The Beyer/Reif Homestead History

This is a story about the homestead history of BEG AT A PT 2664.84 FT W FROM E 1/4 CORN OF SEC TH CONT W 218 FT TH N 500 FT TH E 218 FT TH S 500 FT TO POB 2.50 ACRES SEC 20 T12N R6E in its most current description or simply, 8485 Janes Road.

Homestead history is not boring nor as confusing as the description would have you believe. Now, I hope to make this a story about a home. It was a home to generations of people, including me and is still in the family to this day. It started with a German family who arrived at Ellis Island on July 8th, 1852 (per the Passenger list of The Elisabeth), purchased the land on August 2nd, 1852 and on August 1st, 1853, Johann paid in full and was granted full ownership in Blumfield Township, Saginaw County, Michigan. They came here to start a new life and likely a life without war and strife. As was happening in Germany at the time. They brought their farming traditions, recipes, language, religion and ideals. I’d have to say they would probably feel they succeeded in their dreams. This history would reveal itself over 168 years.

Blumfield Township was established in 1853 by mostly Germans. Many who were trying to escape the suppression of reforms granted in 1848. I have no idea how they learned of Blumfield nor why they chose THAT specific place to go to. Fortunately for me, they did. It was a wonderful place and way to grow up.

This is the deed granted that August. It’s fair to say my ancestors helped in establishing these lands to what they are today and still closely resemble. Fewer horses and trees and more tractors and acres of crops is a given.

Family History

When the Beyers arrived, this area was forest. Their first action was to clear the trees. They ran a lumber mill to do just that and earn a living. The first home was likely very simple and small. The community worked together, communed together and families inter-married as can be deduced from land maps and census records.

The home that still stands today was built in 1904. This photograph would be of my great-grandfather and mother and my great-aunt. It really does still look very similar 115 years later. Both of these buildings are still there. My grandmother remodeled the kitchen and added a bathroom (the outhouse is still there). That is about all the major changes ever done to the home itself since it was built. This is the place where my grandmother was born and lived until she died. It was my grandfather who moved in when they married, and they lived as an extended family. My father and all his siblings living with their grandmother until she died in 1964.

My Fondest Childhood Memories

I can attest that life on the farm could be difficult yet rewarding. I would go with my grandfather on the combine and “tie” myself to the seat. He would sit down; the seat would hit my head, but I sat in silence. I wanted to be with my grandpa. It didn’t matter how many times he got up to look at what was in the field. Then he got a bit more of a fancy combine and I no longer was interested in inhaling hay dust.

But my time on the farm was a fantastic memory and period in my life. It may seem silly to most. But, the water pump just behind the house is gone as are two large trees and I miss them. The pump no longer needed; the trees replaced by a garage. I can’t help but look at the silo and remember swimming in the corn. My grandfather pushed out the corn kernels as I flopped around. There is a lot to be said for living as an extended family. Simple pleasures and being in touch with the land, a variety of animals and traditions. Traditions that came from Germany more than 100 years before I arrived at 8485 Janes.

The sources I used to try to make a simple or depending on your skills a complex land description into a story of a home and its residents include passenger lists, census records, land records, newspaper stories, Wikipedia, Google, Google maps, historical volumes of the area, county records, family photos and my own memories and photographs.

Homestead history takes time. I think it is worth it.