It all began with an advertisement on the front page of the Ann Arbor News. It was Saturday, January 8, 1938, and readers were encouraged to visit page 5 of the newspaper to meet Bobby and the Old Professor "(who knows almost everything)" for an adventure in science. "The feature, written by R. Ray Baker, is intended especially for children but grownups will like it, too."

R. Ray Baker was a known quantity to readers of local newspapers. In 1923 he became managing editor of the Ann Arbor News, then known as the Ann Arbor Times-News, and served in that capacity until 1934 when he became Associate Editor. Baker was also a feature and science writer for affiliated Booth Newspapers, Inc. (Saginaw News, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen-Patriot, Muskegon Chronicle, Bay City Times, Kalamazoo Gazette, & Ann Arbor News). He published articles nearly every day, and tried to keep the public informed on new developments in the fields of science and medicine. Much of his information came from interviewing University of Michigan staff members, and professors regularly cooperated with him on major stories.

Bobby, The Old Professor, And (Sometimes) Julia

The launch of R. Ray Baker's new Bobby and the Old Professor series was geared toward a young audience, but aimed to educate adults as well. The premise was simple: "Bobby" was a boy of roughly 10 years old who was curious about the world around him and had lots of questions. The "Old Professor" had all of the answers. With each article, a photograph depicting their weekly adventure would be published as well. Ann Arbor News photographer Eck Stanger shot all of the staged images for the series. "Bobby" was portrayed by R. Ray Baker's son Russell, and the "Old Professor" was retired University of Michigan Mathematics Professor William H. Butts. Baker thought of the "Old Professor" as a composite of all of the U of M faculty men he had interviewed over the years, and felt that Professor Butts had an appearance to fit this role. Later in the series the character of "Julia" was added, the female counterpart to "Bobby," and Jackie Carl portrayed that role in the photographs.

Scientific Adventures In Newspapers

R. Ray Baker's very first Bobby and the Old Professor article was titled "What's A Leaf?". Each week Baker would consult with experts at the University of Michigan to ensure the accuracy of his writing. Scientific mysteries would be explained in simplified language. Topics varied throughout the first year of the series from radios to turkeys, ancient pottery, the northern lights, quicksand, linotype machines, fire, sabre-toothed tigers, the four seasons, and volcanos.

The scientific adventures of Bobby and the Old Professor (and sometimes Julia) appeared originally in Booth Newspapers, Inc. publications. The Flint Journal, for example, ran the series as part of their "Children's Corner," which eventually grew into the "Wide Awake Club" page in Sunday issues. By March 1938, R. Ray Baker was encouraging children to participate in the series. "WRITE TO THE OLD PROFESSOR," the headline declared. "Boys and girls are invited to write to the Old Professor, in care of this newspaper, for explanation of anything that puzzles them." Soon the Old Professor was directly answering children's science questions in the series, increasing readership of the already popular articles.

Scientific Adventures In Books

In 1939 the first Bobby and the Old Professor book was released. "So That's The Reason!" published by Reilly and Lee, Chicago, was a collection of selected (and sometimes revised) articles from the newspaper series. Topics included spiders and webs, Saturn's rings, thunder & lightning, glaciers, why ducks swim, and snowflakes. The book contained a foreword by Dr. Alexander G. Ruthven, president of the University of Michigan, and was dedicated to "The curiosity of American youngsters - may it never grow less!". Illustrations were included, along with the photos that Eck Stanger had contributed to the newspaper series. Reilly and Lee, Chicago, would eventually publish five more of R. Ray Baker's Bobby and the Old Professor books: So That's Chemistry! (1940), So That's Astronomy! (1941), So That's Geology! (1942), So That's Life! (1943), & So That's Man! (1949).

The Adventure's End

The Bobby and the Old Professor series ran weekly from January 1938 until May 1949. At the end of June 1941, Professor William H. Butts aka "The Old Professor" died at the age of 84. The photos featured in the series after his death would be of Bobby & Julia, with no replacement for the professor's character. The series continued to run steadily through the 1940s, and remained a popular feature in Booth newspapers around Michigan. As Russell Baker ("Bobby") and Jackie Carl ("Julia") grew into young adults and moved on with their lives, the series eventually stopped featuring photos of them and turned towards the use of illustrations instead.

On May 2, 1949, R. Ray Baker experienced some chest pain. He collapsed on East Washington Street while walking to his doctor's office, and died before reaching the hospital by ambulance. His untimely passing at the age of 58 was mourned throughout the Booth Newspaper affiliates, especially in Ann Arbor by those who worked closely with him on a daily basis. He had just finished work on his book "So That's Man!" and it was published shortly after his death, along with his final installment of Bobby and the Old Professor. Baker was praised for his wide-reaching career in journalism that successfully made science education accessible to countless numbers of adult and children alike. 

Not feeling well in 1880s Ann Arbor but not quite sure what the cause is?  With your name, age, one leading symptom, and a lock of hair, Dr. N. H. (Sophia) Pierce would diagnose your ailment based on her clairvoyant skills. Don’t need a diagnosis? Simply pick up a copy of the Ann Arbor Courier and you could read her opinions, short fiction, or poetry in the paper. Unacquainted with Sophia? Well, as a resident in the 5th or 6th ward you may find her on your doorstep, coming to collect information for the census. It seems that everyone in Ann Arbor must have been familiar with Mrs. N. H. Pierce, or Dr. N. H. Pierce, or simply "Soph" as she signed some of her published musings. 

Born Sophia Messylvia Monroe in 1828 in Watertown, New York, her family moved to Detroit in 1835 before settling in Ann Arbor three years later--just 14 years after the town’s founding. At 19 she married 27-year-old Nathan H. Pierce. The couple became fixtures of Lower Town, the area on the north side of the Huron River which was building itself up with the aim of becoming the center of the city.

Nathan was involved in civic life, at times serving as a City Marshal, Constable for the 5th Ward, and Deputy Collector for Internal Revenue. Together the couple had 5 children, three of whom survived: Ada Josephine (Pierce) Saunders born in 1848, Edward Hartley Pierce born in 1855, and Nathan Pierce III born in 1870. 

Her Written Record

A woman of many words, Sophia was a prolific contributor to local newspaper the Ann Arbor Courier and the monthly Ladies’ Repository, a periodical for the Methodist Episcopal Church. Much of her work for the Courier reached a greater audience through reprints in other papers.

Morality was a central theme, and her surviving short stories tend to be melodramatic tales of down on their luck women. “The Wentworths,” reprinted in the Peninsular Courier, recounts a woman whose husband leaves her home alone with their sick baby in order to gamble and drink at a saloon. He misses the death of their child and must carry the guilt as a consequence. The couple separates, he reforms, and they get back together, with the woman staying devoted to her husband. It was touted as being a true story based on a couple Sophia knew.

Sophia’s commentary on local events was similarly focused around ethics. While her short stories and poems were published under “Mrs. N. H. Pierce,” she also used the nom de plume “Soph,” particularly when offering observations of the community. Upon her death the Ann Arbor Courier wrote, “Her series of articles known as 'Ann Arbor in Slices' will be remembered by all of our old readers.” The series was printed with the heading:

"This beautiful city, its virtues and vices, 
Its arts and its sciences, I'll serve you in slices;
Beside I will give, for the sake of variety, 
Occasional views of its scenes and society."

The only article in the series that could be located criticizes a “ball alley” or “gymnasium," purporting that men and boys gamble there. 

Her strong opinions attracted attention and another article signed “Soph” appears to be fending off an anonymous detractor and asserting the justness of her proclamations. She defends her righteousness by writing, “You will see by this that the writer of 'Sopht poetry' does not need to be fed on “pickles in thin slices to sweeten her temper.” A proper appreciation of her well-directed efforts to bring about improvement always does this.” (The inclusion of pickles was likely in reference to her family's side business selling the product.)

Of her remaining works, her poems offer more levity and a few odes to admirable figures.

A Lasting Landmark

Sophia wasn’t content to only write about improvements she hoped to see in her community, she also contributed to it. As a founder and leader of the Fifth Ward Decoration Society she helped spearhead the tradition of leaving flowers and offerings on soldier’s graves locally for “Decoration Day” (now known as Memorial Day). 

Founded in 1870, the society soon set its sights on a permanent memorial to the ward’s Union soldiers who lost their lives in the recent Civil War. The Fifth Ward had a disproportionately high number of enlistees, totaling 75 out of the district’s 140 voters. 25 of those soldiers were eventually buried in Fairview Cemetery. By 1874 the decoration group had successfully raised enough money to erect a monument in their tribute.

The society’s leaders thanked contributors, writing: 

“Ages hence that monument shall stand, for nothing short of a convulsion of nature can remove it from its firm foundation. Future generations will see and admire it, shall point with exultation to this symbol of our faith and righteous cause.” 

Their declaration came true:  the monument can still be admired at Fairview, bearing the names of the lives lost. 

Census Collector

In 1880, Sophia undertook another job that connected her to her community: Census Enumerator. She was put in charge of collecting information about the 5th and 6th Wards, reaching a total of 1,903 residents. 

After completing her work in 1880, she “received a letter highly recommending her for her honesty, integrity and faithfulness to duty, from the census bureau.” She was reappointed in 1883 which “she deemed a high compliment, being as stated, the only lady selected to a like position.”

Upon the conclusion of her first census the Ann Arbor Courier relayed that, “She has found much that was edifying, some things saddening, and could tell many a funny story in illustration of character.” Sophia’s writing made it clear that she was interested in society, and the insight she gained from visiting homes for the census may have helped inform her authorship. 

Magnetic Medicine

The next role she took on also allowed her entry into people’s homes, but it wasn’t founded in evidence like the census. As a magnetic physician and clairvoyant, Sophia advertised her ability to “cure when all others fail,” "without medicine," and "without asking questions." 

These were not the magnetic forces used in modern medicine. In the late 1800s, magnetic balms and ointments were touted as curing just about any and all physical or mental ailments from toothaches, to inflammation, to removing “mental gloom and despondency.”  

As a lower town resident, Sophia was likely well acquainted with the success of her late neighbor Dr. Daniel Kellogg who claimed that he was connected to spirits and could command the body via electric force. He too used "magnetism," professing that blood was affected by magnetic impulses because it contained iron. Like Dr. Kellogg, Sophia advertised her ability to diagnose diseases from a dubious distance. 

After her husband’s death in 1883, Sophia’s practice seems to have begun in earnest. She was registered in that year and “branched forth more largely in the work which she for many years has been engaged in.” One advertisement claimed she had 25 years practice, receiving testimonials from people throughout the Midwest.

A Fateful Fall?

Her publicized medical skills were no match for liver cancer, and she passed in 1893 after being confined to the house for three weeks and to her bed for ten days.

Illustrative of the limited knowledge of medicine during the time period, her obituary claims that her liver cancer “was the direct result of a fall received from the high bank south of E. W. Moore’s house, where she had been called to attend Mrs. Moore during an illness some four years ago.”

Eli W. Moore was Sophia's Pontiac St. neighbor, manager of one of Lower Town's anchor businesses, the Ann Arbor Agricultural Company, and also happened to be the President of the Board of Health at the time of her coming to treat his wife, Elizabeth Moore. Sophia didn’t take the fall lying down and petitioned the city to be compensated for her injuries. 

In the end, “all was done for her that possibly could by competent doctors, neighbors and children – her children seldom leaving her bedside.” She now rests in Fairview Cemetery not far from the monument that she helped to spearhead.

This letter, dated November 7, 1995, was sent to the Ann Arbor News Librarian by retired Outdoor Editor, photographer, and writer, Doug Fulton. Fulton had retired from the News in 1983 after serving as a columnist, editor, and photographer for 30 years.