page 1 wednesday • february • 25 • 2015

wednesday • february • 25 • 2015 vol. 44 issue 19

for over 120 years • today - tomorrow - your lowell area news source www.thelowellledger.com Lowell wrestlers claim regional championship

by Kathryn Atwood contributing reporter It was a triumphant week for the 26-2 Lowell varsity wrestling team as they bested competitor Byron Center 53-19 to win the team regional fnals championship. They will now travel to the state tournament for the ffth consecutive year, qualifying page 3 ten of their top wrestlers for individual state competition. Wednesday in Middleville the team posted the win over Byron Center to claim the region’s top prize on the backs of eight pins and nine total wins. lhs sports Those earning pins were Tyler Lynch in the 103 pound division, Sam Russell at 112, Lucas Hall at 125, Jordan Hall at 140, David Kruse at 152, Keigan Yuhas at 160, Josh Colegrove at 215 and Logan Wilcox at 285. Zeth Dean also This will be the ffth straight trip to the state tournament for Lowell varsity wrestlers. recorded an 18-3 win by technical fall at 135 pounds. “I am very proud (215) and Dean (130). overwhelmed to tell you have had this year,” said where they will compete of this team and it’s Qualifying as runners-up the truth. I have made this coach Boudro. in the frst round of the accomplishments,” said were Russell (103), Wilcox run a couple times in the The victory propels the quarterfnals against another head coach RJ Boudro (285) and Dan Kruse (152). eight years that I have Arrows to Battle Creek’s local squad, Comstock Park. following the commanding Aaron Ward (125), Logan been coaching in Lowell, Kellogg Arena this Friday win. Blough (189) and David but being a head coach has “Our expectations are to Kruse (145) also qualifed. made things feel differently. Semi-fnals and fnals will take place in the make it to the state fnals but Colegrove remains I am honored to have the same location on Saturday. After the state we have a lot of work to do undefeated on the season opportunity to coach for to get there,” said Boudro. with a record of 35-0 to lead such a tradition rich program championship has been awarded, ten Lowell Lowell’s top fnishers the Lowell pack while Hall and I feel very blessed to wrestlers will go on to take part in the were Jordan Hall (135), is 35-1. have all of the success we individual state championship. Lucas Hall (119), Colegrove “I am [a] little

Burroughs family history includes interesting ties to Lowell and Kent County Last year I read “: A Life,” a biography of author and its eponymous bridge with a sense of unease; a William S. Burroughs. I was shocked when I got to page 14, which said that Burroughs’ traversing the Flat River, family whose ideals and grandfather lived in Lowell in the 1860s. I dug around in the Ledger archive on the Englehardt whilst further upstream the potential for prosperity were Library website and found a few passing mentions of Burroughs’ grandfather, but since the Burroughs Dam holds back very much nurtured during Ledger didn’t exist until 1870 there was nothing from the time he lived here. I contacted Barry the water on its way towards the nineteenth century, on Miles, the book’s author, for more information. Miles told me to contact , Lowell. The name has the banks of the Flat River in Burroughs’ adopted son and the executor of his literary estate. Grauerholz in turn told me endured locally, providing a Kent County, Michigan. to contact Simon Johnson, an archivist and researcher specializing in literary biographies. sense of unbroken continuity The writer in question Johnson graciously offered to write an article for the Ledger detailing the Burroughs family’s with the early days of the is William S. Burroughs: historic connection to Lowell. ~ contributing reporter, Tim McAllister township. the infuential member of start on ‘The story of the America’s ‘Beat Generation’ As the centenary year of beat writer William S. Burroughs Burroughs family. Vague, of the 1950s, author of the page 9 draws to a close, ancestral links are identifed with Kent County disreputable ghosts…’ the classic and infamous novel musings of an aging writer, “” and counter- by Simon Johnson written in his personal cultural icon. Mention of The Burroughs family literature and computational family of that name vacated journal, 14 December 1996, the name William Seward left an indelible mark on technology. the banks of the river they eight months before his Burroughs conjures two 50 an unassuming stretch of A small area of the Flat had made their home in death in August 1997 at the seemingly far-removed CENTS Kent County, though is River Valley in Vergennes 1846. Reminders of the age of eighty-three. In his individuals. A cursory glance undoubtedly better known is still known, informally, Burroughs name are still instantly-recognizable prose, for its enduring infuence as ‘Burroughs’ – almost to be found in the locality the writer refects on his Story of William S. Burroughs, continued, page 8 on the disparate felds of 150 years since the pioneer through Burroughs Street paternal family background page 8 wednesday • february • 25 • 2015 Story of William S. Burroughs, continued at their respective careers to become the Burroughs generations, values, careers. James received patents 1871. Rosetta joined the is drawn from extensive provides no hint of common Corporation: once a world Yet, connected by genes: on two portions of land in family in Auburn several research into the paternal ground, of shared identity or leader in the production of grandfather and grandson. Sections 26 and 27, totaling years later. family background of the values; only a name. mainframe computers and The 1870 publication about seventy-fve acres During the 1870s, writer William S. Burroughs, The frst William Seward business machines. From ‘History and Directory of alongside the Flat River. James’s teenage grandson partly in collaboration Burroughs, born in 1857 1860 until 1871 Burroughs Kent County, Michigan…’ Having harnessed the William Seward Burroughs with James Grauerholz: to working-class parents had been a resident of identifes that Vergennes power of the river by was employed as a clerk Burroughs’ long-time friend, at Rochester, NY, was Lowell, where his formative was settled in 1836 and erecting a dam, James at the Cayuga County business manager, literary very much the stereotype years nurtured his natural organized as a township built a farm and grist mill, National Bank at Auburn executor, and adopted son. of the nineteenth-century bent as an inventor. in 1838. The Burroughs which would later be and conceived the idea of One of the primary Yankee inventor: a driven The second William family arrived a few years mortgaged to members of inventing a ‘practical’ adding concerns of the research is – if wayward – mechanical Seward Burroughs, born in after the incorporation of the the Fox family, who were machine to assist those in his to provide an accurate and genius. To great acclaim, 1914 to a middle-class family township. among the original settlers profession. His inventive fully referenced biography Burroughs invented what at St. Louis, MO, became The pioneer who lent his in Vergennes. A small tendencies, infuenced by his of Burroughs’ grandfather: is widely considered to a famous writer of the name to the area beside the settlement known locally mechanic father and nurtured the inventor of the have been the frst practical 1950s alongside the writer Flat River is one James C. as ‘Fox’s Mill’ became during his early childhood in Burroughs Adding Machine. adding machine and laid the Jack Kerouac and the poet Burroughs: grandfather of established around the farm Lowell, would come to the Much of what is published foundations for what was . Differing the adding machine inventor and mill, the history of fore after relocating to St. about the adding machine and great great-grandfather which is recalled in the late Louis in 1879/80. inventor, particularly of the writer. He was born Priscilla Lussmyer’s paper After several years of toil, online, is unreferenced and in Hunterdon County, New “A Brief History of Fox’s a frst working model of littered with errors and Jersey, in 1801 and relocated Mill” published in the 1984 William’s adding machine assumptions. This research with his parents to the Finger publication “Vergennes was completed during 1884 attempts to right these Lakes region of upstate New Township Living History.” and the patent was granted wrongs through detailed York in 1816, where his James’s probate records in 1888. William was a co- primary research, which has father purchased land at the from the Kent County founder, in 1886, of the involved descendants of the village of Romulus. Probate Court show that American Arithmometer Burroughs family. James remained in the he associated in business Company, which was Plans for eventual Finger Lakes region until with some of the area’s established to market publication of this research 1846 when he and his second most prominent pioneers, his machine. It was later remain in development and

William Seward Burroughs I (1857-1898), former Lowell resident and inventor of the Burroughs Adding Machine. [Charles Babbage Institute]

William Seward Burroughs II (1914-1997), pictured in Paris in 1959, shortly after the publication of his seminal work “The Naked Lunch.” [Loomis Dean, LIFE]

wife became another statistic including the Fox family renamed the Burroughs will be communicated to in the national migration to and the township’s frst Adding Machine Company the Lowell Area Historical the west, when agricultural supervisor Rodney following its relocation to Museum in due course. opportunities attracted Robinson. Detroit in 1904 and laterly Simon Johnson is a aspiring pioneers. James At the time of his death in the Burroughs Corporation British archivist and and his family arrived in 1865, James C. Burroughs in 1953. biographical researcher, Michigan and settled in Kent was a signifcant local William had made a based in Edinburgh. Recent County, where in 1848 he landowner and had recently signifcant contribution to credits include his 2014 long was awarded patents for land been one of the founding the world: the era of the essay “The Beautiful Belle in Vergennes by President members of a national business machine had begun. Burgess – A Biography of Polk. bank in Lowell. Leaving The full story of the frst Elizabeth Burgess: The James became a behind his wife Rosetta, his William Seward Burroughs Mother Anthony Burgess prosperous farmer and son Edmund and several forms the basis of a detailed Never Knew” (shortly landowner who would play grandchildren, he was laid biographical study, currently to be published by the a signifcant role in the early to rest in Fox’s Corners in production. International Anthony development of Vergennes, Cemetery, where his now- This very brief overview Burgess Foundation). leaving his surname as an toppled headstone is still of the early history of the Research contributions have enduring mark on the local visible on the front row of Burroughs family and its also been provided to the community. In 1846, he the burial ground. links with Kent County is 2014 publication “Call Me was granted permission by James’s widow Rosetta published in the Lowell Burroughs: A Life” by Barry the Legislature of the State became the executor of Ledger for the beneft of the Miles, as well as to ongoing of Michigan to erect a dam his considerable estate and local community, from whom biographical projects across the Flat River in relocated to Lowell to live members of the Lowell Area regarding W. H. Auden, Section 26, which can be with James’s son and his Historical Museum should Christopher Isherwood and identifed on contemporary family, until they relocated be acknowledged for their . Photograph of the Burroughs/Flat River street signs plans of Vergennes. In 1848 to Auburn, New York, in kind assistance. The article today.