THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR Bulletin of the Sebewa Center Association,
OCTOBER 1993, Volume 29, Number 2.
Submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

SURNAMES:
BULLING, HANSON, LAKE, MONTGOMERY, FROST, ROGERS, SHAY, KRAUSE, HATH, LAPO, WORTLEY, GOSCH, SLOWINSKI, SCHAIBLY, VanBROCKLIN,
SWITZER, BOWER, WILLIAMS, GOODEMOOT, CUSACK, BRODBECK, READ, BIPPLEY, CHILDS, INGALL, COOK, MEYERS, KENYON, BARNER, LANE, ALLEN, WARD, BAILIFF, SHIPMAN, DARLING, TODD, BAIRD, KROSKIE, NEWLIN, HALE, ELDRIDGE, TICE, STAIR, WESTER, METTERNICK, HOFFMAN, ANDERSON, HILL, SALINE, ADAMS LINEBAUGH, YORK, SCHUG, CHASE, MAPES, GIBBS, FENDER, DODDS, Van FENDER, CREIGHTON, SAXTON, HAZZARD, BECKHOLD, VALENTINE, BALDWIN, DEMARAY, SMITH, SLOWINS

RECENT DEATHS:
KEITH F. BULLING, 80, husband of Bernice Williams Bulling, father of Joan Hanson, Susan Lake, Marjorie Montgomery, Barbara Frost & Bill Bulling, brother of the late Theo & Kenneth Bulling, son of Mary Rogers & Fred Bulling. Born at E1/2 SW1/4 & W1/2 SE1/4, Sec. 20 Sebewa, Musgrove Hwy., he farmed in Sec. 2 & 3 Odessa, Ainsworth Rd., on land settled by Robert Ainsworth Sr. in 1848. Fred Bulling’s land was two 80s settled by Charles Estep & Rush P. Baldwin right after the Civil War. Keith was employed at Lake Odessa Cooperative Elevator, where his father was manager, and later Keith was its treasurer for many years.

MARIE H. SHAY, 93, widow of John Shay, daughter of Alice Krause & William Hath. She was a retired teacher in Portland and they farmed at W ½ NE ¼ Sec. 29 & W1/4 NW1/4 Sec. 28 Sebewa, Musgrove Hwy., on land settled by Reuben Lapo before 1875.

ROY J. WORTLEY, 80, husband of Helen Gosch Wortley, father of Joe & Melvin Wortley, brother of Ray & Gailen Wortley and the late Orpha Slowinski & Mable Schaibly, son of Maude VanBrocklin & William Wortley, son of Joseph Wortley. He farmed at E3/4 SW1/4 Sec. 31 Sebewa Eaton Hwy., on land settled by F. & W. H. Switzer in 1866. He worked for MSU Forstry, Mich School for the Blind & Dept. of Public Health.

LAWRENCE J. BOWER, 83, brother of Lucille, John & Louis Bower, son of Agnes & George Bower. He farmed at W1/2 NW1/4 Sec. 2 & N12 NE1/4 Sec. 3 Sebewa, and lived at SE1/4 SE1/4 Sec. 34 Orange, on Sunfield Road.

GERALD W. WILLIAMS, 76, husband of Ruby Goodemoot Williams, father of Ann Cusack, Marie Brodbeck, Dale Williams & the late Leonard Williams, brother of Iva Reed, Edith Bippley, Bernice Bulling & the late Myrtle Childs, Mildred Ingall & Claude Williams, son of Leon Williams & Mabel Cook Williams, daughter of Emily & Charles P. Cook, son of Ursula & Pierce G. Cook, who commenced farming at W ½ SE ¼ Sec. 19 Sebewa, Musgrove Hwy., in 1853. He farmed at NE ¼ Sec. 25 Odessa, Musgrove Hwy., was Odessa Township Supervisor and Ionia County Drain Commissioner.

HOWARD E. MEYERS, 71, husband of Leona Ward Meyers, father of Sandra Kenyon, Jill Barner, Martha Lane, Howard A. Meyers & the late Patricia Meyers, brother of Harold & Wesley Meyers, Elinor Allen & Lydia Shipman & Albert W. Meyers, son of Amey & Rev. Daniel Meyers. He farmed at W1/2 NW1/4 & W1/2 NE1/4 Sec. 23 Sebewa, Sunfield Hwy., drove Greyhound buses, semis & straight trucks.

WELLMAN ROY (BILL) DARLING, JR., 43, husband of Sandy K. Todd Darling, father of Nikki, Brett, Eric & Josh Darling, Cheryl Baird & Regina Kroskie, brother of Charles & Benjamin Darling, Barbara Todd & Susan Meyers, son of Barbara J. Newlin & Wellman Darling, son of Bernice Hale & LeRoy Darling. He lived at Lowell.

HEDVIG A. ELDRIDGE, 80, widow of Lewis Eldridge, mother of Lyle, Gordon & Carroll Eldridge, Roseleen Tice & Ruth Stair, sister of Helga Wester, Gladys Metternick, Vivian Hoffman & Arthur Anderson, daughter of Lydia & John Anderson. They farmed near Mulliken and she worked at Holly Carburetor & Keeler Brass.

GLADYS M. HILL, 93, widow of Charles J. (Jack) Hill, mother of Jack Hill, sister of Irma Saline, daughter of Ina Adams & Frank Linebaugh, son of Polly & William J. Linebaugh. They farmed and ran an orchard at SW ¼ Sec. 8 Danby, Emery Rd., and she played piano for silent movies, organ for Portland United Methodist Church for 43 years, and for Neller Funeral Home.

ELEANOR YORK, wife of Zack York, mother of Joel York & Sarah Schug. Born Eleanor Sarah Chase in Boyne City, Michigan, she taught high school & college, directed children’s theatre, was Director of national Children’s Theatre Conference.

MAPES UPDATE: Henry J. Mapes, Civil War Veteran who was mentioned in our last issue, operated a blacksmith shop on his 20 acre farm on Knoll Road at E1/2 NW1/4 SE1/4 Sec. 3 Sebewa until his death at age 43 in 1873. Byron Gibbs, his great-grandson, things he may also have owned 10 acres running east of this along Knoll Rd., but the old plat books do not record this. Incidentally, Byron is not a Reverend, and chooses not to be called Jr., since Byron Gibbs Sr. was his grandfather and is long gone. Byron Sr. owned the 40 acres at E1/4 SW 1/4 Sec. 2 Sebewa, owned by Louis Bower in recent years. He also owned approximately 8 acres surrounding the Travis School and Christian Reformed Church, which passed to his son, Albert Bruce Gibbs and was sold in recent years by Byron Jr.

FENDER UPDATE: Ellen Fender, who married Anslem G. Dodds, was the divorced wife of Van Fender, mother of Melvin & Lewis. She was also an aunt to Effa Creighton, sister of Elfa’s mother.

BALDWIN UPDATE: Zella Saxton Hazzard Beckhold & Jim Valentine are in the news. Zella celebrates her 100th birthday October 2 at Tendercare Home in Hastings. Jim is a police officer in Lowell and recently resigned from the Lake Odessa Village Council. Zella is daughter of Mary Baldwin Saxton Leak, daughter of George Baldwin, who settled on E1/2 SE1/4 Sec. 20 Sebewa, Musgrove Hwy., right after the Civil War and before Ed Demaray, where Wm. Nurenbergs live now. Jim’s grandmother Valentine was a sister to Zella.

MIKE SMITH UPDATE: Mike Smith has continued his canoeing adventures this summer. He entered the Finlandia Clean Water Challenge, a 1,000 mile canoe race from Chicago to New York City. His biggest problem was battling the blisters he developed on his hands from switching to the double-bladed paddle used with kayaks. He also lost time when he got caught in the surf on Lake Michigan, flipped over, and had to bail out in order to breathe. They portaged from Lake Erie to Hamilton, Ontario, where they spent several days competing in sprint competitions on Lake Ontario. They had to portage 24 locks on the Erie Canal, between Buffalo on Lake Erie and Albany on the Hudson River. The race ended at the Statue of Liberty, with Mike coming in seventh against Olympic gold medalist Michael Harbold in first place.

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND by Grayden Slowins
Friday, August 20, 1993, 6:10 PM, we flew out of Grand Rapids Airport on a DC-10, nine seats wide, Northwest Airlines Flight 107 to Minneapolis-Saint Paul, arriving 6:35 local time, flying time 1 hour 25 minutes………the Los Angeles-to-Sydney leg was all darkness and we did not sleep well, but watched four full-length movies back-to-back………Monday, August 23, our tour package begins with an all-day tour of Sydney……

At Mittagong we see our first sheep. Also Hereford, Charlais & Angus beef cattle; Holstein, Jersey & Guernsey dairy cattle. Most dairy are Holsteins and their milking parlors are pipe-framed double herring bone style, right outdoors with just a flat metal roof and cement floor. Soft maples here, with their leaves off. Morning tea & scones at Old Bank Café in Mittagong, an interesting Victorian building with elegant fireplaces. The next town is Bowral, which has an annual tulip festival and ships bulbs like Holland, MI.

First photo of new lambs. A little black one is just born. Road-signs: “Wombat Crossing”. Wombats, Koalas & Kangaroos are all marsupials, all eat eucalyptus leaves, and all are nocturnal feeders, so they are in real danger of being hit on the roads at night.
Red Durham & Belted Galloway cattle. An old cemetery out in the sheep pasture. All sheep are fenced in 40, 80, perhaps 100 acre pastures. Soil is less than one meter deep, clay or sand over sandstone. Dead “Roo” by the roadside. Merino rams penned in separate pasture. Suffolk ewes being loaded in semi for move to another pasture. Ryegrass irrigated with sewage lagoon liquid for winter pasture. Hay bales under roof.

Goulburn has more baby lambs in planted winter pastures, some are Dorsets. Miles & miles of lambs, thousands of them! Lake George is controlled by a dam & varies in size by seasons. So sheep fences extend far out into the shallow lake and sheep pasture to the water’s edge. Blacktop Merino sheep, black swans, black ducks, all in same field………we enter Canberra Territory.

Before entering the city we visit Gold Creek Farm. John & Bev run this sheep station. Sheep are raised strictly for the wool. They sell no lambs. No Australian lamb comes to U.S. Even wethers go to the tough pasture to raise wool, and then go to slaughter first if the pasture gets short. But everything goes to market as old sheep, at $22 per head in good times, for free these days, and they count themselves lucky not to shoot them.

Good breeding ewes sold for $60 in good times. But with the 1989 breakup of the Soviet Union and Tiannemen Square in China, they lost their two best customers for wool & wheat. So wheat farmers kept their ewes another breeding season – usually they sell at age 5 before the wool grade falls. So 150 million ewes jumped to 200 million & wool dropped from $18.50 to $4.80 AU per kilogram, grease weight, skirted. The usual 8% deduction for the support fund went to 25% and the floor dropped from $8.50 to $7.00 & still there was a glut.

So the government program was dropped completely. At $4.80 per kilo, or $2.18 per pound, and averaging 8# per ewe, they are grossing only about $17.50 AU per ewe!

……John shears in February and lambs in March & April, which is Fall there and off-season. He is a former wool grader and demonstrated grades, after shearing one for us. Grades are based on fineness & crimp & any stress breaks. Poor feed doesn’t stress, but going back on lush pasture does it. They feed oats in times of poor pasture to lessen the stress. They treat for stomach worms twice or more a year and if any tapeworms it gets them too. They have corriedales & crosses, including some Drysdales for carpet wool. They serve us a beefsteak & lamb-sausage barbecue lunch with all the trimmings. Also help us try our hand with a boomerang and let us pet kangaroos.

………Seventy percent of Australian sheep are Merinos and they call everything else a cross. We see Dorsets close to the road, lambs of all ages. Wheat fields 8 inches tall & recently top-dressed. Follow the Goulburn River with Pelicans, Spoonbill birds, and Mulberry trees that were planted when they tried silkworms. To Talbilk Winery, founded in 1860, the oldest in State of Victoria. Visit the wine cellars and have option to taste (and hopefully purchase) wines.

Really flat fields here along the Goulburn, with shallow ditches for irrigation. Border Leichester sheep with their white Roman noses. Arrive in Melbourne, Capital of Victoria, at Bryson Hotel. Walking tour of the Bourke Street Mall & Collins Arcade on our own at night, perfectly safe. (Nest issue we visit the Penguins)