Arthur Melville Corwin and Mary Orlettie Dyer are grandparents of the author.
Both were born in 1878 in Evangeline Township, Charlevoix County, Michigan. Evangeline is located in the northwest portion of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.
Mary Orlettie Dyer was born May 2, the daughter of Henry Dyer and Miranda Gilman.
Arthur Melville Corwin was born Oct. 22,the son of John H. Corwin and Frances Amanda Wilson.
It was also in 1878 that Louis Pasteur inoculated chickens against cholera and Thomas Edison patented the first phonograph. Edison also made electricity available for household usage.
Their fathers served in the Civil War, Henry with a unit from New York and John H. in the Illinois calvary. John H.’s father, Odell, died of disease in the war in 1864.
The Dyer and Corwin families had known each other for several years prior to the births of Mary Orlettie and Arthur Melville. The 1870 Charlevoix County census shows Purmalia Corwin, the widow of Odell, as a neighbor to the Dyers.
Mary Orlettie was the sixth of seven children for Henry and Miranda. Older siblings were Henry Kipling was born in 1867, John King in 1869, Frank Bemus in 1871, Tarrant King on Nov. 6, 1875 in Charlevoix County. The birthdays and places of birth are not known for Heston and Ellen Roxanne.
There is a census record saying Mary Orlettie and Henry had eight children.
Arthur Melville was among 10 children. His older siblings were Charles Albert, Odell J., Eugene, Claude E., Estella or Elva. and William. Younger ones were Alonzo Jacob, John and Earl Victor.
Odell died as a child in 1871. It is also believed that Eugene died young.
John Corwin had married Frances Amanda Wilson in Winnebago County, Illinois, on Dec. 20, 1865, just a month after the 7th Calvary was mustered out of duty.
John was now making love and not war. His first child, Charles Albert, was born nine months later in Winnebago County.
The Corwin family soon moved to Charlevoix County in the northern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. The second child, Odell J., was born in Michigan in 1868.
In the 1880 census, Arthur is 2 in living in Evangeline Township with his parents. His father is a farmer.
Also in the 1880 census for Evangeline Township, Henry and Miranda have three children. They are Frank, 9, T.K, 6, and Mary 2.The two born after the 1880 census were Heston and Ellen Roxanne. All were born in Michigan.
The Corwins were soon on the move again. Son Alonzo Jacob was born in 1881 in Michigan, while John was born in 1883 in Iowa.
In 1885, the census has Arthur living with his family in Perry, Buchanan County, Iowa. His father is a laborer and age 40, like his wife.
Arthur would receive a sixth grade education.
In the 1900 census the family is living in Harrison, Harrison County, Iowa. Arthur is 22, a day laborer and can read and write.
His father and mother are each 56. They own their home mortgage free. J.H. is a carpenter and can eat and write.
Others in the household are Alonzo 19, John 16 and Earl 14.
Arthur’s mother died at age 57 in 1902 in Iowa.
At the age of 16, Arthur left his home in Iowa and returned to Michigan. His father followed.
Arthur reportedly pursued life with a vigor while listening to stories by the lumbermen he worked with and by writing poetry. At the age of 22, it is said his hair turned snowy white, almost overnight. To his dying day, he retained a heavy shock of white hair.
The dates in the above oral family history aren’t true. Arthur married at age 26, and his hair in the wedding picture is dark.
Mary Orlettie married twice.
She married Charles Griffin April 20, 1900 in Charlevoix County. She was 22. Charles was 33 and the son of George Griffin and Abigail Mosher. Charles was born in New York, but the family was in Evangeline Township in the 1880 census.
Less than a year later on Jan. 27, 1901 Charles crushed and killed by a tree he cut down. It is believed he lived a couple of days after the accident.
Mary Orlettie was pregnant at the time and lost her child after she reportedly attempted to lift the tree off her husband.
Bertha May Griffin died Aug. 1, 1901 at Horton Bay.
Mary Orlettie was a religious lady, a regular at bible study meetings.
Mary Orlettie then married Arthur Melville in July of 1904 in Boyne City. Witnesses were Harriett Croff of Mt. Pleasant and Heston Dyer of Horton Bay.
At the time of the marriage, Arthur was living in Boyne City and Orlettie at Horton Bay. He was a carpenter and she a dressmaker.
Arthur’s father died at age 61 in 1905 in Boyne City.
Arthur Melville and Mary Orlettie started their own family in Boyne City.
They had four children; Frances Fern, Heston Arthur, Gladys Orlettie and Violet Celia. Flowers and plants are contained in the names of the girls. All were born in Charlevoix County’s Boyne City.
Francis Fern was born June 28, 1905, Heston Arthur Aug. 26, 1908, Gladys Orlettie Feb. 26, 1911 and Violet Celia, the next direct family connection, Sept. 28, 1913.
A 1910 Michigan census showed Arthur Melville and Mary Orlettie living in 523 Groveland Street, Boyne City, Charlevoix County, with two children, Fern, 4, and Heston, 1.
Arthur Melville was a house carpenter and Mary Orlettie a dressmaker at home. Both were 31 and able to read and write. They owned their home with a mortgage.
Mary Orlettie’s father died at age 77 on June 27, 1917 on his farm home near Horton Bay in Charlevoix County. His death certificate listed apoplexy as the cause of death. That is an old-fashioned medical term for stroke.
When Arthur Melville registered for the World War I draft in 1918, he was still working as a carpenter and living at 523 Groveland. He was listed as of medium height and build with blue eyes and brown hair.
Arthur and Mary Orlettie Corwin moved with their four children to Niles in 1919.
Niles is located in the far southwest corner of Michigan in Berrien County. Berrien County is bordered on the west by Lake Michigan and the south by the state of Indiana.
World War I had ended just the year before.
Other 1919 highlights included:
The introduction of dial telephones. Telephone operators, mostly women in the workforce, protested and threaten to strike.
The United States established Grand Canyon National Park and Acadia National Park.
The New York Daily News, America’s first successful tabloid newspaper, began publication in New York.
It must have been very difficult for Mary Orlettie to leave an aging mother and the area where she had lived all her life. She also moved away from brothers and sisters and her church to a growing city of strangers.
After the farming community she was used to, she was now plunged into a whole different scene, no one to help with the children, while her husband exhilarated with a new lifestyle.
Arthur Melville had carpenter skills, and Niles was a growing railroad town. With new industries moving in, there was a need for housing. He readily answered the call, being tired of trying to provide for his growing family by lumbering and farming.
His worksheet read: “Arthur Corwin Contractor and Builder.”
Mary Orlettie
In the 1920 census, the Corwins were living in a rented home in Niles with four children: Fern 14, Heston 11, Gladys 8 and Violet 6.
Arthur built them a family house in Niles. This was to be the first of several houses he built on the east side of Niles.
The 1920-21 Niles City Directory lists the family living at the corner of Woodward and Hickory and in 1922 residing at 1524 Hickory.
It is told Mary Orlettie once said she never lived in a finished home, it would be sold and Arthur would start another one. However, when the house at 1420 Hickory was built, it became their final family home.
Maple and Hickory Streets have examples of Arthur’s work still standing. His houses are recognizable by their destinctive style.
Mary Orlettie’s mother died in 1928 in Traverse City.
Although Mary Orlettie struggled with loneliness, she was thankful for her new surroundings. She not only had a new home, but one with inside plumbing. This was not a feature in rural Boyne City or in many other homes in the 1920’s.
Arthur was a social person, enjoying acting in plays and reciting poetry. He served as commander of the Knights of Pythias and performed in skits and plays. He also became president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Local No. 1033.
Family verbal history said Arthur once ran for a public office in Niles. More on this is not known.
To the outside world, he was a great guy. He charmed the ladies, entertained the men and delighted the children. Yet at home, it was said he was a strict father and not showing much affection or appreciation.
Violet was the youngest, and as so often the case of the youngest, was at times able to get close to her father. She assisted him in learning his lines for plays. She struggled hard to be helpful, so as not to be a disappointment; so much so she learned passages that became imbedded in her mind. She passed them on to her own children years later.
Lines like, as a town crier, he announced: “Six o’clock, and all is well; the wind is from the south and it’s hotter than Hell.” Often when you asked Violet the time, this might be her answer.
The following is a political poem about presidential candidate Al Smith attributed to Arthur Melville. It was in his handwriting:
“Old Al Smith is a good old scout
he died and went to heaven.
But St. Peter kicked him out
So he picked up his junk
and went down to Hell
walked right up and rang the bell
old satan put out his head
and with a little grin
said “Hello thar, please come right in”
Al walked in and looked around
walked to the throne and thar sat down
and said to satan ”now this is fine
how about some beer and a little lite wine”
Satan says “Al you will get no beer
for canned heat is all we serve here.
and get out of my place now
and sit over thar
and do it damn quick
Or you will get your share (sp).
You may be a big man in the USA
but down here I have all the say”
Al say to satan, “Don’t be a fool.
I don’t want your damned old stool.
I will get to be president of the USA
and then we will put on a little play
that will make these weak kneed protestants tremble and groan for the Pope and I will start a Hell of our own.”
The 1930 census lists Violet, age 16, as the only child still home. She was living with her father Arthur, 52, and Orlettie, 51. Arthur is listed as a carpenter working for a lumber company. Their home at 1420 Hickory was valued at $4,000.
An interesting census note was that the family didn’t have a radio.
It also was in 1931 that Mary Orlettie suffered a paralyzing stroke and was bedridden.
Her daughter Violet, then a 10th grader in high school, quit school to take care of her. Violet spent long hours by her mother’s bedside in the darkened room. She remembered her father coming home from work on his lunch hour and carrying her mother out of her bed to eat.
Violet’s mother said she wanted to live until Violet turned 18.
There also was a young man in Violet’s life at this time. She was dating LeRoy Mark, who also attended Niles High School.
Violet’s mother died a month after she turned 18. She died on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 1931, at 4 p.m. at the age of 53. Mary Orlettie passed away in her home at 1420 Hickory Street in Niles from a cerebral hemmmorage. She had suffered the stroke about four months earlier.
The funeral was held 2:30 p.m. at the Troost and Augustine Funeral Home on North Second Street in Niles, with burial in Niles’ Silverbrook Cemetery.
Survivors listed in her obituary included a sister, Mrs. Ellen McLean of Galien, and four brothers, Frank Dyer of Petoskey, Heston and John of Boyne City and T.K. of Lansing. There is a record of Ellen divorcing McLean and marrying Charles Snover.
The Great Depression also was underway. Unemployed Americans marched on the White House, demanding a national program of employment at a minimum wage. They are turned away.
1931 also saw:
Chicago mobster Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion. In this blow to organized crime. Capone was sentenced to 11 years in jail and a $50,000 fine.
General Motors’ frigadaire replace ammonia with Freon 12 refrigerant gas, making refrigerators safe for households around the industrialized world.
“The Star Spangled Banner,” originally written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, become the American national anthem by order of Congress.
Violet would later comment that her mother had made all her clothes, and she didn’t think she had nice enough clothes to go back to school after her mother’s illness and death.
Another reason was that she was in love. Violet and LeRoy had become engaged July 13, 1931 and were married about two months after the death of Violet’s mother on Jan. 2, 1932.
LeRoy, the son of Peter Alonzo Mark and Helen Marie Wertz, didn’t finish school either, dropping out at age 17 while in the 11th grade.
Arthur Melville was never the same emotionally after Mary Orlettie’s death, according to family oral history.
Arthur reportedly now lacked drive and energy. It was a tough time economically, with carpenter jobs few because of the Depression.
The 1933 Niles City Directory places Arthur living with LeRoy, Violet and their daughter Helen at 312 S. Lincoln.
Back before her death, Mary Orlettie told Violet to watch over her father. Mary Orlettie warned: “Your father is going to fall under the spell of a witch that lives down by the (St. Joseph) river. She will kill your father.”
Imagine the horror that filled Violet’s heart when her father began dating Claudia Miller, a widow living at 304 Water Street, down by the St. Joe River. Did Mary Orlettie suspect Arthur Melville of having an affair with this woman? Or is this just a coincidence?
Arthur Melville and Claudia married. A 1935 Niles City Directory puts them living at 214 N. State Street. In 1938, they were living at the Water Street address.
Claudia and Arthur
During and after the depression, Arthur worked on different carpenter jobs rather than returning to building houses. He worked on the Fourth Ward and Yankee Street schools.
Arthur Melville also helped build the Montgomery Wards building at the corner of Second and Sycamore Streets in Niles. A humorous incident occurred during construction work. While outside on the second floor putting in a window, Arthur’s suspenders broke. He either had to drop the window or his pants. He dropped his pants.
Arthur and Lucy 1938
A grandson of Arthur Melville said his grandfather liked to read. “If a cyclone came and took off the house roof, Grandpa Art would still be sitting there reading,” the grandson stated.
“I don’t remember much about my grandfather, except his playing solitaire when we visited him,” recalled granddaughter Louise Mark. “He didn’t visit us. Mom (Violet) said he wasn’t much like himself, quiet and not feeling well.”
Jerry Burdue, a grandson, remembers seeing water in Arthur Melville’s basement when the river was high. He was living at 304 Water Street in Niles at the time of his death. Water Street was located along the east side of the St. Joseph River in what is now Riverfront Park.
In the 1940 census, Arthur is 61 and Claudia 55. They are living at 304 Water Street. They own the home, which is valued at $1,000.
The census says Arthur had a sixth grade education. He is a self-employed carpenter with an income of $1,200. He worked 42 hours in the week before the census and had worked 52 weeks in 1939.
Arthur Melville was living at 304 Water Street in April of 1942 when at age 63 he registered for the World War II draft. He was listed at 5-8 1/2, weighing 174 pounds with blue eyes and white hair.
The person he listed as always knowing where he could be found was Ernest Hayworth of Niles.
Arthur Melville died of a heart attack at age 65 on May 6, 1944 near the corner of 17th and Maple Streets in Niles. The time of death was put at 9:30 a.m. He was found at 11:30 a.m.
At the time, he was headed for a job of doing trim work in the Oak Manor area. That morning a delivery man saw him and waved. Arthur’s car, which he worked from, got stuck in the mud. He died while trying to dig it out. A nephew said he was found dead sitting on the running board of his car.
Violet wanted her father’s body checked for poison, thinking back to her mother’s death bed warning. Her sisters and brother did not agree. Arthur Melville and Claudia had been married or at least living together for about 10 years.
Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Pifer Funeral Home with Rev. J. Kenneth Hoffmaster of the First Methodist Church officiating. Burial was at Silverbrook Cemetery in Niles.
Arthur’s obituary listed two brothers, Earl of Niles and Lon of Nebraska, as survivors. Lon was undoubtedly Alonzo J.
Claudia left Niles after the funeral and reportedly was never seen again by Arthur’s relatives.
A month after Arthur Melville died, allied troops stormed the beaches at Normandy, France, on D-Day, under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
It was also in 1944 that Congress passed the G.I. Bill of Rights, which financed the college educations and home bank mortgages for many World War II veterans after the war.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to his fourth term as president of the United States.
A team of scientists working at Harvard University and funded in part by IBM constructed the first automatic, general-purpose computer.
Vanden Heede & Mark Family History 