The Hastings Banner — Thursday, October 21, 2021 — Page 7Conservation
at core of early
rod and gun club
Lack of fish and game a concern
Kathy Maurer
Copy Editor
The June 16, 1938, Banner highlighted the
“real conservation” being accomplished by
the Barry County Rod and Gun Club.
“Definite projects are undertaken,” one
sub-headline announced. “Restocking of
lakes and increase in game bring many tour-
ists,” declared another.
The local club at that time had been
around for about 16 years, growing, dwin-
dling and regrouping over those years. Its
defined, tangible projects were the reason
for its recent growth, according to the article
that perhaps was written by co-editor/owner
Marshall L. Cook.
When the Barry County Rod and Gun Club
holds its annual banquets, the people of this
county hear something about its work, but not
enough to give them an adequate idea of the
service that splendid organization is giving to
this county. We believe our readers would be
interested in a brief history of the club, what
it has done, and what it plans to do.
Largely instrumental in getting the rod
and gun club organized in 1922 were Dr.
Burton Perry and C.H. Osborn. Both loved
to hunt, also to fish occasionally. Both real-
ized that if the game and the fish continued
to be depleted year by year, as they had been
in this county, the time would soon come
when it would be a waste of effort for any
sportsman to attempt to get fish in Barry
County lakes or to find game in Barry
County woods.
Unless real conservation could be accom-
plished in a few years, children and young
people would lack the opportunity their par-
ents had had of matching wits against fish
and game and getting real sport and enjoy-
ment out of it. Mr. Osborn gave a lot of his
time to inducing Barry County people to uti-
lize an organization interested in protecting
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game in this county and restocking local
lakes with gamefish.
So, in 1922, the Barry County Rod and
Gun Club was launched, with a membership
of 110. Because of their interest in starting
this project, Mr. Osborn was made its presi-
dent and Dr. Perry secretary-treasurer. In two
years, the membership of the club grew to
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500. If anyone guesses it is a picnic to head
up such an organization, he has another guess
coming. The executive officers of a success-
ful rod and gun club have to assume a good
deal of responsibility and do a lot of work
through the year.
So, after these two had served four years,
and the membership of the club had grown to
500, they felt it was only fair that someone
else should step into their places of responsi-
bility. Accordingly, they both declined
re-election.
At that time, the club did not have definite
projects to work on, as it now has. Lacking
special objects to work for, members lost
interest, and the club soon petered out. For
some time, the county had no organization
especially interested in conservation work.
Naturally, this was not pleasing to the two
men who had launched the club and had seen
it grow and show promise of accomplishing
greater results.
About six years after the rod and gun club
quit functioning, Dr. Perry decided some-
thing must be done and that an organization
ought to be formed and put on a solid basis
that would make it helpful to all conservation
work in Barry County. He is largely responsi-
ble for the revival of the rod and gun club,
which was reorganized about five years ago
and has been very much on the job ever since.
Dr. Perry naturally was made president of the
reorganized club, and Walter Eaton was cho-
sen secretary-treasurer.
Throughout the county were men in every
township who could see that, unless some
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organization of that kind was functioning,
hunting and fishing in Barry County would
become a lost art; so, it was not difficult to
revive interest in the club.
Dr. Perry gave a lot of time and effort to
getting in touch with folks in every quarter of
the county who would put it across and keep
it going. The doctor realized the best way to
keep people interested is to give them visible
evidence that something worthwhile was
being accomplished. Under his leadership,
banquets were held in the Odd Fellows Hall,
later in Community Hall because it could
accommodate more.
These banquets were always well attended.
Still, the club did not have the funds to under-
take the vital conservation work the doctor
felt was necessary.
When the county road commission built
the large county garage [now owned by the
City of Hastings, at Boltwood and East State
Street], it occurred to him that there was the
solution for one of the problems of the Barry
County Rod and Gun Club. The largest place
in Hastings that was available for banquet
purposes prior to that time was Community
Hall, and that could not provide for more
than 500.
But the new county garage could easily
take care of a thousand at a banquet, and if
necessary, considerably more. Accordingly,
in 1936, the first rod and gun club banquet
to be held in the county garage was planned
for and put across in a fine way. There were
900 who sat at tables. The following year,
the number increased to about 1,100, and
this year, it reached 1,300. The purchaser of
a ticket for the banquet found that his dollar
not only paid for his participation in the
pleasures of that gathering, but also made
him a member of the rod and gun club.
Now it is easy to see what splendid
results can be accomplished by a county rod
and gun club. Not only were about 1,
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people in attendance at the last banquet, but
about 200 more bought tickets, and thereby
became members, who were not able to
attend the banquet but who invested their
dollars because they could see substantial
and worthwhile results from the club’s
operation.
Now there are two yearly banquets – one in
the spring when a fish dinner is provided, and
one in the late fall, when a game supper is
provided, the latter being in Community Hall
because at that time of the year, the garage is
not available. ...The location of “Community Hall” is
unclear. The Odd Fellows Hall, where the
club held many meetings, still stands at the
northwest corner of Jefferson and Green
streets.
A 1916 map by the Sanborn Map Company
shows several gathering places, such as the
second floor of the McCoy Building on West
State Street, the Knights of Pythias Hall on
the third floor of the Union Block building
on the southwest corner of Jefferson and
State streets, the third floor of a hardware
store at 111 E. State St., and the third floor
above what was then a jewelry floor store
and drug store and is now Walldorff Brewpub
and Bistro.
None of these halls, however, nor any other
property, is identified as “Community Hall”
on that 1916 map.
Homer Smith was an outdoorsman and
active in the club. He became president of the
local club as well as a member of the board of
directors for the Michigan United
Conservation Clubs. Naturally, when the
head of the household is active in a special
project, the rest of the family becomes
involved in some capacity.
In an interview Tuesday, Homer Smith’s
daughter, Dorotha Cooper, said she remem-
bered those banquets.
The writer of the 1938 article didn’t men-
tion just how one might go about feeding
hundreds of people in a spacious county road
commission garage with ample room and
numerous vehicles, but little in the way of
dinnerware. Dorotha, however, remembered
one little detail: They borrowed silverware
from the local churches to be able to feed the
hundreds of guests. She was tasked with help-
ing sort through all of that silverware after the
banquet was over to make sure the right piec-
es went back to the correct churches.
Both Burton Perry and Charles Osborn
served as mayor of Hastings. Osborn was 41
when he was elected in 1910 and served a
four-year term. Perry was 46 when he took
the office in 1924, serving until 1930.
Dr. Perry (1878-1952) was a veterinarian,
or more specifically, a veterinary surgeon, as
listed on his World War I draft card and in the
1920 U.S. Census. But that wasn’t always his
trade. Born in Rutland Township, Perry was
working as a teacher in 1900, when he was
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22. By the time of the 1930 U.S. Census, he
was a 32-year-old farm laborer. At some
point, he was able to attend college and earn
credentials to work in animal care.
He and his wife, the former Ina Durkee,
lived most of their married life in a home at
813 S. Church St., Hastings.
While Perry eventually worked in animal
care, Osborn (1869-1948) ultimately worked
in the human services area. At one time he had
a dry goods store in Hastings, manufactured
ladies’ undergarments, and in the 1920 census
listed farming his own land as his occupation,
even though he and his family, including his
wife, Grace (Hobbs) and children Wallace and
Betty, lived on West Grand Street.
His later years were spent in social services
work. He was employed as the secretary for
the superintendent of the poor in the early
1930s, and at least from 1936 to 1947, per-
haps longer, was a probation officer for the
county and Friend of the Court officer.
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To be continued ...
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Charles H. Osborn (left) Dr. Burton Perry both served as mayor of Hastings, Osborn from 1910 to 1914 and Perry from 1924 to
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1930. In the years between their mayoral service, the two launched the Barry County Rod and Gun Club, expanding it from 110 to
500 members in the early 1920s. (City of Hastings photos)
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Dues were $2 a year for members of the club that was reorganized after World War II.
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In the 1930s and 1940s, Barry County had rearing ponds or fish hatcheries in Hastings, Orangeville and near Gun Lake. None of them serve that purpose today. While the
Orangeville and Hastings sites may still have water-filled ponds, only a stream runs through the old Gun Lake area hatchery.