Author Bruce Cox Pens Book on Superior Statehood and the Man Behind the Effort

WAKEFIELD, MI - Sunday, April 26, 2009 - IRONWOOD, MI - Sunday, April 26, 2009 - Local historian and author Bruce K. Cox, of Wakefield, recently released his twenty-seventh book Ted & Superior: Ted Albert & the 51st State of Superior.

As a young child Cox was fascinated with anything old. He had a passion for history. When he was ten years of age he began collecting coins, rocks, minerals, and bottles. As a child he liked to spend time with the old and retired. He absorbed their stories of the past like a sponge and they stuck to his memory like glue. Throughout his early life, if it involved history, Cox devoured it.

Cox graduated from Wakefield High School in 1974. In June of 1975, at the age of 19, he heard that a meeting advocating the 51st State of Superior was being held at the Community Memorial Building in Wakefield. Be a history buff, his curiosity brought Cox to that meeting. This was Bruce’s first and only encounter with Ted Albert. The 1976 Cox earned an Associates degree in General Business from Gogebic Community College.

In April of that year he took over a small newsstand in Wakefield’s main street next to the Sports Bar in Wakefield. Two years later, after working very long hours for very little money, Cox decided to get out of the newsstand business. For a few years after closing the business, Cox felt unsure of his future. He searched for his spot in history.

To sustain himself, he continued to run a mail-order coin business that he started as a child. For a short time he moved to Omaha to find work. In 1980, he returned to Wakefield and got a job at Indianhead Mountain Ski Resort. In 1999, when he got his first computer, Cox began selling his coins online. In 2000, Indianhead went bankrupt and Cox was left once again in search of his page in history.

Having an online coin sales business was a big benefit to Cox. It required less time than the mail- order version of his business. With a fairly successful online business in tact, and free time on his hands, he decided to go back to college. He began attending Northern Michigan University in Marquette in the spring.

One of his first assignments at was to investigate the much-talked-about, long-standing rumor that Calumet was once in the running to be the Michigan State capitol. His professor wanted him to check into the story and to prepare a written essay of his findings. To prepare his essay, Cox trampled through pages and pages of old newspapers. He tried to find anything and everything he could about Upper Peninsula history. Throughout his research, he would periodically find articles referring to the 51st State of Superior. The movement had been going on for years. In several of the articles he read about Ted Albert, an Ironwood native, who was a major player in the movement. Having attended a meeting on the topic and having once met the leader of the movement, Cox’s interest in Superior Statehood was piqued. He saved all of the Statehood information he had found, even though it had nothing to do with his essay. Cox continued to compile information about Ted Albert and U.P. Statehood ever since.

In 2003, after graduating Northern Michigan University, Cox purchased the ninety-two year old 20'x30' Citizen’s Bank building between the Ukrainian Inn and the drug store. He believed the building would be ideal for him to establish his latest business venture. He could have his shop in the front and he could live in the back. In the back of the building he added a kitchen sink and a shower stall and a bed in the corner. In the front he had his computer with all of his book files stored on it. He purchased a printer from U.P. Office Equipment He borrowed money out of his meager IRA and purchased the $3000.00 printer. Since then he has been publishing his own books from that shop.

The books he publishes in-house are 8-1/2"x11" comb-bound books. Cox told the Chronicle that his latest book, Ted & Superior is too good of a book to release in comb-bound form. He believes this book will have universal appeal and can be sole nation-wide. The book has an ISBN Number (978-0-9822390-0-1)

“I collected enough material that by last spring I created an outline for a book based on all of the records I collected. My outline was for a six chapter book. Then I started doing more research at the Courthouse, the Carnegie Library, Michigan Tech, Peter White Library in Marquette, on the Internet. By April of last year I pretty much had a manuscript composed. In the process of writing the book, the more I found out about Ted Albert, the more impressed I was. I thought, ‘Boy, he’s a real intelligent guy and he had a good idea there!’”

“So I wrote up this book. It was ten chapters long, 25,000 words. And I worked on it all of last year, and I had if finally printed back in March 2009. I spend over a year polishing up this book to make it just right.”

A press release by Agogeebic Press, LLC, announcing Ted & Superior: Ted Albert and the 51st State of Superior book by Bruce K. Cox states:

The story of Theodore G. Albert (1917-1989), one of seven brothers and three sisters, children of Lebanese immigrants who settled in Ironwood, Michigan at the beginning of the 20th century. His father was a businessman and operated a shoe and clothing store for many years. Ted went to college after graduating from L. L. Wright High School and earned a law degree at the University of Wisconsin. He went into private practice and was elected to serve four terms as Gogebic County Prosecuting Attorney. From 1948 onward he was involved in democratic politics and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House of Representatives seven times, once as the Human Rights Party candidate. A maverick, he and some of his friends rebelled against the establishment of the Democratic Party in 1958, forming the State Democratic Club of Michigan. As early as 1959 he began pursuing the idea of separate statehood for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and by 1974 had established the U. P. 51st State of Superior, Inc. to promote independent statehood for the U.P., a movement that reached its peak about 1977. A fascinating story of an ambitious, original and independent thinker, presented in ten chapters, with 37 illustrations, notes on sources, and index. 113 pages, paperback, ISBN: 978-0-9822390-0-1. Retail $15.95.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Cox's latest book has a very personal meaning for me. Ted Albert was my father's brother -- my uncle. I have very fond memories of my uncle Ted. I often campaigned for him and I was forever handing out literature for the 51st State of Superior movement. He truly was a visionary and he was always willing to fight the battles of the poor and the less fortunate. He loved the Upper Peninsula. He was an avid fisherman -- like everyone else in our family. Ted was a man of principle and he was never lead by what was popular. He was driven by what was right.

The book details the lives of my family and their early years in this county. My grandfather and his brothers were all peddlers. They used to travel from house to house selling their wares. George Albert was one of Ironwood's first commercial businessmen. Albert's Clothing and Shoe Store was a staple in downtown Ironwood for decades. After my grandfather retired in 1968, my Uncle Johnny ran the family store. He ran the store until he passed away several years ago.

Back in the late 1950's the Grand View Hospital created a set of discriminatory rules that insisting that doctors with hospital privileges follow them. One of the rules was that a licenced M.D. was required to assist in every surgery. My father was a licensed surgeon in the State of Michigan. He was a podiatric surgeon. He often assisted my uncle, Sam Albert, M.D., in surgery. My father was highly trained in surgical procedure, in fact, there was a time that the majority of surgeries performed at the Grand View were done by him.

In 1958, Frank Drazkowski, superintendent at the Grand View Hospital brought charges against my uncle and my father for violating the hospital's rules. Even though my father was a licensed surgeon in the State of Michigan, and he himself performed surgeries at that hospital on a regular basis the hospital rule stated that every surgery required the assistance of a medical doctor. The Ironwood Daily Globe jumped on the opportunity to disgrace my dad and his brother. The headlines stated that both were performing "illegal surgeries"at the hospital. Patients who read the headlines immediately assumed my uncle and father were performing abortions. Their practices both suffered. Patients would call or write canceling appointments saying they wouldn't patronize a physician that performed abortions.

My uncle Sam sued the hospital and the Globe. Ted defended his brothers and took the matter all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court. The Court was astonished that the case wasn't earlier thrown out because, according to State law, a registered nurse, an LPN, or a even lay person is legally allowed to assist a licensed surgeon during surgery. The case was immediately dropped. My father went on to have a very successful practice. He was a well-respected podiatric surgeon and was once the President of the Michigan Podiatric Association. My uncle, Sam Albert, M.D., never regained his hospital privileges at the Grand View. Although he was a skilled surgeon and talented doctor, bad blood prevented any future relationship between the hospital and my uncle.

Because of the legal action Ted and Sam took against the Globe, the paper continued to do its best to disgrace my family. Whenever Ted ran for office, the Globe found a way to discredit him. When the Supreme Court found Dr. Sam and my father innocent, the paper failed to even report it. The hatred the Globe possesses for my family is still evident today. They continue to take every opportunity belittle my achievements and place me in a bad light. All you need to do is to revisit their archives to see evidence of this claim.

Ted believed that the U.P. as a State was feasible. He reasoned that the abundance of raw natural materials could lead to a very successful economy within the U.P. He understood that shipping low-valued raw materials out of the U.P. was not in the best interest of the region, and that producing value-added finished goods would make the new State of Superior financially viable. He advocated State-wide legalized gambling. His vision was to create a year-round vacation atmosphere throughout the peninsula that would offer all of the current outdoor activities and incorporate horse racing, dog tracks, and casino gambling. He proposed a State-wide lottery long before the idea became common practice in the U.S.

Bruce Cox did an outstanding job researching and writing this chronicle of my uncle Ted's political life. I highly recommend the book and I would love to see the U.P. for Statehood movement begin once again.