June 1, 2005
Kinery earns history honor
Marge Kinery named Historian of the Year by historical society
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
"She has a heart for history."
Lauded for her passion for and commitment to history, Marge Kinery received the 2005 Historian of the Year award Thursday evening.
The annual award of the Grand Traverse Pioneer and Historical Society recognized Kinery as co-founder of the Elk Rapids Historical Society and also a long-time member of the Pioneer and Historical Society. Approximately 65 attendees celebrated Kinery at the Grand Traverse Heritage Center, sharing a banquet and a program in her honor.
"She has a heart for people," continued Tom Vranich of Elk Rapids. "That's why, when you walk into the [Elk Rapids] historical museum, that little tidbit you wanted to know will turn into an afternoon of two or three hours there."
Kinery, a native of Monroe who attended a one-room schoolhouse as a child, moved to Elk Rapids with her husband, Charles, in 1967. Kinery joined the Grand Traverse Pioneer and Historical Society after moving north, remaining actively involved for decades. After the Elk Rapids organization formed, she frequently tapped members of the Pioneer and Historical Society to present talks and programs.
"An officer in both the Elk Rapids and the Grand Traverse Pioneer and Historical Society, Marge has just given countless hours of her time that we will always benefit from for generations," noted Ron Jolly, a board member of the Pioneer and Historical Society who presented a retrospective on Kinery's life.
Interested in history since her youth, Kinery credits her father with sparking her interest. She related some of his stories of early Monroe with the attendees.
"My dad remembered when the statue of General Custer came to Monroe and many people were there: President Taft and Will Carlton, a famous poet," said Kinery, who shared a number of books and photographs during her talk. "Dad also remembered the Loranger Sawmill and Gristmill. Henry Ford thought they should be in Greenfield Village and they are."
An attic encounter sparked a specific interest in Elk Rapids history. She and her husband had purchased the former home of Dr. A. B. Conklin, who lived and practiced in the region for decades at the turn of the last century. Kinery eventually made her way to the attic, which had no stairs to access it.
"We found a lot of material left by Dr. Conklin, who owned the house in the late 1800s and early 1900s," Kinery recalled. "It included pictures of well-known people in Elk Rapids and he also had a lot of doctor memorabilia, too."
"He also had volume 1 of the Democratic Free Press and Michigan Intelligencer of 1831," she added of the newspaper that was the forerunner of the Detroit Free Press. "It was in the dark and of course well preserved."
Soon thereafter, Kinery saw an advertisement in the Elk Rapids paper about a meeting to form a historical society. She went intending to share her treasures, pass them on to organizers and be done with it.
"I thought, 'That will solve all my problems, I'll take all my stuff to them,'" she said.
Instead, Kinery stayed and the rest is, well, history.
From Dr. Conklin, Kinery began researching Abram Wadsworth, a surveyor who was one of Elk Rapids' first settlers. She found his gravesite and that of other family members in Oakwood Cemetery in Traverse City. During the Bicentennial celebrations in 1976, members of the Elk Rapids Historical Society decided Wadsworth should have a marker noting his historical link to Elk Rapids' founding. Later, a Michigan group of surveyors placed a marker on his grave acknowledging his profession.
"Do you know of anyone who has three gravestones," said Kinery , who also helped establish the Abram Wadsworth Day, celebrated every year on August 13 in Elk Rapids. "That's kind of neat."