Ypsilanti Ranks with Brooklyn, Atlanta, Chicago and Hollywood

From: Time magazine Oct 23, 1950

The Linguaphone Institute of America decided that this year the cities in which “sloppy speech” is most prevalent are Brooklyn, Atlanta, Chicago (“Most people sound like they are either being chased by gangsters or are running for trains”), Hollywood and Ypsilanti, Mich.  Replied the Mayor of Ypsilanti: “Anyone who can even pronounce ‘Ypsilanti’ has a great command of the language.”

The Other Ypsilanti

If you didn’t know there are two other Ypsilanti’s in the US besides Ypsilanti, Michigan.

There is Ypsilanti, Georgia which doesn’t have a lot of information about it.

and

Ypsilanti, North Dakota: Not much was known of Ypsilanti, North Dakota until one of our own Ypsilantians, Leighton, took a fact finding mission there last year so we can have a little more insight into this place. Of course the Director of Operations at Maproom Systems has discussed this other Ypsilanti as well.

Although, I’ve never been — Megabus has not connected the Ypsilantis Yet — I have found a bit of interesting history of Ypsilantians venturing into the Dakotas.

I’m aware that the place where the original Ypsilantians landed in the Dakotas at the Rosebud agency in SD is 380miles from the town of Ypsilanti, ND. I’m thinking that the impression the original Ypsilantians made in the Dakotas was certainly worth a city designation.

Here’s the short of it summarized from:
A Sioux Chronicle
By George E. Hyde
University of Oklahoma Press

The Dakota story of Ypsilanti starts in 1879 with a man named Cicero Newell. He became a major during the Civil War and had done well for himself. Cicero was an office-seeker who through his connections was appointed Chief Spotted Tail’s agent at the Rosebud Agency in the Dakota Territory. From what I’ve gathered he was a very proud Ypsilantian and at one point was Marshall of Ypsilanti, Michigan and also a baker. From what Spotted Tail gathered Cicero was going to be an easy man to manipulate.

Upon appointment Cicero filled all the positions he might need at the agency with his Ypsilanti Neighbors. In 1879 a caravan of men, women and children left for the Dakotas. All the men had been promised jobs and they were all happy. The happiness of the families faded on the long journey West. All remaining good will was lost when the caravan reached the agency. Instead of a promised land the Ypsilantians were greeted with an angry mob which almost rioted after finding out that Cicero had given their jobs away to his friends. Spotted Tail offered comfort and protection to the caravan which assured his goal of controlling those who were sent to control him.

Carl Schurz came as a visitor to the agency and upon introduction Cicero Newell introduced himself as an Ypsilanti man and proceeded to introduce the other Ypsilanti men he had brought with him. With so many introductions to Ypsilanti Men Schurz asked if there was anybody remaining in Ypsilanti.

The tale of these Ypsilantians is best stated in this quote from the book A Sioux Chronicle.

“These Ypsilanti folk were about the strangest group that ever turned up at a Sioux agency, and as late as 1935 there were old men at Rosebud who still remembered and chuckled over the doings of Cicero Newell and his followers. The families had brought old feuds with them from Michigan and as soon as they began to feel a little settled in their new surroundings, they split up into groups and, led by the ladies, revived the old bickering of the Ypsilanti days. Agent Newell had several thousand Sioux to deal with – a full time job for any agent but he seemed to think that the petty quarrels among his Michigan followers were more important that any problem that had to do with running the agency. He spent a large part of his time going from one house to another, trying to patch up quarrels, mainly among the ladies. And while he thus labored, Spotted Tail sat in the agent’s office issuing orders. The Michigan people, particularly the women and children, were afraid of Indians and at night any unusual noise in the Sioux camps that surrounded the agency threw them into hysterics. Agent Newell then went about from house to house, soothing the frightened families. He had considerable trouble in talking some of them out of a sudden desire to return to Michigan at once; and while he argued with them Spotted Tail sat in the agency office, running things to suit himself.”

The Newell saga continued at Rosebud until the late summer of 1879. Newell had lost control of the agency and had spent more money than he was allotted. In his brief stay he started a bakery – which was never used, started a police force – with officers that weren’t willing to arrest for fear of death themselves, and he moved the saw-mill to the river bank- where it was washed out by a flood. It wasn’t until Mrs. Owens who had moved from Ypsilanti Michigan with her husband wrote a letter to the Indian Office that they took action against Newell. It turned out that Cicero offered jobs to his neighbors but expected them to pay him for the appointment upon arrival, at the same time billing the Indian Office for workers that were not getting paid.

At the end of the Summer of 1879 Cicero Newell was replaced and I think we can assume so were his friends from Ypsilanti. It is my assumption that this group of Ypsilantians ventured out into the Dakotas and formed communities one being called Ypsilanti in recognition of the place that they couldn’t afford to return to.

Cicero Newell turned up in Seattle some years latter and started a school for delinquent boys. Of course Newell’s way of dealing with delinquent boys was to chain them to a fence.

Charlie Freeman — Champion of the World

Charlie Freeman —  Champion of the World

Charles Freeman was a citizen of Ypsilanti who became known as the pugilist (no glove boxing) champion of the world.  The start of his tale begins in the 1830s when he was first seen working among a gang of laborers on the Flat Rock and Gibraltar Canal.  According to the Ypsilanti Sentinel; 

“He moved among ordinary men like a son of Anak  He looked eight feet high, at least, and three feet across the shoulders.  His arms sprang from his chest as large as any middle-sized man’s body, and tapered down to a hand three inches thick and when doubled into a fist, as big and hard as a rail-splitter’s maul.  He gave out his age as seventeen, and he was growing.  He hired for the wages and work of an ordinary hand, but when he seized a shovel it went through the clay like a breaking-up plow, and the handle soon came off if the blade held.  An ordinary ax was but a feather in his hand.  It sank to the eye in the wood, and the helve splintered.  He dealt out strength by the wholesale, and he could not weigh out his force in the measure of ordinary men.”

After the Canal was built Charlie went on to work the flat boats up the Huron River.   In the time before the railroad and dams the Huron River was navigable all the way to Ypsilanti by smaller flat-boats while the larger boats had to unload at Rawsonville.   Charlie’s feats working these boats were again described by the Ypsilanti Sentinel; 

“He appeared again on the boats that plied along the Huron River, Michigan.  He was engine and tackle to handle heavy freight.  What others could not shove or roll, he could pick up and carry or toss.  When the heavily freighted boat stuck on the ripples he just stepped out of the stern and boosted her over.  Nobody would have felt surprised if he had taken the whole boat and cargo right under his arms, as a woman carries a dough tray, and marched across by land, when they came to long bends in the river. Nobody ever said he did this, because they never wanted to exaggerate his feats, any more than we do now.”

 

Shortly after the inception of commercial shipping on the Huron River the Michigan Central Railroad came through town from Detroit and ended the need for river shipping.   For Charlie this meant another change in profession.  Although his overall size was exaggerated by the Ypsilanti Sentinel, Charlie was the largest man many had ever seen. Charlie stood 6ft 101/2 inches tall and weighted 320lbs.    His feats of strength had been noticed and Charles Freeman was brought out East by the Barnum Company where he was presented to the public as a strong man.  During his strength exhibitions Charlie was able to lift 2000lbs 

 
In 1941 the English Pugilist Champion, Benjamin Caunt, had come to America to hold exhibition matches.  Caunt saw Charlie during a performance and decided to bring Charlie to England and hold a series of exhibitions against him.  It was Caunt who gave Charlie the title of “World Champion.”   This title was unearned as it was said that Charlie was too nice to fight but people showed up just to see his great size.     During these exhibitions Caunt and Freeman would challenge all comers as a promotion.  One fighter, William ‘the Tipton Slasher’ Perry,  met the challenge and posted his money to fight, “The American Giant.” 

            On December 6^th, 1842 Charlie, “The American Giant,” Freeman had his first and only prize fight.   The accounts of the fight tell the tale of a boring match.  The rules of pugilism differ than boxing in that a round ends when one fighter goes to the mat.  William Perry used this rule to his advantage.  Perry would move in with body blows against Charlie, often hitting his arms,  then retreat to the mat.  When Perry would try to tie up Charlie, Charlie would throw him to the mat.   After 70rounds and 84 minutes the fight was called due to darkness.  The two men continued the fight on December 20^th and after 39minutes the fight was stopped.  I have read reports that it was stopped due to a disqualification of Perry for his purposeful falling but I have also read it was stopped due to damage to Perry’s ear.  Both reports show Freeman as the winner of his first and only fight.  It should be noted that the reports of the Freeman v. Perry fight are very similar to the fight between Rocky and Thunderlips in the Sylvester Stalone movie Rocky III.

            On Oct 18, 1845 Charles Freeman died of Tuberculosis in Winchester England where he was buried. It was said of Charlie that he was a friendly giant who had the mentality of a child.  It was also said that he was taken advantage of by everyone he knew but lets hope he enjoyed his life as he visited the world stage and became Charlie “The American Giant Freeman – Champion of the World.”

1868 Map

A lot of us have seen the static map of Ypsilanti from 1868. The Library of Congress took that map and scanned it in high resolution and made it so it can be navigated. Here is the link to that map — Map of Ypsilanti 1868

If you look at the map you’ll notice that in the upper-right corner of the map is the Peck orchard which is now the Prospect Park Neighborhood. The only substantial building on the lot North of Forest Ave was Fred Swaine’s Malt House (Link to Historical Society story) The Swaine house now located on Forest and River was not built nor was the Hutchinson Mansion on the opposite corner of Forest and River.