Mermaid

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From the very first years of the founding of the Israelite House of David at Fostoria, Ohio, 1902, there have been more than an abundance of rumors, legends and falsehoods of somewhat towering proportion concerning the historical roots and practices of House of David community. Most of these fall into the category of simple ignorance, but others are more willfully pernicious in a desire to distort and misrepresent the organization and its Christian- Israelite foundation.

Although a more recent Detroit News tabloid installment added to the fictional mythologies by listing "fishing industries" as one of our former enterprises, it remains a mystery that these same sensational formats have omitted the rare legends of purported sightings of a lovely mermaid at Eastman Springs during the past 120 years-plus.

An unusual oversight on the part of irresponsible news print to miss a mythical  and  secreted figurine in southwestern Michigan history: the Silver Queen at Eastman Springs.

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First sighting recorded of this phantom of the mysts of the line of springs from Crystal to Eastman into Eden Springs, was during the 1870s, upon which the famous mineral/spring water fountain was later named and waters marketed successfully to locals and Chicago and Milwaukee hotels. For over a century there have been rumored sightings of this fair-ivory figurine that was depicted upon the label of the famous Silver Queen glass containers as early as 1880. There have been few recorded instances of actual viewings, yet more than several accounts of a mere glimpse at early morning or late dusk in the recesses of the Springs setting, of the beautifully disposed, regal figure, that several instances are described as "mermaid-like".

There have been no recorded sightings now for over 40 years, and legends have almost been forgotten and lost to local antiquity curiosities. Only the very aged, and few among them, that remember or ever have heard of the semi-fictional, elusive creature spotted infrequently from the dawn of the Eastman era in Benton Harbor (1879).

Like so many other aspects of our locally very colorful history, we also have a legendary/mythology  based on morsels of lost or unrecorded oral accounts of a creature rarely seen but was the recognized image upon one of the finest spring waters in America. Like "big-foot" or the "Loch ness monster" along with eye-witness accounts……………there is probably something from which all of this was factually generated.

And……not altogether were we taken by surprise to have received recently (early summer 2006) a written documentation from Chicago. Apparently the sender's father saw the mermaid over a period of years during his annual summer time visits to Benton Harbor and the House of David. Unfortunately with the written memory of this oral account, of a father telling his child, there are no recorded memory particulars saving its matter-of-fact verification of a mermaid that concurs with the foregoing rumors/legends.

Still more exciting is the more recent receipt of a promised photo of the figurine, from a local Berrien County photographer.

Upon these pages we are replacing the "artistic rendering" from the only known actual photograph that was discovered several years ago in a family collection of sealed boxes placed for donation into an area historical repository.

In keeping with the request of the family for this photograph to be placed within a stable and managed collection archive that also contained a substantial body of Eastman Springs history, and with consent agreement released from the holding historical archive, we at Mary's, are delighted to now have this very rare image in our archival collection vaults.

The original image (copy above) is in poor condition with discolored wear, water damage, several folds and surface scuffing that makes the image definable but lacking the desired clarity and detail. A copy of this historic image will be placed in the Museum's Eastman Room and hopefully a new lead to another such image may follow.

16 September 2007 Update!!

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Much to our delight we are now able to share several most exciting and extraordinary photographs delivered to us this summer.

Long promised by a frequent visitor and admirer of the "sense of historic presence" found within the 54 acre "woodland serenity of Eastman Springs."

We will quote from the attached notations with the selection of precious photos:

"I am always carrying a camera to catch the natural beauties of the Springs' year-round serenity and beauty, or to record the family of fox and deer living there or the eagle that I've twice seen but yet unable to get a photo of.

"Much to my awe and delight, as I carefully stepped down through the quiet wisps of fleeting light, in the concave of the valley of the 'Big Medicine' and home to the patriarchs of the great Miami Nations; and for a few fleeting moments the phantom of the myst sat in contemplation while gathering her evening water.

"She then vanished into the green of the dense cover and forest umbrella of her home of now a storied century and a half.

"The Miami had taken a beleaguered Father Marquette to these waters in the year of his sojourns, 1672, to drink and to heal.

"So too, the Eastman bottled the same, listing their analysis of medicinal properties per individual Spring.

"Obviously from the only other visual record, even in its deteriorated and poor condition, the Silver Queen has aged mildly with the additional lengthy tresses that would make her the envy of any Nazarite of the Israelite House of David.

"It is with great joy that I deliver these images to your archival collections of Eastman Springs.

"These represent the most astounding moments in my entire photographic career and I am now so honored as to become part of the historic documents-record of Eastman Springs and its famous figurine/mermaid, the 'Silver Queen'."