{"id":26566,"date":"2011-12-29T21:42:55","date_gmt":"2011-12-30T01:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miserybay.usanethosting.com\/wordpress\/?p=26566"},"modified":"2011-12-29T21:42:55","modified_gmt":"2011-12-30T01:42:55","slug":"back-116","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/back-116\/","title":{"rendered":"A Look Back Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Alward Lake revisited
\nby Barry Bauer
\nLynne Gregory, president of the Clinton County Historical Society, has provided us with more information about Alward Lake and its picnic areas.
\n\"\"
\nL. to r. Lona (Sally) Saxton, Joyce (Saxton) Dush, Linda (Dush) McCausey, Patricia (Hutton) Saxton, Wayne Dush, and Edward Saxton<\/em>
\nLocated about four miles north of DeWitt, Alward Lake takes its name from the family of Henry Alward and established itself on the northeast corner of DeWitt and Alward Roads prior to the mid-1850s.
\nAbout 1892, Arthur St. Clair, a St. Johns native, purchased acreage on the northwest corner of Alward and Loomis Roads. This property had a large (but very swampy) frontage on Alward Lake which St. Clair soon cleared, filled, and landscaped into a park-like grove.
\nOver the years he continued to improve the “resort” by constructing a bath house, filling in a sand beach, and offering boats for fishing or “spooning.”
\nIn 1900 St. Clair was married to Sarah Ladyman and together they had two children, Carrie and William. Mrs. St. Clair died in the influenza epidemic which returned with the Doughboys and swept the country in 1918.
\nWhen the line for the Interurban was laid out in 1900, its course ran right alongside the Alward Resort property which, after completion of the railroad, enhanced his business tremendously, leaving its rival resort, Merle Beach, in a scramble to remain competitive.
\nSt. Clair died in 1929. The resort continued to be updated and was last owned and operated as such by the DeYoung’s in the 1960s.
\nFurther information:
\nAlward Lake is one of the favorite recreation and picnic areas of Clinton County. The Alward Lake Resort is owned and operated by Ray and Maxine DeYoung and offers facilities for picnicking, boating, swimming, and fishing. DeYoungs purchased the property from William Sinclair, in 1952, the farm having been in the Sinclair family for about 60 years. Sinclair also operated the resort until he sold to DeYoungs.
\nAccording to Mrs. DeYoung, the lake is spring fed and has never been polluted since there are no cottages on it. Recent improvements include a new bath house and toilet facilities in the summer of 1955 and the further development of the beach by hauling in many yards of sand.
\nThe picnic area has about 100 tables and the largest group of last summer was 581 people. A unique feature of the resort is that no alcoholic beverages of any kind are allowed in the picnic and beach areas. Mrs. DeYoung says that the ban on such has not hurt their business since most people appreciate the absence of loud talk and other types of disorder which frequently occur when drinking is allowed.
\nMr. DeYoung is a product engineer at Olds. His wife, Maxine, and children Chuck, Judy, and Jamie help in operating the business.
\nThe Elm Ridge Resort, also on Alward Lake, is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Albert Mack. They offer boating facilities and picnic tables only for those who use the boats. Mrs. Mack’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Brown, owned the property before. It has been in the Mack family for over fifty years.
\nThe Macks live in Lansing in the winter and live on the lake and operate the resort in the summer. They have operated the place since 1936.
\nLynne also added:
\n“Willie St Clair lived in the house beside Alward Lake Rd. Willie owned & ran the beach on the east side of the lake. Circa mid 1950s the beach was closed, Willie died about this time; the property was sold & turned into private property.
\n“Nettie Weismiller and her son Lynn lived with Willie. He is circa 80 and retired from the Lansing post office.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alward Lake revisited<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lookback"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}