On Aug. 24, 1834, a second wave of the cholera epidemic struck Detroit.
Hundreds of Detroiters are believed to have died in August and September 1834 of cholera, which results from a bacterial infection of the intestine and can cause acute diarrhea, shock and severe dehydration in a short time.
In August alone, the “Michigan Genealogy: Sources & Resources” reports, cholera killed 7-10% of the city’s population of 3,500. Some reports say 16 people died in one day.
City officials typically rang a bell when someone died. The custom was discontinued when the ringing became so frequent that it caused panic.
The cholera epidemic, which first appeared in 1832, returned to Detroit several times from 1849 to 1865.
Source : Naomi R. Patton, “This Week In Michigan History”, Detroit Free Press, August 24, 2008.
The most famous saloon smasher of them all was Carrie Nation from Medicine Lodge, Kansas, the daughter of a Fundamentalist Kentucky planter father and a psychotic mother. Some historians believe Carrie Nation herself was psychotic. (Her daughter was also diagnosed with psychosis.) She was nearly six feet tall and 175 pounds, her uniform a gray raglan and a black straw bonnet. At age 54 in 1900 she became unsettled by several illicit saloons and a drugstore in Medicine Lodge. She first attacked the drugstore with a sledge hammer, then three of the illegal saloons with bricks and rocks, hurling at them anything she could find. She continued to other Kansas towns, where she and a few other WCTU women demolished several saloons, then lectured the crowds.
She toured the U.S., and at many train stops was greeted by thousands of supporters, like this adoring crowd she addressed on a train platform in Des Moines:
“God bless you. You are all saloon smashers; I can see it in your faces. We must all work together to down rum and the Devil. …”
In 1908 she reached Detroit, entering Considine’s Saloon on Monroe Street at 9 p.m. on Aug. 24, a busy night made busier with rumor of her arrival. She walked through the saloon to the back room where the boys “ate beefsteaks and drank beer at small tables.” The Free Press said she scrutinized the art on the wall that the paper described as “pictures of feminine beauty that are undeniably artistic but not because of their superfluous drapery.”
“A gilded Hell!” she exclaimed and stormed over to lecture the bartenders, then moved on to other saloons and finally a 20-minute harangue at Michigan Central Station to a large crowd.
Two days later she went out to the village of Holly in Oakland County for a lecture attended by two or three hundred farm families. Michigan Gov. Fred Warner arrived and she confronted him for not firing the Detroit police commissioner, whom she said was not enforcing the Sunday liquor law. The governor said a few words, then with the lieutenant governor by his side literally ran from her and an angry mob of farmers to hide in a hardware store. “You’re a coward!” she screamed after the two.
Carry Nation’s visit to the Holly Hotel caused tremendous notoriety when Ms. Nation and her Pro-Temperance supporters invaded the town, clubbing patrons of the Holly Hotel with their umbrellas. The painting of the flimsily clad lady above the bar unleashed further wrath, and Carry began smashing whiskey bottles with her trademark ax. Ms. Nation was appalled at the attitude of the Holly Hotel proprietor when he refused to condemn the drinking habits of the locals that patronized the Holly Hotel’s very large bar.
Her misguided and destructive actions prompted the Holly Hotel owner to have her arrested and lodged in the local jail. Governor Warner used Carry Nation’s incarceration as a political reason to visit Holly and address the townspeople on August 29th.
Sources : Bill Loomis, “Booze and temperance in Detroit’s hard-drinking early years”, Detroit News Blog, October 24, 2012.
The History of the Holly Hotel. According to this source, Carry Nation visited the Holly Hotel on August 29.
Mickey Lyons, “Hatchetations in Holly and Detroit: Carrie Nation Comes to Town“, Prohibition Detroit, August 26, 2017.
Carrie Sizes Up the Pictures : Mrs. Nation Visits Considine’s Saloon, Views the Walls and Lectures Bartender and Crowd. Detroit Free Press, August 25, 1908, p.3. (Access restricted to the MSU Community and other Proquest Historical Newspaper subscribers)
For more information, see Carry A. Nation, The Famous and Original Bar Room Smasher, an online exhibit by the Kansas Historical Society.
There was a time when Michigan was anxious to claim loot from Washington, D.C. According to the Detroit Free Press, the U.S. Senate raffled off 150 obsolete cannon from the nation’s arsenal on August 24, 1912. Senator William Alden Smith helped Michigan claim three, with carriages and cannon balls, for Ann Arbor, Hillsdale, and Jackson for the price of freight.
Senator William Alden Smith earned fame earlier in the same year by presiding over the Titanic Inquiry.
Source : “Senators Hold Cannon Raffle : Michigan Draws Three Out of Total of 150 Distributed. Favored States Merely Have To Pay the Freignt”. Detroit Free Press, August 25, 1912, p. 4. For more interesting information from yesteryear, check out the online Historical Detroit Free Press, 1858-1922, in the MSU Main Library.
Wade, Wyn Craig. “The Senator and the Shipwreck.” Michigan History 63 (November/December 1979): 10-19.
On August 24, 1915, the state began paying a bounty on dead rats.
In part, the act reads:
“Every person being an inhabitant of this State who shall kill any black, brown, gray, or Norway rats commonly known as the house rat, barn rat, or wharf rat in any organized township, village, or city in this State, shall be entitled to receive a bounty of 5 cents for each rat thus killed…
“Every person applying for such bounty shall take the heads of such rats, in lots of not less than five, to the clerk of the township, village, or city within which such rats shall have been killed, in state of good preservation, and if satisfied with the correctness of such claim said township, village, or city clerk shall issue a certificate stating the amount of bounty to which such applicant is entitled and deliver the same to said applicant, and destroy the heads of such rats by burning.”
Michigan’s township, village and city clerks are doubtlessly happy that the law was repealed in 2000.
Source : Official Blog of the Michigan House Democrats, August 24, 2015.
On August 24 1969, Victor Jackson, of East Lansing, landed near Manitowac, Wisconsin, after completing a 14 and-a-half hour trip across Lake Michigan in a bathtub. The 32-year-old father of six made the 65-mile journey in a household-type tub welded to a frame supported by four 30 gallon oil drums and powered by a 20-horsepower outboard motor.
The rest of the story:
Jackson’s first effort, July 5, 1969 ended in a close call. He had to be rescued by the Coast Guard as small waves suddenly grew to big ones.
“Lake Michigan had turned into a raging fury of six-foot waves enveloping me in their deep green broiling water,” he wrote in his book.
His pleas for help over a radio could only be heard as his tub rode the crest of a wave.
The Coast Guard did rescue him, six and a half miles off shore, and towed his tub back to Ludington. The guardsmen, he said, thought it was hilarious.
“The newspapers had a field day at the expense of my ego,” he wrote.
The Detroit Free Press headline was “Bathtub Mariner is All Washed Up.”
Even nationally syndicated radio host Paul Harvey got a ding in.
Jackson said it was a low point. He was depressed. He endured a lot of razzing about his failed trip.
His father encouraged him to quit. His wife dubbed him “goofy” in a news article.
One person, though, gave him a glimmer of hope. It was a Ludington car ferry captain who examined the boat and told him he could do it if he waited for calmer weather in late summer.
He tried again Aug. 24, 1969, leaving from Ludington early around 6:30 a.m., hoping to arrive in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in 10 hours.
As the mayor of Manitowoc and a group of well-wishers waited on shore, hours passed with no sign of Jackson. Jackson’s father, who had made the crossing from Ludington on a ferry, kept his pledge to call the Coast Guard if he didn’t make it by 5 p.m.
Out on the water, Jackson had drifted off course then corrected with the help of a compass and map, adding miles to his journey. His radio batteries were dying, and he turned off communication. He knew he was running out of gas.
As darkness fell he thought he could see a blinking light on the horizon. It turned out to be a grain elevator in Manitowoc.
As he motored slowly toward shore, he realized he was in complete darkness without lights and at risk for being hit by other boats.
But he made it around 9 p.m., Jackson said he had one pint of gas left out of the 30 gallons he took to make the crossing.
The crossing took him more than 14 hours. He estimates he went 100 miles.
“It was a real squeaker,” he said.
His story was carried worldwide. He later became a guest on Garry Moore’s show “To Tell the Truth,” stumping the panel about his adventure.
50 years later, the MSU electrical engineering graduate and now Okemos resident has written a book about the experience called “Crossing Lake Michigan in a Bathtub.”
Sources :
Mich-Again’s Day
“Man Sails Bathtub 65 Miles”, Newburgh, N.Y. Evening News, August 25, 1969.
“Bathtub-Boat Spurts Across Lake“, Desert Sun, Number 19, 26 August 1969.
Judy Putnam, “Okemos man recounts bath-tub trip across Lake Michigan in new book“, Detroit News, August 4, 2019.
Olivia Procter Maynard has strived to help the underserved and overlooked, especially children, women, minorities, and senior citizens. The first woman to chair the Michigan Democratic Party (1979-1983), Maynard also was the first woman nominated for the office of Michigan’s lieutenant governor, on August 24, 1978. She ran for Lieutenant Governor for a second time in 1990. During her tenure as vice chairperson of the Michigan Democratic Party (1967-1979), Maynard organized support to ensure the rule of a 50 percent female delegation at the Democratic National Convention.
In 1983, Ms. Maynard became the head of the Office of Services to the Aging. In this position she worked to keep senior citizens in their homes, to provide prescription drug reimbursement for low-income residents ineligible for Medicaid, and to develop a national model for guardianship standards. She also gained increases in the state share of the aging budget.
Maynard left the office in 1990 and worked as an adjunct professor and instructor of aging policy at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and the Lansing Community College Center for Aging Education. She is also the founder and president of Michigan Prospect, a progressive public policy institute, and she served on the Federal Council on Aging during the Clinton administration. She has been a Regent at the University of Michigan since 1996.
Considering her unwavering commitment to public service in Michigan and her advocacy for the underserved, the Michigan Woman’s Hall of Fame is proud to induct Olivia Maynard in 2005.
Sources:
Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.
James J. Blanchard Living Library of Michigan Political History
On Aug. 24, 1998, the Michigan State Fair unveiled a refurbished gigantic stove that represented Detroit’s claim to fame before automobiles came around. Detroit, formerly, was known as the stove capital of the world.
In 1893’s World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Detroit was represented with a stove that weighed 15 tons and stood 25 feet tall. After its display at the Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building at the fair, the stove was broken down and reassembled next to the Michigan Stove factory at Adair and East Jefferson in Detroit.
The giant stove was moved up Jefferson Avenue just west of the Belle Isle Bridge in the 1920s. It was moved to the Michigan State Fairground in 1965, where it was put in storage in 1974 because it was rotting. In 1998, the state fair raised money to restore the stove and the refurbished one was unveiled on this date 14 years ago.
On August 11, 2011 the stove was struck by lightening and set afire. The remains were moved to the Detroit Historical Archives warehouse.
Source : Michigan Every Day
For another article, see “Detroit: Stove capital of the world”, Farm Dairy, August 30, 2001.
Detroit: Stove Capital of the World, MSU Campus Archaeology Program CAPBlog, August 1, 2013.
Bill Loomis, “When stoves were the hot new thing”, Detroit News, January 25, 2015.
The End of the World’s Largest Stove, WDET, August 16, 2016.
The Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Association (MDCD) will carry on Detroit’s century-long tradition of boat racing as the Gold Cup sponsor of the Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Hydrofest 2018.
A fleet of eight H1 teams, along with 10 boats from the Hydroplane Racing League, will take to the river for testing on Friday, August 24, followed by
races on Saturday and Sunday, August 25–26. The winner will grab the Gold Cup, the oldest active motorsports trophy and a coveted prize that was first contested in 1904 on the Hudson River in New York.
The H1 Unlimited Hydroplanes are powered by turbine engines producing 3000 horsepower, topping 200 mph and trailing a 60-foot high, 300-foot long wall of water called a “rooster tail.”
The HRL runs a class of boats called Grand Prix. These boats feature supercharged, 468 cubic inch, big-block V8 Chevrolet piston engines producing as much as 1,500 horsepower and reaching speeds of 160 mph.
“Once again, we are going to host some of the fastest boats in the world and race for the most prestigious trophy in all of boat racing—the Gold Cup,” said Event Director and Detroit Riverfront Events Inc. President Mark Weber. “We are fortunate to have the Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers back as a partner for the second consecutive year to support one of the longest
continuing sporting events in the city.”
The first boat race on the Detroit River was in 1916, and that too was the Gold Cup. The only Detroit sports franchise to have graced the Motor City before the boats first competed on the River are the Detroit Tigers in 1901. The longevity of the event is significant to MDCD.
Visit http://detroitboatraces.com/ for more information on events, ticket prices, etc.
WALK-IN-THE-WATER, the first steamboat on Lake Erie, was built at Black Rock, NY, in 1818 under the supervision of Noah Brown and Robert Fulton. A paddlewheel-driven boat 132′ long and 32′ across the beam, it had a smokestack 30′ high set between 2 sails, which were used when the winds were strong enough. Its first captain was Job Fish. The steamer could accommodate 100 cabin passengers and a large number in steerage; it also had a smoking room, a baggage room, and a dining room.
The origin of its name is uncertain; it may have been named for Wyandot Indian Chief Walk-in-the-Water or, according to Capt. Baton Atkins of Buffalo, NY, may have been adopted from the exclamation “walks in the water,” made by an Indian upon seeing Fulton’s first boat, the Clermont, in 1807.
A painting of the Walk-in-the-Water from a UK collection.
Walk-in-the-Water’s maiden voyage from Buffalo began on August 25, 1818, with 29 passengers bound for Erie, Grand River, Cleveland, Sandusky, and Detroit. Traveling about 8-10 mph, the steamer completed the entire trip in about 9 days. Cost was $18 for a cabin and $7 for steerage. When it arrived in Cleveland, most of the village inhabitants came to greet it.
An illustration of Detroit in 1820 includes the steamboat Walk in the Water.
Steamboats had a great impact both on transportation and on the economy of the great lakes. Travel was not only quicker but more reliable. And as Bill Loomis reports, the hotel business in the young city of Detroit picked up dramatically after the invention of the steamboat.
After running aground near Erie in September, the boat was repaired and became the first steamboat in Lake Michigan when it traveled to Mackinaw and Green Bay in 1819. Walk-in-the-Water was wrecked during foul weather on November 1, 1821 near Buffalo while carrying 18 passengers and a full cargo, but all on board survived. The loss was estimated at $10,000-$12,000. After the wreck, the engine was placed in the Superior.
Steamers like the Walk-on-the-Water were critical in bringing immigrants and settlers to Detroit and the Michigan Territory from New York and the Eastern seaboard, particularly after the opening of the Erie Canal October 26, 1825, providing for the first time a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.
By 1836, 90 steamers a month were arriving, each one jammed with settlers. In 1837 three steamers arrived in Detroit a day. They grew bigger, carrying 700 passengers, then more than 1,000.
A busy Detroit riverfront is depicted in this 1838 etching from an original sketch by Fred K. Grain. It was used as a Christmas greeting card by the Eaton-Clark Company of Detroit and Windsor, which was founded in 1838.
Sources:
Encylopedia of Cleveland History
Bill Loomis, “Grand hotels of early Detroit: Cotillions, Celebrities and Turkish baths“, Detroit News, April 21, 2013.
Bill Loomis, “How one bad review delayed the settlement of Michigan”, Detroit News, June 3, 2012.
Joseph Gibbons, of Adrian MI, received a patent for a “Grain Drill” (“Improvement in Seed Planters”); first truly practical seeding machine (combined a grain drill with cavities to deliver seed and a device for regulating the volume).