Small Town Values: Preserving the American Value System in Rural Communities, Schemes and Mind Maps of Design of Wood Structures

Download Small Town Values: Preserving the American Value System in Rural Communities and more Schemes and Mind Maps Design of Wood Structures in PDF only on Docsity! The American Value System now known as Small Town Values by Julia A. Stone AMC Thesis May 1, 1998 Presented to the American Culture Program Faculty at the University of Michigan-Flint, fulfilling requirements for the Master of Liberal Studies in American Culture First Reader Second Reader The American Value System is Alive and Well in Small Towns Introduction I. The American Value System a. origins, what is it? b. history, where did it come from? II. Industrialization's Effects on American Values a. growth of urbanization b. urbanization's effect on values III. Transportation and Suburbanizations Effects a. Horse/Carriage Era b. railroad/ public streetcars c. recreational automobiles d. highways e. waves of movement, years and area involved IV. What is Small Town, America? a. stability b. maintaining values c. Description of a small town changes in small towns near northern industrial cities 1890, 1920's, 1930's, 1950's, 1960-70's, 2000 V. Specific examples a. Wilmington, Ohio b. Flushing, Michigan history of, what makes this town special, basic values people of Flushing how industrialization is absorbing it can they save their small town atmosphere and innocence c. Montrose, Michigan history of, what makes this town special, basic values people of Montrose another wave outside of Flushing, is the distance far enough? VI. Comparison of ideals and values in small towns west of Flint Conclusion 3 you that it feels like every adult is their parent. Taking pride and ownership of a town includes feeling connected to all who live there. In this day raising healthy, happy, well-adjusted children is extremely difficult. Having a little help along the way is welcomed by most. Each small town has a unique personality and reason for being, but all share many concrete beliefs. Families will often stay in their home town with succeeding generations giving back to the community all that has made them feel safe and secure. Some families own businesses that cater to the town's needs while others are consistently volunteering for any service needing to be done. Each town has celebrations that are planned by a volunteer group giving hours of their free time. These celebrations are put together with love and commitment for the community. Durand has Railroad Days, Swartz Creek has Hometown Days, and Montrose has its Blueberry Festival. Year after year these people choose to celebrate their hometowns. It is interesting to hear rural residents discuss recreation and summer activities because over the years, little changed. Outdoor activities are still as popular as they always have been. Simple entertainment, friends, and family seem to be the theme of pleasure in small towns. Unity is a guiding factor, joined by hard work and discipline. Play time is so much more rewarding if you have earned it, and small town people truly do. Even though small towns near large industrial cities are financially connected to the city, towns are generally trying to keep the atmosphere at home as innocent as possible in this technological age. Often they refuse to give permits to chain restaurants or 4 what they deem to be immoral industries. A prime example is in Montrose. The township has accepted landfills as business in this community, but will not permit a juvenile training camp or fast food restaurants in town. Landfills may not be glamorous work, but they do not require strangers to come in to town for a length of time. Restaurants need people and a juvenile facility would not only bring those youths into the community, but also the families coming to visit. The idea was overwhelmingly denied. The philosophy of keeping things small and personal is primary in small town values. 5 I The American Value System When the term "small town values" arises in conversation, people nod their heads and agree that there are positive aspects to living by these ideals. If debating the best way to raise children, someone will mention that children are best raised in the realm of the safety of small town values. When asked to define that term, however, a pause in conversation and a surprised look comes over the faces of those present. How could someone question the definition of this broadly and loosely used phrase? If we look closely at the definition, we must consider the history of this country to truly understand the evolution of this theory. To thoroughly understand today's idea of small town values, we must understand how they actually arrived from our belief in the original "American Value System." Before being "discovered" by Christopher Columbus, this country was a vast open land sparsely populated by American Indians. The land was clean, unpolluted, and a natural habitat to many wild animals. Most Europeans who came here were from relatively small, dirty, polluted, and over-populated countries. They came to escape political powers pushing religious beliefs on all who lived there. Those choosing to make 8 Values, being based on past experience, came into question as a result of the migration to a new land. Settlers chose to keep part of their European value system while modifying, changing and creating new values for the New World. When moving to the new world most people brought nothing, or very little, with them. The American style, in the beginning, was purely functional, cheap, and a matter of simple survival. They based life on necessities and availability. Many who migrated also made more than one move once they reached America. It was imperative that they knew how to survive on almost nothing. It was a constant struggle to build. They built their homes, tools, relationships, and lives in these new lands. "Migration has continued to be a powerful influence throughout American history. In the decade 1920 to 1930, for example, an old stable East Coast city such as Norristown, Pennsylvania, received 501 new male migrants and lost 382. For the whole period 1910 to 1950, in-migration accounted for 80 percent of the growth in male population." (Cochran p8) This demonstrates the tremendous movement that has always been a part of shaping the people of the United States. Geography and abundant natural resources helped to shape the new value system. Abundance of fertile land enticed internal migration and gave rise to innovations in the practice of farming, shop keeping, and millwork, drastically changing the culture. Migration and cheap land, completely unheard of in Western Europe, changed men, urban or rural, into real estate operators. Many easily flowing rivers made transportation from rural areas to towns more accessible and influenced agrarian values. Iron, lying on the surface of the ground in some areas, made this staple readily available for shipping to other countries. Another natural resource that was plentiful in America was wood. 9 Unlike the small depleted land in England, America's wood was so plentiful that most trees were regarded as hindrances rather than assets. These opportunities of the American geographical environment support the thesis that such forces working on the continuous flow of immigrants with the lower-to middle-class Western European cultural heritage were dominant in shaping the traditional American values and social practices. The total approach, therefore, could be called "geocultural". The physical environment was exploited by people with the cultural values and knowledge needed for material success, and, in doing so, they generated a common culture and values that for many decades became stronger as well as more distinct from those of Europe. (Cochran p9) There were three basic forms of settlement in England, the rural rustic village, the bustling dirty city, like London, and the commercial town. When considering which of these three would be the best to have in the new land, many favored the commercial town. The rural village was specifically related to farming and vast areas of land while the city was known to be a disgusting, polluted mass confusion of social ills, such as fire, plague, poverty, and pollution. The commercial town was somewhere in between and could possibly resemble what we now call suburbia. After London's great fire of 1666, new ideas emerged in city planning. William Penn, when making plans for Philadelphia was adamant in spacing houses and businesses, with streets and squares serving as firebreaks and parks with gardens and trees. Penn had decided that he would create a "green country town, which will never be burnt, and will always be wholesome". (Lingerman pi 7). The small community has been the very predominant form of human living throughout the history of mankind. The city is a few thousand years old, and while isolated homesteads appeared in early times, it was probably not until the settlement of the New World that they made their 'first appearance on a large scale.' To Tocqueville, the village or township was the "only association so perfectly natural that wherever a number of men are collected it seems to constitute itself.' One estimate is that today (1942) three-quarters of the human race still live in villages; and 10 to these villages are to be added the relatively very few who still live in nomadic bands or other unstable small settlements. (Robert Redfield, The Little Community, Lingerman , p. 17) In the past, whether it was a small village or a commercial town, it was predominantly believed that smaller was better. After living in or near cities like London, immigrants to this new land believed that it was best to build small communities with people who held similar beliefs. After initial failures, such as building too close to the sea and not growing their own food to sustain them through the northern winters, there were several successful towns in the north while fewer were being created in the south. The difference between the commercial towns of the north and agrarian villages of the south were beginning to show the diverse cultures that can arise within one nation, primarily because of the geographical layout of the land. Some towns were created by religious doctrines of people who lived there. In the 1600’s, the Articles of Agreement of Springfield, Massachusetts stated that the town would consist of forty families, definitely no more than fifty, because this was the ideal size for a town. This was derived from a principle laid down by the Pilgrims on church size: "No particular church ought to consist of more members than can conveniently watch over one another and usually meet and worship in one congregation." (Lingerman p.30) This helped to create tight homogenous communities, rich and poor, but with little or no differences in belief. Because of the internal migration and the need for individualism and freedom, although viewed suspiciously, people moved out to create new small towns, so these tightly created towns have not completely survived, but there are still pockets or communities most populated by particular religions. Two such areas in this part of 13 begging on dirty street comers in industrial sections of most large northern industrial cities. Both southerners who had lost their land in the Civil War and freed slaves were coming north, looking for a new life, and rich northerners were able to exploit these poor migrant southerners. Many similarities between the new and old worlds were beginning to emerge. The idea of moving to a large industrial city was synonymous with financial security, or at least survival. Previous generations were primarily focused on land for opportunity, but this generation looked at the city for a mere existence. If not poor and helpless at this time, many looked to the city as a pursuit of personal financial success. The pursuit of personal success, commitment to material progress, placing a high value on activity as such, individual-not social-responsibility, and other norms of the democratic, individualistic, and historic capitalist values were all reinforced rather than undermined in the first generations of an industrializing society. (Cochran p.9) Many Americans were becoming more obsessed with monetary wealth and used this as a tool for measuring success. As factories grew, so did the city, population , and the pollution. By the late 1800s some urbanites were beginning to ask themselves about why they were living in a filthy, smelly, infested, and crime ridden city. If only their ancestors could hear them! It was like living in London all over again. Americans were reexamining their value system found that the true American value system was originally based on small communities where people were individuals who knew and helped each other, living in clean, fresh open air surrounded by land and trees. As early as 1850, Charles Dickens wrote of a New York slum: "See how the rotten beams are tumbling down, and how the patched and broken windows seem to scowl dimly, like eyes that have been hurt in drunken frays. . . Where dogs would howl to lie, women and men and boys 14 slink off to sleep, forcing the dislodged rats to move away in quest of better lodging.1' (Cochran p.45) Urban life was under inevitable physical destruction just as the buildings around them. As more and more immigrants came into the cities, the original value system, based on white male, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant dominance was challenged by newcomers. Blacks coming north had been brought up in the South and conditioned to a special type of agrarian society. Northerners gave little support to those who knew nothing of self regulation. Urban problems became a special American challenge to traditional values. As cities grew and the United States became more metropolitan, the farm population was shrinking quickly. By 1900 the slums of New York City were worse than anywhere else in the world. Chicago was not far behind, and states began looking for a cure for public health menaces like excess sewage and dilapidated buildings. In the nineteenth century, immigrants from other countries and blacks from the south came primarily from rural areas. Consequently, although there are basic American values, there was still an acculturation from rural to urban values that was continuously going on, but needed adjustments such as reliance on government, more education, and more collective social agencies was slow and weak. In the country, an individual relied on the earth to sustain life, while in the city reliance was on money or other people. Survival means changed drastically with urbanization, and many had no idea how to adjust their way of life without turning to crime. Habitual criminals also found an ample supply of victims in the cities, just as any predator seeking a prey. 15 Feeling their values threatened by the impersonal big city, people sought substitutes. Important among these was the desire to belong to a meaningful group or family. In the small rural homes from whence they came such belonging was taken for granted, but in the city new groups were formed, not always with a positive outcome. Gathering in bars or on streets could prove to be injurious or even deadly. More sensible immigrants looked for clubs or organizations that held similar beliefs. Churches were often as much social establishments as religious ones. The first settlers of this country has congregated in small groups so they could be with people of similar beliefs, while these new city dwellers had to look beyond the crowded streets filled with strangers to find small social and religious groups so they too could satisfy the need to belong. In a very broad view, it may be said that, up to modem times , Western World culture was predominantly a rural culture and the values, customs, and habits appropriate to cities have everywhere challenged older traditions and values. Yet because of the lack o f much experience with the values of centralized control and planning, inevitably accepted by most Europeans because of wars and absolute monarchies, the needs of urbanism have been harder to meet in the United States. These needs have challenged the deeply held American values of freedom and extreme individualism. (Cochran p. 48) The differences between the original American value system and the revamped version for urban living was becoming even more clear to those living in cities. Farming communities were still removed from crime, crowding, and filth of urban areas. Their problems were centered around agriculture and its survival. Unlike city dwellers, little had changed in their social value system. They could read about urban problems in the paper and hear about the city from travelers and businessmen but rarely had to see it themselves. Children were sheltered from any knowledge of city life. The wealthy, who had homes in the country as well as the city, painted an ugly picture of city dwelling. It was becoming a 18 During the "Walking Horse Era" cities were small, tightly packed urban settlements. Cities had a random arrangement of homes, shops, and other work places all within walking distance from one another. The wealthy lived within the city limits, but they had larger sections of land, walled off from the rest of the community. They also were able to afford horse drawn carriages which gave them more mobility than most citizens. By 1850 horse-drawn streetcars were a success and opened a sizable new area for home construction at the edge of the city. Approximately a three mile expansion around the city became accessible to the people who could afford the use of this new invention This newly accessible outer ring that surrounded the pedestrian city became the horse-car suburbs, and its land was used nearly exclusively to build larger and better quality housing. (Muller 29) Middle class families were at first dispersed throughout the city according to where a man was employed (as most women of this class did not work in public). By the mid 1800s there were several magazines being written for domestic women taking care of their home, children, and husband. Godev's Lady’s Book was one of the most important purveyors of the ideology of domesticity. A fore runner of modem magazines for women such as: Goodhousekeeping and the Lady's Home Journal. Godev's published much of its domestic advice in the form of fiction. (Marsh 22) Stories were written to show how a woman could ruin her family's life if she did not adhere to domestic principles. The most important reason for existence was to maintain the perfect mother-child bond, and it was to take precedence over everything and everyone, including her husband and her own desires. She must be very careful to choose the right husband 19 and influence him correctly in the early stages of their marriage or she would suffer for the rest o f her life. This was, of course, being written by men. During this time few women were employed outside of the home, especially in the middle classes, so marriage was the ladies' occupation. If they failed at marriage, they were actually failing at business. There was no sympathy for women who failed, they simply were looked upon as failures, because there must have been something they could have done . By the 1850s and 1860s there was a small group of women stirring up women’s right's movements, but most were not yet involved. Domestic writers began to suggest that the model of female influence allowed women to coyly and slyly manipulate their husbands. This causes some problems in marriages but it did not provide women a central role in ordering family life. Newly emerging women writers began to assert the significance of women's roles in the family. Women were told that their influence was far reaching, sacred and dignified, and that they had a calling to guard, instruct, and mold the moral nature of the family. Women were also told that there was no man's job that called for the wisdom, firmness, tact, discrimination, prudence, and versatility of talent as that of a woman in her home. (Marsh 25) The ideology of domesticity made use of separate spheres in life and eventually in the home. Homes were arranged to give women their necessary space to run the household, and men received their studies where they could hang their guns and fishing poles or smoke their pipes. American Victorian pattern books for middle class homes in the 1860s and 1870s suggests that a typical, freestanding residential design was a tall and 20 rather narrow house with a basement and two stories capped by a full attic. Its interior arrangement both protected the family privacy and encouraged separation within the family. Only nineteen percent of the designs offered just one living area on the first floor. Bedrooms were being designated for male or female children and decorations were chosen to accentuate that choice. Home may have been considered to be man's castle, but it was designed and run entirely by women. Books and magazines were beginning to tell middle class women that it was their job to bring back the original American value system before this country went out of control and beyond survival. The "Electric Streetcar Era" began in the late 1800s and immediately enabled the range of commuting to increase significantly, so the urban development radius could now be feasibly extended outward for a distance up to ten miles from the city core. By the twentieth century, cities were showing the wear and tear of industrialization. They were unable to keep up with the people flooding the streets to work in new factories being developed on the outskirts of all major metropolises. Quiet neighborhood streets were changing, and strangers now wandered where only familiar faces used to be. Cities were now being looked upon as dirty and dangerous. Trips to the country were more accessible because of the upgraded mass transportation. Open spaces, green grass, and blue sky began to look more desirable, safer, and more secure to the white middle class domestic engineers. A new domesticity seemed a viable solution to the large number of seemingly different kinds of problems. When looked at through the eyes of these women, urban society at the turn of the twentieth century was full of filthy factories, crowded immigrant ghettos, rising violence, and other non-conducive elements for raising healthy, happy 23 middle class Americans that the new suburban domestic ideal of the Progressive Era had not succeeded in reaching enough Americans and therefore was not stabilized. Everyone was counting on the suburban woman to cure the nation's woes. Stage three, the "Recreational Automobile Era", began about the time World War I ended. Private ownership of automobiles began to increase, giving more freedom to those who could afford the luxury of owning a car. By the following decade, suburbs began their domination of metropolitan and national population growth trends. With this new rush to the suburbs was the idea of home ownership and good citizenship. War does many things, including giving a nation a feeling of pride in ownership, if it ends on a positive note. While demographers can not pinpoint the exact year that more people left the inner cities than entered, it is agreed that the process intensified during the 1920s. Housing reformer William Smythe pressed the government to make suburbanization a national priority. Responding specifically to the challenge o f the Bolshevik Revolution, he revived the argument that property ownership preserved self government. By 1930, forty-eight percent of American families owned their homes, and the average house was priced at approximately $5,700. (Marsh 133) Earlier in this century it was more important to move to the suburbs, but by the 1930s it was most important to own a suburban home. A complete cycle was occurring in the United States. Except for the poor who had no choices the city's people were deserting urban life. Small town citizens were quietly living their lives-- lives they were earlier told were not acceptable as so many rushed to the cities—and now they watched as so many began to leave in waves. The old 24 American values, now called "small town values", were beckoning Americans back to nature, individualism, independence, and less crime. A homeowner is something very special. We enjoy working on our homes, and we take pride in them. When a homeowner starts renting out part o f his home, it changes things. He starts looking on his home as a rental unit. We see them taking less pride in their homes . . .This is down zoning, which lessens property values...Once they allow this, they can move on to high rises and who knows, I could wake up with a factory next door. Apartments are a sign of deterioration. It takes the sparkle out of the American Dream just knowing there are apartments on the block. ( Perm p.98) After World War II, the "Freeway Era" began to take hold. The scale of suburbanization was so greatly enlarged after 1945, it became common knowledge suburbia did not occupy a major position in national urban life until the opening of the postwar era. This idea is now being reconsidered. The growth may be more like capping off a pyramid of many smaller movements during the early 1900s. Between 1947 and 1960, the United States experienced the greatest baby boom ever, ending the slowdown in marriages and childbirth created first by the Depression and then by World War II. Another wave of suburban building would have developed even if there had been no postwar baby boom, for American cities have always grown at the edges, like trees, adding new rings of residential development every generation. At first new rings were added inside of the city limits, but since the last half of the nineteenth century they have more often sprung up in the suburbs. Obviously, popular anti-suburban literature , which falsely accuses the suburbs of causing conformity, matriarchy, adultery, divorce, alcoholism, and other standard American pathologies, has not kept anyone from moving to the suburbs. Even current predictions of land shortages, longer commuting, and urban congestion in suburbs will not 25 discourage the next generation of home buyers. With industry and offices now moving to suburbs, areas previously outside commuting range become ripe for residential development to house their employees. (Masotti 48) Most suburbanites do not mind some suburban congestion. They do not leave the city for a rural existence, as the folklore has it; they only want a half-acre lot and their favorite urban facilities within a short driving range from the house, along with truer American values, which were becoming hard to live by in the city. Unfortunately, all that glisters is not gold, although it may prove to be fool's gold. Escape to the fringe of the city may be no escape at all. Suburban blight is spreading quickly and randomly, leaving a once beautiful countryside cluttered and destroyed by the ever present bulldozer. Some wonder if there was a reason to move to suburbs, while others ponder if they should go out even further? The numbers of those rushing to suburbs are depriving each other of the life style they expected to find outside of the city. Haphazard and unorganized housing developments were raised as quickly as possible, usually on previously farmed land, without a tree in sight. Seedlings were planted, but it would take at least twenty years to reap the benefit of shade. Endless sprawl in the suburbs has replaced crowded city streets. At some point in time those who flee one disorderly metropolis will run head on into the spreading blight of another. Today city and suburb are forging ahead, without adequate plans for their future, toward and inevitable day of reckoning. Many are building for more congestion and blight where the magnitude of the problem has already reached critical proportions. The indiscriminate grab for land has left little time or thought for how to achieve any sort of total community development. Our metropolitan areas reveal few signs of the bold concepts of urban planning and design that are called for by present rates of growth and changing technology. What they do reveal is an almost complete disregard for either natural or man-made beauty. The metropolis has become a jumble of poles and wires, signs and billboards, asphalt and concrete, dust and smog. As one 28 neighborhoods and had not built relationships with businesses in the suburbs. Also, many families were feeling the financial burden of their move. Children had to driven everywhere they went; you could not walk to the stores, which were now in strip malls along busy highways; and dad spent most of his day away from the family, no longer able to come home for lunch, and sometimes late for dinner. Mother began to take on more responsibility as head of the household while father was gone for long hours and could not easily be reached for help in decision making. If two cars were not financially possible, often times the father had to share rides into the city or use public transportation because the mother could not take care of the family without a car. This gave more women a reason to learn to drive, where before there was not a need while living within walking distance to everything in the city. Having a strong value system was extremely important to suburban housewives. Their careers in mothering and housekeeping were driven by the need to raise healthy happy children. Removing children from the filthy corrupt city was the principle goal for leaving the conveniences of city living. Although suburbs were not exactly the country, these mothers saw them as the perfect places for raising children. Instead of concentrating on cooking and cleaning all day, the suburban mother now had so many modem conveniences she was able to spend more time thinking of ways to help her children. Mothers became more involved with school organizations like the Parent Teacher Association and helped to organize more extra-curricular activities and organizations. Instead of just playing with children in the local neighborhood, mothers organized play groups, many different lessons in activities; swimming, tennis, piano, etc., and began 29 having theme birthday parties with several children invited. Without even knowing it, children were being taught to value their capability to perform and their possessions with an emphasis on competition. While spending their days wrapped up in organizing their children’s activities, these mothers, striving to be perfect parents, forgot the original purpose for moving from the city to the suburbs. Left in the city are poor children, reverting back to the survival mode of our original ancestors, just trying to get by day after day, in a less than desirable environment. Suburban life for primarily middle class white families, however, instills a strong belief in education as the means to build a life of happiness and financial security. 30 IV What is Small Town, America? While all o f this movement was going on throughout history there was one area of stability. The small American town, feeling some population changes over the years, stayed true to its belief system. As the commercial towns became cities, and the cities became industrial amazons, the small town remained the same. As urban dwellers loved, and then left, their city, small town people stayed the same. While safe communities became filled with strangers and corruption, small towns remained familiar and safe. While the American value system changed to meet the needs of the growing city, and was rearranged in the new suburban life, small country towns never lost sight of their value system. It was plain and simple. If you live by the Golden Rule and the original American values, you will live a long happy life and will go to heaven when you die. "In every village smil’d The heav'n-inviting church, and every town A world within itself, with order, peace, 33 They saw the benefits of living a comfortable distance from the ever changing city. Instead of updating their value system to meet the needs of the twentieth century industrialized life, they dug in their heels and celebrated life in Small Town, USA. Small towns in the South generally were created around a town square with the court house in the middle. Businesses lined the other side of the four streets looking out over retired gentlemen sitting on tree shaded park benches all around the courthouse. Some northern towns have squares also and most have one main street running through the heart o f the town and is usually called-- what else?--Main Street. Even though there was a rush for city life, approximately seventy-five percent o f Americans were still living in small towns in the 1890s. Their life—birth, marriage, childbirth, and death— all took place on center stage of a small town. People moving in or out was big news. There was a distinct feeling of belonging to a small town where everybody knew your name. There were no house numbers or addresses, rarely did anyone remember street names, but everyone knew where the Smith house was. It was a familiarity that became a part of who you were. In the 1890s most small towns were based on a horse-drawn economy and culture. Horses still pulled wagons loaded with farm produce, coming to town to unload at the local elevator, usually near a railroad, if one happened to go through town. There was a blacksmith, stable, and feed store ready to do business when farmers came to town. Saloons were available and ready to help farmers quench their thirst while they waited for repairs being done at the livery, carriage maker, or harness maker's shop. These specialty shop owners were skilled artisans who made a variety of tools and implements. The livery 34 stable was also called a social center for men, where they could catch up on news while waiting for repairs. Young boys were often educated in the functional side of reproduction when their fathers allowed them to be present while a stallion serviced a mare. Since this was the Victorian Era, the town women usually let it be known that this type of display was unacceptable and should only be done in privacy. Usually on a Saturday afternoon men gathered in the town's barbershops where they could get pampered, smoke their cigars, and catch up on town gossip. The general store was another location where news could be shared while picking up necessary items for the week. Everyone in town came through those doors at sometime during the week, and even women were allowed there. Even though addresses were not important for directions or mail, there was a distinct division of localities, even in a small town. Wealthier sections of towns named their streets after people, nature, or popular places; the working class lived closer to the dirty businesses, like the blacksmith and livery, so their streets were named accordingly. Really poor, destitute people lived in a section divided off from town, decisively known as "the other side of the tracks", "Shantytown", or "down by the docks". The poor were not numerous and usually worked for the middle class in some fashion. Often a women's church group gathered food and clothing and donated it during holidays. The less fortunate were not feared but rather simply ignored by society and were not generally allowed to climb the social ladder. For the most part, small towns had few wealthy, usually the town doctor and maybe a lawyer or businessman, and few poor. Most were 35 somewhere in the middle. Farmers were wealthy in land but poor in cash flow. They raised, grew, and made almost everything they needed. Electricity was beginning to filter into small towns about this time and was first introduced in town businesses. Small towns took their time, gently resisting change, watching as each new business changed over, and then the wealthier homes, one by one. Street lights were converted, giving businesses the opportunity to increase business hours and allowing people to gather in warm evenings under the glow of electricity. Telephone service, quite common in the city, was creeping into small towns. Businesses started using the services, slowly learning to ask for a number when the operator answered instead of simply asking for an individual by name. The operator, supposedly there to transfer calls, could often be found, through eavesdropping, to be the most knowledgeable person in town. As with most technological advances, the telephone was slow to make it into homes, as small town residents still preferred to visit with the neighbor in person and sit quietly on the front porch after chores were done. With this new technology came a new look. Towns were being wrapped in wires. Electrical and telephone wires were strung through town attached to businesses using the services. It was not a pleasing addition but most accepted it as tangible evidence of growth and prosperity. There was even a visible change happening to streets as most dirt roads were being replaced with some kind of pavement. By 1900 many towns had "Main Street" covered with a vitrified brick, giving rise to the question of horse travel. Horses, slowly being replaced by automobiles, were eventually banned from paved streets, and another sign of progress was showing itself in Small Town, USA. 38 It was a culture with mores, it was a life in which one quickly knew one's place, and began that difficult weaving of one's emotions with experience that is called growing up, in a set o f circumstances which one could not and did not really wish to alter.. The town waited for you. It was going to be there when you were ready for it. Its life seemed rich enough for any imagination... You belonged-and it was up to your own self to find out how and where. There has been no such certainty in American life since. (Lingerman p. 314) During Victorian times, the average life expectancy was fifty years and because there was a high infant mortality, death in a small town affected everyone quite often. With many people being related or simply close after living in the same town all their lives, death was a community concern. Everyone knew who was sick and would prepare for each funeral. Food was taken to the family, and obituaries were written in great length and detail. Sometimes the deceased was described beyond reality, but that was accepted from small town folk. They knew later someone close to them would die and it would be proper also to exaggerate about his/her life's accomplishments. Birth was also celebrated. Although there was no large social gathering like a funeral, birth was looked upon as a part of the town's survival. Children were the town's future so they should be cared for. Holidays often centered around children’s activities with Christmas the premier holiday. The town's merchants would decorate their stores and families would plan a day to hunt for the perfect tree that would make their home smell like the outdoors and look beautiful with homemade decorations, popcorn strands, and brightly wrapped packages. New Year's was always a time for a party or visiting with friends. February was sometimes good for a Leap Year dance, now called Sadies, where ladies could ask men for a date, and Valentines Day was a time to exchange fancy cards with love poems inside. Easter was a sign that spring had arrived and, weather permitting, 39 children had Easter egg hunts outside after spending hours coloring special eggs. April Fool's Day cautiously gave permission for children to play pranks without getting into trouble, and May Day was a reason for boys and girls to place baskets of flowers and cookies on each other’s doorsteps. Summertime, especially in the North, meant not only school would close, but also that everyone could enjoy warm weather activities. Farm children worked hard but they, too, enjoyed the warm nights, swimming, fishing, and time to be children. In 1890 there was a feeling of peace in the United States. There were Mexican War, Civil War, and Indian Wars veterans still living with those memories, but life now was peaceful. The country was growing and industrialization was changing life in the city, but small towns were stable, secure, and comfortable. By the 1920s small towns had modernized and accepted many technological changes. Most streets were paved, automobiles were more common, electricity was in many homes, as were plumbing and telephones. Wires connected people to each other and radios now connected them to the rest of the world. The twenties were primarily prosperous, and people began to live as if their lives would always be prosperous. Small towns were not feeling the financial freedom quite like the cities so they watched as city banks began giving loans on credit. Purchases were being made without paying for the merchandise. This new phenomenon was a market booster, and people created a feeling of indestructibility within themselves as institutions believed in them enough to give them credit. Large appliances, like refrigerators and washing machines, were being bought so fast production could hardly keep up demand. Automobiles were becoming more 40 accessible and factories hired more workers to make additional cars and trucks. Small town young men now had transportation into the city to get jobs that would pay cash for hard work instead of depending on the weather for superior crops. Small towns fairly close to industrialized cities began to lose their young men, if only for weekdays, because many were disillusioned with farming’s uncertainties. Unfortunately, the high life of the city came crashing down in 1929. Exuberant feelings of pride that came with the acceptance of extended credit now came tumbling down. Those who had shunned their small hometown were out of work, with no place to live, and owed the bank money they did not have. City life was not as wonderful as it had seemed to be and now was looking scary and unfriendly. Those with ties to home began their journey back to the small town for comfort, wannth, family, and friends, and in the 1930s, a study of popular magazine fiction by Patrick Johns-Heine and Hans H. Gerth showed writers began locating "the soul of American Life" in the small town: As for locale, there is no mistaking that the farm and with it the small town is exalted as representative of a whole way of life. It is significant that the typical conflict within the story is between the essential human goodness of small-town types as opposed to a metropolitan moneyed elite; unpretentiousness against pretentiousness, and littleness versus power. In short, those values lacking in the metropolis are the ones capitalized upon in the depiction of small-town or farm life, and the latter become personifications of good while the city remains the vessel of evil. We may assume that this is gratifying not only to those who live in towns and villages, but also to those persons who have recently migrated from farm or town to city and who have sentimental associations which find fulfillment here. (Lingerman 261) Life was not easy in rural communities during the depression. No one was able to buy produce and grain being grown in the country. Farmers could not afford to buy seed to plant their crops, which, even if planted, might not be bought when brought to town. 43 glorious farming conditions in the southern parts of that state. They did not give up or expect someone else to take care of them, they simply moved on, as American pioneers always had. In Northeastern industrial cities, where there were large numbers o f people out of work, Roosevelt tried organizations that would take some of those people out of the city for awhile. The Civilian Conservation Corps set up boot camps, such as that in Roscommon, Michigan at Higgins Lake, where men could live, work, and make money. There they created the Higgins Lake State Nursery and began to reforest Michigan. The work was hard and dirty, and only the best could stay because there was always someone waiting to take your job. Other organizations built roads, dams, bridges, and buildings, while artists were hired by the government to paint, sculpt, and perform. Some believe the Depression offered the strength that the labor movement needed because unions began a hard campaign for workers' rights. In Flint, Michigan, on December 30, 1936, the United Automobile Workers began a strike that lasted forty-four days. Police tried to prevent those outside the factories from taking food to workers who were participating in the sit-down strike, but people found ways to help. For example, Gerald "Scotty" Flynn, a country farmer who had been working with the pipe fitters in that factory just before the strike, wanted to help. He knew the layout of the factory so he was able to sneak food and supplies in without anyone knowing it. He was quite proud of his part in this monumental event in Flint. Farmers wanted the factory workers to do well so the economy could improve and their crops would begin selling again, and at this time 44 it became obvious that the small towns were beginning to become directly related to industrial cities. FDR's program, the "New Deal", was cheered by many, but others claimed it was socialism. Welfare programs were created during this time and many felt the government owed them something when their lives were crushed by the Depression. Another realization becoming clear at this time was that the rich , who did not lose everything in the Wall Street crash, were taking advantage of those who did and became richer, while the poor who had little lost even that. Bitterness was more evident in the city, and instead of making a life for themselves, too many began taking advantage of government programs. The 1930s were so dismal that even stage writers chose a change in scenery for their scripts. Thornton Wilder wrote a three act play called "Our Town". He depicted small town, America during the early 1900s. This play opened at Henry Miller's Theatre in New York on February 4, 1938. It created something of a sensation, not only for its warmth, tenderness, and the illuminating characterizations, but also because the production was a distinct departure from the naturalistic style of theatre previously in vogue in this country. True enough, there had been earlier dramas set on a bare stage, but never one in which the setting represented an entire town, and the characters a large cross section of its citizenry. The New York production had a successful run of 336 performances, which was contributed to no little by the announcement in the middle of the run that the play had been voted the Pulitzer Prize in playwriting for 1938. Only after the play had closed in New York did it begin to achieve the unique eminence it has enjoyed 45 ever since~an eminence that continues and gains added stature with each passing year. In road shows, in hundreds of stock and amateur productions in this country, in translations into every language of the world, "Our Town" has won itself a secure place as one of the very few authentic dramatic "classics" this country has ever produced. The purpose behind the play is for Depression Era citizens of the United States to escape back to a time of tranquillity. It is set in a small town, showing that the three most important aspects of life are love, marriage, and death. This is a typical white middle class town comprised of ninety percent white Protestants and ten percent other. A narrator, called the stage manager, sets the mood and explains each situation as it begins. The two primary families are neighbors, the Gibbs family and the Webb family; both men hold high positions (doctor and newspaper owner), have wives who stay home, one son, and one daughter. The fathers are kind and loving as they come and go to their jobs, while mothers are always busy in the kitchen, taking care of the children, and tending gardens in their yards. They get together for choir practice and gossip on their way home. The children are educated, expected to do chores, and have respect and manners. In the first act, the teenagers are about fourteen and sixteen and begin to become interested in each other as more than neighborhood friends. It was a common occurrence in a small town for a boy and a girl to grow up together, get married, and live together until they died. People did not travel around the world like they do now. In the play, going away to agricultural school was discussed between the two young people because the boy knew he was going to inherit his uncle's farm. As a high school senior, only seventeen, he made the decision not to go because he felt he could learn as much as he needed by being on the 48 from war and the mass of southern immigrants was created in places like Levittown, the first subdivision mass producing small affordable houses cookie-cutter style. Every house had the same basic space and layout with only a few cosmetic changes, such as color, on the outside. The idea was immediately adopted by most industrial cities and production of large subdivisions began. At first, this new phenomenon did not affect small towns, but as waves o f suburbia grew out, the closest small towns felt the need to increase their single family home supply. In the 1950s, there was a need to rebuild the sense of security in the United States. We had just been through three wars—World War I and II and the Korean War—, and the Cold War and McCarthyism was in full bloom. If you looked at someone strangely or asked an unusual question, you might be declared a Communist. True American values were being threatened and America began to re-evaluate itself. When psychologists were questioned about America's rural life as opposed to urban life this is what several had to say: G.B. Melton: "Perhaps conscious of its frontier heritage, this nation has always had a rather romantic, nostalgic view of life in the country. Getting back to nature is perceived as a means of cleansing and testing oneself... Rural life is believed to result in honesty, religiosity, and a strong sense of individualism." P. Saunders: "Rural life is understood to be the repository of all that is stable, immemorial, harmonious, pleasant, and reassuring in the modem world." 49 M. Bunce: "In classical times, philosophers like Aristotle saw rural life as moral, virtuous, and simple. This is a philosophy which continues to be remarkably strong in North America." Goldman and Dickens. "There is a cultural traditional in western industrial societies that pictures rural village life in romanticized fashion as bucolic and idyllic...Rural is thus defined as bearing the promise of "affective community" an idealized form of community that stands in contradistinction to a city life." (Miller, Wolensky 60) Richard Sennett quotes B .F. Skinner in his book, Beyond Freedom and Dignity . "Skinner's new book reveals a man desperately in search of some way to preserve the old-fashioned virtues associated with 19th-century individualism in a world where self-reliance no longer makes sense Skinner also believes that the small group, the town, village, the little neighborhood circle, is the scale at which behavior conditioning can operate morally. 'A large fluid population cannot be brought under informal social or ethical control because social reinforcers like praise and blame are not exchangeable for personal reinforcers on which they are based. Why should anyone be affected by the praise or blame of someone he will never see again? ' (Wills 494) The 1950s were designated the "Stay at Home" years. With so many babies being bom, emphasis was geared toward family life. Getting back to original values was essential. The economy enabled fathers to work while mother stayed home with the children, formed neighborhood groups, and again became involved in the community. In small towns near large industrial cities, father drove approximately twenty to thirty miles each morning to get to work and then traveled the same path home in the evening. There was also a large group who worked second or third shift in the factories and left about the 50 time children were returning home from school or sometimes as they were going to bed at night. It was not uncommon to see women taking care of family business and going to social events alone when so many men were working in industry. Many families who were originally from other parts of the country used summer vacation, usually two weeks paid holiday for factory workers, to travel "home'1 to see family. As a product of just such a family, I grew up believing that everyone had grandparents "down south" and always went to visit them in the summer. Without family close by, I found it comfortable to adopt neighbors as grandparents so I could pretend to have family nearby. Expressways were still being built in the 1950s so travel was long and hot. Many of my friends experienced the same summer vacation because our small town had several new families from the South. It was not until I was much older and learned about politics that I was amazed to find out that this town is Republican because all I ever heard about were Southern Democrats! Everyone was well accepted in town and politics was not a major role in everyday life of raising a family in the fifties, at least not to my knowledge. We were also quite unique in the fact that we moved into a new house in one of the first mass produced subdivisions in the Flint area. Winchester Village, in Swartz Creek, Michigan, began around 1957. When we moved in there were a few streets done and no house had a yard—it was all pavement and dirt. Every house was a small three bedroom ranch with a basement. The only difference was the color of the outside. Young families were moving in every day as new houses were built to meet the demand. An elementary school was built right in the middle of the subdivision. There were so many children playing in the yards, the street, and on the new sidewalks, it looked like recess 53 conversation, bitterness led to crime and gang activities, usually directed toward gangs from other parts of town or toward people who were fairly wealthy. Cities, being comprised of small ethnic units, saw the youth lashing out at a group of people simply because they were different. The melting pot theory for unity in the United States was disintegrating. Ethnic immigrants were no longer looked upon as new blood for this country; they were viewed as job threats or Communistic and often saw each other as competition. Although this country was founded by strangers to this land in the name of freedom, our ancestors were too many generations gone and a feeling of ownership was occurring, especially in the cities. Crime rates in the cities were soaring and involving younger criminals than ever before. Small country towns were more prosperous but there was generally not a large difference in most of the townspeople's economical standings. Towns were still primarily middle class Caucasian Protestant families, with a very small percentage of color or religious differences. Unity was still strong and there was no feeling of threat for their jobs or their safety. To country folk, that was something only happening in the city. By this time there were few farmers relying solely on farming in the industrial areas o f the country. Many sold much of their farms to large corporations and then chose to drive to the city to work in the factories for a more stable income. Teenagers were known by name in town and could find somewhere to spend their free time, other than the street comer. Sometimes there were soda shops, drug stores with food counters and juke boxes, a bowling alley, school activities, church activities, or even a gas station on the comer of a busy street. Because they were familiar to everyone in town, a gathering of 54 teens did not look as threatening as it did in the city. They were greeted warmly, accepted, and understood. In the city, teens looked like a crime waiting to happen. Being perceived in a positive manner as a teenager molds strengthens a person's belief in himself. Being valued as a human being was not always possible for urban teens, reaffirming their bitterness and distrust for everyone outside of their immediate neighborhood or gang. Small town teens lived in a private naive world knowing only acceptance from those around them. If they received a negative reaction to something they did or said, they either corrected their mistakes or used them to give themselves a rebel reputation. Since most misbehavior came from the male youths, town people would shake their heads and proclaim, "boys will be boys". In the city, these boys would be strangers and possibly looked upon as juvenile delinquents. Because the unknown is always scarier than the known, city boys had a much better chance of being scary and unwanted. By the 1960s and 1970s music was more than entertainment. America's youth was making a stand for freedom in every way possible. The subdued lifestyles in Leave It To Beaver and Happy Days was being replaced by rebellion against the Viet Nam War. Lyrics in songs became a way to express political and social beliefs, and teenagers were an easy target. They had time and money to buy records and go to concerts. They listened to the message and were ready to fight for freedom in this country, but not in Viet Nam. The secure conservative life their parents had worked so hard to give them was being tom apart by a whole generation who needed to find their own identity through individualism . This generation of Baby Boomers wanted their individualism, freedom, happiness, equality, sense of belonging, a back to nature rebirth, and peace on earth and good will. 55 This sounds extremely dose to the original American value system, but it shocked the older generation because baby boomers had opted to go against the material wealth approach to success. They also rebelled against traditional religion and began getting in touch with their inner self through Transcendental Meditation and mind altering drugs. The American Dream that was so important to the parents of this generation was being thrown back into their face and called hypocritical. The nice house with the picket fence, garden, garage, and a car in the driveway became a symbol of materialism to this new generation. Parents were shaken as their values were being questioned, but they refused to give up what they had worked so hard to accomplish. Middle class America was being tested but was still much safer than the turmoil boiling in the city. Cities were now basically poor and black. Racial equality, economic equality, and women's rights were issues that all came under the heading of Civil Rights. Cities were teaming with anger and riots broke out all over the country. The American value system was being challenged from every direction. It was believed by many, especially minorities, that the values this country lived by were created for and by white middle-to-upper middle class Americans and it was time for a change. Music was being created to tell the truth about the war, poverty, prejudice, and every other social problem. If it were not for the evening news and this music, small town residents could have lived through this time totally oblivious to what was going on in the United States. Small town residents were not threatened by violence in their neighborhood because these towns were so homogeneous there was little injustice occurring locally. Teenagers listened to the music and tried to feel a part of the whole movement but were really quite 58 Minorities found it difficult to get jobs in suburbs because businesses were trying to attract white patrons, not poor ghetto people, and did not want to scare away possible shoppers by hiring black employees. Racial riots were making too many people nervous so it was best not to remind them of troubled times when merchants were hoping they would spend money in their stores. Although Blacks were gaining legal rights, it was a long hard road out of the city. Most problems associated with the city and suburbs were being watched but not really lived by the people in small towns. Life went on with very little change. Women did not bum their bras and no buildings were burned or looted in a riot. They spent their days working or in school and their nights at home or at school and church functions. Some bright students went off to college but most stayed in town, got jobs in factories, and married their high school sweethearts, just like they did in Grover's Comers in 1910. The only difference was that farming was replaced by industry's factories. Towns closest to the city began to attract middle to upper middle class people who wanted more than a small lot in the suburbs. They were used to having all of the conveniences of the city and were expecting the same in the small town. They started demanding changes like snow removal, black top roads, and garbage pick up on countiy roads but did not want their new low taxes increased to pay for these services. Some friction was felt between newcomers and the townspeople who were happy with things the way they had always been. They complained that these "city amenities" could ruin the mral character of the area. New residents were looked upon as being snooty city people who wanted to citify the country. 59 Real estate taxes did soar in the 1970's and the price of farm land tripled. Young people wanting to establish small farms found it impossible to buy land and had to leave the rural area to seek employment. When farmers could no longer afford their own land and young people could not buy it from them, it was sold to developers. In 1976 it is estimated that half a million acres of farm land in the United States was lost to development and more was being sold to large farming conglomerates. (Lingerman 450) Farmers were beginning to feel the effects of big business, but small towns were still holding on for normal daily life. They were slow to incorporate much industry so there were no incentives for people to live there except for the quiet country living. No jobs were available for women or minorities, there was little care for the elderly except by the family, and child care centers were just neighborhood baby-sitters for women who did happen to work locally. Single people, blacks, and the poor looking for a job stayed away from small white towns surrounding the city. In We. The People by Gordon Direnzo American character and social change are discussed in depth. By the 1970s there was a significant change in how Americans, in general, felt about American values. The difference was measured between 1952 and 1974. all men are created equal 1952 75% yes 1974 50% yes honesty is the best policy 1952 80% yes 1974 68% yes value effort, have clear goals, and want to achieve 60 1952 59% yes 1974 2% yes do something, don't just talk about it 1952 75% yes 1974 68% yes time is valuable 1952 84% yes 1974 45% yes live for the present, not the past 1952 80% yes 1974 87% yes These are constant values expressed by this predominantly middle-class, largely Anglo-Euro-American sample over a period of two decades. These are some of the values that bind the generations together. They are the values represented in two generations. To the extent that the middle class is the majority segment and has the representative life-style of the United States, it seems reasonable to infer that these values are part of what has held the nation together. Most of the changes occurred in the turbulent 1960s and leveled off during the 1970s. (DiRenzo p.24-26) During this time there was a positive change in how Americans viewed artists, poets, and intellectuals. In the 1950s, many believed such people to be screwy, crazy, or should shut up, while in the 1970s they were thought of as creative and free thinking. 63 Festival Parade. Kathy was amazed at Jim’s excitement as he watched tractor after tractor parading by. This new life would be a drastic change, but the Wileys were not alone. A new kind of white flight is going on in America today, but unlike the middle-class exodus from multiethnic cities to the suburbs a generation ago, this middle-class migration is from crowded, predominantly white suburbs to small towns and rural counties. Rural America has enjoyed a net inflow of two million Americans this decade, in contrast to the 1980s, when rural areas suffered a net loss of 1.4 million people. Thanks to the newcomers, 75% of the nation’s rural counties are growing again after years of decline. (Pooley p. 54) This trend is being helped by technological advances enabling small industries to move out of urban centers. The Internet and overnight shipping companies make communication possible from anywhere. Instead of commuting to city industry, people are able to spend more time at home with family. Young professionals are not alone in their move. Retirees are finding life in the country less expensive and more pure than the ever-growing suburbs. The 1990s signature preoccupation-improving quality of life- seems to mean moving to the country for millions of Americans. Researchers for Time looked at dozens of towns with expanding economics and populations ranging from 5,000 to 20,000 (anything smaller is a village and anything larger, a city) They spent several weeks in Wilmington and found cherished notions of small-town life colliding with the reality of an America that is changing with dizzying speed. Wilmington was founded by Quakers in 1810 because they opposed slavery. It is still a farming community but shares space with Airborne Express, which converted an old Air Force base into its national hub. Unemployment rates fell from 9.8% to 3% and now not all high school graduates have to leave home to find a job (Pooley p.55). 64 With this success came headaches. As population grew by just 2,000, the town found problems: traffic, pollution, crime and drugs. Farmers saw two sides to Airbome's existence. The company was polluting the area, killing fields of grain and poisoning water used by cattle, but the farmers and family members were working for Airborne. Wilmington residents were facing new challenges . Old timers remember a smaller Wilmington of days gone by. Friday nights were for going into town, leaning on cars, talking, gossiping and getting a few groceries. Things have changed Main Street in Wilmington, Ohio, but have all small towns changed so drastically? Has big business reached out its tentacles to all of America's rural communities, invading the innocence and quiet seclusion of small towns across America? Perhaps an answer may be formed by examining a sample of small towns with a population of less than 10,000 on the west side of Flint, Michigan. American values were created in small towns, could not totally survive city life, and have people returning to small towns in search of the "good life". Values exist everywhere, but the American value system is being rediscovered in sleepy little towns just outside of the hustle and bustle of industrialization. To see how these values exist today in local small towns, the Flushing and Montrose social histories will be compared to that of neighboring towns. These towns were established independently but are now similar in their connection to Flint, a northern industrial city. All have common characteristics but are also unique. People who live in each of these towns truly believe their town is a special place to live and raise a family. Their opinions are important because it is the people who make each town special. 65 FLUSHING Flushing, the town on the river Rushing? No. Slow. River and town. Flint River on its way Down to Saginaw Bay. Flushing, its environs spread From Flint in Genesee To the neighboring county of Shiawassee. Flushing, a friendly place to be. And so we write Of you and me- Of forebears for descendants. We leave our thought and dream To those we love Who follow on the scene. by: Irma R. Johnson, 02/04/1984 The Flint River Valley was once occupied by Sauk Indians. Then Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatonic defeated the Sauks, with one major battle fought on what is now known as the Flushing Golf Course. Excavations have unearthed many skeletal bones telling tales of these battles. The Saginaw branch of the Chippewa occupied this land and in 1786 joined the British in destroying American settlements. First settlers here in the 1830s found Indians to be quite dispirited and harmless, as they were already accustomed to receiving government payments. Indians gave the Flint River the same 68 and Indian yells. In the middle of the program they would go through the crowd trying to sell bottles of Umatilla Indian Hogah, a concoction supposed to cure just about anything. Summer also meant political campaign meetings. Men would carry lighted torches so boys and girls would go down to the mill pond, get some cattails, dip them in kerosene, and set them ablaze. They did the same for all parties, not showing any political partisanship, but having lots of fun. Education was always important in Flushing. Children were taught in a lean-to kitchen until a wooden frame building could be built in 1845 on the comer of Chamberlain and Hazelton, followed by three more schools on the same site. The first graded high school was organized in 1877. Two brothers, Ira and Franklin Sayre, comprised the first graduating class in 1878. Both became attorneys, prominent in banking, and Ira was also known as a builder in the area. Franklin's home on Main Street can still be seen today, as can many of the original family homes. That is one of the unique attributes belonging to Flushing. Main Street is lined with big beautiful homes being kept in their original condition by residents respecting Flushing's heritage. Schools were usually crudely constructed of wooden planks with several long wooden benches facing the teacher's desk. A few wooden pegs lined walls for hanging coats and lunch pails. The teachers, local people with little education themselves, were responsible for keeping a fire going during cold weather, coming in two hours before children and leaving only after they banked the fire with ashes to keep it going until morning. School terms were short and only during colder months because country children were needed to help plant and harvest farm crops as well as other daily chores. If a teacher was brought in from somewhere else, she was 69 usually boarded with a local family who had space and was willing to take in a stranger. That was the only way an educated teacher was financially capable of coming to town. Diversity of religion came swiftly to Flushing. The Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Catholic Churches were all established in the 1800s. Most began as small wooden structures and were later rebuilt as larger more regal buildings made of brick with beautiful windows and steeples. Beginning in the 1870s local picnics and July fourth celebrations were held at Hosie’s Grove, the Hosie family land. For twenty-five years it was the location of July fourth programs with speeches, long addresses, reading of the Declaration of Independence, recitations, children's programs, band music, choir songs, food and games. After the Civil War and before the railroad came to town, the Fourth of July celebration was kicked off by local boys who had returned from the war with a two-wheel, carriage style cannon. They would set up the cannon on the comer of Main and Cherry Streets, face it west, and let her roar. This cannon somehow found its way to Flint and now is displayed on the courthouse lawn. There was no need for its service after many people began choosing to ride trains to Saginaw and Bay City for bigger July Fourth celebrations. By the 1870s there were many small factories in business along the Flint River in Flushing. There were blacksmiths, bootmakers, mills, a chair factory, a broom factory, a wagon maker, a foundry, and even a stone quarry. Clay pits were dug just north of town and clay was shipped to Saginaw for making bricks. The pit was a favorite swimming hole for years because the water was clear and cold. It is now called Granville Lake and is lined by fine residences. It was in 1877 that Flushing officially became a village, being 70 approved by the state in March and holding elections in May, with eighty-two voters turning out to elect new village officials. If there was any single factor that caused the town of Flushing to boom, it was the arrival of the railroad in 1888. New businesses came to town and buildings began being built of brick instead of wood. The depot was built by December 1988 on the comer of West Main and Seymour. It served mills along the river, downtown businesses, and there was also a passenger train. The railroad was taken over by Grand Trunk Railroad with several trains running daily. It was a popular recreation to take excursion trains to Saginaw and Bay City. By the early 1900s trucking businesses were taking train business causing train usage to steadily declined from that time. With decline in usage came deterioration of the train depot but it was saved from destruction in 1966 by agent Clare Fox. The Depot was fixed up, painted, and sold to private parties, and was turned into a restaurant but burned in 1980. It remained empty for years but was finally restored again and is now a museum. Florse drawn stagecoaches were also being replaced by 1925. Robert Parsell's stage was soon made obsolete by Fred Russell's 1925 Dodge which could seat up to a dozen people. This operation expanded, and Valley Coach Lines was established nationwide. By the 1940s this service was transporting workers to the war plants in Flint. Russell was also responsible for establishing the fleet of buses serving the Flushing School System. While mentioning names of people who helped to establish Flushing as the town it is today, people of urban upbringing may wonder why it is important to discuss specific 73 each other. He said he knew better than to go to unsafe areas so there was no need to worry. There was only one thing on his mind— trains. He knew the trains by their numbers and could identify their whistles in the distance. Men on the trains knew Love and admired his love for their life. The mail truck would load and unload everyday and if there was a special delivery Love was hired for eight cents to hand deliver packages. His sixth birthday was a day he would never forget as the first train wreck in Flushing happened in early morning. In February there was a terrible blizzard that closed the railroad. In trying to open the tracks, a three engine pile-up happened. After begging his mother to let him miss school to see this once in a lifetime spectacle she relented, dressed him warmly, and told him to stand on the comer where his uncle would pick him up-- but not to move from that spot. While waiting for his ride, which was just down the street filling up with supplies, the fire alarm sounded. Fires were usually the most exiting thing going on in town but not that day, so Love waited. He saw his uncle leave, going past him, and on to the fire. By now, he had heard that the fire was at his own school. What could be better than watching your own school bum? A train wreck—so he waited. The trains were cleared and the school burned down, and he waited. By five o’clock his mother came looking for him and found him, still on the comer. It was his birthday and he had missed a train wreck and his school burning down. He was depressed for a while after that. In April, 1918, the same year Love missed the wreck and fire, he witnessed two more catastrophes. There was a terrible storm one evening while his cousin Durwood was tending fishing nets in the river to make a little money. Lightning became unbearable and 74 Love remembered looking out his window and being very scared when several bolts of lightning shook the whole town all at the same time. Power went out and the town was dark, but Love did not know the worst part. Several men near the river were either struck by lightning or tossed into the swollen river and lost their lives that night. Cousin Durwood, the town's daredevil, could not win this battle and they found his body a few hours later. On Monday morning Bob Hart, owner of the power plant and mill, repaired the damages to the electricity and decided to call Grand Trunk Railroad to check out the railroad bridge, which was in pretty bad shape. About 3:30 p.m. that day someone was looking at the damaged bridge and his eyes were drawn to the power plant. Flames were flickering out of the top floor, around the little cupola on top. He pulled a fire alarm and the whole town came running to see what was on fire now. Evidently the earlier fire had left some unknown fires, just now taking life. Love was getting out of school and was in front of Fred Grave's barbershop when the alarm sounded. Ironically, this is the same comer where he had missed everything a couple of months earlier but now, standing on this comer, he could see everything. The fire would not be contained as it jumped from the power plant, to the elevator, on to the livery stables, fruit loading sheds, livestock pens, and Grant Reid's garage. This was a terrible place for the fire to find gas and oil, finally exploding, and throwing little fires everywhere. By 7.30 p.m. it looked like the whole town was doomed, but luckily the people trying to get the old fire hydrants working succeeded and water was pumped into town from the river. All of this Love watched from his comer in front of Fred Grave’s barbershop. Most of the buildings destroyed in that fire were never rebuilt. The old railroad bridge was never repaired because its main 75 customer, the Hart Milling and Power Company was gone. Planks were laid over the bridge and it became a foot bridge. Bob Hart did rebuild his power plant but not the elevator. It took a while to rebuild the power plant so Flushing residents had to revert back to kerosene lighting. For about two years Flushing was frozen in time and no one really seemed to mind. Many things seemed to moving too fast toward an unknown future of technology so slowing time down a little was welcomed by those who were happy in the comfort of small town life. Flushing also built a water pumping system, but that had to be changed before it was even in operation. The original idea was to pump water from the river, but Flint was upstream and was growing leaps and bounds in population. They were dumping all waste into the river, making no exceptions, and the Flint River became terribly polluted in a very short time. Flushing sued the city of Flint to stop pollution and the federal government finally stepped in, but much damage had been done. Most people were slow to trust the new pumping system and continued to go outside and pump water out of the ground themselves. In 1923, Love was a young lad of eleven when the end of an era occurred. A train whistle, like no whistle he had ever heard before, sounded in the distance. As he watched it pull into the station he was in awe of the sight in front of him. This was no ordinary train. It was a jack engine. It had its headlight in the center of the boiler, three driving wheels on each side, and only one pilot truck. It was modem and powerful, easily pulling fifty cars at one time and hills around Flushing were no obstacle for engine number 1452. 78 Mother Nature's assistance. The big difference between these Flushing children and Flint's city children was in having space for outdoor recreation and a community whose members took care of each other during these hard times. Too many city families felt alone in their fight for survival. When remembering people of the 1940s and 1950s, Eleanor "Peg" and Frank Mosey were remembered by many Flushing residents. They owned and operated Mosey Plumbing until they opened a restaurant in their Main Street store in the 1950s. Peg's was a favorite eating place for miles around. Ray Rossell said, "Peg's wasn't merely a restaurant. It was an institution, a general meeting place, and a facility to gather all the news of what was happening around town. My first experience at Peg's was early one Sunday morning. I delivered newspapers and stopped in to get a cup of coffee. The boys were already there—Pat Miller, Frank Dinsmore, and George Darby. Pat ordered "some of that stuff that resembles coffee" and that was all Peg needed to get things started. You could expect a dish cloth to fly across the room to wrap around someone's neck, or a sharp barbed comment from the kitchen. Try as they would, the boys never seemed to get the best of Peg. There seemed to always be something going on at Peg's. Business deals were closed and plans were made by the local merchants and construction crews. The big urn was always filled with hot coffee, and the pie wasn't too bad, either. Of course, they accused Peg of washing her socks in the urn, but that didn’t phase Peg at all." (Wightman p .73) Growing up in Flushing in the 1950s was not that different from the past. More residents drove ten miles into Flint while General Motors prospered, but Flushing still had 79 its small town feeling. This is exactly how Casey Waite felt while living in Flushing. She remembered having a child's pride in knowing almost everyone in town and was pleased when someone on the street called her by name. The dime store was a fascinating place to shop for small children who proudly spent their hard earned allowance on toys and candy. Casey and her friends would also sit together at the drug store drinking cherry cokes and phosphates. Shopping for groceries was usually done at the A&P and at King's Butcher Shop. Most people did not have a need to drive into Flint when these stores were available in town. One of Casey's favorite memories happened on Saturday mornings when she and her dad would walk downtown to the bakery and bring back doughnuts. Dad probably caught up on all of the local gossip at the same time. (Wightman p.283) Teenagers were finding reasons to connect with Flint by the 1950s. There was a choice of movies for weekend entertainment and businesses were more plentiful for fulfilling after school jobs for those who could drive a distance. There was one reason to stay in town for warm weather entertainment— Flushing had its own county park. Flushing Park, on North McKinley Road, was a favorite place to play. Within walking distance children had a place run, climb trees, play baseball, and have picnics. Teenagers, with or without cars, could see or be seen by other teens while gathering to gossip or flirt. The road through the park was one big circle so anyone coming through in a car would see everything happening in the park. Many people do not realize how important it is for children and teenagers to have a place to gather. In some small towns they gather on street comers, just like in the city, but it is not socially accepted. If older teens drive around in their cars, they are looked upon as possible trouble. As long as everyone was 80 behaving within the limits of the park rules, everyone was welcome to visit in Flushing Park. Children were usually still home with mom and it was more rare for them to leave town for anything. Fast food was a sandwich and potato chips that were put together quickly on the kitchen table. Television was gaining popularity and most families knew someone with three black and white shows from which to choose. Flushing remained small and comfortable during the Cold War era as residents refused drastic change. Population growth occurred slowly with most of the spread heading east toward Flint. There was still an area between Elms road and 1-75 that felt like a country buffer zone between Flint and Flushing, allowing Flushing to remain close, but separate from the large growing industrialized city. Flushing remained a quiet respectable little town throughout the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. Property taxes and home prices were too steep for lower income families but did not discourage professionals wanting a safe haven from the city. This town was close to the urban destruction going on in Flint but remained a conservative, white, middle class small town. White middle class flight from the city helped to enlarge Flushing while its value system was allowed to remain the same. Mrs. Linda Gillam explained why she and her husband chose to begin their married life in Flushing. Both were looking for jobs as high school Biology teachers when Mr. Gillam was hired by Flushing schools. As they looked for a home in Flushing, impressed by the small town atmosphere, Mrs. Gillam was hired by the Carman-Ainsworth school system. A discussion about where to live ended with the decision to stay in Flushing. 83 Montrose Following the Flint River north of Flushing, in that undeveloped area, there is a feeling of being alone in the country for about ten miles before you see signs of another town. This is where the small town of Montrose is located. It still has a population below 2,000 as we reach for the year 2000. The township is large but sparsely populated. This is my hometown. I admit to being raised with small town values in a town too small to be called a town. It should still be called a village but local politicians have classified it as a city. The residents believe they know what is best for this little community and they all express themselves, at least the retired folk do, every morning over coffee at the coffee shop. Before looking at this town as it is today, there must be an explanation of how Montrose was created and the people who set the standards for this town's value system. Most of my information about Montrose comes from the Historical Association's newsletters called the Memory Lane Gazette. The first issue was in May, 1982 and continues to be published today. My mother, Mrs. Nancy Pope, was one of the founding "mothers" of the Montrose Historical Association and has been a researcher/writer/distributor for the Gazette As an avid genealogist, she found great interest in researching people of the past. The people responsible for keeping small town memories alive are caring volunteers who work long hard hours, year after year, for the 84 pleasure of knowing that future generations will know their heritage and understand why this particular community believes the way it does today. The Montrose area was first inhabited by members of the Sauk and Onottoway tribes. They were conquered by combined forces of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians and the local area became Chippewa tribal land until 1819. They signed a treaty with the United States Government, ceding some land in exchange for a reservation. This reservation, approximately two miles north of present day Montrose and along the Flint River, was called Pewonigowink, the Chippewa name for the Flint River. Many settlers in this area were from Scotland or northeastern United States. They made the long grueling trip by wagon through unsettled land or by steamer across Lake Erie and Huron into the Saginaw Bay. In 1842, Seymour Ensign and his family from New York became the first white settlers in this area. He built a water craft by putting a platform on two canoes that had been tied together and they traveled fifty-five miles up the Flint River. They settled on forty acres of land at the present location of Wilson and McKinley Road, east of the river. Others came and settled near Ensign and the river. Pewonigowink Township was organized in March, 1846, and in April of the following year township officials were elected. There were a total of fourteen resident taxpayers at this time. In 1848, the state legislature recognized the name change from Pewonigowink to Montrose. John Farquharson was the person responsible for a new name, feeling sentimental about his native home town in Scotland, hoping it would attract more Scottish friends to settle there. Two settlements began to grow in the Montrose area. Soutter's Comers was on the Flint River and Elk Comers was a couple of miles west at Vienna and 85 Sheridan, also known as M-13. At one time Elk had a post office, hardware store, two large general stores, blacksmith shop, hotel, and two doctors located there. Soutter's Corners had a general store and feed mill, Montrose Post Office, a boat and shoe shop, blacksmith, and other stores. These first settlers were as tough and determined to succeed in their new land as the first settlers on the east coast of this country. They lived by the same values originally brought to this country from Europe. Hard work, determination, pride, freedom, and survival were the basics to give their families a healthy clean living in a new land. The two communities were forced to come together by 1888 when the new railroad from Durand to Saginaw was built in open land located between the two comers. With the new town of Montrose growing around the railroad, Elk and Soutter's Comer's eventually lost businesses to the new development. The railroad never went as far as originally planned but it did connect Montrose to Saginaw, probably the most important Michigan city from 1850 through the 1890s. By 1899 there were thirteen two-story brick stores, one brick hotel, one brick livery bam, nine two-story brick homes, a brick schoolhouse, and many frame buildings in town. There were two churches, one Baptist and one Methodist. The Methodist Church is still standing today but is no longer used. In October, 1899, the village of Montrose was incorporated and its 336 citizens held their first village elections. The following gentleman were elected. William Hillier, James Massey, Bert Carey, Otto Eggert, William Clements, William Main, Levi Bronson, Samuel S. Quehl, Preston M. Park, and John S. Smith. 88 That you will increase the value of your property by improving its appearance. That you will say something good about this town every time you write a letter. That you will invest your money here where you made it and where you can watch it. That you will not point out the town's defects to a stranger nor fail to point them out to a neighbor. That you will keep your premises cleaned up and your buildings repaired as a matter of both pride and profit. That you will brag about this town so much that you will have to work for this town in order to keep from being a liar. That you will take half a day right now to pick up the odds and ends around the place and turn them into either use, money or ashes. That you will contribute as much money as you can afford and as much enthusiasm as anybody, to any movement to develop the town's resources. That you will make friends with the farmers, if a town man, or with the town folks if a farmer, and help work together for the good of the community of which this town is the center. (Gazette July-August, 1983) This article gave much insight into values associated with living in Montrose in 1915. All citizens were expected to live up to these expectations without exception. Not only town folk, but farmers in the township were included as a part of this community and all were to help each other in maintaining this peaceful little village. A May 24, 1918, article from the Montrose newspaper hints at how men were handling prohibition: Soft Drinks Become Popular in Village Since the State went dry near-beer and soft drinks have reached formerly unknown popularity in the village. Men who formerly shunned the beverages and laughed at them, terming them an insult to a man's stomach could be seen Saturday night drinking the concoctions and looking as if they enjoyed it. The result was that soft drink parlors did a thriving business and still those who indulge went home sober. (Gazette January-February, 1983) 89 On October 21, 1924, the Montrose High School burned. Just as Mr. Love remembers his Flushing school fire, many Montrose residents are still around to talk about this great fire. Although recently deceased, Scotty Flynn remembered that day well. He was a member of the football team and their only ball had gone flat. The principal, and coach, sent Scotty and a couple of fellows up to Saginaw to buy a new ball. When they returned, they came into view of the school, and it was gone, burned right to the ground. All of his school books had been left on his desk so he ran around asking other students if anyone had saved his books. Luckily, someone had thrown them out the window and he was able to retrieve all of his school books. Glen Moore remembered a piano located in the upstairs room on the north end. When the fire started, Glen and several other boys carried the piano down the center staircase to the ground floor. Just as they reached the bottom of the stairs the school bell came crashing through the roof and fell all the way through the stairwell to the first floor. The boys hurriedly pushed the piano out the front door on the west side of the building. Glen also remembered the fire saving him from getting into trouble that day. He had come to class a little late and threw a handful of peanuts in his mouth as he entered the room. He had just managed to get into his seat when the teacher said "Glen Moore, stand up." As he stood, someone rushed into the room screaming about the fire so Glen never knew what was going to happen to him. Fern Fent remembered allowing her sister to wear a new hat to school. She never saw that hat again because it went down with the school. Hilda Middleton was only in the second grade but she remembered the fire well. Her class was beginning to use their readers when the teacher very calmly told everyone to stand up and walk out of the 90 building carefully and quietly. She led them toward the playground while she wondered why the older kids were running around making noise. After she reached a safe distance from school she turned around and saw smoke rising into the air above the school. Just then a familiar voice spoke her name and she knew everything would be all right because her pa was there to protect her. Wyman Jennings gave back to Montrose his entire life. This small town lost a dear friend in August, 1997. Without Wyman, his wife Edith also died just five short months after losing her best friend-her husband. This couple exemplified Montrose's values for almost ninety years. Wyman's grandfather, Francis L. Jennings, was a pioneer of Michigan, settling in Arbelle Township, Tuscola County, in 1852. His son, Leroy, eventually bought twenty acres of land in Montrose Township in 1894, later buying more. In 1903 he moved into the village and opened an implement store. He married in 1897, had three children, with Wyman being the baby bom August 14, 1908. Jennings was an active member of Montrose's society and was the village president for a while, a Republican, Royal Arch Mason, Blue Lodge member, and a member of the Gleaners. His wife was equally active. Wyman grew up believing in his hometown and seeing his parents as civic leaders. His early memories were of his mother's roles as a housewife, churning butter, growing a garden, raising chickens, and exchanging eggs for other staples. Many people used the barter system in those days, helping each other. Everyone came to town on Saturday to exchange their supplies at the local stores, to meet friends, and to catch up on all of the latest news and gossip. Saturday was an exciting day in Montose during those years. Many family members lived close and visited frequently, 93 of Flushing, it is twice removed from the urban sprawl into suburbia. In the 1960s, Montrose had several General Motors workers willing to drive half an hour into Flint while living a country life. Many had lived in rural southern areas and chose to return to the country as soon as possible after moving to Flint. Most of the women stayed in Montrose, working locally or not working at all. A few women drove to Flint or Saginaw to work, but that was the exception. The community was small and stable with few outside influences. Children rarely left town except for an occasional shopping trip with mom on Saturday. All entertainment was within the boundaries of the familiar surroundings. The school was a central focus for after school activities, even in the summer. Young teens were welcome at the old high school gymnasium, with no cost, shooting baskets and jumping on the trampoline. They could walk one block uptown for something to eat or drink and wander back to the school to see who else had come by. Boys and girls could sit and talk for hours in the safety of the school grounds. There was no swimming pool available so the school would take a bus over to Chesaning's public pool a couple of times a week to give the children something to do. The ride took about twenty minutes so everyone would talk or sing songs—typically started by the boys would be One Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall. Summer was always officially started after the Memorial Day Parade. Even though school was not officially out everyone knew summer was here. The high school band, all of the veteran groups, boy and girl scouts, and anyone else who chose to be in the parade gathered at the bank on the west side of town. People would line the streets to wave and enjoy the entertainment. The parade would go east through town, across the 94 Flint River, and stop at the Montrose cemetery. There would be a short service and everyone would be dismissed from there. If it was a nice day, it was common for people to linger in town to visit with those people they had not seen for a while but if weather was chilly, everyone went home a little quicker. In the early 1960s there was a horse show every summer and that would be good weekend entertainment. After it closed, the town started bringing in a carnival at least once during the summer. It would set up on the baseball fields on school grounds. This was a good place to go on a date, or meet there if teens were not driving cars yet. Boys could try to show off their ability to win prizes for a girl, and she would be thrilled to carry something around, bragging about how the boy won it. The carnival would stay for three or four nights, giving locals somewhere to go and enjoy a few hours of fun, and then it would be gone. Saturday night dating was different than the rest of the week for older teens. That was the night they would make plans to go to Flint for a movie, dinner, putt-putt golf, or even another town's carnival. Plans would be made during the week, boys would formally ask girls out on a date, and they would possibly choose to include other couples. Girls would then coordinate their wardrobe, according to where they were going, and have everything ready to wear, at least by Friday. The drive-in theaters were a popular place to go on dates so the girls would often pop popcorn ahead of time to save on expenses. It was also common to find a group listening to music or watching television anywhere they were welcome. That was less expensive than a trip into Flint. There was a small old movie theater, the May Theater, open on weekends. Parents would drop their younger children off for early shows, while teenagers knew they 95 had the night shows. Very often you could depend on seeing one of the many beach movies playing in the 1960s. Many Junior High age romances started by meeting at the May Theater, but everyone knew to watch out for the old one-armed man with his flashlight who wandered the aisles looking for trouble makers or too much romance. He was not a kind soul to the youngsters so everyone was afraid of being kicked out of the theater. In Montrose most children knew to behave themselves in public. There was an unwritten rule that if you get in trouble in town, you would also be in trouble at home. Not much horseplay was worth being in trouble twice. My mother worked in the only grocery store in town. That gave her access to all news and gossip in town. There was nothing I could do that she did not know about by the end of the day. She knew everyone in town. If I came home from school with a story she knew who I was talking about and she knew the parents and what they usually ate. If I said I was going to be at someone's house, that is where I had to be because she would eventually see those parents in the store and talk to them. Not all parents had that kind of connections but they were visible enough to stay involved with their children's activities. The school was an ideal location for community gatherings. At the elementary parents would walk or drive their children to and from school if they lived too close to ride the bus. It was common to see mothers standing outside of their cars enjoying conversation while waiting for the end of the school day. Parent-teacher conferences and assemblies were well attended, at least by the mothers. Sporting events have always been a small town gathering time, especially at football and basketball games. Students were