In Memoriam: Wystan
John Nowland, "first" white child born in Ann Arbor, at the 1898 Log Cabin in the Fairgrounds that became Burns Park.
CLICK ON "ALL SIZES" TO VIEW THIS PHOTOGRAPH PROPERLY LARGE
(Scanned from an original in possession of the Washtenaw County Historical Society)
WASHTENAW COUNTY'S FIRST LOCAL HISTORY MUSEUM
In a mounted copy of this photo that I saw many years ago, the man in the rocking chair was labeled as "Uncle John" Nowland. His gravestone in Forest Hill Cemetery identifies Nowland, the son of pioneer settlers, as the first white person born in Ann Arbor (on June 13, 1826, two years after the founding of the Village). The claim was tarnished; Elisha Walker Rumsey Smith, the second child of carpenter Asa L. Smith, was born in Ann Arbor in 1824, but died in 1827. (The man whose name he bore, E. W. Rumsey, co-founder of Ann Arbor, also died that year.) Unfortunately, the Smith baby's brief existence appears to have been forgotten by locals until his mother (then a resident of Kalamazoo) was interviewed on the subject when she was 79 years old. John Nowland lived long enough to get his claim inscribed in stone:
www.flickr.com/photos/42955247@N08/3967106517/in/photolis...
Not only was he a genuine pioneer resident, Nowland also was a founding member and longtime officer of the Washtenaw County Agricultural Society, which observed its 50th anniversary in 1898 -- a celebration marked by the Pioneer Society's erection of a replica log cabin at the Fairgrounds on the southeast corner of town -- the area now known as Burns Park. This photo of "Uncle John" inside that cabin -- posing as just another historical relic in an exhibition of pioneer artifacts at the county fair -- was taken at the grand opening in September, 1898; Nowland pulled the ceremonial latch string that opened the cabin on its first day. He died in 1900 -- on May 28, before the fair was held that year. (Nowland was two weeks shy of 74 when he died.)
Prof. O. W. Stephenson, in his book "Ann Arbor, the First Hundred Years" (1927), tells us that the cabin was erected in August, 1898, under auspices of the Washtenaw County Pioneer Society, and dedicated on the 27th of the following month, during the annual fair. Above the entrance appeared the words, "Erected in Honor of the Pioneers of Washtenaw, 1898." (The Pioneer Society was the forerunner of the current Washtenaw County Historical Society.) The cabin first stood where the north playground of Burns Park School is now; the chimney was at the north end, facing Wells Street. The c.1825 leather saddle bags of Judge Samuel William Dexter, founder of Dexter Village, and an early circuit-riding postmaster / letter carrier, were among the most precious historical relics displayed in the cabin.
The Agricultural Society fizzled out during World War I; the Pioneer Society's relics got moved to storage in the old courthouse downtown, the fairgrounds became a city park, and before 1925, when Tappan (now Burns Park) school was erected, the cabin was moved from its location on the school site to the place where a brick shelter building now stands, near the corner of Baldwin and Wells streets, its entrance facing Wells. It became at first an ignominious storage shed for wagons, rakes, mowers, and other grounds-maintenance implements. In the years 1948, 1949, 1950 (and perhaps others) it was rented by Ann Arbor Civic Theatre for meeting and rehearsal space, and scenery and props were designed and painted there.
Later in the 1950s, it was used to store athletic equipment for summer recreation programs in the park. Basketballs, for example, could be borrowed there, and then dribbled over to the hoops that stood outside. The cabin was demolished in the mid-fifties, after its logs had become riddled with carpenter ants, and because it had become an attractive nuisance for mischievous boys, who easily climbed the smaller logs of the crumbling rustic chimney to play atop the roof. The chimney was then at the cabin's west end. Of course, this photograph shows but one end of the single interior room; the entrance would have been off to the right.
The names carved in the massive rafter logs are those of pioneers of Washtenaw, with the year dates of their arrival and the names of the townships in which they resided. These can't be all of them; I wonder if the names visible here might be those only of men and women whose families had donated to the building project. The rafter above the fireplace is emblazoned with the word "DIRECTORS" -- obscured in the photo by hanging herbs. When the cabin was torn down, the name logs were still in good shape, so they were stored for several decades in a building at the Ann Arbor Airport, until a use could be found for them. In 2009, I was informed that at least some of the rafter logs have survived and are now in storage in a building at Gallup Park.
Among names visible here are those of Philip Bach and Christian Mack, two German immigrants for whom schools were named (in recognition of their long service on the Ann Arbor School Board) and Joseph Dorr Baldwin, pomologist, who grew apples and other fruit on extensive acreage that included the parcel that became Burns Park.
I wonder if the ten photographic portraits in oval frames, visible at right in this photo, have survived in anyone's collections?
If anyone knows of other photographs of the Burns Park cabin, inside or out, I would love to see them.
John Nowland, "first" white child born in Ann Arbor, at the 1898 Log Cabin in the Fairgrounds that became Burns Park.
CLICK ON "ALL SIZES" TO VIEW THIS PHOTOGRAPH PROPERLY LARGE
(Scanned from an original in possession of the Washtenaw County Historical Society)
WASHTENAW COUNTY'S FIRST LOCAL HISTORY MUSEUM
In a mounted copy of this photo that I saw many years ago, the man in the rocking chair was labeled as "Uncle John" Nowland. His gravestone in Forest Hill Cemetery identifies Nowland, the son of pioneer settlers, as the first white person born in Ann Arbor (on June 13, 1826, two years after the founding of the Village). The claim was tarnished; Elisha Walker Rumsey Smith, the second child of carpenter Asa L. Smith, was born in Ann Arbor in 1824, but died in 1827. (The man whose name he bore, E. W. Rumsey, co-founder of Ann Arbor, also died that year.) Unfortunately, the Smith baby's brief existence appears to have been forgotten by locals until his mother (then a resident of Kalamazoo) was interviewed on the subject when she was 79 years old. John Nowland lived long enough to get his claim inscribed in stone:
www.flickr.com/photos/42955247@N08/3967106517/in/photolis...
Not only was he a genuine pioneer resident, Nowland also was a founding member and longtime officer of the Washtenaw County Agricultural Society, which observed its 50th anniversary in 1898 -- a celebration marked by the Pioneer Society's erection of a replica log cabin at the Fairgrounds on the southeast corner of town -- the area now known as Burns Park. This photo of "Uncle John" inside that cabin -- posing as just another historical relic in an exhibition of pioneer artifacts at the county fair -- was taken at the grand opening in September, 1898; Nowland pulled the ceremonial latch string that opened the cabin on its first day. He died in 1900 -- on May 28, before the fair was held that year. (Nowland was two weeks shy of 74 when he died.)
Prof. O. W. Stephenson, in his book "Ann Arbor, the First Hundred Years" (1927), tells us that the cabin was erected in August, 1898, under auspices of the Washtenaw County Pioneer Society, and dedicated on the 27th of the following month, during the annual fair. Above the entrance appeared the words, "Erected in Honor of the Pioneers of Washtenaw, 1898." (The Pioneer Society was the forerunner of the current Washtenaw County Historical Society.) The cabin first stood where the north playground of Burns Park School is now; the chimney was at the north end, facing Wells Street. The c.1825 leather saddle bags of Judge Samuel William Dexter, founder of Dexter Village, and an early circuit-riding postmaster / letter carrier, were among the most precious historical relics displayed in the cabin.
The Agricultural Society fizzled out during World War I; the Pioneer Society's relics got moved to storage in the old courthouse downtown, the fairgrounds became a city park, and before 1925, when Tappan (now Burns Park) school was erected, the cabin was moved from its location on the school site to the place where a brick shelter building now stands, near the corner of Baldwin and Wells streets, its entrance facing Wells. It became at first an ignominious storage shed for wagons, rakes, mowers, and other grounds-maintenance implements. In the years 1948, 1949, 1950 (and perhaps others) it was rented by Ann Arbor Civic Theatre for meeting and rehearsal space, and scenery and props were designed and painted there.
Later in the 1950s, it was used to store athletic equipment for summer recreation programs in the park. Basketballs, for example, could be borrowed there, and then dribbled over to the hoops that stood outside. The cabin was demolished in the mid-fifties, after its logs had become riddled with carpenter ants, and because it had become an attractive nuisance for mischievous boys, who easily climbed the smaller logs of the crumbling rustic chimney to play atop the roof. The chimney was then at the cabin's west end. Of course, this photograph shows but one end of the single interior room; the entrance would have been off to the right.
The names carved in the massive rafter logs are those of pioneers of Washtenaw, with the year dates of their arrival and the names of the townships in which they resided. These can't be all of them; I wonder if the names visible here might be those only of men and women whose families had donated to the building project. The rafter above the fireplace is emblazoned with the word "DIRECTORS" -- obscured in the photo by hanging herbs. When the cabin was torn down, the name logs were still in good shape, so they were stored for several decades in a building at the Ann Arbor Airport, until a use could be found for them. In 2009, I was informed that at least some of the rafter logs have survived and are now in storage in a building at Gallup Park.
Among names visible here are those of Philip Bach and Christian Mack, two German immigrants for whom schools were named (in recognition of their long service on the Ann Arbor School Board) and Joseph Dorr Baldwin, pomologist, who grew apples and other fruit on extensive acreage that included the parcel that became Burns Park.
I wonder if the ten photographic portraits in oval frames, visible at right in this photo, have survived in anyone's collections?
If anyone knows of other photographs of the Burns Park cabin, inside or out, I would love to see them.