WELLS-BEAGLE-LEPINE
410 Jackson Street

1907 Craftsman
Home Tour 1999

This house is located on block 42 of the city of Grand Ledge.  It is part of the original village of Grand Ledge, as it was platted in 1853.

In the early days of Grand Ledge, the lot where this house is located was part of a larger piece of property.  The early plat maps show no division  in the lots on Jackson Street—the platted lots faced onto either Scott Street or Lincoln Street (earlier called Railroad Street).  This lot at #410 was carved out of the rear portion of lots 1 and 2.  The house at the corner, #418 E. Scott, held this property prior to its division. 

The early history of the corner house at #418 E. Scott indicates that in September 1893, Rev. B.S. Pratt bought the Esler house and six lots on E.Scott St. for $1700.  Rev. Pratt planned to live in this house with his family.  In 1905 Rev. Pratt sold his house to Byam Barnum of Sebewa, and Pratt and his family relocated to California.  Barnum purchased both lots 1and 2 of Block 42.  This land was not yet divided. 

In May1907, Byam’s widow, Della, split the land.  She sold the house at the corner (#418 E. Scott) to Augustus J. (“Jay”) and Cora Bills.  In June 1907, she drew up a deed that split four rods off of the southwest ends of lots one and two, and sold the newly formed lot to Hayes E. and Kathrena Wells.  The deed further stipulated that Hayes and Kathrena were to build a house “forthwith” on that lot, to cost no less than $1000, for  Emri Wells, father of Hayes Wells, and Emri Wells was given a life lease on this house.  This is when the house at 410 Jackson Street was built. 

Emri Wells was born June 28, 1842 in Pennsylvania, the son of Thurston and Artemesia (Fisher) Wells.  On July 3, 1863 he married Amy Rachel Lewis.  They had four children:  a son, who died in infancy; Birdsie Wells; Artemesia Wells; and Hayes Earl Wells.  The Wells family had a farm in Delta Township.  Emri served in the Union Army during the Civil War.  He spent the later years of his life in St. Louis Michigan where he died on Jan. 11. 1920.  He was buried in Delta Center Cemetery.  Amy Wells, his wife, was one of the first white children born in Oneida Township, on April 3, 1842.  Her parents were John K. Lewis and Electa Charter. 

Their son, Hayes Emri Wells,  was born in Delta Township on his parents’ farm on Feb. 9, 1876.  He was a prominent citizen of Grand Ledge and very active in civic affairs.  He was township supervisor,  clerk of the county draft board during World War I, county clerk, and a representative in the Michigan Legislature during the 1920’s.  In addition, he worked at various Grand Ledge stores and later for the State Highway Department.  On June 2, 1896  he was married to Kathrena Marintha Allen, daughter of John Barber Allen and Lucina Shadduck, pioneer settlers in this area.  They had two children, Everett and Trelys. 

Hayes Wells built several homes around town, and after just a few years the Wells family sold the home at #410 Jackson Street.

The property was sold to William B. and Hattie Stocum in Oct. 1910 for $1800. Shortly thereafter, in Oct. 1914, the Stocums sold the house to John and Alma Maskle of Oneida Township.  The Maskles held the property for a number of years, but apparently they did not live there themselves.  Various city directories and telephone books show a number of tenants over the years that the Maskles held the house as a rental unit. 

In 1916, Jacob and Jennie Shoal rented the house; so did Mrs. Mabel Hurni.  It is not clear whether the house was divided into two units or the two families simply lived together and shared the space.  Later residents do not report any signs of the house having been divided structurally into two separate living units. 

In the 1920’s, L.A. and Luella Battin were tenants.  Luella also operated a beauty shop in the home, called the Ledge Beauty Shoppe. 

In the 1930’s, William L. Patriquin rented the house and lived there with his wife Velda and son Robert.  William worked at the Swanson bakery in Lansing. 

In 1942, the property changed hands again as John and Alma Maskle sold it to Leo and Rosella Huhn, who lived at 324 W. Jefferson in Grand Ledge.   Again, the Huhns did not live there; they used the Jackson Street house as a rental home. 

In 1946, the Huhns sold the house to Maude V. Astley, who lived at 104 W. Washington Street in Grand Ledge.  Mrs. Astley continued to rent out the Jackson street house. 

During the 1940’s, Guy Burnett rented the house.  He lived there with his wife Beatrice and his daughters, Doris and Katherine. 

The next tenants of the house were Kenneth Beagle and his wife, Vera.  They decided to buy the house after renting it for a couple of years, and they purchased it from Mrs. Astley in June 1955.  Kenneth Beagle was born Sept. 28, 1913 in North Dakota, where his father had a homestead farm.  He was one of nine children.  The family returned to Michigan in search of better job opportunities, and after several years in Lansing, settled on a farm in Wacousta.  Ken completed the tenth grade at the Wacousta School, but he had to live with a brother in Lansing in order to complete grades eleven and twelve.  He graduated from Lansing Eastern High School in 1933 and went on to make an impressive career in the field of education.  He received his bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University in 1939; in 1945 he received his master’s degree from the University of Michigan.  During the late 1950’s he took advanced degree work at Michigan State University.  He married Vera Jones, a native of Clinton County.  Her parents were Gorton and Frances (Kinney) Jones.  She too was a teacher. 

After teaching briefly at Dundee High School during the early 1940’s, Ken worked for a time for the Ford Motor Company.  He came to Grand Ledge as a teacher and principal at the Grand Ledge Junior High School in 1944. Mr. Beagle’s career had a profound effect on the Grand Ledge school system.  He went on to become superintendent of the Grand Ledge Schools, and held that position for 27 years..  During his term as superintendent, he oversaw the consolidation of the school district, which brought the small country schools in the area into the Grand Ledge school system.  A major building program took place under his supervision during the 1950’s and 1960’s and several new schools were built.  Beagle Middle School is named for him.  He retired in 1973. 

Ken and Vera Beagle raised their family here in Grand Ledge.  They had three sons:  Keith, who died in 1941; Leigh, who graduated from Grand Ledge High School in 1960 and has pursued a career in education like his father; Brian graduated from Grand Ledge High School in 1965 and made the Navy his career.  They rented the house on Jackson Street in 1946; they had been living on Francis Road.  After a few years, they decided to buy the home from Mrs. Astley,  and that deed was recorded in 1955. 

During the years they lived in the house, Ken Beagle did major renovation work to the house, and he did most of the work himself with help from his brothers and sons.  The old front porch extended across the front of the house.  It was a covered porch with the traditional pillars that can still be seen on many  homes around town.  He replaced it with the enclosed entryway that is there now. The front room was a formal parlor or living room with pocket doors to close it off from the rest of the house.  Ken, with the help of his brothers,  tore out the wall separating it from the everyday parlor and the front hallway and created open archways for a modern large living room.  They had to insert a beam for additional support for the weight of the second floor.  Around 1958 he hired Watson Russell, a local carpenter, to put an addition onto the kitchen at the rear of the house.  The house has three bedrooms upstairs.  Two of these bedrooms share a walk- through closet.  Ken Beagle added a cedar closet and a second bathroom upstairs about 1955; he took some space off of the front bedroom for that.  He also opened up some of the attic space over the dining room to create a small room.  He and his sons and helpers dug out the floor of the old Michigan basement which had a very low ceiling.  His son Leigh remembers that they tossed the dirt from the excavation out of the windows as they worked.  They replaced the old furnace with an oil furnace.  They moved the garage from its original site.  Ken replaced the old pine board floor boards with tongue and groove oak flooring.  He did all of the work on the floors himself, over a number of years.  The family particularly remembers that during all of their renovation work, they found an Indian head penny behind the baseboard woodwork on every wall in the house.  They believe these must have been put in when the house was first built, possibly as a good luck symbol.  Another unique feature that their son Leigh particularly remembers is the oval doorknobs in the house.

The Beagles sold the house in 1963 to Donald and Inez J. Shrontz, who are now living in Lake Odessa.  Donald Shrontz came from a farming family; he took over his father’s farm on Oneida Road.  He and Inez turned the farm over to their son, Dale Davidson, when they decided to retire from farming.  That is when they bought the house on Jackson Street.  Inez Shrontz came to Grand Ledge with her parents when she was an infant.  She graduated from Grand Ledge High School and taught school until she married her first husband, Harvey Davidson.  She had a son with him, Dale, and was left a widow when Harvey died.  She married Donald Shrontz and they had two children together.  Inez does not recall that they made any major changes to the house except for decorating it for themselves.  They sold the house on Jackson Street in 1969 when they moved to the upper peninsula of Michigan to manage a Bible camp at Crystal Falls.  After seven years they returned to Grand Ledge and lived for a time in the Imperial Village Mobile Home Park before moving to another home on Willow Highway, and then to their present home at Lake Odessa, where one of their sons lives. 

The next owners of 410 Jackson St. were Wesley and Rachel Woodworth.  They bought it from the Shrontzes in 1969.  The Woodworths owned a women’s clothing store on Taylor Street called The Checkerberry Shoppe.  Rachel and Wesley bought the Grand Ledge shop in 1973 from Marilyn Fershee, who had opened it in 1971.   Wesley had a custom picture framing business upstairs over The Checkerberry Shoppe.

In 1980, the Woodworths sold the home to Michael Bonofiglio.  He lived there until 1990.  He recalls that he replaced the old garage, and he designed and built the new one himself.  He put in the sliding door on the back of the house; added a deck; and put a fireplace and wainscotting in the family room on the back of the house.  He had the house sided and added a brick walkway by the garage.  On the second floor, he stripped the woodwork and put up dry wall where the plaster walls needed repair. 

Jessica and Pierre LePine are the current owners of the home.  They have been there since 1990.  They have redecorated and updated the kitchen.  They refinished the oak floors which had been covered with carpet.  They enlarged the master bedroom closet by taking it back into the attic space, and put in bookcases.  They also added onto the deck.

This house was a “modern” home when it was built in the early years of this century.  It had electricity, a bathroom, indoor plumbing, all the conveniences of the new era.  It was a simple home, without the elaborate trim on some of the styles of Victorian homes.  It was built to be a comfortable family home, and the people who have owned it through the years have maintained it and renovated it to meet the changing needs of their families over the years, while preserving the architectural integrity of the original design of the house.