My mother’s mother, Phoebe (Archer) Patterson was born in 1868 and died December 18, 1943 in Susanville, California. She and Gene are both buried in the Riverside Cemetery at Three Rivers, Michigan. Phoebe was raised in or around the area of Hart, Michigan. Her father, Benjamin Archer, was an officer of no small rank, in the Union Army during the war between the States. He and Mrs. Archer (Eunice) are both buried in the cemetery at Hart, Michigan.
The Archer name is well known in the west central Michigan area, as well as in the Quincy-Hillsdale area of southern Michigan. A point of interest, to me at least, is that during a visit to Colonial Willimsburg I found that at least one of the 144 people that came over from England to settle Jamestown in the early 1600’s was named Archer. Perhaps that accounts for the migratory instincts of some of us later family members.

Phoebe was a very religious person (Seventh Day Adventist). The religion applied only to Grandmother, it didn’t seem to effect Granddad very much. The Adventist faith allows no activity not connected with the Church, from sundown Friday night until sundown Saturday night. I can still see Grandmother sitting by the window, on Friday evening, trying to get enough light to read the newspaper. She would not turn on a light, because that would be an admission that it was after sundown and paper reading was not allowed until sundown on Saturday night.

Grandmother was a pretty sharp old gal, however. She had a large loom on which she wove rag rugs, and as I recall, she did quite well at it. She and Granddad owned an apartment house on East Michigan Avenue, in Three Rivers. I think that the number was 318. There were four apartments in the building and they occupied one of them.

Granddad had a 1914 Model “T” touring car and late every Saturday afternoon he would drive it up town and park it in one of the diagonal parking spaces, on Main Street. Main Street was St. Joe Street at that time. He would then walk back home. After sundown he and Grandmother would walk to town and sit in the car all evening , and watch the people go by. This arrangement assured them a good vantage point to view about the only exciting thing that ever happened in those days. This was during the period when most all “trading” was done on Saturday, and before the advent of radio, TV or Bingo.