Our History
by David H. Seibold, D.D.S
In the Path of Destiny
MILL POINT
The tip of the peninsula that would become know first as Mill Point and later Spring Lake was bounded by Big Bayou (Spring Lake) on the north, the Grand River on the south and the channel connecting the two on the east.
In February 1837, Capt. Benjamin Hopkins and his wife left Canada with four sons, Silas C., John V., Hannibal A. and Franklin, and three daughters to settle in Scranton (Eastmanville). The following year he erected Hopkins Mill at Mill Point on the shore of Big Bayou immediately east of today’s Barrett Boat Works. Hopkins was one of many who fled Canada during the Mackenzie Rebellion, a general unsettling that occurred in Canada when Toronto’s first Mayor (1834), Reform Party leader William Mackenzie, was defeated. The unrest eventually led to armed rebellion (1837) that was quickly put down by the British, but during that 1835-37 period, many of those caught in the current of ferment chose to leave Canada. Other patriot survivors of the Mackenzie Rebellion who settled here were the Nortons, Barbers, Masons and, as we will learn, the Middlemists.
That same year-1837-Colonel Amos Norton built a lumbermill on the River between Lloyd’s Bayou and Boom Road, the area to become known as Nortonville. Jabez Barber associated with Morton in the completion and operation of the Norton Mill. The Norton Mill burned in 1854 and was rebuilt the following year. It burned again inc.1866. Capt. Thomas W. White and Thomas Friant acquired the property and built the White & Friant Mill that operated until the end of the Lumber Era in 1890.
In 1841, John H Newcomb came from Muskegon and built the first house at Mill Point near the Hopkins Mill. At that time there were no dedicated streets. As the lumber business grew and more families settled at Mill Point, the dirt paths and wagon trails became better defined. Location of the Newcomb home became the southeast corner of Park and Barber, where it continues to serve as a residence. LeMoyne S. Smith opened his drug store on Barber Street across from the Newcomb home in 1851.
More to come....
Who is Windsor McCay?
Winsor McCay: The Father of American Animation When Disneyland was first opened in 1955 (so the story goes), Walt Disney took Robert McCay, son of Spring Lake native Winsor McCay, on a guided tour. He stopped near the end and said, "You know, this should really belong to your father." Disney followed in the footsteps of animation pioneer Winsor McCay.
Winsor McCay was born Zenas Winsor McKay. He was named after his father's employer and he quickly dropped Zenas in favor of Winsor. His father changed McKay to McCay in the 1880's. The year and place of his birth is the subject of some conjecture. Winsor stated that he was born September 26, 1871, in Spring Lake, Michigan, and always considered this his hometown. It is probable that he was born in 1867 on a trip to visit his mother’s family in East Zorra, Ontario. His tombstone in Brooklyn, New York lists his birth date as 1869. The records were burned during one of Spring Lake's frequent fires of the late 1800's, so we will never be sure, but early US Census reports place his birth year as 1867. His father, Robert McKay, purchased land from Aloys Bilz in the mid-1860's, and brought his new bride Janet to Spring Lake in 1866. They ran a grocery store. Robert was a Trustee on the Spring Lake Village Council for two years. He had a brother, Arthur and a sister, Mae, both younger than himself and born in Spring Lake.
He was raised in Spring Lake, living in a house where the First Baptist Church now stands, where he commenced drawing at a prodigiously early age. There are tales of young Winsor etching pictures into panes of glass discarded after one of the numerous sawmill fires, which occasionally raged through the village in the late nineteenth century. In 1880, the Goodrich Steamship Alpena carrying passengers from nearby Grand Haven to Chicago was wrecked in a terrible storm. The Alpena took 100 people to the bottom of Lake Michigan in what remains one of the worst maritime disasters in Great Lakes history. At the age of 13, young “Winnie” drew a picture of the wreck on the school blackboard. It was photographed and copies were sold as postcards. This school, Spring Lake Union School, was located on the site of the small park between the Spring Lake District Library and the Spring Lake Township Hall. Parts of the foundation may still be seen there today.
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