Ben Schebella turns 100
Sitting down and talking with people who have lived in the surrounding area for years can be like sitting down and reading the history of how we all came to be. This is exactly what a conversation with Onaway resident, Ben Schebella, is like. Ben will turn 100 years old on February 14 and he has a lot of years of rich history behind him.
Ben was born on his grandparent?s farm in Hagensville in 1906 to Steve and Rose (Kowalski) Schebella. His parents owned a home in Metz at the time of the great fire in 1908, which destroyed everything the family owned. Ben can recall the help they received from Red Cross, just as many families did.
?When the fire came through we were in the woods on Ward Branch,? said Ben. ?Red Cross built us a shanty because our house burned right down.?
When Ben turned 4, his family moved to Tower in order to follow the work. Ben?s father worked in the woods cutting timber. Ben remembers Tower being a busy area back in the day, due to the mill and also the saloons.
?Tower was ?wet? for a long time and Onaway was ?dry?,? said Ben. ?The saloon owners in Tower were tickled.?
The family did not stay in Tower for very long and Ben recalls the move to Onaway. At the time, the road between Onaway and Tower was a muddy two-track. The family hired a man to help them move their belongings and it still marvels Ben that the gentleman only charged a small fee.
?We moved back to Onaway because the wages at Lobdell were better,? said Ben. ?The man that moved us charged $1 and he was glad to get it.?
Once the young Schebella family made it back to Onaway, they stayed. Ben started school when he was 10 and eventually graduated from Onaway High School in 1926, the same year that the Lobdell-Emery Company, which employed a large percentage of Onaway, burned down.
?People moved out of Onaway like flies after that factory burned,? said Ben. ?My graduating class was left with only five boys, but we had 23 girls.?
When the Lobdell plant was destroyed it dramatically changed the life Onaway could offer its citizens. Many families were forced to move in order to find employment. Onaway nearly became a ghost town, but it did not stop Ben from enjoying his youth.
Ben remembers being the only boy of the five in his graduating class who would go to dances at the dance halls that dotted the area long ago. Ben was known to have quite a singing voice and was often called ?Bing Crosby? for his crooning talents.
When asked what kind of songs he liked to sing, Ben instantly turned on the charm and sang a favorite line of an old tune: ?Just a little girl to hug and hold.?
Ben joked that even though he once used singing to melt hearts, ?he lost his voice when he turned 80.?
After graduating from high school, Ben moved to Detroit for a short period of time and worked at a bakery. When the depression hit, Ben?s bakery job was lost just like many others.
?Things were really tough,? said Ben. ?Car factories all shut down and people in the city just couldn?t survive.?
Ben moved himself back up north and took up working in the woods for about $2 per day. He said in those days that was the top wage.
Ben has many fond memories of his mother and many of those memories come from the fact that she was a hard worker and an intelligent woman who fought to keep her family alive.
?My mother took up work in the garment factory and took in washing to keep food on the table,? said Ben. ?Naturally, I loved my mother, she was a smart woman and worked hard.?
Ben soon met the other woman of his life he holds many fond memories of, his wife, Minnie Mae Lincoln.
Minnie?s family came from the Flint area and moved to a farm in Ocqueoc. She was one of the youngest workers at the Alpena Garment Factory when a bitter strike with the union drove the company to close its doors. Ben, however, remembers Minnie for other reasons.
?She was a beautiful girl,? said Ben. ?She really was, she was very pretty.?
Ben and Minnie were married in 1932 and they raised three children. Soon after their marriage, Ben moved the family to Pontiac where he worked in the Pontiac Motor factory as a metal polisher. In 1939, Ben moved his family back home to Onaway and purchased 40 acres of land where he built his home, along with the help of his father.
Ben held a variety of jobs in order to keep his family afloat, including farming, sailing on the Great Lakes and working as a woodsman.
Sadly, after 55 years of marriage, Ben?s wife passed away. His children are all grown and he proudly boasts a number of grandchildren and great grandchildren. His oldest daughter, Yvonne Walsh, lives in Big Rapids.
A long life like Ben?s is what many people are now striving to find the secret to, and according to Ben, a young doctor once told him why Ben would live a long life. ?When I was 26 I had my appendix taken out and Dr. Rosenbloom told me he wished he had a heart like I got,? said Ben. ?So that?s why I?ve had such a long life, I have a good heart.?
Ben is still living in the house on Bowen Road he built for his family back in 1939, and he keeps himself busy reading western novels and reminiscing of times past.
His family and friends are going to help Ben reminisce on Saturday with a birthday party to celebrate his 100 years. The party will be at the VFW hall in Onaway from 2-5 p.m. All are welcome to attend, and all are guaranteed a fine lesson in history.