Organizers of the 103rd Loveland Family Reunion are seeking help to determine whether the photo above at the 1st Loveland Family Reunion in 1921 was taken at 122 N. Main Street Climax, or another location in the Village.
(Picture from the Loveland Family Annual Reunion Facebook page)Family asking help identifying location
where 1st family reunion photo was taken
where 1st family reunion photo was taken
By Bruce Rolfe
The 103rd Loveland Family Reunion will be held in the Village of Climax Sunday, August 18, at 1 p.m. in the Climax Village Park.
Parking is available along North Main Street and in the Climax Township Hall parking lot. In case of poor weather, the reunion will be held at the Climax United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, 133 E. Maple Street.
Family members would like to have a family reunion photograph in front of the same house in the Village where the first Loveland reunion at the Griffiths in 1921 (pictured below) was taken.
Carla Farthing Sykora, a family descendant of the Lovelands, said there is a little uncertainty about the location where the first family reunion photograph was taken in 1921 and does not want to line everybody up in front of the wrong house.
Sykora said the first Loveland reunion was held at the Griffiths, however some believe the photo was taken at 122 North Main Street, possibly across the street at 129 North Main Street or maybe at a third location at 120 North Main Street.
The Griffiths are Warren and Jennie Griffith. Jennie was a sister of Mary Smith, daughter of Susan Adell Wolcott and granddaughter of the original couple, Jacob and Mary Loveland. Warren and his father, Melvin Griffith, ran a mill in town. Warren had to leave the business because of respiratory problems caused by working at the mill. They moved to Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
Sykora adds an item from ancestry.com notes her Uncle Warren and Aunt Jennie Griffith resided at 13 Church St. as renters, per the 1920 census. There was no North or South Church Street named, so it appears the address numbering system was different.
She said the house at 122 N. Main Street is very similar, minus the gingerbread trim, however she is not totally convinced because in the house pictured there are two first floor windows and the house currently at 122 N. Main has only one window. She admits a window adjustment over the years could have taken place, leaving her curious if this was the location the picture was taken at in 1921.
Adding to the confusion, Sykora said one of the siblings, Susan Adell, Sykora’s great-grandmother, lived at 129 N. Main.
Sykora adds over the years it was mentioned that the group went across the street from 122 North Main Street to 129 North Main Street to take the 1921 reunion photo because the house would offer a prettier setting, adding it would have made sense for the reunion to be at the 129 North Main St. location. She said 129 N. Main stayed in the family for many years. She said she remembers her Uncle Eddie and Aunt Fern Smith living there. Later, her cousin, Joan (Smith) and Ken Champion lived there, and she thought one of Ken and Joan Champions’ children also lived there as an adult.
Sykora said according to the Register of Deeds, the house at 120 N. Main to the right of 122 N. Main was purchased by Melvin Griffith in 1912 and is another possibility where the first reunion was held. Melvin, who was married to Mae Griffith, was the father of Warren Griffith. She adds Melvin or Mae Griffith were not Loveland descendants, to Sykora’s knowledge, so it would be odd for them to host the reunion, but not impossible, given the warm neighborliness and relationship so often found in Climax. Their son, Warren Griffith, was married to a descendant, Jennie Wolcott. Maybe the group went to the house next door (122 N. Main) to take the photo, not the house across the street at 129 N Main.
Sykora said she reached out to the Kalamazoo County of Register of Deeds to find out ownership history at 122 N. Main Street.
The response from the Kalamazoo County Register of Deeds notes a search for both the Warren and Wolcott families from the year 1898-1925 was performed but the Register of Deeds representative was not able to locate a deed for the property. The Register of Deeds representative said the unsuccessful deed search could mean the property was purchased prior to the representative’s starting point of 1898, or neither of the families owned the property. The County Register of Deeds also attempted to run the chain of title backwards in time from 1970 all the way back and was not successful in tracing the chain of title backwards either. The closest the Register of Deeds representative was able to come to finding the deed was for the property located to the right of 122 N Main (if you’re facing the house) owned by a family member of the Griffith family.
The County Register of Deeds representative also reached out to the county treasurer to see if there were any old tax records back to 1921. Sykora was referred to the WMU Historical Archives in Kalamazoo or she could hire a title company to perform an extensive title search in which they would be able to help locate the owner of the property in the year being researched.
In lieu of the uncertainty of the location where the first reunion photo was taken, the family is asking if anyone knows the main floor windows on the front of 122 N. Main were changed from two windows to one center window. Please email Sykora at carlasykora@hotmail.com
All descendants of Jacob and Mary Loveland are invited to attend the reunion.
The 103rd Loveland Family Reunion will be held in the Village of Climax Sunday, August 18, at 1 p.m. in the Climax Village Park.
Parking is available along North Main Street and in the Climax Township Hall parking lot. In case of poor weather, the reunion will be held at the Climax United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, 133 E. Maple Street.
Family members would like to have a family reunion photograph in front of the same house in the Village where the first Loveland reunion at the Griffiths in 1921 (pictured below) was taken.
Carla Farthing Sykora, a family descendant of the Lovelands, said there is a little uncertainty about the location where the first family reunion photograph was taken in 1921 and does not want to line everybody up in front of the wrong house.
Sykora said the first Loveland reunion was held at the Griffiths, however some believe the photo was taken at 122 North Main Street, possibly across the street at 129 North Main Street or maybe at a third location at 120 North Main Street.
The Griffiths are Warren and Jennie Griffith. Jennie was a sister of Mary Smith, daughter of Susan Adell Wolcott and granddaughter of the original couple, Jacob and Mary Loveland. Warren and his father, Melvin Griffith, ran a mill in town. Warren had to leave the business because of respiratory problems caused by working at the mill. They moved to Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
Sykora adds an item from ancestry.com notes her Uncle Warren and Aunt Jennie Griffith resided at 13 Church St. as renters, per the 1920 census. There was no North or South Church Street named, so it appears the address numbering system was different.
She said the house at 122 N. Main Street is very similar, minus the gingerbread trim, however she is not totally convinced because in the house pictured there are two first floor windows and the house currently at 122 N. Main has only one window. She admits a window adjustment over the years could have taken place, leaving her curious if this was the location the picture was taken at in 1921.
Adding to the confusion, Sykora said one of the siblings, Susan Adell, Sykora’s great-grandmother, lived at 129 N. Main.
Sykora adds over the years it was mentioned that the group went across the street from 122 North Main Street to 129 North Main Street to take the 1921 reunion photo because the house would offer a prettier setting, adding it would have made sense for the reunion to be at the 129 North Main St. location. She said 129 N. Main stayed in the family for many years. She said she remembers her Uncle Eddie and Aunt Fern Smith living there. Later, her cousin, Joan (Smith) and Ken Champion lived there, and she thought one of Ken and Joan Champions’ children also lived there as an adult.
Sykora said according to the Register of Deeds, the house at 120 N. Main to the right of 122 N. Main was purchased by Melvin Griffith in 1912 and is another possibility where the first reunion was held. Melvin, who was married to Mae Griffith, was the father of Warren Griffith. She adds Melvin or Mae Griffith were not Loveland descendants, to Sykora’s knowledge, so it would be odd for them to host the reunion, but not impossible, given the warm neighborliness and relationship so often found in Climax. Their son, Warren Griffith, was married to a descendant, Jennie Wolcott. Maybe the group went to the house next door (122 N. Main) to take the photo, not the house across the street at 129 N Main.
Sykora said she reached out to the Kalamazoo County of Register of Deeds to find out ownership history at 122 N. Main Street.
The response from the Kalamazoo County Register of Deeds notes a search for both the Warren and Wolcott families from the year 1898-1925 was performed but the Register of Deeds representative was not able to locate a deed for the property. The Register of Deeds representative said the unsuccessful deed search could mean the property was purchased prior to the representative’s starting point of 1898, or neither of the families owned the property. The County Register of Deeds also attempted to run the chain of title backwards in time from 1970 all the way back and was not successful in tracing the chain of title backwards either. The closest the Register of Deeds representative was able to come to finding the deed was for the property located to the right of 122 N Main (if you’re facing the house) owned by a family member of the Griffith family.
The County Register of Deeds representative also reached out to the county treasurer to see if there were any old tax records back to 1921. Sykora was referred to the WMU Historical Archives in Kalamazoo or she could hire a title company to perform an extensive title search in which they would be able to help locate the owner of the property in the year being researched.
In lieu of the uncertainty of the location where the first reunion photo was taken, the family is asking if anyone knows the main floor windows on the front of 122 N. Main were changed from two windows to one center window. Please email Sykora at carlasykora@hotmail.com
All descendants of Jacob and Mary Loveland are invited to attend the reunion.
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