The Shakespeare Club greets the New Year

Charles Croswell, the 17th Governor of the US state of Michigan, was the subject of The Shakespeare Club meeting on January 10. This painting was created by Joshua Adam Risner in 2017 and hangs in the Michigan State Capitol.

submitted by Joan Gaughan, The Shakespeare Club

The Shakespeare Club’s first meeting of 2023 on January 10 featured a PowerPoint presentation by Betty Cummings on Michigan’s seventeenth governor, Charles Croswell. He was born in Newburgh, New York, in 1825, orphaned at the age of 7, and, with his uncle, moved to Adrian, Michigan, in 1837, the year Michigan became a state. Croswell was elected to two terms as governor from 1876 to 1886, the years in which the new capitol in Lansing was being built. After an active retirement, he died in 1886 and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Adrian. Mrs. Cummings also elaborated on the work the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) has done to preserve the Croswell legacy as well as the archival work it does on a national scale. 

There were two Thoughts for the Day. The first was “Our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other” — John Adams. In view of the fact that it was the first meeting of the new year, the second Thought for the Day was “Resolution. Schmesolution” — Probably all of us. 

The January 24 meeting featured a PowerPoint travelogue through Sicily by Sallie Anderson. The trip Sallie and her husband, John, took began in Palermo and circled the island. They encountered beautiful palazzos, including one that had housed a torture chamber for the Inquisition; magnificent cathedrals; ancient Greek and Roman temples; and fascinating towns and villages. They saw a puppet show with handmade puppets, shoveled sea salt at Mazara del Valdo, and encountered a young musician named Mario who made his own instruments and was committed to preserving Sicilian music. They also met charming people and ate superb food.

The Thought for the Day was ”A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions” — Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.