History | Grandma's Ramblings

While in Mackinaw City for our 40th wedding anniversary, we enjoyed a ride on the Shepler’s Ferry. While we did not go the island, we chose a nighttime cruise “A Night of Falling Stars”. We boarded the ferry a little before 9:00 p.m. and enjoyed an hour and a half cruise as we counted the stars and enjoyed cruising under and around the Big Mac bridge. It was beautiful at night with all the lights.

Before 1957 the only way to reach Mackinac Island or to get from the lower peninsula to the upper peninsula was to take a ferry. The first commercial ferry service was started in 1878 by George T. Arnold and LB Coats providing service to the island. When the Grand Hotel opened and greater demand was made for service to the island, other ferry services opened up.

The Michigan State Ferry System operated from 1923 to 1957 providing car ferries to connect the lower peninsula to the upper peninsula. In the mid 1950’s the car ferries carried almost 1 million cars a year. There were times when they had five ferries running with a total capacity of 500 cars. The largest ferry could carry 150 cars. In 1957 when the “Big Mac” bridge was completed, the car ferries providing service across the straits were no longer necessary.

When the government purchased the “Mackinaw City” and the “Sainte Ignace” in 1940 for war purposes, the State obtained a Pere Marquette Railway boat for service at the Straits of Mackinac. The ferry was renamed the “City of Petoskey”. The vessel could carry 105 vehicles. In the winter of 1952, the Highway Department acquired the 10,000 horsepower “Vacationland”. Built by the Great Lakes Engineering Works in River Rouge, Michigan, it cost $4,745,000 and, with a 75 foot beam and a 360 foot length, became the queen of the fleet. The “Vacationland” carried nearly 150 cars and trucks. The five-vessel fleet had a total carrying capacity of about 500 vehicles.

The Shepler Ferry is quite an operation. Along with ferries to and from the island, they offer special cruises like the one we took. They offer 3-4 hour cruises on both Lake Michigan and Lake Huron that give a great view of the many lighthouses in the area. I found it exciting to start the cruise on Lake Huron and end on Lake Michigan.

We forgot to bring any jackets, and it was a little cool out on the lake as we chose to take seats on the upper deck. The lower deck provided more protection from the wind, but your view of the stars was limited. So we just cuddled close to keep warm – and since we were celebrating our anniversary, we really did not need any excuse to do that.

After World War II, Captain William H. Shepler returned to Mackinaw. He started his business by opening a snack bar for passengers waiting for the ferry. He soon saw a need for better ferry services to Mackinac Island. Thus the Shepler Ferry line was born. Over the years they have added more ferries and built a large area for customers to park and to wait for the ferries. There is parking for those who are only taking a cruise on the lake or to and from the island. There is also overnight parking for those who are going to stay on the island since there are no vehicles allowed on the island. It was fascinating to watch the employees as they quickly loaded the people who were staying on the island and all their luggage.

While I enjoyed the ferry ride and the historic fort, I must admit I would not make a return trip to Mackinaw City. For me, there was too much “tourist trap” atmosphere. Lots and lots of t-shirts shops, souvenir shops and restaurants. Too many crowds.

(Pictures of old ferries: https://northernmichiganhistory.com/)

I have posted this before but this week in our women’s Bible study we are studying the Thanksgiving Psalms, and I found a verse that reminded me of this post.

Psalm 16:2 “The godly people in the land are my true heroes! I take pleasure in them.” How many heroes of the faith do you know? Have you passed that knowledge on to your children?

To celebrate our 40th anniversary my husband and I spent a few days in Mackinaw City. The city is located at the tip of the mitten in Michigan at the foot of the Mackinac Bridge where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. It is the stepping-off place for Mackinac Island and the Upper Peninsula.

One of the main attractions for us was Fort Michilimackinac.  Built by the French in 1715, it became the great fur trade center for the Northwest. It remained under French control until the British took control of the area after the French and Indian War. Deciding the wooden fort would be too difficult to protect, the British moved the Fort to Mackinaw Island in 1781 where they built a limestone fort. Upon the end of the Revolutionary War, the area was to be turned over to the United States. However, Britain held on to the fort until 1796.

This area was home to a Native American settlement long before Europeans discovered it. The Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) Indian tribes were some of the first known inhabitants. They considered Mackinac Island to be the sacred home of the Gitche Manitou, or the “Great Spirit,” According to legend, Mackinac Island was created by the Great Hare, Michabou and was the first land to appear after the recession of the Great Flood. The island was a gathering place for the local tribes where their offerings were made to Gitche Manitou and was where tribal chiefs were buried. Some of these graves are over a thousand years old.

 The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians have worked with Mackinac State Historic Parks to repatriate ancestral human remains from Mackinac Island and Mackinaw City.  Today there is a marker recognizing the burials on the island.

Today they have recreated at Mackinaw City the wooden Fort based on pictures and articles from earliest settlers.

There was clearly a difference between the lodging for the officers and the enlisted men.

Bedroom of the commander of the fort
Bedrooms for the enlisted men

In each room there were three bunk beds with a table and benches for eating their meals. Each bunk bed held two men. Their mattress was stuffed with hay or straw. The men shared a pillow, but each had their own blanket. I can’t imagine sleep was very comfortable.

While we were there, we watched volunteers working to uncover row houses where local military people lived. The Mackinac Island State Park Commission contracted with Michigan State University to carry out a season of excavation at Michilimackinac in the summer of 1959. This project has continued every summer since then. By 1969 a full-time archaeologist was hired.

They told us they have found fishhooks, pottery, and other artifacts dating back to around AD 900. Interesting food remains, especially animal bones, are the most common item found. In comparing the time of the French occupation with that of the British, they found two different diets. The French married more often with the local Indians and shared their diet of local deer, waterfowl and berries. The British remain more separate from the Indians and tied to maintain their traditional diet as best they could. They raised farm animals and also imported salted meat.

Many religious artifacts include a brass medallion of Saint Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits. Jesuits were an important part of the community under French control. They have found buttons, shoes and even a champagne bottle. We did not stay long to watch the excavation as it was so hot with no shade around.

Our last stop in the fort was the church. The church was clearly from the Catholic French occupation as we saw a priest and a confessional. The altar area was beautiful.

As a history nut, I was fascinated by standing on a spot where so much history has taken place. First, the Native Americans, then the French, the English and finally the United States. I imagined the sounds of the various languages spoken here, the different religious beliefs and practices that took place here. It would have been great to have a time machine and go back for just a moment in time. Just a moment as I certainly would not want to live in a time without running water, air conditioning, and all the things we take for granted now in 2024.

Tomorrow, we celebrate the fourth of July – Independence Day, we call it. We love to quote our Declaration of Independence which declares “all men are equaled equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

I am thankful to be born in America. Having experienced life in a different country, I am grateful for the freedoms, the comforts, the blessings I enjoy as a citizen of this great land.

However, we must admit that this declaration we love was a little hypocritical. First all men were not given the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is hard to know for certain how many slaves were in the USA in 1776, but figures range from 500,000 to close to a million. Native Americans who had called this land home long before the Pilgrims arrived were also not granted these unalienable rights. Finally women were completely left out of the equation. This left only white men. However, many of them were initially not given all the rights of the founding fathers. At first, only men who owed property were allowed to vote.

For women the battle for the right to vote began in earnest in 1848. On July 11, 1848 five women met in Jane Hunt’s home in Waterloo, New York. The youngest member of that meeting was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She convinced the women to call a “Women’s Rights Convention” to meet at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Seneca Falls, New York. A few days later Stanton met with some friends to draft a document for the convention to consider. The mahogany table on which this document was written is now in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.

The women adopted Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence to define the program of feminism for the rest of the nineteenth century.

“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness….But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled. The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

They then listed facts that they felt hindered women from the rights granted to men. Here are only a few.

• He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.
• He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.
• He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead. He has taken from her all right in property. even to the wages she earns.
• He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of women, the law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands.
• He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction which he considers most honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known.
• He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her.
• He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and, with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the Church.
• He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated, but deemed of little account in man.
• He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and to her God.
• He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.

(You can read the entire declaration as well as resolutions they made at https://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1826-1850/the-seneca-falls-declaration-1848.php)

On July 19 about 300 people showed up for the convention. When it was seen that some men had also showed up the women updated their rules and agreed to let the men attend. One of the leaders, Lucretia Mott, turned the leadership for the meeting over to her husband giving way to the tradition that women could not lead a meeting where men were present. Stanton’s husband was dismayed when he realized his wife was going to press the issue for women’s right to vote and left the meeting. The black abolitionist, Frederick Douglas, attended and spoke very strongly for the right of women to vote.

After two days of meetings, the declaration with its supporting resolutions was passed. One hundred people – 68 women and 32 men – signed the declaration. When many of the public was outraged over the declaration, some came back and crossed out their name. Charlotte Woodward drove over forty miles with her family for the meeting. She remained strongly supportive of the declaration. The year 1920 was the first presidential election in which the 19th Amendment had passed giving women the right to vote. Charlotte was the only one of the signers of the declaration to still be alive to cast her ballot.

Camp meeting, type of outdoor revival meeting that was held on the American frontier during the 19th century by various Protestant denominations. Camp meetings filled an ecclesiastical and spiritual need in the unchurched settlements as the population moved west. Their origin is obscure, but historians have generally credited James McGready (c. 1760–1817), a Presbyterian, with inaugurating the first typical camp meetings in 1799–1801 in Logan county, Kentucky….Britannica

Growing up in southern Illinois one of the highlights of the summer was camp meeting time. In the beginning of these meetings in the 1700’s and 1800’s they would construct a temporary building out of posts driven into the ground. Additional posts would be added to form a roof which was completed with cut branches or bundles of hay. Benches were made of rough logs often with no backing and there was sawdust on the dirt floors.

By the time I attended camp meeting in the 50’s our building was made of concrete blocks and we had solid concrete floors. Still open-sided with no air conditioning but we had comfortable chairs to sit in.

Brush arbor buildings Our more “modern” building

There were cabins families could rent and a place for RV’s or tents.

Every morning, we would gather for a Bible study at 10 a.m. Afterwards friends would scatter for lunch. Some would have a fire outside their cabin and grill hotdogs or hamburgers. Others had kitchens in their RV’s where they would fix a nice meal and then bring it out on a picnic table to share with friends. There was also a cafeteria on the grounds for those who came just for the day.

In the afternoon there was worship time with lots of special music and a sermon, usually by one of the pastors in the state-wide denomination. Afterward most would find a shade tree or a hammock and rest while the children play on the swing sets.

Evening would find us gathered again in the tabernacle for more worship and a sermon, this time by a well-known evangelist or national official of the denomination.

Great preaching and singing, lots of good food and a chance to just connect again with friends from around the state. A great week we looked forward to every year.

Times have changed. The old building has been torn down and the campgrounds sold. It is now a KOA campground. While the old camp meeting would run from Sunday to Sunday it is now just a three-day event held at one of the mega churches in the state. No one gathers around a campfire to share a meal and children do not run and play while the old folks take a nap in the hammock. There is still good preaching and music, but the sense of camaraderie is gone.

The music has changed also. Where there was always a piano with a few guitars, drums and brass horns, now it is lots of guitars and drums with a keyboard. The large choirs that were made up of anyone who wished to sing have been replaced by a “praise and worship” team of skilled musicians.

While I had not been to an old fashioned camp meeting in years, moving to Michigan I was surprised to find that they still have some campgrounds holding camp meeting.

This past week I went to the Ola Campgrounds. Situated just outside Ashley and a few miles north of St Johns, it was like stepping back in time.

This camp meeting was established 106 years ago. Their facebook page says “Ola Holiness Association was established in 1918. It is a interdenominational camp with the purpose for people to have a fresh encounter with the Holy Spirit. Everyone welcome!!”

Attending the services this week brought back a lot of childhood memories. There was an old upright piano. There were hymnbooks on the back of the pews. The sides of the building were open, and fans were running to keep us cool. No contemporary music – all old songs my grandmother sang.

While there were modern bathrooms, they were not in the main building, I had to walk through the field to a separate building where there was also a kitchen for fellowship and food after the service.

To be honest, I am not sure I would really want to go back to the week-long camp meetings. I like my comfortable bed and air conditioning too much. While I love the old hymns, our contemporary music is also a blessing. But for two or three evenings, it was nice to “step back in time” and worship the “old fashioned way.”

For my followers who have experienced camp meeting in the 50’s, here’s an old song you will recognize. Hope you enjoy it!

This weekend I attended a church conference and one speaker’s message really resonated with me. He asked us what we were preoccupied with.

Preoccupied – (of a matter or subject) dominate or engross the mind of (someone) to the exclusion of other thoughts.

Reflecting on that thought I realize there are a few things that do dominate my mind. Blogging is one of them. Often, I read or see something, and I immediately think “that would make a good post.” I hear a favorite song and I think “I want to share that on my blog.” Reading posts from some of my favorite writers on WordPress I then spend time thinking about what they have posted.

American history interests me. My library is full of books about the Revolution Period and our founding fathers. There are volumes on the Civil War and the Reconstruction Period that followed. My eyes were really opened when I began reading of the Reconstruction Period and the Jim Crow that followed when politicians gave up the gains former slaves were beginning to make. Gave them up for political reasons. Watching our current political and economic events I am fascinated by how much is a repeat of our past history. The only difference is with 24-hour news channels and social media we are made more aware of what is happening. Right now, watching the rise of Trump and all the support/opposition reminds me of the rise of Andrew Jackson and the beginning of the two-party system in our country.

I am very preoccupied with a series of books – “The Oxford History of the United States.” This is a multivolume narrative history of the United States. It is broken down into the different periods of history of our nation. The third volume, which I am now working my way through, is 855 pages of detailed history of the period 1815-1848.

But, enough of that.

What spoke to me this weekend was the speaker’s question: “As a Christian what should I be preoccupied with?” The question that follows that is: “What was Jesus preoccupied with?”

 The writer of the Gospel of Luke tells us, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

We were challenged to take a close look at our own life. Just how much time and effort were we spending to share the love of Jesus with our family, our community, our nation. How much of our Savior and His concern for others occupy our mind.

Confession: As I reflect on how I spend my days I realize I fall short of being preoccupied with thoughts of God and of His love for others.

It is my prayer today that I will begin to be more preoccupied with Jesus than with blogging or study of history.

Matthew 22:37 – And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

2 Peter 3:18 – But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

Matthew 28:19 – Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 12:2 – Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Matthew 16:24 – Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

In today’s controversy about teaching black history, I strongly believe we need to know our stories. We need to understand that we all do not come from the same background, do not share the same experiences.

It is only as we are willing to learn from one another that our country can be what it originally promised – “all men (and women) are created equal.”

Sharing a post from a few years ago that addresses the idea that we should acknowledge and celebrate our differences rather than try to ignore them or deny them.

I Refuse to Be Color Blind

“Consistently Jesus refused to use coercive power. He knowingly let one of his disciples betray him and then surrendered himself without protest to his captors. Despite Jesus’ plain example, many of His followers have been unable to resist choosing the way of Herod over that of Jesus. The Crusaders who pillaged the Near East, the conquistadors who converted the New World at the point of a sword, the Christian explorers in Africa who cooperated with the slave trade…we are still feeling aftershocks from their mistakes. History shows that WHEN THE CHURCH USES THE TOOLS OF THE WORLD’S KINGDOM, IT BECOMES AS INEFFECTUAL, OR AS TYRANNICAL AS ANY OTHER POWER STRUCTURE. When the church has intermingled with the state (the Holy Roman Empire, Cromwell’s England, Calvin’s Geneva) the appeal of the faith suffers as well. Ironically, OUR RESPECT IN THE WORLD DECLINES IN PROPORTION TO HOW VIGOROUSLY WE ATTEMPT TO FORCE OTHERS TO ADOPT OUR POINT OF VIEW”

From “The Jesus I Never Knew” by Philip Yancey.

In 1872 Ulysses S. Grant ran against Horace Greeley for the presidency. At this time women could not vote. In spite of this prohibition, Susan B. Anthony and her three sisters attempted to register to vote at a local Rochester barbershop. The election inspectors at first refused to register the women. After Susan quote the 14th Amendment and threatened to sue the inspector if they would not register the women, they consulted a local Rochester lawyer. John Van Voorhis was a suffrage supporter. He adviced the inspectors to register the sisters pointing out that the blame would be on the women if they voted.

On election day Susan led fourteen other women to their assigned polling stations. When challenged, they took an oath that they were qualified to vote. New York State law prohibited refusal to anyone who took such an oath. Federal law prohibited accept a ballot from anyone ineligible to vote. Caught between the two laws, the election inspectors allowed them to vote.

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton started the first national women’s rights organization in 1869. Called the National Women Suffrage Association, they urged women to vote and to file federal lawsuits if they were denied the right to vote. They used part of the 14th Amendment to demand the right to vote.

Part of the Amendment states: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States.” This Amendment had been added to the constitution to allow rights to newly freed slaves.

After the election warrants were issued for the arrest of Susan B. Anthony, the women who had voted with her, and the officials who had allowed the vote. Anthony had expected to be denied the right to vote and planned to then file a suit in federal court. She was surprised when she was allowed to vote and then arrested.

She used the lawsuit to grow attention to women’s suffrage. She asked, “Am I not a citizen?” After reading the first section of the 14th Amendment, she asked “Are women persons?”

In 1873 Anthony was tried in federal court for voting in a congressional election when she was deemed unqualified to vote. She was sentenced to pay $100 for violating New York State law. She refused to pay and Hunt did not have her jailed for failing to pay. He did not want to give her a chance to appeal to the Supreme Court.

This strategy encouraging women to try to vote and then file a lawsuit if they were denied became useless when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled “the Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon anyone.”

Women suffragists then began campaigning for a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. The House of Representatives passed the 19th Amendment on May 21, 1919. The Senate followed on June 4, 1919. After being submitted to the states for ratification, the Amendment came into effect on August 26, 1920.

The Constitution was adopted in 1787. It stated, “We the people.” However, the “people” it included as full citizens was a small group. Only white men who owned property could vote for many years. It was not 1868 that black men were included in the right to vote. The right for black men to vote that was given in 1868 was soon severely restricted by the many “Jim Crow” laws the South enacted. (But that is for another blog.)

Women, both white and black, had to wait until 1920 – 133 years after the Constitution was adopted.

Women have come a long way politically since 1920. Congress in 2024 has 25 women in the Senate (25%) and 126 in the House (29%). Considering that women make up at least 50% of our population, we clearly have a long way to go to gain equal representation.

As Black History Month ends, I revisited a couple of blogs I have written about statues of blacks in the USA and did some research on other statutes in the country.

Crispus Attucks and the Boston Massacre Memorial and

Denmark Vesey – Leader of Failed Rebellion

I knew there was a statute of Harriet Tubman in New York City.  This statute was dedicated in 2008 and is located on Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

However, I was surprised to find out there is not one, but two statutes of Tubman in Michigan.  In researching information on these statutes, I discovered that Michigan was very much involved in the Underground Railroad.

Looking at the map of Michigan it is easy to see why this location would have been perfect for those trying to escape slavery and find freedom in Canada.  Surrounded by three of the Great Lakes – Michigan, Huron and Erie, Michigan’s eastern cities are only a short distance from Canada.

The first monument is a bronze statue of not only Tubman but local conductors of the Underground Railroad, Erastus and Sarah Hussey.  This statue in Battle Creek, Michigan depicts Tubman and the other two conductors leading a group of runaway slaves to safety.   Created in 1993 by sculptor Ed Dwight the W. K. Kellogg Foundation commissioned the work.

The second statue of Tubman is in Ypsilanti, Michigan.  Located in Washtenaw County in Southeast Michigan there are numeous sites connected with the Underground Railroad.

Cass County in Southwest Michigan also offers many sites where the Underground Railroad was conducted by both free blacks and whites.  Slaves fleeing the South passed through Cass County, then on to Battle Creek and Detroit on their way to freedom in Canada.

For my followers in Michigan if you would like to check out more information on the Underground Railway in Michigan, here is their website.

https://www.michigan.gov/mhc/michigan-history/michiganfreedomtrail