Howell History Book Lady

How My Mom Got the Whole Town to Write Their Own History Book

By Amy Lamoreaux

In 1975, I was a 17 year old junior in high school living in the small town of Howell located in mid-Michigan.  During that year, all across America, people were gearing up to celebrate our nation’s Bi-Centennial, 200 years of being a country, in nationwide celebrations slated to culminate around July, 1976.  Every citizen was encouraged to get on board the 200^th USA birthday party train.

The Bi-Centennial craze was especially thriving in Howell, mostly due to a pivotal group of 4 local history and patriotism buffs that came together to form the Howell Bi-Centennial Committee.  Chairman of the Committee was Dave Jaehnig, editor of our local newspaper, The Livingston County Press (LCP).   Vice Chair was Mike Hagman, local service station owner, who was born and raised in Howell and who had a deep patriotic love for his community.  Committee Treasurer was Dennis Mowrey, president of the Jaycees which was a young professionals’ community service group.  Bicentennial Secretary was my mom, Arlene Lamoreaux, housewife and mother of seven children.

Ideas for projects about how Howell could best celebrate this Bi-Centennial abounded at the inaugural meeting of the Howell Bicentennial Committee.  The Committee encouraged individuals and organizations alike to get involved and submit ideas. Dave Jaehnig had previously gotten the ball rolling the year before by starting the 5^th Michigan Regiment Band which was a re-creation of a Civil War band.  Other ideas for our town to celebrate our nation’s 200^th birthday were a parade, an old fashioned town picnic, contests for best bi-centennial emblem, best flag and best essay,  among many, many more. 

But the one idea that took off and flew higher than all others was the Howell Bi-Centennial History Book.  It was the brainchild of my mom who was a history lover and an avid reader. She loved James Michner’s book “Centennial” published in 1974.  Based upon extensive geographical and historical research, Mitchner had supposed a life for the people of the fictional town of Centennial spanning 200 years.  I believe reading this book planted a seed in my Mom’s head for an idea for the perfect Howell Bi-Centennial project.  She thought that getting the town’s people to write their own history in their own words would be a unique and long lasting project, different from anything that had been proposed thus far. There had been some history books written in the Howell area but they were written and compiled by local historians.  My Mom’s idea was that it should be written in the peoples’ own words, a living history of sorts.   Her premise was: who better to write a history of Howell than the people of Howell themselves who’ve lived it?  This book would be a gift that the people of Howell would be giving not only to themselves, but to their children and their descendants. 

Having just moved our family to Howell in July of 1972, my mom was a relative newcomer.  She knew she needed help to get her idea heard and also to pull the project off. She went to her favorite gas station, Mike Hagman’s Mobil, and while Mike was servicing her car(which back then meant they pumped your gas and cleaned your windshield) she pitched her book idea and he loved it. 

At the following Howell Bi-Centennial Committee’s meeting which was publicly held at the recreation center, Mom and Mike pitched the history book idea.  The group at large thought the premise of this project was sound, a gift that would outlast the Bi-Centennial celebration and had the potential of getting the whole town involved.  My Mom went on to explain that they had a plan on how to implement this in an organized and expedient manner.  She and Mike would be Co-Chairs of the history book. They would first define the chapters that would be included in the book and then appoint coordinators for each chapter and then under the coordinators there would be researchers, interviewers and workers.  Dave Jaehnig offered the LCP as a resource for typesetting and getting the book to print.

This was now late winter of 1975 and for the next month, the Bi-Centennial History Book Committee would meet at our house where my mom would always serve some homemade desert offering with coffee or something stronger for the people to enjoy.  I believe she used this time to pick the brains of the most knowledgeable town history lovers and coerce them to get on board this project.  One evening I arrived home to find our living room was a virtual Who’s Who of Howell historians, including Cliff Heller, owner of Heller’s flowers and former mayor of Howell, and Duane Zemper, local photographer and keeper of hundreds of historical photos.  Of course Mike Hagman and Dennis Mowrey were there as well.   By the end of the month, the chapters of the book had been agreed upon and the Coordinators had been sought out and selected. Time for the next step.

One of the integral pieces of this project coming together was that it was backed by the power of the local newspaper.  This gave the Committee almost unfettered access to publicize the project through every phase.  On May 14, 1975, the LCP ran an article that garnered the front page headline announcing the kick off of the history book titled “The town that wrote its own history.”  The article concluded on page 2 and included a coupon that people could fill out if they were interested in signing up to help out.  They were to mail this to the attention of the Bicentennial Committee with the address of the LCP.

The next article came out May 21, “Response quickens to Howell history book” with many quotes from my Mom encouraging people to get involved and it even contained a personal remembrance piece written by a local resident in their own words. My Mom described this person’s writing as “pleasant, folksy and neighborly, exactly what is needed.” My Mom’s big mantra throughout the whole effort to get folks on board was to ensure them that they did not need to be an author/writer: “There would be plenty of help for all stories to be published in this book like an interviewer could come to your home to help older citizens or people who have trouble seeing.  If you have trouble getting started just start by saying I remember when.” And with that assurance the second article ended with my Mom’s name and our home phone number.

Honestly, up to this point, I really didn’t pay much attention to my Mom’s work with the Bicentennial Committee and the Howell history book. I was in the 5^th Michigan Regiment band but that’s as far as my patriotic involvement went. After all, I was a 17 year old high school girl, who was more concerned about whether I would get asked to the prom or get to borrow the car or any other perceived dire need I had at that time.  That changed immediately after the LCP printed our home phone associated with the history book.  Our phone never stopped ringing for the next 5 months. I would dash to answer it, hoping it was my future prom date or an invite to some cool party only to hear usually a very old voice on the other end saying “ I remember when…” Then I would have to find a moment when they took a breath and say to them, “You want my mom,” and I’d set the phone down and yell “Mom, telephone” and she was probably folding clothes or something else to keep the family ship sailing while juggling all of this.  I do remember her listening very attentively to every person that called, encouraging them to write that story down, just like they had just told it to her.

Besides the continual printed press promotion of the book, my Mom also was on the local radio station (WHMI) on at least 2 occasions.  WHMI had an interview show on Friday from 1:00 to 3:00 called the Afternoon Club. The first appearance she had was with Mike Hagman on May 23, 1975.  The second was in the fall of 1975 and she was joined by Duane Zemper.  I am very fortunate to have 4 hours of audio tapes of those programs in my possession. This is due to my father having been involved in TV and radio most of his career and, luckily for me, that he saw the value in taping these shows.  How lovely for me to hear my Mom’s voice, touting a project that she absolutely loved and was so passionate about.

The Bi-Centennial History Book Committee had set a cutoff date of September 1^st to receive materials. This would give time for typesetting and getting the book ready for publication in the hopes of selling first editions of the books by Christmastime.   A printer was selected and the price for the book was set.  A presale coupon for the books which required an accompanying check or money order was printed in the LCP. This way the books were paid for before they went to the printers. The mail order coupons flooded in.  The first printing distributed for Christmas 1975 was 1,500 books.  Meanwhile, the demand was high for a second printing which was delivered in April 1976 which culminated in another 1,050 books sold.  The History Book Committee also put out a pictorial edition, combining the original book, a few updates and many historical photographs. This combined history and photo supplement edition sold 600 copies, bringing the total of Howell Bi-Centennial History Books sold to roughly 3,150.   It is important to keep in mind that the population of Howell in 1975 was approximately 6,000 and they pulled off this publishing miracle in less than a year, with no computers, internet or cellphones.

Proceeds from the sale of these books went on to fund a myriad of Bi-Centennial projects including throwing the town a huge Bi-Centennial celebration weekend with a parade and town picnic. A time capsule was buried on the Library lawn, to be opened at the Tri-Centennial celebration and a check for $1,000 went to the city of Howell to be deposited in an interest bearing account to fund the city’s celebration. But the one project I am most proud of is the establishment of the Howell Area Archives located in the Howell Carnegie Library.  It was the intent of the Howell Bi-Centennial Committee to allocate the $9,000 left from the sale of the books towards finding a location to house the large accumulation of information collected in the writing of the book and also a safe home for the material of local historians.  Seems only natural the resulting benefit for the people writing their own history book would be a place where the people could come to research Howell history, which is where I found myself, 50 years later, doing just that. This story now comes full circle for my indomitably spirited Mom.  With her love of reading and history, this story started for her in the library and ended there in that same library. My Mom would be so proud.