• Posts Tagged ‘silas farmer’

    Dogs in early Detroit

    by  • October 28, 2011 • History • 5 Comments

    In early Detroit, owning a dog cost you a 50-cent tax. Per dog. Why? Because there were so many damn dogs. Wrote Silas Farmer: There can be no doubt that dog tax was then necessary, for in 1805, with only five hundred and twenty-five heads of families, there were two hundred and nineteen dogs...

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    June 11, 1805: The fire

    by  • June 11, 2010 • Best of THE NIGHT TRAIN, Uncategorized • 3 Comments

    It’s the anniversary of Detroit’s Great Fire of 1805 — early Detroit’s defining moment. The fire destroyed the city nearly completely. After the city burned down, Father Richard (whose church, Ste. Anne’s, had just burned down for the second time in its amazing history) coined Detroit’s notorious motto: speramus meliora; resurget cineribus. We hope...

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    WHO WAS SILAS FARMER?

    by  • January 20, 2010 • Books, Local History, metro Detroit • 3 Comments

    UPDATE: Silas Farmer’s death certificate is in the Michigan state archives. He died suddenly on December 28, 1902, apparently of a heart attack. He was living in present-day midtown, at 52 Selden, and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery. Next stop, as my mom sassily pointed out to me on Twitter (MOMS ON TWITTER!!), is...

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