Wilmont Kreis

At base, Book Six is about the Underground Railroad smuggling runaway slaves from The U.S. to Canada. In Book Eight: The Chief (1895-1948), a significant section deals with prohibition. If you read both books, you will see the tricks learned in freeing slaves to Canada became popular and effective in freeing liquor from Canada to the U.S. However, you will have to wait for the blog to deal with Book Seven: The Witch and the Civil War (or buy and read Book Eight in print or kindle, available through Amazon.com.) Read More 

St. Felicity:
Book Six begins with a modern-day discovery of an old log coffin in Lake St. Clair. The original church, St, Felicity, was built about 1826. In mid-1800, high water washed the church and cemetery into Lake St. Clair. For several years, coffins made of logs occasionally rose to the surface and were re-buried in the new St. Gertrude Cemetery on 12 Mile Road. They remain today in a row of small graves marked with simple crosses found along the back fence line. The cemetery is now surrounded by apartments, but when I was a lad, it sat inside an eerie forest. At night, one ran when crossing the cemetery. Read More 

Lumber:
In the middle of the 19th century, lumber was a giant industry in Michigan. Ships sailed regularly to the lumber camps near Saginaw Bay to return with lumber for the exploding construction industry of Detroit. They sailed as long as possible into the winter when storms were common, and lives were lost. The episodes of shipping in Book Six are derived from tales told to me in my youth. Read More 

French Swiss:
When my research led me to this group of rugged immigrants from the French-speaking Jura Mountains of Switzerland, I was introduced to an expert on the subject, Marie-Angele Lovis. I traveled to her home in the Jura where she graciously entertained my wife and me discussing her knowledge of the many Jura families who came to the Detroit area where many Salgat, Defer, Whitmore, Schaller, and others live today. The small towns of Delemont, Movelier, and Pleigne remain much today as they were in 1833. When I discovered these people came to America at the same time as my father’s Kreis ancestors, I could not resist the connection. Read More