1885 in Michigan

Events from the year 1885 in Michigan.

Office holders

Gov. Alger

State office holders

• Governor of Michigan: Russell A. Alger (Republican)
• Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Archibald Buttars (Republican)
• Michigan Attorney General: Jacob J. Van Riper/Moses Taggart
• Michigan Secretary of State: Harry A. Conant (Republican)
• Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives: Newcomb Clark (Republican)
• Chief Justice, Michigan Supreme Court:

Mayors of major cities

Sen. Conger

• Mayor of Detroit: Stephen Benedict Grummond
• Mayor of Grand Rapids: John L. Curtis
• Mayor of Saginaw: John S. Estabrook

Federal office holders

Sen. Palmer

• U.S. Senator from Michigan: Omar D. Conger (Republican)
• U.S. Senator from Michigan: Thomas W. Palmer (Republican)
• House District 1: William C. Maybury (Democrat)
• House District 2: Nathaniel B. Eldredge (Democrat)
• House District 3: Edward S. Lacey (Republican)/James O'Donnell (Republican)
• House District 4: George L. Yaple (Democrat)/Julius C. Burrows (Republican)
• House District 5: Julius Houseman (Democrat)/Charles C. Comstock (Democrat)
• House District 6: Edwin B. Winans (Democrat)
• House District 7: Ezra C. Carleton (Democrat)
• House District 8: Roswell G. Horr (Republican)/Timothy E. Tarsney (Democrat)
• House District 9: Byron M. Cutcheon (Republican)
• House District 10: Herschel H. Hatch (Republican)/Spencer O. Fisher (Democrat)
• House District 11: Edward Breitung (Republican)/Seth C. Moffatt (Republican)

Population

In the 1880 United States census, Michigan was recorded as having a population of 1,636,937. By 1890, Michigan's population had increased by 27.9% to 2,093,890.

Cities

The following is a list of cities in Michigan with a population of at least 5,000 based on 1880 U.S. Census data. Historic census data from 1870 and 1890 is included to reflect trends in population increases or decreases.

1880 Rank	City	County	1870 Pop.	1880 Pop.	1890 Pop.	Change 1880-1890
1	Detroit	Wayne	79,577	116,340	205,876	77.0%
2	Grand Rapids	Kent	16,507	32,016	60,278	88.3%
3	Bay City	Bay	7,064	20,693	27,839	34.5%
4	Jackson	Jackson	14,447	16,105	20,798	29.1%
5	Kalamazoo	Kalamazoo	9,181	11,937	17,853	49.6%
6	Muskegon	Muskegon	6,002	11,262	22,702	101.6%
7	Saginaw	Saginaw	7,460	10,525	46,322	340.1%
8	Port Huron	St. Clair	5,973	8,883	13,543	52.5%
9	Flint	Genesee	5,386	8,409	9,803	16.6%
10	Lansing	Ingham	5,241	8,319	13,102	57.5%
11	Ann Arbor	Washtenaw	7,363	8,061	9,431	17.0%
12	Adrian	Lenawee	8,438	7,849	8,756	11.6%
13	Battle Creek	Calhoun	5,838	7,063	13,197	86.8%
14	Manistee	Manistee	3,343	6,930	12,812	84.9%
15	Alpena	Alpena	--	6,153	11,283	83.4%

^[1]

Counties

The following is a list of counties in Michigan with populations of at least 30,000 based on 1880 U.S. Census data. Historic census data from 1870 and 1890 are included to reflect trends in population increases or decreases.

1880 Rank	County	Largest city	1870 Pop.	1880 Pop.	1890 Pop.	Change 1880-1890
1	Wayne	Detroit	119,068	168,444	257,114	52.6%
2	Kent	Grand Rapids	50,403	73,253	109,922	50.1%
3	Saginaw	Saginaw	39,097	59,095	82,273	39.2%
4	St. Clair	Port Huron	36,661	46,197	52,105	12.8%
5	Jackson	Jackson	36,047	42,031	45,031	7.1%
6	Washtenaw	Ann Arbor	41,434	41,848	42,210	0.9%
7	Oakland	Pontiac	40,867	41,537	41,245	−0.7%
8	Calhoun	Battle Creek	36,569	38,452	43,501	13.1%
9	Bay	Bay City	15,900	38,081	56,412	48.1%
10	Berrien	Niles	35,104	36,785	41,285	12.2%

Sports

Sam Thompson

Baseball

• 1885 Detroit Wolverines season – Under managers Charlie Morton and Bill Watkins, the Detroit baseball team finished in sixth place in the National League with a 41–67 record. The team's statistical leaders included Sam Thompson with a .303 batting average and seven home runs, Charlie Bennett with 60 RBIs, Stump Weidman with 14 pitching wins, and Lady Baldwin with a 1.86 earned run average. ^[2]
• 1885 Michigan Wolverines baseball season - The Wolverines compiled a 2–1 record. ^[3] John Hibbard was the team captain. ^[4]

American football

• 1885 Michigan Wolverines football team – The Wolverines compiled a 3–0 record and outscored their opponents by a combined score of 82 to 2. The team captain was Horace Greely Prettyman. ^[5]

Chronology of events

April

• April 14 - A bill passed the Michigan Senate providing for the creation of the Michigan Mining School, later renamed Michigan Technological University. The bill became law effective May 1

June

St. Mary Catholic Church

July

• July - A strike by mill workers in the Saginaw Valley shut down 98 mills, idling 8,000 men. The strike focused on demands for a 10-hour work day. ^{[6] [7]}

August

• August 16 - St. Mary Catholic Church in Detroit's Greektown was dedicated. ^[8]

December

• December 1–2 - Police were called to restore order as parishioners at St. Albert's Polish Cathoich Church in Detroit protested the removal of their pastor, Father Kolaskinski, by Bishop Borgess. One man was shot to death on December 24 in continued unrest. ^{[9] [10] [11] [12]}
• December 3 - The Barnum Wire and Iron Works in Detroit was completely destroyed by fire, a blaze the Detroit Free Press called "the most dangerous conflagration that has occurred in Detroit for many years". ^{[13] [14]}
• December 16 - The murder of Frank Knoch and his family was discovered in the Springwells section of Detroit. The gruesome murders shocked the city and remained a focus of the news for days thereafter. ^{[15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]}

Births

Edna Ferber

• March 6 - Ring Lardner, sports columnist and short story writer, in Niles, Michigan
• August 15 - Edna Ferber, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and playwright ( So Big , Show Boat , Cimarron , Giant ), in Kalamazoo, Michigan

Deaths

• June 15 - Petosegay, merchant and fur trader and namesake of Petoskey, Michigan and the Petoskey stone, in Petoskey

See also

• History of Michigan
• History of Detroit

References

1. Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Volume 1 Population. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. 1930. pp. 512–514.
2. "1885 Detroit Wolverines". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
3. "2012 University of Michigan Baseball Record Book" (PDF). University of Michigan. 2012. pp. 22, 61. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
4. 2012 U-M Baseball Record Book, p. 13.
5. "1885 Football Team". University of Michigan, Bentley Historical Library. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
6. "Saginaw Valley Lumber Strike of 1885 / BAY-journal". Archived from the original on 2015-05-10. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-09-06. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
8. "For the Glory of God". Detroit Free Press. 16 August 1885. p. 5.
9. "Polish Riots and Lemke Family". Detroit Free Press. 26 December 1885. p. 1.
10. "St. Albertus, Fr. Kolasinski and the Lemke family". Detroit Free Press. 28 December 1885. p. 3.
11. "Polish Riots and the Lemke Family". Detroit Free Press. 28 December 1885. p. 4.
12. "St. Albertus, Fr. Kolasinski and the Lemke family". Detroit Free Press. 31 December 1885. p. 5.
13. "Ends In Smoke". Detroit Free Press. December 4, 1885. p. 1.
14. "St. Albertus, Fr. Kolasinski and the Lemke family". Detroit Free Press. 29 December 1885. p. 5.
15. "Murder and Arson". Detroit Free Press. p. 5.
16. "Bullets In Their Brains". Detroit Free Press. December 18, 1885. p. 5.
17. "Justice Moves Slowly". Detroit Free Press. December 19, 1885. pp. 1, 5.
18. "Nothing Against Him". Detroit Free Press. December 21, 1885. p. 3.
19. "The Springwells Horror". Detroit Free Press. December 21, 1885. p. 4.
20. "Cut Into Bits". Detroit Free Press. December 22, 1885. p. 5.