Archive for the ‘Donate Car’ Category
Thursday, November 24th, 2011
Will Donating Your Vehicle To The Car Donation Baltimore Program Really Benefit You, Too?
Don’t look now, but there are abandoned, abused, and starving children who desperately need our help. These children I’m talking about are not residing in some third world country. They’re right here on our Baltimore streets. They need medical care, safe shelter, hot meals, quality education, and most of all, love. Hundreds of young men and women are out there, begging for change, eating out of dumpsters, and fearing for their safety every minute of the day. Without a decent Baltimore car donation charity program in place, these youngsters would have very little hope for a secure future, if any future at all.
Please do not misread my intentions here. By no means am trying to depress you. That won’t do anyone any good, anyway. Instead, I would like to present the idea of hope and possibility, in an attempt to motivate you (as well as myself) to take advantage of a fantastic opportunity to not only help give these kids the hope they are so desperate for, but to also receive great personal benefit in the process.
I will explain this in detail as you continue to read. First, I would really like to drive the charitable aspect of this program home for you. In a very real way, our kids are depending on this.
Take a moment to visualize not these kids, but your own. If you don’t have kids, I’m sure someone you love does, and I’m sure you love that child or those children quite a bit. Now imagine your son or daughter somehow becoming displaced, and ending up on the street. And some monster introduces him or her to crystal meth, and makes them do unimaginable things to “earn their keep.”
Your kid eats out of dumpsters, begs for people’s spare change, and has very likely contracted unspeakable diseases… and has no access to medical treatment. Hard to take, isn’t it? It makes you want to jump right into that image, grab your child up with a big hug and kiss, and take him or home immediately, where a hot meal and loving family awaits. At least, that’s how it affects me when I do this harsh, but powerful exercise.
Sadly, the great majority of these children of such incredible misfortune have absolutely nobody to rescue them. Their stuck in this living nightmare from which their only hope of salvation is death. Again, it isn’t my intention to paint a grim image, but to reveal a grim reality. This is real. Too real.
So what can we actually do to help?
That is the ,000 question. And the answer is incredibly simple. Donate. Offer your unwanted automobile, RV, motorcycle, boat… or whatever… to a top quality Baltimore auto donation charity and true miracles will begin to happen almost immediately. Your vehicle’s proceeds will be used to find homes, educational opportunities, hot meals, nice families, and much-needed medical care for our Baltimore children. If this doesn’t give you a good night’s sleep, I don’t know what will!
I want to help, but is anything in it for me?
Well, answering that question is certainly the secondary objective of this article, and the answer is without question a very powerful motivator. First, you can get rid of something you no longer want or need… or afford. Second, it’s zero hassle. You make a phone call and a tow truck comes and gets your vehicle for you. You don’t have to lift a finger. But here’s the third, and by far the most powerful benefit…
By giving to charity in this fashion, you qualify for a nice tax deduction. In fact, it’s the maximum deduction that the law will allow! For many participants, this equates to being worth even more than the vehicle that was donated! So with this monetary incentive, coupled with the goodwill that you are bringing to our underprivileged kids, you should be able to see very clearly that this is a situation where everyone wins!
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Monday, November 21st, 2011
New Jersey Car Donation Foundation… Talk About Win-win!
This is really very sad. As we’re speaking, there are many diseased, hungry, destitute, numb, and skiddish girls and boys doing what they can to get by on our merciless streets. These sad cases are out in the elements, in plain view of the public, filthy, mortified, and insanely downhearted. Perhaps they’re even contemplating the idea of suicide as a way out.
A good percentage of these young people find sustanance from disgusting, smelly trash bins, and an even greater fraction of them have gotten themselves chemically addicted to street drugs like speed, crack cocaine, and heroin.
I truly want you to grasp the fact that it is in no way the focus of this article to promote guilty feelings as do a number of those nightly tv ads (not to say that their focuses are not valid), but is basically to assist you in noticing what’s indeed happening out there on our streets, and to prompt you to act by telling you pertaining to a charity that you may not even know of.
Knowledge definitely is a magnificent resource, and I am simply aspiring to hand over a bit of knowledge which just might enable us to take action for the future of these abandoned local girls and boys. Moreover, there are plenty of benefits for yourself, as well! I’m not just referring to the the spiritual enjoyment that regularly comes along anytime you give from your heart, but also an actual thank-you gift. We’ll be getting to that soon enough.
Before that, however, we are going to take a little personal ownership of the misery that these unfortunate children are faced with on a daily basis.. In the meantime, I would greatly appreciate it if you took part in a brief activity…
Put a crystal clear image of your own kid in your mind. Imagine him or her being dirty from head to toe, out in the cold, and abandoned by the world. See him or her begging for money, or worse still, trading themselves for money, food, or drugs. It could be that your child is addicted to narcotics, infected with the AIDS virus, and devoid of any health coverage to remedy the situation. What is the look in your little one’s eyes? Sorrow? Despair? Terror? Isn’t this an absolutely horrific, gut-wrenching thought?
Whenever I participate in this activity and imagine my own little boy out there in that circumstance, it drives my heart crazy. It sincerely does. And I’m certain you can relate when I say to you that I’d do literally everything and anything I was capable of doing to take my kid out of that nightmare immediately! Not in a million years would I allow that to go on.
Sadly, most of these children of such incredible misfortune have absolutely no loved ones to rescue them. They just stay stuck in this living nightmare from which their only hope of salvation is death. Again, it’s not my goal to paint a grim image, but instead to uncover a grim reality. This is absolutely real. Too real.
So what can we actually do to help?
This is the ,000 question. And for what it’s worth, the answer is amazingly easy to grasp. Ready? Offer your automobile to your local car donation charity as quickly as possible. Because of your donation, the charitable cause will be empowered to have an incredible impact on these girls’ and boys’ lives.
I want to help, but is there anything in it for me?
It honestly amuzes me the volume of people who feel that they are in the wrong because they would like reimbursement for their auto donation. The fact of the matter is that there is definitely not a thing unethical about wanting anything for yourself. Anyway, we are speaking about your vehicle here. You’ve got every right to be compensated!
For this reason, you receive capital compensation, not as cash money from the car donation program, but rather, as a nice tax benefit from the United States government. This deduction could potential be of higher value than the automobile itself! This is just further proof that contributing your unwanted car to a charitable organization benefits all parties involved.
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Monday, November 21st, 2011
New Homes for New Orleans
New Orleans Real Estate consists of numerous interesting neighborhoods and communities. Each and every area offers a different feel, sometimes subtle and sometimes dramatic. New Orleans Homes for Sale include Single Family Cottage Homes, Raised Frame Shotgun Homes, Victorian Style Homes, Arts & Crafts Architecture, French Quarter Homes, Luxury Condominiums, Plush St. Charles Avenue Mansions and Uptown Manor Homes just to name a few. The distinct flavor of each New Orleans Home for Saleand neighborhood can often only be experienced and not explained. You will see a breakdown of the New Orleans Communities we serve by looking through the neighborhood and property search sections of our website.
New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana. By law and government, the city of New Orleans and the Orleans Parish are one and the same.
New Orleans is an industrial and distribution center, a major seaport, and is known for its rich cultural heritage, especially its music and cuisine.
Never in the history of America, has there ever been a better time to purchase real estate! Housing experts are projecting that high rise vertical complexes will be the wave of the future in New Orleans development. Current multi story units account for approximately 2100 units, with future developments projected to bring that number to 4300 by the year 2009.
See New Orleans Homes for Sale The population of the New Orleans Pre-Hurricane Katrina was 484,674. Post Hurricane Katrina population estimates are 245,000. New Orleans Real Estate is undergoing a massive reconstruction effort post Hurricane Katrina. 80 Billion dollars of federal and private investment have been earmarked to fund the reconstruction and rebuilding of our New Orleans Communities. New Orleans Homes for Sale represent fantastic investment opportunities. These investment properties include multifamily homes, condominiums, vacant land parcels and single family homes. Economists estimate that construction spending in New Orleans over the next five years will equal 30 years of pre Katrina construction spending. In other words “this investment represents an economic boom unparalleled in the history of the United States”!
New Orleans Homes for Sale are generally more expensive than suburban real estate. For example, a 25-year-old ranch style brick home on a nice lot in Metairie may be 0,000. In Uptown New Orleans you might expect to pay over 0,000. It becomes the buyer’s choice as to the importance given to close-in living compared with the importance of size, age and amenities of homes found farther from New Orleans . For New Orleans Home Buyers , the final choice normally lies somewhere in between. New Orleans Real Estate demographic information for all New Orleans areas can be found within our MLS Search. Simply complete the search and upon selecting any property the “community info” option will provide the demographics for that home’s neighborhood/area.
New Orleans is pronounced by locals “Noo Or-lins” “N’Awlins,” or “Noo OR-lee-anns”. The distinctive local accent is unlike either Cajun or the stereotypical Southern accent so often misportrayed by film and television actors. The City has the nicknames the Crescent City, the Big Easy, and the City that Care Forgot. Many visitors consider New Orleans ‘ motto to be “Laissez les bontemps rouler”, or, “Let the good times roll.” New Orleans has always been a center for music with its intertwined European, Latin American, and African-American cultures. The city engendered jazz with its brass bands. Decades later it was home to a distinctive brand of rhythm and blues that contributed greatly to the growth of rock and roll. In addition, the nearby countryside is the home of Cajun music, Zydeco music and Delta blues. New Orleans is very famous for its food. Specialties include PoBoy and Muffaletta sandwiches, Gulf oysters and other seafoods, etoufee, jambalaya, gumbo and other Creole dishes; and the Monday evening favorite of red beans and rice. (Louis Armstrong often signed his letters, “red beans and ricely yours”.) Buy your Dream Home here in New Orleans Real Estate .
New Orlean s’ most famous celebration is Mardi Gras. The Carnival season is often known (especially by out-of-towners) by the name of the last and biggest day, Mardi Gras (literally, “Fat Tuesday”), which is held just before the beginning of the Christian liturgical season of Lent. Mardi Gras celebrations include parades and floats; participants toss strings of cheap colorful beads and doubloons to the crowds. The Mardi Gras season is kicked off with the only parade allowed through the French Quarter (Vieux Carre), a walking parade aptly named Krewe du Vieux.
The Louisiana Jazz & Heritage Festival each spring is the other time when all the city’s hotels are usually filled to capacity. “Jazz Fest” as it is called is one of the best music festivals in the nation, and features crowds coming from all over the world to experience a wonderful time (including music, food, arts, crafts, and of course the Louisiana heat).
New Orleans Town homes
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Monday, November 21st, 2011
Massachusetts Car Insurance Quotes
Car insurance has now been part of the law for the benefit of the driver and car owners. An advantage of getting a car insurance is that you won’t have a lot of problems in the bills if you et into an accident or other incidents.
Like in any other states, before deciding on getting that cheap car insurances in Massachusetts check first on the different insurance quotes. Most of the time these Massachusetts car insurance quotes online requires basic information such as your full name, address, city, state, and date of birth.
Massachusetts car insurance quotes can be available for online but before deciding on that company you must also think of these following key points. The insurance company must have stable and licensed customer service. The Massachusetts car insurance quotes ca easily be given to your by the company representative together with the insurance coverage.
The company must also immediately look into your needs ad queries and constantly update and check you on their services. It can also be convenient to your part that you will be treated as a customer and aims for your satisfaction.
After getting your Massachusetts car insurance quote, also try to look into the available discounts which the company offers. Some of the available discounts you would want to avail from could be good driver and student discount, mileage, multi vehicle and policy discounts, antitheft, and other discounts which may you be catered to.
The state also requires that motorists have a minimum of ,000 insurance for other person bodily injury per person and ,000 for two or more.
For personal protection for you and your passenger, you are required a minimum of ,000 insurance. A property damage insurance of ,000 is also a requirement in the state.
Though in many states, there are a lot of factors that affect the price of car insurance. Others consider the applicants age, the driver’s driving record, and also ones credit history. Also, students who have high grades can also avail o certain discounts and privileges. This is because companies consider students who have high grades are more responsible in drivers. Likewise, the car you own will matter. A brand new car will obviously have a higher price of insurance rather than second-hands. Safety alarms and other safety devices installed in your car will also aid you in getting discount for your car insurance.
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Monday, November 21st, 2011
Buick Grand National For Customers
General Motors launched the mid-sized Buick Regal in 1972 for the 1973 model year, and it mostly flourished through four vehicle generations before GM ceased production of it in 2004. Though the production in China had begun in the 2003 model year, it still stoodstill in the US. In 2008, an all-new Buick Regal based on the Opel Insignia was launched in China by GM. In this occasion, they announced that the model would be returning to the U.S. market for the 2011 model year.
In 1982, during the Regal’s second generation, GM introduced a Buick Grand National for sale. In 1981 and again in 1982, Buick had won the Manufacturers Cup. The model is named for the NASCAR Grand National racing series, was their way of celebrating and cashing in on that success. The first of the Grand Nationals were charcoal grey, quite different from the all-black motif for which it would be famous.
These early Grand Nationals were just Regals off the line that GM would then send to a subcontractor, Cars and Concepts in Auburn Hills, Michigan, for the conversion.
They intended 100 units, but sold 215 in the end, and received far more buzz than they had expected. Despite that excitement, the 1983 model year came and went without a Grand National in the Regal lineup, but it was back and in black for 1984. This new Buick Grand National for sale boasted refined sequential fuel injection and a turbocharged 3.8-liter engine, which produced 200 horsepower at 4400 rpm and 300 pound-feet of torque at 2400 rpm. Buick produced only 2,000 units this year.
The Buick Grand Nationals for sale in 1985 and 1986 each got minor performance increase, and by the 1987 model year, performance was up to 245 horsepower and 355 pound-feet of torque.
With the drop of the T-Type Regal package, sales were up over 27,000 units, and of these 27,000, approximately 1,500 were the WE4, a lightweight Turbo T option package. The differences between the standard model that year and the WE4 were the badges, wheels, and interior trim package.
However, even sales as high as 27,000 units was not enough to offset the cost of production. The niche market had just not grown large enough fast enough, and it was destined to be short-lived. For that final model year, Buick introduced a Buick Grand National for sale called the GNX. Buick marketed the GNX, which McLaren and ASC produced for GM, as the “Grand National to end all Grand Nationals”, and the list price was nearly ,000.
That was an astonishingly high price for that period for a car of this nature. Was it worth it? Over the stock GN, it included a Garrett turbocharger, a low-restriction dual exhaust, a specially calibrated Turbo Hydra-matic transmission, a custom torque converter, a transmission cooler, and a host of other features that amounted to 276 horsepower and 360 pound-feet of torque. For visual style, the GNX came with special tires, 16-inch black mesh wheels, and a slew of minor styling cues that combined for great effect.
The good news for enthusiasts is that despite limited numbers, they can purchase a Grand National that requires work or has high mileage on the engine for several thousand dollars. However, if you want one in better condition, prices rise quickly, and they range as high as ,000 and beyond.
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Monday, November 21st, 2011
Donate A Car And Save Kids
Todays child is the future nation builder. So its our social responsibility to ensure their basic needs and also their proper growth. A well educated child is an asset not only for a country but also for a nation. We need to feel shame as we are failure to help children who are out of home, those who stay hungry everyday and out of the light of education. But our small help and co-operation can change the life of those children. Statistics show that there are approximately 10 million children who are seriously suffering from hunger. Some organizations have come forward to help such deprived children. The activities of Outreach Center are really mentionable. This organization is doing all these as their social responsibility without any benefit. You can also be a part of this organization by donating a car.
Outreach Center rolls a program for underprivileged children to ensure their shelter, food, clothing, education and medical assistance. They are also concerned about the recreational activities of the children. You can also broaden your helping hand and work with such an organization. As an IRS recognized organization it is running Car donation program. You can donate car to help such children. Your junk car can enlighten the future of poor children.
To make the children educated this organization is providing funds for educational scholarships and providing school books. They are also arranging summer camps for the children. They are getting money for the donated cars. The theme of this organization is Donate Car. You can donate a car and co-operate with Outreach Center indirectly where direct assistance is so tough personally. Your little help can build up a huge fund for this organization. You can also donate a small piece of real estate or other vehicles for them.
The funds that are coming from the Car donation program also help the children to get hospital support in their diseases. The children who have no parents get residential facility from your donation. Education makes them civilized. This organization is working hard to keep the smiley face of the poor children. It will go for helping more children in near future. The Outreach Center is trying to make all positive and good from the feeling of their obligation for the underprivileged children. Without such help those children can go unheard.
Each and every child will have a healthy adult this is the prime concern of this organization. They are going to set up a milestone with their revolutionary steps. Outreach Center is eliminating the difference in between the underprivileged children and other children who are getting all facilities easily. This will also increase the social value of poor children.
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Monday, November 21st, 2011
Baltimore Vehicle Donation Is Saving Our Kids!
This state of affairs just breaks my heart. Right now, as you’re reading this article, you will discover there are countless unhealthy, starving, deserted, despairing, and scared girls and boys sleeping on the challenging Baltimore streets. These sad cases are out there, in plain view of the public, grubby, humbled, and low-spirited.
A number of them eat out of trash bins, as an even greater number are now dependent on harmful drugs like crystal meth, heroin, and crack cocaine.
Make no mistake about it. I am not here to cloud up your day. This is not an attempt to make you feel rotten in any way. Still, I would like to elicit a sense of urgency. For the worst of these kids, this is a situation that can’t wait another week or two. They need you now.
And I would like to couple this sense of urgency with the feeling of power that comes with knowing that you can do something right now to help get these kids off the streets tomorrow. Because these two emotions are incredible motivators for us to make progress, I think it is a good idea for us to embrace them, and not try to “stuff” them.
Besides, there are some really cool benefits for us, the donors, as well. These will be discussed in detail very shortly.
What I’m about to ask you to do is going to be very uncomfortable, but it can help to provide you with a sense of urgency. In the meantime, I would greatly appreciate it if you took part in a brief activity…
Take a moment to visualize not these kids, but your own. If you don’t have kids, I’m sure someone you love does, and I’m sure you love that child or those children quite a bit. Now imagine your son or daughter somehow becoming displaced, and ending up on the street. And some monster introduces him or her to crystal meth, and makes them do unimaginable things to “earn their keep.”
Your kid eats out of dumpsters, begs for people’s spare change, and has very likely contracted unspeakable diseases… and has no access to medical treatment.
This thought, when I really get into detail and own the experience, nearly brings me to my knees. It’s disgusting, horrifying, and completely unacceptable. I just want to run up to my little boy, wrap my arms around him with all the love I’ve got inside me, drive him home, make him a warm bath and hot meal, and show him an entirely different reality.
The harsh reality is that there really are kids living like this, and they don’t have anyone to come and save them from this cruel fate. Their parents may be deceased, or imprisoned, or overtaken by their addictions. There is seemingly zero hope for these unfortunates. And yet you and I have the power to put an end to their suffering right away.
I get it, I get it! But how can I really fix this?
That’s the 0,000 question. And the fact of the matter is, the answer is incredibly elementary. Do you want to know what it is? Offer your automobile to a Baltimore car donation charity as soon as you’re able to do so. Because of your generosity, the charitable organization can have a positive impact on these young people’s lives.
Will I be otherwise compensated for my contribution?
Well, answering that question is certainly the secondary objective of this article, and the answer is without question a very powerful motivator. First, you can get rid of something you no longer want or need… or afford. Second, it’s zero hassle. You make a phone call and a tow truck comes and gets your vehicle for you. You don’t have to lift a finger. But here’s the third, and by far the most powerful benefit…
By giving to charity in this fashion, you qualify for a nice tax deduction. In fact, it’s the maximum deduction that the law will allow! For many participants, this equates to being worth even more than the vehicle that was donated!
So with this monetary incentive, coupled with the goodwill that you are bringing to our underprivileged kids, you should be able to see very clearly that this is a situation where everyone wins!
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Monday, November 21st, 2011
Foundation Repair Dallas
The Fund is a building block for any particular structure. If the foundation is damaged or cracked, the whole structure is in danger. This is because the whole building with the support of the Fund. Therefore, many precautions must be taken when installing and maintaining the foundation of creation.
Regardless of how much aid is placed in the basement of the building, cracks and other damage is possible over time. However, you can prevent irreversible damage, with an annual service. Even with proper care, the cracks can form in the concrete foundation. The main reason for the creation of cracks is water. Filtering water can cause great harm to any rise building, weakening it over time. Cracks caused by water leakage, are generally not heavy at first, but over time they expand and weaken the base.
Other common causes of concrete cracks and torrential rains, soil and land settlement movements that occur beneath the ground. All of these factors are responsible for the collapse, cracks and settle in the institutions. These are problems that can lead to unexpected repairs. These cracks may eventually weaken the building verge of collapse.
There are some obvious signs of foundation issues warning to look out for. If you find damp walls with a musty smell, cracking of brick veneers, leaky basements, titles tubes, tilted or sloping pipes, and then you should contact the foundation of the company to check your building. If you caught the problem in time, more extensive repairs can be avoided.
There are two types of repair concrete foundation, adding concrete blocks and pouring new concrete. Concrete block method is the preferred solution for most repairs. However, pouring concrete is often used to fill small cracks.
An experienced contractor can advise you on the best solution to repair your foundation. The contractor will assess the source of the crack, and then work accordingly to contain the damage. Like any other place in the U.S. you can find a number of contractors offering services in Dallas, but it depends on you to hire the best company to choose for best results. ABACUS Industries LLC serving Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas since 2001 and you can count on ABACUS for all your plumbing needs.
Repair costs depend largely on the nature of the injury. If the crack is small and the humidity, the repair may be cheaper. However, expenses increased in the case of large cracks, as they require more specific and extensive work.
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Monday, November 21st, 2011
Benjamin Boutell, A True Son of Michigan
A flat-bottomed boat lazed along the river’s bank on a summer day in 1860. An observer could be forgiven for not realizing the lone occupant was a youth who would grow to dominate two Michigan industries, log towing and sugar manufacturing and foster a number of companies in other industries that would add immeasurable wealth to Michigan’s developing economy.
The skiff bobbed in a ceaseless to-and-fro motion, influenced by waves that washed against the bank and then receded in accordance with the movement of steamers and sloops that churned the Saginaw River’s channel. Its skipper, sixteen-year-old Benjamin Boutell, sighed in sleepy contentment. The rocking motion of the river lulled him deeper into slumber as he basked in the sun’s warmth, dreaming of sea adventures in which he was the central figure.
He did not hear the sounds of sawing and hammering, the hailing of ships from shore, and other boisterous dock activity common to Bay City, Michigan in 1860.
In ten years, the city’s population had exploded from a mere fifty souls to more than three thousand, with more arriving each day from Canada or Detroit to take jobs in one of fifteen sawmills clustered on the riverbank. Before the lumber drew to a close forty years later, thirty thousand people would call Bay City home and more than one hundred sawmills lined the riverbanks from Bay City to Saginaw, twelve miles distant.
His father, Daniel Boutell, owned one of the hotels situated within hailing distance at the southeast corner of Water and Third streets. Not long before it had been the Sherman House. Situated across from the Detroit Steamboat Company’s landing, it was often the first stop for newcomers to the city. Daniel Boutell had moved his family thirty miles north from Birch Run to take over the hotel, and after extensive renovations hung a new shingle near the entrance. Now it was the Boutell House, a home away from home for Great Lakes sailors who were made to feel more like family guests than hotel patrons because many of the Boutells’ nine children shared the hotel with them
Fascinated by the stories the sailors told, Ben grew to love the river and the great Saginaw Bay, the doorway to the Great Lakes, a doorway he planned to pass through one day. Meanwhile, he earned his way by remaining on call to the Protection Fire Company where he served as first assistant foreman and helped his father at the hotel where he badgered sailors with questions about schooners, sloops, barges, and tugboats. An infectious grin and a sincere interest loosened tongues of sailors who enjoyed Ben’s enthusiasm; they gladly shared accounts of their adventures and knowledge of all things nautical.
Having learned much about the nature of goods that moved from port to port on the Great Lakes, he began to pay special attention to the movement of logs towed by powerful tugboats. The task of moving felled trees to mills situated in one of the state’s principal sawmill towns, Saginaw, Bay City, or Muskegon, was critical to the success of the timber industry. Water transport provided the least costly solution. Logs carved from Michigan’s forests were floated downstream, collected at river mouths, sorted into floating corrals, called “booms,” and towed by tugboats to sawmills that lined the river from Saginaw to Bay City. From forests along Canada’s Georgian Bay shoreline, tugboats towed booms containing thousands of logs across Lake Huron and into the Saginaw Bay for shipment to waiting sawmills.
Tugboat captains faced many perils: sudden storms that would threaten to shatter the delicate lacing of logs that formed the boom, shipboard disasters, exploding boilers, and fires that could leave crews abandoned to chilling water far from rocky shores. The idea of taking the helm of such a craft fired the imagination of the hotelkeeper’s son.
His ambition gained impetus in his twenty-first year when fire destroyed the Boutell House. Dan Boutell fought the blaze until only smoldering rubble remained. His lungs seared by smoke, he declined in health until death claimed him the following year. The family’s livelihood in peril, Ben immediately signed on as a full-time sailor on the steam tug Wave. Within the year, he was the Wave’s mate and in the following year earned papers conferring upon him the responsibilities of a ship’s master.
As Captain Boutell, he assumed command of the Ajax, a steam tug that had lately become the property of the First National Bank of Bay City. The bank had acquired it in the manner banks often acquire assets – via defaulted notes. The twenty-two-year-old novice captain enlisted the aid of an engineer named Samuel Jones, whose salary, like the captain’s, was conditional upon the ship’s revenue, and a cook he addressed with affection as Aunt Kitty and who possessed both an impressive girth and a disposition for adventure. Ben, Jones, and Aunt Kitty ran the tug that fall with Ben handling with equal ease mundane chores such as cutting wood for its boiler and management of the boat’s business. The trio cleared for the owners ,000 (about thousand in 2009 dollars), giving the young captain a reputation as a can-do ship’s master with a first-rate knowledge of the Great Lakes.
Bold competence won the attention of Captain William Mitchell, master of the tug Union. Mitchell admired the rangy youth with the engaging smile whose energy seemed to expand to meet any challenge. The two became fast friends and business partners, acquiring over time a fleet of tugboats, barges, schooners, and freight haulers that eventually numbered more than fifty. Boutell organized great rafts containing as much as four million board feet of lumber, making him the single greatest hauler of timber of the lumber era. Altogether, log rafting and other towing work for his tugs employed the services of five hundred people. He counted himself among them. Even as his assets and his reputation grew, he stayed on at the helm of one tug or another, five years alone as captain of the Annie Moiles, until finally responsibilities created by his rapidly growing wealth kept him on shore.
Although Ben never left behind the boy who probed the riverbanks aboard a small skiff, the capital he amassed as boat owner and captain on Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and the Georgian Bay would eventually generate additional fortunes. When Ben Boutell, William Mitchell, and future partner, Peter Smith linked themselves to the lumber industry they had tied themselves to a star that would rise but a little distance before flaming out. When the white pine forests melted under the onslaught of axes and saws, the need for Boutell’s tugs disappeared. For a time it was his plan to continue where he had begun, hauling logs from Canada. However, prohibitive duties ended any hope of profiting from Canadian timber. With a sinking heart, Ben, who once transported an average of one hundred million board feet of timber in a season, watched his boats loiter at the docks.
So it was that Captain Benjamin Boutell, in 1897, at the age of fifty-three, found himself wealthy, but unemployed and eager for new opportunities. Though he no longer was the trim youth that inspired legends, he was still affable, easy-going, and, as always, attired in rumpled clothing. A shaggy moustache was all that was remained of a once prominent beard, and though he paid close attention to the weekly sermon at the Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, he peppered his speech with impious phrases that would have brought deep furrows to its minister’s features had they been uttered in his presence. A general portliness, the outcome of too many dinners prepared under the direction of Amelia, his wife of nearly thirty years, robbed him of his once athletic build. Though the body had become rounder, fuller, and less capable of single-handedly managing a schooner’s rigging, the inquisitive youth was still present in eyes that sparkled at the suggestion of adventure.
With the passing of the lumber era, some thirty years after Ben towed his first raft of logs, many who had garnered riches in Michigan’s forests departed, carrying their wealth to distant cities. Ben Boutell stayed put, reinvesting most of his wealth in Michigan. He opened his mind to possibilities in many industries. Knowing little about any of them, insatiable curiosity guided his direction. Soon, he owned major shares of coalmines, shipping companies, machinery shops, cement factories, banks, a telephone company, foundries, and sugar factories. His interests spanned the country from Boston where he owned sea-going barges to Redwood City, California, where he co-founded that state’s first Portland cement factory. He eventually served as an officer or director in thirty-two companies, nine of them in Michigan’s beet sugar industry. He also co-founded the Colorado and Canadian beet sugar industries, presiding over two sugar companies in Colorado and serving on the boards of two Canadian companies that later became the foundation for the Canadian-Dominion Sugar Company. Additionally, he owned large farms where he grew sugarbeets as well as a 4,000-acre ranch in the state’s northern reaches.
His sugar interests alone would have been enough to keep two or three executives busy year around. No single individual in Michigan devoted as much of his wealth and time to the state’s evolving sugarbeet industry as did Captain Benjamin Boutell. He was one of the founders of Michigan’s first beet sugar company, Michigan Sugar Company, where he served as a director and vice-president. He served in similar capacities at the Bay City Sugar Company. He co-founded the Saginaw Sugar Company where he served as treasurer and held a directorship. He was president of the Lansing Sugar Company and treasurer of the Marine City Sugar Company and held directorships in the Mount Clemens, Carrollton, and Menominee sugar companies.
The vast Sugar Trust, an organization that held the country’s supply of sugar in a steel grip for decades did not have his support. As the Trust grew in power, he sold his stock in companies that fell under its control and invested in independent companies, maintaining distance from a form of business organization that was losing favor in America.
Captain Boutell commanded the deck of sailing sloops and boardrooms with equal ease, routinely making investments that impelled the formation of companies employing hundreds. But, when he passed through the portal of his home, he entered a matriarchal society governed by his wife, Amelia, and her identical twin sister, Cornelia.
Amelia Charlotte Duttlinger and her sister were born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1850 or 1851. Tragedy came early to the twins. Their father died when they were three-months old, causing their mother, Catharine, to move to Bay County. There, she operated a hotel with the aid of the twins when they were old enough, two servants, and a bartender. Among the guests in 1869 was Ben Boutell, a dashing young sailor who at twenty-four had already become the stuff of legends and a man of means. That he was a catch surely did not escape the notice of Amelia and Cornelia, or their widowed mother.
Amelia was possessed of a genial personality and good looks and although physically identical to her twin sister, she somehow presented a difference to Ben. Perhaps it was friendlier disposition and an unwary attitude that brought merriment to her eyes and the kind of smile that will linger in a man’s memory. Her auburn hair cascaded long and full across her shoulders, ending in ringlets that bounced with each step she took.
Cornelia seemed, by comparison, more guarded and often critical of the hotel’s guests, many of whom fell short of her rigid standards of dress and deportment. Amelia’s non-stop references to Ben began to sound like wedding bells to Cornelia. She hinted at a budding love affair of her own.
The courtship was brief, shaped by the busy schedule of a Great Lakes seaman. The two were in love and although the term had yet to come into usage, they were soul mates. Each had lost a father at a young age, each had spent formative years bearing adult responsibilities assisting in the operation of a hotel, and each aspired to a life measured in achievement. The marriage occurred on December 22, 1869, after the sea lanes closed for the winter. Ben and Amelia looked forward to a long honeymoon that would end when the Great Lakes thawed in March.
Before the honeymoon was over, however, Cornelia, in great distress, landed on their doorstep to recuperate from a tragic turn of events in her love life. After that, the sisters became inseparable; one would go nowhere without the other. At Amelia’s insistence, Ben bought two of everything, coats, dresses, and hats monogrammed to identify the twin to whom it belonged. In a nod of acceptance of the permanence of Cornelia’s presence in their lives, he named one of his ore-carrying barges “Twin Sisters.” The twin he loved he called “Meil”.
The only distinction between the twins was a small mole on Amelia’s neck behind one ear. Ben, however, possessed a secret method for distinguishing one from the other: Amelia’s features generally depicted contentment while Cornelia’s aspect was sour and irritable. The birth of three sons, Frederick, William, and Bennie, gave special purpose to Amelia’s life while supervision of their development into cultured gentlemen in the coarse riverside lumber town became a special mission for Cornelia. She had surrendered any hope of doing the same for her brother-in-law. His bulk combined with restlessness made every delicate object within his reach vulnerable to breakage; teacups, spectacles, jewelry clasps, and fine furniture seemed to fracture and break in his presence.
The sisters determined that the time had come for the captain to establish a residence sized and embellished in a manner that properly announced the breadth of his life’s achievements. At their behest, he purchased four contiguous lots in Bay City on Fifth and Madison Streets, a block off Center Avenue. Today, Center Avenue reveals a spectacular display of late nineteenth and early twentieth century residential architecture for which it has won a place on the National Register of Historic Places. For Bay City’s prominent citizens in the 1890′s and the next half-century, it was the right place to live. Lumbermen and leaders in beet sugar, coal, shipbuilding, and other industries built stylish homes that reflected their substantial fortunes.
Phillip C. Floeter, a distinguished architect who had a few years earlier designed the Trinity Episcopal Church was engaged to draw up the plans and then build a mansion calculated to dwarf Center Avenue homes in both magnitude and ornamentation.
Floeter imported Italian tile and marble for eleven fireplaces and ordered substantial quantities of mahogany, maple, birch, and pine for both the house and interior paneling. The parlor showed Ben’s love of the Great Lakes. It was in the shape of the bow of a boat, and at the far end stood a floor-to-ceiling mirror flanked on each side by tall, mirrored cabinets. Another tribute to the Great Lakes-bright stones carried from Lake Erie and installed within a front looking gable–attracted the attention of passers-by. Panels covered the interior walls to a height of five feet with the area above them covered first with canvas and then decorated with gold leaf. Lighting fixtures were made of sterling silver.
In addition to storage rooms, the basement contained a kitchen and dining rooms where Ben entertained business associates and friends who preferred to puff on cigars while paying Bacchic tribute to one another, activities prohibited elsewhere on the premises. Two private balconies opened off bedrooms on the second floor, and a first-floor porch ran the full length of two sides of the house. From that vantage point, one could glimpse the river and hear the sigh of sloops passing in the night. The house was painted green with white trim–with marine paint, of course. A large barn, which housed four driving horses and a carriage, stood behind the house.
Boutell was low-keyed. He avoided the limelight often favored by business executives and community leaders, foregoing speeches, the holding of public office or any of the other trappings that accompany success. Compared to those who mounted pulpits or appeared before Bay City’s business and social groups, Benjamin was bashful, almost retiring. With the exception of his mansion, a concession to his wife to whom he refused nothing, he avoided public displays of wealth. He was more likely to give encouragement to children who congregated on his spacious lawn where he built a toboggan slide for them, than to engage in politics and more likely to spend time with his family than at business conventions.
January in the Saginaw Bay region is a cold time. The ice thickens on the bay and the river’s pace slows to a crawl and then finally stops altogether. Each day brings forewarning of colder days to come as winter settles in to hold the region in a cold embrace until spring. It was 1902 and Bay City was no longer imprisoned by frozen waterways five months of each year; railroads now allowed travel to those places where Ben did business. He took frequent advantage of them to travel within the United States and Canada where he attended boards of directors meetings and shareholder meetings or to appraise new investment opportunities.
When he returned from one such excursion in late January 1902, he entered his home where he found Amelia and Cornelia together in the sitting room. Cornelia’s hands were busy knitting a shawl, one of many gifts she and Amelia made throughout the year for family and church members. Amelia’s hands were in her lap, one folded over the other, an unusual posture for Amelia, who, like Ben, was generally busy from dawn to dusk.
Something else captured his attention, sending a cold shiver along his spine. The twins were no longer identical! True, their dresses, as always, were the same, fashionable Edwardian afternoon dresses, black, and in keeping with strait-laced Methodist views, unadorned with jewelry. Each now wore her hair pulled back tightly and secured in a chignon at the back of the head. But, Amelia’s features had changed during the few weeks he had been away, or at any rate, he noticed an accumulation of changes that had escaped his attention when he saw her each day.
She had lost weight, her face was drawn and narrow; her shoulders sloped as if in defeat, and, worst of all, the luster had left her eyes. He swung his head to his left and noticed a pair of kid gloves sitting on the hallstand and droplets of moisture on the floor. Despite their settled appearance, he guessed the two had reached home shortly before him and had hurriedly arranged themselves to deceive him into believing they had been there the daylong. Knitting needles flashed in Cornelia’s busy hands. Her gaze flew first to Amelia, and then to Ben. Amelia made as if to rise to greet her husband but Ben, seeing her distress, rushed across the small space between them and took her in his arms.
He summoned specialists to her side and took her to those who could not visit her at home. She grew worse. Cancer was the sixth cause of death in Michigan in that period, behind tuberculosis, heart disease, pneumonia, cholera, and influenza. Despite Ben’s ferocious efforts to save her, she grew steadily worse.
By Thanksgiving, Ben realized Amelia understood the end was near. He drew his chair close to her bed when with a frail motion she beckoned him to draw close. With a voice too thin to travel more than a few feet, she made known her final wishes. Cornelia, she reminded him, had been a part of her life from the moment of her birth and a part of Ben’s from the moment of his marriage. She implored him to marry Cornelia to protect the family’s wealth which would be threatened with division or total loss in the event Benjamin married another. Marry, Cornelia, she said, and it all stays together where it belongs.
She gripped Ben’s hand with the little strength that remained and asked that he promise her now. In thirty-three years of marriage, Ben had yielded to her every wish; he saw no reason to demur now. He made the promise, then smiled and told her it was an easy promise to make because she would be right as rain by Christmas, at the latest!
Amelia died five days later on November 25, 1902. Ben kept his deathbed vow and married Cornelia fourteen months later on February 11, 1904.
Ben increased the pace of his activities, forming companies, expanding others, and devoting additional time to community projects, such as the founding of the YMCA and the YWCA, serving as a church trustee, and giving freely of his time and money to local needs.
In April 1912, he attended a meeting of the stockholders of Wallaceburg Sugar Company in Wallaceburg, Ontario. At the meeting’s conclusion, he arrived at the railway station in Chatham for the return trip just as the engine was warming. Black smoke billowed from the smokestack. The chugging engine seemed to shout Hurry! Hurry! The conductor, impatient to have a last-second boarder, leaned forward as if to remove the small wooden step used by passengers to board the train. Ben broke into a lope. Just as he grasped the bar that would allow him to swing aboard, the train suddenly lurched forward. He held on with one hand, scrambling to board but lacked the strength to complete the maneuver. He loosened his grip and fell to the platform. At first, he believed himself no more than badly shaken. Upon returning home, he began to feel discomfort, then pain, then agony. Within a short time, he fell into a semi-conscious state from which he drifted into death on October 26, 1912.
When Benjamin Boutell passed into history, Michigan lost a member of a cadre of daring men and women born near the time the state came into existence. He injected vigor and a risk-taking attitude into the frontier state making of himself a pioneer on the Great Lakes and in Michigan’s farm fields and in the fostering of several industrial concerns. When Michigan faced economic distress during the phasing out of the lumber industry, he ignored safer paths and plunged instead, into new industries that expanded economic opportunity in Michigan’s smaller cities at the risk of uncertain financial return for himself while others in his situation carried profits won in Michigan to distant, safer harbors, New York, Cleveland, and Boston. For that alone, he is remembered as a true son of Michigan.
Sources:
Butterfield, George, Bay County Past and Present, Centennial Edition, George Butterfield, Board of Education, Bay City, Michigan ,1957, pages 117, 195 (photo of mansion), 89, 118, and 142.
Gansser, Augustus, History of Bay County, MI and Representative Citizens, Richmond & Arnold, Chicago, IL, 1905, pages 491-2.
Gutleben, Dan, The Sugar Tramp – 1954, Bay Cities Duplicating Co, San Francisco, California, 1954.
Mansfield, J. B. History of the Great Lakes, Vol 1, Freshwater Press, Cleveland, Ohio, 1972
Evening Press, West Bay City, Bay, MI, Friday, 26 Nov 1880, relating to the death of Benjamin Boutell’s mother.
Cyclopedia of Michigan: Historical and Biographical Synopsis of General History of the State and Biographical Sketches of Men who have, in their various spheres, contributed toward its development., Western Publishing and Engraving Co., New York and Detroit, 227-8, 230-1, Bay City Public Library, Bay, Michigan
History of the Great Lakes with Illus., J. H. Beers & Co., Chicago, 1899. Vol. II, pages 18-22.
INFLATION ADJUSTMENTS: The pre-1975 data are the Consumer Price Index statistics from Historical Statistics of the United States (USGPO, 1975). All data since then are from the annual Statistical Abstracts of the United States. Recorded at http://www.westegg.com/inflation
MICHIGAN ANNUAL REPORTS, Michigan Archives, Lansing, Michigan
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Monday, November 21st, 2011
New Jersey Car Donation Charities Need Your Help
How would you like to help others while helping yourself? When you contribute your unwanted vehicle(s) to a New Jersey car donation charity, you help save the lives of desperate New Jersey kids. These kids are sleeping on our streets, begging for money, eating garbage, and doing things to get by that we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemies.
I would like to state very clearly that it is not the aim of this article to bring you down or “bum you out.” Instead, I would like to uplift you. I’d love to let you know that there is hope for these kids, and that you and I have direct control over changing the lives of our sick, hungry, and homeless New Jersey children.
Moreover, I would like to motivate you to take action. And one way I can do that is to let you know about some of the personal benefits you will receive by doing so. While donating your unwanted vehicle is undoubtedly a selfless act that you can feel wonderful, there are additional rewards to you that make the whole experience just that much more satisfying. We’ll get to those in a moment. Before we do, however, I want to tug on your heart strings just a little more. (I guess I’m kind of cruel like that!) But seriously…
Get a clear mental picture of your own child, or a child you love dearly. Picture that little boy or girl dirty, on the streets, and thrown away by the world. See him or her begging for money, or worse, performing “favors” in order to get by. Perhaps this child is addicted to heroin or methamphetamines, infected with the AIDS virus, and having no access to any treatment whatsoever.
As you continue to engage in this image, what is the expression on your little one’s face portraying? Sorrow? Desperation? Fear? Numbness? Isn’t this an absolutely horrific, gut-wrenching thought? Now put yourself in the picture, approaching your baby, holding him or her with all the care and compassion in the world, and returning this suffering child to your loving home.
The harsh reality is that there really are kids living like this, and they don’t have anyone to come and save them from this cruel fate. Their parents may be deceased, or imprisoned, or overtaken by their addictions. There is seemingly zero hope for these unfortunates. And yet you and I have the power to put an end to their suffering right away.
Okay, I get it! But how can we actually help these poor kids?
This is without a doubt the question of the day. Answering it is as easy as one simple little word. Donate. By offering a car, truck, suv, van, scooter, or any other unwanted vehicle (regardless of its condition) to a New Jersey car donation charity program, the proceeds are leveraged in a way that provides the maximum benefit on these unfortunate children.
Food, clothing, shelter, education, medical treatment, safety, and (most importantly) love will all find their way into these youngsters’ lives. Knowing that you have made such a significant contribution will, without a doubt, give you a rare kind of inner peace that is hard to find elsewhere.
I want to help, but is anything in it for me?
Well, answering that question is certainly the secondary objective of this article, though it is more than fair to ask. In fact, this is what I was referring to early when I told you I would like to motivate you with benefits. So here they are:
First, you can get rid of something you no longer want or need… or afford. Second, it’s zero hassle. You make a phone call and a tow truck comes and gets your vehicle for you. You don’t have to lift a finger. But here’s the third, and by far the most powerful benefit…
By giving to charity in this fashion, you qualify for a nice tax deduction. In fact, it’s the maximum deduction that the law will allow! For many participants, this equates to being worth even more than the vehicle that was donated! So with this monetary incentive, coupled with the goodwill that you are bringing to our underprivileged kids, you should be able to see very clearly that this is a situation where everyone wins!
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