Churches Archives - Page 12 of 14

The Historic Saint Bernard in Alpena

Posted on February 5, 2018 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Michigan Historical Markers .

I am always fascinated by the big old churches in towns and cities in Michigan. This beautiful brick church caught my eye in Alpena. The historical marker next to it reads:

In 1861, Bishop Frederic Baraga (1797-1868) trod through snow and icy waters from Sault Ste. Marie to Alpena where he founded a Catholic church. However, it was not until 1888 that Father Patrick Murray became the first resident pastor of the church dedicated to and named for St. Bernard. Father Murray was instrumental in the building of the first church structure, which was located almost directly opposite the current edifice. The foundation of this stone structure was laid in 1880. Three years later the church split into three parishes. The French parish, which kept the original structure became St. Anne; the Polish became St. Mary, and the Irish retained the St. Bernard name and records. This structure, completed by the Irish in 1884, houses the oldest Catholic parish between Bay City and Cheboygan.

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The Old Stone Church

Posted on January 14, 2018 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Michigan Historical Markers .

I love stone churches. I can imagine the people in the congregation donating stones they have collected from their farm fields to build the church. Traveling the back roads near East Jordan in the north-west part of the lower peninsula I came across this beautiful old stone church. Thankfully there was a Michigan Historical marker in front of it with some history of the church. It reads:

In 1885 Bohemian immigrants founded Saint John Nepomucene Catholic Church named for the patron saint of Czechoslovakia. The settlers, most of whom immigrated from Prague, named their community Praga. This Gothic Revival church was built as a frame structure in 1890; the steeple and bell were added in 1893, in 1926 the church was clad in fieldstone. The altar and some statues date from 1894. Since its founding, Saint John Church has been served by neighboring priests.

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Church In The Storm

Posted on December 19, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches .

In 1848, James G. Birney and his wife led Bay City’s earliest Presbyterian services in a schoolhouse. Birney twice ran unsuccessfully for president of the U.S. on the antislavery ticket. The Reverend Lucius Root organized the First Presbyterian Church of Lower Saginaw on September 5, 1856. Services continued to be held in the schoolhouse and other public buildings until the first church was built in 1863 on Center Ave in Bay City. In 1886 church elder Alexander Folsom donated $50,000 for the founding of a college in “northern” Michigan. His donation funded the organization of Alma College. In 1906 the college established the J. Ambrose Wight Memorial scholarship fund in honor of First Presbyterian’s minister.

In 1884 the Reverend J. Ambrose Wight challenged the members of the First Presbyterian Church to “go forward and build a church that will be a lasting gift to the future.” The Reverend Wight (1811 – 1889) feared that Bay City’s prosperity, gained through the lumber and salt industries, would not last. When the church was dedicated on June 4, 1893, the Bay City Times-Press declared it a “Magnificent Temple.” Like the City Hall, which was built four years later, the Ionia sandstone church was designed in the Richardsonian style by local architects Pratt and Koeppe, and reflects Bay City’s wealth at that time. The bell, cast in 1866, served as a public timepiece and tolled three times daily.

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The Strange Disappearance of Sister Janina

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Murders .

Traveling thru the center of the Leelanau peninsula I came across the small town of Isadore and the beautiful brick church at the top of the Hill. The current Holy Rosary church replaced the old wooden church that held many secrets of which it never told anyone.

In the summer of 1906 Sister Janina came to the Parish to help two other nuns in the school. A year later in the summer of 1907 Sister Janina disappeared. The community gathered together to search for the missing nun but they could not find her. Some residents claimed to hear singing from a nearby swamp at night but were too scared to go and investigate. For years the mystery of her disappearance was investigated. Some believed the parish priest had a love affair with her but was out of town the night she disappeared and his alibi confirmed his innocence in her disappearance. The rectory’s housekeeper confessed to the murder under duress but was later pardoned by the governor.

Sister Janina’s body was discovered 11 years later in a shallow grave in the basement of the church. Her body was obviously moved there since it would have been found in the initial search. What happened to Sister Janina and how her body ended up in the basement of the old church is a secret the building would not tell. Her death remains a mystery and whoever knows about it kept their secret. Her body was finally laid to rest in the Cemetary next to the school where she taught so many years ago.

Sister Janina’s story has been published in a few books. A Broadway play was inspired by the tragedy and made into a movie in 1972 The Runner Stumbles starring Dick Van Dyke.

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The Ghost Town of Luce

Posted on April 22, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Forgotten Places .

This old wooden church stands quietly next to the road among the farm fields near the corner of Burt and Bishop Roads in southern Saginaw County. A couple of hundred yards to the east is where Burt Road crosses over the Fairchild Creek, and that is where the town of Luce once stood. The town was given a post office in 1890 and it closed in January of 1914. The small community was named after the 21st governor of Michigan, Cyrus G. Luce who was the governor from 1887 to 1890. Besides the town, Luce County in the Upper Peninsula was named after him, and he was the last Michigan governor to have a county named in his honor.

I am not sure how old the church is, or if it was built by the citizens of Luce, but it is near where the town once stood. Further down the road is a cemetery. The church and cemetery are probably all that remains of the old town.

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Lost In Tuscola

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Forgotten Places, Schools .

I was heading back home to Saginaw after taking some pics in Clio. I did not want to take the same way back home down I75 or Dixie so instead, I went east a couple of miles then turned north figuring if I got lost I would eventually hit M46, and then I could take that into Saginaw. I got to a point where a sign told me to turn left to Frankenmuth, and while I was thinking about it for a second, I could see down the road what looked like a town in the distance. I headed straight into the town of Tuscola, and then I saw this grand old building towering up like an elder statesmen looking over the town. I am not sure if it was a school, a church or what it was since it has a barn door on the front, but whatever it was, it sure was striking and I had to stop and take a photo. I am glad I decided to take a different way home.

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A Strange Murder in Rattle Run Michigan

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Haunted Places, Murders .

The long forgotten town of Rattle Run, and the church that the townsfolk once worshiped inside, has been gone for a long time, but one of Michigan’s most gruesome murders took place there. The town, named after the nearby rattling rapids of Columbus Creek, was located in Columbia township southwest of Port Huron. In January of 1909 the church caretaker made a shocking discovery of blood in the snow. When he looked inside the the church, it was in complete disarray, and there was blood splattered everywhere.

The caretaker contacted sheriff Waggensell in Port Huron, and upon investigating the scene, human body parts were found in the wood stove used to heat the church. The minister at the church, Rev. John Haviland Carmichael was nowhere to be found.

The Rattle Run church is gone but I like this old abandoned church so I am posting this pic with the story.

A few days after the murder, a man by the name of John Elder shows up in the town of Carthage Illinois without any baggage and rented a room at a boarding house run by Mrs. Hughes. He tells her he is a cabinet maker passing thru town. Mr. Elder was acting very strangely, and when Mrs. Hughes gives him dinner, he said he is fasting and would not eat anything. The next morning she made him a large breakfast figuring he would be hungry but he simply gathered what little he had, paid his bill, and said he was leaving for a job twelve miles away.

A few moments later, she heard a noise in the shed and was scared to look for herself, so she called a neighbor but they were not home, then a mailman walked by and when he looked in the shed he found Mr. Elder lying on the floor with blood gushing out of his neck, and a knife in his hands. He was still alive, but died shortly after. The local sheriff in Carthage found two letters, one addressed to Mrs. Carmichael in Rattle Run and the other to Sheriff Waggensell in Port Huron.

Both letters were almost Identical, and this is what was written on them:

To Mr. Waggensell

Port Huron, Mich.

dated Jan. 9, 1909

Carthage Illinois,

Honored Sir: I write this letter to explain in connection with a Columbus creek tragedy. I am guilty only because I am a coward. The man ( Amos Gideon Browning )had such a hypnotic Influence over me that I felt that something must be done. I felt greatly ashamed that a man said to be short minded should be able to compel me to yield to his will

At first he said:” It’s all right, elder, don’t be afraid”. Then he began to talk about how we two could get rich. Three times he came to the rear of my barn and talked to me. Twice he was at the river when I went to water my stock, and each time I felt that he was doing something he was proud of.

Once when I was going out to Columbus he was on the pike, near the pink school-house, when I overtook him, he asked to ride, which I could not refuse. he asked me if ever I had driven the pike to Port Huron, to which I answered no. Then he said: ‘Come on, lets drive up to Port Huron,’ which I resented, but he kept on until he persuaded me to go.

He got out and stood at the corner while I went to the barn with the rig. Then later we had been at the restaurant, for which he paid, also for the horse feed, He gave me a half dollar and said he wanted me to go there and buy a small hatchet for his boy to play with. I began to tell him to go and do his own buying, he set his eyes upon me with the queerest sort of a look, something like a look of a snake’s eye.

All the while I felt his influence tighten on my mind, so I went. Intending to go into the store and out the back way to get the horse and rush off for home. When I turned to close the door he stood looking upon me through the window and I just bought the hatchet and came out again, but by that time he had disappeared, I went into the barn, got my rig, and started for home, when as I made the turn into Military street he was at the corner to get in.

He rode as far as South Park, where he got out to take the car, and he took the hatchet with him and said nothing, nor did I think anything at the time about it.

When at the depot at Adair, he came out of the house and compelled me to walk the rails. All the while I felt as small as a bantam chicken. When he arranged with me about the wedding he wanted, he would go to Port Huron and get the license and meet me on the road between that place and the church.

I thought that he really meant to get married when he engaged my services, but when we met In the road and he was alone I began to feel uneasy, but he said it was all right, the others would come in a carriage. When we went Into tho church I wanted to light a lamp, to which he dissented, saying; “No, elder, no light unless they should come”. But, presently, he said “maybe we better have a little fire”. So I went out and passed wood to him through the window.

When I had put in what I thought would be enough, he said: “now, elder, the moonlight is Shining right on the front-door, and if you go around there to come in some one may see you. Just pile up some wood here and come in through this window.’ I brought a few sticks and laid them across each other, from the top of which he helped me into the building. he let the window nearly down again and we kept looking out through the opening to see if the others came down the state road.

He took a big hearty laugh and said: ‘There ain’t no use looking, for there ain’t going to be no wedding.’ He was sitting where a gleam of light shone on his face and his eyes were so brilliant that I was thrilled through and through. Queerest sort of feeling. I asked him why, then, he had made the present arrangement, when he said:

“Well, elder, I Just wanted to have a little fun. You consider yourself an educated man and look down on a poor Ignorant fellow like me, and I just thought I would show you. I knowed if I could handle you I could handle other men and make a big thing out of it. Now if I say, raise your hand, up she goes. See, that is no dream,’ and I felt my hand raising without any effort whatever on my part.

“Then he said: If I say let down your hand. down it goes.’ and I felt it going down In. a singular manner. By this time I was so alarmed that I was in a cold sweat. I then leaned over to see if any one might be on the road, when he began to laugh again, and I saw that he was holding a weapon up his sleeve. Instantly I made a grab for it and got the hatchet from him and asked what he meant to do with that, and he said: “ I will show you.”and from his overcoat pocket he drew out a knife with each hand.

He came at me. striking with both hands. I backed across the church, down the side aisle and across the front, but I did not dare to turn about to the front door. Then I threw the hatchet and struck him and he fell. I then turned to open the door, when he grabbed me by the leg and threw me down where my hand came upon the hatchet.

There was a desperate struggle. in which I used the hatchet until he lay quiet and still. I cannot recal all that happened after that. I was wild to dispose of the body. I was in a horrible terror, I began pulling off his garments that I might drag the body away somewhere and hide it. when he woke up and grabbed me again. Then for a while I used that hatchet until I was sure he was dead.

I waited until I saw the Fire was hot enough to make a stove pipe red nearly to the elbow I grabbed him and dragged him down there and began cutting him to pieces, putting in each piece as it was dismembered. Then I began to put the garments into the stove. Then I saw that my clothing was cut and bloody while some of his was yet whole and I exchanged them and then took all the bloody clothes and piled them in along with the body. My big coat hid my torn and bloody cloths until I got to Chicago, where I purchased others.

I am tired of trying to hide. though I have succeeded in eluding the detectives so far. If you get this and l am yet alive, come and get me. I shall be not far from Carthage Illinois.

Rev. W. J. Carmichael

( The Letters were published in the Chicago Tribune on January 12^th 1909)

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The Historic St. Andrew’s Church

Posted on December 19, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches .

St. Andrew’s history traces its beginning to the founding of St. Mary’s Church by the Rev. Frederic Baraga. He built a small church, rectory, and school on the west bank of the Grand River and the people who attended the church were Native Americans. The Rev. Andreas Viszoczky was named the parish’s first pastor two years later. After the Native Americans left and the town of Grand Rapids grew, Father Viszoczky built a new church on Monroe Street which he named St. Andrew.

The church building was constructed of Grand River limestone and completed in 1850. Grand Rapids continued to grow as did the parish and a new church was soon needed. In 1875 the present church was started on Sheldon Boulevard and completed a year later. On May 19, 1882 Pope Leo XIII established the Diocese of Grand Rapids. The diocese’s first bishop Henry J. Richter chose Saint Andrew’s as his cathedral and was consecrated in it on April 22, 1883. Lightning struck the cathedral in 1901 and a fire destroyed part of the church building. It was rebuilt and expanded. Some of the wooden beams above the ceiling still show the charred marks from the fire.

A television studio was created in the cathedral in the 1950s to televise a weekly Sunday Mass. The cameras have been updated in the 21st century to provide for digital broadcasts. Another expansion of the cathedral facilities occurred from 1961-1963. The St. Ambrose Chapel wing was added at that time and Maple Street from Sheldon to Division was closed and a green space created. A major renovation of the cathedral in 1979-1980 brought the altar forward into the congregation and a vesting and gathering area was created. Another major renovation from 1997-2000 created a baptismal pool and refurbished the stained glass windows and the Stations of the Cross. The current pipe organ was installed in 2002. The front entrance of the cathedral was remodeled in 2009 and the Piazza Secchia was laid. It is patterned after the piazza created by Michelangelo on the Capitoline Hill in Rome.

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The Remarkable Thing About The Clarkston Union

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, Restaurants .

I was watching Diners Drive Inns and Dives with Guy Fieri, and Bob Ritchie took him to the Clarkston Union Bar and Kitchen. The food was really good, well actually better than good, it was “off the hook” as Guy would say, but the remarkable thing about the Clarkston Union, is the fact that it’s in an old Church built in the 1840’s. Traveling around the state, I see many Churches that are empty, I would not say abandoned, but they are no longer being used, and I like it when I see a church that is re-purposed, to use a current buzzword.

The interior of the old church is enthralling with the sunlight coming thru the stained glass windows, and the old pews are converted into seating for the tables and booths. An old bingo board hangs on the wall, and where the altar was is the kitchen preparing foods that are like a religious experience to eat.

They are most well known for their mac and cheese, and the crispy toasty layer on top is to die for, I guess what better place then an old church. If you really want to kick it up to the next level, you can get the mac and cheese with ham or lobster. It will probably be busy when your there, but it’s not a problem if you have to wait for a table, since they have a general store next door to the restaurant, and you can do some shopping while you wait.

P.S. I don’t plan on doing many restaurant reviews on Lost In Michigan ( there are people way better than me that do them already) but I do like old churches and history, and I hope more entrepreneurs will consider converting old churches, schools and old buildings into beloved places in the community instead of them being left forgotten.

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The Ghost Town of Wildwood and Captain America’s Church

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Churches, small towns .

On Google maps it shows the town of Wildwood south-west of Indian River, I could not resist taking a drive to see what’s there. I found a few houses, and this old church with a blue round stained glass window, with a white star in the center. I thought it looked like Captain America’s shield, and while I was thinking that, my son who was with me said, ” it looks like Captain America’s church” Looking at the undisturbed grass surrounding the old church, I would say the church is no longer being used for worship. I could not find a lot of info on Wildwood other than it started out 1882, originally called Mentor Corners, but the named changed to Wildwood in 1884. I am not sure why the name changed, but I like it better, It sounds like the name of a town in an old western movie. I can only assume over time the trees in the area were cut for lumber, and once they were gone, the mill moved and a few people remained to farm the land. This old church looks to be standing along side the road waiting for someone to remember the town again.

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