A New View of City Hall

The recent demolition on Washington Avenue has given us the opportunity of seeing the south side of City Hall from a new perspective. This view has seldom been available since the building was built from 1894-7. The tower is shown on the Sanborn fire insurence maps to be 167 feet tall. Visitors can go about 2/3 the way up the tower where they can see the Zilwaukee Bridge on I-75. This is a favorite on the tours offered to school children by the Bay County Historical Museum which is located directly behind City Hall in this view.

Making Local History

 

Mary Lydia Doe was a key figure in the suffrage movement in Michigan from 1880 to 1900.  She lived at 922 N. Monroe in Bay City close to May Stocking Knaggs, who had a house not more than a few blocks away. 

 

She, like May, was president of the Equal Suffrage Association.  She was chosen at the founding meeting in Flint in 1884. 

She was a member of the Bay City School Board  in 1890-91 when it was very unusual for a woman to hold office. She was the second vice president of the Michigan Federation of Labor.

 

This is only a beginning of the achievements of this remarkable woman.

Toxic ash seepage discovered at Consumer’s Energy dump from Karn-Weadock plant.

In Bay City, where the state’s largest electricity provider, Consumer’s Power, has its Karn-Weadock coal-fired plant, and where it has applied to build an additional coal power plant, seepage from an ash dump has contaminated the nearby Saginaw Bay.

According to the Bay City Times, the pollution only became widely known in fall of 2008, when an environmental group researching Consumers Energy’s plans for a new plant discovered state DEQ records detailing seepage of arsenic, boron and lithium in excess of state standards.

Saginaw DEQ officials were unavailable to speak with Michigan Messenger.

“We don’t need coal to live. We do need water. For the short-term use of coal we are threatening essential resources.”

Terry L. Walkington, supervisor of the DEQ Waste and Hazardous Materials Division in Bay City recently told the Bay City Times that mercury, a toxin that is bioaccumulative and affects brain development, has been found outside the landfill at levels that exceed state standards.

As in Lansing, power company officials in Bay City plan a multimillion-dollar slurry wall around the dump to limit seepage of toxins.

Sprague of the Sierra Club said that the migration of toxins from coal ash dumps should be considered as the state evaluates the several pending proposals for new coal plants.

“All the ‘clean coal’ rhetoric means is taking pollutants from the air stream and putting pollutants in the landfill where there is a greater chance for pollutants to leach into water,” Sprague said.

“We don’t need coal to live. We do need water. For the short-term use of coal we are threatening essential resources.”

http://michiganmessenger.com/11691/coal-ash-dumps-a-time-bomb-for-michigan-water-environmentalists-say

Tags: clean coal, bay city, karn-weadock, mercury, saginaw bay, michigan messenger

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James O'Roarke

 

James J. O'Roarke was a hero of the South Pacific who was killed by friendly fire on Bougainville after winning a Silver Star on Guadalcanal. Part of his story is told in a book called Orchids in the Mud.

Eric Jylha and the Bay County Historical Society

Eric has been publishing newsletters on historical topics and items of interest for the community for the last few months. I find them very useful for keeping me up to date on items of interest. I think you will find them useful too. Please click on the link to check the newsletters out.

Detroit News Article on Defoe Shipbuilding

The Bay City boy who became a major shipbuilder

By Vivian M. Baulch / The Detroit News Online

      Harry J. Defoe was born in Bay City Sept. 2, 1875, son of a Great Lakes sailor, Joseph DeFoe, and nephew to a local boat builder, John DeFoe. As a boy Harry liked to whittle toy sail and tug boats and float them in the Saginaw River. As a teenager he built working steamboats from wood and scraps of metal.

http://info.detnews.com/redesign/history/story/historytemplate.cfm?id=2&CFID=12177038&CFTOKEN=61148313

      Harry became a teacher and even served as a school principal but his heart was focused on the river and its vessels.

      In 1905 Harry founded The DeFoe Boat & Motor Works along with his brother, Frederic, a New York lawyer, and his brother-in-law George H. Whitehouse, a fish wholesaler.

      Harry designed boats, selling full size patterns similiar to women's dress patterns. He also built the boats in his shipyard on the river at 5th Street. The U.S. military noticed and in 1917 the Navy ordered five torpedo chasers with Winton gasoline engines, followed by an order for eight 98-foot steel harbor mine planters. These were steam vessels with heavy derricks.

      DeFoe expanded his yard buying and after the war began to build yachts, including the 90-foot yacht which later became famous as the "Honey Fitz," so named by President John F. Kennedy after his grandfather, one-time mayor of Boston. Another well-know owner of a Defoe yacht was Ralph Evinrude who made outboard motors.

      During Prohibition Harry got a contract for 15 wooden, 400-horsepower speed boats used by racers like Detroit's Gar Wood, not to mention local rumrunner. Charles Kettering wanted his with self-starters. When DeFoe declined, Kettering said, "Give me two men and I'll make it self-starting tonight." DeFoe got the message and began making his boats with starters.

      When the Depression hit, the government tried to rescue the industry and DeFoe benefited with orders for Coast Guard vessels, a Detroit River mail boat, and a few other projects.

      The advent of World War brought and end to the depression and more government contracts.

      DeFoe invented the "upside down and rollover" method of shipbuilding. In the "roll over" a big cradle, the exact size and shape of the ship, was built bottom side up. Welders attached the steel to the skeleton eliminating difficult overhead welding and reducing man-hours by 90 percent. Then the vessel was flipped upright for its completion.

      Defoe built 58 sub-chasers faster than the Navy could deliver the powerplants. By the end of the war the firm had built in addition to the sub-chasers 47 infantry landing craft, 17 destroyer escorts, 10 freight and ammunition carriers, nine high-speed troop transports, four rescue tugs and three harbor tugs.

Tags: Harry Defoe, Defoe Shipbuilding, Bay City, Saginaw River

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Trolley to Depart Bay City Scene

It is very unfortunate that the difficult economic situation in public transportation has spilled over into Bay City's historical tours. Hundreds of people have learned about Bay City architecture and the achievements of residents from Anne Edison Taylor, who was the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel to William Clements, the donor of the Clements Library on the campus of the University of Michigan. The trolley's festive appearance has added to the holiday spirit of many city events. Hopefully, some solution can be found that will preserve this service for the community.