Minor Emery Park was born to Thomas and Diantha Park in June 1851 in Delhi Township. The Park farm was located at what is the present northwest corner of Dell and Pine Tree Roads. According to a brief autobiography written by Park in 1919, the Hogsback ran along the west side of the family farm. It was “as steep as anyone could climb,” he wrote. On the north portion of the Park land was the Sycamore Creek.

Minor’s father Thomas lived to be 89 years old, dying in 1898. For the last four years of his life he was the oldest living person in Delhi Township. Minor attended school at the first log cabin school in Delhi. He spent his entire life in the Delhi area.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, M.E. Park was a thriving merchant in Delhi. An advertisement for his store read “General Merchandise. Dry goods, groceries, boots, shoes, drugs, hardware, notions, bicycle repairs, etc. The largest variety of any village store in the county.” Around the turn of the twentieth century, Park’s store was destroyed by fire along with the neighboring Sheathelm store.

In addition to his business as a merchant in Delhi, Park was a highly active member of the community. He was one of the founders of the North Cemetery Association in 1911 and was appointed its first president. For over 25 years, Park was a correspondent for the State Journal in Lansing. In 1887, it was noted by the Ingham County News that “the Post Office will be permanently located at Mr. M.E. Park’s store.”

Minor E. Park married Eugenia Shull in 1875. The couple had three daughters, Grace (b. 1876), Maude Endora (b. 1879), and Gladys (b. 1892). Eugenia was president of the Holt Community Council (established in 1913) for many years.

Mr. Park placed this ad in the Holt Press in 1901: “Why not? Be saved while you live and saved when you die. Save when you sell and save when you buy.”

Park has at least one remaining legacy in Holt - Park Lane. He sold his garden adjacent to his Holt Road home to Dr. Seth Jones for the connection of the Arlington Park neighborhood to Holt Road through his property. In return, Jones named the road in the plat after Park.

Minor Park took his own life in December 1925 and died at St. Lawrence Hospital in Lansing. He is buried in Maple Ridge Cemetery alongside his wife Eugenia (d. 1930) and daughter Maude Endora (d. 1944).