Left JOHN F KENNEDY speaking in WARREN Our soldiers died in wars and the rich got richer Schusters

Service in Warren Village c 1950 Page 52 Many Warren Soldiers died

Above Center Line Savings Bank was one of the first banks. Below: The Theme Harness Shop, became Archen Brown Barber Shop, and Batt's Ice Cream Shop

We had floods. Both Bunert Schools

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When wet, roads were seas of mud often nearly impassable. Warren was known as Mudville until the roads were paved with adequate gravel.

Written on the back of this foto was Geo Gerlack Jr, Charles Gerlack Sr, or Carl Gerlack, Otto Abey, Jake Abey, Jules Oally Stephans. I collaborated on the book Pathways to Freeways furnishing Fred Gemmill hundreds of pages of my research from over 30 years and thousands of pictures to pick from. I recognize much of my work in the first third of the book. I complement him on his fine history of Warren from 1950s on. Of course he had an inside view as a newspaper correspondent and Warren employee. For history of City of Warren details see Fred Gemmill's history. Fred died Nov 2011. But for 5000 fotos see macombhistory.us In 1900 the inter-urban (trolly) line began operating from Detroit to 10 Mile Road along Van Dyke. Detroit factories were in need of workers and many men were looking for more income and excitement that farming offered. Also there was a housing shortage in Detroit. Land speculators like Piper bought land from farmers cheaply, then laid out subdivisions. He set up a real estate office along the trolly line and sold 35 foot lots. People were buying them in spite of lack of good roads, sewers or piped in water. There were no building codes so folks could build a house quickly and cheaply. Often houses were built from scrap lumber. By 1920 this area had about as much population as the rest of Warren. Northern Warren remained rural although many men now worked in factories and for the rail road. The area around Van Dyke and Baseline became settled by commuting factory workers. 54

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Above when the trolly jumped a rail it was quite a job to get it back on. Our trolleys are still in use down in Mexico City according to several persons.

Center line in the 1920s. Left to Right Shoe shop, Edison office in Wolf building at left. On right white building was Center Line Drug store. Far right was Livery stable which became William Leroy blacksmith. Also shown below. Later this became Gibbs Lumber Company. 1st below is same scene in 1950s.

You can see and print full size fotos of these at macombhistory.us

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The Walter C. Piper Co purchased farms off of Van Dyke north of Eight Mile Road and resold them into lots at fairly low prices. His lots were only about 35 feet wide. He named the streets in Southern Warren around Van Dyke after cars. There was the Hupmobile, Maxwell, Dodge, Ford, Federal Truck Co, Cadillac, Timkin, Essex, There was an interurban stop in front of Mr Piper's office on Van Dyke. The community of Van Dyke soon had its own post office. There were subdivisions along 8 mile road which led to the community name of Baseline. Detroit Edison began putting in electricity in the early 1900s. The American Can company was founded in 1901 and produced 90% of cans used for food in Michigan. (Wikipedia) Most families canned their own foods but as stores began carrying canned foods people had better year around choices for food with less work involved. By 1922 there was a Radio in most homes and 7 Michigan stations. Telephone service began around 1920 but was not in all areas. Sewers were put in. Natural gas service arrived in the late 1920s. In 1928 water service from Detroit was started in Warren. Most of the growth area was in southern Warren south of Eleven Mile road. Center Line wanting a fire department, water and sewers voted to become a village in 1925 and a city in 1936. The area went from rural to urban with a huge growth in population. The Harwood house built around 1880, home of Homer Harwood who published Warren's first newspaper, the Warren Watchman from 18801921. In 1909 Henry L Claeys came to Warren with a well drilling machine. The Wiegand family were also well drillers and sponsored a community cistern near St Clement church.. Foto credit to Mike Grobbel page 57

Henry Ford by offering 5 dollars a day which was almost double what men were earning in 1914 caused a lot of people to move to Detroit from around the country. In 1916 a refrigerator cost $900 then, by 1920 10,000 were sold, by 1925 75,000 were sold. Most people still used an ice box at that time. This was a cabinet that had a compartment where the ice man placed a big block of ice. There was a pan on the floor under the ice box. If someone forgot to empty it and you walked up to it at night for a snack you got a rude very cold message from your bare feet. The ice box had benefits. It did not use any electricity and never wore out. Henry Ford experimented and sold several models of cars before the famous introduction in 1908 of the Model T. Ford's idea was to make a Car for everyone that would be durable, economical to maintain, easy to operate, and simple to repair. The car, which only came in black, boasted a four cylinder, twenty-horsepower engine that reached speeds of up to 45 miles per hour. In 1908 5,000 were made and sold for $850. With the introduction of the assembly line at the Highland Park plant in 1914 a quarter of a million Motel T fords were produced and sold for $490 each. Two years later the output was over half a million sold for $369. (Kern46) Over fifteen million Model Ts were sold, making it one of the most important cars in automobile history. Some were even used on farms for tractors. After a lot of campaigning women finally won the right to vote. The Michigan state constitution was amended to give women the right to vote in 1918 and in 1920 the 19th amendment to the US Constitution gave them the right to vote nationally. World War I claimed to be " The War to End All Wars" 1914-1918 Over 65 million people were mobilized, 8 million people killed, 21 million wounded, 7,750,919 POWs. (Military and Civilian War Related Deaths Through the Ages.) Between April 1917 and November 1918 135,000 Michigan men served in the Armed Forces; 5,000 died...and 15,000 were wounded. (Kern 48) Our men were gassed with poison gas. Many had to live in wet cold trenches without beds or shelter. Some of our Warren men were blown apart in France and were buried there. These men had no marker in Warren honoring them so a memorial stone was donated (with 30 soldiers names total) and placed in Warren union Cemetery. Officers of the Warren Historical Society had it ripped out along with an Unknown Soldier memorial right off of a grave in 2011. Their reason because it was anonymously donated. They found nothing wrong with the memorials in the next public meeting. Now many soldiers have no memorial at all and may be forgotten. What great disrespect for our Warren men who died. Some people made money off of the war. For several years after the war things were hard to get. Building slowed down. This war was followed by a great depression from 1929-41 The average family was hard hit by this. Families had trouble buying necessities such as food because of lack of income which was not their fault. Many of us older folks heard stories from our grandparents about the terrible times they went thru. Warren had 60% unemployment per Harold Stilwell. People were glad to get $5 a week. People sold apples on street corners. People had to do without. Gardening became a big deal. People did what they had to do to survive. There were a lot of people homeless. President Franklin Roosevelt instituted several programs like the WPA Works Progress Administration program providing public jobs. Many people benefited from these. In 1930 Birdseye first frozen foods marketed. By 1930-45 movie industry at its peak. Liberty Movie theater opened in Center Line with an $8,000 organ. Women increased in the American workforce: 24,8% of all women; 50.5% of unmarried women; 11.7% of married women in 1930. Page 58

There was no welfare help or food stamps. The goodfellows and other groups organized food drives. The oddfellows hall on 9 mile Rd was used as a food closet and hundreds of families were helped. Hunting increased and helped feed families. Most of Warren outside of Van Dyke and Center line remained a rural farming community until the 1940s. Many families still raised chickens, turkeys and rabbits and had their own small crops corn, beans. onions,berries, vegetables also fruit and nut trees. Chickens are no problem. Except for the rooster chickens aren't very noisy. And a rooster is not needed for eggs for eating. So we could have chickens today. They eat most anything including insects. table scraps, weeds, and weed seeds. It would be a good idea to allow people to raise chickens and other small animals. Fish can be grown in small ponds. All of the above cause no harm and help people to survive. They provide recreation for all, useful learning for young people, beautiful balance to urban life and food. People learned to be more self sufficient. Wood stoves provided for free cooking, heating and put good use to junk mail.

Wood heats you twice, when you cut it and when you burn it. During the depression things just dragged on at a slow pace. Page 59

TIRED OF THE SMALL PICTURES IN THIS BOOK How else can one squeeze over 1000 pictures into a free historian Wes Arnold book. To see larger fotos and copy or print them go to macombhistory.us but many of the the above are on Mike Grobbel's fine site centerline.grobbel.org/

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World War II was from 1937-1946. 404,997 Americans were murdered, 15,000 from Michigan (John Kern 57) The Detroit Arsenal in Warren built 36,000 tanks. Hydromatic built ship guns. There was great need for workers at these plants and a big shortage of housing, sewers, and schools. The government sponsored a trailer park at 11 and Van Dyke, Cramer Homes, Arsenal Acres and other housing projects and created jobs. Victory and other schools were built. Many new industries were started. Lots of jobs created. Before and during the war the Germans starved and butchered several million innocent nonviolent people including women and children and cremated them in ovens. The Japanese attacked other countries cruelly killing and brutalizing the populations then they attacked our fleet in Pearl Harbor Dec 7, 1941. The Germans and especially the Japanese tortured, raped, starved to death and even killed people by slow starvation torture and mutilation. Historians outside Japan estimate that at least five million captive foreign civilians and prisoners of war were brutally murdered by the Japanese military between 1937 and 1945. To that figure, can be added hundreds of thousands of victims who were slowly murdered by starvation, disease, and beatings in Japanese prisoner of war and internment camps, and hundreds of thousands of women were brutally raped by Japanese soldiers. The appalling rape figure includes two hundred thousand women in Japaneseoccupied countries who were forced into sexual slavery in Japanese Imperial Army brothels. Finally, we cannot forget the terrible fate of hundreds of prisoners of war who were murdered by the Japanese Army's infamous Unit 731 in the course of horrible biological experiments. The Japanese excelled in thousands of horrible atrocities to innocent persons including women and children. They would beat people daily and torture them. The Japs favorite sport was cutting a persons abdomen open so the intestines would fall out then allow them to die painfully over several days. Another favorite Jap sport was using helpless innocent persons for bayonet practice stabbing them and torturing them. The Japs performed brutal, painful, often repeated, torture on our American Prisoners of war. They slowly cut off body parts to make the maximum pain then let our man suffer and die very slowly. And one more favorite Jap sport was seeing how much work they could get out of people by not giving them food. Millions were slowly killed or starved to death. There is no excuse for humans to treat others with cruelty. We must have a code of human conduct. Page 61

404,997 of our people were killed

by the Germans and Japanese who were planning to take over our country. It is because these soldiers sacrificed their lives that you are free and speaking English today. Many of us lost family members. And if we are not informed, vigilant and prepared more Americans will have to die to keep our freedoms again. That is why us veterans got upset when The Warren Historical Society officers had our soldiers memorials ripped out of our cemetery. It was a great black eye for Warren and showed great disrespect to those who died or served defending our freedom. That unpatriotic act was an insult to all of us veterans. Now this clique wants to dispose of these memorials. Wesley Arnold was the only one who opposed these disrespectful unpatriotic actions and needs help of others to get these memorials returned so they can honor those who died and educate youth who are not taught history in school and ensure that these heroes are not forgotten because many have no marker elsewhere. Warren became urbanized by the tremendous population growth and industry of World War II. Schools were built, roads improved, water and drains put in. In the early 1950s the people of warren passed a bond issue to create our first sewage treatment plant at a cost of $15,000,000. Before this plant all sewage and storm water went into the 9 Mile Mile drain direct over into Lake St Clair which fed the drinking water intake by Belle isle. Ale makers say Trink ne vasser! The General Motors Tech Center began in the late 1940s using over 1000 acres of land and expanded yearly with new buildings. Rotary electric steel opened on Mound. Other industries were started. Television broadcasting began March 4, 1947 by WWDT TV to the 2500 TV sets in Detroit area. From that point movies started to decline. Many bowling alleys were built and were much used. Almost every family owned a car. Social and community alienation began. The number of bars surpassed the number of churches. Alcoholism became more common. Other than that most other vices were few. There was no big drug problem, or child trafficking as now. Crime was low because most everyone worked, pulled their own weight and were raised to be responsible for their actions and they were. Page 62

The husbands worked and mothers raised the children at home. In 1950 Warren became a charter township. Population was about 43,000. It became a City on Jan 1, 1957. Water mains and sewers were built, roads paved, water treatment plant built. Garbage collection started in 1953. The rural Warren was gone. Gerald Neil stated about Warren During the early 1950s it became known as the largest, most heavily populated, and wealthiest township in the United States. The farmers fields were almost all gone. Horses gone. Livestock was banned. But the automotive industry and related sub industries like Tool and Die shops sprung up all over. Rotary Steel, one of the biggest, was located on Mound near 8 Mile Road. Most people were patriotic Americans and relatively conservative. Korean War of 1950s Killed 54,246 Americans, 1609 from Michigan. Between 1960 and 1970 Warren and Center Line population doubled. American Music see macombhistory.us for hear-able samples and videos. The conservative patriotic American society began to fall apart. Although TV had been kept decent thru the late 1950s it began to have negative influence on children. TV had a tremendous influence. Most Americans became TV addicts. The mass-pop culture took over and was much influenced by mass media. One might think of it as a collection of ideas permeating everyday lives of many people particularly younger persons. It appeared to older conservative persons as dumbed-down, vulgar, consumerist, trivial, petty, counter-intellectual, counter-reality, superficial, and/or corrupted. Pop music, fads and fashions reigned. Phony values were increasingly drawn from TV causing many persons to be out of touch with reality and unconcerned with serious issues. Many people become shallow, uninformed, unconcerned, uncaring, self pleasing, vain due to their continued spoiled existence, self-referentiality, self-centeredness much of this due to habitual failure to question and excessive lack of thinking. This is exemplified by TV programs such as South Park and The Simpsons. This would not be mentioned here but for the fact that it appears to be a continuing problem. Too many of our citizens are ignorant and uncaring about issues of importance. They are putting our way of life at risk. The pop culture replaced the conservative American culture. Page 63

Families left more of the child raising to the TV and to schools and peer groups had an increasing influence. Commercialism set in. There began a great quest to buy material things. This became an end in itself. The drug and pop cultures increased. Soon family members were alienated from each other and the community. Crime increased along with teen pregnancy and social alienation. But wars went on. During the Vietnam war which was the longest in our history, 1955-1975, nearly 60,000 Americans died. 7,484 women served in South Vietnam, 2,650 from Michigan died. Many servicemen came back wounded or messed up to say the least. We were insulted, called baby killers, murders. We had just done what we were ordered and to survive. But the war was on TV every night. Many lazy unpatriotic people at home did not care and did not understand. For the first time we were ashamed of those unpatriots and felt they did not deserve to live our free country which was paid for by hundreds of thousands of us soldiers who fought for and many died to secure. We actually won the war but lost the peace. Some of those unpatriotic low lifes are with us today enjoying their freedom to rip veterans memorials out of our Warren Union Cemetery that we paid for with our lives. Paul G Hazen Drive was named for one of our young native sons who was awarded the Silver Star for its bravery in Vietnam.. Many others gave their all also. See the story on Mike Grobbels wonderful website. http://centerline.grobbel.org/ He even tells how Clem Grobbel fought in Russia. The I696 Freeway was built across the middle of Warren along Eleven Mile Road and completed in 1978. Other roads were improved. Population peaked in Warren at 179,300 1972. In Center Line at 10,400 1972 The 1980 population of Warren was 161,134 with an average density of 4,684 persons per square mile. Minimum Wage: $3.10 and the average salary: $15,757 Milk 85 cents 1/2 gallon . Apples 39 cents a pound. Bread Sliced 55 cents. Ground Beef $1.39 per pound. Ham and Cheese Pizza $2.49. Pot Roast $1.49 per pound. In the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s Warren urbanization continued. Just as in the early 1900 industrialization (growth of industries) and mechanization (machines doing the heavy work) reigned, now automation and greed took over. With the personal computer available for a reasonable price it was used by businesses to improve efficiency and productivity and to put many bread earners out of work. Page 64

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Need names for above. See macombhistory.us for more info and free copies of fotos Page 66

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Warren Fire Dept had 25 vehicles some shown here at Tech Plaza SS Kresge in background. 1961 Warren installed over 300 fire call boxes strategically located at schools, shopping centers and main intersections to provide direct communication to fire and police departments. The Green Acres shopping canter and Pampa Lanes were two big fires. As more and more people got phones and because of a high volume of false alarms the boxes were discontinued in 1964. In the 1961s the WFD only had about 109 employees.

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Warren first station on left 2nd on right, 3rd station below

4th

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Right c 1974 Center Line Goodfellows

Towne Club Pop had over 24 flavors and you could watch the bottle assembly line on Ryan S of 10 Mile. Right Andrew Wiegand with son George a sailor home on leave. We are proud of several Wiegands in our Fire and Police Departments. We are sick of Islamists killing and beheading Americans around the world like Daniel Pearl and Christians.

Sadly they have many supporters here. Page 70

Offices went from paper records to computerized records, Office automation soon took over and thousands of persons were laid off. Computerized manufacturing, outsourcing and off shoring (sending jobs to other countries with cheaper labor) gradually became the norm. Rather than support local families by allowing American workers to support themselves employers found they could make bigger profits by off shoring. CEOs often demanded bigger and bigger salaries. Look at Kmart. They should have gone on forever with a good customer base and solid business. But the executives got greedy and kept giving themselves bigger and bigger raises and golden parachutes. Soon the company could no longer make a profit so they used their golden multimillion dollar para-shoot retire to million dollar homes in Florida. They hired another crook who paid himself millions while dismembering and selling off the company. Oh they forgot one big thing, their duty to their loyal workers whom they cheated, laid off and figuratively stomped on. Thousands of families suffered. Working people were fed up with being exploited. They demanded equal and fair treatment. Their opinion is that No CEO or other officer of an organization should be allowed to receive more than 10 times the rate of the lowest paid employee. The greed continued all over the world. Corporations put profit above worker welfare. Governments and companies expanded adding many high paying jobs, many with benefits earning over 100,000 a year while laying off workers. Soon the working class became the forgotten class. Even school districts were paying excessive salaries, yet demanding tax millages from citizens half of which were near the poverty line. Superintendents were often making 100,000 to 300,000 a year. A local school manager just got a contract for himself for 1.5 Million Dollars over 3 years. Meanwhile he wants teachers to take pay cuts. Michigan lost over 600,000 jobs. Warren was in financial crisis yet many were paid salaries of over 100,000 with benefits. Warren began putting in meters that monitor citizens utility usage 24 hours a day and report that via radio transmitter. This effectively caused layoffs. How were these men supposed to support their families? A large part of the workforce was unemployed. Many moved out of the state. Our college graduates were leaving Warren as there was almost no work here, for many not even enough to work thru college. There were anti-corporate-greed, antibanker-greed and anti-wall-street-greed demonstrations nationwide. Working people had had it with being taken advantage of. It got that way because they did not keep informed and take action. Page 71

In 2011 half of the residents of Warren are near or below the poverty line. 19% of S Warren residents are over age 60 and dependent on Social Security. 24% of our population are children. 23% are in poverty and this is growing. Of Female headed families with children 37.5% are in poverty. The unemployment rate in South Warren is 20% or more and growing. People on fixed low income due to disability are now 10%. 38% of homeowners are below water meaning they are in big trouble. There are hundreds of foreclosed homes in South Warren Many are in danger.. The total residential vacancy rate has more than doubled in 2008 and has not bottomed out. To verify the above figures feel free to check the US Census, SEMCOG, Social Services, Health providers and government websites. In 2009 we kept hearing that things will get better but the working class has become the forgotten class and for many now the lower class. Many Warren families are now living with relatives or are homeless. Meanwhile the higher ups have managed to get big raises. There is something wrong with this situation. This is not the American dream. Generations before us worked and expected that their children would have a better way of life. For thousands this will not happen. On 9 11 2001 devout Muslams attacked New York and Washington DC and killed 3000 Americans. The spelling slam indicates those who devoutly follow or support this anti-American ideology. There have been several attacks since then but most have been squashed. The President declared war on Radical Muslam Terrorists. We were shocked and hundreds almost died by an underwear bomber over Detroit, a shoe bomber, a Times Square bomber, Ft Hood Killer who shouted Praise be to Allah as he killed, and others. Suicide bombers practicing their religion believe they will go to heaven. Others are also practicing stealth and cultural gehad, recruiting followers here, plan on outnumbering us, plan on taking over our country and replacing our constitution with Sharia law which makes women and girls into slaves and does not tolerate other religions. Don't take my words for it look at their actions in countries which they have taken over. See macombhistory.us and http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/ for details. This is historically significant and is a threat. Many innocent and peaceful people including children have been murdered by gehadi Islamists practicing their religion of world domination. Facts are facts check this out. 72

As of the census of 2000, there were 138,247 people, 55,551 households, and 36,719 families residing in the city. American technology was being given away to foreign interests or stolen. Often this happened because of the Internet. In 2000s Warren continued to lose jobs. The automotive business was being sent overseas. Parts and other things were increasingly manufactured in other countries. It was impossible to buy a TV set, camera, VCR, DVD player or consumer electronic device that was manufactured in the USA. By 2007 Warren's unemployment was the worst in the nation. Things were so bad that people started to move out of the state. Even college graduates after graduation were moving out of the state. They had to, to find a job. Many of those who got unemployment were in the process of losing their homes. The federal government refused to extend unemployment benefits while members of congress gave themselves big pay raises of thousands of dollars. Then they bailed out the rich bankers by borrowing trillions from China who will use the interest to support its growing military and perhaps surpass us as a world power. As our reward the bankers raised our interest rates. Congress lined its pockets and increased nepotism. A federal government program called echelon recorded everyone's telephone and Internet usage. Parts of our Bill of Rights have nullified by the Patriot Act of 2001 and 2006; Because of the Patriot act the Government could now search anyones home. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 allows anyone to be arrested and takes away your right to a hearing and trial under some conditions. Also a national ID database now keeps track of everyone. All the information including your foto on your drivers license plus your telephone and internet usage and all credit info are available should the fed want to look at it. Camera output in public areas can can be fed into face recognition programs and RFIDs on your clothing or on RFID mu chips secretly placed will soon allow persons and everything else to be tracked and located by sensors placed in public places, door jams of buildings. Do a Google search on mu chip. This will be great for fast checkouts at stores and inventory but will eliminate jobs, cause less privacy and worse possibly allow big brother to take over by being able to shadow anyone who speaks up against him and to turn off his access to paperless money. Already paperless money reigns supreme and Big Brother will soon have this ability. Could social control by Big Brother potentially happen? Is this fiction or real world check this out for yourself. RFIDs are already in passports and drivers licenses, some credit cards, tires and many products. College students have set in a public place and read them. Wake up America. Is big Brother is coming? See the movie Enemy of the State. Go look at the facts on all of the above. See for yourself. Page 73

Government should look out for the health, safety and well being of all citizens not just its employees and congress and should be the employer of last resort for those out of work. Many private organizations are gathering info (often wrong) about you and offering it for sale to anyone including foreigners and it can be used against you. Do a search on yourself using pipl.com, Google, and Intellius.com and see for yourself. We need to act to protect ourselves now. Too many in our pop culture of today are TV/entertainment addicts who are uninformed about what is happening in the real world and even in their own local areas. They can tell what is happening on TV and Idol but are unaware what RFIDs in their wallet, clothing, shoes, objects and transponders in cars phones, utility meters, cable boxes, and echelon have potential for. Many just don't care. And they are totally unaware of the fact that there several groups working on the taking their money and taking away their free way of life. In Michigan thousands of children do not have adequate food, dental, medical care, and quality education. By 2012 in Warren record numbers of families (5,000 said J Fouts) faced foreclosure. And there were also record numbers of homeless families including children. The greedy bankers often did not work with families. There were over 1200 homeless in southern Macomb County, many children. Warren 2010 census showed a population of 134,056. People from Detroit and many foreign immigrants moved in. There is constant change in Warren with new buildings and businesses replacing old ones. Let us work for positive change to help all families have a decent standard of living. Support creation of jobs for all now. Get informed, Be vigilant and Be prepared. We can learn from history and apply it to the future for a better life for all. Perhaps we can have again Clean Air, Jobs for all, and a Kind Caring Spirit of Community. But we need to learn from history. See macombhistory.us for much more including nice videos and music. Sincerely, humble historian Prof Wesley E Arnold MA. Page 74

Some old time things. Below crystal radio.

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