THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR, Bulletin of the The Sebewa Center Association, Bulletin of The Sebewa Center Association, April 1973, Volume 8, Number 5    
 

 A JOINT MEETING FOR PERSONS OF A COMMON HISTORICAL INTEREST

     On April 12, 1973 at 8 P.M. at the Congregational Church on Bridge Street in Portland will be held a joint meeting of the members of the following groups:

Vermontville Historical Society, The Sebewa Center Association, Sunfield Historical Society, Portland Historical Society, Lake Odessa Area Historical Society, Ionia Historical Society.

     This is an opportunity to meet the people of neighboring localities who are in their respective ways trying to preserve an image of the foundations of their communities for the present and future generations.  Let’s “go to meeting” and get acquainted.  Your friends are welcome.

     The feature of the evening will be a program on the subject of “Architectural Preservation—Ionia County” given by Michael Washo, Michigan History Division of the Michigan Department of State.  Mr. Washo is the Assistant Director of the Division.

     Mr. Frank C. Wilhelme, Director of the Historical Society of Michigan will also be there to explain the functions and the services available from the Society.

     Mr. Washo has spoken to many historical societies around the state.  One part of the work of the Division of History is to see that historic sites and buildings in Michigan are not unnecessarily razed.  The Division recently completed a study of historic and architecturally worthy sites in Ionia County.  Mr. Washo will give a report on this study.

     Michigan History Division has charge of the State Archives on North Logan Street in Lansing.  Here is our opportunity to learn something of the content and availability of the mass of information in the Archives.

     Light refreshments will be served for a social time after the program.  If you wish to help the Portland Historical Society with the refreshments, a plate of cookies or the like will complement the variety.

     We are urging a good representation from The Sebewa Center Association though we do not expect all our 350 plus members to attend.  If this meeting proves out well in attendance and interest it could be made an annual affair.  A meeting of Portland, Lake Odessa and Sunfield Societies was held at the old G.A.R. Hall in Sunfield last year in a spirit of good feeling and fellowship. 

FORDSON TRACTOR SALES OF THE J. A. CAMPBELL & SON FORD AGENCY:

     Nathan H. Kenyon, Portland 6-24-22; C. H. Sayer, Lake Odessa 10-4-22; Chas. Barber, Cressy 10-24-22; Ross Tran, Portland 4-2-23; Warren Stiffler, Portland 4-24-23; Oscar S. Gray, Lake Odessa 5-1-23; Chas. M. Jackson, Sunfield 5-8-23; Hiram J. Cure, Sunfield 6-12-23; Harry York, Portland 7-18-23; Alkin Motor Co., Sunfield 9-24-23; Howard Knapp, Sunfield 9-28-23; John Hubbard, Mulliken 9-25-23; Universal Garage, Hastings 9-20-23; Universal Garage, Hastings 9-21-23; Universal Garage, Hastings 9-22-23; Theron McNeil, Portland 4-18-24; Glenn Olry, Lake Odessa 4-8-24; Ora V. David, Sunfield, 4-21-24; Jerry Capen, Nashville 5-27-24; Joe Schnobel, Portland 10-29-24; Ben Probasco, Portland 7-28-24; Lee Peabody, Sunfield 7-29-24; Arthur Prescott, Sunfield 4-6-25; Roland Dodge, Vermontville 9-28-25; Carl R. Cook, Lake Odessa 4-3-25; Thomas Gibbs, Portland 5-2-25; Howard Cross, Portland 9-9-25; Bert Thorp, Lake Odessa 4-12-26; Vern Snyder, Sunfield 4-21-26; George Gierman, Portland 4-21-26; Bert Evans, Sunfield 5-7-26; R. H. Scheel, Lake Odessa 5-10-26; John Alleman, Sunfield 3-25-27; Clarence Leigh, Lake Odessa 3-31-27; Arthur Creighton, Portland 3-21-27; Willard Motor Co., Portland; Willard Motor Co., Portland; Frank Cassel, Portland 4-13-27; Garrett Smith, Sunfield 4-12-27; V. Wilson, Portland 4-13-27; Bert Fast, Charlotte 5-3-28; Chas. Courtney, Portland 5-23-27; Barber Bro. Ford, Vermontville 4-19-29;William Ford & Co., Detroit  8-21-28; John M. Bradley, Sunfield 10-18-28. 

DISPOSAL OF USED FORDSONS: 

     Warrem Stifler to Chas. Brace; Ben Probasco to Earl Neff; Lee Peabody,  Junk; Roland Dodge to Will Haas, Bert Evans to Junk; Arthur Creighton to Ed Spencer; Frank Cassel to Junk; V. Wilson to Wm. Fleetham; Charles Courtney to John H. Sayer. 

HOW SOME OF THE USED CARS WENT:

     W. Miller to Mrs. Grant Carbaugh, Edd Demary to Wayne Hoke, Orlo A. Tickner to Charlaes B. Wise, Fay M. Gragg to P.J. Welch, Charles B. Wise to Earl VanBuren, P.J. Welch to Frank Brandt, Herbert Demary (truck) to Wm. Patterson, Martin Styger to Andrew Davidson, Thomas Downing to Roland Downs, Lucille Hunter to Stanley Green,  Warren Luscher to Jay H. Lumbert, Orrin Franks to James Wright,  Asa Cassel to H. W. Anderson; Wm. DeVries to Max Storey, Clarence Sayer (truck) to Arthur Creighton, Mrs. J. E. Derby to Carl C. Thrams; Ray Welch (truck) to Jerry Hummel; Glenn Olry to Van Fender; E. O. Showerman to Dan Aungst, Fred Wheeler to William D. Hill; John Jackson to Junk; William D. Hill to W. J. Gerlinger, Ross Tran to Glenn Shipman; Warren Luscher to Elmer H. Creighton. 

LUCIUS LYON—AN EARLY MR. MICHIGAN

     The early impression I had of Lucius Lyon could be summed up as “Old Lucius Lyon did so and so way back when in Michigan”.  With my discovery of 200 pages of the letters of Lucius Lyon in volume 27 of the Pioneer and Historical Collection, I find how much uninformed I could be.  Here is a personality worth knowing.  Here is history in the time of the settlement of Michigan that has been neglected in most of the accounts of early Michigan.

     Lucius Lyon was born on a farm near Burlington, Vermont in 1800 where he attended district school and lived until the age of 18.  At Burlington he worked for two years with a civil engineer learning the profession of surveying.  The demand for surveyors in the newly opened Northwest Territory brought him to Ohio and Michigan in 1821.  Later he estimated he had walked 50,000 miles in the woods of Ohio and Michigan making surveys.  The area then was not without its swamps and mosquitoes.

     In 1833 he was elected a delegate from the Michigan Territory to Congress.  He was a member of the first Michigan Constitutional Convention in 1835.  In the same year he was chosen by the new Michigan Legislature as United States Senator.  Senator John Norvell was the other of the first two senators from Michigan.

     When he found it was politically impossible for Michigan to retain the disputed Toledo Strip, Senator Lyon was instrumental in gaining for Michigan the mineral-rich western part of the Upper Peninsula as a tradeoff for the loss to Ohio.  By 1839 the Whigs had bested the Democrats and Lyon was no longer senator.  Again in 1843 he was elected to Congress as representative from the district that included Kent county.  Lucius Lyon died in Detroit in 1851 at only 51 years of age.

     This summary cannot begin to cover the interesting life of Lucius Lyon.  Early in life he decided it was advisable to keep a copy of his correspondence.  He copied many of his early letters for the record.  Soon he found a remarkable gadget for making copies with little effort.  By adding sugar to his ink and then placing the completed letter in a press with some dampened tissue paper next to the inked side of his letter, he secured a copy of his letter that could be easily read when held to the light and read through the paper.  Thus much of his correspondence was kept and 50 years later published in the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collection of 1896.

     Because we know that most of our readers would not get to see any of these letters in the ordinary course of events, selected letters, particularly those of interest somewhat concerning our area, are chosen for reprint here.

     Recently an item in the news reported the partial burning by vandals the old Edward Lyon house in Lyons.  From Schenck’s History of Ionia County, 1881 we are informed that this house later belonged to Henry Hitchcock.  The first recorded plat of the Village of Lyons was done in 1836 by Lucius Lyon.  He hired Henry A. Leonard and Andrew Hanse in 1837 to build at Lyons the first bridge across Grand River anywhere between Jackson and Grand Haven.  Small steamboats towing flat boats carried most of the grain and produce from the area after the Legislature appropriated funds for improving river navigation in 1847 until the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad was completed in 1857.  In 1846 Lyons came within one vote in the State Legislature in Detroit being chosen as the site of the new State Capit0l.  Lansing won. 

BRONSON, KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN TERRITORY, October 19, 1833

     My Dear Sister:  (Lucretia)   The place where I now write is the seat of justice for one of the richest and most productive counties in our territory.  Although there are now but two stores and about a dozen dwelling houses, it will in a few years be one of the finest villages in the western part of the peninsula.  It is situated on the southwest side of the Kalamazoo River about 50 miles above its mouth, 140 miles west from Detroit.

     I own one third of the village plat and about 160 acres of land adjoining and it must in a few years be very valuable.  I also own the village of Schoolcraft on Big Prairie Ronde about 12 miles south of this in the same county, one of the pleasantest and most beautiful places in the country.  It is situated on the east border of an “island” of about 700 acres of a woodland in the center of a high and fine, rich and beautiful prairie containing about 20,000 acres.

     You have never seen a prairie and can form no conception of its beauty, so its description is useless.    The village, I named after my friend, Henry R. Schoolcraft of Mackinaw in this Territory, who is well known to the scientific world, both in America and Europe and as a distinguished traveler and writer.  It was laid out about two years ago and now contains two stores, a large public house and a dozen private dwellings.  On the prairie around it there are settled about 300 families.  They purchased their land about three years ago for $1.25 an acre but it now sells readily without improvements for $4 per acre.  Besides the village plat I own about 220 acres adjoining it which would bring $12 per acre cash any day.  I look upon this country as my future residence, at least for three or four years and perhaps forever.  I have not passed much of my time here as yet and perhaps for two or three years to come I shall be as much in Detroit as in this place.  I, nevertheless, call this my home.  Lucius

     October 9, 1835, Bronson.  To his sister.  I have engaged largely in farming operations, rather beyond my means, I fear and besides, I am constructing or rather paying one half the expenses of constructing a canal six feet wide on the water line, five feet deep from the surface of the water to the bottom and about a mile and a quarter in length around the rapids in Grand River where I own part of the land.  It is intended to furnish an excellent water power and also to facilitate the passage of steam boats up and down the river and will cost about $8,000.  I have besides engaged to pay $1,000 towards building a steamboat to run on the Grand River next summer so that, all things counted, my engagements as well as my business has very much extended within a very few months.  After a year or two, however, I hope to reap my reward and have money in plentitude.

     I have harvested a fine crop of about 70 acres of wheat this year, also about 100 acres of oats, besides building a new barn 30 x 40, in which my wheat, after being threshed out, is now safely garnered, ready for market.  It is worth $1.00 per bushel.  This is on my farm at Schoolcraft, 14 miles south of this.  I expect to build another barn there next spring, 40 x 60 feet, besides finishing a large house which I have commenced building at this place.

     Within a week or two I shall make a journey to Detroit and remain there until after the meeting of the first State Legislature on the first Monday of next month, when two Senators are to be chosen to represent the State of Michigan in the Congress of the United States.  From all appearances now my prospect is fair for one of these seats, which is as high as I can ever hope to attain, for there is no higher office in the United States excepting that of President.  Ever yours, Lucius Lyon.

     Lyons, Michigan July 12, 1837.  Dear Sister:  Luman Atwater and his wife are living with Mr. Taber and are to make Lyons their home.  Mr. Dean has purchased a farm about three miles from here but is going to build and live in the village directly across the street from Edward Lyon.

     I arrived here from Detroit on the 4^th inst. And found a great number of persons had been assembled to celebrate the day.  They had a procession, oration and dinner, at which about 80 persons sat down at table and in the evening they had a ball which I attended, at the house of Truman H. Lyon, where I found about thirty well dressed, respectable looking young ladies.  All things through the day and evening were done in order and good taste.  The ladies furnished several beautiful banners for the occasion and graced the dinner table with their presence.  Several of the flags were flying at the tops of the houses when I arrived at sunset in the evening.

     I shall leave here tomorrow for Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo and get around to Detroit in about two weeks.  In about four weeks I shall start for Washington City by way of the city of New York and shall probably not return again till next May or June.  Congress, you know, is called together on the first Monday in September and I must be there.  Affectionately yours, Lucius

     Washington, May 5^th, 1838.  My Dear Sister….there are many towns in the State (Michigan) which are just now rising to be large villages and growing with a rapidity unexampled in the history of the world.  These towns present fine fields for the labor and exertion of able clergymen, where their services are much needed and will be rewarded.  One of these is Grand Rapids, the county seat of Kent county, on the Grand River, about 50 miles below Lyons.  The first house was built there about four years ago, and it now contains a population of about 1,200 persons, or is about one-third as Burlington, (Vermont) and within ten years it will unquestionably be larger than Burlington ever can be.  I am one of the principal proprietors of the town and should like very much to have Mr. Crane and his family go there.  There is already an Episcopal society organized there and when I last heard anything of the subject, they were looking out for some able clergymen to settle among them.  The society is very good and is daily improving.  A branch of the University of the State has lately been located there with a department in it for the education of young ladies in the higher branches and it seems to me it would be one of the best places in the U.S. for Mr. Crane.  There is a society of Roman Catholics there and a church erected for them, but that only makes an Episcopal church more desirable.  Yours ever, Lucius Lyon.

     To Miss Lucretia Lyon:  December 22, 1844.  I expect to die myself within the next ten years and probably within five years, but when I die I want no one to grieve on my account or because it may be thought that death is a sad change for me, for I do not so regard it.  Lucius

     (These letters are only an opener to the career of Lucius Lyon.  More will follow in a later issue). 

     SEBEWA INFORMATION FROM THE F. W. BEERS CO.  ATLAS OF IONIA COUNTY, 1875.  The Sebewa map of the 1875 Beers Atlas of Ionia County shows only State, Keefer, Tupper Lake, Musgrove and Goddard roads crossing the township.  The Sunfield Hwy. was in use only between Musgrove and Bippley.  The West Sebewa Post Office was then on State Road a half mile south of the Clarksville Road, apparently in Odessa.  The Cornell-Sebewa Post Office was at Sebewa Corners.  A cooper shop and a flouring mill is shown at Bippley and Keefer, apparently a year before Andrew Weippert purchase the mill site.  In the back pages of the Atlas is a sort of a Who’s Who for each of the townships.  These might be the list of names of persons who contracted to purchase the Atlas at $10 per copy.  The list follows:

Allen, Robert..General Farmer.  Came into County in January, 1866.  District #8.

Brown, James H..General Farmer, Fractional District #1. (School District—Sebewa Corners)

Benschoter, Oliver..General Farmer, Fr. Dist. #1

Benschoter, G. D..General Farmer, Fractional District #1.

Bigham, Samuel..General Farmer, District #2 (A combination of Bishop and Goddard)

Carter, N. C..Manufacturer of and Dealer in Hard and Soft Wood Lumber.  Custom Sawing done to order.  District #3 (West Sebewa)

Coe, William H..Farmer.  Also Carpenter and Joiner.  District #3

Deatsman, Charles..Farmer.  Also Proprietor Threshing and Sawing Machine.  Dist. #4.

Estep, William..General Farmer, Stock and Fruit Raiser.  Dist. #7  (Baldwin)

Earthman, N. F..General Farmer, Fractional District #6 (Halladay).

Friend, John..General Farmer and Drover, Fractional District #1

Gunn & Smith..Proprietors of Saw Mill; Manufacturers of and Dealers in Hard and Soft Wood Lumber; Custom sawing done to order.  District #4.

Goddard, D. W..General Farmer, Fruit and Stock Grower, District #2.  Lake City Post Office.

Garlock, A. A..General Farmer, Fractional District #1.

Gunn, J. S..Farmer, South Down Sheep Raising a specialty, District #4.

Gunn, S. D..General Farmer, District #7.

Holmes, Mrs. O. W..Proprietor of Sebewa Hotel.  Fractional District #1.

Halladay, D. W..Farmer.  Came into County 1852.  Fractional District #6.

Ingalls, Hall J..Farmer.  Also agent for Home Sewing Machine, Fractional Dist. #l.

Kibbey, O. W..Dealer in Dry Goods, Groceries, Boots, Shoes, Hats, Caps, Drugs, Medicine, Crockery and Glassware, Notions &c; highest Market price paid for Farm Produce; also P.M. Fractional District #1.

Lowe & Halladay…Proprietors of Saw and Planing Mill.  Custom work done to order, Fractional District #1.

Lowe, E. Y..Proprietor of Flouring and Grist Mill.  Custom work a specialty.  Highest market price paid for Wheat, Corn, Oats, Barley and all kinds of Farm Produce, Fractional District #1.

Leak, Thomas..Farmer, District (unreadable).

Luscher, J..General Farmer, District #4.

Lapo, J. H..Engaged in general Farming, District #7.

Merchant, Watson..General Farmer, Fractional District #5 (Knox).

Pierce & Co..Proprietors of Saw Mill; Manufacturers of and Dealers in Spokes and Bent Felloes and Lumber.  Custom sawing promptly done.  Fractional District #9 (Pierce).

Peling, R..Farmer, Also, Carpenter and Joiner, Fractional District #6

Probasco, Benjamin..Manufacturer of all kinds of Cooper work; Barrels, Sap Buckets &c; Tight work a specialty.  Also General Farmer District #2.

Ralston, A. M..Farmer and Fruit Raiser; also, Breeder of Fine Durham Cattle.  District #7.

Raifsnider, Geo. W..Proprietor ow Wagon Shop, Sebewa Corners, Fractional Dist. #1.

Sindlinger, J. W..General Farmer, Fractional District #6.

Sindlinger, Christian..General Farmer, District #7.

Stimson, L..General Farmer, Fractional District #6.

Showerman, Jacob B..Farmer; located in1836, District #4/

Stebbins, Orren..General Farmer District #4.

Snyder, John G..Farmer; Stock Growing a specialty.  Also, Drover, District #3.

Soule, David B..Farmer; Dairying a specialty.  Also, Justice of the Peace.  District #3.

Uri, John..General Farmer, Fractional District #9.

Vanhouten, John H..Farmer, District #7.

Weippert, Andrew..Farmer, Fruit and Stock Growing a specialty, Fractional District #1. 

ARLIE BELLE SANDBORN WILSON, 1878-1972

     Arlie Belle Sandborn was born August 28, 1878 at the farm home near Portland, to Columbus and Sarah Sandborn, one of seven children.  She was married to Howard Francis Wilson November 1, 1899.  He died in 1941.  All but fifteen years of their married life were spent in denominational medical work.  After her husband’s death she lived near her son or her daughter at Cottage Grove, Oregon.  Besides her son and daughter, she leaves the many relatives of the Sandborn family in the Ionia County area.  Interment was at St. Helena, California beside her husband. 

THE CLEARING

     (Reprinted from TIMBERLAND TIMES by Eugene Davenport, Copyright 1950 by The University of Illinois Press.  Reprinted by permission.)

     When Michigan settlers cut down a block of trees before turning the land into a field, it was known as a “chopping”.  And when they had burned the timber, it became a “clearing”.  The first clearings were islands of black in a sea of green, and they grew in size and multiplied in number to merge into one another—bespeaking a settled country.

     Three methods of cutting timber for clearing were in common use, known as slashing, jam-piling, and windrowing.  They differed one from another according to the way in which the timber was left after falling.

     In slashing, no attempt was made to direct the course of the tree.  It was cut to fall the way it leaned.  But the trees fell in such a jumble that extra labor was involved in the clearing, and so slashing was seldom used unless the plan was to let the timber lie until it should rot.

     Jam-piling was used where the growth was extremely uneven.  In a spot near the center of a thick cluster of trees, the small stuff was first thrown together; then the taller timber was brought in from all sides as far away as the tallest trees would reach.  The result was a circular mass with trunks radiating from a center of twigs and treetops ten or fifteen feet high.  A fine prospect for a glorious fire when burning time came.

     Windrowing was the favorite method for reasonably heavy timber because it left the logs in the best possible shape for easy and fast clearing.  By this method the trees were cut to fall in long rows, their tops together, their slanting trunks pointing in from both sides to the middle where the tops made one vast mass of twigs and small limbs.

     Whether slashing, jam-piling, or windrowing, the drive was a favorite device of the chopper, not only to save chopping but for the enjoyment of the spectacle.  Beginning near the center of the pile or close to the side of the windrow the first tree of the drive was partly cut but left standing so that later it could be made to fall where wanted.  Behind it another tree was also partly cut to fall in such a way as to strike the first when the time should come for it to fall.  In succession a line of trees was chosen and all partly cut to fall in such a way as to strike the first when the time should come for it to fall.  In succession a line of trees was chosen and all partly cut.  The last one was cut until it fell against its next neighbor which, in turn, fell against the next, and the row went down like ninepins as each swept against the one before.

     A chopping could be burned the first summer after cutting it necessary, but the bodies of most of the trees would still be green and slow to burn.  (unless the timber had been cut the previous summer, so that the moisture could escape through the leaves.)  At any rate, by August of the second summer, everything would be perfectly dry, and an area could be cleared in time for a crop of wheat the next year.

     On the day of the big fire, men and boys with blazing torches went down the windrows, setting fires here and there in the most likely places.  They began to leeward to keep out of the path of the fire, and gradually worked to windward; in an incredibly brief time the whole fallow area was a roaring furnace sending red flames crackling fifty and more feet in the air.  The flames twisted and turned in the wind that always follows a fire, sending showers of sparks and burning twigs in all directions.

     Now was the time for all hands to be out watching the brush fences, which were nothing more than miniature windrows out to fence the livestock.  They were dry as powder from several years of service.  And the new rail fence had to be protected, too, for it was permanent and costly.  I have never seen anything more spectacular than a fifteen- or twenty-acre area if fallow timber ablaze on a summer evening, nor have I ever seen anything more terrifying than a runaway fire flying across the fields toward the log buildings that we called home.

     By the next morning the burned area was a smoldering mass of logs quietly burning wherever two trunks happened to cross.  These were the fires to be kept burning by laying, now and then, a few poles or chunks here and there, so that gradually the trees would burn each other up.

     Early experimenters in the timberlands followed the laborious method of cutting everything into lengths of about twelve feet, hauling these logs together and piling them into great heaps.  But as in other matters, experience taught a better way:  men learned to wait, whenever possible, an extra year and let the fire do the hard work.  But sometimes the family’s support for the coming year depended on getting out an early crop, and then the logging had to be done the first summer.

     The stumps that remained after timber was cleared would stand from five to fifteen years, depending on the kind of tree.  Beech and maple would begin to rot and could be burned out in a very few years; but oak, walnut, and basswood seemed to have acquired a warranty deed to the land.

     It was, of course, not necessary to wait until the stumps were gone to farm the land.  The ground was by this time free of vegetation and well rid of all rubbish.  It needed no plowing; the settler could scatter wheat among the stumps and brush it in by hitching the oxen to the butt of a small beech tree and dragging it over the surface.

     Four or five years after the firing of the timber, most of the stumps including all the beech and maple would begin to show signs of rotting—especially where birds had pecked holes in search of grubs.  And the next step meant more fun for the small boy.  With a burning stick he rushed from stump to stump, twisting the fiery brand into one of the many “bird holes”, waving the stick in the air between stumps to hold the fire.  In a short time the whole area would be afire; not a furious and dangerous fire as when the logs were burned, but a comfortable community of harmless little flames most beautiful to watch in the gathering dusk.

     When the stumps were gone, there remained the task of clearing the stones left by the last big glacier.  Generally they were small and could be loaded on a stone boat and dragged away for future use in foundations when the frame house or barns would be built.  Here and there the ground was thickly covered where, as we said, the devil had broken his apron strings when out scattering stones to plague the farmer.  Occasionally a stone was too large to move, and it was broken up by fire or sunk below the plow.

     So rapidly did the stones reappear after the field had been cleared, and so persistently did they continue to cumber the ground, that the belief became well- nigh universal that they grew.  When a traveling man, probably a land speculator, explained that the stones were pushed up through the soil by the frost, a few of us came to believe it, for we could see the process going on.  But as for the story that all of the stones had come from the northeast long ago, riding along on great fields of ice—that was a yarn we found pretty hard to swallow.                     End. 

WEATHER NOTES

     Not since Adam and Eve (with perhaps a couple of exceptions) has the spring break up left Sebewa’s gravel roads so uninviting and impossible for auto travel as we witness this year.  An aerial view should tickle a horse’s sense of humor, if such there be, to see clusters of autos parked at the edges of hard surface roads with rutty trails and frequent sink holes leading to the empty garages of the car owners.

     It was in one of those holes that my car literally fell on me as the front end went down before I did and roof-bopped me on the top of my head, leaving a bruise of proof.  Suddenly I was reminded that with all our technological advancement we do not ride like kings in palanquins.

     While we are weathering around we may recall that a year ago it was the ice storm that caused so much trouble and inconvenience while three years ago we had two snowstorms a week apart that nearly matched the mid-March howler of this year.  Go back six years, if you will, and you have the April 21^st tornado that whipped and tore along the diagonal from the southwest.  The daily grist of news reminds us however, that we do not suffer all the whims of nature that are doled out as catastrophic events in so many other places.  So, Sebewa, if you haven’t already left it, you may as well like it.

THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR
Bulletin of The Sebewa Center Association
Robert W. Gierman, Editor
R 1
Portland, Michigan 48875  U. S. A.