Note
NOTES ON DOUGLAS, MICHIGAN
The stirrings of settlement on the south side of the Kalamazoo River began in 1846 . I always like to use the term sister cities, although my use of it is not in the traditional sense. Usually, governments set aside a day for a mayoral exchange and celebrate it with fanfare, with a sister city. When I use it here, I mean to denote the area that men who started some of the towns around us originated from. For example: (1) Saugatuck was started by William G. Butler and three other men who came from St. Joseph, Michigan. (2) Singapore was started by men from Allegan, Michigan, and (3) Allegan was started by men from Boston. (4) Upriver, Richmond was begun by men from Ann Arbor and Douglas was started by men from Singapore, twice over.
ILLUSTRATE THE MCDONALD GENEOLOGY
The arrival of Robert McDonald and William Scovill to the west half, northwest quarter of section sixteen is not described in any detail in our history books. It is almost an aside remark. I have finally figured out that this is because the two men had not come with the intent to settle and start a village. In addition to this they did not settle on any part of the land that included the early villages that comprised Douglas, Dudleyville and Dutcherville.
ILLUSTRATE W 1/2, N.W. 1/4 sec. 16
Robert McDonald came to Singapore in 1837 and worked for the New York and Michigan Company, as a carpenter building their sawmill and as a sailor on the company’s ships carrying lumber. Robert McDonald hung on at Singapore as long as he could which included the beginning and end of the depression of 1837-1844. He joined, with his stepfather, William Scovill, in a logging business to supply the Saugatuck sawmill of Michael Brown Spencer. Spencer built the mill on lots #205 and 206 in 1846. This is where Rich’s products had their offices in the old Fruit exchange building. Ideally, it sat directly across from McDonald & Scovill’s woodlot. The lumber was cut in winter and placed on a rollway awaiting the spring thaw, rafted across the river and, put into the mills boom.
ILLUSTRATE ACCESS TO THE WOODLOT ON SECTION 16, AND EARLY 1837 BRIDGE ROAD TO THE SHORE AND THE 1842 BARAGAR ROAD
Whether or not Robert McDonald intended on staying or not is now a mute question because he did stay. However, he settled on a 100 acre farm on section 22, off Wiley Road (130th), in Newark Township, and what is now Saugatuck Township. He also had other family members living near him. His sister, Abigail, was married to James McLaughlin, the Saugatuck shipbuilder. The McLaughlin’s lived where Lily B & Me is located. Robert McDonald was the cousin of Mrs. George N. Smith, the wife of the missionary at Old Wing Mission. Robert’s mother, Nancy Brown, was the sister of Arvllla’s mother, Mary Brown. At some point Robert’s father apparently died and Nancy (Brown) McDonald married William Scovill and they all lived at Singapore prior to their sojourn to the south shore of the river across from Saugatuck. And we are sure that he stayed because we have Marjorie MacDonald Aplin as a member of our historical society and she is a direct descendant of Robert McDonald.
William G. Butler was in a similar situation when he came to the area. He first arrived in 1829 to scout, coming from St. Joseph. He arrived to live in 1830 and resided at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River with his family for a year. So, it was not until 1831 that he came to live on the site of Saugatuck, which was his pre-empted 86 acre farm. Saugatuck celebrated its Centennial in 1930, but Butler was not living here in 1830 and had not settled Saugatuck … By 1832, Butler had added
a frame addition to his log cabin and brought the first horse into the district. All this time he traded with Indians and whites and eventually came to stay and, known as the first settler of Allegan Co.
Jonathan Wade is given the official title of first settler because he immediately built a sawmill at the north end of his property, which included what is now the nucleus of the Village of Douglas. He arrived in 1851 and was partners with John Mead. Prior to this time he had tried his luck at Singapore in partnership with Asa Bowker, in 1848, but defaulted on that venture. Jonathan Wade had come from Canada, via Otsego, Michigan and interested his brother, Nelson and Dudley, into settling in his village.
In addition to the sawmill, Wade built a number of houses near it and the settlement began to take on proportions. There was a cemetery near the mill located in the present right-of-way of the 1939 Blue Star Highway, and a second one where the Masonic Lodge was built. Wade eventually sold his sawmill and built the Douglas House, which began as a boarding house for mill hands no doubt. He sold this in 1868 to David Roberts and Daniel Kelly. Wade was also interested in a brick business with his brother, G. N. Wade, beginning in 1873.
In 1855, William F. Dutcher came to Wade’s village known as Dudleyville and immediately bought Wade’s sawmill and half of Wade’s property north of Center Street, contiguous with the parcel that the mill was on. A political rivalry grew between Wade and Dutcher and each had his half of their property platted into lots in 1860.
The first school in Douglas was located in the corner of what is now Beery Field and the first school teacher was Minerva Whipple who eventually married Robert McDonald. The second school was on the southeast corner of Center and Union Streets and is still standing. It used to be painted sky blue, but is now yellow. The third school was built in 1867 and was known as the Douglas Union School and that one is also still standing and used for apartments.
Two things happened by the end of the next decade after Dudleyville and Dutcherville were platted. William F. Dutcher passed away and Jonathan Wade moved away. The two little towns were incorporated into one as the Village of Douglas in 1870. There was some confusion regarding the name of the new village. Some thought that it was named for Stephen Douglas, the Illinois statesman. In effect, it was named for Douglas on the Isle of Man, in the Irish sea. It had been named by Frederic H. May, who platted Dutcher’s half and was Dutcher’s brother- in-law.
At some point Dutcher had sold his sawmill to Williams, Dickey & Gray. When this mill was closed, it was replaced by the Wm. Weed & Co. basket factory around 1878.
Around 1857, the old bridge, in Saugatuck, that had lasted twenty years was no longer serviceable and a ferry was instituted. So, from 1857 to 1869 the only way to cross the river was on this ferry.
ILLUSTRATE CENTER STREET AND THE KALAMAZOO RIVER—THREE TOWNS
In 1869 a bridge was built at a different location and the following year what had been three towns separated by a street and a river were two towns joined by a bridge.
In the early 1870s Capt. Robert Reid retired from sailing and started a basket factory in Douglas near Tannery Creek. The area was heavily planted with peach and fruit trees requiring containers for shipping. William and Joshua Weed bought the basket factory and its equipment in 1878 and moved the plant to the site of Jonathan Wade’s old sawmill and became Douglas’ largest employer. When William Weed’s son, Elmer, finished college he was brought into the firm and took it over. Over the course of years different men had an interest in E.E. Weed & Co. including D. M. Gerber, Frank Wade, Frank Kirby, John E. Durham, James G. Wark, Mrs, Frank Kirby, William Tisdale, J. E. Durham, William Devine and others. At times it employed over three hundred people. SHOW PHOTOGRAPHS OF E. E. WEED & CO. AND SANBOURN FIRE MAPS
Pine was used for lumber and oak was used for ships, but beech and maple were used mostly for staves, elm for hoops, basswood and whitewood for berry boxes and soft maple was best for slats and covers for berry crates. In later years when it was organized into a stock company the name was changed to the Douglas Basket Factory. After over fifty years of existence the basket factory burned to the ground in a confligration on April 6, 1927 silencing the whistle that called men to work for many decades.
Other businesses of importance included the Gerber Tannery built by Daniel Gerber around 1864 to process shoe and harness leather. It burned down around 1869 and was rebuilt as a shoe leather tannery and renamed D. Gerber & Son to include Joseph Gerber. The tannery was enlarged the following year. In 1877 the Gerbers sold the tannery to C. C. Wallin & Sons, and managed by James T. Phillips for the Wallins. By 1880 the tan bark had run out and the tannery was close and moved to the Grand Rapids area.
There was a gristmill built by Crawford McDonald and sold to John S. Payne in 1871. Payne, in turn, sold it to Hutchinson Bros. & Co.
It changed hands again in 1880 to T. B. Dutcher and Robert M. Moore.
Joseph Gerber opened a store in 1866, which he sold to Dyer C. Putnam in 1870. This stood where the Douglas fire department-village hall is located, and burned to the ground in 1902. Later stores included the Central Store by Henry A. McDonald who operated it to his death in 1926 and continued by his sons, Archie and Roy. Others included the People’s Store, J. E. Hutchinson & Bros., Ben Wiegert’s, Harold Van Syckle’s hardware and the Model Store. George aWalz ran a meat market in the township and in downtown Douglas for fifty-years.
PASS OUT DOUGLAS CHRONOLOGY
The first church in Douglas was supposed to be a union church shared by many denominations, but the Methodist Episcopal faction of the congregation predominated and they dedicated their church on May 29th, 1872.
Congregationalists requested to use the M. E. Church in 1882 because some had contributed to that building fund. They were denied due to scheduling conflicts, and the alternative suggested was not convenient to them. So, they drew up plans for a church of their own which was dedicated on August 10, 1884 . A rear addition was built in 1941 and the church became th Douglas Congregational United Church of Christ in 1965. It was behind the alter of this church that was discovered the old Sunday School library a couple years back, when they removed a velvet drape and opened two large doors. It had probably not seen the light of day for seventy years.
A Douglas Seventh Day Adventist society was organized in 1874. In 1879 they purchased a building across the street from the southeast corner of the ball park. It is still standing today and was converted into apartments after the church disbanded in 1975.
The Catholics came to Douglas around 1894 as a mission of Visitation Church of North Dorr, meeting in private homes until 1900 when they purchased a building and converted it into a church. The congregation grew slowly until 1952 when an addition was built to accomodate summer visitors. I remember attending Camp Grey in 1953 and 1954 and going to church at St. Peter’s, in Douglas. It was a unique experience because we sat in the addition which was a quonset hut-like structure built to the right of the alter and it was the first time in my life that I viewed mass from the side. They built a new church on Blue Star Highway and St. Peter’s Drive and dedicated it on June 29, 1958.
In 1904 Lake Shore Chapel was dedicated with the Campbell Road boundary line between Saugatuck and Douglas going right through the center of the chapel. It serves summer visitors to the lakeshore. More recently, the Community Church of Douglas started a congregation here in 1965 and dedicated a new church on Wiley Road in May, 1992.
Douglas Community Hospital had its beginnings in 1931 when two of Michael B. Spencer’s daughters offered Dr. R. J. Walker the old
Spencer homestead (which eventually became the Tara Restaurant) for a hospital. Economic conditions at the time prevented the plan, but the community was all for the idea. The following year, Faith (Kirby) Nevins, Dr. Walker’s nurse converted her mother’s old home into a three bed hospital. Over the course of years more beds were added and the hospital remained here for twenty-five years, with sixteen rooms when it closed. In recent years this has become the Kirby House Bed and Breakfast Inn. There are quite a few pictures of the old hospital. A new hospital was built in 1960 and remained open until 1985, and is now a prime care clinic.
There was quite an interest in baseball around the turn of the century played on the field where the first Douglas school house stood. There are three photographs of these early teams that drew large Saturday crowds. Names of some of these players included Frank, Bill and Herm Wicks, Charles Ash, Frank Naracong, Elmer Weed, Ben Wiegert and George Hoy, with teams named Twin Cities and the Douglas Athletic Club.
Douglas has developed the commercial corridor on both sides of Blue Star Highway more so then Saugatuck, with gas stations, restaurants, motels, trailer parks and industries, but their downtown businesses are slowly disappearing. The Douglas lakeshore developed into resort community from St. Louis, Kansas and Chicago. The Village of Douglas has come through recent decades as a sleepy little residential village. There are probably as many restaurants in Douglas as there are in Saugatuck.
There are two publications that have been written about Douglas. The first is Kit Lane’s Douglas: Village of Friendliness written in 1987 and Douglas: A Unique History of Community written by Larry J. Wagenaar which might have been a thesis, also written in 1987. There are two other sources for Douglas history in May Frances Heath’s Early Memories of Saugatuck 1830-1930, and Kit Lane’s History of Western Allegan County.
