A glance in the rearview mirror: November 1920
by Mary Jo David
Author’s Note: The “Rearview Mirror” has been on hiatus since the April edition of Stockbridge Community News due to the local Stockbridge Library closing for COVID-19. In October 2020, the library re-opened for limited public access to its computers and microfiche reader, so this month, we are bringing back the “Rearview Mirror” column with a limited focus of just “100 years ago this month.” We hope to expand the column to its usual 100-50-25-year focus when the library can resume unrestricted access to the microfiche reader.
- The Nov. 4, 1920, edition of the Stockbridge Brief-Sun provided a recap of the national election that had been held the previous Tuesday. The headline:
Next President and Vice President
Conceded 275 Electoral Votes Midnight Tuesday
Election highlights included: Warren G. Harding, President; Calvin Coolidge, Vice President; and Alexander Groesbeck, Michigan Governor. Locally, Stockbridge reported, “This township polled the largest vote in our history—510 ballots being voted.”
- A Nov. 4, “Letter From Mississippi,” featured Mrs. W. Alexander [presumably a former resident of the Stockbridge area] writing a lengthy report of their auto trip to Mississippi, which included, “Had a great trip except Enid who had the most trouble with red bug bites…Fruit is very expensive. I bought a dozen apples for 25 cents.”
- On Nov. 11, the Brief-Sun found itself defending its price increase in an article titled, “Why raise the price of your paper when all else is coming down?” In the article, the paper was firm about its new pricing: “On or after January 1, 1920, the Brief-Sun will be $2.00 per year—strictly in advance.”
- The Nov. 11 World News section of the paper reported, “A new home for fatherless sons of British war heroes opened in Reading, forty miles from London….Money supplied by American admirers of British Valor.” The home was opened as a “tribute of appreciation and a memorial from the American people.” It would house 48 boys.
- In the same year that the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified giving women the right to vote in the United States, there was this headline in the Stockbridge Brief-Sun on Nov. 11, 1920:
Women’s Vote Large
Women eligible to vote is approximately 26,500,000
- On Nov. 18, 1920, the Brief-Sun reported “Armistice Day observed in Stockbridge last Thursday under the auspices of the American Legion.”
- In this same issue, Michigan’s Governor Sleeper made a Thanksgiving Day Proclamation that included the following, “Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion…Thou crowned the year with thy goodness and thy paths drop fatness. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys are also covered over with corn. They shout for joy. They also sing.”
- A story out of Denver in the Nov. 18 edition included a story headlined “Baby Clothes Made by Armless Mother.” It began with this reminder, “Where there’s a will there’s a way” and explained that a Mrs. Teagarden who was born with no arms in 1894 proceeded to make her baby’s clothes by “guiding the clothes under the sewing machine needle with her chin. She stitched, cut out patterns, and threaded the needle with her feet.”
- In local news on Nov. 18:
- Two carloads of stock were shipped from Gregory on the previous Monday.
- In the Derby neighborhood [presumably Stockbridge], “Will Cavender of Jackson spent Sunday with home folks,” and “Mrs. Marion Walz, our teacher, is boarding at Beryl Smith’s during the winter months.”
- In Munith: “Mr. and Mrs. Edward Parks were pleasantly surprised last Friday when about 20 relatives and friends walked in with well-filled baskets to help them celebrate their 29th Chicken pie dinner was served and a good time enjoyed by all.”
