The Hastings Banner — Thursday, May 18, 2023 — Page 7Joyce F. Weinbrecht
Banner Aug. 5, 1999
Freeport was platted out by Michael and
Samuel Roush, who owned the land where a
railroad was proposed to come through. The
railroad was set to go from Lowell to Hast-
ings and pass through the Roush land just east
of the hamlet of Linden.
After some disagreement within the family
about what to name the new village, Samuel
wanted to call it Memphis after Memphis,
Tenn., where he had been stationed during the
Civil War. Michael wanted to call it Freeport
after Freeport, Ohio. Samuel concurred with
his older brother, and the platted area was
called Freeport in 1874.
The land was on the town line between
Carlton Township and Irving Township and
on the Kent County line. The village was not
incorporated until 1907.
The railroad, a narrow-gauge line, arrived
in Freeport on Nov. 24, 1887. While the rail-
road did the grading from Freeport nearly
into the city of Hastings, the line ended at
Freeport and never went further, even after it
became a standard-size track rail line built by
Jerry Boyington 13 years after the line was
first completed.
The village was incorporated in 1907. The
post office was established in 1878. Before
that, the residents of the area got their mail at
Fillmore to the west of Linden and Freeport.
Dr. H.C. Peckham became the editor of the
Freeport Herald in the 1880s. Dr. Peckham
came to Freeport from the little town of Van-
derbilt in Otsego County. He invented, pat-
ented, manufactured and bottled a medicine
called Peckham’s Croup Remedy. He added a
room to his house where he conducted this
business. He sold the paper to James W. God-
frey in 1886, who continued to publish the
Freeport Herald.
Frank Brayton owned and operated a hand-
set paper, The Freeport News, until he sold
the paper to Ken Braendle in 1926.
The paper increased its circulation, and
Ken Braendle sought to upgrade the equip-
ment for the newspaper and other printing
done at the shop. He purchased a state-of-the-
art 1928 linotype machine with which to set
the type for the newspaper.
The linotype machine was invented by
Otto Mergenthaler. It went through many
experimental stages and was first used with
success at the Tribune, New York City, in- The machine consists of a keyboard
similar to a typewriter. The machine allowed
one operator to set type much faster than by
hand. This machine is still (in 1999) at the
Freeport News office and is still being used to
set the type for the Freeport News and the
Clarksville Record.
Mergenthaler also purchased a No. 375
Babcock Single Revolution Press in 1926
from the Kalamazoo Printing Company. This
press is also still (in 1999) operating in the
Freeport News printers’ shop.
Charley Geiger came to work for Mr.
Braendle as a printer’s devil (apprentice) in- He learned the business well, and in
1944, he purchased the shop from Ken
Braendle and continued on with the paper. He
added the Clarksville Record to the work put
out weekly by the print shop. This shop is
where Neil Braendle got printer’s ink in his
blood also and is still very involved in a print
shop in Hastings.
Mr. Geiger operated the print shop and put
out the newspapers for many years. He was
also very active in the community of Free-
port. He served on several boards and many
committees. He was president of the village
several times and was a member of the Free-
port Rural Fire Association, which covered
areas in three counties: Carlton, Barry Coun-
ty; Campbell, Ionia County; and Bowne
Township, Kent County. He served as secre-
tary of the association for a time. He and the
papers supported the Freeport Homecoming
and was one of the first persons in Freeport to
open an account when Wayland State Bank
opened a branch in Freeport.
And along with running the papers and an
insurance company, he and his wife, Thelma,
were raising a family.
A small-town weekly paper requires a
great deal of effort. Most of the work is done
by one or two people, and often family mem-
bers are part of the team. There are advertise-
ments to sell and collect for, subscriptions to
sell and news to gather and report. The papers
have to keep up with and even get ahead of
the events in the communities they are serv-
ing. It is hard to get time off for vacations, as
the work must be done on a consistent basis.
Ron Geiger, Charley’s son, began working
for the family business at a very young age.
He did odd jobs, swept the floors and other
tasks around the shop, observing the opera-
tions of the print shop and newspapers. He
became a full-time employee after he gradu-
ated from Freeport High School in 1957. He
set the type and operated the Babcock Single
Revolution Press. He is still operating that
press in 1999. It is believed to be the only one
still operating in Michigan. He learned about
the business of operating the weekly papers
and a print shop.
Ron married Christy in 1964, and she, too,
became part of the operations. She secured
advertisements, collected local and area news
and learned to operate the vintage linotype
machine. Ron then set the type into the press
for printing.
The papers had correspondents in the var-
ious neighborhoods who contributed weekly
news to the papers, as well as feature writers
who covered various subjects. These items
had to be collected, edited and typeset each
week.
The couple purchased the print shop, the
Freeport News and the Clarksville Record
from Charley when he wanted to retire. They
went on operating the print shop.
In 1966, during a demonstration of the
workings of the press, the linotype and the
print shop, Ron told the Barry County Histor-
ical Society with a touch of irony, “Techno-
logically, we are about a half-a-step ahead of
Benjamin Franklin. We are kind of a working
museum.”
The shop puts out 400 copies of each of the
four-page newspapers. The papers sell for
one dollar a month.
A notice published in the July 22, 1999,
issue of The Freeport News read as follows:
“TO OUR FAITHFUL READERS....
After some 56 years of publishing the Free-
port News and Clarksville Record, begin-
ning with Dad and Mom (Charles and
Thelma Geiger) when they purchased theNews and Record from the Braendle fami-
ly in 1944, Christy and I have decided that
as of January 1, 2000, we will no longer
publish the Freeport News and Clarksville
Record.
“We feel we can no longer devote the long
hours it takes to publish these papers each
week. Our commercial printing business has
grown substantially over the past years, and
we strongly feel that we must devote more
time to our printing business so we can
maintain the high standards our customers
expect from us.
“It is with deep appreciation we say Thank
You to all of those persons who made our
little papers a big success.
“Sincerely, your editors, Ron and Christy
Geiger.
“P.S. We will be receiving subscription
payments at $1 per month only through
December 1999.”
For the first time in more than 115 years,
the Village of Freeport will not have its own
weekly newspaper. This marks an end of an
era for the village and for Barry County and
Campbell Township, Ionia County.
Sources: Archives: Hastings Banner, The
Reminder; History of Allegan and Barry
Counties, 1880; Excerpts from the Freeport
Herald and the Freeport News; Old Days in
Busy Freeport Recalled by Victor Sisson;
History of Freeport, Alice M. Burgess.All eyes and ears
Do your eyeballs grow?
Ashlynn, 8, UtahDear Ashlynn,
I was the cutest kitten. I bet you were an
adorable baby, too. Like me, you probably
had a big, round head with chubby cheeks
and huge eyes.
The fact that babies have big eyes made
some people think babies are born with
adult-sized eyeballs. I talked about this
with my friend Edward Johnson. He teach-
es classes about the human body in the
School of Biological Sciences at Washing-
ton State University.
“It’s a very good question because
there’s a lot of misinformation about it,”
Johnson said. “Eyeballs do grow–but not
very much compared with other parts of
the body.”
He told me to think about the thigh
bone–also called a femur. That bone grows
a lot. The average newborn baby has a
3-inch thigh bone. The average adult has an
18-inch thigh bone. That means the thigh
bone gets about six times bigger. That’s a
huge change.
Eyeballs don’t grow nearly that much.
Johnson told me adult eyeballs are about
one-and-a-half times as big as baby eye-
balls. The average newborn baby’s eyeball
is 0.6 inches in size. The average adult
eyeball is 0.9 inches.
Some scientists think babies have big
peepers because traits like chubby cheeks
and big eyes make babies cute. Looking at
that cuteness turns on the brain’s rewardsystem. That is what makes it feel good to
take care of a baby–or even just look at
one.
So, is there any body part that stays the
same size from birth?
“As far as I know, all organs and tissues
grow from birth up until adulthood–with
the possible exception of a couple middle
ear ossicles,” Johnson said. “If any struc-
ture doesn’t grow, those would be candi-
dates.”
The middle ear ossicles are three teeny
bones in the middle ear. Their names are
the malleus, incus and stapes. As sound
travels from outside the ear through the
middle ear, the bones vibrate. That makes
the sound louder as it moves into the inner
ear. There, it changes into a signal that goes
up a nerve to the brain.
It makes sense that middle ear bones
don’t grow–or only grow a little bit.
They’re the tiniest bones in the human
body. They’re also stiffer than other bones.
That helps them vibrate better.
From itty-bitty ear bones to eyeballs,
your body is amazing. If you think about it,
asking big questions about our world is
another way of growing. You’re doing that
beautifully!Dr. UniverseDo 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.Thursday, May 18 – Novel Ideas Book Club discusses “Larger
Queen of Minnesota” by J. Ryan Stadal, 1 p.m.; Movie Memories &
Milestones watches a 1944 film in which a contrived misunderstand-
ing leads to the breakup of a songwriter and his fiancée, 5 p.m.
Friday, May 19 – Friday Story Time, 10:30 a.m.
Saturday, May 20 – GameQuest 12 Hours of Gaming, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.Monday, May 22 – Crafting Passions, 10 a.m.
Tuesday, May 23 – Baby Cafe, 10 a.m.; mahjong and chess, 5 p.m.
Wednesday, May 24 – Itsy Bitsy Book Club, 10:30 a.m.; acoustic
jam, 5 p.m.
More information about these and other events is available by call-
ing the library at 269-945-4263.Pierce Cedar Creek Institute
events for May 19-
May 1-31 – May Storywalk Book: “Box Turtle” by John Him-
melman. The Storywalk is free and self-guided. Witness time and
space through the eyes of a box turtle. From hatching in a New
England forest in the late 1890s to the present, observe changes in
the turtle’s life and landscape.
May 1-31 – Endangered Species Scavenger Hunt. Honor Endan-
gered Species Day (May 19) all month long and learn about Mich-
igan’s threatened and endangered species. Search along the Insti-
tute’s Beech-Maple Ridge (blue) Trail for artwork of rare plant and
animal species in their preferred habitat; scan the QR code on each
work of art to learn more about the species. The scavenger hunt is
free and self-guided.
Saturday, May 20 – Spring Mushroom Hike (ages 9+, under 18
with an adult), 9-11 a.m. Join Community Program Manager and
MDARD Wild Mushroom Expert Ellen Holste in discovering the
many mushrooms that emerge during Spring, how to identify them
and the best places to look for them. Institute members can join thehike for free; non-members must pay $8 for registration.
Saturday, May 20 – Native Plant Garden Stake and Planting Party
(ages 12+, under 18 with an adult), 1-3 p.m. Join Pierce Cedar
Creek Institute and Dayna Walton of Solstice Handmade to learn
the joys of native plants and typography, the art of arranging letters
to make the written language legible and appealing when displayed.
Learn the basics of lettering with a brush and practice on wooden
garden stakes to help you identify your plants and show off your
newly-acquired skills. But this class isn’t just about lettering – it’s a
party! The Institute will have pots, soil and native plant seeds to
start or add to your garden. Learn how to prepare and sow different
types of seeds and determine which seeds might be best for your
garden. This party is suitable for painters and gardeners of all expe-
rience levels. Members must pay $20 to register; non-members
must pay $28.
Those interested can register for these events and find more infor-
mation at cedarcreekinstitute.org/events.html.HASTINGS PUBLIC LIBRARY SCHEDULE
The Freeport News and Clarksville Record
Ron Geiger and the No. 375 Babcock Single Revolution Press, purchased in 1926
from the Kalamazoo Printing Company by Ken Braendall. The press was still in use in
1999 before The Freeport News and The Clarksville Record ceased production.
Charles Geiger getting a haircut in Freeport from Donald Send.Charley Geiger (left) was one of the first depositors when Wayland State Bank
opened its branch in Freeport.