Tales of Southwest Michigan's Past

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...

This episode takes you from when Michigan was part of the New France territory founded in 1534 by explorer Jacques Cartier.  Prior to that, the land was occupied exclusively by the First Nation people.  France ceded the territory to Britain and Spain under the Treaty of Paris in 1763, and eventually the region was formed into the Northwest Territory by the United States Government follow...

In doing research on stories for larger projects, I occasionally come across stories of wolf encounters in the old newspapers of the 1800's.  In Southwest Michigan there were several encounters in the early 1830's as settlers began arriving in Calhoun, St. Joseph, Hillsdale and many other Southern Counties.  In researching the Hicks family history at Hicks Cemetery in Pennfield Township...

Have you ever heard of the story of Old Hannibal (AKA Hannibal) the elephant who visited Battle Creek Michigan in the 1850's as part of the Van Amburgh Menagerie, and while parading down Main Street fell through the wooden bridge over the Mill Race channel?  He was a 15,000 ib Asiatic elephant who toured North America for over four decades, and was larger in mass and weight than the more popu...

Prior to passing of Congressional funding secured by Michigan's 3rd elected Territorial Delegate to Congress, journey into the inland wilderness was near impossible.  With the survey and development of the Territorial Roads across lower and central Michigan, it opened up pioneer expansion into the newly organized lower counties.  This is the story of these vital roads that made Southwest...

This episode takes a journey from when Michigan was deparated from the Indiana Territory and became the Michigan Territory, and the path to statehood.  It is a shortened version of a longer episode to come later.  It covers the actions of the early Governors William Hull and Lewis Cass.   Follow & Subscribe to my channel on YouTube

The city of Battle Creek was founded by Sands McCamly and other pioneer industrialists.  When McCamly arrived into the wilderness region of present day Battle Creek in Calhoun County in 1831, he saw the potential of the confluence of two rivers at different elevations, envisioning a mill race between them.  This started his journey to acquire the land, which through delays and challenges...