Village Articles

Competitive Spirit "Shorty Hodgins: Play Ball!" "Nelson A. Shaw: Horse Sense"
Businesswomen Sparta's Millinery Mavens: "Catherine Roberts & Rose Adelia Gaut: Mother-Daughter Hatters", and "Dora May Clute: Self-Made Woman"
Milo & Ben The stories of two friends and early Sparta businessmen: "Milo Bolender's Pharmacy" and "Dr. Benjamin Zudzense & His Monkeys" with "Pinckney Paints the Town"
Main Street Merchants "Charles Henry Loomis", "Frank Cnossen: There's Friendship in the Cup", and "Hugh Finch: Where You Always Do a Little Better"
Hometown Heroes "George W. Powers Murdered Lawman" and "Mad Dogs & Marshal Meeker"
The Highway Arrived State Street corridor and post-war growth: "Camp Boys Come to Town" and "Sparta Builders" addressed the housing shortage
Merry & Bright How we celebrated: "Charlie Badgerow: Two Christmas Gifts", Christmases Past", "A Very Sparta Christmas", "My Christmas Memories", and "Sparta's Easter Bunny Helper"

Competitive Spirit

People worked hard to earn a living and put food on their tables. Whether they resided in the village or countryside, a lot of manual labor was necessary to run a household. Life was not easy in Sparta's early days. At the end of the workday or workweek, time for relaxation and a little fun were welcomed. As the village grew, opportunities for entertainment were generally well received--but not quite always.

Shorty Hodgins:
Play Ball!

Almost immediately after establishing his Welch Folding Bed Company at Sparta, Lyman Welch swung for the fence when he fielded a local exhibition baseball team. And a good team it was! The Grand Rapids Press included an item in their July 25, 1889, Base Ball column: "The Welch folding bed nine of Sparta, were defeated by the Northern Kents at Cedar Springs yesterday by a score of 30 to 6, the Kents scoring 15 runs in one inning." OK. Not so good.

Not one to give up easily, Mr. Welch, who loved the game of baseball with a passion, had a plan. "He and a salesman would travel around selling their beds to furniture stores and would ask if they had any local baseball talent," Sparta historian Jim Lyals explained. "If they did, they would go back to see them play--and if real good, Mr. Welch would offer them a job in Sparta and come play for his teams!" He was true to his word. Even if a player wasn't able to perform a factory job, he would give them a broom to sweep up. "One of the best was Shorty Hodges (Hodgins) who later became the constable of Sparta."

By 1890, Welch fielded a better team. The highlight of the Fourth of July celebration was a ball game "between a picked nine from Muskegon and the Welch Folding Bed team, the latter winning by a score of 16 to 8. Over four hundred witnessed the game," as reported in the Grand Rapids Herald.

In BASE BALL AT SPARTA, the Grand Rapids Herald wrote on June 2, 1891: "SPARTA, Jun. 1.--Fully 200 patrons of base ball enjoyed the most exciting game of the season at Sparta Decoration day, between the Welch Folding Bed Co. club and the Belding Manufacturing Co. club, of Belding, Mich." Final score was 13 to 8 with the Sparta team the victors. The "batteries" credited to the Welch players were Hodgins and Hewitt.

J.C. "Shorty" Hodgins

Perhaps the best known Sparta resident baseball player from this era was Jay C. Hodgins, better known as "Shorty". The son of a carpenter, J.C. was born at Saginaw, Michigan on December 5, 1866, to James & Susan (Miller) Hodgins. By 1873, the family lived at Millington in Tuscola co., Michigan and in October 1879 his father passed away due to Consumption.

Shorty loved baseball--and he was good at it.

During the 1888 and 1889 seasons, Shorty pitched for the Midland Baseball team--where he was approached and recruited by either Mr. Lyman Welch or an associate who scouted baseball talent for the Sparta team. "He would give them a good job in his factory with good wages, if they would play for Sparta. If they didn't know anything about working in a furniture factory they were given jobs that were easy to learn and yet kept them from doing work that might possibly injure them in any way."

Shorty was among several men that played on the Welch Folding Bed Co. team who married and settled at Sparta. On June 20, 1891, he wed Rosella "Zella" Harrison, the daughter of Joseph R. & Alice (McNitt) Harrison who operated a general store at Sparta. Successful milliner, Dora May Clute was her aunt. The following year, his "success as a pitcher soon led him to follow the game in various Michigan towns; Saginaw, where the Hodgins lived a year; Carson City, where they resided five years; Portland where they spent the next seven years, and several towns in the state of West Virginia where they lived briefly. Four years were spent near Bangor, Maine, on a farm," detailed a 1941 article in The Sentinel-Leader when the couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Their first child, Gladys, was born in April 1892 at Sparta. A son, Robert Earl, arrived at Point Pleasant in Mason co., West Virginia in 1893. The Hodgins lived at Portland in Ionia co., Michigan when heartache stuck as Gladys passed away--the victim of Malaria Fever in April of 1902. Five months later a daughter, Merle Ruth, joined the family followed by sons Alton Loomis in 1905 and Frank Miller in 1907--both at Peacock in Lake co, Michigan. About 1909, J.C. & Zella rented a twelve room farm home on the west side of Loon Lake and the couple developed the property into a popular tourist resort. Youngest son, Frank, at ten years old, accidentally broke through the ice while skating on Bass Lake on November 24, 1918, nearby their home. He fell in and although his brothers desperately tried to save him, they could not and the young boy drowned.

October of 1918 brought the Hodgins family back to Sparta from Peacock where they could be close to family and friends. J.C. was briefly employed as a traveling salesman until he took the position of Express Agent to manage shipments of parcels, money, and goods by railway. Public service called in 1919 when he took on the responsibility of Village Marshall. Duties included directing traffic at the intersection of Division and Mill (now Union). An admired figure, when the Sparta Village Council erected a WWI memorial at that crossroads, it was affectionately known as "Shorty's Monument". Later, in 1923, Hodgins became a Kent County Deputy Sheriff but soon returned his focus to Sparta when, in 1926, he was elected Constable, a position J.C. held into the 1940s.

The Sentinel Leader published a front page article on September 11, 1925, HODGINS LIKES MICHIGAN which noted highlights of J.C. & Zella's two month trip. They traveled by automobile to the west to visit family in Boise, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Oakland. "Mr. Hodgins habits of prayer, acquired in Michigan came into good play when the party traveling the cut out mountain roads, with no more than 8 or 10 inches between them and a flight over the cliff for a mile or two. Hodgins says he left the prints of his finger nails in the framework of the car. He also went fishing for salmon in the Salmon river of Idaho and photographs indicate he made a good catch. "It's mighty fine out there" says Shorty, "but there's nothing but Michigan for me."

Among some of the other early ball players with local ties were: Bert Camp, George Ryan, Bill Carr, Homer "Slab" Warner, Emory Anderson, Chuck Hilton, and Clarence Pinckney.

Bert Camp

Herbert was born at Allegan, Michigan, on May 17, 1869, to Andrew Jackson & Ann M. (Smith) Camp. He came to Sparta to play ball in 1890. "Bert was a fine shortstop, also an excellent wood finisher which assured him of a good job in the factory," Mr. Pinckney recalled in his "I Remember" column. "In those days, furniture-finishing was a real profession. It took several coats of varnish to give a real good finish that had some depth to it." His father, Jack, was also employed in the finishing department.

Bert married Anna Pearl, a daughter or John A. & Phebe Brown of Sparta. Phebe's maiden name was also Brown but from an unrelated family. John Brown was a cooper and drayman.

George Ryan

An Irishman, Thomas & Margaret (Gorman) Ryan, welcommed their son, George Patrick in December 1885. The boy grew up in Sparta and his father, who was an engineer, held the position of Water Works Superintendent for many years beginning in 1889. When the Federal Census was enumerated in 1910, George, his father, and two brothers were employed as machinists.

"George Ryan, better known in Sparta one time as "Hogan", but later he went by the name of "Buddy", as he liked to be called, was a Sparta boy," Arzie Pinckney wrote in the local newspaper. "I remember George as a baseball player, and one of the best third basemen that ever played baseball in Sparta. That was in the days when most small towns had good teams."

Bill Carr

A Christmas day wedding at Sparta in 1895 was the occasion of William Henry Carr and Tina Amelia Everett's marriage. The groom was born in July 1875 to William S. & Dora A. (Boorom) Carr. His mother passed away in 1893 and Bill briefly resided with his grandparents, Anthony & Sally (Finch) Boorom, before striking out on his own.

"William "Bill" Carr was another Sparta product. Bill was a very fine pitcher. He had some methods of pitching that puzzled the very best batters."

"He became foreman in the machine room of the Welch Company, a position he held for several years and then was promoted to the superintendent of the plant, a position he handled with great success until the plant closed in 1931." Tina's parents were early settlers, Benjamin Franklin & Carrie (Rice) Everett. The Carr family "lived in the Everett home on the (SW) corner of Nash and State Streets for many years, but they finally razed it and built the home now (1965) owned by Dr. Frank Bull."

Homer "Slab" Warner

What a name for a ball player!

Son of Dwight M. & Flora Sophia (Hammond) Warner, the future baseball star, Homer William, was born at Sparta in October 1882. "Mr. Warner owned and operated the Sparta Brick Works for years which is a real story in itself," Arzie remarked. "Slab" started in as a schoolboy and became a wonderful pitcher for Sparta. He married Miss Alice Ryan," sister of fellow ball player, George.

Emory Anderson

"Emory Anderson was another Sparta boy who became a fine centerfielder and played that position for several years. He was also a good hitter," Arzie remembered.

On February 9, 1872, friends and family celebrated the birth of a son, Emory Gus, to William A. & Emma (Brace) Anderson. At the time when the 1900 federal census was recorded, he was employed as an express agent and resided at his parents' Sparta home along with a young lady boarder who worked as a milliner, Chloie I. Grant. In January 1902, Emory and Chloie became man and wife. Self-employed by 1910 he operated a coal and ice business. A decade later, he was a chemist at the condensery.

Mr. Anderson founded his own insurance agency by 1930, and continued to operate it until a fateful night in 1951 when the furnace malfunctioned at their home on West Division, asphyxiating the couple in their sleep.

Chuck Hilton

"I remember Chuck Hilton. He was one of the most spectacular players on the team. He played first base and I remember how during practice the other players would try to throw the ball either over his head and just out of his reach or try to put the ball so that it would pull him off the bag. But it seemed to us younger kids that he could jump 50 feet in the air or stretch out full length on either side and always come up with the ball with his foot still on the base." Arzie recalled Hilton's job when he wasn't playing ball: "Chuck was a spring weaver in the Welch factory. No coil springs were used on the beds as some models had to be folded up."

A son of Sparta pioneers Charles Byron & Caroline A. (Myers) Hilton, Chuck slid over home plate on March 11, 1872. His maternal grandparents were Hiram & Barbara (Traxler) Myers, benefactors who provided a schoolhouse and cemetery for the community.

Clarence Pinckney

Franklin P. & Ida A. (Black) Pinckney greeted their first child, Clarence Harry, on July 6, 1879 at Trent in Muskegon co, Michigan. He is often mentioned in his younger brother Arzie's newspaper articles with admiration as he had various jobs at several stores around Sparta as a young man. The 1900 and 1910 Federal Census records indicate his employment was as a laborer at a local factory while in 1920 he worked at the Sparta Tile factory. He first was wed to Viola Emma Blackall in 1897 then married Erma M. Myers in January 1908. She was the daughter of early Sparta settlers Andrew Perrin & Carrie Adelle (Balcom) Myers.

"Our brother, Clarence, was another Sparta product," wrote Arzie. "He was a second baseman. While he was not such a long ball hitter, he was a hard man to pitch to and would often get a base on balls. From then on he was rough on the catcher for he was one of the fastest players that Sparta ever had and he held an enviable record as a base stealer."

"I remember a colored team that came to Sparta regularly for several years. No Sparta player could get on base unless they wanted him to, but they usually let Clarence walk just to try to catch him stealing second base but they seldom caught him."

Where was the Ballpark?

"At that time, Gardner Street only extended from Martindale to Maple Street. Washington and Union Streets ended at Centennial Street. There was no Pearl or Vine Streets, nor was there an Averill Street. All of that land was a big cow pasture," Arzie Pinckney described the ball park's location in his June 9, 1965 column for The Sentinel Leader. "Many people in town had cows and they were pastured there. The baseball park was in the northwest corner of the field. There was a big grandstand with bleachers on both sides of it. There was a six foot solid wood fence that extended far past third base and well past first base nearly out to right field, while the one of the east did not go quite so far. The main entrance was on the north side and was reached by a path between what is now (1965) LaVerne Schut's home on Centennial Street and the house east of it which, was at that time Elder Maynard's home."

"In the spring before the season started, the cows were allowed to graze all over the place. They must have been permitted to do so in order to keep the grass down for as far as I can learn no one paid for pasturing their cows there. When the season began, the cows were confined behind a barbed wire fence across the south end of the field, but it was necessary to do a real job of getting rid of the Dutchmen's Razors in the infield and among the grandstands and bleachers." One could surmise the outfielders had more to contend with than just catching balls--and a bit of extra entertainment for the folks in the stands!

"At that time the catcher was the only one on the team that wore a glove. All the rest of the players did so with bare hands. The catcher also wore a mask but no chest protector or shin guards. He always stood several feet from home plate until there was two strikes on the batter and then put on the mask and came up close in order to catch the third strike. Later on the first baseman wore a glove because most of the infields would put some speed on the ball when they threw it to first."

Note: Double Header! Part two will highlight the Sparta team's exploits after 1900.

Nelson A. Shaw: Horse Sense

Lured by .75 cents an acre land offered by the State of Michigan, in 1852 John Freeman Shaw, his wife Eliza Jane (Van Gordon) and their four-year old son, Nathaniel, left Niagara county, New York for a new life on the frontier. "In coming to Michigan the Shaw family voyaged by Lake Erie and the Detroit River to Detroit, and thence proceeded overland to Marshall..." to the home of John's sister. Their journey was highlighted in James L. Smith's An Account of Muskegon County (1924) in Nathaniel's profile. "From Marshall the Shaw family proceeded to Ottawa county and made location near the present village of Coopersville. The father made a clearing on his land and there built a pioneer log house, his first crop having been raised among the tree stumps and having been prolific, besides which he planted peach and apple trees that gave a large yield four years later." Besides the bounty of fruit harvested in 1856, on the 18th of May, a son, Nelson A. increased the Shaw family to four.

Raised a farm boy on his father's 80 acres, he was accustomed to laboring dawn to dusk--clearing land, tending animals, and raising crops. His older brother ran away from home at fourteen in 1862 to become a lumberjack but Nelson remained on the family farm until he was thirty-seven. On December 26, 1880, Nels married Jessie May Burtch, the daughter of Hiram & Annis (Phelps) Burtch of Alpine township. The couple were blessed by the arrival of two children: Fred in 1883 and Bertha May in 1884.

After his father's death, Nels brought his family to Sparta in 1893 where his brother-in-law, Manly Burtch, was a cabinet maker at the Welch Folding Bed factory. Right out of the gate, Nels became an entrepreneur as he operated various businesses from a deep lot he purchased on the north side of Division. The parcel would later become Paul-Lawrence Jewelry and part of the city parking lot. As needs for a product or service presented themselves, Nels ran with the opportunity. Arzie Pinckney occasionally wrote about the Shaw family, "He had a dray business and a very profitable one it was, because in those days everything had to be moved by horses, and he had several. His barns were back of the alley that always existed (and still does only they call it Johnson Street now)."

"Mr. Shaw operated a dray and ice business in town for years. I remember his great ice houses." Something as simple as ice, which we take for granted, was once considered a luxury. It involved a labor intensive process described by Mr. Pinckney: "As soon as the ice in Camp Lake was six or eight inches thick, he would start cutting. He would have five or six teams hauling ice for weeks until the houses were filled. The ice was placed in sawdust to keep it from melting. Then in the spring, they would open the houses and start delivering it. The cakes weighed approximately 100 pounds and sold for 25 cents each, delivered." His work horses also were used in much of the road work for the city and township.

"At that time most everyone burned wood in their kitchen stoves and many folks used wood in their heaters also. So having wood cut and dried for burning was a good business also and he used the vacant lot for storage of his wood supply." By the enumeration of the 1900 Federal Census on June 13th, his primary means to earn a living was with his dray line he called 'City Dray'. It was successful enough that Nels also owned the family home free and clear.

A sixteenth birthday gift of an upright piano to their daughter, Bertha, in 1900, encouraged her life-long passion as a pianist. She became one of Sparta's most accomplished accompanists playing at the Sparta Baptist Church for more than thirty-three years. In 1904, she wed Walter Bloomer.

The Fast Track

In 1901, Sparta was the epicenter of racing--or so it seemed. The Decoration Day celebration on May 25th included a 12 mile bicycle road race, a ball game, and a "horse race between Sparta's leading "bloods". The "wheelmen" race course ran north along Mill St (now Union) and northwest of town. Racers would make two loops. Promotion in the Grand Rapids Press stated "Sparta merchants have offered $200 worth of prizes for a bicycle road race..." and specified it was "open to all Kent county riders except those of Grand Rapids." The Sparta Sentinel-Leader announced the horse race course was "from the hill south of town to the Baptist church" with three heats trotted. At this time, the southern edge of the village ran along Gardner Street, so the hill referred to may have been near the current location of the Tasty Treat, about a half mile.

A second gala of festivities was promoted with a local news headline on June 28th that proclaimed: COMING! COMING! COMING!--The Whole Country is Coming to Sparta Next Thursday... Besides a parade, speeches, a balloon ascension and parachute drop, races of every description were scheduled. A six-mile bicycle race, foot races, sack race, and another horse race on Main Street, a one-half mile run--and so much more. The day would be capped off with a fireworks show. "Sparta's celebration of the glorious Fourth will be the grandest on record" with thousands of people expected. "Boweries and lemonade stands will be everywhere and small boys can eat peanuts and drink red lemonade to their hearts' content." The Sparta Sentinel-Leader proclaimed, "It will be a grand jubilee all day long from the time the sun first peeps over the eastern horizon until the eagle folds his wings and goes to roost in the tall tree tops in the evening. The celebration will positively be the biggest thing ever attempted in Sparta. Wait for the big show."

A follow-up after the event reported two Sparta horses took first and second place--Haas (Powers driver) with Van Gordon, respectively, with a Grand Rapids entrant who took third.

However, not everyone approved of hosting races through town. Consequently, it didn't take long for the village council to pass a new law on the heels of the Forth of July events. The title said it all: "An Ordinance to Prevent the Speeding of Horses, Fast Driving and the Racing with and Fast Riding of Bicycles on the Streets or Public Alleys of the Village of Sparta." It limited horses, bicycles, or other modes of locomotion to a speed of no more than eight miles per hour. Penalties were fines between $2-$50 and confinement to the county jail of five to sixty days.

Sparta racing enthusiasts did not take this lying down.

Although not quite a Churchill Downs, Sparta once had its own racetrack. On March 25, 1902, the Grand Rapids Press published SPARTA WILL HAVE RACES. New Driving Association Has Been Organized to Hold Them with the details: "The Sparta Driving association has been organized here and races will be held this summer. The officers of the organization are: President Allen B. Way; treasurer, William A. Anderson; secretary, Frank D. Kellogg; directors: Morris Haas, Nelson A. Shaw and Ed Pease. The old Hilton track just west of town, which has remained idle for several years, has been leased for a term of five years and work will be commenced today on the buildings. Ample capital is behind the undertaking. The first race will be held the latter part of May or early June. When in good condition the course is one of the finest half-mile tracks in the state." This group of businessmen established, participated in, and promoted the sport at the location more recently known as the County Roads building property and currently is the police station.

The Sparta Driving association's first race was locally promoted with a program to consist of "a three-minute trot, a three-year-old race and a race between Elmerin and Charlie Ellis, horses owned by William Powers and Alonzo Van Gordon, two well known business men."

FOUR RACES AT SPARTA--The New Hilton Driving Park Is Formally Opened. "Sparta, Mich., June 28,--Hilton park was opened to the public yesterday afternoon with a crowd of 2,000 people. Charlie Ellis, a Sparta horse won the 2:40 trot in 2:40-1/3. Rube, a Cedar Springs horse, won the 3-year-old race. Sleepy Dick, owned by Frank Kellogg, took the 3-minute-trot. Thane Hulett captured the 8-mile wheel race in 9:44."--Grand Rapids Press (28 Jun 1902).

Lady Luck smiled on Sparta's race track. A 1902 item in the Grand Rapids Press reported "Sparta, Mich., Aug. 2.--The town is full of horsemen from all over northern Kent today and the crowd at the races this afternoon will break all records. A long string of horses is here from Grand Rapids, Casnovia, Ravenna, Cedar Springs and Conklin. Much betting is being done."

The competitive spirit was alive and well in Sparta. Some of the other local men mentioned in various articles as participants or winners in horse races at Sparta or in the general area included Alonzo Van Gordon, Will Powers, Morris Haas, Frank Kellogg, Dick Myers, James S. Tozer, and none other than the Sparta Baptist minister, J.H. Maynard.

Put on Your Dancing Shoes

Popularity of boweries piqued Nels' interest and inspired a new business enterprise, "...the lot was used for other things as well. I remember that on the Forth of July after the State Bank was built (on the northeast corner of Division and Union; note: in 1902), there was always a bowery dance hall set up there. This was just a nice smooth floor and frame built over it. Usually it had a canvas cover over it and benches in along the side and ends of the floor. It was one of the busiest places in town. Dances all day and until after midnight or as long as the crowd stayed. Dances were paid for after each dance and not by the evening. Sometimes the bowery was not taken down for several weeks. Dances were held every Saturday night if weather permitted."

"I remember that in 1907 Mr. Nelson (Nels) Shaw bought the Blackall property on E. Division Street and erected the cement block building that stands there now. Nels had been in different kinds of business for most of his adult life. He built the building for a livery barn. He had a number of horses, some of which were driving horses and were rented out to people, and if necessary, he would furnish a driver. Some of the doctors and traveling men that came to Sparta always used his services. Most of the time, his son-in-law, Walter Bloomer, did the driving for he managed the business." Arzie stated the livery could accommodate fifty horses and "...Walter Bloomer, operated the barn and had twenty-six livery and draft horses that were also busy."

"The original floor of the building was about four feet above the street level and was reached by a ramp that started with the sidewalk, and the main floor was used to house the buggies, etc. The horses were kept in the basement while the hay was in the second story."

Games of Chance

Before 1910, Nels built a billiards hall. Arzie recalled the inside walls were plaster board finished with a coat of stucco. By 1918, the village required a license to operate pocket billiards tables at pool rooms and Mr. Shaw obtained a license for seven pocket billiard tables. Over the years, the pool room was operated by several men--a couple of which were E.L. Spitzer in 1922 and briefly in early 1923 was Charles Badgerow. The building was sold in 1927 to be used for another purpose.

Public Servant

Perhaps it was the enactment of the village ordinance to prohibit racing that pressed Nelson to enter local politics. Often, one issue serves as the impetus. Always active in the community, Nelson served as village president, township treasurer, highway commissioner, served eighteen years as a member of the village council, and served on the board of education. He was also a founding board member and vice president of the Peoples State bank.

Arzie Pinckney knew the Shaw family well. He wrote about Nels in his Sentinel Leader "I Remember" columns (published on 25 Nov 1964, 31 May 1967, and 18 Jun 1969) while he resided with his daughter, Maxine Cummings' family on Centennial--across the street from Walter Bloomer.

Contact

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attn: Sparta Township Historical Commission
Sparta Township
160 E. Division St.
Sparta MI 49345

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