Note
Source: SDHS newsletter pg. 302-303
GROWING UP BY THE OLD STORE AT GANGES
[THE PHOTO BELOW SHOWS THE WOLBRINK HOUSE AND STORE AT GANGES IN ABOUT 1923. Bob Wolbrink, a member of the Historical Society, local historian, and successful businessman, wrote this short history of the Wolbrink store and Past Office in Ganges during the 1920s and early 1930s-providing us with a glimpse of commercial and social life along the Ganges lakeshore during that era. Scott Eddy, mentioned in the story as the previous owner, moved with his family to Douglas to what became the well known Eddy home-Beech-Hurst on Ferry Street The stone was also the site where Bob's grandfather founded the Wolbrink Insurance Agency. A fourth generation of the family, Nancy Berry, continues the insurance business in Douglas. The stone and the house still exist. Bob Wolbrink died in 1996]
Shortly after 1900 the brothers Orin and Isaac Wolbrink owned and operated a thrashing machine and steam-powered tractor. Late summer found them leaving Allendale, their home, and traveling from farm to farm whenever work was available. They arrived at Ganges and were impressed with the coot breeze coming from lake Michigan and the cool summer nights near the lakeshore. They also were pleased to view the beautiful orchards of apples, peaches, and pears, sweet and sour cherries, along the way. Family history says that Orin said "Ike, I'd like to live around here." Ike agreed and after some "looking" they bought the Ganges grocery store, then owned by Mr. Scott Eddy [in 1906].
My grandfather, Orin, moved his family to a home next to the grocery store where he and my grandmother, Grace, lived for the rest of their lives. Their son, Irving, was my father who, in 1919 married Alice P. Brunson, daughter of Dr. E.E. Brunson, who lived nearby. Mom's brother, E.T. Brunson, was also a doctor, and the two of them practiced medicine in the community for a total of seventy-five years. By the time I came along in 1923, the grocery store was a thriving business, at least for those days. I can remember the summer deliveries when it was a service of the store to deliver groceries, especially to the summer "restores" who lived along the sand dunes of Lake Michigan. One of the big "sellers" was kerosene, sold in five gallons cans. Dad always said his right arm was longer than his left since he lugged so many cans of kerosene over the sand dunes to the cottages.
The store always stayed open until 9 p. m. in the summer and it was great fun to go down to the "county park" with my folks after dark and go swimming. Quite often you could see the lights of the passenger boats out in the lake as they went by, and in those days you could always find burned-out light bulbs on the beach after they had been thrown overboard.
The grocery store was a nice place for a youngster to grow up. I can remember the NEHI brand of orange pop which was my favorite and orange pop has never tasted as good as on those hot summer days. Ice cream was delivered in big trucks from Holland. The brand was Antic and a vanilla Antic cone was also a great treat. The store had an "egg" room where eggs were taken in for groceries from farmers and, I think, candled and graded, and then sold. Another corner of the store was the meat market complete with a big wooden butcher block. The Swift meat company furnished most of the meat and they had a person who came around regularly and decorated the meat market wall with designs and decorations all made with colored crepe paper. In the middle of the whole thing were the words "Swift Meat Company." Besides the groceries, the store also carried a small quantity of shoes, bolts of cloth, thread and, I think, some items of clothing. There was also a supply of medicinal drugs and patent medicines. I can remember my folks laughing about a "run" on lemon extract, during the days of prohibition, as some customers must have been interested in the alcohol content. The Post Office was located in the store and grandfather Wolbrink was the pest master for many years. There were post office boxes with brass doors for each customer, but the address for everyone was just "Granges, Michigan." In the later years they had built a small addition for that purpose.
The Greyhound bus line always stopped at the store when someone wanted to get on or off. There was a semaphore arrangement that signaled the bus driver to stop. I think a red signal was to stop the northbound bus and a blue signal for the ones headed south. It was fun to have the busses stop and they always seem to make a big cloud of dust when they stopped alongside the road or "pike" as it was called. In the late twenties there were plenty of horses and wagons around. It was seldom that either horses or cars were not in front of the store. There were couple of benches on the porch and it seemed to me that there was always someone there to watch was happening in Ganges. Grandfather Wolbrink sold the store in 1934.![Wolbrink_store: Ganges (Blue Star Highway) It still stands and looks a lot like this. Built before 1870 as a general store—photo from early 1920s. This was Ganges first Post Office in 1879. For a time Lillian Eddy (the mother of Joan, Joyce, Barb, and Betsey), the wife of the postmaster in the 1890s, used the second floor as a private school for local children after they had graduated from high school—a sort of an early junior college. Looks like a bread delivery going on.
Source: Online "Remembering When" Sept 27, 2006 from SDHS website [See CatalogIt 2021.87.85]](https://d8e7jbdw4fu0e.cloudfront.net/4124/7edb2290-53b1-11ec-b2dc-67a5df304ff2-vUU2Gs4.lg@2x.jpg)
