Creamery

One of the oral stories in the Bieke family is about the creamery explosion in front of my great-grandparent's house at 3754 Field Street (866 Field Street prior to renumbering in 1921). As my Mom tells the story, there was a creamery in front of the great-grandparent's house, and it used to make a lot of noise. My great-grandma always liked a good fight, so she would complain about the noise. Then there was an explosion at the creamery, and it blew out the windows of my great-grandparent's house directly across the street. Then there was a newspaper article about it, with a photo on the front page of my great-grandmother and her youngest son Jack sitting on her lap. There are various explanations as to the cause of the explosion, ranging from it being a labor dispute to a deliberate act to rattle my great-grandmother. My uncle Ken says it was the Jersey Creamery. This is at this point all hearsay; I haven't seen any written documentation of this event, and there is currently a vacant lot directly across the street from 3754 Field (which is also torn now). Apparently my grandpa had the newspaper article about it, but when he moved from Wilshire Street to the suburbs in the 1970's this was lost along with other family memorabilia.

Well yesterday I was headed to the Detroit Arts Festival, and I stopped off at the Eastern Market for lunch (I always have a hard time deciding between a 1/2 slab of ribs or the 1 lb "Oh My God" burger). Yesterday I chose the 1/2 slab of ribs. Then it was off to the Detroit Arts Festival. As I was walking to the festival from my car, I decided to stop in the Detroit Public Library and see if there were old telephone books that might at least give the name of the creamery. That would put me at the top of my Mom's Golden Boy list for another month or so (my reign lasted about 12 months when I got the Sonny Bieke accident article). So I entered the library about 1 PM, and before I knew it, the library staff were coming around at 5:45 to tell people it was time to leave!

First of all, I blew it in a way, because I was assuming the explosion happened in the early 1920's, because I though my uncle Jack was only a couple years younger than my grandpa, who was born in August 1919. Well I know now that my Mom's Uncle Jack was born in August 1929, so the explosion probably happened in the early 1930's. That would explain why I wasn't able to find the name of the creamery in the City Directories!

Regardless, I was able to find out several things. First of all, there was in fact a creamery, and I have the map to prove it (click on the photo to enlarge). In the 1915 map there was a vacant lot where the creamery is in this map (which I think is the 1925 map?). I did check the City Directories from the early 1920's and wasn't able to find the name of the creamery under creameries or dairy products, so I suspect I was looking a few years too early (before the creamery was built?).

In the 1922-1923 City Directory, Daniel M. Bieke is listed as living at 3754 Field Street, while his brother Frank J. Bieke lived next door at 3748 Field.

In the 1922-1923 City Directory, Albert L. Sharpe is listed as living at 3747 Field Street, right next door to the creamery. His daughter Alice Sharpe is listed as working for Belle Isle E-S Creamery as a telephone operator. So I was thinking that maybe this creamery on Field Street was unnamed and doing contract work for the Belle Isle Creamery? But now I know I was simply looking ten years too early.

On an unrelated note, I checked out some of the earlier City Directories. In the 1870-1971 directory, Frank Bieke [my great-great grandfather] was listed as a pedlar residing at 238 Maple. His brother Joseph, a carpenter, is living at the s.e. corner of Orleans and James. I also checked the 1865-1866 directory. Both Bieke brothers were in the Civil War, so I didn't expect to see them in the 1865-1866 directory, because they probably haven't settled back from the war while the directory was being compiled. But I thought maybe I could find Augustin Bieke, the third Bieke brother who came from Germany that we don't know what happened to. Well, I found John Bicke, a laborer, who lived at the rear alley entrance of a place at 102 Napoleon. I have found both Frank and Jospeph Bieke with names spelled as Bieke, Bicke, and Bicker, so I suppose it is possible this person is a relative of Frank and Joseph. On the other hand, I also found in the 1865-1866 directory a John Bickle, a warehouseman at Barnes, Matthews, & Co, who lives at Napoleon near Hastings. Is that the same person? Would a guy named Augustin use John as his first name? Your guess is as good as mine.

Also, knowing that the neighborhood on Wilshire was built in the early 1920's, I checked the 1927-1928 City Directory, and found that Louis Lubeski lived at 12121 Wilshire.