Looking Back: 150 years ago, vegetables paid for papers
One hundred and fifty years ago this week, the Charlevoix Sentinel newspaper informed its readers that a subscription to the paper could be paid for with garden produce.
Fifty years later, the July 13, 1922 Sentinel reported that Charlevoix’s new hospital, which had opened in early May two years prior and had closed due to a financial shortage in October of 1921, would be coming back into service. Located on the corner of Grant Street and West Hurlbut atop the hill overlooking downtown, the new structure’s full monetary needs apparently had not been given sufficient scrutiny.
“The Charlevoix hospital, an incorporated institution, was not organized for the purpose of making money, but was created, promoted, and carried through to its present condition for the benefit, not of the incorporators, but for the public.” But the public had never been informed of the intricacies of hospital financing, that monies in the form of donations would be needed to keep it on an even keel.
“The closing of the hospital last October was the cause of some adverse comment, largely due to the fact that the public in general were uninformed concerning the affairs and workings of the institution, and particularly is this true as to the financial status, receipts, and expenditures, for which no complete accounting has been rendered up to the present time. That the public is entitled to this information is no doubt true.”
According to the Charlevoix Courier, “there has been a deplorable lack of interest shown by the local people, and but a small percentage of our citizens were enrolled as members. There might have been sufficient reason for this and the result was that the hospital was forced to close its doors for lack of funds.
“A house to house canvas has been decided upon. The membership fee is $5, which entitles one to vote at all annual or special meetings. Liberal donations have already been subscribed which indicates that sufficient funds will be raised to keep the hospital open the year around.”
Apparently, area residents or resorters becoming hospital “members,” or sponsors/patrons, helped, and outright donations did the rest to bring the much needed community service back into business.
Fifty years ago, the July 16, 1972 Charlevoix Courier reported the imminent arrival of Larry Smith, 1958 graduate of Charlevoix High School, who would be returning to his hometown to sign copies of his newly published first, and only novel, “The Original,” set on farms to the south of a never-mentioned-by-name Charlevoix.
From age 10, Smith grew up on his uncle Harrison Warner’s farm eight miles south at the intersection of U.S. 31 and Norwood roads. After graduation, in 1962 he earned a bachelor’s degree in English at the University of Michigan, then began a journalism career out west. Smith’s innate literary instincts and developing writing abilities led him and his growing family back across the continent to a job as night copy editor at the New York Times. A few stabs at writing fiction finally paid off with the publication of “The Original,” which earned a sterling review from noted author Norman Mailer. “The Original” is a coming of age story of a young man who rebels against the hard farm life forced upon him by a hard-driving father, and leaves to find his own path to manhood, with tragic results, and a lot of colorful characters along the way.
From the New York Times, Larry Smith moved over to the managing editorship of Parade magazine, the hugely popular and once influential Sunday supplement, which he led for 19 years. During this time, he interviewed presidents and foreign leaders, and developed a fascination with Latin America. During his Parade tenure, his highly respected journalism skills led to a two-year stint as president of the Overseas Press Club of America, one of the most prestigious positions in American journalism. Of his duties with the OPCA, Smith said, “I never worked so hard in my life.”
A further fascination with American military history led to three non-fiction books on the subject; one of them, “Beyond Glory” on awardees of the Medal of Honor, reached the New York Times extended bestseller list. That book, in turn, caught the imagination of actor Steven Lang, best known as the evil Quaritch in the blockbuster film “Avatar.” Lang turned several of Smith’s Medal of Honor stories into a one-man play, which ran for three theater-packed months in New York before being taken by Lang around the world. The movie version of the play had its world premiere in Leland, Michigan a few years ago. Smith is now retired and living on Block Island just off the east end of Long Island.
The accompanying photo portrait of Larry Smith was taken by his friend, photojournalist Eddie Adams. Adams received worldwide recognition during the Vietnam War for his powerful shot of the assassination of Viet Cong prisoner Nguyen Van Lam, which image gained for him a Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1969. That singular shot entered immediately into the pantheon of not only Vietnam War photos but of all immortal war images since the invention of photography.
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This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Looking Back: 150 years ago, vegetables paid for papers
