This was my great grandparents home. Lloyd and Ivah Bordine. I lived there in 1998. It's all housing now.

Hi Donna,
Do you remember what type of farm this was? Do you have any special childhood memories from your great grandparent home?

My grandfather farmed this. He and my grandmother lived down the road from my great grandparents. My great great grandparents house was across the street from my grandparents, but was dilapidated and demolished in 1998/99. It had a big old horsechestnut tree out front, and we loved picking them up off the ground . Poppa farmed soy beans when I was a child. When my mom was growing up it was a dairy for a short time until my grandfather was injured by a cow. I just loved visiting my grandparents. We'd go up the road and see my great grandma. She had a dog named Chico that sat on the back porch. Then my Poppa would get Chief, an old horse and would let us have a ride back to my grandparents. Or he's fire up the blue Ford tractor. I remember learning how to start it when I was 4/5. I knew how to use the choke and the throttle, and the clutch. My legs wouldn't reach the clutch of I sat in the seat, so once it got going Pop would just stand on the floor board to operate the clutch and supervise the driving. This was never a very successful farm, and was not well kept up and had a lot of junk sitting around. But it was the people who we would go to see, and with that, I was richer beyond measure.

Thank you so much for your story Donna. We know with the build up around the area its hard to pin point the exact location of the farm. Do you happen to know the exact location or even the general location?

It is literally right there. You can see the metal barn roof through the trees. The house is to the left. There were other outbuildings. The trees along the side of the road were large and planted by my great-great grandfather. The field in front was farmed by my great uncle, and Poppa farmed the fields behind the barn and where that field has the tree in the center. It's a shaggy bark hickory tree. We held a farm auction in that field after he passed. My grandparents house still stands, and it's to the left of the field with the tree. It was recently sold after my uncle passed away. There were other fields Poppa planted, and there was a wooded area on the north side of the road that was full of maple trees. They would make maple syrup and had giant cast iron pots they'd bool the sap in over a huge fire.

Donna -- your stories are so wonderful to read and add to the history of Canton. I hope they're recorded somewhere formally!

Going from Donna's comments and my own knowledge of the area (I also grew up in Canton), the Bordine Farm sat on the south side of Saltz Road just east of Ridge Road. I have not been able to pinpoint the year it was built, but given the development dates of farms around this area I believe it was built around 1915-1920. As Donna outlined, Lloyd Bordine lived here until his death in 1971, his son Roger Bordine took over until he passed in 1994, then it passed to Duane Bordine, Roger's brother.

The barn was razed some time between 2002-2005, the house was sold and demolished in 2014. A new model home sits on the lot today and as Donna mentioned, the area has been highly developed over the last 30 years and there are neighborhoods on all sides of where the farm once stood.

The new home sits at 48969 Saltz Rd. Canton MI 48188, however I believe the old farm address was 48800 Saltz Rd. Note to the admin: I don't think the map pin is correctly located, it appears too far east.

Somebody knows their local history! Either one of the old families or a good historian. Just a couple of corrections: the house was built in 1901 and the address was 48955 Saltz Rd. The farm did not pass to Duane when Roger died; Duane had his own piece of property that had originally been part of the farm prior to Roger's passing. The farm passed to my grandmother Florence, who then sold the majority of it with the exception of her house down the road (48641 Saltz) and the farm house. Across the street from her house there had been my great great grandparents house which was razed in 1998/99.