SCHUMAKER-SIMONS-OSBORN
209 East Lincoln Street

c1895 Victorian Cottage
Home Tour 1998

This small Victorian cottage was most likely built during the 1890’s, which was a time of growth and prosperity for Grand Ledge.  The island resort was at the peak of its fame.  Local industries like the Grand Ledge Chair Co. and the American Vitrified Co. and the Doty and Doty grain elevator were expanding and providing more jobs to workers who moved to Grand Ledge and needed affordable housing for their families.  According to an article in the Grand Ledge Independent in 1888:  “…A substantial dam with a fall of seven feet is made to furnish one of the best water powers in the state, in part utilized by saw, cider, jelly,  flour, and planing mills, and chair and table factories, foundry and machine shop, besides which a flouring mill, two machine shops, a foundry and saw and planing mills are operated by steam.  Artificial stone and tile works, marble works, a cooper shop, and fruit evaporation also give employment to a number of hands….The village has two handsome union school buildings recently erected at a cost of $17,000, four churches, two grain elevators, three hotels, two banks, and two newspapers.  The streets and principal stores are well lighted by electricity, giving the place somewhat of a metropolitan appearance…”  Clearly, this was a good place for people to live.  In fact, the town experienced shortages of housing for the workers moving into town.  People were encouraged to build rental homes and hold them as income-yielding properties.  The block where this house is located was nearly vacant land as late as the 1880’s, and the 1890’s saw this part of town begin to be developed with both owner-occupied homes and rental units.  This house was probably built by a Grand Ledge businessman named Anthony B. Schumaker. It is unclear whether Schumaker built the house as soon as he purchased the property,  or whether he held the vacant land for a time and built the house in the early years of the new century. He used the house as a rental property.

In Aug. 1888, Anthony B. Schumaker bought lot 8, block 37 from Edmund and Diantha Lamson for $150.  Edmund Lamson was the first permanent white settler in Grand Ledge.  He arrived here with his large family in 1848 and settled on the south side of the river.  He owned over 160 acres on the south side.  He served as justice of the peace, owned businesses in town, and was elected the first village president.  His home still stands on W. Jefferson at Spring St.  The 1881 map of Grand Ledge shows no house on this site on East Lincoln St.  In fact, the 1881 map shows only one house on this block at that time. 

A.B. Schumaker lived on W. Jefferson with his family.  Mr. Schumaker was born in Prussia on June 1, 1847.  He came to the U.S. in 1854 with his parents and they settled in Coldwater
Michigan.  He entered the drugstore business at the age of 17 and eight years later he came to Grand Ledge.  In 1876 he married his first wife, Elizabeth Raleigh, who was a descendant of Sir Walter Raleigh.  They had two children, Charles and Bertha.  Elizabeth died on March 5, 1888.  His son Charles died tragically at the age of 19 on July 8, 1898.  Charles had taken part in a  July 4th  reenactment on the river of a Spanish-American War naval battle.  A few days later, when he returned to dismantle the boat, he fell into the water and was drowned.  Mr. Schumaker married his long-time housekeeper, Rachel Dingler in July 1916.  He was active in the community.  He was one of the founders of the  Grand Ledge Sewer & Pipe Co. and served as president and vice president; vice president, Grand Ledge State Bank; president, Grand Ledge Canning Co.; treasurer, city of Grand Ledge; alderman; state senator.  He died June 9, 1922 at the age of seventy-five. 

His will divided his property between his wife Rachel,  and his daughter, Bertha.  Bertha inherited this house at 209 East Lincoln.  Bertha Schumaker had grown up in Grand Ledge.  She was born c.1883.  She married Floyd Rogers who was a millwright at one of the chair factories in town.  In 1920, they were living in this house on Lincoln St. The marriage ended in divorce in 1935 and Bertha kept the house in the divorce settlement.

Shortly after the divorce, Bertha sold the house to Bert B. Simons.  He was another Grand Ledge businessman, and in fact in 1938 he purchased the Schumaker building at #222 S. Bridge St., which his grocery store occupied, from Bertha’s stepmother, Rachel Dingler Schumaker.  Bert Simons was born in Portland Mich. on Jan. 10, 1881.  He came to Grand
Ledge around 1905 and worked for the Campbell-Chappell drugstore, a long-established drugstore/grocery business at the corner of Bridge and Jefferson Streets.  After several years, he went into business for himself, and took over S.L. Hagerman’s market.  From 1920-1925 he tried his hand at the automobile business. He was secretary/treasurer of the Lansing Auto Sales Corp.  He returned to the grocery business in 1925 and continued in that line of work for the rest of his life.  He died in 1951. 

Bert’s wife, Kittie Mae Simons, and his daughter, Arleta, continued to own the home jointly after his death.  Arleta Rose Simons graduated from Grand Ledge High School in 1933.  On Feb. 1, 1936 she married a classmate, Donald Keesler, who also graduated in 1933.  They spent their early married life and had their first child during the time they lived in the house at #209, which Arleta’s father continued to own.  Donald worked for a time in Simons Market.  Arleta clerked at the store. A few years later, sometime between 1941 and 1943, Arleta and Donald left Grand Ledge so that Donald could pursue his religious studies and enter the ministry. 

The home was rented to a number of people over the years it was owned by the Schumaker and the Simons families.  In the early years, the 1916 Eaton Co. directory listed Edward Beekman as tenant.  In 1945, Bernath and Marie Dailey rented the house.  He was a machinist at the Grand Ledge Chair Co; he worked there for 53 years.  The Daileys were long-time tenants;  they rented the house until the mid-1950’s.  The 1956 city directory listed James and Margaret Wilson as tenants.  James was born in Ovid in 1920.  He was a clerk at  a hardware business.  In July 1958, he died suddenly at the young age of 38 years at the home on Lincoln St. which he and his wife were renting.  Margaret Wilson and their son Thomas  remained in the house for the next several years. 

In June 1962, Kittie Simons and her daughter, Arleta R. Keesler, sold the house on E. Lincoln to Harry and Merle Osborn.  Kittie Simons still lived in Grand Ledge at that time; Arleta and Donald were living on Bernard Dr. in Lansing.  The Osborns moved to this house from their home at 315 South St. in Grand Ledge.  Harry Osborn was born Nov. 20, 1890 in Benzie County Michigan.  He came to Grand Ledge about 1911 and spent the rest of his life here.  He was a long-time employee of the Grand Ledge Clay Products Co..  The Osborns were active with the Methodist Church.  They had three children: Maurice, Stanley, and Phyllis.

Their son Maurice recalls that his parents did not make any major changes to the house on Lincoln St. during their years there.  He does remember that his father rebuilt and added on to the back porch.  Harry Osborn died at the age of 74 in January 1965.  Merle remained in the house until she was too elderly and frail to be left alone.  She had been born in Clinton County on May 17, 1896 to Alfred and Hannah (Chapman) Lance.  She died at the age of 92 on Sept. 27, 1988. 

Christine Walker bought the home from Mrs. Osborn in 1983.  During the time she has lived there, Chris has made some changes to the house.  The house needed to be updated and redecorated.  She stripped layers of old wallpaper from the old horsehair plaster walls.  To repair damage to the old plaster, they sanded the walls and patched over them with layers of joint compound.  She gave the old tile ceilings a lift by painting them a taupe color, which adds a warm color to the room and makes the tall ceilings appear lower.  She removed an old exterior door in the corner of the dining room near the kitchen.  The door once lead to the old porch.  She stripped the woodwork.  The woodwork in the living room and dining room was repainted; the bedroom woodwork was stained.  In the kitchen, Chris replaced the old aluminum cabinets with modern wooden ones and removed the shag carpet.  In the bathroom, she made the room larger by incorporating a small hallway and cupboard area into the room.  She also updated the fixtures and rearranged the lay out.  The tile floor was put down as well.  In the bedroom, she made a double closet by incorporating the closet from the front bedroom/office into the bedroom.  She enclosed the back porch off of the kitchen to make a pleasant sitting area overlooking the yard. 

This house appears to have changed little during the years.  The kitchen and bathroom were added after the house was built.  You can see that the exterior trim on the windows and door in this section of the house is different from the exterior trim in the main body of the house.  Also, the foundation in the basement is different under the kitchen than the foundation under the rest of the house.  This addition was probably done within a few years after the house was built, possibly around 1910, because the interior wood trim around the windows and doors in the kitchen addition matches the trim throughout the rest of the house.  A 1930 Sanborn fire insurance map shows that at that time there was a porch which extended across the front of the house.  The back porch was smaller and not enclosed at that time.  The map also shows a garage on the property that appears to have been built of tile or roofed with tile. 

Although this little Victorian cottage has been a rental property at various times over the years, it has been well cared for and preserved.  Chris Walker has made it a cozy home where her family enjoys gathering for holidays and get-togethers.  She has furnished it with her collections of pottery and poster art, family keepsakes, and updated it with 20th century comforts, while preserving many elements of its turn-of-the-century style.