COLUMBIA

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A black and white postcard titled 'South Main St., Columbia, Mich., P.O. Gr. Junction.' From left to right, the panoramic view shows a small house with trees and a wood-post wire fence, a dirt road and a house among fields. Image Credit: Dick Godfrey

The original 1870 plat map for Columbia shows four streets – Main, Pike, Oak and Cress – with more than a dozen blocks platted. The railroad tracks run across the south part of town, intersecting Main Street, which runs north-south. Image Credit Archives of Michigan

A black and white photo shows a small train station, a shelter with three sides and a slanted roof. A sign on the wall reads 'Columbia.' Image Credit: Sue Hodapp

In 1870, William Dickinson, Marvin Hannahs and Samuel Rogers platted Columbia to take advantage of the newly built railroad. But the village was never built. Columbia was little more than a train stop for inland resorts with a nearby country school.

Memories of the Columbia One-Room Schoolhouse

"Columbia School set to the right of the train tracks . . . amongst sand dunes. There wasn't much of any playground equipment, but there was plenty of sand and a long fence row of uprooted tree roots which encouraged all sorts of creative play and exercise. . . .

"The country school teacher . . . picked up and delivered several students on the way to and from school, sometimes getting stuck in the sandy roads. . . . The older students helped the younger while the teacher was teaching a particular grade."

– Pat Bly

In a 1941 black and white photo, four girls and eight boys stand in front of the Columbia One-Room Schoolhouse. The girls wear dresses, the boys in shirts and trousers. One boy wears overalls. Pat Bly stands, wearing a baby doll dress with a Peter Pan collar. Her short brown hair surrounds her round face and she has a wide closed-mouth smile. Pat Bly (front row, third from the left) was four years old in this 1941 photo at Columbia school. The teacher, Maud Pollock, was Pat's aunt and babysitter. Image Credit: Pat Bly

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