Historians Speak to Club
November 21, 2006
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CLUB ANNOUNCEMENTS
Upcoming Meetings
Last Weeks program - November 21, 2006 - Three Five Minute Historians Speak to Club
Member and local historian Eric Jylha introduced the days program and the first speaker Ron Bloomfield, Curator and Facility Manager of the Bay County Historical Society and Museum.
Bloomfield reported on a number of projects at the Museum including:
Two future projects were also previewed. The Society plans to open a small movie theater in the Museum to show historical videos and movies. On March 10th the group will hold a Historic Dinner fund raiser featuring Dixie Dave who will base the menu on recipes from the Myra Parsons Diary.
Following Bloomfield, Rotarian Dave Rogers took over and talked about the success of sailing excursions, Ghost Tours and other historic tours held in town. He said these are very popular with both locals and visitors and they offer a great deal of potential for bringing visitors to Bay City. A group of researchers are continuously at work in the Museum digging up facts and stories to support these excursions.
Rogers went on to relate some of the more notorious lore of the area including the way that Bonnie and Clyde's final days had a connection to the area. It seems that two of their gang were in Midland to rob the Chemical Bank of Dow's $75,000 cash payroll that arrived every two weeks. The men were captured and sent back to Texas where Bonnie and Clyde broke them out and made a run which ended in their deaths.
The story went on to relate the stories of vigilantes, the banker with the deer rifle who shot the driver of a get away vehicle, the story of a famous trial with men in clanking chains, the hanging judge who hired the professional hangman who happened to be a farmer but who got drunk which caused another hangman to be used, etc, etc. etc. It was easy to see why the history tours are so popular.
The program was concluded by Jyhla who related various facts about the history of our Thanksgiving celebration. The first being a three day celebration in 1622 attended by 56 settlers and 91 Indians. The meals were cooked by four women and two girls. A detailed record of the menu and activities has been preserved and shows that the meal included guinea foul but no turkey. Interestingly, the Indians brought popped corn. There were running and jumping competitions along with shooting and archery contests.
After that first celebration, the day was not recognized again until 1777. In 1789 President Washington proclaimed a Day of Thanksgiving which was not popular with other politicians and was later overturned by Jefferson.
In the 1800s a long campaign in the Boston Ladies Magazine fought to restore the holiday. In 1863, three weeks after Gettysburg, Lincoln proclaimed the day to be celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November and the modern era dawned.
In 1937 FDR was lobbied by merchants to move the holiday to the 3rd Thursday. He did this but the move proved very unpopular and most of the nation continued to celebrate the 4th Thursday. In 1941 FDR apologized and moved the date back to the original 4th Thursday. The Merchants were not happy but made do by coming up with discounts to keep the shoppers coming in.
eClub-One: Members with internet connections are encouragedto visit eClub-One monthly for a makeup. To get makeup credit you need to fill out the makeup form on that site. Print the acknowledgement for you receive and turn it in to receive credit. Be sure to enter our club's district number (6310) on that form.
Click this link to open eClubOne in a new window: www.rotaryeclubone.org.
The Bay City Rotary Club meets at Noon each Tuesday at the Lumber Barons resturant on the West Side.
Rotary Club of Bay City Web Site
District 6310 meeting schedule
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