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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (July 18, 1963)
Rival City Now Buried Under Sand . MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON THURSDAY. JULY 18. 1983 aaugatuck, Mich. - IOT - In 1834 construction began at the bend of the Kalamazoo River on a sawmill to wrest the rich Pine forest from the land to help rebuild Chicago after the great fire. It was Singapore, Mich., a community that in its heyday promised to rival the richest city in the Midwest. Fifty years later, the streets Former Ashland Man Retires From Army Ashland - Capt. Marvin A. Messer, former Ashland resi dent, has retired from the U. S. Army after 20 years of military service. In 1941, Messer was com misioned a second lieutenant, and was stationed in Iceland during the early months of World War II with an anti aircraft unit, returning to the United States for paratroop training. - He saw action in the Euro pean conflict as part of the 101 Airborne group followed by occupation duty in Berlin. Messer has had tours of duty in England and Korea, as well as in the U. S. Captain Messer, his wife, Mary, and their two children, Mary Adran, 14, and Randall, 12, are making their home in Fairbanks, Alaska, where they spent the captain's last tour of duty before retire ment. Messer has established an electronics firm there. The captain is the son of Mrs. Annie G. Messer, 694 Oak St., Ashland. , Two Performances Set for Circus . Performances at 4 and 8 p.m. of the Kay Brothers Eu ropean style circus will be held at the National Guard armory Friday, July 19. Sponsored by Batterys A and D, Oregon Army National Guard, the program features the Tangier brothers, the Fly ing Trapeze, the Educated Chimpanzees, the Hollywood Canine review, ponies, an ele phant, acrobats, juggling, clowns, and other acts. ' Children may obtain free tickets from any business or professional people. Tickets also may be pur chased at the circus gate. were grown over with shrub bery and open doors clacked in the winds off Lake Michi gan. Singapore was a ghost town. Today only a plaque re mains to mark the once-booming community. Although Singapore was the most famous, it was just one of many ghost towns that sprinkle the pages of Michi gan history. Boom and bust economy, creeping forests and relentless sand carried by the lakes have covered many a memory of days of promised grandeur in the state. Other names that ring through the history pages are Kensington and Ora et La bora. Kensington was between Brighton and Ann Arbor in the southeastern part of the state. Its doom was sealed in 1838 when the notoriety from a bank scandal resulted in a boycott of the town. Ora et Labora was founded in 1847 between Bay City and Port Huron, an attempt to es tablish a religious, socialistic type ideal community. A party of 280 German settlers based their settlement on "prayer and work." But the settlement disappeared shortly after the Civil War. But few, if any, of the ghost towns can match Singapore for momentary brilliance. The first settlement arrived in 1834 and the New York and Michigan Co. promised to build a sawmill to bring ad ditional residents to the area. In 1837, the company made good its promise and the saw mill was built at a total cost of nearly $100,000. The Astor House, then considered the finest hotel in the state was built shortly after the mill and its dining room served as a dance hall for the entertainment-starved workers. A bank followed in 1838 and it issued money to pay the mill hands. The script was taken in at company stores but it was not much good be yond 10 miles of the city lim its. Law required a certain amount of species be kept on hand to back the money but hard-pressed bankers found a way around such rules. They arranged that the necessary amount of species be available at some centrally located point so it could be picked up by the about-to-be-inspected bank. When the examiner would finish with one bank, the spe cies was sent by speedy mes senger to the next bank down the line. At one point, legend tells, an Indian .messenger dropped the species from his canoe when he was headed for Singapore from New Richmond. After the word was passed down the line. New Richmond fought a delaying action by opening its doors of hospital ity to the nonplussed examin er. After a feast and enter tainment he left for Singapore but the money wis there when he arrived. ' ' ' : It had been recovered from the river with- blacksmith tongs. Singapore progressed and at its peak boasted three saw mills, two hotels and several general stores along with the bank. But the .pipe stands be came exhausted, sealing the town's doom. By 1895, most of the people had, gone. A 9 r2 TRIAL RUN Her spinnaker swelling in strong wind, Sceptre, Brilian's unsuccessful 1959 America's Cup chal lenger, glides across Firth of Clyde in the first in a series of trials against the 12-meter yacht Sovereign, a potential Brit ish challenger for the forthcoming Amerioa's Cup i races. Sceptre beat Sovereign by 200 yards in the race. (UPI) Pour one more pay no more ! KG Half Quarts SAME PRICE ASKING SIZE SERVES 1 MORE 3 drinks (not2) SWITCH TO RC HALF QUARTS 1 C I'M f r -Xr, fxJ ; ' lEv Open Sundays 10:00 A.M.5:30P.M. MONDAY and FRIDAY J0 A.M. I 9:00 P.M. ' TUES., WID., THURS.. SAT., 9:30 to 3:30 ACRES f FREE PARKING 3 DAY SALE I I IV V I a A. I A w w M 1 635 E. Jackson I I I rinf Ait whela family . , 54 kif dtpirtmttitt M ihoy in Uiturt. Injey lunch our own . . ROGUE SIDEWALK CAFE Outdoor armotpharo with indoor comfort MEDFORD SHOPPING CENTER STORE 1 . 1 KltC WHAMO AQUA JET k A W rLAIHt 4- t Boy's Wheat 3 J EftWatfl WA f " a f Sins C QQ I I ,j ifx Ignition p5 . 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