Adam Assal Family Papers Collection, 1878, 2021, and undated

Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library

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Restrictions:: Adam Assal Family Papers Collection is open for research.

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Summary

Creator:: Assal, Adam, 1833-1917
Abstract:: This incomplete collection, 1878-2019 (Scattered) and undated, includes a diary, a diary/ledger book, a restored photograph of Adam Assal (and a photo print copy), and genealogical research compiled by and about Assal and his extended family.
Extent:: .75 cubic ft. (in 2 boxes)
Language:: English
Authors:: Collection processed and finding aid created by M. Matyn, 2024

Background

Scope and Content:

This incomplete collection, 1878-2019 (Scattered) and undated, includes a diary, a diary/ledger, a ledger, a restored photograph of Adam Assal (and a photo print copy), and genealogical research compiled by and about Assal and his extended family. The biographical section of this finding aid details the topics Assal wrote about in his diaries. The Biographical Materials folder includes genealogical research compiled by Adam‘s descendants, their genealogical correspondence (copies) and related materials. There is an undated, professional portrait photograph of Adam Assal, which appears to have been restored in the twentieth or early twenty-first century and a photographic copy print of it. In the photograph Assal is an adult with dark hair and a greying beard. There are also three folders of genealogical information from Ancestry.com, 2019, about Assal and his family, including Eva’s incarceration as an insane woman in the State Hospital in Traverse City, and documentation of Henry Irons’ Civil War pension records. There are also two folders of Charles (Carl) Swanson) genealogical information from Ancestry.com, including one folder on extended family information, 2020-2021.

Miscellaneous notes are found on the inside covers of all the volumes in the collection. The diaries include his handwritten entries in pencil or black or red ink. The dates are scattered, sometimes skipping months in between entries, while at other times they are almost daily. Some events are recorded in a summary fashion after the fact.

The legal-size diary/ledger spans January 19, 1878-September 21, 1891 on pages 112-236 of the volume. Page 111 (the first surviving page in the volume) and page 266 include accounts concerning wood and potatoes and miscellaneous, 1885 and undated. Pages 261-262 and 265 document the daily temperature and wind. Only the G-Z front index pages, and pages 1-68, 145-148, and 217-250 survive in this ledger. An additional index is written on page 33. The dates of recorded entries jump from September 14, 1888 to May 7, 1889 on the same page (p.190). The volume includes a variety of accounts, some specifically with Assal. Accounts vary from basic mathematical totals to specific accounts for lodging, wood and log jobs, rent, postage, groceries, dry goods, and money donated to an orphan's home. Children's drawings of Essexville (p.68), blobs (pages 145, 235), and deer (page 218) are included in the volume, as well as evidence a child practiced writing their numbers (page 219). There is a printed note by a child, "Alonzo Assal Jr four years old, Frank J. Assal, ten years old" with other names and Michigan locations (p. 48). When he was age nine, Alonzo printed his name in the volume (p. 166). Scribbles are found throughout the volume. The pages that survive are separated from the covers and spine. The cover has some leather rot issues, and some pages are acidic.

A smaller diary volume contains Adam’s diary entries for September 10, 1885-January 11, 1887 (pages 43-142). There are lines in pencil around the words on pages 84-85, 114-115 and 118-121, presumably drawn by children. This volume is also missing pages. The extant pages are separated from the covers and spine. A receipt to Alonzo Assal for $62.50 from Richardson Lumber Co., Bay City, Mich., July 3, 1925 is found inside the back cover. It is printed and typed on a small, acidic envelope with a corner ripped off. Because it is acidic, the envelope is now in a folder piece of acid-free paper.

Biographical / Historical:

Biography:

Adam (or Adan) Assal (or Asel) was born in Switzerland on October 19, 1833. The Early Times of Otsego Lake, Michigan, by William H. Granlund (2014) is the only source noting that Assal graduated from the University of Bern, Switzerland. A genealogical report in the collection notes that Assal first emigrated to Ontario, Canada, where he met and married Elizabeth Irons (December 28, 1837-August 2, 1922), the daughter of Henry and Susannah Irons.

Henry Irons was a Grand Rapids (Kent County), Michigan, farmer. He served in Company D of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry from September 1861 to September 1862, when he was invalided out with a hernia, which eventually incapacitated him. Beginning in 1888 Henry filed paperwork for a military pension which was initially denied. He, and later his widow, were eventually paid $8/month until March 4, 1900. He died June 4, 1891. His wife unsuccessfully sought his accrued pension until May 3, 1895. (Henry’s pension paperwork is documented in the Assal Genealogical Information from Ancestry.com in Box 1.)

Adam and Elizabeth moved to Otsego Lake Village, Otsego County, Michigan, in 1872 because the lumber firm of Smith, Kelly and Dwight offered lots to families to establish the village of Otsego Lake. George Finch, Adama Assal and Blackford Smalley were the first three village families. (Early Times…, p. 9.)

A story repeated in all village histories is that in 1873 a large tree fell on the Assal log cabin, flattening the roof and nearly killing the family.

On March 12, 1875 Assal was elected as a County Superintendent of the Poor for three years with an annual salary of $25. The village was platted three months later on June 12, 1875. (Otsego County Centennial 1875-1975, the Heritage Years, pp.9-10). Assal served as Justice of the Peace, on the township school board, on the Board of Supervisors, as township clerk, and as township librarian. (Place of Our Past: Otsego County, Michigan by the Otsego County Historical Society, 2021, p. 11.)

Many of his diary entries note his work as a local governmental official. In the larger diary/ledger book, on September 2, 1888 Adam wrote that he took a school census to create reports for the Directors. In the smaller diary on October 4, 1885 he noted that he would meet other Superintendents of the Poor in Gaylord the following day. On October 15, 1885 Adam was summoned before the Board of Supervisors in Gaylord. He recorded his 52nd birthday on October 19, 1885. On November 6, 1885 Ada, “ worked out the roll to correct a school tax error of $61.” He was summoned to Gaylord to collect the County [poor house] farm bill on December 24, 1885. On January 2, 1886 Adam “answered over dues,” probably meaning he paid overdue county poor house bills. On January 18, 1886 he traveled to the Gaylord Probate Court concerning the Thompson case. On March 29, 1886 Adam helped Charles Smith make his highway report, probably a Commissioner of Highways report. On April 2, 1886, the “poor managers,” or Superintendents, paid Adam’s owed bills. From April 12 to 17, 1886 he was persuaded by the post office clerk Kirsten to take the “Deputyship,” meaning to work in place of Kirsten in the post office. After Kirsten’s return was delayed, Assal was pragmatically wrote on April 18, 1886, ”the more days the more dollars.”

Most of his diary entries record his general activities. In his smaller diary he noted that he helped a neighbor, Jake Johnson, shingle his house (April 23, 1886). In the springtime, Adam planted vegetables. In the fall he and his family dug potatoes which his neighbor’s cows wanted to eat. He also helped his neighbor Jacobson thrash a large amount of wheat, rye, oats and pease, concluding the day before it snowed (October 2, 1885). During the colder months Adam, like most local men, cut, hauled, and sold cords of logs and filed (sharpened) his saws. His outside work continued in all-weather, except when it was too hot for the horses to work.

At least twice he visited the Lodge in Gaylord, so he may have been a Mason. (November 18, 1885 and April 23, 1886.) He recorded enjoying a nice Christmas dinner of turkey and oysters and giving his wife a nice present of a hanging lamp on December 27, 1885. The next year’s holiday entry was quite different. On December 25, 1886 Adam wrote “Having no money to keep Xmas with I stayed [sic]at home and cut logs. Nobody came to see us but Frank.” Here Adam is probably referring to his son Frank.

Typical of most farmers with diaries, Adam recorded the daily temperature and wind. He noted a small local tornado on September 13, 1888 (diary/ledger).

Adam rarely and briefly mentions his wife or children in his diaries, examples being when they are helping dig potatoes or the children attend school. In the smaller diary, Adam referred to his son Alonzo in an entry as “Lon.”

Together Adam and Elizabeth had 15 children, all but two, Jane and George, lived to adulthood: William H. (1859-1886), Margret Ann (1861-1934), Ella (1864-1925), Emma (1863-1913), Clara (1871-1950), Laura (1875-1968), Mary (1873-1963), Eva (1883-1927), Elizabeth (1886-1965), Frank (1868-died between 1880 and 1922), Jane (January 23-25, 1881), George (1882-1883), Sara (1886- after 1930), Alonzo “Lon” (1879-1960), and Harriette, known as Hattie (1877-1967). Hattie married Charles (Carl) Swanson from Otsego Lake (1863-1941) on July 3, 1895. Two folders of genealogical information about Carl Swanson are in Box 2.

Eva, who lived with her parents as an adult, developed significant mental health issues, possibly resulting from a broken engagement. Her parents and numerous other family members signed a successful petition in Bay County Probate Court on September 5, 1916 to admit Eva to the State Hospital at Traverse City as an insane person, age 37. (Eva’s case is documented in the Assal Genealogical Information from Ancestry.com in Box 1.)

In 1916 Adam and his wife had their house dismantled, transported to and rebuilt in Essexville, Michigan, via the Michigan Central Railroad, so they could live near a son. Adam died in Essexville on August 2, 1917. He was buried in Otsego Lake Cemetery.

Regarding provenance, Adam Assal's volumes were originally donated to the Otsego County Historical Society by one of his descendants. They were later returned to another descendant. In 2024 Assal's descendants donated them, with their compiled genealogical research from Ancestry.com, to the Clarke Historical Library. (This biographical information and provenance is from the donor, the collection, and the cited books.)

Acquisition Information: