Basura: Hollibaughs history— Old barns, gravestones, baseball

“I never let my schooling interfere with my education.” —  Mark Twain

The barn was built by Andrew Jackson Hollibaugh in the 1800s. AJ was a great grandfather to my wife, Mary Ellen. He was a barn builder who came to Michigan from Pennsylvania to practice his trade.

Two of his forebears, the Coyles, had been captured in the Civil War, and imprisoned at the notorious Confederate Andersonville POW camp. Most of the Yankee prisoners did not survive. One of the Coyle cousins escaped, and the other perished as a Union soldier in a Confederate POW camp. There is a grave marker at the site of the old camp.

Andrew Jackson Hollibaugh brought a distinctive barn building style with him. The barns he constructed in the area near Cadillac are easily identified by the curved roof lines. Some still stand, with one especially fine example viewable from southbound US-131, near Reed City and Big Rapids. Another surviving barn is on the north side of 20 Mile, east of Tustin.

The family homestead was in the Dighton area, between Tustin and Marion, 15 miles south of the big city of Cadillac, coincidently where some of my family — Eldon Brisbois and Roy Garvin — lived. Andrew J. Hollibaugh built a barn on the homestead, which stood, neglected and in disrepair, until somewhat recently. The barn had finally tumbled down, but the new owners of the property were nice enough to tolerate us acquiring a stone from the foundation. In the family archives, we found some old photos of the barn when it was strong and functional.

I’m guessing that the foundation stone weighs 30 pounds. I took it to Black Monument Company in Grand Rapids and had them letter it. It turned out beautifully, and Mary Ellen likes it very much. Other family members will see photos of it, and, perhaps see it on the front porch of our home. The Black Monument people tell me that the stone was unusually hard. It’s flat on top and bottom, and has one side that is very straight, as if having been worked. It’s variegated gray, with some orangish red flecks. My best guess is that it’s granite.

Beards have seen an uptick in fashionability recently, and Andrew Jackson Hollibaugh would have certainly had some bragging rights. He achieved a big beard. Andrew was known to part his beard at the chin, and tie the two sections behind his back, when working on ladders.

Alfred Letson Hollibaugh, son of the barn builder, played baseball for the Dighton team. Every small town had their own team then, and Dighton played against teams from other communities for local pride. We have a photo from the game that was played July 4, 1904. A.L. Hollibaugh in the photo is posed with a ball in his hand. He became the grandfather of my wife. I take him to be a pitcher, the only player shown holding a ball. Like our very own David Young, in his youth he hurled.

The photo of which I speak was taken in a stand of white pine. The men wore uniforms, baggy flannels with DIGHTON emblazoned on the chest. Half the men wore neckties. The mitts of the day were looked flat and cushiony, and they lacked webbing. The fingers of the gloves do not appear laced together. There is a bat in the photo, and it looks hand carved. Seeing that bat makes me think of Wonderboy, the bats used by Roy Hobbs in Bernard Malamud’s novel are part of the story line in “The Natural.” The 1984 movie version, by the same title, received four academy awards. Yes, Walter, as you well know, there were two handmade bats.

In the Sherman Township Cemetery there is a special grave marker, a large edifice constructed to show the distinctive roof line of a Hollibaugh barn.