The Howell Rotary Club
Paul Harris and four friends started a club in Chicago in 1905 as a service group. These men who worked in the same building, on the same floor took turns holding their meetings in each other's offices---thus the name "Rotary Club." The idea caught fire and by 1911 there were clubs being formed in Canada and Europe and Rotary was on its way to becoming the worldwide service organization it is today, with over a million members in 150 countries.
Early in 1924 John S. Page, Howell Superintendent of Schools, was approached by members of the Ann Arbor Rotarians about forming a club in Howell. He became excited about the idea and talked with several Howell business members and they agreed. Howell Rotary Club No. 1746 was chartered on May 5, 1924 with 17 members who took on the work of establishing the new club. The first officers were William H. Cansfield, President; William E. Robb, Vice President; John S. Page, Secretary; Herbert R. Gillette, Treasurer. The club included members: Glenn H. Beurmann; Sherman J. Field; Dr. James G. Erwin; Dr. Ernest J. Browne; Don Goodnow; Wilber B. Johnson; R. Bruce McPherson; William McPherson, III; Albert L. Smith; William McPherson Smith; Charles H. Sutton; and Don W. Van Winkle. Each year the membership increased and by 1949 eighty men were enjoying the fellowship, friendship, privileges, and benefits of Rotary.
It was decided that their first and principal project would be crippled children's clinic. Each year in the spring, children were brought to the school (and later to the Methodist church parlors) where they were examined by doctors and optometrists to see what help they might receive.
By 1927 the Rotary thought they should take on the project of a city park by Thompson Lake. Talks with the landowner were held and the city purchased the land for Thompson Lake Park that same year. Roads were laid out and a bathing beach was started. Talk of a bathhouse in 1929 became a reality in 1930 with the urging of President Dr. Sam Ross. The bathhouse was good for many years, but by the 1960's had fallen into bad shape. Many wanted to build a new one, but the cost by then was many thousand of dollars and we couldn't find a way (the Chamber of Commerce took on this project in the 1970's and did a fine job).
Rotary members were influential in getting things done with the alleys, sewers, and streets of Howell. The depression held things up for a while, but they did complete quite a bit.
At Christmas time in 1930, John Page asked the new music teacher, Keene O. Stollsteimer, to bring the Madrigal Club he had formed at the school to sing Christmas carols to the club. Many wives were invited, too. The second floor of the 1st National Bank, where we held our meetings, was filled and a wonderful time was had by all. So, every year since, for the past 74 years the group has been invited back.
The first inter-city meeting was held in Owosso with seven clubs attending in 1934. Most all of our club members attended, as did members of clubs from Owosso, Flint, Centerline and others attending.
In 1936, a group from Brighton was invited to attend a meeting and on the 22nd of June 1936, the Brighton Rotary Club was started.
About this time the weekly newsletter The Question Mark was started. Handled by several editors, it settled down to Bert Woodhams doing the job each week for many years. In 1939, a new newsletter appeared called The Mushroom. It was edited by Cal Gatesman and sometimes offered a different point of view. So we had two papers a week for a while until the Mushroom died out. Later The Question Mark became The Howeller. Les Merrit and others handled The Howeller at times, but Bert was the mainstay until his death. Recently his son, Fred Woodhams has done a fine job with humor to make it fun. Now Jim Gilligan has put us on the Internet.
The first meeting in January for years was Bert Woodhams' message on "The State of the Union", which everyone looked forward to. They were masterpieces and were usually printed in the paper.
One of the prime factors of Rotary was that no two men with the same job could be members. With all people from different vocations, you can have a cross section of your community. However, this leaves many good men who cannot join because there is already someone with his classification. The story went around about two priests whom the Club wanted. They finally listed them as "priest-retail" and "priest-wholesale". The Howell Club helped solve the problem in 1936 when Lions Clubs were beginning. Our club helped get a Lions Club started in Howell.
In January or February of each year we had a ladies night when all the wives would come to a special meeting. Rotarian's wives were called "Rotary-Anns" in those days. Speakers or magicians were brought in for the meeting. The poet Edgar A. Guest was a favorite, as was his son Bud Guest many years later.
Inter-city meetings were held each year as well as Rural-Urban meetings, with each Rotarian bringing a guest farmer.
Father - Son and Daughter day was held each year and the program usually featured a magician. At the end of the football season the whole team and their coaches were brought in for a meal and special recognition.
A national project called "Easter Seals was launched in 1939 to help the crippled children. The club still held clinics for the crippled children well into the 1950's. In 1939 the first Junior Rotarians were chosen from among the high school seniors and invited to meet and eat with us. Each month two different students attended the Rotary meetings for one month. The last meeting in May these Junior Rotarians shared what they had learned by taking over the meeting and put on their own program for us. I don't remember when it stopped, but it was a good program. Some of them later became Rotarians.
In cooperation with Washtenaw-Livingston Council of Boy Scouts America the Howell Rotary Club gave of their time and money to help improve Camp Newkirk near Dexter by erecting and equipping a new cabin. They also provided camp fees enabling many young scouts to attend summer camp. Howell had a Rotary Troop for many years. Bill McPherson IV was the Rotary representative and after many years received the Silver Beaver Award. Other Rotarians acted as merit badge counselors and spent weekends at summer camps with the boys. Longtime scoutmaster, Jim Young, a former Junior Rotarian, was later elected mayor of Howell and served in that position for 12 years.
In 1939 the war was started in Europe and Michigan Governor, Frank D. Dickinson gave a talk at the Howell Rotary about the affairs of the State. The newsmen referred to him as the governor with a "pipeline to God" in the corner of his office.
In 1940 with the war in full swing in Europe and the London bombings at their height, many English children were shipped over to Canada until the war was over. In the spirit of international service our club bought many gifts and drove them over to Rotary Clubs in Ontario to distribute to the British kids. Later that year members drove to Ann Arbor and picked up 25 refugee students at the University of Michigan and brought them to our club meeting to talk with us. The national speed limit was 35 mph during the war.
On September 23rd, the Club took a bus to Detroit for a Tigers game. The Tigers won!
In 1941, Ned Millis, longtime manager of Detroit Edison in Howell who had served as a Colonel in the Army during WWI and in the reserves afterward, was called back to active duty for a year. He sent a card to the Club saying he figured he'd be out by December 1st. December 7th was Pearl Harbor!
Bankers, doctors, and other professionals all closed on Wednesday afternoons so they started a Rotary Golf team at Chemung Hills, the only golf club in this county.
In 1944 Boys State was started on the campus of Michigan State College at East Lansing. The club paid expenses for one or two boys each year to have the chance to learn first hand about the problems and techniques of administration of city and state government.
May 8, 1945 was "V.E. Day." The war had ended in Europe! "V.J. Day" was August 14, 1945 when the war ended in Japan.
In 1946 Joe Brady, a member of our Club since 1930, was elected District Governor of our district in Ontario and Southeast Michigan. The district conclave was held in Howell.
That same year a group of Fowlerville businessmen were invited to meet with our club to find out what Rotary was all about. The Fowlerville Club was started soon after that and we had three clubs in the county.
On V.J. Day in 1946 there was a parade and the Rotary Club made a big float.
As the years went by, the club realized that several Rotarians had died and it was felt that something should be done in their honor. We usually went to the funeral and entered as a body sitting near the front. It was felt that it would be much better if something permanent could be done. We had put up the backstop and fixed the baselines where the softball field is on top of the hill in the park, but out past the outfield it was just grass. They decided that a tree would be planted on top of the hill for each deceased Rotarian. After three plantings, years apart, the early trees were getting quite large and there just wasn't room for more. In 1970 Bruce Campbell took on the job of finding who still hadn't had a tree planted for him. It was quite a job and with the park full, we planted the last eight trees by the water at the boat landing. It was far too wet, so they all died and it will have to be done again someday.
In 1946, Paul Bennett, a Rotarian and high school athletic director found some large field lights in the Upper Peninsula that he thought would light up the football field. Paul, along with some Rotarians and others, hired a large stake truck and drove to the U.P. to get them, which cost $500. Detroit Edison put in poles and hooked up the lights and we had the first lighted high school football field in the central Michigan area (probably in the whole state). The football field ran east and west near railroad tracks then.
In 1949 the Rotary Club in Howell was 25 years old. The celebration was held at the Waldenwoods Convention Center. Seven of the original 17 charter members were still alive and there was a big party.
In 1951 a circus wanted to stop in Howell for a two-day show and contacted the Chamber of Commerce about promotion. "Zemp" Zemper had been elected secretary of the Chamber and he negotiated with them to let us bring crippled children to the circus free. An agreement was reached and Rotarians drove around the county in their cars and took all the children to the circus. They all sat together in one section with all the popcorn and Pepsi they cold handle. Afterwards we took them around to see the lions and tigers and elephants before going home. It was a wonderful day.
In 1952, Superintendent John Page felt there was plenty of room on the athletic field to put the football field north and south, away from the railroad tracks. It was a fine field with new lights. The Lions Club felt a good project would be a large lighted scoreboard. They had a good idea, but no money. So they came to the Rotary Club, but the Rotarians had no money either. However, we said we would do it some way. We advertised a Rotary auction and people called with things they no longer needed or wanted. Bob White and Mike Hagman had pick-up trucks to collect the things in and they stored them in garages at Cliff Heller's and D. Zemper's. Amazing the people who came and the stuff they bought and we had a beautiful lighted scoreboard. The sign on it read "Sponsored by the Lion's Club" and didn't mention Rotary Club.
It wasn't long before we realized that we needed a loudspeaker system on the field. So back to the auction again. We put a microphone system in the press box with speakers on the roof and it worked out fine.
The city was given the old Montegue house and property where the Citizen's Insurance Company building is on W. Grand River. The City put in an ice skating rink and the Rotary put in slides, teeter totters and merry-go-round for a playground. The Rotary also put in playground and B-BQ grills at Thompson Lake Park at that time.
In the fall of 1955 the football team under Coach Harold Fulk was undefeated for the first time ever. Football started here in Howell in 1896. So, the Rotary Club got a large trophy---a gold plated football on a large base---and had it engraved with all the players names and the names of all of their opponents and the scores. At the end of the season they had one touchdown against them in nine games. The trophy was presented to them at the Rotary team dinner that year.
Bob Parker felt that with the refurbished softball field and picnic grills etc. on the hill we should have a fountain on the hill for ball players and picnickers. A committee went to the city and proposed it. The city engineer figured it out---no city water in the parks! We would have to bring in a pipe from the city line underground to the hill, then up the hill and put a fountain on top. Cost---$14,000---a lot of money in those days. The answer was "NO"!
We didn't have much industry in town in those days. Bob Parker went back to his plant and called every company in the area. The next Monday he came to Rotary---held up a slip of paper over the secretary's desk and let it flutter down. It was a check for $14,000. (I think most of the money was Bob's.)
From the beginning, our meals were always prepared by Mrs. French and her niece, Mrs. Fern Miller. All the years in the bank building she served family-style chicken, roast beef, ham or occasional fish. Big platters of meat and mashed potatoes, bowls of vegetables, and a large slice of pie at every setting. The cost to us was always 25 cents and no one ever complained about the meals or the price.