Have you voted?
There are only two weeks left in the 2015 ArtsAlive
Competition. If you haven't voted or paid your pledge donation, now
is the time. Just click
HERE and vote on-line using your credit card or PayPal.
Thanks to community support, the Society won the
competition last year and received a $5,000 award in addition to all
the donations made to ArtsAlive on behalf of the Society.
These crucial funds helped support this year's Pump
House Museum Exhibit, the Old School House and its Gallery, the
Boathouse and Back-In-Time Garden. Not to mention Monthly Meetings
and Tuesday Talks. Keep History Alive Here!
ArtsAlive! is
an arts and cultural competition of the Allegan County Community
Foundation. It was created to engage and encourage our community to
support the rich arts and cultural offerings we have in Allegan
County. The Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society is one of 18
organizations competing this year. The organizations compete to see
who can receive the most votes.
Each vote costs one
dollar. 100% of each voting dollar comes back to us at the end of
the competition. Please vote for the Saugatuck-Douglas Historical
Society. Your votes can help the Society finish on top again this
year. Just click
HERE and vote on-line.
Save The Date - Always A Sellout Saturday, October
31st - 7:30 PM Halloween Bash
Old School House
$60 per person
The annual Halloween party has become a favorite for
many members and friends of the Society. A chance to get an early
guaranteed parking spot for the big parade.
This year's party will be hosted by Janie & Jim
Flemming, Sharon Kelly and Jim Schmiechen. Put on your costume (or not) and come to the Old School House for
cocktails and dinner preceding the fantastic Douglas Halloween
Parade. Great food, great friends, great fun!
To reserve your ticket, just REPLY
to this email and we will be in touch.
Welcome from Jack Sheridan and Chris Yoder, leaders
of the Society Family History Group.
Please visit us to see what we are all about and
most importantly, share "lessons learned" about the many tools
available for family history research.
Got questions on how to get going? That is what we
are for! Call or email us and remember, the SDHS family history
group’s regular meeting schedule is the first and third Thursday
of every month at the OSH.
Upcoming meetings at the OSH are:
Thursday, August 20
Thursday September 3
Thursday September 17
Remember, your family history does not have to have
any connection to the Saugatuck-Douglas area !!!
Not sure how to get going? Let us provide a helpful
jump start by recording 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.
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 by phone and email.
Again, the only requirement is membership in the SDHS.
Mayflower ancestor, Revolutionary War vet, great
grandparents, WWII vet? Stop wondering and get the facts. Come to
this weeks meeting - 3:30 on Thursday at the Old School House tech
room.
Questions/comments/advice/needs - contact
jack.sheridan@gmail.com
269 857-7144 Chris Yoder
cyoder@tds.net 269 857-4327.
This newsletter column is produced by Jack
Sheridan
The Baldhead
Panoramas – One by One - Piece by Piece - 11
Click on the picture for a
higher resolution copy.
Be patient, it may take a while to download.
Last September I started a new HBC series of
panoramic photographs taken from the top of Mt Baldhead. We
history buffs are fortunate to have photos from this great
vantage point over a long time period. The photos appearing
span some fifty years, are accurately dated, and in most cases
the photographer identified.
Other factors make these photos special. First,
earlier photos had few mature trees to block the view. Second,
the photographers used quality cameras with large glass plate
negatives that were capable of capturing details. Though most
of the glass plates are lost, the prints made from them,
faithfully contain the details. When scanned at high
resolution, the images yield marvelous results. By 1920 Herman
Simonson, the photographer, was using film as glass plates
were history.
In December we had full photos of 1895 and 1906
without comment. In January, February and March we looked at
the details one third of the image each month. In April we had
1906 and ca 1920, the full view. In June we compared 1906 and
ca 1920, the north one third. In July we compared the middle
one third and now in August we have the south, the last third.
The 1906 photographer is unknown but may have
been Herman Simonson. Note that the 1906 photographer’s
location on Mt. Baldheaded was not exactly the same location
as 1920.
The numbers are keyed to my comments about
points of interest.
50 - The Mather Feed Store
51 - Richard Roda cigar store and ice cream parlor - now
Pumpernickels Restaurant
52 - Odd Fellows Hall - now Kilwins Fudge Store
53 - Francis home - later the Elms Hotel - now house retails
shops
54 - Saugatuck City Hall
55 - Almost new swing bridge which in 1903 replaced the older
draw bridge
56 - Basket factory
57 - The Butler Hotel in the hotel heyday
58 - A storage yard which became site of the Big Pavilion in
1909
59 - Leinendecker's Hotel with newly added second gable
60 - Private home which was expanded in 1912 becoming the
White House [rooms for rent owned by my great aunt Irene
Sheridan] and now Good Goods
61 - Many uses and today the Coral Gables Annex coffee shop.
This newsletter column is written by Jack Sheridan.
Welcome New Members
We would like to welcome the following new members who have joined the
Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society since the last newsletter.
l
Rich & Jane Forbes, Fennville, MI & Jasper, IN
l
Julie, Tom, Elizabeth and Abigail Hislop, Douglas, MI & Johns Creek,
GA
l
Sidney Matheis, Fennville, MI
l
Herk & Linda Vanden Bosch, Fennville, MI
116 Old Shipwreck Discovered
in Lake Michigan
Photo courtesy of the Alpena County George N Fletcher
Public Library
A 214-foot steamship called the
John V. Moran has been discovered in Lake Michigan, more than a
century after it sank. A team with the Michigan Shipwreck Research
Association located the vessel off the coast of Muskegon in June
during a sonar search. For more details, click
HERE.
Picnic Photos
submitted by John Peters
|
What
you missed
The August 4th Tuesday Talk, The
Peachbelt Schoolhouse with owner and artist, Dawn Stafford
shared stories and photos documenting the schoolhouse's
rehabilitation and various reincarnations. Through it all, The
Peachbelt remains the oldest surviving and best preserved one-room
schoolhouse in Allegan County that has not been structurally altered
or moved from its original site.
In case you missed the program or
would like to see the presentation again, click
HERE to view a copy.
Be patient, the file might take a while to download.
Charles J. Lorenz
Award of Achievement and Volunteer of the Year
Douglas residents Judi Vanderbeck (left) and Leslie Thompson win top
Historical Society honors.
Judi Vanderbeck has received the Saugatuck-Douglas
Historical Society's top-honor Charles J. Lorenz Award of
Achievement for 2015, and Leslie Thompson has won the Society's
Volunteer Of The Year Award. Both are Douglas residents.
The Lorenz Award was established by the Society in
1997 to honor the memory of Charles Lorenz, who gave generously of
his time, talent, money and energy in the formation and development
of this organization. Winners are selected each year by a special
Society committee, recognizing distinguished leadership in
fulfilling the Historical Society's mission to "help the community
understand its past and use its history to shape its future and
preserve its quality of life".
Vanderbeck, a Society Board member, was cited for
creating and leading the Society's successful "Dine Around The
Village Table" series of home-tour dinner or cocktail party
fundraisers and "friend-raisers", now in that program’s sixth year.
These events run the gamut from intimate get-togethers for a dozen
people to events for a hundred or more members and friends of the
Society, proceeds of which have generated substantial financial
support for the Society's volunteer-based efforts to Keep
History Alive in our community.
The Volunteer Of The Year Award honors outstanding
service to the Society. Candidates are nominated by standing
committee chairs, and winners are selected by majority vote of the
Board. Thompson's selection for this award recognizes her commitment
of time and talent as a Society Board member and Treasurer, a
regular volunteer host at the Museum, and as planner/implementer of
Society events including the spring Museum opening reception, the
December holiday party and annual summer picnic.
Mark Your Calendar
2015 Monthly Programs and Tuesday Talks
If you would like
to sponsor one of the Monthly Programs or Tuesday Talks, please
REPLY to this email and we'll be in touch. Sponsorships are $150
MONTHLY PROGRAMS
l
September 9,
Fishing:
Commercial & Recreational
sponsored by Howard & Paula Schultz
l
October 14,
Crane's Orchard
Field Trip
sponsored by Janie & Jim Flemming in memory of
Fran Vorys
l
November 11,
Fire, Storm and
Ice: Shipwrecks sponsored by the
Star of Saugatuck, Marilyn & Bruce Starring
l
December 13, Holiday
Party
TUESDAY TALKS
General sponsors:
Carolyn Richards, Howard Rochte and Jim & Janie Flemming
l August
25, Extreme Yachts and Classic Boat Restoration - Macatawa Bay
Boat Works
sponsored by the Star of Saugatuck, Marilyn &
Bruce Starring
Garden Happenings
"The more help a person has in his
garden, the less it belongs to him." --- W.H. Davies
Isn't that the truth! We have had so many wonderful
people helping us from Dottie Lyon, Al Lyon, Jane Dryer and Howard
Vanderbeck in the weeding and design department, to our friends at
Evergreen Commons who produced our Garden Hornbooks. From Mike
Economos' constant care at the Museum to Marcia Perry who spent 5+
years on our Landscape Committee providing amazing ideas and hand
crafting our garden benches. Also many thanks to Jim Schmiechen and
Kristi Mueller for the continued work on our text and graphics.
These are OUR gardens and the Garden Committee thanks everyone that
helps us out.
We will be adding to our Daffodil Trail this fall.
Please stay tuned for details to come. We also look forward to our
long awaited Peach Orchard graphics, our Hornbooks, the installation
of our Free Library and some additions to our Mt. Baldhead Station.
Please be patient . . . they are coming.
Stone Design at Old School House Children's Garden
Many thanks also go out to our Root Camp Jr.
Counselors for their help with the Civil War reenactment. Ainsely
Lowery and Jillian Johnson even dressed up for the occasion. What an
amazing event. Thank you Christina Lewis and Ingrid Boyer for
bringing this to our Back-In-Time Garden.
We have been blessed with a Blue Moon, the Perseid
Meteor Shower and amazing sunny days. Please take the time to enjoy
them.
Until next month,
The Landscape and Root Camp Committees
Barrel Update
The restored barrel staves waiting to be brought back to life.
The committee continues to plan and meet with the
City of the Village of Douglas on bringing the Barrel back to
life.
We have agreement on erecting the Barrel at the
corner of Ferry and Center Streets in mid to late September.
The City will complete the site work and concrete
pads by September 1. The committee also has bids from two local
vendors to fabricate the steel substructure this month. The
replacement roof is completed and in storage.
We will be looking for any individuals who are able
bodied and willing to contribute their time for a few days in late
September to assist in the erection of the Barrel. The final dates
are yet to be finalized depending on steel delivery, etc. Anyone
with interest can email Duane Brown at
duanebrown@aol.com or
Brent Birkholz and Vic Bella.
submitted by Duane Brown
Douglas Village Allows Cows
Free Pasturage
Andrew Schumann
From the Lakeshore Commercial
Feb. 18, 1871 -- DOUGLAS.
The Village Trustees have voted by
three to one to allow Cows Free pasturage in the Streets and
Commons and to feed at every body's sleigh and wagon. This Is
believed to be liberal legislation for certain Inhabitants (the
Cows). And It is confidently presumed people coming from a
distance will put plenty of good hay and some grain (it is
suggested not to put it in a bag) in their sleighs that the poor
(cows) may not in any way be defrauded.
It was feared "grass would grow too
rank" on the sidewalks - so "bossies" are appointed to keep down
the grass and their further business will be to see that all gates
are shut and fences are in good order and that shade trees are
boxed. Other citizens are required to remove all nuisances, but
the awful discharge of the above stated business by the cows
exempts them from the care of nuisances.
And to show the spirit of justice
which animated those who favored the cows and the self abnegation
with which their rights were maintained, a citizen urged this law
of freedom to cows "Inasmuch as the cows would save the grass -
which would save the morning dews (Douglas people are out in the
morning) which would save boots, which would save "bossy’s" hide.
-E. Konomy.
From the Lakeshore Commercial
, Jun 11, 1880
There is a village law against
young cattle running in the streets, and it is a law that has been
quite openly violated this spring. It is a great enough nuisance
that cows are allowed to run at large, but when people begin
raising calves in the village streets, some steps should be taken
by our village officers to prevent it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Andrew Schumann, pictured above,
was born in Germany in 1841, entered the German Reserves at the
age of 18, serving six years. He had two sisters in Allegan
County, Mich., who wrote him exciting accounts of this new
country, so he decided to try his fortune here.
A seven week's ocean voyage brought
him to Saugatuck in 1865 where he resided, on his farm in the east
village limits. In 1867 he was married in Allegan to Augusta
Eckert, native of Germany, and they came to Newark, as it was
called then, where he found employment in the many mills.
In 1871, in Henry Ebmeyer's shingle
mill, Andrew was sawyer and cut 41,750 A shingles and 4,250 cull
shingles, which was the greatest number of shingles ever made in
one day with one machine.
Most of his life was spent in the
mills or farming and he was a man of wonderful strength and health
until in 1926 he fell and broke his hip and since that time was
confined to a wheel chair or bed, but he had no pain and enjoyed
his contact with the outside world through the radio and many
callers, and at the age of 89 was cheerful and contented.
Mr. Schumann passed away in 1932 at
the age of 91 and is buried in Riverside Cemetery. (from
Memories of Saugatuck, 1930 by May Francis Heath, and his
obituary).
Mr. Schumann was the grandfather of
Henry Till who worked for 41 years at the Fruit Growers Bank in
Saugatuck, and of Miss Augusta Till who was a sales clerk at
Parrish's Drug store for several years and lived to be 100 years
of age.
As Andrew was a Saugatuck farmer,
his cows may not have been among those wandering the Douglas
streets, but a cow is a cow, right?
submitted by Chris Yoder
|
Click
