The Nankin Township Historical Society

Dear cousin,  I now address a few lines to you to inform you where I am, how I am and what I am about. In the first place I beg to be excused for not writing to you before. Ten thousand times I have thought of you and wanted to write but my situation did not admit of it. I stayed in Detroit about ten days. I saw a man on Sunday evening he said he was a starting a store in the country and he wanted somebody to tend it for him and wished me to go out and see how I liked it out there. On Monday morning I started with him. We rode eighteen miles and come to a shanty he told me that was his store. I said to him you be damned if that is your store. You may stock it and tend it too for wont But I stopped with him two or three days and here I am now. I am very much pleased with the place. I am pleased with the man. I am pleased with the girls, particularly with the widows. I am situated eighteen miles from on the Detroit and St. Joseph Railroad. Our trade is principally with the ...

 

Marian Shipley

Marian Shipley

Marian Shipley

Marian Shipley

Wishing You Gladness Easter adds another pleasure To the joys of living; May it bring you fullest measure, Bounteous gladness giving! Miss Marian Shipley Ann Arbor, Michgan March 30, 1923 Dear Marian, Received your cards and was glad to hear from you. Hope this finds you well as it leaves us. With Love, Viola + Vera

Mabel Shipley

This Easter card to Mabel Shipley is dated March 27, 1910, which was a year, one month and a few weeks before her death on May 8, 1911, a month short of her 12th birthday. I hadn't surmised as much until tonight while sorting things and coming across them again. There are cards for Easter, Valentine's Day, Christmas and birthdays among the many. Previous searches hadn't shown anything for the sisters as Mabel's Find-A-Grave memorial wasn't added until late 2020 and I've had these cards for a quite a few years.  One birthday card confirms their birthday was June 22nd (1899) and another confirms Marian's married name as Mrs. Leo Cornell, which really helped matters. I don't know how to feel about the fact that this poor little girl died and I have some of her last possessions that her twin or some other family member obviously kept for the remainder of their life. Since I bought them at an estate in the 2010s it had to have been a relative or a collector. ...

Mabel Shipley

Mabel Shipley 

Detroit Free Press , March 14, 1964 In filing away the Holmberg Lumber sales sheet pad that I bought a month or so ago at an estate sale I discovered a few interesting things about the firm, as seemingly has been the case with other lumber companies in the area.  Fellrath's had their seized glass-encased taxidermied whale that I wrote about in the fourth issue of The Nankin Township Monitor .  Harold Hilliard of Wayne's Hilliard & Reiser Lumber was instrumental in delivering large shipments of food to residents during the Great Depression and his firm put a massive 600 pound piece of coal out front of the business on Brush Street as a  show piece only to have it stolen.  Dearborn and Wayne lumber dealer James Wallace mysteriously died during a carriage ride from his brother's home in Wayne back to Dearborn. He was only 46.  Einer Holmberg was an innovator in manufactured homes, starting his business in Inkster in the 1930s and delivering kit homes for dec...

The great thing about being an ephemera addict is that most people do not want any part of selling or buying it at estate sales and so I pick up gems like this pad of sale sheets from Holmberg Lumber in Inkster. In general, one can find at least one interesting story from any business in their history. Often times there are incredible stories hidden about a person that worked there or an event that occurred on the property. I will be searching for "newspaper" fodder on this one as I have concerning Fellrath's Lumber , also of Inkster, which I have found several very interesting stories about. Holmberg Lumber was located at 3255 Middlebelt Road and their phone numbers were 278-0150 and 728-0666.

Here's another ID card for Allan Schulz from the Ypsilanti State Hospital from 1977. Allan was a cook there and ran afoul of a manager and had some wrangling with the administration at the facility. I can't remember the exact details though I have a whole file of the process that he went through, which I obviously will not post here

Closer to home, here's a proper scan of the State of Michigan Department of Mental Health badge for Allan Schulz from the Ypsilanti Regional Psychiatric Hospital that I purchased a few years back along with other ephemera from the institution at an estate sale. Presumably it was at Mr. Schulz's house.  While I'm not particularly fond of how certain Historical Societies handle their inventory, many seemingly have started to make internet databases for the active seeker to view their archives and that's a step in the right direction. Which makes me want to donate things but I also understand that there is a demand for these items on eBay so I'm somewhat hesitant to just give it away when I can further fund my own endeavors by re-selling these things. I'd like to start my own but I know that it would be dismantled upon my death since my child doesn't care about Michigan history in the least.

I purchased this photograph from the Craftique Antique Mall in Garden City, Michigan today. As soon as I saw that it was a railroad depot I snatched it up for a buck. That Union Pier is in Michigan at the far southwest corner is a bonus. I prefer closer to Nankin but... anyway, I colorized it as well.

I bought this fold-out Sheldon Sons brochure for Rosedale Gardens a few years back at who knows what estate sale and am finally getting around to scanning it. I should probably identify the house at some point. Note that Wayne Road was called Wayne Belt Rd. and Joy Road apparently was called Bonaparte Road. Curiously Warren Road took a step south at Middlebelt and the now-defunct Imperial Highway ran from Plymouth Road near Merriman and wandered northeast past 7 Mile Road and the Redford Golf Club.

I don't know who Robert Saunders is or where he was from but this is his mug from March 25, 1909. I must have purchased him in the past few months because the photo was sitting on a downstairs table.