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Recording Hometown History Possible Thanks to University Fellowship |
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Kathleen Warnes |
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May 30, 2003 |
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| Kathleen Warnes |
History isn’t dusty textbooks and memorizing lists of names and dates. History is singing history songs and telling history stories with kids. It is researching and reassembling lives that have been obscured in the mists of time or examining Rachel Jackson, who fled from her first husband and later married Andrew Jackson, with a different perspective.
History is something to be excited about, especially if you are writing the history of your hometown. My hometown, Ecorse, Mich., has a bad reputation for a couple of reasons. During Prohibition, by one historian’s estimate, about 75 percent of the liquor circulating through the country was smuggled across the Detroit River from Canada and passed through Ecorse on its way to thirsty customers. Some Ecorse citizens did a lot to send the liquor to market!
The second reason is that in the 1980s Ecorse was one of the few cities in American history to go into receivership. A court-appointed manager returned it to the path of fiscal responsibility, but like many American small towns, Ecorse has a shabby business section and well-groomed outskirts. It also has a history that involves French ribbon farms along the Detroit River, Pontiac holding councils of war on the banks of Ecorse Creek, and a dock for the Bob-lo boat on Southfield and Jefferson. One of my fondest childhood memories is riding the Bob-lo boat to Bob-lo Island and riding the roller coaster, merry-go-round and tilt-a-whirl.
I’m excited about writing this history and thrilled that the history department at The University of Toledo has been so encouraging, especially my adviser, Dr. Charles Glaab, Toledo and urban historian; Dr. Diane Britton, public and ethnic historian; and Dr. Ruth Herndon, Colonial historian. Thanks to my University Fellowship, I will be able to write the history of my hometown and put it into the larger historical context of the French and British fur trade, the French and Indian War, the British occupation of Detroit, and a thriving maritime industry, including the building of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Thank you for the University Fellowship!
Warnes, a Ph.D. student in the history department, received a 2003-04 University of Toledo Fellowship for doctoral students. The fellowship is the highest award made by the Graduate School and is extended only to a graduate student of exceptional ability and promise. Besides the academic recognition, the award provides a full stipend for the academic year, plus a remission of instructional and general fees, including summer 2004. It is renewable for up to two additional years. In addition to recording the history of Ecorse, Mich., Warnes is working on books about Rachel Jackson and Great Lakes weatherman Increase Lapham. She also is researching and writing a children’s book about the Huron Indians.
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