Eli Ciungan, Albert Buday, and Michigan Governor G. Mennan Williams

In September  1949, the Ecorse primary proved to be as interesting and full of twists and turns as the 1949 and beyond Ecorse elections. There were 42 candidates seeking to be nominated for the fourteen city offices in the November 1, 1949, general election. The 1949 primary featured the largest number of candidates every to file for office, with 44 candidates filing petitions and paying the $25.00 filing fee. Two later withdrew. Mayor William Voisine filed his withdrawal with the city clerk and Mrs. Laura Kaigler, a candidate for council also withdrew.

There were 21 candidates for city council. Five of the incumbent councilmen were seeking reelection. These five were Ormal Goodell, Francis Labadie, Theodore Marcott, Louis Parker, and Nick Stroia. Lambert Pfeiffer didn’t file for reelection and planned to retire from public office.

The Ecorse Advertiser printed capsule biographies of each of the candidates and they provide an interesting glimpse into the lives and history of 1949 Ecorse.

Eli Ciungan

Eli Ciungan, city assessor, was seeking re-election to that office strictly on his record. He was first elected City Assessor in 1947.

When he was first elected, he promised lower taxes. He increased the steel mill assessment over 14 milion dollars and made good his promise to lower taxes for home owners. He fought the attempts of the Wayne County tax officials to increase county taxes on Ecorse property.

Mr. Ciungan was a veteran and a successful businessman. He was well known throughout the city.

Robert Clark

Robert G. “Bob” Clark was one of the eight candidates for Constable. This was Clark’s second entry into politics.

“Bob” as he was better known as, was a disabled veteran from both World Wars and for many years had successfully operated a grocery store on Cicotte Street.

Clark had been active in various clubs and organizations and had been especially interested in youth work.  He was scout master for Troop EC5, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club.

Bob Clark was pledged to good government and a fair deal for all.

Ormal Goodell

Ormal Goodell, dean of the present city council, served Ecorse continuously since 1937. He was seeking his seventh term on the city council.

Mr. Goodell had an enviable record as a city councilman, having proposed or worked for all the major improvements that had been accomplished during the past 12 years.

A life long resident of Ecorse, Ormal Goodell lived at 21 Cherry Grove in 1949. He was active in the Businessmen’s Association Ecorse Goodfellows and other civic activities.

Rudy Hickey

Rudy Hickey, of 74 Visger Roadm was a candidate for city council and was born and brought up in Ecorse.

Mr. Hickey graduated from Ecorse High School in 1939 and won the honor of being the school’s most valuable athlete. He continued his interest in athletics and recreation and proposed an even wider recreation program.

His was Mr. Hickey’s second entry into local politics. Two years ago he lost his race for the council by a very small margin.

He had wide business experience and was associated with Stanford Bros., Plymouth and Dodge dealers in Lincoln Park.

William Jones

William Jones, a candidate for Council, was a life long resident of Ecorse, a home owner, and a graduate of Ecorse High School.

Sports and recreation had brought Jones a wide reputation. Beginning in High School, William Jones took an active part in the promotion of sports. He was an official of the Ecorse Boat Club and advocated a more extensive recreation program. He was a member of Rotary and had taken an active part in the Businessmen’s Association.

Wilson Koch

Wilson B. Koch was a candidate for re-election as Constable. He had lived in Ecorse for the past 30 years and lived at 11 West Charlotte.

He served five years as a member of the Ecorse Fire and Police Commission, three years as a deputy sheriff and as an examiner of motor vehicle operators and chauffeurs. He also served most of the downriver judges during his term as constable.

Mr. Koch had long experience as a law enforcement officer and believed his experience deserved another term.

Elmer J. Labadie

Elmer J. Labadie, 26 East Woodward, was again a candidate for the Ecorse city council. Two years ago Mr. Labaie lost by a small margin in his campaign for the same office.

Mr. Labadie was a life long resident of Ecorse. He was born in Ecorse and was a member of one of the city’s oldest families. He graduated from Ecorse High School and was prominent in athletics.

Mr. Labadie was interested in good government and in the future of his home town. Having grown up in Ecorse, he believed he was familiar with the city’s needs.

Theodore Marcott

Theodore Marcott, popularly known as “Ted,” was again a candidate for re-election to the council. Mr. Marcott lived at 28631 Outer Drive.

He had lived in Ecorse for over 25 years and was a member of the Ecorse police department for many years before he retired because of an accident suffered in the line of duty.

He served as acting mayor for nearly two years during the absence of Mayor William Hawkins. He also served as a member of the Wayne County Board of Supervisors.

Ted Marcott took an interest in the progress of Ecorse and was seeking reelection on his record as a city councilman and public servant.

Edward McGee

Edward McGee served as a member of the Ecorse Fire and Police Commission for ten years and a term as deputy sheriff. He was running for the office of constable. Although he had long been involved in local politics, this was the first time that Mr. McGee ran for public office.

Mr. McGee was a resident of Ecorse for over 30 years. For many years he was a supervisor at Ford Motor Company. He later opened a business of his own in Ecorse. He was the manager of the Dixie Club. He lived at 26 Charlotte.

Ray G. Mell

Ray G. Mell was running for Justice of the Peace. A resident of Ecorse for 25 years, he lived at 35 Knox Street.

He retired from the police department on September 1, 1949, after serving for 21 years. Appointed to the department in 1929, he worked his way through the ranks to become Assistant Chief of Police and head of the Detective Bureau.

Mr. Mell believed that his long experience in police and court work qualified him for the important office of Justice of the Peace.

Charles Montroy

Charles Montroy, better known in Ecorse as “Porky,” made his first entry into politicas by running as a candidate for Ecorse city council.

Mr. Montroy lived at 36 Florence and was a life long resident of Ecorse.

He served in the United States Army in Panama. He was a successful businessman and was engaged in both manufacturing and a retail business. He was long active in civic affairs and took an active part in Ecorse Day promotion for several years.

Mr. Montroy was president of the Ecorse Businessmen’s Association , a charter member of the Ecorse Rotary Club, and was also active in the Goodfellows.

Leo Navarre

Leo C.. Navarre, made his first entry into Ecorse politics by running against Paul Vollmar for the office of city treasurer. He lived in Ecorse for over 25 years and during that time was active in civic and patriotic organizations.

He served 18 months in the U.S. Marine Corps during the first World War War and was Deputy Chief Air Warden during World War II. He also served as Secretary of the War Memorial Fund and assisted in raising money to build the World War II War Memorial

Mr. Navarre was active in the Roy B. Salliotte Post American Legion for 15 years and served as Commander for two terms. He also served in all offices of the 16^th District Association of the American Legion and was District Commander in 1942.

From 1947-1949, he was State Junior Baseball Chairman at the same time he worked as Employment Manager of the City of Ecorse and helped over 2,500 local people obtain employment.

Louis Oleksuk

Louis Oleksuk, known to many people in Ecorse as “Popeye,” was campaigning for the office of city assessor.

Mr. Oleksuk had been a resident of Ecorse for 32 years. He was a property owners, a businessman and lived at 220 Southfield Road. He was active in various clubs and organizations.

Mr. Oleksuk said that he believed in a fair and impartial assessment of all property in Ecorse with a resultant cut in the tax rate to save property owners money. He centered his campaign for election on such a program.

Russell D. Renaud

Russell Renaud, better known as “Duffy,” was a candidate for city council. Renaud lived in Ecorse all of his life and lived at 48 Bell Street.

Mr. Renaud took an active part in organized labor and still carried a membership card in Local 7. He owned a business in Ecorse and predicted a prosperous future for the city. He believed that all meetings should be open to the public and public opnion should be sought on all programs.

John Sharon

John Sharon was a candidate for the Ecorse City Council. He lived at 25 Benson Street with his wife and two children.

Mr. Sharon was born in Ecorse and graduated from Ecorse High School and later spent three years a Wayne University. He was a job analyst at the Ford Motor Company.

Mr. Sharon served 3 ½ years in the armed service and was awarded the Purple Heart. He was active in the V.F.W., the Ecorse Boat Club, and other organizations.

He took a keen interest in Ecorse government, followed the development of Ecorse, and was keenly interested in the future of Ecorse.

Nick Stroia

Nick Stroia, well known businessman and civic leader, sought a third term on the city council. He was first elected to the council in 1945.

Long before Nick Stroia entered politics, he was well known as a civic leader. He was one of the organizers and the first president of the Ecorse Businessmen’s Association and an original sponsor of the popular Ecorse Day celebration. He was also a member of the Ecorse Kiwanis Club.

Patrick B. Trondle

Patrick B. Trondle, “Pat,” was a candidate for Ecorse City Clerk. He was a life long resident of Ecorse, born in Ecorse and educated in Ecorse. He was truly an Ecorse man.

Mr. Trondle graduated from Ecorse High School in 1936 and he was active in all athletics.

During the war he won the rate of master sergeant and served in an administrative capacity in military governments in Africa, Sicily, and Italy. Back from the war he was associated with Timken Axle as a rate clerk.

Mr. Trondle believed his long administrative experience qualified him for the office.

Trondle was married, lived at 18 Ridge Street, and was particularly interested in housing and in recreation.

Paul Vollmar

Paul Vollmar, running again for Ecorse City treasurer, had served as the city treasuer for the past 16 years.

Mr. Vollmar was first elected to the office in 1933 and he held the office continuously since 1933. During his regime, he instituted many reforms in the treasurer’s office whose work increased steadily during the past decade.

The collection of the winter tax, water bills, the handling of the new pension systems records and the collections of the tax roll which increased at least  a 1000 percent were part of his responsibilities.

He lived at 3994 High Street.

Edward Weiser

Edward A. Weiser, better known to his many friends as “Eddie,’ threw his hat into the political ring and he was a candidate for the Council. Eddie Weiser operated Eddie’s Variety Store at Jefferson and Auburn for 15 y ears and was particularly well known in the north end. He lived at 14 West Auburn Street.

Mr. Weiser served on the Ecorse Planning Commission and had taken a keen interest in the development of Ecorse.

Mr. Weiser was a successful businessman and a student of municipal government. He believed that government, like business, can be conducted efficiently and economically and still provide all necessary services.

Ship Perspectives

Softly falling snow from the perspective of armchair comfort and warm houses is poetic. Softly falling snow from the perspective of a sailor feeling its sting on his face and trying to spot the outlines of shore through its billowy, smothering curtain can be poetic but also as harshly realistic as a plunge into the winter cold Detroit River. Insurance underwriters sought to alter the snow and ice winter picture by setting a navigation deadline after which they declined to write further risks on cargoes and ships., a date that has traditionally been fixed at November 30^.  Many mariners and vessel owners did not strictly observe the deadline and often took advantage of breaks and mild spells in the weather to move cargoes on the winter shrouded lakes and river.

Ice more often than not encased the waters of the Detroit River and its adjoining lakes by December, but winter was anything but a quiet, deadly white time along the Downriver water front. Although December 1901 had settled on the Detroit waterfront, there was a hustle and bustle of activity aboard the boats because the owners were taking advantage of the mild weather to make needed repairs. The sound of the ship caulker’s hammer echoed along the docks and evoked memories of a distant  spring

Detroit Harbormaster William O’Neill

Captain William O’Neill, Detroit harbormaster, stood in a lumber yard at the foot of Adair Street, jotting down names and numbers in his notebook. He was making a list of the ships moored in Detroit for the winter, a list that he estimated would grow from about 130 vessels in 1900 to about 156 names of 1901 vessels. His list taking tour extended from the Detroit Waterworks to the River Rouge and he recorded the name of every boat of over five tons carrying capacity from sand suckers to freighters in his notebook.

Vessel fleets gathered for the winter were scattered up and down the river front which was and is indented with coves and inlets and the ghostly hulks of ships from the past ride the swells of the inlets. The “phantom ship,” a big schooner which had not been in commission for several seasons, regularly took a cruise along the river without benefit of human piloting and bumped against deserted piers. The summer of 1901, she lay over at Sandwich, but is spent the winter on the east side of the River.

The vessels laid up in Detroit included a number of dredges that were in service at the Lime Kiln Crossing over the past seasons. Names like “The Tipperary Girl,” “The Wild Irish Rose,” and “The Brian Boru,” broadcast the nationality of their owners. Mariners called the foot of Joseph Campau Avenue “Sidewheel Park,” because  it was the favorite winter moorings of many of the sidewheeler captains. The passenger steamers of the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation company and the White Star Line were scattered along the water front. The City of Erie and Tashmoo hovered in close proximity, as they did in their summer races to see which was the swiftest craft on the river. Some of the ferry boats made Belle Isle their winter quarters while others wintered at the foot of Bates Street and others even further Downriver.

The yachting anchorage at the foot of Chene Street provided a white winter palace for idle yachts. .In another slip, a man stood on the ice and sawed it into chunks while another shoved it out into the river with pike poles. In the Orleans Street dry dock , a variety of vessels, ranging from freighters to faded sand scows waited out the winter together.

Sailor Perspectives

The dock workers prepared their ships for their winter quarters by battening down the hatches and removing the running gear and sails. They covered some of the pleasure yachts in canvas for the winter and build winter houses on them    About two thirds of the lake sailors were married men with families and they needed to find places to live and work with their families during the winter months. At the close of navigation sailors as well as ships retired for the winter. Some found work as shipkeepers who were usually very comfortably quartered. After a boat had been stripped a shipkeeper took charge of the ship and lived aboard for the winter, often bringing his family to make the ship their winter home.

On larger ships like the Detroit & Cleveland Line, two shipkeepers were employed. They took turns standing watch at night as a guard against fire and river pirates.  The sailors passed the time by swapping yarns and singing nautical songs. Their job was to keep their boats shipshape and guard them against river pirates and fires. Most of the large boats, including the steamers of the Detroit & Cleveland line, had night and day watchmen who performed rigorous sentinel duty.

The sailors maintained the insides of the Detroit & Cleveland Line and other steamers as carefully as if they were millionaires’ mansions.  They draped mirrors, pillars and other fixtures in cloth to protect them from dirt and painted and decorated parlors and staterooms to look as sparkling clean as a newly painted deck in the spring sunshine. The sailors would not begin their exterior refitting of their vessels until the sun melted the ice and the birds return from the south.

Some sailors did not spent their winter snugly aboard ship, but found temporary quarters in boarding houses and others lived in the sailor’s home that was operated by the Western Seaman’s Friends’ Society. It was not easy for sailors to find onshore employment because they could only offer seasonal services and there was plenty of competition from onshore workers.

Snow and Sleet Perspectives

By the time February past or present years arrives the river is a sheet of ice and snow. The ice chokes the river channels in every direction and regulates the speed of the winter boats to slow and tedious. A few vessels fight their way through the ice, pounding and grinding their way through the jumble of small and large cakes and occasional large bergs. In February 1901, a car ferry lies  abreast of the Michigan Central wharf surrounded by heaped and tumbled ice and as securely gripped as if it were pinned in dry dock. A freight train is aboard the car ferry and the car that extends into view is labeled “Refrigerator Car.”

Across the river near the Canadian shore  one of the Detroit & Windsor ferries attempts to reach shore without being frozen fast in the ice.  She weaves back and forth and sometimes retraces her steps working her way toward her goal. The Detroit & Windsor boats run on a thirty minutes time and they cross the ice crested waves like skiers racing down a slope.

In March 1901, Detroit city workers had worked their way through piles of snow and miles of city streets and dumped mountains of snow into the river. The snow was heaped into wagons, which back up to the wharves along the river front and deposit their loads into the river. If the quantity of snow dumped into the river was comparatively small, and if the weather was mild, the snow melted rapidly in the water and no harm was done. But during the exceptionally cold weather the snow froze into solid masses that formed an obstruction to navigation.

For this reason when the Detroit Board of Public Works began the operation of dumping snow into the river, the fire department protested against a monopoly of the Woodward Avenue wharf for that purpose, as if it was feared the fireboat would be impeded in case of a fire in that locality. Now the snow from the streets was deposited in the river from various points.

Snow and ice on the Detroit River aided the rumrunners during the decade of Prohibition on the river from 1920-1933. Enterprising entrepreneurs would strap on their skates, glide over to Canada, collect their plunder and glide back to American shores. Others  fashioned makeshift but profitable iceboats by attaching blades to the undersides of their skiffs and rowboats to haul their “freight” across the river.

The richer of the rumrunners sailed custom made ice boats, among the speediest in the nation, to take care of their rum running business. Fortunately for the rum runners and more ordinary consumers, the Detroit River froze over with some regularity during Prohibition days. A Detroit News reporter noted that on some Sunday nights the cars making the trip to Canada and back over the ice proved a superbly lighted super highway on the river when the drivers turned on their headlights.

Softly falling snow, stinging sleet and ice furrows on the Detroit River provide timelessness and a continuity that transcends generations. They give the Detroit River a recognizable face and personality that bridges decades as firmly as the Ambassador Bridge bridges the Detroit River.

 Southfield Dock Stocks and Bonds

In February 1962, skin divers searched the bottom of the Detroit River at the foot of Southfield for more than $15,000 worth of burglary money. A week earlier the divers recovered a stolen check protector and a box of checks after searching six hours in twenty feet of water. Still missing was $15,000 in negotiable stocks and bonds which two admitted burglars said that they had tossed into the water inside of a suitcase. The burglars were caught, but the money was never recovered.

by Kathy Warnes

George Behrling was born in Germany, March 30, 1823. He came to America in 1848 and settled in Wayne County. Since 1861he has lived in Ecorse, on a farm purchased at the time. He married Mary Mettie; they had two children, both died in infancy.

The 1880 census shows that several families from Prussia settled in Ecorse, including Christopher Volt, Henry Winter, Edward Lang, Henry Stubby, Frederick Smith and their families and the Jonks family.

John Boehle was born in Prussia, June 24, 1824. He came to America in June 1852 and settled in Detroit where he resided until 1857, when he moved to Taylor on a farm of 80 acres. In 1883 he purchased a farm of 100 acres in the town of Ecorse. He was a school director for three years. He married Minnie Grote of Detroit in August 1852. They had eight children:  Augustus, Mary, Emma, John, Henry, Minnie, Albert and Edward.

Alex Campau was born in a small frame house on West Jefferson in Ecorse in 1844. The second son of Mr. And Mrs. Alexis Campau, his Ecorse consisted of woods inhabited by Indians and a stagecoach making its first runs between Detroit and Monroe.

As a child, Alex went to a little frame school house on Salliotte Road, with a handful of boys gathering to learn ‘reading, ‘riting, and’rithmetic. But by the time he was eight years old, his father died and he had to quit school to work in the fields and help his mother in the house. She rented rooms to men who came to work on the laying of the first railroad line through the area – the old Lakeshore railroad. An Indian who was helping to build the railroad roomed at Mrs. Campau’s house and he took and instant liking to Alex and the two were fishing partners and bedfellows during the time the Indians stayed at the Campau home. Alex was still small when he sometimes rode the stage traveling to Monroe from Detroit. The driver was his distant cousin, and Alex found the hot and dusty ride to Monroe thrilling. He enjoyed the overnight stay in the inn, listening to the tales of fellow travelers and rose at dawn to make the long homeward ride. He married Adis Salliotte and they lived in Ecorse the rest of their lives. He is buried in St. Francis Xavier Cemetery. (Ecorse Cemetery)

Louis Cicotte, merchant and manufacturer of flour at Ecorse was born in 1812. His parents were born at Detroit and settled in Ecorse in 1815. They had a family of ten children. His father served in the War of 1812. In 1847, Louis married Fanny Beaubien who was born in Detroit 1826. They had seven children. Mr. Cicotte was a supervisor for seven years and constable, and custom home officer for twenty years. He erected his hotel in 1866 and owned a farm of 37 acres of land which he purchased in 1840 at $10 per acre.

Thomas Richard Drouillard was born in Ecorse Township in 1878 and lived in Ecorse all of his life.He and his wife Stella had a son Ari and three daughters, Mrs. Thomas Bourassa, Mrs. Wilbur Ray and Mrs. John Bartonic.  For many years he served as an Ecorse policeman.

He died on on July 12, 1950, at his residence, 4520 Monroe Street. His funeral was held on Saturday, July 16, 1950, from St. Francis Xavier Church and the Gallagher Funeral Home.   Elijah Goodell and Family. Family tradition says that the first Goodell in America was Robert Goodell who migrated to Salem, Massachusetts in 1634 from England where his family had fled in the mid 1500s to escape religious persecution in their native France. Tradition has it that these early French Huguenots changed the spelling of their family name from Goodelle to Goodell. Elijah Goodell and his wife Achsah Pickert Goodell and their family migrated from the Mohawk Valley in New York to Canada and eventually settled in Ecorse. The Goodell family’s log cabin home, one of the largest in Ecorse, served as a social, civic, and religious gathering place for the pioneer settlement. The Goodell family played an important part in Downriver history.

Abraham LeBlanc, a general farmer, was born at Ecorse, Michigan, October 17, 1820. His parents, Peter and Theresa Bourasson LaBlanc, settled at Ecorse in 1800. His father was born in France, was an extensive fur dealer, and fitted out for trading vessels. Abraham married Phyllis Perry in 1851. She was born in Canada. They had eight children. He owned 300 acres of fine farming land, and he was one of the active farmers in the Ecorse of his time.

John Baptiste Montie, 57, worked as a blacksmith. He and his wife Axie, 56, had a large family. According to the 1880 census they had five sons and a daughter. Elijah, 27, William 23, John, 21, and Francis J. 19, and Albert, 15. Emma was 17. The Montie sons were pioneers in the Ecorse Boat Club.

Allen Nowlin, 26, farmer and Maggie his wife, 24, lived in Ecorse. They had a year and a half old son, William.

Gustave Raupp was born in Baden, Germany, in 1848. His father was born in 1819, and came with his family to America in 1851, and settled at Brooklyn, New York, where his wife died in 1870, leaving four children, William, Mathais, Gustave, and Herman. William enlisted Co. H, 6^th Michigan  Infantry, reenlisted and died in Fort Donaldson in 1864.  Gustave married Selina Peyette in 1884. They had two children. He held the office of town treasurer one term and supervisor, two terms. In 1877 he established the business firm of Salliotte & Raupp, lumber dealers and manufacturers of stave and hoops. Salliotte & Raupp did an extensive shipping business, employing some 100 to 150 persons.

Alexis M. Salliotte was born in Ecorse township in 1837. His father, Moses Salliotte, was born at Ecorse in 1806. His mother Charlotte Cook Salliotte was born at Yorkshire, England. They had seven children. The grandparents settled at Ecorse in 1800. Alexis married May Rousson in 1867, who was born at Ecorse. They had  nine children.. Mr. Salliotte, in 1845, kept a grocery and general supply store. In 1859,  he manufactured boots and shoes. In 1877 he became a member of the firm of Salliotte & Raupp, engaging in lumbering and the manufacture of staves. In 1879 the mill was destroyed by fire, and a new steam saw and planning mill was erected with capacity of 50,000 feet in ten hours. They also had mills at Ashley and Lansing, Michigan, and were extensive shippers of pine lumber. Mr. Salliotte served as town treasurer one term, town clerk two terms and postmaster 16 years.

Joseph Salliotte, merchant and proprietor of the Ecorse flour mills, was born in 1840. He was the son of Moses and Charlotte Cook Salliotte. His mother died in 1856; his mother was born at Yorkshire, England. Joseph’s grandparents settled at Ecorse in 1800. His grandfather died in 1816, his widow in 1862. Joseph married Mary Moran, in 1862, who was born in Ireland. They had five children. He engaged in the butchering business in 1862, and in 1882 opened a general grocery and supply store. In 1884 he built his steam flour mill, roller process and was also engaged in farming. He served as the Justice of the Peace for eight years.

Charles Tile or Tyer was born in Ecorse, Wayne County, July 15, 1864. His father, Charles Tyer, came to America from Germany in 1863, and settled in Ecorse. He had one brother and five sisters:  John, Sophia, Mary, Eliza, and Minnie, who died May 7, 1888, aged 31. Charles married Sophia Smith of Ecorse in 1887.

by Kathy Warnes

Ecorse Officials Struggle to Write History

By Al DuHadway

Mellus Newspapers

Wednesday, April 28, 1976

Two Ecorse officials have undertaken a whale of a job as the city gets ready to observe the nation’s 200^th birthday.

City Assessor Elmer Labadie and Purchasing Agent James Lawrence are heading a committee that intends to publish a Bicentennial history book, but already they are learning that they have a job cut out for themselves.

Labadie’s roots go away back – his great, great grandfather, Alex Descompte Labadie-was granted land in what is now Ecorse in 1701. The land grant was issued by King Louis the XIV of France back in the days when all of the present day Downriver area was a part of theProvinceof Quebec in the colony of New France.

The two men are learning something this writer discovered many years ago-finding information about the historical old community does not come easy.

Almost30 years ago the late William W. Voisine, Ecorse mayor, named this writer the city historian- an unpaid position with no office space to store records or funds to acquire and preserve old maps, photographs or archives. In attempting to compile a history of the old community, researchers must depend upon local legends – often impossible to document- or try to gather historical tidbits from old land deeds, frequently handwritten in French.

Old photographs and maps must exist somewhere, but they probably are tucked away in attics where the present day owners are either unaware of their existence or reluctant to part with them.

The one single factor that hampers all researchers is the lack of written records. For example, it is known that a hamlet of sorts existed at present day Southfield and Jefferson before theUnited Statescame into being, and old timers have often theorized that explorers and missionaries may have halted along the shores as far back as 1679.

On July 24, 1701, Cadillac landed in what is now Detroit, and the French ruled the territory for the next 59 years before losing it to the British at the close of the French and Indian Wars.

Many of the descendants of the early day settlers trace their origins to the strip of ribbon farms that extended from as far away as Lake St. Clair to the present-day Wyandotte limits.

Following the War of 1812 when the British flag was hauled down for the last time the little settlement was known as GrandPort.

GrandPort, which existed before Michigan became a state, had streets which remain in their present location to this very day.

An 1820 map, located in the Burton Historical Museumin Detroit, gives an indication as to the age of the community by listing Revolutionary War era heroes as thoroughfares. Streets were named for Jefferson, Monroe, Webster and Jackson as well as French settlers St. Cosme, Labadie and LeBlanc.

In 1827, when Ecorse Township was established, the name Grandport faded from the picture and the settlement gradually became known as Ecorse.

It was not until 1902, more than a century after the first settlers landed on the shores, that Ecorse officials got around to incorporating as a village.

So, one can only rely on 74-year old written records to get an official version of the early day workings of the community.

Township records, which dated back for 131 years, were lost when Ecorse Township was dissolved in 1958 with the creation of Southgate.

In searching for information about Ecorse’s colorful past, Labadie is attempting to determine which is the oldest building in town. In his official capacity as assessor, he has access to records that date back to the earliest days of the Downriver area. Labadie has discovered what he thinks to be the oldest buildings in the Downriver area. They are the old San Succi farmhouse on Pepper Road, and an old brick dwelling located behind a drug store at West Jefferson and Labadie.

Mellus Newspapers

Wednesday, April 2, 1975

By Al DuHadway

Despite a building boom that has seen thousands of new homes and business places constructed throughout the Downriver area, there still can be found buildings that date back nearly a century.

In Ecorse, one of the oldest settlements in this part ofMichigan, hundreds of men and women patronize a tavern located in a building which has remained virtually unchanged for nearly 80 years.

Barrett Lafferty, veteran Allen Park city official, recently loaned the Mellus Newspapers a prized old photography which was taken in 1909.

This week, Frank Rogers, Mellus Newspaper staff photographer, stood on the same spot and with a more modern camera, snapped a picture of the same view.

Lafferty, a peppery Allen Park official, who is not afraid to reveal his age, is quick to point out that he was three years old when he stood in front of the camera on the front steps of his father’s general store.

The late Frank X. Lafferty was a power in Ecorse Township politics for generations and for many years ran the general store in the pioneer village.

As can be seen by the old picture, what is now busy Jefferson Avenue was once a narrow brick street with the rails of the Detroit United Railway interurban street car line running along the edge of the highway.

Lafferty recalls how the streetcars halted in front of the building for unloading of crates and barrels of merchandise that were offered for sale. Other things were shipped by freight cars on the old Michigan Central Railroad or by boat from Detroit. The cargo was unloaded either at the State   Street(nowSouthfield) dock in Ecorse or landing at the foot of Oak Street in Wyandotte. Teams of horses delivered goods to the inland farms which have long since become the bustling communities of Allen Park, Lincoln Park, Melvindale and Southgate.

Standing in front of the store is a delivery wagon which was pulled by the faithful old mare, Nance. “Dad operated the old time general store-the kind you see today in such places as Greenfield Village. He stocked everything you could think of, and if he did not have it he would order it for his customers.

“We delivered everything in those days but the final blow came when a woman called and wanted us to hitch Nance to the wagon and deliver a single spool of thread,” Lafferty recalled.

The elder Lafferty closed the general store but continued to operate a grocery and meat market. After his death, his son Charles ran the business until he joined the Ecorse Fire Department. Charles retired in 1974 as chief of the department.

The Lafferty family had a soft spot in their hearts for their faithful horse and recalled that she lived to be 24 years of age.

I’ll have to step a bit out of my professional/objective voice for this post because I’m asking for your help and I have a deep personal interest in this topic.

You probably know by now that the Ecorse Presbyterian Church was torn down a few years ago.  When I was growing up in Ecorse I remember looking at this memorial plaque that was posted in the old brick Presbyterian Church and wondering about the soldiers whose names are on the plaque.  I am especially interested in World War II because my dad and my two uncles fought in the Coast Guard and the Army and my grandmother had a set of World War II in picture books in the book case in her living room that I sat and read by the hour.

When the 1970s era Ecorse Presbyterian Church was built, the plaque was installed in the shelter of the side door. When I lived in Ecorse in 2004-2006 – I was writing my dissertation about Ecorse – I passed the plaque on Sundays on the way into church and the names still intrigued me. Finally, I am trying to find out more about the soldiers listed on the plaque, but it’s a long, time consuming haul.

I’m publishing what information I have alongside their names. If you are related to them or know someone that is, of if you have any information about them at all, would you please email me?  My email is kathywarnes@yahoo.com or kathywarnes@gmail.com.

I am planning to do as comprehensive of an article about them as I can with what information I receive.  These soldiers are an important part of Ecorse history and I think it would be a travesty if their names and their memories faded into obscurity.

Robert Whitefield, Jr.

Robert Whitefield Jr. was a private first class in the Marine Corps.

According to the World War II Casualty records on Ancestry.com,  Robert was killed in action and his mother Louise was listed as his next of kin.

The 1930 Census shows a Louise Whitefield, born about 1904. In 1930, 26 year old Louise was still living in Donora, Pennsylvania with her 30 year old husband, Robert, and their two children, Robert Jr., 7, and John,  3 ½.  Robert Sr. lists his occupation as a steelworker.

I still have to prove this – this is just speculation at this point – but I am thinking that since he was a steel worker, he may have been part of the migration of steelworkers who came to work at Great Lakes Steel Company in Ecorse in the years before World War II.  The Downriver Pennsylvania Club was founded by expatriate Pennsylvanians who came to Michigan to work in the mills.

Harry Morse, Jr.

Harry Morse, Jr. was a private in the Army. The Rosters of Michigan’s World War II Dead record on Ancestry.com says that he was killed on November 8, 1944 in the Mediterranean.

His American Battle Monuments Record:  Private U.S. Army

Lambert A. Pfeiffer, Jr.

Lambert Pfeiffer, Jr. was a corporal in the United States Air Force. He was killed on June 16, 1944. He is buried in Ft. McPherson National Cemetery in Maxwell, Nebraska.

The 1930 Census shows that Lambert A. Pfeiffer, Sr. was bon about 1899 in Kentucky and in 1930 he lived in Allen Park, Michigan with his wife Meta H. Pfeiffer and his children Lambert A. Pfeiffer, Jr. 6, and Robert D. Pfeiffer, 3.

Joseph Hargreaves

Joseph Hargreaves was an Ensign in the United States Navy from Ecorse, according to the Michigan Casualties, World War II, record on Ancestry.com.  He was killed on August 29, 1944. N,9-4-44 U.S. according to that record.

Sometime  serendipity happens!  I thought Hargreaves sounded and spelled English, but I had no way of knowing for sure. Then when I was doing preliminary research about Joseph Hargreaves I found this posting on a World War II website.

The posting was from England Phil and it said that he “was trying to trace any details of an American Airman killed in 1944 in what looks to have been a training accident.”

He said that Joseph Hargreaves was 20 years old and was the son of James Henry and Josephine Hargreaves who had emigrated to Michigan from Widnes in 1920.

England Phil said that at the time of his death Joseph Hargreave’s address was given as “31 East Josephine Street, Michigan, U.S.A. although I suspect that address is incorrect.”

The details that I do have is that his aircraft was involved in a mid air collision. I have a photo of him in a Naval uniform which is why I suspect that he was a Naval flyer.

Phil”

Other members of the World War II site discovered that James Henry Hargreaves arrived in New York on June 9, 1920, aboard the S.S. Baltic which depart from Liverpool. The immigration record stated that his wife was still living at 7 Travers St. Widnes, Lancs at the time he arrived and that he was going to Ford City, (Wyandotte later annexed Ford City) Michigan. He listed his occupation as Motor Attendant. His wife and two daughters joined him in Michigan in August 1920. Joseph Hargreaves was born in 1924.

Since I was not a registered member of the site, I couldn’t communicate directly with England Phil, but I I hastily sent an email to the webmaster asking England Phil to email me. I hope I hear from him so we can compare puzzle pieces about Joseph Hargreaves whose name is on the World War II plaque.

Fergus McMurdo

Fergus McMurdo or officially William S. McMurdo, was a Pfc in the Army who was killed on February 12, 1945 in France.

The 1930 Census shows that George McMurdo who was born about 1880 in Scotland now lived in Ecorse, Michigan, with his wife Elizabeth McMurdo and their children. Their children were James 24, Anna, 22, Charles, 20, Fergus, 18, George, 16, Peter, 12 and Robert, 8.

In July 1949, Reverend Leonard Duckett, pastor of the Ecorse Presbyterian Church, officiated at the reburial in Michigan Memorial Cemetery of Pfc. William McMurdo, the son of Mr. and Mrs. George McMurdo of Ecore. “Fergus,” as his friends and family called him, was killed in action on November 15, 1944 at Graylotte, France, after just fourteen months of service.

He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star. According to the citation issued by the War Department, McMurdo voluntarily made three trips through barbed wire entanglements to get grenades for his comrades who were trapped in advance trenches outside fortifications in the face of enemy fire. Later that day he was killed by enemy fire as he attempted to set up a machine gun.

I am hoping that you will send me enough information to do a very complete memorial article about these brave Ecorse soldiers.

Kathy

by Kathy Warnes

Romans fashioned holly into bright wreaths,

Honored Saturnia with its green leaves,

Christians decorated both hearth and home

With holly to avoid the wrath of Rome.

As Christian numbers began to increase,

They removed holly from the Roman feast,

Using it to decorate instead,

The stable and the Christ Child’s manger bed.

Druids wove holly in their hair to go

In the woods with priests cutting mistletoe.

British farmers draped holly on beehives,

And the bees hummed the Christ Child lullabies.

Germans used holly from church as a charm

To keep lightning strikes from doing harm.

They believed that holly on the bedpost,

Would entice sweet dreams to satisfy most.

Germans brewed a strong holly elixir,

To sooth a sore throat and a cough to cure.

These customs – both fortunate and folly,

Explain “deck the halls with boughs of holly.”

Today, holly signifies joy and peace,

I wish you holly that will never cease!

]]> http://ruthspangler.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/have-a-historical-holly-holiday/feed/ 0 ruthspangler holly http://ruthspangler.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/a-pitt-street-in-ecorse-christmas/ http://ruthspangler.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/a-pitt-street-in-ecorse-christmas/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:42:15 +0000 ruthspangler http://ruthspangler.wordpress.com/?p=895 Continue reading →]]>

by Kathy Covert Warnes

The fishpond in beside the Fire Department which was located in the old Ecorse City Hall.

Of the Covert tribe of eleven kids, nine of us  were born in Michigan, lived on Pitt Street in Ecorse and like our mother before us, we went to School One. I’m sure I’m not the only former pupil who remembers the School One teachers. Mrs. Pudvan  was my first grade at School One. Mrs. Trickey was my second grade teacher at School One, Miss Ouelette my third grade teacher, Miss Heater my fourth, Miss Christine McKenzie my fifth and Mr. Magnus Meier my sixth grade teacher.

 I remember walking to School One every day from the house at 4276 Pitt Street, down High Street across from the Trunk Factory, and across Cicotte Street. Then there were a long two blocks to cover past the old brick Ecorse City Hall and a stop at the fishpond by the fire station. Whenever I had a penny to spare, I threw it in to join the other pennies sparkling on the bottom of the pond and made a wish. After the fish pond, a quick dash across the single railroad track ( it’s still there) and a complete stop at the corner of Labadie and High where the Sixth grade safety patrol boys helped us get across High Street safely and into the school yard.

 My brother Joe is the center of one School One memory that we still laugh about. The day that Joe started kindergarten at School One, I was safely upstairs in Sixth grade. It wasn’t difficult to ignore the fact that yet another Covert brother was invading my school space until Joe decided to break my anonymity. He was a Mama’s boy and he definitely didn’t want to be separated from her during the day. He was crying when he arrived and he didn’t stop crying after our mother left.  Up in the sixth grade room, we could hear him crying all of the way from the downstairs kindergarten room.  “I want my Mommy,” he bellowed. “Mommy! Mommy!”

 I managed to concentrate on my history book – Mr. Meier taught us ancient history in the sixth grade, which was a blessing to me although a curse to many of my classmates. The volume of Joe’s crying continued to rise until the entire school could no longer ignore him. A frazzled teacher came up and knocked on the door of the sixth grade room. To my great embarrassment, Mr. Meier summoned me up to his desk and asked me to go downstairs and see if I could calm Joe down. Reluctantly, I went.  Instead of  a kind, soothing message, I told Joe that he was embarrassing me to death and he’d better shut up.

He didn’t.  Finally, the kindergarten teacher gave up and called my mom.  I knew it wasn’t a convincing position, but for weeks afterward I pretended not to know him.

 Another good School One memory is the class Christmas parties.  Mom baked Christmas cookies for us to take to school and helped me and my brothers pick out 25 cent gifts at Ben Franklin for our class gift exchange. But the most exciting event except for Christmas Eve was the Christmas party at the city garage. Our house onPitt Streetwas just across Benson from the city garage. I didn’t pay too much attention to it the rest of the year, but at Christmas it turned magic. You see, Santa Claus made an early stop at the garage on a Saturday early in December with a bag of gifts for the neighborhood kids. The day of his scheduled stop, I scouted out the place early. I was determined not to miss Santa and I was just as determined to ask him for a baseball. I knew that if I had a new baseball I could get my fellow six grader Bill to notice me during our baseball games in the vacant lot by his house. Maybe he would even walk me home from School One.

 This Saturday before Christmas, I did get to the garage early. In fact, one of the men running back and forth unloading a truck load of boxes asked me what I was doing there so early. “I need to talk to Santa,” I told him.

 “He’s not here yet. Come back in an hour or so.”

 I went home and hung around the kitchen with Ma for an hour or so. Then I went back. “Is Santa here yet?” I asked one of the men who was still unloading boxes.

 The man pointed to a door in the back of the building. “He’s combing his beard,” the man said. “Just get in line and you’ll be able to talk to him.”

 I didn’t get in line. Instead I ran to the door that the man had pointed out and threw it open. Santa Claus stood in front of the mirror combing his white beard. “I need a brand new baseball,” I said.

 “Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas,” he said, reaching inside of his bag. He not only gave me a baseball, he gave me a bat to go with it.  “Wait a minute, don’t you want me to wrap them up?” he asked.

 “I want them just like this,” I called over my shoulder as I hightailed it out of the garage. “Thank you for the best Christmas ever, Santa.”

 It was a good Christmas. We had pancakes for supper that Christmas Eve, because Mom said that she and Dad gave a lot of their money to Santa Claus for Christmas presents.  I ate my pancakes without a blink. I liked pancakes and I was so happy with my baseball and bat I would have eaten pancakes the rest of the year without complaining.

 That spring Bill and me and the rest of the neighborhood kids played baseball into the warm twilight evenings and he even told me that I was a good player. We went steady for a while that next fall and I was certain that the baseball and bat from the Ecorse municipal garage Santa helped our romance.

Alas, by the next Christmas, we had broken up.  Our romance proved to be as short lived as the gaily wrapped packages that Santa gave away at those Ecorse municipal garage parties. But the memories will last as long as  Christmas.

by Kathy Warnes

Clementine McCauley and her father, Captain Owen J. McCauley, were both born within the sound of Lake Michigan waves, and both retired toLake Michigan.

Clementine McCauley, principal of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Elementary School in Ecorse, Michigan, retired in June 1964 at the end of the school year, two years before she reached the maximum retirement age.

She taught continuously in the Ecorse Public Schools for forty years, beginning in September 1924 through June 1964 and spent twenty two of those years as a kindergarten teacher at School Two, fifteen years as principal of School Two, and three years as principal of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Elementary School.

Miss McCauley earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1937 and a Master of Arts degree in 1947, both fromWayneStateUniversity. Later she did graduate work atColumbiaUniversityinNew YorkandBostonUniversity.

Beginning her teaching career in Jonesville in 1920, in 1921 Miss McCauley taught inRapid River,Michigan. From 1922 to 1924 she taught inOwosso,Michigan, and came to Ecorse in September of 1924. While teaching in Ecorse, Miss McCauley continued her education and qualified herself as a clinical psychologist. During her principal ship she gave part of her time as a clinical psychologist and also administered a portion of the testing program throughout the system.

Upon learning of Miss McCauley’s decision, Ralph Brant, superintendent of schools, asked her to reconsider her decision to retire and to serve the two remaining years to the maximum retirement date. She declined and said that she wanted to retire now after serving 44 years in the educational field. She felt she deserved a real rest and she wished to turn her duties over to a younger person. Superintendent Brant accepted her resignation regretfully and expressed his deepest regrets that the children of Ecorse would have to lose such a devoted friend.

“I have never been more proud of an elementary principal than I have been of Miss McCauley during the three years she has served as the first principal of the newJohnFitzgeraldKennedySchool,” Superintendent Brant said. “She took the position in September of 1961 at my insistence because her experience and ability were needed at that school. I have been pleased and proud of the attitude that I have seen exemplified by the boys and girls in the school, which indicates the fine climate that she and her staff have been able to instill in the student body,” he continued.

Besides her duties as principal, Miss McCauley had to give up many other duties. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Rouge-Ecorse United Centers, and she served the Downriver Child Guidance Clinic for several years.After she retired, Miss McCauley moved to her family home inSt. Joseph,Michigan.

Miss McCauley’s hometown paper, the Beaver Beacon, which was published onBeaverIsland, commented on her retirement in July 1964. It noted that “former Islander Clementine McCauley, Principal of Kennedy Elementary School, Ecorse, was honored for having served there for 40 years.” One of the people attending the ceremony was Edward O’Donnell, president of Lincoln Products inLincoln Park. He had been her classmate onBeaverIsland and procured the Zoltan Sepsehy mural that hangs in theMarineMuseum there.

A story in the Lighthouse Digest in 1977 revealed more of the secret past of Ecorse principal Miss Clementine McCauley.In 1900, her father Captain Owen J. McCauley was a 31 year old assistant keeper in the United States Lighthouse Service. In December of 1900 her father was one of five people who spent 23 frigid hours on an overturned sailboat inLake Michigan.

Miss McCauley remembered that her pregnant mother, Mary, had stayed at home on BeaverIslandbecause she was waiting for her baby—Clementine herself– to be born. “If my mother had gone on that trip, I wouldn’t be here today,” she said.

On December 14, 1900, William H. Shields, keeper of the Squaw Island Lighthouse, northwest of BeaverIsland, decided it was time to shut down for the winter. The weather outside was so cold that it produced a dense, fifteen foot cloud of vapor over the lake. Keeper Shields turned off the light in the lighthouse and he and the other four members of his party climbed into the Mackinac sailboat that served the lighthouse for the nine mile trip toBigBeaverIsland.  Shields, his wife, her niece, Lucy Davis ofRichmond,Indiana, first assistant keeper Captain McCauley and second assistant, Lucien Morden of Montague, had no reason to think that the trip would be anything but routine.

They certainly weren’t worried about the Mackinac sailboat they were using. The open twenty two footer was standard equipment for the light keepers and was a two mastered gaffrigger with a jib, foresail and mainsail. Most of the people who used the Mackinac boat thought of her as an easily handled, centerboard boat, pointed at both bow and stern.

The wind blew moderately from the northeast and the fog lifted as they set sail. Keeper Shields estimated that the trip toBigBeaverIslandwould take two hours.Things went well for about ten minutes, but then the wind suddenly shifted into alternately steady breezes, then total calm. The calm suddenly turned into storm. The boat stood still in the water and the icy mists had evaporated when Assistant keeper McCauley saw a “puff of wind” from the north bearing down on them.

Captain McCauley yelled a warning to Shields at the helm, but the squall smashed into them before he could slacken the sails or turn into the wind. Unbalanced to one side, the Mackinac boat heeled over until the sails lay flat on the water.

Shields and his wife, Lucian Morden and Mrs. Davis landed in the lake, while Captain McCauley managed to scramble over the gunwale as the boat tipped. The men hauled the gasping and helpless women up to the centerboard trunk and then to a prone position on the side of the hull.  For the time being they were chilled to the bone, but safe.

The five stranded people didn’t have the strength to right the tipped Mackinac boat and it stayed on its side. Captain McCauley threw all of their belongings out of the cockpit to make the boat as buoyant as possible. The men used lines from the rigging to securely tie the women, but their feet and lower legs remained in the water.

Shivering violently with cold, the group huddled together and searched the horizon for a ship or point of land. The squall passed, leaving the air clear and the lake calm. The stranded group saw several fishing tugs throughout the day, but the distance was too great for the fishing tug crews to see them in the water. The Mackinac boat continued to drift south.

As darkness coveredLake Michigan, the stranded five saw the lights of the returning fishing tugs, but the tug crews didn’t hear their shouts. After about eight hours adrift in the lake, the two women froze to death and Lucian Morden, numb from the cold, lost his hold on the boat and slipped under the waves. Light keeper Shields and Captain McCauley clung to the side of the hull through the bitterly cold night. Shields suffered not only his own physical torment, but from the anguish of seeing the dead body of his wife dangling on a rope in the water below.

As dawn broke, the two survivors saw that they were no closer to land and not a ship was in sight. They were freezing and very hungry, and now a brisk southeast wind flung occasional gusts of snow at them. By late morning they had drifted far out into the ship channel and swung to the north. Captain McCauley saw smoke on the horizon, but then a snow squall blotted it out. He urged Shields to keep up his courage because he was certain that a steamer lay just to the north. Finally, a large ship, the steamerManhattan, a Gilchrist line steamer which was bound forManitowocwith a cargo of coal, moved broadside to the wrecked boat, blew four short blasts, hove to and lowered a boat.

Captain McCauley thought he might be hallucinating as he watched four oarsmen bring the life boat alongside. Captain McCauley boarded the life boat himself, but Shields had to be lifted, because he couldn’t walk in his half-frozen state. The crew removed the ice covered bodies of the women and rowed the lifeboat back to theManhattan. Both of the survivors were badly frozen, especially keeper Shields, and the next morning when the Manhattan arrived in Manitowoc, they were taken to the Hospital of the Holy Family

Keeper Shields had badly frozen hands and feet, and remained in the hospital for six months. The doctors had to remove one of his legs at the knee. After he left the hospital, the United States Lighthouse service appointed Shields keeper at the newly built lighthouse at Charlevoix and he served there until he retired in April 1924. He died in September 1925.McCauley was in better condition.  He was discharged from the hospital and arrived home at BeaverIslandDecember 26th.  Because of poor communications between Beaver Island and the mainland, Mary McCauley didn’t learn that her husband was alive until weeks after the Captain had been rescued and hospitalized.

Despite the fact that both Captain McCauley and Keeper Shields continued to keep lights for the Lighthouse Service, the United States government did not pay for their expenses while they were hospitalized at the Hospital of the Holy Family in Manitowoc. According to a Detroit Free Press story dated November 15, 1901, the United States comptroller said that under existing laws the government had no authority to pay the hospital expenses for Keeper Shields and first assistant McCauley. He added that the government had no legal obligation to provide for the care of sick or disabled officers or employees.

A native of BeaverIsland, Captain McCauley joined the Lighthouse Service in 1898 and after the near fatal accident in the Mackinaw Boat and his recovery, the government promoted him to principal keeper of Squaw Island Light. He kept the Squaw Island Light until it closed in 1928 and then the Lighthouse Service transferred him to the St. Joseph Light.  He kept the St. Joseph Light until he retired in 1936.

Captain McCauley and his daughter Clementine were staunch examples of the maritime tradition of BeaverIsland.

July 1940

• Attorney Howard E. Wood and Judge John V. Moldovan held open house in the building they occupied at 4438 West Jefferson, Ecorse. The building had been enlarged to give the Judge more court room space, besides a lobby and more office space for both men.
• Guy Pooley of Ecorse was president of the Downriver Chamber of Commerce and named new committee chairman. A resolution introduced by C.C. Ward at the meeting in Wabeek Inn, Wyandotte, was in regard to the “smoke nuisance in Detroit and Downriver” also to “oil being dumped into the Detroit River” and the “time traffic is blocked by freight trains across streets.”
• Robert Bichan assumed his office as Ecorse Township justice of the peace in July 1940, opening his office in his home, 23 West Josephine.
• Cheese sandwich anyone? Bread, two loaves for 15 cents, 29 cents for a 2 ½ pound package of cheese and spread the bread from the pound of butter at 30 cents, dab on some salad dressing from the quart at 19 cents.

Maybe a peanut butter sandwich from a two pound jar at 21 cents and a side dish of pork and beans from the five cent one pound can.

While lunching on sandwiches, preparations are underway in the kitchen for 6 p.m. dinner:  boned, rolled pot roast of beef at 26 cents per pound, potatoes, a peck for 28 cents, onions, five cents per pound, and carrots, two bunches for nine cents.  For dessert, freshly sliced peaches from the four pound bag that cost 19 cents and that was in July 1940.

• How about a spin in a used car after dinner? At Gilbert Motor Sales, a 1938 Olds was available for $149 down; 1939 Chevrolet, $147 down; and a Ford Deluxe also $147 down. That 1939 Hudson, 6 coach, was $149 down.
• Ecorse Township Clerk John R. Labadie, notified residents that the Township was to have “an alteration in the addition election precincts,” prepared for voting in the autumn of 1949.

Editorial- Roy Seavitt Retires From the Ecorse School Board

Ecorse Advertiser, June 16, 1949

Roy W. Seavitt has retired from the Ecorse School Board. After serving eight terms…twenty four years…on the Board of Education. He did not seek reelection and has retired from public life.

The Ecorse school system will miss Mr. Seavitt. A school man himself, he has been able to give valuable assistance to the development of the Ecorse School system.

For nearly a quarter of a century Mr. Seavitt devoted himself to improving the educational system of his own home town.

This, he was well qualified to do as for many years he has been an administrator in the Detroit school system with an excellent education and a thorough knowledge of business.

The present fine school system is due in great part to his interest in education and his determination to give Ecorse children the best possible educational advantages.

The task was often a thankless one as every school board member knows only too well.

Partisan criticism and spiteful accusations have been hurled at him as at other members of the school board, especially at election time. Instead of constructive criticism there was frequently the unreasoning criticism of malcontents.

Through it all, however, Mr. Seavitt retained his serenity and never deviated from his goal, the best possible educational system the city could achieve with the resources it had.

The Ecorse Board of Education will miss the experienced counsel and the devotion to duty which always characterized Mr. Seavitt.

His retirement from the Board is received with general regret.

Polio Epidemic,  1949

The Ecorse Advertiser of September 15, 1949, reported that Michigan had more cases of poliomyelitis in 1949 than in any previous year, even topping the previous all time high of 1,228 cases reported in 1940.

There were 144 deaths as compared to 116 reported in 1924, the highest for any year, and the epidemic was not over.

State health officials predicted that the number of cases for 1949 would exceed 2,000.

Because of the number of cases in Michigan and the nation in 1949, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and the Wayne County chapter practically exhausted their funds for hospital care.

Detroit and Wayne County were particularly hard hit in the present epidemic and the end was not in sight.

Nearly every Downriver community had some cases and probably would see more before the end of the epidemic.

There was no time to organize the great March of Dimes campaign which was scheduled for January. The money was needed immediately. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were desperately needed in Wayne County to care for people who were stricken in 1949.

“Give your aid in the emergency by sending in your contributions today. Your contributions may help someone you know,” the Ecorse Advertiser said.

Ecorse Businessmen’s Association

The Ecorse Advertiser of Thursday, December 1, 1949, reported that Louis Parker, city councilman and veteran civic leader, had been elected president of the Ecorse Businessmen’s Association at its annual meeting and banquet held at Ciungan’s Shrimp House. Louis Parker succeeded Charles Montroy, the outgoing president.

Over fifty members of the Businessmen’s Association attended the banquet. In addition to electing officers, the Association presented plaques to its six past presidents. These past presidents were Nick Stroia, Frank Butler, Stewart Frank, Earl Hebert Lambert Pfeiffer and the late James Pantages.

Other officers elected included Dee Helbig, vice president; John Banyan, secretary, and Pat Trondle, treasurer. On the board of directors will be Earl Hebert, Al Jaeger, Nick Stroia, Ormal Goodell, Frank Butler Newt Hawkins, Herb Smith, Stewart Evans, and William Voisine.

Obituary- Mrs. Emma Beaubien

Thursday, December 1, 1949

Services for Mrs. Emma Beaubien Toranjo, the oldest descendant of Ecorse and Detroit pioneer Beaubien family, were held Tuesday, November 29, 1949, at the H.F. Thon Funeral Home in Wayndotte and at St. Elizabeth’s Church in Wayndotte. Burial was in Mt. Olivet Cemetery.

Mrs. Toranjo, who was 97, died Saturday at the home of her adopted daughter, mrs. Nora Griffin, in Wyandotte.

She was the last os seven chidlren of George Beaubien, descendent of Jean Baptiste Beaubien, who arrived in Detroit in 1701 with Cadillac.

Besides her adtoped daughter she is survived by 14 nieces and hephews.

Library Christmas Party

More than 250 guests attended the Wayne County Library Union Council’s annual Christmas party at Ecorse Public Library on Sunday, December 11, 1949.

Following a program in the auditorium a smorgasbord dinner was served.

Chairman of the program which included dance numbers, music, and an address of welcome by Major W. Newton Hawkins was Mrs. Agnes Pauline   of the Plymouth Public Library.

Other speakers were the Reverend Leonard Duckett of the Ecorse Library Board and Walter Kaiser of the county library board.

On May 13, 1935, Miss Estelle Landers, 1157 Fifth Street, Wyandotte, found the ancient French pear tree still blooming after two centuries of fruitfulness, in the yard of William Goodell at 4265 West Jefferson Avenue in Ecorse.

The Pear Tree and the Goodell Homestead

The French pear tree that bloomed in front of the William Goodell house at 4265 West Jefferson and the various Goodell houses in Ecorse combine to make an intriguing puzzle that hopefully some Goodell family member can solve for the benefit of Ecorse history. A story in the Ecorse Advertiser stated the original Goodell homestead extended from Benson Street to Salliotte on both sides of Jefferson Avenue. Another Ecorse Advertiser story said that the old Elijah Goodell homestead still sits on Alexander Court close to the Detroit River and although it has been added onto and sided through the years, the original logs are still underneath its modern exterior.

A modern Google map shows that 4265 West Jefferson, now a tire store, is located between Bonanzo and Alexander Court well within the boundaries of the old Goodell homestead.  It is almost directly across Jefferson Avenue from  the corner of West Goodell Street and Jefferson Avenue where Miss Blanche Goodell’s home stood for many years. The City of Ecorse tore down Miss Goodell’s home in the 1970s.

The French Pear Tree Up Close and Personal

A Detroit News story dated May 13, 1935, addressed both the French pear tree and the William Goodell homestead. The origin of the French pear tree growing in front of the William Goodell house in Ecorse, Michigan, is also a puzzle that is lost in the mists of botanical history.  The Detroit news story noted that the French pear tree once again bloomed with snowy blossoms and that it had grown in the yard of William Goodell on West Jefferson Avenue for so many years that not even the oldest person in Ecorse knew its history.

The French pear tree in William Goodell’s yard in  Ecorse blossomed in early May and produced many symbolic and real bouquets of waxen flowers. The French pear tree grew to a height of approximately sixty feet and its trunk measured about three feet thick. Many people mistakenly identified the French pear tree as an oak tree because it so resembled hardwood.

The French pear tree yielded plenty of small, sugar, russet pears for harvest in the fall. In its best years produced fifty to sixty bushels of pears that had a distinctive flavor, tasting tart and yet sweet with a mellow and firm pulp.

The French pear tree had a distinctive bearing record. It rotated in three year cycles, each year producing more fruit than the least year. In the third year, the yield began to decrease and continued to do so for three years and then started increasing again. Frost did not seem to affect the French pear tree.

In 1935,  the Ecorse pear tree on William Goodell’s  property was one of just six in the Downriver area. One grew in Waterworks Park in Detroit, two in Lenawee County, and two across the Detroit River in Canada.

The French Pear Tree’s Debated Past

The historical and botanical records differ on how the pear tree came to the Downriver area.  Some records indicate that over two hundred years ago when French explorers voyaged through Southern Michigan seeking beaver and other furs and exploring rivers and lakes, they also discovered pear trees. Some historians argue that the Goodell pear tree is a native of Michigan and that the Indians cultivated it for generations. They introduced the old pear trees to their new French friends.

The argument for the French pear tree being a Michigan native is buttressed by the fact that the French pioneers recorded in old deeds, grants, and similar documentary evidence have died of old age. Did the old orchards that the pioneers planted eventually die out too, leaving only the French pears as survivors of that early time?

Other historians believe that the early French settlers brought the French pear trees to America with them because they resemble a similar kind of pear tree found only in France. Pears, like the Goodell family, have an extensive and cosmopolitan history.  Pears grown in English medieval gardens had French names , suggesting that their origins were probably French, while other kinds of pears were developed and cultivated in England. One of the favorite varieties of the old pears was grown in France and named for Saint Rule or Regul, the bishop of Senis in northern France.

It doesn’t take a leap of logic to picture the English branch of the Goodell family planting French pear trees in their orchards  and carefully tending them into long and productive lives. It is equally logical to picture the early French settlers carrying carefully bundled pear trees when they moved to their new homes in Downriver.

An Ecorse Advertiser story in 1935, about the widening of Jefferson Avenue continues the story of the Goodell French pear tree. The Advertiser story assured residents of Ecorse village that the stalwart old pear tree at the William Goodell home at 4265 West Jefferson would be spared in the forthcoming street widening .  Many people  were relieved to hear the good news about the Goodell pear tree that was older than the village of Ecorse.

At first officials thought that the grand old tree, believed to be well over 200 years old, would have to be cut down when the actual widening of Jefferson got underway.  Then they discovered that the tree came just barely inside the curb line, saving it from being cut down.

Rather than see the old pear tree lose its struggle for existence the Goodells planned to go to the extra expense of tearing down part of their house and moving it around the tree when they move the house back, when they bought their home back from the County, as they expected to do.

The survival of the old French Goodell pear tree for over two centuries was a vital connection to the days in Ecorse history when it stood by the Detroit River that flowed over the paddles of Indian canoes.  Today the Detroit River flows past industry, urban development and change, but it survives just as the Goodell French pear tree and the City of Ecorse has survived.