|
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
●
Wednesday, November 11,
7:00PM, Old School House,
The Value of Historic Preservation in a Community Our
speaker is Nan Taylor who is the Greater Michigan Field
Representative for the Michigan Historic Preservation Network &
National Trust for Historic Preservation. Nan will arrive in
Saugatuck at 2 PM and will spend the afternoon touring the area.
Society members who would like to join the tour should call Jane at
(269) 857-2268
2009 Holiday Party Slated for
Sunday, December 6
●
This year we will return to the traditional potluck of the past.
There will also be an option if you don’t want to cook.
●
The event will be held at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts – a new
feel, easy parking and more space!
●
Among the events this year will be book signings and Society gift
sales.
●
Your invitation will provide all the details. Look for it in the
mail in early November. Seats are limited, so make your reservations
early!
●
Look for your invitation and more information
in early November.
Coming for the Holidays
●
New SDHS Merchandise
●
Shop at the OSH Gift Shop in December
●
Details and Dates to be Announced
●
Volunteer to help with the Holiday Shop by contacting Jon Helmrich
at jon@ibctv.info or
269.857.3574
SOCIETY VOLUNTEERS "THANK YOU" CHILI SUPPER ON NOVEMBER 1
The SDHS Board members will
again be hosting a chili supper to show their appreciation to all
the SDHS members who have volunteered their time and efforts during
the year for the Society’s many programs and projects.
The event is on Sunday,
November 1 at the Old School House beginning at 6:30PM.
If you will be attending and
haven't already done so, please RSVP by REPLYING to this
email. If you are unable to attend, please accept the Board’s thanks
for your support of your Society this year.
SCA "About it!" SERIES TO FEATURE LECTURE ON LOCAL SHIPWRECK
On Thursday, November 19 the
Saugatuck Center for the Art’s "About it!" series will
present a lecture of interest to SDHS members titled The Wreck
of the Rockaway: the Archeology of a Great Lakes Schooner.
Click HERE for
more details.
FAMILY HISTORY
|
Click on the image for
a higher res copy |
The SDHS is ready to embark into a new era of
family history. Family history research is being swept forward
by a tsunami wave called the digital revolution. A symbol of
this revolution is the ability to search vast pools of data
quickly and efficiently! For instance, just ten years ago
viewing the Federal census was a process involving travel,
search of ponderous indexes and the viewing of cantankerous
microfilm. Today one can find a name in two hundred and forty
years of census records in a matter of seconds - while sitting
at a home computer! |
|
Jack Sheridan and Chris Yoder have volunteered to lead an
initial small group to structure this opportunity for the SDHS.
For starters we need to know the level of interest and ability
that exists among Society members.
If you are interested in doing the research
necessary to build your family tree, send an email to Jack or
Chris jack.sheridan@gmail.com
or cyoder@tds.net.
Please indicate your experience with family
history research by choosing one of the following terms in your
email: BEGINNER, INTERMEDIATE, ADVANCED. They will contact all
members who express interest. |
Tracking Michigan Family History? Death Certificates Can Help
You can begin tracking your family history with the many tools
available on the SDHS web site. The Library of Michigan has just
made nearly 1 million state death certificates available for the
years 1897 to 1920. Data shown on these certificates includes birth
date and place, parents' names and birthplace, cemetery name and
location, and more. This information can be access through the SDHS
research links. Information from these certificates is incrementally
being posted to relevant internment records for Riverside and
Douglas cemeteries.
In addition, over 1300 local death certificates are available from
the Old Douglas Hospital and Saugatuck Township files, as well as
access to Michigan State Death Records from 1867 to 1897. The U.S.
Social Security death index, also linked to our research pages,
provides limited death information on a nationwide basis for the
more recent deaths (beginning in the 1960s).
Click
HERE to go to the the Society's On-Line Research Center.
Michigan death records which are not available at these free
locations can be ordered from the State of Michigan Vital Records
Office. For a fee, you may order death and other records filed with
the state as early as 1867, and divorce records as early as 1897.
Death Certificates may also be ordered from the County Clerk in the
county where the death occurred. Happy hunting! submitted
by Chris Yoder at cyoder@tds.net
or (269) 857-4327
|
WHAT YOU MISSED
SDHS October 14, 2009 Meeting OSH Douglas, MI 7:00 p.m.
President Harold Thieda welcomed the 47 members present and followed
up with these tidbits:
●
Reservations are necessary for the November 1 Volunteer
Chili Supper at the OSH
●
The November 11 SDHS meeting is on The Economic Benefits
of Historic Preservation and Jane Van Dis wants sponsors to support
her as she sleeps outside in a box for the homeless in November.
●
Steve Hutchins and Harold also presented to the Society
a 36 star 1866 flag (the year the OSH was built) to be flown for
special occasion.
Jane Underwood introduced Jim Jeltema who stepped in for
hospitalized Art Lane and shared Art’s collected details on area
golfing. Whether a 9 hole course did exist in 1906 near Shorewood or
if the 1916 West Shore Golf Links was the first, Jim’s humor and
Art’s manuscript putted us from Liberty Links (Clearwood) to The
Ravines and from miniature courses on the Butler Hotel lawn in 1920
to the Root Beer Barrel and to Dune Mountain near Goshorn Lake in
the early 1980’s.
Free golf balls plus displays of blueprints, photos, maps and
drawings aided the spirited communication of SAUGATUCK – DOUGLAS
GOLF COURSES – SOME LIVELY – SOME FORGOTTEN!
THOMAS DOLE, EARLY SAUGATUCK HOTEL KEEPER
by descendant Andrea Olmanson of Wisconsin
Commercial Record Ad, July 1869
Thomas Dole, born 27 August 1812 in Hartford, CT, died 30 June 1889,
Saugatuck, MI, was married to Elizabeth, nee Bennett. They were my
great great grandparents.
Thomas and Elizabeth had 3 children, all boys. They started out
their married life in Waterloo Seneca County, NY. Their boys were
George W. Dole (1840-1849, buried in the Stark Street Cemetery in
the Village of Waterloo, Seneca County, NY, next to his grandfather
John Dole and his uncle Henry Dole), James Knox Dole (1844-1910,
buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Allegan County, Michigan), and
Charles T. Dole (born 1850, died unknown).
Thomas, Elizabeth, and at least their son James were
Congregationalists. Census records show Thomas as having various
occupations -- painter, hotelier, and farmer.
The 1860 census shows that Thomas and Elizabeth owned and operated a
hotel.
Fast forward to 1869. Thomas was ardently anti-alcohol, much to his
financial detriment. From the Saugatuck Commercial Record, May 15,
1869: "Union Hotel - Mr. Dole is repairing his bar-room but says
he will not keep liquor, living or no living. We glory in his spunk,
and have not the slightest doubt of his success. The idea that a
hotel can not prosper without selling liquor, is humbug. We can
recommend the Union Hotel as a quiet house, with peace and plenty."
From the Saugatuck Commercial record, July 31, 1869 (two and a half
months later): "Mr. Rode is fitting his building, formerly used
for hotel business by Thomas Dole, up in good shape, and will open
his saloon some time next week."
Two story Union Hotel in 1874 - Now Pumpernickel's
The 1870 census shows that Thomas and Elizabeth were farming. Poor
Elizabeth! Having to go back to farming in her elder years, after a
comfortable life in town. Elizabeth died in 1878 at age 68 of a
"strangulated hernia," according to her Michigan death record.
Thomas and Elizabeth's son, Charles, is described in census records
as a "riverman". James was an engineer, a ship's captain, a
carpenter, and a carriage-maker, as his main occupations, but I know
that he was also a some-time hotelier. James and his brother Charles
were on a sloop called the Water Witch that overturned a mile out
from Saugatuck Harbor in November 1879 and they were rescued by an
August Burkholtz, who heard them yelling from a mile away, according
to an article in the Commercial Record.
Also, James was in an accident with a swing bridge when he was
captaining some boat with a Congregationalist girls choir from
Chicago that had come to Saugatuck in 1907. The full story is in the
August 30, 1907 edition of the Commercial Record. Three girls were
injured. The paper reported that the owner of the boat anticipated
taking some sort of legal action against the municipality.
James was the only one of Thomas and Elizabeth's children who
married. He married Jantje "Jane" Bouwmeester who was originally
from the Netherlands. They had 4 children -- George (1870-1941),
William (1873-1949), Mattie Daisy (1879-1956), and Winnifred May
"Winnie" (1878-1953).
Here is James Dole's Obituary, from the Saugatuck Commercial Record,
Friday, June 24, 1910.
"James K. Dole died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Oscar
Peterson in Holland Tuesday morning, June 21 at 10:00 after an
illness of eight weeks with paralysis. He was born Oct. 19, 1844 in
New York and came to Kalamazoo when a boy after which he moved to
Saugatuck where he married Jane Boumaster in 1867. Ever since he has
made this his home till about a year ago when he went to live with
his daughter in Holland where he passed away. Mrs. Dole departed
from this life some ten years ago but he leaves behind four children
to mourn for him, Geo. A. Dole of Lombard, Ill, Wm. L. Dole of Enid
Oklahoma: Mrs. Eugene Munson of Roswell, Idaho, and Mrs. Oscar
Peterson of Holland. The funeral will be held today 2:00 from the
Cong'l Church and the remains will be laid to rest in the Saugatuck
cemetery."
In 1910, the local paper ran an article about a reunion of civil war
soldiers (James had been in the cavalry). It read: "As the roll
of the drum and the pipe of the fife of his comrades were wafted in
through the window at the home of James K. Dole of this city, his
spirit fled. Mr. Dole, who was 65 years of age, had been ill for
some time, and expressed a desire to hear the tramp of the Army in
Blue once more before he died."
~ ~ ~ ~
Thanks so much to Andrea for this article! Thanks to Jack Sheridan
and the SDHS archives for the hotel photo. Not only is Thomas Dole’s
“Union Hotel” still a local landmark as "Pumpernickel's", but the
hotel built by Capt. James K. Dole is what is now known as "Good
Goods". Both are among the treasured buildings in Saugatuck. If you
have favorite stories of Saugatuck that you’d like to add to the
archives of the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society, contact Chris
Yoder at cyoder@tds.net,
or call (269) 857-4327.
contributed by Chris Yoder
OLD SCHOOL HOUSE CAMPAIGN NEWS
The community is justifiably proud of its success in saving and
renovating the Old School House and its site. This is one of the
most significant historic preservation projects to be taken in our
communities. Nearly $1,225,000 has been raised, with only $300,500
remaining. The latest information available to the Board indicates
that we will be able to put about $150,000 toward the endowment for
on-going operational costs if the total goal of $1,525,000 is met.
The immediate need is to raise the necessary dollars to complete and
occupy the lower level, and to be able to implement the exciting
plans that have been so well crafted for the exterior spaces.
At its October meeting, the Board established December 31, 2009, as
the date for submission of names to be included on the donor
recognition feature within the OSH. All who have donated $1,000 or
more will be permanently recognized on this feature. The “Circles of
Giving” includes various levels of recognition that reflect the
amount donated. The Board also approved a list of naming gift
opportunities for those donating $10,000 or more, and, there will be
an opportunity to have garden benches named in honor or in memory of
those dear to you. Please contact Fred Schmidt or Nancy Woods if you
would like to either give or increase your gift before the December
deadline.
|
Click
