USA > Michigan > A history of northern Michigan and its people, Volume II > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
After the close of his service as a valiant soldier of the Union Mr. Bishop returned to New York and, realizing, in view of his physical infirmity, the expediency of gaining an education that would fit him for effective effort along lines aside from manual labor, he prosecuted his studies in turn in Unadilla Academy, Cooperstown Seminary and Wal- ton Academy, excellent institutions in his native state. Thereafter he devoted his attention to teaching in the public schools for several years and in the meanwhile he formulated definite plans for his future career, having decided to prepare himself for the legal profession. With this end in view he entered the University of Michigan, in September, 1868.
567
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
and he carried forward his studies in both the literary and law depart- ments of this great institution, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1872, with the well earned degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was admitted to the bar of the state in 1875, having in the mean- while continued his labors as a teacher. Soon afterward he established his home in Ludington, which was then a mere lumbering town of ob- scure order, although it had been made the judicial center of Mason county. Here he has maintained his home during the long intervening years, within which he has gained precedence as one of the representa- tive members of the Michigan bar and been identified with much im- portant litigation in both the state and federal courts. The young law- yer was energetic, careful and conscientious in his professional work and soon laid the foundation for the large and representative practice that he has so long controlled, the while there came distinctive evidence of the confidence accorded him in the county in which he had elected to establish his permanent home. In 1876 he was elected prosecuting at- torney of Mason county, and the efficiency of his service was indicated by his re-election in 1878, as his own successor. His work in this office materially heightened his reputation as an able and resourceful trial lawyer and in 1884 he was again elected to the same office, in which he served one term, of two years. In 1882 he was chosen representative of his eounty in the state legislature, and a full decade later, in 1892, he was again eleeted to this office. In the meanwhile he had been one of the leaders in the councils of the Republican party in this section of the state, and his ability and fidelity to trust marked him as eligible for more disinguished official preferment. He was elected to represent a district of Michigan in the United States congress, in which he made an admirable record, proving a valuable working member of the house and participating earnestly in the deliberations of the floor and the com- mittee room. He served, by successive re-elections, from the Fifty- fourth to the Fifty-eighth congress, both inclusive, and at the time of his last election, he received 14,502 votes, while the opposing candidates were accorded recognition at the polls in the following and respective number of votes: David W. Goodenough, Democrat, 6,166; Edward T. Palmer, Prohibitionist, 969; and David M. Stevens, Socialist, 330. In 1906 Mr. Bishop was elected a delegate to the state constitutional con- vention of Michigan, and in November of the following year President Roosevelt appointed him a member of the Spanish treaty claims eom- mission, in which connection he gave evidence of his marked diplomatic ability and mature judgment. His entire career in public office has been one of distinctive loyalty and faithfulness to trust and he has honored his adopted state by his worthy life and worthy services.
Maintaining a lively interest in his old comrades in arms, Mr. Bish- op signified the same by membership in a Grand Army of the Republic Post, and he is also affiliated with the Ludington organizations of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, and the Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the directorate of the State Bank of Ludington and a stockholder in the First National Bank of this city.
In February, 1872, Mr. Bishop was united in marriage to Miss Louisa
568
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
Gaunt, of Ann Arbor, this state. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop have one son, Roswell F., who now holds a position in one of the government offiees in the city of Washington.
ANDREW L. DEUEL .- The present incumbent of the office of probate judge of Emmet county is a seion of a family whose name has been identified with the annals of Michigan during the entire period of its history as one of the sovereign states of the Union, and he has not only been for thirty years a representative member of the bar of Emmet county but he has also served in various loeal offices of public trust aside from that of which he is now in tenure. He was for a number of years postmaster of Harbor Springs, in which beautiful little eity, the judicial center of the county, he has long maintained his home, and no citizen of the eounty has a more impregnable place in popular confidence and esteem. Judge Deuel has been at all times progressive and loyal as a citizen and he has contributed his quota to the civie and material advancement and upbuilding of his home county.
Judge Andrew L. Deuel was born on a farm in Walled Lake town- ship, Oakland county, Michigan, on the 23d of August, 1850, and is a son of Thorn and Mary (Lord) Deuel, both natives of the state of New York, where the former was born in 1817 and the latter in 1818. Thorn Deuel came to Michigan in 1837, the year that marked the admission of the state to the Union, and he became one of the pioneers of Oakland eounty, where, as a young man of vigor, ambition and indefatigable industry, he reclaimed a farm in the midst of the virgin forest, the while both he and his young wife lived up to the full tension of the strenuous pioneer epoch in the history of this commonwealth. He later engaged in the general merchandise business at Ortonville. Oakland county, and, as a man of ability and sterling character, he was called upon to serve in various offices of public trust, ineluding that of justice of the peace. When the nation was rent by civil war he took an active part in raising troops for the defense of the Union. His son Arthur enlisted in the Sixth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and died at Baton Rouge in 1863. His son Herbert rendered valiant service and participated in many of the important engagements mark- ing the progress of the great conflict between the north and the south, including the ever memorable battle of Gettysburg, being also in the Seventeenth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, which gained wide reputa- tion as the "Stonewall Regiment." This son is now a resident of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he is engaged in mercantile business. Thorn Deuel finally removed to Washtenaw county, where he continued to be actively engaged in agricultural pursuits for a num- ber of years, but after his retirement he went to Olivet, in which village his death occurred in the year 1877. His cherished and devoted wife survived him by many years and was summoned to the life eternal in 1900, at the venerable age of eighty-two years. Both were zealous mem- bers of the Baptist church and their lives eounted for good in all rela- tions, the while their names merit a plaee on the roll of the sterling pioneers of the Wolverine state, with whose development and progress
A.K. Quel
569
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
they were closely identified. In politics Thorn Deuel was originally a Whig and later a Republican and he ever took a lively and intelligent interest in the questions and issues of the hour. Of the children four sons and two daughters attained to years of maturity and of the number three sons are now living.
Like many another son of Michigan, Judge Andrew L. Deuel found his early experiences compassed by the sturdy discipline of the farm, and under these conditions he waxed strong in mind and body, the while he duly availed himself of the advantages afforded in the public schools. His ambition for higher education was quickened to decisive action, as is evident from the fact that he completed a course of study in the Michigan State Normal School at Ypsilanti, the first normal school in the state and long one of the most celebrated in the entire Union. Ile put his scholastic acquirements to good use by turning his attention to practical pedagogy, in which connection he was, as a young man, a successful and popular teacher in the public schools for a period of five years. His last work in this line was in the schools of Mount Pleasant, the judicial center of Isabella county. Ilaving in the meanwhile matured definite plans for his future career. Judge Deuel was matriculated in the law department of the Univer- sity of Michigan, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1880, and from which he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was forthwith admitted to the bar of his native state and he selected Harbor Springs, the judicial center of Emmet county, as the field of his professional endeavors. Here he established his home on the 1st of May, 1880, and here he has continued to reside during the long intervening years, which have been marked by definite and worthy accomplishment on his part-both as a lawyer and as a citizen of utmost loyalty and progressiveness. He soon proved himself ad- mirably equipped for the work of his chosen profession and thus became identified with important litigated interests in this section of the state, the while he built up a substantial and representative prac- tice, which eventually extended into the higher courts of the state, as well as the federal tribunals. In the autumn of 1880, less than a year after engaging in practice at Harbor Springs, Judge Deuel was elected prosecuting attorney of the county, an office of which he con- tinned incumbent for one term and one in which he made an excellent record as a public prosecutor. He has ever continued to take a lively interest in educational affairs and his services along this line have been given to Emmet county with efficiency and zeal. He served for several years as a member of the county board of school examiners and later he was county school commissioner for nearly a decade, dur- ing which period he did splendid work in bringing the public schools of the county up to' a high standard of efficiency, by unifying and systematizing their work and securing the retention of capable teach- ers. He is at the present time president of the board of education of Harbor Springs.
Under the administration of President Harrison, Judge Deuel was appointed postmaster of Harbor Springs, and he assumed the duties of this position in 1888. He held the office four years under the
570
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
Harrison administration and for a similar period under that of Presi- dent Mckinley. He was reappointed by President Roosevelt and con- tinued in service, with distinctive discrimination and aeeeptability, until February, 1909, when he resigned, to assume the duties of the office of probate judge of Emmet county, to which position' he had been elected in November of the preceding year. His broad and exact knowledge of the law, his familiarity with real-estate values in the county and his mature judgment and excellent executive powers have made him an ideal administrator of the important affairs of the pro- bate court. He knows every man, woman and child in the county, and is universally loved and respected.
Judge Deuel has given his co-operation in the furtherance of those measures and enterprises that have tended to advance the general welfare of the community and he has shown abiding interest in the civic and material upbuilding of the county in which he has so long maintained his home. In addition to his own attractive residence property in Harbor Springs he is also the owner of a well equipped summer-resort hotel and four fine cottages at Forest Beach, one mile from Harbor Springs, on the most beautiful part of Little Traverse Bay, whose attractions as a place of summer sojourn are known throughout the entire country. He is the owner of about four hun- dred acres of land in the vicinity of his home city, including some of the most valuable land along the shore of the bay, and none has been more active and progressive in the development of realty in this section. As may naturally be inferred, the judge is unwavering in his allegiance to the cause of the Republican party, of whose interests he has been a zealous promoter in this section of the state, as an active and effective worker in its ranks. He and his wife and daughter are communicants of the Harbor Springs Presbyterian church. In the Masonic fraternity he has attained to the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite and his local affiliation in the York Rite bodies is the Harbor Springs Lodge, No. 378, Free and Accepted Masons and Royal Arch Masons. In the city of Grand Rapids, where he maintains his Scottish Rite affiliations, he is identified with De Witt Clinton Consistory, Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret. He also holds membership in Petoskey Lodge, No. 629, Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks. He and his family are valued and popular factors in the best social activities of their home city and their beau- tiful residenee is a center of gracious hospitality.
On the 27th of December, 1881, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Deuel to Miss Emma Lance, of Mount Pleasant, Isabella county. She was born in Ionia county, this state, and is a daughter of George and Mary (Parmalee) Lance who are survived by four children, of whom Mrs. Deuel was the second in order of birth. The father was a contractor and builder by vocation, was a Republican in politics and both he and his wife held membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. They passed the closing years of their lives in this state. The father passed away at Mt. Pleasant and the mother at Ilarbor Springs. Judge and Mrs. Denel have one daughter, Ilelen, who is now a student in Ackley Ilall, in the city of Grand Rapids, an excellent school con-
571
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
ducted under the auspices of the Episcopalian diocese of western Michigan.
J. W. PARKHURST .- Standing prominent among the able and influen- tial business men of Osceola county is J. W. Parkhurst, a well-known and prosperous banker of Reed City, who is actively identified with the advancement of the material interests of this section of the state. Com- ing from sturdy New England stock, he was born August 9, 1867, in Elkland, Tioga county, Pennsylvania. His father, John Parkhurst, was born and brought up in Richmond, Cheshire county, New Hamp- shire. Well trained in business affairs, he became quite successful as a financier, and about 1850 established himself as a banker in Elkland, Pennsylvania, where he continued a resident until his death, at the age of sixty-seven years. He married Rebecca Kennedy, a native of Ark- port, Steuben county, New York, and of the children born of their union three grew to years of maturity, as follows: Luin K., deceased; Carrie, wife of W. E. Williams, of Traverse City, Michigan; and J. W., the special subject of this brief sketch.
Brought up in Elkland, Pennsylvania, J. W. Parkhurst obtained his elementary education in the graded schools of his native place, com- pleting his early studies at Alford Academy. Subsequently entering his father's bank, he gradually worked his way upward from the lowest position, closely studying the details of every department of the insti- tution and becoming familiar with its management. In October, 1889, Mr. Parkhurst and his brother, the late L. K. Parkhurst, came to Reed City, and here established a private bank under the firm name of L. K. Parkhurst & Company, the senior member of the firm being the presi- dent and Mr. Parkhurst cashier. On August 26, 1890, this institution was merged into the First National Bank of Reed City, with the same officers at its head. On May 30, 1905, after the death of his brother, Mr. Parkhurst was made president of the bank, and Mr. F. G. Hammond be- came its cashier. This bank, with its capital of $50,000.00, is one of the strongest financial institutions of the county, its reputation for stability and strength being largely due to the energetic efforts and unerring judgment of Mr. Parkhurst.
Mr. Parkhurst married, October 18, 1888, Helen Moon, a daughter of Rev. Dr. S. H. Moon, a noted Presbyterian divine of Elkland, Pennsyl- vania, and into their pleasant home two children have been born, namely : Gertrude and Luin. Politically Mr. Parkhurst supports the principles of the Republican party by voice and vote, and fraternally he is a Thirty-second degree Mason.
REV. FATHER ANTHONY SCHUMACHER, of Reed City, Michigan .- For many years St. Philip's Church-Catholic-had been attended as a Mis- sion, by the various priests from Big Rapids and Cadillac, until, attended by Rev. A. Schumacher, it was made a congregation, a resident priest being appointed to reside there for future work. In his residence here of eight years he has done much for the upbuilding of the congregation and is held in deep respect and affection by his flock. Father Schu- macher is a native of the state, his birth having occurred in the city of
572
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
Detroit, on the 23d day of October, 1872. His parents were John Joseph Schumacher and Miss Mary Theisen, the former a teacher by occupation, and the subject is of German descent. He attended the parochial school of his native city and also received additional schooling in Bay City. He ultimately entered St. Francis Seminary at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in September, 1891, to prepare for the priesthood, and his ordination took place at Grand Rapids, Michigan, June 29, 1901, being ordained by the Rt. Rev. Henry Joseph Richter, Bishop of St. Andrew's Cathedral.
Father Schumacher's first charge was at Big Rapids, where he was assistant to Rev. Fr. Thomas J. Delanty, of St. Mary's church, until transferred to Reed City. His identification with the Catholic church of Reed City dates from October, 1903, when he assumed charge of St. Philip's congregation, which numbers about thirty families.
In addition to his duties here he also has several missions, these being at Paris, Meeosta county ; at Evart, Osceola county ; and stations at Lu- ther, Lake county ; at Dighton, Osceola county ; at Nirvana, Lake county ; while he occasionally visits also Baldwin of Lake county. In all of these places he is held in high regard and affection and his advice and help in ecclesiastical matters are eagerly sought. His career in the church has covered only a decade, but judging by past achievements he is and will be one of Michigan's busy Catholic clergymen.
Father Schumacher's mother, Mary Theisen, is a native of Germany, her father's family having crossed the sea when she was of tender years. She is to be numbered among the Michigan pioneers, and now, a worthy woman of over seventy-five years, resides at Reed City, Osceola county, Michigan, whilst his father died in 1884, at the age of about forty-nine years and was buried at Bay City, Michigan.
JUDGE IRVIN CHASE .- It is given to some men to inspire confidence in all those with whom they come in contact, and their gifts and abilities are so evident as to cause a community to look upon them instinctively as the fitting incumbents of public office. Of this type is Judge Irvin Chase of Evart, present probate judge and the holder of a long array of public offices, having been justice of the peace for twenty years and at different times building elerk, township assessor, township clerk, super- visor for about five years, member of the town council and assistant post- master under the Harrison administration. Essentially public-spirited. straightforward and energetic, he is a valuable factor in any campaign for bettered conditions and may be numbered among the most valued and honored of the citizens of Evart.
By birth and its primary tie, Judge Chase belongs to the Empire state, where in Orange county, on June 27, 1851, his eyes first opened to the light of day. His years of usefulness, however, have been given to Michigan, and the name of Chase was given prestige before him by that greatly esteemed gentleman, Asahel Chase, his father. Asahel Chase, also a native of New York, came to Michigan in 1868, when his son was a youth of about seventeen years. The family located at Saginaw for a time, the father holding the position of eity clerk for the space of about seven years. He subsequently came to Evart, his identification with this place dating from 1876, and this city was to prove the seene of his entire
573
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
remaining space .of years, his demise occurring here in 1886. He as- sumed the editorship of the Evart Review upon coming here and his career as a progressive representative of the fourth estate of Michigan continued from 1876 until 1881. He was a man who had some experience in public affairs and he served both as justice of the peace and as city clerk during his residence here. His wife was previous to her marriage Miss Mary W. VanAmburgh, a native of New York, who died in Evart in 1879, some six years previous to his own demise in 1886. Their three children all are living at the present time. Etta is the wife of W. L. Stoddard, of Plainwell, Allegan county, Michigan, and Frank Chase is a farmer and miller of Osceola county. Mr. Chase was the second in order of birth.
The boyhood and youth of Irvin Chase was spent in New York and to the schools of Tioga county and also of Saginaw is he indebted for his early education. During a part of his young manhood he learned the printing business, when he was about twenty-two years of age, and dur- ing his father's incumbency of the office of city clerk he came to Evart and launched the Evart Review, his father being associated with him in 1876 as editor, and he published that well-known sheet until the year 1881, when he sold it to its present owner, Mr. George W. Minchin and his brother,-Jesse Minchin. Mr. Chase busied himself with outside work for about one year and then entered upon a career as a servant of the people. He was first elected justice of the peace and village clerk, holding the latter office for the space of eighteen years and the former for twenty. He has been both township assessor and township clerk and was supervisor for about five years. When the Republican party elected Benjamin Harrison to the presidency Mr. Chase became assistant post- master and he has been a member of the village council. In 1908 dis- tinctive mark of the stronghold he has gained upon popular esteem in the community was given in his elevation to the office of probate judge, which office he holds at the present day.
In polities he gives allegiance to the men and measures of the Repub- lican party. In short there is nothing of publie import in Evart and the surrounding country in which Judge Chase is not helpfully inter- ested. His position has enabled him to be more observant than the or- dinary citizen of social and economic conditions. In all that affects the city and its people he has a keen interest and there is no local move- ment which in his judgment promises to benefit any considerable number of his fellow citizens that does not have his cordial advocacy and gener- ous support.
The marriage of Judge Chase was solemnized February 29, 1876, Miss Libbie Fishpool, daughter of Thomas and Eliza (Tucker) Fishpool, becoming his wife and the mistress of his household. Mrs. Chase was born at New Baltimore, Michigan, in 1855. The issue of their union is one son, Homer A., who is an electrician, a resident in Evart. His wife was Miss Marie Kennedy previous to her marriage, and they have a young son, Montell. Homer Chase also has a daughter, Marvel, by a former marriage.
Judge Chase now has to his credit thirty-seven years of residence in Evart and he has won the distinction of being one of its best and most Vol. II-2
574
HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
favorably known citizens. He finds pleasure and profit in his lodge relations, holding membership in the time-honored Masonic order, in which he has the Chapter degree and also being affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees.
MERRITT CHANDLER .- Of good old Quaker ancestry, which runs back in this country to a settler in the colony of William Penn in 1687, on his father's side, and to one of the early arrivals in Massachusetts, on his mother's, Merritt Chandler of Onaway, has many sources of in- spiration to lofty citizenship and heroic action in his family history, and in his own record he has been true to them, and shown himself well worthy of the name he bears. He has undertaken gigantic enterprises and carried them through to triumphant success. He has conducted his business on an extensive scale, and made it subservient to the welfare of the regions in which he has operated. Ile founded and gave a name to the city of his home, and has watched over its growth and development with all the solicitous care and affection of a fond father.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.