Painting image shared by HistoricDetroit.org
In 1818 Territorial Governor Lewis Cass proclaimed that the third Michigan county to receive a name would be called Macomb. At that time the young General was Commander of the Fifth Military Department in Detroit. Born in that city in 1782, son of prominent local entrepreneurs, Macomb had entered the U.S. Army in 1799. He had gained national renown and honor during the War of 1812 for his victory at Plattsburg in September 1814 over a far superior force of British invaders. Later as Chief Army Engineer he promoted the building of military roads in the Great Lakes area. From May 1828 to his death in June 1841, Macomb served as Commander in Chief of the Army. He is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington D.C. His birthday, April 3, is honored as Macomb County Heritage Day. Michigan Historical Marker Registered Site S0418 Erected 1974 Location: Gratiot at Macomb St., Mount Clemens, Macomb County.
The statue of Alexander MaComb in Detroit was crafted from cannons captured from the British during the War of 1812.
For more information, see “Alexander Macomb Monument”, HistoricDetroit.org
Also see Mickey Lyons, “Macomb’s Irish Legacy : Exploring the story behind a familiar statue, and why the man had a Michigan county named after him, Hour Detroit, March 3, 2015.
On April 3, 1838, construction began on Michigan’s first state prison in Jackson. At one time, it was the largest walled prison in the world and still remains one of the biggest.
The legislature passed legislation authorizing a prison in 1838 and a temporary establishment was built as a wooden building and a fence of tamarack poles. Sixty acres were donated for the prison.
In 1839, 35 prisoners arrived to the establishment. Three years later a permanent prison was built and it housed many prisoners until 1934, where they were housed in a new prison which is north of I-94. Beginning in the 1880s, the warden at the time, H.F. Hatch really stressed for education and rehabilitation for the inmates. By 1882, it was the largest walled prison in the world!
Jackson was the early favorite for the prison, partly because the owner of a tract of newly purchased farmland in the area was also a member of the House committee considering the matter. Originally the prison was named Michigan State Prison, then State Prison of Southeast Michigan, and better known as “Jacktown” (Judge C. Williams Whitbeck, Jackson Legal News, 2010).
Due to the Prohibition Era, the increase of inmates increased and the need for a bigger facility was put into action. Alexander Groesbeck, Michigan’s governor during the time, was busily building a network of roads throughout the state. Alongside the roads, he built a parallel system of political patronage. “Convict labor, Groesbeck realized, could be used at a fraction of the cost of ordinary workers and he quickly concluded that rather than having too many inmates, he actually had too few”(Ibid). Pure corruption occured at Jacktown as the government saw the inmates as free labor that could be sent out to work certain industrial jobs in the area, to bring in not only money for the government, but allow the prisoners to stray outside their boundaries. Drugs, alcohol, weapons, and even weapons made their way back into the prison that led to more layers of complication and corruption. This type of work did stop, but it showcases the corruption that the 1920s played not only from the Prohibition, but also inside the political world.
Jackson Prison Inmates, 1942
From Kwame to Kevorkian to the infamous Purple Gang, Michigan’s most notorious criminals have passed through those walls. Famous inmate stories include a conspiracy involving Jackson’s Purple Gang Prisoners in the murder of a State Senator , and a famous daring helicopter escape.
But it’s not only important to Michigan history, it’s important to American history. As the United States remains the number one prison population in the world, we once again begin the discussion on prison reform. The conversation was not so different about 130 years ago. The only difference being in the 1880’s, reformers from Europe looked to this new nation as a model for building and improving their own prison systems. For example in Jackson, Chaplain Albert M. Ewert taught prisoners painting and poetry and Warden H. F. Hatch placed an emphasis on education and rehabilitation long before prisoner reentry programs were officially developed.
The appeal of a good prison story is nothing new. Whether it’s Shawshank Redemption or Orange is the New Black stories of crime and redemption have always made for great movies and TV shows. The Jackson Riot of 1952 with 2,600 inmates doing $2.5 million worth of damage over five days inspired the 1954 movie Riot in Cell Block 11.
This isn’t the only film with Jackson Prison ties. In 2009, the guests of the prison were Edward Norton, Milla Jovovich, and Robert DeNiro. After 2007 when the heart of the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility was finally closed, several film crews used the old cell blocks as filming locations including Stone, Conviction (starring Hilary Swank), and Street Boss.
Today the prison is still fully functioning.
Sources:
Elaine Brewster, “State Prison : Jackson“, Michigan History.
Rebecca Calkins, “How Prison History Shaped Jackson, Michigan and the World“, Awesome Mitton Blog, April 9, 2015.
Michigan History, March/April 2018, p. 9
After about a year of letters being addressed to Michigan, Michigan, the state capitol’s name was changed to Lansing.
Sources :
Michigan History, January/February 2013.
Lansing, Michigan wikipedia entry
For more information about Lansing, Michigan’s early history see City in the Forest by Birt Darling (1950) and Out of a Wilderness by Justin Kestenbaum (1981)
For another article about Lansing’s early years, see Linda R. Peckham and David Votta, “Daniel Buck’s Biddle City, Michigan History, March/April 2013.
On April 3, 1869, the Legislature established a free statewide school system supported by local taxes and state aid. Prior to the act, local governments had issued rate bills (tuition charges) to the parents of children who attended primary schools that had opened in most settled parts of the state.
Source: Mich-Again’s Day
On April 3, 1903, Benjamin Purnell, an itinerate preacher, along with his wife Mary, created the Israelite House of David, a religious colony, in Benton Harbor, Michigan, with land donated by devout followers. Within a few years, the colony had close to five hundred members living on the colony grounds.
Though small in number, their accomplishments were many. They were strong contributors to the agricultural community around them. It is thought that they developed one of the first cold storage facilities in the country and were the first to preserve jellies in jars. As early as 1908, they established a pre-Disney type amusement park, complete with miniature trains. A zoo and aviary were soon added to the park. They were also credited with inventing the automatic pinsetter used in their bowling alley. One of the tenets of their faith was vegetarianism, and the colony restaurant, serving original-recipe vegetarian meals, was credited with producing the first “sugar cone.” They built a three-story hotel in downtown Benton Harbor and an elaborate motor lodge, “The Grand Vista,” south of town. They built tourist cabins, bottled water from their own natural springs, erected a synagogue for their Jewish friends, and for a brief period of time even had an “on-site” hospital. They constructed a large amphitheater to accommodate their accomplished orchestra and world- renowned jazz band. They had a complete logging operation on High Island in northern Michigan. Another tenet of their faith was that they must neither shave nor cut their hair. When a few of the colony members were refused employment with a local streetcar company because of their appearance, the House of David bought controlling interest in the firm and soon all conductors were seen with long hair and beards!
The feature for which the House of David is perhaps best remembered, however, is the talented teams of bearded barnstorming baseball players that traveled to nearly every state in the Union, Mexico, and most of the Canadian Provinces. Early in the team’s history, when their travels took them primarily to the east, their competition would often consist of the formidable Negro League teams: the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the Bacharach Giants, the Newark Eagles, and the Homestead Grays. Later in the 1930s, both the House of David and the City of David would barnstorm across the country with the Kansas City Monarchs. In 1939, the City of David hooked up with Satchel Paige’s All Stars for over two months, playing 60 games between them.
Grover Cleveland Alexander would serve as manager/pitcher for one of the House of David teams from 1931 through 1935. Chief Bender was also a member of the 1933 eastern traveling team, along with Jackie Mitchell, the first woman to ever sign a professional baseball contract. In 1934, Babe Didrikson Zaharais joined the Eastern traveling team. That same year also saw one of the first integrated teams take the field when Satchel Paige and Cy Perkins, his catcher, signed on to play with the Davids in the Denver Post tournament. As late as the mid-1950s, the City of David was still barnstorming with Paige, now with the Harlem Globetrotters.
The House of David is credited with inventing the “Pepper Game.” Doc Tally, John Tucker, and Dutch Faust are thought to have originated it, with George Anderson replacing Faust when he left and helping to raise its level to the point where it was often billed as an attraction that was as entertaining as the game itself. The House of David ballpark was built around 1910 to accommodate the Fitzsimmons Speed Boys, a local semi-pro team. When they were out of town, the Colony used the diamond to play neighboring school teams. In 1914, Doc Tally, with the help of his two brothers and Francis Thorpe, formed what is thought to be the first officially uniformed team. In 1916, they won the Berrien County championship, and news of their prowess began to spread.
An article by the Associated News Service appeared in 1919 about the team, and in 1920 they were featured in a New York Times mid-week pictorial. All was well, with only one House of David traveling team on the road, until an internal struggle tore the Colony in two. In 1930, the Mary’s City of David formed, and with its formation came the “second” House of David traveling baseball team. Both the City of David and the House of David claimed to be the “original” ball club. By 1934, there were as many as four Benton Harbor teams on the road. The City of David, which had no home park, was destined to be forever the “visitors,” while the House of David sent out an Eastern, Western, and Central States traveling team and also utilized the “home” diamond. To add to the confusion, Louis Murphy, a former House of David promoter, formed his own House of David team, complete with whiskers, and played primarily in the Southeast.
Source : Joel Hawkins, The House of David Baseball Team, BaseballLibrary.com
House of David baseball team / Joel Hawkins and Terry Bertolino. Chicago, IL : Arcadia, c2000. available through interlibrary loan
On April 3, 1933, Michigan became the first state to vote for a repeal of federal Prohibition. During the 1920s, Michigan was a battleground for bootleggers who smuggled liquor into Michigan from Canada. With the Great Depression and the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the nation demanded an end to Prohibition. Michigan became the first state to approve the 21st Amendment, ending the nation’s experiment with Prohibition. However, the state would have to wait for a convention to be held on April 10 to make it legal.
There is some disagreement about whether the proper day to celebrate is April 3 – the day Michigan’s delegates voted to ratify the amendment – or April 10 – the day the ratification convention took place. But, honestly, why not both?
When Prohibition ended in 1933, patrons flooded the reopened bars in Muskegon and celebrated the flowing taps.
Sources :
Historical Society of Michigan
“Michigan Votes for Repeal of Prohibition”, Detroit Free Press, April 4, 1933, cover.
Troy Reimink, “Today in Michigan history: A thirsty state ratifies bill overturning Prohibition, becoming first in U.S.”, MLive, April 9, 2012.
The Windsor-Detroit Funnel: Prohibition in Detroit. Wayne State University Walter Reuther Library. December 7, 2015.
Rum Running and the Roaring Twenties: Prohibition on the Michigan-Ontario Waterway / Philip P. Mason. Detroit, MI : Wayne State University, 1995.
It’s the 75th birthday of Isle Royale National Park. It was established on April 3, 1940, and is Michigan’s only National Park.
For more information see Isle Royale National Park, National Geographic Traveler.
Isle Royale National Park wikipedia entry.
A deadly F5 tornado that packed winds of up to 300 mph struck northwest Grand Rapids, cutting a path from Hudsonville to Comstock Park. More than 330 injuries were reported, in addition to 17 fatalities.
April 3, 1956, was one of the deadliest days in West Michigan’s history, when a violent tornado tore a path through several West Michigan communities. It was one of several strong tornadoes to hit Michigan that day.
Source : Andrew Krietz, “Grand Rapids tornadoes: Here are 5 notable events in West Michigan history”, MLive, July 7, 2014.
“Aftermath of the deadly 1956 tornado: 17 killed, 300 injured in West Michigan“, MLive, April 3, 2017.
A freak snowstorm on April 3-4, 1975 dumped 15 inches of wet snow, making roads and sidewalks impassable. Saginaw reported 14 inches; Flint reported 17 inches. Many people weren’t prepared for that kind of weather so late in the spring. As a result, MSU shut for the second time in its history.
Dorm trays were turned into “mini tobaggans” for sliding down the sloped roof of the Munn Ice Arena. And of course, many students took the opportunity to visit East Lansing bars across the street from campus.
It later led to one of the biggest floods in mid-Michigan history about 2 weeks later.
Addendum : Top Six MSU Closures Due to Snow, Cold, or a Combination
Number 1. The first time the campus was closed was on January 27, 1967, when 26 inches of snow fell on campus.
Number 2. A freak snowstorm on April 3, 1975 dumped 15 inches of wet snow, making roads and sidewalks impassable. Many people weren’t prepared for that kind of weather so late in the spring. It later led to one of the biggest floods in mid-Michigan history about 2 weeks later.
Number 3. The blizzard of ’78 also forced the university to suspend classes, after 24 inches of snow closed MSU for 2 days on January 26 & 27.
Number 4. Cold weather was the reason why MSU suspended classes on January 19, 1994. Temperatures were 18 degrees below zero, with a wind chill of 51 degrees below zero, the second coldest temperature recorded this century. While classes were suspended, the university stayed open.
Number 5. On February 2, 2011, classes were suspended for blizzard conditions that brought nearly a foot of snow, high winds and frigid temperatures. University critical functions were maintained, while electronic services and business operations were done remotely. The National Weather Service called this a “top 10 storm” for Michigan.
Number 6. January 6-7, 2014. After nearly two days of suspended operations, classes at MSU are expected to resume at 5pm Tuesday, marking the sixth time in university history it had to close to due to weather.
Sources:
“Recent MSU Closure Marks 6th Time in University History“, WILX News, Channel 10, January 7, 2014.
Eve Adoulos and Hillary Gatlin, “A History of Snow Days at MSU”, Tales from the Archives: Volume One, Campus and Traditions, 1917.
Lansing’s minor league ballpark – Oldsmobile Park – made its debut on April 3, 1996, with a college game between Michigan State University and the University of Michigan.
Two days later, with the temperature around 40 degrees and ice still clinging to metal bleachers, the Lansing Lugnuts baseball team began play against the Rockford (Ill.) Cubbies.
Professional baseball was back in Michigan’s state capital for the first time in 55 years. It was welcomed with enthusiasm the likes of which the Minor League landscape had never seen before.
An astounding 538,326 rooters attended games at Oldsmobile Park during the 1996 regular season, making Lansing the first Class-A team to break the 500,000-fan mark in its first year. The total was additionally the second-highest Class-A attendance in MiLB history (topped only by crosstown rival West Michigan during the same 1996 campaign) and ranked the Lugnuts fourth in the nation in Minor League attendance. As the cherry on top, Baseball America took a poll to determine the nation’s favorite Minor League nickname. The Lansing Lugnuts finished second.
In the mid-2000s, Michigan’s automobile industry was in trouble. Lansing’s automotive history is a proud one, dating back to native son Ransom E. Olds and his Olds Motor Works at the turn of the 20th century. With General Motors struggling, however, plants were shut down throughout Michigan, including in the heart of Lansing. Unemployment grew precipitously. Though the Lugnuts’ attendance remained consistent in spite of the area’s hardships, it soon became untenable for GM to pay the naming rights to maintain Oldsmobile Park. (The Oldsmobile brand, after all, had been closed in spring of 2004.)
During the 2009-2010 offseason, the Lansing Lugnuts reached a new naming rights pact with Lansing’s own Thomas M. Cooley Law School, the largest law school in the country. Entering 2010, it was agreed, Oldsmobile Park became Cooley Law School Stadium.
Additionally, Jackson National Life Insurance and the Lugnuts agreed to a separate contract to name the team’s natural turf as Jackson Field. The field’s dimensions are idiosyncratic and captivating, with 305-foot short porches down the left and right field lines culminating in 23-foot tall walls. The power alleys do a hitter no favors, stretching out to 380 feet in left-center and angling all the way to 412 feet at deepest right-center. As such, the park lends itself to regular highlight-reel grabs and the definite possibility of an inside the park home run.
Sources:
Lansing State Journal, April 4 and April 5, 1996.
Jesse-Goldberg-Strassler, “Cooley Law School Stadium / Lansing Lugnuts“, Ballpark Digest, January 10, 2013.