Ancillary Materials for Flood Story

Here are some ancillary materials (below) that I looked at to write the story of the March 23, 1904 flood, posted here in case you'd like to peruse 'em too. Click for larger image.

1. Photo of part of Henry Scovill's lumber operation on Frog Island. Here we are standing on the northeastern part of Frog Island looking south-southeast. On our right, out of view, are the numerous buildings of Scovill's lumber yard. To the left, on the mainland bank, are stored logs. Lots of times farmers would cut their lumber, haul it to Ypsi, and Scovill would cut it to order. In left rear is the old Depot. The freighthouse is visible, as is a now-vanished storage building behind the also-visible Depot Town buildings. The storage building was used for storage of extra hay presses from the old hay press plant just northeast of Forest Avenue and the river.


2. Photo labeled 1895 of Scovill's lumber yard. Here we are on the millrace bridge at the southeastern part of the island. This is the bridge that was obliterated in the flood, stranding the men on Frog Island. Today it is the southeastern bit of the running track. Here's a then and now comparison. In left rear is the big underwear factory.


3. Portrait of Henry Scovill, head of the lumber yard. Scovill was mayor of Ypsilanti from 1881-1884 and 1900-1901. You can see the strength and clarity of character that kept him working at his lumber yard until he was killed in an accident--at age 86.


4. 1914 receipt for C. S. Smith's purchases at Scovill's. You can see the address is N. Huron street, just by the bend. Because of the flood, Scovill moved his yard from Frog Island to here. He hesitated because the Frog Island yard had been powered by hydro, which was cheap, and he'd have to convert to electricity. However, he successfully made the move.


5. Civil War discharge papers for Corporal Scovill. He was one of the first to sign up at Lincoln's first call for Michigan volunteers. Apparently his term of service was only 3 months. I don't know if he served another term. Note that this dynamic and life-filled man was a mere 5 feet 7 inches tall.



6. Photo of Amasa Scovill, Henry's father. Dusty D has a chair (my favorite one) not unlike Mr. Scovill's.



7. A little map of Depot Town I made to understand the fabric of it, since Bracy's boss had a grocery here. There were 5 groceries, 3 restaurants, 2 meat dealers (directly opposite each other), 2 lawyers, and one coal dealer, cigarist, shoemaker, hardware dealer, baker, barber, painter, furniture dealer, hotelier, druggist, and jeweler. I used the 1905 info because generally the city directories lag a bit behind the actual year in question, so this is probably pretty accurate for 1904. Green is current businesses, red is 1904 businesses, and blue is residents living above the shops.


8. Obituary cards for Scovill, his wife Mary, and his son William. There are 73,000 of these in the Archives.



9. & 10. history of the Scovill lumber co.


11. Undated story (prob. 1962) about the demise of Ypsilanti lumber companies.

12. Scovill's 1929 obituary. He is buried in Highland Cemetery.

Hope you liked those! There was even more stuff, but as my mom says, "there's a limit." :)

Spot the Differences: Then and Now

This photo baffled Dusty D for days! I knew it was Frog Island, and the photo is labeled as Scovill's Lumber Yard, taken in 1895. Well and good.

But it didn't make a bit of sense. I saw the water--clearly the river--so logically the bridge in the background is Cross Street Bridge. Clearly the viewer is looking SOUTH from Forest Avenue down the river, so, er, that bridge that looks nothing like Cross Street Bridge is, uh...wait, what is that gigantic factory on the left? If you're looking south from Forest, wouldn't it be smack in the middle of the trainyard? And it's too big to be the Thompson Building...uh...(mass confusion!)

The answer came to Dusty D when she looked again at the bridge. You can see it's on an angle--just like the modern-day railroad bridge at Forest. Hmm, so that means you're looking NORTH from Frog Island...but...the river is in the wrong place!

I finally realized it's not the river. It's the old millrace.

Dusty Diary immediately leapt on her bike with a copy of the old picture and sped to Frog Island. I stood on the southeast side of the track and held up the photo in front of me.

It matched perfectly. The railroad bridge, now behind some trees, is in the precise same spot. The lumber yard was indeed on the east side of Frog Island, just as the old map had said. And now, when you walk on the east half of the gravel running track, you are literally walking on water.

Onetime water, anyways. On the 1895 plat map, you can see the 1895 photographer's location (red), the RR bridge (blue) and the big underwear factory (yellow).

My experience with this photo was a graphic example of what I'd experienced before--how one small, easy error in perception, when trying to track down as elusive a quarry as history, can get you turned around 180'.

Huron Hotel: Humor with your Food

This is neato mosquito, a menu cover from the Hotel Huron in 1961 (click any image for larger version).

In that year, the hotel was facing financial difficulties.

The hotel started offering dinners for lunch prices and allowing weekly room rentals.

Though those efforts were ultimately not successful, one of the artifacts it generated was this menu cover cartoon featuring a caricature of downtown Ypsilanti.

Here you can see the downtown hotel at Washington and Pearl. You can see the buildings on the north side of Pearl between Washington and Huron. There's the Grand Army of the Republic Hall, which of course is still standing. One Yank and one Reb are having a shootout in front. Next door, at the Huron corner, is the onetime Ypsilanti Press building.

You can also see the north side of Michigan Avenue. There are a number of women swarming one store offering a sale where the modern-day Mix is housed. Note that by the 60s, the original 3rd floor of Hewitt Hall was already removed (some decades before).

In the cartoon's upper left corner, you can see the water tower and the onetime location of the business school.

There's a hunter up there too shooting a pheasant, and there's the old YHS (now Cross Street Village.

In the lower left corner, you can see a box extolling the features of the hotel. Dusty D likes "TV and Radios" especially. And a fire-resistant building is always a plus. I wonder if they meant they'd installed asbestos.

Note the little cartoon of a va-va-voom type girl inciting a car crash and another guy's wolf whistle. You can also see a bunch of kids playing stickball (?) and a woman sensibly hanging out her laundry.


Last, here's a shot of Depot Town. You can see the Streicher murder house at Cross and Huron with the old poultry barn behind it, which did exist there for many years.

A couple of guys are playing football on Frog Island--for years the YHS used Frog Island as their athletic field. Two silos seem to refer to the old Farm Bureau corn silo at Forest and the RR tracks (?). There's a simplified referenced to the old Peninsular Paper factory. Dusty D has no idea what the "Archery" building next to Michigan ladder might be. Last, you can see the present-day automotive museum ("Used Cars").

I leave y'all with a question: is that really a coal-powered steam train that's going through Depot Town? Were any of those still around in 1961? I thought things had largely switched over to diesel engines by around that time. Anything else that you notice or would like to comment on?

Faint Voices from Ypsilanti's Onetime Hobo Jungles

Dusty Diary just heard the midnight train's 4 mournful whistles, and the distant clacking of its wheels through Depot Town. It is the day's last train, whose whoops every night remind me that I should already have gone to bed. It is the last of the 6 daily Amtrak Wolverine Line trains that pass through Ypsilanti:

7:35 a.m.: Westbound from Detroit
Just after noon: Westbound
1:10 p.m.: Eastbound to Detroit
6 p.m.: Eastbound
6:30 p.m.: Westbound
12:15 a.m.: Eastbound, home to Detroit at half past midnight

Dusty Diary is not the only one in Ypsilanti who listens for the last train. Hundreds of others, lost in time, also hear it, from Frog Island, from under a bridge, and from a forest near Depot Town.

They were the men, women, and children who rode the rails from town to town, seeking work, adventure, or flight from their pasts. They sometimes wound up in the old City Hall jail on Cross Street. The jail offered respite from another night outdoors in the jungle and a meal other than the slumgullion mulligan stew being cooked up over a fire and containing begged, borrowed, or stolen cabbage, onion, carrot, and maybe a few dogs'-meat butchers' scraps.

They camped in Frog Island and according to hobo Harold Jones, under a railroad trestle near Huron River Dr. (likely the Forest St. railroad bridge). A separate source once told Dusty D that a camp also once existed in the woods just northeast of the bridge.

In this 1995 Ann Arbor News article at left, historian Peter Fletcher is quoted as saying the old city dump on South Grove Road was also a camp: "There would be a dozen down there at one time." Dusty D is guessing that the dump in question is the old junkyard once on Water Street, and not the old city dump, 1945-1960s, that once stood at junction of Huron St. and I-94.

As to the paucity of local historical data on hoboes, Fletcher is quoted as saying, "It's just human nature to gauze over some of the negative aspects...we do a lot better remembering the positive things."

Nope. It's the forgotten and the deliberately forgotten who often have the most interesting stories. Dusty D imagines she can almost hear snatches of those stories, the voices and the smell of cabbage and coffee drifting from the nighttime jungle camp fire, passing the time till the midnight train.

Response to Reader Request: Cross Street Mill

Hey, you want a piece of toast?

Then you'd better hitch up the team, boy, 'cause we're out of flour again. Yep, I know. We gotta go to Detroit for more.

Close the door but leave the latch string out. C'mon, let's go while it's early. We can stay along the plank road.

We're lucky we got a wagon to go in--them early folks wasn't so lucky.

They had to wait for the flatboats to come on up the river there. Couldn't even make it all the ways to the city. You run out back then, in the 20s, you were plumb outta luck. Dang, this plank road's bumpy. Hang on!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
My dad and I used to have to go clear to Detroit to get so much as a peck of flour. I ain't funnin' ya, missy--all the way over there. 'Course now we have the city mill on Cross Street. Take a look at this-here old map and you can see it...right there.
Here's another one. On the 1856 map you can see it's labeled "Ypsilanti Mills" and there on the 1864 one they have it as just "G.M.," which I imagine stands for Grist Mill.

70s...that was when Bill Deubel bought it. Did you know Bill's dad was Napoleon's butcher? Yes ma'am. Anyways, Bill bought it in '73 from Nathan Follett and renamed it the Deubel Mill. Deubel had another one too, down near Congress. I think one in Ann Arbor too, around that time. Can't remember. That Deubel, he was a big name in the community. Fact they even wrote a poem about him, and some other Ypsi folks too. How did that--Oh yeah:

"Round the flowery meadows winding

Deubel’s corn and good wheat grinding

Driving all the wheels and bands

Tumbling o’er the deep mill dams

Then foaming down in white cascades

And murmuring in the woodland shades.

Runnin the Mayor’s belts and cranks

And sawing Fomor’s logs in planks,

Barnes and Cornwell’s paper mills

Many a purse and pocket fills;

Giving work to the great and small,

Where the bright booming waters fall.

Straw and rags with steam and vapor,

Rolled out in sheets of clean white paper.

And rolls of paper by the mile

For printing in the best of style,

The notes and credit good and strong

the city paying every bond."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
You-all think times is tough now, with the Depression--well, this old grandmother remembers when MY grandfather told me about HIS father having to go all the way to Detroit for just a reg'lar barrel of flour! Yes, sir! And not in no automobile, neither! That was about a hundred years ago. Long before that old mill on Cross Street and all the other old mills in town. Hand me that book and I'll show ya.
This right here is a map from 1874. You can see that old mill right there. It's labeled "City Grist and Flouring Mill." You can see that by 1874 the mill had its very own railroad spur, coming off. Take a look at all of those tracks! There's one, two...six railroad lines going through right by that mill. Must have been pretty noisy with those trains all day long.

Here's a map from 1895. Take a look at that huge swamp just north of Frog Island. That was from the woolen mill dam.

The dam was down in the water where Forest Street crosses over, just on the south side of Forest Street. Quite a factory back then. Famous for its undergarments.

The hoboes hang out in that general swamp area up there--right by the trains--so they say.

I don't want you going up there, now.

This last map is from around 1915. Look at that old mill race on Frog Island, closin' up. End of an era.

And look at the photo I've got stuck in here. Can you figger out when this was taken? Give you a hint--it's this century. Can you find any clues?

Exactly right-there's that old car on Rice Street, looks to be about a...maybe around 1915 too.

Just like your uncle's old car, isn't it?

Take a look at the nice paint job they had up on that mill back then.

Says the "Ypsilanti Grain and Elevator Co." Right nice lookin'.That old mill stood for a lotta years. Hope you do half so well in your time. That's enough chit-chattin' now, and it's time to go to bed.

Tomorrow we can make some cookies, with some of that store-bought flour of your mom's.

Yes, I'll tell you another story tomorrow. Off you go now.

A Bittersweet Ypsilanti Wedding, 2/3/1910

This February 3, 1910 account of a home wedding offers a look at the usual wedding customs of a century ago. Home weddings are the norm according to what I read in papers from this era. In fact I can't recall reading about any wedding that wasn't a home wedding, even for a well-off couple like this one--the bride was the daughter of successful Frog Island lumberyard owner and onetime mayor H. R. Scovill. Note the symbolic use of bittersweet.

"A pretty mid-winter wedding took place Wednesday evening at the home of Mr. and Mrs. H. R. Scovill [120 Washington] when their daughter, Genevieve, was united in marriage to [traveling salesman] Mr. Herbert A. Bisbee. The house was simply but effectively decorated with bittersweet, cut pine, and smilax. The impressive ring service was performed by Rev. William Gardam. As the groom is in mourning the guests were limited to the relatives and immediate friends.

"Preceding the cemetery the solo "O Promise Me" was rendered by Mr. William Ryer, after which the wedding march was played by Miss Mathilda Holmes, to the strains of which the bride entered the back parlor and proceeded through an isle of white satin ribbon, to the tower window, where the groom and best man were waiting. The marriage ceremony took place in front of a bank of palms and ferns with a background of white outlined with bittersweet berries. The bride was given away by her father. After congratulations a second solo "When thou art near" was rendered by Mr. Ryer.

"The bride was prettily attired in a gown of cream crepe de chine, entrain, and carried a shower bouquet of bride's roses and lilies of the valley. She was attended by her sister, Miss Laura Scovill, who was becomingly gowned in pale blue chiffon cloth with gold trimmings, and carried pink bride's roses. The groom was supported by Dr. H. H. Harper. A pretty feature of the ceremony was the carrying of a ring in the heart of a calla lily by Little Miss Catherine Boss of Imlay City, a cousin of the bride.

"After congratulations had been extended, a wedding supper was served in the dining room, which was decorated in pink and green. The color scheme was carried out with roses, carnations, and smilax.

"The large number of beautiful gifts including cut glass and silver, attest to the popularity of both bride and groom. Miss Scovill has lived in Ypsilanti all her life and has a wide circle of friends among the citizens. Mr. Bisbee, who has made his home in this city for the past few years, is well-liked and has made a host of friends who extend to him and his bride their best wishes.

"Mr. and Mrs. Bisbee left on the 9:12 [p.m.] train east for a short trip after which they will be at home, after March 1, at 801 West Congress Street (Michigan Ave.)."

The Bridge-Busting Flood of 1904

Today is the 116th anniversary of a monster Huron River flood that almost obliterated Ypsi's string of bridges, and swept an entire Frog Island business away (but only slightly delayed a grocery order). Here's the tale.

Turn-of-the-Century Ypsi Map with Interesting Highlights Marked

http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifHere's a treat I hope you enjoy as much as I do. It's a roughly turn-of-the-century map with a baker's dozen of cool vanished stuff that I numbered. It really helped me visualize things like the "Dress Stay Company" (ohhh, right on Huron, there!) and discover new things (pickle factory?!). Here's the map with a key below.
Key:
1. Mysterious Depot #2. I never knew of this second depot, right at the bend of Huron if you're traveling north and just passed the DPW yard/Powell's pub. Why was it here? Whom did it serve? It's 1/2-way between the Peninsular Paper Mill and Hay and Todd--two big employers. Was it for the workers? But Hay & Todd isn't far from the Depot Town Depot. Hmm...what is this enigmatic depot?

2. Tubal Cain Owen water well. Owen tried "his hand at several business enterprises
(including attempting to build a flying machine) before pursuing the marketing of mineral water. Often described as “flamboyant,” “cocky,” and even a “bit peculiar"...In 1882 the Ypsilanti Paper Company bored a well, seeking pure water but found what was then perceived and marketed as medicinal mineral water. Various sanitariums sprang up in a vigorous rivalry. Tubal Cain Owen jumped into the fray when he sank an 808 feet deep well in 1884 at 360 feet north of Forest Avenue, behind his house (presently near the northwest corner of the east wing of the Roosevelt Building on the Eastern Michigan University campus). He named the well “Atlantis” and by 1885, acquired patent number 13127 for his trade mark for Ypsilanti Mineral Water. He found darker, even murkier water than his competitors, which at that time was believed to be more beneficial. It was reddish brown and described as having an “odor that sent strong men reeling toward the saloon,” yet was sold as far as Boston and with great popularity particularly in Chicago."

3. Normal School (EMU) gymnasium. This was a magnificent castle-like crenellated structure occupying what's now the little parking lot just east of the Water Tower.

4. Old Ypsi High School. This is where Carry Hardy taught math. Now the senior community Cross Street Village.

5. Pickle Factory. Pickle factory? This is a new one on DD. I do know there was an "Ypsilanti Condiment Co" somewhere in Depot Town...perhaps related? I'm hoping they didn't use river water for the pickles, considering it's downstream from the Peninsular Paper Mill, which is said to have often dyed the river a variety of interesting colors, and the numerous mills in the Frog Island area. On the other hand, vinegar neutralizes everything, right? No worries! Enjoy the distinctive taste of Ypsi Pickles!

6. Mineral Well and Sanitarium: Ypsi's famous water "San," the "Ypsilanti Mineral Bath House," located where the Riverside Arts Center--->Haab's is now; a big operation!

7. McCullough Foundry, where Allie's dad and later, her brothers, worked. The family lived across the street.

8. Dress Stay Company, manufacturing steel rods for stiffening and shaping women's dresses, in lieu of the earlier whalebone.

9. Scharf Tag, Label & Box Co. (now occupied by Congdon's), like #8 a business in which former mayor H. P. Glover had great influence.

10. The old city well.

11. The old fair grounds.

12. Apparently each ward had its own little school.

13. Depot for the Ann Arbor-Ypsi Streetcar, (the "Ypsi-Ann,") which ran down Packard to AA.

Lots of other goodies on this map, such as the Ypsi Coop appearing as its former incarnation, the Ypsilanti Machine Works. What else do you see that should be added to the list?

Cool Chart: Piles of Details about 1901 Ypsilanti Industries

(Click chart for larger image). Here is something really extraordinary. It a chart from the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics showing the results of their 1901 inspection of (all?) 25 of Ypsilanti's then-existing industries.

To me the most interesting tidbit of many is the listing for the Hay & Todd Manufacturing Co., a/k/a Ypsi's famous underwear factory, once located at the southwest corner of Forest and the river, with its own giant dam.

You can see that Hay & Todd was by far the city's biggest employer of women--over half of 1901 Ypsi industries employed no women at all. 175 of Hay & Todd's 200 employees were women, earning $1 a day. There were 10 office men earning double their salary, and 5 foremen earning $2 a day as well. The factory ran year-round and was the only factory in Ypsi powered exclusively by water power.

The factory with the shortest workday was Adam Schane's cigar factory, at only 5 hours. It's also the only industry powered by "hand" power. A low $1 daily wage for an average employee correlates with an industry's # of female employees--the higher the # of women, the lower the average wage. Only 1 industry is powered by electricity: the Ann Arbor Printing Co. Most are powered by steam and/or hydro.

We can see lots of familiar names here: the Scharf Tag, Label & Box Co. had as president and the Dress Stay Co. had as founder H. P. Glover, who also employed as domestic Bertha Wiederhoft. We have seen pictures of the Deubel mills at Cross Street and south of the Michigan Ave. bridge. We've also seen the Scoville lumber yard on Frog Island, the Ainsworth mill, and of course the McCullough foundry, now being run by Elmer B., William L.'s younger brother, who was 38 years old in 1901.

DD also spots the Ypsilanti Manufacturing Company, which made sad irons. These were the non-electric clothes-pressing irons of the 19th century. Some were solid metal, some were a metal frame with plaster inside, and some even had a compartment for hot coals inside. One 19th-century meaning of "sad" was "heavy," and these irons were that.

DD is lucky to own a YMO sad iron storage rack (scan at right is a bit blurry since it has a rim lifting it off the scanner plate). This is a little tray for the sad iron that lifts it off a surface by about a centimeter, so that the heated iron in use can be put aside without burning a surface. I love the ornate logo, which reminds me of the design of the new bike racks around town. Can you see the Y, the M, and the "Co." intertwined?

In years past both the washing (usually on Mondays) and the ironing (usually on Tuesdays) took ALL DAY. Can you imagine ironing all day? Constantly putting the iron back on the stove to reheat and holding it with a potholder so as not to get burned? One inventor, a Ms. Potts, designed a sad iron with a detachable wooden handle--but ironing was still an arduous undertaking. Before we veer too far off topic, here's a fascinating article on the evolution of household technology and a pic of Ms. Pott's revolutionary sad iron.

Enjoy the chart and do tell us what other tidbits you notice and/or what we can infer from all this information.

Wednesday Mystery Spot: Insane Love

Last Wednesday's "Insane Love" Mystery Spot was no sooner posted than guessed. I never learn. As Thomas and BF correctly guessed, and despite my severe cropping, yep, it's the old Ypsilanti Farm Bureau grain silo on the north side of Forest Avenue near the railroad bridge, most recently occupied by the Frog Island microbrewery.

I see that if I am to have any chance at all at stymieing you-all, I'll have to delve into my "Photos of the Lost" collection. All right then. Here's an old crenellated-tower beauty of a--whoops, almost said it. Where and what was this? This is pretty obscure, so I'll be impressed if anyone guesses this correctly. Good luck; answer next Wednesday!