25 years Ago — July 11, 1990
Howard DeYoung, 38, of D
orr, has been charged with secretly videotaping employees having sex in the back room of DeYoung’s Krazy Acres Radio Shack in Hillcrest Mall. Allegan County Sheriff’s Detective Lt. Rick Cain said the employees were teen-agers between the ages of 16 and 18.
The Carriage Stop Restaurant finally was moved from downtown Martin to Watson Township after lengthy legal wrangling.
Dorr Township Board Trustee Ron Paul Burmania charged that Dorr Township now is down to “Band-Aid people” with the termination of Gene VanPutten from Wayland Area Emergency Services. This leaves Dorr with only Linda Stoepker, a semi-retired paramedic close by for responding to medical emergencies.
Karen Fifelski and Margaret Brenner added their voices against use of the Michigan Model for sex education in Hopkins Public Schools. They said in a letter to the editor they preferred the subject be handled locally rather than by a state program.
Jason Morgan, 17, a former Wayland High School student, was injured critically when he was struck by a car on 142nd Avenue in Dorr Township on the Fourth of July. Authorities reported Morgan had been drinking heavily before the incident.
Wayland High School varsity girls’ basketball coach Zack Moushegian served as ringmaster when the Kelly-Miller Circus came to town.
Watson Township has voted to join the Wayland Area Emergency Services Board. Remaining members include the City of Wayland and the townships of Salem, Leighton, Yankee Springs, Hopkins, Monterey and Dorr.
Thompson McCully has asked the Yankee Springs Township Board for an extension of a special use permit to mine another 30,000 cubic yards of gravel from a pit near Payne Lake.
Corey Francis and “Big Sam” were the winners of the frog jumping contest at the Hopkins Fourth of July celebration.
Mandy Buskirk was selected Miss Hopkins at the pageant on the Fourth of July and Nikki Bowman was first runner-up.
50 Years Ago — July 7, 1965
Wayland Charter Commission Chairman J. R. Rugaber penned a front-page column explaining what the nine-member panel has done thus far, almost two months after voters approved Wayland changing from a village to a home-rule city. He said the group already has put in 175 man-hours.
Martin Jenny Wren 4-H Club members earned a blue ribbon at the regional folk music choral festival and has won the right to compete in the state competition in Lansing.
The Globe reported it had received two more unsigned letters, one from “An Interested Onlooker” and another from “A Reader.” Editor Irvin P. Helmey said, “We are holding the two letters and if the writers will come in to sign them, we’d be happy to print them.”
James Kaczanowski was named chairman of the annual Knight of Columbus, Shower of Roses Council, festival and barbecue in Hillards.
The Globe published an account of the now-defunct Page School District by the late Willis Parmalee. The district’s first meeting was in 1864 at the home of L.P. Baldwin, now Bigelow Farms, and it had its first annual meeting Sept. 5 of that year. The schools voted a year later to offer teachers $1 per scholar per month for pay, plus $5 for incidentals. The schools also voted to spend $75 on building a school. Page finally was absorbed by the Hopkins district in 1943.
A front page feature story announced that Leighton Township Clark Lydia Frey now was the longest serving in Allegan County, at 43 years. Miss Frey was appointed to the post when her brother, William, married and moved out of the area. She was first elected in 1922, only two years after women received the right to vote in the United States. She had served with three supervisors, Samual J. Hanna, Jacob Havemen and now Wayne Steeby.
Northern Michigan University dedicated the new wing of its industrial arts complex in honor of Wayne B. McClintock, a Bradley native and graduate of Wayland High School. McClintock had been on the faculty for 31 years at NMU.
Elvis Presley was starring in “Tickle Me” at the Wayland Theatre.
Renee Niemchick took second place in the Bonnie Blue Belles’ baton twirling competition at Rogers High School. Her instructor is Karen Takus of Moline.
“Mr. Tambourine Man,” the Byrds’ adaptation of Bob Dylan’s folk ballad, took over as the No. 1 song in the land.
75 Years Ago — July 5, 1940
The gravel road from Indian Hill to the Robbins schoolhouse on the county line has been given an oil bath. This keeps down the dust, but makes a mess of the cars for the time being.
One never misses the water until the well runs dry and we do not appreciate just how dependent we are upon electrical current until the juice is shut off.
Last Saturday forenoon the high wind blew a large tree across the high tension lines between Plainwell and Wayland and it was more than two hours before the repair crew could remedy the damage and service once more could be resumed. Here at the Globe office, we heat the metal in our typesetting machine by electricity and use the juice to drive our presses and machinery,
BecauseI could not do much in the office, I decided to drive over to the lake and do some painting at the cottage, but the tank was just about dry in the flivver and I had to keep a weather eye out for the needle on the gas gauge because all of the gasoline pumps in town are also driven by electricity. If the wind had not been blowing a near gale, I would have gone fishing because I know that lack of electricity has nothing to do with the fish biting.
About 400 voters of the newly consolidated township school district went to the polls last Saturday and in no uncertain terms voiced their approval of the bond issue which will finance the local part of the erection of the new school building. The bond issue itself went over by a three- to-one vote, it being 254 to 83.
Now that the bond issue has been passed without much ado, the work of completing the plans and letting the contract will be pushed rapidly ahead and the real construction work should be under way within a few weeks.
In spite of the appalling shortage of vital arms, the Michigan National Guard is “five thousand times” better equipped and better trained than it was in 1917.
The statement comes from Col. John S. Bersey, the adjutant general of Michigan, whose full-time business is national defense.
There’s one article of wear that a woman can help purchase for a man and that’s a shirt.
To buy or to sell — that’s the question. The Wayland Globe — that’s the answer.
100 Years Ago — July 9, 1915
The Moline Congregational Church had a Sunday School picnic at Green Lake, with the Rev. Fulkerson of Grand Rapids providing a speech.
About 40 friends showed up at the home of Miss Clara Nevins to wish her well in going to summer school later this month at Normal College in Kalamazoo.
Blanche Merrifield, a very popular young lady from Bloomingdale, was married to Verne C. Congdon, son of Allegan County Treasurer and Mrs. A.B. Congdon at the Allegan Congregational Church. They enjoyed their honeymoon at Gun Lake.
R. W. Fox of Bradley, “one of the oldest and most respected citizens” died at his home after an illness of three months. Fox, who came from Ohio in 1870, was a member of the Grange, a school board member for 21 years and a deacon and trustee of the Congregational Church.
The annual school meetings will take place next week at Dorr and Wayland Village.
“Are your hens laying thin-shelled eggs? If so, feed them crushed oyster shells lime rock, bone and old plaster… Then the eggs will reach the market in better condition” and fetch a better price.
After the Fourth of July celebration, the next big attraction at Streeter’s Resort, Gun Lake, will be the Farmers Picnic Aug. 19-20.
John Franks, 86, of Dorr, died. He had lived here for 55 years and he and his wife had 12 children, of whom six still survive.
During the first month of local interurban service, 3,100 tickets had been sold to all points.
Work has begun on construction of a new post office. Postmaster J.C. Yeakey has hired A.W. Gustafson as construction project manager.
Lloyd H. Smith. cashier at Exchange Bank of Bloomville, Ohio, was in town visiting old friends and fellow Wayland High School graduates.
William Hill, son of Solomon Hill of Hill’s Corners east of the village, was visiting Wayland to go on a fishing trip to Hog Lake with his old pal Charles T. Haywood. Hill’s father at first was credited with inventing a governor of a steam engine, but another person claimed the honor and won after extensive litigation. Mr. Hill lost virtually everything and died in poverty.
M.H. Tollemar and Clare Williamson have launched a new roofing and eaves-troughing business.