Tales of Southwest Michigan's Past

Author Blaine Pardoe joins me on Tales of Southwest Michigan's Past to talk about his book: Secret Witness: The Untold Story of the 1967 Bombing in Marshall, Michigan.  This a tragic story, filled with fascinating details that one would not expect.  It was a shocking event in the history of Marshall, and although the killer was identified, he managed to use errors in the legal system to...

Join me as I explore a collection of historical biographical accounts from various Counties around Southwest Michigan, and read the history of the early pioneer experiences with wolves.  Some stories are just haunting, and other encounters were near deadly.  It is a insightful look at the early pioner settlement period in Michigan.

In this episode I explore the history of the village of Berrien Springs, in Berrien County, Michigan.  It has a fascinating history, with one of its founders being associated with one of the landmark US Supreme Court Cases in history, as being named after Andrew Jackson's Attorney General.  It is also the home of the Pickle Festival, the Lemon Creek Winery, an NFL player as well as the f...

Join me for a look at the history and culture of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi (NHBP) as I interview Kevin Harris from the tribes culture office.  The NHBP is a Federally Recognized tribe which resides on the Pine Creek Indian Reservation in Fulton, Michigan.  They also have land in the Athens area.  Mr. Harris explains some of the early migration of the tribe around...

Join me as I explore the story of the Golden Harvest from the 1860's to the 1870's in Michigan, and one season where many of the wheat farmers within a 10 mile radius of Battle Creek made enough from one crop to pay of their land.  This story explores the history of the wheat production in the early years, and also the crops that replaced them up to modern day. For more information on Michael...

John Palmer, an immigrant from England, fiddled around at country dances in Union City and Burlington, and devised a solution to save the dancers trouble.  He observed that people were having trouble after dances finding their garments, and Palmer came up with a solution that was ultimately adopted by some railroad employees from Marshall, and the baggage check system was born.  It is a...

Jim Jackson , the author of the book ' Veterans of Oak Hill Cemetery' and the editor of the book 'Beyond These Gates: Oak Hill Cemetery' joins me for a talk on some of the history and stories of Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek Michigan.  The cemetery was founded in 1844, and is the final resting place of W.K. Kellogg , John Harvey Kellogg , Sojourner Truth , James & Ellen White , C.W. P...

In this episode I explore the history of the lost village of Harmonia, Michigan which was originally founded as a Spiritualist Utopia in early days of the Spiritualism movement in the country in 1855.  The Bedford Harmonial Institute was established in 1852 on by Hiram Cornell, on the land owned by his parents Reynolds and Dorcas Cornell.  A village was eventually platted in 1855, and th...

At the close of a harvest day in the summer of 1832, on Toland's Prairie, Kalamazoo County, Michigan a farmer named Hiram Moore strolled over to a neighbor, John Haskell and had a conversation that would ultimately change the agricultural world.  Haskell, tired after a hard day's labor in gleaning wheat, remarked to Moore "Why cannot some machine, drawn by horses, be made to cut the grain and...

This is the first episode of Season 2 of Tales of Southwest Michigan's Past.  It is also airing on New Year's Day, so I thought it would be adventurous to take a look at the top dozen guest interviews of 2022.  It was very hard to choose these episodes, as I had so many great guests in season one.  In fact I did 39 interviews, with roughly 30 guests on a variety of history topics. &...

Join me as I explore stories and traditions from old newspaper articles around Michigan from the 1800's.  This is the final episode of season one, and I also give a review of some of the statistics from Spotify at the end of this. To find out more about Michael Delaware, visit: https://www.michaeldelaware.com

Dave Eddy (AKA 'The Morning Mayor' with the WBCK Morning Radio Show) joins me on this Christmas Day episode where we explore historic Santa letters from the 1800's and early 1900's.  We also explore the history of two famous writers who wrote famous Santa letters to their children, Mark Twain and J.R.R. Tolkien .  Dave will not only read the Mark Twain letter, but also the most famous ed...

In November of 1913, a great winter storm like no other recorded before hit the Great Lakes region.  It would later become known as the White Hurricane, when cyclone-force winds pushed ships right off the lakes onto shorelines, against rocks and sank twelve across four of the five Great Lakes.  Lake Huron bore the brunt of the damages and loss, but ships were sank also on Lake Michigan,...

In this expisode I explore some of the impact of the famous Christmas story by Charles Dickens 'A Christmas Carol' and it defining influence in the Victorian Era, as well as a look at Southwest Michigan.  I also include a full replay of a 1949 Radio Drama that aired on December 25th of that year of 'A Christmas Carol' featuring Lionel Barrymore. For more information on Michael Delaware, visit...

The Augusta Beacon was a small local newspaper in the village of Augusta, Michigan that was published between 1902 - 1952.  In the course of doing research for stories, I often read through many old newspapers.  I came across the Augusta Beacon, and in scanning through a few of their early editions I found several stories that were brief, but also quite unusual and even somewhat amusing....

Mark Lovett from the Allegan County Historical Society is my guest as we talk about some stories from the early days of Allegan County, as well as take a tour of the Jailhouse Museum and the John Pahl Historical Village.  Listen in to hear some amazing stories of the early days of Allegan. For more information on the Allegan County Historical Society, visit: http://alleganoldjail.com/ You can...

In this episode, I explore the history of the Page Brothers Buggy Company that existed in Marshall, Michigan from 1869 - 1917.  The Founder of the Company William L. Page, brought into the enterprise his brothers Lucius Franklin Page and Egbert E. Page as the company grew.  Lucius would remain a major stock holder, and serve as a director until the company sold in 1917.  Egbert was...

This is a story of the two brothers who founded the village of Marshall in 1831.  Sidney Ketchum was the first of the pioneers in Calhoun County to file a claim in 1830, and he returned to his home state of New York and convinced his brother George Ketchum to join him in the wilderness.  Together with their families and others they build the foundation of the village of Marshall, with a...

Rod Kroes, the President of the Bernard Historical Museum in Delton Michigan is my guest on this episode as we explore not only the history of the museum, and many other stories of Delton Michigan, and around Barry County.  Hear the stories of Chief Noonday, Delbert Monroe, Reverend Slater and many others. For more information on the Bernard Historical Museum, visit: https://www.bernardmuseum...

The Victorian Era was the period of the reign of the English Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901.  It was a time period when the economies of both England and the United States went from predominantly rural economies to the height of the Industrial Revolution.  A middle class emerged and a middle class emerged.  The many changes in this era in Southwest Michigan were significant from i...

In this episode I explore some history of Union City with the life of celebrated artist J.P. Palmer as well as the Hammond House Museum where people in search of history today in the area can see a lot of his famous work.  J.Pierpont Palmer was born in 1856 in New York, and moved with his parents to Union City when he was 10 years old.  Even as a young boy he was gifted as an artist, and...

Author T.R. Shaw joins me to talk about the history of Michigan Wine.  The Michigan wine industry began with the early settlers of Detroit, and as the population headed west in the state, the Lake Michigan Shore and surrounding countryside all the way to Travese City developed into successful vineyards.   For more information on T.R. Shaw and his book, visit: https://amzn.to/3UkAogo For...

Lawler's Corners was once a small town consisting of a general store at a crossroads where the Fort Custer Military base now stands.  It was once a stage coach stop along the route between Detroit and St. Louis, and also a key delivery location for mail for the village of Augusta in the 1830's.  The cemetery was established in 1831 on a farm owned by a man named Lawler, hence the name. &...

The Fort Custer Recreation Area is located off of Dickman Road between Augusta, and Battle Creek, Michigan.  It is a 3000+ acre park which originally was a military training area that was eventually turned over to the Department of Natural Resources in the State of Michigan to develop into a State Park.  It was an eleven year journey for the State to acquire the land, and also a long jou...

In this episode, blogger and author Peggy Reiff Miller joins me to discuss the history of the SS Battle Creek Victory , and other ships in its class.  She has spent twenty years calaloguing and researching the history of the Heffer Project and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) project to bring livestock over to Europe in the post years of World War II.  ...