Willard Wilson - 1988

WW. Willard Wilson

Interviewer:  Diane Rockall (?)

WW. My name is Willard Wilson. I live at 10385 W. Seven Mile Road, Northville, Michigan, between Napier and Chubb. This is November 15, 1988.

Okay, Mr. Wilson, you live in the Township of Northville?

WW. Salem Township, Washtenaw County.

Is the mailing address Northville?

WW. Northville. We’re just over the county line.

How long have you lived here?

WW. I lived here 69 years, 70 years next July.

You were born here then?

WW. I was born in Whitmore Lake, Michigan, in my grandparents’ home, and after a week or so I came to live on Seven Mile where my folks lived.

You were only a week or so old, am I right? Same property where you’re living now?

WW. Yes, my father gave my brother and I each land to build on when we were married. We built our own homes here.

Now living out this far, what school did you attend?

WW. Thayer School, a fractional school, on the corner of Napier and Six Mile Road.

It was what school? Thayer School?

WW. It was part of the old Thayer property; the Thayer family, years ago, donated this property for the school to be built on. When the school quit functioning as a school district, it was returned back to the Thayer family.

I see. Obviously, the building is no longer there.

WW. The building is still there. There is a cemetery back of the old school.

Now that’s Six Mile and Napier Road. Now you grew up in this area; what was life like then as far as you and the town of Northville? This being a project of the Northville

Historical Society, obviously, we’re interested in how Northville, itself, has changed. You’re not that far outside of Northville.

WW. I remember as a child, Saturday night was farmers’ night in Northville, that is, when the farmers went into town to do their trading and shopping. My mother, for instance, took eggs and traded it in for groceries. Of course, Northville has drastically changed. A lot of these stores that were there then are not now. The buildings are still there but have changed fronts and names. Some of the old stores like Freydls and Spagnuolo’s are still left that I remember as a child.

Now, you went into town on Saturday nights primarily?

WW. As a general rule, yes we did. My mother and father did their weekly shopping and occasionally would run into town for things that they would run out of.

Okay, what store, for instance, did they trade at? What was the name of the stores and where were they?

WW. The one that stands out mostly in my mind is the Kroger store which is on the south side of Main Street at that given time, and there was Elliot’s Bakery which my mother occasionally went into for baked goods, fried cakes, and bread. Beyond that, the stores don’t come into my mind.

Now Kroger’s being a chain even then, did they buy the eggs from your mother?

WW. As to that I can’t tell you what store, but I remember my mother taking in eggs and putting them toward a grocery order.

Exchanging them for groceries, that’s interesting. Now you remember Spagnuolo’s, you said, and Freydls, they date back to then. And there was a Kroger store. What else was in town then when you were growing up?

WW. There was Lyke’s Hardware. There was Stewarts Drug Store.

Where was Stewarts Drug Store?

WW. It’s right next door to the gazebo where it stands today.

Or, right next door to where they built that new band stand? Next to that little park?

WW. Yes, yes.

There’s a drug store there right now. Is that the same place?

WW. It’s the same drug store, but it’s changed names.

I mean the same site.

WW. Yes. Once a week or every two weeks my father would take the grain and corn and so forth down to what was known as Yerkes Grist Mill down on Baseline Road to have it ground into ground feed for the cattle.

Now that was on the Baseline near where?

WW. It’s right by the railroad tracks. It used to be Yerkes Lumberyard and Yerkes Grist Mill.

Down under there where the cider mill is?

WW. Yes, west of where Parmenters’ cider mill is. There was a gristmill there years ago. Across the tracks on the right hand side going east was Nowel’s lumberyard and coal yard where my folks would get coal there years ago.

In that same area across the tracks?

WW. Yerkes is here and you cross the railroad tracks, and Nowel’s lumberyard was on the right hand side.

Is that right? I think there are a couple of little houses there now.

WW. The coal yards and the lumberyard, that’s all gone.

No one has told me that. That’s interesting. What did you use coal for?

WW. We heated the house at that time with heating stoves, and my folks burned both wood and coal in the stove, but mostly coal.

What did you use for cooking, a wood stove?

WW. We had the old-fashioned wood cook stove, yes. We could either wood or coal; it was optional.

Okay, can you just go along without my questioning you and tell me some things, because it’s kind of hard to ask you specific questions about what you remember, cause you went to grade school out here. What about high school?

WW. I went to high school in Northville, the old high school which stands on Main Street. We just, this last June, celebrated our 50 years of graduation.

I see. How did you get there?

WW. When I was young, my folks took my brother and me in the morning. As a rule we used to walk home from Thayer School.

What about high school?

WW. At first it was up to us to furnish our own transportation. There were no buses at the time my brother and I went to high school. We had to furnish our own transportation.

That’s quite a hike.

WW. The grade school was a mile and a half. In Northville we had cars.

I see.

WW. At that time there were two or three of the neighbor fellows who were going to high school who were a few grades ahead of me, and my folks paid my way to ride with them. There was a neighbor lady who worked at the Phoenix Plant by Plymouth, and at that time, she would pick me up at the corner on Main Street. There was a bank there where Noder’s Jewelry Store stands today.

What was at the Phoenix Plant?

WW. It was a Ford factory, a subsidiary of the Ford chain of factories.

Was it called Phoenix because of the Phoenix Lake?

WW. I think it did take its name from the Phoenix Lake.

Now, you just made me think of something as a matter of interest. Was there an age limit for driver’s licensing, because you said some of your friends had cars?

WW. Age was limitless. I think you could get it at 16. I don’t remember. The brothers were older than me and they drove.

So you didn’t have that problem. You went to high school there. What else can you tell me what Northville was like?

WW. I remember far back when the interurban used to come into Northville and turned around some way and headed back to Detroit.

Do you remember where it turned around?

WW. No I don’t. I remember it coming out to the four corners of Northville. Now whether it reversed itself and went back into Detroit, that I don’t know.

By the four corners, you’re referring to what? Center and Main?

WW. Yes, Center and Main. I also remember the bandstand that was in the middle of the street at the time.

Where was that?

WW. The four corners of Main and Center Street.

There was a bandstand there?

WW. It was not flat; it was raised on a kind of a platform.

It allowed for traffic? What did traffic do? Go around it?

WW. Yes, they went around it. Yes. At that time there was not that much traffic in Northville. I also remember the time the hotel burned on the corner of Center and Main Street. There was an old hotel stood there. When that burned, it was a very hot fire. I can remember my father and various other people saying that it burned a lot of the windows in the Record office…

Was the Record Office there then?

WW. No, at that time I think it was Huff’s Hardware.

Huff’s? Did you go into town for much of your entertainment then when you were a young man?

WW. At that time your entertainment was to go to a local show. At one given time we had in the neighborhood, we had a Pedro club. Every week, the neighbors would take turns having the neighbors in and playing Pedro.

I think I’ve heard of that. Where was the show?

WW. The same place it is today.

What was it called then, do you remember?

WW. No, I don’t remember.

‘Cause no one else has been able to tell me what it was called either.

WW. Wouldn’t it be in the history of Northville?

Probably, but I’m going by what people remember.

WW. No, I cannot tell you. At that time the show was standing there when they had that big fire in Northville and it destroyed Elliott’s bakery, the show and damaged the bank where it stands today, Manufacturers.

Some people have told me about the school burning down too. At what point was that?

WW. I was in high school when the grade school burned which was in 1936, which is south of the old high school of today. As a youth, I was born and raised a farmer and I

started out following a team of horses. My father would have the binder and he would cut the green, and it was up to my brother and I, after he got done, we’d have to shuck. Also after the corn was planted I cultivated by horses, with a two-horse cultivator. We had the clang-banger and the corn was cut, bound, and we had to go through and shuck the stupid stuff. The furthest I can remember of mechanical machinery my father had was an old Fordson Tractor. In the summer it ran beautifully and in the winter it was like a stubborn mule, you couldn’t get it started.

What did you use it for in the winter then?

We didn’t, it just stood there. At that time it was not as far as advanced with the machinery as they are today. After that we gradually worked in to the combines, the hay bailers and so forth. I never plowed with horses. My father plowed for many years with horses. I cultivated and so forth. My grandfather Wilson who lived at Eight Mile between Napier and Chubb, he logged many acres of logging through here. He took the logs down to the sawmill where the Ford Motor Company stands today. I can’t think of the name of the gentleman who had the sawmill at that time.

So that area must have been all woods then?

WW. At the time of my grandfather, yes. My grandfather lived to a 100 and some odd years old. My father was 95 when he passed away, so it was a good many years ago when the country was young.

You father lived where out here?

WW. My father was born and raised on Eight Mile Road.

He lived where? Where was your home?

WW. Down on the old farm, which is the next house from me. The barn is still in the family. It’s in the Northville history write up that my father’s farm was some of the farms that were originally taken from the government at that given time. At that time the house that was built was a two-room house.

What do you mean taken from the government? You mean homesteading? What did they call it then? Land grants?

WW. Land grants I believe.

I think someone else has mentioned land grant to me.

WW. The original deed is in a locked box in Northville.

Now, you remained on the farm. Have you always lived here?

WW. I’ve always lived on the farm all my life. I was a farmer until the year I was married. The farm is not big enough to support two families, so at that given time, I

helped my dad farm for about half a year and then I went to work for John Miller’s nursery. I also worked as a plumber’s assistant. My father-in-law got me into the Ford Motor Company in Ypsilanti and I remained there until they built the new plant on Sheldon Road. I transferred from Ypsilanti to the Sheldon Road Plant and I’d been with the Ford Motor Company for 27 years when I retired. I’ve seen Northville go from strictly a farmers’ town to suburbia of what it is today. Originally the mile between Napier and Chubb, there were seven farm homes, and it’s been divided and sold, and there’s a great number of homes on this one mile today.

Seven Mile Road?

WW. Yes, between Napier and Chubb. I’ve seen it go from horse-drawn implements to the mechanical age of today.

There’s not an awful lot of farming going on now.

WW. No there isn’t. There is very little farming in this community. I think you have to go about 10 miles at least.

How much acreage do you still have here?

WW. I’ve got ¾’s of an acre. Originally, my father’s farm was 80 acres. Consumers has bought some of it. When the estate was settled, my brother bought me out. He has the farm today. Consumers bought some and it was in the Northville Record when they were speculating for oil here. The people through these sections signed the company who was leasing. There was oil and gas struck here. We had a gas well in the back of the farm. Mr. Roy LeMaster had oil struck on his place. At one time they were getting royalty checks.

This past year, there was quite a bit of furor east of here. You still have a gas well on the back of the original property.

WW. Yes. Anyway when we were going to school through the winter in the depression, we had ponies from Palmer Park. We had the use of the ponies through the winter just for the bedding, feeding and taking care of them. In the spring, the man who had the concession for the ponies in Palmer Park would come and get them and pick them up and take them back. One year during the depression when business was very slow, we were able to keep one pony for the summer, which mother and I used to have to cut corn for the cows. After the corn got full grown, my father would have us cut every 20^th row through. So we took horses and binders to cut the corn to later shuck. We had to cut these rows through, so we’d take a broken down old buggy, and we’d go out and cut the corn through and then we’d have to go out and let the cows eat through the evening. I started to milk cows by hand and then eventually we had a milking machine. One time we took our milk over to Baseline to the milk depot on the corner of Eight Mile and Beck, Twin Pines.

Oh, there was a Twin Pines Creamery there?

WW. Yes. Years before that there was the milk factory down on Seven Mile Road, which was on the Ed Statler farm, and my folks took their milk there for a good many years.

What about Guernsey’s? Was Guernsey’s around?

WW. Guernsey was in Northville and known as Red Rose at that time, but it was Guernsey. I first remember it being on S. Center Street below Gunsell’s Drug Store. It doesn’t stand there today. Those buildings are all gone. Mr. McGuire went from there and built his new creamery out on Novi Road.

What about other businesses that you can remember? You told me about grocery stores and Freydls, the movie.

WW. I remember there was the DSR waiting room on N., Center Street which stood where the Greens’ Paint Store is today. There was a shoe repair and the DSR Waiting Room there.

The DSR Waiting Room.

WW. One time the village of Northville, which was a village, used to have a community Christmas tree on the four corners there. Every Christmas Eve, I think, they would fill stockings with candy and an orange and the kids would line up and they would give them to the children of Northville.

Quite a bit happened on that corner. You had the band shell.

WW. It was a high structure so it overlooked the street, and the band used to play. I think there are pictures of it in some of the historical pictures of Northville. Braders came in but that was later. As a kid there was a shoe store run by the Stark Brothers of Northville. My mother used to take me in there to buy shoes for me. I was a little tyrant. I never liked those shoes. My mother used to have to hold my feet while poor old Mr. Stark tried to put shoes on my feet because I wouldn’t sit still that long.

Where was that shoe store; do you remember?

WW. It was right next door to the bank.

Manufacturer’s Bank?

WW. The dime store at one time was on N. Center Street and it was also on Main St. It’s where the Little Peoples Shop and those shops there and it’s all changed. There was Shafer’s Electric Shop. At one time the electric lights came out as far as the old Maybury Sanatorium. It was the end of the electrical line. My mother always wished every time she’d go by, if she could have one electric light from there, she would be happy. Eventually they brought out the electric lights out through and the line was turned on, on St. Patrick’s Day.

What Year?

WW. That year I can’t remember. It was back in the 20s. At one time Seven Mile out here, the road I live on today, was nothing but a dirt road. It went from a dirt road to a gravel road; from a gravel road to asphalt road of today. At the time the gravel road was put in they paved Eight Mile, and it was either a question of a gravel road being put in or being taxed for the new road on Eight Mile. The people on Seven Mile didn’t want to pay for the road on Eight Mile; they put the good road through here. My folks moved into their home on St. Patrick’s Day on 1918 and I was born the year after that, 1919. As I said Mr. Roy Terrill should be well remembered in Northville. He had a woods on Napier Road between Six and Seven. At one time he had all the timber cut down. It was all logged off. That was when I was going to grade School. When I was a kid we had some furious snowstorms out here. Many times we had to go through the field at the beginning of the woods and come out by the corner of Six Mile to get to the road because the beginning of Mr. Terrill’s woods would drift so bad you couldn’t get through.

You couldn’t use the road?

WW. One year during the depression when we had such bad weather, they sent the WPA to dig it all out by hand it was drifted so badly. During the depression, I think it was the WPA at that time, repainted the old school that I went to with donated money. The government also donated money for the books to be rebound; it was that cheap in the school. My mother would have to be working with that bunch. I’ve seen it go from horse-drawn vehicle to commercial.

What business was in town? Ford wasn’t there then, was it?

WW. Yes, Ford Motor has been there a good many years. Originally, where the Ford Motor Company stands today, I can’t think of the fellow’s name, had a sawmill there and Ford built the Ford Plant.

So there was a sawmill in town. What other businesses were in town, not necessarily when you were real young, but that you recall growing up.

WW. The A & P store came in. Before that was Whites’ Dry Goods Store. Ely’s Coal Office used to be up on Main Street. Ponsfords, which is Laphams of today. Mr. Ponsford had his store there. There was a woman by the name of Mrs. Cobb who used to work there as one of the clerks. There was Lyke’s Hardware, Stewarts’ Drug Store, Stark’s Shoe Store, and Butch Baldwin had a meat market on Main Street.

What about actual businesses like Ford or factories, that kind of business?

WW. Not to my knowledge. Ford came in and then Powdered Metal was on Cady Street. I worked there for a while and that burned.

What was that?

WW. Powdered Metal. Can you think of the name of it?

Is that the place that made bells or is that before your time?

WW. There used to be the furniture factory just east of town. I’m trying to think of the name of that (Globe Furniture Company). Then there used to be the spring water company (Silver Springs Bottling Company) that supplied water to the well. That’s not the original spring; that dried up years ago. There used to be a motel on the corner where the Heritage Bank stands today. That burned many years ago. There was Dr. Sparling, Dr. Holcomb, and Dr. Snow. Our family doctor was either Dr. Holcomb or Dr. Snow. In later years, Dr. Atchison.

What about the hospital there, Sessions?

WW. Sessions Hospital was on Main Street, which is the Wishing Well of today.

I think it recently changed names again. One of the women I talked with says it has a different name now. Her husband is there.

WW. When we had these ponies from Palmer Park we used to ride them to school. At that time we kept the ponies in the barn, which is the old Thayer property that is just below the hill on Six Mile. Course that’s all long gone.  Porades’ Farm came out in the 30s on Six Mile. He had Belgian horses at that time.

Now you’ve raised your own family right here. How many children do you have?

WW. We have three daughters. The eldest is Elaine Ann, the middle is Lucy Jane, and the youngest is Debra. Debra and her husband have bought one of the original homes here on Seven Mile between Napier and Chubb and at the moment they’ve been married a little over a year.

I’ll bet that makes you proud.

WW. Yes, I know the Terrill family owned the property and I’ve known the Terrill’s for many years, she was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Terrill. We speak of food being farmers, and my folks raised their own vegetables, their own potatoes. Every spring they would butcher two or three hogs, and then my father and mother would make a special brine to cure them. They would smoke their own meats. Being of German descent, my grandmother and my mother would make German sausages and so forth. Then my mother would take the hams and the shoulders and ??? them down and put them in stone crocks. There would be a layer of pork and grease and the grease would seal it. They would butcher beef one year, and with the help of a neighbor, she canned the majority of the beef for the summer. We had our own vegetables.

Did you raise cattle here?

WW. Yes, my father was a dairy farmer. That’s all I can think of unless there are questions you want to ask.

I think we’ve pretty much covered what I can think to ask. I am sure when we are finished you will say, “Oh, now I remember so and so.”

Ok, one thing we haven’t touched upon is churches. It was mainly a protestant town. Wasn’t It?

WW. Yes.

What about the Catholic Church? Did it exist when you were growing up?

WW. As far as back as I can remember, the Catholic Church stands where it does today, on the corner of Thayer. My grandfather went to the Northville Baptist Church, as well as my father and his brothers and sisters. My grandfather was a strict Baptist. Mr. Sloan who lived on the corner of Ridge and Seven Mile asked my grandfather if he could use the horse shed to keep his horse in. At that time there were horse sheds for people who went to the Baptist Church to keep their horses in while they attended the service.  My grandfather, being a good-hearted Joe, said, “Yes.” Well, Mr. Sloan more or less took it over, and my grandfather put Mr. Sloan in his place and said, “This is my shed; this is for my horse and you’ll have to find other accommodations for your horse. As far as the Presbyterian Church, I can remember it being there. The Methodist Church was then on the corner of N. Center and Dunlap until they built the new church on Eight Mile Road. Speaking of my youth again, I went to many a dance out at the Salem Township Hall which is in Salem, my wife and I had gone to many dances there. At the opening of the Salem Township Hall, my father and mother were one of the original couples who danced at the grand opening many, many years ago. Salem is close to me. I went to church there. Many of the buildings that were in Salem have either been torn down or burned. The train used to stop in Salem for the mail and has been discontinued. The milk factory that was there is gone. The grist mill is gone. The township hall isn’t the township hall as I remembered, because they use it mostly for elections and social gatherings now.

Was that a passenger train that came out?

WW. Yes, a passenger train. My father remembered the big train wreck that happened. Between Napier and Beck at that time there was a passenger train with a good many people killed and injured. My father told me about that.

I was going to ask you about the passenger train that came to Northville.

WW. There was a passenger train that was in Salem that used to stop and pick up passengers and also the freight. They were all locomotives, but the diesels have taken it over today. The train depot in Salem has been torn down. The Congregational Church I attended in my youth is no longer a church. The Salem Federated Church is now the Salem Bible Church.

Are most of your activities in Salem now rather than in Northville?

WW. Northville, mostly. When we graduated from the 1938 high school commencement exercises were held in the Penniman Allen Theatre where we received our diploma.

Is that the same theatre that is there now? A while ago you couldn’t remember the name of it.

WW. Yes, the P.& A., The Penniman Allen Theatre.

You’re the first person who has told me the name of it.

WW. When we graduated, Baccalaureate was held in the Presbyterian Church in Northville.

About how many students would have graduated?

WW. If I remember it correctly there were 49 of us—a big class! We had a very good turnout for our 50^th class reunion which was held in June. Some of them were deceased and some of them we couldn’t locate. They came from Florida. Some of them didn’t wan’t to attend. We held the class reunion at Genitti’s in Northville. Course a lot of the kids came in from Oregon, California, Florida and so forth and a lot of them saw a big change in the old hometown.

Genitti’s do a good job putting on a farm party. Well, we still haven’t finished one tape. Have you told me everything you can think of? You are going to get this tape back and your children are going to want to listen to it in the future.

WW. As far as I can think of, I’ve told you everything. The girl I married is a Detroit girl. She lived on Prairie in Detroit. Her father and mother bought property on Five Mile and they built their home out there. The minister of the Salem Federated Church introduced us. In fact, we met earlier in life. Her father and mother used to buy fowl at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Being kids, we looked at each other and said, “So What?” We were married in the Methodist church in Plymouth.

How long have you been married?

WW. 37 years. I can’t remember. I’ve told you about everything I can think of.

Okay, I want to thank you very much for your time. When this is edited, I’ll call you and bring you a copy back.