Newaygo County Society of History
and Genealogy 
NEWSLETTER
November and December 2009 - Bi-monthly
2009 Board Meeting Schedule
November 14, 10:00am COA
December 12, 10:00am COA
COA: Commission on Aging, Gibbs Street, White Cloud
Members are welcome to attend Board Meetings
To contact the Society
Email: newaygocohistory@yahoo.com
Mailing: NCSHG, PO Box 68,
White Cloud, MI 49349
Website: ncshg.org
UPCOMING EVENTS WITHIN THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
It is time to renew your subscription with the Society for the
2010 year. With your membership dues, the
Society is able to print and mail our newsletter, hold events, copy, print and publish
historical papers, and otherwise preserve documents. We appreciate your diligence in
membership renewal and we never take for granted any renewal that we receive. Without our membership, the Society would not
survive. A membership form is included in this
edition of the newsletter.
A Cemetery Walk in the East Hesperia Cemetery is scheduled for
August, 2010 and plans will be laid early in 2010 for this event. Anyone interested in providing portrayals is
encouraged to contact Toni Rumsey, 231-854-8195.
UPDATE
on RECENT EVENTS
Saint Mary’s Church Annual Meeting – held Sunday,
Sept. 13 at 3:00 at the church had about 20 people in attendance. We are privileged each year to the Ferol Borkowski
as our organist and Steve Bleiler lead in hymns, both Ferol and Steve live in the White
Cloud area. After an annual update on business
was given, a highlight was read about Brookside School, connecting one of our current
projects of collecting history on our country schools.
Refreshments were served afterwards by Elsie Pykonen and the group had an
opportunity to review photos and the names of teachers from Brookside.
A Genealogy Beginners’ course was held at the October
regular membership meeting with Pamela Miller, White Cloud Library Historian, as
instructor. Elsie Pykonen, Joyce Pearson and
Toni Rumsey also participated in assisting the group and a light luncheon was served. We thank everyone those participated in this class.
To all the Kids Who Survived
the 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s!!
(As copied from the
Spring & Summer 2009 MCG newsletter)
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank
while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn’t
get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby
cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or
cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no
booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, but on bald tires and sometimes no brakes.
Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a
special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no
one actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon…We drank
Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we
weren’t overweight. WHY?
Because we were always outside playing…that’s why!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we
were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day.
And, we were OK.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then
ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we
learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Play Stations, Nintendo’s and X-Boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on
cable, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones, no
personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.
We had friends and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones, and teeth and there were
no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live
in us forever.
We were given bb guns for our 10th birthday, made up games
with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put
out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the
door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with
disappointment. Imagine that.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard
of…they actually sided with the law.
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem
solvers and inventors ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility, and we learned
how to deal with it all.
If you are one of them? Congratulations!!!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to
grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for
our own good.
While you are at it, pass it to your kids so they will know how brave
and lucky their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t
it?
What is a Veteran?
A veteran is someone, who at one point in their life, wrote blank
check made payable to the United States of America
for an amount up to and including his/her life, that is honor –
and there are way too many people in this country
who no longer understand that concept.
Courtesy – Masthead, U.S. Navy
News
Newaygo
County Surveyors
1855 – 1856
William
S. Utley
1857 – 1858
Warren
P. Adam
1859 – 1862
William
A. Hoskins
1863 – 1870
Adonigon
E. Upton
1871 – 1872
Charles
Carmichael
1873 – 1874
Winfield
S. Merrill
1875 – 1876
John
C. Brewster
1877 – 1878
John
A. Manly
1879 – 1880
John
C. Brewster
1881 – 1882
Winfield
S. Merrill
1883 – 1884
Alfred
g. Meade
1885 – 1886
Phillip
A. Harrison
1887 – 1890
Winfield
S. Merrill
1891 – 1892
John
C. Brewster
1893 – 1894
Winfield
S. Merrill
1895 – 1902
Delos
G. Anderson
1903 – 1914
William M. Jacques
1915 – 1950
Lyle S. Shepherd
1951 – 1966
Ralph A. Smith
1967 – 1976
Patrick
S. Salisbury
1977 -
Norman
L. Ochs
Obituaries
of three of our surveyors follow:
July 19, 1923, White Cloud Eagle
William
Jacques died Tuesday – Was County Surveyor many years – died of old age
William Jacques died Tuesday afternoon, July
17, 1923 at the Soldiers’ Home hospital in Grand Rapids. Mr. Jacques had been in poor health for some time
before he took up his residence at the Soldiers’ home almost a year ago. We are
informed that Mr. Jacques was born in Nova Scotia on April 6, 1843. He has resided in White Cloud about a quarter of a
century, previous to which he was a resident of Big Rapids for many years, where he
followed the vocation of surveying as he later did in Newaygo County. We deeply
regret that no relatives are here who can furnish us with a sketch of the interesting life
of the departed, as he served in public life for years in various offices, and served
through the Civil War. But one daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Jacques, she having
passed away leaving him three grandchildren, two boys and one girl. One of them, Morton Zoehyde left here Tuesdays
night for Akron, Ohio, having a few days before visiting his grandfather in Grand Rapids. Since then it has been impossible to reach him to
inform him of the death. Last night the body was brought here for burial in Prospect
Hill Cemetery. The funeral services will be
held at 10:00 o’clock Saturday morning at the M.E.Church, with the Odd Fellows in
charge.
January 19, 1950, White Cloud Eagle
Lyle
S. Shepherd, 59, Dies; County Surveyor Since 1915
Lyle S. Shepherd, Newaygo County surveyor
since 1915, died at Gerber Memorial Hospital Monday, January 16, following a long illness.
He was born April 17, 1890, in Barton Township and was married to Mildred Gibe of
Newaygo in 1912 at Chicago. Coming to White
Cloud in 1912, they have lived here eve since. Lyle attended Newaygo High School and
was a graduate of the University of Michigan and a registered engineer. He was elected to the office of County Surveyor in
1915 and in November, 1948, won his 18th consecutive term to that office.
He was a past village president and school board member. A leader in civic affairs, he was a member of the
F. and A.M. Lodge of White Cloud, the R. and A.M. of Newaygo and the DeWitt Clinton
consistory of Grand Rapids since 1914. He also
was a member of the Association of Land Surveyors. He is survived by his wife, three
sons, Wayne of Atlanta, Ga., R.L.- Assistant prosecuting attorney of Newaygo and John of
White Cloud; two daughters, Mrs. Fred VandenBeldt, White Cloud and Sally in nurses’
training in Grand Rapids; one brother, Reginald of Kalamazoo; his father, George S. of
White Cloud and four grandchildren. The body lay in state at the home Wednesday
afternoon and funeral services were held at 2:00 p.m. Thursday at the Methodist Church. The Rev. Garth Smith officiated with the Masonic
Lodge in charge of the graveside service at Prospect Hill Cemetery.
Ralph
Smith Set an Example for All
(article year 1982 Times Indicator)
Ralph Armstrong smith experienced a
death-defying fall on an engineering project in 1968 that helped him realize something he
probably knew all along. “I did a lot of thinking in the few seconds of my
fall,” Smith told the Times-Indicator back in 1975.
“I discovered that I wasn’t afraid to die.” And now, at
age 85, Smith has died, but he has left behind personal touches from White Cloud to the
South Pacific. Eight years ago Smith, then a retired civil engineer signed on with
the Peace Corp to help build bridges and a school in Liberia. After three months there, his higher-ups thought it
would be better for him to get out of the “busy” to a nice, safe desk job. Smith would have nothing of it, so he quit. After avoiding desk jobs all his life, he was not
about to accept one at age 77. In an earlier stint with the Peace Corp in 1968,
Smith went to Micronesia, a chain of islands 600 miles south of Guam in the South Pacific. Dysentery sent him home that time, but not before
he thought much about the so-called benefits of civilization. “They were good,
fine people.” Smith said. “I could find no fault with them. Civilization is what corrupts people. They are all right until they learn to be covetous
and greedy. We Peace Corp people often talked
about the fact they would be better off without us and our civilization.” Smith
first came to White Cloud from Illinois in 1924 to work for the county road commission. For many years after he used White Cloud as a base
while traveling the country as a civil engineer. In 1950, he bought a land survey
company in White Cloud and served as a county land surveyor from 1950 to 1966. He drew a county map for the Newaygo County Tourist
and Resort Association in 1948, and copies of that map are now considered collectors
items. Smith served on the city council from 1953 to 1957 and served as mayor from
1957 to 1959. From 1959 to 1961, he was
President of the School Board. Smith will be remembered as a man with a plentiful
supply of talent and energy that he was always willing to share with neighbors close to
home and in distant counties. Smith passed away Saturday morning at the Newaygo
Medical Care Facility. He was born February 8, 1897 in Lincoln County, Illinois, the
son of Charles Franklin and Rosie Lois (Armstrong) Smith.
He married Grace-Irene Thurber on April 26, 1920 in Stanton, Michigan and
she preceded him in death on July 17, 1953 in Fremont. Smith was a member of the
Michigan Land Surveyors, a member of the White Cloud Rotary Club and a member of the
United Methodist Church of White Cloud. He was
a veteran of World War I. He is survived by four sons, Ross and Bruce both of Birmingham,
Michigan, Neal of Royal Oak, Michigan and Dale of White Cloud; eight grandchildren and six
great grandchildren, one brother Barton H Smith of Kent, Ohio, and one sister Mrs. Emily
Steere of Pontiac, Illinois. Mr. Smith’s body was taken to the Graceland
Crematory for cremation. The memorial service will be Saturday, May 1 at 2 p.m. at
the White Cloud United Methodist Church. Those
persons who would like to help with a lasting memorial to Ralph Smith may do so by a
donation in his name to the White Cloud United Methodist Church. Ralph was a member for over 50 years.
From the Saint Mary’s Annual
Meeting Presentation, September 2009
"Brookside School in Sheridan Township"
The history was written in 1945,
author unknown, with two interviews given.
Brookside School -
It’s Beginning and Growth
1866-1870 as related by Mrs. Fannie
Ashcroft Clark. Mrs. Clark, who in 1945 was in
her eighties, is the oldest living former student of Brookside School having come here
when this part of the country was covered with forest.
Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Ashcroft, were much loved and respected
pioneers who lived west of Brookside for many years.
“One has to know something about
this country during the early years of our school in order to appreciate the great
sacrifices and hardships the pioneers had to endure in order that their children might
have even a meager education.
On March 31, 1866, my father
with his wife and five children left Marcellus, Michigan in a covered wagon bound for the
“North Woods” as this part of Michigan was then spoken of. He had homesteaded one hundred and twenty acres of
land at what was known at that time as Sheridan Center and which was later named Brookside.
It took one week to make the trip through the deep snow or about two or three days
longer than it would take now to go entirely around the world by airplane. There was
no school in this small settlement in the wilderness for over two years after we arrived
here. In the spring of 1868 a small
schoolhouse was built on what was then known as the Bailey farm near Fremont Lake. That was one and one half miles north of the
present building. That was a long way for
children to go to school and it was not over good roads such as we have, or in
automobiles, but over trails through dense woods with bear, deer and other wild animals
lurking near. This building was a small one room affair with log benches on three
sides and a stove in the middle. School began
the first of May and closed the first of August. Our
first teacher was Nettie Blood from Ashland. I attended school only two weeks of
this term as my father put me out to work. We
older children were set to picking up roots and helping clear a patch of land for the next
season’s crop.
In 1869, what was then called
the “town house’ was built and was directly across to the south of where the
present school building now stands. It was
built to be used for township meetings and sort of a community center. The parents decided to hold school in this building
rather than to send their children so far through the woods to the little schoolhouse up
by the lake. This “town house” was about fifteen feet by twenty feet and
served for the various meetings of the community for about eight years. Teachers boarded around as was the custom in those
days, a week or two with each family represented in the school. It was quite an occasion in a family when their
turn arrived to have the teacher board with the. The
children were duly prompted in advance on their company manners and the best those
pioneers home afforded was brought out for the occasion.”
1870-1890 as related by Mrs. Minnie
Palmer Miller
“In
1869, my father purchased the land which lies just east of the schoolhouse and which is
now the Peterson farm. We made the trip here
by rain to Grand Rapids and from there by horse teams to Sheridan Center. We stayed here until I was seven years old when my
mother became very homesick. Leaving our farm
in the care of a newly married couple, we returned to our former home. However, we could not forget our home in the “North
Woods” and in 1879 when I was twelve years old, we returned to it. I have lived here continuously since that time
which is now sixty-four years. As near as is
known, this is the longest that any person has been a resident of Brookside.
When I was four years old, Mrs.
Ann Chapman, a sister of Mrs. Dennis Miller, another pioneer whose family played a very
important part in the history of this community, taught here. Mrs. Chapman was a
widow and had with her a little daughter, Allie, and both boarded with us during their
stay here. Neither Allie nor I were considered
old enough to attend school regularly, but we thought it great sport to visit school
often, which our mothers allowed us to do. It
was a quite different school than the kind I find when I now visit Brookside school. The beginner, of course, first had the very
uninteresting task of learning his ABC’s which was at that time considered the very
foundation of all proper education. Instead of
our education being measured by grades it was judged by readers completed.
In 1869, a few families in the
community got together and decided that some kind of a regular school be erected. After much discussion, it was agreed to accept the
offer made by Frank Bacon to lease one acre of ground here in the center of the township
for school purposes. In exchange, he was to be
given ten dollars in money and the first crop raised on the land was to be his for cutting
the timber and clearing it off.
The “town house” was
used until about 1875 when the new school house was ready.
It was a wooden structure located just a few feet west of our present
building with five windows on each side. The
homemade benches were now replaced by factory made seats which faced the north. The building was heated by a large stove placed
somewhat towards the center of the room. The children sitting nearest the stove were
usually well cooked while those sitting on the outer fringes of the room suffered with the
cold.
The sanitation in those days before we
had learned much about germs, was quite different than today, but somehow we seemed to be
a pretty healthy lot despite that fact. We
shall never forget the community water pail which must have fairly reeked with germs. The pail or dipper did not see soap or hot water
often for weeks on end. How honored each
little lad or lassie felt when teacher allowed them the coveted privilege of passing the
water pail during school hours. Often a child
would fill the dipper to the brim, drink what he wished then pour the remainder back into
the pail. This in turn was dipped up and drunk
by the other children as served. We often
wonder if God did not somehow endow us with stronger stomachs in those days than we now
seem to have.
I hope I have no impressed the younger
generations with the thought that our school was poorly run, devoid of good times and
opportunities. Such was not the case. If you think we did not have good times just sneak
up and listen in when a group of we oldsters get together at one of our reunions and
listen to our conversations. As for the
training we got, it was considered adequate for the times and our school was always the
leader among the rural schools of this section of the country. The spelling contests were not only fun and brought
out a fine spirit of friendly competition, but we really learned to spell. We took pride in our penmanship and our writing was
not only readable but with many it became an art.
The school entertainment put on by the
pupils were enjoyed by both old and young, and much otherwise hidden talent was brought to
light. There was no expensive school group
equipment in those days but the necessity of devising our own games brought out ingenuity
that was helpful later in life. The sleigh
rides will never be forgotten. So you see that
while the children of today are enjoying many things we missed, we however, had a wealth
of fine things they will never be able to realize. With many former pupils their
memories of happy school days are associated with the old frame schoolhouse that preceded
the present one and the many fine teachers who taught in it.
I was one of that older school and it is now time that I step aside and let
the younger generations tell of the remaining years.”
1890-1943 as related by Mrs. Birdie
Miller Biesel
“As mentioned previously, the
original frame building was enlarged. That
took place in 1890 and from that time to the present, Brookside has boasted two teachers
and for a few years there were three.
From 1890 to 1900 great progress in
education was made, not only in our school but all over the country. Brookside was fortunate in having progressive
citizen, very capable teachers and an exceptionally fine county school commissioner –
F. C. Stillson. With such a combination we not
only kept pace with the trend of the times but became the outstanding school in Newaygo County. Let me mention here that Patrons Day of which a
separate history has been written, did much to aid in this progress, and for it we are
indebted to Bert R. Miller, the founder; his able assistant, Lou E. White; and the ladies
of the community to whom they appealed for help.
Brookside is a proud community. We
had the honor of being the leading rural school in the county. We therefore, decided about 1903 that with such a
reputation to sustain we should also have a school building and equipment which we could
be proud of as well. The taxpayers promptly
voted to erect a new building. In 1904, they
put up the new red brick building which still stands.
The school board at that time consisted of P. M. Miller, Director; H. Kamps,
Moderator; and Henry Meeunberg, Treasurer. Benjamin
Frost and Margaret Rhea were the first teachers in the new schoolhouse.
By 1914, the number of pupils
had increased until it was found necessary to employ three teachers. Again a “town house” or “town hall”
as it was now called, was to have a part in our school system. It was used for school purposes until 1929 when it
was found two teachers were again adequate. Also,
since 1914, pupils have been privileged, until this year, to complete the first ten grades
in our home school. Most of them have gone on
to Fremont to complete their high school work and many have graduated from there with
honors.
Brookside always has been, and probably always will be, abreast of the
times. For instance, note the musical training
our boys and girls have been receiving. We can
be justly proud of the fine orchestra we have had. It
shows there is some outstanding talent among our boys and girls and as they grow older,
the understanding and enjoyment of music will mean much to them. How much richer would have been the lives of some
of us of the old school, could we have had such training in school.
In the past year, the greatest
change for many years has taken place in our school. I
say “our school” for even though after many years away from Brookside I still
feel that I am a part of it. That seems to be
the case with most Brooksiders; the fine associations we had there make the heart strings
pull that way.
In 1942, it was voted to transfer to Fremont
school by bus, all pupils beyond the seventh grade. Hence,
the older boys and girls have left our school and we miss them.
The automobile and good roads are
doing much to revolutionize our schools, as well as our entire mode of living and may I
predict that the school bus system, as started with a few grades, is the first step
towards an entirely centralized school system. The
writer, in traveling through many states of the union, could not help but notice that Michigan
has been lagging along that line.
In closing this school history, I am
tempted to mention the names of many fine families, who have figured prominently in the
drama of Brookside school and community; but it would take pages and then too, no one
person would be qualified to judge which should be especially mentioned; therefore, we
refrain from giving special mention to those deserving people. The fine cooperation and unity of the citizens of
this community, whether they have been in our midst a long or short time, has made many
things possible.”
Courtesy of Newaygo County historian,
Harry Spooner in 1930 wrote the following and I will speak only from a small bit of what
he wrote: Fremont had first graded rural
school, not only in the state but the nation. It
has been discovered by considerable research that the first completely graded rural school
in the state was Brookside School, five miles from Fremont.
Research about country schools shows
that fifty years after Michigan became a state the schools were in the same condition as
at the beginning of their conception. It was
only in the past forty years (1890 to 1930) that the rural schools have advanced to their
present high position so that Michigan can now truthfully coast of the best primary
schools to be found in the country. The
transformation began with the grading of Brookside School, which was begun in 1883 and
complete din 1886. The man to whom credit is
due for starting a system to bring order out of chaos in the rural schools was William E.
Gould. He taught the Brookside School eight
years, of which five were consecutive. He had
been a pupil in this same school himself. When
he became a teacher he applied himself diligently to the task of studying out a
classification system without which no school can make much progress. Discouraged at the apathy in schools affairs in Michigan,
he sent to Des Moines, Iola, for a plan of gradation and, using this as a basis, began the
classification of Brookside School. Brookside School
has continuously had the complete eight grades since the plan was first inaugurated by Mr.
Gould.
A little more history: Superintendents of schools could suggest and plead
a course of study yet the schools were under the jurisdiction of their townships. In 1881, Superintendent Cochran wrote a course of study yet it did not
fully cover all eight grades. It was not
incorporated by the teachers. Superintendent
Gass replaced Cochran and Gass wrote an extended course of study that would bring students
entrance to high school. Although explaining
the need to teaching institutes in the area and state, it again fell on deaf ears. Thankfully, Brookside School was completely graded
at the time these efforts took place, but it is unlikely that the state officials knew it,
or if they did know it, they took no cognizance of it as the grading had not followed the
official plan on three sections and fives classes, but was
full-fledged eight grade school.