The Nankin Township Historical Society

Detroit Free Press , October 21, 1848 Following the lead of this brief advertisement for Mr. Buel's Appointments turns up some interesting information. Of course, the impetus for the search was Schwarzburg, which was a stop on Alex W. Buel's speaking tour in support of his Democratic nomination for Congress, which he eventually won, as all Democrats running seemingly did in the 1848 election, save for General Cass in his Presidential bid. The speech was October 28th at 7PM. Other stops included Dearborn, Redford, Northville, Plymouth and Wayne. Detroit Free Press , June 13, 1848 Gen. John E. Schwarz's connection with Buel, apparently both Germans and Democrats, extends beyond his stop. In a June 13th Ratification Meeting of Germans at Hickory Hall both Schwarz and Buel spoke to the gathering. Seeing as both were prominent political players it's likely their connections go beyond 1848 but I'll leave that to another time. Detroit Free Press , November 15, 1848

Detroit Free Press , October 3, 1864 While some internet sites state that Pike's Peak came into being in 1882, they're wrong. Not only that but Pike's Peak and Perrinsville existed at the same time as attested to in this article from 1864. Pike's Peak is noted to be a city of no "magnificent distances" with stumps barely cleared and it used to have a store on Broadway Street (I think they are implying Main St.). A large crowd of 1,200-1,500 assembled from Perrinsville, Pike's Peak and Plymouth , which brought a band, to meet in a barn to hear political speeches by Hon. Levi Bishop, M. W. Reynolds and J. D. Weir, among others. They praised the defunct Whig Party, lambasted the Republicans and the National Union Party (Lincoln Republicans) of Lincoln and neglected to mention the Democrats entirely so I'm not sure who they were for. I guess I'll have to track down the election results. Not that I'm all that concerned being more interested in the...

Detroit Free Press , November 6, 1848 This short snippet seems to suggest that they were cheating at the ballot box in Nankin substituting the Whig candidates for the Democrats. The Whig party names consisting of D. C. Holbrook, A. S. Williams and Joshua Howard. See...conspiracy theories and political dirty tricks have existed all along.

Democratic Free Press , November 1, 1837 This Whig Party meeting in Nankin is treated with the same ineffectual snobbism by the Free Press as a Rawsonville write-up 11 years later was. Which shows that not only has politics been a great divider but that newspapers have always been bitter partisans. For shame! Anyway, some of the prominent Whig party members of Nankin are listen under abbreviated names save for congressional candidate Bates. Those included S. H. Aldrich, Mr. Bunnell, Dr. Hume, Mr. Joy, George C. Bates, Mr. Trowbridge. Bates eventually lost to his Democrat rival Alex W. Buel in a sweep for local Democrats save for the Presidency.

Detroit Free Press , August 31, 1848 It appears that Schwarzburg, founded in 1825 by John E. Schwarz, was west of Perrinsville on the south branch of the Rouge in Nankin on the Livonia Township side. Which means almost nothing unless you're a cartographer. That would likely be in the Hines Dr. and Farmington Road area heading towards Wayne Road or thereabouts. Basically the Rouge River border area between Westland and Livonia more or less. No description really lays out the area save for a saw mill, a dam, a tavern and a schoolhouse. Not too many years later the town of Perrinville subsumed the population of Schwarzburg and made it obsolete. As for this article, it concerns a meeting for the repair of the mill-dam in Schwarzburg at which a vote was taken, presumably a straw poll for the Presidential Election, and Whig Party Zachary Taylor received 16 votes to Michigan's own Democratic Senator Lewis Cass. Taylor went on to win and died in office less than two years later.

Detroit Free Press , September 15, 1848 I'm not sure why of all the stories that I've come across recently the one about Rawsonville and a Whig party meeting there in 1848 would draw me in but such is the case. Namely because the town is no more and likewise the political party. Furthermore, a Democrat derisively wrote the piece and within it he mocked the two young men from Ypsilanti who made the trek with an old wagon to the meeting on September 2, 1848. Being that these two young speakers, one a son of Dr. P of Ypsilanti and the other a son of Mr. P., were approximately 18 years of age--one had never voted and the other couldn't--the organizer of said meeting called it off and rescheduled for a few days later. On that day only 8 Whigs, including the aforementioned 3, and 18 Democrats showed up. The two young men spoke and at the end the Democrat felt sympathy for the supposed pitiful display of Whiggery.  Two months later Zachary Taylor became the second and final Whig...