Fall 2010 Newsletter - North Berrien Historical Society

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Robert Balfour, a 1935 graduate of Coloma

High School, is our local connection to two seem-

ingly unrelated historic anniversaries being celebratedin 2010. Balfour (1918-2005) was personally tied to

both the 65th anniversary of the Japanese surrender

ending World War Two and the 100th anniversary of

the founding of the Boy Scouts.

Born in Wyocena, Wis-

consin, Robert Balfour lived in

Coloma while his father John

Balfour was minister at the First

Congregational Church from

1929 to 1937. John Balfour was

sponsored by Robert Baden-

Powell, a close friend of John’s

mother and founder of the Boy

Scout Movement, to move from

Scotland to North Carolina to

study the ministry in 1908.

When young Robert became a

Coloma Eagle Scout in 1933,

Baden-Powell sent him a letter. The letter reads, “Iwas very sorry to hear of the death of your grand-

mother who was an old friend of mine. Please give

my kind regards to your father and I am very glad you

are getting on well and I congratulate you on earning

your Eagle Badge.” The original letter now hangs in

the Georgia-Carolina Boy Scout headquarters in Au-

gusta, GA. In 1935 Balfour was invited to attend the

world Boy Scout Jamboree in England at Baden-

Powell’s expense, but an outbreak of polio unfortu-nately cancelled the Jamboree and the trip.

After graduating from Coloma High School at

age 16, Robert attended Kalamazoo College for two

years and graduated from the

University of Missouri as presi-

dent of the Journalism School in

1941; the same year his friend

and future Wal-Mart founder

Sam Walton was president of

the Business School. When

World War Two began Robert

memorized the eye chart in or-

der to pass his medical exam to

enter Naval Officer’s Indoctri-

nation School, which he gradu-

ated in 1942. Balfour was sta-

tioned in the south Pacific at

New Caledonia as a communi-

cations officer, where he impressed Admiral “Bull”Halsey with his ability to decipher garbled messages.

Balfour later recalled an anxious day when General

MacArthur, Admirals Halsey, King, Nimitz, Spru-

ance, and McCain were all present for an inspection.

When the high officers walked in everyone jumped to

Coloma Graduate had a remarkable resume as Scout and Soldier

NORTH BERRIEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER

Vol. II, No. 3 Hagar · Bainbridge · Coloma · Watervliet Fall 2010

300 Coloma Ave./ P.O. Box 207, Coloma, Michigan 49038 www.NorthBerrienHistory.org

Lieut. Commander Robert Balfour is awarded a

medal by Admiral Halsey on November 11, 1945.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Continued on Page 4



North Berrien Historical SocietyBoard of Directors

Scott Young PresidentBennet Leedy 1st Vice President

Kandyce Hays 2nd Vice PresidentCindy Young SecretaryShirley Boone TreasurerRay Mays Assistant TreasurerMarc Hettig DirectorKarin Miller DirectorPauline Morris DirectorSherry Polashak DirectorTom Scheid DirectorSally Williams Director

Staff

Alexander Gates Director / CuratorTracy Gierada Director of EducationGwen Elsner Office Manager

300 Coloma Ave.

P.O. Box 207

Coloma, MI 49038

www.NorthBerrienHistory.org

[email protected]

The mission of the North Berrien HistoricalSociety is to preserve and distribute informationregarding the history of North Berrien County.

We wish to promote, encourage learning,and disseminate knowledge of the area’s

cultural and architectural legacy.

Page 2

From the Director’s Desk By Alexander Gates

Thank you! I can’t say it enough these days

for the support we receive from the North Berrien

community. On August 3rd our operating millage was

renewed in all six municipalities for another four

years. Thank you again to everyone who voted, dis-

played a yard sign, and spoke up on behalf of the mu-

seum. In addition to the millage election, summer has

flown by with a successful Tri-City Heritage Tour,

Time Travelers kids programs, and Cone Barn at the

Glad-Peach Festival.

Our fiscal year ended on August 31st and once

again the museum is in a stable financial position. I

am often asked why we continue to fundraise since wehave an operating millage. Last year we raised over

$20,000 in addition to our millage monies. These addi-

tional funds from grants, fundraisers, investments, do-

nations, and memberships allow us to tackle capital

improvement projects such as a new parking lot, an

accessible washroom in the Carter House, or a new

elevator, without diverting resources from programs

and exhibits or having to reduce staff.

This year’s Annual Dinner and Meeting will

held on-site at the museum on September 21st and Ihope you will be able to join us. With new members

joining every month this is a great opportunity to in-

teract with other local history supporters. Our Bylaws

were recently amended by the Board of Directors and

will be voted on for approval during the meeting.

Among the updates are adjustments needed to account

for staff positions, a dissolution article that will ensure

our collections will be properly cared for if the mu-

seum ceases to operate, and changes that will allow us

to apply for state raffle licenses.

This fall we are rejuvenated and taking on the

next four years with a running start. Please pardon our

mess as the Board is busy planning for a new parking

lot, as well as the removal of our septic tanks as we

hook up to the city sewer. These grounds improve-

ments will help increase the capacity of our facilities

to handle the larger crowds that we’ve been attracting

in the past several years.

Curator’s Blog:

NorthBerrienHistory.blogspot.com

Twitter: Twitter.com/NBerrienHistory

Connect with NBHS Online!

Become a fan on Facebook



Saturday, September 18,

2-3pm

Basket Weaving Workshop. After a brief review of 200 years of local basketry, instruction and materials will be provided to createyour own hand-made paper basket. Cost is $3 per basket.

Tuesday, September 21,

6pm

Annual Membership Dinner and Meeting. At the museum this year, enjoy a meawith friends and approve the new Bylaws. 6pm Dinner is $15/ person (Please RSVPby Sept. 14.) Meeting at 7pm with presentationTrains of Berrien County by BobMyers, Curator, The History Center at Courthouse Square. Myers’ new book Locomotives Along the Lakeshore will be available for sale.

Tuesday, October 19,

7pm

Wreck of the Lady Elgin, presentation by Valerie van Heest,Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, Holland, MI. The worstdisaster on the open waters of the Great Lakes occurred 150 yearsago in Lake Michigan— learn about the terrifying story and theexciting discovery of this shipwreck. Free.

Saturday, October 23,

1pm and 3pm

Halloween Cemetery Tours. On a stroll of beautiful, historiccemeteries, hear captivating stories about people from thepast and answer fun Halloween trivia. Coloma Cemetery Touris at 1pm and Watervliet Cemetery Tour is at 3pm. Free.

Tuesday, November 16,

7pm

Historic Renovations in Bangor, presentation by Bob Emmert of the BangorHistorical Society. Learn about the recent award-winning restorations of the historicBangor Elevator and Bangor Train Depot.

Thursday - Sunday,

December 2-5

Holiday Open House. Enjoy festive crafts, music, and refreshments with the whol

family. View over 20 Trees decorated by local groups and vote for your favorite!

Page 3

Mark your Calendars! All events are at the North Berrien Historical

Museum unless otherwise noted.

Pages 6-7 tell about the variety of wonderful

programs we held this summer. It was exciting to see

the Tri-City Heritage Tour bring together hundreds to

talk about the memories and history

preserved in local architecture. We

are already planning ways to ex-pand our impact and enrich the tour

experience for next year, and we

welcome any input you may have.

In addition to our young

Summer Time Travelers, children

in the Coloma Migrant Program

came again this July for a free mu-

seum tour and fun activities. Our

Barn Tour resources were used by

Member Kathleen Walter to give a special summer

school lesson, and she has inspired me to create a new

Traveling Trunk called “All About Barns” for the

museum. To advertise this and other new programs,

we will update our Educational Programs brochure

and mail a copy to area teachers in the coming weeks.

This fall I will give two off-

site talks. On October 6 at 6:30pm

I will speak on “Interurban Rail-ways of Southwest Michigan” at the

Museum at SMC in Dowagiac. On

November 4 at 12:30pm, I will pre-

sent “North Berrien Notables” at

the North Berrien Senior Center,

which covers our local connections

to famous people and events in his-

tory, including athletes, musicians,

politicians and writers.

Education NewsBy Tracy Gierada

Many kids picked up a free “color

your own” historic postcard from the

museum this summer.



Page 4

attention except for Balfour, who was busy working

on a dispatch. Balfour continued working despite

stares from the “top brass”, remembering that his

training taught him to never leave his post even if the

ship was sinking. After a tense moment Admiral

Nimitz walked over, and noticing “URGENT”

stamped on the message announced, “This officer is

not required to stand at attention. He is working on an

urgent dispatch!” Admiral Halsey was so impressed

he congratulated Balfour and selected him to go to

sea as part of the Commander Third Fleet staff. It was

with Halsey on the deck of the USS Missouri in To-

kyo Bay that Balfour witnessed the Japanese delega-

tion sign the peace treaty ending the war on Septem-

ber 2, 1945.

Returning to civilian life Balfour worked as

campaign manager for his shipmate and former Min-

nesota governor Harold Stassen in 1952. After Stas-

sen dropped out of the race Balfour was asked by

General Eisenhower to be part of his pre-election

campaign staff. Stassen and Balfour were two of the

few Americans to work on the staffs of both a five

star Admiral (Halsey) and a five star General

(Eisenhower).

Balfour spent the rest of his life in business

after Eisenhower selected Thomas Gates over him as

Undersecretary of the Navy. He worked as vice presi-

dent in charge of sales at Club Cars in Augusta, GA,

retiring in 1972. In 1972 Balfour published his book

A Nobody Gives Hell to Everybody, which gives his

opinion about and solutions to many 20th century so-

cial and political

problems using

stories and anec-

dotes from the

famous men he

worked closely

with over the

years. The

book’s title

comes from an

incident where Balfour would not grant Clare Booth

Luce (at the time a former Congresswoman and Ei-

senhower’s future Ambassador to Italy) a pass to join

Eisenhower’s campaign trail.

Balfour shared his life story and opinions

through columns in several newspapers from the1990s until his death in 2005. The North Berrien His-

torical Museum is grateful to have copies of many

photographs and historic documents, some now in

national museums, that pertain to his life. Balfour

sent these materials to former museum curator Bill

Beverly through their years of correspondence.

Continued from Page 1

Eisenhower and Balfour in front of a plane.Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Friends of North Berrien History

committee formed for campaign

The success of our millage proposal on Au-

gust 3 required a great deal of organizing and public-

ity. To support this work, “Friends of North Berrien

History” was established as a ballot question commit-

tee with the Michigan Bureau of Elections. This

separate organization ensures that no millage funds

are used to pay for our campaigns, but it can legally

produce and distribute yard signs, literature, and other

advertising in support of our millage. We owe many

thanks to the gener-

ous founding donors

to Friends of North

Berrien History. You

have played a crucial

role in securing the

museum’s financial

stability for another

four years.



Page 5

This fall, new temporary and permanent exhib-its are being planned for the museum. Our current ex-hibit Paintings by Evelyn Krieger is on display through

the end of October, featuring delightful local scenespainted in the early1970s. This exhibitwill come down sothat holiday decor canonce again fill the gal-lery in November andDecember as thebackground for ourHoliday Open House.

We are in theprocess of confirming dates in spring 2011 for a travel-ing exhibition called A Few Good Women: Women in

the Military During WWII from the MichiganWomen’s Historical Center. The exhibit focuses on thecontributions of Michigan women in the war. We willalso draw from our own collection of WWII-era arti-facts to supplement the traveling exhibit with displaystelling local stories.

An exciting new in-house exhibit has been con-ceived for summer 2011 with a working title of Women’s Baseball in Watervliet . A century agowomen’s baseball pioneer Maud Nelson managed theWestern Bloomer Girls team when they trained in Wa-tervliet. The exhibit will use this unique local story asa starting point into the complex history of women’sbaseball in America. Guest curator John Kovach of St.Mary’s University will be assisting with the contentand creation of this exhibit.

Additions to the permanent gallery continue;one display in development is an illustrated introduc-tion panel to familiarize visitors with the North Berrienarea. Our goal for the main gallery is to have several“permanent” displays on popular topics such as tour-ism, local business, and sports, etc. Other areas of thegallery will be set up so that they can be changed morefrequently for temporary and traveling exhibits. Spe-cial consideration is also being taken to make our ex-hibits more ideal for school programs. These changeswill maximize the stories we can tell in our main gal-lery and will improve the visitor experience of bothour permanent and temporary exhibits.

Finally, I’d like to recognize and express a spe-cial thank you to all of our recent artifact donors.

Bennet Leedy – Paper CutterKarl Bayer – Local photographsRod Krieger – Rod’s snack shack photograph, couponsBoots Phebus – Watervliet Paper Mill Union Agreement,

Deer Forest keyEthel Bittner – Copies of Bittner’s Gas Station informationCarl Oehling – Hipskind Lumber yardstick

Susan Jane Bousseau – Civil War Letters of Capt. JohnQuigley book

Fred Munchow – Documents and photographsJean Christensen – Del Sipes WWII naval uniformColoma Community Pageant Org. – 2009 Court PortraitJanice Whitcomb – Carter spatulaEwald Radewald – Irish School materialsRichard Quinn – Watervliet

Fire Department photosDovie Downey – Martin

Brothers hair dryerGwen Elsner – rotary phone

Charles Miller – PostcardsArlene Barchett – Fruit Belt

Carvers picturesJames Rodell – Fallout Protection bookletRose Hafer – “My Golden School Days” 1933 book,

documentScott Young – Shoe Last collectionNorman Wilhelmsen – 1977 Dog LicenseDonna Roda – Dress form, sweater stretchersLinda Rutledge – 1954 Hagar #6 Bud Prince & Princess picMarge DuVernay – 1976 Artrain brochureRick Rasmussen – Framed images from the Paw Paw Lake

StoreFrances Bridgman – parachute silk

wedding dresAnthony Butler Family – Henry Jacobs

holiday cardMickey Willmeng – sword, overallsJoan Polaskey – cross sawWill Nichols – Millburg documentsPauline Morris – 1957 Sears CatalogAlbert Brumley – Photographs from

Hagar #6Jim Edwards – 1906 Twentieth Century History of Berrien

Donna Dill – newspaper clippings, photos, IGA fly swatter Museum Purchases –

A Nobody Gives Hell to Everybody by Robert BalfourForest Glen Pavilion tokenBoat landing on Mill Creek

postcardDrewry Beer mirror, made by

Ersman Graphic Artsin Watervliet

Photograph of “Coloma,Gladiolus City” float

Curator’s CornerBy Alexander Gates

Brick School by Evelyn Krieger



Page 6

The museum has been bustling this summerwith visitors, kids activities, and programs that took place here and throughout the community. We intro-duced new events that reached wider audiences andimproved awareness of North Berrien History across

the region.June 26-27 brought the

first-ever Tri-City Heritage Tour,which opened 22 historic proper-ties in the North Berrien andHartford areas for free, self-guided touring. Thanks to a grantfrom the Berrien CommunityFoundation, detailed Tour Guideswere published as an insert in theTri-City Record and were also

distributed for free. Over 500 visi-tors were welcomed to sites dur-ing the event and many rich con-versations took place. The sup-port of our advisory team andabout 100 volunteers were crucialto the tour’s success. We look forward to working again with theVan Buren County Historical So-ciety on this event, which hasgreat potential to become an an-

nual tradition in our communities.Our regular Tuesday

meetings also brought many peo-ple to the museum. An“Heirloom Show & Tell” was en-joyed on June 15 as members andother guests shared stories aboutsome of their personal favoriteobjects from the past. On July 20Dr. Michael Nassaney, principalinvestigator for the Fort St. Jo-

seph Archaeological Project, de-scribed the fascinating insights that recent discoveriesprovide in to 18th century daily life at the Fort. OurAugust 17 presenter was Barb Cook from the Boardof the Old Rugged Cross Foundation which hasworked for more than a decade to preserve the church,located between Niles and Dowagiac, where a world-famous hymn once debuted. The foundation hasraised an impressive half-million dollars and has seenmany successes as well as challenges in their ongoingrestoration of the building.

Summer Time Travelers brought nearly 200kids to the museum for interactive games, activities,and demonstrations about life in the past. Five pro-grams were held entirely free of charge on Wednes-day mornings throughout the season. The first theme

was “Gold Rush”, which con-nected the forests of “green gold”in Michigan and our local pio-neers who went to Coloma, Cali-fornia after gold was discoveredin 1848. Kids enjoyed pretendinto race shingles down the PawPaw River and searching for goldnuggets, which they took home insouvenir museum bags. Our nextheme was “Flight”, which of-

fered fun demonstrations on hotair balloons, helicopters, andearly flight history and the chanceto meet a real pilot and airportdirector! “Resorts” was also atheme enjoyed by all as welearned about steamboats andelectric trains, made toy fishingpoles and played games to themusic of Crystal Palace. For our“Machines” theme, kids made

model windmills, newspaper-styleprints, and tried out doing laundrywith washboards, wringers andother old-fashioned tools. “Fruitwas a fun final theme, and wemade apple blossom collages,wrote with quills and berry ink,and got to learn about and seesome real Pawpaw fruit! Thank you especially to the volunteerswho helped make these experi-

ences possible for the kids: MikePirri, Pauline Morris, Lee Scherwitz, Alice Mow,Marie Sineni, Carolyn McCoy, Marc Hettig, ScottYoung, Janet Blair, Larry Taylor, Kathleen Walter,Nancy Weir, Joyce Kolenko and Sally Williams.

The NBHS also offered programs off the mu-seum grounds this summer. On July 24 our “HagarHistory Day” slide presentation at Hagar TownshipHall was well-attended, although the Lake ShoreCemetery Tour was postponed one week due to rain.The slide show was full of interesting stories and an

A look back at an eventful and successful summer

A conversation in the Coloma Masonic

Lodge during the Tri-City Heritage Tour.

In the Nichols Barn, Time Travelers learn

about the first hot air balloons.

These Time Travelers are fishing, a favorite

activity of tourists 100 years ago and today.



Page 7

Individual ($15)

I may like to

Volunteer

Additional tax-deductible contribution: $________

Name

Address

City, State, ZIP

Phone

New Member

Returning Member

Total Amount Enclosed: $________

Send your completed form along with your check to:

North Berrien Historical SocietyP.O. Box 207, Coloma, MI 49038

Family ($50)

Student ($8)

Senior ($10)

E-mail

North Berrien Historical SocietyMembership Form

Benefits include: Quarterly Newsletter, Advance inviteto special events, and Members-only opportunities

Thank you for your support!

Please check desired annual membership level.

encore presentation will be offered this winter. Also

popular was our Tour of Mary’s City of David, whichincluded a rare visit inside Bethany House and a peek at the personal possessions and stories of colonymembers. During the Watervliet 4th of July Celebra-tion and Coloma’s Glad-Peach Festival, there wereagain free screenings of our local history videos andPresident Scott Young drove out the 1924 Dodge toshow off in the Parades, winning us a trophy for“Best Classic Auto” in Watervliet.

The Cone Barn was, as usual, a prominentfeature at the Glad-Peach Festival thanks to Cindy

Young and many other volunteers. Combined withfresh cotton candy-making by Donna Dill and a greatbake sale, our efforts raised about $2,400 for the mu-seum. Thank you again to everyone who contributedto the bake sale, took time to volunteer or patronizedthe Cone Barn this year!

Continuing Members

Millie Sexton Jean Chandler Tony Piraino Jean Christensen Doris Piraino William Hansen Joyce Kolenko Irma Krieger Amy Hiler Virginia Warsko Mary Adams Ed Fields Edwin Taylor Janet Emhoff Bob Jackson Claudia Jackson

George and Maggie Richter Family

DonationsMary Alyce Hettig Virginia Warsko Nadine DeiAlma Arent Eileen Healy

Charlene Andrews O.E.S. C

New Members Nancy McKie Penny Hanks Liz Lange Garry Lange Eileen Healy Jean Fannin

One person discussed on our Lake Shore Cemetery Tour

was James Fikes who lived near Riverside and was

Captain of the famous St. Joe riverboat May Graham.

Volunteers at the Cone Barn sold Sherman’s ice cream,

peach sundaes, hot dogs, pop, fresh peaches and gladiolas.



Hagar · Bainbridge · Coloma · Watervliet www.NorthBerrienHistory.or

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—–—————

Newsletter - Fall 2010

for a great summer!

Above: Tri-CityHeritage Tour

Left/ Below:Summer TimeTravelers

Above: EvelynKrieger Exhibit

Above/ Right: SummerTime Travelers

Right: Glad-

Peach ParadeBelow: Watervliet

4th of July ParadeBelow: Cub Scout

Time Capsule Exhibit

P.O. Box 207, Coloma, MI 49038

Return Service Requested

Please RSVP for the Annual Dinner

by Sept. 14

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