Linda Osborne Cynowa

Researching the ‘Lights’

Linda’s Monday Morning Moaning’s,

Let’s start with, “What is a lighthouse”? Very simply a tower, building or other type of structure designed to emit a light system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid on the seas or inland waterways. Lighthouses helped mark the way around dangerous coastlines, shoals, reefs, and give safe passage into harbors. It was used to provide a mariner at sea with a find point of reference to aid in the ability to navigate in the dark when the shore or an offshore hazard can’t be seen directly.

Lighthouses have always had two principle functions, to warn of danger from a spot that sailors could see from a safe distance both night and day. They are used to guide ships into harbors and anchorages. Theses structures were often constructed under precarious circumstances by skilled builders and were maintained , often at great personal risk by very dedicated keepers.

The distance at which such a light can be seen depends on the height and intensity of the light. The brighter the light and the greater its height above the sea, the farther it can be seen. In 1822, the Frenchman Augustin-Jean Fresnel invented a lens that captured and focused a much larger fraction of the light emitted by the lamps than did the reflectors, previous used. These Fresnel lens were are quickly adopted in England, France and other European seafaring nations.

Fresnel lighthouse lenses are ranked by ‘order’, a measure of refracting power, with a first order lens being the largest, most powerful and expensive, with the sixth order lens being the smallest. The order is based on the focal length of the lens. the first order lens has the longest focal length, with the sixth being the shortest. Coastal lighthouses generally use first, second or third order lens, while harbor lights and beacons use fourth, fifth or sixth order lens.

Little Sable Point Light and Old Mackinac Point Light, authors collection

Little Sable Point and Old Mackinac Point today, authors collection

On that ‘wee note’ till next week.

Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

Thank you for visiting and reading today. Be sure to share with your fiends using the share button below. If you haven’t already please enter your email address in the form below to receive my stories by email.

Mount Vernon, Part Two

Linda’s Monday Morning Moaning’s

Back to Mount Vernon, when Robert Eldredge wrote in ‘Past and Present of Macomb County’ in 1905, that “Mount Vernon, which is situated in section 19 and 30 of Washington Township is a thriving little village community, in which has gathered a number of business houses, two churches and a blacksmith shop and several residences, it was. It also has one of the oldest post offices in the county.

Old timers indicated that for years the post office was in a corner of the General Store, and names like Tobias Hoyle 1888, Frank Rogers 1893, Orlando Pike 1894, Levern Levanseler 1900, Rudolph Reed 1903 and Frederick Norton 1904 where all proprietors of the store so it can be assumed the post office was in the store at that time. In 1905 it was decreed that the Rochester post office would now handle Mount Vernon’s mail, and the local post office was closed marking the diffident end of an era. There was a structure that started out as a home built in 1830 which became the club house for the Mount Vernon Country Club. It was designed to look like George Washingtons Mount Vernon home. While the club drew members from all around and including the Detroit area, and the grounds were kept lush all summer, after World War II it would fall on hard times. It was later bought and restored by a family later on, but now the property is within the Stoney Creek Metro Park system.

Mount Vernon has changed from the thriving, yet quite farming community it once was. The school house was destroyed and damaged beyond repair during a windstorm in 1934. The Baptist Church closed. Stores went out of business. There was no more calls for buggies, wagons or windmills. Fields that once grew crops of hay and grains are covered over with asphalt. Large new homes are being built and automobiles make the area homeowners more mobile, where they can travel miles for shopping or entertainment. Food and fun are no longer homemade.

These changes might well have begun when Mount Vernon was bypassed by the railroad. The same as with many areas near by like Clifton Mills a ways down the road. Towns that railroads passed through grew and prospered while others became only a collection of homes. Now all that remains of the past are a few “old” homes, the Methodist Church (although that has recently been sold to soon become Greek Orthodox), and the Mount Vernon Cemetery.

Memories of Mount Vernon’s glory days are fading as most of the ‘old timers” are also gone, those hard working people who knew the importance of building their village. The present and future generations need to remember the past and the people who worked hard to shape it.

Thank you to Louise M. Pohly for her work on ‘Historic Mount Vernon, 1997

Thank you for visiting and reading today. Be sure to share with your friends using the share button below. If you haven’t already please enter your email address in the form below to receive my stories by email.

A Quick Trip for Research

Linda’s Monday Morning Moaning’

If you are researching lighthouses, the place to go is the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association, also known as ‘GLLKA’ in Mackinaw City, Michigan. For those that might not be familiar to this part of Michigan, it’s were the very tip of the mitten, connects to a five mile long bridge that open’s the door to Michigan’s Upper Peninsular. It’s just one of many beautiful places in the State of Michigan.

‘GLLKA’ is a great group of people who work very hard at keeping anything to do with the lighthouses a part of their important work. I was visiting the Association’s headquarters this past weekend for a much needed introduction to let them know of the contract to do the book for Arcadia Publishing on the Great Lakes Lights, with the hope they might be able to help with my research and quest for some vintage postcards, I am having a difficult time a acquiring.

Some years ago on a road trip to Mackinaw City with the intent of taking one of the Shepplers boat tours, we found that ‘GLLKA’ organizes these trips with Shepplers to see the different lighthouses in the Straits of Mackinac. The gentleman that was the host and speaker was Terry Pepper. His knowledge was complete when it came to these lights through out the Great Lakes.

We were offered this weekend to see his research room at ‘GLLKA’ offices and look through his files and collection. His research where he had gathered huge amount of information, pictures, article, and lots of books on all the lighthouse of the Great Lakes was to say the least overwhelming. Getting to search through his life time of work was a special treat for us to be allowed to see. With the files I am compiling, for my research, I can only hope these files can be, but small addition to his work at some point in the future.

The reason I mentioned ‘he had’ is because Mr. Pepper sadly passed away in 2019. Much to the loss of his family and friends, and a great loss to the lighthouses, shipping and navigation in general, not to speak of what he brought with his knowledge to the Association its self. His research done over many years, will be a wonderful source for the many researchers and lovers of the lighthouse lore, well into the future.

And I did manage to find a few vintage postcards, and with ‘GLLKA’s help, may be able to use them for the book. The Star Ferry Line, located right next to our hotel, had a beautiful huge fireworks display the same night, not sure what the occasion was, but could they heard about a new ‘lighthouse book’ in the works?? Ummmm, Arcadia would be pleased, building the excitement.

On that ‘wee note’ till next week.

Thank you for visiting today. Be sure to share with your friends using the share button below. If you haven’t already, please enter your email address in the form below to receive my stories by email.

‘Lights of the Great Lakes’

Linda’s Monday Morning Moaning’s

Last week, I said I would be blogging the second part of the information on the Mount Vernon area, here in Washington. That will be furthered in next weeks blog instead of todays.

For the last couple of months I have been working on a new project while I was waiting for the farming book to be published in August. For many years I have had a strong attachment to the lighthouse of the area. I have on many occasions traveled to some of them just in the hope of photographing these beautiful structures that have been so important to the maritime shipping around the Great Lakes. After working on three previous books about the local area that I live in, I decided to expand my research area to cover approximately eight states in total, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, all where the shores of these states touched the Great Lakes.

I submitted my proposal to Arcadia Publishing for their ‘Postcard History Series’ and have just received a commitment and my contract to further the project.

The title ‘Lights of the Great Lakes’ is still a working title. If all goes as planed, this edition will be published in time for ‘National Lighthouse Day’ on August 7th 2022.

Although these scans are in their original color formats, Arcadia’s vintage history series are all black and white, images and postcards can be used when scanned in grey scale. Most real photo postcards (RPPC) are only produced in black and white which are the majority of vintage postcards available. This will be a look at the lighthouses, from the early days of their use, many no long exist or look nothing like their original look. So now I further the research for the ‘Lights of the Great Lakes’.

Next week, more on Mount Vernon, and on that ‘wee note’ till next week.

Mount Vernon, Washington

Linda’s Monday Morning Moaning’s

Patriotism ran strong among the early pioneering settlers to this area. They named the township and village after our first President (Washington) and a village after his Virginia estate (Mount Vernon). Since there were many of Scottish descent arriving new to the area, the name was easily approved.

The ruggedly hilly northwest corner of Macomb County was its most populated section in 1840 when the first Federal census for Michigan was conducted. The pioneer farmers and townspeople headed to the cool, well-drained hills of Washington, Shelby and Bruce Townships, avoiding the swampy flatlands for the more fertile and game abundant land. Although Mount Vernon has never been incorporated or officially organized, nor has it ever had specific boundaries, it was recognized as a village and had several business places and a United States Post Office. In Lesson’s ‘History of Macomb County, Michigan’ written in 1882, Mount Vernon is described as ‘a small post office village’ in Washington Township, Macomb County, seventeen miles northwest of Mount Clemens Court House and five miles northeast of Rochester, with two churches in the immediate area, Baptist and Methodist’.

The Mount Vernon General Store was a rather large wooden structure on the northeast corner of the main intersection. They carried a full line of groceries, yard goods, kerosene and farm supplies. Upstairs there were several rooms that were available for travelers. This store would burn down, due to a fire that started in the back the building were the kerosene was stored. A new smaller building was built, with living quarters in the back for the owners. The Fangboner Buggy Shop was also nearby during these years, a well used establishment in the community. I will travel further into Mount Vernon’s history in next weeks Monday Moaning’s.

On that ‘wee note’ til net week.

Thank you to ‘Historic Mount Vernon’ by Louise M. Pohly, 1997