Category Archives: People

Norman Little’s grave site at Brady Hill Cemetery

In 1822 Normam Little first came to the “Saginaws” with is father who had purchased land her but after seeing the swamps and being bitten by all the mosquitoes he quickly sold his land and told Norman “there is no future here”. Norman Little still believed in Saginaw and in 1836, Norman Little came upriver by steamboat with his wife, Jane and some craftsmen with their tools, and Norman Little set off to build a city. He started a steamship run from Buffalo, N.Y. to Saginaw to bring immigrants to the city and built a hotel he called the Webster House.

By 1838 many people had given up on Saginaw but Norman was determined to see the city grow an prosper. With funding and support from Jesse Hoyt, he built a sawmill along the bank of the Saginaw River that cut planks for a road from Saginaw to Flint. It was this road that allowed people to travel to Saginaw and continue the expansion of East Saginaw. Little was also credited with starting the first bank and printed the first money in the city of Saginaw and starting the short-lived Saginaw Journal, organizing three churches, building the first school on the East Side, and helping to found the salt industry here.

He lived in Saginaw up until his mysterious death in November of 1859. Little stepped out of his home on Water Street and jumped into the Saginaw River. Witnesses reported Little seemed “very cheerful” before walking to the dock of his mill alongside the river and jumping in. It is believed Little was under the influence of medicinal drinks of the time that contained cocaine.

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One of the most well known houses in all of Saginaw has to be the “Cat Lady’s House” on Washington Ave. near the railroad tracks just south of Downtown Saginaw. Before Rosemary and her pet leopard Chichu lived there, the house was built by one of Saginaw’s prominent lumber barons.

English immigrant Charles Lee came to East Saginaw in 1862 after establishing a successful saw mill and brick works during the “building boom” in Detroit. He purchased two sawmills and 200 acres of pine lands in the Saginaw Valley for $40,000, an enormous sum of money at the time. He was also a director at the East Savings Bank and a major stockholder in the Saginaw, Tuscola and Huron Railroad. The red brick queen Ann house was built by Lee in the 1870’s. His house was the only lumber barons house built along the Saginaw River. The woodwork inside was supplied by his own sawmills. He was married 3 times (his first two wives died) and had eight children seven of which were present when he died in the house in 1899.

After Lee’s death the house was purchased by Dr Michael D. Ryan. Arriving in Saginaw in 1893 he became the first resident physician at St Mary’s Hospital and he was a staff physician for 55 years, the most seniority of any staff physician in the hospitals history. Soon after working for St Mary’s, he would walk to lumber camps and sell the hospital’s $5 insurance plans that would provide medical treatment for one year. Dr Ryan was one of the last “ horse and buggy” doctors traveling to outlying lumber camps in the Saginaw Valley. During the great fire of 1893 Dr. Ryan joined in the bucket brigade on the roof of St Mary’s Hospital dousing embers from the fire saving the hospital from the treacherous flames. He was a charter member of the Michigan State Medical Society and received a presidential citation for his work with the county draft board in WWI and WWII.

Dr Ryan’s daughter Rosemary married Roy DeGesero and they lived in the house raising their family in the same house she grew up in. When the Saginaw Daily News building was demolished in 1960 some of the terracotta lions were given to her, and prominently displayed on the front porch. Currently they are at the Castle Museum. Rosemary was and eccentric and interesting person, she loved the theater and often helped out at Pit and Balcony. She was known for her love of cats and had several of them and was known by those who did not know her name as “the cat lady”.

Sadly Rosemary died in 2012 a A few years after moving to New Jersey to live with her daughter. The house went up for sale at that time and the City of Saginaw purchased the property and is the current owner.

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S/Sgt Louis “Louie” Zdrojkowski was born March 13, 1925 in Saginaw MI. He went missing in action August 7, 1945. Louie was a true American hero. At the age of 18 he entered the US Army. He volunteered for the Army Air Corp and became a top-turret gunner on his B-29 Superfortress. His family didn’t know until after his death in a bombing raid over Japan that he was part of a small group clearing the way for the atomic bomb attacks on Japan

The last entry in his diary was August 1, 1945. He wrote “Just eighteen more missions to go. We flew our twenty second one today. Our target was the Locks at Nagasaki. We carried eight 1000 lb bombs. The ball turret has been taken out. Our hits were excellent. Flank was heavy & accurate. We had one hole in the plane. Fighters killed two. 494th came and wounded several others. They had lost about nine planes in three weeks. Dicie’s crew went down yesterday. Kumo went with them. They might be picked up. I hope so.”
On August 7 S/Sgt Zdrojkowski was assigned to a new spot as tail gunner on a B-29 headed for Japan. Louie’s plane was the first in a V-shaped formation assigned to bomb out anti-aircraft sites that would have fired on other B-29s to come later with atomic bombs. Anti-aircraft fire hit the plane over the Japanese island of Kyushu. A week later August 15 Japan surrendered.
Louie gave his life to put an end to WWII In March 1946 the Army officially declared S/Sgt Louis Zdrojkowski dead. It wasn’t until April 1949 before the family got his remains and was able to bury him.

I am posting this for my Grandmother, She came from a large polish family with seven brothers and sisters and whenever they were all together they would remind us all that Louis was not there and were extremely proud of him, Louis would be my great uncle and I wanted to share his role in the end of the war. since the anniversary is coming up.
PS. I know how to pronounce Zdrojkowski, I have a lot of relatives in Saginaw because my Great Grandparents Immigrated to Saginaw from Poland.

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