Belle Myers is the mother of Belle Champlin (Ida Belle Myers, Birdie Belle Champlin).
Ida Belle Myers was born 1 Feb 1853 in Michigan, daughter of Alexander Myers and Hester Bailey. She died 21 Nov 1906. She married on 10 Apr 1872, at Columbia, Jackson, Michigan, to Henry Charles Champlin. The marriage was officiated by Rev. L.P. Tompkins, and witnessed by Laure C. and Oscar A. Tomkins. They had 4 children.
In 1872, Belle, ae 19, married Henry Champlin, ae 25.
In 1873, Belle and Henry had a daughter, Birdie Belle Champlin; the subject of this family history.
On 2 Feb 1874, Belle and Henry had a baby girl, Louise May Champlin, who died in infancy on 26 Apr 1874.
On 4 Jul 1875, Belle and Henry had a son, Roy Leighton Champlin.
In 1873, Belle and Henry had a daughter, Birdie Belle Champlin; the subject of this family history.
On 2 Feb 1874, Belle and Henry had a baby girl, Louise May Champlin, who died in infancy on 26 Apr 1874.
On 4 Jul 1875, Belle and Henry had a son, Roy Leighton Champlin.
In 1880, Belle and Henry resided at Moscow, Hillsdale, Michigan.
On 4 Jul 1880, they had a baby girl who died the same day.
In 1883, Henry Charles Champlin died, it is unknown whether he met with foul play following an investment that went badly.
On 4 Jul 1880, they had a baby girl who died the same day.
In 1883, Henry Charles Champlin died, it is unknown whether he met with foul play following an investment that went badly.
In 1887, Belle (widowed) lived at 710 Main St. E. in Jackson.
In 1888, Belle resided at 215 Elizabeth in Jackson.
In 1898, Belle is listed in the city directory at a restaurant at 122 Michigan Ave. in Jackson, which was also her residence.
Henry's widow Ida Belle Myers is listed on the 1900 census with her daughter Birdie Belle Champlin and son-in-law Lewis Way at 307 Columbus Street, Jackson. Belle and daughter Belle were employed as corset makers.
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| Coronet Corset Company, Jackson, Michigan |
In 1900, Belle is listed with her daughter Belle Champlin and her husband Lewis Way at 307 Columbus Streetr, Blackman Township, Jackson County. Belle and her daughter Belle were employed by Bortree Corset Company.
In 2010, Mlive Jackson published this account of the history of corsetry in Jackson:
Jackson's corset industry helped many women provide a comfortable living for their families at a time when few of them worked outside the home, especially in factories.
According to the Ella Sharp Museum of Art & History's "The History of Business & Industry in Jackson, Michigan," the state Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics investigated the working conditions of female laborers in cities throughout Michigan in 1892.
Jackson's corset business would eventually become obsolte as elastics were invented and fashion styles changed. Most of the corset factories, including the Coronet Corset Co., closed by 1920.
Buxom business
Jackson was home to up to 16 manufacturers of women's corsets by the early 1900s. Here are some of them.
Ida Belle Myers Champlin and son Roy Leighton Champlin
Jackson's corset industry helped many women provide a comfortable living for their families at a time when few of them worked outside the home, especially in factories.
A corset was a laced or hooked undergarment reinforced with steel or whalebone. Tightening it constricted a woman's body to fit it into the fashionable, thin-waisted dresses of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The first manufacturer of such garments founded west of New York was Jackson's Bortree Corset Co., which opened as a crinoline skirt and bustle factory in 1868. Its creation of the Duplex Corset in 1875 launched Jackson as a U.S. corset production leader.
By the early 1900s, there were 16 corset manufacturers in town, and about 20 percent of the city's industrial workers were women employed in the industry.
Referring to the Standard Manufacturing Co., Jackson's second largest corset manufacturer at the time, the 1889 Citizen Industrial Edition newspaper bragged that "an industrious girl can make from $7 to $10 per week. It is not infrequent that a daughter has a larger weekly stipend than her father."
According to the Ella Sharp Museum of Art & History's "The History of Business & Industry in Jackson, Michigan," the state Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics investigated the working conditions of female laborers in cities throughout Michigan in 1892.
It reported that Jackson's corset factory employees were predominantly women 12 to 50 years old, working an average of 65 hours per week and earning 40 cents to $1.30 a day. Though this was roughly half of what men in comparable jobs made at the time, the Bureau said women workers in Jackson were among the highest paid in the state.
One of the most unique women in Jackson's corset industry, though, was Charlotte King McGee, who patented her own Coronet Corset and operated her own Coronet Corset Co. on Pearl Street in the same building that housed the Mosher Opera House.
McGee, the mother of six sons, was the wife of Melvin McGee, who studied law with Jackson's Austin Blair and served 12 years as a probate judge.
A New York book that cited leading merchants and manufacturers said the Coronet corsets were "unsurpassed for style, workmanship and durability."
The assets of the garments, the book said, were that they reduced the size and increased the length of the waist without "injurious" tight lacing, produced an elegant and graceful shape regardless of the wearer's form, repelled perspiration and moisture and were durable.
The corsets were also invaluable to young ladies, the book said, "because they strengthen the spine and remove and prevent stooping and round shoulders."
A Jackson corset factory worker, quoted by the state Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics in the Ella Sharp book, didn't believe this claim or any of the other therapeutic claims made by any of the local corset companies.
She said: "I know from extensive observation that the wearing of corsets is very injurious to the health of women. The principal motive of the dress reform movement is undoubtedly a worthy one, namely, to give greater freedom of motion to women, to dispense with the health-breaking corset and to shift the weight of clothing from the waist, where it is, to the shoulders, where it ought to be."
Jackson's corset business would eventually become obsolte as elastics were invented and fashion styles changed. Most of the corset factories, including the Coronet Corset Co., closed by 1920.
The exceptions were the Kellogg Corset Co. and S.H. Camp Co., which switched to therapeutic or prosthetic support garments and devices, and the I.M. Dach Co., which manufactured ladies' sleepwear.
Buxom business
Jackson was home to up to 16 manufacturers of women's corsets by the early 1900s. Here are some of them.
American Lady Corset Co., founded by Jacob Siegel at 126-128 Cortland St. Moved to 109 W. Washington St.
Bortree Corset Co., 112 W. Cortland St., was the first corset company founded west of New York. Moses Bortree, who migrated to Michigan from Pennsylvania in 1866, opened the factory in 1868 to manufacture crinoline skirts and bustles. In 1875, Bortree switched to corsets. Within five years, he was producing 50,000 to 300,000 corsets per year. In its heyday, the company employed almost 400 people, 350 of whom were women.
Coronet Corset Co., opened in 1880 at 146 W. Main St. and later moved to 131-133 W. Pearl St. It was run by Charlotte A. McGee, who invented and patented the Coronet corset.
I.M. Dach Co., 303 N. Jackson St., focused its manufacturing efforts on ladies' "flannelette" night gowns that were sold in most major department stores.
Jackson Corset Co. was founded in 1884 at 233 W. Main St. and became the largest manufacturer of combination corset and waist garments in America. It later moved to 209-215 W. Cortland St. and employed almost 300 people by 1895. The company, led by H.H. Stiles, maintained an extensive garden in which employees ate lunch or took afternoon strolls. It claimed its corsets were endorsed by physicians because they were a "sensible garment that supports the back."
Jackson Skirt & Novelty Co., founded in 1899 at 167-169 W. Main St. Its principal garment was the Elite petticoat, which the company claimed was the first successfully fitted top petticoat on the market.
Kellogg Corset Co. was founded in 1907 by John A. Mark and Alexander Mitchell as the M&M Corset Co., 121 E. Cortland St. It moved the next year to 201 S. Mechanic St. The name changed to M&K Corset Co. in 1912 to reflect a partnership with vice president Douglas E. Kellogg. In 1916, Kellogg bought the company outright and later moved it to 159 W. Pearl St. The company specialized in garments for ladies with large, hard-to-fit figures. Kellogg shifted its focus to surgical supports, braces and athletic devices. Family ownership ended in 1968 when it was purchased by DePuy Inc. of Warsaw, Ind. It operated until 1997, when a California company that produced similar products was purchased and resulted in its closure.
Reliance Corset Co., 117-119 W. Main St., was founded in 1889 by Josiah Crosby Richardson. He was Jackson's mayor from 1896-97 and a city postmaster. In 1911, he bought and moved into the home "Under the Oaks," where the Republican party was born.
S.H. Camp Co., founded by Samuel Higby Camp in 1908 at 141-147 W. Pearl St. After a fire destroyed its 259-263 W. Main St. facilities in 1927, it moved to the former home of the American Lady Corset Co. on Washington Street. The Goodwin Corset was Camp's leading seller during the company's early years. The company survived by adapting its business to therapeutic and prosthetic support garments and devices.
Standard Manufacturing Co., at Jackson and Clinton streets, was organized in 1882 and quickly grew to be the second largest corset manufacturer.
-Peek through time, Mlive, 2012 https://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2010/07/peek_through_time_corset_busin.html
-Peek through time, Mlive, 2012 https://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2010/07/peek_through_time_corset_busin.html
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| Headstone for Ida Belle (Myers) Champlin |
Ida Belle Myers Champlin and son Roy Leighton Champlin
Woodland Cemetery in Jackson
