Dale Greve Saint Charles, Michigan, Collection, 1800, 2011, and undated

Summary

Creator:

Greve, Dale.

Abstract:

The collection documents the history of Saint Charles, Michigan, the Bad and Shiawassee rivers, canals, steamboats, sawmills, public waterways and routes, coal mines, river restoration, and the Greve family.

Extent:

29 cubic feet (in 27 boxes, 6 Oversized folders, 1 Oversized volume)

Language:

English

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by C. Engerson, Marian Matyn; M. Watts, M. Matyn

Background

Scope and Content:

This is an excellent local history collection of Saint Charles, Michigan, 1800-2011, collected, researched and created by a local historian and researcher, Dale Greve, from 1980 through 2011. The collection documents the history of Saint Charles, Michigan, the Bad and Shiawassee rivers, canals, steamboats, sawmills, public waterways and routes, coal mines, river restoration, and the Greve family in research notes, scrapbooks, maps, reminiscences, photographs, newspaper clippings, reel-to-reel tapes, videos, archaeological surveys and studies, articles, and mitigation plans and project reports.

The collection is organized first by size with oversized materials placed at the end of the finding aid. Letter-size materials are in Boxes 1-23 and legal-sized materials are in boxes 24-27 and 29.Boxes 1-18 are each cubic foot boxes, 19-28 are .5 cubic foot and Box 29 is .25 cubic foot.

After size, the collection is organized by topic and format, and then alphabetically. Boxes 1-18 consist of materials previously in binders, documenting Saint Charles, the Bad and Shiawassee rivers route, canals, steamboats, and sawmills. Boxes 19-22 document the river route from Saginaw to Saint Charles, canals, coal mines, the Bad and Shiawassee rivers, the Greve family, houseboats, motor boating, fishing, the Saginaw Valley waterways, and river and steamboats charts, graphs, and history documented in a variety of formats. Box 23 consists mostly of river studies. Box 24 consists mostly of Greve’s original notes on his research. Boxes 25-26 include most of the Saint Charles history photographs, although some are found also in Box 19. Boxes 26-27 consist mostly of reminiscences on reel-to-reel tapes and videos.

The oversized Saint Charles materials include a volume on the Coal Mine Era in Saint Charles. The first two oversized folders include folder 1) mostly oversized photographs and other oversized related materials; and folder 2) mostly oversized maps and related materials.

2021 Addition: In 2021, boxes 28-29 and four oversized folders were added to the collection. These materials are arranged alphabetically. Box 28 contains St. Charles materials gathered by Dale Greve, including: interviews, maps, certificates, research notes, articles, a report, and a CD, Up River from Saginaw to St. Charles, a forgotten history, 2019. The majority of the collection is a gathered history report of St. Charles, 1822-2020. Additionally, there is a detailed report of the history of coal mines in St. Charles with location, details, and images of almost all the coal mines there. There are two typed transcriptions of 1982 oral history interviews of Aldo Hulien (1905-1986), probably conducted by Dale, and of Jeannette Mason (1890-1986), conducted by Aldo’s wife, Lillian Hulien (1907-1995), who adds her memories. (Their vital statistic dates from Social Security Death Index.)The interviewees tell their story and experience of what it was like living in St. Charles. There are no permission/release forms for these interviews in the collection. There are also maps and research notes composed by Greve of the Bad and Shiawassee Rivers.

Box 29 has legal-sized materials that include Abstracts, a letter, a list, and a story. The letter was written by Dale Greve and sent to Bob Przybyzski. The letter outlines all of Greve’s research on St. Charles mines, and his offer to help Przybyzski if he ever needed it (see Letter to Bob Przybyzski, 2017). The list is items compiled by Greve that were lost from the past and present in St. Charles (See Items Lost to the Village of St. Charles, Past and Present, 016). The story is nine pages long and is about the life of a St. Charles coal miner in 1929 (see St. Charles Coal miner’s life, 1929).

The four oversized folders, #3-6, include St. Charles architecture blueprints, maps, abstracts, a certificate, a graph, and a panorama. Folder 3) is a Certificate of First-Aid Training by the Bureau of mines for Charles Krause. Folder 4) has two blueprints, one of an engineer’s office from a mine and the other being the complete 1946 St. Charles sewer system. Folder 5) has a panoramic picture of Shiawassee Lake, a chronological timeline of St. Charles coal mines, and abstracts. Folder 6) has a map of the Bad and Shiawassee rivers routes and park plan for St. Charles.

Biographical / Historical:

Biography:

Dale Greve was born in Saginaw, Michigan, on June 3, 1947, the son of Lester and Ilda (Tausch) Greve. He grew up in Saint Charles, Michigan, along the banks of the Bad rivers, and graduated from Saint Charles High School in June 1965. Dale then joined the U.S. Navy, serving for four years and attending the Aviation Structural Mechanic School, among other service schools. While in the navy, Dale traveled the world and visited numerous historical sites. He advanced in rank from E-1 to E-5 in 27 months. After attending a class at Old Dominion College in 1968, Dale earned an Associate’s Degree in Mechanical Technology from Delta College in 1972.

In 1976, Dale returned to Saint Charles, Michigan. He worked in industry, in river restoration work in Saint Charles, and in marine repair of aluminum hulls.

Dale is a published author of several works. His copyrighted publications include: several color-coded area river navigation maps of Saginaw County, 1980; Greve’s Original Structural Aluminum Boat Repair Manual – Basic Fundamentals, 1992; Used Aluminum Boat/Hull Appraisal Guide, 1992; Saint Charles – Michigan – The Early Years -1848 thru 1870 – A Scrapbook History, 2007. He has also researched several articles for the MODOC Whistle, the newsletter of the Saginaw River Marine Historical Society.

For the last 30 years or so, Dale has researched local Saint Charles history. His historical interests began when he heard people mention how steamboats had once visited Saint Charles. This led to exploration of the relationship between local public waterways and the settlement and growth of Saint Charles. About 1980 he became involved with a river restoration project and this led to his exploring early river navigation between Saint Charles and Saginaw, Michigan. His family’s connection to local coal mines led to his research interests in Saint Charles coal mines history. His great-grandfather, Fritz Greve, came to Saint Charles in 1897 and sunk the shaft for Somers No. 1 coal mine. His grandfather and father both worked in the local coal mines.

In the early 1980s Dale helped found the Saint Charles Community Museum. He has served in many posts in the museum. He also helped construct the “historical center piece” of the Hartley Outdoor Education –Coal Mine Museums, in Saint Charles. In June of 1987, Dale worked with the Saint Charles Community Museum and the Michigan Sesquicentennial to bring the passenger riverboat, “Spirit of Lansing”, to the Bad rivers for a week.

For many years Dale cared for his elderly mother who died in 2006. Dale has a daughter, Wendy J. Greve. (This information is from biographical information provided by Mr. Greve, April 2011.)

Acquisition Information:

Acc#72744, 77117

Arrangement:

Arrangement is by size and format, then alphabetical by topic and chronological. Some materials were in binders, which is indicated by number sequences within various boxes.

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Sewerage--Michigan--Saint Charles.
Michigan authors.
Sawmills--Michigan.
Canals--Michigan--History.
Water resources development--Michigan.
Inland navigation--Michigan.
Bad River (Mich.).
Shiawassee River (Mich.).
Steamboats--Michigan.
Coal mines and mining--Michigan.
Houseboats.
Boats and boating.
Fishing--Michigan.
River boats--Michigan.
Saint Charles (Mich.)--History.
Saginaw County (Mich.)--History.

Names:

Greve family.
Greve, Dale.
Hulien, Aldo, 1905-1986.
Hulien, Lillian, 1907-1995.
Mason, Jeannette, 1905-1986.