THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR (IONIA COUNTY, MI) Bulletin of the Sebewa Association,
AUGUST 1994, Volume 30, Number 1.
Submitted with permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES: APSEY, SHELLENBARGER, FRYOVER, DOWNING, GIBBS, HAROLD, BENSCHOTER, VanBENSCHOTEN, LUSCHER, ARNOLD, PARKER, SLOWINSKI, INGALLS, TERRILL, BROWN, HALBERT, HOGLE, OKEMOS, KNOX, CATT, LEIK, BOWER, BRECH, CREIGHTON.

RECENT DEATHS:

ADDIE VELMA APSEY, 87, wife of Frederick, mother of Margaret WILLETT, Beatrice MOSHER, Vivian LEIK, Helen, Donald & David, & Frederick APSEY, Jr., daughter of Josephine TRIMMER & Cyrus SHELLENBARGER. She took an active part in their farming operation on Sec. 29, Tupper Lake Road, Sebewa Township, and hauled more loads with her John Deere “A” than many men of her generation.

KATHLEEN A. FRYOVER, 72, widow of Samuel FRYOVER, mother of Karen HUFNAGEL, Luanne CHAMPION, Anna Belle & Thomas FRYOVER, daughter of Elizabeth M. DOWNING & Thomas GIBBS, son of Mary E. & Norman GIBBS, Sr., son of Robert GIBBS. Elizabeth M. DOWNING was daughter of Lucia E. & Samuel M. DOWNING, son of Thomas DOWNING, Sr., all pioneer settlers on Knoll Road, Sebewa Township.

JOSHUA HAROLD, 4, son of Nicole OESCH HAROLD, daughter of Kenneth & Karen OESCH, daughter of Gerald & Janet GILBERT, daughter of Riley & Annis SANDBORN, daughter of Bertella BRADLEY & John BENSCHOTER, son of Mary & Oliver BENSCHOTER, son of Cornelius & Diana VanBENSCHOTEN. Riley was son of Alma LUSCHER & Lawrence (Lon) SANDBORN, son of Columbus SANDBORN, son of Edward & Betsey SANDBORN. Alma LUSCHER was daughter of Minnie ERDMAN & Jacob LUSCHER, Jr., son of Anna & Jacob LUSCHER. Minnie ERDMAN was daughter of Hanna PETERS & Michael F. ERDMAN, son of Sophie & Christian Frederick ERDMAN of Posen, East Prussia. Bertella BRADLEY was daughter of John & Mary BRADLEY. Gerald GILBERT is son of Owen GILBERT, son of Frank GILBERT. So many Sebewa ancestors for one little boy!

GEORGE SIMPSON ARNOLD, 76, husband of Myrtle BAUER ARNOLD, father of Marilyn ARNOLD PARKER & Dexter ARNOLD, son of Leola SIMPSON & Martin ARNOLD, son of Mary TAYLOR & Burt W. ARNOLD, son of Isabel KIMBALL & William D. ARNOLD, son of Olive KIMBALL & Dexter ARNOLD, son of Hanna DEXTER & Job ARNOLD, son of Freelove & Job ARNOLD, Sr. George was descended from the Dexter Colony that founded Ionia, was related to the DEXTERS, ARNOLDS, KIMBALLS & YEOMANS, and lived on the ARNOLD Centennial farm. He was the fourth generation of his family to serve as Easton Township Supervisor.

OBITUARY FROM IONIA SENTINEL JUNE 11, 1894:
THEOPHILUS SLOWINSKI – The funeral of Theophilus SLOWINSKI, who died Sunday, was held from the Church of SS. Peter & Paul this morning at 10 o’clock, the large audience room of the church being filled to its utmost capacity. The Rev. FIERLE conducted the services and preached an eloquent sermon. The German Aid Society, of which the deceased was a member, attended in a body to the number of more than 40, and marched to the cemetery with the remains. There were nearly 50 teams in the procession also.

(Editor’s Note: Great-great-uncle Teofil was a merchant tailor in Ionia, an officer in the Arbiter Bund (German Workers Aid Society), 47 years of age, and a hail-fellow-well-met. There were indeed 50 teams behind the hearse on the road to Mt. Olivet!)

DESCENDANTS OF JONATHAN INGALLS by Grayden Slowins
With information provided by Arlene INGALLS SCHRADER of DeWitt, MI.

Jonathan INGALLS was born May 4, 1762, at Exeter, Grafton County, New Hampshire, son of Hannah LOCKE & Jonathan INGALLS, Sr. He served in the Revolutionary War and was married March 8, 1785, to Abigail CLEVELAND, who was born in Connecticut, May 18, 1766, and died in Massachusetts, January 10, 1833. Jonathan came to Ionia County, Michigan, with his grown children and grandchildren, who in 1838 became the first permanent settlers in Sebewa Township. These were the families of Charles W. INGALLS, John F. TERRILL – husband of Polly INGALLS, and John BROWN – husband of Sarah (Sally) INGALLS. Other members of Jonathan’s family followed later, some never came. Jonathan died in Sebewa, October 2, 1843, and his monument is by the side of KEEFER Hwy. near the land which belonged to his son-in-law, John TERRILL.

Two of John TERRILL’S sons-in-law, thereby grandsons-in-law of Jonathan, Anson W. HALBERT & William HOGLE, were also in that first settlement. HALBERT ran the first general store. The TERRILL land was that portion of N ½ NE ¼ Sec 25 Sebewa which became the John FRIEND-Lawrence KNAPP-James STANK farm and that portion of Sebewa town which John FRIEND platted from it. TERRILL & HALBERT also built the first sawmill on Sebewa Creek on that farm.

Jonathan & Abigail INGALLS’ children, all born in Bristol, NH, were:
1. Elizabeth (Betsey) INGALLS born October 12, 1785; married Aaron NELSON
2. Hannah INGALLS born April 3, 1787, died January 3, 1877; married Ezekiel SMITH
3. Dorothy (Dolly) INGALLS
4. Martha (Patty) INGALLS
5. Sarah (Sally) INGALLS born July 17, 1793, died June 14, 1867; married John BROWN
6. Polly INGALLS born October 6, 1795, died November 21, 1882; married John F. TERRILL
7. John C. INGALLS born March 21, 1797, died April 1, 1869; married Laura V. ALLEN
8. Irene (Irena) INGALLS
9. Susan INGALLS born May 19, 1802, died April 6, 1864; married John FOWLER
10. Jonathan INGALLS born June 23, 1804; married Eliza HARRINGTON
11. Sherburn (Sandburn) INGALLS born June 2, 1807, died June 3, 1879; married Mary Jane SCHOFF
12. Keziah INGALLS born 1810, died 1882; married Milton SAWYER
13. Charles Wesley INGALLS born April 21, 1812, died at Harbor Springs, February 9, 1889; married Catherine D. HAMM

Charles Wesley INGALLS, thirteenth child of Jonathan & Abigail, was the first settler and forefather of the Sebewa & Danby lines of INGALLS. He located on S ½ SE ¼ Sec. 13 Sebewa, on the land surrounding the WEIPPERT Mill Pond. This land was later owned for many years by his son Hall Jackson INGALLS. Charles W. then purchased the SHIMNECON land from the Indians when they moved to Mt. Pleasant, and Arlene SCHRADER has a copy of a deed signed by Myron J. KING, an Indian Affairs Administrator, and Charles W. INGALLS on August 6, 1861, and witnessed by Allen B. MORSE, Notary Public at Ionia. (Editor’s NOTE: After service in the Civil War, A. B. MORSE eventually became Chief Justice of Michigan Supreme Court.)

This 1861 deed shows 109 acres. However the 1875 plat shows 35 acres for Charles W. INGALLS, 42.62 acres for his son Charles Manley INGALLS, 34 acres for another son George Augustus INGALLS, and 24 acres for another son Cleveland A. INGALLS. This adds up to 135.62 acres, and adding in the Samuel WAINRIGHT 39.10 acres located in the midst of it, brings the total of Indian land to 174.72 acres, which is very close to the 180 acres they once controlled. The 109 acres is, however, the same amount to which Manasseh HICKEY acquired a clear title for the Indians about 1846.

Charles W. INGALLS was serving in the State Legislature from Ionia County by 1853, and by 1873 he had platted INGALLS Addition to the village of Ionia when it became a city. This addition was bounded by Front (now ADAMS), Depot (now HUDSON), Railroad, and Second (now DEPOT) Streets. Once occupied by two hotels and several private homes & businesses, this land is now covered by O’Mara’s store and several parking lots. They retired to Harbor Springs, where Catherine died in 1882 and Charles W. died in 1889, and they are buried there.

Charles Wesley INGALLS & Catherine D. HAMM’S children were:
1. Charles Manley INGALLS born July 22, 1835, in Boston, MA, died in Danby, February 11, 1903; married Lucinda CLARK
2. Hall Jackson INGALLS born March 11, 1837, in Boston, MA, died in Sebewa January 25, 1927; married Helen BEDEN
3. George Augustus INGALLS born March 19, 1839 in Sebewa, died May 1, 1868; married Addie FORMAN
4. Cleveland Alphonso INGALLS born August 22, 1841, died June 2, 1900; married Mary Jane COLBURN
5. Edward Augusta INGALLS born December 16, 1842; married Sarah DIXON
6. Frances Augusta INGALLS born September 30, 1845, died 1927; married Dwight SPALDING
7. Sylvester William INGALLS born October 9, 1848; married Sarah.

Charles Manley INGALLS farmed the SHIMNECON land in Danby all his life, died there in 1903, as did his wife Lucinda in 1922, and they are buried in Danby Cemetery. He was called Boug’edi by Indians.
Charles Manley INGALLS & Lucinda CLARK’S children were:
1. Charles Watters INGALLS born 1857, died April 28, 1914; married Phila SOWLES
2. Katherine INGALLS born July 9, 1864, died September 2, 1907

Charles Watters INGALLS farmed at Charlotte and in SHIMNECON and died there in 1914 and was buried at Danby Cemetery, as was his wife Phila, who died in Portland June 7, 1954, at age 93.
Their children were:
1. Arthur (Stub) INGALLS born 1882, died November 9, 1902
2. Nellie E. INGALLS born 1886, died September 17, 1906
3. Clarence M. Ingalls born 1888, died March 19, 1936; married Florence FANCHER
4. Lucinda (Lula, Babe) INGALLS born 1891; married Harry KELLEY, buried in Danby.
5. Marian INGALLS born May 3, 1897, died November 26, 1981, married Guy W. STIFFLER, buried in Danby

Clarence M. INGALLS was also a farmer, near Wacousta in Clinton County and died in 1936 as the result of a corn-picker accident. He is buried in Danby, as is his wife, Florence, who died in 1967. Clarence M. INGALLS & Florence FANCHER’S children were:
1. Charles Hall INGALLS
2. Louis C. INGALLS born 1924, died August 9, 1986.

John C. INGALLS, seventh child of Jonathan & Abigail, married Laura V. Allen and their children were:
1. Lindel INGALLS
2. Mary Jane INGALLS
3. Timothy INGALLS
4. John D. INGALLS

We are indebted to Arlene INGALLS SCHRADER for being our connection to the descendents of Jonathan INGALLS, only a small portion of which are listed here. END

NEWS ITEM – PORTLAND REVIEW – MEMORIAL DAY – 1921 – Monuments of Old Indian Chief and Revolutionary Veteran Unveiled Near Portland.

D.A.R. Chapter Honors Memory of Makers of American History.
OKEMOS was Chief of Old Potawatomi Tribe.
Jonathan INGALLS, Uncle of President CLEVELAND,
Buried in Sebewa with ceremonies impressive and highly interesting, the Stevens Thomson Mason Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution unveiled two monuments Sunday afternoon to two makers of history who are buried near Portland. One boulder was placed at the grave of OKEMOS, former chief of the Potawatomi tribe and nephew of PONTIAC. The other marks the grave of Jonathan INGALLS, Revolutionary War Soldier and patriot.

The grave of OKEMOS is located in the old Indian reservation, MESHIMMENCONING, on the river road east of Grand River and south of Portland. His body was placed there in 1858. The body of Jonathan INGALLS lies in a field a short distance south of Sebewa Corners. The stone is placed close to the roadside, where it may easily be read by those who pass. The two stones were prepared from native Ionia County rock by John SHELL of Ionia and were designed with taste as well as with a thought to permanency.

“WHITE CHIEF” Tells of OKEMOS. The ceremony at the grave of OKEMOS was made more impressive by the presence of friends who knew the old chieftain or whose fathers were associates of OKEMOS. Among those persons was Hall J. INGALLS of Sebewa, called by the red men “White Chief”. INGALLS befriended OKEMOS and from that time until the death of the chief, the two were close friends. Hall J. INGALLS superintended the burial of OKEMOS.

Mrs. Levi MARSHALL, regent of the chapter, led the ceremonies. Following the reading of the ritual, the purpose of the placing of the stone and some of the projects of the chapter were told by Miss Kate L. BENEDICT, former regent. She stated that the work done by the chapter is conducted largely to preserve for posterity the interesting historical facts and legends concerning Michigan.

Dr. F. N. TURNER of Lansing read a highly interesting paper concerning the later days of OKEMOS and of how in his declining years he often visited his old planting grounds on the banks of the Cedar River in Ingham County, near where the town of OKEMOS now stands, and of his friendships among the white settlers of that county. Dr. TURNER’S information was gleaned mostly from stories told by the doctor’s father.

Mrs. MARSHALL formally presented the red granite monument to the public, as Geer SMITH and Marian MORSE drew the cords which raised the American flag from the cut face of the rock. Mr. INGALLS told many interesting things about OKEMOS, which must be recounted in later stories. He told of the appearance of the old chieftan. When OKEMOS died his guns, clothing, cooking utensils, and food were buried with him and fires of sassafras wood appeased the evil spirits whole OKEMOS’ spirit journeyed that long trail to the happy hunting ground.

OBITUARY – PORTLAND REVIEW – January 25, 1927 – HIS BOYHOOD DAYS SPENT WITH INDIANS – Hall J. INGALLS’ Long Life Ends Friday, After Illness Lasting Only a Few Weeks. Born in Boston, Came to This Section at Age Three Months.

Hall J. INGALLS, stricken with paralysis while in his barn at the farm in Sebewa Township a few weeks ago, died Friday evening. He would have been 90 years old had he lived until March 11. Funeral services were held at the home Monday afternoon, a neighbor, Wm. ROSEVERE, taking the place of a minister and making a few personal remarks. Burial was in Portland Cemetery.

Mr. INGALLS was born in Boston, Mass., March 11, 1837, coming to Novi, Mich., with his parents at the age of 3 months. They moved to Sebewa in 1838. There were only three white neighbors, but many Indians. In 1844 the family moved to Portland, remaining seven years. In 1851 the elder INGALLS (Charles W.) bought the place where Hall J. lived at the time of his death, building a sawmill and dam (Editor’s Note: This would have to be on the site of WEIPPERT’S Mill, surrounded by the Hall J. INGALLS farm). The country was thickly wooded and father and sons helped to clear it. In 1857 the family moved to Ionia and next year Hall J. helped to survey a state road from Ionia to Mackinac.

In 1860 a party of Indian leaders came to Ionia and wanted to sell the tract known as SHIMNECON, located in Danby Township. Hall’s father bought it for $2000, the son turning in a pony, valued at $50, as first payment. They moved to the tract in 1861. In 1865 Hall J. bought from his father the farm in Sebewa where he last resided, a little north of Sebewa Corners. From the time he came to this section until his death, he had spent but one year outside this county. That was in 1872, when he made his headquarters in Grand Ledge, while selling sewing machines.

Mrs. INGALLS was formerly Helen BEDEN. Though 83 years old now, she enjoys good health and has borne up under the strain of helping care for her husband during his illness remarkably well. Part of the time she has insisted on being alone with him nights, but two neighbors, Edward SPENCER and Carl LINDSLEY, were keeping vigil with her Friday night, when, shortly before midnight, the old pioneer breathed his last.

NEWS ITEM – PORTLAND REVIEW – DATE ILLEGIBLE – Indians Only Danby Residents When White Settlers Arrived. John Compton Helped Christianize the Colony. His Daughter First White Child Born There.

The Indians were prominent because they were the first inhabitants and possessors of our land. Also their Indian village on Sec. 22, Danby, the village of MESHIMMENCONING was probably the first settler, coming in 1835 and locating on Sec. 5. In 1836 Asher KILBURN located in the bend of Grand River on Sec. 8 and worked land owned by a Mr. Jones of Detroit. The same year John & William CONKRITE made first settlement on the south side of the Grand. They purchased considerable land along the river, put up a cabin on Sec. 21 in the summer of 1836, and in the fall returned eastward. In the spring of 1837 William came back to Danby with his family for permanent settlement, while John, his brother, went to Texas, where he was killed.
The first frame barn in the township was built by John COMPTON in 1839. His father-in-law, Daniel HULL, came with him and brought a bushel of apple seed and planted and produced the first orchard in the township. The first teacher was Hester DAVID, daughter of Alpha DAVID. The first white child born in Danby was Jane E. COMPTON, daughter of John COMPTON. The date was April 30, 1838. She became Mrs. Jane Peabody and lived at Mulliken, one mile from her birthplace. The second birth was that of Charles G. BROOKS, August 28, 1838.

It is said by some that the first death was that of the wife of Abijah SCHOFF in 1838. She was buried on the farm of her husband on Sec. 1. It is very probable, however, that the first to die was Martha, daughter of Wm. CONKRITE, who was four years old and was burned to death in a flaming brush heap bout 1837.

John COMPTON was the first postmaster, retaining the position 20 years. His successors were John CAHOON, Redding SARGENT, J. R. DAVID, John HOVEY, Samuel F. DAVID. The first Town Meeting was held at John COMPTON’S house on April 7, 1845. Abijah F. SCOFF, Willard L. BROOKS, Wm. CONKRITE & Lorenzo SEARS were chosen inspectors, and John COMPTON clerk. Charles BROOKS was elected treasurer. Justicies were Mathew DAVENPORT, Wm. CONKRITE, Henry JONES & Lorenzo SEARS. Highway commissioners were Oscar P. SCOFF & Elkanah DRAKE. Constables were Elkanah DRAKE & Alpha DAVID. Assessor was Willard L. BROOKS.

ODDFELLOW HALL UPDATE: Alzeo (Mike) SMITH, son of Ben & Mable, writes to ask when the Oddfellows Hall at Sebewa Corners was built. We knew it was not there in 1881, and Fern CONKRITE calculates the date to be 1889, based on an obituary of a charter member.

SESQUI-CENTENNIAL FARMER – ALMOST: Beth A. INGRAHAM, co-owner with her husband, Timothy L., of the KNOX Farm on KNOX Road, just east of Sec. 1 Sebewa. Beth is daughter of Kendall KNOX, son of Thelma MOYER & Frederick KNOX, son of Frederick KNOX, Sr., son of Harvey KNOX, son of John KNOX, who settled on that farm in 1836. Recently a visiting Agricultural Agent introduced Beth as a farmer’s wife. “No” said Beth, “I’m one of the farmers!” A timely comment for a 1990s farmer who is a sixth generation tiller of that soil. She is also descended from the SHEURERS of Orange and the MOYERS of Sebewa & Eagle.

FROM THE MAILBAG: LeRoy CATT has received interesting mail from a Houston lady. About 15 years ago the Lake Odessa Area Historical Society received a letter of inquiry about the CATT family from a Patricia SACHELI. Her letter was simply handed to LeRoy to answer. The New York lady did ten years worth of genealogy research and then died. Fortunately her widower kept her papers, even tho they held no interest to him. Then a Rochester, NY, gentleman began searching for his CATT ancestry and learned of Mrs. SACHELI. By then, she had died, but her husband loaned him her material. Now Lillian KATES of Houston, TX, has been searching and by mail learned of the Rochester man, who in turn shared his findings plus those from Mrs. SACHELI and from Mr. CATT. The KATES lady shares the story that her grandmother said she would never marry a CAT, so her prospective husband changed his name to CATE and later to KATES. Another branch of the family tells that one of the New York CATTS paid a priest in Churchville, NY, $10 to change the surname on a vital church record. The Texas lady is descended from David CATT, who was the oldest brother of LeRoy’s grandfather, George CATT, who was born in England and farmed on Ralph Road in Odessa Township. George was the father of our own Vertie McDONALD, who lived to be 108 yers, 10 months & 26 days. Robert, another brother of David & George, was in the Civil War and is buried in Lakeside Cemetery.

Charles LEIK calls our attention to an exhibit by the National Building Museum in the Old Pension Building in Washington, DC. The exhibit features a timber-frame barn from Eaton Rapids, Michigan. It was taken down board-by-board and timber-by-timber and transported to Washington. Charles participated in the barn-raising last March, and the exhibit ends at 4:00 PM, Sunday, September 11, 1994. It just so happens we will arrive in Washington for the National Association of Towns & Townships convention on Saturday night, September 10, and hope to catch that exhibit.

Jeff BOWER was a top competitor in the Antique Tractor Pull at the Lake Odessa Fair. He drove a nicely restored 1937 Allis-Chalmers WC tractor. Jeff is grandson of Louis BOWER and great-grandson of George BOWER, who once operated a tractor just like that, maybe the same one.

WHEN THE FELLOWS IN THE BLACK HATS WERE THE GOOD GUYS – Great-great-grandfather John BRECH was drafted (they called it conscription then) in the War of 1812. These Mennonite boys were to bring their teams to war. As Teamsters naturally they hauled supplies. But their main function in battle was to gather the wounded and dead. These German boys served on both sides of the conflict and gathered the casualties without regard for color of uniform. They would draw up the battle lines and then drop back while the firing was going on. But when they went onto the battlefield to gather the wounded, no-one would put a rifle ball thru one of those black hats. Not one was seriously wounded or killed, and after the war they were paid $5.00 for every day they & their horses served.

There is a monument in Queen Victoria Gardens, Melbourne, Australia, to those who served in the Boer War in 1898. Included are a Farrier Sergeant and several Shoeing Smiths.

Elmer CREIGHTON was one of the last blacksmiths in the Army Air Force in World War II. He patched holes in bombers when they returned from flights over Berlin. We imbedded an anvil & Hammer in the base of his cemetery marker. In his eulogy Edgar Fleetham said Elmer had set his forge and trip-hammer on the corner of First & Main in Heaven and was waiting to hammer our bean knives.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association;
OCTOBER 1994, Volume 30, Number 2.
Submitted with permission of current Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES: WELCH, McKENDRY, MERRILL, NASH, HALLADAY, CHAPIN, SWITZER, FENDER, GRIFFITHS, FRIEND, COMB

COVER PHOTO: Taken on the front lawn of John FRIEND’S home on what is now called Mrs. CLOSSON’S vacant corner lot in Sebewa. George was living in the original farmhouse by this time, where Jim & Sid STANK live now. Left to right in front row: Morna FRIEND, John FRIEND, Ethel FRIEND, Francis FRIEND, Rush BALDWIN, Alonzo EVANS, George FRIEND.

Back row: Bertha FRIEND, Martha RICHMOND FRIEND, Phebe Maria FRIEND BALDWIN, Emma FRIEND EVANS, Jennie CARPENTER FRIEND.

RECENT DEATHS:

DOUGLAS R. WELCH, 80, husband of Winifred McKendry Welch, father of Marcia YORK & Sue McFARLANE, brother of the late Emma Jane CROSSMAN, son of Blanche REYNOLDS & Henry T. WELCH, son of Emma TREMAYNE & Amos M. WELCH, son of Sarah Ann Morgan & John B. WELCH, son of Ruth SQUIRES & Vine WELCH. His great-grandfather, John B. WELCH, Sr., came to Ionia in 1836 and settled on the farm in Sec. 9 & 10 Ionia Township in 1837. His great-great-grandfather, Vine WELCH, a blacksmith, and wife Ruth also settled in Ionia. John B. WELCH raised the Twenty-first Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment at the outbreak of the Civil War and was commissioned its colonel. They drilled at Prairie Creek flats, where American Bumper now stands, and fought under General George Armstrong CUSTER and James H. KIDD.

Douglas REYNOLDS WELCH was born October 22, 1913, at the home of his grandparents Emma & Amos WELCH, on Washington St. in Ionia. His father was helping run the family sheep & cattle ranch near Taft Station in Ogemaw County at the time, and Blanche was in Ionia. Henry was called home by telegram and drove all night on unmarked roads, a distance of 175 miles, in a 1908 Model 10 Buick with no top, no doors, and no windshield, but with carbide gas lights, to be present for the event. Two stock dogs were thrown out of the car on a pothole near Pinconning and arrived on foot three days later.

Henry T. WELCH and family moved to the Ionia Township farm in 1916. Amos & Emma had succeeded John B. WELCH Sr. on the farm in 1884 and retired to town in 1910. They were followed by John B. WELCH Jr., brother of Henry, who moved two miles north to his own farm on Cooper Rd. Sec. 33 Ronald Township (the old County Poor Farm) in 1916. At that time the WELCH homestead consisted of 445 acres, employed five or six hired men, a hired girl, and maintained 50 milking cows, 100 feeder cattle, 12 work horses, and 250 breeding ewes.

Doug rode a pony to Ionia every day to attend kindergarten and tied it at the Central Feed Barn, at the head of Steele Street, where ETT Ambulance barn is now. Destined to be a farmer, his life took a sudden turn at age 6, when he contracted polio. Determined to do all the normal things a kid would do, he earned Boy Scout merit badges in swimming and lifesaving as part of his therapy. He graduated with honors from Ionia High School in 1930, excelling in debate, oratory, and playing the saxophone in the band. He graduated from the University of Michigan and entered Law School there in 1935. The late George Petrie Sr. of Sebewa was working in the WELCH Blacksmith Shop, which was located just south of the Martha Washington Café and apparently was a continuation of Vine WELCH’S trade, when Doug entered law school. Doug often hung around the shop after school and on this occasion George asked him “Well Doug, did they teach you how to lie yet?” “Hell yes! That was the first day’s lesson!” said Doug.

Doug was born a Democrat and he died a Democrat. But for a time in law school he joined the Young Republican Club, at the invitation of his pal, Gerald R. FORD. He told us this in 1977, while admiring an autographed portrait that President FORD had sent to Ionia County Republican Party. One County Commissioner, a Republican lawyer who was disgruntled because I had not given him what he considered a plush political appointment, refused to allow the photo to be hung in the Court House Rotunda. Doug WELCH said “Gerald FORD was our Congressman, our President, and our friend, hang the damn portrait!” We hung the portrait, but the Commissioner got the inscription covered by matting.

Douglas WELCH had a long and distinguished career as a lawyer and public official in Ionia. He was first a law partner with Ray COLWELL, then Flint C. WATT, later as WELCH, NICHOLS, MCKAIG & WATT, and finally of counsel to O’CONNER, MCNAMARA, O’KEEFE AND SYKES.

He was Mayor, President of the School Board, Fair Board, Michigan Commerce, and served on the Independent Bank Board, Michigan Municipal League, Ionia Industrial Development Fund, Rotary, Elks, Masons, and First United Methodist Church. He retained his keen mind and memory until the day of his death. Without question Douglas R. WELCH was the best Ionia attorney of his time, and most of us would have wanted him to defend us on any serious charge, especially if there was strong evidence that we were guilty. END

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MONROE H. MERRILL, 92, husband of Leah for 73 years, father of Joyce WISNER & Barbara LENORE, brother of the late Royce MERRILL and Olive NASH, son of G. Lillian HALLADAY & Roscoe MERRILL. Born in Sebewa, he had long lived in Lowell.

EVELYN H. CHAPIN, 86, widow of Galen CHAPIN, mother of Nancy WALLACE & Jack CHAPIN, sister of the sate Luna PICKENS Van TIFFLIN, daughter of Anna GRIFFIN & William SWITZER. Louisa SWITZER FENDER (Mrs. Adam) was her aunt, and the SWITZER family settled at SW ¼ Sec. 31 Sebewa Township in 1866.

WILLIAM H. GRIFFITHS, 88, husband of Maxine, father of Thomas GRIFFITHS and the late Ann HOLLANDER, brother of Geraldine TILLIE, son of Hanna R. BONNER & William P. GRIFFITHS. He was Superintendent of Portland Public Schools from 1952 to 1966, later served on Ionia County Mental Health Board, Ionia County Commission on Aging, and Portland School Board.

JOHN FRIEND – OBITUARY – PORTLAND OBSERVER – June 17, 1885. JOHN FRIEND died at his home in Alanson, Michigan, on June 10, aged 61 years, 3 months, and 6 days. Mr. Friend suffered a stroke two weeks ago last Sunday and was paralyzed on his left side. Word was received in Portland that he was not expected to live, and his five living children, four residing at Sebewa plus Mrs. R. P. BALDWIN of Portland, left for Alanson. Mr. FRIEND’S death was caused by two more strokes of paralysis on Tuesday evening, June 9th, beginning about 6 o’clock. He remained unconscious until his death on Wednesday morning at 5:15.

The remains were brought to Portland Thursday noon and taken to Sebewa, where on Friday they were interred under the direction of the Sebewa Lodge I. O. O. F. assisted by the Portland encampment, of which Mr. FRIEND was an honored member. About 100 Odd Fellows were present in the procession, representing lodges from Sunfield, Hoytville, Vermontville, Portland, and Sebewa. The funeral services were held in a beautiful grove west of Sebewa Corners (Horace T. BARNABY United Brethren Campgrounds at that time, now called Bible Missionary Campgrounds). Rev. F. N. JANES preached a short but effective sermon, after which the remains of the deceased were taken to the cemetery for interment, followed by almost 150 carriages and wagons, showing how highly Mr. Friend was esteemed by his neighbors and friends.

John FRIEND II was born in Devonshire, England, March 24, 1824, son of John and Betty COMB FRIEND. His ancestors were farmers and landowners. In April 1833 the family emigrated to America, settling at Royalton, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where John Sr. farmed. On June 17, 1843, John FRIEND II married Miss Polly Ann MEACHUM of Brunswick, Medina County, Ohio. By this union four children were born: Francis N., George E., Phoebe Maria, and Emily A. (Emma).

In April 1854, Mr. FRIEND removed with his family to Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan. On December 16, 1857, he was afflicted by the death of his estimable wife. During this time he conducted a general store at Sebewa in connection with his farm, gristmill, and sawmill. On December 24, 1858, he married for his second wife Miss Sarah J. CRAMER of Herkimer County, NY. By this union there were born five children: Estella Edith, Bertha B., Judson Zach, Morna Belle & Ethel Rose.

On July 5, 1875, Mr. FRIEND was afflicted by the death of his second wife. November 12, 1876, he married for his third wife Mrs. Lou A. FARRELL. They were divorced November 15, 1880. From 1859 to 1862 Mr. FRIEND engaged in business as a stock-raiser and drover (one who drives livestock to market, hence a dealer). From 1862 to 1867 he followed the occupation of lumbering and from 1868 to 1871 was engaged in hardwood lumber sales. From 1871 to 1875 he resumed the store at Sebewa, while continuing the management of his extensive farms, totaling 361 acres. He had just purchased the Ramsey sawmill at Muir and moved it to Alanson April 15. He had been a Republican since the organization of that party. END.

THE FRIEND FAMILY – THEIR TRIP TO AMERICA – BERIA ADVERTISER – 1904

By the year 1833 England had become thickly populated and every avenue for business was crowded. The common school advantages were very inferior; many were desirous of leaving England and seeking home and fortune in the new land. About this time John FRIEND, with his wife and seven children, John, Betsy, William, Blanche, Maria, Thomas, and James decided to leave their native land and seek a home in the new land under new government. Mr. FRIEND lived in Devonshire, England. He had become a farmer of some note, managing and carrying on many acres of land at one time. The farms were owned by Lords and Squires, each farm having its own name, such as Black-a-broom, Batzell, Dartimore, etc. Mr. FRIEND was small of stature, wide awake, energetic, and always on the alert.

Before leaving England, Mr. FRIEND showed great forethought in case of accident or shipwreck that would separate the family. For each of the girls, being three in number, he provided a stout canvas bag, large enough to hold a guinea. Into these he put three hundred pounds (between twelve and fifteen hundred dollars). These were securely sewed around the waist under the clothing. The voyage by sailing ship took several weeks. The young ladies had many friends among the passengers and were often asked by other young ladies as they paraded the deck “Do you wear a bustle?” They always informed them that they did, not explaining the value of the article. The oldest boys were also provided with means. Into the linings of each of their vests, then called waistcoats, they had five hundred pounds quilted. Mr. and Mrs. FRIEND also had some money about their person, so that in case they should be separated, each would be provided with means. The next step was not so discreet. The balance of the money was put into a large cask, and as all luggage was stored in the hold of the boat, that went with the rest.

All went well, until nearing New York, off Sandy Hook, now a summer resort near Long Island, the ship struck a sand bar, when about two miles out at sea at two o’clock in the morning, and with every wave was washed farther and farther into the sand until she was fast. The scene on board was terrible, some crying, some praying, some cursing & swearing. The tide was running high and each effort to reach the shore proved fruitless. It seemed all on board must be lost.

About two o’clock in the afternoon the first and second mates said if they might be allowed, contrary to the rules of the boat, to leave the boat and try to reach land, and if it would please God to spare their lives and they could reach land, they would return to the vessel. They were fine swimmers and were granted their request. On leaving the ship, they carried with them a small line. As the breakers would be rolling high, the swimmers would be lost from sight, all on board feeling that their brave rescuers had perished. After some time the heads of the swimmers would appear again, nearer shore. Once, twice they tried, and on the third try, after being given up by all on board, they reached land.

On reaching land with the line, a communication was established with the ship. Then began the voyage back to the ship in small boats. After hard labor, with water-filled boats, they succeeded in reaching the wreck. The women and children were first to be rescued. To do this they were taken in the small boats until they struck a sand bar, then they were taken from the boats by men and carried across the bar and put in other boats. This was twice repeated before reaching land. This being a dangerous point, there was a large building on the shore called “The Wrecker’s Home”. A fireplace extended the full length of the room. This was opened and a large fire built to dry the clothes of the people, who were wet, cold, and hungry, everything soaked with salt water. The Captain had given each a small tea biscuit and a cup of wine before leaving the wreck. Mrs. FRIEND had been sea-sick and in her berth the entire length of the voyage. In the confusion, her clothes could not be found. Mrs. FRIEND went ashore in her husband’s overcoat.

In getting ashore, one of the small boys was separated from the rest. They searched up and down the shores in hopes of finding him, but in vain. Betsy and Blanche, after searching long and diligently, broke down and cried. Blanche’s crying attracted the attention of a rich man who was passing in a beautiful carriage. He ordered the driver to stop and upon discovering the cause of their grief, took them in his carriage and drove along the beach in search of the missing brother. About two miles out, at a hotel, they found him eating his supper. Their grief was turned to joy. The gentleman was blind, but very kind. He owned a small cottage which he opened to Mr. FRIEND and his family. While there he brought them many eatables and luxuries.

The money which they had put in the cask was still in the wreck. After many attempts to secure it, Mr. FRIEND advertised for divers and offered a reward. After a number of days, the cask was secured and brought to shore. Immediately an old servant sat upon the gold and remained there as if taking a sun-bath. They remained three days and each night robbers attacked the house, so the men were obliged to guard it with firearms. With Mr. FRIEND’S daughters begging him to leave, they took passage for Cleveland, Ohio.

They searched for a farm between Beria and Binola, Ohio, and settled one mile south of BENNETT’S Corners. Mrs. Betsy SOUTHAM, the second oldest of the FRIEND children, was ninety years old and a consultant for this sketch when it was written in 1904. She and the youngest, James FRIEND of Carlton Center, Michigan, were the only two still living.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: James lived on the second farm east of Charlton Park Road, on the north side of Carlton Center Road, west of Woodland. James FRIEND died in 1923. His daughter, Mrs. NORTON, still lived there in 1983, and her daughters, one being a Mrs. SCHAIBLY, came in to check on her daily. Francis (Frank) FRIEND was James’ son, and Dayton, Russell & Annabelle were Frank’s children. There are other FRIENDS in the Freeport & Lake Odessa area who are descended from James. John FRIEND II lived on what is now the James STANK farm, long known as the KNAPP farm, Sec. 25 & 24 Sebewa. He has many descendents still in Ionia County and elsewhere.)

Our friend Martha CHURCHILL, after working as a reporter at the IONIA SENTINEL-STANDARD, and while a student at COOLEY Law School, researched the divorce lawsuit of Lou A. FRIEND v. John FRIEND II, as it progressed all the way thru the Michigan Supreme Court. She comments that it dies not make good case law by today’s standards, (because it does not allow for no-fault or amicable divorces) but it does make interesting reading. “The Judge who wrote this opinion is considered one of the big four of Michigan Jurisprudence, because there are four early judges of the Michigan Supreme Court who shaped Michigan Law to a large extent – and this one, James V. CAMPBELL, is highly regarded as having been one of the greatest.”
“It looks to me, Ann, like your great-great-grandpa had a pretty colorful marital situation. The judge here claims he doesn’t want to go into all the disgusting details, but it’s pretty easy to read between the lines and see that these two individuals were not exactly lovebirds by the time this case hit the Supreme Court.”

CITE: 53 Mich 543. LOU A. FRIEND v. JOHN FRIEND
Divorce – Estoppel – Extreme Cruelty – Dower.
1. A party to a divorce suit is not estopped as to the main issue by a decree entered by his own procurement, since collusive divorces are unlawful.
2. It is extreme cruelty to turn a wife and her daughter out of doors without cause, and to make their separation the condition of taking the wife back again.
3. A woman who obtains a divorce cannot be deprived, without her consent, of her dower right.

C. C. HOWELL for complaintant: Conduct which results in driving a wife from home is cruelty.
Wm. O. WEBSTER for defendant: One is not obligated to support a step-child.

James V. CAMPBELL for the Court: Complainant obtained a divorce from defendant for cruelty, and was granted seven hundred dollars alimony absolutely, and six hundred more in case she should release her dower, - these amounts to be paid in one, two, three, and four years, with interest after one year. Defendant appealed generally, and complainant appealed for insufficient alimony.

Complainant, when she married defendant in November, 1876, was doing a fairly prosperous business as a hair-dresser, and had one daughter, named Jennie FARRELL, about ten years old. She had no property beyond her business, which was chiefly made available by her personal exertions. Defendant at this time was a widower who had been married more than once, and had several grown children living near him, and three daughters at home of the ages respectively of fifteen, ten, and five years. He lived on a farm adjoining Sebewa Corners in Ionia County, where he was also engaged in mercantile business. He owned other lands nearby. (EDITOR’S NOTE: The opinion goes on for six more pages, and in the end the lower court decision was upheld, except for a slight increase in alimony.)

JOHN FRIEND II and Polly Ann MEACHAM’S children were:
1. Francis N. FRIEND born May 20, 1844, married Martha RICHMOND, ran the family’s general store in Sebewa.
2. George E. FRIEND born February 18, 1846, died April 22, 1923; married Jane E. CARPENTER, ran the family farm.
3. Phebe Maria FRIEND born December 30, 1847, died June 2, 1903; married Rush P. BALDWIN, a farmer in Sebewa.
4. Emily A. (Emma) FRIEND born June 4, 1850, died in 1915; married Alonzo N. EVANS, a farmer in Sebewa.

John FRIEND and Sarah Jane CRAMER’S children were:
5. Estelle Edith FRIEND born July 17, 1861, died October 24, 1861.
6. Bertha B. FRIEND born November 11, 1862; married Mortimer TRIM.
7. Judson Zach FRIEND born October 6, 1865, died May 7, 1866.
8. Morna Belle FRIEND born July 16, 1867, died September 20, 1956; married Wellington E. PORTER, barber & violinist.
9. Ethel Rose FRIEND born July 9, 1871, died November 29, 1957

George E. FRIEND & Jane E. CARPENTER’S children were:
1. Fred E. FRIEND lived in Portland, buried in Sebewa, no stone
2. Jessie E. FRIEND of Portland, buried in Sebewa near wife Bessie
3. Herbert E. FRIEND born April 1872, died April, died April 29, 1875
4. Ralph E. FRIEND born 1874, died 1940; married Lucy HALLADAY, farmed various places in the area.
5. Archibald E. FRIEND born December 1, 1881, died June 9, 1908

Ralph E. FRIEND & Lucy E. HALLADAY’S children were:
1. Lawrence FRIEND lived in Ionia.
2. Evelyn FRIEND born January 11, 1901, died January 7, 1981; married Dale COURSER, farmed in Orange Township
3. Beatrice FRIEND born 1903, died April 9, 1962; married Kenneth CURTIS, lived at Vermontville.
4. Lucille FRIEND married Todd, lived at Hastings
5. Mildred FRIEND born October 22, 1907; married Royce MERRILL and lived in the Apollos & Abel C. HALLADAY house at Sebewa.
6. George FRIEND II married Vida CURTIS, lived at Vermontville

Mildred L. FRIEND & Royce MERRILL’S children were:
1. Royce HALLADAY MERRILL
2. Ralph Milton MERRILL born April 8, 1933, married Marlene PATRICK, worked for State of Michigan
3. Gary Monroe MERRILL born June 4, 1937, married Nancy J. WRISLEY and Suzette
4. Sandra Lee MERRILL married Bob JONES, ran Builders Lumber.
5. Dean Rosceo MERRILL
6. Steven John MERRILL

Evelyn FRIEND & Dale COURSER’S children were:
1. Marge COURSER
2. Eugene COURSER
3. Lucy COURSER

PHEBE MARIA FRIEND & RUSH P. BALDWIN’S children were:
1. Addie E. BALDWIN born July 22, 1868, died December 17, 1940; married Albert B. CULVER II, lived in Pasadena, CA
2. Clarence E. BALDWIN born December 13, 1871, died February 20, 1889
3. Estella E. BALDWIN born December 15, 1876, died February 16, 1909; married Frank W. PRYER (See June 1993 RECOLLECTOR)
4. Lee E. BALDWIN born October 13, 1883, died December 6, 1940; married Bertha E. TAFT

Rush & Phebe lived on the W ½ SE ¼ Sec. 20 Sebewa, on Musgrove Hwy., on what was later the east half of the Theo BULLING farm and now belongs to Charles & Edward LEIK. The house stood directly across from the driveway of the Reuben LAPO-John SHAY farm, and the foundation stones were still visible in 1957. Their children were all born there and started school at the BALDWIN School, which stood on the southeast corner of Sec. 20, south of the home of George BALDWIN, brother of Rush. Rush was the son of William F. BALDWIN & Matilda SHAW, daughter of Robert SHAW, son of Richard SHAW, Revolutionary War Veteran, who is this family’s tie to the D. A. R. Sometime in the 1880s Rush moved his family to W ½ NW ¼ Sec. 32 & E ½ E ½ NE ¼ Sec. 31 in Portland Township, which is now the west part of the Ronald Lenneman farm on Grand River Ave., and the children finished school in Portland.

Addie E. BALDWIN & Albert B. CULVER’S child was:
1. Albert B. CULVER III born November 4, 1914

Estella E. BALDWIN & Frank W. PRYER’S children were:
1. Marian Addie PRYER born March 17, 1900; married Elon D. LAKIN, lived on the Frank PRYER farm in Danby
2. Margaret Morna PRYER born November 2, 1902, died 1974; married Dan MORIARITY, William COREY, Hugh JACQUES

Lee E. BALDWIN & Bertha Taft’s children were:
1. John R. BALDWIN born September 27, 1904, died l968; married Ada Lee POINDEXTER
2. Bertha Lee BALDWIN born July 14, 1930; married Frank TUCK

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association,
DECEMBER 1994, Volume 30, Number 3;
submitted with permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES: LEIK, MORIARTY, SLOWINSKI, SCHNABEL, LEHMAN, SANDBORN, KILMARTIN, LONG, FOX, CARD, TUBBS,

COVER STORY: (With photo of the CHIPPEWA COUNTY COURT HOUSE, SAULT SAINTE MARIE)

We begin a series this issue on the county court houses of the 83 counties of Michigan. We visited the 15 counties in the Upper Peninsula in July and begin with CHIPPEWA County at Sault Sainte Marie. This court house was built in 1877. It is an example of Second French Empire style of construction, and its architect was John SCOTT. The walls are two feet thick of solid stone. The front façade of the building has three bays, with the central pavilion projecting beyond the others. Above it rises the clock & bell Tower. Two additions to the rear were built in 1904 and 1930, and match the style and look of the original. Both the tower and the main building feature steep mansard roofs, once covered in slate, now in asphalt shingles. A wrought-iron widow’s walk once ran along the roof, but was removed for safety reasons. Above the third floor is a statue of Justice.

The original structure cost $20,000. The 1904 addition cost $25,000 and made a “T” shape of the court house. The 1930 addition enclosed a corner to expand the Treasurer’s office. The main floor has the statutory offices of Treasurer, Clerk & Register of Deeds, with their original vaults. There is high wainscoting and molded tin pressed into fancy designs on the ceilings. In the main courtroom upstairs, two columns bear ornate cast-iron capitals, which add elegance to the courtroom. An original skylight in the courtroom was removed many years ago, but has recently been replaced with a modern structure to admit more sunlight to this north-facing room. The Circuit Judge’s chamber has a working fireplace. The judge’s desk and much of the other furniture is the original and has been refinished. The Probate courtroom is also on the second floor.

Board of Commissioners and the Prosecuting Attorney’s offices are on the third floor. Equalization, Corrections, Probate Court offices, and Maintenance are at the garden level, along with lounges. A $1,264,500 restoration project was carried out in 1988, including a State of Michigan Equity Grant and a grant from the Hudson Foundation plus township support and a county millage levy. The project included bringing the court house up to safety standards and making it barrier-free. Among the greatest changes was the addition of an elevator, designed to blend well with the historic architecture.

THE LEIK FAMILY by Grayden SLOWINS

Anthony LEIK was born and raised in Bassenheim, near Koblenz, Germany. There was a military school in Koblenz and his brother attended, but Tony was rejected. So in 1894 he came to America to be a farmer and married Ellen MORIARTY, sister of Michael. Mike had bought the farm on Keefer Hwy at W ½ NW ¼ Sec. 6 Danby, where George LEIK lives now, in 1893, and his daughter Mary was born there that same year. Then came a son, Daniel, who died in infancy, and a daughter, Rhodda, who lived to age 27. Mike’s wife was Rose KILMARTIN, daughter of Jeremiah KILMARTIN, from over on Portland Road, Sec. 33 Orange.

Anthony bought the farm around the corner on Knox Road, E ¾ SE ¼ Sec. 31 Portland, where Dan LEIK lives now, in 1905. Tony’s oldest son, Jerry, followed him on the home farm and is now deceased. When he took over, Tony moved to a new brick house on South Kent Stl, but walked to the farm every day with an ax, scythe, or other tool over his shoulder- - just as they had done in the farm villages of Germany. Jerry was succeeded by his son Dan.

Tony’s oldest daughter, Helen, was born in 1898 and graduated from Portland High School in 1916. She became Sister Ethelreda S.S.J. of Nazareth. She died in September 1990.

Marie was born August 15, 1900, graduated from Portland High School in 1919, and attended County Normal and Ferris State College. She was a practical nurse, long-time rural school teacher, and kept house for her father. She married her old boy-friend, George SLOWINSKI, late in life. They died 10 days apart in July, 1989.

Henry was born November 3, 1903, and attended St. Patrick’s School. He was married to Mary Rose LEHMAN, a cousin to George SLOWINSKI. Her grandfather Anton SCHNABEL was a brother to the SLOWINSKIS’ great-grandmother Anna SCHNABEL SLOWINSKI. Henry & George LEIK operated LEIK Brothers Garage in Portland for nearly 30 years, first selling Chevrolet and then Dodge-Plymouth cars & trucks. Henry farmed at E 110Ac SE ¼ Sec. 30 & W ½ NE ¼ Sec. 31 Portland, on Grand River Ave., where Philip LEIK lives now.

George LEIK was born April 30, 1905, attended St. Patrick’s School and graduated from Portland High School in 1923. Besides the garage, he and Henry owned various farms in Portland & Danby Townships, as well as town properties. He farmed Mike MARIARTY’S old place, and to day his sons, Charles & Edward, own the Theo YAGER farm, Theo BULLING farm, John SHAY farm, and Adelbert NORTHROP farm, in addition to their home place.

Charles lives in Great Falls, VA, and works for the Export-Import Bank. Edward was a pilot for Eastern Airlines and now for United Parcel Service. He lives in Florida. George spends his summers on the farm and winters with the boys, mostly in Florida. They renovated the 1858 vintage house in 1983-85 and are working on the barn. The following story, EVENTS OF 1914, is as George LEIK wrote it:

EVENTS OF 1914 by George LEIK:

It was early in 1914 and preparations were under way to move back to the farm from Quarterline St. Henry, Jerry and I liked the idea. I don’t think Marie was too concerned and Helen was completely against it. She thought town life was much more dignified than living on a farm.

All farm equipment was sold off at an auction only two years before. A double and single buggy were retained. The double buggy was bought new probably about 1905. The single buggy was old, rickety and ready for replacement. Dad’s first purchase was a fine team of Belgian horses that weighed in at about 3000 pounds. Rob was four years old and Doll was five. They were bought from the RADEMACHER family living on the first farm west of Uncle Jim MORIARTY’S on Lookingglass Ave. Price was $450. The horses were kept in the barn where we lived. I don’t remember the exact sequence of the following purchases, but they all were in rapid succession.

One evening after school the two horses were led downtown by their halters and tied to telephone posts in front of Ferris WILHELM’S harness shop. I think the shop was in the building now occupied by Milt SMITH’S music store. Loitering farmers’ sons gathered to voice their opinions. Uncle Jim was one of them. He was a good judge of horses and the fitting of proper size collars. WILHELM and his helper George WHITNEY made the harnesses from slabs of leather just as it came from the tannery. Dad ordered the harness to be void of frills such as brass knobs on the hames and other ornaments avid horse lovers wanted.
The horses were driven up the street to John BAUER’S wagon shop. The site including the same building was later bought by Henry and me for a used car lot. The wagon was a pretty sight, painted red, striped in black and “John BAUER” the builder painted on the rear axle. I’m sure the wagon was bought and paid for previously as I don’t recall talk of price, etc. The price was $55 including neck yoke, evener and whiffletrees. Jerry, Henry, Dad and I all sat on the wagon reach or rear axle and rode up to our home on Quarterline. In was in March so must have been near sundown when we got home.

The first job for the wagon came the very next day. We had a pile of wood that had been moved down from the farm and now had to be moved back. I don’t recall what was used for a box. It may be that “dump boards” were borrowed from the URIE brothers that lived next door and carried on a small farming operation in town. It must have been a warm day as I remember when getting home from school that night the pretty new wagon was covered with mud. The roads in those days were a wallow in springtime.

Another purchase made was a sleigh with a 16 foot long platform and high side racks mounted on it. It was bought at some farm auction whether before or after buying the team, I don’t know. It was hauled to Quarterline and left on the back of the lot near Albro St. Another minor article bought was about a forty foot extension ladder. That was bought at a Mrs. INGHRAM’S auction. That auction was on the farm now owned by Ivan LAY. Mr. INGHRAM was a suicide during the winter and his wife was leaving the farm. At that time the farm was known as The New SYDNEY farm. The owner was a Mr. RUDOLPH that was living in Sydney, Australia or had been living there.

The tenant that lived on our farm the two years we were in town was Wm. LEIK, wife Seraphine, son Harold and three daughters, Romilda, Florence and Philomenia. Mr. LEIK was Dad’s first cousin. He bought the William PHILLIP’S farm only two farm homes to the west.

While these events were taking place a third horse was bought for we kids to drive to school. The horse’s name was Nancy, a gentle fat dark brown horse that was not too fast on the road and could also be used as a third horse when a three horse team was needed. Price was $200. She was bought at Chris MARGAND’S auction. Chris was a widower of three years and lived on BARR Rd. directly across the road from the farm that I bought in 1942 from my Uncle Henry STOEFFEL. I recall hearing Mother tell Dad to pay above average price if necessary to get the horse on account of the horse’s reputation for safety and not being afraid of automobiles. Rob and Doll were afraid of automobiles and it was scary to meet a car on the road and have them act in a very frightening manner. It was not uncommon for horses to “run away” with whatever they were drawing and cause serious accidents resulting in death.

We were soon settled on the farm. The house was quite a “let down” from the house we had on Quarterline St. Mother started papering and soon had the house in respectable condition. Mother always papered the sidewalls and hired Myron WAY to do the ceilings. Myron was an elderly man that was one of Mother’s early school teachers. He lived in the house on the corner of Grand River and road next to where VANDERVENNE later had a grocery store.

I’m sure there wasn’t much income from the farm. I do remember of taking a double crate of eggs to town each week. A double crate was 30 dozen and brought $5.40. I also remember Mrs. Dell NORTHROP and hired girl Irene SARGENT taking a double crate to town twice a week. A double crate was a little too long to set flat between the sides of a buggy back of the dashboard so one end had to rest on top of a side making it ride at an angle.

As spring passed and blended into summer the hens “let up” on their laying and a single crate sufficed. I would guess our hen flock numbered 100 hens more or less. They roamed the farm at will, picked their own living and chose their own nests. They often hid their nests under burdocks, horse managers and “sat” on a nest of eggs and after three weeks showed up leading a brood of little chicks.

We did not do all the farming. I think Ernest SANDBORN put in the oats on a 50-50 basis. A new walking plow, land roller, a two section drag and a John Deere No. 999 corn planter were bought. When June and haying time came a McCormick mower and hay dump rake had to be bought. The plow was a Champion with a heavy cast iron beam. The plow and roller were both made by WITTE’S Foundry in Portland. He melted down the cast iron, made the molds and poured the metal into the molds at the foundry located just above where Sam BURMAN built his brick house in the 20s. The steel parts such as plow moldboard, landside were made of steel and came from outside sources.

The field planted to corn that year was kiter-corner across from NELSON R. and KNOX. The new Deere planted was used and the corn checked, i.e. planted in hills so it could be cultivated in both directions. Most corn was planted that way as to have better control of weeds. The field was twelve acres. The lower part of the field where the ravine runs west to east was badly infested with thistles. Dad told Henry and Jerry he would give them $5 each in the fall if they kept the thistles down with the hoe. They hoed all summer and did a good job.

The hay was put up by ourselves. The wheat was harvested by Wm. LEIK. He planted the wheat the previous fall and had a half interest in it.

I mentioned in the early part of the story that our single buggy was old and dilapidated. I recall that the left front wheel had a broken section in the rim between two spokes. Every time that spot contacted the ground there was a thump. The roads that spring were really muddy. Wheels went into ruts that let the buggy down half way to the axle. Nancy was a gentle quiet horse and sometimes would stop and turn her head around and look at us when she got tired.

Sometime during late spring or early summer, a sale catalog came from SEARS. There was a buggy shown in bright colors that was on sale for $49.75. That included what they described as a “rubber covered boot” that fitted over the dashboard and reached up and fastened to the top bows to a height that could be seen over by a grown person. We ordered the buggy. The mail brought a card from the freight depot saying there was a buggy there for us. The mail was carried by horse and buggy. We were at the end of the route so we didn’t get the card till about 3 or 4 p.m. Jerry and Henry drove down in the buggy thinking the only thing they would have to do was install the wheels which they expected would be tied in a flat position under the buggy box. It was far different. The buggy was packed in a small very efficient package that would take some time to assemble. They came home and went down the next morning with the wagon and platform rack and loaded the crate containing the parts and came home. The crate was unloaded under a maple tree near the road and everyone except Mother and Dad wanted a part in assembling. The job was soon done. The running gear (wheels, axles, springs, etc.) were red striped with black. The box, dash, seat top were black. It was a pretty and stylish vehicle. I’m sure we hooked Nancy to it and went on the road, felt the fine greenish black broadcloth upholstery and fitted on the rubber covered boot that would give such good protection from storms.

It was sometime around the middle of July that I heard the first talk about going to Fowler to visit Uncle Pat and Aunt Mary Ann LONG. I am sure the last previous time they met was in 1912 when we all went in the double buggy to cousin Jim LONG’S wedding. At that time we did not attend the church services, but went to the bride’s folks’ farm somewhere south and east of Fowler. We drove a horse by the name of Ned that we borrowed from Wm. LEIK. Mother, Henry and & were the ones to go this time. We left home about 6:30 a.m. We were right in front of St. Pat’s when the 7 a.m. bell rang.

At that time St. Pat’s sat parallel to Grand River just east of the priest house and corner of Church St. I suppose we went north on Divine Hwy. No roads had names at that time. Mother knew the general direction, but had to kind of guess her way along. Suddenly we came to a farm that she said she was sure where a Mrs. Tony MARTIN lived and she would not go past without stopping to see here.

It was a prosperous looking farm. We drove in and it was Mrs. MARTIN. I’m sure they hugged and kissed. Mr. MARTIN soon had a bottle of wine and saw that we had all we wanted. We stayed no longer than half an hour and hurried on for we had a “long way to go”. Mr. MARTIN was a quiet man. Their two sons George and Ferd were backing the wagon out of the barn probably to draw hay or wheat bundles. The MARTINS later on bought the house just east of the church that had been occupied by Dad’s Uncle Henry LEIK from about 1913 to 1924.

We came to a corner where we turned north. Mother recognized it to be STEVENSON’S Corners. I still think I could find it. The LONGS lived about two miles west of Fowler and about a mile or more north. It must have been about 11 a.m. when we got there. I think Uncle Pat was about the house as well as Aunt Mary Ann and Rachel (Mrs. Dr. FOX). Pat went to the cellar and got us a bottle of beer which Mother, Henry and I divided between us. I don’t remember anything about Duard, then 14 years and the youngest of the family. He was killed in 1927 north of Westphalia in a car accident.

Ed and the hired man were cutting wheat and came in from the field at noon. They washed up at the pump. Ed was a jovial young guy of about 22 or 24 years of age and made a big thing of the straw hat he was wearing with the top of the crown missing.

We had a big dinner of the type husky farmers would eat that probably had not eaten since seven or before that morning.
In the afternoon Rachel, Henry and I drove our horse and buggy to Jim LONG’S. His was the wedding that took place in 1912 that I mentioned previously. Jim lived on his own farm and was in bed with rheumatism that made him unable to continue farming. The next day was either Saturday or Sunday. If it was Saturday I can’t remember anything of the day. On Sunday we went to Fowler church in their double buggy and two horses. Some must have gone in another rig for it would have been impossible for all of us to get in one buggy. That was one year before the present Fowler church was built.

After dinner Coon (Conrad) and Nellie FOX came. Mrs. FOX was Pat and Mary Ann’s daughter. They lived a mile or two north of Pewamo and a little west or about five miles west of the Pat LONG residence. Near evening Mother, Henry and I went to the Fox residence. Coon, Henry and I road in one buggy and Mother and Nellie rode in our buggy. The five miles seemed a long distance. Mother slept upstairs in their spare bed while Henry and I slept on the floor.

Morning came and after breakfast we headed for home. I don’t recall much of the homeward trip; not even the time we got there.

Our wheat bundles were put in our barn to be thrashed the latter part of August. They were supposed to be in the barn six weeks before threshing so as to give them time to “sweat”. That was the time necessary for all moisture to evaporate from the grain making the wheat kernels hard and resistant to weevil.

The big event of August was the outbreak of WWI. We did not take a daily paper at that time, but some of us went to town nearly every day and brought home a paper. We soon subscribed to the Grand Rapids Press. One of we kids was at the road every day when the mail came to get the paper and learn the latest war news. I plainly recall of being out in the yard on the early days of the War near noon. Frank CARD, the man on the KNOX Farm was coming home from town with horse and wagon. He stopped his team and called out to me that Great Britain had declared war on Germany.

August was our month for threshing. Herb TUBBS was the thresher and would usually start in at the KNOX School or vice-versa and do one farm after another till the whole street was cleaned out. When they got to our place an argument took place between Dad and Wm. LEIK. Dad wanted Bill to haul his wheat to the elevator the same as he did when living on the farm. Bill thought he was no longer obligated to do it and wanted to put the wheat in the granary. The machine was in the barn and threshing delayed. Tubbs became impatient to have his machine idle. Rather than cause further delay Dad consented and put his half in the granary.

There was a big crop of wheat that year and at threshing time was bringing $.75 a bushel in Portland. With the start of WWI shipments increased to the Allies and prices started to rise. When ours was finally sold during the winter the price was about $1.50.

After our threshing was finished the machine went to the KNOX barn across the road. I don’t know what grain they were threshing but I do remember they were storing it in the granary near the road. The grain was carried by four men from the machine to the storage place. Of course the number of men varied according to the distance carried. Dad was one of the carriers. The mail came in the afternoon. The headlines in very large print said the Germans were within 15 miles of Paris. “They are probably there by now.” Thus ended the summer of 1914. Helen was back in high school and all the rest of us at St. Pat’s.
I have a few memories of the old (upper) bridge in Portland as it was being renovated about 1989. My earliest recollection of the bridge was from driving over it in a horse and buggy with Dad or Mother (Tony or Ellem MORIARTY LEIK) around the years 1908-10, and seeing the sign on each end that stated anyone driving over the bridge faster than a walk would be fined $10. I never heard of any fine being collected.

The origine ice-breaker was a heavy timber construction and was replaced by the concrete breaker about 1914 or 1915. Dad had his fine 3000 pound team of Belgians. He was approached by a village official and offered the job of hauling the sand bags for building the coffer dam. In the summer when the water was shallow the first load was delivered by driving through the river from the west side. The horses had difficulty walking over the stones of the river bed, so the following loads were unloaded on the bridge and slid down a chute to the dam site below. The pay is $5 a day for the team, wagon and driver. It was a ten hour day!

The finished ice breaker was level – not tilted as it is today. As I understand it the builder was not aware of a water main (wooden) that crossed the river at that point. Later the water main broke allowing the ice breaker to settle. At the Portland town meeting in the spring of 1917 or 1918 there was a vote on the type of bridge decking that was to be installed to replace the original. I was attending St. Pat’s at that time, but did not go that day, and instead was at the town meeting with Dad. The meeting was in front of the old fire-barn on the south end of Kent St. The two types of floors discussed were a plain plank floor like the original, or one of creosoted plank covered by creosoted wood blocks. The latter type was quite a bit more expensive, but was chosen by the voters. It had a life expectancy of fifty years which it greatly exceeded. A later event in the bridge’s life was the reinforcing of the under-structure in 1936 when M-16 traffic was routed over it where the two lane bridge on Grand River Avenue was replaced by the present four lanes. (Now that bridge is being replaced also.)

More on the Michael MORIARTY house & farm from Charles LEIK: The house was in very bad condition in the 1920s and was actually used as a granary from 1920-25. Uncles Jerry & Henry rebuilt the foundation walls in the mid 20s and rebuilt the rear wing of the house. I was born there in 1943 and Mary MORIARTY, who was born there 50 years earlier, was my godmother.

We have a Round Oak stove over 100 years old around which my father and I both played as children and it still is in active use. My brother and I did extensive renovations on the house in 1983-85 and today it is entirely modern, and comfortable, but has the original lines (a Victorian front porch built by Uncle Mike at the turn of the century was removed).

Michael MORIARTY sold the farm to Jerry & Henry LEIK in 1925. Henry sold his share to Jerry in 1930. Jetty sold it to Anthony LEIK in 1936. Anthony sold it to George LEIK in 1939. George sold it to Charles & Edward LEIK in 1989. (Editor’s note: George LEIK is great-uncle to those new triplets: Margaret, Hannah & Madeleine Engler! John’s mother was a sister to George’s wife, Matilda.)

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association,
FEBRUARY 1995, Volume 30, Number 4. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES: REED, BIPPLEY, COOK, THORP, WELCH, FRIEND, BULLING, DEXTER, TORREY, EDWINS, SMITH, MEYERS, PANGBORN, GUILD, ANDREWS, INGALLS, POWELL, CLARK, WELCH, FRIEND

RECENT DEATHS:
ALICE MARY BULLING, 86, widow of Theo BULLING, daughter of Nettie SMITH & Leon ALDRICH. They farmed on Musgrove Hwy., Sec. 20 Sebewa all their married lives until retiring in 1972. She was a descendant of the Samuel DEXTER family, first settlers in Ionia County Seat.

BERNICE M. BULLING, 80, widow of Keith BULLING, mother of Joan HANSON, Susan LAKE, Marjorie MONTGOMERY, Barbara FROST, and Bill BULLING, sister of Iva REED, Edith BIPPLEY, Myrtle CHILDS, Mildred INGALL, Claude WILLIAMS & Gerald WILLIAMS, daughter of Leon WILLIAMS & Mabel COOK, daughter of Emily & Charles P. COOK, son of Ursula & Pierce G. COOK, pioneer farmer & Civil War merchant, who settled in Sebewa Township in 1853.

MAXINE E. TORREY, 76, wife of Cecil TORREY, mother of Marilyn POSSEHN & Norman TORREY, daughter of Benjamin HAZZARD & Zella SEXTON, daughter of Mary BALDWIN SEXTON, daughter of George BALDWIN, son of William F. BALDWIN & Matilda SHAW, daughter of Robert SHAW, son of Richard SHAW, Soldier of the Revolution. Her place of birth is given as Sebewa Center, but we suspect it was West Sebewa, because the SEXTON (SAXTON, SECKSTONE) farm was where Ida SEXTON & Issi FLETCHER lived later and BREARLEYS are now. Ben HAZZARD was son of Charles W. HAZZARD, who once owned the Christopher & Daniel SLOWINSKI farm and later the Robert SCHNABEL farm in Berlin Township. Cecil TORREY is the last of the Gandy Dancers (Section Hands) on the Pere Marquette RR crew with Bert TOWNER, Voight McDIARMID & John HENRY.

IVA REED, 91, widow of Vern H. REED, mother of Natalie GAEDERT, Joyce PETERSON & Vern H. REED, Jr., sister of Edith BIPPLEY, Myrtle CHILDS, Mildred INGALL, Claude WILLIAMS, and Gerald WILLIAMS, daughter of Leon WILLIAMS & Mabel COOK, daughter of Emily & Charles P. COOK, son of Ursula & Pierce G. COOK. Only Edith BIPPLEY remains of her brothers and sisters.

MARSHALL T. THORP, 78, husband of Dorothy HARDER THORP, father of Donald & Larry THORP, Bonnie ENGLE, Connie DeVOL & Jackie LESMAN, brother of Kenneth THORP, son of Ethel YOUNGS & Burt THORPE. He farmed on S ½ Sec. 6 Sebewa, on Clarksville Road, all his life, except for four years in Army Air Force in WWII.

WILLIAM EDWINS - PORTRAIT & BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM OF BARRY & EATON COUNTIES – CHAPMAN Brothers – 1891:
William EDWINS is a name that will be recognized as that of an almost lifelong resident of Eaton County, one who from boyhood has borne a part in the work which has made of this section one of the finest agricultural regions in the State. The owner of a fine farm of one hundred and five acres on Section 8, Sunfield Township, he displays as a farmer an active temperament and an excellent capacity for managing his affairs to the best advantage. For more than a quarter of a century he has been identified with the history and development of the county and has taken his part in its upbuilding. His residence, which is both comfortable and sufficiently commodious, is represented, with its pleasant surroundings, by a view on another page.

A native of the Empire State, Mr. EDWINS was born in Ogden, Monroe County, N.Y., March 10, 1847. He knows nothing of his parents, having been taken out of the asylum at Syracuse by Benjamin Wheeler, who brought him to this State when only three years old. His protector located in Barry County, and there and in Eaton County the days of his boyhood and youth were spent, his time being occupied by work upon the farm and in attendance at the common schools. His quickness of apprehension and ardent desire to become well-fitted for the battle of life, gave him a better understanding of those branches usually found in the curriculum of the public schools than is sometimes the case.

On February 9, 1861, when only sixteen years of age, Mr. EDWINS enlisted in the service of his country, becoming a member of Company K, Sixth Michigan Cavalry, which regiment was afterward consolidated with the First Michigan Cavalry. His first service was with the Army of the Potomac under command of Gen. Sheridan, and he participated in many of the hard-fought and important battles of the war, including the engagements at Yellow Tavern, Meadow Bridge, Winchester, Sandy Ridge, Five Forks, Shepherdstown, Travillion Station, Appomattox Court House, Fort Republic, Mt. Crawford, Woodstock, Leetown, Baltimore Cross Roads, Cold Harbor, and the twenty-one days raid from Winchester on the James River Canal.

After participating in the Grand Review at Washington, D.C., where “wave after wave of bayonet-crested blue” swept by the grandstand, the regiment was ordered to Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., and thence sent to Salt Lake City, remaining in the West until 1866. Its duty was to guard the mails and protect the emigrant trains. With his comrades our subject was honorably discharged at Detroit, Mich., June 30, 1866. He was wounded by an accidental shot from our own troops on Little Blue, Neb., on the 3rd of July, 1865, but otherwise escaped uninjured. He was never taken prisoner and was only in the hospital a short time, but always faithful to his duty he was found on the scene of action ready for any services required of him.

When the war was over, Mr. EDWINS returned to his home in Barry County, Mich., and began working as a farm hand. On the 28th of June, 1868, he led to the marriage altar Miss Helen LEONARD of Assyria, Barry County, who was born in Niagara County, N.Y., May 30, 1845. Mrs. EDWINS is the daughter of Orville and Elizabeth LEONARD, natives of New York. Her father died in the army while defending the old flag January 26, 1865, and her mother is still living and makes her home on the farm of Mr. & Mrs. EDWINS. The congenial union of Mr. EDWINS and his estimable wife has been blessed by the birth of three children – Orville, Edna E. and Charlie.

For the past twenty-one years Mr. EDWINS has owned and resided upon his farm in the township of Sunfield, which as before stated, comprises one hundred and five acres. At the time of his purchase not a furrow had been turned or an improvement made, and its present flourishing condition testifies to the thrift and enterprise of the owner and the prosperity resulting therefrom. He is a self-made man in the best sense of the word and to his own efforts may be attributed whatever success he has achieved in life.

Mr. EDWINS has met with a number of reverses; the money which he sent home during the war for safe keeping was burned in 1866, when the house and contents were entirely destroyed by fire. But he has overcome his misfortunes by indomitable will, energy and pluck. After his loss he went to the pineries of Michigan and worked by the month for money to pay for his farm. His first home, a log cabin, 18 x 24 feet, has long since been replaced by a fine two-story frame residence; a large barn, 36 x 66 feet, has been built and the other improvements are in keeping with those already mentioned. Mr. EDWINS is a staunch Republican in politics and has held a number of minor offices. An honored member of Samuel GRINNELL Post, No. 283, G. A. R., of Sunfield, of which he was Commander three years, he takes an active interest in the workings of the organization and always attends the State Encampments at his own expense. His life has been an upright one, winning him the confidence and respect of all and his army record is one of which he may well be proud. END.

William EDWINS was the great-great-grandfather of Edwin SMITH, husband of Debrah MEYERS married Joel McDOWELL from Berlin Township and they live on the east portion of William’s farm and have an Auto Repair Shop there. Ed’s other sister, Diana, married Keith WARD and lives on a farm in Arkansas. They are the children of Orlo James SMITH & Louella EDWINS, daughter of Glen EDWINS & Mardie WORTLEY, daughter of Urah & Walter WORTLEY, son of Elizabeth LEOPARD & Joseph WORTLEY, whose family we covered a bit in December, 1986. Glen EDWINS was son of Orville EDWINS, who lived where Debbie & Joel are now.

Edna E. EDWINS married a SANDBORN and was mother of Claire EDWINS & Mae SANDBORN, who married Bethel SAWDY and had Carol SAWDY, who married Roger TOBIAS and had Greg TOBIAS, who married Gail and lives in the old homestead. Their house has been lovingly restored and is a beautiful tri-color or “Painted Lady” Victorian home. Claire married Edith Heintzelman, Debbie MEYER’S aunt. Charlie EDWINS had no children. The Helen EDWINS Tent, Daughters of Union Veterans, is named in honor of Mrs. William EDWINS.

REVOLUTIONARY VETERANS
Ionia County has three veterans of the American Revolution buried in its cemeteries. William PANGBORN at Woodard Lake Cemetery in Ronald Township, Louden ANDREWS at Letts Cemetery in Berlin Township, and Jonathan INGALLS west side of Keefer Hwy, south of Sebewa Corners in Sebewa Township. All have been written about in previous issues of THE RECOLLECTOR.

Kent County, on the other hand, has only one Revolutionary Veteran. This has been attributed to the fact that the first permanent settlers in Kent County came slightly after those in Ionia County, and in fact were a split-off from Ionia’s Dexter Colony. They were the family of Joel GUILD, his wife, six daughters, and one son, who settled on Prospect Hill east of Division St., from Wealthy to Leonard, on land for which Samuel Dexter had recorded claim at White Pigeon in 1832 at the same time as his Ionia claim. The Ionia settlement was made May 28, 1833; likewise, Stanley POWELL’S grandfather, Joseph PRIESTLEY POWELL, rejected a worthless forty-acre swamp that is now “The Loop” in Chicago, because things were more prosperous in Ionia when he settled in Ronald Township in 1842.

Following is a story from THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS on Kent County’s lone Revolutionary veteran, Moses CLARK, written by Pat Shellenbarger:
The fact he enlisted was no surprise. Public service was a family tradition at least from a 17th century ancestor who was the first Secretary of the Massachusetts Colony. His own father was a Minuteman. What made Moses CLARK unusual was his age. He was only 15 when he joined the fight for American Independence. Joe VanderMEULEN is nearly 10 and shows no sign of running off to join the army. He stood before a weathered headstone in Walker’s Brooklawn Cemetery one recent morning reading the inscription: Moses CLARK, Died January 2, 1844, Aged 82 yrs 3 mo.

Joe had heard of Moses CLARK, and knew they somehow were related. But only recently did he learn he is a direct descendant of the only Revolutionary War soldier buried in Kent County. “I knew he was related to my mom and me somehow” said Joe, adding that “I feel lucky” to be the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of a man who served in the American Revolution. That war, Joe knew, had something to do with the reason we celebrate the Fourth of July. “The British wanted to control America” he said, “and we didn’t want them to, so we went to war, and we won”.

Moses CLARK’S role in that victory, and the events that eventually would bring him to Kent County, began in May 1777, when he enlisted at his hometown, Lebanon, Conn. His father, James CLARK, was a captain (later promoted to Major, then Colonel) who fought at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill. Moses was a fifer, serving under Capt. John HART, Col. Samuel WEBB and Col. William LIVINGSTONE, according to military records. In those days, army musicians also sometimes assisted physicians during battle.

Family legend has it that Moses, stationed at Valley Forge, sometimes sneaked into Philadelphia, where he played for dances, often attended by Gen. George WASHINGTON. He was discharged May 31, 1780, at Morristown, N.Y., on the St. Lawrence River, military records show. He returned to Connecticut, where he married Patty BILL in 1786. His journey to Michigan began in the summer of 1805, when the family moved to Canada, just across the St. Lawrence from New York. The family took a step closer to Michigan in 1819, when they moved to the Lake Simcoe region north of Toronto, lured by word that the government was giving land to new settlers. But when Moses arrived, he found he could not agree to the government’s one condition: that he become a British subject and swear allegiance to the King. Instead the family rented.

The move to Michigan was precipitated by the same rebel spirit that prompted Moses CLARK to enlist. In 1837, Canada faced a rebellion in the Toronto area. Moses CLARK’S son, Erastus, collected arms and ammunition for the rebels, hid them in a wagon beneath bags of wheat and headed for Toronto. One evening, about 10 miles from Toronto, he was halted by guards posted at a small tavern, according to WALKER Historical Commission files. The guards planned to search the wagon, but decided to wait until morning. During the night, Erastus escaped into Toronto with his wagon and later fled back to the United States. By 1838, he had worked his way west to Michigan and sent for his wife and children. They took up farming six miles west of Grand Rapids in what is now Walker. In 1842, Moses and Patty CLARK moved to Michigan and lived with Erastus and his family in a cabin on what is now Three Mile Road.

When Moses CLARK arrived in Kent County, he was among the few non-native-American settlers. Grand Rapids still was little more than an Indian trading post, a fact that may explain why more aging Revolutionary War veterans didn’t settle here. When Moses CLARK died Jan. 2, 1844, he was buried in Brooklawn Cemetery, just down the road from the family homestead. Two and a half years later, his wife, Patty, died and was buried at his side. Moses CLARK is one of 137 veterans of the Revolutionary War buried in Michigan, according to records compiled by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

His great-great-granddaughter, Louise Maria TABER HOST, is 86 years old and lives in a senior citizen apartment building in Grand Rapids. She was raised in a farmhouse on Four Mile Road across the fields from where Erastus CLARK’S cabin once stood. She remembers hearing stories about Moses from her grandmother, Hannah Maria CLARK TABER, but never was certain how they were related. “Grandma used to tell us about him” she recalled. “I remember she’d want us to go down there to decorate his grave. ‘We gotta remember Moses’, she’d say. I know they always put flags on his grave.” From Louise HOST, the story of Moses CLARK passed to later generations: her daughter, Donna LEWIS of Howard City; Donna’s daughter, Cathy VanderMEULEN of Belmont; and now to Cathy’s son, Joe VanderMEULEN. But none knew exactly how they were related to Moses. The answer was found in a copy of the 1850 census on file at the Michigan Room of the Grand Rapids Public Library. Hannah was the daughter of Erastus CLARK and granddaughter of MOSES.

MICHIGAN COURTHOUSES (With front page photos of the Wilson, St. Ignace, MI Courthouse and of the Mackinaw County Courthouse. On back page, photo of Court House and Jail at Newberry, Mich.)

We continue our tour of Upper Michigan courthouses with a visit to St. Ignace, in Mackinac County. This county’s original courthouse was built in the City of Mackinac Island in 1839 and is now used as City Hall. The second was built in 1881 at St. Ignace on the present site on Portage St., at a cost of $25,000. The third and present courthouse was built in 1936, at a cost of $75,000, and is best described as “Early WPA” in style. It is too small, even with the Public Safety Annex freeing-up the basement jail space, and the County Clerk was talking with someone about expansion plans the day we were in her office.
Likewise at Newberry, in Luce County, all that remains is a picturesque Victorian-style jail that was a twin to the adjacent courthouse, built in 1886-1894 and torn down to build the 1975 flat-roofed, barrier-free structure that serves well, but lacks historic appeal. The jail is now a museum worth seeing.

Similarly at Munising, in Alger County, the historic structure has given way to a modern courthouse. Split level in design, it is better than the Mackinac, but not quite as Luce, and again no historic ambiance.

UPDATES:
In the story in the October Issue on Douglas Welch: The Twenty-First Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment did not serve under Generals George ARMSTRONG CUSTER and James H. KIDD. They were Cavalry Officials, and commanded the Sixth Michigan Cavalry Regiment, which was also raised at Ionia and apparently later merged with the First Michigan Cavalry Regiment.

Also, the WELCH Blacksmith Shop belonged to a man named SCHEID by the time George PETRIE Sr. worked there and learned the trade.

In the story on John FRIEND: He platted that portion of the village of Sebewa lying on the Sebewa side of Keefer Hwy., and promoted three railroads, the Coldwater, Marshall & Mackinaw, the Detroit, Lansing & Lake Michigan, and the Chicago, Kalamazoo & Saginaw, none of which passed thru Sebewa, dooming his plans for a metropolis.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Association;
APRIL 1995, Volume 30, Number 5. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES: BECKHOLD, BALDWIN, SEXTONE, SHAW, McDOWELL, KELLER, SAYER, BUCHE, SEXTON, VALENTINE, SHELLENBARGER, SMITH VanHOUTEN, KAUFFMAN, DANIELS, ADGATE, PORTER, TAFT, BRIGGS, HARWOOD, PANGBORN, TUTTLE, SCHEURER, FLEMING, MEGARAH, HALL, WILSON, HAZZARD, BENEDICT, BRAKE, SLOWINS, HALLADAY, CONKRITE

(Photos on front page: MARQUETTE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, WILLIAM ADGATE HOUSE.)

RECENT DEATHS:
ZELLA M. HAZZARD BECKHOLD, 101, born September 39, 1893, widow of Benjamin HAZZARD & Frank BECKHOLD, mother of Marguerite SHORT, Betty McMILLEN, and the late Maxwell HAZZARD & Maxine TORREY, sister of Maude OLES, Mabel VALENTINE, Clare SAXTON & Vern SAXTON, daughter of Oscar & Mary BALDWIN SEXTONE, daughter of Esther & George BALDWIN, son of William F. BALDWIN & Matilda SHAW, daughter of Sarah KELLER & Robert SHAW, son of Mary McDOWELL & Richard SHAW, Soldier of the Revolution. Oscar SEXTONE was the son of Henry SECKSTONE, who owned what later became the Issi & Ida SECKSTONE farm, later owned by Calvin SMITH, Ron WALKINGTON, and now Larry BREARLEY, in NE ¼ Sec. 6 Sebewa, on Goddard Road. Also the W ½ NW ¼ Sec. 5, now belonging to Richard GOODEMOOT. Oscar SEXTONE got the GOODEMOOT eighty and that is probably where Zella was born. Note the changes in spelling. The BALDWIN families lived on MUSGROVE Hwy. Rush BALDWIN had the east eighty of the Theo BULLING farm. George had the next east eighty, where the Ed DEMARAY – Wm. NURENBERG home stands. Isaac had the east 160 of the DEMARAY farm. Christi SAYER, sister to Clarence’s father, Jacob, married George BALDWIN’S son Charles, which may explain how the north forty of George’s farm passed to the SAYER family. Zella’s second husband was Frank BECKHOLD. Mary’s second husband was Edwin LEAK. Esther’s second husband was a HUTCHINS.

MARGARET E. BUCHE, 69, widow of Horace, mother of Jean WOLTZ, Beth AINSWORTH, Amy BUCHE, Steve, John & Matt BUCHE, sister of Mary PATTERSON, Bufford, Balfour, James & Bernard VALENTINE, daughter of Archie & Mabel SEXTON VALENTINE. Her mother was a sister to Zella.

BEATRICE SHELLENBARGER, 82, wife of Adrian, mother of Jerry, sister of Hulda SMITH & Gertrude VanHOUTEN, daughter of Samuel & Lottie KAUFFMAN, daughter of Sarah & Orren W. DANIELS, son of Eunice & Andrus W. DANIELS, who settled at SW ¼ SW ¼ Sec. 18 Sebewa before 1865. Samuel was son of Jonathan & Catherine KAUFFMAN, who settled at NW ¼ Sec. 18 before 1891. Jonathan’s buildings were where Geneva & Howard KNEALE later lived, and Sam built where Walter HUNT later lived. Sam & Lottie were active in Oddfellows, Rebeccahs, Grange, and Township Offices.

THE ADGATE FAMILY IN IONIA COUNTY by Grayden SLOWINS

Thomas ADGATE was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and survived to live to the age of 97 years. His son, Abel ADGATE, was born in Connecticut in 1786, and was an infantryman in the war of 1812. He married Olive (Polly) PORTER, born in Connecticut in 1787, daughter of another Revolutionary soldier. They were married in New Jersey about 1814 and farmed first in Orange County, NY, then pioneered in Sullivan County, where he also lumbered, and then farmed in Cortland County about 1829-1838. In 1838 they came to Oakland County, Michigan, and that same fall bought the Ionia Township farm, but remained in Oakland County on rented land until March 3, 1841. This Ionia tract was partly cleared, but the only building was a log shanty. The first summer they cleared enough land to sow twelve acres of wheat, and began building a frame house. But on October 3, 1842, Abel died at age 56, leaving the widow Olive ADGATE with seven children to carry on the ADGATE dynasty. She was a life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and died November 7, 1871, at the age of 84 years.

Two of their children were:
1. John ADGATE, died August 26, 1888
2. William ADGATE born November 20, 1829, died 1901.
John ADGATE was born in Batavia, NY, son of Abel & Olive PORTER ADGATE, came to Oakland County, MI, with his parents in 1838, and to the Ionia Township homestead in 1841. After his father’s death, John helped manage his mother’s farm until his marriage, at which time he bought a farm on 110 acres in SE ¼ of Sec. 33 North Berlin Township, now part of the State Park, west side of Jordan Lake Road. He married Catherine TAFT and spent the remainder of his life on that farm. Catherine died in 1859 and John married Rosetta BRIGGS. He died 1888.

John & Catherine’s children were:
1. Infant son
2. Lowina, married Riley HARWOOD
3. Adaline, died age 18
4. Chester born February 3, 1857
John & Rosetta’s children were:
5. William who lived in Saranac
6. Philo who farmed across east in SW ¼ Sec. 34 Berlin
7. Milo who farmed on John’s homestead
8. Sara who died age 12

CHESTER ADGATE, born in Berlin Township, February 3, 1857, died in Saranac, the son of John & Catherine TAFT ADGATE. He attended the old cobblestone SESSIONS School, built in 1847, and worked on the family farm and neighboring farms until his marriage on April 1, 1876, to Norah HARWOOD. They first farmed on a forty west of his parents, and then on an eighty just east of them. This farm he later sold to his brother Philo, followed by Max, while he engaged in the stock-buying and meat market business in Ionia for three years. Then he bought the old Alonzo SESSIONS farm of 326 acres on Riverside Drive, Sec. 34 North Berlin, directly north of his previous farm. He farmed there until selling to Ionia County for a County Poor Farm in 1906. That farm is now the nucleus of the Ionia State Park and contained 440 acres when given to the State by the County in 1965.

Chester moved to Saranac and again engaged in the buying and selling of livestock, while still owning a one hundred forty four acre farm, the old TIBBETS farm, Sec. 27 Berlin Township, and his business building in Saranac. A Democrat, he was elected Supervisor of Berlin Township for five successive terms, resigning that office when he moved to Saranac.

Chester and Norah’s children were:
1. Mary, married Gilbert CURTIS, a farmer on Riverside
2. Vinnie married Charles GATES; they managed County Farm
3. Lydia married Perry WALTER, a farmer in Sec. 20 Berlin
4. Phoebe married Ray SMITH, a farmer in Sec. 9 Berlin
5. Earl, a farmer near Berlin Center
6. Glenn who ran a clothing store in Saranac
7. John born 1896, died 1993, ran market in Saranac

John ADGATE, born in Berlin Township, 1896, died in Saranac, 1993, son of Chester & Norah HARWOOD ADGATE, was born in the old cobblestone house built on the Alonzo SESSIONS farm in 1845. He attended the new ivory brick SESSIONS School which opened in 1898, although he had visited his siblings in the old cobblestone schoolhouse, Edgar FLEETHAM’S mother, Lauretta SHAW FLEETHAM GRAGG, born in 1891 in Ontario, attended the SESSIONS School before her family moved from Berlin Township to Odessa Township, and remembered John ADGATE gave her a pretty lace valentine. John’s family moved to Saranac when he was ten years old, and he finished school there. He followed his father in the meat business and built it into a fine Spartan Supermarket.

Two of John’s children were:
1. J. Bernard who continued the family food stores
2. Loren, retired chairman of Independent Banking Corp., married Marilyn

William ADGATE, born in Sullivan County, NY, November 20, 1829, died in Ionia Township, 1901, son of Abel & Olive PORTER ADGATE, was nine years old when his family came to Michigan and only sixteen when he began operating half of his mother’s farm in Ionia Township. He was married January 7, 1854, to Sarah TUTTLE, daughter of pioneer Ionia farmers, Nelson & Sophia PANGBORN TUTTLE, and much of their adjoining homestead became a part of his farm, as he increased it from his mother’s one hundred five acres to two hundred eighty five acres in Sec. 32 & 33 Ionia & Sec. 4 Orange. He built a fine ivory brick Victorian-Italianate home in 1886, at a cost of $3000, a photo of which accompanies this story.

He had made a trip to Iowa at the time of his marriage, and also owned and farmed five years in Orange and four years in Berlin before settling on the old homestead to care for his mother and the farm. His father was a Whig, and William became active in the Republican Party at the outset, but when the Prohibition Party sprang into life, he voted in its favor. As an agriculturalist he was second to none, and kept about three hundred head of sheep. The family was active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Nelson TUTTLE built the first Methodist Church south of Grand River on the corner of this farm 1855. William was a leading supporter of the church and instrumental in the merger with Orange Methodist, which formed LeValley Methodist Church about 1906.

William & Sarah ADGATE’S children were:
1. Phoebe A. ADGATE born January 21, 1855, married Fred SCHEURER
2. Franklin born April 20, 1858, died 1942
3. Mary J. born September 9, 1861; married Frank TAFT
4. Flora E. born December 9, 1863, died 1914
5. John W. born June, 1866, died 1931
6. Lewis born June 29, 1868, died 1943
7. Nellie born January 8, 1876; married Arton BENEDICT

Phoebe A. ADGATE, born in Ionia Township January 21, 1855, daughter of William & Sarah TUTTLE ADGATE, married Fred SCHEURER and farmed in Sec. 2 & 4 of Orange Township. TWO OF FRED & PHOEBE SCHEURER’S children were:
1. Frieda; married Paul HAUSSERMAN
2. Bert, father of Kenneth, Harold, Shirley, Allen, Bob

Franklin ADGATE, born in Ionia Township, April 20, 1858, died in Portland in 1942, son of William & Sarah TUTTLE ADGATE, was married to Elizabeth FLEMING, born 1862, died 1953. Frank had a good farm at N ½ SE ¼ Sec. 10 & W ½ Sec. ll Orange Township. In September, 1916, he purchased the New Sydney Farm of 160 acres on Ionia Road, one mile west of Portland. Owned by John WEBBER before him, it was owned by Norman LAY after him, and today belongs to Ivan LAY. Frank paid $20,000 for it, and New Sydney was a fitting name for a sheep farm. But as far as we can tell, he had a tenant on it, never moved there himself, and after a few years he sold it. About this same time, he sold or gave the west half of his home farm with its fine house & barn to his son Elmer.

In 1920, at age 62, Frank & Elizabeth retired to their three-acre farm at the point of Grand River Avenue & KNOX Road or Union Street in Portland. They had a new cement brick house & garage, and a good barn for their driving horse, buggy, wagon, cow and chickens, and the hay from their two acres of alfalfa. He drove daily to his farms with his horse & buggy or Model A. Ford.

FRANKLIN & ELIZABETH’S children were:
1. Elmer; married Jessie MEGARAH
2. Maurice; worked at old U. S. Post Office Department in DC

ELMER ADGATE, born in Orange Township, died in Portland Township, son of Franklin & Elizabeth FLEMING ADGATE, was married to Jessie MEGARAH, daughter of Ed MEGARAH, granddaughter of William S. MEGARAH, pioneer farmer at Collins, SE ¼ Sec. 6 Portland Township. Elmer was sold or given a good one hundred thirty acre farm with excellent buildings in Sec. 10 Orange Township, now belonging to his cousin Shirley (SHERD) SCHEURER, about the time his father retired from active farming. But he lost it in the Great Depression of 1929 and moved across to the eighty acres in Sec. 11 still owned by his parents. There he farmed a bit and fathered eight children, while Jessie continued to teach rural school. She was an excellent teacher and 4-H leader. Frank never deeded that eighty to Elmer, but willed it to Leland instead. After the death of the MEGARAHS, Jessie & Elmer moved to their farm, and Leland has it today. There was a United Brethren Church on the corner of Frank’s home place and District No. 9 rural school, known as the RIKER School, stood on the eighty across the road. The church is long gone, but after years of neglect, the school has been remodeled into a nice home by Rus GREGORY.

ELMER & JESSIE MEGARAH ADGATE’S children were:
1. Eleanor; married Kenneth DAY
2. Leland; farms on both grandparents’ land, Twp. Supervisor
3. Wayne, dentist in Lansing, lives in Grand Ledge
4. Neal (Pete)
5. Lois
6. Margaret
7. Lawrence
8. Phyllis

MAURICE ADGATE, born in Orange Township, son of Franklin & Elizabeth FLEMING ADGATE, graduated from local schools and went to Washington, DC, where his aunt worked at the old U.S. Post Office Department. She got him a postal job and he married, raised a son & daughter, and lived there all his life.

MARY J. ADGATE, born in Ionia Township, September 9, 1861, daughter of William & Sarah TUTTLE ADGATE, married Frank TAFT and lived on his family’s homestead of 374 acres in Sec. 33 Ionia Township.

FRANK & MARY J. ADGATE TAFT’S CHILDREN WERE:
1. Luetta; married George CROEL, had Ray & Clyde CROEL
2. Jessie E.; married Clyde STOUT, had Frank, Sterry, Mary
3. Myrtle M.; died age 20
4. Leolyn
5. Reva June; married Harry CALLOW, Ionia
6. Marian

FLORA E. ADGATE, born in Ionia Township December 9, 1863, died August 19, 1914, daughter of William & Sarah TUTTLE ADGATE, married Winthrop HALL. She was a graduate of the music department of Albion College, taught in Ionia & Portland, and played the organ at church.
JOHN W. ADGATE, born in Ionia Township, June 1866, died in 1931, son of William & Sarah TUTTLE ADGATE, married Nellie WILSON, and farmed at W ½ SW ¼ Sec. 27 Orange Township.
LEWIS ADGATE, born in Ionia Township, June 29, 1868, died in 1943, son of William & Sarah TUTTLE ADGATE, married Ella HAZZARD, farmed on the old family homestead in Ionia Township.

LEWIS & ELLA ADGATE’S CHILD WAS:
1. William born in Ionia Township, born 1904, died 1993; married Verla, born 1919, died 1985. They had at least one daughter.

NELLIE ADGATE, born in Ionia Township, January 8, 1876, daughter of William & Sarah TUTTLE ADGATE, married Arton L. BENEDICT and they farmed on 100 acres of the old TUTTLE land in NW ¼ Sec. 32, Ionia Twp.
A
RTON & NELLIE ADGATE BENEDICT’S CHILD WAS:
1. Barton L. BENEDICT born November 14, 1904

REFERENCES: History & Directory of Ionia County, J. D. Dillenback, 1872; History & Directory of Ionia & Montcalm Counties, John S. SCHENCK, 1881; Portrait & Biographical Album, Ionia & Montcalm Counties, CHAPMAN 1891; History of Ionia County, Michigan, Rev. E.E. BRANCH 1916. Atlas or Plat Books of Ionia County, 1875, 1891, 1906, 1937, 1955.

THINGS I REMEMBER by CRYSTAL LOVINA BRAKE SLOWINS 1904-1984
I was born February 5, 1904, in Campbell Township, Ionia County, Michigan. An article appeared in a local paper as follows: “Just observe that high, wide, and handsome gait and the broad grin on John BRAKE’S face. A seven and a half pound girl arrived at his home Friday morning. Dr. KIBLINGER reports mother and child dong fine.”

That might have been the Lake Odessa or Clarksville paper. My parents were John FLETCHER BRAKE & Barbara N. WENGER BRAKE. At that time they lived on the farm with Grandmother BRAKE, northwest of Lake Odessa and southeast of Clarksville, on Campbell Road. Later Roy & Rose TASKER owned that farm. The neighborhood was known as PINHOOK. There were a store and several houses at the corners. I was fifth in the family. The others were: Hazel, who died at a few months of age, Elwood, Wayne, who died at 3 months, and Mable. Another brother, John, was born in November, 1905

When I was two years old, my parents bought 40 acres called the Baldwin farm in what was called the Pleasant Valley area of Campbell Township. The school there had in the beginning been called the Fish School, but one a few miles south was called South Fish, so they changed ours. There was a United Brethren Church on the same four corners. Our farm was north of the corners about one-half mile. My mother’s sister, Inez, and her husband, Fred KLAHN, owned a farm which came to the corners on the southwest. Uncle Fred had helped build the church.

We moved there on Mable’s seventh birthday, February 27, 1906. Our neighbors were Wm. & Nina HULLIBERGER on the north, Truman & Vi BENEDICT on the south, and Wm. COON & wife across the road to the west. I can remember going to those houses to visit. We called the HULLIBERGERS Uncle and Aunt, also the BENEDICTS; but the COONS were called Grandpa and Grandma. None were related to us. I remember my fifth birthday, because a salesman was visiting with my father and gave me a pencil. When my father said “You have a birthday present”, and the man found out it was my birthday, he gave me a nickel.

One of the first things I remember is going to Grandpa and Grandma WENGER’S with my parents when I was two years old. I know it was that year, because Grandpa died before I was three. As we walked into the middle downstairs room of their house, Grandpa, who was sitting in a rocker with his Bible in his hands, stretched out his arms for me to come to him.

I remember being in the house at Grandma BRAKE’S after the (grossmutter) addition was built on. It would have been after we moved and Aunt Ida & Uncle Walter LIVINGSTON were living there with her. Grandpa BRAKE had died before I was born. I remember sitting at a table in Grandma’s part of the house. It was a narrow room and the table was about the length of the room. I think Aunt Jennie & Uncle Frank TASKER & Gwendolyn were there, too.

On the “40”, the kitchen and dining room were all in one. A big black cook stove was on the east wall. Mother sat Johnnie and I in front of the oven door to keep us warm in the morning and often had us play in that area with quilts on the floor. She gave us raw oatmeal with sugar in a cup to eat with a spoon. Sometimes she would give us a dish of walnuts and hair pins to pick them out with. We never got sick eating them as I can remember. No doubt we weren’t that good at picking them out. Often in winter Dad would be sitting there between chore times. We’d ask him for his coin purse to play with his money. He’d make us tops from spools and whistles from tree twigs. We would ask for his knife so we could whittle and generally ended up with a nick or two.

There were maple trees in the yard. In the fall we would rake the leaves in rows to form rooms for a house. We had a cat named Toddy, a tiger one. The folks said he was just my age. He was the only pet I remember Mother allowing in the house. We still had him when we moved to the SLATER farm. We would dress Toddy up in my doll clothes, but one day he ran into the driveway tile. He came out without the clothes and we never could get them, even though we enlisted Mable’s help. When Mable was 10, all of us had whooping cough and she was the sickest. She had no appetite afterward and the doctor said she should get out doors. So one day Mother walked with her to Abbott’s store north of us. She had left a piece of chicken on her plate. While they were gone, Toddy ate it. Mother was really upset. He was always such a good cat and never touched anything.
Sometimes Mother would take Elwood & Mable and drive a horse up to Grandpa and Grandma WENGER’S. Sometimes they would go to church and Dad, Johnnie, and I would be at home. Once when they were gone and expected back soon, Dad killed a chicken, dressed it, and put it on the stove to cook. He said “Now don’t tell Mama – we will surprise her.” So when they stepped in the door, Johnnie said “There is nothing on the stove but potatoes.”

Mable, Johnnie, and I used to all like to go to “Aunt” Vi and “Uncle” True BENEDICT’S – although we were half afraid of him. He was always so sober and stern looking. I remember him as always wearing a black suit and a black hat when he went to town. He always drove a shiny black horse and a shiny black buggy. Aunt Vi would set us on kitchen chairs, give us crackers, or peel apples for us. She always said “Eat bruise and all, it’s good”. We didn’t agree, but we ate it. Sometimes she gave us pennies but never in front of Uncle True. She wore men’s Rockford socks with her rubbers over them – never shoes. Sometimes if her apron got dirty she just put another one over the top. She was an odd little old lady but we loved her.

We went to “Uncle” Will and “Aunt” Nina HULLIBERGER’S often, too. Even after we lived on the SLATER farm, I’d still go there after school and stay all night. Ila, their daughter, would always comb my hair. “Aunt” Nina was my first Sunday School teacher. Later on Aunty Ida, Ida BATTLES, and Anna NORCUTT MAURER were Sunday School teachers I can remember. (To be continued)

MICHIGAN COURTHOUSES:
We continue our tour of Upper Peninsula Courthouses with the Marquette County Courthouse at Marquette, pictured on our cover. The present Marquette Courthouse stands on the side of the county’s first courthouse. The earlier building was completed by the summer of 1858 at a cost of approximately $4,300. By 1890 the population of Marquette County had swelled to about 40,000 and county government had outgrown its quarters. Due to the Depression of 1893, nine more years passed before the county commissioned local architects Demitrius F. CHARLTON and R. William GILBERT to design the present structure, which was constructed by Northern Construction Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at a cost of approximately $210,000. The dedication took place on September 17, 1904. Guests rode the street railway to Presque Isle Point for an afternoon of refreshments and dancing.

Native Upper Peninsula sandstone graces the exterior of the courthouse. The foundation up to the first level is Marquette Raindrop Brownstone which was cut at the old Marquette Quarry. The remainder of the exterior is Portage Entry Redstone which was quarried and polished in Redbeach, Maine. Transportation was a major undertaking, as each column weighs 15 tons. The main corridors are lined with Italian marble wainscot and the flooring is vitrified mosaic tile set in a decorative pattern. Numerous columns of Scagliola plaster also appoint the corridors. The woodwork and furnishings are constructed of fine hardwood. The interior and exterior focal point of the building is an elaborate stained-glass dome, which is located above the main circuit courtroom and is protected from the elements by an exterior copper sheathed dome.

The courthouse has enjoyed a rich history. In 1913 former President Theodore ROOSEVELT filed a libel suit against George A. NEWETT, publisher of the Ishpeming “Iron Ore”. NEWETT had reported that ROOSEVELT “was addicted to the use of alcohol and a user of profanity”. Judge R. C. FLANNIGAN found NEWETT guilty and ordered him to pay ROOSEVELT damages in the amount of six cents, “the price of a good newspaper”. Another case tried here inspired Anatomy of a Murder, a novel by Ishpeming resident, Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. VOELKER. In 1959, the courthouse served as the setting for filming the motion picture based on this novel, directed by Otto PREMINGER and starring James STEWART, George C. SCOTT, and Lee REMICK, with musical score by Duke ELLINGTON.

Renovation of the courthouse was conceived in 1977 and plans were drawn by local architect Lincoln A. POLEY, Jr. The Tezak Construction Company of Traverse City, MI, began the renovation work in 1982 for a final cost of $1,784,648. The decorative painting which appears in the Clerk’s office, main corridors, and the Circuit courtroom was done by Conrad SCHMITT Studios of New Berlin, Wisconsin, at a cost of $179,500.

HALLADAY UPDATE: The elusive Rev. William HALLADAY of the United Brethren Church was the son of Lovell HALLADAY, son of Abel LOVELL HALLADAY, fourth brother of Elihu, David & Apollos HALLADAY.

FERN CONKRITE was born March 3, 1895, and a celebration of her 100th Birthday will be held Sunday, March 5, 1995, 2:00 PM, at the Nazarene Church, 9466 CUTLER Road, Portland. Fern was born on a farm on Morris Road, in Danby Township, daughter of Charles CONKRITE and Emma WAINWRIGHT. Her family moved to the Village of Cornell, on the Danby side of Sebewa Corners, in 1897. She grew up in a village of about 35 houses and 90 people. After completing the eighth grade at Sebewa High School, Fern went out to work at housekeeping and then began to specialize in caring for newborn babies and their mothers. She became pianist at the Sebewa Corners Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1927 she moved to Portland and went into the Wallpaper & Paint business with Gertrude FISCHELL. She became pianist at Portland Nazarene Church. Later they bought acreage on OKEMOS Road and did a little farming with cows and chickens. After I-96 took the farm, they built their own house on Riverside Drive. In 1978 they moved to Lillian Blvd.

Fern is our best source of information for the Sebewa Recollector and Ann laughs about the first time I called Fern to inquire about the Henry RICE Post #151 G.A.R. at Sebewa Corners. “Well, they haven’t met there in the last 95 years!” said Fern. True, they last met on December 14, 1895, when Fern hadn’t come to Sebewa yet.

Fern credits her long life to daily doses of Vitamin E. It works for my sheep, why not for people? So it gives me great pride to recognize Fern CONKRITE as our oldest living Sebewa native – even tho in fact she never ever lived in Sebewa!

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association,
JUNE 1995, Volume 30, Number 6. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES: ADGATE, BUCHNER, SHOWERMAN, BIPPLEY, WILLIAMS, COOK, LEIK, KAUFFMAN, DEXTER, CONKRITE

(PHOTO ON FRONT PAGE: BARAGA COUNTY COURTHOUSE)

RECENT DEATHS:
C. LOUISE BUCHNER, 86, born June 2, 1908, widow of Melvin G. BUCHNER, mother of Carla WARNER & Ann FORMAN, daughter of Cora HENRY & Frank SHOWERMAN, son of Louise E. & Lucius SHOWERMAN, son of Desire & Jacob B. SHOWERMAN, who settled in October, 1836, on the farm where she was born, and which she sold to Phil & Betty SPITZLEY in 1960.

EDITH AUDBREY BIPPLEY, 88, born December 8, 1906, widow of Donal BIPPLEY, mother of Terry GLEASON & Don BIPPLEY, sister of the late Myrtle CHILDS, Iva REED, Mildred INGALLS, Bernice BULLING, Claude WILLIAMS & Gerald WILLIAMS, daughter of Leon WILLIAMS & Mable COOK, daughter of Emily & CHARLES P. COOK, son of Ursula & Pierce G. COOK, who commenced farming at W ½ SE ½ Sec. 19 Sebewa, MUSGROVE Hwy. in 1853.

GEORGE E. LEIK, 89, born April 30, 1905, widower of Matilda, father of Charles & Edward, brother of the late Jerry, Helen, Marie & Henry LEIK, son of Anthony & Ellen MORIARITY LEIK. He was a noted auto dealer, businessman, farmer, walnut & pine forester, and author or subject of numerous articles in THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR.

JOHN L. ADGATE DEAD AT AGE 96 by R. C. GREGORY, 1992 – SARANAC, March 24 – Funeral services were held Wednesday for John ADGATE, dean of Ionia County businessmen and community leaders.

ADGATE died Sunday, March 22, at Ionia County Memorial Hospital after several months of failing health. He was the last surviving grandchild of the John ADGATE who came to Ionia County at a young man in the 1830s.

For many years ADGATE was one of Ionia County’s best-known men. He was a grocer for decades, past president of Saranac Community Schools’ board of education, past director of Independent Bank, and was long involved in a number of other businesses.

Robust and active until the last year or so, he was one of Ionia County’s few surviving veterans of World War I.

The son of Chester and Nora HARWOOD ADGATE, John Lloyd ADGATE was born Nov. 29, 1895, in his parents’ house of Riverside Drive in Berlin Township. The property was acquired by Ionia County in 1907 for use as a county infirmary. It was with considerable delight that ADGATE told the audience at the dedication of a marker at SESSIONS School House in 1988 that he had been “born in the poor house”. The ADGATE family home was moved and the brick county infirmary building constructed after the county acquired the farm.

Although SESSIONS School House had been replaced by the County Farm School House by the time ADGATE started school in 1900, he remembered playing in the older cobblestone building as a little boy.

The county infirmary was torn down after it and the surrounding farm of 326 acres were donated by Ionia County to the Department of Natural Resources to become the core of what is now Ionia State Recreation Area.

His parents continued to farm and his father continued as a cattle dealer. The family moved to the village of Saranac and young ADGATE went to work in a grocery store at 16. A few years later, in 1915, he and relatives bought a meat market in Saranac. The store evolved into a supermarket but only after it was moved to its present location in 1958. ADGATE’S Supermarket has been operated by ADGATE’S son, J. Bernard ADGATE, since 1957.

Some two years after entering business, John ADGATE was one of the first Ionia County men drafted for service during World War I. He left from Ionia, by train, for training at what was then called Camp Custer. He said, years later, “They knew I was in the grocery and meat business, so the next morning after I arrived at Camp Custer, they put me on KP”.

He served in Company K of the 338th Regiment of the 85th Infantry Division, a replacement and training division. Sixty-six years later, ADGATE’S memories of army service were sharp and clear. He told The Sentinel-Standard in 1984, that when his outfit reached France, on August 7, 1918, it was “the saddest day of my life”.

“They took 215 men away from the company, leaving only the corporals and the sergeants and the cooks. I knew where they were going---to the front. At least 70 got killed.”

After the Armistice, ADGATE was shipped home by way of Brest early in 1919. He kept his Army foot locker that “went to France and back with me”, and it still contains much of his original issue: uniform, mittens, leggings, dog tags, and gas mask”. Reviewing the contents of the foot locker in 1984, he said, in remarks that seem characteristic:

“I’m not a fellow to do too much worrying. I know when we were going overseas, we got to discussing how long we’d be over there. ‘Hell, I said, ‘I’ll be tickled to death if I ever get back’.”

ADGATE called himself “one of the lucky ones”. Seventy years after the Armistice, in 1988, he received a certificate of appreciation from the French government, awarded to American veterans who had been honorably discharged after service between April 6, 1917, and Nov. 11, 1918.

He returned to a lifetime of work, in business, banking, and public life. He was married to Helen POOLE in 1920. They moved into the stone house, located in Saranac on Main Street, behind his house at 45 Mill Street. They were to have three sons.
ADGATE’S store occupied a good deal of his time but as the Depression was waning, he was elected a member of the Saranac school board. He continued as a member for 30 years, 25 of them as board president. He led the campaign for state permission to build a new high school and then worked to pass the 1963 bond issue, which made construction possible. The high school opened in the fall of 1964. Among the first students to attend the then-new Saranac High School was Bruce CHADWICK, a relative of John Adgate, who is now Superintendent of Saranac Community Schools.

Meanwhile, in 1945, as World War II was ending, ADGATE began to explore the possibilities of re-establishing a bank in Saranac. He said, in 1946, the State Banking Department suggested “that if the (Saranac) community could interest an established banking facility through a branch office, the community would probably be better served. “Through ADGATE’S efforts and those of Saranac Community Club members, a proposal was presented to the directors of the State Savings Bank of Ionia, now Independent Bank.

The bank directors approved the proposal in January 1946 and other permits were obtained soon afterward. A large part of the capital increases needed to open the Saranac branch was subscribed through ADGATE’S efforts. There are still bank stockholders who say they bought a few shares at the time because “John Adgate said it would be a good idea”.

ADGATE was elected a director of the bank in January 1946, filling a vacancy created by the death of Dr. F. M. MARSH of Ionia. At the close of 1945, total resources of the bank were $7,313,940.34. The bank, including the Saranac branch, flourished. In May 1956, the Saranac branch moved into its new offices on the corner of Bridge and Church Streets. Adgate remained on the bank board for 25 years until 1971 when his son Loren became an officer of the bank. In 1972, on the retirement of the late Willard G. HAWLEY, Loren C. ADGATE was elected president of what is now Independent Bank. Bank resources are now $375,000,000.

ADGATE remained vigorously and actively engaged in the grocery business and numerous other activities after formal retirement. His concern for the bank continued and he was often consulted about its affairs. He also served as a director of Universal Metal Products of Saranac and of Saranac Metal Products.

He was the oldest active member of Saranac Community Church at the time of his death.

Family, business, and public affairs by no means exhausted ADGATE’S energies. One person who is past 80, when informed of ADGATE’S death, said “Well, he had a fine life. He smoked a lot of cigars and played a lot of euchre”. Those sentiments ADGATE himself often expressed. Even in his final illness he often said he had had a wonderful life.

He took up golf when he was 45 and pursued the game at Ionia Country Club and at Morrison Lake Country Club with interest and intensity. When he was 90, he shot his age as a golf score. He was also an avid bowler and a skilled pool player.

He was at his death the oldest surviving member of the LeRoy C. DAUSMAN Post, No. 175, of the American Legion which he joined after he returned from France. He was long active in American Legion affairs and served as vice commander of the American Legion of Michigan. He was active in Independent Order of Oddfellows (IOOF) and the Masons.

A lifelong Democrat, he was for many years active in his party’s affairs both locally and at the state level.

His family was his heart’s blood. He once told a granddaughter that he and her grandmother were married in Ionia by a “Five-dollar preacher….That was the greatest day of my life”. His wife Helen died on Oct. 23, 1974.

As he became homebound, euchre became more important and friends and relatives gathered to compete with and against him. He loved his grandchildren---and all his grandsons grew up knowing they were expected to test his grip in handshakes. They rarely won the grip, even in late years. After a leg was amputated in September 1990, Adgate was cared for by family and nurses. His favorite nurse, Rose Emmons, worked hard to make his life---and euchre games---comfortable. He didn’t give up cigars until his final illness.

He was the youngest of his parents’ children. Two brothers and four sisters preceded him in death.

He is survived by three sons, Roger of Ann Arbor, J. Bernard of Saranac, and Loren C. of Ionia; 11 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.

Funeral and committal services will be Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Saranac Community Church, with the Rev. Stanley HAGEMEYER, pastor, officiating. Burial will be in Saranac Cemetery.

Memorials have been established for Saranac Community Church and Saranac Community Schools, in care of the funeral home. The family will be at Lake Funeral Home, Saranac, Tuesday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 8:30 p.m.

ADGATE UPDATE: Since last issue we have received a flood of information from various sources. The obituary of John L. ADGATE is from the March 24, 1992, issue of IONIA SENTINEL-STANDARD. The following corrections or additions may be inserted in last issue:

LOWINA (LOWAINE) ADGATE, daughter of JOHN & CATHERINE TAFT ADGATE, married Riley HARWOOD, son of Isaac & Sarah EDDY HARWOOD.
THEIR CHILDREN WERE:
1. Jay; married Alta EAGLE, had Harold, Lois, Gladys, and Stanley HARWOOD
2. Guy; married Emma GALLOWAY, had Clayton, Clifford, and Thelma
3. Iva; married William KNEALE, had Riley & Howard and Mrs. Glenn FIRST
4. Ora; married Grove and had one daughter

PHENA (PHOEBE) born November 28, 1884, daughter of Chester and Norah HARWOOD ADGATE, married Ray SMITH
THEIR CHILDREN WERE:
1. Alden; father of Elwayne (John) SMITH
2. Bernice
3. Arthur, father of Diane ADAMS

JOHN LLOYD ADGATE, born November 29, 1895, died March 22, 1992, son of Chester & Norah ADGATE, was married to Helen POOLE 1920
THEIR CHILDREN WERE:
1. Roger, born May 30, 1925
2. J. Bernard born January 24, 1927
3. Loren C. born April 17, 1934

ROGER ADGATE was married June 18, 1950, to Rhea YERKEY
THEIR CHILDREN WERE:
1. Steven Roger
2. Robert John
3. Ann Kathleen

J. BERNARD ADGATE was married April 6, 1952, to Marilyn J. VAN VLECK
THEIR CHILDREN WERE:
1. Cheryl Lynn
2. John Loren

LOREN C. ADGATE was married August 24, 1958 to Marilyn Jane GWINN
THEIR CHILDREN WERE:
1. Karen Sue
2. Joseph Loren
3. Patricia Ellen
4. William Chester
5. Frederick Allen
6. Richard Lloyd

KAUFFMAN UPDATE: The farms of Jonathan & Samuel KAUFFMAN were in the NE ¼ Sec. 18 Sebewa, not NW ¼ as printed last time.

HEIRS OF SAMUEL DEXTER: If you are a descendent of Samuel DEXTER, founding father of the City of Ionia, you are requested to contact Ionia County Prosecuting Attorney Raymond P. VOET as soon as possible. There is litigation about to be filed which may affect your interests. Alice ALDRICH BULLING, of Sebewa, who died this winter, was a direct descendent of Samuel DEXTER, but she had no descendants of her own. Do you know anyone else?

FERN CONKRITE played a piece on the piano at her 100th Birthday Party! There were over 150 people, old-time music, speeches, ice cream & cake. May she have many more!

MICHIGAN COURTHOUSES
We continue our tour of Upper Peninsula Courthouses with the BARAGA County Courthouse at L’Anse, pictured on our cover. There have been some small additions on all sides of the basic 1880’s red brick structure, in an attempt to make it serve this rather remote resort county with only 7,954 permanent residents. The jail is next door.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR (IONIA COUNTY, MI) Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association;
AUGUST 1995, Volume 31, Number 1. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:

SURNAMES:

GARLOCK, POWELL, BROWN, SAYER, DILLEY, GUERNSEY, PEACOCK, STAMBAUGH, BAUGHMAN, INGALL, BRAKE, SLOWINS, KLAHN, WENGER, McCARTNEY, GILSON, KING, RICKEY, CORNELL, PIERCE, HARMON, WELD, PACKARD, SHOWERMAN

(PHOTO ON FRONT PAGE: KEWEENAW COUNTY COURT HOUSE – EAGLE RIVER)
Our Court House photo this month is of the KEWEENAW County Court House in Eagle River. It was built in 1866, with the jail next door, and neither has changed much in 129 years. At that time the Cliff Mine had just opened and Eagle River was a boom town, with a huge new ore dock, crushing mill, warehouses, boarding houses, saloons, and the majestic Phoenix Hotel.

RECENT DEATHS:

MERTON R. (MIKE) GARLOCK, 74, born June 2, 1920, husband of Elaine, father of Bruce, Gordon & Donald GARLOCK, Kay BARCROFT & Karen MORSE, brother of Doris & Harlan, son of Ira & Ruth POWELL GARLOCK. He farmed at Carson City, was a beloved teacher at Lakewood, past president of the Lake Odessa Library Board, member of Grand Valley Rock & Mineral Society, a dedicated founding member of Lake Odessa Historical Society and a long-time member of Sebewa Center Association. His mother was a daughter of Horace POWELL, brother of Stanley’s father, Herbert, and son of Joseph PRIESTLEY POWELL, who settled on POWELL Hwy., Ronald Township, in 1845. Joseph turned down a swampy farm that became the “Loop” in Chicago, in order to purchase a well-drained quarter-section in Ronald Township, and we are all the richer for it.

MINNIE A. BROWN, 95, born August 17, 1899, widow of A. BURTON BROWN, mother of Walter, Wayne, Wendell & Weldon BROWN & Betty DUFFEY, sister of Merle & Layton SAYER, daughter of John & Sarah DILLEY SAYER. John SAYER was the son of John & Christena K. SAYER. Sarah DILLEY SAYER was the daughter of Thomas & Eliza DILLEY, who settled in Sec. 35 Sebewa, on Eaton Hwy. before 1875. The SAYERS settled across the road in Sunfield & Roxand Townships.

IVAH A. GUERNSEY, 94, born November 30, 1900, widow of Ambrose GUERNSEY, mother of Harlan, Wilson, Eugene, Lewis & Martin GUERNSEY, and Loretta BALYEAT, sister of Homer, Robert, Theodore, Wayne & Harlan PEACOCK, Jr., Catherine SMITH & two other sisters, daughter of Harlan & Alice HITCHCOCK PEACOCK, daughter of Georgia & Thomas JEFFERSON HITCHCOCK, who settled on 20 acres at the north end of CASSEL Rd. Sec. 10 Sebewa, now owned by Hazel CATT RICHARDSON, right after the Civil War. Harlan PEACOCK was a son of Benjamin PEACOCK, who settled on what is now the Duane & June PINKSTON farm on KNOLL Rd. Sec. 5 Sebewa. Harlan PEACOCK ran the West Sebewa General Store. Her great grandparents, John Joy PEACOCK & Margaret Caroline DOWNING PEACOCK, brought their young family by covered wagon in 1865 to a log cabin in Sec. 6 Sebewa on Knoll Rd. just off State Rd.

RONALD M. STAMBAUGH, 81, born April 23, 1914, husband of Ruth, father of Dale STAMBAUGH & Mary HETCHLER, brother of Kyle & Cale STAMBAUGH, son of Odi BAUGHMAN & Fred STAMBAOUGH, son of Elias & Isabell STAMBAUGH, who settled in SW ¼ Sec. 25 Sebewa before 1891.

MABEL INGALL, 90, born November 11, 1904, widow of Neil INGALL, mother of Barbara JOHNSON & Richard INGALL. Neil was son of Melvin INGALL, son of William & Sarah INGALLS, who settled in Sec. 30 Sebewa on TUPPER Lake Rd. prior to 1875.

THINGS I REMEMBER (continued) by Crystal Lovina BRAKE SLOWINS 1904-1984:

Aunt Inez KLAHN’S girls, Myrtle and Ruth, often came to play with Mable and me, and we went to their house too. When I was 4 1/2, Ruth was old enough to start school and I wanted to go too, so Mother let me. I didn’t like it after all. Back then nothing was done to interest the little folks. That winter we children all had the whooping cough, so they kept me home after that and I actually started school the next year, when Aunt Mary WENGER was the teacher and lived with us. She was very good with little folks and kept them interested.

So my first teacher was Grace WEBER, but I only went a short time that year. Then came Aunt Mary WENGER, Grace SULLIVAN, Nellie CASTLE (married at Christmas – then her name was VALENTINE), Emma TASKER, Eunice CAIRNS, Aunt Flossie WENGER for two years, and Mabel BOWLAS. I usually liked school and my teachers, but the two I liked the least were Grace SULLIVAN and Emma TASKER. Strange how children will notice grownups’ attitudes. I don’t believe Johnnie was going to school yet then, but he went one day and it was cold and mother put a little overcoat on him that had been cousin Oliver’s. It was clean and good, but of course old fashioned, and I remember Miss SULLIVAN laughed at it and I didn’t like that. Then we girls often wore aprons to school over our dresses. One day I wore one that was patched. It was just a little patch and Mable had done it well, but Miss TASKER said “Who patched your apron?” Strange that a pupil would think less of the teachers for that, and I hope I never gave any of my pupils reason to dislike me by criticizing their clothes.

There wasn’t much playground at the school when I first started, just about the width of the school house on each side. Then Jack COOL gave land as far as the corner on the south. When no longer used for school, it and the rest was to go back to his heirs, which it did after he, his wife, and even daughter Nadia were gone, and just before Elwood died. We had a variety of games that we played at school: Pom Pom Pull Away, Rover Red Rover, Statue, Baseball, Anti Over, London Bridge, and In and Out the Window. Then in winter, if Friend’s Pond was frozen over, we went there to play at noon. Or if sliding was good, we went to the hill which started up by the “40” and we rode down to the four corners north of there. One or two years the older boys had a toboggan and all of us could pile on that. Some tied sleds behind. Of course we had to walk half a mile to walk to that hill, then after we slid down we had to walk half a mile back up and another half mile back to school after the first bell rang. We wouldn’t get very many rides in a noon hour, even tho we ate our dinners at recess so as to have more time.

My going to school there was an era of several “firsts”. One was the use of individual folding cups for drinking – although when I taught school later none of the schools I taught had yet started individual cups and towels and I started them on that. Colgate sent samples of toothpaste and we were introduced to that. Before that we used a little salt or baking soda. Then when I was in the 3rd or 4th grad, they began doing away with slates. Before that older children had large double slates & we smaller children had single sided slates. We used tablets some too. The slates were noisy and dusty, as mostly we used a “slate rag” to clean them – some used their sleeve. Some parents thought it too expensive to buy pencil and paper for all use.

In the Fall of 1909, when I was five, Uncle Fred’s decided to go to California. Their son Oliver had died in April at age 15 and Uncle Fred was despondent. My father wanted a larger farm, so he rented Uncle Fred’s for three years and sold the forty acres to Mr. & Mrs. Wm. DRAPER – relatives of the COONS. My folks did most of their trading at Freeport at that time, and as there was no High School at Clarksville yet then, Elwood went to Freeport, as did Glen SLATER and Con SULLIVAN from our neighborhood and Cloyd BARCROFT from near Freeport. Elwood, Glen & Cloyd were the only ones in their graduating class. Cloyd was our distant cousin on the WENGER side.

My folks bought a cream separator while living on the “40”. It was a U.S. and had a rectangular pan. Before that they had a milk cupboard (milksafe). It had screens in the doors and milk was set in there in earthen crocks. When the cream came to the top, it was skimmed off with a skimmer made specially for that. I remember going to the Creamery at Freeport with my father. The neighbors took turns hauling the cream. We were equal distance from Clarksville and Freeport – five miles. Mrs. COOL later said I was the one she most often saw going to town or elsewhere with my father. I expect the reason for that was that Mable and Elwood would be in school and John was too young.

Uncle Fred’s old house stood just south of their new ivory brick one. We children used much of it for a playhouse, and thought we were lucky to each have a room. Johnnie and I spent much of our time catching fish and frogs from the stream that ran across the farm. They were small, but Mable cleaned and cooked them. Whenever the roadside grass was long enough, we children watched the cows while they pastured there. All children in the neighborhood did the same. Sometimes we got to playing with our dolls and things and the cows got all mixed together.

We attended the church there at the corners regularly, from the time we moved there from Pinhook. Never was there a service that we didn’t attend, even tho there might be two or three on some Sundays, unless we were ill. Mr. EGGERMAN and family lived east of the church and he was the janitor. When they sold their farm to Simon & Eva SEARS, who had lived near Lake Odessa, the congregation voted to have my father as janitor. When they got a new minister, he told the people a janitor was hired not elected. But my father continued as janitor, partly because we were the only family close to the church who attended there. My father also held various offices in the church, including Church School Superintendent, Adult Class Leader, etc. Mother taught the young women’s S.S. class and Aunt Inez the young men’s S.S. Class when she was here. I began teaching the Primary Class at age 17 and taught until I married and moved away.

The United Brethren Annual Conference was held at various places before they started holding it at the Sebewa Campgrounds. Once they held it on Uncle Fred’s field while we lived there. Neighbors offered room & board to those who attended. The church men hurried to set up the big tent and paint the benches green. One dignitary stuck fast and when he was pulled loose, his pants were green. I guess the grownups didn’t think that as funny as the kids did.

I don’t think we had a telephone until we lived on Uncle Fred’s farm. They were not real common yet then. I know Grandma BRAKE was afraid to talk on one. Ours was out of Clarksville. Once a day there would be a long ring and everyone went to listen as “Central” would give the weather forecast and the time of day – both “Sun Time” and “Standard Time”, of which there was a half-hour difference. Farmers all went by sun time and trains were on standard time. If there was a long ring any other time, it was some emergency, usually a fire. Central would announce where it was and anyone near would go to help.

There were no cars in the neighborhood until we lived on Uncle Fred’s, when Jack COOL, Nadia’s father, bought a Ford. That is the first car I remember riding in. But Mother said that when we were still living on Grandma BRAKE’S farm, Dan GOOD and wife came to visit and gave us a ride in their Olds. Dan and Mother were first cousins. He was a founding partner and owned half interest in the Woolworth Stores. He had clerked for John Seibert at Caledonia, and then they went partners as SEIBERT, GOOD & Co. in Ft. Wayne, IN, then Grand Rapids, MI, then Chicago, IL, then everywhere as Woolworth’s. When his share of Woolworth’s revenues amounted to a million dollars, Dan GOOD retired, declaring he had enough.

Sometime after we left the “40”, Joe and Emma COON moved from their little house on the north forty of the father’s eighty and lived with his parents, Grandpa and Grandma COON. Some years later, Joe COON bought a parrot named Ida, and an Edison phonograph – one like you see in the ads, with a dog beside the horn. It had cylinder records. Joe and Emma weren’t much on neighboring, but they seemed to like my folks and invited us up there many evenings, even when we lived on the SLATER farm, to listen to the phonograph and see the parrot show off. One record, “The Preacher and the Bear”, was all about a bear chasing a preacher up a tree. We children would listen to that as often as he’d play it. Also he had a recording of his father reading the 23rd Psalm – which we thought was really something, to hear “Grandpa COON” on a record. Joe COON used to hire my father to cut his grain with the binder. Dad always thought Joe was afraid to ride the binder on those side hills, because he had a binder setting right in the shed. Years later my brother John bought the Benedict farm and later added the COON forty. Joe & Emma COON had a foster son named Ray FERRY, who served in Germany during WWI, came home and married their daughter. They lived at Plainwell and just closed up the farmhouse after her parents died. So John got it with machinery, furniture, clothing, dishes, and even canned food. He sold it to Dick CLINE.

When we lived on the “40”, there was a store about a mile to the north owned by ABBOTTS, as I mentioned. These country stores were common throughout the country. My folks, as well as many others, bought round crackers by the barrel there. Neighbors would go together and buy a bunch of bananas. In those days the dining room table was never completely cleared. The sugar bowl, salt & pepper shakers, spoon holder, and cracker bowl were left on all the time. Mother’s cracker bowl was silver, had a handle and a cover, and the word “Crackers” on the side. I often wonder what ever became of that bowl. By the time we lived on the SLATER place that custom began to change.

Our neighbors west of us on the north side of the road at Uncle Fred’s were Park and Alice OSBORN. She was Jack COOL’S sister. The next farm west belonged to William & Lewis COOL. Mrs. OSBORNE had a married daughter and grandson. She gave me the daughter’s doll and doll bed. Her husband was a carpenter and had made the bed. It must be around 100 years old now. Mr. OSBORNE gave Johnnie a set of blocks he had made for his grandson and a long stick with a groove in it and a box of marbles. We spent hours playing with that. Mrs. OSBORNE often took Mable to town with her with the horse and buggy. She would buy candy – either creams or gum drops. If there were green pieces, she would throw them away – saying they were poison – probably colored with Paris Green. Mable hated to see them thrown away and would have been willing to take a chance on them.

Sime and Ev SEARS had no children, so they had Johnnie and I at their house a great deal. Took us to town with them, etc. She told us stories at bedtime – her version of Jack and the Beanstalk is the only one I ever heard like it. She’d say “My hitchit, my hatchet, my little red jacket, and up I go”, and told it in quite a different way. The folks sometimes invited them to have Christmas with us.

When we went anyplace in summer, we went with the double buggy if all the family were going. The boys sat in front with Dad and we girls in back with Mother. We also had a single buggy with a top and one without a top. In winter we used a cutter or a sleigh. While we lived on Uncle Fred’s farm, the folks usually made a trip to Lowell in the Fall to buy clothing and supplies. They put the horses in a livery stable and bought dinner at a restaurant, which was quite an event.

My father was a great lover of horses. He never kept any very long that didn’t look good. He was known for his nice horses and he broke colts to the harness – I don’t remember that he did it for others – just his own. One time he had one hitched up to an older horse and was driving down the road. Mother was watching and suddenly said “Oh, they are running away”, and was really frightened for Dad. He guided them into the fence, where they had to stop. Uncle Fred’s ha a horse named Pet, who was afraid of cars. Once she started to run away when Arletta, their oldest daughter, was driving. Arlette was equal to any emergency and got her calmed down.

Uncle Fred had left his tools and livestock with the folks for the three years, until he decided whether he wanted to stay in California. My father did not wish to buy that farm. It was not well drained and was also more land than he wanted. Instead he bought the Peter SLATER farm half a mile east of the Pleasant Valley corners. Peter’s son Ed had been living there. He and his wife separated at that time. She moved with her two sons, Glen and Merton, to a farm north of the corners across from Mr. & Mrs. Jack COOL. John and Nellie Sullivan and children had been living there. They rented Uncle Fred’s farm. We all moved the same day. Must have been a bit confusing. This was in the Fall of 1912. (To be continued)

GRACE GILSON CELEBRATES ONE HUNDRED YEARS (Reprinted from BONANZA BUGLE)(Story by John WAITE):

Just one hundred years ago, Grace May McCARTNEY was born on May 22, 1895. She was born in the McCARTNEY family home in Lake Odessa, Michigan, to William H. and May E. (CORNELL) McCARTNEY.

Grace’s father, William H. McCARTNEY, was born in 1863, in Seneca County, Ohio, the son of Charles and Julia (KING) McCARTNEY. Grace’s mother, May E. CORNELL, was born in 1870, in Ionia County, Michigan, the daughter of Alanson and Alice (RICKEY) CORNELL. William H. and May E. were married in 1891, in Lake Odessa. Mr. McCARTNEY had previously settled in Lake Odessa in 1889. He and his brother, Hale, had opened McCARTNEY Brothers General Store. Over the years Mr. McCARTNEY became a prominent citizen of Lake Odessa being elected Village Treasurer in 1893, Village President in 1898, a director of the Lake Odessa Milk Condensing Company and Vice President of the Lake Odessa State Savings Bank for forty-four years. He operated McCARTNEY’S General Store until his death in 1933. Mrs. McCARTNEY also died in 1933.

At her birth, Grace was not given a name. She was called “Baby” for the first three years of her life. At that time her parents allowed her to choose her own name….which she chose “Grace”. The birth certificate not only recorded her name as “Baby” but listed her as a boy. This was not corrected until many years later.

Grace was one of four children born to William H. and May E. McCARTNEY. Her two brothers and one sister were: William C. McCARTNEY, born May 26, 1892; Alice J. McCARTNEY, born May 29, 1893; and Arthur H. McCARTNEY, born May 4, 1898.

Grace grew up in Lake Odessa as the village itself was “growing”. The place was a booming town and she witnessed its expansion at the turn of the century. Grace tells of the “Four Big Stores” that were in Lake Odessa in those early days. They were: The TEW Store, the MINER Store, the TOLLES Store, and of course, McCARTNEY Brothers General Store.

In 1895, the McCARTNEYS purchased two lots on the northwest corner of Fourth Avenue and Second Street. Here they built a two story brick building which still stands on that corner. The main floor was occupied by the McCARTNEY Store while the second floor housed the McCARTNEY Opera House. The opera House was the scene of many productions and a center of social life for Lake Odessa.

The McCARTNEY Store was divided into two sections. The north section sold groceries and related items, and men’s wear, shoes, boots, rubbers, work clothing, shirts, underwear, etc. As it was purchased, coffee was ground in a big manually cranked coffee grinder. Chewing tobacco was sold from wooden pails. Pipes, pipe tobacco and cigars were sold but no cigarettes. Three kinds of cane sugar, light brown, dark brown, and white, were kept and sold from large wooden barrels with wooden lids. The barrels were mounted in such a way that they would swing out from under the counter for easier handling. Two big wheels of cheese were in the cheese case, one a mild Colby, the other an aged sharp cheese, which was cut from the wheels as sold.
The store took in produce from farmer’s wives, especially eggs and butter. In the spring they bought maple syrup and maple sugar, shipping most of it to customers in Oregon, Washington and California. The south section of the store sold women’s and children’s goods, including all kinds of yard goods, dress materials, patterns, hosiery, shoes, and just about everything needed in a small town and farming community when women made most of their dresses and the children’s clothing.

As Grace grew up she enjoyed the many activities of a child. She remembers playing in the creek that used to run through Lake Odessa and right through Main Street. In the winter the children would damn up the creek and make a skating pond. At her home on Sixth Avenue, horses, cows and other farm animals were kept as well as a garden and other features of an early 1900s home.

As she reminisces, Grace recalls that she has witnessed the change in transportation from horses, buggies and wagons, to the automobile to the airplane and then space travel. She tells of the days before electricity. Doctor Hines was a dentist in Lake Odessa, coming here in 1900. She can remember him and his drill. It was operated by a foot pump so if he pumped fast the drill ran fast but as he tired the drill slowed down as he worked on teeth, filling cavities and other dental work. From the days of horse and buggies and no electricity to one hundred years later—the computer age and almost the 21st Century….Grace has witnessed great change.

As a student of the Lake Odessa School System she graduated in 1913. Grace was one of fifteen class members and remains the oldest living graduate from Lake Odessa High School. 1995 would mark eighty-two years since her graduation. The class motto of 1913 was “Climb-through the Rocks Be Rugged.”

Grace then went on to further her education at McLICHLEM-DAVENPORT College in Grand Rapids. She graduated from that institution in 1915 with a degree in office management.

As Grace finished college and returned to Lake Odessa she soon became involved in many areas. On April 23, 1915, she became a member of Central Methodist Episcopal Church. After this she was employed as a stenographer and teller at the Lake Odessa State Savings Bank. She remained here until the banks closed in the financial crisis in 1933. Union Bank was organized in July of 1934, at which time Grace was offered the position of assistant cashier. She remained in this position for thirteen years. In 1957 she was elected as a director of Union Bank, making her the first and only woman to sit on the Board of Directors. Grace was also the first woman to be elected to a village position. She was elected as Lake Odessa Village Treasurer in 1927-28 and the first woman Village Council Member.

On November 4, 1943, Grace McCARTNEY was married to Leon T. GILSON. Mr. GILSON was a widower having been previously married to Pearl DEEMER in 1912. Two sons were born to Leon and Pearl GILSON: Thomas GILSON, born in 1913; and Mark GILSON, born in 1918. Thomas GILSON died in 1970 and Mark GILSON is currently living in South Carolina.

Leon T. GILSON had also grown up in Lake Odessa, the son of William and Ida (BISHOP) GILSON. He was born on November 10, 1887. The GILSON family had a great interest in music. His father, uncle, brother and cousin were all involved in local bands. Leon also followed in this musical tradition as he played the cornet. Early in life Leon had been a salesman for Wilson ELLIOT and Company Clothing Store, starting there in 1909. In 1914 he went into business with Carl CAMPBELL forming CAMPBELL and GILSON Clothing Store. Later Morley HOUGH became a partner with Mr. GILSON to form GILSON and HOUGH Clothing Store. Mr. GILSON then sold his part of the business to Mr. HOUGH. Leon GILSON was Lake Odessa’s Village Clerk in 1918-19 and Village Treasurer in 1920. He was Postmaster in Lake Odessa from 1933 to 1950.

The marriage of Grace McCARTNEY and Leon GILSON took place at the Methodist Parsonage. They were accompanied by Morley and Lottie HOUGH as their witnesses to the ceremony. Grace and Leon were to enjoy thirty-four years together as husband and wife.

From 1946 until 1970 Grace and Leon spent their winters in Florida. A total of thirty-three winters were enjoyed before Mr. GILSON’S death in Hollywood, Florida on March 4, 1977. Following his death, Grace lived with her sister-in-law, Vera McCARTNEY, here in Lake Odessa. After this Grace spent eight winters, with good friend, Ethelyn CHASE, in Bradenton, Florida. In 1983, Grace moved to Emerson Manor being one of the first residents. In 1993, she moved to Lake Manor where she presently resides. Grace has been involved in many areas throughout her life and her many interests have kept her a part of our community. She remains in good health and enjoys her many friends. A celebration was held on May 21, 1995, to honor Grace’s one hundredth birthday. Many family members and friends joined together to wish her a happy day and continued blessings. HAPPY ONE HUNDRED GRACE GILSON! (Reprinted from BONANZA BUGLE)(Story by John Waite)

AMERICAN GINSENG; from a handwritten manuscript written by Dale S. Pierce, ginseng grower in Portland Michigan from about 1900 to 1928. Dale Pierce is the father of Geraldine TORP-SMITH who found the manuscript among her father’s papers. Rts 1/23/1995.

Ginseng is produced artificially in nearly all the states where it has grown wild. It is susceptible to several fugus diseases, some of which are fatal. These conditions make the culture of the plant somewhat difficult, in fact only one grower out of 6 is successful.
A ginseng seed requires 18 months time to germinate and then from 7 to 10 years to grow a mature crop of roots. After a crop of roots is harvested they are dried. This requires from 4 to 6 weeks time.

Owing to the fact that wild ginseng is so near extinction that growing it artificially will no doubt be a permanent industry.
The Chinese are so discriminating in essential features that it is going to require very much patience and painstaking on the part of the growers.

The quality of the root is determined by the color, character and texture. This can be acquired only by giving the roots plenty of time to mature.

The principal ginseng market in America is New York City. Bought largely by fur buyers and sold to the Chinese exporter who ships the roots to the Celestial Kingdom. Ginseng has been used by the Chinese for about 6000 years and no doubt always will be. They know its value as a medicine. They also use it in religious rites and ceremonies.

GOLDEN SEAL. Golden Seal, Hydrastis Canadensis, is also a valuable medicinal plant which is largely grown by ginseng growers as a side line. This herb is used mostly in America and Europe and is acknowledged by the Medical Fraternity as one of the best medical herbs known. It is used for several purposes. Physicians say that in the last few years no end of uses have been found for hydrastine (produced from golden seal root) and scientists have failed to find anything that will substitute. Growing golden seal will thus also prove to be a permanent industry.

REPORT OF FIRST MEETING OF SEBEWA SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 4. (About 1849?):
To Walter HARMON, a taxable inhabitant of School District No. 4, of the Township of Sebewa. Sir, you will hereby notice that we, Benjamin WELD and Wm. PACKARD, School Inspectors of said Township of Sebewa have formed a school distict in said Township, numbered it, and bounded it as follows to wit:….the first meeting of said district will be held at the school house in said district on the 27th of September, 1847, at four o’clock PM, and you will in pursuance of the laws notify every qualified voter of said district either personally or by leaving a written notice at his place of residence of the time and place of said meeting. Then and there to transact such business as the law requires. Given under our hand this 18th day of September, 1847….A parcel of land 5 rods by 8 rods, or ¼ acre, was leased from Jacob SHOWERMAN for 25 cents per year for 20 years. Jacob SHOWERMAN was also paid ten dollars, being in full for building a school house (of logs). In 1848 they voted to raise five dollsars to repair that schoolhouse. They also voted that one cord of wood be delivered by the first day of December for each scholar that attends school.”

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association (Ionia County, MI),
OCTOBER 1995, Volume 31, Number 2. Submitted with written permission of Editor, Grayden D. SLOWINS:

SURNAMES: SLOWINS, BRAKE, SLATER, PRESTON, SEARS, NASH, HEADWORTH, LAUGHLIN, WENGER, CLEMEN, McDIARMID, FRIEND, SULLIVAN, HOWLETT, MOTE, MERRILL, YOUNGS, WELCH, COOL, FIRST, SNITGEN, BARTOW, GRAY, JOLLY, SIMON

NEW BRUNSWICK, NOVA SCOTIA & PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND by Grayden SLOWINS

Saturday, July 22, 1995, 9:30AM, we left home in our new red Chevrolet Cheyenne C2500 Pickup with our Coachman camper on it…..we took I-69 from Lansing to Port Huron, crossed the Bluewater Bridge to Sarnia, Ontario…..Monday provided nice photo opportunities across New Hampshire, Maine and into New Brunswick…..saw many big old farmhouses with barns attached by a kitchen-breezeway-woodshed….The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world, up to 40 feet high in some places and this causes a sudden change of flow direction of the rivers....in Canada again, visited Bed & Breakfast called The Organry, whose owner has 98 reed pump organs in various stages of repair and restoration. He was away, but his teenage daughter gave us a tour and let Ann play any she wished. Later the mother joined us. Their name is VanderLeest and she was a Meijer. They came from the Netherlands in 1968 and he taught in college, Ag extention, etc…..happened to meet & visit with the BOTTINGS of Grand Rapids, parents of Jim of Ionia, while we waited (at ferry crossing).

Thursday, July 27, the weather was hot & humid……..saw a small flock of Suffolk and white-faced sheep east of Antigonish…We arrived at the port town of Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.)….saw Loons and sheep and beautiful green & yellow little hedged fields, and the red rock soil common to Ontario and these eastern provinces…..then to the Anne of Green Gables House which Lucy Maude MONTGOMERY wrote about….also her childhood home….church….post office….family plot in cemetery….later at North Cape saw the tides meeting….also experimental windmills there of all shapes, intended to generate electric power….to Charlottetown….this area is more wooded, wet, and not such good farms…
Back thru Moncton, New Brunswick, we saw a man baling hay with a New Holland baler with thrower…..headed west…Augusta, capital of Maine…in Montpelier, VT….on up the peninsula in the middle of Lake Champlain, where we saw dutch-belted cows and several more houses made of cut sandstone blocks, as we had seen coming across before. No corn until we got part way back along the south side of the St. Lawrence River, at Ogdensburg, NY. Also a flock of sheep, but most of the hay in the fields was baled in huge 3-wire square bales for shipping. On I-90 we saw lots of grapevines, peach & apple orchards.

The trip was 4373 miles and the highest price we paid for gas was $1.76US per gallon in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. END

THINGS I REMEMBER (continued) by Crystal Lovina BRAKE SLOWINS 1904-1984

I liked the brick house and was homesick for it when we moved. The new house was nice tho. There were four bedrooms upstairs, one closet, and one storeroom. There were two stairways, because when a new addition had been built, they built a new stairway in the east upright and left the old one in the west upright. You could go up one side of the house, around thru, and down the other. Downstairs were two bedrooms, one closet, parlor, living room, dining room, kitchen, and pantry. Grandma BRAKE was living with us most of the time then, and she had the large downstairs bedroom and my folks had the small one. After she was gone, my folks had the large one and used the little one for a closet and later a bathroom.

That first year we lived on the SLATER farm, there was an old binder in the orchard back of the hen house. Dad gave Johnnie and me wrenches to take the bolts and nuts off with and we spent a lot of time with that old binder.

In the summer of 1913, my father remodeled the barn and put it on a wall. Will & Cecil PRESTON from across the road were carpenters and in charge of the project. Dad always kept the house, barn, and outbuildings in good repair and well painted.
Back then the ladies sewed carpet rags and had carpets woven in nice patterns. They often put straw under them and they were tacked down and taken up spring and fall for house cleaning. Mother had a tack hammer and a carpet stretcher. With that straw, the carpets would get dusty. When they wanted to sweep, they often sprinkled salt on the carpet so the dust wouldn’t fly. Later they quit using the straw. We had straw ticks for mattresses for a long time though. When I began teaching school and stayed at home, I remember buying at least two mattresses.

You weren’t anybody, if you didn’t have lace curtins in at least the parlor and living room. Those were a chore to wash. They had regular curtain stretchers and after washing the curtains you put them on the stretchers to dry, so they would be even. The stretchers had little nails like pins and you generally ended up with many pin pricks.

While growing up there on that farm, John and I had many good times together. We went back to the creek on the CHEESEBROUGH farm behind us. I think in good weather we went every day. On rainy days the top floor of the old granary was our playhouse. When the men cut grain, we would follow the binder around the field the last few rounds to try and catch rabbits. Wm. PRESTON across the road had cages that he’d loan us. We never had much luck raising anything, except Johnnie did have several little skunks for quite a while once. He did some trapping on SEARS’ and PRESTON’S, where it was sort of swampy, as he grew older – still in country school. I went with him by lantern before school in the morning – almost secretly hoping he hadn’t caught anything, because I didn’t want to see him kill it.

I’ve mentioned that Mother taught the Young Ladies’ Sunday School Class and Aunt Inez taught the Young Men’s Class when she was here. I can’t remember who did it after she moved away. I was probably about starting my teens when they were combined. Originally many of the men sat on one side of the church and the women on the other – although my father always sat with my mother. Lee OSBORNE always sat with Ruth. Evidently when the church was organized, they sat separate and some never changed. Uncle Walter always sat on the men’s side. So one time when they came to church in a sleigh, Aunt Ida got out and came in with some of the boys and sat on her side of the church. Uncle Walter tied the team and came in. When the service was about half over, Burdette came wandering in. He had been asleep and each one of his parents thought he was with the other.
Elwood graduated from Freeport High School and after attending college at Mt. Pleasant that summer, he taught the JENNINGS School – one mile west of our home school. Then the next year he was Principal of a two-room school at Hickory Corners. Uncle Frank WENGER had been there the year before. Elwood went to Mt. Pleasant for a year after that and then went to Pewamo as Superintendent. He and Nadia were married in August before school began. The next year he went into the Army, World War I, and then returned to become Superintendent at Hubbardston. From there he was elected Ionia County School Commissioner – now called Intermediate School Superintendent – beginning in 1923. He held that position until he retired – 39 years.

While Elwood was Superintendent at Hubbardston, and Barbara was a baby, I went to visit them, early in 1922. I took the train from Elmdale to Lowell, and changed lines to Pewamo. There I spent the night in a hotel above the Bank and was very concerned about bed-bugs. Then I took the “Morning Stage” to Hubbardston. The Stage was an extended open touring car with side curtains. It almost got stuck in the mud on Hubbardston Road, but we made it. I stayed there for a while and helped take care of Barbara and her older brother Elwood Jr., because Nadia’s health was very poor. They had a Victrola that Mrs. COOL had just bought them. I’d rock Barb, play the Victrola, and sing. If I’d let up on any one, she would cry. I think we had her spoiled a bit.

Mable began High School in 1914, at Clarksville. I started in 1917, so we had one year together. We drove Lady on a cart in summer and a sleigh in winter and were many times tipped out in the snow. We were real cold by the time we reached the Ernest NASH barn where we kept Lady. Many country children came to school the same way. The second year in High School I rode with Blake and Dorothy ALLERDING. We took turns driving. Bad nights I stayed over at Mrs. HEADWORTH’S or with Gaylord LAUGHLIN’S mother. The next year Mable taught the MILL School, having gone to Mt. Pleasant in the summer. After High School graduation in 1918, she had worked for Uncle John WENGER’S at Coopersville, then at Herpolsheimer’s Department Store in Grand Rapids. When she taught at the Mill, I would let her off at Pinhook if the weather was good or otherwise take her to school. Then I’d drive to Uncle Walter’s and Forrest would ride with me to school, usually drive the horse, and help unhitch. I sometimes wonder now if he didn’t get tired of bothering with me.

Mable was well-liked as a teacher and the School Board wanted her to stay on, but she wasn’t too keen on teaching, hadn’t been well after a bout with the flu, and decided not to teach. Her former pupils still speak well of her. When she was ill, I substituted for her some – so did Esta SLATER. I was 15-16 and in the 11th grade, Esta was a Senior and two years older. So my last year in school I rode with Dayton FRIEND. That was 1920-1921. He drove a car, except in the dead of winter.
There were 10 of us who graduated. Beulah KING was Valedictorian. I was Salutatorian. Others in the class were Esther McDIARMID, Annabell FRIEND, Thomas SULLIVAN, Vera and Vere HOWLETT, Maxine MOTE, Russell MERRILL, and Marian SLATER. As I write this (1/8/83) Memorial services are being held for Tom – the fifth one in the class to pass away.
As no-one could teach until they were 18 years of age, those of us who wanted to teach and were 17 had to wait a year. I worked at Elwood’s and substituted some in schools – there seemed to be no age rule on substitutes. I went to summer school in 1922 at Mt. Pleasant. After passing exams there, we had to write an exam at the County Seat, Ionia. When Mable wrote hers, I went along with her and Irene ALDERINK and wrote it too – at age 15. Strange to say, the Examining Board said they would have given me a Certificate then if I had been 18. That made our teachers at Clarksville very happy, especially Supt. McCUMSEY, guess they though they were teaching us well.

I used to go to Grand Rapids on the train and take the Inter-urban to Coopersville, when Mable worked for Uncle John. I was in High School then. Later I would go down to Grand Rapids on the train and visit her when she worked at Uncle Verne’s. The Union Station was something. I can still see the large colored man standing up by the ticket cages at the time the trains were to leave – calling “All Aboard” for train so and so on such and such a track, leaving for __ and then name the stations – Crosby (Bowen Station), Elmdale, Lowell, Clarksville, Lake Odessa, Woodbury, Sunfield, etc. I remember I was always a bit worried for fear I would get on the wrong one.

In September, 1922, I started teaching at the JENNINGS School, where Elwood had begun 8 years before. I walked the 1 ½ miles each way every day, unless the weather was very bad, then my father took me. I had as many as 33 pupils at one time there. We thought nothing of walking 2 or 3 miles some place – especially in summer. We always walked to church unless it was storming. When there was a funeral, Mother, and usually I too, would walk down to the JENNINGS corner to gather myrtle to put on the black cloth which draped the altar. I remember her sending Johnnie and me to Harry CLEMENS’ home, which was anyway three miles from our place, to take a bouquet of flowers to the grandfather who was ill. My father bought sheep of Alice & Wilbur YOUNG’S father in South Boston. Although he drove there with the buggy, we drove the sheep home and some of us walked to herd them. No traffic to bother, no open gates, no stray dogs, no problem.

Back when I was a Freshman in High School, Mother discovered my eyes weren’t good. I could not read the figures on a large calendar when I was but a few feet away. My parents contacted Uncle Verne, who was an M.D. in Grand Rapids. He recommended a Dr. WELCH and the folks took me to him. He said I’d think I was in a different world when I got the glasses, and I surely did. I was surprised to see each leaf on the trees. I’ll say here that it’s no doubt due to earlier advice from Uncle Verne that I’m here at all. Hazel had died of Spinal Meningitis. Mother said that as a baby I cried a lot and looked just the way Wayne did before he died. The neighbors all thought I wasn’t going to live either. The folks called Uncle Verne and he came out on the train. He said my only trouble was that I was starving, and Mother should give me cow’s milk. Their own doctor hadn’t suggested that. I soon grew healthy, as the family pictures show.

We had a Christmas program that year I taught the JENNINGS School, same as all country schools did. Also a Box Social one night. I wonder now why there weren’t more fires from Christmas trees. We used wax candles in little tin holders, just clipped to the branches of the pine trees. I always did have someone watch the tree for fire when I had a program. My brother Johnnie had scarlet fever the first year I was at the JENNINGS School, and I had to stay a month at Mrs. COOL’S. The house had to be fumigated before I could go home, clothing & bedding burned that he had used. They weren’t allowed to write letters nor sell cream. My father would come down to the corner and visit with me from a few feet away, some nights when I came from school. Lalah JOLLY was teaching the Pleasant Valley School and staying at Mrs. COOL’S too. Mrs. COOL’S sister, Hattie WATERMAN, was living with her too as she had for years.

All summer after school let out, I doctored with Dr. WELCH for my eyes. He had me wear colored glasses, have drops in my eyes every day, etc. I received $90 a month the first year and believe it was raised to $95 the next. But I kept having more eye trouble and resigned after five weeks or so of school. I did a little substitute work now and then. I liked to read so very well, but was limited as to the amount I could do, when my eyes were giving me trouble. Others used to read to me. The one I best remember doing that was Aunt Betty, because she was so good at it. Seems she would be at our place often for weekends or vacations.

Mable was working as a receptionist for Uncle Verne and a group of other doctors by that time, and I was going to work for one of them. But after I went down there, my folks called, before I started to work, to say the home school needed a substitute. So I went back home and taught there two or three months. While I was there, a neighbor, Burt GRAY, who had lost his wife and a son and was left with seven children, expressed the belief that he could no longer care for them alone. His mother had helped, but was too elderly to do so. Duane was 10 at the time. The folks and I thought it would be fine if he came to live with us. He said he’d like that, too, so my father talked with Burt, and Duane came just before his 11th birthday in April 1924. He soon seemed like one of the family. He was always good and thoughtful to my parents. (To be continued)

Nan SIMON, Editor of the Portland Review & Observer, recently wrote about the Coldwater, Marshall & Mackinaw Railroad, which was promoted by Harvey BARTOW and was to enter Portland from Sebewa thru his addition, now known as the Marshall Street Subdivision. To extend the story a little further: Harvey BARTOW was a pioneer bachelor attorney who lived in the house just west of the church on W. Bridge Street long known as the old Nazarine Church, and before that as the Presbyterian and then United Brethren Church. Later Ethol FIRST and then Frank DAVENPORT ran a furnace repair and tin shop in that house.

Maybe Tony SNITGEN also operated there. The railroad came into town between Marshall & Union Streets, curved at West Street, so that the diamond-shaped plot for a depot was at the intersection of Empire and Church Streets. Then the tracks were to head northwest out of town and cross the Pere Marquette Railroad at the GIBBS School on Peck Lake Road in Portland Township, then pass just east of Collins, making that town an important railroad center also. If you drive or walk to the west end of Detroit Avenue, along the north end of SLOWINS Green Acres Subdivision, then look north, you will see an embankment for a railroad trestle over the creek….this railroad should not be confused with the Chicago, Kalamazoo & Saginaw, which would have come into Sebewa from the southwest at Woodbury, nor the railroad which was to run thru Hoytville, Sebewa & Bonanza, but got moved to Mulliken, Sunfield and Lake Odessa.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association (Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI.
DECEMBER 1995, Volume 31, Number 3. Submitted with written permission of Editor, Grayden D. Slowins:

ROBERT WILFRED GIERMAN, our founder, died Saturday, November 11, 1995, age 86 years, 3 months, and 19 days. We could say many things about this man who touched so many lives, but in the end we must print his story the way he wanted it. In the July 1989 issue for his 80th birthday we wrote: “Probably no-one can really succeed him as Editor, because THE RECOLLECTOR is Wilfred and Wilfred is THE RECOLLECTOR”.

In June 1986, after he stood on an upright piano while painting the schoolhouse ceiling, fell on his head and broke four vertebrae, we wrote: “Robert Wilfred GIERMAN is not dead and not yet perfect”. Today he reached perfection! Bill Davis will scatter his ashes at Sunshine. After his own telling of his story, we have included excerpts from various writers on that occasion of his 80th birthday.

~~~~~~

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT W. GIERMAN

ROBERT WILFRED GIERMAN was born in Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan, Town 5 north, Range 6 west, NW ¼ SW ¼ Sec. 15, on July 23, 1909. “My mother was Nellie Effie MEYERS GIERMAN, born in Danby Township in 1879. My father was Robert Ernest GIERMAN, born in Edmore in 1881. My grandparents were Charles and Christina KLAGER GIERMAN, who at the time of their marriage moved in with my great-grandparents in Sec. 21 on BIPPLEY Road, where Ilene CARR lives now. They had a rather small, shacky house at that time. My great-grandfather, Frederick (Fritz) GIERMAN, was ill-disposed and laid all his troubles on Christina. So they didn’t live there long before Charles decided he’d go back to Ionia to see if he could work in the RR car shops where he’d left a job. They told him no, but they had a place at Edmore where he could work at his trade as car repairman. If they had a small wreck or something went wrong with a brake, the car would be side-tracked and he would go out and repair it. I could never understand that, because when I knew him, seemed like he couldn’t even fix a fence and the hogs were always out. Anyway, that’s how come my father was born at Edmore.

“After my grandparents moved to Edmore, Great-grandfather built a new house on the order of Theodore GUNN’S, Joshua GUNN’S, Andrew RALSTON’S, John OLRY’S, Heman BROWN’S, and W. W. MERRIFIELD’S, in the Victorian Italianate style. It was most like Joshua GUNN’S, where LaVern CARR lives, except that the wing was on the opposite end of the house. It’s like you turned the picture over. That house was still there when Granddad bought the Phoeba SHAY 40 acres across the road in Sec. 16 around the schoolhouse and took up residence in the big Italianate house. Great-granddad moved back to his house on North Jefferson in Ionia. That lasted from 1893 until 1900, I think, when the big new house burned. Granddad replaced the house with one just as commodious but very plain, with no clothes closets.

“They lived in the Town Hall while they were building the new house. Grandmother always did the milking, so she was back and forth from the barn to the Town Hall several times a day. One day, when they were going back to the Hall to prepare supper, she caught a chicken and gave it to Nettie to carry. They got part way and stopped to rest. Grandmother set down the milkpails, so Nettie laid down the chicken. They didn’t have the chicken any longer. Their children were: Robert, George, Cora (Warren) WALSH, Edna (Clarence) SAYER, Nettie (Edgar) NASH, Carl, and Elmer, plus four others who died young.

“Granddad built that big barn across the road on his 40. I’m not sure if that was before or after the house burned. They built a big grade up to the second floor to haul the hay in. Many times we’ve hayed there, drove the horses up onto the barn floor, and hooked another team onto the rope that raised the forks up to the mow. The wing was built after Carl took over. Carl and Martha lived there, raised their family there, and along somewhere in the late forties or early fifties, Carl decided to retire and moved to Lake Odessa. Their son, Maynard, took over the farm and raised his family there. One night he stoked the fire and it put out some sparks on the roof, it burned again, and Maynard had to build the house that’s there now. Maynard sold it to John HADEWAY in 1960 & CARRS moved in.

“Uncle George bought the 40 where his son, Wilbur, lives now. Granddad owned this south forty of my farm and that north 50 that belongs to Wilbur. My 30 in between had a set of buildings and at that time was part of what later became Sadie & Elem TRAN’S farm across the road. That belonged to Mr. & Mrs. Gene HALLADAY. Mrs. HALLADAY was a sister to Jennie Lyda WEIPPERT, who taught here when this schoolhouse was first new and then again when I started to school. She had married Andrew J. (Tom) WEIPPERT, Jr. and within a year he died, before their daughter, Loreita, was born. They had another sister, Mrs. COLEMAN, over by the COLEMAN School, and Jennie stayed there while the baby was born. Sometimes she boarded at GUNN’S and sometimes at Grandma’s when she taught here, and once she opened the wrong door and fell down Grandma’s basement steps and had a bad leg thereafter. The 50 and 30 had once been the John ARNOLD 80 acres.

“When Dad bought this 40 from Granddad, the house was what is now my garage. Charlie was born in that house. It had been the cooper shop on the Joshua GUNN place when Ben PROBASCO Sr. had it, and was moved down here and sat straight south of this one. They had to follow around the high ground to the east, to get it here and avoid the swamps. Ross TRAN was born in it, and maybe Elem was too. His father was Emmanuel, and they have a big stone over in the cemetery. Elem & Sadie TRAN lived in Fred GUNN’S little house and then had John WYMAN build the house over here out of tile. Their kids were Ross, Florence, Ethel & Alice. Ross married Gladys YORK, Florence married a TROWBRIDGE and then Ralph HIAR, Ethel was married but died 1918 of flu. Dad moved the house further back after having Barney OATLEY build this house. That is, the upright, the north two rooms upstairs and these down. I was born in it, but it hadn’t been here very long. Later my dad built a lean-to onto it out toward the south. The barn up there was what we used and this barn here is some of it, including the hay car & track. Dad tore that house up there down, probably wasn’t much of a house, and may have used some of the lumber on this one.

“My brothers and sisters were Charles, Christine (JARCHOW), Pauline (LILLIE), and Maurice. We attended our first eight grades of school at District No. 4, Sebewa Center School. As I mentioned, Mrs. WEIPPERT was my first teacher. She pushed me thru first and second grade all in one year. That fall when school started, we were expecting a threshing machine to come with a big old steam engine on it. I was scheduled to stay after school for misspelling Columbus, and I wanted to see that steam engine, so at recess I left. They had dug a ditch from the big ditch over behind here, up past Uncle George’s farm and to Granddad’s around the schoolhouse. The tile weren’t in it yet. I presume Elem TRAN helped dig it, because he did most of the digging around here. Anyway, I got down in the ditch and had a place to move along without being seen. I stayed in the ditch down by Wilbur’s place and saw the steamer arrive, heard the whistle toot and all the excitement of getting set and things going. Then I went back down toward the schoolhouse on the corner of Granddad’s. My older brother, Charlie, and a BALDERSON boy, who was visiting at Fred GUNN’S, spotted me. They knew what was up and marched me back to the schoolhouse. Mrs. WEIPPERT took me thru the lesson where I had misspelled the word, and applied another lesson as well.

“When it came time to go to high school, my folks sort of frowned on Sunfield High School, and Portland seemed remote, so I went to Lake Odessa. The old schoolhouse had burned in late 1921 or early 1922, so they arranged to build a new schoolhouse. It wasn’t ready until January. Charlie and I were in the same grade by then and our classroom, where we had our desks, was above the McCARTNEY store, the corner building where SCHEIDT’S Hardware later was. We entered from the stairway on Main St.; I think there was a stairway on the side street too. That had been an opera house of sorts, as there was a stage, and some of the facilities for producing plays were there yet. There was a classroom to the back, another up on the stage, I don’t remember where all. We had another class, a Zoology class with Mr. CHILDS, John Robert CHILDS, down the street to the south, somewhere in the area where the bank is now located. Seems to me we also had a class above the NYE Drug Store. Occasionally we got above the MINER Store. Both were places where organizations like the Oddfellows and Masons had their meetings.

“After the first of January, 1923, the new High School building was opened. We had an enormous room; all the high school classes and the seventh and eighth grades were in that session room. It seemed enormous to me; I suppose it looks smaller now. There were classrooms around the outside. I was smaller than Charlie, barely age 13 when school started, so I wasn’t expected to take part in the football or baseball games, and I wasn’t interested either. But Charlie was, so there was a period when I would wait around school for him to finish practice before we would come home. My dad had raised a colt; he was going to have something so the boys could drive to school. That was Prince. He was a good colt and Charlie rode him quite a bit. We drove to Lake Odessa for two weeks, and then Dad bought a Ford Roadster. I think it cost $350, a new one. There was no battery; it had magneto lights. If you went slow enough, your lights would get so dim, you couldn’t see anything ahead of you. We kept it in a garage up there during the winter to start with; but we never thought of using antifreeze in it then. That was something you didn’t have to do, if you were careful and filled it with water when you wanted to use it and drained it when you stopped. Occasionally that did make trouble, but we got thru high school with it. We’d usually take our lunches, drive down by the lake and sit there and look out over the lake while we were eating. Sometimes other kids did the same. I graduated from high school in 1926.

“I didn’t go to college after high school. I worked for Uncle Carl GIERMAN on the farm, with the understanding that I would have some time off each afternoon to study on a correspondence business college course. I bought a typewriter, practiced typing as the instructions showed, and occasionally I would mail in to Kalamazoo the sheet they had for the record. Then they came around and invited me to go down there to school. I don’t know if this is the exact order of events. Anyway, I went. They had a little business college. They had a typing room with about ten typewriters in it. We had a very good typing instructor who would show us how she could make her fingers go; and I knew I never would do that. I did pretty well to do 40 words a minute, with a few errors. Something got in the way and I quit that school.

“I think I had a chance then to go down to Lansing to Fisher Body, which was a part of the Olds factory, not the new part out this way. I worked there for the summer anyway. We made a dollar an hour and that was pretty good. I got enough to pay back my Granddad the hundred dollars I had borrowed for business school, and had some around besides. I can’t get these things all straight, but that was in 1929. The Depression set in and out the door we went.

“I had a session with Uncle Elmer in Grand Rapids. He had bought a tire repair store, and of course there were prospects of big money. We did some tire vulcanizing. We had a machine that was powered by electricity for heat, and a process to go thru. One day a fellow wanted to get his valves ground on his Model-T. I’d seen Charlie do that on the Ford we had, and Elmer said “Oh, you can do it”. So I tore it apart and went thru the motions of grinding. We got it back together somehow. I don’t know if it worked out or not. While I was there, we boarded with Mrs. NIECE, who was the wife of a man who had been pastor at Lake Odessa. She was very nice. He was blind. He must have been somewhat older than her. There were three or four other fellows in the house, so I couldn’t stay there at night. I had to go next door and had a room there. I remember one fellow who was there and was the son of a preacher who had given the baccalaureate when we graduated form Lake Odessa High School.

“Next we heard of a fellow who had a nursery in Jackson, needed someone, and I went down there. No car, and no thought of having one, and I found out the work was out in the country a ways. Some way or other I got out there, but it wasn’t very convenient and after two or three days I left.

“It was 1930 before I went back to college and started at Western. That was in the middle of the Depression. I was there when the banks closed, but I didn’t have anything in the banks, so that didn’t worry me. The first year Zack YORK and I and another fellow, Forrest SLATER from Indiana, were in one fairly large room together. Zack and I had a bed and he had another one. We got thru that year; we kind of fudged on our eating by turning over a flatiron and cooking on top of it. Western hadn’t begun to expand much at that time. Dwight WALDO was the President and had been for a number of years. He was supposed to be a man who could tell all about Lincoln, but he told it in such a matter-of-fact way, that he never caught my ear very much. He would do that when everybody appeared at the weekly assembly. We got acquainted with the system’ very much appreciated the library and all the things they did, including back issues of magazines and newspapers, and the current magazines, things I’d never seen before. Of course the library had a reputation of holding all the budding romances. I didn’t get into that. We stayed at Mrs. DEENSTRA’S house, and she had a daughter, Winnie, and a son, who were both in school too. She had a definite Dutch brogue. The heat quite often didn’t seem to reach our room. There were maybe six or seven guys in the house and only one bathroom. I guess that’s where I learned to clean the bathtub after using it, because we didn’t have water under pressure in the house here and of course no bathtub. We took a bath once a week in the washtub, whether we needed it or not.

“We finished that year and Zack started teaching down here at Sebewa Center, I think at 35 dollars a month. I went back alone. Maybe that was when I borrowed the hundred dollars from Granddad. I stayed with my mother’s cousin a month. I didn’t know what I was going to do after that, but I met a barber in town. He had cut my hair and I learned he had an apartment house. He usually employed a college boy to keep the fires, clean the walks, and do the little things that needed doing. It had a basement and three stories, and we lived in the basement. My room was just off the furnace room. I got my room and board. This went on for the whole three years. They had a dog and a boy, Sonny, who was in grade school. They had a cottage out at the lake and sometimes in summer we went out there evenings. Being a barber, he had access to a lot of chatter and had opinions on everything.

“I had to select my subjects with an advisor, but as far as I can remember, nobody was pointing me toward anything in particular, except that I was in Business Administration. I took History and Economics and courses like that. I did take one term of Geology, didn’t know anything about it before and not too much afterward, but I had a taste of it. Enough to influence me later to get mixed up with the Rock Club we formed in Ionia. I didn’t take much creative writing either, although I did have one literature class in which we had to write themes, and I did fairly well. I wound up graduating in 1934 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and there weren’t any jobs.

I worked here on the farm some. My dad was always a farmer, but he had a condition, I can’t think what they call it now, whereby he would have highs & lows. Sometimes he was jolly and could do anything, then all at once he couldn’t do anything and he needed some help. One time, when I was working down at Fisher Body, he had one of those spells and had to have some help. Charlie helped him for the summer and then I had to come home. There were cows to milk, pigs to feed and the chicken house to be cleaned.

“When the Depression was starting to get over, I worked with Elmer for two or three months at Fremont in Newago County. He was into the farm loan business by that time. We would investigate poor farmers, make a farm plan for them, and they would propose what they would do if they got a loan; buy a tractor and raise some beans, etc. We’d make up their loan plans and send them in. Then I came back and worked in Lansing for about a month at the Resettlement Administration Office. I operated a machine that would add, subtract, multiply, and divide; that was something. You wonder how people used to get things done. Charles McNEIL used to spread the tax roll all by hand, with just a machine that added & subtracted.

“Then I worked for several years, beginning in 1937, for Tri-County Electric Co-operative under the Rural Electrification Administration. They were stringing lines out thru this area. But I worked in the office in Portland for Dolph WOLF. He had originally installed the first telephone system in Sunfield, now he was older & manager. A man named Worthington from Lansing had started it. I was Treasurer of Tri-County Electric Association for a while, and signed the first million dollars worth of checks for building these lines.

“We had different groups around that signed up memberships. First they started building around Eaton Rapids, using power from the mill dam on Grand River. Then they put in a diesel generator. Then they came into Ionia County, because we had enough memberships signed by then. They built lines in Danby, Portland, Sebewa, Odessa, and on north, and the diesel generator plant in Portland. Then on up to Vestaburg, where they built another plant, and as far as Big Rapids.

“During the War I worked at Willow Run Bomber Plant for three years on B24s, and a short time at Atlanta, GA, on B25s. After that I went to Ionia Manufacturing Company, and it had other names: MITCHELL-BENTLEY, A. O. SMITH, DOW-SMITH, General Tire, GenTech, Gencorp, etc. I was an inspector – Quality Control they call it now. I worked there about 30 years, retiring in 1974, at age 65. I got a retirement pension of about $1100 a year and it hasn’t changed much over the years, although they do pay my Medicare now. I bought the 20 acre Wallace HOLLENBACH estate about 1960. Once farmed by Peter KNAPP, then Charlie COOPER, it was now an abandoned gravel pit. Dad said it was good for nothing but “Sunshine”. That’s how it got its name. There was some wet-land vegetation and walnuts on the back and I began to plant spruce trees on the rest.

“We started the Rock & Mineral Society in 1963, when KENNEDY was having his trouble in Cuba. We had an adult education class on it at Ionia High School. Our first teacher was in the group to start with; she didn’t stay long. There were other rock and mineral societies or things allied to that; one in Grand Rapids, one in Wyoming, one in Lansing. We would sometimes go and visit their meetings. Our meetings were generally held in Ionia or out at BOYCE School. Ours was called the Grand Valley Rock & Mineral Society and our bulletin was the Grand Valley Conglomerate. Later the name changed to Grand Valley Lithogram. By that time I had a duplicator and got out a bulletin of ten pages every month for ten years. The Lithogram began to overlap into what became THE RECOLLECTOR. THE RECOLLECTOR started in 1965, when the school closed and we started the Sebewa Center Association. I did both of them for a while. THE RECOLLECTOR was more than ten pages. Postage rates eventually limited us to what could go for one first class stamp. The older members of the Rock & Mineral Society began to drop out and finally we quit.

Other historical societies I participated in included LAKE ODESSA with Merton & Elaine GARLOCK as leaders, Grand Ledge with Judge John FITZGERALD & Lorabeth as leaders, Sunfield with Dr. HUYCK & Mrs. Dr. BERG as leaders. Vermontville & Charlotte each have historical societies, and then they have an Eaton County Historical Commission which was generated by the Old Court House project. Portland got theirs going after their Centennial of village incorporation in 1969. Ionia started as an antique club and changed to a historical society at the time of their Centennial of becoming a city in 1973. They soon acquired the Blanchard House, with the help of Ariel & Lynn MORRIS and George & Caroline VANCE. The Homes Tour and Antique Show are their big events. Lyons, Saranac & Owosso also have Societies. As for my travels, I can’t remember them all now; India twice, Peru, Australia, all over the United States and into Canada, England, Ireland. END

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EXCERPTS FROM VARIOUS WRITERS ON THE OCCASION OF ROBERT WILFRED GIERMAN’S 80th birthday:

By EVELYN DAVID: As I sit at my computer and type, my mind is flooded with thoughts of different times I have had dealings with Robert GIERMAN (WOOFFORD as I knew him for so many years as a child). The first time I toured Sunshine, Wilfred suggested just a little walk through his property. Little did I know, but when the tour was completed, I was gasping for breath, and Wilfred was ready to jog through it again.

The other memory that stands out is of putting THE RECOLLECTOR mailing list on the computer. It seemed like pulling teeth to get the list out of Wilfred. Since extracting it from him, we have shared many a pleasant moment. When he stops with address changes, he also brings his pictures from a recent trip, or a gigantic leaf that he preserved (it hangs on my wall) or tells me of a recent find in a long-neglected cemetery. He speaks softly, he likes old stuff, and he is a great friend. That sums him for me.

By MAURICE GIERMAN: My brother is a person who never wanted to do things the way his father or grandfather had always done them on our family farm. He found many ways to improve the old traditions. He could harness the horses and have them hitched to the wagon in five minutes instead of the half-hour that it took my father. He was the one who taught me about assembly-line production - - by enlisting my help we could milk a cow, one on each side, in record time.

By VERA GIERMAN: Learning to know this complex man who was my brother-in-law took a little time. Not only was he soft-spoken, kind and helpful, but he was also determined, impulsive, and certain to have everything the way he thought it ought to be eventually, no matter how long it might take. Early in our acquaintance, even before our son and daughter were born and he became a welcome babysitter, we were enjoying a late summer evening and finishing chores. I never did many of the farm chores, but I was a good kibitzer. Wilfred appeared from somewhere in the vicinity of the garden, which was even then one of his many loves. The three of us visited for a few minutes. Then, without saying a word, Wilfred held out his hand, which appeared to have something in the closed fist. Being the trusting soul that I am, I promptly held out my hand to receive what I envisioned as some succulent berry from the garden. To my dismay, I found my hand filled with potato bugs.

By ZACK YORK: Though christened Robert Wilfred GIERMAN, (Robert Wilford was the way it was recorded by Fred C. SINDLINGER, Sebewa Township Clerk, and Thomas L. PEACOCK, MD) he was known by family and friends throughout his childhood and youth as “Wilfred”. There were, however, numerous variations in the pronunciation of that name. Lancy MEYERS called him “Woofert” with a heavy canine emphasis on the “Woof”. “Woofert”, “Wilford”, etc. I can hear Aunt Mae GIERMAN say “Will-fred” and Sadie TRAN fancied “Wil’fird”. My early ear heard no “l” in the name, just a vowel close to oo as in book. “Willll-freeeeed” was used to call him to supper or neglected chores. But we who grew up with him never called him “Bob” nor “Robert”. Robert was “Rob” and Rob was his pa. We did call Wilfred “Bullfrog” sometimes, but never “Bob”! I often wonder what would have happened to me if he hadn’t come to our house that morning in the late summer of 1930 and set in motion the events which got my schooling underway.

By RUS GREGORY: This Festscript honors Robert Wilfred GIERMAN, Editor of THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR, friend, neighbor, historian, inventor & proprietor of Sunshine Park, bricklayer, monument restorer, world traveler, wearer-out of a dozen lawnmowers, peanut brittle maker, (electrician, housepainter, gardener, naturalist, rockhound, quality controller, printer, photographer, audio-biographer.) So it seems sensible to call him the Sage of Sebewa, which he surely is. Having him among us is reason enough for a festival.

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The cover photo (of this issue of THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR) is by Todd GIERMAN. Wilfred loved all trees, but perhaps the walnut and ginkgo were his favorites.

‘Tis neither the oak nor the maple nor the hickory
Whose stature I find so satisfactory
O you might as well forget them all, but
In the end spare me the black walnut.
-Todd & Lisbeth GIERMAN

Wilfred asked Maurice, Vera, and us to accompany him to the Cumberland Mountains, Cumberland Falls, and the Smoky Mountains. Coming back, we left Gatlinburg on the day before Labor Day, 1940. Everything went smoothly until we reached a small town in southern Ohio. Then the car developed generator problems. We were tied up several hours at a garage. After repairs were made, we drove all night and arrived back in Sebewa around 7:15 AM. Vera was in the Sebewa Center School forty-five minutes later to assume her new teaching job! During all of it, Wilfred remained calm and steady as usual. - - Alice & Howard HILE

We have enjoyed THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR through the years. His articles on John MAXIM, George’s great grandfather, plus many other related families of Sebewa have been very helpful to me in my pursuit of our genealogy. He got me interested in the Genealogy Workshop which as been so helpful to me. We have enjoyed his slides and accounts of his trips, many of places we later visited.
- - Joyce & George PETRIE

Several years ago we planned to go to Peru and wanted first-hand information. We called Bob, a world traveler, who graciously showed us his pictures and told of his experiences at Machu Pichu. After visiting with us for some time, he asked if we would like to see his Sunshine. We sauntered thru the most beautiful natural cathedral anyone would ever want to see. He has given countless hours and energy, trimming and grooming his evergreen forest to perfect splendor. We felt we were walking on hallowed ground, wandering under the quiet canopy of evergreen boughs. - - Lucille & Bill PRYER

It was in 1960 that Bob GIERMAN and I began exchanging letters, thru a contact in New York. I was 14, Bob was 50. Since then I have received 296 and kept them all. I have written an equal number. I passed the High School Class 10 Final in 1962. My father, like many others here in India, was unable to send me to college. I wrote Bob about my plans and the financial difficulty. Bob agreed to help me for a year, then for another three years, and further for two more years, as a result of which I could come out with a master’s degree in English. Bob came to visit in 1976 and 1979 I visited USA in 1985. Now I am helping another poor student in India. - - Elias P. PETER

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association;
FEBRUARY 1996, Volume 31, Number 4. Submitted with written permission of Editor, Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: STORY, POSSEHN, MOL, TOWNSEND, STENCEL, MERRILL, FRIEND, TODD, CURTIS, HALLADAY, CARPENTER, MEACHAM, COMBE, BARTOW, SNYDER, COOPER, PALMATIER, DRUMM, BOWMAN, PROBASCO, SINDLINGER, WILLIAMS, DOWNING, BRAKE, SLOWINS, GIERMAN, PETOSKEY, MEYERS, KLAGER


RECENT DEATHS:

GEORGE A. STORY, 91, widower of Amy and husband of Lucille, father of Ronald STORY, Sharon CROMARTIE and Royce STORY, brother of Frieda PITSCH. Born on the family farm on WARE Road, Sec. 18 & 19 Boston Township, Ionia County, he was a descendent of the pioneer STORY & WARE families. He was the Standard Oil Agent in Lowell for many years.

BERTHA J. POSSEHN MOL TOWNSEND, 99, widow of Ernest MOL and Lynn TOWNSEND. She was born August 16, 1896, on NE ¼ Sec. 9 Odessa Township, Ionia County, 12th of 14 children of Amelia STENCEL and August POSSEHN, and the last survivor. She attended LIMERICK School, COON School, and St. John’s Lutheran School in Ionia.

MILDRED L. MERRILL, 88, widow of Royce W., mother of Sandra L. JONES, Royce H., Ralph M., Gary M., Dean R., and Stephen J. MERRILL, sister of Lawrence FRIEND and Lucille TODD and the late George FRIEND, Evelyn COURSER and Beatrice CURTIS, daughter of Lucy E. HALLADAY & Ralph E. FRIEND, son of Jane E. CARPENTER & George E. FRIEND, son of Polly Ann MEACHAM & John FRIEND, son of Betty COMB & John FRIEND Sr.

ROBERT WILFRED GIERMAN, 86, brother of Christine JARCHOW, Pauline LILLIE, Maurice GIERMAN and the late Charles GIERMAN, son of Nellie E. MEYERS & Robert E. GIERMAN, son of Christina KLAGER & Charles GIERMAN, son of Frederick GIERMAN, uncle of Deanna BOLES, Carolyn ANTOKEE, Evelyn KOENIG, and Jon GIERMAN. Memorial service will be held in the spring, probably on Memorial Day Sunday or Monday at SUNSHINE Park.

HOUGHTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN, COURTHOUSE: (with photo on front page)

Houghton County was names for Prof. Douglass HOUGHTON, a geologist in Michigan, and organized in 1845. Commencing
in 1849 all meetings of the Board of Supervisors were recorded as being held in the office of the Lake Superior
Copper Co. In 1853 the meetings were held in the office of the County Clerk in the Phoenix Copper Co. building. Eagle
River was named the County Seat in 1853, but was not legally established as such until 1856. When the Legislature separated Keweenaw County from Houghton County and provided that Houghton County’s seat be established in Portage Township, the village of HOUGHTON became the County Seat. Meetings were in the Post Office.

On July 21, 1862, a contract was let for the construction of a frame Court House, Jail and Sheriff’s quarters on the present site. This was used until 1887, when the present Court House was constructed at a cost of $75,568. This also contained the Jail and Sheriff’s quarters, but in 1961 that part was condemned and a new jail constructed in 1963 at a cost of $200,000. The
opulent High Victorian design of the Houghton County Courthouse testifies to the prosperity the copper boom
brought to the area in the late nineteenth century. The building’s irregular form and poly-chromatic exterior make
it one of Michigan’s most distinctive nineteenth century courthouses. The red sandstone trim and copper roof were
products of the Upper Peninsula. The bricks could be VanderHeyden of Ionia.

BIOGRAPHY OF HERVEY BARTOW from HISTORY OF IONIA & MONTCALM COUNTIES by John S. SCHENCK, 1881:

Hervey BARTOW, lawyer and real estate operator, was born in Freetown, Cortland Co, NY, March 31, 1813. His parents
were William and Grace BARTOW. The father was born in Rutland Co, VT, in 1772. As a young man he moved to Cortland Co., NY, and was married there, served in the New York Assembly in 1824, and moved to Michigan Territory in 1825. He settled in the woods twenty-one miles west of Detroit, in the Township later organized as Plymouth, in Wayne County. He was elected to the Territorial Council in 1831, when General CASS was Governor of the Territory.

Hervey BARTOW was twelve years old when his father moved to Michigan. With the exception of six weeks’ attendance at a neighboring log school-house, he obtained all his subsequent education by studying at night, after severe hard labor through the day, by the light of burning hickory bark. In April, 1836, having earned a few hundred dollars by clearing land and other hard labor, he headed west. He traveled on foot through the forest, camping-out nights, guided by Indian trails, section-lines, and pocket compass, to and along the valleys of the Maple, Looking-Glass and Grand Rivers. Passing near what is now the city of Lansing, he reached “Hog Prairie” at the junction of the Maple and Grand Rivers at ten o’clock at night.
Finding the Indians in a dance on the opposite side of the Grand River, and no sign of a white man, he retired to the bushes on the rising ground at the eastern skirt of the present village of Lyons.

Thence he went up the Grand River, past the mouth of the Looking-Glass River, and by compass to the United States Land Office at Kalamazoo. He made the first land purchase in the town now known as Lyons, and finally in the fall of 1836, settled with several of his friends near the present town of Lyons. Here he cleared some of his lands and farmed till the fall of 1840, when he went to Lyons and commenced the study of law, still looking after his farming interests. He had been elected school inspector when Portland School District was organized June 6, 1837, because the district included part of Danby & Maple, now
Lyons, Townships.

In the winter of 1846, having become unable to perform the hard manual labor of farming, he went to Portland and gave more attention to law studies. He was admitted to practice in the several courts of the State of Michigan in May 1846, and opened a law-office at Portland. He was elected Prosecutor for Ionia County for the years 1855 and 1856. The county being new, the consequently small amount of legal business soon induced Mr. Bartow to attend to other matters as well.

When an attack was made upon the town of Portland by the County Board of Supervisors and various officials of the county for unjust claims against Portland, Mr. BARTOW was Portland’s representative on that board and successfully defended the township against the almost united efforts of the County of Ionia. (Editor’s note: Portland still feels persecuted on some financial matters in 1995.)

Then, when some sixteen citizens of Portland formed a joint company to dam Grand River at the village of Portland, BARTOW felt it would destroy the water-power interests on the Grand, as well as flood his land on the west side. He offered the free use of as much of his land as needed, by damming the Grand at a higher point up the river and running a race down his side. He said this would give many times the power of a dam built at the lower point. But jealousy of the sides of the river being the moving stimulant, their policy could not be changed. So BARTOW obtained an injunction and secured partial protection from its effects.

BARTOW served six years on the village board of trustees, with special interest to establishing by-laws, rules, and precedents in the beginning under the village charter.

In the summer of 1866 a few citizens agitated the idea of a railroad, and Mr. BARTOW was chosen to confer with the Hon. James TURNER of Lansing as to the practicability of procuring a railroad through Portland on a line from Lansing to Ionia. A company was formed, of which Mr. BARTOW was chosen director. He took a very active part in its advancement, paying liberally from his own funds, obtaining aid from others, and getting rights-of-way at little cost. When this was accomplished, there seemed to be a peculiar falling off of zeal at Lansing and Ionia, at least in parties having control of the road.

Mr. BARTOW immediately opened correspondence with Hon. . C. ELSWORTH of Greenville, A.L. Green of Olivet, and George Ingersol of Marshall, with a view to constructing a railroad from Marshall through Portland to Greenville. A survey was made to Greenville through Sebewa, Portland, Collins, Lyons, and Muir. A company was formed with Mr. BARTOW again as director. This aroused the jealousy of the Ionia citizens and people on other parts of the Lansing and Ionia line, and in the fall of 1869 that road was pushed through to Greenville. Thus one railroad was secured for Portland.

The other, called the Coldwater, Marshall, and Mackinaw Railroad raised its means of construction in subscriptions and town bonds. But just before these bonds were negotiated, the courts decided against their constitutionality. The people then tried to accomplish it by subscription alone. Mr. BARTOW was again chosen to take charge of the project for Portland. The subscriptions were mostly obtained, but not fully, and the road-bed mostly graded from Marshall, in Calhoun County, to Elm Hall, in Gratiot County, being one hundred and twenty miles, with many ties furnished. The road was never completed.

In politics Mr. BARTOW at first identified himself with the Whig party and later for many years with the Republican party. He never married. BARTOW’S Addition to the village of Portland encompassed all that part of Section 28 lying west of Quarterline Street to the one-eighth line at SLOWINS Addition and north to Ionia Rd & Lyons Rd, just under 80 acres, and that triangular part of Section 33 lying west of Quarterline and bounded by Grand River Avenue on the north and Grand River itself on the south, also 80 acres more or less. BARTOW’S house was at the very tip, on the corner of Market and Bridge Streets.

BIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE W. SNYDER from PORTRAIT & BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM OF IONIA & MONTCALM COUNTIES by CHAPMAN Bros. 1891

The medical profession is represented in SEBEWA, Ionia County, by men of extended knowledge and practical skill, and an honorable place among them is held by Dr. SNYDER, who belongs to the Eclectic School. He hung out his “shingle” here in the fall of 1878, immediately after his graduation from the BENNETT Medical College in Chicago.Dr. SNYDER is of Dutch descent in the parental line, but prior to the American Revolution one of his progenitors was living in Canada and crossed the border to enter the Colonial Army. By so doing, he lost his property, it being confiscated by the British Government, and at the close of the war he settled in Pennsylvania. Another of his ancestors was John COOPER, who also fought in the Revolutionary forces, having emigrated from Ireland prior to the Declaration of Independence.

John A. SNYDER, father of the Doctor, was born in Schoharie County, NY, and removed to this State in 1862, settling in Barry County. His wife, formerly Fanny M. PALMATIER, was of French and Dutch descent, and was a daughter of Thomas and Martha (DRUMM) PALMATIER. She was a native of the same country as her husband, and a member of the same church, the Methodist Episcopal. She entered into rest in 1865. Their family was comprised of seven sons: Thomas, William Henry, George W., Francis M., Charles N., John L., and James A. of which William, George and Charles are physicians, John is a minister in the United Brethren Church, James and Francis are farmers. Thomas died as a young adult.

Dr. George SNYDER was born in Chemung County, NY, August 26, 1845, and with the exception of one summer spent in Pennsylvania, he lived there until his parents came to Barry County. At the new home he remained until the last of September, 1864, when his father and older brother went to Hastings, leaving him to finish cutting the corn, there being but half an acre standing. When this was done he had nothing to do but follow the bent of his inclination, and so went to Jackson, and on October 1 enlisted in Company H., Twenty-first Michigan Infantry. Eight days later he started to the front and joined the regiment at Chattanooga, TN, whence they went to Dalton, GA, and took the line of march with SHERMAN to the sea.

Dr. SNYDER was at Savannah during the seven-day siege, after which the troops rested thirty days before starting on the return trip. They marched to Goldsboro, captured Fayetteville, and reached Bentonville March 9, 1865, meeting the combined forces of Gens. BRAGG and JOHNSTON. The hardest fight in the march to and from the sea took place there, and was the last engagement led by Gen. SHERMAN. In one charge made by three hundred men, nearly a third were left on the field, so great was the slaughter. Continuing on toward the North after witnessing the surrender of Gen. JOHNSTON, Dr. SNYDER was afflicted with rheumatism and was sent to Washington via Newbern, NC. He was placed in the hospital at Alexandria, VA, where he received his discharge June 16, 1865.

Returning to his home in Barry County with the $600 he had carefully saved from his soldier’s earnings, Dr. SNYDER bought eighty acres of wild land in Maple Grove Township, and for two years labored at its development and at the carpenter’s trade. He then sold the property, bought in the town of Barry, and began the study of medicine under Dr. WATSON, of Bedford, Calhoun County. He entered the medical college before mentioned, and after his graduation and establishment at Sebewa, exchanged his Barry County property for land in Ionia County. He now owns one hundred and thirty acres in the north half of south half Section 36 Sebewa, which he superintends, having the work done by hired help.

In February 1866, Dr. SNYDER was united in marriage with Mary C. BOWMAN, daughter of Henry and Mary BOWMAN of Johnstown, Barry County. Mr. BOWMAN was by birthright a member of the Society of Friends, and never departed from his faith, although he was deprived of association with any body of Quakers after he came West. Doctor and Mrs. SNYDER are the parents of five children – Edwin M., Fanny E., Winnie B., George W., and Henry P. Edwin was graduated from a Detroit Medical College in the Class of ’88, and is now a practicing physician and druggist at Sunfield. Henry married Eva, daughter of Benjamin PROBASCO Sr. (by his third wife, Dora, and they became parents of Winnie BENSCHOTER and farmed on the eighty acres south of his father). Fanny is a student in Portland. Winnie died at age seven. (George Jr. married Lois M., and after her death at age 27 he married widow Maria Theresa SINDLINGER WILLIAMS, mother of Mamie DOWNING.)

Dr. SNYDER belongs to Henry RICE Post, No. 151, G.A.R., at Sebewa, and is a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge, in both of which he has held all the chairs. He has always taken an interest in politics, and has frequently served as a delegate to county and state conventions, where he has been quite active. He is an unwavering Republican. END

Dr. George W. SNYDER died July 20, 1927, and his wife Mary died November 27, 1926. George W. SNYDER Jr. was born in 1878 and died February 14, 1929. His second wife, Maria Theresa (Tracy), was born in 1874 and died June 15, 1972. Henry P. SNYDER was born in 1869 and died September 7, 1940. His wife Eva M. was born in 1871 and died March 21, 1944. They are all buried in East Sebewa Cemetery and still have many descendents in the area.

THINGS I REMEMBER (conclusion) by Crystal Lovina BRAKE SLOWINS 1904-1984

In November 1924 there was an opening in the Hoppough School on White’s Bridge Road, south of Smyrna. Because there were never more than seven pupils – sometimes only five, I wouldn’t have much close work, and Elwood thought it would be a good place. My father took me up there, they hired me, and I started teaching on December 1. I stayed at Clayton and Flossie BAKER’S. They had a little girl, Helen, in the first grade. I received $85 a month and paid $3.00 a week room and board. I didn’t get home much there during the winter, in fact all of the time I taught there. Roads weren’t passable part of the time. A couple times that I did go home in the winter, I went on the train. The station was south of Smyrna, and I’d ride down to Elmdale, where my father would meet me. Flossie would call the stationmaster at Greenville and tell him to have the train stop at Smyrna for me. Bess Peterson, across from BAKER’S, worked in Belding. Instead of letting her off at Smyrna, the trainmen would bring her along down to the Peterson farm and stop in their field, so she wouldn’t have so far to walk. Down by Freeport and Elmdale we called the train “Old Jerry”. Up there they called it “Bobby” as I recall.The residents around Smyrna had electricity, which we didn’t have down our way. Nor did they have it at Limerick nor North Bell, when I taught there. There were two dams near Smyrna. During the summer between the two years I was there, they had another little girl at BAKER’S, Bertha Louise (Betty Lou). Flossie wanted me to help her, but Jackolyn was born at Elwood’s that same time, in fact a day apart, and I helped Nadia.

After two years Elwood thought I might like to move on to a larger school. By increasing the strength of my glasses often, I was doing O.K. I applied for the LIMERICK School, north of Lake Odessa, and was hired for $100 a month. I went home weekends. During the week I stayed with Frank and Emma O’MARA for $5.00 a week. At that time they had 3 children, Marie, Tommy and Lawrence. Frank’s home had been just east of the schoolhouse, but they lived across the road to the west and north now. His brother Tom, sister Annie, and hired man Bernie MAJINSKA lived in the old place. Emma and Annie worked together and went places together a lot. When I went home from school in the afternoon, if Emma wasn’t home I went to Annie’s. If they had all gone someplace and it came time to start supper, I added wood to the old cook stove and prepared supper. More than once I baked a cake for it. The coffee pot was always kept on the back of the stove – just add more grounds and water. By and by you had to empty the grounds and start over. The first year I was there I got a bit homesick for Smyrna and didn’t really know if I wanted to stay a second year, when they asked me at Christmas time. I said I’d stay for a raise of $20 a month and they immediately said they’d pay it. And you see, it was a good thing I stayed, for I met Don there. One night (April 7, 1927) he came to Tom’s while we were all there, to pay the men for some road work that his dad had been overseer on. It was raining and Bernie (who was Don’s cousin) said “Donald, you’d better take the teacher home”. Of course I could have gone with Frank and Emma. The O’Mara’s were distant cousins too, but I didn’t know it at that time. We went together from then on.

I needed to renew my Teacher’s Certificate, so went to Big Rapids to summer school between my two years at LIMERICK (1927). Mary MARSH, who had taken the HOPPOUGH after me, went to Big Rapids with me. We roomed and boarded on State St. with Mr. & Mrs. Frank STEFFY from Stockbridge. They had come up there, rented a house, and were taking in roomers while their two youngest children attended college. Their son received his degree in Pharmacy there. The daughter never finished college.I went to summer school at Kalamazoo in 1928, rooming with Olive RICHARDSON. Again I decided to move on to higher wages and was hired at the North Bell School in Boston Township, for $125 per month. That was the highest wage paid in any Ionia County rural school at that time. I boarded with George & May WALKER the first year for $5.00 per week. Their health became poor and they moved to Saranac to be near their daughter, and I went across the road to Maurice & Jessie CAHOON’S to stay the second year. For several years when I was teaching, I was sent girls from County Normal for practice-teaching. They were Doris PHILLIPS, Eunice KNIGHT, Doris COX, Ruth PEACOCK and Ariel DENTON.

A few more thoughts from my childhood come to mind. We had a croquet set from the time we lived on Uncle Fred’s. The men would play at their noon hour. I remember Sime SEARS would come down at noon and play with my father & Elwood & Uncle Chris one summer when Chris worked there. Sime and Uncle Chris were both quick tempered. Once in a while the game got a little touchy if they played on opposite sides. Another game the men played was horseshoes.

When I was growing up, my chores were hoeing or pulling weeds in the garden, picking berries or cherries, and cleaning. Mable helped with the cooking. On Saturdays I had to wash all the lamp chimneys and lantern globes. Sometimes they would get smoked up and need to be washed more often. Each bedroom had a lamp and I would gather them on Saturday, wash them, and refill the oil. Mother had wooden kitchen chairs that had to be washed and always the kitchen sink.

We had autograph albums back when I was in country school. In fact that craze seems to go in cycles like some others. Back when Mother was in school she had one too. She gave it to me in later years. My father had written in it “In after years when this you see, I wonder what your name will be”. Of course, it turned out it was his name. I can’t remember exactly what my dad wrote in mine, but I know as we grew older it was rather amusing. He said in all of his travels, I was the dearest and best. Of course his travels didn’t include much farther than Ionia, Lansing, and Grand Rapids at that time. Although he had been to Saskatchewan with Uncle Allen AMON of Sunfield on a land-buying expedition in 1904. END

MORE ABOUT ROBERT WILFRED GIERMAN:

Bob GIERMAN was one of the tru historians of the area. Once he picked up on the scent of a piece of Michigan history, he worked it through to the finish. Such was the case with the now-deceased Princess Ella Jane PETOSKEY. Ella Jane was tiny in size but huge in Indian pride and stamina. She was a college graduate and had taught in the Indian schools until her retirement. She now survived summer and winter in a one-room shack near Harbor Springs, living on the hope that somehow her grandfather, Chief PETOSKEY would be duly recognized.

Bob GIERMAN heard of Ella Jane (probably because Ephraim SHAY, Sebewa native who invented the SHAY locomotive, also retired and died at Harbor Springs). He looked her up, talked about the PETOSKEY fossil stone, and he was on a new pilgrimage. He contacted the late State Representative Stanley M. POWELL of Ionia and then State Representative Eugene CATER of Ludington, urging them to have the PETOSKEY stone named the State Stone of Michigan.

Finally, Ella Jane PETOSKEY agreed to come to the Sebewa area. Bob brought her down June 24, 1965, and she was in Governor George Romney’s office in Lansing when he signed the bill naming the PETOSKEY Stone the State Stone of Michigan. The Governor gave Ella Jane the pen used in signing the bill, along with a medallion. She in turn presented him with a tie clasp and cuff link set made from PETOSKEY stone. She went back to Harbor Springs the same day, leaving her mark on Michigan history---with the help of Bob GIERMAN. She did come back later to stay with Bob’s Aunt Mae GIERMAN and attended church at Sebewa Center United Methodist. Her grave is now marked by a simple stone placed there after her death by Bob GIERMAN.---Vern M. BULLEN

IONIA COUNTY INFIRMARY:
On Sunday, October 7, 1984, a bronze marker, set in a ten-ton boulder, was dedicated at the cemetery which served the Ionia County Infirmary. The marker bears 55 names. The cemetery is located a short distance off the northwest corner of the picnic grounds at Ionia State Recreation Area on the north side of Riverside Drive, approximately three miles west of M-66.

Many remember Ionia County Infirmary was the name of the county poorhouse. It served the aged, infirm, abandoned and otherwise helpless for almost 60 years. It was the way the county cared for those who, for one reason or another, could not care for themselves and had no one who could or would care for them. Men and women and even children did get taken to the infirmary, lived and died there, and were buried there. Funeral arrangements were simple: a pine box generally. There were wooden crosses, but no headstones to mark the graves. When the infirmary was discontinued in 1966 and the land given to the State of Michigan soon thereafter, the cemetery---probably last used in 1934---went along with the rest of the real estate. The grass and brush grew. One had to know it was a cemetery once, since nothing designated it. The Department of Natural Resources is in the park business, not to mention fish and game, landfills, streams and lakes, and a good deal else. It is not in the cemetery business. When the County Board of Supervisors gave the land to the State, it made no cemetery exception or provisions in the deed. The cemetery at the County Farm was well on its way to being erased from memory.

One man thought that wrong: Robert W. GIERMAN of Sebewa, historian and writer, gentle man and scholar, preserver and protector, began work on the county infirmary cemetery. By searching, he found burial records. By more meetings and appointments, he won cooperation and support for restoring the cemetery. Ionia County Road Commission employees moved the boulder he chose from the old WILLIAMS Brothers gravel pit to the cemetery. Steve YENCHAR of Ionia, who works at Lowell Granite Co., made arrangements to fabricate the marker and set it into the boulder. Bob GIERMAN honored those who knew little honor in their dying and potter’s field as their resting place.--—Rus GREGORY

WILFRED ALSO TRACKED DOWN AND MARKED THE PREVIOUS COUNTY FARM CEMETERY IN RONALD TOWNSHIP:

It is located on the George & Barbara WITTENBACH farm, long known as the John B. & Amos WELCH farm, on COOPER Road, at SW ¼ of NE ¼ Sec. 33 Ronald Twp. The land was settled by Ronald Township’s first settler, Joshua SHEPARD, in 1837. J. S. SCHENCK’S History says: “He wore himself out and died soon after reaching this place in the woods and was buried on his own farm”. Title went from SHEPARD to David BALDIE and he sold it to Ionia County for its first poor farm in 1856. BALDIE made a reservation of that little quarter acre for cemetery purposes and that was the last entry in the Register of Deeds office for the cemetery.

In 1871 the Board of Supervisors replaced the original farm house with a $7000 brick building and from 30 to 50 people were cared for at a time. This building burned in 1907 and the foundations can still be seen on the WITTENBACH farm. After the fire, the farm was sold to W. NORMINGTON who later sold to John B. WELCH, and a new $37,000 brick poor house was built on the SESSIONS farm on Riverside Drive. Frederick H. VanderHEYDEN of Ionia furnished the brick, and 720 feet of six-inch sewer pipe ran from the house to the creek!!! G. WOLVERTON was the long-time manager of the Ronald Township Poor Farm, and Mr. and Mrs. Harvey GIBSON were the last managers at the Berlin Township Poor Farm. The little cemetery in Ronald has been left to itself enough so that little rows of depressions clearly show where there were graves. Records show 44 burials in that cemetery, besides the original Joshua SHEPARD. Another boulder was provided by Colin WILLIAMS and Ionia County paid for the bronze plaque to list them.--- Grayden SLOWINS

SUNSHINE is a land of soft undulation, some natural sloping and some cuts by the men who mined the gravel for the roads of Sebewa. Bob gridded his hilltops with pines, planted on the square. First white pines, then he moved out from this core, planting other pines and spruces, especially the dusty blue spruces and their turquoise siblings. A string of birches from the Little Traverse Bay collection of Ella Jane PETOSKEY was curved along a path like a pearl necklace.

Pines and spruces go about a business generously called “self-pruning”. What this really means is that all the lower limbs that don’t get enough sunlight just flat-out die. Then they stay on the tree, looking dead and ugly and make trying to walk through the woods even uglier. Bob, whose priorities run to orderly trees and trim lawns, created his own trimming ladder and ever since has been chasing dead limbs up tree trunks, lopping with his trusty bow-saw.

The result is that he has created an airy cathedral in his woods, a swaying, glistening, whispering, redolent Parthenon of pines.

Sprinkled around the county are mini-Sunshines. Here and there are Bob’s chestnut trees, ginkgoes, catalpas, and all else, thriving in gardens, honoring cemeteries, and gracing hillsides. Who can forget the sight of Bob roaring up in his Bondex Volkswagon with a palpitating bare-foot ginkgo strapped on the back. He was present to give another present. ---William B. DAVIS

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association,
APRIL 1996, Volume 31, Number 5. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: BROWN, SEARS, HALLADAY, GATES, CARPENTER, INGALLS, DICKENSON, KELLEY, CROSBY, TOLE, LOTT, WARREN, INCH, SCHWAB, SHOWERMAN, CLINE, OAKS, AUSTIN, NEWMAN, EVANS, POTTER, NICHOLSON, GIERMAN, BENEDICT, HEMINOVER, CHURCHILL, REYNOLDS, SHAEFER, PHELPS, SNYDER

RECENT DEATHS:

EDLA SEARS BROWN, 81, widow of A. H. BROWN, mother of Christine, Harold, and Richard BROWN, sister of Frances, Verle, Wallace and Arlene SEARS, daughter of Edna & Roy SEARS, son of Wilmont & Anna Jane HALLADAY SEARS, daughter of Rosabella GATES and Abel C. HALLADAY, son of David & Nancy CARPENTER HALLADAY. Rosabella GATES was daughter of Ezra GATES & Elizabeth INGALLS GATES, daughter of Jonathan INGALLS, Sebewa’s soldier of the Revolution.

JOHN C. DICKINSON, 76, husband of Ramona CRANDALL DICKINSON, father of Roselyn MEYERS, Sharon PURDY, Linda, Lyle, Thomas & James DICKINSON, brother of the late Ray DICKINSON, Ruby FERRIS, Gladys TITUS, Charlotte DRAPER & Ida Mae LEETH, son of Frank & Rosa KELLEY DICKINSON. He was in the Civilian Conservation Corps, worked at A. C. Spark Plug, served in the U. S. Army Air Corps in WWII, farmed in Sebewa, owned & operated FELL’S Motel, worked at FULLER’s Furniture and at real estate sales, was Sebewa Township Trustee and on Berlin-Orange Fire Board.

MILDRED L. CROSBY, 97, widow of George, mother of Nancy Lehman, daughter of Charles & Nora Ann TOLE LOTT. She farmed in Sebewa, retired at Fort Myers, Florida.

JON R. WARREN, 53, husband of Cheryll GIERMAN WARREN, father of Matthew & Michael WARREN, brother of Eleanor BARBER & Julie PACKEY, son of George & Beulah INCH WARREN. He resided most of his life in Ovid, served in the U. S. Air Force, and was an attorney in Genesse County. He received the Genesse County’s Attorneys’ Civility Award.

CLARICE LUCILLE SCHWAB SHOWERMAN CLINE, 81, wife of Richard R. CLINE, widow of Robert E. SHOWERMAN, mother of Louise HILL, Ralph, Joyce, Robert and the late John SHOWERMAN, sister of Rose Ella HUBBEL, Sarah Jane JANE, and the late Francis and Garland SCHWAB, daughter of Mylo & Armeda OAKS SCHWAB. She was a rural teacher, bookkeeper at All-In-One Feeds and Portland Co-op Elevator.

ORRIN CHARLES AUSTIN, 79, husband of Elaine, father of Phillip and Rodger AUSTIN and Delores WOODEN, brother of Lura PROCTER and late Wayne AUSTIN, son of Orrin & Marilla NEWMAN AUSTIN. He was retired from General Motors.

HARRIET A. EVANS, 90, wife of Herbert, mother of Janey CARTER, Harold and Ronal EVANS, sister of Alta LYNCH and Nellie WOODCOCK, daughter of Glen & Nellie POTTER NICHOLSON.

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF IONIA (with front page photo):

Organized February 24, 1864, this bank reorganized as the State Savings Bank of Ionia in December, 1896. It was originally located west of CORNELL Alley on the north side of the middle block of Main Street. In 1904 the State Savings Bank absorbed the Ionia County Savings Bank, which was located in the building shown above on the northeast corner of Main and Depot Streets, and that became a branch. In 1905 the Wellington C. PAGE private bank was absorbed. During the 1920s the main office and the branch were combined in the above location. In 1952 the building was completely remodeled and the name changed to First Security Bank. In the 1970s it became Independent Bank Corporation. See April 1992 issue for the history of the Webber Brothers Bank, which we now know as Ionia County National Bank, but which was really Second National Bank.

IONIA IN 1897 – 1898 by Ralph BENEDICT:

My father built a house on Lincoln Avenue at the head of Cyrus Street. He was a mail carrier who had started when city delivery first came to Ionia. He worked at that for 32 years. I was born there in 1893. One of my first memories is of a dark evening in October, 1897, when the fire whistle blew. I could hear it plainly, although it was a mile away on Jackson Street (at the Pere Marquette car shops). I went out to look and there it was, a red glow in the sky that got bigger and bigger and finally started to die down. Father came home late for supper. He had been at the fire, which was at the flour mill on the corner of Main and Dexter.

The mill was (originally) powered by water from West Creek, which came from across Lincoln, ran under the brewery, and then into a pipe that surfaced again beyond the railroad tracks. There was a drain hole in the brewery floor and a tap where water could be drawn to fill the sprinkler tank wagon. This creek was to make headlines about 10 years later when the county went dry and the brewery has some unsold beer that the government impounded.

One July day they came to destroy the beer by dumping it into the creek through a hole in the floor. At that moment the sprinkler man began to fill his tank – not knowing that he had a cargo of watered beer – and started to sprinkle with it. This strange fact was duly noted in the local paper and it came to the attention of the national wire service, which let the rest of the country know that Ionia was the only town in the nation that sprinkled the streets with beer.

Now we came to 1898. I was 5 years old and two things happened. The first was that I got to see the departure of the men going to the Spanish-American War. The second was that I had to go out and start battling the establishment, in this case the school system. This I opposed to no avail. The base of operations of the establishment was on Union hill. The high school sat at the corner of Lincoln and Union, with the grade school on a slight elevation 150 feet south. It was three stories high with two cupolas on top and a two-story wing to the north. Between them a one-story building served all sanitary needs. A fence from this building to the grade school kept the boys’ and girls’ playgrounds separated. Piles of three-foot wood stood waiting for the furnace. Nearby was the janitor’s house with a bell tower where he rang the bell to start school. His name was SISSON. The kindergarten was in the basement of the north wing, which was to be my home-away-from-home for the next year. I spent nine years in that building and had ample time to improve my knowledge of Ionia by talking with people to hear what they said and did, and to see other things that the whole town was engaged in.

The corner of Main and Jackson could be considered a suburb of the business district, which was two long blocks away down Main Street. About 1902 the wood block pavement was taken up, and a mile and a half of brick pavement was laid on Main Street, which was a vast improvement.

The business district on the south side of Main started at HUDSON Street with the Methodist Church and its clock tower and steeple. Down HUDSON Street and across the first tracks was the Grand Trunk station. Across from it was the railroad water tank standing beside the pottery buildings.

Facing the street was the gas plant, which was soon torn down, as it was too small and a much bigger one had been erected on STEELE Street. Across the tracks on the (northwest) corner of HUDSON and ADAMS – then called Front Street – stood the HUDSON House Hotel. That is now a parking lot. Up the street on the corner Jim FANNING had a saloon, also known as the Methodist saloon, a name not popular in some areas. It was a two-story frame building that was moved up Main Street to Mill Street, where it became a grocery store for many years. This was done when the MORSE-BABCOCK law building was built in 1904. Next there was a small house on the land now the home of the telephone building. A motion picture theater named the Royal occupied one of the two stores in the next building. The other was a meat market with the usual sawdust on the floor.

Back of this building on KIDD Street, Alexander T. MONTGOMERY had a livery stable with horses and rigs for hire. It also housed three hacks of which one or two met each train. His brother Frank had another stable next door. Across the street stood the BAILEY House, a three-story (four actually) hotel with a bar and dining room. The Ionia Theatre occupies that site now. DONOVAN ran a candy store next door. ENGELMAN’S saloon was next and then a barber shop. The ground floor of the next building at BROAD Alley was the Post Office. Across the alley (on a lot owned by A. BROAD) was PECK & PECK stationary store, later WHIPPLE’S. Then SHUMWAY’S saloon, Charlie LAUSTER’S grocery market, and one more. The new WEBBER Block, rebuilt after the old one had burned about 1895, extended to the corner of Depot Street. The ground floor had WEBBER’S office, Herman VanALLEN Drugs – later Koss Drugs, Dr. Paul STAMSEN Sr.’s optical shop, and Ionia Hardware Co.

Around the corner beside the hardware store on the street, a small portable building housed a peanut and popcorn stand run by a man named WILKINSON. Behind this stand, two or three one-horse drays with a driver stood waiting for the business of anyone that needed some light hauling done. HICKS Bros.’ saloon completed this block before you came to the Pere Marquette depot on the corner. Across the street was a junk yard that was later moved to south JACKSON Street when the Ford garage was built. This is now a parking lot, too.

Up on the corner of Main was a jewelry store. Next door Charles BRADLEY had a furniture store which he operated along with an undertaking business. He was assisted by his oldest son Matt, who was learning the business, and by Joe BOYNTON. When Charlie died, these two continued the business until Matt got his license and Joe left to start his own funeral business. (Later FULLER’S Furniture & Rugs started in this location.) Next came the Wellington C. PAGE Coal Co. and their private bank specializing in money drafts to the old country. RECTOR’S Bakery was next and beyond him Bay COMSTOCK’S saloon, later replaced by Mike AGOSTINI’S new Confectionery. The SILVER and GRAFF block butted on CORNELL Alley. It was a two-story building, home of Nathan SILVER’S clothing store and a drug store.

Across the alley (where Dr. Alanson CORNELL opened his practice & drugstore in 1838) stood BATSON’S restaurant. This fell to the wreckers and a new building was put up, occupied by ALLEN Bros. Racket store and later by GAMBLES.

Next was another clothing store and then George GUNDRUM’S drug store – later McNAMARA Bros. Drugs. Beyond was J. E. BEATTIE shoe store, G. W. FRENCH Jewelry, and Tom BUCK men’s clothes, all in the three-store Geo. W. WEBBER block, which had been the birthplace of R. HUDSON & Son Clothiers – later the J. L. HUDSON Company of Detroit. West of these stores was a fairly large lot with a house set back from the street with an ornamental iron fence in front. It was the home of Dr. T. R. ALLEN, who kept a horse and buggy with driver which he used for his calls. The buildings there now are occupied by a variety store and TOWNSEND (JOHNSON) Drugs. Beyond this was Net SPAULDING’S Hardware, which became FATE’S Market and back to Ionia Hardware. A saloon which is now the Martha WASHINGTON finished out the block to the corner.

Down the street next to the railroad was an elevator and between the two railroads was the Pere Marquette freight house. Beyond this was the SOROSSIS Garment Factory (which moved from Lansing as the Michigan Overall Company). On the other side of the street stood the new gas plant. In one corner of this building 30” up is a stone that marks the high water of 1905. South of this a ways was the Capital Wagon Works (also moved from Lansing and later updated to HAYES Ionia Autobody Co.). Between the gas plant and the railroad, HALE built a flour mill, and between the railroads, opposite the freight house, was W. C. PAGE’S coal yard. Another elevator occupied the northwest corner of ADAMS and STEELE.

Up on the corner of Main was STEVENSON’S drygoods store. A grocery and meat market were next west, and then the LIVERTON building, in which there was a two-lane bowling alley. Later the alleys were moved to the basement and a lunch counter took their place on the first floor. A high board fence hid a vacant lot next door, which was later built upon for a garage and later it was the A & P store. Beyond this lot were five stores, the first being Coney Island and fifth a bakery. Years later the bakery became a theater and the site is now a parking lot next to the armory. The armory stands where the old DEXTER flour mill used to be when this story began.

South beside the railroad was SCHEIDT’S blacksmith shop and between the tracks was a lumber yard. Beyond this was HEARSEY’S planing mill. On the other side down by the river was the fairgrounds. Opposite the lumber yard a stockyard used to load cattle into freight cars. This land between the tracks was later to become the site of the REED furniture factory. On the corner of Main, Ted CALLOW built the CALLOW House Hotel about 1900. This had a succession of owners until the REED company, which had no more use for it, had it town down. It was later the site of a gas station. That completes the south side of Main Street.

The north side started with the Courthouse, Dr. DEFENDECKER’S house, and the Baptist church. Behind it on KIDD Street was the fire barn, which had a 40-foot tower on the back used to dry hose. This burned down and it is now the site of City Hall. On the corner was the Episcopal church. Across the street was a house and lot which became the site of the Post Office.

The PERRONE building occupies the site of another old theater. Stage shows would occasionally play here for a week at a time, with a different play every night. On the corner of Main was a two-store building, one of them being a Variety store. The other store was run by Charlie JACK, who sharpened lawn mowers, repaired bicycles, and had a stock of Edison cylinder records. He had a roller outfit out front which you could put your bike on and ride ten miles without moving ahead an inch. Next came the TOWER Block, then Henry VOELKER’S barber shop, where he employed three barbers besides himself. It had a tile floor and a cabinet that contained a number of his customers’ own private shaving mugs with brushes. He was assisted by a colored man named William PEARCE, who kept the floor clean, shined shoes, helped the customers on with their coats and brushed them off with a long whisk broom. He also took care of the bath house. At that time there were numerous single people who rented a room that contained just a bed, a chair, and a small dresser, with no bathing facilities except a pitcher & bowl. With the coming of the safety razor, Henry’s business declined. He closed up shop and went into the real estate and insurance business. He was succeeded in that business by Al SLOWINSKI upstairs in the WEBBER building and it is now part of the CARR Agency.

Next came a grocery store and another bakery. Beyond the alley was a three-story building with the Masonic Temple on the second and third floors. Downstairs Henry BOWERS operated a cigar stand and ice cream parlor. He made his own ice cream and it was the best you ever tasted. Out front on the pedestal with wheels on it stood a wooden Indian holding a bunch of wooden cigars in his hand. This was our favorite hang-out when we were downtown. Next door Pat WELCH ran a saloon. Beyond him was a poolroom and lunchroom, a grocery store, the electric office, and the State Bank on the corner. The electric store later became the home of the RACKET Store, owned by the ALLEN brothers and moved from the southwest corner of CORNELL Alley.

Back of the bank was the Sentinel printing plant, with George KUHTZ’S laundry between it and what is now the Plaza Hotel. Across the street was a two-story brick double building and a couple wooden ones used as a roller skating rink. On the corner was the National Bank. Its president was Herbert WEBBER. The last two years of my school days I was janitor at this bank for two dollars a week, which kept me in spending money. The next store was the gas office.

Next to this Mike AGOSTINI ran a fruit market. When local option closed Bay COMSTOCK’S saloon across the street, Mike bought the old building and replaced it with a new brick one that he occupied for forty years. Mike’s old building and the gas office were replaced by a two-story building that the ALLEN brothers moved their Racket Store into and turned it into a department store. This they operated for some years until J. C. PENNEY took it over.

Next door was the Family Theater operated by Mark MOORE. It was started with silent movies and a piano player in the pit, plus an occasional vaudeville act. Upstairs was the press room of the Daily Standard before the merger. A store called the Sugar Bowl was located where Corcoran’s west half is now, and John & Fred YOUNG’S hardware finished the block up to CORNELL Alley. The hardware store was the only store in town that did not have a ceiling. The ceiling joists had nails driven into them from which pots and other bulky articles were hung for sale. When a ladies dress shop took over this store years later, a ceiling had to be put in.

SMITH & SMITH Stationery (also wallpaper, paint & bulk chemicals) was on the other side of the alley. Back of it a one-story brick building housed a steam laundry. Next a row of nine buildings housed a jewelry store, clothing stores, the State Bank which was fifth from the alley, a furniture and undertaking parlor, and a harness shop. The store which G. W. FRENCH Music occupies today was the original home of Thomas A. CARTEN’S department store. It dealt in drygoods, rugs, carpets, and women’s ready-to-wear. It had been expanded into the store west of it, and an addition was built facing STEELE Street. John WAGNER’S clothing and Charles IRELAND’S Hardware finished the block. Further north up STEELE Street were two blacksmith shops and across from them Dr. BURGER, Veterinarian.

On the Main Street corner was Bert LAMPKIN’S Clothing store, later HILER & BAIRD and then just HILER’S. The Elks bought the three-story building next door and behind, for their temple, and remodeled the top two floors. Before the Elks bought this building, they held forth on the third floor of the WEBBER block. The first floor housed a pool room, later a restaurant, and finally HILER’S took it over as part of their store. The remaining stores consisted of a pool room, a restaurant, newsstand, a low building, a shoe store with cobbler shop in back, and Susey AGOSTINI’S block with a barber shop, his fruit stand, and a saloon.

Beyond DALLAS Alley was another saloon then MANSFIELD & HOAG feed store. They kept grain and hay which they sold to people in town who owned driving horses. Their main business was putting up ice on Prairie Creek pond, which they peddled to homes during the summer. The coming of electric refrigerators made their ice business obsolete. The automobile did the same for their hay trade. Their place of business became a garage (later Orson E. COE garage) and the first gas pump I ever saw was there. A few more stores and a vacant lot finished up the block. Up Dexter Street was the American Hotel, now the Ionia Hotel, mostly a rooming house.

Some of the buildings show little change in appearance. The stone ornamental window caps and tin cornice at the roof line look the same as when they were build. Usually only the ground floor has had a face lift. (Editor’s note: Ralph wrote this about 1976, when he was in his 80s. He may have a few stores out of order and they may not all have been there at the same time. But he had a terrific memory! If anyone knows if or how Ralph BENEDICT, or Helen BENEDICT in the story that follows, was related to any of the many BENEDICTS in the Ionia & Portland area, past or present, please write.) END

ANOTHER BENEDICT: My mother, Helen Frances BENEDICT, was born November 29, 1883, on the farm across from Portland Municipal Dam. There were two or more houses on the farm, and the one she was born in at the top of the hill has been torn down. My grandfather was George M. BENEDICT and he sold the land to Portland where the dam was built. She attended GIBBS School on Peck Lake Road and graduated from Portland High School June 19, 1902. After high school she taught three years, 1902-1905, at the GIBBS School. The railroad ran along side the school and the trainmen would wave at the children as they went by. My father, Peter David HEMINOVER, worked for the railroad, thus they met, and were married in October 1905.

Frances CHURCHILL REYNOLDS and Helen CHURCHILL SHAEFER were Mother’s age and Nettie Jane PHELPS a little younger. Mother was a Suffragette in the march down Woodard Avenue about 1920, and served on a jury just before her death on March 10, 1932. She had an older brother, Dale BENEDICT, and a younger brother, Don M. BENEDICT. Her mother, Junia BERNARD BENEDICT (born in North Plains) preceded her in death February 14, 1932. In 1938 my father and I moved from the farm to the house Mother had inherited in Portland, until his death in December, 1944. Enclosed is a photo of Mother and her students. Signed: Marijune HEMINOVER SNYDER, P.O. Box 697, Overgaard, AZ. (Photo shows students and teacher of GIBBS School, 1902-1905).

REPRINTED FROM PORTLAND REVIEW & OBSERVER, MI: “SIMONS SAYS by Nan Simons – SPIRIT OF SEBEWA SAGE LIVES ON IN SUNSHINE FOREST:

My Thanksgiving celebration was tempered by a long pause for honest reflection. So many of us blandly remark that this holiday offers us an opportunity to ‘count our blessings’.

I noted all the items on my usual list – good health, good friends, a loving family, a job I enjoy. But this year was different because of the loss of someone who touched what a famous poet once referred to as my “gypsy soul”.

I am truly blessed to have known the Sage of Sebewa, Robert Wilfred GIERMAN. Has a more gentle, unassuming man ever walked this Earth? Not in my lifetime.I met Robert in the roundabout way I’ve come to know many fine folks. Someone mentioned his name in connection with an event I might find interesting and, after a couple of telephone calls, I found myself standing on his doorstep. He greeted me by saying “So you found me”. Two hours later, I left with the impression Robert was a treasure well worth the hunt.

Ginkgo trees brought us together that summer of 1993. He was deeply distressed over the cutting of a female tree planted next to the Portland Congregational Church in 1910. These trees were regularly imported from China by turn-of-the-century missionaries – a fact which lead the species to be nicknamed Missionary Trees.

He felt the tree was significant for both historical and horticultural reasons. With assistance from Elin and Harry DOEHNE of The Michigan Wildflower Farm, Robert hoped to cultivate new plants from root, leaflet, and branch cuttings. These Missionary’s daughters would actually have been genetic clones of the parent tree since Ginkgoes reproduce sexually. Unfortunately, none of the cuttings survived.

What did take root was a growing affection for this soft-spoken man. My persistent inquiries concerning the progress of his Ginkgo project earned an invitation to Sunshine Forest.

On a late September afternoon filled with all charismatic color of autumn in Michigan, we strolled through Sunshine together. Robert created his woodland park from a stony, 20 acre field his father had insisted was “good for nothing but sunshine”.

In a sense, he was right. All that sensational sun nourished thousands of light-hungry spruce, pine, and maple saplings planted by Robert over the course of 40 years. Like the Walrus and the Carpenter, we talked of many things as we toured his forest. He shared his unique understanding of the secrets hidden in rocks and minerals, seeking out certain stones in the old abandoned gravel pit to illustrate his thoughts. He whispered the story of a turtle that laid its eggs deep in the earth of the path we walked, coming up each year from a spring which slips and slides along his property to feed Sebewa Creek. He led me to the foot of a huge wild cherry tree shaped like a monstrous tuning fork, looming in stark contrast to the soldier-straight pines he planted with consummate care. He hinted at his passionate attention to the history of his township through the creation and loving stewardship of THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR.

There are too few instances in life where a spell is cast and time stands still to reveal the continuity of creation with a crystalline clarity. My afternoon with Robert was the stuff of myth and magic. I wrote about my experience at Sunshine Forest in a column on caretakers of local woodlands. Please indulge this repetition.“In my mind, God’s first and best cathedrals are forests. Sunlight streams through this woodland’s lush, living canopy with the same intensity and radiance of rays through a church window. Filtered by fine needles, beams illuminate selected spots, dividing dense darkness with glimpses of divine light.”

I was touched by that light and by the bright spark of Robert GIERMAN’S soul. He was the spirit of this forest and will rest in its embrace for time everlasting. His good friend Bill DAVIS will scatter Robert’s ashes among the silent sentinels of that beloved landscape.

Sunshine Forest has new stewards, the people of Sebewa Township. It was his wish that the bountiful beauty of this place be shared with all who could appreciate its wonders.

I would like to walk that path again someday. In the murmur of Robert’s trees lies a chance to perhaps recapture the mystery of a single moment spent in grace and harmony – and the company of a fine and gentle man. (Photo of “Robert Wilfred GIERMAN holding a Ginkgo cutting”)

MEMORIALS: At the request of various persons, a Robert Wilfred GIERMAN Memorial Fund has been established for the maintenance of Sunshine Park. Donations may be sent to LaVern E. CARR, Sebewa Township Treasurer, 3098 E. BIPPLEY Road, Portland, MI 48875.

A MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR ROBERT WILFRED GIERMAN has been set for Saturday, May 18, 1996, 1:30 PM at the Rosier Funeral Home in Sunfield. People will then be invited to visit Sunshine Park and an informal committal service for his ashes will be conducted by William B. DAVIS. “Bob GIERMAN stories” will be welcome.

GOOD READING: Ask your librarian for THE STEADFAST HEART by Clarence Budington KELLAND. The story is fiction. The names of local people are mixed & matched. The descriptions of Portland (called RAINBOW) in the 1890s are strikingly accurate.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association (Ionia County, MI);
JUNE 1996, Volume 31, Number 6. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS


SURNAMES: SEDORE, TASKER, SCHNABEL, SHOTWELL, GRENIC, HILLEY, ELDRIDGE, McLEOD, SLOWINSKI, GIERMAN, KELLAND, LOCKWOOD, WILLIAMS

RECENT DEATHS:

PHYLLIS JANE SEDORE, 77, wife of Neil, mother of Linda AUSTIN, Elroy & Frank SEDORE, sister of Malcolm & Marshall TASKER, daughter of Roy TASKER & Rose SCHNABEL, daughter of Margaret SHOTWELL & Peter SCHNAUBEL, son of Marina GRENIC & Martin SCHNABEL, son of Regina & Anton SCHNABEL Sr.

MADONNA A. HILLEY, 72, mother of Terry, Tom, Linda, Jack & John, sister of LaVern & Lawrence ELDRIDGE, Marie WICKHAM, Madeline BUEHLER & Margaret GENDER, daughter of Pearl McLEOD & Eddie ELDRIDGE, son of Jay ELDRIDGE & Sophia SLOWINSKI, daughter of Louis SLOWINSKI, son of Daniel SLOWINSKI Sr. & Anna SCHNABEL, daughter of Regina & Anton SCHNABEL Sr.

MEMORIAL FOR ROBERT WILFRED GIERMAN:Saturday, May 18, 1:30 PM at Rosier Funeral Home in Sunfield, then committal of ashes at Sunshine. Park at HUGGLER’S , next driveway east, and walk thru woods or ride shuttle to site of service.

(Photos on front of this issue of GOGEBIC COUNTY COURTHOUSE, BESSEMER, MI. which was built of Lake Superior red sandstone in 1888, and of ONTONAGON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, ONTONAGON, MI.)

BIOGRAPHY OF CLARENCE BUDINGTON KELLAND by Walt LOCKWOOD:

He was born July 11, 1881, in Portland, in a little house close to the sidewalk just beyond the southwest corner of Powers Park, last occupied by the PROCTOR family and later burned by the fire department. He lived the next 10 years or so at 230 S. Lincoln Street, where his mildly eccentric, cigar-smoking, four-times-married Grandmother BUDINGTON was a counter-balance to his narrowly religious mother in his upbringing. His mother ran a millinery store down town. His father, Tommy, seemed to have a variety of occupations.

Early in his career, Clarence Budington KELLAND was a successful journalist with the Detroit News. He became editor of the American Boy in 1907 and built it into the leading juvenile magazine of its day. In 1913-1915 he was lecturer on juvenile literature and writing at the University of Michigan. From the 1920s through the 1950s KELLAND was one of the most widely read and highest paid authors in America. He published 60 novels and more than 200 short stories in his 61 years of writing. He saw his books adapted to radio and movies, and lived to see some of them on television.

He turned out 10,000 words each week and published a body of work amounting to more than 10 million words. His comic Yankee characters endeared him to millions of readers of the old American Magazine and Saturday Evening Post. Booth TARKINGTON & F. Scott FITZGERALD may have been more celebrated, but a new serial by KELLAND in the Post caused the greatest stir. Sinclair LEWIS, Ring LARDNER, and others put down the small towns; but KELLAND stayed and stood for the common man and the sanctity of the individual.

He also defended the cause of free enterprise against FDR and “the blighting hand of the New Deal”. It was not rampant materialism that was rendering America a wasteland, it was that “life-term candidate” and the insidious socialism of his programs. KELLAND served as Republican National Committeeman from Arizona 1940-1958, and was Executive Director of the Party for a term. He returned to Portland in 1929 for the village homecoming, and in 1944 when he was leading the Presidential campaign of New York Governor Thomas E. DEWEY, a small-town boy originally from Owosso, MI.

When he wrote of Portland, he recalled those years from the beginning of the 80s to the middle of the 90s, before speed came into the world – as the serpent came into Eden – and destroyed tranquility forever. “I was born in an era and a locality where leisure was almost as immoral as dishonesty, and every time I loaf for a day I have to rub liniment on my conscience.” Yet, according to KELLAND, “Mother was the only person in Portland who was ever in a hurry. I do not think I ever knew a more ambitious person nor one so bent on improving the state of her family morally and financially”.

Recalling summer Sundays, sitting before church beside his father on the porch, he wrote, “We would listen to the grasshoppers and birds singing Sunday songs, and the trees would be green and the roses red and white. We waited, rather stiff and sweating in our best clothes, and a breeze would move the long grass. Then would come the music of church bells, the Baptist, the Congregational, the Methodist, each with its own recognizable tone. And the bells would spread their sound through the trees and into the house with placid dignity, summoning the several sects to worship. “Maybe you did not like to go to church and were apprehensive about the length of the sermon, but those bells made perfect a sensation of peace and serenity.”He wrote of long days at the swimming hole at Butternut Island in the Grand, of fishing in the summer and nutting in the autumn. He remembered the cracker barrel in McCLELLAND’S or WOODBURY’S General Store, and how the men who gathered around were identified by their vocations: Depot STEVENS, Banker ALLEN, and Druggist CRANE. Nightly his self-educated father read to him aloud from books not standard children’s fare: Shakespeare, Scott, Dickens, Thackery and the like. He developed early a feeling for romantic adventure and Tom Sawyer.

“I was born and brought up in a narrow environment”, he said. “It was one which did not make allowances. Black was black, and white was white, there was no gray or mauve or tan.” Such was the nature of his works. Bad guys were soundly punished. Virtue, courage, pluck, and persistence were rewarded. The hero & heroine lived happily ever after. There were no moral ambiguities. American individuality and free enterprise emerged triumphant.They burned the home in which he was born – a potential national shrine – two years before his death on February 18, 1964. Burning it down got rid of a lot of rats. Clarence Budington KELLAND would have appreciated the sneer in that dogged common sense. END

Ask your librarian to locate a copy of THE STEADFAST HEART by Clarence Budington KELLAND. The story is pure fiction. The names are recognizable as those of local families, but mixed and matched to protect the survivors. The descriptions of Portland geography and scenery (called Rainbow in the story) are amazingly accurate for the 1890s and as we knew them in the 1930-1950s.

In Chapter Three, page 22, he wrote: “The Village of Rainbow was in a valley, as all villages should be, with a clean (before sewers), rapidly-running river passing through its midst and cutting it into the East Side and the West Side.

In Rainbow housewives baked bread, cookies and fried cakes. Picket fences persisted, and in spite of the municipal waterworks, the knowing still carried their pails to JENKIN’S well for the coolest, sweetest water which ever passed down a throat. There was a square at the eastern end of the bridge, where there was a town pump surrounded by an iron railing, and where, on a Saturday night, the band gave its weekly concert.

Main Street paralleled the river, one row of stores dangling their hind legs in the water. Across the river was a grist mill, a planing mill, a manufactory of woodenware and the secondary hotel. The railroad depot was half a mile away, reached by Lafe’s ‘bus’.”

EDITOR Following were pages with “A photograph of Clarence Budington KELLAND in the public library at Portland” and of “KELLAND’S boyhood home at Portland burned in 1962. His second home still stands at 230 Lincoln St. in the same town. At right, his mother at 22. She ran a millinery shop in Portland.”

ALLEN M. WILLIAMS, 1892-1979:
IONIA – Allen M. WILLIAMS, long-time Ionia County Engineer, pioneer of modern road building, and the man who invented the roadside picnic table, died Sunday afternoon in an East Lansing nursing home.

He was 87 years old and had been ill since suffering a stroke late this winter. He had been confined to a nursing home in East Lansing for several months.

Services will be held Wednesday at 11 a.m. from the First Methodist Church of Ionia.

WILLIAMS served as engineer-manager of the Ionia County Road Commission from 1919 to 1957 and under his supervision Ionia County built the roads and developed the all-seasons road maintenance system that won a national award and was often cited as a model.

WILLIAMS was also for many years an officer and manager of the Ionia Free Fair. He founded and developed Bertha BROCK Park, the Ionia County Airport, and was a founder of Ionia County Memorial Hospital. He served numerous professional and charitable organizations as president, officer and member.

The achievement for which WILLIAMS became most widely known, nationally and internationally, was as the inventor and designer of the roadside picnic table. The site of the first table, at the intersection of Morrison Lake Road and Grand River Avenue, in Boston Township, was awarded an historical marker in 1964.

EARLY YEARS……
WILLIAMS was born in Ludington on January 26, 1892. He graduated from Ludington High School in 1912 and entered Kalamazoo College. He transferred to The University of Michigan and graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1916.

After graduation from Michigan, he was employed by Western Hydro Electric Co. and Pruden Wheel Works, both in Detroit. He joined the Michigan State Highway Department as a project engineer in 1918. In conjunction with a 50 million dollar highway bond issue in 1919, he drafted the state’s first complete highway map.

WILLIAMS came to Ionia in 1919 as engineer-manager of the Ionia County Road Commission, about the same time the late Fred. W. Green, later Governor of Michigan, became a member of the county road commission. Between 1919 and 1927, WILLIAMS continued as project engineer for the state highway department as well as serving as engineer-manager of Ionia County roads.

Between 1919 and 1925, WILLIAMS designed and oversaw the construction of the first Ionia County roads on rights-of-way wider than the standard 66 feet, some of the first such roads built in Michigan. During his first years at the road commission, he also pioneered in the use of the straight-blade snow plow, as substitute for the standard V-plow, thereby eliminating traffic tie-ups by reducing roadside snowbanks and facilitating snow removal.

GREEN VIEW POINT……
Williams conceived and developed GREEN View Point. Located on what was then M-21, GREEN View Point, named for Gov. GREEN, was the first trunkline scenic turnout. WILLIAMS arranged for the purchase of the land from John WINWRIGHT, landscaped the plot, and designed the marker.The turnout is about 175 feet above the level of Grand River and provides long vistas along the river valley. For many years, before they were common, this turnout attracted visitors from considerable distances, especially in the fall. (The brass marker honoring Fred W. GREEN was removed by vandals a number of years ago.)

Another major undertaking was reorganization of Ionia County Road Commission operations, including the design of its garage at 169 E. Riverside Drive, Ionia. Prior to the opening of the Riverside Drive garage, road commission equipment and vehicles had been housed on South STEELE Street and elsewhere. Officers were located in the basement of the Ionia County Court House. The Riverside Drive facility was opened early in 1928.

FIRST ROADSIDE TABLE……
The first roadside picnic table, WILLIAMS recalled later, came into existence because he and his family enjoyed weekend drives and picnics. While many locations, he said, were inviting, there were often only stumps, at best, to serve as tables.

He designed a table in 1929 and had Jacob MOORE, a road commission employee, construct it, using planks salvaged from old guard rails. He had it placed at the Boston Township location – Grand River was then new U.S. 16 and a major state traffic artery – and if soon proved popular with motorists.

He had some additional tables built and placed in other locations in Ionia County. After letters of appreciation were received by the State Highway Department in Lansing, B. C. FINNEY, then chief of highway maintenance, investigated and found WILLIAMS was “his culprit”.

After congratulating WILLIAMS and asking not to be the last to know next time, FINNEY ordered additional picnic tables from the road commission on WILLIAM’S design. Over the next five years, the road commission built more than 1,000 picnic tables for the state and ceased only when the demand became too great for it to handle.

BERTHA BROCK PARK……..
Work on GREEN View Point apparently whetted William’s interest in parks. With a good deal of negotiation and with fundamental assistance in time and money from Ionia County Fishing and Hunting Club, WILLIAMS started development of Bertha BROCK Park in 1931 and continued supervision until his retirement.

He told the Ionia County Board of Commissioners in November 1978, one of his last public appearances. “Frank Harkness worked with me on the park. We never cut a tree unless both of us agreed it was necessary. We wanted to keep it a ‘wildwood’ park.”

IONIA COUNTY AIRPORT….
In 1954, with Federal aid available, WILLIAMS originated the idea of an Ionia County Airport and the county board of supervisors agreed. He directed the development and construction of airport facilities and remained its manager until his retirement.

Elected president of the County Road Association of Michigan in 1934, WILLIAMS contributed to the passage of the Hayden-Cartwright Act, providing federal aid for local highways. He also led a successful fight in Michigan against the attempted reduction of the gasoline tax from three to two cents per gallon and limitation at that rate, through a proposed constitutional amendment.

WILLIAMS recognized the gasoline tax as a major source of highway funding and believed in it as a form of use-taxation. The gasoline tax permitted tax levies on real property for highways to be discontinued in Michigan.

NATIONAL AWARD……….
In 1940, WILLIAMS won the first place award in the BETTER ROADS magazine contest for excellence in county road management. The competition was open to all counties in the United States in the 20,000 to 50,000 population classification. The award brought many highway builders and supervisors to Ionia County to inspect the local system.

During the 30 years between 1927 and 1957, Williams and the Ionia County Road Commission gained a wide reputation for excellence in trunkline maintenance, particularly in speedy snow removal and ice control. The road commission was among the first county commissions in Michigan to hold a contract with the state Department of Highways for trunkline maintenance and has kept its contract since 1925.

WILLIAMS was twice an announced candidate for state highway commissioner when the post was elective and partisan. He announced his candidacy in 1941 but the Republican nomination went to his friend, LeRoy SMITH, Wayne County engineer, who was defeated.

WILLIAMS announced again in 1943, but the Republican nomination went to another friend, Charles M. ZEIGLER who was elected.

OFFICES HELD……..
WILLIAMS was elected president of the Southern Michigan Road Commissioners Association in 1953. He was elected president of the American Road Builders Association (ARBA), county and local roads division, in 1955. He organized and presided over its national highway conference, in Gatlinburg, Tenn. in 1955.

Re-elected president of ARBA for a second year in 1956, WILLIAMS organized and presided over its national conference on Mackinac Island that year. More than 1,000 engineers from all over the U.S. came to see and hear about the Mackinac Bridge, then under construction.

In 1956, WILLIAMS became active in the West Michigan Tourist Association, was named to its board, and continued active in its work until his death.

He was named a life member of the Michigan Engineering Society in 1969. Active well into his 80s, WILLIAMS addressed the Michigan Asphalt Paving Association in 1975, showing movies of Ionia County road operations in the 20s and 30s.

STATE HONOR……
In 1976, WILLIAMS was named “Michigan Tourist Ambassador” by Gov. William G. MILLIKEN, in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to Michigan’s travel industry, in particular the picnic table”.

In 1977, he addressed the Michigan Highway Engineers conference, sponsored by the Michigan Department of State Highways and Transportation, for the last time. On Nov. 21, 1977, WILLIAMS cut the ribbon opening the last section in I-96, 12 miles of the JEFFRIES Freeway in Detroit. He was invited to do so because he had been project engineer on the last gap of U. S.-16, completed in 1926, and had cut the ribbon then.

HOSPITAL FOUNDER…….
Under appointment from Clarence S. JOHNSON, then mayor of Ionia, WILLIAMS did fundamental work in establishing the Ionia County Memorial Hospital. He served as chairman of the Board of Trustees and administrator for the hospital, from 1943 to 1949.

He was variously director, secretary-manager and president of Ionia Free Fair Association, between 1938 and 1964, serving 12 terms as president. Under his direction, brick removed from Ionia’s Main Street were used to build part of the fence around the Fairground’s race track.

WILLIAMS was past president of the Michigan Association of Fairs and Exhibitions; of the Southern Michigan Fair and Racing Circuit; of Ionia Rotary Club, and of the Ionia Boy Scout Council.

SURVIVORS……
WILLIAMS is survived by seven children: Miss Kathleen WILLIAMS of Midland and Mrs. Honor BARIT of Indian Wells, Calif., Richard of West Bloomfield, Ben of Lansing, Keith of Traverse City, Robin of Gaylord and Colin of Saranac.Fourteen grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren also survive.

The mother of the WILLIAMS children, Mrs. Esther ACKERMAN WILLIAMS, died Dec. 21, 1970. WILLIAMS married Mrs. Hazel WILLIAMS of Ludington, the widow of his brother Harold, in July 1972. The second Mrs. WILLIAMS died in March 1979.

The family will be at the LEDDICK Funeral Home Monday
from 7 to 9 p.m. and Tuesday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m.

Memorial funds have been established for The University of Michigan College of Engineering Scholarship Fund and for the Ionia County Historical Society.

Burial will be in Lakeview Cemetery, Ludington. – R.C. GREGORY

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Association;
AUGUST 1996, Volume 32, Number 1. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: LEIGH, COURSER, FRIEND, BENEDICT, STOLT, MAY, FREDERICKS, COE, CASWELL, OGALVIE, KAISER, BERGER, BRUMM, LYONS, HANSON, GIERMAN, WEDDERBURN, CHAMBERLAIN, COBB, ANSLOW, COOK, LOWER, SHANSKI, SHELTON, HAYDEN, CARTER, HUNT, BELCHER, GENEREAUX, LEIK, SLOWINSKI, MEADE, BUCK, LOWREY, PRYER, KENYON, DENSMORE, FINEIS, CRANE, STITT, LAKIN, GREEN, CROSSEN, SHOEMAKER, FARMER, HAZEL, OKEMOS, COOL

RECENT DEATHS:

ROSE S. LEIGH, 103, widow of Elmer, born January 23, 1893, married March 2, 1912, they farmed on Eaton Hwy. in Sebewa Township for many years, retired to Lake Odessa in May, 1970, he died March 1, 1974, and she died June 6, 1996.

H. DALE COURSER, 98, widower of Ruth Evelyn FRIEND COURSER, father of Marjorie BENEDICT, Lucy Noreen STOLT & Eugene COURSER, brother of Ernest & Anna May, son of Herbert & Elizabeth FREDERICKS COURSER. He attended KILMARTIN School, farmed on the home farm in Orange Township on Portland Road, worked at Ypsilanti-Reed, retired to Lake Six at Remus & Palm Harbor, FL. Evelyn was a great-granddaughter of John FRIEND, Sebewa pioneer.

HISTORY OF AUTO DEALERSHIPS IN IONIA as told by Orson E. COE:

My dad, George Coe, Sr., entered the auto business in Ionia in 1912, two years before I was born. He was a farmer in Ionia & Orange Townships, and continued to farm all his life. We still own part of the farm, and Sunset Memorial Gardens is on some of it. Norm OGALVIE was selling cars in the livery stable on West Main, where SEARS later was and CLORWELL Electric is today. Dad had bought a couple cars from Norm and decided to join him in the business.

They sold Oldsmobile, Oakland, Overland, and Ford. Then Ford wanted an exclusive dealership, so Norm took that and stayed in the building where he was. Dad took the rest to the east side of KIDD Street, south of Main, in the Henry MILLER building. Later he added Nash. Once he didn’t have Olds for a couple years, 1929-1930, and a fellow named Tubb MILLER had it. Then Dad took it back, along with the Nash.

Ross BENEDICT was selling Reo in his building on West Main, where the A&P store later was and the Antique Mall is now located. He started before Dad, as did Charlie CHAMBERLAIN, who sold Nash & Studebaker in his machine shop south of First Methodist Church, on Husdon at Adams Street.COB & ANSLOW HAD Dodge on the corner of Steele and Washington streets, across from the present day Ambulance barn.

Later Norm OGALVIE moved his Ford dealership to a new building down on the west side of South Depot Street, which is a vacant lot now. Then Jack KAISER moved into the SEARS building and sold Flint, Chrysler & Star cars.

Reuben COOK opened a Chevrolet dealership in 1930 and sold it to Ned BERGER Sr. & Joe LYONS in 1940. They were in the SEYMOUR Tire building that has just been torn down. Ned built up on Lincoln Ave. and later sold to Ned Jr. Ned Sr’s. brother had the dealership in Grand Rapids. Walter BRUMM had been in the SEARS building after Jack KAISER, selling Buick & Pontiac. He went broke in 1940. Later LYONS left BERGER and sold Pontiac. I bought him out and added Pontiac to our line in 1958.

My brother, George COE, Jr., had the Buick dealership and gave it up during World War II. Berger took it on and then gave it back in 1946. Later George sold it to BERGER. He was in the building that is now the Knights of Columbus Hall. Dad & George & I had been one-third partners since 1937. When George went on his own, Dad & I became half & half partners. I moved back into the SEARS building in 1943, after BRUMM had vacated it. Dad had had Olds & Nash, and I added Cadillac in 1948.

Denard CASWELL was selling Packard and Dad sold him the Nash about 1946-1947. Richard HANSON was selling Mercury down in the OGALVIE building and sold that dealership to Denard. A couple years later Denard got Ford also.

Walter HANSON had bought out Norm OGALVIE Ford in 1940 and moved it from the location at Depot & Adams to a new building on Washington Street. That building is now the west part of Clothing Care. Maynard GIERMAN & Jack WEDDERBURN bought out COBB & ANSLOW Dodge, moved into the building across the alley to the east of HANSON, and sold Chrysler & Plymouth. That building is now part of Clothing Care also. It was built by Elwyn BROWN & LeRoy (Prunie) UDELL, who sold Chrysler there for a while when they first opened their John Deere dealership. GIERMAN & WEBBERBURN had been with Joe SCHANSKI at one point, and SCHANSKI eventually got all the Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth, Jeep Eagle line at his location across from me in South Ionia. That building had been built by MILLER to sell Hudson & Kaiser-Frazer. Then Burr SMITH had it and he sold it to SCHANSKI.

I sold the Ionia dealership to Orson Jr. & Jim HAYDEN when I moved to Grand Rapids. Later they joined me there. They sold this one to Bud SHELTON and he sold to Tom CARTER. I built that building in 1960 and still own it. Margaret and I and all three of our children graduated from Michigan State University. She, her parents, my parents, George & his wife, are all buried in Sunset Memorial Gardens on the family farm. END

THE IRON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, Crystal Falls, 1890 (Photo on front page):

THE IRON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, pictured on our cover and designed by J. C. CLANCY, was built in 1890. Characteristic of the Romanesque revival period, it features a high pitched roof, high windows, deeply arched doorways, and exterior ornamentation. Standing atop Superior Avenue, it commands a scenic view of the City of Crystal Falls and its surroundings.

A bid of $26,470 by Louis A. WEBBER of Menasha, WI, was accepted by the County Board of Supervisors for construction. The final cost rose to about $40,000. Late in September, 1890, after the cornerstone of the new building was laid, $2,700 was paid to C. T. CRANDALL, an early Prosecuting Attorney, for the land on which the courthouse was being built. William RUSSELL, a Crystal Falls building contractor, as well as a member of the County Board of Supervisors, was the contractor hired to dig and build the foundation of the courthouse……

THE CAPTURE OF THE COUNTY SEAT
Crystal Falls is proud of its courthouse. It’s a fine structure of ivory brick & stone. But the citizens of Iron River, in the same county and only a few miles away, don’t share this pride. When Iron River’s old timers cast their eyes upon the proud building on top of the hill, they mutter harsh things under their breaths and some actually are seen to clench their fists. It’s a sore subject, the courthouse, and no wonder Crystal Falls is always willing to laugh when it is brought up…….

……In 1885 the Legislature set off Iron County from Marquette County, and designated Iron River as a temporary county seat. The permanent county seat was to be chosen later by an election. Iron River and Crystal Falls, both infant mining towns as well as lumber camps, were about the same size and each wanted the court house. When the honor fell to Iron River the citizens were greatly elated and those of Crystal Falls correspondingly depressed…..

……… “Iron River imported five hundred lumberjacks from Gogebic County, and Crystal Falls imported an equal number from other areas. The dead in both communities received a miraculous resurrection, for the names of many were found on the registration rolls. All over the Upper Peninsula men laid down their work to join the “ringers”, handsomely paid for their services. Iron River hired a Chicago detective to watch the goings-on at Crystal Falls, but he was plied with drink by the gamblers and sent away on election day. There were countless irregularities that today would result in investigations for election fraud. When the election was over, it was found that Crystal Falls had won by five votes.” END

EDITOR’S NOTE: A similar rivalry existed over the location of Ionia’s county seat. In March 1833, what few white men were here – Indian traders mostly – petitioned Territorial Governor George B. PORTER to appoint a commission to locate the county seat for Ionia County, with the idea of having it located where the village of LYONS now stands (Arthursburg.) The petition was signed by William HUNT, Elisha BELCHER, Louis GENEREAUX, and seven other Frenchmen.

Before the petition was acted upon, the DEXTER Colony of 63 permanent settlers arrived at Ionia on May 28, 1833, named their settlement “Ionia County Seat” and lost no time in sending a larger petition. It was finally acted upon by Stevens T. MASON, who succeeded Governor PORTER upon his death. Ionia ultimately prevailed, but Lyons and their supporters in Portland avenged their supposed wrongs by steadfastly opposing and voting against all appropriations for the next fifty years for the construction of a courthouse on beautiful grounds which were set apart for such purpose in 1833 by Judge Samuel DEXTER. Even today some of this feeling of being slighted crops up in the Portland & Lyons area from time to time. END

OUR JUNIOR YEAR AT PORTLAND HIGH SCHOOL by Marie LEIK SLOWINSKI 1900-1989:

September 4, 1918, saw our ranks once more assembled within the school halls, which had become dear to us with the memories of other years. We soon decided to elect our class officers. Ernest Victor MEADE, as he prefers to be called, was chosen president, E. BUCK vice president, Eloise LOWREY secretary & treasurer.

The days passed by uneventfully until October 16, about seven o’clock, when the news spread quickly that the schoolhouse was in flames. There was great excitement the following week, as it was rumored that a Bolshevik had burned the building. The next week saw our work started anew at the Congregational Church, where we were to remain until the new building was completed. Finally we became accustomed to the straight hard pews and settled down to business.

For the evening after the fire we had already planned a marshmallow roast, but the night was so windy that only a few came. The second party of the year was held in January at Margaret Pryer’s home. We went there in a lumber wagon, the fashion of the eighties, but enjoyed a lively night.

We can never forget how Dorothy KENYON tried to teach Miss DENSMORE the Ionia style of dancing. On April 14 a poverty social was given at the Woodman Hall. The hours sped merrily playing games. Prizes were given to those wearing the most original costumes. Beatrice FINEIS, who wore an old-fashioned dress, received a gold braclet. Harold Crane, who came dressed in a barrel, was awarded the boy’s prize, for such poverty should not be unrewarded. We enjoyed a pleasant evening April 25 at SYKES Hall, at a dancing party we gave for the purpose of raising funds for the Senior reception.

At the close of the school year in June, the Juniors gave the Seniors a reception at the Methodist Church. The room was beautifully decorated with maroon & gold. Roses were tied with ribbons to each Senior’s place card.

Beatrice FINEIS represented the Juniors in a welcome to the Seniors. Harold CRANE gave the response. After a solo by Mr. STITT, the banquet was served and the rest of the evening was spent dancing at SYKES Hall.

We must stop for a moment to recall those who left during our Junior year. They were Wayne GREEN and Elon LAKIN, who went to work in Lansing, and Virginia CROSSEN and Wayne SHOEMAKER, who moved away from Portland. Time sped by, bringing our third year of high school to a close.
END

HAZEL BROS. FARM DRAINAGE:

Dates back to May, 1885, when George HAZEL began digging a large ditch around and thru Bonanza Village. George and his son, Alfred (FARMER) HAZEL, used shovels and a carpenter’s level on an apple crate. Alfred’s sons, Lee, Russell and Robert, got the first wheel machine and a backhoe. Russ’ son, Tom, got a big Steiger tractor and plows the tile in, guided by a laser beam. In May, 1996, Tom’s daughter, great-great-granddaughter of George, joined the crew with shovel in hand. She started at the bottom of the trench, just like George. Welcome, Ms. HAZEL! We fully expect to see you in the driver’s seat of that Steiger tile plow someday soon. HAZEL Bros. becomes “& daughter!”.

SHIMNECON’S SECOND CHANCE: SUNLIGHT AND BIODIVERSITY.SIMONS SAYS by Nan SIMONS – It’s finally time to give another update on the disposition of SHIMNECON in Danby Township. I’ve received a number of calls from concerned residents in the area about timber harvesting taking place on the Boy Scout property adjacent to Chief OKEMOS’ burial site.

Rest assured that, while the land may look a bit shell-shocked right now, the old chief isn’t rolling over in his grave. In fact, he probably approves of these changes.Let’s talk about the sale itself, then get down to understanding the basics of modern forestry practices.

I spoke with Pat BRIDGES, executive director of the Chief OKEMOS Boy Scout Council, last week to confirm a few facts. He says the sale was approved by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources March 6 and closing on the property should take place by the end of June.

UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, the DNR picks up SHIMNECON’S 19.2 acres sans commercial timber. The state has allowed the council one year to do selective cutting and the majority of that work has been completed.

Timbering was granted with the stipulation that all tree tops larger than four inches in diameter be reduced. That creates a firewood bonanza for local wood burning enthusiasts – watch area newspapers for the advertisement. The logs have been sold commercially and will be hauled out as soon as weather allows. There’ll be some of these logs as well as from the sale of the land. Bridges says “Monies raised from this timbering go into an endowment fund to be used in perpetuity for the benefit of this council’s scouts. This was not an easy decision, but the council’s deficit and continuing decreases in funding from the United Way forced us to make a choice. How do you stay in business and serve kids when funding becomes harder and harder to find? The long-range plan has always been to support our 625-acre retreat, the Northwoods Scout Reservation. To do that, we had to sell other properties that were underutilized. SHIMNECON was one of those properties and its sale helps guarantee that scouting will be here for the next generation.”

I haven’t been able to confirm it yet, but I have it on good authority that the Optimists’ are also in the process of selling their island to the DNR, so they end up with something to show for their gift of SHIMNECON.

Forester Bob COOL, a long-time Boy Scout volunteer, coordinated the timbering project. While SHIMNECON’S huge old-growth stands were an asset to woodland lovers, they were a deficit to sale of the property and to the life of this land.

“Standing timber is often worth as much as the property it grows on,” says COOL. “That was the case with SHIMNECON. The trees were like a crop of wheat. Both the crop and the land have a value and sometimes that cost is just too high for the buyer. We would have liked to sell it---trees and all---but that wasn’t possible.”

It wasn’t a healthy solution for the land either. The DNR wanted this harvest as a condition of sale and here’s why.

“Total crown closure, mature forest like that in SHIMNECON, shuts out the light” COOL says. “When you lose light, you lose new growth and, most of importantly, you lose biodiversity. Mature forests are deserts where nothing grows but the big trees and few plants and animals thrive. Changing the structure of that type of woods allows sunlight to reach the forest floor. New plants, wildflowers, shrubs, and trees take root. Deer, grouse, turkeys, and birds of all descriptions move in to take advantage of the food supply and cover. Biodiversity is the key to good stewardship. The DNR knows that and so does any competent forester.”

He’s right. He’s also what I’d consideer an expert in his field with an honest concern for the inhabitants of SHIMNECON. The site was thoroughly reviewed. Trees selected for the cut were clearly marked. COOL insists no den trees and no trees with owls or hawk nests were chosen. He notes that three trees were excluded as habitat and they are not considered preferred stock for commercial harvest because they may be damaged.

Mature trees that fell to the cut were mostly varieties of oak, two pockets of walnut and sugar maple, and miscellaneous basswood, hickory, beech, and black cherry. Drive by SHIMNECON and you may think you’ve discovered a disaster area. Look closer and you’ll notice how many young trees survived the slash.

“We maintained a steady rate of average density per acre with this harvest” COOL says. “By reducing the tree tops and leaving the additional brush at a height of two to five feet, we’re also creating protective cover for fresh growth and wildlife habitat. Tell people to mark May 15th on their calendars. That’s when the leafing begins. One month later they’ll see phenomenal growth – young trees, shrubs, plants, and sprouts from the stumps will be everywhere because now they have access to sunlight. The increase in habitat will bring incredible opportunities for wildlife watching.”

As a bonus, the DNR will allow area troops to camp at the site if permission is requested in advance. Sounds like just what SHIMNECON supporters wanted – the land in public trust and wildlife in abundance.

What was a wonderful woodland walk among giants emerges from the shadows to nurture a riot of biodiversity with a flood of sunshine. Where tremendous trees once dominated the landscape, the tender shoots of their successors reach for the light.

MESHIMENCONING has a second chance.

DOGS IN THE SHEEP:
Dogs have been killing our sheep. A dog running loose reverts to a wolf. Then it becomes a dead wolf!! Photo of damage next issue.

ELECTION RESULTS:
At the Annual Meeting, Janet GIERMAN RUDD was re-elected president and LaVern CARR was re-elected trustee. Wes MEYERS, Jr. is vice president until 1997, Sharon HUNT KYSER is secretary – treasurer until 1998 and Duane MEYERS is trustee until 1998. Sharon KYSER gave a good Secretary/Treasurer’s report. Carl & Mary KLAHN gave a nice slide presentation on Scandinavia.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Association,
OCTOBER 1996, Volume 32, Number 2. Submitted with written permission of Editor, Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: TODD, FRIEND, HALLADAY, CARPENTER, MEACHAM, COMB, KNAPP, STANK, BUCKLEY, McCRUMB, BUCKLEY, PRYER, PHILLIPS, INGLIS, VanRIPER, ANDRESSEN, STEINMETS, PREYER, NASH, SARLOUIS, SLOWINSKI, GRENIC, SCHNABEL, SLOWINS, LEHMAN, KUBISH, COOK, DARLING, ROCKWELL, GUERNSEY, LIBOLDT, GIERMAN, BROWN, SAYER, DILLEY

RECENT DEATHS:

LUCILLE TODD, 90, widow of Arthur, mother of Wendell & Larry TODD and the late Donna GELINA, sister of Lawrence FRIEND and the late Evelyn COURSER, Beatrice CURTIS, Mildred MERRILL, and George FRIEND, daughter of Lucy E. HALLADAY & Ralph E. FRIEND, son of Jane E. CARPENTER & George E. FRIEND, son of Polly Ann MEACHAM & John FRIEND, son of Betty COMB & John FRIEND Sr. John & Polly Ann FRIEND settled in Sec. 25 Sebewa, on what was later known as the Knapp farm and is in Sec. 25 Sebewa, on what was later known as the KNAPP farm and is now owned by Jim & Sid STANK, in 1854. He platted that portion of the village lying in Sebewa Township from his farm. Lucille was born and attended school here and taught school for 35 years. (Vol. 30, No.2)

MARVIN R. McCRUMB, 83, husband of Marie, brother of Clare and the late Stanley, Lola, Stewart and Dudley McCRUMB, son of Myrtle BUCKLEY & Frank McCRUMB, son of Lester C. McCRUMB & Elizabeth A. PRYER, daughter of Cornelia Ann PHILLIPS & Thomas PRYER who settled in Sec. 23 Danby Township, in 1846, son of Mary INGLIS & Merselus PRYER, son of Maria VanRIPER & Casparus PRYER, son of Sarah ANDRESSEN & Casparus PRYER, son of Johanna STEINMETS & Andreas PRYER, son of Margaret & Thomas PREYER, whose family emigrated to England from the Normany Province of France with William The Conqueror in 1066. (See Vol. 28, No. 6, June, 1993)

EDWIN C. NASH, 89, husband of Marion, father of Mary FOSTER and James NASH, brother of Adelia McAlary, son of Lynne WESTON & Ernest NASH, son of Edwin C. NASH, son of Amasa NASH, who settled in Sec. 10 Campbell Township in 1847. He was a lifelong farmer on the family homestead, bookkeeper at the Clarksville Elevator, and a director of his grandfather’s Edwin C. NASH State Bank. He became Campbell Township Supervisor in 1950 and served as chairman of the Ionia County Board of Supervisors 1957-1968. In 1969, he became chairman of the newly formed County Board of Commissioners, and served on that Board until retirement in 1994. (See Vol. 24 No. 6 & Vol. 25 No. 1, 1989)

EDWARD SARLOUIS, 94, widower of Louise SLOWINSKI SARLOUIS, father of Janet BUFFHAM, Darlene MAREK, and Linda SAYER, brother of Edgar and Bernard SARLOUIS and Josephine HESTER, and the late Frances, John & Martin SARLOUIS, and Clara NELSON, son of Joseph SARLOUIS & Amelia (Minnie) SARLOUIS, daughter of Marina GRENIC & Martin SCHNABEL, son of Anton & Regina SCHNABEL. Martin & Marina SCHNABEL settled in Sec. 25 & 26 Berlin Township in 1857. Edward (Nit) SARLOUIS was a farmer and Citgo dealer. Louise was also descended from Anton & Regina SCHNABEL. See following obituary.

DONALD F. SLOWINS, 89, widower of Crystal BRAKE SLOWINS, father of Grayden SLOWINS, Sandra MILLER & Donna EDER, brother of Frances GAZALLA, Marguerite Marian MITCHELL, Louise SARLOUIS and Florence, Herbert, Eugene, Frank, John, Clarence & Wilson SLOWINSKI, all now deceased, son of  Wilhelmina (Minnie) LEHMAN & Daniel SLOWINSKI, son of Mary GREGIE & Christopher SLOWINSKI, son of Daniel SLOWINSKI & Anna SCHNABEL, daughter of Anton & Regina SCHNABEL. Minnie LEHMAN was the daughter of Frank LEHMAN & Regina KUBISH, daughter of John KUBISH. He was a farmer, General Motors 40-year employee, subdivision developer, home builder, village commissioner, city councilman, chairman of light & power board, planning commission, and board of review, postmaster at Clark Memorial Home.

WEDDING LICENSE OF WILLIAM R. DARLING AND MARY LIBOLDT:

Harold COOK, one of our members who resides at 1005 NE 17th St, #318, Hillsboro, OR 97124, sends us a wedding license for a marriage performed by his great-grandfather, Pierce G. COOK, Justice of the Peace at Portland and long-time Sebewa resident on the farm in Sec. 19 where Henry SMITH now lives. The license was for William R. DARLING, farmer, born in Orange Township, son of Ira & Elisa ROCKWELL DARLING, and Mary LIBOLDT, resident of Hubbardston but born in New York State, daughter of Hiram & Martha GUERNSEY LIBOLDT. Anyone who is descended from this couple may have the license. We don’t know why Pierce COOK kept it. Harold COOK is the son of Leslie COOK, son of Charles COOK, son of Pierce G. COOK. We did not have Leslie COOK in our list of Charles P. & Emily COOK’S children in Volume 27, Number 6, June, 1992. Harold says their branch has long ago lost contact with relatives here.

MEMORIALS FOR ROBERT WILFRED GIERMAN which went specifically to THE RECOLLECTOR came from Mr. & Mrs. Blanchard RICE, Joanne & Richard GREEN, Karl & Helen GIERMAN, Michael & K. GIERMAN, and Julia WHORLEY. We thank you.

BROWN-SAYER-DILLEY UPDATE:
Sarah DILLEY SAYER, mother of Minnie A. BROWN, was the daughter of Henry & Anne ALCOCK DILLEY.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Association,
NOVEMBER 1996, Volume 32, Number 3. Submitted with written permission of Grayden D. SLOWINS, Editor:


SURNAMES: MARSH, PRELESNIK, STANK, VANDERBURG, PEACOCK, JOY, HOLLINGSWORTH, COX, PICKETT, DOWNING, BAIRD, HITCHCOCK, LINDLEY, KLINGMAN, CONWAY, SESSIONS, BECKER, HANEY, JOHNSON, SNYDER, STEWARD, WOLVERTON, LaLONGE, CREIGHTON, STEINER, GOODEMOOT, DIEHL

RECENT DEATH:

DONALD ALONZO MARSH, 75, husband of Helen, father of Donald L. MARSH & Janice PRELESNIK, stepfather of James & Richard STANK, brother of Robert, Opal, Howard, Fred, Esther, Norma & Mary, son of Edna VANDERBURG & Alonzo MARSH. He was a farmer, employee of Sunfield Elevator and Lake Odessa Canning Co., school bus driver, and Korean War Veteran.

FRONT PAGE PHOTO: JOHN JOY PEACOCK FAMILY

This 1913 photograph shows the family which made the 1865 trip from Indiana to Sebewa Township by covered wagon:

back row, left to right: Jason and John PEACOCK; Anna PEACOCK STEINER, and Thomas and Samuel PEACOCK;

Front row: Arthur PEACOCK (author of the accompanying excerpts); John Joy PEACOCK and his wife Margaret Carolyn PEACOCK; and Thursa PEACOCK GOODEMOOT.

THE PEACOCK FAMILY OF SEBEWA complied by Grayden SLOWINS

The first PEACOCK of record was Abraham, probably born in Guilford County, North Carolina. He had a brother Silas, who moved to New York State. Abraham moved to Randolph County, Indiana, in 1818. The name of his first wife is unknown, but their children were Amos and Achsah (Hill). The second wife of Abraham was Anna JOY, born on the Island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Their children were Margaret (Cox) and John JOY PEACOCK. Abraham’s third wife was a HOLLINGSWORTH.

John JOY PEACOCK was born in Guilford County, NC, and died in Randolph County, IN, in June, 1860. His first wife was Ruth COX. Their children were: Elwood, Simon, Anna (PAXON), Achsah (PAXON), Enoch, William and Benjamin. His second wife was Rebecca PICKETT, born in Orange County, NC, died at Sterling, KS. Their children were: John J., Caleb, Amos, Ruth, Rosanna, Cyrus, Henry, Simon C., and Manlon P.

Benjamin PEACOCK was born in Randolph County, IN, and died in Howard County, IN. His son was Benjamin Calvin PEACOCK, born in Howard County, IN, August 21, 1848, died Ionia County, MI, June 12, 1906. He married Catherine E. DOWNING, daughter of Elizabeth BAIRD and Samuel DOWNING, who were married September 10, 1829, moved to Randolph County, IN, in 1837, and to Ionia County, MI, in 1865. Samuel was born in Chester County, SC, April 6, 1805, and died July 7, 1871. Elizabeth was born in Erie County, PA, July 17, 1808, and died in Ionia County, May 21, 1884. Benjamin C. & Catherine Peacock’s children were: Harlan J., Ella (WILSON), Delia (JOHNSON) and others.

Harlan J. PEACOCK, born 1878, died 1951, married Alice E. HITCHCOCK, born 1876, died 1936. Their children were: Robert, Homer J., Ted, Wayne, Elwood, Harlan Jr., Catherine (SMITH), and Ivah (GUERNSEY).

John JOY PEACOCK Jr. was born in Randolph County, IN, November 20, 1836, and died in Odessa Township, Ionia County, MI, December 2, 1917. He married Margaret Caroline DOWNING, another daughter of Elizabeth BAIRD and Samuel DOWNING, born in Darke County, OH, December 9, 1834 and she died in Ionia County, January 31, 1916. Their children were Arthur Sheldon, Samuel Leander, John Joy, Thursa Antoinette (Mrs. George GOODEMOOT), Jason ELWOOD, Thomas Henry, Luella, Anna Caroline (STEINER), and Minnie Rebecca. Luella and Minnie died in infancy.

Samuel Leander PEACOCK was born in Randolph County, IN, February 14, 1860, died in Ionia County, MI, December 2, 1917, was married to Eunice Elizabeth LINDLEY, born in Sebewa Township, October 8, 1871, died in Ionia, MI, March 1, 1959. Their children were Thomas Leander, Walter, two other sons and three daughters.

Thomas Leander PEACOCK, born in Sebewa Township, June 3, 1894, died in Grand Rapids August 13, 1980, was married first to Eliza KLINGMAN and she died. Their child was Helen (HALLER). Then he married Reine E. CONWAY, born January 31, 1915, in Allegan, MI. Their children were: Elizabeth, Frances, Catherine, Thomas, Richard, Harry.

Thomas Leroy PEACOCK was born in Lake Odessa, January 18, 1838, and married Lois Irene SESSIONS, born in Ionia, March 7, 1943. Their children were Catherine Marie, Carolyn Lee, and Shari Lynn.

Catherine Marie PEACOCK married Mark A. BECKER. They were divorced and she married Mark D. HANEY. We are indebted to Cathy for much of the family-tree portion of this issue, as well as her valuable assistance in our new method of production with this issue. She is Administrative Assistant/Financial Secretary at Ionia Presbyterian Church. Her three younger children are the fifth generation of the HANEY family to attend HAYNOR Rural School north of Ionia in Easton Township. Michael attends Ionia High School.

COMING TO IONIA COUNTY BY COVERED WAGON as written by Arthur PEACOCK in 1915:

One Sunday morning in the autumn of 1865, a covered wagon stood near an old farm home in Randolph County, IN. In the wagon there were a man and his wife and four children, three boys and a girl, the oldest (this writer) being less than eight years old. The man was John JOY PEACOCK, Jr., and his wife, Margaret Caroline DOWNING PEACOCK. They were bidding good-bye and starting on what then seemed a long move to the woods of central Michigan. Two hours later they were joined by three other covered wagons. The first stop was made at Union City, IN, half Buckeye, half Hoosier, for more good-byes.

The caravan moved northward along or near the Ohio-Indiana state line, passing through that region which once centered around Old Fort Recovery. We moved slowly – the season had been a rainy one, and the roads were merely avenues of mud. That first night comes back vividly. This writer slept with his father in a barn, an entirely new experience, and the bright moon had for him an unusual interest. The weather continued unfavorable; sleeping out of doors was not to be though of for women and small children, and even in the wagons was not much better. To keep the rain out, black oil cloth was spread along the roof-tree of the canvas covers. As we neared Ft. Wayne one rainy night, a farmer grudgingly allowed the women and children to sleep in the house, making their own pallets on the floor.

At Ft. Wayne some of the loads were lightened by shipping some of the heavier boxes as freight. Also at Ft. Wayne I saw my first canal and my first mountain ash tree, a small shade tree with bright red berries. I never see a grub box that I do not think of the red cedar chest in which we carried our eatables, and again almost catch the aroma which arose from it when the lid was lifted. Further along our journey the roads and weather were much better. I remember the Michigan residents called us gypsies, on account of the black oil cloth which covered the top of our wagons. We passed through Coldwater and Marshall and camped near Battle Creek one evening. I saw the creek, but was disappointed, there was no battle. You must remember that this was just after the close of the Civil War.

It was a damp, rainy day when we passed through Vermontville, and probably the next evening a little before sunset, that we came in sight of the promised land. It was a country crossroads, a little log school house on the northeast angle, and an old oak tree on the southwest.
 
That was my first view of the place ever-afterward called West Sebewa. The wearisome journey was at an end, fifty years ago today, but some of the events and people in it come to mind. For one, there was Riley DIEHL. I hardly think he was a returned soldier, being too young for that, but no road was too muddy and no day too rainy for him to sing “The Girl I Left Behind”. And I remember the tar buckets, swinging from the coupling poles of the old-fashioned, thimble-skein, linch-pin wagons. It was not very long before the younger fry were learning to say “reach” instead of “coupling-pole”, and what a lot of other words we had to learn or unlearn.

As I remember, we camped at Grandfather DOWNING’S place the first night. Our first log cabin was about 18 feet square. There in that one small room the family of six ate, slept, moved and had its being. Across the road from the front of the cabin was standing timber – the primeval forest, practically. That winter I saw eight deer hanging in one tree at a time. At that time a deer’s carcass brought as little as $2.50. It was in those woods that a little later, Stephen LINDLEY made a record by cutting down ten acres of timber in ten days by windrowing it. I remember some of the deprivations of our first winter in Michigan. Flour was 7 cents per pound, corn meal half as much, and even salt was “out of sight”. At our house we were glad to have wheat bread on Sundays only. We lived to a large estent on potato soup. One of our teams was sold, the mare for $180.00, and the other traded for a pair of steers.”

Neighbors in the northwest quarter of Sebewa were as follows: WARINGS, Solomon HESS, James SPRAGUE, John COOK, GOODEMOOTS, VanDUSEN, R. A. KNOLL, George SNYDER, E.B. BUCKMAN, Wash SECKSTONE, Joe WILLIAMS, Frank BLISS, FELL, WILSON, BAIRD, Henry SPRAGUE, AND Giles THORPE.

Just about that time also, several people got the Minnesota fever, and a little later the Dakota fever, and left. All the people lived in log houses.

Now let us get back to the West Sebewa School. My first teacher in that little log school house was Lucy TITUS. My second teacher was a Miss JACKSON, if I am not mistaken, a summer term in 1866. I think that year they built the Presbyterian Church, and began to build the new school house. My memory is a little hazy over the succession of teachers: Hester CARTER, Millie CARPENTER GODDARD, Matt KNOLL, who gave me and Chauncey WOOD a good wooling one day, not amiss either. I remember it was the fashion in those days for the teacher to board around. Father made a pole ladder so Lucy TITUS could climb into the loft of our first little log cabin, and there she roasted at night during her week at our house. Others stayed with us, but that was after we moved into a more pretentious house.

I remember a little scrap that Andrus LINDLEY and I had on the playground one day, and Hester CARTER brought us in and made us stand on one foot, the other held high, a stick of wood held in one hand and a book in the other. I think that was Frank HOSEY’S frozen-up stoneware ink bottle that was set on the stove one cold morning to thaw. It thawed out all right, as everybody knew, and great was the noise there-of. The wooden stopper made a dent in the ceiling which was beautifully embroidered with ink splashes. We had a sawmill on the northwest corner, also a general store with Post Office; and a blacksmith shop north of the school. We had baseball games with the CARR School and the TRAVIS School. Today this writer sits on the Probate Court bench at Wakeeny, Kansas. (Jason was Ionia County Drain Commissioner for may years and Thomas Henry was a prominent Physician.)

WEST SEBEWA AS I REMEMBER IT as told by Dora PEACOCK JOHNSON in 1967:

West Sebewa as I remember it in about the year 1891, when I started school, was much like this: It was situated on a four corners in the northwesterly part of the Township. In the southwest corner of the little village was the Presbyterian Church, with ample church sheds to protect the horses and carriages in cold and inclement weather (see photo in Volume 23, Number 3. The church was served by the Presbyterian minister from Ionia.)

One the same corner, adjoining on the north, was a building occupied by the Hope CHILSON family, containing a small store of groceries and supplies, with living quarters in the back. Across the road on the northwest corner was the Post Office with Luke COOK as Postmaster, who also carried a limited supply of groceries and household needs.

When that Post Office was established or where the people went for their mail before that, I can’t recall. (Editor’s note: Apparently it was in the home of Charles & Sarah STEWARD where Linda & Randy WOLVERTON now live.) I can remember being told that before the time of the Post Office, the place was known as Snyder’s Corners, mainly because George Snyder, who had settled there earlier, operated a large lumber mill there.

Across from the Post Office on the northeast corner was the schoolhouse and playground. Pupils in those days numbered around fifty and ranged in age from five to twenty or twenty-one. The school was divided into terms – fall, winter, spring. The very youngest children were not always obliged to go to school during the winter term because of the cold and stormy weather. We were not transported in those days, we had to walk. And the big boys did not attend during spring and fall terms, when they would be busy helping plant and harvest crops.

Next to the schoolyard was the blacksmith shop – very essential at that time in keeping the horses well shod and their feet trim and in making the necessary repairs on the iron parts of farm machinery. This work was done by the village Blacksmith, Luke LaLONGE. He was considered very efficient in that line of work and was kept very busy. His constant clanging on the anvil was a sort of musical accompaniment to all our school sessions. The blacksmith building had family living quarters for Luke and his family.

Just north of the blacksmith shop was a building erected by the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows. The ground floor was rented as a store and the upper floor was used as a hall for meetings of the I.O.O.F. Lodge. Soon the CHILSONS moved away and their store building was remodeled by PROSSER and WARING for an agricultural implement store. For some time Postmaster COOK had been failing in health and his little stock of goods became depleted. In 1892 or 1893, my father, Benjamin C. PEACOCK, purchased the stock of goods in the Odd Fellows store building and soon afterward was appointed Postmaster. He moved the Post Office across the road to his store and COOK’S little grocery was soon extinct.

PEACOCK and Sons operated the general store and Post Office there for several years before my father decided to build on his own place. The store and Post Office, with government approval, were moved to the PEACOCK farm, one half mile north. This location served unti the West Sebewa Post Office was discontinued with the coming of Rural Free Delivery about 1903. I must add a little of interest concerning the mail route before 1903.

Mail was transported from Woodbury to Ionia by Mail Coach operated by Bill Martin and wife, Em. They also carried passengers from the Woodbury station to the depot in Ionia. The passengers were mostly agents and businessmen who saved time with the shortcut instead of going the long way around by rail. The coach was usually drawn by two horses, but in the spring, when roads were bad, four horses were sometimes used. They were always urged to go faster, so that passengers wouldn’t miss the train.

On the Mail Coach route there were three Post Offices – Rosina, West Sebewa and Tremaynes’ Corners. We had two deliveries a day at about 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM. The West Sebewa Post Office was government approved, with boxes numbered and private to those who rented them. When Rural Free Delivery was established, the first Rural Route was from Lake Odessa, but it was later changed to come from Portland.

As time passed the older members of the Presbyterian Church passed away or removed from the neighborhood and the church building came into disuse. The Disciples of Christ began using the building for their meetings. Previously they had met at the schoolhouse (in Snyder’s Corners days) and later at private homes. The home of Rev. and Mrs. Meadows was used mostly. Mrs. Meadows met a tragic and untimely death when their house burned at night and she went upstairs to save other members of the family. The Disciples then started meetings at the Presbyterian building, conducted by Evangelist J. W. HUMPHREY. While testifying to the uncertainty of life, he was stricken with a heart attack and died before medical aid could be summoned. The Disciple Church then leased the old blacksmith shop, which had been unused for some time, and remodeled with new floors, siding and windows. Later a church was built in 1902 on a lot donated by my father, B. C. PEACOCK, adjoining his Post Office and General Store, half a mile north. When the Post Office was taken up in 1903, the store was soon discontinued, but the Disciples of Christ Church continues.

OUT INTO THE WORLD FROM WEST SEBEWA as told on tape by T. Leander PEACOCK in 1979:

I was born near West Sebewa June 3, 1894. My parents were Eunice LINDLEY and Sam PEACOCK, son of John PEACOCK, who lived in the log house on M-66 just north of Clarsville Road on the Odessa side. (Samuel Leander lived on the east side where a small red barn still sits behind a big oak tree.)

I went to school at West Sebewa and that was the extent of my education through the eighth grade in my sixteenth year. We took the eighth grade examination at Lake Odessa in the old High School building. I remember Alta JOHNSON as one of my teachers and also one of the CARPENTER girls.

At home I worked on the farm some. When my brother got a little bigger, I began to work out in the summers for two or three years. I worked in the West Sebewa store one summer when W. R. WELLS owned the store. His son was operating the store and he wanted to be gone for the summer, so I took his place in the same building where Mrs. PATTERSON now operates her store. We bought eggs and cream from the farmers. The truck came over from Woodbury once a week and picked up the cream and eggs and took them to Woodbury to ship them out. We tested the cream and paid for the amount of butterfat. We had a BABCOCK centrifugal tester turned with a crank. We also bought butter. We did not buy poultry. A truck came through the neighborhood for that. We sold drygoods, overalls, groceries and things of that kind. We did not have the Post Office.

About that time the Presbyterian Church just south of the store stopped holding meetings. The membership got so low that they quit and went to other places to go to church. The CREIGHTONS, GOODEMOOTS, THORPS and others as well as myself used to go to that empty church to play cards and fool around as young men do. The store was about shot, so we met there only in good weather.

I painted houses some in early summer, but later I went to work threshing and working in the sawmill. I worked eight winters in the sawmill and eight falls with the thresher gang. I tended the separator and looked after the blower so that whoever was stacking straw could get the straw where he wanted it. By that time we had begun threshing out of the field, though some were still stacking the grain before we threshed it. I worked for Jimmy CREIGHTON one year and the rest of the time for his son, Sam CREIGHTON. Jimmy was a good manager. He had threshed for a good many years before that. I think that my father was with his crew for one or two falls.

Sam CREIGHTEN had a bean puller besides the thresher. Lots of times we slept right in the barns where we were threshing, because we were quite a ways from home. Sam had seven or eight men in the crew. There was quite a bit of transient help in the crew. The pay was 50 or 60 cents a day. This was in the period of 1910-1918. The CREIGHTONS used a steam engine. When I was a kid we could hear the steam whistle blow and we would run out by the road and watch the outfit coming and kept on watching until it got out of sight.

I went in the first call of the first draft in World War I. At Fort Custer at Battle Creek they put me in the Infantry. They were just starting to build the camp then. I was the fourth man in the first squad. The Corporal had been in there about three weeks and they made him a Sergeant. They needed to replace him with someone, so I became the Corporal and had the first squad in the outfit. I got a chance to volunteer with an outfit that was going across the pond. I thought the war was going to end before I would get out of there. When we got down to New York State, half of our men were in one barracks and half were in another small barracks. The other barracks became quarantined for measles, so they sent my half right on across. Over there we were helping to build a camp at St. Lazare in France.

There they asked for volunteers to join an outfit to go with the French Army to drive French ammunition trucks. In six days after I landed in France, I was on my way to the front on the ammunition train. Once I got on the front I made up my mind that the war was not soon going to be over and I wondered if it ever was going to be over.

We worked the ammunition run at night without lights. Even so, we lost a few men to German bombers that could find us. If a truck would backfire, the bombers that were flying over the roads could spot us. Once we went down the river about 20 miles to where a bridge was left. We had just gotten across the bridge and down the road 15 or 20 rods when I heard a big boom behind us. All I could see was mud and water flying. A time bomb was set under the bridge and it blew up just after we got across.

Another time I was sent out with four trucks and had to cross a pontoon bridge across a small river. The French Military Police said I could send one truck across, and if it was safe I could send another across. I told the first guy that when he got on the third pontoon he should have the next fellow start unless I told them to stop. The bridge was just about dipping water, but we got all our trucks across and the military police were jumping up and down to stop us. They reported us for endangering the bridge and made us go way down river the next time. I learned to understand French words for numbers and directions and got along fairly well that way. Our trucks carried directions and got along fairly well that way. Our trucks carried around four or five tons of ammunition. The tires were solid rubber.

Once we had to take a load in the daytime. We stopped about two miles from the guns. Then we sent one truck up front and when it returned we would send another. It had started to rain a little bit while we were waiting. The last truck was on grass that had become wet so there was not much traction. Two other guys and I pushed on the back of the truck to get it going. A shell exploded back of us. I said “Golly, that was close enough that time”. When I looked around I saw one of the fellows standing there holding his hand. I said “what’s the matter?” He had had his hand on the tailgate pushing and a piece of shrapnel had cut off two of his fingers.

I spent from spring until Armistice Day on the ammunition detail. Part of that time I was chauffeur for French officers. I drove both an English-made Model T Ford and a French Renault. That was the best job I had in the army. I had two leaves of two weeks while I was in France and visited mountain resorts in Southern France.

My father died while I was on the front and I did not know about his death until six weeks afterward. Once in a while the mail would catch up to us, but it was a long while between times. We came home on a German ship that had been confiscated. The apparatus that desalinated our drinking water played out and the last two days we had no fresh drinking water. We made tea from the salt water. We were five days in New York and then they sent us down to Camp Custer and then we were sent home the next day. I was paid off $30 and $30 extra and on that I came home to find a job. I think I painted some houses as my first work. We never got any other government help.

I worked for Sam CREIGHTON again for a year and then started farming on my wife’s folks’ place near Lake Odessa and ran a threshing rig of my own for a while. I also did some tile ditching. I worked for Zerfas International Harvester dealership for eleven years, six years in the Lake Odessa Machine Shop, and then thirteen years for the John Deere dealer in Lake Odessa.

Walter is my youngest brother. The two boys between us died. We also had three sisters. My sons are Tom, Harry, and Dick. My daughters were Helen, Betty, Frances, and Catherine. Catherine died in 1969. Shirley (Mrs. John P.) LICH is my granddaughter. She has traced the family back to its Sebewa beginnings. END

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Association,
FEBRUARY 1997, Volume 32, Number 4. (Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI.)
Submitted with written permission of Grayden D. SLOWINS, Editor:


SURNAMES: GUY, PUMFREY, KANTNER, NEUNENFELDT, BOSWORTH, SMITH, SUNTKEN, SHAFFER, YORK, ADDISON, DeHAVEN, BUTLER, BEVER, LILLIE, GIERMAN, HUMPHREY, PEACOCK, DOWNING, HITCHCOCK, LINDLEY

RECENT DEATHS:

MYRON W. (MIKE) GUY, 79, husband of Kathryn PUMFREY GUY, father of Kenneth, brother of Neva KANTNER, Reva NEUNENFELDT, Valeta BOSWORTH, Alma SMITH & Arlene SUNTKEN, son of Jacob & Gertrude SHAFFER GUY. Mike was a farmer and Mitchell-Bentley employee.

VALAIRE YORK ADDISON, 89, widow of Robert, mother of Robert Jr., Cynthia ADDISON & Laurie DeHAVEN, sister of Virginia BUTLER & Bruce YORK, daughter of Ernest G. & Pearl BEVER YORK.

ROBERT C. LILLIE, 89,husband of Pauline GIERMAN LILLIE, brother of Bettie HUMPHREY. He worked at Willow Run Bomber Plant, Johnson Furniture Co., Michigan Trust Co., and private law practice.

MICHIGAN COURTHOUSES by Grayden SLOWINS: (With photo on front page of DICKINSON & MENOMINEE COUNTY COURTHOUSES)

We continue our tour of Upper Peninsula courthouses with a visit to Dickinson County Courthouse, in Iron Mountain, built in 1896. The courthouse and adjoining jail are built of Upper Peninsula red sandstone, and the jail has a turret, castellations, and gunports. Both are trimmed inside with dark-stained hardwoods. No further history was available.

Next we visited Menominee County Courthouse in Menominee. The word Menominee is said to mean “Wild Rice” in the Indian language. And the area at the mouth of the Menominee River was settled by the Native American tribe called the Menominee. While the area was quite densely populated by the Menominee Indian tribe, who were content to fish and hunt, the white settlers who came in developed the water-power of the Menominee River and its tributaries, both on the Wisconsin and Michigan sides. The many sawmills in Marinette, WI, and Menominee, MI, became well-known for their lumber industry. The river was well-stocked with sturgeon and the fish-shipping industry also flourished.

What is now Menominee County was originally established as Bleeker County by an act of the State Legislature on March 15, 1861. Its western boundary was the Menominee River, which separates Wisconsin and Michigan before entering Green Bay. It extended to Delta County on the east and Dickenson and Marquette Counties on the north. When it came time to organize the county into a self-governing unit, the residents of the area objected to having the county called Bleeker. They raised money to send one of their leading citizens, an attorney named Eleazer S. INGALLS, to Lansing to see if the new county could be organized as Menominee. INGALLS was successful in that endeavor and the legislature passed an act in 1863 providing that “The County of Bleeker is hereby organized into the County of Menominee”.

The new organizing act, which changed the name of the county from Bleeker to Menominee, also provided that John QUIMBY Sr., Nicholas GEWEHR, and E. S. INGALLS be appointed to locate the county seat, and it was to be in Township 31 north, Range 27 West. Menominee was selected as the county seat and the Supervisors meeting in Quimby’s Tavern set aside a parcel of land called “Court House Square”. When Supervisors bought two acres of land on Ogden Avenue and sold the court house square back to its original owners.

The first circuit judge to serve this new county had come from Detroit and was Judge Daniel GOODWIN. By an act of the legislature in 1865, a new judicial district was created, composed of the counties of Menominee, Delta, Mackinac, Cheboygan, and Manitou. Judge GOODWIN was elected to a full six-year term to begin January 1, 1876. Until the completion of the new courthouses in 1875, he had held court in Quimby’s Tavern.

The Menoiminee County Courthouse is situated on two acres of land in the center of the City of Menominee. In 1975 it was designated as a Michigan Historical Site. At the Annual Township Elections on April 6, 1874, the citizens elected “To procure plans, specifications, and estimates for a new courthouse and jail in one building for the use of the County of Menominee, the cost of which shall not exceed $30,000”.

And according to the minutes of the meeting of the Board of Supervisors on April 14, 1874, “An advertisement for plans and specifications was inserted in the Menominee Herald and copies were forwarded to different architects”. The plans and specifications drawn by G. P. RANDALL, architect, of Chicago, were selected from among seven others received for consideration………

…….When completed in 1875, it was reported that “Now the county has a courthouse which would be no discredit to any county in the State”. In 1902, a new jail was attached to the south side and a projecting entry was added to the front…….

The Menominee County Board of Commissioners decided to retain the old courthouse, surrounded by 20th century additions, as evidence of the county’s individuality, when it made its decision to remodel in 1980. Care was given to maintain the historical significance of the original 1874 structure, including the cupola on the top of the building, which was restored to the original design.

The Delta County Courthouse and Jail in Escanaba, built in 1882, were not nearly so fortunate. They were replaced by a flat-roofed building with lots of window-walls and pink-glass panels that make it look like a dime-store. A picture is all that remains to tell of the proud Romanesque towered structure that once stood in its place.

Schoolcraft County did a little better in constructing its flat, brown-brick Courthouse in a tastefully modern design similar to the one we saw to the north of Newberry in Luce County. But it looks more like a modern High School than a seat of county government.

A GIFT IN PARTING by Pat SHELLENBARGER:

Editor’s note: This article from the Grand Rapids Press is about the Sexton of BURDELL Township Cemetery near Cadillac. But it speaks for all of us who perform that final act of respect for all who have lived on this earth.

Grave digger Clarence SAMUELSON says: ………began digging graves and pruning the trees more than 20 years ago by helping his cousin, Hartley HOLMQUIST, who was the sexton……..He bent down and rubbed the moss off a headstone: HOLMQUIST, Hartley A. 1906-1981. “Golly”, SAMUELSON said, standing erect, “It don’t seem that long since he died. Yeah, he was my cousin and he was eight days younger than I was….

Traditionally, the deceased is buried facing east toward the rising sun…..a married couple are buried with the husband on the right, wife on the left, same as when you’re married”.

To him, burying someone is like a gift. “It’s the last thing you can do for ‘em…..a lot of these people, I knowed ‘em and now they’re laying out here. Yeah, it gets pretty lonesome without ‘em when youlived with ‘em that long. They all come out here eventually. It don’t make no difference if they’re a pauper or a millionaire. They’re all the same when I get through with ‘em.” He picks up his rake, shovel, and coat and heads for his pickup truck. END

A HISTORY OF SEBEWA CEMETERIES by Grayden SLOWINS:

There are two cemeteries and a single burial site in Sebewa Township at the present time. A third cemetery, called the CARPENTER or REEDER Cemetery, was a private cemetery located in the northeast corner NE ¼ Sec. 32 at the intersection of KIMMEL & TUPPER Lake Roads. It was about one-fourth acre in size. In 1905 this cemetery was taken up and the CARPENTERS were moved to the West Sebewa Cemetery and the REEDERS were moved to East Sebewa Cemetery.

The West Cemetery was started on August 1, 1872, when Thomas LEIK sold Sebewa Township a one-acre plot, 12 ½ rods deep x 13 rods long, just to the west of the lot 15 rods long, at northeast corner NE ¼ Sec. 30, MUSGROVE Hwy. & GODDARD Rd, which he had sold to the Baptist Church two years earlier. The Baptist Church assumed the care of the cemetery in the early days, but from day one the cemetery belonged to the Township. On May 10, 1919, the Township purchased an additional 40 feet (2 rods & 7 feet) on the west end from Frank & Carrie KIMBLE, successors to the Thomas LEIK estate. In 1929, a State law was passed stating that any cemetery which no longer had the funds for proper care must be taken over by the local unit of government. Due to the Depression, the Baptist Church turned the care back to Sebewa Township. On September 22, 1952, Maurice & Vera GIERMAN sold a lot 12 ½ rods deep x 7 rods long to the Township. On August 25, 1986, GIERMANS sold a lot 12 ½ rods deep x 13 rods long to the Township. This makes 12 ½ rods x 35 rods 7 feet or two & three-fourths across.

The cemetery known originally as Sebewa Cemetery and now as East Sebewa Cemetery, was started with 1.234 acre at the center of the north side of NE ¼ Sec. 24 on Bippley Road near KEEFER Hwy., purchased from Jacob HIGH on May 14, 1858. Polly BAKER was the first recorded burial there, on August 29, 1861, however it is believed some of the unmarked and unrecorded graves may have been there as early as 1845. Our earliest marked grave in the Township is that of Jonathan INGALLS, Soldier of The Revolution, born 1762, died 1843, buried along the roadside on KEEFER Hwy., one-fourth mile south of MUSGROVE Hwy. in Sec. 25.

On October 8, 1904, 2 acres were purchased from Jacob COLLINGHAM’S log yard and added to the west end of the East Cemetery, bringing the property line to the center of Sebewa Creek. On January 6, 1972, a driveway along the top of the creek bank at the west end of the cemetery was traded to Clyde & Opal THUMA for a driveway along the south and east sides, plus one acre additional on the east end. This brought the total to 4.159 acres.

Some sextons at one or both cemeteries over the years were:
Harvey GUNN – east
William PETRIE – east
Edwin LEAK – west
Lynn & Alice BAILIFF
Carl & Tena RISCHOW
Orrin & Lavancha AUSTIN
Wellman DARLING
Clyde & Bertha AVERY
Grayden & Ann SLOWINS

CORRECTION: Our last issue – Volume 32 – Number 3, should have read December 1996. We publish six times a year, and there is no NOVEMBER issue.

PEACOCK UPDATES:

Benjamin C. PEACOCK & Catherine DOWNING’S children were:
Thomas L. PEACOCK, MD; Harlan J., Jesse, Cora (WARING), Dora (JOHNSON), Della (REGHIE), Ella (WILSON).

Harlan J. PEACOCK & Alice HITCHCOCK’S children were:
Robert, Homer J., Howard (Ted), Wayne, Elwood (died age 6), Harlan Jr. (died young), Catherine (SMITH), Bertha (CROEL), Ruth (PETERSON), Ivah (GUERNSEY).

Samuel Leander PEACOCK & Eunice LINDLEY’S children were:
Luella (COOK), Thomas Leander, Elwood (Jim), Leona (VanGOE), Albert, LeRoy, Walter. Samuel L. PEACOCK’S death was given wrong in some copies of the last issue. It should be October 15, 1918.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Association,
APRIL 1997, Volume 32, Number 5. Submitted with written permission of Grayden D. SLOWINS, Editor:


SURNAMES: KENYON, YOUNG, McCLELLAND, MEYERS, FRANTZ, CREIGHTON, HASKINS, SCHNABEL, MAYNARD, WOODBURY, KEILEN, DARLING, LIBOLDT, COOK, MORRISON, WHITLOCK, EDDY, HARWOOD, CONKRITE

RECENT DEATHS:

BRAD LeROY KENYON, 23, son of Connie & Lawrence KENYON, son of Hilda & Henry KENYON, son of Nathan, son of Henry.

BRUCE E. YOUNG, 87, widower of Lucille McCLELLAND YOUNG, father of David W. YOUNG of Traverse City, Kathryn MOSIER of Fulton, NY & Carol LANDERS of Cadillac, son of Matilda Christie & Claude D. YOUNG. Born in Leslie, MI, Bruce graduated from Albion College and married Lucille McCLELLAND of Portland. They ran the McCLELLAND General Store until the death of her father, Will C. McCLELLAND. Will had run the store with his father, John A. McCLELLAND. John had a brother who was a silent partner, either Sam or another brother. Sam’s fine Queen Anne Style home stood where the 7-11 store is now at the corner of Brush & Kent Streets. John’s big house remains across Brush Street. When they came to settle Will’s estate, they found that John’s estate had never been settled and they could not get clear title to the business. So they had to sell out the store at auction to settle with the great-uncle’s heirs, who were importers out East. YOUNGS moved back to Albion and Bruce became vice president of the Bank of Albion. These McCLELLANDS are believed to have connections to the J. H. McCLELLAND (1832-1902) & Chase McCLELLAND families buried in East Sebewa Cemetery, but no-one remembers now.

CONGRATULATIONS:
FERN CONKRITE celebrated her 102nd birthday on March 3, 1997. If you missed it, give her a call or a card

MICHIGAN COURTHOUSES by Grayden SLOWINS:

(Front page photos of GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY COURTHOUSE – TRAVERSE CITY – 1898-1900 and ANTRIM COUNTY COURTHOUSE – BELLAIRE – 1904-1905)

We continue our tour of county courthouses in Michigan by leaving our pleasant campsite at P. H. HOEFT State Park and riding into Rogers City, county seat of PRESQUE ISLE County. This courthouse was built about 1896, but has been extensively modernized with two newer wings on the front. The first floor is red brick, the second floor is white clapboard, and the third floor is set into a black mansard roof.

CHEBOYGAN County was organized in 1853 and a wood-frame, two-story, white clapboard courthouse was built in 1869, at a cost of $3000. It is still standing in good repair, although circuit court was last held there in 1899, and it has been used as a fire station, church, and now a community center. There is a beautifully restored opera house nearby which is used as city hall, police station, fire station, and opera house. A new, modern county building was built on the edge of town n 1969. Another courthouse served between 1899 & 1969, and was torn down by Proctor & Gamble to make a parking lot for their factory, now closed.

Petoskey is the county seat of EMMET County and the county building is a modern, very functional, not unattractive, one-story brown brick building similar to many others.

CHARLEVOIX County has a similar building at Charlevoix, except that the style of windows makes it look even more like a modern elementary school, if it were not for the square white granite pillars in front.

The attractive, red-brick, Victorian style, ANTRIM County courthouse at Bellaire is still in good use, although a modern 1978 county building is nearby. First named Meguzee, when set off in 1840, the county was renamed Antrim in 1843. The first pioneers of Antrim County settled along Grand Traverse Bay near Elk Rapids in 1846. Later settlers moved inland, and urged that the county seat be transferred from the bay shore closer to the geographical center of the county. After a close election in 1879, Keno, later renamed Bellaire, became the new county seat. Thus began a bitter controversy which was appealed to the State Supreme Court and lasted for twenty-five years. Although the courthouse square was purchased in 1879, the courthouse was not constructed until 1904-05 after another vote, and cost $30,000.

OTSEGO County, first named Okkuddo County when it was set off in 1840, was renamed Otsego in 1843, after a New York county and lake of that name. It is said to mean “clear water”. Settlement did not begin until the late 1860s, when lumbering was started. Otsego Lake, the first village, was founded in 1872 and became county seat in 1875 when the county was organized. Gaylord was settled in 1874 and named county seat in 1877. Farming and the tourist industry are now the chief businesses. The present courthouse is said to contain some elements of the original building, but is so transformed to the Swiss Chalet style of resort architecture common in Gaylord, that the original is unrecognizable.

MONTMORENCY County was established in 1881, and the modern brown brick, flat-roofed county building at Atlanta is neatly landscaped and maintained.

ALPENA County building in Harrisville is low, flat-roofed and one-story where it opens on the parking-lot level. A lower level opens onto a lawn with big old maple trees, where a former courthouse obviously stood. This new model was built in 1935. Harrisville has a nice State Park for our overnight stay.

OSCODA County courthouse in Mio is a two-story white clapboard building similar to the one in KEWEENAW and the old one at Cheboygan. The rooms are tiny, but everything is there, neat & tidy. The courtroom walls and ceiling are covered with white ornamental metal sheeting. The county was organized in 1881 and the courthouse was built in 1888-89 for $3754, including a woodshed and two outhouses. The outhouses have been replaced by a single unisex toilet off the front lobby. Oscoda County is a sparsely settled region, much of it located in the Huron National Forest. The courthouse, in continuous use since its opening, still accommodates most of the important county offices. One of the oldest buildings in the county, it is also the oldest wooden courthouse remaining in use in the Lower Peninsula.

None of the four villages in Oscoda County, including Mio, are incorporated nor have enough population to have it listed on the map index. One fire hydrant in front of the courthouse is the county’s only public utility (Consumers does provide electricity). A public water system was started in 1890 and discontinued in 1910, using hydraulic rams to pump from Wolf Creek into a reservoir and distribute thru wooden mains. A Kirtland’s Warbler display is in the main square.

The CRAWFORD County building in Grayling sits on a proper hill and has a flat roof with raised center section for the courtroom, and a nice brown trim above the tan bricks.

KALKASKA County buildings in Kalkaska have the statutory administrative officers on the left off a covered walkway, and the courts on the right, with the sheriff’s department/jail behind. This facilitates the movement of prisoners to and from court, without going outdoors. The administrative building, like its sister twenty-five miles north at Bellaire in Antrim County, has a unique floor-plan with the offices in the center and pull-down roller doors over the counters facing the hallways around the outside. Bellaire’s are gratings, these are solid like garage doors. This gives them a concession-stand effect. These buildings, once again, are brown brick with dark brown facia on flat roofs.

GRAND TRAVERSE County was officially organized in 1851. Its first courthouse and jail were built in 1854 for $600 on land donated by the lumbering firm Hannah, Lay & Co. The courthouse, a wooden structure, burned in 1862. The county then used rented quarters until 1900. In 1898 the Supervisors approved plans for the majestic Victorian red brick and red sandstone structure, similar to the one at Bellaire, to be placed on the hilltop site if the original courthouse. Completed in 1900, it cost $35,665. A $1.7 million renovation project was completed in 1975. If a person stands directly in front of the Civil War statue and canon, they can admire the courthouse without seeing the pale annex behind.

Slipping north to the LEELANAU County building at the resort town of Leland, we find another elementary school with a couple of pillars, built in 1966. Out behind is the most intriguing old, red-brick two-cell jail, which has been featured in news stories about a famous prisoner held there.

Beulah, in BENZIE County, has the longest, lowest, flattest, county building we have ever seen yet. It doesn’t really look like a courts building, but then it doesn’t look like much of anything else except a Japanese Widget factory.

Manistee, located near the Lake Michigan shore in the very southwest corner of MANISTEE County, has the county building. Altho flat like the other modern ones, it is three stories high, with square white pillars in front of the brown bricks, which gives some dignity. Manistee also has an enormous Victorian style Congregational Church, a restored opera house, called Ramsdell Theatre, and numerous lumber baron homes, which invite a return visit for their Homes Tour in May.

WEXFORD County courthouse in Cadillac was built in 1911. It is not Victorian, but is three stories high, brick and stone, with pillars, and is quite impressive on the highest hill in town. Perhaps Greek Revival best describes the style.

MISSAUKEE County building in Lake City resembles the typical small-town AT & T telephone building. There are no windows on the front, a few narrow windows on the sides, two floors, flat roof, and the whole thing is not over sixty feet square. Missaukee is another sparsely settled county, not much over 10,000, and depends on Wexford County for some government services. The main business seems to be resort property around Lake Missaukee, and for a town of less than 1000 people, they have a great municipal campground. We enjoyed walking on the beach & boardwalk before dark and strolling among the RVs and campfires after dark.

ROSCOMMON County building, located in Roscommon, has a high-quality stone front on a building which otherwise resembles all the other modern flat ones.

OGENAW County building in West Branch is light brown brick, flat roof, similar to the others, but two-story.

IOSCO County building, located on Lake Huron beach-front in Tawas City, is modern gray sandstone and quite attractive.

SEBEWA TOWNSHIP ROADS by Grayden SLOWINS:

In March 1838, Fred A. CHAPMAN (Sr.), Road Commission Chairman, R. G. PALMER, Commissioner; Chester M. DIVINE, Commissioner; Allan M. WILLIAMS, Superintendent; & Wm. C. HOLTZ, Clerk, wrote the following letter to Harry A. MEYERS, Sebewa Township Clerk:

Dear Sir: Each succeeding year brings new and heavier demands upon your Road Commission for service on roads which recently were taken over from the Townships. We are extremely conscious of the fact that all these demands have not been met, and it is to us plainly evident that they can’t be met with the limited funds at our disposal……there is no road tax in Ionia County…..This predicament leaves your Road Commission with only one option: To curtail the service in accordance with the revenue……The breakup period, when the frost is leaving, would require all of the yearly appropriation………I trust that I have made clear the handicap we are under…..Fred A. Chapman, Chairman, Ionia County Road Commission.

In April 1950, John LICH Sr. loaded a group of his neighbors on a farm wagon behind his John Deere and brought them to the Sebewa Township Annual Meeting, because the roads were impassible with mud & slush. He made a motion to hire gravel hauled & spread on all roads in the Township at the rate of 100 cu. Yards per mile, $1 per yard, for a period of four years. This amounted to about $5,500 per year. Howard Cross supported this motion and it passed with all yea vote.

A motion was then made by Ernest J. FRANTZ, supported by Peter CREIGHTON, to ask the county Allocation Board for one mill for this road repair. Motion carried. The allocation request was turned down, so it was covered from the general fun until such time as a millage could be voted. We have used millage on the roads, usually the regular allocated millage as well as special voted road millage, in all but three of the last forty-seven years. In 1997 Sebewa Township has budgeted $55,000 for gravel, brine & tubes.

HASKINS-MEYERS REUNION AND MONUMENT:

John WAITE has been researching his ancestors in the Lakewood area and elsewhere since he was very young. He recently located a branch of the family that has been lost for generations. Waite has been publishing a HASKINS family newsletter for some time and organized a special sesquicentennial reunion for July 4-7, 1996.

The HASKINS family migrated to Michigan from Ohio in 1845, and America HASKINS and his wife settled near the line between what are now Woodland and Odessa Townships. In 1850 John and Cathreen MEYERS settled near HASKINS. Several of the children from the two families later married. So both HASKINS and MEYERS were well represented in the bloodlines at the reunion. During the lifetime of these two first families, a church with a cemetery and a school were established on MEYERS land, called the MEYERS Church & MEYERS School. The church was dismantled a little more than one hundred years ago, and at that time some of the members helped establish the congregation now called Woodbury United Brethren Church.

On July 7 a bronze plaque was set in place in the MEYERS Cemetery to mark the place where the MEYERS Church stood. The foundation of the church can still be seen in a few places. This was the first United Brethren Church in the Michigan Conference, although not the first in Michigan. When M-50 was changed many years ago, cutting off the triangle that contains the cemetery, some graves were moved to Lakeside Cemetery, including those of the original HASKINS. During the reunion a marker was placed on the grave of America HASKINS. If there was an original marker, it had been lost in the move. END

BONANZA BUGLE provided the above story and also listed other family histories in the Lake Odessa Community Library. One not listed was our SCHNABEL FAMILY HISTORY. It contains many Ionia County & Lake Odessa area families descended from the SCHNABELS: SLOWINSKI, STEINBERG, BENHAGEL, BIEHLER, LEHMAN, MAJINSKA, O’MARA, ELDRIDGE, FARRELL, SARLOUIS, RENUCCI, KRIEGER, KRYWANSKI, etc. Price is $26.50 leather bound. $30.00 if mailed. Also in Ionia & Portland Libraries.

MAYNARD-WOODBURY HOUSE OF PORTLAND by Nan SIMONS

A century ago to this very date, THE PORTLAND OBSERVER (great-grandmother of the Portland R. & O.) heralded the opening of an impressive local residence on Bridge Street – the home of C. H. MAYNARD. This article offers insights on the extensive preservation project undertaken by current owners Brian DEVLIN and his wife, Kay KAMINGA. Brian is a State of Michigan Assistant Attorney General and Kay is a registered nurse, working with the burn unit at Sparrow Hospital. To celebrate the house’s 100th year, this story highlights remarks drawn directly from our original feature published January 13, 1897. My thanks to Brian and Kay for sharing their home and its unique history with readers. Theirs is truly a labor of love – a reflection of the quiet grace and subtle elegance of Portland’s past.

Long-time residents Charles H. MAYNARD and his wife, Frances, were sharing a small home with their only daughter, Helen, and her husband, Jason WOODBURY, when they decided to build a new house in Portland. This small house had been added to as occasion demanded until it covered considerable ground, but was never pretentious, and no stranger would ever suspect that one of the wealthiest men in the village occupied it. This prominent local banker wanted something suitable for entertaining and efficient housekeeping; something of modernity with electric lighting, central steam heating, arching coved plaster halls, and a full compliment of laundry gadgets housed in a finished cellar.

The structure has an imposing appearance and gives one an idea of solidity from the foundation up. It is symmetrical in proportion and all together is one of the handsomest residences in Ionia County; and when the lawn, which has been carefully graded, has grown its coat of green, it will be the handsomest place in the county.

On the right of the front entry hall is the parlor, finished in curly birch, a very handsome wood, rather more dark than light in color. Connecting to this is the sitting room, finished in the same wood. In the sitting room on the further side from the parlor, is a handsome mantel of curly birch; the fireplace is fitted with an Aldine grate of the latest make and handsome design, the whole making a very attractive piece of furniture.

The house features several distinctive woods in its 13 rooms. The front hall boasts quarter-sawed oak and a four-foot-wide stairway of white oak. The kitchen is finished in black ash. The second-story den is accented with sycamore and the bedrooms and hallway are finished in white pine. The attic ballroom completes the picture with pine, its floor bearing witness to scores of ladies who kicked up their heels at banquets and dances. It’s essentially a three-bedroom home, despite its size. It does have two small servants’ rooms off the back stairs to the kitchen, which were used as children’s bedrooms by subsequent families who owned the house.

Previous owners applied seven or eight layers of wallpaper, but left the woodwork and cupboards unpainted, maintained the structural needs, and kept the majority of the original lighting fixtures. There were never gas light fixtures, and although the Spence steam heater has long ago been replaced by a new boiler, the original 1897 radiators still take the chill off every room. The kitchen was furnished with all the modern appliances for doing work handily and expeditiously. First to be mentioned is the steel range of modern make, with warming oven, and in which can be burned either wood or coal. In the slate sink on the south side of the room are faucets for hot and cold soft water, plus city water. The basement laundry room is a peach. It is fitted with everything that makes washing a pleasure, including a set of three Wolf’s slate laundry tubs, faucets for hot and cold soft water, chutes thru which soiled linens are carried from the upper floors. There are speaking tubes and antique tub fixtures.

The building material is red pressed brick with Portage Lake stone trimmings – water table and door and window caps and sills. The roof, which is of antique design, is covered with blue slating, while the gables, in each of which are dormer windows, are red slated. The style is Queen Anne Free Classic. It doesn’t have a lot of elaborate details that decorate other houses of its era, and only cost $15,000 as compared to the $20,000 rival banker, John A. WEBBER, spent on his home. But that slate roof has lasted for 100 years! END

EDITOR’S NOTE: There is an important part of the history of the MAYNARD-WOODBURY house which has not been included in the Portland Review. Helen WOODBURY was not alone those last 26 years of her life. Barbara KEILEN was a farm girl who grew up a neighbor to the C. H. MAYNARD family farm on GOODWIN Road in Portland Township. Barbara came to live with the MAYNARD right after completing school – probably the eighth grade. She was a companion and hand-maiden for Helen as they were growing up. When Helen married, Barbara went along as housekeeper, cook, etc. When Helen was widowed, Barbara’s role as companion increased and Helen was definitely not alone those last 26 years of her life. Barbara received the house and bank stock when Helen died and lived there probably another 15-20 years. I am certain that her heirs are responsible for the flowers on the graves of the MAYNARD-WOODBURY family.

UPDATE ON DARLING WEDDING LICENSE:
In the October issue we offered a wedding license for William R. DARLING and Mary LIBOLDT, from their wedding performed by Pierce G. COOK, Justice of the Peace, after the Civil War. It was provided by Harold COOK of Hillsboro, OR, great-grandson of Pierce G. COOK. It was claimed by Merrilee MORRISON COTTER, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Earl MORRISON of Ionia, and granddaughter of Gertrude Rose DARLING, daughter of Benjamin Franklin DARLING, son of Mary Clarissa HOLLY & Theo RICE DARLING, who settled where Harold WHITLOCK’S live now in 1844. He died in 1883, she died in 1884, and they are buried in Union Burial Ground on KEEFER Hwy. near Peck Lake Road.

Other children of Theo & Mary were Ephraim, Orlando, Myron, Ira & Charles DARLING, and Maria DARLIN MARTIN. William R. DARLING was son of Elisa ROCKWELL & Ira DARLING. With Merrilee’s help we hope to tie the DARLINGS of Sebewa, Portland, Lake Odessa, and Ionia all together. Also ties to EDDYS & HARWOODS.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Association,
JUNE 1997, Volume 32, Number 6. Submitted with written permission of Grayden D. SLOWINS, Editor:


SURNAMES: SMIHT, CARR, HUXTABLE, TRAVIS. PIERCE, KNOX, BIPPLEY, HIGH, BALDWIN, CARPENTER, HALLADAY, JOHNSON, BISHOP, SLOWINS, NASH, HAZEL, RALSTON, BRANCH, PARKS, CRAPO, SPITLER, OLRY, TOWNER, PATRICK, WEKENMAN

RECENT DEATH:
JACK S. SMITH, husband of Dorothy, father of Jacqueline CARR, Raymond & Phillip SMITH, brother of Robert E. SMITH & Mary Jane HUXTABLE. He was a farmer, elevator employee, agriculture teacher, Sunfield Township Treasurer, then Supervisor.

SCHOOLHOUSES IN SEBEWA TOWNSHIP by Grayden SLOWINS:

School districts were originally designed to be the lowest units of government in Michigan and the Northwest Territory. A congressional township was 36 square miles and could be evenly divided into 9 statutory school districts of 4 square miles each. Thus no child would have to walk more than two miles to school. This did not always work out, due to irregularities of geography or other reasons.

Sebewa was never quite that way from the start, due to patterns of settlement and the government land which needed to be drained before it could be farmed. In 1875, ten school districts were located all or part in Sebewa Township. Some were more than 4 square miles, and the fractional districts shared from another township were less. BIPPLEY was a fractional district lapping over from Odessa on the west. KNOX was located in Portland Township, with fractions in Orange, Danby & Sebewa. PIERCE was fractional lapping over from Orange just west of KNOX. Actually HIGH & HALLADAY were fractional too, lapping out of Sebewa into Danby.

Reading left to right and top to bottom on the attached map, the ten school districts were: West Sebewa, TRAVIS, PIERCE, KNOX or BIPPLEY, Sebewa Center, Sebewa HIGH, BALDWIN, CARPENTER, HALLADAY.

By 1891, BIPPLEY school district no longer came into Sebewa from Odessa, and BALDWIN & CARPENTER districts had disappeared. They were replaced by JOHNSON, GODDARD & BISHOP, so there were still ten school districts in Sebewa Township.

The fate of these buildings is as follows:
West Sebewa – a home
TRAVIS – falling down
PIERCE – fell down
KNOX – was a home, later burned
BIPPLEY – was a home, now gone
Sebewa Center – community center
Sebewa HIGH – a home
BALDWIN – gone
CARPENTER – was a granary, now gone
HALLADAY – a home
JOHNSON – a home
GODDARD – a home
BISHOP – was a corncrib, now gone.

In 1997, about one-third of the township is in Portland School District and two-thirds in Lakewood School District.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE YOUNG SHEPHERD by Grayden SLOWINS:

A good time to start the shepherd’s year is September 1st. All Spring lambs should be weaned by or before this date, sheared, and placed in the feedlot to finish for market or later breeding selection. All mature ewes should be dried off on dry pasture or hay for a couple weeks, then advanced to better pasture, with grain added the last three weeks before breeding and first two weeks during breeding. One-half pound per head per day of a corn & oats mixture is sufficient for this period of stimulation, which is called “flushing”. Grain the rams too……

The market lambs are started off in the feedlot with medium quality alfalfa hay & plenty of fresh water…..

Rams should be placed with groups of about 30-40 ewes at breeding time. November 7 is the breeding date to get new lambs April 1…….

Be ready for that first lamb the last few days of March……

Let the new family eat, drink, rest, dry, and get acquainted, before you attempt any assistance with suckling……

Put in ear tags before turning out of the maternity pen…..

When all have lambed, the flock can be turned into the yard, and when the pasture is several inches high, usually the second week in May, they will be ready to go……

Our ancestors in Switzerland and the shepherds in New Zealand today do not feed wheat, because they are not in grain-growing areas. They pasture sheep in the mountains in summer and bring them to the valleys in winter. This style of sheep-raising also produces good lambs, but on grass alone.

This set of instructions is prompted by the fact that after 65 years of Shepherding, arthritis and degenerative joint disease and rapid muscle deterioration are forcing our retirement. We have simply worn the old body out handling all those bales of hay all these years. We have also given up the care of the Sebewa Township Cemeteries, but will continue as Township Clerk & Editor of The RECOLLECTOR. Hopefully the proper medications in the properly regulated dosage, plus physical therapy, and minus the activities which aggravate the condition, will allow us some relief.

We were ordered to quit in April, during lambing, when the excruciating pain & swelling caused almost total shut-down of body movement. But we persevered and will send the ewes to a good home in September, with a young family we trained as shepherds, where we can visit them.

We close with a story about our good friend and mentor, the late Edwin NASH. One day a woman from a public health organization came to the Board of Commissioners and urged them to fund a new program to educate the public about better health maintenance. She told of a farmer who came to the Emergency Room with parts of three fingers cut off in a corn head. The doctors sewed and bandaged him and sent him home that same afternoon. A few hours later the nurse purposely passed his farm on her way home from work, to see how he was doing. To her horror, he was back in the cab of the combine. She jumped out and reprimanded him: “You could get infection in that hand from all the dust, and besides you are still in shock from the trauma and could have another accident! Let somebody else do it.”

He replied “Lady, there are 100 cows in that barn and if I don’t pick it, they don’t get to eat it. And it’s up to me, there ain’t nobody else”.

The public nurse said “Doesn’t that show these farmers need educating about taking care of themselves?”

In his quiet, dry way, Ed NASH said “He__ no, it just shows the public needs educating about what it means to be a farmer!”

HAZEL BROS. FARM DRAINAGE: Founded in May, 1885, by George HAZEL, who dug a ditch around the Village of Bonanza. In May, 1996, his great-great-granddaughter joined the crew. We predicted then that she would soon be driving that big Laser-guided STEIGER tile plow. This spring she has been seen doing just that. Good for her! You go girl!

CHARLES M. RALSTON - From HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY by Rev. Elem E. BRANCH 1916:

CHARLES M. RALSTON, a well-known and progressive farmer of Sebewa Township, Ionia County, and one of the directors of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Ionia County, is a native of Ohio, but has lived in this county since he was a babe in arms and may almost lay claim, therefore, to life-long residence in his county.

He was born on a farm in Seneca County, Ohio, February 25, 1867, son of Andrew M. and Catherine SPITLER RALSTON, who later became well-known residents of this county.

Andrew M. RALSTON was born April 3, 1830, in Brook County, Virginia, the fourth in a family of ten children, having two brothers and seven sisters, and moved to Holmes Country, Ohio, then Seneca County, when a boy with his parents, Daniel and Elizabeth PARKS RALSTON. He grew up in Seneca County, then they moved to Wyandotte County, where Daniel RALSTON died in 1867. His widow is still living there in 1916. Andrew RALSTON, at the age of twenty-one, began cutting wood on contract, and for two years worked also at the carpenter’s trade. In the spring of 1854 he came to Michigan and married Ann M. CRAPO, niece of former Governor CRAPO, and settled in Sebewa Township, this county, after marriage. To that union two children were born, of whom one is now living, Gideon D. RALSTON, of Six Lakes, and Florence A. Upon the death of his first wife, Andrew M. RALSTON returned to his old home in Seneca County, Ohio, and there he married Catherine SPITLER. He and his wife remained in Seneca County for about four years after their marriage and then came to Michigan. Mr. RALSTON resumed his farming operations in Sebewa Township, this county. When he purchased this place, it had about twelve acres cleared, and a small log cabin. He became one of the most substantial farmers in that neighborhood and served the public for some time in the capacity of Supervisor and then Treasurer of the Township.

They were members of the Presbyterian Church in Sebewa. Andrew M. RALSTON died on January 21, 1897, and his widow survived a little more than fifteen years, her death occurring on February 28, 1912. They were the parents of three children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the eldest, the others being Joseph G., a well-known farmer of Sebewa Township, and Walter E., of Cement City, this state.

Charles M. RALSTON was but one year old when his parents established their home in this county and he grew up on the home farm in Sebewa Township, receiving his education in the schools in that neighborhood. He was carefully trained as a farmer and has followed that vocation all his life, now farming one hundred and seventy-five acres.

On June 20, 1894, Charles M. RALSTON was united in marriage to Harriet OLRY, who was born on a farm adjoining the RALSTON place, March 9, 1873, daughter of John C. and Lora KELLY OLRY, and who received her education in the schools of Portland, graduating from the high school in that place. After his marriage, Mr. RALSTON established his home on the farm where he now lives and ever since has made his home there. His wife died on June 25, 1914.

Mr. RALSTON is a Republican and has for years taken an active part in local political affairs, having served as delegate to county and state conventions of his party. He for years has taken a prominent part in the Grange and is past master of the Grange at Sebewa and of the county Grange. He is a progressive and enterprising citizen and is one of the directors of the Farmers Mutual Insurance Company, Incorporated, the officers of which concern are as follows: President, Frederick PITT; Vice-President, George JORDAN; Secretary, J. L. FOWLER; and directors, William H. MADISON, Peter KOHN, Albert DELZELL, Charles M. RALSTON, and Nathan GOULD.

Mrs. RALSTON was a member of the Grange, and for ten years was lecturer of the county Grange. She was highly esteemed and her death was mourned by all who knew her. Her remains were interred in Lakeside Cemetery, Lake Odessa.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Harriet OLRY RALSTON grew up on the farm where we have lived for the past forty years. Charles M. RALSTON grew up on the farm across the road, long owned by Bert & Lilah TOWNER and recently purchased by Ron & Vivian PATRICK. After their marriage, Charles & Harriet (Hattie) RALSTON lived on the next farm west, later owned by niece Ruby & Bill WEKENMAN. When Harriet became an invalid, they moved here with her parents, Glen & Fern OLRY.

GOING TO THE MICHIGAN TERRITORY:

This story was told to my mother by the wife of an old couple who ran the Ben Franklin store in Portland back in the late 30s-early 40s. The story is about that woman’s mother, who had been born in an eastern state. One mid-night when she was about eight years old, she and her six-year-old sister were awakened by their father and told to each put all their personal belongings in a pillow case, bring a blanket, and get into the buggy tied out front. “Mother has left us and we are going to Michigan Territory. We will never speak of her again.”

Many years later a traveler came thru from her childhood hometown. When she told her story the traveler said “Your mother didn’t abandon you that night; she died in childbirth!”