Name/Title
Rube Sewers Net Shed on Bridge StreetEntry/Object ID
2025.09.29Scope and Content
The Rube Sewers Net Shed (On Bridge Street)
SDHS newsletter article written by Chris Yoder in 2012.
Early on the morning of July 1, 2012, the Fire Department burned down the old Rube Sewers net shed on Bridge Street, and then went out and had breakfast. The shed was originally built by Rueben ("Rube") Sewers during WWII after he split from business with his twin brother Frank. According to his nephew, Bud, the building had been rebuilt or modified over the years. It was, however, intact until the roof collapsed from the heavy snow in the winter of 2010-11.
Erwin (Bud) Sewers, in a 26 Jan 2011 interview remembered:
"It was what they called a net shed, worked on nets, Demmy Demerest used to work in that building. You repaired the nets and put them on reels and you packed them into boxes and put them on the boat and then guys threw out the cork line and the lead line and another guy steered and you set the nets. These nets would be used out in Lake Michigan for perch and white fish and herring and stuff like that. Nets were stored there over the winter. My Dad [Frank Sewers] and my uncle [Rube Sewers Jr.] got into a fight so one had to buy the other out, so my Dad bought my uncle out. So he had to move. He didn't have any place to go but next door he rented from Harris Pie, just the dock and the shed to take care of the fish, but he had no place for his nets so he built that over across the highway (on Bridge St). This all happened while I was in the service during the war. When I can home it was all news to me that they had split up. I guess they went to the lawyer and firehe thought my Dad didn't have enough money to buy them out because he just got into what they call the trap net business, but he did have enough. My Uncle Rube, at that time, he had a new boat built in Holland, the Joanne, and he already had that and was in business by the time I got home from the war."
Demmy Demerest reported that he worked in that building for 17 years ending in 1965. He recalls that the original buildings were about three times larger than what was there at the end.
"They did all kinds of work, make new nets and repair the old and store. But there was another building down there beside that one, that they kept the trap nets in. They used it for storage. There were net reels all the way around that building --- probably ten or twelve reels. The first buildings burned, the 23 of Jan (he doesn't recall the year) --- and Rube built things back after the fire. There was also a smoke house down there to smoke fish. I know because I set the smoke house on fire and burned that down myself. Got the fire too hot. We tried to have the nets out of the lake and the shore work all done for spring by the 10th of January." The cement block part of the building was used as an ice house.Collection
1845 Fishing, commercial, Fires and fire departmentsCataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2025.09Source or Donor
Yoder, ChrisAcquisition Method
Donation, unconditionalCredit Line
Items scanned by Chris Yoder or Jack Sheridan for the SDHC family history group.Location
* Untyped Location
Digital data in CatalogItRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Demerest, Marvin Eugene "Demmy" 1928-2020, Sewers, Frank Wilmot 1894-1970, Sewers, Reuben W. "Rube" Jr. 1894-1978, Joann (boat), Sewers, Erwin H. "Bud" 1923-2015Create Date
July 26, 2025Update Date
July 30, 2025
