The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Howell's Grocery served Willis area
PUBLISHED: November 20, 2008
The year was 1913 and George Sylvester Howell was ready for a change. He and his wife, the former Edith May Doering, were living on a farm in the Willis area and they saw an opportunity they couldn't pass up.
Advertisement
The couple purchased a grocery store in Willis. This offered them the shortest commute in the world. Live upstairs, walk down the stairs to get to your job.
The couple had a growing family and probably enjoyed selling food to other families in the area. Their store sold milk, canned goods and fresh meat. Anyone wishing to purchase heating fuel for a home furnace could use the pump in the back yard and carry the fuel home with the other groceries.
When they first inspected the building and decided to purchase the store, George and Edith may have detected the smell of vinegar in the walls and ceiling. It wouldn't be a bad smell, actually the smell of pickles would go well in a grocery store. No doubt Howell's Grocery Store sold pickles.
Everybody associated that building with pickles. Located next to the Wabash Railroad, the building was used for many years to manufacture pickles. Residents used to walk along Willis Road by the factory and smell the brine from the giant vats of pickles awaiting their turn to ride the railroad out of town.
Everybody knows this place has a reputation today as a great restaurant and a place to order fried pickles as a side dish, in the Pickle Barrel Restaurant, the same building seen in today's photo of Howell's Grocery Store.
The owner, George Howell, is on the right wearing a white apron. His wife, Edith, is in the middle, and their son, Gale Adrian Howell, stands on the left in darker clothing. A truck is parked to the right, perhaps ready to deliver groceries to area farm families. A large gasoline pump stands near the store's entrance, ready to fill the tank of any motorcar needing a fill-up.
Thanks to Ron Cheever of Whittaker for providing nearly 100 photos, newspaper clippings and maps of Augusta Township history, including today's photo. Joan Shaffer of Whittaker gave me information as well, naming the people in this picture. They are her grandparents and her uncle Gale.
Eventually, Ms. Shaffer's father, Gary Doering Howell, decided he liked the grocery business and bought out his parents. The retiring couple didn't move very far, though, finding a retirement home in Willis. Ms. Shaffer recalls living in the upstairs of the building and attending Lincoln schools as a child. Since then, someone has moved a wall alongside the stairs. But other than that, it's about the same now as then.
The Willis community goes way back in Augusta Township history. The first postmaster, William A. Willings, took over mail service there in 1881. Various people took charge of the mail in Willis over the years, including Gary Howell, starting in 1938. No doubt he kept the post office in his grocery store. His daughter, Ms. Shaffer, served as postmaster in Willis from 1973 to 1989.
But a much older town once stood just a short walk north of Willis on Willis Road. This place started out around 1832 with an Indian name, Wejinigan-sibi. Later it was known as Paint Creek, named after a healthy creek that flowed through the area.
Paint Creek was changed forever by Benjamin Franklin Whittaker. At the age of only 22, Whitaker showed up in Paint Creek in about 1860 and built a hotel. This was no ordinary hotel as it included a general store, a dance hall on the second floor, and a residence for his family on the side.
Whittaker's hotel in Paint Creek was a big deal until 1871, when it burned down. His father-in-law, John Bunton, bought the property from him so Whittaker and his family could move to Willow. Another hotel was built in the same place in Paint Creek.
Whittaker enjoyed operating general stores, which he did in Willow, River Raisin and eventually in Belleville. He paused along the way to establish eight charcoal kilns alongside the proposed railroad, right about in the center of Augusta Township. This was a bold move, since there was no town in the area. Even so, Whittaker put icing on the cake by adding a general store.
Next, he contacted James M. Joy, the railroad master, to have his store inventory brought from Detroit by railroad. To help the railroad workers figure out where to drop off the freight, he set up a shanty alongside the railroad with a sign that said "Whittaker."
The town of Willis was in a state of confusion because some people wanted to call it Pottersville, after Willis Potter, a prominent farmer. Others wanted to call it Newcomb, after Potter's second wife, Calista Newcomb.
With Paint Creek just a few steps away, it was tempting to call the place by that name. Eventually, the local postmaster gathered 10 or 20 signatures on a petition and had it settled for the name "Willis."
Whittaker never went through any confusion. Once the railroad gives a name to a place, it usually sticks. In the case of Whittaker, that shanty took all the guesswork out of finding a name for the town.
The town of Paint Creek disappeared when the Maccabees bought the hotel for $400 and moved it to Willis. Drive by the intersection of Tuttle Hill and Willis Road. There is no trace of any town having been there.
The only other place in Augusta Township to disappear so completely was Eaton Mills, on the southeast corner of Willis and Rawsonville roads. Someone with the last name Eaton established a sawmill on the northeast corner. This was a community half in one county and half in another. Does that sound familiar? A post office opened there June 24, 1878, with James E. Sherman as postmaster.
Although Eaton Mills got a good start as a thriving town, things went sour when the Wabash Railroad bypassed it. The post office closed in 1879, and the town is gone. Willis and Whittaker took over the business, general stores, sawmills and other industry in that area of the township.
Martha Churchill, a member of the Milan Area Historical Society, is a freelance writer. She can be reached at 439-4055 or MilanHistory@yahoo.com.
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
Staff Blog, "Inside The Newsroom"
TOP JOBS
