July 9, 2003
Herald news ... 100 years ago
By Emma Jane Muir
Special to the Herald
• More than six months ago this office urged the city to go after the proposed new state normal school, but nothing has been done in that direction until now. Last night, the council decided to make representations to the state board of education and invite that body to come here and investigate this city's favorable consideration which would be better than either Grand Rapids or Muskegon. Although the movement is late, there may still be a chance.
• The habeas corpus case of Mrs. Josephine Dean vs. Mrs. Harriet Cromie looks like a bad mess. Mrs. Dean claims that the child is hers and wants to take her and give her a mother's care. Mrs.. Cromie and the others who are interested in the child have, through their attorneys, sought to prove that Mrs. Dean's life has not been of the purest and is scarcely the proper person to have custody of the girl.
• Kennedy and Larrr have given up running Pound's shingle mill at the Junction near Mayfield as the grade of timber was too poor to be profitable. Now they have an excellent boarding house with good equipment on their hands. The community is sorry to have them go as they have made many friends at that place.
• Little Opal May Downer, the 22-month-old child of Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Downer, was killed Friday afternoon by the northbound G. R. & I. freight train on the crossing just south of the station. The engineer of the train saw the child as he rounded the curve about 300 feet ahead in the center of the track coming toward the train. He whistled and did all he could do to stop, but as the child turned she stumbled on the crossing, falling face down and never moved again.
• Miss Inez Farnsworth, a graduate of the local schools and who has been teaching at Woodworth, Michigan, returned to the city Monday after a visit in Kingsley with relatives. She left the same day for Boston Mass. to attend the national teachers association in that city.
• Dr. Victor H. Sturm, proprietor of the Grand Traverse Sanitarium, has arrived in the city with a charming bride. The bride was Miss Sylvia Robbins, a well known woman in the Reed City social circles. The very romantic ceremony took place at midnight, July 3 in the parlors of the Livingston Hotel, Rev. Dr. Cox officiating, They are now comfortably located in the sanitarium where they will make their permanent home, however, Dr. Strum will maintain his businesses in Detroit and St. Louis.
• The son of Peter Loucks was one of the battle scarred persons of the Fourth. A pan which he had placed over a giant cracker was blown up into the air, coming down on his head and inflicting a scalp wound.
• G. W. Lardie has shipped five carloads of cherries during the past week. All of them went to the Chicago market. Four other buyers also had fruit in the cars and report that farmers have received from $1.25 to $1.45 per crate, according to the quality of the fruit.
• Charles Prochazka, Jr. has closed a deal whereby he becomes owner of the lot and building on the southwest corner of Sixth and South Union Streets. He bought the property of the Shadek estate and will later on improve it with a fine brick building, the nature of which Mr. Prochazka has not yet decided.
• Gladys Layhm, the eight-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Layhm of West Tenth Street, broke both bones in her left leg just above the knee last Sunday while she jumping off the porch. She did not strike squarely when she jumped.
• Ralph Roscoe, who graduated last month from the Course in Beet Sugar Chemistry at the Agricultural College, has accepted a position as foreman in that field in Williamsburg for the Charlevoix Sugar Co. He expects to take a force of fifty boys from this city to work in the beet fields in that area, but is having some difficulty in procuring the help.
• Advice on deportment. Real wisdom makes a man an agreeable companion.
• Medical advice of a century ago. To treat the spitting of blood, take three spoonfuls of sage juice in a little honey every morning.
• Best buy of the week. Ladies' Black Hose, 25 cents at E. Wilhelm.