(Taken from the archives at the Then & Now Historical Library in downtown Dorr)
25 Years Ago — Sept. 21, 1994
The $23.3 million bond proposal special election for a new middle school and to upgrade technology will be held Sept. 24. Cost for a new middle school has been estimated at $13.6 million, with $3 million pegged for technology.
The results of an investigation of an auto accident involving reserve police officer Beth Miklusicak on 12th Street in Leighton Township will not be revealed to the public, Chief Dan Miller announced. The incident was not reported to the sheriff’s department until two hours after it occurred and there were suspicions of drunk driving.
In the Soapbox section of the Globe, reporter Pat Staley opined that local authorities, “reneged on an earlier promise to release the findings of the investigation into wrongdoing by three police officers. In taking that stance, they have left those determinations open to speculation and have perpetrated a great injustice on the public’s right to know.”
There were more than a few letters to the editor supporting the Wayland schools’ bond request for a middle school and technology. The writers include Jose and Christine Blanco, Barb Haggerty and Doug Ballard. Editor Nila Aamoth added her support in the Soapbox.
The Yankee Springs Township Board has learned the iconic and historic “Joe’s Corner” site for Joe’s Grocery will be razed to make way for a new Amoco gas station and Subway sandwich shop by owners Bill and Joan Weick.
Alden (Monte) Burns has been appointed to a trustee’s seat on the Martin Board of Education, succeeding the resigned Don Knight.
Rosilynnne Nicholson has proposed to Hopkins Village officials that a teen center be established for ages 12 to 15 “to keep them off the streets.” Village President Rick Harmsen said Porter Hall is being considered as the site.
Sophomore guard-forward Angie Farmer has averaged 15.8 points per game to help the Lady Wildcats fashion a 5-1 record overall in girls’ hoops.
Martin’s football team is 0-3, Hopkins is 3-0 scoring 161 points and led by QB Tim Hibma, receiver Tim Kisner and end Scott Van Bonn, and Wayland is 3-0 after blanking Kenowa Hills 14-0 behind Ryan Nuville’s 110 yards rushing and numerous tackles by Nate James and Daryl Prins.
The Hopkins girls’ basketball team already has equaled the number of victories this season as last with three under new coach Tracey Iciek. Jessica Gilder and Karen Schwartz have been scoring leaders.
Joe Kuhtic twice fired a nine-hole round of 39, but Wayland’s golf team is in the middle of the pack for O-K Gold Conference jamborees.
The Martin girls’ basketball team is 6-0 and ranked No. 3 in the latest Detroit Free Press statewide Class D poll.
50 Years Ago — Sept. 17, 1969
Former Wayland State Police trooper Charles George was awarded a life-saving certificate for reviving 4-year-old Matthew Rybicki after he pulled him from the river. George now works for the State of Michigan traffic safety division out of Grand Rapids.
Joan Lautenschleger, a senior at Wayland High School, has been announced as a semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship competition.
Wayland Rotary Club President Emil Morlock has announced the lineup for the fourth annual travelogue series. First up will be “Pulse of Africa” at the Wayland High School girls’ gym Oct. 30.
An open house benefit grocery or miscellaneous shower will be held at the Church of Christ Sept. 24 for the family of Herman VanDenBerg, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Wayland High School graduate Barry Brower, communications specialist in Vietnam for the U.S. Army, has begun submitting a weekly column, “Vietnam Diary,” interviewing soldiers serving overseas.
The Wayland City Council has decided to extend its land options for sanitary sewer location on property owned by Victor Alflen.
The Allegan County Fair’s attendance this year was the second largest ever, eclipsed only by the 1967 fair.
Lois Sykes, valedictorian of the Wayland High School Class of 1969, has earned the Dr. Bert VanDeKolk Memorial nursing scholarship from the Allegan County District Nurses’ Association. Other award winners were Janice Brenner and Constance Myers, both of Martin.
Edmund Rieder, who worked for three months in Wayland under Dr. Dale W. Kuiper, has returned to Des Moines, Iowa, to resume his studies at the College of Osteopathic Medicine. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. A.H. Rieder of Wayland.
Barry Brower, in his first “Vietnam Diary” column, said, “After examining the situation here, I have concluded that our material assistance to the Vietnamese is doing them a world of good.”
Sgt. Eric Hooker, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Hooker of Wayland, is leaving Ft. Lewis in Washington begin a tour of duly in Vietnam.
Wayland lost its football season opener, 8-6 to Plainwell. The only score was an 85-yard TD pass from QB Jim Ritsema to receiver Tom Latondress. Mike Browand had a fumble recovery and the defensive unit turned in a creditable performance.
Now showing at the Wayland Theatre: Rex Harrison in “Do. Doolittle.”
75 Years Ago — Sept. 22, 1944
Editor-Publisher Rollo G. Mosher acknowledged the 60th anniversary of the Globe, which was started by his father, George. “If wartime conditions do not get us down, we hope to be able to record the events of the coming year and continue to give the home folks the best weekly paper we know how.”
William Graczyk has sold his mill and coal yard to Charles Andringa of Carlyle. Graczyk has been in the local business since 1927.
Nicodemus Iciek, 83, who lived on a farm for 73 years, 50 of them west of Hilliards, died at home four week after suffering a stoke four weeks prior.
Second Lt. Ellert Hendrixma is a platoon leader and is fighting along the Arno River in the Italian campaign. The 133rd Infantry Regiment is one of the decorated in the Mediterranean Theatre.
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Brooks have bought the Steeby Hardware & Implement business, which had been in operation for 23 years. Mr. and Mrs. John Steeby bought it from F.D. Travis in 1921.
Eddie Wobma’s “Barred Rocks” exhibit won first place at the FFA Fair in the chickens division. The Wayland FFA booth placed second.
The Wayland varsity football team lost 12-0 to Caledonia in the season opener and will play at Allegan next Friday.
The annual election for Student Council president will be between Walter Gurney and Dewey Moore.
A four-piece orchestra including Jozeph Jankovich, Mike Novosel, Stephan Kuhtic and Frank Arbanas will be the entertainment for the Oct. 1 Fall Festival at Sts. Cyril & Methodius Church, Gun Lake.
Sgt. Murlin Gurney is on furlough after serving two years in the Pacific with the Marine Corps as an electrician.
Wayland Rotary Club is sponsoring a series of weekly meetings on world affairs from Oct. 4 to 25 through the Institute of International Understanding.
Pvt. Robert TerAvest of Hopkins is home after serving in Italy and North Africa and Anzio. He has been reassigned to Miami, Fla.
Now showing at the Wayland Theatre:
- Bruce Kellogg and Jean Parker in James Fennimore Cooper’s “The Deerslayer.”
- Marjorie Reynolds, Dennis O’Keefe in “Up in Mabel’s Room.”
- Lucille Ball, Dick Powell, Bert Lahr and Spikes and His Orchestra in “Meet the People.”
- Michele Morgan, Jack Haley and Frank Sinatra in “Higher and Higher.”
100 Years Ago — Sept. 19, 1919
F.D. Cutler, living on the county line, is selling his herd of registered Holstein cattle in “The Mighty Rag Apple Sale” at the Village Park Sept. 30. Mr. Cutler also will sell some of his farms, of which he has seven.
The Martin Poultry Club is having a demonstration of canning chicken at the home of Mrs. F.L. Davis. “This is a splendid way of taking care of the hens who refuse to pay for their keep.”
Present enrollment at Wayland High School includes 52 non-resident students.
Harold Neal, Beatrice Watts and Alto Dell represented the senior, junior and sophomore classes as presidents for the first assembly of the academic year.
Chapel will be held every two weeks on Tuesday mornings.
Courses in manual arts for the seventh- and eighth-graders will be taught by Miss Kingsley (sewing) and Miss Haines (manual training).
An “auto cop” has been placed on a stretch of road north of Moline at the request of citizens who live in the area. Some speeders arrested were caught going between 40 and 60 miles per hour. The culprits came from Kalamazoo, White Pigeon, Grand Rapids, Cincinnati, Battle Creek, Illinois, Chicago, Martin (that being Earl Curie, $1 fine and $4.20 in costs)
Miss Flossie Welch is the teacher at Leighton School, which began its academic year earlier this month.
The next in a series of dancing parties at the Birney House in Dorr will feature the music of the Clements’ three-piece orchestra from Grand Rapids.
The local chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union will have a “mush and milk” supper at Yeakey Hall. WCTU officials are reporting some sheriff’s deputies are asking for higher salaries because the number of arrests is declining after the passage of Prohibition.
Allegan County schools have been promised a teacher’s institute Oct. 9 and 10. The event had to be called off last year because of the influenza epidemic.
Ladies of the Wayland Congregational Church have announced the church organ now has been paid for.