The Nankin Township Historical Society

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...

What does the grave of Elizabeth Soop have to do with the Eisenlord House in Detroit? I'll fill you in as inertia allows. Much of what I research is absolutely happenstance meanderings that have no pattern. This entire several hour gleaning began with a simple search for Rawsonville after similar searches for "Eloise", "Catville" and others failed to bring up anything.    The Northville Record , October 18, 1889 Up popped the brief snippet of Soop Cemetery being located in Rawsonville from The Northville Record from 1889. A nothing mention which conjures up the mysterons of the internet who chase hobgoblins in the wind and whose flitting intellects necessitated me to start my own groups to get away from them. While I love the ideal of haunted locations and believe that I have had so-called paranormal experiences I also think that they have more to do with psychological reactions to locations and not free-wheeling entities known as ghosts. Anyhow, Elizabeth Soop...