More than 1000 Fox Indians from southwestern Michigan besige Ft. Pontchartrain and battle for several days before fleeing northeast. The French pursue with Indian allies and attack the Fox Indians again on May 20, 1712, killing hundreds.
Source : The Detroit Almanac.
Saints’ Rest (1856—1876)
Saints’ Rest, c. 1857, with College Hall in the right background.
Note the tree stumps remaining to be dug out.
1857 Photograph of Saint’s Rest Dormitory, showing stumps waiting to be dug out.
On Wednesday, May 13, 1857 the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan was dedicated with proper ceremony, and on the next morning, 63 young men filed from their dormitory, Saints Rest, and reported for classes in College Hall. During that era, students were expected to combine 15 hours a week in class with 15 to 20 hours a week of manual labor, which often consisted of clearing land and planting fields. Students were paid 5 cents an hour at first; in 1874 the rated went up to 7 and a half cents per hour; followed by 10 cents per hour in 1875. The scientific agriculture program would remain in place until 1896. The school also featured a unique calendar during this period, featuring three terms running from the final week of February until late November. This calendar would remain intact as well until 1896 when the school switched over to the more traditional September through June calendar.
The Legislature passed legislation creating the Michigan Agricultural College in 1855, so the university claims 1855 as it starting date..
For more information see Spartan sports encyclopedia : a history of the Michigan State men’s athletic program / Jack Seibold. Champaign, IL : SportsPublishing, c2003.
Saints’ Rest (1856—1876)
Another early picture of Saints’ Rest, courtesy of the MSU Archives.
Note the tree stumps remaining to be dug out.
MAC Opening Day Map still indicates where Native American used to camp.along the Red Cedar River:
According to this university map, on the first day of class at MSU in 1857, the prior presence of the Anishinaabeg was noted by ‘Indian Encampment’. Remember that Native students, faculty, staff, and community members still maintain a vibrant presence on campus. Visit the Native American Studies Library Research Guide for more resources.
On May 13, 1861, Company G, 3rd Regiment, Michigan Infantry moved by lumber wagons from Lansing to Bath to board the Amboy, Lansing and Traverse Bay Railroad, the nearest railroad to Lansing. It was the state’s first known movement of troops by railroad.
On May 13, 1877, the second Sunday of the month, Juliet Calhoun Blakeley stepped into the pulpit of the Methodist-Episcopal Church and completed the sermon for the Reverand Myron Daughterty. According to local legend, Daughterty was distraught because an antitemperance group had forced his son to spend the night in a saloon.
Juliet Calhoun Blakely
Rev. Myron Daugherty
Proud of their mother’s achievement, Charles and Moses Blakeley encouraged other to pay tribute to their mothers. In the 1880’s the Albion Methodist church began celebrating Mother’s Day in Blakeley’s honor.
The official observance of Mother’s Day resulted from the efforts of Anna Jarvis of Philidelphia. In 1868 her mother had organized a Mother’s Friendship Day in a West Virginia town to unite Confederate and Union families after the Civil War.
Anna Reeves Jarvis died on the second Sunday of May 1905. In 1907 her daughter began promoting the second Sunday in May as a holiday to honor mothers.
Following an act of Congress in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May Mother’s Day.
Juliet Calhoun Blakely was also an active participant in the underground railroad.
Sources :
Albion Michigan Historical Markers : Mother’s Day
Frank Passic, “Juliet Calhoun Blakely“, Albion Morning Star, May 3, 1993, p.3.
Frank Passic, “Grandma Blakely Active in Underground Railroad“, Albion Morning Star, May 11, 2003, pg. 5.
On Aug. 26, 2014, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society found the lost schooner Nelson, a shipwreck which has lain undisturbed on the bottom of Lake Superior since May 13, 1899, when the ship’s captain watched his family and entire crew perish.
The Nelson was carrying a load of coal when it foundered on May 13, 1899. It, along with the steamer Mary B. Mitchell, was being towed west by Captain White’s steamer when a northwest gale with freezing rain and 50-mph winds forced the trio to reverse course and make for shelter in Whitefish Bay.
At some point, the Nelson’s towline snapped and the ice-laden ship began to sink.
Based on research conducted by Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary historian C. Patrick Labadie, the theory is that coal shifted as the ship was tossed about by angry waves. When the bow dipped, the weight of the coal drove the vessel straight down. Newspaper accounts describe the stern rising abruptly as it sank.
The Nelson tragedy is particularly poignant because its skipper, Captain Andrew Haganey, stayed aboard to lower the lifeboat containing his wife, infant child and the crew of seven. But the sinking ship pulled the still-attached lifeboat down with it.
Haganey drifted ashore on floating wreckage and was nursed back to health at the Deer Park Life-Saving Station, an outpost of the U.S. Coast Guard precursor.
For the full article, see Garret Ellison, “Sunk in a flash: Tragic 1899 shipwreck discovered in Lake Superior”, MLive, September 9, 2014.
The bill creating the state trunkline highways was passed on May 13, 1913.
The State Reward Trunk Line Highways Act also provided for surveying, improving and maintaining those highways.
Before that, county road commissions, which began in 1893, handled such matters, but they weren’t very engaged — with only 18 of the state’s 83 counties participating — according to Michigan Department of Transportation historian Lloyd Baldwin.
In 1905, things improved when the Michigan Legislature authorized the state to get involved and funds from motor vehicle registrations, initially introduced in 1905, were awarded to road commissions that brought roads up to state standards — $250 per mile for gravel roads and $1,000 for macadam roads, depending on improvement types and inclines.
The Michigan State Highway Department, predecessor to the Michigan Department of Transportation, was authorized in 1919 to take over the state trunk line system and ordered to sign the numbered system, making Michigan the second state in America to do so (Wisconsin was first).
“Many farmers, and even Henry Ford, despite being on the first road commission in Wayne County, opposed the state’s efforts to improve existing roads and to build new roads. Farmers didn’t want the traffic and Ford was certain his vehicles could handle any sort of road condition,” Baldwin said in an e-mail.
The U.S. highway system was developed in 1926.
Michigan has 9,716 miles of state trunk line.
For the full article, see Zlati Meyer, “1913 bill created Michigan’s trunkline highways”, Detroit Free Press, May 9, 2015.
Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Marquette to take on Ishpeming editor George Hewitt, who publicly called the former president a drunk and a liar.
After extensive testimony on May 27 by the former President, Hewitt admitted his stories were false and Roosevelt settled for six cents in damages, which he claimed was “the price of a good newspaper.”
Sources :
Michigan Every Day.
Mikel Classen, “Roosevelt Takes Marquette“.
Stephen Judkins Hardaway, born May 13, 1950, in Saginaw, MI has been declared immortal by the Library of Congress!
As if anyone in Michigan didn’t know that already!
Or should I say Stevie Wonder has been declared immortal?
Wonder first auditioned with Motown at 11 and had his first #1 hit at 13, the youngest artist ever to top the charts.
The Motown superstar, blues icon, and late rock star are joining a handful of artists whose masterworks will be preserved in perpetuity by the Library of Congress. All told, 50 recordings have been selected to be added to the National Recording Registry, it was announced Tuesday.
Instituted by Congress through the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Library selects musical and spoken word recordings that are at least 10 years old and deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant for inclusion in the permanent collection.
The National Recording Registry represents a stunning array of the diversity, humanity and creativity found in our sound heritage, nothing less than a flood of noise and sound pulsating into the American bloodstream, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said in announcing the class of 2006.
Wonder made the cut for his 1976 double album, Songs in the Key of Life, which according to the Library, marked the apex of his career thanks to impeccable musicianship. Featuring guest players like jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, Songs produced a slew of jazz, blues and gospel-tinged hits, including Isn’t She Lovely?, Sir Duke, Knocks Me Off My Feet, and Joy Inside My Tears.
In 2014 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
A few of his classic hits:
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours (YouTube)
You Are the Sunshine of My Life performed at the White House
I Just Called to Say I Love You
Sources:
Josh Grossbert, Jimi, Stevie, B.B. Preserved, Eonline, April 11, 2006.
Signed, sealed, and delivered : the soulful journey of Stevie Wonder / Mark Ribowsky. Hoboken : John Wiley & Sons, [2010]. The first definitive biography of music legend StevieWonder, “Signed, Sealed, and Delivered” takes an in-depth look at StevieWonder’s life and his evolution from kid-soul pop star into a mature artist whose music helped lay the groundwork for the evolution of hip hop and rap.
On May 13, 1980, a tornado barreled through Kalamazoo’s downtown, killing five, injuring 79 and causing an estimated $50 million in damage.
It first touched down at 4 p.m. about eight miles from the city. For nearly a half hour, the tornado whirled east, into the heart of Kalamazoo, and left a swath of destruction 12 miles long, according to news reports at the time.
Homes in the Westside neighborhood were destroyed. Monuments in Mountain Home Cemetery were overturned. The twister knocked down 26 century-old oak trees in Bronson Park, including one that had shaded Abraham Lincoln when he made his only speech in Michigan.
Source: Michigan Every Day