Monthly Archives: March 2010

Mrs. Myron Robinson was born in Gratiot County, Michigan, Feb. 8, 1872; and died at her home in Lansing, Mich., Aug. 2, 1930. She was married to Wm. J. Reynolds. One daughter was born to them. Dec. 22, 1908, she was married to Myron Robinson. Mrs. Robinson was a faithful member of the Seventh-day Adventist church. She is survived by her husband, a daughter, two sisters, and a brother.

Frederick Griggs
Lake Union Herald
10 Sep 1930

Luella Eckert was born in Gratiot County, Michigan, May 18, 1871. She was married to Homer C. Griffin Dec. 23, 1891. He died June 8, 1928, and she died Nov. 23, 1928. Interment took place at the Elm Hall cemetery where she rests at the side of her husband there to await the call of the Life-giver. She is survived by her son, five sisters, and two brothers.

H. P. Waldo
Lake Union Herald
02 Jan 1929

Merritt J. Woodward, a Civil War veteran, a pioneer in this part of the state, and one of the oldest residents of Gratiot County, was born in Allegan County Nov. 5, 1846; and died at the home of a son at Elwell, June 25, 1928. He was a firm believer in the third angel’s message.

H. P. Waldo
Lake Union Herald
18 Jul 1928

Emery C. Dobson was born in Gratiot County, Michigan, Jan. 31, 1856; and died at his home at North Shade, Jan. 19, 1926. Brother Dobson united with the Seventh-day Adventist church about twenty years ago. He remained faithful to the end. He is survived by his wife and daughter. Words of comfort were spoken by the writer.

B. Frederick Williams
Lake Union Herald
10 Feb 1926

Loren L. Shelley was born in Gratiot County, Mich., April 20, 1877. When he was four years of age his mother died, and the family moved to Cedar Lake.
Returning to his boyhood home, at the age of twenty-two he was married to Lettie Tryon. To this union four children were born, two of whom are living. The last fourteen years of his life were spent at Cedar Lake. He leaves a wife and two children, Elmer L. and Harry B., one brother in Honolulu, with other relatives and a host of friends. About two years ago he accepted the third angel’s message and joined the Seventh-day Adventist church, of which he remained a faithful member. He died with a bright hope of the resurrection, May 28, 1917. Words of comfort were spoken by the pastor of the Congregational church at
Edmore, Mich.

R. U. Garrett
Lake Union Herald
01 Aug 1917

Emily Read, daughter of Sarah Carpenter and Joshua Read, was born in New York State, Jan. 6, 1838, and died April 17, 1917, aged 79 years, 3 months, and 11 days. She was united in marriage to the late Jerome L. Harmon in 1853 and to this union were born three children. Sister Harmon gave her heart to God at a very early age, uniting with the M. E. Church at Batavia, N. Y., and was an earnest consistent Christian. She accepted the truth under the labors of Elder E. B. Lane, in meerings held at Potterville, Michigan, during the winter of 1872. She with her husband moved to Gratiot County, October, 1878, and became members of the Ithaca Church. The Christian principle that actuated the lives of both Brother and Sister Harmon will long be remembered hy those left to mourn their loss. She is survived by a son, a daughter and two grandchildren. Funeral services were conducted in the Ithaca church by the writer.

A. J. Clark
Lake Union Herald
18 Jul 1917

Ida May Current Bugbee was born at Brant, Saginaw Co., Mich., Mar. 18, 1877 and died at her home in Ithaca, Oct. 16, 1947, aged 70 years at her last birthday. She was the wife of brother Glen Bugbee, who has served as church elder at Ithaca for years.

At a very early age Ida May manifested a religious attitude of mind and heart. At fourteen she requested baptism by immersion, which was administered in mid-winter by cutting an opening in the ice to form an open baptistry for the event.

A few years after her baptism, a skeptically inclined relative said to her: “Ida, you are denying yourself of the worldly pleasures in which the majority of young people take part. What if you should find out at last that there is no such reward as you believe?” Her reply was deliberate and thoughtful and remarkable for her age: “Well, just to know that with God’s help, I have lived in harmony with what I know to be right and true, will be reward enough for me.”

Immediately after their wedding, Oct. 26, 1904, Mr. and Mrs. Bugbee took a trip to their new home in North Dakota. Eight years later they moved to Canada where they were among the pioneer settlers on the plains of southern Alberta, with the nearest railroad eighty miles away. It was during these years in the sparsely settled cattle country that Mr. and Mrs. Bugbee began studying the Bible anew, being encouraged to do so by the book “Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan” which they had purchased from a colporteur, Andrew Roedel, before leaving North Dakota. Mr. Bugbee relates the following experience: After they had both given much prayerful study to the teaching of the Bible on the subject of the Sabbath, he said to his wife: “I feel so much impressed from my study of the Bible, that I have decided that after I get a certain job done which will take a few months, I will then begin the observance of the true Lord’s Day or the Bible Sabbath.”

The character of Mrs. Bugbee was revealed again by her question. “Husband, do you really believe that from Friday at sundown to Saturday sundown is God’s holy Sabbath day?” His reply was that he surely did believe that. Then came her searching question: “Can we afford to dishonor and disobey God
and his holy law for even one day or one week?”

The result was that on their knees in their humble cabin, that very day, they promised the Lord that they would walk in all the light that had come to them and that might come to them in the future from His holy word, remembering the divine assurance: “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and ‘the blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin.” I John 1:7. They did not have the privilege of attending a Seventh-day Adventist church till a few years later when they moved to the state of Washington, where Mr. Bugbee later became the principal of one
of the Adventist academies.

The Bugbee family returned to Michigan in 1919 and have lived in Ithaca since 1938.

Mrs. Bugbee’s faith meant much to her and was reflected in her quiet thoughtfulness of not only her own large family but all with whom she became acquainted. Through the years she counted it a pleasure to befriend those who for any reason had few friends. Because of this a spiritual transformation has taken place in a number of families in the various communities where she lias lived. Four children preceded her in death, including a son who had been in the service of his country during the recent war and who had been a good witness for his Lord during that experience.

Those living to mourn her loss include the husband, a daughter, Iva who is a well known teacher in Gratiot county; three sons; Harrison of Beaverton, Thad of E. Lansing, and Wincett of Chesaning, four sisters and four brothers and many brothers and sisters in church fellowship and friends in many communities.

The funeral service was held in the Ithaca Adventist church on Sabbath, Oct. 18, and a message of real comfort from God’s word was given by the family’s longstanding friend, Elder M. E. Munger. Most appropriate music was supplied by Mrs. Arlo Sias of St. Louis and by Mr. and Mrs. H. O. Butler of Cedar Lake. The obituary and Scripture reading was read and prayer offered by the writer. Among the guests who filled the church to capacity were ministers and
church representatives of different denominations.

On a tombstone in a cemetery in Gratiot County are these words:
“Friends nor physicians could not save
These clear bodies from the grave;
Nor can the grave confine them there
When Christ shall call them to appear.”

E. R. Potter
Lake Union Herald
04 Nov 1947

Laura Woodman White was born Mar. 13, 1875 near Ashley, Mich., being the eldest of four children born to James and Alice Woodman. She died Jan. 7, 1948 at her home in Ithaca, Mich. On Jan. 8, 1896 she was united in marriage to David Earl White. Their married life has been spent almost entirely in Gratiot County, most of it in or near Ithaca. The home was blessed with six children and in addition to their own children they have because of the death of their mothers taken care of two grandchildren as their very own. Every one that has known Mrs. White has proclaimed her to be a wonderful mother who attracted the affection of all children and young people who had the privilege of knowing her. Under the ministerial labors of Elder C. N. Sanders, Mr. and Mrs. White experienced conversion and received baptism uniting with the Ithaca Seventh-day Advcntist church. Left to mourn are the husband, a brother Ira Woodman, (a Seventh-day Adventist minister of California); two daughters, Mrs. Theta Perry of Lansing, and Mrs. Alice McDonald of Caro, Mich.; two sons, Bernard and
Burt of Ithaca; six grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren, several cousins and other relatives and a host of friends. The funeral service was held January 10, 1948, the writer officiating. A special delivery letter from Mrs. White’s brother in California says: “Just received the sad news of my sister’s passing. I
wish I might be there but that is impossible. She was the eldest of the children and I am the youngest. She was a wonderful sister to me in my younger days: more wonderful than I can tell. She was almost more of a mother than a sister in my early boyhood days. There never was a better woman.”

Ps. 48:14, “This God is our God; he will be our guide even unto death.”

E. R. Potter
Lake Union Herald
20 Jan 1948

Fannie J. Jenner was born Jan. 24, 1866, in Newark Township, Gratiot County, Mich., to Knowler and Sarah Gibbs. She died Jan. 16, 1948, at the home of her adopted son, Alden Eggleston, in Charlotte, Mich. Funeral services were held both at Charlotte and at Ithaca, Mich. Interment took place at the Ithaca cemetery. Sister Jenner was a faithful member of the Seventh-day Adventist church, being a member of the Charlotte church at the time of her death. She is survived by her daughter, Mrs. C. B. Burgess, of Brookfield, 111., the adopted son, and ten nieces and nephews.

A. A. Douglas
Lake Union Herald
24 Feb 1948

Mrs. Margaret L. Gruesbeck, wife of George Gruesbeck of Ithaca, Mich., was returning with her husband from Florida and spending a few days in Tennessee,
when without a warning, a heart attack caused her sudden death, April 9, 1948. Her home has been in Gratiot Co.; Mich., since her birth in 1880. She joined with her husband in becoming a member of the Ithaca Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1903 and she has remained a devoted and loyal supporter of the home and foreign missionary program of the church. The funeral service was held April 13, in the Adventist church in Ithaca, with a capacity attendance including the basement. The close relatives include the husband, one daughter, Mrs. Thomas (Dr.) Gibson of Chester, Penn. and one son, Harmon, of Ithaca.

E. R. Potter
Lake Union Herald
11 May 1948