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Contributed by Don Rickwalt
The waves of civilization very slowly passed to the area leaving for a brief time, a small settlement which shortly disappeared as waves subsided. It has been explained in this manner:
| The town was one of the last in the county to be reached by the advancing tide of settlement, which extended generally over the county from 1850 to 1860. For this there were several reasons; the primary reason was that logging operations had not to any extent reached the interior…another hindrance to the settlement of the town was the lack of means of communication with other settlements. Streams had not been bridged, and the only means of reaching the line of travel to the north of Cass River was by boats and rafts…Few settlers followed until 1866, when the first considerable logging operations commenced.* |
From its beginnings, the area was included in Elkland township. Then in 1869, with only five families (seven voters), it became a separate township.
The name Novesta has been an interesting mystery. From the mere sound of it, the conclusion was made that it must be a derivative of a Latin root word. An investigation of both Spanish and Italian dictionaries revealed no such work. Thus, it was with some amusement that the following excerpt was discovered.
| IT is said that some members of the county board being assembled in Farley Craw’s store at Centerville, the question of the name for the new town came under discussion. Mr. Craw, pointing to a stove in the room, the name of which was "Vesta No. ____," suggested that the words be reversed to form the name "Novesta." The suggestion was adopted.** |
James A. Kitchen (note: per Bonnie Petee, the name should be Jason Kitchin) in his "A History of Evergreen Township" described the now nonexistent town in this manner.
| At the corners where sections 30
and 31 of Evergreen and 25 and 36 of Novesta meet, a crossroads village grew in the early
days. Most of it including the sawmill, Baptist church, one store, blacksmith shop and a
few houses was on the Novesta side. On the Evergreen side as I remember it there was a
store, the Gleaner Hall and houses. …..In 1887 William Allen owned a store and the next year Minard Mills had acquired it. The coming of good roads and the automobile served Novesta like many another corner store. It has become a ghost town. Not even a gas pump is found to serve the public. The church remains having had a modern addition for Sunday School purposes. There are a few homes one of which is the remodeled Gleaner Hall which is now a parsonage. To a very few of the older generations the name brings back many memories but with the passing of a few more years it will be entirely forgotten. Just a fulfillment of Psalm 103:16, "For the wind passeth over it, and the place thereof shall know it no more (pp 18 – 19) |
It is our prayer that, though the town of Novesta will some day be totally forgotten, the name will live on through our church, that our church will send forth the Gospel of Christ until that great day when all saints shall be raptured.
History of Tuscola and Bay Counties, Michigan with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Their Prominent Men and Pioneers (Chicago: H. R. Page and Co., 1883), p. 207.
**Ibid., p. 209.
Contributed by Don Rickwalt Created November 27, 1998 All rights reserved. Genealogists may use the information provided here freely. This page, and the information it provides may not be copied for commercial use of any kind.
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