The Secrets of the Harper House Fundraiser

The Secrets of the Harper House

Tuesday, May 12, 2015 - 6:00 pm

Harper House - 1408 Cambridge Rd., Lansing

$50 per person

Join HSGL for a behind the scenes look at the Harper House, Lansing's largest and most elegant historic home.  Built for Harry and Ragna Harper just before the Great Depression struck, the home stands as a testimony to Lansing's auto prowess in the 1920s.  President of the Prudden Wheel Company, and then the President and General Manager of Lansing's Motor Wheel, Harper used his wealth and civic standing to do great good in the community, including serving as a major patron of both Sparrow and St. Lawrence Hospitals.

The evening will include hors d'oeuvres and a tour of the home led by home owner Brian Huggler and HSGL President Valerie Marvin.  All funds raised benefit the Historical Society of Greater Lansing's museum fund.

You may order tickets by calling (517) 282-0671, by clicking on the the form at the bottom of the page, printing it, and mailing it with payment to HSGL, or by clicking the Paypal link below and ordering with your credit card.

 

Civil War Series Ends This Weekend!

Capitol Grounds Civil War Monument Tour

Friday, April 24, 6:30 pm

Michigan State Capitol

                Built in the years following the Civil War, the Michigan State Capitol stands as a memorial to the Michigan faithful who answered the call to preserve the Union and end the scourge of slavery.  The architecture of the building, including the early use of a tall cast iron dome, echoes the renovations carried out on the national capitol during the Civil War, and the grounds are dotted with memorials honoring Michigan men and women who sacrificed much during the war years.  This walk will include information about both the Capitol’s exterior architecture and the memorials, including the statue of Austin Blair, Michigan’s Civil War Governor, the First Michigan Sharpshooters Monument, the Grand Army of the Republic monument, and the Women’s Relief Corps Monument.  The walk will also tell the story of the first painting of the Capitol’s dome by a disabled Civil War Veteran, Allen Shattuck.

                Hosted by the Historical Society of Greater Lansing and the Michigan State Capitol Tour Service

Mount Hope Civil War Cemetery Tour

Saturday, April 25, 1:00 pm

1800 E. Mt. Hope Ave.

                Descendants of Civil War soldiers and local historians will present brief biographies of 6 Lansing Civil War veterans buried in Lansing’s Mount Hope Cemetery, including Luther Baker, who led the party that captured John Wilkes Booth, Charles T. Foster, the first men from Lansing to enlist, and an African American soldier who served with the 54^th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the first northern raised regiment made up of entirely African Americans.   

Dr. George E. Ranney, recipient of the Medal of Honor during the Civil War, will be honored by fellow Medal of Honor recipient and Korean War veteran Duane Dewey.  Dewey will lay a wreath at Ranney’s grave.  Dewey received his medal for shielding his fellow squad members from a live grenade with his own body, causing him to sustain serious wounds when the grenade exploded. 

                Hosted by the Historical Society of Greater Lansing and the Curtenius Guard Camp #17, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.

Luther Baker and the Capture of John Wilkes Booth

Saturday, April 25, 4:00 pm

 Dart Auditorium, Lansing Community College

500 N. Capitol Ave., Lansing

                Historian Steve Miller of Chicago will give a keynote address on the capture of John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, led by Lansing’s own Luther Baker, cousin of Lafayette Baker, founded of the Secret Service.  The speech will detail Baker’s chase as Booth slid through the shadows away from Washington and into the former Confederacy.  Miller will also examine the men that made up Baker’s party, focusing particularly on Luther and Lafayette Baker, and their return to Lansing. 

                Hosted by the Historical Society of Greater Lansing and Lansing Community College

Thank you to the Michigan Humanities Council for supporting this program with the gift of a quick grant!  

Civil War Foods of the North and South

Sunday, April 26, 2015, 1:15 pm

Michigan Historical Center Auditorium

702 W. Kalamazoo St., Lansing

                Food historian and MSU Professor Helen Veit will speak on the first two publications in the American Food in History series, Food in the Civil War Era: The North, and Food in the Civil War Era: The South.  Veit’s presentation will include recipes, historical misunderstandings about food, differences between food in America’s vastly varied landscapes, and will reveal a peak into the food ways common in America 150 years ago.

                Hosted by the Historical Society of Greater Lansing and the Michigan Historical Center

Michigan's Civil War Battle Flags

Sunday, April 26, 2015, 2:30 pm

 Michigan Historical Center

702 W. Kalamazoo St., Lansing

                Join historian and Save the Flags co-chair Matt VanAcker for a behind the scenes visit the Michigan Civil War Battle Flag Collection.  Approximately 90,000 Michigan soldiers fought in the American Civil War and almost 15,000 made the ultimate sacrifice.  The bullet torn, blood stained battle flags that these men carried and died beneath were their proudest possessions, they stood for the Union, for their loved ones back home and also as the rallying point in combat.

The Michigan Capitol Battle Flag collection, includes 240 battle flags carried by Michigan soldiers in the Civil War, the Spanish American War and World War I.  This visit to the flag storage facility at the State Historical Center in Lansing will focus on the Civil War collection, flag terminology, the importance of flags in battle, some specific regimental histories in connection with the flags and the history of the collection including current conservation efforts. 

Sponsored by the Historical Society of Greater Lansing, Save the Flags, and the Michigan Historical Center

Local Author to Sign Book on Capture of John Wilkes Booth at Antiquarian Book and Paper Show on Sunday, April 19

On April 14, 1865 President Abraham Lincoln was shot by the assassin John Wilkes Booth and would die early the next day.  This singular act would ignite the largest manhunt every seen in the United States.

In 12 days a military search party led by Lt. Luther Baker would capture David Herold, a co-conspirator, and kill Booth.  Baker soon after would move to Lansing, Michigan where he would invest in real estate, work in the Auditor General's office, and go on the lecture circuit to tell his certain of the flight of Booth and his ultimate capture.

Now, for the first time, the Historical Society of Greater Lansing has published the 45 minute lecture in chapbook form accompanied with 19 archival photographs and prints depicting various aspects of the assassination and the death of Booth.  The book also contains the "Horse's Tail", a first horse account by Buckskin, Baker's trusty steed in the capture and later companion at lectures and in Lansing parades.

The book, "Assassination of Abraham Lincoln," is edited by local historian Craig Whitford and will be formally released at the Michigan Antiquarian Book and Paper Show on Sunday, April 19 in the Lansing Center.

Whitford said his research shows that only four copies of the lectures exist, three in archives and one with a Baker family member who has loaned that copy to the Society.  It is on display in the Society's Lansing Goes to War exhibit in Lansing City Hall lobby.

For the book Whitford wrote a foreward which puts the lecture in context.

He writes about the end of the Civil War: "A jubilant atmosphere prevailed throughout much of the North on Monday April 10, 1865, church and school bells rang out and the nation's colors were proudly displayed.  Less than five days later the ringing of the bells took on a somber tone; the national colors would be joined with black mourning cloth, crape, and ribbons."

Whitford has written three other books on Michigan History, "Postmarked: Michigan, Mich. 1847-1848," Craig A. Whitford and David L Mackey, 1987.  Self published, 36pp, ills,: "Airport Kid Learning to Fly," Marion "Babe" Weyant Ruth and Craig A. Whitford, 2003.  Michigan Historical Press.  96pp., illus. and "Lansing City on the Grand, 1836-1939," James MacLean and Craig A. Whitford, 2003, Arcadia, Images of America.  128p., illus.

Whitford has a passion for Lansing's history serving for more than 10 years on the Ingham County Historical Commission as an active member and president.  He is past president of the Historical Society of Greater Lansing.  Craig was appointed in 2002 by Governor John Engler to the Michigan Quarter Commission, for the selection of the State's Quarter Dollar released in January 2004.  Craig actively collects, conducts research and provides presentations on various subjects relating to the history of Lansing and Ingham County.  He resides in Holt with his wife, Kathy.

Whitford will be signing the book at the Antiquarian Book and Paper Show.  The book is $5 with all proceeds going to fund Society activities.

Civil War Love Letters

Civil War Love Letters
Saturday, April 11, 2:00 pm
Library of Michigan Auditorium
702 W. Kalamazoo St. - Lansing, MI

On Saturday, April 11 at 2 pm in the Library of Michigan auditorium Erik Nelson, manager of the English Inn, and his spouse Kristin will do a dramatic reading of the Civil War letters sent by Michigan Union Soldier Nathan Adams to Emily Parsons between 1861 and 1865.  The letters are held in the Library of Michigan's Rare Book Room where they will be displayed along with other Civil War era items.

The event, which is cohosted by the Library of Michigan, draws attention to the importance of preserving letters and other family history, said Valerie Marvin, President of the Society.

These Few Lines
by Nathan Adams

(you must excuse all mistakes and bad writing and except these few lines from your absent friend)

O vain the question none can tell
I only know we love to well
Since first we met
When first my hand clasped in thine
When first those conquering eyes met mine
Our heart were laid upon loves shrine
But ah for us now light may shine
Hopes star has set
Our love was sinless free from stain
And should we never meet again
My heart will sing this sweet refrain
Thou lovest me yet.

It was March 12, 1862 when the Union Civil War soldier Nathan Adams, member of the 11th Michigan Volunteer Infantry sent this poem to his 'girl' back home.  Adams included the poem in one of his regular letters to Emily Parsons, who was clearly the love of his life.  Life was not always poetry for Adams who faced not only death from Rebel bullets but from serious illness while serving in the 11th Michigan Infantry.  The Regiment was organized in White Pigeon, Michigan and consisted of 950 members.  By the end of the war 112 men were killed in action and another 196 died from disease.

Adams's letters, which are held by the Library of Michigan in the Rare Book room provide a soldier's viewpoint from enlistment through three years of marching, waiting, bravado, fear, and fighting.  The collection holds 63 of Adams's letter to Emily who, when the war started, was still in school.  Emily's letters did not survive battlefield conditions.

The letters reveal not only his growing love for Emily, but a sense of dread that he may not see her again.  He describes in detail horrible conditions and the death of his comrades.  In one letter he describes the execution by hanging of a Union soldier soldier for killing a farmer.

His letters are often witty with a sense of cold irony as he faces death at Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, and the Siege of Atlanta.  A few of the letters from the 'soldier boy' reflect a jealous lover as he chastises Emily for going to dances back home.

The Mystery of Dr. Samuel Mudd and John Wilkes Booth, Civil War Love Letters

The Mystery of Dr. Samuel Mudd and John Wilkes Booth
Thursday, April 9, 7:00 pm
East Lansing Public Library  
950 Abbott Rd. - East Lansing, MI 

Civil War Love Letters
Saturday, April 11, 2:00 pm
Library of Michigan Auditorium
702 W. Kalamazoo St. - Lansing, MI

The Historical Society of Greater Lansing continues its commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln this week with two events highlighting different aspects of the War Between the States.

Thomas Mudd, the great grandson of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was convicted of aiding the assassin John Wilkes Booth, will bring his case to the East Lansing Public Library, 7 p.m., Thursday, April 9.  Mr. Mudd will argue that his infamous relative was not complicit with Booth involving the assassination.  The event is co-sponsored by teh Friends of the East Lansing Public Library.

On Saturday, April 11 at 2 pm in the Library of Michigan auditorium Erik Nelson, manager of the English Inn, and his spouse Kristin will do a dramatic reading of the Civil War letters sent by Michigan Union Soldier Nathan Adams to Emily Parsons between 1861 and 1865.  The letters are held in the Library of Michigan's Rare Book Room where they will be displayed along with other Civil War era items.

The event, which is cohosted by the Library of Michigan, draws attention to the importance of preserving letters and other family history, said Valerie Marvin, President of the Society.

In addition, Lansing collector Rick Brown will showcase his Travelling Lincoln Assassination Museum at the East Lansing Public Library, 11 am to 7 pm April 7, 8, and 9.  The exhibit, containing more than 30 rare items relating to the assassination, will then move to the downtown branch of the Capital Area District Library for three days, 11 am - 7 pm, April 14, 15, and 16.  (Lincoln died from his wounds on April 15.