By Staff
BUCHANAN – Preserving local history was the driving force behind the reprinting of "The Story of Portage Prairie," a folksy and very readable account of the settling of the area south of Buchanan – also known as Little Portage Prairie – and the surrounding lands.
The area covers most of Bertrand Township in Berrien County and parts of Warren and German Townships in St. Joseph County in Indiana.
The account by Alma Vite Hartline starts with the coming in the middle of the 19th century to Portage Prairie by her great-grandfather Jacob Rough and his three brothers.
"I write not as a historian. I write only as one who lived on Portage Prairie all of a life time," writes Hartline.
In addition to tracing her own family, Hartline tells of the lives of the many pioneers who followed the Rough brothers to this area and continues through about 1975.
Detailed information also is given on several rural schools in Bertrand Township, especially those where the author or her family members attended or taught, including Womer, Kansas, and Pollywog (Oak Forest) schools.
Her account, first published in 1991, has been reprinted by Friends of Oak Ridge Cemetery, with permission of her daughter, Mildred Gamble, to both preserve her mother's work and to make copies available to the public.
The 440-page history is available at the Buchanan District Library, Buchanan City Hall and the Berrien County Record, and through Donna Lace, Friends secretary, 695-5676, and Lyle Sumerix, Friends president, 695-9733.
The spiral bound book sells for $30 with $5 from the sale of each book going into the Portage Prairie Cemetery restoration fund, in the name of Alma Hartline.
For more information, contact Lace or Sumerix.