Cameron

Follow a Michigan town from the time families from New York and Pennsylvania settled Potawatomi land in the 1830s to the Civil War. Cameron flourished as a farm market while Michigan grew rich on lumber. Local industries expanded when Detroit built automobiles, stoves and refrigerators. The diverse community suffered when conglomerates bought the plants, laid off workers, and then moved production to Mexico.

Camerons history is the story of people who moved west or north, spent a few years or a few generations, then moved on. Potawatomi are now in Oklahoma and Kansas. Peabodys and Fitches were replaced by Germans and Dutch who remigrated from the Delaware river valley. Then came immigrants from Pomerania and Bavaria, followed by Italians and Ukrainians, then refugees from the Balkans and Baltics. Later, Blacks moved from Pensacola and Spanish speakers from Brownsville. Today, doctors arrive from India.

Cameron, a microcosm of Michigan and Midwestern history. A special place, an anyplace that could be your hometown, your family.

Patricia Averll has a BA in history from Michigan State Univerisy and a doctorate in American studies from the University of Pennsylvania. To contact her, go to xlibris.com/averill.html.

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