Saginaw\'s Sesquicentennial: A 150 Year Tapestry of Saginaw History

As the City of Saginaw's 150th official birthday arrives with a Sesquicentennial Celebration on Saturday, August 11th, it is fitting to realize that we've been fortunate from the start in at least one respect.

Father Henri Nouvel, a Jesuit missionary, arrived at Ojibway Island in 1675 and is regarded as the first European to have come to Saginaw. Actually the plaque on the island states 'first white man.' But just think: If Nouvel had designated the island for a Catholic Central High School, we would have missed out on all those great outdoor concerts and festivals through the years!

All kidding aside, Father Nouvel was more than a century ahead of his time. Settlers and Native Americans signed the Treaty of Saginaw in 1819. The military established Fort Saginaw in 1822. Alexis deTocqueville came through in 1830 and complained of the mosquitoes. But somehow, in the same year as de Tocqueville's visit, a hardy group of pioneers established what first was known as Saginaw Township.

Saginaw's first school opened in 1837. Next to the school in 1839, the first courthouse was built at the site that remains today. Saginaw City (West Side) was established in 1857 to set what we now mark as the Sesquicentennial, East Saginaw officially incorporated two years later, and the communities merged in 1890.

Those who wish to embrace themselves with all the ins and outs of Saginaw's past, all the details, will find what they seek at the Saginaw Historical Museum, Hoyt Library and other sources.

Our intent on these pages is to offer a tiny sampling of various people and events, winding through the years with no specific rhyme or reason other than highlighting why Saginaw is unique and special on many levels.

Countless similar quilts could be made of Saginaw's social and cultural past, but this is ours.
INDUSTRY

We have rued the decline of the auto industry since the late 1970s, but consider the 19th century lumber era that launched Saginaw. The peak year was way back in 1882, when reported production in board feet was 1,001,274, 905. We trust this is an accurate statistic and that it wasn't really 1,001,274,904. At any rate, that's more than 1 billion. No wonder so many of those lumberjacks wanted to party at the end of the day!

Today's United Auto Workers still strive to salvage some remaining scant strength with General Motors and Delphi. In the same sense, the lumberjacks became a union, organized through the Knights of Labor. They staged an 1885 strike. Their demand? A reduction to a 10-hour work day. The National Guard arrived and their uprising was quashed.

Who knows what will happen down the road as GM and Delphi continue to squeeze today's workers?

The Lumbering Era

Historic photos of the lumber era come from a family among the handful of blacks who settled here at the time.

The Goodridge brothers  - Glenalvin, Wallace and William - arrived in East Saginaw during the early 1860s. They had operated a photo studio in York, Pa. The historical record does not reflect their reasons for heading to such a remote Michigan outpost, which is sad in that they recorded so much of our history. Among their countless photographs, they captured the architecture of the earliest churches and displayed the damage of Saginaw River floods.
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass visited Saginaw at the Goodridges' invitation during 1868, five years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The local press published some of the passages from Douglass. Among them: "The Negro elevated, no longer a servant but an ally, will march honorably in the paths of civilization and knowledge.'

One of the lumber barons was Aaron Bliss, who was a 28-year-old Civil War veteran from New York State when he arrived in Saginaw in 1865.  Bliss went on to serve in the Michigan Senate and the U.S. Congress. Then he twice was elected Michigan governor, serving a pair of two-year terms from 1901 to 1905.

An oddity is that Bliss was more popular statewide than in his own hometown. He prevailed in the 1901 governor's race by only two votes in his own small ward, and lost within the City of Saginaw as a whole. Still, he was a highly respected governor on issues ranging from economic development to highway construction to wildlife conservation. He was 69 when he died in 1906, and Bliss Park is named in his honor.

Historical Challenges

Today the Saginaw outlook is that the community is making a transition from manufacturing to service, and that our region is becoming known as a medical center rather than as an auto town. This theme still seems new in one aspect, while starting to feel sort of old-hat in another sense. After all, we've been saying this for nearly 30 years now.

Saginaw was in a similar funk during the 1890s, when most of the timber finally had been stripped. The 'great fire' of 1893 made matters even worse. At the same time, much of the nation was struggling. Many historians assert that the 1890s were at least equally as tough as the 1930s, except that a catchy name such as Great Depression never was linked to the 19th century's close.

The Saginaw quest to diversify the economy included salt, coal, and farm products such as sugar beets.

And soon into the 20th century, we had the automobile. Jackson, Wilcox & Church Company on North Hamilton started as a horse-and-buggy business, and then began making auto components. General Motors absorbed the company in 1910, launching its Steering Gear operations. Soon came the foundries.

This raises the question of whether Saginaw will have a GM 100th anniversary celebration in 2010.

Cultural icons Tim McCoy was 7 years old in 1898 when his father took him to a Wild West touring show featuring Buffalo Bill Cody, the famous frontier scout. The youngster became fascinated by the horseback riding, the rope tricks and the six-shooter exhibitions. Since his dad was police chief, he had a chance to meet Buffalo Bill in person.

In 1922, an agent with Hollywood's fledgling film industry told McCoy he needed to round up 500 Indians for a movie shoot. McCoy complied, on the condition that the Native Americans received first-rate train transport to the Utah location and pay for their labors. This endeared him to the Indians, and he functioned in this role for several years.

He also served as a technical advisor for the films. Then one day in 1926, an MGM executive took note of McCoy's handsome looks and decided the Saginaw protégé should go onto the other side of the camera.

A shoot-em-up star was born. Kids were so ga-ga over McCoy that General Mills put him on the Wheaties cereal box. His film career endured until Westerns became less popular during the late 1940s, and then McCoy took his own show on the road, just like Buffalo Bill.
Tim McCoy died in Arizona in 1978, age 87, and was honored in Saginaw in 1997. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Saginaw's most notable media person also came from the black community. Lem Tucker, a national network TV news correspondent, attended Saginaw High School during the 1950s. He reportedly was among a group of politically aware pupils who would close the daily Pledge of Allegiance recitations by emphasizing, 'Liberty and Justice for ALL'.

Tucker graduated from Central Michigan University in 1960 and landed his first network job in 1965 at NBC, but he spent most of his career with CBS until his 1991 death at age 52. He earned a spot on President Nixon's famous 'enemies list' during the 1970s, and was on the inner scene for the 1981 assassination attempt against President Reagan.

College scholarships for journalism students today are named in his honor.

Mothers of Invention

The Great Depression may have seemed like hell for millions across the United States and thousands in Saginaw, but in the long run it proved to be a blessing for a pair of local couples.

Future Mayor Harold Stenglein and his wife, Naomi, wondered in 1930 how they would pay for food on their table and coal in their home-heating stove. So did Glenn and Elizabeth McDonald.

The ladies one day were talking about the drudgery of washing walls. The first pass with soapy water left scum. The second with clear hot water left streaks, so yet a third dry wipe was required.

They had an idea.

Could a better product be invented? By going into business, could they find a way out of their poverty?

Elizabeth noted that a relative had melted some paste glue into the wash water, with good results except for the smell that resulted. All four people started experimenting with various combinations. Through trial and error, they came up with a no-rinse, no-wipe mix of three elements: (1) sodium phosphate for deep cleaning; (2) powdered glue to absorb the dirt; (3) sodium carbonate to prevent the glue from hardening.

By giving out samples door-to-door, they promoted product sales first in corner stores. They celebrated after selling their first six bags. Eventually they hooked up with wholesalers. After a few years they reached out to other Michigan cities, then across the Ohio border, and eventually nationwide.

The Stengleins and the McDonalds in 1945 sold out to Proctor & Gamble in Cincinnati for $1.9 million.

Their product? Spic and Span.

And ironically, the more politics changes, the more politics stays the same. Does the local scene today seem sort of wild?

Harold Stenglein decided not to seek City Council re-election in 1947 after taking his turn as mayor. He was tired of public criticism. Specifically, a resident had accused him of ordering a city snowplow to come first to clear a blizzard in front of his home.

Stenglein vigorously denied such an arrangement. "That does it", he said succinctly, in perhaps the shortest resignation speech of all time.

Al Thieme isn't famous, but maybe he should be.

It's tough to peek at daytime television these days without seeing an advertisement for a power-operated vehicle that helps elders and the infirmed get around. These ads are for larger companies, but the originator from 1968 is Amigo Mobility International in Bridgeport.

Thieme was operating his own plumbing and heating business by day. He invested evenings in his garage, adapting a wheelchair for a family member with multiple sclerosis. He built his company and today makes sales both to individuals and retailers.

Thieme, born in 1937, asserts on his web site that Amigos are superior to some of the bigger names because Amigos are, well, smaller. He argues that so-called power chairs make it tougher for their riders to move through tight spaces.

Regardless, Thieme and his invention have provided comfort for thousands of people during the past four decades.




Vindication

Pardoned but not exonerated. That was the verdict for Dr. Samuel A. Mudd when his ultra-loyal grandson, Dr. Richard D. Mudd, finally succumbed in 2002 at the age of 101.
Sam Mudd had been convicted of aiding and abetting the attempted escape of John Wilkes Booth after the 1865 assassination of President Lincoln. He had treated Boot'’s broken leg. This, of course, was a scant eight years after the establishment of Saginaw City.
Richard Mudd first discovered this news as a teenager, and spent virtually his entire adult life in a quest to clear his grandfather’s name. For Richard Mudd, the cornerstone point was that Sam Mudd had not known the circumstances of the assassination at the time and did not even recognize the fleeing Booth, despite their previous encounters.

The pardon would seem to have borne out this point, and the lack of a more complete exoneration seems based more on bureaucracy than on the merits of the case.

Cool Clear Water

During the late 1940s, Saginaw and Midland agreed to work together on a 65-mile water pipeline to Lake Huron. Residents at the time still were using street-corner pumps for drinking water. Midland city leaders opted to annex neighboring communities that wanted to share the fresh water. Saginaw city officials instead decided to sell the H-2-0 to the suburbs, although not allowed under state law to reap profit for the general budget. Contrasts in results are seen today: Midland has wide city borders and Saginaw has multi-jurisdiction urban sprawl.

Saginaw now is seeking deals to expand water service, such as a property tax exchange with Hemlock Semiconductor in Thomas Township and a city income tax requirement for employees of a new Meijer store in Birch Run. Still, the policies of the 1950s cannot be overturned.

This wasn't the only water decision that was fouled up. Federal grants for pollution control were available during the 1970s; Bay City tapped them and Saginaw did not. When the DNR finally ordered Saginaw to clean up its act during the 1990s, federal aid had run dry. City residents are footing virtually the entire $110 million bill for retention basins, leading to the state's highest sewage rates. On your water-sewer bill, the water portion is still fairly cheap but the sewer cost often exceeds cable TV.

Many civic leaders through the years have described water as Saginaw's greatest resource, but historic use and abuse of the river are among the community's low points.

One positive note: Unlike the 1970s and 1980s, at least our brown river has resumed freezing during winter.

All American City

In 1968, the National Civic League named Saginaw an All-American City, recognizing 'exemplary grassroots community problem-solving in communities that cooperatively tackle challenges and achieve results.'

Part of Look Magazine's reporting described how Saginaw had responded to the 1967 race riots that swept the nation. Some in Saginaw say our scenario would be better described as a 'disturbance' because while there were dozens of arrests and arsons, and some gunplay involving police at Sixth and Lapeer, there was no loss of life. Down the highway in Detroit, in contrast, 43 were killed.

The evening after the main outbreak, 60 black community leaders hit the streets and helped to keep the peace. Former Mayor Henry Marsh assigned more than 200 citizens to various task forces. The worst was over, although Saginaw never again would be the same.

All About the Music

The most famous person born in Saginaw by far is Stevie Wonder, world-renowned musician.

He arrived as Steveland Judkins on May 13, 1950 at St. Mary's Hospital. By many accounts, overexposure to oxygen in his incubator led to his lifelong blindness. His mother married and changed his name to Steveland Morris. He was a toddler when his family moved to Detroit, and a mere gradeschooler when Motown's Berry Gordy dubbed him Little Stevie Wonder.

From his childhood harmonic Fingertips to his mature adult classics such as Living for the City, his career evolved to the top echelon.

He has returned rarely to Saginaw. For once in his life, he performed a 1986 concert at the old Civic Center. He has come back privately several times for funerals of extended relatives.

Several local leaders said they expected him to return in 2005 for dedication of an honorary marker near the site of the family's former home near Fifth and Farwell, but this didn't pan out.

Still, a Saginaw News sportswriter caught a moment with Stevie Wonder two years ago at the Palace of Auburn Hills, when the Detroit Pistons were playing in the NBA finals.
Stevie's statement: "I still think of Saginaw very much. I have deep love for my upbringing and I still have family up there. I wish them all the best."

If James Brown was the hardest working man in show businesses, Sonny Stitt may have been the hardest working man in jazz. Until his death at 58 in 1982, he took his hard bebop sax style on a constant touring schedule and he recorded more than 100 records.

Stitt stayed in Saginaw far longer than Stevie Wonder, graduating from Saginaw High School, but he also rarely returned home after he made it in the big time. A key to his family legacy was his mother, Claudine 'Mommy' Wickes, who taught dance to hundreds of children at the original Civitan Center on Sixth and Wadsworth. Other leading musical and artistic icons from Saginaw that we would be remiss not to mention include poet Theodore Roethke, and musician Richard Wagner (who penned several notable songs for Alice Cooper); along with more current musical artists earning national and international acclaim such as Larry McCray, Stewart Francke and Donny Brown.
         

Kid Lavigne

As for noted sports figures, Saginaw has had a good share and the ranks currently are bulging. Still, the most famous goes back to the 19th century.

Boxing in those days literally was fist-fighting and among the world's champions was lightweight George 'Kid' Lavigne.  His1869 birthplace was Bay City but most of his early fights starting as a teen-ager were in Saginaw. Thus he also was known worldwide as 'The Saginaw Kid'. Among his conquests was Jersey Joe Walcott.

In action that was long overdue, sources came together in 2001 to form the Saginaw County Sports Hall of Fame. Among the key leaders is Review Magazine's own Jack B. Tany, also author of 'Glory' - a history of Saginaw County high school athletics.
LaVigne was among the first group of inductees.

Philanthropy

In which other community is the leading philanthropist also the person who lived the longest?
Frank N. Andersen was born in 1889, the year that the Michigan Legislature forced Saginaw City (West Side) and East Saginaw to merge. He reached the remarkable age of 108 before he died in 1997, and he kept working almost up until the very end.
The owner of Andersen Sand & Gravel is best known for contributing $15,000 worth of cement during the World War II era to help build the original Andersen Pool. His foundation now supports an array of worthy causes, focusing on education and health care. The Sesquicentennial Parade will conclude at the Courthouse, a block from the foot of the old Court Street Bridge, now the Andersen Bridge.
Fitting and appropriate.