We received the following guest article from Devin Potrykus, an intern with the Fallasburg Historical Society and the Lowell Area Historical Musuem.
Hello, my name is Devin Potrykus, and these past few months I have been working as a Collections Management Intern for the Fallasburg Historical Society and the Lowell Area Historical Museum. I am currently attending Calvin University in Grand Rapids, and am pursuing Bachelor Degrees in History and Geography.
Now you might be wondering, what does someone who works in Collections Management do? Well, to put it simply, I take artifacts that have been donated to the Fallasburg Historical Society and digitally input information about them into an online system. This means that anyone with internet access can examine and learn more about Fallasburg and its history.
Throughout this experience I have had many hands-on experiences with objects from Fallasburg’s past, and have grown fond of the small village and the rich history behind it. Throughout my visits and tours of different parts of this historic village, one thing that really stuck out to me is a display model of the entirety of Fallasburg Village that is found within the Fallasburg Schoolhouse. This model piqued my curiosity, and so I asked about the man who created it, Bill Barber.
Bill Barber is the name of a man who spent his life as a beloved member of the Lowell community. When he was not working his job at Root Lowell Manufacturing, he spent his time as a craftsman doing what he loved, building model railroads. I recently had the opportunity to have an interview with Mr. Barber’s wife, Ardis Barber, about his life and the passion he had for being a model craftsman.
Throughout my interview Ardis mentioned on multiple occasions how much she had admired her husband’s craftsmanship and said that “He could do anything,” and anything is right. From working as part of the sales team at Root Lowell Manufacturing, to owning and operating the McGee Homestead as a Bed and Breakfast, it truly did seem like anything was possible for Bill Barber.
Although always busy, Mr. Barber always found a way to return to his passion for building model railroads. When asking about his passion, Ardis remarked that “We never had a car in the garage,” because that was his woodworking shop. That is where he would carve the wood into the shapes and sizes that he wanted, and then build the models himself in a small closet in the household den.
Both homes that the Barber’s lived in throughout their lives also had a “Michigan Cellar,” or a basement made out of a crawl space that had a cement shelf around its perimeter. That is the place where the model sets he would build would eventually end up. Mr. Barber made his sets out of the normal HO scale for model trains, which has a 1:87 ratio in size. He also crafted buildings and other features out of an easily pliable material called balsa wood.
Throughout his life, Mr. Barber always had a strong fascination with the Village of Fallasburg and its history. In 1971, when Mr. Barber was only 26 years old, he was commissioned by Leonora Tower, the first President of the West Central Michigan Historical Society (Now the Fallasburg Historical Society), to make a scale model of Fallasburg Village for the Fallasburg Covered Bridge Centennial, which was happening that same year.
He quickly took measurements of several of the buildings and looked at old photographs to get the best sort of representation of the village that he could gather, and then went to work. He built the Fallasburg Village Model in the same HO scale as he built his model railroads and even used the same kind of balsa wood. Once he was finished, he gave the model to Leonora Tower to display for the Centennial Celebration. Afterwards the model was set up in the Fallasburg Schoolhouse and there it has been on display since. During your next visit to Fallasburg, make sure to visit the Schoolhouse to see Mr. Baber’s model for yourself.
You can also see his passion in the Lowell Area Historical Museum, where he helped create a model replica of the Lowell Showboat that is on display on the main floor. Barber’s brother-in-law, a general contractor and home builder by the name of Ivan Blough, was tasked to build a new Lowell Showboat after the previous had been destroyed by a series of severe weather in 1979.
In order to do so, he needed a scale model of the boat, of which he did not have the skills to create and commented, “I build houses, not models.” After seeing Bill’s craftsmanship, Mr. Blough asked him if he would be willing to create a replica model, to which he agreed. You can see Mr. Barber’s scale replica of the Lowell Showboat and learn the history behind the vessel at the Lowell Area Historical Museum today!
Bill Barber was a highly creative man who spent his life using his many talents to do what he loved. He sadly passed away in 2016, but the legacy from his passion still lives on in Lowell and Fallasburg today. Modeling was one of his many crafts, but perhaps his most passionate, and he used these skills not only for his own benefit, but for the benefit of others.
To learn more about the Lowell Area Historical Museum and its partnership with the Fallasburg Historical Society or more about the history of Fallasburg Village, visit www.fallasburg.org and www.lowellmuseum.org today!
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