Who I am and what I think for what it's worth.
This page explains, hopefully, my point-of-view in order for you to understand where I'm coming from so you can better interpret the information for your own needs.: When I began genealogy in 1973, I was unemployed and this hobby was cheap. I had lots of time, just no money. Now genealogy is all about money, money, money. Buy, Buy, Buy. False promises for money. Lots of money. See my essay on Name Matching.
The life of the City of Grand Rapids:
1. The early arrivals: Indian, French, English, Irish, New Yorkers
2. Ethnic arrivals: MY Grand Rapids
3. Onslaught of the 1960's.
1. Early Arrivals from my memory of Michigan History class in 4th grade.
Michigan began as Michigan under the French Canadians who established early trading posts at Fort Ponchartrain au de Troit (the straits), Sault St Marie, St. Joseph (Niles) and Michilimackinac. The Indian tribes then were the Fox, Sauk and Miami. After France lost the French and Indian war, 1854-1863, the British took over. The pro-French Indian tribes left and were replaced by the Ojibwa, Ottawa and Pottawattamie. When the British lost the American Revolution 1776-1782, the Americans took over. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, among others I'm sure, instigated the boundary lines and the survey method to be used to map the Great Lakes which had been acquired from Britain. They set up the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. (It used to amuse me when our local PBS-TV station would sign-off with "operating under the authority of the NW Ordinance of 1787.") But I don't think Tommy boy ever actually visited as he didn't account for the terrain in his survey system.
Grand Rapids began when missionaries came to an Indian Village at the rapids in the Grand River. They were soon followed by French Canadian fur trappers. Louis Campau started a trading post and he is credited with being the founder of the City of Rapids. When the Erie Canal was built c. 1835, settlers from New York showed up. Louis was soon followed by Lucius Lyon and his New York interests. Lucius and Louis clashed. Just like the French and British had clashed..
The early terrain was influenced by the Grand River which changed course southward for a few miles on its way westward to Lake Michigan. Louis built his trading post on the east side of the Grand River at the south end of the rapids. (just imagine this F as the Grand River showing the location of the trading post. Ftp). The East side was low and narrow until the steep hills began to rise sharply east of Monroe Avenue so the early settlers began by changing the terrain. They tore down hills and filled in the east channel of the river. The West side was flat for a good mile before rising steeply and this is where the Indian Village was. The river was the main thoroughfare. It was the main dividing point in the public mind but not Tommy's. The need for bridges was apparent and early ones were covered wood bridges and a toll was charged. .
2. My first hand memories of growing up in ethnic Grand Rapids.
When I arrived via Butterworth Hospital, downtown still contained many buildings from the 1850's and even some from the 1840's. The ethnic neighborhoods were still viable. People still lived, worked, went shopping and attended school and church in their neighborhood. They walked.
The city residential neighborhoods were ethnic in nature. The largest group was the Dutch who began arriving in Michigan in 1847. Most of them were farmers and settled outside the City. The Dutch who came here were mostly from the Northeastern provinces of Gelderland, Drenth, Overissel, Gronigen, and Friesland. They were very conservative and protestant. I used to tease my father that the Netherlands was so liberal and Catholic today because all the Puritans moved here.
The second largest group was the Polish who began arriving in 1880. They danced! They watched TV! They went to the movies!
The West Side: working class
The Germans were early arrivals and were centered around Front Avenue by Bridge Street. St. Mary's Catholic and Immanuel Lutheran were their churches. The 1840 German school was still standing until it mysteriously burned down around 1968. The Swedish and Danish arrived. There was an old Danish Hall off Bridge Street and an early Swedish church south of downtown. The Irish were early stevedores and lived along the river by South Division Avenue and Cherry Street called Irish Shanty Town but started St. James' Catholic Church on the West side which didn't make sense to me as a child.
Then the first Polish arrived about 1880 from the German-controlled portion of divided Poland, so they settled near the Germans. Eventually they would outnumber the Germans and just about everyone else too. The early Polish settled along Third Street and started St. Adelbert's. Many of them worked in the furniture factories and were blue-collar, pro-labor union. The Lithuanians arrived closely behind the Polish and they started their own neighborhood near Richmond Avenue and founded Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic church and later St. Anthony's. There would be a small Russian community that founded two small Russian churches, St. John's and St. Michael's.
I learned something today! I had always heard that the Jackoboice family was the first Polish family to arrive in Grand Rapids from the German controlled third of Poland. But as I was searching the 1860 census to locate information on the 1860 students I discovered a Polish sounding family:
Jacob Pokoginsky Age in 1860: 35 which would have made him born about 1825 in Preußen. (Germany did not yet exist in 1860). He was enumerated in Grand Rapids Ward 5, Kent Co., Michigan. Maybe he didn't stay very long.
There would be three Dutch neighborhoods. The working-class Dutch settled along West Leonard Street. They were shop-keepers and skilled electricians, plumbers, carpenters. There are only a few Dutch-named stores left on Leonard Street when at one time, they were all Dutch-owned stores. All that's left - Laning's Restaurant, DeVries Jewelry, Arnie's Restaurant, Hoogerhyde Safe, Jurgens and Holtvluwer Clothing, Mieras Shoes.
For the death of the Lithuanian ethnic neighborhood see Edward Gillis' book Growing Up in Old Lithuanian Town 977.456 G416g
I learned something today! I discovered a book written by Linda Samuels. When I was still working in the assessor's office, she and I discussed her idea for this upcoming book. But then I got sick. Heart and Soul 977.455 Sa49h. It has beautiful old photos and MAPS! And not just copy, copy, copy but she made the point of identifying then and now. And she has a map where she superimposed the old river boundaries onto a modern map, something I had always wanted to do!
I regret that my illness prevented me from aiding her in this project, but I was pleased to see what sure looked like my annexation map on page 130. Yuli and I developed that map just before I got sick and he got laid-off. It was hung on the wall at City Hall for anyone to see. But I was surprised to see who got credit for this map - it wasn't me or Yuli. .
The South Side:
The other two Dutch neighborhoods were on the South side.
Calvin College was built on Franklin Street near Fuller Avenue . The well-educated, well-to-do Dutch lived nearby. The Italians settled near Franklin Street and Division Avenue. They started Our Lady of Sorrows church. (Now both neighborhoods are predominately Black.)
The older Dutch settlers to Grand Rapids, mostly poor laborers, started their neighborhood in tiny houses along tiny, curvy and hilly streets off Grandville Avenue. Some of them were even CATHOLIC and attended if not started a very small frame church, St. Joseph's. (Now predominantly Mexican and the area around the former Fifth Reformed Church has been beautifully restored.) After reading Linda Samuelson's book, I am assuming they migrated from the old Irish Shanty Town.
I learned something today! I found a list of public school students in 1860. I checked for their families in the 1860 census. I discovered some of the students were Black. The Grand Rapids Public Schools were integrated by 1860. So much for the 1968 nonsense of "forcing" integration.
The North Side:
This is where I grew up. My neighbors and school-mates were Dutch, Polish, Latvian, Mexican, Indonesian, English, French, German, Belgian, Mississippians. Many of them had been victims of Hitler and Stalin. My Coit neighborhood High School would add Greek, Russian, Black, Italian, Syrian, Lebanese, Canadian to the mix. I still have to add my Crescent Neighborhood for Junior High..
The City-wide sayings were: The West Side is the Best Side (Polish) and You Ain't' Much, if you ain't Dutch. Many non-Dutch feel intimidated by the Dutch because the Dutch don't engage in idle chit-chat. They only talk when they have something important to say so you must listen the first time. The Dutch don't think they're better than anyone else they just know they're going to Heaven and they're not so sure about you,
3. Onslaught of the 1960's.
All this would change in the mid-1960's when the freeways and urban renewal arrived. I was too young to understand why the Powerful chose to deliberately destroy the ethnic neighborhoods and the homes of the poor in order to build super highways and super schools for the displaced children. I just witnessed the destruction first-hand. It wasn't pleasant. It would take most of my life for TV and cars to gain control which destroyed what was left. The baby was really thrown out with the bathwater. I do not understand the younger me-generation who won't even take care of the cemeteries, who don't care about anyone but themselves, who have destroyed their neighbors and destroyed local companies, who buy the cheapest foreign-made crap they can get away with instead of the best they can afford, who live way beyond their means, who think Howard Stern is creative, who thought funding schools with gambling proceeds was a good idea, who are proud of their ignorance. I'm old.
4. Me
Where do I come from? My dad wasn't born in the U.S. He immigrated. Legally, through Ellis Island. His family was met by the D.I.S., Dutch Immigrant Society. A member promised a job (plaster miner) and a place to live - no indoor plumbing, no electricity, dirt floors. He never went to high school. He was not a native speaker of English.
My mother's parents were deaf. The deaf have their own culture that the hearing do not understand. The deaf stand closer physically and stare directly into you face. The hearing interpret that as aggression and pull away. The deaf do not sign English word-for-word, they use shorthand. My grandma signed "I store go." The hearing interpret that as dumb. The deaf are LOUD. The hearing make snide remarks at what they perceive as voluntary rudeness and assume they can deliberately be rude in their response..
I love writing essays
From Heading: Personal Background
From Website: MyGrandRapids.info