USA > Michigan > A history of northern Michigan and its people, Volume II > Part 22
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the ministry, his church being at North Muskegon for two years. He now has a farm near Farwell and is interested in the Tri-County Land Agency.
He married Miss Sophie M. Munson and she bore him two children, Merrill F., born in September, 1890, at Crystal Valley, and Arthur W., born in March, 1892. Mrs. Coors died in 1902 while they were living at North Muskegon, her health having been poor for several years. Later Mr. Coors married Miss Julie H. White, of Dexter, Michigan.
The Reverend Charles C. Coors may justly feel that he knows Mich- igan thoroughly, having lived in all parts of it at different periods of his life. It is natural that he should be greatly interested in the welfare of the state from several standpoints. He is anxious for its moral improve- ment, from the viewpoint of a minister. He is desirous of its intellectual uplift from the attitude of a newspaper man, and he is concerned about its agricultural condition from his position as a farmer, but above all is he eager for the welfare of its citizens from the standpoint of a man. In all the capabilities in which he has served, Mr. Coors' aim has always been to offer his best in the interests of his fellow man, whether as minister of the Gospel, as journalist or as a farmer. He is a power for good in the community.
LEWIS E. BAHLE, who is ably filling the office of postmaster at Sut- tons Bay, also owns and conducts a general merchandise business of extensive proportions at that place. He was born in Norway on the 8th of July, 1849, and in that country received his preliminary educa- tional training. Ilis parents, Maret and Larson (Esten) Bahle were likewise born and reared in Norway, where they continued to reside until they came to this country, where they lived for thirty years be- fore they were ealled on to the undiscovered country. In 1868, when a youth of nineteen years of age, Mr. Bahle decided to seek his for- tunes amongst a newer civilization and accordingly set forth for the United States. Immediately after arriving in this country he located at Northport, Leelanau county, Michigan, where he worked for other people, being employed for some time in a ship-yard in Wisconsin. In 1871 he removed to what is now known as the village of Suttons Bay. He hired an Indian to haul what goods he possessed one mile into the country, where he loeated upon a tract of eighty acres of wild land, which he cleared and raised to a fair state of cultivation. He gradually drifted into the lumbering business and later turned his attention to mercantile affairs. In 1885 he owned a general store in Suttons Bay and a number of years later the same was changed into a clothing and dry-goods store, which has grown in size and patronage until to-day it is one of the finest establishments of its kind in the county.
In polities Mr. Bahle is aligned as a loyal supporter of the prin- ciples of the Republican party and he has ever been on the qui vive to do all in his power to advance the general progress and development of this seetion of the grand old Wolverine state. In 1888 he was ap- pointed postmaster, by President Harrison, and he gave out the first money-order issued in Suttons Bay. During President Cleveland's seeond administration Mr. Bahle was replaced by a Democrat in the
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postoffice but when the Republicans again came into power he was reappointed to the postmastership, in which connection he has served most faithfully and well to the present time, in 1911. Indeed, Mr. Bahle is running the office in such a shape that he is quite willing for an inspector to call at any time. Although not American born his citizenship in the land of his adoption has ever been of the most loyal and public-spirited order and he holds a secure vantage ground in popular confidence and esteem. He is connected with various social and fraternal organizations of representative character and he and his family are members of the Lutheran church, in the different depart- ments of whose work they have been most active factors.
In the year 1876 Mr. Bahle was united in marriage to Miss Olene Engebregtson, of Norway, and to them were born ten children, namely: Maret, Gena, Esten, Emma, Lena. Marton, John, Otto, Nellie and Thomas. Maret is the wife of Peter Pederson, who is now man- ager of Mr. Bahle's store at Suttons Bay; Gena is the wife of Ed Grasser, who is engaged in agricultural pursuits in the vicinity of Suttons Bay; Lena married Carl Garthe, a farmer of near Northport ; Esten is first officer of the Pere Marquette Car Ferry, No. 17; formerly he was second officer of car ferry, No. 15 and saw the first distress signal waved from the fated No. 18, which sank in Lake Michigan in 1900. Esten was in the boat which was sent to succor those in danger, the same being swamped on the high seas, and his life being saved by reason of the three life preservers which he had fastened to his body. Emma is a teacher in the Bay City schools; Martin is a wheelsman on the Great Lakes on the Manistee boat; John remains at home; Otto is a machinist in some anto works in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin ; and Nellie and Thomas remain at home, being students in the local grade schools. Mrs. Bahle was summoned to the life eternal in 1898 and in 1899 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bahle to Miss Emma C. Weir, of Muncie, Indiana. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Bahle was a popular and successful teacher in the public schools at Muncie. To this union one child has been born-Lonis, whose birth occurred on the 29th of December, 1900.
JOHN K. HANSON .- Reared to habits of industry, honesty and thrift, John K. Hanson has led a busy and useful life, and is now living re- tired from active business cares in Grayling, which has been his home the past thirty-two years, and is enjoying a well-earned competency. Born in Denmark in 1838, he spent his earlier life in his native land, living there until after attaining his majority.
Having made up his mind to cross the ocean in search of an advan- tageous place in which to earn a good living, Mr. Hanson landed in the United States on March 23, 1863. and came directly to Michigan. Lo- cating in Manistee, he became head sawyer in the lumber regions, a posi- tion that he retained several seasons. Having accumulated some money, he started in business for himself as a furniture manufacturer and dealer, and was succeeding well in his venture when a fire consumed his entire stock, and he was again forced to start life even with the world. Changing his residence, he came, in 1879, to Grayling, and re-
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sumed his old occupation of head sawyer in a lumber mill, for twenty- five years thereafter being in the employ of R. Hanson. Having in the meantime accumulated considerable money, Mr. Hanson bought an in- terest, which he still retains, in the mill with which he was so long con- nected as sawyer, and also purchased an interest in the Grayling Mer- cantile Company, a concern doing a prosperous business in Grayling. In 1905 he retired from active business cares, and is now enjoying a well- deserved leisure.
Mr. Hanson married, in 1866, Maran Lasmusson, and to them four children have been born, namely : Marins, Holger, Sigwald, and Emma M. Mr. Hanson has ever evinced a warm interest in local affairs, and in addition to having served as a member of the city council has been vil- lage treasurer three years. Fraternally he is a thirty-second degree Mason, and religiously he is a trustworthy member of the Danish Luth- eran church.
WARREN D. CARPENTER .- A business man of prominence and influ- ence at Harbor Springs, Michigan, is Warren D. Carpenter, who is here most successfully engaged in the boot and shoe business. Mr. Carpen- ter was born in McKean county, Pennsylvania, on the 25th of January, 1868, and he is a son of Daniel F. and Clara C. (Rice) Carpenter, both of whom were born in the state of New York, the former in 1834 and the latter in 1831. The father was summoned to the life eternal in 1909, at the venerable age of seventy-five years ,and the mother passed away the same year at the age of seventy-one years. Of the eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. Daniel F. Carpenter, Warren D. was the fifth in order of birth and seven are living, in 1911. Daniel F. Carpenter re- moved from his native place in the old Empire state of the Union to McKean county, Pennsylvania, as a young man and there he engaged in the grocery business. In 1874 he decided to try his fortunes further west and in that year came to Michigan, locating first on a farm some sixteen miles north of Grand Rapids. At that early day the country about Grand Rapids was virgin wilderness but with the passage of time Mr. Carpenter succeeded in literally hewing a farm for himself out of the wilds. In 1878 he became one of the pioneers at what was then called Little Traverse but which is now known as Harbor Springs. He immediately engaged in farming in Emmet county and he passed his declining years at Harbor Springs. At the time of his demise, in 1909, he was the owner of farming property amounting to forty acres. In politics he was originally a Whig but at the time of the organization of the Republican party, in 1858, under the Oaks, in Jackson county, this state, he transferred his allegiance thereto. He was never active in politics but he was ever ready to do all in his power to advance pro- gress and improvement in this section of the state. He and his wife were devout members of the Methodist church, in whose faith they reared their children and to whose good works they were liberal con- tributors of their time and means. They were citizens of sterling in- tegrity and worth and as a result of their hospitality and innate kind- liness of spirit they commanded the confidence and esteem of all with whom they came in contact.
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Warren D. Carpenter was a child of but six years of age at the time of his parents' removal from Pennsylvania to Michigan and he was ten years of age at the time of the establishment of the family home at Har- bor Springs. In the public schools of this place he received his early educational discipline, the same consisting of such study as he had time for during the winter sessions. During the busy seasons he was assoc- iated with his father and brothers in the work and management of the old homestead farm, in connection with which he waxed strong of mind and body. He later pursued a commercial course in Parsons' Business College, at Kalamazoo, Michigan. He launched ont in the business world in 1898, first engaging in the dairy business at Harbor Springs. In 1905 he disposed of his dairy and took a trip to Colorado on account of failing health, traveling for a period of two years. For a time after his return to Harbor Springs he was engaged in clerking in a store but in the latter part of 1907 he again decided to go into business on his own account. In that year, then, he opened up a splendidly equipped establishment, in which he makes a specialty of boots and shoes. Ilis concern has grown in proportions since 1907 and it is now recognized as one of the most up-to-date booteries in northern Michigan, his patron- age including some of the most fastidions trade at Ilarbor Springs and the surrounding country. He is a business man of unusual ability and most tremendnous vitality and solely through his own efforts he has succeeded in building up a fine place for himself in the business world of this section of the state.
In politics Mr. Carpenter is an uncompromising advocate of the prin- ciples and policies promulgated by the Republican party. He has never given a great deal of attention to local polities, not being an office seeker, but he has served with the utmost efficiency as village treasurer, in discharging the duties of which important office he acquitted himself with all of honor and distinction. In the time-honored Masonic order, he is affiliated with Harbor Springs Lodge, No. 378, Free and Accepted Masons. He is also a valued and appreciative member of Harbor Springs Lodge, No. 198, Knights of Pythias, in which he has been keeper of re- cords and seals for the past two years. In religious faith Mrs. Car- penter is connected with the Presbyterian ehmreh at Harbor Springs.
At Harbor Springs, Michigan, on the 26th of October, 1900, Mr. Car- penter was united in marriage to Miss Amelia Therry, who was born at Lowell, Michigan, in the year 1871, and who is a daughter of Nicholas and Lousia (Smith) Therry. Mr. Therry was born in Luxemburg, Ger- many, whence he emigrated to the United States about the year 1853, proceeding directly to Michigan. As a youth he learned the shoe- maker's trade and during the early years of his active career was iden- tified with that line of enterprise. Later he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits and he is now engaged in farming operations in Charlevoix county, this state. Of the four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Therry Mrs. Carpenter was the second in order of birth. She was reared and educated in Michigan and she is a woman of most gracions personality, being deeply beloved by all who have come within the sphere of her gentle influence. Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter became the parents
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of two children,-Edith, who is now a pupil in the public school at Harbor Springs; and Eloise, who died in infancy.
JOHN A. HIGGINS .- Although a native of the Empire state, thirty- eight years of residence in Manistee have made John A. Higgins, former sheriff and for many years connected with the Manistee & Northeastern Railroad, one of those who are very loyal to the interests of this part of the state. Few citizens of Manistee are better known and he is held in general high esteem for he has ever cheerfully given his support to those enterprises that tend to public development and, with hardly an exception he has been connected with every interest that has promoted public welfare. He is a stalwart Republican, having long been at the forefront in local party affairs.
Mr. Higgins was born in Saratoga county, New York, June 9, 1857, and in his veins unite the English and Irish elements, his father and mother having been natives of England and Ireland, respectively. When a young man of twenty-one, the former became attracted with the idea of Americai independence and opportunity and crossed the Atlantic to claim his share of the same, and it came about that he lo- cated in the state of New York, where he remained until his death at the age of fifty-six years. William Higgins, for such was the name of the father, was a farmer by occupation. The mother, whose maiden name was Ann Ross, was reared in her native Erin. When Mr. Higgins was but five years of age he had the misfortune to lose his mother, there being five children in the family, and two of them younger than himself.
Mr. Higgins is one of the army of self-made men, for he started out for himself at the age of thirteen years. The family resources were low and as everyone knows, there is no arguing with necessity. When he was fifteen his wanderings brought him to Manistee, which, although he may have believed it to be merely an episode at the time, was in reality a most important thing, for it was to determine his location for the next forty years. His arrival was not at an auspicious moment, for it was in the summer succeeding the great fire, and where the court house now stands there was only a grim waste of blackened hemlock stubs. He spent the fall and winter in the woods, almost immediately shouldering a pack and accompanying Edward MeLaughlin, a land looker, into the lumber woods, these trips often lasting for three months. The energetic young fellow then secured a clerkship with Seymour Brothers, and following that he became clerk for George M. Kanouse in the old City Hotel and when the Dunham House was opened by Mr. Kanouse, Mr. Higgins, who had earned the confidence of his employer, was given the position of first clerk. From the fall of 1888 dates Mr. Higgins' first identification with the railroad business, when the Man- istee & Northeastern Railroad was built, it being he who ran its first passenger train over the road, the line at that time terminating at Bear Creek. He was with the railroad company for eighteen years and made a splendid record. He served in the capacity of conductor and ever manifested that loyalty to duty which is to be discerned in all his rela- tions. He resigned December 15, 1906, after having been elected sheriff of Manistee county, and at the time he was tendered a banquet by the
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officials of the road and his fellow employees, being presented with a very handsome token of the esteem in which he was held by them.
As previously mentioned Mr. Higgins is one of the most enthusiastic and active of Republicans, devoted to the policies and principles for which the Grand Old Party stands sponsor and ever ready to go any- where, to do anything for the good of the party. In the capacity of sheriff he gave service of a high character. In 1910 he was delegate to the State Convention held in the city of Detroit.
In 1880, Mr. Higgins laid the foundation of a happy home life, the lady to become his wife being Miss Nellie Barry, daughter of David and Teresa Barry of Cheboygan, Wisconsin. Their union has been cemented by the birth of six children, namely: Raymond, William, Ray, Emeline, Frank and Barry .
Mr. Higgins is popular in lodge circles. His affiliations extend to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, to the Knights of Pythias, Brotherhood of Railway Conductors and to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows,
Few railroad conductors in Northern Michigan are better and more favorably known, his eighteen years' continnons service having been of the most satisfactory character. His courtesy, geniality, and other fine qualities, will not allow him soon to be forgotten by the patrons of the Manistee & Northeastern Railroad.
REV. ALONZO BARNARD,-A great and noble soul was that which had indwelling in the mortal tenement of "Father" Barnard, as he was affectionately known, and his life was one of love and service for his fellow men. With all of devotion and self-abnegation he carried the gospel of the divine Master to the humble and lowly, and no man has ever manifested a higher sense of stewardship. He labored long and zealously as a missionary among the Indians of the nothwest and dur- ing later years saw similar service in northern Michigan. As a young man he gave equally faithful service in behalf of the negroes of the south prior to and during the Civil war, and he was ever the guide. counselor and friend of the poor, the afflicted and the oppressed. This honored and faithful servant passed the closing years of his long and useful life at Pomona, Manistee county, Michigan, and it is altogether consonant that in this work be entered a brief tribute to his memory, though it will be impossible to enter into details concerning his signally interesting and varied career.
Alonzo Barnard was born in the town of Peru, Bennington county, Vermont, on the 2d of June, 1817, and his death occurred at Pomona, Michigan, on the 7th of April, 1905. His character was moulded with the strength of the granite hills of his native state and his youthful surroundings were those that compassed the average New England farmer boy of the period. Ile ever was instant in appreciation of the influence of his noble mother in this formative period of his char- arter, and her gracious Christian influence and kindly solicitude nn- doubtedly had important bearing upon making him the strong man that he became. His early educational advantages were limited in scope, owing to the exigencies of time and place, but he had the determi-
Mouga Burnend
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN
nation and ambition adequate to overcome greater handicaps than this. The texture of moral nature was fine in an intrinsic sense, and while a youth he was led to enlist himself vigorously as a member of the army of the church militant, the church of Christ on earth. Abiding faith and constant good works characterized his entire active career, and it may well be said that his was the faith that made faithful in all things.
"Father Barnard" was about twenty years of age at the time of the family removal to Ohio, and through his well directed efforts he was there enabled to supplement effectively his somewhat meager education. He pursued his studies in a local academy and also in Oberlin College, which well known institution was then in its incep- tion, and in 1837-8 he was in Louisiana and Mississippi, where he met with many interesting experiences and endured arduous toil. There his sympathies for the negroes were greatly aroused, and he took part in their religious meetings as a leader and instructor, though sueh in- terposition was contrary to the regulations established by the slave holders. Later he aided many slaves to freedom when they fled from their masters to refuge in Canada, and for a considerable time he was a teacher of the negro families that had found hospice in that dominion. Concerning his experiences in the south Father Barnard himself wrote the following words many years later: "There I saw slavery in some of its worst forms, and I longed to do or say something to comfort the poor slaves, but learning that the laws of Mississippi forbade all com- munication of northern whites with the slaves, under a severe penalty I was obliged to keep quiet and only show them by signs and oc- casionally a few words that I was their friend." That he eventually yielded to his righteous inclinations, regardless of the legal restrictions imposed, is evident from his statements, in the same connection, that he finally led in one or more of their prayer meetings and also read from the Bible and made short addresses of comfort and consolation. Impaired health compelled his return to the north, and, dependent upon his own energies for maintenance, he finally availed himself of the privileges of Oberlin College. On his eighty-fifth birthday anni- versary, June 2, 1902, this venerable clergyman wrote as follows con- cerning his efforts at this time: "My college life was similar to that of all other college students of the day. It was marked by hard study and, in my case, by hard work out of school hours to pay my way, whilst my classmates were playing ball or otherwise amusing them- selves. I taught school during two winters in the vicinity of Oberlin. In my junior year I decided to spend the winter in my room, reviewing and perfeeting my knowledge of the languages. Having obtained em- ployment in the boarding house sufficient to pay for my board, I settled down to my work, but before winter set in circumstances changed my plans. Those were the days of the operation of the fugitive-slave law and many slaves were fleeing to Canada through the 'underground railroad,' in the business of which I had a hand. Having seen with my own eyes the horrors of slavery in the south, I naturally sympathized with the fugitives and gave them aid in their toilsome way to freedom. One of my classmates had gone to Canada to teach the fugitives who had sought freedom there. He wrote to me urging me to come and
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teach the colored soldiers who were then stationed at Chatham." This letter led to Father Barnard's removal to Canada and he endured many vicissitudes before and after reaching his destination. The work accomplished by Mr. Barnard in this connection was marked by the same earnest devotion and consecrated zeal that attended his labors as a missionary among the Indians of the northwest in the early '50s, his ordination as a clergyman of the Congregational church having oc- eurred while he was a student at Oberlin College.
Concerning the eareer of Father Barnard as an Indian missionary the following statements have been given by another venerable elergy- man, Rev. J. P. Sehell, who later labored in the same region, and the reproduction is made with but slight paraphrase and elimination:
"Rev. Alonzo Barnard was born in Vermont and removed with his father's family to Elyria, Ohio, at the age of seventeen. He studied at Oberlin College, and upon his graduation, in 1843, was mar- ried to Miss Sarah P. Babeoek, a elassmate in the same institution. Immediately following their marriage they set out, in company with others, to engage in missionary labors among the Chippewa Indians in northern Minnesota. They and their associates labored at Red and Cass lakes, as well as at other points in that wild region, during a period of ten years, at the expiration of which, in the spring of 1853. they removed, with Rev. David B. Spencer and his family, to St. Joseph, now Walhalla, on the northern boundary of North Dakota, and sought to open a mission school for the instruction of the native children at that important frontier trading post. Here Mrs. Barnard soon ended her earthly labors, followed the ensuing summer by the tragie death of a devoted associate, Mrs. Spencer, at the hands of the savages. The mission being broken up the following year, 1854, by the increasing hostility of the Sioux Indians, Mr. Barnard took refuge in the Red river settlement of Kildonan, near the present eity of Win- nipeg. After spending some years in that region-a portion of the time in missionary labors among the Cree Indians in the vicinity of Lake Winnipeg-he removed to Benzonia, Michigan, where he and other members of his family made their home during many years thereafter, until shortly before his decease. On the 7th of April, 1905, at the home of his son and danghter, this venerable and useful servant of God was called to enter upon his heavenly rest, at the ripe age of nearly eighty-eight years.
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