The Nankin Township Historical Society

Borders Book Shop opened as a business venture by brothers Tom and Louis Borders in downtown Ann Arbor in the early 1970s and expanded into a global enterprise that went belly-up with the rise of internet giant Amazon.com. While generally over-priced the southeast Michigan stores that I ventured into had many books that nobody else had readily available. One was reduced to going from used bookstore to another to procure a sought-after title and often with disappointing results. You could literally wait years to track down a rare tome. Then came the internet and so went the fortunes of the Borders brothers' enterprise which changed hands a time or two before its eventual fateful collapse. The book on hold in this instance at the Birmingham, Michigan location in 1987 was The Creation by Ernst Hass. Being no longer in stock it would have to be specially ordered. Today it can be had for a $5 bill at numerous locations online. I found this in a book at a little thrift store in Canton, ...

I had no intention of following up yesterday's post with this one but while sorting out books that I still haven't un-crated from moving five months ago I stumbled upon these blessed relics from Jack's Corner Bookstore at 583 W. Ann Arbor Trail in Plymouth. Jack being the owner Jack Gunsaulus. As previously mentioned, I lived in the apartment next door to the Saxton's building which housed the store and ventured in a time or three when it was open. Which seemingly wasn't often. While I didn't buy the copy of Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus in which and the above receipt were found in, I'm sure that I picked up a book or two at some point so this is a sort of ephemeral retroactive justice. I haven't been able to find much of anything on Mr. Gunsaulus but will update if I do happen upon any information. The scant information that I did find was pertaining to a death at the apartment complex next door at 565 West Ann Arbor Trail. The woman, Barbara Grob ,...

If you've been to downtown Plymouth, Michigan in the past hundred years you've seen the Saxton's property at the corner of Ann Arbor Trail and Harvey Street. Previous to that it and the various stores which have occupied the buildings-from Jack's Corner Bookstore to Dave's Train Shop and Hobbies, etc.- it was the Jewell and Blaich Hall. Now it's more or less a municipal parking lot. Today, when driving downtown for the first time in several months I noticed that the three apartment complex houses had been razed in the first steps in the further advancement of urban sprawl around Kellogg Park. Having spent a lot of time in Plymouth when my father worked at DeHoCo and lived in the township, myself having lived there for a good 6 or 7 years, am always aghast at the so-called progress of the city toward the ruination of its charm. From the demolition of the Mayflower Hotel and its rehabilitation into a bevy of corporate stores to the high-end and gaudy restaurants ...

While the story of peanut butter and jelly as a combo is iconic the packaging together of the pair of products vastly disparate in viscosities and moisture levels was a bit more scientific and complicated than mere taste. As such, Shedd-Bartusch of Detroit, a mainstay in the city along with Velvet Peanut Butter, began working on the combination in their laboratories in 1953 and formulated both a high quality peanut butter and jelly which blended well together. In that process they also had to design a special filling nozzle to accommodate its production in the factory. Berwyn Life , August 16, 1967 ( enlarge ) The results produced the first shelf brand peanut butter and jelly in a jar combination that officially hit the market in the summer of 1967. Though it was likely taste-tested for at least six months prior to that time.  Livingston County Daily Press and Argus , July 12, 1967 Their local competitor Velvet Peanut Butter jumped into the market a mere six months later and as I'v...

The are many elusive pieces of ephemera from the old County House and Asylum at Eloise and until a year or two ago this First Day of Issue envelope from July 1, 1971 was one of them in my growing collection of hard-to-find pieces. Since then I've acquired two at elevated prices but for the deep searcher that is sometimes a prerequisite tax of the trade. There's nothing special about this envelope as it's likely sat in a binder for the past 50 years without being touched or even possibly looked at. It appears that way. But it's one of the later pieces from the defunct institution and bears the postal code 48132 and the trademark ELOISE in the postal circle. It works for me. Back into the protective cover it goes for another 50 years.

I'd probably have somewhat of a following if I stuck to particular formulae which maximizes the interests of readers with the common ones of myself but I'm a bit too self-involved for that. Just as any reputable library or historical society has a "special collection" so do I. Bookplates. The more obscure the better. Historical? Better yet. While this bookplate from the Pinconning Public Library isn't exceptional it is done in a classic motif combining literature with a quote from Gogo Montresor, a character in Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado . It would be all the better were it in a vintage book by the same author but this is contained within the tome Clara Barton: Found of the American Red Cross by Helen Dore Boylston and published in 1955 by Random House. Though most of the dates on the due date sheet are from the mid 1960s. I'm not sure why I have such an affinity for book stamps, andespecially ex-library ones, but such is my bibliomania.  Th...

Detroit Free Press , April 13, 1949 While ghost town probably isn't the proper terminology for a defunct enclave within a properly existing town or city is probably comes across more nostalgic sounding than simply saying that it is defunct . A word that I much prefer. This 1949 article by Frank B. Woodford delves into some of the so-called ghost towns of metro Detroit and the city proper beginning with Pike's Peak which was located in old Nankin Township on the borders of current cities Livonia and Westland. Mead's Mills is also mentioned briefly as are Elmore, Rawsonville, old Redford and Delray. Fairview also gets some typeface, though only as a trailing afterthought to the other addendums of the archaic past of the Detroit metropolis.  

Having now posted a paltry summation of the formation of the village of Hand Station, Michigan here is one of the aforementioned pieces of ephemera that I have acquired related to the defunct hamlet. As with other so-called "ghost-towns" Hand and its station was absorbed into Taylor Center and then Taylor Township a few decades after its founding in the mid-1920s. This 1909 postcard of the seal pond at Belle Isle which was sent to Allan McMullen of Hand Station doesn't offer any insights into the goings on at either location but documents its mere existence and that must suffice for the time being.

Detroit Free Press , February 9, 1926 It's deplorable that I've yet to post anything about Hand Station having become a passive collector of the ephemera from this lost village in the heart of modern Taylor, Michigan. Having seen HAND STATION on postcards for years I assumed that it was just a podunk town up north, but it was a village on the southern border of Dearborn and northern border of Taylor at Telegraph and Ecorse Roads founded in 1926.  It was also a federal mail branch deeded to the Wabash Railroad by Judge Hand. The only stipulation in the agreement was that a train made two stops at the station to and from Detroit every day. He likely envisioned a bustling city center growing around the station, which eventually happened, just not under the name of Hand although I now wish it would have. Detroit Free Press , January 3, 1926

I've written previously of T. C. Owen's exploits both on this blog and in relation to the Eber Brock Ward family (he was the nephew of the industrialist and cousin to the ill-reputed socialite Princess of Chimay, Clara Ward, and executor of the his uncle's will) but haven't really gone into my scant but growing collection of ephemera related to his life.   I purchased the 20 empty bottles of Ypsilanti Mineral Salts from his Atlantis well which are pictured at the top of this post from an antiques dealer today to go along with a full bottle that I acquired previously, a letter from him on his Atlantis stationary and a slew of postcards sent to his mineral water company requesting shipments of various products from water to ginger ale that I picked up at an estate sale several years ago.  This card from December of 1889 is a request of A. A. Maynard for 2 gallons of mineral water addressed from his furniture factory at 72 and 74 E. Fort Street in Detroit.

Being topical is not my forte. However, being disorganized to the point that haphazardly placed books and ephemera sat next to my research spot(s) eventually become timely is another matter.  As the war in Ukraine rages on I just happened to look over at my book shelf and notice this tome, The Story of Russia by Birger Richard Headstrom, a book on the Romanov sisters and another on Vladimir Putin himself. Seeing as this one has a Detroit-area connection it has relevancy to my research. On top of that aspect it has the appeal of being a library book with not only a pocket and card but a due date slip and a stamp from the location. There are a few stamps stating that it was an "OVERNIGHT BOOK" which seems like a heavy task for a high school student to tackle in one evening let alone an immortalist. Being that it was published in 1933 the due dates fall in line with that time period dating from 1938 to 1947. The library pocket card carries the corresponding names of the request...

Since I lived much of my life in and around Livonia and am a semi-serious book collector it's only natural that I would amass a half-dozen or so ephemeral pieces from the various branches of the Livonia library system found entirely in books. This one appears to be from the 1990s and deals with wreaths and flower designs backed by books and videos on the two subjects and the sections which they could be found. While the subject doesn't exactly entice me the arrangement of books themselves definitely does.

This shot of the Wayne Post Office in both sepia and black and white. They appear to be prior to renovations which expanded the structure. The front entrance being noticeably different from its current standing. The black and white version is the same photo just with the added tones. It was posted on November 5, 1951 by M. Rawlings of Sec. Local 2403 of Wayne, Michigan and sent to Mr. Albert T. Cartmell of 2647 E. 8th Street, Kansas City, Missouri.

One of the more endearing things about the city of Wayne, Michigan is its bevy of old structures from houses to churches and a scant few remaining city and business buildings. As such I've begun collecting ephemera of said structures. This 1938 first day of issue envelope commemorating the new Wayne Post Office on June 30th is signed by the postmaster D. E. Howell or Donald E. Howell. How it ended up in Weybridge, England is beyond me but it got there via Mr. Carl Cooper of 1418 Mission Street in South Pasadena, California where it was originally sent. 84 years later it has returned home.

Vintage books are one of the best sources of ephemera used as placeholders and this note from the desk of former Taylor, Michigan treasurer Louis Theil is one such example found yesterday in some random tome at the thrift store.  Theil was in office during most of the 1970s when several position holders, including Theil and former mayors S. Richard Marshall and Richard Trolley who were investigated for travel expense discrepancies and accepting bribes for granting liquor licenses, among other scandals. Theil was exonerated in both instances and even won re-election after the scandals in 1977. He died in 1993. Detroit Free Press , August 26, 1976

I've seen cat-earred Victorian hairstyles both with a bow and coiffed up with pins and this one obviously falls in the former category. While not technically Nankin it's also not that far removed either. Such is history. The photographer, F. G. Poli, whose studio was at 234 Randolph in Detroit, was part of the Polish immigrant class of photographers operating in Detroit and Hamtramck at the time. As Ceil Wendt Jensen illustrates in a post on Polonia, Poli was known for using chairs as resting devices with his subjects, allowing for their dresses and figures to be on full display. Faustino was born in February of 1857 near Florence, Italy, and he came to the United States in 1881. Within a year he was married to Louisa Damm and their children were born in Detroit: Clorinda in December of 1882, Lillian in July of 1884, and Oscar in May of 1892. During the 1890s he and Louisa were the proprietors of Poli’s Cafe, which was a famous rendezvous for theatrical celebrities. “F. G. Po...