Blizzard Causes Havoc for U-M Beaus and their Ypsi Belles

On the night of February 21, a blizzard struck Ypsilanti, as part of the ongoing January-February cold wave. "Business in Ypsilanti is at a standstill," says this February 22, 1912 Ypsilanti Daily Press article. "For once, at least, a holiday is welcomed by local merchants because conditions are such that no trade is lost by reason of the stores being closed and there is plenty of work in snow drifts in front of nearly every man's house today to afford him ample exercise and [pastime]."

The storm's effects were also chronicled in the 1912 Aurora yearbook's joke section. On the night of the blizzard, the Senior Dance had been held, with plenty of visiting would-be suitors from Ann Arbor. The poor things were caught in the midst of it.

The Aurora editors wrote up the U-M students' consternation in the form of a mock resolution that may be paraphrased thus:

"Because the weather is unpredictable, with deep snow difficult to slog through, and because the interurban doesn't run a late-night car, leaving the only other option a ride from Ypsi to Ann Arbor on the 2 a.m. Michigan Central train, we U-M students will skip the traditional finale of our dance parties so that we can return our ladies to their homes earlier and arrive back in Ann Arbor in a timely fashion."

Last Group of Workers at Ypsi Underwear Factory

From the Ypsilanti Daily Press of February 14, 1912: this want ad for women workers at the Oak Knitting Mill, which was the last iteration of the Ypsilanti underwear factory. In a few years it closed and the building was taken over by Ray Battery for a time. In its heyday the underwear factory was by far the largest employer of women in town--though in those days, the term "factory girl" had a pejorative meaning.

"Isn't It Strange?" EMU Student Life Cartoon, 1912

This cartoon in the 1912 "Aurora" yearbook shows the following scenes (clockwise from top left):

1. a green new arrival and a cool, confident college man
2. offbeat male hairstyles
3. football (looks like a rugby ball, doesn't it? But the school had no rugby team and in fact in the football team photo, you can see the ball is distinctly rounded, as in cartoon).
4. big senior boots for juniors to fill
5. an effete U-M dandy complete with cane, pipe, beanie, and bulldog.

Past and Present Threefer: Unity Building, Washington and Pearl, Built 1917

The Unity Building at 30-36 N. Washington occupied the onetime spot of Ypsi's storied "Ark" building. In the first photo, taken around 1915 shortly after the Ark's destruction, in the right background one may see the painted staircase of "Gaudy's Bitter-Sweet Chocolate Shop," formerly the Washtenaw Home Telephone Co.

The second photo taken around 1920 or so shows the new Unity Building, and also shows Gaudy's. A marquee on the Unity Building advertises "H. Hutchins & Co.," a notions shop. On the northernmost window of the side facing Washington St. may be seen the Miller photography studio.

In 1924, a year after the Hotel Huron (Centennial Center) just across Pearl Street was built, the Unity Building housed these tenants in addition to the notions shop and photo studio: osteopath John Garrett, chiropractor Arthur Bourget, insurance agents John Crampton and Edward Crawford, Ye Corset Shop, dentists Don Moe and Hugh Morrison, Edna Hickman's children's wear store, doctors Harold Barss and Walter Wright, the Illinois Life Insurance Co., the Christian Science Reading Room, Tweedie & Gibson barbers, and the Goodrich Hair Shop.

2/15/1912: Peckville-Area Worden Greenhouse in Danger!

Here's one side effect of the severe cold wave Ypsi was experiencing in January and February of 1912. This item is from the February 15, 1912 Ypsilanti Daily Press.

John Worden was a florist. His greenhouse was on the east side of River Street opposite Highland Cemetery, and his home was at 733 River on the west side of the street. The site where John's home stood is now the small empty field on River across which one can see the Corner Brewery.

John had landholdings opposite the cemetery, as seen below. His Peckville-area land adjoined properties held by machinist Robert Ziegler (possibly misspelled on plat map), dairyman Dwight Peck, cider manufacturer Harvey James, William Leslie, and Nelson Freeman. The little sliver cut from its southwestern edge is labeled "Pattee's Addition."

Thank goodness John could fetch water from the nearby river for his greenhouse boiler, that chilly day!

The onetime Worden land as seen today:

No Shortage of Valentines for Him

From the joke section (excerpted above) of the 1912 Aurora comes this zinger about one senior:

No. 1: Horrors! It's happened twice in six week[s].
No. 2: What, a railroad wreck?
No. 1: No, Bob Ward walked the whole length of Cross Street alone.
No. 2: What did you do?
No. 1: Called the police station and they said the lady in question was out of town by permission.

Hmm, so who was this Bob Ward?

Senior class president, it turns out. He was also a member of Alpha Tau Delta, chairman of the Y.M.C.A., a member of the Lincoln Debating Club, and represented the Normal for two years at oratorical contests.

Quite the accomplished young man. But you do wonder if part of his popularity with the ladies had anything to do with his appearance as well.

Let's see...

Hmmmm, apparently so!

Quite the handsome young man, isn't he?

Likely all that debating and oratorical practice came in mighty handy...

...when it came time for Bob Ward to persuade a young lady to take an evening stroll up Cross Street.

Happy Valentine's Day!

"Southern Dialect Song" by Female Ypsi Songwriter Jessie Pease (with sheet music)

Ypsilanti can take credit for diarists, poets, newspaper editors, and book authors. Here is one of the Queen City's songwriters, the daughter of Normal School music professor Frederick Pease, who also composed music. Several of Jessie's works are listed on Amazon. This news item appeared in the February 13, 1912 Ypsilanti Daily Press:

FORMER YPSILANTI WOMAN MADE MEMBER OF MUSICIAN'S CLUB

Mrs. Jessie L. Pease, formerly of this city, has been made a member of the Musician's club in New York City, where she is passing the winter. Mrs. Pease's latest song, "Her lips were so near" (published by the Oliver Ditson Co.) and "Ain yo comin' roun' no mo'" (published by the William Maxwell Co., New York) are especially admired by her publishers considering that the latter in particular is destined to be a marked success, while "The Irish Girl's Lament," recently sung before a club of southern women in New York, is spoken of with enthusiasm by singers.

Jessie Pease's 1906 song "Ain' yo' comin' roun' no mo'" was advertised as a "Southern Dialect Song." Below is the sheet music and lyrics. The publisher, the William Maxwell Co., was at 8 East 16th St., New York.

Past & Present, Washtenaw Home Telephone Co., Washington Street c. 1912

The Washtenaw Home Telephone Co. occupies the second floor of 24 N. Washington. On the ground floor is the plumbing firm of Pickles & Bassett. Next door at 22 Washington on the ground floor is Jay Moore's furniture store. Moore was also a funeral director and embalmer. (Possible motto: "From Crib to Coffin.") At 20 Washington is Frank Stowell's coal office. Upstairs are the offices of lawyer Frank Joslyn and dressmaker Helen Francisco. 18 N. Washington houses Harry Gilmore's wallpaper shop, and 16 N. Washington is Dewey Waterman's plumbing shop. The tall building in the middle right background is the onetime second-floor Hewitt Hall.

Domestic Violence and Attempted Murder in 1910

This story from St. Joseph appeared in the February 5, 1910 Ypsi Daily Press. After filing for divorce and getting a restraining order, Mrs. Riddle watched in fear as her enraged husband came across the fields with a gun, heading straight to the house where she and the children hid. Warning: violent material.

"Seeking the life of his wife, having vowed vengeance because she had instituted suit for divorce and secured an injunction restraining him from molesting her, Albert Riddle, a Royalton township farmer, all but accomplished his intentions when he secured a repeating rifle and attacked the house, which, by the court's order, he had been forbidden to enter.

"Mrs. Riddle and her four children, offsprings of a former husband, when they observed Riddle coming through the fields, barricaded the door and awaited his approach. Riddle opened fire on the house and finally chopped his way through a rear door with an ax. Mrs. Riddle and the children fled through a front door in time to save their lives, though the enraged husband sent several bullets after them.

"When neighbors surrounded and entered the house, Riddle was not found. Blood was scattered about the rooms, and the furniture had been partly destroyed. Thinking he would fool the officers, Riddle cut the house dog's throat and let the blood run out. When the dog's body was found, a search for Riddle was begun. He was finally located under a porch and [secured] at the point of guns. He is now in the county jail, charged with attempted murder."

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.)."

Past and Present: Ypsilanti Gas Co.

The Washington Street office of the onetime Ypsilanti Gas Company, whose plant was on the northeast corner of Huron and Forest. This is the downtown business office, where, if you were a miser like DD too cheap to spring for a stamp, you could go to pay your bill.

The photo is dated 1912. This may be incorrect as the city seized municipal control of the gas plant in 1914, holding it until after WWII. The inscription continues: "House in background: 212 Pearl. Later moved to 921 Sheridan (Ward Roper House). Genevieve C. Cross & Phil Duffy, in front of gas company, 27 N. Washington."

Note that in the reflection of the window you can see the sign for Ypsilanti's storied "ARK" secondhand store/junk shop/nexus of questionable activities.

I guess you could say the northwest corner of Washington and Pearl is still a place with a lot of energy...

Sledding Accident on Pearl Street Hill 102 Years Ago

The front page of the January 31, 1910 Ypsilanti Daily Press features this story about a sledding accident on Pearl Street, in days when few Ypsilantians owned cars to get in the way.

"A coaster carrying eight happy boys and girls speeding down the Pearl Street hill Saturday evening crashed into a delivery wagon owned by Gaudy's bakery at Hamilton and Pearl Street.

"The coaster was smashed to kindling wood and two of the occupants were seriously injured.

"They were removed to a neighboring house and their wounds [dressed], but a reporter for the Press was to stay outside to ascertain the [nature] of those injured."

Past and Present Photos: The Barber Shop on Huron, c. 1913

Meet the guys at the barber shop thought to once have been at 24 1/2 North Huron. The caption for this YHS Historical Society Photo Archives photo states "The inscription identifies it as Courtez R. Hall's barber shop but it is also possible it is William Hipp's, long at that location. The gentlemen are, from L to R, Watson Laidlaw, Ralph Smith (listed in the the 1912 city directory as a clerk that boarded at 24 E. Congress), Wesley M Dawson (1890-1964) who was a partner in the Martin Dawson company and later Ypsilanti Postmaster, Courtez R. Hall, Samuel Spring, James Tweedie (listed in 1912 city directory as a barber in Hipp's barber shop and boarding at 108 Buffalo, Hipp's residence) and an older man not identified (perhaps Hipp)."

The puzzle is whether the modern photo is indeed a match for the original. What do you think? Obviously many changes have been made to the building facade...but are the bones the same? Is this the onetime barber shop?

A Portable Pest House, Ideally Situated Near the City Water Supply

There has been some agitation among the city authoriyies during the past week as to what would happen if a tramp who has been confined in the city jail should become ill with smallpox as was recently the case in the Ann Arbor jail. How would he be cared for and where? The city has no detention hospital and no pest house fit to keep a person in. What would become of him and how could he be isolated from the public to precent the spread of the dread disease?

Mayor Towner stated to a Press representative today that he had given notice to the Board of Health that something definite must be done in the near future to provide for such an emergency.

One plan that has been suggested is that a portable pest house should be purchased by the city and placed on the property near the Water Works station. Three portable houses may be purchased of a firm in the northern part of the state at a reasonable figure. One or more rooms could be purchased just as desirable. These houses are strong and warmly built and are put together with staples.

A meeting of the Board of Health and the Council will probably be held very soon to discuss the advisability of such a purchase.

----Ypsilanti Daily Press, January 24, 1911

The Cold Wave of 1912

Read all about the great cold wave of exactly one century ago this January! Thanks to the Courier and its great new editor T.! (If you don't have a sub, don't forget to pick up your paper copy on Thursday!)

A Man of Mystery at the Normal, 1912

This time of year 100 years ago, Normalites were treated to a bright spot in the usual semester lecture course: a magician. The lecture course was a public cultural series for students and townspeople, the latter of whom could buy a series subscription. The onetime nearby Tubal Cain Owen family (whose landholdings were eventually absorbed into the expanding campus) had one such subscription, and Tubal's daughter Abba Owen frequently went to hear the latest lecture, in the late 1800s.

Germain certainly holds no bars in his ad for himself but I have been unable to find the tiniest scrap of any documentation of any performances elsewhere, so his precise stature in the world of magic is uncertain. At any rate, here's his ad and a write-up in the January 18, 1912 Normal News.

The Joys of Being a Normalite

Here's a cartoon from the 1912 Aurora normal School yearbook that shows the daily life of a student. The 6 panels depict:

1. Student waking up in his austere boarding house room (long before dorms at EMU, students boarded around town in boardinghouses approved by the school or in private homes).

2. Running down Ellis street to class. Ellis was the onetime name of the stretch of Washtenaw between the water tower and Huron.

3. Late to class!

4. Back at the boardinghouse for "boardinghouse hash" for lunch, with landlady scowling in background.

5. Studying on the radiator in a chilly boardinghouse room.

6. Nightmares of the dreaded blue book!

A Century-Old Clawfoot Cartel

In school you and I learned about the era of trusts and monopolies in the late Gilded Age and early Progressive Era. Standard Oil, the Chicago-St. Louis meat packing giants, U.S. Steel, gigantic railroad companies, American Tobacco, and even a group of linseed oil manufacturers. But in the winter of 1912, a rather unusual cartel had been hauled into court and grilled about its anti-competitive practices. In the papers, as here in the January 16, 1912 Ypsilanti Daily Press, it was referred to as the "bathtub trust."

16 manufacturers of bathroom enamelware, led by the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Co., colluded to arrange to use a set of fixed prices to sell their wares to plumbers. The case went to the U.S. district court in Detroit and eventually to the Supreme Court, which ruled the group's practices illegal under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was passed in 1890 to eliminate businesses' collusion to restrict market competition among them and control prices. The Act came into heavy use during this era of trusts, but is hardly irrelevant today. In 2003 the band the String Cheese Incident sued Ticketmaster, claiming that the ticketing giant was violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The case was settled out of court for a settlement and a non-disclosure agreement, perhaps sadly. And thus are linked a contemporary Colorado jam band and the clawfoot tub you remember from your grandmother's house.

A Century Ago: Bitter Cold

Though Ypsilanti has enjoyed mild winter temperatures of late, a century ago a cold wave gripped the nation from Louisiana to the upper Midwest.

In Chicago, the homeless population wrapped their feet in rags. Some regions recorded temperatures of 50 below. It would turn out to be the nation's second coldest winter in all of its history, and would one day get its own (somewhat half-baked) Wikipedia page.

Every train coming into Chicago was running from one to ten hours late, according to the story accompanying the headline at left, from the January 13, 1912 Ypsilanti Daily Press.

The cold wave took its toll locally as well, as noted in another front-page story in the same issue of the paper.

The victim was a coal deliveryman who apparently fell from his wagon, hitting his head and presumably becoming unconscious. He was found with "hands and feet badly frozen."

The cold wave took a while to move on, and for a while a century ago, especially among the poor in Ypsilanti, locals were put to severe strain to combat the relentless threat.

Ad for Ypsilanti Indian Shoe Co.

Another ad for the Ypsilanti Indian Shoe Co., this one from the January, 1912 issue of the Cleary College newsletter, the Cleary College Journal.