A fruitful history

Barbara Bull stands at the Blackberry Ridge settlement site across the road from Cherry Point Farm and Market where the historical marker is slated to be installed Saturday, Aug. 10.

Historical marker to be dedicated Aug. 10

By Allison Scarbrough, News Editor

BENONA TOWNSHIP — Oceana County’s fourth Michigan historical marker will be dedicated Saturday, Aug. 10, at 11 a.m. at Blackberry Ridge across the road from Cherry Point Farm and Market, 9600 West Buchanan Road. 

“The ceremony will celebrate the history of the early settlement and the pioneering families who nurtured the fruit-growing industry there in the middle of the 19th century,” states Barbara Bull, the driving force behind acquiring the official historical marker. Bull’s family has owned the property around the Blackberry Ridge area since 1949, and she has absorbed its history since childhood.

Blackberry Ridge was founded in 1857, the second Euro-American settlement in Benona Township. The marker relates its history from the lumbering era to the development of the fruit industry and the shipping pier that once extended into Lake Michigan. Early residents who are recognized include James and Cynthia Gibbs, Charles and Mary Ellen Sessions, and Charles and Mary Jay.

A photo in Bull’s book, “A Point in Time.”

Saturday’s celebration will include remarks by Bull, who owns Cherry Point Farm and Market, and other local historians and descendants of the early settlers. One of the early settlers, James Gibbs, was renowned as a fiddler who played at community events. Local fiddler Dave Preston and guitarist John Shields will perform music from the era, and light refreshments will be served. The public is invited to attend, free of charge.

“Last year, when I got the approval, we went out and dug up some wild blackberries and planted blackberries in that little spot,” she said of the site where the historical marker will be placed. “That is why it was named Blackberry Ridge — because of the profusion of blackberries that grew here in the slashings after the pine was cut.” 

The historical marker will be situated where the Blackberry settlement’s school and church once stood in the 1870s. 

Back in the 1970s, Bull was looking through an atlas in the checkout lane at Meijer, and discovered that her family’s property was once called Blackberry Ridge. It was the first she had heard of this, and was immediately intrigued. “Then, I started asking questions of the old timers and learned all the interesting little tidbits and history of the corner and the people who lived here. First, they had a post office, and then they had a school and church. The community commenced here, and then there was a gentleman who had a store and a sawmill down at the bottom of the hill about a quarter mile from the church. That was called Sammons’ Landing. Ultimately, the post office was moved from here to Sammons’ Landing. The school was moved from here to the next corner. So, the heyday of Blackberry Ridge was probably 30 years. From the mid-to-late 1860s — and then a surge of growth and fruit production — to the early 1900s.

“There wasn’t a business center except for Mr. Sammons — at his sawmill area, he had a store. But, here was the first center — the post office, the church and the school. Some time later in the 1870s, he built right on the lakeshore, and ultimately all of these people went together and pooled their money and built a pier out into the lake for shipping. They shipped wood products as well as their fruit. It was really resourceful that they did that.” 

In 2013, Bull published “A Point of View: Blackberry Ridge 1871-1884”, a collection of clippings that depicts the life and times of the area as chronicled in three 19th century county newspapers. More recently, she edited and re-published a commemorative edition of “My New Home in Northern Michigan and Other

A photo in Bull’s book, “A Point in Time.”

Tales” by one of the area’s main characters, Charles W. Jay. 

In Bull’s book, “A Point in Time” published in 2012, she describes the Blackberry Ridge settlement: “By 1850, a sawmill was constructed at the mouth of Stoney Creek, six miles south of Cherry Point. As the great forests of the region were cut, some men realized the value of the land for fruit production. One gentleman, Charles W. Jay, a journalist from New Jersey, settled on land a half mile west of Cherry Point. In 1874, he wrote: 

‘… there is no spot on this broad land of ours where peaches, apples, plums, strawberries, raspberries and their kind come to more profuse and certain perfection than here in this circumscribed location… Petite Point au Sable.’

“He left out cherries and wrote with Victorian sentiment, but he was right about this location for growing fruit,” Bull wrote.

“Charles Jay’s closest neighbors were his son-in-law, Charles Sessions and James Gibbs, one of the earliest pioneers in the area. All three men, with a few other settlers, started orchards on their newly cleared land. In 1876, a local history recorded over 45,000 trees already planted, mostly peach, apple and plum. This first area of fruit production in the county was known as Blackberry Ridge.

“Today, Cherry Point encompasses a large part of what was once Blackberry Ridge. The Charles Sessions farm was where the market, stone circle and labyrinth are now located. The grand white house west of the market was his home. Mary Ellen Sessions, the wife of Charles Sessions, and her mother, Mary Jay, planted all the maple trees that still line the roads. On the corner, southwest of the market, was the house of James Gibbs.” The house collapsed about two years ago, said Bull. 

“The parlor of his home for several years served as the Blackberry Ridge post office. The corner southwest from the market was also part of the original Gibbs farm. Mr. Gibbs provided land on that corner for one of the first schools in the area, the Blackberry Ridge School. Children once learned their 3 R’s where Cherry Point visitors now park their cars. 

“From Blackberry Ridge in 1870 to Cherry Point in 2012, certainly many things have changed on this little corner in Oceana County. However, one thing has not changed; there still is no finer sport for growing fruit.”

Bull’s books are available at the Cherry Point Market. The author has published a total of 14 books.

The historical house next door to the market is slated for restoration, said Bull. “It belonged to a gentleman named Charles Sessions. He was significant, because he was a promoter of the horticulture of the area. A half mile up the road on the left hand side is a third grand old house. All of them were built in 1874 — it was the father-in-law of this gentleman, and he was a writer. He was a journalist from New Jersey named C.W. Jay, and he contributed articles to the local newspaper.”

A photo in Bull’s book, “A Point in Time.”

Bull conducted research at the Oceana County Historical and Genealogical Society to find C.W. Jay’s articles in 2012. “I found so many that I didn’t want them to slip back into oblivion, so I printed a collection in 2013 of articles by and about the people who lived on this corner at that time.

“This year, to coincide with the dedication of the marker, I have reprinted a book that Charles W. Jay wrote, and I’ve called it the ‘The Blackberry Ridge Commemorative Edition’ and combined it with newspaper articles by and about him both here in Oceana County and in New Jersey where he lived before he moved here.”

Blackberry Ridge is the second oldest community in the township with Stony Lake the oldest, said Bull. 

“I have never spent a summer anywhere else,” said Bull. “I grew up on the apple farm in northern Kent County, and this was my father’s cherry farm — this is where we would come for the summers. And then we would go back to the apple farm for the winter.” She has lived in the local area full time for about 20 years.

“I’m rooted in this corner, because my family has been here for 75 years.

“My sister started selling cherries on a card table here in the early 1950s.” Marilyn Bull Bruins was a young girl at the time, and then she began selling her homemade cherry pies when she was in college during the summer of 1961. Younger sister Barbara joined her in 1962 and has been at Cherry Point ever since.

The business is a popular destination for hungry tourists and locals alike who crave Bull’s delicious homemade baked goods. The stunning and unique Lavender Labyrinth was added in 2002. “A labyrinth is a thoughtful, contemplative, meditative walk. It’s a way to connect with oneself, with the land, and whatever higher power one acknowledges.”

The Michigan Historical Marker Program has established more than 1,800 historical markers across the state, telling the stories of people, places and events that reveal the breadth of Michigan’s heritage. The marker at Blackberry Ridge will be among four in Oceana County joining markers at John Gurney Park in Hart, Little Point Sable Lighthouse in Mears and Veterans Day Storm/Graveyard of Ships in Pentwater.

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