It’s a warm Saturday morning on main street, and Sharkey Badgerow has just been murdered… again. He jolts and spins and clutches his chest, blood oozing from his wounds. He finally drops to the pavement and gives one last kick.

Several gang members throw him on the flatbed. The driver lashes the mules and the wagon speeds away. Murder in downtown Sparta is common occurrence since the Dirty Dingus Gang arrived. And the crowds love it.

 The Quasquicentennial

In 1971 Sparta celebrates its 125^th anniversary. It’s a big happening with many activities. Some of the village men grow beards as the event approaches. Then one day, they put together a real gang to promote the festivities.

 The Dirty Dingus Gang

The Dirty Dingus Gang is born, with 12 original members. Gary Delang, Dale May, Jerry Teasdale, Dick Greeno, Art Frisk, Dick McKinney, Sharkey Badgerow, Stub Vandenhout, Don Reed, Dale Rosel, Ted Anderson and Al Keck.

 The gang arm themselves with muzzle loaders, shotguns and rifles from the local VFW. Their team of mules gallops through town during various events and the gang shoot it up with blank ammo. It’s a crowd pleaser.   

 The Badgerows  

One of the stars is Sharkey Badgerow. His grandfather, Charles, is of French descent and grows up in the Upper Peninsula. Charles and two brothers serve in the Civil War. The brother’s die in Libby prison in Confederate Virginia.

 Later, Charles arrives in Sparta and opens a billiard hall on main street. Not an establishment of the highest repute, according to Sharkey. Charles later opens a grocery store on the corner of Gardner and State.

 Sharkey

Two generations later, Sharkey is one of five grandsons born in the family house on the corner of Centennial and Union. In 1942 he is drafted into the U.S. Army where he participates in the liberation of North Africa. In 1945, he meets his wife, Lunita from Mississippi.

 Business, horology and gemology

Sharkey majors in business administration and horology, the science and repair of time keeping instruments, at Ferris. He also gets a degree in gemology. Back in Sparta, he and an uncle open a jewelry store on Gardner street.

 Later the business moves to main street, where it is still located. No merchant has been active on main street longer than Sharkey. For 60 years he as been a real milestone known for his pleasant disposition and comic antics.

 Summer of ‘71

Summer of 1971. “Knock Three Times” by Dawn is the top hit. “All in the Family” is the most popular TV show. Intel introduces the microprocessor, an invention that revolutionizes our lives. George Harrison organizes Concert for Bangladesh.

 In Sparta many activities are organized for the centennial, including a theatrical production on the high school football field involving hundreds of residents. A special memorial magazine features opening words by President Nixon.

 The President has more on his mind. Vietnam veteran John Kerry makes a plea in a Senate hearing to end the war. George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, rides a wave of anti-busing sentiment to become presidential candidate.

 The magnificent victim

In 1971 Sharkey is a founding member of the Dirty Dingus Gang. He has a special role: the victim. He appears out of the crowd wearing a big hat and long white coat. He shakes his fist and shouts at the gang. They respond with blazing guns. Sharkey dies magnificently in the street.  

 The gang are popular. They are invited to other towns for celebrations. Proceeds go to the Sparta Ambulance Fund. They also organize the first beer tent during Town and Country Days, a slightly rowdy tradition that continues in Sparta today.

Sharkey Badgerow lives with his wife Lunita in the family home on West Averill street. They have 4 children and 10 grand children. He still runs the family jewelry business at 169 East Division street.

 This Milestones on Main Street article was produced for Sparta Today. Input and contributions to this column are welcome. Please send your ideas to Dean Lettinga at hlet@hetnet.nl or contact Joan Lettinga at ‘Round Again in Sparta, 887-2414.

He will describe the current status of Marquette Rail, its future plans, and answer any questions you may have.  Marquette Rail operates the tracks that travel through Sparta crossing Division next to Elm Street where one can see and hear trains passing through multiple times per day.  The tracks connect from South of Grand Rapids, up to Ludington and Manistee area.

Photos of the Sparta Railroad Site: click HERE.

Coming from a railroading family, Kevin started his career with the Katy Railroad.  After serving a stint as a leader and venture capitalist to middle-market companies, he returned to the railroad industry as a consultant on over 85 short-line transactions over a 20-year span, while also advising in the development of high-performance employee-owned companies.

He has a BBA in Economics from Sam Houston State University and an MBA from the Univeristy of Dallas.

Kevin is involved in leadership roles in both the employee ownership and short line rail road communities.  He started the tradition of the Santa Train through communities which brings Santa Claus into Sparta each year.

This program is hosted by the West Michigan Railway Historical Society, a chapter of the NRHS.

 It’s a hot July morning in Sparta, 1969.  Armstrong and Aldrin have just landed on the moon.  But for the moment Bob Schwab is more interested in a station wagon pulling away from his dump, leaving an old couch behind.

 To anybody else it looks like junk.  But to Bob it’s a treasure.  Bob rolls the couch over and slashes the bottom lining with his jackknife.  Bingo!

 Among the lint and food crumbs are pennies, nickels and more.  A five dollar bill.  And a gold watch.  The kind bankers wear.  All lost items.  Bob knows every old sofa is a treasure chest waiting to be opened.

 From Trash to treasure.

 In the ’60s and ’70s, Bob Schwab’s garbage truck is a daily sight on Sparta streets.  He has a contract to pick up the trash and a permit to operate a dump on his Alpine property. 

 Bob knows everybody in town and loves a short chat with anybody, for both pleasure and business.  He’s a wheeler-dealer.  One person pays Bob to pick up the trash, like pallets or barrels.  Another needs pallets or barrels, and pays Bob to drop them off. 

 Bob Schwoop, born on a boat.

Bob Schwab grows up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, as Frank J. Schwab, the youngest son in a large Catholic family of German immigrants.  Born in 1912, he inists his birth certificate reads, “Bob Schwoop, born on a boat”.  He loves a good story.

 He is a relative of Charles Schwab, the millionaire founder of U.S. Steel.  His family includes Austrian-Hungarians in New York, among them a circus act called The Tumbling Nemos.  As a child, Bob tap dances for coins n the New York Streets.

 From Allentown to Grand Rapids

Bob joins the Navy in the 1920’s.  he leaves Norfolk on the USS Arizona to parts of call in Guantanamo, Port-au-Prince, and the Panama Canal.  Later in Life Bob would bear a striking resemblance to another sailorman- to Popeye, in voice, attitude and phical appearance.

 When the Arizona clears San Francisco, Bob and a buddy miss ship, officially AWOL.  They ride trains back east, landing in the brig at Pensacola Naval Station.

 The depression hits.  Bob hears there’s work in Michigan.  In Grand Rapids he gets a job as bellhop at the Pantlind Hotel.  Eventually the Shepherd Family hires him on the family farm. 

 True Grit

Bob marries Mildred Helsel, the daughter of a farm laborer.  He hunts and fishes with the locals, sometimes legally.  There’s food on the table.  Their only child, Joan, is born in the snowy winter of ‘37.

 In the 40’s Bob and Mildred buy some land on Alpine Avenue, which is rich in gravel.  Bob is a pragmatic American.  If you have a big hole, fill it.  He turns the gravel pit into a dump.

 There’s gold in them thar hills!

 Life in Sparta is good.  The American Dream is in full swing.  Buy new and throw away the old.  Bob is there to take it.  His dump becomes a mountain of gold.

 Everyone knows “Schwabby” as Bob is known.  When you need something, go see Bob.  If he ahs it, he usually gives it away free, together with a smile and a bit of hometown philosophy at no extra charge.  Bob loves to make people happy.

 Shooting for the Moon

In July 1969, standing in his dump, Bob can see the moon.  The Eagle has landed.  Thirty years later, America is more occupied with terrestrial challenges.  Like economic and environmental sustainability.  How to manage affluence and waste?

 Bob Schwab loved the simple things.  A good story, a friendly word, a smiling child.  He has his own ideas about wealth, about using and reusing material goods.  He was a garbage man.  A rich man.  A garbage man with a gold watch.

 In 1972, the Schwab Dump became part of the Kent County Landfill.  The county site later became a superfund.  Bob died in October 1990.  He is buried in Algoma Cemetery, far away from Allentown, Pennsylvania.  His wife, Mildred, lives in the family house on Alpine Avenue.  She is 93.

 Bob lives on as “Frankie” the emblem of ‘Round Again, Inc. in Sparta, a consignment/ resale shop founded by his daughter Joan in 1985 and still in business today.

 This Milestones on Main street article was produced specially for Sparta TODAY.  Input and contributions are welcome.  Please send your ideas to Dean Lettinga at hlet@hetnet.hl or contact Joan Lettinga at ‘Round Again in Sparta.  887-2414

The excitement of the future after High School is high for Robert Anderson & Donald Reed, two Sparta High School Students. As they have lived in Sparta most of their lives, and been friends for a long time, both boys reflect on their years in Sparta growing up as graduation nears.

Coach VanHuizen may be the shop teacher in school, but on the Football Field, VanHuizen coaches the Sparta Football team. Sparta has taken the Kenowa League championship for the last 11 years. VanHuizen may be a winning coach, but as Don and Robert are well aware, he can be strict with the team. They hear that Coach VanHuizen will be retiring soon from coaching football at SHS, and wonder how long it will be until the next Championship Victory for the future Football teams.

The High School Building

The Old Red Brick High School, as Robert and Donald refer to their school sits on the corner of Union and Alma. The building holds a lot of memories for them including the popular superintendent Balyeat and “Fred”, the teacher from Agriculture Class.

A big part of growing up in Sparta for these 1947 graduates was stopping by Jacksons Blacksmith Shop. Any kid who walked around with the metal horse shoe nail that had been pounded into a circle to wear as a ring had recently been to Jacksons Blacksmith Shop. Phoebe’s Candy Store also holds many memories for the graduating class as a popular place to hang out.

Sparta Hunting & Fishing Club reforms around 1948

As the North Kent Rod & Gun Club dissolved shortly after WWII, Don & Robert hear about the club restarting again in 1949. The club meets in the Police Station and will continue to do so until the new Bank Building is constructed. The club owns the property on W. Division (where current day Toro Distributors is located). The club is talking about selling this property and will begin looking for new property. It’s heard that Mrs. Bebe may be interested in selling her property in Sparta Township to the club. Current members of the club include upstanding citizens in the Sparta area such as Dave Johnson, the current Village President, Clare Finch, Chuck Saur, and Donald & Robert.

The Korean War in 1951

After returning from the war, Donald is planning to work for Spartan Extrusion Tool & Die. The pay is $1.05 per hour which will bring in an honest living even if it may be hard to feed a family each month. Robert is looking forward to moving to Grand Rapids after the war and working for the Kent County Treasurer.

As 1953 comes, the club of 19 people will be going to the bank to sign personal notes to purchase the property. Each one of the 19 members know the personal stake of purchasing the Hunting & Fishing Club property but believe that membership will grow and prosper throughout the years.

Building a Club House in 1954

This year, the club which consists of 20 members will be building a pole barn to store equipment and eventually a new club house. The club is starting with 1 trap field and continues to clear property for the club. Laurence Bodell is building a running deer target that runs back and forth through bicycles that are upside down and tied with ropes. When it’s finished, the target will look like the deer is galloping. People from miles around are coming to check out his deer target contraption.

The Future for the club

The club will eventually grow to the strong size of 329 members that will enjoy the 79.5 acre land. The club will look forward to BBQ chicken & Ribs dinners, picnics, and reunions on the property, as well as involving the Kent City and Sparta School kids in educational programs. The Club will become well known as a family club with extensive archery courses with 3-D targets, woods walk, clay tours and trap fields. The heart of a few men who took out personal bank notes to invest in a project they believed in has grown to benefit hundreds of nature loving residents throughout the area.

The full interview of Robert Anderson and Donald Reed will be available on DVD through the Sparta Township Historical Commission in Sparta Township Offices.

Some of the major changes are due in part to the Village of Sparta Downtown Development Authority (DDA) Property Enhancement Grant program for exterior enhancements to commercial buildings within the DDA District. The program has generated over $250,000 of investment from business owners into the exterior of their buildings over the past two years. The investment from property owners in their buildings is important for the vitality of Sparta business and the enhancements are having a major effect on the image of Sparta.

Round Again, the downtown business at 213 E. Division, has become a historical focal point for downtown Sparta after the completion of the DDA grant program in 2007. By taking the architectural history into account, the property owners, Howard and Joan Lettinga, decided to restore the exterior to its original size as built in 1907. By removing a 1940’s addition, the Lettinga’s found the original building sign in the façade of the building as the doorway header reading “N.A. Shaw Palace Livery 1907”. As a building that has served many different businesses over the years, including a Drayage Business (the hauling of a load by a low built cart by horses), a Livery Barn, Fields Transfer Line, a farm implement business, a John Deere equipment repair operation, a beauty shop, real estate office, accounting business, and photo shop, the building was finally purchased in 1984 as a consignment/ resale business by the Lettinga’s. As 2007 marked the hundredth year for the historic building in downtown Sparta, the Lettinga’s celebrated by restoring the building to its historic exterior and continuing the legacy of the historical building in downtown Sparta.

Another example of the DDA grant program is the major exterior improvements on the building at 530 S. State Street that currently houses Spectrum Health, Mel Trotter, LA Insurance, and the Secretary of State. Through the DDA Grant Program, the 530 S. State Street building underwent major façade improvements that included adding new façade materials, raised the height of the front façade to hide equipment, and correlated the businesses on the property. The improvements are remarkable and the project has made major improvements to the South State Street corridor.

Maxine’s Family Restaurant, at 370 N. State Street, is another example of success for the DDA Grant Program. Through major façade improvements, parking lot enhancements, streetscape improvements, and landscaping work, the business has made a major impact on the North State Street corridor and improve the exterior of the visual appeal of the restaurant. Maxine’s Family Restaurant has changed their image and look through the DDA Grant Program. The before and after photos show the extreme results of the project undertaken in 2008.

Interested in the 2009 DDA Property Enhancement Grant program? Businesses must meet grant guidelines and meet with the Property Enhancement Grant committee before applications are accepted. Grant guidelines are online under Assisting Businesses at www.spartami.org.

Creative Divide
Currently the home of Print Metro and Creative One Gallery, the original exterior of the McGowan building remains undisturbed, but the same cannot be said for the interior. Looking through the elegant spindles and up the graceful banister highlighting the lost lobby, it’s easy to imagine the mortals who have crossed over those portals above; but what about the immortals that cross our paths in Sparta’s present Downtown

Historic District?
It is said that ghosts return to places where their earthly counterparts enjoyed life and perhaps our local unexplainables need none other but to remain in that happy place. How else to explain a non-operating vacuum cleaner discovered running all night long while not even warm to the touch the next morning? Who would’ve turned it on after hours, was it purely an inquisitive interest in a contemporary contraption?
Then there are the giant, double doors that take a genuine shove to open; to the amazement of two witnesses, why would they suddenly swing wide? Nothing malevolent, but the apparent locking and unlocking, opening and closing of doors seem to be the work of an imperceptible prankster. While seeing may be believable, believing may also be in feeling a presence within. What does a surprised spectator say to a curious specter; fully dressed as a butcher, complete with long, white apron, rolled up sleeves and rumpled pant legs above untied boots?

Whodunit
Today’s Around the Corner Antiques displays its movie theater history in its vaulted ceiling where the projection room was once housed. If the upper floor is uninhabited, what explanation is there or the noises and constant commotion therein? Brimming with age old objects, why would they be continually misplaced? Are long-ago owners still attached to cherished possessions and unwilling to bury the past? Or is there an unseen projectionist at work?

Happily Ever After
Nelson Shaw appropriately named his spacious livery the Palace. Going ‘Round Again as a consignment department store, Moonlight Madness may not be so farfetched. Invisible footsteps have been heard so often from below that it’s become commonplace and hardly worth the effort of calling up, let alone walking up, to the second floor to check if anyone’s there. Broad expanse as it may be, double checking is always unrewarding. Upon hearing inexplicable squeaking hangers or possibly a moving rack, one still can’t help but wonder if Mrs. Shaw is looking for something special to wear. Who knows what she would be partial to these days?

Night at the Opera
Even into her nineties, plenty of stage presence kept Myrtie Brown in style long after her husband had passed. From the theater at the top of the Opera House to the Knights of Pythias and dance studio at the bottom, her theatrical residence overflowed with garments. While spending the night in Myrtie’s upstairs bedroom a young guest was astonished to be awakened from a deep sleep. Standing in the doorway before her was a man in full regalia, complete with plumed hat! With buried head in pillow, she trembled in fear and prayed herself back to sleep. The next day she cautiously wandered the halls and discovered Myrtie’s magnificent millinery, but it was what was hanging behind the showcase that sent shivers down her spine. Amidst the costumes on display were the very clothes that her theatrical apparition had been wearing! Was her dramatic visitor Orly Brown, wondering who was sleeping in his bed or merely a dressed-to-impress vaudevillian?

History’s Mysteries
Full of history as well as mystery, present-day Sparta is haunted with many memories. Whether it’s a past remembrance of Arzie Pinckney’s from the Sparta Sentinel Leader or a more recent happening, local haunts have always been an interest to young and old alike. Be it a favorite place of visiting or a place of supernatural visitation, both old and new accounts of our hometown hangouts are only meant as considerations as well as entertainment. As we face our future by reviving our past, we are simply making the village of Sparta what a neighborhood should be.

Do you have news to share of an ethereal event? Contributions are welcome, please contact toni@tonipayne.com or call (616) 887-0911.

In the fall of 1907, he finished construction of a two-story building on main street Sparta to house his livery. The American flag, now with 46 stars since the admission of Oklahoma, waves proudly in front. A blacksmith is right next door. The harness shop is across the street. The railroad depot is just around the corner to the east.

Things to Move
Horse drawn wagons from Shaw’s livery move supplies that arrive by train to the farms and small manufacturing businesses around Sparta. The late summer will be busy. Many German and Swedish immigrants have settled in the Sparta area. They are growing fruit, mainly apples and peaches, on their farms. As the harvest ripens, these products must be transported to markets in Grand Rapids.

22 Cents an Hour
So business in July 1908 looks promising for Nelson Shaw and his wife Jessie. They need that. The building, horses and wagons are large investments that need to be paid off. And good help can cost as much as 22 cents an hour.

Living expenses at the Shaw home just south of Main Street are increasing as well. Sugar is up to four cents a pound, coffee 15 cents a pound and eggs 14 cents a dozen. Plus there is a delicious new product on the market, Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes, from a new company down in Battle Creek. Nelson and Jessie have never tasted anything like it.

Imagine the Profit
As their business flourishes, they dream of the things they can do with the profits. Perhaps attend a baseball game. The Chicago Cubs beat the Detroit Tigers in the 1907 World Series. The way things are going, the two teams will meet again in the 1908 Series. Or maybe visit the Grand Canyon someday, which President Roosevelt has just designated as a national monument.

Down in Detroit
There is, however, one thing that concerns Nelson Shaw. Down in Detroit, a man called Ford is making horseless carriages. Shaw has seen one in Grand Rapids. They are the strangest things. They make an awful noise and smell terrible. But maybe there is a future for these contraptions. How will they affect his livery?

A New Business Model T
By the summer of 1908, there are 8,000 cars in the United States. That same year, Henry Ford introduces the Model T. In 1909, its first full year of production, about 18,000 units are built. By 1920, Ford produces more than one million cars a year. What will all this mean for Nelson and Jessie Shaw? For the Shaw Palace Livery? For east Sparta?

From Palace Livery to Transfer Line
East Sparta remains a transportation center for several decades. Shaw Palace Livery becomes “Fields Transfer Line.” Horse drawn carriages are replaced by motored vehicles, but still operating from the two-story structure that Shaw built.

The building is a cornerstone in Sparta as one of the first erected on main street. It is renovated in 2007, exactly 100 years after construction, to restore the original materials and display the original header: “N.A. Shaw Palace Livery 1907.” It has been a downtown business location for more than a century. Today it houses ‘Round Again consignment shop, a dance studio, a used book store, and an ice cream shop.

Enterprising in 1921
As for business in east Sparta, the harness shop, the blacksmith and the train depot disappear with the rise of the automobile; but not without economic compensation. Just south of main street, a new enterprise begins in 1921, an important supplier to the industry that Henry Ford is driving.

It’s the Sparta Foundry, an iron foundry that becomes one of the largest piston ring manufacturers in the world. It also becomes a major employer in the area and backbone of economic activity in Sparta throughout the 20th century.

Nelson A. Shaw was born on 18, May 1856 and died on 8, January 1933, 26 years after he started Shaw Palace Livery on main street Sparta. His wife Jessie was born on 18, December 1862 and died on 4, April 1932. They are both buried in Sparta’s Greenwood Cemetery.

This is the first in a series of Milestones on Main Street articles specially produced for Sparta Today. Input and contributions to this column are welcome. Please send your ideas to Dean Lettinga at hlet@hetnet.nl or contact Joan Lettinga at 887-0013 in Sparta.