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from a Friday, August 27, 1909, Mecosta County Newspaper. |
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| John Golder, one of the most familiar characters in Big Rapids, was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, on April 9, 1840. His parents died when he was a mere child and when he was only nine years old he left Germany and came to America with his brother Christian and an aunt. His aunt married soon after coming to this country and they settled near Wheeling, W. Va., his uncle being employed on the first railroad bridge to span the Ohio river at that place. The family later moved to Columbiana County, Ohio. While residing in this county his brother hired out to work and later went to Cincinnati, where he was employed. Soon after this the family moved to Whitley County, Indiana, without informing their neighbors of their destination and in this manner Mr. Golder lost all trace of his brother, Christian, whom he has not seen or heard from in over fifty years. They settled on a farm twelve miles northwest of Ft. Wayne, where they resided for about six years. Though Ft. Wayne is a great railroad center now, Mr. Golder says that when he arrived there and when he left six years later that there was no railroad in that city. In the fall of 1856 they decided to leave Indiana and take up their residence in the wilds of Michigan. Mr. Golder was then in his sixteenth year and drove an ox team from Columbia City, Ind., to Newaygo County and took up a farm six miles west of Paris. This journey to the northwards was accompanied by many accidents and hardships, which are readily recalled and recited by Mr. Golder with a zest that will interest and entertain his listeners. One of the accidents happened late in the evening, when one of the wheels of their wagon dropped into a gutter with such force that an axle was broken on the raod west of Big Rapids. they did not know where to find a settler, so Mr. Golder set out on foot and traveled nearly all night through an unknown forest before he found a settler and the means by which their wagon could be repaired. The settler that Mr. Golder refers to was Freeman Rose, whose wife, Mrs. Sally M. Rose, died only a few weeks ago. Mr. Golder says that the ox team he drove from Columbia City, Ind., was the second team in this vicinity and that it was many years before the horse took the place of the oxen. Mr. Golder continued to work for his uncle until he was 21, when he faced the world for himself. In 1870 he was united in marriage to Miss Minerva Fullmer. He continued to work in the lumber woods and at farming until about fifteen years ago, when he took up his residence in Big Rapids. Mr. Golder says that he worked for nearly every pioneer in this vicinity and has been the owner of several small farms. What is not settled to fertile farms, and waste land growing to pin oak, was then a wilderness of pine, not a tree cut from here almost to Manistee said he. He remembers Big Rapids when it was a cluster of log houses, which stood on the present site of the bank corners. He also has farmed all of BIg Rapids, from north of East Maple Street from the bank corners to the Muskegon River, north to Mitchell Creek, the land being owned by a Mr. Ives. He says that the forests were full of wild animals and that a large band of Indians were camped on the present site of the Reunion grounds when he came here in 1856. Though Mr. Golder is not a great trapper or hunter, he often responed to the call of the wild and spent a part of each year about 30 miles north of here in the forests. The settlers received all their supplies from Newaygo and Grand Rapids and Mr. Golder has often followed the blazed trail to these stations for supplies. He has paid $20 per barrel for flour and 53 cents per yard for calico. He says that the younger men of today cannot realize the hardships which the pioneers of this section were forced to endure. Mr. Golder was instrumental in organizing Barton Township, Newaygo County, and was elected the first clerk of the township and served as constable for a number of years. He is a member of the Disciple Church and at one time was a deacon in that church. He has always voted the Republican ticket, though he is independent enough to vote for the man of his choice. He said, I have done my share to make this county, and I presume that I have split more rails than any other man in this section. Continuing he said, I have walked three and one half miles and split 525 soft wood rails in a day, but in hardwood I could only make 400 in a day. Mr. Golder has been in the employ of the city for about three years and he practically constitutes the street cleaning department of the city, and he and his two wheeled cart are a familiar sight to every resident of the city, from the samll boy to the older citizen. Mr. Golder enjoys fairly good health and he and his wife reside on Hutchinson Street. They have four children, two girls and two boys. One of the girls lived at this county and the other at Jennings. One of the boys lives in North Dakota and the other in California. Mr. Golder recently spent about six months in California, and was so well pleased with that country that he thinks it possible that he may go there to reside, as he thinks the Michigan winters are a little too severe on him owing to his advancing age. |
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