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General Facts (via City of Grand Rapids property tax website)
City, State: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Neighborhood: Midtown
Built: 1919
Size: 5 beds/2 baths; 1700 sq. ft; single family
The original street name of Atwood was Mechanic Street. It was changed on November 9, 1904. This house was built in 1919 so luckily there was only one address so it will make reading this series easier!
From the images below, 1919 was the first year someone lived at 753 Atwood. It actually looks like from these images, this was one of the last houses built on the street.
1919-1921: MELIS - Henry & Bessie (Galloway)
I'm not sure what the interior of the house looked like in 1919, but I'd assume the living room with the fireplace and the built-in bookshelves looked very similar to the pictures below: (Current owner gave permission to post the following pictures)
Henry John Melis was born on March 12, 1874 in Grand Rapids, MI to Martin and Sarah (DeGraaf). When Henry was born, the Melis family lived at 132 Coit Ave NE (Belknap Lookout area) and his father Martin, worked at the Grand Rapids Post Office as an Assistant Postmaster.
The job of a postmaster was an elite position. Below is a brief description of a postmaster and an assistant postmaster:
Postmaster was a political appointment- sometimes reflect postmasters' political affiliations when compared to the presidential administration at that time
Other federal agencies were dependent on postmasters for honest opinions and many served as witnesses in trials; It was a position of trust and honesty.
The appointment records have been microfilmed and stored in the National Archives
All postmasters were required to appoint an assistant postmaster
Assistant postmasters were required to take on all duties of a postmaster incase of the postmaster being absent, sick, traveling, or death.
Main duties included- sorting, bundling, and labeling outgoing mail and packages; In turn, would then sort and distribute incoming mail.
The image above shows Martin Melis earning $1,200 in 1875 - the highest of all the other post office employees in the city (other than the postmaster).
The postmaster in Grand Rapids at this time was A.B. Turner, and his salary was $4,000.
To compare, the postmaster salary in Ontonagon, Michigan (rural village in the UP) was only $365.
Martin Melis (Henry's father) immigrated to the United States from Poortvliet, Tholen, Zeeland, Netherlands in 1855 when he was just five years old. His entire immediate family made the trip as well - his father, mother, and four siblings.
Sarah DeGraaf (Henry's mother) immigrated from Barsingerhorn, Netherlands in 1866 when she was 15 years old with her parents and three other siblings. Sarah's father, (Henry's grandfather) Henry John DeGraaf, was an elder, founder, and on the Board of Trustees of the Holland Reformed Church when it was established in 1889. (Currently named- Covell Ave Netherlands Reformed Church)
When Henry was 17 years old in 1891, he started following in his father's footsteps and worked as a clerk at the Grand Rapids postoffice. His salary for his first year was $500; His father's salary was $1,600.
He continued to work as a postoffice clerk for 10 years until in 1901 he passed the exam to become a Railway Mail Service Clerk.
In 1903, Henry was in his second year as a Railway Postal Clerk- he worked on the Grand Rapids - Chicago route and made $1,000/year. Comparing that salary to the hundreds of others in this archive record book, $1,000 was the most common salary figure.
Henry lived at 502 S Lafayette with his brother William, who was also a clerk for the railway, and his parents. The house on Lafayette was one of many that were torn down to build the new Grand Valley State University medical building at the corner of Lafayette and Hastings.
The next year, 1904, Henry married a woman named Nellie. Unfortunately, the only record I can find of her is their divorce record from 1912. Even on the 1910 US Census, Henry is listed as single, but he is living with his parents and siblings, without his wife.
In September of 1914, at 40 years old, Henry married Bessie Galloway, who was approx. 12 years younger, at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church. It was the second marriage for both of them.
Bessie Galloway was born on April 6, 1884 in Grand Rapids to Andrew and Almeda (Lamphere). Andrew Galloway was born in New York and at 18 years old he enlisted into the Civil War fighting for the Union Army. He served for two years (1863-1865) and by 1870 he was living in Wyoming, MI working as stage coach driver.
Bessie's mother, Almeda, was born to farmers in Paris, Michigan. Bessie was one of six children for Andrew and Almeda. When Bessie was born, her father worked as a carpenter and the family lived on Livingston St in the Belknap Lookout neighborhood.
When Bessie was 20 years old, she married George W Smith, a tool and die maker from Kalamazoo, MI. However, after less than five years of marriage, they divorced.
When Henry and Bessie married in 1914, Bessie was living with her parents on 68 Mt. Vernon St. The newlyweds' first house together was at 564 Turner Ave NW - both of those houses were razed to build the 131 highway.
At this time, Henry was still working as a railway post office clerk, as he would be the rest of his career and life. The history of that dangerous but elite position is described below:
"Railway Post Office clerks were considered the elite of the postal service's employees. The exhausting and dangerous job required passing challenging entrance exams. A passing score on the civil service exam was 97% or higher, requiring a clerk to sort 600 pieces of mail an hour. This was not a test only taken once, RPO clerks were tested over and over to ensure their skills remained sharp. The memorization abilities clerks possessed were remarkable.
Clerks finally had to know where connecting trains met, so mail going either north/south or east/west could be delivered to the correct train. This intense, high pressure work environment elicited strong relationships and interactions. This was only half of the process, the clerk also had to throw that destinations sorted mail from the train. If the bag was not thrown far enough, a "snowstorm" could occur, meaning the mailbag was ripped under the train and the mail scattered.
Accidents and unsafe cars were not the only concerns of a railway post office clerk. In the 1920s, train robberies increased as criminals realized mail trains often carried large amounts of money or gold. This was the reason Railway Post Office clerks were required to carry .38 caliber pistols. When exchanging mail, trains slowed down so clerks could transfer mail by hand, which was inefficient and dangerous. This system was replaced by a mail crane, a simple steel hook and crane. Mailbags were hung from the crane and attached at the bottom with the hook. " - https://www.eiu.edu/eiutps/clerks/TeachRPO_History.php
"Railway Clerk's basic salary was $2,450/year and there was a 48 hour work week, with seven holidays. Travel allowance was $3.00/day, 10% night differential for working between 6:00pm and 6:00am, and they received 15 days vacation and 10 sick days each year." - http://thetracksidephotographer.com/2018/05/10/the-railway-mail-service/
Pictures above: US Postal Museum - Railway Mail Trains and Employees
In 1918, Henry and Bessie lived at 744 Lockwood NE - just one block east from where we meet them at 753 Atwood NE.
The following year, and for the next three years, Henry and Bessie lived at 753 Atwood St NE and they were the very first residents of that home.
Below is the 1920 US Census for the Melis' family:
From reading the 1920 census, unlike the neighborhood of the previous posts about 624 Henry Ave SE , which was just one mile south, Atwood St and the other surrounding streets all had homes that were all occupied by white families.
Also in 1920, Henry and Bessie welcomed a new family member - their daughter Donna Mae Melis was born in September.
By 1922, Henry, Bessie, and Donna moved back into Henry's family home at 812 Lafayette Ave SE with Elizabeth, Henry's sister.
Maybe they moved because Henry was gone many nights and worked long hours and living with Henry's sister allowed Bessie to have company and had immediate help with Donna?
10 years later, in 1932, Henry Melis passed away while on a passenger train near Benton Harbor, MI. His daughter, Donna, was only 12 years old at the time.
A few years later, Bessie was remarried to a fellow widower, Clifford Horton. She was 57 years old and her new husband was 53. There is a possible record of her marrying for the fourth time to Howard Ferguson in 1946 and divorcing one year later. (I couldn't double check that record so I'm not 100% certain.)
Bessie passed away in December of 1952 in Grand Rapids.
Henry and Bessie's only child, Donna, married Franklin Monsma in September 1941 in Grand Rapids. She then passed away in 2008 in Florida.
Additional articles involving Bessie Melis:
