Review by Sharon Brunner
Denise Vandeville’s “A View of the Century Past: 1887 – 1987: Laird Township Centennial” presents a well-documented account of life in the wilderness of the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan in a town called Alston—an area known for its freezing temperatures, logging operations and the mining of copper. Vandeville has lived at Alston for the past 30 years and considers it one of the most beautiful places in the world. The town sported one-room schoolhouses, boarding houses and taverns. Many of the people migrated from Finland in an attempt to escape Russian oppression during the 1800s. A smaller number of immigrants also migrated from Germany, Canada and other places in Michigan according to the accounts provided by 117 family histories. Henry Laird, a homesteader, led the movement for a separate township with its own government, hence that was where the township got its name. Like other places, Laird Township experienced the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918, the Homestead Act, the Civilian Conversation Camps (CCC) and Prisoner of War (POW) Camps. Vandeville explored what motivated people to travel to a foreign land to find a home and how they survived in the ruggedness of the U.P.
Vandeville’s attention to detail was evident throughout the book. For example, she listed who filled the offices of the township such as the supervisor, clerk, treasurer, and trustees from 1887 to 1987. She can be commended for the 117 family histories and the 260 photographs. Each family’s account contained where the immigrants came from, their marital partners and children, employment and time of birth and death. Vandeville also covered in detail information about the Civilian Conversation Camp activities and locations. The following was a well-said paragraph about any newly discovered land taken over by human interlopers in the U.P. “A tranquil unmolested wilderness is invaded; it majestic towering pines yield to the saw and the axe of the woodsman; trees of such awesome beauty, nurtured by nature for centuries, are severed and removed with merciless haste. The first man-inflicted scars have appeared on a theretofore unblemished land” (Vandeville, 2024, page 1, para.1). Vandeville provided a lot of interesting information about Laird Township from when the first people stepped foot on the land until 1987.
I have lived in the U.P. all my life and like Vandeville I have been amazed with its beauty and splendor. To my chagrin I have faced mother bears with cubs while walking in the woods, felt I was chased by a coyote and have seen many deer. In many places, it still appears to be an untamed wilderness with a bit of a danger concerning wildlife like some of the people who settled at Laird Township. The book addressed a multitude of immigrants, again mostly from Finland. My ancestors also migrated to this country from France, England, the Netherlands and Germany. Part of my mother’s paternal and maternal sides are from the Ojibwe and Odawa tribes, which makes them native to this country. Like Vandeville, I was also a professor at a local university and college. My background also consists of exploring extensively the history of specific areas as it pertains to Native Americans. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the history of Laird Township. I appreciate the amount of research she conducted to complete the book.
The themes that surfaced throughout the book were community pride, hard work, the importance of land ownership and resourcefulness. The pride in the Laird Township community was spelled out throughout the book by Vandeville. When the residents sought solutions to problems, they worked together to solve them. The young community set forth to occupy a separate township and have their own local government. The homesteaders worked from the crack of dawn until night to complete all the tasks needed to take care of their families. They worked hard in the mines, logging and running their farms. Land ownership meant freedom and security. The unpleasant experiences of working in the mines allowed them to purchase 40 to 80 acres of rural land. Farming was made easier when dynamite was introduced. They could remove tree stumps more easily so they could work the land.
The “299 Days” ten-book series written by Glen Tate (Pseudonym) reminded me of this book. The series was about a partial collapse in our country when the government systems are in a degraded state and their power had hit or miss authority. Supply chains were log jammed, fuel became scarce, and utilities turned out to be unreliable. A group of people fled to a location in Washington state and set up their own community with its own law and order, school, and other means of survival which resembles what happened at Laird Township when the first people arrived. The movie the “Wild, Wild West” came to mind when I was reading this book. In the movie the inhabitants had to deal with dangerous men and in this book a woman made mention how unsafe she felt especially when she thought a mountain lion was close, resembled an untamed wilderness. A television series that also comes to mind is “Little House on the Prairie.” The people on the show had to live off the land with no electricity and any other modern conveniences. Modern conveniences were not made available for the early inhabitants at Laird Township.
I recommend A View of the Century Past: 1887 – 1987: Laird Township Centennial for its extensive details about a specific area, because of its interesting topics such as the Homestead Act, the CCC, and POW camps, 117 family histories that explained the background of some of the immigrants who first settled at Laird Township, and detailed information about what it was like to live a life of a homesteader. The CCC participants worked hard to reforest some of the areas that were cut down to build homes and farms. By 1934, CCC enrollees planted 3,867 acres, established public campgrounds, built 38 lookout towers to help prevent forest fires, and constructed a thousand miles of truck trails which gave quick access to any outbreaks of fire. POWs were used for vegetable canning and processing, treating hemp, warehouse labor and pulpwood cutting. The prisoners were channeled from Fort Sheridan, Illinois to the U.P. The Homestead Act permitted the transfer of government lands to private ownership and happened to be the single most important factor that prompted the migration of various cultures to uninhabited wilderness areas. Vandeville provided detailed information about an area of the U.P. that at one point had approximately 70,000 residents who were hard-working and dedicated people.
Title: A View of the Century Past: 1887 – 1987: Laird Township Centennial
Author: Denise Vandeville
