Background Notes

In early history. industry often developed from traditional family work. For example, a clockmaker might train his sons. Later they might set up a shop where they and hired help made clocks. There were also groups of crafts persons located in small towns who supplied items that could not be produced on farms or in homes.

In time, improved transportation allowed farmers, artisans, and crafts persons to deliver their products to a wider market. They could build a larger shop of factory, hire more help and increase production. Better transportation also helped move the natural resources they needed (e.g., lumber, metals) more cheaply and dependably. This allowed manufacturers to place their factories in communities away from the site of the resource, but close to the available workers.

The largest number of manufacturing plants in late 19th century Michigan were small operations and engaged largely in custom and repair work, not mass production. Most of the factories were situated in the southern part of Michigan's lower peninsula which had the most complete transportation facilities (railroads) and also the largest population from which to draw laborers.

Early Michigan manufacturing industries, their locations and names of some companies included the following:

A large amount of industry started in Detroit for several reasons. It was the largest city in the state, and therefore had the largest pool of labor available. It also had the most available investment money. There was access to the Great Lakes both for delivery of raw materials to the factories and transportation of finished products to other markets.

Objectives

• Students will place cities in Michigan on their proper sites and be able to identify industries in the city.
• Students will describe how transportation helped develop industry and, in some cases, why the industry developed where it did.
• Students will explain where some of the raw material came from and how it was delivered to the site of manufacture.

Michigan Curriculum Content Social Studies Standards

This lesson presents an opportunity to address, in part, these standards:

• SOC.I.2. Historical Perspective, Comprehending the Past. All students will understand narratives about major eras of American and world history by identifying the people involved, describing the setting, and sequencing the events.
• SOC.II.3. Geographic Perspective, Location, Movement, and Connections. All students will describe, compare, and explain the locations and characteristics of economic activities, trade, political activities, migration, information flow, and the interrelationships among them.
• SOC.IV.2. Economic Perspective, Business Choices. All students will explain and demonstrate how businesses confront scarcity and choice when organizing, producing, and using resources, and when supplying the marketplace.

Materials Needed

Large outline map of Michigan map including the Upper Peninsula and Great Lakes; markers; paste or tape. (Make a map by projecting a transparency of the outline map onto brown wrapping paper, oilcloth or paper used for table covers, then drawing the outline with permanent marker.) This exercise can use the same map as the Carriage and Transportation lessons, adding to information already placed on the map in those lessons.

Directions

Share the information in "Background Notes" with the class, including information about your own community's past industrial history. Print the names of the towns and cities with historical Michigan industries with markers on the map (or print on small pieces of paper and paste or tape to the map in the appropriate locations). Add symbols (hand-drawn or advertisement or empty containers, e.g., cereal boxes) of the various industries to the map at the sites of the industries. Symbols showing iron or copper mines, quarries, and areas of forests can also be added to show the sources of some of the raw materials. Save the map for use with the Carriage and Transportation lessons, too.

Questions for Discussion or Research

1. By what means were farmers, artisans, and crafts persons better able to move their products to market?
2. What part of the state was the first to develop industry?
3. Why were most industries started in Detroit?
4. For what type(s) of industry is your town known? When did they begin?

At the Museum

In the displays of manufactured goods, locate names of companies which are still producing products today. Talk about how many different products were made in Michigan. Find information about labor unions that developed along with industry.

Vocabulary

• Craftsmen, craftswomen: People who produced goods which could not be easily produced on the farms or in the homes
• Pool of labor: People available in any given area to work in industry
• Raw material: Material from which finished products were produced

References

• Catton, Bruce. Michigan, A History. New York: Wm. W. Norton & Co., 1976.
• Dunbar, Willis F. , and May, George S. A History of the Wolverine State. (Revised Ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1980.
• Elliott, Frank. When the Railroad Was King. Lansing, MI: Bureau of History, Michigan Department of State, 1988.
• Ellis, Wm. Donohue. Land of the Inland Seas. New York: Weathervane Books, American West Publishing Co., 1974.
• History of [Grand Rapids] Furniture Manufacturers, Public Museum of Grand Rapids: http://www.grmuseum.org/exhibits/furniture_city/furniture_history.shtml
• Sommers, Lawrence M., Editor. Atlas of Michigan. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press (Distributor: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI), 1977.

Updated 12/07/2004

Michigan Historical Center, Department of History, Arts and Libraries
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