Highway route US 23 ran directly through the town from north to south before veering to the southwest and becoming the road to Hartland. There was a flow of vehicles moving through downtown most of the time. It seemed to only become a “problem” on football Saturdays at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, some forty miles to the south. On these fall Saturdays, the vehicular traffic through town was “bumper to bumper” for several hours before game time and for several hours after the end of the game.

No one prospered more from this heavy traffic moving through town than Art Dumanois, proprietor the historic Fenton Hotel. Many of the football fans either stopped at the Hotel on the way to the game or on their way home. The Fenton Hotel became a popular place to stop for a pre-game lunch or for dinner following the game. Since Art Dumanois held the only “liquor by the bottle” license in town, those who were interested in having a “nip or two” during the game found the hotel a convenient place to purchase their “liquid” refreshments. Some jokesters suggested that half of the empty bottles which littered the UM stadium following a game came from the Fenton Hotel.

Note: Picture is not historical, is being displayed for illustrative purposes and is not directly connected to this excerpt.

Local Sports in 1937 Fenton

Guy Simmons, an employee of The Fenton Independent wrote a weekly column for both bowling and softball during their respective seasons. On one occasion, he wrote that “some (most)” of the women bowlers could beat the “gentlemen”. That seemed to be a bold statement for the 1930s, and he undoubtedly heard from many of the men who were bowling.

Womens bowling teams were formed in different ways, probably not much different than the men, except one never heard of men having matches with the “Married vs. Single”! The top women bowlers were: Miss Mary Asman, Virginia Hoskins, Mrs. Mabel Tamlyn, Mrs. Dorothy McBroom, Miss Alice Pasco, Mrs. Alice Butcher, Mrs. Dorothy Craft., Dorothy Long and Verna Hoskins.

On one occasion, some of the “boys” participated in a more physical activity to raise some money for the school athletic program. The businessmen from the “East side” of Leroy Street challenged their counterparts from the “West side” in a Donkey Basketball game to be held the high school gym.

The “boys” representing the West side were Hoyt Glaspie, George Tamlyn, Horace Hitchcock, Herb McKinley, Myron McGlynn, and M. Richmond. All were of early middle age and active businessmen in town. A younger group represented the East side: Bob Hunt, Bob Woodward, Bernard Webber, Francis Marshall, Harold Dode and Bob Beach. The teams mounted twelve Mexican burros and someone threw up a basketball and the game was on! To add to the excitement and entertainment young Charley Case wrestled a brown bear during the half-time intermission.

(photo seen in article is a public domain photo, and not specific to this story)

The Great Bank Robbery

It was the morning of February 2nd 1937. The stores and shops were open and the townsfolk were moving about in a very normal manner. That is until shortly before noon, when two strangers, both wearing “colored’ glasses, parked their Ford V8 car on Leroy Street directly in front of the State Saving Bank of Fenton. As they entered the Bank, one was carrying a long deer rifle and the other a nickel-plated revolver and a black leather bag. Apparently, they made no attempt to conceal what they were carrying.

J. C. Peck happened to be on the street and he observed the men entering the bank and he headed directly for the Fenton Drug Company on the corner directly across the street from the Bank.

The two strangers entered the bank and moved to the rear of the building where they encountered the bank manager, Mr. E.C. Reid, holding a meeting with E.C. McGugan, a Bank Examiner and three employees: Robert Smith, George Warner and Margaret Barnum.

At the point of a gun, Mr. Reid and the others were kept in position as the men entered the “cage” and approached the tellers, Otis Furman and Miss Gertrude Berryman.

Otis Furman, who was nearest to the money drawer, opened the drawer and put his hand in the cash drawer. It was then that one of the robbers, evidently fearing he was reaching for a gun or an alarm button, struck Otis over the head several times with the butt of his revolver. He then forced the bleeding teller and Miss Gertrude Berryman into the bank vault. After scooping all the money from the drawer into the bag, the two bandits left the building, ran to their car and drove south out of town with $2,700 of the Bank’s money.

Bill Weideman, manager of the Kroger grocery store, was just entering the Bank as the robbers were making their exit. Bill had an envelope with $250 of his store’s money he intended to deposit. The robbers ordered him to lie down, which he did immediately and on top of his deposit envelope. Luckily he was not hurt or robbed, however, poor Otis Furman, his shirt, tie and suit covered with blood, had to be taken to a Doctor’s office where he required four stitches to close the wounds on his scalp.

While all this was going on, J.C. Peck told George Atherton and Clifford J. Phillips, who were customers at the Fenton Drug Company of what he had observed.

Leonard Limpach, the store’s proprietor, also noticed some “suspicious” actions and when the robbers came running out of the bank, Mr. Limpach rushed to the phone and called the State Police. About the same time, Mr. Reid realizing the bandits had left the bank, called for the police.

It so happened that a State Trooper on patrol had just left Fenton and was heading north toward Flint on the Fenton Road. When he received the radio message about the robbery he was about seven miles north of Fenton. He turned and sped back to Fenton, where J.C. Peck was able to provide the license number of the robber’s car which he had observantly copied as they sped away.

By then a small crowd had gathered in front of the Bank. Many of those assembled had been listening to the Flint radio for news about the ongoing “sitdown” strike at the General Motors plants, when the news bulletin about the bank robbery in Fenton was announced. In spite of the public interest and the actions of the lone State Trooper, the robbers made their escape. Some reported they had observed the bandits car speeding from Fenton in an easterly direction over the South Holly Road. It turned out that the license plates had been stolen from another car in Detroit the month before and therefore did not belong on the getaway car.

In those sensitive times for banks, it is interesting to note that the Bank’s insurance company delivered a check for the exact amount of the loss, $2,671.25, within 24 hours of the robbery.
An even more interesting event was triggered by the holdup. Two of Fenton’s young men, Clifford Crystal and Jack Hutchins got the idea they could track the robbers and began following their reported escape route. While they were “tracking” in the town of Milford, the State Police noticed their unusual behavior. They were arrested as suspects in the robbery, handcuffed and returned to Fenton. They were not released until the Bank employees established their innocence.