On September 5, 1881, Michigan’s Great Thumb Fire began when gale force winds swept into the thumb area where small fires were already burning. The fire raged for three days, burned a million acres in Huron, Sanilac, Tuscola, and Lapeer counties, and killed at least 282 people.
On Sept. 5, 1959, the first Labor Day Mackinac Bridge Walk was held and more than 15,000 hikers joined Gov. G. Mennen Williams as he set the first time record for governors, crossing the 4.5-mile span in 65 minutes.
The rest of the story:
The International Walkers Association organized the first bridge walk on June 25, 1958 — from Mackinaw City to St. Ignace. Some 60 people hoofed it, including Gov. G. Mennen (Soapy) Williams, according to “Mackinac Bridge: A 50-year Chronicle, 1957-2007” by Mike Fornes. In 1959, the walk moved to Labor Day. The route’s direction alternated until 1964, when it permanently became north to south. An average of 50,000 people participate annually.
For the full article, see Martha Thierry, “Labor Day Mackinac Bridgewalk”, Detroit Free Press, August 29, 2013.
Mich-Again’s Day
Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme, a 26-year old member of the Manson family, tried to shoot President Gerald R. Ford in Sacramento, CA on this day. Seventeen days later, Sara Jane Moore would try again in San Francisco. Fortunately, Ford was not injured in either attempt.
Source : Detroit Free Press, September 2, 2012
In his strongest words of support for organized labor, President Barack Obama told a riverfront crowd of thousands Monday in Detroit: “As long as I’m in the White House, I’m going to stand up for collective bargaining.”
For the full article, see Kathleen Gray, Chrissie Thompson, and Naomi R. Patton, “Obama tells Detroit: I’ll defend union rights”, Detroit Free Press, September 6, 2011.
Robert Snell and Marisa Schultz, “Obama in Detroit: Time to rebuild”, Detroit News, September 6, 2011.
Bill Loomis, “‘Holiday for labor’ an early tradition in Detroit”, Detroit News Michigan History Blog, September 1, 2013.
More than a new home for two professional sports teams, the Little Caesars Arena, set for a ribbon-cutting next week, is the centerpiece of a 50-block development dubbed District Detroit that is expected to breathe life into a part of Detroit that has long been considered a dead zone.
The district — slated to include entertainment and commercial developments, as well as at least six residential developments — aims to transform a part of Detroit that for years has been made up of vacant and dilapidated buildings, offices housing nonprofit service organizations, restaurants, bars, and liquor stores.
For the full article see Frank Witsil, JC Reindl and John Gallagher, “Little Caesars Arena to breathe life into dead zone of Detroit“, Detroit Free Press, August 31, 2017.
John R. Williams receives 102 votes to his opponents’ collective 12 to become Michigan’s first mayor.
He was probably still mad about losing the election the previous year to become Michigan’s first territorial representative in Congress, when Father Gabriel Richard puts his name on the ballot and snares enough Catholic votes to win the election. Williams leaves the Catholic Church as a result!
The rest of the story:
John R. Williams was born in Detroit on May 4, 1782 to an English father and French mother at a time when the city wasn’t much more than a fur trading post with ribbon farms. John R.’s father, Thomas Williams, died when his son was three. As an adolescent, John R. was taken in by his wealthy uncle, a man named Joseph Campau whose name you may recognize from the thoroughfare that runs through Hamtramck and Detroit. Under Campau’s care, John R. was educated and learned to write in English and French.
In 1796, Williams was appointed to the army, where he served under General Wilkinson at Fort Marsac in present day Tennessee, for three years before resigning and returning to Detroit. Later on, Williams was made Captain of an artillery company during the War of 1812. He was taken prisoner when General Hull surrendered Detroit. During the Black Hawk War, he commanded the territorial troops , and was Senior Major General of the State militia at the time of his death, Oct. 20, 1854.
However, Williams was much more than just a military man. He was a successful merchant and politician. In fact he is best known for serving as the first mayor of Detroit, Michigan. He would be reelected mayor five more times. He also assisted in writing the Detroit City charter, served as one of the first trustees of the University of Michigan, was president of the Detroit Board of Education, and was a delegate to and President of the first Michigan Constitutional Convention. In 1831, Williams and Joseph Campau started the Democratic Free Press newspaper, which became the Detroit Free Press.
He even fought in a duel and was imprisoned for a short time in Montreal because of it. Like many wealthy people in early Detroit, he also owned a slave.
John R Street, one of Detroit’s main thoroughfares, is named after him.
Sources :
Detroit Almanac
John R. Williams wikipedia entry
John R. Williams Encyclopedia of Detroit entry
Carolyn Gearig, “Who is John R and why is there a street in Detroit named after him?“, Michigan Radio, October 25, 2015.
People of Detroit : John R. Williams
CuriosiD: Who Was John R?, May 30, 2017.
Disregarding his removal as acting governor of the Michigan Territory on August 29, Stevens T. Mason led the Michigan militia to Toledo on September 6 to prevent any Ohio judges from holding court the following day. They camped that night expecting to fight the next morning, but when they reached Toledo, they found no Ohio soldiers. Disappointed, some of the Michigan volunteers stayed in Toledo for three days, drinking, carousing, and plundering. The Michigan militia disbanded on September 10, and since the Ohio militia had already gone home, the “Toledo War” was over.
Sources :
Michigan Historical Calendar, courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
For more information about the Toledo War, see Tom Jones, “The war between Michigan and Ohio”, Detroit News, May 21, 2000.
The Toledo War courtesy of the Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
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After the fall of Fort Sumter, Sarah volunteered for the Union cause and under disguise she soldiered using the alias Franklin (Frank) Thompson. She joined the United States Army, Company F, Second Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, in May of that year. Her militia unit was known as “Flint’s Union Greys.” She served in the Army as a field nurse, spy, soldier and mail carrier. After the war, she wrote her memoirs in a book entitled Nurse and Spy in the Union Army Comprising the Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps and Battle-Fields, which was published in 1865.
In the letter transcribed here, Sarah gives great detail about an accident she suffered while carrying the mail between Washington and Centreville, Virginia, near where the Second Battle of Bull Run (or the Second Battle of Manassas) was about to take place. Colonel Orlando Poe had assigned her to be postmaster for the regiment, and she felt a great sense of urgency and duty about delivering the mail before the battle began. In the letter she is writing to her friend, R. H. Halsted, to give him a Statement of Facts about the accident so that he can write an affidavit to the government on her behalf. She had been receiving a Civil War pension of twelve dollars per month since 1884, and she needed the testimony of her friend in order to support her request for an increase in pension. At the end of the letter, Sarah talks about how she has suffered with her injuries, and states, “my entire left side from my head to my foot shows symptoms of paralysis, and it may be, that very soon, I shall not need a pension.” This haunting statement was unfortunately true, for it was only one year later, on September 5, 1898, at age 57, that Sarah passed away. She is buried in the GAR section of Washington Cemetery in Houston, Texas, with a limestone marker that says, “Emma E. Seelye, Army Nurse.”
Further Reading on Sarah Emma Edmonds Seelye:
Edmonds, S. Emma E. Nurse and Spy in the Union Army : Comprising the Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps, and Battle-fields. Hartford: W. S. Williams & Company, 1865.
Fladeland, Betty. “New Light on Sarah Emma Edmonds, Alias Franklin Thompson.” Michigan History 47 (December 1963): 357-62.
Pferdehirt, Julia. “Sarah Emma Edmonds 1841-1898: Soldier, Nurse, and Spy in the 2nd Michigan Infantry.” In More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Michigan Women. Guilford, Conn: Morris Book Publishing, 2007.
Stevens, Bryna. Frank Thompson: Her Civil War Story. New York : Macmillan Pub. Co., 1992. Children’s book.
Source : Sarah Emma Edmonds Seelye entry, Michigan In Letters, July 17, 2009 courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
For another, see Civil War Soldierettes: Part 1, The Sarahs from Fold3.
Christie Hoerneman, “A Female Soldier in the Civil War: Emma E. Edmonds“, Central Rappahanock Regional Library.
On Sept. 6, 1901, a Michigan native shot and killed President William McKinley during his visit to the Pan American Exhibition in Buffalo, N.Y. Leon F. Czolgosz, an anarchist from Michigan living in Cleveland, believed killing the president would put an end to the American government. It is unclear which Michigan city Czolgosz was from and when he became interested in radical politics, but his two shots from a revolver did cause McKinley to die eight days after the incident.
Source: Michigan Every Day
On September 6, 1960, a bushy haired U.S. senator with a New England accent came to Cadillac Square in downtown Detroit on Labor Day to deliver his first official campaign speech for president before a mass of people.
Sen. John F. Kennedy, the Democratic nominee, was going up against Richard Nixon. At the time, Jimmy R. Hoffa was president of the Teamsters. Walter P. Reuther was head of the United Auto Workers.
Two months after the speech, Kennedy became the nation’s 35th president.
The website, the Pop History Dig, wrote of Kennedy:
By Labor Day 1960, when Kennedy formally kicked off his fall campaign in Michigan, his oratory skills had risen to peak form, hitting themes of universal appeal with new and vivid language, inspiring thousands with calls for a better America.
By late October, Russell Baker of the New York Times would observe: “…[I]n the last month he has flowered into a magnificent campaigner with a Pied Piper magic over the street crowds, and especially the ladies and with a considerable talent for what is ungraciously called rabble-rousing.”
For the full article, see “55 Years Ago, JFK Gave a Labor Day Speech in Cadillac Square”, Deadline Detroit, September 6, 2015.