The Muskegon Woman’s Club was founded in 1890, and dedicated to the intellectual “improvement and development” of women. The Chicago firm of Weir and Perry designed this neo classical structure, built in 1902 with funds donated by Minnie Smith, the widow of Muskegon attorney Francis Smith. The club lobbied the city to hire the first police woman, held performances and worked with charitable groups such as the Red Cross and the Council of National Defense.

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When you hear the words “the thing” you probably think of John Carpenter’s movie from 1982 staring Kurt Russell, but that’s not what this post is about. Outside of Memphis (Michigan of course, I am not that lost that I am in Tennessee) is a historical marker for ” The Thing” It marks the location where Thomas Clegg and his father put a steam engine on a wagon in 1884 making it the first self-propelled vehicle in the state and probably the country. They built the contraption in their machine shop and drove it for about 500 miles before they sold the engine to a creamery. I imagine them standing around the shop looking at the wagon and the steam engine grunting like Tim Allen and figuring out ways to give it more power. The marker stands where the shop once stood since it was demolished in 1936.

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This old G.A.R. hall stands in the small town of Sunfield west of Lansing. The historical marker in front of it reads:

The Samuel W. Grinnell Post No. 283 was granted its charter by the Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.) on October 6, 1884. The post operated until 1934, at which time it was disbanded. Members built this hall in 1898-99. Dedicated in October 1899, it contains flags, medals, photographs and other mementos of the Civil War and of the Sunfield veterans of that war. Furniture, ritual equipment and records of this G. A. R. post are also kept here. In 1899 members planted and dedicated three maple trees at the front of the property, dedicating them to the memory of Generals Grant, Sheridan and Sherman. The two cannon on either side of the hall were brought to Sunfield by the G. A. R. in 1900.

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In downtown Albion along the north branch of the Kalamazoo River at Reiger Park is a Michigan historical marker telling the story of the first Mother’s Day in Michigan. I visited the park in late fall and I have been waiting until the right day for this post. I am sure you can figure out why I waited until now to post this.

The marker reads:
On May 13, 1877, the second Sunday of the month, Juliet Calhoun Blakeley stepped into the pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church and completed the sermon for the Reverend Myron Daugherty. According to legend, Daugherty was distraught because an anti-temperance group had forced his son to spend the night in a saloon. Proud of their mother’s achievement Charles and Moses Blakeley encouraged others to pay tribute to their mothers. In the 1880s the Albion Methodist church began celebrating Mother’s Day in Blakeley’s honor.

The official observance of Mother’s Day resulted from the efforts of Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia. In 1868 her mother had organized a Mother’s Friendship Day in a West Virginia town to unite Confederate and Union families after the Civil War. Anna Reeves Jarvis died on the second Sunday in May 1905. In 1907 her daughter began promoting the second Sunday in May as a holiday to honor mothers. Following an act of Congress in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May Mother’s Day.

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