He's Not Lonesome: How Dr. A. Conan Doyle is Being Entertained in Detroit

Detroit News, October 22, 1894

Pointed searches in newspapers often lead to inconclusive results in present terms but added to the aggregate they speed the algorithm towards a final goal. So in saying that we must fast forward 28 years to 1922 when Arthur Conan Doyle was making one of his last trips to America promoting Spiritualism. It was then that he mentioned to a Detroiter living in New York about his enjoyable time at the Yondotega Club.

In 1894, a mere three years into the club's foray, Doyle was hosted by several members of the club presumably at its behest. Mr. Thomas Spencer Jerome, our cause célèbre of the moment, was among the throng driving the author about to Belle Isle along with William Savage (I presume they misspelled Savidge; Jerome's close friend and residuary legatee), Dr. Mann and William Barr. Savidge and Jerome were members and so presumably were the other two gentleman.

Later, Doyle went on a stroll with Yondotega lifer Cameron Currie and then a yacht ride with Senator James McMillan on the Idler. McMillan being an elder statesman of the group with 40% of the early club members being inter-related within his brood.

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P. O. Surveying Detroit Needs

Detroit News , October 8, 1929 This is a long article about the Postal Service but our concern is with Arch Coleman, the first Assistant Postmaster-General, who recalled in his visit back to the town that he grew up in, that he was born in the house which was the first Yondotega Club at 302/518 East Jefferson. An article by the Free Press seemed to suggest that he was born nearby.

Yondotega Club Beginnings Told

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The Ex-Libris Bookplates of James Frederic Joy and His Son Henry Bourne Joy

These are the ex-libris platesreally things found in volume (IV.) of Turner's History of England from 1830 featuring at least one Yondotega Club member: Henry Bourne Joy, who was the first president of the Lincoln Highway - which built roads from New York to San Francisco - and later became president of the Packard Motor Company. His father James Frederic Joy was a railroad magnate, friend of Abraham Lincoln and congressman from Michigan. To boot, there is a main road in Detroit and the western suburbs named after him (Joy Rd.). Besides the plates, the most interesting thing in the book is the marginalia, which I've yet to determine exactly whose it is. It would be great if it were one of the Joys but nearly a hundred years has passed between the latter's death so the likelihood is probably 50/50. Maybe not so ironically, I found this book at an estate sale just off of Joy Road (8634 Hazleton) in Dearborn Heights five years ago or so.

The Yondotega Club

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