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History

Grand Traverse Bay, the Loch Ness of Northern Michigan?

by Julie Schopieray

People in general are fascinated by the unknown: Bigfoot, Loch Ness, and UFOs.  What is it about the unexplained that keeps us interested?

 Historically, our region is no exception. Around the turn of the twentieth century, sightings of strange creatures in the waters of Northern Michigan were quite common- some real, most imagined. The best known at the time was the famous sea serpent of Petoskey, which showed itself in Little Traverse Bay for several summers in the 1890s and became a novelty that resorters looked forward to each summer. The mystery was solved in 1895 when it was discovered to be nothing more than a  “very crooked tree trunk that has been beating about in Little Traverse Bay for years. Its peculiar shape and the fact that it had become black with slime…gave it a very serpent-like appearance.”  The Petoskey sea serpent was celebrated for many years even after its real identity was discovered. Their baseball team was even called the Petoskey Sea Serpents— complete with a plaster serpent mascot that traveled with the team.

Other creature sightings occurred at various resort areas such as Omena and Harbor Springs. Most people made light of the sightings and it was all for fun.

 Distinguished Monster Here for his Annual Outing Near Omena. The resort business of the north is now assured as the regular summer attraction has arrived and has begun daily performances near Omena. The Sea Serpent, which has been so minutely described by summer visitors for several years, made his first appearance a few days ago and was seen by two carpenters working at Omena Inn. He seems to be in the best of health and looks as if he had enjoyed life the past few months. Just what his scheduled program for the summer will be the Eagle has been unable to learn but he will no doubt be friendly at all the ports and pay Traverse City a visit too.” [Daily Eagle June 1898].

 In 1903,  a “sea serpent” in the Boardman River near the Cass St. bridge drew attention from curious locals. “County Treasurer George W. Steward claims to be the discoverer of the monster, and may be seen frequently pointing out the “horrid green monster” to his friends. “It” is there all right, and his friends can see it for themselves, but it doesn’t move, and seems to be located in the same place all the time. Of course, it is sunning itself, but then, too, it may only be weeds and water grass collected together, which gets its snake-like motion from the current of the river…Anyhow, it is there.  ~Traverse City Evening Record 17 July 1901

 In the summer of 1907 several people saw in West Bay, what they claimed was either a sea serpent, walrus or a sea lion. On June 25, the newspaper reported that Captain Dave Duane spotted something on the beach, was four feet or more long  and “barked like it was a sea lion” . The Captain was in a rowboat when “dead ahead there sounded a terrific splash and a noise, half grunt, half bark, followed it… a moment later he was drenched by another splash…as the tail of the sea serpent, sea lion, octopus or whatever it is, broke the surface.  He had just time enough to catch a glimpse of a body perhaps four feet long and seemingly covered with a dark brown hair. The head of the animal was flat and the nose pointed while two sharp white tusks protruded from the mouth. Others saw it as well, and the newspaper reporter stated that “the telephone in the Record office buzzed frequently…the news that a real live sea serpent… on the west side travelled rapidly.”

A  day later Frank Birdsall claimed that he saw a very large animal that had to be either a seal, sea lion or walrus. Mr Birdsall was sitting on the beach near their home just after sunset when a fish leaping from the water attracted his attention. The fish jumped again in a few seconds but this time was followed by a seemingly gigantic form. This so excited him that he took no notice of what happened to the fish. Mr. Birdsall says that he can offer no estimate as to its length but as the animal left the water very near in-shore, he is almost certain that it is covered with scales or else a hard skin instead of hair. There are still many skeptical people in the city but Captain Duane and Mr. Birdsall can readily convince them of the material existence of some aquatic animal. -Traverse City  Evening Record,  25 &26 June, 1907

postcardsealionWord started to spread that perhaps this creature was “Big Ben” a trained, performing sea lion that had escaped in November, 1903 from the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.  The Big Ben story made news all across the midwest and sightings continued for more than seven years after he escaped.  The incident fueled a series of articles, mostly in Chicago papers –which were widely read by Traverse City citizens– that played up the escape as a humorous event, humanizing the animal and making light of the “motives” of his escape.  One poked fun about the animal refusing to return to the zoo until he got union representation and a “nine hour day”, and many others that related sightings to the over-consumption of alcohol.

The legend of the absentee sea lion of Lincoln Park  lived on in the press for many years. Several reports of his death were announced beginning in 1904 when his body was supposedly found on a beach fifteen miles south of St. Joseph, Mich.,  and obituaries continuing as late as 1910 when it was proclaimed that the sea lion had been captured and killed by fishermen in Galveston Bay. The real truth is most likely the earliest account and the 1907 Traverse City encounters with something that looked very much like a sea lion helped sustain the appeal of the missing animal.  Sensational stories sold newspapers and continued “sightings” led to the story of Big Ben being drawn out for quite some time.

For Traverse City, this story ends with the two 1907 sightings. Nothing more about the creature is reported, but the mystique of his fate remained and the question of whether an ocean animal could survive for an extended time in the waters of Northern Michigan was debated by many.

In  June 1935, another  large aquatic mammal  was spotted in the bay and confirmed to be a seal. Photographs were taken and the story of the animal made newspapers around the region, even featured in the October issue of Hunting & Fishing magazine.  A humorous  account of the 1935 sighting, written by Detroit News  writer Herbert C. Garrison, was published in The News and in The Michigan Alumnus.   

“It seems that for some weeks now the good folk of Grand Traverse region have been coming in from their fishing expeditions saucer-eyed and panting, with reports of having seen some strange marine monster disporting itself in the limpid depths of the bay. These reports have resulted in a series of theories as to the identity of the monster, all of them completely unauthenticated. Among the principal theories were these:

sealionThat it was a sea-serpent …a sea lion…a walrus…a whale…an alcoholic mirage…Primo Carnera [Carnera was a professional boxer of very large size]… Purely in the interest of science, Mr. Sackett the other day determined to seek out the truth of these conflicting rumors, which have kept the neighborhood in a turmoil and have ruined the summer romance business on account of nobody daring to go out for moonlight sails…Sackett assembled himself a sea-going safari consisting of one outboard motor boat, one camera, one pack of films, one harpoon (for defense purposes only)….Sackett before leaving had imbibed only in two bottles of sarsaparilla and a hot dog (this to clear up any misunderstandings falling under the heading of Theory No. 5 above), the Ray C. Sackett Grand Traverse Bay Monster Expedition shoved off with a yo-heave-ho. We now turn to the the written record of the expedition in Mr. Sackett’s own hand, found floating in a sarsaparilla bottle which the intrepid commander dropped overboard to make sure the results of the expedition’s research would be preserved for posterity, even if the expedition itself failed to make shore… “We were proceeding with a spanking breeze on our quarter and approaching a large flat rock, about 500 yards offshore, when McGonigle, who was acting as look-out, sang out: ‘Monster Ho-o-o-o!’…I looked, and yessir there he was, sunning himself on the rock. McGonigle said it was a walrus. I said it was a seal. ‘It can’t be a seal,’ McGonigle pointed out. ‘He ain’t got no hat on. I’ve seen lots of seals in circuses. They always wear hats.’  Well, that was a stumper, until I finally got a great idea. ‘Throw the harpoon at him,’ I ordered. McGonigle threw. The monster caught the harpoon in its mouth, tossed it into the air, and balanced it on its nose when it came down….Then to cinch the matter, the seal looked toward me and distinctly said: ‘Werp!’  According to McGonigle, who hasn’t missed a circus since he could carry a pail of water, this is the old Forepaugh & Sells Bros seal dialect, now almost extinct, and means: ‘Brother, can you spare a herring?’’” Thus was the Grand Traverse Bay Monster identified. As to how he got here, I think I can clear up that point, too., I have been told there was a troupe of trained seals at the Chicago fair last year, and that one of the seals got into a rundown condition because of too much night life and was advised by his physician to take the baths. So he slipped off into Lake Michigan one night, and liked it so well he never came back.

There were no  further documented sightings of this particular animal and its fate is unknown.

An article about the history of  Traverse City sea serpent sightings over the years was written in the popular “The Observer” column in 1948.  Author Jay P. Smith  first mentioned the famous  Petoskey serpent, as well as the 1907 Traverse City incident when “that horrendous creature who, fifty years ago, emerged dripping from the bay, waddled up the beach and stole a whole critter out of the Brosch slaughter house in the southeast corner of the bay and lugged it back into the water. That was, without doubt, one of the best sea serpents Northern Michigan ever produced.”  Smith tells of fakes that were planted by pranksters for fun. “One of the smaller ones was the one Art and Bert Winnie built and arranged on a pulley just off the old Hannah & Lay lumber dock with the ropes running to the dock. A person concealed between the lumber piles could pull the ropes so the monster would raise its horrible head above the water, glare around and then submerge. Many old, short people today owe their shortness to having been scared our of several years’ growth by that serpent.”  The article concludes with this: “It became necessary for Traverse City to go out of the sea serpent business years ago. The bay got so full of them and people saw so many of them, that summer guests starting going to places where there were no monsters. They darn near ruined this community as a vacation center. So, if you hear any reports in the bay or see one, keep it to yourself. We don’t want to scare our visitors away.” [TCRE 17 July, 1948]

We are long overdue for another sea serpent sighting in the bay, but with today’s technology,  the mystique of the unknown would  likely be ruined.  I think I’d prefer the mystery of whether it was real or imagined as it was a hundred years ago.

Julie Schopieray is a regular contributor to Grand Traverse Journal.

Forgotten Stories

Timber!: An excerpt from a novel by Harold Titus, published in 1922

Harold Titus was a noted writer and conservationist, born in 1888, died in 1967.  He wrote more than a dozen novels, among them “Timber,’ a work that expressed his lifelong interest in conservation.  Titus was a founding member of the Izaak Walton League, established in the same year as the book appeared.  He is buried in Oakwood cemetery in Traverse City.

In the following excerpt Helen Foraker, a character who speaks out for scientific management of forests, expresses her view (and Titus’s) of the importance of woodlands and the tragedy of their destruction.

“Less than fifty years ago this land was stripped of its pine; today it is maturing another crop.  The same could have been done with any other piece that grew good trees: Just keep the fire out and nature would have done much in time.  Fire, fire, fire, without end!  Every summer it eats across the plains country; every summer it does its damage on cutover lands in all the timber States.   It not only destroys trees, but it takes the seed bearers and the seeds that lie ready to sprout and the life of the soil itself.

timbertitlepage001“To exist as a nation, we must have forests; to have forests all we need to do for a beginning is to give this worthless land a chance.  We can speed up its work by helping—by keeping out fire, by planting trees by good forest practice.  Can’t you see all these Michigan plains growing pine again?  And in Wisconsin and Minnesota, Pennsylvania and New England, the South, and everywhere where hills and valleys have become blackened eyesores?  Don’t you see what it would mean to people, not only in cheaper homes and steel and railroads, but something else?  Fish and game and a chance to play as men were intended to play!  It is so simple to do; to show people that it is simple is such a task!”p. 125,6

“In the woods when a saw gang has cut into a tree until it commences to sag and snap they stand back and cry ‘Timber!’  It is the warning cry of the woods; it means that trees are coming down, that men within range should stand clear.  My father used to say that the cry of ‘Timber!’ was ringing in the country’s ears, that the loggers had given the warning, that the last of our trees were commencing to fall—but we haven’t heard!  Our ears are shut to the cry, our backs are turned and unless we look sharp we’ll be caught!” p.128

Excerpts taken from the 2nd printing of Timber. Copies of Timber are available for circulation through Traverse Area District Library. The book is also available free online through Hathi Digital Trust.

Forgotten Stories

Who Nailed That Fudge?: A 1908 Mystery

Who Nailed That Fudge? recounts a sweet-toothed theft in the State Bank building the day before Thanksgiving, 1908, and was published in the November 25, 1908 edition of The Evening Record:

WHO NAILED THAT FUDGE?

The strange disappearance of a pan of home made fudge, turned out in the fudge factory in the State bank building about 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon, created an excitement in that building which has never been equaled at any time, not excepting the time when the screens mysteriously disappeared.

The fudge was brewed by the Misses Lettie Marvin and Florence Rattenbury, its delectable fumes penetrating the air, floating out over the transom and attracting a horde of gentlemen tenants, who flocked around that door in a manner that reminded one of flies around a honey jar in July. They all came to the fudge factory, but it was noticed that two of them, E. Sprague Pratt and C.L. Curtis, the engineer, looked greedily upon the brewing brown mixture while their noses twitched like those of rabbits when they scent the fresh green things in the spring.

Jens Petersen taken on October 24, 1901 as he was starting his training under prominent Chicago architect, James Gamble Rogers. Image courtesy of Julie Schopieray.
Jens C. “Jensy” Petersen, taken on October 24, 1901 as he was starting his training under prominent Chicago architect, James Gamble Rogers. Image courtesy of Julie Schopieray.

Others came also, among them being Jens C. Petersen, G.W. Power, C.J. Helm, E.S. Williams, E.C. Billings and the greyhound Jack, in fact it is claimed by the fudge manufacturers that every man in the building came and looked longingly at the candy, sniffed the air and swallowed hard in anticipation. But having faith in these gentlemen and never for one moment believing that they could do any wrong, the ladies did not place a guard over their product when it was completed, but set it in the window of the fudge factory to cool, then went down the hall to discuss what they were going to be thankful for on Thanksgiving day.

And now they are looking for that pan of fudge. When they went back to get it, there was no fudge there, not even the pan. It was gone as completely and mysteriously as though it had never been. Search was made for it, detectives were placed on the case, the different offices were visited, the tenants begged threatened, wheedled and bluffed, but none confessed.

A notice was place in a conspicuous place stating that if the pan would be returned no questions would be asked, but even this was ignored. The prosecutor left the city hurriedly, and the ladies believed it possible that the fudge went with him, but this is only suspicion. It is thought that the fudge, pan and all was swallowed by someone, and they are wondering which one off the tenants could have performed this feat. The only one in the building who could make way with the pan in that manner is Jack the greyhound, but he can prove an alibi. The mystery deepens.

The ladies declare that if any of these hungry eyed men had asked them for a piece of fudge, they would gladly have given them some, but to think of being robbed like this of all they had, is hard indeed. When the guilty party or parties are apprehended, they will be dealt with severely.

Fudge recipe from McCall's Great American Recipe Card Collection, ca. 1980s.
Fudge recipe from McCall’s Great American Recipe Card Collection, ca. 1980s.

Nothing has been found that indicates that anyone ever confessed to this crime, so it remains a mystery 107 years later. The writing style of the article is suspiciously like that of Jens C Petersen, a local architect. Two weeks after this incident, the editor began publishing letters to Santa Claus, and many local businessmen submitted their own pleas to Santa. The following letter was sent in by Petersen. His obvious love of fudge makes one wonder if he was the one who absconded with the sweet treat the day before Thanksgiving.

Dear Santa Claus: Bring me a bob sled and some fudge and lots of work and some nuts and candy and more fudge. I have been good and will continue to be. Jensy Petersen. –The Evening Record, December 18, 1908

NOTE: I was curious about the use of the word NAILED in this article and found one definition that applies here: “Nailed- past tense of nail- is seize, or take into custody.” I had never heard the word used that way before!

Contributed by local Jens C. Petersen aficionado, Julie Schopieray.

History

The Murder of James Jesse Strang, Ruler of the Mormon Colony at Beaver Island, 1856

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MURDEROUS ASSAULT.

On Monday last the U.S. steamer Michigan entered this harbour at about 1 o’clock, P.M., and was visited by the inhabitants promiscuously during the afternoon.

At about 7 o’clock Capt. McBlair sent a messenger (Alexander St. Barnard, the Pilot) to Mr. Strang, requesting him to visit him on board.  Mr. Strang immediately accompanied the messenger, and just as they were stepping on the bridge leading to the pier in front of F. Johnson & Co.’s store, two assassins approached in the rear, unobserved by either of them, and fired upon Mr. Strang with pistols.  The first shot took effect upon the left side of the head, entering a little back of the top of the ear, and rebounding, passed out near the top of the head.

This shot, fired from a horse pistol, brought him down, and he fell on the left side, so that he saw the assassins as they fired the second and third shots from a revolver, both taking effect upon his person, one just below the temple, on the right side of the face, and lodged in the cheek bone; the other on the left side of the spine, near the tenth rib, followed the rib about two inches and a half and lodged.

Mr. Strang recognized in the persons of the assassins Thomas Bedford and Alexander Wentworth.  Wentworth had a revolver, and Bedford a horse pistol, with which he struck him over the head and face, while lying on the ground.  The assassins immediately fled on board the U.S. steamer, with pistols in hand, claiming her protection.—Northern Islander, June 20, 1856 (1)

USS Michigan, ca. 1850. Image courtesy of the United States Navy.
USS Michigan, ca. 1850. Image courtesy of the United States Navy.

The story of James Jesse Strang’s murder is told here in the style of nineteenth century journalism to describe the brutality of the scene.  Captain McBlair of the naval vessel Michigan transported Bedford and Wentworth to Mackinac Island, where, after a few minutes in jail, they were released to the celebration of the crowd gathered there.  They were never tried for the murder.

Questions surround this bloody narrative, questions that arise from such powerful feeling that four accounts of the Mormon presence on Beaver Island have been written in the last century and a half, each with a unique perspective.  The first question has to do with the motivations of the protagonists: What climate of hatred enabled murderers to receive a hero’s welcome at Mackinac Island?

The answer to that question is simple according to an early telling of the story serialized the Grand Traverse Herald in 1883. (2)  D. C. Leach states unequivocally that the Mormons were murders and thieves.  He describes plundered shipwrecks, stolen horses, fishing nets destroyed or hauled away, and vile acts of piracy committed all along the shores of Lake Michigan.  His view represented that of most residents of Northern Michigan at the time, though his reporting is colored by the sources he chose to include.  Since Mormons had all but been driven out by 1883, he had little opportunity (nor interest) in hearing the other side.

Milo Quaife published another account of the settlement of Beaver Island in 1930, The Kingdom of St. James.  Examining documents friendly to the Mormons, including the first newspaper of Northern Michigan, The Northern Islander, he concluded that tales of murder and pillage had been much overblown. (3)  Nation-wide, powerful prejudice against Mormons prevailed, not just locally against the Strangite, Beaver Island settlement, but against the Brighamite (Utah) Mormons generally.  Before and after the assassination of Joseph Smith in 1844, only twelve years before the assassination of Strang, Mormons were accused of murder and “consecration” of non-Mormon property.  The press was unfavorable to Mormons, frequently publishing hearsay accounts of Mormon atrocities and ignoring the provocative acts committed against them.

For more than five years The Northern Islander attempted to rebut outrageous tales of Mormons putting out lighthouse lights to cause shipwrecks, outright murder and later desecration of the body during an autopsy, and even the attempted kidnapping of a child on Old Mission Peninsula with a view towards making him the new ‘King of the Mormons.”  However much the newspaper tried to present its side in the conflict, it could never overcome the array of newspapers lined up against it: The Buffalo Rough Notes, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Detroit Advertiser, Green Bay Spectator, and numerous others. (4)  Depending upon hearsay for news stories, they would continue to defame the Mormon kingdom, inflaming the citizens of the area with accounts of ruthless Mormon evil-doers.

The latest two books about Beaver Island Mormons,  Assassination of a Michigan King, by Roger Van Noord, (5) and “God Has Made Us A Kingdom,”  by Vickie Cleverley Speek (6) add further details to the conflict between Mormons and non-Mormons in the Straits area.  Both assert that the doctrine of “consecration,” the teaching that property of individuals could be seized by the Church” was certainly practiced by Mormons upon Beaver Island as apostates left their farms and businesses and probably practiced by Mormons upon non-Mormons (partly for pay-back for deeds done against them), but to a far lesser degree than contemporary newspaper accounts described.  There is no convincing evidence that James Strang was ever directly involved in planning raids against non-Mormons.  In fact, perhaps due to his training in the legal profession, he consistently attempted to follow to the letter the laws of the United States and Michigan as evidenced by the facts that he gave himself up when charged with federal crimes in 1851 and readily agreed to meet with Captain McBlair that fateful day in 1856 even though he had s misgivings about the presence of the U.S. S. Michigan at the Beaver dock that day.  Strang’s views about the sanctity of the law are expressed in this excerpt printed in the Northern Islander in 1851:

Many have looked for the downfall of the nation by the array of the north against the south.  That will not be.  The nation will perish in the anarchy of laws despised and trampled on by the whole people.  There is no wickedness, no act of oppression ever undertaken by a despotic government, which has not been successfully accomplished in this.  There is no conceivable act which cannot be done under it, either in accordance with the law or in spite of it.  The most influential men in society, are many of them engaged in the constant and shameless violation of penal statutes and criminal enactments, without so much as being less respected.  The end of all this can be nothing less than the despising of magistrates, trampling on law, and the crumbling in pieces of the government. (7)

It is difficult to reconcile this statement asserting the importance of obedience to the law with the accusations of lawlessness directed towards Strang by the press.

Strang defended the conduct of Beaver Island Mormons strenuously.  Denying that “consecration” had been practiced against non-Mormons, he pointed to the fact that not a single Mormon had been convicted of such crimes, even though Beaver Island was for a long time under the judicial control of Mackinac, the heart of opposition to the Mormon settlement.  Furthermore, he insisted, crimes committed on the waters of Lake Michigan could be prosecuted in any county bordering the Lake.  Why is it, he asked, that not a single case had been taken up against the Mormons?  Of course, the question was rhetorical; there was no evidence of wrongdoing so no trial could be commenced.

Another question concerning Strang’s murder comes from the events directly following the act.  What were the consequences of the assassination on the inhabitants of Beaver Island?  An armada of boats from Mackinac and nearby islands and towns quickly assembled to drive the Mormons away from Beaver.  Well-armed, the fishermen and traders came expecting a fight, but were surprised to find that the inhabitants meekly agreed to leave the Island and all their possessions behind, board passing boats heading for Milwaukie, Green Bay, and Chicago, and make their lives elsewhere.

James Jesse Strang, 1856. Image courtesy of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite).
James Jesse Strang, 1856. Image courtesy of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite).

By the last commands of their fallen king, James Jesse Strang, they were instructed to comply with the demands of the invaders for, despite his terrible, disfiguring wounds, he had initially survived the attack [he died 23 days later in Voree, Wisconsin].  Though paralysed, he was lucid, and directed his followers to “take care of their families.”  This instruction, consistent with his lifelong abhorrence of violence, was clearly the wisest course of action; one Mormon later wrote that he believed there were fewer than fifty firearms on the Island altogether.

So it was that vessels came to St. James on July 3, 1856, filled with bands of armed men ready drive the Mormons out.  What occurred there was a scene of plunder, arson, and chaos such as had never been seen in Northern Michigan.  One description left behind tells of the misery inflicted upon the Mormon inhabitants:

Discovering the people were docile and leaderless, the invaders began their work of “robbery and general destruction” throughout the island.  “They came marching through the streets of St. James ordering all Mormons to leave and giving them only 24 hours to do it or be shot,” Elvira Field noted.  “Those individuals who tried to oppose the mob and defend themselves were thrust into the street and their houses burned.  The Mormon tabernacle on the hill was torched, as were storehouses, businesses, valuable dwellings and the Mormon printshop.”

Pleased with the arson the pillagers had initiated, Thomas Bedford proudly announced that “it would have been cheaper to buy a new printing office than to attempt any work of publication at the one left by Strang.”  The prophet’s house and property were especially targeted for plunder and ransacking.  His household goods and extensive library were thrown into the street and trampled in the mud.  To show their hatred of Strang, the attackers shot at everything on the premises.  Strang’s large poultry yard with the rare Plymouth Rock chickens John C. Bennett had sent as a coronation gift was “made a shooting-mark for all.”  The mob went looking for Strang’s wives.  “My friends advised me to keep out of sight,” Sarah Wright (one of Strang’s wives) recollected.  “I was told some rough had said he would like to find Strang’s young wife—but I was not found.” She explained that Mormons were helpless because they did not know if Strang was still alive and had been told not to resist. (8)

Three hundred-fifty Mormons were loaded aboard the steamer Buckeye State, herded like cattle and unable to take their possessions on board.  They were taken to communities in Green Bay, Milwaukee, Racine, and Chicago, where they were left to fend for themselves.  In Chicago, one kind soul berated the mob assembled to oppose the new arrivals and opened the doors to a warehouse.  “ Here, ladies and gentlemen, come in here out of the sun and stay until you can find places” he said, expressing the first kind words the Mormons had heard since leaving the Island.

After leaving Beaver, the Strangite Mormons suffered greatly; most had lost all their possessions; many had to depend upon the kindness of relatives for survival; some had to conceal their religion from the community in order to avoid banishment.  They were outcasts in their own land with some, by necessity, forced to pick blueberries and cranberries for their survival.  Without a leader, they drifted back to scattered settlements throughout the Midwest, blending in with surrounding populations.  Though a few hundred Strangites survive today, the movement has largely disappeared from the scene, much as the Shakers had disappeared earlier.

Finally, the question concerning the role of the United States Navy must be answered: Did Captain McBlair of the U.S.S. Michigan collude with the murderers and actively participate in the plot?  Circumstantial evidence is there in abundance:

That Commander McBlair or other officers of the Michigan were in on the assassination conspiracy is still in question.  The following factors, however, would not have been overlooked had the case gone to court.  Commander McBlair was at best thoroughly unsympathetic with Strang’s cause; this gave him a motive.  McBlair met with the chief conspirators just days before the assassination and was officially very sympathetic to their public cause of escaping the island [after the assassination]; this allowed him to participate in the plot. In addition, if the commander was as eager to protect the dissidents as he professed in his June 6 report to the governor of Michigan, why did he dally for ten days, even visiting Milwaukee before going to Saint James?  This delay clearly gave the assassins time to arrive at Beaver and even to practice with the murder weapons before the vessel’s arrival. (9)

Furthermore, the failure of the Michigan to protect the Mormon residents of Beaver after the assassination of Strang points to Captain McBlair’s sympathy with partisans who desired to expel the Mormons.  At the time the mob was pillaging the Island, the warship was cruising Lake Superior, unable to respond to possible orders requiring him to defend the Mormons who were being dispossessed of their property.  With the authority of the United States Navy, McBlair and his crew could have stopped the ravaging of Beaver.  Someone—McBlair, most likely, or even a superior—made a decision to sail away from the chaos that exploded on July 3, 1856.  We will probably never know with certainty the whole story, though we can ask one more important question: Was the United States government involved in any way with the plot to kill James Jesse Strang?

There is no smoking gun that points to such involvement, though certain lines of evidence indicate possible foreknowledge and, perhaps, approval of the actions of McBlair in leading to the assassination.  We know that in 1853 the fishermen of Mackinac did formally petition the Governor of the State of Michigan and the President of the United States to respond to the alleged depredations of the Mormons in the Mackinac region. (10)  We know that newspapers maintained a hostile climate towards the Strangite Mormons from the colony’s inception.  We know that in 1856 Brighamite Mormons in Utah were charged by the Attorney General of the United States with six abuses carried on by Brigham Young’s governance, among them the accusation that lives and property are at risk from any who oppose the authority of the Church. (11)  The federal government might wield the same brush of condemnation against Beaver Island as it did against the Brighamites in Salt Lake City, thereby provoking the Federal government to sanction Strang’s murder.  Finally, the inquiry made in Washington was a most perfunctory affair with the important questions never asked. (12)  A people dispossessed of their land and property were quickly disposed of and forgotten by the United States government and by the nation generally.  The expulsion of the Beaver Island Mormons on July 3, 1856 does not remind us of the ideals this nation was founded upon nearly 80 years earlier.

Whatever opinion the reader holds concerning the unjust treatment meted out to the Mormons of Beaver Island, one fact stands out as incontrovertible: In the 1850’s Northern Michigan was a lawless place.  There was theft and plunder; there was occasional murder; there were courts that acted unlawfully whether through ignorance of court officials or through malice; there were Indians, not yet socialized to the ways of white culture, who were fair prey for vicious traders; and there was persecution enacted by both federal and state elected officials who exceeded their authority in the actions they perpetrated.  The Sheriff of Mackinac County would arrest Strang over and over, each time the case being thrown out because he was unable to show cause for the arrests.  Posses of thugs and hooligans were assembled to hunt down “felons” who had committed no crime but the enforcing of temperance laws.  Captain McBlair, without the judicial authority, collected depositions from the co-conspirators that murdered Strang while ignoring evidence of his innocence.  Later, in the 1870’s the governor of Michigan, Kinsley S. Bingham flatly denied the State had any role in indemnifying Mormons who had lost their possessions in the ravages of 1856. (13) Lawlessness was the rule at every level: local, state, and federal.  In telling this tragic story, we must resolve never to allow it to happen again.

NOTES

1 The Northern Islander was the first newspaper of Northern Lower Michigan.  It began publishing in 1850 and ended publication with this note concerning the assassination.

2 Leach, M.L. A History of the Grand Traverse Region, Traverse City, MI: Grand Traverse Herald, 1883.

3 Quaife, Milo M., The Kingdom of St. James: A Narrative of the Mormons, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1930

4 The power attributed to the press by the American people is described in Dicken-Garvin, Hazel, Journalistic Standards in Nineteenth Century America, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,1989, 48.

5 Van Noord, Roger, Assassination of a Michigan King, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988

6 Speek, Vickie Cleverley, “God Has Made Us A Kingdom”: James Strang and the Midwest Mormons, Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 2006

7 Northern Islander, April 3, 1851.

8 This description is taken from Speek, p. 228.

9 This passage as well as the point made in the following paragraph comes from Rodgers, Bradley A., Guardian of the Great Lakes: The U.S. Paddle Frigate Michigan, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996,

10 The petition is presented in the Detroit Daily Free Press, May 24, 1853.

11 The six charges against the Utah Mormons are given in Albanes, Richard, One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church, New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2002.

12 The inquiry is described in Van Noord, 267-8.

13 Van Noord, 268.

Richard Fidler is co-editor of Grand Traverse Journal.

Celebrate the People

A. Papano’s Serves Up Hot Pizza, Quality History

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For the staff at A. Papano’s Pizza of Kingsley, history is more than just a rehashing of the past; It is all about building community, according to Jeff Yacks, owner.

“The community of Kingsley has meant so much to us, and it’s so underserved. They deserve more–to be served a great product–and they deserve great service. That should be an expectation.”

So when A. Papano’s crew leader Jeff Pearson began researching the history of the building occupied by the business at the corner of Brownson and Blair, he saw an opportunity to engage with the community on a more meaningful level.

“Initially, I didn’t think this project would come to mean what it has. When Jeff asked to research the building we’re in, I thought it was for a grade, a score, a plaque, but it turned into a lot more than that. I would say it was a humbling experience. We spoke with a lot of community members, the research we did, just hours of it. It turned into this huge, amazing, overwhelming thing.”

The research project culminated in the unveiling of a display, now available for public viewing in the seating area of the restaurant at the Kingsley location. The display features the history of the building, tracing the previous owners and functions, as well as pointing out some of the unique parts of the building, left over from years of remodeling.

Downtown Kingsley is largely comprised of brick structures dating from the early 1900s, and over the years, doors were closed off, windows bricked up, and more. The staff are especially proud of uncovering the last bit of original tin ceiling in their building, which miraculously survived an early 1990s demolition project.

The ceiling of Beyer's Grocery, now on display at the Kingsley Branch Library. Image and artifact courtesy of Yacks.
The ceiling of Beyer’s Grocery, now on display at the Kingsley Branch Library. Image and artifact courtesy of Yacks.

“Through the Kingsley Branch Library staff, I found out that the ceiling of Tony Beyer’s grocery had been ripped out in the early 90s, and they supposed that all of it was gone. I then went and talked to our landlord, and he thought there might be some left. We (A.Papano’s staff) searched and searched all 2000 square feet of the building, and found a 4 by 6 foot section. There was plumbing and insulation in the way, we had to get a ladder… and Jeff got metal shavings in his eye, so I sent him to get a tetanus shot… three hours later, we ended up with a piece of the tin ceiling!” The ceiling tile is now on display at the Kingsley Branch Library.

For their tireless efforts, the research team was awarded the Floyd Milton Webster Prize for History in June 2015. When asked about what made this research project worthwhile, Yacks pointed to the June 22nd award ceremony.

Interior of Tony Beyer's grocery, now A. Papano's Pizza, downtown Kingsley, 1924. Image courtesy of Kingsley Branch Library.
Interior of Tony Beyer’s grocery, now A. Papano’s Pizza, downtown Kingsley, 1924. Image courtesy of Kingsley Branch Library.

“When we got there, I was overwhelmed. All these community members, people I looked up to as local heroes, were sitting there, and I remember thinking we were out of our league and should just walk out. But then they called us up, and I was shocked; Mr. Webster was there, all 96 years of him, and at that moment not only did I feel like this project was so beyond what I expected, but that I was accepted into this legacy, and I knew I had to continue. That was the a-ha moment, where all this time spent, all this research, was all worthwhile. When someone like Mr. Webster shakes your hand… he looked at us as the future; There was almost a sense of blessing, a passing of the torch.”

So what was the most difficult part of the project? “Early on, we were trying to find the initial land plotting, and I was going through all the libers at the governmental center, tracing all that history. We were trying to prove or disprove if Doctor Brownson (who operated Brownson Sanitarium in Kingsley at the turn of the 20th century) ever owned the land, but we never did find that link. That was a lot of Friday afternoons spent,” explained Yacks.

The governmental center wasn’t the only place the research team turned to for help. Yacks praises staff at both the Kingsley and Woodmere Branches at Traverse Area District Library for their assistance, even though he was leery to use those services at first.

“In my line of work, I am use to schedules, everything is fast-paced, minute-by-minute. Our employees have expectations on efficiency. When I started, I didn’t really know how to work with the library employees. I felt like I was sucking up all their time. What I learned is that for librarians, time isn’t measured in minutes, but in outcomes, and solutions. It was hard to ask for help, then take up an hour of time, and thinking that person should be doing something else. For me, the whole experience really embedded the library in the community.”

Despite the significant amount of time spent on the project, Yacks stresses the value of engaging in a history research project like this, and what it has done for his business.

Jeff Pearson (right) with Jeff Yacks in front of A. Papano's Pizza of Kingsley history display. Image courtesy of Yacks.
Jeff Pearson (right) with Jeff Yacks in front of A. Papano’s Pizza of Kingsley history display. Image courtesy of Yacks.

“Engaging in this project benefits both the business and my employees, which are really like family, and for the community. Our business was already aligning with the community in many ways, and it was perfect timing, for the business, staff and community to have a common tie.”

“This project fits with my philosophy, that when we can establish relationships with our customers, it creates top-mind awareness. When customers see us at community events, look at our display, it leads them to thinking of us over our competitors. Because of something like this, we’re establishing the emotional connections that build loyalty. Talking with community residents to accomplish this meant a lot of relationship building. It changed the course of our business in our community. We’re embedded in our community now, more than any amount of marketing could do.”

Amy Barritt is co-editor of Grand Traverse Journal.

Nature

Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes

When you look out at Power Island, South Manitou, or Mackinac Island, you see a tiered wedding cake apparition rising from the water.  Often we take that appearance at face value, never asking the important question, “How did it come to be that way?”  Indeed, there is an explanation and it is not hard to understand.

A moraine is a glacially-formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris that occurs in formerly glaciated regions. Image courtesy of Illinois State Genealogical Society.
A moraine is a glacially-formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris that occurs in formerly glaciated regions. Image courtesy of Illinois State Genealogical Society.

Most residents of the Traverse area know that the Lakes were carved out by glaciers—and not so long ago in geologic time.  The last major advance was 14,000 years ago, with secondary advances occurring as late as 12,000 years ago.  This continental glacier was a mile thick in places, certainly big enough to carry boulders to unlikely places, make north-south gouges in underlying bedrock, and form moraines both at the endpoints of its advances and at points where the glaciers simply melted, letting down its cargo of rocks, gravel, and sand.  The steep, winding path of M-72 going up from West Bay climbs the end moraine of the last glacial advance.

What does the glacier have to do with the wedding cake appearance of islands in the upper Great Lakes?  The terraces far above the present lake levels are beaches created during our glacial past when the water took different pathways to drain the melted ice water.

As the ice retreated, that water left the Upper Great Lakes by way of the Chicago River to the west and Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River to the east.  This was a high water level, the surface of future Lakes Michigan and Lake Huron standing at 605 feet above sea level.  Since the present level of those lakes is 535 feet, an ancient beach can observed high above the water on Mackinac Island—the uppermost tier.  The combined waters of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan formed a single expanse called Lake Algonquin.

Stages of development of Lake Algonquin, "Glacial lakes". Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glacial_lakes.jpg#/media/File:Glacial_lakes.jpg
Stages of development of Lake Algonquin, “Glacial lakes”. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glacial_lakes.jpg#/media/File:Glacial_lakes.jpg

Later, retreating ice opened a drainage pattern through Georgian Bay and out through Ontario by way of the Ottawa River.  This event marked a low water stage for the Upper Lakes, a state that was not preserved very long. 

As the weight of the glacier left the land, it sprang back up much like a trampoline relieved of a hurtling athlete.  The effect was to cut off the drainage directly through Canada and bring back the familiar pattern through the Chicago River and the Detroit River.  Another high water level stage resulted, this time resulting in a combined lake comprising Lakes Michigan and Huron called Lake Nipissing.  Lake Nipissing beaches are lower than Lake Algonquin’s, but they can be seen readily on Power Island and the Manitous. 

The Great Lakes are constantly changing: the land is still springing back as a consequence of the disappearance of the glacier and changes in precipitation and evaporation (as well as human use) cause year-to-year, decade-to-decade changes.  Climate change might cause rapid changes, low water stages resulting from increased evaporation or high water stages coming from increased precipitation.  As yet, a clear pattern has not emerged.

The story of the Great Lakes is charmingly told in a Canadian Film Board movie, The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes, which we reference here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afs_A_Lz2w4

Richard Fidler is co-editor of Grand Traverse Journal.

Then and Now

Guns at the Bottom of the Bay: the Legacy of Gun Control Legislation in the Grand Traverse Region

by Stewart Allison McFerran

My great-great-grandfather James Gray Brady served in the Michigan Militia supporting Union forces in the Civil War. I have a picture of him and his rifle. I do not possess the firearm in the picture, but I think I know where it is.

James Gray Brady of Kalkaska, ca. 1863.
James Gray Brady of Kalkaska, ca. 1863.

After he returned from the Civil War, laws regarding firearms were passed by many different units of government. (There is a twenty page list of gun laws in the book Guns Across America, published in early 2015). The laws concerned many different aspects of the use and ownership of guns.

Laws in Michigan prohibited the firing of guns in towns. One such law was passed in 1887. Concealed-carry gun laws were passed in Michigan in 1887, 1891, and 1895. There were additional state laws passed regarding the sale and carry of firearms in 1901 and 1925. In 1931 a Michigan law prohibited the brandishing  of firearms.

The Uniform Firearms Act, model legislation for states to adopt that established new, restrictive rules on carrying firearms in public, was passed in Michigan and other states in the 1920s. The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws recommended that states require licenses for concealed weapons in public.  The Commission also recommended that licenses be issued only to a “suitable person” with a “proper reason for carrying a firearm.” Gun sellers were to be licensed and not allowed to sell guns to persons convicted of violent crimes, drug addicts, drunkards, and minors.

After the Civil War, many guns used by solders like Grandfather Brady became obsolete and uncared for. In an effort to remove these dangerous weapons from homes, legislation was passed that required individuals to register their guns. Gun owners not wanting to pay to register their guns could turn them in to local authorities. 

Traverse City Police Chief Blacken had lots of firearms turned in to his office in 1926. There were many Civil War rifles that “would fire when you least expected,” as reported in the Traverse City Record-Eagle on November 6, 1926. Chief Blacken dumped the guns in Grand Traverse Bay, ensuring the public’s safety from dangerous misfires .

Many of the rifles and handguns Chief Blacken dumped in the Bay and the Boardman River were turned in by those who did not care to register their firearms; Most dated from the Civil War. My great-great grandfather James Gray Brady’s rifle may be among the ancient firearms at the bottom of the Bay. 

Left, James Samuel Brady, son of James Gray Brady; Right, William Wallace Smith, James Samuel's father-in-law. Center, Uncle Willie, at their hunting camp east of Kalkaska, ca. 1900?
Left, James Samuel Brady, son of James Gray Brady; Right, William Wallace Smith, James Samuel’s father-in-law. Center, Uncle Willy, at their hunting camp east of Kalkaska, ca. 1900.

My great grandfather James Samuel Brady hunted lands in Northern Michigan from his camp “Pokey Huddle”. In a treasured photograph he is pictured with his father-in-law, William Wallace Smith, and Uncle Willy. They are all holding rifles and ready to hunt, no different from Northern Michigan hunters of today . 

An example of a gun trap, illustration pulled from "Camp Life in the Woods," by Gibson, published 1881.
An example of a gun trap, illustration pulled from “Camp Life in the Woods,” by Gibson, published 1881.

Laws have changed what, where, and how hunters hunt. Attempting to keep up with new technology, in 1913 the Michigan Legislature passed a law requiring registration of all firearms; in 1927, machine guns with more than sixteen bullets were banned; in 1929, machine guns with silencers were banned; in 1931, gun traps were banned in Michigan.

In 1925The American Bar Association Journal published Legislatures and the Pistol Problem, an article that emphasized that the public was against the possession of guns that could be concealed.  The police agreed with this opinion at the time. No doubt, Chief Blacken of Traverse City felt that public safety was enhanced by sending large numbers of pistols to the bottom of the Bay.  For the same reason, the person–or persons–who dumped the firearm into a hole at the Dougherty home on Old Mission most likely did so to ensure that the firearm would not hurt anyone.

The most recent efforts to address gun rights in Michigan are Senate Bills 442 and 561 (October 2015). These bills, if passed, would allow individuals to hide pistols as they walk into Michigan schools, dormitories, and sports stadiums.   

In District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Heller, striking down a District of Columbia prohibition on the possession of usable firearms in the home because the law banned “the quintessential self-defense weapon” in the home. However, the Court also added, “nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.”

One of the founders of the National Rifle Association, Karl T. Frederick, “the best shot in America” who won three Olympic gold shooting medals in 1920 at Antwerp, : “I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under license”. We should all consider the wisdom of the Olympian Frederick as new gun regulations are put in place.

A classic tilt building, Pokey Huddle, ca. 1900.
James Samuel Brady and W.W. Smith at the hunting camp they called “Pokey Huddle”, a classic backwoods ‘Tilt’.

James Gray Brady would be shocked to know that guns have become an issue of national debate.  But, now–as during the Civil War he fought–the firearm death toll is high. The rights sought by one side are non-negotiable: a way of life threatened. While governments seek the power to mediate a settlement between citizens with anything other than a heavy hand, we all look on while tens of thousands suffer gunshot wounds, even  to the point of maiming worthy government servants like Gabby Giffords of Arizona.

Next time you take a boat ride on Grand Traverse Bay, look down into the water. Who knows?–you might see a cache of ancient firearms somewhere on the bottom where Chief Blacken dumped them.  You might even find my great-great grandfather’s rifle.

Among all the solutions to the gun problem listed above, I endorse Chief Blacken’s solution as the best.

Stewart Allison McFerran is a regular contributor to Grand Traverse Journal.

Bibliography:

  • Guns Across America, Oxford 2015 Robert J Spitzer
  • Gun Fight, Norton 2011, Adam Winkler
  • Grand Traverse Journal, August 2015
  • Grand Traverse Herald, November 1926
  • MLive, October 13, 2015 LANSING, MI — A Michigan Senate panel on Tuesday approved gun bills that would allow concealed carry instead of open carry in schools, moving ahead despite concerns from education officials who fear the proposal will do little to shield students from possible violence.
Mystery Photo

Unique Manhole Cover Invites Curiosity

In the alley next to Union Street Station, you will find this manhole cover, letting you know the cover was originally placed by Citizens Telephone, an independent phone company that ran most of the lines in Traverse City in the early days of telephones.

Most independent companies have been bought out by larger systems, but perhaps more recently than you would guess. Surprisingly, one of the one of the longest-running local independent companies, Peninsula Telephone Company operated by Jack and Vi Solomonson, was purchased in the early 2010s by a larger cooperative. Peninsula Telephone Company began service in 1906 by the Porter family at Porter House (now, Old Mission Inn).

This month’s mystery photo begs the question: When was Citizens Telephone of Traverse City bought out by the Bell Telephone System?

History

Listening to Dissonant Voices: Dissent in Traverse City During the First World War

The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. -John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873)

In early 1917 the world was aflame with war.  Europe was engulfed with the fire; German tanks and artillery spread over the landscape and German U-Boats patrolled the seas.  In the United States, Hearst and other newspapers clamored for the entrance of the United States into the conflict and achieved success in their quest.  The United States entered the war on April 6, 1917.

It was a time of great patriotism and unrest.  Locally, the Elk Rapids school district resolved to stop teaching German since doing so only promoted the hateful culture of the Huns.  With the Michigan National Guard being sent to Germany, Traverse City created its own fighting force, a branch of the Michigan Home Guard, to protect local property from possible destruction by German sympathizers.  One man of the group stated:

Traverse City had enough deer hunters who could still use a rifle to form a company of men who could protect property at home or any other place to which they might be sent.  

A local drunk, Karl Temple, was arrested for saying he supported the German side and was imprisoned as a danger to America.  Liberty Bonds were sold to pay for the war and those unwilling to purchase them were labeled shirkers.  Patriotic fifth graders at Union Street School in Traverse City refused to sing the German song, “Watch on the Rhine.”  Downstate, a woman was tarred and feathered as a German sympathizer while her husband, bound to a chair, was forced to watch.  Things got so bad that the Michigan Governor, Albert Sleeper, issued a proclamation decrying vigilante action on the part of mobs aroused by hatred for all things German.

At this difficult time in American history, was there national opposition to  a war that provoked such patriotic feeling?  Beyond that, were there local figures who spoke out against social injustice and pro-war public sentiment?  Dissent at this time was dangerous.  Besides the possibilities of beatings and social ostracism, there was the very real possibility of being arrested for opposing the war. Congress passed the Espionage Act of 1917, a measure which made it a crime to speak out forcefully against the war.  Publishing antiwar views could be a federal offense.

Nationally, Progressive Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin resisted the call to war.  Speaking in Congress, he attempted to halt the movement towards joining the conflict.  For his efforts he faced an angry response from the Senate and from most Americans.  Austin Batdorff, editor of the Record-Eagle at this time, expressed the opinion of most of his paper’s readership:

The hour of the pacifist, the mollycoddle statesman and the pro-German American, has passed; from today on, every true American will bury his beliefs, his fears, his biases in his patriotic love of country, his convictions for democratic government and his determination that, right or wrong, this nation must defend itself against an enemy that has been given every opportunity to avert war and which has replied with insolence, insult and wanton destruction of American lives.  

Upon formal declaration of war, the pacifist movement lost the power to influence public opinion: Opposition to the war became suspect: unwelcome if not traitorous.  Batdorff wrote:

When [the president] speaks we either must obey like patriotic soldiers or refuse to obey like disloyal renegades.  

Courage was called for in questioning the decision to go to war.

An early portrait of Thomas Coxe, editor of "Honest Opinion." Image courtesy of the History Center of Traverse City.
An early portrait of Thomas Coxe, editor of “Honest Opinion.” Image courtesy of the History Center of Traverse City.

Opposition to the war came from two centers: religious pacifists and socialists who saw it as a way of exploiting workingmen.  Locally there is no evidence that religious pacifists—such as the Society of Friends—protested conscription or the war.  There was a socialist presence in Traverse City that, like most socialists nation-wide, resisted the involvement of the United States in the war.  Though small in numbers (locally about 8% of the 1916 vote for president went to the socialist candidate, Eugene V. Debs), the group was large enough to support a weekly newspaper, Honest Opinion, which circulated for a year or two—history is not clear on the dates of its founding or demise.  In fact, only a few issues survive on microfilm.

Perhaps the idea of socialists in a Northern Michigan small town with such a long-standing conservative legacy would surprise many readers.   At this time, Traverse City was an industrial city.  It did not survive solely by the cherry industry and summer resorts, but had a large and varied industrial base.  The Oval Wood Dish Company had operated here for many years, and cigar factories, the Amniotte candy factory, and the canning factory employed many hundreds of workers, both men and women.  In general they were much underpaid even by standards of the time.  The Traverse City Record-Eagle did not represent their interests, showcasing the views of wealthy businessmen in town instead.  Against the economic power of that paper, Honest Opinion could persist upon the streets of the city for only a short time.  Even so, the few thin copies that remain provide us with a window into the lives of working men and women who struggled to survive in a difficult environment.

One of the copies issued on Memorial Day, May, 29, 1919, tiptoes carefully in raising questions about the justice of the recent war. The editor wrote:

Again let us bow our heads in honor and in memory of these brave men for whom this day has been set apart and if there be any bitterness let it be directed at those who made wars and words but have never fought them.  We have no fight with the soldier though we may have with those who teach him and our reverence today does and should go forth to him never to be forgotten while the words of the orator who was at home will pass from our minds as does a drifting perfume on a breath of wind.

The idea that veterans are to receive honor for their service even if high officials have not always acted honorably resonates today after the legality and morality of recent wars have been questioned.  It is a humane thought, spoken by a veteran, Thomas Coxe, who had fought in the Spanish-American War.

Coxe had a reputation in Traverse City.  In 1917 he refused to stand during the playing of the “Star Spangled Banner” at a city commission meeting in which the sale of liberty bonds was discussed.  In fact, three times the anthem was played, and three times he refused to stand.  For his efforts, he was beaten by the enraged crowd.  Upon being contacted by the Record-Eagle the next day, he gave this statement:

I am a firm believer in democracy and served my country in the Spanish-American war because I believe that the Star Spangled Banner in principle, stands for honesty, justice, equality, free speech, free press, freedom and liberty.  I am against using the Star Spangled Banner for advertising purposes or the purpose of coercing public officials to vote against their conscience and what they believe is right.

Honest Opinion had a predecessor in town.  Though not socialist, the Traverse City Press promised to present the views of all citizens.  In an alliance with the Chamber of Commerce it advocated Open Forums, public discussions on a variety of issues, both local and national.  Harold Titus, later to become a well-known novelist, championed the forums and several were enacted at the City Opera House.  One was devoted to the inadequate salaries of Traverse City teachers, with Julius Steinberg, a powerful businessman, taking the position that the teachers were underpaid.  Several persons spoke out in opposition, including the superintendent of schools.  Perhaps the uproar thereby created explains why the Forums were soon discontinued.  In the end, free discussion of sensitive issues was not as welcome as organizers had supposed.  

The Traverse City Press soon degenerated into little more than an advertising circular with jokes, gossip, and fluff filling its pages.  At first, however, when its editor was the same Thomas Coxe who later edited Honest Opinion, the Press dared to publish letters from its working class readers that described life from a perspective not available in the Traverse City Record-Eagle.  One woman wrote in February, 1917:

Right about face, Traverse City and see yourself as others see you.

In your City Press of last week was an article stating as an inducement for factories to locate “among us,” it was a fact your manufacturers were paying an average wage of 470 dollars per year.

Statistics tell us that it requires an average wage of 800 dollars per year to keep the average family in just an existing condition.  The fact remains that your laboring men’s family are living on half of what it takes to keep an average family.  That means that they must depend on charity for the balance or go without.  The appearance of most of your people on your streets are doing both.

The writer went on to say how the Chamber of Commerce had induced manufacturers to move to Traverse City playing up the cheap women’s labor force.  

The Jackson Firm came in paying a fairly good wage.  When they found some of the women could make ten dollars a week, a new forelady came bringing a cut in wages.  At present another change of management and another cut in wages, but I hear nothing from you, no protest from your press or Chamber of Commerce.  Some of the girls are getting as low as 1.25 per week.

Furthermore, she speculated,“licentious behavior” might be related to low wages:

You probably heard the Rev. Mr. Stevens, of tabernacle fame, make the remark from his pulpit, that Traverse City was the most licentious of any town he had ever been in, that licentiousness lurked on every street corner.  …What is the cause?  Is it the low wages paid your women and girls?

The Traverse City Press served as a place for women workers to vent their anger at low wages and lack of respect.  Such a forum could not continue.  Soon the Press began to complain of boycotts directed towards its advertisers.  Abruptly, the radical tone of letters vanished.  The paper itself underwent a name change to the Grand Traverse Press.  Even in that form it did not publish long, disappearing some time around 1920.

Letters such as the one printed above paint a different picture of Traverse City from that displayed to summer visitors.  It simply was not a sunny town of cherry orchards, resorts, gorgeous beaches, and picturesque winters.  It had a dark side, too, with its factories that promised repetitive work for poor wages, a female workforce that was paid less than that of men for the same work, and the prospect of dismal room-and-board arrangements.   A state report issued in 1917 lists Traverse City dead last in Michigan for average wages paid to workers.  The 1914 Polk directory, a reference book giving names and occupations of residents, tells us that forty percent of people over fourteen years of age were listed as boarders i.e. they did not live independently in their own residences. Even taking into account the early broad definition of “boarder” (boarders could be students or grown children), this figure illustrates the sorry living conditions of many workers.  Clearly, homeowners and the people they took in had little money to spend on extras.  Life was not easy here.

Perhaps it is natural for a community to want to put its best foot forward, especially when visitors come calling so often.  The Traverse City Record-Eagle would not wish to air the grievances of working men and women.  Though disclaiming bias, it had a long history of working with the major players of the town—the Hannahs, the Millikens, the Hamiltons, and the Hulls.  It would not want to go against the interests of businesses that advertised so regularly within its pages.  Instead, the early Traverse City Press and, later, Honest Opinion would have to bear the burden of providing an open forum for all the citizens of the community.  Today we recall their valiant efforts with respect, understanding the importance of listening to the voices of all residents—those of workers, businessmen, veterans, pacifists, the uneducated and the educated.  It is only through such discourse that we advance as a community and as a nation.

Richard Fidler is co-editor of Grand Traverse Journal. This article was previously published in his book, Who We Were, What We Did: Fresh Perspectives on Grand Traverse History.