At Home in Rochester: Lewis Ward Curtis House

If you've ever visited the Victorian Rose at 118 West Third Street, chances are you've sipped tea in Lewis and Madelin Curtis's living room. Dr. Lewis Ward Curtis and his wife, Madelin Hipp Curtis, built this prairie box style house in 1912; Dr. Curtis had purchased the lot in 1911.

Lewis Ward Curtis was born in Macomb County in 1879, but he grew up in Rochester where his father, James Ewell Curtis, operated the grist mill at the south end of Main Street. (Known for many years as the Curtis Mill, this structure was later known as the Barkham Mill.)  The young Curtis attended Rochester High School and was graduated with the class of 1897. He then enrolled at the University of Michigan College of Dental Surgery and, according to his college yearbook, served as president of his class. After receiving his D.D.S. degree from the University of Michigan in 1902, Curtis returned to his home town to establish a professional practice. He built a brick business block at 307 S. Main in 1907 and later bought property up the street at 315-317 S. Main (where Arizona Saddlery is located today).

Lewis W. Curtis practiced dentistry in Rochester until 1929. He was also very active in community affairs and served as president of the Rochester Board of Education. He died in 1976.  The former Curtis house at 118 W. Third has served as the home of the Victorian Rose Tea Room in recent years; before that it was the home of the offices of Buckerfield Engineering.

Bygone Business: Rochester Motor Lodge

From the mid-19th century through the early decades of the 20th century, Rochester had two lodging houses - the Lambertson House/St. James Hotel at Fifth and Main, and the Sidney House/Detroit Hotel at Third and Main.  Both of these hotels had faded away by the time of the Great Depression, and for a couple of decades there were no hotels available in Rochester. That changed in the late 1950s, when two new establishments opened: the Spartan Motel on North Hill, and the Rochester Motor Lodge, south of the village.

Rochester Motor Lodge opened in February 1959 in a brand-new building on the west side of South Rochester Road, near the corner of Hamlin. Harold H. Brown was the proprietor, and designed the 12-unit building with the assistance of Mount Clemens architect Elmer Parke.  The Rochester Motor Lodge stood at this location until about 1998, when Walgreens purchased the property as a site for one of their stores.

This advertisement ran in the Rochester Clarion on February 12, 1959, to announce the grand opening of the motel.

Subdivision Stories: Avon Hills Estates

The Avon Hills Estates subdivision was laid out on the northeast corner of Adams and Auburn roads, south of the old Grand Trunk Railway line,  in 1925. Officially known as Wheaton and Worrall's Avon Hills Estates, the development was created on land that was formerly the farm of Orrin W. Harris and his wife, Dora. Harris's wife died in 1921, and in 1925 he contracted with local developers Arthur O. Worrall and Harold L. Wheaton to transform the property into a subdivision.  Ladd Brothers, a Rochester real estate agency, handled the original sale of the lots.
The streets in Avon Hills Estates were originally named Welling and Sylvan; when Avon Township renamed many of its streets in 1950, Welling became Avalon and Sylvan became St. Clair.

This advertisement for lots in Avon Hills Estates ran in the Rochester Clarion when the subdivision was first opened in 1925.

Vanished Rochester: Barkham Mill

Barkham Mill (Courtesy Rochester Hills Public Library)

If you could travel back in time to the Rochester of 1900, you would find two grist mills in the downtown area, one standing at each end of Main Street, like bookends. Rochester had been established because of abundant water power along Paint Creek, Stoney Creek and the Clinton River, and the mills that stood along these waterways were the first economic engines of the area. At the north end of the village was the Neely Mill on Paint Creek, and at the south end, near the foot of today's South Hill bridge, was the Barkham Mill.

Steven W. Barkham was the name of the final owner of this mill, which stood on the west side of Main, north of the Clinton River, for ninety years.  It was built in 1837 by Johnson Niles, a founding pioneer of the settlement of Troy Corners, and had many owners and operators in its nine decades of operation.  According to a memoir of Theodor Dahlmann that was published in the Rochester Clarion in 1927, Niles and his business partners sold the mill in 1850 to Charles Nathaniel Griffin, a native of New York, who operated it for nearly ten years before selling out and moving to Detroit.  During the Civil War years, the mill was owned by Baxter Gillett and operated by his brother, Hartson Gillett. Several other owners and partners followed until 1885, when James Ewell Curtis became owner of the business. Curtis, a son of area pioneers, was also the father of Dr. Lewis Ward Curtis, a Rochester dentist who later built business blocks at 307 and 315-317 S. Main Street.  The Curtis heirs sold the grist mill to Steven W. and Beal Barkham in 1903, and so the old wooden structure was known as the Barkham Mill when it was completely destroyed by fire on December 2, 1927, consigning it to the pages of Vanished Rochester.

At Home in Rochester: Irving J. Coffin House

A stately Dutch colonial home that stands atop a bluff on the west side of North Main Street, between Ferndale and Glendale is connected to a prominent Detroit area man and a tragedy that took his life.  Irving J. "Duke" Coffin built the house in 1927, on a lot he had purchased in 1925.  Coffin was born in Rochester in 1875, and served with the Michigan Naval Brigade aboard the U.S.S. Yosemite during the Spanish-American War. Following the war, he moved to Detroit and worked for the D.U.R. for a few years. In 1910 he took a job as a process server for the Wayne County Prosecutor's office, and worked his way up to county detective. In 1918 he ran a successful campaign for Wayne County Sheriff and served in that position until 1923.

The Rochester Clarion reported in the spring of 1927 that "I. J. Coffin has broken ground for a Dutch colonial type eight-room house on his lot adjoining H.A. George's home on North Main Street." Coffin also owned a farm home two miles north of Rochester, and it is unclear whether he ever lived in the new house in town. On July 28, 1928, Coffin was driving his Lincoln sedan south on Rochester Road when a vehicle turning in front of him forced his car onto the D.U.R. tracks and directly into the path of the oncoming northbound limited interurban car, which was on its way to downtown Rochester.  In the car with Coffin were his eleven-year-old adopted daughter, Evelyn,  and two adult women passengers.  Evelyn Coffin was instantly killed and Irving J. Coffin died of his wounds - a crushed chest and fractured skull - soon after arriving by ambulance at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac.

The funeral service for Irving J. "Duke" Coffin was an impressive one, with full military honors. Fifteen Lincoln sedans were sent out from Detroit by Henry Ford to convey funeral attendees from the home to the cemetery.  Michigan Governor Fred W. Green, who made the trip to Rochester from Lansing by airplane, served as one of the pall bearers.  The Henry Ford band provided music at Mount Avon Cemetery, where Coffin and his daughter were laid to rest.

This Month in Rochester History

Cemeteries were on the minds of Rochester area residents fifty years ago this month. Members of the Avon Township Board of Trustees expressed their extreme displeasure at the application of LePage & Associates to establish and operate a cemetery on Hamlin Road, on land formerly occupied by the Ferry-Morse Seed Farm.  The township itself operated two cemeteries and did not welcome competition from the outside; furthermore, trustees were concerned that the land in question would be removed from the property tax rolls if used for cemetery purposes.  Trustees commented that Avon Township (now Rochester Hills) had "no need" for a new cemetery.

The objections of the township board notwithstanding, the proposed cemetery was soon after established on Hamlin Road as Christian Memorial Cultural Center. It has recently changed names and management and is now known as Christian Memorial Gardens West.

Old News That's New Again: Community Gardens

Last summer, the City of Rochester established a community garden, and the City of Rochester Hills is planning to establish one this year.  In both cases, the community garden was hailed as something new, but if we turn back 80 years in the pages of Rochester history to the Rochester Clarion issue of June 9, 1933, we find this story on the front page of the newspaper:

WELFARE GARDENS ARE PLANTED
Forty-Seven Acres Sown For Community Project in Avon Township

   Avon Township's Community welfare gardens are underway. Forty-seven acres have been planted to root crops including potatoes, carrots, rutabagas, cabbage, sweet corn, squash, pumpkins and tomatoes. Twenty-seven acres have been tilled and sown on the former J. C. Day farm, just west of the village limits on the Pontiac road and the remaining twenty acres are located on the Crooks road. The gardens are being worked by welfare men using time slips the same as when they worked on the road. It is expected that a sufficient amount of vegetables will be raised on these gardens this summer for next winter's welfare supply.
   In addition to these community gardens, each welfare family has an individual garden which they take care of and have for their own use this summer.
   The township furnished the seeds for this project, purchasing them at a very reasonable price.
   Township officials have secured the assistance of K. D. Bailey, county agricultural agent. Mr. Bailey has stated the gardens were planted in excellent sod and heavy productivity can be assured. He will visit the gardens each month to note their progress and if at any time his assistance is needed he will gladly give it.
Similar projects are being carried out in neighboring townships and cities for their welfare use.

Avon Township is known as Rochester Hills today.  The J. C. Day farm referenced in the story later became known as the Great Oaks Stock Farm, located along West University/Walton on what was formerly referred to as the Pontiac road.

Bygone Business: South End Garage

1920 newspaper ad for South End Garage

South End Garage was a Rochester institution for over half a century. Opened around 1920 by W. C. Calkins, the business was originally located at 121 S. Main Street, near the foot of the South Hill bridge. In the 1950s, it was located at 101 S. Main, and in 1964, the garage moved to its final location at 198 Diversion Street, just to the east of the South Hill bridge.  All locations were at the south end of town, in keeping with the business name.

After Calkins, South End Garage was operated at various times by Lester F. Pickering, Henry Kraus, and David R. Hoffman. The business closed several years ago, after a long run, but the building still stands on Diversion Street. Readers, if you have more information about this business, or memories of it, please post them in the comments!

Subdivision Stories: John R Highlands

The John R Highlands subdivision in Rochester Hills is one that has changed greatly from its original plat. The subdivision was laid out in 1924 on the southwest quarter of section 36, previously the farm of August and Caroline Dobat. The Dobats, along with Detroit real estate developer John P. Hehl and the Alex E. Michelson Land and Home Company, platted the land as the John R Highlands subdivision with interior streets named Evans and Ransom.  Ransom Street was presumably named for John P. Hehl's wife, the former Susie Ransom; the origin of the name of Evans Street is unclear.  In any event, both names were changed in 1950 when the Township of Avon renamed many of its streets at the recommendation of the county road commission. At that time, Ransom Street became Michelson, and Evans became Enfield.

The other major change to this plat, as can be seen by comparing a modern map to this original drawing, is that most of the eastern half of the plat is occupied today by Thelma G. Spencer Park and its 38-acre  Frederick S. Carter Lake. The park was opened in 1981.

At Home in Rochester: James S. Stackhouse Residence

In the summer of 1899, carpenter and contractor James S. Stackhouse built this home at 426 West Fifth Street (now West University Drive) as his family residence, after purchasing his lot on the Sprague Addition from Albert G. Griggs. The Rochester Era told its readers on July 28, 1899 that: "The frame of J. S. Stackhouse's new house is up, the roof is on and work is rapidly proceeding toward completion."

James S. Stackhouse was born in Northampton County, Pennsylvania in 1846, the son of James Stackhouse and Kattie Shiffer. He married Frances M. Frutchey, also a native of Northampton County, and the couple migrated from Pennsylvania to Michigan about 1880. James and Frances Stackhouse were the parents of ten children; their son, James, was the operator of a meat market at 413 S. Main Street in Rochester and was married to Rochester's postmistress, Jessie McDonald Stackhouse.

In 1920, James S. Stackhouse died in his home at 426 W. Fifth Street; his wife died in 1929. The Stackhouse heirs sold the family home in 1937 to Joseph I. Moore and his wife Margaret, who used it as their family residence.  The Stackhouse residence is currently the location of the offices of Communicare on Canvas, an artistic rehabilitation program.  The building celebrates its 114th birthday this summer.

This Month in Rochester History

The location of Crittenton Hospital was on the minds of Rochester area residents fifty years ago this month. The Suburban Unit Committee of Detroit's Crittenton General Hospital board of trustees, headed by Howard L. McGregor, Jr., had been working to identify a suitable location for the new hospital facility for some time. The first site selected by the committee was on Auburn Road near John R, but that location had to be rejected because of "serious sewage and drainage problems." Casting about for an alternative, the committee chose a portion of the McGregor stock farm on the south side of Walton Boulevard, east of Livernois, and the decision was announced in the Rochester Clarion on February 7, 1963.  Ground was broken for the  new hospital in 1965, and it opened in August 1967. The rest, as they say, is history.

If you're interested in the history of Crittenton Hospital, take a look at this slide show.

Pioneer Farmsteads: William Hulsizer Farm

William Hulsizer farmhouse in 1897

One of Avon Township's early farms, settled before the Civil War, was the William Hulsizer farm on Section 24, located on the north side of today's Hamlin Road, just east of John R. William Hulsizer was born in Lebanon, New Jersey in 1818 and emigrated to Michigan with his wife and children in 1859. The couple established a farm on 86 acres of land southeast of the village of Rochester and reared twelve children there.  (One of the Hulsizer children, William H. Hulsizer, was a well-known auctioneer in the Rochester area for many years.) In September 1894 the family suffered a setback when their farmhouse was lost in a fire, but they quickly built a new house on the same foundation, finishing it in 1895.  The Hulsizers called their farm "Maple Villa," and lived there until their respective deaths in 1904 and 1905; in all, they were married for 64 years.

The William Hulsizer farm was subdivided in 1920 when the Ferryview Homelands plat was approved. Today, the Hulsizer farmhouse is 118 years old; it still stands on a small remnant of the farm at the corner of East Hamlin and Gravel Ridge roads, looking much the same as it did in this 1897 view from the booklet Beautiful Rochester.

Bygone Business: A & P

A & P at 637 N. Main, decked out for its 1954 grand opening

Rochester's A & P grocery store was found in at least three different locations on Main Street before it moved out in the early 1990s.  In 1925, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company opened a store at 307 S. Main; by 1929, the store had relocated up the street at 419 S. Main. On March 10, 1954, the grocery store held a grand opening in a brand-new building at 637 N. Main, and Rochester had its first supermarket-style grocery in an impressive 11,662-square foot facility.

The new A & P store was built by local developer George Knorr and leased to the grocery company. Cy Borst was the manager at the time the new building on N. Main was opened. I grew up on the north end of town in the Albertson Addition, so the A & P at 637 N. Main was our neighborhood grocery store.  By the time I was old enough to shop there, Al Klous was the manager and our neighbor, John Parker, worked in the meat department.  The store had many long-time employees who were there from the time I was a small child until the store moved to the North Hill shopping center in the 1990s.

After the A & P moved to North Hill, the building at 637 was completely renovated for other use.  Today it is the home of the Rochester Athletic Club.  Meanwhile, the A & P in its North Hill location gave way to a Farmer Jack, and when the Farmer Jack brand went under, Hollywood Market moved into the space.

Are there any Rochester A & P alumni out there? Do you remember the Ann Page house brand?  The Jane Parker bread and the big coffee grinder to grind your Eight O'Clock coffee? If so, please share your memories through the comments.

Subdivision Stories: Wilcox Addition

In the city of Rochester, the lots lying north of West University Drive, on the west side of Madison and both sides of Wilcox Street, are part of a modern subdivision plat known as Supervisor's Plat #3, but a century ago and earlier they were part of an unrecorded plat known as the Wilcox Addition.  The Wilcox Addition lies on property that was once owned by early Rochester settler Lyman J. Wilcox and his son, Elliot R. Wilcox. (In addition to his roles of attorney, state legislator and officer of the Detroit & Bay City Railroad, Elliot R. Wilcox was a prosperous farmer who owned the entire area that we know today as Great Oaks.)

A subdivision plat must be presented to the local government authority and receive a vote of approval before being recorded as an official plat in the county register of deeds office.  The Wilcox Addition was laid out in the middle 1880s, but was never approved and recorded in the register of deeds office. Although numbered lots in the Wilcox Addition were sold, the deeds for those lots were still recorded as fractional acreage described in metes and bounds terms, rather than as lots in a plat.  This did not change until 1949, when the Supervisor of Avon Township imposed order by creating Supervisor's Plat #3, officially organizing the lots in a recorded subdivision plat.

One of the most interesting points of history in the Wilcox Addition is the Wilcox Paper Mill that was built in that area in 1873 by Elliot R. Wilcox. Here's how the Rochester Era described the building when it was under construction:

NEW PAPER MILL
Mr. E. R. Wilcox has made arrangements for the erection of a new paper mill, a short distance north of the Eureka Mills, having let the contract for the construction of the buildings to Mr. J. W. Eastman, of this village. The main building which with the exception of a stone basement will be of brick, 32x48, and two stories high. The machine room will be 24x80, bleaching room 20x24, and engine room 12x24. The location of this mill is one of the finest in the country, while the water power, being 17 feet fall, cannot well be surpassed. The work we understand will be pushed forward to an early completion.

This mill went through several owners and was never an economic success. It was destroyed by fire in 1901.  The Wilcox Paper Mill stood approximately between the northern dead end of today's Wilcox Street and the Rochester Community House.  Traces of the mill race for the paper mill are still visible along the edge of the parking area in the Rochester Municipal Park.

The accompanying map image shows the unrecorded Wilcox Addition as it appeared on the 1908 plat of the village of Rochester.

Vanished Rochester: D.U.R. Car Barns

D.U.R. car barn fire, May 19, 1923

 It may be difficult to visualize now, but a century ago the village of Rochester was a mass trans-portation hub. On the east side of North Main Street, just south of the Paint Creek bridge, the Detroit, Rochester, Romeo and Lake Orion Railway built a powerhouse and car barns in 1899 when the company brought an interurban railway line through town.  The D.R.R. & L.O. was soon absorbed into the Detroit United Railway (D.U.R.) system, the name by which it is more commonly recognized. The Flint Division of the D.U.R.  line drew all of its electric power from the generating plant in Rochester, and rolling stock on the line was repaired in the adjacent car barn facility.

Early in the morning of May 19, 1923, the car barns were destroyed by a fire that the Rochester Clarion described as "the most disastrous and spectacular fire ever witnessed in Rochester." The Clarion's account of the event read in part:

     Fire, of unknown origin, had broken out in the vestibule of one of the six large limited cars which had been run under cover in the barns after their daily runs, and was being fought by the sweeper who was attending his duties in the barns, and for which purpose the power had been shut off -- water and electricity not mixing well together. Not being able to extinguish the blaze which was gaining great headway in the car and spread rapidly on account of the large amount of grease accumulated in the car and barns, it was then too late to turn on the power and run out the cars, which otherwise might have easily been done.
     Our local fire department soon responded and did valiant work in keeping the fire which was already beyond their control in the barns, from igniting the thousands of gallons of oil in the large transformer tanks, kept in a separate room at the rear of the burning building.
     An alarm call was sent the Pontiac fire department and a fire truck and several firemen were soon upon the ground, but only to aid in extinguishing the blaze as the building was then a complete wreck.
     The loss of the building, six cars, tools, etc. is estimated at above $200,000.

D.U.R. car barn fire, May 19, 1923

The company's intention at first was to repair the burned out car barns, as the walls appeared to remain sound. This effort soon proved unworkable and the structure was demolished, relegating it to the pages of Vanished Rochester. A short eight years later, the entire D.U.R. line through Rochester was abandoned as motor vehicles siphoned away the company's business.

The photos shown here were taken by one of the firefighters later in the morning when D.U.R. workers and bystanders moved in to survey the wreckage.  In the photo at the top of this post, notice the curved track which runs from the left side of the frame (beginning at the brick street) into the center of the car barn.  This is part of the track that was uncovered in the summer of 2012 during the Main Street reconstruction project.

To view a map of the Detroit United Railway system as it looked in 1913, click here.

This Month in Rochester History

Happy New Year, Rochester history fans! Rolling the calendar back half a century to January 1963, we find that the big news of the day was the dedication of an addition to the Avon Township Library building. The library at the corner of West University Drive and Pine streets had been funded by a bequest of the late Eva Woodward Parker and was built in 1951; within a decade, it was already inadequate to serve the needs of the growing community.  Another bequest by the late Grace Currey provided a little over $33,000 to the library board to expand educational resources for the youth of Rochester and Avon. The funds were used to add a room to the back of the library building which was named the Currey Room in honor of Grace Currey's parents, Daniel and Mary Ellen Currey. (The Currey family is also remembered in the Golden Hills and Currey Hills subdivisions, which were also named for them).

In addition to the new library room, which was dedicated on January 20, 1963, the Currey bequest funded the acquisition of a lot adjacent to the library to the north which was converted to a badly needed off-street parking lot for the facility.

At Home in Rochester: William E. Rice House

Current view of 120 E. University Drive

If you travel on East University Drive in downtown Rochester, you have passed the William E. Rice house, but you may not have realized it. This house has stood at 120 East University since 1906, but the structure is hidden from view today because it has been sandwiched between two modern-style additions which make it appear, from street view, to be a contemporary commercial building.  Step across the street or walk down the East Alley, however, and you will notice the architectural features of the American foursquare-style house peeking out from between the additions.

William E. Rice was a carriage mechanic and blacksmith who had a shop on the East Alley at the south end of his lot on what was then known as East Fifth Street. In 1906, he and his son, Lee, manufactured concrete bricks for the construction of a new home on the north end of the lot. The 1907 booklet  Beautiful Rochester tells us this about Rice and his house:

1907 view of 120 E. Fifth (now E. University Drive)

William E. Rice is engaged in the wagon and carriage repair and blacksmith business in his own shop on East Fifth street. Mr. Rice is a good workman and has an extensive business in his lines, always aiming to give satifaction to his customers. Last year he completed a fine cement brick residence on East Fifth street, every brick of which was made by himself and son.

The concrete house was very popular during the first decade of the twentieth century, as mail order catalogs sold hand-operated brick and block forming machines that the typical homeowner could operate to manufacture his own building materials.  Concrete homes were widely advertised as durable, fireproof, and maintenance free, and many of the kit and mail order house catalogs of the time offered multiple plans for such structures.  There are examples of these houses dotted throughout Rochester's older neighborhoods, and a collection of several of them can be found on the first block of Griggs Street.

Ben Jones

There are many organizations throughout our community that solicit donations during the holiday season to provide assistance to the needy among us.  There was a time in Rochester's history when that effort was managed by one man - Ben Jones.  Jones came to Rochester in 1914 from his native Cincinnati, Ohio, and found a job at Parkedale Biological Farm.  Three years later, he established the Ben Jones Welfare Fund to provide clothes and Christmas gifts to needy children in the area.  He sold newspapers on the street and solicited donations of food and clothing for his annual holiday distributions.  Upon his death in 1956, the Rochester Clarion described Jones' efforts:

For years he carried on this Christmas solicitation for money practically alone, doing acts of charity constantly and making sure no child lacked clothes or food.  At Christmas time he was assisted by committees from local churches in his fundraising newspaper sale to bring a merry Christmas to even the most humble home.
He always said that he was only repaying the kindness that was shown him as a boy in Cincinnati by local charities.

In 1948, the Metropolitan Club joined Jones and established a Goodfellows newspaper sale to boost his charitable fund.  Jones sold papers with the Goodfellows until just before his death, when his health prohibited his participation. Over half a century later, he is still remembered in Rochester for he joy he brought to needy homes for over four decades.

Subdivision Stories: Parker Addition

In 1902 the Detroit Sugar Company, which operated a large sugar beet processing mill on Woodward Street in Rochester, deeded a parcel of its land to Edward Horatio Parker, who was the secretary of the company at the time.  Parker and his wife, Eleanor Carroll Parker, were very prominent residents of Detroit. Edward Parker had attended Yale University before taking a job as the assistant manager of the Diamond Match Company's Detroit factory. He later became an officer of the Detroit Sugar Company, and after its demise, went into the real estate and insurance business. He was also appointed a fire commissioner for the city of Detroit by Hazen S. Pingree.

The Parkers subdivided the land that they acquired from the Detroit Sugar Company and platted it as the Parker Addition to the Village of Rochester, placing the lots on the market in late 1902.  Since the plat lay immediately to the north of the W. C. Chapman and Ludlow additions, Ludlow Street was extended through the Parker addition all the way to Paint Creek.  The Parkers were never residents of Rochester, and lived their entire lives in Detroit. They are buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

Rochester on the Road: William C. Chapman Grave Site

There is a small town in south central Vermont called Ludlow, after which our Ludlow Street in Rochester is named. It is the home town of the wife of William Clark Chapman, who was a Rochester industrialist and real estate developer from 1891 until his death in 1946. Chapman, who came to Michigan from a smaller town near Ludlow with his parents and brother, never lost his ties to his Vermont home after settling in Rochester to help run the Western Knitting Mills. Chapman and his wife, the former Ada Barney, regularly made trips back to their native state to visit family there.

Although William and Ada Chapman stayed in Rochester, reared a family, built a magnificent house on Walnut Street, and eventually died here, their remains were returned to their native Ludlow, Vermont for burial.  If you are ever in the vicinity of Ludlow, Vermont, you will find the final resting place of William and Ada Chapman in the town's Pleasant View Cemetery, where this monument reminds visitors of their life in Rochester, Michigan.