After going to college and working for a large company in Detroit, Arleigh N. Squires relaxed on a family farm in the town of Milan in the summer of 1916. He is only 18 years old, but he is ready for new challenges.

In September, when he got a job at the National Savings Bank of Milan in the center of Milan, the challenge came. Squires is very young, but he does have business experience. Two months later, in November 1916, he celebrated his 19th birthday.

The squire met a young lady Martha Cather in 1917 and married her the following summer. The two of them shared a cement brick house on Ideal Street for several months. By September, they were ready for a bigger home. They bought the house at 41 E. Second Street from Wila P. Lamkin, who was a man who provided electricity to Milan. 

The two boys of the Squire were born in their home on Second Street-Arthur "Newt" was born on June 26, 1919, and William H. was born on July 13, 1924. 

Arleigh worked hard to make his banking career a success, until in 1920 he became a board member of the bank's newly established American Foundry Company. Despite having a wife and two small mouths to feed, Squires is increasingly dissatisfied with his work in the bank. Bank. This may not be creative enough for him.

By 1925, Squires was ready to rest for a new life. He withdrew from the bank and bought half of the granary. This made him immediately partner with Stanley Auten, the owner of the grain elevator. They took the first letters of Squires and Auten, and then added "Company" to get "Saco" Mercantile Co. as their new name. 

Saco found some real estate in First St. south of American Foundry and produced various garden furniture. You can buy rose stands, lawn swings, canvas folding chairs or almost anything that can grow flowers and vines outdoors. These items are made of wood and painted in a refreshing and bright white.  

Squires himself did everything humans could do. He set up his own sawmill to cut any wood from the local farm. He mixed his own paint. In order to keep his life full of vitality, he served as the clerk of the Milan Village from time to time, joined the Freemasonry, and helped run the Marble Methodist Church. 

Squires has worked for his company a lot of time, but he doesn't believe in hiring a babysitter. As soon as he and his wife had finished eating, they picked up the two little boys and took them to the office and work area. 

In the end, Squires realized that he liked working with wood, and the granary was not that interesting. Therefore, in 1930, Squires parted ways with Auten in a friendly way. Squires expands his business to new locations so that he can process wood closer to the source. He bought a piece of land between Redman Road and Wabash Railway.

In the early 1930s, for fun, he took his family to a small lake and tried his own boat design. One summer, he rented a cabin in Zuki Lake, where Squires proposed an 18-foot launch. It has a round bottom and a gasoline engine with only one cylinder. It traveled at 4 or 5 miles per hour, but he attracted the interest of buyers and sold the ship. After that, he became obsessed with experimenting with ship design.

In 1942, Squires' company, now called Saco Manufacturing, began to support the war. At Willow Run, the squires made wooden boxes to install propellers for the new aircraft. When he produces various types of wooden containers, all his sawmill equipment and paint mixing play an important role.

Squires always came up with new ideas and came up with a way to plug the holes in the aircraft so that bullet holes could be repaired quickly under war conditions. Who can imagine using a piece of wood to plug a hole in a metal airplane? Squires' design is breathtaking. It looks like a pine cone with a small but large tip with spiral grooves. You just put it in the hole, turn it like a lid on a kimchi jar, and you can fly.

By the end of 1945, Squires was manufacturing log home kits south of County Street and west of today's US-23. Squires Manufacturing also manufactures boat kits, which are sold through Sears, where customers will assemble the boats. 

These are not boats. Of course, you can buy 8-foot economy ships, but Squires Manufacturing has ships of various sizes, up to 21-foot cabin cruisers. 

In 1956, the company's boat business flourished and distributed a glamorous catalog containing photos of various boats you could assemble yourself. Some boats happened to be photographed cute ladies in swimsuits. 

Picnic tables were another big project after the war. The Squires business employs people to cut wood, assemble products, paint and "brand" them, and then ship them to Michigan for use in parks.

The log house business started in 1946 when logs were cut in half lengthwise to form the exterior of the house. I always think that the log cabin must be placed horizontally, but the squire's log is upright. This makes the building stronger and more beautiful. Provide different sizes and models of wooden house kits; economical "athlete" models or larger and elegant "manor" wooden houses.

One of the log structures was built as a showroom. It is still located at 606 County Street, but it seems to be vacant.

In 1975, Squires sold his business and reportedly retired. But unless he works on many projects at the same time, he will never be happy. So he bought some farmland and invited school children to learn how to make cider.

He also wrote a hardcover book on the history of Milan for the 200th anniversary in 1976.

My mother bought one in 1976. It was very popular at the time, and I still keep it.

When Arleigh's wife Martha was in a wheelchair, Squires came up with a device to help her step over the porch steps into the house. His invention looks like a large wooden box, opened from the side, with cables and pulleys on top. It works very well. Very efficient. However, for some reason, Martha does not like being dragged away like a bag of fertilizer. I want to know why?

On November 2, 1994, Ali was almost 97 years old, and this was his last day. Because of his generosity to others throughout his life, although his business was very successful, he ultimately did not have any wealth.

Martha A. Churchill is a writer for The Monroe News.