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 9
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WILLIAM BENNETT .- As a sterling citizen who has the interest of the whole community at heart, a veteran of the great Civil war, and as one of the leading hardware merchants, a progressive and thoroughly honest business man, has William Bennett, of Hart- . ford, won the respect and friendly regard of Van Buren county. He holds high place among those whose industry and unselfish in- terest have laid the foundations of a general prosperity. Mr. Bennett was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, on August 16, 1841, the son of Samuel and Ruth (Hannum) Bennett. The father was a native of Chester county, Pennsylvania, the son of James Ben- nett, well known in that part of the state. Samuel Bennett and his wife were quiet, unassuming people, who lived and died in the state of Ohio. They were the parents of five children, two of whom are living at this date, 1911. Caroline became Mrs. Joshua Whin- ery. She died, and her husband has since remarried and become Vol. II-5
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the father of a family. Ruth was united in marriage to Hiram Cameron, and her sister Anna married Joseph Whinery. Lee Bennett is deceased. William Bennett was raised on his father's Ohio farm, and educated in the local schools and academy. Be- fore his school days were over the war cloud that had cast its shadow over the nation for so many years finally broke, and the country became "the North" and "the South." William Ben- nett at once enlisted in Company I, Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the date being in October, 1860. He was appointed a non-commissioned officer, and was later promoted to the rank of orderly surgeon. He was in the Army of the Cumberland and was present at twenty-three engagements. In all his active serv- ice he was never wounded and was mustered out in December, 1865. He is now the recipient of a monthly pension of seventeen dollars in recognition of his gallant and faithful service.
At the close of the war Mr. Bennett returned to Ohio, and was there engaged in farming until his removal, in 1870, to Van Buren county, Michigan. In 1867 he was united in marriage to Miss Pheniah Beatty, the daughter of Mahlan Beatty. Mrs. Bennett was born in Carlton, Carroll county, Ohio, where she attended school until her eighteenth year. As a wife she has shown her- self a capable helpmeet, a cheery companion and a tender mother. She was a member of the Order of Eastern Star lodge of Hartford, and of the Hartford Ladies Club, of which she was several times an office-holder. Upon his advent in Hartford, Mr. Bennett pur- chased a stock of hardware. He now owns his place of business, and through his careful management has achieved a large patron- age. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett are the parents of two sons: Eugene B., born July 23, 1870, was educated in the public schools and later attended a business college. He married Miss Alice L. Bab- bolt, and has since become the father of two children, Eugene B., Jr., aged nine, and Alice L., aged six. Their mother is an Episcopalian. Eugene Bennett is a member of Florada Lodge, No. 309, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, lodge No. 544, at Benton Harbor. George W., the second Bennett son, was born in March, 1873, at Hartford, Michigan. He is both a Mason and an Elk; he married Miss Mary O'Brien, of Lansing.
William Bennett is a member of Charter Oak lodge, No. 231, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is a past noble grand. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and is a past commander of his post. He had the honor to be the first commander of Elsworth post. In the field of politics Mr. Bennett is found under the standard of the Republican party. He has served as village president, and as township clerk and treas- urer, and for five years under the Mckinley and Roosevelt admin- istrations held to the eminent satisfaction of all the postmaster- ship of Hartford. Mr. Bennett well deserves the esteem and af- fection in which he is held by all who know him.
FRANK L. SPENCER .- The treasurer of Lawrence township was born in Van Buren county, Antwerp township, on December 10, 1851. His parents had been married eleven years before and had
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come to Michigan to begin their wedded life. The father, William B. Spencer, was a native of Connecticut and the mother, Nancy A. Borden Spencer, of New York. There were two other children in the family besides Frank L. These are Mary, the widow of D. C. Rush, and Edith, the widow of David E. Hinman. The family resided in Antwerp township for about fifteen years and then they went to St. Joseph county, Indiana, where they lived for about twenty-four years before returning to this county. In 1875 they bought a farm in Lawrence township and lived there until they died. William Spencer passed away in January, 1891, and his wife in August, 1889.
Frank Spencer attended the district school near his father's farm in St. Joseph county, Indiana, and then the graded school of New Carlisle and that of South Bend, where he was in the high school. After this he worked for his father and on New Year's day of 1874 was married to Edith E. Stryker, of Berrien county, Michigan. She was born in the state of New York on April 3, 1855, the daughter of G. C. and A. S. Chamberlain Stry- ker, both of New York state. Mrs. Spencer has lived in Michi- gan since she was ten and was educated in the district schools of Berrien county. There were three children born to her and Mr. Spencer : Albert E., born December 12, 1877, Carrie M., in 1883, and Edna L. in 1885. All attended the Lawrence schools and the girls both graduated from the high school. Edna is now a ste- nographer in South Bend, Indiana. The son is a member of the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows and of the Knights of the Maccabees, to both of which lodges his father belongs. In the for- mer organization Frank Spencer is treasurer of the Shady Grove lodge, No. 499. In the Maccabees his tent is No. 205, and he is secretary of the lodge.
In politics Mr. Spencer is a loyal Democrat and, although the township is predominantly Republican, he was elected treasurer, from which fact one may deduce the correct conclusion that he is a man of unusual personal popularity and high ability. No man stands higher in the esteem of his fellow citizens and his affable manner wins him an easy liking which closer acquaintance deepens into regard.
His farm of eighty acres on sections twenty and twenty-one is a flourishing and profitable estate, conducted on modern principles and, like its owners, representative of the best of the country.
EDWIN S. DOUGLAS .- Although a resident of Lawrence, Mich- igan, only during the last seven years, and unostentatious and re- tiring in his life during that period, Edwin S. Douglas, now one of the prominent and successful real estate dealers in this part of the state, has won his way to a high place in the confidence and regard of the people, and has shown at every step of his progress that he is fully entitled to their faith in him and the generous manner in which they manifest it, both in patronage for his busi- ness and in esteem for his manhood and citizenship.
Mr. Douglas brought to the service of his interests in this county acquisitions secured in the great Empire state, in which he was born ard reared, and with whose business he was connected in an
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important way for many years. He was born in Delhi, Delaware county, New York, on August 12, 1864, and is the son of Robert and Frances (Sheldon) Douglas, also natives of the state of New York, the father of Scotch ancestry and the mother descended from an English family long resident in New York state.
Robert Douglas was the son of Adam and Jennie Douglas, na- tives of Aberdeen, Scotland, who were reared, educated and mar- ried in the old country, but came to the United States at an early date, and located in New Kingston, Delaware county, New York, where their son Robert was born, grew to manhood and was edu- cated, graduating at the end of his course of academic instruc- tion from the Delaware Academy at Delhi, New York, the curric- ulum of which he went through from beginning to end. After his graduation from this institution, having no desire to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors for many generations in tilling the soil, he entered mercantile life as the proprietor of a general store, which he conducted for ten years. From general merchan- dising he turned to the wholesale clothing trade, with his estab- lishment located in Albany, New York, where he remained five years carrying on an active business and winning an excellent repu- tation as a man and merchant. From Albany at the end of the period named he moved to Chicago, and in that city also engaged in the clothing trade, remaining until 1894. He then moved to Montague, Muskegon county, in this state, where he died the same year and where his widow died in 1898.
Their son, Edwin S. Douglas, was their only child. He moved to Chicago with his parents in 1875. There he attended school until 1884, when he engaged in the real estate business. In 1904 he moved to Lawrence in this county, and here he has ever since been actively and extensively engaged in handling real estate. He is one of the best known and most esteemed men in the business in this part of the state, and his judgment is always relied on by purchasers and sellers who are familiar with his ability and his complete and accurate knowledge of properties and their values, as to which he is a widely accredited authority. He has been en- gaged in the handling of Michigan real estate for the past twenty years.
Mr. Douglas was married on February 22, 1887, to Miss Mary M. Power, a daughter of Colonel John M. and Lydia A. Power. Colonel Power was a valiant soldier for the cause of the Union during the Civil war, and won his title and military rank in that memorable contest, entering the army from New Castle, Pennsyl- vania, and making an excellent record in one of the hard-fighting regiments enrolled in that state.
Mr. Douglas and his wife are members of the Episcopal church, holding their membership in one of the congregations in Chicago. He is a Free Mason, belonging to Rising Sun Lodge, No. 119, at Lawrence in this fraternity, and he also belongs to Chicago Lodge, No. 4, of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
His great-grandfather on his mother's side of the house was Corporal Job Sheldon in the Revolutionary war and one of the faithful soldiers who captured Major Andre, the British spy, during that struggle for liberty and independence. The grand-
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father of Mr. Douglas was also a man of prominence and influence in Delaware county, New York, where he passed the greater part of his life, and where he served as county clerk for twenty-four consecutive years. Mr. Douglas also takes an active interest in public affairs, but only in the performance of the duties of citizen- ship and with no aspiration toward public office or prominence in the affairs of any political party. He and his wife stand well in the county, and are regarded as most worthy, estimable and useful citizens.
SILAS A. BREED .- The world instinctively and justly renders deference to the man whose success in life has been worthily achieved, who has attained a competence by honorable methods and whose high reputation is solely the result of preeminent merit. Such a man is Silas A. Breed, a prominent farmer and fruit-grower of Almena township, whose valuable and highly im- proved estate of one hundred and twenty acres is situated in sections 7 and 8, his pleasant residence being in the former sec- tion. His is the remarkable record of having lived on the same farm nearly all his life, to which he came as a baby two years of age.
Mr. Breed is a native son of the Wolverine state, his birth having taken place in Antwerp township, Van Buren county, on December 11, 1848, his parents being Silas and Mary Ann Jones (Miller) Breed. The father was born in New Hampshire and resided until he became of age in that state. He then removed to the Empire state, where he settled and where he was married to his first wife, whose name was Nancy Bangs. They lived in New York until 1835. at which time four children had been born to them. After the birth of their son Joshua, they came to the newly opened state of Michigan, and located first at Breeds- ville, where the head of the house erected a mill. A few years later he removed to a point just east of Paw Paw, on the old territorial road. Here he rented land and resided for two years, previous to taking the Elden-Gillman farm, where he lived for five years. It was subsequent to that, that he removed to the farm upon which his son, the subject, now resides, and there the elder gentleman passed the remainder of his days, his demise occurring on May 7, 1878. Three children were born to him and his good wife, all of whom survive at the present time. Nancy B. is the wife of George W. Meyers and Ermine is the wife of J. H. Bennett, of Boyne City in northern Michigan, Dr. Bennett being a practicing physician and surgeon.
Silas A. Breed is indebted to the district schools for his educa- tion. Within the walls of the district school-room he pursued his studies until he was in the neighborhood of twenty years old, in the meantime assisting his father in his work and becoming under his excellent tutelage familiar with farming in all its departments. Subsequently he purchased the farm for his own and as previously mentioned he has lived here ever since baby- hood, every inch of it being dear to him with some association.
On June 4, 1870, Mr. Breed was united in marriage to Emily Stoughton, daughter of James W. Stoughton, of Almena town-
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ship, and to this happy union two children have been born- Charles and Glenn. The former, who lives upon the old home place and assists in its management, married Myrtle Kessler and is the father of seven children: Theo, James, Frank, La Rue, Carl, Mina and Robert. Glenn is in Kansas, where he is prom- inent in the automobile business. He left home when a youth of eighteen years. He is single.
Mr. and Mrs. Breed are members of the Maccabees at Goble- ville and both for a good many years have been members of the Waverly Free Baptist church. Mr. Breed is a trustee at the present time and for several years was clerk of the church. He is one of the most active members, assisting in every way possible in the campaign for good instituted by the church body. Mr. Breed has always voted with the Republican party and is a stalwart supporter of its policies and principles. He is held in generally high esteem and confidence and it is appropriate that in him should have been vested the responsibilities of office, he having held the offices of treasurer and township clerk. He is a man of pleasing address and it has been his successful aim and ambition to lead a true and upright life. He is, in truth, one of the most highly respected citizens of Almena township.
MRS. SOPHIE KROHNE .- If the history of our county is more concerned with the deeds of its men than with those of its women, it is not because they are so much more important, but because they are of the sort which lend themselves to narrative. Van Buren county owes as much to the women who are its loyal citizens as to the masculine element of her population, and this no man will gainsay. Prominent among the women who ably conduct their estates and whose enterprise has won them the administration of the entire community is Mrs. Krohne.
Westphalen, Germany, was the birthplace of Sophie Wolf Krohne as well as that of her parents, Wilhelm and Angela Rupencamp Wolf, and of her four brothers and one sister. Sophie was the fourth in the family in point of age and was born December 21, 1862. The father of this family was a butcher and a farmer who spent his life in Germany. After his death the mother decided to come to America, and accordingly she and her family sailed from Bremen to New York in 1882 and came directly to Berrien county. At present all the children except Henry reside in the state of Michigan. He lives in Kingman county, Kansas.
The resources of the Wolf family were very limited when they arrived in the new country, and until her marriage Sophie worked for wages. On September 13, 1885, she was married to Henry Krohne. He, like his bride, had been born and reared in West- phalen, Germany, and had come to America in the same year. At the time of his arrival he not only had no money, but was in debt. He went to work on the farm of his uncle and then came to Van Buren county and secured employment on the farm of Mr. Gregory, one of the pioneers of the county. For ten years Mr. Krohne worked for Mr. Gregory and then he and his wife were able to purchase a home of their own. To be sure, they were obliged to go into debt for a part of their first eighty acres, but
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careful husbandry and wise management presently enabled them to pay off what they owed and to purchase an additional twenty acres. Sixty of the first tract was in Van Buren county and the remainder in Cass county.
In time the small house was replaced by a pleasant modern dwelling and the "shack" by the excellent barns. The farm has grown to a place of two hundred and sixty acres, all finely im- proved and in prosperous condition. In the success which was his before he was called from this life in 1910 Mr. Krohne owed no little part to the wife, who had so ably aided him throughout the toilsome journey from poverty to affluence. Mr. Krohne was a Lutheran and his family are also valued members of that church. In politics he was a Republican and though not active in political life, he was genuinely interested in the public welfare. At the time of his death he was a member of the school board, for educa- tional matters always claimed his attention.
There were two sons and two daughters in the family of Sophie and Henry Krohne. John is the eldest and has received his educa- tion in this county where he now is one of the thrifty farmers. For a time he also engaged in the butcher business. On July 19, 1911, he was married to Miss Eva Rupencamp, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, where she graduated from the high school. They are mem- bers of the Lutheran church and he is a Republican in politics. The other son, William, is at home with his mother and is a prac- tical farmer. In political views he follows the family tradition and supports the Republican party. Louise, the elder daughter, has completed the course of the common school and has studied music. Rosa, the youngest, is in the first year of high school.
These children have received an inheritance from their honored father more valuable than the material one his industry attained for them, for he has left them a name which is a synonym of recti- tude and probity. Not only for the sake of him but for their own many lofty qualities, Mrs. Krohne and her family are accorded a. place among the most highly respected people of the county.
ANSON D. PEASE .- Holding a prominent and well assured place in the affairs of Almena township, Van Buren county, is Anson D. Pease, one of the representatives of the agricultural industry, which more than any other factor contributes to the unusual prosperity of this favored section of the United States. Mr. Pease was born at Eckford, Calhoun county, Michigan, on July 14, 1857. He is the son of John L. and Julia E. (Osborn) Pease. The former was born in Oneida county, New York, and was the son of John W. Pease, a native of Connecticut, who lived to the great old age of ninety-six years. The father survives at the present time, a gentleman of eighty years, still hale and hearty and greatly interested in the progress of the times. He makes his residence at Cadillac, Michigan. He is a veteran of the Civil war and his father, John W., carried a musket in the war of 1812. As previously mentioned John L. Pease was born in New York and there resided until the attainment of his majority. Then, favor- ably impressed with the newly opened northwest, he concluded to cast his fortunes with this section and accordingly took up his
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residence within the borders of the state. Two years later he was followed by his father, who secured land in the vicinity of Eckford and there resided until his demise in 1879. He then re- moved to Wexford county, near Cadillac, and farmed there until 1901, when he retired and took up his abode in Cadillac, where he is an honored citizen. He is the father of five children, An- son D. Pease, the immediate subject of this record being the only one surviving at the present time.
The boyhood of Anson D. Pease was passed in Eckford, Cal- houn county. When he was about ten years of age his mother's death broke up the home and five children were left without a mother's care. The children found various homes and Anson lived in the neighborhood until he was thirty years of age, when he established an independent home by marriage. He has pros- pered in very definite manner and is now the possessor of two hundred and ninety acres of Almena township's best land. The entire tract is paid for and almost the whole of it he has gained himself. He is of that typically American product,-the self-made man.
Mr. Pease was married on September 20, 1887, the young woman to become his wife being Euphemia Crofoot, daughter of Asa Crofoot, of Almena township, a native of the state of New York and a man of considerable affairs in this township. His demise occurred some twenty-four years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Pease are the parents of two children, Roy D., aged twenty-one, hold- ing an excellent position with the American Express Company, of Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Kyle D., aged fourteen (born August 25, 1897), a student in the public schools. The Crofoots are an eastern family. Asa Crofoot married Elenore Erkenbeck. His father's name was Joseph Crofoot.
The subject is a Mason, belonging to Hudson Lodge, No. 325 at Gobleville and to the Chapter at Paw Paw. He is likewise affiliated with the Gleaners. He is a Republican in politics, and he has been honored by the bestowal of public office, he having served as treasurer and highway commissioner, and in an emi- nently satisfactory manner.
HIRAM A. COLE .- Following the migratory genius of his craft, which was almost universal in practice among its members until within a comparatively recent period, Hiram A. Cole, of Paw Paw, owner and publisher of the Paw Paw Free Press and Courier, has worked in many places at the printer's case, and had valuable experience in association with men under widely differing circumstances and conditions. Unlike the proverbial rolling stone, however, he gathered moss in the form of worldly substance as he roamed, and found himself steadily moving to- ward the goal of his ambition, where he is now safely anchored, and with power to work out any other aspirations he may have.
Mr. Cole is a native of Kalamazoo county, where his life began on a farm on March 24, 1856. He is a son of Hiram and Ann (Shaw) Cole, natives of the state of New York who came to Michigan in 1846 and took up their residence on the farm in Kalamazoo county already alluded to as the birthplace of their
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son Hiram. After farming several years in Kalamazoo county the father moved his family to Decatur in this county, where he passed the remainder of his life actively engaged in a general law practice, serving as prosecuting attorney of Van Buren county several terms. He died in April, 1870.
His widow survived him nearly twenty-nine years, passing away on January 1, 1899. They were the parents of three chil- dren, all of whom are living: Louise M., widow of the late E. A. Blackman, of Hillsdale county, who was a prominent journalist of this county, and widely and favorably known as such all over the state; Hiram A., the subject of these paragraphs; and Charles S., who is with his brother Hiram.
Hiram A. Cole obtained a high-school education in Decatur, and then began life for himself by learning the trade of printer in the office of the Decatur Republican, of which Mr. Blackman, mentioned above, was the editor and proprietor. Mr. Cole re- mained with the Republican three years, then went to Battle Creek, Michigan, and there. worked on the Michigan Tribune two years. Returning to Decatur at the end of that period, he pur- chased an interest in the Republican. But he sold this soon after- ward and moved to South Bend, Indiana, where he worked on the Daily Tribune for a year and a half, winning credit for him- self and giving his employers full satisfaction.
By this time he had grown weary of the continuous monotony of his trade and determined to enter another line of useful en- deavor. He returned again to Decatur and followed the grocery business for a year. Mercantile life was not to his taste, and he returned to the case, becoming a compositor on the Paw Paw Free Press and Courier, with which he was connected three years. His next engagement was as foreman on the True Northerner, in which capacity he served that paper for a year and a half.
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