History of Wyandotte, Michigan
Encyclopedia
This article details the History of Wyandotte, Michigan
. Wyandotte has a long history, dating back for hundreds of years.
) followed Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac and the French
to Detroit, Michigan
and decided to settle along the banks of the Detroit River
. Here there was a stretch of high bank free from marshy front - offering easy access to the drinking water in the river, good fishing and hunting and providing access to Canada
to contact their friends and relatives, who had established in a village in the Amherstburg
region. The soil was fertile, sandy loam
, ideal for agriculture.
Their territory extended from the Gibraltar
and Flat Rock
region through present-day Wyandotte.
The Wyandotte were far from the enemy, protected by deep old growth forest
s, somewhat isolated from adjacent tribes, and on friendly terms with the neighboring white man - the village was not walled or palisaded. Government affairs were conducted in the Main Village, Gibraltar, the headquarters for the Council House, Achieves, and International Council Fires. The village was given the name "Maquaqua", or "Monguagon" in French.
Chief Walk-in-the-Water headed the Monguagon village. His totem sign was the turtle
(thus "Walk-in-the-Water"). A spacious lodge was built outside of the village on what is now the west side of Biddle Avenue some distance north of Trenton
.
Except for the intervening colonial war activities, when the Wyandots were forced through circumstances and treaty commitments with the Potawatomi
living in the Ecorse
area to engage in war against the English, the Wyandot Indians lived in peace with the few white farmers, exchanging products and favors.
The government, through a series of treaties, 1789
-1808
-1812-1842
, decided to push them farther west. Walk-in-the-Water petitioned that "they had peacefully cultivated the land they had lived on from time immemorial. They allege that they have built valuable houses and improvements on the land and have learned the use of the plow, etc., and they pray for a title which shall prevent their being dispossessed at the end of fifty years as provided by the act of Congress." In response to this plea, the government, in 1818, negotiated a treaty granting a tract of 4996 acres (20 km²) of land on the Huron River
.
People came to the city during the 19th century and through the war years. These men came from the New England
states and New York
after the close of the War of 1812
seeking new and richer farm lands which, it had been rumored, lay along the shore of the Detroit River.
, decided to vacation near Marquette, Michigan
, and became interested in the recently discovered iron ore of that region. Obtaining a specimen from the tract near Marquette owned by Mrs. Martha W. Bacon, he had the ore smelted and tested, which showed its superior quality. He returned to Detroit and interested his business friends, Captain Eber B. Ward, S. M. Holmes, R. N. Rice, U. Tracy Howe, John Hossna, some employees of the Michigan Central Railroad
, and other capitalist
s, resulting in the organization of the Eureka Iron Company on October 15, 1853. At first the group planned to erect a blast furnace
near the original tract of ore, but iron experts advised them to seek a more accessible location near a supply of fuel. They bought the Major Biddle estate of 2200 acres (9 km²) for the sum of $44,000. The tract had a river front of two miles accessible to transportation the year around and was plentifully supplied with raw material for charcoal.
Eber Ward, a builder of railroads, owner of rolling mills, mines
, transportation companies, shipbuilder, bank director, and landholder, headed the syndicate which negotiated the acquisition of the property and the laying of the foundation stones for the village of Wyandotte. From the abstracts of Wyandotte properties filed in the Wayne County Register of Deeds during the 1854-1856 period.
A group of men were chosen to assist him in the development of the village: Darius Webb and Lewis Scofield, builders of the Eureka blast furnace and rolling mill; John S. Van Alstyne, lawyer; Frank and Fitzhugh A. Kirby, shipbuilders; and Thomas McFarlane, superintendent of the Silver Smelting Works.
Eber Ward had selected Van Alstyne, who had been studying law in the Detroit office of Messrs. Barston and Lockwood, interested principals in the Eureka Iron Company, to handle the real estate matters of the new village. Mr. Van Alstyne was first assigned as manager for the company’s real estate holdings, and six months later was made manager of the company’s business.
. He designed one boundary line Front street as his beginning point. Streets running parallel to this Front Street were named according to numbers from First to the extent of the territory involved. Streets running horizontal to the numbered streets were named for trees and plants. The plat of the village thus assumed a checkerboard effect. The system spread throughout the New England
and Midwestern states.
The focal point became the Detroit River
, and the first street parallel became Front Street. This street was eventually extended and renamed Van Alstyne Boulevard in 1921.
city. At the time, Wyandotte was a flourishing industrial community. The Eureka Iron Company and the Rolling Mills dominated the Detroit riverfront and the residential community was spreading out westward to the railroad tracks. The new city boundaries extended from Grove Street on the south to Northline Road, and from the Detroit riverfront to the railroad tracks bordering the west.
Both the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company and Michigan Alkali Company were the principal industries in the subdivision. After an annexation vote of 30 yeas to 10 nays, the small unincorporated section became a part of Wyandotte on June 15, 1904.
, and from the Detroit River to approximately Seventeenth Street.
In 1902, the village was named in honor of J. B. Ford, President of the Michigan Alkali Company (now BASF
Wyandotte) and prominent citizen in local affairs. All was not going well in Ford City during its years of growing. The Michigan Alkali Company had spread out along the Detroit River into both Ford City and Wyandotte. Each municipally assessed and taxed the chemical company differently. Certain necessary services and utilities readily available in Wyandotte were not available in Ford City. The Michigan Alkali Company had strongly sought tax relief and expanded utility services and suggested merging the two communities.
was dedicated in 1923, containing a print shop, library, auditorium, natatorium
, lunchroom, music and public speaking rooms, and science laboratories. Manual training and college preparation were now possible. In addition, with the high school classes removed from other buildings in the city, the elementary and junior high schools were also able to expand their programs. Beginning in 1923, the Wyandotte Public Schools offered a complete kindergarten through twelfth grade curriculum.
Years of debate preceded the rebuilding of Wyandotte's public school system. One of the main concerns was overcrowding of classrooms. At the time, only three public schools existed in the city, and census figures projecting even greater enrollments for the already bulging schools. The School Board offered proposals that ranged from remodeling and enlarging existing classrooms to the building of new schools. Most proposals were not accepted by the community. Though a renovation of McKinley was approved in 1914, it did not solve the major problems closing in on the public schools. With the nation at war, it was difficult to interest citizens in building schools.
In 1921 when the cornerstone was laid, there were approximately 500 high school students in the community and the new school was being built to accommodate 1400.
and Italian
communities. The Wyandotte was also a Sundown Town
, resulting in a troubled history with African Americans.
to Detroit.
was considered as land for Indians and disease, but not much else. The infamous report by U.S. Surveyor General Edward Tiffin
in 1815 portrayed the Territory as a land of swamps and lakes not fit for human habitation. As a result of this, the western movement of settlers and the industry that always followed simply bypassed Michigan.
However in 1820, Territorial Governor Lewis Cass
instated a new survey that reported that Michigan land was indeed rich in natural resources, most suitable for farming and convenient waterways for transportation were to be found everywhere. With steamships on Lake Erie, land offices opened downriver and new federal roads from Ohio
; Michigan soon became more attractive to the prospective settlers.
The earliest influx of settlers into Michigan land came during the years 1830 to 1837 when over 140,000 came to the Territory prior to statehood. The majority of these were foreign born seeking farmland. In a matter of a few years, industry would develop in the state. New villages and cities would be established and a need for laborers would bring many more thousands of settlers into Michigan. The labor need was so great that immigrants would soon be invited to settle in Michigan.
had a large effect on Wyandotte.
With the start of the Eureka Iron Company and Rolling Mills in 1855, Louis Scoffield traveled east to hire workers who wished to settle in the new Village of Wyandotte. A large group of men and their families was assembled from Trenton, New Jersey
and Troy, New York
, many of them Irish immigrants. Prominent among them were James and Mary Mulfahy Cahalan, whose children would feature prominently in the city and local Democratic politics for the following century.
In 1857 St. Charles Roman Catholic Church was commissioned and built for the Irish, erected on land deeded to Right Reverend Lefevere by the founding French Fathers in Ecorse. This building was the first formal church structure in Wyandotte and it became the focal point of the Irish community in the city.
A larger brick church was begun in 1873, but a violent storm toppled it. At the same time, financial disaster swept over the town as a depression hit the Iron Mill and hundreds of Irishmen were out of work. The church was renamed in honor of St. Patrick, and it was completed and dedicated in 1884. A grade school was organized in the old church building in 1885 and by 1906 a large brick school building provided a Catholic education from primary grades into high school.
During the early 1860s, the Irish were the dominant immigrant group in Wyandotte.
The Ancient Order of Hibernians
was popular in the city. Through the A.O.H., many Wyandotters were encouraged to enter politics and business, and become active in civic affairs. As a result, many Irish families figure prominently in the history of Wyandotte. Dr. Richard Cahalan and his brother John C. Cahalan Sr. opened their first drugstore in the city in 1879. John C. Cahalan also served on the School Board, promoted the municipally owned water and electric plants, and was the spokesperson in the Downriver area for the Democratic Party, also holding the office of Tax Assessor of Wayne County, Michigan. As for his grandchildren, William Cahalan served as Wayne County Prosecutor and Wm. Leo Cahalan was on the bench as Circuit Court Judge, while Dr. Joseph Cahalan, known nationally as an internist and for his diagnostic skill, served for over forty years on the staff of the Wyandotte General Hospital (now Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital), where one of the hospital buildings was named in his honor shortly after his death in 2006.
immigrants. Captain Eber Ward, the Industrialist who founded Wyandotte, was a very religious man and insisted that workers in his employ be God-fearing family men.
The German migration into Michigan was in two distinct waves. The second wave of German immigrants came to Michigan in the years following The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, when again millions were forced out of their homeland, and from this group came Wyandotte's earliest German community.
In 1861 a group of families organized Trinity Lutheran Church, a Lutheran church with services conducted in German
, and within one year a new church-school building had been dedicated to serve the German Lutherans of Wyandotte.
The early German Roman Catholic families had attended St. Charles for several years, but they too wanted church services in German. In 1871, the St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church was built. Other churches for the German community followed as Wyandotte grew. St. John's Evangelical and Reformed United Church of Christ
was dedicated in 1872. Immanuel Lutheran Church was organized in 1894.
The Arbeiter Society (Worker's Society) was organized in 1872 to foster fraternalism among the German citizens of Wyandotte. The society proved extremely popular and membership was extended to any who enjoyed the camaraderie of the organization. The famous Arbeiter Hall was dedicated in 1891, and for many years served as Wyandotte's civic center for club meetings, weddings, dances, and athletic events. Wyandotters enjoyed world famous lectures, theater productions, concert artists, musical groups, sporting contests, and parades through the sponsorship of the Arbeiter Society. The Society disbanded in 1938, but the spirit of the organization was recently rekindled with the formation of the Downriver Germania Club in 1969 and the opening of Hans' Schnitzelbank in downtown Wyandotte.
migration to Wyandotte followed that of the Irish and German communities. During the 1890s, a large Polish community began to form in Wyandotte, with the bulk of those immigrants arriving in the first decade of this century. Then men found ready employment at the shipyard and chemical industries of the city.
Wyandotte's first Polish community settled on the west side of town just beyond the railroad tracks and north of Eureka Avenue. By 1896, this settlement was already known as Glenwood and was expanding rapidly as family after family built their homes and raised their children.
In 1899, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church was founded in Glenwood, a church conducting services in Polish
. A church building was dedicated in the following year. The church was built in the Italian Renaissance
style, with extensive marble, rich ornamental plaster and towering twin spires.
A second Polish community began to form around 1910 in what was then Ford City. This was located in the area north of Ford Avenue and east of the railroad tracks and in a smaller section north of Goddard Road and west of the railroad tracks. In 1914, St. Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic Church was founded for this new Polish community.
Another Polish settlement formed in the south end of Wyandotte and in 1925 St. Helena Roman Catholic Church was founded to serve them. Soon afterwards an elementary school was added to the parish. St. Stanislaus Kostka Church no longer maintains an elementary school in the city and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church offers a complete thirteen-year educational program
.
The Polish Roman Catholic Union (PRCU) and the Polish National Alliance (Dom Polski) are church-affiliated fraternal groups. Civic organizations include the Polish American Citizens Club and three Polish-Legion of American Veterans Posts. The Pulaski Memorial Park, named after Kazimierz Pułaski, the has served as a focal point of many Polish social activities throughout the years in Wyandotte.
Statistics show that in 1890 there were only 338 Italians living in Detroit and downriver, and by 1920 the number had swelled to 29,047. In 1914, a large group of Italian workers and their families were residing in what was then called Ford city. The community had formed in an area bounded by Antoine, Hudson, 2nd Street and the railroad tracks.
The families built large sturdy homes, and planted gardens. Many of those earliest family residences still stand as testimony to the skillful construction techniques shown by those first immigrant workers. Most of the families knew each other from Palermo, Sicily Italy
and interacted socially. During the summer evenings, the men could be seen playing Bocci (lawn bowling), and the card games "Scuba" and Briscola
.
In 1915, a concert band was organized. Maestro Pellegrino's Italian Ford City Band attracted musicians from ages 15 to 25, which included many brothers and cousins, like Joseph Deliz, Joseph & Paul Pagano, Jim & Sam Vitale, Tony Cottone, Bill Consiglio, just to name a few, and in a relatively short time the new musical group was presenting concerts for the entire community to enjoy. The camaraderie engendered by the band also gave birth to two early Italian social organizations. The San Guiseppi Society was a club that assisted many newly arrived Italian immigrants, and helped them transition to the American way of life. The Santa Fara group was formed in Wyandotte during 1924, named after the patron saint of the small Sicilian village of Cinisi. In order to become a member, one must be a "Cinisarii" or be married to one.
Other organizations were formed over the years to serve the Italian community. In the 1930s, the Non-Partisan Progressive Club was organized. One of the first projects of this club was the re-creation of the former Pellegrino Band. They also staged a war bond drive in early 1945. Americans of Italian descent in Wayne County, under the leadership of Anthony D'Anna of Wyandotte, raised $16,000,000 to build a ship. The U.S.S. Cosselin was commissioned October 19, 1945, in memory of Seaman Joseph Polizzi, an Italian-American from Detroit killed earlier during the war. The Non-Partisan Club lasted until 1949.
In 1970 fourteen members, many who were part of the Italian Ford City Band, organized a new Italian organization, the Downriver Italian club. Five years later the group contained over 440 members.
for decades. Sociologist and historian James Loewen charts the course of segregation in Wyandotte, Mich. in his book "Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism" . Loewen documents a variety of cases of racism involving African American in Wyandotte over the decades: In the early 1870s, whites there drove out a black barber; in 1881 and 1888, they expelled the town's black hotel workers; in 1907, four white men beat and robbed a black man at the train station; nine years later, a mob of white townspeople "bombarded" a boardinghouse, driving out all the African Americans and killing one. "In the 1940s," Loewen writes, "police arrested or warned African Americans for 'loitering suspiciously in the business district' or being in the park, and white children stoned African American children in front of Roosevelt High School." In the early 1950s, a University of Pennsylvania professor who grew up in Wyandotte told him, all the members of a black family who moved into town ended up dead.
When the Wyandots abandoned their village in 1818 by treaty and moved to nearby Flat Rock
, their cabins remained and were used by the earliest white settlers coming into the area. John Clark
, a merchant from New York, came to the village in 1818. He and his family moved into a vacated log cabin that allegedly had been the home of Chief Blue Jacket. That cabin stood near the Detroit River at a point between present day Plum and Grove Streets.
was the first white man to establish a permanent residence on land that was to become the City of Wyandotte. He had purchased 2200 acres (9 km²) of land from the federal government in 1818. The wooded section by the river inspired the Major to become a farmer much in the manner of George Washington
at Mount Vernon
. He also built a summer estate. The buildings were completed around 1835, and he named his estate “Wyandotte” after the Indians who were still living in the area.
The Biddle house stood slightly behind the present residence located at 2610 Biddle Avenue. The structure faced east and the front grounds sloped gently towards the river. The palatial home had a wide veranda running its full length, with Corinthian
columns reaching to the second story. To the rear of the structure an extension was attached for housing farmhands. Further back behind the mansion were sheds and a large barn. Surrounding the entire estate were shrubs and flower beds much in the style of an English park. Early accounts showed that servants and laborers at the Biddle home included run-away slaves and Wyandot Indians.
The Biddle family occupied the estate until 1848. In 1854, Major Biddle sold his entire estate holdings and land to Captain Eber Ward, founder of the Eureka Iron Company and the Village of Wyandotte. In the earliest days of the village, the Biddle mansion was used as a boarding house for workers and a roadhouse for stagecoach passengers. In the late 1860s, a fire destroyed most of the original structure. Only a small front section remained intact and usable. A Thomas Watkins purchased the remnant and moved the home between Cedar and Spruce Streets. The house was turned gable end towards the Detroit River and rebuilt. This home presently stands at 2116 Biddle Avenue and is a link to Wyandotte’s earliest permanent residence.
Glass chandeliers, cherrywood and silver fixtures, mahogany paneling and trim, and tapestried wall coverings were blended together throughout the home. The six bathrooms were complete with toilets, washbasins of marble and gold fixtures, and full bathtubs. Lighting fixtures were fitted for both electricity and gas. The gas was manufactured on the premises. The residence was heated with steam, and this offered an additional convenience item to the household that was unique for the period-an automatic clothes dryer in the basement and a complete steam-cleaning facility. The large tiled refrigerator near the kitchen was built to receive ice from an outside opening. Servant quarters were on the third floor along with the cedar lined storage room,, observatory tower stairway, and huge unfinished attic that could have been a ballroom.
Mark and Mary Bacon (granddaughter of Captain J. B. Ford) resided in the home from 1903 to 1939. In 1942, the residence was given to the Wyandotte Board of Education for use as a public library. In 1962, the Mary Ford and Mark Reeves Bacon Memorial Room was added to the rear of the building.
ended in 1945, many GIs returned to Wyandotte seeking work and a home of their own. This created a tremendous need within the city for additional housing units. With convenient government loans and mass production techniques, hundreds of homes were built in the city, most on open farmlands in the west end of Wyandotte.
The original GI homes of the 1945-50 era were unique in several ways. The plain uniformity of style and building materials prompted numerous citizens to remark, “the only difference between houses is the street number”. Because of the shortages of building materials following the war, many homes had wooden rain gutters and a single color paint was used throughout the interior. The basic unit had two small bedrooms, a block basement with a gas furnace, an unfinished upstairs, and a 30-foot (10 m) to 40-foot (13 m) lot without a garage, fence or sidewalk. These functional but simple homes were built all over the city for the returning servicemen.
Over the years, most of these war production homes have been individualized and modernized, and today they command three to four times their original market value. They are now a major residential household style in Wyandotte.
Wyandotte, Michigan
Wyandotte is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 25,883 at the 2010 census, a decrease of 7.6% from 2000. Wyandotte is located in southeastern Michigan, approximately south of Detroit on the Detroit River, and is part of the collection of communities known as...
. Wyandotte has a long history, dating back for hundreds of years.
Early Native American presence
Around 1732, the Wyandot Indians (Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
) followed Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac and the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
and decided to settle along the banks of the Detroit River
Detroit River
The Detroit River is a strait in the Great Lakes system. The name comes from the French Rivière du Détroit, which translates literally as "River of the Strait". The Detroit River has served an important role in the history of Detroit and is one of the busiest waterways in the world. The river...
. Here there was a stretch of high bank free from marshy front - offering easy access to the drinking water in the river, good fishing and hunting and providing access to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to contact their friends and relatives, who had established in a village in the Amherstburg
Amherstburg, Ontario
Amherstburg is a Canadian town near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County, Ontario. It is approximately south of the U.S...
region. The soil was fertile, sandy loam
Loam
Loam is soil composed of sand, silt, and clay in relatively even concentration . Loam soils generally contain more nutrients and humus than sandy soils, have better infiltration and drainage than silty soils, and are easier to till than clay soils...
, ideal for agriculture.
Their territory extended from the Gibraltar
Gibraltar, Michigan
Gibraltar is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,656 at the 2010 census. It is located on the Detroit River directly south of, and adjacent to, Trenton.-Geography:...
and Flat Rock
Flat Rock, Michigan
- Racial makeup :As of the census of 2000, there were 8,488 people, 3,181 households, and 2,306 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,266.9 per square mile . There were 3,291 housing units at an average density of 491.2 per square mile...
region through present-day Wyandotte.
The Wyandotte were far from the enemy, protected by deep old growth forest
Old growth forest
An old-growth forest is a forest that has attained great age , and thereby exhibits unique ecological features. An old growth forest has also usually reached a climax community...
s, somewhat isolated from adjacent tribes, and on friendly terms with the neighboring white man - the village was not walled or palisaded. Government affairs were conducted in the Main Village, Gibraltar, the headquarters for the Council House, Achieves, and International Council Fires. The village was given the name "Maquaqua", or "Monguagon" in French.
Chief Walk-in-the-Water headed the Monguagon village. His totem sign was the turtle
Turtle
Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...
(thus "Walk-in-the-Water"). A spacious lodge was built outside of the village on what is now the west side of Biddle Avenue some distance north of Trenton
Trenton, Michigan
Trenton is a small city in Wayne County in the southeast portion of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 18,853...
.
Except for the intervening colonial war activities, when the Wyandots were forced through circumstances and treaty commitments with the Potawatomi
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...
living in the Ecorse
Ecorse, Michigan
Ecorse is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan, named for the Ecorse River. The population was 9,512 at the 2010 census.-History:...
area to engage in war against the English, the Wyandot Indians lived in peace with the few white farmers, exchanging products and favors.
The government, through a series of treaties, 1789
Treaty of Fort Harmar
The Treaty of Fort Harmar was an agreement between the United States government and numerous Native American tribes with claims to the Ohio Country. it was signed at Fort Harmar, near present-day Marietta, Ohio, on January 9, 1789. Representatives of the Six Nations and other groups including the...
-1808
Treaty of Brownstown
The Treaty of Brownstown was between the United States and the Council of Three Fires , Wyandott, and Shawanoese Indian Nations...
-1812-1842
Treaty of La Pointe
The Treaty of La Pointe may refer to either of two treaties made and signed in La Pointe, Wisconsin between the United States and the Ojibwe Native American peoples...
, decided to push them farther west. Walk-in-the-Water petitioned that "they had peacefully cultivated the land they had lived on from time immemorial. They allege that they have built valuable houses and improvements on the land and have learned the use of the plow, etc., and they pray for a title which shall prevent their being dispossessed at the end of fifty years as provided by the act of Congress." In response to this plea, the government, in 1818, negotiated a treaty granting a tract of 4996 acres (20 km²) of land on the Huron River
Huron River (Michigan)
The Huron River is a river in southeastern Michigan, rising out of the Huron Swamp in Indian Springs Metropark in northern Oakland County and flowing into Lake Erie on the boundary between Wayne County and Monroe County...
.
The first settler
Contemporary citizens have named Major Biddle the first white settler in Wyandotte, though there had been white farmers living in the territory before he established his home here.People came to the city during the 19th century and through the war years. These men came from the New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
states and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
after the close of the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
seeking new and richer farm lands which, it had been rumored, lay along the shore of the Detroit River.
A village is born
One summer, Mr. Philip Thurber, an insurance agent in DetroitDetroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, decided to vacation near Marquette, Michigan
Marquette, Michigan
Marquette is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Marquette County. The population was 21,355 at the 2010 census, making it the most populated city of the Upper Peninsula. Marquette is a major port on Lake Superior, primarily for shipping iron ore and is the home of Northern...
, and became interested in the recently discovered iron ore of that region. Obtaining a specimen from the tract near Marquette owned by Mrs. Martha W. Bacon, he had the ore smelted and tested, which showed its superior quality. He returned to Detroit and interested his business friends, Captain Eber B. Ward, S. M. Holmes, R. N. Rice, U. Tracy Howe, John Hossna, some employees of the Michigan Central Railroad
Michigan Central Railroad
The Michigan Central Railroad was originally incorporated in 1846 to establish rail service between Detroit, Michigan and St. Joseph, Michigan. The railroad later operated in the states of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois in the United States, and the province of Ontario in Canada...
, and other capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
s, resulting in the organization of the Eureka Iron Company on October 15, 1853. At first the group planned to erect a blast furnace
Blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...
near the original tract of ore, but iron experts advised them to seek a more accessible location near a supply of fuel. They bought the Major Biddle estate of 2200 acres (9 km²) for the sum of $44,000. The tract had a river front of two miles accessible to transportation the year around and was plentifully supplied with raw material for charcoal.
Eber Ward, a builder of railroads, owner of rolling mills, mines
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
, transportation companies, shipbuilder, bank director, and landholder, headed the syndicate which negotiated the acquisition of the property and the laying of the foundation stones for the village of Wyandotte. From the abstracts of Wyandotte properties filed in the Wayne County Register of Deeds during the 1854-1856 period.
A group of men were chosen to assist him in the development of the village: Darius Webb and Lewis Scofield, builders of the Eureka blast furnace and rolling mill; John S. Van Alstyne, lawyer; Frank and Fitzhugh A. Kirby, shipbuilders; and Thomas McFarlane, superintendent of the Silver Smelting Works.
Eber Ward had selected Van Alstyne, who had been studying law in the Detroit office of Messrs. Barston and Lockwood, interested principals in the Eureka Iron Company, to handle the real estate matters of the new village. Mr. Van Alstyne was first assigned as manager for the company’s real estate holdings, and six months later was made manager of the company’s business.
Annexations
The village of Maquaqua was the beginning of the present community, and became the nucleus of the City of Wyandotte, Michigan. Historians tell that the Wyandots built their village in 1732.The Village of Wyandotte chartered
The streets of the village were modeled after those in Philadelphia, which originated with William PennWilliam Penn
William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful...
. He designed one boundary line Front street as his beginning point. Streets running parallel to this Front Street were named according to numbers from First to the extent of the territory involved. Streets running horizontal to the numbered streets were named for trees and plants. The plat of the village thus assumed a checkerboard effect. The system spread throughout the New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
and Midwestern states.
The focal point became the Detroit River
Detroit River
The Detroit River is a strait in the Great Lakes system. The name comes from the French Rivière du Détroit, which translates literally as "River of the Strait". The Detroit River has served an important role in the history of Detroit and is one of the busiest waterways in the world. The river...
, and the first street parallel became Front Street. This street was eventually extended and renamed Van Alstyne Boulevard in 1921.
City of Wyandotte incorporated
On April 8, 1867, the Village of Wyandotte was incorporated as a home ruleHome rule
Home rule is the power of a constituent part of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government....
city. At the time, Wyandotte was a flourishing industrial community. The Eureka Iron Company and the Rolling Mills dominated the Detroit riverfront and the residential community was spreading out westward to the railroad tracks. The new city boundaries extended from Grove Street on the south to Northline Road, and from the Detroit riverfront to the railroad tracks bordering the west.
South Detroit subdivision annexed
A small unincorporated portion of Ecorse Township lay to the south of Wyandotte. The section extended from Grove Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, and eastward from the railroad tracks to the Detroit riverfront. During the 1890s land promoters had planned the site as a future residential park. Riverboat excursions and promises of tax amnesties lured home buyers to the subdivision.Both the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company and Michigan Alkali Company were the principal industries in the subdivision. After an annexation vote of 30 yeas to 10 nays, the small unincorporated section became a part of Wyandotte on June 15, 1904.
The Village of Ford City annexed
In 1922, The Village of Ford City, which lay to the north of Wyandotte, was annexed. The annexed area extended from Northline Road to the Ecorse CreekEcorse River
The Ecorse River is an river in southern Michigan. Because of its small size, it is often identified as Ecorse Creek. It flows through the Downriver section of Metro Detroit, and is a tributary of the Detroit River. The early French settlers named it the Rivière aux Écorces, meaning the "bark...
, and from the Detroit River to approximately Seventeenth Street.
In 1902, the village was named in honor of J. B. Ford, President of the Michigan Alkali Company (now BASF
BASF
BASF SE is the largest chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Germany. BASF originally stood for Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik . Today, the four letters are a registered trademark and the company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, and Zurich Stock...
Wyandotte) and prominent citizen in local affairs. All was not going well in Ford City during its years of growing. The Michigan Alkali Company had spread out along the Detroit River into both Ford City and Wyandotte. Each municipally assessed and taxed the chemical company differently. Certain necessary services and utilities readily available in Wyandotte were not available in Ford City. The Michigan Alkali Company had strongly sought tax relief and expanded utility services and suggested merging the two communities.
Unincorporated Ecorse Township annexed
During a period of feverish merger and annexation activity in the metropolitan Detroit area, foresighted citizens of Wyandotte looked west to an unincorporated section of Ecorse Township. The area extended north of Eureka Avenue to Seventeenth Street to Fort Street, and from Pennsylvania north to Goddard Road. This village of Lincoln Park wooed the citizens of the area and wanted to add them to their growing community. Wyandotters realized the wisdom of extending their western boundary to include land for future residential housing, and election totals for the vote on the merger showed 3,066 yeas to 573 nays. On April 14, 1924, a large section of Ecorse Township was annexed to Wyandotte.Life on the Detroit River
In 1854 the Detroit River served as the highway that brought men and materials to build Wyandotte industries and homes, but generations of Wyandotters would also depend on the river for food and fresh water.Schools
Since 1855 twenty-five separate public school buildings have served the Wyandotte community.Theodore Roosevelt High School
Theodore Roosevelt High SchoolTheodore Roosevelt High School (Wyandotte)
for schools of the same nameTheodore Roosevelt High School, also known as RHS or Roosevelt, or also Wyandotte High by alumni, is the secondary school in Wyandotte, Michigan. Established in 1923, RHS is the only public high school in the city of Wyandotte. Its mascot is the Bear, with athletic...
was dedicated in 1923, containing a print shop, library, auditorium, natatorium
Natatorium
A natatorium is a term given for a building containing a swimming pool. In Latin, a cella natatoria was a swimming pool in its own building, although it is sometimes also used to refer to any indoor pool even if not housed in a dedicated building...
, lunchroom, music and public speaking rooms, and science laboratories. Manual training and college preparation were now possible. In addition, with the high school classes removed from other buildings in the city, the elementary and junior high schools were also able to expand their programs. Beginning in 1923, the Wyandotte Public Schools offered a complete kindergarten through twelfth grade curriculum.
Years of debate preceded the rebuilding of Wyandotte's public school system. One of the main concerns was overcrowding of classrooms. At the time, only three public schools existed in the city, and census figures projecting even greater enrollments for the already bulging schools. The School Board offered proposals that ranged from remodeling and enlarging existing classrooms to the building of new schools. Most proposals were not accepted by the community. Though a renovation of McKinley was approved in 1914, it did not solve the major problems closing in on the public schools. With the nation at war, it was difficult to interest citizens in building schools.
In 1921 when the cornerstone was laid, there were approximately 500 high school students in the community and the new school was being built to accommodate 1400.
Woodruff Elementary
Woodruff Elementary School was located on St. Johns Street, on top of a still-existing salt mine. Homes now occupy this location.Ethnicities
Wyandotte has been impacted by many nationalities, most notably the German, Polish, IrishIrish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
and Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
communities. The Wyandotte was also a Sundown Town
Sundown town
A sundown town is a town that is or was purposely all-White. The term is widely used in the United States in areas from Ohio to Oregon and well into the South. The term came from signs that were allegedly posted stating that people of color had to leave the town by sundown...
, resulting in a troubled history with African Americans.
Early French influences downriver
The French settled Detroit in 1701 when they established a fort to extend their fur trade empire into the Great Lakes region. They brought a military social organization and a definite French way of life with them. Evidences still remain of this early French influence downriver. Streets and boundary lines, measured long ago in arpents to establish habitant farm grants, are in use today in Detroit and nearby Ecorse. A notable contribution of the French was the introduction of the Roman Catholic ChurchRoman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
to Detroit.
The Immigrant comes to Michigan
In the early 19th century, the Michigan TerritoryMichigan Territory
The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan...
was considered as land for Indians and disease, but not much else. The infamous report by U.S. Surveyor General Edward Tiffin
Edward Tiffin
Edward Tiffin was a Democratic-Republican politician from Ohio, and first Governor of the state.-Biography:Sources indicate that he was born in Carlisle; however he may have been born in or near Workington — also in the then county of Cumberland, England...
in 1815 portrayed the Territory as a land of swamps and lakes not fit for human habitation. As a result of this, the western movement of settlers and the industry that always followed simply bypassed Michigan.
However in 1820, Territorial Governor Lewis Cass
Lewis Cass
Lewis Cass was an American military officer and politician. During his long political career, Cass served as a governor of the Michigan Territory, an American ambassador, a U.S. Senator representing Michigan, and co-founder as well as first Masonic Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Michigan...
instated a new survey that reported that Michigan land was indeed rich in natural resources, most suitable for farming and convenient waterways for transportation were to be found everywhere. With steamships on Lake Erie, land offices opened downriver and new federal roads from Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
; Michigan soon became more attractive to the prospective settlers.
The earliest influx of settlers into Michigan land came during the years 1830 to 1837 when over 140,000 came to the Territory prior to statehood. The majority of these were foreign born seeking farmland. In a matter of a few years, industry would develop in the state. New villages and cities would be established and a need for laborers would bring many more thousands of settlers into Michigan. The labor need was so great that immigrants would soon be invited to settle in Michigan.
The Irish American in Wyandotte
The Irish diasporaIrish diaspora
thumb|Night Train with Reaper by London Irish artist [[Brian Whelan]] from the book Myth of Return, 2007The Irish diaspora consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa,...
had a large effect on Wyandotte.
With the start of the Eureka Iron Company and Rolling Mills in 1855, Louis Scoffield traveled east to hire workers who wished to settle in the new Village of Wyandotte. A large group of men and their families was assembled from Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...
and Troy, New York
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
, many of them Irish immigrants. Prominent among them were James and Mary Mulfahy Cahalan, whose children would feature prominently in the city and local Democratic politics for the following century.
In 1857 St. Charles Roman Catholic Church was commissioned and built for the Irish, erected on land deeded to Right Reverend Lefevere by the founding French Fathers in Ecorse. This building was the first formal church structure in Wyandotte and it became the focal point of the Irish community in the city.
A larger brick church was begun in 1873, but a violent storm toppled it. At the same time, financial disaster swept over the town as a depression hit the Iron Mill and hundreds of Irishmen were out of work. The church was renamed in honor of St. Patrick, and it was completed and dedicated in 1884. A grade school was organized in the old church building in 1885 and by 1906 a large brick school building provided a Catholic education from primary grades into high school.
During the early 1860s, the Irish were the dominant immigrant group in Wyandotte.
The Ancient Order of Hibernians
Ancient Order of Hibernians
The Ancient Order of Hibernians is an Irish Catholic fraternal organization. Members must be Catholic and either Irish born or of Irish descent. Its largest membership is now in the United States, where it was founded in New York City in 1836...
was popular in the city. Through the A.O.H., many Wyandotters were encouraged to enter politics and business, and become active in civic affairs. As a result, many Irish families figure prominently in the history of Wyandotte. Dr. Richard Cahalan and his brother John C. Cahalan Sr. opened their first drugstore in the city in 1879. John C. Cahalan also served on the School Board, promoted the municipally owned water and electric plants, and was the spokesperson in the Downriver area for the Democratic Party, also holding the office of Tax Assessor of Wayne County, Michigan. As for his grandchildren, William Cahalan served as Wayne County Prosecutor and Wm. Leo Cahalan was on the bench as Circuit Court Judge, while Dr. Joseph Cahalan, known nationally as an internist and for his diagnostic skill, served for over forty years on the staff of the Wyandotte General Hospital (now Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital), where one of the hospital buildings was named in his honor shortly after his death in 2006.
German-Americans in Wyandotte
Among the early laborers at the Eureka Iron Company and Rolling Mill were a large group of GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
immigrants. Captain Eber Ward, the Industrialist who founded Wyandotte, was a very religious man and insisted that workers in his employ be God-fearing family men.
The German migration into Michigan was in two distinct waves. The second wave of German immigrants came to Michigan in the years following The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, when again millions were forced out of their homeland, and from this group came Wyandotte's earliest German community.
In 1861 a group of families organized Trinity Lutheran Church, a Lutheran church with services conducted in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and within one year a new church-school building had been dedicated to serve the German Lutherans of Wyandotte.
The early German Roman Catholic families had attended St. Charles for several years, but they too wanted church services in German. In 1871, the St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church was built. Other churches for the German community followed as Wyandotte grew. St. John's Evangelical and Reformed United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
was dedicated in 1872. Immanuel Lutheran Church was organized in 1894.
The Arbeiter Society (Worker's Society) was organized in 1872 to foster fraternalism among the German citizens of Wyandotte. The society proved extremely popular and membership was extended to any who enjoyed the camaraderie of the organization. The famous Arbeiter Hall was dedicated in 1891, and for many years served as Wyandotte's civic center for club meetings, weddings, dances, and athletic events. Wyandotters enjoyed world famous lectures, theater productions, concert artists, musical groups, sporting contests, and parades through the sponsorship of the Arbeiter Society. The Society disbanded in 1938, but the spirit of the organization was recently rekindled with the formation of the Downriver Germania Club in 1969 and the opening of Hans' Schnitzelbank in downtown Wyandotte.
Polish-Americans in Wyandotte
The PolishPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
migration to Wyandotte followed that of the Irish and German communities. During the 1890s, a large Polish community began to form in Wyandotte, with the bulk of those immigrants arriving in the first decade of this century. Then men found ready employment at the shipyard and chemical industries of the city.
Wyandotte's first Polish community settled on the west side of town just beyond the railroad tracks and north of Eureka Avenue. By 1896, this settlement was already known as Glenwood and was expanding rapidly as family after family built their homes and raised their children.
In 1899, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church was founded in Glenwood, a church conducting services in Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
. A church building was dedicated in the following year. The church was built in the Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
style, with extensive marble, rich ornamental plaster and towering twin spires.
A second Polish community began to form around 1910 in what was then Ford City. This was located in the area north of Ford Avenue and east of the railroad tracks and in a smaller section north of Goddard Road and west of the railroad tracks. In 1914, St. Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic Church was founded for this new Polish community.
Another Polish settlement formed in the south end of Wyandotte and in 1925 St. Helena Roman Catholic Church was founded to serve them. Soon afterwards an elementary school was added to the parish. St. Stanislaus Kostka Church no longer maintains an elementary school in the city and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church offers a complete thirteen-year educational program
Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School (Wyandotte, Michigan)
Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School, closed 2011, was the last remaining private, Roman Catholic high school in Wyandotte, Michigan. It was closed as the last Polish-American Catholic High School in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit.-History:...
.
The Polish Roman Catholic Union (PRCU) and the Polish National Alliance (Dom Polski) are church-affiliated fraternal groups. Civic organizations include the Polish American Citizens Club and three Polish-Legion of American Veterans Posts. The Pulaski Memorial Park, named after Kazimierz Pułaski, the has served as a focal point of many Polish social activities throughout the years in Wyandotte.
Italian-Americans in Wyandotte
The last large immigrant community to settle in Wyandotte were the Italians. Just after the turn of the 20th century, jobs were opening up at the J. B. Ford Company and the Michigan Alkali Company. The Italian settlement in East Detroit was bulging with a steady influx of friends and relatives coming to Michigan from the old country. Many young men sought work, and Wyandotte the bustling downriver town, beckoned with jobs. A street car from Detroit brought the first Italian laborers to the city. Others joined the work force and brought their families.Statistics show that in 1890 there were only 338 Italians living in Detroit and downriver, and by 1920 the number had swelled to 29,047. In 1914, a large group of Italian workers and their families were residing in what was then called Ford city. The community had formed in an area bounded by Antoine, Hudson, 2nd Street and the railroad tracks.
The families built large sturdy homes, and planted gardens. Many of those earliest family residences still stand as testimony to the skillful construction techniques shown by those first immigrant workers. Most of the families knew each other from Palermo, Sicily Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and interacted socially. During the summer evenings, the men could be seen playing Bocci (lawn bowling), and the card games "Scuba" and Briscola
Briscola
Briscola , one of Italy's most popular games together with Scopa and Tressette, and a little-changed descendant of Brusquembille, the ancestor of Briscan and...
.
In 1915, a concert band was organized. Maestro Pellegrino's Italian Ford City Band attracted musicians from ages 15 to 25, which included many brothers and cousins, like Joseph Deliz, Joseph & Paul Pagano, Jim & Sam Vitale, Tony Cottone, Bill Consiglio, just to name a few, and in a relatively short time the new musical group was presenting concerts for the entire community to enjoy. The camaraderie engendered by the band also gave birth to two early Italian social organizations. The San Guiseppi Society was a club that assisted many newly arrived Italian immigrants, and helped them transition to the American way of life. The Santa Fara group was formed in Wyandotte during 1924, named after the patron saint of the small Sicilian village of Cinisi. In order to become a member, one must be a "Cinisarii" or be married to one.
Other organizations were formed over the years to serve the Italian community. In the 1930s, the Non-Partisan Progressive Club was organized. One of the first projects of this club was the re-creation of the former Pellegrino Band. They also staged a war bond drive in early 1945. Americans of Italian descent in Wayne County, under the leadership of Anthony D'Anna of Wyandotte, raised $16,000,000 to build a ship. The U.S.S. Cosselin was commissioned October 19, 1945, in memory of Seaman Joseph Polizzi, an Italian-American from Detroit killed earlier during the war. The Non-Partisan Club lasted until 1949.
In 1970 fourteen members, many who were part of the Italian Ford City Band, organized a new Italian organization, the Downriver Italian club. Five years later the group contained over 440 members.
African Americans in Wyandotte
Wyandotte was a Sundown TownSundown town
A sundown town is a town that is or was purposely all-White. The term is widely used in the United States in areas from Ohio to Oregon and well into the South. The term came from signs that were allegedly posted stating that people of color had to leave the town by sundown...
for decades. Sociologist and historian James Loewen charts the course of segregation in Wyandotte, Mich. in his book "Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism" . Loewen documents a variety of cases of racism involving African American in Wyandotte over the decades: In the early 1870s, whites there drove out a black barber; in 1881 and 1888, they expelled the town's black hotel workers; in 1907, four white men beat and robbed a black man at the train station; nine years later, a mob of white townspeople "bombarded" a boardinghouse, driving out all the African Americans and killing one. "In the 1940s," Loewen writes, "police arrested or warned African Americans for 'loitering suspiciously in the business district' or being in the park, and white children stoned African American children in front of Roosevelt High School." In the early 1950s, a University of Pennsylvania professor who grew up in Wyandotte told him, all the members of a black family who moved into town ended up dead.
Cabins, cottages and castles
John S. VanAlstyne in 1901 remarked, “from its beginning, Wyandotte has been a city of homes. For a man to want his own home and lot has been more the rule than the exception. As a legitimate consequence of this condition of things, the citizens have enjoyed a larger share of content and happiness than has been the fortune of most. For whatever be his other surroundings, a man may be happy who has a comfortable and well regulated house and home of his own.” The early Indian cabins that stood here are gone. Some cottages and stately castles still remain in the city.The Indian log cabins
Maquaqua was the home of the Wyandotte Indians from approximately 1732 to 1818. The Wyandots had known the French since 1534, and had adopted many European ways of living. Their homes along the Detroit River during the 18th century were log cabins much in the same style and size as used by the French habitant farmers near Detroit.When the Wyandots abandoned their village in 1818 by treaty and moved to nearby Flat Rock
Flat Rock, Michigan
- Racial makeup :As of the census of 2000, there were 8,488 people, 3,181 households, and 2,306 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,266.9 per square mile . There were 3,291 housing units at an average density of 491.2 per square mile...
, their cabins remained and were used by the earliest white settlers coming into the area. John Clark
John Clark
-Entertainers:*John Clark , opera singer known as Signor Brocolini*John Clark , British actor, ex-husband of Lynn Redgrave*John Clark , jazz horn player and composer-Politicians, judges, and civil servants:...
, a merchant from New York, came to the village in 1818. He and his family moved into a vacated log cabin that allegedly had been the home of Chief Blue Jacket. That cabin stood near the Detroit River at a point between present day Plum and Grove Streets.
The John Biddle Estate
Major John BiddleJohn Biddle (Michigan)
John Biddle was a delegate to the United States Congress from the Michigan Territory.-Early life and military career:...
was the first white man to establish a permanent residence on land that was to become the City of Wyandotte. He had purchased 2200 acres (9 km²) of land from the federal government in 1818. The wooded section by the river inspired the Major to become a farmer much in the manner of George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
at Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon (plantation)
Mount Vernon, located near Alexandria, Virginia, was the plantation home of the first President of the United States, George Washington. The mansion is built of wood in neoclassical Georgian architectural style, and the estate is located on the banks of the Potomac River.Mount Vernon was designated...
. He also built a summer estate. The buildings were completed around 1835, and he named his estate “Wyandotte” after the Indians who were still living in the area.
The Biddle house stood slightly behind the present residence located at 2610 Biddle Avenue. The structure faced east and the front grounds sloped gently towards the river. The palatial home had a wide veranda running its full length, with Corinthian
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...
columns reaching to the second story. To the rear of the structure an extension was attached for housing farmhands. Further back behind the mansion were sheds and a large barn. Surrounding the entire estate were shrubs and flower beds much in the style of an English park. Early accounts showed that servants and laborers at the Biddle home included run-away slaves and Wyandot Indians.
The Biddle family occupied the estate until 1848. In 1854, Major Biddle sold his entire estate holdings and land to Captain Eber Ward, founder of the Eureka Iron Company and the Village of Wyandotte. In the earliest days of the village, the Biddle mansion was used as a boarding house for workers and a roadhouse for stagecoach passengers. In the late 1860s, a fire destroyed most of the original structure. Only a small front section remained intact and usable. A Thomas Watkins purchased the remnant and moved the home between Cedar and Spruce Streets. The house was turned gable end towards the Detroit River and rebuilt. This home presently stands at 2116 Biddle Avenue and is a link to Wyandotte’s earliest permanent residence.
The Mark Bacon Home
The mansion at Biddle Avenue and Vine Street (early Vinewood) is the most spacious home in the city, being about 62' by 95' in size. It was erected on four city lots. The major exterior building materials include buff colored St. Louis pressed brick, red sandstone trim, and a black slate roof. Several massive chimneys stand out on the dormered roofline. A large porch with mosaic tile floors encircles the front and north sides of the home. At the rear of the building, an observatory tower provides a view of the Detroit River and beyond. An arched brick carriage port was originally attached at the north side of the building, but this was removed several years ago.Glass chandeliers, cherrywood and silver fixtures, mahogany paneling and trim, and tapestried wall coverings were blended together throughout the home. The six bathrooms were complete with toilets, washbasins of marble and gold fixtures, and full bathtubs. Lighting fixtures were fitted for both electricity and gas. The gas was manufactured on the premises. The residence was heated with steam, and this offered an additional convenience item to the household that was unique for the period-an automatic clothes dryer in the basement and a complete steam-cleaning facility. The large tiled refrigerator near the kitchen was built to receive ice from an outside opening. Servant quarters were on the third floor along with the cedar lined storage room,, observatory tower stairway, and huge unfinished attic that could have been a ballroom.
Mark and Mary Bacon (granddaughter of Captain J. B. Ford) resided in the home from 1903 to 1939. In 1942, the residence was given to the Wyandotte Board of Education for use as a public library. In 1962, the Mary Ford and Mark Reeves Bacon Memorial Room was added to the rear of the building.
Rolling Mill cottages
The first houses built in the Village of Wyandotte were constructed by the Eureka Iron Company for their workers. These were simple one-floor frame structures called “cottages” (cover). Most of these homes were built along Biddle Avenue from Oak Street to Pine Street. A second style included a two-story frame that was slightly larger in size. Over the years, these homes were also referred to as “Rolling Mill Houses” since they date back to the iron industry period in Wyandotte’s history (1854–1888). As Biddle Avenue developed into the business district of the community, many of these small frame cottages were moved to streets nearby. It was quite common for the early pioneers to set a house on timbers and with a team or two of horses drag it over the snow to a new location. Several fine examples of these style homes still exist in the city. Early one-story frame houses can be found along Pine and Orange Streets. Maple Street has several two-story style Rolling Mill Cottages. One can see the wrought iron square nails in the cedar siding, the mortise and tendon sills around windows and door jambs, the learn-to-kitchen at the rear, and the unique Marx Brewery bottles excavated under the old porch and overhang. Most of these pioneer homes still stand proudly in Wyandotte.Michigan Alkali and J.B. Ford Company houses
With the discovery of salt beneath the City of Wyandotte, the Michigan Alkali Company was established in 1891. Captain J.B. Ford created an industry the eventually provided employment for over 1200 workers. Large apartment style company houses were built at the north end of Wyandotte in what was then Ford City. These double story frame houses were originally built as duplex units without basements. These apartments provided ready shelter for the immigrant laborers seeking work at the chemical plants. Many of these large structures stood along Biddle Avenue, north of Northline Road. During the widening of out main thoroughfare in 1917, this group of company homes was moved. Today, several outstanding examples of this early Alkali Company home can be seen. The largest group is on Fifth Street, between Goddard and St. John Streets. The Alkali Company homes date back to the early 1890s and many still remain as a prominent architectural style residence in the community.World War II GI houses
When World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
ended in 1945, many GIs returned to Wyandotte seeking work and a home of their own. This created a tremendous need within the city for additional housing units. With convenient government loans and mass production techniques, hundreds of homes were built in the city, most on open farmlands in the west end of Wyandotte.
The original GI homes of the 1945-50 era were unique in several ways. The plain uniformity of style and building materials prompted numerous citizens to remark, “the only difference between houses is the street number”. Because of the shortages of building materials following the war, many homes had wooden rain gutters and a single color paint was used throughout the interior. The basic unit had two small bedrooms, a block basement with a gas furnace, an unfinished upstairs, and a 30-foot (10 m) to 40-foot (13 m) lot without a garage, fence or sidewalk. These functional but simple homes were built all over the city for the returning servicemen.
Over the years, most of these war production homes have been individualized and modernized, and today they command three to four times their original market value. They are now a major residential household style in Wyandotte.