Midland: The Way We Were (MI) (Images of America) [Paperback]

Virginia Florey (Author), Leona Seamster (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2001

Midland, Michigan began life as The Forks, where the Tittabwassee and Chippewa Rivers met. By 1858, The Forks became the Village of Midland, and in 1869 it was incorporated and named the Village of Midland City. Lumbering and farmland attracted the first settlers, and in 1897 a brash young man named Herbert Henry Dow persuaded 57 investors to start a new business there named the Dow Chemical Company. Midland, by then a city, was forever changed.

Included in Midland: The Way We Were are photographs that span the first 100 years of the city. From Main Street landmarks such as the Frolic Theater, to the churches and schools where Midland's residents worshiped and learned-here are over 200 images detailing Midland's history.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Author Virginia Florey and editor Leona Seamster can trace their family trees back to the very beginning of Midland County. Mrs. Florey has taught school, worked at local radio stations, and written for the Midland Daily News for 28 years. Mrs. Seamster went back to work after raising her family and became an executive secretary at the Dow Chemical Company until her retirement. This book is their first written collaboration, although they have presented history slide shows together on Midland for the past decade.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing (July 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738518867
• ISBN-13: 978-0738518862
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,307,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Nice Guide to Midland. Michigan, May 26, 2005

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Midland: The Way We Were (MI) (Images of America) (Paperback)

Virginia Florey has a nice, even style, and she provides some funny captions to the selection of photographs that her friend, Leora Seamster has provided. When she says that, as a girl, she thought Rossini's "William Tell Overture" was written just for her, you have to smile. The nostalgia she conveys is as inviting as a stack of pancackes on a Sunday morning, and as warm as the hearts of Midlanders Up Main and Down Main.

Though I have never been to Michigan, I have some good friends who sent me this book for my birthday, knowing how I like books without a lot of unnecessary words in them. They must have picked it up at a fine book-store, for it is beautifully designed and printed. When I opened the package it came in, I muist confess that I frowned a little, because for a long time they have been trying to persuade me to leave what they consider to be a dangerous, immoral city (San Francisco) and to join them at Dow Chemical--headquartered in Midland. I remember protesting against Dow when it was revealed that they were marketers of napalm during the Viet Nam war, but that was before I saw how cute their factories are and according to the evidence in this book, the two rivers (the Chippewa, named after the Indian tribe, and the Tittabwassee, which I think means, "Good Country" in the Chippewa dialect) that border Midland are still filled with fresh trout so they can't be all that unhealthy, though very icy of course in winter.

Anyway I put aside my preconceptions about Midland, and had myself a good read looking at all the "vintage pictures" in the book, looking at a way of life that never really existed except in photographs and except, perhaps, in that little corner of Heaven its natives call Home--Midland, Michigan. My friends also put in an arrowhead they said they found while planting zinnias in their backyard. Could be Chippewa manufacture? Anyway it is a delightful souvenir of a fine reading experience, one which I have bookmarked heavily.