The Nankin Township Historical Society

In my umpteenth attempt to get semi-organized I'm going to attempt to post regularly on this blog in lieu of the numerous other city blogs under the Nankin umbrella. Here's the first installment of a dozen or so letters and cards send to the Wycoff family of 1078 John Daly Road in Inkster, Michigan between 1940 and 1989. This 1940 card addressed to Russell Wycoff is from his aunt Roxy who lived in Washington, Pennsylvania or thereabout. It is addressed to Henry Ford Hospital Room B408 as he was apparently having an operation that would make him a new man. Since there was no woke-speak in the 1940s we can suspect that he a major surgery to his heart or something of that ilk. It wasn't exactly the healthiest period of American culture and major health ailments were becoming widespread.

Detroit Free Press , July 2, 1898 This is a quite curious lawsuit by a Nankin farmer and an even more surprising result. William Murdock sued the Wayne County Supts. of the Poor for polluting the Rouge River and actually won $750. Which is a far cry from the treatment the residents of Gloria Acres subdivision received many decades later from the county for the pollution which they contended elevated the cancer rate among the residents multiple times higher than normal levels. The county and state called it a statistical anomaly. I have a feeling that he was related to James Murdock who was also a Nankin farmer. James died from a fall from a wagon.

Detroit Free Press , January 12, 1944 James Murdock, 53 years old, a farmer of 2603 Henry Ruff, Wayne County, died in Eloise Hospital at 8 p. m. Tuesday of a fractured skull suffered at 2 p. m. when he fell from the top of a wagonload of cornstalks on his farm.

The Detroit Times , February 20, 1915 It goes without saying that I am myopic and anything that occurred in the Nankin area around 1916 when my bungalow was built is prime time history to me.  I don't particularly care about the corner store or the crops grown in this bumpkin farmtown unless it relates to an action in the life of an uncommon person.  Clara Pojeski absolutely filled that bill being that the 12-year-old Nankin girl had a propensity to wander from home. Found in a barn around Christmas time 1914 she was nearly frozen and progressively mentally impaired.  Two months of nurturing at Eloise (and possibly other facilities) brought the life back to her eyes and a smile replaced the dumbfounded expression which had accompanied her arrival at the hospital. She began to act like a girl her age.  Extended family were eager to adopt her but the authorities weren't apt to let her progress be stilted. Unfortunately, she disappears from the radar after this mention ...