1947 Fowlerville Lumber Company

Part of the Fowlerville Lumber Company's advertisement philosophy was to make the customer laugh.  Weekly, they would have this little "newsletter" published in "The Fowlerville Review" to keep their name in the forefront:

1880 Opium Addiction

I did a little browsing through some of the 1880 issues of "The Fowlerville Review," looking forward something interesting to put on this blog.  Sometimes it is almost overwhelming, there's so much from medical and dental treatments for the time, store openings (such as by R. Fowler), council minutes, prices of dry goods and groceries.  

The following article grabbed my attention as I see more and more articles in the local paper of an opiate problem here in Fowlerville and its surrounding area.  I guess nearly 140 years ago it wasn't quite so different.

If anyone has a subject matter, era, names and/or businesses they would like me to research, let me know and I'll see what I can do.  

1907 Grain Elevator Fire

On the 13th, I posted some information regarding the Rounsville house.  The other day, as I'm doing some research in 1907, this article caught my attention:

Two years later, a tornado came through this area and took off the top part of the grain elevator, no doubt some of being the newly-installed fire-proof roof.

1965 Beginning of Community Park

This month, Fowlerville lost one of its leaders from long ago -- Irwin Glover.  You can find his obituary under the "Remember" tab on this blog.  His funeral was a celebration of a life well-led and I feel honored I knew him for these last 18 years.

Irwin was one of the first I met when I joined the Rotary Club in 1999.  He was kind, generous, and outgoing, and he was the reason we sang songs at the beginning of each meeting.  

So, I post the following article that happened to catch my eye this week as I was looking for something interesting.  In May of 1965, this announcement was in "The Fowlerville Review" to bring the community out to work together on putting the Community Park (large one on North Grand) in order.  Irwin, along with Frank Utter and numerous other Rotarians, worked hard to make this happen and aren't we all glad!

A few years back, the Rotary Club funded the paving of what is now known as the "Rotary Mile."  I love using that walk and hopefully many more make use of it -- and, for that, we can thank men like Irwin Glover.

1963 Haire and Jackson

I've been opening up the digital version of "The Fowlerville Review," published from 1874-1972, randomly choosing a date and then doing some scrolling.  If something catches my eye, I save the article or picture and post here.

Please let me know if you would like me to look for anything in particular during those 98 years.  If you give me an approximately date, I can do some looking.

Today's picture was on the front page of the newspaper May 8, 1963.  This picture shows the North Grand Avenue view of the storefront for Haire and Jackson.  Years before, it was the location for Curtis Grocery and years later, the Decorating Center was located here.  Currently, it houses Maria's School of Dance.

Following is the ad from page 7:

1969 'Round the Town News

Thought this might be fun to post here.  

Every week, including the week of May 7, 1969, social and other events of some of the residents showed up in the news.  Some of you might recognize family names and what was happening in late spring of that year.  Enjoy!

1969 Advertisements

Here are some fun advertisements from a 1969 issue of The Fowlerville Review, published by the Rudnickis.  Some of you may remember these storefronts:

Spagnuolo's:

Howard's Market (where Sav-On is now located):

And, J.&D. Tavern:

I am wondering if J.&D. Tavern was located where DaShoe now resides.  Anyone remember?

1971 Rezoning Rounsville Property

In 1875, a very large house was built just south of the railroad tracks on the east side of South Grand Avenue.  It was built by the Rounsville family, also owners of the grain elevator across South Grand; the same one that was severely damaged in the 1909 tornado that touched down along the tracks.  For more information on the Rounsville family and/or the tornado, feel free to use the search feature.  There's also sections of the 1875 map you can search on.

But now, back to 1971.  The property was now owned by Tom McKane and he was looking to sell 66.9 acres.  The village council was considering rezoning the land and received a great deal of opposition from residents.  Following are the articles with that information.

I'm curious if anyone remembers when the house was still standing and/or this battle.

1971 Proposal One

In 1971, the village dealt with an issue of being able to or not sell liquor-by-the-glass.  I found this totally intriguing since the Prohibition Era, fifty years earlier than this proposal, has held a great deal of interest for me.  Throughout Fowlerville's history, it was a "dry" town, sometimes even the entire county was dry.  

The following full-page advertisement was taken out by the Committee for Lower Taxes in Fowlerville, labeled, "What Wrong With Fowlerville?" and additionally to "Vote YES for Liquor By The Glass, Monday, March 8th."

I continued looking at this issue of "The Review" newspaper and found the Fowlerville Licensed Beverage Association as well as the Progressive Business of Fowlerville" ran full-page ads.  There were no names associated with the organizations.

In the next issue, Wednesday, March 18, 1971, on the front page, an article entitled, "Fowlerville Approves Liquor" read as follows:

Fowlerville residents approved liquor by the glass for the village by a margin of 58 votes.  354 ballots were cast, with 12 ballots spoiled, for a final count of 200 yeas-142 no.  

With no opposition, all incumbents were re-elected.  It was not known at press time if any write-in candidates had been placed on the ballots.

Re-elected to office were President T. Nelson Tobias, 274 votes; Clerk Murial Bohm, 275; Treasurer Treva Risdon, 273; Assessor Harold Robb, 267; Trustees Gerald Bohnett, 261; Robert Branch, 254; and Andy Linman, Jr., 261.  Library Board members re-elected are Marge Carlon, 264, and Marion Jackson, 260.

Election workers reported that the majority of the spoiled ballots were the results of voters pushing down the markers under the Democratic ticket, either mistaking the markers for the Republican party, or possibly intending to write in a candidate.

A note regarding the above article - the library was under the auspices of the village in 1971.  By 1994, the library became a district library, encompassing the same area as the school district.

1875 Local News

The old-timey news editors were a hoot!  That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.  Every issue, while G.L. Adams was the editor of The Fowlerville Review, contained a local section (and other columns) that now give us, the readers, a sense of what it was like all those years earlier.  The editors were gossips and, if you didn't want something to show up in the newspaper, you'd best keep quiet about it.

My favorite in this part of the local column is, "Our streets were enlivened on Saturday last by a lead pencil seller."  Of course, I have to wonder how many gathered around this traveling salesman, what was his set-up, and how did he hawk his wares.  Like a carnival barker?  

I wish I could personally thank G.L. Adams for all the information he provided in the newspaper.  Otherwise, the Chronicles and also "Through the Eyes of a Country Editor," "Juniper and Anise," and "Tilly Loves Johnny" never would have happened.

1875 Council Meeting

Currently, I am the Fowlerville District Library board president and that means, occasionally, I need to attend or speak at the Fowlerville Village Council meetings.  The minutes for today's meetings are sometimes long and drawn out but, 142 years ago, they were quite simple.

While doing research for "The Fowlerville Chronicles," many of these names became so familiar to me.  W.W. Starkey was a businessman, having a stave factory and shipping barrel parts to India, to then have them put together and supplies shipped around the world.  Close was a store owner (see post from two days earlier).  F.G. Rounsville had the grain elevator and also served as a school superintendent.

The next post will be some fun local information.

1875 Wm. F. Close Store

Over the next week, there will be little snippets from an 1875 issue of The Fowlerville Review, published by G.L. Adams, here in Fowlerville.  And now, this would be a perfect time to mention all the wonderful things in this blog.  This post is number 2300--meaning there's a lot of stuff to read if you have the time.  By using the Search box, you can also look up names, events, storefronts, even type in a year.  Yearbook pictures and mausoleum names are on this site.  Plus there are also numerous pages to browse.  Look for the tabs that run under the header.  

I would love to hear some feedback of what you would like to see.  I have access to newspapers and other historical papers and would be happy to look up items of interest.  I am more about the history but, once in a while, a modern-day post might show up.

While my first history book is now out-of-print for new copies, there are some available on Amazon.  Just search on "The Fowlerville Chronicles" or my name, Marion Cornett, and you will see what's available.  A case in point of why the Chronicles is a good book to own--these next few posts will be set in 1875.  In the book, there are maps showing the area and you'd be able to see where Wm. F. Close's new store was located.  

Wm. F. Close also built a house during this era and it is still standing.  At the northwest corner of South Grand and Frank Street there's a large white house--that was his.

1960 Recipe for Canned Meat "Magic"

So, for those that grew up in the 60s, does anyone remember a meal such as the one shown below?  Canned Meat Magic makes it sound a bit suspicious!  

Although this isn't really related to Fowlerville, I did come across a page of recipes in a 1960 issue of "The Fowlerville Review" and wondered how many women made these meals for their families.  I guess I do remember some mystery meals when I was growing up, quite often something covered with a gravy so we wouldn't question our mother too much!

Anyone care to comment of a meal they used to get served (or made) in the 60s and 70s?

Also, on another note, I got a nice email from a friend, giving me a bit of personal information on Hall's Mill (see previous post).   An earlier owner of the mill, George Monroe (who passed away only a couple years back) used to mow the library lawn in the 90s after the mill was taken down by an intentional burn by the fire department.