politics

Gratiot County During Depression and War, August 1940: “Summer and Life Goes On”

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Above from the top: Wheat harvest was coming in, and young Beverly Kay Gulick of Ithaca lacked nothing to eat. The two sacks represented how much wheat the United States had in its possession (left) and how much it would consume in the next year (right). The message was that the country had much to avoid a famine – unlike parts of Europe who suffered from the war; a new county highway garage went up in Ithaca with the goal of completion by November 1; “One Out of Every 28” was the title of this cartoon, which foretold an impending draft of young American men in the wake of the European war.

A warm late summer in Gratiot County provided what crops needed after a poor start.

As war spread over Europe, most people in Gratiot County seemed unconcerned; even talk of a draft was in the works.

And FDR appeared to be willing to run for a third term as President. What would Gratiot County voters do to avoid a dictatorship?

It was August 1940 in the county.

War News Comes to Gratiot

Plenty of news articles and photographs warned Gratiot County that a world war covered parts of Europe as the Nazis now threatened to invade the British Isles. As “the Blitz” continued over parts of England, citizens prepared to handle both early morning “feeler raids,” as well as more brutal attacks over northwestern England and up and down the coasts of Scotland. Cities like Southampton, Dover, and Hastings all became targets as barrage balloons tried to deter German planes.

The Alma City Commission continued discussions of the city’s involvement with a new National Guard Armory for Troop B, 106th Cavalry. Because the federal government talked of taking the National Guard, combining it with the training of army recruits, and removing horses due to mechanization, the commission did not favor a push for a new armory. Soon, Troop B left Alma in early August for intensive maneuvers in Wisconsin. A total of 63 members went on this trip. Captain Howard L. Freeman led the Alma group.

A photograph of the original glass jar used in 1917 by the Secretary of War to draft Americans for World War I appeared in the Gratiot County Herald. How long before young men would be drafted for another war? A U.S. Army recruiting party came to Alma and St. Louis to demonstrate the use of a searchlight for aerial spotting of aircraft. For this two-hour demonstration, the recruiters also brought along two scout cars, rolling equipment, anti-aircraft, and anti-tank guns. Byron Bradley of St. Louis made the news for being accepted into the Air Corps division in Lansing. He left the same night to begin training at Scottsfield, Illinois.

With Hitler’s conquest of Europe, attention turned to millions of people who were already hungry, and fall was coming. The Michigan Children’s Aid Society announced that it would be discussing the issue of care for refugee children during its summer conference in St  Joseph, Michigan. The Children’s Bureau of the Federal Government asked the Society to make facilities available for refugee children.

In news of another war in another part of Gratiot County’s past, Jasper Norton of Elm Hall, believed to be Gratiot County’s last surviving Civil War veteran, celebrated his ninety-fifth birthday. Norton was born August 2, 1845, and entered the Union Army at the age of sixteen as a private in Company D, 12th Regiment, Michigan Infantry. He reenlisted in the Army in 1864 and was honorably discharged on February 15, 1866. Private Norton was wounded in the right thigh in a battle near Camden, Arkansas. Up until a few years ago, Norton regularly helped with work on his farm and still took daily automobile trips out to his farm outside of Elm Hall.

New Deal Social Programs at Work in Gratiot

New Deal social programs such as the NYA (National Youth Administration) and WPA (Works Progress Administration) continued to be active in Gratiot County during the summer months.

Much of the NYA work dealt with recreation programs. Wheeler Field in St. Louis saw much community activity with programs like a doubles tennis tournament, horseshoe pitching tourney, shuffleboard, men’s night activities, and the town’s first public dance. NYA workers built the new shuffleboard and equipment, then they went and painted the court on the west walk near the grade school. More than 90 NYA workers were on the monthly payroll, with young workers receiving either $24 a month for 80 hours of service in the “A” class or $18.40 monthly for those in the “B” class. Several of these NYA workers were involved in activities in both the St. Louis and Alma recreation departments.

WPA projects and workers continued in the county. The Gratiot County Road Commission applied to the WPA for help with the construction of a bridge in Lafayette Township, three miles south of Breckenridge. It was hoped that the WPA would authorize a dozen men for help with this needed project of widening the bridge area and modernizing the bridge’s structure. St. Louis planned to use WPA workers for its sidewalk project to start at the end of August. The city also wanted work done, lengthening sewers and water mains in St. Louis. Over 100 men worked in Alma, pouring concrete on Walnut Street and River Avenue, as well as widening streets in the city. An increase in workers now meant that the city might be able to complete the forty-block project, which started in 1939. When this was finished, the city wanted to start work on another 15 blocks. WPA workers also planned to construct six tennis and six shuffleboard courts in Wright Park.

 WPA workers were also authorized to help with alien registration at local post offices in the county. Each worker’s job was to assist aliens in filling out registration forms, fingerprinting, and explaining the requirements of the registration law.

With summer in full tilt, recreation programs in Alma, Ithaca, and St. Louis all continued to draw large numbers of participants. Over in Ithaca, a new recreational center opened at the county fairgrounds. A new softball field with lights has now become the place to play softball each night of the week except Wednesday. Alma held another water carnival, which drew many people to Turck’s Beach on a Friday night. The beach drew in the crowds. During a hot August spell from August 22-28, the count showed that 6,400 people attended activities or went swimming at the beach.

For those who wanted to stay indoors in August, another Townsend Club meeting took place for Progressive Townsend Club Number 2 in Ithaca at the village hall. “Very good attendance” resulted in choosing delegates for the 8th congressional district convention in Saginaw.

Health and Gratiot County

Most of the health news during August 1940 dealt with hospitals and the topic of rabies.

Carol Jean Harrington, age 5 of Ithaca, fell off her bicycle and fractured her left elbow. She was x-rayed at Smith Memorial Hospital in Alma and then sent home. Dean Breidinger of St. Louis was the victim of burns to his body and left hand while trying to clean a paint brush in the boiler room at Leonard Refinery in St. Louis. His condition was satisfactory. Gerald Smith of Alma, like Dean Breidinger,  was treated at Smith Memorial Hospital for injuries suffered while riding his horse. The horse stumbled, threw Smith, and he fractured his left leg below the knee. John Wilberding, his mother, and grandmother, all of Shepherd, were also treated for a traffic accident on US-27 three miles south of Shepherd while on their way to a Catholic picnic. Wilberding’s party was not at fault for the accident.

Newspapers said that reports of rabies declined by 33 percent since May; however, there was no immediate ban on the free movement of dogs in Gratiot County. Law enforcement officials stressed that dogs had to be kept on a leash in public and boarded up while at home.  Some dog owners hoped for a reprieve in terms of allowing dogs to train for the upcoming hunting season, which was on the minds of Gratiot County hunters.

To support children in the county who needed dental care, the free twelve-week dental clinic continued. After five weeks at Ithaca High School, the clinic relocated to Alma Junior High School for the next four weeks. This dental treatment was given to underprivileged families in the county.

Farming

What would Gratiot County farmers do without such often unpredictable weather and tragedy, especially in the heart of summer? A large fire in New Haven Township at the Arthur Akin farm did $20,000 worth of damage to five buildings. Electrical problems may have been the cause, and Akin had only partial insurance. Akin also lost his sheep barn, hay, and grain, along with three cattle and a hog. Another fire at the George Baker farm in Emerson Township, at nearly the same time, was caused by children playing with matches and a cap gun. Luckily, the children narrowly escaped the fire.

Above-normal heat and moisture helped the summer’s crops catch up after a poor spring weather. The sugar beet crop looked very good, and the beans showed significant improvement. More rain at the end of the month appeared to be helping; however, farmers wondered if the crops would be ready before the first freeze and the onset of cold weather in the fall.

 All seemed well until Monday, August 19, when an unusual wind of “tornadic proportions” came from the northwest and hit Alma, taking out 13 Union Telephone company telephone poles between the city and along US-27 on the old Ithaca Road. Fred O’Boyle’s trailer camp east of Alma was hit the hardest with flying limbs and downed trees near the surrounding trailers.

In other Gratiot farming news, St. Louis beet growers enjoyed a picnic sponsored by the Lake Shore Sugar Company. A group of 650 people came to the Gratiot County fairgrounds in Ithaca for three hours of entertainment. One of the best friends Gratiot sugar beet growers had was United States Representative Fred L. Crawford, who came out against Eastern seaboard refiners who took too much sugar from places like Cuba. Crawford feared the government would turn the sugar market over to Cuba and that the United States would stop producing sugar. A group of 28 boys returned from a five-day trip sponsored by Future Farmers of America. The group traveled through the Upper Peninsula and into Wisconsin. Omer Garberson and Leroy Roslund were just two of the young men in the group.

Farmers were warned about the damaging effects of the corn borer on the county’s corn crop. Farmers had limited options to control the pest, except to place corn in the silo, run fodder through shredders, or to clean plow all stubble and stocks under in early summer.  Turkey growers in central Michigan gathered for a meeting at the Gratiot County courthouse to plan the grading and marketing of turkeys, which would be shipped to Detroit. Thanksgiving and the Christmas season were not that far away. A.J. Neitzke led the ten highest herds in the Gratiot Dairy Herd Improvement Association during the month of July. Neitzke’s Brown Swiss yielded 999 pounds of milk and 39.52 pounds of fat on one test. On a more sober note, Hill’s Fox Farm in Alma offered $5 and $8 for dead horses to feed animals at their fox farm. Just send a card to Hill’s, and they would make contact.

The Long Arm of the Law in August 1940

The Gratiot County prosecuting attorney, Robert H. Baker, reported 79 violations of the law and subsequent cases. Of that number, 76 resulted in convictions, with fines totaling $294.65 and costs amounting to $246.

David Lavoy, 17 of Alma, pled guilty to stealing Ray Updegraff’s pocketbook. He got a fine of $31.15 or 345 days in jail. The law came down hard on Roched Alvey, 52, a Cleveland, Ohio, rug salesman who failed to have a peddler’s license. Alvey claimed his World War I veteran’s peddling license was sufficient. He spent 20 days in jail instead of paying the $30 fine and costs. His tune changed after two days in the county jail, and he was able to raise the money to get out. Ganro Mejia, an Alma Mexican, 43, was arrested by Alma police for carrying a loaded revolver. He received a ten-day jail sentence and two years’ probation. Meija was not to retake a weapon unless he had a license. Harmon Burrell, 27, an Alma man of color, was arrested for carrying concealed weapons and was sentenced to Jackson Prison for six to eight months. Burrell had a homemade dagger that he exposed during an argument in the Alma Coney Island Restaurant. More violence occurred when Staley Druska, 51, of Bannister, was arrested for having a bloody fight with Steve Gruska. Druska attacked Gruska with a knife and hammer. That trial was assigned for later in the month.

 Patrick Long of Alma made the news for being arrested for two different cases on the same day.  First, he briefly escaped from the Alma jail after being arrested for passing counterfeit checks, but was rearrested and brought before a judge. He had to pay $36.85 in fines and costs in addition to the amounts of the checks. After arraignment in Alma, he was taken to Justice J.L. Smith’s court in St. Louis for failure to appear for a traffic violation ticket on July 4. He had to pay $8.00 or spend ten days in jail. Finally, Maynard Isham, Lloyd Willert, and M.H. Sheridan, all of Perrinton, pleaded guilty to a fine of $16.85 each for violating state laws by fishing with set lines in the Maple River.

Several articles in local newspapers addressed the issue of alien registration, which became a state and federal requirement. Part of this need to register seemed tied to events in Europe as the United States slowly drifted toward war. The St. Louis Leader stated that it believed many aliens existed in Gratiot County. Starting August 27 through December 26, aliens of all ages had to register at one of the post offices in Alma, St. Louis, or Ithaca. All had to register and be fingerprinted, and those under the age of fourteen had to be registered by a parent or guardian. Also, those who could not speak English had to furnish their own interpreters. Aliens who started the citizenship process but had not completed it still had to register with the authorities.  The Department of Justice would mail a proof of registration to each person who completed the process in the form of a receipt card. Some of the questions that aliens had to answer involved how long they anticipated being in the United States, and for how long they planned to stay. Other questions asked about their method and ways of transportation into the country, whether they had any military service, listing organizations they belonged to, and how these activities helped a foreign government. Failure to register by the end of December may result in a six-month jail term and a $1,000 fine.

The Alma postmaster claimed that each registration would take approximately thirty minutes to complete, and fingerprinting was part of the process. There was no cost for the Gratiot alien registration process. On the first day, registration took place at the St. Louis post office. Postmaster Adeline Philips reported that ten aliens had registered so far.

In sad news, Judge James G. Kress, a probate judge in Gratiot County for twenty years, passed away after a prolonged illness. Kress was born in Alma in 1866 and had a long career as an attorney and judge. He was laid to rest in Alma’s Riverside Cemetery.

And So We Do Not Forget

A.H. Beebe, the caretaker of the Alma Pine River Country Club golf course, described his ten-year collection of golf tees. He currently had 210 different tees made of wood, wire, rubber, bakelite, white bone, tin, plastic, and celluloid…Alma’s New Moon Trailer published a new illustrated folder of new trailers for sale. The Alma Record printed 20,000 folders for distribution…James Kline of Ithaca was now in charge of the new locker storage plant, the first freezer plant in Gratiot County, and had 200 lockers to rent…Gay’s 5 & 10 in Alma had a new American flag in the window made out of red, white, and blue jelly candies…Three Ashley residents, Kenneth McComber, Lyden, and Wendal Wright sang ballads on the Prairie Farmer-WLS Home Talent program over radio station WLS in Chicago on Saturday afternoon, August 10…Leonard Refineries held its first annual employee picnic for workers in the Alma and St. Louis plants. Approximately 300 people attended the picnic at Lake Lansing…The 1940 District Class C softball tournament started at Conservation Park Field in Alma on Sunday, August 11. In the opening game, Lobdell-Emery played the Newsboys…Matthews, located at 222 East Superior in Alma, had a daily fountain feature of a double peach sundae for only ten cents.

The 1940 Gratiot County school census had 9,568 students, a drop of 260 students from the previous year. Alma had a gain of 29 students and a student enrollment of 2,216…Ira Nusabaum, a twenty-year employee at the O.E. Buccaning’s Beehive Restaurant, was found dead in his apartment over the Alma establishment.  When he did not appear for work, another employee went to check on Nausbaum, who had passed from an apparent heart attack. Nausbaum had worked for the Buccanings for twenty years…Alma Bowling Alleys are prepared to reopen for the fall bowling season. “Mauling the maples” was soon to start in Alma…The contest for the oldest battery in Gratiot County ended when Robert Fisher of Sumner Township, who produced a thirteen-year-old battery from a 1927 Model T Ford…Jack Catlin, formerly from Alma, signed a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals farm club and was assigned to Worthington, Minnesota, farm club. Catlin formerly played for the Pure Oil baseball club on Sundays in St. Louis…A group of young men from Ithaca formed a flying club on the George Reed farm in North Star.  Reed, a licensed pilot, began working with ten young men to complete their eight hours of dual instruction courses before flying an airplane…Several news articles appeared in county newspapers about the apparent 1940 Republican nominee for President, Wendell Wilkie…Marian Smith, daughter of the late Dr. R.B. Smith, married Alton Norris in the Smith family gardens in Alma. Miss Smith was given in marriage by her brother, Lieutenant Reynolds C. Smith. Seventy friends and family attended the wedding.

In Alma, the Beehive Restaurant at 322 North State Street and G.J. Maier at 115 East Superior Street both installed fluorescent lighting. Maier was using Westinghouse lights…A busy harvest season in the county meant that members of the county’s board of supervisors were forced to postpone their first annual picnic at Conservation League Park…In Michigan Mid-State Baseball action, Beal City played St. Louis in a double header at the St. Louis softball field on Sunday, August 4…A new sign sponsored by St. Louis Lions Club and Frank Champion was placed two miles south of St. Louis on US-27. The sign read, “The Lions Club welcomes you to St. Louis, Michigan, center of the Nation’s Playground, straight ahead, scenic route to Mackinaw”… St Louis schools planned to open Tuesday, September 3, for the upcoming school year. The teaching staff had only one new addition from last year…The annual August Northrup Birthdays took place at the home of Lyle Bartrem. While the plans originally were for an outdoor party, weather changes forced it indoors…Mid-West Refineries acquired two new refineries as part of a business expansion.  The six-year-old company voted to purchase the stock of Imperial Refining Corporation of Grand Rapids, along with its two refining plants…The intense late July heat resulted in lower attendance at the Republic Truck Reunion. Approximately 900 people attended a Sunday picnic at Conservation Park. A total of 438 former Republic workers participated in the picnic…In an unusual yet sad story, a double funeral was held for Mr. and Mrs. Peter Brillhart in Ithaca. The elderly couple passed away within six hours of each other. J.L. Barden and Sons handled the services.

A new St. Louis restaurant, the Colony House, opened with an exterior in the Colonial style, featuring knotty cedar panels. The business had room for 42 people at one time. While it featured meals and lunches, the Colony House also had a soda fountain service…Marriage licenses included John Hein, 25, of Bethany Township, and Margaret Kostka, 25, of Emerson Township. Good luck to Cupid’s victims…Walter Brown, Ithaca tailor and World War I veteran, gave a talk at the Park Hotel for the St. Louis Rotarians about the history of clothing, as well as his exhibits on button types, including the potato button…Claire Trevor and John Wayne starred in “Dark Command” for two nights at the Ideal Theatre in Ithaca. Tickets were ten and fifteen cents…A new lighted softball diamond in Ithaca, located at the county fairgrounds, hosted games every Wednesday night, except on Wednesdays, which were avoided due to the free programs offered in downtown Ithaca. The official opening of the new field took place on August 5…The 47th annual Central State Camp Meeting of the Church of God ran August 16-25 east of St. Louis. Reverend. W. T. Wallace of Louisville, Kentucky, served as camp evangelist…The new Ithaca Post Office opened on August 1 in the old Ithaca National Bank building…The village of Perrinton held its fifth annual homecoming days on July 26-27. The event was primarily sponsored by the Perrinton firemen, who managed to break even with the cost of the event through a Ladies Aid Society dinner. Events included a free show, a softball game between Perrinton All-Stars and Rowley and Church, a tug of war, free music from the Vocational Band, a popularity contest, and a contest to catch a greased pig…and St. Louis saw its biggest building boom in ten years with several home and businesses were going up in and around the city. Most of the new homes cost between $3,000 and $6,000 to construct. Many of the new buildings were made of brick.

And that was Gratiot County during the Depression and War in August 1940.

Copyright 2025 James M. Goodspeed

We Remember the late 1970s: “Gratiot Wasn’t Jimmy Carter Country, But…”

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Above: This ceramic mug found its way back to Gratiot County with the help of my grandparents, who stopped in Plains, Georgia, on their way home in the late 1970s.

Today, on January 9, 2025, the United States paid final respects by laying to rest the 39th President of the United States, James Earl (“Jimmy”) Carter.

 Carter occupied the White House from 1977-1981 in what was a time when Gratiot County, like the rest of the United States, sought to recover from a national scandal that shook our confidence in American politicians. Michigan’s closest tie to the presidency was President Gerald R. Ford,  Carter’s predecessor, and the only non-elected vice president and president in our nation’s history. Had Ford not pardoned President Richard M. Nixon for potential crimes during Watergate, Ford would easily have been re-elected as President. Before this happened, Ford, a United States Representative from Grand Rapids, Michigan, had visited Gratiot County more than once as a congressman.

However, Gratiot County never carried Carter in the Election of 1976. In its entire history, Gratiot County went Democratic only four times and had not done so since 1964. Only in a time of severe economic or national crisis had Gratiot County helped elect a Democratic President. It either took the Great Depression or the death of President  Kennedy to get Gratiot County to go Democratic. My paternal grandmother complained the day after the 1976 election, saying, “THAT Carter won.” He wasn’t Jimmy Carter, he was “THAT Carter” from Georgia.

The late 1970s continued to be a time of severe economic problems, which soon led to the worst economic recession the nation had seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s. We heard the words “energy crisis,” Carter urged the public to conserve energy by curtailing gasoline usage and turning down thermostats to 68 degrees. Inflation skyrocketed as the decade went on. In Gratiot County, by the late 1970s, property owners often opposed votes on school millages, which my father continually bemoaned as a small farmer. All of these things surrounded the arrival of President Jimmy Carter after he became President.

I was never a supporter of President Carter during his time in office. I remember clearly the day after the 1976 election when my math teacher said in class that he voted for Carter because “He (Carter) represented the little guy.” Another social studies teacher, on the day of the election, did the electoral college math on the blackboard in geography class. Mr. Milne told me Ford would win the election if two or three states went for Ford (I remember that one was Hawaii). It turned out that my teacher was wrong, and Carter won. For a time, it seemed that the country wanted to get away from the word “Watergate” by electing Jimmy Carter. Like many other people on that 1977 Inauguration Day, I was surprised by how President-Elect Carter got out of his limousine and walked part of the parade route along with family members. The Secret Service must have had fits with that decision, but that was Jimmy Carter.

 According to my research, President Carter’s closest connection to Gratiot County occurred after he left office and went hunting in northern Michigan. According to a story, Carter and his Secret Service agents stopped to eat at a McDonalds (possibly in Clare). While those at the register who took the group’s order did not recognize the Secret Service, Carter later walked up to the corner by himself to ask for a refill of his beverage. The girl at the counter gazed at Carter and said he looked familiar. Jimmy Carter just smiled.

Still, by my first year of college in 1979, President Carter seemed out of favor with most people I listened to or talked to in mid-Michigan. Something we knew as “The Iran Hostage Crisis” was developing in 1978-1979 as the Shah of Iran was forced out of power and fled to the United States. A group of 52 American hostages would be held for 444 days in Iran, and Carter could do little to end the crisis. One of those held in Tehran, Robert Ode, had a sister in St. Louis, which brought the issues of the hostage crisis home. After a rescue mission to get the hostages failed, to some, it looked more and more like war was imminent. I had recently filled out my Selective Service card and sent it to the government. Remember, this was all only five to six years after the end of the Vietnam War, and many young people my age feared another draft. As a result of all of this, Carter was even more unpopular.

For those of us old enough in Gratiot County, we remember how the Carter story ended. In 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated Carter resoundingly, and Carter became a one-term president. As for me, I helped send Jimmy Carter on his way as I voted for Reagan and joined a movement that believed the country needed change.

Jump this story ahead over twenty years. Jimmy Carter has long been out of office, but his personal story intrigues me. This was not so much for his faith and character, for which I came to admire him. It was now how Carter became one of the most successful Presidents AFTER he left office. These works included his commitments to Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center, working with countries on free and fair elections, and seeking to eliminate Guinea Worm in impoverished areas of Africa. President Carter also had earned a new title, which I heard several times and read about in an issue of Parade Magazine in the late 1990s as “America’s Most Accessible President.”

I found the title correct, as I would go on to meet President Carter three times. The first was when he did a surprise walk-through at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Museum and then reappeared at a dinner held there for teachers. Once, while traveling through Plains, Georgia, I saw the President talking to an area farmer as they examined watermelons that the farmer had in the back of his truck. Only one agent was standing next to the President. Anyone could have approached Carter had he wanted to converse.

Having re-thought Jimmy Carter as the man, the person, the character – and not so much the President – my opinion of him changed. Part of this was a more mature understanding of the significant national and international problems Carter faced when he entered office in the late 1970s. As a result, I decided to write a letter to the President after learning that he often read his mail. In a letter that I wrote to the President in late 2002, I told him that while I did not vote for him in 1980, I had tremendous admiration for him and the problems he faced as President, and how he was seeking to stay active in local, state, national, and even international issues. I also confessed that I had not voted for him in 1980, but my views of him as a person had changed drastically.

It must have been early December 2002 when the secretary called me to the Fulton High School office where I taught. When I arrived, I was told that I had received an important letter and would want to see it. The return address shocked me as it indicated that President Carter chose to reply to my letter. I received a copy of the initial letter, and at the top were the words, “ Jim, come down to Plains (Georgia) and see me.” Even more strangely, the letter I received was shortly after it was announced that Carter would receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

One of Carter’s works was teaching Sunday School at the Maranatha Baptist Church outside of Plains. Before the time of the President’s return letter, Sundays at the church drew people from across the nation and the world. I chose to find out what was happening and visited Plains with another family relative in the summer of 2003. It was hot, it was peanut country, and it was Georgia.

I think we had to arrive at the church about one hour before the church offered Sunday School, and I had to pass a couple of Secret Service agents who “wanded” me down to check for weapons. That morning, we had a pretty good seat only 4-5 rows from the President. Before he began, Carter asked the audience where people were from. While I said “Michigan,” I heard people say they were from across and outside the United States – some even from Europe and Africa. One of the humorous parts of his lesson was when he read a passage from the Old Testament lesson that mentioned a place in Jerusalem, then known as the Water Gate. It got a few laughs and snickers as Carter paused after he read the verse. I also recall looking over my shoulder toward the President, seated in the opposite aisle and behind me during the worship service. I was greeted with a very icy stare from a Secret Service Agent who stared back at me.

At the end of the Sunday church service, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter offered an opportunity that no other United States President has done. All of those present were allowed to have their picture taken with the Carters outside of the church, under the condition that your camera was ready, you stepped up and stood next to the Carters, and you did not engage the Carters in any discussion. Even though almost everyone thanked the Carters after the photo op, the couple remained stoic, looking almost straight ahead. The Carters probably spent 20+ minutes on the photos, as everyone had been told to be ready as the line moved along for their photo opportunity.

Before the end of the service, President Carter also invited all visitors to Mama’s Kitchen in Plains for lunch. At the restaurant, the Carters sat off from the dining area in a separate room with his Secret Service agents. As Carter promised in his remarks before we left the church, the “Mama’s” menu was excellent. Over the years, I traveled through Plains several times, my last stop being in 2017.

Today, one of the remaining things my paternal grandmother left was a ceramic mug she obtained when my grandparents stopped in Plains, Georgia, during a return trip from Florida in the late 1970s. The souvenir featured the beaming smiling face of then-President Carter.

Today, Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter’s lives after they left the White House still speak to us about pertinent issues that each of us who enter retirement must still answer. The questions are somber but true. What do I do with my remaining days on the earth? What is the meaning of life? How do I respond later in life to the needs of others, injustice, reform, and change in America and the world? How do I live a meaningful life? What is to be my legacy after I leave the earth?

While I never initially supported him as a young adult in the 1970s, I later found Jimmy Carter’s character (Carter the man) to be a good example of how to live and end life.

Copyright 2025 James M Goodspeed

We Remember the Underside of Gratiot County’s History, Epilogue: “What Should We Learn from the 1920s Ku Klux Klan?”

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Above: A Ku Klux Klan meeting takes place in Michigan during the 1920s. The reverse of the photograph reads “Gratiot County.” Looking at the elevation in the background, could this location be in either south or southwest Gratiot County? Or, is it somewhere in Arcada Township? Photo courtesy of Tami Haskett Smith.

The British author and poet Thomas Hardy once wrote, “Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.” The first time I heard this quote, journalist James P. O’Donnell used it after seeing Hitler’s bunker in Berlin in the summer of 1945. O’Donnell then wrote an account of Hitler’s last days and adapted it for a 1980s movie on HBO.

Looking back over one hundred years ago in Gratiot County, there has been much that seemed to be too strange about the activity of the Ku Klux Klan to have happened here – but it did.

Growing up in Gratiot County, I never once heard anything firsthand about the 1920s KKK, even though I had four grandparents who grew up during that period. In my life, the closest I came to contact with the Klan was as a student when I overheard a story told by an upperclassman at my high school. As I remember his account, in the early 1970s, a student brought a grandfather’s Klan uniform to school as part of a presentation to a history class. Years later, nothing came from my investigation into tracking down the story.

In 2009, I was in a class at Central Michigan University, “American Social History, 1865-Present,” taught by Dr. Stephen Jones. The first assigned book was James Loewen’s  Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. Loewen’s book examined the history of how white communities in the Midwest and the North gradually pushed out and removed Black communities from their midst, creating “sundown towns.”

As I read the book, I soon found Michigan connections. One dealt with writings regarding Owosso, Michigan – where I had family members and my paternal grandparents lived for a short time. While investigating Loewen’s treatment of Owosso as a “sundown town,” the role of the Ku Klux Klan appeared in the 1920s. References to the Klan in other parts of Michigan (like Alma, Michigan) immediately got my attention. At the time of that reading, I remembered that a former CMU history professor, Dr. Calvin Enders,  researched the Klan in Michigan during the 1970s and 1980s. Although I did my M.A. degree under Enders’ supervision in the 1980s, we never talked about the Klan very much (even though Dr. Enders was deep into Michigan KKK research).

By the time I came along in 2009, Dr. Enders’  wife donated his papers and research to the Clarke Historical Library in Mt. Pleasant, where my investigation into the Gratiot KKK began. I was stunned by what I found and read.

The Klan was very active in the 1920s, and at least one incident regarding Gratiot County Realm No. 24 garnered state and national news. As I investigated the sources on my early trips, I am sure other researchers in the library heard me mumbling or proclaiming as I went through Gratiot County sources, “I can’t believe this.” The history was that gripping, and despite what Hardy and O’Donnell said, it was hard to believe.

During an early trip to the Clarke, I found that the curator was becoming increasingly interested in what I was doing regarding Gratiot County and the Klan. He politely asked questions about my research and then asked me to visit his office. I wondered what research rule I had broken, but he told me I was not in trouble. Instead, he told me another story about the Gratiot Klan from the 1920s.

A few months before my research began, the curator received a phone call from someone in Gratiot County who had materials that they considered donating to the Clarke. The only stipulation was that names had to be removed from the documents – in one case, it was the original KKK Realm No. 24 charter. The donor wanted to preserve history and offer it to the Clarke Library. Still, he did not wish to reveal names that were associated with the Klan in 1920s Gratiot County.

Under proper archival procedure and rules with donations, the curator would accept the items but could not delete or tamper with names or other information. History was history, and it had to be preserved. Unfortunately,  when the anonymous Gratiot Klan donor heard this, he decided not to donate the items.

At this meeting, I was asked whether I knew anything about these Gratiot Klan documents and charter or if I could investigate where the items were. Unfortunately, as I was starting research, I couldn’t help. But, I became interested in finding the Klan items.

As of this writing, I have not located the Gratiot Klan charter items dealing with Realm No. 24. Since 2009, despite this, I have traveled across Michigan, Indiana, and even to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., to try and find as much as I could about the KKK in our county’s history.

What I learned – and what Gratiot County should learn – is that nothing is too strange to have happened in our midst. The Klan was here, and many of its activities and actions today seem alarming. What is even more shocking is that most people in Gratiot County today don’t know that the Klan was here, that it was highly active, and that it fostered division, disharmony, and intolerance in Gratiot County.

It is disturbing to me that at least two generations living in Gratiot County in the early 20th century heard about the Klan or must have known someone involved with it. 

And then, somehow, over time, people erased the 1920s Ku Klux Klan Realm No. 24 from Gratiot County’s memory.

It was not too strange to have happened here.

Copyright 2024 James M. Goodspeed