Name/Title
Force's Flowers truckEntry/Object ID
2024.04.17Description
Photographic print and 2.5x3.5" negative of early "Model-T"-type truck, van or station wagon with "Force's Flowers Saugatuck, Say it with Flowers" painted on the side. The van has spoke wheels. The spare tire is adorned with the slogan "You never tire of our flowers." Behind the truck is a building, a garage and a work yard, that may be part of the Force's Florist greenhouse.Photograph Details
Type of Photograph
Print, photographSubject Person or Organization
Force's FloristsContext
Delos M. Force has been called "Saugatuck's first florist." See 2023.10.118 for a photo and newspaper clipping about a January 3, 1949 fire, likely at this site.Collection
1870 Fruit growing, farming, agriculture, Commercial businessesCataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2024.04Acquisition Method
Found in CollectionLocation
Box
075 Historical PhotographsRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Force, Delos Mettier 1859-1939Create Date
June 28, 2024Update Date
March 25, 2025
![Force family history from Commercial Record 20 Aug. 1970: D. M. Force in reconditioned "Democrat" wagon
...
We were newcomers then from the depression-stricken city of Elgin, Ilinois (the Cleveland panic, it was called) [1893]. Delos Mettier (D. M.) liked what he saw - a busy town and the natural surrounding beauty. This new life and escape from a financial disaster was a pattern set by our ancestors - Huguenots fleeing France for their lives to a new land and a new life.
Little notice was given when D. M. drove into town with his two boys in a Democrat wagon (a one-horse light delivery wagon) all the way from Illinois, a few personal belongings and several boxes of greenhouse glass, for he had been one of Elgin's pioneer nurserymen and flower growers. This glass with lumber collected from the beach of old Singapore and hauled by wagon over the dunes that buried the city and with bricks (rejects) from the Hamilton and Tyler brickyards were the beginning of Saugatuck's first commercial greenhouses.
Mrs. Force with two daughters and three sons made the tip from Elgin via Chicago, crossing the lake by steamer, then to Saugatuck by Interurban. It was natural that the first business enterprise was gardening so on rented ground - now occupied by the American Twisting Company - Force's old Iron Clad gardens were established, shipping produce to the South Water Street Market, Chicago. Later Cedar Knoll Greenhouses were built which became Force's Florists (World's Largest Little Town Florists) and the first in the county to obtain membership in a world-wide delivery service - now owned and operated by Wieland's
Flowers.
1916 Model T used by D. M. Force, right, to deliver spring plants to McDonald's Store, Wirgert's Store and Van Syckle's Store in Douglas. At left is Alvin Reed, then owner of Belvedere Farm.](https://d8e7jbdw4fu0e.cloudfront.net/4124/14f4dbf0-3572-11ef-8461-c1c7eeb670e1-vUU1atK.lg@2x.jpg)