As we are looking at a few more exterior squint shots of the old "Defendorf" house on East Grand River, I thought it would be fun to go looking for some information on that family. Hulda(h) and Byron Defendorf had four, maybe five, children -- doing a quick search on this website showed there were two daughters (Grace and Gertrude) and possibly three sons (Charles, Ernest and maybe Edgar, or a census should have noted him as Ernest). I found an article about Grace and Gertie (Gertrude) and thought I would pass it along. In 1897, the following accounting of a mishap was published in the local newspaper:
A Narrow Escape~~On Saturday afternoon, Grace and Gertie Defendorf started for Bancroft and when about four miles from this village, they met George Meeker and stopped for a moment to talk with him when a carriage came along and in going past them, caught the rear wheel of their carriage, overturning the vehicle and throwing both of the girls to the ground, but very fortunately neither of them were injured to any extent. Of course, such an accident frightened the horse who ran with the top dragging on the ground and it was soon a total wreck, although the running gear received but little damage. The driver of the carriage that caused the accident manifested no interest in the matter, not even ascertaining if the girls were hurt, but drove off complacently without revealing his identity, probably to avoid a case of damages.
There will be more to follow.
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