Deerfield sesquicentennial weekend celebrates 150 years of small-town community, living
DEERFIELD — One hundred and fifty years of small-town life was celebrated Friday and Saturday by residents and families who have shaped the fabric of Deerfield’s community through the years.
Deerfield’s sesquicentennial, which celebrated the anniversary of its incorporation in 1873, brought movies, historical programs, a parade, music, a car show, food trucks, athletic tournaments and fireworks to the village for two days of entertainment.
Apart from a rainy afternoon Saturday, most of the planned events for the two days went on without much fuss. The weekend was capped off with a fireworks show.
One of the kickoff events on Friday was the ribbon-cutting ceremony unveiling the village’s new, commemorative brick walk that is now in place leading up to the pavilion in Deerfield’s community park right near the water tower.
The brick walk, designed to commemorate a family’s history in Deerfield, was coordinated by Marcie VanBlack and Heidi Mueller, longtime Deerfield residents. At least 135 bricks have been engraved and are part of the walk, VanBlack said. There are still 125 bricks available for purchase, she added. Bricks can be purchased through Aug. 31.
“A custom brick is a unique and thoughful gift that lasts forever,” VanBlack said. “People are doing them in memory of their loved ones and recognizing their families …. It’s just a great way to leave your family’s mark in history.”
The bricks are 8x8 pavers and can include up to six lines of text with 14 characters per line. The bricks cost $150 each.
For information about how to purchase an engraved brick, call VanBlack at 419-343-8276 or Mueller at 734-604-5424.
Deerfield Village President Todd Nighswander was the official ribbon cutter to open the brick walk to onlookers who searched for and pointed out familiar family names.
Nighswander, also a lifelong resident of the community, said he was “pleasantly surprised” to see the vast number of people making their way through Deerfield during Friday evening’s schedule of events, which included a car show downtown and a vehicle safety demonstration from the Deerfield Township Fire Department.
Games and activities for the kids were held at the Deerfield Middle School building, and a historical look-back was stationed inside the village municipal hall.
“There were a lot of faces here that I haven’t seen in years and lots of family,” he said. “It was tough to start with. Even when my wife and I walked up and saw the bricks and saw some of the names, what really hit me was the history of this community. Being here my whole life, it's fun to celebrate and to see everybody. And that’s what it's all about when you grow up in a small town.”
Nighswander called Deerfield a great place to grow up and raise a family while noting it is “close enough to everything but far enough away from everything.”
“We can be our people and be our own community,” he said.
Nighswander was one of many people who lauded the work of the village’s sesquicentennial planning committee.
“The committee that put this weekend together worked well over one year on it,” he said, “and I can’t thank them all enough.
“It’s amazing the work they did. We, on the village council, can’t thank them enough. Them organizing everything really took the burden off our shoulders as the council and we knew we were in good hands.”
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Members of the sesquicentennial committee consisted of Deerfield residents or family members of lifelong community residents. The weekend saw participation from Britton Deerfield Schools, area fire departments and local businesses, Nighswander said.
Deerfield was actually founded in 1825 as Kedzie’s Grove by William Kedzie, a Scottish immigrant who had been living in New York.
Kedzie purchased the western edge of town near the River Raisin from the government. When the community began, there were just four families. Kedzie also established the community’s first post office. He died in 1828, but his wife, Margaret, lived in the village until her death in 1874.
The name of the community was changed to Deerfield in the mid-1830s at the suggestion of Ephraim Clark due to the bountiful deer in the area by a vote of a majority of the handful of families living in the town.
The first village council meeting took place in May 1873 with an election of a council. Jason Hemenway was elected the village’s first president.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Deerfield sesquicentennial celebrates 150 years of small-town life
