From Whence Did She Come?

Now to guess where Gladys previously lived.  Immediately two places seemed the likeliest—either Grand Rapids or Lansing. The railroad connected the 3 communities, with trains passing through Lyons several times daily. Grand Rapids was 49 miles from Lyons, while Lansing was about 38 miles away.  But intuitively, Grand Rapids seemed more likely.

Perhaps statistics might help me choose. In 1910 the Grand Rapids population numbered 112,571 compared to only 31,229 living in Lansing.  There were 659 blacks living in Grand Rapids, according to the U.S. Census, but only a few dozen lived in Lansing.

Then I remembered while searching through all the 1911 Lyons Herald issues, trying to discover when my great grandparents moved to Michigan, that most advertisements were from various Grand Rapids stores, especially the well-known Herpolsheimer’s department store. Darwin and Hope Wood earned a great sum of money when they sold their Iowa farm and moved to Lyons, Michigan. They took pride in wearing stylish, expensive clothes. The Grand Rapids advertisements probably persuaded them to select the larger city for shopping.  Thus, the statistics and shopping mecca pointed to Grand Rapids, which became my search target area. (more…)

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Where to Begin? Cousin DeEtte and my dad were not only first cousins but good friends.  They often saw each other as children, and when each married, continued getting together.  Dee, as most of the family and close friends called her, remembered stories about the grandparents, aunts, and uncles that Dad forgot.  In 2008 when I first saw the wedding picture, Dad was 94 and Dee 88.  Sadly, both showed signs of dementia and stories became tangled in the telling.   Still, Dee was adamant that the Gladys was the black girl sitting in the front row of the wedding picture, but couldn’t remember her last name.  Dee thought she came from Iowa when her grandparents, Darwin and Hope, moved from Iowa around 1911, which I felt was highly unlikely.  So if not Iowa, where did the young girl previously live?  How old was Gladys then?  And how did she come to live with my great grandparents in a white community?  Where to begin…