Thomas Dill
The first white woman to be seen in this locality
arrived in the summer of 1837 when Thomas Dill brought his wife and two children to the mouth of
Muskegon lake. They spent a night at
the house of Henry Pennoyer. The Dills ascended the Muskegon river
to near Newaygo. Early in 1838 they
returned down river to Mill Iron
point. There in a log cabin the first
white child was born in Muskegon county, June 10, 1838. She was named Minerva Dill. In 1855, when 17 years old, Minerva Dill
was married to John A. Curry.
They built their home on West Muskegon avenue, old No. 5. The house still stands in its original location with some windows, foundation and
porch added. The Dills returned
to Muskegon in 1840, and proceeded to
the head of Mona lake, where Mr. Dill started to build a water power saw
mill. He sold it, however, and returned to Muskegon, taking
possession of the old Louis Badeaux trading post. He made a
boarding house of it, and did some trading. About 1850 Mr. and Mrs. Dill bought the lot on the
southeast corner of Pine street and
Western avenue, extending to the alley, for $75. There they built a home, where
Mr. Dill died in 1855.
The title to the property was not clear, and the widow had to pay a
second time. She sold the frontage on
Western avenue to Mr. Roberts, from Grand Rapids, who had a saloon
there. It burned in the fire of 1874.
Part of the purchase price paid by Roberts was in the form of a
new house for Mrs. Dill, or
rather, Mrs. Bohne, as she had remarried, Mr. Bohne died the same
year. The new house was on that part of the lot facing Pine
street near the alley. Mrs. Bohne
had boarders there, and called the
place the Muskegon house, after the first one at the Badeaux
place. Mrs. Bohne later sold
that portion of the property to
Jonathan Boyce, and moved her house to the southwest corner of Webster
avenue and Terrace street, where she
had purchased the lot extending on Terrace from Webster to the alley at the
south. She sold part of it in 1880 to
Oliver Lambert. He put up a
brick store for a grocery. The building
still is there. It was in that building
the Schuitema Electric company started business. Mr. Boyce also put up a
building for a meat market on the Pine street lot. This burned in the fire of 1874, he then
built a brick building which still
stands.
Muskegon Chronicle, June 7,
1947 KNOW MUSKEGON By Charles H. Yates
Article