Spring break
by amy • April 5, 2012 • Meditations • 0 Comments
A picture book of spring in Detroit. Historical glimpses of weather patterns. A poem about Lake Erie. Plus, it's Opening Day.
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The Night Train
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Posts Tagged ‘silas farmer’
Dogs in early Detroit
by amy • 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...
Read more →Detroit historians on weddings and marriages
by amy • February 2, 2011 • General Friend Palmer, History, Weddings • 3 Comments
Silas Farmer and General Friend Palmer on early French weddings and the shadow of mortality in marriage.
Read more →Who was Silas Farmer? We found out.
by amy • January 6, 2011 • Best of THE NIGHT TRAIN, Books, History, Podcasts • 1 Comment
Silas Farmer: upright Christian citizen, co-founder of Detroit's YMCA, author of "History of Detroit and Michigan" and "The Drinker's Dictionary." All in our very first podcast
Read more →June 11, 1805: The fire
by amy • 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...
Read more →And change had oft succeeded change.
by amy • June 2, 2010 • Books, History • 0 Comments
A poem about tearing down abandoned houses in Detroit. Written in 1882.
Read more →On writing, about history and otherwise
by amy • May 23, 2010 • History, Meditations • 5 Comments
Unequaled Detroit historian Silas Farmer has some advice for you.
Read more →Michigan Garden & Detroit’s “Amusement King”
by amy • April 4, 2010 • History • 2 Comments
A public garden/museum of curiosities/menagerie/circus/theater/bathhouse in early Detroit.
Read more →WHO WAS SILAS FARMER?
by amy • 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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