DAUGHTER OF MICHIGAN: THE GREAT ADVENTURE

There are no letters or scrapbooks to tell the story of Margaret growing up in rural Michigan. She left behind no accountings of her childhood. Later in her life, she would return to visit family and friends. It may be presumed her early life was for the most part happy. Her life probably revolved around school and church and farm chores. The siblings she shared were two separate families entwined in a web of social and community values particular to small towns and cities throughout the mid-west. Contrary to later, popular belief, they were neither sleepy nor dull. Hudson had its share of crime. A bank had been robbed in the years before Margaret’s birth and there had even been a murder. The murder victim was an infant, the details of which are not clear. The myth of an idyllic, pastoral small town setting was just that, a myth.

When Margaret decided to leave Hudson is not known. The reason for her decision is also not known. Women of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s did not usually up and leave their communities unless they were forced by some economic or tragic event. There is no indication either of these played a role in her decision to leave the banks of Bean Creek. Women had few if any rights to anything in Margaret’s world. Separate but equal did not apply to women of any color. They were simply “not equal”. Unlike men, women did not run off to see the world. If they did, it certainly was not done without a companion, because it was not seen as acceptable for women to be alone in society. Women were under the care and protection of men, they were the delicate creatures created to fulfill a destiny of caring for husbands and children. The balance of power was clearly not in their hands.

Yet, women by the time Margaret entered the world were not pleased with their lot in life and much to the discomfort of the male sex wanted it to change. The way to change the balance was by political force. That force was through securing the right to vote. The idea that they were not equal to men for many women was as an absurd idea that had been fed to them by males for centuries. Women had a secret they wanted to share with men. The secret was, they knew better, they were not delicate imbeciles. Yet, it would take a world war for the men to learn just how powerful women really were.

Women from the rural areas of the country often had more power then their urban counterparts. Women on farms tended to shift the balance of power in ways that the women of the city could not do, especially if those women were more affluent. A young, single affluent woman was given a male guardian when she became of age. She could not have access to her money and must give an accounting for her allowance. If she did not spend it wisely, she might end up in court.

This is what happened to one unfortunate individual. In a small city in Texas, a young lady was thought by her male guardian to have spent too much money on travel and clothing. He refused to pay her bills. With no means to settle her accounts, the young woman ended up in court. Cultured and well educated she must now plead her case before a male judge. The burden was on her to defend her wanton spending. Her male guardian argued that she had over spent her monthly allotment and therefore he would not pay her bills.

In the end, the court ruled in her favor, but not before her humiliating experience was recorded for all the spectators. Women of good standing and breeding were called to take the stand. They gave an accounting of their spending and what constituted an acceptable allowance for them to maintain a certain lifestyle. Every inch of her body was dissected from how many hatpins a young woman should have down to her delicate underwear necessities. When the court was done hearing how many sets of underwear with how many yards of lace was needed and what the cost was for her clothing that should be reasonable for a young woman of her social standing, the judge lowered his gavel to her favor. The guardian was ordered to pay her bills, but not before the judge admonished the young lady to mind her spending in the future because he did not want her back in his court again. She was in her mid twenties.

Margaret was the only female sibling in her extended blended family to have a career outside of the home. She was also the only person to leave her hometown except for her older brother Thomas. It is possible he eventually moved to Indiana, but not before his youngest sister removed herself from the family farm. Margaret left Hudson sometime in the early 1900’s and moved to Detroit, Michigan. She had a plan and a purpose for that move. Margaret became a milliner. There are no records to tell the complete story of her arrival in Detroit, or how and where she learned the art of hat making. It was a career that afforded women an opportunity to expand their horizons beyond the confines of home and child bearing.

The business of hat making had always been a “woman’s business”, traceable to the earliest communities in the new world. Milliner shops could be found in Williamsburg, Virginia in the 18th and 19th centuries. These shops were always owned by women and employed women. They were engaged in not only hat designing and making, but also in sewing and garment making. If the women did not produce hats locally, they would often import them from Paris and New York City. Even dressmaking was done in local milliner shops. Women could have a dress made for them from the latest styles worn on the European continent and advertised at the local milliner shop. In addition to dressmaking, some shops imported the dresses from fashionable cities and they were displayed in the windows of the milliner’s shop. They were by women and for women only. Men did not engage in this business. The men had businesses to run as tailors and may or may not have employed women.

The 1900 census records Margaret as living still in Hudson. Her occupation was listed as milliner. At the time of the census, she was twenty-three years old. Living at home with her was her mother, now seventy-three years old and her sister Mary, who was thirty years old. Mary was married to Charles Sheridan a man five years older.

Both Charles and Lucinda give their occupation as “farmer”. Lucinda had never given up her occupation or her farm. Even at seventy-three years of age, she was still working the farm. Charles was now farming the land for he had married into the family and his occupation listed was farmer. Mary’s space on the census record for occupation was left blank.

Lucinda had outlived two husbands and buried at least three children. She had worked not only her farm, but her second husband’s as well. Her oldest son by her marriage to Samuel was married to Sarah Farmer and they had a daughter Mary who was five years old. Samuel was a painter. Her oldest son by John Belchor was a musician. All of her daughters had married with the exception of Margaret by 1900. The only two women in the family with a listed occupation in the 1900 census were the oldest and the youngest, Lucinda and Margaret.

Yes, Lucinda had done well for her family for they were able now to list a servant on the census. She had prospered and her rewards were very satisfying. Yet, soon, very soon, she would lose another child. However, this time it was not to death, it was to the city, a long way from Hudson and it would be her youngest who would pull up her roots. Like her mother’s forbearers, she would do as they had done almost seventy-five years before, Margaret would travel to a new wilderness and make a new beginning for herself. Only this time it was not to the wild land of rural Michigan, instead it was to the wild streets of urban Detroit, Michigan.

Shortly after the 1900 census, Margaret left Hudson. Her move to a city ten times larger then her childhood home was not the usual course for women of her day. By 1904, she was thoroughly entrenched in the urban experience. Her address in 1904 was 17 Pine Street. It may be presumed this was possibly a boarding house for young women. Today there is no evidence of any such structure. Yet, it was to this address that the first postcard from Edward M. Herman arrived, telling her he had received her
letter “at hand”. She had by this time met a young sailor. This sailor was enlisted in the Revenue Cutter Service and sailing on the U.S.S. Morrill. The Morrill was stationed in Detroit and Edward was part of the year round crew. He was handsome and seasoned in the way of the world. His world of the Great lakes, that is and Margaret who was twenty-six years old was now writing him letters.

Once in Detroit the goods and services were beyond the expectations of what could be had on a family farm in rural America. One could now purchase high-grade electric washers, irons and gas ranges. No more chopping wood for kindling, indeed the very thought of such activities would make the homemaker shudder in her neatly pressed apron. The gap between the urban and the rural woman was widening and the chasm that separated them would eventually form a barrier so that many never returned to their roots.

When you made it in the big city, not only did you have a better life surrounded by everyday luxuries, you could set your sights even higher. Now the family could take vacations. The company was not governing the work force or factory management, for unions made it a better workweek and steady pay. If you were lucky, a paid vacation would allow you to book travel with a travel agent such as Portters Travel Bureau. Located in the Union Trust Building they offered travel bookings by ocean, air, rail and lake travel. Woodward Avenue was the up and coming luxury street with shops that catered to the newly rich.

In 1904, the population of Detroit was 1,790.869 and growing rapidly. The early 1900’s was experiencing a major shift in the American economy from rural farms to the industrial cities. The inventions the year Margaret was born had a great impact on the modern world of her adulthood. Cities such as Detroit were basking in the luxuries afforded by the rapid expansion of the railroads and shipping on the Great Lakes. The automobile was soon to become the face of Detroit, the river its arms and the Great Lakes the body. Leaving the other siblings to look for occupations in the larger cities, the first-born sons held the farms of rural America. The country had just come through an economic panic at the end of the 19th century and the economy was recovering enough so that jobs could be found beyond the farms and small towns. Those who were either not the firstborn or those who had not inherited the rights to the family farm left their rural communities. And when they left, they went to Detroit that is if you were from Michigan.


Pine Street was not far by streetcar and Margaret may have been employed in one of the many high-end hat shops that graced the city. By 1904, Margaret did not need a guardian to accompany her and she did not need a monthly allowance. She lived on her own, had a career and her own money to spend as she thought fit. She was a woman of the times. She was in love and her destiny seemed fulfilled, until 1905 when her world in Detroit came to an abrupt halt.

That year two people would move back to Hudson, one because he wanted to return to his roots to write poetry and the other because of a death. 1905 witnessed an increase in the town of Hudson’s population by at least two, Wil Carleton, an American poet and Margaret King, a milliner. Margaret did not know that when she returned to Hudson upon the death of her mother she would never return to Detroit. Fate would deal a series of tragedies and Margaret’s life would be changed forever. Her adventure was to be interrupted with both sorrow and happiness; however, it was to be filled with sadness long before it was filled with joy.