Old and Current Webberville

If you are interested in checking out old and current pictures of Webberville, click here for 243 pictures.  You can also find this link under the Area History page for future reading.

A huge applause to Norm Nack for posting all of these pictures!

1962 Fenton Anniversary

C.C. Fentons will Celebrate Anniversary~~

Mr. and Mrs. Clayton C. Fenton will be honored at a fortieth wedding anniversary open house on Sunday, May 6, at their home, 760 East Grand River Avenue, from two until six o'clock in the afternoon.

Hosts for the occasion will be their children, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Yost of Howell; Dr. and Mrs. William Peters of Melbourne, Florida; and Major and Mrs. Clayton Fenton, Jr., of Washington, D.C.

Friends and neighbors are invited to attend.  Please omit gifts.

Mrs. Fenton's first name was Fern.

1940 Holt Anniversary

Mr. and Mrs. Holt Wed Sixty Years~~Will Celebrate Anniversary of Happy Event on Christmas Day

Mr. and Mrs. E (Edwin).J. Holt of Fowlerville will be the guests of their children for Christmas dinner on the occasion of their 60th wedding anniversary.

The wedding of Miss Ada Van Patten and Mr. E.J. Holt was solemnized on Christmas Day in the year 1880, at the home of the bride's parents in Marion township.

Mr. and Mrs. Holt have made their home in Fowlerville for the past 44 years, Mr. Holt having been in business for many years and has also been employed as street commissioner for some time.

Their children, who will help celebrate the happy occasion, are Ray of Howell, Roy of Fowlerville, Clyde of Detroit, and Stella Greenaway of South Bend, Inc., and their families.

Following the dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Holt will be home for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  They also have four grandchildren and one great grandchild.
The community extends its congratulations and best wishes for many years of continued happiness in their wedded life.

Fowlerville is very lucky to have had this family living and working in the village.  At one point, two men with cameras took numerous early 1900 pictures of buildings, churches, houses, and even the 1909 tornado aftermath, and labeled each photograph with "Holt & Hart" and catalog numbers.  Many of these pictures can be found in The Fowlerville Chronicles as so many were made into postcards and are stored in our historical collection.

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Yesterday, I happened to be in town for a few errands and deliveries and noticed tall -- very tall -- ladders leaning against the building at the northeast corner of North Grand and East Grand River avenues.  Gormley & Johnson, Attorneys-at-law, to be exact.  After I parked my truck, I was compelled to take a couple quick squint shots for today's post.  It would appear the paint being applied is pretty close to what is already on the brick, so we won't be seeing any major changes but definitely a freshen-up.

If you are curious, here is a picture of that same building in the early 1900s, before the porcelain facade was added to the first floor and before the brick was painted (probably):

Cool picture, huh?!  And now, here's a close up:

1990 Curtis Anniversary

In 1990, Frank and Frances Curtis celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  The notice in the local newspaper read as follows:

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Curtis recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with family at a buffet dinner at Woodshire Place in Fowlerville.

Frank Curtis and the former Frances Finlan were married Sept. 29, 1940 at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Williamston.

They have five children and 11 grandchildren.

For many years, Frank's Market and then Curtis Grocery was located where you will now find Maria's School of Dance North Grand Avenue entrance.  By the early 1960s, Frank Curtis had moved their store to its currently location and for many years was known as Frank's IGA.  The following picture was published in the newspaper (and like so many other pictures, can be found in The Fowlerville Chronicles) from the early 1970s. 

I have always found this picture of interest as pretty much everything in the photograph no longer exists.  Within a couple of years, the buildings at the left side of the picture were torn down to provide more parking spaces.  The IGA sign is gone, except for the base, and even the grocery store itself has been rebuilt after a fire in the late 1970s.

1977 Tobias Anniversary

Married 50 Years~~

Mr. and Mrs. T. Nelson Tobias of Fowlerville will observe their 50th wedding anniversary April 2.  The couple was married in the First Methodist Church of Port Huron by the Rev. Russell Bready.  Their family hosted a reception for them on their 45th anniversary in 1972, in the church where they were married.  This year, Mr. and Mrs. Tobias will observe their anniversary by taking a trip through parts of Michigan and Ontario.  They have eight children and 15 grandchildren.  Since their retirement, they have remained active in community and church affairs.

The above announcement was published in the Fowlerville Review, March 30, 1977.  As I did research for both the first and second books, I did come across T. Nelson Tobias' name but cannot now remember what he did -- anyone care to leave a comment?  I believe, for one thing, he was quite active in Rotary for a time.

On a side note, I'd like to celebrate this post as being the 2000th article on this blog, which includes everything from squint shots to current events to history lessons to my book promotions, with a few recipes and jokes mixed in.  Also, with an average of over a hundred hits on this site per day, I am fast approaching a milestone of six digit numbers of views -- who would have thought!

1972 Tomion Anniversary

In an April 26, 1972, issue of the Livingston County Press, the above picture was published of Mr. and Mrs. S. Walter Tomion, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.  The announcement was as follows:

Tomions Observe Golden Wedding

Fowlerville~~Mr. and Mrs. S. Walter Tomion of 240 North Collins, will celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary with an open house from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the First Methodist Church, 201 South Second Street, Fowlerville.

Hosting the event will be the couple's children, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hills of Ann Arbor, Mr. and Mrs. Spencer Tomion of Port Huron, Commander and Mrs. Jack Tomion of Yokosuka, Japan, and Mr. and Mrs. John Hummon of Lagos, Nigeria.

The Tomions were married on April 20, 1922 in Howell.  She was the former Flora Crandall.  They have lived in Fowlerville since their marriage where they owned and operated a dairy store for forty-three years.

Friends are invited to attend the open house.

1939 Chapman Anniversary

Recently, I was at the historical collection and came across two notebooks full of anniversary celebrations.  Over the next few days, I will be posting some of them.  Today's shows the 50th anniversary of the Chapmans in 1939.  In that same year, a new village well was installed and this post showed some of that information.

Following is their anniversary announcement:

Friends Honor Mr. and Mrs. Chapman~~Golden Wedding Celebrated in Same House Where Wedding Took Place

Thursday, October 17, 1889, in the presence of near relatives, at her parental home south of Fowlerville, Miss Jennie Affleck was united in the bonds of holy matrimony with Frank E. Chapman of Cohoctah, Mich., by the late Rev. F.W. Warren of Howell, Mich.  The honeymoon trip was devoted at the State University, Ann Arbor.  Since the return, with the exception of about four years while traveling, they have resided and wrought among us.

Tuesday, October 17, 1939, with open house to their many friends, they celebrated their gold anniversary in the same house where Mrs. Chapman has resided during the past three score and five years.

More than usual, the event began the Sunday before, by a surprise dinner sponsored and served by thirty-one near relatives, at the home, which was also decorated by guest contributions.

Tuesday afternoon and evening more than one hundred relatives and friends gathered at their home, and forty-nine beautiful messages by mail, all with congratulations plus gladness to brighten the lives of those participating.  The cherished friendships of the community were well demonstrated by attendance, mingling and enlarging the circle of acquaintance with guests from East Lansing, Lansing, Detroit, Plymouth, Fenton, Grand Blanc, Howell, Grand Rapids, Adrian, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  The tokens of esteem were rich, rare, useful and durable.

The floral kingdom yielded many beautiful collections, exhibiting the intelligence and artistic taste of the individual and family contributions, to which were added the gorgeous baskets, pots and bouquets sent by the F&AM, OES Ladies' Aid and Hav'alook Gardens, all artistially arranged reflecting the golden rays at sunset of a perfect day, attracting the attention of the photo craft.

Friday evening, the OES extended to them and the other remaining charter members a grand reception and supper with a bride's cake which concluded the week's festivities.

Mr. and Mrs. Chapman desire to express their appreciation, gratitude and goodwill to all for each and every contribution which tended to embellish the home beauty and make the occasion one ever to be remembered as the most pleasant in life's journey.

They also hope to have so lived as to merit your manifestations, and that they too may contribute to the welfare and happiness of everyone.

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For the past three years, I have made it a point to travel South Nicholson Road, almost to Howell/Mason Road, just to check out a set of buildings that have slowly been descending to the ground while the plants reach up and swallow them.  In September of '09, the building looked like this -- click here.

This is what it looked like June, 2010:

I wonder about next summer.

1896 Commercial Hotel

A few days back, one of the squint shots -- which you can find by clicking here -- showed a former home of one of the many Copeland residents through the years in the village.  I made mention of Joseph Copeland at that time and recently came across this notice published in the local newspaper.

Makes one wonder if he was successful or not.

1896 Colt Accident

In this continuing epilogue of activities in the late 1800s, I am going to reprint articles published in the local papers and offer up additional information.  If there is an era you are interested, please let me know.  I have thousands of digital pictures of the microfilm at the Howell library that I would be happy to post here.

Following show some of the hazards of a Sunday drive in the late 1800s!

F.E. Chapman and wife started to visit his parents, in Conway, on Sunday morning with a pair of colts.  When near the bridge near the saw mill in this village, Mrs. Chapman became very much frightened and Mr. Chapman started to turn around and in doing so, the buggy pole broke and, of course, left him almost helpless so far as controlling the team was concerned. 

They started to run and when near the crossing of Grand River street, the pole struck the walk throwing them out with fearful force, Mrs. Chapman striking the hard street on her face, bruising it in a fearful manner and fairly grinding the gravel into the flesh.  She was picked up and taken to the Commercial Hotel and several physicians called.  She was soon restored to consciousness and, after a time, was taken home on a cot. 

This is the fourth time she has been badly injured by being thrown from a carriage by frightened horses.  Mr. Chapman was more fortunate and was only slightly injured.  A carriage owned by J. Scollon, standing in the street, was run over and smashed by the colts.

1896 Pearl Laundry

The picture shown above can be found in my latest book, Through the Eyes of a Country Editor, a biography of G.L. Adams, publisher and editor of the The Fowlerville Review for 55 years.  While trying to date this wintry photograph of the northeast block, facing East Grand River, I judged it to be sometime between 1900 and 1915.  But, since I'm kind of stuck in 1896 at the moment with numerous posts and articles, I thought I would offer this view because of the little rectangular sign at the far left side of the picture in between the large window and small window, both facing North Grand avenue.

When I zoomed as far in as possible on that sign, it notes that Pearl Laundry is located inside this storefront.  Under some articles I have kept from the newspaper for 1896 I found the following announcement:

Mrs. E. Kinsler has sold the Pearl Laundry to Mrs. Charles Mitchell, who took possession on Saturday, of last week.  Mrs. Mitchell needs no introduction to the citizens of this village, having been a resident here for many years and we bespeak for her a liberal patronage and we are assured the work entrusted to her will be kept at its usual high standard.  Frank Lyons will remain for a time and Mrs. Kinsler has returned to Northville.

1896 Fair Date Dispute

For several years past, the Fowlerville agricultural society has occupied the second week in October as the dates for holding the annual fair.  This year, the Brighton market fair came out with their dates upon the same week.  Secretary Carr communicated with them at once upon the subject, but they still maintain that date.  We are sorry Brighton people should insist on conflicting with the Fowlerville dates, as the best of feeling has always prevailed between the two societies, but we can give them a point that we can stand it if they can and that we shall all do some tall hustling to make the Fowlerville fair a success.

Although the fair wouldn't happen until October, the above article published in the local newspaper in April of that year showed how early planning was happening for this yearly event. 

By mid-September, Secretary Carr is already receiving entries for the coming fair and the premium lists and bills are being distributed throughout the surrounding county.  The prospects for a large meeting and a very successful exhibition have never been better than at present.  But it wasn't just Brighton they were in competition with.  Both Bancroft and Stockbridge had their fairs right about the same time as Fowlerville's event which was held October 6-9 of this year.

One of the main attractions of the fair was the floral hall.  Every year, merchants would display their wares -- everything from hardware to dry goods to food products.  It was as if some of these merchants would move a majority of their stock out to the fairgrounds and do business there for the entire week.

Another attraction were the numerous baseball -- or as written in the paper "base ball" -- games.  Teams as far as Detroit would show up for the competitions.  And, as was a long-standing tradition, there were horse events from racing to selling, that drew huge crowds.

The best way this fair was described came from, as so often, G.L. Adams' thoughts -- Now comes what is to many the most important festival of the year -- the Fowlerville Fair.  To all it is a session of merry-making mixed with business.  The farmer exhibits his products and his live stock, the merchant his wares, the manufacturer his machines, and the house-wife displays specimens of her skill in the dairy, the kitchen and with the needle.  All come to observe and be amused, and each contribute his share to the exhibition.

1896 Williamston Lighting

In 1896, electricity was now becoming very popular, with some wires and facilities having been installed four years earlier for some of the local residents.  One of the early entrepeneurs in this venture was Edward Greenaway and, once he had gotten everything going in Fowlerville, he reached out farther than the village to make more money and a difference in early pioneers' lives.

One such instance was illustrated in an 1896 article in The Fowlerville Review:

Additionally, an article was republished in the local paper from the Williamston Enterprise:

Messrs. Rounsville and Greenaway were in town last Monday and purchased the Crostic lot, corner Putnam and High streets, on which will be erected the power house for the electric light plant.  The lot has a frontage of 75 feet on High street and 72 feet on Putnam street.  The building will be 32 by 40 with side addition.  The machinery will be driven by an 80-horse power engine.  Work on the building and setting poles will be commenced as soon as the material can be placed on the ground.  Mr. Greenaway will leave for Chicago today (Wednesday) to purchase machinery.  He will visit Springfield, Ill., and Cleveland, Ohio, before his return.

It wasn't long after this that men from the village of Dexter came to Fowlerville to talk with Messrs. Rounsville and Greenaway and to inspect this village's electric light system.  Word was spreading and other villages wanted in on this novelty.

But, sometimes, there were drawbacks as described by G.L. Adams of the local newspaper:

As everyone knows who has driven into any village lighted with electricity, it is almost impossible for one to see an object in the road, hence the necessity of each driver to keep to his own side of the road.  Every road coming into this village has two tracks and those driving to the village or going out should each keep the right hand track and thus avoid all danger.  Perhaps the right hand track may not be quite as smooth as the other side, but your only safety is in keeping your own side.  This advice costs you nothing, but if followed, may save your life.

1900 Edna Coll

Thank you to one of my readers for sending this lovely picture of Edna Coll, dated ca. 1900.

According to the back of the picture, the photographer was Professor C.E. Kline, proprietor of the American Portrait Company, Fowlerville, Michigan.  His name and information was embossed on the backside, as was the custom in the early 1900s. 

Our historical collection, stored at the village office, contains quite a few photographs from that era and many of them are similar to the above picture.  But . . . none of them have Prof. Kline's name on the back, so this is a real find.  The pictures we have show Cathcart as one of the early photographers, and then Jensen was very popular.

From my reader's information, "Charles E. Kline, born about February, 1871, was living on Grand River in 1900, his occupation as photographer.  By 1910, he was living in Solon in Kent County, Michigan, and by 1930 was running his photography business in Grand Rapids."

Thank you for sending along this information.

Squint Shot Updates

This is the first time since February, 2009 -- that would be nearly three and a half years -- that I am not posting a squint shot.  On one level, I feel bad to have broken a consistent string of pictures, but on another level, the feeling of satisfaction coming from posting over a thousand pictures in and around Fowlerville is astounding.

Grab any month under the labels and enjoy browsing and you will see some fun things.

Even though I have no squint shot, I do have some updates though.  One of my readers offered some additional information that I would like to pass along.

The squint shot for June 2, which you can find by clicking here, was also the home of Mike Godfredson.  Many of you may remember him as the manager of Fowlerville Farms for over 20 years.  He is now retired and continues to be active in the Fowlerville Rotary Club.

Another squint shot, which you can find by clicking here, asked the question of which house belonged to Ike and Arline Harris, owners of the Orr Theatre.  They lived at 125 North Street.

A third bit of information revolved around the building which now houses the Family Impact Center.  Many will remember that as the old administration building.  Before that, it was a Ford dealership, where trucks and tractors were sold.  It was mentioned the front of the building had a large, plate-glass window, showroom where there are now solid walls.  As I was doing research for The Fowlerville Chronicles, I did come across information that the dealership had relocated there in 1958, when it was rumored I-96 would be about where Sharpe Road is now.  After it was decided the highway would be south of town, the owners of the dealership moved back to the downtown area, and now the Ford dealership is located on the south side of the expressway.

Once I came across that information, while working on my first book, I drove to the north side of town to see if I could find any evidence that this building used to house a Ford dealership.  I lucked out.  On the south side of the building, the top parts of four letters could still be seen and I managed to get the following picture:

The outside walls have now been redone and these words are no longer visible.

As I ponder this post and think about other updates I will add, I may temporarily suspend squint shots for a while -- or until something catches my eye.  I would ask my readers that  if you have anything you think would be interesting to show on this site, please contact me and I will gladly photograph it.  In the meantime, I will be adding history lessons as I have time.

Please feel free to contact me if there is anything you are interested in reading about.  And, as always, thank you for continuing to visit the site.

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The other day, I pulled into the parking lot for St. Agnes Catholic Church for the express purpose of getting a photograph of the house and chapel for Niblack Funeral Home.  Little did I know I would also get a shot of one of the owners sweeping the front porch!

At one time, I came across an article in The Fowlerville Review of a local photographer, J.P. Jensen, and his wife, and of their move from the village to the outskirts of the populated area to this farmhouse.  At that point, it would have been just the farmhouse since the chapel was added years later when this location became the funeral home.  In another article, a fire was reported on in the upstairs of the house.  When I asked its current residents, Scott mentioned he has noticed signs of fire damage in a couple of places.

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At one time, this house at 320 Power Street was the home of Lloyd and Ruth Copeland.  Lloyd was a barber here in the village, according to my traveling companion last summer as we drove around and he reminisced about various homes.

The Copeland name can be found nearly as far back as the settling of this area in the early 1800s.  In later years, Joseph Copeland was a proprietor of the Commercial Hotel, which used to stand at the southwest corner of South Grand and Grand River avenues.  Currently, Wayne Copeland serves as both president and manager of the village.

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As mentioned in yesterday's post, here is the booklet that was given out by E.D. Defendorf in the mid-1920s.  It is The Improved Farmers Record and Account Book.  Eugene Defendorf dealt in "general hardware, implements and wire fence, paints, oil and glass" with their motto being "good goods at right prices."

This booklet was found by one of my readers and he bought it off of eBay and donated it to the collection we are slowly building.  Someday . . . I hope . . . we will have a permanent display somewhere in the village to show off all of the wonderful items we have collected.

As I thumbed through the booklet, I found the following explanations interesting.  Anyone willing (or able) to try living on these kinds of wages in today's world and prices?!? 

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The following two pictures may seem like rather strange squint shots but I thought these calendars from 1923 and 1924 might be interesting to see.  I was given a farming book/pamphlet by one of my readers (for the historical collection) that was for these years.  It was a promotional-style booklet that would have been given out to customers as a complimentary gift.  On the front of the booklet -- which will be tomorrow's squint shot -- you will see it was handed out by E.D. Defendorf.

E.D. -- or Eugene -- was a hardware and implement merchant in Fowlerville, and the son of Byron Defendorf, who was a long-time doctor for the village residents.

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As I continued to check out some interesting items that Dan Eldridge -- a long-time Fowlerville resident and former owner of DE Towing -- had, he showed me this most interesting, and very rusty, old sulky. 

As I've done research for this area, I have found this has been horse country going way back to the 1800s.  At one time, there was a "Driving Park" group that would congregate at what would become the location of the fairgrounds, long before that land was being used for anything.  This would have been in the 1870s and 1880s as the agricultural society was organized in 1886, with the first fair the following October.

There were also many owners of race horses.  One of the pioneers of the area was W.W. Starkey, the owner of the stave factory.  He owned Pascasas, who won many a race in its day. 

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Isn't this just a great picture? 

When I was spending a couple of hours with Dan Eldridge, he showed me an old, curled-up, glossy photograph from the mid-1950s.  Of course, when I took a digital of that picture, it seemed to make the buildings look even more curvy but what I thought was so cool are the cars parked in front of the Orr Theater.

If you've read much of this website or my book, you will remember that the theater was located where the western portion of the hardware store now resides.

If anyone remembers seeing movies in the theater, I would love to hear from you. 

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DE Towing was owned by Dan Eldridge, and he operated a towing service in Fowlerville for nearly 45 years.  The above picture was offered for my viewing recently, when I met with Dan and looked through some memoriabilia he has.  This building may now be hard to recognized as it is slowly crumbling in on itself at the southeast corner of East Grand River and South Collins.  Years earlier, Dan had sold this building and some may remember Hill's Sporting Goods.  Dan had purchased the building from the McPherson family.

We will do a few more days of random memoriabilia and then I will be showing a few more houses.  If anyone has ideas for squint shots, I would love to hear suggestions.  After posting a picture every day since February, 2009, there are over 1,000 squint shots and I would love to show what everyone is interested in -- so be sure to give me ideas!

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This may seem like a bit of a strange squint shot but I wanted to add this picture for historical sake.  I recently had a client bring over a sports jacket to embroider a logo onto it.  The jacket was brought to me in a black zip-up jacket bag and the following logo was on the front of the bag. 

Utter's Men's Wear may well bring back some memories for some of the village's residents.  Frank Utter had a double storefront in the southeast quadrant, facing East Grand River that was formerly owned by Deo M. Blackmer and, in the late 1960s, become Utter's.  He was in business until, I believe, around 1989-90.

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If you check back to yesterday's squint shot, you will see I was recently on a ghost hunt (that you can also read about).  Once the hunt began, we spent 40 minutes in the old Kirkland House at the fairgrounds.  While waiting for ghosts to appear, I looked through some cards on a table and came upon this courtesy ticket for the Orr Theatre. 

The Orr Theatre was located on what is now the west portion of the Fowlerville Hardware store and was a popular place to be in the 1940s and 1950s.  Maybe there are some readers out there that still remember going to movies there?  I would love to have you comment on what you remember.

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I recently attended a ghost hunt at the fairgrounds, which you can read all about by clicking here, and before all of this started, I happened to look through some notebooks on display in the Coughran Schoolhouse building.  Lo and behold, I came across this ticket (shown above) of a party going on at the old "Independence Hall" in 1854.

The real name for the Independence Hall, where this ball was going to happen, was the Reason House.  The building was located at the southwest corner of the main four corners and was a wooden structure built only a year or so before this ball was to take place.  The building burned in February, 1878, and it took two more years to replace it with a brick and stone structure that stood at that corner until 1937, when it was torn down by the Lansing Wrecking company in order to put in a gas station.

If you search in the box at the upper right hand corner, just below the header, on Commercial Hotel or Independence Hall or Reason House, you will find all sorts of articles, some with pictures, to read at your leisure.   

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As with yesterday's squint shot, here are some more items showed by a local resident as he walked his property and other fields.  This jar had buttons and clasps -- oh, how I wanted to get my hands on them but they were tightly sealed in the jar.

Is it possible some of these items date back to the mid-1800s?

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We are going to take a short break from houses -- only for a couple of days -- to show you a couple of very interesting pictures taken last summer.  When we had the temporary museum, one of our residents brought in displays of items he has found while walking the fields on his property and in the area.

In one of the jars, there were porcelain doll arms and clay pipes. 

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I have another name that I'm not familiar with -- Freeman Manning.  Reportedly, this was his home at 439 South Collins.  The house goes back twice as wide as the front and has a well-kept red barn behind it.

After doing a quick genealogy search, I can find a Freeman Manning, born in 1890 or 1891, married by 1930 to Donna and having two children.  Does anyone have information what Freeman Manning may have done for work?

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This very modest house was the home of Harold Ames, the manager of Gambles, when it was located in the northeast quadrant of the downtown area. 

In the following photograph, taken during the 1961 125th celebration of the arrival of Ralph Fowler to the area, the Gambles store was sandwiched between two drug stores.

1894 Auction Bill

Following is an auction bill (in two parts) that was on display at the temporary museum in 2011 during the 175th celebration.  The Fowlerville Review was the local newspaper at that time, and it was owned and operated by George L. Adams.  He also took care of numerous other printing jobs, such as year books, playbills, graduation cards, stationary, and auction bills.  This poster has stood the test of time, still in great shape after 120+ years. 

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E.P. Carr was a jeweler and watchmaker here in Fowlerville.  In 1906, it was reported in The Fowlerville Review, by G.L. Adams, of a ride the two of them took in one of the latest and greatest "autymobiles."  In my latest book, Through the Eyes of A Country Editor, I've shown many of the articles he wrote as he and many of his friends tested and tried many of the early 1900 inventions.