"The history of county roads and the Newaygo County Road Commission"

By Robert Auw

When you see that big orange truck go by plowing snow in the winter and grading the road in the summer, you have to wonder about that organization, the Newaygo County Road Commission. I’ll attempt to tell you the story and explain why roads are located where they are.

From early history, waterways have been the easiest way to travel, but we still need overland routes. Our Newaygo County development proves this. Because the Muskegon River flows through the southern part of our county, development was along the river, so you can call this area our “Cradle of Civilization.”

Now some history. As you know, our county was originally covered with white pine, which was the tree that lumbermen sought for lumber. This tree has soft wood and makes lumber that is ideal for building homes and the wood is stable.

The first sawmill in Newaygo County was built in 1837 by Augusta Pennoyer on Pennoyer Creek. The creek empties into the Muskegon River at Newaygo. As soon as the mill was complete, they began sawing lumber and floated it down the river to Muskegon and eventually to Chicago. The second mill was at Croton, or the Muskegon Forks, as it was called then. This mill was on the Little Muskegon and was owned by John Stearns.

The two mills came into operation before our county was organized. The State of Michigan officially surveyed our county from 1825 to about 1850. Newaygo County was officially organized in 1851 with only two townships. The west half was called Brooks and the east half was called Newaygo Township. When the board of supervisors met, there were two supervisors and the county seat was Newaygo.

The first two mills were powered by water and were located on streams that could be dammed. The next mills were built at Bridgeton, Fremont, and Hesperia and were spread over a large area. Eventually, the need for roads became apparent, to haul in supplies and haul out finished lumber.

The Newaygo-Croton road and Westeria from Newaygo to Fremont (Elms corner) were examples of early roads. These two roads radiated from Newaygo, the supply center. roads were sometimes built along township or section lines, or just took off across country as the shortest distance.

As you can imagine, the roads of those days were not what we think of today. A road was functional if it had enough room for a team of horses to pass by as they removed trees and stumps.

As the trees were turned into lumber and the land cleared, more people moved into the area. Some people worked in the woods and some began farming. The increase in population meant that more townships were formed. Bridgeton, Dayton, Sheridan, Ashland, Big Prairie, Garfield, and Ensley were such townships. Each township had an elected supervisor, so the number on the board of supervisors increased. The board authorized the construction of roads.

Now, let’s jump ahead to the year 1857 when Dayton Township’s records are available regarding road construction. From these records, we see that he township elected a township highway commissioner. Although no other township records are available, we assume that other townships elected someone to that office. The highway commissioner carried out the duties regarding the location, construction and maintenance of township roads.

The first meeting of the Dayton Township Board of Road Commissioners was May 11, 1857. Members were Melvin Scott, N.D. McComber and Simon Barnhard. At that meeting, they divided the townships into three districts and appointed an overseer over each district. Willard Wilder was overseer of district No. 1, James Buick, district No. 2, and Caleb Wilcox, district No. 3. The board of commissioners was authorized to raise $250 for roads the first year.

The road building process went something like this: landowners who wanted a road signed a petition and presented it to the commissioners. Discussion followed, and if approved, the petition was turned over to the overseer in that district.

The overseer hired a surveyor to stake out the new road on township or section lines. Two rods, or 33 feet was the center of the road and 33 feet on the adjoining line made the road right-of-way 66 feet. Local men were usually hired to remove trees and stumps in the right-of-way. If grading had to be done, the overseer hired the nearest horse-drawn grader. The overseer kept an account of all expenses and these expenses were apportioned to the landowner according to the number of feet of road on his land. The landowner could pay or work out his assessment.

This process continued in each township, and gradually a county road system developed where roads were connected, township to adjoining township and into a county-wide system. And then, surprise, surprise!! You would have thought that the owners of the Model T Ford would have been the group that pressed the state legislature to improve the county roads. But no! It was the bicycle owners! This happened in the late 1800’s. A group of bicyclists formed a group called the “League of American Wheelmen.” They were tired of pedaling  across county after county on rutted roads. They finally organized into a group that pressed the state legislature for better roads.

Finally the state legislature passed a law, which created a Stone Road District, but only in Bay County. They authorized three stone or macadamized roads. These new roads became so popular that the districts increased in size and later led to the raising of funds for more road improvements.

All this led up to the passing of the county road law in 1893, which encouraged other counties to follow what Bay County had accomplished. Next came another law, which allowed each county, by vote of the people, to organize a county road system and to levy a road tax.

Not all counties went through this process, but in 1932 the legislature passed the McNitt Act. This act finally brought about the county road commission, as we know today. Each county had to take over the roads of their county and maintain them. The result of the new system was to create a new standard of road construction and improvements. It also connected county roads with state roads and provided financing through a state fund. Another advantage was that each county could afford to purchase road-building equipment for construction and maintenance.

To organize the new Newaygo County Road Commission, the board of supervisors appointed three members. The first members were appointed for six, four, and two-year-terms. Members were Herman McKinley (chairman), Charles Coburn, and John M. Beem. They met April 27, 1920 at the courthouse in White Cloud (county seat). This group was to take over the building, and maintenance of all Newaygo County roads.

The McNitt Act also provided for state funding of all county roads. The monies would come from the sale of gasoline and the purchase of auto license plates. The money would be disbursed to each county on the basis of population and miles of roads. This formula takes into account that each county is not the same size (Newaygo and Kent counties have 24 townships, where most others have 16).

The second meeting took place June 3, 1920 where it was decided to purchase two Adams Patrol Graders at $180 each. (This grader is a horse-drawn grader.) They also purchased an Adams Grader from Monroe Township at $150. The first few meetings were mostly purchasing supplies and equipment. Key employees were also hired and those included Jay Crawford as clerk, S.L. Hall as engineer, Emil Larson as engineer-manager, Arthur Gaines as assistant engineer and Ralph Smith as highway engineer.

An interesting part of the minutes shows that the Newaygo County Road Commission was also a “charitable” organization during the Great Depression! The “Poor Commissioner” of the county met with the board of commissioners in 1932 and it was agreed that the road commission would furnish work for the poor of each township. The Poor Commission would furnish names, and the road commission supplied trucks and a foreman. The men would work on certain roads as needed. The road commission made up the payrolls, which were then sent to each township. The township would pay each man at a pre-determined rate.

As the number of road commission employees grew and equipment became motorized, another interesting point showed up. As more new roads were created, they realized that some roads had to be routed around swamps, lakes and sink holes. If you look at 24th Street from Stone Road to Wisner, you see examples of this. The road could not stay on section lines, so the road commission purchased land around three places. It would not be practical to build a road through a sink hole.

Another big change happened in about the 50’s or 60’s. The road commission devised a system to name the roads. This system dissected the county in half from north to south and east to west. The road in the middle of the county from north to south was named Baseline and the road in the middle from east and west was Centerline. Roads west from Centerline were named for famous men of the area: Gordon, Ferris, Bingham, Baldwin, Croswell, Luce, Warner, Stone, Green, Comstock, Dickinson and Maple Island. East from Centerline at the mile were names of trees: Willow, Walnut, Spruce, Poplar, Oak, Pine, Locust, Elm, Cypress, Cottonwood, Beech and Newcosta as the east county line.

North from Baseline at the mile were 1 Mile, 2 Mile, up to 18 Mile, the north county line. At the half-mile were president’s names: Washington, Adams, Monroe, Jackson, VanBuren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Pierce, Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, Cleveland, Roosevelt, Aster, Coolidge. South from Baseline: each mile was in eighths, such as 8th, 16th, 24th, 32nd, 40th, 48th, 56th, 64th, 72nd, 80th, 88th, 96th, 104th, 112th, 120th, 128th, 136th, 144th the south county line.

The house numbering system also came into being about this time. East and west from Centerline, homes were given numbers from one to 800 to the mile. North and south from Baseline the same applied, 800 to one mile. Look at a county map and you will see how this works out.

Early Employees

Here are some of the early employees of the road commission. The date after their name indicates when they were hired: Nicholas Auw ‘24, Edwin Doering ‘28, Maurice Eldred ‘26, Howard Fetterley ‘28, Walter Fischer ‘20, Nelson Peter Flinton ‘26, Orren Fowler ‘24, Joe Fox ‘27, George James ‘25, Charles Johnson ‘22, Chester Johnson ‘28, Robert Kline ‘29, Leonard Nowak ‘28, M.H. Russell ‘29, Mac F. Slade ‘27, Joseph Stanislawski ‘28, Ray Wing ‘29, Louis Jay Crawford ‘20, Robert Arthur Gaines ‘22, Emil W. Larson ‘23.

The following were hired in the 1930’s: Lafayette Cole ‘32, Mike Felos ‘32, C.D. Fowler ‘30, Wilbur Fowler ‘31, Mart Hochstetler ‘32, Theodore Jones ‘31, Arthur May Jr. ‘33, Bruce McDonald ‘36, Ted McClain ‘33, Alvin Nielson ‘36, Jacob Puff ‘30, Paul Puff ‘34, Byron Romans ‘36, Jay Shaft ‘30, Robert Shick ‘32, Orren Stratton ‘33, Clyde Sutton ‘32, Robert Wolframe ‘38, Minnie Larsen ‘33, and Matt Dudeck ‘39.

The following were hired in the 1940’s: William Allers ‘42, Henry Eggerstedt ‘41, Gustav Fingel ‘41, Floyd Puff ‘42, Charles Ruttkowsky ‘42, Leon Towne ‘40, Violet Babula ‘43, Jacob Aishe ‘44. Virgil Moore was hired but no date after his name.

Newaygo County Commissioners: 1920-1922 John Beem, 1920-1923 Herman McKinley, 1920-25 Charles Coburn, 1922-45 Harry Blandford, 1923-47 William Flynn, 1925-49 Ed Peterson, 1945-51 Russell Gilliland, 1947-63 Eugene Hillman, 1949-73 E.E. Twing Jr., 1951-63 Erwin Price, 1963-71 Leo S. Cook, 1963-69 George Gronso, 1969-86 Nathan VandenBerg, 1971-2001 Merrill Eady, 1973-83 E.J. Jones, 1983-85 George Kroeze, 1985-97 Alonzo Jones, 1986-87 Keith Westbrook, 1987-93 E.E. Twing III, 1993-present Ronald Sanders, 1997-98 George Kroeze, 1998-present Lou Meeuwenberg, 2001-present William Gonyon.

The first clerk of the commissioners was Jay Crawford, followed by Minnie Wenstrom who served until 1950, Violet Babula until 1979, Evelyn Mortland served a short time, Millard Aves until 1988, and Judith Way, presently serving.

O.S. Hess was the first engineer. E.W. Larson was appointed in 1925 until 1950. Maurice Russell 1951-66, Conrad Zimmerman 1967, James Houston 1968-72, Doug Perry 1973, Clayton Lovell 1973-87, Raymond E. Cook 1989-95, Gregg Scott 1996-2001, Kelly Smith present superintendent and manager.

The governing body of Newaygo County is the Newaygo County Board of Commissioners by districts: No. 1 Gerald W. Derks Jr., No. 2 Rosswell H. Fulton Jr., No. 3 Stanley DeKuiper, No. 4 James F. Maike Jr., No. 5 Lavern Willett, No. 6 Timothy M. Purcell, No. 7 Mary K. Balberde.

The commissioners appoint the Newaygo County Road Commissioners as follows: Louis Meeuwenberg, chairman; William Gonyon, vice chairman; and Ronald Sanders, commissioner.

The road commissioners hire two managers: Kelly Smith, Superintendent/ Manager and Judith Way, Clerk/Office Manager. Working under Judith is Kerry Hewitt, administrative assistant and Mary Victor as payroll administrator.

Under Kelly Smith is Vernon (Gene) Eaton as operations manager, Rick Fosters as construction supervisor, Tom Wenstrom as shop supervisor, Orville Webster, John Newton, and Scott Crisman as maintenance supervisors, Robert Lague as engineer, and Joe Kaltz, Daren LaClair and Rick Stadick as engineering technicians.

The road commission has 26 big trucks, four graders, three loaders, two backhoes, and one excavator. Recently purchased were two large trucks. To give you and idea of costs involved in one of those large trucks, here is the breakdown:

International Truck - $99,589.79
Underbody Scraper - $6,056
Sand Spreader - $24,114
Liquid prewetter - $4,240
Total - $133,999.79
Front End Plow (approx.) - $3,500
Two-way Radio - $500

These trucks have 450 horsepower and are depreciated in about seven years. The big trucks have diesel engines and use diesel fuel. The fuel for all road commission equipment is purchased from “Fuelman” located north of Pine Hill in White Cloud. Last year’s gas bill was $251,595.77, or $9,676.47 every two weeks. The annual income of the road commission is about $10 million. Employees are paid every two weeks, so every two weeks, the road commission pumps an average of $81,568 into the local economy through payroll!

In addition to the employees listed above, there are 36 employees listed below:

Mechanic-welder: Roger Foster, Larry Bulson, Jerry Curtis and Michael Warren. Stock clerk: Patrick Perry. Heavy equipment operator: Lee Visser. Skilled labor/ traffic signing: Dennis Kaiser and Stuart Ringer. General equipment operators: Barry Flinton, Carl Cox, Robert Bird, Brian Seabrook, Alfonso Rodriguez, Jerry Sherman, James Boerema, Greg Manchip, Harry Willson, Sidney Kirk, Tony Foster, Rodney Taylor, Sheldon Zimmerman, Carol Anderson, Dana Redman, Christopher Ringler, Thomas Tibbe, Bradley Smith, Bernie Kimball, Nicholas Auw, Mike Kymes, James David, Robert Hoad, Glenn Ward, Dale Weaver, Ross Baddis, Randy Willson, and Gregg Cook.

The drivers of the big trucks begin their workday at 7 a.m. When they arrive at the garage, they receive their daily assignment. Usually, each driver has an assigned route, but there are exceptions when someone is sick. In the winter, during a snowstorm, they try to cover the local and primary roads each day. Sometimes a truck will have to go over the state truck lines as much as five or six times a day. There are four trucks out on the night shift. There are about 1,600 miles of state trunk lines. Of the primary and local roads in Newaygo County, about one half are hard surface.

Information for this story comes from Betty Howarth, Joe Fox, Merrill Eady, road commission employees and my personal experience. My father, Nicholas Auw, and my father-in-law, Leonard Nowak were both employed there. My grandson, Nicholas Auw is presently employed there.

My dad told about the days when four men loaded a truck with gravel by hand at the gravel pit. Joe Fox told about how the mechanics made the first sand spreaders out of junk parts. At that time, a man stood on the back of a truck and threw shovelfuls of sand onto that early sand spreader.

The present day workers have it much easier than those of a few years ago. They still work hard and my hat is off to them! In my opinion those people who work physically hard and get dirty while working are the most important people in the world! Do you agree?