Lillian Reams Smith and the Greenwood Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church

In the last few years, I've developed a desire to collect vintage postcards related to the communities where my ancestors and extended family took up residence.  Searching Ebay is always a lot of fun during my hunting for postcards and once in while I find a gem...particularly if its an image that I had

Greenwood Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, c1910

always hoped to find, but had little hope that one existed.  Last week was one of those great moments when I made a rare discovery....a real photograph postcard of the Greenwood Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church.  This congregation was the home church for Lillian (Reams) Secord Smith, the oldest sister of my grandmother Mabel Reams Grinnell.  Aunt "Sis", as she was called by my dad, appears to have moved to Jackson about 1916 from Decatur.  In Decatur, she had been married to a widower, Mr. Royal A. Secord, who was a carriage painter and wall paper hanger.  While living in Decatur, Lillian worked as a milliner and in the 1910 Census it is recorded that she owned her own shop.  Sounds pretty remarkable for a married women...you rarely hear about married women owning their own business.  Leads me to think the Mr. Secord must have been at least somewhat supportive of his wife's entrepreneurial endeavors. Mr. Secord died in 1915 which must have been a financial blow to Aunt "Sis".  Just a few months over a year following Secord's death, we discover that Aunt "Sis" has married again, to Mr. Rufus Carlton Smith, a traveling salesmen residing in Jackson.  The marriage is recorded in the records of the Greenwood Avenue Church on May 15, 1916 and indicates that there was a 20 year difference in their ages.  Mr. Smith, like Mr. Secord, was a widower so It appears that Aunt "Sis" must have been fulfilling a role as a mother and housekeeper in the family.  While in Jackson, it is clear that Aunt "Sis" ran their home as a boarding house, but its not clear if she maintained her career as a milliner.  Soon, her mother, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Burling Reams would come to live with her and Mr. Smith at their 1019 Griswold Avenue home.  It is here where Mrs. Reams would spend her remaining years and where she eventually passed away on November 24, 1918.

Lillian S. (Reams) Secord Smith

Aunt Sis would once again finder herself a widow in only a few short years, for Mr. Smith passed away in 1921, only 5 years following their marriage.

I believe that Aunt Sis was the person who laid the groundwork for my grandparents, Amos and Mabel Grinnell, to relocate to Jackson.  Jackson was a booming town and there were many opportunities for work.  Amos had previously worked at Kellogg's and Post's in Battle Creek and then found himself as a farm hand in Assyria.  Upon moving to Jackson about 1925, we find Amos as a truck driver.  Eventually, Amos and Mabel would be living in their own home on Levan Street in 1929, but we know that they arrived in Jackson several years earlier and Aunt Sis would have had the space to provide the Grinnell's a temporary home.

During her life spent in Jackson, Aunt Sis became an active member of the Greenwood Avenue Church, which was located only a few blocks from her home.  Dad remarked that as young adults the family would attend church with Aunt Sis....even though the only thing that really interested him and his brother Merle were the girls who attended. 

Membership at the church had a lasting impact on Aunt Sis, for when she became too old to live on her own, she moved to the Methodist retirement home in Grand Rapids.  The M. J. Clark Memorial Home on Sherman Avenue in Grand Rapids became her residence by between 1938-1940.  She passed away on December 10, 1954 at the Clark home, just 5 days shy of her 86th birthday.  She was laid to rest next to her first husband, Mr. Secord at the Lakeside Cemetery in Decatur, Michigan.

Aunt Sis was held in very high regard by her numerous nieces and nephews.  Although she had no children of her own, she had a very special place in the hearts of her extended family.  Today, the Greenwood Avenue church is known as Trinity United Methodist Church and it remains an active congregation.  The Clark Home also remains in Grand Rapids and provides many services to meet the needs of the elderly.