3. County Seat: The Case of Sophia Pierce
Court cases can sometimes seem pretty complicated so I thought I’d give you one example to see how one really works. Pay close attention—just like the law about the pigs, sometimes a single event can provide us with a lot of information about the ways people lived in the past.
In May 1890, Sophia Pierce fell into a deep hole on Pontiac Street. It was early in the morning, and she was leaving the house of Eli Moore. Pierce was badly injured and filed a petition with the Ann Arbor city council, asking the council to pay her medical bills. The city of Ann Arbor had dug a 25 or 30 foot ditch near the Moores' house, but they hadn’t put up any signs or lights to warn pedestrians.
As you read her court case, think about this:
- Why was it hard for Sophia Pierce to see the embankment (hint: think about the time of day she was out)?
- Why did Sophia Pierce think the city government was responsible for her injuries (hint: what had the city not done)?
- What did Sophia say she had done to make sure she was safe?
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To the Hon. Common Council of the City of Ann Arbor Michigan
- Your petitioner Mrs. Sophia M. Pierce (Mrs. N. A. Pierce) of said City respectfully represents that she is a regular registered physician and resides in the Fifth Ward of said City and has resided there for the last thirty years or more, that on April 28th 1890 she was called to attend a sick person at the house of Eli W. Moore who resides on Pontiac Street in said Ward and she went there about one o’clock at night and attended to the sick person, and left the house of said Moore about two o’clock at night, that the night was very dark and there were no electric lights or other lights to enable a person to see his way.
- Your petitioner further shows that the City Authorities of said city have made excavations on Pontiac Street on the East side of the house of said Moore so that they have lowered said street about twenty-five or thirty feet below the level of the ground at the East front door or said Moore’s house, so that there is a steep bank about twenty-five or thirty feet high within four or five feet of the East front gate at the house of said Moore, that no fence or other protection and no danger lights were placed along said embankment to prevent persons falling down said bank in the night-time.
- That your petitioner left the house of said Moore as aforesaid and offered she was keeping a sufficient distance from said excavations to avoid all danger, that she had not taken more than two or three steps from the said East-front-gate, when she stepped over said bank and tumbled down said bank about twenty-five feet until she struck a large stone with her right-side, that she was rendered unconscious by the fall for some time and one or more of her ribs were broken and she received other severe internal injuries and also severely sprained her ankle and these injuries are of such a nature that your petitioner fears that she will never fully recover therefrom.
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In the 1890s, people understood health and medicine very differently from how they do today. Ann Arbor newspapers were full of advertisements for pills, extracts and elixirs that promised to cure everything from colds to cancer. Sick people called on doctors, but they also depended on their own home remedies, midwives, spiritualists, and other healers. In her petition, Sophia Pierce referred to herself as a "regular registered physician." However, in the 1890 directory for the city of Ann Arbor, Pierce called herself a "clairvoyant" and "magnetic healer."
Just to think about:
- What did Sophia Pierce do for a living? How long was she out of work after she fell?
- Why did Sophia think the city was to blame? Did she know the hole was there? What had she done to try to be safe?
You’re halfway to the four Aces! Keep it up. Two left!!
