Johnson and Green Receive Cumming Award

by Frank Boles

John Cumming, award namesake, as pictured in 2008 Morning Sun.

At the annual Isabella County Founder’s Day celebration on February 11, William “Willie” Johnson and Marie Green were recognized for their outstanding contributions in preserving the history of Isabella County. Each was awarded the John Cumming Isabella County Historical Preservation Award. The award is presented annually by several county historical organizations, to recognize the accomplishments of individuals like Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Green.

Marie Green is a lifetime member of the Shepherd Area Historical Society. Marie has served as a Trustee and Vice President. Recently, she has been a vital part in helping with the restoration of the Little Red School House Museum. The former one room school houses many artifacts and displays what school life was like for our ancestors. Marie worked relentlessly in acquiring estimates and bids used in obtaining grants. She also prepared the necessary inventory of what was needed.

Since Marie became a member, the Museum has been repainted on the outside and the windows and roof have been replaced. Many frames have been built and installed to properly house the many former class pictures. Countless other pictures have been framed for display. Marie kept all of the volunteers on course.

Her guidance working with the many other dedicated, hard-working volunteers made The Little Red School House Museum, or as it was formerly known The Landon School, more effectively preserved for the future. Indeed, the Museum will continue to be preserved, enjoyed and be an asset for our community for many years to come.

Marie is a supporter of The John H. Goodrow Fund, which supports those in need who live in Isabella County. She is also involved with the Mt. Pleasant Community Foundation where there is an endowed Emerson W. Green Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Throughout her years living in Shepherd she has worked and supported the Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival, the Shepherd Jaycees, and the Shepherd Women’s Club. This year she was instrumental in organizing The Shepherd Women’s Club 100th Anniversary party. She made sure that every member past and present was honored. She has also been honored by the Shepherd Lion’s Club as The Citizen of the Year.

William Johnson is a descendant of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan. He serves the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways as the Curator and Team Leader for Cultural Resource Management Team. He has worked for the Ziibiwing Center since 1998.

He has 19 years of experience dealing with Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) issues; including the coordination of ancestral reburials for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe as a NAGPRA designee. He is also the Chairman for the Michigan Anishinabek Cultural Preservation & Repatriation Alliance (MACPRA) and helps coordinate NAGPRA efforts for all the federally recognized tribes of state historic tribes of Michigan. He serves as the interim tribal historic preservation officer.

Through his efforts, the center’s excellence in exhibits and events has earned it numerous awards, including the 2006 Museum Award from the Michigan Cultural Alliance, the 2008 Harvard University’s “Honoring Nations” Award, and a Gold Muse Award from the American Association of Museum’s Media and Technology Committee.

In 2011, Johnson became the chairman of the Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance. He worked as a coordinator of Flint’s Stone Street Ancestral Recovery and Reburial Project, helping oversee the proper burial of more than 108 ancestral remains and their associated funerary objects that were inadvertently discovered during a construction project. He has also worked with many Michigan museums and colleges to accrue and respectfully inter Native American remains that had been removed from their resting places.

Johnson serves on the Mt. Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School Committee. The Boarding School, which operated from 1893 until 1934, sought to educate Native American children but also had the darker purpose of “taking the Indian out of the child.” The committee is charged with preserving and transforming this site to become a place of awareness, education, and healing for our state.

In 2012, Mr. Johnson was recognized by the Historical Society of Michigan with an award for Distinguished Professional Service.

The John Cumming Isabella County Historical Preservation Award was first presented in 2009, as part of the Isabella County Sesquicentennial celebration. The award is given annually and recognizes an individual or individuals who have made an exemplary contribution to preserving, recording, or disseminating the history of Isabella County. The award was named in honor of John Cumming, who served as director of Central Michigan University’s Clarke Historical Library from 1961 until 1982. This year’s award was made jointly by the Clarke Historical Library, the Mt. Pleasant Area Historical Society, and the Shepherd Area Historical Society

2015 John Cumming Isabella County Historical Preservation Award Winners

In 2009, as part of the Isabella County sesquicentennial celebration, the Clarke Historical Library staff joined with other historical groups in Isabella County to create the John Cumming Isabella County Historical Preservation Award. The annual award was named in honor of retired Clarke Library director John Cumming, who led the library from 1961 to 1982. The award recognizes “an individual who has made exemplary contributions to preserving, recording, or disseminating the history of Isabella County.” Appropriately, John Cumming was the first recipient of the award.

At the annual Isabella County Founder’s Day celebration on Saturday, February 7, the 2015 Cumming Award was presented by Frank Boles to Joyce and Larry Noyes of Shepherd.

In 1978, Larry and Joyce became charter members of the Shepherd Area Historical Society. They became active members and both have held offices in the Historical Society. They are also both active in genealogy and are members and active in the Genealogical Society of Isabella County. As part of their commitment to genealogy, Larry has presented programs to various groups on how to do family history and serves as a delegate to the Michigan Genealogical Council. Joyce is presently Vice President of the Genealogical Society of Isabella County. Joyce is also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. They both have assisted countless people with their family histories and have located lost relatives, families, and homesteads. Larry is a member of the website Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, where he conducts court house and cemetery research requests for people for free.

Joyce and Larry have shared their knowledge of the community by leading countless tours for community members. Joyce’s specialty is the Little Red School House, where visitors often find her wearing period 1850s clothing and teaching lessons from that era. She has lent her expertise in this area to the Michigan One Room Schoolhouse Association, of which she has been a member. Larry’s specialty is the Shepherd Area Historical Society Power House tours. And when not leading tours of the school or the powerhouse, they have conducted cemetery tours, again often in period dress.

Larry and Joyce have assisted in the publication of several genealogical and historical related calendars and books. The couple has researched many historical sites and businesses. For example, at the request of the DAR they did research that led to the relocation of the historical marker noting the site of Isabella County’s first one-room schoolhouse. Larry & Joyce also assisted in acquiring historical information and pictures found in the historical murals which are now in the new Shepherd Branch of the Chippewa River District Library.

Joyce and Larry have lived all their lives in the Shepherd and Mt. Pleasant area. Larry is a Vietnam War veteran serving in the Marine Corps from 1966 to 1968. Joyce is a graduate of CMU and was a teacher in the Mt. Pleasant Schools for 31 years. She taught second through fifth grades at Ganiard and Pullen Elementary Schools where she is remembered as a compassionate teacher who cared deeply for the children and families that she worked with. They are both active members of St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church in Shepherd. Joyce has served on the St. Vincent DePaul School Board for the former Catholic School and other committees.

The Clarke Library staff is pleased to have played a part in recognizing the devoted work of Larry and Joyce in preserving and interpreting local history and genealogy.

John Cumming Award Presented

by Frank Boles

Beginning with the celebration of Isabella County’s sesquicentennial in 2009, the Clarke Historical Library has participated in honoring individuals involved in local history with the John Cumming Isabella County Historical Preservation Award. Earlier this year, the 2014 Cumming Award was given to Tammy Prout.

Tammy Prout is a lifelong resident of Isabella County who has devoted much of her adult time and considerable organizational talents to preserving memories of our area's rich heritage by organizing a historical village at the Isabella County Fairgrounds, maintaining and scheduling rotating historical exhibits in the lobby of the Isabella County Building, working with Jack Anson to co-produce a video named "Isabella County: 150 years in the making" during the County's Sesquicentennial, organizing a vintage Fashion Show during that 150th celebration. Further, she was active in establishing the County's First Family Award program and helped reproduce Isaac A. Fancher's 1876 U.S. Centennial speech about the history of Isabella County in booklet form. She has been active in the Genealogical Society of Isabella County, the Friends of the Faith Johnson Library at Rosebush, and the Mt. Pleasant Area Historical Society.

The award was named in honor of John Cumming, who served as director of Central Michigan University’s Clarke Historical Library from 1961 until 1982, and was the author of This Place Mount Pleasant, a community history published in 1989, and The First Hundred Years, the centennial history of CMU, which was published in 1992.

To read more about this year’s winner (and to see a really ridiculous picture of myself presenting it!) take a look at an article from Mt. Pleasant’s local newspaper, the Morning Sun. For a complete list of all those who have won the Cumming Award, visit the webpage for the award on the Clarke website.

John Cumming Isabella County Historical Preservation Award Winners Announced

By Frank Boles

Jack R. Westbrook of Mt. Pleasant and Mary Sue Sazima of Shepherd were recently recognized for their contributions to local history by being awarded the John Cumming Isabella County Historical Preservation Award.

Jack Westbrook was recognized for his many publications documenting both Mt. Pleasant and Isabella County. Mr. Westbrook, the retired editor of the Michigan Oil and Gas News, has published eight books about the county, including,

•    Anointed with Oil  by C. John Miller; as told to Jack R. Westbrook
•    The Big Picture Book of Mt. Pleasant Michigan: Yesteryears to 2010
•    Central Michigan University 
•    Isabella County, 1859 – 2009
•    Michigan Oil and Gas (2006)
•    Michigan Oil & Gas News 60th Anniversary Photo Review : A Pictorial Chronicle of Michigan Petroleum Exploration and Production History from Beginnings to 1993
•    Mount Pleasant: Then and Now
•    Mount Pleasant; Yesterday's School Kids of Isabella County: a Photographic History of Rural One-Room Schools in Isabella County, Michigan (co-authored with Sherry Sponseller.)

Mary Sue Sazima, better known as Sue Sazima, was recognized posthumously for her pioneering work with the Shepherd Area Historical Society. For many years the Coe Township librarian, Ms. Sazima helped organize and served as the first president of the Shepherd Area Historical Society.  Ms. Sazima tirelessly worked to promote, advance, and assist the Society.  Her death in 2009 was deeply felt within the historical society and the community it serves.

The John Cumming Isabella County Historical Preservation Award was first presented in 2009 as part of the Isabella County sesquicentennial celebration. It recognizes individuals who have made exemplary contributions to preserving, recording, or disseminating the history of Isabella County. The award is made possible by a coalition of local historical organizations. This year the selection committee included representatives from the Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, the Mt. Pleasant Area Historical Society, and the Shepherd Area Historical Society.

The awards were presented On Tuesday April 19 at the regular meeting of the Isabella County Board of Commissioners.