History
Originally a marsh-filled peninsula at the mouth of the River Rouge, it served as an uninhabited Native American burial ground for centuries. Upon European arrival, the land was incorporated into Ecorse Township, making up the very northeast corner of the township. The beginning of interest in developing the land came when Samuel Zug came to Detroit from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania in 1836 to make his fortune in the furniture industry with the money he earned as a bookkeeper. Shortly after, Marcus Stevenson, a Detroit financier, went into business with him.
The Stevenson & Zug Furniture Company flourished until 1859 when Zug, now a rich man, dissolved the partnership. He decided to invest in real estate to provide security for his wife, Ann. Envisioning a luxurious estate on the Detroit River, Zug bought 325 acres (1.32 km2) of marshy land below Fort Wayne from the town of Delray in 1876. But the dampness was too much for the Zugs and after 10 years they abandoned their home.
In 1888, Zug let the River Rouge Improvement Company cut a small canal through the south section of his property to connect the Rouge River and the Detroit River (this Short Cut Canal, as it came to be known, was enlarged in the early 1920s by Henry Ford to allow large ships to more easily navigate to and from his famous Ford River Rouge Complex). Three years later Zug pulled off the largest real estate transaction of the decade: he sold his island for $300,000 to industries that wanted it as a dumping ground.
Zug became interested in politics and served as Wayne County Auditor under Gov. John J. Bagley. He died in 1896 at the age of 80.
Read more about this topic: Zug Island
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of all countries shows that the working class exclusively by its own effort is able to develop only trade-union consciousness.”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924)
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)