Tidbits of: Michigan

Five pieces of random Michiganian information, three major Michiganite events, and one story of Michigan's people. It is my hope that these will leave us fairly knowledgeable about the character of the Michiganders, their accomplishments, and general history. And yes, they do call themselves by all those names. Enjoy!

Random Info. #1: William Boeing Sr. was from Michigan. Boeing was originally spelled without the 'E' so that it would originally have sounded like 'boing!' William Sr. was a wealthy mining engineer who made his money off of taconite iron ore deposits. His son, William Boeing Jr., is that famous Washingtonian who pioneered in the aviation industry.

Random Info. #2: The Michigan State Mammal is the Painted Turtle. The painted turtle, so called because of it's beautiful, multi-colored, and usually striped skin and shell, is the only turtle that can be located from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The pictured turtle is one of the two western species.

Random Info. #3: The University of Michigan is the University in Michigan. It was founded in 1817 in Detroit. It was moved later to it's current location in Ann Arbor.

Random Info. #4: While rarely mentioned in historical accounts of the Civil War, Michigan actually contributed thousands of men and tens of thousands of supplies, mostly to the North.

Random Info. #5: From Michigan came one, and only one, President of the United States. To make up for the lack of numbers, he was at least fairly well-known since he came immediately after the infamous Richard Nixon. Gerald Ford was the 38th U.S. President. He was not a descendant of the famous Henry Ford. In fact, Gerald was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. He legally changed his name in 1935.

Major Michiganian Event #1: The Metz Fire. I'll be talking more about this in another post. In 1908, the small town of Metz, located almost at the tip of the lower peninsula, burned to the ground in a series of major wildfires. Incidentally, it occurred on the same date as the great Chicago fire; October 8th.

Major Michganian Event #2: The Erie Canal. Completed in 1825, the canal connected Lake Erie with the Hudson River. It was a breakthrough for industry in Michigan since the Hudson River empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The Canal was the first in America to have locks.

Major Michiganian Event #3: The Model T. The invention of the Model T, also in October 1908, changed history because of it's innovative production methods and travel abilities. Previously, it could take as much as a whole day to travel forty miles. Henry Ford, the inventor, is thought to have said this about his invention:

"We can paint it any color as long as it's black."
Which leads me to the story about the people of Michigan. Actually, it's placed in Canada, but it's about how two men met Edsel Ford from Michigan. It's an example of the character of Michigan's people.

Michgan Story #1: The Sky Blue Model T. In 1942, Charles Foster and Harold Hetherington were given a car; a Model T. The two men were in Canada learning how to fly airplanes for the Royal Airforce. They were given their car in Bowden, Alberta. After two weeks of fixing it up so that it would work and after painting it a brilliant sky blue, they continued to Calgary where the flying school was located. Unfortunately, because of World War II, gasoline was rationed. To make the 80 mile journey, they purloined airplane fuel for their car. Airplane fuel worked, but left a tell-tale stream of smoke. A little way outside of Calgary, the two met a stranded man standing next to his broken down, non-Ford car. The man asked to be driven into Calgary. On the way he commented on their car. 'I rented my car. You fellows have good sense to be driving a Ford, but you're not doing it any good with that airplane fuel.'

The man asked to be dropped off at an expensive hotel. There, Charles and Harold learned that the hitchhiker's name was Edsel Ford, President of the Ford Motor Company Inc. After Ford left town a few days later, Charles and Harold discovered the truth of the statement, 'One good turn deserves another.' Not only did Edsel Ford pay for their hotel bill, but he sent a Ford Company Plane to the flight school. On board were two mechanics. The mechanics fixed up the pilots' car --which had been damaged by the airplane fuel-- until it purred like a happy cat. The mechanic liked the color of their car. 'One day,' he said, 'everyone can order a car in the color they want. You guy's are just a little ahead of the crowd.'

Charles Foster eventually got up the courage to ask the mechanic a question. 'Why in the world wasn't the President of Ford Motors driving a Ford?'

The mechanic laughed. 'Mr. Ford,' he replied, 'is an intelligent man. Can you imagine the stories that would have spread if he had been found stranded next to a broken down Ford?'

Charles and Harold later learned that Edsel Ford became ill shortly after his unexpected gift. Ford never recovered.

So, now you know. An act of gratitude can change the lives of those around you. Charles and Harold never forgot Edsel Ford or his gift. They later gave the Model T to their friend, Dave MacMillan. Dave was the man who had supplied them with their airplane fuel for the car. He used the car to take his bride on a honeymoon.

I discovered many other stories of the character of the Michiganites. Each story portrayed kindness, determination, resilence, and love for fellow man. It is, or was, the culture, and we ought to take note.

Tidbits of: Kansas

Most people rarely ever hear anything about Kansas these days. And usually, we associate it with it's most ancient history. I.E., Bloody Kansas. The admission of Kansas to the Union was an additional spark to the Civil War.

The state became known as Bloody Kansas because factions from the North and South converged on Kansas hoping to sway it's admission as a free or slave state respectively. The factions fought each other. While neither side really won anything, an influx of legitmate Northern settlers shortly after caused the territory to be admitted as a free state in 1861.

The above short paragraph is Kansas' only claim to fame. However, in spite of it's negative known history, Kansas actually has some very interesting, but very little-known history. For instance, Kansas, like Texas, is very proud of itself. In April, they will be celebrating their 18th annual Story-Telling Festival. The festival combines fact and fiction set in Kansas to make it a highly successful state pride festival. I haven't been before, but I'm reasonably sure that it would be fun.

In 1889, Lincoln County in Kansas made history. How? William Feldkamp married Louisa Heiser. The wedding was "huge;" double the size of the average wedding. (About four hundred people came from all over the state) The wedding lasted two days! According to ancient tradition, the bride's brother rode a horse on Monday all over the county to invite people. He received a token yard or so of ribbon from the invited guests. By the time he finished he had about an hundred yards of ribbon attached to himself and his horse. (That would have been quite a sight!)

Kansas was the last state in the Union to have a flag. Here again, their individualism was at the root. Kansas wanted to be different, so their previous proposed flags were banners hung vertically rather than flags hung horizontally on a flagpole. However, no one could quite agree, and Washington D.C. refused to hang such an awkward flag in the city. Some people thought that a sunflower should be the dominant symbol on the flag. (Kansas is the Sunflower State) however, others argued that a sunflower is so close to a weed that it would be a disgraceful state symbol. In 1925, Hazel Avery, a seamstress, designed a flag. It was adopted two years later and is the same as it is today except that the word Kansas was added in 1961. Other attempts to alter the flag have been vigorously opposed.

Other Kansasian claims to fame include the fact that one Kansas woman, M.B. Best, witnessed the famous Lincoln assassination at the Ford Theater. Also, Martin Johnson, from Kansas, was the well-known author Jack London's cook. Martin Johnson, a boy with the old I-really-want-to-travel fever, saw Jack London's advertisement for an 'un-known person' who was to be included in a trip around the world. On answering the advertisement, he was asked if he could cook. Martin said, "Yes, a little. I can learn more." And learn he did. He hired on to a restaurant and spent his time there day and night. Jack London and his wife were forced to give up the adventure half-way in, but Martin continued the journey. He returned as Captain of the ship.

(This has been: Tidbits of: Kansas. Look in next time to read Fountain of Thoughts:__)

Tidbits of: Iowa

I tried, I really really did! The truly interesting history of each individual state in the U.S. is difficult to find. I confess I didn't find much until I happened to search the history of fire horses. You know, once upon a time, there were no fire engines (gasp!) the first fire station was made up of volunteers, handpulling a cart loaded with water buckets. As things became more sophisticated, horses were used to pull the pump wagon and the hook and ladder wagon. So that's what I was researching. Almost everything I came up with was about the California fire stations. Yes, I can just hear you all saying, "now wait a minute, how did she get California mixed up with Iowa.

It was this way. While researching fire horses (I wanted to see if a book I read was based on true facts or not) I came up with the famous Iowan fire horses, Snowball and Highball. ("Yay, now you're in the right part of the country) Probably this is beginning to sound interesting. I hate to disappoint you, but since I was dissapointed myself...You're probably wanting to know why these two horses were famous. HOwever, while I discovered the fact that they were famous, nothing anywhere would tell me why. The few facts I found were simply that they came in second not first, at a fire department race competition, and were hugely popular. Oh, and when they were retired, because fire engines came into fashion, they had their pictures taken with the 1912, and 1922, fire engines. During a picture, a fire whistle blew signaling that their was a fire. The two old fire horses were the first to arrive, although it was a false alarm. (I think that's pretty funny myself.) Legend has it that the alarm was rigged by dissidents to prove that fire engines weren't as quick to respond as the old methods of reaching a fire.

That's some of Iowa's history, but I was going to explain my opening apology. I still didn't find much about the state's history, even after discovering the bit about the fire horses. However, one thing leads to another. (I now know that if I want interesting history, it might be a good idea to check fire department archives.) Somewhere in the article about the fire horses I came across the word folklore. "Aha!" I thought, "That's a good word to search when looking for history."

When googling Iowan folklore, I came across a link to a story about "the counterfeit silver dollar." Since I like detective stories etc., I looked it up. And that's where it hurts and brings joy. The December 4, 1884 Fairfield, Iowa Weekly Journal only mentioned that a 'very cleverly executed' silver dollar was in circulation. "there is no proof against the suspect passer and he was discharged. All attempts of the U.S. officers to locate the criminal have been unsuccessful." How anticlimatical is that! Well, not too discouraged, I decided to see if there was a followup. There wasn't. But if I find it somewhere, I'll let you know.

In reading the 1884 newspaper, I was astonished to note how incredibly dissimilar it was to the modern media. And then again, it was pretty similar. News in those days was concise and to the point, and yet, hopelessly unimportant, most of it. The first words that greeted my eyes were along the lines of "G.B. Corns, Pittsburgh, is here" "B.B. Frase, of Des Moines, is in the city" A little further down, (after a long list of people who were apparently "in the city") I came across, "A new grocery store has been opened in the former Republican headquarters" (neglecting of course, to say what grocery store had opened.) Still further down the page I came across a couple of amusing tidbits, such as "A man stopping his paper wrote to the editor: 'I think folks otten to spend their munny for paper, mi daddy didn't and everybody nod he was the intelligetist man in the country and had the smartest family of boiz as ever dugged taters." Still further down was an admonition by the paper to consult the paper's office before subscribing to any other paper. And then followed "An old man who said he had two sons in the newspaper business recently applied for admission for the almshouse. The sons, who are traveling in the same direction, say they were willing to support their father, but he refuses to live on cough syrups, kidney pads and liver regulators...the man chose the almshouse instead"

I wondered, even as I laughed at this paper, whether it was really any different from today's paper. So, I looked up Fairfield's Daily Ledger (the weekly journal, can anyone be surprised? is out of business.) My eyes were greeted with headlines such as "City plans to disconnect sump pumps," "Goodwill store moving to town" (at least they said the name of the store.) Obituaries followed, with only an occasional interesting headlines such as, "grenade scare closes parts of town" and "fire fighter's fight smouldering hay fire for 9.5 hours."

Am I the only one that sees a strong similarity? The only dissimilarity that I could see was that modern newspapers are a little bit more detailed. You know, instead of 10 words, they use an hundred to make the same boring point.

So, that was my adventure while researching Iowa. While I didn't find very much, I think that if I refine my researching a little, I can utilize useful things such as old newspapers and fire department archives. Hopefully, I'll run across something more interesting however. Oh, and a couple of more things about Iowa. Iowa is home to: tinsmithing, quilting, willow basket weaving, gardening, cooking, and zither playing. (whatever that is.) (Never mind, I looked it up) A zither is a flat board with strings. It is used extensively in Hungary, Slovenia, Austria, and Germany. It looks kind of fun. (The picture went and stuck itself at the top...oh well.)

(This has been: Tidbits of Iowa. Look in next time to read: Foutain of Thoughts)

Tidbits of: South Dakota

Most of you are probably wondering what in the world happened to me. After all, I haven't posted in nearly a month. Actually, I was taking a very lovely road trip all the way to South Dakota with my siblings to visit my other sibling. For the directionally challenged, South Dakota on the map is located beneath North Dakota, not above. For the scientifically challenged, heat expands and cold contracts not the other way around.

The weather in South Dakota was beautiful, but overly warm. Mid-August and all that, you know. We arrived on Saturday, having left Friday. On Sunday, we went to church with my brother. Interestingly, a missionary from China was there. He had many very interesting things to say. For instance, Chinese children, because of the one-child policy, are all spoiled brats. They call them "little emperors" and "little empresses." On Monday, my brother got us up at 5:30 and we took a mile and a half walk around three beautiful little lakes. Little is right, I'd call them ponds myself. After that, we played Wally Ball. And no, that is not Volleyball, although I thought it was at first. It was quite fun. Does all this count as Snippets of South Dakota?

All right, here's some real South Dakota stuff. South Dakota is home of the Black Hills. These hills, similar in shape, size, and color, to Brown Speed Bumps, are really quite lovely. They are home to the scrawny, scraggly, and skinny National Pine forest. The forest is so thinly populated with trees that it makes for a lovely shaded walk with few obstructions and impediments both to the view and to movement. I may be sounding a little sarcastic here, and it's true, I am. But that doesn't mean I didn't like it. It was so neat to see all the different types of beauty that God thought to create.

Also located in the Black Hills of South Dakota is the National Monument: Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore is truly a beautiful work of art. It is thrilling to be there and see it and think about the great contributions of those four great men. I have to say that my favorites, in order, are Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Jefferson. The monument is huge. It inspires a wonderful love of my country, i.e. patriotism. I would encourage everyone who is in the area to go and see it, also to see the lighting ceremony at the end of the day.

South Dakota possesses two cave systems. I had the privilege to visit one. The Wind Caves are one of the longest systems in the nation. 136 miles have been explored. It is believed that this is only 5-10% of the cave. It has the most box-work in the world. Box-work is very beautiful. It is as if a cube of cement was poured and partitioned with cement. In the partitions, we put sugar. Then, we pour water on the creation. Naturally, the sugar dissolves. The frame is all that is left, and that is what box-work is like. Some parts of the box-work are very thin. If you scrape your finger lightly on the edge, it makes music.

That, combined, is both my recent visit to South Dakota, and my Snippets.

(This has been: Tidbits of South Dakota. Look in next time to read Fountain of Thoughts:_)

Tidbits of Oregon

"Henrietta is my baby! You can't have her. Mother gave her to me! We're supposed to stay together."

In the dead of night, John Sager, 14, slipped out of the Fort with his five younger siblings and continued on to Oregon. Their parents had died of cholera and now their Aunt wanted to take the baby and separate the family. John, a rebellious child while his parents were alive, was determined now they were dead to live out his father's dream of a new life in Oregon.

It was easy at first, the oxen were healthy and the road not too bumpy. They had plenty of food too, that is, they did. One of the oxen fell sick after crossing a raging river. Then, they were forced to camp with Indians who stole their food, and worse, most of the gunpowder too. At fourteen, John could do nothing except to roughly rally his siblings into going on. Catharine, the second oldest, broke her leg. With no immediate medical help, it healed crooked. She was a cripple for the rest of her life. Starving, with the baby on the verge of death, they stumbled into the Willamette Valley on their last legs. They had reached their goal, but they had nothing left.

Narcissa Whitman found them a short distance from the Whitman Mission. She took them in and saved the baby. The Whitmans were the first to bring a woman to the Oregon Territory. Their work there paved the way for future caravans and settlers.

Several years after the Sagers came to the Whitmans, the local Indians, those the Whitmans had particularly ministered to, rose up and massacred them. Catharine was one of the only survivors. The Whitmans however, left a lasting legacy. They, and others like the Sagers, were what had changed Oregon from a dream to a reality.

Today, the Willamette Valley is the most agriculturally productive region in the state and Crater Lake National Park is one of the most beautiful. Oregon acquired statehood in 1859. Founded as a refuge for slaves, Oregon was the only state admitted into the Union with a "whites only" clause. Oregon, said by the officials in Oregon to be pronounced Or-uh-gun, is home to the largest single organism in the world: the Armillaria ostoyae fungus, and the Oregon Ducks.

The woman recognized as the "Mother of Oregon" is Tabitha Brown. At age 66, she financed her own covered wagon trip to Oregon. The wife of a Congregationalist and Episcopalian minister, she arrived in Oregon with her remaining family on Christmas, 1846.

(This has been: Tidbits of Oregon. Look in next time to read: Foutain of Thoughts)

Tidbits of Texas

Who would have thought that a state as conservative as Texas would have a governor named Hogg? Well, maybe that's not so strange. But, on the other hand, couldn't he have named his daughter something other than Ima! It's true. Ima Hogg, who later gave herself the name Ima Imogene Hogg, was born in 1882 to James Stephen "Big Jim" Hogg. Big Jim later became the Texas state Attorney General and in 1889 was elected the 20th governor of Texas. Big Jim had a reputation for being what we today would call "a card." One day, the former governor went to get his shoes shined. They were shined by an Italian. Not in the mood for talking, Big Jim decided to pretend he was deaf and dumb. It worked. The Italian stopped talking. Legend has it that Ima had a sister named Ura Hogg. Legend however, has been proved false. Ima Hogg went on in her father's footsteps and made a name for herself as a benovolent lady. She never married but said she received over 30 proposals! Ima lived to be nearly a hundred and died not all that long ago in 1975.

Ah, Texas! Home on the Range! And home of some of the best tall tales in the world. There goes good ol' Pecos Bill. His rope sailing through the air as he rides a tornado across the state and finally hogties it down in Kansas! Could you do the same? I suspect that those tornado chasers I hear about would love to speak with ol' Pecos Bill, but, this time, they're out'a luck. Pecos Bill is long gone. And all that is left of him is the stories and tales which stand tall in your local library. And they get taller every time they're told!

Who could talk about Texas without talking about animals? Texas, as would any other state, would be incomplete without it's fauna. One might expect that the animal chosen to be glorified in this post would be the longhorn steer. This, however, is not the case. On the contrary, most Texans probably don't know that they have such an unusual rabbit living in their state. If they did know, they would probably attribute it to the greatness of their state. Yes, the Texas rabbit has been endowed in the more recent years with an abnormal amount of courage. Courage! in a rabbit! This courage is evidenced in a unique manner. It so happened, as certain Texans were sitting on their back porch, (or something) that they privileged to see one of these unique rabbits in action. At the same time, they saw what would normally be a rabbit's mortal enemy: a snake; and a large one too. But no, the rabbit did not run away! On the contrary, the Texas rabbit went towards the snake! When the snake, (whether venomous or not is uncertain) struck at the rabbit. The rabbit bounced, and...Returned for More! Naturally, the snake struck again. Was the rabbit daunted? No! This amazing Texas rabbit got around the snake to the tail end and started biting. Not long afterward, the snake was seen retreating in full flight; the rabbit following quickly afterward. The story began with the snake having the upper hand. The story ends with the snake in the branches of a tree approximately 2 feet up! Yes, truly, Texas rabbits have been endowed with a marvelous amount of courage.

(This has been: Tidbits of Texas! tune in nexttime to read the first in the series: Fountain of Thoughts!)