Upcoming Dine Around Events:
A
Delicious Series of Dinners and Parties
to support the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society
From gourmet dinners in exclusive homes to casual cocktail parties,
these culinary events feature great food and great times for a great
cause.
A Pleasant Evening
on Pleasant Street
Saturday, May 17 | 7:00 pm
Linda & Dick Riekse and John Cannarsa & Tim
Straker will host twin cocktail parties in their homes. Park once
and visit two wonderful Pleasant Street properties filled with
appetizers, drinks, friends and fun. $50 per person.
There are still a limited number of tickets
available for this great Spring event . . . yes, there will be a
Spring. For a reservation, REPLY to this email or call 269-857-5751
or email
info@sdhistoricalsociety.org and we'll be in touch.
Dollybrook Progressive Cocktail
Party
will be rescheduled for the Fall. Watch for the date in a future
newsletter.
Welcome from Jack Sheridan and Chris Yoder leaders of the Society
Family History Group. Our regular meeting schedule is the first
and third Thursday of every month. Upcoming meetings are:
Thursday, March 20
Thursday, April 3
Please join us to see what we are all about and most importantly,
share "lessons learned" about the many tools available for family
research.
One of the resources of SDHS Family History is a subscription to
the fold3.com database.
The name comes from a traditional flag folding ceremony in which
the third fold is made in honor and remembrance of veterans.
The site has a massive data base of military records, starting
with the Revolutionary War.
I first used it to search for information on a great uncle named
Newbury Button, a veteran of Revolutionary War service. Wham, a
EUREKA! moment. The data base had a large file on him
containing sixteen documents from an 1832 pension application. He
was a fifer boy enlisted at age fourteen in a Connecticut raised
unit. Most interesting was a accounting of his narrow escape from
capture and death in the battle Ft. Griswold in 1781.
Remember, your family history does not have
to have any connection to the Saugatuck-Douglas area !!!
If you need a helpful jump start - record what you know about your
parents, grandparents, and great grandparents and send it along
for a review by Chris Yoder or myself. The snail mail address is
SDHS Family History, Box 617, Douglas, Michigan 49406, or email a
copy to either cyoder@tds.net
or jack.sheridan@gmail.com.
Give us time for an initial assessment.
We will soon be back to you with readily found data and with
suggestions on the next steps to take. Further help is always
available from the Family History group. Again, the only
requirement is membership in the SDHS.
Mayflower ancestor, Revolutionary War vet, great grandparents?
Still wondering? Questions/comments/ advice/needs - contact
jack.sheridan@gmail.com
269 857-7144 Chris Yoder
cyoder@tds.net 269 857-4327.
This newsletter column is written by Jack Sheridan.
Click on the picture for a
higher resolution copy
The Fabulous Fifties!
August 1952. The Pavilion movies were always a favorite. Check
out the image for details on what was playing that week.
And what else was going on in town? Well here is a rundown of
sorts . . . how easy to go to the SDHS website and browse
The Commercial
Record to give you highlights!
The annual Arts Ball took place. On Sunday was the parade with
costumed paraders, fire trucks and everything. On Tuesday,
Water Street was cleared of cars for square dancing which was
then followed by round dancing in the Pavilion and a stage and
floor show directed by James Webster of the Red Barn. Best
costumes got prizes. Admission was a mask, head dress or
costume.
At the Red Barn Theater August 8th through the 13th
was playing "See How They Run" by Phillip King. The Commercial
reported, "So swift is the action, so involved the situation,
so rib-tickling the plot that at it’s finish audiences are
left as exhausted from laughter as they themselves had run a
footrace."
Meanwhile on Saturday night at the Airpark Speedway in Ganges,
Chuck Grano of South Haven won the Holland Furnace Cup.
Thrills were provided when twenty five drivers qualified in
time trials on the high banked three-eights mile track. Gordon
Slues in car 59 rolled over several times and La Vern
Cavanaugh went out of control on the west curve but came back
to place in the feature race.
From the home of Justice of the Peace Junkerman came these
interesting reports. Dorothy J, Cornell of 5600 Chandler
Avenue Detroit protested loudly when she was ticketed on a
charge of blocking traffic [to say nothing of four young men
with her in the front seat of her car]. However she was quite
the lady before JP Junkerman. "Those four fellows in the front
seat just hopped in and she didn't know a one of them . . . so
she only got away $5 fine and $4.30 costs on the traffic
charge." Other violations: LaVario Teamline, Detroit, running
a traffic light and squealing tires, $5 and $2 costs; William
H. Wesbey, Pullman, backfiring his motorcycle, $3 fine; Don
[Toad] Davis and Floyd Loew, improper parking, $2 fines …
Next month we will travel back in time to the Big Pavilion –
the structure that had the greatest impact on the life and
times of Saugatuck in the first half of the twentieth century.
This newsletter column is written by Jack Sheridan.
Click on the picture for a
higher resolution copy
A Photo from Corvallis, Oregon
Charlotte (Hughes) Hutchinson (1824-1909)
According to "Yahoo Maps", Corvallis, Oregon is 2356.08 mi and a 34¼
hour drive from Saugatuck. This photo of the matriarch of the local
Hutchison family was shared by her 3rd great grandson,
Daryl Monk of Corvallis and transported as a scanned image attached
to an email.
Charlotte was born Mar. 10, 1824 in England to John and Elizabeth
Hughes. According to articles in the History of Western Allegan
County, Michigan (WACM) (Edited by Kit Lane), the family first came
to America in 1831 and settled in Pennsylvania, then New York, and
in 1840 arrived in Calhoun Co., MI.
Her brother George Fisher Hughes (1816-1899) left home and came to
the Allegan Co. Lakeshore about 1845, where he was one of the first
settlers of Glenn. George bought 40 acres of land which included the
creek which runs about a half mile west of the Glenn crossroads on
Jan. 1, 1846. The next summer he built a dam and a water power saw
mill. Flooding carried away the dam and moved the mill, but George
rebuilt and enlarged it. At that location it continued in operation
until 1880. George was one of the 27 electors attending the
organizational meeting for Ganges Twp, Apr. 5, 1847, and he was
elected justice of the peace. He was township treasurer from
1854-56, and supervisor in 1869.
On May 19, 1842, 16 year old Charlotte married 33 year old bachelor
farmer Salmon Ichabod Beecher "Beecher" Hutchinson at her parents'
home in Newton Township, Calhoun County, MI. Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson
were to have their four children while living in Calhoun County. In
1859, at the age of 50, Mr. Hutchinson decided to move his family to
the Lakeshore and became a fruit grower on 40 acres of land (deeded
from David Updyke on Dec. 14, 1859, Section 8 Ganges Twp). The next
year he sold his 320 acre Calhoun Co. farm and moved his family to
the city of Marshall while his new home was being constructed. The
family moved into their Ganges Twp. residence in the spring of 1862
and he began farming. "Beecher" was said to be the first commercial
peach grower in Allegan County, selling most of his fruit in
Chicago, first shipping by boat from Pier Cove, and then by train
from Fennville.
Two of their children (Electra and Monta) died of consumption
without ever having married. Oldest child Elizabeth Rebecca "Lizzie"
(1843-1927) married John Sage Payne. After the death of her husband
in 1900, Lizzie moved to Washington State with a daughter to help
raise the grandchildren. Lizzie was Daryl Monk’s 2-great
grandmother.
Son Jesse (1853-1932) initially joined his bother Monta in starting
a business in Douglas, but after Monta died in 1879, Jesse joined
brother-in-law Payne in the milling business. Jesse lived in Douglas
until moving to Fennville in 1884, opening a general store, and
establishing a rolling mill and a bank. His grandson J. Edward
Hutchinson represented our district in Congress from 1963 to 1977
and was the author of much of the family history found in the WACM
book. He was the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee
during the debate on impeaching Richard Nixon, and in August 1974
called for Nixon's resignation or impeachment because of the
Watergate scandal.
"Beecher" Hutchinson died Mar. 17, 1894 in Ganges Twp. Charlotte
died Feb. 28, 1909 in Fennville. Both rest in Taylor Cemetery (just
south of Huntree Nursery on Blue Star) along with Charlotte’s
brother George and his wife.
submitted by Chris Yoder
|
 |
 |
|
Taylor Cemetery Gravestones |
Click
