The Nankin Township Historical Society

Detroit Free Press , March 22, 1908 Outside of a queer little abode on Hibbard Avenue near Jefferson in Detroit Dr. Theodore Trombley had booths stationed where at 7 o'clock every morning he would enter for the purposes of healing all ailments with his hands. He advised the throngs to "come early and avoid the rush" and the women of Detroit would flock to the location and wait hours for a chance to be healed for the price of a quarter. The inside of one booth was said to have "a flaring red wall and faded bunting, a chromo of Daniel in the lions' den, and vari-colored daubs designed to arouse a feeling of piety." Called the "Hypnotic Hippocrates" he must have been a handsome man or the women, many who were described as "of the elephantine avoirdupois," were simply desperate to hold a man's hand in a more staid time period where such a public coquetry could sully your reputation. Trombley had come into the Spiritualist realm late in li...

Plymouth Mail , July 17, 1936 This was an unexpected find while searching for a Ganong mention from 1936. The body of Melvin Linden lies in the road at Ann Arbor Trail and Hix after he crashed into a tree and the vehicle turned back and ejected him. Linden, an engineer who had the day off from his job for a Toledo firm doing work at Eloise, lay dead in the street for 3 hours pending the arrival of the coroner.  Apparently this was the standard procedure at the time and a law which many citizens wished to change and finally did. 

Fred Schmidt of the Fred and LaVern couple mentioned in earlier missives makes an appearance on the letter scene. With health scare news of course. Presumably about LaVern. It seems she had taken a semi-overdose of Laratrill and Magnesium but not in the common sense of excess. This had eroded her stomach. She was fine to eat as she wished but was very weak as is to be expected. Apparently, nobody in this family ever wrote bearing good news. June was en route to help out even though "he" (Fred?) was now 86 and could still drive a car. June's daughter and son were 21 and 24 respectively. She, unmarried and thus helpful. Her son had just moved back from Alaska and was married with a child. The letter was written for Fred, LaVern, Maxine and all. They were living in Murphys, California. Maxine wrote the second letter so we can assume that she possibly wrote the first. LaVern was at Mark Twain Hospital Room 303 but that had been crossed out. Maxine again, she seemingly wrote t...

Redford Observer , July 22, 1999 ( enlarged ) The "wetlands" at Henry Ruff and Michigan Avenue running west to Merriman Road were developed by Ford Motor Company after purchasing the lots in 1995 and suddenly finding out that the Eloise Cemetery existed, a parcel of land that the county claimed they'd forgotten about.   The project came about after Ford built over a 33-acre wetland on the Wayne Truck Plant. Which is a great plan if you're attempting to send malaria to the projects. The best part is that this is where the old Eloise chemical waste dump site used to be. Did the County clean up the site before selling it off or did Ford afterwards? One could probably guess that nobody did anything but I might be wrong. Loosestrife said "karma is yours" regardless of what is what. This article and the two preceding it trace the numerous developments and defiling of this land and the area surrounding Eloise with toxic waste without even getting into the formatio...

Detroit Free Press , May 26, 1977 Before I clandestinely get back to my "work" on the Wycoff letters I wanted to drop off these articles. Mainly the second one because I just re-found it but it ties into the first as Gloria Acres , a subdivision in Wayne just south of the tracks and east of Merriman was riddled with cancer deaths in the 1980s. Officials stated that it was a statistical anomaly which happens without reason. But of course there are always reasons and the fact that Eloise in its numerous permutations was dumping chemical waste in the field near the Eloise Cemetery and were caught doing so by a venturesome boy named Clinton Martin who broke some found vials in the field and received chemical burns from the splash back. The incident was reported to authorities and an investigation was begun after 200 vials were discovered.  It was normal procedure to dump low-level radioactive waste into the field until 1974 when it was then left in the hospital to rot before bein...

Detroit Free Press , October 2, 1955 ( enlarge ) What turned an ideal suburban neighborhood into a funeral parlor of cancer cases? Nothing, according to Wayne County officials and the Michigan Cancer Foundation, though the Freep does sneak a statistic into one article that states that cancers of unknown origins were 70% higher in men in both the Gloria Acres subdivision and Wayne itself. Which they considered a statistical anomaly and discounted it quoting that a 300% increase would be cause for alarm. Supposed contamination from the nearby Eloise site was rarely brought into the conversation. Nor was William Murdock's successful lawsuit from 1898 which accused the Superintendents of the Poor of contaminating the Rouge River. Detroit Free Press , December 29, 1983 ( enlarge ) Detroit Free Press , February 11, 1984 ( enlarge )   Detroit Free Press , July 9, 1984

Detroit Free Press , March 1, 1907 The young men of Wayne Village were determined to stop the two-party system from pushing policy forward in 1907. "Push Wayne" was their motto but since the Freep doesn't really elaborate on said party it was seemingly pushed aside by the powers that be. 

Well, we can identify Roxy Keenly (or Keeney) of Washington, Pennsylvania as being the Aunt of either Russell or Lucy but most likely the latter, though I suppose that Roxy may have been a biological Wycoff. Perhaps the letter will tell us. In this letter we've jumped approximately a year to June 28, 1978. As with several of the letters preceding this one it is from Pennsylvania. Also, Roxy is ailing as most of the elderly population of this family was at the time. All in its natural course I suppose. Roxy had an 11-day stay in the hospital before Mother's Day and went to Virginia's on her yearly day. Presumably for the same ulcer that she went in for at the time of the writing as an out-patient along with receiving her shots for iron and liver. Roxy was also moving to a retirement home, the Thomas Campbell North Apartments, for which she included an article and a brochure. It would apparently free her up to travel in the summer to Mt. Lebanon, Uniontown and Youghiogheny La...

I don't often post photographs of live auction items but since this one is in a prohibitive price range with no particular reason for being so I present it here lest I forget about it. It is the second example of a print from T. P. Gorham's studio and despite not having the ornate back of the previously posted carte de visite , the front is excellent even though the photograph is overlapping the top edge of the word FROM in Gorham's Gallery.

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. 

I'm not a fan of baby photographs in the anonymous historical sense because they don't often tell you much of anything about the person unless they had a deformity. But the back art on this CDV from T. P. Gorham's studio in Wayne was too good to pass up for $10. This is the third 19th century photograph from Wayne that I have picked up in the year since I moved to the city. Hopefully, there are many more to be had out there in the wild.

I picked up two more cabinet cards from Wayne photographers in the past few weeks. Since I now live in that city it only make sense that I would. Which is odd because I never sought out Livonia ephemera save for a mass amount of Velvet Peanut Butter jars. Then again, I don't know that there ever was a cabinet card photographer in Livonia as I've never seen one from there. This photograph came from Knightsbridge Mall in Northville and was purchased just after I had bought a CDV from Wayne on eBay. Based on the fact that the children's names are Charles, Fred and Cash and that they were from Carleton it's likely that their last name was Reeves since that's the only name which matches Cash's date of birth and location in searches.  The photographer Frank B. Hickok seemingly had studios in Plymouth and Carleton at the same time that he was in Wayne so the stock card may be from the Wayne location but the photo may have been taken in Carleton as stated on the back.

This letter and the accompanying obituary concerns the death of Glen "Bud" Mankey even though the newspaper apparently spelled his name wrong in the byline. In his obituary it states that his wife Mabel's maiden name was Brooks so perhaps Lucy was formerly a Brooks as well. We may find out in the ensuing pages of the letter. I hate to be insensitive to the matter but in the letter Mabel gives a step-by-step accounting of Glen's last days. 80 long days to be precise and he never once complained. Considering that Mabel was married to him for 52 years she is entitled to such a dramatic rendering. Glenn missed the folks in Detroit and vice versa. Since he wasn't a Detroit native it stands to reason that Mabel probably was and hence the connection. The attending physician and nurses were mentioned in the newspaper clippings and the superintendent sent Mabel a letter thanking her for the kind words.  Glenn, though dying, maintained an upbeat and happy persona up until t...

I can say with pointed certainty that I don't expect anything significantly historical to come of any of these letters and the tediousness of scanning and documenting them is somewhat mind-numbing. Still I persist so as not to belittle the lives of everyday people because, while seemingly staid, the letters encompass the mood and temperament of their times. This letter from Mrs. L. O. (Beulah) Wycoff is dated February 21, 1974. Which is 17 days after the previous letter posted so we know that the family was in regular communications via mail. Beulah herself is seemingly ailing as she makes mention of being "still on top of the cold cold ground." There is also a shout-out  to Dick (Richard) and the girls, so I'm assuming that there were daughters in the family as well. She goes on to mention an approaching snowstorm, presumably in Sac City, Iowa where the letter was sent from, and being cold, etc. Mundane things.  As with the previous letter Beulah mentions conserving...

Business cards are generally boring but I like this one because it has a calendar on the reverse side and is thus dated to 1959. Foster's Electric Service was located at 3597 Inkster Road in Inkster, Michigan. Their motto was "It's a pleasure to please" and the phone number for this commercial and residential licensed contractor for "house power" was LO - 1-3324. The address seemingly coincides with a home built in 1950 so either there has been an address change on Inkster Road (it does say South Inkster Rd.), the house was converted or it was simply a home business.

Atha G. Houze wrote the Wycoffs on February 3, 1974 in response to a letter from Lucy. In this letter she discusses health problems starting with what seems to be a Type 2 Diabetes problem and the necessity to lose weight. Exciting stuff so far.  Atha's health improves and she moves on to the weather. Lots of snow snow in Urbana, Illinois in 1974 and a late January wind storm with 71 MPH gusts that did some damage in surrounding areas. Including several windows shattered in the business section of Champaign, Illinois. But... the groundhog didn't see his shadow so... yeah, Atha wasn't buying into that superstition. Atha then goes on to answer Lucy's question of "Do you have a cat?" with an affirmative. A tom named Dolly. Gender-bending in Urbana in the 1970s! There's your coveted excitement. They apparently thought that Dolly was a girl or something like that. Either way he served as an excellent house dog. Yes, I understand that nobody needs a narration of...