CONCORD, MI – Who knows how long the Kalamazoo River has plowed its two-headed way through the region now known as western Jackson County? But in the early 1830s, that river began attracting settlers, who named their haven Concord.
And with that began the recorded history of Concord – and one of Jackson County’s best-known mill ponds.
Historically, many small settlements created mill ponds to create power to drive a mill and grind flour or saw lumber. In the fall of 1835, Isaac and William Van Fossen erected a saw mill in Concord, followed by a flour mill in 1837.
In 1838, Andrew Brown built another flour mill a mile east of Concord along the river, at what is now Sears Road. The mill, which burned down in the 1890s, was painted red and thus called the Red Mill, to distinguish it from the “white mill” in Concord village.
These mills created Concord’s mill pond. And if a mill pond could talk, this one would have many a story to tell.
The best-known is about a sign.
Starting in 1871, and continuing into the post-World War II era, the old Airline Railroad passed through Concord, making it a lively rail center with facilities for switching engines.
The railroad, which followed the path of the present-day Falling Waters Trail, crossed the river just east of the village and skirted the south shore of the mill pond. There, within view of the dam site, stood the Concord Lumber and Coal Co.
In 1927, Harold Hopkins "Hal" Hungerford bought the company. Having been associated with the Stromberg Carlson Co. in Chicago, Hungerford had a knack for slogans. He came up with one and had it painted on the side of his building.
It read: “Asleep at the switch? Not by a dam site!”
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Over the years, the sign became an amusing point of interest. The Chicago Tribune and American magazine did stories about it. Then it “went viral” in the 1940s when Robert Ripley’s syndicated column “Believe It Or Not!” featured it in most of the nation’s daily newspapers.
In 1944, Hungerford sold the business to Gerald Beissel. By then, responding to complaints, Hungerford had painted over the sign. But after Beissel took over, the old words were showing through the paint. He had the sign repainted in 1948.
In 1957 the original buildings were demolished and replaced. Once again the sign was replaced.
And so it continued for years. The sign was down. The sign was up.
On April 1, 1974, LeRoy and Jean Holton became the present owners of the business and they again removed the sign. By 1977, though, the Holton’s had succumbed to popular demand and the sign again was restored.
Today, the sign remains and keeps a silent – but not wordless – vigil over the mill pond. However, trees and vegetation have grown so high that some of the words have been obscured.
• “Hal” Hungerford’s famous slogan uses two colloquial expressions. “Asleep at the switch” had a literal meaning on the railroads. It suggested a sleepy railroad employee might cause disastrous results. The other expression ,“a damn sight,” is a colloquial superlative. That part of the slogan also uses a double homophone (a word that sounds the same but is spelled differently and has a different meaning). The two homophone pairs are “dam” and “damn”, and “site” and “sight.”
• On Feb. 23, 1971, the Citizen Patriot reported that the Concord Athletic Boosters were offering a $50 prize to the person who could guess the date and time that a car placed on the ice of the Concord Mill Pond a week earlier would sink to the bottom. Jerry Brigham was quoted saying the ice had been 24 inches thick when the car was placed. In the March 23 issue, the paper reported that the car “settled down into the water at 4:10 p.m. the day before. The winner? Willis M. Earle of Jackson, whose guess had been 5:30 p.m. that day.
• In relation to this contest, Martha Cotton’s “Action, Please!” column in the Citizen Patriot answered a query from an environmentalist who asked “why drop a dirty, oily car intentionally into a pond?” Martha’s reply pointed out that as soon as the ice was sufficiently melted, a cable would be hooked to the car so it could be hauled out.
• Concord’s 1996 McGee Independent newspaper, printed in honor of the town’s 125th anniversary, included this story: “On Aug. 5, 1914, bushels of fish were found floating on the Concord Mill Pond. Residents reported ‘earthquake rumblings’ the night before. After an extensive investigation by the state Department of Natural Resources, it was discovered that someone had dynamited along the Kalamazoo River. Curiously, the same kind of thing happened again in August, 1995 when an area resident was experimenting with dynamite upstream.
• Joers Farm Center, on Main Street in Concord, is a descendant of earlier Concord mills. Located across from the mill pond and on the south side of the nearby dam, the building dates back to 1920. It replaced a 19th century building destroyed by fire in 1919. That mill had been on the north side of the dam since the earliest days.
• The Joers family acquired the Concord Mill Pond dam when it bought the property and buildings that are now part of the farm center. Three years ago, there were rising community concerns that the dam could fail, draining the mill pond and causing problems downstream. Since then, according to David Joers, some boards were replaced to strengthen the dam.
• The Department of Natural Resources said in a 2010 report that the Concord dam is one of 22 in Jackson County regulated by the state. However, no records indicate the dam has ever been inspected by the state.