Genesee County: 1900-1960

By Genesee County Historical Society

Most postcards were written as quick messages to let a friend or family know that "I arrived OK" or someone was "thinking of you." Now the vintage cards in this book are carrying another message, giving readers a glimpse of what small-town life was like early in the 20th century, when the majority of these cards were produced. During the first half of the 20th century in Genesee County, the communities outside of Flint were small, but visitors and residents still wanted postcards depicting scenes from Davison, Fenton, Flushing, Grand Blanc, and even the smaller settlements such as Otterburn and Atlas. Railroad stations, churches, and town halls were common subjects, but some surprises were found too in the search for postcard images of Genesee County.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Oct 16, 2006
• ISBN: 9781439616963

Genesee County Historical Society

This postcard book is a project of the Genesee County Historical Society. It was researched and written by Robert Florine, past president of the society; Dale Ladd, president of the Flint Genealogical Society; James Miller, Flint Journal reporter; and David White, president of the Genesee County Historical Society.

Book preview

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INTRODUCTION

This book is a project of the Genesee County Historical Society and grew from a project to produce a postcard book of Flint, in honor of the city’s sesquicentennial in 2005.

Most of the cards in this book are from early in the 20th century to the 1930s—the heyday of the penny postcard—and they show a Genesee County that was much different, and a time when life had a slower pace. At that time, Flint was a leading producer of horse-drawn vehicles and was on its way to becoming an important part of the automobile industry. Much of Genesee County was rural, and villages and small towns often grew up around an elevator, a grain mill, or a railroad station.

There was industry outside Flint, though. Cards in this book show canneries and creameries, the destruction of a factory where a small car was built in Fenton, a big cement-making operation between two of our southern lakes, and other businesses. We included a postcard of what is believed to be the oldest business in Genesee County, dating from 1840.

This was a time when ice blocks were cut out of lake ice in winter and stored for use in iceboxes, when most roads were still dirt, when people took the train to get from Montrose or Swartz Creek to Flint and back, when limitations on transportation and refrigeration meant that many towns had dairy and creamery businesses.

There is a chapter on churches, a chapter on recreation and lakes, and one on schools. There are cards showing parades and other celebrations, and a tugboat, streetcars, and other modes of transportation.

Those who made postcards came up with some unusual ideas; postcards were printed on wood, leather, aluminum, and other materials. This book includes a postcard that is a do-it-yourself puzzle—the recipient could separate the sections and then reassemble them.

The book was researched and written by David White, president of the historical society; Dale Ladd, president of the Flint Genealogical Society; Robert Florine, past president of the historical society; and James Miller, reporter for the Flint Journal.

Postcards were borrowed from the Sloan Museum, Grand Blanc Historical Society, Montrose Historical Society, and Swartz Creek Historical Society, as well as the personal collections of Robert Florine, David White, Tim Buda, Don Burton, Judy Cleveland, Judd Davis, Jack Donlan, Wallace Eaton, Lisa Frazee, Henry Kelly, Don Simons, and Don and Mary Wilson.

Research was done at the Sloan Museum, Flint Public Library, Genesee District Library, Linden Historical Museum, the Flint Journal Library, and the Scharchburg Archives at Kettering University. Clare Hatten of the Grand Blanc Historical Society provided much of the information on Grand Blanc. Postcards were scanned at the Scharchburg Archives of Kettering University.

We also used local history books from Atlas Township, Clio, Davison, Fenton, Flint, Goodrich, Grand Blanc, Linden, Montrose, Mount Morris, and Swartz Creek.

We call the last chapter Olla Podrida because it is a bit of Flint publishing history; the Wolverine Citizen newspaper used that phrase as a headline over miscellaneous small items.

One

MAIN STREET MEMORIES

JULY FOURTH PARADE, FENTON. The community obviously loved parades, as there are many postcards documenting them. The festivities were not over with the parade on this July Fourth, as the sign being carried in the parade says there was a special show at the opera house featuring acrobatics in the evening.

HOTEL MUNDY, FLUSHING. Daniel B. Lyon built a hotel at the corner of Main Street and Cherry Street in Flushing in 1879. It was later the Eggleston House, and then George Mundy took it over in 1908 and called it Hotel Mundy. William Arn took over the hotel in 1915 and George Bruner in 1924. It was bought by Flushing Oil and Gas in 1936, the building was razed, and a gas station was built there.

VIEW FROM HOTEL BALCONY, FLUSHING. This view looks west on Main Street toward the Flint River, showing businesses on the south side of Main Street between Cherry Street in the foreground