2022.72.03

Photo caption from "Douglas, Village of Friendliness," 1987, page 5, by Kit Lane: "The D.C. Putnam general store 1882. The people in front are William Dickey, Minnie Belle Spencer (later Mrs. D. Milton Gerber) and Dyer C. Putnam [Sr.]. The fire engine was kept in the garage on the far right." A drawing by William Kemperman of this photo in Jim Schmiechen's "Raising the Roof" 2nd ed., page 37, has the following caption, "Dyer Putnam's General Store & Post Office, 1865, Mr. Putnam operated this simple wood-sided Greek Revival fronted store from 1896 until his death in 1894. It was built by the Gerber family. With Putnam the first village postmaster, the store housed the village Post Office from 1866 to 1886, and offered everything from flour to 'four dollar suits.' [Commercial Record, July 6, 1879] On the far right was an implement sales outlet. Later, the structure also housed the village fire engine—which burned along with the rest of the building in 1902. Later the site of a Standard Oil service station." ++ Dyer C. Putnam was a founder of Douglas. [See Person profile.] The D.C. Putnan store was one of two general stores in 1872, the other bring Thos. Gray. From "Saugatuck Through the Years" by Sheridan [from OCR scan of the book, no page #s] "Douglas never developed a great number of mercantile establishments on its principal business street-Center Street. It probably suffered to a certain extent because Saugatuck got an earlier start and the established businesses in that town continued to pre-empt the needs of its younger neighbor. However, throughout its history, it did support a number of general stores as well as several grocery stores, including an A & P Store. One of the earliest was that of D. C. Putnam which was situated on the southwest corner of Center Street. As was the practice in those earlier years, Putnam sold everything from horse collars to peppermint sticks including a large line of agricultural implements. In its heyday, the Putnam store hired a number of clerks and did a wide business especially with the farm trade. In 1902 the large wooden Putnam building caught fire from an overheated stove and was completely destroyed. By that time Putnam had passed to his reward after having been in business for almost forty years (1894) and the current owners were not disposed to rebuild. The corner stood vacant until recent years when the village erected a village office and fire department. This was the first substantial public building ever owned by the Village of Douglas. At one time Putnam's building, in addition to all of its other contents, housed the village fire apparatus which, following the fire, was kept for many years afterward in the lower rear portion of the village hall." "Dyer C. Putnam, soon to open a general store, decided, after some urging by his friends, to exert some pressure on the postal authorities in Washington and proceeded to seek the establishment of a local office. After the delays usual in matters of this sort, the order was sent out and Douglas no longer had to depend on the Saugatuck office. Perhaps, not unexpectedly, Putnam was named the first postmaster and the place of office was the D. C. Putnam General Store. For many years following, twenty of which Dyer served as postmaster, the mail was sent over to the Douglas office after its arrival at Saugatuck on the stage. By 1899 the electric interurban line which ran down the shore from Holland had replaced the stage but the Douglas mail still came over from the Saugatuck office until the local interurban was abandoned in 1926. At that time both towns began to receive their mail by a truck on a star route as they do today. Putnam resigned the postmastership in 1885, and at that time the office was moved to another location on Center Street and later still to others including the Kerr building which still stands just west of Spring and Center on the south side. "

Buildings: CommercialBuildings: Lost1830 Settlement, pioneer era

Winthers, Sally

09/24/2022

04/06/2025