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 31
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Henry Shepard was twenty-two when he left his native state. He had received the benefits of such educational opportunities as the time and locality afforded. It was not in the traditional log school house that he pursued the study of the three R's but in a stone building. However the difference in architecture did not extend to the interior furnishings. The seats were the usual wooden benches and the heat was supplied by a square box stove, which illustrated all the zones from the torrid to the frigid. The teacher was hired by subscription and while we might consider the instruc-
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tion rudimentary, it was probably far more in proportion than we secure for a like expenditure. Mrs. Shepard, too, was an attendant. at this sort of school.
Jefferson county, New York, was the home of Mrs. Shepard's ยท family and her maiden name was Vandervoort, one well known in the annals of New Amsterdam and borne by many a good burgher. Her father was by trade a fuller of cloth. He was born in New York state, in 1815, and lived there until 1851, when he and his family moved to Michigan. They purchased a farm in Hartford township of eighty acres and here their family grew up. The father enlisted in the war and was present at the battle of the Wilderness. Shortly afterwards he contracted typhoid fever and died at Nashville, Ten- nessee, in the service of his country. He was a charter member of the Lawrence Masonic Lodge. His wife was born in the same county as was he, on January 4, 1819. She was a strict member of the Presbyterian church and an earnest worker in the Sunday- school. Her devotion to the rearing of her children made her a model mother and bore fruit in the useful lives of the sons and daughters. Mrs. Shepard is the eldest of five children. The two sons are both dead, but the daughters are all now presiding over homes of their own. Augusta is Mrs. Fred Fish and resides on a farm in Lawrence township. Martha is the wife of a real estate dealer in Oklahoma City, Mr. C. R. Heminway, one of the city's most successful men. One son has been born to this couple. The mother of this family lived to the age of eighty and died March 8, 1899.
Mrs. Shepard was born in Watertown, New York, in 1845, on April 24. She has spent most of her life in this county and can re- member when Hartford had just one house. As the population of the town is now one thousand two hundred, she has witnessed a vast development of the country. The marriage of Adelaide Vander- voort and Henry Shepard was solemnized on February 21, 1862, at Decatur, Michigan. The young couple began life with small capital, purchasing a farm of forty acres, partly on credit. Their first house was an unplastered frame structure. This has given place to a comfortable residence, and the farm of eighty acres has been made one of the best improved in the section in the matter of build- ings and general equipment. The latch string is always out at the I. X. L. Farm for the friends and neighbors, as well as for the chil- dren and grandchildren.
The three daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Shepard are all married. Alice Josephine is Mrs. Frank Hall. Her husband is a telegrapher. employed in New York city, but residing in Salamanca. There are four children in this home : Florence M., Elsie J., Francis H. and Oliver C. Mrs. Hall was educated in the Decatur schools and graduated from the high school. Mr. Hall is chairman of the Order of Railroad Telegraphers. He is also a member of the Elks. He and his wife belong to the Methodist church and he is a Republican in his political convictions. Lydia Shepard was educated in the common schools of the county and was later one of its successful teachers. She is now the wife of one of Hamilton township's pros- perous farmers, Mr. Fred Harris. Minnie is the wife of John Clair
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MeAlpine. Mr. and Mrs. Shepard gave their children a good edu- cation and also the care and sympathy which are such powerful factors in the making of happy and loyal citizens.
It was Mr. Shepard's privilege to cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln and he has always been a loyal supporter of the Republican party. He has been for a number of years deputy treasurer of the schools and served two years as road commissioner. Mr. Shepard is a member of the Methodist church at Keeler and both she and her husband are always ready to aid in all movements for the betterment of the community where they have been so long and so honorably known.
ALBERT O. DUNCOMBE .- Although all the years of his manhood have been devoted to one pursuit, and that an occupation which is so exacting in its claims and so personal in its bearing that it nar- rows the views of many men engaged in it to their own interests and makes them abnormally acute in that limit, Albert O. Duncombe, one of the leading merchants of Van Buren county, Michigan, with a large department store at Keeler, has never become a man of one idea, and his vision has always been broad enough in its sweep to take in the interests of the whole county in which he lives, and keep him keenly alive to the welfare, comfort and progress of its resi- dents. Since the dawn of his manhood no enterprise undertaken, in which their lasting good has been involved, has gone without his earnest and effective support, or been without the benefit of his wise and judicious counsel.
Mr. Duncombe was born in this county in September 16, 1863, the third in a family of six children (three sons and three daugh- ters) born to Charles and Frances S. (Knights) Duncombe, four of whom are living. These include Albert's sister Fannie S., the old- est of the living children, who is the wife of Seth Felt, a prominent farmer of Keeler township; his other sister, Harriet, who is the wife of N. F. Simpson, warden of the Michigan state's prison in Jackson; and his brother Charles, a sketch of whom will be found in this volume, giving a brief account of his life. Mrs. Simpson is a High School graduate and she and her husband are the parents of two children, their daughter Frances Fae and their son Nathan D. Frances is a High School graduate in the class of 1905, and is now the wife of Ralph Z. Hopkins, a resident of Detroit, where he is connected with a contracting establishment as a draughtsman. Na- than is a student at the Michigan Agricultural College, and will graduate in the regular course in 1913, if nothing happens to pre- vent his doing so.
Charles Duncombe, the father of Albert O., was a native of Can- ada, of Scotch parentage, and born on May 1. 1822. He died in Van Buren county, Michigan, on January 1, 1900. He was edu- cated in the public schools, and after leaving them became in suc- cession and all together a merchant, a banker, a real estate dealer and a farmer. Although he attended the public schools when he had opportunity, his benefits derived from them in the way of scholastic attainments were very limited, because his opportunities of seeking those benefits were limited and often interrupted. He
Vol. II-16
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was practically a self-educated and self-made man, and one of much more than ordinary business capacity and extent and comprehen- siveness of information. This is one of Nature's ways of dealing with us. She often deprives her most promising offspring of ex- traneous advantages, then offers them compensation in the way of chances to develop their inherent faculties, and it is not her fault if they fail to accept and use the chance.
Mr. Duncombe, the elder, accepted her terms, and made the most of his openings in life by his own efforts. He began operations with very little capital and at one period of his life owned more than two thousand acres of land. He was a young man when he came with his parents to Michigan, and not many years afterward he yielded to the excitement that filled the world over the discovery of gold in California and became one of the bold and resolute "Forty-niners," that great band of hardy adventurers which crossed the plains in 1849 to the new Eldorado on the Pacific slope. These modern argo- nauts used ox teams as their means of transporting their goods, and made the long and wearying journey themselves for the most part on foot. The bones of many of them whitened on the trackless llanos of the wilderness, as it was then, but Mr. Duncombe reached his des- tination in safety. He made Sacramento the seat of his operations and was successful in his venture. When he had accumulated a considerable sum of the virgin treasure of which he went in search of, he returned to civilization, traveling down the Pacific, across the Isthmus of Panama and up the Atlantic to New York, and thence across the continent to his former Michigan home. He invested his money in land, and kept adding to his holdings by subsequent pur- chases until, as has been noted, he owned two thousand acres and over.
In his political faith Mr. Duncombe was first a Whig and after the birth of the Republican party a member of that organization. He adhered to this political party to the end of his days, and found his heroes of state craft among the leaders its critical times devel- oped. Its first candidate for the presidency, General John C. Fre- mont, received his ardent support, and to his last hour of life he was a warm admirer of Lincoln and Blaine. On the large field of political activity he was a member of the state constitutional con- vention, and locally he served for a number of years as supervisor of his township. Fraternally he was connected for many years with the Masonic order, and became a charter member of the lodge at Keeler when it was organized. He died in Keeler township, and in. his passing away the township lost one of its best and most useful citizens.
His wife was a native of Saratoga county, New York. She was born there in 1830, and died in Keeler township, this county. in 1882. She was reared and educated in her native county. During the greater part of her life she was an active working member of the Baptist church, and for some years was president of the local organization of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Her remains and those of her husband were interred in the cemetery in Keeler, and beautiful and suggestive memorial stones mark the place of their long sleep in the narrow house to which all must go.
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Albert O. Duncombe grew to manhood in this county and ob- tained the greater part of his education in its schools. He began his scholastic instruction in the lower grades of the common schools, continued it at the high school in Decatur, and completed it at the Northern Indiana State University. His whole life since leaving school has been passed in merchandising. In 1884 he and his father began business in this line in Keeler with a stock of goods valued at about two thousand, five hundred dollars, and since 1900 he has carried on the business alone. In conducting it he has been very successful, both in increasing his trade to great magnitude and in winning and holding the confidence and esteem of the people throughout a very large extent of the surrounding country.
Mr. Duncombe's department store is the largest of the kind in Van Buren county, and carries a stock of merchandise sufficiently comprehensive and varied to meet every requirement of the commu- nity in which it operates, including agricultural implements. Its trade averages sixty-five thousand dollars per annum, and its well satisfied patrons number many hundred of the most intelligent and cultivated people residing in the region tributary to its traffic, as well as thousands of others. Mr. Duncombe is assisted in carrying on the business by his brother Charles and two saleswomen, with additional help on holiday and other rushing times. The force men- tioned would not be sufficient if all its members were not persons of superior qualifications for the work in which they are engaged, and it were not governed by perfect system, which prevents all waste of time and energy.
Mr. Duncombe was married to Miss Alice G. Peters, who was born in this county on June 3, 1869, and is a daughter of James A. and Harriet (McMillan) Peters, and the first born of their three chil- dren, the other two being her brother Stephen, who is a resident of Indiana, and her other brother, Tracey E., who is a salesman with headquarters in Spokane, Washington.
The father of these children was born in the state of New York on June 17, 1847. and died in Van Buren county, Michigan, in January, 1908. He was long engaged in mercantile pursuits as a salesman after leaving the Decatur High School, where he com- pleted his education. He was of German ancestry, a Republican in politics and a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge at Hartford. Michi- gan, fraternally. His wife was also a native of the state of New York, born in Sing Sing on December 20, 1850. She also died in this county. Her education was secured in the public schools of her native county, and her life was devoted to good works under the guidance of the church of which she was a faithful and zealous member during the greater part of her life, and a consistent ex- emplar of its teachings all the time.
Mr. and Mrs. Duncombe have one child, their daughter Frances P. They also had one son who died in infancy. The daughter is a graduate of St. Mary's convent at Monroe, Michigan, class of 1907, and of the Kalamazoo State Normal School, from which she received her degree in 1909, her special course in that institution being that of music and art. She taught music in the public school at Belle- view, this state, one year, then her parents sent her to the Cosmo-
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politan School of Music in Chicago for the further development and cultivation of her talents, which are of a high order and show great promise. In that institution she is pursuing the study of voice cul- ture under the instruction of Professor L. A. Torrens, and that of dramatic art under instructors who are also highly competent.
Miss Duncombe is unusually richly endowed for her art work, to which she intends to devote her life, and in all other respects she is a great credit to her family, her friends and the locality of her home. Appreciating fully the advantages she is enjoying through the liberality of her parents, she will undoubtedly make the most of them, and Van Buren county is delighted over the prospect of giving to the world a new star in the lofty firmament of intellectual radiance and power from which Miss Duncombe is destined to shine. The whole community unites with her parents in their just pride in her natural gifts and the use she contemplates making of them, and rejoices in the fact that she is well deserving, in her high character, devotion to duty and social accomplishments, of the uni- versal esteem bestowed upon her wherever she is known.
Mr. Duncombe has given his adherence to the Republican party in political affairs from the dawn of his manhood. His first presi- dential vote was cast for James G. Blaine, and his devotion to the party has been unwavering ever since. He has served as a delegate to its county and state conventions a number of times, and was one of the Republican national convention which met in Chicago in 1904. He has always been a devoted friend of the public schools, and given them the benefit of his services for many years in some official capacity, regarding the cause of public education as one of the greatest claims on the attention of the people, and one of the strongest means for the preservation of liberty, intelligence and morality among them.
Fraternally he is a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge at Keeler and of Benton Harbor Lodge, No. 544, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in each of which he takes an earnest interest, show- ing commendable fervor in his zeal for the welfare of both fraterni- ties, as he does with reference to every other good agency at work among the people for their betterment in morals, in tellectual devel- opment, in social relations and as contributors to the general en- joyment of the community.
Mr. and Mrs. Duncombe reside in a beautiful modern dwelling in Keeler. The house is conveniently arranged, richly and tastefully furnished, and provided with every appliance required for its com- fort and the enjoyment of its inmates. The home is a social center of great popularity. a radiating point of high culture and genial good fellowship, wherein gracious hospitality is dispensed and the best attributes of American domestic life are enthroned, in accord- ance with the sunny and elevated nature of its occupants, whose hearts are rich in kindly feelings for all mankind.
CHARES DUNCOMBE .- Reared as a farmer and following that occu- pation until he was nearly forty years of age, then turning his attention to merchandising with as much deftness and capacity as if he had long been trained to the business, Charles Duncombe, of
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Keeler, has shown his adaptability to circumstances to be of an ex- tent and character that would win him success and credit in almost any line of endeavor that he might choose to turn his hand to. His is rather an unusual case, as farmers are not generally well adapted to general merchandising, their usual pursuit not involving the fine points of this line of trade and unfitting them for its more graceful requirements. But Mr. Duncombe is as much at home behind the counter as he ever was behind the plow, and he can turn a mercan- tile transaction as neatly and as cleverly as he ever did a furrow. This shows his versality and readiness for any station or duty. and he has given many proofs of them in his mercantile career in other ways.
Of the six children born to his parents Charles Duncombe was the fourth in the order of birth. He is a son of Charles and Frances S. (Knight) Duncombe, the story of whose lives is given at some length in the sketch of Albert O. Duncombe, which will be found in this volume. Like his brother Albert O., Charles was born in Van Buren county, Michigan, and reared and largely educated on his native heath. He attended the district school near his home until he completed its course, then engaged in farming on shares for his father. This he continued until the death of the father, when he inherited one hundred and sixty acres of fine land in Hamilton township and began cultivating it entirely on his own account. He remained on this farm and devoted himself wholly to its development and improvement until 1907. And he has ever since superintended its cultivation and kept it up to the standard of excellence to which he raised it. It is devoted to general farming.
In 1907 Mr. Duncan entered the employ of his older brother Al- bert as a clerk and assistant manager of the large department store the brother owns and carries on in Keeler. IIe has been a potent factor in helping to win the wide popularity the emporium enjoys and build it up to the high place it has in the confidence and regard of the business world and the general public. He is what the old Romans called suaviter in modo, fortiter in re-genial and cour- teous in manner but strong or resolute in deed-and the two qual- ifications for business combined in him have given him great in- fluence with the purchasing publie, and pronounced success as a business man in the department of trade with which he is connected.
Mr. Duncombe was married in April 2, 1891, in Keeler township. to Miss Maria McMillan, who was born in this county on February 14, 1873, the first of the five children, all daughters, of John and Salome (Reece) McMillan, all of whom are living. The others are : Ada, who is the wife of A. W. Gustine, formerly a merchant in Keeler but now a farmer in the same township; Buna, who is the wife of H. A. Welcher, also a Keeler township farmer; Nellie, who is the wife of D. F. Gregory, a scion of the old Gregory family so long prominent in this locality, and. like her sisters, a resident of Keeler township; and Zorah, who is the wife of M. J. Teed. a butcher living and doing business in Benton Harbor. Mr. and Mrs. Gustine have three children, Mr. and Mrs. Welcher have two sons, and Mr. and Mrs. Gregory have one daughter.
Four children, three sons and one daughter, have been born to
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Mr. and Mrs. Duncombe, but only one of them is living. their son Charles McMillan. From the age at which he entered school until the present time his education has been carefully looked after. He completed the eighth grade of the elementary and grammar school at Hamilton, passed one year at the high school in Decatur, and was graduated from the Hartford high school in the class of 1910. At this time (1911) he is a student in the school of Professor Ferris in Big Rapids, which is considered one of the best of the kind in the state, and there he is pursuing a course in the commercial and busi- ness department to fit himself to follow in the footsteps of his father, his uncle and his grandfather as a merchant.
John McMillan, the father of Mrs. Duncombe, is a native of the state of New York, and in earlier life was a blacksmith. He was a soldier in defense of the Union during the Civil war, and made an excellent record in the army. He has served as treasurer of Keeler township and is now township clerk. His political faith is pledged and his political services are given to the Republican party, and he is ardently devoted to its principles. Fraternally he is a Freemason and belongs to the lodge of the order in Keeler, where he and his wife are living. The latter was also born in New York state, and she, too, takes an earnest interest in the fraternal life of the community as a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. No citizens of Van Buren county are more highly or more generally esteemed.
Mr. Duncombe is a Republican of the most devoted loyalty to his party. He cast his first presidential vote for President Benjamin Harrison, and has kept himself steadfastly under the Republican banner ever since. He served several years as school director while living in Hamilton township and is now township treasurer of Keeler township. He is deeply and intelligently interested in the cause of public education, regarding it as a bulwark of American liberty, a valuable means of preparation for the duties of citizen- ship and a great force in democratizing our people and helping to make them homogeneous in their social and political activities.
Mrs. Duncombe is a true partner of her husband's joys, sorrows and ambitions. She shares in all his aspirations, takes part in all his work for the good of the community, and aids in making their home one of the choice domestic shrines of the township, and one of its most popular and agreeable centers of social culture, benefi- cent energy and genuine hospitality. Van Buren county has no better or more useful citizens than Mr. and Mrs. Duncombe, no bet- ter representatives of what is best in its citizenship, no more zealous promoters of its welfare in every way, and, to its credit be it said, no heads of a household within its borders who are more highly es- teemed or more thoroughly appreciated.
LESTER E. OSBORN .- Among the native-born sons of Van Buren county, Michigan, is Lester E. Osborn, whose citizenship is of that stanch and admirable type which has made this section so pro- gressive and prosperous that it is widely noted for these qualities. The name of Osborn is well known hereabout and he whose name in- augurates this review is distinguished not only for his own record as a man and a citizen, but from the honored ancestry from which
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he is descended. He was born in Hamilton township on August 1, 1854, and is the eldest member and only son in a family of four born to Stephen and Maria (Tryon) Osborn. At the present time all the children survive. Lillie is the wife of H. A. Beardsley, an agri- culturist and a resident of Decatur. Lucy is the wife of Charles Harris, a prosperous agriculturist of Hamilton township ; and Lora is married to John Ingram, an engineer in the great Sheffield works of Three Rivers, Michigan.
The father of the subject was a native of Allegheny county, New York, and was an agriculturist. He attended school in an old log school house in the Empire state and was of the self-made type. When but a lad he came with his parents to Van Buren county, Michigan, making the journey by wagon in pioneer style. When the Osborns arrived in the Wolverine state wolves, deer and wild turkeys were plentiful and the traces of the redmen had by no means been obliterated. The father entered land from the govern- ment and became prosperous. All his life he was loyal in his sup- port of the principles of Jackson Democracy. He was well-known, a man of strong character and of influence in the community. In the early days he had sixteen yoke of oxen and with them broke the virgin soil. Both he and his worthy wife were members of the Dis- ciple church. IIe took a great interest in improving public school conditions and he was at the forefront in other progressive work. His wife was a native of Michigan and a woman of great ambition and industry. Both are interred in the Hamilton cemetery, where beautiful stones are erected sacred to their memory.
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