David VanMeer, who later became my paternal grandfather, was born in Canada on January 15, 1839. I do not know his birthplace or his parents, and can only assume they came from the Netherlands.

As a youth, David went to the United States and settled in Applegate, Michigan. There he met and married Mary Ann Tubbs, who one of my daughters, Mary Ann, was later named after. The new couple settled on a strip of land adjoining Elk Creek. Walter, their first child, years later became my father.

In the beginning, David provided his family with a reasonable living. Later, he got interested in drinking and carousing at a local saloon, often returning home late at night, loudly verbally-abusing his family members.

Walter was followed by two sisters — Anna and Belle, and a brother Alvin.

During the summers, the boys planted and tended a garden to provide food for the family. Sometimes they hunted rabbits and other small game . . . not for sport but to provide food on the table.

During winter months, the children attended a local school which provided the only education they ever knew. Walter completed sufficient studies to graduate from the fourth grade.

When Walter was 11, his mother succumbed to pneumonia. Only a wooden marker indicated her last resting place. Unfortunately, it decayed over time and disappeared. No one knows the exact location of her grave at this point.

When Walter turned 15, he left home to work in a lumber camp from dawn until dark for $1 a day and a place to eat and sleep. Part of his hard-earned money he sent home to help feed the family members.

Each Saturday on payday, many of the workers went into town and got rip-roaring drunk. Walter chose to stay in the camp and take care of the horses to make some extra money.

After four long years in the lumber camp, rumors filtered in about jobs in the city. Walter decided to go to Lansing to see what employment he could find. On the way to the capitol city, he stopped to see his family and found new tenants inhabiting the farmhouse. Neighbors told him his brother and sisters were all married and had moved away.

His father David, left alone, sold the place and purchased another farm near Prescott, Michigan. When Walter stopped to see his father, he found him living with his young son Harvey, Walter's stepbrother, whose mother Katherine had died during childbirth.

While visiting there, Walter attended a party. There he met Bertha Spielvogel whose parents lived on a farm nearby. Walter was attracted to her, and she went to Lansing with him where they were married.

During the two years he spent in Lansing, Walter worked for Ebenent Sons Housebuilders. In the meantime, he learned of a land sale on a parcel near Prescott, Michigan, and purchased 160 acres of cutover land (where trees had been removed but stumps still remained) for $160, a dollar an acre. There, weekends and holidays, he built a three-bedroom farmhouse. Meanwhile their first son Louis was born.

When the family moved to the newly-constructed house, it was still surrounded by stumps which Walter began to industriously remove.
On October 7, 1907, their second son Leo was born shortly after their arrival on the Prescott farm. In years to come, the boys played happily on the cleared land.

Within a short time, Walter made a going concern of the newly-purchased land. He built a hen house and had a well dug to supply both household and animal needs.

When Leo was three, Walter built a barn to house a growing cattle herd, as well as producing wheat, oats, and hay crops. To protect the new building, he hired a lightning-rod installer from the village. He helped install the lightning rods; and during the course of the operation, the installer made an unexpected offer.

Eli Karr, who owned 72 acres near Gagetown, where his aunt and uncle lived, wanted to move his relatives closer to Prescott. He offered to trade a farm with cleared land for Walter's not-completely-cleared acres.

After due consideration, with the trade completed, Walter moved his family to the new location. There, Walter's efforts prospered, and he built a going concern. One morning, while Walter was milking cows, a land investor made him an offer he found difficult to refuse. For the 72 acres with brick house and barn, he offered $5000 cash.

Walter accepted the offer and moved his family into town. There he plied his building trade to pay for general living expenses. The boys began their education in the Gagetown Public Schools. And there a third son was born (January 26, 1916). His name was Arley.

Walter, who still wanted to be a farmer, purchased a going concern near Crosswell, not far from Applegate where he was born. The boys, now old enough to help on the farm, attended an eight-grade public school in a one-room schoolhouse.

At first the family farm prospered. But the war in Europe (WWI) made competent hired farm help scarce. Walter, anticipating the coming trend, sold the farm and again the family moved into town (Croswell) in a rented house.

© 2004 Leo VanMeer

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