The Colebaugh Family in Ottawa County

George Colebaugh 1871-1951 and his wife Sarah Cox 1873-1969

When I was little my dad would drive us out to Grandma's farm. How I loved it. We went out M-50 now renamed to M-45 before GVSU was built. It was crooked, it wound around and around. it crossed the river on a noisy narrow bridge. We stopped at the DeWitt Pony farm and petted the ponies. We passed oil wells as their pumps went up and down. We passed the Yellow Jacket Road House. Oh I wanted to eat lunch with the yellow jackets but my parents wouldn't stop. We passed this little corner restaurant and sometimes my parents would stop there so I could get a root beer. We passed a little filling station and sometimes my parents would stop and let me get a paddle pop.

Finally we would turn down M31 past the town of Agnew. There was a big hotel on the corner but most of the town was gone. As we drove down M31 I could see a little hump on the left with a fence on top announcing Fillmore Road where Grandma lived. We would turn and immediately stop at the railroad tracks and my dad would look both ways. The trains ran all the time, every day. We had to be careful as there was no gate or red lights. Fillmore was dirt. We drove very slowly past farm houses and my mom could tell me who lived in every one. Finally we got to grandma's house.

. ^{Township Assessor's}

This is a picture and description of the house from the Township Assessor's office. She told me that I was lucky to call as they were just getting ready to throw all this old junk out. .

I just knew the big tree at the end of the driveway. I'll have to use a picture I took as an adult. I  used to visit the old farm every year and play frisbies with the new owners dogs. He didn't mind. 

The big tree was still there at the end of the drive.

The driveway still led straight up and then divided left to  granary and right to the old barn. .

And my friesbie dogs. 
You can see the one tree that the swing was attached to. But that's anther page.

My dad parked in front of the granery..

Colebaugh: the house

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Last modified: 05/17/10