Property of the Straight Farm House

Ti.Ji: AMERIC.A1JLEGIOl~--8-iJill~I~
CITY
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This story of the nmerican LO,3ion is being written at this time by
me, as I believe there is r.o History of the .American Legion in Garden City. The story is written in the First Person, not because I
want to use so many "I's", but because I am writing from memory
and without notes. I can only r ememcer- the things I helped do and
the things I saw others do oller the thirty-two years that I was
active.
The j~erican Legion is the best of the Veterans' Organizations, and
through its ups and downs durinG the years it has been a great help
to many Veterans and a credit to the City of Garden City.
The American LeGion is a necessity to the comr.~unity,second only to
your churches and equal or above any of the other organizations that
fill their niche in the co.r.ununity.
I have done my best.
I hope some one will take the facts related here
and put them in order, then in future years keep an annual History.
"i.,:y
last date was June, 1964. I know big changes have been made since
then, but I will leave that to someone who has been on the scene.
B. G. 3II,lONTON
August 18, 1967
Property of the Straight
Farm House
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T'E iIJIERIC .•N L:ZGIOl'~ IN GAIm~NCITY
1933 to 1964
There were some :;eterans of 'i:.',/. 1 living in Garden City prior to
1933 who belonged to the .~erican Legion, but they had never organized a rost or carried on any ;ill1erican Legion activities
inGarden
city.
In 1931 the .;'l.IllericanLegion National Convention was held in Detroit •
.-1.11of the Detroit losts put on a membership drive, and 1 joined
George ::ashincton Post '/88. ~:"ll members ware Master ll:asons. I received a formal il1yitation at the Post j08 meeting-place in the old
Detroi t Luseua and then an informal one in the Ghrine Temple, where
we put through many amusing stunts.
I retained my membership in
Post ;J8S through 1932. In 1931 I moved to Garden City, and having
obtained some favorable ideas of the ~1.mericanLegion program, I
thoueht it Vlould be a good idea to have a F'ost in Garden City.
I contacted ,ial ter Barck, a nei~hbor, and we docided to investigate
the possibilities.
~le contacted some other Veterans who wore in favor of the idea.
I got in touch with my friend, O.L.. Ide, fran lost
,;'88 and asked him to come out and instruct us in the proper procedures.
~.,'emade a date and ',:alter and I Got some Veterans tocether
and arranged for a meeting in my basement. (in a stormy Eay night, G.
L.. Ide and a fello'li member of l'ost ,/88, Dr. ~1reic11ander, left
a private party, put on their uniforms and drove out to Garden City, then
a Ions "Jay from Detroit.
They gave us some instructions,
which included the fact that we wer-e in the 16th District,
and the man to contact
was the 16th District
Comnander, Louis Bureau. Contact VIaS ~de and
it Vias arranged for a meeting in my basement for June 30, 1933. The
required number of Veterans attended (15).
Louis Bureau and tVIOother
16th District
officers were there, and Garden City Post ;/132 was formed. Officers elected were: Comr:ander, Ben Simonton; Senior Vice,
-::alter Barck; Finance Officer, ,;I,rnold Folker; Adjutant, John J. ;,iagner.
The officers
I am unable to remember.
',';e received 1933 membership cards and all officers
elected were carried
on ~hrough 1934. Cfficially
t.hey served two years.
Dues were assessed
at +,:3.00;. Department Dues were ,;1.25.
Cur places of meeting were many
and vari'ed--a budLd Lng on ~'ord ::1oadby lantern light, a barber shop 1
and a room in the Folker Building.
-::e sponsored a prize fiGht and recei ved lO;~of the t t cket s VIesold.
Barck sold tickets in the middle of ]'ord Road at Idddlebelt Road, ,;e
.)7.50 on the deal.
The Post took over the sponsorship of Garden City
Boy Scout Troop /!l, which was then sponsored b~i the Board ,of Education.
Glen Burke ;Jr. was Scoutmaster.
TIe was a member of Fost ;.;132, a member of the City Council and a salesman for Folker Heal Estate Company.He had a wife and three children.
Ii.: left town without a word to anyone and there was n, word until he turned .up at home one evening, stayed one night, left the next morning and '.'las never heard of again.
His
widow reared the children and finished paying for the home. After seven
years she was advised by an attorney to Bet a divorce.
i'then she later
applied for a Veteran's WidowPenSion, she was told that she was divorced and not a widow.
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During the SWilmer of 1933 and 1934 we held a Legion Day program-baseball, races, speakers"and a dance at night.
In the first year
we held the programs in the rear of what is now the Silver Bar. VIe
set up a tent and were sellinG beer. Aftei' dark I told the boys
to give away what was left in the half-barrel on tap. They kept
right on giving it away--several half-barrel&. Here I ran across my
first experience of members taking what they could get from the Post
for nothing.
A half-barrel was missing and was found next day by
one of the members in a wooded area. He couldn't have found it i.f he
hadn't heJ.p put it there.
·;'Ie
held a dance to raise money to help a widow .for a used car.
owed the money to one of the members who proposed the dance.
She
In t~e Spring of 1934, the Pos t granted the ladies the privilege of
fbrm,~ng an Auxiliary.
Their installation of Offers was held in the
First Presbyterian Churoh.
A dinner was served by the Ladies Aid
of the church. Dinner was ordered for an estimated 70 people.
The
'dyandotte Auxiliary did the installing work, and with several Department officers we had a total attendance of about 35. Idabel M.
Simonton was the first President.
Our first Poppy Day was in 1'.1ay,
1934. '<tVe
sold in Inkster,
house and on the streets.
We took in about $75.00.
house to
Our second Legion Da~T was held in the rear of what is now the Harmony Bar. Vie held a dance in the building that night. The building
was then owned by the Garden City Civic Association.
We had beer on
tap that night and sold 12 one-half barrels.
We invited the Wyandotte
installing team to the dance and free beer because they had all paid
for their own dinners at the installation.
Our membership for 1934, due to hard work by Walter Barc~. went from
15 in 1933 to .39 in 1934, so we won all honors.
The 16th District
had a Soft· Ball League in 1934 and we had a team entered and had good
success.
Election for 1935 and John \"fagner8r. was the new Oommande r , Melvin
Phillips Adjutant and Arnold Folker Finance Officer.
Folker was a
Director on the Board of the Garden City Bank when it closed.
The
Post money was in a tin can in Folker's office safe.
Interest lagged. Friction arose, and in an effort to revive interest
I invited the June meeting of the 16th District to Garden City. Also
I arranged for the Banas from 1J'ortDearborn Pos t , Great Lakes Steel
Post, ·iryandotteF'ost and Lincoln Park 8_.';'.L.We had a band concert
with a band on each of the four corners of Ford and },.iiddlebeltRoads.
I got a job out of town that summe:, so there was no follow-up. on my
e·fforts. That was the last activity of Garden City Post 1/132. The
Charter '1NaSturned in that !tall.
Several members of the now-defunct I)ost ,1132 joined 'iJaynel:'osttilll.
Besides myself there was Arnold Folker, .i\.rt
Nagle and Henry Cordts.
I received my first membership in the 10-20-30 Club When I had ten
members for Post JIll from Garden City. One year I was a delegate
to the 16th District.
I continued Amez-Lcan Legion aotivi ties in
Gar~:.enOi ty t hrough the Viayne Post, concentrating on Poppy Day,
School .Awards and Boys State.
}.::y most satisfying
experience was being responsible
for sending
the present Senator Rober t Griffin to Beys State, where he got the
inspiratioIl
to enter politics.
I also presented his two younger
brothers with School il.vlards. The I\(wardswere then presented to
eiGhth graders.
AlthouGh the activities
were on a small scal~,
they made Garden City conscious of the American Legion.
When, iIl
19.4<1, Arnold Folker proposed. forming a new Post, we had had some experience and could talk intelligently
about the Legion.
Arnold
called a meeting in May, 1944, and about twenty-five
'>l.W. 1 Veterans attendea.., including Some Canadians whomwe had to turn down.
Folker was appodntied Organiz(:ltional President and I was appointed
Secretary-rrreasurer.
Two dollars was donated by each Veteran a ttending for organizing expenses.
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After several meet.Lr.gs, which were addressed by 16th District
and
Depar-tment.men, we had our first
official
meeting in September and
elected Ralph l!.:llsworth Sr. Commander; Lake Presnell ..1.(ljutant and
Ada Hamilton Finance officer.
The other officers
I do not remember.
It was war time.and enthusiasm Vias high.
Meetings were held in the
Bombcellar, on Ford Road at iihotka, with average attendance of 30
members.
The first
money-making project 'was a "Feather Party"--Bingo with
live turkeys, geese, ducks and chickens as prizes.
·Yiesold tickets
for extra turkeys and had a full house.
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Income above expenses was nearly ~~900.00.
CommanderEllsworth delivered turkeys the .next day to lucky winners on Trumbull .Avenue in
Detroit and on out to 'Mpsilanti.
During the party we had a member
and his wife selling
pop at a counter.
Another member came in with
a bottle of whiskey and was selliri'g drinkS from the same counter and
was putting the money in his pocket.
When the part~T was over, the
ones selling pop found that they had less money in the cash drawer
than what they started cut wit.h, The man ....
li th the whiSkey apparently put that money in his pocket also.
In 1945 CommanderEllsworth,
t!:e local Ford dealer,
sponsored a
Junior Baseball team in the 16th District
League. The team was tp_e
first
of several that he sponsored, and J'ost il396 had champions
for several years.
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In the ~Hinter of 1945 we were contacted by the Rilo Carnival Company and .we contracted for a two-week showing.
The Post was to receive 10~'aof receipts
onrides and 50,0 of receipts
on gambling.
Garden City ....
va s a small city then and carnival
rides were 5¢ and
lO¢, so our receipts
on the rides was not very much. ~ie made our
money on the Big Six I'lheel, and; on One occasion, the \:ash Board.
One night Claude Pau.L and I set up a wash board and rolled a
couple dice down it, with tile object of beating Sevens.
In two
hours' time, vIe took in :;;>200.00,while across :the 'v'1aythe Big Six
"~:iheelwas running to a three-deep crowd. Tlfis was an annua L event
for .manyyears, with no police intervention.
People were making
big money and no place to spend. it.
Our lady Finance officer
ran into money trouble after a few monthS,
but after an audit, it was found that she 'had neglected to enter
sOmedepOSits in the check book.
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In 1945 Ted Woods was elected Commander. The same programs Vlere'
carried on--carnivals, Poppy Day. School Awards, Boys State-"'and
we began to aocumulate money and think of a Memorial Home. The
boys were beginning to come home from the war and the membership
grew.
I",oannot remember the exact dates or the exact year of the
Co.mmanders, but I believe "'{esley(Deac) Eickholdt was elected in
1946, then Jerry Perrin Jr. 'in 1947.
In 'the Spring and Summer of.1947, we raftled ott ~\new model Mercury Automobile, the first new model built since 1941. This was a
big success t and we had a net income of nearly $9,000 from the
tickets. I sold 135 books of tickets and Tony Pick sold 75 books,
at :,;5.00per book.
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We were now assured of the start of a Three Point Program.: a
"Memorial";.a "Memoriall!'ielc;l"
and a Memorial Home. After some investigation, Arnold Folker located a piece of property on Ford. Road
just ~'lestof Merrilnan, o~yned by Mike SteiIthauer. The 8,320 acre
property was bought for :i?l,
000 per acre--~,)500.
00 down and the balance on the closing of the deal. Mr. Gteinhauer accepted the down
payment but changed his mind and wanted to return the check.
Viehad formed a Non-profit Corporation with the Michigan Oorporation
and Security Commission. Our Constitution and By-laws showed that
the Post Executive Committee were the Board of Directors of the
Corporation. 'I was Post Yinance Offieer, also the Treasurer Of the
Corporation. Mr'. Stei;iliauercame down to my house and wanted to return the check of the 0500.00 down payment. I refused to take it as
I would have to get permission from the Board. I told him to see
Eickholdt, who was President. ~/henh:ike left ror Eickholdt's, I
called Deae and told him that Mike was on the way over, and for him
not to take the oheck. Of course, Deao didn't, but it shows just
how close we came to lOSing the property.
I must 'relate an incident that took plaoe during the war years.
The Induction Center was at ~'Jayne
J
and the.boys were taken tram
there by bus. Eickholdt was gOing over there with Cigarettes and
candy for the Garden City boys. One morning one Garden oity man
,was in the £Sroup. He owned a gas station, was married and had
four children. He was past 40 years of age. He could not understand his induction notice and had made no.preparation at home to
leave. Deae got busy with the Red· Cross and they got permission
for a short delay in his induction. He was too old and could not
take the physical rigors of warfaret and was sent home tram overseas and discharged. In appreciation for the American Legion help
through Deac t he organized the Veterans of FO,reign Wars •
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The work of the Post and the Memorial Home Association were so
closely related that I will not make any effort to separate them.
The .:Ii.O.,OY was kept in the same bank account and only separated on
the financial report.
The Year of Eiekholdt's reign as Commander was the Post's high year
in memberships--168.
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'l'he:first part of our ':;.'hree
.eo Ln't J?rocram was the erection of the
I.:emorialStone, viTit21
the names of the Garden Cit:.,boys who we re
killed in action. The stone was a seven-ton piece of l"lissouri
Granite, with a hole bored in the center for a flag pole. This
stone was selected by a conmittee of four: Arnold Folker, Ted
~;oods, Tony rick and myself. ,.'''n
extended ef'fort was made to insure that no- names vver e omitted on the stone, but through some
strange circumstance, the names of two well-known boys had been
missed. The Stone, placed on a six-foot-deep cement block, cost
.}9?8,50, exclusive of the :Loundationand filled in land around it.
It was unveiled on a l\lemorialDay after a parade from downtown.
The dedication speech was made by a Past Department Commander, CRrl
Matheny. It was the center of all lliemorialDay services for many
years. ~ 40-foot flas pole was placed in the center, but over the
years it was hard to keep the E~ounds in shape and the flag flying
on proper days, so when the City of Garden City planned a new Civic
Center, I proposed to the 30ard of Directors that the Stone should
be given to the City and be included in their plans. This was done
and now the grass around it is cut regularly and the Flag flies
every day.
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The second part of the Program. was a I\~emorialAthletic Field. The
North end of tho property wa.s graded and tile drained, over one
mile of tile being laid. ~ Field house was erected after several
starts, but the field \'Jasnever used much by our teams. Eventually
the building became our meeting place and the Bar room.
::hen the boys all got home from their military service, there were
enough Post members to form a baseball team, and they made a good
showing in the ::ayne County League. So the Post sponsored two teams
for several years.
After the men in service in :,1.:1.11
were discharged and returned
home, the l,iichisanState Lcgii:~laturevoted a bonus for them upon
presentation of a notarized application.
Arnold Folker opened his
office as an application processing center. In three days, Over
6te' anplications had been filled out and notarized by Arnold Folker,
his office girl, two salesmen, Mrs. Simonton and myself.
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An Honor Roll was erected near the corner of Ford and I,~iddlebelt
Roads. Art Nagel was given the job of placing the names of the men
on it as they joined the services.. ..itthe end of the war over six
hundred names were on it. The Garden City Historical Society has
a picture of it, to be used in the second edition of the History of
Garden City.
In the Spring of 1945, the Post voted the l?-dies the privilege of
forming an Auxiliary.
This Vias done and still continues to be a
big help in our American Le$ion Frogram, although not always giving
the Post 100% cooperation.
During these years I was always active as an officer, a committee
member or a member of the Executive Committee. I was Poppy Chairman for many years. I was able to secure the help of Righ School
~irls on Poppy Day and for several years we had receipts of over
;;1,000.00.
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I was Americanism Chairman and at one time I was presenting
School
Awards to the eighth graders in the elementary sch091s of Garden
City, including St. Raphael,and schools in the Cooper District,
the Brainard (later
Huston) and Cherry Hill.
After the building
of Junior High schools the Awards were presented to High c>ohtlolStudents.
/
The Feather parties
were organized by Arnold Folker.
Then he/went
deer huntiqg and left the rest of the party to me. The parties
were held in the Square Deal ClUb, and on one occasion we had over
500 people playing.
f.:.went home on that and other occasions under
guard with ~n,250 to ~1,500.00 with me.
I want to state here that over the many years that I handled the
Post money, the money was always counted by more than one person
and the amounts had to balance with the record of the receipts.
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One year we held a Rodeo in the ar-ea where the KMart a~d parking
l;ot now are.
In conjunction Vie sold tickets
on three ~l,OOO U.S.
Bonds. ','fe didn' t .malceany moneyt but I took the total receipts
to the Dearborn State Bank in .Gast Dearborn (no bank in Garden
City t.nen l, The amount was over .5,600, and about '75~b silver coins.
I got there about ten minutes before clOSing time, and I certainly
had a very unhappy teller.
'I'hey gave me a receipt for two bags of
money, and counted it the next day.
I
'l'hese acti vi ties were conducted during the terms of different
Commanders. -Mos t of them I still
remember, but I'm not sure of the
dates.
Hecords were not always well kept and'eventually
most were
discarded.
Arnold Folker was Commanderafter Jerry l)errin,
then Glen Heavenridge t then Barry Campbell for five terms.
Next vIas a member that
I know only by the nickname of "Happy". He stayed only a short time.
r believe '~:alter Barck finished .his .t erm, Then )/alter Barck again.
Then :)eac Eickholdt for the second time, Nathan Teague, Bob '.'lright J
Jay Jones, Erland Bridge anc Otto 1jiller is presently
in office for
the second year.
The only project
that 'we lost money on 'Nas about 1950.
';/e raffled
off a house built by the Garden City Construction
Company, on a'lot
at th.e corner of Pardo and Craig streets.
It cost ~~ll, 000 plus
'furniture.
I had charge of keeping the house open for visitors.
L:rs. Ted ':Ioods and i.:rs.· :lilliam Burley were the daily attendants.
The drawing was held on Armistice ~ay. Ticket sales were not as
eood as expected and we lost about ~?4,500. The Garden City Construction Con any took a mortgage on the rear half of our Memorial
property for the ~~4,500.
..
i,t the requ-est of Harry Campbell, he was a Ll.ov-edto start
a week.Iy
..Bingo at the .]quare Deal Hall.
Bingo was very successful
although
we had competition in t he same hall from the Sruere Deal Club and
St. RaLphaeL, ',ie averaged ,:?6~OOO net annually for about three years.
',fe 'paid off the mor t gage of :';4,500 and finished
the building thr; thad
been started
by volunteers.
The G<:1rdenCity Construction
Companywas
the budLde r, It cost )8,000 plus ~i;l,000 for a septio tank and another
01,000 on a ten-year
contract with the City for a water line from
Birchlawn and lii~oeller st-reet to the oLubhouse , These were all paid
for by the Bingo receipts
except the water line, whiCh was paid over
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the ten year period on the que.rterly water bills,
plus 01; interest.
were free of all debts When we got 'word from the .aU:tnol'ities
that there wou Ld be no more Bingo, raffles
or Big Six Wheel.
\fe
Just before this order came through, we got a re·"uest from the Garden City Hospital Guild for our oooperation in p'C'omoting a dance.
They w:1nted to buy an (Jxysen tent for the hospital.
Out' experiences
\;;ith 6ances in the S uare Deal Hall had been good, then bad.
One
iHnter, t hr-ough the direction
of Jerry 'l'reathway, 'we held a. series
of dances in the Square Deal Hall.
.te had a profit
of ,;~600. The
next November we started
again and lost .•}?5. 00 on the first
and .~125
on the second.
We refused the request to take part in a dance and
countered with a proposal to rafrle
ofr two television
sets.
This
proposal vias accepted but they insisted
on a dance.
By the result f
of our joint efforts we paid the d~ficit
on the dance and presented
them with an Oxygen tent and over \;400 cash.
~1ith no ext.ra income
except the carnival
and Poppy Day, all thoughts of a Memorial Home
had to be abandoned.
The l!Iemorial Home.H.ssociation received a request
from the One
I:::;uarter!ilidget Racing Association
Inc. to build a race track on a
portion of our land not used for baseball.
PermiSSion was granted
with a minimum rental of :,~lOOper month for a mihimum of four months
each year, with a clause to reopen negotations
if the business VIas
successful.
;~ contract was \"iritten up by a local attorney at a cost
of ~90. A renew~l was granted yearly.
'Ne never received more than the minimum rental.
One year the
H.acing Association
asked for the privilege
of subleting a portion of
t eir ground to a company that wanted to build a Go-Cart track.
A
clause was added to his contract giving us addition21 income. The
Go-Cart Corporation got control of the Q.uarter lvlidget Association
and after putting in many thousands of dollars,
the racing failed to
prosper.
"",fter the first
year the Go-Cart track was a fa,ilure.
~'1e
received 10?aof the receipts
from Wrestling, wht ch was also a failure.
They had to guarantee the prom.oters ,;;)500and t ey only took in ~230.
';[e got ;~23 of that.
The r,~emorial HomeAasocdat Lon started
legal proceedings to remove
the Racing Association
from our roperty for non-pozmenb of rent.
They countered with a suit for violation
of contract.
.After nearly
a year of legal bicker~ng and court proceedings,
we won on both
counts.
Carl IEatheny handled the case for us and he did a fine job.
It cost $800 in legal fees whioh Daac and I (we were the Iv1emorial
Homerepresentatives)
thought was very reasonable,
considering
the
time the attorney and his staff devoted to the case.
The Judge
granted us a ;~l, 750 judgment against the Racing Association,
but
we were never able to collect.
The contract
that we paid ,~90 to have written for us did not specify any particular
location
for the race track.
It could hc.ve been
'built anywhere on our property.
The stands were removed, the,
grounds leveled with the aid of about 2500 loads of dirt dumped by
a contractor
who was excavating for an addition to the Garden City
Hospital.
During our Bingo days a member of the Post was confined to the VetThe Post was helping his family by paying his oil
erans Hospital.
We found out that his wife was working, he' was drawheating bills.
lng a lJeteran's pension, Social Seo~rlty afld. a. Ford W:ot.or.Co. pen.
.~,
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sion, and we were letting his wife play Bingo for free. Also, he
was taking all of the free cigarets and candy that he could get at
the hospital and giving th~m to his son to sell outside. One night
at the Bingo his wife handed me an oil bill for about ;~;25. I consulted Harry Campbell and we told her no more bills would be paid •
.il few months later he was released from the hospi t.aland came up to
the Bingo game and wa.nted to 'help. fIe was far from well, and so
could not work on the floor. I gave him a job where he could sit
down and help receive and payout the money. ~~fter the party was
over and I checked the money, we were an even :)10 short. The next
week he cam~ again and again I gave him the same job. That night vie
were short $15. This had never happened before, so there was no
doubt of the blame. The next week he was there again, so I just
gave him a chair outside the office and told him he could sit there
and watch the activities on the floor. He never came again, and
there were no more shortages. tieall felt sorry for Joe. He soon
returned to the hospital and was there before and after the above
episode, for over three years, suffering from a bad liver and a
service-connected disability.
f
I was never elected Commander of Pos t 17396, but did hold the office
for one meeting. The Commander as away and neither the Senior Vice
or Junior Vice showed up. nowever, there was a majority of Lxecutive
Committee there and they used their authority granted by the By-laws
to make appointments to fill vacancies. They appointed me
Commander and I conducted the meeting.
It waS always my job to audit the Finance Officer's books as one
of an appointedauditille committee. One year about, 1955, the
audit showed a ·~600 shortage, 'iP500 l'ost money and )100 Memorial
,t"omemoney. It took nearly two years, after much pressure from
our Police Department:
the Finance Officer bor:t;owed,,,;600 on his
home to pay us back. His finance charges were JIOO. He gave the
Post the ;)500, but the Memorial Home Association never did get the
other .;100.
At another time an Ad j utant moved out with \,;65.00 of our money.
We changed our Post By-la',vsrequiring a candidate to have his dues
paid six months prior to the election. One election night, a man
brought in his gang. He paid his dues that night and was elected
Commander.
Garden City began to boom about 1950 and our property became more
valuable. :'1ebegan to worry about the danger we were in if some
one got control of the Post and elected their officers and Executive Committee. Our By-lmrJs allowed a control of Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the ,a.ssociationto be changed at
one election. ,iedid have one group that were more interested in
themselves than they were in the .American Legion. I even had a
warrrLng from the Superintendent of Schools about members of this
,group. At this coming election, we got a t.ip'on their intention
and the rer~ular old-time members got out enough votes to defeat
their candidates 12-9, from Commander down.
During the change of Garden City 'Memorial Home Association, our
member Dick Hammer, an attorney, did the work. lIe contacted the
Corporation ani Securities Commission and found that our organization had been cancelled because the Association officers had failed
~o make their annual reports. Hammer brought the records up to date
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and we were in good standing ngain.
had many legal deals later.
Which was a good thing, ror ,'Ie
The Board or Virectors appointed a committee to write'up a new set
of By-laws. The result was that a person had to be'a member) of Garden Oity Post /)396 for 24 consecutive. months befor·e he oould become
a member of the Garden City Memorial Home Association and be able to
vote at the annttal June meetine •
•
At the. first meeting a nine member Board was elected: three for one
year, three for two years and three for three years, and thereafter
three for three years. That Dave us good protection because a man
had two years to prove himself worthy of being elected Director.
One clause provided for a C~uorum Of 15 members at a regular or speo- ..
ial meeting.
This olause was changed later because no· special effort
was made to get out the required 15 membe~s and the Post Q.uorum was
only 10 members, including new members.At the first meeting to vote
on the ohange froml5 to 10 for the Q,uorum , not 15 attended, so a
special meeting was called and I told the secretary to send out
Special Delivery letters notifying the members of the meeting. There
was doubtful humor in this meeting, for 23 members voted to reduce
the quorum to 10 because it VIas unable to get 15. Under this setup
the Board of Directors plus one controls the assets of the Assooiation.
In 1960 I suggested to the Board of Directors that we finance the
opening of a. bar in the Club House. This suggestion was acoepted and
a bar was installed; a Club license was secured and.4ii150furnished
for the purchase of liql).orand. other me rchandf se, Deac Eicldloldt
was the first Bartender and held the job for several months and had
a nice profit. After that the .Bartend.el' , s job was voluntary.
The
Bar was open Friday night, Saturday and Sunday P.J.S. and evening.
Some profit was shown but on the Vll\_ole
it was an. unsatisfactory
arrangement,
and one month the cost of merch,andi$e sold jumped from
505& to 757;. Al.ao, one Bartender used about ~?300 of the Bar receipts
for personf1l reasons r . He returned·what he said was the total amount
but the receipts he turned in still lacked ·ihoo of covering the
amount he used. One Bartender served a bottle of beer to a Liouor
Oontrol Enforcement man. That cost us .JlOO penalty.
'
One cold night the sewer froze up and We had a very unsanitary
month before the sewer was ,opened. The cause of this sewer trouble
dates back several years. .-'is mentioned before, we had a water line
put in at a cost of ,;1,000. This was across City property that was
used as a baseball field by the Littl'e League. They built a building Which was used as a refreshment stand and two rest rOOms. The
City ';laterDepartment tapped our line without our permiSSion, nor
WOUld they reimbtl,rseus for part of the original cost. In order to
get some benefit from it, we asked the City to conn.e.ctour sewer
system (a septic tank) directly to the. sewer line they had.installed
for their building. This they agreed to do, ~roviding we furnished
.'the tile. The agreement was ac cepted and the -0ity D. P •\J. dug the
trench, laid our tile and made the connections.
The connection to
their se\"Ie1'
was 160 feet from our property line on Oi ty property.
This is where the freeze-up started. It tO,ok over a month and
pressure from a Councilman and the Mayor before the D.P.W. Supt.
would order the line opened by steam... The. next Winter the same thing
happened. and then, after a.thorough inspection, it was found that
the' se\'le.r
was less. than two feet. below ground level and. that tbere
was no grade to :tpe Pipe ·to ;Let tJlesewage run off.. This waS all
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due to poor wo rkma nsh i,n by the City when the sewe r was laid, entirely the fault of the City.
Th relieve the trouble, Art Nagle and Arnold Fo Lke.r were appointed
as a committee to meet with the City representatives.
'llheiragreement ':JaSto run a regular sewer line straight Ijest from Beechwood
to the Dast border of the Stu Evans property, which would be about
40 feet :North of our building. Also, it would allow us to tap in
in case we should sell the part of our land South of the sewer.
The l1.ssociationwas to pay .;';500
as part of the cost. The final
result was ~hat. the D.P.~~. ran the sewer directly "iiestfrom Birchlawn and angled down to connect with our building outlet. 'lie would
have been better off if we had kept our oonneotion with the septio
tank.
The baseball grounds on the rear of the property were being used
entirely by the City Recreation Commission for Little League Baseball and Football.
I proposed to the Board that we sell this portion of the land to the City, as our funds were low and we had had
some heavy expenses within the year. Agreement was reached with the
Recreation Commission and the Council that they would purchase
approximately 4i acres for ·,;10,000cash; ;;5,000 of this amount to be
paid April 1st and ,,;5,000one year later; also that the City would
aSSUDle the Moeller Drain Assessment of '1P9,125on all of the property.
During this period, i)eac .i£ickhold
thad built an addition to our
building which was financed by the sale of five-year notes with 60;0
interest. ii/ereserved the right to redeem the notes at any time.
They were in ':1;100,%50 and -,:>25
denominations.
,,;;2,600
worth were
sold. There was a donation by the .ii.uxiliary
and some money in the
Association Treasury and .)250 life insurance left by one of our
members who died in the ~eterans Hospital at Grand Hapids. We used
the first ~5fOOO from the City to redeem these notes, pay Carl
Matheny's attorney fees and pay for the demolition of the Race Track.
-;:henHawaii. became a state and Old Glory rated one more star, the
50th,. I asked the Post for permission to start one more project, and
it Vias granted. I wanted to present each Garden City Boy Scout 'l'roop
and Cub Scout Troop with a 50-star Flag and to finance the program
by selling the new flags to tie people of Garden City. I was on~y
able to get 75 flag kits (flag-pole and holder), and with the help
of some of the Scout Masters all but one 61,'two of the flags were
sold with enough profit to pay for the flags for the Scouts.
On a bright sunny June 14, Flag Day, I presented sixteen 50-star
flags to Boy Scout and Cub Scout Troops. :lehad a fine program with
high-ranking officials of the 16th Distriot ilmerican Legion and
the Sun Set District of the Scouts, Superintendent of Schools Edward 0 t Leary san« the Hatar Spangled Banner" and the flag for Garaen City Troop #1 was presented to Ralph McMullan, who had been on
the 1/1 Troop Committee since 1929.
It was a beautiful program and I was happy with the success of the
efforts of everyone involved.
rost of my efforts of the last few years Vlere devoted to the affairs
of the Garden City Memori':l Home Association.
At the annual meeting
of t·.e Association in June, 1964, I declined a nomination for another term as a member of the Board of Directors.
- 12 I had been active in business in Garden City since 1923 and had
lived here since 1931, and active in the American Legion since
1933. The School ;~ward Proe;ro.mwas started in 1934, as were the
Poppy sales. I sold loppies on the streets of Garden City for
twenty consecutive years. I started the \.'01
verine boys State
prozram in 1937. These Irosrams have continued up to the present
time.
Other .cl.!llericQ,nism
programs started later with varying suocess
were Poppy Eos t er Contest, Oratorical Contest and Junior Baseball.
held many military funerals, the gren test number in the year
the Federal Government returned the bodies of tLe boys who had been
killed in action in ~.W. 11.
,
'de
I've enjoyed the years that I have given to the American Legion.
I'Ve enjoyed the many people that I have met in and out of the
Legion, and especially I enjoyed that evening several years ago
when at a Legion Birthday dinner I was presented with a Life
Membership card, the first in Garden City Post 11396.