The Nankin Township Historical Society

Sylvia Steele paid her dues at the Marjon School of Cosmetology. It wasn't cheap. Note the alternate address on the front of the receipt book. The Marjon School of Cosmetology had at least two addresses in Wayne. The main one was 35611 Michigan Avenue though the Student Receipt Book pictured above from 1971 shows an address of 33556 Michigan Ave. as well, which may have been the offices for the school. Romulus Roman , December 13, 1972 The only advertisements that I could locate were from the 1970s and the business persisted until the late '70s when the Wayne Karate Studio occupied the building. The advert above mentions the second anniversary of the Marjon School. Romulus Roman , November 28, 1979 In the early 1990s Motor City Collectibles was operating from that address. Romulus Roman , February 9, 1994

Sylvia Steele's Registration permit from the state of Michigan to become a student of cosmetology. Note that her age was 43. Either the kids had all had moved out and she was starting a career for herself or it was a change of careers for her.

This 1972 receipt from Cadillac Beauty Supply at 23902 Ford Road near Telegraph in Dearborn Heights came from the Marjon School of Cosemetology kit that I purchased yesterday. It's a classy piece of ephemera and deserved a proper scan as do the others found in the suitcase.

Well, so much for researching yesterday. I had to go and check out the estate sale listings and a Dearborn Heights sale was holding a 75% off blowout sale and I found this Marjon School of Cosmetology of Wayne beautician's case of and some other relics for just $6 there. It took me a little while to spruce it up and put it in the best order that a guy possibly can without knowing jack squat about fashion and beauty supplies. It dates from the early 1970s and was owned by a woman named Sylvia Steele. Proper scans of the documents will be posted in subsequent entries.        

It's common knowledge that Henry Ford lent a helping hand to residents of Inkster who were living in squalor in the 1930s by not only employing them but also helping to rebuild parts of the city. The housing project included new schools, refurbished homesteads, discount (price wise, not quality) food pantries, soup kitchens and a re-payment plan that would make the Inksterites self-sufficient with some aid from their benefactor. The plan nearly paid for itself with only 3% of the nearly $1.75 million loaned out paid back. Ford, of course, paid the difference. Detroit Free Press , February 27, 1938 In the book Detroit Divided the authors claimed that Ford's housing project, as beneficent as it was, was not merely an act of charity but one of political bias. Not against the people that he was helping but rather Jewish merchants whom Ford thought would take advantage of the poor blacks and keep them indebted. Ford's antisemitism was well-known--he had an admirer in Adolf Hit...

Detroit Free Press , May 6, 1874 One mention of a Gonongue [sic] Cemetery is a lead in the right direction and two instances is a trend. With that I took the impetus to assume with certainty that the graveyard in question and mentioned in both the article above and below on consecutive days is our beloved boneyard the William Ganong Cemetery. Detroit Free Press , May 6, 1874 As is stated above in the articles there were two trials for the body snatching attempt of David Randall's corpse from the William Ganong Cemetery in Nankin Township in 1873. The first ended in a hung jury and the second in acquittal of the men accused, Dr. Warren B. Curtis and his father Stephen Turney Curtis, whom should not be confused with the keeper of the County House at that time, Stephen D. Curtis. Though, if one is inclined towards conspiracies he might start one concerning a mix-ups of names but we're already getting far afield of the "facts" at hand as it is. I say facts with some tre...

scroll through the pages with the arrows at the middle edges of the book See what happens when I have time to organize things! An article on the DUR interurban system that ran through the area between Detroit and Jackson and locales in-between as featured in the Winter 1971 edition of The Dearborn Historian . Of course, the various rails traversed the entire country but our main concern is the immediate Detroit area. Note the photos of the Westwood stop in Inkster and the few of Eloise among the mostly Dearborn stops.

scroll through the pages with the arrows at the middle edges of the book This is a fairly hardscrabbled collection of confessional verse that touches the heart like a stab wound from a dying cactus. Outside of the fact that these women were criminals there is nothing outstanding about the works. Still, it quenches my ephemeral lust just a little. I did research one case, that of Charlene Westerville, a baby killer, and that can be read on my now defunct Eloise blog . The other prisoner contributors are as follows: PUSH ON PEOPLE by Glenda Faye Buffing THE WAY I FEEL by Harriet Walker THE RUDE AWAKENING by Jannie Thomas THOUGHTS OF YOU by Sanda Watkins WHAT IS IT? by Ann Marie Felton SNOW by Sandra Magnuson WHERE HAVE I BEEN, WHERE AM I GOING? by Yvonne Patrick Kaufman I REMEMBER by Anonymous REFLECTION by Anonymous DEATH OF NOT ENOUGH by Sylvia Peper JAIL by Willie Jones LIFE by Ruth Ann Nichols PETRIFIED by ShaBooDie CLOUDS by Mary Cuevas HERE I SIT by Arcenia Skinner WORDS OF WISDOM ...

scroll through the pages with the arrows at the middle edges of the book If you do enough research on any interesting topic, person or place you eventually stumble onto 50 equally or more interesting subjects. Through that meandering of semi-related topics you stumble into exactly the thing you were seeking. Such is this find. Years of research on the Eloise Asylum and Ganong Cemetery led me to an interest in Inkster. The fact that Inkster does not have an historical society made it an even more appealing subject to delve into. While I am not black I am interested in preserving all history. Folklore included. A random search a few months ago led me to seek out this title and a placed request through the MELcat library system brought it to my hands. Without even considering that Inkster would be included in the volume (I am pretty mindless about such things at times!) I requested it and was pleasantly surprised when I found its mention in the first chapter. That depiction of Inkster and...

( enlarge ) Is it improper to post about Nankin Township after Nankin Twp. was no more? I don't care if it is. If you're ever in the mood for fourth-rate high school journalism then the "Fifth Estate" (think Peter Werbe) is the perfect rag for your tastes. I mean, they are leftists so you can't really expect reason or good taste to prevail but this is the bottom of the barrel in written media. This article from the spring of 1971 deals with party goers in Hines Park at Valley View in Westland. The revelers in "ripple and joints" were apparently raided by busloads of marauding cops who wanted to put an end to the nightly partying on the drive. A guy named Glenn got throttled by the "pigs" as did countless others according to the Marxist propaganda. Brent Little of Garden City spoke for everyone when he said "Why don't they just leave us alone? We can't get jobs, and can't afford to go anywhere else. What do they want us to do--g...

I'm going to file this post under Inkster because that's where I found this 1977 booklet for the Twenty-Seventh Debutante Ball of The Cotillion Club of Detroit which took place at Cobo Hall on June 11th of that year. The 27 young women of color who showed promise towards "making noteworthy contributions to humanity." are presented in this program along with a short bio. I'm not sure whose home I found it in but it was from a basement in Inkster which looked like it had suffered some flooding. I also found the photo below of a Frankie or Francis Sims and Carol Sims: Since there's a Leslie Sims in the booklet I think it's somewhat safe to assume that they are all related in some way to the homeowner, whoever they may have been. Although the scan isn't one of my better ones it will suffice for the purpose. Ditto with the entire booklet above that I scanned and uploaded before becoming proficient in the practice. Regardless, Leslie M. Sims is (or was) the ...

Detroit Free Press , August 20, 1938 I've found a dozen or two of these articles concerning outings at Nankin Mills Grove at the site of Hines Park on the Livonia and Westland border. In this one the Scandinavian population of Detroit, as was a frequent occurrence in the 1930s, enjoyed the park via a baseball game featuring the Scandinavian League. There was also a chorus, Arpi, which sung under the direction of Axel E. Lofgren. Also, a co-op creamery for the Scandinavian farmers of Michigan was discussed at the gathering as was the Michigan Scandinavian Credit Union, a project that was formed some years before.

scroll through the pages with the arrows at the middle edges of the book The Walter P. Reuther Psychiatric Hospital, located on the grounds of the old Eloise property was the heir to the local insane with the demise of the Wayne County General Hospital in the 1980s. At least for the elderly it was according to the general information page of this 1985 handbook. Outside of that I haven't really glanced through the pages. One thing of note: both the covers and pages were originally light blue but I edited out the color completely on the pages and darkened the covers to eliminate library markings of the University of Michigan where I borrowed the booklet from. So much for gratitude, eh?

Detroit Free Press , September 9, 1965 The other day I decided that I needed myself a postcard, envelope or anything with a NANKIN postmark so I did a little research on the matter, having found no example on eBay or its ilk. It turns out there may be a reason why such a specimen is so scarce. Up until 1964 the towns within the township--Wayne, Garden City, Inkster and Plymouth (Livonia must have already had their own; then again I didn't even know that Plymouth fell within the boundaries of Nankin)--were getting mailed stamped with their respective town names. Obviously, this didn't last long since Nankin went kaput in 1966 so it's obviously going to be quit difficult to locate one. Old Nankin, on the other hand, might be the easier prospect of the two. More specifically East Nankin, which I believe existed into the early to mid 1900s.

I can't recall where I found this flier but since it was stored away in a box that I scavenged through after many years in storage it was mostly likely another of my ephemera serving as a bookmark finds. My guess is that it's from the 1950s though it could well be from the early 1960s. I can't vouch for whether the people shown on the flier are local, national or international members but it seems likely that they'd use local folks for their recruitment campaigns. The address shown on the flier, 1034 Monroe Boulevard, is in Dearborn. The Young Women's Christian Association began in London, England in 1855 under the direction of Emma Roberts and Mrs. Arthur Kinnaird. The American branch of the organization formed in Boston and New York City in 1858. For the past 150+ years they have been pioneers in the fields of race relations, labor union representation and the empowerment of women.  Some of their accomplishments include holding the first interracial conference in...

Muhammad Speaks, October 3, 1969 ( enlarge ) Years after Malcolm X left Inkster, the Nation of Islam and this mortal plane his former sect attacked him mercilessly with excoriating harangues. Foolishly so. From an outsider's vantage point it makes one suspect that Malcolm was not only right in his estimation of Elijah Muhammad and the accusations against him but dead-on. In the October 3, 1969 issue of Muhammad Speaks John Ali, then National Secretary for the Nation of Islam, exclaimed that both the Whiteman and hypocrites love Malcolm. Which, I believe even in the loosest terms was and is a complete falsehood. I would say that both entities, the group and the man, were maligned though I would guess that Malcolm X became the more sympathetic figure after his execution. Personally, I have issues with each side in terms of general philosophy, being that I am not a Marxist or a sectarian, but I also agree with both sides on certain aspects. One being that forced integration was...

Detroit Free Press , March 27, 1907 Frequently when a mental patient from Eloise was deemed cured or was released due to improvement in their mental health it was often followed by a return to the institution or a tragedy. In William Rowe's case it ended in suicide 3 months after a stint at the asylum. He was found in the attic by his wife after she had gone out to make a phone call. Initially she couldn't track him down at the house or around the neighborhood and as a last resort checked the attic where she found him hung. She ran from the house and flagged down two men, Frank Ritter and A. F. Martin, who determined that Rowe was dead and summoned the coroner, who confirmed it.

This photo appears to be from the 1970s and a few people have suggested that this Wayne County Road Commission building was located at the southwest corner of Howe Road and Michigan Avenue in Wayne. The address is on the building but is illegible in this scan.

I've written about feather parties previously so no preamble will be necessary on that front. This one was held at St. Cyril's Parish in Taylor by the Men's Club on November 13-14, 1959 and tickets were 3 for a buck. Potential prizes were a name brand portable dishwasher, name brand Hi-Fi (I'm guessing television or stereo) and 25 consolation prize hams. William Labadie Prescription Service, 18753 Ecorse Road, WArwick 8-1000 and Voran Funeral Home, 5900 Allen Road, WArwick 8-2300, both of Allen Park, were sponsors. While Voran Funeral home is still servicing the downriver area, Labadie's appears to be defunct. The tickets were unearthed from a box at an estate sale in Romulus, Michigan a few years back.

From what I can deduce of scant second hand info floating about the internet, feather parties originated in the 1920s in the Eastside Detroit Polish community. This was at the peak of the city's immigrant influx when most churches were often teemed with parishioners and the Archdioses couldn't erect the next structure quick enough to meet the needs and demands of the new arrivals. Since many were poor and culturally inhibited by the customs of their new country, which they earnestly tried to assimilate into, and often couldn't afford the lavish American holiday dinners, the churches held live turkey raffles to ease their burden, hence the "feather party" was born. Along with the king fowl they raffled off some ducks, geese, chickens, rabbits, and even small pigs as well. For an excellent blog post concerning the first feather party check out Creative Gene . As for this party sponsored by the Huron River Post of the Ladies Auxiliary VFW, along with Philips Super Se...

I bought this 1909 postcard today from a Nellie to Mrs. G. W. Moore of Romulus. Who, I am guessing, is a daughter-in-law of George Washington Moore of Romulus or a relative since the family was prominent in the area. I assumed that it was Mrs. George William Moore but his wife's name was Katherine (De Mill) and it couldn't have been George Washington Moore's wife, who was named Mary, since she was deceased by 1909. G. W. Moore, the elder was a farmer and also a keeper of the Wayne County House from 1853-1855. The other names mentioned are Carrie, Mrs. J. Moore and Mrs. Johnson along with the writer of the card Nellie. There is a Nellie Moore buried in the Romulus Cemetery where the two G. W. Moores mentioned above are also buried. There were two siblings of George William Moore with the initial J., Jasper and James, who may or may not be related to this Mary Moore of Romulus. No matter to the who she is let her and the card be entered into the record. Detroit Free Press ...