On July 23, 1872, Elijah J. McCoy, an Afro-American inventor raised in Ypsilanti, patented the first automatic lubricator for locomotives and other machinery. His device was so effective “the real McCoy” became synonymous with anything genuine or authentic.
Many years later, McCoy would be honored again by having the first satellite office of the U.S. Patent Office names after him on July 13, 2012 in Detroit. The Elijah J. McCoy Office is located in the Stroh River Place building in Detroit.
Source : Historical Society of Michigan, Michigan Historical Calendar.
For more information about Elijah J. McCoy, see Dr. Burton W. Folsom, Remembering “The Real McCoy”, Mackinac Center for Public Policy Viewpoints on Public Issues, February 5, 1996.
Created equal : the lives and ideas of Black American innovators / James Michael Brodie.
Here’s a photo from July 23, 1913 showing children marching in Calumet during the tumultuous miners’ strikes of 1913. It’s an interesting case study for our modern world given that the driver was the same driver that’s beginning to impact our labor market – automation. The excellent article Labor unions, strikes and violence in the Keweenaw: The Copper Miner Strike of 1913 – this is seriously great work by Frank Zawada’s descendent(s) – the article says that there had been strikes in the Keweenaw in 1872, 1874, 1890 and 1893, but they hadn’t turned deadly. And then:
Around 1910, the mining companies sought to cut back the expenses of mining, and they started to consider lighter machinery such as the J. George Leyner rock drills. Leyners drills were 154-pounds heavy, compared to the 293-pound drills then in use at the mines. Not only that, but the smaller drills could drill just as much as the larger drills but with only one person to man it, instead of two.
The mining companies tried these drills out with the miners, and it was pretty unanimous; the miners didn’t like the new drills. First of all, the men complained that the drills were still too heavy for one man to carry, set up and operate. Secondly, losing a drilling partner opened up safety concerns – who would watch out for the guy alone on the drill if something should happen to him in the loud, darkened mine? Third, but related to number two, was worker concern of being displaced to a lower-paying job or of losing one’s job altogether when the one-man drills became the standard.
Discontent brewed amongst the workers in the mines, and some miners refused to use the drills. Some got into fights with the management about the drills. And some miners walked off the job or were told to leave for disobeying the new rules. Before things could get too crazy, winter set in and so the miners calmed the labor unrest. By early 1913, tensions were running at maximum capacity between workers and the mining companies on the Keweenaw Peninsula.
Read on for more about this strike that turned into one of Michigan’s most deadly labor struggles, including the Italian Hall Massacre of Christmas 1913 in which dozens and dozens of of these children lost their lives.
View the photo background big and see more in Wystan’s slideshow.
Source: “The Calumet Children’s March and the Keweenaw Miners Strike”, Michigan In Pictures, July 24, 2017.
The Newill Smith Automobile Tax Law is expected to generate about $1,750,00 in fees for the coming year; only half of that amount will be returned to counties where it is collected. The tax will be calculated based on 25 cents tax on horsepower and 25 cents per hundred pounds of car. The ordinary Ford car should cost about $11 in taxes.
NEW AUTO TAX TO NET STATE IN FEES ABOUT $1,750,000: Only Half This Amount Will Be Returned to Counties Where Paid. ESTIMATED THAT 135,000 TAGS WILL BE SOLD IN 1916 Cost of Ford License Will Be About $11; Other Makes Higher., Detroit Free Press, July 24, 1915. [Note access to the Detroit Free Press available to the MSU community or to visitors of the Main Library.]
July 23, 1932
Jerome T. Hart (1932-1995), was Saginaw’s state senator from 1965 to 1991, becoming one of the Legislature’s most senior statesmen before term limits were enacted in the early 1990s. The Democrat, a lifelong Saginaw resident and a former assistant to the state treasurer, held numerous leadership roles during his time in the Senate, including chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, and he made public education his cause. He battled diabetes all his life and suffered a stroke in 1981 but still represented his community for nearly another decade before losing the 1990 election.
In the 1982 election, redistricting put Hart in the same Senate district — the 14th — as fellow Senator Robert D. Young. Hart won the election in what was one of the most heated Senate races in the state.
Jon Cisky, who bested Hart in 1990, introduced the resolution to rename the Saginaw state office building in Hart’s honor.
Sources: The Political Graveyard, Gongwer News Service, legislative records, DTMB
Jerome T. Hart wikipedia entry
Justin A. Hinkley, “Murray who? Meet state office buildings’ namesakes”, Lansing State Journal, October 27, 2015.
On July 3, 1958, Dutch Village opened for the first time. According to the Holland Sentinel, it only had two customers and made $12.73.
The history of the business actually goes back further to Nelis’ grandfather, who started Nelis Tulis Farms nearly 100 years ago, growing daffodils first and shortly thereafter tulips as well to supply area markets. After observing all of the visitors who would stop along the highway for a look, he decided to broaden the business to handle direct sales. Then they opened a cafe, to serve lunch so customers would stay longer. That was how the Queens’ Inn restaurant was born.
Through the years, the business purchased an organ, added Dutch dancing and soon learned they could charge admission. It started at between 25-50 cents per car load and then went to a per person basis charging at the entrance into the park.
The original tulip farm remained in business through the years along with Dutch Village, but then, in the 1970s, Joe’s father closed the tulip farm, opting instead to focus full time on Dutch Village.
In December 2017, the Queens’ Inn and the windmill on top of it were taken down and today, the business now includes everything from a petting zoo and 90-foot zip line all the way to a Dutch chair swing ride and a rentable event space.
Source: Austin Metz, “Dutch Village Celebrates 60 Years“, Holland Sentinel via U.S. News and World Report, April 2, 2018.
A massive race riot erupted in Detroit. The summer of 1967 was a turbulent time in American history. The Detroit rioting began near 12th Street and Clairmount in a predominantly African-American, overcrowded, and low-income neighborhood. Early on the morning of July 23, Detroit police officers raided a “blind pig,” which was an establishment that illegally sold alcohol after hours. A crowd gathered as those arrested were put in a police wagon. Riots erupted and quickly spread. Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh asked Michigan’s governor, George Romney, to send in the State Police. Eventually, Romney called in the National Guard. After eight dangerous and unfortunate days, the riot came to an end. The riot’s immediate effects were disastrous. Forty-three people had lost their lives. 1,700 stores had been looted. In all, 7,231 people were arrested and over 1000 buildings were burned. Damages to property amounted to about $50 million. As a result of this debacle, President Lyndon Johnson set up the Kerner Commission to investigate the causes of civil disorder in American cities. New taxes were eventually adopted to bring increase revenue for education, welfare, and other government services. In 1972, a state lottery was also established to help raise money and alleviate the dire conditions of inner-city living.
Sources:
Ben Cosgrove, Detroit Burning : Photos from the 1967 Riot, Life, July 22, 2012.
Sidney Fine, Violence in the Model City: the Cavanagh Administration, Race Relations, and the Detroit Riot of 1967, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989 and/or Hubert G. Locke, The Detroit Riot of 1967, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1969.
Michigan Historical Calendar, Courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
Vimeo Video, 33 minutes, Original footage was filmed by WXYZ TV-7, and ABC affiliate in Detroit, Michigan. The footage was donated to the Michigan State Police for training purposes. The State Police have since donated it to the Archives of Michigan for permanent preservation.
On July 23, 2014, Helen J. Claytor was honored by the dedication of a bronze statue, one of a series of influential figures immortalized at sites around the city as a part of the Grand Rapids Community Legends Project. Ms. Claytor (1907 – 2005) was an educator, civil rights activist, and the first African American president of the Grand Rapids YWCA and the national YWCA. Read more about her life.
Source : Greater Grand Rapids’ Women’s History Council Calendar.
The Peace Treaty signed in August of 1701 between the French and the Iroquois removed what had been a major obstacle to the expansion of French influence in the Great Lakes region. Even before the treaty was formally concluded, Cadillac and his party of soldiers and workmen were on their way to the confluence of Lakes Erie and Huron, with plans to establish a fort and permanent settlement. The French hoped to head off a British attempt to do likewise, thus gaining strategic access to and control of the upper Great Lakes through Le Detroit, or “the strait.”
Fort Ponchartrain, which was located roughly on the site of the present-day Civic Center, was named for Louis XIV’s chief minister, Count Ponchartrain, a major supporter of French expansion into the western lands.
Source : Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
For more information, see History of Detroit, 1701-2001
Also see A History of Detroit, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
The Grand Rapids Daily Democrat of July 25, 1880 reports that the first electric lights were turned on in Grand Rapids Stores on the night before, enabling visitors to read even the smallest print. Interestingly enough, the light fixtures were leased on an annual basis, at $120 per year.
“First Electric Lights”, Grand Rapids Daily Democrat, July 25, 1880, p.4. Courtesy of the Grand Rapids Historical Commission.
Grand Rapids Electric Light & Power Company — the earliest predecessor of Consumers Energy of Jackson, Michigan — began operation of the world’s first commercial central station hydroelectric power plant on Saturday, July 24, 1880, getting power from Wolverine Chair and Furniture Company’s water turbine.
Grand Rapids Electric Light & Power Company buildings (left to right) William T. Powers’ Sawmill built in 1868 and used from September 1880 to November 1881, G.R.E.L.&P. First Hydroelectric Power Plant with steam-engine backup system (Winter 1880–81), City Lighting Plant (Nov 1881), north brick building possibly late-1880s. Photo circa late-1890s.
The rest of the story:
Grand Rapids lays claim to the first hydroelectric power plant in the world, and the first to supply commercial electric lighting service. Among the big figures in the use of water power for the city’s infant furniture industry was William T. Powers an enterprising manufacturer. In 1865 and 1866 he purchased the necessary river frontage and in the two following years constructed the West Side Water Power Canal, completing it in September 1868. He became interested in electricity after he had heard of an exhibit to take place at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia in 1877, of an electric carbon-arc lighting system. Powers organized the Grand Rapids Electric Light & Power Company, March 22, 1880, which incorporated the following week on March 30, 1880.
Associated with William T. Powers in this venture were William H. Powers (son of William T.), Amasas B. Watson, James Blair, Henry Spring, John L. Shaw, Thomas M. Peck, and Sluman S. Bailey. The company acquired a sixteen-light (Charles) Brush generator which was installed in the factory of the Wolverine Chair and Furniture Company. The machine was belt-driven from the line shafting of the factory, and this was driven by a waterwheel operated by water from the West Side Power Canal.
On Saturday evening, July 24, 1880, the first electric light glowed in Grand Rapids. The customers whose premises were for the first time so illuminated were Sweet’s Hotel, Powers’ Opera House, E. S. Pierce’s Clothing Store, Spring & Company’s Dry Goods Store, Mill & Lacey’s Drug Store, A. Preusser’s jewelry store, and the Star Clothing House. The brilliant new lights proved such a drawing card for the merchants that the demand soon outgrew the capacity of the original installation, and the little machine was moved to Powers’ sawmill at the downstream end of the canal, and the capacity was increased by the installation of a new forty-light generator. The growth of the business, augmented by a street lighting contract made March 29, 1881, justified more extensive operations. Powers transferred from the West Side Water Power Company to the Grand Rapids Electric Light & Power Company sixteen first run of stone, amounting to two hundred and forty horsepower (256 HP). (A “run-of-stone” was a millers measure. A dam in a given area of a certain size in a certain stream was calculated to have enough power to run a given number of grindstones of more or less standard size.) On May 27, 1881, a contract was awarded to John H. Hoskin for the construction of a permanent power house to be completed by August 1, 1881. It was actually completed Nov 1, 1881.
The operation provided arc lighting — a technique where an electric spark in the air between two conductors produces a light. The Grand Rapids operation used direct current technology.
The first U.S. commercial installation of an alternating current hydropower plant occurred at the Redlands Power Plant in California in 1893. Alternating current allowed power to be transmitted longer distances so became the more common method of delivery.
Sources :
History of electric power transmission wikipedia entry
History of Hydropower courtesy of Energy.gov
Powers Behind Grand Rapids : Grand Rapids Electric Light and Power Company blog post.