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 37
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of the forest to make a space on which he might erect a log cabin to shelter himself and family, and on the farm which he cleared he resided until his death. John N. Chadsey was brought up on the home farm in Monroe county, New York, and educated in the pioneer schools of his district. Soon after the close of the Civil war he came to Michigan, settling in Bloomingdale township, Van Buren county, where he bought a tract of timbered land, erected a frame house, and began to clear a farm. Industrious, energetic and enterprising, Mr. Chadsey cleared a large part of his land and in due course of time made improvements of great value, replac- ing the original house by a large brick structure, and erecting a substantial barn and other needed farm buildings, each year add- ing to the attractiveness and value of his property. He there con- tinued his agricultural labors until his death, in 1895.
After the death of Mr. Chadsey, Mrs. Chadsey married for her second husband, in 1901, George W. Broughton, who was born in Macomb county, Michigan, where his parents, James and Lucy Broughton, were pioneer settlers, going there from Massachusetts, their native state. Mr. Broughton was reared on the home farm in Macomb county, and as a young man tried the venture of new hazards, going West and living in different places until 1897. Re- turning then to Michigan, he bought land in Cheshire township, Allegan county, and embarked in general farming, continuing as an agriculturist until his death, March 3, 1910. Mrs. Broughton has no children of her own, but has an adopted son, Franklin M. Broughton. Mrs. Broughton is a conscientious member of the Baptist church, while Mr. Broughton was affiliated with the Meth- odist Episcopal church.
JACOB MITCHELL .- Although he is of distinguished ancestry and can trace his family line back through the history of this country in unbroken succession two hundred and seventy-six years, and al- though members of the family have dignified and adorned all the higher walks of life in various places as the generations have come and gone, Jacob Mitchell, one of the enterprising merchants and leading citizens of South Haven, has built his career along lines of ordinary productive usefulness, without a thought of attaining distinction or attracting the noisy admiration of the world. His labors have been important and serviceable in their day and lo- cality, but, while many of them required expert knowledge and the skill that comes from careful training, they have not been of a character to bring renown or secure public attention in any showy or extensive way. But he has not desired this. He has been content to walk faithfully in the plain and simple path of duty, and thus work out his destiny in life and render what serv- ice he could do his fellow men in his day and generation.
Mr. Mitchell is a native of St. Lawrence county, New York, where his life began on July 31, 1836. His parents were Reuben and Margaret (Roberts) Mitchell, the former born in Clinton county, New York, in 1808, and the latter in county Cork, Ireland, in 1812. The mother died in 1880 and the father in 1890. Nine children were born of their union, three of whom are now living.
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Jacob and his brothers Henry and David, both younger than him- self. Henry is a resident of Fairgrove and David of Flint, Michigan.
The first American representative of the family was Matthew Mitchell, who, with his wife and children, came to this country and settled in what was then Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1635. The family came from Scotland, and the head of the household at once began to take an active part in the affairs of the town in which he had located, and four years after his arrival was its clerk. Stephen Mitchell, another member of the family, founded the public library in Glasgow, Scotland, which is the second in size in the country. Another distinguished member of the family was Professor Maria Mitchell, who belonged to the branch that settled on Nantucket Island at an early day, moving to the island from the mainland of Massachusetts.
Elector Mitchell, another member of note in the early days, lived at Heathfield, Scotland; Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchell, a renowned physician and surgeon, belonged to a branch that located on Long Island, and Stephen Mitchell, of the same family was chief justice of Connecticut in 1812. During the nineteenth century nine mem- bers of the family, all bearing the name of Mitchell, were gradu- ated from Harvard University and seven of the same lineage and name secured diplomas from Yale University.
Jacob Mitchell's grandfather, whose name was also Jacob, was a native of Pennsylvania and a merchant in the state of New York. His son Reuben, the father of JJacob, the subject of this review, was a farmer in New York and came to Michigan in 1865. He first took up his residence in St. Clair county, but some time after- ward moved to Tuscola county. where he redeemed a farm from the wilderness on which he passed the remainder of his days. He was a Presbyterian in church relations, and first a Whig and later a Republican in his political attachment.
Jacob Mitchell, of South Haven, remained at home with his parents until he was eight years old, then became a farm hand in the employ of Dr. Mead in Essex county, New York. He worked on the Doctor's farm, lived in his family and attended school, when he could be spared for the purpose, until he reached the age of twenty. While doing these things he also acquired a good knowledge of the millwright's trade, and for some years thereafter worked at it in his native state.
In 1863 he came to Michigan and located in St. Clair county. where he wrought at his trade as a millwright, did considerable other carpenter work and also built a number of boats, then passed a number of years as a contractor and builder in southern Michi- gan and northern Indiana, erecting mills and other structures. In 1891 he moved to South Haven, and during the next two years and a half was occupied in building boats for the lake service. He also built the government light house at South Haven.
By this time he became weary of his migratory life and deter- mined to secure a permanent abode and settled occupation for himself. Accordingly, in 1894, he located a claim on forty acres of land in Tuscola county, and to the improvement of this farm
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and the cultivation of his land he devoted himself during the next six years. In September, 1900, he again came to South Haven and opened a meat market, and this he is still conducting. By strict attention to business and a careful study of the needs of the com- munity he has built up a large trade and won a wide and appre- ciative popularity for his enterprise, and his business has become very active and extensive. Its cares do not, however, fall entirely on him. He is assisted in carrying it on by his two sons.
On November 8, 1873, Mr. Mitchell was united in marriage with Miss Theresa Metetall, who was born in St. Clair county, Michigan, and is a daughter of Frederick and Theresa (Silas) Metetall. Her father was born in France and died in this state at the age of sixty-five. The mother was a native of Germany, near the French line. She died in this state also, passing away in 1911, at the age of eighty-six. They had eleven children, eight of whom are living, Mrs. Mitchell being the fifth in the order of birth. Her father was a professional cook, and came to the United States when he was a young man. He lived for a time in Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, then was employed as the chef on a United States man-of- war until 1856. In that year he retired from the Government service and took up his residence in St. Clair county, this state, where he engaged in farming during the rest of his life. He was a Republican in political affiliation and a Presbyterian in church connection, and was devoted to both his party and his church, ren- dering both good service, and without looking for any reward in the way of office from the former or any prominence or distinction in the latter, his devotion in each case being a matter of firm belief in the basic principles and teachings involved.
Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell have three children: Lydia, who is the wife of Hale Bradley and resides in South Haven; and William and Herbert, both of whom are associated in business with their father, as has already been noted. The father is a devout and consistent member of the Congregational church and deeply interested in the congregation to which he belongs. His political support is given cordially and steadily to the Republican party, his adherence to that organization being based on conviction and a sense of duty, for he has never sought or desired a political office, either by elec- tion or appointment, being well content to serve his country as well as he can in the highly creditable post of private citizenship. He is now past seventy-five years of age, and his long and useful life and fidelity to every call of duty have won him the universal respect and good will of the residents of Van Buren county, who have found him worthy of their commendation and esteem from every point of view.
CHARLES W. WILLIAMS .- The son of a pioneer in the business of carrying passengers and freight out of and into South Haven by boats on the lake, and himself one of the leaders in lake traffic and transportation for many years, Charles W. Williams has been a potential factor in building up the commercial importance and influence of the city and providing for the convenience and prog- ress of its people. For two generations this family has led the Vol. II-19
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forces of communication by water between South Haven and other Lake Michigan points, and in that way have rendered a service to the lake shore towns that has probably not been surpassed in value by what any other line of enterprise has accomplished for them and the region in which they are located.
Mr. Williams is practically a child of the Lake, and his devotion to it in his business enterprise has something of filial feeling in it. His life began on its shore, and the greater part of his energy through all his subsequent years has been expended in business for which it has furnished the medium. He was born in St. Jo- seph, Michigan, on February 2, 1868, and is a son of Henry W. and Loraine L. (Green) Williams, who were born, reared, edu- cated and married in Vermont, on the shore of Lake Champlain, the former born in 1829 and the latter in 1828. Both died in 1901, in South Haven, Michigan, after many years of steady industry and usefulness. Of the seven children born to them but two are living, their son Charles W. and their daughter Laura A., the latter now a resident of South Haven.
The father was a very enterprising and progressive man. He obtained a good education in his native state, and when but seven- teen years of age built the first car ferry that crossed Lake Cham- plain. He also built there a truss bridge sixty feet in height. From Vermont he carried his talents and acquirements to a larger and more active market, moving to Chicago, and there for a short time he worked at his dual trade of ship and house carpenter. He then returned to Vermont and was married, and soon afterward came West again, this time locating at St. Joseph in this state. Here he again worked at his trade, and between the claims of others on his time and attention built himself two schooners for lake traffic between St. Joseph and Chicago and Milwaukee.
To secure greater facilities in his operations and be in a position to use to better advantage some of the wealth of the country around him in timber, he built himself a saw mill on the Paw Paw river. This mill was destroyed by fire, and he then bought one located between Benton Harbor and St. Joseph. Sometime afterward he purchased a one-half interest in the steamer Skylark, engaged in carrying lumber, fruit and passengers between St. Joseph and Chicago. He was engaged in the manufacture of fruit packings at his saw mill, and this steamer gave him an easy and profitable way of transporting his products to places where they were needed.
In 1880 he retired from the lumber business and gave his atten- tion exclusively to transportation work as a member of the firm of Graham, Morton & Company, which then owned two steamers. the Skylark and the Messenger. He withdrew from this firm in 1882, and the next year moved to South Haven, having purchased the steamer City of St. Joseph for a new enterprise which he had under consideration. This was the establishment of a transporta- tion line by water between South Haven and Chicago. He put the line in operation and kept it going during 1883 and 1884. But it was not a profitable enterprise, and he turned the City of St. Joseph into an iron ore barge in 1885. and set her plying between
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St. Joseph and points on Lake Superior. In 1886 he sold the steamer.
His next venture was undertaken at the request of the business . men of South Haven in 1888, who induced him to build the Steamer H. W. Williams for carrying fruit and passengers between South Haven and Chicago. This also turned out to be a losing venture, and in 1890 he built the Steamer Glenn for the transportation of fruit between Pier (probably Union Pier now) and South Haven and Chicago. The next year he built the Steamer Loraine L .. put her on the line between Pier and South Haven, and opened up an- other line between Michigan City, Indiana and Chicago with the Steamer Glenn. In 1890 he organized the H. W. Williams Trans- portation Company, with himself as president and his son Charles as secretary and treasurer, all the stock being held in the family ; and in the fall of 1892 he built for this company the steamer City of Kalamazoo, which made the fourth in the company's lake fleet.
The elder Mr. Williams was also president of the Pierce-Williams Manufacturing Company, engaged in making fruit packages and doing a flourishing business in the enterprise. Ile was a man of large capacity for affairs, and could carry on successfully several industries at a time with more ease than many a man finds in man- aging one, and he also had the nerve born of confidence in himself and good judgment of conditions and prospects. When his under- takings demonstrated in a full and fair trial that they would not pay, he abandoned them and began others, but he never wasted time in whining over his losses, his habit in such cases being to increase his energy and make them up in some new project.
He was an enthusiastic believer in the value of benevolent fra- ternities, and manifested great interest in the one which he fa- vored with his membership. He was made a Master Mason in St. Joseph Lodge, but after moving to South Haven dimitted from that and became a charter member of Star of the Lake Lodge. No. 158, in that city. He was a Democrat in his political party alle- giance, and although he was never a candidate for any political office, and never desired to be. he gave his organization the best service of which he was capable at all times. In all the relations of life and in every duty of citizenship he was true and faithful. and his memory is embalmed in the lasting esteem and approval of his fellow men in every locality in which he was known.
Charles W. Williams obtained his education in the schools of Benton Harbor and at the Notre Dame ( Indiana ) University. He also pursued a course of special instruction at a business college in Lafayette. Indiana. At the age of seventeen he became clerk of the steamer St. Joseph, and during the next seven years he was employed in the same capacity on some one of his father's boats. In 1890, at its organization, he was made secretary and treasurer of the H. W. Williams Transportation Company, and at a later date became its manager. with headquarters at South Haven. oc- cupying this position until the death of his father in 1901. After that event he organized the Dunkley & Williams Transportation Company. for which he built the steamer City of South Haven in
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1903, and of which he was manager until 1904, when he sold his interests in the company and retired from the business.
Mr. Williams is a Freemason and belongs to all the branches of the order in the York rite. He is a member of Star of the Lake Lodge, No. 158, at South Haven, and also of the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons and the Council of Royal and Select Masters in that city. As a Knight Templar he is connected with Malta Comman- dery, No. 44, at Benton Harbor, and as a Noble of the Mystic Shrine with Saladin Temple in Grand Rapids. In his political faith and allegiance he is a member of the Democratic party and takes an earnest interest in its welfare, but never seeks or desires anything in the way of a political office for himself.
Mr. Williams was married on September 20, 1893, to Miss Zara- dia C. Brunson, a native of Benton Harbor and the daughter of Rufus and Sarah Jane (Stotts) Brunson. Her parents were born in Indiana and came to Michigan with their parents in childhood. Sterne Brunson, the paternal grandfather of Mr. Williams, was one of the first settlers of what is now Benton Harbor, but was called Brunson Harbor in his day and named in his honor. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have two children, their son Henry A. and their daughter Sarah L., both of whom are still living under the paren- tal rooftree and adding light, life and attractiveness to the parental family circle, which the friends and acquaintances of the family always find a center of social culture and refined and genuine hos- pitality.
JOHN S. MALBONE .- Operating in business in five of the states of the American Union, and trying his hand at several lines of useful effort, with success in each, John S. Malbone, of South Haven, has had a varied experience and has profited by its some- times severe but always impressive lessons. He has been a me- chanic, a merchant and a farmer. These are widely divergent ave- nues to consequence in a worldly way, but Mr. Malbone has shown himself able to cope with their varied requirements in a masterly manner and command them all to his service and advancement.
Mr. Malbone was born in Franklin county, Ohio, seven miles from Columbus. His parents, Solomon M. and Jerusha Malbone, were farmers, and he was born and reared on a farm. The father was born in Ohio in 1819, and died in Van Buren county, Michi- gan, in 1903. The mother was born in the state of New York in 1821, and died in this county in 1908. The father farmed in his native state until 1864, then moved his family to Webster county. Iowa, and lived there until 1875, when they came to Van Buren county, Michigan. Here he continued to farm until 1893, then retired from active pursuits. He was a man of prominence and in- fluence in his native county and also in this county, and filled ac- ceptably a number of township offices in each. In politics he was a Republican, in fraternal relations an Odd Fellow, and in church connection a Congregationalist. He and his wife were the parents of five sons and two daughters, John S. being the second child in the order of birth.
John S. Malbone remained at home with his parents on the
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farm until he reached the age of twenty-three, then started an independent course of activity for himself as a carpenter and stone- mason. In 1864 he went to Fort Dodge, Webster county, Iowa, and after abiding there and in other places for a time came to Van Buren county, this state, and took up his residence at South Haven. Here he was occupied in fruit growing for a time not far from the city, then, in 1894, moved into the city and built him- self a three-story brick business block with a pressed brick front. In this building he opened a hardware and furniture store, which he conducted until 1907, with good returns for his enterprise.
In October of that year he sold his business and moved to Vir- ginia, where he bought two hundred acres of lumber land, going later to Pennsylvania. In 1910 he returned to South Haven and took back the business he had sold before leaving the city, and in carrying on this he has ever since been engaged. He has taken an earnest interest and a leading part in the affairs of his city and township, serving the public well and acceptably as township clerk two terms and as township supervisor three terms. To everything he has deemed of value in promoting the progress and improve- ment of the region of his home he has given his cordial support, and to every movement for the benefit of the people he has cheer- fully lent his energetic aid.
In the fraternal life of the community he has been active and forceful, working for its welfare and expansion through his mem- bership in several branches of the Masonic order, including Star of the Lake Lodge, No. 158, South Haven Chapter, No. 58, Royal Arch Masons, and South Haven Council, No. 45, Royal and Select Masters. His religious affiliation is with the Baptist church, and in this, too, he is an intelligent and effective worker, taking a special interest in every good work undertaken by the congregation to which he belongs, but not limiting his energy and zeal to that. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, and he is diligent and effective in the service of that organization also.
Mr. Malbone was married on April 15, 1869, to Miss Mary C. Rawson, a native of Illinois. They have four sons and two daugh- ters: Edith, the wife of Robert A. Farrand, of Leslie, Michigan ; and Willis L., Frank M., John H., Lloyd G. and Carrie B. The father is in all respects a first rate citizen and is highly esteemed as a man. He has made his own way in the world without the the aid of Fortune's favors or adventitious circumstances at any time, except as his foresight and energy enabled him to make any circumstances propitious by commanding them to his service. His education was obtained, so far as regular academic instruction is concerned, in a humble log school house in a rural district of Ohio, but he has supplemented that part of his mental training by keep- ing his eyes open and gathering in information from every source available to him in his journey through life, and he is now a man of extensive general information. The sterling and serviceable citizenship of our country is made up of such material, and Mr. Malbone is a very worthy representative of the most sturdy and commendable class.
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JOHN F. NOUD .- With the splendid record of his father as a manufacturer, business man and public spirited and progressive citizen before him, John F. Noud, of South Haven, began his own career under the stimulus of a high example, and also that of the responsibility of living up to it and holding the family name at least at the altitude at which his father had written it. It is high praise but only a just tribute to genuine and demonstrated merit to state that the son has fully lived up to the example of his father and dignified and adorned the name he bears as worthily in his generation as his father did in his; and it is to his credit that he has been as ready in adaptation to the requirements of his day, much intensified as they are in exaction, as his father or any other member of his family ever was.
Mr. Noud was born in Manistee county, Michigan, on September 29, 1876, a son of Patrick and Susan A. (McCurdy) Noud, and the third of their eight children, six of whom are living. The father was born in Canada and became a resident of the United States and Michigan when he was yet a young man. For a time after his arrival in this state he worked as an employe at lumbering, and when he got a start engaged in the lumber trade in Manistee on his own account, operating a saw mill and carrying on a general lumber business. He was one of the pioneers in that part of the state in this line of industrial and mercantile effort, and one of the most prominent men engaged in it there. He is now and has been for several years president of the State Lumber Company of Manistee. This company is also engaged in the manufacture of salt. He is also president of the Chicago and South Haven Steam- ship Company. In all his business undertakings he was highly successful, and in his connection with the public affairs of the city and county in which he lived he was also prominent and influen- tial. His political connection was with the Democratic party, and in the local councils of that organization he was one of the most potential forces, being recognized as a judicious and reliable ad- viser and a resourceful and effective worker for the good of the party, while everything involving the substantial welfare of the city and county felt the quickening impulse of his vigorous mind and the directing care of his strong and skillful hand greatly to ite advantage.
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