Mooreville Revisited

MOOREVILLE - More than a century go, the stage coach used to stop at the old hotel, once located at the southwest corner of Mooreville and Dennison Rds. Now the bookmobile stops Beach Thursday in front of Brown's General Store in "downtown Mooreville." This is just one of the many I ways life has changed in this hamlet through the years. Mooreville stands at the crossroads of Mooreville and Stony Creek Rds. in the southI western corner of York Township, two miles west of the Milan city limits. The community consists of some 30 houses and about 50 people and is surrounded by flat, fertile farmland overlooking the Saline River which snakes around this hamlet. In the 1800's, Mooreville was a thriving community. You could get religión, cheese, a drink, a hotel room and your horse shod all within walking distance. According to histories writJ t e n about Mooreville and long - time residents of the area, Mooreville was named after John Moore who came here in the 1830's I from New York State, ffis brother, William, was the first justice of the peace for York Township. Then Mooreville was just one log house where the abandoned Methodist Chureh now sits at the northwest corner of Mooreville and Stony Creek Rds. The first saw mili was built in Mooreville in 1832 by Issac Hathaway. By 1881, Mooreville had a cheese factory, eider mili, a steam saw mili, two stores, five churches, two blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, a saloon, hotel and a school. In fact, Milan residents used to travel to Mooreville to attend chureh services. Now, sinee all of the churches in Mooreville are no longer used, residents either go to Milan for chureh or to churches in the area. In 1838, another saw mill was built. The two milis furnished all of the lumber for buildings in Washtenaw County at the time. The stagecoach from troit to Jackson and Adrián stopped in Mooreville. The cost for a ride was 5 cents per mile. The roads then were mud-bottomed or corduroyed (road of logs laid side by side). Gilbert M. Brown was the last owner of the hotel which was appropriately called Brown's Hotel and contained a saloon and ballroom. The Baptists were the first to form a church in the area in 1832. It was called the First Baptist Church of Mooreville and had a congregation of about 10 persons. The church later was known as the York Baptist Church and was located at Platt and Stony Creek Rds. The Mooreville Baptist Church was built in 1849 on the William Moore property. This building is now abandoned and is used for a garage. The original York Baptist Church is now replaced by a newer one built in 1965. The Free Methodist Church located just east of Mooreville became the Macabee Hall in 1905 and was the scène of dances twice weekly. In the 1930's, it became the York Township Hall. The township recently sold this building which will be used for apartments. The Mooreville Methodist Church, which observed its centennial in 1949, is now empty. Standing at the northwest corner of Mooreville and Stony Creek Rds., it has been vacant for the past 10 years. Other churches included the Universalist Church, now torn down. Mrs. Gertrude Ferrington, the unofficial historian of Mooreville, lives in a brick house constructed on this church's site. Another church was the Episcopal Church, which used to be located at Moon and Stoney Creek Rds. Mrs. Ferrington, a native of England, has lived at her present address, 1376 Mooreville Rd., for 36 years. She said she moved here with three of her seven children from Detroit. All of her children are now married. "I was kind of lonesome when I first moved here. I missed Detroit at first but then I got used to it," she said. She recalls that an old saloon used to be located at Stony Creek and Mooreville Rds. It had been deserted for many years then but Mrs. Ferrington remembers the mahogany bar and various colored bottles. Behind the old Methodist Church was the old swimming hole in the Saline River where youngsters use to frolic in the water. Mrs. Ferrington said she use to walk up to the Murray farm on the hill, west of town where she got milk for 25 cents per gallon. Behind her home is a converted school house now used for a home. She recalls the Christmas play at the schoolhouse was one of the big events then. The school and church were the centers of the social Ufe in Mooreville then. Walter G. Greashaber of 1403 Mooreville Rd. has been living on the site of the former hotel for the past II years. The hotel is said to have fallen apart sometime during the 1940's. A retired painter and wallpaper hanger, Greashaber is a life-long resident of the area. He said Mooreville use to have its own post office years ago. Now, it's part of the Milan Post Office. The long white house located at the corner near his house once was a store from 1918 to 1919. Mrs. Ferrington said Henry Ford was interested in restoring the old hotel but the prohibitive costs of restoration prevented him from( pursuing his proposal. Another long-time Mooreville resident who recalls the good old days is Mrs. Myrl (Flossie) Murray of 15 09 Mooreville, who has lived in the community for 52 years. She said that when she first moved to Mooreville, there was a wooden sidewalk for the saloon and a hitching post in front. "Henry Ford wanted to dam up the river to build a mili here. All of the property owners affected were willing to sell land for the project but one. Ford decided to build his mili in Milán because the' man wanted too much for his property," she said. Mrs. Murray's late husband, was a general farmer. In fact, both carne from farm families. She remembered the clay hill near her house which was difficult to climb during the spring because of the heavy rain. "We stayed in Mooreville all these years because it was our home and because our church was here," she said. Mrs. Murray, who has five children of her own, also has 18 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. She retains her independent spirit despite her 75 years. She has a saw which is nearly 50 years oíd she uses to cut wood, make shelves or do repairs about her house, part of which is a converted chicken coop. Mrs. Murray remembered her first year in Mooreville: "There was a cyclone that day, two miles west of town. Myrl was planting potatoes at a cousin's house. I was trying to hitch up the horses to teil Myrl about the cyclone but the hail and wind were too much," she said. In the old days, there were quilting and spelling bees at the school house, and husking and threshing bees. One of the relative newcomers to Mooreville is Harold Brown, proprietor of Brown's General Store which sells everything from raisins to rifles. He is the third owner of the store which attracts ers from throughout the área including Milán. Brown and his wife Flossie came to Mooreville 13 years ago from Plymouth where he I was employed by a chain store. Leaning over his gleaming white meat counter, Brown I said there is enough trade to keep him in business. "You gotta sell yourself too besides selling food," he quipped. "I lived in a suburb outside Plymouth for a while. I But I don't miss it. Here, I don't have to worry about I keeping up with the Joneses. I work f rom 8:30 a.m. in the morning to eight at night. But it's better than driving an hour back and forth to work." He said good fresh meat is one of his big sellers. Brown added the store hasn't changed much through the years and that he sells a lot of food and hardware. About a quarter-mile west of Mooreville is Mooreville's Cemetery. There some of the headstones go back to 1845 and 1853 with names of some of the founding families of the community such as E 1 1 i s , Shaw, Phillips, Warner, Sanford, Clark, Culver and Davenport. The cemetery is still used today. Residents say that because the Ann Arbor Railroad and the old Wabash Cannonball chose to lócate in Milan instead of Mooreville in the late 1880's, Mooreville's demise became a certainty. Mooreville could be called a victim of progress or circumstances. But the residents are content with the way things are now . Otherwise, they would not have stayed here in the first place.