Home Purchase (1992)

Activity Period (1992-1996)

Sale/Departure (Sep 1996)

Battle Creek, Michigan United States

Named for a skirmish between a government land surveyor and two Indians which took place seven miles away and almost 175 years ago, Battle Creek is proud of its rich and varied past. Known in different eras of its history as the Queen City, Health City, and the International City. Today Battle Creek is known as Cereal City, after the Kellog Foundation and enterprise.

The village of Battle Creek began as a market and mill center for prairie farmers. By the last part of the nineteenth century, the city developed into a major industrial center supplying variety goods, including agricultural machinery, steam pumps, violin strings, and newspaper printing presses to markets around the world.

Currently an international business center and amateur sports capital, Battle Creek was once a health and diet reform mecca for the chronically ill.

My Story

I arrived in Battle Creek from Seoul, South Korea (ROK) on 21 Dec 1991 to take a new position with the US Department of Defense.  I had worked outside the US for the past eleven years (Frankfurt, Germany and Seoul, ROK) and returned stateside because Congress had downgraded the overseas construction budget for the Corps of Engineers, and my position as Chief, Management & Manpower was being eliminated.

In fact, we had lost 73 percent of our workforce and the organization was placed in Operations & Maintenance with a greatly reduced staff and we were given 60 days to find new employment.  In Battle Creek I would be retrained as a Contract Specialist for hazardous waste disposal without lost of grade or pay.  So, I settled in and would remain in Battle Creek until receiving and accepting an offer to become the Executive Director of an environmental NGO in Taipei, Taiwan that was slated for September 1996.

House Layout

Four levels including basement and attic; sixteen rooms to include 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, laundry, kitchen, dining room, living room, display room, veranda, pantry, tool/workroom, and a room-size attic. Others: enclosed kitchen porch, enclosed backyard with a wooden deck, and a detached garage. The house had been upgraded and well maintained since its early beginnings.

Unfurnished

A few photos taken just prior to moving in.

Enclosed Veranda
Kitchen/Pantry
Dining Area
Enter Veranda (right)
Main/Living Room
Enter Veranda (left)

House History

Once owned by the First Congregational Church, it was used as church parsonage, provided with some renovation, and included maintenance and upkeep. In 1991, the house retained the original living room fireplace and the coal harbor located in the basement. However, previously, the furnace was removed and replaced by total-house gas heating. A list of previous owners dates to 1910.

Willard Library Historical Collection

The Local and Family History Collection at the Willard Library in Battle Creek, Michigan, USA has available The Historical Images of Battle Creek, a collection of more than 17,000 photographs that includes the above photo of my former residence and is dated ‘April 1940’. The library (right) was constructed in 1905.

Willard Library

Battle Creek History and Name Origin

In about 1774, the Potawatomi and the Ottawa Native American tribes formed a joint village near the future Battle Creek, Michigan.

Battle Creek was named for a minor encounter on March 14, 1824, between a federal government land survey party led by Colonel John Mullett and two Potawatomi Indians, who had approached the survey camp asking for food. They were hungry because the Army was late in delivering the supplies promised them by the treaty of 1820. After a protracted discussion, the Native Americans allegedly tried to steal food. One of the surveyors grabbed his rifle and shot one of the Potawatomies, seriously wounding him. Following the encounter, the surveyors retreated to Detroit.

Surveyors would not return to the area until June 1825, after Governor Lewis Cass had settled the issues with the Native Americans. Early white settlers called the nearby stream the Battle Creek River, and the town took its name from that. Wikipedia

Cereal Festival
W.K. Kellogg
BC US DLA
BC Sanitarium

Tales of Battle Creek

Authored by Berenice Bryant Lowe in 1976, Tales of Battle Creek provide an accurate chronicle of the activities of Battle Creek’s past.  The book includes more than 16 pages of photographs and a recorded interview of the author by a local high school student.

Publication/Interview

Harriet Tubman
(ca. 1820-1913)

Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave, abolitionist, conductor of the Underground Railway, is famed for having led more that three-hundred slaves to freedom. A bronze statue depicting Tubman and two local conductors leading a group of runaway slaves to safety is located in Battle Creek. It was created in 1993 by sculptor Ed Dwight, and commissioned by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Burial Site

Sojourner Truth
(c. 1797 – 1883)

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in Rifton, Ulster County, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, in 1828 she became the first Black woman to win such a case against a White man. She gave herself the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 after she became convinced that God has called her to leave the city and go into the countryside “testifying the hope that was in her.” During the Civil War, Truth helped recruit black troops for the Union Army. After the war, she tried unsuccessfully to secure land grants from the federal government for former slaves.

Burial Site
Sojourner Truth Institute

Battle Creek Michigan Air Show & Ballon Festival

The Nation’s largest Air Show & Balloon Festival. Held annually on the 4th of July.  Voted the 3rd best air show in the USA, and #1 activity in West Michigan.