A small town in central Michigan is turning 150 years old, and will celebrate its sesquicentennial with a series of events this weekend.
Beal City has a population of about 300 people. Steve Weber, one of the organizers for the celebration, says it’s a special place with a tight-knit community that’s always ready to give a helping hand to neighbors and is proud of where they’re from.
For example, local residents and businesses raised $80,000 over the last year to make these events happen, Weber said.
“It just makes a big difference when you have a lot of people that really care about the community,” he said.
“My great, great grandfather came over from Germany and he worked in the UP up in the iron ore mines and he read a newspaper article that there was a German Catholic settlement happening with really good farm ground west of Mount Pleasant,” Weber said. “He took a train ... and then walked the rest of the way.”
In 1900, he bought a piece of property, where Weber’s grandpa built a sawmill fifty years later. Today, the family still owns the same sawmill and has a museum in the front.
Paul Gross, who is also one of the organizers for the sesquicentennial events, said Beal City plays an important role in his family’s history as well.
“My great grandparents actually are some of the original settlers,” Gross said. “John Gross or Johannes Gross, he was he was born in the Eifel region of Germany, and they came to the U.S. in 1868. Then, he and his family lived in in Westphalia before they came up here.”
The town itself started around a lumber camp, and then its first settler, Nicholas Beal, opened a general store and a post office, Gross said. German settlers started populating the area and built a parish in Beal City, according to the town’s website.
Today, Gross said Beal City community is trying to live up to the values, traditions and expectations of their ancestors.
“Our community’s known for just hard work, integrity, community support, looking out for everybody... supporting our neighbors,” Gross said.
To honor their heritage, Gross said Beal City’s sesquicentennial events will have historical aspects such as families displaying their ancestors’ history and activities like a traditional German beer run.
“We're trying to blend the old and the new a little bit with some of the hospitality of the yesteryears and with some of the activities that we do today, so we’re really excited,” he said.
The organizers have also been trying to replicate the events that Beal City had for its 100-year anniversary. Gross said he was 20 years old when the community partied for nine days to honor its centennial.
“Everybody was involved in some sort of activity, and they dressed in the period dresses,” he said. “It was truly a community event ... and it made a very memorable experience.”
Richard Gruss is 94 and has lived in Beal City his entire life. He said he still remembers the centennial celebration.
“I think we set a record of how many cans of beer was drank in one day,” Gruss said. “The beer tent sold over 2,000 cans of beer in one day.”
Gruss said he’s going to attend the sesquicentennial events this weekend as well and hopes to win a beard contest.
“I'm growing a beard,” he said. “I'm just proud of being from Beal City and I do what I have to try and participate as much as I can with my age.”
Some other events for Beal City’s sesquicentennial celebration include parade, free hot dogs, music performances, fireworks and an old tractor show. The events will start at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 31 and end on Sunday, Aug. 3.
“Our biggest goal is just that everybody comes out and has a good time, and in 50 years from now, they'll be telling my kids about the good times they had 50 years ago,” Weber said.
