The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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Sugar scandal rocked Milan in the late 1800s
PUBLISHED: April 3, 2008
Editor's Note: This is Part 1 of a seven-part series on the Great Electric Sugar Scandal that rocked Milan in the 1800s.
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About a million dollars was lost, by some accounts -- that was a huge amount of money in the 1880s. And six people with ties to Milan moved to New York and became wealthy off a sugar refining process that didn't exist.
When the Great Electric Sugar Scandal blew up in 1888, it ruined hundreds of people on two continents. The New York Times reported it endlessly, as did newspapers all around the United States and Europe.
The story begins with Emily Burnham. She was 4 years old in 1835, about the time her family left New York for a farm in York Township. The girl lived with her father, Allen Burnham, and mother, Olive M. Hanson Burnham, and five sisters and brothers.
Several people in Emily's family later became entangled in the scandal, so here are the names and year of birth of the Burnham children: William, 1827; Lyman, 1828; twins Eben and Emily, 1831; Harriett, 1834; and John, 1835.
Everything changed on Aug. 29, 1836. Emily was inside the house at the time, but one of her brothers, perhaps William, was outside with their father in the barn. A rainstorm blew in. Out of nowhere, a lightning strike shot into the barn and took the life of Emily's father, causing a fire that burned nearly everything in the entire area around the lightning strike.
Emily's mother, the former Olive Hanson, had to survive the misery of losing her husband, and get on with her life. She married a second husband, Simeon H. Case. They had five children together, and one of them grew up to be part of the Great Sugar Scandal. There was Paul, born in 1840; twins Mary and Martha, born 1842; Dallas, 1845; and Edith, 1849. Mary is the one to watch.
In 1850, Emily Burnham took the plunge and got married. Her husband, Jacob M. Van Ness, worked as a laborer. The couple started raising four children in Toledo. Their oldest child, Olive, was born in about 1854. Apparently, Olive was named after her grandmother, Olive Hanson.
Things didn't work out well for the Van Ness family. Emily and Jacob divorced less than 10 years after they were married.
Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, William Eaton Howard was growing up with about 10 brothers and sisters. He was born May 13, 1833 in Connecticut, the fifth child in the family. The family moved to Rhode Island and that is where Howard grew up.
In 1850, when Howard was only 17, he told a census worker in Rhode Island that he was a minister. Was he called by the Lord to help his fellow man? Or did he realize it was easier to get money from people by being a man of the cloth?
Either way, his work on the religious front must have given him plenty of practice persuading people in various directions, a skill that would come in handy later with the Great Electric Sugar Scandal.
Howard took a wife in about 1850. Mrs. Howard, the former Elizabeth Hannah Potter, was married before and had the name "Yeaw." She was left with a young girl about 2 years old after the death of her first husband. The new family set up a home in Rhode Island and had two children, Mary and Charles. Howard may have supported the family as a laborer. The Howard family lost their little girl, Mary, just before her first birthday.
With the Civil War, or "War of the Rebellion" as it was called, Howard signed up for the military. On Aug. 11, 1862, he enrolled in Battery H of the First Rhode Island Light Artillery. He fought in two battles, throwing around bullets and cannonballs to kill people, a great activity for a clergyman.
The military campaign came to an end in June 1865, when Howard returned to civilian life. He had his third child, Clarence, in 1867.
Things soured for William and Elizabeth, and they split up around 1868 or 1869. I doubt he ever contacted his wife or kids after that. His older brother, Joseph Howard, was living in Saline. Never having been to Saline, and ready to leave his family and young children in Rhode Island, Howard took off for "the west" and made himself at home in Washtenaw County.
Emily Burnam Van Ness must have met William E. Howard soon after his arrival in Michigan. The two hit it off quickly and tied the knot, making it a second marriage for both of them. If she found it boring to have a laborer for a husband, she got plenty of excitement joining forces with Howard. She was in for the ride of her life.
Read more in next week's edition.
Thanks to Ron Morey and Linda Squires of Milan, and Karen Wheaton of Ann Arbor, and many other sources, for making this series possible.
Martha Churchill is a member of the Milan Area Historical Society. She can be reached at 439-4055 or MilanHistory@yahoo.com.
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