We have all seen them in recent weeks — the walking zombies looking at their phones, trying to catch an elusive Pokemon.

Without trying to sound like a curmudgeon, apparently Pokemon Go qualifies as a form of entertainment in the summer of 2016.

It has me thinking about the continued evolution of entertainment and what the people of Dowagiac did for entertainment in the 1800s and early 1900s.

Shortly after its settlement in 1848, people starting moving to the new town. One of the earliest documented celebrations occurred on July 4, 1854 and involved Philo D. Beckwith, a new resident to the young hamlet of Dowagiac.

Beckwith had set up a small foundry and was asked to make a 700-pound cannon for the July 4 celebration. He accepted the offer and cast a beautiful cannon, which was used extensively to celebrate Independence Day.

In fact, folks enjoyed it so much that it got overheated and prematurely discharged, blowing off the hand of the young man in charge of the ramrod. The accident did not stop the day’s festivities and the cannon was used for years afterward.

Dances, public celebrations and baseball were likely the most popular forms of entertainment in the subsequent decades.

Beckwith went on to found the Round Oak Stove Company in 1871 and he and the company provided the resources for many of the city’s happenings. Round Oak Hall, which opened in 1886, served as a warehouse for stoves for part of the year and as a dance hall for the other months. Round Oak sponsored a baseball team in 1887 and provided grounds for a ball field.

Round Oak also brought golf to Cass County. In late 1912, the company acquired property from the city, including a 50-acre tract of land that the Daily News described as, “that strip of ground is the nearest approach to an ideal for a country club with golf grounds…that can be found in Cass County and that is just what is to be done with it.”

The Cass County Country Club opened in 1913 as the first golf course in the county. The layout remains today as the Elks Golf Course. Fred Lee, Round Oak’s president, and other company executives constituted most of the club’s membership.

Dowagiac had an Opera House on Beeson Street, but when it was constructed is unknown. It became obsolete when the family of P.D. Beckwith built the Beckwith Memorial Building, which housed a beautiful theater where Beckwith Park and the gazebo sit today. A full article or two can be devoted to the Beckwith Building in the future, but for now, let’s say that the Beckwith provided entertainment in the form of opera, vaudeville and movies for decades.

The Beckwith Building also served as a one-of-a-kind backdrop to the city’s festivals and parades from its opening in 1893 until it was torn down in the 1960s.

Speaking of festivals, in the early 1900s, they appear be THE event of the season. Several festivals were held downtown that were well documented in photographs and postcards at the time.

The city hosted a fairly successful “Homecoming” celebration in 1911 to attract former residents back to town for a weekend. They held a second one in 1912, which drew thousands to town for the festivities (based upon photos). Entertainment was highlighted by Sensational DeVolo using a wooden ramp for his amazing bicycle jump several times each day. The festival held several parades, including a Suffragette Parade down Front Street.

A Fall Fest in 1914 also drew huge crowds to the business district.

While our festivals today do well and draw people to town, it is challenging to draw crowds like they did 100 years ago. Remember that kids didn’t have little league games, television wasn’t invented and Pokemon Go was over 100 years from being an app, so this was the only entertainment for the weekend.

The museum has other great images showing some of the events throughout the city’s history — high divers, parades, unveiling of monuments and future and past Presidents stopping in town on their whistlestop tours. Most can be seen at the museum — stop in for a look.

You might even find a Pokemon in the museum on your visit.

 

Steve Arseneau is the director of the Dowagiac Area History Museum. He resides in Niles with his wife, Christina, and children, Theodore and Eleanor.