midwest love: presidents of the midwest

Let’s take a look at the Midwest. There have been eleven presidents that were either born or have had a political career in the Midwest. And it wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President, that there was a Midwest presence.

Here is a brief synapses of the eleven that have become president.

Abraham Lincoln, originally from Kentucky, was born in 1809. Lincoln’s family moved from Kentucky to Indiana, and eventually to Illinois in 1830. Lincoln served four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives. Lincoln was elected president in 1860.

In 1868 Ulysses S. Grant was elected President. Grant was born in 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio. Grant’s family lived in Galena, IL before Grant went off to serve in the Civil War.

Rutherford B. Hayes was born in Delaware, OH, in 1822. Hayes was elected president in 1876 following Grant in office. Hayes practiced law in Cincinnati, served in the Civil War. After the war, Hayes was nominated as Governor of Ohio and served from 1868-72 and 1876-77 before becoming president.

James Garfield was born in 1831 in Moreland Hills, OH and was elected president in 1880 after Hayes. Garfield was assassinated six months into office. Garfield is the only president to serve as a clergy (which only lasted the course of two years) and would eventually be elected as an Ohio state senator before serving in the Civil War.

In 1833 in North Bend, Ohio, Benjamin Harrison was born. Harrison would move to Indianapolis to become a state politician. Harrison would also serve in the Civil War. Before Harrison’s presidency he served in the Indiana State Supreme Court, and served in the Senate from 1880 until he was elected president in 1888.

William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States, elected in 1896. McKinley, born in 1843 in Niles, Ohio, served as governor of Ohio from 1892 to 1896. McKinley was also a captain in the civil war.

William Taft was born in 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio. An interesting fact about Taft was that he was a Unitarian all his life. Taft’s political career includes being appointed the Governor-General of the Philippines, Secretary of War. In 1908 Taft was elected president after serving under Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency.

Warren G. Harding, the last president to be born from Ohio, was born in the city of Blooming Grove. Harding was part of the Ohio State Senate and US Senate before being elected as president in 1920.

Herbert Hoover was born in 1874 in West Branch, Iowa. Hoover served as a mining engineer and consultant for almost twenty years. Hoover was Secretary of Commerce for Roosevelt and Harding. Hoover was elected president in 1928.

Gerald Ford served as president from 1974 to 1977 after Nixon had resigned. Ford, originally from Omaha, Nebraska was born in 1913. Ford in his childhood would move to Oak Park, IL, and eventually to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ford went to college at the University of Michigan and played football there. Ford served in WW II. He would go on to be in the House of Representatives in Michigan. Ford also worked on the Warren Commission. Ford became vice president under the election of Nixon in 1972.

The last president from the Midwest is Ronald Reagan. Born in 1911 in Tampico, Illinois, he would soon become famous by his radio and film career. From 1967 - 1975 Reagan was governor of California. Reagan served two terms as president, first elected in 1980 and again in 1984.

september round-up: camping all around

Woah! September is over already. Did anyone else have a fast September? I did go camping two of the weekends in September, the other two – in Chicago. All the weekends were kind of busy.

The first weekend of camping was actually a visit to Ann Arbor and Saline, Michigan. Possibly one of my last visits there as I have no more family there. Saturday we went to a Michigan football game which I chronicled in a blog. After the game we drove around Saline - my home town - and then went out to eat at Gabriel’s Cheese Steak Hoagies in Ypsilanti. Best hoagie I have ever had. We went camping that night. It rained all night, of course. However, the next day ended up being sunny and warm. Sunday was mostly spent driving around southeast Michigan doing basically genealogy research.

The last weekend in September was up near Rockford, IL, at Rock Cut State Park. The park is huge. Plus, you can swim, boat, fish, hike, bike, ride horses, or basically anything you want. The State Park is obviously one of the most used and well known parks in the state. They have plenty of electric sights for campers, but they leave the best spots for the tenters by the lake. Almost all the tent sights were being used over the weekend. This is impressive for late September. We all hiked on Saturday, as well as geocached. There were also plenty of people kayaking, which of course made me jealous. On Saturday we also played Kubb! It’s Swedish and fun. On Sunday we all went apple picking and had donuts and cider. It was wicked awesome. It’s definitely the one thing I have to do every fall.

It was a great month!

Camping at Rock Cut State Park

Curran's Orchard, Rockford, IL

midwest love: isle royale

Michigan has one National Park. I have not been to it – yet. Who’s to blame me? I basically grew up on the other side of Michigan, basically the farthest point away from the park. Plus, my parents never took me to those type of things. In addition, the Midwest just does not have a lot of National Parks. It’s probably because of the stereotype that the Midwest is boring and flat. However, that is just a stereotype.

If I was to name one interesting fact about the National Park in Michigan, which is the island, Isle Royale, it would be the National Park’s study on wolves and moose. The study has been going on for the past fifty years. It’s strange to think how the wolves and moose came to be on the island, as neither were originally natives. About 1900 the first moose was recorded as being on the island. Most researches presume the moose swam the fifteen miles from Canada to the island. Wolves did not arrive for another forty to fifty years later. The wolves, a little smarter, traveled across frozen ice.

The study works because the wolves and moose are so closely linked on the island. The moose have no other predator, and the wolves have an endless supply of great food sources such as elk, deer, bear, or mountain lion. The study seems to have produced a lot of data about the two animals and how they interact on the island.

The island is also unique because it doesn’t allow wheels on the island - auto or bicycle. This is an example of how the park service is trying to keep the park natural and uninterrupted from human damage. This can also be seen in their camping and hiking policies.
Although the island does see its fair share of people, it probably does not see the same crowdedness as Yosemite or Yellowstone because of the location of the park, the proximity to people, its popularity, and its accessibility. This in itself should be a good reason to visit.

For more info:
http://www.isleroyalewolf.org/
http://www.wolfmoose.mtu.edu/
http://www.nps.gov/isro

midwest love: gary, in

I’ve never been to Gary, Indiana. I don’t actually think it is one of those places that people choose to go. I have however passed the city several times going from Chicago to Michigan and back since it borders the bottom of Lake Michigan. You can’t miss the city. Not because it has grand architecture or sits in a hill or valley to view from the highway. No, it is hard to miss because as you pass by the city your nose begins to twinge. That twinge is from the steel and gas factories that co-exist with the city. The smell, although it deters you from stopping to fill up for gasoline in the city, is not the reason why people do not go to Gary.

People don’t go to Gary because it is the pit of the Midwest if not the United States. The town is deteriorating more and more every year and is rattled with crime and violence.

Gary however was not always a place of crime and violence. The city was established actually in 1906 for the sole purpose of U.S. Steel Corporation’s new plant. Much like Detroit during that period it thrived and prospered. In the fifties Detroit began to experience white-flight. In the sixties so did Gary. As the base of economy in Gary began to leave so did its foundation and the city began to stumble. It has never recovered.

midwest love: gateway to freedom

Many people see the United States as the gateway to freedom. Canada was freedom for many African Americans during pre-Civil war times, to which Detroit was a gateway. Today in Detroit along the Detroit River there is a statue to commemorate the people who gained freedom to Canada. (For more information on the sculpture’s history and meaning click here.)

It wasn’t enough for a runaway slave to be in a free state. The north was not a stopping point, but the first on a long journey to Canada where runaway slaves would not be bound by US law. The fugitive Slave Act (1850) passed by U.S. Congress basically enforced the southern law of slavery in the north, therefore making a runaway slave in free-soil anything but free.


It’s an amazing story of thousands of people who sought freedom. In Michigan many home are preserved in such cities as Kalamazoo, Jackson, Ann Arbor, and Saline, my hometown. Michigan routes vary (as seen on this map), but evidence shows that many routes were north of Jackson and Detroit. Historical writings and houses are along routes three and four of the map along Old Sauk Trail and Old Territory Road Trail. These same trails that brought slaves to freedom were first created by area Michigan tribes that were pushed out of the territory a generation earlier.


There is a lot of history about the underground railroad. I would encourage you to go beyond the typically reading of Harriet Tubman and check out your local library. There you can look into the history on the underground railroad such as journals of first-hand accounts of people who made the journey, or writings of people who had stations along the route.

tragedy to travel

As Lake Delton drained out into the Wisconsin River our hearts filled up with sympathy for the people that lost their homes, their possessions, and their lives. Over the past couple of weeks now, storms and tornadoes have been ripping up the Midwest. The storms have been damaging homes, flooding whole cities, and taking innocent lives. It truly is a tragedy.

Here in Chicago, Illinois, I am just far enough away to not be personally impacted by the massive flash floods and tornadoes that have even gone through the southern part of Chicago and into Indiana. Moving here from Michigan though has brought me closer to Iowa and Wisconsin which has allowed me to appreciate Iowa and Wisconsin for what they are. In addition, I have gained good friendships in Iowa and Wisconsin and look in apprehension as weather ravages the people and the land there.

So, as I watched the news the other night to learn more about what was happening I was awestruck at some of the destruction in the Dells area in Wisconsin. To see whole houses be wiped away is saddening. The news anchor began with an interview with the mayor of the town that Lake Delton is in. He began to explain why the lake drained out and of all the destruction that had happened. And then things began to change. The news anchor asked the mayor if the lake was to be re-filled and restored to how it was originally and if it could be done this year. The lake was a man-made lake. The mayor started out a little apprehensively, saying that there was a lot of destruction, but the town has been through a lot and they wanted to restore it. Then it was like I was watching one of those cheesy commercials about the Wisconsin Dells area talking about how great it is for the kids and how there is so much to do. The mayor had turned the tragedy into a tourism advertisement. There was no more about what had happened, but about what a great place it was to visit and how everyone should come to the Dells.

Tourism is so important to cities and states in the US. In many states it is the first or second top revue in the state. I am sure in Wisconsin it is the same. I’m just not sure that it was the right time for the mayor to turn such a tragedy into travel.

midwest love: ann arbor, mi

Ann Arbor. It is most notable for being the home of the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor sits in the southeast corner of the state of Michigan. The town is about an hour west of Detroit and the Canadian border. It sits as an individual entity of the city of Detroit and not a surrounding suburb.

The town has a rich history that goes back to 1824. Ann Arbor is rooted in its University and hospital where it employs over 30,000 people. The hospital is continually rated as one of the top hospitals in the nation. Borders bookstore was also founded in Ann Arbor in 1969. What is so special about Ann Arbor is its rich diversity of ideas and thoughts that thrive out of its university and community. It makes for a unique college town with an unparalleled downtown with splotches of shops and restaurants. Some notable places are: Zingerman’s Delicatessen (one of the best and well known sandwiches shops in the US), Blimpie Burger (one of the best burgers I have ever had), Washtenaw Dairy (the best ice cream I have ever had), the People’s Co-op, the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, the Ann Arbor Art Fair (which draws people from all over the country), and it’s abundance in the arts (art, theater, ballet, orchestra, and many campus museums).

What draws me to Ann Arbor is its passion to be different and at the forefront of ideas and ways of life. These ideas can be seen in the daily life of the city in its creativity of libraries, its alternative educational opportunities, and its history of being more than an average city.

new "Midwest Love" series

I live in Chicago. Chicago is a place that draws people from all over the U.S. and world because of its universities, job market and opportunities. Because of the huge draw for people to come, I have gotten to know people from all over the U.S. The amjority of them complain about the weather, the lack of mountains, the lack of an ocean, and on, and on, and on.

Can you tell I get irritated by it? In response, I am going to start a “Midwest love” series devoted to places, ideas, cultures, foods, history, and people of the Midwest1. It will also only involve places I have been, ideas I have heard, cultures I have seen, history I have learned, and people I have known (or read about in history).

Since I grew up in Michigan, don’t be surprised if much of it may be about Michigan. There will also be a lot on Chicago and Illinois now that I live in Chicago. However, I have also been to many other Midwestern states so I will include them in from time to time. I however have never been to Minnesota so I will not be writing about that state. So, I hope you get inspired by the Midwest and its history and culture and its beauty.

april roundup

April has been a busy month for me. I’ve been to Iowa, Florida, and Michigan. They were all great trips to visit family and friends. I hung out with a couple of friends from seminary in Iowa. We went geocaching and explored what is Decorah. In Florida I got to hang out with my Aunt and Uncle while eating unusual food, seeing how FLW would design a college, and seeing some great football. For my birthday I drove up to Michigan to see my parents.
I also got some things squared away, finally! In April television shows finally started having new episodes so The Office is back on, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. I also finished Alienable Rights which is a book about laws and politics and how they have affected African Americans for the past four hundred years. A great book which I will eventually write a post on.