Once Upon A Time, A Place Called Bimo

Copyright 2012, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Once upon a time, a few years back, when Man and I first moved to Lenawee I found the history of the county, and the interest in the history of the county to be addicting.  Lenawee is truly blessed and has several old county histories, some great historical rooms in their libraries to research in and many residents interested in preserving that history.

Some how, I became enthralled with place names of Lenawee, and then was born a little piece I called, "There Was a Place Called WHAT??? in Lenawee County Michigan".

It was a hoot to research and I spent a lot of wonderful fun filled and now and then, laughter filled, hours working on it.  I had the curator of the Lenawee County Historical Society proof read it for me, which was rather nerve wracking.  He knew so much about the county, and here I was a new resident going on and on about Lenawee.  I actually received a favorable review from him, although he questioned one of my findings, a place with the same name as Man and I use as our surname. But, really, I found it written up.

One of the other small places (so many of these no longer exist) was called Bimo,  here is what I wrote about Bimo:

"BIMO:  A station on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, the first postmaster was Frazey S. Johnson opening his office on November 23, 1896 .  The office closed December 31, 1903. The 1921 Atlas and Plat map, shows Bimo just west of Weston.  Postal History of Lenawee County, found at the Lenawee County Historical Society Museum Archives, tells us that Bimo is a “farmer’s postoffice” in Seneca Township, 16 miles southwest of Adrian and 3.5 miles from Weston.  The 1901 Polk Michigan State Gazetteer has 2 businesses listed for Bimo: M. E. Capron, cheese factory and R. A. Lason, railroad agent."

Recently while formatting another book, I found a news paper article about the naming of Bimo, shoot, wish I had seen this years ago.  Note: obviously some of this clipping was damaged before it was microfilmed.

Source of this article is the December 26, 1896 issue of the Adrian Daily Telegram, published at Adrian, Lenawee County, Michigan.

Wm. Haywood picked a swell name, but time was not kind, and it disappeared off the local landscape in 1903.

Oh, so, did our namesake place in Lenawee.  It WAS there, and I even have the map to prove it! See.  (Oh, and Bimo is there too.)

Once upon a time, there was a place called Bimo and - - - - - -.




*  Map courtesy of the Lenawee County Historical Society, ca 1909- 1910 map of Michigan by Cram & Polk.
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