Bits of Ecorse Biography
Over generations, Ecorse and the Downriver area have produced honest, hard working and talented people. Here are capsule biographies of just a few of them. Any information you can add would be greatly appreciated.
John Baklarz
John completed the College Course. He was a member of the E-Club and active in athletics and debating, winning three letters in football, three in basketball and one in track. He plans to take up forestry at Michigan State College. Graduated from Ecorse High School in 1935. (Ecorse High School Yearbook, 1935).
Roscoe L. Bobo
Roscoe L. Bobo, 57, of 4135 Tenth, is assistant National Credit Manager of the Crawford Door Company. He has been a city councilman for four years. Bobo was an Ecorse patrolman from 1943 until his retirement in 1959 as assistant police chief. He is co-chairman of the City Cleanup Committee. He has been active in the Beachwood Men’s Club, an organization of professional men devoted to helping underprivileged people. He has also served on the NAACP.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday, October 20, 1969).
Kenneth Bolthouse
Kenneth entered Ecorse High School as a Freshman. He has taken a Commercial Course. He was the sports editor for the Ecorse Echo and plans to enter the field of journalism. Graduated from Ecorse High School in 1935. (Ecorse High School Yearbook, 1935).
Francis X. Burke
Francis X. Burke was a representative from the Fourth District of Wayne County, 1913-1914. He was born in the township of Ecorse, Wayne County, in 1866, and was educated in the public schools of Detroit and Ecorse. His mother came from an old French family whose ancestors came to Detroit with Cadillac in 1701. Mr. Burke was Postmaster at River Rouge during Grover Cleveland’s second administration, and served as Justice of the Peace of Ecorse Township. In politics he was a Democrat. (Michigan Biographies, p. 129).
Eli Ciungan
Eli Ciungan, 47, the mayor pro-tem of Ecorse in 1969, lived at 4345 Tenth Street. He was a residential builder. He was city assessor from 1947 until 1955 and served as mayor from 1957 until 1963. He had been a councilman for four years.
Ciungan graduated from Ecorse High School and attended Kiski Prep School of Pennsylvania and Tulane University of Louisiana.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday, October 29, 1969).
Charles Cresswell
Charles entered Ecorse High School as a Freshman. He was on the football team of ’32,’33,’34. Track of ’32,’33,’34. Secretary of the E-Club, ’34,’35. He was also Sports Editor of the Echo paper. He plans to enter the Central State Teachers College and take up Physical Education. Graduated from Ecorse High School in 1935. (Ecorse High School Year Book, 1935).
James I. David
James I. David was the representative from Wayne County, 1859-1860; and Senator from the Third District, 1875-76. Was born at Catskill, N.Y. on August 20, 1811 and came to Michigan in 1842. His early business life was as a contractor in canal and bridge work. He settled on Grosse Isle in 1848, and his general business was lumbering. He was a Lieutenant in Broadhead’s Cavalry in 1861, and subsequently Captain and Commissary; was Colonel of the 9th Michigan Cavalry in 1862, and in 1863 commanded a division in Burnside’s corps, Shackleford’s division, mustered out in 1864, having resigned by reason of disability. He was appointed by President Cleveland in 1886, Indian agent at the Osage Agency. In politics he was a Democrat. He died at Ecorse, Wayne County, October 13, 1872. (Michigan Biographies, p. 225).
Peter B. Delisle
Peter Delisle was a Representative from the Fourth District of Wayne County, 1903-1904. He was born in the township of Ecorse, Wayne County, January 21, 1846. He was educated in the district school and Paterson’s classical and mathematical school. He was a contractor and builder for some time. He was engaged in the grocery business in Detroit for three years, after which he moved to Toledo, Ohio, and conducted a coal and wood business, after a few years he disposed of his business in Toledo and moved to Delray, Mich., and engaged in the real estate and insurance business. A prominent member of several fraternal societies, he was in politics a Democrat. (Michigan Biographies, p. 234).
Margaret Domonkos
Margaret entered Ecorse High School in January 1931 as a freshman. She followed the Commercial Course and received a 100 word certificate for shorthand. She was a member of the Library Science Club, Girl’s Club, Glee Club and Ecorse Echo staff. Graduated from Ecorse High School in 1935. (Ecorse High School Year Book, 1935).
John L. Engle
John L. Engle, 54, 4366 Second, was born in Apollo, Pennsylvania. He is presently employed by the Wayne County Road Commission. He has lived in Ecorse since 1929 and has been a Democratic precinct delegate for 15 years. During World War II he was in the Navy. He is a member of Pulaski Club, VFW Post 5709, a board member of the 16th District Democratic Organization, Ecorse Democratic Club, River Rouge Democratic Club, Southwest Detroit Democratic Club and John D. Dingell Club, Local 101 AFSCM, and the AFLCIO.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday October 29, 1969).
Daniel Goodell
Representative from Wayne County, 1843. Was born in Vermont, May 11, 1795. He settled in Ecorse at an early day, and married into a French family. He served in General Hull’s army. He was Supervisor as early as 1829 and held the office of Justice and other local offices. He was a farmer, and a Democrat in politics. He died April 28, 1882. (Michigan Biographies, p. 334).
Solon Goodell
Solon Goodwell was a representative from the Third District of Wayne County, 1897-1898 and 1899-1900; Senator, 1901-1902 and 1903-1904, from the Fourth District, comprising the twelfth, fourteenth and sixteenth wards of the city of Detroit, the city of Wyandotte, and the townships of Brownstown, Canton, Dearborn, Ecorse, Huron, Monguagon, Nakin, Romulus, Springwells, Sumpter, Taylor and Van Buren.
He was born in Superior, Washtenaw County, Mich., Nov. 30, 1840. He attended the district school until he was sixteen years of age, and worked on his father’s farm until he was twenty-one. In 1860 he settled on a farm in the township of Canton. His occupation was that of a farmer and stock breeder. In politics he was a Republican. He represented his district in the Legislature four terms, two in the House and two in the Senate. He died January 29, 1920. (Michigan Biographies, p. 335.).
Harold Hawk
Harold E. Hawk, 55, of 406 Labadie, is an inventory supervisor at Great Lakes Steel Corporation. He is an incumbent councilman and has served six years on the council and was mayor pro-tem from 1963-1965. Hawk is a member of St. Francis Xavier Ushers Club, I of C, Pulaski Civic Club, Great Lakes Steel Management Club and is co-chairman of the city Clean-Up Committee. An Ecorse High School graduate, Hawk has lived in Ecorse for 50 years. He and his wife, Frances, have three children.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday, October 29, 1969)
Phillip D. Hickey
Phillip David Hickey, 27, of 4242 Tenth , is an attorney and a 1966 graduate of the Wayne State University Law School. He graduated from Ecorse High School in 1959.
Hickey is secretary of the 1969 Ecorse Committee for Better Government and is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, national leadership fraternity and the Michigan Bar Association. He is married and the father of two children.(Ecorse Advertiser, October 29, 1969
Samuel J. Lawrence
Samuel J. Lawrence was a Senator, 1897-1898, from the Fourth District, comprising the twelfth, fourteenth, and sixteenth wards of the city of Detroit, the city of Wyandotte and the townships of Brownstown, Canton, Dearborn, Ecorse, Huron, Monguagon, Nankin, Romulus, Springwells, Sumpter, Taylor and Van Burne.
He was born on the Island of Guernsey, English Channel, Aug. 15, 1848. He came to America with his parents in 1852 and located in Wayne County, Michigan, where he acquired a common school education.
At the age of sixteen years he enlisted in the 4th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, Co.D, where he served for twenty-two months; six months of said time he served as mounted orderly on Gen. Stanley’s staff.
At the close of the war he went West, spending some time in nearly every western state and territory. He returned to Michigan in 1872, when he was appointed lighthouse keeper by the Hon. Zachariah Chandler, which position he held for five years. In 1872 he moved to the city of Wyandotte. In politics he was a Republican. He served his city as Alderman two terms; was chosen president pro tem, of the Council and Supervisor. He died in 1919. (Michigan Biographies, p. 14).
William T. McGraw
William T. McGraw was a Senator, 1899-1900, from the Fourth District, comprising the twelfth, fourteenth, and sixteenth wards of the city of Detroit, the city of Wyandotte, and the townships of Brownstown, Canton, Dearborn, Ecorse, Huron, Monguagon, Nankin, Romulus, Springwells, Sumpter, Taylor, and Van Buren.
He was born in Livonia Township, Wayne County, May 12, 1868. He was educated in the public schools of Plymouth, graduating from the high school of that village, and subsequently took a course in Detroit Business University. He served two years in the First National Bank of Plymouth and then accepted a position as traveling salesman for the Globe Tobacco Company, subsequently organizing the Detroit Tobacco Company. He engaged in the tobacco business and was also chairman of the Globe Cash Register Company, of which invention he was the patentee. He served in the City Council of Detroit as a representative of the twelfth ward. (Michigan Biographies, p. 57)
Richard Manning
Richard Manning graduated from Ecorse High School and attended Eastern Michigan University and the U.S. Naval Academy. He earned a secondary and junior college teaching certificate as well as a BSE degree from the University of Michigan.
From 1944 until 1947 he served overseas duty with the Navy. From 1957 until 1963, he served on the Ecorse City Council during which time he served as Mayor pro-tem and was a member of the Ecorse Charter Commission.
Prior to his term on City Council he was assistant city engineer and associate professor of Civil Engineering at Detroit Institute of Technology for 16 years. He was a member of the Detroit Metropolitan Area Planning Commission. In 1969, he was a teacher at Ecorse High School.
Richard Manning was elected mayor in 1963 and served one term. He did not serve between 1965 and 1967, but was again elected in November 1967 for a two year term.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday, October 29,1969)
Harold J. Marcott
Harold J. Marcott of 10 West Woodward, is completing his first term on the city council. He retired recently from the Ecorse Police Department after 20 years and accepted a position with the Detroit and Toledo Shoreline Railroad.
Marcott joined the Army in 1942 and saw action in Europe , receiving a battlefield commission as a lieutenant. After the war he returned to Ecorse and joined the police force in 1946.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday, October 29, 1969)
Dr. Arthur E. Payette
Dr. Arthur E. Payette, a practicing dentist in Ecorse for 46 years, until his retirement last year, died October 30 at Henry Ford Hospital. The 72 year old doctor lived at 58 West Westfield. He was buried Monday at Michigan Memorial Park, Flat Rock, following a funeral service at Ballheim Funeral Home, Ecorse.
He is survived by his wife, Marvelle; daughter Mrs. Marvelle Pember; two grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Dr. Payette was a graduate of the University of Detroit and during World War I was with the Navy Medical Corps. He also attended the Indiana College of Dentistry.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday, November 5, 1969).
Ignatius James Salliotte
Ignatius James Salliotte was a delegate in the Constitutional Convention of 1907-1908, from the Fourth District, Wayne County. He was born in Ecorse, in 1877, of Irish, French, and English descent. He received his education at the Ecorse public schools, Detroit College, where he received the degree of A.B. in 1896, and the Detroit College of Law, graduating there from with degree of LL.B. in 1899. In 1905 he was married to Miss Grace Stinson of Jackson, Mich. He engaged in the practice of law in Detroit, and was Village Attorney of Ecorse. (Michigan Biographies, p. 260).
Mary Sans Souci Meyers
Mrs. Mary Meyers, the last living member of an old Downriver French family, will celebrate her 94th birthday Saturday at the home of her sister-in-law, Mrs. Richard SansSouci, with whom she resides at 4488 Webster, Ecorse.
Well-known in the Downriver area, Mrs. Meyers lived for about 35 years in North Wyandotte at 425 Biddle, the present site of the North Shore Club. Previous to that, her River Rouge home stood where the Gallagher Mortuary is now located.
Born shortly after the Civil War in the log cabin home of a farm on the Ecorse Creek, Mrs. Meyers is the eldest daughter of Oliver Sans Souci Sr., an Ecorse pioneer. Her mother Henrieta Vieuille Payette, was a widow with seven children when she married Sans Souci. Other members of the Sans Souci family were Oliver Jr. and Columbus, both of whom took an active part in North Wyandotte, then Ford City, politics; Richard and Henrietta, known as Hattie.
In the late 1880s when the log farmhouse on the SansSouci farm was destroyed by fire, a brick home which still stands, at the same site, was erected. The farm was sold and subdivided about 45 years ago. Several ancient apple trees still stand on the site of the old orchard.
Mrs. Meyers is the widow of Richard Meyers, a former president of the village of River Rouge, who was active in business and political circles in the Downriver area more than 50 years ago.Meyers was killed in an attempted holdup in Wyandotte in 1925. At that time he was owner of the Fleur de Lys Theatre in River Rouge, and one night while returning home with the night’s proceeds, he was attacked by thugs who killed him when he resisted their attempts to seize his money pouch.
The Meyer’s adopted son, Hilbert, was killed in a steel mill accident in 1947. The couple had no children of their own.
No special plans have been made for a birthday celebration for Mrs. Meyers although friends and relatives are expected to pay a short call to offer their congratulations.
Despite her advanced age, Mrs. Meyers is still in good health. The passing years have not dimmed her memory. (Ecorse Advertiser, Thursday, October 12, 1961).
Columbus San Souci Father 1870-1955
Ida San Souci-Mother 1878-1952
San Souci, Edsel Arthur 1-1-1928-7-28-1933
Harriett San Souci 1834-1924
Sans Souci, Mary Ann 1938-1940(St. Francis Cemetery Book, Downriver Genealogical Society,Lincoln Park, Michigan
The old Sans Souci farmhouse on Pepper Road?
1986, p. 32).
Roy Seavitt
A banquet honoring Roy Seavitt, who retired last year as a member of the Ecorse Board of Education, will be given by the Ecorse District of the Michigan Education Association in the St. Francis High School auditorium on Tuesday, January 24th.
Seavitt, who has been a lifelong resident of Ecorse has for the past thirty years been connected with the Detroit Public Schools. At the present time he holds the position of principal of the Morley School in that city.
In 1925 Seavitt was elected to the local board, and he continued to serve in that capacity until June 1949. For many years he occupied the post of secretary to the boar.
Teachers and administrators of the Ecorse Public Schools this week expressed their appreciation for his many years of outstanding service to the community and to its schools.
The members of the present Board of Education and their wives will be honored guests at the banquet. Chairmen of the committee who are working on arrangements for the occasion are: Frank Kennedy, general chairman; Miss Marietta Ouellette, Mr. Omer Vogt, Miss Ruth Radenovich, Miss Helen Heather. (Ecorse Advertiser
January 12, 1950).
Do you know anything about these people?
John Baklarz
John completed the College Course. He was a member of the E-Club and active in athletics and debating, winning three letters in football, three in basketball and one in track. He plans to take up forestry at Michigan State College. Graduated from Ecorse High School in 1935. (Ecorse High School Yearbook, 1935).
Roscoe L. Bobo
Roscoe L. Bobo, 57, of 4135 Tenth, is assistant National Credit Manager of the Crawford Door Company. He has been a city councilman for four years. Bobo was an Ecorse patrolman from 1943 until his retirement in 1959 as assistant police chief. He is co-chairman of the City Cleanup Committee. He has been active in the Beachwood Men’s Club, an organization of professional men devoted to helping underprivileged people. He has also served on the NAACP.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday, October 20, 1969).
Kenneth Bolthouse
Kenneth entered Ecorse High School as a Freshman. He has taken a Commercial Course. He was the sports editor for the Ecorse Echo and plans to enter the field of journalism. Graduated from Ecorse High School in 1935. (Ecorse High School Yearbook, 1935).
Francis X. Burke
Francis X. Burke was a representative from the Fourth District of Wayne County, 1913-1914. He was born in the township of Ecorse, Wayne County, in 1866, and was educated in the public schools of Detroit and Ecorse. His mother came from an old French family whose ancestors came to Detroit with Cadillac in 1701. Mr. Burke was Postmaster at River Rouge during Grover Cleveland’s second administration, and served as Justice of the Peace of Ecorse Township. In politics he was a Democrat. (Michigan Biographies, p. 129).
Eli Ciungan
Eli Ciungan, 47, the mayor pro-tem of Ecorse in 1969, lived at 4345 Tenth Street. He was a residential builder. He was city assessor from 1947 until 1955 and served as mayor from 1957 until 1963. He had been a councilman for four years.
Ciungan graduated from Ecorse High School and attended Kiski Prep School of Pennsylvania and Tulane University of Louisiana.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday, October 29, 1969).
Charles Cresswell
Charles entered Ecorse High School as a Freshman. He was on the football team of ’32,’33,’34. Track of ’32,’33,’34. Secretary of the E-Club, ’34,’35. He was also Sports Editor of the Echo paper. He plans to enter the Central State Teachers College and take up Physical Education. Graduated from Ecorse High School in 1935. (Ecorse High School Year Book, 1935).
James I. David
James I. David was the representative from Wayne County, 1859-1860; and Senator from the Third District, 1875-76. Was born at Catskill, N.Y. on August 20, 1811 and came to Michigan in 1842. His early business life was as a contractor in canal and bridge work. He settled on Grosse Isle in 1848, and his general business was lumbering. He was a Lieutenant in Broadhead’s Cavalry in 1861, and subsequently Captain and Commissary; was Colonel of the 9th Michigan Cavalry in 1862, and in 1863 commanded a division in Burnside’s corps, Shackleford’s division, mustered out in 1864, having resigned by reason of disability. He was appointed by President Cleveland in 1886, Indian agent at the Osage Agency. In politics he was a Democrat. He died at Ecorse, Wayne County, October 13, 1872. (Michigan Biographies, p. 225).
Peter B. Delisle
Peter Delisle was a Representative from the Fourth District of Wayne County, 1903-1904. He was born in the township of Ecorse, Wayne County, January 21, 1846. He was educated in the district school and Paterson’s classical and mathematical school. He was a contractor and builder for some time. He was engaged in the grocery business in Detroit for three years, after which he moved to Toledo, Ohio, and conducted a coal and wood business, after a few years he disposed of his business in Toledo and moved to Delray, Mich., and engaged in the real estate and insurance business. A prominent member of several fraternal societies, he was in politics a Democrat. (Michigan Biographies, p. 234).
Margaret Domonkos
Margaret entered Ecorse High School in January 1931 as a freshman. She followed the Commercial Course and received a 100 word certificate for shorthand. She was a member of the Library Science Club, Girl’s Club, Glee Club and Ecorse Echo staff. Graduated from Ecorse High School in 1935. (Ecorse High School Year Book, 1935).
John L. Engle
John L. Engle, 54, 4366 Second, was born in Apollo, Pennsylvania. He is presently employed by the Wayne County Road Commission. He has lived in Ecorse since 1929 and has been a Democratic precinct delegate for 15 years. During World War II he was in the Navy. He is a member of Pulaski Club, VFW Post 5709, a board member of the 16th District Democratic Organization, Ecorse Democratic Club, River Rouge Democratic Club, Southwest Detroit Democratic Club and John D. Dingell Club, Local 101 AFSCM, and the AFLCIO.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday October 29, 1969).
Daniel Goodell
Representative from Wayne County, 1843. Was born in Vermont, May 11, 1795. He settled in Ecorse at an early day, and married into a French family. He served in General Hull’s army. He was Supervisor as early as 1829 and held the office of Justice and other local offices. He was a farmer, and a Democrat in politics. He died April 28, 1882. (Michigan Biographies, p. 334).
Solon Goodell
Solon Goodwell was a representative from the Third District of Wayne County, 1897-1898 and 1899-1900; Senator, 1901-1902 and 1903-1904, from the Fourth District, comprising the twelfth, fourteenth and sixteenth wards of the city of Detroit, the city of Wyandotte, and the townships of Brownstown, Canton, Dearborn, Ecorse, Huron, Monguagon, Nakin, Romulus, Springwells, Sumpter, Taylor and Van Buren.
He was born in Superior, Washtenaw County, Mich., Nov. 30, 1840. He attended the district school until he was sixteen years of age, and worked on his father’s farm until he was twenty-one. In 1860 he settled on a farm in the township of Canton. His occupation was that of a farmer and stock breeder. In politics he was a Republican. He represented his district in the Legislature four terms, two in the House and two in the Senate. He died January 29, 1920. (Michigan Biographies, p. 335.).
Harold Hawk
Harold E. Hawk, 55, of 406 Labadie, is an inventory supervisor at Great Lakes Steel Corporation. He is an incumbent councilman and has served six years on the council and was mayor pro-tem from 1963-1965. Hawk is a member of St. Francis Xavier Ushers Club, I of C, Pulaski Civic Club, Great Lakes Steel Management Club and is co-chairman of the city Clean-Up Committee. An Ecorse High School graduate, Hawk has lived in Ecorse for 50 years. He and his wife, Frances, have three children.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday, October 29, 1969)
Phillip D. Hickey
Phillip David Hickey, 27, of 4242 Tenth , is an attorney and a 1966 graduate of the Wayne State University Law School. He graduated from Ecorse High School in 1959.
Hickey is secretary of the 1969 Ecorse Committee for Better Government and is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, national leadership fraternity and the Michigan Bar Association. He is married and the father of two children.(Ecorse Advertiser, October 29, 1969
Samuel J. Lawrence
Samuel J. Lawrence was a Senator, 1897-1898, from the Fourth District, comprising the twelfth, fourteenth, and sixteenth wards of the city of Detroit, the city of Wyandotte and the townships of Brownstown, Canton, Dearborn, Ecorse, Huron, Monguagon, Nankin, Romulus, Springwells, Sumpter, Taylor and Van Burne.
He was born on the Island of Guernsey, English Channel, Aug. 15, 1848. He came to America with his parents in 1852 and located in Wayne County, Michigan, where he acquired a common school education.
At the age of sixteen years he enlisted in the 4th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, Co.D, where he served for twenty-two months; six months of said time he served as mounted orderly on Gen. Stanley’s staff.
At the close of the war he went West, spending some time in nearly every western state and territory. He returned to Michigan in 1872, when he was appointed lighthouse keeper by the Hon. Zachariah Chandler, which position he held for five years. In 1872 he moved to the city of Wyandotte. In politics he was a Republican. He served his city as Alderman two terms; was chosen president pro tem, of the Council and Supervisor. He died in 1919. (Michigan Biographies, p. 14).
William T. McGraw
William T. McGraw was a Senator, 1899-1900, from the Fourth District, comprising the twelfth, fourteenth, and sixteenth wards of the city of Detroit, the city of Wyandotte, and the townships of Brownstown, Canton, Dearborn, Ecorse, Huron, Monguagon, Nankin, Romulus, Springwells, Sumpter, Taylor, and Van Buren.
He was born in Livonia Township, Wayne County, May 12, 1868. He was educated in the public schools of Plymouth, graduating from the high school of that village, and subsequently took a course in Detroit Business University. He served two years in the First National Bank of Plymouth and then accepted a position as traveling salesman for the Globe Tobacco Company, subsequently organizing the Detroit Tobacco Company. He engaged in the tobacco business and was also chairman of the Globe Cash Register Company, of which invention he was the patentee. He served in the City Council of Detroit as a representative of the twelfth ward. (Michigan Biographies, p. 57)
Richard Manning
Richard Manning graduated from Ecorse High School and attended Eastern Michigan University and the U.S. Naval Academy. He earned a secondary and junior college teaching certificate as well as a BSE degree from the University of Michigan.
From 1944 until 1947 he served overseas duty with the Navy. From 1957 until 1963, he served on the Ecorse City Council during which time he served as Mayor pro-tem and was a member of the Ecorse Charter Commission.
Prior to his term on City Council he was assistant city engineer and associate professor of Civil Engineering at Detroit Institute of Technology for 16 years. He was a member of the Detroit Metropolitan Area Planning Commission. In 1969, he was a teacher at Ecorse High School.
Richard Manning was elected mayor in 1963 and served one term. He did not serve between 1965 and 1967, but was again elected in November 1967 for a two year term.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday, October 29,1969)
Harold J. Marcott
Harold J. Marcott of 10 West Woodward, is completing his first term on the city council. He retired recently from the Ecorse Police Department after 20 years and accepted a position with the Detroit and Toledo Shoreline Railroad.
Marcott joined the Army in 1942 and saw action in Europe , receiving a battlefield commission as a lieutenant. After the war he returned to Ecorse and joined the police force in 1946.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday, October 29, 1969)
Dr. Arthur E. Payette
Dr. Arthur E. Payette, a practicing dentist in Ecorse for 46 years, until his retirement last year, died October 30 at Henry Ford Hospital. The 72 year old doctor lived at 58 West Westfield. He was buried Monday at Michigan Memorial Park, Flat Rock, following a funeral service at Ballheim Funeral Home, Ecorse.
He is survived by his wife, Marvelle; daughter Mrs. Marvelle Pember; two grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Dr. Payette was a graduate of the University of Detroit and during World War I was with the Navy Medical Corps. He also attended the Indiana College of Dentistry.(Ecorse Advertiser, Wednesday, November 5, 1969).
Ignatius James Salliotte
Ignatius James Salliotte was a delegate in the Constitutional Convention of 1907-1908, from the Fourth District, Wayne County. He was born in Ecorse, in 1877, of Irish, French, and English descent. He received his education at the Ecorse public schools, Detroit College, where he received the degree of A.B. in 1896, and the Detroit College of Law, graduating there from with degree of LL.B. in 1899. In 1905 he was married to Miss Grace Stinson of Jackson, Mich. He engaged in the practice of law in Detroit, and was Village Attorney of Ecorse. (Michigan Biographies, p. 260).
Mary Sans Souci Meyers
Mrs. Mary Meyers, the last living member of an old Downriver French family, will celebrate her 94th birthday Saturday at the home of her sister-in-law, Mrs. Richard SansSouci, with whom she resides at 4488 Webster, Ecorse.
Well-known in the Downriver area, Mrs. Meyers lived for about 35 years in North Wyandotte at 425 Biddle, the present site of the North Shore Club. Previous to that, her River Rouge home stood where the Gallagher Mortuary is now located.
Born shortly after the Civil War in the log cabin home of a farm on the Ecorse Creek, Mrs. Meyers is the eldest daughter of Oliver Sans Souci Sr., an Ecorse pioneer. Her mother Henrieta Vieuille Payette, was a widow with seven children when she married Sans Souci. Other members of the Sans Souci family were Oliver Jr. and Columbus, both of whom took an active part in North Wyandotte, then Ford City, politics; Richard and Henrietta, known as Hattie.
In the late 1880s when the log farmhouse on the SansSouci farm was destroyed by fire, a brick home which still stands, at the same site, was erected. The farm was sold and subdivided about 45 years ago. Several ancient apple trees still stand on the site of the old orchard.
Mrs. Meyers is the widow of Richard Meyers, a former president of the village of River Rouge, who was active in business and political circles in the Downriver area more than 50 years ago.Meyers was killed in an attempted holdup in Wyandotte in 1925. At that time he was owner of the Fleur de Lys Theatre in River Rouge, and one night while returning home with the night’s proceeds, he was attacked by thugs who killed him when he resisted their attempts to seize his money pouch.
The Meyer’s adopted son, Hilbert, was killed in a steel mill accident in 1947. The couple had no children of their own.
No special plans have been made for a birthday celebration for Mrs. Meyers although friends and relatives are expected to pay a short call to offer their congratulations.
Despite her advanced age, Mrs. Meyers is still in good health. The passing years have not dimmed her memory. (Ecorse Advertiser, Thursday, October 12, 1961).
Columbus San Souci Father 1870-1955
Ida San Souci-Mother 1878-1952
San Souci, Edsel Arthur 1-1-1928-7-28-1933
Harriett San Souci 1834-1924
Sans Souci, Mary Ann 1938-1940(St. Francis Cemetery Book, Downriver Genealogical Society,Lincoln Park, Michigan
The old Sans Souci farmhouse on Pepper Road?
1986, p. 32).
Roy Seavitt
A banquet honoring Roy Seavitt, who retired last year as a member of the Ecorse Board of Education, will be given by the Ecorse District of the Michigan Education Association in the St. Francis High School auditorium on Tuesday, January 24th.
Seavitt, who has been a lifelong resident of Ecorse has for the past thirty years been connected with the Detroit Public Schools. At the present time he holds the position of principal of the Morley School in that city.
In 1925 Seavitt was elected to the local board, and he continued to serve in that capacity until June 1949. For many years he occupied the post of secretary to the boar.
Teachers and administrators of the Ecorse Public Schools this week expressed their appreciation for his many years of outstanding service to the community and to its schools.
The members of the present Board of Education and their wives will be honored guests at the banquet. Chairmen of the committee who are working on arrangements for the occasion are: Frank Kennedy, general chairman; Miss Marietta Ouellette, Mr. Omer Vogt, Miss Ruth Radenovich, Miss Helen Heather. (Ecorse Advertiser
January 12, 1950).
Do you know anything about these people?