Part IV - Education, a supplement to the Big Rapids Pioneer Newspaper. Used with permission.



THE LITTLE RIVER STORY LIVES ON
By Jo Gray - Special to the Pioneer

"Everyone knows what history is until you begin to think about it. After that, nobody knows. Events of the past take on different shapes when they're viewed through the eyes of different individuals." (Old Settlers -- 1988)

Traditionally, its on the third Saturday of August when decendants of the first 58 families who settled in eastern Mecosta County and close ot its boundaries in Isabella and Montcalm counties assemble for an all-day Old Settlers Reunion Picnic at School Section Lake Park.

Attracted by offers of free land or sections of land at $1.25 per acre, Canadian and Ohio families flocked to the newly timbered territories of Michigan. Among these were Isaac Berry, a former slave from Kentucky. He and his wife Lucy Millard, purchaed 80 acres which included a large lake and was bordered by branches of the Little Muskegon River. Both Isaac and Lucy were reminded of the place where they had married and started a family in Little River, Ontario. Now, it would be their second Little River and a nostalgic place for many years to come.

In 1929, the property was sold by family to the parks system of Mecosta County and in 1934 became the permanent location for the Old Settlers celebration. Every year the baked beans and fried chicken get tastier and the best of the stories are retold and passed from one generation to the next.

Established as a non-profit organization in 1977, the Old Settlers have presented scholarships to deserving descendant graduates for college education and pledged to preserve historical sites to commemorate their ancestors.

The Mecosta-Morton Area Historical Association has added support and designed proposals to make the Little River schoolhouse accesible for tours and to reconstruct the Berry family original log house as an added attraction for park goers.

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