Van Wert, Ohio

Van Wert is named for Isaac Van Wart, one of the captors of Major John André in the American Revolutionary War. A center of peony cultivation, Van Wert has hosted the annual Van Wert Peony Festival on and off since 1902. Van Wert is home to the first county library in the United States, the Brumback Library. It also has a thriving community art center the Wassenburg Art Center and the award-winning Van Wert Civic Theatre.

Marshall, Michigan

Marshall is best known for its cross-section of 19th- and early 20th-century architecture. It has been referred to by the keeper of the National Register of Historic Places as a “virtual textbook of 19th-Century American architecture.” Its historic center is the Marshall Historic District, one of the nation’s largest architecturally significant National Historic Landmark Districts. The Landmark has over 850 buildings, including the world-famous Honolulu House.

The town was founded by Sidney Ketchum (1797-1862) in 1830, a land surveyor who had been born in Clinton County, New York, in conjunction with his brother, George Ketchum (1794-1853). The Ketchum brothers explored central lower Michigan in 1830, and in late 1830 Sidney Ketchum obtained government grants for the land on which most of Marshall now stands. The early settlers named the community in honor of Chief Justice of the United States John Marshall from Virginia—whom they greatly admired. This occurred five years before Marshall’s death and thus was the first of dozens of communities and counties named for him.

Marshall was thought to be the frontrunner for state capital, so much so that a Governor’s Mansion was built, but the town lost by one vote to Lansing. In the years thereafter, Marshall became known for its patent medicine industry until the Pure Drug Act of 1906. Marshall was involved in the Underground Railroad. When escaped slave Adam Crosswhite fled Kentucky and settled in Marshall with his wife and three children, the people of the town hid him from the posse sent to retrieve him. Those involved were tried in Federal Court and found guilty of denying a man his rightful property. This case and others like it caused the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 to be pushed through Congress.

The first railroad labor union in the U.S., The Brotherhood of the Footboard (later renamed the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen), was formed in Marshall in 1863. Marshall was one of the only stops between Chicago and Detroit and became known as the Chicken Pie city because the only thing one could get to eat in the time it took to cool and switch engines was a chicken pie. A replica of the city’s roundhouse can be seen at the Greenfield Village outdoor living history museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

Kalamazoo, Michigan

Originally known as Bronson (after founder Titus Bronson) in the township of Arcadia, the names of both the city and the township were changed to “Kalamazoo” in 1836 and 1837, respectively.[9] The name “Kalamazoo” comes from a Potawatomi word, first found in a British report in 1772. However, the Kalamazoo River, which passes through the modern city of Kalamazoo, was located on the route between Detroit and Fort Saint-Joseph (nowadays Niles, Michigan). French-Canadian traders, missionaries, and military personnel were quite familiar with this area during the French era and thereafter. The name for the Kalamazoo River was then known by Canadians and French as La rivière Kikanamaso. The name “Kikanamaso” was also recorded by Father Pierre Potier, a Jesuit missionary for the Huron-Wendats at the Assumption mission (south shore of Detroit), while en route to Fort Saint-Joseph during the fall of 1760. Legend has it that “Ki-ka-ma-sung”, meaning “boiling water”, referring to a footrace held each fall by local Native Americans, who had to run to the river and back before the pot boiled. The word negikanamazo, purported to mean “otter tail” or “stones like otters” has also been cited as a possible origin of the name. Another theory is that it means “the mirage or reflecting river”. Another legend is that the image of “boiling water” referred to fog on the river as seen from the hills above the current downtown. The name was also given to the river that flows almost all the way across the state.

The name Kalamazoo, which sounds unusual to English speakers, has become a metonym for exotic places, as in the phrase “from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo”. Today, T-shirts are sold in Kalamazoo with the phrase “Yes, there really is a Kalamazoo”.

Battle Creek, Michigan

Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek rivers. It is best known as the home of the Kellogg Company.

In about 1774, the Potawatomi and the Ottawa Native American tribes formed a joint village near the future Battle Creek, Michigan.

Battle Creek was named for a minor encounter on March 14, 1824, between a federal government land survey party led by Colonel John Mullett and two Potawatomi Indians, who had approached the survey camp asking for food. They were hungry because the Army was late in delivering the supplies promised them by the treaty of 1820. After a protracted discussion, the Native Americans allegedly tried to steal food. One of the surveyors grabbed his rifle and shot one of the Potawatomi, seriously wounding him. Following the encounter, the surveyors retreated to Detroit.

Surveyors would not return to the area until June 1825, after Governor Lewis Cass had settled the issues with the Native Americans. Early white settlers called the nearby stream the Battle Creek River, and the town took its name from that.

Native Americans had called the river Waupakisco, to which some attribute a folk etymology. By this account, the name Waupakisco or Waupokisco was a reference to an earlier battle fought between Native American tribes before the arrival of white settlers. However, Virgil J. Vogel establishes that this native term had “nothing to do with blood or battle”.

Following removal of the Potawatomi to a reservation, the first permanent white settlements in Battle Creek Township began about 1831. Migration had increased to Michigan from New York and New England following the completion of the Erie Canal in New York in 1824. Most settlers chose to locate on the Goguac prairie, which was fertile and easily cultivated. A post office was opened in Battle Creek in 1832 under Postmaster Pollodore Hudson. The first school was taught in a small log house about 1833 or 1834. Asa Langley built the first sawmill in 1837. A brick manufacturing plant, called the oldest enterprise in the township, was established in 1840 by Simon Carr and operated until 1903. The township was established by act of the legislature in 1839.

In the antebellum era, the city was a major stop on the Underground Railroad, used by fugitive slaves to escape to freedom in Michigan and Canada. It was the chosen home of noted abolitionist Sojourner Truth after her escape from slavery.

Battle Creek figured prominently in the early history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It was the site of a Protestant church founding convention in 1863. The denomination’s first hospital, college, and publishing office would also be constructed in the city. When the hospital and publishing office burned down in 1902, the church elected to decentralize, and most of its institutions were relocated. The first Adventist church (rebuilt in the 1920s) is still in operation.

The city was noted for its focus on health reform during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Battle Creek Sanitarium was founded by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. In addition to some of his sometimes bizarre treatments that were featured in the movie The Road to Wellville, Kellogg also funded organizations that promoted eugenics theories at the core of their philosophical agenda. The Better Race Institute was one of these organizations. He also supported the “separate but equal” philosophy and invited Booker T. Washington to speak at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in order to raise money. Washington was the author of the speech “The Atlanta Compromise”, which solidified his position of being an accommodationist while providing a mechanism for southern Whites (and their sympathizers), to fund his school (the Tuskegee Institute).

K. Kellogg had worked for his brother in a variety of capacities at the B.C. Sanitarium. Tired of living in his brother’s shadow, he struck out on his own, going to the boom-towns surrounding the oilfields in Oklahoma as a broom salesman. Having failed, he returned to work as an assistant to his brother (John Harvey). While working at the sanitariums’ laboratory, W.K. spilled liquefied cornmeal on a heating device that cooked the product and rendered it to flakes. He tasted the flakes and added milk to them. He was able to get his brother to allow him to give some of the product to some of the patients at the sanitarium, and the patients’ demand for the product exceeded his expectations to the point that W.K made the decision to leave the sanitarium. Along with some investors, he built a factory to satisfy the demand for his “corn flakes”.

As W. K. Kellogg’s wealth began to exceed his brother’s, he funded some of his projects that were at the sanitarium. One of these was the Better Race Institute, a eugenics-based organization. During this time, John Harvey Kellogg became a Freemason. One of the tenets of the fraternity is that “Masonry recognizes the internal character of a man, not the external”. John Harvey Kellogg stopped funding his brother’s projects and established equal pay policies in his company. He also led desegregation efforts by allowing black children to swim in his home pool. He funded many school and philanthropic projects throughout the city, and founded Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.

It was during this time of going their separate ways for good that Dr. John Harvey Kellogg sued his brother for copyright infringement. The U.S. Supreme court ruled in W.K. Kellogg’s favor.

Inspired by Kellogg’s innovation, C. W. Post invented Grape-Nuts and founded his own cereal company in the town. Battle Creek has been nicknamed “the Cereal City.”

Albion. Michigan

Albion is a city in Calhoun County in the south central region of the U.S. state of Michigan. The earliest English-speaking settlers also referred to this area as The Forks, because it is situated at the confluence of the north and south branches of the Kalamazoo River. The Festival of the Forks has been held annually since 1967 to celebrate Albion’s ethnic heritage.

Since the 19th century, several major manufacturers gave Albion the reputation of a factory town. This has changed with the closure of several manufacturers. In the 21st century, Albion’s culture is changing to that of a college town whose residents have a strong interest in technology and sustainability issues. Albion College is a private liberal arts college with a student population of about 1,250. Albion is a sister city with Noisy-le-Roi, France.

Source: Wikipedia (extracts)

Van Wert, Ohio

County Courthouse

Famous Coffee shop

Marshall, Michigan

Oak Hill Cemetery, Battle Creek, Michigan

Most of Battle Creek’s pioneers are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, including James and Ellen White, co-founders of the Seventh Day Adventist church, Sojourner Truth, Abolitionist and Equal Rights Campaigner. Also, W.K. Kellogg and his brother John Harvey Kellogg, C.W. Post, and Bill Knapp. Tourists world-wide visit these historic grave sites each year.

Sojourner Truth Statue, Monument Park, Battle Creek, Michigan

Battle Creek’s 12-foot-high sculpture of Sojourner Truth was designed by California artist Tina Allen, and was dedicated in Monument Park in 1999. Truth is depicted at a lectern because she used her gift for public speaking to fight for abolition and suffrage. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree. She was able to escape with her daughter, and later sued for her son’s freedom. For the next forty years, Truth delivered her anti-slavery message in almost twenty states. In 1857, she moved to Battle Creek. She remained there until her death in 1883. Truth is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Memorial to The Underground Railroad, Battle Creek, Michigan

The nation’s largest monument to the Underground Railroad. The 28-foot long, 14-foot high bronze statue depicts abolitionist Harriet Tubman, known as “Black Moses,” and local “conductors” Erastus and Sarah Hussey as they lead a group of runaway slaves to safety. Designed by sculptor Ed Dwight. Near the Kellogg House in downtown Battle Creek. Built by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to honor men and women who operated the Underground Railroad, as well as courageous fugitives who fled north to freedom.

W K Kellog Company Headquarters, Battle Creek

Battle Creek Downtown

Adventist Village