Edith Brunner's newspaper artical, Freeport, Barry County, Michigan Copyright © 1998 by Mary Del Rivette. This copy contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives. USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. _____________________________________________________________________ Edith (Kopf) Brunner Freeport, Mich. HOW MANY REMEMBER The maple, popular and wild cherry trees around the old home, the creek where the wading was the very best, the boiling springs not far from the road bridge which crosses the creek and where the children from the brick school on the hill would go for drinking water, sometimes they did not hurry back as they liked to watch the boiling springs and the minnows in the creek; the dam where it was fun to raise a plank or two and watch the water go through, to watch the water wheel in motion in the lower part of the factory, the chute where the sawdust was carried out of the factory-great sport it was sliding down and into the pile of sawdust, walking the boards to the flume. It would all seem too dangerous now, but in those days no harm seemed to come to the children who came from town, Segwun and in the neighborhood to play. So many logs and lumber piles to climb. Edith (Kopf) Brunner HOW MANY REMEMBER When the Pere Marquette road did not run through our property and pedestrians either crossed the river by the upper or lower bridge? When the Grand Trunk was the only railroad through Lowell? How many in this vicinity and far into the country remember of staying over night with our folks so as to catch an early morning train? The big rocking chair which was in front of the store building-it was not vacant much of the time and it would hold so many at a time? I think some may remember mother's old-fashioned flower garden, each separate bed with fancy stones around it. We never missed picking up a pretty stone for her garden. She said the flowers were raised for the sick but I think it was for other purposes as well. When John Ball Park in Grand Rapids was first started she gave a large amount of tulip bulbs to be used there. On Decoration day she always had flowers taken to the cemetery to be placed on neglected graves of folks she knew. Always a bouquet to be put on the grave of an Indian child whom she had known. Her own little boy died about the same time and she had much sympathy for the parents of that child. The grave was known at that time by a picket fence around it. It seems the Kopf family were never alone-always friends and relatives coming in to help pass a happy time. I should like to hear from any one who remembers "Kopftown, Michigan, as it was known in those days. Our folks have had mail addressed to Kopftown, Michigan, and it reached them. I wonder how many are living who had chairs sent to their homes or would come to the store house and work putting cane seats in them. Surely, some one must be living who remembers some of these old times. 1926-Lowell Ledger-Edith (Kopf) Brunner Freeport, MI