Southfield Historical Society

05/15/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/18gz2HJUA4/

05/06/2026

Every grave in a cemetery has a story waiting to be discovered!
This Thursday, May 7th in the Meeting Room
Gravestones offer clues for uncovering those stories but can present many challenges. Oakland County Parks Historian Carol Egbo will guide us through the process of investigating a gravestone. This is the first in our Cemetery Series sponsored by the Southfield Historical Society, Southfield Parks and Recreation and the Southfield Public Library. DK
This program is part of the Southfield Library and the Southfield Historical Societies' recognition of the America 250 celebration.
This is Part One of a two-part Cemetery Series, exploring the history of local cemeteries. Part Two is May 21st.
Join us for Park Adventures at Historic Southfield Cemeteries on May 7th, 14th and 21st.

05/06/2026

Every grave in a cemetery has a story waiting to be discovered!

This Thursday, May 7th in the Meeting Room

Gravestones offer clues for uncovering those stories but can present many challenges. Oakland County Parks Historian Carol Egbo will guide us through the process of investigating a gravestone. This is the first in our Cemetery Series sponsored by the Southfield Historical Society, Southfield Parks and Recreation and the Southfield Public Library. DK

This program is part of the Southfield Library and the Southfield Historical Societies' recognition of the America 250 celebration.

This is Part One of a two-part Cemetery Series, exploring the history of local cemeteries. Part Two is May 21st.

Join us for Park Adventures at Historic Southfield Cemeteries on May 7th, 14th and 21st.

05/03/2026

Stories in Stone
Thurs May 7 6 pm
Southfield Public Library
with Carol Egbo

05/03/2026

Join us this month as we visit three historic cemeteries in Southfield.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14d3xCR5mjx/

Next Thursday, May 7th, meet at the Burgh Historic District at 9:00 am for a walk through Southfield Cemetery and a visit to the Town Hall Museum!

Join the Southfield Public Library, Southfield Parks and Recreation and The Southfield Historical Society for all of these Park Adventures, featuring walks through and discussion of three historic Southfield Cemeteries.

On May 14th meet at Southfield Parks and Recreation for a walk through and discussion of Pioneer Cemetery.

On May 21st meet at Southfield Parks and Recreation for a walk through and discussion of the Reformed Church Cemetery.

04/28/2026

Thank you Southfield City Center for this America250 Southfield hiSTORY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18NfALrvfM/

04/08/2026

April 8 6 pm: The Southfield Historical Society and the Birmingham Museum invite you to a special program with renowned Odawa quillwork artists and basket makers Yvonne Walker Keshick and her daughter Odeimon Walker-Keshick to explore traditional Anishinaabe porcupine quill and birch bark artistry. Both are members of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and descended from generations of highly skilled quillwork artists. Join us in this rare opportunity to experience the stories and traditions that make this living art form so unique.

03/27/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/1Zxj3cJTdm/

03/18/2026

The Town Hall Museum will be open tomorrow, March 18,
from 9 am to 11 am.

03/17/2026

Here is a story connecting Ireland and St. Patrick's Day to the Indigenous People here.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BfiXC8dbc/

Many people around the world will soon celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, remembering the culture, history, and journey of the Irish people.

There is a story connected to Ireland that many people may not know.

In 1847, during the Great Irish Famine, millions of Irish people were facing starvation. Families were losing their homes and entire communities were struggling to survive.

At that same time, the Choctaw Nation in what is now Oklahoma had only recently endured the Trail of Tears—a forced removal from their homelands that caused immense suffering and loss of life.

Despite their own hardship, the Choctaw people gathered what little money they had and sent $170 to Ireland to help with famine relief.

It may not sound like much today, but at the time it represented a remarkable act of generosity from a people who themselves had very little.

Across an ocean, one suffering nation reached out to help another.

Nearly 170 years later, the people of Ireland honored that gesture by building a sculpture in County Cork called “Kindred Spirits.”

The monument is formed by large stainless-steel eagle feathers arranged in a circle, symbolizing gratitude, remembrance, and the bond between peoples who understand hardship and compassion.

In 2020, during the COVID pandemic, thousands of Irish citizens remembered that act of kindness and raised millions of dollars to support Navajo and Hopi communities in the United States, calling it a way of returning the generosity that had once been shown to Ireland.

History is often complicated, and the relationships between nations are rarely simple.

But this story stands as a reminder that sometimes the deepest connections between peoples are not created through governments or treaties.

Sometimes they are created through simple human compassion.

Across oceans, cultures, and generations.

Because beneath every language and every flag, we are still iyiniwak — human beings.

Ekosi.

Walk gently.

— Kanipawit Maskwa (Standing Bear)

02/02/2026

"Our Indigenous Heritage" program from the Birmingham Museum at the Baldwin Public Library on Thursday, February 12 at 7 PM. Special Lecture Series features Donna Casaceli, “Indigenous and White Settler Encounters in Early Oakland County”

The earliest settlers in Oakland County purchased land acquired by treaty from local Indigenous tribes. These included in particular the Saginaw Chippewa and the Potawatomi of Southfield. Indigenous people continued to use the Saginaw Trail (now Woodward Ave.) for another generation as white settlement increased. Various accounts in the historical record describe encounters between early settlers and local Indigenous people. The Birmingham Museum's Donna Casaceli will discuss personal and official records relating to three notable examples; Cornelia Hunter Smith of Birmingham, Oliver Williams of Waterford, and Potawatomi Chief Tonquish of Southfield and the upper Rouge River area. Casaceli will focus on the issue of historical bias in the surviving narratives. In person or virtual registration for this free program is required at the Baldwin Public Library, https://www.baldwinlib.org/calendar/ #/events/. Contact the Birmingham Museum at 248-530-1928 for more information

(Image: Detail showing several do'odem signatures, including Chief Tonquish, Treaty of Detroit (1805), https://catalog.archives.gov/id/596331.)