The Shooks Family Moves to Antrim County, Michigan


The following excerpt was found in a book about Antrim County farms, written in 1985:

"The first ancestor of the current Shooks family to live in Antrim County was John Shooks, grandfather of Walter, Versal, and Marvin Shooks. John came to Bowers Corners, in the Grand Rapids area, from the Netherlands in 1884. In 1896, he came to visit Reverend Poole, the minister at the Belltower Reformed Church (Atwood Reformed Church), located on the northwest corner of Essex and Church Roads in Banks Township, Antrim County. John wanted to see first-hand the management of the Reformed Church of America up here. While visiting Reverend Poole, John had an opportunity to study the soil in Antrim County; he was so impressed with the fact that the soil was like that of "the old country" that he carried a little bag of dirt back home to show his sons. It was in that same year, 1896, that he moved his family to Antrim county. His wife, Winifred, and their four sons, Anthony, John, Walter and Sylvester (Vet) homesteaded acreage on Bennett Hill Road in the west 1/2 of the west 1/2 of Section 3, Central Lake Township. The property, near what was then the town of Essex, was probably deeded to them by the railroad company*. John and his three oldest sons worked in the area's thriving lumber industry."


*In fact, it was later learned that the land was deeded to them by Liken, Brown, and Company, a lumber company from Huron, MI.