On January 17, 1862, Battery G, First Michigan Light Artillery, is mustered into federal service at Kalamazoo.
Recruited in Branch County , Battery G had an enrollment of 145 officers and men when it left for Kentucky one month later. During the course of the war, Battery G saw action at Chickasaw Bayou, Champion Hill, the siege of Vicksburg and Mobile, Alabama. The battery, which was mustered out of federal service on August 6, 1865, carried on its rolls 318 men. It suffered losses of 2 men killed in combat and 41 men, who died from disease.
Source : This Day in Michigan History, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
On January 17, 1899, the first military funeral for a woman in Michigan occurred when Ellen May Tower, a Byron native and a veteran of the Spanish-American War, received one. The daughter of a Civil War captain, Tower volunteered as an army nurse and cared for soldiers who returned from the war with injuries and disease. At one point, she was sent to Puerto Rico, where she died within three months. As was the case in 90 percent of American casualties in that war, Tower died of disease — typhoid fever.
Sources:
Michigan Every Day
Ellen May Tower Michigan Historical Marker
Byron to Remember Ellen May Tower, Argus Press (Owosso, Michigan), April 4, 1989.
The village of Byron and its heroine, Ellen May Tower / Kathryn E. Seward and Jennifer D. Freese Walkling. 72pp. Library of Michigan 2N F574.B97 S4 1980z
The Little Girl That Won the Car
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In 1910 the REO Motor Company of Lansing, Michigan offered a touring car to the young farmer under 20 who could raise the best corn in the state, judging to be held on the Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State) campus. At the time, Florine Folks was living on a farm with her parents near Hanover, Michigan. Her father had become interested in corn breeding. Since Florine had no brothers, she asked her father if she could enter the contest.
Her father plowed the land for her to use. She did the rest, planting and caring for the crop until finally she harvested it for the county corn contest in Jackson. “The time of the county show was a great day for me,” Mrs. Florine (Folks) Plumb says in the MSU Magazine 50 years later. “I remember it well because the men running the show took the club members to dinner. It was the first time I went out to eat.”
During the county contest Florine’s corn took first prize. The next step was to enter the state contest to be held on the East Lansing campus the week of January 17th (1911), where the sumptuous prize of a REO touring car would be awarded to the winner.
The competition was the idea of MAC Professor J. A. Jeffrey. He and other interested men wished to sponsor a statewide organization for rural boys and girls, to give the youngsters more social life while also training them for agriculture… their efforts later becoming 4-H. Jeffrey contacted Mr. R. E. Olds, the pioneer auto-maker from Lansing, who thought the professor had a fine idea, and offered to give a thousand-dollar automobile to the farmer under 20 who could raise the best 10 ears of corn in the state.
Mrs. Plumb said that her father took the corn to East Lansing and entered it for me. “I stayed home and did the chores. Going that far in those days would have meant missing two or three days of school, something my family wouldn’t hear of.”
The farmers assembled on campus undoubtedly were surprised when they learned that the prize-winning corn had been grown by a little girl, age 11.
The media immediately picked up on the story far and wide. One newspaper editorial extolled the young girl for having “done something of more substantial benefit to mankind than the average senator, to compare the work of our kings of politics with that of our queen of corn growers.”
Although the contest had been held during the winter months, it wasn’t until the spring 1911 that the prize could be delivered to the Folks’ farm because of the condition of the roads.
It was 1911 and Florine sat behind the wheel of her new REO touring car. In the back seat were her grandmother, mother and father. Next to her sat a visiting friend, Charles Burnett.
“A neighbor and my father took the train to Jackson to get the car,” Florine says. “I got permission to finish school early and then ran home to meet them.”
There were only two cars in the nearby town of Hanover when Florine won her REO. One belonged to the grocer and the other was the property of an undertaker. Her car was a snappy model in jet black with red wheels, a lot of brass trim and a side crank.
Florine’s father quickly taught her how to operate the two-cylinder touring car and she began to use it frequently around the farm. There was no driver-licensing in those days and it’s a safe bet that there wasn’t another farm girl in the country wheeling around in a flashy REO, top speed 17 MPH. Soon she was driving around town and to school, her shiny face peering out from the folds of her automobile scarf.
While the REO car is long gone, the strain of corn her father perfected became known as Folks’ Whitecap Yellow Dent, an open pollinated variety, whcih still exists today.
Sources :
National History 4-H Preservation Program
“50 Years Ago : A Little Child Lead Them“, Michigan State University Magazine, March 1961.
“Corn Show”, M.A.C. Record, January 24, 1911. Florine’s father also won a tile ditcher (worth $35) and two silver cups from the Gleaner and Michigan Farmer so the family did quite while at this contest held the week of January 17th.
Award-winning actor and voice of CNN James Earl Jones, who grew up in Dublin, Manistee County, was born on Jan. 17, 1931.
In 1936, when Jones was just five, his grandfather set out to move the entire family from Mississippi to northern Michigan, buying a farm — sight unseen — that was advertised to him as being in a Grand Rapids suburb. When he got there, however, the “suburban” farm turned out to be a good hundred miles north of Grand Rapids in southeastern Manistee County near the village of Dublin, Michigan. Despite the false advertising, John Henry decided to make the best of it, and renovated the property’s old commercial chicken house into the family home before sending for James Earl and the rest of the family.
Five-year-old James Earl did not share his grandfather’s enthusiasm for rural northern Michigan. In fact, the move proved so traumatic, Jones developed a debilitating stutter, and the man who would eventually come to have one of the most recognizable voices in all of acting (including being the voice of Darth Vadar) was essentially mute from age six until age 14.
A literature teacher at the local high school in Brethren, Michigan was key to Jones recovering his voice, and James Earl quickly developed a love of poetry. (The young James Earl’s favorite poem was reportedly Longfellow’s “Song of Hiawatha,” because it was set in the Great Lakes region.) When he was a freshman, James Earl even attempted his own riff on the Longfellow style, writing an “Ode to Grapefruit” after a much-appreciated mid-winter citrus shipment arrived by rail in Brethren from Florida. When the teacher discovered James Earl’s poem, he asked him to read in front of the class, and James Earl surprisingly discovered he could do it without a hiccup. It was the first step in a long road that eventually culminated in a statewide public speaking championship for Jones and a scholarship to the University of Michigan, where he studied for four years before moving to New York to pursue a career in acting.
Jones has won many awards during his illustrious acting career — an Oscar nomination for best actor for “The Great White Hope,” an honorary Oscar in 2011, and Tony Awards for his performances in “The Great White Hope” and “Fences.” His films include “Field of Dreams,” “Cry, the Beloved Country” and “Patriot Games.” Among his most well-known voice work is Darth Vader in the “Star Wars” series and Mufasa in “The Lion King.”
Sources :
Lou Blouin, James Earl Jones, Michigan Irishman, Found Michigan, March 13, 2012.
Zlati Meyer, Michigan History : “Manistee’s Jamse Earl Jones Born”, Detroit Free Press, January 11, 2015.
Chris Clark, “Here James Earl Jones Talk About His Michigan Childhood”, MLive, August 1, 2014.
James Earl Jones Talks About His Mentor Donald Crouch, MLive, August 1, 2014.
John Barnes, “Mufasa, Darth Vader, Terence Mann: They grew up in Michigan, where James Earl Jones found his voice”, MLive, October 4, 2014.
John Barnes, In search of James Earl Jones’ real ‘Field of Dreams’, MLive, October 5, 2014.
Courtesy of University of Michigan Bentley Library.
On January 17, 1939, Frank Murphy, the former judge, Detroit mayor, and Michigan’s first Catholic governor, became attorney general in the cabinet of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
President Franklin Roosevelt signs Court reorganization bill, Aug. 7, 1939. L-R: Homer Cummings, FDR, Attorney General Frank Murphy.
Source: Mich-Again’s Day
Muhammad Ali is many things to many people. To some, he is the former heavyweight champion of the world whose boxing matches with the likes of Joe Frazier and George Foreman represented the high-water mark for the sport. To others, he is a courageous voice for peace that summed up many in his generation’s feelings toward the Vietnam War through his refusal to fight (while to others, that action made him a traitor). To many civil rights scholars, Ali is the force that emboldened Martin Luther King Jr. to speak out more emphatically against war. Still others vividly remember Ali’s presence at the 1996 Olympic Games, where Ali’s determination to light the Olympic cauldron served as a living monument to the human capacity to overcome adversity. These days, Muhammad Ali is probably the world’s most famous philanthropist working to battle Parkinson’s disease, an affliction that slows down—but doesn’t stop—the former champ.
Note: For a time Mohammed Ali lived in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Video Clip taken at Mohammed Ali’s Berrien Springs Home
He also fought Superman!
Another Video Clip of a Visit of Mohammed Ali’s Home in Berrien Springs.
Photos from the Detroit News.
Also see “Ali’s “Fight Night” Continues Bout with Parkinson’s Disease”, Nonprofit Quarterly Newswire, March 26, 2012.
Brad Meltzer, “Why ‘Superman vs Muhammad Ali’ is still the greatest‘, LATimes, November 15, 2010.
Who is Michigan’s richest person? As of 2021, it’s Dan Gilbert. Last year he was only worth a mere 7½ billion dollars. This year, it’s over 50 billion.
So who is Dan Gilbert? Born on January 17, 1962, he’s a businessman and investor, but the fast facts below will explain a lot more…
Dan Gilbert Fast Facts:
Bachelor’s degree, MSU
Chairman of JACK Entertainment
Chairman/Co-founder of Quicken Loans
Founder, Rock Financial/Ventures
Licensed real estate agent
Owner, Cleveland Cavaliers
Owner, NBA Canton Charge
Owner, NHL Cleveland Monsters
Runs the Rocket Mortgage Field House, Cleveland
State Bar of Michigan member
Teacher of Law
Source : John Robinson, “ The Richest Person in Michigan (Made More Than Bill Gates!) “, 99.1 WFMK Blog, August 5, 2021.
Robert James “Bob” Ritchie was born on January 17, 1971 in Romeo, Michigan to William “Bill” Ritchie, a car dealer who owned several local dealerships, and Susan Ritchie. He attended Romeo High School. His family also owned a six-acre orchard and Robert regularly helped pick apples and cared for the family’s horses. He has three siblings; the two elder are brother William “Billy” Ritchie and sister Carol Ritchie and his younger sister, Jill Ritchie, is an actress. Ritchie found small-town life dull and became interested in rap music, learning how to breakdance and participating in talent shows in the Detroit area. At age eleven, he joined a breakdance crew called the Furious Funkers and taught himself to work a cheap belt-driven turntable. In high school, Ritchie djayed at parties for beer. He eventually joined Bo Wisdom of Groove Time Productions in Mt. Clemens, Michigan to perform basement parties for $30 a night. He chose his stage name while performing at these venues; club goers dubbed him “Kid Rock” after they had enjoyed watching “that white kid rock.”
His 1998 studio album Devil Without a Cause sold 13 million copies worldwide. He is a five-time Grammy Award nominee and has sold 25 million albums in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan. The RIAA certified him selling 23.5 million albums. He was Soundscan’s number one selling male solo musician of the 2000s, selling 17.6 million albums; he was 17th overall for the decade.
Brian McCollum, Kid Rock Before the Fame: the Definitive Detroit Oral History, Detroit Free Press, August 6, 2015.
January 17, 1983 was the last business day for downtown Detroit’s J.L. Hudson Department Store.
The building at 1206 Woodward stood 25 stories tall and took up an entire city block, fronting on Woodward, Gratiot, Farmer Street and Grand River Avenue.
At one time billed as the second-largest department store in the world in terms of square footage (behind Macy’s in New York), the downtown store was long a beacon for shoppers. You could buy anything from bureaus and fur coats to coin sets and oil and vinegar cruets on display throughout the 49 acres of sales space. Elegance was paramount.
Hudson’s — which had a bakery and a lending library — was famous for its classy female elevator operators and its Maurice salad. Its best year, 1953, saw $153 million in sales, compared with $45 million in 1981.
The store’s slow decline was blamed, in part, on the growing allure of suburban retail destinations, including the first suburban shopping center in the U.S., Northland in Southfield, which was built by Hudson’s.
Sources :
Historical Society of Michigan
Zlati Meyer, “Hudson’s landmark downtown Detroit store closes”, Detroit Free Press, January 13, 2013.
Dan Austin, “The rise and fall of Hudson’s Big Store in Detroit’, Detroit Free Press, March 4, 2015.
Gerald R. Ford may have governed during a time of economic stagnation, but his library has just laid claim to a cutting-edge distinction: becoming the first presidential depository to employ an official “Wikipedian in residence.”
Michael Barera, a master’s student at the University of Michigan’s School of Information who has been editing Wikipedia articles for five years, started the job last week, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. He is charged with improving the wikipedia presence of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum, which is housed at the university’s Ann Arbor campus.
In 2010 the British Museum became the first organization to engage a wikipedian in residence, which was seen at the time as an acknowledgment of the fact that wikipedia articles about libraries, museums and other institutions were sometimes drawing far more traffic than the institution’s own Web sites. Since then, according to Wikipedia, some 30 others have followed suit, including the Smithsonian Institution, the Israel Museum and the Palace of Versailles.
For the full article, seee Jennifer Schuessler, “Gerald R. Ford Library Hires ‘Wikipedian in Residence’”, New York Times, January 18, 2013.
“Rethinking Wikipeida”, Found Michigan, February 14, 2013.