Georgianna Couse Chase

I am Georgianna Couse Chase.  This is June the 23^rd 1989.  I was born in Byron, Michigan in 1909.  I grew up in Byron, and then moved to Detroit, and then went to the college at the University of Michigan.  There I met Walter Couse, and we were married and lived in Detroit for a few years, and then moved to Northville in 1937.  We were excited about coming to this little country town.  The end of two years, you knew almost everyone that you met on the street.  We thought it was a charming place.

We bought the Yerkes House, which was at the corner of Church and Cady, and is now located at the Historical Center.  It hadn’t been painted in 30 years, and the first coat of paint just disappeared into the wood.  We remodeled it one room at a time, as we could afford to.  And at the end of ten years, we moved out Seven Mile Road to the area that’s now Edenderry Hills.

We built an apple barn there and planted 400 apple trees.  After just a few years, we decided that we couldn’t run a construction company, which my husband did- Walter L. Couse & Company – and have an apple orchard.  So we discontinued that.  And in 1960 we started developing Edenderry Hills – subdividing it.  Walter died in 1967, and it was all subdivided at that time excepting Edenderry Drive, which was the last section of the subdivision.  I finished that section after Walter was gone.  We loved living here.  It was very quiet, and all country and all trees; and when we subdivided it, we didn’t cut down any trees, excepting those that were in the roadway.  That’s why there are so many lovely trees here today.

I worked for Walter Couse Company after my husband died until 1988.  I had studied accounting at the University of Michigan, and the work I did was accounting, and I enjoyed it.  I have three children – Blake Couse, who continued the Walter Couse Company after Walter was gone; a daughter, Barbara Allen, who lives in Hawaii; and a daughter, Elsa, who lives in Ann Arbor.  She married Richard Stuber, who was also a Northville boy.

Walter Couse and I were busy in the community and enjoyed living here.  We were active in the Presbyterian Church and on several committees, and I was eventually president of Women’s Club, president of the Parent Teachers Association, and also active in the Presbyterian Church which I still am today.  It has been an important part of my life.

I married Bill Chase in 1970, after his wife had passed away.  And Mr. Chase had Shatterproof Glass.  He had a farm opposite the house on Eight Mile and Griswold, 262 acres, which now has been sold for subdividing and it will be zoned only for residential property.  Mr. Chase died in 1985, and I have moved back to Edenderry.  And I’m living in a house that belonged to Carol Couse, and I’m enjoying it a great deal.  It is surprising to see how the trees have grown, and many of the same neighbors that were here in 1970 are still here.