USA > Michigan > Van Buren County > A history of Van Buren County, Michigan a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests Volume II > Part 21
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.he sold out his interest in this business and became proprietor of a general store, and at the end of five years more organized the bank of Juan McKeyes & Company, in partnership with his son Frank. Mr. McKeyes has never faltered in his upward course, and is now the manager of one of the most substantial concerns of its kind in this part of the state. He possesses the confidence of the community to a remarkable degree, and is looked upon as one of the most progressive men of Van Buren county. He has invested his means in realty to a large extent, and is the owner of some excellent farming land and several valuable town properties.
On February 2, 1866, Mr. McKeyes was married to Miss Maria Cowgill, daughter of James S. and Eliza (Smith) Cowgill, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Ohio. Mrs. McKeyes' brothers, Edward and Frank, are both deceased. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. McKeyes: Frank, who is in- terested in business with his father, and Grace, the wife of H. D. Brown, of Cincinnati, Ohio. .
Mr. McKeyes is a Republican in his political views, and has served as supervisor of his township for five years, while in fra- ternal matters he is affiliated with the Masons. He is not a member of any church, but has been active in the support and charitable work of the different churches, both Methodist and Baptist.
PORT H. HENDERSON .- We have the sanction of Holy Writ for the faith that special rewards follow filial affection, obedience and reverence from children for their parents, and the general tenor of human experience and history fully justifies the assurance given by the sacred writer. Although the rewards do not always come literally in the form specified by him, they come, nevertheless, in some substantial and appreciable form. And the promise of length of days is not to be limited in its meaning to days on earth, for the memory of a good man lives after him with increasing fragrance, and its influence continues in widening circles of benefaction long subsequent to the time of his demise.
Port H. Henderson, in his early struggle for advancement and self-denying devotion to his parents during its continuance, his present condition of material comfort and independence in a worldly way, and his consequence of high standing among the people who live around him, furnishes a striking illustration of the truth and force of the Divine promise. In his young manhood he met Fate in the lists and wrested small favors from her reluctant hands, and these with his efforts, and the rewards of his filial affection began at once in his increased prosperity and broadening oppor- tunities. Now he is well established in life, and all his early fidelity to duty is approvingly remembered to his high credit wherever he is known.
Mr. Henderson is a native of Wyandot county, Ohio, born on De- cember 3, 1858, and the second of the seven children (five sons and two daughters) of Joseph R. and Sarah A. (Long) Henderson, three of whom are living, as far as he knows. These are himself, his older sister Jennie and his younger brother Charles O. Jennie
P.A. Homeless. 2
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is the wife of Burr Benton, a prosperous farmer living in Keeler township, this county. Charles O. is married, and he also lives in Keeler township and tills the soil with enterprise and progressive- ness as his regular occupation, with success following his efforts.
The father was born in the state of New York on November 5, 1832, and is still living, enjoying good health and vigor and a sprightliness and vivacity unusual to men of his advanced age. He obtained his education in the common schools of his native place, and when he determined to seek his chance of advancement in this state he made the journey overland by wagon and located in Berrien county on his arrival. Here he purchased forty acres of land, but misfortunes came, and his progress was not what he expected or what his industry and persistency entitled him to. When the Civil war began he enlisted for the defense of the Union and served to the close of the disastrous conflict. He was the color-bearer of his company, and in one of the terrible battles of the war he was seriously shot in one of his hands. But, notwith- standing his wound, he made an excellent record in the war, never shirking duty for a day or hesitating to go forward promptly in the face of danger, even in the fiercest shock of battle or intensest frenzy of the charge. Indeed, like many others, under circum- stances of unusual peril his courage seemed to rise to almost super- natural heights and make him ready for any possible requirement.
After his discharge from military service he returned to his home, and he has ever since given his energies to farming. He has been a member of the Republican party from its organization and always fervidly loyal to its principles and its candidates. In social and fraternal relations he is connected with the Grand Army of the Republic and the Order of Odd Fellows, and he and his ex- cellent wife went together to the Methodist Episcopal church to which they both belonged, during her life, and of which he is still a member and regular attendant. Mrs. Henderson was born in Ohio, on Christmas day, 1832, and died in Van Buren county, Michigan, at the age of forty-five years. She was a noble Christian woman, earnestly devoted to the welfare of her family, and also a great financier, whose business capacity and good management conducted the household through all its difficulties.
Port H. Henderson was reared as a farmer's son and he has devoted all the years of his life from boyhood to farming. He ob- tained a small start in mental and scholastic training in the dis- trict school near the home of his parents, but in all the essentials of his intellectual development and his acquisitions of information, he is what may properly be termed a self-educated man, and his self-instruction has been along the most practical and serviceable lines with a view to making all his attainments useful to him as capital in his life work.
During his youth and the early years of his manhood he worked industriously and gave his earnings to his mother for the benefit of the family. When he determined to set up a domestic shrine of his own he did not have fifty dollars in money. But he deemed it wise to establish a home for himself and trust to his own endeavors to make it stable and in time valuable. On September 8, 1882, he united in marriage with Miss Jessie Benton, who was then living Vol. II-11
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in Berrien county, where the marriage was solemnized. Mrs. Hen- derson was born in that county on October 2, 1861, and died in Van Buren county on May 28, 1907. She was an exemplary Chris- tian woman and won the regard of everybody who knew her by her upright and useful life and the excellent example she gave of elevated American womanhood. Mr. and Mrs. Henderson became the parents of three sons and two daughters, all of whom are liv- ing. Lester T., who resides on and helps to cultivate his father's farm, was educated in the district school and pursued a special course of business training in the commercial school of Professor Ferris in Big Rapids. He married Miss Della Mann, and they have one child, their little daughter Helen. Ora M., the second child, is now the wife of William J. Barnard, a lawyer of Paw Paw, and a successful man in his profession. S She completed her edu- cation at the State Normal School in Kalamazoo, from which she received a certificate of qualification as a teacher, and while she taught she was very capable and popular in the work. Vera P .. third of the children in the order of birth, married George Denna- fell, a prominent young farmer of Keeler township. They have one child, their son George III. Oven E., the next in order numer- ically, is a commercial salesman in the state of Washington ; and Ray M., the youngest member of the family, is a promising stu- dent in the high school in Hartford, his record in which is win- ning him a high place on the roster of students and bringing his family gratifying credit.
Port H. Henderson, the father of these children, began farming as a tenant on his father's farm, and continued his work as such. eight years. By the end of that time he had saved one thousand two hundred dollars, through the valued aid of his wife, and began to arrange for a permanent home of his own. He bought eighty acres of land, going in debt for the purchase price to the extent of two thousand two hundred and twenty dollars. In due time he fully discharged this obligation, and immediately created another by the purchase of another tract of fifty-five acres, for which he went in debt one thousand five hundred dollars. He paid this debt, too, and he also improved his land. But misfortune overtook him in the destruction of two barns in succession by fire, one thousand three hundred bushels of grain and seventy-five tons of hay being also consumed in the fires, as were nearly all his farming imple- ments in addition.
These were severe blows to Mr. Henderson, but he did not lose any time in lamenting over them. He at once went to work in each case to recoup his losses, and he has now one of the finest and largest barns in Keeler township. The structure is forty by one hundred feet in size, conveniently arranged and complete in equip- ment for its purposes in every particular. Mr. Henderson has also remodeled his residence and made it one of the most com- fortable and attractive rural dwellings in his locality. In addition to his farm in Keeler township he has bought thirty acres of land in Hartford township, on which he has a large peach orchard. In all he owns one hundred and sixty-five acres of first rate land. nearly all of which is under cultivation, and does not owe a dollar on any of it. He also has a paid up life insurance policy for
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one thousand dollars. Altogether, he is one of the most prosperous farmers and stock men in Keeler township, as well as one of its most highly esteemed citizens. His beautiful home is on the line between Keeler and Hartford townships, and is known throughout all this part of the state as "The Plum Grove Stock Farm." It is four miles and a half from Hartford, and is the seat of a large and flourishing live stock industry as well as a very active and profitable general farming enterprise.
Politically Mr. Henderson has always trained with the Republi- can party. He cast his first vote in the presidential election for General Grant, and he has ever since stood by the principles which governed him at the start. Fraternally he is a member of the Order of Odd Fellows, belonging to the lodge in the order at Keeler, in which he has been through all the chairs. Ile and his wife, during her lifetime, belonged to the order of Daughters of Rebekah, and when she died her remains were interred according to the rites of that elevated, useful and popular auxiliary of the Odd Fellows' Fraternity.
Mrs. Henderson stood firmly by her husband in all his struggles and difficulties, and gave him substantial aid; as well as excellent advice. The duties of her home were her first consideration, and devoted and intelligent care for her children her highest aspiration. It was her aim to make them as good and useful citizens as she could, and she put all her energies in service for the accomplishment of this purpose. That she did not labor in this behalf in vain is shown by the uprightness of their lives, the lofty ideals by which they are impelled in all they do, and the high-minded and service- able citizenship they so steadfastly exemplify. In these respects they but follow the example and teachings of their parents, and, like their parents, they have the entire confidence and the high esteem of the whole people in every part of the county of Van Buren and wherever else they are known. Mr. Henderson and his children contribute in every way open to them to the advance, improve- ment and general welfare of their several localities, morally, men- tally, materially and socially, and are everywhere regarded as high types of American manhood and womanhood.
DANIEL M. ALLEN .- The oldest of the firm of Allen Brothers of Glendale, Michigan, was born in Waverly township of Van Buren county on July 19, 1865. His parents, Truman and Har- riet Sinclair Allen, were both born in Monroe county, New York, and there grew to maturity and were wedded. In 1860 they came to Waverly township and purchased land in section 2. The father became the owner of one hundred and seventy-five acres of good land and was a man of influence in the county. He was active in the Republican party, of which he was an ardent sup- porter. He died on September 20, 1909. His wife is still living.
There were three sons and one daughter in the family of Tru- man and Harriet Allen. The sister of our subject. Lura, is now the wife of E. J. Dayton. His two brothers. H. B. and R. E. Allen, are partners in the store at Glendale and joint owners of four hundred and fifteen acres of land in Waverly township. Here they raise registered Hereford cattle and Poland China hogs, for
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which they have a large sale. Twenty acres of their land they use for the propogation of strawberry plants, which they ship to every state in the union and to Canada and Mexico. Reuben takes. the active management of this farm and also of the dairy farm and the general farming business. The firm own twelve houses in Glendale and their estate requires the services of four men whom they keep by the year and four more whom they hire by the day. From March 1 to May 15 is strawberry time, and during that season they employ about thirty extra men and women. The other two brothers attend to the store in Glendale.
Daniel M. Allen was united in marriage to Miss Allie Boaze in 1899. She is the daughter of Harvey Boaze and received her education in the schools of the county. Their household includes two children, Clare and Atha, both now in school. In the Republi- can party Mr. Allen has always been an active and an honored worker. He has been twice sent as United States delegate to the National conventions of the Modern Woodmen of America at Buf- falo. He was also state delegate for the Modern Woodmen of Amer- ica to the Michigan convention at Sault Ste. Marie. He has filled several of the township and county offices with honor and from 1902 to 1906 was treasurer of Van Buren county. In the Masonic order Mr. Allen is a member of the Bloomingdale lodge, No. 221, of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and of the Royal Arch Chapter of Paw Paw. At Lawrence he belongs to the Council. He is an Odd Fellow of the Glendale lodge, No. 408 and a Modern Woodman.
Besides his signal success in the field of commerce and his activities in public affairs, Mr. Allen has given fifteen years to the profession of teaching and his work in the county in that line was of the high quality which was to be expected from one of his ability and education. He is a graduate of the Valparaiso University at Valparaiso, Indiana, in both the normal and the business course. He has been and continues to be a powerful and a valuable factor in the development of the county and a contributor to its economic progress.
SHELDON COLEMAN escaped being a native of Van Buren county by the distance of a half mile and began his life in Oshtemo township, Kalamazoo county, on May 4, 1870. His father, D. O. Coleman, was born in Kalamazoo county in 1843, in the town- ship of Oshtemo. D. O. Coleman was married to Mary E. Sheldon, a native of Washington, D. C. Besides Sheldon, there was one boy and four girls in the Coleman family: Cora. the oldest, is Mrs. W. W. Brown, of Kalamazoo; Allie is Mrs. S. C. Gibbs, of Kalamazoo township; Kate, Mrs. Lee Gibbs, resides in Kalamazoo; Pearl is the wife of Claude Weed, of Texas township; and the other son is Owen, of Oshtemo, living with his father. All live in Kalamazoo county, and all but Pearl and Owen in Kalamazoo township.
After completing the course of the common schools, Sheldon Coleman taught for three years. He then decided to study phar- macy and attended the State University at Ann Arbor. In two years he completed the course in pharmacy and began to manage
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a drug store. After some years he came to Lawton and in 1894 went into a drug store. Six years later he and Mr. Showers bought the present store and organized the Coleman Drug Com- pany. The partnership continued for nine years and then Mr. Coleman bought out his partner. Since 1909 he has been sole proprietor and has the best drug store in Lawton, conducting the same with much success.
On October 23, 1895, Mr. Coleman was married to Miss Isa Harwick. She is a native of this state and her parents, Allen and Mertice E. (Bowen) Harwick, were also born in the state. The mother is still living in this township, but the father died in 1900. Mrs. Coleman's sister, Grace, is a teacher in Idaho and her brother Frank lives in Antwerp township. Another sister, Minnie, died in childhood. Mrs. Coleman has been the mother of four children, but only the two sons, David Allen and Richard H., are now living. Mildred, the eldest of the family, died at six years, and another child, just older than Richard. died in childhood.
Mr. Coleman is now serving his fifth term as supervisor of the township. He has held all the village offices except that of presi- dent of the village. His politics are Republican and he is influen- tial in his party, of which he is regarded as one of the most valu- able members in Lawton. Fraternally Mr. Coleman is affiliated with the Masons, the Knights of Pythias, the Maccabees, the Mys- tic Workers and the Woodmen. His wife is a member of the Con- gregational church at Mattawan. One of the foremost of Law- ton's business men, Mr. Coleman is also one of its most popular citizens and one most genuinely interested in all civic matters.
AARON HARRISON was born in New Jersey, in the town of Newark, on June 3, 1824. His parents, Jonas and Hannah Mark- ham Harrison, were both natives of New Jersey, who spent several years in New York state. In 1843 they came to Paw Paw town- ship and there they made their home until they died. There were seven children in the Harrison family, as follows: William Henry, now ninety-one years of age, a resident of Kalamazoo; Aaron ; Phoebe Ann, residing in Paw Paw. the widow of Martin De Graff; Albert, Matilda and John, all deceased; and Ellinore. the wife of M. P. Allen, of Paw Paw.
After coming to Michigan Aaron Harrison worked for some years at his trade of carpenter and joiner. He began his career as a land owner by purchasing ten acres of land in the county and he has continued to add to this from time to time until now he holds some thirty times that amount.
Mrs. Harrison is one of the fifteen children of Anthony and Sarah Muson Labady. She became the wife of Aaron Harrison on June 8, 1855. Five of the children of her parents died in infancy. Edgar, Mary and Ellen reside in Paw Paw. Edgar's twin brother, John, lives in Eau Claire. William resides in Mis- souri and Nancy Jane and Jackson are deceased. Charles lives in Decatur, and Frank in Paw Paw, Van Buren county.
A family of eleven was born to Maria and Aaron Harrison : John is at home and unmarried; Anna is Mrs. Lewis Holster, of
.
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Pontiac and has two children, Grover and Miriam; Mary J. is deceased; Mrs. Andrew Graham, of Glendale, Michigan, and she has one daughter Allie; Mrs. Robert McWilliams, of Paw Paw, has four children, Beulah, Lulu, Myrtle and Ruth; Mrs. Hugh Brockway, of Paw Paw, has three children : Genevieve Elizabeth, De Loss Aaron, Charlotte Eleanor; Mrs. Alva Burke, of Paw Paw, has three children, Philo, Emily and Wilbur; Alpha is deceased ; Frederick lives in Oakland, California; Edward, in Cherokee, Iowa; and Owen, who died in infancy.
The sixty-eight years which Mr. Harrison has spent in the county have been years of profit to him and to the community which his efforts have helped to build. He has seen his children and grandchildren growing up to enjoy the fruits of his labors and working to carry on the development of the land carved out of the wilderness but two generations ago.
HERMAN MEYER .- Among the well and favorably known young citizens of Arlington township, Van Buren county, is Herman Meyer, at present engaged in the management of agricultural prop- erties and previously identified with the wholesale and retail gro- cery business. He is one of the heirs of the great Meyer property of eight hundred acres in Illinois. Mr. Meyer is a native son of Illinois, his entrance upon this mundane sphere having been made at Peru, that state, on November 25, 1883. He is the son of Anton and Elizabeth (Aaron) Meyer, the father a native of Germany and the mother of Illinois. Mr. Meyer gives evidence in himself of many of those stanch, fine Teutonic characteristics to which he has right by paternal heritage. Anton Meyer came to America in youth, in quest of the wider opportunity promised by the New World, and made location in Illinois, where he owned and operated farms, and later in life engaged in the mercantile business. The demise of this prominent and prosperous man occurred on June 16, 1905, and his cherished and devoted wife survived him but a few years, going on to "the Undiscovered Country, from whose bourne no traveler returns" on January 19, 1909. Mr. Meyer, the immediate subject of this review, was one of a family of eight children, of whom the following is an enumera- tion : William, deceased; Emma, wife of William Newreuther, of Peru, Illinois; Kate, wife of William Doll, of Westfield, Illinois ; Anton, Jr., of Peru. Illinois; Sybilla, wife of Charles Siebert, of Bangor, Michigan; Fred, located at Breedville, Michigan; Herman ; and Edward, of Breedville, Michigan.
Mr. Meyer received his educational discipline in the public schools of Peru, finishing in the higher department. His first adventures as a wage-earner were in the capacity of a cigar maker, a vocation he followed for two and one-half years. He then embarked in the grocery business in association with his father. but the partnership was interrupted by the death of the elder gentleman, and shortly after this Mr. Meyer removed to Pasadena, California. In that western city he engaged in the wholesale and retail grocery business for about six months. He came home for a visit and then returned to Pasadena, but stayed
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only a short time, disposing of his interests there. He first be- came identified with Bangor, Michigan, on June 13, 1911.
On June 8, 1911, Mr. Meyer established an independent house- hold by marriage, making Miss Eva Giesler its mistress. Mrs. Meyer is a daughter of William and Nellie (Jacobs) Giesler, her father being a native of Germany and her mother of Illinois. They reside in Peru, Illinois, the father being engaged in mer- cantile business. The subject's wife is one of two children, her sister Emma residing at home.
In political allegiance Mr. Meyer is to be found marching be- neath the banners of the "Grand Old Party" and his religious conviction is that of the Evangelical church.
The father at his death, as previously mentioned, left about eight hundred acres of land in Illinois. He was a man of wealth, possessing in addition a large amount of city property. In addi- tion to his Illinois holdings, Mr. Meyer has an interest in land in Arlington township, Van Buren county.
OSCAR KARMSEN .- One of those thoroughly up-to-date and well- managed concerns which add in material fashion to the general prosperity and commercial prestige of Bangor is the drug store of Oscar Karmsen, the largest store of its kind in all Van Buren county. In the legitimate channels of trade he has won the suc- cess which always crowns well directed labor, sound judgment and untiring perseverance, and at the same time he has concerned himself with the affairs of the community in an admirably public- spirited fashion. Although a native of Montcalm county, Mich- igan, he is German in descent and manifests in his own individ- uality that sterling worth which has been of such great value in fostering and supporting our national institutions, the Ger- man being generally recognized as one of the most desirable ele- ments of American immigration.
Oscar Karmsen was born in Greenville, Michigan, November 24, 1872, and is the son of Charles and Zelma Karmsen, both of whom are natives of Germany. The father and mother of the sub- ject, like so many of their countrymen, became favorably im- pressed with the opportunity of the land across the Atlantic and concluded to cast their fortunes with it. Upon arriving on our shores they located in Lowell, Michigan, where the father, who was a cabinet maker by occupation, engaged in this means of live- lihood. They subsequently removed to Greenville, and in that place they now reside, being among the most honored and estimable of its citizenship. They became the parents of four children,- Oscar and his brother, Theodore, who are twins; the latter being a resident of Chicago; Zelma, a teacher in the schools of Green- ville, Michigan; and Julia, deceased.
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