The Salesman - Western edition, Sept. 20, 2009 by The Salesman, Inc.

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Saturday, September 26th 11 am to 4:30 pm

26445 M-60 East Homer Homer Fall Festival recalls railroad history

Blair Historical Farm is the place to be Saturday, Sept. 26 for the Homer Historical Society s 34th annual Fall Festival. Activities begin at 11 a.m. and run until 4:30 p.m. The farm museum is one mile east of Homer at 26445 M-60 East. Admission is free. Grover Station is the last remaining physical structure representing Homer s railroad industry, and it was moved to the Blair Farm last year. There will be information about it and the railroads that daily brought many people to Homer for business and pleasure in the late 19th and early 20 th centuries. The town had three railroad depots in 1900 plus several like Grover Station outside the village. None of them remain, and no railroads go through the town. Grover Station was southeast of the village in an area known as Groverville, a location settled by Powell Grover, one of Homer s pioneers. An 1894 Calhoun County plat map shows Groverville with this 10 by 14-foot depot on the northeast corner of 29 Mile Road and P Drive. This Detroit, Toledo & Milwaukee train station was a flag stop. Passengers had to put out a flag to let the train s engineer know they were waiting or the train would not stop unless people on the train wanted to get off or there was freight to deliver or pick up. When trains stopped using the route, Grover Station was moved, ending up for the past few years on the Doug Wildt farm where it was used as an outbuilding. Last year, when he no longer needed it, Wildt donated it to the Homer Historical Society, and it was moved to

Blair Historical Farm. Part of the Grover Station renovation project includes relocating it to a better spot on the Blair Farm grounds where it can be used by people waiting for Fall Festival horse and wagon rides. It will also be used for displays like the ones featuring local railroad information at the 2009 Fall Festival. Other festival displays and artifacts will be in the old Albion Town Hall that was built in 1890 and moved to the Blair Farm in 2006 from its original location at the corner of F Drive South and M-99. We d like people to come inside these buildings, as well as the Blair family farmhouse, and learn more about what life was like in the late 1800s. The structures themselves are interesting. A lot of work has been done to restore them, and there is still more to do. Proceeds from the Fall Festival will be used for this restoration work, said Homer Historical Society member JoAnne Miller. Antique engines and farm machinery are a Fall Festival mainstay. Rod Evans motorized manure spreader will be one of this year s unique exhibits. Evans, a retired Homer teacher who has lived on a farm all his life, built it using a piece of farm equipment used many years ago to spread manure on fields. Manure spreaders were pulled by farm tractors, but this one is self-propelled with its own engine and seat for the driver. It s been a lot of fun working on it, Evans said. He had the idea for a long time, but with the auto industry and government problems, Evans thought

this seemed like the right year to build the vehicle, which he adorned with a large GM (Government Motors) on the front. It s a humorous reference to the government s auto industry bailout. Evans explained. He located a 1930s manure spreader and then spent about five weeks building the drivable contraption. The transmission, differential and brakes are from a Cub Cadet 147 lawn tractor. It has a sound system that he uses to play old standards like In My Merry Oldsmobile. Jerry Jordan, an antique pump organ restoration specialist from Jonesville, will have a calliope at the festival. The calliope, a keyboard instrument similar to an organ made up with a series of whistles, uses music rolls but can also be played manually. Uncle Carl s Dulcimer Club, a long time Fall Festival favor-

ite, will perform from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Festival demonstrations will include such things as soap making, woodstove cooking in the kitchen, and traditional campfire cooking including various types of meat, vegetables and desserts. The Senior Health Partners CareAVan will provide free blood pressure screening, blood sugar testing and pulse-ox testing. CareAVan staff will be there from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Blair Farm apple butter, a Fall Festival tradition since the late 1970s, will be sold in halfpints, pints and quarts. Festival visitors can try it on corn pancakes made on an old cook stove. For hungry visitors, the barn kitchen menu includes harvest soup, bratwurst sandwiches, baked beans, homemade pies, and beverages.

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THE SALESMAN Page 16 • September 20, 2009 • MORNING STAR • Page 20

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