IN
MEMORY OF BERTHA M. BROCK
One would be dull indeed whose pulse would not quicken with pride and enthusiasm as we look about us, and see the results of effort and labor, added to the wonders of nature, perfecting this ideal park, whose destiny is to serve not only the present, but generations yet to come. And all this is a vision realized of the one in whose honor we have gathered today. She saw the possibilities of this beautiful tract of land, and its need of preservation for years to come and we heartily congratulate the Board of County Road Commissioners, and our very efficient County Engineer, for bringing about this splendid fulfillment. Bertha Milligan Brock was born in Ionia, and spent her whole life in this community, prominently identified with its civic live and ever helpful in every uplifting activity Ionia County can well be grateful that it was fortunate enough to have her for its daughter, for she gave first of herself for her own County, unearthing and preserving important historical facts and places, which will be of untold value in the years to come. She spent hours and hours of every week for a good many years, searching out every little detail that might be of interest, never resting until she had found out all there was to be found. And all this she did just for the interest and value it would be for the Community in the years to come. Her unselfish love for mankind was the inspiration for all her accomplishments. Her work was not confined to her own county, but she was known throughout our state and other states for her invaluable work as a Historian, and was always generous with her help and knowledge. She realized that time waits for no one and was intensely earnest to accomplish her work, doing it when physically unable. Mrs. Brock was a remarkable woman, and to mention her as a Historian, while in that particular phase of work her influence and help has been immeasurably great, is only to mention a single feature of her many sided accomplishments. She was a woman of unusual intellectual power, broad in her sympathies, with a warm and loving heart, and an enthusiastic devotion for all that is true and good and noble. Truly she has been an inspiration and an uplift in many ways, and in passing thru the world, has left it better than she found it. And we feel it is a very fitting and lasting tribute for her useful life with its accomplishments and indeed gratifying to her family and friends that this beautiful Park should bear her name and be dedicated to her memory.
It would be impossible to cite all of the many things that have been accomplished thru Mrs. Brock’s efforts but I would like to speak of a few of the outstanding ones. Among the interesting things of historical nature that she established was the fact that the Windsor-Dexter family that led the Colony to Ionia, were descended from the family that gave Windsor Castle to the King of England for a royal residence. That when the Dexter family came to Ionia, Samuel Dexter brought his mother, who was more than 80 years old, with him. Her descendents were not aware of this, but when the fact was established, her grave, that of Candace Windsor Dexter, in Oak Hill Cemetery was identified and appropriately marked. Mrs. Dexter is the great-great-grandmother of Ruth Bryan Owen, present Minister to Denmark with whom Mrs. Brock had much correspondence, and who visited Ionia on Mrs. Brock’s invitation. There was also a marker placed on the grave of the small son of the Dexters, who died when the colony was on its way from Detroit to Ionia, and is buried near St. Johns. The site of Cob-Mo-Sa’s last village, near Hart in Oceana County, was ientified and marked with a large boulder bearing a bronze tablet. Chief Cob-Mo-Sa, head of the Indian Tribe at Ionia when the Dexter Colony came, sold the land to the settlers and moved his people to this Reservation in Northern Michigan. Mrs. Brock traced out many individual family histories and collected countless relics of importance, marked and placed them in the Historical room of the Fowler Memorial Library in Ionia. Among the Parks and Memorials she has been instrumental in having established, are: Riverside Park, site of the original Indian Village, a drinking fountain made from a huge boulder and bearing an inscribed bronze tablet. When the Arnold Cemetery, first cemetery of the Colony had to be destroyed to allow the paved road to be cut thru, a commemorative tablet was placed on a boulder. The marking of the Sessions School House near the County farm, the first schoolhouse in the county with an inscribed bronze tablet. The marking of the small park by the Armory in Ionia, also the Waterworks Park. Closing of the street between the Public Library in Ionia and the Courthouse to make it a continuous stretch of Park. And the Bertha M. Brock Park, which is dedicated today whose location is only a few rods distant from the site of the Old Welch Mill, the first for grinding grain in the County. There are countless other activities I might mention, but each one of us treasures in out hearts the many good deeds we know, and thank God that she lived. In speaking of one departed friend, whose days were so full of achievement, all words of eulogy which I might say seem to me like holding a dim lantern that we might more clearly see the brilliant electric arc light. But she inspired us all with her fervor and high aims and the good work which she has done will live after her and her memory will be highly cherished by generations to come. Our loved one has crossed the Bar that separates us from the Sunset land, and her last resting place, a secluded spot overlooking the Grand River Valley she loved so well away from the busy mart, but near the traveled thoroughfare, faces the Setting Sun. The Words of Tennyson that were so dear to her engraved on the tablet on the field boulder, Sunset
and evening Star September 9, 1934
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