John Nowland, "first" white child born in Ann Arbor, at the 1898 Log Cabin in the Fairgrounds that became Burns Park
Image by Wystan
CLICK ON "ALL SIZES" TO VIEW THIS PHOTOGRAPH PROPERLY LARGE
(Scanned from an original in possession of the Washtenaw County Historical Society)
WASHTENAW COUNTY'S FIRST LOCAL HISTORY MUSEUM
In a mounted copy of this photo that I saw many years ago, the man in the rocking chair was labeled as "Uncle John" Nowland. His gravestone in Forest Hill Cemetery identifies Nowland, the son of pioneer settlers, as the first white person born in Ann Arbor (on June 13, 1826, two years after the founding of the Village). The claim was tarnished; Elisha Walker Rumsey Smith, the second child of carpenter Asa L. Smith, was born in Ann Arbor in 1824, but died in 1827. (The man whose name he bore, E. W. Rumsey, co-founder of Ann Arbor, also died that year.) Unfortunately, the Smith baby's brief existence appears to have been forgotten by locals until his mother (then a resident of Kalamazoo) was interviewed on the subject when she was 79 years old. John Nowland lived long enough to get his claim inscribed in stone:
www.flickr.com/photos/42955247@N08/3967106517/
Not only was he a genuine pioneer resident, Nowland also was a founding member and longtime officer of the Washtenaw County Agricultural Society, which observed its 50th anniversary in 1898 -- a celebration marked by the Pioneer Society's erection of a replica log cabin at the Fairgrounds on the southeast corner of town -- the area now known as Burns Park. This photo of "Uncle John" inside that cabin -- perhaps acting as a docent, or perhaps posing as just another historical relic in an exhibition of pioneer artifacts at the county fair -- was taken in either 1898 or 1899; he died in 1900 -- on May 28, before the fair was held that year. (Nowland was two weeks shy of 74 when he died.)
Prof. O. W. Stephenson, in his book "Ann Arbor, the First Hundred Years" (1927), tells us that the cabin was erected in August, 1898, under auspices of the Washtenaw County Pioneer Society, and dedicated on the 27th of the following month, during the annual fair. Above the entrance appeared the words, "Erected in Honor of the Pioneers of Washtenaw, 1898." (The Pioneer Society was the forerunner of the current Washtenaw County Historical Society.)
The Agricultural Society fizzled out during World War I; the Pioneer Society's relics got moved to storage in the old courthouse downtown, the fairgrounds became a city park, and before 1925, when Tappan (now Burns Park) school was erected, the cabin was moved from its location on the school site to the place where a brick shelter building now stands, near the corner of Baldwin and Wells streets, its entrance facing Wells. It became at first an ignominious storage shed for wagons, rakes, mowers, and other grounds-maintenance implements. When I was a kid in the 1950s, it was being used to store athletic equipment for summer recreation programs in the park. Basketballs, for example, could be borrowed there, and then dribbled over to the hoops that stood outside. The cabin was demolished in the mid-fifties, after its logs had become riddled with carpenter ants, and because it had become an attractive nuisance for mischievous boys, who easily climbed the smaller logs of the crumbling rustic chimney to play atop the roof. The chimney was then at the cabin's west end. Of course, this photograph shows but one end of the single interior room; the entrance would have been off to the right.
The names carved in the massive rafter logs are those of pioneers of Washtenaw, with the year dates of their arrival and the names of the townships in which they resided. These can't be all of them; I wonder if the names visible here might be those only of men and women whose families had donated to the building project. The rafter above the fireplace is emblazoned with the word "DIRECTORS" -- obscured in the photo by hanging herbs. When the cabin was torn down, the name logs were still in good shape, so they were stored for several decades in a building at the Ann Arbor Airport, until a use could be found for them. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and rumor says that they were at last destroyed.
*****UPDATE: In 2009, I was informed that at least some of the rafter logs have survived and are now in storage in a building at Gallup Park!
Among names visible here are those of Philip Bach and Christian Mack, two German immigrants for whom schools were named (in recognition of their long service on the Ann Arbor School Board) and Joseph Dorr Baldwin, pomologist, who grew apples and other fruit on extensive acreage that included the parcel that became Burns Park.
I wonder if the ten photographic portraits in oval frames, visible at right in this photo, have survived in the Historical Society's collections?
If anyone knows of other photographs of the Burns Park cabin, I would love to see them.
Apparently this is the only interior photo in existence.
The First Snow I'll Remember
Image by Jason L. Parks
My son gazes into the sky at the falling snow. Last year when we got that few hours of snow, he didn't want to come outside at all. This year, he didn't want to come in. He just wanted to stand there in awe and amazement at the winter wonderland.
Shot with Hipstamatic: Lens: Helga Viking; Film: BlacKeys B+W; Flash Standard
Shot taken and edited with my iPhone 3GS.
Leonard Cohen - First We Take Manhattan on Vimeo
Image by Escalla
2009-07-30 Leonard Cohen @ Pavilhão Atlântico sings First we Take Manhattan:
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
For trying to change the system from within
I'm coming now, I'm coming to reward them
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
I'm guided by a signal in the heavens
I'm guided by this birthmark on my skin
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
(I'd really like to live beside you, baby
I love your body and your spirit and your clothes
But you see that line there moving through the station?
I told you, I told you, told you, I was one of those)
Ah you loved me as a loser, but now you're worried that I just might win
You know the way to stop me, but you don't have the discipline
How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
I don't like your fashion business mister
And I don't like these drugs that keep you thin
I don't like what happened to my sister
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
(I'd really like to live beside you, baby ... )
And I thank you for those items that you sent me
The monkey and the plywood violin
I practiced every night, now I'm ready
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
I am guided
Ah remember me, I used to live for music
Remember me, I brought your groceries in
Well it's Father's Day and everybody's wounded
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
This is a frame from a video. You can watch it on Vimeo.
Mary, beloved.
Image by Eloise Mason
At my grandma's 80th birthday party, we have here Mary, the First Great-Grandchild (I'm the First Grandchild), being somewhat taken aback by all the attention she's getting from all her first-cousins-once-removed. :-> That's Patience (Sixth Grandchild) holding her, and Mary's Uncle Jason (the Second Grandchild, five years down from me) accidentally walking into frame and looking like he's doing the kiss equivalent of the old 'I'm squeeshing your head!" skit.
For a cheerful, smiley baby, Mary had a talent for looking upset/angry/constipated the INSTANT I had my camera out. I also wish the church basement we had the party in (it was also something of a reunion) had been better-lit so I could have gotten crisper shots. Ahhwell.
framed
Image by ulygan
1-2-3 All together in one frame. No mean feat
Nell on the left, she's the baby - coming up to 3 years old. Suzie in the centre, our first - now probably 12 years old. Griff on the right may be more or less the same age as Suzie. As rescues, we are uncertain about their real ages.
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