Otis Sanctuary - the Otis & Haven Connection

Methodist Church (now Democrat Headquarters)

On Sept 27, 1886 two couples were married in a double ceremony at the Hastings Methodist Church.

They were Fred & Lucille Otis and William & Mattie Havens. Lucille was sister of William Havens. Mattie was cousin to Fred Otis. The Havens had their farm just up the road from the Otis place on Glass Creek.

On Sunday Sept 26, 1936 they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversaries. The whole community helped them celebrate. It made the news in the Battle Creek Enquirer and the Detroit Free Press! 

Otis and Erway couples 1936

The Otis lived in the same home in Rutland Township for the last 48 years. Fred was born in Rutland Township and Luella was born in Washtenaw Co. Their family in 1936 consisted of 10 children, 25 grandchildren, and 2 great grandchildren.

William was born in Jackson Co 72 years ago; Mattie born in Rutland Twp. They had 3 children, 6 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren. Their farm was in adjacent Hope Twp.

In celebration they held an open house for friends Sunday afternoon and evening. As pointed out in the Free Press, anybody in either family was to some extent related to anyone in the other family! 

Neither couple left Michigan more than once in their married lives. The Havens once visited Wisconsin and the Otises on Sunday drove to Indiana. 

A visit to Rutland Township cemetery on M-43 just NE of Hastings shows the deep roots of these families, together in the township for all eternity. There is a nice aspect to having so many family and friends around one in death, isn't there.

Otis Sanctuary - Family Pictures

Fred and Luella had a large family as was common in the Otis family known for their fecundity far back in the Vermont/Quebec days.  In 1910 they posed for photo. I note how the women all wear white, and managed to keep it immaculate looking having no modern washing conveniences; clearly they were better skilled at doing wash than many of us nowadays. Robert was born a year after this photo was taken.

Standing: Lyle, Catherine, Izolo, Ray, Nina, Bessie, Edna
Seated: Frederick, Luella holding Lucille, Frances

Circa 1949 the family at the farmhouse. Bob is seated on the ground in front. They are in the same positions as the 1910 photo! That can't be accidental. 

Robert Otis

And here is Bob's 1929  high school photo, followed by Millie's from 1932.

Mildred Gruensch

Bob with a nice string of fish from Glass Creek. Wonder what you can catch now...

Otis Sanctuary - Norm & Willie Erway

Norman D. Erway was born June 24, 1922 in Barry County, the fifth child of Louis and Nina Erway (sister to Bob Otis). The Erways were another Rutland Twp family with deep roots in the area. Note Warner Sanctuary is on Erway road and the Otis farm is on Havens Rd. He graduated from Kalamazoo Central High in 1940 and attended Kalamazoo College majoring in chemistry and physics. Norm spent his childhood on the Otis farm, under the tutorage of Bob Otis, his uncle. 

Norm is the author of 'Glass Creek Memories', which shares his thoughts and memoirs, and some photos back in the days where we all lived a simpler life. Excerpt follows:

Bob's death seems like the end of an era for the Otis Family Farm, but it can become a beautiful beginning. The farm with its rolling glacial hills its woods, ponds, march and of course Glass Creek winding its way through the marshes, is really a jewel set in the ring of surrounding state recreational area. That Bob and Millie put this gem in trust with the Michigan Audubon Society made all of my family very proud. Now when we see a wood duck fly by in all its glorious colors we can say "There goes one of Bob's ducks" or better yet, maybe he's flying with it, just checking things out. And then there were the rattlesnakes - not many, but how many does one need to get the adrenaline flowing? When we were bringing the cows in from the marsh, they would sometimes circle out around an area and you had better follow their lead since nine times out of ten there would be a rattler buzzing its warning. Finding one sunning on a haycock, or worse pitching one up on a load of hay was excitement enough for small boys. 

Norm and Willie Erway supported the sanctuary not only through their memories but through moral and financial support. They committed funds to build the boardwalk from the barn to Glass Creek. Volunteers and family members have since worked on repairs.

Norm Erway died March 31, 2013. Some of his ashes were scattered at his beloved Glass Creek. His wife Willie died December 2015.

Erway daughter Kimby writes a blog about her family and the Otis Farm, 'Any Port in a Storm.'.

Norm and Millie at the Otis Farm Sanctuary

Otis Sanctuary - History Written by Bessie Otis 1970's

The Otis's of Glass Creek

This appeared in Vol. IV Issue 6 Nov/Dec 2006 edition of The Dragonfly (publication of Michigan Audubon Otis Sanctuary)

Around 1855 three Otis brothers, Feril, Philander, and Parshal came to Glass Creek in South West Rutland Township. Of all their hundreds of descendants, only Robert (Bob) H. Otis, grandson of Parshal and son of Fred and Luella Otis, still lives in the area, on the family farm. Gone are Feril and Philander, their farms now part of the State Game Preserve, the fine, big houses, their large families scattered. The name lives on in Otis Lake and Otis Lake Road. The site of the old Otis Schoolhouse is lost in second growth forest. 

Parshal Otis did not settle down immediately but worked in the lumber camps north of Grand Rapids. In time he married Betsey Foreman by whom he had four sons: Fred (our father), Clarence, Delbert, and Ray. They lived on Otis Lake Road, the spot marked now only by a great, spreading lilac bush.

In 1880 they moved east of Glass Creek to a farm consisting of a great marsh along the creek, the rest glacial hills. Here, in 1886, our father married Luella Havens and took on the farm, the mortgage, and the care of his aging parents. And here their children were born, all twelve of them.

It was against the advice of his anxious uncles that our father determined to make a go of farming those hills. But he loved that marsh and those hills and they were his.

In the early years he taught country school in the winter term, and he could always add to the farm income doing things for neighbors, which they couldn't. He could hang paper, work with concrete, butcher - whatever was needed. He was a good salesman too, and he sold hand powered washing machines, home lighting equipment, milking machines, furnaces, silos, plaster, stock in several creameries.

Fred Otis was a good farmer, and because he respected the land it cooperated with him. With good farm practices he built up his soil until it produced crops of which he could be and was, proud.

Bob, like his father, loved the marsh and the hills and all the creatures that live there. He, too, was a good farmer but gave it up to be a carpenter and skilled worker with wood.

OTIS FARM BIRD SANCTUARY - Overview

First time I heard the name of this sanctuary I was totally confused. I knew Audubon had sanctuaries, but why would they have one for 'farm birds'? Is it a refuge for old hens, no longer egg layers? Ah, a case of where a comma is useful. It is the Otis Farm, bird sanctuary!

Here are 128 acres of rolling fields, forest, marshland, stream, kettle hole marshes and several springs. And even a rustic cabin for rent. The old barn and house still stand and the sanctuary manager gets to live in the house.

The property sits between Yankee Springs Recreation Area and the Barry State Game Area. Nearest neighbor is a farm half mile down the road and that's it for a couple of miles. Most of the old surrounding farms were bought up by the state back in the 1940's.

Grand opening was Oct 25, 2002. The sanctuary came to be largely due to the friendship that developed between Bob & Mildred Otis with Loretta Gold, then president of the Michigan Audubon Society.

Notable birds species are Cerulean Warbler, and Henslow's Sparrow. I've seen Sandhill Cranes passing overhead. I hear birds, but trying to see enough of one to actually make an identification it is a challenge. It's nice just to hear them and watch the grass wave in the wind.

It is disappointing that the Michigan Audubon website doesn't even post a photo and there is no information about the generous donors, not for any of the sanctuaries, hence this blog.

3560 Havens Road, Hastings Rutland Twp T3N R9W Sec 32 & 33

Walking the 1.2 mile trail I was reminded a bit of the Scottish Highlands. Rolling hill, groups of brightly colored flowers among the grasses.