Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Belknap, Jerry P. 1919
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net January 13, 2010, 12:18 pm

Portland Review, 7 Jan 1919

Jerry P. Belknap – good, old Jerry – has gone to solve the great mystery.  
Influenza seized hold upon him at a time when his vitality was low.  He fell an 
easy victim.  He died Sunday afternoon at his home in Napoleon, Ohio, in the 
60th year of his age and the 44th year of his newspaper activities.  He was 
editor and owner of the Henry County Signal at Napoleon a number of years and 
not long ago made his son, Nathaniel J. Belknap, his business and editorial 
assistant.  He is survived by two other children, Mrs. Laura J. Theobald and 
Mrs. Marian Cuff, both of Napoleon.  His wife also survives.  He was a Knight 
Templar, an Odd Fellow, and belonged to other fraternities.  He attended the 
Methodist church.  Mr. Belknap had visited Portland frequently in recent 
years.  He came the year of our “homecoming,” and greatly enjoyed meeting the 
old friends.

Jerry Belknap located in Portland in 1882, when he bought the Portland Observer 
of Joseph W. Bailey.  His brother-in-law, Y.A. Hartman, was associated with him 
for a time, but Mr. Belknap carried on the work alone after the first few 
months.  He at once took a place in the front rank of Portland’s enterprising 
business men.  Many will recall the two seasons he operated the opera house, 
and the quality of the shows he booked.  One was W.E. Sheridan, a famous actor, 
who appeared in “Louis XI.”  He had never set foot in a town of Portland’s size 
since he began his career as an actor, and came here only because Mr. Belknap’s 
confidence in the support he would receive prompted a guarantee of $350.  
Receipts fell short of this $100.  Next a lecture course, too expensive for the 
town, cost Mr. Belknap another $100.  He had not gone into the business of 
managing the opera house for his own personal gain, but had hoped to at least 
play even.  After two years he quit.  He managed the rink during the last days 
of its popularity and many people still remember the riotous scenes the night 
he put on an exhibition advertised widely as “A Horse on Skates.”  At the hour 
appointed for the exhibition the large audience which had assembled, mostly to 
skate, but partly to see the show, saw “Jim” Hudson, an employee of Jerry’s in 
the printing office, pushing a sawhorse mounted on rollers, across the floor.  
By the time Jim reached the rear of the hall the audience had started for him 
and he escaped through a rear door.  Newspaper men quarreled in those days and 
the Review, then conducted by the present Congressman Doremus, played up the 
perfidy of this act.  It wept for the poor people who had spent their last 15¢ 
to see a show and then gone to their cheerless home unsatisfied.  It held up to 
public scorn the citizen whose lust for gold would prompt him to deceive the 
people.

The real truth of the matter was that Jerry had no idea people would take his 
horse on skates seriously.  He opened up the rink to give patrons their usual 
good time at skating, and “the horse” was merely thrown in as an extra.  But a 
certain few really did expect to see a horse, not made of wood, but in the 
flesh, glide across the floor and do fancy stunts, which shows the quality of 
ivory they used in the heads of certain of the human race those days.

It cannot be said for Jerry that his paper was the most brilliant in these 
parts, for necessity led him to pay more attention to the job printing end of 
the business than the editorial.  Thus, as press day approached, it was 
necessary for him to take some things for granted and not spend too much time 
in looking them up.  Rev. M.M. Callan, then pastor of the Methodist church, had 
fallen for roller skating and Parker & Divine, rink owners, were so delighted, 
considering that some of the other preachers were knocking the business, that 
they presented him with a fine pair of nickel-plated skates.  A few days later 
the clergyman appeared to have seen a great light and on a Sunday evening 
preached a scorching sermon against roller rinks, classifying them among the 
agencies of the devil.  Someone, reporting the matter to Jerry, made the elder 
say that the rink was run by the devil.  Jerry printed this as Rev. Callan’s 
statement and added that it was rather rough on the management.  Rev. Callan 
was Irish and had a temper and the writer of this story well remembers the 
stormy scene enacted in the printing office when the preacher called.

The boys in the office were welcome to contribute any news they might have.  
Thus, the present editor of the Review, who was getting $3.00 a week, learning 
the trade, became a frequent contributor, preparing, unconsciously, for future 
usefulness.  At 14 the bump of self-esteem is well developed, while the bump of 
caution hasn’t even started to grow.  Back of the office was a woodworking 
establishment and one of the employees was long on perpetrating jokes, which 
often had a punch.  Jerry had gone to Napoleon on a business trip and when Carl 
Powell, considerably older, who had traveled all over the country and worked in 
hundreds of printing offices, suggested that we put something in the paper 
about this humorous young man we were much interested.  “Say the health officer 
has given him a new pair of socks,” said Carl.  We thought of this a long time 
and the conclusion was that it would be entirely harmless.  We saw our jocular 
friend shaking his sides laughing at what the Observer would say about him.  
Occasionally a doubt arose, but Carl said the papers often got off jokes like 
that, and we might set it up without spaces between the words.  The nobody 
would know what it meant but the party we were having the fun with.  We would 
go to him and explain the key when the paper was printed and then we would all 
laugh together.  (Ye Gods, were we ever as immature as that?)  This explains 
why the next issue of the paper contained the following paragraph:

“Theatmosphereinthevicinityoftheobserverofficeisalittlesweeterthehealthofficerhasbou
ghtcharleywardanewpairofsocks.

Charley Ward was then, as now, a highly respected citizen, with whom the health 
officer had no business.  Also he had a father-in-law, Tut Triphagen, who was 
one of Mr. Belknap’s best friends.  Tut started something next day.  It was an 
insult – a reflection on his son-in-law’s habits.  He would have satisfaction 
if it took every cent he had.  He was going to sue Jerry for libel the very 
minute he stepped off the train.  Our young mind seemed to grasp the fact that 
something had gone wrong.  One reason might have been that we didn’t hear 
Charley, in his little shop back of the office, laughing until his breath 
stopped.  The other was probably because Tut was eyeing us murderously.  We 
began to suspect maybe Jerry would be a little provoked when he got home, at 
what we had put in the paper, though he would probably see the joke.  But he 
didn’t.  The next issue contained the statement that during the editor’s 
absence from the city an item had been inserted without his knowledge, 
reflecting upon the habits of sanitation of a certain young man.  Anyone 
acquainted with this young man would understand instantly that what was said 
was intended as a joke.  Nevertheless the editor took this, his first 
opportunity, to correct any false impression that the little paragraph might 
have conveyed.

Reading this, one might have assumed that the proprietor of the paper could see 
the joke, himself, though others didn’t; but this was far from the truth.  That 
we ever lived another minute was due to Jerry’s disapproval of murder in any 
degree, even when justifiable.  The reason we stayed right on the job was 
because typesetters were scarce and business brisk.

As a baseball enthusiast Mr. Belknap had no equal.  He played the game himself, 
and though he appeared on the score card as shortstop he played the whole 
field.  He belonged to Portland’s famous polo club, which was counted as the 
best in the state.  He sole the Observer to L.F. McCutcheon in 1886 and went 
back to Napoleon, where he bought the Signal, the official republican organ of 
the county.  A few years later he sold this and during the world’s fair 
published the Daily Stockman, at Chicago, devoted to the interests of stockmen 
all over the country, with office near the entrance of the Union Stock Yards.  
He went back to Ohio and bought the Holgate Review, was elected recorder of his 
county, and sold the Review to again become proprietor of the Signal.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/b/belknap2469nob.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/

File size: 9.0 Kb