Since the unveiling of Howell’s newest mural on the side of the Thai Cafe, the question most asked of The Livingston Post has been about the Clydesdales. The magnificent horses are featured with other memories and symbols of Howell in the newest downtown mural unveiled last week.
The colorful, energetic piece was painted by Howell artist Susan Pominville, founder of ART Doing Good, with community input and inspiration; it serves as a lively welcome to the city for those traveling west on Grand River Avenue.
And it captures part of the long and interesting story of Clydesdales in Howell. The ones in the mural are “most obviously a nod to Howell’s nighttime Fantasy of Lights Parade,” said Pominville, who used to photograph the event each year for the Howell Area Chamber of Commerce.
Pominville recalls the excitement the Clydesdales generated in 2007.
“I had a front-row view of downtown on those nights,” Pominville said. “In 2007, the timing lined up for the Budweiser Clydesdales to stop in Howell while they were traveling through Michigan. They needed a break from their trailers before continuing on to Detroit Metro Airport, and they ended up marching through downtown during the parade.”
The appearance of the Clydesdales was well-publicized in the local paper, and people were anxious to see them.
“The energy that night was unlike anything I had ever seen downtown,” Pominville said. “Before the parade even started, the Clydesdales’ semi-trailers cruised through town, and the sidewalks were packed shoulder-to-shoulder from one end of downtown to the other.”
An editorial in the local paper after the Fantasy of Lights “an estimated 30,000 people lined Grand River Avenue for the event, which was made all the more memorable by the appearance of the Budweiser Clydesdales.”
While the horses delighted just about everyone, they also ignited a war of words in the letters to the editor of the local paper that ran for a couple issues, debating whether the Budweiser Clydesdales would spark an epidemic of underage beer drinking in Livingston County.
Here are some of the letters from the Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007, edition of the local paper.
But the history of Clydesdales in Howell goes back much farther. Way, way back, Clydesdales worked on Livingston County farms; their size and strength made them perfect to plow fields and haul freight.
For Pominville, the connection goes way beyond photographing the horses in the Fantasy of Lights parades; it’s also quite personal: “In the archives at the Howell Carnegie District Library, there’s a photograph of Elijah B. Hosley, my great-great grandfather, with his blue-ribbon team of farm horses at the Livingston County Fair in 1917,” she said.
Here is the photograph of Elijah B. Hosley:
Check out this ad in the local paper on April 11, 1889, for a Clydesdale’s stud services:
You might also recognize the house that stood on the Sexton farm:
As well as the 4 Mile House in “west Howell” mentioned in the ad, which was located at northwest corner of West Grand River Avenue and Burkhart Road. The building burned down in 1946.
And this ad from May 24, 1911.
The first year the Clydesdales appeared in the Fantasy of Lights Parade was in 2007, and they delighted crowds again in 2009.
The Clydesdales were also in Howell on Fathers’ Day 2009. A team of eight geldings pulled a 2-1/2 ton wagon down Grand River Avenue with Bud, the mascot Dalmation, riding in it (you can see Bud on top of the wagon in the photo below). The Clydesdales appeared at the Farmers’ Market from noon to 2 p.m.
Twenty years earlier, the Clydesdales appeared in the September 1987 St. Joseph Catholic Church Fall Fun Daze, in a parade that began on Fowler Street, next to the church. From there, the horses headed north to Grand River Avenue, west to Chestnut Street, south to Sibley Street, and then east back to Fowler Street.
And nearly 20 years before that, a hitch of six Clydesdales appeared in Howell Melon Festival. On Saturday, Aug. 23, 1969, Wilson Six Horse Hitch conducted a “demonstration of horsemanship” in the parking lot of the A&P store at 1250 Grand River Ave., where Byrum Ace Hardware now operates.
Thanks to ART Doing Good, the history of the Clydesdales in Howell is now enshrined in the mural, which you can explore by clicking here.
