This object has been deaccessioned and is no longer in the GRPM's collection
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Archaeology ➔ Salvage Artifacts, Fairgrounds Latrine Site
Identifier:
1983.82.6Description:
Box. 12 hole latrine site of old West Mich. fairgrounds, Comstock Park, Mich. Contains whole glass bottles, petrified human fecesCurrent Location Status:
DeaccessionedCollection Tier:
Tier 2Related Entity:
Mr. Edward V. Gillis (donor)Edward Victor Gillis was born Edvardus Bartholomeus Vikoras Gylys in Lithuanian Town, Grand Rapids, Michigan March 1, 1920. His father, Bartholomeus emigrated to Grand Rapids in 1904 to avoid conscription into the Russian Cossack Army. His mother, Katherine Staseunaitis, arrived in Grand Rapids in 1908, and wed Bartholomeus in 1911, at SS. Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Church.
Mr. Gillis was a lifelong resident of Grand Rapids, where he and his wifeof 61 years, Evelyn, raised their three children: Catherine, Victor and Lynette. He enjoyed a long and successful career in the tool and die and precision manufacturing industry, holding various supervisory and managerial positions for 45 years. During World War II, he served as a professional diver with the U.S. Army Amphibious Engineer Corps.
Edward Gillis had deep interests in archaeology, anthropology, history and geology. He was president of the 700-member Michigan Archaeology Society and held all offices of the Society’s Coffinberry Chapter. He was also a scholar of Native American Indian culture and was a co-founder of the Grand Valley American Indian Lodge. For many years, Edward delighted school children with his talks on Native American culture. Following a lecture he gave at Hope College in 1991, several Native Americans in the audience accused him of over stepping his authority to speak for them and he later agreed to leave the Grand Valley American Indian Lodge.
Following this incident, Mr. Gillis turned his full energies to recording the history of his own people, those of his Lithuanian community. He died of cancer August 14, 1999, at age 79.
Source: Grand Rapids History Center (Grand Rapids Historical Commission, accession number 2000.115A-E) and Grand Valley State University Special Collections and University Archives (Collection
Identifier: RHC-14).