The Hastings Banner — Thursday, March 2, 2023 — Page 7Two Hastings women deserve
recognition for historical contributions
Esther Walton
Banner, March 36, 1992
March is Women’s History Month, and this
column has tried to feature historic women in
Barry County during this time.
Two women particularly deserve to be
remembered for their contributions to Barry
County history. One is Mrs. Chester (Minnie)
Messer, who started the Y.M.C.A., and the
other is Mrs. I.A. (Mary) Holbrook, the first
known woman preservationist in Hastings,
Minnie Butler Messer was born in Mar-
shall May 11, 1850. Her father was a pioneer
merchant located in Marshall in 1836.
Minnie completed her course in public
school and graduated from the Marshall
Academy, specializing in music and art, in
which she had unusual talent. After school-
ing, she became a very successful teacher in
the Marshall schools.
Minnie first married John Greble and
became his second wife. John’s first wife,
Carrie, died in 1878. John Greble helped
organize the Hastings City Bank and owned
shares in three major industries in town. He
had become a wealthy man by the time he
met Minnie.
John and Minnie were married Feb. 22,
- They went to California on their wed-
ding trip, returning in May. Minnie moved
into 333 W. Green Street and began to care
for John’s two children, Belle and Fred.
Two years later, John died and left Minnie
a rich widow.
On June 5, 1895, she was united in mar-
riage to Chester Messer. This time, it was the
second marriage for both. Chester’s first wife,
Emma Bentley Messer, died Sept. 18, 1890.
Chester and his brother, Richard, were
instrumental in bringing to Hastings a man
named Emil Tyden who became one of the
town’s leading industrialists.
Both Messer brothers were among the rich-
est men in town at their deaths and left lega-
cies benefitting many organizations in town.
Two years after the Messer wedding, Ches-
ter and Minnie moved into a house at 505 W.
Green St. Here, she became a noted hostess
among the social life in Hastings.
Mrs. Messer was a deeply religious woman.
She joined the Presbyterian Church while a
young woman in Marshall and transferred her
membership to the local church in Hastings.
Her work in the church of her choice was
characterized by unselfish loyalty and desire
to serve.
It was a suggestion from this good woman
that led to the institution of the Barry County
Y.M.C.A. She felt the organization was doing
so much for the boys that this city and county
could benefit from forming a group locally.
At a social gathering in Mr. Messer’s
home, a dinner given by Mr. Messer to his
associates in the City Bank and the factory
management of the city, guests from outside
of Hastings were invited, among them Mr.
Gay, one of the state’s noted Y.M.C.A. work-
ers, to explain something about the Y.M.C.A.
and its work. Mr. Messer carried out the
suggestion, with the result that Mr. Gay’s
remarks led to subscriptions of upward of
$15,000 for the launching of the Y.M.C.A.
for the ensuing five years, with the idea of
putting it on a firm basis.
Mrs. Messer did not stop there, according
to her obituary. “She took a motherly interest
in several people and helped them in a man-
ner that always maintained their self-respect.
Families that she knew were having a hard
time of it were helped by her. At a time when
many homes in Hastings were feeling the
pinch of want, she inspired the organization
of the Dorcus Daughters. Under her leader-
ship, this organization helped many needy
ones in Hastings.”
Minnie Messer died in Blodgett Memorial
Hospital in Grand Rapids on June 11, 1916.
She was survived by her husband, Chester, a
brother and a sister. Minnie never had children
of her own, but she made an impact on all the
children in Barry County for over 100 years
with her idea of starting the Y.M.C.A. here.
The second lady of this piece, Mrs. Mary D.
Holbrook, was a contemporary of Mrs. Mess-
er’s, both belonging to the Presbyterian
Church in Hastings. Mrs. Holbrook was the
wife of a well-known pioneer, Isaac Holbrook.
Mary Holbrook was born May 13, 1827, in
Warsaw, N.Y., the daughter of William Lee
Kenfield and Mary Popple of Rutland, Vt.
Mary Popple’s grandfather was one of the
Boston Tea Party.
Young Mary Kenfield came to Hastings
with her brother, Hiram J. Kenfield, a notedpioneer of Hastings. He built the first court-
house and first bridge over the Thornapple
River.
Mary Kenfield lived with his family and
was one of the first teachers in the township
of Carlton. Mary’s family followed their son
and daughter to Barry County and settled in
Irving Township on land referred to in 1912
as the “Kurtz Farm,” (Section 3, Rutland
Township).
The township of Irving originally com-
prised what is now both Irving and Rutland
townships. When it was divided, Mrs. Ken-
field was asked to name the new township.
She gave it the name “Rutland” after her
home town in Vermont.
The house on the farm was one of the few
frame buildings in the country, and being
painted a red color, was known and spoken of
as “The Red House.”
When the Kenfield family moved there,
there were few horses and no carriages. Ordi-
nary conveyance was by ox team and wagon,
but the Battle Creek road (now M-37) was
finished and the stage line established.
According to Mrs. Holbrook’s obituary:
“On the early evening of Nov. 1, 1846, in
the old stagecoach, Isaac A. Holbrook, then a
leading lawyer and a man of affairs from
Northern New York, accompanied by the
Rev. Zena T. Hoyt and his wife and Dr. John
Roberts as best man, journeyed to the ‘Red
House’ and returned with Mrs. Holbrook as
his bride.”
They lived in a house at 318 W. State Street
until Nov. 10, 1848, when they moved into the
new house built by Mr. Holbrook on the corner
of Broadway and State Street, 100 S. Broad-
way. (About where the city hall now stands.)
Mrs. Holbrook resided there until her death, a
continuous period of more than 63 years.
The Holbrooks had nine children, one died
in infancy, another in early childhood. The
rest grew to adulthood and moved away to
start their own lives.
Even with raising such a large family,
Mrs. Holbrook was prominent in social and
public affairs.
At one time, she had charge of the Mount
Vernon Association in Barry County. The
Mount Vernon Association was in charge of
raising money to preserve Mount Vernon as
het first U.S. president’s home. The associa-
tion later became part of the National Trust
for Historic Preservation.
She also took pride in and was alert to
whatever pertained to the welfare and beauti-
fication of our city, the growth of which she
had witnessed from its beginning as a small
hamlet reposing in the wilderness to a thriv-
ing industrial complex.
Mrs. Holbrook was the first woman in
Barry County to promote preservation of his-
toric structures and preservation of trees in
the city.Maintaining a healthy
ecosystem
What if there were no predators to eat the
birds?
Katy, 10, Hawaii
Dear Katy,
Don’t let the lab coat fool you. I enjoy
chattering at birds as much as the next cat.
Staring out the window and vibrating my
mouth to “chirp” helps me relax after a
long day.
My wild cousins do take things a bit fur-
ther–namely, predation. It’s not pretty, but it’s
an important part of keeping life in balance.
I talked about predators with my friend
Travis King. He’s a Ph.D. student at Wash-
ington State University. He studies big cats
like lynx and jaguars.
“It’s a balancing act between predators,
disease, food and space,” King said. “If you
take away predators, you lose one of the
factors keeping an ecosystem in balance.”An ecosystem is a community of living
things and the world they live in. Rainfor-
ests, oceans and cities are all ecosystems.
Each ecosystem can support only so many
animals. The maximum number it can han-
dle is its carrying capacity.
Let’s say we have a super simple ecosys-
tem of peacocks and jaguars. It can support
100 peacocks and 10 jaguars. The peacock
population won’t get too big partly because
jaguars gobble them up.
If jaguars vanish from our ecosystem, the
peacock population may boom at first. Now
there are 150 peacocks running around. But
the ecosystem only has food for 100 pea-
cocks. They’ll also start running out of
space. With too many peacocks living close
together, diseases may spread more easily.
As a group, our peacocks might fare worse
with the predators gone.Real ecosystems are complex. Lots of
living things interact in different ways.
Many animals, like our peacocks, are both
predators and prey. One sign of a healthy
ecosystem is its biodiversity. That means a
rich variety of living things.
One reason scientists study predators is
to help protect animals and ecosystems.
King told me some animals are umbrella
species. That’s an animal–like the jaguar–
that needs lots of room and prey to have a
healthy life. If experts protect the jaguar’s
ecosystem, that may help other animals that
live there, too.
That’s what King is studying right now in
Honduras.
“A big debate in science is how well
predators act as that umbrella,” he said. “I
look at predators to see how an ecosystem
functions and how we can protect that sys-
tem.”
King told me kids can help protect ani-
mals and ecosystems, too. Start with small,
meaningful actions like putting out bird
feeders or growing native plants. Learn
about how experts protect local wildlife and
animals all over the planet–like these videos
taken by King and the Mammal Spatial
Ecology and Conservation Lab.
Feel free to chatter and chirp at the screen
while you watch. It’s a great stress reliever!Dr. UniverseElaine Garlock
The Ionia County Genealogical Soci-
ety will meet next week on Saturday,
March 11 at 1 p.m. There will be a
speaker. Members and visitors are wel-
come to use the extensive library facili-
ties before and after each meeting to
take advantage of the thousands of filed
items, obituaries and other materials.
Also available are the 300-plus books on
First Families members whose research
proves their descent from a resident of
Ionia County before 1880. Some Society
members had 20 or more such ancestors.
Last week’s ice storm on Wednesday
caused cancelation of Ash Wednesday
services planned by the ministerial asso-
ciation. The outdoor application of ashes
was impossible due to the treacherous
conditions of the sidewalks and streets.
School was closed and windshields iced
over immediately after being scraped –
driving was highly risky. The streets and
sidewalk surfaces were pebbly. Birds
were drawn to their feeders since they
could not get access to their feed from
natural sources.
There were rain showers again thisweek which froze on impact, causing icy
streets and roads. The trees were cov-
ered with ice on all the branches. We had
icy conditions everywhere. This, howev-
er, lasted less time than the previous
week’s icy conditions.
Central United Methodist Church had
its delayed Ash Wednesday observance
postponed to the following Sunday
morning service.
With a return of mild weather this
week, we have lost much of our snow. Ice
remains on driveways but is slowly reced-
ing on the edges. We have seen pictures
on TV of California with people battling
snow drifts. There are times this winter
when we could have loaned them our
snow shovels, but not for long. We would
be likely to be hit with yet another swing
of weather. At least we are equipped to
deal with the white stuff with our snow
blowers, our municipal snow plows and
other devices to make our lives livable –
even with a few feet of snow.
One calendar has a notation that day-
light saving time begins on Sunday
March 12. Can this be true so early in
the year?Do you have a question? Ask Dr. Uni-
verse. Send an email to Washington State
University’s resident scientist and writer at
[email protected] or visit her website,
askdruniverse.com.The home of Mr. and Mrs. Messer, where the Barry County YMCA was formed. This
photo was taken in 1980, and it now is owned by Dr. Oscar de Goa.
This was State Street near the turn of the century, where Mr. and Mrs. Holbrook lived.