Early Manchester Photographers – Part 3 of 4
by Ray Berg and Alan Dyer In the previous two articles of this series, we discussed early Manchester photographers from 1860 – 1890, a period when commercial photographers provided portrait and street scene images, before the advent of the Kodak camera made personal photography feasible. We started this series by examining the Manchester careers of […]
Early Manchester Photographers – Part 1 of 4
by Ray Berg and Alan Dyer In June 2009, the authors met with local Manchester resident and historian Howard Parr, who had been given a photograph album by another local resident, Jane Cook, for donation to the Manchester Area Historical Society. This album was originally assembled by Addison DeForest Kief, a descendant of the Artemus […]
Annual Halloween Caramel Apple Event To Be Held Friday October 31
The Manchester Area Chamber of Commerce, the Manchester Civic Club, the Manchester Lions Club, and other volunteers are sponsoring the annual Caramel Apple event on the Manchester Mill porch at Main Street and Adrian on Friday, October 31. This free event will run from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM, concurrently with tricker-treating. It consists of […]
Talkin’ Trash in Manchester—Part 1 of 4
by Ray Berg and Alan Dyer Introduction Over a four-part series, the authors explore a feature common to both of their home sites – the presence of a large canyon with steep land, unusable for most practical purposes. Unusable as it may be, this feature provides an opportunity to gain some understanding of the […]
Lager, Lymph, Germans and Templars in Manchester—Part 6 of 6
by Ray Berg and Alan Dyer By 1905, the national “wet vs. dry” debate was fully underway. A “local option” campaign was advocated by the Anti-Saloon League to allow individual cities or counties to express their choice. In the spring of 1909, both Jackson and Lenawee counties voted to go dry, as did several […]
Lager, Lymph, Germans and Templars in Manchester–Part 5 of 6
by Ray Berg and Alan Dyer Introduction Parts 1 through 4 of this series discussed the political and cultural conflicts which developed in Manchester due to the influx of German immigrants to the village following the Civil War. The Germans’ need for lager beer led to the opening of the Michigan Southern Brewery in 1872, […]
Lager, Lymph, Germans and Templars in Manchester — Part 3 of 6
by Ray Berg and Alan Dyer Introduction In the first two parts of this series, we discussed the influx of German immigrants and their rise to economic and political power in Manchester Village in the post-Civil War period. A second area of examination was that of “nativism,” a movement that viewed these immigrants as […]
Lager, Lymph, Germans and Templars in Manchester — Part 1 of 6
by Ray Berg and Alan Dyer Introduction In previous articles, we noted the post-Civil War economic boom in Michigan that caused a renewed demand for consumer goods and led to higher commodity prices, conditions that benefited both farmers and merchants. A second railroad in 1870 opened Manchester to new markets, especially those in Indiana and […]
The Bank of Manchester – Speculation, Boom and Bust in the 1830s (Part Two of Two)
The Short Life of the Bank of Manchester by Ray Berg and Alan Dyer It quickly became apparent by late 1837 that multiple cases of specie fraud were occurring at various banks. The same specie (i.e., exact same combination of gold and silver coin denominations) was being noted at different banks. In some cases, paper […]
The Bank of Manchester – Speculation, Boom and Bust in the 1830s (Part One of Two)
by Ray Berg and Alan Dyer Introduction In previous articles, we have seen the influence of the Fargo brothers, Stephen, James and Alonzo, in the early development of commerce and government in Manchester Village. The brothers opened the first general store on August 21, 1833, and James Fargo served in organizing Manchester Township as its […]
