Category: Michigan

Vehicles of the US Army were on display at Greenfield Village and James had a chance to see an incredible variety of vehicles that were used in World War 2 and the Korean War. Dad was kind of shocked how little the jeep changed from the 1940’s till the early 1980’s when he used to drive around in them. There was every type of GI issue including cigarettes that the Army used to provide to soldiers, imagine that. James enjoyed the specialty vehicles such as the military ambulances and personnel transports. He also saw a vast array of machine guns and other weapons from various era’s of our history. A very interesting exhibit that brought back fond memories for Dad.

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Recently on a visit to Henry Ford Museum James saw a shovel in cement with Thomas Edison written in the cement celebrating a ground breaking ceremony that happened nearly a century ago. Right after that we saw the entrance to the new Beatle exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum and asked James if he knew who the Beatles were. James replied “yes, they are the ones who wrote their name in cement”. With that answer we knew the Beatle exhibit was not for James but on a recent field trip to Henry Ford for James’ 7th grade class we took the Beatles tour while he was with his classmates and took the following pics.

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James got to go on a field trip with his seventh grade class and had a blast. Mom and Dad picked him up at the village to save him the long bus ride home from school (James does not care for the long afternoon bus ride although he does not seem to mind the early bus ride to school). The night before James said he was “tasked” with providing orange drink for the class and bought a pitcher and made everyone orange drink. Mom and Dad were a little suspect as he added more sugar but he claimed he knew what he was doing and it was his special recipe. We packed his orange drink in a cooler but to be safe we went out and added a couple packs of those fruit drinks just in case. Big thanks to his teacher Mr Jernigan for the pictures.

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For the second Sunday in a row we decided late that a trip to Greenfield Village would be a good choice. Today was mostly rainy and we felt that anything outside would be wet, but we saw a couple hour window and took advantage of it. We road the horse carriage, train (where it did rain pretty hard), Model T, and Merry Go Round and had a fun time on each one. Because of the poor weather there were no lines for any of the rides (last week we waited a half an hour to ride the Model T, this time they were waiting on people). On the way back we went through the museum and checked out the train display and the civil rights exhibit.

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While at Greenfield Village on Memorial Day 2016 Mom had her family background checked and found a likely relative who fought in the Civil War. Here is what the research said.

Residence was not listed;
Enlisted on 7/30/1862 as a Hospl Steward.

On 7/30/1862 he mustered into Field & Staff TN 63rd Infantry
He was Surrendered on 4/9/1865 at Appomattox Court House, VA
(Estimated date of enlistment)

Promotions:
* Asst Surgeon

Other Information:
died in 1920 in Gainesville, TX

After the War he lived in Gainesville, TX

Here are 3 links to all the data we have, the pdf was given to us by the people at Greenfield Village.
http://www.civilwardata.com/active/hdsquery.dll?SoldierHistory?C&775293

http://www.civilwardata.com/active/hdsquery.dll?RegimentHistory?1491&C

Civil-War-History-Landis PDF