periodicals postage paid at lansing,...

ABOUT — AND A PART OF — MICHIGAN’S FASCINATING PAST SINCE 1917

$2.95MARCH/APRIL 1997

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Michigan and the Titanic

$2.95

This small, tattered flag—described as the Titanic’s official flag—was carried from the sinking ship by Michigan survivor Jane Quick.

For more about four Michigan families who lived to tell theirharrowing tales of life, death and rescue, please turn to page 28.

Periodicals postage paid at Lansing, MI

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by Carey L. Draeger—Hailed as the ship that “God himselfcould not sink,” the mightyTitanic steamed out ofQueenstown, Ireland, toNew York City on her maid-en voyage. Among the 1,324passengers were nearly fortyMichigan-bound individuals,none of them realizing theirlives were about to becomeintertwined with one of the world’s most famousmaritime disasters.

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by Hero Bratt and Paul Trap—When sevencold and weary travelers stumbled into theOld Wing Mission near Black Lake, no one realized their inglorious arrival heralded the foundingof one of Michigan’s important cities. Holland, Michigan, with its reputation for a proud Dutchheritage, began as a humble, little Kolonie populated with Dutch fugitives seeking to escapereligious persecution and economic distress.

by Mary A. Dempsey—During the mid-1930s Westernswere the rage and singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy

Rogers were heros to children across the country. But HerbJeffries, the man who played Bob Blake, the Bronze Buckaroo, earned aplace in America’s history books.This Detroit native became the first andonly African Americansinging cowboy to rideacross the silver screen.

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ON THE COVERIn The Bronze Buckaroo, Herb Jeffriesperformed all his own stunts, such assitting astride a rearing horse, becausethe film’s budget did not allow for astunt double. Such thrilling scenes inthese movies specifically made forAfrican American audiences “allowedchildren to watch people of their raceliving in dignity on the land and sittingtall in the saddle.”

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March/April 1997 3

While reading your most interestingarticle on the Georgian Bay Line, thereference to the sinking of the YarmouthCastle evoked memories that I haven’tthought about in years.

I joined the U.S. Coast Guard atDetroit in July 1959 and spent a total often years serving in many areas beforebeing discharged in 1969.

While stationed in Fort Lauderdale,Florida, in 1967 my unit, the CoastGuard Cutter Cape Shoalwater, was oneof the Coast Guard boats ordered to thearea of the sinking of the YarmouthCastle to search for survivors. I believethat we were one of five or six boats sentfrom the Miami Coast Guard District.The Cape Shoalwater was first on thescene at about 2:00 A.M. We found nosurvivors, only debris.

We returned to our mooring in theearly afternoon of the next day. A cou-ple of days later we were ordered toreturn to the area with a number of fam-ily members of the deceased for thememorial service and the laying of awreath.

Thanks for the trip back in memory aswell as for all your very entertainingarticles. I also enjoyed the article of thelogging in Nester Township in theSeptember/October 1996 issue, since Iwas raised (from 1944-57) approxi-mately six miles south of the Nester area.

Ernest A. OrtenburgHarbor Beach

I received the January/February issueand as usual I looked through the wholemagazine before reading any of the arti-cles. This is the first time that I havedone this without looking at the printingon the cover. I came across the articleabout the Georgian Bay Line and thememories started to come back to me ina rush.

I was a graduate of Allegan CountyNormal and was in my first year ofteaching, 1951-52, in a rural two-roomschool in northwestern Allegan County,Ruscher School, Fillmore Township. Iwas teaching the upper room, whichhad about twenty students, fifth througheighth grades.

I received word from SuperintendentGuy Ray Sturgis in the early spring thatthe schools in the county could have atrip aboard the SS South American,docked in nearby Holland. I presentedthe opportunity to the students andreceived a unanimous yea vote.

I cannot remember how the studentsraised the money for the trip, but I doremember picking up the tickets. On themorning of the trip, I handed each stu-dent his or her ticket and an envelope ofmoney for them to spend on the trip.Because of the number of students, wewere assigned a small stateroom. Theroom could not hold all of the students atone time, so we met in shifts. Althoughthe room was small it was very nicelyappointed. I spent more time there thanthe students did—about one hour.

Secretary of StateCandice S. Miller

Director, Michigan Historical CenterSandra Sageser Clark

EditorDr. Roger L. Rosentreter

Assistant EditorsCarey L. Draeger

Sharon E. McHaney

Marketing ManagerDiana Paiz Engle

CirculationCarole Pope, Manager

Joni Russell, Clerk

SecretaryMary Jo Remensnyder

Contributing EditorsDr. LeRoy Barnett, Dr. John R. Halsey,Laura Rose Ashlee and Scott M. Peters

The Michigan Historical Commission—Ann Preston Koeze, presi-dent, Robert J. Danhof, Susanne M. Janis, Samuel Logan Jr., KeithMolin, and William C. Whitbeck—provides advice on historicalactivities of the Department of State, including the publication of thismagazine.

Manuscripts for publication review, books for review and notices to beincluded in History Happenings should be sent to Editor, MichiganHistory Magazine, Michigan Department of State, Lansing, MI48918-1805. While Michigan History Magazine makes everyeffort to care for all materials sent to us, the Michigan Department ofState assumes no responsibility for unsolicited photographs, manu-scripts or books. The Michigan Department of State does not assumeresponsibility for statement of fact or opinion made by contributors.

Publication of Michigan History Magazine provides matching fundsfor grants from the National Park Service, United States Department of theInterior. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of theDepartment of the Interior. Regulations of the U.S. Department of theInterior strictly prohibit unlawful discrimination in departmental FederallyAssisted Programs on the basis of race, color, national origin, age orhandicap. Any person who believes he or she has been discriminatedagainst in any program, activity or facility operated by a recipient ofFederal assistance should write: Director, Equal Opportunity Program,U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Box 37127,Washington, DC 20013-7127

© Copyright Michigan Department of State 1997

SUBSCRIPTION PROBLEMSIf you have questions about your subscription,have missed issues, have a change of address,are receiving duplicate issues or want to place giftsubscriptions or purchase back issues, pleasecall us toll-free at 1-800-366-3703 (Lansing-arearesidents please call 373-1645). Operating hours:Monday through Friday, 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. (EST).

Michigan History Magazine (ISSN 0026-2196) is pub-lished six times a year, with an annual subscription rate of$12.95 by the Michigan Historical Center, Michigan Depart-ment of State, 717 West Allegan, Lansing, MI 48918-1805.Periodicals postage paid at Lansing, MI. Postmaster:Send address changes to Michigan History Magazine,Michigan Department of State, Lansing, MI 48918-1805.

Printed on Recycled Paper

Volume 81 • Number 2Georgian Bay Memories

LETTERS TO THE EDITORLETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Pick Up Cover

from Jan/Feb

1997 Issue

Thanks for the trip

back in memory as

well as for all your very

entertaining articles.Ernest A. Ortenburg

Harbor Beach

2 Michigan History Magazine

Readers often ask me, “How do you find the articles that appear in Michigan HistoryMagazine?” This issue shows the many different ways an article goes from an idea topublication.Some articles arrive in what I call the traditional manner. An author selects and

researches a topic, writes the manuscript and sends it to us. “Van Raalte’s Settlement at150” is a perfect example of such an article. Begun by Hero Bratt, the manuscript wascompleted by Paul Trap after Bratt’s death. This article provides a solid look at the found-ing of one of Michigan’s more intriguing communities. At one time Paul lobbied me for anentire issue on Holland. Fortunately, he took my rejection of that idea in his typical good-natured style.

Some articles seem almost providential. Last August, when assistant editor CareyDraeger called for tickets to see humor columnist Dave Berry in Dowagiac, the person atthe other end of the phone offered, “Dowagiac has lots of Titanic connections.” After look-ing at newspapers for Michigan’s relationship to this maritime disaster, Carey discoveredmore than either of us ever imagined existed. She’s written a story that is as poignant andtouching as any that has appeared in this magazine.

Other stories are a mixture of good luck and determination. When marketing managerDiana Paiz Engle heard an interview with Herb Jefferies on National Public Radio inAugust 1995, she ordered the transcript. The idea of doing something on the BronzeBuckaroo lay around the office—with Diana’s occasional reminders to me of how good thestory would be. Finally, I called one of our favorite free-lance writers, Mary Dempsey,who eagerly accepted the assignment. However, she was moving to Puerto Rico to start anew job and the story had to be pursued immediately. We had no idea where Jefferieslived, but after a morning of phone calls, we found him in Los Angeles. In a matter of daysMary finalized plans, hopped the red-eye to LA and got the face-to-face interview. Soonwe had a story that otherwise might not have appeared in this magazine.

Finally, stories sometimes occur accidentally. When Carey was returning from theDossin Maritime Museum in Detroit with photos for the Georgian Bay article(January/February 1997 issue), I asked her to stop at Elmwood Cemetery and photo-graph Maude von Ketteler’s grave for Heidi Christein’s “A Detroit Baroness in Peking”(also in the January/February issue). There she met the cemetery’s general manager,Chancey Miller. He proved so interesting—and since I’ve always wanted to do a piece onElmwood—we called in free-lance writer Marilynn Sambrano.

Another question I am often asked is, “Will you ever run out of stories to tell?” Sincehistory is constantly in the making that will never happen. We also won’t sit on our hands,waiting for manuscripts to arrive in the mail. Like detectives, we will search out and bringto you those stories that prove why Michigan history is fascinating and entertaining.

FROM THE EDITORFROM THE EDITOR

16-23). Please send me the correctpages, which, I’m sure are about Mich-igan history, not Memphis ducks.

Michael D. MooreLansing

Michigan’s Northern Canal

The Grand River canal project ofChristian J. Buys’ article in theJanuary/February 1997 issue is reflec-tive of another ambitious and abortivecanal project involving that river. TheNorthern Canal was to connect LakesHuron and Michigan through theSaginaw and Grand Rivers. It was pro-posed in 1831 during the spate ofMidwest canal-building that followedthe opening of the Erie Canal in 1825.

One of Stephens T. Mason’s first actsas Michigan’s first governor in 1837was to sign the Internal ImprovementsAct, which appropriated fifteen thou-sand dollars for the Northern Canal pro-ject. The canal was designed for bargeand steamboat traffic and was perfectlyfeasible—the highest elevation to betraversed was only seventy-five feetabove Lake Michigan. A mere fourteenmiles of canal needed to be built, butmuch dredging and straightening of theMaple and Bad Rivers would also havebeen required. Actual digging com-menced early in 1838 in what is nowBranch Township, Saginaw County.Only about a mile of earthworks and afew structures were completed beforethe state became financially embar-rassed in the Panic of 1838 and fundingfor the project was cut off. Interest in

similar projects was revived in 1849,1908 and 1914, but no other canal evermade it beyond the planning stage.According to St. Charles historian DaleGreve, remains of the Northern Canalare still visible near Brant.

Dave SwayzeWeidman

Slandering Father Coughlin

The worst type of slander comes afterthe victim’s demise when he can nolonger defend himself. I found the twopages of the Alan S. Brown review ofDonald Warren’s book, which isdemeaningly titled, Radio Priest,Charles Coughlin, The Father of HateRadio, just another slap at this priest ofGod whose priorities were God, coun-try and family, respectively. Warrennever interviewed Fr. Coughlin, thebook has more than sixty pages of ref-erences and Brown even supports theidea that “there are too many examplesof what might be styled hearsay ratherthan clearly documented evidence.”

Fr. Coughlin was supported by hisBishop Gallagher, who helped him startthe Shrine of the Little Flower Parish inRoyal Oak. His knowledge and standon social justice and gift of publicspeaking brought him internationalrecognition. He was responsible forRoyal Oak getting a post office, so greatwas the flow of mail to the shrine. Hewaived tuition fees for shrine schoolsfor families who could not afford them.He left a monument to God and St.Therese of the Little Flower of Lisieux

for all to visit. Over four thousand fam-ilies are currently registered at theshrine.

Coughlin once said that Communismwas a far greater threat to the world thanNazism and has since been labeled pro-Nazi. He was against several rich fami-lies controlling the purse strings of thebanks. If that happened to be mostlyZionist Jewish families, he was labeledanti-Semitic. Nothing was farther fromthe truth. When Washington felt threat-ened by the truth, they squeezed the hier-archy of the church to shut Fr. Coughlinup. He obeyed Bishop Mooney andretired from the public-radio politicalsocial or justice theme and stayed at theshrine as a parish priest. He was longbefore his time. Religious figures todaywho criticize the government or presi-dent are guests on radio and TV talkshows. Only because Fr. Coughlin worea priest’s Roman collar, he was alsoviewed as interference by the church instate matters. We could sure use his inputnow. I often visit his grave at HolySepulchre Cemetery in Southfield andpray all his predictions don’t come true.We need another Fr. Coughlin to wakeup this country.

Kenneth C. JaegerDetroit

Let’s Hear From You!You’re the best part of Michigan History Maga-zine and we welcome your letters. Write us atEditor, Michigan History Magazine, 717 WestAllegan, Lansing, MI 48918-1805. E-mail address:[email protected].

March/April 1997 5

Images from CubaThe letters in the January/February issue prompted me to sharewith you pictures taken by my father while he was preparing togo to Cuba during the Spanish-American War. I understand thatthere are not too many pictures taken in Cuba itself. I have in mypossession a whole album of pictures he took and prepared for hismother, Emily Arletta Fitch Peck. This album, which my familyand I possess, is very important.

Ina M. Peck BellgraphByron Center

We boarded the ship (not a boat, as aboat can be carried aboard a ship) earlyin the morning. I remember it was cool,some time in mid-May. The ship leftthe dock and had a difficult time get-ting turned around in the HollandHarbor. Once we cleared the pierheads, the ship angled out into LakeMichigan, and when we were aboutfive miles out, headed due north. Thatis when the sun broke out for the day.The ship continued north to Muskegonand entered the harbor. There it turnedaround in view of the MilwaukeeClipper, another fine ship. After leav-

ing Muskegon the ship returned toHolland and arrived about 4:00 P.M.

The students had the run of the ship.I believe they covered it from stem tostern, port to starboard and keel to mast-head, if they could get there.

We were assigned a lunch time andthe students could order from the menu.The menu was not extensive, but sincemost of the students had stuffed them-selves with junk food, they did not wantmuch. I ordered Swiss steak with all ofthe trimmings. It was the finest Swisssteak I ever had.

I was in the U.S. Naval Reserve atthe time and was called to active dutyduring the Korean War (August 1952). Istayed in the reserve for eighteen years,with two years of active duty. I spentmore hours aboard the South American,than I did aboard ships of the U.S. Navysince I worked in Washington, DC.

I was saddened at the closing of thewonderful ships of the Georgian BayLine since that one trip made me want todo it over and over again. Now there arenone. It is truly sad since many of ouryoung people will never know the plea-sure of being at sea, if only for a day.

W. J. LoveAllegan

How thrilled I was to receive the cur-rent issue of your magazine and the arti-cle about the Georgian Bay Line.

Fifty-five years ago, the senior class atPerry High School joined other graduatingseniors for a trip on the South American.We left Detroit on a Sunday afternoon fora trip to Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Wereturned to Detroit on Wednesday, butthose few days were very exciting. Themeals were delicious and the entertain-ment fun. I don’t know what the total costwas, but I only paid sixteen dollars.

Michigan History Magazine is one ofthe few magazines I still subscribe toand it is my favorite. Thanks for yourgood magazine.

Noralee Baird EnoGrand Rapids

Your article in the January/February1997 issue on the South American

brought back many memories to me. InJune 1950 I graduated from OkemosHigh School and our senior trip in May was a four-day excursion on theSouth American. We boarded the ship in Holland for an overnight trip toChicago. After a day in Chicago wesailed to Mackinac Island to spend aday there. Then on to Detroit, where wewere met by the school to take us home.The meals, the service and the enter-tainment on board were of the highestquality.

It is too bad this fine old ship metsuch an untimely end.

Lyle B. BlackledgeOkemos

Wintertime Pleasantries

How pleasant it was on a cold, blusteryday with the wind cavorting around thesnow drifts and the thermometer shiver-ing to sit in an old, comfortable chair,sipping hot chocolate and reading aboutthe life of the young Baroness VonKetteler in the January/February 1997issue (“A Detroit Baroness in Peking”).

Thanks to Michigan History Maga-zine and Heidi Christein for bringingthe story to this avid reader.

W. Jean WatsonKalamazoo

Two Different Views

I enjoyed reading the article in theJanuary/February issue by James H.Schultz entitled “Rolling on the River.”The article implied that Schultz and hisfriends followed Father Marquette’sroute to New Orleans via the Missis-sippi River. Marquette and Jolliet wentas far as the Arkansas River then turnedaround and returned. Robert de La Salleis credited with going all the way downthe Mississippi in 1682.

Gary L. HerbertPlainwell

Your printer made a horrible mistakeand included pages from some Miss-issippi River travel magazine in yourJanuary/February 1997 edition (pages


I especially enjoyed the article“Remembering the Georgian BayLine” by Mary A. Dempsey in theJanuary/February 1997 issue. WhenI was seventeen, my girlfriend,Bonnie Westrate and I [above, thirdand second from left] took a cruiseof the Great Lakes on the SS SouthAmerican. Bonnie and I were two ofthe youngest people on the cruise,but we had a wonderful time.

As I look through the pictures inthe article I realized that we musthave had crew’s quarters since ourcabin looked just like theirs. Wecruised up to Mackinac Island,through the Soo Locks, on toCopper Harbor and Duluth and thenreturned to Detroit. It was great fun.I’ve heard that there’s talk of start-ing another cruise line of the GreatLakes and would love to takeanother one.

Cindy WinnLansing

The Michigan Historical Museum, inthe midst of planning and constructingits newest special exhibit, Lansing1897, scheduled to open in June 1997,needs help in locating artifacts made orused in Lansing from 1892 to 1902. Ifyou have any of the artifacts listedbelow and are willing to donate or lendthem to the museum, contact theCollections Unit at (517) 335-0044 or(517) 373-1559. • Bicycles and bicycle advertisements,

repair kits and accessories from 1897,products, equipment and advertise-ments from Lansing Wagon Works,Lansing Wheel Company and LansingWheelbarrow Company.

• Station signs of Lansing or NorthLansing, railroad or street railway andtrain schedules.

• A 1897 Oracle (the Lansing HighSchool yearbook) and the MichiganAgricultural College yearbook, eventprograms, diploma and text and coursematerials (especially chemistry, thewomen’s course and agriculture).

• Bicycle clothing (especially a woman’sdivided skirt, or bloomers) and vari-ous sports uniforms.

• Band uniforms and instruments,posters and programs from Baird’s

Opera House and posters and equip-ment from Leadley’s Park (present-day Waverly Park).

• Parlor, kitchen, dining room and bed-room furnishings (ordinary or elabo-rate) from the Barnes/Olds andLansing households of the 1890s.

• Furnishings, school equipment andprinted materials from the IndustrialSchool for Boys and the MichiganSchool for the Blind.

• Bement Company stove, bobsled orplow and packaging or equipment fromthe Genesee Fruit Company, Kneelandor other creamery, the Lansing Con-fectionary Company and the MichiganCondensed Milk Company.

• Baking or candy-making equipment;dentist’s, druggist’s and jeweler’simplements and equipment; letter-heads; sales bills; store signs; a cigar-store Indian; and central telephoneswitchboard and telephone bills,directories and signs.

• Fire department items such as a callbox, fireman’s badge, fire coat andhat, ladder, horse harness, hoses andhose nozzles.

• Religious ceremony items such asfrom weddings, funerals and confir-mations; furnishings or regalia from

MMIICCHHIIGGAANN HHIISSTTOORRIICCAALL MMUUSSEEUUMM SSYYSSTTEEMM EEVVEENNTTSSMMAARRCCHH

March 22. Life on the Land: Michigan Agriculture Heritage Day, Michigan Historical Museum, Lansing, (517) 373-3559

AAPPRRIILLApril 19. Forestry Day, Michigan Historical Museum, Lansing, (517) 373-3559

MMAAYYMay 1-31. Archaeology in the Park, Hartwick Pines Lumbering Museum, Grayling,

(517) 348-7068

May 13 and 14. Planning an Herb Garden program, Mann House, Concord, (517) 524-8943

May 17. Geology of the Petroglyphs, Sanilac Petroglyphs, Bad Axe, (517) 373-3559

May 18. Open House, Michigan Iron Industry Museum, Negaunee, (906) 475-7857

The Michigan Historical Museum System is part of the Michigan Historical Center. Some of the above events require preregistration. For more information, call (517) 373-3559.

HISTORY HAPPENINGSHISTORY HAPPENINGS

Antique Autos Return

Secretary of State Candice S. Miller and a crowdof well-wishers welcomed back three recentlyrestored automobiles to their permanent home at theMichigan Historical Museum in Lansing. A 1925 Flintand two 1914 Ford Model Ts will be placed onexhibit in the Michigan in the Twentieth Centuryexhibit galleries.

The maroon Flint, with its creme pinstripedwheels, will be situated in the auto-dealer showroomthat makes up part of the 1920s street scene. Thetwo Model Ts will become part of the assembly-linescene that illustrates the evolution of the modern-day automotive assembly-line process envisionedby Henry Ford and his associates. One of these carsrepresents a completed vehicle that has been usedand operated for over eighty years. The other hasbeen restored to its assembly-line appearance, withthe body separated from the chassis.

Produced by Durant Motors between 1923 and1927, the Flint represents one of the long-forgottennameplates of past Michigan car companies.“Probably fewer than a hundred Flints survive today,”said Jeff Gillis of the Durant Family Registry, anorganization of Durant-affiliated car collectors.

After creating and then losing General Motors,William C. Durant formed Durant Motors in late1920—his last automotive empire. The Flint was oneof various Durant-made cars popular during the mid-1920s. Donated by Nathan Spector in 1990, the Flintwas partially restored to its original appearance byDave Griffioen of Kalamazoo. The MichiganHistorical Center Foundation purchased the black-painted Model Ts from William Powell of Union, NewJersey, and Clifford Phipps of Bloomington,Minnesota, earlier this year. Bill Barth of Davison,Michigan, restored the Model Ts.

Michigan History Museum Seeks Lansing Artifacts

6 Michigan History Magazine March/April 1997 7

Carrel Cowan-Ricks joined the Michigan State HistoricPreservation Office in 1994. As a historian on the des-ignation team, she prepared national and state registernominations and wrote historical marker texts. On 11 January1997 Carrel died of complications related to lupus.

In preparing nominations, Carrel conducted historicalresearch, described the physical appearance of properties andwrote statements of historical significance. She was a thor-ough researcher and capably guided the research of appli-cants engaged in the process of completing nomination mate-rials for their properties. Her friendly and helpful mannerendeared her to those with whom she worked. Her marvelousorganizational skills made the work of her colleagues and themembers of the State Historic Preservation Review Board eas-ier. Carrel took special joy in dedicating several historicalmarkers. We remember, in particular, the pleasure she derivedfrom celebrating with former president Gerald Ford, GovernorJohn Engler, Secretary of State Candice Miller, MichiganHistorical Commissioners and local officials the dedication ofthe Gerald R. Ford Jr. Boyhood Home marker.

In her work with the preservation office she collaboratedwith the Detroit Heritage and Community Development Forumin organizing the Michigan African American Symposium’s twocommunity preservation conferences in Detroit; she was alsoa moderator and speaker at both events. She assisted theMichigan Black History Network with organizational issues andencouraged others to participate in activities related to theirheritage.

Carrel was particularly interested in African Americancemeteries and burial practices, and assisted both the Foley

Square African Burial Ground in New York City and theNational Park Service’s African Burial Ground Scientific,Educational and Interpretive Advisors. At the State HistoricPreservation Office Carrel devised inventory forms to collectinformation on historic cemeteries.

Carrel’s active career as an archaeologist was recognizedwith her appointment to the National Park System History AreaAdvisory Board and with her election as president of theMichigan Archaeological Society. Her involvement in manyorganizations included the American Anthropological Asso-ciation’s Association of Black Anthropologists and the Councilof South Carolina Professional Archaeologists.

Carrel was a doctoral candidate in anthropology and histo-ry at Wayne State University where she earned her bachelor’sand master’s degrees. Born and raised in Lansing, Carrelattended Saint Mary’s Cathedral High School.

Before joining the staff at the State Historic PreservationOffice, Carrel taught archaeology and anthropology atClemson University, Wayne State University and the Universityof Toledo. Previously she managed a contract archaeologicalfirm in New Mexico and helped coordinate the AfricanAmerican Family Life History and Culture project at the HenryFord Museum and Greenfield Village.

Carrel is remembered for her intelligence, unique sense ofhumor and courage despite her illness. Her sharp wit, outgo-ing personality and friendly spirit were among the many assetsshe brought to her work. Her friends and colleagues will missgreatly her helpful, cheery presence.

Kathryn Bishop Eckert

Carrel Cowan-Ricks1945-1997

The Fayette Historic Townsite is the most intact, post-CivilWar-era, charcoal iron-smelting company town in theUnited States. A Cultural Resource Management Plan toguide stewardship of the townsite was recently completed underthe direction of the Michigan Historical Center. Center fundswere matched with a grant from the Coastal ManagementProgram administered by the Michigan Department of Environ-mental Quality’s Land and Water Management Division toengage the professional services of SSOE, an architectural andengineering firm, and Quinn/Evans Architects, an architecturalfirm specializing in historic preservation, to prepare the plan.

The plan outlines measures for regular maintenance, consis-tent interpretation and ordered preservation work at the site andprovides specific recommendations on issues such as barrier-free access and painting the weathered wood-sided structures.At Fayette, a preservation approach means keeping the originalmaterials in place wherever possible, respecting changes thathave occurred over time, instead of restoring buildings or thelandscape to a particular point in time, and reconstructing onlythose features that are essential to the sites interpretation.

The Fayette Historic Townsite surrounds Snail Shell Harbor,formed by a small dolomite peninsula jutting into LakeMichigan’s Big Bay de Noc from the west side of the UpperPeninsula’s Garden Peninsula. The nearby dolomite cliffs,extensive hardwood forests and the protected harbor all con-tributed to the Jackson Iron Company’s decision to establish asmelter at this site. In operation from 1867 until 1891, Fayettebecame a leading producer of Michigan charcoal iron, which

fed the American steel industry, and contained over sixtyindustrial, administrative, commercial and residential compo-nents. Today the townsite retains the masonry walls of the fur-nace complex along with other elements associated with theiron-smelting operation. Sixteen additional buildings have sur-vived, including the company office, the town hall, a hotel, thesuperintendent’s house and ten other houses. Museum exhibitsdepict the life and work of the nearly five hundred residentsthat once lived in or near the town.

The townsite was acquired by the state of Michigan andbecame a state park in 1959. It is jointly administered by theMichigan Department of Natural Resources and MichiganDepartment of State’s Michigan Historical Center. The town-site’s dramatic natural setting and its remarkably intact condi-tion comprise a cultural resource without equal in theMidwest. The Cultural Resource Management Plan for theFayette Historic Townsite will assist both agencies in ensuringthat Fayette continues as a premier historic site and visitor des-tination into the twenty-first century.

Brian ConwayState Historic Preservation Office

Working for the Taxpayer

As state government seeks to increase its efficiency, theState Archives of Michigan has no trouble justifying itsexistence. For example, during the twenty-three yearsthat I have been with the archives, three people have broughtin Michigan Civil War bonds with the redemption coupons stillattached. In each case, principal and compound interest since1861 came to about $1 million. Also in every instance, by rely-ing upon records in the possession of the archives, the state of

Michigan proved that the bonds submitted had already beenpaid off and so the claims were disallowed.

In another case, about nine years ago, one man submittedto the state for redemption a Michigan revenue bond of a largedenomination and some antiquity. The principal and com-pound interest allegedly due this person was $20 million, asum equal to the total amount received by the State Archivesduring its eighty-year history. Fortunately, for taxpayers, afterviewing records in the State Archives, the Ingham CountyCircuit Court ruled that the bond in question had never beenissued and was thus invalid.

During the past few years, as land was being purchased forthe U.S. 27 bypass of St. Johns, the Michigan Department ofTransportation (MDOT) was unable to get clear deed on oneparticular parcel of land. Unless this problem could be solvedand an uninterrupted title history of the real estate established,MDOT and Michigan taxpayers stood to lose about five hun-dred thousand dollars. In desperation MDOT investigators vis-ited the State Archives, and there they found the missing doc-ument that quieted any legal concerns about title to the tract.

LeRoy BarnettState Archives of Michigan

FROM THE CENTERFROM THE CENTER

“From the Center” allows the Michigan Historical Center to regularly share detailsabout special programs, new collections and historic discoveries. The center, apart of the Michigan Department of State, is responsible for preserving, protect-ing and interpreting Michigan history. The center consists of five major sections:Michigan History Magazine, the Michigan Historical Museum System, the StateArchives of Michigan, the Office of the State Archaeologist and the State HistoricPreservation Office.

Cultural Resources Management Plan Completed for Fayette Historic Townsite

The State Archives of Michiganhelped build the U.S. 27 bypass.

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Masonic Hall or other lodges; hym-nals, prayer books, pews and lecternsfrom downtown churches.Decisions on which artifacts to

accept are made by the MuseumCollections Committee and are basedon a review of the object and its history.Please do not send objects to themuseum until you have contacted thecollections staff.

Annual MichiganPreservation Conference

The Michigan Historic PreservationNetwork’s seventeenth annual preser-vation conference, “We Did It. So CanYou: The Best of Preservation inMichigan” will convene on 11 and 12April 1997 in Bay City at the nine-teenth-century Scottish Rite Cathedralin the heart of the Center AvenueHistoric District. The two-day programwill feature over fifty speakers fromaround Michigan in two concurrenttracks. Fees range from $40 to $110,and include discounts for students,seniors, single-day and Upper Penin-sula attendees. To receive a conferencebrochure, contact the MHPN at PO Box398, Clarkston, MI 48347-0398, (810)625-8181 or fax (810) 625-3010.

State Historic PreservationOffice Issues Subgrants

The State Historic Preservation Office(SHPO) of the Michigan HistoricalCenter has selected subgrants for its fis-cal year 1997 federal historic preserva-tion funding. Following is a list of thesubgrants, which will begin this summerand be completed in 1998. Because ofstatic funding, funding was limited to theCertified Local Government program.Application information for fiscal year1998 will be available in June; applica-tions are due 30 November 1997.

Allegan Regent Theater ($9,000):Stabilization of the exterior wall of thetheater. The project work will include theapplication of a flexible finish thatmatches the existing color of the structure.

Lansing Survey ($15,600): Survey

of north Lansing, downtown, the Olds-mobile Park Development Area andseveral other historic commercial areasin the city of Lansing. These areas werechosen because they are experiencingdevelopmental pressures.

Ypsilanti Masonic Temple ($19,800):Restoration of the facade of theYpsilanti Masonic Temple. The projectwork will include the replacement ofentry doors and transom, entry lighting,window infill (with opaque safety glaz-ing), repair of metal cornice and tuck-pointing of brick masonry, andrefurbishment of limestone. The prop-erty is used as a community-arts center.

Holland Cappon House Restora-tion ($12,000): Repair of the Waverlystone foundation, which will includethe replacement of badly eroded stonesand reconstruction of the cellar win-dow opening and wells. The propertyoperates as a house museum in inter-preting the life of one of the commu-nity’s founding families.

Kellogg Warden House ($11,000):Restoration of the interior walls and fin-ishing, which will include repairingdamaged wall areas, windows anddoors; repairing and sanding the woodfloors and installing wood trim. Uponrestoring its interior, this Ann Arborhouse will become the WashtenawCounty Historical Society’s museum.

Ann Arbor Michigan Theater($18,000): An engineering study willbe prepared for the installation of a newHVAC system. The current system isoriginal to the structure and is damag-ing the interior plaster. The structurestill operates today as a theater.

To list an upcoming or a past happening, writeto Mary Jo Remensnyder, Michigan HistoryMagazine, 717 West Allegan, Lansing, MI 48918,or fax her at (517) 373-0851. Include the eventname, date, time, location and costs. Submissionsmust be received three months in advance of theissue in which events may appear. Due to spacelimitations, not all submissions will be used.

MarchMarch 13. “The Life and Times of the War of 1812” Lecture, Taylor Historical Society,Taylor, (313) 291-9594March 15 and 16. Twenty-first Annual Kalamazoo Antique Arms and Pioneer CraftsShow, Yankee Doodle Muzzle Loaders, Kalamazoo, (616) 327-4557March 22. Fifth Annual Quilt Exhibit and Craft Fair, First Presbyterian Church of Marshall,Marshall, (616) 781-5161March 22. Guest Lecture Presentation on the Belle Shipwreck off the Texas Coast atMichigan Historical Center (co-sponsors Michigan Maritime Museum and WesternMichigan University’s Department of History), Lansing, (800) 747-3810

AprilApril 2. “Rumrunning and the Roaring Twenties” Public Lecture Series, DearbornHistorical Museum, McFadden-Ross House, Dearborn, (313) 565-3000April 6. Genealogy and History Book Fair, Mid-Michigan Antiquarian Book DealersAssociation, Lansing Center, Lansing, (517) 332-0123April 11 and 12. Michigan in Perspective, Thirty-ninth Annual Local History Conference,McGregor Memorial Conference Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, (313) 577-4003April 22. Michigan Centennial Farm Association’s Annual Meeting and Luncheon,Holiday Inn West, Lansing, (517) 649-8901.

MayMay 3-July 25. On the Road: Art and the Automobile Exhibit, Kresge Art Museum,Michigan State University, East Lansing, (517) 355-7631May 4. Mendon Old Car “Dust Off,” Mendon Kiwanis Club and Three Rivers C.A.R. Club,Mendon High School, Mendon, (616) 496-5695 May 16 and 17. Twenty-third Annual Historic Homes Tour, Ionia County HistoricalSociety, Ionia, (616) 527-4437

DATEBOOKDATEBOOK

March/April 1997 11

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In dime theaters across the South, children satmesmerized as Cowboy Bob Blake rode,roped and rousted range rustlers. Strains of his

trademark “I’m a Happy Cowboy” song pepperedhis Wild West films and Cowboy Bob’s messageto pint-sized moviegoers was always the same: nodrinking, no cigarette smoking and no shooting,except in self-defense.

It was a time when B-grade Westerns were therage and singing cowboys Gene Autry and RoyRogers carved names for themselves in the filmindustry. But the man who portrayed Bob Blakeearned a place in the history books. HerbertJeffries, nicknamed the Bronze Buckaroo, was thefirst—and only—African American to star in thesinging cowboy flicks so popular in the 1930s.

Sixty years have passed since the Detroit nativejumped in the saddle and overcame the race barri-ers of the silver screen. They have been yearsfilled with projects and adventures. Just last year,Warner Western released Jeffries’ latest ten-songcompact disc of Western music entitled TheBronze Buckaroo (Rides Again). But the title ismisleading. Tall-in-the-saddle Jeffries is makingno comeback—he never left the spotlight.


BY MARY A. DEMPSEY

Western Union telegram delivery. I was a page boy at WJR.” He adds that hewent to school “and didn’t think of being separate,” even though his skin wasdarker than that of some of his classmates.

Not only was he reared in a racial potpourri, but young Jeffries hadexposure to both urban and rural life. He talks of visits from his father’sfamily in Windsor and recalls how he frequently went to his grandpar-ents’ Port Huron farm or his uncle’s dairy farm in Toledo. It was atthose farms, at about age eight or nine, that he learned to ride horses,setting the stage for his later work as a movie cowboy.

Films were but a small part of Jeffries’ legacy, which is predomi-nantly musical. In Detroit he started singing in cabarets and thenfound his name on the bill at the Graystone Ballroom and theArcadia Dance Hall, both on Woodward Avenue. He also croonedon moonlight cruises at Put-in-Bay.

His cowboy calling came when he turned twenty-one. Heheaded west, although the Windy City was his immediatedestination. Knowing Chicago would host the World’s Fairin 1933, Jeffries hoped to tap into the plethora of musicjobs he expected would accompany the internationalfete. “I went to Chicago to spread my wings,” he says.And there Jeffries’ silky voice landed him work withHines and a contract to accompany Hines’ orchestraon a national tour. Between 1933 and 1935, he trav-eled around the country. “It was my passport to thewor1d,” he says of the road work. It also openedhis eyes to race.

“When we went down South, that’s where Ifirst saw discriminatory theaters, including atthe U.S. capital, where blacks sat in segre-gated balconies,” says a still-outragedJeffries. “I was working with educated peo-ple in Earl Hines’ group—college educa-tions. People wanted their autographs butthey couldn’t stay in the same hotels asthem. I wanted to revolt against that.”

He talks of the blacks he saw flocking tosegregated theaters to watch white cowboy movies,the so-called Sunday matinee “horse operas” in vogue at thetime. “I said, ‘Wait a minute. Blacks helped pioneer the West.’”

Right he was.“I’ve seen estimates that as many as one-third of the cowboys had black ances-

try,” says Deborah Tucker, an expert on the historical links between Native Americans andblacks in the United States. “After the Civil War, black soldiers couldn’t go back to the planta-tion—they didn’t have anything to go back to.” Tucker, a multicultural librarian at WayneState University’s Purdy Library, claims before emancipation the western frontier offeredopportunities for escaped and freed slaves. And, like many others who joined the westwardmovement, they were lured by adventure. Today, one of those black cowboys, Bill Pickett, isfeatured on a U.S. postage stamp.

This slice of history has been poorly documented, Tucker notes, in part because cowhandsdid not keep written records of their experiences and there were few people documenting themigration of blacks. However, she adds, the chapter that black cowboys added to the annals ofthe U.S. frontier “is not just black history. This is American history. It’s all of our history.”

March/April 1997 13

The man whose voice wowed dancing couples inDetroit ballrooms and drew crowds anxious to hearhim croon with Earl “Fatha” Hines at Chicago’s

Grand Terrace Nightclub more than half a century ago isstill packing them in. At the Copper Mountain Resortnear Denver in 1995, the elegant octogenarian stole theshow, running through his four-and-a-half-octaverange with a symphony backdrop before an audienceof fifteen thousand who had come to hear better-known, contemporary singers including MaryChapin Carpenter. “The former Duke EllingtonOrchestra lead vocalist and the ‘30s Westernmovie hero sang with grace and power, draw-ing a roar of approval,” read the review in TheDenver Post.

His quintet of cowboy movies—onlyfour of which were released—were justone stop in the rich and expansive careerof Jeffries, who crossed the color barriermore than once and attributes his atti-tudes about music, race and life to hisearly years in Detroit. “My motherwas a dressmaker and she did the-atrical costumes. My father anduncle and aunt sang,” recallsJeffries, now eighty-five, but whocould easily pass for twentyyears younger.

His parents met while hisfather, whom he describes as a mix of Ethiopian,

Chippewa, Italian and Indian,was performing near Lake Huron. The

singers stayed with local families and one,Howard Jeffries, found himself in the home of the

woman he would eventually marry and move with to Detroit.Jeffries says his Irish-American mother, Mildred, “an O’Dell from

Port Huron,” nurtured a family that ignored racial taboos. He talks of beingraised in a cultural melting pot. “In Detroit, in my neighborhood, we had neighbors who

were Jewish and who were Polish. We lived around Watson and St. Antoine,” he says, recall-ing the downtown streets of his youth. “We shared our cultures. We shared food over the backfence. Our Jewish neighbors would share gefilte fish. Our Italian neighbors would bring usleftovers of Italian food.”

Unlike the throngs of blacks that migrated to Detroit from the South about the time Jeffrieswas born, his father’s family came from Canada. As a result, much of Jeffries’ education aboutracial divisions did not begin until he traveled beyond Michigan’s borders.

Although he has not been to Michigan “since I buried my aunt Agnes Swan—the last of myimmediate family—eighteen years ago,” he speaks fondly of the Motor City, where heattended St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church at East Elizabeth and St. Antoine Streets and begansinging in the choir when he was about twelve. Little did he suspect those adolescent vocalchords would evolve into a velvety baritone that put him in the spotlight at top nightclubs inDetroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and even Paris.

Jeffries says he “did the things that kids did in those days” in the dynamic automotive citythat at the time boasted a population close to two million. “I sold newspapers. I worked doing


Jeffries spent nearly a yearseeking financial backing forhis Westerns with an all-blackcast. In 1936 producer JedBuell finally agreed to helphim and the Bronze Buckaroowas born.

a Western musical featuring a cast of all little people. Although that sagebrush saga waspanned by critics, it earned Buell some notoriety.

Jeffries explained his plan of a Western with an all-black cast led by a singing star whocould ride and rope. But Buell’s response was not encouraging. “I don’t think the blacktheatergoers will buy it,” he replied. However, the tenacious Detroiter refused to give up.Jeffries pressed until Buell agreed to bounce the idea off a Dallas film distributor. “I’ll take allyou have,” the distributor responded. Jeffries had not planned to star in the films, “but we hadtrouble finding African Americans who could ride, sing and act. We tested ten or twelve andnone could do all three. But I could.”

Although he had picked up equestrian skills at his grandfather’s farm, Jeffries spent threemonths at a ranch learning how to twirl a rope, round up and brand cattle, vault from a horseand then jump back into the saddle. He lured comedian Spencer Williams, who later starred asAndy of television’s Amos ‘n Andy, to join the film as his costar. Jeffries roped in the rest ofthe cast from the small pool of black actors then working in Tarzan pictures. “I had a visionand we did whatever it took for that vision to happen. Sometimes we worked fourteen hours aday. Horses stepped on my foot. I fell off the horse. Sometimes I was so tired and sore that Icouldn’t get my leg over the horse, so I’d jump from an apple box,” recalls Jeffries. “We usedthe same singing cowboy formula as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, but we had our ownapproach. For example, we didn’t trip our horses so they fell down like Rogers did.”

Working with a budget of less than eighty thousand dollars, Jeffries not only starred as BobBlake “the guy who came to the rescue,” but he wrote and sang the songs, edited the film andperformed his own stunts. “I was a fearless character,” heexplains. “Besides, we couldn’t afford a double. ”

For six days at N. B. Murray’s Dude Ranch, a Californiavenue frequented by African American entertainers and athletes,the six-foot-plus singer became a movie star, filming his dream.Before the end of 1936 Harlem on the Prairie debuted at theRialto Theater on Broadway in New York City—and Jeffriessigned for three more Westerns. Two Gun Man from Harlem andHarlem Rides the Range were both released in 1937 and theblues-style music that characterized the first movie took on amore Western touch with songs like “Git Along Mule,” “TheCowpoke’s Life Is the Only Life for Me” and “Almost Time forRoundup.” The Bronze Buckaroo was released in 1938.

“We were playing all over the South,” Jeffries says of themovies that were usually filmed within a week. “I was like the PiedPiper at personal appearances. I had a Cadillac with steer horns upfront and my name in gold rope on the side and after the picture I’ddo rope tricks, spin my gun and sing songs from the movie.Wherever I went, kids would follow me down the street—not onlyblack kids but white kids, too, which was unusual to see downSouth. They’d seen cowboys before but not movie cowboys.”

The movies might have made Jeffries a celebrity, but theynever made him rich. A fifth film, Ten Notches to Tombstone,was never completed. It was 1939 and music beckoned again.

During a return to his hometown, Jeffries dropped by theGraystone to catch a performance of Duke Ellington’s orchestra.Ellington, a man the Bronze Buckaroo calls “the Mozart of ourtime,” surprised him with a contract offer. With that famous bandas his backup, the Detroiter in 1941 recorded “Flamingo.” Thesong propelled him near the top of the jazz world’s lineup andsold some 14 million copies.

March/April 1997 15

Jeffries says the turning point for him came during a road trip to Cincinnati. “There was abunch of little children running down the street. A little black boy was with them, crying,”Jeffries recalls. “He said they wouldn’t let him play cowboy. He wanted to be [movie cowboy]Buck Jones and they wouldn’t let him. In the real West, one of every four cowboys wasblack.”

Ironically, when Buck Jones met Jeffries, he tried to talk him into a wild plan in whichJeffries would move to South America, learn Spanish, return with a new name and non-blackidentity and make his Western debut as Jones’ discovery. Jeffries says he was briefly tempted“because by then I’d learned how things are stacked against” African Americans. But heturned down the popular Western star of silent films and early talkies.

Instead, Jeffries, who in 1995 narrated the PBS special California Gold and appeared in theTBS three-part documentary, The Untold West, on the legacy of black cowboys on theAmerican frontier, decided it was time to give the country a history lesson. “In 1936 I came toCalifornia to make the first all-black cowboy movie. I wanted to be in cowboy pictures. Ididn’t care whether I was a star, I just wanted to be part of the technology of making themhappen,” he says.

Jeffries spent nearly a year courting black millionaires, mostly kingpins in the urban num-bers games, but found no one willing to back his Hollywood dream. Then one day he turnedup at the office of Jed Buell, a producer who two years later released The Terror of Tiny Town,


During a visit home to Detroitin 1939, Jeffries was surprisedwith a contract offer to singwith Duke Ellington and hisband. Today, the eighty-five-year-old crooner (opposite) still enchants fans with his rich baritone.

Jeffries’ Bob Blake cowboy movies, which for a long time disappeared, resurfaced in thebooty now known by film buffs as the Tyler Collection. For decades there were no knowncopies of Harlem on the Prairie and its successors. However, the serendipitous discovery offilm cans in a collapsed cellar near Dallas led to the re-release on video of the BronzeBuckaroo flicks. Fragments of the films appeared in Mario Van Peebles’ movie, Posse, in1993.

Jeffries is proud of the Hollywood race barriers he broke with his Westerns. “I feel like mylittle grain of sand has made the beach better,” he says. “All I ever wanted out of this was tolook up at the screen and see an actor like Denzel Washington. With him you have the ulti-mate: a man like Denzel Washington doesn’t play a black man, he plays a man. I’ve seen himand now I’m satisfied.”

During the early 1960s Jeffries became involved in Eastern studies, spending time in India.Even now, he occasionally teaches yoga and “cosmic and human engineering” classes. Heappeared in the movie The Hit Man with Jack Palance.He is also active in a Los Angeles Opera effort to getmore African Americans interested in classical music andopera fundraising. And Europe still enters the picturefrom time to time. In 1995 he spent two months inEngland, singing at the Soho Jazz Festival. Jeffries, whosays there will be no retirement “as long as I can walkand talk and sing,” also has a long “to do” list, whichincludes finishing his memoirs and recording a tribute toDuke Ellington.

But most of Jeffries’ latest adventures involve an eclec-tic mix of children’s storybook tapes, symphony perfor-mances and Western music. With the collaboration of hismanager, Johnny Holiday, whom Jeffries describes as hisclosest friend and partner for forty-five years, the Impacrecording label got off the ground. The firm is workingon a series of dramatized audiotapes for children. Thetapes—some completed, some still in the planningstage—include fairy tales, biographies and literaryclassics.

The interest in children’s entertainment is not new.One of Jeffries’ more whimsical gigs was a stint as the voice of a cartoon character fourdecades ago in the children’s TV show Patty the Pelican. One of the talking-book series opensin the ranch bunkhouse with the Bronze Buckaroo introducing the tape’s tale.

Jeffries hasn’t stopped performing before audiences. He eschews the club scene because“the capacity of a club is so small, they don’t pay well, I have to breathe in cigarette smokeand a lot of people come to be seen—not to listen.” But he sings and records with severalCalifornia orchestras, including La Mirada symphony, and he has performed with theSagebrush Symphony in San Antonio. He sings classical, Gershwin, jazz and Western music.

The latter, which he clarifies is not “country music,” brings his movie days full circle. Forhis The Bronze Buckaroo (Rides Again) recording in Nashville, he wrote “Lonesome RiderBlues” and “Down Home Cowboy,” but the compact disc also contains his “I’m a HappyCowboy” movie theme song and a duo with Western singing sensation Michael MartinMurphey on “Pay Day Blues” from Harlem Rides the Range. “To say I was the first blacksinging cowboy on the face of this earth is a great satisfaction. But that’s history,” saysJeffries. “Today, I’m the new kid in Western music.” n

Mary Dempsey is a regular contributor to Michigan History Magazine. She is currently assistant city editor at the SanJuan Star in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

March/April 1997 17

The self-described “new kid inWestern music” wrote severalof the songs featured on hiscompact disc, The BronzeBuckaroo (Rides Again).

Soon Jeffries left Ellington to set off on his own. His solo act didn’t nab the attention hehad envisioned and his career began to waver. Then Pearl Harbor was bombed and Jeffriesenlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces. By the time the war ended, there were fewer segregatedtheaters, the audience for black Westerns had waned and some of the hottest jazz nightclubswere in Europe. The man who had won the hearts of music fans in one country set out to winthose in another.

“Europeans didn’t discriminate as long as you had something to offer,” he says of thedecade he spent singing in France. “A lot of Afro-American expatriates went to escape the stu-pid hatred [of racism].”

In Paris and on France’s Mediterranean coast, Jeffries crossed paths with JosephineBaker, clarinetist Sidney Bechet and other Americans whose names jam the jazz annals. Hepacked in audiences and was in such demand on the Cote d’Azur that he split his time amongthree Riviera clubs, including the chic Carroll’s Beach Bar near Eden Roc. Eventually, Jeffriesopened his own nightclub named for the song that clinched his career—Flamingo.

Life magazine sent writer Richard L. Williams to Paris to find Jeffries. The singer was fea-tured in a September 1953 article entitled “He Wouldn’t Cross the Line,” detailing the blue-eyed

man’s refusal to “pass” as white. The lengthy article gave a peek at atalented performer who was frequently mistaken as Italian, Jewish,Mexican or Spanish, and his gentle and educated responses to the racialbarriers that made him a star everywhere but in his home country.

Jeffries’ first Flamingo Club was a small, smoky jazz bar with abouta hundred seats. Its popularity allowed him to move to a venue threetimes the size; eventually, he opened a Riviera branch in Cap d’Antibesbetween Nice and Cannes. “We’d go to the south of France for fourmonths each year. I had good French musicians mixed with Americanmusicians and I ran the club, performed, was chief bottle washer, jani-tor and host,” he says with a laugh. “When you can see your name on amarquee, it doesn’t mean you’re successful. But what really makes youlevitate is when you walk down a street in a place like Paris and littlechildren, both black and white, know who you are.”

The Life article sparked renewed stateside interest in Jeffries andhe received invitations to play at renowned clubs like the Macamboin New York. For the next six years he shuttled between Europe andthe United States, playing clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. That’swhen Marion Crawford recalls seeing him perform in Detroit. “Hehad a debonair air. He would sing things like ‘Sophisticated Lady’

and the Duke Ellington stuff,” she says. “He came here now and again and papers like theMichigan Chronicle and the Detroit Tribune used to cover his performances.”

Crawford, now a retired Wayne County medical secretary, used to work as a road managerin the music industry. An avid fan of Jeffries, she booked a cruise on the SS Norway in 1994when she discovered he was on the list of performers. “His voice is better than ever. He was asmash on that Norway cruise,” she says. “Anytime they mentioned he was appearing in one ofthe rooms, it was packed. And no one believed that he was eighty-three years old!”

Offers like the one that took Jeffries to Detroit in the 1950s kept coming and, at the insis-tence of the woman who was then his wife, the singer moved back to the States in time forChristmas in 1959. He settled in Los Angeles, playing the night-club circuit and eventuallyopening another Flamingo Club.

Today, music still dominates his life, which has been interwoven with five marriages and an equal number of children, including a son he fathered in his seventies while married to awoman fifty years his junior. Although none of his offspring turned to music as a profession,his oldest son, “Robert Andrew, has a marvelous voice and we’re now talking about a record‘Like Father, Like Son.’”


Jeffries insists he will notretire from show business “aslong as I can walk and talkand sing.”

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IT WAS DARKWHEN THE SEVEN COLD AND

WEARY TRAVELERS ARRIVED AT

THE OLD WING MISSION NEARBLACK LAKE. THESE FUGITIVESFROM RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION AND

ECONOMIC DISTRESS HAD TRAVELED

WITH DOMINIE VAN RAALTE BY OX-DRAWNSLED TWENTY-FOUR MILES FROM ALLEGAN. THEARRIVAL OF THESE NETHERLANDERS ON 9 FEBRUARY1847 MARKED THE SETTLEMENT OF THE KOLONIE ATHOLLAND, MICHIGAN, 150 YEARS AGO.

VAN RAALTE’SSETTLEMENT AT 150

Dua

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BY HERO BRATT& PAUL TRAP

The imported peppermints cascading from oneof the wooden shoes are embossed with a like-ness of the Netherlands’ Queen Wilhelmina.


T he Netherlands, with its long history of tolerance,hardly seems the place one would flee to avoid reli-gious persecution. Yet for a short period after theFrench Revolution, religious dissent was punished. In 1815,following Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, the Prince of Orangereturned from exile in England torule as William I. The new kingwas both well meaning and obsti-nate. A year after taking the throne,he issued an ecclesiastical constitu-tion designating the HervormdeKerk (Dutch Reformed Church) astate-supported institution. Follow-ing the ideals of the Enlighten-ment, the Hervormde Kerk nolonger insisted on the old confes-sional standards. Instead, it taughtthat Jesus Christ was an ethicalteacher who preached that man-kind could become righteous byfollowing higher moral principles.These ideas clashed with the fun-damental Reformed idea of a fallenhumanity that could do good onlythrough God’s grace.

In 1834 a revival movementamong the plain folk of the country-side and small towns led to theAfgescheiden, a movement callingfor a return to the teachings of theBelgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism and the Canonsof Dort. These pious poor also objected to the use of hymns, for

they thought that only the Psalms, inspired by God,could be used in worship. One of the members of

this movement was AlbertusChristiaan Van Raalte. Born

on 17 October 1811 inWannepervaen in theprovince of Overisel,Van Raalte studied forthe ministry at theUniversity of Leyden.

He planned to becomea clergyman like his

father. Because he hadjoined the Scholte Club at the

university, which had challenged thestate church, he was declared unfit forthe pulpit and denied ordination. When

Dominie Hendrik DeCock, leader of theAfgescheiden, was removed from the pul-

pit, his followers held a secret meeting of pas-tors and elders in 1836. They seceded from the Hervormde Kerkand formed the Gereformeerde Kerk (the “true” Reformed

Church). Van Raalte joined the secessionists and served a num-ber of seceding congregations before accepting a call toArnhem in 1840.

Following the secession, persecution and harassment beganalmost immediately. It was illegal for more than twenty people

to meet together for any unauthor-ized service. When secessionistsmet in homes and barns, their meet-ings were broken up by the author-ities and neighbors who resentednonconformists. The pastors werefined and, when they refused topay, jailed. Van Raalte spent threemonths in jail. The followers wereforced to quarter soldiers in theirhomes, were frequently fired fromtheir jobs and were denied any gov-ernmental benefits. Harassmentfailed to destroy the movement,and the steadfast faith of the perse-cuted attracted converts.

By the mid-1840s persecutionhad eased though religious fervorremained, but that was not the onlyfactor motivating migration. TheNetherlands, once a great commer-cial nation, had fallen behindEngland, the world’snew industrial leader,creating fewer

opportunities for the working class. In 1830Catholics in the southern provinces revoltedagainst the king. When attempts to suppressthe revolt failed, Belgium won its indepen-dence. The revolution was costly and the poorwere heavily taxed. Then came the final blow.The potato famine generally associated withIreland, struck the Netherlands and Germanyparticularly hard in 1845 and 1846. The potatowas the food of the poor and the failure of thepotato crop threatened the lower classes withstarvation.

Letters from successful Dutch immigrants inAmerica stirred the masses. Secessionist church leaders,including Van Raalte, were at first reluctant to abandon theirhomeland. But as dreams for a new beginning grew among theparishioners, many began leaving on their own. In April 1846Van Raalte and his brother-in-law, fellow secessionistReverend Antonie Brummelkamp, met with the congregationin Arnhem to organize a mass movement to America. The con-stitution, Foundations of the Society of Christians for theEmigration of Hollanders to the United States of NorthAmerica, clearly defined their intentions and designs. “Thefirst mission is to create a colony that is Christian. Therefore

it is recommended to theCommittee taking careof the acceptance, helpand sending of emi-grants, to find such ‘salt-ing’ elements for thecolony as are necessaryto insure a Christianmajority.”

The society determinedwho settled in the colony,or Kolonie, by maintain-ing control of land distri-

bution. Money would be collected from donors and thoseinterested in settlement. Land would then be purchased in largeblocks and distributed to the faithful; others would be excludedby denying them the opportunity to buy this land. From thebeginning it was the society’s goal to help the deserving poorof the congregations by advancing money for passage, whichthey would repay with twenty percent of their earnings.

Van Raalte’s vision was even more expansive. He saw theformation of a central town (de stad) and as new groups of set-tlers arrived, they would form new communities. Each wouldhave its own church and school, but the towns would be linkedeconomically and socially to the central town. This expansiveKolonie would help the immigrants maintain their Dutch her-itage and Reformed traditions.

In June 1846, two months after the society wasapproved, Van Raalte wrote the letter “To the

Faithful in the United States of America” andsent it to the Dutch churches in New York.

Fortunately, the letter ended up in the handsof Reverend Isaac N. Wyckoff in Albany.

Touched by Van Raalte’s description ofconditions in the Netherlands and his plain-

tive plea for help, Wyckoff had the lettertranslated and printed in the Christian

Intelligencer, the paper of the ReformedProtestant Dutch Church in America. Following

its publication, Wyckoff helped organize theProtestant Evangelical Holland Emigrant Society

in Albany to provide aid to the anticipated immi-grants. A similar group was founded in New York

City. He wrote Van Raalte, urging him to send three individualsahead to search for a suitable site in the Midwest.

Van Raalte had not waited for a response to his letter. On24 September 1846 he left Arnhem, leading a party of fifty-sixsouls. On 2 October they boarded the Southerner. The dom-inie and his family stayed in a cabin while the remainderof the party traveled below deck. When the South-erner arrived in New York, the fifty-four poorlyprepared Dutch (two had died during the forty-seven-day voyage) were met by Thomas DeWitt, pastor of the Collegiate Church, aReformed congregation. De Witt hadbeen in the Netherlands earlier in theyear and was aware of theseceders’ struggles. The immi-grants were warmly receivedand helped aboard a steamboatthat carried them to Albany.There Wyckoff greeted the littleband and encouraged these pioneersto travel to the Midwest. He suggested they settle inWisconsin, where a number of Hollanders already lived.

After a short stay in New York’s capital, the party boardeda train for Buffalo. Although impressed with the Hudson Riversteamboats, Van Raalte had little good to say about Americanrailroads. Everything was cheaply built and the railbed had noprotection. The ride was rough and long due to delays causedby rain. Rain even leaked into the cars. Reaching Buffalo, theywere anxious to leave quickly, hoping to reach Wisconsinbefore the Great Lakes froze. Storms on Lake Erie delayedthem, prompting some members of the party to find jobs inBuffalo where they remained until spring. On 27 November,the reduced party boarded Eber B. Ward’s Great Western andsteamed toward Detroit.

During the three-day journey, Van Raalte wroteBrummelkamp a letter, recording his early impressions ofAmericans. He was dismayed at the number of predatoryscoundrels who tried to take advantage of the immigrantsstruggling with a strange tongue in both New York andBuffalo. On board he was struck by how fast Americans ate,that meat was served at every meal and how few vegetableswere eaten. No deference was given because of social class,and people paid little atten-tion to how well otherswere dressed. Anyonewho could pay his waywas equal. Peoplewere hospitable, but VanRaalte heard few compli-ments. He also notedwith interest the numberof individuals who readnewspapers.

At Detroit, VanRaalte’s party learnedthat since it was so late in


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Albertus Van Raalte’s likeness was captured in an 1856 portrait (oppo-site) painted by Marius Harting, an obscure Grand Rapids artist. Otheritems important to the dominie included his pocket watch (oppositeleft), his trunk (above), a cradle used by his infant daughter, Christine(top left), and his letter seal and pipe tool bearing the letters AVR (topright). The photo at right shows Van Raalte’s top hat, teakettle, pocketwatch, a Dutch dust pan and spice box. In front lies a candle snuffer.Photos Joe Lefever, Holland Museum, unless otherwise noted.

the season, the Great Lakes were freezing, and no boats wouldleave for Milwaukee until spring. Traveling by land was tooexpensive since the railroads did not extend beyondKalamazoo. Van Raalte found rooms for his family, but thepoor Dutchmen traveling with him were divided. Some foundshelter in a Detroit warehouse; ten families accepted E. B.Ward’s offer to work on a steamboat he was building at St.Clair, in exchange for room and board. Since these Dutchimmigrants had few skills and didn’t understand English, theywere assigned the most menial tasks.

At this time Detroit was the state capital. When state lead-ers learned of Van Raalte’s plans to establish a Dutch colony,they urged him to consider Michigan rather than continue on toWisconsin. Michigan was anxious for settlers. The state’sgrowth had been slowed by the financial fiasco created whenits internal-improvements plan collapsed. The statewas discredited when it repudiated its bonds; with-out transportation, few people moved into theinterior. Ships sailing from Detroit through theStraits often continued to the western side ofLake Michigan since there were more settlementsin Wisconsin and Illinois.

Van Raalte was both befriended and strongly influencedby Detroit attorney Theodore Romeyn, a descendent ofearly Dutch settlers in the East. He had ties to theReformed Church and spoke Dutch. Van Raalte was alsoaided by the Reverend George Duffield of thePresbyterian Church. Some of their arguments were legit-imate; others were balderdash. Michigan main-tained close ties with eastern markets thatwould strengthen as roads were developedand railroads completed. On the otherhand, western trade would be tied tothe Mississippi River and NewOrleans, where slavery would beconfronted. Western Wisconsinhad few settlements, makingtravel and trade difficult; east-ern Wisconsin had a mixed pop-ulation of immigrants that mightbe indifferent toward the religiousNetherlanders. Michigan, how-ever, was populated by old settlersfrom the East who were morescholarly, enterprising and reli-gious. They would appreciate and respect Dutch immigrants.Michigan’s forested lands would be inexpensive to farm andwould provide more building materials than the prairie.Michigan was healthier, for the southern Wisconsin climatewas too hot for immigrating Hollanders. Van Raalte was con-vinced to at least explore sites in Michigan.

The good dominie was introduced to Allegan judge JohnKellogg, who jumped at the opportunity to show him potentialsites in western Michigan where large tracts of land were still

available for reasonable prices. As 1846 drew to a close,Kellogg led Van Raalte on an exhausting eleven-day trekthrough deep snow, examining sites in Kent, Allegan andOttawa Counties. As soon as he saw it, Van Raalte was con-vinced that the east end of Black Lake (present-day LakeMacatawa) was the ideal location for his Kolonie. The lakeemptied into Lake Michigan so it would make a good harbor.He was not a farmer but thought the sandy soil was similar tohis homeland. The forest would be easy to clear and the woodwould be useful for construction and fuel.

The location was relatively isolated so the immigrantswould not be disrupted by outsiders. But Grand Rapids, GrandHaven and Allegan were near enough to provide supplies. Onlythree buildings stood in the area: the cabin of Isaac Fairbanks,

the frame house of the Reverend George Smith anda mission church for the three hundred Ottawa wholived in the nearby wigwam village calledNingwegah or Old Wing. Most of these Indians, ledby Chief Waukazoo, had been converted toCatholicism by French priests, but the U.S. govern-

ment had sent Smith, a Congregational missionary, toassimilate the Ottawa while Fairbanks taught them tofarm. The Indians had relinquished most of theirlands by treaty and received a pension of about eight

dollars a year. They lived peacefully, trying to retaintheir traditions and follow time-tested practices andgenerally ignoring Smith and Fairbanks’ efforts.

Once he had decided upon this site, Van Raaltemoved quickly. Traveling north he met with the

Reverend William Ferry, founder of GrandHaven, then returned to Detroit with

Judge Kellogg. A committee of sevenprominent Michiganians was formed,

who pledged themselves to aidDutch immigrants moving west

and to help Van Raalte secureland. His funds had dwindledto four hundred dollars, so

the committee bought landfrom the state and federal gov-

ernments and held it in trust.Three thousand additional acreswere obtained on credit from afamily in New York. By lateJanuary, property was secured and

it was time to prepare a place for his flock and other immi-grants arriving in New York.

The ten families living in St. Clair were contacted and toldthey could be the first to move to the new site. Six pouncedupon the opportunity, gathered their goods and moved toDetroit. Aided by Romeyn, they boarded a Michigan Centraltrain and arrived in Kalamazoo on February 5. Members ofthe Presbyterian church sheltered them for the night andarranged for sleighs to transport them to Otsego and then to

Allegan where Van Raalte and Kellogg waited. They arrivedon Saturday, rested on the Sabbath, then met on Monday todiscuss their course of action. The women and childrenremained in Allegan while five men—Evert Zagers, EgbertFrederiks, Hermanus Lankheet, Jan Laarman and WillemNotting, whose wife accompanied them as cook—traveledwith Van Raalte to Holland to construct shelters for the fami-lies. After traveling by an ox-drawn sleigh over a primitiveroad blazed through the forest, they arrived at Smith’s OldWing Mission late that night. Van Raalte stayed with Smith;the others slept on the floor of Fairbanks’ cabin for the nexttwo weeks. With the help of two hired American workmen,they cut a road northward from the mission until they reachedthe cedar swamps along the Black River. After raising a six-teen-by-thirty-foot cabin, they sent for their families.

Six families crowded into that first shanty. A second shel-ter was begun for other families, expected soon. On March 10,as the rest of Van Raalte’s original party still waited to come,fifteen others arrived and moved into the second cabin. Theyhad left Rotterdam on October 13, arrived in New York onDecember 21 and took the train to Buffalo. After walking allthe way to Detroit, they traveled by train to Kalamazoo and onto Holland. Upon learning that another party would arrivefrom St. Louis, the men tried to build a shelter at the mouth ofBlack Lake. They gathered boards from the deserted townsiteof Superior and along the Lake Michigan shoreline, but thework had to be abandoned for they had no nails.

Holland, the central town, was laid out and lots were beingsold, but those who arrived as intact congregations with theirown dominie chose outlying sites. The best organized of thesegroups came from the Zeeland province, led by DominieCornelius Van der Meulen and financially supported byJannes Van de Luyster, who had sold his farm to provide pas-sage for the group. Distressed by the conditions in Hollandand hoping to maintain their independence, this party movednortheast to form a community named for their province.Maarten Anne Ypma, leading a congregation of Frisians,established Vriesland. Calvinist secessionists fromGermany—closely tied to the Dutch by geography, languageand tradition—formed Graafschap, south of Holland. By theend of 1847 there were also settlements at Drenthe by indi-viduals from that province who sought better farmland thanHolland could offer. Jan Rabbers, one of those who hadwalked from Buffalo, picked a site on Frenchman’s Creek tobuild a mill. His town, Groningen, became best known as thesite of the first Veneklaasen brickworks. In 1845 Overisel wasformed by refugees from north Holland led by the ReverendSeine Bolks, who first came to take the pulpit at Graafschap.After examining the area, Bolks sought farmland with moreclay for his parishioners. That year Noord Holland andNoordeloos were also settled. Gradually, Dutch communitiesdotting western Allegan and Ottawa Counties includedVentura, Fijnaart (East Saugatuck), Zutphen, Bokulo(Borculo), Crisp, Bentheim, Zoetermeer (Beaverdam) and

Rusk.These Hollanders had a difficult first few years. By August,

fifteen hundred Dutch had migrated to the area. Those whoarrived expected to move into established communities withstreets, stores, houses and parks. What they found were a fewprimitive shelters already filled to capacity. For months new-comers lived in blanket-draped hemlock bowers similar toIndian wigwams. The unusually cold, wet summer and VanRaalte’s lack of insight in choosing his site exposed the resi-dents to hordes of mosquitoes from the swamps and wetlands.Combined with the lack of adequate shelter, high losses fromdiseases were guaranteed. Hunger was common. Most of theseimmigrants were so poor that relief committees in New York

paid for their transportation west. Many could not afford tohave food brought in from surrounding communities. Evenpotatoes at one dollar a bushel were beyond their means.Eating parched corn, new to their digestive systems, onlyincreased their suffering. Many immigrants died that first yearand were buried in the woods until a cemetery was platted.

Building cabins proved difficult. Coming from settledcountry villages in the lowlands where few trees grew, theHollanders had no skills as woodsmen. When they first triedto fell trees, they girdled the tree and hacked away indiscrim-inantly until the tree plunged to the ground. Often the fallingtrees injured the inept axmen or crushed the shelters they wereconstructing. The situation improved once hired Americanworkmen showed them how to clear the forest.

Organizing work and assigning responsibilities also proved


The four-foot-high copper rooster perched atop Holland’sfirst church served both as a weather vane and to desig-nate the church as Protestant.

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difficult. The state formed a township when the Dutch wereabout to move into the area. Since they were not citizens anddidn’t understand the language, the Hollanders could not voteor participate in township government. At first everything fellupon Van Raalte’s shoulders. As the burden grew, new arrivalsproved less likely to submit to his authoritarian decisions.Early in 1848 the men of the community met as the volksver-gadering, an extralegal body. At these meetings, similar to theNew England town meetings, decisions were made regardingcommunity regulations, schooling, building roads andbridges, as well as digging a channel. Every able-bodied manwas expected to work on community improvements. A fore-man or contractor was selected who assigned workdays andtasks. Those who shirked their duties were fined. The firstmajor project was building abridge across the Black River toimprove access to Grand Haven.

The entrance to Black Lakeand a buildup of sand at the chan-nel forced boats to anchor in LakeMichigan. A scow brought goodsashore when the lake was calm.Van Raalte attracted governmentattention to the need for harborimprovements. A governmentengineer examined the situation,and following his recommenda-tions, Congress appropriatedfunds to open the channel sosteamboats could dock at thetownsite. After President FranklinPierce vetoed the internal-improvements bill, the settlersgrabbed their tools and deepenedthe channel to allow shallow draftvessels into Black Lake.

One situation that the volks-vergadering did not deal witheffectively or fairly was relation-ships with the Indians. The Ottawa had been helpful to the set-tlers as they struggled to adapt to a new environment. TheDutch were not hostile or brutal—they simply treated theIndians as nonentities. Indians complained to Van Raalte thatafter they had hung venison from trees, the settlers cut it downand took it home for their families. The dominie paid theIndians and criticized his congregants’ behavior from the pul-pit. His admonitions fell on deaf ears. Some Hollanders didhave to pay for the Indians’ bark vessels stolen and used astroughs to feed pigs. In the spring of 1847 the Indians plantedtheir crops and then left for the summer, expecting to returnand harvest their corn in the fall. The settlers, thinking theyhad abandoned the area, appropriated the cleared fields fortheir plantings. Van Raalte needed all the assistance theReverend Smith could give him to resolve that crisis. By

1849, the Indians had their fill of the Dutch. They sold theirland claims to Van Raalte, gathered their dead and movednorth, away from the intruders.

Faith kept these pious Hollanders going during the hardearly years. In Holland itself, the faithful gathered outside VanRaalte’s cabin to worship during the spring and summer of1847. As fall approached it became obvious that a place ofworship was needed. A large log chapel (thirty-five by sixtyfeet) was built in what is now Pilgrim Home Cemetery. Thisstructure was used as a church and school for nine years. In1856 the congregation, then known simply as the People’sChurch, moved into a new Greek Revival building (now usedby Pillar Christian Reformed Church). The sixteen-inch-squaretimbers for the post-and-beam framework were cut and

squared in the forest and thenhauled to the building site in cen-tral Holland. The six massive pil-lars were fashioned using an largecedar post in the center and thencovered with staves like an elon-gated barrel. By this time therewere sawmills in the area but noplaning mill, so each interiorboard was planed by hand. Theinterior was painted and sten-ciled. The town bell was mountedin the belfry where it rang in themorning to call men to and fromwork and for emergencies andspecial occasions.

Throughout the Netherlands,Protestant churches placed arooster above the steeple or bel-fry to differentiate them fromRoman Catholic churches, whichused crosses. The four-foot-highrooster on Holland’s church washammered out of two coppersheets by local craftsman

Egbertus Vander Veen, who then soldered the pieces together.Vander Veen wanted the rooster to serve as a weather vane,but had no bearing to allow the shaft to turn. He inserted awine bottle with a concave bottom into the rooster and ran theshaft into the inverted bottle. The rooster turned in the windfor over one hundred years.

Church services in the nineteenth century lasted threehours. The sanctuary pews were divided into three sections.As they entered the church the women and children foundseats in the wide center section while the men and older boyssat in the narrow sections along both walls. The men thusenjoyed fresh air during the summer and heat from the threestoves along each wall during the winter. During the long ser-vice, the men stepped outside—ostensibly to check on thehorses—but also to take a smoke. During these services only

Psalms were sung (no hymns until 1934). Peppermintsbecame an important part of worship because they served as adiversion for the children, who sat through the entire service.The sermon lasted one and a half hours and always containedthree points. At the start of the first and second points, theyoung worshippers were given a peppermint. The third candywas greeted with delight because it meant the end was near.After the service the families enjoyed a picnic lunch outsidebefore reentering the building for another service that focusedon one of the fifty-two Lord’s Days of the HeidelbergCatechism.

Piety did not imply peacefulness. These Dutch dissenterswere stubborn. They had seceded once and would do so again.In 1849 the Reverend Wyckoff of Albany visited Holland tocheck on the Kolonie’s progress and to invite the churches tojoin the Reformed Church of America (RCA). FollowingWyckoff’s invitation, the seven Dutch congregations, stronglyinfluenced by pastors who were grateful for the easternchurches’ aid, voted to join the RCA. There were dissentersfrom the start. Some thought the RCA was too closely tied tothe Dutch Hervormde Kerk from which they had fled. Othersfelt the RCA was not faithful to the catechism and creeds andthey allowed hymns to be sung during worship.

The most divisive issue was membership in Masoniclodges. A number of parishioners feared the lodges’ secrecy,seeing conspiracy in the Masons’ silence. Some believed thatMasonic rituals detracted members from true forms of wor-ship. In 1857 the Noordeloos, Graafschap and Grand Rapidscongregations seceded from the RCA to form the ChristianReformed Church (CRC); they allied themselves with theGereformeerde Kerk—the Afgescheiden church in theNetherlands. After Van Raalte’s death in 1876 his church splitover the issue of Freemasonry. In 1882 the majority of the con-gregation, primarily later arrivals to the area, voted to with-draw from the RCA. Two years later it joined the CRC. Theminority, mostly original settlers and their descendants,remained loyal to the RCA. T

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