The Wycoff Letters #11: To Mr. and Mrs. Russell (Lucy) Wycoff and Family From Roxy Keenly

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 Lake. Virginia and Charles were renting a place next to Dorothy and Bill at the lake and she would visit all.

The first side of the two page letter ends with a PS that her ulcer had completely healed and she was moved into her new home.

She was spending her time with the aforementioned couples at the lake. Dorothy and Bill had just returned from Miami after seeing their daughter and son. Laurie and Chuckie, Virginia's son who worked in the finance department for Pittsburgh Plate Glass, had just bought a new home.

Mabel Mankey is also mentioned as she was now adjusting to being a widow. The two talked regularly on the phone.

Charles's family was having a reunion as their children were going to visit from Miami to which Virginia, G.? and she would attend. Somebody could figure this tangle of a genealogy out but it isn't going to be me. I'm just laying the foundation for somebody with the practical patience to do so. Give me some Inkster information!

Lucy and Russell's granddaughter had just graduated from high school as well. Goodbye from Roxy.

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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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