The Red Book

On my one and only genealogy road trip,  my sister and I traveled north from St. Louis, through Illinois and the northern rim of Indiana. Our goal was north central Michigan where my dad’s parents were born. I had planned a route with stops at cemeteries, courthouses and libraries. We even threw in some museums and a stroll through Holland. It was summer and we really enjoyed walking along the lake shore in Cadillac.

The next stop was Manton, a small town a few miles north. We had a couple of cemeteries to visit and I was hoping the library would have some family information. This town is the closest one to where my grandparents lived and could be where they met.

Left: Area where JM lived; Right: Area where Lillian lived; Manton is circled

Evidently it was closer to Cadillac than I thought because I drove right by the exit. That took us a few miles out of the way and we backtracked into town. This turned out to be the serendipity moment of the trip.
 
On the left approaching town was a small park, a Veteran’s Memorial and the Manton

Area Historical Museum. Though now on the town’s website, at the time it had not shown up in my research of the area. A man was sitting on a folding chair outside so we stopped. He said he opened the museum when he felt up to it and we could go in and look around.
 
I should mention that my sister was really not into the research and she had seen her share of museums on this trip, so she found a bench and sat there visiting while I looked for vintage postcards, photos or anything that might date back to the turn of the century (the last one, not this one). I should also mention that the museum was organized more like an antique store than a typical museum and there were piles of books and artifacts in several places. Oh, and the elderly proprietor had never heard of either family name that I was researching.

So after a while we decided to move on. It was then that I looked over my sister’s shoulder and saw a red ledger book, not labeled and a little scuffed up. For no reason I picked it up and opened it. Inside were three pages of entries. A new school had been built and they had just hired the first teacher for the 1911-1912 school year. The teacher was Lillian Timmerman, my grandmother.

The book recorded three pay periods - 9/29/11 - $30, 10/2/11 - $5, and 11/10/11 $14.45. Lillian would have just turned 19 when she got that first pay check. Family notes say that after finishing eighth grade she couldn’t go to high school in Manton so she studied for the teacher’s exam. She may have taught at a different school the previous year. She got married in March of 1912 so may not have finished out this school year. 

The following year the teacher was Conley Brown. From 1913-1914 the teacher was Erma Timmerman, Lillian’s sister. Then the entries ended. The name of the school was not in the book.

Lillian told her children that teaching was very satisfying work. All of her children learned the importance of education. She eventually received her high school diploma and attended college. She was an avid letter writer, poet and artist. 

Unfortunately, there was no way to copy the book at the museum and it never occurred to me to get my camera from the car. So all I have are the notes that I wrote down. Maybe this summer (the museum is closed in the winter) I will call and see if someone can track down that red book.