OAKLAND GAZETTE Governor Moses Wisner Mansion (ca. 1845) The only publication dedicated to the history and heritage of Oakland County. Vol. 34, No. 1 Published by THE OAKLAND COUNTY PIONEER & HISTORICAL SOCIETY Winter 2001 405 OAKLAND AVENUE, PONTIAC, MICHIGAN 48342 Letter From the President The need for change is very The same thing is true of our important and is sometimes very operations. Many times I hear board In this Issue difficult for many of us to accept in members say that we need to get our later years. We have a tendency some of the grants that are available. Letter from the President 1 to believe that younger people don't We have available to us on staff, and Society News and Notes.... 1 have the knowledge, because they also with staff contacts, people that Financial Statement .. 1 don't have the number of years of can write the grant requests. However, From the Director ? Feature Article:' 'Neath the practical experience that we have. The we must first prove that we have the real truth of the matter is that we needs and types of programs, and Fostering Care': the Eastern fear letting go of the old ways because more importantly, the certification and Michigan Asylum (Part Two) .4 From Our Collections we are not sure we can adjust to the ability to administer these grants. It new ways. We have a great is a very strange statement to make The Hadsell Collection ...... 7 8 organization here that has withstood that for an organization as old as ours, the test of time. However, we must that we are just beginning to come of Honor Roll of Donors 8 9 realize with the average age of our age. It is certainly not because we Memership Application board members that time is catching don't have the ability or the knowledge. Calendar of Events . 10 Historic Community News 10 up with us. It is very important that It is because for a long time we we begin planning for the future and worked only in the past and forgot we must bring in a younger generation to change with the times. FINANCIAL STATEMENT to pick up where we leave off. This year we began a new direction (Year ending December 2000) This younger generation will never join with such a simple thing as voting. I R e v e n u e s 2 0 0 0 1 9 9 9 us if we are not willing to accept County Funds 20560.00 20420.00 them and their ideas as equals. Continued on page 8 Investment Income 10864.38 7942.83 Society Events 5767.48 6518.50 Annual Giving 5520.00 2365.00 Society News and Notes Membership Dues 4025.00 2890.00 Donations/Memorials 4654.17 7203.17 Tours 2026.00 2575.00 Shoppe 1388.99 1288.01 Library 1200.79 1461.11 G r a n t F u n d s 4 2 7 . 0 0 0 Miscellaneous 1101.01 104.60 Total Revenues 57534.82 52768.22

Expenditures 2000 1999 Salaries & Benefits 30835.86 22680.87 Utilities 8796.53 6742.76 Office Expenses 6079.09 5448.84 Grounds/Maint. 4555.48 4156.59 Insurance 2396.00 3455.34 Society Events 1991.26 5017.41 This year's annual meeting was held on the sheriff's department in Oakland Publications 1202.19 781.65 January 17th at the new West County from "Wilderness to Statehood". Library 702.56 832.31 Bloomfield Township Public Library. Jim has been researching this topic for Shoppe 528.08 1073.83 Our speaker was Jim Lehtola, Society several years and has compiled data on Fees/Dues 1860.85 1190.00 Miscellaneous 32.78 2140.50 member and Detective with the Sheriff's every sheriff, which he hopes to publish Department, Oakland County. Jim gave in the near future. Total Expenditures 58980.68 53520.10 a fascinating talk on the formation of Continued on page 3 Profit/Loss (1445.86) (751.88) From the Director "In today's hectic world, personal attention to all patrons remains the hallmark of enduring institutions."

Research Library course, benefits the Society as well. We not to mention the many hours that were Libraries and archives collect are listed on over 50 web pages relating spent by those assisting with our two to genealogical and local history materials, provide access to them, and Society events. We could not operate resources, and museums and attractions without your continued efforts. In preserve collections. In this, the in metro Detroit and the Midwest. This information age, the Society is constantly addition, we had four graduate students faced with the challenge of increased gives us a great amount of exposure to a from Wayne State University volunteer much wider audience with over 1500 and work on semester projects here in public expectations for us to provide visitors to our web page in the year the research library. They did an accurate and prompt information. Our 2000. We also had a variety of articles excellent job of processing manuscript job in the research library is to assist published about the Society in local researchers in locating the ideas, collections, organizing library materials, newspapers, including the Oakland and developing the Ice Harvesting information and materials that will meet Press, The Detroit News and Free Press, Exhibit in the Pioneer Museum. WAM their diverse interests. and U.S. Auto Scene. The Drayton was here a total of 12 times this year, In the year 2000, volunteers in the Plains One-Room Schoolhouse was and were invaluable in completing the library made a concentrated effort to featured in a book published this year preparation and move into the improve our level of assistance to titled Under One Roof: A traveler's manuscripts storage area. In addition, researchers. Many hours were spent guide to America's one-room they, as well as community service rearranging materials for easier access schoolhouse museums, and Geoff volunteers, worked incredibly hard on and descriptive tools were created to Brieger's publication Pontiac, maintaining the grounds. A special assist volunteers and users in locating Michigan: A Postcard Album thank you must go out to the Pontiac pertinent information. Visitors to the acknowledges our photograph Area Michigan Farm and Garden library are greeted promptly and every collection. group for their upkeep of the herb effort was made to provide them with garden, and to Rosemary Gallardo for quality reference service. The increase Collections Management donating perennials again this year. It is impossible to thank all of you in numbers of both on-site and off-site Collections management continues users helps to illustrate the confidence to be an important focus for us. Since for your dedication and support. Know researchers have in our ability to assist this: that your love for this Society and reorganizing and purchasing the the work we do together does not go them with their research. computer software, we have begun to unnoticed, and it is greatly appreciated. catalog many of the artifacts, Total Requests for Information I look forward to working with many photographs, manuscripts and 1999-2000 documents. It is a time consuming more of you in the coming year! Requests 2000 1999 lncrease% process, but one which will help us keep External 205 91 225% better control over our holdings. It will Board of Directors be easier to pull items for displays, and Internal 342 184 186% President we can easily track the location of Total 547 275 199% Michael E.Willis artifacts. We can also monitor items If we do not have the answer that may need restoration or repair, as 1st Vice President researchers are looking for in our well as keep a record of the provenance. Charles Martinez materials, we provide them with One of the most exciting parts is our 2nd Vice President suggestions and resources on where to ability to digitally photograph artifacts Clarke Kimball look next. This includes referrals to and attach the digital photo to the Treasurer local libraries and historical societies, cataloged record, giving us an image for Kathryn Daggy web pages, addresses for county identification and inventory purposes. Secretary courthouses, etc. We continue to Kimberly Bell has been a great help in Rosamond Haeberle answer off-site requests in our turn taking inventory and helping to around time of less than ten days. photograph and catalog many of our Staff Thanks to all of the volunteers who artifacts. To date, we have cataloged 74 Administrative Director/Editor have helped to make the library so artifacts, 32 archival materials and 146 Leslie S. Edwards successful. photographs. Manuscripts Librarian Publicity Volunteer Staff Virginia Clohset We have been very fortunate this Research Librarians Publicity for the Society continues Pat Fisher to be an important resource for us. As year to have such dedicated volunteers involved in this organization. Over Jo Pate you all are aware, the popularity and use Fran Wilson of the Internet increases daily. This, of 5000 hours were logged by volunteers, Society News and Notes continued Victorian Christmas The cupola finally arrives! Open House On a cold, windy day in December, our cupola for the Carriage House The annual arrived in the back of a pick-up Victorian truck. Accompanying the truck was Christmas Open a crane, and after some tricky House was, arrangements, the cupola was once again, a hoisted into the air and mounted on success. The top of the Carriage House. The weather was cupola was hand-crafted by Shell cooperative and Homes Construction using "One of our younger a fine day was visitors at VOH" had by all who visited. Musical entertainment was provided by Christine Ballard and Maxine Carlisle on dulcimers, Melizza Cruz on flute, accompanied by Star Steward on the keyboard, photographs of the cupola from the Margaret Warczak on the celtic original Carriage House. harp and Barbara Kremsky on violin. Guides, as always, provided visitors history about the Wisner family, the mansion and many of From the President the artifacts. Thanks to all the Continued volunteers who helped make the day a success. am very pleased to receive the letters shoppe area of the building, so we had We are already and phone calls, and hear the many no heat during the Christmas vacation. making plans comments from our members, that Both of these problems have now been to help make they now feel like they are a part of repaired. this organization simply because they It is with sadness that I must next year's have a voice and the right to vote for event even more report the resignation of one of our the officers and directors of their board members. Ms. Ruth Wall, successful. "President society. Just look at the numbers. We who has been a long-time board Santa Claus' had a higher percentage of our member and dedicated volunteer, has members voting (35%) than most stepped down because of health Craft Committee governmental elections have, and we problems. Ms. Wall will remain a did not have any problems with our member of the society, and will help Florida votes. The Society will be creating a new us when she can. I know that we all Just to let you know about a little of send our best wishes and thanks for her craft committee which will be the old business, thanks to your many years of service. We are going totally in charge of craft-making donations for Annual Giving, the goal to miss her. items to be sold in the Gift Shoppe. has been reached, and we will now In closing, I say God bless and The general public would like to order the sign for our location. This thank you all for being a part of our see more craft items for sale and winter has been hard on all of us, society, and remember that you are our mission statement supports this. and especially the mansion; we had measured only in a small part by If you are interested in becoming several of the old water pipes keep what you accomplish in life, and in springing leaks in the joints, as well as large part by the way you accomplish it. a crafter for the Society, please some new ruptures. The problem was contact Leslie Edwards at the caused by a faulty motor burning out office at 248-338-6732. in the old furnace that heats the gift Feature Article:' 'Neath the Fostering Care' Second of a two-part article about Clinton Valley Center By Bruce J. Annett, Jr.

With Clinton Valley Center's completely drained through use central administration building in an average day.21 Soon after was seen one of architect Elijah opening, the hospital's eight Myers's first uses of a grand laundry staffers were washing, ceremonial entrance arch inset line drying, and ironing 5,000 into the projecting tower, adding articles per week. The laundry prominence and majesty to the sinks sported four pipes — hot main doors. He is thought to be water, cold water, rainwater, and the first American architect to steam.22 employ this device16, and it is Myers designed special frequently repeated in Myers's chutes so floor sweepings and later works, exemplified laundry could drop directly to especially 10 years later in the collection bins within a series of three story arch he designed to service tunnels running grace the entrance to the Texas throughout the basement of the capitol. hospital. (These tunnels Durant's 1877 History ultimately stretched nearly a mile reported a special rail spur was The central administration building stands proud in the 1930s, more by 196323 and connected to the constructed to help bring than 40 years after being rebuilt following the devastating fire of complex's outlying buildings.) building materials and coal for 1891. Within a few years, the tower and upper floors would be Railed trolleys delivered hot carts heating and power to the site. The removed and the building relegated to corridor status, connecting of food to dumbwaiters and Steam Age was here and the the Myers building to new wings added east of the former main elevators for delivery to the entrance. Machine Age was tantalizingly STATE ARCHIVES OF MICHIGAN COLLECTION - ALL wards, and also transported close, but Pontiac's massive RIGHTS RESERVED laundry and supplies before hospital would be largely being replaced in 1940 by electric muscled into existence by laborers aided by little more than trams. levers, winches, rollers, and teams of horses, mules, and oxen. By Oct. 1876, crews had largely finished the brick and The work could be dangerous and daunting. Steamfitter stonework and framed the rafters. The slaters and tinners braved William H. Lang, 27, was crushed when a 3,000 lb. pump days of numbing cold to complete the roof before work finally careened back down a ramp as it was being tugged into halted for the winter on Jan. 20,1877. Windows were installed position.17 and interior finishing began in the Sixty men, employed by Osmun & spring.24 By the following winter, 1877- Gee of Pontiac, worked 12-hour days to 78, enough of the new heating plant was use clay on the property to create the 11 functioning to keep frost from mining the million bricks required for the project.18 freshly applied plaster. General contractors were Coots & As construction at the new hospital Topping of Jackson. James McEwen & wound down early in 1878, Pontiac Co. of Detroit was low bidder for piping newspaper readers were pondering U.S. 975 gaslights and 20 stoves for "eatables, President Rutherford B. Hayes' flatirons, etc."19 Steam radiators and withdrawal of federal troops occupying warm forced air would heat the hospital. the former Confederacy. Articles reported A Boston company installed the system, on the Indian Wars still raging in the west, including two massive 8 by 26-foot steel marveled at the exploits of explorer boilers, clad in walnut and brass and Gas fixtures lit corridors in the patient wards, circa Henry Stanley in Africa, and predicted claimed by Durant to be the largest in the 1880. Gently arched ceilings of plaster-coated "electric light will within a few years be brick were designed by Myers to both suppress country to that time. as commonly used in all public sound between floors and slow the spread of Chicago-based plumbers installed 22 places...as gas is now."25 However, the potential fire. Intersecting walls were rounded at bathtubs, 48 marble-topped hand basins, corners to help prevent patient injuries. Many of hottest debate in town was about the 27 toilets, and 24 sinks.20 These the pictures on the walls were donated by Pontiac- effect of all the hospital's sewage, which conveniences would be fed by five area residents. would soon be pouring into Pontiac 10,000-gallon water storage tanks hidden STATE ARCHIVES OF MICHIGAN Creek just upstream of the city's business in the attics. The tanks would be COLLECTION - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED and residential area. Responding to a warning in the Pontiac Weekly Bill Poster imposing external appearance."28 that the state would likely face lawsuits if sewer lines were not Pontiac resident Julia A. Jackson was driven to verse by extended, a correspondent optimistically reminded readers that the wonder of it all, "only" diluted liquid would enter the streams. The rest was "We welcome thee - beautiful home of the suffering; "too valuable as a fertilizer to allow to run to waste."26 Pontiac Where the fear'd and frenzied may safely remain; 'Neath the fostering care of the angel, Pity, To sooth the troubled brow - cool the burning brain. "29 On Aug. 1, the first patient, a woman from Livingston County, was admitted without fanfare. The building commissioners proudly pointed out the hospital came in on budget and, in contrast to numerous large public projects in other states mired in graft, without a hint of scandal.30 "Another point worthy of notice," they added, "The occupancy of the building has created no disturbance, revealed no serious defects, [and] overthrown no cherished schemes. The Asylum starts at once full grown.. .."31 Designed to house some 330 patients, the hospital was filled beyond capacity almost immediately.32 Meanwhile, the sewage problem was yet to be solved. In October, a Detroit contractor began to extend the six-inch sewer West Cottage, (later called Burr Cottage,) designed by line over a mile and a half, from the hospital to the Clinton Charles Anderson in 1887, reflected the goal of housing River downstream from the city. (It would not be until 1894 patients with similar afflictions in smaller, more homelike that Pontiac would build a municipal waste treatment plant.) surroundings instead of the main hospital. Six such cottages would eventually dot the grounds. Though the contractor succeeded before the ground froze to STATE ARCHIVES OF MICHIGAN COLLECTION -ALL lay most of the pipe, his plan to burrow a 300-foot-long tunnel RIGHTS RESERVED 28 feet below Pontiac's main thoroughfare, Saginaw St., was voters ultimately approved a $2000 bond issue to fund soon mired, literally, in quicksand and underground water. completion. Cave-in after cave-in brought progress to a standstill as In May, the commissioners added Hurd to their furnishings complaints mounted about sewage-laden Pontiac Creek committee and hastened their purchases of furniture and meandering through the city. supplies. The ward furniture was built by a Detroit supplier, On May 13,1879, nine months after the hospital opened, and included ash bedsteads ($2.75 each), wardrobes, bureaus, contractor John Scott was hired to finish the dangerous and washstands. Over 343 linear feet of ash dining room tables underground work. Scott ultimately had to lay the pipe in an were purchased from a Pontiac supplier while a Northville elaborately shored and timbered trench cutting 28 feet deep company built chairs. Woven wire springs were topped with across Saginaw St. The trench also passed directly beneath the mattresses made of "pure South American horse hair." Crockery, selected seconds, came from a New York supplier. Tinware, silverware engraved with the name of the asylum, blankets and bedding, towels, tablecloths, napkins, kettles, ovens, washing machines — all went to bid. From the dispensary to the ice house, the barns to the kitchens, the wood and blacksmith shops to the examining rooms - everything had to be in place as the first patients arrived. Although furnishings and some equipment remained to be moved in, the general contractors concluded their work June 21. The Bill Poster observed, "the job is strictly first class, from beginning to end, and the contract finished to the letter."27 This excursion steamboat for patients plied Watkins Lake in the 1880s and '90s. Charles M. Wells, the Board-appointed A campground was leased on the lake's shore. Recreation venues for patients also construction superintendent who had overseen the included a substantial log cottage in a grove on the hospital grounds. entire project, praised Myers. "He has succeeded STATE ARCHIVES OF MICHIGAN COLLECTION - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED admirably in clothing a ground plan designed with reference to utility only...so as to give an elegant and home of Joseph H. Voorheis, "from which he was driven by for attendants (the latter being the first of its kind in the fear of having his house thrown down."33 Doubtless one Michigan.)"36 of Pontiac's earliest victims of "progress," Voorheis received In the early 1950s, the hospital again gained national $350 in damages for destruction of his home. recognition when social worker Alice Burlingame initiated To solve overcrowding, the hospital's attics were fitted out horticultural therapy for patients and ultimately went on to found for patient care on a temporary basis. It would fall on Charles the American Horticultural Therapy Association. One of the Anderson, who succeeded Wells in 1880 as construction hospitals notable visitors in the 1960s was famed Texas heart superintendent, to inaugurate and soon, expand Myers's master surgeon Michael DeBakey, who introduced area physicians to plan for development. his pioneering work on Numerous additions and artificial hearts and bypass buildings were added in the surgery. years prior to the start of In 1955, just prior to the World War I, and then widespread use of new drugs construction began anew and treatments and more again in the 1930s to 1970. enlightened societal Some 50 buildings would acceptance, Pontiac's patient eventually dot the grounds, population peaked at 3,100. including infirmaries for The hospital's mission rapidly male and female patients evolved from custodial care to with contagious diseases, modem psychiatric treatment. "cottages" with special It was renamed Clinton Valley privileges for residents, a Center in 1973. A year of greenhouse, and a celebration commemorated the substantial log cabin built for hospital's centennial in 1978, social events. A steamboat including dedication of a and picnic grounds at nearby Michigan Historical Site Watkins Lake provided marker, Paradoxically, it also additional recreation. The Great Fire of Dec. 26,1891 gutted the central administration building highlighted the reality that The icehouse was and also damaged many patient rooms. Hundreds of Pontiac citizens helped many buildings were being rescue patients and remove furniture, records, and personal effects before expanded in 1890 to store shuttered due to the declining the advancing flames. To aid the relief effort, Pontiac bakeries that night 1,400 tons of ice, enough to baked 500 loaves of bread and butchers boiled 50 hams. Amazingly, no patient load and functional obsolescence. In 1985, four last two summer seasons if fatalities or serious injuries resulted from the fire, although hospital a mild winter prevented operations were disrupted for months and many patients had to be years after the site was placed cutting and gathering ice at temporarily housed elsewhere, including at Pontiac's high school. on the National Register of nearby Sylvan or Harris —STATE ARCHIVES OF MICHIGAN COLLECTION - ALL RIGHTS Historic Places, a county Lakes. At about the same RESERVED commissioner called the site time, a new, larger meat "ideal" for a factory for GM's processing facility was built, "in the hope of buying all meat then-planned Saturn subsidiary, with the hospital buildings on foot." Attached rooms were designed for storing and converted into administrative offices or torn down.37 rendering grease for use as the hospital made its own soap.34 "What value do you place on history? I think you place a On the morning after Christmas, 1891, a fire starting in lot of value on it," said Owen Winnie, then-Pontiac's planning the attic of the central administration building, soon engulfed administrator in 1991, as adaptive reuse was being studied.38 it and adjacent patient wings before being contained by the He said the "unique flavor of the old buildings makes the asylum fire department, assisted by the Pontiac and Detroit property valuable." fire companies.35 Detroit, in little more than an hour, had rushed Pontiac's then-Mayor Wallace Holland was considering a "town an engine and crew north on a special train. Fortunately, no within a town," with 7,000 to 10,000 people living and working lives were lost, but hospital operations were disrupted for months in the buildings, surrounded by nature trails and a golf course. and temporary housing for patients included Pontiac's high "I don't think there's another parcel of property with that school and the Michigan Military Academy at Orchard Lake. kind of potential this side of the East Coast," Winnie predicted. Anderson oversaw the rebuilding of the damaged hospital When city and county officials unveiled a more formalized plan buildings to their original exterior appearances. Later additions in 1992, state officials panned the proposal saying, "there were between 1930-50 obliterated the mirror image symmetry of the no plans for any closure."39 As state-operated mental health Myers design. facilities were downsized, however, the hospital's fate appeared At Chicago's 1893 Columbian Exposition, the hospital sealed. By 1997, with barely 200 patients remaining, Clinton received a special award for "evidence of excellent fire Valley closed.40 Three years passed as state, county, and a new protection, detached cottages for each sex, and a training school Continued on Page 9 From Our Collections: The Hadsell Collection (Asa and Albert) By Leslie S. Edwards

County, Ontario. He also continued to improve his homestead. In 1866, Asa received a "Farm Right" certifying that he purchased the right to "manufacture and use, on his Farm in E. Bloomfield and in no other place or places, the Farm Gate known as the "Harrah National Gate"." By 1872, the Hadsell homestead consisted of 34 acres, and grew to include the "brick dwelling and frame barn...with the surrounding yards, orchards, garden", as "Hadsell log cabin on south side of Hadsell well as "pasture fields known as the pond. Artificial lake. Was a bog - took out swamp lot and wood pasture". loads of black dirt 1898." Asa B. Hadsell died 28 Jun 1879 with an estimated value, both real and personal, The Hadsell house, was first built of $25,000. His bequeathed to his son along the Saginaw Trail, which eventually "Hadsell Pond & Hadsell residence. Albert, the farm on Section 3 consisting of became Woodward Avenue. Woodward View toward north." 149 acres, where Albert resided at the time. began as a narrow 18-foot road with an In addition, Albert was to receive all the interurban rail track running along the Asa B. Hadsell was bom 31 Jan 1796 tools, implements, horses, stock and other east side. By 1916, it had been paved all in Barkhamsted, Litchfield, Connecticut. personal property which belonged to Asa the way from Detroit to Pontiac, and in The family moved west, settling in Vestal, at the time of his death, subject to the 1923, a measure was adopted to widen Broome County, New York. In 1818, Asa dower right of his "beloved widow", Woodward Avenue to make it the first set out for Michigan, and in August 1819, Fanny E. Hadsell. His son, Edmund, who "super highway". This would include arrived in Pontiac, where he took resided in California was to receive $1,000 creating four lanes, with provision for the employment with the Pontiac Company, and his grandson, Charles E. Hadsell $500, interurban rail between two strips of working on the first dam and the saw and with the remainder of his estate, both real concrete, measuring a total width of 204 grist mills. Asa made his first land and personal to his wife Fanny, whom he feet. "When the widening of Woodward purchase 17 Sep 1821 with John Cochran, named executrix. Avenue began many farms were being 160 acres being the southeast quarter of tilled along its distance between Pontiac Section 3 in Bloomfield Township. He and Birmingham and between Birmingham then traded that property on 17 Oct 1822, and Royal Oak. Today scarcely a farm for 50 acres in part of the northeast quarter remains along the entire 13 miles." The of Section 4 of Bloomfield Township effect of Wider Woodward on the Hadsell owned by Luther and Polly Sowles. farm as the loss of a large portion of land On 4 Jul 1822, Asa married Elizabeth fronting Woodward, resulting in the Todd, and they built a sturdy one-room log removal of the fence and changing the cabin on the south end of their land facing entrance to the home. east. There, they raised two sons, Charles The Hadsell house still stands today, and Edmund until Elizabeth died 5 Nov just south of St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, 1846. On 18 Nov 1850, Asa married his with the red brick painted white and a second wife, Fanny E. Adams. Fanny also newer home where the bam used to stand. bore two children, Albert Gallatin, and a The intricate cornice brackets can still be The Hadsell house with the "Harrah National daughter, Addie Byron, and now the log seen underneath the roof, but the large cabin held a family of six. By April 1857, Gate" Victorian porch and detailed front entrance Hadsell was contracting with Johnson is long gone. It is not known when the log Prall, a well-known architect and builder, After Asa's death, Fanny resided in cabin was destroyed, although a 1906 to build a larger house. In June, Asa the Hadsell home until her death 3 Apr news clipping featured a photograph of the purchased on contract seventy thousand 1897. After her death, Albert and his interior, and a 1916 atlas shows a building bricks at $5 per thousand for a total sum of family moved back to the homestead, located on the south side of the pond. $350.00, and construction of the red brick making improvements, and inl898, the After Albert's death in 1917, the house soon began. "swamp lot" or bog, was cleared of dirt, homestead was eventually sold off and Asa continued to increase his land and an artificial lake called Hadsell Pond subdivided. Today, the home sits on a hill holdings, purchasing property all over the was created. Albert eventually sold the overlooking the Hadsell Pond which county. He owned several parcels in acreage in Section 3, and by 1916, it had remains as a silent reminder of the once Bloomfield and Pontiac Townships, become the South Bloomfield Highlands rustic farm the Hadsell family called home including a "Store House" on Saginaw Subdivision. When Albert died in 1917, a for over 75 years. street in Pontiac, as well as parcels in "Statement of Property" valued the 38 acre Orion, Auburn Hills and even Lambton homestead at Bloomfield at $15,000. 7 Board of Directors Honor Roll of Donors 2000 for 2001 Corporate, Foundation and Civic Dan and Miriam Foxman Edwin Adler, Lake Angelus Support Rosamond Haeberle Bruce Annett, Waterford Gifts of $1000 or more Shelia Dansby Harvey Janice Bell, Waterford Oakland County Lincoln Republican Club Isabel Hazen James Bowie, Pontiac Gifts of $100 to $250 John and Barbara Irwin Ross Callaway, West Bloomfield Great Lakes Crossing Richard and Ann Irwin Virginia Clohset, Bloomfield Twp Quantum Leap, Inc. Clayton Jones, Sr. Vernon and June Kath Kathryn Daggy, Auburn Hills Gifts of Under $100 LaVon Delisle, Oxford Marilyn Kalfian Alpha Accounting Clarke and Marion Kimball Guy Duffield, Waterford Michigan Farm and Garden Foundation Ken Kuenkel Patricia Fisher, White Lake Greater Pontiac Area Chamber of Com Rex Lamoreaux merce Gaylor Forman, Bloomfield Hills Jo Pate Miriam Foxman, Keego Harbor InKind Contributions Marjorie Pflug Priscilla Gaytan, Commerce Goldner-Walsh Nursery Wallace Pike David Hackett, Rochester Hills Greater Pontiac Area Chamber of Commerce Bob and Ellen Reynnells Rosamond Haeberle, Waterford Henk Studio Mildred Schmidt Pauline Harrison, Rochester Hills Jacobsen's Flowers, Inc. Charles Steeber Gil Haven, Linden Louisa St. Clair Chapter, DAR Isabel Stockwell Barbara Irwin, Bloomfield Hills Nature Nook Florists Ruth Wall Annalee Kennedy, Sylvan Lake Oakland County Genealogical Society Fran Wilson Rattallee Lake Tree Farm Clarke Kimball, Pontiac Charles and Ernestine Williams Starbucks Rex Lamoreaux, Pontiac Mike and Ellen Zehnder Westborn Market Charles Martinez, West Bloomfield Gifts of under $50 Adeline Adams Irma McMillen, Pontiac Individual Donors Susan Metzdorf, Auburn Hills John Averill Jean Milton, Pontiac Gifts of $1000 or more Marilyn Brooks Ruth Priestly, Waterford Virginia Clohset Kenneth and Geraldine Carman Robert Reynnells, Pontiac Gifts of $500 to $999 Gaylor Forman Janet Freeman John Riley, Pontiac Donald and Elizabeth Adams Ed and Gretchen Adler Wilson and Virginia Garner Virginia Rodgers, Franklin Julie Gibson Elizabeth Ross, Pontiac Gifts of $250 to $499 Bruce Hassen Frederick Poole Constance Scafe, Clarkston Judy Hauser Gale Scafe, Clarkston Gifts of $100 to $249 Elizabeth Hoard Doris Smith, Pontiac Ross Callaway Judith Hudalla Richard Stamps, Rochester Gladys Cheal Margaret Hutchinson Michael Willis, Pontiac Ralph and Carolyn Coulter Florence Johnson Ellen Zehnder, Clarkston Kathryn Daggy Jean Kroger Michael Zehnder, Clarkston Guy and Nancy Duffield Dorothy Learning Pamela Gosik Charles Martinez David and Marion Hackett Eleanore McCurry Pontiac Evening Press, Tuesday John P. Harris David Wallace March 10,1896 Gil Haven Mary Wessels Thomas and Jane Kamlay Thelma Wright "If any person has knowledge of Daniel and Carolyn Murphy Dorothy Yancey the present whereabouts of any of Joyce Scafe We have tried to acknowledge all those who the records of the Oakland County Forbes Sibley have made financial contributions to the Walter and Betty Whitmer Pioneer Society, information Society in the past year. We apologize in would be thankfully received by Gifts of $50 to $99 advance for any omissions. Please call us at Richard Balmer (248) 338-6732 with any corrections. There Ezra Jewell, the present secretary. Janice Bell are many more donors who have contrib It is within-the possibilities that the Andrew Berry uted artifacts for our collections, or items to late Mr. Walter loaned the book or Janet Hayward Burnham be used at our Ice Cream Social and books of record to some one who Mildred Carmichael Victorian Christmas Open House. We desired to secure certain data, who Theda Dey greatly appreciate every one of the Margery Edwards donations we have received in the past year. forgot to return the same." George Ellenwood Your support is invaluable. Eastern Michigan Asylum continued gan. L.H. Everts & Co., Philadelphia, 1877, pg. 32. 25 Ibid, pg. 32. 26 Pontiac Weekly Bill Poster, Dec. 25,1878. group of Pontiac officials wrangled about whether the site's 27 "Mental Disease: The Discipline, Modes of Restraint, and Duties of redevelopment value was higher with or without the buildings. Attendants at the Pontiac Asylum," Pontiac Weekly Bill Poster, Jan. 8,1879. Citing rising maintenance and security costs, the state 28 Gary Thome, "Hospital Served by Tunnels," Pontiac Daily Press, Aug. allocated $5 million to raze the hospital. Demolition began in 14, 1963. 29 W.M. McConnell, M.E. Crofoot, et.al., Report of the Board of Commis Jan. 2000. "Some concern has been voiced regarding the sioners of the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Years 1877-78, W.S. George historical significance of these buildings. However, it is the type & Co., State Printers and Binders, Lansing, 1878, pg. 3. of architecture that is cited as 'historical,' not the actual 30 "The Light of the Future," Pontiac Gazette, July 12,1878. buildings," said Janet Phipps, director of Michigan's Department 31 Pontiac Weekly Bill Poster, April 24,1878. of Management and Budget, defending the action.41 By July, 32 Ibid, June 28,1878. 33 Ibid, pg. 28. most of the buildings were rubble. 34 Pontiac Weekly Bill Poster, Dec. 11,1878. Myers died in Detroit in 1909. His obituary in the Detroit 35 W.M. McConnell, et.al., pg 17. News noted, "An architect's best monument is the work that he 36 Ibid, pg. 19. leaves behind. Its artistic treatment and its enduring quality 37 Hurd should show forth the manner of the man to future generations." 38 W.M. McConnell et.al., "Final Report of the Board of Commissioners His 122-year-old hospital succumbed not to flaws in "artistic of the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Insane at Pontiac, Michigan from Set. 30, 1879 to Dec. 31, 1879." W.S. George & Co., State Printers and treatment" or "enduring quality," but to community indifference Binders, Lansing, 1880, pgs 5-6. and political infighting. 39 W.G. Vinton et.al., "Report of the Board of Trustees of the Eastern Michi Myers's grand gift from the Gilded Age — the economic gan Asylum at Pontiac for the Biennial Period Ending June 30,1892." Robert engine of 19,h Century Pontiac—wouldn't be saved to contribute Smith & Co., State Printers and Binders, 1892, pg. 24. 40 C.B. Burr, "Eastern Michigan Asylum," The International, Vol. 1, No. 1, to the city's 21st Century future. Jan. 1892. OCPHS Collection. 41 Clinton Valley Center, Capsule History, 1878-1978. 16 Clinton Valley Center, Capsule History, 1878-1978. Hospital monograph. 42 "From an 'Insane Asylum' to Auto Plant?," Royal Oak Daily Tribune, OCPHS Collection. Jan. 26,1985. 17 Ibid. 43 Steve Spaulding, "Battle Begins to Preserve History: Future of CVC 18 Hitchcock and Seale, pg. 176. Buildings at Stake," Oakland Press, May 26,1991, pg. El. 19 Pontiac Weekly Bill Poster, Dec. 25, 1878. 44 Phil Ginotti, "CVC Development Slammed," The Oakland Press, Mar. 20 Charles Crumm, "Practical Beauty," The Oakland Press, Feb. 24,1997, 28,1992. pg. A3. 45 Ibid, May 18, 1997. 21 Hitchcock and Seale, pg. 280. 46 Janet E. Phipps, "Pontiac Had Chance to Redevelop CVC," Letter to the 22 Pontiac Weekly Bill Poster, Feb. 20,1878. Editor, The Oakland Press, Feb. 2, 2000, pg. K2. 23 Pontiac Weekly Gazette, Mar. 12, 1875 and Aug. 4,1876. OCPHS Col lection. Copyright Bruce J. Annett, Jr. 2001. All rights reserved. 24 Samuel W. Durant, editor, 1817-1877 History of Oakland County, Michi

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION Oakland County Pioneer & Historical Society

Yes, I'd like to Q join □ renew Name Q Individual Member $20.00 Q F a m i l y $ 5 0 . 0 0 Street Apt. No. Q Senior Member (62 & over).... $15.00 City/State_ _Zip_ □ Student Member (18 & under) $10.00 □ Patron $75.00 Telephone Q B e n e f a c t o r $ 1 0 0 . 0 0 E-mail Q Life Member $200.00 □ Life Couple $300.00 Q Organization (Non-Profit) $50.00 Enclose check or money order made payable to: □ Corporate Member/Sponsor $150.00

Memberships, except life, Oakland County Pioneer & Historical Society are for one year. 405 Oakland Avenue Pontiac, Michigan 48342 (248) 338-6732 Calendar of Events

Saturday, February 17 Board Meeting 9:30am Wednesday, March 21 Board Meeting...... 9:30am Saturday, April 21 BoardMeeting.... 9:30am Wednesday, May 16 Board Meeting 9:30am Saturday, June 16 BoardMeeting 9:30am Wednesday, July 18 BoardMeeting 9:30am Saturday, July 28 Ice Cream Social l-5pm Sunday, July 29 Ice Cream Social (Rain Date)

NOTE: For convenience, all Board Meetings will now be held at 9:30am.

Historic Community News The Ortonville Community Historical Society has received $2500 through the Ortonville Chamber of Commerce, a Community Development Block Grant and a private donation to be used for renovation of their museum.

The Milford Historic Society is trying to raise $500,000 to restore the old Ford Powerhouse, an Art Deco hydroelectric plant designed by architect Albert Kahn in 1939. In Madison Heights, the Kendall School Foundation has been formed to raise funds to restore the Kendall One-Room Schoolhouse, built in 1914.

U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 70 Pontiac, Ml Non-Profit Org.

405 Oakland Avenue Pontiac, MI 48342 (248) 338-6732 (248) 338-6731 Fax

[email protected] Preservation of the Tost for the 'Enrichment of future generations

Internet address: http://wwnet.net/~ocphs/index.html