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Any photos not otherwise credited are from the personal collection of Frank Passic, Albion Historian.
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Morning Star, April 14, 2002, pg. 13 It’s always nice to receive letters from our readers who help with historical facts from time to time. Our article about Devereaux on February 24 attracted the attention of Edward Pattenaude of Jackson, whose wife Cora and her mother Pearl Grundeman were the ones who ran the soda shop there. Mr. Pattenaude also related that the Merritt’s purchased their store from a family named Kellogg. We’ll make the corrections to the article on our www.albionmich.com internet site. I also received some nice comments about last week’s article about the Interurban rails being laid 100 years ago. The advantage of the Interuban was that it made numerous convenient “local” stops along the route. Some were farmhouses such as the Bayn farm east of town, some were at intersections such as Clough View (24 Mile Road), some were at schools such as Pierce School, and some were at gathering places such as Montcalm Lake. From our Historical Notebook this week we have a special treat. It is a 1921 Interurban ticket listing all of the stops between Jackson and Kalamazoo. It passed through such places as Jackson, Parma, Albion, Marshall, Ceresco, Battle Creek, Urbandale, Augusta, Galesburg, Comstock, and Kalamazoo. The conductor would use a paper punch to punch out the fare on the left, and the “to and from” cities the passenger was traveling. From Parma to Albion in this order were the following stops: E. Knowles, Clark, North Concord, Owls Nest, Bloomerville, Morehouse, Ray, Bath Mills, Bayn, Finley, Murdock Road [Newburg Road], Mingo St., Albion. From Albion to Marshall were these stops: Boyd, Taylorville, Hurley Road, Montcalm Lake, Fifley Road, Mack, Emery, Clough View, Lake, Marengo, Vernor, Pierce School, Patterson Road, Coleman Road, Ferguson, Cemetery Crossing, Cooper, Layhers, Church, Perrett No. 1, Rice Creek, Duck Lake Road, Marshall. Roads were “named” back then and not the “mile” road designations we know of now. How many of our readers remember any of these names or farmhouses where the Interurban once stopped? You can still see portions of the old Interurban roadbed on the north side of Michigan Avenue between Parma and Marshall today. 
1921 Interurban ticket
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