Located in the heart of Michigan’s Copper Country, Houghton County received its earliest settlers in the 1840s. After the Civil War, Houghton, named for Douglas Houghton, the state’s first geologist, boomed. During the 1870s, the county’s biggest copper producer, Calumet & Hecla Mining Company, mined 50 percent of the nation’s copper. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Houghton County’s 66,000 people made it the state’s fourth most populous county.
Source : Michigan Is Amazing
On March 19, 1897, the state supreme court ruled that Hazen Pingree could not serve both as mayor of Detroit and governor of Michigan. Subsequently, Pingree resigned as mayor so he could serve in Lansing. In 1999, a book called “The American Mayor” named him one of the 10 greatest mayors in U.S. history.
Source : Detroit Historical Society.
On March 19, 1925 a law was passed in Michigan requiring fishermen to purchase a fishing license.
Source : Historical Society of Michigan
John Voelker of Ishpeming was a famous lawyer, county prosecutor, Michigan Supreme Court justice, but an even more famous author of books (such as Anatomy of a Murder) under the pen name Robert Traver.
His memory lives on under a Foundation he created.
The John D. Voelker Foundation Native American Scholarship was established to assist Native American students to pursue the dream of a legal education. Grants are made annually in an amount determined by the Foundation’s Board in light of the funds available, consistent with preserving the fund’s permanent endowment. The fund was established thorough contributions form members of the Foundation, who subscribed to limited editions of Laughing Whitefish, Trout Madness, and Traver on Fishing signed by the author when he established the Foundation. Annual grants have been $4,000.00 for the last several years, matched by tribal funds in an equal amount in most cases, under an arrangement between the Foundation and the Michigan Inter-Tribal Council. So far, the Foundation has assisted seven Voelker scholars.
Sources :
Anatomy of a Murder 50th Anniversary, Northern Michigan University website.
On an early March tour of Michigan’s prison intake center, new Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein learned that corrections officials want more guidance from judges about their expectations for the lawbreakers sent here.
New prisoners and rearrested parole absconders are processed at the three-building complex before being assigned to correctional facilities around the state. Inmates arrive with sentencing orders and other paperwork but nothing to indicate why a judge prescribed a certain prison term or what the goal of it is, Michigan Corrections Director Dan Heyns said.
“It would be helpful for judges to tell us the intent of their sentences,” Heyns told Bernstein, the nation’s first blind state Supreme Court justice. “If it’s strictly to provide public safety, we know how to do that. But if the intent is to get at the root cause of their criminality, tell us that.”
Bernstein’s unusual visit — prison officials couldn’t recall a previous visit from a sitting Supreme Court justice — came as lawmakers attempt to revive failed 2014 legislation calling for reforms of 1998 sentencing guidelines and parole policies. The changes were recommended last May by the Council of State Governments Justice Center, which noted 1 in 5 state dollars is spent on corrections.
For the full article, see Gary Heinlein, “Justice goes to prison to weigh Mich. sentencing system”, Detroit News, March 19, 2015.
Also see Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein on Facebook.
#TheBlindJustice on Twitter
Bleeker County, Michigan only lasted two years and 4 days before locals successfully petitioned to rename it Menominee County on March 19, 1863.
Source : MSU Map Library, @MSUMapLib, November 2, 2017
Bancroft House Hotel, Saginaw Michigan, around 1900.
Sept. 7, 1859 — Lumber baron Jesse Hoyt financed the building of the Bancroft Hotel, and named for his friend, George Bancroft, a historian. The main entrance was on East Genesee, and a women’s entrance was on South Washington.
On March 20, 1881, the Bancroft Hotel featured the first incandescent electric lamps used commercially in Michigan.
The first street corner in the world to have electric light was Washington and Genesee, outside the Bancroft Hotel. It was suspended from a rope and people came from miles and miles away to see it.
Sources:
Mich-Again’s Day and What Was There
Bob Johnson, “Historical timeline: downtown Saginaw’s Bancroft and Eddy buildings“, Saginaw News, January 11, 2013.
On March 20, 1897, Sebastian Spering Kresge and associates opened the first Kresge dime store in Detroit, carrying over 1500 items costing a dime or less. Kresge Store #1 would go on to become one of the top three such stores in the country, making Kresge very wealthy.
The company was renamed the Kmart Corporation in 1977, and evolved into today’s Sears Holdings Corporation, parent of Kmart and Sears.
In 1924 Kresge established The Kresge Foundation, a non-profit organization whose income he specified simply “to promote the well-being of mankind.” By the time of his death, Kresge had given the foundation over $60,000,000
Source : Bill Loomis, On this Day in Detroit History (2016), p.49.
Also see S. S. Kresge wikipedia entry.
S. S. Kresge Obituary, New York Times, October 19, 1966.
Note: Kresge bought half-ownership in two 5 and 10 stores in Detroit and Memphis in 1897 with John G. McCrory; by 1899 he was sole owner of the Detroit store and went on from there to build a retail empire.
At a March 20, 1898, rally in Detroit, the speaker’s platform was covered in a tent and canopy made from a giant American flag with American and Cuba Libre (Free Cuba) flags lining the sides of the auditorium. Rousing marches from local brass bands and thunderous applause encouraged fiery speeches from clergy, business leaders and politicians.
Michigan Gov. Hazen Pingree proposed the U.S. buy Cuba from the Spanish. (He suggested $500 million.) Detroit Mayor William C. Maybury took the podium to what was described by the Detroit Free Press as deafening cheers.
“My friends … this war in Cuba is war for those who dare not fight the fathers, husbands and brothers but rather burn the homes of defenseless women and children, poison the wells from which they draw water, and burn the fields that give them their nourishment. We should be the first of this country to say that kind of war has gone far enough and must end! (Prolonged cheers.) When we look at [Spanish] orders for starvation and annihilation, I say it should be stopped now and forever.”
“Those on the platform arose and in an instant every man, woman, and child was on his or her feet waving tiny banners or hats and canes in the air. The enthusiasm reached fever heat as the band ran from ‘Yankee Doodle’ to ‘Dixie’ the crowd went wild.”
Source : Bill Loomis, “‘Remember the Maine!’ Michigan men fight in the Spanish-American War”, Detroit News, January 5, 2014.
In 1875 the Village of Calumet was the center of the copper mining industry in North America. As the community grew, the Town Hall was built in 1886; and in 1898 it was decided that an opera house was needed to serve the community. At that time the village had a population of approximately 4,000 and more than 30,000 lived within walking distance.
The Theatre opened on March 20, 1900 with a touring Broadway production of Reginald DeKoven’s “The Highwaymen.” Newspapers reported the Calumet Theatre as one of the most elegant theaters in the Midwest. Built at a time when gaslights were the norm, the electric lights, crimson, gold and ivory color scheme, grills of the box seats, curved balcony and gallery, and the proscenium arch provided one of the finest interior decorations found anywhere on the American continent!
In the ensuing years, the Theatre’s marquee read like a Who’s Who of American Theatre: Madame Helena Modjeska, Lillian Russell, John Philip Sousa, Sarah Bernhardt, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Lon Chaney, Sr., Jason Robards, Sr., James O’Neill, William S. Hart, Frank Morgan, Wallace and Noah Beery.
The Calumet Theatre was the first municipally built theater in the country and it remains one of few municipally owned theaters in the country today.
Visit www.calumettheatre.com for schedule of events, ticketing, and more information.
Source : Calumet Theatre Company website