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Far Right: Lefa (Wade) Tucker
Front center:
Josephine (Wade) Shepard
The photo is of the John P. Wade family of
Ganges, taken about 1890
Fernwood Farm Timeline
1820 Northwest Ordinance of 1785
modified and provides for sale of lands in MI territory for $1.25
per acre. Surveyor
General Land Office opened in
Kalamazoo
1836 July 21st; James
Johnson of Saratoga County,
New York, purchases 320 acres
encompassing south ฝ of section 35. James Johnson was never a
resident; he paid off the land May 1st, 1839.
1837 Financial Panic; 5 years of
depression
1862 Homestead Act of 1862, which
became law Jan. 1, 1863; provided for 160 acres free of charge at
end of 5 years if a resident was occupying the property
and at least10 acres were cultivated.
1863 Joseph Johnson (son of James?)
and his wife Mary became resident on the 320 acres.
1888 Joseph Johnson deceased; Mary M.
Johnson listed as resident property owner until 1889. Home immediately west is the
original homestead built in 1873.
1889-90 Amos Tucker purchases 34
adjacent East of this property; small yellow farmhouse directly East
is the Tucker original farmstead.
1890 Amos Tucker marries Lefa A Wade,
daughter of JP Wade, a founding father of Saugatuck.
1891 September 8, Amos Tucker
purchases 40 acres from Mary M Johnson for $1,500. He extends fruit-growing
operations with further land acquisitions East into Section
35.
1891 late or early 1892, Fernwood Farm
house built. The name
has been on the front pediment since its construction..
1893 Financial panic; railroad and
banking collapse; depression until ca. 1898. 
1895 February 5, Amos and Lefa Tucker
transfer title of house and property to Josephine L. Wade (Lefas
younger sister), for $1,000.
Josephine is never a resident in the home.
1903-1917 Chauncey Hart and Rose
Diantha (Brown) Scarlett and family become resident in the home (The
Scarlett family were caretakers of the farm.) Chauncey is cousin to the
Tuckers. The family
were tenant farmers of Leon
& Josephine L (Wade) Shepard, who managed the Wade family
orchards from their home on
122nd
Ave.
1904 Josephine L Wade marries Leon
Shepard.
1917 February 5, Chauncey Scarlett dies from
arsenic poisoning.
Arsenic was used as a spray on the orchards. The Scarlett family could no
longer reside at Fernwood since they could no longer manage the farm
without Chauncey.
1917-1947 Various tenant farmers
resided at Fernwood Farm, including the Hadaway farmily; many
itinerant farm workers through the 1930s. At some time during the
early 30s some of the orchards were torn up and Fernwood Farm
became a truck vegetable farm.
1947 February 8, Fernwood farm house
and 40 acres sold, with other land, by Leon & Josephine (Wade)
Shepard to Clyde L and Helen E. (Hadaway) Earl for sum of
$1
1963 February 18, Josephine L. (Wade)
Shepard dies at age 94.
Her will directs establishment of the Wade-Shepard
Scholorship Fund through
Fennville
High School to be used to
provide scholarships for tuition assistance toward college study of
agriculture. 
1968 November 19, Helen E. Leverich
(formerly Earl) and Everett Leverich sell house and property to
Edmund Staskiewicz, recent Polish ้migr้. He raised hogs, among other
things.
1981 August 7, Fred Gerigery purchases
property from the E. Staskiewicz estate.
1996 December 11, Greg and Karen
Johnson of Chicago
purchase house and property including 90 acres.
2000- December 31, Rob and Dawn
Soltysiak purchase Fernwood and 27 acres.
2002 February, 5 acres across
113th purchased to total 32 acres. This land was originally
settled by Benjamin Frye ca. 1863
Please feel free to contact us if you have any history, photos
and infomation pertaining to Fernwood Farm or the area. We
appreciate the help...
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and images to be used only with written
consent. | 
