Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Messer, Donald L. 1954
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Sandy Heintzelman sheintz@iserv.net August 17, 2011, 11:54 am

Ionia Daily Sentinel Standard, 12 Jul 1954

Lyons – Funeral services for Donald L. Messer formerly of Lyons, were held
Saturday afternoon with a prayer service at the home on French Road, Fowler at 2
o’clock and rites at the Matherton Community church at 2:30.  The services were
conducted by the Rev. B.L. Blem of Carson City assisted by the Rev. Benjamin
Davis.  The bearers were Bernard Vance, Jack Waldron, Vernon Benjamin, Eugene
Benjamin, Keith Sillman and Charles Boak.  Piano music was by Mrs. Myrtle Reed
and Millard Brown sang “Take My Hand Precious Lord” and “Farther Along.”

Burial was in East Plains cemetery

Mr. Messer was well known in Michigan due to his research work in archeology and
his study of the American Indian.  He was a familiar figure in school rooms and
among young people throughout Michigan for his lectures on the American Indian.
 His field work near Grand Ledge and in Ionia county led to the discovery of
evidence of what may be the earliest inhabitants of North America, the
prehistoric Indians of the so-called argillite culture which is believed to date
back several thousand years.  Donald worked closely with Dr. Emerson F. Greenman
of the University of Michigan, department of anthropology.  He also worked in
the field with the late Dr. W.B. Hinsdale, “father of Michigan archaeology.”

He was the immediate past vice-president of the Michigan Archaeological Society
and would have been president this year had not his illness prevented.  He
organized the Central Michigan chapter at Lansing and was a member of the Wright
L. Coffinberry chapter of Grand Rapids.  All of his spare time as a farmer and
school bus driver was spent in pioneering in his favorite work of archaeology.


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