Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2026 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== USGenNet Data Repository Notice: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ============================================================================= Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ============================================================================= Muskegon Weekly Chronicle Thursday, 22 February, 1900 MRS. B. RIPLEY, 15 W. Irwin street, came to this city January 8, 1857. "Everything was wild," she said, "and new. I was born in New York city, but I married and lived in Union City, Mich., a short time before I came here. MR. RIPLEY came to Muskegon the year before, in '56. We boarded with MRS. WITHERELL first and then went to housekeeping on Jefferson street, where the old postoffice used to be. The WOODBURYS lived across the way from us for several years. They built their home on the corner of Jefferson street and Western avenue. We afterwards lived on what is now Hackley Square for 25 years. "Muskegon was a little hamlet then. Of course there was no Muskegon county. It all belonged to Ottawa. They had to go to Grand Haven for their courts. The lumber hands would come down the river in the spring and drink and have their good times; but they never disturbed us much. I never ex- pected to have Muskegon for my permanent home till they began to improve the streets and everything began to get a little better and a little better and times were growing better. "Everything was so wild. I wouldn't be satisfied until I would go away and visit and see the green fields and then I would come back and have to get used to the saw- dust streets again. I don't remember but what we lived all right then. I the summer season we didn't always have vegetables and such things. People would have to have them brought in. They didn't have gardens. "I have lived to see two cemeteries almost filled. When we first came here they buried down on Webster avenue. They began to build up around there finally and then platted this one up here, and some years ago moved the graves up to Evergreen. "Things were new here in early days and we all knew one another. I always found it pleasant. It was social and we used to go sleighriding down to Port Sherman for dances. We would get into a long sleigh and go together. "The Indians used to be around. They would come and peek in the windows, naver knocked at the door. The first we would see they would be looking in the windows. It used to frighten me for a time, but I got accustomed to it. They came to sell baskets. Sometimes they would want a bite to eat and I would always have them in and give them something. I remember one night when MR. RIPLEY was off to war two of them came and I thought, 'Well, I'll get them some supper for perhaps MR. RIPLEY is hungry tonight.' "There was no church when I came. The Methodist people met in the old school house on Terrace street, that is all the school there was. The same year, probably the next fall, the church was commenced by MR. PRATT. They organized the choir when they opened the new church, which was completed the following year. We never met in the school house to sing. Twas after the church was com- pleted. F. F. BOWLES, of Norton, and myself are the only members of the first choir now living. We used to meet to practice and we sang some of the things we sing now - some of the same anthems they have now. "After a few years I had a long siege of sickness and didn't sing any more. When the war commenced they started the Congregational church and I joined that. ===============================================================================