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 massive rock with the words FORT ST JOSEPH carved into it sits along the St. Joseph River. It is in a park south of Niles. The historical marker next to it reads:

The French fort built here in 1691 controlled southern Michigan’s principal Indian trade routes. Missionaries and fur traders were here already. The fort became a British outpost in 1761. Two years later it was one of the forts seized by Indians during the uprising of Chief Pontiac. Still later, traders made it their headquarters. In 1781, Spanish raiders ran up the flag of Spain at the fort for a few hours.

The British maintained the fort until after the United States victory in the Northwest Indian War and the signing of Jay’s Treaty in 1795. This settled the northern border. After the British abandoned the fort, it fell into ruin and was overtaken by forest. The massive rock was placed as a marker for the fort and dedicated on July 4, 1913.

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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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When I was in Otisville, I saw this Subway and thought “wow what a beautiful old building” then I noticed it even had an historical marker sign next to it. I thought what a remarkable building for a national franchise chain to be in, and in an era where most chain restaurants bulldoze old buildings and build new ones, It’s nice that they restored this old building and continue to use it, and yes I stopped and had a sandwich and the inside is just as nice as the outside. I wish more people, and companies, would take an interest in using old buildings, instead of building new ones.

The Michigan Historical Marker Reads

E. S. Swayze opened a drugstore on this site prior to 1870. When the store burned in 1874, Swayze built this one. Members of the Free Methodist Church used the second-floor meeting hall for services from 1887 to 1890. In 1903 Masonic Lodge #401 and the Order of the Eastern Star bought the building which they owned until 1970. This intact commercial building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

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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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