Three Young-Adult Ann Arbor Historicals

The young-adult series, rooted in Ann Arbor, Michigan history, began with visits to the Bentley and Clemments University libraries to uncover details about the donors of stained-glass windows to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, built after the Civil War but incorporated in 1824. One of the donors, Silas Douglas attended the 1818 Maumee River signing of the Indian land distribution treaty needed for the building of President Monroe’s Erie Canal. He copied the treaty and the names of the natives from seven tribes into the permanent archives (now housed in the Ann Arbor public library). Based on these facts, my book “North Parish” follows fictitious consensus-building diplomats around the Great Lakes to secure attendance at the 1818 Maumee Rapids powwow. (57 k)

In the libraries’ white-glove-only visitor section, I found abstract indexes for interesting diaries. Among them was the lonesome diary of a Lake Superior lighthouse keeper. He diligently listed the passing ships and frightening storms. “Floating Home” incorporates the 1841 romance between an Irish-famine, female emigrant with a lighthouse keeper’s journey across the Atlantic, up the Hudson, down the Erie Canal, to Fort Detroit and their final destinies in Ann Arbor (56 k).

Among the famous names of 1879 University of Michigan professors, the name Vaughan appears in un-complimentary biographies. “Love’s Triumph” details the 1879 typhoid epidemic experienced by a young carpenter and an aspiring female law student. (70 k).

These three inspirational novels may spark the curiosity of young citizens of Michigan.