Leaving Concord Michigan, we headed south and arrived a ½ hour late in Concord Township in Dekalb Co. Our hosts, Janine and Jon Zehr, thought we were 23- ½ hours early. This could have led to some serious trouble because Janine owned one of the few businesses in town – she bred Rottweilers!
Despite the mix-up, Jon and Janine couldn’t be nicer. We played with puppies a bit, and Jon showed us his horses. He is an equine dentist. So this stopover ended up being quite illuminating about two subjects that I didn’t know much about: specialty dog breeding and the teeth of horses!
The Zehrs had kept horses and goats when their daughters were younger before settling on Rottweilers. They keep one male and a number of females. They imported a "two-country champion from Serbia." While they breed a number of championship bloodline dogs, most puppies are destined to be pets, not show dogs. "Everyone wants a big, bad, boxy Rottweiler male, and they want championship bloodlines behind them." They recently sold the pick of the litter to someone who wanted to be able to walk up and down the neighborhood and say, "CHAMPIONSHIP! Right here. CHAMPIONSHIP!" Janine added, "I had two guys who work together that both wanted a dog, but they both wanted to have a bigger one than their buddy."
What's the best part about living here? "We have a big group of friends... We are always at someone's house having a bonfire or hanging out.
The town of St. Joe had a pizza place, but it was closed, so we drove around a bit to try to find someone to talk to. Roger and Jennifer Prentiss were on their “pleasure ride of the evening, out on the Gator to cool off and relax.” Roger had grown up in Concord. “Not anything has changed, except the road I live on has more houses.”
According to Wikipedia, Concord Township is one of fifteen townships in DeKalb County, Indiana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 1,335. There is one unincorporated town, St. Joe, and there used to be a town of Concord within the township that operated a post office from 1876 until 1929. All that remains of the town of Concord is a church and a graveyard surrounded by farmland. At one time, the township had numerous mills that were powered by the St Joseph River, whose headwaters start in Concord, Michigan. Coincidence? Perhaps.
With the sun dipping low in the sky, we headed west toward another Concord and a meeting with a cousin I hadn't seen in over 50 years.