Tubal Cain Owen of Ypsilanti

Detroit Free Press, July 8, 1934

In the Bible Tubal-Cain, the blacksmith, is said to have been the last surviving member of the race of Cain after the flood and the Supreme Hierophant or High Priest of commerce. Which, in the Masonic tradition, would be laboring to acquire truth and not worldly possessions or so says they.

Tubal Cain Owen of Ypsilanti may have just been following in that true path. Except for the fact that he was a millionaire and the well dug (which by the way was 808 feet deep; ironically enough in the Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences from 1912 the entry for Tubal Cain--a significant name in the Masonic Ritual (skilled craftsman)--appears on pg. 808) on his Ypsilanti property on Forest Avenue was meant as a drinking source, in a city of dark and foul-smelling water, but instead became a mode of commerce for the ambitious man.

The Ypsilanti flood came in a crystal clear water reservoir that when exposed to the air turned black but after a few minutes returned to it's natural clarity. It also had no odor so T. C. Owen bottled it and sent it hither and yon. Yon being as far away as Boston, Massachusetts. It was later claimed to hold no nutritive value but at the height of its popularity was considered an elixir for good health.

I purchased the bottle shown above and perhaps I can tap into that Ypsilanti vigor spoke of in Funiculi, Funiculi, Ypsi.

Some think that college life is full of frolic

And so do I! And so do I!

And say their studies all are diabolic,

And so do I! And so do I!

The 1906 Federal Pure Food & Drug Act curtailed the public's trust of quick cure salts and mineral water. Owen's death in 1913 was another blow to Ypsilanti's mineral bath trade. A proposed sanitarium and industrial plant on the Owen property was shot down by the state in 1921. The state, which was rebuked and toyed with by T.C. Owen when he was alive took punitive measures against his sons by offering $50,000 for their property. When they replied with a $57,000 counteroffer the state condemned the property and acquired the land via covet means.

In 1934 William Lister leased the Owen well in hopes of a rejuvenation of the mineral water trade in the town but nothing major seems to have come of it.

As for my main interest in T. C. Owen: as soon as I found out that his name was Tubal Cain I was reminded of the Jack Van Impe prophecy: (as I've stated previously I am not religious but I do love doomsday prophets. Plus Mr. Van Impe is a believer and opponent of the New World Order, He also read a letter of mine on his broadcast in the late '90s and prayed for me! It didn't help.) "Armageddon would occur in the future under the cities named as Gog of Magog [Russia], as the Greeks called the Scythians who populated Russia. The other names Meshech [Moscow], Tubal [Tubalsk,Southwest of Siberia]."

The initial combatants would be Israel, whom after being invaded by Russia, would also engage Egypt, China and the Muslim hoards. It would eventually, of course, involve all nations.

While you might not believe the scenario there are Biblical scholars who do. As do many people in power who force the hand of fate to coincide with such prophecy so that people believe such events are supposed to happen. You likely believe in the goodwill of man.

A Dudley Randall Poem in Milestone 2

I bought this Milestone 2 poetry Magazine at a Livonia estate sale this week. Milestone was the literary publication of Wayne (State) University and this second issue dates to 1949. While I don't recognize most of the names, Dudley Randall was both a nationally known poet and the librarian for the Wayne County General Hospital at Eloise via the Wayne County Library System. The poem featured is The Southern Road which was a revised version of the completed poem from 1948 that h as a handful or two of word differences between the two. I don't know if Randall edited the poem for later collected works editions or earlier but this link features it in its likely final form in 2009. Neither version particularly enchants me but the block print in the magazine is an added bonus.

A Cabinet Card of a Dead Man Lying in Repose From Wayne Photographer Susan Doolittle

The City of Wayne, Michigan was not a large village at the turn of the 20th century so it stands to reason that there wasn't a glut of photographers practicing their trade there. As such, the 3 cabinet cards and carte de visites that I own represents roughly a quarter of the early ones. Considering that the wives of Frank Hickok and William Corlett, first Village President of Wayne, took over after Frank's death in 1892 the list grows smaller beyond those two families. Had I snagged the Doolittle dead man cabinet card I'd be even that much more Wayne-rich in photographs. Speaking of Susan Doolittle, of whom I have learned very little about, it is interesting to note that Wayne had three women photographers in an era oft dominated by men in that very field. This photograph of a corpse is a startling example of her work.

Frederick Soop: Not An Equal Opportunity Restraunteer

Detroit Free Press , March 28, 1890 If you don't want to hear a racist tale of a suburban namesake then close your eyes now. As early as 1876 Frederick Soop had left his Belleville farm once again, having done a stint at the Hawkins House in Ypsilanti during the Civil War and the City Hotel in Detroit thereafter, and ventured off to Chatham, Ontario to run the Rutley Hotel , which was conducted as a Temperance House. Detroit Free Press , August 17, 1879 In 1879 he was searching for a good restaurant or small hotel to operate. Eventually he ended up on Washington Avenue near State Street running a dining hall which he ran until around 1890. Detroit Free Press , April 16, 1890 It was in 1888 when the aforementioned racial incident occurred at his dining establishment. It was then that William H. Haynes, a black doctor, sat down with his former classmate S. W. Barkwell for dinner. The men ordered but when the food was served none was placed before Mr. Haynes who, ironically, ha...

The Nankin Township Historical Society

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