Isaac McCoy (June 13, 1784 – June 21, 1846) was a Baptist missionary among the Native Americans in present-day Indiana, Michigan and Missouri. He was an advocate of Indian removal from the eastern United States, proposing an Indian state in what is now Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. He also played an instrumental role in the founding of Grand Rapids, Michigan and Kansas City, Missouri.
Lewis Cass, the second governor of the Michigan Territory, signed the Treaty of Chicago on August 29, 1821, with the chiefs of the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi nations. The Potawatomi agreed to cede to the United States all the territory lying west and north of the St. Joseph River, and the United States agreed to provide funds for a blacksmith and a teacher, to reside on “one mile square on the south side of the St. Joseph” within a tract that the Potawatomis had reserved for their villages. McCoy, who had previously traveled to Detroit and petitioned Cass to provide funds for Indian missions in the 1821 Treaty, secured the position of teacher.
In December 1822, McCoy left Fort Wayne and moved his family and 18 Indian students to a site on the St. Joseph River near the present-day city of Niles in southwestern Michigan; he opened a mission to the Pottawatomi. The Carey Mission, as he named it, was 100 miles from the nearest White settlement. The Pottawatomi gave McCoy a relatively warm welcome and helped feed his large family and Indian students through their early seasons in the territory. McCoy enjoyed more success here than in his earlier endeavors. His school expanded to have 76 Indian children, four Indian employees, five missionaries, six white children, and a millwright.
The first school at Carey was opened on January 27, 1823, and originally had 30 Indian pupils. An expedition that visited the mission in June 1823 reported, “The school consists of from forty to sixty children, of which fifteen are females. They are either children of Indians, or half-breed descendants of French and Indian parents; there being about an equal number of each. It is contemplated that the school will soon be increased to one hundred.”
In 1824 an agent for Cass reported that the Carey Mission was “a colony firmly settled, numerous, civilized and happy”. Fifty densely wooded acres had been cleared and fenced, and workers had raised large amounts of corn, oats, and potatoes. By 1826 over 200 acres (0.81 km2) of land had been cleared, and 58 acres (230,000 m2) had been planted.
The mission became a way station for white settlers of the Michigan Territory. McCoy realized that they would soon supplant the native Indians. He wrote: “Our location was so remote from the settlements of white people when we first made it, and the inconveniences of reaching and residing at it so great, that we hoped, at that time, to be able to push forward the work of civilization to a state not much liable to injury by the proximity of white population, before we should be crowded by it.”
In 1826, McCoy led his family in another move, deeper into the frontier, where he established the Thomas Mission to the Odawa people, at what was later to become Grand Rapids, Michigan. McCoy and his missionaries were the first European-American settlers in Niles and Grand Rapids.
During the period from 1827 to 1829, southwestern Michigan began to be actively settled, and the Carey Mission declined, as a result of the U.S. policy of Indian removal. In 1827, in the Treaty of St. Joseph, the Potawatomi tribe ceded some of their reserved lands in southwestern Michigan. The treaty stated that its purpose was “to consolidate some of the dispersed bands of the Potawatamie Tribe in the Territory of Michigan at a point removed from the road leading from Detroit to Chicago, and as far as practicable from the settlements of the Whites”. In 1829 McCoy removed to the Thomas station, another mission he had established near the Grand River. The only missionary who remained at Carey was Robert Simerwell. With passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, the school at Carey Mission was discontinued, and in 1831 McCoy led a number of the Potawatomi to a new mission in Kansas.
Sources :
Isaac McCoy and Carey Mission wikipedia entries
Dwight Goss, “The Indians of the Grand River Valley”, pp.172-190 of Michigan Historical Collections, Vol. 30. Available via HathiTrust.
Rev. Isaac McCoy Early Baptist Indian Missionary The Baptist Encyclopedia, 1881
January 27-28, 1847
Slave catchers arrived in Marshall hoping to capture the Adam Crosswhite family who had escaped from slavery in Kentucky. Once they realized what was going on, the citizens of Marshall thwarted their efforts and helped the Crosswhites to flee to safety in Canada.
The next summer, the Kentuckians filed charges in the U.S. Circuit Court in Detroit against some of the Marshall people who had helped the Crosswhites. The case is called Giltner v Gorham et al.
A jury decided that the Marshall people had violated the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act. The court ordered the Marshall people to pay the Kentuckians $1,926. Angered by the efforts of Michigan residents to thwart slave catchers, the U.S. Congress also passed a more stringent Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 requiring harsh punishment for interference.
Michigan would respond by passing its own legislation. In 1855 Michigan’s first Republican-controlled state legislature adopted personal liberty laws, which prohibited state and local officials from cooperating with federal marshals in recovering escaped slaves. The 1855 Michigan Personal Freedom Act 162, Section 3 also allows someone “imprisoned, arrested or claimed as a fugitive slave” the right to appeal to the county circuit court for their release. Section 4 allows them to have a trial by jury.
Adam Crosswhite Marker Marshall Michigan
Sources :
Michigan Time Traveler Kid’s History – February 2002, the Underground Railroad, including two newspaper articles about the Crosswhites.
Bob Garrett, Flight to Freedom, Seeking Michigan, February 2, 2010.
“The Crosswhite Family’s Story” from the Michigan Time Traveler.
Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
On January 27, 1859, Jesse Eugene Tenney became Michigan’s state librarian. A native of Vermont, the well-travelled Tenney, a lawyer by trade, came to Michigan in 1854. He served as Marshall schools’ superintendent prior to being the state’s librarian, a gubernatorial-appointed position he held for 10 years.
His wife, Harriet Augusta Edgerton Tenney, succeeded him in the post, becoming the first female to head a Michigan State department in 1869. She had worked with her husband at the library for ten years before applying for the position when he decided to leave. During this time, she held the fort while he was away giving speeches and other duties.
To land the job, Harriet wrote a letter to the newly elected governor Henry Baldwin. The letter still survives in the state archives. She pointed out there was another female librarian in Minnesota. and that people found her satisfactory, as well as mentioning she had already had experience running various operations under her husband. She would go on to serve 11 consecutive terms under 7 different governors for the next 22 year.
Later in life, Jesse Tenney served as acting Lansing Mayor, Lansing recorder’s court judge and state Board of Education member.
Sources:
Jim Schultz, Library of Michigan, The Marshall Statesman
Jim Schultz, Library of Michigan, The Civil War Era
Jim Schultz, Library of Michigan, 1869-1893: Approaching the Twentieth Century
Dennis Burck, “History panel focuses on women in the Capitol building”, City Pulse, March 27, 2019.
The first electric lights in Michigan were installed at Metcalf’s dry goods store in Detroit. This triggered demand for the new invention, as neighboring downtown businesses clamored for Thomas Edison’s new lights.
Sources :
With the Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37 four weeks old and workers refusing to leave General Motors’ Fisher Body plants, GM President Alfred P. Sloan took his case directly to employees 75 years ago today.
In a full-page Flint Journal advertisement on Jan. 27, 1937, Sloan said the company had “earnestly striven to do everything possible to develop negotiations with the group that has attacked us” and said idled workers had been “deprived of the right to work by a small minority who have seized certain plants and are holding them as ransom to enforce their demands.”
Fifteen days after Sloan’s message appeared in The Journal, GM and the UAW signed the first agreement between the two parties, and the company recognized the union as the collective bargaining agency for workers.
Source : Ron Fonger, “75 years ago today, Alfred P. Sloan Jr. told GM workers, ‘We refuse to negotiate’ with Sit-Down strikers”, Flint Journal via MLive, January 27, 2012.
A remarkable letter sent from John W. Richardson of 445 Hawkins to President Franklin Roosevelt during World War Two protesting the lack of democracy here in the “Arsenal of Democracy”. From the National Archives, sent January 27, 1943.
Mr. President,
Perhaps you have never heard of any one by the above name, yet, one by that name is going to plead with you.
My first question I have for you to answer is, “Are we the people of the negro race too illiterate to work at war jobs other than sweeping floors? It seems to me as if we are not included in this fight for freedom, yet thousands of our boys are on the far war fronts of the world are fighting what is called democracy. I sometimes wonder if there is any democracy.
Must we the northern negro go on seeing white labor is being imported from the south to jobs we would be very good at. There are hundreds of negro men, not disabled men, but hard workers, are told there is no work for them. Is that “democracy at work” Mr. President? The plant I am speaking of is the Ford Willow Run plant.
That is all Mr. President, which is enough don’t you think?
A citizen
John W. Richardson
By noon on January 27, 1967, 24 inches of snow had accumulated on the ground in Lansing, and the U.S. Weather Bureau was predicting from two to four more inches before night. Lansing Mayor Murninghan declared a state of emergency. He urged all residents to stay in their homes or work in their neighborhoods to shovel out fire hydrants and move stalled cars from the streets. He asked all businessmen to close their businesses today, except those whose services were considered vital.
Various roofs around town collapsed due to the weight of the snow.
State Police, National Guardsmen and Delta Township firemen rescued 27 passengers stranded on a Greyhound bus at the Saginaw Highway and I-96 interchange since 11 p.m. Thursday. Passengers were carried to the fire station by snowmobile one at a time.
MSU Students brave the elements during the snow storm of 1967. (Photo: Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections)
All classes and university operations were cancelled on campus. This was the first time that the university was completed closed due to snow.
Fortunately, restaurants on Grand River provided food for students.
Approximately 75-100 students braved the snow, carrying suitcases and crates, or pushing sleds and toboggans, to ferry alcohol from Tom’s Party Store back to fraternities and dorms.
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 State Journal, January 27, 1967.
Vicki Dozier, “The snow storm that ‘paralyzed the city‘”, Lansing State Journal, January 8, 2018.
The Michigan Gray Wolf’s long journey back from near extinction is hailed as one of the greatest wildlife survivial stories in U.S. history — flourishing from just six animals in 1973 to nearly 700 today in Michigan alone.
Believe it or not, but the 9th law passed by the State of Michigan was a law establishing a bounty on killing wolves.
For more information, including videos, see Louise Knott Ahern, “The Rise of the Gray Wolf, special report from the Lansing State Journal, March 11, 2012.
High Noon for the Gray Wolf, Environment Studies Blog, January 18, 2015.
President Barack Obama this morning announced at the University of Michigan (U-M) a $1 billion Race to the Top (RTTT) for higher education.
“How can we make sure that everyone gets the education they need to personally succeed, but also build up the economy?” he said at the Al Glick Field House at the University of Michigan. ” . . . The bottom line is that an economy built to last demands we keep doing everything we can to bring down the cost of college.”
This is the third part of the administration’s RTTT initiative encouraging educational choice and excellence. Michigan has failed to qualify for RTTT grants for both K-12 and early education.
At least 13 presidents have visited the Ann Arbor campus, including U-M alumnus Gerald Ford. Visitors include Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Although George W. Bush has visited Michigan State University, he’s never made it U-M.
Sources :
Inside MIRS Today, January 27, 2012.
Katie Woodhouse, “Presidential visits to University of Michigan date back to 1892”, Ann Arbor News, January 28, 2012.
The crazy Finns of the Hancock love Heikinpäivä so much that it lasts the whole month of January (and even longer in 2018). They even have a Facebook page so you can keep track of what’s going on.
A little history : In 1999, the Finnish Theme Committee of the City of Hancock created a new Finnish-American celebration – Heikinpäivä. The celebration’s themes are taken from Finnish folk sayings associated with the name day for Heikki (Henrik’s day, 19 January). By far, the Finns make up the largest ethnic group of Michigan’s Copper Country. In Hancock approximately 40 percent of the population claimed Finnish ancestry in the most recent federal census.
Finnish speaking residents of the Copper Country still recall the proverbs their parents and grandparents brought with them from Finland. In particular, the weather proverbs connected with St. Henrik’s Day have been retained in the Hancock area, where huge amounts of winter snow are the norm. “Karhu kylkeänsä kääntää” (The bear rolls onto his other side), “Heikki heinät jakaa” (Heikki divides the hay) and ultimately, “Talven selkä poikki” (winter’s back is broken). The bear – an ancient Finnish and Saame symbol — figures well in the celebration, as do Saame and winter sports themes.
Heikinpäivä organizers keep a watchful eye on the celebration’s uniquely ethnic flavor. Finnish crafts, music, food, films and games provide something for everyone. Although a Hancock City event, the Heikinpäivä spirit has spilled into neighboring communities. From Calumet to South Range, activities abound.
There’s something for everyone. Follow the links to next annual Heikinpäivä and plan to be there!
Prior to the current Heinkinpaiva festival the Negaunee Irontown Association also celebrated Heikki Lunta Winterfest around January 19th for almost forty years. Click here for some background. The festival was canceled in 2015 because of funding challenges.
The festival celebrated the legendary (and pretty much made up) Finnish show god who is said to have the ability to perform a dance causing snowfall. I came across the original version of the Heikki Lunta Snowdance Song on a cool blog called Letters for George. In his Heikki Lunta letter, he explains:
There’s a little town called Atlantic Mine about five miles away from Houghton where they hold an annual snowmobile race every winter. In 1970 the race was at risk of being cancelled because there wasn’t any snow. The race was sponsored by radio station WMPL in nearby Hancock. With no snow in sight, one of the station’s salesmen, David Riutta, composed a song called the “Heikki Lunta Snowdance Song.” It took him about twenty minutes to invent the lyrics. “Heikki Lunta,” it turns out, means “Henry Snow” in Finnish, and Riutta chose the name because his favorite musician was country western singer Hank Snow.
Heikki Lunta was said to live in the back woods of a Finnish farming community south of Houghton, and he reportedly had the ability to do a dance which would cause snow to fall from the skies. Riutta’s song asked “Heikki Lunta” to do his dance to make it snow in time for the snowmobile race. They started playing the song on WMLP, it immediately became a local hit, and, lo and behold, it soon began snowing. According to local lore, it snowed and snowed for days. So much so that they had to cancel the snowmobile race.
So if you’re in the Upper Peninsula town of Hancock, right across the river from Houghton, you may want to check out Heikinpaiva, or at least some of the delicacies.
Lihapullia is Finnish meatballs. Lanttusose is mashed rutabaga. Both are usually on the menu for the Finnish buffet, which you guessed it, will probably be served at Finlandia University on that day.
That’s just the tip of the Finnish iceberg. There’s usually a parade, followed by the opening of the House of Snow on the campus. The House of Snow is a structure built entirely out of snow and ice, and in the past they’re even brought in an expert from Finland to make sure it’s done properly.
Other events often include sales of ethnic crafts, foods and Finnish items, a ski race, a Finnish cooking course, and a polar bear swim on the Hancock waterfront.
Oh, I almost forgot the dessert at the buffet. It’s kermakakku (cream cake), served with suomalaista kahvia (Finnish coffee).
For more information, go to http://www.pasty.com/heikki/ .
Note: Due to the Covid Pandemic, Heikinpaiva will not be held during January 2021.
Dan Roblee, “Heikinpaiva’s here: Midwinter festival packed with weekend events”, Houghton Mining Gazette, January 29, 2016
Kurt Hauglie, “Heikinpaiva is extended this year“, Houghton Mining Gazette, January 21, 2016
Source : Absolute Michigan, including a video of Heikki Lunta by Da Yoopers.
Zach Jay, Heikki Lunta Winterfest offers fun for everyone, Mining Journal, January 16, 2014.