From Powers To Post in Battle Creek

Visited the Calhoun County, Michigan, Register of Deeds office today. The county building is in Marshall, Michigan, in the vicinity of the Honolulu House and Win Schuler's.

My great-grandparents moved to Battle Creek in Calhoun County sometime before 31 May 1903 when their son, Ward Powers, was born, and were back in Lapeer County, Michigan, by September of 1900. Only one surname and a limited number of years to search.

After asking to see the Grantee/Grantor indexes for 1890 - 1910, I was directed to the index stack. Usually the indexes are found together, but it sometimes help to ask for specific items and then go on your own from there. The libers searched (Volume 10 - Volume 16) had both Grantees and Grantors in the same volume (alphabetical & alternating pages).

Starting with Volume 10 (September 1885 - December 1890), I went to the "P's" since I was looking for the surname of Powers. On October 22, 1890, there was an entry for Powers, William S., "132-522." In Volume 13, Powers, William S. sold property per deed #172-51.

The deeds themselves were on square microfilm cassettes with a hole in the middle that popped into the reader/printer. I'd never seen the cassettes in 20+ years of research -- learn something new every day. The film was a little stubborn, but the clerk who assisted me knew how to coax it through.

While perusing the "Po---" in the indexes, there were several entries for Charles W. Post, including several from the Postum Cereal Co. Ltd. Of course -- isn't Battle Creek the cereal capital of the world?!!!

On 30 October 1908, Charles W. Post was the "Grantor" to Lila Y. Post, on Deed #213-198. Mr. Post committed suicide in 1914; his widow, Leila (whom he married 17 Nov 1904), and only living child, Marjorie, as well as other relatives and executors, were mentioned in his will in the NY Times account.