THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association, Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI.
AUGUST 2000, Volume 36, Number 1. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: Shay, McWhorter, Bark, Thompson, Dow

FRONT PAGE PHOTO: SHAYTOWN STORE Built 1884, Picture taken 1886. Inside page photos: SHAYTOWN STORE in 1941 (with the L.C. LEMMON house in background), 1941 (with a couple, Max and a woman sitting on it’s front steps); 1971, 1981 thru 2000; photo of Max McWhorter, 1991.

SHAYTOWN STORE by Grayden SLOWINS:

Ephraim SHAY was Clerk of Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan, in 1867 & 1868. He got his training for the Clerk’s job by being an Armey Clerk of Medical Supply in an Infantry Regiment under General William TECUMSEH SHERMAN at Chickasaw Springs & Vicksburg Springs, Mississippi, Etc., during the Civil War. According to the 1867 plat map, he owned 40 acres in Sec. 16 & 80 acres in Sec. 21 Sebewa, later known as the Lancey MEYERS farm. By January 26, 1870, when his son Lette was born, he had sold this farm and moved to a portion of the 160 acres at the SW ¼ Sec. 25 Sunfield Township, Eaton County, owned by Aaron & Julia BARK, whose daughter Libbie married Burt McWhorter and became grandparents of Max McWHORTER, Jr., born 1919. Ephraim received a deed on July 22, 1871, to at least eight acres of the NW ¼ of the NW ¼ of that SW ¼ at the intersection of today’s SHAYTOWN Road and Clinton Trail – M-50, as shown on the 1873 plat map of Sunfield Township.

Ephraim is thought to have had a small stock of general merchandise and a post office in his farm home beside his steam sawmill. But SHAYTOWN Post Office was not officially established until 1880 and our cover photo of the store is labeled “Built in 1884”. He had sold most of the eight acres with the sawmill to his brother-in-law, James M. HENDERSON, in 1875, and the last house lot was deeded to someone in 1886. Ephraim (SHAY) had already moved on with his store and a sawmill to HARING Township, Wexford County, just north of Cadillac, and the position of Wexford County Treasurer. On September 19, 1876, he ordered mill parts from Lima Machine Works in Ohio from the Haring address.

By 1877 he had built the first prototype of his SHAY Patent Locomotive, with bevel gear & pinion wheels and a flexible drive shaft along the side, by using a flatcar built on two ordinary trucks of four wheels each, a small portable upright boiler with two vertical one-cylinder engines, and a barrel for water on one end of the car and a box of firewood on the other end.

Those who followed Ephraim SHAY in the SHAYTOWN Store were:
Albert JENNINGS, Perry J. (Ped) WELCH (grandfather of ‘young P.J.’), William R. WELLS, Glenn TURNER, and A. G. MOORE. In 1874 Ezra POOLE was a blacksmith in SHAYTOWN, John & Thomas WATSON were sawyers in the mill. Dr. Charles N. SNYDER (no connection to Sebewa’s Dr. George SNYDER) was also living there in 1874, and took a bride, Miss Maggie COLLIER, in 1887. Their house was across from the store on the east corner, and the small house south of that was the Elmer & Libbie SHAFFER residence.

The L. G. LEMMON home was on the west side, north of the store. Photos show the SHAYTOWN Oddfellows Hall #256 located above store. A. G. MOORE advertised “Best Quality Groceries at the Right Prices” in the 1916 edition of the Farm Journal Directory. First Postmaster at SHAYTOWN was A. C. JARVIS, followed by Perry J. (Ped) WELCH. Max McWHORTER has an envelope from Lynette FREEMIRE to Libbie McWHORTER, address SHAYTOWN, and a reply envelope post-marked at SHAYTOWN in August 1900.

SHAYTOWN School was a half mile south of the store on the southwest corner of Bismark Hwy. & SHAYTOWN Rd., with many alumni pictured at annual school picnics. Two other sets of Max’s great-grandparents, McWHORTERS & THOMPSONS, settled first in Sebewa.

Max McWHORTER contributed greatly to this issue, with both pictures and remembered stories. He attended Dow School near his family farm, and a number of his relatives, including his mother, attended SHAYTOWN School. The family was active in the SHAYTOWN I. O. O. F. Lodge (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) above the SHAYTOWN Store, and active in the life of that community.

Richard O. McWHORTER came from Ohio to the Sunfield-Roxand Townships area in the late 1840s. In 1850 he married Rachel Ann TUNISON, daughter of William & Susan TUNISON, who arrived in the Dow neighborhood in 1838 to take up land adjacent to their brother-in-law John DOW, who arrived in 1837. In 1851 Richard & Rachel Ann settled in Sebewa Township, Ionia County, in a location now unknown.

They remained there until 1858, when their cabin burned and all possessions were lost. By 1860 they had returned to Sunfield Township and taken possession of what became the family farm along today’s Dow and McWHORTER Roads. Richard was killed in the Civil War on June 18, 1864, at age 36, leaving a widow and daughters Susan & Loease and son Burt, age one and a half years. Rachel Ann, who was born in 1830, died in 1921 at age 91, on some of the same land her parents had taken up 83 years before.

Burt & Libbie BARK McWHORTER had stayed on his mother’s land and added more. Their son, Max McWHORTER, Sr., got the next 80 acres west on McWHORTER Road, which had belonged to the C. M. VanHOUTON family. Max Sr. & Glycie CHATFIELD McWHORTER moved their family into Sunfield Village in 1934.

During the Great Depression they hoped to make a better living running a restaurant. They didn’t feel a need to lock the farmhouse when they left, and when Max Jr. & Joyce moved back 14 years later, not a window pane was broken and no signs of vandalism. Max’s brother Carroll now owns land that belonged to Rachel & Burt.

Because of those years spent in Sunfield Village before World War II, Max was able to write the Main Street pages for the History of Sunfield book published in 1995. Several merchants mentioned in that book came from Sebewa Township and some had previously run stores in Sebewa Corners. Frank N. (Peanut) CORNELL was a pioneer merchant in Sebewa Corners (East Sebewa) who migrated to Sunfield and employed young Griffen WEIPPERT, also from Sebewa and later manager of the Sunfield State Bank, as a clerk.

CORNELL sold general merchandise in the corner building diagonally across from MAPES Furniture Store, and it included everything from groceries to clothing to fence posts & fence. Later F. N. CORNELL worked for the War Department at Camp CUSTER in Battle Creek and then came back to sell World War I Army Surplus in a wooden building where the Post Office now stands. Finally he had a small store in what is now the beauty shop just west of the G. A. R. Hall, and sold what appeared to be the leftovers of both previous businesses.

The DEATSMANS who ran a general store in what is now the Community Rooms were from Musgrove Hwy. in Sebewa. Elmer CREIGHTON, Sunfield’s last blacksmith, was from Sebewa. Elmer was a blacksmith in the Army Air Force in WWII. He was stationed in England and patched the holes in bombers when they came back from runs over Berlin. After burying him in the West Sebewa Cemetery, I imbedded a small anvil & ball-peen hammer in the foundation of his marker.

“SEBEWA TOWNSHIP 1867 map (part). Town 5 North Range 6 West;
from the tax assessment roll, Isaac BRETZ, Supervisor.

Joshua & Sam GUNN bought from Ben PROBASCO, Sr., then Sam GUNN sold out to his brother Joshua (father of Fred, father of Alton) and bought Ephraim SHAY farm. Ephraim SHAY thereafter followed saw mills. Ben PROBASCO moved around corner as shown.”

SUNFIELD TOWNSHIP 1883 (part).

REPORT OF ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SEBEWA CENTER ASSOCIATION: Bruce GATHAM from Harbor Springs gave an excellent slide presentation on the life of Ephraim SHAY. It was like a Grand Finale however, because only 17 people came, 11 for the meal and 6 more for the program, and NO officers! Four of the five officers have said over the last couple years that they do not wish to continue. Only Sharon HUNT KYSER, Secretary/Treasurer, has not declined, but all remain in office until replaced or we quit. The group requested that the Sebewa Township Board find a way to cover the liability problem and continue to use the building as a voting precinct. This has been done with the aid of Cathy HOORT, Attorney, and Greg DZIEWICKI, insurance agent. The building and grounds have been leased to Sebewa Township for a period of five years at the rate of $1 per year, plus electricity, furnace oil, lawn mowing, and Bodily Injury & Property Damage Insurance. Repairs to building, pump, well, furnace or premises will be the responsibility of the Sebewa Center Association.

Those present also voted to cease collecting dues as of July 1, 2000. We will continue to edit & publish the RECOLLECTOR for a while longer, and if you were in good standing on July 1, you will continue to receive it until the Treasury runs out or the Editor does. For reasons of age, health & plain lack of energy, we will not continue the rigid schedule of six issues per year, but probably four or five, writing about our travels, local history & genealogy.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association, Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI.
OCTOBER 2000, Volume 36, Number 2. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: Friend, Colley, Halladay, Carpenter, Meacham, Sears, Lincoln, Slater, Heintzelman, Dodge, Bishop, Lapo, York, Reeder, Eastman, Ingall, Stambaugh, Greenman, Weller, Cross, Kenyon, Esterline, Rogers, Haller, Peacock, Lepard, McWhorter, Olry

RECENT DEATHS:

LAWRENCE FRIEND, 101, widower of Gertrude COLLEY FRIEND, father of June SEILER & Marilyn POWELL, oldest & last surviving brother of the late Evelyn COURSER, Beatrice CURTIS, Lucille TODD, Mildred MERRILL & George FRIEND, son of Lucy HALLADAY & Ralph FRIEND, son of Jane E. CARPENTER & George E. FRIEND, son of Polly Ann MEACHAM & John FRIEND, son of John FRIEND, Sr., who emigrated from England to Beria, Ohio, with his wife and seven children in 1833.

John FRIEND, Jr. came from Ohio to what is now the KNAPP/STANK farm in Sebewa in 1854. Lawrence’s mother, Lucy A. HALLADAY FRIEND, was the daughter of Mildred SEARS & Charles LINCOLN HALLADAY, son of Amanda LINCOLN & Elihu HALLADAY, who also came to Sebewa in the 1850s.

The previous page (of this issue) shows one of many obituaries & memorials for Lawrence FRIEND that were sent to us by Patricia ZANDER, Eugene COURSER & others, and we wrote about him in June 1999, Vol 34 No 6, when a Frenchman came to award him the Legion of Honor, created by Napoleon BONAPARTE in 1802. (See article in this issue, titled VIEWPOINT – cozy corner by Roger Brown.)

OLIVE I. HEINTZELMAN SLATER, 87, widow of Ivan Keith SLATER, mother of Lewis & Duane Slater & Marilyn BURDINE, brother of Robert HEINTZELMAN and two deceased sisters & three deceased brothers, daughter of Grace CARPENTER & Harry HEINTZELMAN, son of Ida F. & William E. HEINTZELMAN, who settled on BIPPLEY Road, west of Sebewa Center, before 1891. She had worked at Chrysler Lyons Trim Plant and Michigan Department of Mental Health. Buried at Clarksville Cemetery.

RAYMOND LAVERNE HEINTZEL, 70, husband of Joanne WILSON HEINTZELMAN, father of Kristine Thomas & Pamela HEINTZELMAN, brother of Marcella GIERMAN, Lucille MEYERS, Betty HASMAN, Edith EDWINS, Alvin & William HEINTZELMAN, and the late Velma HEINTZELMAN, Lillian McCULLUM, Ethel GROVER & Charles HEINTZEMAN, son of Hannah J. HALVORSON & Walter A. HEINTZELMAN, son of Ida F. & William E. HEINTZELMAN, who settled in Sebewa before 1891. Ray was a retired Farm Bureau Insurance agent. Buried in Eden Township, Custer, MI.

OPAL M. DODGE, 94, widow of Dean DODGE, mother of Charles DODGE & the late Delore McWHORTER, sister of the late Veda BLICKENSTAFF, Hildred DAVIS & Clair LAPO, daughter of Nettie BISHOP & Charles LAPO, son of Jacob H. LAPO, who settled at the northeast corner of MUSGROVE Highway & GODDARD Road in Sebewa before 1875. Opal was a Kindergarten teacher in Lake Odessa for many years, buried in Lakeside Cemetery.

GEORGE YORK, 81, widower of Dorothy, father of Donna KEEFER, Sally BREINING & Denise INGRAHAM, son of Olive REEDER & Ernest YORK, son of Christina & Stephen YORK, son of Josiah YORK, son of Zachariah YORK. Retired farmer & TRW employee, buried in West Sebewa Cemetery.

VIVIAN L. EASTMAN, 79, widow of Herman EASTMAN, mother of Joyce, John & the late Arlene EASTMAN, sister of O. Virginia KARRAR MEYERS & the late Arlen STAMBAUGH, daughter of Greta INGALL & John STAMBAUGH, son of John H. STAMBAUGH & Sara Jemina GREENMAN, daughter of Sheldon GREENMAN. Greta was the daughter of D. C. INGALL, son of William INGALL, who settled in Sebewa before 1875, and Vivian’s farm was part of William INGALL’S land. The STAMBAUGH & GREENMAN families were also early settlers in Sebewa, at least by 1891.

JACOB H. WELLER, 80, husband of Kathryn CROSS POSSEHN WELLER, father of Jacob William, Michael Earl, Gerald Mark, Patrick John, Daniel Kevin, Terence Alan & Loren Donald WELLER, Teresa BRENNER, and the late Kay & Fred WELLER, brother of Joseph WELLER and the late Ruth & Gertrude WELLER, son of Phoebe KENYON & Jacob WELLER. He was a tilling machine operator, a farmer in Orange & Danby Townships, and a General Motors Employee. His first wife was Lorene A. ESTERLINE, and they are buried in Portland Cemetery.

Ethelyn G. ROGERS, 94, sister of the late Christine GUILFORD, Dutch ROGERS, and another sister, daughter of Dora KENYON & Harley ROGERS. She was a retired employee of the State of Michigan. Her father was a long-time mail-carrier out of Portland Post Office and he once clerked in John BRADLEY’S store in Sebewa Corners. Her mother was a KENYON from Sebewa, as was Jake WELLER’S mother above. Ethelyn is buried in Portland Cemetery.

KEITH C. HALLER, 79, husband of Helen PEACOCK HALLER, father of Shirley (John P.) LICH, brother of Lola & Royal HALLER, son of Racie LEPARD & Royal HALLER, Sr. He installed floor coverings in the Lake Odessa area, first for Williams’ Department Store and then on his own. In retirement he worked with stained glass. His wife Helen is a daughter of Leander PEACOCK of an old Sebewa family. (See November/December 1996, Vol 32 No 3 and February 1997 Vol 32 No. 4)

VIEWPOINT – LAWRENCE FRIEND - …”cozy corner by Roger Brown; THE LOWELL LEDGER – Wednesday, July 26, 2000, page 5:

……all those of my parents’ generation are getting right up there, but I can’t consider them elderly. To me, elderly is the generation before them, my grandparents. My Grandpa was Lester, not Les. My wife’s grandfather was Laurence, not Larry.

LAURENCE is the one I’m here to write about. We lost the old guy a few days ago. He was 101 years old, just a few weeks away from 102!

Everybody called him Laurence, or Grandpa Laurence. Some called him Mr. FRIEND (his last name was a perfect match for his personality). I referred to him as Grandpa FRIEND. Nobody called him Larry.

The funeral was last Monday. For a man that old, there certainly were a lot of people there. And a lot of tears were shed for a man of his age.

He was a WWI Veteran, a “Doughboy”. When they played “taps” at the graveside, there wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd.

Grandpa FRIEND has been the point of, or at least mentioned in this column several times over the years, I wrote about him when he was honored with a medal commemorating living veterans at the 75th anniversary of WWI.

Again, when the French government bestowed their highest honor, the Legion of Honor, upon all living WWI Veterans who served in France, Grandpa FRIEND was the subject of a piece of this paper. I don’t remember for sure, but I’m guessing I mentioned something in print when Willard Scott acknowledged Grandpa FRIEND’S 101st birthday on the TODAY Show. Those were the highlights, but there were also lesser stones that defined the man.

One story goes back ten or twelve years….way back when he was a young man of ninety. Grandpa Laurence roofed his garage. It wasn’t just a shingle job. I’m talking a new roof! Plywood roofing boards, the works!

He couldn’t get full 4 by 8 foot sheets of plywood up the ladder by himself. So he cut them in half. They say getting old ain’t for sissies. Laurence was no sissy.

Another story I love to tell is of a time grandpa mentioned going on a cattle drive when he was a young sprout. Immediately conjuring a John Wayne vision of Texas or Wyoming, I asked where. He told me he and a bunch of friends drove a hundred head from Sebewa where he grew up, to Greenville. The drive took a week; they camped along the way and had to drive the cattle across the Grand River in Ionia. Far from the wild west in my imagination, the real life 40-mile cattle drive had taken place right here in our back yard.

Today the cattle would be loaded on trucks and delivered that afternoon. Stories like this one made a person realize just how old 101 is.

Grandpa FRIEND was five years old when the Wright Brothers flew. He had been retired for ten years when we went to the moon. Imagine what he must have thought from his perspective as the incredible events of the twentieth century unfolded before him.

His was a full life. His health was marginally good right up until the end. He had been slightly hobbled by a stroke and forced to use a cane.

His hearing and eyesight were poor. His heart weakened and a pacemaker was implanted a few years ago. Like I said, getting old ain’t for sissies. Despite all this, his attitude was good, his mind was sharp, and he was able to do most things for himself.

I would have to say Grandpa loved two things above all else. They were fishing and pie. He used to do odd jobs for the widow ladies in his neighborhood and took homemade pie as payment. We joked at the funeral that we should have made him a sandwich board that read “Will Work for Pie”. I’m happy to say I took him fishing just a few months ago and was with my wife when she took him some pie not long before his death. We’re all going to miss him a lot.

Laurence, not Larry, was a wonderful man and it was a pleasure to have known him.”

OUR TRIP TO SEATTLE by Grayden SLOWINS:

Saturday, July 1, 2000, 10:35AM, we flew out of Lansing Airport on a DC-9, five seats wide, Northwest Airlines Flight 495 to Detroit……….Seattle has excellent public bus service……we pay one dollar each for a round trip to University Presbyterian Church on the edge of University of Washington campus in northeast Seattle…..the organist is Jo Ann STREMLER, a round blond Hollander, who lets Ann photo her and be photographed at the console and says she has lots of relatives in Grand Rapids, Michigan……..Monday, July 3, walk around the block to Washington State Convention & Trade Center to board Gray Line Seattle Grand Tour bus. Seattle has 540,000 people in the city proper, which includes several former suburbs just like the five boroughs of New York City. West Seattle, Beacon Hill, Capitol Hill, University District, Queen Anne, Magnolia, Wallington, Fremont, Ballard, Bellevue, Mercer Island, Factoria, Newport Hills, Eastgate, Medina, Clyde Hill, Kirkland, and Redmond are now part of the City, as well as Lake Union and Lake Washington, which they surround. The Greater Seattle Area stretches forty miles south to Tacoma and north to Everett, and includes two million people……….

McWHORTER UPDATE: In the last issue it was stated that the McWHORTER family of Sunfield Township first settled in Sebewa Township in 1851, but the location was long unknown. While searching the old Sebewa Tax Rolls for 1851 & 1852 for something else, we happened onto the following:

Benjamin McWHORTER E ½ NE ¼ Sec 33 – 80 acres, assessed at $80.00 value, State, County & Township Tax $1.12, School Tax $.68, Total Tax $1.90.

The second year the valuation was the same, but State, County & Township Tax came to $1.63, Highway Tax was added at $.63, but School Tax was only $.17, for a total of $2.43. Also in 1852, R. O. McWHORTER was listed next-door at W ½ NW ¼ Sec. 34 – 80 acres, assessed at $80.00 value with the same State, County & Township & School Tax as Ben, but no Highway Tax, making his total $1.80. It was quite common to work out the Highway Tax in road-work, which is probably why it was not always shown.

The McWHORTER farms mentioned above were located on the south side of TUPPER Lake Road at the intersection of SHILTON Road. They were later owned by E. D. BISHIP and included the BISHOP School on the southeast corner. Later owned by Voight FIGG & Rachael BINNS, and now by Gerald & Janet GILBERT, Roy & Alice SPITZLER, Don CUNNINGHAM.

On the same 1851 Tax Roll our John C. OLRY farm was assessed at $160.00 for 160 acres at NW ¼ Sec 27, with corresponding tax of $2.24 for State, County & Township and $1.70 for School. But by 1852 inflation had set in and his valuation shot up 5% to $168.00!

As can be calculated by comparing these statistics to today’s farm valuations, and assuming they assessed at 50% of True Cash Value same as now, inflation on farmland comes to about 750 percent in 150 years or 5% per year on averages. Make that total about 3000 percent if the land goes from agricultural to developmental uses. Those are called “Higher Uses”, but are they really?

BACK ISSUES OF THE RECOLLECTOR:
Ann & I recently dug out and assembled a dozen more sets of back issues. The Association sells them for $55.00 for 35 years of local history & genealogy and includes paid-up dues for coming issues. That price is hear at the farm. The last set we shipped cost $7.50 UPS and that was cheaper than mailing them. In 1965 the first issue cost 4 cents to mail and now they want an increase on the current 33 cents!

Some people continue to send dues of $5.00 per year, and the Association continues to accept them, but we make no promises on the number of issues per year, nor the number of years before we fold our tent.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association, Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI.
DECEMBER 2000, Volume 36, Number 3. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: Pranger, Vandenberg, Evans, Skinner, Adams, Eckardt, Schneider, Voelker, Coe, Bryant, Hutchinson, Conkrite, Walker, Rogers

RECENT DEATHS:

SHERMAN G. PRANGER, 83, husband of Muriel VANDENBERG PRANGER, father of Pamela ROBINSON, grandfather of Jennifer TYLER & David VOLLINK, great-grandfather of Brogan TYLER & Emma VOLLINK, brother of Arlene WHALEN and the late Marge CARR, Raymond PRANGER & Kenneth PRANGER, son of Rein & Kristina PRANGER. Sherm was born in Platte, South Dakota, served in the U.S. Army in WWII, muck-farmed in Sebewa with his father-in-law, Cornelius VANDENBERG, worked as a carpenter, and while storing onions in the old elevator basement on First St. by the RR tracks in Sunfield, he was hired by Theo LENON to manage the Sunfield Elevator Lumber Yard. He is buried in Portland.

ANGELA F. (ADAMS) EVANS, 87, widow of Floyd EVANS, mother of Gordon EVANS, sister of Margaret ADAMS, daughter of Orrel & Calla Lily SKINNER ADAMS. Born in Shimnecon among the Indians, she lived most all her life within a mile-and-a-half of the river ford on Grand River Trail. After a trip to MSU Medical School research, her ashes will be buried on the EVANS family lot in East Sebewa Cemetery.

VICTOR V. ECKARDT, 95, widower of Eulah SCHNEIDER, father of Phyllis THOLIN & Marilyn NELSON, brother of the late Cornelia BLOOMER & Glendon (Fred) ECKARDT, son of Frederick Albert & Bertha VOELKER Eckardt. Vic started school at the old BRETZ School at the intersection of TUPPER Lake Road, HARWOOD Road & CLINTON Trail, a fractional district in Ionia County, by walking down the farm lane, going thru a hole in the fence, and crossing the railroad tracks. His parents may have been living on one of the other ECKARDT farms around on the side road when he started school, because there were three generations of ECKARDTS on the homestead farm at that time.

Later he attended the ECKARDT School at Woodbury and Lake Odessa High School. A life-long farmer, he was first elected to Woodland Township Board in 1934, a Republican in Franklin Roosevelt’s Democratic landslide, as he never tired of telling Democrat contemporaries Theo LENON & Carl BRODBECK. He served 18 years as Justice of the Peace/Township Trustee (all the same job back then), 16 years as Township Supervisor, 10 years as Barry County Commissioner, with a term as chairman in 1960 & 1970. He served on many boards & commissions, including the founding Board of Directors of the Michigan Townships Association, of which he was president in 1957. Buried in Woodland Township Memorial Cemetery.

ORSON E. COE, 86, widower of Sara Margaret BRYANT COE, father of Orson COE II, Brenda CARLON & Connie MILLER, brother of George COE, Jr. and Gladys COE HUTCHINSON, son of George & Mabel COE. We refer you to his autobiography, which he told in an interview for THE RECOLLECTOR in August, 1996, Volume 32, Number 1.

His father, George COE, Sr., entered the auto business in Ionia in 1912, two years before Orson was born. Orson is said to have bought & sold his first car when he was ten, and officially joined his dad in the business in 1937 after graduating from Michigan State University. His life story is the story of the automobile business in Ionia & Kent Counties and much of Michigan.

Ann (SLOWINS) played the organ for his funeral at Ionia Presbyterian Church, where he had been a member since 1942, and he is buried in Sunset Memorial Gardens, a part of the family farm where his father farmed all his life.

CONKRITE UPDATE: When Fern CONKRITE died in 1999 at age 104, and we printed her live story, we told you she had a beau about 85 years ago. We thought his name was Charles KENYON, but that was wrong info.

We located the notes and found his name was Lon WALKER, brother of the late Murl WALKER, and they dated for over a year.

ROGERS UPDATE: Ethelyn ROGERS, whose obituary appeared last issue, had another sister, Thelma ROGERS, who ran a beauty parlor in Portland.

FRONT PAGE PHOTO: SEBEWA TOWN HALL – 1899

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE BEGINNING TOWNSHIP CLERK by Grayden SLOWINS

The following story presents a year in the life, actually one of thirty-two years in the life, of the recently retired Sebewa Township Clerk:

December 1999 – Prepare and mail Agenda to Township Board members 7-10 days ahead of meeting. Prepare checks for monthly bills.

Prepare quarterly payroll spread-sheet on computer, then write the checks for salaries, Federal Income Tax & F.I.C.A.
Withholding Deposit Form 8109, Michigan Income Tax Form SUW-160, IRS Form 941, MESA Forms 1017 & 3104, and Pension Fund quarterly contribution. Blue Cross/Blue Shield is paid monthly, but withheld quarterly from paychecks, plus some extra reimbursement by employee, since most don’t earn enough to cover insurance.

Prepare annual W-2 Forms for employees, with copies attached to Social Security Administration Forms W-3 and another set with Michigan Annual Employer’s Tax Return.

Arrive at Board meeting early to turn up heat & lights and complete sweeping, dusting and other janitorial duties. Take careful minutes of the meeting in longhand, regardless of whether you tape-record, and type in Minutes Book as soon as possible, to be available to public within 7 days and to go out with next Agenda.

Enter next day all Receipts & Expenditures in Journal & Ledger, also in computer if you are learning that program. Compare to see that your Fund Balances agree with Treasurer’s report from meeting minutes. Confer with Treasurer before discrepancies get out of hand.

Enter Burials and Sale of Burial Rights (formerly called Lot Deed) in Cemetery Record Book and in computer if on that program. Then enter on cemetery maps and give a copy to the Cemetery Sexton.

Enter Voter Registration & Cancellations in computer. Print out & put hard copy in Voter Registration Book, mail one copy to school, and mail pink Voter-ID Card to voter. There will be extensive hassle to make your long-standing local voter files agree with the new State of Michigan Qualified Voter File, which we will explain in excruciating detail later. Send Registered Voter head-count to County Clerk when requested……….Record State, County, School & Local Tax Receipts & Dispersals in the Current Tax Checking Account………Examine mailings of various forms & reports………

January 2000 – Prepare and mail Agenda……(continues for 6 pages, through December 2000) with additional note:

Does the repetition of duties bore you to sleep? Yes, sometimes, but more in the telling than in the doing. Does it make an enjoyable career? Yes, most of the time. Does a time come to retire? Yes indeed! END

NOVEMBER ELECTION RESULTS IN SEBEWA TOWNSHIP:

Total number of voters – 547.
Total number registered – 812.
Percentage of those registered who voted – 67.36%

President & Vice President – BUSH 355, GORE 162, NADER 11, BUCHANAN 1, BROWNE (Libertarian) 1.
United States Senator – ABRAHAM 329, STABENOW 177, ABEL 5, FORTON 5, CORLISS 3, QUARTON 1, MANGOPOULOS 1.
Congressperson 3rd District – EHLERS 338, STEELE 124, LOWNDES 3, HASS 2, BERTA 1.
State Represtentative 86th District – GARCIA 326, PATTERSON 122, BROWN 16………
Prosecuting Attorney – BENDA 323, LINCOLN 123.
Sheriff – DENNIS 309, STEPHENS 162.
County Clerk – Barbara TRIEWEILER 375.
County Treasurer – HICKEY 383.
Register of Deeds – ADAMS 362.
Drain Commissioner – BUSH 265.
County Commissioner 7th District – SHATTUCK 356.

Township Supervisor – STANK 390.
Township Clerk – PINKSOTON 379.
Township Treasurer – CARR 279.
Township Trustee – GUY 344.
Township Trustee – SLOWINS 365.

CHANGES IN SEBEWA: In 1968 the Sebewa Township Clerk’s office had no E-mail nor FAX, no electric typewriter nor word-processor, no duplicator nor copier, and no calculator, just a manual typewriter with carbon paper and an adding/subtracting machine.

The last check I wrote as Sebewa Township Clerk was $89,533.87 for Sebewa’s share of KEEFER Highway construction, engineering & testing. Danby Township & Ionia County each paid an equal amount. The State of Michigan & Federal Government highway programs paid the rest from the gas taxes, with the total approaching $1 million.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association,
FEBRUARY 2001, Volume 36, Number 4. Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI.
Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: MORRIS, DENTON, DUNSMORE, MILES, BLANCHARD, SMITH, WHEELER, DAVIS, GIERMAN, HARRIS, HEATER, DANIELS, HOORT, HUHN, BRANDSEN, THORP, GOODEMOOT, WOLCOTT, RATHBUN, COLEMAN, THALL, MEYERS, PUMPLIN, MEIJER, GOODWIN, DRAKE, SWIPES, BAILEY, SLOWINS

RECENT DEATHS:

LYNN E. MORRIS, 88, husband of Ariel DENTON DUNSMORE MORRIS, his wife of 58 years, father of Alaina TROUT, Sharron VanVleck McCargar, and Ardelis ENDRIE, brother of Gertrude BERNDT and the late John MORRIS, son of William L. MORRIS & Cloe Diana MILES MORRIS. Born in Maple Valley Township, Montcalm County, July 16, 1912, he began working at the Coral Creamery at age 12, and by age 18 was managing the business. He moved to Ionia in 1937, as part of Wm. MORRIS & Son Construction Company. They built or remodeled many homes & public buildings in the Ionia area.

He was a member of the old Ionia County Board of Supervisors representing the City of Ionia. He was a member of First United Methodist Church for 64 years and of American Legion, Masons & Lions. He and Ariel were founding members and he was past president of the Ionia County Historical Society and they provided great financial and personal support for the purchase and restoration of the John C. BLANCHARD home. They were also charter members of the Sebewa Center Association, as she was the last teacher in the Sebewa Center School. He will be buried in Saranac Cemetery.

MARGARET (MARGE) D. (DAVIS) SMITH, 88, widow of Laban A. SMITH, mother of Daniel G. Smith and the late Laban A. Smith IV, sister of Mrs. Basil LOWREY and two other sisters and a brother, daughter of Horton & Minnie WHEELER DAVIS. A graduate of Charlotte High School & Western Michigan College, she taught in Haslett, Flint and Monroe. Labe ran SMITH Hardware in Portland, and together they ran SMITH Lumber Company. She was active with horses, travel, local history and genealogy. She served on the Portland School Board, two different districts on the Ionia County Board of Commissioners, and on Portland and Ionia Historical Societies and Sebewa Center Association. She was also a special friend of our founder & first editor, the late Robert Wilfred GIERMAN. She is buried in Portland Cemetery.

SARAH J. (DANIELS) HARRIS, 89, widow of Ernest E. HARRIS, mother of Doris EASTMAN, Betty DAVIS, Barbara GORSUCH, Norman, Ernest, Robert & Roger HARRIS, and the late Larry & Kenneth HARRIS, sister of Albert DANIELS and the late Calvin DANIELS, Ellen SOULES & Evelyn WACHA, daughter of Violet HEATER & Jay DANIELS, brother of Andrus DANIELS, son of Oren DANIELS, Sr., son of Andrus DANIELS, Sr. She will be buried in Lakeside.

SHARON LYNN (BRANDSEN) HOORT, 52, wife of Larry J. HOORT, mother of Julie HOORT, Lisa HAYWARD and Jonathan HOORT, sister of Roger & Russell BRANDSEN, Colleen MONKS and Nancy BALES, daughter of Gordon & Helen Ruth HUHN BRANDSEN. She was employed by Portland Public Schools for 28 years and was currently executive secretary to the Superintendent. She was a member, organist and soloist at Sunfield United Methodist Church. She will be buried in West Sebewa Cemetery.

DONNA M. THORP, mother of Gina COURTS, grandmother of Aaron & Alex COURTS, sister of Dianne BARKER and Richard THORP, daughter of Kenneth & Ruth GOODEMOOT THORP. She spent more than 40 years in the grocery business, most recently as store manager for Carl’s Supermarket in Lake Odessa, in the same building where she started. Like so many people in the Sebewa, Odessa, Berlin area, Donna was the great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Oliver WOLCOTT, Sr., an early Governor of Connecticut and signer of the Declaration of Independence. She will be buried in Lakeside Cemetery.

RATHBUN UPDATE: Melissa RATHBUN NEALY COLEMAN is a grand-niece of Frank RATHBUN, Sr., who is buried in East Sebewa Cemetery. She was the first of two U.S. women G.I.s taken prisoner in the Persian Gulf War, and today is the Tenth Anniversary of that war. Melissa was born in Grand Rapids, MI, March 9, 1970, the only child of Joan & Leo RATHBUN, and graduated in June 1988 from Creston High School. She was wounded in action and received a Purple Heart and Prisoner of War medal and a hug from General Norman Schwartzkopf and we wrote about her in August 1991.

Today the only traces are a shrapnel scar on her forearm and headaches and memory loss of Gulf War Syndrome. Now 30, she left the Army in 1993 and is a stay-at-home Mom in San Antonio, TX, for her two daughters ages 7 & 8. She drives her daughters to school and takes computer classes herself. “I’m really not a hero!” she says.

OUR TRIP TO NEW ORLEANS by Grayden SLOWINS:

Saturday, December 9, 2000, we were up at 4:00AM, left home by 5:00, for a 7:00 flight on a D-95. We were traveling with Larry MERRILL, Executive Director of Michigan Townships Association (MTA), on our way to a Board of Directors meeting of the National Association of Towns and Townships (NATaT)……arriving (in New Orleans) at 10:53 Central time…the taxi driver from the airport into town had the windows open. We asked how warm it was and he said 64 degrees going to 67 by midday. The next day was predicted to be 74 degrees going to 77 by midday. He had seen snow only once in 14 years living there. We had left harsh cold and winter at home……after resting in our room for a while and watching the Florida recount on TV, we met Donald & Elizabeth THALL from Kalamazoo for supper at the Bombay Club……we enjoyed sharing all the experiences in our years in the Township Clerk business, as well as our family origins in the Old Country and here in America……Sunday was the main meeting day for the NATaT Board of Directors……more meetings in the afternoon……concerned about weather back home, skipped Monday meetings (and took flight home)…..but when we came down to land in Detroit, there was a 14-inch blizzard……we came home by way of Waverly Road, M-43, M-66 & MUSGROVE HWY.

WRITING A SEBEWA FAMILY HISTORY – by Deanna GIERMAN PUMPLIN:

It’s been a true treasure hunt, writing a book about my grandmother, Nellie MEYERS GIERMAN. The first treasure to come my way was a box of letters she had saved. Subsequent treasures I’ve found on the Internet using the www.google.com search engine. I particularly like this search engine because it prioritizes sites, and the web site engine. I particularly like this search engine because it prioritizes sites, and the web site I’m looking for is often on the first page of listings, if not the first site listed.

By typing in “railroad maps”, I found a wonderful collection, among them an 1897 Galbraith Rail Road Railway Mail Service map of Michigan that showed the railways Nellie would have taken from Portland to Big Rapids when she attended Ferris Institute (1903). The Ferris State University web site includes copies of some of the old catalogs, including the one listing my grandmother as a student. Mr. Ferris’ vision for the Institute is fascinating to read in itself. The www.livegenmi.com site showed me the way to a colorful 1895 atlas map of Michigan. I haven’t found an Internet source of old Michigan plat maps, but back issues of the SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR and a local historian have been helpful for that and a lot of other information.

The old plat maps reveal that Nellie’s father married “the girl next door”. In one of her letters, Nellie mentioned studying a Millet painting, “The Gleaners”. That too was available on the Internet. The history of the Methodist Episcopal Church, The Epworth League, and the Bay View Association near Little Traverse Bay (which published a magazine called Bay View Reading Circle Magazine) can be found on the Internet as well. The history of the Grange is also available. And, of course, it’s a wonderful tool for genealogical research.

What I can’t find on the Internet are personal descriptions of my grandmother. So if any readers can tell me something about Nellie, I’d appreciate it very much. I picture her as a person with a kind but serious demeanor. I believe she must have had a wry sense of humor. When I first knew her she was already 70 years old and probably not as active in the community as she was at a younger age. So any stories or memories that people have of her would be very welcome, and I’m sure would assist me in my quest to learn more about her.

Though writing this book about my grandmother has caused me to think more deeply about Sebewa this past year or two, I’ve been surprised over the years how my heart wanders back to Sebewa Center---to the more familiar field and woodlot landscape and to the faces and voices of the men and women who peopled it when my grandmother was still alive. When I was a child, there were frequent occasions to make the three-mile trip from my parent’s home (Maurice & Vera GIERMAN) near the GODDARD/MUSGROVE intersection to the Center.

Sometimes my father took me to a Ladies Aid Society dinner at the church. There I would play with other children, or listen to the grownups talk---after making sure that Sadie TRAN was there with one of her incomparable apple pies. The grownups had faces that went with the names I often heard spoken by my uncles, and cousins, are the ones I see and hear in my mind today. Many are long gone.

Since I’ve been writing a book about Nellie, I’ve been thinking more and more of Sebewa Center and the kind of community of people that existed during the period that she lived there. I’m going to guess that when the school districts consolidated and the Center school closed, a major focal point for the community disappeared, and that the close-knit quality of the Sebewa Center community disappeared as well.

But, things change. Perhaps the change in the community was as much the result of the post-war migration of people to jobs in the cities, the increasing numbers of mothers working outside of the home, and the increasing numbers of children going away, to college or jobs in far flung parts of the country and world. Or perhaps I’m wrong and the kind of community I pictured existing for my grandmother (in which the religious, social and economic center of life was contained largely in Sebewa) still exists. The letters to her from home are full of news of neighbors helping neighbors through sickness, fire, accident, poverty and every other misfortune that seemed to strike frequently.

In any event, I wager that there are many treasures there in Sebewa still. Some grandchild or great grandchild will look back into the family tree and focus on some small clue to give life to an otherwise silent face peering out from a photograph. I wasn’t aware, as a child, that my Grandmother might have had dreams of a profession, and I never wondered until recently what her life was like as a young woman. Her letters do not speak directly of a desire to leave Sebewa Center to pursue a teaching profession, but they do reveal that she cared very much for the opportunities at Ferris, both for the classes in physics, algebra, and history, and for the extra curricular lectures and programs.

She did hope to get a teaching certificate. But her stay at Ferris and her correspondence (and thus her written thoughts) were cut off when her father (Albert MEYERS) was severely injured by a horse and Nellie had to return home. She subsequently taught school at the Center for a year, and then in 1906 married my grandfather, Robert E. GIERMAN.

I encourage any of you readers to save your treasures. Among my grandmother’s letters were letters from Nettie WAGNER, Bessie CARROLL, Mary ALBERT, Mary PITTENGER, Mrs. A. K. STEWART, Ida MORGAN, Louise GUNN, Maud ZIONTS, Minnie SINDLINGER, Bertha SULLIVAN. If you have any information about Nellie to share, you can get in touch with me as follows: DEANNA GIERMAN PUMPLIN, 4671 Magnolia Street, Port Townsend, Washington 98368. Email: deejohn@olympus.net Phone: 360-385-5917.

A LONG LIFE HAS MANY CHRISTMASES by Fred MEIJER:

I’m not sure why I was asked to write an essay. Maybe it’s because I just turned 81 years old and I should have acquired some wisdom. I’m not sure wisdom comes with age - - maybe all we get is more experience. I’ve been around for 81 Christmases! I don’t remember every one. I think I can say I never had a bad one. It’s always a wonderful time of year. I know that for some people who are lonely or who have dreams they can’t fulfill, this can be a difficult time of year, but for me, I can’t recall a Christmas that wasn’t a joyous affair. I remember going to the Congregational Church in Greenville, the church decorated so beautifully and everyone singing together and every kid came home with something, a piece of candy or an orange. That was always a pleasant memory, a happy time……Just think, in 1919 (the year I was born), the Model-T Ford car was “the car”……When I was 11 or 12 years old, I worked with an old farmer on our farm……For us the year 1927, before the Great Depression, was a boom time. My dad was a prosperous barber. That Christmas, he bought a pony for me at $75, plus $5 delivery. Two years later, in 1929, he was broke. I remember the Depression days, the WPA workers and the CCC camps………When we opened our first small grocery store in Greenville, we hauled groceries the 15 miles from U.S. 131 to Greenville via M-57………A 17-year-old young man from Greenville who wanted to be a barber had worked with my dad for several years and then left to pursue work in another city. He returned to Greenville and bought my dad’s barber shop for $350, plus one month’s rent on the building of $25………with that $375, plus credit, we opened the grocery. The first year in the grocery business, we heated the store with a pot-bellied stove. We used pine stumps for fuel. We could get them free from our farm fence-rows. We sold raw (unpasteurized) milk that took on a different flavor when the cows grazed on fresh alfalfa. How our customers complained!

My parents were a powerful presence in my life. I learned so much from both of them, especially from Dad’s examples and from his stories, like the one about being a new immigrant in Chicago.

I remember the Christmas gifts - - we were elated to receive a gift of any kind, even clothing was much appreciated. One year there were two gunny-sacks under the Christmas tree with something alive inside. One contained a bantam hen for my sister, the other a bantam rooster for me. Some of the other gifts we received were marbles, leather “hi-top” boots, mittens, gloves, a scarf, games like lotto or checkers, an orange and candy. Over the years I remember receiving a little red wagon, a sled, and then ice skates.

Today, there are so many conveniences, we take them for granted. Not long ago, TV wasn’t invented. Coal and wood stoves were the norm. Cars had to be cranked by hand to start them. We didn’t even have a phone at our house. We had to walk two blocks to the neighbors to use a phone. I think the most remarkable progress has been in the health field. We are living longer and healthier with each generation.

The “good old days” for me were wonderful. I just wouldn’t want to live them again! I’d like to start now and be 60 years younger. Old age, as one doctor said, isn’t for sissies. But if you have loving family and good friends, you’re rich. END

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This Editor is a personal acquaintance of Fred Meijer’s sister, Doris, mentioned above, and her husband, Herman RADER, a retired township official from Winfield Township, Montcalm County. Fred himself bagged my groceries after visiting about that friendship in the Men’s Room.)

ODE TO THE GOODWIN BRIDGE – This Bridge was built by Burton DRAKE, and ice may jam, old earth may quake, cyclones may come and floods may rush, Tails of comets, too, may brush; The sun and moon may change their course and lightning may exhaust its force, Yet the bridge will stand, a monument to Labor, Skill, and Good Cement.

The above poem is one of the many written by CHARLES GOODWIN, SR., known as the Bard of Christian Bend, under the pen-name J. K. SWIPES. They were published as the “Complete Works of J. K. SWIPES”, by the Portland REVIEW & OBSERVER. Charles GOODWIN was the grandfather of Esther (Mrs. Mick) BAILEY and was great-uncle to Ann SLOWINS.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association,
APRIL-JUNE 2001, Volume 36, Numbers 5-6 . Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI.
Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: Goddard, VanHouten, Bopp, Figg, Leak, Ingall, Leik, Sandborn, Platte, DeBoer, Alden, Coe, Hunt, Downing, Williams, Sindlinger, Snyder, Estep, Goodemoot, Fox, Wolcott, Creighton, Peake, Inglis, Pryer, VanRiper, Steinmets, Myers, Karrar, Stambaugh, Greenman, Hoffman, Roush, Leik

FRONT PAGE PHOTO of GODDARD SCHOOL, Sebewa Twp., Ionia Co., Michigan – not sure of exact year of this photo but by looking at the birth years of the people listed, we can assume it was the early 1900s.

The names that were written on the original photo were as follows:

BACK ROW, left to right: Minnie VanHOUTEN, ? BOPP – father was Fred BOPP; Teacher’s name unknown, Vera FIGG, Voight FIGG, Hazen FIGG, Maynard LEAK b. 1899.

MIDDLE ROW, left to right: Unknown, Mildred LEAK b. 1897, Greta INGALL, Lola LAPO?, Miney VanHOUTEN, Iva INGALL b. 1899 (still living), Maurice LEAK b. 1901

FRONT ROW: Leon LEAK? B. 1905, unknownCan you help to identify who the other children are, and what year this was taken? If so, contact Pam SWILER, Ionia County Genealogy Society.

RECENT DEATHS:

LARRY ALDEN COE, 64, husband of Jean, father of Gilbert REYNOLDS, Rebecca CHIODINI & Cynthia VIDOR, brother of Joyce KURR, son of Wilma HUNT & Ralph COE, grandson of John & Hermina HUNT and Alden J. & Abbie COE, great-grandson of William S. & Libbie HUNT and William H. COE, all of whom settled on HENDERSON Road in Sebewa Township before 1875. Larry founded COE Accounting & Tax Service and continued to work there even after selling to his nephew Rodney KURR. He had retired to Lakeland, FL.

BRUCE WILLIAM DOWNING, 77, widower of Myrtle THOMSPSON DOWNING, father of Vicki BOWERMAN, Diane BLACK, James & Thomas DOWNING, brother of Cleo PIERCEFIELD, son of Mamie WILLIAMS & Homer DOWNING, grandson of Lewis G. WILLIAMS & Theresa SINDLINGER WILLIAMS SNYDER and Maude ESTEP & Ezekiel J. DOWNING, great-grandson of Barbara & Fred J. SINDLINGER, Sr., William ESTEP and Samuel W. DOWNING. William ESTEP settled on MUSGROVE Hwy. in Sebewa Township in 1849. The DOWNINGS were inter-married with the PEACOCKS and came to KNOLL Road in Sebewa Township with them in 1865 and before. The SINDLINGERS settled in Sebewa Township on KIMMEL Road in 1855. Bruce was retired from Motor Wheel in Lansing. Buried in Sunset Memorial Gardens.

MYRON H. “ODESSA MIKE” GOODEMOOT, 79, husband of Lois, father of Barbara SAUERS, Nancy POTTER, Jerri YEAGER, Gary & Mark GOODEMOOT and the late Roger GOODEMOOT, brother of Helen LIVERMORE ROBINSON, Peg FAULKNER, Rex and Don GOODEMOOT, and the late Francis & Ford GOODEMOOT and Marian McDOWELL, son of Sadie FOX & Donald GOODEMOOT, grandson of Russell GOODEMOOT, great grandson of John & Mary J. GOODEMOOT, and once more, thru Mary, a great-great-great-great-grandchild of Oliver WOLCOTT, Sr., an early governor of Connecticut and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Mary was first married to a CREIGHTON and mother to James H. CREIGHTON and had settled in Sebewa on Clarksville Road before 1875. Mike farmed all his life on the farm where he was born, delivered milk in the Lakewood area, and sang barbershop. Buried in Lakeside Cemetery.

WILBUR H. PEAKE, 80, husband of Mary SIMON PEAKE, father of Julie WEST, Betty LEYRER, and the late Cindy PEAKE, brother of Forrest PEAKE, Margy MOYER and the late Lynn PEAKE, son of Guy & Pearl PRYER PEAKE, grandson of Margaret E. WOODIN & William PRYER, great-grandson of Cornelia Ann PHILLIPS & Thomas PRYER, who was son of Mary INGLIS & Merselus PRYER, son of Mary Van RIPER & Casparus PRYER, son of Sarah ANDRESSON & Casparus PRYER, son of Johanna STEINMETS & Andreas PRYER, son of Margaret & Thomas PRYER, who emigrated from the Netherlands to New Jersey before 1674, and was descended from Thomas PRYER, an officer in Queen Elizabeth I’s Army, who fought in Holland in 1586-1587, and whose family had originally gone to England from Normandy Province of France with William the Conqueror in 1066. Young Thomas & Cornelia PRYER settled on Frost Road in Danby Township in 1850, although his brother James took up the Land Patent for him in 1835, when Thomas was only 15 years old and an apprentice cabinet-maker. Wilbur farmed the land of Thomas & William & Guy all his life. He was a veteran of World War II and was buried in Danby Cemetery with military graveside honors.

O. VIRGINIA (STAMBAUGH) KARRA MYERS, 83, widow of Leon KARRAR and Vergil MYERS, mother of Donna VANCE, Forrest KARRAR, Gayla FREEMAN, Phyllis HYVARINEN and the late Marjorie KARRAR, sister of the late Arlin STAMBAUGH & Vivian EASTMAN, daughter of John J. & Greta INGALL STAMBAUGH, granddaughter of John H. & Sarah Jemina GREENMAN STAMBAUGH & D. C. INGALL, great-granddaughter of Sheldon C. & Lydia A. GREENMAN and William INGALL. William INGALL settled on TUPPER Lake Road in Sebewa Township before 1875, Sheldon C. GREENMAN & John H. STAMBAUGH settled there soon after. O. Virginia was long-time Sunfield Clerk. She is survived by her Aunt Iva DUNLAP, our only remaining survivor of the 1800s. O. Virginia will be buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

BERNADINE L. HOFFMAN, 82, sister of the late Ronald & Rowland HOFFMAN and Lucille STAMBAUGH, daughter of Rev. Andrew & Ida ROUSH HOFFMAN. After attending Huntington College and graduating from Western Michigan University, she taught in Lansing, Bath & Charlotte. Then she served 39 years as a missionary in Sierra Leone, West Africa, longest in United Brethren history. She always cast her vote in Sebewa Township in every Presidential Election by Absentee Ballot.

She was one of only 12 people whose ballot was not recorded in the Gerald Ford Re-election vote of 1976. Gerald Ford had been our Congressman and we had a massive 97 ½ percent turnout – 486 out of 498 registered. By 7:30PM that day we had contacted anyone who we thought might need transportation or an A.V. Ballot. The other eleven were either very, very sick at home or hospitalized, and two died that day, one while I was in his house with the ballot. Bernadine’s ballot came to the Post Office one day late, after traveling by truck, airplane, jeep, pack-animal, and jungle-runner to Darkest Africa and back. Bernadine is buried in Bowne Mennonite Cemetery, Kent County.

THE ALL-CROP 60 HARVESTER From “OLD ALLIS NEWS”, Summer 1997, by Charles LEIK:

The All-Crop 60 was simply a wonderful piece of equipment at a price any serious farmer could afford. It was to independent grain harvesting what the Model T was to affordable transportation for the masses. It spelled the end of neighborhood cooperation in threshing whether by the binder/tractor/separator or by the first combines in the 30s that were often jointly owned.

Dad and Uncles Jerry and Henry owned a JD combine with a 4’ cut, bagger and auxiliary engine for several years in the late 40s. I recall one day standing on the bagging platform and watching Dad, or one of my uncles, manage the sacks. There was a V spout so that when one bag was filled the grain flow was diverted to the attached empty sack. The first was meanwhile tied and positioned on the platform, and the process repeated. At every round the full sacks, weighing about 120 lbs., were slid down the chute into the wheat stubble.

These were not gunny sacks, but long cylindrical white cloth sacks imprinted with the logos of the mills that had shipped flour in these sacks. Then men loaded the sacks into the wagon and dumped them at the granary. There was as much handling of the threshed grain with the bagger combine as with the stationery separator fifty years earlier.

My recollection is that Dad and his brothers spent a lot of Sundays under the lawn trees at Jerry’s farm repairing the JD combine. The brothers advertised it for sale and a purchaser came to our house. I heard Dad and the prospective buyer discuss the combine and, not understanding any of it at age 7, still wanted to help make the sale. So, as the prospective buyer left, I remember shouting after him, “It’s a John Deere”, which was the only helpful information I knew. I think he was the one who bought it and I know its sale caused no regrets on our part.

The advent of the All-Crop and its competitors also ushered in the era of bulk grain handling. Our neighbor had an All-Crop equipped with both a bagger and bin, but otherwise everyone in our area went to bulk grain handling as soon as new equipment was available after WWII. We fitted 3/4” plywood sheets to the inside of the stake rack on our 14’ Dodge Job-Rated two ton truck. But first Dad tacked strips of rubber from an old inner tube to the bottom edge of the plywood to form a tight seal with the floor.

The back gate was constructed of tongue and groove 1 x 6s attached to the four steel stakes that came with the truck racks. Oscar SMITH, the village blacksmith, fabricated a steel gate that could be opened at the elevator to allow the grain to spill out the back when the truck was tilted at 30 degrees. We used our heavy fence stretcher chains and racket to counter the outward push of the grain against the side racks.

The combination of the affordability of the All-Crop and bulk handling meant that grain harvest could theoretically be done by one man. He could combine most of the day into a truck the size of ours, or several grain wagons, and haul them to town in the evening, or empty them in the cool of the next morning into the granary. It certainly eliminated the bagger man on the combine and all the heavy lifting of sacks.

We purchased our All-Crop 60 Harvester from F. S. NIETHAMER, Woodland, Michigan in January 1951 for $1134.78. This included $24.99 for the straw spreader and $3.50 for a clover seed sieve. Uncles Henry and Jerry also purchased identical combines that winter. “All-Crop” was pretty accurate as we harvested everything from wheat to cloverseed with oats, rye, barley and buckwheat in between.

We were amazed that the instruction manual gave sieve and cylinder settings for dozens of crops; some of which, like rapeseed, we had never heard of. We, thinking of the 12’ sunflowers in our garden, could not imagine even the sturdy “60” threshing such stalks. We never imagined though that someday combines would shell corn.

The 60 had a five foot head with an upper and lower canvas, and a 16 bushel grain tank with a self-unloading auger. After going through the main cylinder, the straw had to turn 90 degrees to the straw rack and sieves which were perpendicular to the canvas, and the straw was discharged from the right side—just behind the grain tank. This differed from, as far as I know, every other manufacturer where the straw flowed in a straight line from front to rear. I suppose the reason for this engineering, that is contrary to good sense, was to make a compact machine. It never caused us any problem since our live PTO allowed a pause in forward travel when there was a heavy grain, or we had to cut lodged grain at ground level, or the straw got tough at dusk.

The straw discharge was inconvenient though because the strawspreader and the straw hood had to be lifted on their hinges to a vertical position when unloading the grain tank. Our two-ton truck, which we called “Big Truck”, had high sides, and the truck had to be very close to the combine for the auger to reach. It probably wasn’t a problem with wagons and, of course, most farmers in that era of livestock, did not use a straw spreader.

We kids were amazed that this machine, with its pitman powering the sickle bar to the heavy V belts on main cylinder and all the lesser belts on the back that powered the rack, fan and bucket elevators, could extract clean grain from a standing field. After every dump, when combining resumed, the reel gently pushed the grain into the sickle bar and onto the canvas; it laid on the canvas on its way to the cylinder and then there was “whosh, whosh” as the tinder dry straw met the cylinder and was threshed. Moments later grain—first a trickle—then a steady stream flowed into the grain tank. The “60” was high tech for us!

It was awesome to engage the PTO and see all the belts, pitmans, shafts and chain (it was a chain from the right wheel sprocket to a shaft running through the grain tank that turned the pulley on which the V belt to the end of the reel was connected) slowly turn and watch the dust come out from under the straw hood as Dad, and later I, revved the engine to its maximum after hitching it for the season.

In mid-Michigan the first grain is ready about mid-July, and we would have our third and last cultivating done by the 10th so the WD was freed for the combine. Once Dad got the PTO and shields in place the tractor was kept hitched to the combine for the season.

In the early years Dad ran the combine and boys would stand on the platform in front of the grain tank where the lever for the unloading auger was located. Twenty seconds after the first heads of grain flowed out of the spout and straw dropped from the straw rack onto the spinning spreader.

The first operation was to “open up the field”. This was slow because the tractor had to run close to the fence as possible in order to run over as little standing grain as possible. The straw spreader was removed, and the straw hood was pivoted on its hinges 180 degrees to lie on top of the area over the straw rack. The straw dropped onto the wire fence, and on the second round it fell on the mangled standing and downed wheat the tractor had run over to open the field. It was a mess. We usually waited until the field was finished before reversing direction; lowering the sickle bar to the ground and slowly running the downed grain and straw through the machine while watching for stones and clumps of earth that would damage the sickle bar.

Here the hand clutch and live PTO were invaluable. Once Dad was so engrossed in all this that he failed to notice the discharge auger was running and his hard won grain was running onto the ground. We kids, in the grain truck on the other side of a 17 acre field, thought we detected a thin stream running from the auger and ran through tall stubble and straw waving our arms. Dad, as you can imagine, was pretty disgusted to learn that he had just dumped most of the round’s grain.

Once the field was opened a routine was established of Dad going around the field in a counterclockwise direction with one of us kids accompanying him just for the sheer thrill of hearing the whosh, whosh of the dry grain as it hit the cylinder, and watching a steady stream of grain flow into the tank. The other one was in our “Big Truck”. We’d play in the grain that slowly, by mid-afternoon, had half filled the truck.

It generally took a full day of harvesting to fill the truck with 200 bushels of grain that today would represent one dump from a large combine. Or we’d sit in the cab; once the hired man let me drink his cold iced tea. Another good location was under the large maple at the end of the lane. Things seemed to collect there; the grease gun, an empty gas can, the old green gallon thermos filled with Vernor’s ginger ale, and probably some food.

As the rounds became shorter the bin was a little less full and finally two rounds could be made before dumping. The field had, by this time, lost its square corners since the tractor and combine could not turn too sharp or the PTO would chatter. The standing grain field must have looked from the air like the logo for Fels Naphtha soap. Sometimes, to avoid this, we would loop at the corner so we could come in squarely.

Wheat combining was better than oats. The wheat often went directly to the elevator, and it was exciting to arrive there in the evening with the “Big Truck” and visit with our school chums who we had not seen for weeks, and to survey all the rigs there; watch the grain being blown into a boxcar that held 2000 bushels and drink all the free Cokes that we wanted. The nights were warm, there was no curfew, no school tomorrow; just watching the wagons move slowly forward as load after load was slowly dumped. This was a slow process as in the pre-gravity flow wagon days, every truck or wagon had to be chained to the platform over the dump site and then the platform over the dump site and then the platform tilted to maybe 30 degrees so that the grain ran into the pit. Then it was cleaned and weighed in batches before the next load could be dumped. This was in the early days of bulk handling.

Oats were lighter to handle, but prickly. We never played in a bin of oats. The oats were stored on the farm and this meant setting up the wooden elevator that had been locally made during the war.

This was powered by an electric motor and had paddles that pushed the grain along. However, it was easily stalled by too much grain or too sharp an inclination. Later we had a 4” Mayrath auger that was light and whose end could be placed in the wagon to minimize handling.

By the mid 60s we kids were in college and Dad rented the farm on shares. The All-Crop was stored until we sold it, about 1970, to someone who took it “up North”. The 60 was a machine that never failed us. It was quite simply a wonderful piece of equipment, and all my memories of it are positive.

ALL ROTOR-BALER MEMORIES ARE NOT GOOD ONES, by Charles LEIK; THE OLD ALLIS NEWS, Summer 1997:

Dad purchased the Roto-Baler on January 15, 1951 from Pewamo (MI) Hardware which we usually referred to as DAVERN’S for $1148.30 which included a bale counter for $12.50. The round baler was a new invention and a friend with relatives in Missouri said that the bale shed moisture so well that the farmers left them in the field all winter.

I suspect Dad opted for the Roto-Baler because of ALLIS’ general reputation and his decision to stick to an orange line of equipment. He probably also figured that this could be a one man haying operation since the bales could take some weather before being hauled to the barn. In addition it was PTO powered while most of the squar balers of that period had big auxiliary KOHLER or BRIGGS and STRATTON engines. Dad had one of these on a JD combine and didn’t want any more auxiliary engines. ALLIS-CHALMERS was on to a good idea, but the bale’s size and handling system were all wrong.

Unfortunately, I remember the Roto-Baler ejecting bales prematurely, producing cone-shaped bales or bales wound with yards and yards of twine, the twine-typing arm refusing to trip, or the wide flat bale-forming belts hopelessly twisted. The round bales were tough to stack and handle. You needed a rack at either end of the wagon and the bales had to be heaved from the ground to an ever higher level on the wagon unlike square bales where you loaded directly from the baler and could build the load in terraces.

You needed to use bale hooks since the twine was untied and useless as a handhold. Once in the mow it was difficult to walk across a layer of round bales without slipping between them or getting tangled in the loose twine ends. We solved that problem by walking the field and tieing each bale. Sometimes we would stand each one on end so that they could be grabbed from a moving wagon, but if it rained first the bale would absorb the moisture.

We dropped a whole bale into the cattle mangers and let the livestock play with it. But if you needed a small quantity for the calves or our pet goats you had to unroll the bale. And a final problem with the system was the long twines. It was easy to lose livestock, particularly calves to those long strings. Cattle would gradually chew a 30’ twine into their stomach.

I liked the haying season and hated the Roto-Baler.

My cousin thought the answer was to purchase a chopper and blow the barn full of hay. That way you never had to handle the darn stuff. By 1959 I desperately wanted to trade the Roto for a JD 14T baler (although I acknowledged a New Holland was the best) and even had a $1200 offer to trade from the dealer. But Dad thought a new baler was extravagant on the eve of my going away to college and we kept the Roto-Baler. But this story is about my experience with ALLIS-CHALMERS equipment.

Since Dad worked in town and we no longer had a hired man, it seemed that we were always making hay on the Fourth of July. In the morning when the day was cool and the dew was still on the grass, Dad would give two or three pumps of grease to each of the innumerable zerks until grease was squeezed out of the bushing. Then he’d fuel the tractor out of two five gallon gas cans and load the baler’s twine container with four balls of binder twine and tie them together.

As the dew burned off, but before the alfalfa or clover leaves were brittle, he’d rake the field or turn the windrow with our ground powered JD side delivery rake. It was important to have heavy windrows so that the bale chamber would feed evenly; otherwise, the bale was cone-shaped or even tapered at each end. If the hay was light on a clay knoll or alongside a fence row, several swaths had to be raked together. This was a bigger problem with the lighter hay of the 2nd and 3rd cuttings.

(Photo): DIRECT LOADER – An attachment for the ALLIS-CHALMERS balers conveys hay directly to a trailed wagon. The loader is a raddle-type conveyor attached to the rear of the baler and driven by a v-belt. The only drilling necessary is a hole thru the rear frame of the baler to attach the wagon draw bar. (This item was apparently an after-market and according to the ad in a 1953 magazine it was available from Hansen Implement Co., Calamus, Iowa).

By 10:30 the July sun had burned off the dew and we could start baling at least several windrows in from the shade of the fencerow where the hay dried more slowly. In the 50s hay crimpers or conditioners were not yet in use and the heavy alfalfa stems dried slowly; we figured three days of good drying weather were required and often the weather didn’t cooperate that long.

Farmers in our area were particularly concerned about spontaneous combustion caused by wet baled hay after a series of spectacular barn fires in the late 50’s. Later it was learned that they were set by a young arsonist. I suspect that many barn fires conveniently attributed to this cause are really related to smoking or faulty electric wiring.

I recall one Fourth when Mother brought lunch and we picnicked by the marshy land at the “Sheep Farm” where we kids amused ourselves finding old buggy and wagon parts from the horse-drawn vehicles that had been abandoned there years earlier. After a lunch that must have included Jello and iced tea, it was back to baling and loading hay. We kids were too young to help at this time and so a young man was often hired to help wrestle the bales.

The Roto-Baler was idle for a number of years after the dairy cattle were sold, but later I went into the beef cattle business and in 1958 we used the baler for the first time in years. There was the day that I made 310 bales while driving in 3rd gear. The hay must have been in perfect condition and the windrows heavy because every bale was perfectly shaped, the twine wrapped and the bales ejected properly. I remember that day because it was a rarity.

A few days earlier in the same field things had gone quite differently. The completed bale would rotate endlessly instead of ejecting, or the twine tie tube would not drop to allow the bale forming roll to grab the dangling twine end and pull it into the chamber and wind it around the completed spinning bale, or the twine would wind and wind and wind. I was humiliated because across the fence line everything was going perfectly for a haying crew from Sebewa who were operating a NEW HOLLAND.

We consulted with the dealer and other owners, and after much tinkering with the bale chamber tension springs, or the trip rods, the size of the windrow or speed of travel. We concluded that the Roto-Baler was an unsatisfactory machine. I always felt it lacked the positive drive features of other machinery. Instead it was springs, all sizes of belts, trip rods, sprockets and clutches. Undoubtedly the condition and volume of material entering the bale chamber was critical, but agricultural equipment can’t be designed for the ideal situation. I envied the neighbors with NEW HOLLAND balers, the most prestigious name in haymaking, and by the mid-50s they were compact PTO driven units. It was impressive to see John SANDBORN pass with his IH utility tractor pulling a baler and several wagons, and father Melborn following with his Ford pickup and several more hayracks. There might even have been a 40’ bale elevator in the cavalcade.

The closest I ever came to this type of rig was when I hitched our wagon with the new homemade rack behind the baler and WD to make hay at a farm ten miles distant. This was the first (and probably last) time anyone saw a wagon pulled behind a Roto-Baler, even in transit, but it was a long outfit, and I was proud.

My classmate, Paul PLATTE had a new NEW HOLLAND baler and I conspired to go into the haying business with him. The plan was to contribute our WD and wagon, and he would simply supply the baler and more wagons. Paul’s father wisely nixed the idea.

After I went to college the Roto-Baler returned to storage for another ten years until it was finally sold to the local FORD implement dealer in 1970. During its 20 years with us, it was only used about five seasons and there was no regret when it finally left the property.

(Photo: A “WINDY ALLIS”: Mark DeBOER sent in this picture of the ALLIS-CHALMERS “C” weathervane. The unique use of the tractor is located on Interstate 35 at Boondock’s USA Truck Stop. It is located north of Des Moines and south of Mason City/Clear Lake. Not only does the direction of the wind get established, but the figure on the tractor gets his attire changed with the seasons.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association,
AUGUST 2001, Volume 37, Numbers 1. Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI.
Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: Lich, Dorn. Libby, Wallace, Creighton, Coe, Tannis, Long, Fletcher, Sargeant, Sindlinger, Colby, Nash, Cross, Tuitman, David, Tower, Scorza, Terpstra, Torrenga

RECENT DEATH:

JOHN M. LICH, 86, husband of Vera SCORZA TERPSTRA LICH, widower of Nell TORRENGA LICH, father of John P. LICH, Evelyn M. DAVID, Linda I. TOWER & Larry W. LICH, brother of the late Henry & Peter LICH, son of Sadie DORN & Peter LICH, grandson of John LICH I, an onion set farmer from Lansing, Illinois, and originally from the Netherlands.

John was born April 28, 1915, in Chicago, and moved to Sebewa Township April 15, 1940. His father had a wholesale produce store in the Chicago Farmers Market. He & John came to Alto, MI, to buy onions from Floyd & Jane HUNT in 1934, beginning a long and wonderful friendship that affected so many lives. Mary Jane WENGER HUNT was a first cousin to my grandmother, Barbara N. WENGER BRAKE.

John died June 20, 2001, in Florida. Cremation has taken place and a memorial service will be held at 3:00PM, Sunday, July 29, at Lake Odessa Christian Reformed Church, 620 Sixth Avenue, Lake Odessa. Friends may meet with the family beginning at 1:00PM, to share stories about John.

This issue of the Recollector contains a reprint of John’s story in his own words, as told to Robert Wilfred GIERMAN in 1982. It contains a lot we had forgotten. For instance, we had always understood that John’s father was J. Peter LICH, and that was how Little John got to be John P. LICH IV, but it took John LICH I & Peter Lich I to get us to John M. LICH, John P. LICH, and John P. LICH IV. I also remember that truck he was so proud of and had for so long. It said on the sides: Sebewa Farm, John LICH, Portland, Mich.


AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN LICH SR.

My grandfather was John Lich I from Lansing, Illinois. He was an onion set farmer. My maternal grandfather was Henry Dorn. He was a plasterer by trade but he lived on a truck farm when he first came from Holland. Next year my wife and I and three couples, friends, are going to go to Holland in June to visit the place of origin. One of the men was born and raised there. He grows plants and he plans to take us all around Holland. I really look forward to that trip. I like to have somebody along who knows the place.

My mother’s name was Sadie and my dad’s name was Peter. My parents had three children. I was the oldest, Henry was two years younger, and our brother, Peter, died when he was five years old. I was born in 1915 in Chicago at 63rd and Crawthers, where the folks lived at that time, adjacent to the Midway Airport in the clearing section of Chicago.

My dad had a produce store in the Chicago market. He sold to the grocery stores. The grocers would come to the market early and buy their vegetables from a produce man. He would stay all night at the market while the farmers were bringing their produce in. He and others were called scalpers because they would buy from the farmer who wanted to get back to working on another crop. The scalpers would then sell to the storekeepers at an hour more convenient to them. When I was seven years old, as I remember, I sat on the thousand bags of sweet corn. The ears were bagged, 5 dozen to a sugar sack. Farmers could not afford to stay at the market for a long time to wait for the top price so they would sell to a fellow like my dad. The store keepers depended on him. When the melons were ready in Indiana we would send trucks to get them. We would try to get tomatoes from as far south as Indianapolis to have them before the local crop. From that age on I was always with my dad on the market. We did everything in cash. I can remember walking around with a roll of bills as they say, “you could choke a hog with”.

My dad was very good in figuring. Charles Dawes, who was later Vice President of United States, had pneumonia and tuberculosis. He was at Houghton Lake, Michigan. A man by the name of Anderson, a big plastering contractor, owned a big ranch at Houghton Lake and was a personal friend of Charles Dawes. He had a special open air house there where Dawes was sent for the treatment that was popular then. Mr. Anderson taught my dad arithmetic. He was fantastic at arithmetic. You could give my dad a string of figures and when you were through he would give you the addition or subtraction. He taught a little bit of that to me. You would take the round figures and then take the odd ones along with it and you could work it out pretty well. My folks were at that ranch for two years. My mother did the cooking. It was there that my brother, Henry, was born. I was two years old and, of course, do not remember.

In Chicago my Grandfather Lich had four children and Grandfather Dorn had ten children. They had rough going when they came to Holland. My dad grew up with a group of guys around the stockyards. When he married my mother he was drinking a little too much to suit Grandpa Dorn. Grandpa got hold of Mr. Anderson, the plastering contractor, and asked him if he had a place for his son-in-law. He needed a foreman on the ranch at Houghton Lake. Pa took the job and got straightened out all right. When we went back to Chicago he got into the produce business.

I went to high school in Chicago. I went only two years because it was right through the depression. I had a chance to get a job then with a fellow by the name of Sam Muscaralla, an Italian guy. He had a route for delivery to stores all over the South Side. We knew him at the market. He wanted to know if I would drive truck for him, so I quit high school. At that time the banks were closing.

My mother was at a Ladies Aid meeting and heard that the Bain Banks of Chicago---a big group of banks, were having problems. My folks had some money, a nice new house in Chicago, I had $700 and my brother had $400. I remember sitting around the table when my folks said maybe if we boys did not mind, we could take that money out and make a payment on the house. Mama went there that morning and drew that money out and at noon the bank closed. That was quite a deal.

Shortly after that Nell and I got married. I worked for Sam Muscaralla. My dad had begun to have ulcers and quit the market. He was elected Chief of Police at Evergreen Park. He held that position through four administrations for fourteen years. He did a good job at that. One time there was a truck for Arthur Dixon Transfer Co., a big cartage company in Chicago, that came through Evergreen Park with an overload. That was in 1934. Pa pinched them. They sent out a foreman to see if they could fix the ticket and get the thing straightened out. Pa said there was no fixing the ticket. They just had to get their trucks within the legal limit.

After they talked and visited, the guy asked if there was anybody there that would need a job. The Arthur Dixon Transfer Company had the complete cartage contract for the World’s Fair. They moved everything into the Fair and they moved everything out of the Fair---all the foreign villages went in there through Dixon. A man by the name of Hibbard had that contract and he worked for Arthur Dixon. Even every ice cream cone went through there. All the parts for Ford Motor Company and Chevrolet (they made cars there at the fair) all went through Dixon.

At that time they had 400 teamsters who would haul freight from every railroad. C. B. & Q., the I. C., Northwestern, Burlington---railroads from everywhere. Dixon was a transfer company for freight. Frank Gary came out and talked to Pa. Next day Pa asked if I wanted a job with Arthur Dixon. He told Pa I would not get pushed around and I could go down there and get a job. I went there at age 18 and he put me on the job right off the bat. There were men there who had worked 35 years. Often they would sit on the sidelines while I would get work. We had no union at that time. Because I had a drag, I got a job.

He gave me a truck with five helpers and I hauled rolls of paper from the team truck right underneath the Wrigley Tower where we would take it across the river over to Popular Mechanics Magazine. It was the heavy paper that made the covers for the magazines. We had five cars to empty a day. I had a great big Packard, solid-tired truck. We would unload that---of course I was a pretty decent ball player and when the printers started having their dinners from eleven o’clock to two o’clock and played ball on their free time, I was in on the games. I had what they called a steady house job, a prime job paying $54.50 per week and that was a lot of money for those days.

Two years later in August Nell and I got married and I still had this steady house job. In the meantime the union came in. There was a racketeer union, 705, in Chicago. I have a withdrawal card from them I got when I moved to Michigan. I voted for the union then. Frank Galvin was the head of the union. He was shot and killed right on the steps of our building by a rival union. They assessed us five bucks for flowers for him. The first of December the union went into effect and with it the seniority lists applied. All that my seniority would get me then was three half days a week. I would go down in the morning and there was nothing to do. We would stay around until noon and then there were some tractor-semis that would pull out. Three half days for the whole month of December was all I had. There was no more favoritism with guys who had a drag like I had had.

Then I realized I could bump in on a city truck and go with a tractor and semi-trailer from different railroads with trailer loads of stuff to another. They would load trucks at night with stuff coming into Chicago to be delivered to different stores. I got a south run with a pretty good sized Ford truck. I would deliver goods to various stores all the way out to 135th St. or 140th St. south and then I’d call back to the dispatcher and he would give me a few pickups back into the city. That job paid $34.50 but that was better than three half days a week.

Pa and I had heard that there was a man in Alto, Michigan who had quite a group of men raising onions and we needed onions. My dad and I came out here and found Floyd Hunt in 1934. We wanted only the small onions. There was a poor onion crop here with a lot of small onions they could not sell. We wanted them for onion sets. There were very few onion sets in Chicago. Onions less than 11/16th were called over runs. I stayed with Floyd and Jane in Alto. We rented a store on Main Street where we hired a group of people to screen the onions we bought from the farmers. All the onions over an inch and one eighth we put in 10# bags and took them to a warehouse in Chicago where they were sold to the onion set people, who mixed them with onion sets and that made them a crop to sell. That is how I got interested in this Michigan country.

I still remember going with Floyd south of Sunfield down where Bert Creitz lived because he raised onions. His dad-in-law, Clarence Downing, had developed one of the best strains of onion seed available and that Downing strain is used yet. Just off Sunfield Highway where you hit M-50 and turn to your left and up a hill there was an old man who raised some onions in a couple of pockets of muck. They called him “Shifty-eyed Lumbert”. His eyes would shift back and forth all the time. I’ll never forget that because it impressed me so much.

One of the things that brought me here to Sebewa was that at that time I lived here with Floyd when we went all around buying onions and when we would come at a farm at 11 o’clock in the morning to buy some onions and we would be talking about the onions, the lady of the house would start making dinner and we had to stay for dinner. I had never realized that kind of hospitality and friendship. In Chicago you did not know the people who lived two doors away from you. That friendliness really struck me.

There was a man over near Hastings by the name of Kaiser who had a hundred and some acres of asparagus. He was selling it to a canning company in South Haven. They cut him down to a cent and a half a pound. He had his neighbors raising asparagus also. At that price they could not make anything of their crop. I was then a 17-year-old kid. He came to Alto and asked me if I knew of a market for that asparagus. I knew a beautiful market for it with Libby, McNeil & Libby, a big canning company in Chicago. My dad came out to get a load of onions and I was all excited about that asparagus crop. I felt that we could make a nice living and we could pay those guys 2 ½ or 3 cents a pound and they could make a living and we could get 5 or 6 cents a pound for it in Chicago. My dad said “Kid, you know nothing about that. We’d have to have refrigeration trucks and other equipment”. To my protest that we could buy it, it was, “No”. He couldn’t stand it.

One week end I went home and went to Libby, McNeil and Libby, saw the purchasing agent on the seventh floor, told him my story and said I could get the “grass” if you will buy it. He said, “I’ll take every bit of that you can bring here and I’ll give you a contract for 5 ½ cents a pound.” I came back and my dad would not listen to me. He could not see getting into that. I always had that in the back of my mind. It was then I went to work for Sam Muscaralla and soon after that for Dixon. The Dixon firm did not work on holidays. So, on a Washington’s birthday we planned a visit to the Hunts. I had not seen Floyd, Jane, Bud and their two daughters for some time. I was then married. I had written Hunts a couple of times. The holiday happened to fall on a Friday and we were off until Monday. On Thursday Nell and I drove out to Alto. They were glad to see us. On a drive around the country I asked Floyd about the asparagus. We drive over to Kaiser’s. There was some 20 acres of asparagus left. The rest had all gone back. He was then selling to a place in Fennville and getting a fairly decent price for it. In our ride around I said, “Boy, I sure wish I could farm”.

Floyd said, “You mean that?” I said, “I sure do, I would love to farm.” He asked if I had any money and I had to reply I had none. I was working but we lived the check. We stayed there that week end. Floyd said he would see what he could think of.

On March 15 he wrote me a letter to the effect that the Depositors Corporation, headed by Erm Garlinger, had foreclosed on a lot of the farms around here and they had what was called the Wallace farm on the Clarksville Road next to Corey VanDeBurg. Floyd owned the muck land across the road, now owned by DeBruyns. He owned the 40 acres there and the “Rattle Snake Forty” back of that, back of Patrick’s. Erm Garlinger had told Floyd that the Depositors Corporation wanted to liquidate some of their holdings they had out here. He told Erm that he had a young man in Chicago who wanted a piece of muck. There was a long 40 and a square forty where Ken and Evelyn David now live. Floyd wrote saying he could buy me a piece of muck right across from his forty for $1500 for the 80 acres. It had a spring on the ditch there with a tile where you could get water. There was an orchard, a well and a basement on the top of the hill a little further south from David’s house.

The old Wallace farm had been abandoned as a dwelling and the “Swamp Angels” used to play cards in the old house until they got wild one night and burned the place down. On March 20 my dad and I and Nell and her mother came to Sebewa to look at that place. I was all excited. I was going to build a garage-house on that foundation and try to farm the muck. My dad said, “I don’t see how you can do this”. It was spitting rain and snow and my mother-in-law was crying. We walked back through the humps where the ditch had been cleaned out; went up there and got them a drink from the spring; they thought I was crazy, I guess.

I said to Floyd, “I’ll buy it.” He said “How much have you got”. I said I could raise a couple of hundred dollars. Would you believe this? He had a little farm in Clarksville next to Timson’s Orchard southwest of Clarksville. He went to the bank and put a mortgage on that 80 acres of ground and went to the Depositors Corporation and bought this forty acres and then turned around and sold it to me for $100 down and a hundred dollars a year until I paid for it. Floyd was more than a father to me. He taught me everything I know about farming. I knew about selling crops but nothing about raising them.

We drove down the hill and headed for Harry and Letha Patterson’s store. Standing on the steps there was Carl Creighton, a boy twelve or thirteen years old. I went up to him and told him who I was and that we had just bought the Wallace farm. He said, “I’m your neighbor next door”. I asked him if he knew if there was any place around here to rent. He pointed across the fields and said that George Coe and his wife had just died. Their place was next to Ralph Coe and maybe if I would talk to Ralph I could find out about the place.

We introduced ourselves to Ralph and had a nice little talk and I told him what I wanted. He said, “I’ll show you the place.” All the furniture was in there though the place had not yet been hooked up to electricity. He told me to go see Rex Karcher, who was administrator for the place. We went to see Rex and meantime Ralph had called Rex and told him to rent the place to me. On the way over to Rex’s my dad had said that if we could rent the place for $30 a month it would be better than trying to build something on the old Wallace foundation while we were getting the crops in. Finally I asked Rex how much rent he would have to have. He asked, “Is three dollars a month too much?” I agreed to wire the house for $15 and that made me 5 months rent in advance.

Nell was pregnant with Johnny. We moved in the house. I worked for Floyd for a dollar an hour and when I used his equipment on my land he charged me a dollar an hour for that. Floyd also had the eighty acres of muck on Henderson Road.

The next year I filled the George Coe barn with onions and then moved them over to Tannis’ Storage at Clarksville. One day, Floyd, acting very much the father to me said, “You ought to have a hog”. He took me over to John Long’s west of Clarksville where we bought a Duroc sow with five pigs, one for me and one for Bud---$25 apience. Bud had six pigs and I had five pigs. I helped Ralph Coe and Allen Cross and with what we could scrounge and with scraps from the table, I raised that hog. At Christmas time we butchered those hogs---one for us and one I took to my mother-in-law in Chicago.

One day Issi Fletcher came over. John Sargeant had lost his place to Issi Fletcher. John had bought 20 acres across the road and couldn’t pay for it and just turned it over to Issi. Issi asked how about me buying that land. I said O.K. what is the price. He wanted $1800 for that forty acres. So I bought that for $100 down and $100 a year until it was paid. Mrs. Henderleiter was at Grandma Coe’s. She had a 40 acres on the back of the Sargeant 40. Grandma Coe remembered a house back there on a knoll and she used to carry butter from a well back there when she was a girl. She talked to Kitty Henderleiter on the phone and told her about us as her neighbors. Kitty wanted to sell her 40 to us. I went to see her and bought that from her for $1200. Then we lived in the Sargeant house. The George Coe house was rented for a couple of years and then I bought that forty from Mark Westbrook. That made me 120 acres on Henderson Raod and the 80 on the Clarksville Road. Those two pieces joined on the corner of Floyd’s 80. We arranged a legal right-of-way at that junction.

We moved here April 15, 1940. My uncle, Oliver Dorn, who was a truck gardener, moved us with his nice new truck. I said to him “if I just had your truck.” I knew where I could buy onions; Corey VanDeBurg was raising spinach and I could sell these things in Chicago. Uncle Oliver said, “John, you’ve just got to slow down a little bit. Just look at me. I’m 60 years old and I just got this truck”. I never forgot that. I was full of steam and raring to go and here was Uncle Ollie, who had worked and waited until he was 60 years old to get such a truck.

During war times here, labor was short. I organized a group of ladies---Wilma Coe, Irene Hunt, Grace Bailiff, Dorothy Meyers---they all worked for me for a number of years helping harvest our celery and onions.

One day I walked over to Fred Sindlinger’s---I had been working a few fields of his place, Clyde Avery worked a couple of fields and Dale Shetterly worked a couple of fields. I said, “Fred, would you sell me your farm”. He was concerned as to where they would live. I explained that with a life lease they could continue to live there as they had. Two weeks later I saw Fred walking toward our house. He said they would like to go talk to attorney Douglas Welch about selling. We made a deal where I would keep up the outside of the house and I sunk a 21-foot well near the house. Nora had carried water from the spring always before. They agreed to sell the place at $100 an acre with four per cent interest.

(Editor’s note; Lucille Sindlinger Warren thinks that John “over-remembered” the incident of the well for her parents. She says that her husband, Ken Warren, augered the well in 1946 and a short time later installed a pressure pump and the bathroom in the immediate postwar years when plumbing supplies were scarce.)

Fred Sindlinger was giving me a break by charging only four per cent interest when he could as well have had six at that time. That included 340 acres. Fred and Nora continued to live at the farm.

We farmed the muck crops all those years. For help we had Jamaicans, we had prisoners of war, we had Mexicans and we had that group of local ladies who did a beautiful job in harvesting our crops. All this time I was buying onions with Floyd. He would buy onions until wintertime when he went to Florida. Then he would give me $5,000 and say, “I have bought so many cars of onions at Sheridan, Clarksville and Sunfield and you can take care of the shipping.” I would ship them all winter, first by rail out of Lake Odessa, Clarksville or even Edmore. Over the years the shipping was all turned to trucks. We had a broker at St. Johns who would send out semis to haul them. McGuffy was at Gun Lake and he was the guy we bought the onions for---Michigan Land Co.

Floyd would come back from Florida in the spring and I’d give him the $5,000 back and we would split the profit. That kept his business going and I had something to do in winter, buying a lot of onions and getting to know a lot of people.

While Floyd was in Florida, he was always looking around for an opportunity. He found 120 acres available on Lake Como. He bought that 120 acres for $40 an acre. Then he wanted McGuffy and me to have a part of that because we were in business together. By that time we had the truck crops and a few potatoes. Also I had started in the hog business and had some sheep on the Sindlinger farm to browse some of the fields we wanted to clear. Floyd asked Nell and me to come to Florida to look at the Lake Como land. We got Nell’s parents to come here and stay with the kids while we went to Florida for two weeks. Floyd said that Carl McGuffy wanted the west side and I could take my choice of the middle or east side. Floyd had talked of a kind of a park there. I said I would take the east side.

Floyd was a fantastic man. He said, “I’ll set a price on it of $4,000 for that 40 acres and put it on a 10-year contract with payments of $160. That amounts to 4% interest and all you pay me is that $160 for ten years and you will own the place.” Later he died and made me administrator of his estate. I handled his estate here and in Clarksville but in Florida it is required that the administrator be blood relative, so Loretta finished it up there. A couple of years later my contract was up and Vera and I went to see Loretta to pay her the $4,000. She said that Floyd always said that when the contract was up I would have the place and she would give me a deed to it. When Floyd died he did not have it in his will that I was to have the place. But she insisted it was to be that way. So then I told her that as long as she lived I would pay her $160 each December and that is the way it has been.

The next year after Floyd bought the Florida land he got a bulldozer and cleared the place. In 1956 after the November election here we took our whole family and went to Florida for a month. We rented a house to stay in and we planted our orange trees. Floyd had everything ready and he took care of the planting afterward. When Floyd died, Carl took care of the grove for a while. When I quit farming I took care of the oranges, including Carl’s, for now he is 87 although he still helps at it.

We went to Florida the first time for a week, the next time for two weeks. I would have to arrange my hog farming so that they were not pigging when we wanted to go.

Charlie Colby, the Clarksville banker, got 40 acres adjoining us at Lake Como and he put a little house on it. It was arranged so that one month we could have it, another he would be there and one month his sister, Leona, who worked in his bank, would be there. That took up January, February and March. Finally in 1967 we built our A frame house. All the kids came down and helped. Don and Elaine Nash, Kendall Cross---our kids---we once had fifteen there helping with the house.

We stayed farming here until Nell got sick. The A frame was 24’ x 24’. The timbers we got in Tampa where they had come by boat from Oregon. I spent the summer collecting materials for building and finally loaded the big truck with all those things for the building. The main timbers we had planed and then gave them a varnish finish before we erected them. We had bought here a bent (100 sheets) of plywood from Sherm. We built that house from February 5 to April 5. Neil Huizenga came and helped me. The next year we brought the furniture we had collected and even had a tractor on that load. I still use that tractor in the orange grove.

When Nell got sick I was still farming but the livestock were gone and the farming was all corn, wheat and soy beans. By that time we were six months here and six months in Florida. I had had the mix-mill business. Allen Cross had helped me put the mills up all over the state. That was kind of petering out and I didn’t want to be away from home that much anymore.

Nell passed away and I was here by myself. Then one of my nephews married one of Vera’s daughters. They asked me to come to Chicago in the fall and asked me how I was getting along. I had to admit I was pretty much by myself. The new bride said, “I sure wish you could meet my mother. She is in California by herself.” Nell’s sister said, “She’s a real nice lady.” She gave me her name and address and telephone number and said, “Now it’s up to you”.

So finally I called her one time and I went out there and met Vera. I don’t know how the Lord ever did that. She has been a wonderful wife. We tried to farm the first year. I didn’t want to move in the house where Nell and I had lived, so I sold that to Joyce and Rich Tuitman. Joyce was Nell’s favorite niece. John and Shirley were living in Nora’s house since Nora died; Ken and Evelyn David were living at Coats Grove; Linda was working in Grand Rapids so none of the children wanted the place. We bought a motor home and parked between the pine trees on the old Sindlinger farm. That summer we planted the crops and Vera enjoyed it but she was never a farm girl. We had a wedding invitation from a nephew in California. John offered to harvest the wheat, leaving the corn and soy beans for me to handle when we came home.

While we were idling at Laguna Beach I said to Vera, “The bloom of farming is all off now”. Everything on the farm was what Nell and I had done together. We were reading THE BANNER, our church magazine. In it was an ad asking for an agriculturist for a mission in Mexico. Before Vera went to California she had worked for the BACK TO GOD HOUR as the Spanish secretary for the Spanish speaking minister. Because she was born in Italy and knew Italian, they had sent her to school to learn Spanish as a Secretary. She knew Spanish well.

We talked it over and I called the Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids. The Grand Rapids people knew me from my association with the Portland Christian Reformed Church. They had sent a missionary to Mexico and he had started little churches. The people there were hungry. If you asked a woman how many children she had, she would list five dead and four living or three dead and two living, on that order. The missionary had asked for the Church to send some agriculturists. A young fellow from Michigan State University and one from Ohio State University were there. They wanted them to teach the Mexicans to raise crops. They got into the land that had once been home to the Mayas. It was beautiful land but all grown up and they had to bulldoze it all down. They were going to buy a big D 8 Caterpillar tractor for $150,000. I said I had had a couple of Caterpillars when I was on the farm. They asked if I would go down there and volunteer a couple of years to get the project on the road. We said, “Yes”.

John and Johnnie came running over to our motor home on the Sindlinger place on the motorcycle for coffee one day. I said, “We have decided we are going to quit farming, would you like to buy the place?”

John replied, “Yes, Dad, I’d like to keep it in the units.” We had all the ASC acreage allotments and to transfer it would not break up the arrangement. John said, “I would like to have it.”

By that time Ken and Evelyn wanted to buy the original 80 acres. So they were over there at Coats Grove and bought the Wallace eighty; John bought this here; Larry got a piece on Bippley Road and Linda got some money; she lives in Grand Rapids. With that taken care of, we took off.

In February we flew to Mexico to see what we had to do. After I saw the kind of trees they had there I thought I could get by with a brand new D 4 Caterpillar tractor. That would cost only $40,000. I was risking that my judgment might be wrong. We bought the new Cat in Peoria, Illinois, had it shipped to Mexico City and moved it on to Merida where we put it in a garage. We put it in a shop after we arrived there in April and had a cab welded on the tractor and put rippers on the blade like Phil Spitzley had, so that when he backed up it would rip the roots out. We hired a truck and had the tractor hauled 150 miles into the bush to a little town 25 miles inland from the Yucatan city of Campeche on the Gulf of Mexico. We went there. They started a cooperative of 22 men. The idea was to give each of them two hektares (5 acres) of cleared land and in turn they had two haktares that they worked for the Church. Cal Lubbers was the agriculturist. He told me the rains would come on May 15 though it was still dry in April.

We started bulldozing at 110 degrees in the heat of the day. I worked there every day at that. I called for some help. They sent me a man from Grand Rapids, a young fellow who was attending Reformed Bible College. He was from Iowa. His father had an Oliver business and the boy had run a Caterpillar in Iowa. He came to Mexico and he would take over the Cat when I would leave and do a little more before I came to work in the morning. I had a big John Deere disc to chop up the soil and we had a piece of railroad steel we dragged behind the disc to level the ground. The rains did not come until June. We got sixty some acres of land ready for the 22 men.

I trained two men, one 22 years old and one 34 years old to run that tractor. They learned how to drain the oil, how to use the hour-meters and keep watch of the filters. We have gone back there every year since we were there in 1973-74. We bought the motor home and took it to the project rather than living in a house where I would have to drive to reach the place. The Church paid our expenses though we volunteered our time.

Vera was asked to teach the Maya people to speak Spanish so they could sell their crops in the market. They knew some Spanish but they could not talk or figure in the market place. Vera went with me three days a week to the village to teach Spanish. Their animals were kept in the villa a mile away from the crop land. There were seven Maya temples that the government was unaware of. The boys had dug around in them a couple of years before we got there because they had heard that the Gringos wanted stuff out of there. They said all they got was some broken pottery because much earlier, the Spaniards had looted the valuables.

Today they have sold the Caterpillar and they have two big John Deere tractors. They have five irrigation wells and 600 acres under cultivation. They are raising corn, soy beans and peanuts. Their diet had been mostly corn, all carbohydrates, and I was trying to teach them to grow some crops with protein. Now they have a great big granary made of posts with a raised floor to protect it from rats. All their corn is shelled and placed in big coffee bags. They are a grain exporting community now. Instead of 22 families in the cooperative there are now forty.

The next year we went into the mountains in Wahakah (spelling?). There were coffee growers there. They wanted us to teach them to raise some variety of crops. I had a garden plot there. A Mexican doctor loaned his tractor for fitting it. We were there a year helping them raise hogs and chickens. We got a hog setup going that has worked into a big deal for their supplementary income.

For all the good experience of farming in Sebewa and all our many friends there, the mission work in Mexico has been the most rewarding thing the both of us have every experienced. You can imagine the friends you make. We have had people from there come to Florida to visit us and we go back there to visit and keep up our contacts with the projects.

We had quite a decision to make a year ago. The Church wanted an agriculturist to go to Bangaladesh. We struggled with that for three months. I would have liked to have gone but they wanted a commitment of six years and at our age that seemed overwhelming. They also have a project in Sierra Leone in Africa. Perhaps some younger people can take on those jobs while we help support them as we can.

John Lich, Lake Como, Florida 32057

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association,
OCTOBER 2001, Volume 37, Numbers 2. Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI.
Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: Leak, Prince, Evans, Nicholson, Wilson, Sandborn, Luz, Halladay, Luscher, Gibbs, Deatsman, Sears, Erdman, Hunziker, Faes, Peters, Dunlap, Daniels, Ingall, Ingalls, Fancher, Sowles, Clark, Hamm, Smith, Shilton, Wyma, Clow, Lippenscott, McCormack, Carpenter, Gates, Ritter, Gibbons, Stanton, Harper, Duffey, Catlin, Kneale, Matoon, Whitlock, Burgess, Brooks, Torrey

RECENT DEATHS:

HERBERT WILSON EVANS, 96, widower of Harriet NICHOLSON EVANS, father of Janet CARTER, Harold & Ronal EVANS, brother of the late Estin EVANS & Mildred BROWN, son of Christina WILSON & Albert EVANS, son of Susan & Jacob W. EVANS. Herb was a farmer & shepherd, worked in Portland milk plant, General Motors war plant, and in the maintenance department at Portland High School. Buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

MAX VANCE SANDBORN, 79, husband of Delores LUZ SANDBORN, father of Craig, Randy, Ryan, Lynn & Jill SANDBORN, and Diane WILLARD, brother of Kathyleen ROGERS & Dwaine SANDBORN, son of Bernice Esther HALLADAY & Jacob Watson SANDBORN, son of Elma Winifred LUSCHER & Lawrence (Lon) Watson SANDBORN, son of Sarah Jane GIBBS & Columbus SANDBORN, son of Edward SANDBORN, who settled in Sebewa Township in the 1850s. Bernice HALLADAY was the daughter of Martha Jane DEATSMAN & Arthur HALLADAY, son of Mildred Eliza SEARS & Charles Lincoln HALLADAY, son of Amanda & Elihu HALLADAY, who settled in Sebewa Township in 1852. Elma LUSCHER was the daughter of Minnie C. ERDMAN & Jacob LUSCHER, son of Anna HUNZIKER & Jacob LUSCHER, son of Anna FAES & Hans Jakob LUSCHER. Jacob LUSCHER, Sr. settled in Sebewa Township in the 1850s also. Minnie ERDMAN was the daughter of Hanna PETERS & Michael F. ERDMAN, son of Sophie & Christian Frederick ERDMAN. Michael ERDMAN came from Posen, East Prussia, to Sebewa Township in 1870. Sarah Jane GIBBS was the daughter of Mariam & Robert GIBBS, who settled in Sebewa Township in 1858. Max SANDBORN operated an earth-moving business for over 40 years and retired to the home farm. He is buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

IVA CLOE (INGALL) DUNLAP, 101, sister of the late Greta STAMBAUGH, daughter of Ada DANIELS & D. C. INGALL, son of William INGALL, who settled in Sebewa Township before 1875. Iva was our last survivor of the 1800s. Her photo appeared on the cover of our April-June 2001 Issue as a scholar at GODDARD School. She is buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

Charles HALL INGALLS, 80, husband of June INGALLS, father of James & Michael INGALLS, brother of the late Louis C. INGALLS, son of Florence FANCHER & Clarence M. INGALLS, son of Phioa SOWELES & Charles WATTERS INGALLS, son of Lucinda CLARK & Charles Manley INGALLS, son of Catherine D. HAMM & Charles Wesley INGALLS, son of Abigail & Jonathan INGALLS, Sebewa’s only soldier in the Revolution. This family is the oldest permanent family in Sebewa Township, having settled here in 1838. They are not to be confused with the INGALL family above. Charles Hall INGALLS is buried in Danby Cemetery.

JOHN M. SMITH, 72, husband of Bertha SHILTON SMITH, father of Dale, Kendall & Jeffrey SMITH and Karen ORTA, brother of Henry & Marvin SMITH, son of Rena WYMA & Gerrit SMITH. John farmed in Sebewa Township all his life, as well as working 14 years for KEELER Brass and as a supervisor for various muck farmers. He is buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

BURTON M. SMITH, 95, widower of Winifred CLOW SMITH, father of Selma WILlIAMSON and Burton M. (Jack) SMITH, brother of the late Clyde, Clifton, Glenn and Violet Smith, son of William & Louise SINDLINGER SMITH. He was born and raised in Sebewa, on the old William T. GOODRICH farm, across MUSGROVE Hwy. from our farm. He attended Sebewa Center School, graduated from Sunfield High School, worked for SMITH-GROEN Lumber Co., manufacturing windows, and farmed all his life near Clarksville. Buried in Clarksville Cemetery.

REV. JOHN A. LIPPENCOTT, 81, husband of Margery LYNK LIPPENCOTT, father of John III, James, and Rev. Anne LIPPENCOTT, and Katherine DAVIDGE, brother of Allene CONNERS and the late Frances GOODMAN, E. Norma SPENCER, Rachel BINNS and Beth BAILEY, son of Blanche HALLADAY & John R. LIPPENCOTT, son of Allen B. LIPPENCOTT, Civil War Veteran, who settled in Sebewa right after the Civil War. Blanche was the daughter of Ethelynd Lena McCORMACK & George Edgar HALLADAY, son of Rosabella GATES & Abel C. HALLADAY, son of Nancy CARPENTER & David HALLADAY. Rosabella was the daughter of Ezra GATES & Elizabeth INGALLS, daughter of Abigail & Jonathan INGALLS, Sebewa’s only Soldier of the Revolution, whose family were the first settlers in 1838. Buried on his parents’ lot in East Sebewa Cemetery.

PAUL RITTER, 86, father of Nancy WAGNER & Karen KING, brother of Jane REYNOLDS, Jean HARRIS, Maynard RITTER and the late Maxwell & Royal RITTER, son of Pearl GIBBONS & Floyd Maxwell RITTER, son of Sarah Jane STANTON & Anthony RITTER, son of Elizabeth Ann HARPER & Samuel RITTER, who settled in Orange Township in 1849. Paul was the genealogist of the Ritter family. See June 1999, February 2000, April 2000 and June 2000 issues for more information on the Ritter family.

BERNARD E. DUFFEY, 76, husband of Betty BROWN DUFFEY, father of Linda MOYER and Gordon, Dennis & Ken DUFFEY, brother of Berwell DUFFEY and Maxine BROWN, son of Burr DUFFEY & Hazel CATLIN. A WWII Army Veteran defending the Panama Canal, Bernard was a life-long farmer, member of the John Deere Two-cycle Club, and Danby Township Board of Trustees, where he always had a kind word, a joke, or some thoughtful input.

GENEVA E. (WHITLOCK) KNEALE, 93, widow of Howard KNEALE, mother of LaVerne, Gary and the late Lyle KNEALE, sister of the late Harold WHITLOCK, daughter of Margaret MATOON & Alfred WHITLOCK, she taught at Boyne City School, Hinderleider Rural School, and the Sebewa Center School, and farmed with her husband. Buried in Balcom Cemetery.

MARIE E. (TORREY) BURGESS, 88, widow of Irven BURGESS, mother of Kay CREIGHTON, Sherilyn THOMAS & Glenwood BURGESS, sister of Charles TORREY and the late Chalmer, Cecil & Clair TORREY, daughter of Kate BROOKS & Glenn TORREY, buried in Portland Cemetery.

CENSUS FIGURES FOR SEBEWA TOWNSHIP have not changed much in 150 years:
1850 247 (just 40 families)
1860 635
1870 932
1880 1551
1930 913
1940 929
1950 941
1960 891
1970 948
1980 1105
1990 1160
2000 1202
Our very unscientific survey shows we now have approximately 430 family dwellings in the township and of that number, at least 205 have someone with an ancestor in the area more than 100 years ago.

MICHIGAN TOWNSHIPS ASSOCIATION (MTA) SPRING DISTRICT MEETINGS TOUR by Grayden SLOWINS:

Sunday, April 29, 2001, we headed north in our Motor Home on M-66 & M-115, to check out our meeting site at Crystal Mountain Resort, Thompsonville, MI.

Tuesday, May 1, we were up early to get to our first conference, because, as President, I speak first on the agenda each day at 9:00AM. Today it is MTA District 5, at Crystal Mountain………I leave the MTA issues for discussion by the staff. I talk about the current remodeling at MTA Headquarters in Lansing, about staff changes and the five new department heads, about our Legislative Task Forces with all 44 Board Members divided among seven areas of legislation according to their interest & expertise, introduce the Director(s) in each District, and survey preferences for Annual Conference dates & locations.

We ate dinner that night with our MTA staff in a nice restaurant called Steamers, overlooking the Ludington Car Ferry.

Wednesday, May 2, up early for today’s conference for District 8, at West Shore Community College, between Ludington and Scottville………Wednesday, May 9, we were up and to Harris, six miles west of Escanaba, for today’s District 2 conference at Chips Island Resort and Casino………it is a nice meeting facility……Friday, May 11, last meeting for the week at Charlevoix Country Club……District 4………Monday, May 14, brings District 9 meeting at Comfort Inn in Mt. Pleasant, with the same routine………Wednesday, May 16, went to the Holiday Inn at East Tawas for the District 7 conference………Thursday, May 17, brings the tenth and last district meeting of the Spring Tour, District 6 at Houghton Lake Quality Inn. At each meeting, part of my presentation has been to introduce myself as retired from 32 years as Sebewa Township Clerk, 28 years as Cemetery Sexton, and 69 ½ years as a Shepherd. Then I explained the current predicament I am in because of protecting my flock from stray dogs on my sheep farm. Here in Houghton Lake, as at every other district meeting, 5 or 6 people came up to me afterward in the halls, or at lunch, or in the Men’s Room, and related stories from their personal experience, or a family member, or a friend, who was faced with a similar problem with calves, pigs, colts, chickens, turkeys, or sheep & lambs. They had to stop the dogs before they acted, not after, otherwise horrible damage can and often has resulted. Some have color photos to document. Even those who love their dogs recognize that a valued dog must be kept at home and accidental straying is not a valid excuse. I believed I had not only a legal right, but a moral obligation to protect my flock, as did they.

We covered 2271 miles on the 16 days traveled and got 11 miles per gallon – not bad for a Motor Home.

We will have another tour for the counties and districts in the southern half of the State in September. Some of the legislative issues may have changed – there seems to be good progress in the Legislature on Annexation/Detachment bills.

PHOTOS: These are unidentified photos found in the LEAK family photo album once owned by Thomas LEAK, currently owned by Carol LEAK, wife of the late James D. LEAK of Sebewa Twp., Ionia County, MI. If you can identify any of these folks, let us know!

Contact Pam SWILER, President, Ionia County Genealogical Society. 13051 AINSWORTH Road, Rt. 3, Lake Odessa, MI 48849-9406.

These were tin types, some of which were starting to rust and deteriorate from age and environment. Tin types were introduced about 1856 and were a negative image which was produced on a thin iron plate. This type of photography peaked about 1860-1863 and were last made in about 1867. Tin types in various other forms were produced until about 1930. (Source: Randy GLADSTONE, Mason, MI).

Photographer was T. J. PRINCE, in Lake Odessa from December 1894 until at least 1900. Sherman D. JOY and the Nichol Brothers were in business in about 1897 (Source Lake Odessa, A Centennial History, by John R. WAITE)

This type of photography was popular during the 1870s and 1880s. It was first introduced in about 1863 and lasted until the 1920s.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association;
DECEMBER 2001, Volume 37, Number 3 (Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI).
Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: Allen, Desgranges, Lane, VanHouten, Hough, Braden, Ryder, Wolverton, Rankin, Wackman, Stockinger, Norwood, Baldwin, Parmenter, Polmanter, Polmater, Meyers, Carroll, Wrisley, David, Stump

RECENT DEATHS:

WILLIAM R. (Bill) ALLEN, 53, husband of Ruth Ann ALLEN, father of Michael W. ALLEN and Billie Jo ALLEN-MILLER, brother of James ALLEN and Barbara KRUIS, son of Alona J. DESGRANGES & Roger A. ALLEN, son of Laura LANE & William ALLEN, son of Clara E. ALLEN, son of Clara & George ALLEN, who settled on Portland Road in Berlin Township before 1891.

Bill ALLEN was a farmer, barn & house painter, and tree trimmer. He painted our farm buildings and Sebewa Town Hall several times, and we continue to get compliments, especially for the “Painted Lady” trim job he did on our Victorian home. He was an active member of the Ionia Corners Fox Club, which has been ridding the area of coyotes in recent years. After his funeral, fifteen combines and numerous semis harvested his 400 acres of corn and soybeans in less than four hours. Many tears were shed as it was said that Bill would have been the first in the field for anyone else.

KEITH L. VanHOUTEN, 74, husband of Dortha VanHOUTEN, father of Mike and Linda VanHOUTEN, brother of Geneva DENNY and late Clarence, Chalmer, Gerald, Theo, and Paul VanHOUTEN, son of Clara HOUGH & William Glenn VanHOUTEN, son of Amanda BRADEN & John Jacob VanHOUTEN, son of of John Henry VanHOUTEN & Betsey Ann RYDER, daughter of Elsia E. & Stephen RYDER, who settled at the corner of TUPPER Lake Road and GODDARD Road in Sebewa Township in 1854. Keith worked in Tool & Die for Chrysler Plant in Lyons and is buried at Balcom Cemetery.

RICHARD WOLVERTON, 80, husband of Polly WOLVERTON, father of Joani SLAGER, Kerrie IDEMA, and the late Kathy and Randy WOLVERTON, brother of Corinne BROWN, Carol WINTON, and the late Katherine and Robert WOLVERTON, son of Ella & Lester WOLVERTOON, son of Mattie RANKIN & Elmer S. WOLVERTON, son of Elsie WACKMAN & Israel M. WOLVERTON, who settled on Kelsey Hwy. in Orange Township in 1863, and operated the Township’s first Tavern (Stage Coach Inn) in their large brick home now owned by Eleanor FERRIS. Rich was a farmer, livestock dealer, and FFA National Champion Livestock Judge in his youth. Buried at Lakeside.

EARL J. (SONNIE) ALLEN, 73, husband of Johanna STOCKDINGER ALLEN, whom he married in Vienna, Austria, in 1948, father of David ALLEN, brother of Donald & Charles ALLEN, and a half-sister, the late Daisy PARMENTER, son of Earl J., Sr., & Reatha NORWOOD ALLEN, daughter of Chester & Pearl BALDWIN NORWOOD, pioneer settlers in Portland Township. The PARMENTER (POLMANTEER, POLMATER) family (Reatha’s first marriage) were early settlers on Eaton Highway in Sebewa Township before 1875. The Earl ALLEN family lived in Sebewa Corners for a time in the 1950s & 1960s, but Sonnie grew up across the back fence from our farm in Portland, and we do not know if they are part of the pioneer Sebewa ALLEN families. Earl served in the US Army in World War II and Korea, then 30 years as a corrections officer in Michigan Reformatory.

LINDA D. MEYERS CARROLL, 58, wife of James CARROLL, mother of Troy, Todd & Chad CARROLL, sister of Eric & Brett MEYERS, Ellen MAYNARD & Suzy HILTS, daughter of June WRISLEY & Homer MEYERS, a descendant of the pioneer MEYERS family who settled in Sebewa Township before 1875 and just over the line in Woodland Township in the late 1830s. Linda was buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

MICHIGAN TOWNSHIPS ASSOCIATION (MTA) FALL DISTRICT MEETINGS TOUR by Grayden SLOWINS:

Wednesday, September 12, 2001, we headed north on M-66……Ithaca, for the first Fall District meeting, in MTA District 12. This is our home district and we did not camp overnight. Everyone was pretty much in a state of shock from the events of September 11 in New York City and Washington, D.C. To think it had been only four days since we headed home from the National Association of Towns & Townships Annual Conference in Washington! We came and went by chartered bus. Some folks flew, and two Directors stayed behind for extra sight-seeing. One got caught in the traffic grid-lock outside Reagan National Airport just after the Pentagon was struck.

She cell-phoned to the car-rental agency and they told her to drive the car back to Michigan and there would be no charge other than her gas. That was just one of many kind acts the nation has seen in this time of disaster.

Thursday, Sept. 13, we again drove directly to the meeting site, this time for District 16 at Ramada Inn in Coldwater. Then home for the weekend………Monday, Sept. 17, into Holland for District 11 meeting………Tuesday for trip to Jackson for District 17 meeting………Monday, Sept 24……to Owosso for MTA District 13 meeting………Tuesday, Sept 25, Bad Axe for MTA District 14 meeting. This group reports the highest percentage of ‘Good’ Board meetings, and yet the lowest percentage of Boards that receive a packet with agenda & information before each meeting. Curious!

The members of MTA District 19 are some of the most responsive and interactive, and have a history of best attendance at Annual Conference. They also represent more rapidly-developing Townships, so need lots of help with their problems. I accidently left a story about Evie DAVID out of my speech, but they needed the time for questions………on to Dundee……ate supperwith MTA Executive Director……Thursday, Sept 27, final District Meeting, in District 18.

THE EVELYN DAVID STORY by Grayden SLOWINS:

The story about Evelyn DAVID, our Membership Information Director at MTA, tells how I first came to hire her. She was a Sebewa native with two small children and working at Meijer. I first hired her as an Election Inspector about 1974. In 1976, I appointed her Chairperson of Elections for the Primary & General Elections. When 488 people out of a possible 500 voted their paper ballots, a turnout of 97 ½%, mostly for President Gerald R. FORD, our congressman, we had a long night. The next year our Township Supervisor died in office and I convinced the Board to appoint Evie, the first woman Supervisor/Assessor in central Michigan. All Fall, while hauling corn to town for her brother, John, she took a different road to town each day and eyeballed the property changes, then went back later to measure. Come Board of Review time, Evie was ready. So were some of the old-style farmers.

Bill STUMP came in with bibbed overalls and chewing tobacco and said “I’m going to show that girlie a thing or two”. He kept calling her girlie all thru the hearing. “Girlie, I’ve got a five-acre swamp in the middle of my farm and you didn’t subtract it from my cropland!”

(Evie answered) “Oh, yes, I did. But would you say it measured about eight rods by ten rods?” We farmers think in rods, not yards like city folks.

He thought a minute and said “yes, I guess that’s about right”.

“Well, that’s not five acres, that’s half an acre”, (Evie answered).

He thought again and said “By golly Girlie, you got that right!”

(She continued) “But while I was out there, I noticed you cleared some more cropland along the edge of the woods. Would you say about two acres?”

(He answered) “Yes, I did, and two acres sounds about right”. So he left with his assessment raised and he was happy as a clam, because Evie got it right! And that’s how she handles every question called in to MTA. She came to MTA about six months before I did, and we were sorry to lose her in Sebewa Township.
END

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association (Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI); FEBRUARY 2002, Volume 37, Number 4. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: Pryer, Plummer, Howe, Phillips, Csonka, Shoemaker, O’Mara, Endres, Steinberg, Schnabel, Pray, Hammond, Pope, Kennedy, McEdeard, Megarah, Buck, Duffell, White, Morehouse, Olry, Leak, Sindlinger, Heintzelman, Hazel, Gunn, Probasco, Shay

RECENT DEATHS:

VERNON PRYER, 86, husband of Mary Jane PLUMMER PRYER, father of Patricia Ann PRYER, Thomas Warren PRYER, Ronald PLUMMER PRYER, and Terry Robert PRYER, brother of Loyd & Maxine PRYER and the late Clyde, Merlin & Donald PRYER, son of Thomas C. PRYER & Bertha HOWE. Vernon was born in Danby Township December 21, 1914, on the farm of his grandfather, William H. PRYER, son of of Thomas PRYER & Cornelia Ann PHILLIPS PRYER, who settled in Danby Township in 1850 on a farm deeded by the U.S. Government to his brother John in 1835, because Thomas was only 15. Vernon died July 27, 2001, Santa Ana, CA.

SUSAN MARY O’MARA CSONKA, 37, wife of Jeffrey, mother of Michael, Kaitlin, Bailey and Madison, sister of Onette McKENNA, Colleen GOODMAN, and David, Phillip, Patrick, Robert Stephen and Thomas K. O’MARA, daughter of Norma SHOEMAKER & Thomas S. O’MARA, son of Emma ENDRES & Frank O’MARA, son of John O’MARA & Pauline STEINBERG, daughter of Regina & Anton SCHNABEL, Sr.

THE PRAY FAMILY OF RONALD TOWNSHIP – IONIA COUNT AND SUPERIOR TOWNSHIP – WASHTENAW COUNTY by Grayden SLOWINS:

George PRAY, M.D. was born August 27, 1825, in Allegany County, New York. His father was Ezek PRAY, a farmer born in Connecticut. His mother was Sallie A. HAMMOND, born, raised and married in Rhode Island. They farmed in Allegany County, came to Michigan in 1825, when George was five weeks old, and were among the earliest settlers in Superior Township, Washtenaw County. They purchased and improved a large farm, where he died in 1856 and she in 1872. Their log house burned in 1839, and the red brick Federal-style house built in 1840 still stands in 2002 at 8755 Plymouth Road.

George PRAY/S life up to age fourteen was similar to all boys on the farm. When fourteen he entered the Ann Arbor Academy and prepared for the University. In 1841, when the University opened, he entered the first class at age sixteen. He was graduated from the Classical Department in 1845. In 1846, after teaching a term of school, he began the study of medicine in the private medical school of Professors SAGER, DOUGLASS, and GUNN. He later transferred to the Medical Department at Case Western Reserve, in Cleveland, Ohio, and was graduated in 1849. he began practice in Salem, Washtenaw County.

In October, 1856, Dr. George PRAY relocated to Ronald Township, Ionia County, and purchased a large tract of land in connection with his practice. He was the first physician to locate permanently in the township and spent many long and hard rides in pursuit of his duty in the field of medicine. Thirty and forty miles per day were sometimes traversed, carrying oats for his horse and hoping for his own meals at the homes of patients. His farm consisted of five hundred and thirty acres on the north and east shores of WOODARD Lake. The full acreage was owned by the fourth generation into the 1980s, and the house and 128 acres belong to a great-great-great-step-niece in 2002.

In 1863, Dr. George PRAY returned to Ann Arbor and engaged in practice, but in 1867 came back to his productive Ronald farm and remained. On July 4, 1849, he had married Deidamia H. POPE, daughter of Willard and Barbara POPE, who was born November 28, 1828, in Pennsylvania, and died March 14, 1875, in Ronald Township. They had no children. April 9, 1876, Dr. PRAY married Ellen Adele COMSTOCK, daughter of Jared V. and Mary COMSTOCK. She was born in Montcalm County in February, 1858, and thus was age 18 and he age 50 when they married. One son, George PRAY, Jr., was born to this union June 16, 1877.

Although the 530 acre estate of George PRAY, Sr. was diminished somewhat in the 1870-1890 period, to pay debts or whatever, George PRAY, J., got it all back together in the early 1900s and his son, Dr. Frank PRAY owned it all his long life, along with property in the Ann Arbor area. Frank’s daughter was Mary ADAMSKI, and her step-niece, Terri (KENNETH) PICKETT now owns the house and 128 acres. Arthur PELON, Ronald Township Clerk, whose family members are long-time neighbors, owns the rest.

Dr. George PRAY Sr. was a Republican after the organization of that party, but was formerly a Democrat. He was Supervisor of Ronald Township for fourteen years, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Ionia County for several years, and represented his District in the Legislature in 1879-1880.

In religion his views were liberal. Both wives were members of the Disciples Church. The doctor also took great interest in the Grange movement and, with the exception of his time spent in the Legislature, was either Master or Secretary of the WOODARD Lake Grange every year from its organization. For four years he was Master of the Ionia County Grange. The WOODARD Lake Grange Hall stood near the church and cemetery on the north edge of the Pray farm, facing WOODS Road. WOODARD Lake Cemetery contains one of three Revolutionary War Veterans buried in Ionia County, William PANGBORN, Louden ANDREWS is in LETTS Cemetery, Berlin Township, and Jonathan INGALLS is in Sebewa Township, south of Sebewa Corners.

When 16-year-old George WASHINGTON PRAY started at the University of Michigan, his father took him and his belongings the first time with a team and wagon. Thereafter he often walked the 10 miles from the farm home to his room on campus. He wasn’t the first student to arrive at the newly opened University, he was the second, because Lyman NORRIS from nearby Ypsilanti Township beat him by a week. But PRAY has a greater distinction – he kept a diary of everything that happened those four years, and we have excerpts.

George was able to go to school because his father, Esek, was wealthy enough to do without his son’s help on the farm. Besides, there were three children older than him and four younger. In 1836 Esek had been a delegate to Michigan Territory’s Second Constitutional Convention, called to ratify the war of Toledo, Ohio, for the Upper Peninsula, a requirement for Michigan’s admission to the Union. Esek was active in educational and agricultural organizations and the Democratic Party, and served at least nine years as a Justice of the Peace.

Five other students arrived that day and three more would trickle in – and one would trickle out – by the end of the first academic year, leaving nine Freshmen. Perhaps as many as 20 young men were part of PRAY’S class at one time or another, including transfers, but only six of the original nine Freshmen were among the U-M 11-member first graduating class in 1845. There were just two professors and a part-time librarian that first year.

Four houses for faculty and their families had been built by 1840, of which only the President’s House remains in 2002. The campus was farmed by Patrick KELLY, the caretaker, and had a jumble of sheds for horses, cattle, chickens and hogs, as well as a high picket fence to keep University livestock in and keep out the hogs and stray dogs that roamed Ann Arbor at will. For PRAY, the entire University was contained in the fifth building, Main Hall. Here he slept, attended lectures and recitations, studied, went to chapel, took in literary society meetings, examined the University’s scientific collections, including one of the largest stores of mineral specimens in the world, and read books from the school’s 4000 volume library.

University of Michigan had no gas, electricity, running water or sewage system then. In all weather they used the latrine behind the building. Night trips between campus and town meant weaving a path through stumps and ditches in complete darkness. In their room, light came from candles or from the fire in the iron stove. Unless they heated it in a kettle on the stove, the water for washing, shaving, and scrubbing the floor was always cold. They drew water from the faculty’s well, carried their buckets across the muddy, unpaved campus, and lugged them up to their rooms. They sawed and carried piles of wood into the “wood closet” of each room.

In Ann Arbor, only 10 miles from his farm home near Dixboro, George PRAY felt out of place and ill at ease with the girls of town society. He longed to be in the country and wrote of one occasion when 50 farm boys and girls gathered to eat and sing, and a farm girl gave him “a pressing embrace which threatened to break every bone in my body”. Ann Arbor had about 2,500 inhabitants at that time, and because of the Univeristy as well as the County Seat, attracted an unusual number of teachers, professors, lawyers, and booksellers.

George PRAY’S diary told of the coming of the “cars” on the Inter-Urban railroad, Samuel Morse’s new telegraph, the new daguerreotype studio where he had his likeness done. With such a small student body, all classes were required, the texts were fixed by the Regents, and there were no grades. At the end of each of the three terms, students were given pass-fail oral examinations and perhaps an essay on an assigned topic. PRAY doesn’t mention any student failing, but there was a great turnover.

The two professors who taught throughout PRAY’S four years were Rev. Joseph WHITING for Greek and Latin, and George P. WILLIAMS for natural philosophy and mathematics. Others were added from time to time for: mental philosophy (logic), political economy (outlines of constitutions), moral sciences (proof of the accuracy of Christian doctrine), chemistry, geology, zoology and botany. PRAY’S passion was botany. Savillion SCHOFF, from Portland, Michigan, a year behind him, shared PRAY’S interest, and with this “great naturalist” and others, PRAY created a new club called The College of Natural History of the University of Michigan, in 1845.

Pressed for funds as always, the University Regents allowed the students to take (and pay for) outside lessons. With no professor of modern languages, PRAY took German from a William MENTZING, and elocution from another man. Students also undertook to plant the needed trees on the barren campus. PRAY’S Senior Class tried to form an artful XLV design with trees “to mark the year we graduate, though I think it will be hard to read”.

With no cafeteria in Main Hall, PRAY made his way across the four or five block swath of underdeveloped land between the University and town for breakfast, lunch and supper. From the time he entered as a freshman, PRAY took his meals at the boarding house of Earl GARDNER, an editor of the Ann Arbor Argus, and his wife, Frances. There he met Frances’s younger sister, Deidamia H. POPE, who was named after the wife of Achilles.

“I was a sophomore, the only boarder”, PRAY wrote of his first meeting with her when he was 17, in 1842. Deidamia was about 14, “tall, beautiful, red cheeked and red lipped”, a companion in his loneliness. “I was ardent, she timid. I was vexed with her, still she influenced me”. He marveled at “how entirely did she gain my childish and youthful affection”. Deidamia united the town sophisticate and the country innocent. She was one of the minuscule number of women receiving higher schooling back then. The University housed a state-supported preparatory school (high school) for a few years, but unlike those in Monroe, Tecumseh, White Pigeon and Niles, for example, did not admit women. Deidamia found her way to the well-regarded Ann Arbor school for young women run by Mary CLARK, who offered Latin, French, German, botany and math, as well as piano, drawing, painting and fancy work.

As one of the up-to-date young women of the town, Deidamia dressed in the way PRAY despised, “Disfigured by a diabolical big bustle”. Sharing meals, George and Deidamia spent hours in each other’s company, reading the same books (George lent her Abercombrie’s Intellectual Powers), sharing the same interests (she lent him one of her rare plant specimens) and growing closer as the years passed. But most important, Deidamia also fit into George’s country life. His sister Almira was a good friend of Deidamia’s at Miss CLARK’S and, to George’s delight, often brought her to the PRAY family home. “The girls came home; we had a great time playing and singing, etc.” Such a good time that he even “dared to kiss her” on New Year/s Eve, 1844!

After adding an MD degree in 1949 to his 1945 BA degree, (he also got a belated MA degree in 1863) George PRAY set up practice in the northeast corner of Washtenaw County, between his boyhood farm home at Dixboro on Plymouth Road, and the town of Salem, serving mainly Northfield and Salem Townships. Then on July 4, 1849, on the way to his brother, Joseph’s, wedding, he and Deidamia suddenly decided to get married. He was 23, she was 20. They lived in Salem-Northfield until 1856, then in Ronald Township (Ionia County, MI). They spent the Civil War years in Ann Arbor, with him spending part of the time on his Master’s Thesis.

Long an Abolitionist, he first supported John Pl HALE for President on that platform in 1848. George also ran for State Representative from Ionia County on the Prohibitionist ticket in 1872, before being elected as a Republican in 1878. He wrote that he first saw the evils of demon rum while tending bar as a child in his father’s roadside tavern on the Plymouth Road farm.

Returning to the Ronald farm in 1867, their life there was good, until Deidamia became ill with pneumonia and died childless on March 14, 1875, at the age of 46. After a year of mourning, he married Adele on April 9, 1876, and became the father of a boy on June 16, 1877. George and Adele had five children total, of whom three lived and attended the University of Michigan. After a day calling on patients in dead of winter, George too caught pneumonia and died January 27, 1890, at age 64. His two youngest children died of whooping cough within four months of his death. Five months after that, in October, Adele died of consumption at age 32, leaving three orphaned children, ages 13, 7 and 5. Probably it took those acres that were sold off for a while to put them thru the University.

DUNCAN G. KENNEDY OF PORTLAND by Grayden SLOWINS:

Duncan KENNEDY was one of the most well-known and respected citizens of Portland, MI, in the late 19th & early 20th Centuries. He was born in the Province of Ontario, Canada, June 9, 1846, son of James and Jane (McEdeard) KENNEDY, both natives of Scotland. They came to Canada with their parents when young, and grew up and were married there. The father was a stone-mason by trade, but after his marriage he engaged in farming. He took up two hundred acres of land from the government, which he improved into a good and prosperous farm.

He and his wife belonged to the Presbyterian Church, of which he was an elder. His death occurred in the city of Toronto, and his wife died on the home farm. They had five children, of whom three survived. They were: James, who engaged in the grocery business in Toronto, ON; William of Vancouver, BC, and Duncan of Portland, MI.

Duncan KENNEDY grew up on the home farm, attended country school, and set out to learn the blacksmith’s trade in 1860, at age 14. He established a shop in Portland in 1872, which he operated until 1885. Then he sold out and engaged in the hardware business for the next thirty-one years. He had a well-stocked old-fashioned hardware store, with bins and drawers and shelves, and ladders on tracks to reach the stock. He also sold smaller farm implements before the days of tractors. In 1916, at age 70, he retired and sold the store to Carl DERBY & Bill STOCUM, who were succeeded by Leo LEHMAN & Laban SMITH, followed by Aaron CHANNEL.

Duncan KENNEDY was married August 11, 1870, to Edith E. MEGARAH, who was born in West Unity, Ohio, April 26, 1848. Her mother died when she was a baby, and soon thereafter the father moved with his children to Toledo. In 1864 they came to Portland, MI. The father was a mill-wright and worked at his trade in Portland and nearby towns until 1865, when he bought a large farm at Collins and settled there. Edith had graduated from high school in Toledo and taught for some time in the high school in Portland, as well as at Crystal before her marriage. Duncan & Edith KENNEDY lived in the large square house on the northwest corner of James St. & Grant St.

Edith was a talented singer and led the Methodist choir, as well as singing at funerals and weddings. She was president of the Portland Women’s Relief Corps and active in the state organization. She was president of the Ladies’ Literary Society, and the Ladies Aid Society of the Methodist Church. She died January 2, 1913.

Duncan KENNEDY was a Democrat and long active in party affairs. He was president of the village in 1875-1876, then sixteen years as a member of the village council, then another four years as president. He also served as Portland Township Highway Commissioner and was active at all levels of Masons and Knights Templar. They had one daughter, also Edith, who married Louis SLOWINSKI, son of Theofil, son of Daniel SLOWINSKI, Sr. & Anna SCHNABEL. They lived and died in South Haven, where they ran a movie theatre, but are buried in Portland, near her parents and the FROST Mausoleum. Mrs. Edith KENNEDY and Mrs. Wm. FROST shared in the MEGARAH farm estate, possibly were sisters.

THE BUCK FAMILY OF PORTLAND TOWNSHIP by Grayden SLOWINS:

George A. BUCK was born July 8, 1858, in Avon Township, Lorain County, Ohio, son of Hart BUCK and Elizabeth DUFFELL BUCK. He and his brothers, Edwin A. BUCK, Bart BUCK and others, grew up on the family farm in Portland Township. They attended GIBBS country school and graduated from Portland High School. After high school, George taught school for eight winters and worked on the farm summers. Then he entered into partnership with his brother Edwin in buying and selling livestlock, along with the farming. In 1896 Edwin withdrew from the farm partnership, although he and George continued to bring in feeder cattle and lambs together, and to ship finished animals. Edwin also acquired his own farms to rent out.

George continued to farm the home place with his other brothers, especially Bart, and enlarged the operation by the addition of his in-laws’ farm. On August 4, 1897, George A. BUCK was united in marriage with Mary WHITE, daughter of Edwin WHITE and Emily MOREHOUSE White. They lived on their large farm on Lyons Road in Portland Township, around the bend from the Portland Dam and overlooking the riverbank. This property is now being developed by West Point Properties into a site-condominium project called Cottonwood Creek Estates. They also lived in the large WHITE family home on Smith Street in Portland, south of the Baptist Church.

Edwin WHITE, father of Mary WHITE BUCK, was born August 11, 1832, in Genesee County, New York, son of James and Jane WHITE, both of whom were born in New Jersey. James WHITE’S parents came from Ireland to New Jersey, while Jane was the child of Scottish immigrants. When Edwin WHITE was ten years of age, in 1842, he was brought to Portland Township by his parents. His father James bought a farm, cleared and worked it, and was also a painter and chair maker. Edwin remained on the home farm until his marriage, when he and his wife settled on a farm next to his parents. Thus the core of the WHITE-BUCK farms is not only centennial, but is beyond sesquicentennial, as it dates back to 1842. Edwin WHITE was married February 4, 1863, to Emily MOREHOUSE, born August 18, 1827, daughter of Oliver MOREHOUSE and Susan B. FARRAND MOREHOUSE. Oliver was born in Albany, New York, of Welch ancestry, and Susan in Newark, New Jersey, descended from French Huguenots on one side and English on the other.

Emily MOREHOUSE was brought by her parents to Wayne County, Michigan, in 1835, and her mother died there. Her father died in later years at the home of his daughter in Portland. Edwin & Emily WHITE became the parents of four children, Mary WHITE BUCK being the only survivor. Susie died at age sixteen and the other two as infants. Edwin WHITE was a lifelong Republican, but never sought public office. Later years they lived in the MOREHOUSE house on Smith.

George A. and Mary WHITE BUCK had two children, Harold W. BUCK, who graduated from Portland High School in 1916, and Evelyn Elizabeth, three years younger. The family were members of the Congregational Church and George was a trustee. He was a Republican but never held office. The big house was torn down to expand the Baptist Church.

Harold W. BUCK married Margaret GIBBONS of Charlotte. They lived in the house by the Baptist Church on Smith Street and he was in the insurance business. Their children were: Thomas G. BUCK, who graduated from Portland High School in 1950, also was in the insurance business, married Velma (Scotty) SCOTT, had daughter Cathy. They lived in Ohio, and then on the corner of Donna Drive and SLOWINS Avenue in Portland. Harold and Margaret’s other son was called Joe (George J.?) BUCK, graduated in 1954, lived in California? END

HEINTZELMAN UPDATE: In October 2000 Issue, Olive HEINTZELMAN SLATER’S husband’s name was Ivan Kenneth Slater, not Iran Keith, and of course Olive was a sister to Robert, not brother. Also William E. HEINTZELMAN, grandfather to Olive, Robert, Raymond and others, came to Sebewa in 1876.

HAZEL BROTHERS FARM DRAINAGE UPDATE: In 1996 Nikki HAZEL drove the big Steiger tractor on the tiling plow. Then she went off to L.C.C. to become a Physician’s Office Assistant. This fall her little sister, Becky (Rebecca Anne) operated the backhoe on our farm with speed and accuracy. Now her parents announce her engagement to Lynn MAZUREK. We hope she sticks to the tiling machine, too. Their sign says they started in 1892, but we are pretty sure her great-great-grandfather, George HAZEL, dug his first ditch around the village of Bonanza in 1885. Just can’t find the newspaper clipping right now.

SAM GUNN UPDATE: Dorothy ROBB, a descendant of Sam & Caroline GUNN, writes for information about their son Theodore, named for Sam’s brother. She also asks about the HELMER family, of which there are many around Ionia, but I don’t know of a connection to GUNNS. Her address is: 750 SCOTT Road, Salina, KS 67401.

PROBASCO-SHAY UPDATE: Rose STEWARD calls from Sunfield to comment on the SHAYTOWN Issue. She is daughter of Malcolm (Mack) SLATER, OD, son of Valmon SLATER, DVM, and her grandmother was a daughter of Ephraim PROBASCO, who owned the William ROSEVERE farm on BIPPLEY Road. SLATERS were around the corner on PETRIE Road.

END OF AN ERA by Grayden SLOWINS:

My year as President of Michigan Townships Association came to an end on January 18, 2002. Thanks to all who helped make it a successful year! The last of the sheep and lambs left on January 5. For the first time in my 70 years, there will be no baby lambs this spring. Ann still has her church organist job and I still have the RECOLLECTOR and a couple Boards of Trustees. More time to travel!

John F. and Margaret OLRY brought their seven children to this farm in 1849. They also brought a team of horses, a cow, a sow, a few chickens, and some sheep. The original log barn was maintained for many years to shelter the sheep, long after the new horse & grain barn was built in 1870 and the cow barn was built in 1882. Eventually we converted everything to sheep. Now, for the first time in 153 years, the only livestock on the Sebewa Sheep Farm are barn cats and the mice they catch. All the barns are silent for the first time ever.

Through his HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN, published in 1881, John S. SCHENCK contributed substantially to the story and photos of the George PRAY family. If you like his work, you can buy the new printing of his book. This book is the most comprehensive work on the history of Ionia County and Montcalm County ever written, and includes the earlier work of J. D. DILLENBECK in 1872. It is a must for every historian and genealogist. The book is available in hard-bound format with over 500 pages for $52.00 from: The Ionia County Genealogical Society, 13051 AINSWORTH Road, Lake Odessa, MI 48849.

NEWS CLIPPINGS: From the Ionia Standard, December 11, 1906: The following people from the Sebewa-Sunfield area have taken up homestead claims in North Dakota: E. H. DEATSMAN – 320 acres, Marvin KENYON – 320, Ella KENYON – 160, James KENYON – 120, Frank KENYON – 160, J. H. CREAMER – 160, Harvey VanBENSCHOTEN – 800, Ha. McCLELLAND – 160, Rob MERRIFIELD – 160, Will MERRIFIELD – 160, Bowers PEABODY – 160, Frank PEABODY – 160, Jason PEABODY – 120, Floyd PEABODY – 160, Rob RUMFIELD – 160. Many of these people eventually came back to Michigan, but not all of them.

FROM THE LAKE ODESSA WAVE, March 23, 1900: The United Brethren people of West Campbell contemplate building a new church in the neighborhood of the North Fish School (Pleasant Valley); quite a sum of money is already subscribed and about 17,000 board feet of saw logs are at the mills. They are a persevering people. (Editor’s note: My great-uncle Fred KLAHN, Sr., husband of Aunt Inez WENGER, was the contractor and Granddad John BRAKE was long the church treasurer.)

Also from the WAVE, March 23, 1900: Elmer LEAK, born February 10, 1879, died March 18, 1900, leaving father, mother, two brothers, two sisters and a host of other relatives. Jesse & M. LEAK were called home from Eaton Rapids by sickness & death of their brother.

Miss Carrie SMITH (McNEIL WHORLEY) left the employ of Mrs. Christian SINDLINGER to work for her father, Oliver D. SMITH, Sr. Minnie SINDLINGER, who teaches school, is home for vacation and taking her place. Albert W. MEYERS has his sawmill stuck in a snowdrift, while moving from the John GRIFFIN farm to the DRAVENSTATT job.

SOME PEOPLE LIKE THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR for the history, some for the genealogy, some for our travels, some like it all. If you don’t like any of it, please stop sending money so we can finish retiring. The April-June issues will again be combined, so five per year. There are no longer any dues, but we accept $5 donations to cover printing and the coming increase in postage: THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR, 3226 E. MUSGROVE Hwy., Lake Odessa, MI 48849.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association (Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI);
APRIL-JUNE 2002, Volume 37, Numbers 5-6. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: Eldridge, Borden, Slowinski, Schnabel, Goodenough, Carr, Zibowski, Kartuski, Collier, Gilbert, Petrie, Geiger, Whiters, Slater, Possehn, Fox, Schroeder, Buck, Pryer, Lakin, Baldwin, Phillips, Inglis, Van Riper, Andressen, Steinmets, Friend, Shaw, Brown, Meachum, Comb, Cramer, Zerfas, Linch, Sandborn, Lass, Senters

RECENT DEATHS:

HAZEL A. ELDRIDGE BORDEN, 100, widow of Robert BORDEN, mother of Anolah MOORE, grandmother of Edward & Richard MOORE and Margaret ROSSOW, sister of the late Hattie FARRELL, Eddie ELDRIDGE, Mattie WALTERS, Alta DEATSMAN, Ernest, James & Lewis ELDRIDGE, daughter of Rufus James (Jay) ELDRIDGE and Sophia (Sophie) SLOWINSKI, daughter of Ludwig (Louis) SLOWINSKI, son of Anna SCHNABEL & Daniel SLOWINSKI, Sr., son of Casmer SLOWINSKI. Jay ELDRIDGE was the son of Mary Ann GOODENOUGH & Edgar M. ELDRIDGE. Anna SCHNABEL was the daughter of Regina & Anton SCHNABEL, Sr. Born in Odessa Township on the M. V. CARR farm, Hazel attended CARR Rural School, was a telephone operator in Lake Odessa at age 16, then lived in Lansing. She is buried at Lake Odessa Lakeside Cemetery.

EDWARD J. (JACK) CARR, 77, widower of Jean Marie CARR, father of Cathy CARR, Paul CARR, Clara TRUAX & Mary ROSS, brother of Delores STEDG, Katherine MARTINI, Leo & Gene CARR, and the late George CARR & Clara TIMMERICK, son of Mary ZIBOWSKI & John CARR (KARTUSKI). Born and raised in Sebewa Township, mostly on the Heman BROWN farm, Jack had lived in Wisconsin for many years, where he was a dairy farmer. He is buried in Lakeside Cemetery.

JERENE M. (Corky) COLLIER, 76, husband of Charlotte PETRIE COLLIER, brother of the late Plynn COLLIER and Joyce MUNSON, son of Mina GILBERT & Ervin COLLIER, his grandparents are in West Sebewa Cemetery and Charlotte has one of the largest groups of ancestors in the East Sebewa Cemetery. Born on the south border of Sebewa Township, he lived in Lake Odessa, was Head Custodian at Lake Odessa & Lakewood Schools, then at Lake Manor in retirement. Buried at Lakeside Cemetery.

PHOEBE A. SLATER GEIGER, 99, widow of Russell A. GEIGER, mother of Donald, Von & Leroy GEIGER, and the late Eleanor POTTER & Madeline ALDERINK, sister of Forrest & Richard SLATER and Mary PETERSON, and the late Mable McCAUL and Carl, Roy & Keith SLATER, daughter of Rose WHITERS & Burt SLATER, granddaughter of Peter SLATER, who homesteaded on the farm on THOMPSON Road in Campbell Township long owned by my Grandfather John BRAKE and now occupied by Dale ZOOK’S Llama Farm. Phoebe & Russell operated the GEIGER Counter Restaurant. She is buried in Balcom Cemetery.

R. THOMAS POSSEHN, 70, husband of Katherine FOX POSSEHN, father of Christine WILSON, Jeanne GOOSMAN, Patricia EICKHOFF, Cheryl FARR, and Tom & Ron POSSEHN, brother of Donald & Raymond POSSEHN, Hulda SUTTON, Helen GODWIN, and Lucille HEPPE, and the late Harold & Herbert POSSEHN, son of Bertha SCHROEDER & William POSSEHN. Tom attended Coon Rural School, graduated from Ionia High School in 1950, worked for GenCorp and farmed all his life. Burial in Sunset Memorial Gardens.

MARIAN ADDIE PRYER LAKIN, 101, widow of Elon Dwight LAKIN, mother of Ann L. SLOWINS & Phyllis M. NEMECHECK BOYER, sister of the late Margaret Morna PRYER MORIARTY COREY JACQUES, daughter of Estella Edith BALDWIN & Frank WILSON PRYER, son of Cornelia Ann PHILLIPS & Thomas PRYER, son of Mary INGLIS & Merselus PRYER, son of Maria Van RIPER & Casparus PRYER, son of Sarah ANDRESSEN & Casparus PRYER, son of Johanna STEINMETS & Andreas PRYER, son of Margaret & Thomas PRYER, who emigrated from the Netherlands to New Jersey in 1674, but who ancestor was an officer in Queen Elizabeth I.’s army who fought in Holland in 1586-1887, and whose family had originally gone to England from Normandy Province of France with William the Conqueror in 1066.

Estella E. BALDWIN was the daughter of Phoebe Maria FRIEND & Rush PORTER BALDWIN, son of Matilda SHAW & Nathaniel BALDWIN Rush BALDWIN and his brothers settled on MUSGROVE Highway in Sebewa Township, right after serving in various Ohio Infantry & Cavalry units in the Civil War. Rush homesteaded the east 80 acres of the Fred & Theo BULLING farm, now owned by Charles & Edward LEIK. Their children were born and raised on that Sebewa farm. By 1899, they were living in their house on the left side at the top of James Street hill in Portland, which was originally built as the old red east side central school. After Phoebe Maria died in 1903, Rush married Emma BROWN in 1910 and owned the farm which is west 120 acres of what is now the Sunset Ridge Mobile Home Park in Portland Township on Grand River Avenue west of Portland City.

Phoebe Marie FRIEND was the daughter of Polly Ann MEACHUM & John FRIEND, son of Betty COMB & John FRIEND, who emigrated from England in 1833 with their seven children, landing at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The family settled near Beria, Ohio. After their marriage in 1843 and the birth of their four children, John & Polly Ann moved to Sebewa Township in 1854 and settled on the farm now owned by Jim & Sid STANK, and long known as the KNAPP farm. Polly Ann died in 1857 and John married Sarah J. CRAMER and had five more children. His youngest brother, James FRIEND settled between Carlton Center & Woodland and has many descendants in that area, as does John in Ionia County.

Marian PRYER LAKIN, born Marcy 17, 1900, died February 11, 2002, and lived most of her life on the farm in Sec. 3 Danby Township where she was born. Frank PRYER began acquiring the farm on March 9, 1895, with the purchase of the central 50 acres from Horace PEAKE & wife. Married Nov. 20, 1895, in 1899 he bought the adjoining triangular 6 acres from Clark & Mary PIERCE, and in 1908 another 4 acres from L. F. & Eliza CARD to round out that 60 acres. He added 60 acres to the south in 1900 from Albert BROOKS. Another 40 acres from BROOKS and 27 acres from David TRAIL were bought and sold before the final 40 from C. Millie BROOKS brought the total to 160. In recent years the 10 acre triangle with buildings has been sold and cuts it back to 150 acres. They built the barn in 1900, then lived in its granary while adding the new high front section of the house in 1903. Howard WILCOX worked there as a young man and told about the Hinman milker, powered by an IHC gas engine to run the line-shaft and cam shafts between each two cows to the vacuum pump & bucket which sat on the floor.

Since Frank PRYER died in 1921, there has been a long line of renters on his farm, several having connections to Sebewa:
1. Willard & Addie KINNEY – parents of Basil KINNEY, Thelma PEACOCK
2. Frank SMITH & wife – parents of Elmer SMITH & Bessie PEABODY
3. Harry KIRKHAM & wife – parents of Lester (Turkey) KIRKHAM
4. Joe & Alice BLISS – his parents and grandparents are in West Sebewa Cemetery
5. Carl & Alice SMITH – 3-1-1935 – 3-1-1939 – parents of Howard, Lois, and Bob
6. Jim & Minnie BAZAAN – 3-1-1939 – 3-1-1941 – once lived in Alton GUNN tenant house
7. Richard & Gladys MILES – 3/1/1941 – 3-1-1948 – brother to Meredith SANDBORN and Vivian COE
8. Roy BRADLEY & wife – 3-1-1948 – 3-1-1950 – once lived in the Zeke DOWNING house across from Henry HOORTS
9. Peter Pohl & Isadore SCHRAUBEN – next door neighbors
10. Lewis INGRAHAM & wife – last ones to have cows
11. USDA Soil Bank Conservation Reserve – 1958-1975
12. Dale PETRIE & Dave CASSEL – crop farming – 1957-present

BUCK FAMILY UPDATE:
Hart & Elizabeth BUCK homesteaded and raised their family north of the corner of BARNES & HAMLIN Roads, on what is now part of the Joe KLEIN farm. Sons Bart, Edwin, George and others attended the HAMLIN or BARNES Rural School, not the GIBBS as Mary WHITE BUCK did. George & Mary never lived on the WHITE farm, but owned that and other farms and lived in the house on SMITH Street.

OUR WINTER TRIP TO NEW MEXICO by Grayden SLOWINS: (with front page photos of LUNA COUNTY COURT HOUSE, DEMING, NEW MEXICO & RAILROAD DEPOT MUSEUM, COLUMBUS, NEW MEXICO)

Sunday, February 17, 2002, we were up at 5:30AM and loaded the final fresh-food items to empty the home refrigerator. Took M-50 to Charlotte and got on I-69. Sunny skies, but flurries overnight have left melting snow, slush and chloride in the passing lane, which semis splash on us, even though our driving lane is dry. Stopped at a rest area just before Fort Wayne and got an Indiana map and tourist brochures. We carry a good Rand McNALLY road atlas, but find the official state road maps have extra information about roads and stops. Huntington, IN, has Huntington College and a branch of Indiana University nearby. Indiana Wesleyan & Taylor University are near Marion. This is the Bible Belt and the Bible College Belt, too, I guess. Just before Indianapolis we stopped at another rest area to eat lunch. Asked the attendant for water for our pail and used our long-handled brush to scrub off the RV.

Went around Indianapolis on the north-west ring road, I-465, and came out on I-70. At Terre Haute we crossed the Wabash River into Illinois and got a map and brochures at the afternoon rest stop. Effingham is a manufacturing town of over 12,000 people that we never heard of, except the one in England. Spent the night at Pocahontas Campground near a little town called Pierron, IL. It is seven miles off the Interstate and quiet & nice. As often happens on our trips, we are spotting pioneer cemeteries along the trail, in this case right across the road from camp. Our first day’s journey was 475 miles, a little more than we like, and we were pretty tired. Ate supper, watched TV news and Olympics, to bed soon.

Monday, February 18, gassed up at Pierron and got back onto I-70 for a few miles. Picked up I-55, then turned onto I-255 ring road around south-east side of East St. Louis, with traffic not too bad. Crossed the Mississippi River into St. Louis, Missouri, on the Arches Bridge, then the highway became I-270 and out of the city on I-44. Weather getting warmer but windy, upper 20s last night and up to 60 today. Lunch at the rest area before Springfield, MO, and got a Missouri map. A couple at the rest stop were from Negaunee, MI, in the U.P., next township to Tilden Township, where our good friend on the MTA Board, Debbie PELLOW, is Supervisor.

Afternoon break and an Oklahoma map near Miami, OK, just over into that state. Very hospitable women at the Information Center gave us good help in finding our niece’s home tomorrow morning. On to Tulsa, where we found our KOA (Kampgrounds of America) right at the exit from the Will Rogers Turnpike. Walked around the campground and saw our first robin. Traveled 430 miles today, still a little too much. This is a nice camp, but close to a spot on the interstate where semis use their noisy engine brakes to slow down. And of course a railroad, which we usually find near campgrounds. Watched Winter Olympics before bed.

Land in Indiana & Illinois along our route is flat, with good corn and soybean stubble. Mostly nice buildings, although some barns are getting old & unkempt, because there is very little livestock anymore. In very southern Illinois and all across Missouri the land is more rolling and we mostly see small herds of beef cattle now, with pasture land and alfalfa hay, but very few other crops except some wheat. There is also lots of semi-abandoned land in Missouri, where people live on the land but work in town.

Tuesday, February 19, a pleasant 39 degrees at East Tulsa KOA and sprinkles in the night……we gassed up at the nearby Texaco station and headed south on Highway 193 and west on Kenosha (Main) Street in Broken Arrow, a suburb of Tulsa…..after a few blocks we turn left on Iola St., a name we have never heard except for our late cousin Iola LEHMAN in Portland. Ann’s niece, husband and children live there…..we got on Highway 169 and back to I-44 west…..the Tulsa area is growing rapidly, and fireplugs along the farmland are signs of things to come…..northwest ring road around Oklahoma City, and out on I-40….saw our first little flock of 25-30 Suffolk sheep just before Oklahoma City, eating a large round bale of hay next to an Allis-Chalmers tractor and New Holland baler……now on the ring-road we see western feeder lambs pasturing where suburbs are gobbling up the land……soil is red clay all across Oklahoma and we saw 4 or 5 horses that had rolled in it and came up red, especially the white one. Brickyards made and sold bricks that color, and we saw many brick houses of that shade. The farmland is mostly flat in Oklahoma with growing wheat. No corn since Illinois and only a few soybeans in MO. Out here they pasture beef cattle on growing wheat in winter. There is native grass in the rougher areas for summer pasture. We also saw two more small flocks of Suffolk sheep.

We saw two large active grain elevators, one in Oklahoma City and one in Elk City on the west edge of OK. All along the highway, and the railroad beside it, there are old abandoned grain elevators. There is far less wheat grown than in the past, and what is raised gets trucked long distances. Other sad monuments are the many abandoned farmsteads with houses and shed falling down and farm machinery rusting away. Some look as if the family just got into their pickup one day and drove away. Wheat is sometimes irrigated here, and these large operations require fewer farmers. Unlike MO, there is not so much un-farmed land in OK, just the buildings are abandoned and the land is added to adjoining farms.

The cattle-on-wheat type operations continue on into the Texas Panhandle, but the ground gets rougher, with scrub oaks and sage brush in the native pastures. There are a few windmills and water-retention ponds, but increasingly larger acreages per cow. Much of the way we have paralleled Old Route 66 and at Britten, Texas, the famous leaning water tower and an abandoned gas station are all that remain of the town. A crew is laying new blacktop in mid-February. Now there are buttes and mesas, broad valleys, windmills and cattle-guards, but no cattle visible.

The road signs are small and sparse in New Mexico, once you get off the Interstate, and it is often difficult to find your way at night……Enjoyed scenic views of distant mesas across the valley and of Tucumcari Mountain surrounded by a wide plateau……Some places in the mountains of the north near Raton had 3 inches of snow. The dry wind evaporates the rain soon and the sun is shining by 8:00AM. We are learning to sit in the sun or shade and read and be retired………Headed west on I-40 and began seeing prickly-pear cactus. Saw a John Deere cotton picker on a semi headed west. A train with four Union Pacific engines was headed west on the tracks that parallel I-40 & Route 66 as we have seen since we joined these roads. Mountains with snow to the north, windmills and Angus cattle along the road.

When Highway 54 took off from I-40 to the southwest, we took it, then south on Highway 285 toward Roswell. Along the way there was a flock of 40-50 Rambouilet-Merino type sheep. Then 95 miles to Roswell, with nothing but a few scattered cattle, windmills, water tanks and corrals. We saw hawks sitting on a pole, buzzards and a golden eagle swooping, and someone’s nest atop a windmill tower. Closer-in there was irrigated wheat and a sheep flock with black lambs and white lambs, none spotted………Heading south toward Artesia, we saw four huge feedlots with Holsteins and one pasture field with elk. Also big square hay bales. Then oil wells & smells and partial refineries, called compoundiums. Poor Mexican-American farmsteads are everywhere. Pecan orchards are common in southern New Mexico. Temperatures 60 degrees and some wind.

We pulled into Carlsbad RV Park, a former KOA, for the night. Also registered was Bob ZERFAS, who recognized our Michigan license plate and asked what town. When we told him, he said “I was born in Lake Odessa and my sister is retired there, she married a LINCH, lives next to Jordan Lake outlet dam”. His dad was George ZERFAS, who ran the International Harvester dealership before Carl SENTERS and later Conrad LASS. George’s brother John ran the dealership in Portland before WEIBERTS and later SANDBORNS.

Bob ZERFAS was born in 1936, and in 1943 the Lake Odessa store burned. It stood on the concrete parking lot still located north of the Drs. HOFFS/LINCOLN/TROMP/LUNDEEN/STUART office on Fourth Avenue. The Portland store was then sold and both families moved to farms in the Eaton Rapids-Springport area. Later George and family moved to Three Rivers and Bob graduated there in 1955. John’s daughters Dorothy and Berniece graduated from Portland in the early 1940s and Dorothy became a nun. Their brother Edward is still on the Eaton Rapids farm. There were other children in both families………

Drove to Carlsbad Caverns 22 miles southwest of town. Entry is free to this National Park with our Senior Citizens Golden Age Passport, and the guided tour is half-price - $4.00 each. The caverns are “Awesome” as the kids would say, and well worth the time. With the temperature 76 degrees going in and 84 degrees coming out, inside the caverns was a very constant 56 degrees……Our tour guide was Deborah – interesting & pleasant. The largest caverns have 200 ft. ceilings. They began forming 250 million years ago, when marine plants and animals built a limestone reef along the edge of a lake. Then about 60 million years ago sulfuric acid was formed from water and the hydrogen sulfide of oil & gas deposits and this began dissolving cavities in the limestone. Water drained from the caves and large chunks fell to the floor. Then about 7-10,000 years ago, when the hills above were still covered with trees, there was more rainfall than now and it seeped into the soil and down to the limestone caves, forming stalactites and stalagmites.

A third kind, called galactites, was formed when underground pressure forced the liquids upward into columns. Some are stained with other minerals to cause the colors. Most are not growing much now, because the trees and rainfall are gone. Those that are growing add about one-fourth to one-half inch per century……After the guided tour we walked around the main area self-guided. They have to watch for people breaking pieces off as souvenirs.

The caverns were discovered by a cowboy named Jim WHITE in 1898, when he was 16. He followed a flight of bats swirling in & out of a natural opening, thinking it was smoke at first. He supported his explorations by mining the guano (bat dung) for fertilizer until the tourism took off. He died in 1946 at age 64 of natural causes, after a life of risky exploration. There are 99 known rooms in the cave and probably more. We got some beautiful photos of various kings of cacti in the gardens near the caverns’ entrance. When you go, plan to take camera, water bottles, flashlights and jackets.

Sunday, February 24, sunny, up and away to Artesia for gas. Took Highway 82 to Alamogorda. Shifted down to 2nd or 3rd gear going down 6 percent grade for 16 miles, it was easy for the motor and brakes, but the hairpin turns and steep precipices were not easy on the driver. Road salt from previous ice and snow, also falling rock………

As we approach Deming, there are trees growing on better soil and crops being planted. An Allis-Chalmers Gleaner combine sits in the farmyard………Steve GERMAN, a resident of Hidden Valley Ranch, feeds Gambel Quail, of which we saw a lot. Other residents feed the Roadrunners, odd-looking, long-necked birds not unlike the cartoon character. The mail is said to come and knock on your door, then take the first piece of meat to his mate before he eats. The residents used to see deer, but the large cats – pumas & cougars – have been getting the deer and now cattle. Bobcats often come into the campground and coyotes are common, so don’t go for walks after dark! We are glad we chose to camp at the park nearer town……

Wednesday, February 27, partly cloudy with a morning low of 25 degrees and a high about 56 degrees….We drove to Lordsburg and Silver City. Our route was I-10 and US-70, crossing the Continental Divide at 4585 feet about 52 miles east of the Arizona State Line. We saw three trains with four engines each and a fourth train with hopper cars had seven engines. Rail freight is apparently very important across the South, as we saw lots of trains along I-40 and now I-10……

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association (Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI); AUGUST 2002, Volume 38, Numbers 1. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: Arnold, Dexter, Yeomans, Slowinski, Story, Sessions, Gierman, Daniels, Kimmel, Kaufman, Ingall, Slowins, Bosley,

RECENT DEATHS:

VERA SESSIONS GIERMAN, 82, wife of Maurice GIERMAN, mother of Jan GIERMAN and Deanna PUMPLIN, sister of Iva CLARK, Alice HILE, Homer SESSIONS, and the late Arlene EDDY, daughter of Barrett and Amelia SESSIONS. She was born April 28, 1919, in Lapeer and spent her childhood in Eastmanville and Ionia, graduating from Central Michigan College in 1939. Maurice farmed in Sebewa Township and she taught elementary school in Sebewa, Lake Odessa, Ionia, and Grand Blanc. Keeping up with the times, she and her sister Arlene wrote computer software for teaching reading. Retiring at 50 years of marriage, she and Maurice spent 12 summers in Fairfield Glade, TN, and winters they were residents of Bradenton, FL. Burial in East Sebewa Cemetery at a later date, with memorial service at Sebewa Center United Methodist Church. Memorial Friday, August 23, at cemetery followed by lunch at Sebewa Center Church Annex.

ALBERT J. DANIELS, 80, brother of the late Calvin DANIELS, Sarah HARRIS, Evelyn WACHA & Ellen SOULES, son of Violet HEATER and Jay DANIELS, son of Sarah & Orren W. DANIELS, Sr., son of Eunice & Andrus W. DANIELS, Sr. Jay DANIELS was a brother to Andrus W. DANIELS, Jr., father of Robert; to another brother who died young; and to Carrie KIMMEL, Lottie (Sam) KAUFMAN, Ida (D.C.) INGALL & Cora ARNOLD. Albert worked at Keeler Brass and Lake Odessa Canning Company. Burial at Lakeside, Lake Odessa.

ARNOLD FAMILY HISTORY: Dexter ARNOLD recently spoke to the Ionia County Historical Society about the ARNOLDS of Ionia County. He traces back to his 5X-great-grandfather, who was born and lived in Smithfield, New Jersey. His 4X great-grandparents were Hannah DEXTER & Job ARNOLD, a Revolutionary War Veteran. Their children were Oliver ARNOLD, Phoebe ARNOLD YEOMANS and Dexter ARNOLD. Oliver ARNOLD brought his family to South Ionia with his Uncle Samuel DEXTER’S Colony in May 1833. He was a blacksmith and founded what is today the ARNOLD Machine Company, said to be one of the three oldest continuously operating businesses in Michigan. They are buried in Balcom Cemetery, having been moved there from ARNOLD Cemetery when State Road was put over the South Ionia hill by Berlin Township Highway Commissioner Daniel SLOWINSKI in 1919.

Phoebe ARNOLD and her husband Erastus YEOMANS also came in 1833 with the DEXTER Colony, and their farm north of Ionia is the oldest continuously operated family farm in the area. They are buried in the pioneer portion of Oak Hill Cemetery.

Dexter ARNOLD came in 1835, after his father Job died in 1834. Hannah came along and died here in 1839. Dexter lived on the VanderHEYDEN land for a time and then moved to the southwest corner of Easton Township, Sections 29-31-32. He was the 3X-great-grandfather of the present Dexter ARNOLD, who still lives on the same land. He is also buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.

DEXTER ARNOLD, Sr. built a log cabin along M-21 on the farm and young DEXTER has the family Bible. Dexter’s son was William (2X-great), who built the present house in three stages in 1854-1865-1870, up on the high ground on Johnson Road. He married Phoebe ARNOLD YEOMANS’ daughter, his first cousin. Their son was Burt Walter ARNOLD (great-grandfather to Dexter). His son was Martin, and his son was George, who was the father of Dexter. Every generation has been on the Easton Township Board, usually as Supervisor, except Martin ARNOLD. But George’s wife, Myrtle was also on the Board, as Treasurer, so there have been six township officers in six generations. Ronald STORY and others in the audience were also descended from Dexter ARNOLD.

NEW MEXICO TRIP CONTINUED (with front-page photos of CANYON DE CHELLY, ARIZONA; ANCIENT CLIFF DWELLINGS and MODERN VALLEY DWELLINGS) by Grayden SLOWINS:

Heading to Silver City on New Mexico 90, we encountered increasing hills, trees, and altitude; crossed the Continental Divide again at 6355 feet. On every side of us is a different mountain range. These are the Burro Mts., to the east is the Cookes Range of the Mimbres Mts, and south of Deming are the Florida Mts. Silver City is at 5938 feet more or less, a very hilly old mining town with old churches and mine tailings, with large open-pit mines now. Some rock layers are pink, some green, representing silver, gold, lead, zinc and copper mines of present or past. Returning to Deming on Hwy 180, got gas, groceries, USA Today, and a new toaster at Pepper’s Supermarket. Back in time for a hotdog and smores roast with the campground folks.

Thursday, February 28, (2002), 40 degrees at daybreak, partly cloudy. TV weather people brag that New Mexico has some sun on 362 days of the year, with 191 clear, 99 partly cloudy, 72 cloudy and 3 days with no sight of the sun. Our low yesterday morning, 25 degrees, was the high for the day in Grand Rapids, MI. The desert has no vegetation to hold the sun’s heat, so a drop of 40 degrees overnight is common. High today 69 degrees. As we began daily walk to K-Mart about a mile away for USA Today and Dairy Queen, one walker has his shirt off – a little too early in the season!

Friday, March 1, sunny morning about 40 degrees, washed dishes, wrote and mailed Thank You cards for Grandma LAKIN’S funeral memorials. Just walked in the RV park today; windy but nice and sunny. The gravel is no good for bikes and the highway is too dangerous, so no-one is using theirs. Went walking in the park again after lunch and a woman came running out of her motorhome, waving her arms and yelling Ann! Grayden! It was Maxine & Jim BOSLEY from Ionia, having just pulled in. They helped us get our cable TV hooked up properly. Then we all went out to supper at the Rancher’s Grill, formerly K-Bob’s. Bob recently sold the chain to run for Congress.

Saturday, March 2, low 28 degrees, high 48 degrees, sunny, but high wind and dust storm. Bosleys hesitate to move on to Arizona and some travelers pull in off the interstate early, saying it is like a white-out at home………

Sunday, March 3, sunny, but with a low of 18 degrees last night, it’s a good thing we had added some antifreeze to our holding tanks and have been disconnecting the outside water hose. Park has been into overflow the last two nights, some of the rigs in caravans. Attended the Deming United Methodist Church. Most of the congregation are our age and the rest are older! Many are retired from the North.

Ate a traveling lunch in Pepper’s Supermarket parking lot, got a paper and milk, headed south on Hwy 180 toward Columbus, near the Mexican border. Saw pecan trees being pruned, cropland being fitted, planted and readied for irrigation with trenches. Then desert again and abandoned farmland.

Columbus is about three miles from the border with Mexico. It has an old Customs House and a Southern Pacific Railroad Depot. Both are now museums. Pancho Villa State Park sits on the land once occupied by U.S. Army Camp Furlong. The camp was used as a base for pursuit of General Pancho Villa in 1916-1917. During the Mexican Civil War the United States aided a rival faction and VILLA decided to get even by attacking the U.S. at Camp Furlong and the adjoining town of Columbus. Not a smart move on his part, but chasing him back into Mexico provided a training ground for World War I. General John J. PERSHING was in charge and this was the first war where trucks and airplanes were used, as well as machine guns and even a simple armoured vehicle resembling a tank. The Germans supplied the Mexicans with machine guns, hoping to divert our attention from Europe.

A video made in 1981 has interviews with a number of residents who were present as children, as well as old still photos and silent movies from the war. The battle in Columbus only lasted one night and the next day, March 9-10, 1916, but a dozen or so civilians were killed, including the father of one woman interviewed and the uncle of another. The local telephone operator had stayed by her post at the switchboard and kept sending messages for help, even though a bullet passed thru the switchboard. Mothers hid their children under their beds and one stuffed a cloth in her baby’s mouth to keep it silent. Many homes and business buildings were burned, although some remain that appear in the video. About forty Mexicans, or Villistas as they were called, were killed, and a few more captured, tried and executed later. We viewed the video in the Old Customs House museum and then bought a copy to bring home for family and friends.

The town claims to have a lot of cultural events even today, including community theatre and historical festivals. But other than a few small houses and struggling stores, we saw only a Mission Style Catholic Church and a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses – Temple De Jehovah. Obviously farming is no longer prospering.

By the way, Pancho VILLA never was captured by the Americans after several months of chasing. He later surrendered to the winning faction of his own countrymen and retired to a fine ranch with five “wives”. Several years later he was assassinated by gunmen while leaving his front gate in an automobile. His legal wife lived in the United States for a few years, then returned after his death and was still alive at the time of the video, dying in 1986.

Camp Furlong is one of three former military bases around Deming. Camp Cody was located in town at the airport hangers and was used to train bomber pilots and navigators in World War II. Fort Cummings at Cook’s Spring, north of town, was used to protect that water supply for Union forces during the American Civil War.

Monday, March 4, temperature is even lower than previous night at 17 degrees, but quite pleasant with a high of 60 and very little wind. Did laundry, dishes, and walked in campground. Wrote letters and received first packet of Priority Mail. It works! And at $3.50 the package easily holds more than ten pieces of 34 cent first class mail.

Tuesday, March 5, low of 26 degrees, drove north on US-180 thru Hurley & Silver City again. Near the town of Buckhorn we saw newborn Brahma calves. Crossed Continental Divide again at 6230 feet in the San Francisco Mountains, and a little later went thru Salig Pass at 6436 feet. Took nice photos of the mountains at a rest stop scenic overlook. As we had come up from the valley, we began to see evergreen trees with spotted orange bark, first small ones and then saw-log size at higher altitudes. Some areas were burned over by recent forest fires. At Glenwood, near the Arizona border, there were patches of snow among the trees and at Luna Lake, where we stopped for lunch, there were patches of ice in the center and people fishing in open water from the shore.

Entered Arizona at 8100 feet and was antelope grazing. Soon we joined US-191 to I-40 and turned back east across the state line to Gallup, New Mexico, where we gassed up and saw a small flock of sheep, then turned north again on US-666. This area is mostly barren alkali flats in both states, but the setting sun makes beautiful vistas as we approach Shiprock and turn east on US-64 to Farmington. Parked for the night at Mom & Pop’s RV Campground on the east edge of town.

Wednesday, March 6, the morning the temperature is 21 and a high of 63 expected. Dennis RYAN, the park owner, was a year older than us and with his red hair and thick glasses reminded me of Phoebe’s father on Friends TV program. He was originally from Ohio and had one year of college in Cleveland when the Korean War started on June 25, 1950. He beat the draft by enlisting in the Air Force. After basic training he served at what is now Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. They worked on secret rocket stuff and were not allowed overseas until the fighting stopped, for fear the enemy might capture and torture secrets out of them. He stayed in the service for 30 years, retiring in 1980, having served in Okinawa, Thailand, Germany two hitches and Viet Nam two hitches. His son and daughter graduated from high school in Germany. He and his family saw every little back road in Germany on weekends.

After retirement, he and his wife traveled in an RV full time for five years, then bought this small park – 35 sites – from the city. They have lived in three different manufactured homes on the same site and built his office/workshop from salvaged materials. Outdoors he has built an extensive G-gauge railroad with houses, stores, depots, sawmills, mines, mountains, etc. The unpainted wood buildings of the frontier town were unharmed b the annual 15 inch rainfall and 2 inches of snow. The sun is more harmful, especially to the plastic Victorian buildings & his hand-carved Styrofoam mountains, painted twice a year.

His greatest talent is creating lead alloy figures of soldiers, cowboys, Indians, stage actors, animals, birds, etc. First he carves the model in wood, then makes a flexible plastic mold, pours the alloy, peels off the mold halves, pours a new batch and paints the figures. Executives from large manufacturing companies have come camping, seen his process and adapted it to industry. The models are 2 inches to 12 inches in size, very exact, detailed & historically authentic. Some are parts of scenes, events, historic battles, and he has thousands on display for sale. Also inside is another railroad.

Heading back west toward Shiprock, we stop to take photos of this red rock towering above the desert, then on to Four Corners Monument, where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado come together, the only such place in the United States. Stopped first at Teec Nos Pos Trading Post, where they sell everything from hay to barbecue sauce and buy wool, mohair, and handicrafts from the Native Americans. We dealt with a young Navaho woman for crafts and a young man who showed us the rugs, some worth thousands of dollars. Then the Caucasian owner guessed our profession and talked to us about the wool market and sheep industry. He also thought I might be a retired doctor or college professor and probably hoped for big sale of an expensive rug.

Then on to the Four Corners Monument, which is in the middle of nowhere, but because it is in the Navaho Reservation, they have set up permanent outdoor vendors’ booths to sell their crafts and foods.

Bought turquoise & silver bolo tie, silver sheep pin, turquoise & coral cross, and black clay & wool Suffolk sheep. The woman Ann visited with most makes turquoise & silver crafts and her late mother made rugs. She guesses that I am of Mennonite descent and says when she goes on vacation, she likes to visit Lancaster County, PA, to see and buy their crafts!

Near the town of Shiprock there was irrigated hay for sale in big square bales. Hay is bright green color here, because it seldom gets rained on while curing. There are hogans everywhere in the reservation. Some are lived in and others just used for religious ceremonies, but most every backyard has one. A lot of the land in northeast Arizona is canyons & mesas of red rock and red dirt in various shades from bright red to light brown. The large flat areas are mostly fenced, but some cattle, sheep, goats & horses are outside the fences, so there are cattle guards built into every driveway and some of the highways.

Our next stop on the Arizona side was at Canyon de Chelly – pronounced Canyon de Shay – National Monument. This is located in the Navaho Reservation and although the park headquarters and tour facilities are operated by the Parks Service, the inhabitants are Native Americans. In some ways it is more spectacular than Grand Canyon, because it is living history. They live and farm in the rich silt of the canyon bottom and some have homes up on the rim, which is barren except for a few scrub bushes.

A model Hogan at the park museum shows how they are built and used. We visited the museum, saw a video, bought books, then took a self-guided tour on the south rim road, with frequent turn-outs to overlook the canyon. There are cliff & cave dwellings from long ago, as well as farm homes of fifty families who still inhabit the canyon & rim. Eroded red rock is the best description of the sides, although the stream in the bottom is small now after several dry years.

San Juan & Animas Rivers in Farmington did have water and an old four-arch iron bridge spanned the San Juan. The nearby town of Klagetoh had a Mennonite Church, although we didn’t see any people, but the woman at Four Corners said they do come to visit. Both cultures are making it in the American world by making things to sell to the “English”, while struggling to maintain their culture and bemoaning the inablility to teach religious values in public schools, according to their video at the museum.

Signage on Highway 191 coming back south to Lyman Lake State Park was good. Overall road signage in these two western states is inadequate. First of all, roads are almost never on the mile section lines like they are in the Northwest Territory of the upper Midwest. For a while we thought they were not even surveyed that way, but early maps in the Deming museum show that they are, it’s just not adhered to in road building. Secondly, the roads are often not marked before a turn, or the sign is on the left side of the road when you need to turn right. Then you may look down the road as you pass by the corner and will see the sign for the road you wanted. But if you do turn the corner because you think it is the right road, there will not be a sign for miles to reassure you it is the road you wanted.

We arrived at Lyman Lake long after dark on this cool March night, so we self-registered and found a nice paved campsite with electric & water and a roofed picnic table, as most are out there. Apparently the roof is for shade from the sun, not for infrequent rains.

Thursday, March 7, we arose to 35 degrees and sunshine. The lovely park ranger returned $4.00, because we had left too much. This park surrounds a man-made lake, which would ordinarily be quite beautiful for fishing, boating and other water sports. But after four years of drought, the lake is way down and weedy, the Angus-cross cattle are grazing on the inner face of the earthen dam. Just beyond the dam, in another fenced-in area, bison are sleepily pasturing. We left this pleasant park and drove on US-191 & 180 back to Deming, finally seeing a real live road-runner near town.

Friday, March 8, 48 degrees and sunny, but 39MPH winds and dusty. Drove to Rock Hound Roundup at Southwest New Mexico State Fairgrounds just southeast of Deming. Bought charolite & silver bolo tie and a necklace pendant of same materials. Charolite is a mottled-purple stone that is very attractive when polished. Looked at lots & lots of rocks and visited with some of the exhibitors, especially those from places in Michigan like Battle Creek and Scots. Back to town for our usual Wednesday trip to Pizza Hut buffet, although today happens to be Friday. Walked campground, watched cable TV in evening, high was 69.

Sunday, March 10, 39 degrees and sunny. Drove to Presbyterian Church, an old white clapboard building, “Established October 23, 1898, serving also Disciples, Moravians, United Church of Christ & others”. A woman at church had moved to Deming from Romeo, MI, twenty years ago and ran the Deming RV Repair with her husband. When he died, she moved back to Michigan to be near family, but is here today to visit. She had been organist here, and today she read scripture. After getting groceries, we found this another good day to sit in the 73 degree sun and read. An indication of the dryness here is humidity report of 2% low & 19% high, compared to 50% in winter and nearly 100% in summer sometimes in Michigan. There are brush fires near Ruidoso, NM. TV News says another body was found in the World Trade Center wreckage overnight; two more firemen were found two days ago………

Tuesday, March 12, back down to 38 degrees and still sunny. Vacuumed floor in motor home and Ann practiced on her keyboard. Then we walked to K-Mart and around the campground. Park manager, Ollie, watered the trees yesterday, using underground sprinklers, plus hoses, plus dirt dikes around each tree that hold the water. Today we read in the sun, then in the shade, and finally in air-conditioning, due to temperature reaching 80 degrees. Like most days here, people changed clothes three times, from winter coats to windbreakers or sweatshirts, and finally to shirtsleeves or T-shirts. Toward evening you start the process in reverse.

Wednesday, March 13, 43 degrees and sunny, expected 79 high and actually reached 84 degrees. Drove downtown to take Deming Historic Landmark Walking Tour, starting with visitor center for maps and then the Deming Luna Mimbres Museum. Luna & Mimbres are Indian Tribes. The main building is a 1917 Armory which, along with several tasteful additions, has been turned into an amazing museum. There are artifacts from Native Americans, Mexican Americans, American cowboys, miners and farmers.

Paintings, pottery, antique cars, chuck-wagons, fire engines, old stores & shops, everything used in the home. There are rocks, including mineral formations from New Mexico, Arizona, Canada, Australia, Russia, Germany and all other parts of the world, including Michigan’s Petoskey stones. Numerous old maps on display showed geological formations, elevations, and governmental divisions.

I have been under a wrong impression. The State of New Mexico is in fact surveyed into Congressional Townships with Sections numbered 1 thru 36, just like Michigan. They are not, however, governed as individual townships, but rather are bunched together into quite large units for country government. They almost never have roads on the section lines, but all are on old trails.

We toured and photographed the 1910 Luna County Court House. It has an architecturally matched annex and a later-added three-story connector with steel beams & plank catwalks like Trappers’ Alley in Detroit. The old building has the usual four statutory offices, Clerk, Treasurer, Register of Deeds, and Judge of Probate, on the middle floor and Circuit Court with satellite offices on the third floor. There is an ancient judge’s bench and speaker’s podium………

Friday, March 15, low 37 degrees, sunny, expect 76 and less wind. Revisited Deming Museum for more photos inside & outside. Learned that the intricacies of high altitude bombing with the Norden Bombsight were taught at Camp Cody’s Deming Army Air Force Bombardier School in World War II. During the Civil War, Confederate forces pushed Union troops back from the Rio Grande to Tucson, AZ. In the return offensive, Fort CUMMINGS at Cooke’s Spring was where the Union troops dug in and held their ground.Sunday morning, March 17, 36 degrees and exactly one month from the day we left Michigan, we started home. Up at 4:30 with the electric meter read and everything packed, we head out on I-10, US-70, US-54, I-40, thru Las Cruces, Organ, San Agustin Pass, Alamogorda, Tularosa, Three Rivers, Carrizozo, and Santa Rosa to Tucumcari, NM. Saw a coyote eating road-kill on the centerline of the highway.

Tuesday, March 19, up at 5:00, 37 degrees, ate breakfast and got away from Tucumcari on I-40 across Texas & Oklahoma to KOA just beyond Tulsa. It was misty all day. We have come from dust in the throat to dampness in the air in one day’s drive. The first rain came at Tucumcari 30 days after we were there last and we saw no rain between. Saw irrigated wheat in Texas, nice wheat with cattle grazing in Oklahoma, plus huge cattle feedlots and Gleaner combines. Went from 4000 foot elevation where we entered Texas, to 1400 feet near Clinton, OK, where we got Historic Route 66 patches………

Thursday, March 21, with a low of 30 degrees and a high predicted in the 30s, these days are more stable, like Michigan weather. We got on I-44 again, then I-270 northwest around St. Louis to I-70. At Indianapolis we took I-465 around the southeast to I-69 and straight to Auburn, IN, driving thru snow flurries. Camped early, drained the holding tanks and pumped in non-toxic antifreeze, because it’s going down to 10-13 degrees tonight and 32 a high for tomorrow.

Friday, March 22, awakened to 16 degrees and snow flurries. Gas in Auburn (IN) and onto I-69 to Charlotte, MI, and M-50 to home by 9:30AM, 5020 miles round trip. END

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association (Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI); OCTOBER 2002, Volume 38, Numbers 2. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:

SURNAMES: DENTON, DUNSMORE, MORRIS, VANDECAR, SCHNABEL, CANTANT, ZIMMERMAN, WENGER, SLOWINS, LEIK, PENN

RECENT DEATH:

ARIEL AGNES DENTON DUNSMORE MORRIS, 90, widow of Richard George DUNSMORE & Lynn E. MORRIS, mother of Sharron DUNSMORE VanVLECK KIRCHER McCARGAR, Ardelis DUNSMORE ENDREI & DeAlina MORRIS TROUT, daughter of Arthur Elliot DENTON & Cora DeAlice VANDECAR, daughter of George A. VANDECAR & Agnes A. SCHNABEL, daughter of Mary CANANT & Michael SCHNABEL, son of Regina & Anton SCHNABEL, Sr. Born October 12, 1911, on a Saranac farm, she died June 22, 2002, in her “grossmuter wing” of Alaina’s home in Onekama, MI. Ariel was energetic, resourceful and multi-talented, with a zest for life. She graduated from Ionia County Normal in 1930 and practice-taught under Crystal BRAKE SLOWINS, then on her own. Upon the untimely auto death of her young husband in 1939, she ran the DUNSMORE Dairy for a year, then studied photography and operated her own portrait studio in Ionia.

After marrying Lynn, she developed Horizon Drive subdivision on ARNOLD’S Hill in South Ionia. In the 1960s she attended Western Michigan University and was the last teacher at Sebewa Center School 1963-1965. She always found humor, and when she came to interview for the job, she told the other School Board members “I used to hold Grayden on my lap”. All her long life she was an extensive traveler, reader, teacher, painter, photographer, historic preservationist – including the BLANCHARD House – and farmer on her family’s farm. Her winter home was in Eustis, Florida. She is buried in Saranac Cemetery.

THE ALLIS-CHALMERS C from Charles LEIK:

EDITOR’S NOTE - ……another good article by Charles LEIK on Allis-Chalmers. Charles has a website about old barns, the Red Mill in Portland, and has a story on our family barns, including the WENGER-ZIMMERMAN barn. His website is: <The_BarnJournal.org>

Charles LEIK’S article: Dad purchased the C used in 1943 from a Homer PEACOCK, and was glad to get it during the shortages of WWII. I think I remember Dad referring to it as a 1938 model, but according to Charles Wendell’s “The Allis-Chalmers Story”, production of the C only began in 1940. To me it looks identical to the B introduced in 1937 except for the tricycle front. There must be a story why essentially the same tractor was given a new model designation; was it a marketing decision. Again, according to Wendell, the C had a 3-3/8” x 3-1/2” bore and displaced 125 cubic inches. Although the C retailed at its introduction for $595, Dad paid $800 because of wartime scarcities.

I remember the three-forward and one reverse gears. Low was a creeper, second for the field and high was a winning road gear. There was also a set of cultivators that were raised and lowered manually since the C had no hydraulics of PTO. There was a foot starter, a throttle on the column and the drawbar was a semicircle with numerous holes so that equipment could be pulled off center.

I remember the three-forward and one reverse gears. Low was a creeper, second for the field and high was a whining road gear. There was also a set of cultivators that were raised and lowered manually since the C had no hydraulics of PTO. There was a foot starter, a throttle on the column and the drawbar was a semicircle with numerous holes so that equipment could be pulled off center.

Dad and Uncle Henry sold their Chevrolet dealership at the beginning of the war and moved to their respective farms. They were in their mid 30s when they both married in 1940, and the farms may have seemed like a good place to start housekeeping. Besides, there were virtually no cars, new or used, available to sell.

Dad and Mother had Holstein dairy cows, hogs and sheep during these years, and the C was the only tractor on our 80 acre homestead. We also owned a nearby 40 acres that we called the “Sheep farm” and there the hills limited us to one crop field.

Dad had a 2-12” JD trailer plow and managed to purchase a used 3 ton wagon gear in 1944, but otherwise the diversion of production to the War Effort forced him to borrow from the neighbors or my Uncle Jerry who lived nearby. Finally, in 1945, he got a cultipacker and a Blackhawk two row corn planter in 1946. I recall one day in 1948 when a JD side delivery rake and a Co-Op rake, both on order for several years, were delivered within days. Dad returned the Co-Op rake. There is a photo of the C pulling a wagon of ear corn in the fall of 1945. I am 2 ½ years old and probably taking my first tractor ride. I estimate the load at 50 bushels or crates, as we measured corn, because the box, although 14’ long was only 48” wide and 20” deep with the extension sideboards. Nevertheless it must have been a full day to pick and load a wagon, and later shovel it into the crib. Horses that moved the wagon alongside the huskers seem more efficient than a tractor in this operation.

Dad and his brothers jointly owned a JD bagger combine in the late 40s and used the C to pull it. The combine had its own engine and luckily our terrain was flat, but nevertheless the combine must have been a good pull for such a light tractor. Since the B with a wide axle weighed 1,860 pounds, I imagine our C was less than 1,700 pounds.

I was eight in the spring of 1951 when I drove my first tractor. First Dad reinstalled the back support to the bench seat that had been taken off to make access to the seat easier from the drawbar. There was a newly planted field of oats north of the barn that stretched for more than a quarter mile without any obstacle except the fences on either end. Dad attached the 10’ cultipacker with a clevis hitch, put the C in low and made the first round with me. Then I was on my own. I recall he pointed out the magneto button and surmising that my leg wasn’t long or strong enough to engage the foot clutch told me to push the magneto button when I wanted to stop.

In the following years I would pull the cultipacker or 6’ drag while Dad plowed nearby with the new WD. This was usually in the evening because Dad had reentered the automobile business after the War, and we farmed after supper. I recall devising a system of flashing our lights to signal when we were ready to quit for the night, or when there was trouble. Dad never took this clever idea very seriously.

I don’t recall cultivating corn with the C. The WD had a two-row hydraulic set that were infinitely easier to raise and lower than the manual ones on the C. After stumbling over the C’s cultivators in the tool shed for years, I finally stored those cumbersome items at a farm we had recently acquired. I didn’t want to ever see them again and never did!

We narrowly missed a serious accident in 1954 when I was 11 and Ed 8. Neighbors were baling and storing our clover hay that summer and I was backing down a gentle slope to hook onto an empty wagon. Ed was holding the tongue and, too late, I realized that the C’s brakes, long needing repair, were not grabbing. I was out of control with Ed between the tractor and wagon when one of the young men pulled him out of danger seconds before the C banged into the wagon.

In later years, when I graduated to the WD, my younger brother Ed used the C. By this time we kids rather disparingly called it the “little tractor”. He was a little resentful of his status, but now with 30 years in commercial aviation that include flying the 747, he has certainly piloted the biggest machine. One summer in high school I ran the All Crop combine and Ed pulled a small trailer that took two 16-bushel dumps. Then he’d speed in high gear to the nearby building and unload.

By the mid-60s the C was idle most of the time and unappreciated by Ed and me. Dad was approached by a young man from a neighboring town who wanted to restore it for his Vo-Ag project. Dad liked the boy and after consulting with us, decided to sell. Several years ago I came across the purchaser’s address when sorting through old papers and, although 30 years had passed, I sent a letter. His parents responded that the C had been taken to the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) years earlier and supplied another name.

I called that winter and learned that the faithful old C was now disassembled and buried under three feet of snow. The owner wanted to sell, but I thought it best not to take on that restoration. But if you are interested, let me know! I’d like to drive the “little tractor” again!

THE ZIMMERMAN FARM; SAME LAND – DIFFERENT GENERATIONS by Joseph G. SLOWINS:

This past summer, during the month of August 2001, one of the trips that my wife and I made was to visit one of her brothers and his wife in West Chester, PA. West Chester is a town west of Philadelphia which of course is down in the southeast corner of the state. One of our destinations on that trip, should we have the time, was to look up the ZIMMERMAN farm. I am related to the ZIMMERMANS by their marriage to my great-great-great-great-grandfather on my father’s mother’s side of the family. The ZIMMERMANS are also related to me by marriage to a WENGER on my father’s mother’s side of the family, by a ZIMMERMAN on our great-great-great-great-grandmother’s side of their family. Their farm was located near Lancaster and they were Mennonites as were the family predecessors on that farm.

So, one afternoon with my self in the driver’s seat, my wife Jody beside me, her brother Eric in the back seat armed with a plat book and a copy of an old map with an “X” on it and his wife Lois seated beside him, we wandered off into the countryside. We drove in the direction of Martindale enjoying the many farms and the countryside along the way. Everything was lush and green, and growing well. The two most common crops we saw were tobacco and corn. The Amish and the Mennonites are very good at keeping their farms in pristine condition. The fields are neat, the houses well kept, and the barns always painted.

As we traveled along the winding roads, we came to an intersection where my wife’s brother announced “it should be here on the left side of the road”. As we looked to our left there was nothing but a field, a hay field as I recall. Alas, the “X” must have been slightly off! Ahead in the intersection was a group of children gathered, probably to discuss the day’s news and catch up on any good gossip. I pulled our van over, got out, and wandered up to see if they could shed any light on our lack of direction at this point in our excursion. The children were all properly dressed. The boys wore black pants, blue shirts, suspenders and hats. The girls all wore print dresses with simple, plain, but nice bonnets on their heads.

I explained my dilemma to them. It seemed that my directions were a bit off and I wondered it they knew where MENNO
ZIMMERMAN’S farm was? A few of the older children, possibly junior high school age, pondered the question for a few moments before deciding that yes there used to be a Menno Zimmerman and that he had moved to Iowa a while back. This of course was not exactly the news I was looking for. I asked if they knew where the farm was located that he used to live on. That question they knew the answer to for certain. They said it would be the first farm on the left. So, I returned to the van, explained my findings to the others and off we went again.

As we proceeded on down the road the few miles we came upon the church. It was a plain, simply built, white painted, well care for, small building that is quite typical of the Mennonites. There were places to hitch the horses during meetings, in the side yard. There was no huge sign in front of the church and of course no marquee, neon lights or flashy billboards.

Then on the left was the ZIMMERMAN farm. I was certain this was the place because I had copies of pictures that were taken by my father when he visited that farm back in 1977. The barn and house looked the same. The trees were older now, almost blocking the view of the house from the road. There were a couple more grain storage bins by the barn now too. But, this was definitely the place. We pulled into the long driveway and headed up to the buildings. I stopped the van at the end of the short sidewalk that lead up to the side porch and got out. As I approached the house, I could see that the yard and the house were, of course, very well cared for. It was a place that anyone would be proud of. I knocked on the door and after a short wait a young woman with a baby in her arms appeared. It suddenly reminded me of the story that my father had written about his visit to this farm in 1977 when the door was also answered by a young woman with a baby in her arms. Obviously this was not the same woman nor the same baby. But, just the coincidence of this being the same situation was quite interesting. I began to vaguely explain how I was a distant relative of a man, Menno ZIMMERMAN, who used to live on this farm. I then explained that my father had been here to visit back in 1977 and that I was making the same visit again.

Then, much to my surprise and delight, she explained to me that Menno was her husband’s uncle and that the farm had remained in the family when Menno had moved to Iowa. At some point during our conversation her husband came to the house from the barn where he had been tending to the cattle, just as his uncle had done 24 years ago. He confirmed the family connection and we continued the discussion of who was related to whom in the different family names, for him the ZIMMERMANS and me the WENGERS, BRAKES, and SLOWINS.

After we had nailed down all the relatives, I asked permission to walk out and take some pictures of the barn. Pictures of buildings are usually allowed but, in many sects, pictures of people are not permissible. I took the same shots that my father had taken plus a few more to show the new storage bins. The stone barn was still in excellent condition after all these years. Unlike the many red barns in Michigan, the doors and peaks above the stone were painted in white. I returned to the yard where he was working in his garden tending to some of the vegetables that he was raising for his family to eat. I thanked him for his time and my pleasure in meeting him. I took one last picture on the way back to the van at the end of the sidewalk. Here were laid a few stones with the initials and years carved into them of every ZIMMERMAN generation that had ever lived on this farm. As much as many things change these days, it is certainly nice to know that some things remain the same, forever.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Today we introduce the third generation of the SLOWINS family as writers for the RECOLLECTOR. My mother, Crystal BRAKE SLOWINS, wrote her memoirs some years ago. Also, my wife, Ann LAKIN SLOWINS has written about our generation & travels. Now our son, Joe SLOWINS, tells of his travels to the family farm in Pennsylvania. The farm he visited belonged to Christian, Hans & Joseph WENGER before a double marriage to the ZIMMERMAN family, so to me it will always be a WENGER farm.

JULY FOURTH WEEK AT THE BIRTHPLACE OF OUR NATION by Grayden SLOWINS:

Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke at Independence Square, and uninvited guests could not get onto the premises. But I heard him on TV that night. I did bring the National Park Rangers to attention when I walked the second time around the grounds of Independence Hall early in the morning of July 2nd! And there were still a week’s worth of things to see while Ann was attending her biennial American Guild of Organists Convention, which was held in Philadelphia this year.

We stayed at the Downtown Marriott Hotel, and I rode the tour buses & trolleys and walked a lot. Because we had visited Independence Park with the kids in 1977, I didn’t take more photos there, but concentrated on other areas………Philadelphia, like Boston, seems to have done a little better job of protecting historic buildings from the wrecking ball than has New York.

One of the highlights was the Farmer’s Market on the ground floor of the old Reading Railroad Terminal next door to the hotel & Convention Center. It brought tears to my eyes to see and hear the Pennsylvania German Mennonites & Amish from Lancaster & Bucks Counties. Surely there must have been someone there who was my sixth, seventh, eighth, or ninth cousin. And I discovered that those modern-day pushcarts used to sell jewelry, hats, scarves and souvenirs in the shopping malls are made by Mennonite buggy shops and have genuine iron buggy axles, just like the antiques I use for crow-bars around the barn. The wooden-spoked wheels with steel rims are held on by big square nuts, of which I have a pail full.

Many interesting sights were within walking distance of the hotel or of the tour trolleys. For instance, the Hahnemann Medical School & Teaching Hospital is about 5 or 6 blocks north. It is meaningful to us because at Ferris State Univeristy (Ferris Institute in our day), we had an Anatomy Professor named William A. PEARSON. He taught at Ferris about the time our parents were there, went on to Hahnemann and worked up to become Dean of the Medical College. Then in old age he “retired” back to Ferris and taught until he died in his 80s. Since he was nearly blind, some of the students used to answer for their absent classmates, but I don’t think they really fooled Old Doc PEARSON, especially when two answered at once! His walk was a shuffle, so he drove his pre-war coupe down the middle of the street to and from class.

Admiral William PENN had loaned money to King Charles II of England in his campaign to overthrow the Commonwealth & Protectorate of Oliver CROMWELL in 1660. Young William PENN inherited this debt. He asked the King for some land in the Colonies in payment of the debt. King Charles was so grateful, he gave him an estimated 45,000 square miles extending from New York to Maryland and from the Delaware River to “as far west as it goes”. That was later chopped off at the Northwest Territory in 1787, but still left him the Great State of Pennsylvania. My Mennonite ancestors purchased their 290 acres from William PENN’S sons – Richard & Thomas – soon after arrival in 1727. The original deed, drawn on a real sheepskin, is still in the family.Having experienced disastrous fires in wooden London, PENN required that every building in Philadelphia be built of brick or stone. Supposedly this is where the term “Built like a brick outhouse” came from. King Charles was also glad to get rid of William PENN for his ideas on religious freedom. PENN had joined the Quakers as a young man and established this colony for them, since he had been persecuted in England. But he also encouraged people of all religions to join his colony, unlike some colonies.

Old Christ Chruch (Anglican or Episcopal) is on the other end of the block from PENN’S American Society of Friends Church (Quaker), even tho they and the Catholics were the ones who persecuted him in England. Both churches are still in use and share a joint cemetery, now full. Benjamin & Deborah FRANKLIN are buried in it, along with seven signers of the Declaration of Independence and five signers of the Constitution. There is a folk-lore story that most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence died in battle or penniless. That is only partially true, since many simply died young – the life expectancy was only 42 in those days.

FRANKLIN Court is Ben’s homesite, where he built a comfortable home and gardens behind the row houses that contained his print shop, post office, original dwelling, and that of his in-laws the Richard REED family. He had boarded with them when apprenticing in the next-door print shop. He met and married Deborah there and they inherited some of the property and bought more. He designed the home and she supervised the construction while he was Ambassador to France. But she died just before his return and he lived there with his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren, adding a “grossvater” wing. Later his grandson took over the printing business and built a new house in the front row along Market Street.

Each day on the tour busses or trolleys, I found more of the houses & public or commercial buildings in the book that still exist today. Some are almost obscured by their high-rise neighbors.

After about ten minutes in Philadelphia, I knew the numbered streets plus Broad Street ran north and south, the tree-named streets plus Market Street ran east and west, and that Broad & Market intersected at Penn Square, with City Hall in the center and William PENN’S statue by Alexander Milne CALDER on top. Thereafter, I was perfectly oriented.

I learned about statues of generals & others on horseback. If the horse has all four feet on the ground, the person died of natural causes. If one foot is raised, the person was wounded in battle. If two front feet are raised, the person died in battle. George WASHINGTON was wounded, but died many years later of natural causes, so his horse usually has all four feet firmly on the ground, but not always.

The BOURSE Building, which I had never heard of, was a Victorian era Stock Exchange. Today it houses offices, a bank, and has a day-care center in the basement for use of employees’ infants. It happened that a fire alarm occurred one morning while I was there. The toddlers filed out in an orderly row, holding hands. The creeping infants were placed three to a crib and wheeled out by their care-givers.

The organists attended workshops, concerts, and church services at many of the larger churches. On Sunday morning Ann & I went at 8:30AM to ARCH Street United Methodist, which was behind the hotel and just beyond the huge old crenelated towers of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. We anticipated Rev. Susan COLE to be a youngish white woman, but she turned out to be an elderly black woman, and we were not impressed with the noisy service.

Then Ann got to accompany me on the trolley tour and a visit to Philadelphia Art Museum. It is built of unusual orange-ish sandstone – Minnesota Dolomite – rich in magnesium carbonate. There was a huge variety of art work and we mainly enjoyed the works of Claude MONET and other Impressionists.

Around and beyond the museum is Fairmount Park. It began with what was left from the American Centennial Exposition and World’s Fair of 1876. Several of the original stone buildings remain, although most buildings and exhibits were dismantled and taken back to their home states or countries. Many were typical homes of their area & era. Ohio’s brick & stone Queen Anne style house remains, as does the Japanese house. The park has more acreage than any city park in the United States, including Central Park in New York. It encompasses Philadelphia Zoo, Boathouse Row, and numerous historic dwellings. City residents were enjoying the sun, shade trees and grass. They were taking painting classes, polishing their cars, romping with their dogs & children, playing ball, canoeing, and romancing…………

Ann met a woman in a workshop who was a WENGER by marriage, probably our relative, knew the history………

One day when we were walking together between Ann’s concerts and lunch, I looked down a side street and said “See that black sheep sign hanging in front of that building, let’s investigate”. It was the sign for the Black Sheep Pub & Restaurant. It appeared to be a family business, because the large front windows were raised and the young mother & little girl sat on the window ledge, with the father standing at the other window. We went inside and found the great ambiance of an old colonial row-house. They had restored and replaced the old dark woodwork, paneling, wainscot, and parqueted floors to match perfectly. There on the mirror hung T-shirts with the black sheep. They were reasonably priced as advertising and we bought two.

The old part of the city lies between two rivers, the Delaware & the Schuylkill (pronounced Schoolkill). It is built on a symmetrical plan laid out by William PENN. There is a park square on each of the four corners – FRANKLIN Square, WASHINGTON Square, RITTENHOUSE Square and LOGAN Square – plus PENN Square in the center occupied by architecturally superb City Hall. City Hall with the statue of William PENN on top was the tallest building in the city from 1874 until about 1980, at which time the “gentlemen’s agreement” was broken and the twin towers of the Commerce Square Building thrust up in the style of New York’s Chrysler Building. The excuse given is that they are behind PENN’S back, so he can’t see and be offended by them!

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association (Sebewa Township, Ionia County, MI); DECEMBER 2002, Volume 38, Numbers 3. Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. SLOWINS:


FRONT PAGE PHOTO: Home of Frank & Estella BALDWIN PRYER, 9633 East Grand River Avenue, Danby Township, Portland, Michigan.


SURNAMES: Baldwin, Pryer, Wiselogle, Ryder, Pike, Yager, Leak, Wilson, Brake, Wilson, Dalzell, Carr, Zibowski, Kartuski, Wortley, Edwins, Baine, Bywater, Middaugh, Knott, Tussing, Kauffman, VanHouten, Daniels, Rogers, Sandborn, Shaw, Tyler, Smith, Gale, Gillette, Cramer, Gardner, Gierman, Jarchow, Meyers, Klager, Shipman, Willett, Young, Buck, O’Mara, Endres, Steinberg, Schnabel, Wenger, Brake, Cosens, Miller, Nogle, Lehman, Lakin, Clark, Green

RECENT DEATHS:

FREDERICK YAGER WISELOGLE, 90, widower of Louise RYDER WISELOGLE, husband of Charlotte PIKE WISELOGLE, father of Elizabeth HASKINS, William R. WISELOGLE, Ann Dee WISELOGLE and Margaret WISELOGLE, son of Florence YAGER & Andrew J. (Andy) WISELOGLE. Andy WISELOGLE was the son of Fred & Emma WISELOGLE, farmers near Springport. Florence was born and raised on a farm near Lake Odessa, taught BIPPLEY Rural School and then at Albion, where she met and married Andy. After a career as Ticket Master for Michigan Central Railroad in Albion, Lansing, Ann Arbor & Detroit, Andy retired in 1940 and he and Florence built a home on Jordan Lake in Lake Odessa. He was the first person I ever knew to put up a “squirrel crossing” sign on his street.

Florence was the daughter of Fred & Margaret YAGER, who had retired from their farm to a home on Sixth Avenue. Maggie’s father was Thomas LEAK, pioneer Sebewa farmer, whose farm included what became the Baptist Churchyard and West Sebewa Cemetery. He also had retired to a home in Lake Odessa, and in 1972, at age 60, Fred WISELOGLE followed this long tradition and built his retirement home on McArthur Street near the lake, where he was to live for the next 30 years.

Fred WISELOGLE wrote his autobiography in 1992 and we printed it in six issues of the RECOLLECTOR. Much of this story comes from his own words. Born in Albion, May 18, 1912; he began kindergarten in Lansing at Clinton School, across the street from home at Pennsylvania and Michigan. The next year the family moved to Ann Arbor, at 403 Church Street, directly across from the main University campus. He graduated from High School there in 1928, got a bachelor’s at the University in 1932, master’s in 1934, Doctorate of Science in 1936, majoring in organic chemistry. His first job was teaching organic chemistry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore for $1400 a year.

During World War II he trained Privates and General in the chemistry of explosives. Then he was assigned to organize and direct research on replacements for quinine as a cure for malaria. After the war Fred transferred to the SQUIBB Institute for Medical Research in New Brunswick, NJ, where he continued the antimalarial research to find a cure for tuberculosis.

His drug – Isonicotinic acid hydrazide – marketed under the names Isoniazid or Nydrazide thru a joint effort by SQUIBB and HOFFMAN-LaROCHE, proved safe and effective. Tuberculosis, the principal killer in the United States as late as the 1940s, has been all but eliminated, and millions of lives have been saved. He received the prestigious LASKER Award from President Harry TRUMAN – and found it ironic that as a life-long Republican, the only President whose hand he got to shake was a Democrat. He also served as President of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1961.

Retired in Lake Odessa, Fred served on the Lakewood School Board, the governing boards of the Michigan Association of School Boards, Lake Odessa Ambulance, Lake Odessa Arts Commission, Jordan Lake Watershed Association, Lakewood Waste Water Authority, Lake Odessa Historical Society, Lake Odessa Centennial Commission, Lake Odessa Community Library, Lake Odessa Lions Club, and Ionia County Republicans, and supported Boy Scouts and the Village Council.

He was a friend of this and previous editor of RECOLLECTOR and paid member to 2012, his 100th birthday. Ann SLOWINS and Fred WISELOGLE were once the only people who showed up for a new Great Books Discussion Group!

LOIS JANE WILSON BRAKE, 83, widow of Elwood BRAKE, Jr., mother of Michael, Brenda, Max, Bruce and James BRAKE, and Virginia DAVIS, daughter of D. Lee WILSON, granddaughter of Riley N. WILSON, who was a legendary pioneer farmer, merchant, constable and deputy sheriff in Sebewa Township and later Ionia. Riley WILSON owned the last house to the north on the west side of KEEFER Hwy. in East Sebewa, long owned by Burton & Helen GILBERT and now by the JACKSON family.

His biggest shoot-out in Sebewa was with a Mr. DANN, who threshed-out and sold some wheat which he had previously mortgaged. Later Riley WILSON moved to Ionia, served as Chief Deputy or Under-sheriff, and ran a store at 318 W. Main Street, which is the north-west corner of Main St. & CORNELL Alley, long occupied by the Sherwin-Williams paint store and now by Curves for Women. The late Wilson DALZELL of Ypsilanti-Reed, whose widow Greta died recently, was also a grandchild of Riley WILSON.

Jane WILSON was born in Ionia, September 1, 1918, graduated from Ionia High School, from college in 1939, and began teaching at Kent City in 1939-40 and 1940-41, and was invited back from retirement in Arizona for the 50th class reunion of the Class of ’42 in 1992. She passed away in Mesa, AZ, May 29, 2002.

Jane and Elwood were active in the Ionia First United Methodist Church and the Mesa Arizona First United Methodist Church. He was chairman of the building committee when the Ionia Sandstone addition to the Ionia church was built in the early 1950s. Elwood was an officer in Ionia County National Bank. After the November elections of 1952, they moved to Washington, DC, where he became Chief-of-Staff to Congressman Alvin M. BENTLEY, Jr. Elwood made several trips back to Michigan to campaign with Congressman BENTLEY and we saw them at the Ionia Free Fair. He visited us at the Portland farm in 1957 and we visited them in Arizona in 1971. BENTLEY left Congress in January 1961 and the BRAKES settled in the Mesa-Tempe area. Jane taught in Arizona and Elwood died there September 27, 1979.

GENE FRANCIS CARR, 73, husband of Bernadine THOMAS CARR, father of Thomas & James CARR and Patricia HOISINGTON, brother of Leo CARR, Katherine MARTINI and Delores STEDGE, and the late George & Edward (Jack) CARR and Clara TIMMERICK, son of Mary ZIBOWSKI & John (KARTUSKI) CARR. Born and raised in Sebewa Township, mostly on the Heman BROWN farm, Gene was the youngest of seven children and was a kind, gentle man. He spent his entire adult life selling John Deere farm machinery and parts, first for POFF-LAPO Sales, then G. & W. Sales in partnership with Wayne STEWARD, and finally part-time in retirement for LICH Sales. He served on the Board of Directors of Union Bank, St. Edwards Catholic Church, Lake Odessa Village Council, and as Captain & Secretary of the Lake Odessa Fire Department from 1962 to 2000. Buried at Lakeside.

MARDI E. WORTLEY EDWINS, 95, widow of Glen EDWINS, mother of Luella SMITH, sister of Madge LEAK and the late Genevieve MOORE, daughter of Urah BAINE & Walter WORTLEY, son of Joseph WORTLEY. Her mother was a BYWATER, and all these families were early farmers in Campbell, Odessa, Woodland and Sunfield Townships. Mardi graduated from Lake Odessa High School, attended Ferris Institute, worked in the HANSBARGER and TASKER Pharmacies. She is buried at Lakeside.

HARLAN A. (BUD) MIDDAUGH, 74, husband of Ann MIDDAUGH, father of Sally, Gary, and Kate MIDDAUGH, brother of LaVern MIDDAUGH, son of Harlan L. & Estia A. KNOTT MIDDAUGH, daughter of Rebecca TUSSING & Alonzo KNOTT. Alonzo & Rebecca KNOTT. Alonzo & Rebecca KNOTT lived on the Robert MUSGROVE farm, corner MUSGROVE & JORDAN Lake Highways. The W. KNOTT family owned 80 acres on TUPPER Lake Road in Sebewa Township in 1891 and after, but we cannot find out if this was the father or grandfather of Alonzo KNOTT. Bud MIDDAUGH was born in Eagle, but grew up in Lake Odessa, played basketball and graduated here. He and his father and brother ran a Service Station from the time the boys were in High School until Bud was past age 50. He had been a Medic in Germany during the Korean War years, and after selling the station he worked as an orderly at Ionia County Memorial Hospital. Buried at Lakeside.

GERTRUDE E. VanHOUTEN, 97, widow of Merle VanHOUTEN, mother of Trevor, Arlo, Jack, and Gary VanHOUTEN, sister of the late Hulda SMITH and Beatrice SHELLENBARGER, daughter of Samuel KAUFFMAN & Lottie DANIELS, daughter of Sarah D. & Orren W. DANIELS, Sr., son of Eunice & Andrus W. DANIELS, Sr., who settled in Sebewa Township on State Road in 1866. Samuel KAUFFMAN was the son of Catherine & Jonathan KAUFFMAN, who settled in Sebewa Township on HENDERSON Road before 1891. Gertrude worked at Pennock Hospital in Hastings for over 30 years. She was buried at Lake Odessa Lakeside Cemetery.

DONALD W. ROGERS, 84, husband of Kathyleen SANDBORN ROGERS, father of Joan TRUMBLE, Mary LEONARD, Larry and Douglas ROGERS, brother of the late Charles ROGERS, son of Millie SHAW & Warren ROGERS. Don was a lifelong dairy farmer on Portland Road in Orange Township, breeder of draft horses and riding horses, and along with Kate was long active in 4-H and the Ionia Free Fair. He had served on the Portland School Board, was a Hall of Fame farmer, and a member of Portland United Methodist Church for 77 years. He is buried in Portland Cemetery.

DEAN S. TYLER, 78, father of Michael D. and David L. TYLER, brother of Mignonne HODNETT, son of Veryl TYLER & Florence SMITH, daughter of Della GALE & Leonard Laban SMITH, son of Hannah GILLETTE & Laban A. SMITH, Sr., who settled in Portland Township on the farm which is now Portland Country Club, on Divine Highway, in 1866, and accumulated over 700 acres to divide among his six living children. Veryl TYLER was the son of Otis D. TYLER, son of Isaac E. TYLER, who settled in Orange Township on Peck Lake Road before 1875. Dean served in the Navy during World War II, farmed on the family homestead until the death of his parents, then moved to Gobles. Buried in Portland.

THOMAS LEROY CRAMER, 79, widower of Betty Anne CRAMER, father of Mark, Matt and Clay CRAMER and Anne STRATTEN, son of Arthur & Carrie GARDNER CRAMER, and was raised by his Uncle Glen CRAMER. Orphaned at an early age, Tom made a career in the United States Air Force, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. Then he came home, sold off his late Uncle Glen’s beautiful set of antique Allis-Chalmers farm equipment and re-equipped with John Deere. After expanding to work rented land in addition to his own, he retired again. Buried in Sunfield Cemetery.

CHRISTINE GIERMAN JARCHOW, 89, widow of Lloyd JARCHOW, sister of Pauline, Maurice and the late Charles and Robert Wilfred GIERMAN, daughter of Nellie Effie MEYERS & Robert Ernest GIERMAN, son of Christina KLAGER & Charles GIERMAN, son of Frederick (Fritz) GIERMAN. Nellie was the daughter of Lydia SHIPMAN & Albert MEYERS. Christine was born where Robert Wilfred later lived and attended Sebewa Center School. Most of her adult life was spent in Kalamazoo and she is buried there.

IONIA SENTINEL: Marriage in January 1899; Miss Allie J. WILLETT and Frank J. YOUNG.

BUCK FAMILY UPDATE: The real estate development on the Mary WHITE BUCK farm is called River Ridge Estates, not Cottonwood Creek Estates, which is across the river off DIVINE Highway & MAYNARD Road.

O’MARA FAMILY UPDATE: Susan Mary O’Mara CSONGA was daughter of Norma SHOEMAKER & Thomas S. O’MARA, son of Emma ENDRES & Frank O’MARA, son of John O’MARA & Paulina STEINBERG, daughter of August STEINBERG & Rosanna SCHNABEL, daughter of Regina & Anton SCNABEL, Sr.

A VISIT TO THE CEMETERIES by Grayden SLOWINS:

We often hear it said “Get the older generation to tell the family stories and locate the homesites and gravesites while they are still with us”. Well, in the winter of 2000, my youngest sister, Donna, who is fourteen years younger, asked Ann & me to ride with her in the Spring and show her the cemeteries. We said “Uh, huh, she wants to do it while we are still here”.

So-o-o, this is the tour we took with her, along with some stories and a little history on some of the cemeteries. We climbed into her van on a sunny morning and started to:

Mt. Olivet Cemetery, since it has the most relatives by far: two SLOWINSKI grandparents, four SLOWINSKI & LEHMAN great-grandparents, three SCHNNABEL-SLOWINSKI & GREGIE great-great-grandparents, and oodles of aunts, uncles and cousins.

The Germans came to Ionia about twenty years after the English settlement called DEXTER Colony and then Ionia County Seat. Part of Dad’s family, who started arriving in 1857, were Catholic and part were Lutheran. Often brothers & sisters went opposite ways. Mt. Olivet was of course the Catholic group. The Lutherans used the various township cemeteries, as we shall see later. When they started Saints Peter & Paul Church, Catholics also acquired land for their own cemetery. I found it interesting that in the beginning both properties were deeded in the name of the priest, Father C. G. BOLTE.

HIGHLAND PARK CEMETERY was started by an investment association or stock company, and is now owned by Ionia Township. I should explain here that a law was passed in Michigan about 1926 requiring any private burial ground that was not being cared for, no matter how large or small, to be taken over by the surrounding township or city and maintained properly. It was actually in the early 1970s when Highland Park got so bad that people requested Ionia Township take it over. Frank & Priscilla KIPP SNOBBLE and Emmett WOODEN (early Prairie Creek miller and husband of Julia STEINBERG) are buried there.

OAK HILL CEMETERY straddles the Ionia City & Easton Township line and each is supposed to maintain their part, as I understand it. It contains the graves of the earliest pioneers. Robert Wilfred GIERMAN and I restored the white marble slab stones in that little chained-off plot, as have others over the years, but it never seems to stay that way. The VanderHEYDENS are in the Easton portion – three generations of them. My family worked for them in the brickyard, helped build both their homes, and provided household services & repairs. But we have no blood relatives in that cemetery.

EASTON TOWNSHIP CEMETERY, located northwest of Ionia on JOHNSON Road at McKENDRY Road, was started by the Methodist Church once located within it and later rebuilt a mile and a half south, but belongs to the township. Emma SLOWINSKI & WARNER SMITH, who lived on the north side of YEOMANS St., corner of Short & WALL Streets, and some of their family, are buried there. Also Richard SLOWINSKI, last family owner of ARNOLD Machine Shop, has a baby boy there.

TUTTLE CEMETERY is next, southeast of Ionia on KELSEY Hwy., at TUTTLE Road. Many of Emma SLOWINSKI & WARNER SMITH’S family are buried there also. This cemetery was started by the Methodist Church once on that corner, where the first minister was Rev. Nelson TUTTLE. This cemetery is owned by Ionia Township, and the church long ago merged with Orange Methodist to form LeValley United Methodist.

BALCOM CEMETERY, in South Ionia, or actually in North Berlin Township, and also on TUTTLE Road, owned by Berlin Township. This cemetery has an active cemetery society which assists in the care. Balcom has our great-great-great aunt Minnie SCHNABEL & Thomas CANNAM. Also great-great-great-uncle Michael SNOBBLE & Mary CANTANT and their children, another Lutheran family, including Hanna & Fred ARNOLD, who were moved from the ARNOLD Cemetery half way down the hill, and Horace & Nellie PIERCE SNOBBLE from Bellview Drive. Also Aunt Marguerite SLOWINSKI, Marion MITCHELL & George MITCHELL. Also Uncle Elwood BRAKE & Aunt Nadia COOL BRAKE and their daughter Barbara HARBECK & Cliff HARBECK.

SUNSET MEMORIAL GARDENS, around the corner on State Road, in Ionia Township, was organized as a stock company or association, but as I understand it, is now owned or managed by one man, Henry Curtis.

LETTS CEMETERY, on Peck Lake Road, just west of State Rd. (M-66) in Berlin Township, has no relatives, but is worth mentioning because it has one of Ionia County’s three veterans of the Revolutionary War, Louden ANDREWS. Woodard Lake Cemetery has Wm. PANGBORN and Sebewa has Jonathan INGALLS.

ALDERMAN CEMETERY, in southeast Berlin Township on State Road, is located in the middle of a SCHNABEL farm; all the burials are English people from before the Germans bought there. Last used in 1906, it is faithfully maintained by Berlin Township.

SARANAC CEMETERY, in Boston Township on David Highway at the east edge of Saranac, is township maintained. The descendents of Agnes SNOBBLE & George VANDECAR are buried there, including most recently, Ariel MORRIS.

LAKE ODESSA LAKESIDE CEMETERY, is large for a township cemetery. Great-great-uncle August SLOWINSKI & Amelia SHADDY are there in unmarked graves. Great-great-uncle Louis SLOWINSKI is there in a grave marked only by a lilac bush. Many of his descendants in the ELDRIDGE & FARRELL families are there also.

HOLY CORNERS CEMETERY; slipping over into the southeast corner of Kent County, we visit this cemetery started by the Meonnonite Church that was originally there and now a township cemetery. Our grandparents, Barbara WENGER & John F. BRAKE are buried there, as is her grandmother, Elizabeth GOOD WENGER, Barbara’s grandfather, Christian Z. WENGER is buried at Yellow Creek Mennonite Cemetery, Elkhart, Indiana, but we won’t visit there today! Great-grandpa Abraham BRAKE & Caroline COSENS BRAKE are also at Holy Corners.

CALEDONIA LAKESIDE CEMETERY is a township cemetery within the village and has graves of our great-grandparents Christian G. & Lovina NOGLE WENGER, as well as several of his brothers & sisters and their families.

BOWNE MENNONITE CEMETERY, on 76th Street, heading back toward Ionia County, just west of Montcalm Avenue & Freeport Road. Great Aunt Inez WENGER KLAHN & Uncle Fred KLAHN are buried there, along with their teenage son, Oliver.

CLARKSVILLE CEMETERY , owned by Campbell Township, is where we find graves of Uncle John & Aunt Dorothy KYSER BRAKE and their son Bob, as well as Great Aunt Mary WENGER BIDELMAN and some of her family.

STEELE CEMETERY on Kelsey Hwy. at Peck Lake Road in Orange Township……

UNION CEMETERY on KEEFER Hwy at Peck Lake Road in Portland Township……

MATHEWS CEMETERY on Sunfield Rd. at Grand River Trail in Orange Township………these three small older cemeteries have no relatives, few recognized names, and no modern day burials, but people often ask us about them because of their proximity to Sebewa.

PORTLAND CEMETERY, long maintained by Portland Township until Portland Village became a city. It was started on a portion of the farm of the first landowners Elisha, Almeron & James NEWMAN. My parents and Ann’s parents are there, as well as many of her LAKIN, PRYER, BALDWIN, CLARK & GREEN relatives and a few SLOWINSKIS & LEHMANS.

DANBY CEMETERY, where Ann also has PRYER & PEAKE relatives, has at least in the past had an active cemetery society.

EAST SEBEWA CEMETERY on BIPPLEY Rd. has many of Ann’s John FRIEND family relatives and a few of my SCHNABELS.

WEST SEBEWA CEMETERY on MUSGROVE ROAD is nearest to our farm and it’s where we will be buried. We took care of those two cemeteries for 28 years and kept their records for 32 years as Sebewa Township Clerk & Sexton. We wrote about their history & origins in February 1997, just before our retirement.

So those and Portland Cemetery are good examples to explain cemetery layouts. Most are in rows of lots with four graves per lot. Sixteen and one-half or seventeen feet of lot width allows four adult graves side-by-side in vaults. Sometimes more are buried if some of them are infants, small children, or old graves that had no vaults. The depth of the lot may be eight feet, with a two-to-five foot alley for monuments. But sometimes the lots are ten feet deep, including monuments, with little or no alley. Most are arranged in north & south rows, so that everyone is buried facing east to the rising sun. However, some in Portland, Highland Park, and elsewhere, are in squares, rectangles, circles, or curves, and do not all face east.

The old method of doing the layout was with chalk-lines and stakes, starting from one square corner. Today accuracy requires someone with surveyor’s skills and equipment. Lastly, Sebewa Township has the INGALLS GRAVESITE, named for Jonathan INGALLS, soldier of the Revolution and first person to die in the Township, back in 1843. It is located 0.4 mile south of MUSGROVE on KEEFER Highway.

GRAYDEN & ANN SLOWINS’ entry in the FAMILY HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, soon to be published by the Ionia County Genealogical Society:

Grayden’s first American ancestor was Christian WENGER, a Swiss Mennonite who came to Pennsylvania in 1727. His son Hans bought the family farm in Earl Township, Lancaster County, from William PENN’S sons, and the deed on real sheepskin is still in the family. Hannes BRECH, another Swiss, came about 1751 to Montgomery County PA. His son John’s widow, Christina (SHERK) BRECH, moved the family with four horses and wagon 500 miles to a farm in Waterloo County, Ontario, in 1806. Their son, John BREAK, was a Mennonite teamster in the War of 1812, and married Catherine BETZNER, daughter of Samuel BETZNER. Hans WENGER’S son Joseph’s widow, Elizabeth (ZIMMERMAN) WENGER, also moved their family to Waterloo with teams in 1825.

John’s son Abraham BRAKE married Caroline COSENS, daughter of Charles & Ann MILLER COSENS, and moved to a Caledonia Township, Kent County, MI, farm in 1865. Their ten children were: Menno, Lucinda, David, Wesley, Mary, Elizabeth, John, Ida, Jane & Emma, who became farmers, shepherds, millers, blacksmiths. Joseph WENGER’S grandson Christian came by way of Elkhart, IN, to a Caledonia farm in 1864, where he married Lovina NOGLE, daughter of Benjamin & Elizabeth SHELLENBARGER NOGLE. Their eleven children were: Barbara, Inez, Amos, Verne, Joseph, Mary, John, Christian, Franklin, Flossie & Elizabeth, all doctors, nurses, veterinarians, and farmer-shepherds. John BRAKE & Barbara WENGER married in 1892, moved to a farm in Campbell Township, Ionia County. Their children were: Hazel & Wayne – infants, Elwood – teacher & Ionia County School Superintendent, Mable Van ALLSBURG – dental assistant, Crystal SLOWINS – teacher & family historian, John – farmer, barber, electrician, foster son Duane Gray – postal worker.

Many Germans, including the SLOWINSKI, SCHNABEL & LEHMAN families came from Posen, East Prussia, to Berlin & Odessa Townships, Ionia County, in 1872 after fighting Bismark’s wars to unite Germany. They were farmers, shepherds, stonemasons, woodworkers. Frank & Regina (KUBISH) LEHMAN’S eight children were: Roman, John, Pauline, Lewis, Mary, Wilhelmina, Peter & Anna. Most were farmers.Christopher & Mary (GREGIE) SLOWINSKI’s nine children: Roman, Theofil (Pete), Anna, Daniel, Michael, Martha, Minnie, Mary & Emma, were mostly farmers.

Daniel & Wilhelmina (LEHMAN) SLOWINSKI farmed in Berlin and their twelve children were: Infant, Frances, Florence, Donald, Marguerite, Herbert, Louise, Eugene, Frank, John, Clarence & Wilson. Donald & Crystal (BRAKE) SLOWINS’ children were: Grayden, Sandra & Donna.

Grayden was born January 20, 1932, on a farm in Boston Township, Ionia County, grew up on a farm in Portland Township, graduated from Portland High School & Ferris Institute, served as a Medic in Korean War. Ann LAKIN SLOWINS was born October 22, 1932, in Lansing, lived in Ionia, grew up in Danby Township, graduated from Portland High School & Ferris. They were farmers & shepherds in Sebewa Township. He was School Board Treasurer, Justice of the Peace, Township Clerk for 32 years, Cemetery Sexton for 28 years, President of Michigan Townships Association, Editor of Sebewa RECOLLECTOR, and a historian.

Ann was a church organist, pianist, recorder player, painter, weaver, pharmacist. Both loved to read & travel America in their pickup camper or motorhome and around the world. Their children were: Joseph, Karen, Daniel & Kirsten. All graduated from Ferris State University……

Ann’s first American ancestor with the LAKIN name was John LAKIN, born in Grainthorpe, England, 1819, came to Putnam Township, Livingston County, 1844, married Hulda ELLIS MERRILL in 1848 and settled on a farm next door. She was daughter of (first wife) & Daniel MERRILL, farmer and first Clerk of Newton Township, Calhoun County. Ann’s father, Elon LAKIN, is descended on both sides from Prudence BIRD MERRILL, born 1548 in Suffolk, England, and thus his parents were ninth cousins once removed. Two grandsons of Prudence, John MERRILL, born 1599 in Suffolk, and Nathaniel MERRILL, born 1601 in Suffolk, settled in Massachusetts 1633.

John was the 8X-great-grandfather of Elon’s mother, Norah CLARK, and Nathaniel was 7X-great-grandfather of Elon’s father, Claude LAKIN. Daniel MERRILL’S mother was Hulda ELLIS, daughter of John & Elizabeth SAWYER ELLIS and 3X-great-grandmother of John ELLIS< who died in Sandwich, MA 1697.

John CLARK, born in Ireland, came to New York and was Norah CLARK LAKIN’S grandfather. His son John (her father) was a blacksmith in Portland and married Harriett GREEN, daughter of Samuel GREEN & Melinda HASKINS, daughter of Jessie & Lucy PATTERSON HASKINS, who settled in Portland Township in 1836.

Samuel GREEN, son of John & Sarah TAYLOR GREENE, was 3X-great-grandson of John GREENE who was married in Rhode Island in 1641. Jessie HASKINS, son of Abraham & Lois WATTS HASKINS, was 4X-great-grandson of Nathaniel DICKENSON, who died in Hadley, MA, in 1676.

John & Hulda MERRILL LAKIN’S son William married Elizabeth HITCHCOCK, daughter of Delinda Jane MILLS & Rufus HITCHCOCK, farmer in Locke Township, Ingham County & Conway Township, Livingston County, son of Russell & Evalina HITCHCOCK, and a Civil War casualty at Andersonville in 1863. Delinda MILLS was daughter of Elizabeth DICKENSON, who died at Howell in 1899, and Stephen MILLS.

Ann’s mother was Marian PRYER LAKIN, daughter of Frank & Estella BALDWIN PRYER. Frank was son of Cornelia PHILLIPS & Thomas PRYER, who settled in Danby Township in 1851, was born 1829 in New York City at what is now west end of Brooklyn Bridge, son of Merselus PRYER and 3X-great-grandson of Thomas PREYER who owned land in New Jersey in 1674.

Frank PRYER’S mother, Cornelia, was daughter of Silvester & Margaret ALLEN PHILLIPS. Estella BALDWIN was daughter of Rush BALDWIN, Civil War Veteran born 1841 in Ohio, who settled in Sebewa Township in 1866. He was son of Nathaniel BALDWIN & Matilda SHAW, granddaughter of Richard SHAW, a Revolutionary War Veteran who died in 1785. Estella’s mother was Phoebe Maria FRIEND, daughter of Polly Ann MEACHAM & John FRIEND, who settled on a farm in Sebewa Township in 1854. Polly Ann was daughter of Samuel MEACHEM & Polly HASKILL, and 4X-great-granddaughter of Jeremiah MECHAM, who died in Salem, MA, in 1695. John FRIEND was son of John & Betty COMB FRIEND, who emigrated to America from Devonshire, England in 1833.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The preceding story is our entry in the FAMILY HISTORY OF IONIA COUNTY, soon to be published by the Ionia County Genealogical Society. Have you written yours and ordered a book? The address is: Pam Swiler, President, 13051 Ainsworth Road, Lake Odessa, MI 48849-9406. Call 616-374-3141 for price and particulars. Deadline is November 30.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association (Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan);
FEBRUARY 2003, Volume 38, Number 4. Submitted with written permission of Editor, Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: DUNSMORE, MORRIS, VANDECAR, SLOWINSKI, ARNOLD, COVERDALE, PIERCE, SNOBBLE, GIERMAN

Front page photo of ARIEL MORRIS 1911-2002, LAST TEACHER SEBEWA CENTER SCHOOL

EARLY MOTOR HOME: This photo was the property of Mrs. George VANDECAR, of Saranac, MI, grandmother of Ariel MORRIS. It had typewritten on the back: Mrs. VANDECAR. Cleveland, Tenn. Nov. 4th 1920. Taken by J. B. HARGIS.

We believe the Motor Home was constructed in Ionia, MI, at ARNOLD Machine Shop, by Richard SLOWINSKI. He is standing in the doorway of the Motor Home. Mrs. VANDECAR may be standing in the center rear of the photo. ARNOLD Machine Shop also made one prototype of their own automobile in the earl 1900s, then became dealers for MAXWELL Automobiles and had as many as 33 employees on their payroll.

PHOTO OF CATHERINE C. COVERDALE ARNOLD SNOBBLE & LOUIS HORACE & NELLIE PIERCE SNOBBLE.

CATHERINE C. COVERDALE ARNOLD SNOBBLE:
For those fellow historians who may follow us, we have put together in one package the last written and photographic records of one Catherine C. COVERDALE ARNOLD SNOBBLE.Catherine C. COVERDALE was born in 1888, probably around Noblesville, Indiana, north of Indianapolis, and died in 1983 at the age of 95, in Eustis, Florida. A family portrait from her childhood shows her parents and four girls, of whom she appears to be the youngest, about age 10. There is also a portrait of her in her finest garb as a strikingly attractive grown woman. There is also a collection of snapshots of her brother Edward of Indianapolis and his wife Minnie, and their daughters from infancy thru dating-age teenagers. The older girl, Margaret Ann COVERDALE SMITH, was born March 31, 1914, and Kathleen (Kathlene) COVERDALE has no birthdate listed. There are no identified snapshots of Catherin herself.

There is a marriage license & certificate issued to Catherine C. COVERDALE and Edson Boyd ARNOLD on May 4, 1911. Her home at that time is listed as Putnam County, FL, and his as Malabar, Brevard County, FL. He was a Dentist, a County Commissioner in Brevard County with county seat at Titusville, and was a grandson of Dexter ARNOLD, Easton Township, Ionia County, MI. Dexter was a brother to Oliver ARNOLD of South Ionia, sons of Job ARNOLD and & Hannah DEXTER ARNOLD.

There is a marriage license & certificate issued to Catherine C. ARNOLD and Lewis Harry SNOBBLE (born Louis Horace SCHNABEL) on August 4, 1936. Her address is Malabar, FL, and his is Ionia, MI. Louis Horace and his first wife, Nellie PIERCE, purchased a farm on Belleview Drive January 26, 1909, and sold it to grand-niece Ariel MORRIS on September 4, 1945. Louis Horace was born in Berlin Township, Ionia County, in 1858, and died in 1962, in his 104th year.

Louis Horace SNOBBLE and first wife Nellie purchased a second home at 1901 Orange Avenue, Eustis, FL, December 2, 1922, when he was age 64, and he lived there for 40 years. They are buried in BALCOM Cemetery, Ionia, MI. His second wife Catherine died in Eustis in 1983 at age 95. She and her first husband, Edson Boyd (E.B.) ARNOLD, are buried in Westview Cemetery, Lot 417, 1680 Gordon Street, NW, Atlanta, Georgia.

Compiled from the estate of Ariel DENTON DUNSMORE MORRIS by Alaina MORRIS TROUT and Grayden SLOWINS, another SNOBBLE descendant.

Photos of the Louis Horace SNOBBLE home, Belleview Drive, Ionia, Michigan. The top one was taken in 1992, and the bottom photo in 1910s.

LOUIS HORACE & NELLIE PIERCE SNOBBLE:
For those fellow historians who may follow us, we have put together in one shoe-box the collection of photographic records from the estate of Louis H. & Nellie PIERCE SNOBBLE, including some apparently removed from the blank frames in their photo album.

There are also a few photos of the ARNOLD family and their home, which either came from them directly or thru Catherine ARNOLD SNOBBLE.

Louis Horace (aka Lewis Harry) SNOBBLE was born in Berlin Township, Ionia County, MI, in 1858, and died in 1962, in his 104th year. He worked in his brother-in-law Fred ARNOLD’S blacksmith, foundry & machine shop. He was married to Nellie PIERCE of Ionia, born 1872, died 1933, and they purchased a farm below the curve going up Belleview Drive on January 26, 1909. He also did some carpenter work and livestock buying. They created a beautiful farm house, barn and other buildings, as well as a yard with a wooded background. The rolling cropland/pasture was mostly across the road, and they sold that to grand-niece Ariel DENTON DUNSMORE MORRIS on September 4, 1945, to create her sub-division with husband Lynn.

On December 2, 1922, Louis H. & Nellie had purchased a second home at 1901 Orange Avenue, Eustis, FL. After Nellie’s death in 1933, L. H. married Catherine C. COVERDALE ARNOLD of Malabar, FL, on August 4, 1936. She was the widow of Edson Boyd ARNOLD, a dentist, Brevard County Commissioner, and grandson of Dexter ARNOLD of Easton Township, brother of Oliver ARNOLD, founder of South Ionia. These brothers were sons of Job ARNOLD and Hannah DEXTER ARNOLD.

Louis H. SNOBBLE was 64 years old when they bought the Eustis home and he lived there 40 years, dying in 1962. His second wife Catherine died in Eustis in 1983 at age 95. She is buried with her first husband in Westview Cemetery, Lot 417, 1680 Gordon Street, NW, Atlanta, Georgia. Louis & Nellie are buried in Balcom Cemetery, Ionia, MI. Ariel MORRIS inherited the Florida property, including furnishings and keepsakes, as heir to both the ARNOLD and the SNOBBLES.

This information and these photos are compiled from the estate of Ariel DENTON DUNSMORE MORRIS by Alaina MORRIS TROUT and Grayden SLOWINS, another SNOBBLE (Schnabel) descendant.

LETTERS FROM ARIEL:

Ionia, MI, August 31, 1971. Dear Friends, I was surprised and thrilled to receive your card and happy that you were having such a grand trip. A wonderful experience for those smart kids! They’re the type who will really be able to use, in their school work, reading, and painting, the knowledge gained from seeing those super sights.

Lynn, Alaina, and I had a delightful time aboard the Queen Mary at Nassau Harbour at Thanksgiving time in 1965. There was no guide and we were allowed to wander all over the ship – I have a number of slides. We were awed by the Queen! I haven’t seen the other places you listed, but am surely hoping to visit them someday.

Congratulations on the many prizes you won at the fair with your paintings and sheep – I enjoyed them all. That commemorative stamp “America’s Wool” is perfect for your use. Hope to see you soon and hear all about your tour. Love to all, Ariel.

Eustis, FL, December 19, 1981. Dear Cousins, You will know from the statistics – 29 @ 8:30AM – 45 @ 3:00PM that the Midwest cold has come down here………I left Ionia on Tues. Nov. 10 and arrived here on Thurs the 12th. I drive the camper and we keep my parents nice ’66 Buick here all year. It has 50,000 miles on it. (Editor’s Note: Her father & mother had passed away in 1972 & 1976 respectively and we realized then that we were cousins thru her mother.)………I thought Ann might like to know of another artist who paints sheep. I know Ann was ill some of this past year….It may have been Robert GIERMAN who told me that you really covered a lot of territory………I plan, and Lynn concurs, that we will go to visit Sharron in Phoenix, OR, in March from here on the southernmost route. We were married at Bastrop, TX, nearly 40 years ago. I would like to drive my camper, but he has always been stubborn – saying it is too crowded. I looked at a used Motor Home yesterday, but presume that wouldn’t be the way he’d want to travel either, so I expect we will drive a car. Love, Ariel.

Eustis, FL, December 12, 1996. Dear Ann, Grayden and children, Your interesting RECOLLECTOR found its way down here. I will read about the PEACOCK family, which I remember was a family name out here in Sebewa, but I don’t think I every met any. I think the Michael SNOBBLE family must have had some peacocks at one time, as I remember a fan-shaped decoration of their feathers on the living-room wall where Great-grandma Mary and Great-aunt Emma lived on Uncle Lewis Horace SNOBBLE’S place on Belleview Drive. I was 7 years old when Mary died, but I have quite vivid memories of the two houses………I can see from here a picture on my living-room wall of a snow scene with deer on the edge of the woods. It hung in Horace and Nellie’s big house. They had me for about two weeks vacation for several summers and I loved it there. I was there when the first announcement came that World War I had ended.

Robert GIERMAN always used to stop at my house on Horizon Drive several times a year. I certainly enjoyed his visits and miss him very much. When it was dues time, he would tell me and I would get the money out gladly. I am sorry I neglected to send you any money, but it kept coming and finally I noticed the label said FREE. That was so thoughtful and kind of you. I am sending some money to at least help with the stamps.

I enjoyed the picture of your camper on the cover of one of your issues. I never owned anything with which I had more fun than my camper. Mine looks like yours, its 11 ½ feet long, and it’s a Coachmen too. It’s on a Dodge-8 (3/4 ton) which I drove home from the Detroit factory in 1968 and bought the camper new that same year. It’s in the barn at the Peck Lake Road farm and hasn’t been driven in several years………It has 67,000 miles on it and I drove most of those miles alone. After a few trials with a woman friend along, I decided I preferred the solitary traveling life – go where you please and stay as long as it suits you.

Last summer at the farm I picked a leaf from the gingko tree which Robert gave me. It was a small sprout back then and never has yet grown very tall. He was quite upset with the lawyers next to the BLANCHARD house who wanted the mother tree, from which he got the shoots, cut down, they said it stunk. I thought Tom Ferguson’s story in the Sentinel about you (A Shepherd tends to the grassroots on Election Day 1996 as Sebewa Township Clerk) was very interesting and I am keeping it with your SCHNABEL Family History Book. Sincerely, Cousin Ariel.

ARIEL AGNES DENTON DUNSMORE MORRIS, 90, widow of Richard George DUNSMORE & Lynn E. MORRIS, mother of Sharron DUNSMORE VanVLECK KIRCHER McCARGAR, Ardelis DUNSMORE ENDREI & DeAlina MORRIS TROUT, daughter of Arthur Elliot DENTON & Cora DeAlice VANDECAR, daughter of George A. VANDECAR & Agnes A. SCHNABEL, daughter of Mary CANANT & Michael SCHNABEL, son of Regina & Anton SCHNABEL, Sr. Born October 12, 1911, on a Saranac farm, she died June 22, 2002, in her “grossmuter wing” of Alaina’s home in Onekama, MI. Ariel was energetic, resourceful and multi-talented, with a zest for life. She graduated from Ionia County Normal in 1930 and practice-taught under Crystal BRAKE SLOWINS, then on her own. Upon the untimely auto death of her young husband in 1939, she ran the DUNSMORE Dairy for a year, then studied photography and operated her own portrait studio in Ionia.

After marrying Lynn, she developed Horizon Drive subdivision on ARNOLD’S Hill in South Ionia. In the 1960s she attended Western Michigan University and was the last teacher at Sebewa Center School 1963-1965. She always found humor, and when she came to interview for the job, she told the other School Board members “I used to hold Grayden on my lap”. All her long life she was an extensive traveler, reader, teacher, painter, photographer, historic preservationist – including the BLANCHARD House – and farmer on her family’s farm. Her winter home was in Eustis, Florida. She is buried in Saranac Cemetery.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association
(Sebewa Township, Ionia County,Michigan);
APRIL 2003, Volume 38, Number 5. Submitted with written permission of Editor, Grayden D. SLOWINS:


Front page photo of:
Fred ARNOLD family in front of home 1918-1921 – Esther COE ARNOLD (mother) ? Anna MAJINSKA ARNOLD (second wife), Adelene ARNOLD & Lenna ARNOLD (daughters), Fred ARNOLD (owner), Helen DINEHART SLOWINSKI & Richard SLOWINSKI (nephew)

SURNAMES: Brown, Sayer, Petrie, Boocher, Fry, Fees, Petrie, Cook, Hoffman, Taylor, Warner, Olsen, Alwen, Slater, Duits, Pike, Mulholland, Halladay, Wilson, Smith, Conkrite

RECENT DEATHS:

WENDALL B. BROWN, 78, husband of Jean BROWN, father of Steven & Daniel BROWN and Gail McFANIN, brother of Walter, Wayne & Weldon Brown and Betty DUFFEY, son of Minnie SAYER & Burton BROWN, and descended from the very earliest settlers of Sebewa Township on MUSGROVE Highway. A lifelong Danby Township farmer, Wendell is buried in Danby Cemetery.

MARGARET E. PETRIE, 74, widow of Maynard L. PETRIE, mother of John, David & Carl PETRIE, Mary HOOVER and the late Kathryn PETRIE, sister of Carmen STAMBAUGH, daughter of Mary E. BOOCHER & Ora E. FRY. They lived in North Manchester, IN, where her funeral was held in the Old German Baptist Church and burial in the Old German Baptist Cemetery. Maynard was the son of Mierl Evelyn FEES & Carl PETRIE, and was born and raised in Sebewa Township on PETRIE Road.

GRACE LAVON COOK, 85, widow of Gaylord COOK, mother of Keith & Kendall COOK, Lavon BLIESENER, and Lola DAKIN, sister of the late Hubert TAYLOR, daughter of Mary Olive HOFFMAN & Harry TAYLOR. She was buried in Lake Odessa Lakeside Cemetery. Gaylord COOK was the son of Gladys SHETTERLY & Clifton COOK, and was born and raised in Sebewa Township on TUPPER Lake Road.

Britta (Sharry) WARNER SAYER, 80, widow of Stanley SAYER, step-mother of Naomi SHELTON, daughter of Signe Matilda OLSEN & John Edward ALWEN. She was born in Sweden, raised goats with Stanley at Lyons (Collins), MI, and is buried in East Sebewa Cemetery.

FIVE GENERATIONS:
The Forrest & Esther SLATER family recently had a five-generation photo taken. They are the great-great grandparents. Marian & Wayne DUITS are the great grandparents. Anita & Richard DUITS are the grandparents and Rachel DUITS & Jeremy PIKE are the parents. Four-week-old Adrianne Amber DUITS-PIKE was the guest of honor.

SLATERS are descended from Peter & Clara MULHOLLAND SLATER, who homesteaded a wilderness farm, later known as the John F. BRAKE farm and now Dale ZOOK farm, on THOMPSON Road in Campbell Township in 1872. Peter had emigrated from Holstein, Germany with his mother in 1854 at age 13. In 1867 he married Clara and they had eight children, of which five grew up: Minnie BURLEIGH, Nora HOOPER, Garfield, Edgar & Berton SLATER. Garfield’s children were Esta STUART KOLE, Marian HOWLETTE, Elwin SLATER and Ivan Kenneth SLATER, who married Olive HEINTZELMAN of Sebewa and had Lewis SLATER. Edgar’s children were Merton & Glenn. Berton’s children were: Mabel McCAUL, Phebe GEIGER, Mary McCAUL and Carl, Roy, Keith, Forrest, and Richard SLATER.

HALLADAY FAMILY UPDATE & DIPLOMA:

Catherine (died 1890) and Henry (1819-1881) HALLADAY homesteaded at the southeast corner of TUPPER Lake Road and KEEFER Hwy, diagonally across from the HALLADAY School. This farm was later owned by the Burr DUFFEY family and now by Walter & Maxine DUFFEY BROWN. HALLADAYS farmed and ran a hotel in their home. They also owned 80 acres on the northeast corner, where their daughter Helen HALLADAY (1859-1919) and her husband Elmer BLANCHARD (1851-1903) lived. Those buildings are gone now. Their son was Guy BLANCHARD, whose Eighth Grade Diploma appears in this issue. Note the signatures of the teacher, district board, and county school commissioner. A. Bruce GIBBS was the father of our long-time member, Byron GIBBS. Jane COOK acquired the original of this diploma at an auction sale recently and will give it to any family member who reads this and claims it.

DIPLOMA. This is to Certify, that Guy BLANCHARD, of District No. 6, in the Township of Sebewa, County of Ionia, has completed the following Studies in the Common Branches required by Law to be taught in the Public Schools of the State, vis: Orthography 80, Reading 90, Writing 70, Arithmetic 85, English Grammar 60, Geography 80, Physiology 91, United States History 60, Civil Government 72. Witness our Signatures: Given at Ionia, in the County of Ionia, State of Michigan, this Fourth day of June, A. D. 1899. (Signed) Clayton PETRIE, (Fillious?) WHITE, John H. SAYER, DISTRICT BOARD. A. Bruce GIBBS, TEACHER. Levi A. BURHAMS, COMMISSIONER OF SCHOOLS.

EARLY MotorHome UPDATE: The first motor home, shown in our FEBRUARY issue, was built by Horace SNOBBLE of Ionia. Richard SLOWINSKI probably helped build it, since they both worked at ARNOLD’S Machine Shop and were related to the ARNOLDS. Persons identified in the photo are: Horace SNOBBLE – left rear, Arthur DENTON – next rear, Agnes SNOBBLE VANDECAR, Cora VANDECAR DENTON & Jane SNOBBLE BLOOD – in front of window George VANDECAR – in front of Jane, Nellie PIERCE SNOBBLE – in front of driver, and Cova SNOBBLE – in front of Nellie. Not all fifteen of these people rode to Florida in this vehicle! Please note the names SCHNABEL & SNOBBLE are interchangeable in this family.

WILSON FAMILY UPDATE: A recent inquiry about the Frank WILSON lot & grave in East Sebewa Cemetery brought this information: Frank WILSON was one of seven siblings. They were: Francis (Frank), Theodore (Ted) & Arthur (Art), plus four sisters. Frank also had seven children: Olive – who married Lewis ROWE, Sr., Genevieve KIRNEY of Middletown NY, Bernice – possibly in Oregon, Alfred (Fred) – father of Charles, Marge, John; Howard – in Oregon, Edmund – a Lawyer in Bessemer AL & Charles Wilson, Sr. The location of Frank’s wife’s death & burial is unknown.

Arthur WILSON was father of Christina – who married Albert EVANS and had Herb EVANS & Mildred BROWN, and Victor WILSON, Sr., father of Joyce LUSCHER, Rose AINSWORTH, Carol CASSEL, and Keith WILSON, who was father of Tom, Victor, Jr., Elma & Mary Anne WILSON, Janet KUDIRKA, Jane MAZEI, and Anita BARCROFT.

We remember Ted WILSON retired in Portland, but don’t know if he had descendants.

WILLIAM ALLEN SMITH FAMILY UPDATE: As a follow-up to the Burton SMITH obituary we printed in October 2001, we received this information:

The William Allen Smith family lived on the old William T. GOODRICH farm across from our home on MUSGROVE Hwy. William A. SMITH & Louise SINDLINGER SMITH are buried in East Sebewa Cemetery, along with son Glenn, just inside the west gate, fourth row over to the left. Louise was a sister to Fred, Willard, Minnie & Lydia SINDLINGER. Other SMITH children were Clyde, Clifton, Burton & Violet.

We received separate phone-calls from Mary Lou GRABOSKI and Fred SMITH, ages 70 and 73, children of Clifton SMITH. Their family first lived in the little house west of William’s, which Clifton built of used lumber from Sunfield when he was first married and before the big house burned. William rented extra land around the neighborhood and Clifton worked it with him. Then they lived in the tenant house on the Glenn OLRY farm, which is now our farm, from 1934 to 1940 and the kids attended Sebewa Center School. The family went to South America for a year as missionaries – they were Seventh Day Adventists – and upon return lived in the George PETRIE, Sr. house for a year and the kids attended school in Sunfield. Then the family moved to Berrien Springs, where Clifton built a house and worked for the Adventist college.

Burton SMITH graduated from Sunfield High School and farmed all his life near Clarksville. He also worked for SMITH-GROEN Lumber Co. in Grand Rapids, manufacturing windows. His children were Selma WILLIAMSON and Burton M. (Jack) SMITH. He is buried at Clarksville.

Melvin LeRoy FENDER & Jennie CASSEL FENDER lived in our tenant house prior to 1934 and one or both of their boys, Glenn & Richard, were born there, with the help of Fern CONKRITE. Garland & Grace BAILIFF and family moved into that house in 1940, when the SMITH family left, and lived there until 1957, when we purchased the farm and ended the life of that house. For all its dilapidated condition, it was unique because it had ships-timber mortise-and-tenon framing line the older barns.

HANNAH M. SCHNABEL ARNOLD:

Hannah M. SCHNABEL, born in New York State, 1855, died in Ionia, 1918, daughter of Mary CANTANT & Michael SCHNABEL, was married to Fred E. ARNOLD, born in Ionia, 1855, died in Ionia, 1936, son of Esther COE & George Wesley ARNOLD. G.W. ARNOLD had come to Ionia in 1833 with the DEXTER Colony at the age of 1 year. He was the son of Oliver ARNOLD, whose mother, Hannah, was a sister of Samuel DEXTER, and whose father was Job ARNOLD, a Revolutionary War soldier from Smithfield, Rhode Island. Oliver ARNOLD, born in 1793, left Herkimer County, New York, on April 26, 1833, with his second wife, Susan, age 38, along with their nine children (6 boys & 3 girls – all under age 21). They traveled 200 miles on the Erie Canal on Mr. DEXTER’S horse-drawn canal boat, Walk-in-the-Water, with “Michigan Caravan” chalked on the side, from Frankfort to Buffalo, New York. Then the group of 63 people took the steamer, Superior, to Detroit, and from there came by ox-wagon to Ionia, arriving May 28, 1833.

While the others settled on lands north of the Grand River, Oliver ARNOLD and his family settled on 88 acres south of the river, along what is called ARNOLD Creek. He built a log cabin about ten rods east of the present factory site. On February 11, 1834, his wife passed away, which was the first white adult death in Ionia County.

The First Methodist Church was founded in his home that year, and his three older children – Silas, Anthilda, and Anthy Philena – were the sole members for the first two years. The first wedding in Ionia County was that of Anthy P. ARNOLD to Dr. W. B. LINCOLN, the colony physician, on July 5, 1835, performed by Judge Samuel DEXTER. The LINCOLNS established their 80 acre farm & home on the northwest corner of LINCOLN Avenue and Jefferson Street, when that young fellow, Abe LINCOLN, was still splitting rails!

Oliver ARNOLD was a blacksmith by trade, and founded in 1833 the ARNOLD Machine Company, the oldest continuously operated industry in Ionia County and said to be one of the three oldest in Michigan. Oliver’s sister Phoebe ARNOLD & husband Erastus YEOMANS established the oldest continuously operated family farm in Ionia County that same year.

Oliver utilized the water power of the creek first for his bellows and grind-stone, and specialized in making and sharpening axes, knives, scythes, and other hand-held farm tools, as well as simple plows. His youngest son, George Wesley ARNOLD, worked with his father and upon his father’s death in 1859, took over the business at age 27. G. W. ARNOLD added a foundry, machine shop, and wood-working of all kinds, as well as dinner, school & church bells. In 1876 he platted South Ionia, which had been known locally as ARNOLDTOWN.

His only son, Fred E. ARNOLD, joined him in the business known as G. W. ARNOLD & Son. Upon the father’s death in 1888, Fred took over the business at age 33, and by slight alteration of the foundry molds, it became G. W. ARNOLD’S Son. He made knives, axes, plows, land rollers, cultivators, sledge hammers, wagon gear, bob-sleds, bells and double-folding collapsible step-ladders. The left-over molten iron from casting was cast into frog door-stops. Much of their work involved repair of steam engines.

Most of the machinery was run by an eight-horsepower, vertical – shaft turbine under the factory floor, which was fed by a 60 ft. head of water from Arnold Creek at the top of the hill. In 1925 the planned upgrade of M-14 to M-66 required diversion of the creek to underground storm sewers. Fred ARNOLD was paid $5,000 by the State for this interference with his source of power, and for about two years, until the availability of three-phase electricity, the plant was run with a seven-horsepower ARNOLD Gasoline Engine. One suspects Fred was willing to take $5,000 for doing something he planned to do eventually anyway, because the water could have been piped thru conduit to his plant.

Starting in 1901, the ARNOLD Gasoline Engine had been developed and produced in sizes from 3 to 18 horsepower. An automobile was also developed under the financing of Ionia capitalist George WEBBER, and although it performed as well as any in its day, only one prototype car was built. The firm became a dealer for MAXWELL Automobiles and had as many as 33 employees on its payroll. A recently discovered photo in the estate of Ariel MORRIS shows a 1920 Motor Home which was apparently built by the ARNOLDS as well.

After Hannah’s death, Fred married Anna MAJINSKA, born in Odessa Township, 1871, died in Ionia, 1953, daughter of Annette KUBISH & George MAJINSKA. Both wives were called Annie ARNOLD. In 1922 Fred ARNOLD took in with him Richard SLOWINSKI, born in Berlin Township, 1902, died in Ionia, 1989, son of Emma MAJINSKA & Thomas SLOWINSKI. Richard was a cousin to Hannah ARNOLD thru his father and a nephew to Anna ARNOLD thru his mother. He leased the place in 1929, and after Fred’s death in 1936, he purchased it from his aunt in 1940. He got into tool & die work along with the machine shop, and received a commendation for aiding the war effort in World War II. The foundry, blacksmith shop, and wood shop were phased out over the years, rented to Howard TOWNSEND’S Body Shop and Elwin BROWN’S Cycle Shop, and torn down about 1960.

In 1962 the present two concrete-block buildings were built over the floor of the original blacksmith shop, and the old frame machine shop was torn down also. Richard sold the ARNOLD Machine Shop to Gary BUSSELL in 1975, who operated it until his untimely death 2 years later. After being used by Jack SKOOG of American Anodco for several years, the ARNOLD Machine Company was sold to the present owner, Welland SPRAGUE of Portland Products, in 1982. The proud history continues in the production of welded automotive assemblies.

Anna ARNOLD is buried with her parents in Mt. Olivet Cemetery. Hannah and Fred ARNOLD are buried on the family plot in BALCOM Cemetery, along with their daughters, Lenna, born 1882, died 1949, and Adelene, born 1887, died 1921. Neither ever married. There is an anvil on the ARNOLD Family stone!

LETTER FROM ARIEL MORRIS:

Eustis, FL, December 16, 2001 – Dear Friends, For many it has been a while since I contacted you. Most of you know that Lynn died on December 9, 2000. We are glad that he did not suffer, but I miss him and have had the year to remember all the good things that we did and our life together.

After the funeral Sharron and I flew to Florida and I had a relatively uneventful winter in my own home until March 31, when I had a stroke. It affected my right side and for a few days I had problems with speech, walking and thinking. On April 19, Sharron and I flew to Grand Rapids, where Alaina met us and took me to her home in Onekama.

Jim & Alaina took good care of me. I had my bedroom, bathroom, and a living-room that I could call my own, and was well fed. Still, it is not like living in your own home, where I wanted to be. The girls knew that I could not fix my meals and take care of myself and that Ionia was too far away from any of them. I knew that is true, but hard to accept. Anyway, we had the best summer under the circumstances. Alaina and I read quite a few books together to help pass the time. Other than that, I listened to the radio and many books on tape. Other than that, I listened to the radio and many books on tape. My sight is so bad now, I had little interest in traveling around the beautiful Onekama area.

On November 25, Sharron and I once again flew to Florida. I am in my home at 2933 Lake Louise Drive in Eustis. I have a young woman from Michigan who comes in for about 6 hours a day to take care of breakfast and a late lunch, baths and other necessities. Sharron or Alaina checks on me each evening. In January, Ardelis and Frank will arrive for the month. I am not complaining, but with Lynn gone, my eyesight pretty much gone, and my freedom to be independent gone, I also would like to be gone. I have lived a good like and have no pain or regrets, other than that I would have liked to have painted more and read more over the years. I am thankful for all the friends that still keep in contact and are concerned about me.

To you Grayden, I am sorry to hear about your troubles in 2001. Hope that things will be better for 2002. We do appreciate still receiving your RECOLLECTOR and keeping in touch. You have always been so nice to all of us. ARIEL

THE ICEMAN by Grayden SLOWINS:

Before electric and gas refrigerators there were oak iceboxes. The home version usually held a fifty-pound cake or ice. The home-maker would set a card in the window with one of the numbers 10-20-25-50 facing up and out, to tell the iceman how much was needed. Drippings were caught in a pan under the icebox or drained thru a hole in the floor.

West Michigan has lots of lakes and ice was harvested for sale in cities and towns as far away as Chicago. REEDS Lake in East Grand Rapids had two ice houses owned by Consumers Ice Company, right where the middle school is now. Owners of Consumers Ice Company included bankers, furniture executives, and the president of Booth Newspapers.

To harvest the ice, it was scored with special horse-drawn drags with serrated blades, moving in a grid pattern. Usually they went over it 2 or 3 times to cut about two-thirds of the say thru. Then men with cross-cut ice saws would complete the cut into chunks approximately two foot by four foot by the depth of the ice and weighing 150-200 pounds. Others would move the blocks along the edge of the open water channel with hooked poles.

At the ice house the blocks were slid up underwater plank ramps and onto a steam-powered conveyor/elevator or loaded onto horse-drawn sleighs for immediate delivery. REEDS Lake even had railroad spurs to load for Chicago. Inside the ice house the blocks were stacked with layers of sawdust around and between them to hold the cold and keep them from sticking.

In 1917 just before World War I, Consumers built an artificial ice production plant on Market Street in Grand Rapids. Horse & wagon were replaced by trucks for delivery. Commercial ice-making almost ceased and then took off again with the advent of bagged ice for sale at convenience stores and resorts, as well as home ice machines on the modern refrigerators.

In Lake Odessa, the ice house was down by Jordan Lake and horses were used for the power. In Portland, Will POSSEHN was the iceman. He and his family lived on the old G. M. BENEDICT farm across from the municipal dam on Lyons Road. Some of his land was between the road and the river, and the ice house stood on the edge of the dam pond.

Bill BLOUGH of the Freeport sawmill family worked for Will POSSEHN and for later owners. According to Will’s oldest daughter, Hulda SUTTON, POSSEHN sold out to Loyal McINTYRE about 1927, got it back, and sold again to a man named ALLEN. In 1929 the POSSEHN family moved to a larger farm on M-66 in Orange Township.

The river ice was of course made from the same water that came out of the combined sewer systems of the villages of Portland, Grand Ledge, Eaton Rapids & Onondaga, and the cities of Lansing & Jackson. Perhaps it was okay for cooling, but don’t put a chunk in your beverage! So manufactured ice was a definite improvement health-wise. Portland/s came from Lansing, I believe. These blocks were scored, so the iceman could mor easily cut them with an ice pick.

I believe the price in the Great Depression was about 1 cent per pound – so 25 cents for 25# - 50 cents for 50# etc., where it had been $1.50 or $2.00 delivered to the farm before WWI. Mother bought groceries for a family of four for $3.00 a week and tried to lay aside 10 cents a week toward Christmas presents. So there wasn’t much money for ice in the Depression. The John & Glenn OLRY farm, where we have lived since 1957, had its own ice house. We don’t know where the ice was cut, but it was stored here on the farm for summer use. A ring of foundation stones in the ground is all that remains. END

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association
(Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan);
JUNE 2003, Volume 38,
Number 6. Submitted with written permission of Editor, Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: ELDRIGE, EARLE, DANIELS, LINDLEY, KINNEY, MERRYFIELD, GIERMAN, THUMA, MOORE, OATLEY, KLAGER, GUNN, RARICK, LEHMAN, GUERNSEY, CLAPP, KUBISH, HANSBARGER, MUMAW, KLADDER, HOORT, FISHER, McCAUL, SLATER, SANDBORN, BENSCHOTER, LUSCHER, GIBBS, BRADLEY, ERDMAN, HUNTZINGER, SMITH, PERKINS, HOENES, SINDLINGER, WARREN, RITENBURGH, CROSS, POSSEHN, ZANTO, STAPLES, STAPLES, SEARS, WILSON, BLANCHARD, HALLADAY, SLOWINS

RECENT DEATHS:

POLLYANNA (POLLY) ELDRIDGE, 65, wife of Gordon ELDRIDGE, mother of Ronald & Laurie ELDRIDGE, sister of Donna DEAN, Patricia COOK, and the late Unsurulla ELDRIDGE & Edward EARLE, daughter of Avard EARLE & Myrtle DANIELS, daughter of Anna U. LINDLEY & Andrus W. DANIELS, son of Sarah D. KINNEY & Orren W. DANIELS, Sr., son of Eunice MERRYFIELD & Andrus W. DANIELS, Sr. Buried at Lakeside.

REBA SARAH GIERMAN THUMA MOORE, 85, widow of Volney THUMA & Fred MOORE, mother of Paul THUMA, Agnes HOLLAND, Marjorie MORRIS, Sue WRIGHT and Mary MILOVIC, sister of Wilbur GIERMAN, daughter of Mae OATLEY & George GIERMAN, son of Christina KLAGER & Charles GIERMAN, son of Frederick (Fritz) GIERMAN. Mae OATLEY was daughter of Sarah GUNN & Gravener OATLEY, son of Sally & Simeon OATLEY. Sarah GUNN was daughter of Amelia RARICK & Theodore GUNN. Buried at East Sebewa.

ANNIE LAURIE LEHMAN GUERNSEY, 103, widow of Robert GUERNSEY, Sr., mother of Joyce HOLLAND and the late Robert GUERNSEY, Jr. & Nadine SHETTERLY, sister of the late Robert JOHN, Clara Belle & Frank LEHMAN, Jessie Cathaleen HEDDON & Bertha Baker CRAIG, daughter of Ida CLAPP & Roman LEHMAN, son of Frank LEHMAN & Regina KUBISH, daughter of John KUBISH. She was born in Ionia August 3, 1899, grew up at Otter Lake & Davison, Michigan, lived after marriage on Louisa Street in Ionia, then on Union Hill, and finally at Heartlands Health Center, died April 20, 2003. She was one of our last natives to have lived in three centuries. Buried at Highland Park Cemetery at Ionia.

NELSON D. (DUTCH) HANSBARGER, 88, widower of Marguerite, father of Kay (CAMERON) YAGER & Harlo (Shorty) HANSBARGER, brother of Owen MUMAW & Dorothy DOTY, son of Ada (Becky) MUMAW & Jeremiah HANSBARGER. Retired supervisor of Lake Odessa Street & Water Department. Buried at Lakeside Cemetery.

ETHEL MAY KLADDER HOORT, 80, wife of Henry HOORT, mother of Sandra HEYBOER, Larry & Randall HOORT, sister of late Marion BOOTS, daughter of Ann FISHER & Ernest KLADDER. Buried in Sunset Memorial Gardens at Ionia.

BERTON E. McCAUL, 82, husband of Doris FAHRNI McCAUL, father of Roxie HAZEL, Neil McCAUL, Betty HASKINS, Alex McCAUL, Sue ELLIOTT & Steve McCAUL, brother of Doris CANFIELD, Lois GOODEMOOT, and the late Owen McCAUL, son of Anthony McCAUL & Mabel SLATER, daughter of Berton SLATER, son of Clara MULHOLLAND & Peter SLATER. A lifelong dairy farmer, owner of Lake-O-Maid Dairy Bar, and parade participant with his draft horses. Buried in Lakeside Cemetery.

HOWARD ALDEN SANDBORN, 82, husband of Mary GOODRICH SANDBORN, father of William, Robert & Edward SANDBORN, brother of Riley LaVERN, Louis, Richard, Kendall & Gary SANDBORN, Maxine VOLK, June HIGBEE, Joyce LYON, Janet GILBERT, Bonnie JAMESON, Judy McCRUMB & Betty RUSSELL, son of Anis BENSCHOTER & Riley SANDBORN, son of Elma Winifred LUSCHER & Lawrence WATSON (Lon) SANDBORN, son of Sarah Jane GIBBS & Columbus SANDBORN. Anis BENSCHOTER was the daughter of Bertella BRADLEY & John BENSCHOTER, son of Mary M. & Oliver P. BENSCHOTER, son of Diana & Cornelius VanBENSCHOTEN. Bertella was daughter of John M. & Mary A. BRADLEY. Elma LUSCHER was daughter of Minnie C. ERDMAN & Jacob LUSCHER, son of Anna HUNTZINGER & Jacob LUSCHER, Sr. Sarah Jane GIBBS was daughter of Robert & Mariam GIBBS. Buried in East Sebewa.

DAVID H. SMITH, 90, husband of Louise SMITH & widower of Norine BYINGTON SMITH, brother of the late George & Lawrence SMITH, and Marilyn SMITH McKINLEY, son of Mabel PERKINS & David SMITH, Sr., son of Barbara HOENES & John George SMITH, who immigrated from Wurttemberg, Germany, in 1852, to eighty acres at W ½ SW ¼ Sec. 6 Sunfield Township, Eaton County, MI, where the village of Woodbury stands today. David was born in 1913, graduated from Lake Odessa High School & Albion College, and if memory serves correctly had intended to study medicine, as his brother George did, but became ill & had to drop out.

He was a successful insurance agent, active in Lake Odessa community affairs, admired & respected by all who knew him. He was an interested & contributing member of the Sebewa Center Association for all its 38 years. Our children moved their lawn for a number of years and they came to their graduation parties. In 1978 they retired to Sun City, AZ, and were active there as well.

LUCILLE SINDLINGER WARREN, 87, widow of Kenneth E. Warren, mother of Roger C. WARREN, sister of Margaret L. BROWN & Mildred P. RICE, daughter of Nora A. RITENBURG & Fred C. SINDLINGER, son of Christian & Elizabeth SINDLINGER, who settled in Sebewa Township in 1855. Nora was the daughter of Ira & Minnie R. RITENBURG. Lucille graduated from County Normal and taught in Berlin Center, West Sebewa & COON rural schools, and Ionia Public School. Buried in Sunset Memorial Gardens.

Mary Kathryn (Kate) CROSS POSSEHN WELLER, 80, widow of Harold POSSEHN & Jacob WELLER, mother of Phil & Debora POSSEHN, sister of Clare CROSS, Doris SHATTUCK, Dorothy FEDEWA & Barbara DAY, daughter of Anna ZANTO & Raymond CROSS, son of Della STAPLES & Leonard CROSS, son of Emma & John H. CROSS, who settled in Sebewa Township before 1875. Anna was daughter of Mary & Louis ZANTO, pioneer Orange Township farmers. Della was daughter of Loren & Delos STAPLES, innovative farmers in Sebewa Township. Buried in Lakeside Cemetery.

UPDATES FROM WALLACE SEARS: WILSON FAMILY – A sentence last time did not make it quite clear that Christina WILSON EVANS was the sister of Victor WILSON, Sr. and both were children of Arthur WILSON. Christina married Albert (Bert) EVANS and they had Herbert EVANS, Mildred EVANS BROWN, and another son, Eston EVANS. Victor married Ella PEACOCK and had Rose WILSON AINSWORTH, Joyce WILSON LUSCHER, Carol WILSON CASSEL, Keith WILSON and another son, Royal WILSON.

BLANCHARD FAMILY: Wallace also says there were two sons in the family of Helen HALLADAY & Elmer BLANCHARD. Their names were Glenn & Guy BLANCHARD, but they were called “Tunk” & “Dud”. Neither ever married, they lived all their lives in the old family home, now gone, and they “rode shotgun” with Syd BROWN hauling livestock to Detroit.

WILLIAM ALLEN SMITH FAMILY: Wallace says Clifton & his family went to China as missionaries, not South America. Burton SMITH built the little house west of William, not Clifton. Glenn & his widowed mother, Louise, went to Gobles to live with Clifton & family, not Berrien Springs. Glenn’s crippling disease from childhood was rheumatoid arthritis.

OLIVER SMITH FAMILY: Three granddaughters of Ben SMITH: Margaret SMITH TROYER, Ilene DARLING CARR & Georgianna HOLLENBACK PERKINS, are trying to identify the above photo (included, on back page of this issue, with article) and to locate the history & graves of their great-great-uncles Lafayette (Lafe) SMITH & Abraham (Abe) SMITH, brothers of Ben’s father, Oliver SMITH, Sr., and Nancy Elizabeth SMITH TIDD. Georgianna can remember them as tall, white-haired, old men.