THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association (Sebewa Township, Ionia County, Michigan);
FEBRUARY 2003, Volume 38, Number 4. Submitted with written permission of Editor, Grayden D. SLOWINS:


SURNAMES: DUNSMORE, MORRIS, VANDECAR, SLOWINSKI, ARNOLD, COVERDALE, PIERCE, SNOBBLE, GIERMAN

Front page photo of ARIEL MORRIS 1911-2002, LAST TEACHER SEBEWA CENTER SCHOOL

EARLY MOTOR HOME: This photo was the property of Mrs. George VANDECAR, of Saranac, MI, grandmother of Ariel MORRIS. It had typewritten on the back: Mrs. VANDECAR. Cleveland, Tenn. Nov. 4th 1920. Taken by J. B. HARGIS.

We believe the Motor Home was constructed in Ionia, MI, at ARNOLD Machine Shop, by Richard SLOWINSKI. He is standing in the doorway of the Motor Home. Mrs. VANDECAR may be standing in the center rear of the photo. ARNOLD Machine Shop also made one prototype of their own automobile in the earl 1900s, then became dealers for MAXWELL Automobiles and had as many as 33 employees on their payroll.

PHOTO OF CATHERINE C. COVERDALE ARNOLD SNOBBLE & LOUIS HORACE & NELLIE PIERCE SNOBBLE.

CATHERINE C. COVERDALE ARNOLD SNOBBLE:
For those fellow historians who may follow us, we have put together in one package the last written and photographic records of one Catherine C. COVERDALE ARNOLD SNOBBLE.Catherine C. COVERDALE was born in 1888, probably around Noblesville, Indiana, north of Indianapolis, and died in 1983 at the age of 95, in Eustis, Florida. A family portrait from her childhood shows her parents and four girls, of whom she appears to be the youngest, about age 10. There is also a portrait of her in her finest garb as a strikingly attractive grown woman. There is also a collection of snapshots of her brother Edward of Indianapolis and his wife Minnie, and their daughters from infancy thru dating-age teenagers. The older girl, Margaret Ann COVERDALE SMITH, was born March 31, 1914, and Kathleen (Kathlene) COVERDALE has no birthdate listed. There are no identified snapshots of Catherin herself.

There is a marriage license & certificate issued to Catherine C. COVERDALE and Edson Boyd ARNOLD on May 4, 1911. Her home at that time is listed as Putnam County, FL, and his as Malabar, Brevard County, FL. He was a Dentist, a County Commissioner in Brevard County with county seat at Titusville, and was a grandson of Dexter ARNOLD, Easton Township, Ionia County, MI. Dexter was a brother to Oliver ARNOLD of South Ionia, sons of Job ARNOLD and & Hannah DEXTER ARNOLD.

There is a marriage license & certificate issued to Catherine C. ARNOLD and Lewis Harry SNOBBLE (born Louis Horace SCHNABEL) on August 4, 1936. Her address is Malabar, FL, and his is Ionia, MI. Louis Horace and his first wife, Nellie PIERCE, purchased a farm on Belleview Drive January 26, 1909, and sold it to grand-niece Ariel MORRIS on September 4, 1945. Louis Horace was born in Berlin Township, Ionia County, in 1858, and died in 1962, in his 104th year.

Louis Horace SNOBBLE and first wife Nellie purchased a second home at 1901 Orange Avenue, Eustis, FL, December 2, 1922, when he was age 64, and he lived there for 40 years. They are buried in BALCOM Cemetery, Ionia, MI. His second wife Catherine died in Eustis in 1983 at age 95. She and her first husband, Edson Boyd (E.B.) ARNOLD, are buried in Westview Cemetery, Lot 417, 1680 Gordon Street, NW, Atlanta, Georgia.

Compiled from the estate of Ariel DENTON DUNSMORE MORRIS by Alaina MORRIS TROUT and Grayden SLOWINS, another SNOBBLE descendant.

Photos of the Louis Horace SNOBBLE home, Belleview Drive, Ionia, Michigan. The top one was taken in 1992, and the bottom photo in 1910s.

LOUIS HORACE & NELLIE PIERCE SNOBBLE:
For those fellow historians who may follow us, we have put together in one shoe-box the collection of photographic records from the estate of Louis H. & Nellie PIERCE SNOBBLE, including some apparently removed from the blank frames in their photo album.

There are also a few photos of the ARNOLD family and their home, which either came from them directly or thru Catherine ARNOLD SNOBBLE.

Louis Horace (aka Lewis Harry) SNOBBLE was born in Berlin Township, Ionia County, MI, in 1858, and died in 1962, in his 104th year. He worked in his brother-in-law Fred ARNOLD’S blacksmith, foundry & machine shop. He was married to Nellie PIERCE of Ionia, born 1872, died 1933, and they purchased a farm below the curve going up Belleview Drive on January 26, 1909. He also did some carpenter work and livestock buying. They created a beautiful farm house, barn and other buildings, as well as a yard with a wooded background. The rolling cropland/pasture was mostly across the road, and they sold that to grand-niece Ariel DENTON DUNSMORE MORRIS on September 4, 1945, to create her sub-division with husband Lynn.

On December 2, 1922, Louis H. & Nellie had purchased a second home at 1901 Orange Avenue, Eustis, FL. After Nellie’s death in 1933, L. H. married Catherine C. COVERDALE ARNOLD of Malabar, FL, on August 4, 1936. She was the widow of Edson Boyd ARNOLD, a dentist, Brevard County Commissioner, and grandson of Dexter ARNOLD of Easton Township, brother of Oliver ARNOLD, founder of South Ionia. These brothers were sons of Job ARNOLD and Hannah DEXTER ARNOLD.

Louis H. SNOBBLE was 64 years old when they bought the Eustis home and he lived there 40 years, dying in 1962. His second wife Catherine died in Eustis in 1983 at age 95. She is buried with her first husband in Westview Cemetery, Lot 417, 1680 Gordon Street, NW, Atlanta, Georgia. Louis & Nellie are buried in Balcom Cemetery, Ionia, MI. Ariel MORRIS inherited the Florida property, including furnishings and keepsakes, as heir to both the ARNOLD and the SNOBBLES.

This information and these photos are compiled from the estate of Ariel DENTON DUNSMORE MORRIS by Alaina MORRIS TROUT and Grayden SLOWINS, another SNOBBLE (Schnabel) descendant.

LETTERS FROM ARIEL:

Ionia, MI, August 31, 1971. Dear Friends, I was surprised and thrilled to receive your card and happy that you were having such a grand trip. A wonderful experience for those smart kids! They’re the type who will really be able to use, in their school work, reading, and painting, the knowledge gained from seeing those super sights.

Lynn, Alaina, and I had a delightful time aboard the Queen Mary at Nassau Harbour at Thanksgiving time in 1965. There was no guide and we were allowed to wander all over the ship – I have a number of slides. We were awed by the Queen! I haven’t seen the other places you listed, but am surely hoping to visit them someday.

Congratulations on the many prizes you won at the fair with your paintings and sheep – I enjoyed them all. That commemorative stamp “America’s Wool” is perfect for your use. Hope to see you soon and hear all about your tour. Love to all, Ariel.

Eustis, FL, December 19, 1981. Dear Cousins, You will know from the statistics – 29 @ 8:30AM – 45 @ 3:00PM that the Midwest cold has come down here………I left Ionia on Tues. Nov. 10 and arrived here on Thurs the 12th. I drive the camper and we keep my parents nice ’66 Buick here all year. It has 50,000 miles on it. (Editor’s Note: Her father & mother had passed away in 1972 & 1976 respectively and we realized then that we were cousins thru her mother.)………I thought Ann might like to know of another artist who paints sheep. I know Ann was ill some of this past year….It may have been Robert GIERMAN who told me that you really covered a lot of territory………I plan, and Lynn concurs, that we will go to visit Sharron in Phoenix, OR, in March from here on the southernmost route. We were married at Bastrop, TX, nearly 40 years ago. I would like to drive my camper, but he has always been stubborn – saying it is too crowded. I looked at a used Motor Home yesterday, but presume that wouldn’t be the way he’d want to travel either, so I expect we will drive a car. Love, Ariel.

Eustis, FL, December 12, 1996. Dear Ann, Grayden and children, Your interesting RECOLLECTOR found its way down here. I will read about the PEACOCK family, which I remember was a family name out here in Sebewa, but I don’t think I every met any. I think the Michael SNOBBLE family must have had some peacocks at one time, as I remember a fan-shaped decoration of their feathers on the living-room wall where Great-grandma Mary and Great-aunt Emma lived on Uncle Lewis Horace SNOBBLE’S place on Belleview Drive. I was 7 years old when Mary died, but I have quite vivid memories of the two houses………I can see from here a picture on my living-room wall of a snow scene with deer on the edge of the woods. It hung in Horace and Nellie’s big house. They had me for about two weeks vacation for several summers and I loved it there. I was there when the first announcement came that World War I had ended.

Robert GIERMAN always used to stop at my house on Horizon Drive several times a year. I certainly enjoyed his visits and miss him very much. When it was dues time, he would tell me and I would get the money out gladly. I am sorry I neglected to send you any money, but it kept coming and finally I noticed the label said FREE. That was so thoughtful and kind of you. I am sending some money to at least help with the stamps.

I enjoyed the picture of your camper on the cover of one of your issues. I never owned anything with which I had more fun than my camper. Mine looks like yours, its 11 ½ feet long, and it’s a Coachmen too. It’s on a Dodge-8 (3/4 ton) which I drove home from the Detroit factory in 1968 and bought the camper new that same year. It’s in the barn at the Peck Lake Road farm and hasn’t been driven in several years………It has 67,000 miles on it and I drove most of those miles alone. After a few trials with a woman friend along, I decided I preferred the solitary traveling life – go where you please and stay as long as it suits you.

Last summer at the farm I picked a leaf from the gingko tree which Robert gave me. It was a small sprout back then and never has yet grown very tall. He was quite upset with the lawyers next to the BLANCHARD house who wanted the mother tree, from which he got the shoots, cut down, they said it stunk. I thought Tom Ferguson’s story in the Sentinel about you (A Shepherd tends to the grassroots on Election Day 1996 as Sebewa Township Clerk) was very interesting and I am keeping it with your SCHNABEL Family History Book. Sincerely, Cousin Ariel.

ARIEL AGNES DENTON DUNSMORE MORRIS, 90, widow of Richard George DUNSMORE & Lynn E. MORRIS, mother of Sharron DUNSMORE VanVLECK KIRCHER McCARGAR, Ardelis DUNSMORE ENDREI & DeAlina MORRIS TROUT, daughter of Arthur Elliot DENTON & Cora DeAlice VANDECAR, daughter of George A. VANDECAR & Agnes A. SCHNABEL, daughter of Mary CANANT & Michael SCHNABEL, son of Regina & Anton SCHNABEL, Sr. Born October 12, 1911, on a Saranac farm, she died June 22, 2002, in her “grossmuter wing” of Alaina’s home in Onekama, MI. Ariel was energetic, resourceful and multi-talented, with a zest for life. She graduated from Ionia County Normal in 1930 and practice-taught under Crystal BRAKE SLOWINS, then on her own. Upon the untimely auto death of her young husband in 1939, she ran the DUNSMORE Dairy for a year, then studied photography and operated her own portrait studio in Ionia.

After marrying Lynn, she developed Horizon Drive subdivision on ARNOLD’S Hill in South Ionia. In the 1960s she attended Western Michigan University and was the last teacher at Sebewa Center School 1963-1965. She always found humor, and when she came to interview for the job, she told the other School Board members “I used to hold Grayden on my lap”. All her long life she was an extensive traveler, reader, teacher, painter, photographer, historic preservationist – including the BLANCHARD House – and farmer on her family’s farm. Her winter home was in Eustis, Florida. She is buried in Saranac Cemetery.