Lewis Cass is appointed territorial governor. A native of New Hampshire, who later moved to Ohio, Cass was rewarded for earlier service in the War of 1812, when President James Madison appointed him governor of the Michigan Territory. Cass spent eighteen years as governor before he went to Washington, DC to serve as President Andrew Jackson’s secretary of war.
Source : Historical Society of Michigan
For more information, see Lewis Cass biography
For more information about Lewis Cass, see Bill Loomis, “Lewis Cass, the titan of Michigan’s early years”, Detroit Free Press, June 28, 2014.
Ingham County was established by an act of the Michigan Territorial Legislature on October 29, 1829, from portions of Shiawassee County, Washtenaw County and unorganized territory. It was attached for administrative purposes to Washtenaw County until 1838 when county government was established for Ingham.
The county was named for Samuel D. Ingham, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President Andrew Jackson, making Ingham one of Michigan’s so-called Cabinet counties.
Source : Ingham County, Michigan wikipedia entry.
Also see History of County Creation.
One of the ways auto makers drew attention to their vehicles in the early days was to take trips in them. On this day, Roy D. Chapin, an associate of Ransom E. Olds, left Detroit in a Curved Dash Olds heading for New York City for an appearance at the New York Auto Show on November 2, 1901. Chapin made it to the Waldorf Astoria on time, completing the longest automobile trip that had been made in this country up until that time and providing valuable publicity for the new car company.
Like all early rides the trip was far from uneventful. When told the road in New York was impassible due to rain and mud, Chapin blazed his own route, following the Erie Canal tow path. Along the way he had to replace a bent axle, rebuild the transmission, and fix a bent tire which was bent hitting the curb when he swerved to miss a pedestrian who stepped in front of him only blocks from the hotel. But he still made it to Auto Show on time.
Source : Richard A. Wright, “Born in fire — the curved-dash Olds“, March 8, 2000.
Click here for a Detroit News photo show featuring the Curved Dash Oldsmobile.
On October 29, 1910 some 4000 spectators paid anywhere from $.50 to $1.50 per ticket to watch the Michigan Aggies play Notre Dame. Some alumns reportedly traveled more than 500 miles to attend the game and they weren’t disappointed as the Aggies won 17-0. Extra bleachers and box seats were erected for it around College Field by the Red Cedar River.
For a photograph, see Steve Grinezel, Michigan State Football : They are Spartans. Arcadia Press, 2003, pp.13.
A pharmacy worker and owner and a Civil War Veteran, James Vernor invented a drink called Vernor’s Ginger Ale which became synonomous with Detroit.
Source : Michigan Every Day.
For more more information, visit Vernors Wikipedia page
Nearly five decades since a group of first generation Americans recorded one of the best known and most influential songs of the 1960s in a humble, homespun studio in Bay City, the ditty is garnering recognition in its hometown.
Equal parts protopunk and garage rock anthem, Question Mark and the Mysterians’ “96 Tears” is to be declared Bay City’s official rock ‘n’ roll song by Mayor Christopher Shannon at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 14, at Old City Hall, 814 Saginaw St.
96 tears, as performed by Question Mark on lead vocals, Frank Rodriguez on electric organ, Eddie Serrato on drums, Frank Lugo on bass and Bobby Balderrama on guitar, was recorded by Art Schiell in his home studio at 405 Raymond St. in late 1965. Question Mark, originally named Rudy Martinez, wrote the song’s lyrics and Rodriguez came up with the familiar organ riff that plays throughout the tune.
The quintet released the 2:56-long song on a 7-inch single in February 1966, backed with “Midnight Hour.” On Oct. 1 of that year, the band made its national television debut, performing the song on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. On Oct. 29, the fuzzy song with the putdown lyrics, infectious organ notes and minimalistic instrumentation hit the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
“It’s the only song that has been recorded in Bay City that’s achieved that,” Johnson said. “Realistically, it will probably be the only one that ever does. In addition to that, the song was the No. 2 hit in 1966 in the entire United States. A lot of people don’t realize that. That means ’96 Tears’ was on the chart longer than any other No. 1 hit by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Supremes, The Beach Boys or The Monkees (in 1966).
While Question Mark hailed from Flint, the rest of the band members were Saginaw natives, the sons of Mexican families that immigrated to America to pick vegetables in fields and later found factory work in the Saginaw area.
Question Mark and the Mysterians became the first Latino band to have a mainstream radio rock hit.
Since its heyday, the song has only grown in stature, Johnson said.
“The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has designated it as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock, and I think that’s probably due to the fact that a lot of music historians point to ’96 Tears’ as one of the early fusions of rock and roll and Tejano music,” Johnson said. “Frank Rodriguez’s lead organ kind of replaced the accordion that is found on that type of Mexican music.
“‘Rolling Stone’ magazine has listed it as one of the 500 greatest songs of all time,” he added. “That’s pretty fantastic. It’s known and loved all over the world. It’s been covered by Hall of Fame artists like Aretha Franklin, Iggy Pop and Bruce Springsteen in concert.”
The unsung hero of the song is Schiell, who left Russia for America with his family as a child and moved to Bay City in 1916. Professionally a hairdresser with a shop on Midland Street, Schiell constructed a recording studio in his home.
“It was small, but you can fit a band in there,” Johnson said. “I’ve measured it, and it’s about 75 percent the size of the original Sun Studio. He had an enclosed glass control room and had a lot of equipment. He was kind of an audiophile.”
The house is currently occupied by husband and wife Eduardo and Charlene Cotto. Johnson has said he’d like for the state or the city to place a historical marker in front of their home.
96 Tears by Question Mark and the Mysterians from YouTube shot on American Bandstand.
For the full article, see Cole Waterman, “Mayor to dedicate ’96 Tears’ as Bay City’s official rock and roll song”, MLive, July 27, 2014.
Drafting continues in Michigan.
To fulfill the necessary federal quota of troops, Michigan continued drafting for the Union army. At the end of this call, 6,383 men were drafted. After reducing that number for men who were exempt or paid the $300 commutation fee, 261 men were delivered to the induction center in Grand Rapids.
Source : Michigan History magazine, October 2003.
Tom Harmon grew up in Gary, Indiana, the youngest son of a steel mill security guard. He worked his way through Michigan in the late 1930s while building his outstanding football career.
By his junior season, in 1939, he appeared on the cover of Time, which reported he was a “gregarious, lantern-jawed six footer with a Tarzan physique” who runs “with the power of a wild buffalo and the cunning of a hounded fox.” He was touted by sportswriters as “the Michigan maestro,” “the wily Wolverine,” and “triple threat Tommy.” And the six-foot, 195-pound running and defensive back, passer, and kicker actually exceeded the hype.
But on this day, October 30, 1943, according to his famed commander, General Clair Chennault, “oblivious to his personal safety,” Harmon turned his P-38 directly into the half-dozen Japanese Zeros that had suddenly appeared above him. He raced into their midst, firing away.
For the full story, see Fredric Alan Maxwell, “The Late Great 98 Tom Harmon on the field and at war”, Michigan Today, September 1, 2008.
Also see Elizabeth McGarr, “Conquering Hero : Humble and hardworking, Old 98 Tom Harmon was Michigan’s first transcendent football star”, SI Vault, August 20, 2008.
The drum major for the University of Michigan marching band rehearses as admiring children fall in line, 1950.
On October 30, 1950, Life magazine carried what is arguably the most widely seen and possibly the best photograph ever made at the University of Michigan. It shows an exuberant drum major—head thrust back, right leg thrust forward at an impossible angle—marching from right to left across a close-cut field. Seven children bounce along behind him in ragged single-file, their own heads thrown back in imitation. In the background, four stately trees seem to march in a procession of their own.
The photo was taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995), the great Time-Life photographer who specialized in capturing spontaneous images that told an entire story, the best-known example being a sailor’s passionate embrace of a nurse in Times Square on V-J Day in 1945.
As he recalled it later, Eisenstaedt already that week had shot many pictures of “the usual things: the formations, the rehearsing, and so on.” He was wandering on the athletic campus when he caught sight of the drum major—it was Dick Smith—rehearsing all alone. Kids were playing nearby, and “they saw him, too,” Eisenstaedt said, “and all of a sudden they ran out and began to mimic him. It happened so quickly that I barely had time to focus.”
At least two superb photographs of the drum major and the children resulted. Both have been reprinted, but only the one that appeared in Life became famous. William D. Revelli, director of U-M bands from 1935 to 1971, never forgot the coverage. “I think that for our marching band,” he told an interviewer more than 30 years later, “that article was the greatest thing that ever happened.”
The photography critic David Friend, a veteran editor at Life and Vanity Fair, has noted that while Eisenstaedt took well-known pictures of celebrities from Winston Churchill to Jacqueline Kennedy, his best works, like those of Frank Capra on film and Norman Rockwell in portraiture, were “the ones that distilled everyday life to its essential joie de vivre.” They captured “the ebullient moment.” The image of the strutting drum major and the kids, Friend said, was Eisenstaedt’s “ode to joy.”
Source: James Tobin, “Ode to Joy”, Michigan Today, February 10, 2010.
On Oct. 30, 1956, 52 boys at Romeo Community High School faced a deadline to either trim their Elvis Presley-like hairstyles or leave the school. The Superintendent of Romeo Community High School imposed the deadline after teachers complained the students’ sideburns and duck-tail haircuts spawned defiant behavior.
Barbers offered free haircuts to boys who could not afford them. And all 52 boys complied with the deadline.
Source: Michigan Every Day