If you had the opportunity to name a city, a town, a village after your name, what would it be called? In the mid 1800s Samuel Munro removed his immediate family from London, Canada, obtaining a section of land off the western shores of Lake Huron in the budding state of Michigan. He would dub this new settlement the ill-fated name of Monrovia. History continued its passage and the name would become a historical footnote and by 1850, both Sam and his wife Ellison would find their earthly rest in the neighboring town of Croswell. In the 1970s and 80s I spent my boyhood summers in the port village of Lexington, Michigan. These were sacred times for me; the line of blue water on the horizon, evening freighter horns echoing off Lake Huron, calling out to a netful of stars, the tonic of the air, and warm memories with my late adoptive father, shopping the downtown with its the turn-of-the-century buildings on Huron Street complete with a wooden-floored general store. There were also short rides to neighboring city of Croswell with its swinging foot bridge. My father and I unknowingly would take one of our last snapshots together there. One mile south, the graves of Samuel Munro and Ellison Munro quietly continued its memorial for family members. One of the many surprises in the large collection of Munro family letters I've come across is one dating from 1844 to my 3rd great-grandfather Bendant Baird Munro listing the town of "Lexington Monrovia." Via Munro mentions in her family genealogy of Samuel Munro (Bendant's brother) settling in Lexington and how it was formally known as "Munrovia." Since the village today is known as Lexington I believed the name "Monrovia" may have been a family joke for those early settlers or wishful thinking. A Lexington plat map from 1894 told me otherwise. A rectangular section running north and south along Huron Street bares the name "Monrovia". The same Huron Street and buildings that took in the footsteps of my boyhood also reverberated with the history of my 3rd great-granduncle. My visits to Croswell with my adoptive father also brought me in walking distance to Samuel Munro's memory in stone. Who we choose and how we are chosen in family has become a bit of mystery to me. It is a restorative feeling to believe that there is a meaningful pattern in the actions that moved my adoptive family to bring me unknowingly to the deep historical places of my biological family. Even if the pattern is happenstance, it cannot erase those early halcyon days with my father Henry walking the downtown streets of Lexington nor now knowing that he walked those places that also belong to me through the family Munro. SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
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John A. StempienJohn A. Stempien maintains the blog and website, Family Munro and is the co-editor of The Liberty Hyde Bailey Gardener's Companion. He lives in west Michigan with his family. Archives
June 2024
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