April 18, 1869 - John Vogel arrived in Vogel Center.
1872 - A church community was organized and school opened.
1878 – Post office opened making Vogel Center an official village
1882 - John Schepers first minister
March 1, 1884 - William Arnold murdered and burned Jan and Catalina Jagt in their home and spent the rest of his life in Jackson State Prison. He was listed in the 1880 census as a farmer, aged 48 from Maine along with his wife Marcella Elsworth Rowell, age 44 as a house keeper from Canada. He owned 40 acres and raised Indian corn, oats, wheat and potatoes. The number of animals was unclear but he did have a half acre orchard. He also ran what would later be the Koster Hotel.
Nov. 24, 1884 – The sluice boards from the dam four miles upstream from Falmouth were removed, flooding the river downstream and taking out the dam in Falmouth whose owner was not notified to do the same with his dam. The dam was ruined and untold damage was done to the area toward Vogel Center and beyond.
Sept 25, 1907 – Death of John Vogel. .
8/2/1923 - George Baas Sr. of Turnerville Road was struck and killed by lightning while harvesting oats in the field.
7/17/1927 - Elke Talsma of Meyering Road killed by lightning at age 20.
A subsequent sibling was also named Elke Talsma.
5/3/28 - Frederick Diemer killed in a demolition accident on the Prosper School
Dec. 1929 - Church steeple struck by lightning
1932 – The Gerband DeBree general store burned down and was replaced with the present building owned by the Bouwers & Lutkes.
1933 – The collapse of the east bridge under the weight of a truck load of logs.
Mid 1930's - Buildings of Thomas F. Lutke - Home and barn & all buildings burned from hot ashes left by out house.
Karsten, Pete – WWI
7/11/44 - Boven, Gerald - WWII
Hoeflaak, Bert - WWII
4/9/45 - VanderWoude, Howard - WWII
9/8/50 - Berghouse, Leon - Korea
5/12/69 - Brinks, Ken - Viet Nam
10-9-1940 – Jay Quist aged 2 died of burns/smoke inhalation from fire in the barn
5/4/1941 - Bud Schepers died in a car crash in front of Workman's home,
hit by John Nederhoed's car.
10/29/43 – John Reinink died from a horse kick
1948 – Carole Huttenga (Herm) and Jim Huttenga (Ralph) came down with polio
9/10/55 - on the corner of Forward and Meyering Roads.
Three young men were riding an old Ford tractor with a high end
transmission that would go up to 30 mph. They were coming from the east
on Meyering Road and were attempting to turn north onto a gravel Forward
Road when it slid into the graded ditch and flipped over.
Louis Jay Gernaat, age 12 was killed.
1955 (approx) - New Bell telephone system
1956 - Stoney Corners road paved
1958 - Basement expanded under the church
1958 (approx) - Flood – 8” of rain. Water within 2” of the east bridge.
1960 (approx) – New bridge north of Vogel on 8 Mile Road.
7/1/66 - Al Hoekwater barn burns
12/19/1966 - Rob Winkle (18) was killed in a car accident near Manton on a
road that crossed a railroad track that when taken at a high rate of speed
would and did launch the car into the air. Driver lost control.
7/22/67 – Jean Euwema – age 2 – killed by a truck as she crossed Forward Rd.
Winter 1967-68 - Ken Westmaas house fire
8/27/1970 - on the corner of Stoney Corners and by the Wayside Chapel,
Gord Jenema was coming home from a ball game with his family when he
was broad sided by a drunk driver coming from the south and failed to stop.
Vivian and Kim (9) died soon afterward in the hospital. A spare tire from
the drunk driver hit the garage of George Berkompas immediately to the
north. The German shepherd dog of Gord and Vivian was observed circling
their house all night, howling with a mournful tone and sounded very eerie
as though it knew something terrible had happened. Doyle VanderPol had
ridden to McBain with the Jenema family but fortunately had found another
ride home.
11/19/70 – Linda VanDrie – died in a car accident
1972 – The church renovation completed featuring a new inside front facade
8/5/73 - Jack Huttenga drowning in Dyers Lake
Oct 1973 – Terry Huttenga lost hand and wrist in corn picking accident
1973 – News of the PBB disaster that affected so many farmers.
The case was broken by Dr. Alpha Clark as to the cause.
1976 - Wayside chapel built
Late fall 1979 - A non-local relative died by gunshot while participating in a partridge hunt.
1982 (approx) - An oil leak by the county line and Richard Road occurred
and was lit on fire. It had been constructed in 1942
8/26/90 – Harold Quist – Harold died when another car crossed the centerline
on M-115 after taking his daughter to Central Michigan University
2000 - Vogel School torn down
2004 - Limited DSL Internet installed with a line of sight tower on hill north of Vogel by Ruraltech, later Pine River Cable and then Summit Digital
6/22/2006 - Thomas Richardson pushed his wife (Jaunita Culver) over
a 140' cliff at the Pictured Rock National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula.