In the early part of the 20th Century, William Davenport, who lived on Beach Road in Troy Township, supplied water melon seeds to the firm of D. M. Ferry. The Ferry Company was headquartered in Detroit and at the time was one of the nation's leading commission seed packeteers.
This meant that Ferry would package seeds and then salesmen would travel by train to all parts of the nation, loaded down with these seeds. After arriving in a small town, a salesman would hire a driver with a horse and wagon so that he could travel to smaller towns which lacked rail service as well as to tiny general stores out in the countryside.
Harry Bayley, born about 4 miles from Birmingham, was one of these seed salesmen. There were times, during his travels, when he would even find it necessary to ride aboard a caboose on a branch line railroad when no regular passenger service was available as he ventured from place to place throughout the U.S. In the spring, Mr. Bayley would leave racks of seed packets with the store keepers he visited. He would return in the fall to pick up any unsold packets plus the cash which was due for sales which had been made during the growing season.
Since the Davenport farm was only about 2 1/2 miles from Birmingham, many local young men would sneak out from town after dark to snatch a few succulent ripe melons. In order to discourage unwanted melon patch raids, Mr. Davenport's son Deyo and his friend Bert Leonard would stand guard. They were both armed with shotguns loaded with rock salt. When they'd discharge these weapons, usually aimed skyward, the melon hunters would soon scatter. A brother of Birmingham's electrical wizard, Homer Leonard, Bert later became a mining engineer in Mexico where, at times, he found it necessary to meet and deal with the notorious bandit and revolutionary leader, Francisco "Pancho" Villa. Are YOU old enough to remember the Hollywood movie entitled "VIVA VILLA" which starred Wallace Beery?
Early one summer morning, Mr. Davenport saw his neighbor, John Snow, wandering through the melon patch. Mr. Snow would stoop over now and then to raise a melon leaf, peer under it, and then would move on to another area. Somewhat puzzled by what was going on, Mr. Davenport walked over and asked Mr. Snow what he was doing. "Well," he sheepishly admitted, "I was over here last night and somehow I managed to lose my gold watch."
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