Tales of Southwest Michigan's Past

In today's podcast interview my guest is Michael 'Mac' McCollough with the Willard Library, and we talk about some of the history of the library which was first established in 1840.  Many people have contributed to the success of the library over the many years, including Henry Denman, Charles Willard, George Willard, Adah Stevens McCutcheon and Helen Warner among many others.  We discus...

In this episode I take a journey through the history of the Homer Village in Calhoun County.  The first pioneer settlers began arriving in 1832, and among them was a man named Milton Barney who established him homestead in the area of the village center today.  He built his log cabin, a general store and a mill along the Kalamazoo River, and even established the first bank.  Explore...

In this episode, I interview Dennis Skupinski from Michigan's Military Heritage Museum on World War One History.  Mr. Skupinski worked for 10 years with the United States World War One Centennial Commission on the Michigan history section of their website , and he has a tremendous amount of fascinating stories from this time to share.  Included in those stories are not only veterans who...

In this episode I interview Bobbie Mathis who has been the president of the Union City Society for Historic Preservation since 2016.  She is also done a lot of local research into Union City history, as well as historic Riverside Cemetery.  She was trained in tombstone restoration by the Cemetery Conservators of United Standards (CCUS) and has repaired and cleaned over 2000 stones so far...

William T. Palmer at the age of 18 joined the Bristich 61st Regiment in Winchester, England and was transported to the island of St. Helena, where he served for two years as part of the Superior Guards who were in charge of guarding Napoleon Bonaparte.  After Napoleons funeral in 1821, he was transferred to other duties until he was discharged from service after 15 years in Toronto, Canada. &...

In this episode I explore the notorious Crime Boss, gangster, racketeer and bootlegger Al Capone who reigned in Chicago from 1925 through 1932, during the years of Prohibition in the U.S.  During his time in power, he was said to have often escaped the hear of the windy city and found his way into Michigan and Wisconsin.  I did some research on some of the stories of hideaways, safe hous...

In this episode I interview Julie Kimmer, who has been the Manager of the Courthouse Square Museum in Charlotte, Michigan for over 20 years.  The museum is located in downtown Charlotte, and the building's cornerstone was placed in the center of the town square in 1883.  In 1885, the courthouse officially opened to the public.  It was in operation for 10 years before a fire gutted t...

This is the story of Dorrance Williams, an early pioneer in Calhoun County who settled on the Goguac Prairie in Battle Creek in 1831.  He previously had been a land surveyor for the U.S. Government, and had visited the area in 1829.  He lived his life as a suspicious man who was afraid everyone he dealt with was trying to cheat him.  A frequent visitor to the courtroom, he was the p...

Anson De Peuy Van Buren was born in 1822 in Kinderhook, New York.  He was a cousin of Martin Van Buren, the 8th President of the United States.  His Father Ephriam Van Buren, and his mother Olive Jay Van Buren, moved the family to Michigan settling in Battle Creek in 1836.  He was 13 years old, and would record the annals of his journey later in life along with many other stories of...

In this episode I interview Civil War Historian Maurice Imhoff who has been researching the Michigan 1st Colored Regiment since 2014.  The Michigan 1st eventually became the 102nd U.S. Colored Troops, which saw action in several engagements during the war.  Recruited from all over Southern Michigan, the regiment trained in Detroit during one of the coldest winters in 1863.  The unit...

Have you ever hear of the 85th Division which was stationed at Fort Custer in Battle Creek during World War 1?  The Division of 28,000 men were shipped to Europe in the summer of 1918, and when they arrived, 5000 of them formed the 339th Infantry and were sent not to France, but to Archangel, Russia near the Arctic Circle to fight the Bolshevik Army (the Russian Communists who had taken contr...

Plank roads were wooden routes made of hewn logs that were common in the Northest and Midwest of the U.S. in the first half of the 19th century.  At one time Michigan had over 60 plank road companies chartered in the state.  In 1849 the state legislature incorporated the Battle Creek & Hastings Plank Road Company to build a plank road between the two cities.  Some of the most pr...

In this episode I interview Robert Myers from the Michigan Historical Society where we cover stories of Berrien County.  We start with the early French settlement years surrounding Fort St. Joseph in Niles founded in 1684, to the establishment of the French Government fort in 1691, which later became a British fort.  We also talk about some of the early milling history and industry, as w...

In this episode I explore what life was like in the year 1850 in Battle Creek, Michigan .  This was the first year Battle Creek received its first charter from the State of Michigan, and was organized officially as a village.  I take a look at the local industry of the time, the population, the churches, the entertainment, the politics and national news and events of the times, among oth...

In 1847 over 200 citizens in the City of Marshall took a stand against a small group of armed slave hunters who came to take away Adam Crosswhite, his wife and children.  The Crosswhite family were fugitive slaves from Kentucky that arrived in Marshall by way of the Underground Railroad, enroute to Canada, and had decided to take up residence in the community.  Life was good, and Adam an...

In this episode I interview Jim Jackson, the Author of the book Veterans of Oak Hill Cemetery for Oak Hill Cemetery.  He also edited the 2014 edition of Beyond These Gates for Oak Hill Cemetery, and is the author of other books on local history.  Mr. Jackson has spent several years researching the history of Company K, 1st Michigan Sharpshooters who were an entirely Native American regim...

The Athens village is located about 15 miles south of Battle Creek, in the Southwest corner of Calhoun County.  It was settled in 1831, as with many other locations around the region, and had its first house built in 1832 by Isaac Crossett.  The first store was built there in 1854 by William Simons, and the village was officially incorporated around 1896.  The village although small...

In 1832 during the early settlement period of Calhoun County, the Cholera epidemic hit the US first arriving at a port in Quebec, Canada and ultimately finding its way down to New York City and across the Great Lakes region to Michigan.  In June of that year it arrived in Marshall with devastating results killing almost half of the village in less than a month.  The disease spread to oth...

In this episode I explore various types of Bear encounters that were reported in Michigan newspapers covering stories from 1830 - 2008.  Some are tragic, but several are quite comical and might even make you laugh.  The bear does not always come out okay in the end, but in one incident the bear did outrun a pickle.  Another unusual story involves a bear gettng caught on a cowcatcher...

The small village of Colon, Michigan was founded in 1830, but it has a history that goes back to the early days of the Northwestern Territory.  It began as a farming community, but in the 1900's a medicine man began coming to town to put on magic shows.  A local druggist learned some of his tricks, and also began performing them for his customers.  The fever for magic began to grow,...

Explore the history of the Battle Creek Michigan Fire Department and its evolution over the years, which mirror many other cities in Michigan.  Hear about the sequence of events that resulted in the first pieces of fire fighting equipment being purchased, and how men were organized initially as volunteers to use them.  I also cover the establishment of the first four fire stations, and s...

Did you know there was an old War Horse buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Coldwater, Michigan?  He served four years in the Civil War with the Loomis Battery, and was the only one of 200 horses sent from Coldwater to survive the war.  When he died in 1876, his regiment wanted him buried alongside his human comrades.  The story of Old Sam is worth hearing. Coldwater has a rich pioneer...

Have you ever wondered how the City of Battle Creek got it's name?  The name itself conjours up all manner of graphic ideas to spark the imagination.  Was there some great battle?  How long did it last?  How did it shape history?  This is the topic I explore in this episode, as it has a connection to some early Southwest Michigan history. A video I reference in this episod...

This is the story of Ezra Convis who was also known in his time as General Ezra Convis.  He was an early pioneer industrialist to Calhoun County who founded the Village of Verona and also was a co-founder of the Village of Augusta in Kalamazoo County.  He at one point was a partial owner in downtown Battle Creek.  He became elected to the Legislature when Michigan was vying for Stat...

This episode goes into who The Pioneer Society of Michigan (established in 1784) was and how they organized to preserve the early pioneer history of the territory.  I also go into one story they preserved about the fate of the first steamboat ever on Lake Erie, called Walk-in-the-Water .  I cover how this society recorded exactly how the early pioneers survived when they first arrived be...