Above from the top: Alma held its annual Jubillee Festival in late August. Ruth Abbot, Thelma Hahn (Queen), and Roberta Romine made up the Queen’s Court. An estimated 20,000 people came to Alma for the festival; What the tornado left in Seville Township. The Frank French farm was severely damaged by a tornado that hit in mid-August; Tax time- Moratorium Taxes, a way for people to keep their property during the Depression, were due.

The following is the start of a long monthly series about Gratiot County late in the Depression and running up through 1943. The opening article describes life in the county just before another world war broke out in Europe.

The Depression Is On

People who tried to keep their property learned that the next installment was due on moratorium taxes. These delayed taxes prevented owners from losing their property during the Depression in Gratiot County. Taxpayers who paid by August 31 avoided penalty, and people who had taxes from 1935 or earlier that went back to the state had until September 30 without interest but with a 6 percent collection fee. William G. Federspiel, Gratiot County treasurer, signed the notice.

Paving of Alma’s Center Street slowed down, but there were hopes for completion before the end of the year. The holdup revolved around WPA (Works Progress Administration) workers with eighteen weeks of continuous work who had been laid off for temporary discharge by the program. The Alma City Manager claimed he was short 75 WPA workers to do the job necessary for paving. Before this, workers had completed about two blocks of paving each week. When completed, the next goal was to pave the street between Center and West Superior. At the end of August, work moved again to Elwell and Lincoln streets. However, the shortage of WPA workers continued as the city received only five men from transfers in other projects.

Crime in Gratiot County During the Late 1930s

The long arm of the law reached out and dealt with several Gratiot lawbreakers. Five men who were caught dynamiting fish on the Bad River in July near the county line faced arraignment in Merrill. All the men (William Stadler, John Gath, Milan Stadler, Henry Wagner, and Lewis Gath) pled guilty and paid a fine and court costs of $31. 85. It also came out that the men had been doing this on the river for some time. In another part of the county, Fay Bragg and N.J. McCullough of Alma were caught in possession of ten undersized bluegills while fishing on Half-Moon Lake. They each pled guilty and paid a fine and costs of $11.85.

A rash of robberies across Gratiot County took place that targeted elevators for break-ins. Thieves blew safes in five different elevators early on one Monday morning, which resulted in a take of $600 in cash. The thieves kept their eyes on the money and left valuable items like silverware alone. The sheriff believed that the same gang of experts broke into Wheeler Farms Elevator, W.F. Bradford’s Bean Elevator, Breckenridge Bean and Grain, Hart Elevator Company, and the North Star Elevator Company. The Wheeler Farms Elevator got hit first. Police officers who first arrived on the scene said nitroglycerin blew the safes open to avoid ruining the contents. The search in the county was now on for this group of expert burglars.

In another story, Gratiot County Deputy Sheriff Clark Marr arrested a 24-year-old girl for selling and transporting illegal liquor on a Saturday afternoon in Newark Township. It turned out that Mary Sibley of St. Johns had a quart of moonshine whiskey in her car. Sibley was jailed, and Marr obtained a search warrant to search her vehicle. Marr learned that he needed to search the Frank Mazeski house in Newark Township, where he found 30 gallons of distilled liquor and more liquor about to be distilled. Marr turned the case over to Federal authorities, who took the people involved to Bay City to appear in Federal Court.

Farming Late in the Great Depression

Some of the prices for farm goods during the Depression in Gratiot County involved Swift’s Brookfield Butter, which cost 26 cents a pound. Two cans of corn cost 25 cents. Pillsbury Flour cost 73 cents for 24 ½ pounds. Also, beet sugar costs $1.19 for 25 pounds.

One of the largest shipments of beef cattle to ever leave Ithaca did so in late August. Keith and Robert Kellogg of Newark Township sent a total of 109 head of cattle by the Ann Arbor Railroad that averaged 1,135 pounds each. The Kellogg’s received $10,850.30 for their cattle.

Then, there were tragedies on the farm such as when lightning struck three barns, one home, and a chicken coup on August 29. Del Hibner’s barn southwest of Ithaca was one of these and burned to the ground that afternoon. After the bolt hit the west side of the barn, it burned up in a matter of minutes, resulting in the loss of pigs, hay, and straw. The Ithaca Fire Department arrived and saved the grain, but the barn was uninsured. While working on his field, a spark from Lester Mann’s thresher hit his barn, causing it to burst into flames. The Carson City Fire Department arrived but could not save the barn, which was a total loss. Mann said that he had some insurance. Robert Anderson of Sickles lost his chicken coop early on a Saturday morning, claiming that he had been dealing with chicken thieves, and one of them had probably set fire to the coop. The building was a former garage with no electrical wiring, causing Mann to believe that arson was the cause.

Another tragedy occurred when a severe windstorm hit the county in early August. On August 8, a severe tornado came across northwest Gratiot County, leaving wreckage from Elwell to Midland County. The storm demolished the Frank French farm, resulting in the loss of the house and the barn. Although the French family saw the tornado coming, the husband, wife, and son, Charles, tried to make it to the basement just as the tornado hit. Wreckage covered the three of them, and neighbors tried pulling them out. All suffered severe cuts and bruises, and Charles sustained a broken ankle. Both mother and son had to be taken to Smith Memorial Hospital for treatment. The French house was taken entirely off its foundation, smashing its contents and spreading them across the section. The family also lost their barn, garage, chicken coop, and ten trees from their front yard.

In another sad story that month, someone found eight-year-old Billy Parks of Bannister unconscious on the Gratiot Saginaw County Line and was believed to be the victim of a hit-and-run incident. It turned out that Billy and his brother Charles ran away from home. Once the boys returned home, Mrs. Parks claimed that Billy suffered from “spells” that rendered him unconscious for as many as three or four days at a time.

Finally, “marihuana” appeared in Gratiot County for the second time in two summers. It turned out that a group of four Mexican workers, ranging from 39 to 65 and who lived five miles north of Bannister, were arrested for growing and distributing. All four came to Gratiot County from Mexico and Texas to work in the pickle and beet fields. The sheriff found a total of two dozen plants, 3 ½ feet high, along with bags of seed and some weed mixed with tobacco. The Federal Narcotic Bureau of Detroit then came to Ithaca to take charge of the case.

In the Good Old Summertime: Fairs, Harvest Festivals, Celebrations

A massive crowd descended upon Alma on July 30-31. An estimated 2,000 people came from 9 states and 72 cities for the second annual Former Republic Truck Employees Reunion, which took place at  Conservation League Park. Softball games, dance at Bass Lake, and Murphy’s German Band performances entertained the crowds.

What was summer in Gratiot without the County Fair which ran from August 8-12 in Ithaca and featured Raum’s Circus and Gigantic Stage Show. One of the key acts was “The Stratosphere Man,” who performed an aerial act from 130 feet above the ground. Also,  Barkoots Midway offered rides, and the Gratiot 4-H Club had displays at the fair. A horse-pulling contest, the Red Devil Drivers, and the Famous Fisher Body 25-Piece Band offered concerts every night at 7:00 p.m. There was also horse racing on Wednesday – Friday afternoons with purses ranging from $250-$300.

There were also smaller celebrations in the county. Riverdale had a large Homecoming on Saturday, August 5. The day featured various races and a baseball game between the Saginaw Black Sox and the Riverdale team at Mead  Field. Perrinton also had its largest crowds in several years when it had a Homecoming event on Friday night and all day Saturday at the end of July.

Another significant event in Alma in late August was the eighth annual Harvest Jubilee Festival that occurred August 24-25. Some activities involved soapbox racing, a Jitterbug Contest, a pony race, model boat races in Wright Park, and a huge parade. A speed boat regatta was the weekend’s event highlight on the mill pond. This parade, the largest Alma had until then, featured a float with Queen of the Harvest, Miss Thelma Hahn, and attendants Miss Roberta Romine and Miss Ruth Abbot on a  Consumers Power Company float. An estimated 20,000 people came to Alma for the Harvest Jubilee.

Sports in Gratiot County

Ten teams competed in early August as the St. Louis Softball League started its second half. The St. Louis Sugar Company team led the league then with a perfect 4-0 mark. In just a few weeks, Alma and St.Louis held a regional softball tournament played under the lights at both locations. When the first game opened at St. Louis on a Monday night, every bleacher seat was taken by spectators as they watched the Clare team eke out a 4-3 win over the Alma Elks. Competition was tough, and in one game, it took a week to resolve a semi-final game that featured Rathbone against Lobdell-Emery. A heated controversy between Rathbone and the umpire occurred during the seventh inning, which caused the game not to be finished until the following week. In the end, Lobdell-Emery won.

Girls’ softball also took place in Gratiot County. A group of ten girls from the Ithaca area took on nine other area teams and finished 7-3-1. Nola Zoss and Reba Benson handled the team’s pitching duties.

In other sporting events, Mrs. Alex Hendershot of Alma won the Central Michigan Golf Championship in Portland, Michigan. Hendershot defeated Miss May Rose Shuller, a 19-year-old rival. Clarence and Phil Goodrich (father and son) played in the finals of the Ithaca Golf Championship. Clarence previously won the championship four times (1930-1933), and Phil claimed the honors in 1936. The golfer’s championship match took place in early September.

The Winds of War – News from Europe

It seemed inevitable that European conflict would soon break out as war clouds gathered on the horizon in August. As a result, that month, the Alma Record ran a column entitled “Our Place in a World War.” Even as President Roosevelt headed into the last year of his second term in office, the columnist urged  America to make war preparations. Every male in America needed to be ready for a war that appeared to be coming.

News about Nazi food rationing showed that Germany was already readying for war and unwilling to see the country blockaded into submission as it was over in a war twenty years earlier. Gas, sugar, breakfast foods, tea, and soap were all rationed. Magazines on county newsstands, such as Cosmopolitan, featured stories like “The One Man Hitler Fears!” – an article about Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS. A series of articles also appeared in the Gratiot County Herald, which traced the events of the last week in Europe as Hitler issued demands to England for the Danzig Corridor. President Roosevelt appealed to resolve the crisis peacefully. However, Hitler refused to back down from his demands about Poland.

And So We Do Not Forget

The dog days of August descended on Gratiot County with hot and muggy weather…The St. Louis City Council considered buying the old Gratiot County Bank Building for $7,000 for city offices…Mrs. Adeline Phillips received her postmaster commission from  President Roosevelt, effective July 28. She was the first postmaster appointed by a new act eliminating term limits. She had been acting postmaster since January 19, 1936, and replaced Frank House…A group of one hundred rural teachers from the county met at the Gratiot County Court House for an opening teachers’ meeting with County School Commissioner Donald L. Baker in charge. The group met in the courtroom… 143 attended the Federspiel Reunion at Boice’s Grove southeast of Wheeler. The group comprised the descendants of Balthazar Federspiel, who came to America during the Napoleonic Wars…Oren Riker Post No. 328 members in Ithaca named Russell Allen as Commander. Post dues cost two dollars for the year…The new consolidation of Middleton and Perrinton schools meant a special school election took place. Dr. James Sarven, John Reynolds, Clifford Price, Will Kellogg, and Arthur Ringle were elected school board members…The Bannister Methodist Church held a three-day Rededication Program from August 11-13…Several Alma people went to Owosso to listen to Thomas Dewey, New York District attorney, and Owosso native…Ralph and Richard Bobe of Alpena planned to open a roller skating rink in the rear of the Park Hotel. The two men were working to paint and decorate the building in anticipation of opening in early September…

“Mr. Moto’s Last Warning” headlined the movies at Ideal Theatre in Ithaca…A group of 300 out-of-town guests attended the Frances E. Burns Maccabee Memorial Hospital on State Street in Alma. At least five states were represented, as well as Canada…The state welfare commission cut fifteen people from the state welfare commission’s payroll, saving the state $4,900 monthly…Earl Ziesse, a printer and stereotype at the Alma Record, tried to catch little striped kitties invading his garage in town. Unfortunately, Ziesse discovered that he needed help to dispatch the skunk from his trap– which a local policeman did. However, the aroma persisted for some time…The Fulton Center School reunion drew a group of 130 made up of former teachers, students, patrons, and friends…The Alma City Commission heard a proposal for a new subdivision on Philadelphia Avenue from Superior Street to the Pine River…The Alma Record reported the city building activity was at its highest since the heyday of the Republic Truck Company…Updike Coffee Shoppe at 126 West Superior Street in Alma is closed for redecorating. Former chefs at the Wright Hotel, the Updikes offered home-cooked meals and pastries…The Strand Theatre featured Randolph Scott, Nancy Kelly, and Binnie Barnes in “Frontier Marshal”…Down the street, the Alma Theatre showed “Mutiny on the Bounty” starring Clark Gable and Charles Laughton…The annual Church of God Camp Meeting started August 17, two miles east of St. Louis…Finally, the wear on weeds took place in Breckenridge. Notices in town warned citizens to cut wild morning glory, tumbleweed, prickly lettuce, and catnip before their seeds mature.

And that was August 1939 in Gratiot County.

Copyright 2024 James M. Goodspeed

Above from top: The many items inside of this scrapbook tells the story of a lot of work clipping, pasting and preserving history; this scrapbook donated to the Gratiot County Historical and Genealogical Library in Ithaca held a collection from Mason County, Michigan during the 1930s and 1940s; inside of a loaned scrapbook that was allowed to be copied and placed on file in the GCHGS library.

Scrapbooks. Today, they may be a thing of the past for younger Americans. However, for those of us who are Baby Boomers and older, scrapbooking was a part of our lives.

I clearly remember my paternal grandmother’s scrapbooks she put together in the World War II era. Most of them were colorful pictures and advertisements from magazines and newspapers. Then, there were those articles and pictures from newspapers of the times.

During the 1970s, I kept my scrapbooks of Detroit sports teams, especially the Detroit Tigers. Although the tape is aging and the pages are frail, I still have my scrapbooks.

Most people need to realize that their scrapbooks may contain important articles, pictures, and clippings from Gratiot County newspapers that are no longer in existence. There are gaps in our county’s history where specific issues -and sizeable runs- must be located if they exist.

Critical years from the St. Louis Leader-Breckenridge American need to be included: 1948-1952, 1954, 1955, and 1956. The entire run of the Gratiot County Herald from 1919 is unavailable. None of these issues exist, and vital records of what happened in St. Louis and Breckenridge in those years are gone and lost to history.

I once asked historian David McMacken why he thought “runs” of these issues could be missing. He felt that in Gratiot County, every business with a long history probably had a fire at some time. Newspaper publishers were the same and probably lost papers due to fire. Things sometimes got to where they should be when a newspaper publisher moved. Another reason is that some issues may have been mislaid somewhere or pitched to the junk.

What can be done about our missing history of newspapers in Gratiot County? Scrapbooks with clippings and pictures from these missing years may still exist, although “clipped,” edited, and taped inside of scrapbooks. The contents of Gratiot’s scrapbooks are essential to the county’s history.

The Gratiot County Historical and Genealogical Society in Ithaca has been fortunate in its history to have had the chance to look at scrapbooks. In the past, people like Del DeVust, Anna Blair, and Olive Clark either donated their scrapbooks or allowed the library to copy articles and pictures. When loaned, the library afterward returned the scrapbooks to these owners. As a result, we have many articles and photographs that would not otherwise exist in the library’s collection.

I have often lived by the “scrapbook mantra” whether in my family, at garage sales, or flea markets – never throw out a scrapbook. Especially those that appear well taken care of or have pictures and news articles.

This leads back to a pair of scrapbooks that recently went to the Mason County Historical Society in Ludington, Michigan. The books belonged to a former Gratiot County Historical and Genealogical Society member who was deceased and left an extensive collection of items to the Society. These scrapbooks did not fit our collections’ focus and goal, so I contacted Mason County to see if they wanted these 1930-1940s era scrapbooks. Sure enough, they did and were mailed out to Ludington, Michigan.

What does this mean for Gratiot County scrapbook owners, readers, and enthusiasts?

In these collections, essential parts of our county’s history may still exist. If you decide to pitch out someone’s old scrapbooks with pictures and news clippings, please consider the potential historical value before you do so.

Even if you do not want to get rid of your scrapbooks, you might consider letting GCHGS look at them to take pictures or carefully make a copy of them. But above all else, please take care of and respect the old scrapbooks.

Note: The Gratiot County Historical and Genealogical Society gladly receives donations of items about Gratiot County’s history. However, the Society is most interested in items directly connected to a person, event, theme, or idea directly connected to Gratiot County’s past.

GCHGS is open on Tuesdays from 1-5 p.m. You can contact the director, Elizabeth VanDyke, with questions about donations or loans of materials at 989-875-6232.

Copyright 2024 James M. Goodspeed