In 1856 Mr. Becker Joined up With Dan Spoon who had just arrived in the area from New York State. and a year later Dans Older Brother John Spoon came into the business. The sawmill was first known as Spoon and Becker. A short time later William T hompson joined the partnership and the name was changed to Thompson and Spoon.
Along with the operation of the sawmill Dan Spoon , who was foreman operated a large farm. The entire holdings amounted to 848 acres which included most of the river bank from the mouth of Crockery Creek to the mouth of Bruce's Bayou and m ost of sections 27 and 28 of Crockery Township.
Dan and John Spoon each built large homes near the sawmill. There were two large barns to support the farming operation said to be the largest in Ottawa County at the time. Many other houses and out buildings were built to support the sawmill an d for farm hands. A pony barn, blacksmith shop, an office building and many other smaller buildings.
There is no evidence when the name of Beckerville changed to Spoonville but the book of "Michigan Place Names " lists the name as Spoonville in 1857. Although there was never a post office at Spoonville it had a pickup and delivery for the locals. According to the old timers a saloon and company store was there too.
As the logging began to disappear and the sawmill ceased to operate. The emphasis of the operation turned to agriculture. At first under the direction of Dan Spoon it became successful.
There was a large herd of registered cattl e and the crops were well tended, But after the Spoons died and the farm was run by outside owners the operation became marginal at best and slowly several forties and eighty acre parcels were sold off.
The farming operation had the men working in the fields from daylight to dark. Some of the men concederd it a privilege to be called from the field early to do evening chores as they could sit down while milking cows. The first drainage tile was made by nailing four six inch boards into a square tube. These were placed just deep enough under the soil so that a plow would pass over them I plowed into some of them as late as the 1970's and could see how the were constructe d.
The census of 1880 indicates the population of Spoonville to be 56. How many were employed in the sawmill and how many of them were agriculture is not listed.
One by one the buildings of Spoonville disappeared, som e were moved away, others burned and some were torn down. The large cattle barn that stood on the southwest corner of 120 th and Cypress was torn down during the depression years, and the other barn at the river burned in the 1950;s. The John Spoon house was torn down and the house that Samdels live in now was built on the site, The Dan Spoon house was torn down in the 1940's. So that now there isn't a single building left on its original foundation in what was Spoonville.
Mr. Thompsons farm in Moorland township is a good example of what can be done with Moorland marsh {muck} land. It consisted of over 1,000 acres and was drained by two ditches each about six miles long, ten foot wide and three foot deep which rende
red the farm perhaps the most fertile in the State. He erected immense buildings to hold crops. In 1881 - 1,500 bushels of corn was taken from 15 acres, and 300 bushels of potatoes per acre. The land was bought for four dollars to the acre and the dit
ching cost one dollar to the acre.
The above account was taken from the { Early History Of Ottawa and Muskegon Counties} book, 1892 edition.
On December 1 1894 Lewis Dutton purchased the Spoon farm from Anna Spoon {widow of John}
At this time the farm contained 803 1/2 acres . A forty had been sold to Fred Viebrock previous to this time. The farm was a stock farm. It had four residence houses for the hired help also two large barns a blacksmith shop and many othe
r buildings.
John Nehmer [my great grand father] came to this country from Germany some time before the 1860s and settled on thirty acres on the northwest corner of 124th and Leonard St. Here he built a log cabin and raised at least two children including Ma
tilda who married Swan Peterson and is our grandmother. There was another son Fred. whose family consisted of Matilda { Hattie} Married Hunter Herring, Bessie {Ecklkamp}; Helen { George Geerlings} ; Frederick
{Elizabeth Powers}. Later John moved his family to the corner of 129th and Leonard where they again lived in a log cabin before building the house that is still there. Some of the older children of Matilda and Swan including our father William
who was born in the log cabin on 124th Street.
In the early nineteen hundreds the townships of Robinson and Crockery was connected by a Ferry that crossed the Grand River from Spoonville to the shores of Robinson . At first the ferry entered the channel into the spoon bayou and docked at the e
nd of what was then called the Spoonville road but now has been changed to 120th Ave. The ferry was propelled by turning a crank that pulled a chain through sprockets . The chain was anchored to both shores. The ferry was large enough to accommodate
a wagon load of hay and the team of horses . Many a load of hay and grain passed back and forth as well as passenger service. Lyman Cobb who lived on the Robinson side was the operator.
After the bridge was built over the Spoon Bayou the terminal at Spoonville was moved out on the river bank which shortened the distance traveled , a big improvement as the ferry was powered by manually turning the crank. The ferry operated
until about 1920 and for a few years was tied up on the north bank at Spoonville. It soon deteriorated and Scavengers dismantled various parts for souvenirs. until nothing was left but the barge itself. Later on it was pulled up on shore
for its last resting place.
Mr. Cobb was a tall husky man. It is said that he had a flock of chickens at his home and when he needed feed for them he crossed the river on the ferry and walked to Nunica and purchased a hundred pounds of feed, putting it on his shoul
der and carrying it as far as the corner of Leonard and 120th where he put it down and rested for a few minutes and then again shouldering it and carrying it the rest of the way to the ferry before setting it down.
Mr. Cobb was as agile in the water as a muskrat, a talent that he had to use when the brakes on a load of hay failed and the wagon, hay and horses all went into the river. He dove in the water and in front of the thrashing horses and cut the h
ame straps that held the harness on the horses allowing them to swim free and reach shore.
On the hill at the mouth of Crockery Creek, sometimes known as look out point a man took up residence building a shack. He was known by the name of Jones. Little was known about him as he would never reveal anything about his past
. He did admit to coming from somewhere in the East, probably Connecticut. There were rumors floating around that he was a fugitive from justice and that he may have committed a capitol crime possibly murder.
He sustained his living by fishing, trapping, and gardening, almost totally living off the land. Sometimes he would rescue stranded logs along the shores of the river that he would retrieve and sell for cash to the saw mills. His trade before com
ing to Michigan was that of a gun smith, so when someone would bring a gun for repair he would charge so much that often the people would leave the gun rather than pay the price, the walls of his shack was decorated with many of them. This earned h
im the nickname of " Gun Lock."
In his spare time he had fashioned a tin snake to fit around the smoke pipe of his stove. the heat of the stove caused the snake to rotate giving it the appearance of crawling up the pipe. He started fruit trees doing all the grafting of all the popul
ar varieties of the time. There is still one left there now in 1995. His potato patch had his own variety that he had developed from seed pods that come on top of potato plants, it took him a few years but he had some nice off color spuds, some red and blue and purple.
Every Friday was bake day at the Viebrock farm so Mr. Jones would buy a loaf of bread from Mrs. Viebrock. He would arrive after dark carrying a lantern and a gun. If any unsuspecting rabbit would show himself he would shoot it by holding the lan
tern in one hand and shooting with the other, Thus he would add rabbit stew to his supper of fresh bread. All of the boys of the neighbor hood made their way to his shack on weekends including my father and his brothers. He has been given credit f
or teaching most of them how to chew tobacco.
Down underneath he had a very cruel nature that would show its self on occasion. He hated turtles with a passion as they would get in his fish traps so any turtle that got in his way usually received a boot heel in its back. One early spr
ing day he asked the boys if they would like to see some fun. He took a bottle of nitric acid and went out to find a sleeping john snake that had come out to warm up in the sun. A few drops of acid would be placed on the snakes head and then he would stand
back and wait for the acid to start to burn. as the snake thrashed around in its agony, he would stand there and laugh. By the way he had a supply of nitric acid on hand for his gunsmithing business.
In his flock of chickens he had two roosters one was a large white one the other a smaller off color breed. The larger one was always bossing the smaller one, Mr. Jones told the boys to come down the next Sunday for some fun. During the
week he had caught both rooster and filed the spurs of the white one off very blunt and the other he sharpened up like a razor. when the boys arrived the bigger white one was caught and smeared with red ochre paint and the two roos
ter were turned out together. The smaller one thinking that a strange new rooster had invaded the territory went after the other with his sharp spurs and cleaned up on his larger foe. So you see that they had cock fights in those days too.
After many years the Spoon Farm had changed hands and the new owners tried to have the squatter removed from the premises, but they found out that he had lived there for too many years and he had acquired squatters rights.
He was allowed to live out his remaining years in his shack. My dad says that as he was ailing in his last days he was carried across the street of Nunica. An empty tomato can was laying in the street and he wanted his carriers to pick it up as it would
make a good can for fish worms. His final resting place is in the Nunica cemetery in an unmarked grave. It is said that he never was seen without a gun in his hand or within easy reach. My dad told me many more stories about the man but I have forgotte
n most of them.
This episode happened on the hills overlooking Crockery Creek about a mile up from the mouth. It happened one what is now the Peterson homestead but before the Petersons came in 1890.
One hunter with his dog was hunting rabbits on what we now call the thorn bush hills. The dog was on a track and the chase was on. A second hunter came into the area from the opposite direction. He spotted the rabbit and shot it but before he coul
d retrieve his game the dog grabbed the rabbit and started chewing it, so the second hunter shot the dog. At this instant the dogs owner came over the hill and witnessed the shooting of his dog. He immediately brought his gun up pointing at the ot
her hunter who in turn pointed his weapon at the dog owner.
An impasse ensued and after some unprintable pleasantries were exchanged each backed off leaving the field in opposite directions.
I'm sure that when two wives said their prayers that night they thanked the lord that neither had become a widow that day.
The first school known as crockery township district #2 was a log cabin located some where on what is now Mark Bos farm in the vicinity of his buildings on the south east corner of 120th and Leonard. It included all of the Nunica and Spoo
nville area being organized in the early 1850's. Later as Nunica grew it was split into two districts , Nunica was given the designation of District # 6, and Spoonville remained #2.
In December of 1865 a piece of property was leased from John Spoon to build a new permanent school. The Parcel was eight rods wide and ten rods long . The lease was for ninety nine years.
In the spring of 1866 the present building was built. It is the last building still standing on its original foundation in the Spoonville area.
The average attendance in the 1880's and nineties was nearly thirty students, but after the turn of the century attendance slowly fell so that by 1925 there only eight to ten students attending. The school board of that time consisting of
Charles {Claus} Erhorn, Martin L. Fritz and Sam Easterly decided that it would be cheaper and the students would receive a better education if they would be transported to Nunica . Ernest Plant was hired to do this. An old Nash car was remodeled w
ith a celo-tex coop erected on the back. Board benches were along the sides for the children to sit on. This was established the first known school bus in the state of Michigan.
Forrest Easterly took over as driver the next year and continued for many years even after the district consolidated with Nunica and later with Spring Lake. Charles {Claus} Erhorn was a student in the Spoonville school during the 1960' and sevent
ies and at the age of twenty three became a director. A job that he continued to hold for the next 64 years. It was in this school that I learned my A B C's and multiplication tables . Many hours of day dreaming listening to the older grades reci
te history and other classes.
The old school house is now being used as a tool shed and work shop. The bell and coupla has been removed but some of the paintings on the walls are still visible if one knows where and how to look.
Wm Thompson lumberman and farmer with holdings in section 24 Crockery, was born in Monroe County New York on March 25, 1818 and moved to Crockery in 1843 purchasing land the following year. His holdings consisted of 540 acres where he live
d in section 24 Crockery Township and another 1,000 acres in Moorland Township in Muskegon County. He was associated with the Spoon brothers in the lumber and sawmill operation lending his name to the business. He married Miss Mary Carpenter in 1844. Sh
e died in 1862 and in 1863 he married Mary J. Tibbits. They had three children. Wm Thompson was a very wealthy enterprising man in his time.