Road trip

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a road trip. As an extra incentive for Dee, there were stops for quilting material along the way. I’ve been wanting to find a couple of family landmarks for a long time so, after a breakfast of pumpkin pancakes at the Crossroads Diner, that’s what we set out to do. Our intended treasures for this hunt were

• The burial site for Joshua Case, my great-great grandfather, in Isabella County
• The log home of Clyde and Idell Fisher in Clare County

Joshua Case’s final resting place

I have known for years that Joshua Case was buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery west of Weidman in Isabella County.[1] That cemetery is a few miles across the county line from Joshua’s final home at Titus in Mecosta County. Dad had been to the cemetery many years ago, probably with his uncle Theodore “Pete” Case, who lived on the third and final Case family farm at Titus on 10^thAvenue.

My Grandma Olsen (Verda Case) told me that Joshua, her grandfather, had apparently been somewhat estranged from his son Edwin, her father, for many years. After the 1872 death of Edwin’s mother Sarah Chamberlain Case in Ontario, Joshua moved to Michigan and married Sarah Fisher McCollum. According to Grandma Olsen, Edwin was on his own at a young age after his father Joshua remarried. Joshua came to live his final years with Edwin and Loretta at their second Titus home, on 14-Mile Road. He was living with them at the time of the 1910 census enumeration.[2]

We drove through the site of Titus on the way to the cemetery. Not only is the Case farm no longer there, Titus itself has disappeared.

After five to ten minutes of searching we found Joshua’s gravestone near the top of the hill. He is the only Case in this cemetery.

The Fisher family’s log home

My Grandma Sovereign (Marie Fisher), in telling me about places she lived early in life, described her family’s home in Clare County as a log cabin. Her younger brother Waldo had a snapshot of the cabin, which had been very well maintained, in his scrapbook. Their younger sister Marge was born there. My only point of reference for the cabin’s location was Mannsiding Road, perhaps southeast of Harrison. We didn’t know if the cabin still existed or if it might have been modernized in such a way as to make it unrecognizable, but we set out to find it.

Taking my wife’s advice, I stopped at a gas station to ask if they knew of an old log cabin on Mannsiding Road. They were aware of an old house but didn’t think it was a log cabin. Further down the road we came upon a seasoned gentleman along the road with camera in hand. We stopped to ask if he knew of such a cabin. He not only knew the cabin but told us how to find it.

This cabin is still in remarkable condition. Mom’s Aunt Marge was born there in December 1918, nearly a hundred years ago. Clyde and Idell Fisher’s family was enumerated there for the 1920 census.[3] Grandma was living there when she met my grandfather Coyne Kidder in Clare.

Take a ride

It’s amazing what we can find online now, and it’s a great avenue for learning about our ancestors. Many, many more records remain undigitized in archives and offices. Sometimes, to learn where our ancestors lived and died, it’s best just to hit the road.

Source notes

[1]“Death Records, 1897-1920,” database with images, SeekingMichigan(http://cdm16317.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p129401coll7/id/78073: accessed 14 October 2018), Joshua Case, Sheridan, Mecosta, Michigan, United States; citing Death Records. Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics, Lansing, Michigan.

[2]“United States Census, 1910,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MLRC-BDM: accessed 14 October 2018), Joshua Case in household of Edwin Case, Sheridan, Mecosta, Michigan, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 124, sheet 7B, family 40, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 663; FHL microfilm 1,374,676.

[3]“United States Census, 1920,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZSV-7VD: accessed 14 October 2018), Clyde M Fisher, Hatton, Clare, Michigan, United States; citing ED 136, sheet 2A, line 37, family 32, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 760; FHL microfilm 1,820,760.