25 Years Ago — May 15, 1991
Wayland Township residents soon may be required to display house numbers that can be seen easily from the street. The impetus for the regulations is in the interest of public safety, according to the Wayland Area Emergency Services (WAEMS).
Wayland Junior High School staff and students earned a Michigan Department of Education Human Relations Award for their exchange program with Burton Junior High School to promote understanding.
Leighton Township apparently will have to hold a special election on the issue of rezoning approval, from agricultural to industrial, of a 160-acre parcel between 144th Avenue and 100th Street with the intention of accommodating an industrial park.
The Wayland Board of Education adopted a policy to establish a smoke-free campus that will apply to students, teachers and adults, even applying to outdoor sporting events.
Hopkins High School junior Megan Pavlak has been selected Allegan County Vocational Technical Student of the Year.
Four women, Karla Christensen, Reggie Gorr, Dana Dailey and Kellie Garrard, now are serving as troopers at the Wayland post of the Michigan State Police.
Cazzie Russell, who won plenty of acclaim in the mid-1960s as an All-American basketball player at the University of Michigan, will be guest speaker at the Martin Athletic Banquet.
The Hopkins softball team captured the last championship for the River Valley Conference with a perfect 10-0 record after an 18-7 triumph over Saugatuck. Julie Hall clubbed a homer and had four hits. Mandy Buskard picked up the win on the mound and she was winning pitcher in a non-league neighborhood rivalry 7-4 win over Martin.
The Wayland softball team’s bid for an O-K Gold Conference championship was foiled. The Lady Wildcats, now 6-4 in the league and 14-10 overall, are coached by Andrea VandenBerg.
50 Years Ago — May 11, 1966
Wayland Village President Phillip Reno heard Vice President Hubert Humphrey speak in Cleveland at a conference in Cleveland designed particularly for mayors and village presidents.
Ed Zalis, a reserve officer with the Kent County Sheriff’s Department, has been appointed auxiliary officer for the village succeeding the resigned Earl Miller.
Thomas R. Lutostanski, owner and operator of Lutostanski’s Meat Market, famouse for its Polish sausage, died at his home. Born in Poland in 1887, he was 78.
The proposed Allegan County school reorganization plan was defeated by about a 2-to-1 margin. The proposal was the result of a state law that mandates all public schools to offer education in grades K through 12.
Editor and Publisher Irvin P. Helmey ran an editorial on the front page warning the more than 300 employees of the Kessler’s Undies and Woolies plant about voting to join the Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ union. He said he checked with the owner of three plant in Kewanee, Ill., who said two of the plants had been closed after prolonged strikes.
Gordon Andringa, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Andringa of Wayland, is one of only two people to receive an architectural scholarship from the University of Michigan.
Michael Higgs, 13, son of Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Higgs, won the silver prize in a science competition in Kalamazoo for his exhibit, “The Unseen Side of the Moon.”
Stankey Armstrong, formerly of Allegan and currently a band instructor at Whitehall, has been selected as the next principal at Hopkins High School.
Wayland High School graduate Jack Arbuthnot earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Michigan and was awarded a graduate assistantship at Cornell College in Ithaca, N.Y.
James Hackett had both of his legs broken in a traffic accident a mile west of Wayland. The car he was driving left the road and crashed into a tree.
Debbie Reynolds and Greer Garson were starring in “The Singing Nun” at the Wayland Theatre.
Senior Tanya Bennett, junior Russell Hansen and eighth-graders Bette Krum and Daniel Wamhoff earned all-As for the fifth marking period at Hopkins Junior and Senior High.
The Mamas and the Papas remained atop the music charts in the land with “Monday, Monday.”
75 Years Ago — May 16, 1941
The Rev. Thomas Martin, formerly of Wayland and now head of a large parish in Muskegon, was scheduled to be the main speaker for the Memorial Day ceremony at Elmwood Cemetery in Wayland Township.
A breakfast at the Doll House Restaurant was to include about 25 volunteers in a kickoff for a fund-raising drive on behalf of local Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts.
The Cities Service Oil Co. has appointed Harold Steeby as authorized agent for Wayland.
Miss Alice Pettit, who will be leaving for a medical missionary trip to the Holy Land as soon as war conditions permit, was to be guest speaker at the Bradley Free Methodist Church.
The Village of Wayland is planning to blacktop about a mile’s worth of streets this summer.
A box social will be held May 16 to benefit the Wayland Bugle and Drum Corps.
Allegan County Normal girls will present two one-act plays May 22 at the Leighton Community Grange.
Mrs. Marion Deweerd, Howard Clark and Harry Ellenbaas are taking a group of Wayland student members of the safety patrol for an excursion to Detroit.
Edwain A. Brewer of Hopkins at died at his home. A member of the Hopkins Grange for 50 years, he was 80.
At the movies this week at the Wayland Theatre: Frederich March, Margaret Sullivan, Frances Dee and Glenn Ford in “So Ends Our Night,” Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day and Ronald Reagan in “The Bad Man,” Roy Rogers in “In Old Cheyenne” and John Wayne and Frances Dee in “A Man Betrayed.”
100 Years Ago — May 12, 1916
“Of the early life of the deceased (Sister Conklin), the writer knows nothing.” She married Erastus Conklin in Plainwell in 1885 and moved to Wayland in 1898. She had been superintendent of the Junior League of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The Wayland High School Alumni Association scheduled its annual meeting for immediately after Friday evening’s commencement.
Howard Douglass, 18, formerly of Wayland, died while a student at Ferris Institute in Big Rapids.
The new “Business Car” No. 1,000 came to town over the interurban bearing officials from the Michigan Railway Co.
The Clark Medicine Co. has been selling medicines and presenting shows each evening during the week at the Grange Hall in Hopkins.
M.F. Bray is preparing to erect a building to house a post office, bank and garage in Moline.
“Mrs. Mary Mithofer is not expected to live from one day to another.”
“Farmers are late with their work, owing to heavy rains, but the same accounts come from other neighboring states, so let us take courage, as we are no more unfortunate than others.”
A much-needed coat of gravel is being applied on Sycamore Street east of Main Street in the village.
Eighth-grade examinations are being administered in this region, with an estimated 700 students taking the test.
Wayland has yet to be defeated this year in basketball and baseball and will play Otsego next weekend. The Allegan County Field Days will be in Allegan May 26.
Quite a number of Wayland residents who own cottages on Gun Lake are preparing their summer homes for the warmer season.
PHOTO: The Wayland railroad depot, which still partially stands today on Clark Street.