Cranberries for Thanksgiving
It’s Thanksgiving Week and whether you have canned or fresh, jelly or whole berry, cranberries will most likely have their place on your table. Cranberries are one of the few fruits that are native to North America, along with blueberries and concord grapes. The cranberry of commerce ...
A LIGHTKEEPER’S LOG part 2
MARQUETTE — As mentioned in part one of this story, by the time Samuel Barney took over the Marquette Lighthouse in late October 1873, twenty years after it was first lit, he was the eighth keeper. He was the first to be given an assistant keeper, his young adult son, Albert. Marquette was a ...
History quiz
QUESTION: When did Michigan first celebrate Thanksgiving? a. 1829 b. 1840 c. 1851 d. 1863 ANSWER: A. In 1829, before Michigan even achieved statehood, territorial Gov. Lewis Cass declared Nov. 25 to be a day of Thanksgiving. It became an official federal holiday in 1863, when President Lincoln set the last Thursday in November as a day of “thanksgiving and praise.”
A LIGHTKEEPER’S LOG part 1
MARQUETTE — “I think the keepers of lighthouses should be dismissed for small degrees of remissness because of the calamities which even these produce …” President Thomas Jefferson, 1806. Samuel L. Barney was one of a handful of pioneer residents of Marquette County. He was well known and highly regarded for the public trusts he held including 13 years as keeper of the Marquette County Poor Farm. He also served as a lighthouse-keeper and was awarded the honorary appellation of “captain.” On a clear, warm July day in 1847, the seventeen-year-old Samuel arrived on the ...