Alicia...could boast a population of 300 to 350 in the summer...and about 75 in the winter. It contained 80 yellow framed cottages, a general store, a
boarding house, an assembly and dance hall, several large barns for stock and other
buildings for machinery, wagons, and tools, a post office, and a large grain elevator and mint
distillery which were situated on a spur track connecting the farm with the railroad six miles
away. It was a company town, and the old photos suggest that it was as drab and dull as you
might expect a company town to be.
It was said that the inhabitants of Alicia led an isolated and monotonous life, especially at
flood time. Many of the workers were immigrants from Europe who, as soon as they had a
stake of a few hundred dollars, would move on. It is further said that when World War I cut
off this supply of ambitious European peasants (many of them Slavs) the Sugar Company
began hiring Mexicans, and were the first to do so in Michigan.
Alicia was located one mile from “Mosquito Road” entrance to the farm. The name tells you
something too.