Today, we call it Memorial Day. However, in the days immediately following the Civil War, the annual May remembrance of the soldiers who died saving the Union and ending slavery, was known as Decoration Day. Not surprisingly, one of the most-recognized annual ceremonies to honor these valiant dead occurs at Arlington National Cemetery on the Potomac River across from the nation’s capital. On May 30, 1877, the day’s festivities included a poem from Michiganian Will Carleton – destined to become one of the nation’s leading poets.
The poem he authored for Arlington was a 55-verse dialogue between the living and the dead, entitled, “Converse With the Slain.”
Carleton won flattering reviews for his poem. One newspaper account called the Michigan poet “the celebrated poet and farm balladist, whose charming productions have carried sunshine into nearly every household in America.” At Arlington, Carleton was interrupted by applause several times during the reading, and when he finished, there was the “wildest enthusiasm.” One Michiganian who witnessed the day’s events, observed: “I have no recollection of the day when I felt so proud of my country and especially of my native State, Michigan, as I do at this hour.”
Carleton’s Decoration Day triumph covered him with more than laurels. According to Carleton’s biographer, “Arlington was clearly an epiphany-there would be no turning his back on his career as a poet and a lecturer.” The Michigan poet spent the rest of his life doing what he could do best-writing, delivering and selling some of the most popular literary works in the English language. In 1919, the Michigan legislature recognized Carleton’s influence on the American public by declaring his birthday (October 21) Will Carleton Day.
For more on Will Carleton, including his entire 55-verse “Converse With the Slain,” pick up a copy of the May/June 2007 issue Michigan History magazine.
“Converse With The Slain: Will Carleton’s Visit to Arlington National Cemetery”, Absolute Michigan
Also see separate entry on Will Carleton.
One of the authors featured in Ink Trails: Michigan’s Famous and Forgotten Authors. Also available online
On May 30, 1879, Michigan played its first intercollegiate football game against Racine College at White Stocking Park in Chicago. The Chicago Tribune called it “the first rugby-football game to be played west of the Alleghenies.” Midway through “the first ‘inning’,” Irving Kane Pond scored the first touchdown for Michigan. According to Will Perry’s history of Michigan football, the crowd responded to Pond’s plays with cheers of “Pond Forever.”
On tMay 30th 1880:
First trains arrived at Michigan Central R.R. depot on Third Street
Source : Detroit History Society home page
Biplane flying over fields. Mat embossed. Handwritten on mat back: “Walter Brookins in his monoplane [sic] over fair grounds, Flint, Mich. Taken by Miss Lottie Sweers, May 30th 1912.” From the Detroit Public Library Burton Historical Collection. Reposted from Michigan’s Past (May 30, 2018) .
More than 6,000 people turned out to see the City of Detroit III launched at the Wyandotte, Mich., yard of the Detroit Shipbuilding Company on Oct. 7, 1911. Among the dignitaries on hand were Kirby, Detroit mayor William B. Thompson and a number of D&C officials and luminaries. The vessel was christened by Doris McMillan, the granddaughter of the senator. The Detroit Free Press provided the play-by-play: “Tense silence, the scarcely audible thump of a sharp-bladed ax biting through hempen bonds, a creaking of timbers, the splintering crackle of breaking glass, then an ear-filling, nerve-jarring volume of sound, ending in a mighty crash as the water displaced by the great mass of steel swept the opposite side of the slip.”
While the boat was tied up at the foot of Orleans Street, an army of carpenters, painters, decorators, machinists and steelworkers swarmed over the vessel and worked frantically to have it ready in time for the opening of the Detroit–Buffalo steamship travel season. The Free Press noted at this point of construction that it looked like “a human anthill.” And the ants moved quickly. In little more than a month’s time, on Nov. 15, with the engines and machinery in place, the hull was turned over to the builders and craftsmen. Twenty-five working days later, five stories of cabins rose from the deck, and the roof was in place. The next five months would be spent applying the finishing touches—carving the balustrades and banisters, painting the walls and decking the vessel out—to say nothing of installing more than two thousand windows.
After much anticipation — thanks in large part to the constant coverage in the newspapers — the queen of the Great Lakes was ready to sail on May 30, 1912. But the vessel would initially find itself in rough waters. Shortly after 10 a.m., as the City of Detroit III was pulling out of the dock, a miscommunication to the engine room resulted in it clobbering the Joseph C. Suit, a small wooden passenger and freight carrier that had been moored at dock. There were no injuries because the City of Detroit III’s crew was able to holler warnings to the nine people aboard the Suit to get out of the way. The dinky 110-foot vessel was ripped from its moorings and got wedged between the anchor and port rudder of the colossal boat. The Suit was dragged about 200 feet downstream, and a tug had to pry the boat out of the giant’s clutches. The Suit, which was built in 1884, sank almost immediately. Understandably, the mammoth marvel’s arrival was delayed a bit, and it didn’t pull in until shortly after 6:15 p.m. The rest of the vessel’s voyages, however, would prove to be smooth sailing.
The D-III, as it was known, cost $1.5 million (the equivalent of $31.8 million today, when adjusted for inflation). Structurally, there was perhaps no sturdier vessel on the lakes. The five-story floating fortress had a 455-foot-long hull of steel. It was the largest side-wheeler in the world when it was built — its paddle wheel was about 30 feet in diameter and had paddles 8 feet wide. For perspective, it was about as long as a forty-five-story skyscraper is tall.
“When you refer to the City of Detroit III as a leviathan, you are well within the bounds of conservatism, for … it is some boat,” the Free Press wrote. For perspective, six laps around the Great Lakes goliath’s hurricane deck would tally a mile. The D-III’s capacity was 5,000 day passengers, though it usually carried far fewer, and no more than 1,500 on an overnight voyage.
In accordance with its general scale, three smokestacks eight and a half feet in diameter towered three stories over the main deck. These smoke-belching monsters were fed by dozens of men slinging coal to feed the fires that powered the mighty vessel. The stacks were vertical, not slanted — a signature of Kirby’s designs.
It was a significant milestone and testament to the burgeoning growth and economic rise of Detroit and the Midwest. And when its bow cut through the waves at night, its 2,700 lights must have made it look like a giant floating light show. What a sight it must have been for those stuck on shore.
Source: Dan Austin, “City of Detroit III”, HistoricDetroit.org
Gordon Guyer, MSU’s 18th president, and a former director of MSU Extension, died on March 30, 2016 at age 89.
He was born in Kalamazoo May 30, 1926. Guyer served as the director of MSU Extension from 1973 to 1985. Guyer, who was president from 1992-93, was a Spartan for life. He came to MSU in 1947 to begin studies in fisheries and wildlife. He later switched to entomology and received his bachelor’s degree in 1950. Two years later, he earned his master’s degree, and in 1954 he received his doctorate, both in entomology. He joined the faculty in 1953.
“Gordon Guyer was one of those people who, whenever there was an important position to fill, was always on the list,” MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon recalled. “He was known and respected in every corner of the state through his MSU Extension work, and for his knowledge and his advocacy for Michigan State. He had an enormous capacity to connect with people and to rally support for good ideas. He saw the potential in people sometimes before they or others recognized it – after all he appointed Tom Izzo men’s basketball coach.
“This isn’t just a loss for this institution but it’s a deeply personal loss for Roy and me, so on behalf of the entire Spartan family we want to offer our most sincere condolences to Mary and to the rest of Gordon’s family.”
Guyer was a professor and chairperson for the entomology department, and the director of MSU’s Pesticide Research Center, an institute he played a lead role in establishing. The center is no longer in existence, but pesticide research is conducted by multiple MSU departments. He also served as director of MSU Extension from 1973 to 1985.
One of Guyer’s best memories of his time at MSU was presenting an honorary doctorate, posthumously, in 1986 to George Wallace. Wallace, an MSU zoology professor whose research was the subject of Rachel Carson’s book, “Silent Spring,” linked the use of the pesticide DDT to the death of robins on MSU’s campus.
Guyer, an esteemed researcher in his own right, authored more than 70 papers on aquatic ecology, insect control technology, integrated pest control, public policy and international agriculture. He received a National Science Foundation grant to participate in the International Congress of Entomology in London in 1964. He also served as chairperson of the insect control delegation for the National Academy of Sciences in 1975.
Internationally, Guyer led one of the first American scientific groups allowed to visit China in the mid-1970s. He also traveled to Africa under United Nations’ sponsorship to develop plant-protection education and research efforts in eight countries.
>Guyer also presided over the switch of the academic calendar from quarters to semesters, which had already been approved prior to his term. He gave MSU’s 20th president, Lou Anna K. Simon, the nod as an accomplished university administrator when he named her interim provost.
His first wife, Norma Lake Guyer, died in 2001. He is survived by his second wife, Mary Gettel Guyer.
President Guyer recorded in the Voice Library studio in 2014.
RJ Wolcott, “Former MSU President Gordon Guyer dies”, Lansing State Journal, April 1, 2016.
May 30, 1928, Chrysler Corporation purchased the Dodge Brothers auto company in Detroit and became the third largest automobile manufacturer behind General Motors and Ford.
Source: Mich-Again’s Day.
On May 30, 1930, in an impressive ceremony attended by top military personnel and countless city, state and governmental dignitaries, 41 men of the 339th Infantry and the 330th Engineers were finally laid to rest around the Polar Bear Memorial. In subsequent years, an additional 15 men (one in 1932, 13 in 1934 and one in 1935) of the 339th Infantry and 330th Engineers were laid to rest around the monument. These were members of Michigan’s own Polar Bear Division who made the supreme sacrifice in the far off frozen tundra of northern Russia during World War I. The famed memorial, created by the renowned French sculptor Leon Hermont, was carved from a solid block of white Georgia marble. It has been designated an Historic Site by the State of Michigan. Every year on Memorial Day, White Chapel hosts a Memorial Day ceremony in honor of these brave soldiers at 11 a.m. that is free and open to the general public.
Source : White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetary in Troy
Patricia Zacharias, “Detroit’s Polar Bears and their confusing war”, Detroit News, July 22, 2000.
Voices of a Never Ending Dawn : The Heroic Story of the American WWI Polar Bear Force in Arctic Russia. description and 5-Minute Preview of Documentary
339th Infantry Regiment In Northern Russia 1918-1919 clip from YouTube.
“Detroit’s own” Polar Bears : the American North Russian Expeditionary Forces, 1918-1919 / Stanley J. Bozich and Jon R. Bozich. Frankenmuth, Mich., U.S.A. : Polar Bear Pub. Co., 1985.
A Michigan Polar Bear Confronts the Bolsheviks : A War Memoir by Godfrey J. Anderson. This rare volume contains the graphic story of a young Michigan soldier’s experiences during President Woodrow Wilson’s ill-fated 1918 military expedition against the Bolsheviks in the frozen reaches of northern Russia — a little-remembered event in U.S. history. As a member of the U.S. “Polar Bears” medical corps, Godfrey Anderson (1895–1981) tells of his travels by ship and train to Archangel, Russia, where a 5,000-man American contingent joined forces with French, British, Canadian, and local Cossack fighters to hold back the Red Army. Anderson’s unit set up field hospitals in the vast Arctic wilderness, endured the bitter cold of winter and the ravages of the Spanish flu, rubbed shoulders with Russian villagers, rescued scores of wounded from the advancing Bolsheviks in a harrowing nighttime retreat by sleigh — and more.
When hell froze over / by E.M. Halliday. New York : ibooks ; distributed by Simon & Schuster, c2000. On November 11, 1918, World War I officially ended. But for the men of the ill-starred American Expeditionary Force to North Russia, the fighting had only begun. Plagued by meager supplies, poor leadership, and the tack of a clear-cut objective, this small but valiant American contingent fought impossible odds, scoring several stunning victories against the Bolsheviks before superior numbers and the bone-breaking arctic winter that had defeated Napoleon forced them to withdraw. Now, in this clear, forthright account, E.M. Halliday re-creates one of the most obscure but important of America’s foreign interventions: an epic of confusion, endurance, failure — and gallantry — that history almost forgot and the Russians never forgave. Only today, more than seventy years after the Allied occupation of Archangel, have American-Soviet relations begun to thaw.
American intervention in northern Russia, 1918-1919 : the polar bear expedition : a guide to the resources in the Michigan Historical Collections / compiled by Leonard A. Coombs. Ann Arbor, [Mich.] : Michigan Historical Collections, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, 1988.
Polar Bear Expedition Digital Resources at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan.
Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
On May 30, 1944, the U.S. government brought 200 German prisoners to Camp Owosso and set up on an unused dirt racetrack at the corner of M-21 and Carland Road. Camp Owosso was one of 25 prisoner of war camps created in Michigan during World War II.
The public was not allowed to visit Camp Owosso, and a sign on M-21 alerted motorists that stopping or parking was prohibited. According to the Shiawassee County Historical Society, the Germans apparently enjoyed being prisoners away from the danger of the battlefield.
As they were transported to and from the camp for work in the fields, they would sing and wave happily to passers-by. The camp, however, received national attention when two prisoners walked away from a canning factory and met two women who were waiting in a car. A massive manhunt ensued and the following day all four were arrested near Colby Lake.
There were 32 POW Camps in Michigan. While the existence of the camps was not kept secret, it was not publicized for security reasons.
List of Camps:
- Camp Allegan
- Camp AuTrain
- Barryton, Mecosta County, MI
- Benton Harbor, Berrien County, MI
- Blissfield, Lenawee County, MI
- Caro, Tuscola County, MI
- Coloma, Berrien County, MI
- Croswell, Sanilac County, MI
- Fort Custer, Galesburg, MI
- Dundee, Monroe County, MI
- Camp Evelyn – Alger County, MI
- Freeland, Saginaw County, MI
- Fremont, Newaygo County, MI
- Camp Germfask – Germfask, MI
- Grant, Newaygo County, MI
- Grosse Ile Township, Wayne County, MI
- Hart, Oceana County, MI
- Camp Lake Odessa, Ionia County, MI
- Mattawan, Van Buren County, MI
- Mass, Ontonagon County, MI
- Milan (USFR), Monroe and Washtenaw Counties, MI
- Odessa Lakes, Tuscola County, MI
- Camp Owosso – Shiawassee County
- Camp Pori – Upper Peninsula
- Camp Raco – Upper Peninsula near Sault Ste. Marie
- Romulus Army Air Field, Wayne County, MI
- Shelby, Oceana County, MI
- Camp Sidnaw – Sidnaw, MI
- Sparta, Kent County, MI
- Wayne (Fort), Detroit, Wayne County, MI
- Waterloo, Jackson County, MI
- Wetmore, Alger County, MI
Sources:
Michigan Every Day
For more information see Owosso Prisoner of War Camp, courtesy of the Shiawassee District Library.
Steve Ostrander, “German POW Camps in Michigan“, Michiganology.
Owosso Speedway and ‘Prisoner of War’ Camp History
The Lonely Ones, Time, January 22, 1945. Tells the story of two local Owosso women who met German prisoners at a canning factory and ran off with them for a night, only to end up being prosecuted for treason and sentenced to federal prison.
Michael Peterson, “Woman’s hidden history recalled by family”, Argus Press, January 19, 2010.
Kathleen Lavey, “Owosso 1944: 2 teens, 2 German POWs and a jailbreak”, Lansing State Journal, March 17, 2016.
Cottonwood Summer. Gary Slaughter. Nashville, TN : Fletcher House, c2004. When the army builds a German prisoner of war camp on the outskirts of a small Michigan town, citizens are outraged. Adding to the angst, two women assist a pair of POWs to escape — and are tried for treason. History, fiction, and humor blend into a heart-warming story of life on the 1944 home front. Note : book is available via ILL.
Approximately 5000 German prisoners of war were sent to Fort Custer. See Ryan Shek, “Portage couple decorates German prisoner of war graves at Fort Custer for 30 years”, MLive, June 11, 2015.
In the history of major league baseball no player has died on the field during a game, but 45 years ago, Tiger legend Al Kaline nearly earned that distinction but for the heroics of teammate Willie Horton.
On May 30, 1970, at County Stadium in Milwaukee, with the bases loaded, and the scored tied 2-2, the Brewer’s light hitting infielder Roberto Pena connected on a serving from Tiger hurler Les Cain and sent it deep to right center field.
In full flight, center fielder Jim Northrup and right fielder Al Kaline both converged on the ball and collided as the ball glanced off Northrup’s glove and rolled to the wall. As Pena sprinted around the bases for what became the only inside-the-park grand slam in the ballpark’s history, Kaline lay flat on the ground, motionless.
Brewer’s bullpen coach Jackie Moore — a friend and former teammate — raced to Kaline’s side and later told the papers, “I could hear him gasping for air, he was choking and turning blue. I realized he had swallowed his tongue and I tried to pry his jaw open but the best I could do was get two fingers between his teeth.”
Racing over from his left field position, Willie Horton brushed everyone aside, and with his brute strength, pried open Kaline’s clenched jaw and pulled his teammates’ tongue out of the way. But Horton’s heroics didn’t occur before Kaline’s jaw clenched again on Willie’s hand that created a scar that he still has today. Kaline took two deep breaths and opened his eyes not realizing what had happened before being taken to an area hospital where he was observed overnight.
“I remembered that when a guy gets knocked out you got to grab him [by the] back of the jaw and with your fingers pop it open,” Horton said later when he received an award from the Michigan Heart Association who told Willie that he had very likely saved Kaline’s life.
Kaline, who had been batting .327, would miss just one game from the injury. Three months later, the man his teammates called “Six”, continued to count his blessings and was able to enjoy Al Kaline Day at Tiger Stadium with his family.
For the full article, see Bill Dow, “The day Willie Horton saved Al Kaline’s life”, Detroit Athletic Company, May 27, 2015.