Ionia-Eaton County MI Archives Biographies.....SUNFIELD, Early 
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LaVonne Bennett lib@dogsbark.com February 8, 2007, 2:39 pm

Author: By Mrs. Richard BERG, in THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR, June 1972, Volume 7, Number 6; submitted with written permission of Editor Grayden D. Slowins:

THE VILLAGE OF SUNFIELD LONG AGO – Written for the children of Sunfield, 
Heritage Day, Michigan Week, May 1972 by Mrs. Richard Berg

People have long thought that Sunfield didn’t begin until the late 1880s when 
the railroad was built; but in 1878 the Editor of the PORTLAND OBSERVER 
wrote “Sunfield is booming!  Two new stores are going up and there is a 
sawmill, cheese factory, livery, blacksmith, furniture store and many others.”  
The railroad did not cause Sunfield to begin, but it did keep it alive.  So it 
seems that Sunfield is now about 94 years old.

The sawmills cleared the land and sawed logs into boards for buildings.  The 
small logs, they laid close together to make roads in wet places.  These were 
called corduroy roads and at the GAR Hall you still see a piece of one that was 
dug on Jackson street last summer, about three feet beneath the present street.

Another early business was brick-making.  The clay from the pit on what is now 
Dale Steward’s farm made bricks of a soft yellow color.  Two of the houses made 
from Sunfield brick are at the corner of First and Washington Sts.  This brick 
yard was very busy.  In one week it shipped 100,000 bricks to the new town of 
Lake Odessa.

Did you know that some of Sunfield is in Greenfield Village?  The old buildings 
next to the railroad tracks used to be a flour mill.  In 1929 when Henry Ford 
was collecting things for his museum, he came to Sunfield and bought the old 
machinery from that mill as well as the hitching posts and rails that had been 
on Main Street.  Ask to see them next time you go to Greenfield Village!

The first school was made of logs and stood on the south side of M-43 as you go 
toward Lake Odessa, just about where our Village limits sign is.  It was called 
the Burns School because it was near a Mr. Burns’ house.  It was built in 1845 
and was used until 1856 when Mr. John Dow gave ¼ acre of land which is now the 
northeast corner of First St. and M-43 and a new frame schoolhouse was built.  
This was also used for meetings, elections and entertainments until the present 
school was built in 1893.  The old school was moved up on First St. and was the 
Methodist Church.  Later it was made into a home and is now the Shilton’s house.

When people moved into town from the country they brought their livestock with 
them and it was common to see pigs, cows and chickens wandering down the 
streets.  Most people had a barn which housed not only animals, but a bright, 
shiny buggy and a horse or two for pulling it.  It was 1907 when the first 
automobile came to Sunfield and in 1908 there were six of them.

The printing office of the SUNFIELD SUN was where the Fixit Shop is now and on 
the opposite corner was a big 2-story wood building owned by Dr. VanAndee.  He 
was also a druggist, the postmaster and sold drugs and groceries.

The people worked very hard, but they liked fun, too.  Such things as singing 
school spelling bees, dances and the ever-popular baseball, which they played 
in a pasture that is now a part of our park.  The Sunfield Cornet Band was 
popular far and near and played for fairs, picnics and parades and gave weekly 
concerts in the band stand that stood where the Fargo Station is.

In 1899 the village incorporated so it could govern itself and Joel Bera, 
grandfather of Jack and Larry Mapes was the first Village President.  The 
Village Hall was built in 1904 and the first electricity in Sunfield was made 
in the rear of the building in 1920.  The Sunfield Historical Society hopes you 
will enjoy seeing their display at the GAR Hall today and that you will want to 
learn more about the people who worked so hard to make a place for you and me 
to live.


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