Village Articles

Competitive Spirit "Nelson A. Shaw: Horse Sense"
Businesswomen Sparta's Millinery Mavens: "Catherine Roberts & Rose Adelia Gaut: Mother-Daughter Hatters", and "Dora May Clute: Self-Made Woman"
Milo & Ben The stories of two friends and early Sparta businessmen: "Milo Bolender's Pharmacy" and "Dr. Benjamin Zudzense & His Monkeys" with "Pinckney Paints the Town"
Main Street Merchants "Charles Henry Loomis", "Frank Cnossen: There's Friendship in the Cup", and "Hugh Finch: Where You Always Do a Little Better"
Hometown Heroes "George W. Powers Murdered Lawman" and "Mad Dogs & Marshal Meeker"
The Highway Arrived State Street corridor and post-war growth: "Camp Boys Come to Town" and "Sparta Builders" addressed the housing shortage
Merry & Bright How we celebrated: "Charlie Badgerow: Two Christmas Gifts", Christmases Past", "A Very Sparta Christmas", "My Christmas Memories", and "Sparta's Easter Bunny Helper"

Competitive Spirit

People worked hard to earn a living and put food on their tables. Whether they resided in the village or countryside, a lot of manual labor was necessary to run a household. Life was not easy in Sparta's early days. At the end of the workday or workweek, time for relaxation and a little fun were welcomed. As the village grew, opportunities for entertainment were generally well received--but not quite always.

Nelson A. Shaw: Horse Sense

Lured by .75 cents an acre land offered by the State of Michigan, in 1852 John Freeman Shaw, his wife Eliza Jane (Van Gordon) and their four-year old son, Nathaniel, left Niagara county, New York for a new life on the frontier. "In coming to Michigan the Shaw family voyaged by Lake Erie and the Detroit River to Detroit, and thence proceeded overland to Marshall..." to the home of John's sister. Their journey was highlighted in James L. Smith's An Account of Muskegon County (1924) in Nathaniel's profile. "From Marshall the Shaw family proceeded to Ottawa county and made location near the present village of Coopersville. The father made a clearing on his land and there built a pioneer log house, his first crop having been raised among the tree stumps and having been prolific, besides which he planted peach and apple trees that gave a large yield four years later." Besides the bounty of fruit harvested in 1856, on the 18th of May, a son, Nelson A. increased the Shaw family to four.

Raised a farm boy on his father's 80 acres, he was accustomed to laboring dawn to dusk--clearing land, tending animals, and raising crops. His older brother ran away from home at fourteen in 1862 to become a lumberjack but Nelson remained on the family farm until he was thirty-seven. On December 26, 1880, Nels married Jessie May Burtch, the daughter of Hiram & Annis (Phelps) Burtch of Alpine township. The couple were blessed by the arrival of two children: Fred in 1883 and Bertha May in 1884.

After his father's death, Nels brought his family to Sparta in 1893 where his brother-in-law, Manly Burtch, was a cabinet maker at the Welch Folding Bed factory. Right out of the gate, Nels became an entrepreneur as he operated various businesses from a deep lot he purchased on the north side of Division. The parcel would later become Paul-Lawrence Jewelry and part of the city parking lot. As needs for a product or service presented themselves, Nels ran with the opportunity. Arzie Pinckney occasionally wrote about the Shaw family, "He had a dray business and a very profitable one it was, because in those days everything had to be moved by horses, and he had several. His barns were back of the alley that always existed (and still does only they call it Johnson Street now)."

"Mr. Shaw operated a dray and ice business in town for years. I remember his great ice houses." Something as simple as ice, which we take for granted, was once considered a luxury. It involved a labor intensive process described by Mr. Pinckney: "As soon as the ice in Camp Lake was six or eight inches thick, he would start cutting. He would have five or six teams hauling ice for weeks until the houses were filled. The ice was placed in sawdust to keep it from melting. Then in the spring, they would open the houses and start delivering it. The cakes weighed approximately 100 pounds and sold for 25 cents each, delivered." His work horses also were used in much of the road work for the city and township.

"At that time most everyone burned wood in their kitchen stoves and many folks used wood in their heaters also. So having wood cut and dried for burning was a good business also and he used the vacant lot for storage of his wood supply." By the enumeration of the 1900 Federal Census on June 13th, his primary means to earn a living was with his dray line he called 'City Dray'. It was successful enough that Nels also owned the family home free and clear.

A sixteenth birthday gift of an upright piano to their daughter, Bertha, in 1900, encouraged her life-long passion as a pianist. She became one of Sparta's most accomplished accompanists playing at the Sparta Baptist Church for more than thirty-three years. In 1904, she wed Walter Bloomer.

The Fast Track

In 1901, Sparta was the epicenter of racing--or so it seemed. The Decoration Day celebration on May 25th included a 12 mile bicycle road race, a ball game, and a "horse race between Sparta's leading "bloods". The "wheelmen" race course ran north along Mill St (now Union) and northwest of town. Racers would make two loops. Promotion in the Grand Rapids Press stated "Sparta merchants have offered $200 worth of prizes for a bicycle road race..." and specified it was "open to all Kent county riders except those of Grand Rapids." The Sparta Sentinel-Leader announced the horse race course was "from the hill south of town to the Baptist church" with three heats trotted. At this time, the southern edge of the village ran along Gardner Street, so the hill referred to may have been near the current location of the Tasty Treat, about a half mile.

A second gala of festivities was promoted with a local news headline on June 28th that proclaimed: COMING! COMING! COMING!--The Whole Country is Coming to Sparta Next Thursday... Besides a parade, speeches, a balloon ascension and parachute drop, races of every description were scheduled. A six-mile bicycle race, foot races, sack race, and another horse race on Main Street, a one-half mile run--and so much more. The day would be capped off with a fireworks show. "Sparta's celebration of the glorious Fourth will be the grandest on record" with thousands of people expected. "Boweries and lemonade stands will be everywhere and small boys can eat peanuts and drink red lemonade to their hearts' content." The Sparta Sentinel-Leader proclaimed, "It will be a grand jubilee all day long from the time the sun first peeps over the eastern horizon until the eagle folds his wings and goes to roost in the tall tree tops in the evening. The celebration will positively be the biggest thing ever attempted in Sparta. Wait for the big show."

A follow-up after the event reported two Sparta horses took first and second place--Haas (Powers driver) with Van Gordon, respectively, with a Grand Rapids entrant who took third.

However, not everyone approved of hosting races through town. Consequently, it didn't take long for the village council to pass a new law on the heels of the Forth of July events. The title said it all: "An Ordinance to Prevent the Speeding of Horses, Fast Driving and the Racing with and Fast Riding of Bicycles on the Streets or Public Alleys of the Village of Sparta." It limited horses, bicycles, or other modes of locomotion to a speed of no more than eight miles per hour. Penalties were fines between $2-$50 and confinement to the county jail of five to sixty days.

Sparta racing enthusiasts did not take this lying down.

Although not quite a Churchill Downs, Sparta once had its own racetrack. On March 25, 1902, the Grand Rapids Press published SPARTA WILL HAVE RACES. New Driving Association Has Been Organized to Hold Them with the details: "The Sparta Driving association has been organized here and races will be held this summer. The officers of the organization are: President Allen B. Way; treasurer, William A. Anderson; secretary, Frank D. Kellogg; directors: Morris Haas, Nelson A. Shaw and Ed Pease. The old Hilton track just west of town, which has remained idle for several years, has been leased for a term of five years and work will be commenced today on the buildings. Ample capital is behind the undertaking. The first race will be held the latter part of May or early June. When in good condition the course is one of the finest half-mile tracks in the state." This group of businessmen established, participated in, and promoted the sport at the location more recently known as the County Roads building property and currently is the police station.

The Sparta Driving association's first race was locally promoted with a program to consist of "a three-minute trot, a three-year-old race and a race between Elmerin and Charlie Ellis, horses owned by William Powers and Alonzo Van Gordon, two well known business men."

FOUR RACES AT SPARTA--The New Hilton Driving Park Is Formally Opened. "Sparta, Mich., June 28,--Hilton park was opened to the public yesterday afternoon with a crowd of 2,000 people. Charlie Ellis, a Sparta horse won the 2:40 trot in 2:40-1/3. Rube, a Cedar Springs horse, won the 3-year-old race. Sleepy Dick, owned by Frank Kellogg, took the 3-minute-trot. Thane Hulett captured the 8-mile wheel race in 9:44."--Grand Rapids Press (28 Jun 1902).

Lady Luck smiled on Sparta's race track. A 1902 item in the Grand Rapids Press reported "Sparta, Mich., Aug. 2.--The town is full of horsemen from all over northern Kent today and the crowd at the races this afternoon will break all records. A long string of horses is here from Grand Rapids, Casnovia, Ravenna, Cedar Springs and Conklin. Much betting is being done."

The competitive spirit was alive and well in Sparta. Some of the other local men mentioned in various articles as participants or winners in horse races at Sparta or in the general area included Alonzo Van Gordon, Will Powers, Morris Haas, Frank Kellogg, Dick Myers, James S. Tozer, and none other than the Sparta Baptist minister, J.H. Maynard.

Put on Your Dancing Shoes

Popularity of boweries piqued Nels' interest and inspired a new business enterprise, "...the lot was used for other things as well. I remember that on the Forth of July after the State Bank was built (on the northeast corner of Division and Union; note: in 1902), there was always a bowery dance hall set up there. This was just a nice smooth floor and frame built over it. Usually it had a canvas cover over it and benches in along the side and ends of the floor. It was one of the busiest places in town. Dances all day and until after midnight or as long as the crowd stayed. Dances were paid for after each dance and not by the evening. Sometimes the bowery was not taken down for several weeks. Dances were held every Saturday night if weather permitted."

"I remember that in 1907 Mr. Nelson (Nels) Shaw bought the Blackall property on E. Division Street and erected the cement block building that stands there now. Nels had been in different kinds of business for most of his adult life. He built the building for a livery barn. He had a number of horses, some of which were driving horses and were rented out to people, and if necessary, he would furnish a driver. Some of the doctors and traveling men that came to Sparta always used his services. Most of the time, his son-in-law, Walter Bloomer, did the driving for he managed the business." Arzie stated the livery could accommodate fifty horses and "...Walter Bloomer, operated the barn and had twenty-six livery and draft horses that were also busy."

"The original floor of the building was about four feet above the street level and was reached by a ramp that started with the sidewalk, and the main floor was used to house the buggies, etc. The horses were kept in the basement while the hay was in the second story."

Games of Chance

Before 1910, Nels built a billiards hall. Arzie recalled the inside walls were plaster board finished with a coat of stucco. By 1918, the village required a license to operate pocket billiards tables at pool rooms and Mr. Shaw obtained a license for seven pocket billiard tables. Over the years, the pool room was operated by several men--a couple of which were E.L. Spitzer in 1922 and briefly in early 1923 was Charles Badgerow. The building was sold in 1927 to be used for another purpose.

Public Servant

Perhaps it was the enactment of the village ordinance to prohibit racing that pressed Nelson to enter local politics. Often, one issue serves as the impetus. Always active in the community, Nelson served as village president, township treasurer, highway commissioner, served eighteen years as a member of the village council, and served on the board of education. He was also a founding board member and vice president of the Peoples State bank.

Arzie Pinckney knew the Shaw family well. He wrote about Nels in his Sentinel Leader "I Remember" columns (published on 25 Nov 1964, 31 May 1967, and 18 Jun 1969) while he resided with his daughter, Maxine Cummings' family on Centennial--across the street from Walter Bloomer.

Contact

Our History Center is conveniently located at 71 North Union Street in downtown Sparta. Please join us for coffee and lively conversation on Monday mornings. Visits to the History Center can also be scheduled by appointment, for your convenience.

We do not receive mail at the History Center, instead, please use our mailing address, which is:

attn: Sparta Township Historical Commission
Sparta Township
160 E. Division St.
Sparta MI 49345

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For other inquiries, the Sparta Township Historical Commission can be reached by phone at: (616)606-0765 or via email at the following address: