Fiery Trial
From James Donahue’s Journal
While working in Sanilac County I had occasion to meander north into Huron County to cover special events occurring mostly in Harbor Beach and Bad Axe. I had my first encounter with Judge James Lincoln when he bought and moved a large house on Huron Avenue, south to the family homestead property, about three miles south of the city. I had special interest in that house because it was where I had spent about a year of my youth courting my first girl friend, Susan Philbrick. I knew that house well. The Harbor Beach Hospital, located directly behind that row of nice homes, needed room for expansion so the houses either had to be moved or they were torn down. I was glad to see that particular house saved.
Jim Lincoln was already a legend in Harbor Beach. As a member of a prominent family and a young lawyer, he had served as an assistant to Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Frank Murphy, another Harbor Beach native. The Murphy home remains to this day a museum, located within a block of the downtown business district, and Lincoln’s association with Murphy gave him almost as much fame among the townspeople.
Lincoln, a tall, strikingly handsome man, made a show of it the day they moved his house. He was strutting around in western boots, a western hat, big aviation sun glasses and a big cigar in his mouth, shouting orders to the house movers as they slowly raised the building from its foundation, moved it down onto the highway, and then pulled it south. Large tree limbs and utility wires had to be cut away or moved as the house made its way out of town. Lincoln walked behind it all the way. I was there to capture it all on film and interview Lincoln for the story I wrote for the Times Herald the following day.
Lincoln was then serving as a judge on a Detroit Juvenile Court bench. I think he also may have either served as a Detroit City Council member, or at least been a candidate for the job at one time. He also published a book on the effect of the Detroit race riots on the juveniles appearing in his court.
When Lincoln retired in the mid-1970s, not long after he moved that house and made it his home, he contacted me with a request for a story that would help him in a research project. He said he was collecting historical information on a forest fire that swept the Thumb Area of Michigan in 1881. I drove up to his house, did my interview, and wrote his story. He said the story generated so much interest he had descendants of fire victims send news clippings, copies of letters and material from personal diaries from all over the state.
One spring day in 1980, after Aaron and I had just returned from a hard day of cutting wood at Port Hope, Doris informed me that Judge Lincoln had called and wanted me to get in touch with him at my earliest convenience. Of course, I called him immediately. You don’t keep a man like Judge Lincoln waiting. He said he wanted me to come up to his house and chat about writing his book. He said he had collected volumes of material about the fire, had begun writing it, but had just been named to sit on some state judicial commission in Lansing and no longer had time to write his book. He said he liked the way I helped promote his research, and had been reading my stories in the Times Herald. He decided I would be just the person to write the historical book about the Fire of 1881.
I was dumbfounded at the idea. But I drove up to Lincoln’s house, probably the very next day. We spent an afternoon looking over a box filled with letters and documents, plus a number of pictures he had collected. We discussed various ways of tackling the book. Lincoln already had written an opening preface and a few other pages of copy, but little else. We talked about the problems of getting a book published. He reminded me that he already was the published author of a technical book and was sure he could find a way to get this book in print. In the end of that conversation, I agreed to write the book if he could get it published. The goal was to get it in print and ready for sale on the 100-year anniversary of the fire, which was 1981. That meant we had to work fast.
I took the box of material home with me, and then sorted through it, selecting and cataloging material for various chapters. I drafted an outline that began with prefaces written by both Lincoln and me, and then writing an overall report about the fire. Then the plan was to do a somewhat chronological number of personal stories as told by survivors and the families of survivors as the fire moved from its origins in Tuscola and Macomb Counties northeast through parts of St. Clair, Sanilac, Tuscola and finally Huron Counties. The end of the book would be about the aftermath, the rescue effort, and the amazing link with Sara Barton and her newly organized Red Cross, which also got involved.
Once I started writing, I got up every morning and went to the office at 6 a.m., and worked on the book for two solid hours until 8 a.m. when I did my police rounds and worked for the newspaper. It was a grueling schedule. That summer I had two or three weeks of vacation time and I devoted all of it to finishing that book. I still had work to be done on it by the time vacation was over, and returned to my old schedule of going to work at 6 a.m. Needless to say it was a big relief when I had a finished draft written and printed out for Jim Lincoln to read.
Those were days before we had computers and book publishing software, so everything was done on the newspaper’s IBM Selectric typewriter.
Lincoln’s first response was that the book was too thin. He said he thought he had enough material for a much thicker book. I agreed that he had this material, but much of it was repetitious and was the same story told by different people. I explained that I boiled it all down to include the best stories of the lot, although in the credits, we listed everybody that sent material. I also explained to Lincoln that people prefer to read material that gets right to the point and don’t care to read something I used to call “boilerplate” in writing. I practiced this rule in news writing and believed it would work in books as well. In the end, Lincoln accepted my work, and went to work trying to get it published.
We needed a name for our book. We found that every idea we came up with had already been used as a title for another book. We really wanted to use Trial by Fire, but that was in use. Thus the book was titled Fiery Trial. A lot of people got the title confused and thought it said Fiery Trail.
It took Lincoln another year before he had a publisher. Just as I had predicted, new and unknown authors had an uphill battle getting a publishing house to consider their work. In the end, Jim sought out his old agent, who got his technical work published. This man succeeded in getting the Michigan Historical Society in Ann Arbor to sponsor the book. Three thousand hardbound copies of our book were put in print.
At that point Lincoln and I discovered we were not finished. We now were expected to go out and sell the book This meant public relations stories to all of the newspapers and radio stations serving the Thumb District. And soon we were invited on a speaking circuit. We traveled all over the place talking about our book. Sometimes we went together. At other times Jim went one way and I went the other. The book sold so well that another 3,000 copies were published. And I think third and fourth editions also were published. At one point I was invited to drive to Marquette, Michigan, to speak to an organization of forest fire fighters at the university there. And I also was invited to Lansing to speak to a group of state fire fighters meeting at the state library.
After a while, the Historical Society decided that it no longer wanted to be in the book publishing business. By then, I was in a semi-retired state, and writing and publishing my own books on Great Lakes shipwrecks. I got permission from Lincoln and the Historical Society, and published our book, Fiery Trial in paperback. I think I sold at least another 3,000 copies.
We gave hardcover books to all of the area libraries as gifts, and were shocked when we learned that most of these books had been stolen. I still get e-mails from people wanting to buy a copy of Fiery Trial. It has been out of print for years. Copies can still be found on Internet book sites. The going price for Fiery Trial now is about $65.
From James Donahue’s Journal
While working in Sanilac County I had occasion to meander north into Huron County to cover special events occurring mostly in Harbor Beach and Bad Axe. I had my first encounter with Judge James Lincoln when he bought and moved a large house on Huron Avenue, south to the family homestead property, about three miles south of the city. I had special interest in that house because it was where I had spent about a year of my youth courting my first girl friend, Susan Philbrick. I knew that house well. The Harbor Beach Hospital, located directly behind that row of nice homes, needed room for expansion so the houses either had to be moved or they were torn down. I was glad to see that particular house saved.
Jim Lincoln was already a legend in Harbor Beach. As a member of a prominent family and a young lawyer, he had served as an assistant to Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Frank Murphy, another Harbor Beach native. The Murphy home remains to this day a museum, located within a block of the downtown business district, and Lincoln’s association with Murphy gave him almost as much fame among the townspeople.
Lincoln, a tall, strikingly handsome man, made a show of it the day they moved his house. He was strutting around in western boots, a western hat, big aviation sun glasses and a big cigar in his mouth, shouting orders to the house movers as they slowly raised the building from its foundation, moved it down onto the highway, and then pulled it south. Large tree limbs and utility wires had to be cut away or moved as the house made its way out of town. Lincoln walked behind it all the way. I was there to capture it all on film and interview Lincoln for the story I wrote for the Times Herald the following day.
Lincoln was then serving as a judge on a Detroit Juvenile Court bench. I think he also may have either served as a Detroit City Council member, or at least been a candidate for the job at one time. He also published a book on the effect of the Detroit race riots on the juveniles appearing in his court.
When Lincoln retired in the mid-1970s, not long after he moved that house and made it his home, he contacted me with a request for a story that would help him in a research project. He said he was collecting historical information on a forest fire that swept the Thumb Area of Michigan in 1881. I drove up to his house, did my interview, and wrote his story. He said the story generated so much interest he had descendants of fire victims send news clippings, copies of letters and material from personal diaries from all over the state.
One spring day in 1980, after Aaron and I had just returned from a hard day of cutting wood at Port Hope, Doris informed me that Judge Lincoln had called and wanted me to get in touch with him at my earliest convenience. Of course, I called him immediately. You don’t keep a man like Judge Lincoln waiting. He said he wanted me to come up to his house and chat about writing his book. He said he had collected volumes of material about the fire, had begun writing it, but had just been named to sit on some state judicial commission in Lansing and no longer had time to write his book. He said he liked the way I helped promote his research, and had been reading my stories in the Times Herald. He decided I would be just the person to write the historical book about the Fire of 1881.
I was dumbfounded at the idea. But I drove up to Lincoln’s house, probably the very next day. We spent an afternoon looking over a box filled with letters and documents, plus a number of pictures he had collected. We discussed various ways of tackling the book. Lincoln already had written an opening preface and a few other pages of copy, but little else. We talked about the problems of getting a book published. He reminded me that he already was the published author of a technical book and was sure he could find a way to get this book in print. In the end of that conversation, I agreed to write the book if he could get it published. The goal was to get it in print and ready for sale on the 100-year anniversary of the fire, which was 1981. That meant we had to work fast.
I took the box of material home with me, and then sorted through it, selecting and cataloging material for various chapters. I drafted an outline that began with prefaces written by both Lincoln and me, and then writing an overall report about the fire. Then the plan was to do a somewhat chronological number of personal stories as told by survivors and the families of survivors as the fire moved from its origins in Tuscola and Macomb Counties northeast through parts of St. Clair, Sanilac, Tuscola and finally Huron Counties. The end of the book would be about the aftermath, the rescue effort, and the amazing link with Sara Barton and her newly organized Red Cross, which also got involved.
Once I started writing, I got up every morning and went to the office at 6 a.m., and worked on the book for two solid hours until 8 a.m. when I did my police rounds and worked for the newspaper. It was a grueling schedule. That summer I had two or three weeks of vacation time and I devoted all of it to finishing that book. I still had work to be done on it by the time vacation was over, and returned to my old schedule of going to work at 6 a.m. Needless to say it was a big relief when I had a finished draft written and printed out for Jim Lincoln to read.
Those were days before we had computers and book publishing software, so everything was done on the newspaper’s IBM Selectric typewriter.
Lincoln’s first response was that the book was too thin. He said he thought he had enough material for a much thicker book. I agreed that he had this material, but much of it was repetitious and was the same story told by different people. I explained that I boiled it all down to include the best stories of the lot, although in the credits, we listed everybody that sent material. I also explained to Lincoln that people prefer to read material that gets right to the point and don’t care to read something I used to call “boilerplate” in writing. I practiced this rule in news writing and believed it would work in books as well. In the end, Lincoln accepted my work, and went to work trying to get it published.
We needed a name for our book. We found that every idea we came up with had already been used as a title for another book. We really wanted to use Trial by Fire, but that was in use. Thus the book was titled Fiery Trial. A lot of people got the title confused and thought it said Fiery Trail.
It took Lincoln another year before he had a publisher. Just as I had predicted, new and unknown authors had an uphill battle getting a publishing house to consider their work. In the end, Jim sought out his old agent, who got his technical work published. This man succeeded in getting the Michigan Historical Society in Ann Arbor to sponsor the book. Three thousand hardbound copies of our book were put in print.
At that point Lincoln and I discovered we were not finished. We now were expected to go out and sell the book This meant public relations stories to all of the newspapers and radio stations serving the Thumb District. And soon we were invited on a speaking circuit. We traveled all over the place talking about our book. Sometimes we went together. At other times Jim went one way and I went the other. The book sold so well that another 3,000 copies were published. And I think third and fourth editions also were published. At one point I was invited to drive to Marquette, Michigan, to speak to an organization of forest fire fighters at the university there. And I also was invited to Lansing to speak to a group of state fire fighters meeting at the state library.
After a while, the Historical Society decided that it no longer wanted to be in the book publishing business. By then, I was in a semi-retired state, and writing and publishing my own books on Great Lakes shipwrecks. I got permission from Lincoln and the Historical Society, and published our book, Fiery Trial in paperback. I think I sold at least another 3,000 copies.
We gave hardcover books to all of the area libraries as gifts, and were shocked when we learned that most of these books had been stolen. I still get e-mails from people wanting to buy a copy of Fiery Trial. It has been out of print for years. Copies can still be found on Internet book sites. The going price for Fiery Trial now is about $65.