December 28, 2012
Meet Christian Clemens, founder of Mt. Clemens
The pioneer settler of Mt. Clemens owned a distillery, was a prisoner of the British during the War of 1812, and founded a city that loved dancing.
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May 7, 2012
Happy birthday to this guy
Celebrating General Friend Palmer’s birthday with “whiskey in the gentlemen’s dressing room, and champagne in the supper room.”
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March 12, 2012
One reason we might be called “Wolverines”
Why are we called “Wolverines”? You’ve heard the stories about the Toledo War and greedy land-grabbing settlers. Here’s one more idea, from an old tavern in Dearborn.
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February 7, 2012
Meditations on a Boat Club
The Detroit Boat Club, founded in 1839, is the oldest in the country. Its home on Belle Isle is crumbling, compelling, and calls home centuries of water sport.
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January 20, 2012
Captain Chelsea Blake tries, fails to avoid cholera
”Blake … stood in mortal fear of death and from the cholera in particular. He went to Milwaukee to escape the latter, but unfortunately he did not.”
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September 16, 2011
The Old Log Cabin
The old Log Cabin at Palmer Park. Why a log cabin? What did it look like inside? Did people really live in it?
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June 17, 2011
General Friend Palmer’s scrapbooks
A voice from the past corrects the historical record.
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February 2, 2011
Detroit historians on weddings and marriages
Silas Farmer and General Friend Palmer on early French weddings and the shadow of mortality in marriage.
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January 12, 2011
New Year’s Resolution, 2011: Learn to dance the “Money-musk”
From General Friend Palmer’s account of lively French winter-time dance parties. Puts a little kick in your Thursday walkabout, I hope.
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December 30, 2010
Solomon Sibley’s pear, & a brave New Year
OR: What I learned about Detroit history in 2010.
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December 22, 2010
Christmas with General Friend Palmer
Festive Christmas traditions from early Detroit, as related by General Friend Palmer. Pony races, mince pies and all-night noise-making.
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November 24, 2010
A defunct Detroit Thanksgiving tradition
Shoot your own turkey. At the bar.
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October 15, 2010
Happy Birthday, Gabriel Richard
“It was said that Father Richard was so studious and patient in his search after knowledge that he actually counted the eggs in a whitefish. How many millions, history fails to tell.”
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October 1, 2010
Fridays with General Friend Palmer: Voyageurs
An elegy about old times from the General.
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July 27, 2010
Tuesdays with General Friend Palmer: The court crier Isaac Day
A poem about an early public servant.
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July 16, 2010
Russell Street Cemetery
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