Second-class postage paid at Lansing, MI ABOUT — AND A PART OF — MICHIGAN’S FASCINATING PAST SINCE 1917. $2.95

MAGAZINE

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 1996

GIANTS OF THE PAST

Michigan’s Worst Civil War Colonel

Henry Bibb’s Flight to Freedom ABOUT — AND A PART OF — MICHIGAN’S FASCINATING PAST SINCE 1917. $2.95

MAGAZINE

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 1996

FEATURES

10 Crafted with Good Intentions Although designed to help Michigan Indians support themselves during the Great Depression, the Michigan Indian Handicraft Project never dealt with the needs of the people it sought to help. by Patricia Dyer-Dechrow 17 Second to None in the World page 10 Since the Belle Isle Aquarium opened in 1904, it has entertained and fascinated the tens of thousands that visit each year. by Erik P. Bean 20 “Break Your Chains and Fly for Freedom” Slave Henry Bibb, after risking his life several times to escape the horrors of the South’s peculiar institution, came to Michigan and devoted his life to the abolitionist movement. by Janice Martz Kimmel 28 Backhoes, Bulldozers and Behemoths A window was opened to Michigan’s prehistoric past with the discovery of a mastodon that roamed the mid-Michigan area twelve thousand years ago. by Margaret M. Barondess 34 “The Worst Colonel I Ever Saw” Appointed a colonel of the Twelfth Michigan Volunteer Infantry for political page 34 reasons, Francis Quinn later lost his regiment, his reputation and ultimately, his life, due to his arrogance and incompetence. by Robert C. Myers 44 Remembering Harriet In October 1995 California writer Giacinta Bradley Koontz organized the first workshop devoted to the life and times of Michigan-born aviatrix Harriet Quimby. 47 The Grand Old Lady of the Lakes After ninety-seven years of service, the 428-foot-long freighter E. M. Ford, still plies the unpredictable waters of the Great Lakes. by William C. Kemp

DEPARTMENTS

2 FROM THE EDITOR 7 DATEBOOK 53 MICHIGAN PROFILE Nancy Harkness Love 3 LETTERS 8 FROM THE CENTER by Carey L. Draeger 5 HISTORY HAPPENINGS 50 EDITOR’S BOOKSHELF 56 POSTSCRIPT

ON THE COVER First discovered on a farm in 1947 by a University of Michigan Paleontology Museum team, this mastodon skeleton is one of the most complete ever found in Michigan. Scientists estimate this mastodon, a female, lived about eleven thousand years ago. Worn edges on her broken tusk reveal the breakage occurred during her lifetime. The Owosso mastodon resides at the University of Michigan Exhibit Museum of Natural History. For more information on Michigan’s mastodons, please turn to page 28. Photo: Duaine Brenner

January/February 1996 page 20 1 FROM THE EDITOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

MAGAZINE Volume 80 • Number 1 Secretary of State ancestor and how he was inspired to One of the rewards of being editor of this magazine is reading the letters—both positive and negative— Candice S. Miller Sundblom’s Santa Claus compose his well-loved poem. Michigan History Magazine is won- we receive from readers. Director, Michigan Historical Center Sandra Sageser Clark derful, a treasure of information about In the September/October issue I concluded my article about the visits of Theodore Roosevelt and Bill Clinton I enjoyed reading our heritage. to Michigan State University by observing how 1995 graduates—like their 1907 counterparts—could tell their Editor Mary Alice Rasmussen Dr. Roger L. Rosentreter “Michigan’s Coca-Cola Grosse Pointe children and grandchildren about their commencement speaker. I didn’t know if those early graduates took any lasting pride in TR’s visit, but I was confident they must have. Then Ruth Wright from Tryon, North Carolina, told Assistant Editors Santa Claus”and learning Carey L. Draeger Hemingway Story me how her father, who had received his diploma from President Roosevelt that day in East Lansing, “often spoke Sharon E. McHaney that Thomas Nast was not Sparks Memory of that experience.” I called Ms. Wright, who claims she reads the magazine “from cover to cover,” and told her Marketing Manager Mention of the now-vanished Walton that she had made my day. The rest of her charming letter is on page 4. Diana Paiz Engle the only artist to depict that Junction restaurant in Jack Jobst’s fine article on Ernest Hemingway, “Gone Not all readers are as pleased with what we do. Circulation portly elf in Clement Moore’s Fishin’,” (November/December 1995) After receiving the September/October issue, one reader wondered why President Clinton was on the cover? Carole Pope, Manager reminded me of my great-uncle L. W. Joni Russell, Clerk Griffin of Traverse City. His many tal- And why we ran an article about unions (John Beck’s piece on the Northern Mineral Mineworkers)? In her “ ’Twas the Night Before ents included a realistic-sounding horse opinion, neither piece had anything to do with Michigan history and she demanded her money back. Secretary Mary Jo Remensnyder Christmas.” whinny—a treat for us young nephews The other day I received a letter from a more loyal subscriber critical of the article about Leon Czolgosz who plagued him for it everytime we Contributing Editors Mary Alice Rasmussen saw him. (President William McKinley’s assassin) that appeared in the November/December issue. Describing it as Dr. LeRoy Barnett, Dr. John R. Halsey, Grosse Pointe L. W. was a conductor on the Penn- “outrageous” to attempt to “justify the murder,” Gordon Helmbold of Brownsville, Texas, saw Jeremy Kilar’s Laura Rose Ashlee and Scott M. Peters sylvania Railroad during the early twentieth century and often ate at this The Michigan Historical Commission—Ann Preston Koeze, president, piece as “a gross insult to the other members of the Czolgosz family—and to millions of other immigrant families Robert J. Danhof, Susanne M. Janis, William C. Whitbeck and Samuel Logan Jr.—provides advice on historical activities of the Department of Walton Junction restaurant during his from many nations—who overcame severe adversities in their lives bravely and sanely in [the] true American State, including the publication of this magazine. Ft. Wayne-Mackinaw City run, when Manuscripts for publication review, books for review and notices to be included in History Happenings should be sent to Editor, Michigan History the train paused for switching (part of manner.” Mr. Helmbold observed, “Surely there must be many happenings and people who contributed to our Magazine, Michigan Department of State, Lansing, MI 48918-1805. While Michigan History Magazine makes every effort to care for all materials the train went to Traverse City, the rest sent to us, the Michigan Department of State assumes no responsibility for state’s greatness, the records of whom have not yet been presented in the pages of this magazine. Surely articles unsolicited photographs, manuscripts or books. The Michigan Department to Mackinaw City). of State does not assume responsibility for statement of fact or opinion about them would be more representative of our state, and more worthwhile reading, than any record about a made by contributors. One morning he was walking toward Publication of Michigan History Magazine provides matching funds for grants from the National Park Service, United States Department of the the restaurant when a fellow railroad murdering anarchist.” Interior. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior. Regulations of the U.S. Department of the Interior man said, “Come on, Griff, whinny for strictly prohibit unlawful discrimination in departmental Federally Assisted Mr. Helmbold is correct. There are numerous little-known and interesting stories about Michiganians who have Programs on the basis of race, color, national origin, age or handicap. Any per- your oats.” L. W. replied with a loud son who believes he or she has been discriminated against in any program, activity or facility operated by a recipient of Federal assistance should write: whinny. Then the restaurant door made contributions to this state, country and world. In this issue these include pieces on Nancy Harkness Love, Director, Equal Opportunity Program, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Box 37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127 opened and a fellow nicknamed Swede Henry Bibb and William Graves Quinn. Copyright Michigan Department of State 1996 came out, looked around, scratched his Mr. Helmbold concluded by telling me he has “long been proud of Michigan History Magazine, and want[s] to head and declared, “Ay tought ay SUBSCRIPTION PROBLEMS heeard a horse outside!” continue to be so.” I want him to remain a proud subscriber. Neither we nor Professor Kilar intended to embarrass If you have questions about your subscrip- tion, have missed issues, have a change of L. W. Griffin began working on the immigrants (which includes my grandparents) or praise Leon Czolgosz’s misguided actions. However, the warts address, are receiving duplicate issues or railroad at age nine, when he carried want to place gift subscriptions or purchase I enjoyed reading about “Michigan’s water for a narrow-gauge logging loco- and blemishes of society are part of our history, and historians must include them when recording the past no back issues, please call us toll-free at 1-800- Coca-Cola Santa Claus” (November/ motive at the Lower Chicago Camps matter how unattractive or discomforting they may be. 366-3703 (Lansing-area residents please call December 1995) and learning that near Big Rapids, Michigan, where his 373-1645). Operating hours: Monday through Thomas Nast was not the only artist to father was a blacksmith. Friday, 8:00 A.M. to Noon and 1:00 to 5:00 P.M. (EST). depict that portly elf in Clement How he got his whinnying skill, I Moore’s “’Twas the Night Before don’t know. But I can attest—and so Michigan History Magazine (ISSN 0026-2196) is published six times a year, with an annual subscription rate of $12.95 by the Christmas.” Coincidentally, the great- could more than one horse back then— Michigan Historical Center, Michigan Department of State, 717 West Allegan, Lansing, MI 48918-1805. Second-class postage paid granddaughter of Clement Moore, it was a most convincing whinny out- at Lansing, MI. Postmaster: Send address changes to Michigan History Magazine, Michigan Department of State, Lansing, MI Florence Dinghy Sharp, lives in Com- side the real thing. 48918-1805. merce Township, Michigan, and loves Daniel Waldron Printed on Recycled Paper to speak to groups about her famous Royal Oak

2 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 3 HISTORY HAPPENINGS

Thrilled with “Icebound” article. It established in delightful detail Hurley is currently writing a book about the dynamics of presidential presence. the 452nd Bombardment Group, in I have been a Michigan History Maga- I am a regular reader of this mar- which he served with my father, Ferris zine reader for several years and enjoy velous magazine and compliment you C. Parsons. Not only did he remember From Scrap Pile to Statehood Gallery the magazine greatly. Tim Clancy’s for its excellence. Dad after fifty years, he offered remark- “Icebound” article in the November/ Russ Mawby, Chairman able insight on Dad’s cartoons. It was a December 1995 issue was one of the Emeritus and Trustee thrill talking to him as we paged most exciting adventures I ever read. W. K. Kellogg Foundation through a published pictorial history of It’s a wonderful story of courage, endur- Battle Creek the 452nd, one of Dad’s final art pro- ance and sharing. That all the men sur- jects before returning to the States. vived is amazing. I hope Blakewell My Day with the Hurley said Dad really captured the war enjoyed his quiet life as a dairy farmer Boys of Summer experience and he also noted the strong in his later years. resemblance of certain characters Dad Dorothy Bainbridge The September/October 1995 issue on drew to the guys they served with dur- Kalamazoo the World War II Detroit Tigers (“From ing the war. the Ballpark to the Battlefield . . . and I can’t thank the magazine enough Presidential Past Back,” page 10) sent me to the attic for leading General Hurley to me by looking for my high school album. I publishing the article on Dad and for As always, the moment my Michigan was a junior at Howell High School in helping our family unlock the intricate History Magazine arrives, I drop every- 1943 playing varsity baseball for what details behind his images. I look for- thing to read it from cover to cover. The would be my last year before entering ward to poring through Dad’s entire September/October 1995 issue in par- the navy. The Tigers had a spring base- collection with Hurley while taking ticular brought back many memories. ball clinic at Briggs Stadium in which copious notes so future generations will The “Mail by the Pail” article reminded high school teams from around the state discern even more from Dad’s personal me of happy times at the Windsor, spent a day learning the fine arts of view of the war. Ontario, park on the Detroit River in pitching, hitting and fielding from the Robert H. Parson 1923, when my mother explained what big guys. The players also autographed Dewitt Yarone Lang (salvage company the tug was doing by the freighters. I our gloves or whatever else we pre- owner Traines’ son-in-law), Hans will never forget the Detroit Tigers in sented. I’ve still got the twenty-eight ow proud Robert’s father, Ferris H Schuler and Secretary of State the 1945 World Series; my loyalty to autographs I collected, including that of Parsons, would be with the article Robert Candice S. Miller, from left to the Tigers was passed on by my mother, Charlie Gehringer. Although he was wrote for the November/December right, present the Flint River r e a lifelong Tiger fan. I always look first retired by then, my mom was a class- 1995 article “Images of War.” The n n

e Indian Mission Bell to the Michi- r thing in the morning paper for the mate of his at Fowlerville High School, reproductions of my husband’s artwork B e gan Historical Center, the bell’s n i

Tigers’ score (along with the Atlanta so I had a connection. was excellent. Ferris, a perfectionist a u

D new home. Braves). My father, F. E. N. Thatcher, Those were the days of true role and avid believer in detail, would have received his first degree from Michigan models in sports. They were clean-liv- had utmost praise for the article. The ing it to a supermarket Michigan Historical Center a more dignified life. In State College from President Theodore ing people fiercely dedicated to their reproductions’ colors are perfect and obert Traines Roosevelt. Father often spoke of the sport and who gave free autographs. looking at them in the magazine is like knew he had parking lot as the buyer to see if the staff was inter- 1849 it was purchased by experience and how so many people Thanks for helping us remember them. reliving the war years waiting for his something spe- planned to do. The ested in the bell. They the Methodist Episcopal were there that his family slept cross- Commander Dick Darling,USN (Ret) welcomed letters with illustrated enve- cial. Although he inscription reads: were, prompting Traines to Sunday School in Phila- wise in his dorm-room bed because of Lodi, California lopes to arrive. had a buyer for Cast by T.J. Dyre Jr., donate part of the bell’s delphia for the Flint River the lack of rooms. Father’s brother On behalf of the family and myself I Rthe three-hundred-pound Philada For Bradley value to the Michigan Indian Mission in Michi- Theodore Thomas Thatcher, born 1907, wish to thank Michigan History Maga- Images of War Chapel, Flint River Indian Historical Museum, with gan. The mission, which was named for Roosevelt. zine for allowing Robert to contribute to bronze bell he had found Ruth T. Wright I didn’t think anything could top the the magazine.The article made us proud at the bottom of a scrap Mission, Michigan Con- the Michigan Historical served a 450-square-mile Tryon, North Carolina spread of my father’s pen-and-ink draw- of Ferris’s efforts beyond words. pile on the grounds ference, Found 1849. Pre- Center Foundation com- area in and around Flint, ings from World War II featured in the Maxine Parsons of his Mt. Pleasant Salv- sented by Wharton St. M pleting the purchase of the placed the bell in its I enjoyed the September/October 1995 November/December 1995 article Rogers City age and Steel Company, E Church Sunday School bell. On 9 November 1995 church. There it hung until issue chronicling the 1907 visit of “Images of War.” That is until I received Traines was reluctant to 1849, Henry Colcazer the bell became a perma- the church’s demolition in President Theodore Roosevelt and the a most welcome phone call from Paster. nent part of the Michigan 1923. Today the bell is on 1995 visit of President Bill Clinton to Michigan History Magazine subscriber let it go. The inscription Michigan History Magazine welcomes reader Realizing the bell’s his- Historical Center. exhibit in the Michigan Michigan State University. I read the William Hurley, a retired air force gen- response to published articles. Letters may be on this two-foot-diameter story with special interest since I partic- eral from Palos Heights, Illinois. edited due to space limitations and for reasons of icon of the past made him torical significance, Before ending up in a Historical Museum’s ipated in the 1995 event. I congratulate A war historian and professor at clarity. Write to Editor, Michigan History Magazine, think twice about relegat- Traines contacted the scrap pile, the bell had led Statehood Gallery. Roger L. Rosentreter on an excellent Chicago State University, General 717 West Allegan, Lansing, MI 48918-1805.

4 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 5 DATEBOOK

tion of the same name in Chapel Restoration which forty-five contempo- January rary Detroit area artists Receives Funds from State defined the relationship January 1-7. African American doll exhibit, Michigan Women’s Historical Center, Lansing, (517) 484-1880 between their own work and to Continue Project January 3-28. Camping with Henry and Tom, a play on Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Warren G. that of the museum. Artists Harding’s 1921 camping trip, Meadow Brook Theatre, Oakland University, Rochester, (810) 377-3300 created works in all medi- Secretary of State Candice S. Miller, Michigan’s ums—painting, sculpture, January 10-March 17. The James Tissot: Prints from the Aldrich Collection exhibit, Kresge Art Museum, performance and video—that Michigan State University, East Lansing, (517) 353-9834 official historian (right), lends a hand to relate to artwork in all areas Pontiac’s interim mayor, Elick Shorter (left), at January 10-March 31. Working Women Artists exhibit, Michigan Women’s Historical Center and Hall of of the DIA’s permanent Fame, Lansing, (517) 484-1880 a ceremonial ribbon cutting as part of the collection. The CD-ROM recaptures the sense of January 20. Lake Michigan Carferry Service slide presentation, Michigan Maritime Museum, South Haven, rededication of the recently restored Buckland excitement and exploration (616) 637-8078 Memorial Chapel on 27 October 1995. The that accompanied the exhibi- February Secretary of State also presented Mayor Shorter tion, allowing viewers to visually wander through the with a $69,400 check during the ceremonies. galleries, moving from the February 24-March 17. The Salvadore Dali! exhibit, Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, (517) 353-9834 The money was from the Historic Preservation Interventions art to pieces in the museum’s permanent col- Fund, a federal grant program overseen by the lection. March State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) of the The Interventions CD- March 1-31. National Women’s History Month, Michigan Women’s Historical Center, Lansing, Department of State’s Michigan Historical ROM is available at the (517) 484-1880 DIA Museum Shops in Center, and will help finance further restora- Detroit, the Twelve Oaks March 19. Political columnist Gary Wills lecture series, Wharton Center, Michigan State University, East tion work on the 1898 English Gothic sand- Mall in Novi and the Lansing, (517) 353-1982 Somerset Collection in Troy.

t stone structure in Pontiac’s Oak Hill Cemetery. March 20. Centennial of the Automobile Industry program, R. E. Olds Transportation Museum, Lansing, r e

k To

c (517) 372-0422 E For information on the Historic Preservation p order by phone, call (313) o h s i

B 833-7948. Fund, contact the SHPO at 717 West Allegan, n y r h t a

K Lansing, MI 48918, (517) 373-1667. Lighthouses at the Michigan Maritime Museum Video on For more information on Many community groups women’s-rights and affirma- Centennial Farms the video or the centennial have used the building since tive-action activist; Lucia From 1 February 1996 farm program, call Ilene its closing in 1964, includ- Voorhees Grimes, suffragist; to 1 January 1997 the Children enjoy a taste of a The Centennial Farm Hinderleider, Centennial ing the Lupton Senior R. Louise Grooms, African Michigan’s Remarkable heritage apple during 1995 Association has produced Farms Coordinator, at (517) Citizens, which purchased it American business pioneer; Lighthouses exhibit at Statehood Day festivities. a video on the centennial 373-1667. in 1983. Today the Bible and Laura Freele Osborn, the Michigan Maritime farms that have received Baptist Church owns the school reformer. For more Museum in South Haven the Centennial Farm of the Ogemaw County’s 3368 Cherry Street building. information, call (517) features lighthouse archi- Year award for the last four First Michigan 484-1880. tecture and the lighthouse years. The video presents Historical Marker 1995 Michigan Women’s keeper’s role and experi- interviews with each owner, Hall of Fame Honorees Detroit Institute ence. For more information, who show family heirlooms On 7 October 1995 Lupton of Arts CD-ROM call (616) 637-8078. Michigan Historical Museum Events and tell about their family residents celebrated On 28 October 1995 the farms.The farms include the Ogemaw County’s first Michigan Women’s Hall of The Detroit Institute of Arts January 27 Black History Network meeting, Michigan Historical Center, Lansing Merchant Farm in Gratiot Michigan Historical Marker. Fame inducted Yolanda is one of the first museums To list an upcoming or a past happen- ing, write to Mary Jo Remensnyder, January 27 Statehood Day celebration, Michigan Historical Center, Lansing County, the Honeywell Donated by the Lupton Area Alvarado-Ortega, journalist; in the country to produce Michigan History Magazine, 717 Farm in Branch County, Senior Citizens, the marker Irene M. Auberlin, humani- an exhibition catalog in a West Allegan, Lansing, MI 48918, or March 23 Life on the Land: Michigan Agricultural Heritage Day, Michigan the Service Farm in Lena- commemorates the Rose tarian; Judge Hilda R. Gage; CD-ROM format. Called fax her at (517) 373-0851. Include the Historical Center, Lansing event name, date, time, location and wee County and the Bryant Township District No. 5 Odessa Komer, labor leader; Interventions, the CD-ROM costs. Submissions must be received Some events require preregistration. For more information, call (517) 373-3559. Farm in Calhoun County. School, founded in 1904. Jacqueline E. Washington, explores the recent exhibi- three months in advance of the issue

6 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 7 FROM THE CENTER

St. Clair Inn Marker Caught in the Web of Michigan History by Laura Rose Ashlee

by Mary L. Ploor here’s a whole new, exciting way to visit the Michigan Historical and visual highlights. The Michigan History Stuff”and “Teachers’ Stuff” offer activities, read- In 1925 the St. Center and that’s with a computer. This high-tech tool of the Magazine page informs the visitor of the latest ing material and lesson plans helpful in learning Clair Rotary Club twentieth century has brought the world closer than either the publication information and provides a subscrip- and teaching Michigan history. The Web offers a organized the St. T telephone or broadcast media ever has. Simply by going tion form. multitude of experiences. Just click the mouse Clair Community “online,” a computer user in Frankfurt, Germany, can visit the Michigan “This Season” is the center’s calendar of and travel the Michigan history superhighway. Hotel Corporation to Historical Center via a graphics-and-text network found on the Internet events, including museum programs, historical The Michigan Historical Center is accessible erect a building that called the World Wide Web. marker dedications and new publications and at address http://www.sos.state.mi.us/history/ would serve the The Michigan Historical Center joined the Internet in 1995, when the exhibits. “New Stuff” features recent Michigan history.html or through the Secretary of State’s community both as Department of State’s home page debuted on the Web. Secretary of State history news, such as the discovery of the home-page address of http://www.sos.state.mi.us/. a hotel and a civic Candice S. Miller’s page provides center. Construction valuable information for motorists Mary Ploor of the Michigan Historical Museum’s Education began that year and allows the visitor to explore the Unit coordinates the Michigan Historical Center’s World Wide with funds coming colorful Michigan Historical Center Web project. Other webspinners include Martha Climo, Susan from the St. Clair welcome page with a click of the Cooper-Finney and Richard Geer of the Michigan Historical residents who computer’s “mouse” on the center’s Center. Roland Gurk of the Secretary of State’s Bureau of Information Services is the project’s Webmaster. bought stock in the welcome page. corporation. Port While on the Web, visitors may Huron architect access the Michigan Historical Walter Wyeth mod- Center’s five sections—Michigan eled the Neo-Tudor History Magazine, Michigan Histori- Other sites to visit on the design after English cal Museum System, State Historic country inns. When Preservation Office, Office of the World Wide Web it opened in Sep- State Archaeologist and State Arch- tember 1926, it was The Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan ives of Michigan—through five hailed at “the most http://www2.sils.umich.edu/BentleyMap/index.html routes: “Explore!” “ This Season,” beautiful hostelry “New Stuff,” “Kids’ Stuff” and The Detroit Institute of Arts which ever graced “Teachers’ Stuff.” “Explore!” pro- http://oeonline.com:80/~dia/ a city.” vides online mini-tours of the Sixty years later, Michigan Historical Museum System, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum the St. Clair Inn including its main museum in Lansing http://www2.sils.umich.edu/FordLibrary/index.html received recognition and nine satellite museums across the Henry Ford Museum Online for its historical sig- state. The center’s first online exhibit, nificance. On 26

r http://hfm.umd.umich.edu/ o o Settling a State, showcases the Michi- l September 1995 P

. L

gan Historical Museum’s Settlement Michigan Lighthouses

y Secretary of State r a

and Statehood Galleries and features M http://www.ais.org/~lsa/littopmi.html Candice S. Miller the artifacts, photos and activities Susan Cooper-Finney and Martha Climo critique the image dedicated a Michi- Michigan State University Museum found in the two galleries, as well as tell the story of Michigan’s early they prepared for the Michigan Historical Center’s home http://www.okc.com/MSUmuseum/ gan Historical years. Future visits to “Explore!” and other sites will provide new experi- page. Marker at the inn, ences as tours of other museum galleries and satellite museums are Michigan Week 1996 which is listed on developed. http://www.sos.state.mi.us/miweek/ both the National The Web also allows visitors to tour on screen the State Archives Lansing and Howell plank road in East Lansing, Register of Historic of Michigan, learn about its operation and peruse part of its holdings. the Michigan Historical Museum’s accession of The G. Robert Vincent Voice Library, Places and the A click of the mouse will also take visitors to the Office of the State the 1849 Flint River Indian Mission bell and the Michigan State University State Register of http://web.msu.edu/vincent/index.html Archaeologist and the State Historical Preservation Office pages, both of publication of the November/December 1995 Historic Sites. which describe each section’s work and provide regulatory information issue of Michigan History Magazine. “Kids’

8 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 9 or over 150 years many Michigan Indians have relied items were sold or traded for supplies at local stores. programs that aimed to reduce the number of people on on the sale of handicrafts like quillboxes, baskets and Although most craftspeople were never adequately compen- direct relief. Three years later, the WPA came to Michigan F other crafts to provide a living for their families. The sated for the many hours of work, the crafts were often the Indians as the Michigan Indian Handicraft Project (MIHP). items, often made from readily available materials, were usu- only source of income for Indian families. The program differed from the national version in that it ally finished during the winter when the pace of life was In 1935, during the height of the Great Depression, this focused on preserving Michigan Native American traditional slower and there were fewer tasks for families to complete. idea of supporting individuals and families through arts and arts and handicrafts. The MIHP had one major flaw— Frequently, Native American communities worked on their crafts was adopted by the Works Progress Administration program officials never consulted the native people about Crafted crafts as a group, sharing their history and culture. Later the (WPA), one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal the scope of their needs. Although the project was well with Good

Odawa women, such w o r k as Mary Ann Kiogima, c e D - r

ntentions made exquisite quill e y D

I a boxes (inset) with i c i r t a

finely wrought geo- P

s o t

by Patricia Dyer-Deckrow metric designs. o h p

l l a

10 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 11 Indians promoted and sold native crafts and goods at family- even a small family, let alone allow for accumulation of operated roadside stands and at historical reenactments or working capitol for a thriving business. But the program pow-wows throughout the state. gave them “a little bit” of needed money when nothing else The Indian-craft business thrived until the Great was available. Woodworkers William Mastaw Depression, when Indian and non-Indian Michiganians found In July 1938 the Department of Conservation began over- (left) and William Mishiki cre- themselves unemployed with families to support. The pay- seeing the gathering of materials in Cross Village. Pairs of ated sturdy, well-built resort ment Indians received for their labor-intensive arts and crafts WPA participants traveled to designated areas accompanied furniture under the auspices of fell so drastically that the crafters could not earn an adequate by conservation officers to collect a wide range of natural the Michigan Indian Handicraft living. They were soon forced to find other employment— materials. The time-consuming process required detailed Project. Now considered valu- cutting wood, hunting, trapping and fishing—to supplement knowledge of the environment since many materials were able museum pieces, purses their income.While the sale of traditional arts and crafts gathered seasonally. Sweet grass, birch bark, cedar root and like the one below were once came to a standstill, many Indian people continued to pro- basswood were harvested during the summer; black and created as souvenirs for duce kitchen utensils, bowls, buckskin clothing, snowshoes white ash were culled year round. Porcupine and deer hides tourists visiting Michigan. and baskets for marketing, farm storage and gift exchanges. were used at any time except in the late summer, when their These conditions provided the perfect backdrop for coop- hides changed in preparation for winter. This portion of the eration between local craftspeople and the WPA program. production process proved costly for the MIHP. Indian artisans relied heavily on the same natural resources the Department of Conservation sought to protect. Under Foley-Ward’s plan the Department of Conservation oversaw the provision of raw materials such as birch bark, ironwood, The crafts produced by WPA workers combined distinct cedar, basswood, black or white ash, porcupine quills and tribal knowledge and patterns with the demands of the mod- deerskins. Foley-Ward convinced state officials that this pro- ern market. Carving skills, for instance, were passed down ject would attract tourists into northern Michigan and help from generation to generation by grandfathers and fathers to relieve local depressed economies. their male children. Johnny Mixamong carved totem figures During the summer of 1938 a WPA Indian project began in Cross Village. Local Odawa craftspeople were hired to intentioned, it failed to give Michigan Indians economic construct those items in great demand by tourists—clothes independence. hampers, snowshoes, salad The MIHP was cosponsored by the Michigan Department bowls, wooden utensils, rugs, of Conservation (present-day Department of Natural archery equipment, furniture and Resources)—only Emmet, Charlevoix, Chippewa and baskets. The rapid sale of these Mackinac Counties were researched. Participants included items would, in theory, teach the residents from the communities of Cross Village, Pellston, Indians the workings behind the Petoskey, Burgess, Bay Mills, Cedarville and Mackinac and supply-and-demand strategy in Sugar Islands. Catherine Foley-Ward, a former Emmet the world market and would pro- County welfare relief administrator and the daughter of a mote economic self-sufficiency. Michigan curio shop owner, was appointed the MIHP super- Yet the MIHP implemented no visor. Foley-Ward had witnessed many business transactions weekly production quotas. between Michigan Indians and her father and knew tourists Foley-Ward believed the visiting Michigan were intrigued with the black-ash and handicraft project would help sweet-grass baskets, porcupine-quill work, birch-bark sou- perpetuate traditional Michigan Indian skills by training new venirs and woodcarvings. craftspeople and add financial incentive for their work. However, three-quarters of the workers hired (95 percent male and 5 percent female) had years of experience in mak- ing traditional arts. Former MIHP participants recalled that Foley-Ward’s task was threefold: to develop a broader embroidery and woodcarvings to eager Europeans through- hiring inexperienced workers to be trained by skilled interest in and appreciation of Indian crafts, to promote and out the nineteenth century. coworkers was rare. supervise their production and to create marketing outlets for A local crafts market was actually developed by Indian MIHP workers were paid emergency subsistence-level the Indian manufactures (which was not as far-fetched or dif- businessmen as early as 1870. Ignatius Petoskey and his sons salaries averaging only fifty cents an hour for a twenty- ficult as it may seem to a modern entrepreneur). Odawa craft Enos and Louis were the first to operate a store in Petoskey hour week. This income was largely insufficient to sustain traditions had found ready markets in Europe for over two that sold quill work, beaded clothing, woodwork, birch-bark centuries. Catholic missions sponsored by European nobility items and carvings made by relatives and friends. Other and charitable and church foundations purchased native Indian entrepreneurs, most notably three generations of the Cross Village artist Johnny Mixamong carved totem figures crafts to help defray education costs for Indian students. Ettawageshik family of Harbor Springs, continued to meet (inset) known as ododem, symbols of each Odawa family’s myth- Indian artisans shipped beautifully designed porcupine-quill non-Indian demands for Indian souvenirs. Other Michigan ical founders.

12 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 13 the pinnacle of crafts created by Odawa men. State conserva- embroidery since before the Europeans arrived in North tion officers and the winter-sports-loving public readily America. Traditionally, Odawa women used innovative geo- bought the snowshoes. Noted woodworkers like John Parkey, metric designs; neighboring Ojibwa worked with floral Charles Shagonaby, Fred Chingwa and Charles Kiogima motifs. The detail and precision of their designs, which took split white-ash logs in quarters, shaped them with draw hours to complete, still are regarded by many as the zenith of knives, inserted the wood into a steam pipe to soften for five Michigan native arts and are internationally treasured as fine Indian men adapted their bow- days, then placed it in a snowshoe mold for shaping. Once museum pieces. Of the forty thousand to fifty thousand making skills to produce child- the tails of the shoes were riveted together, the curved forms quills produced by the average porcupine, only the hair-fine sized bows and arrows for the were removed from the mold and fitted with cross bars. quills are used to embroider boxes, and these must be Michigan Indian Handicraft Rawhide strips of deerskin were moistened, then laced to the washed in soapy water, air dried, then meticulously sorted Project. Irene Walker snowshoes in a spider-web or bear-paw design, one capable according to size and color. Compeau gained a reputation of supporting a human on snow. as a skilled basket maker Cabinetmakers and woodworkers such as Leo Andrews, and quill worker. Solomon Francis and Dan Naganashe also built rustic furni- ture used in camp houses and cottages throughout northern From an Odawa perspective, the MIHP did not preserve Michigan. White cedar was used to create unique furniture native arts or encourage their production beyond the level with dowels, pegs and glue instead of nails and screws, maintained by tribal craftspeople. Foley-Ward rarely con- including Paul Bunyan chairs, benches, kitchen tables, picnic sulted the participants about the kinds of items they made. tables, dressers, lamps, footstools and firewood containers. Instead she suggested articles she felt were marketable, then let the workers manufacture them with little or no supervision. The arti- sans, however, were free to incorpo- rate traditional designs into their crafts. The MIHP also excluded two traditional Michigan Indian-art processes: plant dyes and pottery. The time required to gather and prepare representing the mythical founders of Odawa families that plants for dyes made it commercially decorated Mackinac Island street signs. Similar carvings unfeasible for mass-production. stood atop three-foot poles outside each Odawa lodge from Subsequently, many porcupine-quill prehistoric times until the early twentieth century. and black-ash projects used commer- Another traditional skill that Odawa men adapted to the cial dyes with a limited color range MIHP was working with bent woods, creating ladles, bows, that tended to fade after a few years. baskets, ornate tool handles and snowshoes. The Odawa used When Foley-Ward and her national ladles when manufacturing maple sugar and for stirring and counterpart, Alice Marriott, dipping soups and water. The large spoons with their researched project ideas they found crooked ends were carved from well-cured woods and pol- no known Michigan Indian crafters ished to a high gloss. Foley-Ward quickly recognized the who incorporated traditional pottery artistic merit of the old pieces that she found at Cross Village practices into their work. They felt and commissioned new works that could be used in the com- that this craft also could not be rein- mon household. Although the handles on the pieces lacked troduced in an economically feasible some of the ornately carved animal, spirit and human figures Woodcarving was usually a man’s craft and required skillful cutting, bending and carving of hard manner. Foley-Ward also believed often found on older pieces, they still reflected the quality and durable wood, such as the ironwood used for these ladles. items like beaded buckskin clothing, craftmanship Odawa men invested in their woodwork. moccasins, musical instruments (drums, rattles and hand drums), Many of these furniture pieces, once located at DNR’s ribbon appliqué, beadwork, drawings, sashes, ball-headed Higgins Lake State Park buildings, were donated to the clubs, textile containers of nettlestalk fiber, cedar-bark By the 1930s bows and arrows had become the stereo- Michigan State University and the Grand Rapids Public pouches, basswood mats and bags, embroidery, sculptures typic symbol of the American Indian. Every little boy who Museums for preservation and future exhibits. Other items and original drawings had little market value or were too dif- had ever dreamed of riding a fleet horse across the prairies still furnish summer cabins across the state. ficult to mass-produce. Yet the Odawa felt these crafts best wanted his own bow and arrows. Odawa men modified their sewing baskets made by Odawa women from black-ash Odawa and Ojibwa women such as Anna Odaemin reflected the cultural elements they wished to preserve. knowledge of making bent-wood bows to produce toy splints and sweet grass. These baskets found a ready market Kewaygeshik, Irene Walker Compeau and Susan Shagonaby The goal of helping Indians to become self-supporting versions for the souvenir market. throughout Michigan, in an era before such items were mass- fashioned delicate birch-bark boxes embroidered with through craft production and sale was not achieved. Once The skills required for bow making were also applied to produced and imported from southeast Asia. exquisite designs of dyed and natural porcupine quills for craft items were completed Foley-Ward removed them and creating white-ash handles and rims for laundry, market or Only the snowshoes and birch-bark canoes were considered the MIHP. Indian women have created porcupine-quill they were never seen again. Many MIHP participants still

14 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 15 successful entrepreneurs. market preventedmany price ofacraft. to fixthecostsofmaterialsandlaborwhendetermining positions ofauthority 16 char wonder whoboughttheirworksandwhatpriceswere rated boxesliketheonesshownbelow Paul (kneeling),JoeSamuelsandJohnnyMixamong(seatednearwindow).Onlythehair-fineporcupinequillsareusedtocreateuniquely deco- left) Strang,Mary Ann Kiogima, Anna OdeaminKewaygeshik,BenKing,LawrenceSamuels,Louis Gasco, RobertDavenport,JohnLeece,George The CrossV public landsand animalby-productswerestrictly regulatedby artisans couldnolongerharvest wood,barkandherbsfrom endedin1942, of accesstonaturalmaterials. When theMIHP from continuingtopracticetheir traditionalartswastheloss would therehavebeenadifferent outcome?Nooneknows. areas. IftheMIHP communities andforcedmanyfamiliestorelocateurban 1941, reducedemploymentopportunitiesinNative American months after America’s entry into World War IIinDecember finalproblemthatdiscouraged manyMichiganIndians A ged. The programneverhiredNative illage townhallservedastheMichiganIndianHandicraftProject’ This inabilitytorealizeaprofitorcreate project hadcontinuedafewmoreyears, . Consequently, theywerenevertrained P participantsfrombecoming WPA WP A funding, cutof . Americans for f in1942only stopped producingthoseitemsencouragedbythe to thenorthernMichiganenvironment,Indiancraftspeople chase thesematerialsontheopenmarket,whichwerespecific the DepartmentofConservation.Becausetheycouldnotpur of MinorityStudent Bands BoardofDirectors,istheNative Patricia Dyer-Deckrow T asevsoe yeryWAorganizers. sans envisionedbyearly WPA are confidentintheirabilityto becometheself-sufficient arti- woodland arts,havelearnedfromthefailuresofMIHP dren oftheGreatLakes,whoproducefinestexamples governments andsocialcenters. The childrenandgrandchil- Native American Arts andCrafts Councilandtheirowntribal zations suchastheGreatLakesIndian Artists Association, the are marketingtheircreationsthroughIndian-managedorgani- material culture. designsinabroadercontext ofthehistoryIndian MIHP skilled American Indiancraftspeoplewhotodayinterpret create newdesignsthathaveinspiredagenerationof Michigan Indianarts. The projectalsoencouragedartisansto attentionwasrefocused onthelongtraditionof Tourists’ living inruralcommunitiesearnedbadlyneededincome. Today, manyMichiganIndianartistsareself-employedor he MIHP s centerofoperations.Participantsincluded(counterclockwisefrom did enjoysomesuccess.Indianparticipants Affairs atMichiganStateUniversity. , acouncilmemberoftheOdawaLittle T American coordinatorfortheOffice ihgnHsoyMgzn January/February1996 Michigan History Magazine I WP A. and - raverse Bay

Doug Sweet, Detroit Zoological Institute that visiteachyear. fascinated thetensofthousands enlightened, entertainedand opened in1904,ithaseducated, Since theBelleIsleAquarium Second toNoneintheW by ErikP . Bean I Detroiters, especially duringsummer then andremainstoday:apopular gatheringspotfor create theplanthattransformed BelleIsleintowhatitwas renowned landscapearchitect ofNew Later thatyeartheyhiredFrederick LawOlmsted,nationally Campau familyin1879fortwo hundredthousanddollars. cials hadeyedtheislandsincecitypurchaseditfrom an obviouschoiceforarecreationsite.Cityandstateoffi- 285,704 in1900. growing population,whichwentfrom205,876in1890to to bringtheartsandotherculturalpastimesDetroit’s officials, plannersandspecial-interest groupsjoinedforces place? Justpriortotheturnofcentury, restlesspublic water totheplantconservatorynextdoor. mile-long lead-andiron-pipenetworkthatalsodelivered totaling 8,531gallonsreceivedfilteredwaterthroughafive- two sidepools,totaling5,780gallons;andacenterpool sity.” gallons; The forty-fourexhibittanks,totaling18,280 as farnorthNewfoundland,“whereitisoftheproperden seawater shippedinfromthe The seawaterfishcamefromasfarNew came fromtheGreatLakesandriversthroughoutMichigan. seawater fishsuchascarpandgrouper cypress andhousedwithrarecolorfulfreshwater view themassiveglasstankstrimmedintwo-inch-thick entered theaquarium’ and foodforthefish. and payforthecurator several yearswouldbenecessarytomaintaintheaquarium only slightlymorethan$10,000ayearoverthenext building hadbeencompletedonbudget,at$160,000,and cerned foreconomicalmaintenance.”Hewasright. The the world,sofarasarrangementandequipmentarecon- leading aquaristsofthiscountrytobesecondnonein proudly claiming,“Theaquariumispronouncedbythe over toaneagerpublic,withCommissionerBolger mer 1904theBelleIsle Aquarium wasofficially turned United States.”Onthatmuch-anticipateddayinlatesum- Situated inthemiddleofDetroitRiver, Belle Islewas How didDetroitmanagetogetanaquariuminthefirst On August 18morethanfivethousandcurious visitors w t wasanoveltyandDetroitersknewit. They hadbeen as “thesecondlargest [aquarium]tobebuiltinthe Detroit’s ParksandBoulevardsdepartment,tou8ted glimpse ofwhatRobertE.Bolger, commissionerof back totheBelleIslebridge. They wantedthefirst aiting sincethecrackofdawninlinesstretching s magnificentsea-green-tiledgrottoto ’s salary, coaltoheatthebuilding Atlantic Ocean,someofitfrom ’s heat. York’s CentralPark,to . The freshwaterfish York, withthe

17 - orld A major player behind the Belle Isle Aquarium’s con- In the process of entertaining and educating its visitors, struction was David E. Heineman, Detroit’s chief assistant the aquarium earned a national reputation. It was the first attorney. Impressed by an aquarium he visited during a trip place in the world where freshwater stingray reproduced suc- to Naples, Italy, Heineman approached Governor Hazen S. cessfully in captivity. This distinction earned Belle Isle the Pingree and asked if Detroit could erect its own. According American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums’ to Detroit historian Paul Leake, the governor agreed, wanting prestigious Bean Award, given “to institutions demonstrating to show his gratitude to Heineman with a lasting monument. success at the birth and hatching of species considered diffi- (In 1899 Heineman and Pingree had worked together to cre- cult to maintain in captivity and whose existence in the wild ate the legislation that eventually reformed Michigan’s state- may be imperiled,” in both 1975 and 1985. The offspring tax laws, something the governor earnestly wanted but didn’t attracted the attention of other aquaria and zoos, allowing the see become reality until after his second term ended in Belle Isle Aquarium to send its surplus to institutions in 1900.) In 1900 bonds were sold to finance the construction; Cleveland, San Antonio, Toledo and Grand Rapids. A num- the architectural design firm of Nettleton and Kahn was ber of the institutions now successfully breeding stingrays awarded the account. Ground was broken for the aquarium received their initial stock from Belle Isle. The aquarium is in 1901 under an agreement with the Detroit Zoological also known for the longevity of certain species in captivity. Commission. Three years later the aquarium opened its An alligator gar and a long-nosed gar lived almost thirty doors. Nearly five hundred thousand people visited the years, longer than any other specimen of their kind in aquarium during its first year of operation. America. They may have lived longer if a 1982 burglary had not ended their lives. Finding only a few dollars in the dona- tion barrel, the burglars maliciously poured chlorine cleaning solution into the gar tank, killing the inhabitants. The aquarium was not alone on Belle Isle. Other struc- tures, including a plant conservatory, casino and children’s zoo, dotted the island with the city and state officials’ trans- formation of this one-thousand-acre river parcel into a Changes over the years slightly altered the Belle Isle world-class public park. Over the Aquarium. During a 1953-55 renovation the three pools and a screened sealion pool were removed. A series of smaller glass aquariums replaced the pools. In 1984 the seawater aquariums, which included a four-thousand-gallon shark tank, were converted to freshwater due to the salt’s adverse affects on the building. entertaining and fascinating thousands of Dressed in their stylish best, over half a million people visited the just- Today the Belle Isle Aquarium, the country’s oldest visitors. But the process was not always opened Belle Isle Aquarium (above) in 1904. Upon entering the sea- municipal aquarium, features fifty-nine exhibits totaling smooth. In 1928 Charles W. Creaser, an green-tiled exhibit hall, patrons were greeted by rows of glass tanks thirty-two thousand gallons. The largest aquaria include a associate professor of zoology at the (left) housing freshwater and seawater fish. four-thousand-gallon tank of Great Lakes fish and a twenty- College of the City of Detroit (one of the eight-hundred-gallon tank containing large tropical river several Detroit colleges that developed species. Other aquaria, most with a six-hundred-gallon into present-day Wayne State University), corrected the situation. capacity, contain freshwater fish from around the world, as

noticed that many of the fish tanks were The history of the Belle Isle Aquarium offers a range of well as those found in the Detroit River. Colorful coral-reef y

r improperly labeled. One tank containing unique and interesting stories. One of these was the fish can be viewed in a five-hundred-gallon tank, the aquar-

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t bowfin was properly labeled, but a whose staff boated to work after the wooden Belle Isle mouthbrooder. With such a diversity, the Belle Isle Aquarium

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n nearby display containing an adult bowfin was bridge burned in 1915. (A temporary bridge replaced it until continues to delight and educate ninety-one years after its

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u A M B labeled “Dogfish,” both of which, according to Creaser, the new bridge was completed in 1923.) And there have been grand debut. The Belle Isle Aquarium is open 10:00 . . to “happen to be right because in the Great Lakes region other uniquely Belle Isle episodes: ice was used to maintain 5:00 P.M. daily. Admission is $1 (children under two years years a variety of institutions made Belle Isle their home, bowfin are commonly called dogfish.” Creaser pinpointed temperatures in the cold-water tanks when the refrigeration are free). I including the Dossin Great Lakes Museum and the Detroit other problems—goldfish in a tank labeled “Golden Carp” unit succumbed to the steamy summer of 1943; in 1953 an Yacht and Boat Clubs, as well as several garden clubs. and a tank labeled “Long-eared Sunfish” with nary a long- aquarium official chased three teenage boys out of the build- Erik P. Bean has a master’s degree in journalism from Michigan State Over its ninety-one-year history, the Belle Isle Aquarium eared inside. Aquarium director Joseph Derriseau agreed ing when he caught them with poles, tackle and kettle fish- University and is editor of The Holt Community News, a suburban Lansing has established a tradition of educating, enlightening, with most of the professor’s observations and immediately ing the aquarium pool. weekly newspaper.

18 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 19 Escaped Slave Henry Bibb Urged Other Slaves to “Break Your Chains and Fly for Freedom”

Writing in 1850, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison called Henry Bibb one of the “best qualified to address the public on the subject of slavery.” Bibb was one of a number of blacks who escaped the cru- elties of bondage and dedicated their lives to using their stories as weapons in the battle against the Southern slave sys- tem. In Michigan Bibb helped to shape the state’s antislavery movement and became one of the foremost speakers on the abolitionist circuit. Leaving the Detroit area after the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, Bibb settled near Windsor, Ontario, where he pub- lished an antislavery newspaper and became a strong voice for fugitive emigration to Canada. by Janice Martz Kimmel Illustrations by Richard Geer Henry Bibb outlined his life in servitude in his autobiog- of to suppress my feelings while taking leave of my little raphy, Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, family.” An American Slave, published in 1849. The work has been On several occasions in the mid-1830s Bibb ran away distinguished as an accurate portrait of the horrendous slave during the times when his owner hired him out to work away system, a thrilling account of suffering and escape and a from the plantation. On Christmas Day in 1837 Bibb, while story of triumphant hope for the fugitives still caught in the toiling in a slaughterhouse near the Ohio River, “put into turmoil of slavery. Although Bibb had only three weeks of operation” his resolution “to bolt for Liberty or consent to formal schooling (he claims he had been “educated in the die a Slave.” After finding “a conveyance” to cross at school of adversity, whips, and chains”), his autobiography Madison, Indiana, Bibb took a steamboat to Cincinnati. provides a heightened realism with its unique style, clear use In Cincinnati he learned for “the first time in [his] life” of language and the strong emotions Bibb exhibits in the about abolitionists. He was directed to “conductors” of the account. Underground Railroad, who helped him as far as Perrysburg, Ohio, where he obtained employment. There, Bibb devised a plan to make his way to Canada the following spring. However, in May 1838, Bibb, torn by the separation from his family, risked his freedom by returning to Not only is Bibb’s autobiography a page-turner, Kentucky for his wife and child. Disguised in fake those who heard him lecture on his life story—he traveled whiskers, Bibb first visited his mother during the middle of throughout Michigan and New England to tell it—claimed the night. There, he discovered his wife and child and made he “had the appearance of sincerity which seldom fails to plans with his wife to escape; they would meet later in win the heart.” An expert in arousing the emotions, Bibb Cincinnati. Bibb made it to Cincinnati first only to be often left his audience in tears when he sang “The Mother’s hoodwinked by two “colored kidnappers, under the pretext Lament,” a song sung by slaves about to be sold. of being abolitionists.” White ruffians then dragged Bibb to Henry Bibb began his life on 10 May 1815 in Shelby a “justice office,” where Gatewood’s son, Silas, claimed County, Kentucky, as the property of David White. He was him as property and promptly removed him across the Ohio the eldest of seven sons born to Milldred Jackson, a slave, River to the jail in Covington, Kentucky. Within a few and several white slaveholders. All Bibb claimed to know of hours, Bibb was taken to Louisville, where he was to be his father was his name was James Bibb and he died before sold at the slave market. Henry knew him. Bibb escaped again when the ruffian assigned to guard Henry was taken away from his mother at a young age him, who had become “unwell,” took the slave into a and for the next eight to ten years was hired out as a laborer nearby horse stable. With his captor forced to either “make to various persons. This exposure to the outside world made ready for the race, or jump into the street half dressed, and Bibb particularly observant. According to Bibb’s narrative, thereby disgrace himself before the public eye,” Bibb “all that I had heard about liberty and freedom to the slaves, sprinted out of the barn and raced wildly through the streets I never forgot. Among other good trades I learned the art of of Louisville seeking a hiding place. Spying a high board running away to perfection. I made a regular business of it, fence, he took a bounding leap, only to fall into a hen coop: and never gave it up, until I had broken the bands of “The reader can only imagine how great must have been slavery.” the excited state of my mind while exposed to such extraor- In 1833 Bibb met a mulatto slave named Malinda on the dinary peril and danger on every side. In danger of being nearby plantation of William Gatewood. Truly smitten, Bibb seized by a savage dog which sprang at me when I fell into sought out ways for the two to meet. The couple eventually the hen-coop; in danger of being apprehended by tenants of married, and when Bibb’s master decided to move to the lot; in danger of being shot or wounded by any one Missouri, he sold Bibb to a slaveholder whose plantation who might have attempted to stop me, a runaway slave.” was seven miles away from Gatewood’s. Bibb was allowed “The dogs barked, and the hens flew and cackled so,” but to visit his wife after the day’s work was done on Saturday, Bibb found a safe hiding place “in a pile of boards.” After but he had to be back before sunrise on Monday mornings or hiding there for twelve hours, he returned to Gatewood’s take a flogging. Since Bibb constantly threatened his owner plantation for Malinda. However, news of Bibb’s escape had with running away to be with Malinda, he was finally sold to preceded him and Malinda was under close watch. Bibb was Gatewood. forced to leave her behind with a message sent to Malinda Soon the Bibbs were blessed with a daughter, Mary that the two would meet in Ohio in two months. Frances. Although living together afforded the couple some Months passed with no word from Malinda. Once again, semblance of family life, it also forced Bibb to witness Henry sought his wife’s freedom. “I felt as if love, duty, Gatewood’s insults and physical abuse of his wife and child. humanity, and justice, required that I should go back, putting After concluding he must escape to Canada, Bibb later my trust in the God of Liberty for success.” His journey recorded, “It required all the moral courage that I was master began in July 1839 with a steamboat ride across the Ohio

22 Michigan History Magazine River to Bedford. Betrayed by slaves who knew of his was the family’s only option. escape plans, Bibb was captured and hauled off to prison. This time Henry could not avoid the lash and was beaten Three days later Bibb was taken to the Louisville slave almost to death upon returning to Whitfield’s plantation. market; Malinda and his daughter soon joined him. The fam- After the beating, Bibb’s wounds were washed with salt ily was bought by Madison Garrison, “the soul driver, to sell brine. Then Bibb was forced to walk several miles to a [us] in the New Orleans market.” The family didn’t sell and blacksmith shop, where a heavy iron collar was riveted a desperate Garrison allowed Bibb to go around New around his neck with prongs that extended above his head Orleans peddling himself and his family for sale. Garrison and a bell on top that rang whenever he moved. He wore this gave him a note that served as a letter of introduction and contraption for the next six weeks and slept with his feet in character reference for potential purchasers. stocks or chained to a log. Finally, Francis Whitfield, a Baptist deacon and a cotton Days after Bibb’s capture, a group of “Southern sports- planter, bought the Bibb family, paying twelve hundred dol- men” stopped at Whitfield’s plantation and offered to buy lars for Henry and one thousand dollars for Malinda and him. Whitfield agreed, warning Bibb that he “should never Mary Frances. The family was then taken to Whitfield’s again step inside” his plantation. Bibb’s new owners allowed plantation in Claiborn, Louisiana. They were shocked by the him to say good-bye to his family, then they rode toward conditions they saw. The slaves were “poor, ragged, stupid Texas. Although Whitfield had advised Bibb’s new owners and half-starved.” Although Bibb described Whitfield as “a not to take the irons from his neck “until they sold” him, the devil,” it was the overseer who was “the most cruelest . . . in collar was removed. that section of the country.” Whitfield severely whipped his Bibb’s owners had no success in selling him. According slaves for the slightest infractions. For attending a prayer to Bibb, “they could not get any person to buy me on meeting without permission at a neighboring plantation, account of the amount of intelligence which they supposed Whitfield sentenced Bibb to five hundred lashes on his bare me to have; for many of them thought that I could read and back. Before the beating could be carried out, Bibb escaped. write.” In December 1840 the Southerners returned to This time Malinda and his daughter went with him. This Louisiana. As they neared the Whitfield plantation, Bibb escape proved to be the most dangerous and terrifying of all “prevailed” on his owners to see if Whitfield would sell his earlier attempts. them Malinda and Frances. He “promised them” that if they purchased his wife and child, he would “get some person” to purchase the family. As the party approached Whitfield’s plantation Bibb’s heart “was filled with a thousand painful and fearful appre- Upon reaching a fast-moving stream, Bibb picked hensions.” Bibb’s fears about Whitfield’s “wicked opposition up his child and his wife followed him, “saying, `if we per- to a restoration” of his family proved well founded. When ish, let us all perish together in the stream.’” They crossed Whitfield saw Bibb no longer in tattered rags nor wearing over and years later Bibb reflected on this ordeal, remember- the iron collar, he was “much displeased.” Any chance that ing, “I often look back to that dangerous event and wonder Whitfield would consider the proposal to sell Bibb’s wife how I could have run such a risk. What could induce me to and child ended when Malinda, “bathed with tears of sorrow run the same risk now? What could induce me now to leave and grief,” rushed to Bibb and threw her arms around him, home and friends and go to the wild forest and lay out on the exclaiming, “My dear husband! I never expected to see you cold ground night after night without covering, and live on again.” An outraged Whitfield—“storming with abusive lan- parched corn? . . . Nothing, I say, but the strongest love of guage and even using the gory lash with hellish vengeance to liberty, humanity, and justice to myself and family, would separate” Henry and Malinda—rejected the one-thousand- induce me to run such a risk again.” dollar offer. The family next faced the Red River swamps with hungry Bibb’s owners, “some weeping, some swearing and others alligators and other wild animals. During the night a pack of declaring vengeance against such treatment being inflicted bloodthirsty wolves surrounded the family, eying them as on a human being,” left the plantation as Whitfield whipped prey. The howling wolves were close enough for the Bibbs Bibb’s wife, “trying to prevent [her] from weeping over the to see their glaring eyes and hear their gnashing teeth. loss of her departed husband.” According to Bibb, “I then thought that the hour of death for Since Bibb’s owners had bought him “to speculate on,” they us was at hand; that we should not live to see the light of made a “bargain” with Bibb. As he later recorded: “If I would another day; for there was no way for our escape.” Armed use my influence so as to get some person to buy me while with only a stolen Bowie knife, Bibb held off the wolves traveling about with them, they would give me a portion of the until morning. The Bibbs wandered through the cane brakes, money for which they sold me, and they would also give me bushes and briars for several days, until they heard the shrill directions by which I might yet run away and go to Canada.” baying of ferocious bloodhounds. Soon the slave catchers Bibb accepted “the plot” and agreed to “act very stupid in lan- charged up on their horses, armed with muskets. Surrender guage and thought,” while at the same time “persuade men to

24 Michigan History Magazine buy me, and promise them that I would be smart.” lecturing on the subject. In the fall of 1844 he began several United States offered no future for fugitives or free blacks. Bibb’s most ambitious project was the Refugee Home Bibb was taken through Indian Territory, where he was months of intensive travel and lecturing with S. B. They crossed the Detroit River and settled in Sandwich, Society, which Bibb envisioned would “purchase fifty thou- sold to “a very wealthy half Indian.” After the purchase, the Treadwell, a Jackson aboliotionist. Ontario, near Windsor. sand acres of government land somewhere in the most suit- sportsmen took Bibb aside, gave him “part of the money, and Many members of Detroit’s black community became Bibb, who believed that the future of Canadian blacks able sections of Canada where it can be obtained for the directions how to get from there to Canada.” Bibb’s new active in the Underground Railroad during the antebellum depended on their settling in organized communities, pur- homeless refugees from American Slavery to settle upon.” master, who owned “a large plantation and quite a number of period, and Bibb was a leader among them. He joined the chasing land and educating themselves to become stronger With the help of Michigan abolitionists and sympathizers, slaves,” proved to be “the most reasonable, and humane African-American Mysteries, a secret society that aided members of Canadian society, became an important leader the Refugee Home Society was founded in Detroit on 21 slaveholder [Bibb] ever belonged to.” countless refugees and helped them start a new life in the for the black community. Although many abolitionists, May 1851. The joint stock company purchased land and, “In a declining state of health,” Bibb’s owner soon died. Detroit area. Their clandestine activities placed Bibb and including Frederick Douglass, were opposed to emigration, although the original plan proved much too ambitious, the Although saddened by the death, Bibb “was more excited other society members in extreme danger, although all Bibb saw Canada as “the most convenient refuge for the society owned two thousand acres by 1855, which provided about running away” and was soon on his way to Canada. involved believed the risk was crucial to the freedom American slave; and in fact the only spot on the American homes for nearly 150 fugitives. movement. Continent upon which the hunted fugitive can find a protec- By 1845 the Liberty party, a third-party movement tion by law for his liberty.” opposed to slavery, was gaining momentum in Michigan. On 1 January 1851 Bibb published the first issue of his After hearing Bibb speak, Liberty party leaders believed his bimonthly newspaper, The Voice of the Fugitive, which After leaving the Indian Territory, Bibb made his story could arouse deep sympathy and attract new support- became a vehicle for spreading his views on abolition and According to the Refugee Home Society’s constitu- way through the slave state of Missouri. The “greatest of ers for the cause. Although Bibb had received “lucrative emigration. The editorial policy outlined in the first issue tion, each family of settlers was to receive twenty-five acres [Bibb’s] adventures” occurred as he sought passage on a offers” to lecture in Ohio, he remained in Michigan. As declared: “We shall advocate the immediate and uncondi- of land, five of which were free and the other twenty they steamboat out of Jefferson City. As Bibb recorded: “I knew incentive for Bibb, the Liberty party offered to find Bibb’s tional abolition of chattel slavery everywhere, but especially would “pay the primary cost in nine equal annual payments, that the captain of a steamboat could not take a colored pas- wife and child and sent two Michigan men south in 1845 to on the American soil. We shall also persuade, as far as it may free of use, for which they shall receive deeds.” The consti- senger on board of his boat from a slave state without first locate the family. Despite these well-intentioned efforts, the be practicable, every oppressed person of color in the United tution also outlined a rigid moral lifestyle with temperance, ascertaining whether such person was bond or free.” He con- family was not found. Bibb later recalled “the small spark States to settle in Canada, where laws make no distinction education, religious training and industry as requirements sidered boxing himself “as freight” and be forwarded to St. of hope which had still lingered about my heart had become among men, based on complexion and upon whose soil ‘no for residence in the community. Louis. But he had no friend that “I could trust to do it for almost extinct.” slave can breathe.’” Many abolitionists viewed black Canadian settlements me.” As a decoy, he carried a large trunk and boarded the Bibb made one last attempt to find Malinda. While travel- The Voice of the Fugitive also reported on the activities such as the Refugee Home Society as effective antislavery boat. He later recorded: “[My] heart trembled . . . [as] the ing south by steamboat, he learned that Malinda had been and progress of the Underground Railroad to Canada. In the weapons. By showing the achievements of former slaves, white people that I was following walked on board and I sold three years before. According to her mother still in 5 November 1851 issue Bibb wrote: “The road is doing bet- a clear argument could be made against the institution of after them. I acted as if the trunk was full of clothes, but I Kentucky, Malinda “was living in a state of adultery with her ter business this fall than usual. The Fugitive Slave Law has slavery. However, dependence on white philanthropy for had not a stitch of clothes in it. The passengers went up into master.” A resigned Bibb later noted, “From that time I gave given it more vitality, more activity, more passengers and the venture cast a shadow on the image of self-sustaining the cabin and I followed them with the trunk. I suppose this her up into the hands of an all-wise Providence. As she was more opposition which invariably accelerates business. . . . black enterprises. From the beginning, the Refugee Home made the captain think that I was their slave.” then living with another man, I could no longer regard her as We can run a lot of slaves through almost any of the border- Society was plagued with financial mismanagement and Again Bibb used ingenuity to secure a ticket. He got into my wife.” Bibb did not not hold Malinda in contempt since ing slave states into Canada within 48 hours and we defy the controversy within the black community itself. Many the “good graces” of several Irish passengers by buying them her actions were “consistent with slavery.” slave holders and their abettors to beat that if they can.” believed that the society was merely serving as a land agent whiskey. As Bibb later recounted, “I participated with them By 1846, as the Liberty party lost momentum to a new Bibb also frequently reported the whereabouts of slave and that blacks could purchase land more cheaply on their pretty freely for awhile, or at least until after I got my fare political party, the Free Soil party, Bibb relinquished his catchers if they neared Detroit or the Canadian border, indi- own and without moral stipulations. While the Refugee settled.” After a couple rounds, Bibb asked one of his “Irish political ties in Michigan and began lecturing independently cating “they dare not venture over lest the British lion should Home Society never reached the ideals or the proportions friends” if he would “be good enough” to get him a ticket on the antislavery cause throughout Ohio and New England. lay his paw upon their guilty heads.” envisioned, it was an important attempt to establish a com- when he got one himself. The Irishman replied, “Yes, sir.” While in New York in May 1847, he met Mary E. Miles, a An early editorial stressed the need for education. Bibb munity among fugitives and free blacks in a new land. An At Portsmouth, Ohio, Bibb left the boat and, having spent Boston teacher and free black also active in the antislavery believed that schooling could give blacks a “power which will 1853 report from the Canada Anti-Slavery Society most of his money, worked in a local hotel, until continuing movement. The two began a correspondence and married the enable us to rise from degradation and command respect from declared, “There is doubtless a better state of things on to Perrysburg. In January 1842 Bibb arrived in Detroit. following year. Mary proved to be a worthy partner and the civilized world.” The black settlements in Canada set up amongst the fugitives, than existed at the time when There, he came under the tutelage of William C. Monroe, a worked alongside her husband speaking out against the evils schools, and Mary Bibb headed one of the first. Laura Smith such a plan was proposed.” black abolitionist. According to Bibb, “I had every thing to of slavery. Haviland, an acquaintance of Bibb’s from his work with Henry Bibb remained active in Canada’s black abolition- pay for, and clothing to buy, so I graduated within three The year after the marriage The Narrative of the Life and Michigan’s Underground Railroad was recruited to teach at ist movement until his death in August 1854 at the age of weeks. And this was all the schooling that I have ever had Adventures of Henry Bibb was published. Apologizing for the Sandwich School in 1852. Her previous experience with thirty-nine. Even though the Refugee Home Society ulti- in my life.” having written it “without little knowledge of the English the Raisin Institute in Adrian, Michigan, proved invaluable for mately ended in failure, Bibb was a man of courage and high Bibb’s life changed again when he became involved in grammar,” Bibb stressed, “I hope that it may not be sup- the teaching and training of fugitives at the settlement. moral persuasion who had a unique impact on the antislavery Michigan’s antislavery societies, which provided him and posed by any, that I have exaggerated in the least, for the The Voice of the Fugitive became a “mouthpiece for the movement. Bibb offered vision, hope and most importantly a other fugitives an opportunity to speak out against the hor- purpose of making out the system of slavery worse than it refugees in Canada.” With subscription agents active from voice to the thousands of fugitives in search of a new life. I rors of slavery. The first time Bibb narrated his adventures really is, for, to exaggerate upon the cruelties of this system, Michigan to New England, The Voice of the Fugitive was at an antislavery meeting in Adrian, Michigan, in May would be almost impossible.” attracted one thousand subscribers during the first year. Janice Martz Kimmel, a Midland resident, is a reference librarian at Saginaw 1844. While abolitionists usually faced hostile citizens The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which strengthened a Often quoted by the mainstream American press, Bibb’s Valley State University. She holds master’s degrees both in History and unsympathetic to their cause, Bibb recalled few such slave master’s right to pursue and capture any of his slaves writings were important in shaping not only the attitudes of Historic Preservation Planning from Eastern Michigan University. She has moments in his autobiography. He proved an effective who had sought refuge in the North, forced many blacks to the fugitive immigrating to Canada, but also the response of also earned a master’s degree in Information and Library Studies from the spokesman for the antislavery cause and traveled the state flee to Canada. This included the Bibbs, who believed the the white community. University of Michigan.

26 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 27 Buried in the muck near St. Johns, Michigan, for thousands of years, recently discovered mastodon remains opened a window to Michigan’s prehistoric past.

or highway workers muck deposits, or F bogs, mean trouble. For others muck holds clues to what Michigan was like twelve thousand years ago. Practically every backhoe operator has heard of a quaking bog that swallowed a backhoe. Roads built on such an unstable base do not last and road builders exca- vate or avoid muck whenever possible. In the case of the US-27 freeway construction near St. Johns in Clinton County, muck yielded an exciting find. On 5 May 1994 Michigan Department of Trans- portation (MDOT) field inspector Dave Weber spotted a strange object being pushed around by a bulldozer near the new Price Road overpass. Upon closer inspection he saw abnormally large n

e teeth and decided to call for help in identifying s y u

h the animal. As it turned out, he had discovered n e k

n part of a mastodon skull: the upper palate with a Residents of North America since the r F

n the teeth, the tusk openings and a part of the nasal a v

Middle Miocene Age, about 12 million t r

e sinuses intact. b

years ago, mastodons roamed the s y G

southern part of the Great Lakes y b

g n

i by Margaret M. Barondess

region, including Michigan. t n i a P

BACKHOES, BULLDOZERS AND BEHEMOTHS 28 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 29 With a program aimed at protecting and study- removing the skull from its resting place and the beaver-gnawed wood began deteriorating. the meat, still attached to the bone, in shallow ing historical and archaeological resources pushing it around with other dirt? Or was it taken Both wood and mastodon skull had been trans- ponds for periods of food shortage. In his pursuit encountered during road construction, MDOT from its original resting place in the wall of the ferred from a moist, oxygen-free environment to of further evidence to support this theory, Fisher began a quest for further clues to the mastodon’s sediment basin? Muck deposits have layers, or one with little moisture and plenty of oxygen. looks for each new discovery to shed light on the history. Where did the partial skull come from? strata, that form under differing conditions, giving Fisher took special steps to carefully dry the relationship between humans and these giants of Were other bones also present? How old was the each layer unique characteristics. Locating the mastodon bone. the past. find within the original layers helps reconstruct The ground yielded clues to the mystery of the Scientists hypothesize that humans followed how it got there and may lead to other bones and skull fragment’s original position. Fisher matched the glacial retreat to take advantage of the rich artifacts nearby. soil found directly beneath the peat layer to that variety of animal life (caribou, giant beavers, MDOT staff used a backhoe to excavate a found in the deepest cavities of the mastodon ground sloths and horses) inhabiting spruce trench near the sediment trap to see if the ground skull. He concluded the skull had not been forests and numerous lakes. Mastodons, about remained undisturbed by construction. The six- pushed around much before being excavated from the size of present-day African elephants, were foot-deep trench revealed intact soil layers and a the sediment trap. The layer he believed origi- browsers, eating trees and shrubs. landscape much different from the present-day nally contained the skull extended into the wall of Many scientists presume humans settled one. Clinton County’s last glacier retreated about the trap about four feet below the surface. This deglaciated areas quickly and hunted the fourteen thousand years ago, when the climate meant there might be more of the mastodon in the mastodon into extinction. Although people inhab- n o i t a

t was cooler and wetter, leaving a barren, tundra- area—the hunt was on for more bones. ited Michigan’s lower peninsula as early as r o p

s like landscape. Vegetation was sparse at first, but Unfortunately, no more bones were located. n a r T

f over thousands of years, the lakes filled with Present-day topography and the angle of the o

t n

e plants, which decayed and formed peat, eventu- layers indicated the skull rested on the bottom of m t r

a ally filling in the lakes. Muck formed on top of a shallow lake, about 125 feet from shore. It is p e D

n the peat because of exposure to the elements. not uncommon to find isolated bones of masto- a g i

h The dense peat layer at the St. Johns site had dons. Finds such as the St. Johns mastodon have c i M

s not been exposed to oxygen for thousands of caused scientists to wonder why more complete o t o h

p years and contained wood chewed by ancient skeletons are not discovered. Fisher theorizes that

l l a beavers. The lack of oxygen also helped pre- the finds tend to be fragmentary because Paleo- Discovered after an serve the mastodon skull. Once exposed to air, Indian hunters butchered the animals, then stored MDOT field inspec- skull and how did the animal die? Did Michigan’s tor saw it being Paleo-Indians have anything to do with its death pushed by a bull- and, more importantly, could the animal reveal dozer from a dirt why mastodons became extinct? To help answer pile, the upper these and other questions, MDOT hired Professor palate of the Daniel Fisher, a University of Michigan Museum mastodon skull of Paleontology curator and an expert on Michi- (above) still had gan mastodons. Fisher began a forensic investiga- intact teeth, tusk tion of the St. Johns mastodon. openings and part Fisher’s first task was to determine if other of the nasal bones were in the area. This needed to be done as Ongoing construc- sinuses. To learn soon as possible since construction was ongoing twelve thousand years ago, they left little evi- tion of the US-27 about Clinton and further work could destroy fragile informa- dence of how they lived. Paleo-Indian sites are freeway bypass County’s landscape tion. Interviews with the bulldozer operator and rare since the people were nomads and probably forced MDOT and environment other field workers indicated that the muck where carried few possessions. Distribution studies of archaeologists to from fourteen thou- the mastodon skull was found originated in a sed- mastodon finds and Paleo-Indian sites note that work quickly to try sand years ago, iment trap near a culvert. (Workers excavate these both are concentrated in the southern half of the and find other MDOT staff dug a traps, or basins, to catch storm water and let the Lower Peninsula at about the same time period. mastodon bones in six-foot trench near sediment settle out of the water before it clogs Paleo-Indians left behind distinct stone spear- the area that may where the county drains.) The skull fragment had been heads. Several spearheads have been found in have been part of mastodon remains plucked out of the basin when the backhoe opera- Clinton County, suggesting the past presence of the skull fragment were discovered tor began removing accumulated sediment; it Paleo-Indians. However, the spearheads do not already discovered (right). remained hidden in a dirt pile until the bulldozer reveal whether these people hunted or ate (left). operator began spreading the soil around. mastodons. Paleo-Indian sites generally are Fisher next questioned how the mastodon skull located on high ground, thus exposing the site to got into the sediment trap in the first place. Was it the elements and causing poor bone preservation. because construction workers had excavated the Many of these sites also have been damaged by muck beneath relocated Price Road, inadvertently more than a hundred years of plowing. Mastodon

30 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 31 Paleontologist Daniel Fisher and MDOT archaeologist bones that once existed are no more. Margaret Barondess examine In contrast to Paleo-Indian sites, mastodon remains have the teeth of the St. Johns By examining a tooth, or tusk, sample microscopically,the been found in low areas, buried beneath muck and peat. In mastodon palate for clues preserved layers can be counted, measured and analyzed, the western United States, stone tools have been found about its life and death. making it possible to follow a long-lost trail of clues about associated with mammoth remains. No such direct evidence the animal’s life and death. Growth rates reveal health and of mastodon hunting in Michigan has been discovered, par- reproductive status; dentin’s chemical makeup shows tially because like the St. Johns find, mastodon remains are aspects of diet and climate. Seasons of the year are distin- usually unearthed during construction. By yanking them guishable through the effects of temperature and food avail- out of their original location, the backhoe separates the ability on the growth rate. By focusing on the last formed remains from any possible prehistoric artifacts that may be dentin, we can determine the time of year an animal died. nearby. More interested in the bones themselves, paleontol- Animals that died of a prolonged illness or the effects of a ogists have not attempted controlled excavation of serious injury show rates of dentin addition limping along at mastodon sites. Fisher is one of the few paleontologists low values, a condition usually seen only in late winter. who has applied archaeological methods and techniques Mastodons with cutmarks on their bones made when to such sites for evidence of Paleo-Indian consumption of humans removed the meat, were usually in the midst of vig- mastodon meat. orous growth and were probably healthy animals that were The first half of the St. Johns investigation took place in hunted and killed, rather than dead or dying “targets of the field; the second half occurred in the lab, where remain- opportunity.” Looking at the earlier years of their lives, at ing questions revolved around the animal itself. Fisher took about age twelve in the dental diaries of Ice Age mastodon the skull fragment to his University of Michigan lab for fur- males (distinguishable from females by tusk size and shape, ther study. Radiocarbon dating placed the skull at 11,970 as well as other skeletal proportions), we see a pronounced years old. By examining the size of the tusk openings, he drop in growth rate, followed by two to three years of identified the animal as a male. Male mastodons were usu- growth rates returning to normal.Age twelve is also when ally 20 percent larger than female mastodons. male elephants living in Africa today start maturing and are Most of the St. Johns mastodon’s life history can be evicted from their family group.These males typically adjust found in its teeth. The teeth show the mastodon was twenty- to life on their own within several years; the growth eight years old when it died sometime in the late winter- records of Ice Age mastodons seem to show a similar early spring and it had been nutrionally stressed most of the sequence. Such information improves our understanding of n

last two years of its life. Perhaps a lingering illness or injury o the habitat and ecology of any animal, but when the tooth i t a t r hindered its ability to acquire food. Fisher theorizes this ani- o comes from an animal that lived twelve thousand years ago, p s n a

mal died of natural causes. r we truly have an unusual window on the past. T

f o

How does Fisher’s investigation contribute to the debate t As every game manager knows, growth rates and ages n e m over the extinction of mastodons? Although the St. Johns t at maturation are critical for assessing the status and r a p mastodon does not settle the question of the relationship e prospects of animal populations.With information gleaned D

n a

between Paleo-Indians and mastodons, it adds to the growing g from teeth, paleontologists are in a position to act as game i h c body of data on mastodons, which may someday answer the i

M managers of the past.Although we cannot intervene in the extinction question as new methods of testing are developed. extinction of mastodons and mammoths that happened Fisher proposes this specimen may have been scavenged lmost everyone has noticed the record of growth about ten thousand years ago, we can reconstruct the by humans, who upon happenstance discovered the dead or preserved in tree rings, as seen on the freshly cut sequence of events leading up to their last years. Such dying animal and removed its skull to another location, A end of a Christmas tree or on the cross section of a How to Date a Mastodon approaches are still in their infancy, but with continued where they extracted the brain. As unappetizing as this large cut log. Even more impressive is the realization you are work we may be able to explain why mastodons and mam- sounds, the Paleo-Indians may have thrived on such finds. looking back in time—five, ten, twenty years ago, maybe more. moths went extinct. Anthropological studies of other cultures reveal that humans The teeth of people and other animals with backbones, by Daniel C. Fisher Studies of mastodon teeth also give sharper focus to the sought a variety of food sources. Right now, the scavenging including mastodons, also develop layer by layer.The material nature and extent of the climatic changes around the end hypothesis is conjecture. However, as Fisher and other scien- dentin makes up much of the interior of teeth and shows lay- of the last Ice Age.This is important because a good record tists search for signs of human butchering on mastodon ered structure well. In addition, each annual layer is composed layer. When living conditions were harsh, the tooth roots of climatic changes is the best proving ground for state-of- bones, future discoveries may support Fisher’s hypothesis. of even finer layers, including daily ones that reflect the day- grew slowly, forming thin layers.When conditions were good, the-art computer models used to predict future global Perhaps another highway crew will uncover a mastodon night physiological cycle. the tooth roots grew more rapidly, causing thicker layers. changes. Such testing determines how well a model can bone in Michigan. If so, MDOT will know to look for the In mastodons, a single molar tooth may have layers record- Tusks provide an even more extensive record of growth. “predict” changes that have already occurred. However evidence needed to understand the relationship between ing up to thirty years of the animal’s life. Part of this record is The tusks of mastodons, mammoths, elephants and their rel- indirectly, mastodon teeth give us an edge on understand- humans and mastodons. I from the time when the crown of the tooth was first form- atives are highly modified incisor teeth—like the ones in the ing the future, as well as teach us about the past. ing, deep within the bone and gum tissue of the living animal. front of your mouth—except those of mastodons and other But even after the tooth crown erupts and is used for chew- such elephant relatives are essentially all root and continue to Daniel Fisher is a professor and curator of paleontology at the Univers- Margaret Barondess is the staff archaeologist with the Michigan ing, the roots continue to elongate, adding dentin layer by grow throughout the animal’s life. ity of Michigan Museum of Paleontology. Department of Transportation.

32 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 33 A few moments can define a person’s life. For Colonel Francis Quinn of the Twelfth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, those moments came at the Battle of Shiloh in the early morn- ing hours of Sunday, 6 April 1862. Like count- less other officers in the Civil War, Quinn commanded his regiment by virtue of political influence, not military expertise. Quinn helped raise the Twelfth Michigan and Michigan gover- nor Austin Blair commissioned him its colonel, but giving him that command proved disastrous militarily and politically, for Quinn’s arrogance and incompetence so alienated the officers under his command that the Twelfth split into quarreling factions even before it left Michigan. Three weeks after leav- ing Michigan, the regi- s r e

y ment was thrust into the M

r u o m

y war’s first bloody battle, e S

e n c o a i t d

a Today, the tranquility at the Hornets’ Nest (inset) belies the brutal fighting that

n where its internal break- d a n C u

o occurred there on 6 April 1862. In the 1880s French artist Theophile Poilpot F o i down—not the enemy— d captured the intensity of the attack of the First Arkansas Infantry on Union u t S t

t troops, including the Twelfth Michigan. Henry H. Bennett photographed e n caused it to fight as two separate groups instead n

e Poilpot’s work two years after it opened to the public in Chicago. B

. H

.

H of as a single unit. “The Worst Colonel I Ever Saw” by Robert C. Myers 34 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 35 Political appointees plagued both the Union and Confed- distinguished himself at Bull Run, where he had been regimental quartermaster grew into an open feud—Quinn playing and fixed bayonets glinting in the sun. The men erate armies, especially in the early stages of the Civil War, wounded while fighting as a captain in the First Michigan promoted his business associate and neighbor George S. crossed Niles to the Michigan Central depot, where a crowd when such men assumed they could easily learn military Infantry. The commission of major went to George Kimmel Bristol while Graves and his allies backed Fitz H. Stevens, of several thousand friends and family members had gath- skills. Many of Governor Blair’s appointees turned into out- of Niles, who, despite being a Democrat, helped recruit local a Niles grocer who had enlisted as a first lieutenant in ered to say good-bye. Amid the bustle of loading men and standing officers, especially Alpheus S. Williams, volunteers. Other Democratic officers included Captain Company E with the promise of appointment as regimental gear aboard the railcars, Quinn took a dig at his lieutenant Michigan’s first Civil War general, and Israel B. Richardson, Darius Brown and Chaplain Andrew J. Eldred of Niles. quartermaster. colonel. Graves had appointed Captain Henry Gephart of a West Pointer who won promotion to general and served Captain Gustav Robert Bretschneider, another Republican On 16 March Quinn called his officers together to hand Company E to serve as officer of the day until the regiment with great distinction. Francis Quinn, however, may rank as friend of Quinn, served several years in the Prussian army them their commissions. They unanimously supported reached St. Louis. Quinn countermanded those orders at the Blair’s worst military appointment. By Blair’s own assess- and saw action at Bull Run as a captain in the Second Stevens’ appointment, saying it would unite the regiment. last minute, telling Gephart to remain behind and tend to the ment, Quinn caused him more trouble than all his other Michigan Infantry. Surprisingly, Quinn agreed. He and Graves had discussed the regiment’s sick and those under arrest for desertion. Michigan colonels put together. Although Gephart’s men had already boarded the cars, they gathered around him with teary eyes, swearing they would never go into battle without him. Meanwhile, Governor Blair Quinn seemed an unlikely candidate for the lofty status waged Quinn’s political war from Lansing. The next day, of colonel. Born in Ireland in 1827, he emigrated to Niles, while the regiment sped toward St. Louis and safely away Michigan, sometime before 1850. His life thereafter resem- from hometown politicians, Governor Blair discharged bled a Horatio Alger story: an Irish immigrant who, through Stevens and appointed George Bristol as regimental quarter- ambition and hard work, attained modest fortune and fame. master. Colonel Quinn had won his battle over the quarter- On 26 June 1851 he married Louise Babcock, the nineteen- master appointment. year-old daughter of Deputy Sheriff George S. Babcock. The couple had three children: William, Mary and Isabelle, born in 1855, 1858 and 1860. As Quinn rose in prominence Quinn found a state of confusion at St. Louis. In the among Niles businessmen, he took a keen interest in politics bustle of sending supplies and reinforcements forward, no and community affairs. He was a member of the city fire one seemed quite sure what to do with the new regiment. department and the Young Men’s Republican Club. In 1858 After three days in St. Louis, the Twelfth Michigan pro- he ran for state representative, narrowly losing the election ceeded down the Mississippi aboard the steamer Meteor to to Democrat and fellow townsman William Beeson. The Cairo, Illinois. There, Brigadier General Benjamin M. Republicans elected him president of the Wide-Awake Club, Prentiss and his staff boarded the ship. Prentiss, a politi- appointed him delegate to numerous party conventions and cal appointee, was on his way to Pittsburg Landing made him marshall for the city’s 1860 Independence Day to take command of a new division, which celebration. In March 1861 Michigan’s new Republican gov- included the Twelfth Michigan. The Meteor set ernor, Austin Blair, handed Quinn the political plum of Niles off down the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers to a postmastership. little place called Pittsburg Landing, n a g i

At the Civil War’s outbreak a month later, young men h Tennessee. There the men disembarked, c i M throughout Michigan rushed to volunteer for the army. The f climbed the steep riverbank at the landing o

s e v

War Department expected a short conflict, but after the i and marched a short distance to the mid- h c r A

Union debacle at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, dle of an open field, where Lieutenant e t a t

President Abraham Lincoln called for more troops. During S Colonel Graves staked out their first the fall and winter of 1861-62 Francis Quinn actively raised By the 1860s Niles, Michigan, (above, as the camp. A few days later, the Twelfth volunteers for the Twelfth Michigan Infantry, which would Soon after recruiting started, a committee of prominent, town appeared in an 1860 Berrien County map) Michigan moved its camp about three help fill Michigan’s new quota. Companies were recruited politically connected Niles citizens traveled to Lansing and was a bustling, prosperous city with 2,722 resi- miles forward to join Colonel Everett from Niles, Cassopolis, St. Joseph, Buchanan, Albion, persuaded Governor Blair to designate their village as the dents, including Republican businessman Francis Peabody’s brigade of Prentiss’s division. Lansing, Lawton and Berrien Springs. rendezvous point and training camp for the Twelfth Quinn. Quinn’s political activities earned him two Besides the Michigan regiment, the brigade Quinn’s political connections and public service placed Michigan. The village fairgrounds were selected as a train- appointments from Republican governor Austin included the Twenty-first and Twenty-fifth him in an ideal position to gain an officer’s commission. ing-camp site and grandiloquently renamed Camp Barker in Blair (right): the Niles postmastership in March 1861 Missouri and Sixteenth Wisconsin Infantries. He had no military qualifications, but in 1861 politics often honor of fellow citizen and former state representative and, six months later, colonelcy of the Twelfth Michigan Camp Prentiss, as the Michiganians christened outweighed experience and, like most Northern governors, Richard P. Barker. Volunteer Infantry. their new campsite, lay in wooded terrain with a Blair doled out commissions to his friends. Letters and As the Twelfth Michigan settled into Camp Barker, the spring that afforded good water. Nearby stood a little petitions recommending Quinn for a colonelcy flowed into political situation among its officers deteriorated. Colonel log Southern Methodist meeting house called Shiloh. Blair’s office from influential citizens, politicians and the Quinn fought bitterly with Niles politicians over recommen- situation earlier and Stevens’ appointment, Quinn assured With the mixed impatience and apprehension common to Twelfth’s officers. Quinn received his commission on 18 dations for officers’ commissions. More importantly, the Governor Blair, would be good for the regiment. However, green soldiers, the enlisted men expected a major battle. November 1861. Blair selected another prewar friend, mutual dislike between Quinn and Lieutenant Colonel he intimated darkly, “We will keep a close look after Stevens They were now part of General Ulysses S. Grant’s army, William H. Graves of Adrian, as the regiment’s lieutenant Graves soon blossomed into hatred. The two officers fussed and if anything wrong happens it will be the last of him.” which had recently captured Confederate Forts Henry and colonel. Intelligent and ambitious, an ardent Republican and over issuing rations, paying for laundresses and other details On Wednesday, 19 March 1862, the Twelfth Michigan Donelson and were now preparing to attack the rebel army at abolitionist, the twenty-six-year-old Graves had already of the quartermaster’s department. The appointment of marched out of Camp Barker, flags flying, regimental band Corinth, Mississippi. As Grant assembled his command at

36 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 37 Pittsburg Landing, General Don Carlos Buell marched his reassuring Prentiss they had made a thorough march of three from Graves and Powell convinced Peabody that the Con- While Quinn nursed his injured hand, Powell’s reconnais- fifty-five-thousand-man northern army from Nashville to miles but found nothing. Another account, however, claimed federates had gathered a major force along the army’s front. sance team worked its way along an old wagon trail toward a join him. that Moore and his men had only trekked out about a mile to He pondered the situation, and at about midnight took action. little clearing known locally as Fraley’s Field. Powell had An important junction of the Mobile & Ohio and Memphis an old cotton field, where they found a group of slaves who Without informing Prentiss, he ordered Powell to take three divided his force into three segments when he reached the & Charleston Railroads, Corinth lay twenty-three miles from told them of seeing a party of about two hundred rebel companies of the Twenty-fifth Missouri at 3:00 A.M. and go brigade’s picket line. The men tramped through the woods in Pittsburg Landing. Confederate general Albert Sydney horsemen that afternoon. Actually, Moore probably lost his looking for the enemy. If Powell encountered rebels in force, a southwesterly direction along the trail, once nearly firing Johnston arrived in Corinth on March 23, uniting his thirteen way and headed southwest, across the front of Sherman’s he was to hold his ground as long as possible, then fall back. into each other as they stumbled in the dark woods. The thousand men with troops under Generals Pierre G. T. division and missed the gathering Confederates. Besides the companies from the Twenty-fifth Missouri, three prongs separated and just as dawn broke the men of the Beauregard and Braxton Bragg. Johnston planned to strike at Captain Johnson came in from the picket lines at about Powell took along at least two companies of the Twelfth Twelfth reached the Pittsburg-Corinth Road, near the edge of Pittsburg Landing before Buell could join Grant. On April 2 8:30 P.M. and told Graves that he had seen long lines of Michigan. Through this sequence of events, Graves appar- Fraley Field. There they halted and waited for the he ordered his army to advance on Pittsburg Landing at 6:00 enemy campfires and heard drums and bugles. Graves ently never consulted with Colonel Quinn. Their intense Missourians. A.M. Due to delays in transmitting orders and confusion on the march, Johnston’s army failed to fully deploy opposite the federal troops at the landing until the evening of April 5. As the sky lightened a few minutes before 5:00 A.M. Captain Phineas Graves of Albion ordered his squad to with- draw and link up with the rest of Powell’s troops. As they Amazingly, Johnston brought his army into position pulled back, rebel pickets fired three shots at them. The against the federals without alerting them. To the Union gen- Michiganians hastily retreated through the woods until they erals, minor skirmishing during the first days of April reached the Missourians. There, Powell established a skir- seemed nothing more than picket firing and reconnaissance mish line and moved forward. probing. As Johnston moved his men into position, General The Twelfth Michigan had bumped into pickets of Major William Tecumseh Sherman, whose division lay across the Aaron B. Hardcastle’s Third Mississippi Battalion. As the road to Corinth, reported everything quiet. He had noticed a federals advanced across Fraley Field, the Confederate pick- couple of rebel infantry regiments about two miles in front ets fired on them, then fell back. Powell’s force reached the of his lines but assured Grant, “I do not apprehend anything middle of the field, where some of the men could see a line like an attack on our position.” Grant agreed, wiring General of Confederates kneeling in the dense underbrush. At Buell on April 5 that the Confederates were still in Corinth. a range of about two hundred yards, Powell Minor skirmishing and picket firing had been going on for ordered his men to open fire. As the two sides s e v

several days, and some men in the Twelfth Michigan grew i traded volleys, the Michiganians and h c r A

uneasy at the lack of preparation along their front. Chaplain Missourians took cover behind some trees. y t i s Eldred observed that Prentiss had posted pickets no more r When he heard the firing from Fraley Field, e v i n than a half mile in front of his division, and that he had not U Confederate general Johnston ordered a

n a g bothered to have entrenchments or rifle pits dug. i general advance. As Hardcastle’s rebel bat- h c i M

However, the initiative of three officers in Prentiss’s divi- talion moved into position across the n r e t sion—Major James Powell and Colonel Everett Peabody of s field, Powell realized he faced a much e the Twenty-fifth Missouri, and Lieutenant Colonel William W stronger line of infantry than he had H. Graves of the Twelfth Michigan—prevented the The honor of being designated the first unit in imagined. Rebel cavalry also appeared on Confederates from achieving complete surprise. Prentiss’s immediately relayed Johnson’s report to Prentiss. But the Twelfth Michigan went to Company A from his flank. Following Peabody’s orders to division, placed to the left of Sherman, held part of the army Moore’s reconnaissance had helped lull Prentiss into a false Cassopolis (above). Adrian resident William H. withdraw if seriously threatened, the perimeter that evening. Prentiss had established routine pick- sense of security. The general decided that Johnson had sim- Graves (right) went to war in May 1861 as captain Missouri major ordered his men to retreat. ets and outposts, but he assumed that Sherman would detect ply detected a reconnaissance in force and feared that the of the Hardee Cadets, a volunteer unit from Adrian. At about 6:00 A.M. casualties from Powell’s any possible Confederate advance. On Saturday, April 5, as green Michigan company would be captured if left in place. At the Battle of First Bull Run Graves was wounded. expedition began returning to Prentiss’s divi- Prentiss conducted a review in a nearby clearing called Spain He ordered Graves to withdraw his men. Soon after his appointment as lieutenant colonel of sion. The wounded men informed Peabody of Field, Major Powell noticed about a dozen Confederate sol- When Johnson arrived back in camp he again shared his the Twelfth Michigan he and Colonel Quinn became the fighting at Fraley Field. Peabody then diers peering through the underbrush. He reported his obser- concerns with Graves, who was so impressed with his subor- bitter enemies. ordered out five companies of the Twenty-first vation to Graves, who was serving as officer of the day. dinate’s sincerity that the two went to see Prentiss. The gen- Missouri under Colonel David Moore to serve as a sus- Graves was concerned. “After my experience at Bull Run,” eral refused to worry, telling the two officers that everything animosity kept Graves from informing Quinn about his fear taining force. About halfway back Powell encountered he later reported, “I felt ill at ease.” The two officers sought was “all right.” Despite Prentiss’s reassurance, Graves of an impending attack or making Quinn aware of the dis- Moore, who berated Powell’s men as cowards for retreating. out Prentiss, who strengthened the outer pickets. Captain remained anxious. Rounding up Powell and several other cussions on Powell’s expedition. At about the same time Moore refused to listen to Powell’s warning that the Gilbert Johnson and the Twelfth Michigan’s Company H officers, he trotted off to see Colonel Everett Peabody of the Powell’s expedition set off, a gun shot rang out in the Confederates were advancing in force. He told Powell that reinforced the pickets, while Powell escorted Colonel David Twenty-fifth Missouri. Peabody took the report seriously. Twelfth’s camp. Quinn had somehow managed to shoot his together they would beat back the Confederates. Moore then Moore, three companies of the Twenty-first Missouri and A hot-tempered but highly competent officer, Peabody left hand with his own revolver. He never explained how the sent Lieutenant Henry Menn back to camp to bring up the two companies of the Twenty-fifth Missouri on a reconnais- had approached Prentiss earlier that evening to recommend accident occurred, nor any of his actions during those crucial rest of his regiment. sance patrol. putting the division in a ready condition to resist an attack. predawn hours, but he probably spent the next hour or so In camp, Menn found General Prentiss conferring with The Missourians returned to camp at about 7:00 P.M., Prentiss had belittled the idea and refused to act. The report having his wound tended to. the Twenty-first’s lieutenant colonel, Humphrey M.

38 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 39 Woodyard. Although angry at Peabody for his unauthorized “The enemy’s fire was terrific and told with terrible effect.” While he helped the surgeons treat the wounded, hospital treat the wounded. Steward Eells stayed with them, despite work in bringing on an engagement, Prentiss ordered Regiments disintegrated as Shaver’s troops broke and ran, steward Samuel H. Eels ducked in and out of the Twelfth’s being sprayed in the face with ammonia when a bullet shat- Woodyard to reinforce Moore. The two units linked up about but the Confederates brought up artillery and started pound- hospital tent to watch the Union retreat toward the camps. tered a nearby glass liniment bottle. Minutes later the rebels a half mile northeast of Fraley Field at about 7:00 A.M., then ing the Union line. At about 8:15 A.M. Shaver ordered a The Michiganians gave ground slowly, firing at the advanc- overran the hospital and took the staff prisoner. continued along the road toward Fraley Field. On the way, charge that brought the rebels swarming across the ravine ing rebels as they fell back. Eells later noted they did As victorious rebels swept forward, Prentiss’s retreat Company A of the Sixteenth Wisconsin, out on picket duty, and flanking Peabody’s line. “splendidly for green troops.” turned into a rout. Only the timely arrival of two brigades joined Moore’s command. The rebel assault shattered the Twelfth Michigan line. As As the Yankees continued to retreat, General Prentiss under General Stephen A. Hurlbut averted a complete disas- Moore’s men advanced in columns of fours. They had just Graves saw the Union position collapse, he took command called his men to arms. But the confusion and Prentiss’s ter by establishing a defensive line where Prentiss reassem- reached the edge of a cotton field known as Seay’s Field of his portion of the Twelfth Michigan and ordered the men neglect in preparing any defensive works rendered the effort bled the remnants of his division. Prentiss put them into line when a force of Arkansas infantry fired into them, shattering to fall back and reform in front of their tents. Graves later futile. The division repulsed the first rebel assault, but casu- along a road extending for about a half mile in a convex path Moore’s right leg, hitting Menn in the head and killing the claimed Quinn disappeared at that point, abandoning his alties and great numbers of stragglers thinned the federal facing the oncoming Confederates. captain of the Wisconsin company. Woodyard took command of the Twenty-first Missouri and drew back. Powell, appar- ently thinking the skirmish over, headed back to camp with Throughout the morning and afternoon of April 6, the his detachment. Woodyard led his men a short distance to a Confederates launched repeated assaults against the federal crest overlooking Seay Field, where he kept up a light fire at line. After Prentiss had repulsed an attack at about 10:00 the enemy visible along a fencerow. At about 7:15 A.M. an A.M., General Grant inspected the position and ordered advancing Confederate brigade poured out of the woods, lay- Prentiss to “maintain that position at all hazards.” Prentiss ing down a heavy fire and forcing Woodyard to retreat to obeyed the order, despite continual rebel attacks and such escape being flanked. intense fighting that the place later was dubbed the Hornets’ Nest. Historians have noted the Twelfth Michigan as among the The commotion from Seay Field alerted Colonel Everett regiments defending the Hornets’ Nest. Actually, there were Peabody, who acting without orders, ordered the Twenty- two Twelfth Michigan regiments present: Graves’ command fifth’s drummer boy to sound the “long roll,” calling the men and the handful of men under Quinn. The two groups appear to arms. The Twelfth Michigan’s men had been awake for to have fought independently, and neither may have even some time and were midway through breakfast when they been aware of the other’s presence. At about 4:00 P.M. heard the drums. They dropped their meals and grabbed their Prentiss attempted to change front with five regiments under rifles and cartridge boxes. Suddenly, Colonel Quinn his command, including “part of the Twelfth Michigan.” He appeared, ordering the men into ranks and calling for did not specify whether Quinn or Graves commanded that Lieutenant Colonel Graves. Graves responded slowly, only segment. after Quinn had called for him several times. The colonel, Prentiss’s maneuver occurred just as the Confederates either not knowing or caring about Graves’ work that night, launched a new assault on his position. The Union line had later attributed his subordinate’s lethargy to fear. As the men fallen back several times until it formed a U; the final stood in ranks, the firing grew louder and more intense, Confederate attack broke that position and collapsed the y t e i c

although the rebels remained out of sight. General Prentiss o Hornets’ Nest defenses. When the regiments on Quinn’s right S

l a appeared, berating Peabody for bringing on the engagement. c and left surrendered at about 4:30 P.M., Prentiss ordered i r o t s Prentiss also ordered the colonel to move his two regiments i Quinn to find reinforcements and to bring up his own regi- H

i t a

forward. n ment. Quinn started off but found the enemy pouring in on n i c n At about 7:30 A.M. the Twelfth Michigan and Twenty-fifth i the right, the firing there being more intense than in the front Missouri advanced in a line of battle about a quarter mile. C at the base of the U. Then, Quinn reported, came a “general In 1895 Cincinnati artist Thomas Corwin Lindsay depicted the coura- Along the way Peabody encountered Powell and his patrol lines. Peabody was killed while riding near the Twenty-fifth giving way all over the Field. Artillery and all pell mell.” geous defenders of the Hornets’ Nest, especially the Fifth Ohio and learned that the rebels held Seay Field. Peabody consoli- Missouri’s camp trying to rally the men who continued to Quinn escaped, but at about 5:30 P.M. Prentiss and the Battery. Although eventually forced to surrender, the determined dated Powell’s group with his two regiments, then deployed fall back to the camps. Men streamed wildly through the remnants of his division surrendered. Prentiss’s stand at the Northerners gave U. S. Grant time to turn defeat into victory. them along the crest of a hill, a ravine thick with under- Twelfth Michigan’s camp, heading for the river bluffs at the Hornets’ Nest bought time for Grant. General Buell’s rein- growth running immediately across his front. There Peabody landing. forcements arrived Sunday evening and the next day Grant waited as the firing grew louder. Suddenly the rebels loomed regiment to its fate while he ran to the rear for safety. Many men risked death to snatch personal possessions attacked and forced the rebels to retreat. up over the crest of the opposite ridge at a distance of only Graves, however, gave no indication that he spent much time from their tents. Major George Kimmel jumped off his horse The Twelfth Michigan played only a minor role in Mon- about seventy-five yards. “They were advancing in not only looking for the man he despised and whom he had not and ran into his tent to retrieve a purse of gold coins. As he day’s fighting. Quinn located Graves that morning, and one but several lines of battle,” Quinn later reported, and treated as his commanding officer during the past few hours. did so his mount bolted, but the major caught another horse together they took the two hundred men still with the regi- “every hilltop in the rear was covered with them.” When Graves ordered the regiment to fall back, the officers as it raced by and leaped into the saddle. Private Franklin ment and joined up with Colonel James M. Tuttle’s brigade, The Union troops fired a volley. The Confederates—the had to choose whether to follow Quinn or Graves. Most put Bailey escaped but regretted the loss of all his extra clothing fighting on the right of Colonel Marcellus M. Crocker’s Arkansans, Mississippians and Tennesseeans of Colonel their trust in Graves. By Quinn’s own account, only two cap- and a letter he had planned to mail to his girlfriend. Surgeons Thirteenth Iowa Infantry. Quinn technically commanded the Robert G. Shaver’s brigade—returned the fire; for a short tains, including Bretschneider, and forty or fifty men George Brunschweiler and Robert C. Kedzie could have brigade that day—in addition to Peabody’s death, the time the two sides traded volleys at close range. To Shaver, remained under his command. escaped but chose to remain behind in the hospital tent to colonels of the Twenty-first Missouri and Sixteenth Wiscon-

40 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 41 sin had been wounded, leaving Quinn as ranking officer. “B” that suggested cowardice on the part of Graves, Kimmel General Grant to accept it Francis Quinn returned The battle also cost the regiment 22 killed, 24 mortally and Eldred and lauded Quinn’s bravery. Graves got a copy of immediately, assuring him to Niles a ruined man, wounded, about 80 wounded and 106 taken prisoner. the 14 May 1862 article, entitled “Headquarters Regiment that the Twelfth unable to show his face The rebels may have retreated, but the political battle with Michigan Infantry,” and confronted Quinn, demanding to Michigan’s success on the street. After the the Twelfth Michigan renewed after Shiloh. Most of the regi- know who had written it. Quinn refused to speak to him, but depended on Quinn’s res- war he secured testimo- mental officers, including Quinn, Graves, Kimmel and when pressed he hinted Captain Weston was the author. ignation. Quinn, however, nials from Generals Eldred, had escaped capture, and on April 12 the Graves had his own allies; the Democratic Niles had other ideas. On August Benjamin Prentiss and Confederates released Surgeons Brunschweiler and Kedzie Republican printed letters from Eldred, an anonymous 24 he applied for a thirty- John A. Logan, making and Steward Eells. Both factions believed the other guilty of “Witness” and Captain Darius Brown, all which praised day leave of absence, them public in the 1 cowardice and incompetence in battle, and their hatred Graves, Kimmel and Eldred but maligned Quinn. The again citing ill health. February 1866 Niles spilled into the open. Charges filed by Major Kimmel Detroit Free Press picked up the story, spreading news of the Three days later he with- Inquirer. With both offi- against Quinn led to a hearing before a military commission. regiment’s political turmoil across Michigan. drew his resignation, citing cers’ attestment of his The commission apparently arrived at no definite conclu- Meanwhile, the discipline, morale and health of the greatly improved health integrity, Quinn hoped sions and took no action. Quinn claimed that the enlisted Twelfth Michigan deteriorated as its officers waged political and a desire by his regi- his status in the commu- men and noncommissioned officers all told the truth while warfare. Whatever his personal courage, Quinn had no idea ment and his immediate nity might be redeemed. the officers lied. Graves felt that the commission did nothing how to run a regiment. He gave impossible orders to com- superior that he remain in Veterans of the Twelfth because the Twelfth was being moved to another division. pany commanders as they drilled the regiment, then openly command. Blair, however, Michigan, however, berated the officers when they failed to carry them out. had no intention of allow- showed no inclination to Without proper leadership, the Twelfth acquired a reputation ing his erstwhile ally to make amends. At their With no immediate resolution in sight, Quinn and for stealing and outraged officers resigned rather than serve remain in charge any first reunion in Niles on Graves fought their war with letters to Governor Blair and under Quinn. Brigade commanders had little use for an longer than necessary. On 22 February 1867, they the press. Quinn complained to Blair that he commanded a undisciplined, demoralized regiment and the Twelfth found August 30 he asked voted unanimously to regiment filled with cowards. He claimed he had dragged itself shifting from one command to another, doing an extra Secretary of War Edwin declare his statements s r

Graves from his tent on Sunday morning and forced him into share of hard labor and bringing up the rear while on the M. Stanton to accept e “utterly void and desti- y M the line, and when ordered to camp on Monday evening the march. When ordered on 30 June 1862 to take his division to Quinn’s resignation, . tute of truth,” then C

t r e

lieutenant colonel had vanished until Tuesday afternoon. Washington, DC, Major General John A. McClernand asked declaring that Quinn was b published their denunci- o Major Kimmel had begged Quinn to be sent to the rear to “Had I better not leave the Twelfth Michigan and Sixty-first “the worst colonel I ever R ations in the local bring up stragglers, then he, too, disappeared; Kimmel Illinois here? They are undisciplined, disorganized and defi- saw and has made me A financially and emotionally ruined Francis Quinn moved to Chicago, Illinois, newspapers. resigned on April 22 to avoid a court-martial. Quinn noted cient in numbers.” more trouble than all the after the war to resume a career in livestock and produce dealing. He died sud- His personal and politi- that Captain Phineas Graves was being court-martialed for Sickness in the Twelfth and other nearby Michigan regi- rest together. He keeps up denly in 1876 at the age of forty-nine. He is buried in the Silverbrook Cemetery cal career ruined, Quinn cowardice and stealing; First Lieutenant Joseph McCloy of ments prompted Governor Blair and Adjutant General John a row in his regiment all in Niles. moved to Hyde Park, the same company had fled as soon as the firing started; and Robertson to visit to check on the troops’ health. Shocked at the time.” Illinois, near Chicago, Captain Thomas Wallace and First Lieutenant Lewis Pearl of the regiment’s poor physical and mental health, Blair was Two days later the offi- where he resumed his Company B were also cowards. The worst offender, convinced Quinn had to go. cers of the Twelfth Michigan formally filed eight separate career in livestock and produce dealing. He and his wife had Chaplain Eldred (“a bad bad man”), preached demoralizing Captain Weston and Surgeon Brunschweiler had both charges against Quinn, including cowardice, neglect of duty, two more children, Lillian and Elizabeth, born in 1866 and sermons to the men and stirred up discord in the regiment. resigned, leaving Captain Bretschneider as Quinn’s only firm incompetence, inhumanity and disobedience of orders. They 1869, but his marriage finally dissolved. In 1874 Louise Despite the problems, a confident Quinn declared, “I have ally in the regiment. Steward Eells opined, “The Col. has might have saved themselves the effort, for Quinn had resub- Quinn took their children and moved to Jackson, Michigan, beat them all so far, doubled and twisted them because they hardly any friends left in the regiment either among the offi- mitted his resignation, which was accepted on August 31. leaving her husband in Chicago. lied, basely lied.” cers or the men.” Even so, Quinn hoped to salvage his per- Characteristically, Quinn never informed his regiment he Besides his reputation, the war cost Quinn his health and Graves offered Governor Blair his version of events. Only sonal and political reputation. He begged Blair, who had had resigned. He simply disappeared on September 11, tak- eventually his life. Physicians could provide no relief for the the efforts of Kimmel, Phineas Graves, himself and a few asked him to resign, to transfer him instead to the command ing along Captain Bretschneider, who had resigned the week rheumatism he had contracted during the war. Quinn resorted other officers had saved the regiment from ruin. Chaplain of a new Michigan regiment, promising to help recruit men before, and all the regimental papers. The Twelfth Michigan to quack cure-alls and steam baths to ease the symptoms. Eldred had “behaved nobly,” helping the officers rally the for the regiment and then resign. This course, he declared, rejoiced at his departure. Captain Darius Brown succinctly On 26 March 1876 he stepped from the baths at the Grand men. Quinn lurked about the rear during the early stages of “would Satisfy my friends and should satisfy all concerned” expressed the general sentiment: “Col. Quinn skedaddled— Pacific Hotel in Chicago and fell dead. Doctors stated that the battle, then ran for the river when the Hornets’ Nest col- and would allow him to leave the army with his honor intact. no tears visible.” the forty-nine-year-old died of “rheumatism of the heart.” lapsed. That night, while Graves and the Twelfth Michigan When this tack failed, he tendered his resignation on 25 July Graves was promoted to colonel of the Twelfth Michigan Quinn’s body, returned to Michigan for burial, rests in the lay in the rain, Quinn and Captains Bretschneider and 1862, claiming ill health. So eager were the officers to have and proved an effective commander, rebuilding the regi- Niles Silverbrook Cemetery beneath a simple government- Weston spent a comfortable night on a riverboat. According Quinn resign that regimental surgeon Robert C. Kedzie filed ment’s morale and discipline and leading it ably through the supplied tombstone. As a seemingly fitting epitath for one to Graves, when some of Sherman’s men fired their rifles on a false medical report to speed matters along, certifying that war. From November 1862 to June 1863 the Twelfth head- of Michigan’s worst officers, to this day there is no known Tuesday morning, Quinn thought the enemy had renewed careful examination revealed that Quinn suffered from quartered at Middleburg, Tennessee, where it guarded the image of Francis Quinn. I their attack and again fled to the river. Major Kimmel, who chronic diarrhea, jaundice and “other hepatic derangements” Mississippi Central Railroad. It participated in the siege of had preferred charges against the colonel, told Graves he had to such an extent that his life depended on a permanent Vicksburg (Mississippi) in June and July 1863, then moved Robert Myers is the curator of the Berrien County Historical Association at resigned “rather than live in such a perfect Hell.” change of climate. to Helena and Little Rock, Arkansas. The regiment spent the the 1839 Courthouse Museum in Berrien Springs. He would like to thank Dr. The affray soon broke in the hometown newspapers. The As soon as he learned that his old political friend had ten- rest of the war in northern Arkansas until mustered out of Janet Coryell at Western Michigan University for her assistance with this Republican, pro-Quinn Niles Inquirer printed a letter signed dered his resignation, a thankful Governor Blair urged service on 15 February 1866. article.

42 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 43 1995 and watched the coastal Cali- sonal side of Harriet Quimby. fornia fog drift through a row of corn Earlier, I had transformed a man- that acted as windbreak to a field of nequin into a representation of the REMEMBERING romaine lettuce. I had just set a large dark-haired aviatrix. It took us thirty table with notepads, badges and meet- minutes to hitch and button Harriet’s ing agendas in this Victorian man- satin flying suit, which converted sion’s only conference room. I was from a pair of pants to a skirt. Its HARRIET alone, awaiting the arrival of eight design made us wonder what the participants in a workshop devoted to coffee-drinking Harriet did in an the life and times of Harriet Quimby, emergency. Although most of her the Michigan-born aviatrix who in flights were short, the English 1911 became the first woman in the Channel crossing was an hour and a U.S. to receive her pilot’s license and half. Lygia Ionnitile and I figured that Inspired by the beauty in 1912 was the first woman in the once she was in her flying suit, she world to fly solo across the English wouldn’t need to get out of it in a and courage of America’s Channel. Holding the conference in hurry since she didn’t plan on wear- Arroyo Grande, California, was signif- ing it long. icant because it is believed Harriet The next day the South County first female flyer, the author spent time here as a child. Historical Society hosted a breakfast My concept was simple: a one-day for the conference attendees with the event featuring a morning workshop For the conference, author Giacinta Koontz mayor, then gave a walking tour of built a conference devoted for presenters of scholarly papers and dressed in a turn-of-the-century costume reminis- Old Town Arroyo Grande and a nearby an evening lecture for the public. cent of Harriet’s elegant side. ranch. We enjoyed the California hills My program included speakers covered with scrub oak and rustic to Harriet Quimby. Henry M. Holden and Ed Y. Hall, buildings, of which Harriet was so authors of books on Harriet. I planned which I adapted into a movie for tele- proud. Then, with farewells to our to enhance the occasion by wearing a vision. Presenters Lygia Ionnitiu and hosts, we drove twenty miles to Santa Gibson Girl costume complete with a Sally Knight drove several hours to Maria Airport. There, we greeted Ceci large hat and parasol. Throughout the reach Arroyo Grande from distant Stratford and Audrey Knight, both by conference room I displayed huge California homes. Loranetta Diebel wearing mauve blouses, who flew their photos of Harriet showcasing her and Roberta Smith came from Michi- Cherokee airplane in tribute to Harriet Giacinta Bradley beauty and courage. But one thing was gan’s Branch County Historical Quimby. missing: I really wanted Harriet in her Society, braving a cross-country flight The second-annual Harriet Quimby Koontz deep-purple flying suit. The staff at the and transferring to a commuter plane Research Conference is already International Women’s Air and Space that could be described as a hang planned for 19 October 1996. It will be This one piece suit of thick, wool- Museum of Centerville, Ohio, thought glider. Harriet would have been proud. held at the Cradle of Aviation Museum backed, purple satin (right) became I had a dandy idea when I called them (The twelve conference papers will be on Long Island, New York, near the Harriet Quimby’s personal trademark. n the movie Field of Dreams and they immediately agreed to loan compiled into The Harriet Quimby airfield where Harriet first learned to Kevin Costner hears a voice me the valuable reproduction they Research Conference Journal and it fly. Museum curator Joshua Stoff and whisper that if he builds a base- possessed. will join the Harriet Quimby file at the author Doris Rich will be the evening- ball diamond on his farm, the leg- A conference on Harriet had never Smithsonian’s National Air and Space session speakers at nearby Hofstra ends of baseball he so admires been done before. I had my doubts Museum Archives. University. will come and play ball for him. about it, but a voice kept pushing me During our “sharing” session we The Harriet Quimby Research The voice keeps telling him, “If to hold it. The amateur historians and gossiped about Harriet as if she were a Conference brings together people who you build it, they will come.” So authors who answered my call for contemporary. Diebel and Smith had are interested in all aspects of Harriet he clears the land of money-mak- papers came quite a distance. Ed Y. interviewed a distant member of Quimby’s life. Since Harriet was born ing corn for his field of dreams, a Hall, author of Harriet Quimby— Harriet’s family and learned that in Michigan, the Great Lake State pursuit for which the rest of the America’s First Lady of the Air, and Harriet may have left behind a silver would be a fitting location for the world thinks he’s crazy. But he wife Kathy flew in from South cigarette case. Harriet Quimby 1997 conference. I builds it anyway. Carolina. From New Jersey came smoked? We all gasped, then realized, I thought of that movie as I looked Henry M. Holden, author of Her “Well, that was Harriet.” Though just a Giacinta Bradley Koontz, who lives in Woodland Ithrough a window of the Crystal Rose Mentor Was An Albatross—the small, silver cigarette case from Hills, California, received a bachelor’s degree in Inn on the morning of 14 October Autobiography of Harriet Quimby, Michigan, it was a glimpse of the per- anthropology from San Diego State University.

44 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 45 THE GRAND Old Lady of the Lakes by William C. Kemp

ot one of the trucks, buses or airplanes operating in Michi- N gan today date back to the turn of the century. Any industrial equip- ment constructed in 1900 is usually found in museums or at collectors meets, with one exception. Michigan is home to the oldest active freight vessel under the United States flag. The E. M. Ford is one of the oldest working freighters anywhere in the world. Not only does the Ford regularly haul bulk cement out of Alpena, Michigan, she is still powered by the same steam engine installed in 1898, when she first began plying the Great Lakes. The 428-foot- long freighter has survived numerous storms, a collision that sank another vessel, recessions, one sinking and the competition of vessels eighty years younger and several times larger. When the E. M. Ford entered ser- h c vice in 1898, it bore the name Presque r a e s

Isle and wore the familiar black and e R

s olive green of the Cleveland-Cliffs e k a L

Ford t Steamship Company. The was a The E. M. Ford at Milwaukee, e r G purchased in 1956 by the Huron r Wisconsin, in 1980. o f

e Cement Company and was named in t u t i t s honor of the company’s chairman of n I the board, E. M. Ford. How could a freight-carrying vessel maintenance. But tender-loving care is composites, iron and steel to build ship placed in dry-dock for its five-year found the Ford in better condition than certainly transitory ones for power last so long? Captain Donald Ghiata, not the only reason for the Ford’s hulls. During this transitory period, the U.S. Coast Guard inspection. Part of some vessels fifty and sixty years plants. Although sail power continued recently retired vessel personnel man- longevity—its design and construction Ford’s hull was constructed of finest this inspection involved ultrasound younger. on into the twentieth century, the recip- ager for Inland Lakes Management, represents the most advanced technolo- steel, despite protests from old sailing readings of the bottom to determine Just as important as the hull is the rocating steam engine grew in popular- quickly answers, “Good maintenance.” gy of the nineteenth century. During experts, who swore nothing could ever how thin the hull plates had become remarkable original engine: it still runs ity as engines progressed from the The E. M. Ford is a shining example the late nineteenth century, ship- take the place of white oak. due to erosion and other corrosive as smoothly as a fine watch. The last beam-condensing type to fore and aft of the importance of preventive builders used wood, wood and metal In July 1991 the E. M. Ford was effects. This careful investigation years of the nineteenth century were compounds, steeple compounds and

46 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 47 eventually vertical triple-expansion the hold, mixing with the bulk cement engines, which became the standard cargo. By Christmas Day afternoon the for the Great Lakes. Steamers were Ford lay at the bottom of the harbor. driven by simple paddle wheels, feath- After consulting marine salvage ering paddle wheels and propellors. experts, Inland Lakes Management But the Ford was built with a unique, decided to salvage the ship. Unbeliev- top-quality quadruple-expansion ably, the Ford was afloat again by 20 engine such as those most often found January 1980. Workmen next broke the in passenger vessels. (Quadruple three- to four-foot-thick crust of hard expansion means that steam leaves the cement that had formed before the rest first cylinder as exhaust goes in a sec- of the six-thousand-ton cargo could be ond, then a third and finally a fourth removed. The clumps of cement filled cylinder, until every last vestage of over thirty dump trucks. The E. M. energy is squeezed out of the steam.) Ford reentered service on 7 August Since the steam pressure is lower 1980. The owners, justifiably proud of entering each cylinder, the cylinders The Ford’s engine, originally their stalwart freighter, went to great increase in size, with the first cylinder installed in 1897, was restored lengths to restore the sturdy vessel. the smallest and the fourth the largest. Both the original green paint of the to its original green and gold- engine and the extensive gold-leaf leaf condition in early 1980. designs on its steam chambers were painstakingly restored to their original condition. Since the steam engine admits steam at each end of the cylinder, the four-cylinder engine in the Ford runs as smoothly as a sixteen-cylinder, four- cycle gasoline engine. Its fifteen hun- The E. M. Ford’s longevity has dred horsepower at less than two revo- been aided by her ideal size, along lutions per second keeps the engine with the bow thruster added in 1960. nearly vibration free. The last time I She is one of a few vessels that can watched the Ford gliding silently out wind its way up the Milwaukee River, of the Muskegon channel, I marveled under six drawbridges to the cement at its ghostlike passage. dock without the aid of a tug boat. In Probably the most impressive part 1975 the Ford’s boilers were converted of the Ford’s story is the fact that she from coal to oil, wasteholding tanks survived all the major Great Lakes were installed and the ship was pro- storms of this century. She was only ken in half and sank, killing all but two shorter south-shore route, slipping into wreckage, he pulled in behind Grand into the boilers, the storm abated claimed environmentally clean. months old when a vicious storm hit of her twenty-five-man crew. All that the Portage Ship Canal, which cuts Island for shelter. The Edmund enough to allow the Ford to limp to Nothing is dumped overboard into the the lakes in October 1898, ending the night, the Ford’s crew watched the through the Keweenaw Peninsula, for Fitzgerald continued into the storm, the Munising dock, powered by its last lake but is unloaded in port. The origi- career of many vessels but not the Coast Guard launch rockets and flares shelter. About the time the Ford eventually sinking only seventeen few pounds of steam. nal engine and boiler are electronically Ford’s. She also survived a storm in to illuminate the lake while searching emerged from the canal, the Fitzgerald miles northwest of Whitefish Point Disaster stuck the Ford again on monitored and have electronic naviga- 1905, the big storm of November for survivors. had turned east of Thunder Bay, with all twenty-nine hands on 10 Christmas Eve in 1979. After arriving tion aids that guide the ship through 1913, which destroyed twelve That same year, the Edmund Ontario, and headed southeast toward November 1975. at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with a cargo the lakewaters. freighters and killed 251 people, the Fitzgerald was launched. The Ford and Whitefish Bay and the Soo Canal. The The E. M. Ford still faced her own of cement, she remained tied up in the Until 1993 the E. M. Ford was used Black Friday storm on 20 October the Fitzgerald crossed paths when the full fury of the storm struck both ships, troubles. Although crew members had unsheltered outer harbor because of the for bulk-cement storage and transfer at 1916 and the Armistice Day tempest of Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin, packing winds of nearly one hundred dropped both anchors they could not holiday. When a furious storm hit, the Green Bay, Wisconsin. Still in top con- 1940, which sank three freighters and with a load of iron ore and the E. M. miles per hour and throwing thirty-foot hold the Ford against the tremendous skeleton crew aboard could do little dition, the sturdy freighter was brought killed 67 people. Ford left Duluth, Minnesota, at about waves onto their superstructures. As wind, which caused the vessel to drift more than watch in horror as the fif- back into active service on the lakes In 1958 the sixty-year-old E. M. the same time, after delivering a load the cement carrier lurched, burying its toward shore. For over four days, the teen mooring lines snapped one by and recently completed its ninety-sev- Ford was forced to remain at safe of bulk cement. The captains of the blunt bow in a wall of green water, the engine worked at half-speed ahead, one, ripping the steel mushroom- enth shipping season. I anchorage in the lee of Washington Fitzgerald and another ore carrier, Ford’s captain thought about the attempting to hold its position. As food shaped bollards free from the concrete Island, Wisconsin, while the doomed Arthur M. Anderson, saw the weather stretch of lake along Pictured Rocks to and fuel began running low, the crew dock. No longer tethered, the Ford was Whitehall resident William Kemp is a member of Carl D. Bradley headed out across an suddenly turning ugly and chose to fol- Whitefish Point called the Graveyard faced the possibility of being blown blown across the harbor, wherein the the Marine Historical Society of Detroit. His pre- angry Lake Michigan. By the evening low the northern Canadian shore for of Lake Superior. Having no desire to onto the rocks. Just as the coal passers leeward side of her bow slammed vious article for Michigan History Magazine was of November 18 the Bradley had bro- shelter. The Ford’s captain chose the add his vessel to that collection of shoveled the last few chunks of coal repeatedly into the pier. Water filled “The Ship with Two Lives” (M/J 1993).

48 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 49 EDITOR’S BOOKSHELF

They Came, of the three hundred thousand Dutch search for employment, difficulties in They Prospered, people who emigrated to the United learning the English language and pre- States between 1850 and 1930. His serving Dutch traditions, schooling for They Found introductions and editorial notes give their children and the quality of Sojourner Truth Freedom every reader the opportunity to better preaching and pastoral care, as the fol- appreciate the travails and triumphs of lowing letter from Michigan illustrates: Storyteller, Slave, Legend orthern European emigration transplanted Dutch in Iowa, Wisconsin, Much is done here to prevent rais- to the United States was as Illinois and Michigan. ing ignorant children. They start N personal as it was traumatic. What does this twenty-three-series school when they are five years old by Alan S. Brown For each German, Irish, Scandinavian compilation of letters reveal about and the laws requires that all children and Dutch immigrant, the journey did immigrants in general and the Dutch must attend school for a certain length not end at their port of in particular? Brinks cau- of time. The government always pays a arrival. The journey con- tions that his compilation portion of the cost. . . . The teachers DUTCH AMERICAN lorying in Tribulation is the Glorying in Tribulation, Sojourner Stetson and David pushed Truth ahead tinued with the transfor- represents less than here are not the sons of the wealthy VOICES: LETTERS story of the works and intel- realized that her illiteracy could be of her time. A case in point is their mation of each 0.0032 percent of the but of the laboring people. . . . Our FROM THE UNITED lectual development of used for the advancement of the causes interpretation of Truth’s 29 October newcomer’s Americani- STATES, 1850-1930 estimated 889,000 letters local teacher was a carpenter before Sojourner Truth, who was she championed. In the crusade against 1864 meeting with President Abraham zation. For some it was mailed from the United he became a teacher and now he is a G edited by born a slave in New York about 1797 slavery before the Civil War and in the Lincoln. Certainly, readers will judge an arduous process full States to Holland very good one. and who died in Battle Creek, postwar struggle for racial justice, she for themselves, but not all will view of sadness and longing Herbert J. Brinks between 1820 and 1930 Dutch American Voices is a wonder- Michigan, in 1883. For knew she spoke on the the meeting as a form of the “dialogue for their native lands. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell and that he concentrates ful scrapbook that should be a part of many years, Sojourner behalf of masses of illit- of power” Sojourner often used in her For most the process University Press, 1995. on 482 correspondents every library in the Midwest and every 480pp, Illus., lived a life that was leg- GLORYING IN erates. She also knew lectures. Although Sojourner believed was wondrous, a journey writing between 1850 and home of those Americans of Dutch hardcover $35) endary and conducive to TRIBULATION: she was “the keeper of Lincoln and herself were equals in the of pride and satisfaction. 1930. Dutch American ancestry. Brinks should be commended order from the publisher, myth making. But above THE LIFEWORK OF her own image” and that eyes of the Almighty, she also knew Fortunately, many Voices paints only a lim- not only for this volume but also for a Sage House, 512 East all, Sojourner lived a life SOJOURNER TRUTH what the newspapers that the president had issued the immigrants documented ited picture of this immi- lifetime of collecting and preserving State Street, Ithaca, NY devoted to serving reported of her utter- Emancipation Proclamation and was their experiences in thou- grant group, yet it may be this precious legacy in the Dutch by Erlene Stetson 14851-0250, humankind. Known as and Linda David ances could help the the only person in the country who sands of letters home, (607) 277-2338 the most complete picture Immigrant Letter Collection at Calvin Isabelle in slavery until (East Lansing, MI: causes she supported. could have done so. It is hardly likely many of which appear in of Dutch America today. College. His work is a labor of love as her freedom in 1827, she Michigan State She once observed, “I that Lincoln’s inscription to Dutch American Voices. The Dutch writers not well as a service to scholarship. changed her name to University Press, 1994, don’t read such small Sojourner—“For Aunty Sojourner This book provides us with an intimate only expressed the range of expected Sojourner in 1843, later 280pp, Illus., stuff as letters, I read Truth, Oct. 29, 1864 A. Lincoln”—was view of both the immigrants and an emotions and concerns but also offered Timothy Walch, director of the Hoover Presiden- adding the surname Truth hardcover $28.95) men and nations.” But an act of condescension as Stetson and evolving American society. some surprising revelations on their tial Library in West Branch, Iowa, is the author- when she became an itin- order from the publisher, she did have newspapers David imply. Herbert Brinks has done an American journey. Their letters also editor of several books, including Immigrant erant evangelist. In addi- 1405 South Harrison read to her, along with Sojourner Truth came to Michigan admirable job in giving voices to some mention health and crop conditions, America (1994). tion to preaching Road, Suite 25, other reports on her; she in 1857 and lived in or near Battle Christianity, she took on East Lansing, MI 48823 was aware of the persona Creek until her death in 1883. In 1867 additional causes, such as she was building. she bought a barn and converted it into Building the New St. Clair River Tunnel abolition, black rights, Glorying in Tribulation a cottage. There, at 10 College Street, women’s rights and temperance. may disappoint readers expecting a she could be found if not away on hen I brought Building the Tunnel home, I invited my son “Excalibore,” a three-story-high tunnel boring machine, that steals Much about Sojourner was remark- more traditional biography, but the speaking or public-service missions, W Brandt a three-and-one-half-year-old obsessed with bulldoz- the show. Guided by satellite, lasers and computers, Excalibore able, especially her travels throughout authors make it clear that a traditional as when she worked on behalf of the ers,dump trucks and backhoes, to sit down and watch this docu- began on the Canadian side and was just .12 of an inch from align- the North both before and after the biography was not their objective. In freedmen in Washington, D.C., from mentary of how the new St. Clair River railroad tunnel was ing perfectly with its preconstruction portal at Port Huron. The break- Civil War. As an orator she had a deep, showing the life work of Sojourner, 1864 to 1867. In all, Sojourner spoke constructed. He sat spellbound through the twenty-minute presenta- through on the American side is exciting, but the ride through the powerful voice, one described as they assess her from a modern and in twenty-one states and as late as tion. When it was over, he asked to watch it again. He couldn’t get 1.1-mile-long completed tunnel at sixty miles per hour is mesmeriz- rolling thunder. Her sense of mission feminist viewpoint. Questions of 1878, five years before her death, she enough of it; neither could I. I even showed it to my Michigan his- ing. Cameraman David Lang, co-owner of LTS Productions, captured that moment as he stood on the front of the CN North America and spiritual fervor added to her effec- authority and empowerment are an carried her message to thirty-six tory class at MSU. engine as it roared into the United States. tiveness as a speaker. Dramatic in integral part of Stetson and David’s Michigan communities. A number of Produced by LTS Productions in Okemos, Michigan, Building the Engineering Review costs $37.05; Building the Tunnel costs manner, imposing in presence, pic- approach as they describe how her lectures, letters and songs are Tunnel and Engineering Review (a forty-minute version packed with even more detail) record the two-year construction of the world’s $16.90. Both tapes may be purchased for $49.77. Prices include turesque in speech, Sojourner was a Sojourner used “the deeds of [her] printed in Glorying in Tribulation as largest international underwater rail tunnel. Dedicated on 5 May sales tax and postage for U.S. orders; Canadian orders add four dol- “storyteller within an African body” in developing the ideology on appendices. These and the bibliogra- 1995, the new tunnel replaced the original tunnel, which opened in lars (U.S.) for shipping. Order from LTS Productions, 2810 Bennett American woman’s tradition.” which she based her arguments. phy are invaluable to learning more 1891 and had become a bottleneck for railway traffic because it Road, Okemos, MI 48864-2429, (517) 332-1190, fax (517) 332- Remarkable to many who knew and Although the authors are well about this amazing woman. was unable to accommodate the double-decker container cars. 5554. heard Sojourner and to the students of grounded in the methodology and The videos provide an in-depth look at “one of the largest con- — RLR her life ever since was her illiteracy. viewpoints they use to present this leg- Alan S. Brown is a professor emeritus at West- struction projects of the decade in North America.” But it is But as Stetson and David show in endary woman, some readers may feel ern Michigan University

50 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 51 PROFILESPROFILES

A Time to Harvest The Steamer William A. Irvin: By Franklin Halverson and Bob Barnard “Queen of the Silver Stackers” Mount Horeb, WI: Midwest Traditions, 1994. 112pp, Illus., Y By Jody Aho ou know how it is,” Nancy hardcover $19.95, plus $2.50 shipping and handling Marquette, MI: Avery Color Studios/Lake Superior Press, 1995. Harkness Love reminisced A Time to Harvest features the colorful paintings Nancy Harkness Love 88pp, Illus., softcover $9.95, plus $3.50 shipping and handling of her first plane ride. “You look at a of Iowa farmer Franklin Halverson, who died in 1989. The Steamer William A. Irvin is an account of the col- horse and think, ‘I’d like to ride one.’ Halverson based his paintings of rural life on his boyhood orful history of an ore carrier turned museum. Rich with Well, I guess I just looked at that barn- memories of growing up in the early twentieth century on photos, the book traces the iron-ore industry from the dis- stormer’s airplane and said to myself, a small family farm. Each detailed scene depicts the era covery of iron ore in the 1840s until the present day and ‘I’d like to fly one.’ He took me up for when draft horses, manpower and the tradition of neigh- highlights the role the ore carriers played in that industry. a few flights, and I loved it right boring were central to farm life. When bigger and faster boats put the Irvin out of busi- away.” With that, Nancy Harkness, Thirty-five of Halverson’s paintings comprise A Time to ness, the boat was recincarnated as a floating museum on who would become a skilled pilot and Harvest; each illustration is accompanied by retired farmer the Duluth, Minnesota, waterfront. cofounder of the Women’s Airforce Bob Barnard’s reminisces of rural life as based on his Order from the publisher, P.O. Box 308, Marquette, MI Service Pilots during World War II, childhood experiences. Halverson’s paintings depict such 49855; also available at the William A. Irvin Museum in was introduced to flying when she scenes as picking corn by hand on a cold morning, shuck- Duluth. accepted an offer by a young pilot ing corn with a wooden three-legged shucking horse, offering stunt rides for five dollars dur- milking cows by hand, feeding chickens, watering draft Waterpowered Mills in Cass County, 1820s-1920s ing the summer of 1930. So taken with horses and ice skating under a full moon. With A Time to By Stan Hamper aviation that she used all her money to Harvest, Halverson and Barnard have produced an attrac- Decatur, MI: Invictus Press, 1993. 170pp, Illus., fly again and again, Nancy immedi- tive and interesting book on Midwest folk history. softcover $15.95, plus $1.50 shipping and handling ately decided to become a pilot. Order from the publisher, P.O. Box 320, Mount Horeb, Hamper knows his topic and this book is evidence of Born in Houghton, Michigan, on 14 WI 53572. that. It resulted from his work in preparing a planned February 1914 to physician Robert 1988 exhibit on waterpowered mills for the Southwestern Bruce Harkness and his wife, Alison Northern Passages Michigan College Museum, where he served as director. Chadbourne Harkness, Nancy told her By Jerry Harju Through his research he identified ninety-seven Cass father after that first airplane ride that Marquette, MI: Avery Color Studios, 1995. 160pp, Illus., County waterpowered mills that operated from the late she wanted to quit school to learn how softcover $11.95, plus $3.50 shipping and handling 1820s to the early 1920s, including saw, grist and cider to fly. (She was scheduled to return to Northern Passages is the third of Harju’s books recall- mills; chair, basket and plug-tobacco factories; and cabi- her Milford, Massachusetts, boarding ing his childhood years in the small mining community of net and machine shops. The book’s introduction, the school in mid-August). Her father Ishpeming in the Upper Peninsula. This story takes the short history on the establishment of Cass County’s mill agreed that she could take flying reader from Harju’s first day in kindergarten to the last regulations, the list of the county’s ninety-seven mills, lessons, but she would have to con- waltz at his high school prom. a biographical sketch of local mill operator Ezekiel tinue her education. “It was a classic Order from the publisher, 802 South Lake Street, P.O. Wellington Jones and more fill Waterpowered Mills example of the blind leading the Box 308, Marquette, MI 49855. chock full of history. blind,” Nancy later remembered of her d e t

Order from the author, 610 Spruce Street, Dowagiac, o lessons. “My instructor was Jimmy n

e s Glimpsing the Whole: MI 49047-1086. i Hansen. I was his first student and he w r e h The Kalamazoo Nature Center Story t was just 18!” Nancy learned in an old o

s s

By Renee Kivikko and Constance Ferguson e Coldwater Illustrated, 1889 l Fleet airplane flown in by one of the n u

Kalamazoo, MI: Beech Leaf Press, 1995. 188pp, Illus., hardcover $40 By Randall S. Hazelbaker m local pilots from places unknown, a u

e At the age of twenty- s

After years of inquiries on the Kalamazoo Nature Privately reprinted, 1993. 92pp, Illus., softcover $13, plus $2 shipping u detail she neglected to mention to her M eight, Nancy Harkness e

Center’s history and present-day existence, the nature Originally published in 1889 by publisher J. S. Con- c parents. On 7 August 1930 she soloed a

p Love became cofounder S Coldwater Illustrated center’s staff has compiled a publication to address such over of Coldwater, this reprint of is d for the first time, becoming the n

a of the Women’s Airforce

r questions and more. Glimpsing the Whole takes the reader the third printing of what has proven to be a popular book i youngest woman in the United States A

s

’ Service Pilots and

into the world of one of the first and largest nature centers highlighting the early history and vintage photos of this n to earn a private pilot’s license. e

m director of its air-ferry in the country and tells the Kalamazoo Nature Center’s small south Michigan town. o While attending boarding school, W

l

a service. history, development and past and present programs. The Order from Hazelbaker, 61 Waterman Avenue, n Nancy continued to fly at every oppor- o i t a n book also recognizes those personalities who helped make Coldwater, MI 49036. r tunity. In 1931 she began her freshman e t n I

the center a reality. Large and colorfully illustrated, this s year at Vassar College in Poughkeep- o t o

book would make an impressive addition to anyone’s per- h sie, New York. Fellow students dubbed p

l l sonal library. Publishers and authors wishing to have recent publication considered for inclu- a her the Flying Freshman because she sion should send two review copies of books to Editor, Michigan History Magazine, Order from the publisher, 7000 North Westnedge 717 West Allegan, Lansing, MI 48918, with the following information: Location and gave plane rides at the Poughkeepsie Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49004. name of publisher, price, shipping costs and supplier’s address by Carey L. Draeger Airport, charging a fee to pad her allowance. One weekend, however,

52 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 53 Nancy was caught buzzing the Vassar of each kind before that particular class report on the WASPs shortly after the campus with her date and another cou- of airplane was released for WASP program ended. All three reports spoke ple aboard her plane. Someone training and subsequent ferrying.” highly of the women pilots’ work, pic- recorded the tail number off the plane The WASPs never ferried aircraft turing them as “casualties of conflicts as it flew by just above the treetops; an outside the United States, although beyond their knowledge and control, angry airport manager was waiting for Nancy and her friend Betty Gillies innocent bystanders caught in the cross- Nancy when she landed. She was sent attempted to deliver a B-17 from fire between strong personalities and home for two weeks and forbidden to Cincinnati, Ohio, to Prestwick, super-egos.” The ATC report further fly the rest of the semester. Scotland, in August 1943. The women stated that both Nancy Love and Jackie In 1932 Nancy earned her commer- made it as far as Goose Bay, Labrador, Cochran had suffered from male bias cial license. The next summer she where a waiting radiogram from and competition between the USAAF received her transport license at General Arnold tersely ordered them commands and “the clumsy, inept ways Houghton. Due to the impact of the back to the United States at once; a in which high-ranking officers had dealt Depression on her family’s finances and male crew completed the delivery. with women in general. . . . It may be her desire for a career in aviation, Nancy Within days the USAAF headquarters that these unfortunate occurrences will left Vassar after her sophomore year. at the Pentagon issued a directive limit- be longer remembered than the contri- Jobs in 1933 were scarce enough, but ing WASP flights to the continental bution to the war effort or the testing of aviation jobs for women with only three United States. women pilots’ abilities.” hundred hours of flying time and no Despite Nancy’s insistence that Nancy’s wartime service ended with

practical experience were nonexistent. s requirements include five hundred another first for her career when she e v i h c

Nancy’s persistence took her to the r hours of flying time and a commercial flew around the world, during which A

n

East Boston Airport in 1934, where she n pilot’s license, most women were not she was at the controls at least half of a m t t sold airplanes on commission. There, e An experienced pilot and skillful administrator, allowed at first to fly anything but the time. In July 1946 Robert and B Nancy met Robert M. Love, a Jacqueline Cochran developed her own pro- training and liaison aircraft. Officially Nancy Love were the first couple to be WASP candidates underwent rigorous training to qualify as ferry pilots. Shown here with five of Princeton graduate and a pilot who had gram for female pilots, using her husband’s the WASPs were civil servants rather simultaneously decorated for their mil- her pilots, Nancy Love worked to prepare her squadrons to fly every aircraft produced by the left his graduate studies at the political influence to advance her ideas. than military personnel. Male pilots itary service—Nancy was presented Massachusetts Institute of Technology U.S. Army Air Force. refused to fly with them, calling them with the Air Medal for her work with in 1933, joined the U.S. Army Air “bad luck omens”; field commanders the Ferry Division and Robert received Corps as a reserve flying officer and ferrying war planes from factories to Baltimore, Maryland, daily commuting ence with Franklin and Eleanor would not acknowledge women as the Distinguished Service Medal. bought the Curtis-Wright Air Terminal airbases around the United States. In eighty miles round-trip by plane (fuel Roosevelt to gain support for her capable pilots. The Loves’ first daughter, Hannah, at the Boston airport to start his own 1940 she wrote Colonel Robert Olds, for planes was easier to obtain than the female-pilot program. After several Both Cochran and Love attempted was born in 1947. Nancy retired to pri- company, Inter City Aviation. head of U.S. Army Air Force planning strictly rationed automobile gasoline). drafts and much political maneuvering, to gain military benefits for their vate life to raise Hannah and her two In 1935 Nancy and two other at general headquarters, about her Following America’s entry into both women’s proposals were consoli- women pilots, but despite support from sisters: Markey, born in 1950 and women pilots were hired by the federal ideas. The colonel agreed that Nancy’s World War II, resistance against dated into a two-pronged program—the General Arnold and other high-ranking Alice, born two years later. Robert government’s Bureau of Air suggestions were sound but felt that women serving softened as more men Women’s Air Ferrying Service officers, Congress refused to change founded and became president of Commerce to travel to sixteen thou- women in the cockpits of military air- were called to the battlefront. During (WAFS), headed by Nancy Love, WASP ranking from civilian to mili- Allegheny Airlines. Later the Loves sand cities and towns throughout the craft was too radical. Nancy also fer- the summer of 1942 Colonel William would be part of the ATC and the tary status. The WASPs were not even moved to Martha’s Vineyard, Massa- United States, marking rooftops as ried the aircraft to the edge of the Tunner, the new commanding officer of Women’s Flying Training Detachment issued official uniforms until April chusetts, where Robert owned a ship- navigational aids. On 11 January 1936 U.S.-Canadian border, where the planes the Ferrying Division whose office was (WFTD), under Cochran’s direction, 1944, six months before the program yard. Nancy’s flying was limited to Nancy and Robert married in Hastings, were literally pushed across the interna- near Robert Love’s, heard that his would be responsible for training addi- was decommissioned. When total casu- taking their children off-island for doc- Michigan. They spent their honeymoon tional line, then flown to their coworker’s wife flew to work. Tunner tional women pilots. The entire pro- alties for men and planes suffered by tor appointments and other errands. flying along the West Coast. Upon Canadian destinations to await ship- desperately needed experienced pilots gram was under the jurisdiction of the army air force since the war’s out- Nancy Harkness Love died on 26 returning, Nancy left the bureau to ment overseas. to ferry military planes, but when General Henry “Hap” Arnold, com- break proved far less than predicted, October 1976, one year before Con- work for the Gwinn Aircar Company, These flights brought Nancy into Nancy presented the idea of a squadron mander of the U.S. Army Air Force. the USAAF felt it had sufficient pilots gress certified the WASPs as de facto where she flight-tested a new triangle contact with the army air corps’s Air of seasoned female pilots, he was ini- Later, the WAFS and the WFTD for their current needs. General Arnold military personnel, allowing them to landing gear. She and Robert continued Ferrying Command (after 1942, the tially skeptical. After Nancy insisted were consolidated into one program issued orders to close down the claim veterans benefits. In 1984 each to work at Inter City Aviation, helping Ferrying Division of the Air Transport there were at least one hundred women and renamed the Women’s Airforce WASPs, especially since the Allies woman pilot was awarded the Victory the company grow to eight planes and Command). Robert Love’s status as a who could handle the ferrying, Tunner Service Pilots (WASP). Nancy became appeared to have victory in Europe medal, and those who had served for a fifty-member staff by 1938. U.S. Army Air Corps reserve officer relented and sketched out her plan in a the executive director. “My duties within their grasp. By December 1944, over a year received the American However, increasing signs of a war in reinforced this affiliation when he was memo, sending it to ATC headquarters. involved administration of six WASP when the WASPs were deactivated, Theater medal. On 13 October 1989 Europe began impacting Nancy recalled to Washington, DC, in 1942 as At the same time Jacqueline Cochran, ferrying squadrons and planning of approximately one thousand women Nancy Harkness Love was inducted Harkness Love’s life. the deputy chief of staff of the Air also an experienced pilot and the wife operational and training procedures. In had served as pilots; thirty-eight were into the Michigan Aviation Hall of Between 1940 and 1942 Nancy Transport Command (ATC). Nancy of Floyd Odlum, millionaire owner of addition, and this was the ‘fun’ part, I killed during their tours of duty. Fame. I developed plans for including experi- acquired a civilian post with the ATC Atlas Utilities and Investment Com- went through transition on each type of Three separate divisions of the enced women pilots in a war effort, Ferrying Division’s operations office in pany, was using her husband’s influ- military aircraft and ferried at least one U.S. Army Air Force each prepared a Carey L. Draeger is an assistant editor with

54 Michigan History Magazine January/February 1996 55 A FF • • HO GTO E • • DG R S • C • • • • PP DO KE LD M • AM N • D HU T • BA • O • A S NS EA L A OO AN DE H ER EN RA OR DE W IR R • R TU UT YSL UZ • T EL O EET VA KE POSTSCRIPT DU • S O R CO RO • D • M FL OR BA N • A ND LYM • CH S • A ER CA R • • C DE SE ELT LA • P ET ER AM AC OC HE NG TU UT • D LE AC OL ND • C • P AC FIS TA • S KN D • TI VR LA TE RKComingS Next • I In R • US ND N • AR CA ON HE • F ET LA R HE • M LA A CK OC P • C SEN RV KMICHIGANY T HISTORYO U MAGAZINET D LE SLO PA AC • CK UT • CO • S MO RE BIR E • C • M • • I SEL UI N A RD AL N • ER DG M A RS ED B • K AL FO ER O ND DO • A NS TO • • AN MP 8 • EN AR U T • LER RA O OD CK LO • I A 8 • G E B • TH N YS • T L M WO CO S EY LT TT • L R RA HR RO RA ET OD S • MN DE O AC ZIE DU • C A NE LE O LD O D • • M ILL LO O • ET AM • GE • F • W • O R AR NG AD N • GT OL • C TT ER TO TH CK • KI • C OL P • VR TTE O ISH IN U • PA LL ER NC UP HE VE • M • F • P MO EY E VV LI • H • C R NG ER IR LY MN • XW FLI A • FA CK • CO KI TH VA • P RO R MA T • UD OF UI LA L • EU OR AC S • CE EL AC • H • B A EL • R • C TI EN • PA IV D RR K DS MP XW ON NG ON UZ K • FL MO BA OC OL • I A R TA • P O AR T R • L • DC H • EY • M BA US ER S • C YL EL ZIE SE OO UT MN AN • LE • M AK ER • SK OD LO ED • W O O RE C D EB D D • M • O YM S • R LO LLA BIR UD LAN OR A LN • NT • PL EN DE DI ER ST • F • F EL CO NT PI C Z R • CA D D • EN 88 OD LIN A R • TIA OU CE R • UN AN TS TA • M A • UR LE N S • C PA VE TH EL NU EL CA D • D YS PO ER K • LIV R • • L • K • D OC CU TO HR D AR • F ZIE GE N RD AC RA • G • C AN YL L T LO OD OA KA • I AR PP ET O • FL SK DE • • D • SL AC RS • B HU OL AR AL D • O LN NT C • P TO SEL • VR M ER OR • M CO RA AM M O ED FFA HE CA EN F L A LIN U R • S A L M D • O • C E • • G OD DE A • • D SLE AN RA O • H ICK ETT TT WO O UD TO Y TR NE WO CK BU RV MO ET M AC • G HR • • GE ET CO S • CO • LE R PP • C RO TT FLE OD LD • ING • F OO AR HU LET MA O R • O • O LA • K ER • W B A • O CA • M E • W H PA LL ISH O S • FF EVR E • NG ISH TO UT • IM WE • F INT LD O H TT KI • F IN O Y X ER • P • O H • C VE L • ER • P LYM NE MA TH IR TH ICK OR EL TH IR • P M N • EU VA U • BU • C XW EU VA AC • RO EA • R R MO EY LA A • R OR TI S R N • CO LY MN • PA • M ON • C ON ZEN ELO RO G • P RO R IM AN AR NG • P U • D BA AN AC S • CE RE B TA ER • CO ER • LE ST TI EN • PA IV LO • LE US AK RS AC C MU ON UZ K • FL DE AC • M EB DE • P LLA D • • P CO AR L T R s L D I R R • L E E s L D N K D I E Y I e I R U R S D Z r I T A A B K R SK n L A O g D B S F L C R A E • O L a n A R • • • E B D M • g

o Y C i E D K R D E N D • h C N D R N D S E N c A L f N E A i S • V U U O • o N A L F L O T M L T V F E T U D H • C y I S f • r H E U R L T • D N N o 8 • a L • N F CharlesN King (right) and his assistant I A r T • O D 8 O s • E L R b K F R R

i • e E • • T E N S A M U E

L v G I T • L i N 8 L Z A Oliver Barthel inT the famous car King A D S h D 8 E L U L A D • c A O E E C Y Or O A D L L N D C U O R D A O • • K • C L T • drove on 6 March 1896.O A T H e S L E G C t • E M N G N D C R • • a • L R A t C D O D A A I R P T • S • A O O • A P E imply labeled “Railroad Station, Petoskey, Michigan,” the above photograph was probably taken sometime between AM RD EL INC • D SL CK RS • B U OL RO A OD • L T C • PA TO EL • H VR MA 1908 and 1910. Look closely in the center of the crowd and you’ll see a boy dressed in a Buster Brown suit and tie CK M A AN M • O DS FA E CA G • PA A • UD UR • A AM L M • E OF • CH E • IN obviously admiring the engineer standing in the doorway of the locomotive. That may be Bruce Catton since he regu- CC AC • D ER NS A OD • H K TT • K • S CO RR O BYIRTHSL OFRA N INDUSTRYER O CK UIC VE LL N larly visited his grandfather in Petoskey about the time the photograph was taken. In the 1970s, after Catton had become a IA BA • GT R • T GEN TW CO • B OR WE RO L • P • CH RO T • LEE D DS • C AX BA Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War author, a Library of Congress staff member sent the photograph to Catton, inquiring, SE UP ET A T • F OO OL LA M LE • ED • H OL AM MO ER • W • A N • C • IRD “Is this you, Mr. Catton?” LateFA on the eveningR of 6 Mar • Cch 1896,G Charles • BradySH King steerO ed a horselessTH carriageM downP EA LA RB D • OF EV TE IN • FI NT OU • I R IL DE AN Catton replied that it could be him, adding, “Certainly I was down there often enough. The picture shows the HWoodward• CH Avenue inE TDetroit. Credited • K withR driving the• P firstI gasoline-poweredM EvehicleY in Michigan,ELO AD N EL K RV LL HE IR PLY MN • D • C HU • L • heart-of-the-city stations of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which in Michigan was universally known as the Grand Rapids UtheIC young mechanical CO engineerWE had UtinkeredT withA engines sinceC • a visit toO the 1893 EColumbianR ER • T GE AN RD B A • AX RE RV IA • R AC VV IER OD LO A and Indiana. Everybody called it the GR&I, all sort of run together into one word.” Little Traverse Bay is dimly visible in the ExpositionAL introduced M him toN the • combustion CO engine.NT NS • P FLI Z • D • S CK P N • O G • O ZE K T • • LO T C PA background of the photo. IM A AR N • P OU AR L N AN AM • T OtherRE MichiganiansE B were SexperimentingTA ER with the motorcar.• C ByY summer’sL DendE Henry OFordL had UR R • AM MO Catton fondly remembered the train trips to Petoskey in his book, Waiting for the Morning Train. Accompanied by his ELO • L U AK RS • SK MO NC • D SLE NS AL • Ddebuted hisA Cgas-powered • M quadricycleEB on Detroit’sDE BagleyD Avenue andA •Ransom E. • LOldsI took aO local RY RA ER R mother and two brothers, Robert and Thurber, Catton loved hearing the train as it “came along the lakeshore, and finally it ILL RD UD AN OR L A • GT H • T EN HE newspaperAD reporBIter for a• rideST in his horselessFL carriage • F down DLansing’E s streets.UD WhileP few took notice • C RO • G FIS would drift around the last curve and swing up to the platform, smoking and hissing and clanking, with the locomotive looking C ER D N • 88 MO AC UP LET A TT R • ST of theseN Devents, withinAN a decadeSE the effortsTA of men likeA •King, FordR Rand Olds made• H MichiganRO the homeAM O HE MU and sounding like something alive.” He and his brothers boarded the railcar, running down the aisle to claim their seats. HU LEL UT EL CC BA FA EV • C • M UT D • E • Tof the nation’sE • automobile KN industry. • D CO L • OF H TE NG RE IR DG Forced by their mother to sit in their seats the entire journey, Catton later admitted he and his brothers were all relieved when G N • RD IA SE • H • C ET KI • RB O OToD celebrateA a century ofA the car inS Michigan, • • Michigan ED HistoryCK MagazineICK devotes RitsV March/AprilLL • ON DE • D they “took the carriage up the hill to Grandfather’s house.” D SLO CK OR D O BU CO E AR N NT • 1996 issueC • to the •people, PA the carsOT and theO companiesO thatDC have shapedS • our world.A • Join us XforW this E B HU RA CK S • The Petoskey train station where Catton admired the sleek black locomotives is now a converted office building. Most of M M M W OO LD AL MA • L • T DU UI ER specialA expanded A issueA guaranteedL EtoT intrigue• Wand delight• everyoneO whoP ever has owned, • admiredAC IER • • B D the tracks crisscrossing the area have vanished, but excursion trains occasionally run to Petoskey. NS ER FLE O H • IM AN LL Z TO DS AN RA EN R • NT UT EY RE DI • LO • G OL • FL • —Carey L. Draeger orT been a passenger• G inH aE car. PI O N LO • CA N PP • N RO TT IS R • YM OM DE R OL HU TH TSE MA O • F AI • PL • R R • VE NC • OU U CA M ER RV C NS CE LIV • LI FFA YM KN E • TH CO TIA ZE PA • F A O PL N • TT • • 56 Michigan History Magazine EU G • N U K • L T UD • H C • A VE RD ELL R AN • PO • CO AR DE AC CK IA SLO OR FO W ST R RS YL O RR CO NT C • • C 8 • AX U KE DE SK • M BA OD PO M LA 8 • M S • M BA N D • L A L • O R • • A PA LTA N R DE FLA R DE SE • W KE LER IM DE EA TO TU • • FO O • ED TO BA YS • D • OR MO EL S SEN 88 • M D IN DE R EY R EL L OD UT A CA OO • P TU • CH MN KA • D ERA • M KN ELT OC W IR • S ET RO AC ER EN A • D AC EET VA D OL S • • P AC • G EL LAC ER I FL OR AN VR EN AM • P TT OD IL TH C LEL HE UZ S RK O • M AD EU C CO AN LA • M CA • C • R TR KY NG OC ER ON S KI AC IVV AR R • I FL E B HE L FIS