March 14, 1945 (Wednesday)

WASHED WINDOWS. ANOTHER BURIAL. HANK TO GRAND RAPIDS.

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Very mild again to-day

unusual for this time of

year.

I washed windows

up stairs both inside

and out. A nice

warm breezy day.

Another burial

at cemetery this P.M.

Wilder McDiarmid

of Grand Ledge buried

this P.M. This weeks

4 burial in cemetery in

side of a week.

Hank went to Grand

Rapids to-night to show

I guess.

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Hugh Wilder McDiramid was born in Bowne Center on October 13, 1865 to Angus and Exene McDiramid. Angus was the son of Duncan McDiramid who was born in Scotland and came with his family to the United States via Montreal in 1818.

Duncan resided in New York State before coming to Michigan and settling in Bowne Center, sometime after 1840. The 1840 census shows him as a resident of New York state but by 1844, when Angus was born, the McDiramid family were living in Bowne Center.

On February 1, 1848, Duncan McDiramid secured a deed from the General Land Office of the United States, authorized by President Polk confirming that he had paid in full for a plot of land in section 15 of township 5 (Bowne).

He secured a second deed on March 10, 1852, for an additional plot of land in that same section of Bowne Township. This time, it was authorized by President Millard Fillmore.

By 1870, ownership of section 15 in Bowne Township had transferred from Duncan to his son, Anges. By 1870, the Johnsons had settled in section 16 of Bowne Township. An illustrated atlas of Kent County published around 1874 featured engravings of both farms.

The engraving of the Johnson farm shows the original farmhouse. Henry and Edna lived a home on that plot of land that was built later than this engraving. The original farmhouse no longer exists but the home where Henry and Edna resided still stands.

In the map of Bowne Township (below right), I highlighted Section 15 / McDiramid in green, Section 16 / Johnson in blue. The section highlighted in orange is the farm where Edna grew up. The section in yellow is the Bowne Township cemetery.

On this day in 1945, Hugh Wilder McDiramid, son of Angus and grandson of Duncan, was being buried. Hugh was living in Grand Ledge at the time of his death on March 11, 1945, from a coronary thrombosis on March 11. His wife, Alice would live another thirty-two years, passing away in 1977.

Wilder and Alice are buried in the family plot in the cemetery at Bowne Center along with Duncan and Angus and several other McDiramid family members.

Wilder's brother, Lester passed away in 1939. He is not buried in the family plot at Bowne Center. I found an obituary for Lester in a 1939 publication of the Lansing State Journal.

Lester received his early education in the one room schoolhouse in Bowne Center. He went on to earn a degree from the University of Michigan, graduating with the class of 1900. He later became a teacher in Owosso, principal in Albion, and superintendent in Marshall. According to his obituary he also did "educational work for the Army in France" during World War I.

I am always so pleased to meet the people Edna introduces to me as I make my way through her journals.

Oh...also, Edna does not seem very pleased that Hank went to town without telling her what he is up to.

I got a little laugh from the "I guess" she tagged onto the end of her sentence about Hank going to Grand Rapids to a show.