The Nankin Township Historical Society

Should we strive to make Christmas a daily reality? Annie Johnson of Flint thought so even though we can barely get people to reconcile for a funeral. But it's the thought that counts I suppose. Her poem What Makes Christmas appeared on the front cover of The Fluoroscope , the monthly patients magazine put out by the Maybury Sanatorium and Herman Keifer Hospital. I would assume that she was a patient at one of the two institutions.

A 1910 Christmas card from Eloise to Miss Katherine Sundberg of the J. Solvay Process Company of Detroit from some name starting with an E that I can't decipher. It appears to be Eucena or something close to that but also might just be Emma written rather sloppily.

Merry Christmas Elva Brockmiller of Dearborn from Elsie of Inkster, Michigan.

  Listen, I'm just one Yeti doing my part in constructing the matrix. I don't know why I'm compelled to track these things down but here I am. Considering that I don't particularly like the city of Ypsilanti, the university attached to it or the fight songs of said university it makes no sense--other than the Marcello Truzzi connection--that I had to fight myself not to buy this book but I compromised and took some photos instead. The $25 price tag on the split binding of the 80+ year old Songs of the Michigan State Normal College made it easier to come to that resolution. I must stay away from John King Books. That will be much easier since I've found a copy in Florida for $12. While it's en route I'll post a few song pages: M. S. N. C. We Sing of Thee based on Maryland, Maryland and written by Austin George, 1863. M. S. N. C., we sing of thee, Mich-i-gan, my Mich-i-gan! With- in thy courts we love to be, Mich-i-gan, my Mich-i-gan! Thy tow-ers high and...

The front cover is a curious place to place a bookseller label but save for that fact I wouldn't have grabbed this detached front cover of Political and Constitutional History of the United States by Ralston Hayes and Oie Worth Stephenson (1918) from a pile of papers at an estate sale. George Wahr of Ann Arbor was the publisher. The Slater Book Shop was located on State Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the building with the third awning from the left.

Detroit Free Press , March 4, 1899 I doubt that this is a new revelation to anybody who has a deep knowledge of the Wayne County Asylum & Eloise but it took me many years of researching the institution before I finally made this connection. That being, William Ganong, he of the cemetery fame, was the uncle of the owner of the Black Horse Tavern which became part of the Wayne County Poorhouse. Known as Uncle Jerry, he was a successful farmer and business owner that fell on hard times and ended up at the Poorhouse where he died in 1899. He and his wife Lavina Ganong Townsend are both buried at the William Ganong Cemetery in unmarked or degraded graves. Which is more proof that Eloise and Ganong Cemetery are and were inextricably connected.

Detroit Free Press , May 11, 1899 In 1899 Nankin fought back against the Detroit, Ypsi & Ann Arbor railway for double-charging their fare within the township limits. Whereas the fare was a flat 5 cents for a full ride between any two points in Nankin the township accused the railway of charging an extra 5 cents within the limits of Wayne Township.

Thank you John King Books for more free books with bookplates, falling apart antique tomes which I will make my first hornbook (a page from an old book mounted on a slab of wood) with and this Crowley's Lending Library book, "My Name is Morgan" by William Woolfolk. Crowley's, like Detroit's legendary department store J. L. Hudson Co., had both a lending library as well as a modern bookstore that sold the latest books. Detroit Free Press , September 17, 1950 Crowley's Lending Library began sometime around September of 1950 and had a selection of 5,000 books which could be borrowed for a penny a day and a 2 cent charge per day after a fortnight. As the second newspaper clipping illustrates a month later they were up to 6,000 volumes.  Detroit Free Press , October 13, 1950 The stamp in this 1963 book shows that the rental prices had increased to 5 cents per day and 10 cents a day after 14 days. This book must have had some popularity as it was the 8th copy of...