A Day Trip To Port Huron, MI

We took an overnight trip to Port Huron, Michigan to donate two family heirlooms to the Port Huron Historical Museum. 

Gary's New Testament has been in his family for almost 200 years and was given to his great-great-grandmother Margaret McDonald Scovile by John Riley, a Native American important in Michigan history. It will now be part of the museum and eventually go to a Native American museum in the future. 

The John Riley New Testament belonging to Margaret Scoville

Andrew Kercher, Manager of Community Engagement for the Port Huron Museums, did a quick search and determined the New Testament was published by the American Bible Society. The ABS was founded in 1816. This book may date between 1818 and 1820! Read my blog post about the bible here.

My father's flea market find of a brass oil can for a lighthouse fourth-order fresnel lens will also be part of the museum collection.

The brass fuel can for a fourth-order fresnel lens

Port Huron is situated where Lake Huron narrows into the St. Clair River, which then flows past Detroit and into Lake Erie. It is the site of Ft. Gratiot and the Ft. Gratiot Lighthouse, the first Michigan lighthouse.

St. Gratiot Lighthouse complex

My contact Shelly arranged for us to stay overnight in the lighthouse keepers home, built in 1870. The house is beautifully restored circa 1930. Bunk beds in the bedrooms are perfect for groups.

Freighters

We had lunch at Freighters, enjoying the beautiful view of the river and the freighters streaming downriver. 

freighter under the Blue Water Bridge

Freighter coming down the St Clair River

After lunch we walked along the river as a freighter went by, stopping at the Thomas Alva Edison Museum in the Port Huron Train Depot.

Thomas Alva Edison museum

There were nice educational displays about Edison's life and work, and artifacts like this beautiful Edison machine that played wax cylinders.

We stopped along the St. Clair River to see historical markers, like this stone marker. We later met the man responsible for this memorial!

Next stop was the museum housed in the Carnegie Center. We saw artifacts of native beadwork.

And Great Lakes Maritime displays.

Musical instruments and a violin maker's shop were in another room.

They have a nice collection of vintage clothing, Civil War era rooms, and much more!

We met with members of the Port Huron Museum and the Blue Water Indigenous Alliance and formally donated the John Riley New Testament. I told the story of my research into the bible and what I had learned about Riley. The group had recently held their first Pow Wow in many years. Read about it here.

For dinner, we enjoyed the shade and cool breeze on the patio of Tia Gordes. The Mexican food was excellent. I had chicken mole and Gary had poblanos.

 Back at the lighthouse, we walked around until dusk.

 And then settled into the 1930s era restored rooms to read our books until dark.

I was pleased not to miss the sunrise over Lake Huron. The sun was a ball of bright red.

For breakfast, we returned to downtown Port Huron to Chef Shell's, right next door to where we had dinner. We had wonderful omelets but had to take home a doughnut each after watching streams of people coming to buy a dozen at a time.

 We found out why they advertise they have "the best darn donuts!"

On the way back to the lighthouse we saw another ship and talked to a lady who warned us that the largest ship on the lakes was due in 40 minutes. We ran back to the lighthouse to turn in our key. At the Coast Guard Gift Shop, we bought a coffee mug and magnetic bookmarks.

First, we saw a 'salty.' This area has one of Michigan's salt mines. I researched the Michigan Room at the public library and found that Gary's great-great-grandfather Jacob Bellinger appears in the 1919-1922 city directories as a manager at Morton Salt in Port Huron.

Gary decided to walk up to the top of the light. I did not go since I have been experiencing vertigo.

Then finally the MV Paul S. Tergurtha came by, blowing its low horn to warn the sailboat and other craft to clear way.

 It was time to say goodbye to this historical light. 

I brought home several beach stones and a magnetic book mark.

Before leaving town, I had to stop at the Sew Elegant quilt shop where I picked up fabric with a daisy meadow print.

We hope to make a day trip back to Port Huron. We had a lovely time.

Jane Austen's Inspiration: Beloved Friend Anne Lefroy

Jane Austen's Inspiration: Beloved Friend Anne Lefroy by Judith Stove is a deeply researched look into Jane Austen's dear friend Anne Bridges Lefroy (1747-1804).

Anne was an interesting and intelligent woman, a clergyman's wife and a writer, a mother and a promotor of smallpox vaccination. Anne's husband's nephew was Tom Lefroy, notorious for Jane Austen's mentions of their"profligate and shocking" behavior of "dancing and sitting down together." Their flirtation came to an end with Jane writing, "My tears flow as I write."

We don't really know what occurred between Tom and Jane, but Ben Lefroy's wife Anna Austen wrote that Tom's mother Anne disliked him for "he had behaved so ill to Jane Austen." Was Jane's heart wounded? Were the pair separated by Anne Lefroy, as in the story of Persuasion? Yet at her death, Jane wrote a heartfelt poem for Anne Lefroy.

Stover combs through first sources for clues to their relationship--including Austen's letters and Anne Lefroy's letters--in the first chapter, The Austen Connection. In part two, Anne Before Jane, she covers Anne's family history. Part three, Through a Glass Darkly, considers Anne's life and family and the events and society of her time. Your Angel Mother tells of Anne's death, Jane's memorial poem, and concludes the stories of her children. The book includes illustrations.

I do not recommend this book for the casual Austen reader. This is not a narrow focus on the relationship between two women. The scholarship is detailed and broad, offering an understanding of Anne's heritage and times.

I received access to a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

from the publisher:In the first biography of Anne Lefroy, Judith Stove investigates the life of a writer who had was a key influence on the life and works of Jane Austen.
As a female writer of both prose and verse, Anne was a source of inspiration to Jane as she developed her own talents. Jane was closer in age to Anne’s children, yet despite their age difference, they developed a mutual respect and admiration for each other over many years.
Judith Stove brings a wealth of insight to this illuminating history of a literary friendship. She has uncovered a rich background of information relating to Anne Lefroy’s circle, and her book addresses developments across a period of great social and political change. Setting Lefroy’s life in context, she looks at the war against Napoleon and illustrates evolutions in healthcare as well as changes in religious beliefs and practices that impacted upon the lives of Lefroy and her circle.

Jane Austen's Inspiration: Beloved Friend Anne Lefroy
by Judith Stove
Pen & Sword
Pub Date 31 Jul 2019 
EDITION: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781526734204
PRICE: £25.00 (GBP)

Helen Korngold Diary August 11-14, 1919

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

This year I am sharing the 1919 diary of Helen Korngold of St. Louis, MO.

After graduating from Washington University and taking a trip to Colorado, Helen is enjoying a more relaxed summer. Soon she will begin her teaching career!

August
Monday 11
Tired

Tuesday 12
Fashion Show

Wednesday 13
Nothing exciting

Thursday 14
Started housecleaning

Friday 15
Worked

Saturday 16
Rested

Sunday 17
Spiro’s party. Good time.

NOTES:

Aug 17

Spiro is likely Bonnie Young's cousin, Bernard Spiro, mentioned in the diary on April 18 and June 18 when they went driving.

The Fashion Show was big news in St. Louis. It featured clothing made in the city.

August 4, 1919, St. Louis Star and Times article

August 5, 1919, St. Louis Post-Dispatch article

August 5, 1919 article in the St. Louis Star and Times was concerned with the 'lack' of skirts--"the tighter the better". Jazz Age apparel was beginning...

August 9, 1919, St. Louis Star and Times

August 10, 1919, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Ad

August 12, 1919, ad in St. Louis Post-Dispatch

August 13, 1919 article in St. Louis Star and Times informs that the day Helen went to the Fashion Show they needed extra seats placed to handle the crowd!

August 18, 1919, St. Louis Star and Times article about a motor coat of calf and kid valued at $950. Adjusted for inflation, that coat was over $14,000!

August 19, 1919, St. Louis Post-Dispatch article

The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Mcneal

The Crystal Palace was built to house the first International trade fair. Championed by Prince Albert, the exhibition hall was a showcase of the Industrial Age's newest inventions. The art displays impacted Victorian taste and inspired an interest in Japanese and Moorish art. Objects included the rare, like the Kooh-N-Nor diamond, and the commonplace, like three Kentucky-made bed quilts. Then there were the curiosities of which the Victorians were so enamored. Fourteen taxidermists had displays like stuffed kittens sitting at a table having tea.

The Crystal Palace is at the center of Elizabeth Macneal's novel The Doll Factory.

It is Dickensian in its sweep of characters.

There are the enterprising street urchins Albie and his sister, children who take up any work to provide for themselves--including prostitution and providing dead animals to the taxidermist Silas Reed.

Silas, damaged, unloved and unloveable, is one of the most interesting and chilling villains, more complicated than Bill Sykes and less self-aware than Uriah Heap. Silas is most drawn to curiosities, things both grotesque and lovely.

Silas is fixated on the girl Iris, whose collar bone was broken at birth, leaving her with a marred beauty.

Iris works painting porcelain doll faces with her sister Rose. Iris longs to escape the drudgery of her work, secretly painting with dreams of being an artist. Rose's gorgeous beauty was ruined by smallpox, leaving her bitter. Albie earns a bit by sewing simple skirts for the dolls.

And into this mix we have Louis Frost, a bohemian artist in the new renegade school of art called the Pre-Raphelite Brotherhood.

Louis needs a model for his painting. Iris longs to escape the drudgery of doll faces, secretly painting with dreams of being an artist. A pact is made: Iris will model for Louis and he will teach her to paint.

Iris blossoms under Louis's tutelage. But a jealous Silas fantasizes she really loves him. We are taken into a horrifying descent into Silas's sick world, with a Gothic plot twist, and a climactic ending.

I loved this journey! As a devotee of Victorian Age literature and art, and for the page-turning thriller ending, it was perfect.

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Doll Factory
by Elizabeth Mcneal
Atria Books
Publication August 13, 2019
$27 hardcover
ISBN13: 9781982106768

ISBN

The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell

Few people outside of Michigan know anything about our Upper Penninsula (UP). As a matter of fact, a recent Mt. Dew ad featuring a map of America drew Michigander's ire when the UP was colored to be part of Wisconsin!

The UP has its own peninsula jutting into the deep inland ocean of Lake Superior, the Kewanee Penninsula. And a short distance from the top of that arm is Calumet, Michigan. Today it is a village of about 800 people. But in the late 19th c when the UP was a center of copper mining there were 40,000 souls there.

The copper was mined for 120 years. It was break-backing, dangerous work. Waves of immigrants found their way to Michigan's lumber and mining industries. The UP was particularly attractive to immigrants from Finland but drew from across Europe. These unskilled laborers were put to use with a sledgehammer and shovel, and cheaper than mules, used to push the loaded cars.

Mary Doria Russell's new novel The Women of the Cooper Country recreates Calumet in 1913 in rich detail, drawing on actual people and events.

Women and children of Calumet, MI

Called the Paris of the North, Calumet had grown into a modern town, built by the wealth from the Calumet & Hecla copper mine. But profit-driven capitalism meant management rejected workers demands for a shorter workday, a living wage, and safe work conditions. A new drill allowed a miner to work alone instead of in pairs. It was cost-saving but put the men at higher risk.

Miner with a single-man drill, cost savings that came
with increased danger to the miners.

The workers debated unionizing. An unusual labor leader arose, Annie Clements, a miner's wife born in Calumet to Slovakian immigrants. She had seen too many families with maimed men and boys, too many funerals.

What is the price of copper? It was men's limbs and lives. It was men too tired to live, self-medicating with drink. It was widows and orphaned children. If the men would not organize, the women would lead the way.

Journalists made Annie the Joan of Arc of America.

Annie

Annie is helped by Eva, who over the nine months of the strike grows from a dreamy girl to a woman. Nationally known union organizers come to help, including 'the miner's angel' Mother Jones and the Socialist labor organizer Ella Bloor.

The mine is under the management of John McNaughton, and Russell's portrait of him as a cold-hearted capitalist fixated on the bottom line is chilling. McNaughton is a xenophobe whose anti-immigrant slant hardens his heart even more. In his view, Europe is gleefully exporting its 'wretched refuse' to America, and Washington has done nothing to stop the continual labor strikes across the nation. It won't happen here, he vows.

The novel had a slow start for me but picked up later. At times, I felt some distance from the events. A critical scene is off-screen when the emotional impact would have been greater through Annie's eyes. The story builds to a horrendous tragedy, describing a real event, with great emotional impact.

The changing role of women and their broadening choices is shown through the characters.  And there is romance, from infatuation and unhappy marriages to illicit affairs and true love.

It was interesting to learn more about this slice of Michigan history and the history of unionizing in Michigan.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Women of the Copper Country
by Mary Doria Russell
Atria Books
Pub Date 06 Aug 2019
ISBN 9781982109585
PRICE $27.00 (USD)

The Quincy Mine