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MONROE COUNTY
HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY MICHIGAN
A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People, and its Principal Interests
BY JOHN MCCLELLAND BULKLEY
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED .
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO NEW YORK 1913
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Benjamin Dansard
History of Monroe County
BENJAMIN DANSARD, SR. One of the honored pioneers of Monroe county who long wielded a distinctive influence in connection with busi- ness and civic activities in this favored section of the state was the late Benjamin Dansard, Sr., who settled in the city of Monroe in 1836, the year prior to the admission of Michigan as one of the sovereign states of the Union, and who here continued to reside until his death, more than half a century later. He was the founder of the banking house which still perpetuates his name and was recognized as a man of fine business ability, the while his urbane and kindly personality gained for him the confidence and high regard of all with whom he came in contact. He did much to foster industrial and civic development and progress in Monroe county, was a man of signal refinement and culture, and left an indelible impress upon the community in which he long maintained his home and in which his memory is held in enduring memory.
Benjamin Dansard was born in Issoudun, France, September 12, 1813, and was thus seventy-five years of age at the time of his death, January 27, 1888. In his native land he was afforded the best of educa- tional advantages, as it was the desire of his father that he should enter the priesthood of the Catholic church. Upon attaining to maturity, how- ever, he decided that his tastes and predilections lay along other lines than those of an ecclesiastical order, and he was a young man when he came to America to win for himself a place of independence in connection with business activities. In 1836, when about twenty-four years of age, Mr. Dansard came to Monroe, and here he was engaged in the dry goods business for a number of years. In the early days he gave instruction in the French language to a number of classes, as he was a man of fine scholarship and especially well qualified for teaching in his native tongue. It may be noted that his first pupil was Dr. Osgood, who at- tained to wide fame in the west through the introduction of "Osgood's Cholagogue," a remedy designed as a specific for all the prevalent "fever and ague."
Mr. Dansard was a fine type of the genuine Parisian Frenchman, courtly and polished in manners, of cultured tastes and of genial and buoyant spirits. He found his greatest pleasure in the ideal associations of his home and there delighted to extend gracious hospitality to his wide circle of friends. He coveted success in temporal affairs, but this was only that he might provide generously for his family and give to the
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home the atmosphere of refined prosperity under which he had been reared. He married Miss Catherine Boyez, June 18, 1836, just before coming to America. She was the daughter of Joseph Boyez, another of the sterling pioneer merchants of Monroe, and he was a most devoted husband and father, ever solicitous for the comfort and happiness of his family, even as he was kindly, sympathetic and generous in his general association with his fellow man. His cherished and devoted wife, a woman of gentle and noble personality, was summoned to the "land of the leal" on the 19th of April, 1882, and he survived her about six years. Benjamin Dansard and his wife became the parents of six sons and one daughter. The elder son, Joseph, who was long associated with the father in the banking business, married Miss Mary Landon, daughter of Dr. George Landon, of Monroe, and his death occurred on the 5th of May, 1879, his wife passing away on the 19th of April, 1882. They are survived by one son and four daughters. Benjamin Dansard, Jr., became a member of the banking firm of B. Dansard & Son, and continued to be identified with the business as one of the representative financiers and influential citizens of Monroe until his death, which occurred on the 15th of August, 1903. Further reference is made to him in another sketch on other pages of this publication.
Through his earnest and well directed efforts Benjamin Dansard, Sr., accumulated a substantial fortune, and no shadow rests on any portion of his career as a citizen and business man. He was animated by high principles of integrity and honor, was loyal and liberal in his civic atti- tude, and was ever ready to contribute to the furtherance of measures and enterprises advanced for the general good of the community. He continued in the mercantile business until 1858, when he established a private bank, in which he became associated with his elder son under the firm name of B. Dansard & Son. After the death of Joseph Dansard, the younger son, Benjamin, Jr., became the active manager, and the en- terprise was long continued under the original title, which is perpetuated in that of the present B. Dansard & Son's State Bank, one of the leading financial institutions of Monroe county.
In politics Mr. Dansard was aligned as a stanch supporter of the principles and policies of the Democratic party, and he was well fortified in his opinions concerning matters of public import. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. At the time of his death the following resolution was passed by the local Masonic body with which he was identified : "Resolved, That in the death of our esteemed brother, Benjamin Dansard, of this city, the state and community of which he was a resident for more than fifty years have lost a loyal, law-abiding citizen ; the business community a man of rare ability and the strictest business integrity ; the fraternity of which he was an esteemed member, a faithful and earnest brother; and his family a wise, indulgent and loving father."
BENJAMIN DANSARD, JR. The financiers who have left the impress of their genius on the financial history of Michigan have been, almost with- out exception, men of affairs, with little instruction in science. They have stepped from the counter or office to the counting room, demonstrating
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their fitness to be leaders by soundness of judgment and skill in manage- ment. Such a man the generation of business men now passing from the scenes of active business recognized in Benjamin Dansard, Jr., when, in 1879, he became his father's partner in the banking house of B. Dansard & Son, of Monroe, and at once became a leader in finance among those who had already reached high rank as merchants and bankers. Succeed- ing to the presidency of the institution at the death of his father in 1888, he developed a capacity for financial management, including those op- posite qualities of boldness and caution, enterprise and prudence, which stamped him as a born engineer of finance. He was distinguished as well as a public-spirited citizen, as a promoter of the public welfare and as a man whose charities, though often unknown, were extensive and widespread. His untimely death, which occurred August 15, 1903, at the age of fifty years, filled the city with sadness, and called forth the warmest testimonials of appreciation from every side.
Benjamin Dansard was born at Monroe, Michigan, May 5, 1853, the youngest son of Benjamin and Catherine (Boyez) Dansard, natives of Paris, France, who came to Monroe while Michigan was yet a territory, in 1836, and a review of whose career will be found on other pages of this publication. Educated in the public schools of this city, at the age of eighteen years, Benjamin Dansard, Jr., entered the banking house of B. Dansard & Son, with which he was connected as a clerk until taken into partnership in 1874 at the age of twenty-one. Upon the death of his father he became head of the establishment and continued alone until January 1, 1893, when his son, Boyez, became connected with him. His second son, Benjamin, has been connected with the institution since January 1, 1901. Although his physical health was such that he was unable to attend the office during the last three years of his life, Mr. Dansard continued to be its active directing head to the last, and even upon the day of his death had discussed financial matters with his family. His wise and shrewd management was such that the Dansard bank never experienced the detrimental effects caused by loss of public confidence, and his business associates constantly looked to him for counsel, guidance and leadership. He inherited his father's love of home and was never happier than when surrounded by his friends, his many social qualities making him an eminently entertaining companion. As a citizen, his pride in Monroe and its accomplishments would never permit of his listening to the many tempting offers held out to him by large interests in other communities. Mr. Dansard was very fond of hunting, and it was while so engaged that he received the injury that eventually resulted in his death. The Monroe Democrat, issue of August 21, 1903, paid him the following tribute, when it said in part: "The announce- ment of the death of Benjamin Dansard, which occurred at his residence on Elm avenue, August 15th, aroused the sensibilities of our citizens. and sent a shadow of regret as a drapery of woe over our entire city. If nothing more can be said of a man than that he was born and that he died, it were better that nothing be said. It is proper that recognition should be made of distinguished worth and merit in the lives of private citizens as well as those of public men, and that due honor should be paid to their memories after they have passed away. ITis characteristics,
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his social qualities-and he was a royal entertainer-the geniality of his power, his cherished and unfailing friendship, made him first of all a man, and yet there was something finer in the man than what he said or did. While it must be said on account of his long illness the wider assemblance of friends will not miss him as one taken suddenly from among them, there is a family circle that can never be the same again. To his bereaved family can be given the assurance that he was loved and appreciated, and those who knew him best can offer the consolation that his fidelity to his fellow men exemplified in all his relations to them, will stand as a legacy greater than riches and more valuable than length of days."
Mr. Dansard was twice married, his first wife being Miss Ella Paxson, of Monroe, who became his bride September 3, 1872. They had one son, Boyez, who is now the head of the B. Dansard & Son's State Bank. Mrs. Dansard died November 10, 1875, and on May 8, 1877, he was married at South Bend, Indiana, to Miss Emma L. Lucas of that city, and to this union there was also born one son, Benjamin, Jr. Probably this all too brief review could be closed in no more fitting manner than to quote from the tribute of one who knew and loved him :
" 'In the midst of life we are in death' comes to us with startling reality in the death of our friend and citizen, Benjamin Dansard. No man in Monroe county has for thirty years better stood the test of true citizenship than he of whom we write. He possessed in a high degree those splendid attributes of character none too common at this time which make so largely for the general betterment of humanity, and in particular, the integrity of one's business career. It is my good fortune to have known Mr. Dansard somewhat intimately for the past twenty years, during all of which time I have had unusual opportunities to study his personality, and consequently I am able to place a just estimate upon those sterling virtues which entered so thoroughly into his business as well as social life. Attention to duty, loyalty to friends and strict honesty of purpose, constitute the principles upon which he built his suc- cessful banking business. In his public life there was nothing of the vain- glorious, and his deeds of charity, though many, were generally known only to his own family; but he had within his heart that spark of gen- erosity which was ever ready to blow when touched by want or by any form of adversity. The love of family and the love of home were the crowning ideals of his domestic life. All forms of hypocrisy-political, religious or otherwise-were reprehensible to him. He loved the pure the honest, the noble, and his one great object in life seems to have been to conduce to the happiness and comfort of those about him. Mr. Dansard leaves to his sons-his successors in banking business-a repu- tation and character more precious than gold and silver, the emulation of which will redound to the continued prosperity of this time-honored firm. With feelings of mingled regret and sorrow I offer this tribute to the memory of Benjamin Dansard."
BOYEZ DANSARD. One of the essentially representative business men and loyal and progressive citizens of Monroe county, is Boyez Dansard, president of the B. Dansard & Son's State Bank of Monroe, and he is
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well upholding the prestige of a name that has been long and promi- nently identified with the history of this county. The bank of which he is the executive head and which is one of the substantial and popular financial institutions of the county, was founded by his honored grand- father, the late Benjamin Dansard, Sr., to whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of this work. This bank has had a long and interesting history, and is one of the oldest in southern Michigan, its founding dating back to the year 1858, and the stock of the institution has been virtually controlled by the Dansard family during the long intervening period.
Boyez Dansard was born in the city of Monroe on the 7th of Decem- ber, 1873, the only son of Benjamin (II) and Ella (Paxson) Dansard. He gained his early educational discipline in the public schools of his native city and supplemented this by a course in the Detroit Business College. He then assumed a clerical position in the bank of B. Dansard & Son, of which his father was the executive head, and finally he was advanced to the office of cashier, of which position he continued the incumbent until the death of his honored father, on the 15th of August, 1903. As the elder son, he then succeeded his father as chief administra- tive officer of the bank, in which the interests of the estate were retained intact, as have they been since the incorporation of the institution as a state bank. The younger son, Benjamin (III) is cashier of the bank, as already noted in a preceding paragraph, and the loved and devoted mother is likewise a stockholder and director in the institution.
Boyez Dansard has done much to maintain the high prestige of the family name in connection with the financial institution with which he has been constantly identified since his youth, and he has also stood well to the front as a progressive and public spirited citizen with large and earnest interest in all that touches the welfare of his native city and county. He is a stanch Democrat in his political allegiance and after having served most effectively as representative of the Fourth ward in the city council, there came a further mark of the high esteem in which he is held in his home city, when he was elected its mayor, giving a most progressive and popular administration and being chosen as his own successor at the expiration of his first term. He thus served two con- secutive years as head of the municipal government, and his administra- tion has passed on record as one admirable in every respect. In addition to retaining the presidency of the B. Dansard & Son's State Bank, he is vice-president of the Erie Bank, at Erie, this county, and of the Bank of Newport, Newport, another thriving village of Monroe county. He is president of the Monroe Gas Light & Fuel Company, and vice-president of the local Home Telephone Company. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity, Mr. Dansard has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in which he is affiliated with Michigan Sovereign Consistory, at Detroit, where he also holds membership in Moslem Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. His York Rite affiliations, in his home city, are as here noted : Monroe Lodge, No. 27, Free and Accepted Masons ; River Raisin Chapter, No. 22, Royal Arch Masons; and Monroe Commandery, No. 19, Knights Templar.
On the 23d of November, 1898, was solemnized the marriage of
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Mr. Dansard to Miss Sarah McLean, of Alexandria, Virginia, in which state she was born. Mrs. Dansard is a popular figure in connection with the leading social activities of Monroe and presides most graciously over the beautiful family home, which is a center of generous hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. Dansard have four children : Ivan, Benjamin (IV ), Robert Brooke and Virginia Paxson.
BENJAMIN DANSARD. A son of the prominent banker and citizen else- where mentioned in this history, and a representative of the family which has for so many years been foremost in the business and social life of Monroe, Benjamin Dansard was born in this city on the 16th of January, 1882.
His early education was obtained in the city public schools, and since leaving high school he has taken an active part in the business established by his father and also in the public affairs of his city. He is now one of the prominent young bankers of the state, and has won his promotion through personal ability and a thorough experience in all departments of the institution of B. Dansard & Son's State Bank, of which he is now cashier. On leaving school he began his practical career in the bank, and served for some time as bookkeeper and teller, before assuming his present duties.
Mr. Dansard was married on September 18, 1905, to Miss Mary M. Navarre, daughter of Alexander T. and Marietta (Peltier) Navarre, of Monroe. Their three children are named Joseph B., Clement N., and Charles L.
Mr. Dansard is at this writing treasurer of the Michigan Bankers Association, and is director, secretary and treasurer of the Monroe Garage Company ; vice president Bank of Erie, at Erie, Michigan; president Bank of Newport, at Newport, Michigan. He has been identified with various movements of recent years for the promotion of the welfare and improvement of his home city, and as a citizen possesses public spirit. His political affiliation is with the Democratic party, but he has never sought office. He and his family are members of the St. John's Catholic church. He is a member of the Monroe Yacht Club, Merchants' & Man- ufacturers' Club of Monroe, Knights of Columbus, and the O. L. Club.
JAMES H. REYNOLDS. Some of the leading agriculturists of Monroe county, Michigan, are those of the younger generation, who are living on land that has belonged to members of their families for many genera- tions, and who are proud of the fact. Reared on the farm, and early taught its soil conditions and the best methods of cultivating its fields, they are thoroughly qualified to bear their share of the responsibility for Monroe county's agricultural prosperity, thus materially aiding in the advancement of their communities' industrial importance. In this class stands James H. Reynolds, a well-known and successful young farmer of Berlin township, who is cultivating the old homestead of 137 acres, located one and one-half miles south of Rockwood. Mr. Reynolds was born in Saginaw, Michigan, March 3, 1878, and is a son of Orman and Mary (Hannah) Reynolds.
Stephen Reynolds, the paternal grandfather of James H. Reynolds,
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was born in Delaware county, in the state of New York, and became an early settler of Berlin township, locating on the land on which his grand- son is now carrying on operations, and there spending the remainder of his life. Orman Reynolds was here born, reared and educated, and as a young man enlisted for service in the Union army during the Civil war, as a private in the Michigan Volunteer Infantry. He had a brave meritorious service of three years and eight months, and was twice wounded, once in the shoulder and once in the breast. Reared to agricultural pursuits, he followed that vocation all his life, and died in Rockwood, Wayne county, Michigan, aged sixty-nine years, April 16, 1910. His widow still survives him and lives in the old home at Rockwood. They had three sons: Frank, who resides in Wayne county, Michigan ; Judson, living at Rockwood, with his mother ; and James II. Orman Reynolds was widely known throughout Wayne and Monroe counties, where he had numerous friends, drawn about him by his many sterling qualities. He was a popular and prominent comrade of the Grand Army of the Republic, in the work of which he took a great interest, and also held membership in the Masonic fraternity. In his death, Berlin township lost one of its best citizens.
James H. Reynolds was educated in the public schools of Berlin and Ash townships, and was reared to farm work, being taught lessons of economy, industry and honesty, and succeeded as renter of the old home farm, whose broad acres he had brought to a high state of culti- vation. General farming in all its branches occupies his attention, and he is justly considered one of the leading young agriculturists of his section. He is progressive in his ideas, uses modern methods and machinery, and the general appearance of the land, shows the presence of able management.
March 16, 1908, Mr. Reynolds was married to Miss Nettie Reeves, of Flat Rock, Michigan, daughter of Frank Reeves. Her mother, who was a Miss Van Riper before marriage, is now deceased, having had five children : Delbert ; Mrs. Reynolds; Catherine, who is the wife of Albert Leslie, of New Boston; and Artie and William. The two last named sons make their home with Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds, who are educating them and fitting them for honorable stations in life.
CLARENCE MCLAUGHLIN. This progressive, enterprising and pros- perous farmer and prominent and influential citizen of Ash township, this county, is a scion of a family widely and favorably known in the county from the dawn of civilization on its soil. His parents came to the township of his present residence while yet the Indian roamed at will in the region, the deer disported in its vales and streams and took refuge in its dense forests from the deadly pursuit of the white and red man alike, and beasts of prey made night hideous with their nerve-racking howls and always threatening presence. They carved a good farm and comfortable home out of the forest, and helped to lay the foundations of the civilization which so richly blesses the region at the present time, brief as has been the period since they located here and began their useful work of development and improvement.
Mr. Mclaughlin was born on the family homestead in this town-
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ship on September 6, 1867, and is a son of Samuel and Sarah (Fahren- stock) Mclaughlin, an account of whose lives will be found, with other facts in the history of the family, in a sketch of another of their sons, Emory H. Mclaughlin, which appears in this work. That history is an interesting one, and shows up the heroism of the pioneers of this locality through the record of some of its most worthy and commendable exemplars.
Clarence Mclaughlin was reared on the old homestead and educated in the neighborhood school of the days of simple living and primitive conditions. He remained at home and assisted his father and brothers in the work on the farm until he grew to manhood, although he was married at the age of nineteen to Miss Abbie Branshaw, a daughter of Peter Branshaw, a soldier in the Revolutionary war and an early settler in Monroe county. Mrs. McLaughlin died at the age of twenty-six leaving two children, her daughter Leota, who is now sixteen, and her son Clarence, Jr., who is thirteen.
On August 3, 1906, Mr. Mclaughlin married a second wife in the person of Miss Louisa LaFee, a daughter of Charles LaFee, who settled in this county in early years, coming here from his native country of Canada. After his first marriage, Mr. McLaughlin began farming on his own account and set up a domestic shrine of his own apart from his father's house. He has been very successful in his operations, and now owns three farms comprising eighty-five acres in all. These farms are well improved with two good dwelling houses, three large barns and other necessary structures, and they have all been cultivated with skill and progressiveness, according the most approved modern methods, and rendered very responsive to the persuasive hand of the husbandman. Their owner is an excellent farmer and a successful breeder of superior strains of live stock, his specialties being horses, cattle and hogs.
In both the physical sense and that of personal prominence and influence, Mr. Mclaughlin is a big man in his community. He weighs 220 pounds and has a large and stalwart frame. He has also taken so intelligent and helpful an interest in local public affairs, and con- tributed so directly and essentially to the general progress and improve- ment of his township, that he has risen to a rank of leadership among its residents and won their lasting confidence and esteem. His frank, genial and jolly nature makes all of his acquaintances his friends, his strict integrity and invariable square dealing have established him firmly in the estimation of the people as one of the most reliable men among them, and his broad and energetic public spirit has marked him as one of the township's most useful and representative citizens and one of the wisest promoters of its welfare.
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