Migrating to Michigan (13 page)

“Yes, Professor, thank you for the clothes,” Rachel answered. “It feels great to be clean again.”

“You are welcome,” he answered. “Now, let's talk about our visit to Hamtramck Township.”

“Wait,” Rachel said, “I want to tell you that I'm very sorry about not paying attention. I realize that I was wrong.”

“I'm sorry, too, Professor,” I added.

Professor Tuesday said, “That's all in the past now.”

Mister Adams laughed so hard that he fell off his chair. Owen and the professor chuckled out loud. Then I got the joke and started laughing, too.

“What's so funny?” Rachel asked.

“The professor said, ‘That's all in the past.' Get it? It's a joke,” Owen said as he covered his smile.

“
L
et's get back to work,” said the professor. “The place we visited was Hamtramck Township in 1882. The village of Hamtramck we know of today wasn't established until 1901. Long before Polish immigrants first came here to live, German and Irish immigrants farmed the land in the area.”

“Where did they go?” Owen asked.

“Many immigrants who came to Michigan only settled in one place for a short time. Sometimes they would find better land for farming or a job in a different town. Other times they would move to a nearby area in the frontier. Some even moved as far as California.”

The room went quiet until the professor spoke again. “Let's start from the beginning. What did you see during this trip?”

Owen was the first to speak. “We started out in an alley, I think. There were deep ruts in the dirt and garages on each side. So, the roads weren't much different from what they'd been like in 1837.”

“Correct, but the buildings you saw weren't garages” said the professor. “They were barns. The Polish immigrants usually kept gardens in their yards plus horses, pigs, chickens, geese, and other animals in small barns behind their houses. For that matter, many other people across Michigan had barns in their backyards in those days.”

“They also kept cows,” Rachel said. “I found that out the hard way. And, that goose scared me, too.”

“Yes, they did have cows,” said the professor. A slight smile crossed his face. “Cows were particularly useful because of the milk they gave. Think about the Finns for a moment. When Lake Superior froze in winter, there was almost no way for the people of Copper Country to get supplies. So they had to rely on the food they stored and the animals they kept to help them survive.”

“Why was that woman chasing the goose?” Owen asked.

“I don't know for sure,” replied the professor as he combed his beard with his fingers. “Maybe it got away and she wanted it back in her yard.”

“Why was that old lady wearing a scarf on her head?” Rachel asked. “Come to think of it, the girl we met, Sophia, also wore one.”

“They were wearing babushkas,” said the professor. “A babushka is a square piece of cloth that's folded into a triangle. It is a traditional Russian and Polish headscarf that is tied under the chin. The word
babushka
means ‘old woman.'”

We all nodded our heads.

“Did you notice how small the houses were and how close all the houses were to each other?” asked the professor. “Why do you think they were built that way?”

Owen, Rachel, and I shrugged our shoulders. Mister Adams rolled his fingers together.

“That's right, Mister Adams,” said the professor. “The Polish immigrants were trying to save money. Their property and houses were small and very inexpensive.”

“Who do you think was building that house?” I asked.

“The immigrants themselves built most of their own homes,” said Professor Tuesday. The professor blinked twice before continuing. “Polish immigrants, like many other immigrants to Michigan, practiced chain migration.”

“What's chain migration?” Owen asked.

“Well,” the professor started, “a few families would move to a certain place. Once they found work and a place to live, they would write to their relatives back in their home country. Often, they would send money to help their families migrate to Michigan. When the time was right and enough money was saved, a relative or another family in the home country might immigrate and move in with the family that was here. When the new immigrant family got work and saved enough money, they would build their own home. Usually, family and friends helped. That's how chain migration worked.”

“What were you looking at while we were visiting with Sophia in the alley?” I asked.

“We'll talk about that in a minute, but I'm curious what you learned by talking to your friend Sophia,” the professor replied. “Let's have a snack and talk about everything we saw.”

M
ister Adams picked up his Rubik's Cube and began fiddling with it as Owen and I worked on our journal entries. Professor Tuesday went to a small kitchen on the first floor of his building. He grabbed some fruit and yogurt from the refrigerator and brought them back for us to share.

When he returned to his office, the professor put down the tray of snacks and snapped his fingers twice. “There are some things I forgot to tell you about the Polish immigrants in Michigan.”

“Like what?” Owen asked as he peeled a banana.

“First off,” said the professor, “the earliest Polish immigrants in Michigan did not settle in what we now know as Hamtramck. One Polish settlement was in Parisville, Michigan, near Port Huron. Muskegon also saw some early Polish immigrants as did the city of Calumet in the Keweenaw Peninsula.”

“In Copper Country?” I asked.

“Yes,” answered Professor Tuesday. “Others settled in the Grand Rapids area and different places around the state.” Professor Tuesday rolled his eyes as he thought. “The other thing you should know is that many Polish immigrants who came to Michigan did not come directly from what we now call ‘Poland.'”

“So, where did they come from?” Owen asked.

“Many of them came here from other states. Many Poles worked in coal mines from Pennsylvania to Ohio. Others worked on the railroads and other jobs in different states before they moved to Michigan. Poles were considered good, skilled workers. When Henry Ford built his automobile manufacturing business in Michigan, he preferred to hire Polish employees.”

“What made Polish people want to come here?” Owen asked as he played with his ball cap.

“Land was cheap,” the professor began, “plus Michigan offered plenty of opportunity for people who wanted to work.”

“You just won't believe it,” Rachel blurted out in excitement. “Sophia, the girl we were talking to, was just a kid like Owen, Jesse, and me, but she told me that she had a real job.”

“Is that so?” asked the professor. “What kind of job did she have?”

“She was a maid or something,” Rachel answered. “Sophia cleaned some doctor's house every day of the week except Sunday. She had to make the beds, do dishes, take care of the kids, and other stuff.”

“That was not unusual,” the professor said. “Back then, children often had jobs. Some children as young as seven years old took jobs. Many of them even had dangerous jobs—from coal mining to manufacturing. Shanty boys were often as young as fifteen.” The professor scratched his chin as he continued, “In one of my books, I read that somewhere around 2 million children had jobs in 1810. Some of them worked as much as sixteen hours a day, six days a week. The children who worked in those days came mostly from poor families that needed the money.”

“Whoa,” said Owen. “I'm glad I didn't live back then.”

“Did she tell you how much she was paid?” the professor asked.

“That's the other strange thing,” Rachel answered. “She only got $1.50 for a whole week's work. That can't be true, can it, Professor?”

“Unfortunately, it probably is true,” replied the professor. “Back then children were a cheap form of labor, that's why so many of them worked. And, each dollar back then was worth much more than it is in our time.”

“Gee, that's still not much,” Owen said.

“I'm glad kids don't work like that today,” I said.

“It took a long time to enact the laws that eventually stopped child labor,” noted Professor Tuesday. “In 1938 Congress took action and passed what was called the Fair Labor Standards Act. This law stopped companies from hiring young children for dangerous work.”

“There's one other thing she told me,” I added. “Sophia said that she quit school after the third grade.”

“No way,” replied Owen.

“Way,” answered the professor. “Back then children often left school once they learned to read, write, and do some simple math.”

“What kind of work did Sophia's mother do?” Owen asked.

“She didn't say,” Rachel answered.

“While children in the family worked, Polish mothers usually stayed at home,” said the professor. “Some women who did work outside of the home had unusual jobs.”

“Like what?”

The professor smiled, “One of the jobs Polish women did in the Detroit area was to make cigars.”

“Cigars?” Owen asked as he made a funny face. “Like the stinky cigars my grandpa used to smoke?”

“That's right,” said the professor, “many women had jobs rolling cigars in factories.”

“I wouldn't do that job,” I said. “Oh, one more thing—Sophia also told me that she had to walk a long way to and from her work.”

“That was often the case,” the professor added. “We visited her in a time that was well before the invention of the automobile. Some traveled by horse and buggy, but for many people, walking was the only way to get to work or to market.”

“What did the three of you do while Rachel and I were talking to Sophia?” I asked.

Owen got very excited. “We took a long walk across the field and saw a factory.” Owen covered a smile as he continued, “Of course we watched where we were walking because we knew that cows grazed in that field.”

“What did they make in the factory?” Rachel asked.

“I'm not sure,” said Owen. “They were making big box-like things—so big you could walk around in them.”

“They were making railroad cars,” said the professor. “Railroads, like the Erie Canal, helped millions of immigrants come to and settle in Michigan. They also provided an easy and economical way to move goods around the state.”

“What was the factory like?” I asked.

“It was dirty and dusty, dark and noisy, too. It didn't look like a very good place to work,” Owen said. “My dad works in a factory, and he has to wear a safety helmet and safety glasses all the time. None of those guys in that factory had a helmet or anything else.”

“It seems like all kinds of work was dirty, dusty, and dangerous in those days,” Rachel added.

“They didn't have most of the safety equipment we use today,” said the professor as he adjusted his glasses up and down. “Many workers, including children, were hurt on the job. At this particular factory, they were making wooden railroad cars. In just a few years the company would be changing to make railroad cars out of steel so heavier loads could be carried.”

W
hen we finished our talk and our snacks, we heard a knock at the professor's door.

“Who is it?” the professor called out.

“It is me, Professor,” a voice called back from the other side of the door.

“Come in, come in,” said the professor. “Let me introduce you to my friends.” A tall dark-skinned student walked into the room. He was very slender. His hair was cut short, and his face wore a big, bright smile. The professor turned to Owen and me. “This is Jesse, Rachel, and Owen. Of course you have already met my nephew, Mister Adams.”

“I am pleased to meet you,” the young man said. “My name is Yak.”

His voice and smile were very friendly. The way he spoke was interesting to me. It is hard to describe, but it was like he bit off each word as he talked.

“Are you visiting Professor Tuesday as I am?” Yak said.

“Yes, we are,” said Owen. “Rachel and I are working on a special assignment for school. Our friend, Jesse, came with us. The professor is helping us learn about immigration in Michigan.”

“That is a wonderful topic,” Yak said, “for I am an immigrant to your state.”

“Where did you migrate from?” I asked.

“I came here with my mother and my brothers from the Republic of Sudan,” Yak said. “Do you know where that is?”

Owen and I shook our heads no. Mister Adams walked over to a map and pointed to a spot in the northeast of the continent of Africa.

“Yes, Mister Adams, it is in Africa. It is the largest of all the countries in Africa,” Yak said. “Most people there speak either Arabic or English.”

“Tell them why you left Sudan, Yak,” said the professor.

“There was a terrible war where my family lived,” Yak said. His face was suddenly sad. “My father went off to war and I have not seen or heard from him for many years. War is very terrible. We had no food, our houses and villages were destroyed, and there was no medicine for the sick. We ran away to save ourselves.”

“Africa is far, far away,” Owen said. “How did you come to Michigan?”

“People from a church rescued my family,” Yak said. “They helped us to escape from Sudan. They have also helped us get a house and a job for our mother. My brothers and I now go to school.”

As we talked with Yak, Rachel was writing notes as fast as she could.

“Where does your mother work?” Owen asked.