When Toni Smith showed up at her office at the Clarkston Heritage Museum one day, she found a mysterious envelope in her mailbox.
‘I was thinking to myself as I opened it up ‘just let it have something that has to do with Clarkston? because people send stuff sometimes and it doesn’t have anything to do with Clarkston,? said Smith, museum director. ‘I’m opening it up and I’m opening it up and it’s getting bigger and bigger. It was all Clarkston, it was so cool.?
The mysterious package turned out to be a 6-foot broadside poster advertising Clarkston’s July 4 celebrations of 1873.
The list of events include a ?100 gun salute at sunrise, 49 Young Ladies in appropriate costume to represent the whole of our grand, constellation of dates and territories, a procession at 10:00 at the intersection of Church and Maple under the direction of the Marshall and his assistants, the Clarkston Silver Coronet Band, a basket picnic, Kalvacade of Komicalites, a balloon ascension, and grand display of fireworks, and a grand dance at night at the Demarest House.?
‘It started at dawn and went through the evening,? Smith said. ‘This really speaks for the whole of Clarkston celebrating Fourth of July.?
The broadside also included a list of the ‘Officers of the Day,? A.G. Comstock of Detroit was the orator and the reader was Samuel W. Smith. Toni received the broadside from Dorothy Smith who found it while moving after her husband Ray died. Ray was a 1945 Clarkston graduate and a relative to Samuel.
According to historic record Samuel, was a member of Congress from the Sixth Congressional District of Michigan. He was the son of NB Smith who owned a Drug and Dry Goods store at the corner of Main Street and Washington where the Masonic Temple is now.
‘NB was my great grandfather,? said Alice Anderson, Ray’s first cousin. ‘My mother used to talk about Uncle Sam. When his son Ferris was the big doctor in Grand Rapids, my mother was proud of that.?
According to Anderson, Dorothy remembered her father-in-law William gave Ray several items and said ‘this is valuable, now put it away.?
So, he probably put it away because his father told him to keep it safe,? she said. ‘Uncle William probably got it from the family stuff, maybe from my Grandpa John Peter Turner Smith.?
Anderson, also a Clarkston native who lived in the house at 104 N. Main Street until she was 10 years old, said she is ‘proud of the broadside.?
‘I’m proud of coming from Clarkston,? she said. ‘I’m very proud of Ray that he saved it so safely.?
Toni Smith found it remarkable the broadside had survived 137 years.
‘This thing is so thin it’s like tissue paper,? she said.
Though it was in pretty good shape, Toni took is to Rivers Conservation & Preservation Services LC in Detroit to have it worked on.
‘There were some acids in it that washed out, but for the most part it was in really good condition. It came out quite nicely I thought and should last for some time now,? said Ronna Rivers, the principal conservator who worked on it. ‘It was a really, really nice piece to find because things like that don’t usually last. A broadside is meant to be put up, torn down, or plastered over with another one.?
Smith said the piece gave her goosebumps and said the donation ‘was so right.?
‘There is so much information on it, so many connections to the local schools, local dignitaries, local church, Holcomb Road,” she said. “It had all the bells and whistles, that’s what was so amazing about it and it was such a fragile piece of paper and it lasted for so long.?
‘I’m sure it’s one of a kind and there probably won’t be another one out there somewhere,” she added. “It’s just an amazing piece of Clarkston history. We didn’t even know it existed.?
The museum plans to display the poster in a future exhibit, Smith said.