Luna featured a number of shows, some free and some not. China's Fairy Fountains featured magic acts, monkeys were the orchestra at the Monkey Hippodrome, and the Helkvist's, a brother and sister act, dove into a small tank of water set ablaze, Performing animal acts included Mademoiselle Berzac's dancing ponies and Mademoiselle Dolores Vallecita's ferocious leopards.
link
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Mrs. Dolly Hill succumbs Monday Night to Injuries Received Friday(Bay City Times-Tribune Tuesday, January 13, 1925 page 1)
After making a desperate struggle to cling to life since last Friday morning, death care to Mrs. Dolly Hill of new York City at Mercy hospital Monday evening at 11:55 as a result of injuriesreceived when she was attacked by a jungle loepard she was training in a downtiown building in which she had established winter training quarters. Her husband was with her when the end came.
Mrs. Hill, known in the circus as Dora Valiceda, had trained animals for over a quarter of a century and is said to have travelled through almost every country in the world. She was attacked by one of her animals in California several years ago. The leopard which made the attack on her last Friday was recently added to the five she has had there since last fall.
Mrs. Hill was in the large steel arena in the building when attacked. Another leopard in a smaller cage on one side of the arena was causing a disturbance and when Mrs. Hill momentarily turned her attention to quiet it, the animal sprang at her, clutching her around the throat and knocking her to the floor.
Her screams attracted Herber Craig of this city who had been employed by the woman. He unlocked the door of the arena and with the aid of a large, iron bar beat off the animal and was able to remove Mrs. Hill from the cage. Before he could notify police, he fainted. Mrs. Hill, in a serious condition, due to a loss of blood, was taken to Mercy Hospital in the police ambulance. Her arms, neck and back were injuried by the animal and her windpipe was punctured.
Old City Hall Building
Elizabeth VandenBrooks Meagher "bought" the Saginaw Street building (part of the Andrew's estate) with her inheritance share. It had formerly housed the City Council Chamber-City Hall.
Once W.J. Meager had rented it to someone who had kept wild animals there.
Tags: Bay City, bay city michigan, saginaw street, old city hall, dora valiceda, Dolores Vallecita, leopard
I am amazed at the fidelity of the pictures that I now see when I watch a DVD on this computer. I recently viewed Merchant of Venice. The pictures were beautiful.
apple farmer and his family believe they've found a life ring from the Edmund Fitzgerald roughly 200 miles from where the famed ship sank in Lake Superior 32 years ago.
"I saw it, photographed it and ... compared the two," said Tom Farnquist, executive director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society. "It's identical in size and configuration. ... Is it possible? Certainly it is."
Joe Rasch said he was vacationing with his family last week in the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan's far north. Hunting for rocks along a remote beach, he found the preserver near an overturned tree. His daughters noticed the writing, and realizing its potential significance, they took it to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, owned by the historical society.
Rasch said the ring was not laying in full view and that the area was remote. He said he and Farnquist agreed Rasch would hang on to the ring and bring it to the museum for its annual memorial service marking the anniversary of the sinking.
"Of the 6,000 ships ... lost on the Great Lakes, the Fitzgerald is the Holy Grail of all the shipwrecks," Farnquist said.
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The Wreck Of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Summertime Dream) 6:28 | ||
| The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down Of the big lake they called 'Gitche Gumee' The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead When the skies of November turn gloomy With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty. That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed When the gales of November came early. The ship was the pride of the American side Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most With a crew and good captain well seasoned Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms When they left fully loaded for Cleveland And later that night when the ship's bell rang Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'? The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'. Does any one know where the love of God goes Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed, | |
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Tags: Edmund Fitzgerald, Great Lakes, Ship Wreak, Gordon Lightfoot
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BAY CITY, Mich.. Sept. 13.—Clarence D. Hopper and Roy Boucher, switchmen of the Michigan Central Railway, were killed to-day by an explosion of dynamite In a car In the yards at West Bay City. Robert Roblln, engineer, William Noble, fireman, and John C. Cradle, contractor, were Injured, the latter so severely that he may die. All of the trainmen were residents of this city.
The explosion occurred as a'switch engine was making up a train. The engine backed down upon several cars, the first containing 1000 pounds of dynamite, .a consignment of Lee-Metford rifles and a practice, and it is said that the force with which it struck the explosive laden car exploded the dynamite. Another report has it that one of the shells exploded and set off the dynamite. Hopper's body was badly mangled. A big hole was torn in the ground by the explosion, a score of freight cars demolished and nearly 300 houses In the vicinity suffered, broken windows. Several houses were so badly wrecked as to . be uninhabitable. The
shock wave felt three miles from the scene.
I hadn't heard of this disaster. The Bay City papers were no doubt filled wirh information on this topic. The article above is from the San Francisco Call Sept 14, 1903
Tags: Dynamite, Railroad Disasters, Bay City
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The Library of Congress has put ten years output of its newpaper project online. This is the beginning of a new era in history research as you can see from this link. I did a search on the the terms 'bay city michigan' This article on the City of Venice came up. It was printed in the Suburban Citizen, a paper that researchers would never see locally.
Tags: Bay City, City of Venice, Great Lakes shipping, Ship collision, Lake Erie
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Bay City Theaters
The Bay County Historical Society Museum Library has information on Bay City theaters. This video does a great job of putting some of that together.
Tags: Theaters, Bay City, State Theater, Michigan
May 30, 2007 — A large extraterrestrial object exploded over the heads of the first Americans about 13,000 years ago, wiping them out and making big mammals and other prehistoric creatures disappear, according to a new U.S. study.
Presented last week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Acapulco, Mexico, the controversial research proposes that the extraterrestrial blast triggered a catastrophic millennium-long cold spell.
The dramatic climate change would have been the major cause for the sudden disappearance of mammoths throughout much of Europe and America and the demise of the Clovis people, the New World's most sophisticated hunters.
"The impact occurred precisely when the megafauna suddenly disappeared from North America. The Earth, which was warming from the last ice age, was plunged suddenly into a 1,000-year period of cooling known as the Younger Dryas," nuclear scientist Richard Firestone of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California, told Discovery News.
The article claims that the impact might have been just north of the Great lakes. At any rate, if true, it affected all life in the Bay City area as well as most of North America.
Tags: Clovis People, Comet, Laurentian Shield, Mammoth, Crater
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Bay City was never more central to the national stage than when James Birney, its' most promenent citizen, ran for President as a third party candidate. Although, he was older than most of the participants of the early women's movement and the movement to free the slaves, he know many of them and influenced how these movements were conducted. The link above will give more information on some of the people he knew.
Tags: Birney, James Birney, Abolitionists, Woman's Rights, Bay City, Michigan
You may not know that I work on the Bay County Historical Society's Trolley committee. We create and present different tours about various parts of the city:
East Lumber Boom Town(2pm on scheduled Saturdays) | goes through downtown Bay City and then gives riders the chance to see many of the lumbermen's homes up and down Center |
The South End(2pm on scheduled Saturdays) | focuses on Portsmouth with its' heavy Polish, Irish, German background and the unique neighborhoods |
The Westside(2pm on scheduled Saturdays) | highlights the homes and businesses in old West Bay City |
Cemetery Tour(2pm on scheduled Saturdays) | Visits Potters Field (the first cemetery), Pine Ridge and Elm Lawn Cemetery pointing out individuals, customs, cemetery art and end-of-life traditions in Bay City. |
Ghosts and Legends(2pm on scheduled Saturdays) | Retells the tales of Joe Fournier and Steve Madjai, lumberjacks and bad men of other eras. Lets travelers in on ghostly experiences of some local people and fills in the folklore of the city. |
Ghosts up Close(at 4PM the first Saturday of the summer months-weather permitting) | Our first walking tour of downtown Bay City. Hell's Half Mile roars again as we talk about blind pigs, pretty waiter girls and the characters who walked Water Street. We walk in the very spots where murders took place and where some have experienced ghostly apparitions |
The Trolley leaves from the Antique Center on Water Street every Saturday at 2PM for the hour and one half tour.
Well, as I mentioned, the first Ghosts up Close tour took place last Saturday, I conducted it as we talked about Dr. Walterhouse and the Bay City Hospital. We passed the old Pere Marquette station where so much had taken place. We stood in the spot where Floyd Ackerman's killer had walked and searched the horizon for Skull Island. A good time was had by all.
Tags: Bay City, BCHS, Trolley Tours, Ghosts, Joe Fournier, Paul Bunyan, Folklore, legends, elm lawn, pine ridge, birney, james birney, Henry Sage, cemetery art
Today was very hot but I had been concerned about the state of Amanda Lashbbrooks. Amanda gives me pause to think from time to time. You see I only know her because of a message she left So long ago. Amanda is buried about thirty paces south south-west of the old cannon in Pine Ridge. I first found her there about four years ago. She has given me a reason to think about her life and my own several times since. Amanda's tombstone has a special note ,you see.
Sacred to the Memory of
Amanda
Wife of Edwin Lashbbrooks
Born June 25, 1851 Died Sept 9, 1875
As you are now I once was
As I am now so must you be
Prepare for death and follow me
Tags: WWII, Elm Lawn Cemetery, Bay City, Bay City Michigan, Artillery, Naval Gun
In recent weeks, I have written about the eight pieces of artillery that have graced various parks, buildings and cemeteries in Bay City. We found out about the two naval guns from the USS Portsmouth that had been in Pershing(Sage) Park. We noted the two mortars form Fort Sumpter that were in Battery Park and the two Columbiads from the USS Hartford that were there too. With the two Parrott guns that were on the Washington Street corners of City Hall, we had eight.
The gun in the picture is from a later conflict. It is from WWII. General Motors made it. After active service, it was located at a local VFW post for a time. Then, it was sent to its present location in Elm Lawn. When time allows, read the interesting inscription by this piece.
Episcopal Report of 1893 mentions death of George H. Van Etten Land Records
Bay City Mayors
George H. Van Etten, who was very well know in Bay City for many achievements including his term as mayor had just disappeared. Thanks to the internet and knowledge of where some of our lumbermen had gone, I found someone with the same name in Little Rock, Arkansas. Great, now, how do I know it is the same person. Alan Flood managed to find an article linked below that connected the two locations perfectly. It was an answer to a local historian's prayer. Here are some of the facts we now know.
The village dates from 1872, when Frederick A. Kaiser and George H. Van Etten built and operated the first sawmill there. They built a unique railroad of 3 by 5 maple rails for 18 miles into a timber belt that gave 140,000,000 feet of lumber. They platted 100 acres on both sides of the railway; the streets running north and south were named: Waters, Warren, Kaiser, Manitou and Van Etten, while those running east and west were numbered from one to six. With the later additions, these are the streets of the village to-day. A large general store was started by the firm, and a post office established.
Tags: George H. Van Etten, Bay City, Pinconning, Little Rock, Episcopal Church Little Rock, Little Rock Power and Light
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http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/prints/edd095.jpg
Bay City has a long connection excavation and hoisting some of the heaviest loads known to man. Here is a Bay City shovel working to make the Everglades what we see today.
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Tags: Everglades, Bay City Shovel, Bay City, shovel
Cass City Chronicle Article June 14,1907
Big G. A. R. Parade at Bay City.
Bay City, Mich., June l:2.--~Mayor Heine opened the G. A. R. state co,nvention
Tuesday morning with an address of welcome, which was responded to by Department Commander Griswold.The big campfire was heId last night in Washington theater. Commander-in-chief Robert Burns Brown.ZanesviIle, O., was the guest of honbr.
Senators Burrows and Smith were speakers at the campfire. The big parade
was at 1 o'clock Tuesday. After this the two big guns from Admiral Farragut's flagship, Hartford, secured for Bay City by Congressman Loud, were dedicated in Battery Park.
Congressman Loud Will deliver an address.
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Not unmindful of the desires of his constituents, Congressman George A. Loud has secured for and will present to Sage Library park, on the westside, two of the main battery guns of the United States ship Portsmouth, one of the historic ships of the old navy.
These are eight-inch guns and possess historic value. When Mr. Loud secured the Hartford guns some years ago the people interested in the Sage Library put in a request for recognition and later when he obtained the Fort Sumter mortars the west side requested that one of them be placed in the Sage park, but the congressman had made the riffle for those guns for the express purpose of getting a battery of four historic guns for Battery Park, and he said he would obtain other guns for the library park. This he has done and they should and undoubtedly will be highly prized by west siders.
These guns for Pershing Park were not previously know to me. Does anyone remember them? They apparently came from the USS Portsmouth With the two Parrott Rifles in front of city hall from Fort Sumpter, two Mortars from Fort Sumpter as well, two columbiads from the USS Hartford in Battery Park, we have the eight guns the were removed in 1942.
The remaining seige gun in Pine Ridge would have made nine guns in the city for almost forty years. Only one remains now.
Tags: Columbiad, Parrott Gun, Parrott Rifles, Mortars, Battery Park, Bay City, Congressman Loud , Pershing Park
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Not unmindful of the desires of his constituents, Congressman George A. Loud has secured for and will present to Sage Library park, on the westside, two of the main battery guns of the United States ship Portsmouth, one of the historic ships of the old navy.
These are eight-inch guns and possess historic value. When Mr. Loud secured the Hartford guns some years ago the people interested in the Sage Library put in a request for recognition and later when he obtained the Fort Sumter mortars the west side requested that one of them be placed in the Sage park, but the congressman had made the riffle for those guns for the express purpose of getting a battery of four historic guns for Battery Park, and he said he would obtain other guns for the library park. This he has done and they should and undoubtedly will be highly prized by west siders.
These guns for Pershing Park were not previously know to me. Does anyone remember them? They apparently came from the USS Portsmouth With the two Parrott Rifles in front of city hall from Fort Sumpter, two Mortars from Fort Sumpter as well, two columbiads from the USS Hartford in Battery Park, we have the eight guns the were removed in 1942.
The remaining seige gun in Pine Ridge would have made nine guns in the city for almost forty years. Only one remains now.
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