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Category Archives: people

Marquette’s Cross

Posted on April 4, 2021 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in people .

This cross stands on a hill south of Ludington near the mouth of the Pere Marquette River. It marks the death of Father Jacques Marquette. The exact location of his death is unknown but the site of the cross corresponds with early French accounts and maps. Marquette died in 1675 while returning to his mission in St. Ignace.  His body was buried near the shore of Lake Michigan. Marquette’s remains were reburied at St. Ignace in 1677. The cross was erected in 1937 at a park in the approximate location of the historic priest’s death.

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The Michigan Relics Hoax

Posted on February 24, 2021 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in people .

In 1890, James O. Scotford, a sign painter living in the central Michigan town of Edmore, claimed to have found a strange clay cup and carved tablets in the ground near his home. As he found more ancient artifacts he started drawing the attention of investors who purchased the strange objects with intention of making a profit off of displaying them to the public. By 1907 he partnered with Daniel E. Soper former Michigan Secretary of State who resigned after being accused of embezzlement.

Scotford would find the artifacts and Soper would sell them. They found thousands of ancient relics in 17 counties around Michigan. It was said that Scotford would take investors out and dig around looking for relics. when he found one he would let his investors or landowners remove them from the soil. Know one know for sure but it is believed he used sleight of hand tricks to partially bury the artifacts.

As scholars and experts began looking at them they seemed fake with multiple languages on the same artifact and details that were missing that should not have been. The number of relics found was also suspect. Scotford and Soper never admitted to faking any of the artifacts and maintained they were authentic to the day they died.

Because of their religious theme, many of the relics were purchased by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early 1900s. As time went on many experts proved that the artifacts were fakes. By 1960 technology could prove the copper used was manufactured using modern 20th-century technics and was not thousands of years old.

The church gave most of the relics to the Michigan History Museum where they were put on display in 2003. Since then they have been picked up and put into storage like the ark in Raiders of the Lost Ark. There is way more to the story than what I have written here, but I wanted to keep it a short read for my daily post.  It has been said to be one of the largest hoaxes in the archeological world and has brought into question, what artifacts found in Michigan are legitimate and what is fake.  I am surprised the story has not been made into a movie yet.

 

P.S. If you can find it, the documentary Hoax or History: The Michigan Relics is fascinating. I watched it several years ago on PBS. It shows up on Amazon Prime HERE but it is not available for viewing.

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Captain Walker’s Branded Hand

Posted on February 6, 2021 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Cemetery, people .

Near the entrance to Muskegon’s historic Evergreen Cemetery is a monument with the words Captain Walker’s Branded Hand carved into it. It also has a hand with the letters SS carved on it. It is a rather curious stone obelisk and begs the question, Why was his hand branded and what does the SS mean?

In 1799 Jonathan Walker was born in Harwich, Massachusetts where he learned to sail fishing vessels. By the 1830s he moved to Florida and sailed ships as a railroad contractor. Disgusted with slavery in the south he aided several slaves in escaping by sailing them to the British West Indies where slavery had been abolished. On his voyage, Captain Walker became gravely ill. His crew not as adapted to sailing allowed the ship to be captured where Captain walker was taken to prison and chained to the floor in a small dark room for months. After his conviction, he was sentenced to be publicly branded and thrown in prison.  Captain Walker had the letters SS branded into his right hand which indicated he was a slave stealer.

After five years in prison, he was released when northern abolitionists paid for his freedom. After his release he toured the northern states giving lectures on the evils of slavery and proudly showed people his branded hand. Eventually, he moved to the Muskegon area where he died in 1878. He was laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery and a monument was erected in his memory still stands in the entrance proudly showing visitors Captain Walker’s branded hand.

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Sky Pilot of the Great Lakes

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in people .

A few miles north of the Upper Peninsula town of Hessel is the Rockview Cemetery. Reverend William Hainstock Law is laid to rest in the small township graveyard. In 1852 Law was born in Canada and in his late 20s he traveled to the Upper Peninsula to minister to the Lumberjacks. He settled in the town of Hessel and sailed to the many islands in the Les Cheneaux Islands. During a storm, he was rescued by the U.S. Lifesaving Service and stayed with them for a few days until the storm subsided. He got to know the men and the families living there and vowed he would support them through ministry. He collected books for the keepers along with toys and crafts for their children. Many were isolated from civilization and had little contact with the outside world. The reverend brought much joy and comfort to many keepers and their families. He also worked tirelessly to help pass legislation giving the men pensions after their retirement.

“Sky Pilot” is slang that sailors used for a chaplain. He continued his dedication to the families of the Life Saving Service until his death in 1928.  His great-grandson, John Kotzian, wrote a book about Rev. Law titled Sky Pilot of the Great Lakes. It is a well-writen book about both Rev. Law and the hardships early keepers and life saving stations had on the Great Lakes. I think it is out of print but you may still find copies of it at your local book store, library, or used copies on Amazon HERE

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The Day The World Changed at Otsego Lake State Park

Posted on June 12, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in people .

At the end of WWII and the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear bombs, the world was forever changed ushering in the Cold War. You probably know that the Manhatten project’s mission was to create the first nuclear weapons. But you probably did not know that it started with a clandestine meeting on the beach at Otsego Lake State Park. Dr. Arthur H. Compton a Nobel Prize-winning physicist was placed in charge of the project. He met with theoretical physicist Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer on the beach to discuss if the project was even possible. Dr. Compton had a summer home on Otsego Lake and chose the state park for the meeting because he knew it was a secluded spot and would be away from enemy spies. After the men agreed that it could be done they continued moving forward with the government’s plans to create the first atomic bomb, and the world was never the same since then.

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America’s Number 1 Spaceman

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in people .

A few miles east of Cassopolis on M-60 is a small memorial with a futuristic-looking airplane pointing toward the heavens. Iven Carl “Kinch” Kincheloe Jr. was born in 1928 in Detroit, but he grew up in Cassopolis. After graduating from Purdue University with a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering, he received his commission in the U.S. Air Force. He started out as a test pilot, but went on to serve in the Korean War. He flew over 100 missions and downed ten enemy Mig-15s, earning the Silver Star.

After the war, he went back to his duties as a test pilot working on the Bell X2 program. He flew the experimental aircraft over 2000 miles per hour at an altitude of over 126,000 feet. Piloting his plane at this high elevation earned him the nickname “America’s No. 1 Spaceman.” Tragically, He died in an F-104 plane crash on July 26, 1958.

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Memorial Highway

Posted on May 19, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Murders, people .

Traveling down Michigan’s highways I see a lot of brown memorial signs. Some are in honor of veterans of past wars and others are names of individuals who gave the last full measure of devotion. Most of the time I do not recognize the name on the sign but the name on the sign along M-116 at the entrance of Ludington State Park I recognized.

On September 9, 2013, Tpr. Paul K. Butterfield was shot and killed while making a traffic stop in Mason County. I never met him but his death stands out to me not because it was a violent tragedy but because of where he came from and who he was. He grew up in Bridgeport which is next to my hometown of Saginaw. At the time of his death, my son was running cross country in School. Paul Butterfield won the 1988 Michigan state championships and knowing how dedicated you have to be for an accomplishment like that he must have been an incredible person.

A sign along the highway is not enough to honor fallen heroes, but it is good that they will be remembered, even if it is for a split second as we travel around this beautiful state. Hopefully, when you see a sign in memory of someone it will make you wonder about the sacrifices they have made.

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Sighting the Enemy

Posted on May 14, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in people .

Near the Rasin River in downtown Monroe is a statue of a civil war general on a horse. It sits on a base with the word CUSTER carved into the side of it.  The U.S. military has had many famous generals, but it was George Armstrong Custer that became famous for his and his soldier’s deaths the Battle of Littel Big Horn.

Custer was raised in the town of Monroe. He graduated from West Point and served with great distinction in the Civil War. In 1910 This bronze statue created by Edward Clark Potter named “Sighting The Enemy” was erected in his honor.

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The Incredible Story of Michigan’s First Woman Entrepreneur

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in people .

You may have walked past the stately Harbour View Inn on Mackinac Island but you probably don’t know the incredible story of the woman who originally built it as her home. Long before Michigan became a state and was known as the Northwest Territory fur trading was the primary means of business in the region.  Marguerite-Magdelaine Marcot was born in February 1781 at Fort St. Joseph, near present-day Niles, Michigan. She was the daughter of a French man by the name of Jean Baptiste Marcot and her mother was Marie Nekesh and Odawa Indian. Her father was killed two years after she was born and she was raised by the Odawa tribe of which her grandfather was the chief.

Marguerite became immersed in the Native American culture and fluent in the Odawa, French, English, and Ojibwe languages. In 1795 she married Joseph La Framboise and they worked together in the fur trade in western Michigan. They built a trading post near Fallasburg Michigan and would travel back and forth from Mackinac Island trading with the Native Americans. Marguerite worked alongside her husband and her ability to communicate with the Indians allowed their business to prosper.

Tragically, Joseph La Framboise was murdered in 1806, and Madeline La Framboise took over their fur trade. She continued to manage several trading posts, and expanded her business throughout the western and northern portions of Michigan’s lower peninsula. Known to many as Madamme La Framboise she was the region’s most successful fur trader. At the age of 40 in 1820, she sold her business to another fur trader Rix Robinson. He was another early pioneer and the first settler in Kent County. He went on to become a Senator.

After Selling her business she retired to Mackinac Island building her home on Huron Street. She donated the land next to her house for St. Anne Catholic Church with the stipulation she would be buried underneath it. After she died in 1846 she was laid to rest under the altar. Her Home, which still stands next to the church, is now the Harbour View Inn.

P.S. There is a lot more to her story but much more than I want to do in a post. I guess it will have to write more in one of my books.

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The Hoax and the Hack House

Posted on February 6, 2020 by Mike Sonnenberg Posted in Houses, people .

Just outside of the southern Michigan town of Milan is a beautiful pale green farmhouse. It is a little more ornate and larger than your average farmhouse. The house was built by Olive Friend on land purchased from her uncle Henry Hack. Olive, who was a native of Milan, built the home for her family with the money from her husband’s business. Henry Friend and Olive created and owned the Electric Sugar Refining Company in New York. It was founded in 1884 and used a unique way of refining raw sugar using electricity.

Henry Friend claimed his secret machine and process could refine sugar for ten percent of the cost of the current method.  Investors would go into a room in an old flour mill with a barrel of raw sugar. They were asked to leave so Mr. Friend could process the sugar in secret because he did not want his process to be revealed for competitors to copy. The investors came back into the room and the barrel of raw sugar had been turned into pure refined sugar.

For a short time, investors clamored to purchase stock in the new company and its prices and value soared. In 1888, tragedy struck the company when Henry Friend suddenly died.  As experts in sugar refining began questioning the process they became suspicious as to how the process worked. Olive moved back to Milan to live in the house she had built and had promised to reveal the process used for the right price.

Investigators had discovered the whole process and the company was a hoax. The old flour mill in New York was altered with trap doors and a secret room above. When investors stepped out of the room Henry Friend, his wife Olive and some of her relatives helped execute the scheme. The raw sugar was dumped down a hole in the floor and pure refined sugar they purchased elsewhere was poured into the barrel from the secret room above. It gave investors the appearance that he successfully refined the sugar.

Olive and some of her family were arrested in Milan and were extradited and transported to New York to face charges. Olive’s stepfather was convicted and sentenced to 9 months of hard labor in Sing Sing prison.  Olive and her mother pled guilty and were sentenced with time served and returned to Milan to live in the house she had built. Olive now a widow remarried and sold the house back to her Uncle Henry Hack.

Today the old farmhouse is known as the Hack House and is a historical museum.

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