The Shrinking Village

Once a bustling community, little Mendon does its best to survive

MENDON - Sitting in what was one of the last two businesses in town last month, lifelong Mendon native Rick Emans reminisced on the good times he's had within the now fading village.

The P&G Mini Mart where he shared with The Daily Standard memories of bygone days closed shortly afterward, leaving Mendon without any businesses except for Jim's Forever Inc., a motorcycle shop.

At one point, there were numerous gas stations within Mendon. There was a doctor's office, a school, a few restaurants and many more amenities that no longer exist, Emans pointed out.

"It was hard to compete against the big business," he said. "Almost everybody works out of town (now)."

Emans waxed nostalgic about a town that was once teeming with life.

"When I was probably 15-, 20-years-old, it was on Wednesday," he said. "Wednesday especially in town was full of livestock sales. There were (often) things going on and they had giveaways and stuff to draw people up."

He also recalled sledding during winter.

"You'd go down and sled down the hill," he said. "But, of course, the river doesn't really freeze over anymore."

Mendon Mayor Terry Seibert, too, evoked a time when Mendon was a bustling little town.

"We had two gas stations, two grocery stores, a dry goods store, a laundromat, a car wash, two car dealerships, an auction house, a television repair store, a mill, a bank," Seibert recalled. "I mean, it was a functioning town. You didn't have to leave for much."

The village has lost a host of businesses in the last 20 years. Most recently, Mendon lost its polling station in December.

Residents at recent village council meetings have lamented the lack of businesses in town. The village has also struggled to enforce the zoning code, causing residents to complain about eyesores throughout town.

"It takes away the community feel, and Mendon doesn't need something else to take away from the community feel," resident Doug Johnson had said. "We have to work hard to survive as a community, and these are days of change. But we would like to keep a polling place in our community. We lost our schools to Rockford already."

A loss of identity

Seibert said everything changed when the village lost the Mendon-Union High School in the early '90s.

That's when things got tough, Emans agreed.

The high school mainly served the village of Mendon and Union Township, according to its Facebook page. The school was closed after the 1991-1992 school year in a budgetary move and merged with the neighboring Parkway School District for 1992-93.

The Mendon-Union Pirates wore blue and gold and competed in the Midwest Athletic Conference.

Mendon's population has declined from 717 in 1990 to 628 in 2020, per Census data.

Then a village councilman, Seibert said he saw the closure coming and tried to stop it.

"I was a little bit agitated," he said. "I was not part of the vote to move the school to Rockford."

Seibert said he also objected to the demolition of the closed school.

"When it comes to a building, in case there's a disaster, this is the only one that was built (for those conditions)," he said. "I said, 'We really need to think about saving this building for the community.'"

Despite Seibert's objections, the Mendon-Union K-12 building was demolished in 2006, he said.

A source of hope

While the village's future is uncertain, one thing residents still relish is the annual holiday tree walk in the historic town hall. Built in 1904, the village town hall is on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Area locals use the upstairs and downstairs of town hall to decorate Christmas trees, Seibert said.

"Different people in the community get an entry slip, and then they get to pick a place in the building where your tree's going to be, and you come and decorate it," he said. "People go through town hall (to see the decorations). We used to have soup, sandwiches and everything else. Now we're just down to cookies."

The tree walk is something the residents look forward to each year.

"Sometimes the good things right in front of you, you cannot see," he said.

Mendon at a crossroads

Jim Godwin, who owns Jim's Forever Inc. and other buildings in downtown Mendon, said he has invested heavily in the village. He believes that if people take pride and invest in Mendon, they can turn things around.

"I like the small community," he said. "The biggest share of the people are very good. When I go up through town, you have to go past the fire department. They went and got a new water tower. It looks nice. You go down Main Street, most of the places are boarded up, but they look good. … I've invested a lot in Main Street, and I don't regret that."

The fire department, which Godwin helped to fund in the early 2000's, was one of the first new buildings in town, he said.

"Other than that, there's not a lot here," he said. "A lot of people talk about the museum that was here, and it's all gone now."

Godwin said it's imperative that citizens take pride in what they do have. Otherwise, the town will continue to go by the wayside, he added.

"American people are sick and tired of big city crime and everything," he said. "They want to move out into the small communities. I think in years to come, you're going to see a lot of small communities like Mendon grow. People feel a lot better moving out here. If they have to drive 15-20 miles to work, when they come home, they're at peace here."

Goodwin, 88, doesn't think he'll live to see the resurgence of Mendon. But he certainly believes a second wind is possible for the town.

"The way the trend is going, I think it will end up that way," he said. "If I could get somebody to take over a couple of the buildings I've got in town, that would bring more people in."

For example, Godwin regularly visits Convoy to eat at a small restaurant called Gibson's.

"You cannot get in there to sit down and eat. It's packed," he said. "He's got good food, he's in a small town. He fixes his restaurant up really nice. Mendon could do the same thing, if a person would come and have that attitude and ambition. If they don't, it's not going to happen."