LIVINGSTON, James BROWN, Joan GUY, Joel BROWN, Jerrold BROWN and his twin JEFFERY who is deceased, Bill BROWN, Anne RUSSMAN, Tom, Chris, Jon, Brian and Mike BROWN in order of birth, stepsister to Linus POHL, Anna THELEN, Florence THELEN, Agnes SCHNEIDER, Janet FEDEWA and Mary SIMON, daughter of Rose NAHRGANG & William O. BARTON. 

   Bill BARTON and his brother Jay had BARTON Brothers International Harvester dealership in the cement block building which they built of blocks made on the job.  They sold out to SPITZLEY’S Westphalia Hardware; they sold to ZERPHAS, they sold to WEBERTS, who moved the business, and the sold to SANDBORNS.  The BARTON Brothers Building was torn down to make parking for the new city hall.

   William BARTON was elected Treasurer of Portland Village in 1916.  Bill & Rose lived on SMITH St. between Brush & Academy, next north of Dan WATSON’S cement block house.  Besides raising this large family, Marian was a farmer all her life in Orange, Danby, and Portland Townships, coming to KNOX’S Portland Elevator with bags of grain for cow feed on a small trailer, in the trunk, and on the front fenders of her car every week, even a week before her twins were born.  She camped at Ionia Free Fair for over 50 years, with her kids and grandkids in 4-H and music groups.  Marian BARTON BROWN was Portland Homecoming Queen in 1936, when the new Grand River Bridge on US-16 was dedicated in a two-day celebration. 

   She is buried in Sunset Memorial Gardens, Ionia.

 CLARENCE G. (MICKEY) BAILEY, 81, widower of Beth LIPPENCOTT BAILEY, husband of Esther GOODWIN BAILEY, father of Michael BAILEY, brother of Dorothy PIFER, son of Minnie Pearl BYER and Gorma BAILEY.  Born in Huntington, West Virginia, Mickey served in the US Army in WW II, farmed in Upper Michigan and then in Sebewa, first on the Howard KNAPP farm and then his own land on SHILTON Road.

   Besides raising hogs, he drove truck for Sid BROWN and BARLEY-EARHART Corporation.  He traveled to Alaska, Hawaii, many other places in the United States and Canada in his pickup camper, and wintered in Florida.  Mickey had the ability to take a brand new pickup and make the muffler sound like a straight pipe.

   He is buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

 THOMAS L. BRZEZINSKI, 53, husband of Kristi VROMAN BRZEZINSKI, father of Clint BRZEZINSKI and Natasha VROMAN, brother of George and Jim BRZEZINSKI, Joyce KUKLEWSKI and Kathi CALENDER, son of Catherine and the late George BRZEZINSKI, son-in-law of Nancy and George VROMAN.

   His ashes are buried in Portland Cemetery.

 PAUL S. REED, 80, husband of Shirley GALLANDT REED, father of Paul Jr., Scott, Christopher, James and Clark REED and Sally MEGGS, brother of Robert REED, Mrs. Edward DAVISON, and the late Thomas G. and Walter A. REED, Jr., son of Uarda GORSUCH & Walter A. REED, son of Clara HARWOOD & Thomas HOSEA (Hosey) REED, who homesteaded on 40 acres at SW ¼ SW ¼ Sec 7 Sebewa Township before 1891 and increased it to include NW ¼ Sec 18 and totaling more than 220 acres and who have a baby daughter Lennie buried in West Sebewa Cemetery.  The HARWOOD family settled in north Berlin Township before 1860, probably in the 1840s.

   Paul served in the US Navy in WW II as a hospital corpsman in the Okinawa campaign.  He worked his way up to president in the family businesses, Lake Odessa Canning Co., and REED-JOHNSON Cold Storage Co. 

   They retired to Green Valley, AZ, and he is buried in Lakeside Cemetery, Lake Odessa.

MORE HISTORY OF BOSTON TOWNSHIP:

   Printing of a Mystery Farm photo of the Bruce FAHRNI farm on Portland Road in the IONIA COUNTY NEWS on December 5, 1957, attracted the following story from the late Wilbur YOUNG, whose centennial farm was located across the road:

   Jeremiah STANNARD, his wife, a great-great aunt of the FAHRNIS, and son Abial, came from the East and acquired about 400 acres in 1836.  They found temporary lodging at the Timothy WHITE cabin.  This is the present Jessie CAHOON farm on US-16, just west of the South Boston Cemetery.  Mrs. CAHOON is WHITE’S great-granddaughter.  Nineteen people were too many for a one-room cabin and Mrs. STANNARD declared she wanted a house of her own, even if it was only a bark shanty.  So the family built a bark shanty on the Kalamazoo-Saginaw Indian Trail and occupied it for a few days until their log house was ready nearby.  The foundation stones of this house are still visible (in 1957) and the TUCKER-FAHRNI line fence cuts this building site in half.

   When the fire in the fireplace would go out, the boy, Abial, would have to walk (northeast) on the Indian Trail to Moses GOULD’S farm, later the Otis EATON farm, (north side of Grand River Avenue near GOULD Road) to borrow fire.  This trail (an extension of GOULD ROAD) cuts the FAHRNI farm from northeast to southwest.  It was used by pioneers in Ionia to haul wheat to Kalamazoo.  Their wagon ruts are still visible in the Ken TUCKER woods after 117 years.  The new US-16 (I-96) will pass about 40 rods north of the log cabin site, even closer to the wagon ruts in the trail, and will absorb the site of the pioneer school.  (Doris (Mrs. BURTON) McCAUL is a sister of Bruce.)

FRONT PAGE PHOTOS:  COBMOOSA HOUSE, 803 N. WASHINGTON, LOWELL, MICHIGAN.

   CHIEF COBMOSSA UPDATE to our story of April 2004, Vol. 39, No. 5; Our cover photos show the home of COBMOOSA’S daughter at 803 N. Washington Street in Lowell, where he often visited.  The house retains its mid-1800s Federalist Style appearance, except for the addition of a window air-conditioner, porch-light, and chain-link fence. 

   Further information about COBMOOSA comes to us by way of the Ionia County Genealogical Society from “Lowell:  100 Years of History.  1831-1931”.

   In the year 1765 there came from Montreal to the Rapids of Grand River, a French voyageur by the name of Antoine CAMPAU.  He woed, won and wed Indian style by just living together with the beautiful daughter of the chief.  The result of this union was a son born in 1768.

   His name as a boy is not known.  But when a grown man he had a dream and saw a ghost or phantom bear, which he followed to the source of the Grand River, thence north to the head waters of the Muskegon River and down to its mouth, then followed the lake shore to the mouth of the Grand River and back home in one day and night (supposedly).  So he was given the name Cub-bah-moo-sa, the great walker.  At the first treaty with the United States in 1855, he signed by his mark Cu-cub-bah-moo-sa, the great chief.

   He seems to have lived at different places along the Grand River, The Rapids, Ionia, and at Lowell.  He had four wives, eleven sons and three daughters, also an orphan girl, Negonce, left by his oldest son, Gaw-ge.

   His first wife, Ah-da-wah-ga, had four sons, namely Gaw-ge, Wab-sho-gun, Shaw-bo-e and O-gee-moss. 

   Second wife, Ah-da-go-wem-on, had one son, Ah-mah-bes, and one daughter, Ah-bow-e-na.

   Third wife, Ma-sena-be-qua had three sons, Aush-kah-mah-ga, Antoine and Cogz-he-sa, and one daughter, Was-sa-yah, mother of Rodney Negake.

   Fourth wife, Ah-ne-me-ga, had three sons, Mash-she-ba, Cha-way-gosh-gun and Henry Mau-bese, father of Jacob WALKER, and one daughter, Say-sa-gah, mother of Solomon BAILEY.

   By the treaty of 1855, the Indians ceded all lands of Grand River Valley and all other valleys north to the Straits, in exchange for farms in eight townships in northwestern Michigan.  The principal ones were townships 15, 16, 17 and 18 north by range 16 west in Oceana and Mason Counties.  Each family was given eighty acres, and each single person forty acres, plus many valuable considerations.

   On the northeast corner of Section 27 of Elbridge Township, Oceana County, by the Cob-moo-sa Schoolhouse built in 1860 by the U. S. Government for the Indians, under large maple trees, stands a beautiful monument erected by the D. A. R. of Ionia and the people of this neighborhood.  It was unveiled June 26, 1927, by two great-great-granddaughter of Cob-moo-sa, witnessed by an audience of eight hundred Indians and white people, who enjoyed a picnic dinner and a splendid program.  Many of Cob-moo-sa’s descendants were there and took part in the program, the last number of which was a song in Indian language, “The End of a Perfect Day” by four of his great-grandchildren.     END

EPHRAIM SHAY’S DIARY 1861 – 1863      Continued narrative during his service in the Civil War):

   Friday March 7^th – the REED (ship) came for Lyman, went up the river a few miles and took up stand to await further orders on the 23^rd Indiana from the west shore, then crossed the river and took on the 24^th Indiana from the east bank.  Saturday 8^th – returned to fort Henry and coaled up, then went about 4 miles up the river and tied up alongside the SB (steamboat) JJ ROE, which had on it the 8^th Missouri & 11^th Indiana, plus balance of the 1^st Brigade 3^rd Division.

   Sunday 9^th – remained at the landing.  Monday 10^th – about 10 AM started for “Secessia”.  JJ ROE and TELEGRAPH NO. 3 arrived together at Savanna about 6 o’clock on Tuesday 11^th.  Wednesday 12^th – in the evening went about 4 miles up the river to CRUMPS Landing and there the 1^st Brigade disembarked and went out 4 miles in the country, laying in wait for the enemy cavalry.  In the meantime some had been sent out to the R. R. bridges to destroy them.  Rained hard all the later part of the night.  Very wet and muddy boys came on board again on Thursday evening 13^th.

   Friday 14^th – remained on board.  Saturday 15^th through Saturday 22^nd – spent in getting off the good from the boats.  QM stores did not come off until 18^th.  22^nd we are now getting ready for a march and from what I hear, I judge Memphis our destination.  Sunday 23^rd thru Thursday 27^th – attending to business, but very little work.  Forage for the different Regts is now drawn from Lyman, he being Division QM, and it is useless trouble to handle papers over so many times.  Today I, not having anything else to do, went out to see a horse race.  An unlucky accident happened by which a horse was killed and a man bruised considerably.  One party of the race could not find any ground inside the picket line, and while waiting at the line for the proper authority to pass, Dr. PETERSON and one of the parties of the race concluded to try the speed of the horses.  They went off a reasonable distance and came up in good style, but as they arrived at the line, the Dr. P. horse being headstrong, bolted on and would not stop.  The sentinel, a Lieut. of the picket, grasped his gun and in stopping the horse, ran the bayonet into him, causing the horse to throw the Dr. bruising him considerably.  The horse will die most probably.

   Genl WALLACE came up and went out with us to view the countryside.  Everything passed off very well and we saw the ruins of a Cotton Gin which was burnt by the rebels I believe.  Friday 28^th through Sunday 30^th – at our work.  Today the 2^nd Brigade left camp for a march in the country, their destination unknown to me.  Monday 31^st – issued grain & hay to all the Regts of our Brigade.  Tuesday April 1^st – cannonading heard up the river, considerable talk of a fight soon.  Yesterday 100 deserters from the enemy came into Pittsburgh, a small town about 4 miles above here.  They report 80,000 Secesh marching to meet us.  Very warm, pleasant weather this morning, the sky is a little smoky and resembles Indian Summer in the Eastern States.  

   Wednesday & Thursday April 2^nd & 3^rd – very warm and pleasant, on the 2^nd I went from QM Dept back to my Co.  They had acted as A. C. S. (Army Central Supply) and needed several clerks, but now some have to return to their Cos.  I hear cannon in the direction of Pittsburg.  I think it is firing at the review or possibly the gunboats are practicing a certain distance.  Answered a letter from Kate & Ophelia yesterday, answered one from Priscilla and one from Jane today.  Friday, April 4^th, rested and ready.

   Saturday April 5^th – 12 AM received orders to be ready to march in one hour.  Very cold, commenced to rain hard, accompanied with heavy thunder.  Marched through mud and rain until daylight.  When we arrived at Adamsville, rain ceased and wind turned to NW, blowing cold.  About 4 PM returned to Crumps Landing.  Sunday April 6^th – about 2 AM enemy attacked our forces at Pittsburg, at 8 AM cannonading commenced.  Before noon orders came to be ready to march in 20 minutes.  Left at 12, marched by circuitous route to the rear of the enemy, when we received orders to retrace our steps and come in by the river, which we did.

   Arrived at the scene of action as dusk, but not in time to participate.  Formed a line of battle and slept in arms all night.  A drenching rain wet us thoroughly.  The gun boat kept up a continued firing all night, doing much damage to the enemy.  At daylight Monday, April 7^th, we were in line of battle and as soon as our skirmishers ascertained their position, we opened fire on them.  Our battery (9^th Indiana) soon drove them from their position, dismounting one of their guns.  When our line advanced over the ravine and up a hill, taking position they had just left.  Our skirmishers then advanced, and getting our batteries (9^th Indiana & Buel’s) in position, gave them a heavy fire.

   They returned it with vigor, and as our infantry and battery were in an open field while others were sheltered by a ravine, they gave us a galling fire.  As we were supporting our batteries, the cannon balls, shells, etc. could easily be seen flying by among our men and busting over us.  Every moment some person could be seen writhing with pain as a shell would strike them. 

   After lying in this position for half an hour, my Regt were ordered into a vavine close to the enemy.  Going there we were exposed to a raking fire, but the enemy did not get our range accurately enough to do us much damage.  Only one rifled cannon ball passed through our ranks.  It passed a few feet to the left of where I was and struck in a Co. on the left, the Battallion which was at this time marching to the left.  After reaching the ravine we were comparatively safe from the enemy’s shot.  One of our batteries (Buel’s) kept firing over us.  Once or twice their shell burst so close to us as to wound some of our men.

   A Regt of their cavalry, seeing our battery somewhat exposed, thought to charge & take it, but on their coming to the ravine my Regt delivered such a galling fire as to send them back without firing hardly a shot.  They left their Col. And 15 in 20 men dead.  After about an hour’s hard fighting, the enemy again commenced to retreat, but disputing every inch of the ground.

   We followed them up closely, they making a retreating fight for over a mile, when their batteries commenced to play on us, which halted us.  Here we had a desperate encounter.  The Division on our left falling back gave the enemy a flank movement on us, but we merely changed our front and held our ground.  Here Col SMITH, our Acting Brigadier General, showed Generalship.  Genl Lewis WALLACE gave him orders to fall back, but SMITH knowing it would give the enemy confidence, requested he let him have 20 minutes to fulfill his order, which Genl WALLACE granted.  SMITH then sent word to a Col of the 11^th Indiana to hold his ground and he would send him another Regt if necessary, which he did.  He then told us to raise a yell and give three cheers as if we were giving reinforcements, which we did, and it had the desired effect, the enemy retreated.

   The enemy commenced to fall back and in less than half an hour we completely routed them.  We followed them for over a mile, when finding them in full retreat, we gave up the chase to the cavalry and returned to good camping ground, formed a line of battle and rested from the fatigue of the day.  From 5 AM until 4 PM had been one incessant fire.  At times the rattle of musketry and booming of cannon seemed to jar the earth, or rather the heavens and earth seemed coming together.  The heaviest peals of thunder I ever heard were slight sounds compared with what I heard during the fight.

   Tuesday April 8^th – rained all night.  This morning some Regts commenced to fire off their guns to put them in order, when the alarm of “the enemy is coming” created quite a panic among some green Ohio Regts in the rear, many breaking ranks and running as for life, a very disgraceful act.  I blame their officers more than the men, as no well disciplined Regt would run before seeing the enemy.  I went over the battlefield today, or part of it.  I never imagined how horrible it is to see men killed by shot and shell.  All the corpses were bloody, many so disfigured as to look little like a man.  Some were burnt horribly by the leaves near them getting set fire by the shell.  This is the second battlefield I have viewed and I hope it may be the last.

   When I stood looking at old and young men laying cold in death by violent means, I could not but try to answer the questions of who is the cause of this wholesale murder.  Certainly there must be a cause, for where any effect ever was produced, there always has been a cause, and an effect so awful as this one must be caused by some great reason.

   I think and know that mankind cannot exist without war, and since its effect is so terrible and linked with so much misery, I cannot tell why they do not stop it.  Here are thousands and thousands of human beings, men in the prime of life and possessed if ever they can be with good judgment.  Enduring all the hardships of a soldier’s life, causing anxiety among friends & connexions at home, and what for?  To cause still greater misery by killing each other, leaving friends, wives & children at home without anyone to protect them.  I wonder I ever joined the army.  The many call it brave and patriotic to go to war.  I begin to think it foolish and unwise.

   Wednesday April 9^th – rained nearly all night.  Our Regt not having tents with us, got wet thoroughly.  A rumor comes that the enemy are approaching, but is not credited.  I was sergeant of the picket last night.  Thursday April 10^th – Sgt Peaslee and myself walked over the battlefield.  Saw many places where some of our comrades fell.  Details of men were busy burying dead.  This is the third day occupied in burying and still many are yet unburied.  Were many places where the trees and brush were nearly all torn to pieces.  I counted 110 balls in one tree, put there by the Union troops.  Did not count the opposite side where Secesh were firing.

   Friday 11^th – rain, I went to the 65^th Ohio, found one man from the Co. where my friends serve, heard of more acquaintances in the 3^rd Cavalry.  Saturday 12^th – a national salute was fired at the levee this morning.  Also a salute of 15 guns for Major Genl. HALLECK.  Sunday 13^th – the excitement of the past week ended, I went out early this morning and shot a beef, which my comrades helped fetch in for the Co.  At 12 all Regts of our Brigade fell in and Col SMITH read an order from Genl STEINTEN to the effect that a prayer of thanksgiving should be given for the many recent victories of the Union Army.  Our Chaplin performed the services.

   Monday April 14^th – went through the usual routine of camp equipage.  Tuesday 15^th – moved from riverbank.  Wednesday 16^th – moved our camp out to the picket line.  Thursday 17^th – washed clothes, etc.  Friday 18^th – for the past two mornings we have formed line of battle at 4 AM to prevent being surprised by Secesh.  Different Brigades and Divisions keep moving towards the enemy, taking positions in line of battle within supporting distance of troops in the rear.  Many rumors in camp, one that the left wing of McCLELLAND’S army is at Memphis, another that Genl MITCHELL is at Huntsville in possession of the Memphis and Charleston R.R.  Also that he has captured several locomotives and many cars.  He has destroyed the R.R. bridge at Decator, for we saw pieces of it floating down the river, some of them on fire.  I don’t credit all the rumors, but there is some reason to believe some of them.

   Saturday April 19^th – in camp all day, very rainy.  Sunday 20^th – In camp, rainy, a detail went to a swamp in our front to build a bridge across it.  Monday 21^st – rainy, I went over to Secesh Hospital.  Tuesday 22^nd – clear day, sun very warm, made out papers for SCHLEIGH, SAMUELS & SPAINHEURS – descriptive lists, they being sick and circumstances rendering it necessary for them to be sent where they may receive proper medical treatment.  In afternoon had grand review of our Brigade before Genl.  Wednesday 23^rd – very pleasant.  I made out descriptive list for Sgt MARSH, wrote a letter to Priscilla, and clothing accounts for Co.

   Thursday April 24^th – orders came last night to be ready to march at 6 AM today.  At 4 AM fell in line of battle, stacked arms and cooked our rations.  At 6 we left camp for the place of meeting.  When all four Regts were ready, we started to reconnoiter the position of the enemy, took with us two pieces of artillery, went on the Corinth road.  Found the enemy’s advance picket only about a mile from ours.  Drove them in four miles, where we met a reserve picket numbering about 400.  They fired a few rounds at us, then we opened on them with artillery, driving them from their camps with no loss on our side.

   The enemy’s loss was not ascertained, as we did not follow them.  We burnt their tents and commissary stores, took ten prisoners.  We could see their new camps in the distance, but returned to our camp at 5:30 PM.  Other Regts came out to hold the position we gained.  Tonight our whole Brigade have orders to be ready to march at 6 AM tomorrow, with two days’ provisions in our haversacks.  I guess an advance is to be made, having in view the taking or dispensing of the rebels at Corinth.  It is now 18 hours since I got up this morning and I have been at work all the while getting things prepared for marching or actually marching, and doing the part allotted me in driving out the rebels.  I am very tired and should retire immediately.  This is a warm evening, a shower is seen passing in the northwest.  I hope it will not rain here, as the roads are now good.

   All along the line of march today were seen the clothing, cooking utensils, wagons, ammunition, caissons, etc. of the rebels, thrown away in their retreat from the recent battle here at Pittsburg Landing.  Had we only a few fresh troops to have followed them at the end of the fight on Monday the 7^th, their retreat would have been a perfect rout and many prisoners would have been taken.  Genl SMITH of Genl HALLECK’S staff conducted reconnaissance today.  I judge the information gained is satisfactory.

   Friday April 25^th – it is now 10 PM.  It was rainy this morning when we started about 7 AM, marched out to within a short distance of Perdy.  Acting Brigadier WOOD was at Perdy and news came to us that he needed reinforcements.  It was a tiresome march.  Sunday 27^th – a pleasant day.  Inspection in morning, Meeting in afternoon.  Monday 28^th – left camp with three days’ rations, took road for Perdy, went out six miles and encamped for night.  Tuesday 29^th – a large force of Cavalry (perhaps 2000) left our camp about 1 AM and went to the R.R. beyond Perdy and destroyed two R.R. bridges, captured a locomotive which had left its train a few miles back to see if the bridges were safe.  They tore up the track for a long distance, run the locomotive off, and brought in engineer, fireman & horsemen as prisoners, also a Lieut found in Purdy.  Wednesday 30^th – returned to camp and mustered for pay, I received two letters from Jay and one from Kate (his cousin on the SHAY side down in Ohio) saying Grandma (SHAY) is dead.  She died on Friday night, April 18^th, at 10 PM.  Funeral was at Hainsville (Ohio) Church on Sunday.  Text was Revelations 14^th chapter 13^th verse.  She was confined to her bed but one week.  How I wish I might have seen her once more.  It will seem so lonesome not to see her when I go back, if I ever do.  My best friend, one who has done more to mould my character than anyone else, not excepting my parents, is no more.  To mourn her would be wrong; she is now in the land of happiness.  What a pleasant meeting must her and Grandfather have had.

   Thursday May 1^st – making out muster rolls, did not work at them very hard, took my time.  Friday 2^nd – still at work leisurely on muster rolls, can finish them in a few minutes when once at them.  Weather is very pleasant, woods are thick with leaves, cherries are the size of peas already, other vegetation in proportion.  Saturday 3^rd – did some company writing, had Brigade Drill, received Orders to be ready to march at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning.  Sunday 4^th – marched according to orders, commenced raining about noon, wet us completely and made the roads near impassable.  I think this country can furnish as much water upon as short notice as any I ever saw, but it does not last long.  Monday 5^th – rained all night and only stopped by noon today.  Tuesday 6^th – busy with camp duties.  Wednesday 7^th – made out descriptive roll for Al B., did other company writing.  I have been quite under the weather, but continue to do duty.  Thursday 8^th – did some company writing, a rumor in camp that the enemy were about making trouble, staked our arms in the color line, but no orders to march and we gave up hopes of an engagement today.

   Friday 9^th – did no duty today, quite unwell.  Papers state that the rebels have evacuated Yorktown and that McCLELLAND is in hot pursuit.  Saturday 10^th – still unfit for duty.  Sunday 11^th – papers confirm the evacuation of Yorktown and give details.  Monday 12^th – feel much better, will return to duty.  News in camp today that Norfolk is taken and the Merrimac blown up.  The news is well authenticated.  Success is crowning our arms beyond expectations, hardly time elapses from exulting over one victory when another is published.  Surely the Secesh must be at a discount.  A rumor is in camp that Genl HALLECK received orders from the War Dept. that he should not bring on an engagement unless attacked, until further orders.  Such news has a color of peace, possibly an Armistice.  I do not credit it however, but expect a battle here just as soon as Genl HALLECK deems it advisable.

   Tuesday May 13^th – at about 10 AM we received orders to be ready to move camp on front, as our Regt was transferred to Genl SHERMAN’S Division.  Marched as ordered at 2 PM, bivouacked on the front line.  Wednesday 14^th – awoke early and had breakfast, to be ready in case of an attack at daylight, skirmishing going on all the while.  Secesh tried to destroy a bridge on the picket line, whereupon we opened fire on them with two pieces of cannon, driving them back.  At dusk Genl SMITH (our Col. acting as Brigadier) took us out with him to ascertain the result of the firing, returned at 9 PM.  While out could hear drums beating in Corinth.  Thursday 15^th – in fighting order bright and early, pickets still keep up skirmish.

   Friday 16^th – yesterday & today building rifle pits in front of camp.  Saturday 17^th – since coming to the front, we go on picket duty a Company at a time, C. D’s turn being this morning.  Pickets still skirmishing.  Genl SMITH took out our Regt to drive the Secesh back, the balance of the Brigade supporting us.  On our coming to the bridge, the Secesh opened fire on us, whereupon four Cos. Were deployed, making a line a half mile in length, against which was a whole Brigade of Secesh.  Against such odds slow progress was made, but in a little while we drove them from the hill and chased them to their rifle pits.  Our loss was heavy, being one man of every ten in the Regt and one of every six actually engaged in firing, either killed or wounded (4 wounded and 9 killed).

   Sunday May 18^th – Co D still on picket, enemy have fired but little today, firing is down among the other Divisions also.  Monday 19^th – relieved from picket duty this morning, orders to be ready to march with rations at a moment’s notice, answered a letter from Jim and one from Priscilla today.  Tuesday 20^th – heavy thunderstorm last night, orders this morning to be ready to march at a moment’s notice with rations for two days.  Pickets still skirmishing.  A report in came that the heavy firing, etc., heard in the enemy’s camp yesterday was caused by four Louisiana Regts trying to break through their own line to give themselves up, but were fired upon by their own men and overpowered.

   The same thing occurred a few days ago; two Regts, I do not remember their names, tried to escape to our lines but were fired upon by their pickets.  Our advance men, hearing the firing, interfered, bringing back sixty prisoners, most of them from the Regts trying to escape.  Their dissatisfaction is caused principally by Genl LOVEL’S cowardly act of deserting New Orleans on the approach of the Federal fleet.  Deserters say that if we begin to fight now, we will have a hard time, but to give them a little more time and they will whip themselves.

   Wednesday May 21^st – our division advanced and very silently got our cannon in position.  We then commenced to throw up fortifications and by night had the principal parts done.  Thursday 22^nd – finished our line of defense, pickets exchanging shots at intervals all day.  Friday 23^rd – were called in line several times, our pickets advancing drove the enemy back some.  Thought an engagement was about to be had, but the enemy fell back and remained quiet, save for the occasional firing from zealots, answered if everything was quiet, but little firing among the pickets.

   Saturday May 24^th – some preparations clearly indicate the near approach of a battle.  I went out on picket line, had a view of Secesh, heard bullets whistle too close for comfort.  Sunday 25^th – pickets gave an alarm at daybreak, did not amount to anything serious.  Regt received new guns today, the Minnie rifle.  Received and answered a letter from Kate.     TO BE CONTINUED.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa; Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI. 
APRIL 2007, Volume 42, Number 5.  Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES:  SNYDER, ZANTO, SHAY, SLOWINS, NEWTON, BROWNELL, LEHMAN, SLOWINSKI, SCHNABEL, STEINBERG, HILL, ENNGEMANN, DEHN

ORANGE HOTEL – 1875 Plat Map – the Orange Hotel and 69 acres in the NW ¼ Section 31 Orange Township, along what was known as the BELLEVUE Road, were owned by William SNYDER and Mary SNYDER, his wife, and operated as a Stagecoach Inn, sometimes called a Tavern.  The upstairs was divided off into rows of small rooms about 7’ x 9’ containing a single or double bed, a chair, a small commode with a chamber pot, pitcher and bowl, plus a row of nails on the wall to hang clothes.

   1937 Plat Map – Louis and Mary ZANTO owned the farm and buildings, beginning sometime soon after the 1906 Plat Map was made.

   1955 Plat Map - Glenn ZANTO, son of widow Mary, had bought out his brothers and sisters to become sole owner of the place now consisting of 180 acres.

   1984 Plat Map – Kenneth and Virginia CHRISTIANSEN had purchased the full 180 acre farm from the estate of Glenn ZANTO.

   1990 Plat Map – Christiansens had sold off ten acres with the buildings and several owners have had that portion since.  Some of the back portion of the house has been torn off and considerable remodeling has been done on the rest.

EPHRAIM SHAY’S DIARY – 1861-1863      Continued:

   Monday May 26^th – Usual camp duties, pickets firing continually.  Tuesday 27^th – picket firing continues brisk.  Wednesday 28^th – orders received to be ready to make an advance on the enemy, at about 10 AM commenced skirmishing, planted three batteries and shelled the woods and a house heretofore occupied by Secesh.  Drove them out, then advanced to a ridge and took position, shelling the retreating rebels.

   They returned the fire of our cannon by an occasional shot from what sounded to be a single gun.  One shell came close to my Co., a piece falling within a few feet.  We held the ground gained without opposition until about 4 PM, when a Brigade made a charge on our advance troops through an open field.  Our batteries opened fire on them, which sent them back in a hurry; at dark we commenced to throw up fortifications and worked all night, finishing them by daylight.  Thursday 29^th – the morning found a formidable breastwork, where not eighteen hours before rebel pickets were exchanging shots with our men.

   Day spent in watching the enemy.  At dark fell back to a small ridge and pitched tents.  Friday 39^th – cars were heard very busy all night, in fact there seemed to be many trains econtinually leaving.  Shortly after daylight we heard a succession of explosions for which no reason could be assigned, except that they had evacuated and blown up their magazines.  Accordingly Genl M. L. SMITH took up my Regt and the 34^th Ohio out to ascertain.

   We were off in a twinkling and soon reached the rebel outposts occupied by them yesterday, now vacated.  A little farther brought us in full view of the rebel embankment, now apparently deserted.  Trees had been fallen for half a mile to the front, making a network of brush, which would make it an impossibility to march through.  On nearer approach, we saw their guns had been taken away.  On coming upon fortifications, they appeared very slight in comparison with ours.

   A man could scale them at a bound, the ditch being on the inside.  The camps appeared as camps usually do when left in a hurry.  Cooking utensils & food scattered in all directions.  On coming to the Depot, we found both depot buildings and several store houses in flames, also a quantity of cotton was burning.  We passed on, taking the track of the retreating enemy, capturing 40 prisoners.  By this time orders for artillery and infantry to follow had been given and they commenced to arrive.  Taking a good position about three miles from the Depot, we sent cavalry ahead to ascertain the position of the enemy.  They reported them ahead some three miles occupying a commanding position on the bank of a deep creek, the bridge they had burnt.  They opened fire on our cavalry with artillery wounding one man and injuring three horses.  Returned to our camp by dark.  Other Regts & commands took our place.

   Saturday, May 31^st – busy with usual routine of camp duties, heard cannonading in direction of Corinth, also about same time heard a locomotive whistle, have not heard the cause.  Gave to Col KIRBY $35.00 raised by Co. D to be used in purchasing a sword & saddle for M. L. SMITH (Acting Brigadier General).  Sunday June 1^st – usual camp duties.  Monday 2^nd – left camp about 2 PM with two days’ rations.  Sherman’s Division marched through Corinth and down the R.R.  Tuesday June 3^rd – my Regt went four miles beyond Chawalla to repair the (rail)road and clear the track of rubbish, to get some seven locomotives from among the wreckage of as many burnt trains.  Balance of Division remained at Chawalla.

   Wednesday 4^th – bivouacked at front.  Thursday June 5^th – awaiting orders.  Friday 6^th – went into camp on the hill near the station.  Saturday 7^th – in camp, I am busy fixing up the Co. accounts, as my former Captain (G. A. SMITH) is now Acting Col of Regt.  Sunday 8^th – Monday 9^th – Tuesday 10^th – usual routine of duties in camp.  Wednesday 11^th – left Chawalla, marched 18 miles, stopt long enough to fix one bridge 30 feet long.  Thursday June 12 – marched twelve miles, rested in the middle of the day.

   Friday 13^th – marched to Grand Junction, bivouacked on north side of town.  Saturday 14^th – marched to LaGrange and bivouacked SW of town on the bank of a large creek.  Sunday 15^th – change to camp on a hill west of town.  Monday 16^th – spent the day fixing up company papers and at 4 PM left for Holly Springs.  Tuesday 17^th – bivouacked at a plantation 11 miles from Springs last night, arrived in town at 10 AM.  Stacked arms on the common, east of the Depot.  Wednesday 18^th – in camp, left town at 4 PM, camped at creek six miles from town.

   Thursday 19^th – marching 26 miles took several prisoners, one Major, several Lieutenants.  Ten of our cavalry were wounded.  Friday 20^th – received letters from Kate, Ophelia, and Mary BROKAW, answered them, also wrote one to Eph.  Saturday 21^st – usual duties of camp.  Sunday 22^nd – left LaGrange at sunrise, marched 18 miles to Lafayette, camped for the night half mile from the Depot.  Monday 23^rd – this morning one of my comrades died of Typhoid Fever.  He was sick only five days, the second day a congestion chill took him down, from which no relief could be given.  Myself with two comrades made his coffin and at 3 PM we buried him.  Went into camp in a grove on the top of a small knoll.

   Tuesday 24^th – went bathing this morning, spent most of the day strolling about the camp and Depot.  Wednesday 25^th – doing camp duties.  Thursday 26^th – headed for Moscow (KY), arriving at noon.  Friday 27^th – quite unwell, but doing duty.  Saturday 28^th – quite unwell.  Sunday 29^th – went on sick report this morning marked quarters, but worked all day on muster rolls.  Monday 30^th – were mustered for pay, Regt ordered to march en route for Holly Springs.  I remain in camp.  Tuesday July 1^st – finished writing muster rolls – getting better.  Wednesday 2^nd – usual camp duties.  Thursday 3^rd – camp duties.  Friday 4^th – Regt has not returned, very lonesome in camp, nothing going on.  Makes me think of old times, when Fourth of July passed more pleasantly.  A salute of 34 guns was fired at the Depot at midday, the only demonstration made.

   Saturday 5^th – usual camp duties, received letters from Kate and Ophelia, answered them.  Sunday 6^th – usual camp duties.  Monday 7^th – Regt returned to camp, had a hard march.  Tuesday 8^th – usual camp duties.  Wednesday 9^th – usual routine of camp life.  Thursday 10^th – Friday 11^th quite unwell, in fact since we came to Moscow on June 26^th, I have felt unfit for duty.  Saturday 12^th – Wednesday 16^th – quite unwell.  Thursday July 17^th – my birthday, sick in quarters.

   Friday 18^th – left camp at Moscow at daylight, I had to be carried in an ambulance, camped about 7 miles west of Lafayette.  Saturday 19^th – came to a small station west of Germantown, where we pitched tents and staid over Sunday 20^th.  Monday 21^st – marched into Memphis and went into camp in the SW of town.  I am still in hospital.  Tuesday 22^nd – received letters from Kate, Ophelia, Jim, Priscilla, Zella and R. A. B.  I remain about the same, mending if anything, answered all the letters except Jim’s & R.A.B.’s.

   Wednesday July 23^rd – received a letter today from Jane (HENDERSON – his future wife, sister of Jim), feel better today (!) moved camp out on the road, came into town in about three miles, a pleasant place.  Thursday 24^th – not so well today, answered Jim’s and R. A. B.’s letters.  Jim made me a proposition in his letter to go into partnership with him.  Friday 25^th – feel quite good.  Had a great dinner today, we presented Genl SMITH with a full uniform, a splendid saddle, a fine sword, and an elegant pair of pistols.  Sgt JACKSON made the presentation speech.  After dinner many extempore speeches were made.  Tailor’s battery and Willard’s old battery boys were present and others, the time passing very pleasantly.  Saturday 26^th – answered a letter from Priscilla received on the 24^th.  I am getting better quite fast.

   Sunday July 27^th – do not feel so well today, as usual nothing going on in camp.  Monday 28^th – some better.  Tuesday 29^th – about the same, my medicine changed from a prescription of brandy & Quinine to three grains Quinine three times a day, the aim is to stop my night sweats.  I am also using an ointment of Iodine for the Goiter or swelling in my neck.  I feel somewhat stronger, have a fair appetite, rainy afternoon.  Wednesday 30^th – cloudy morning, feel quite well this morning.  Thursday 31^st – cloudy forenoon, feel about as well I did yesterday……

   Friday August 1^st – pleasant day, feel about the same as yesterday.  A quarrel in Co. F this morning, one man stabbed in the bowels – wound considered dangerous.  Saturday 2^nd – changed hospital from tents to a house, feel quite well.  Sunday 3^rd – feel about as usual, no change, a swelling of the Thyroid Gland.  Monday 4^th – no change.  Tuesday 5^th – feel weak, no apparent change.

   Thursday 7^th - ……….I have a good appetite, which serves to keep me around.  Friday 8^th – getting weaker, have pains through my bowels.  Received a detail by Genl SHERMAN’S order to report myself as clerk for D. W. HARTSHAM, Division Surgeon.  Regt received their long expected uniforms this afternoon.

   Saturday August 9^th – I rode down to Genl SHERMAN’S Hdqtrs in an ambulance and reported as ordered, feel weak but gaining.  Sunday 10^th – making out a weekly sick report of Division, very unsettled today.  Monday 11^th – busy all day in office, feel better again.  Tuesday 12^th – feel quite well, diarrhea is less violent – busy in office – very warm day.  Wednesday 13^th – am much better, busy making out Consolidated Monthly Reports of sick and wounded, etc.

   Thursday 14^th – busy in office.  Friday 15^th – Monday 18^th – all pleasant days busy as usual office business.  I am getting stout and healthy again, and if marching don’t start my old complainte, I will be as well as I ever have been.  Tuesday 19^th – pleasant day, have been writing for a General today, besides doing my usual work.  Wednesday 20^th – pleasant day, doing the usual business of the office.

   Thursday 21^st – Thursday 28^th – at work attending to usual business, was up to the Co. this afternoon, nothing new transpiring of much consequence.  A Brigade was sent out in reconnaissance towards Holly Springs, merely as a check on the enemy.  Friday 29^th – Sunday 31^st – occupied in making weekly reports and attending to other business of the office.

   Monday September 1^st – usual office duties.  Tuesday 2^nd – Friday 5^th – ordinary routine of business, a command of 179^th Cavalry Company Sixth Illinois Regt. commanded by Lieut GRIERSON, went on a reconnaissance.  Saturday 6^th – busy making out a monthly report.  Quite a sensation created by a report brought in by a sergeant of the command which went out yesterday, that it had all been captured.  Just now a detachment of it came in with a number of prisoners and a report that the Lieutenant who commanded them was killed by Guerillas firing from ambush.

   Part of the prisoners escaped, two were killed, one private and the Lieut.  A small command went out and laid the whole country waste around where the attack was made, burning several dwellings and killing two men who were of the party of Guerillas.  Genl HULBERT’S Division left with all their camp equipage for a point unknown just past 1 o’clock PM.  Sunday 14^th – busy at the duties of the office.  Monday 15^th – Saturday 20^th – nothing unusual, ordinary routine of work.

   Sunday 21^st – warm day, remained in camp, do not feel very well, have been to the theatre 4 nights in succession.  The plays were good, 1^st Honeymoon, a farce, 2^nd All Is Not Gold That Glitters, 3^rd Michael Erin as The Maniac Lover, 4^th The Serious Family Monday 22^nd – usual business of the office.

   Tuesday 23^rd – Sunday 28^th – usual routine of office duties.  A few Guerillas have been firing on our boats for the past few days.  Randolph has been burnt, on account of an attempt at that place to capture the S. B. Eugenie (steam boat).  Only one building left, that was a church.  The G. B. (gun boat) Essex had an engagement silencing a battery of 34 guns without any damage to herself.  She also bombarded a town for harboring citizens or Guerillas who fired on a boat load of men going from the gunboat to get supplies.  The President’s proclamation has reached us, freeing all slaves in the states or sections in rebellion on January 1, 1863.  He is going to work now with the gloves off!  For the past week we have had Artillery practice nearly every day, very beneficial to the Artillerists.  Monday 29^th – Tuesday 30^th – usual duties.

   Wednesday October 1^st – Saturday 4^th – office duties quite busy.  Sunday 5^th – Friday 10^th – nothing exciting at this place, pickets bring in the usual number of persons trying to smuggle goods, etc., other departments of the military succeed as usual.  Saturday 11^th – Thursday 16^th – nothing stirring except news of a fight at Corinth.  Also news of a fight in Kentucky and a raid into Pennsylvania by Secesh cavalry.  Friday 17^th – Sunday 19^th – weather getting cool, but it’s dry and healthy, usual office duties.  Surgeon Genl has sent for the specimens of morbid anatomy now in this division.  Today (Sunday) is very quiet.  Genl SHERMAN has gone to review the 1^st Brigade.  Of late he has reviewed his whole Division once a week, generally the 1^st Brigade on Sunday.

   Monday October 20^th – Friday 24^th – very busy in office, have been copying very lengthy court martial proceedings of 25 cases for Genl GRANT.  Have made out a report for Medical Inspector G. T. ALLEN, have much to do.  Received a letter from Priscilla, all well, although Ma and Theodore complaining some.  Saturday 25^th – Friday 31^st – busy with office duties making monthly reports, etc.

           TO BE CONTINUED.

OUR FIFTH TRIP TO FLORIDA by Grayden SLOWINS:

   Monday, February 12, 2007, up at 6:00.  16 degrees with fine snow in the air.  Drove through snow & ice on the roads all the way down MUSGROVE Hwy………arrived at Louisville South KOA Campground, actually Shepherdsville, KY, at 4:00 PM……drove 381 miles today, much of it at 30-35 mph, then 50-59 on dry roads near Louisville.

   Tuesday, February 13………Pelham, AL……3:00 PM………a tornado did touch down to the north and we saw three destroyed houses as we traveled south……drove 366 miles today.

   Wednesday, 14………Daffodils are abundant in Alabama………traveled 418 miles today, 1165 total………

   Thursday, February 22, 49 degrees, sunny & clear………Re-hung the picture of great-great-great-grandmother Elizabeth ZIMMERMAN WENGER’s home and Mennonite Church at Martins’ Corner northeast of Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario.

   Sunday, February 25………During coffee hour after Church we visited with Brenda NEWTON BROWNELL & husband Jon.  She grew up in Woodland and graduated from Lakewood High School in 1966.  Her father, Vern, was a brother to Gary NEWTON, and her mother, Ruth, was a sister to Emerson LEHMAN, and daughter of Earl LEHMAN, on M-66/South State Road in Sebewa.  We knew them at the Woodland United Methodist Church.  They are no relation to us on Grandma Wilhelmina LEHMAN SLOWINSKI’S side, but in a convoluted way we are related to some of the same people by the marriage of Gary NEWTON’S daughter Bonnie to Timothy ENGEMANN, son of Kathlyn (Katie) HINES ENGEMANN DEHN, daughter of Julia HILL HINES, daughter of Sophia STEINBERG HILL, daughter of Rosanna SCHNABEL STEINBERG, sister of great-great-grandmother Anna SCHNABEL SLOWINSKI.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa; Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI.  JUNE 2007, Volume 42, Number 6.  Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES:  MEYERS, VERGESON, ALLEN, WARD, BAILIFF, SHIPMAN, CARPENTER, ARMSTRONG, ORRELL, CUTLER, IVES, KENYON, SANDBORN, SHAY, SUMMERS, SAYER, HOFFMAN, STEWARD, GARDNER, SLATER, PROBASCO, DAVIS, KALLWEIT, ACKERSON, PONTZ, LUSCHER, JOHNSON, SHILTON, TUSSING, McNEIL, LICH, WENGER, GIBBS, WILSON, KRAUSZ, STAHL, BRAKE, SLOWINS, ZAVALA, BUTLER, WELCH

RECENT DEATHS:

ELEANOR LOIS MEYERS VERGESON ALLEN, 82, widow of Delbert VERGESON and Almerian ALLEN, sister of Harold and Wesley MEYERS, Ardell WARD, and the late Howard MEYERS, daughter of Mattie BAILIFF & Harold (Harry) MEYERS, son of Albert MEYERS & Lydia SHIPMAN, daughter of Angerona CARPENTER & William H. SHIPMAN, who settled on Sunfield Road in Sebewa Township before 1891.  Eleanor was associated with her husband Del in several gas stations in Lansing and Portland, and later worked in the J & J Variety Store in Portland.

   She’s buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

THEODORE P. (Ted) ARMSTRONG, 61, husband of Karol ORRELL ARMSTRONG, brother of Thomas J. ARMSTRONG and Kathy S. SWIFT, son of Phyllis CUTLER & Theodore H. (Ted) ARMSTRONG, longtime dairy farmers in Odessa Township on South HARWOOD Road, active in the Michigan Farm Bureau and Republican Party, and for about the last twenty years retired to a new home on South State Road in Sebewa Township.  Ted P. was an Aeronautical Engineer and self-employed computer software consultant, living in Vineland, NJ.

   He’s buried in Glenwood Memorial Gardens, Broomall, PA.

ALBERT WINSTON IVES, 91, widower of Mildred G. KENYON IVES, father of Denise BEECHLER and the late Patricia GIRDWOOD, brother of the late Stanley IVES, son of Aaron & Grace IVES.  They lived on a portion of the KENYON farm on PETRIE Road at YORK Road in Sebewa Township.  Winston retired in 1977 from ELLIOT’S IGA Store in Sunfield after 30 years as a meat cutter and had been a television technician at BEEBE’S TV Shop in Ionia.

   He’s buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

FLORENCE E. SANDBORN, 90, widow of Raymond, mother of Constance STIFFLER, Lynda RUSSMAN, Jack SANDBORN, Daniel SANDBORN, and the late Jeffery SANDBORN, sister of two deceased brothers, daughter of Helen SHAY & Arthur SUMMERS.  The late John & Marie SHAY of Sebewa were her uncle & aunt, as is Dorothy (Mrs. Russell, Jr.) BLACKMAN of Portland.  She and Raymond, son Jeffery and grandson Jeffery have been longtime farmers in Sebewa & Danby Townships.

   She’s buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

ROSE GAY SLATER SAYER HOFFMAN STEWARD, 88, ex-wife of the late Stanley SAYER and widow of Clinton HOFFMAN and Loyd STEWARD, mother of Naomi SAYER SHELTON, Virgil HOFFMAN and Genie HISLER, daughter of Ava GARDNER and Malcolm G. SLATER, son of Z. B. & Mrs. SLATER, daughter of Ephraim PROBASCO, the namesake “Uncle Eph” with whom Ephraim SHAY enjoyed spending Sundays.  Ephraim PROBASCO lived on the northeast corner of BIPPLEY Road and PETRIE Road in Sebewa Township, and Z. B. SLATER and wife acquired the north 80 acres of that 160 and thus lived on PETRIE Road.  Rose was a founder and 10-year librarian of Sunfield Library.  She was very active in the Sunfield Historical Society.

LORANCE (LARRY) DAVIS, 63, husband of Linda, father of three children, brother of Jeannette MILLER, LeRoy DAVIS and Janice BRADLEY, son of LaVerne and Elnor DAVIS.  The older DAVIS family lived for many years in the Archie VanHOUTEN tenant house, just over into Odessa from Sebewa Township.

   Larry & family lived in Lansing.

STEVEN KALLWEIT, former husband of Vicki ACKERSON KALLWEIT PONTZ, father of Alea and Mefean, brother of David, Debbie and Peggy, son of Maggie & Rev. Ralph KALLWEIT, former Pastor of Sunfield’s Sebewa United Methodist Churches from Pembina, North Dakota.

FRONT PAGE PHOTO:

   JACOB LUSCHER HOME – 232 S. STATE AT MARSHALL COURT, IONIA, MICHIGAN – PURCHASED 1906 – PICTURED ABOUT 1909:

Jacob LUSCHER, Jr., Ada LUSCHER JOHNSON, Emma SHILTON LUSCHER, Nora LUSCHER TUSSING, Edna LUSCHER McNEIL LICH WENGER, Emma LUSCHER GIBBS, Elma LUSCHER SANDBORN, Ruby GIBBS WILSON, Vera SANDBORN KRAUSZ.

GIBBS FAMILY VISIT:  Four GIBBS women came April 29^th for a week, to visit their relatives in Michigan and East Sebewa Cemetery.  Jessica GIBBS ZAVALA, age 31, & her mom Judy are from 907 S. Wooster St., Los Angles, CA  90035.  Jessica’s dad’s sister, Pat BUTLER & her daughter, Heather WELCH, are from 2839 West 8250 South, West Jordan, UT  84088.  They are descendants of Robert & Mariam GIBBS, then George and Frank and three more Georges to Jessica.  They also visited patriarch Byron GIBBS at Mt. Pleasant.  At age 90, he is busy taking a computer class!  Because Columbus SANDBORN married Sarah Jane GIBBS, most of the SANDBORNS in this area are GIBBS descendants also, and several came over, but Melborn, age 93, was too sick. 

EPHRAIM SHAY’S DIARY 1861-1863:       Continued

   Saturday November 1^st – Wednesday 12^th – usual routine of duties.  The new regiments are now coming in here, one or two each day.  A new Medical Officer outranking Major HARTSHORN has reported for duty.  Thursday 13^th – Friday 14^th – last night three more Regts arrived.  I have been quite unwell, feeling better this morning.  Saturday 15^th – Monday 17^th – usual duties, nothing new, a series of fires in town.  They seem so regular that the supposition is they were set and that there is a group of rebels at work.  Received letter from Kate, all well, answered it.  Tuesday 18^th – Wednesday 26^th – usual duties in office.  Received orders on 23^rd to march on 26^th, column did so early this morning.  We left at 2 AM, crossed the Hatchie and encamped about one mile beyond.  Thursday 27^th – column moved at sunrise, and as it passed the road on which Genl LAUMAN was to join our column, he reported promptly at that moment.  Went on about half mile to the State Line, where Genl M. L. SMITH was to join us, he reported also, making an exact meeting of the three Divisions at the appointed place.  Genl LAUMAN left Memphis by the Hernando Road, Genl DENVER by the Pigeon Roost Road, and Genl M. L. SMITH by the Germantown Road, encamping at Coldwater Creek 27 miles from Memphis.

   Friday 28^th – column marched at sunrise.  Genl Sherman and staff (incl. E. SHAY) stopped at Byhalia Village until Genl DENVER’S and Genl LAUMAN’S Divisions passed and the column of Genl SMITH’S was in sight.  Then we left at dusk on the direct road to Pigeon Roost, where we arrived and encamped at 9 PM.  Genl LAUMAN’S Division took the Chulahoma Road at Byhalia and joined Genl DENVER’S column, which passed on the direct road to Pigeon Roost beyond the Holly Spring Road to join us.  Saturday 29^th – remained in camp at Pigeon Roost.  Sunday 30^th – column moved at sunrise, we left soon after.  Stopped at a farmer’s until by brisk riding we just had time to reach the head of the column as it arrived in Chulahoma (Chewalla, TN?).  Went in camp with Genl. DENVER in the center, the others on the right and left on the principal roads leading to and from town.

   Monday December 1^st, 1862 – remained in camp at Chulahoma, cold damp day, had our office in the parlor of the mansion in the yard where our tents were pitched.  I was very busy making out a Consolidated Monthly Report of all the sick and wounded of the District of Memphis.  Sent out a reconnoitering party of two Regts of infantry (815^th Missouri was one) and a force of cavalry to ascertain the enemy’s position on the Hatchie, where they are fortified.  Discovered them in full retreat, burning everything they could not take along.

   Tuesday 2^nd – column moved at 2 AM, we left at 7 AM, arrived at Wyatt at 12, took quarters in a house near the river.  Very rainy and muddy, building a bridge across the Hatchie.  Wednesday 3^rd – Genl SHERMAN and staff went to a ford.  Thursday 4^th – marched to College Hill.  Friday 5^th – Monday 8^th – in camp at College Hill, Genl Sherman went to Oxford to consult with Genl GRANT and others.  Tuesday 9^th – orders from Genl SHERMAN arrived to prepare to march to Memphis in company with Genl M. L. SMITH’S Division.  Left at noon and Genl SHERMAN rode along the lines of Genl LAUMAN’S and Genl DENVER’S commands, making a short speech to each Regiment camped at Wyatt.

   Wednesday 10^th – marched to Pigeon Roost and encampment.  Thursday 11^th – marched to Coldwater Creek, where Genl M. L. SMITH’S Division encamped.  We, with 7 companies of the 13^th Regt as a bodyguard, camped 20 ½ miles from Memphis this side of Coldwater Creek several miles.

   December 12^th – left camp at 4 AM, rode in advance of the Infantry and arrived in Memphis at noon, took quarters in the Fort in a house formerly occupied by Col McDOWELL.  Office is in the basement of the brick house now used by Genl HURLBENT as Headquarters, formerly SHERMAN’S.  Saturday 13^th – busy issuing orders and getting everything ready to move down the river as soon as boats arrive to transport us.  Sunday 14^th – Friday 19^th – very busy making the needful preparations for the important movement down the Mississippi.  Saturday 20^th – at 10 AM the Forest Queen, upon whom Genl SHERMAN has his quarters, left the landing at Memphis (TN) for Helena (MS), in order to arrive in time to perfect arrangements for the disembarkation of the troops at that point.

   The transports bringing down the forces from Memphis are to follow.  We arrived at Helena at dark and they dropped us at the wharf on our boat.  Sunday 21^st – Genl M. L. SMITH’S Division passed us early in the morning.  We staid at Helena until 3 PM, when we left for a landing (old town point) 10 or 15 miles down river, where we found Genl M. L. SMITH’S Division, remained here overnight.  Monday 22^nd – all the troops on about 70 transports are now here or near.  It is very pleasant weather.  A rumor arrived yesterday that the Rebels had made a raid on Holly Springs and cut off communication with Genl GRANT’S command.  I have a Memphis paper from yesterday morning, which does not confirm it, but mentions a raid was expected at Jackson, Tenn. And states that a train of cars was set fire between Humbold and Cades Station (TN).  Passed White River at dark and stopped for the night just below its mouth.

   Tuesday 23^rd – left early in the morning, passed Arkansas River about 8:30 AM, Napoleon, the small town at its mouth, is a busy small village composed of very ordinary houses.  Saw what appeared to be two small churches and one school house, no business house of any size.  A Marine Hospital is situated at the mouth of the Arkansas, quite a respectable building, but reported to be a very unhealthy situation.  There is no levee nor paved streets at Napoleon.  All the towns along the Mississippi River banks present a naked poor appearance.  Small poorly built houses, no pavement, and the farm houses near the banks look more like a backwoodsman’s hut in Michigan than a Southern Planter’s Mansion.  I have not so far seen one respectable-looking house since leaving Memphis.  Wednesday 24^th – usual routine of camp got under way at about 11 AM, and went until 10 PM.

   Thursday, December 25^th – this morning a group of soldiers unworthy of the name set fire to some barns, huts or Negro quarters, etc. burning 12 or more.  Genl SHERMAN ordered out a squad of armed men with orders to fire on them.  I guess he told them to aim high, as but one or two slight casualties occurred.  Several prisoners were taken and 28 more are being court martialed for stealing pigs, chickens, etc.  Friday 26^th – arrived at mouth of Yazoo River about 12:30 AM, preparing to move up the Yazoo at 8 AM.  Left the landing and the fleet, except Gen A. J. SMITH’S Division tied up at the respective landing.  Gen M. L. SMITH’S Division is at Johnson’s house.  Gen MORGAN is about one mile above.  Gen STEEL is above Chickasaw Bridge and took necessary precautions to prevent the enemy’s making a rush on us.

   Saturday 27^th – Gen M. L. SMITH marched to the front, had quite a skirmish.  Gen MORGAN also moved ahead, had quite a skirmish towards evening.  Gen A. J. SMITH landed near Black’s Mill and moved his line forward.  Gen STEEL also moved forward and much cannonading was heard from that direction.

   I supposed it to be the Gun Boats shelling the woods.  I have not heard anything from the command yet, whether they find the enemy in force at the front or not.  I saw a signal flag on the hill near Thompson’s Lake, but could not ascertain whose it was, whether ours or the enemy’s.  The Chickasaw Bridge prevents our communication except by water.  Tonight our line meets in the Chickasaw Bridge.  New bridges are being thrown across and will be completed by morning.

   Sunday December 28^th – skirmishing commenced about 4 AM and at daylight cannonading, at 7 AM brisk cannonading, at 8 AM quite heavy, principally in the front of the center Divisions.  Gen (J. A.) McCLERNAND has not arrived yet, and unless he comes soon, Gen SHERMAN will have Vicksburg before he gets here and the honor he expects will be given to the man who deserves it.  We have a very hard task before us and with anyone but Gen SHERMAN to lead would be defeated, at least that is my opinion now.  At 7 AM Gen M. L. SMITH was wounded in the side.  He was in front with a Capt of one of his Battalions examining or choosing a position for the Battalion, when a rebel sharpshooter arose from the grass and shot him.  Some sharp skirmishing recurred during the day.

   Monday 29^th – Infantry skirmishing commenced early in the day.  At 8 AM the Batteries opened very heavily and continued for one hour, firing more slowly all day.  Infantry commenced a vigorous attack at 12 noon and the firing continued without intermission until after dark, and all during the night the cannon shelled our bridge built by our Col at intervals of about 3 minutes.  Tuesday 30^th – no firing of much account.  Enemy strengthening their position, we are also strengthening ours, building roads to the rear, etc.  Wednesday 31^st – no action of any account, time occupied as yesterday.  A gun appeared today on the hill commanding the (Chickasaw) Bayou and from appearances was capable of shelling Headquarters, no firing from it yet.

   An expedition was prepared consisting of 12,000 picked men and two mortars, a couple Ironclads and three wooden Gun Boats, with Steamers enough to transport the Infantry.  Under commands of Gen STEELE and Admiral PORTER respectively.  But owing to a slight fog hanging on the surface of the water, it was not thought advisable to attempt the storming of Haines’s Bluff, as much difficulty would be experienced in getting the transports near enough to effect a landing.

   Thursday January 1^st, 1863 – at 3:30 AM a dispatch for Gen SHERMAN arrived on board the Steamer Forest Queen, on which boat the office of the Adjt Gen remained.  The Orderlies being all out in the field at Gen SHERMAN’S Hd Qtrs there, I saddled my horse and with much difficulty got him ashore, by crossing another boat and leading him down a single stair.  I rode as fast as possible to Gen SHERMAN’S Hd Qtrs, I found the Gen standing outside his tent by the fire, apparently listening for Gen STEELE to open on the Batteries at Haines’s Bluff, at which time attack was to be made along our whole front.

   The dispatch contained the notice of the failure of the expedition, giving the reasons.  He seemed disappointed, but without saying a word wrote an answer and gave it to me, which I delivered to Gen STEELE on board the Steamer Constitution.  He received it in his bed and merely raised up to read it.  All further attempts to take Vicksburg with the present force, and without the cooperation of Gen GRANT as well as Gen STEELE, appear useless and the attack was abandoned under cover of darkness.            TO BE CONTINUED.

OUR FIFTH TRIP TO FLORIDA by Grayden SLOWINS:    Concluded –

   Tuesday, March 6, 2007 – 33 degrees, sunny & breezy, reached 72 degrees.  A favorite entertainment is to compare Rvs when walking around the park.  There are other Coachmen Rvs in camp similar to our 220RK.

   Saturday, March 10……Ann and & rode with Wally to the North Florida Antique Engine & Tractor show at Bradford County Fairgrounds noeth of Starke.  An Allis-Chalmers Model U and two IHC Titan 10-20 tractors were among the most interesting, besides the John Deere featured brand and lots of innovative old stationary engines………back at camp received fourth mail packet (from MI), from Charlie, and the papers say lots of snow, rain and ice caused accidents in Ionia County and rest of Michigan around March 1-5, with blowing, drifting snow that closed schools………high here 81 degrees.

   Monday, March 12……good day to type RECOLLECTOR under the air conditioner.  Called Ken CARR………all is well at home, cold nights but snow is going down.

   Friday, March 16………..This weekend has the Gator-nationals at Gainesville and then races at Daytona.  After that crowd leaves, the snowbirds will also start migrating, although some have grandkids coming for spring break.  High 81 degrees.

   Sunday, March 18………visited with Jon & Brenda NEWTON BROWNELL at church potluck brunch.  BROWNELLS will head north April 15………

   Tuesday, March 27, 64 degrees, up at 5:00 and away at 6:45.  Azalea, Wisteria & Dogwood in blossom.  Smelled smoke and saw charred areas under trees in evergreen plantations:  one 40-acre forest fire and several small ones this past weekend.  In Georgia some corn is 2-4 inches high and some is still being planted.  Rye is ripening or sprayed for plow down.  Some peach trees are in blossom.  New plantings of pecan groves near the older ones………arrived at Birmingham South Good Sam Camp at 3:30 PM……camped next to a couple from Lowell/Rockford area of Michigan.  Her mother was a STAHL from Clarksville/Freeport area on Hastings & Bell Roads.  My mother, Crystal BRAKE SLOWINS, taught her Uncle Clare STAHL in Jennings Rural School about 1921-1922.  Small world – as everyone says while traveling!  High 87 degrees.

   Thursday, March 29, 58 degrees, away 6:07, to beat the rush of traffic entering Louisville…..A billboard depicts cows saying “Eat more chikin’”!  Cairo, GA, is called “Syrup City”  Why?  Cane syrup………in IN, saw half a dozen wooly Dorset-type ewes north of Auburn, then Suffolk ewes and lambs northwest of Charlotte made the trip complete.  This is our sixth spring without our own lambs and it’s nice to see some.  Arrived home in sunny 60s, with daffodils, crocuses, and hyacinths in bloom, and the lawn was green and clean.  Gas was $2.59 in Florida, $2.40s in Georgia & Alabama, at Sunfield had increased from $2.57 to $2.75 at noon before we arrived at 2:00 PM.  Mileage on trip home 1162, total trip of 2327.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa; Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI.  AUGUST 2007, Volume 43, Number 1.  Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES:  INGALLS, SHAY, LOCKE, CLEVELAND, TERRILL, HOGLE, LEIGHTON, FRIEIR, LeFEVRE, PROSSER, HILL, WILDER, LEIK, FOGEL, DEMARAY, NURENBERG, CARTER, SWILER, WALTER, HOLLENBACK, PERKINS, HALE, BOYINGTON, COLLINGHAM, BRINDLEY, LEWIS, CASSEL, CLINE, PETRIE, MARTZ, BARNUM, SHERWOOD, HOORT, MINNEMA, IRWIN, FRANKS, PIERCEFIELD, REED, VAN DYKE, GORSUCH, HARWOOD, WILDER

RECENT DEATHS:

GEORGIANNA J. HOLLENBACK PERKINS, 74, widow of Paul PERKINS, mother of Sue STEMLER, Robert and David PERKINS, sister of Carrie CLINKSCALES, Roberta BRICKLEY, Carole THELEN, Jamie PRISER and Daryl HOLLENBACK, daughter of Beatrice E. HALE & W. Wallace HOLLENBACK, son of George HOLLENBACK, Jr., son of George HOLLENBACK & Collingham girl, daughter of Jacob & Lucy BOYINGTON COLLINGHAM, who ran the vertical sawmill on Sebewa Creek at BIPPLEY Road starting before 1875.  Georgianna was born May 13, 1932, graduated from Portland High School, Class of 1950, and served in the U. S. Air Force during the Korean War.  They raised their family in Grand Ledge and retired to Marion, NC.

   She is buried at Danby Cemetery with military honors.

AUDREY ONALEE BRINDLEY CASSEL, 77, widow of Joseph CASSEL, mother of JoAnn VanORMAN, Inez LEIK, James CASSEL, Jackie MULHOLLAND, David CASSEL, George CASSEL and Jean MURDOCK, sister of Virginia PYLMAN and the late Coleen CARMONY, Lurlene BRINDLEY, Patricia FULLER and George BRINDLEY, daughter of George & Myrtle LEWIS BRINDLEY.

   She is buried at East Sebewa Cemetery.

RICHARD RILEY CLINE, 94, husband of Clarabelle MARTZ BARNUM CLINE, widower of Edith Marie PETRIE CLINE and Clarice Lucile SCHWAB SHOWERMAN CLINE, both from Sebewa, father of Evelyn MARTIN, Richard (Junior) and Paul CLINE, stepfather of Louise HILL, Ralph, Joyce and Robert SHOWERMAN, brother of Robert CLINE and the late Helen SHERMAN, Marguerite LeGAULT, Beth SHEARER, Jack and William CLINE, son of Arthur & Bessie SHERWOOD CLINE.  Dick farmed on BELL Road in Campbell Township, worked at Ionia Manufacturing Co. and in his own business as a general carpenter since 1964.

   He is buried in Danby Cemetery.

HENRY H. HOORT, 89, widower of Ethel HOORT, father of Sandra HEYBOER, Larry and Randy HOORT, brother of Calvin HOORT and the late Alice BOTTS, Louis, August, Joe, Allard, Tuny and Anton HOORT, son of Henry & Grace MINNEMA HOORT.  Born in Ogilvie, MN, Henry farmed with his family in Orange Township, then the rest of his life on MUSGROVE Hwy in Sebewa Township.

HERBERT G. IRWIN, 83, husband of Adabelle FRANKS IRWIN, father of Linda PAUL, brother of Robert and Edward PIERCEFIELD, Marion SELDON, Katie MILLER, Martha FERNSLER, Joan THOMPSON, Hazel WOODMAN, Joyce CARDINAL and Pat GEOGHAGEN.  Herb was a WW II Army Veteran and operated Irwin Septic Service & Light Excavation.

   He is buried at Meadowbrook Cemetery, Roxand Township.

THOMAS REED, 56, died with his wife Nancy in an auto accident on I-65 in Kentucky on Good Friday, parents of Jennifer and Stephanie REED, third son of Helen (Dykie) VAN DYKE & Walter REED, Jr., son of Uarda GORSUCH & Walter A. REED, son of Clara HARWOOD & Thomas Hosea (Hosey) REED, who homesteaded on 40 acres in Sebewa Township before 1891 and increased it to 220 acres, while raising a large family.  Tom was a retired police officer from Battle Creek and Nancy was a legal assistant to the Battle Creek City Attorney.  He was a part-time police officer in Prairieville Township and a pilot in the Civil Air Patrol.

FRONT PAGE PHOTO:

   JONATHAN INGALLS’ GRAVE LOCATED AT 13400 SOUTH KEEFER HIGHWAY

JONATHAN INGALLS UPDATE: 

   Steve YENCHAR and this editor are in the process of resetting the roadside monument for our Revolutionary War Veteran – Jonathan INGALLS.  In that connection we hereby present the lineage from Jonathan to one of our current contributors – a great-great-great-great-granddaughter – Carol HOGLE HILL:

   Jonathan INGALLS, born May 4, 1762, at Exeter, Grafton County, New Hampshire, son of Hannah LOCKE & Jonathan INGALLS, Sr., joined in 1775, at age 13; Captain Abijah SMITH’S Third Company.  Colonel Nahum BALDWIN’S Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers, along with his father.

   In 1785 he married Abigail CLEVELAND, born May 18, 1766, in Connecticut, died in Massachusetts, January 10, 1833.  Jonathan died in Sebewa Township, October 2, 1843.  They had thirteen children, whose descendants in Sebewa, Danby, and surrounding areas are documented in THE RECOLLECTOR, Volume 30, Number 1, August 1994.

   Polly INGALLS, born October 6, 1795, at Bristol, New Hampshire, died November 21, 1881, at Portland, Michigan, was the sixth child of Jonathan & Abigail CLEVELAND INGALLS.  She married John F. TERRILL and they came in the first party of settlers in Sebewa in 1838.  This family built the first sawmill and stocked the first general store in their home, on the land which became the John-George-Ralph FRIEND farm then the Lawrence-Howard-Gerald KNAPP farm, and now the home of Jim & Sid STANK.

   Laura TERRILL, born February 15, 1822, in New Hampshire, died in Sandstone Township, Jackson County, MI; was a daughter of John F. & Polly INGALLS TERRILL.  She married William HOGLE and they shared a log cabin with the TERRILLS in that first settlement in Sebewa.  They had six children born in Sebewa before 1850:  Gilbert, Marshall, Josephine, Dallas, Erwin and Ada.

   Gilbert E. HOGLE, born September 21, 1839, in Sebewa Township, MI, son of William & Laura INGALLS HOGLE, died in Benton Harbor, MI, was a Civil War Veteran.  He was married to Mary Malinda Leighton, born April 13, 1844, died July 1, 1880, in Sandstone Township, Jackson County, MI.  They had three children:  Homer, Jessie and Alice.

   Homer HOGLE, born August 22, 1869, in Sandstone Township, Jackson County, married Frances FRIEIR in October 1896, in Cleveland, Ohio.  They had at least one son:  Erwin.

   Erwin Leo HOGLE, born November 19, 1898, at Toledo, Ohio, died November 4, 1938 at Ann Arbor, MI.  He was married August 28, 1930, to Elvina LeFEVRE, born March 3, 1902, at Stephenson, MI, died June 1, 1996 in White Lake Township, MI.  They had three children:  Mary Carol, Ann and Homer.

   Mary Carol HOGLE, born December 25, 1934, at Detroit, MI, was married November 27, 1958, to Michael Hubert PROSSER, born March 29, 1936, Indianapolis, IN.  They had three children:  Michelle, Leo and Louis.  (Mary) Carol HOGLE PROSSER later married James Russell HILL in 1995.  Upon retirement they moved from Clinton Township, Macomb County, MI. to Charlottesville, VA, and also have a winter home on Marco Island, FL

INGALLS UPDATES:

   Jonathan INGALLS’ grave, shown in the cover photo, is located 0.4 mile south of MUSGROVE Highway on the west side of KEEFER Highway in Sebewa Township.  Revolutionary War graves are relatively few in Michigan, with only three others in Ionia County and only one in Kent County.

   Contributions from descendants of Jonathan INGALLS or other interested individuals, toward the cost of up-dating his monument will be gratefully accepted.

   Laura INGALLS WILDER, author of “Little House on the Prairie” in books and TV was a relative of Jonathan INGALLS according to her biography on the Internet.  He had thirteen children, but only two sons and two daughters came to Sebewa, and he came with them at age 76.

BEAN GIRLS UPDATE:

   The “bean girls” did not work at Lake Odessa Canning Company as indicated in our sister paper, the Bonanza Bugle.  They worked in upstairs rooms at the various locations of SMITH Bros. VELTE & Company Elevators.  They hand-picked dirt, stones, and culls from dry navy beans.  This was a winter job for local women until the Electric Eye Bean Picker was invented by Hugo HAMMERSLAG of HAMMERSLAG & TINKHAM of Saginaw and C. H. RUNCIMAN & Co. of Lowell, MI.

MORE OLD BARNS WITH RACK LIFTERS by Grayden SLOWINS:

   Sunday, June 10, 2007, Ann & I took another road trip with Charles LEIK and George FOGEL to visit barns with rack lifters.  If you save back issues, suggested reading is the December 2004, Volume 40, Number 3 issue of THE RECOLLECTOR, which tells what we knew about the lifters at that time.  Since then we have also received patent sketches from the Canadian Patent Office in 1884-1885 of four different devices similar in nature, but none exactly like those found in Michigan.

   Today we saw four rack lifters, plus a couple wild goose chases, on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon.  First was the William & Agatha NURENBERG barn, which belonged to Ed A. DEMARAY in 1906 and is located just north of MUSGROVE Highway on KIMMEL Road in Sebewa Township.  Our October 1988, Volume 24, Number 2 issue had a cover photo of this barn being built around 1900, but not much of the lifter is visible above the double drive floor. 

   Someone may yet save this lifter for posterity, but they need to get at it soon.  Mrs. NURENBERG was very gracious in giving us the tour and open to the idea of preserving it.

   Second lifter today was at the home of Wayne & Pam SWILER, located just north of BIPPLEY Road on the west side of Ainsworth Road in Odessa Township.  It belonged to Ben F. CARTER in 1937 and his sister Grace owned on the east side of the road facing BIPPLEY, where their father, Z. W. CARTER, farmed in 1906.  Both farms had lifters believed to have been built on plans brought from Michigan Agricultural College, where Ben was a professor.  We didn’t get to visit the east barn, but Wayne SWILER gave a good tour of his and the history as he knew it.

   Third barn & lifter we toured today was at the eighth generation Leon & Alice WALTER farm on Morrison Lake, northwest side.  Leon is 87 years old, fourth generation, and as he awakened to the realization that he knew Grayden SLOWINS from being a former Boston Township Supervisor, and George FOGEL from George’s maple syrup supply business, he began to relate the history of the farm, the houses, and the barn.

   It was extended from three or four bays to six bays in the early 1900s and fitted with rack lifters over the two drive floors.  With an attached three-bay straw barn, this was among the half-dozen largest barns ever erected in Ionia County before pole-barns.

   Fourth barn we toured today is owned by Al & Claudia THROOP at the second farm north of VEDDER Road on BELL Road, east side.  Locating this involved two false stops, because the surrounding farm land is owned by Jacob & Betty SCHUURMANS & Sons, but not the farmstead as we had understood.

   Al does not have a farm background, although we suspect Claudia does.  They have restored the house, barn and other outbuildings, with lots of history as they know it.  The double drive floors have the pillar beams spaced to allow the team to come out for unloading without going single file.  With truly 12 x 12 beams, it shelters a menagerie in the high solid basement.                  

        END

EPHRAIM SHAY’S DIARY 1861 – 1863    Continued:

   On the night of January 1^st the troops withdrew to the transports and left for Millikens Bend.  The enemy appeared not to anticipate the movement, as no demonstration was made, even though all the transports did not get out of the Yazoo River until 4 PM on Friday the 2^nd.  Saturday 3^rd – laying at Millikens Bend.  Gen McCLERNAND reported officially and with Gen SHERMAN went down to the mouth of the Yazoo to officially and with Gen SHERMAN went down to the mouth of the Yazoo to confer with Admiral PORTER, leaving about 8 PM and returning about 12 AM.  The rain which has been pouring down for two days past has ceased.  I have been very busy making out reports of the killed, wounded, etc.  Since January 1^st, when I came in from the battlefield, I have staid on board S. B. Forest Queen, Gen SHERMAN’S Hd Qtr boat.  Sunday 4^th – we started up the Mississippi River, having in view a fort on the Arkansas River.  Gen MeCLERNAND assumed command.  Monday 5^th – we are on our way up the Arkansas River.  The Ironclads have to be towed, making progress slow.  Tuesday 6^th – on our way I continue to work on the report of killed and 1000 wounded, of which 721 were so serious as to require hospital accommodations, the balance were so slight as to be treated by the Regt Surgeons.  Arrived at White River at 2 PM.

   Thursday 8^th – very busy making arrangements for the expedition in contemplation.  Friday 9^th – left landing at 8 AM and proceeded up the White River to the cutoff, thence (back) into the Arkansas River and up that, landing just below Fort Nelson, three miles from Post Arkansas, preparing to disembark early tomorrow.  Saturday 10^th – disembarked and advanced on the enemy, taking his rifle pits and driving him to the Fort.  Sunday 11^th – formed our line of attack, getting batteries in position, enemy in the meantime throwing shells among us occasionally.  At 12:45 PM battle opened with our artillery and Gun Boats advancing within 400 yards of fort and by rapid and correct firing, silenced it at 2 PM.  Fort surrendered unconditionally.

   Monday 12^th – conversed with prisoners.  They embarked on a boat for the trip north.  I went down to the General Hospital of the place and took charge of the medicines.  Tuesday 13^th – came up to landing after loading medicines, etc.  Gen SHERMAN moved his quarters on S. B. Forest Queen at 4 PM.  I am now and have been for 3 days past at Gen McCLERNAND’S Hd Qtrs on S. B. Tigress.

   Wednesday 14^th – commenced to rain at daylight, disagreeable day.  I moved my clothing, etc. from Forest Queen to Tigress, took everything aboard in afternoon.  Thursday 15^th – changed to snow, three inches deep this morning, a snowy, wintry day.  QM (Quarter Master) is loading mules on the S. B.  Friday 16^th – snowing still, melts some; went down to fort to pass the night, burnt everything we could not get on board, blew up the fort.  Nearly all the boats have gone down the river, Gen Morgan’s Division is here yet.

   Saturday 17^th – after giving up the fort, we started down the river, arrived at Napoleon at the mouth of the Arkansas at noon, cool day, snow melting very little.  Sunday 18^th – laying at Napoleon, a fire broke out during day and boats had to move out of its reach.  Monday 19^th – started down the river, a squall of wind for an hour or two.  Tuesday 20^th – on our way down the river we stopped each night, about noon found our Gun Boats laying at anchor, two boats through some misunderstanding, had passed the fleet.  Wednesday 21^st – after about two hours overtook the missing boats anchored and awaiting our approach.  We landed at Tourage Point.

   Thursday, January 22, 1863 – disembarked, I went up to Milliken’s Bend by land with a dispatch.  Friday 23^rd – the work of disembarking and caring for the sick & wounded continues, troops are working on a ditch.  Saturday 24^th – troops are encamping and some are at work on the canal.  A wedding last night on the Gun Boat Queen of the West, the Capt married a lady living up the river a few miles.  Sunday 25^th – office duties, usual program of camp life.  Monday 26^th – office duties, ordinary camp duties occupy the attention of company, a detail at work on canal.

   Tuesday 27^th – B. B. Van Phal & J. C. left today for Memphis with the sick.  Wednesday 28^th – I went down to the ditch today, the water runs very sluggishly, no washing of the banks.  Thursday 29^th – firing from the mouth of ditch at Rebel transports, a ferry boat has been captured, the river is now blockaded below the city.  Friday 30^th – office duties.  Saturday 31^st – office duties.

   Sunday, February 1^st – Went on board Tigress with wagons, etc. of the Medical Director.  Monday 2^nd – moved down to Gen Sherman’s Hd Qtrs, Queen of the West got by the batteries of Vicksburg in broad daylight without serious injury.  Tuesday 3^rd – Monday 9^th – office duties.  Tuesday 10^th – office duties and a Serenade to Gen Sherman.  Wednesday 11^th – Rebels trying to range their guns on the canal, hit it very well.  Surgeon LAUBIS, Medical Director of the Department here is quite unwell.  Surgeon ALLEN of Medical Dept is here also.  Thursday 12^th – office duties.  Friday 13^th – office duties, received letter from Kate & Ophelia.  Saturday 14^th – office duties.  Gun Boat Indianola ran the blockade without injury last night.  Sunday 15^th – Saturday 21^st – office duties.  Sunday 22^nd – office duties, naturally a salute fired by land and naval forces in honor of Washington’s Birthday.

   Monday 23^rd – office duties.  Tuesday 24^th – office duties, distant and heavy firing heard all day down the river, continuing until dark.  At midnight a dummy was sent down which drew the fire from all their guns.  Our boys caught it at the mouth of canal.  Wednesday 25^th – office duties, at 10 AM a dispatch arrived that the Queen of the West was in sight, with Rebel colors.  Nothing definite yet with regard to Indianola, but suppose her captured also or sunk.  About 4 PM the dummy was let go from its moorings at the canal and floated down.  The Queen left down the river on the dummy’s approach at about 8 PM, later a tremendous explosion was heard down the river.

   Thursday 26^th – office duties, nothing definite yet of the Indianola, but think the dummy scared the Secesh and they blew her up, for fear she would be captured.  Friday February 27^th – Thursday March 12^th – office duties.  Friday, March 13^th – office duties, much activity among troops of 3^rd Ohio Cavalry, and 55^th, 24^th, 34^th Ohio Infantry.

   Saturday, March 14 – office duties, Maj. TAYLOR and Capt McCOY returned from their leav of absence.  Asst Surgeon General Col R. C. WOOD is at the landing.  Troops moving up the levee, quite an amount of activity prevails, water endangers the camps.  Col WOOD came up to the office, took a ride with Surgeon McMILLEN.  Received letter from Priscilla dated December 28^th.  Sunday 15^th – office duties, answered Priscilla and Ma’s letter, enclosed $1 for Ma to pay Uncle Ben a debt I owed him.  Rained last night, is cloudy with some rain this morning, cleared off and fair in afternoon, had a fourhanded game of cards with Jake HILLARD, a sergeant, and another man from the Colonel’s staff.

   Monday, March 16^th – office duties, pleasant day, 8^th Missouri and other troops embarked for an expedition.  Surgeon McMILLAN went to Gen GRANT’S Hd Qrts, taking documentary evidence to show the history of the Med Dept since the command left Memphis.  Gen SHERMAN left to accompany expediton about 4 PM, went up on a tug to the upper distant landing.  Heavy firing all day of heavy guns at Waneuter or in that direction.  Tuesday 17^th – official duties, pleasant day, rumors that HAINE’S Bluff was evacuated and occupied by our troops, celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in the evening.  Wednesday 18^th – office duties, pleasant day, too warm for comfort, rumor that two Cos on the Mosquito Flats were taken up the Yazoo by the enemy, also that the 8^th Missouri had a fight resulting in their being cut up badly – no good foundation for either report.  Removed guns from the mouth of the ditch by way of levee.  Rebs fired shell at the boys but did no harm, fired at the dredge boat also, but went nowhere.

   Thursday, March 19^th – office duties, pleasant day, Rebs fired at dredge boat every 15 minutes all last night, one piece of shell hit but did no harm.  Heavy firing heard about daylight down the river, much speculation concerning its cause.  Rumor that Commadore FARRAGUT has run by Port Hudson.  Signals were made from below (city) and now it is certain our boats are below, or the enemy have our signals.

   Friday 20^th – Rebs fired but little last night, five of the boats from lower fleet went below, one reported destroyed.  Office duties, pleasant day, making report for Hospital Surgeon Gen. Lieut HILL went down to communicate with Admiral FARRAGUT.  Two of the lower fleet are here in safety.  The Hartford guns are the Albatross guns!  Saturday 21^st – office duties, pleasant day.  Lieut HILL returned with dispatches and Lieut of 25^th Regt NY Lt ARTILL.  Seven boats started, one burned and the others could not be seen when these left the Fort.  Just before sundown heavy firing was heard near Waneuter lasting one hour.  Supposition is that Commadore FARRAGUT attacked the place, nothing definite known.

   Sunday 22^nd – office duties, pleasant day.  Brig Gen CONDIG arrived at the Columbia landing at noon today with firepower anew, the Autocrat, Diana, Baltic, Adams, and E. H. FAIRCHILD.   Firing near Waneuter early in the forenoon.  Monday 23^rd – office duties, rainy and muddy, dredge boats have left the canal.  Tuesday 24^th – office duties, cool north wind, not near freezing, but cool for this climate, did not do much work in office.   Wednesday 25^th – office duties, cool but pleasant, two boats tried to run the blockade by Vicksburg, the first one had the boiler exploded and was sunk, the second, the Switzerland was disabled but towed ashore by Commadore FARRAGUT’S Gun Boat.  Thursday 26^th – office duties, pleasant day, 55^th Illinois 10^th, sleighing in the East.  Gen ELLIOT’S Marine Brigade went away from landing about noon, up the river, destination unknown.

   Friday 27^th – pleasant day, a little cloudy about noon, office duties.  Gun Boat Lafayette left her anchorage and went upstream this morning.  There are no Gun Boats between Lounge Point and Vicksburg now.  Answered Kate’s letter.  Gen SHERMAN’S Expedition returned, proved a failure, got to within 6 ½ miles of Sunflower River.  Saturday 28^th – office duties, Spring showers, heavy firing in direction of Waneuter, violent wind about midnight, several trees blown down in the yard and a general scattering of tents, etc., finally went to bed and to sleep about 3 AM on the 29^th.

   Sunday, March 29, 1863 – office duties, cool day, had to have fire in the office.  Monday 30^th – office duties, weather still cool, military operations progress as usual.  Tuesday 31^st – office duties, cool day.  Wednesday April 1 – office duties, cool day, Gen STEELE’S Division preparing to go on expedition – Gen SMITH commanding, Gen ROSS’S old Division has arrived.  Rebels fired a few shells about dark.  Thursday 2^nd – office duties, warmer weather, need no fire.  Gen STEELE’S command left today.  Gen STUART had a review, his last before returning to private life.  Congress not confirming his re-appointment.  He was early engaged in the war, raised two Regiments himself, spent $20,000 on them, has never been home, and has attended strictly to his duty; so much for justice!  Friday 3^rd – office duties, received letter from Kate and her photograph.  I was down to Regt (Hd Qtrs), quite unwell last night, feel bad today, answered Kate’s and Ophelia’s letters, windy evening.  Saturday 4^th – office duties, feel better, pleasant day, Gen STEELE’S Division on expedition at Greenville today.

   Sunday, April 5 – office duties, pleasant day, went down on point and took view of Vicksburg Canal, which broke through the levee, overflowing the old camp.  Gen STEELE’S Division is on the march in the interior, enemy rear guard in close proximity.  Monday 6^th – office duties, pleasant day, water rising in the yard, the railroad has been cut, and water begins to drain off and fall.  We made a huge wreath of willow and roses and Shiloh in large letters and hung it at the Gen’s door this morning.  Gen STEELE repaired the bridge today, which stopped his progress last evening, being burned ahead of him by the enemy.  Tuesday 7^th – office duties, Gen STEELE on the march towards the interior.  Enemy seen in small numbers, skirmishes with artillery.  Wednesday 8^th – office duties, Gen STEELE on the march, enemy in sight occasionally.  After camping for the night, the enemy’s artillery and ours exchanged several shots, no casualties.  This place is called Thomas Plantation.  A few miles from Greenville the march ended.  Thursday 9^th – office duties, Gen STEELE on the march back to Greenville, destroying all large quantities of crops, etc. which could not be brought along.  Friday 10^th – office duties, pleasant day, Gen STEELE reached the boats today, one man has been killed and two wounded.  Saturday 11^th – office duties, pleasant day, quite unwell, shower in evening, continued raining all night.

   Sunday, April 12 – office duties, damp morning.  Flag of truce today, a mother and her two daughters came with it, daughters young and handsome.  A refugee and family also came in – all go north I believe.  Monday 13^th – office duties, flag of truce today, Gen GRANT and Gen STEELE answered it.  Tuesday 14^th – office duties, fair day, water rising, wrote letter to Uncle as usual.  Wednesday 15^th – office duties, Gun Boats to have went by Vicksburg did not go.  Passed evening on Westmoreland, Forest Queen was not ready, which caused a delay, going this evening without fail.

   Thursday 16^th – office duties, warm day, about half a dozen shots fired from Battery in the city, apparently at our fort on the point.  Brig Gen THOMAS, Adjutant General, came here this afternoon to Gen SHERMAN’S office.  Boats all ready, will go this evening.  Friday 17^th – Gun Boats went down last night:  Beuton, Lafayette, Tuscumbia, Corondolet, Louisville, Mound City, Pittsburg, Gen Price.  Also Transports:  forest Queen, Silver Water, and Henry CLAY.  Henry CLAY took fire approaching city and was burned.  Forest Queen helped her and received a shell, which injured her steam drum.  Tuscumbia went back and brought her through.

   Saturday, April 18, 1863 – office duties, pleasant day, crew of Forest Queen came up to office today, came past firing from our guns on the point on enemy’s stronghold.  Sunday 19^th – office duties, pleasant day, received letter from Kate, answered it, all are well except Tripp VANETTER.  A boat from the fleet endeavored to go up the river on the opposite side.  It having no flag raised, our battery fired blank shots and brought it back, then sent an officer to ascertain its business and let it pass.  Monday 20^th – office duties, pleasant day, shelling city, apparently to burn house which enemy are preparing to blockade.  Rumor that Gen ROSENKRANS had a battle and whipped the enemy but had heavy losses, at present stated at 16,000, but greatly exaggerated I think.  Tuesday 21^st – Tuesday 28^th – office duties, no word of a fight by Gen ROSENKRANS’ forces.

   Wednesday 29^th – office duties, pleasant day, mud drying up a little, ten Regts under Gen BLAIR of 2^nd Division left landing to go a short distance up the Yazoo River, about 13 miles, heard firing about 11 AM or 12 PM.  Caught some fish in a ditch near Hd Qtrs this afternoon.  Thursday 30^th – office duties, rumors from picket that the enemy are crossing in boats opposite Vicksburg or a little below, sent aide to ascertain.  Firing up Yazoo is heard about 10:00 AM. very heavy guns.  Enemy seen across the river opposite Gen SHERMAN’S Hd Qtrs, apparently watching our movements.  Firing up Yazoo continues until late in evening.

   Friday, May 1^st – office duties, warm day, have noticed no firing up the Yazoo, firing in the vicinity of Vicksburg nearly all day, do not know the cause, but some shells were so close could hear them burst.  Heard it was a party of enemy who went across the canal to see if anything was being done there.  They were firing at our troops, causing quite a stir among the Regts left behind.  Col HOGERE with 5 Cos of the 118^th just went up towards the canal.  He has been riding up and down the levee two or three times this afternoon.  Gen SHERMAN’S Expedition returned at dusk, did merely what was intended – to make faint of an attack.  Orders to be ready to move tomorrow.

   Saturday 2^nd – went by boat to Milliken’s Bend, disembarked and prepared to leave for Carhage tomorrow morning, 1^st Division is on the way, 3^rd Division also.  Sunday 3^rd – left Milliken’s Bend about 8 AM, road to plantation, where Gen STEELE dismounted for a stay of two hours.  Received letter from Kate this morning – Jim SHAY elected.  “Chatterbox” is quite unwell, Bell is dead and YOUNGS died in the army some time ago.  Went to Gen GRANT’S Hd Qtrs within a couple miles of Carthage.

   Monday 4^th – left early and went to Perkins Plantation, where we remained during the afternoon and night.  Gen SHERMAN went by boat to Grand Gulf, returned during night.  I saw Mr. PERKINS’ monument, he was lost at sea on the ship Arctic.  Mrs Perkins’ monument is near her husband’s.  The dwelling house was burned by the next owner upon our taking New Orleans, I learned.  Tuesday 5^th – left at 9 AM and went to Hardens’ Landing opposite Grand Gulf, passed many large mansions, most of them deserted and the furniture left behind had been destroyed by soldiers.  Passed many cotton gins, etc. burned last night.  Do not know by whom, but from description by the slaves, the same man did all the burning.  Staid at plantation of Dr. HOLLINGSWORTH.

                To be Continued

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa; Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI.  
OCTOBER 2007, Volume 43, Number 2.  Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES:  HIGH, SANDBORN, ROGERS, COON, LUSCHER, GIBBS, INGRAHAM, ERDMAN, HUNTZINGER, FAES, LUESHER, STEBBINS, HARWOOD, EAGLE, REYNOLDS, GIBBONS, RITTER, STANTON, HARPER, FENDER, MARTZ, CONKLIN, DOWNING, FANDEL, WOHLSCHEID, PLINE, INGALLS, SHAY, ARNOLD, LEIK

RECENT DEATHS:

MELBORN E. SANDBORN, 93, husband of Fannie Margaret ROGERS SANDBORN, the daughter of Roy & Gertrude COON ROGERS, father of John and Luke SANDBORN, Sharon ZARKA and Cynthia HEFTY, brother of the late Herbert, Columbus, Jacob, Riley, Lawrence, Allen and Raymond SANDBORN and Vera KRAUSZ, son of Elma Winifred LUSCHER & Lawrence (Lon) WATSON SANDBORN, son of Sarah Jane GIBBS & Columbus SANDBORN, son of Betsey Ann INGRAHAM & Edward SANDBORN.  Elma was the daughter of Minnie C. ERDMAN and Jacob LUSHER, son of Anna HUNTZINGER & Jacob LUSCHER, Sr., son of Anna FAES & Hans Jakob LUESCHER of Aargau, Switzerland.

   Melborn was born October 25, 1913, in Orange Township on KEEFER Highway, where his brother Jake later farmed, died July 4, 2007 in Danby Township on the MUSGROVE Hwy end of their farm on KEEFER Hwy.  He served for 30 years on the Sebewa HIGH School Board, 4 years on the Ionia County Intermediate School Board, 20 years on the Sunfield Elevator Board, and 26 years on the Maynard Allen Bank Board.  He farmed with his son Luke and operated SANDBORN International Farm Equipment Co. with his son John.

   He is buried at Danby Cemetery.

GLADYS C. HARWOOD STEBBINS, 102, widow of Max STEBBINS, mother of Larry STEBBINS and two infant children, sister of the late Lois, Harold and Stanley HARWOOD, daughter of Alta EAGLE & Jay HARWOOD, son of Riley HARWOOD, the HARWOODS being one of the earliest families to settle in Berlin Township.  Born July 15, 1904, she died July 1, 2007, just 14 days short of her 103^rd birthday!  She and Max raised Hampshire and Suffolk sheep on their farm on State Road in Orange Township.

   She is buried at Saranac Cemetery.

JANE RITTER REYNOLDS, 90, widow of Raymond REYNOLDS, mother of Richard REYNOLDS, sister of Jean HARRIS, Maynard RITTER and the late Maxwell, Paul and Royal RITTER, daughter of Pearl GIBBONS & Floyd Maxwell (Skinny) RITTER, son of Sarah Jane STANTON & Anthony (Tony) RITTER, son of Elizabeth Ann HARPER & Samuel RITTER, who settled on 120 acres in Section 16, Orange Township in 1849.  Floyd & Pearl RITTER farmed on 100 acres on BIPPLEY Road, Sec. 14, Sebewa Township, from 1910 to 1966.  Jane and Ray lived in Hastings, where she was a volunteer at Pennock Hospital.  She died March 23, 2007.

EARL FENDER, 93, husband of Alice MARTZ FENDER, widower of Louise CONKLIN FENDER, father of Anne HALFORD and Judy MALMQUIST, son of Edith DOWNING & Nathaniel FENDER.  He was descended from the FENDER families of Sebewa and Odessa Townships, but we don’t know just how.

CHRISTOPHER F. FANDEL, 78, husband of Helen WOHLSCHEID FANDEL, father of Frank and Rodney FANDEL, Derry HOPPES, Rhonda SCHRAUBEN, Marlys SPOHN and Teresa LONGANBACH, brother of Rhonda LEHMAN, Eloise GILBERT, and the late Annabelle WERNER and Hubert FANDEL, son of Mary PLINE and Frank FANDEL.  Born May 18, 1929, he farmed all his life in Sebewa Township Sec. 1 & 2 on PETRIE Road and Orange Township Sec. 35 & 36 on KNOX Road and died August 16, 2007.

FRONT PAGE PHOTOS:

   SEBEWA HIGH SCHOOL, Fractional District No. 1.  Named for original landowner Jacob C. HIGH

JONATHAN INGALLS UPDATE:  Steve YENCHAR of Lowell Granite Co. was assisted by Patrick ADGATE and Anthony (Tony) ZANDER in pouring the foundation to re-set Jonathan’s Revolutionary War monument, and all donated their labors.  We thank them on behalf of everyone.

CHARLES LEIK UPDATE, LETTERS AND REPORT:  Charles LEIK writes to ask if anyone knows the approximate age of Portland Co-operative Elevator, now called the Red Mill.  He says they found a plastered & heated upstairs room in the northwest wing before tearing it off, and surmised it was for BEAN GIRLS to pick beans, as we told about in our last issue.

Charles LEIK always has interesting travels, and spent July 4^th holiday at the Round Barn Museum at Rochester, IN., and a restored house-barn raising at Springfield, OH.  We will hear him tell about their trip to India.  Also his memories of Gerald R. Ford.

LETTERS FROM CHARLES LEIK:  First you might like a story about my service with Gerald R. FORD.  Amazingly it was exactly 40 years ago today that I started work in the office of the Minority Leader in the Capitol………and today (January 3, 2007) Mr. FORD is being laid to rest on the banks of our own river, the Grand.

   I worked in Mr. FORD’S congressional office 30 hours a week while attending Georgetown University Grad School.  I worked six days a week from 7 AM to 1 PM.  On Saturdays, Susan FORD, then about 8-10 years old, would come to the office.  I reminded her of this when I briefly chatted with her in the receiving line at the Rotunda on New Year’s Day.  It was the first time I had seen her in 39 ½ years!

   I drove Mr. FORD from his home in Alexandria once when the regular driver was sick, and another time within the District.  He sat in the black bucket passenger seat of my red 1964 Plymouth Sport Fury and after fussing with papers in his briefcase, he closed the case and we chatted about the merits of mass transportation.  This subject was then topical because the Metroliner between New York City and Washington had just been initiated.  Another time we discussed Mrs. Marina OSWALD, since Mr. FORD had been a member of the WARREN Commission.

   Tom BROKAW in eulogizing the former President at the Washington Cathedral on January 2^nd, said that nice things are always said about the deceased, but in Mr. FORD’S case, they are really true.  I can confirm that Mr. FORD was as courteous, friendly and thoughtful in his private persona as in his public image. 

   I have a photo of Mr. FORD and me in 1967 and after the photo languished in undistinguished drawers for years I had it professionally restored and framed.  Unfortunately Mr. FORD’S inscription to me was almost illegible.  The conservator suggested that I mail the photo and new mat to Ranchero Mirage and ask Mr. FORD in a cover letter to repeat the inscription on the mat.  The photo, mat and inscription were returned to me within a few days and now occupy a place of honor in my study!

ANOTHER LETTER FROM CHARLES LEIK:

   I gulped when Willie announced that she wanted to tour India, but we successfully planned our itinerary and only once used an agency to engage airport pickups, drivers and guides at Delhi, Jaipur and Agra in the North, Goa and Mumbai (Bombay) in the South, and Varanasi, the city sacred to Hindus on the Ganges.

   Our guide proved invaluable, air transport inside India was comfortable (full meal service on modern aircraft on one-hour flights), the Indians were friendly without exception, the culture fascinating and Islamic architecture superb.  We learned a lot!

   Between portions of India we spent five days with our New Zealand friends Ian and Lynette BROWN in ultramodern Dubai.  We rode on camels, dhows and big SUVs, and ate Chinese food while watching skiers on the new enclosed refrigerated slope.  After over-the-top Dubai and Indian hotel stays in converted palaces, it was back to reality at the Michigan farm.

   There were acres of lawn to mow and spray, muskrats infesting the pond (their burrows collapse the banks) and an October of rain, cold and even snow.

   Nevertheless, crops were good and renovation of the 1858 farmhouse is nearing completion.  Recently my brother Ed and I finished the farm year by constructing a fireplace of native stone.  We have a lot to learn about splitting stone!

LETTER FROM GRAYDEN SLOWINS TO KAREN CLARK OF ROCHESTER HILLS, MI, DATED JULY 16, 2007:

   As a retired Clerk of Sebewa Township, I have copies of the cemetery records and my personal set of old land plat books, and will attempt to answer the questions in your letter (to me).

   Your great-great-grandfather, William Perry ARNOLD owned the 40 acres at 12431 S. SHILTON Road now known as the BAILEY farm on the 1875 plat and 1891 plat, but was gone by 1906.  His son William H. ARNOLD, who you report was born in 1867 in Eaton County, died in Sebewa Township December 31, 1928, and was buried on Lot #24 West Sebewa Cemetery, but there is no stone.

   John ARNOLD lived on 80 acres exactly one mile north of William P. in 1875, but was gone by 1891.  He is buried on Block 6 Lot #14 in East Sebewa Cemetery.  His birth date is shown as April 20, 1836, but no death date.  John’s house and barn were moved or torn down to become part of the Robert Gierman buildings on the next farm south.

   Hannah, wife of John, died September 15, 1879, at age 43 years, 4 months, 11 days, making her birth date May 4, 1836.  She is buried on Lot #14 also.

   Iran ARNOLD, father of John and possibly of William P., died April 13, 1879, at age 79, so was born in 1800 approximately, and is buried on Lot #14 also.  There is a stone for this family.

   Enclosed are photos of the Sebewa Center School as it looked in earlier days and after repaired from the 1967 tornado.  As you saw, it has been replaced in 2005-2006 by a modern Sebewa Town Hall after being closed for 40 years.

   Sincerely, Grayden D. SLOWINS

EPHRAIM SHAY’S DIARY 1861 – 1863        Continued:

   Wednesday, May 6, 1863 – packed up wagons, saddled horses, expecting to cross the river, but did not do so, remained all day and camped for the night in same place we staid last night.  Gen STEELE’S & Gen TUTTLE’S Divisions arrived, the 2^nd Brigade of Gen STEELE’s crossed during the night and the 6^th Brigade under Gen THOMAS came to our camp in the afternoon, brought dispatch from Gen GRANT that he is proceeding admirably.

   Thursday 7^th – cold night last night, wind from north, packed wagons and saddled horses and went to landing early.  Crossed over (to east side of Mississippi River) on Forest Queen, with some on Gun Boat, and camped against the hill.  Took a survey of the defense, much work done, a lack of heavy guns was plainly visible.  So strong is the place by nature that it would be impregnable if guns were properly placed and defended.

   Friday 8^th – left camp.  Gen GRANT is near Rocky Springs.  I do not know what we are waiting for, unless it is for Gen BLAINE.  Some of the troops are in motion.  Sent Kate’s letter which I wrote at Grand Gulf.

   Saturday 9^th – remained in camp at first ford.

   Sunday 10^th – I went with Capt PITTMAN to make a survey of the road.  Gen SHERMAN’S Hd Qtrs and Gen STEELE’S command left at 2 PM and marched to Big Sandy Creek by way of Rocky Springs and bivouacked for the night.  Country is very hilly, roads crooked, deep ravines, land poor, presents a striking contrast with the rich plantations across the river, country is better as we go up Big Black River.

   Monday 11^th – left camp at sunrise, went with Capt. PITTMAN to survey road to Cayuga, arrived at 10 AM, very pleasant dry weather, heard a few cannon in NW direction this morning.

   Gen GRANT’S Hd Qtrs are at Cayuga P.O. near the church, camped there for the night.

   Tuesday 12^th – left early in the morning and marched a few miles when enemy opened fire on us with musketry – killed one man.  I was with Col HIBBARD making a survey of the road when I heard the firing, so I went in front.  Some skirmishing now at 10 AM, lasted only a few minutes, enemy retreated, followed by us.  The bridge was burned, took until night to repair it and get the two commands across, camped on hill just across creek.  Six killed, 8 or 10 wounded today, heard firing on and off all night.

   Wednesday May 13^th – Left camp at 4 AM, Gen McPHERSON had a fight about two miles from Raymond, we reinforced him, he lost about 200 killed and wounded.  We arrived about 8:30.  He had driven the enemy through the town of Raymond last evening.  Command went forward on the direct road to Jackson, came on the enemy’s picket 8 ½ miles past Raymond.

   Exchanged a few shots, then they fell back.  We then went into camp, the owner of the plantation is a Private in the 3^rd Mississippi, MARSHALL by name.  Gen McPHERSON went into Clinton, took possession of the place, intercepted dispatches from Gen LEE ordering his troops to fall back, if not strong enough to stop us or risk engagement.

   Thursday 14^th – left in morning for Jackson (MS), some skirmishing all the way, and about 3 miles from town came a force of Infantry and Artillery.  At 11 AM commanding on our left supposed to be Gen McPHERSON, the enemy opened fire on us with cannon at 11:50.  Our Battery answered, but not from a good position.  At 12:15 Infantry fire quite heavy.  At 12:25 PM enemy gave way to our men, skirmishing continued.  At 12:30 Capt PITTMAN reported rifle pits abandoned.  Gen STEELE took possession of Jackson at 3 PM, camped in suburbs of town, has been rainy all day.

   Friday, May 15, 1863 – remained in Jackson all day, busy taking possession of Rebel property and destroying railroads, manufactories, etc.  Troops are taking possession of all property, food, etc. which is of any service to the army.  Destroyed Rebel cannons, loaded up one, saved the ammunition; many fires in town.

   Saturday 16^th – left about 10 AM, arrived in Clinton (MS) about 2 PM.  Col HOUGHTON brought report that Gen GRANT has an engagement and lost 1500 prisoners, other reports say 500 were recaptured, no positive information.  We are pushing ahead on the strength of the report.  Dispatch from Gen GRANT at 6 PM that he has taken 1500 prisoners and three batteries.  Camped at Bolton, (MS) with orders to leave at 4 AM on 17^th.  (Clinton & Bolton are small towns on present-day I-20, main route from State Capital at Jackson to Vicksburg on the Mississippi.)

   Sunday 17^th – Gen TUTTLE’S Division was unable to pass (over) the bridge just east of the train station, on account of the lateness last night and fatigue of the troops, consequently we left later than ordered, being sunrise.  At 11 AM and 4 miles east of Big Black River, receive a dispatch from Gen GRANT, 3000 prisoners & 33 pieces of cannon taken at bridge.  I went back with medicines for wounded in Gen GRANT’S Division, about 300 enemy killed and 3000 prisoners.  Army Corps went to Big Black River and put down pontoons and commenced crossing river at sundown.  Gen BLAINE’S Division joined us; we crossed two miles above the railroad.

   Monday 18^th – whole Army Corps crossed during night, wagon train left to cross today.  Marched to within 3 miles of Vicksburg, where the enemy commenced to skirmish with us.  We come on the city from the northeast.  Gen GRANT is here.  About 4 PM the Division parted from Gen BLAINE’S and advanced by both roads towards the city.  As soon as McPHERSON’S Corps arrived, Col SMITH’S Brigade returned and took position with the 2^nd Division.  Some anxiety for Gen McPHERSON’S arrival on account of fires seen in city and a supposition that the enemy may try to excape by way of ridge road on our right.  Gen STEELE is charged with guarding the attack, expected some skirmishing about 15 wounded.

   Tuesday 19^th – forenoon spent getting in position, with intervals of sharp skirmishing.  Orders to assault at 2 PM, which was done by Gen SHERMAN’S Corps and a part of Gen McPHERSON’S.  A General failed to obey orders and the consequence was that these two did all the fighting, loss – 300 wounded actually in hospital.  Gen STEELE’S site from the Gun Boats (on the Mississippi River) opened fire after dark and kept it up at intervals all night.  Wednesday 20^th – skirmishing commenced at daylight and continued briskly until 2 PM, when it increased to a real fight, cannonading all day from Gun Boats and mortars at intervals all night.

   (EDITOR’S NOTE:  In case you have been unable to follow the path of this war, General GRANT’S railroad supply lines from the North had been destroyed, and the Mississippi Bluffs at Vicksburg were heavily fortified, so he sent his army with very few supplies hopping from port to port south along the west bank of the river, sometimes by boat and sometimes overland.  Then they crossed the Mississippi below Vicksburg, went up the Big Black River and Natchez Trace, to capture the Capital at Jackson and slip into Vicksburg from the East along present-day I-20.)

   Thursday May 21, 1863 – cannonading all day, very heavy during forenoon, firing from sharpshooters incessant.  I went to the extreme right and saw Youngs Point & surrounding country from the bluffs.  Friday 22^nd – cannonading commenced early in morning and was very heavy as the assault was made by 15^th Artillery Corps.  I do not know whether the other corps did as they were ordered or not.  I heard little or no firing on the left.  The flag was planted on the enemy works and remained there all day, withdrew after dark.  Our forces were within 50 yards of their works all day, very heavy loss, four forces acted under the heaviest fire.  Saturday 23^rd – very quiet in morning, little firing of cannon except from mistake about 10 AM, cannonading heavy on left, Gun Boats opened fire also from sound. Capt. PITTMAN, Topographical Engineer on Gen Sherman’s Staff, was wounded by enery’s sharpshooter while taking survey of works.  (Weather during campaign so far is the best kind for our purpose – roads dry, just showers enough to lay dust once in a while.)  Received letter from Kate.

   Sunday 24^th – cannonading all day, slowly skirmishing with sharpshooters, our troops digging rifle pits.  I went to the landing on Yazoo River at head of Chickasaw Bayou, passed over battleground of Dec. 27-28-29, 1861.  The enemy had the strongest natural position in the West, if not in the whole South, to protect them.  I never saw anything near its equal.  Wounded sent to river to go north yesterday & today.  Monday 25^th – a slow cannonading and fire from sharpshooters kept up & fine dry weather.  A flag of truce from 6 to 8 PM to recover the dead.  I went out to view their works, it is an excellent one for defense and offense.  It can be taken by assault if present army remains before it – too bad the loss of life must be so immense.  Wrote to Priscilla.

   Tuesday 26^th – firing very slow, little to be heard, an unusual calm.  I guess storm approaches we are very busy making preparations for a determined and successful attack.  I think 2000 lbs. of blasting powder and 1,000,000 rounds of small ammunition.  Gen GRANT just came into the office and ordered that a sharp lookout be maintained, as reports say the enemy are going to cut their way out over night.  They say it was ordered and the signal given last evening, but for some reason the troops did not respond.  Gen BLAINE’S Division is ordered to HAINES Bluff this evening.  Wednesday 27^th – usual skirmishing, very heavy cannonading, principally from Gun Boats and mortars, slight shower, very warm.  Received letter from Jane and one from Griff BROKAW, also one from Mother & one from Priscilla – Jane’s dated May 7^th, Priscilla’s May 14^th, Ma’s May 18 and Griff’s May 22.

   Thursday 28^th – usual amount of firing, pleasant day, quite dusty.  Busy recording names of the wounded actually received in the hospitals and reported by name:  16 killed – 57 wounded from our Brigade under Gen SHERMAN in May.

   Reported by Division:

1^st Division Gen STEELE – Killed 98 Wounded 377 Missing 10 Total 486

2^nd Division Gen BLAINE – 174, 709, 8, 891

3^rd Division Gen TUTTLE – 25, 191, 23, 241

Totals – 297 Killed, 1277 Wounded, 41 Missing, Total 1618

   Friday 29^th – heavy bombarding in the forenoon, starting at 6 AM, Gun Boats still firing at evening and all day I believe, but the cannons near Hd Qtrs made so much noise I could not distinguish between them.  Saturday 30^th – cannonading all day, 30 bl. Pannetts principally, sharpshooters skirmishing at daylight.  Built a gun battery last night close to enemy.  Wrote letter to Mother, sent $5.00; also wrote to Priscilla, have not sent any letters yet, but will tomorrow morning.  Sunday 31^st – heavy firing all along line at an early hour this morning (3 AM).  Captured 12 prisoners last night, each one had a number of percussion caps on his person amounting to a thousand total.  Cannonading all day, warm and dry, very dusty.  Answered Kate’s letter from May 8^th.

   Monday, June 1, 1863 – firing as usual all day.  Tuesday 2^nd – usual firing from heavy and light artillery & musketry and at 6:30 PM brisk bombardment of 10 minutes ensued.  At 7 PM received four minutes of rapid firing-heavy guns (Secesh Hunters).  Wednesday 3^rd – usual firing all day – more heavy guns being wanted – a number of hand grenades of 1 to 5 lbs. being made – another attack will soon be made.   Gen BLAIR has returned and his Brigade has arrived, many ladies visit Hd Qtrs for provisions.  Weather is dry, cloudy at times today, have had no rain for past month, except little sprinkles, not enough to lay dust.  Thursday 4^th – usual amount of firing, preparations for the capture of the city go on actively.  Friday 5^th – usual firing, dry warm weather.  Saturday 6^th – firing continues slowly, weather dry and extremely warm.

   Sunday 7^th – very quiet all along the line, very little firing, heard firing in the morning over towards Milliken’s Bend.  Dispatch received that the enemy has attacked and at first drove out the Negroes camped there.  Negroes rallied and repulsed them, with a loss of 80 dead on the field, 200 Secesh taken prisoner & 5 cannons, Negroes’ stock is rising.  Monday 8^th – firing increased to its usual amount, continued till late in evening, cannon and musketry.  Tuesday 9^th – office duties, usual firing, Wednesday 10^th – rainy in morning, much water fell towards noon and continued showers all day.  Firing very brisk in the intervals by sharpshooters, cannonading as usual, more troops arrive.  Thursday 11^th – office duties, usual firing, reinforcements arriving, 23,000 reported.  Roads getting good, Gen JOHNSTON reported moving forward.  Friday 12^th – office duties, usual firing, a little misunderstanding between myself and someone caused me to apply to be relieved from duty at Hd Qtrs by 15^th, request granted.

   Saturday 13^th – order issued relieving me from duty at Hd Qtrs of 15^th Army Corps on 12^th and ordering me to report as clerk at Gen Hospital.  Reported for duty as ordered.  Sunday 14^th – quite unwell, have been so for some months.  Monday 15^th usual duties, heavy firing along the line, enemy opened fire with cannon, the first since May 23^rd on their near side.  Gen SHERMAN went to the rear to command the force opposed to Gen JOHNSTON.  News of Port Hudson’s capture.

   Tuesday 16^th – usual duties, getting quite unwell.  Gen SHERMAN delayed.  Wednesday 17^th – usual duties, still quite unwell.  Thursday 18^th – office duties, unwell.  Friday 19^th – office duties very laborious, unwell, siege as usual.  Saturday 20^th – office duties.  Sunday June 21^st – office duties, letter writing, received letter from Kate & Miss Chatterbox.  Monday 22^nd – office duties, usual siege.  Tuesday 23^rd – office duties, much writing very late.

   Wednesday, June 24, 1863 – Gen SHERMAN has gone to rear to face Gen JOHNSTON, office duties, very busy, heavy firing all day, skirmishing in the rear, mortars throwing shells very regularly at short intervals, weather damp and showery, but not much rain.  Gen SHERMAN took Gen TUTTLE’S 3^rd Division with him.  Thursday 25^th – office duties, same warm weather, firing all the time.  A few sensational stories in camp, but only rumors.  Friday 26^th – office duties.  Saturday 27^th – office duties, warm weather, quite unwell.  Sunday 28^th – office duties, warm weather.  Monday 29^th – office duties.  Tuesday 30^th – office duties.

   Wednesday July 1 – office duties.  Thursday 2^nd – office duties, preparation being made for an attack or at least a heavy bombardment.  Friday 3^rd – office duties, flag of truce proposing terms of surrender of Vicksburg (!) about 10 AM, orders for 15^th Army Corp to join Gen SHERMAN.  Sixty prisoners released from jail were confined for Union sentiments.  Sunday 5^th – office duties, very warm.  15^th Army Corps moves to join Gen SHERMAN immediately, on the way today.  (Three Divisions made up a Corps – in this case the 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd.)

   Monday, July 6^th – office duties, exceedingly warm today.  Tuesday 7^th – office duties, very warm.  Wednesday 8^th – office duties, very warm.  Thursday 9^th – office duties, moved through Vicksburg, very warm.  Friday 10^th – office duties, Surgeon Varnum placed under arrest by Surgeon McDONNELL, his orders had been issued, but were delivered without the signature of Surgeon McDONNELL, and recorded in the order book as signed.  Surgeon VARNUM was about to take his seat at the dinner table, when Surgeon McDONNELL ordered him to retire and eat at the second table.  VARNUM refused to do so and McDONNELL ordered the Lieut of the Guard to enforce the order.  A spirited discussion ensued, finally Surgeon VARNUM complied.

   Saturday 11^th – office duties.  Sunday 12^th – office duties.  Monday 13^th – office duties, 116 sick sent to Hospital Boat to go north.  Tuesday 14^th – office duties.  Surgeon VARNUM released from arrest.  Wednesday 15^th – office duties.  Surgeon VARNUM relieved from duty in 15^th Army Corps by Surgeon MOORE, new Director of Department.

   Thursday 16^th – Monday 20^th – office duties.  Tuesday 21^st – office duties, commenced moving Hospital to city of Vicksburg, 25 loads today.  Wednesday 22^nd – office duties.  Thursday 23^rd – another 106 patients sent north.  Friday 24^th – office duties.  Saturday 25^th – Maj J. L. TAYLOR and Capt Fred McCOY arrived from the field, received furloughs.  Sunday 26^th – office duties, very warm, heavy showers.  Monday 27^th – office duties, went to the boat with J. L. TAYLOR and Fred McCOY, Surgeon HECKELMAN is sick.

   Tuesday July 28^th – office duties, very busy, cloudy with showers, let Surgeon LUCAS have eleven hospital tents complete.  Wednesday 29^th – office duties, Miss…………left hospital and went to 2^nd Division Hospital, sent Jeff’s letter.  Thursday 30^th – office duties, quite unwell.  Friday 31^st – Saturday August 1^st – office duties.  Sunday 2^nd – office duties, quite unwell, received Rx – take one tablespoon one hour after each meal, a tonic and prophylactic.  Monday 3^rd – Sunday 9^th – office duties, health the same.  Monday 10^th – Tuesday August 11^th – office duties, making a writing desk at leisure moments.         TO BE CONTINUED

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa; Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI. 
DECEMBER 2007, Volume 43, Number 3.  Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES:  COE, MILES, WEIR, LUMBERT, HARRIS, BAILIFF, HOLTON, BETKER, FRIEND, LEIK, SHAY, HADEWAY, CARR, SLOWINS, INGALLS, TERRILL, HOGLE, HILL, HUNTINGTON, STRINE, BANHAGEL, BIEHLER, SCHNABEL, SLOWINSKI, STEINBERG, LEHMAN, O’MARA, SARLOUIS, MAJINSKA, KUBISH, ELDRIDGE, FARRELL, CANNAM, LAKIN, HUGGLER, VAN HOUTEN, BARNUM, WELCH

RECENT DEATHS:

HOWARD MERRILL COE, 92, husband of Vivian MILES Coe, father of Janet LAKIN, Rosa Lee TIFFANY, Darrell COE, Tom COE, Mary Ellen BENJAMIN, Sharon BENJAMIN, Gary COE, Margaret ENGBERG, R. COE, Martha COE and infant sons Billie DEAN & Keith COE, brother of the late Ethel ALLEN, son of Jessie & Lydia COE.  Born October 1, 1914, married September 22, 1934, Howard worked 17 years for Valley City Milling Co. until the disastrous fire of February 1950, then he worked 25 years for Builders Lumber & Supply Co.  He was much in demand for advice to customers, and in retirement he helped many of us with repair projects, especially the Portland Baptist Church.  He died September 26, 2007, and is buried in Portland Cemetery.

LILA V. WEIR LUMBERT, 91, widow of Wayne Floyd LUMBERT and ex-wife of Francis LUMBERT, father of her children, mother of Francis (Sonny), Jim, Clifford, Jerry, Bob, and Larry LUMBERT, Gladah THELEN, Jean LUMBERT, Wendy MATER, Cindy RUSSELL, and the late Wayne LUMBERT, sister of Jim ELMER, and Eldon WEIR, Tret CORNELL, Orcelia MATZ, Martha PEASE, and the late Sid & Ruth WEIR, daughter of Elmer & Cora HARRIS WEIR.  She retired as an inspector at Chrysler Lyons Trim Plant in 1974, and enjoyed cheering at her grandchildrens’ sports events. 

   She was born in Alto, November 9, 1915, she died October 14, 2007, and is buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

JAMES LYNN BAILIFF, SR., 76, husband of Eleanor E. HOLTON BAILIFF, father of James L. BAILIFF, Jr., Rose M. HENRY, William L. BAILIFF, Sr., and Carol J. PROCTOR, brother of Marylee SANDBORN, Ruth SCHAFFER, and LeRoy BAILIFF, son of Garland L. & Grace BETKER BAILIFF.  He retired from the Village of Sunfield after 25 years on maintenance, supervisor of maintenance, and police officer. 

   In retirement he was a school crossing guard.  Born November 21, 1930, in Marion, Oregon, growing up in Sebewa Township and living here the rest of his life, he died October 30, 2007, and is buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

LETTER FROM GRAYDEN D. SLOWINS in Starke, FL, February 19, 2007, to CHARLES LEIK in Great Falls, VA:

   Dear Charles:  Thanks for the Ephraim SHAY information and the receipts and bills of sale for your Dad’s farm equipment.  I remember when he got that tractor and borrowed our mounted hay mower, while waiting to get one of his own.  I still can picture in my mind, Henry FEDEWA was working for him and drove it out of our driveway.  I will lay those receipts away to return to you when you wish.

   Ephraim SHAY’S first home in Sebewa was with his mother and siblings on 40 acres at the NW corner of BIPPLEY and SHILTON Roads, Section 16 Sebewa, surrounding the schoolhouse/new town hall, now owned by the John HADEWAY Estate and long farmed by the CARR family.  The house was on the green spot west of where the old barn stood.

   His second home, after he came home from the Civil War, was on his own 80 acres at the NE and SE corners of BIPPLEY and KIMMEL Roads, Sections 16 & 21 Sebewa, just a mile west of his mother, Phoebe SHAY.  His house was on the south 40, as it is today, and is now owned by Ilene (Mrs. George) CARR.  Here he was also Sebewa Township Clerk in 1867-1868.

   Next he lived in Sunfield Township south of the present-day Village of Sunfield.  The village wasn’t started until the railroad bypassed the Village of Sebewa about 1886.  He founded the Village of SHAYTOWN at the intersection of what is now SHAYTOWN Road and Clinton Trail/M-50 in Sections 25 & 26 Sunfield Township, now owned by Harold & Helen COTTON.

   He moved his sawmill from there to just north of Cadillac, where he founded the Village of HARING.  One think I learned from the story you sent was that the Village of CLAM LAKE was incorporated as the City of Cadillac.  More prestigious I guess!

   Sincerely, Grayden D. SLOWINS

LETTER FROM JIM & CAROL HOGLE HILL:  Carol is descended from Sebewa first settlers Jonathan INGALLS, John TERRILL and William HOGLE.

   Attached please find a copy of 56^th Annual North American Indian Days, plus a little bit about following the Lewis and Clark Trail.  This is the journal of our trip to Montana and Idaho July 9-23, 2007.  The main thrust of our trip was to attend the BLACKFEET Nation’s 56^th annual event in Browning, MI, and to do some genealogy work there, which turned out to be a bust.  We also visited Helena, Butte, and Missoula, Montana, and Salmon, Idaho.  We found a lot of evidence of the Lewis & Clark Trail all along our route.

   Oral history says Jim is 1/8 Native American, as one of his paternal great-grandmothers was reputed to be a full-blood BLACKFEET.  Unfortunately we have very little documentation of this as fact.  The only official document we have is a copy of his paternal grandparents’ marriage license obtained from the Michigan Bureau of Vital Statistics.  It indicates that the bride’s mother was a Miss STRINE”, and her father was George HUNTINGTON.  Their daughter, Mable HUNTINGTON, married Pearl HILL in Kingsley, MI, on February 20, 1901.

   Mable HUNTINGTON was born in Manistee County June 15, 1881.  Pearl HILL was born in Monroe County, MI.  Their four children were born in Manistee from 1902 to 1911.  Then the family moved in the late 1920s or early 1930s back to the Detroit area to work in the auto plants.  Grandfather later abandoned the family to work on the railroad, so information never got passed along.

   We recently attended the Smithsonian’s National Powwow in Washington, D.C. where we met an Ojibwa couple from Little Traverse Bay, MI.  They told us that while there are many Native Americans in the Greater Traverse City area, they don’t know of any BLACKFEET.  It appears logical that his great-great-grandparents could have lived somewhere in the west and moved to Michigan to escape the Indian Re-settlement Program.

   We have run STRINE thru the BLACKFEET Nation’s surname list on their website but found no match.  We also sent our documentation to the BLACKFEET Nation’s Bureau of Enrollment, who also found no match.  We are hoping one of your readers may have information on the BLACKFEET connection in the Traverse City area.

   Very truly yours, Jim & Carol HILL, Charlottesville, VA. 

HISTORY OF THE IONIA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BUILDING by Grayden SLOWINS:

   Organized October 30, 1842, the Presbyterians borrowed or rented other buildings at first and dedicated their own building August 12, 1857.  A painting of that building hangs in the upper entryway.  It was built of wood, but had a cut stone foundation.  That building was destroyed by fire June 28, 1908, after sparks from a locomotive set fire to the Pere Marquette depot on the northeast corner of Front (Adams) Street and Depot Street and that in turn ignited the church.

   This current building was built during 1909 and dedicated March 13, 1910.  The builders were Banhagel Bros. Construction Co.  During a period roughly 1870-1970 this extended family built most of the brick and stone buildings in the Ionia area.  Beginning in 1854, when the first family members got off the boat from Posen, East Prussia, via the port of Hamburg, Germany, these skilled stone masons brought their tools in a carpet bag and worked up to being the primary contractors.

   They worked on the Frederick HALL House (1869-70), BLANCHARD HOUSE (1876), VANDERHEYDEN House ( 1878), and many other Italianate homes and store buildings, the Michigan Reformatory (1876), Ionia State Hospital ( 1878), the Ionia County Court House in 1884-1886, and churches:  First Methodist (1854 & 1932), Presbyterian (1857, 1909, 1969), Disciples (1867-73), First Baptist ( 1870), Episcopal ( 1881), Sts. Peter & Paul (1881), Zion (1885).

   They were the primary contractors on the Ionia City Hall, the Armory and the Presbyterian Church in 1909.  Ypsilanti Reed Furniture Co, in 1914, on the original brick paving on Main Street in 1915, the Ionia Free Fair buildings 1915-1920s.

   Unlike the Washington National Cathedral, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, etc., these buildings in Ionia are not built of rectangular stone blocks.  Every building in Ionia, including the Court House, is built with yellow brick (sometimes called white or ivory brick) inner courses or in later years concrete blocks, then faced with cut stone slabs or red bridk.  Some houses have yellow brick on the outside and inside, but usually wood frame, brick veneer.

   In the case of this church, they began with some of the original foundations & foundation stones and laid up more base stones faced-off on the inner surfaces and then sandstone squared-off rectangular on the outside and now painted white.  Some places this outside stone comes up two feet and some places ten feet, but if you look closely you will see the stone blocks are all the same height, but not all the same length, unlike the concrete blocks on the newer additions.  All these stones are rounded or at least irregulary surfaces inside the walls.

   Then the bricks go up, yellow on the inside, red outside.  Most downtown store buildings have double walls of the same quality of brick, because they must support the floors, ceilings, and roofs of two buildings.  Also some private homes have been built using all yellow or all red brick.  But public buildings usually can’t come in under budget unless they use something less showy where it doesn’t show.

   In 1969 Benhagel Bros. added the east wing and old men who had mixed mortar as teenagers in 1909 came back to lay a few bricks and reminisce.  The five interrelated families were SCHNABEL, SLOWINSKI, STEINBERG, BENHAGEL & BIEHLER.  Originally they quarreled & cut the stone, fired the brick and laid them all. 

JOHN FRIEND’S CHAIRS:  We recently donated a set of three Victorian chairs to the BLANCHARD House Museum in Ionia.  They came from the home of Ann’s great-great-grandfather, John FRIEND, who platted the town of Sebewa on his farm.  This was the northwest and southwest corners of MUSGROVE Hwy and KEEFER Hwy.  The village on the east side of KEEFER Hwy is really CORNELL, although most people don’t distinguish between the two and some folks used to come and try to vote.  The big John FRIEND house burned long ago.  And Jim & Delores STANK live in the original homestead farmhouse.  The chairs passed down to John’s daughter Morna PORTER, then to her niece Marian PRYER LAKIN, Ann’s mother, and finally to us.  Look for them if you visit the BLANCHARD House. 

We also have copies of the SCHNABEL Family History at $31.00, $35.00 if mailed.  It covers SCHNABEL, SLOWINSKI, STEINBERG, BENHAGEL, BIEHLER, LEHMAN, O’MARA, SARLOUIS, MAJINSKA, KUBISH, ELDRIDGE, FARRELL, CANNAM, etc.  

NEIGHBOR TOM HUGGLER writes:  Dear Grayden, Thanks for all your hard work (and Ann’s too) for THE RECOLLECTOR.  It is much appreciated.  I am especially enjoying the Ephraim SHAY diary, because I am working on a novel from that time period.  The daily regimen of Union soldiers is insightful and interesting, in particular because I am writing about events in the Western Theater (Mississippi River) in Spring 1862.  When the book is done, I’ll share it with you.  It is a true story, based on Rachael (VAN HOUTEN) BARNUM WELCH’S experiences as the mother of a Union soldier.  Sincerely, Tom HUGGLER.  

EPHRAIM SHAY’S DIARY 1861 – 1863      CONCLUDED:

   Wednesday, August 12, 1863 – office duties, 51 sick sent on Hospital Steamer Transport R. C. WOOD, Thursday 13^th – received 39 more wounded today and sent 30 north, answered Miss BROKAW’S & Priscilla’s letters.  Friday 14^th – office duties, health improving, have an idea of applying for Hospital Steward position.  Saturday 15^th – office duties, made out an application for the position of Hospital Steward.  Sunday 16^th – office duties, forwarded application strongly recommended by Surgeon McDOWELL.

   Monday 17^th – office duties.  Tuesday 18^th – preparing to break up hospital.  Wednesday 19^th – received letter from Priscilla, sent 85 sick on board the Wood & City of Memphis.  The City of Madison, an Ordinance Boat, was blown to pieces by the carelessness of a detail of Negroes loading it.  WALSH was seriously injured.  Thursday 20^th – office duties, rainy day.  Friday 21^st – Sunday 23^rd p office duties, sent 27 men on furlough, they went by Forest Queen.

   Monday 24^th – Tuesday 25^th – office duties, received Detail from Gen GRANT to Special Duty in Med Dept. to report to Surgeon MILLER in charge of Prentiss Hospital.  Wednesday 26^th – office duties, quite unwell, cool weather.  Thursday 27^th – I moved down to Prentiss Hospital.  Friday 28^th – duties in Dispensary.  Saturday 29^th – usual duties, fitting up the Dispensary.  Sunday 30^th – Monday 31^st – usual duties in Dispensary.

   Tuesday September 1^st – Friday 4^th – usual duties and busy fitting up the Dispensary.  Saturday 5^th – Saturday 12^th – usual duties in Dispensary.  Sunday 13^th – usual duties in Dispensary, received letter from Priscilla dated August 8^th, had already received one written later.  Her baby is dead, our Mother’s health is poor.

   Monday 14^th – Friday 18^th – usual duties, went up the river this afternoon to a suburb of Vicksburg to select a site for the hospital.  Found the one now occupied quite suitable.  Saturday 19^th – usual duties.  Mister ROWELL staid with me last night.  Sgt PEASLEY came into town today on business connected with raising a Regt of Blacks for the defense of Vicksburg.

   Sunday 20^th – Wednesday 23^rd – usual duties.  Thursday 24^th – reinforcements for Gen ROSECRANS left Vicksburg today.  In the afternoon I rode around the suburbs of Vicksburg and saw the new fortifications.  Went to the city burying grounds and saw the corpse of Wm. A. L. who was killed in a duel in 1849.  He is enclosed in a metallic case and looks perfectly natural.  A child is also preserved the same way in the vault.  Friday 25^th – Sunday 27^th – usual duties.  Monday 28^th – 15^th Army Corps moving out on boats.  Will & Tom HOLLAND took breakfast with me.  Got my vouchers signed by Gen SHERMAN for $42 extra pay due me.  Tuesday 29^th & Wednesday 30^th – very unwell.

   Thursday, October 1, 1863 – wrote a letter to Jim TAYLOR.  Friday 2^nd – applied for sick furlough for sixty days, granted for thirty.  Got permission of Medical Director to go up on the McDOUGALL.  Left Vicksburg at 3:25 PM.  Went up to wood yard just below ditch and wooded up.  Steamer New Ben Accord passed down with three barges in tow, loaded with oats I believe, while we lay at wood yard about 5:50 PM.  Left wood yard at dark.  Sunday 4^th – 7:15 AM, 75 miles above Vicksburg before saw a Gun Boat at New Carthage.  Laid up at 12 PM until 3 AM on 5^th on account of fog.

   Monday, October 5, 1863 – went through new cutoff at Napoleon one half mile long, saves 9 ½ miles.  At 7:35 AM passed White River 100 miles below Helena, 175 miles from Memphis.  9:10 AM passed Steamer Rocket bound down river with two barges in tow (a stern wheel boat).  10:30 AM passed a gun boat of the Mosquito fleet, upper deck white, lower deck dark, a steamboat refitted, going down stream.  2:10 PM met a stern wheel Steamer towing barges, one loaded with hay, could not see the other.

   Tuesday 6^th – 7:08 AM saw wreck of Steamer Courier 30 miles below Memphis (burned).  3:25 met the Adams of ELLIOT’S maneuver fleet at the mouth of a river in sight of Memphis.  4:10 PM met the Metropolitan, arrived in Memphis at 4:20.  Went to theatre, met Col C. SMITH, can get Extra Duty Pay tomorrow.  Saw Gen G. A. SMITH and Gen M. L. SMITH at Gayoso.

   Wednesday 7^th – booked passage on Steamer Graham to Cairo, IL, fare $1.25.  Saw Gen G. A. SMITH at Gayoso again and received $42.00 extra duty pay from Col C. SMITH.  Saw T. TAYLOR, BOYER, and other boys.  Called on Surgeon HEARTSHOM, can get a situation in Gayoso Hospital.  Left Memphis at 5:00 PM on Graham.  Met the Clara Belle at 5:50, met two boats names not known, too dark to see.  8:30 PM on a snag, no damage to hull or engine or wheel.  9 PM on our way.  Laid up until morning on account of fog.

   Thursday 8^th – started at daylight, pleasant morning, all day and most of the night.  Met several boats with commissary stores for the army.  Friday 9^th – under way and passed Island No. 10 at 8:45 AM.  Arrived in Cairo at 4:50 PM.  Got my train ticket, checks, etc. for Detroit, bought cap $1.75, supper $2.00, etc. $1.50 = $5.25.

   Saturday 10^th – left Cairo at 3:30 AM, delayed by a train in our way, only got 47 miles out by 7:30, an hour behind time.  At Oreana another delay by a house which was being moved across the tracks.  Sunday 11^th – went to Soldiers’ Home, called on James TAYLOR, staid until late afternoon, took train for Detroit at 7:15.  Monday 12^th – arrived in Detroit on time, left for Muir at 8 AM, arrived at 1:30 PM, called at Aunt Mary’s, stayed all night.

   Tuesday, October 13, went to Portland and Uncle Eph’s in Sebewa, found Priscilla there, rode home with Lucious SHOWERMAN, saw Ma a few minutes and went up to Uncle Ben’s a short time.  Then back home to Ma’s for the night.  Wednesday 14^th – went out hunting with Theodore, staid with Uncle Ben for supper.  Thursday 15^th – helped Theodore husk corn, called on Rich in afternoon.  Friday 16^th – fine day, visited at Priscilla’s home and Uncle Ben’s, he’s preparing to go west viewing.

   Saturday October 17, 1863 – went to Ionia, saw Attorney WILLIAMS about Ma’s land, to get a new deed for tax certificate, employed him to do it, cost 50 cents.  Went to Recorder’s Office, left three deeds for recording, one is Warranty Deed to Ma, one from Auditor General to previous owner, and the third to her Will.  Paid for the recording of all – total cost $2.75.  Total expended for Ma - $3.25.  Sunday 18^th – staid at Muir with Aunt Mary.

   Monday October 19, 1863 – left Muir for Grand Haven at 1:30 PM, staid over night at Grand Haven, expenses $2.75.  Tuesday 20^th – took Stage from Mill Point for Muskegon, arrived 12 AM.  Started up river and stopt over night at a small inn at Wolf Lake.  Uncle John PROBASCO came in about half an hour after I stopt, a very unexpected meeting.  Total expenses for the day $2.50.  Wednesday 21^st – went up to Newago, expense $1.15.

   Thursday 22^nd – went to Uncle John’s, expense $.50, looked at 120 acres of his farm with a view of buying 20 acres improved – cost $600.  Friday 23^rd – staid at Uncle John’s last night, snow two inches deep this morning, melted during day.  Took another look at Uncle’s land, concluded it was too light for my purposes.  He offered me 80 acres laying 12 miles east, much better land for $3 per acre (unimproved), allowing him to take the pine off.

   Saturday 24^th – left Uncle’s and went to Mr. Kelley FULLER’S 12 miles east, viewed Uncle’s land there, not well satisfied with it.  Went and viewed 80 acres belonging to Hiram BARTON, with hay, grain, oxen & wagon, etc. for $600 – cheap.

   Sunday 25^th – came 27 miles to Greenville, Kelley FULLER & Hiram BARTON came with me.  Monday 26^th – made a bargain with Mr. BARTON and drew contract, came 13 ½ miles, to within 8 miles of Ionia.  Tuesday 27^th – went to Ionia, then by cars to Muir and by wagon to Portland.  Wednesday 28^th went home.  Thursday 29^th – Saturday 31^st at home, bargained for two cows of H. and spoke for hay to keep them of Rich, was at a shooting match.

   Sunday, November 1, 1863 – went to Uncle Eph’s in afternoon.  Monday 2^nd – took Stage for Muir, left at 4:15 for Grand Haven, but on account of change of time, no boat came for Milwaukee.  Tuesday 3^rd – remaining in Grand Haven, left by boat at 8 PM.  Wednesday 4^th – arrived in Milwaukee about 4 AM, went to Chicago by the 8 AM train, cannot get (further) transportation today.  Thursday 5^th – got transportation and left for Cairo (IL) by the 10 PM train.  Friday 6^th – arrived in Cairo about 6 PM, booked passage on Steam Boat M. L. Ewing, cabin fare $6.00.  Saturday 7^th – went out on a levee, left at 1:30 PM.  Capt of boat and Gen SMITH had warm words about landing some passengers at Hill’s Point at Columbus, left at dusk, quite unwell.

   Sunday 8^th – under way, going very slow, quite unwell with the Ague.  Monday 9^th – laid up nearly all night, made Fort PELLOW about 10 AM.  Ague very bad.  Arrived at Memphis at 6 PM, went to Soldier’s Home on Beale St., very unwell, took Dover’s Powder.  Tuesday 10^th – remained at the Home, took Quinine in the morning, very sick all day.  Wednesday 11^th – some better, booked cabin passage on Steamer Emerald for Vicksburg – fare $6.00.  Thursday 12^th – feel better, but very dizzy-headed, boat left at 2 PM.  Friday 13^th – on our way, left Helena at 11 AM, getting better.  Saturday 14^th – on our way.

   Sunday 15^th – arrived at Vicksburg about 10 AM, reported at the Prentiss Hospital.  Monday 16^th – at the hospital, Surgeon CHURCHMAN wants me to come to his office as a clerk, went in afternoon for a short time.  Tuesday 17^th – on duty at Health Officer’s office, Col THOMAS left word for me to call at his office.  I did so about 6 PM, had a pleasant interview.  Wednesday 18^th – Saturday 21^st – on duty with Surgeon CHURCHMAN, Health Officer’s office.  Sunday 22^nd – Thursday 26^th – office duties.

   Friday, November 27^th, 1863 – office duties, went to Col EATON’S office, had an interview with his clerk or assistant, found my name had been forwarded for Detail for a position in the 7^th Lan(?).  Saturday 28^th – office duties, went again up to Col EATON’S office and made known my wishes.  Stated that but two positions could be given, one in a Regt of Army Department below Major – Adjutant and Quartermaster – told them to strike my name off the list for anything else.  Sunday 29^th – office duties, very cold, froze hard last night.

   Monday, November 30^th – Friday December 4^th – office duties, cool.  Saturday 5^th – office duties, much pulling between Surgeon CHURCHMAN and other Doctors, whether I shall be doing duty at both places.  Sunday 6^th – office duties, Col relieved and ordered to report to Surgeon McCORD.  Monday 7^th – office duties, feel unwell.  Surgeon BUCKNER left for Memphis with Surgeon McCORD.  Col went to Goodniche’s Landing.  Tuesday 8^th – office duties in forenoon, had a chill in afternoon, quite sick, Surgeon CHURCHMAN sent for me, could not go.  Received order from Gen McARTHUR to report to Surgeon CHURCHMAN for duty as “Clerk at the Post”.  Surgeon DODSON sent in a report.  Wednesday 9^th – reported as per Special Order No. 84 dated Dec 8^th.

   Thursday 10^th – office duties, feel better, wrote a letter to Dr. BUCHNER accompanying his order relieving him from his Department and ordering him to report to Surgeon McCORD, Medical Director.  Friday 11^th – office duties.  Saturday 12^th – office duties.  Post Dispensary moved today to front room in our office building, warm day.  Sunday 13^th – office duties, warm day, heavy shower.  Monday 14^th – Wednesday 16^th – office duties, Order issued relieving me from duty with Surgeon CHURCHMAN and ordering me to report Surgeon DODSON in charge here at the hospital in Vicksburg.  Reported in compliance with it.

   Thursday 17^th – preparing my office and room.  Friday 18^th – duties of Hospital Steward, weather 21 degrees in morning.  Saturday 19^th – duties of steward, percent of deaths during week – 41.2%.  Weather 30 degrees in morning.  Sunday 20^th – usual duties of the day, took a chill, or rather rigors, about 2 PM, succeeded by a high fever……took three Coumpound Pills at 7:30 PM, fever on yet, ate no supper.  Monday 21^st – feel very weak with a headache………took 5 gr. of Quinine, ate a good breakfast of beef steak, toast, tea & pickles.  Attending to office duties, took another 5 gr. of Quinine at 11 AM, ate dinner, had a Panada for supper, took blue pill.

   Tuesday 22^nd – thermometer 40 degrees in morning, office duties though quite unwell.  Dr. DOBSON arrived with a sick child, Dr. WRIGHT from Memphis arrived, also Dr PARKER.  Received letter from Priscilla, Jane, and old ones, and Dr. MILLER with his Photograph.  Quite a misunderstanding between Dr WRIGHT and Dr DOBSON.  At bedtime took a pill – Hyd. 8 gr. Quinine 4 gr.  Wednesday 23^rd – thermometer 50 degrees, duties of office, feel better, had an interview with Mr W. L. CROCKETT, son of David CROCKETT.

   Thursday 24^th – 60 degrees, usual duties, PEASLEE called on me, has just got his discharge from Regt.  Dance in the dining room.  Friday December 25 – 60 degrees, usual duties, a dance at Major ANDERSON’S.  Saturday 26^th – usual duties, 62 degrees, making a box to store my clothes in.  Colored girls gave the Hospital Corps a supper, it was an excellent one in the best of style, and they had a dance in the evening.

   Sunday, December 27, 1863 – usual duties.  Monday 28^th – usual duties.  Tuesday 29^th – usual duties.  Dr. MILLER arrived this morning or rather late last night.  No news from Dr. BUCKNER.  Wednesday 30^th – usual duties.  Thursday December 31, 1863, usual duties.  END OF DIARY.

   FINAL NOTE:  This Editor also was assigned special detail away from the front lines – during the Korean War – to be Clerk, Corporal and later Brevet Sergeant, of Medical Supply at a U. S. Army Dispensary and later a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M.A.S.H. – 454) Reserve Unit.  And both of us eventually were Clerk of Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan, one hundred years apart!  I suggest if you save back issues, that you reread this story of the American Civil War, because it’s difficult to remember continuity over two years and ten issues.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa;
FEBRUARY 2008.  Volume 43, Number 4.  Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan. 
Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS: 

SURNAMES:  WALTER, KIMBLE, WITBECK, FREEMONT, LOWREY, SHELLENBARGER, TISCHER, LOWREY, SCHEIDT, SAUERS, BESKO, SPAULDING, HIGH, BABCOCK, GIERMAN,  JOHNSON, WELCH, BALDIE, NORMINGTON, ADGATE, RUSSMAN, VANBENSCHOTEN, LINEBAUGH, SNYDER, ROGERS, O’MARA, GIBBS, LEHMAN, ARNOLDS, PEAKE, PRYER

FRONT PAGE PHOTO OF SEBEWA HIGH SCHOOL – K-8  1951-1952 WITH STUDENTS:

   Back row:  Sally McQUEEN, Don BUTLER, Paul THUMA, Gladah LUMBERT, Sharon SANDBORN, Ronal EVANS, Agnes THUMA, John SANDBORN, Charles ALLEN, Mrs. Grace GRAFT.

   Middle row:  Bill SANDBORN, Floyd BUTLER, Jim LUMBERT, Dick HOLLENBACK, Lloyd BUTLER, Jean Ann BLACK, Bill BARRETT, Larry CURTIS, Howard KENYON.

   Front row:  Richard STEMLER, Roberta HOLLENBACK, Cynthia SANDBORN, Janice KENYON, Luke SANDBORN, Jean LUMBERT, Ramona DARLING, Joyce ALLEN, Bob SANBORN, Don KENYON, Kip LUMBERT, Daryl HOLLENBACK.

RECENT DEATHS:

LEON A. WALTER, 87, husband of Doris KIMBLE WALTER, widower of Mary WITBECK WALTER, father of David WALTER and Linda GIBBONS, grandfather of Chris WALTER, Jeff WALTER, Amy HAZEL and Rebecca MAZUREK, great-grandfather of Traver WALTER and eight others, plus two great-great-grandchildren, brother of Lois and son of Hattie DAUSMAN & Homer A. WALTER, son of D. FREEMONT WALTER, son of George WALTER, who settled there in Boston Township on the north shore of Morrison Lake in 1864.  Born January 7, 1920, died September 1, 2007.
   Leon was a dairy farmer on the WALTER homestead all his life and Boston Township Supervisor for 20 years.  Just three months before his death, he let us tour his historic double-drive nine-bay gambrel-roofed barn, one of the largest ever in Ionia County, with its two hayrack-lifters, and his maple sugar shanty, along with lots of oral history of farming in Boston Township for the last 150 years.
   He is buried by his first wife in Saranac Cemetery. 

PHYLLIS ARLENE LOWREY SHELLENBARGER, 89, widow of Claud, mother of Gary SHELLENBARGER, Linda TRAVIS, Diane DUFLO, and the late Greg SHELLENBARGER, daughter of Ollie TISCHER and Charles LOWREY, was born, raised and farmed all her life on the 1856 LOWREY homestead on Jordan Lake Road at I-96 in Berlin Township.
   She was born July 18, 1918 and died December 28, 2007 and was cremated. 

DONNA B. SCHEIDT SAUERS BESKO, 89, wife of Henry BESKO, widow of Paul SAUERS, mother of Monte and Dennis SAUERS, Toby HASKINS, Sonya LATZ, and Dirk BESKO, daughter of Bernice SPAULDING & Bernard SCHEIDT, whose family opened SCHEIDT’S General Store in Lake Odessa soon after its founding in 1887.
   Born August 8, 1918, she November 7, 2007.  Donna was the first woman on-foot mail carrier in the United States at Lake Odessa and later Postmaster at Ovid.

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY FARM by Grayden SLOWINS:

   Charlie BABCOCK asked me to speak at the Township Officers Association chapter meeting, after seeing Bill DAVIS’ article in the Weekender about Robert Wilfred GIERMAN and THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR.  R. W. GIERMAN – Wilfred to those of us from Sebewa – Bob to the outside world – started THE RECOLLECTOR in September 1965, after the Sebewa Center School closed, and after several previous small attempts at newsletters.  I researched and wrote numerous articles for it over the years.  In December 1990, with his health failing, he turned the operation over to me and he contributed a few more articles.  So 25 years plus 18 years, equals almost 43 years so far.

   Of interest tonight is the history of the Ionia County Poor Farm.  First a few words from a past article I wrote entitled “Welfare in an Agrarian Society”.  Because in the beginning most problems are local and are handled locally, and so it was in the townships.  I have the Sebewa Clerk’s Minute Books dating back to the beginning in 1845, and from these I reconstructed the story of Alice JOHNSON.  A once proud pioneer family that owned most of Section 17 Sebewa, the resident family had dwindled to one widow or maiden lady on 80 acres in the 1930s & 1940s.  She had no tenant farmer, so the Township Supervisor, a man named William ROSEVERE, more or less managed her farm.

   He got neighbors to plant and harvest her crops, and she kept a cow, some chickens, and a few sheep.  Her main cash crop was about ten acres more or less of wheat.  All through the year the township paid her doctor bills, coal bills, and let her run a tab at PATTERSONS’ General Store.  Then came wheat threshing day and William ROSEVERE tended bagger on Daniel CREIGHTON’S Port Huron Separator powered by an International Titan 15-30 Tractor.  The first 20 bushels or so were put in those 2 bushel/120# Bemis Seamless bags and saved to be cleaned for seed.

   You may remember that we planted 7 pecks per acre back then.  The next 4 – 6 bushels were saved to trade for flour – one 60# bushel for one 25# bag of flour at Valley City Milling Company.  The remainder of the crop found its way to market and the screenings from all of the crop were brought to her granary to feed the chickens and sheep.  She fed the threshers a hearty dinner of chicken, biscuits & gravy, garden vegetables & apple pie, the Township General Fund was repaid as far as possible and the year’s process started over again.

   And her story ends with a mystery:  Alice JOHNSON was dead and buried by the time Ann & I took over the Clerk/Sexton job in the late 1960s.  But just before Memorial Day for many years, a big black Lincoln Continental would pull in and a well-dressed man would set out flowers on her grave.  When I approached, he would get in the car and leave.  Was he a nephew, or a cousin, or perhaps an orphan boy she had taken in and helped long ago?

   But for those who didn’t have the land behind them that Alice JOHNSON had, or who needed daily assisted living, we had the County Farm, Poor Farm, Poor House, or at the last it was called the Ionia County Infirmary.  The first one was on the farm now owned by Ronald Township Supervisor Patrick WITTENBACH, after John B. & Amos WELCH, after Mrs. NORMINGTON (aunt to Stanley POWELL), after David BALDIE, later of BALDIE Street in Ionia, who first separated out the quarter acre cemetery description on the deed.

   David BALDIE bought it from first settler Joshua SHEPARD, who died and was buried there on his own farm in 1837.  When Wilfred and I first went to investigate, we got permission and went across the farm of Stanley & Eleanor, Ron & Margie, and now Doug & Amanda POWELL.  We had understood it was on the corner of their land and we could drive right to it.

   But it was just over the fence, and when we stepped over that pattered fence, we knew at once we were in a cemetery, even though there were no markers.  After many years working in and restoring cemeteries, we could spot the little rows of depressions where someone had been buried in a pine box without a vault.

   The 1875 Ionia County Plat Book shows:  County Farm, G. WOLVERTON, Keeper.  I believe he was a son of Israel WOLVERTON, who homesteaded on what we think of as the Tag FERRIS farm on KELSEY Hwy.  Then it took considerable research and legal footwork to verify the county’s ownership, determine the date of founding (1856), date of building (1871 for $7000), date it burned (1907), and names, ages, and burial dates for inhabitants. 

   Wilfred’s brother, Maurice GIERMAN, and Wilfred’s lady friend, Marge SMITH were county commissioners and a lot of help pushing it through the legal underbrush.  Then we began to clear the actual underbrush and prepare to set a common marker, since the location of the individual graves was never recorded.

   In the rather skimpy records we found some people who went there as an infant or orphan child and worked there, on the farm or in the house, all their lives – they never got to go anyplace or do anything else!  Other people fell into financial hardship or poor health, and because they had no family who cared about them, and no money to pay their way to Heartlands or Green Acres, even if such places had existed, they ended up at the Poor Farm.

   This place burned in 1907, miraculously without loss of life, and the County started over in north Berlin Township on Riverside Drive.  Most of us know more about the 1907 County Farm & Infirmary.  This was originally the Alonzo SESSIONS homestead (hence SESSIONS Creek & Lake) and later the MORRISONS and ADGATES farmed it.  John ADGATE, Loren’s dad, was born there, and I believe John MORRISON, although I don’t know if the MORRISONS ever owned it, but I think they were all related.

   Wilfred was able to talk to the last couple who had been the Superintendents, Mr. & Mrs. Harvey GIBSON, and see the Poor House Record Books, which are now at the State Archives (Lansing, MI).  There are 44 people listed as “Buried in the farm” in Ronald, and 55 in Berlin.  Bronze plaques now list them on the big stone.  The cornerstone was laid November 21, 1907.  The cost was $37,000 and the contractor was a man named WRIGHT, whose father had helped build the original 1845 stone farmhouse.

   The new building had a 720 foot by six-inch sewer running to SESSIONS Creek!  It closed in 1967, after a 30-year decline in use, for lack of customers.  Adult Foster Care Homes, as well as places like Ionia Manor – now called Heartlands Health Center – took over.  Even before the Board of Supervisors became the Board of Commissioners on January 1, 1969, there started to be talk about giving the 400 acres to the State of Michigan for a park.  I doubt if anyone now living knows for sure who first had the idea, but Rus GREGORY pushed to have it developed and not just be more State Game Area, like over around Portland and some along the Flat River near Belding.

   PORTLAND REVIEW & OBSERVER, Thursday, March 30, 1950:  Horse-drawn vehicles have come into play, because roads are so bad many farmers can not get out by car or truck.  Some rural schools have been closed due to muddy roads and buses to town schools have been sticking to main highways only.  Rural travel has been a hard job unless by tractor or horse power.
   It is expected the subject of raising taxes one mill for Portland Township road upkeep will be brought up at the annual town meeting.  NOTICE:  Portland Township Annual Meeting, Monday, April 3, 1:00 PM.  Dan WATSON, Clerk.  NOTICE:  Danby Township Annual Meeting, Monday, April 3, 1:00 PM, Burr DUFFEY, Clerk.  NOTICE:  Sebewa Township Annual Meeting, Monday, April 3, 1:00 PM.  Wilbur GIERMAN, Clerk.
   (EDITOR’S NOTE:  Sebewa Township Electors heard a motion by John LICH, Sr., to raise one mill for gravel on Sebewa’s roads.  The gravel was contracted immediately out of current funds, and that fall’s elections approved the beginning of collection of millage for roads in Sebewa, Portland and elsewhere.  For the 57 years since, with a couple lapses that were quickly seen as needing rectifying, this millage has continued.  Currently it is two mills, plus two mills long ago voted for Fire and Emergency Service, and less than one mill for general operating of cemeteries, elections, etc. dut to the so-called HEADLEE rollback.)

 IONIA SENTINEL-STANDARD, June 17, 1940:  DOGS IN SHEEP, TWO ARE KILLED.  Three dogs, two of them large collies, were shot and killed after they were reported in a flock of sheep belonging to Emory TOWNSEND.  Deputy Sheriff Ben NEVE said he shot and killed two of the dogs and wounded the third, a large red hound which escaped.  Sheriff Leslie MURPHY warned dog owners they must keep their dogs tied and they cannot be released to run free at night, which many have apparently been doing. 

IONIA SENTINEL-STANDARD, June 17, 1900:  A Mr. CALVERT of Detroit was in the city today in the interest of an electric railroad from Ionia to Grand Rapids, which he says Detroit capitalists will build.  All he asks from the city is a franchise to use the streets.  (This was the Inter-Urban, which did reach places like Ada, Cascade, Lowell, Elmdale, Alto, Freeport, Whitneyville, Alaska, Caledonia, Middleville, Wayland, Jenison, Coopersville, Sparta and Rockford, but never came out as far as Ionia.  It crossed the Grand River on what is now the pedestrian bridge from DeVOS Convention Center to Gerald R. FORD Museum.  Lake of ridership in the jobless late 1920s and early 1930s, plus more convenient carpools and buses, killed it. 

PORTLAND REVIEW & OBSERVER, February 28, 1939, Mr. & Mrs. Joseph RUSSMAN and family will move from the Helen WOODBURY farm north of Portland near Christian Bend, to the former C. J. (Jack) HILL farm south of Portland in Danby.  (HILLS kept the peach & apple orchard at this time.  These moves all took place on March 1, traditional annual moving day for farmers.)  Forest STIFFLER will move from the HILL place to the farm of his father, Warren STIFFLER, also in Danby. 

PORTLAND REVIEW & OBSERVER, February 28, 1939:  Pewamo Hardware Co.  Our bargains include:  Used Equipment – Allis Chalmers 1938 WE tractor, John Deere Model B cultivator, two International 10-20 tractors, five Fordson tractors, one Hart PARR 18-36 tractor, one black mare 6 years old, nearly new double harness, other new and used harness, one-row cultivator, five 2-bottom 12-inch plows.
   New Equipment – Allis Chalmers Model B tractors on rubber $495.00 F.O.B. Milwaukee, farm at twice the speed of a team of horses with a Model B and matched implements:  16-inch plow $85.00, one-row cultivator $50.25, side mounted mower (price not listed), Model 40 All-crop Harvester $345.00 F.O.B. factory, harvest your crops with no outside help needed.
   Attorney Harvey VanBenSCHOTEN of Belding was in town yesterday on his way to his former home in Sebewa.
   Treasurer Frank LINEBAUGH of Orange Township settled with the County Treasurer at Ionia last week, having collected every cent of tax spread on the rolls. 

PORTLAND REVIEW, May 7, 1912:  George SNYDER, Jr., local meat dealer (formerly of Sebewa) says they are not doing much business these days because of the high price of beef.  Cattle are bringing 5 cents to 6 cents a pound, live weight, which makes them cost the dealer nearly 11 cents a pound dressed out. 

PORTLAND REVIEW & OBSERVER, May 7, 1942:  Lorenzo WEBBER came to Portland 72 years ago on May 10, 1870, at age 10 months.  For many years he was engaged in the banking business started by his father, John A. WEBBER and grandfather, Lorenzo WEBBER, Sr.  Now he operates a real estate and insurance business (with Allen HUGHES in the back of the former bank building).
   Ionia County Board of Supervisors defeated a resolution to change the time from Eastern War Time (Daylight Savings Time) back to Eastern Standard Time.  Farmers had asked to change back, stating the cows didn’t like waking up so early in the morning and the hired help wanted to leave about the time the dew was off the field work.  (This topic was still being argued thirty or forty years later, in fact until the cows and hay had mostly disappeared, but the cows and farmers never won out.)
   The (REVIEW) Editor stepped to the curb in front of the R & O this week and was shocked to see Joe WAINWRIGHT lying on the sidewalk, an excited schoolgirl standing beside him holding her bike.  As we helped Joe to his feet, he explained that he had just been knocked down by the young lady’s bike, while she was riding it on the sidewalk on her way to school.
   Joseph, who has kept the pavements of the village swept (clean of road apples) for quite a few years now, has dodged many a horse and auto and now his first “rap” is from a bike.  His shoulder was painfully injured and he was unable to resume work for several days.  And now we get to the angle of riding bicycles on the sidewalk, which for more than a generation has been a problem in Portland.  Thirty years ago no-one thought of riding a bicycle on the sidewalks of Kent Street during daytime or evening.  It was comparatively safe to ride in the street, because there were few autos, and teams hitched to wagons were easy to dodge. 

PORTLAND REVIEW & OBSERVER, May 7, 1942, continued:  Today autos are many and teams are few; even most of the hitching posts are gone.  Bike riders are taking a chance if they ride in the streets downtown.  Pedestrians are given less chance if bikes are operated on the sidewalks, and the way that would seem to give both groups an even break is for the youngsters to wheel their bikes through downtown.
   Frank ROGERS, who died last week in Lansing, was one of the men most responsible for routing the original M-16 and later US-16 through Portland.  ROGERS was State Highway Commissioner from 1913 to 1939 and saw Michigan’s road system expand to one of the best in the nation.  It was during the administration of Governor Alexander GROSBECK that the question of whether the trunk line would go through or south of Portland (Along the route of the old Grand River Trail) first came up.
   ROGERS favored going through, and the governor’s okay was secured by a committee of Portland residents.  (Of course we all know that when it came time to build EISENHOWER’S Interstates in 1956-1958, I-96 did indeed go south of town, although closer than originally proposed and with three exits, unusual for such a small town.)
   COMPTON School District – Miss Marie O’MARA and pupils visited several factories, public buildings, and other places of interest in Ionia one day this week.
   There was no school in the HIGH District Monday due to sugar rationing. (?)
   Mrs. Tom GIBBS of Sebewa fell and hurt her……self quite badly. (?)
   A letter from Dr. L. A. BURHANS of Peoria, Illinois, recalls when he attended TRAVIS School in Sebewa and graduated from Portland High School 50 years ago in 1892.  He mentioned Wright WAKELY, a classmate at the TRAVIS, who recently died in Portland.  END QUOTE.
   Leo LEHMAN advertised women’s clothing and shoes in his early ads, as well as the men’s furnishings for which we remember him.  George W. ALLEN sold gent’s furnishings in his 1902 advertisements.  Later Myrtle ALLEN & Rose BARNES ran the Style Shop with women’s clothing, and Gladys WOHLSCHEID worked for them, first next to Roy DAWDY’S Mens Wear and then next to BURGER’S/WARD’S Garage.  George W. ALLEN was a brother to Ora CLARK ALLEN, who ran a garage in the Detroit area for a while with his son, George Thomas ALLEN, and Ora was asphyxiated working under a car.
   George TOM & Myrtle were the parents of Maxine (Mrs. Riley LaVERN) SANDBORN of Sebewa.  Maxine was born in Highland Park, then they lived at Charlevoix for a while, where George TOM worked at logging down the rivers to load on big lake boats.  They came back to Portland by the time Maxine and young TOM started school and George TOM ran an ice business.  The Merritt ALLEN family, parents of George W. & Ora, pioneered on what we think of as the HUIZENGA farms on both sides of KEEFER Hwy. in Sebewa Township. 

IONIA COUNTY NEWS, March 27, 1924:  G. W. ARNOLD’S Son, located on the south side of the river in Ionia, was displaying the simplicity trade mark we are all familiar with today, but it was for his engine cylinder grinding service.  Ionia Water Power Electric Company was advertising to provide electric service in Ionia and vicinity.

 REMEMBER WHEN: 

   All the threshing machines were operated by horse power, and there was a continual hum, varying according to the speed the horses traveled, which could be heard a long distance away?
   When the late Charles WYMAN built a brick barn on Academy Street, fitting it up so as to be used as a residence until he could build a house on the same lots?  He never built the house, but the brick barn was later rearranged so that one would never guess the purpose for which it was originally intended.  (I believe it is still there in 2007, can you find it?)

PORTLAND REVIEW, February 4, 1936:  A letter from MERRITT S. ALLEN of Lake City, Mich., as follows:  “As to the date of the coldest New Years Day, I was on earth and took a sleigh ride on that day.  Many are the times I have heard my mother tell about that ride.  She said she took me in her arms and sat in the straw in the bottom of the sleigh box and my father covered us with quilts.  Then he ran the horses a distance of one mile (south) to the home of Mr. & Mrs. Jacob HIGH, near the HIGH rural school in Sebewa for the holiday dinner.  Now if I remember rightly, since I was there, I was born on the 25^th of September that year 1864. 

PORTLAND REVIEW, February 25, 1936:  As we mentioned last time, Dr. & Mrs. Roy PRYER of Danby were headed for Florida.  But due to the subzero weather and deep snow, they were delayed, because the two-mile stretch from their house to FROST Corners could not be negotiated by automobile.  They had planned on leaving Wednesday morning, but even with men working all day, they could not do it.  It was not until Thursday afternoon that they reached US-16, using a team to pull the car on the last lap.
   Mrs. Guy PEAKE, formerly Maude BRADFIELD, lives in the PRYER neighborhood in Danby.  Returning from this village by auto in early evening, she got as far as the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harry KELLY, a mile from her own home, stuck in the snow.  A horse and some overalls were offered and Mrs. KELLY volunteered to accompany her.  On round-bellied farm horses they completed the trip.
  Contracts were let for this summer to widen US-16 in this village and include building the new bridge, to start as soon as possible and complete the work not later than August 1, 1936.  The first step will be to move the Worden Hotel some distance to the south, placing it on a suitable foundation.  Two houses also to be moved, are located to the west, part way around the bend in the road which is to be made a gentle curve. 

PORTLAND REVIEW, February 1916, William O. BARTON was elected Treasurer of the village.  Ira DARLING died and was buried in North Eagle Cemetery.  Carl BYWATER 7 Leo RYERSON (brothers-in-law) opened a drug store in the POWER’S building which was recently damaged by fire.
   Hoziah HORNER, Veteran of the Civil War, well-known auctioneer and former Supervisor of Portland Township, died after having been stricken with paralysis.  (In 1936 it was said that the last local Civil War Vet had died the year before, making 215 Civil War Vets buried in Portland Cemetery.)
   William B. STOCUM of Grand Ledge has purchased Duncan KENNEDY’S hardware business.  Charles CAMPBELL & Helen SOUTHWELL of Sebewa were married at M. E. parsonage. 

PORTLAND REVIEW, August 25, 1936:  Photo shown was taken from the summit of Alton HILL (near ALTON Park), now reduced to a long, gradual grad, with the dangerous curve eliminated, and ending at the new concrete US-16 (Grand River Ave.) bridge.  Another photo was taken from the east at the foot of GRANT Street looking west past Valley City Mill to Divine Hotel, with the banks cut back for more gentle curve there, too.
   On Tuesday, August 25, 1936, residents of Danby and Sebewa Townships were voting on whether to grant or reject a franchise to Ionia County Electric Membership (later called Tri-County Electric Cooperative), to sell and distribute electricity for light, heat and power within the respective townships (we voted again in 1966 and 1996 for 30-year franchises).  Meetings have recently been held for purpose of organizing in Portland, Orange and Odessa Townships.
   Lorenzo WEBBER had compiled a list of the community’s oldest living residents and their year of birth:
   Mary WHITLOCK 1842, Jacob YERGE 1846, Orson V. FROST 1847, William HECOX 1849, William H. PRYER 1849, Ira FULLER 1849, Abe H. HILL 1850, Elijah BROOKS 1850, Flora W. STONE 1851, Albert A. WAY 1853, J. W. (Wash) RADER 1854, Mel REIDING 1854, Henry KENYON 1855, Emeline STOCKWELL 1855.
   Superintendent Fred J. WILLIAMS was taking registrations for school to start September 8^th.  The new wing of the BRUSH Street School was nearing completion.  Kindergarten, First and Second Grades were to be taught on the first floor.  The Manual Training Department (Shop) was to be in the basement of the new wing, but might not be completed enough to start on opening day.  The Home Economics Department would be taught in the east end of the main building basement.
   (In a succeeding year the Kindergarten and First Grade traded places and teachers, as did the Fourth and Fifth Grades, in order to accommodate the needs and abilities of the respective teachers.  This caused some students to have Mrs. Marjorie GILDEN for two years and others to have Miss Irene CRANE for two years.)
   George Ivan FRANCIS, former Portland High School teacher was Director of Education at Jackson Prison, with 1400 students and 75 teachers.  All but five teachers and Mr. FRANCIS were themselves inmates.
   Four youngsters were temporarily disappointed when they bought tickets for Ionia at Pere Marquette Depot and then were told there was no passenger coach behind the freight cars.  In the midst of their depression, the conductor came to their rescue and offered to let them ride in the caboose.  He even helped them up into the cupola, from which point they enjoyed a fine view of the countryside.  They were Robert and Frederick RUSSMAN, Robert SCHAEFER and Mary PROUDFOOT of Kalamazoo, cousin of the RUSSMAN boys.  They were headed for Ionia Free Fair.
  A two-day celebration was held for the opening of the new US-16 bridge on September 2^nd.  Mayor Bill YOUNG and Country Road Commissioner Chester DIVINE made the first trip across in YOUNG’S car.  Speakers were M. Clyde STOUT, State Representative from Ionia County, and State Highway Commissioner Murray D. VAN WAGONER (later Governor). 

PORTLAND REVIEW, August 25, 1936, continued:  The US-16 bridge cost $70,400 and the almost one mile of concrete approaches cost $61,000.  The State paid 50% and the Feds paid 50%.  A queen contest was held in conjunction with the festival.  Marian BARTON (BROWN) was the winner.  Some of the other contestants were:  Lorette SCHNEIDER, Mary JARVIS, Betty BAUER, Edys INGRAHAM, Margretta PRYER and Reika VISSER (RAGLIN).
   Among 20 couples celebrating Golden Wedding Anniversaries at the Ionia Free Fair were:  Mr. & Mrs. Archie GREEN of Lyons, Mr. & Mrs. HIRAM WHITMORE, Portland; Mr. & Mrs. George LAPO, Orange Township; and Mr. & Mrs. George GOODEMOOTE, Sebewa Township.
   “Elderly couple to wed” was the headline for notice of marriage license application of Edwin LEAK (76) and Mary M. SEXTON (SAXTON SACKSTONE) (72), both of Sebewa Township, to be living at Lake Odessa. 

PORTLAND REVIEW, February 1916:  Heirs of the Oscar N. JENKINS estate and Jack SYKES have agreed upon the price of $1500 for the lots on the (center) east side of Kent Street owned by the estate.  Mr. SYKES is to build a large two-story brick store building thereon and has tentatively arranged to lease it to TOMY & DAWDY, clothiers.
   In the debris as the jam of ice passed through Portland was the bridge which had connected the mainland with the Seven Islands at Grand Ledge.  It had been carried away by the flood, but enough was left of it to make identification possible. 

PORTLAND REVIEW, February 1896:  John A. WEBBER has been having the third story of his new house lathed and plastered, indicating that the young people will have a nice place in which to dance when the job is completed.

   REMEMBER WHEN: About 1848 the Bridge Street Bridge, the only one across the Grand River in Portland in those days, went out, and traffic was maintained by a ferry boat large enough to carry one team & wagon, and operated by means of a rope stretched across the river, with three men supplying the motive power?  The bridge that replaced that one was supported by three piers, constructed like a barn frame and called “bents”.  A tree carried by the next run of ice tore out one of these piers, letting the west section down into the water and it floated away.

   WHEN the Indians from Shimnecon trekked north each year and small boys watched along the route?

   WHEN a good many Portland families kept a cow and it was the duty of small boys to drive them to and from pasture in summer, a mile or so out of town?

   WHEN Sylvanus GOFF bought cattle and drove them to Detroit, going all the way on foot, himself?  He said that as a youth he had suffered a sore on his leg and the doctors wished to amputate, but he refused, and that leg carried him to Detroit many times.  (Joseph Priestly POWELL, grandfather of Stanley and great-great-grandfather of Doug POWELL & Julie POWELL CALLEY, could walk to Detroit in the daylight hours of two days, a distance of 125 miles from his Ronald Township home.  Of course a herd of cattle would slow a man down a bit.)

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa;
APRIL 2008.  Volume 43, Number 5.  Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan. 
Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:

SURNAMES:  SANDBORN, ROGERS, HALLADAY, LUSCHER, GIBBS, DEATSMAN, SEARS, ERDMAN,  HUNTZINGER, FAES, PETERS, KING, ALLEN, BENSCHOTER, BRADLEY, VanBENSCHOTEN, HIGH, CONKRITE, WILTON, KENYON, BROWN, OLIVER, CORNELL, WARD, DICKERSON, WILKINS, DORIN, FRIEND, WEBSTER, WILSON, WILLIAMS, CRAMER, BECKER, KNAPP, CAREY REED, SLOWINS, NEWTON, BROWNELL, CARR, INGALLS, TERRILL, INGALLS, BROWN, HOGLE, HALBERT, KNAPP, STANK, SHOWERMAN, GODDARD, WELD, CARPENTER, REEDER, BRIGGS, GRIFFINS, OLRY, ESTEP, GRINER, BRETZ, RALSTON, PROBASCO, HESS, CLARK, SNYDER, WARING, STEBBINS, COOK, MAPES, MERCHANT, GREEN, LOTT, GARLOCK, LEAK, BALDWIN, PEACOCK, DOWNINGS, SAYER, BIPPLEY, TRAVIS, PIERCE, KNOX, JOHNSON, GODDARD, BISHOP, PETRIE, THUMA, GUNN, LITTLE, PROCTOR, BAILIFF, RISCHOW, AUSTIN, DARLING, AVERY, GUY

 RECENT DEATHS: 

KATHYLEEN A. SANDBORN ROGERS, 89, born in the town of Sebewa on the Danby side of the road, July 3, 1918, died February 6, 1008, widow of Donald ROGERS, mother of Larry (Cheryl) ROGERS, Joan (Jim) TRUMBLE, Mary (Bill) LEONARD, and Douglas (Judy) ROGERS, sister of the late Max SANDBORN, daughter of Bernice Esther HALLADAY & Jacob WATSON SANDBORN, son of Sarah Jane GIBBS & Columbus SANDBORN.
   Bernice Esther HALLADAY was the daughter of Martha Jane DEATSMAN & Arthur HALLADAY, son of Mildred Eliza SEARS & Charles Lincoln HALLADAY, son of Elihu & Amanda HALLIDAY.  Elma Winifred LUSCHER was the daughter of Minnie C. ERDMAN & Jacob LUSCHER, Jr., son of Anna HUNTZINGER & Jacob LUSCHER, Sr., son of Anna FAES & Hans Jacob LUSCHER of Remach, Aargau, Switzerland.
   Sarah Jane Gibbs was the daughter of Mariam & Robert GIBBS.  Minnie C. ERDMAN was the daughter of Hanna PETERS & Michael F. ERDMAN, son of Sophie & Christian Frederick ERDMAN.  Martha Jane DEATSMAN was the daughter of Charles & Elizabeth DEATSMAN.  Mildred Eliza (Mandy) SEARS was the daughter of Samantha KING & Lorenzo SEARS.  All early settlers in Sebewa, Danby & Orange Twps.  Kathyleen & Donald were dairy and horse farmers on Portland Road all 62 years of their married life.
   She is buried at East Sebewa Cemetery. 

RILEY LaVERN (BUD) SANDBORN, 83, born in Orange Township, January 20, 1925, died March 21, 2008, husband of Maxine ALLEN SANDBORN, father of Marcia JOHNSON, Vicky HEDLUND, Suzan BALDEZ, Katherine BENJAMIN, LaVern SANDBORN and Thomas SANDBORN, brother of June HIGBEE, Janet GILBERT, Bonnie JAMESON, Judy McCRUMB, Betty RUSSELL, Louis, Richard, Kendall and Gary SANDBORN and the late Howard SANDBORN, Maxine VOGT and Joyce LYON, son of Anis Berthelda BENSCHOTER & Riley Howard SANDBORN, son of Elma Winifred LUSCHER & Lon SANDBORN.  Anis was the daughter of Berthelda BRADLEY & John A. BENSCHOTER, son of Mary & Oliver, son of Diana & Cornelius VanBENSCHOTEN.
   He farmed all his life in Sebewa and retired from TRW.  He is buried at East Sebewa Cemetery.

FRONT PAGE PHOTO of Sebewa HIGH School – 1907:

   Back Row:  Fern CONKRITE, Edna ALLEN, Teacher Anna WILTON (in doorway), Anna REEDER, Lena KENYON, Bernice HALLADAY.

   4^th Row:  Vernon ALLEN, ? WILSON, ? ?, Inez BROWN, Burt BROWN, Don BENSCHOTER, Charles KENYON, Cora OLIVER, Layton CORNELL.

   3^rd Row:  Dorothy KENYON, Zora WARD, Mae ERDMAN, Hazel DICKERSON, Catherine WILKINS, Josephine DORIN, Evelyn FRIEND.

   2^nd Row:  ?, ?, Russell HALLADAY, T. O. HENRY, Ted WEBSTER, ??, ??, ? WILSON, Mamie WILLIAMS, ? HENRY.

   Front row:  Howard CRAMER, Harold CORNELL, Laurence FRIEND, ? NBECKER, Ted BROWN, Howard KNAPP, George CAREY, ??, Vern REED

OUR SIXTH TRIP TO FLORIDA by Grayden SLOWINS:

   Monday, February 11, 2008, up at 6:00, to cold 5 degree wind and a little new snow over night, but clear and sunny………traveled at 30-39 MPH for the trip to I-69 at Charlotte, then mostly 45 MPH until we got into Indiana, then clear and dry and could use cruise control.  Snow hit as we crossed the Ohio River into Louisville, KY, first light and dry, then heavy and wet, icing up the windshield………took us two hours to inch our way through………to Kampground of American (KOA) RV camp.

   Tuesday, February 12, 32 degrees and raining on crusted snow……Radio says to stay off roads if possible………Wednesday, inched slowly out of the long winding, hilly drive to the highway……snow flurries in lower Kentucky………cold wind and dark sky as we entered Alabama.  Thursday……toward Starke……turned right again on 301 and out about a mile to KOA………Day’s high was 56 degrees.

   Friday, February 15……All old friends who have not died or stayed home came out to greet us:  Marie, Marcia, John, Debra, John W. & wife, little John M and baby Emma STEFFEN, the owners; Barry & wife from Pennsylvania, Jon & Brenda NEWTON BROWNELL from Woodland/Hastings, MI, Tom & Annette Schweitzer from Curtis, UP, MI; Bill & Diane ANGUISH from near Ithaca, NY, Barb & Elmer (Dude) MOHN from near the Mississippi in Illinois, Chief Petty Officer Retired Bob Antoine & wife from this park, Gail & Mike DUDLEY from Ontario, Dick SMITH & wife from York State, John (Shorty) CLEGG & wife from this park and PA, Howard & Dolly MEIER from this park and South Lyon, MI………Most missed couple who stayed home for health reasons are Wally & Dorothy GIMBEL of Southhampton, Ontario.

   Saturday, February 16………visited with a couple from south of Waterloo, IA.  He is retired from hauling redi-mix cement.  Hauled a lot to farmers building hog pens, milking parlors, manure pits, etc.  He was born near Postville, IA, where our cousins John & Susie SCHNABEL McKERNAN lived all their married life and John is buried in the churchyard……

   Tuesday, February 19, 43 degrees, sunny and clear………Called Ken CARR back home………he reported more snow & freezing rain……

   Friday, February 22, 65 degrees, 1-3 inches more rain in night and even a little hail.  Became sunny so could bike my 5 miles, Ann to quilters daily.  Then we both walked and stopped to visit with Jon & Brenda NEWTON BROWNELL about their families.  Also Tom & Annette SCHWEITZER came back from four days & three nights at the Fort Meade/Avon Park antique tractor show…….

   Sunday, February 24, 61 degrees and partly cloudy, becoming sunny.  Attended Presbyterian Church, with its beautiful old dark stained ceiling wood & trim and stained glass windows…….  High was 81 degrees.

   Thursday, February 28, 29 degrees, warming quickly to 48, then more slowly as wind came up.  Biked my 5 miles.  All-camp hot-dog roast in fireside area at noon, moved indoors due to cool air.  Visited with Jon & Brenda, Tom & Annett while biking.  The great barbecued pork we ate Tuesday night was from SCHWEITZERS’ own hog.  Barb told Ann she and Dude are looking toward an army/navy retirement home near them and are offering their park model camper for $20,000.       TO BE CONTINUED.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEBEWA TOWNSHIP by Grayden SLOWINS:

   Part I – First 120 years – 1838-1957:

   The first settlers who came in 1838 were Charles &. & Catherine INGALLS, John F. & Polly INGALLS TERRILL, John & Sarah (Sally) INGALLS BROWN, and Jonathan INGALLS, age 76, Revolutionary War Veteran, father of thirteen children, including Charles, Polly, and Sarah.

   There are still INGALLS not too far away in Dewitt, Grand Ledge and Lansing, and scores of BROWNS all around.  William HOGLE and Anson W. HALBERT soon came, married TERRILL daughters, and became the first miller and first storekeeper on what later (in 1854) became the John FRIEND farm, still later Laurence KNAPP’S farm, and now James & Delores STANK’S home.  Next came Jacob SHOWERMAN & Eleazer BROWN (a different strain of BROWNS) to the MUSGROVE Hwy/Sunfield intersection, Sec. 23-26-27.

   In 1843-1848 Rufus GODDAR & Benjamin D. WELD brought their families to the southwest quarter of the township.  Also the Elkanah CARPENTERS, William REEDERS, Weston BRIGGS, David GRIFFINS, and Major BROWN (another breed of BROWN!).  In 1849 John F. OLRY came to the south edge of Sebewa Center (our farm), along with William & John ESTEP, Peter GRINER, Isaac BRETZ, Andrew M. RALSTON, and the PROBASCOS.

   The northwest, north central, and northeast areas got in the 1850s:  Solomon HESS, J. C. CLARK, George SNYDER, John WARING, Orrin STEBBINS, Pierce G. COOK, Frank BROWN (a fourth kind!), Edward SANDBORN, Peter MAPES, Orrin MERCHANT, Thomas J. ALLEN, Jacob GREEN, Chauncey LOTT, A. GARLOCK, and Moses HOGLE.  The 1860s brought the LEAKS, BALDWINS, PEACOCKS and DOWNINGS to the west-southwest.

   In the 1840 census Sebewa was not yet organized and the residents were counted in with surrounding townships.  In 1850 there were just 40 families.  In 1860 there were 120 families, and by 1870 there were 250 families.  Sebewa Township hit its peak population in 1880 with 1560 people, many of them in families on 40 acre farms, some as small as 20 acres!  The low in population came in the 1960 census, with only 849 people, as most young people left for town jobs.  More recently both farm kids and town kids have been moving out to the rural lifestyle on a few acres, and the 2000 census showed 1208.  Today some are rethinking that decision because of high gas & diesel prices!

   The most important infrastructures for a developing farm community were roads, drains, schools, churches, and of course cemeteries.  From the beginning of statehood in 1837, until the 1920s, roads were built and maintained by township residents and their taxes.  Many farmers paid their road tax by working on the roads.  Each township had a Commissioner of Roads and four Quartermen to keep tabs on their areas.  For many years they did a good job of cutting new roads, grading & graveling them.  In Sebewa Township, Jacob SAYER and his son, Clarence, built forms and poured concrete box culverts for many of the small streams & drains (called “dredges” back then) that crossed the roads in this “Swamp Angel” township.  The term “ditches” referred to the waterways along the edges of the roads.

   When automobiles became common in the 1920s and demanded better roads, a state gas tax and license fees for both drivers and vehicles were instituted.  The care of the roads was turned over to the counties, who could better justify the purchase of motor trucks to maintain the roads, although in some states, such as Wisconsin, the local roads are still maintained by the townships.  This program in Michigan was called the McNITT Act, and while it relieved the property tax for road car, there has been a continuous struggle to get enough income from the gas tax and license fees to build and maintain local roads.  This is especially true since WW II, when a large chunk of the money from the state gas tax, as well as the federal gas tax, goes to build and maintain state and federal highways.

   So in Sebewa Township, as well as many other townships, local funding has had to supplement what the county receives from the state tax.  On April 3, 1950, John LICH, Sr., loaded a group of his neighbors on a farm wagon behind his John Deere tractor and brought them to the Sebewa Township Annual Meeting, because the roads were impassible with mud and slush.  He made a motion to hire gravel hauled and spread on all gravel roads in the township at the rate of 100 cubic yards per mile at $1.00 per yard, for a period of four years.

   This amounted to about $5,000 per year and was paid for from the General Fund balance that first year, until a millage could be voted that November.  We have used millage money on the roads, usually some of the regular allocated millage as well as the special voted millage, in all but three of the succeeding 58 years.  Then work must be contracted through the county for liability reasons, and the contractors now require us to put on 500-1000 cubic yards per mile.  Thus each mile gets covered only about once every three to five years, depending on underlying soil types and the amount of traffic wearing on the road.

   Schools have gone from ten rural districts in 1875, thru a series of mergers with Sunfield and Lake Odessa and finally Lakewood or to Portland.  The original ten, including fractional districts, were West Sebewa, TRAVIS, PIERCE, KNOX, BIPPLEY, Sebewa Center, Sebewa HIGH, BALDWIN, CARPENTER, and HALLADAY.  By 1891, BIPPLEY School District no longer came over into Sebewa from Odessa, and BALDWIN and CARPENTER had disappeared.  The three were replaced by JOHNSON, GODDARD, and BISHOP, so there were still ten until the mergers began.

   There are two cemeteries and a single burial site in Sebewa Township.  A third cemetery, called the CARPENTER or REEDER Cemetery, was a private cemetery located on the northeast corner of Sec. 32 at KIMMEL & TUPPER Lake Roads.  It was about one-fourth acre in size and in 1905 this cemetery was taken up.  The CARPENTER burials were moved to West Sebewa Cemtery and the REEDER burials were moved to East Sebewa Cemetery.  The single grave site is that of pioneer Jonathan INGALLS, Soldier of the Revolution, now well-marked with a new government bronze plaque on a stone next to the stone placed by the D. A. R. in 1921 at 13400 South KEEFER Hwy.  The West Sebewa Cemetery was started August 1, 1872, by buying one acre just west of the Baptist Church.  Additions were made in 1919-1952-1986, bringing the total to 2 ¼ acres.  The Baptist Church assumed the care in early days, but the cemetery at 950 E. MUSGROVE always belonged to the Twp.

   The cemetery known originally as Sebewa Cemetery and later as East Sebewa Cemetery, was started May 14, 1858, with the purchase of 1 ¼ acres from Jacob HIGH.  Addition of two acres on the west end, extending to the creek, bought from Jacob COLLINGHAM, and an irregular piece, including a driveway swap with Clyde & Opal THUMA, added one acre on the east end in 1970.  Total 4.159 Ac at 5680 E. BIPPLEY Rd.

   Sextons of one or both cemeteries over the years were:

Harvey GUNN – east
William PETRIE – east
Edwin LEAK, Sr. – west
Chuck & Blanche LITTLE
John PROCTOR & wife
Lynn & Alice BAILIFF
Carl & Tena RISCHOW
Orrin & Lavancha AUSTIN
Wellman & Barbara DARLING
Clyde & Bertha AVERY
Grayden & Ann SLOWINS
Kenneth & Joan GUY 

   Some of the drains established over the last 170 years, without which probably 10% of Sebewa Township could be farmed or built on are:

HALL & INGALL – southwest side
COLLIER & Mud Creek – south central
BLISS & McCLELLAND – southeast
SNYDER & WALKER – very southeast
ROGERS & TROUB – south central
KING & WOLCOTT – south central
AVES & OLRY – south central
GUNN & LUSCHER – central
GUNN & RAMSEY – central
RAMSEY & INGALLS – east central
JOHNSON & DANIELS – west central
FLETCHER & WARING – northwest
KNOLL & KNEALE – north central
SANDBORN & YORK – north central
GIBBS & MATHEWS – north central
FISHELL & LUNGER – northeast
SWEET & SAMAINE – northeast
WILSON & PUMFREY – northeast 

   Our hope is that each church in Sebewa can tell their own history.  Those denominations represented now or in the past include:

United Methodist (Methodist Episcopal) – at East Sebewa
United Methodist (Methodist Episcopal) – at Sebewa Center
Presbyterian – at West Sebewa on GODDARD Road at CLARKSVILLE Road
Baptist – near West Cemetery on GODDARD Road at MUSGROVE Hwy.
Church of God – on GODDARD Road north of MUSGROVE Hwy.
Church of Christ – on GODDARD ROAD near KNOLL Road
Christian Reformed – on Sunfield Road near CLARKSVILLE Road
HALLADAY United Brethren – on BIPPLEY Road near KEEFER Hwy.
STAMBAUGH United Brethren – NW corner TUPPER Lake & Sunfield Hwy.
Bible Missionary – former U. S. Campground on MUSGROVE Hwy.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa;
JUNE 2008.  Volume 43, Number 6.  Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan. 
Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:
 

SURNAMES:  NASH, TAYLOR, VanBUREN, BRIGHAM, HAGER, PARSONS, GIERMAN, KLAGER, BENSCHNEIDER, SINDLINGER, RICE, WARREN, BROWN,  RITENBURGH

RECENT DEATHS: 

FORREST DEAN NASH, 82, widower of Betty TAYLOR NASH, husband of Elaine VanBUREN HAGER NASH, father of Phil, Duane, David, Paul, and infant Cora NASH, Kris BRIGHAM, Lee, Diane, Randy and Rick HAGER, brother of Greta PARSONS, Howard and Gordon NASH, and the late Vivian, Ray and Carl NASH, son of Edgar & Nettie GIERMAN NASH, daughter of Christina KLAGER & Charles GIERMAN, son of Sophia BENSCHNEIDER & Frederick GIERMAN.  Edgar NASH was the son of Norman T. NASH.
   Forrest was born in Orange Township September 5, 1925, died March 5, 2008, on the farm on KELSEY Hwy his family settled before 1875.  A lifelong farmer, he saw the change from draft horses, threshing machines and milking by hand, to tractors, combines and electric milking machines.  He was active in 4-H, FFA, Ionia Free Fair, LaValley United Methodist Church, Orange Township Justice of the Peace and Board of Review, FHA Advisory Board, ASCS Committee, and BALSOM Cemetery Association.  He was buried at BALCOM Cemetery. 

MILDRED PAULINE SINDLINGER RICE, 85, widow of Blanchard RICE, mother of Larry & Donald RICE, sister of the late Lucille WARREN and Margaret BROWN, daughter of Nora A. RITENBURGH & Frederick C. SINDLINGER, son of Elizabeth & Christian SINDLINGER, who settled on KIMMEL Road in Sebewa Township in August, 1855.
   Nora was the daughter of Minnie & Ira RITENBURG, whose family settled in Orange Township before 1875.
   Born January 26, 1923, in Sebewa Township, Mildred died March 5, 2008, in Delta Township, Eaton County, MI.  A graduate of Western Michigan University, she was an elementary school teacher, and is buried at Danby Cemetery.

FRONT PAGE PHOTO OF SEBEWA HIGH SCHOOL – 1903, LOCATED AT SEBEWA CORNERS – EAST SEBEWA.  NAMED FOR EARLY LANDOWNER JACOB HIGH, and not a High School in the usual sense: 

Back row:  Otho LOWE, Edna SHOWERMAN, Eva SMITH, Flossie HENRY, Mabel MORGAN, TEACHER Agnes ERDMAN, Jane SMITH, Elsie BROWN, Ralph FELTON, Glenn McARTHUR, Morris VanBENSCHOTEN.

Middle row:  Ben SMITH, Walter HUBBARD, Walter BROWN, Reva WEIPPERT, Floyd ERDMAN, Iva AUSTIN, Edna ALLEN, Laura BORTON, Hattie McARTHUR, Bernice HALLADAY, Fred BROWN.

Front row:  Ward MERRIFIELD (standing), Rolland BORTON, Burt BROWN, Leon McARTHUR, Alberta MARSEY, Vernon ALLEN, Inez BROWN, Mary WEIPPERT, Fern CONKRITE, Vida MERRYFIELD, Don BENSCHOTER.

OUR SIXTH TRIP TO FLORIDA by Grayden SLOWINS – Continued:

   Friday, February 29, 2008 - Leap Year!  37 degrees, clear and sunny.  High was 68 degrees.

   Wednesday, March 5, 52 degrees, cloudy, becoming clear blue sky with warm sun.  Biked my 5 miles, then another mile around the Tractor Supply building and lot.  Talked with Annette SCHWEITZER about the North Florida Antique Engine Show this Thursday-Friday-Saturday at the Bradford County Fairground here in Starke.

Saturday, March 8, 57 degrees……Reflecting on the past, in 1970 we got a new Chevrolet pickup and Ionia-Home camper.  It had bunks that slid out from the cabover to sleep six.  The four kids slept up above and Ann & I were below.  When the last child, Kris, started college in 1980, we condensed the bunks and slept up above.

   In 1981 we got a new Chevrolet pickup, but the same campler.  In 1988 we got a Coachman pickup camper and in 1995 a new Chevrolet pickup and always used the cabover bunk.  In winter 1997-1998 we got this Coachman Motor Home and slept in the cabover bed.  Now in 2008, we are no longer comfortable in the cabover, and one or both are on the sofa-bed.

   Thursday, March 13, 42 degrees, clear and sunny, misty over the pond……paid rent and told Kim & Deb we won’t be coming south any more.  Besides getting into the loft bed and going up and down the entry steps, another thing that is difficult for Ann in the RV is reaching up into cupboards.  High was 77 degrees.  To Be Continued……

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEBEWA TOWNSHIP by Grayden SLOWINS - Part II – Our 51 years in Sebewa – 1957-2008:

   We now begin the story of events in Sebewa and changes in agriculture during the fifty-one years we have lived in Sebewa.  We bought the 1849 OLRY farm from Glen’s widow, Fern VanHOUTEN OLRY, on April 27, 1957.  The biggest thing we had to have done before we could move in was a new well.  It took until December 10^th for Fred GOBER & Stewart KUSSMAUL to get that done so we could bring the livestock.  The township had a lot of small dairy herds, beef cow herds, hog farrowing & finishing setups, many flocks of 50-200 laying hens, and numerous small flocks of sheep.  Most families had mixed livestock and crop operations – what were called “general farming setups”.

   We came here with one cow & calf, 100 hens, a couple feeder pigs to eat the table scraps, and 44 head of sheep & lambs.  Soon everyone began to specialize for more efficient operations.  Sheep had always been our ancestral specialty and we went with that.

   By the 1980s we had surpassed 750 head, with 300 ewes, 10 rams, and over 450 lambs every spring!  Ours was the largest flock in Ionia County, although Phil & Betty SHETTERLY were a close second.  In later years, as both families began to cut back, we still stayed largest for a long time.

   We retired in 2002, after I had raised sheep for 70 years, age 3 weeks to 70 years.  Now there are almost no livestock in Sebewa Township; only one dairy farm, a few hogs and horses, and SHETTERLY’S reduced sheep flock.  Hens went from family flocks to egg factories with several thousand hens, to none at all.  HERBRUCKS in Berlin & Boston Townships produce something like 15% of all the eggs in Michigan, all in the McDonalds Restaurants east of the Mississippi, and all Meijer Stores.  Timber-framed barns are disappearing fast, fences are gone, and every field is into corn & soybeans, some wheat, or horse hay.

   The first winter we carried all the water for the sheep, cattle, hogs and hens from the house basement.  Come spring we had Bob COOK dig for a water line to the barn.  The last winter we had sheep- 2001-2002 –we again had to get water to the barn the hard way, because that galvanized pipe had rusted through in 44 years.  This time we dragged a hose in & out of the basement.

   In 1957 almost no corn was raised to sell, because it sold for less than $1.00 per bushel dry shelled corn.  It was animal feed after natural drying in the cribs.  Oats and barley were also raised for feed, plus wheat screenings were good for sheep & hens and everyone saved them.  In fact, wheat was the main cash crop in this area, plus some folks were raising small acreages of navy beans.

   I remember the first grain-dryer at SMITH Bros. Elevator.  My family had hauled the first bulk load of wheat to KNOX’S Portland Elevator and I helped shovel it over the side of the wagon into a hole in the dock, because there was no dump pit yet, let alone a wagon hoist.

   That first winter George & Cora PETRIE, George Jr., and Joyce PETRIE, and Dennis & Ida PETRIE came to welcome us and hold our new baby girl.  We asked who took care of Sebewa’s cemeteries.  Orrin & Lavancha AUSTIN had done it in 1957, Bill & Barb DARLING did it in 1958, Clyde & Bertha AVERY the next ten years, then we did it for 28 years!

   We tried raising the first soybeans in the area about 1965.  They were easy to combine, compared to navy beans that had to be pulled, but Sunfield & Lake Odessa elevators refused to take them, because they didn’t want to get them mixed in with edible beans.  We had just one buyer, Don THOMPSON at the south elevator in Woodland.  There were a lot of splits to screen out, because we hadn’t learned to set the combine cylinder just right.  We mixed those into the sheep & lamb feed.  Today everyone raises soybeans at $8.50-9.00/bu, rotated with corn at $4.00-5.00/bu for the ethanol plant at Woodbury.

   Beginning in 1958 we owned the most up-to-date haying system available, with a New Idea Cut-ditioner, and New Holland hay rake, square baler with thrower, high-sided thrower wagons, and elevator.  By 1978 all were replaced with new models, and last in the 1990s came a conveyer system to take the bales at the wagon, move them the full length of the barn peak, and shunt them into the selected mow.  Today very little hay is raised in Sebewa and is put up in big round bales.

   The Allis-Chalmers WD-45 tractor we bought new in 1957 and the 1954 model we bought used from Alton GUNNS were the largest and most powerful tractors made by Allis-Chalmers at that time.  Alton’s good 1954 Allis-Chalmers Model-66 pull-type combine replaced our older Model-40.  Today those tractors and combines are dwarfed in both ability and price.

   In June 1961 my career in public office began, when I was asked to run for the Sebewa Center School Board as Treasurer.  Wilbur GIERMAN was Director and Wesley MEYERS was Moderator.  Naida J. COOK was the teacher in 1961-1962 & 1962-1963.  Ariel A. MORRIS was the teacher in 1963-1964 & 1964-1965.  We were the last to hold those positions, as the school closed in April 1965 and merged with Sunfield, Lake Odessa, Clarksville and Woodland to form Lakewood.

   We were forced to close because enrollment had dropped to eight and the State cut off our State Aid, on the grounds we were not economical or efficient.  A couple years later Clara STOEL was filling a 66-passenger bus by going around less than three square miles, about half the old district.  I also served as Treasurer of Sebewa Center United Methodist Church about the same years, maybe 1964-1969.

   On April 3, 1963, I was elected Justice-of-the-Peace in Sebewa Township.  Our main tasks were settling line-fence disputes and stray dogs killing chickens, sheep, and calves.  Plus we could perform marriages if asked, hold traffic court, and arrainments for Circuit Court if we wished.  All this and more was taken over by the newly created County District Court Judge January 1, 1969.

   C. Ronald VanBUREN was the first person elected to that office in Ionia County.  The Justice experience occurred a long time ago, and I can only remember a few incidents.  One was a line-fence dispute on the land now owned by Ed & Bonnie LEAK on the north side of MUSGROVE Hwy at State Road.  The owner refused to build his half of the common fence with Max VanHOUTEN.  Back then the law required each landowner to build the right-hand half as viewed from their side of the fence.  So Roy PUMFREY, the other Sebewa Justice, and I viewed the situation and ordered him to built the fence.

   When he did not comply, we were able to order Max to build the fence and the Assessor put the cost on the man’s tax bill.  Today the law has been changed and the landowner who has livestock must build all the fence.  Similarly the laws on dogs have been changed.  Back then the Dog Warden could instruct the owner of livestock to shoot stray dogs on sight.  The Justices would then order the dog owner to pay the damages to livestock after viewing.  If the owner could not be found or prove, the county dog license fund had been created to pay them, as well as the Dog Warden’s per diem & mileage and the Justices’.  No way could the dog owner get away with protesting the death of his dog.  In most cases, they kept really quiet, out of shame, guilt and hoping not to pay.  Today the dog laws protect the dogs, wolves, bears, etc., not the domestic livestock which are raised to feed and clothe our nation.

   So on January 4, 1969, I took the oath of office as Sebewa Township Clerk, with Ann as Deputy Clerk, and was immediately appointed Sexton of the Cemeteries.  I lasted in the Sexton’s job for 28 years, until arthritis forced retirement at age 65, 4 more years as Clerk – making 32, followed by 5 ½ as trustee, which added to the 5 ½ as Justice, made 43 consecutive years in township government.

   This opened the door to service in the Michigan Townships Association, first as a member just one week after I became Clerk and before having recorded even one meeting.  Twenty years later in January 1989, I was elected District Director on the MTA Board and served in all offices, culminating with the Presidency in 2001.  Mandatory retirement January 2006, followed by retirement from Sebewa Board in May, made 43 years.

   Many incidents in the cemeteries come to mind.  Most often they had to do with winter burials or keeping weeds down around the stones.  Weedkillers tend to destroy perennial cemetery flowers such as Myrtle (Periwinkle), Violets, Daffodils, Tulips, Iris, Peonies, etc., as well as the undesirables.  By the way, I consider the beautiful yellow dandelions to be the Biblical lilies-of-the-field and not undesirable.  Some people complained we didn’t use enough weedkiller.

   Lacking equipment and manpower, most rural cemeteries have a policy of not burying in winter, usually about December 1 to May 1, so as not to play favorites on good & bad days, icy wind, snow, frozen ground, or soggy thawed ground.  In rare cases where we made an exception, there were almost always bad effects.

   In one case in the west cemetery, we dug the grave and over night a foot of heavy wet snow fell, including in the grave.  Instead of shoveling it out, the vault man set the vault on top of the snow.  The next July 4^th the grave, which was all sodded and smooth, suddenly dropped a foot.

   While for the east cemetery a woman called in mid-March, while we were shearing sheep, and said “Dad is uncovered!”  “Oh”, I said, “Are his feet showing?”  “Well, no, but Mother is worried!”

   The chunks of frozen clay had simply settled unevenly.  In another case the frozen earth came out in big chunks and violated the graves next to it on both sides.

   So the Board must hang tough and say “If you want to be buried in this township, it must be between May 1 and December 1.  Most funeral homes are happy to store them, they just need to know when arrangements are made.  Ann & I will be content to be stored.

   Over the years duties of township officials have changed greatly.  We started in 1969 with single-entry bookkeeping, where each transaction in or out resulted in a cash balance at the end of the line.  The Clerk & Treasurer kept identical books, except for tax collections and dispersals.  We used a manual typewriter and a machine that added & subtracted but did not multiply or divide. 

   We were soon required to go to double-entry bookkeeping, which the retiring Clerk & Deputy had dreaded.  Calculators came and went.  Also various generations of copiers, FAX machines, computers, scanners, and printers.  We first used voting machines in the August Primary Election of 1986 at the schoolhouse.

   When we started on the Board, Supervisor/Assessor Charles McNEIL was assessing and spreading taxes on the Sebewa tax roll, as well as for a couple adjoining townships, using just that adding/subtracting machine.  He had an ingenious way of multiplying decimal millages using that simple adding machine.  All amounts were rounded up to the next whole dollar for convenience in calculation, and resulted in “Excess of Roll”, which is no longer allowed.  He had done it that way for 25 years when he died in office in 1977.

   Through my gentle but forceful persuasion, the remaining Board Members were convinced to appoint Evelyn Mae LICH DAVID to complete his term, one of the first woman Supervisor/Assessors in the State of Michigan.  She was well-accepted, even by the old farmers, because she always got things right, especially in assessing.  She served almost twelve years before advancement to the position of Membership Information Director at Michigan Townships Association in August 1988.

   She will soon be eligible for retirement with over 20 years service with that organization.  All the people who were on the Sebewa Township Board when I came on in 1969 are now deceased except Oren DANIELS, who became 98 years old October 2007.

   A list of township officers begins with the first Annual Meeting March 19, 1845, held at the home of Jacob SHOWERMAN, with Elkanah DRAKE acting as Clerk.  Benjamin D. WELD was elected Supervisor, Anson W. HALBERT – Clerk, Jacob SHOWERMAN – Treasurer, Edward SANDBORN and George W. DICKINSON – Justices of the Peace and members of the Board.  John MAXIM, Rufus GODDARD, and Eleazer BROWN were elected Commissioners of Highways, and John WADDELL was Director of the Poor.

   Besides Charles McNEIL as Supervisor and Clyde AVERY as retiring Clerk, others on the Board in 1969 were:  Hazel FENDER – Treasurer beginning in 1966, Oren DANIELS & John DICKINSON – Trustees.  John was first to retire, replaced by Phil SHETTERLY in October, 1969.  Oren DANIELS was next, replaced by LaVern CARR in November 1971.  Evelyn DAVID replaced Charles McNEIL in July 1977.  LaVern CARR replaced Hazel FENDER RICHARDSON in June 1982, and Joan GUY replaced him as Trustee in July.  Ken DAVID replaced Evelyn as Supervisor in November 1988, and James STANK replaced Joan GUY.  Jim replaced Ken in September 1990, and Brian PINKSTON replaced Jim as trustee.  Joan replaced Phil in November 1992.  Brian replaced Grayden as Clerk in November 2000 and Grayden replaced him as Trustee.  In April 2004 Carol LEAK replaced Brian as Clerk.  Ken DAVID replaced Joan GUY as Trustee in November 2004, and Joan replaced Grayden in May 2006.  END

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa;
AUGUST 2008.  Volume 44, Number 1.  Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan. 
Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:
 

SURNAMES:  YORK, CHASE, SCHUG, EARL, GRIEVES, ROBERTS, CHALLENDER, ALLERDING, ENTEMANN, DeLaCRUZ, BLOSWICK, MEYERS, CROSS, FEDEWA, ERWIN, FEDEWA-NOWIK, COLE, TEFFT, KRUEGER, DURHAM, SHATTUCK, DAY, WELLER, PETRIE, DODGE, DeMOTT, LEWIS, MERITHEW, DeVRIES, SPRAGUE, BROWNFIELD, SMITH, SCHNABEL, SLOWINSKI, STEINBERG, BANNAGEL, BIEHLER, LEHMAN, KUBISH, O’MARA, CANNAM, ELDRIDGE, BRZOZOWSKI, BRANSON, HILL, DREGER, EICHOLTZ, FACE, FARRELL, GREGIE, KEEGAN, KELFOYLE, KLOSS, MAJINSKA, SARLOUIS, McLELLAND, BADGLEY, WAINWRIGHT, ROSETH, TRAN, KEEFER, LUMBERT, TRIEWEILER, SPITZLEY, HECOX, HILL, ROWE, OSMAN, RUSSMAN, YERGE, SCHRADER, SULPIZIO, URIE, WHITMORE, ADGATE, GARLOCK, RAGLIN, WILLIAMS, SWAN, KNOX, BURMAN, SESSIONS, GIERMAN

RECENT DEATHS: 

ZACK L. YORK, 95, widower of Eleanor CHASE YORK, father of Joel (Joyce) YORK of Sarasota, FL, and Sarah (Brian) SCHUG, of Grand Rapids, brother of the late John YORK and Helen YORK EARL and infant sisters Marion & Christina, son of Ruth Ann GRIEVES and Harry Lee YORK, son of Christina & Stephen YORK, who settled in Sebewa Township on YORK Road before 1891, son of Josiah YORK, son of Zachariah YORK.
   Born in Sebewa Township March 13, 1913, Zach died in Kalamazoo March 17, 2008.  He enrolled at Western State Normal School, now Western Michigan University in 1930, and later was on the faculty for a total of 35 years, specializing in English, speech and theatre, retiring in 1978.  Along the way he taught two years at Sebewa Center and at least one other rural school, and served in the U. S. Army in WW II, 1942-1946.  Cremains were buried at West Sebewa Cemetery. 

MARCUS JOHN ROBERTS, 83, husband of Ruth Rose (June) CHALLENDER ROBERTS, father of Cathy (Alan) ALLERDING, Linda (Frank) ENTEMANN, Julie DeLaCRUZ and the late Marcus John Roberts, Jr., brother of numerous siblings, son of Helen & Clarence ROBERTS.  Born in Gorin, Missouri November 21, 1924, he died in Nashville, MI, June 24, 2008.  Mark served in the U. S. Army, 1944-1946, and was a dairy farmer on MUSGROVE Hwy in Sebewa Township, on the old Delbert (Covey) SCHNABEL farm, before moving to Tuscon, AZ, and then Austin, TX, where he was an independent trucker.  He is buried at Lakeside Cemetery, Lake Odessa. 

CHRISTOPHER D. BLOSWICK, Sr., husband of Annette MEYERS BLOSWICK, father of Christopher, Jr., Hannah and John BLOSWICK.  Born in Petoskey September 7, 1956, he died in Grand Rapids June 24, 2008.  He grew up on Mackinac Island and graduated from High School there, was employed on and owned several boats and a bike rental business, also lived five years in Lake Odessa area.  The funeral procession took a ferry boat from St. Ignace back to the island for burial. 

DOROTHY MAY CROSS FEDEWA, 83, widow of Vernon E. FEDEWA, mother of Valarie ERWIN, Tonya FEDEWA-NOWIK, Brad, Brian, Gregory and Christopher FEDEWA, Wendy COLE, Jan TEFFT, Andrea KRUEGER and Lynne DURHAM, twin sister of Doris SHATTUCK, sister of Barbara DAY and Clare CROSS and the late Katherine WELLER, daughter of Anne & Raymond CROSS, whose family settled on HENDERSON Road in Sebewa Township before 1875.  Born in Sebewa February 3, 1925, she died in Lansing February 11, 2008.  She was retired from Meijer Lansing Store, and is buried at Portland Cemetery. 

GEORGE JOHN PETRIE, 79, husband of Joyce Louise DODGE PETRIE, father of Renee DeMOTT, Marcia Jo LEWIS, John PETRIE and the late Michael J. PETRIE and Shirley MERITHEW, brother of the late Pearl DeVRIES and Louise SPRAGUE, son of Cora Mae BROWNFIELD & George MAXIM PETRIE, son of Mary E. & Clayton C. PETRIE, son of Elsie & John R. PETRIE, who settled in Sebewa Township on PETRIE Road about the time of the Civil War.
   Cora was the daughter of John BROWNFIELD and Pearl A. SMITH, daughter of Hannah SMITH, who also settled in Sebewa Township on MUSGROVE Hwy about the time of the Civil War.  George was born September 24, 1928, died April 17, 2008.  Retired from General Motors, he is buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

FRONT PAGE PHOTO OF WEST SEBEWA SCHOOL, April 22, 1953,  District No. 3 1952-1953:

   First row on left, front to back:  Robert AVERY, Bonnie PIERCEFIELD, Lee DEXTER.

   Second row:  Mary SMITH, Jerry GRAUL, Melvin GRAUL, David DEXTER, Evelyn LICH, Linda SHETTERLY

   Third row:  ?, Julia SANDBORN, Linda LICH, ?, Arlene SANDBORN

   Fourth row:  ? , Diana THORP, Elaine SMITH, Melvin BRANDT, Wilma PIERCEFIELD.

   Fifth row:  ?, ?, Barbara BEVER, Tom SMITH, Janet PIERCEFIELD

   Standing:  Bessie ALBERTA, TEACHER; Patty PIERCEFIELD, Donna THORP, John LICH.

   Absent:  Leon BRANDT.

CORRECTION:  In the April 2008 issue, on the list of churches, we placed HALLADAY United Brethren on BIPPLEY Road near KEEFER Hwy., actually it was on TUPPER Lake Road near KEEFER Hwy.

OUR SIXTH TRIP TO FLORIDA by Grayden SLOWINS – Concluded:

   Thursday, March 20, 64 degrees, rained in night, ending now.  After biking and quilting, we met at SCHWEITZERS at 11:00 to ride with them to the Starke Golf Course for lunch in the new restaurant, and then to Camp Blanding for a tour of the museum and park, with planes, tanks, helicopters, ducks, halftracks, jeeps, field ambulances, Howitzer guns and anti-aircraft guns from WW I, WW II, Korea, Viet Nam, and Desert Storm.

   Friday, March 21, 43 degrees and clear, full moon, first day of Spring and almost the earliest Easter can be:  first Sunday after first full moon after vernal equinox.

   Monday, March 31, 55 degrees, overcast and misty.  Dude pointed out about 12-15 Wood Storks at the upper pond.  They stand three feet tall, with white body feathers and blackish head, neck, and wing feathers.  They are related to the Ibis and Egret also found here.

   Saturday, April 5, 69 degrees and overcast……..lots of weekenders in camp now.  Snowbirds just stop for the night on their way up from South Florida where it’s getting hot.

   Wednesday, April 9, 60 degrees.  Up at 4:30 and Ann at 4:45, left by 6:15.  Ate dinner at a Cracker Barrel in Tennessee.

   Thursday………Ft. Wayne, IN.  6” corn in Georgia, Wisteria in Alabama, Daffodils & budded tulips in Louisville, Crocus & Hyacinth, Robins and Mourning Doves at home, 384 miles today; 1165 trip home, 2351 round trip, our last.          END

PORTLAND REVIEW, February 1896:  McCLELLAND Bros. plan on closing out their Mulliken business and James McCLELLAND & wife and Will C. STONE will return to Portland and resume their places behind the counters of the MCLELLAND store here.  H. H. HUMPHREY, a consulting engineer, has been looking over river conditions here with a view to recommending a site for a municipal dam.  One that has been tentatively selected is along BOGUE’S Flats. 

PORTLAND REVIEW, February 25, 1936:  The following men were listed as candidates for the Homecoming mustache contest, said to be 44 in all with many being of the walrus or handlebar style:  (How many of them can you remember?):
  Frank J. BADGLEY, Joe WAINWRIGHT, Lars ROSETH, Matt TRAN, William T. SHERMAN KEEFER, Harvey LUMBERT, John TRIEWEILER, William (farmer BILL) SPITZLEY, Henry SMITH, Sam McCLELLAND, William HECOX, Abe HILL, Albert A. (Ab) WAY, George HOFFMAN, Rev. John H. STEWART, Chauncy WARREN, Pet LUMBERT, Lewis ROWE (Sr.), Sid OSMAN, Tony RUSSMAN, George YERGE, Fred SCHRADER, Charles SMITH, A. SULPIZIO.
   Also William B. STOCUM, Frank BURGER, Dell URIE, Hiram WHITMORE, George WHITMORE, Frank ADGATE, J. W. (Wash) RADER, Anthony LEIK, Lewis SCHLARF, John WILLIAMS, Frank SWAN, Charles BANDFIELD, Peter GROSS, and Edwin A. BUCK.  Byron SMITH made up the list and must have been number 44.
   Four Portland residents had birthdays every four years:  Mrs. Ernest KNOX, Mrs. A. J. BARTON, Mrs. Lloyd LINDSLEY, and Peter GRIEVE.

PORTLAND REVIEW, February 25, 1936:  Two newspaper bargains.  Grand Rapids Press daily and Portland Review weekly for $5.00 per year or Grand Rapids Herald daily and Portland Review weekly for $5.10 per yr.
   Sam BURMAN has sold the place known as the Lyman T. SESSIONS Farm of 35 acres on the east side of Mulliken Road (Charlotte Highway) just outside of town, to Cliff VanBUREN.  Sam’s parents have been living on the farm and will move into an apartment in the recently completed upstairs of his nearly new brick house behind his gas-station.  Cliff will retain his land in the PRYER-PEAKE neighborhood of Danby for his boys to work.  (Much of this SESSIONS farm was sold to Michigan Department of Transportation for I-96 about 1956.  While the other Van BUREN land, 200 acres on Van BUREN Road, was sold to PEAKE Bros., allowing the Van BUREN family to buy the historic N. B. HAYES farm north of Muir.) 

PORTLAND REVIEW, November 10, 1936:  Maynard GIERMAN, 15, son of Carl GIERMAN of Sebewa, escaped serious injury last week when the car he was driving crashed into the back of a county road scraper near Lake Odessa.  Some school children were walking along the roadside and GIERMAN was watching to see they did not run into the road.  He took his eyes off the road for an instant and the crash followed.  Thomas O’Mara, 14, of Lake Odessa, was riding with GIERMAN and was seriously injured, so that his recovery was doubtful for a few days.

THE SCHNABEL FAMILY HISTORY, 1992, is available at our home for $30.00 or by mail for $35.00.  Surnames covered include SCHNABEL, SLOWINSKI, STEINBERG, BANHAGEL, BIEHLER, LEHMAN, KUBISH, O’MARA, CANNAM, ELDRIDGE, BRZOZOWSKI, BRANSON, HILL, DREGER, EICHOLTZ, FACE, FARRELL, GREGIE, KEEGAN, KELFOYLE, KLOSS, MAJINSKA, SARLOUIS, etc.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa;
OCTOBER 2008.  Volume 44, Number 2.  Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan. 
Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:

SURNAMES:  PRYER, GIERMAN, SESSIONS, MEYERS, KLAGER, BENSCHNEIDER, SEARS, BARTUS, GILLILAND, KING, HILLEY, PRICE, BJORK, ELDRIDGE, McLEOD, SLOWINSKI, SCHNABEL, EVEREST, McCARTNEY, FENDER, SWITZER, KIRKENDALL, SWITZER, DEVIES (DEVRIES), FOX, KENYON, SLOWINS, WOLVERTON, FROST, GLINES, FOX

 RECENT DEATHS:

MAURICE M. GIERMAN, 91, widower of Vera Margaret SESSIONS GIERMAN, father of Jan GIERMAN (Pamela KALBFLEISCH) and Deanna PUMPLIN (John BOLES), brother of the late Charles Albert GIERMAN, Robert Wilfred GIERMAN, Christine GIERMAN JARCHOW and Pauline GIERMAN LILLIE, son of Nellie Effie MEYERS GIERMAN & Robert Ernest GIERMAN, son of Christina KLAGER & Charles GIERMAN, son of Sophie BENSCHNEIDER & Frederick (Fritz) GIERMAN.
   Born in Sebewa Township January 1, 1917, Maurice was a lifelong dairy farmer, served ion Ionia County Board of Commissioners, Soil Conservation District and Farm Bureau Committees.  After retiring, he and Vera lived in Fairfield Glade, TN, and Bradenton, FL, and after her death he moved to Port Townsend, WA, to be near Deanna.  He died July 20, 2008, with a memorial service to be held in Sebewa Township later.
   NOTICE:  Memorial Service for Maurice GIERMAN, Thursday, September 18, 11:00 a.m., at Sebewa Center United Methodist Church, corner of BIPPLEY & SHILTON Roads.  Lunch to follow in Annex. 

WALLACE HUBERT SEARS, 90, widower of JohnAnna BARTUS SEARS and Freda TOWNSEND SEARS, father of John (Linda) and Loren (Catherine) SEARS and the late Charlene SEARS PATTERSON and Raymond (Catherine) SEARS, brother of Arlene (Howard) FORE and the late Verle SEARS, Frances SEARS and Edla BROWN, son of Edna GILLILAND & Roy SEARS, son of Anna J. & Wilmont SEARS, son of Samantha KING & Lorenzo SEARS.
   Born in Sebewa Township October 28, 1917, Wallace was married to JohnAnna for 60 years and was a devoted charter member of Portland Seventh-Day Adventist Church.  He farmed all his life on the family homestead in Sebewa Township and his grandfather’s homestead was just over into Danby on TUPPER Lake Rd.  Retired after 35 years at Motor Wheel, he died July 8, 2008, and is buried at East Sebewa Cemetery. 

DAVID JOHN HILLEY, 42, husband of Kellie PRICE HILLEY, father of Nick, Jessica and Kristin, brother of Brent HILLEY, Mike (Karie) HILLEY and Diane (Mike) LEHMAN, son of Judy BJORK & Terry HILLEY, son of Carlisle (Lefty) & Madonna ELDRIDGE HILLEY, daughter of Pearl McLEOD & Eddie ELDRIDGE, Sr., son of Rufus James (Jay) ELDRIDGE & Sophia SLOWINSKI, daughter of Louis SLOWINSKI, son of Daniel SLOWINSKI, Sr. & Anna SCHNABEL, daughter of Regina & Anton SCHNABEL, Sr.
   Born April 5, 1966, David graduated from Lakewood High School and ITT Technical Institute, was employed by G. E., servicing medical equipment in hospitals, lived on HENDERSON Road, Sebewa Twp.  Active in coaching sports for his kids, he attended Kilpatrick United Brethren Church and was involved in many community activities.  He died July 24, 2008. 

RAYMOND EVEREST, 82, widower of Lucille McCARTNEY, brother of Thelma JOHNSON, Louisa BURGER, Vera BEEBE and the late young Charles EVEREST, son of Harry & Dora M. FENDER EVEREST, daughter of Louisa SWITZER & Adam FENDER, son of Rebecca KIRKENDALL & Jacob FENDER.
   The SWITZER family pioneered on SW ¼ Sec. 31 Sebewa Township, on the land now known as the WORTLEY farm, in 1866.  Adam FENDER came home from the Civil War and homesteaded on his “Soldier’s Patent” in NW ¼ Sec. 30 Sebewa Township, on the land now known as the HAMPEL farm, where he was also Justice-of-the-Peace, Sebewa Township Supervisor 1897-1917, twice chairman of the Ionia County Board of Supervisors, stockholder in Farmers & Merchants Bank of Lake Odessa, member of Samuel GRINELL GAR Post in Sunfield and West Sebewa IOOF Lodge.  Raymond was a WW II Veteran and an electrician in Ionia.

FRONT PAGE PHOTO OF PRYER SCHOOL – DANBY TOWNSHIP DISTRICT NO. 2 – 1880S.  Also known as GRUBTOWN School.  Portrait quality copies of the original photo, suitable for framing, are available:

   Only a few students have been identified, and some may actually be alumnae, due to records of age spread, but this school was attended by many ancestors of recent residents in that neighborhood, including William H. PRYER, grandfather of Bill PRYER, Margy PEAKE MOYER and Forrest PEAKE; Elizabeth PRYER McCRUMB; and Frank W. PRYER, grandfather to Ann LAKIN SLOWINS and Phyllis LAKIN BOYER.

Back row – fourth from left – Frank PRYER

Second row – first may be a McCRUMB boy

Third row – Blanch PRYER BROOKS (standing), Emmet McCRUMB, Bertha YORK McLEAN, unknown boy, Carrie SMITH LYONS, last is Reuben GRAFT

Front row – Verne McCRUMB & Frank McCRUMB

UPDATES TO OUR HISTORY OF SEBEWA IN JUNE ISSUE:  Our son Joe reminds us that we had a used New Idea hay-rake and a used N-I trailer-type mower and then a used Allis-Chalmers rear-mounted mower and a used New Holland hay conditioner, before the New Idea Cut/Ditioner combined the two tasks and did them better.  Also the baler did not have a bale-thrower at first, nor high-sided wagons, and just the year before we came to Sebewa Township, we were still putting up loose hay with a hay-loader at the Portland Township farm.

WOLVERTON UPDATES:  Carol WOLVERTON WINTEN FRIDSMA, daughter of Ella MARTEN & Lester WOLVERTON, son of Agnes MILLER (not Martha (Mattie) & Elmer WOLVERTON, has siblings Catherine & Corrine and late Robert & Richard, did not know Israel WOLVERTON ran a stagecoach inn.

 PORTLAND REVIEW November 10, 1936:
   Dr. and Mrs. C. C. YOUNG, who have for some time been interested in the collection and sale of books, have fitted up the interior of the WEBBER family’s garage at the foot of WEBBER Hill (Lincoln Street) for a book shop.  Their business is operated under the name Torchlight Book Exchange.  They buy and sell first editions new and old. 
   Anthony ZERFAS and family have moved to Portland from Allegan and are occupying the house owned by William DeVRIES next to the High School.  Mr. ZERFAS is a brother to John ZERFAS and will be associated with the latter in the implement business in this village.  He formerly managed a similar business in Allegan. 

PORTLAND RECORDS ITS LARGEST VOTE:  Residents of Township cast 1470 ballots in two precincts, aiding in a nationwide Democrat landslide.  Tuesday’s vote was the largest ever recorded in this township.  Democrat ROOSEVELT received a majority of 99.  Most other offices went Republican, but often not by much.  D. Hale BRAKE (R) had a majority of 8 in the race for state senator, while W. Clyde STOUT (D) had a majority of 122 for State Representative.
   Frank D. FITZGERALD (R) had a majority of 188 for Governor, DICKINSON (R) for lieutenant Governor had 58.  Raymond W. STARR (D) tied David H. CROWLEY (R) in the county for attorney general, and Harry TOY (R) for supreme court justice had a majority of 6.  For congress, Prentiss M. BROWN (D) had 30 over Wilbur M. BRUCKER (R).
   Frank E. DOREMUS, founder of the PORTLAND REVIEW in 1885, had served in township offices and as postmaster in Portland, then in the State Legislature from this district.  After moving to Detroit he was appointed city comptroller and later served several terms in congress from the First District there as a democrat, voluntarily retiring from that office a short time before this election of ’36, and commented that a majority of 99 votes in Portland Township for a democrat president would have caused great consternation in earlier days.
   Results of the county election returned all present officials to office with no comment on their party, except that Geer SMITH (R) beat Burton B. SIBLEY (D) by 17 votes for prosecuting attorney.  Other winners were:  Dale K. JEPSON – judge of probate, William C. HOLTZ – clerk, Lydia A. PATRICK – Treasurer, Roy DOUGLAS – register of deeds, Ed HIGBEE – drain commissioner, Hurbert A. ROSS – sheriff.  M. Clyde STOUT was reelected state representative by a majority of 1224 and D. Hale BRAKE as state senator by a majority of 500 votes. 

TO REPAIR SEBEWA TOWNSHIP DRAIN.  A drain improvement project which would employ 30 men was to be started in Sebewa Township that November.  A proposal for cleaning out and repairing the Hall INGALL Drain in the southwest part of the township was approved by the board of determination.  Estimated cost was $6000 and labor was to be taken from the county relief rolls.
   A corps of 33 men were engaged in surveying the fields of Ionia County farmers who had made application to participate in federal soil conservation benefits.  It was expected the measuring of the land would be completed by December 1, in plenty of time to make final sign up for participation in the 1937 programs. 

PORTLAND REVIEW & OBSERVER, April 30, 1942:
   Katherine (Trena, Tryntje) DeVIES, 64, widow of Steven (Stephen) DeVRIES, mother of Louis DeVRIES, Rovina MULDER, Nick, Ralph, William Jake, Steven and John DeVRIES, and Gertrude PETERSON, sister of Louis and Ralph CLEVERINGA of Iowa, Mrs. Dick WINKLE of South Dakota, Mrs. Henry DEUSTERMARS of Ionia, and Mrs. Arthur WASSINK of Saranac.
   Born in the Netherlands, she came to this country at age 13 and the family settled in Iowa, where she married.  Later they lived in Minnesota and came to Michigan in 1923, purchasing the farm in Sebewa (on KNOX Road).  Steven died within a few months and she struggled to raise the family alone.
   (Led by William, several of the sons & grandsons worked and prospered in the construction and remodeling of homes and other buildings, a business carried on by Bill’s son Charles in Grand Rapids and California until retirement.)
   Bearers were Garrit SMITH, John HUIZENGA, Jacob STALLINGA, Henry HOORT, Sr., Jacob BRANSON and Maurice ZWELP. 

NOTICE CHICKEN OWNERS.  It will be unlawful to allow chickens to run at large on and after May 1, 1942, in the residential district of the Village of Portland.  Jay Clark, Village Marshal. 

REMEMBER WHEN:  Harrison RICH had one of the finest portable sawmills in this part of the country?  It was before Portland had a railroad.  He brought the steam boiler into Portland on flat timbers bolted together for skids, hauling it from the railroad at Muir.  There being no snow on the frozen ground that winter, it took six yoke of oxen to haul it over the bare ground.  The route was on the town-line road between Portland and Orange (KEEFER Hwy.), then down the old pike (Grand River Trail) to Mr. RICH’S place.  He owned about 200 acres well timbered with oak.  When the Lansing-Ionia railroad was built through Portland, he had the contract for several thousand ties.  He also did custom sawing at people’s farms, and later sold the rig to Theodure GUNN of Sebewa (on BIPPLEY Road). 

EVENTS OF 1937 – Orson V. FROST, 87, passed away at his home north of Portland. 

EVENTS OF 1932 – The SALANT & SALANT shirt factory building was filled to capacity for its grand-opening Friday evening.  The machines will arrive and be set up within ten days.  (This building sometimes was part of the Ypsilanti REED Furniture branch plant and later of BARLEY EARHART Corporation.  It was built by the village of Portland to attract industry and sometimes referred to as “City Hall” because of the method of funding.) 
   The wrought-iron outside balcony on the front of the Opera House in Portland was torn down as a safety measure.  In olden days, trumpet blasts from players on this balcony signaled the beginning of stage plays.  Political candidates who were canvassing the country also sometimes held forth from this lofty perch. 

EVENTS OF 1922 – Only three G. A. R. members were able to attend the funeral services for their comrade, the late Horace GLINES, who passed away this week.  They were William MINER, John KLOTZ and Joseph HANCHETT. 

Back to April 30, 1942 – Elmer CREIGHTON, from Sebewa Township, is now in the U. S. Army Camp in Biloxi, Miss. 

PORTLAND REVIEW, November 4, 1943:
   Mr. and Mrs. Lester M. CAMPBELL have purchased Mr. & Mrs. George CORLEW’S home on Church Street, west side, the former Dick DUDBECK home, and have taken possession, the CORLEWS having left by auto for Arizona.  (Later CORLEWS returned and lived in a smaller home on Charlotte Hwy.)  Mr. CAMPBELL has been doing trucking for some time and will continue in this work, renting out the farm southwest of the village in Danby.  (Later Mr. CAMPBELL owned the founding NEWMAN family’s “Old Homestead” rentals on East Grand River Ave. and sold the farm to the Fred SCHANSKI family. 

Fred JARVIS, of this village, and his partner, Sam JOHNSON, of Lake Odessa, have been awarded the contract to operate a piggery at Grand Rapids, consuming all garbage collected in the city.  It is a big contract and calls for use of 1,500 to 2,500 hogs at a time.  The first 1,000 must be on the site in the west part of Grand Rapids by November 8.  Several years ago Mr. JARVIS (as did Claude PLANT, Sr. & “Butcher Bill” YOUNGS) went into hog raising on a large scale, quartered along Grand River south of the village (Okemos Road was called Piggery Road back then) and hauled garbage from parts of Grand Rapids to Portland.  He still feeds the garbage collected in Portland to this site. 

Pere Marquette Railway is completing a long series of repairs in the vicinity of Portland.  Sam STEMM of Lake Odessa, former section foreman here, now heads a repair crew regularly used on the main line.  One of the first things done was to lay several miles of new rails between Eagle and Portland, and to raise and improve the roadbed just west of that village.  All new ties and many timbers on the trestle over the LookingGlass River in Portland were required, and similar repairs across the Grand River.  For several months the repair crews lived in sleeping cars attached to a work train, but have now left. 

Funeral services for Anthony FOX, 83, were held at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Lansing.  He is survived by one daughter, Miss Rose FOX, and four sons, Hermon, Roynald, Lee, all of Lansing, and Dr. Harold M. FOX of Portland.  Mr. FOX was a merchant in Fowler for 30 years and moved to Lansing 22 years ago. 

Mr. & Mrs. William SPITZLEY (Farmer Bill, formerly of David Hwy), now Portland residents on Pleasant Street, were honored on their 55^th wedding anniversary Sunday.  Eighty guests were present. 

August VANDEVEENE has started construction of a new meat cold storage and display building on his farm west of the village, in connection with his fruit and produce departments which he formerly operated on Kent Street.  William DeVRIES is doing the building. 

Rev. Dick J. OOSTENINK, new pastor of Portland Christian Reformed Church was ordained there recently.  Rev. OOSTENINK has been pastor of the church since last spring, succeeding Rev. L. Van HAITSMA, who resigned due to poor health.  Revs. LUCHIES< RAZELDAL, ARWINGA, RIKKERS, LOCOTESI, and DeHOAN took part in the service.  A reception and supper followed. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 1943:  REMEMBER WHEN:  James CHURCHILL, one of the town’s best known merchants, kept store just east of McCLELLAND’S, later taking in Jason WOODBURY, and calling the firm CHURCHILL & WOODBURY?
   At various times there was talk of building an electric railway line (an “Inter-Urban”) from Lansing through Portland to Grand Rapids? 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 1933:  Mr. and Mrs. Frank ADGATE, who were married 50 years ago, were honored by a family gathering at their home on the west side October 29.
   An eight-pound son was recently born to Mr. and Mrs. Floyd EVANS of Danby Township.  Mr. EVANS was for some time employed in the SMITH Hardware Store, but is now engaged full time in farming. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 1923:  Thomas J. BANDFIELD (Mortician and furniture manufacturer/dealer) has a radio receiving set in his home, and is able to get programs from Pittsburg, PA, Troy, NY, and other cities where broadcasting stations are located.  The set was assembled in New York by his son, Harold BANDFIELD and his son-in-law, David T. MAY, and was installed last week when Mr. & Mrs. MAY were on a visit. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 1903:  BUCK & WILSON last week received 2000 western sheep, which they purchased at the Chicago Stockyards. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 4, 1943:  Mr. and Mrs. Walt RUMMEL and son, from (near) Saginaw, spent Sunday at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Robert BROOKS in Portland, and with Mrs. Roy PRYER and son William in East Lansing. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 11, 1943:  Mr. and Mrs. Norman E. GIBBS will hold an open house from 3:00 to 5:00 on Sunday, November 14, at their home west of Portland on US-16, the occasion being their golden wedding anniversary (former longtime residents of Sebewa Township). 

The State Administration Board a few days ago gave the State Health Department an O.K. on production of Penicillin.  Dr. C. C. YOUNG of Portland, Director of the State Health Department, will be in charge of producing the new “wonder drug”, and has proposed that it be made for free distribution to state doctors for civilian use.  Dr. Young estimates cost of the project at $15,000 until next June.  The Auditor General has suggested that Dr. Young request the necessary funds when the legislature meets in January, but that preliminary work be started at once.

   Dr. YOUNG informed the Board that penicillin must be produced in rooms separated from other laboratory activities, and he was granted two spacious rooms in the State garage building adjacent to the Health Department.  Penicillin, the drug credited with miracle cures in many cases, is not now available for general civilian use, although limited quantities are used by the armed forces and for certain special civilian cases. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 1943:  REMEMBER WHEN:  Few youngsters had fountain pens?  (or ball-point pens?)  Specially designated students used to pass out the ink wells in school and gather them up just before school closed in the afternoon.  Some boys, in those days, chewed tobacco and spat the juice into the ink bottles.  Next day when the bottles were passed out, some students might have ink with a brown tinge. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 11, 1943:  Test oil wells are being driven in the Pewamo & Westphalia area.  Three out of four in Dallas Township, Clinton County, north of Westphalia have brought in oil, and a fifth well is planned.  A test well in Ionia County, north of Pewamo, (Nicholas MILLER farm, Section 36 North Plains Township) has been abandoned as a dry hole.  So a site just northeast of there, but in Lebanon Township, Clinton County, will be tried next. 

Edward COMPTON of Danby Township, who broke his leg during haying time, is able to be about now without crutches and plowed a little this week with a walking plow. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 11, 1943:  Mr. and Mrs. John LICH of west Sebewa are parents of a baby girl. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 1938:  Frank YOUNG, a Lansing flyer, made a forced landing on Ernest YORK’S farm in Sebewa, (Sunfield Hwy) when the motor of his plane came loose while he was on a flight to Grand Rapids. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 1923:  Ray PRYER, wife and daughter have returned to Seattle, Washington.  (?) 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 1903:  Burt SEARS lost his farm home Sunday morning by fire.  A son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Lorenzo WEBBER.  T. J. BANDFIELD is having an addition built on the back of his store. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 18, 1943:  Lionel KENYON, 79, well-known Portland resident on DeWitt Street, (East Grand River Ave.) for past 38 years, died at the home of his daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Charles CRANE, on Beers Street (Riverside Drive) in Portland.  Born Novmeber 10, 1864, in New York State, he came to Swartz Creek, Michigan, with his parents as a boy, where he lived until age 12, when the family moved to Sebewa Township.  Mr. KENYON was the last of nine children.  In addition to his daughter, he leaves grandchildren Lt. Gerald L. CRANE, Anna and Lois CRANE.  (This KENYON family lived at the southeast corner of CLARKSVILLE Road & SHILTON Road and the grandparents were Christopher and Phidalia.  One of their sons was Florian, who married George BALDWIN’S daughter Jesse, but Lionel was not their son.)

   Mr. & Mrs. Dalton MILLER have moved from the Lawrence KNAPP farm (John FRIEND’S farm) to the C. P. WARD house at Sebewa Corners.  (Dalton then worked for General Motors in Lansing and bought the Barbara SCHNEIDER 37-acre farm just north of Portland on Divine Hwy.  Gorma & Clarence BAILEY operated the KNAPP farms.) 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 18, 1943:  Nearly forty friends and relatives gathered at Sebewa Corners Odd Fellow Hall last Thursday night at a party for Pvt. Lynn LOWE and his brother Lawrence M. (Mike) LOWE.  Lynn was home on furlough from Camp Walters, TX, and Lawrence was accepted for Navy duty a week ago and left this week Monday for Detroit and Camp Peary, VA.  They are sons of Otho LOWE. 

George DILLEY, for many years in the barber business in Portland (He gave horrible haircuts), is a patient at Univeristy Hospital, Ann Arbor, where he was taken last week.  Mr. DILLEY was taken ill at his home on Beers Street Thursday, being removed to that hospital a few hours later.  He underwent an operation the following day, from which he has been making good recovery.  (The old Henry DILLEY family homestead was on Eaton Hwy at PETRIE Road in Sebewa Township, until recently the Loren SAYER farm.  George’s parents, Thomas & Eliza, retired to a home on the high side of DILLEY Hill in Portland, although we understand that original house burned and another was moved into its place with the widening of the US-16 curve and new bridge.  Thomas & Eliza are buried in East Sebewa Cemetery near the south fence in the old part, and their graves were cared for all her long life by Mrs. Joe TRUMPOWER, George’s daughter, drving her 1955 Chevrolet.  Her husband was also a barber, in Lake Odessa.) 

JOHN STEMLER, who lives east of Sebewa Corners, dug a number of unusually large potatoes this year, and among the biggest ones was one that weighed two pounds and ten ounces.  John took it up to the Sebewa Corners Store to exhibit it, and Burton LUMBERT, proprietor of the place, sent it to his relatives in Kentucky to demonstrate the size of Michigan-grown potatoes. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  NOVEMBER 1903:  A contract for a new $5,000 iron bridge over the Grand River at the south end of Kent Street will be let December 17.  (This bridge was always known as the Portland-Danby Bridge through-out its history, because it was very close to the township line.  When time came to pay for replacing it at age 100, however, it suddenly became just the Danby Bridge!!) 

IONIA COUNTY NEWS:  FEBRUARY 11, 1932:  The paper displayed fourteen Notices of Mortgage Foreclosure Sale.  Unlike today however, most were for farms, not houses. 

IONIA COUNTY NEWS:  JUNE 22, 1933:  Ionia County Board of Supervisors (called Commissioners since the 1968 election) met in June session Monday through Saturday, to equalize property tax assessments.  Two to four million dollars had been cut annually for the previous few years.  This year Ionia City was cut another $500,000 and Belding $400,000.  But equalizing the cuts made by boards of review in the various townships was expected to bring this total cut to not more than $1,500,000 this year. 

Mr. and Mrs. Donald GOODEMOOT of West Sebewa have a ten pound son, Rex Wolcott, born Tuesday morning, June 20, 1933. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  JANUARY 22, 1948:  Portland’s Oldest Industry Destroyed By Fire!  The milling company was founded by Portland’s first settlers, Elisha NEWMAN and sons Almeron and James, who selected land in 1833 and built their first mill in 1836, grinding the first flour in January 1837.  After a few years they took in James’ son-in-law N. B. RICE, becoming NEWMAN & RICE, and built a larger mill.

   The NEWMAN & RICE mill burned in 1893 and was immediately rebuilt on the same site.  Portland Milling Company succeeded them and made Fine-As-Gold Flour for many years.  In 1924 the Valley City Milling Company, whose mill in Grand Rapids had burned, purchased the Portland mill and it became the home of Lily White Flour and other brands.

   Across Divine Hwy. to the east stood Portland’s first schoolhouse, which was used as the mill office into the 1940s, and replaced by a new four storage building, with offices on the ground floor.  Interior of the mill itself had been remodeled and updated with new machinery.  An addition was built on the south side, over the railroad siding, and three big concrete grain silos were added at the east end of the main mill.  An enclosed overhead transfer system ran from the mill to the storage building.  All this doubled the flour-making capacity to 1,200 cwt. In 24 hours.

   The offices and storage building, the Rowena Feed-making plant to the east, and Rowena Dog-diets bakery east of that, were not damaged by the fire, largely due to being shielded by the grain silos.  According to Fred N. ROWE Sr., Board Chairman, President, and General Manager, the feeds and dog-food production would continue here, but flour production would be contracted out, at least for the present.  Therefore, sadly, some jobs would be lost.

   Another fire, thought to be started from a defective chimney, destroyed the old Christian SINDLINGER farm home (on KIMMEL Road) in Sebawa Township, the day before the mill fire in Portland.  It was occupied by Willard SINDLINGER and his sister Minnie SINDLINGER, who was confined to her bed at the time.

   Charles CAREY and family will return soon from Flat Rock, Michigan, where they have been residing for the past year on a farm owned by J. C. KREGER.  They had previously been occupants of Mr. KREGER’S farm in Danby.  Now they are to live on George LEIK’S farm southwest of Portland.  Elmer FEDEWA and family, present occupants of the LEIK farm, will move to the Leo C. LEHMAN farm, (former George and Mrs. Glenn FLETCHER.  (Eugene and Ellen CAREY and baby LaVern were Sebewa Township residents and are buried in East Sebewa Cemetery – perhaps parents of Charles?) 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  JANUARY 1908:  The banking business begun as Lorenzo WEBBER (Sr) & Son and long conducted under the firm name of John A. WEBBER & Son, has been merged into the WEBBER State Savings Bank.  Mrs. Mary E. WEBBER is president.  Oscar DERBY, formerly of the firm of KENNEDY & DERBY Hardware, with Duncan KENNEDY, has purchased Wm. RYAN’S bakery and Arthur BAILEY will remain as baker.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Newsletter from Sebewa;
DECEMBER 2008.  Volume 44, Number 3.  Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan. 
Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:
 

SURNAMES:  CARR, KARCZEWSKI, WISNIESKI, ZBIKOWSKI, HESSE, LAWLESS, SPITZLEY, ARENS, KLOECKNER, SIMON, HILLEY, McLEOD, ELDRIDGE, SLOWINSKI, SCHNABEL, ROOSE, HALLECK, POPELIER, VALENTINE, BALDWIN, SAXTON, SHAW, KELLER, ANDRE, YONKERS, THIERY, DANIELS, LINDLEY, YAGER, TRASK, SCHEEL, HANSEN, WHITFIELD, HOLMES, MOON, KNAPP

RECENT DEATHS: 

ROBERT S. SPITZLEY, 82, husband of Laurine SPITZLEY, father of Marvin SPITZLEY, Patricia ARNOLD, Daniel SPITZLEY, Jacalyn WILKES, Annette SPITZLEY and Julie BEIDLER, brother of Joan SCHMITZ, Wilma SCHMITZ, Philip, David, Roy and Alvin SPITZLEY and the late Alice ESCH, Leo, Harold and Jerome SPITZLEY, son of Theresa FOX & Leo A. SPITZLEY, son of Josephine ARENS & Michael SPITZLEY, son of Suzane SIMON & Michael SPITZLEY, son of Anna Maria KLOECKNER & Johann Jakob SPITZLEY, who settled at the corner of PRICE Road (DAVID Hwy.) and Clintonia Road, just over into Westphalia Township, in 1846.  (See THE RECOLLECTOR Vol. 27 – No. 4, February 1992, for a larger history of the SPITZLEY Family.)  Bob was a farmer all his life, Portland High School graduate, U. S. Army Veteran of WWII, member of St. Michael Catholic Church in Grand Ledge.
   He was born August 25, 1925, in Dallas Township, Clinton County, and died August 17, 2008, at a nursing home in Delta Township, Eaton County.  Burial was in Meadowbrook Cemetery, Roxand Township, Eaton County. 

LINDA PEARL HILLEY, 56, sister of Terry, Jack, John and the late Tom HILLEY, daughter of Carlisle (Lefty) & Madonna ELDRIDGE HILLEY, daughter of Pearl McLEOD & Eddie ELDRIDGE, Sr., son of Rufus James (Jay) ELDRIDGE & Sophia SLOWINSKI, daughter of Louis SLOWINSKI, son of Daniel SLOWINSKI, Sr. and Anna SCHNABEL, daughter of Regina & Anton SCHNABEL, Sr. whose family first settled on HARWOOD Road in Berlin Township in 1857.  Born in Lake Odessa, September 26, 1952, Linda graduated from Grand Ledge High School, and was a longtime employee of Sheraton Inn in Lansing, until arthritis confined her to her home.  She died October 17, 2008, and is buried at Lake Odessa Lakeside Cemetery. 

ALBERT LEON ROOSE, 92, husband of Crystal HALLECK ROOSE, widower of Frances June Durkee ROOSE, father of Mary Jane GRAVES, stepbrother of the late Joseph, Sr., Maurice and Mitchell VROMAN.  Son of Albert & Sophia POPELIER ROOSE, he was orphaned by the influenza epidemic of 1918 and adopted by his uncle Leon ROOSE, who married the VROMAN brothers’ mother, thus making him their stepbrother.
   Born October 11, 1916, in Duluth, Minnesota, he came with Leon to Lake Odessa.  From 1940 thru 1949, Albert operated a portable feed mill for farmers in the Lake Odessa area.  Several of the VROMANS carried on that service and in 1950 Albert started his own gravel-put and Redi-Mix Concrete plant.  Due to poor health he sold that business to HASKINS-SLATER-VROMAN young men (HSV), and when his health improved, he was boiler operator at the Superior Furniture factory in Lowell.  June died in 1977, and in 1982 Albert married Crystal in Honolulu and lived in Green Valley Retirement Community, Arizona.  Longtime member of Zion Lutheran Church, Woodland, he died October 22, 2008, and was buried in Lakeside Cemetery. 

BUFORD B. (Boots) VALENTINE, 90, husband of Neva, father of Janet PITMAN and James VALENTINE, brother of Mary PATTERSON and the late Burton, Balfour and Bernard VALENTINE and Margaret BUCHE, children of Archie & Mabel SAXTON VALENTINE, daughter of Mary BALDWIN SAXTON, daughter of Esther & George BALDWIN, son of Nathan BALDWIN & Matilda SHAW, daughter of Robert SHAW & Sarah KELLER, daughter of Joseph KELLER & Mary Magdalene ANDRE.  The BALDWINS came to Sebewa Township from Republic, OH, about 1865, and settled on the land at KIMMEL Road and MUSGROVE Hwy, once owned by Ed DEMARAY and now owned by William NURENBERG, Charles & Edward LEIK, Philip SPITZLEY, LaVern & Ken CARR.  The SAXTON (SECKSTONE, SEXTON) family came to Sebewa Township before 1875 and settled on the land on GODDARD Road between KNOLL & GOODEMOOT Roads, later owned by Issi & Ida FLETCHER and now by Larry BRIERLEY.  Boots was a member of WWII 398^th Bomber Group.  He died October 9, 2008. 

CHRISTOPHER YONKERS, 45, husband of Kari BROWN YONKERS, father of Anna, Christian, Isaac, Lydia, and Levi YONKERS, brother of Taleese, Trena and Mathew YONKERS, son of Patricia THIERY and late Thomas YONKERS, DVM, son of Virginia & Lester YONKERS.  Dr. Tom taught our kids at Sunfield Elementary, before Vet School, and bought 4-H lambs for his own kids from us (GDS).  Chris was a Barry County Sheriff’s Deputy and on duty as undercover narcotics agent with Michigan State Police, when a car turned in front of his motorcycle.  He died October 17, 2008. 

OREN WASHINGTON DANIELS, 98, husband of Beulah AUSTIN DANIELS, father of Margene SMILEY, Dallas DANIELS, Gary DANIELS and the late Larry DANIELS, brother of the late Myrtle EARL, Uceba THOMAS and Bernice GUNN, son of Anna U. LINDLEY & Andrus W. DANIELS, son of Sarah D. & Oren W. DANIELS, Sr., son of Eunice & Andrus W. DANIELS, son of Sarah D. & Oren W. DANIELS, Sr., son of Eunice & Andrus W. DANIELS, Sr., who settled in Sebewa Township at South State Road and BIPPLEY Road before 1869.
   Born in Sebewa Township, October 15, 1909, Oren farmed all his life, and except for one year at his cousin Bob’s farm in Yuma, AZ, about age 62, he continued to farm on the home place well into his 80s, and lived on the same farm until his death September 17, 2008.  He served on the Sebewa Township Board as a Trustee, was active in Ionia County Farm Bureau, was a pillar of the Sebewa Baptist Church, and a regular among the farmers at a local coffee shop.  He is buried with three generations before him and two generations after him, at West Sebewa Cemetery. 

BERNICE YAGER TRASK, 92, widow of Merle TRASK, mother of Patricia (Tish – never TRISH!!) TRASK STIFFLER WONDERGEM, Larry TRASK and Edward TRASK, sister of the late Theo YAGER, Margarette LOVELL and Beatirce (Robert) DANIELS, daughter of Emma SCHEEL & Edward J. YAGER, whose family settled on the east half of the present-day DANIELS farm on BIPPLEY Road, before 1875.  Born in Sebewa Township, November 22, 1915, she and Merle ran the Sunfield Fix-It Shop for over thirty years.  She wrote news for Sunfield Sentinel, was active in Sunfield Historical Society, Red Hat Society and United Brethren Church.  She died September 16, 2008, and is buried at Lakeside Cemetery.

FRONT PAGE PHOTO of JOHN AND MARY CARR, November 5, 1949

THE CARR FAMILY IN SEBEWA TOWNSHIP by Grayden SLOWINS:

   Jan KARCZEWSKI (sounds like KARTEWSKI in German/Polish) John CARR, born March 21, 1884, in East Prussia/Poland, son of Frank KARCZEWSKI & Mary WISNIESKI, departed Bremen, Germany, and arrived in the Port of New York, United States of America, on the ship WERRA, May 9, 1888, as documented by the passenger list in the National Archives. 

  By age 18 he was shoveling coal on steamships on the Great Lakes.  His family was living in Chicago, where he met Mary ZBIKOWSKI, who was born in East Prussia/Poland, on October 24, 1886, daughter of Joseph ZBIKOWSKI, and had come to America at age 3, with her parents, brother Stanley and sister Helen, landing at Ellis Island, NY.  John & Mary were married in Chicago February 6, 1906, and on March 14, 1906, John became a U.S. citizen in Chicago.

   Their first child, Clara, was born August 7, 1906, in Chicago, according to the 1920 Sebewa Census.  They moved to Toledo, OH, where Frank, Edwin, and Irene were born & died as infants.  Daughter Kathryn (Kate) was also born in Ohio, April 18, 1916.  Then they moved to Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI, first on the Charles HALLADAY/Leon MOYER/Larry BROWN farm south of Sebewa Corners Methodist Church, and then the Heman BROWN farm on the southwest corner of Sunfield and MUSGROVE Hwys, now owned by grandson Kendall & Jackie CARR.  They raised tomatoes for Lake Odessa Canning Co. and worked in the sugar beet fields – blocking & weeding on hands and knees, topping beets in backbreaking labor.

   In Sebewa Township, probably while living in the Larry BROWN house with a Sunfield address, John was working for Fred REAHM as a farm laborer and had to register for WWI Draft on September 12, 1916.  In Sebewa Leo was born October 14, 1918, George was born April 14, 1922, Delores was born June 12, 1923, Edward John (Jack) was born October 12, 1924, Raymond born March 18, 1927, died in October 1929 and is buried in the back of Portland Cemetery, Gene was born June 10, 1929.

   In 1946 they moved to a farm on Darby Road, south of TUPPER Lake Road/M-50, west of Lake Odessa, Campbell Township, later owned by daughter Clara & husband Otto TIMRICK, and John died there November 23, 1949.  Mary died April 23, 1956, near daughter in Chicago.  They are buried in Lake Odessa, Lakeside Cemetery.

   Clara born Aug. 7, 1906, died Nov. 29, 1976; married Feb. 1, 1934 to Otto TIMRICK born June 18, 1902, died September 28, 1961, no children.

   Kathryn born April 18, 1916 and died August 2003; married March 16, 1935 to Robert MARTINI who was born November 1, 1903 and died January 11, 1978 and their children were Joseph John, Richard George, and Mary Ellen.

1.  Joseph John MARTINI married Valma GRIFFETH.  They had children Michael, Christina, Karen, Robert, Donna Marie

2.  Richard George MARTINI whose children were Richard Scott, Wendy, Dean, Cindy Marie and Shawn.

3.  Mary Ellen MARTINI whose children were Mark Allen and Kimberly

   Leo CARR born October 14, 1918 married Marge PRANGER and their children were Diane, Delores, Darrell, Duane and David.

   George CARR born April 14, 1922 married Ilene DARLING and their children were LaVern E. and Kendall.

   Delores CARR was born June 12, 1923 and married  Lynn STEDGE and had children Theresa, Douglas and Phillip.

   Edward John (Jack) CARR was born October 12, 1924 and married Jean.  Their children were Clara Jean, Paul John and Mary Deborah and Kathy.

4.  Raymond CARR was born March 18, 1927 and died October 1929.

5.  Gene was born June 10, 1929 and died June 17, 2002.  He married Bernadine THOMAS and their children were Randy Paul, Thomas John, Patricia Jean and James Dean.

    PORTLAND REVIEW:  JANUARY 29, 1948:  LAWRENCE E. KNAPP, 70, of Sebewa, died suddenly from a heart attack at Bradenton, FL.  He and Mrs. KNAPP were spending the winter at a trailer park there, as had been their custom for several years.  Surviving are the widow, a son Howard of Sebewa, and one grandson Gerald, of Lansing.  Mr. KNAPP was for years a Sunfield rural mail carrier and retired some years ago.  (Lawrence was the son of Peter KNAPP, who once farmed at Sunshine.)
    WILLIAM S. (BILL) COMPTON, of Danby, who was taken last week to a Lansing hospital, was later moved to Veterans’ Hospital at Grand Rapids.  Bill has been in ill health for several months and in the past two weeks his condition had grown worse.  He is a former Serviceman, having been in the Regular Army years ago.  He later operated a grain elevator business here in Portland and then was a bean company representative until retiring.
    DALE BINNS, having decided to quit farming, will hold an auction sale at the premises, known as the John KLINTWORTH place, located half mile north, one mile west, and half mile north of Sunfield, on Tuesday, February 10, 1948, starting at 1:00.  Full list next week includes 23 head of purebred Jerseys, hogs, feed, tractor, tractor tools, other fine tools.  Allen HASKIN, Auctioneer, Asa BURNETT, Clerk. 
   Workmen are tearing down walls between former Roy DAWDY’S Men’s Clothing Store and Mrs. Del GRIFFIN’S Style Shop for ladies, to make it ready for Federated Department Store.  They have located a couple of long-sealed connections – old doors between the two.  One located near front of building, we (REVIEW EDITOR – Fred MAUREN, Jr.) can’t remember.  But we do recall when the one nearer rear was used.  Leon HIXON, then Cardy & FOLAND, then F. A. WHEELER ran a jewelry store in south building.  Leo LEHMAN had his clothing stock in north side.  He needed more room and arranged to put his shoe stock in back part of the jewelry building, reaching it through the arched door at back.
   (Most of these businesses were located in different spots over the years.)  A few stores north, the old Temple Theatre showed pictures where Labe SMITH’S Hardware is today (bottom of opera house, south half).  To meet state fire regulations, Fred PATTERSON, its owner, had a hole cut through the brick wall into the pool hall at north, and a steel fire door installed.  Leo C. LEHMAN later bought the pool room building (north half of opera house), and remodeled it for his clothing and shoe business.
   Michigan is marking the anniversary of one of the state’s greatest public health advances – the free distribution of biological products.  In January 1922, the Michigan Department of Health began offering free to physicians of the state a biological product for the treatment of disease.  The first product offered was to fight diphtheria.
   The late Dr. C. C. YOUNG of Portland, then Director of the Bureau of Laboratories of the Michigan Department of Health, promised Governor GROESBECK the death rate could be cut in half in ten years if the lab was able to offer products to prevent and treat diphtheria.  The 1921 legislature passed a bill enabling free distribution, and Dr. YOUNG’S promise has been fulfilled, even before sulfa & penicillin. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  FEBRUARY 5, 1948:  Editor received a fine letter from Mrs. Loren (Eleanor LAKIN) HAZEN.  That family moved some time ago from Eagle to Barryton, MI.  They have had a lot of snow, as here, but the family looks forward to coming of spring.  A trout stream flows through their farm.  In the 15 months they have lived up there, they have entertained 255 guests from the Portland-Eagle area!  She also mentions that in 20 years of marriage, this will be only their fifth anniversary, because they married on February 29.  One birthday we recall on that date is that of Mrs. A. J. BARTON.
Mr. & Mrs. Matt ENGLER spent Tuesday with Mrs. ENGLER’S brother-in-law and sister, Mr. and Mrs. George (Matilda) LEIK.  The couple had just returned from a wedding trip to New Orleans.  They were married January 9, 1948.  Mrs. ENGLER was former Agnes NEYER.  (Their future son John studied Agriculture Economics and Political Science at Michigan State University and put them to good use!) 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  FEBRUARY 1928:  Residents of Ionia and Lake Odessa were profiting by reason of a war between oil companies.  The price of a gallon of gasoline in these towns last week was 16 cents, while in Portland and most towns in the vicinity it was 19.7 cents!  (We remember in 1848 gas was 18 cents at Basil KINNEY’S Station, because when people asked for five gallons, John SHERRARD would say “I can give you five and a half for a dollar!”) 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  FEBRUARY 12, 1848:  Orange Township Historical Notes:  William SEILER calls us with a stickler question.  He says a school boy has just stopped in and wants to know how Orange Township got its name.  We are stuck and refer him to the TYLER family, as Otis is one of that township’s oldest residents.
   Here is the correct story:  Generations ago TYLERS took up land from the government, and the first neighborhood meeting was held on TYLER property.  The men suggested Orange for the township name, because they had come from a settlement by that name back east.
   If memory serves us rightly, Dean TYLER, now associated with his dad, Veryl, in TYLER Farm operations, represents the fifth generation to work the TYLER land.  (Dean S. TYLER died in 2002 and we refer to his obituary in THE RECOLLECTOR Volume 38 Number 3:  Dean was age 78, had been husband of Elizabeth JONES, was father of Michael Dean and David Lewis TYLER, brother of Mignonne TYLER HODNETT, son of Florence SMITH & Veryl TYLER, son of Otis D. TYLER, son of Isaac E. TYLER, whose parents are not listed.)
   Howard LOWRY retired in February 1948, from forty years on Portland Fire Department.  Mr. LOWRY told of his many experiences in forty years and how equipment had changed since his first responed to fires hauling a two-wheeled hose cart.  (No explanation was given as to how water was supplied to those hoses.)
   Michigan’s Governor Kim SIGLER and Treasurer D. Hale BRAKE were featured speakers at the Lincoln Day Banquet in Ionia, and BRAKE spoke the next day at noon at Portland Lions Club.  DIVINE Highway running north from US-16 at the sight of Portland’s Valley City Milling Co. fire was State Highway M-166 (M-66?). 

PORTLAND REVIEW: JULY 29, 1948:  DANBY BOARD CALLS A HALT TO DUMPING.  At the meeting of Portland Village Commission Monday evening, a communication was received from the township board of neighboring Danby Township, demanding that the village cease to use its present dumping area at the south end of Portland-Danby bridge by August 1.
  The message was presented by Floyd EVANS, Danby Supervisor.  The Danby Board has jurisdiction over the dumping spot, because it is in that township.  The Grand River forms the Portland-Danby townline at that point and the bridge over the stream thereby received that name.  The dump is just a few rods south of the bridge.  It is in a hollow created when the original road was abandoned and the new one graded.  It has been used as a dump for some time, although there have been frequent complaints and an order issued last spring demanding its closure June 1.
   An arrangement was made with the township to keep it open, when village workmen went out and cleaned up the adjacent road and field.  Many users have since dumped rubbish right at the roadside, making no effort to get it over into the dumping spot.  Village Manager Bernard MORSE stated Wednesday that arrangements have been made for using an area in the GUIDI Subdivision on the west side.  (This area too was abused, with dumpers starting fires, etc.)
   Village Clerk Don BRAENDLE has received a request for information as to value of stock in the Portland Water Co., a firm which has been out of existence for nearly 50 years.  Mrs. Ruth SZELC of Watertown, NY, attached a photo-copy of her one share of stock.  It is $50 share No. 11, and was issued October 22, 1890, to C. G. GOULD.  The share is signed by C. TILLOFFITT, secretary and J. V. CLARK, President.  The Portland Water Co. was never a great money maker.  In the early 1900s it was taken over by the Village of Portland.  Occasionally old wooden water mains are dug up, presumed to date back to the private water firm.  (This answers our recent question as to how water was supplied to fight fires in 1908.) 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  MARCH 24, 1948:  HOPE FOR FUNDS FOR BLACKTOP ON ROAD M-166.  Portland-Lyons highway has long awaited this improvement.  There has been considerable effort in recent years to have M-166, the road running north from the flour mill in Portland and then west into Lyons, black-topped, but the project has never been started.
   It is recognized as an important highway serving a large area.  The highway runs straight north of Portland to what used to be old M-21, and thence west into Lyons.  It is also hoped that blacktop will connect M-166 at WELCH’S Corners (David Highway) with the present pavement east of there which runs from the county line into Westphalia village. 

WILL BRICK UP OLD SMITH HOMESTEAD.  Ben SYKES has started work on modernizing the exterior of the large farm house on his place north of town on M-166.  The big home will be bricked up on the outside.  New brick will be used on the corners and for the remainder Mr. SYKES will use bricks which he is salvaging from the walls of the engine rooms at the site of the burned Valley City Mill.  Mr. SYKES estimates it will take 27,000 bricks to do the job.  (Ben SMITH, the former owner of the farm, was a son of Laban A. SMITH, Sr., whose home farm across the corner is now the golf course.  Ben was the grandfather of Ruth FRENCH and Frank McGOWAN, Jr. 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  SEPTEMBER 4, 1952:  William HESSE, son of Mr. & Mrs. Dewey HESSE, was taken critically ill on Saturday, at an army base in Georgia.  His parents, of Portland, and his wife, of Lansing, were called and flew there on Monday.  (He died there soon after.) 

Funeral services were held Saturday morning at St. Patrick’s church for Mrs. Ella LAWLESS, 76, of Portland, who passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Mildred TEICHMAN, at Durand, on Thursday evening.  Surviving are her husband, John (sometimes called Sr., although he was not the father of John LAWLESS, Jr., whose father was Joel; another daughter, Mrs. Vera HARTWIG of Portland; son Arthur LAWLESS, of Grand Ledge; sister, Mrs. Charles WRIGHT, of Hubbardston; brothers John and James FITZPATRICK, both of Hubbardston; and seven grandchildren.  Mr. & Mrs. LAWLESS had spent all their married life in the vicinity of Portland.  For many years they owned a farm in Orange Township, just west of the TYLER place, to which family they sold it when they retired from farming and moved to the village.  They had since resided on Green Street, on the west side.  (Behind Estin HYLAND) 

PORTLAND REVIEW:  SEPTEMBER 1932:  It was a little more than three months ago that the new shirt factory began operations, and it will be good news to Portland people that SALANT & SALANT, the owners, have found it necessary to expand, ordering 60 new machines in addition to the 120 already in operation.  (This was in the village-owed building later occupied by BARLEY-EARHART Corp.  Previously this location had been occupied by a branch of Ionia’s Reed had been occupied by a branch of Ionia’s Ypsilanti Reed Furniture Co.) 

ROBERT AND BLANCHE BROOKS have purchased of Mrs. Pearl Sprague, the 120 acre farm located near the ABBEY School I Danby Township, occupied by J. A. MERRIFIELD.

RECENT VISITORS AT THE RECOLLECTOR:  Alice HANSEN and Cathy HANSEN, sisters fro Rochester, WA, researched their great-great-great-parents, Orlow WHITFIELD HOLMES & Renewed MOON HOLMES.  He was a carpenter and she ran a hotel/post office in the LeRoy DARLING house at Sebewa Corners – third house south on southwest side.