Capac Historical Society Museum

Hey That’s My House!

Capac Museum — Sun, 19 May 2013 10:28:06 +0000

Capac Historical Society Museum is offering an opportunity for you to research your home for the purpose of purchasing a Historic Home Plaque.

Photo Courtesy Raymond Mills Collection

Hey! That’s MY House!
by Roxann Mills

The Capac Historical Society Museum recently held a workshop about researching your home called “Hey! That’s MY House!” Helpful hints from that workshop have been compiled in this article to guide you to resources for obtaining information about your home and property. Getting started is easy with the vast amount of free information available online.

Homes of any age can be researched. Even a new construction home rests on a piece of land with a historical background. Your home may have been a one room school house. Your land might have been a part of the tamarack swamps or Dwight Lake. Your barn could be standing in the middle of the Parks, Fluke & Company Cranberry Marsh.

Michigan has over 176 years of rich history. Every parcel of land, every home, and the people who lived there has a story to tell. You can be the one to share it.

Begin with a scrapbook. Take current photos of the inside, outside, and out buildings. Try to find old photos of your home. Shoot some photos of your family in front of your home; in 100 years the picture will be considered a historic photo. Document the date, address and names of the people in your collection.

Resources for finding photos are mortgage papers, neighbors, and family. Vintage Ariel Photo can be contacted through the internet. You can set up an online search for your home in their collection of photos from the 1970’s. The local museum or library may also have historic home photos and newspaper collections. The Capac Journal ran a “Mystery Farm” series in 1957 and the Tri-City Times recently ran a series in conjunction with the Almont Historical Society in 2012 and is currently running a photo series about one room school houses.

Easy searching can also be done online through historic maps. You will need the legal description of your property found on your tax assessment/bill or mortgage papers to search the old maps. Due to environmental changes to the land over the past 150 years, a current county map will aid you in locating your property. Document all the information you find including the year of the map and property owner.

Resources for finding maps online are Historic Map Works, Seeking Michigan, and Ancestry (membership required). Historic Map Works allows you to search by township or village anywhere in the United States. The oldest map available for online viewing for Macomb and St. Clair County is the Map of 1859. Google Capac Museum WordPress or Shelby Map of 1859 to view this awesome map.

Detailed searching will require a trip to the place where your Township Tax Records and County Register of Deeds are kept. The old township tax record books typically will have a residential section; indicating that a home has been built on the property, and non residential; indicating that the parcel is vacant land. The County Register of Deeds has massive volumes that recorded transactions every time your property was sold. The information found there will allow you to trace your land back to the original transfer from the United States Government. Searching through these volumes requires names and dates from the information collected from maps and township tax records, and the legal property description.

Resources for Township Tax Records are not available online. Check at your local museum, library or township office for location and the availability of these books.

Capac Historical Society Capac Historical Society Museum Historic Structure Application.

The Capac Historical Society Museum Mission

Capac Museum — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:24:37 +0000

Collecting And Preserving Area Chronicles
Open Monday thru Friday 12pm to 3pm. Sunday by chance or appointment.

Want to be kept updated on Museum Events?
Want to learn interesting tid-bits about Capac from long ago?
Become a friend of the museum on Facebook – click on this link

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Capac-Museum/151570978288727

and click “LIKE” when you see the pic of the depot!

Capac Historical Society Museum Mission:

Provide a meeting place for those people interested in local history.

Publicly promote knowledge of the history of the Capac Community.

Promote appreciation of the history of the Capac Community.

Procure articles deemed worthy of preservation.

Provide safe storage and display of these articles.

Address:401 East Kempf, Capac Michigan, 48014
Email capacmuseum@hotmail.com
Telephone: 810-395-2859
Please leave a message, we will return your call as quickly as possible.

Visit the Capac Historical Society Museum Publications Page

Capac Historical Society Museum May 2013 Events!

Capac Museum — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:27:30 +0000

CAPAC HISTORICAL SOCIETY EVENTS

May 23 – 6pm
Capac Historical Society Museum Membership Meeting & Pot Luck

June 11 – 1pm
CHSM Board Meeting

Want to be kept updated on Museum Events?
Want to learn interesting historic facts about Capac from long ago?
Become a friend of the museum on Facebook – click on this link

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Capac-Museum/151570978288727

and click “LIKE” when you see the pic of the depot!

ALL ABOARD! The Capac Historical Society Muesum needs YOUR help!

Capac Museum — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:26:46 +0000

In preparing for the 100th Anniversary Celebration in 1914 of the Capac Depot the Capac Historical Society is seeking photographs, information and memories about the depot and trains that passed through Capac.

Please leave a comment here on the blog if you have information to share and you will be contacted promptly.

A Corner in Time! 1857 – 2013

Capac Museum — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:25:07 +0000

Enjoy the pictorial history of the south west corner of Main and Mill Streets in Capac.

1857 – The National Hotel

The ‘New Western Hotel’ in the pic below was built in 1857 by George A. Funstan and was originally named the ‘National Hotel’ The building was 42′ by 115′ with the length of it running along West Mill Street.

November 8, 1889

News Clipping from The Capac Journal November 8, 1889

1901

Rotunda Hotel built in 1901, burned May 1, 1904.

May 1, 1904

Article courtesy Carl Lang Scrapbook.

Rotunda Hotel Ruins

July 4, 1914

October 23, 1914

1915

1915 News Clipping from the Capac Journal

1920′s

1940′s

Unknown Year – What is your guess? Leave a comment.

On Wednesday, March 19, 1980, the Capac fire fighters received a call of a building fire at 5:45 pm and responded to the Gambles store located at 101 South Main Street. The structure did not receive much damage and was able to be salvaged.

November 23, 1999 the building which was then owned by Holmes Enterprises suffered major fire damage. The building was demolished the week of October 23, 2002.

If you have information or photos to share please leave a reply at the bottom of this pictorial history.

February 7, 2013

Photo Courtesy Ron Kriesch Collection.

If you have more photos to add to the ‘A Corner in Time’ please leave a reply at the bottom of this pictorial history..

Article compiled by Roxann Mills.

100th Anniversary Kempf Model City Restoration Project 1916-2016

Capac Museum — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:35:35 +0000

100th Anniversary Kempf Model City Restoration Project 1916-2016

The Capac Historical Society Museum is collecting pop cans, bottles & dimes!
The Kempf Brothers Model City is being restored for it’s 100th Anniversary.
In 1916 the Kempf Brothers of Capac charged a dime to see the Model City.
Please Consider giving a dime today help restore the Kempf Model City.
Pop cans and bottles can be left at the museum during open hours.
Come see the Model City for yourself!

Click this link to read the history of the Model City.

Memorial Stones

Capac Museum — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:39:50 +0000

The Capac Historical Society is selling Natural Shaped Memorial Stones to be placed in a patio on the museum grounds. The stone size is approximately 12 inches by 18 inches.

This is a great opportunity for you to honor your loved one who made their home in the Capac area.

Perhaps they lived here and perhaps they were at one time an integral part of the community, either way, this is a way of remembering them forever.

If you require any further information, please email Patti @ Buzzy798@gmail.com. or click on the link below to download and print out an application form.

CAPAC HISTORICAL SOCIETY MEMORIAL STONE ORDER FORM

Great links to click on for local history and ancestry!

Capac Museum — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:59:18 +0000

CHSM has listed some great links for St. Clair County history and genealogy research. Just clink on any of the highlighted links. If we have been a help to you feel free to leave us a comment.

1859 Map of Mussey Township

1859 Historic Map of Shelby.
Beautiful drawings of buildings,
homes and township maps in
St. Clair and Macomb County.
http://www.shelbyhistory.com/

Brief History of Mussey Township
Formed from Berlin Township
February 10, 1855.

1860 Census of Mussey Township Alphabetized
1860 Census Mussey Township

1894 Michigan Census for St. Clair County – Listed by Townships
1894 St. Clair County Census

St. Clair County Marriages
St. Clair County, Michigan Marriages 1857-1866 Book 2

St. Clair County, Michigan Marriages 1843-1893 Book 3

St. Clair County, Michigan Marriages 1887-1898 Book 4, Volume 2

Capac Historical Society Cemetery Records
Mussey, Berlin and Lynn Township
Capac Area Cemetery Records

St. Clair County Tombstone Transcription Project

GENDIS Michigan Death Records 1867 – 1897
http://www.mdch.state.mi.us/gendisx/search.htm

Seeking Michigan
Death Records from 1897 – 1920 http://seekingmichigan.org/discover-collection?collection=p129401coll7

Brief History of
Emmett Township Michigan
http://www.theirishamericanclub.org/EmmettTownship.htm

Find A Grave http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi

Berlin Township
Farm Boy Norvell Churchill
Saves General Custer

The History of the naming of the village of Capac.

Capac Museum — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:07:28 +0000

Capac Village Map of 1859

CAPAC – A SHORT HISTORY ON THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME
The Capac Historical Society recently discovered the following three articles in the Capac Weekly Argus Newspaper Collection of 1880. Although no author is given, there is strong evidence that Honorable Dewitt Clinton Walker was the writer of these articles. Whom else would have the information concerning the historical background of our village name other that the founder himself.

Map of Capac 1876
CONCERNING CAPAC –
ITS GROWTH AND PROGRESS
“I am not given to making rose colored pictures of our village as the home of my adoption because I believe the permanent growth of a village is better advanced by inducing settlers to locate among us who expect to battle for livelihood, or work out a fortune by their own efforts and calculations, here, the same as they would have to do elsewhere”

Built in 1874, First Baptist Church celebrated “Pioneer Day” in 1908.

“Capac has not grown as rapidly as some other places, but has grown slow and sure, and it is gratifying to observe the continued prosperity and increased substantial growth of the place, which has been especially marked during the past year, giving the best evidence that the village and the people have come to stay.”

Capac School Built in 1879
“We can today boast of as good a school house as there is in St. Clair County, being a very handsome brick structure three story high, costing in the neighborhood of $7000, and situated on a very imposing piece of ground.”

“There are several buildings in the course of erection now, prominent among which is the brick dwelling of Dr. McGurk, situated on Main Street. This is to be a very handsome building, and will be furnished with all the modern improvements including heating by steam.”

Methodist Episcopal Church Completed December 1879
“Next in order comes the new M. E. Church a prominent building, and whose spire is the first object to be seen from a distance. Other buildings have been erected during the past year, but I speak only of the more costly ones.”

“Perhaps it would be well for me to say something of the importance and different branches of business as carried on.
National (New Western) Hotel built in 1857
There are 3 first class hotels, 13 general stores, 3 millinery shops, 2 boot and shoe shops, 4 blacksmith shops, tin shop, meat market, carriage works, marble works, brick factory, foundry, 3 grain elevators, 5 mills, 4 churches and 4 lodges, viz: Masonic, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Good Templars.”

Doors from second floor of the old wagon shop on the northeast corner of Main and Meier speak of a bygone era. Photo courtesy Raymond MillsCollection.

“A prominent feature of Capac is its numerous mills, having two saw mills, one sash, door and blind factory which is doing a very extensive business, and one grist mill, also another in the course of erection, a favorable mention of which appeared in last weeks edition of the Argus.

Capac Map of 1896 shows the Agricultural Fair Grounds in the north west corner of the village.

Another prominent feature is the Capac District Agricultural Society, which was organized last spring. The Society has erected new buildings, and prepared a very fine half-mile track said to be one of the best in the state. The first Annual Fair was held September 24, 25 and 26 of the present year (1879).

We also have one of the best grain markets along the N.W.G.T.R.R. (North West Grand trunk Rail Road), the highest market price being paid for wheat and other cereals. This is a great inducement to farmers to come here and market their produce, some coming even as far as twenty five miles, preferring our market to Port Huron.”

Capac Depot prior to 1914
“Capac has done well by those who were pioneers in this locality, and, by their sagacity and enterprise, they have in turn done a great thing for Capac. The shrill noise of the locomotive whistle that first rang out upon the frozen air and re-echoed through the trees that surrounded the village, was in the year 1869, and it heralded the advent of prosperity for this place.

The Old Union Church Bell cast in 1874 still rings out from the bell tower of First Baptist Church. Photo courtesy Raymond Mills Collection.

Not a few of our business firms represent men who began the battle of life with comparatively small resources, they were unencumbered, and, as they became independent through their well earned success, they abandoned their early determination to make as much money possible here and return to their former abode to spend it. Nearly everyone is ready to admit that there is a rapid growing improvement in the condition of society, which is shown in the retiring of the crude elements which are so generally boldly planted wherever a live new town is established.

The first brick church built in Capac
Photo Courtesy Bill & Janet Savage Collection
No community in the State (Michigan) can today boast of a better class of people than those who form the substantial settlers of Capac, and in no place can a more wholesome society be met with. There may of course be a darker picture drawn if a person choose to follow only the lower level, but there are few towns of the size of Capac, having a large floating population, where public morals and the public peace are better maintained. What is most desirable to make Capac a city worthy of its founders and a credit to its inhabitants, is to have a harmonious action upon the part of the business men especially with reference to promoting our growth and prosperity as a town.

Honorable Dewitt Clinton Walker
The prosperity of any town, large or small, new or old, may be promoted by an organized effort on the part of its inhabitants, having in view the public good rather than the accomplishment of some private purpose. Capac has had an existence of nearly 28 years, and I am not disposed to think her destiny fulfilled, or that her growth and career of usefulness have any more than fairly begun. – AN INTERESTED CITIZEN. ” Capac Weekly Argus NOVEMBER 14, 1879.”

CAPAC – A Short History on the Origin of the Name- Capac Weekly Argus 1/2/1880

“In the course of a few weeks we intend to give a history of the origin of the name “Capac’” especially for the benefit of those who call the place Kapac, Hapac, Hopack and a dozen different ways, merely through ignorance, of the history of their country.”

CAPAC – A Short History on the Origin of the Name – Capac Weekly Argus 1/9/1880

1787 Edition Visions of Columbus by Joel Barlow
“It is often asked how our village came to be called Capac, especially is this case among the illiterate and those who are not well read in ancient history. Such persons are apt to associate it only with names of a somewhat similar sound, such as shoepack, epecac etc., and when Capac began to cut off from the older and more southern villages of Memphis, Armada, Romeo and Almont, a large portion of their trade from the north, they gave vent to their ire by heaping epithets on the name of our village, somewhat after the manner, that a schoolboy will sometimes vent his spire on another by making up uncouth faces at him. For the information of such we will refer them to almost any of our encyclopedias, and to the Vision of Columbus, written by Joel Barlow in 1787, and a dissertation upon Manco Capac for the first of the Peruvian Emperors or Incas; a few quotations from which we will give as follows: On page 69 of the latter work the poet writes:

‘There reigns a prince, whose land the scepter claims,
Visions of Columbus pg69

Thro’ a long lineage of imperial names;

Where the brave roll of following Incas trace –

The distant father of the realm and race, Immortal Capac.

He is youthful in pride, With fair Oella, his illustrious bride,

From the pure splendors of their God, the sun;

With power and dignity a throne to found,
Visions of Columbus p70

Fix the mild sway and spread their arts around;

Crush the dire Gods that human victims claim,

And point all worship to a nobler name;

With cheerful rites, the due devotions pay,

To the bright beam that gives the changing day.’ ”

Visions of Columbus p71
“From the traditions of Capac and Oella, mentioned by the Spanish historians, they appear to have been very great and distinguished characters. About three centuries previous to the discovery of that country by the Spaniards, the natives of Peru were as rude savages as any in America. They had no fixed habitations, on ideas of permanent property; they wandered naked like the beasts, and like them, depended on the events of each day for a precarious subsistence. At this period, Manco Capac and his wife Mama Oella appeared on a small island in the lake Titiaca; near which the city of Cusco was afterwards erected. These persons in order to establish a belief in divinity, in the minds of the people, were clothed in white garments of cotton; and declared themselves from the Sun, who was their father and the God of that country. They affirmed that he was offended at their cruel and perpetual wars, their barbarous modes of worship, and their neglecting to make the best use of the blessings he was constantly bestowing, in fertilizing the earth and producing vegetation; that he pitied their wretched state, and had sent his own children to instruct them, and to establish a number of wise regulations by which they might be rendered happy.” – To be continued

CAPAC – A Short History on the Origin of the Name – Capac Weekly Argus 1/16/1880

A few brief selections from Joel Barlow’s “Vision of Columbus”

“By some extraordinary method of persuasion, those persons drew together a number of the savage tribes, laid the foundations of the city of Cusco, and established what was called the kingdom of the Sun, or the Peruvian empire. In the reign of Manco Capac, the dominion was extended about eight leagues from the city; and at the end of three centuries, it was established fifteen hundred miles on the coast of the Pacific Ocean; and from that ocean to the mountains of the Andes. During this period, through a succession to twelve monarchs, the original constitution, established by the first Inca, remained unaltered; and was at last overturned by an accident, which no human wisdom could for see or prevent.”

“The history of the world affords no instance of men whose manners were equally ferocious, and whose superstition was more bloody and unrelenting that the Peruvians. On the contrary, the establishments of Manco Capac carry the marks of a most benevolent and pacific system; they tended to humanize the world and render his people happy; while his ideas of the Deity were so perfect, as to bear a comparison with the enlightened doctrines of Socrates or Plato.”

“We find the political system of Capac at least equal to those of the most celebrated or modern lawgivers. But in one particular his character is placed beyond comparison; I mean for his religious institutions, and the just ideas he had formed, by the unenlightened efforts of human wisdom, of the nature and attributes of Deity.”

“On the whole, it is evident, that the system of Capac is the most surprising exertion of human genius to be found in the history of mankind. When we consider him as an individual emerging from the midst of a barbarous people, having seen no possible example of the operations of laws in any country, originating a plan of religion and policy never equaled by the sages of antiquity, civilizing an extensive empire and rendering religion happiness of mankind, there is no danger that we grow too warm in his praise, or pronounce too high an eulogium of his character. Had such a genius appeared in Greece or Rome, he had been the subject of universal admiration, had he arisen in the land of Turkey, his praises had filled a thousand pages in the diffusive writings of Voltaire.”

The members of the Capac Historical Society are grateful to Editors Albert H. Finn and Joseph E. Stoults for recording the above articles in Capac’s first newspaper:Capac Weekly Argus.

Click the link to read The Visions of Columbus by Joel Barlow 1787.

Articles and photos compiled by Roxann Mills.

Capac Museum: Home of “Kempf’s Model City” built by the Kempf Family!

Capac Museum — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:36:48 +0000

Grand Rapids Press, Wednesday, August 1, 1906
BY MICHIGAN BOY.
Marvelous Miniature City
at Ramona Park, Grand Rapids
GENIUS FROM CAPAC
Built it During Idle Moments
In Past Five Years.
Fred S. Kempf, the 21 Year Old Maker
Started It When He Was 16 Years Old.

“Fred S. Kempf of Capac, St. Clair County,
Kempf Model City about 1902
is the constructor. He has worked at his city after school, on holidays, and in spare moments for five years making every bit if it, from the, machinery that runs it to the vestibule train that switches around the yard. Mr. Kempf is here with the city.”

“ I started the city in a small way at first,” said Mr. Kempf last evening, “Then the idea grew and grew and I kept adding to it. I began when I was 16 years old and attending the Capac High School. My parents saw that I was interested in making things and they gave me a shop in the barn. Afterward they erected a tiny workshop for me. There I have produced the city.”

“ I enjoyed the work. It was like play – The City is constructed in a space three by fifteen feet and is built on a scale of one-eight of an inch to a foot. This makes the men of my city three-quarters of an inch high.”

“I have made everything myself.
Kempf Model of Capac High School
It took three months to build the train. I was handicapped in some respects because I lived in a small town and did not have big city objects on which to model my buildings and other features. The lift bridge is patterned after a picture of the Chicago lift bridge.”

“I have visited Detroit and seen many things there. One of the churches is modeled after a Detroit Church. The schoolhouse is a miniature reproduction of the Capac High School. Since I completed the village I have been very successful exhibiting it. It has been out only four months, but has attracted much attention everywhere. “

November 19,1915
The Constitution Atlanta
Large Crowds Are Visiting “Model City” on the Midway

“Many Georgians this week are taking advantage of the opportunity of seeing the mechanical and electrical marvel of the age as Kempf’s model city has been so pronounced by men on the college world and in civil engineering circles. It is a miniature city built to scale perfect in detail and one of the most instructive exhibits ever placed before the public. It was designed and built by Fred A. Kempf a genius on the order of Thomas Edison and has earned him a name in the hall of fame.”

Judith Sheppard – Columbus and the Valley Magazine – April 2010 Edition

“The first time you hear the story, you might think it’s just urban legend. But it happened.”
Photo Courtesy Columbus and the Valley Magazine

“On the sunny afternoon of November 22, 1915, a circus train bringing magic acts, bizarre exhibits, Russian dancers and jungle animals to Phenix City crashed into a passenger train, six miles outside Columbus. No one on the passenger train was even really hurt, but at least six and some say 12 more members of the Con. T. Kennedy circus died awful deaths within minutes. Scores were injured. There was no time to save those in cars in the front of the train. A frantic couple managed to shove their daughter out a window of their sleeping car, then were engulfed in the flames.”

“Not long after, Irving and Bruce Kempf, Fred’s brothers, began building another.”
Kempf Model City #2 Built by Bruce and Irving Kempf
It took seven years to construct “The Mechanical Wonder of the Ages,” a 40-foot-long, 4-foot-wide city, complete with not only a circus but also a harbor with cargo ships and a lighthouse, a suspension bridge, industrial smokestacks, a park, a farm with a barn, silo and sheep, a business district and a main street lined with shops and homes. A motor sets much of the city into action (cars move, the Ferris wheel spins).”

Courtesy Columbus and the Valley April 2010 To see this story complete with photos, Phone: 706-324-6214 or E-mail: contactus@columbusandthevalley.com

From 1923 to 1942 (19 years) it was
Model City on display at Capac Opera House
displayed from coast to coast and throughout Canada: The Century of Progress, Chicago: Atlantic City’s Steel Pier: Great Lakes Exposition, Cleveland: and Lakeside Park, Denver. It was shown six different times at the Canadian National Exhibition and all the major State Fairs in the United States. During the Christmas seasons it was displayed in major department stores across the United States: Sangers in Dallas: J.L. Hudson, Detroit: Famous and Barr. St. Louis:, Gimbles, Milwaukee; Marshall Fields, Chicago; and many large movie lobbies from New York City to San Francisco.

After World War II the Model City was never taken on tour again as both Bruce and Irving held other jobs until they retired.

In 1969, Hazel Kempf, sister of Bruce and Irving Kempf sold the city to Cecil and Kathryne Weishuhn of Grand Blanc Michigan. The couple mortgage their home to purchase the city. They place the village on display at Colonial Cue, 11240 S. Saginaw, Grand Blanc Michigan.

In 1988 Bruce and Irving’s niece, Hazel Kempf Mack, located the Model City. The Capac Historical Society Museum then purchased the Model City and placed it on display in the museum.

For more information email the Capac Historical Society Museum.

Articles compliled by Roxann Mills