USA > Michigan > A history of northern Michigan and its people, Volume II > Part 25
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In 1891 he was married to Miss Luetta Myers of Paulding county, Ohio. While they were living in Indian Territory, soon after their marriage, her health was very poor, which indeed was the reason for their going to Ohio, in the hope that the air of her native home might
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prove of benefit to her. The results justified the move. After they moved to Arkansas she, as well as her husband, suffered from the effects of the poor drinking water, but after they moved away they both regained their health. Mr. and Mrs. Nix have one child, Temperance Elizabeth, born August 4, 1904, in Arkansas. Since Mr. and Mrs. Nix came to Lake City, Mrs. Nix's parents have been obliged to leave Arkansas on account of their health and they have settled in Gladwin county, Michigan, where they can see their daughter and her family frequently. Mr. and Mrs. Nix are both very popular in the social world of Lake City and it is hoped that they will stay here for the rest of their lives. Mr. Nix has already evinced a lively interest in the welfare of the state and he is desirous of doing everything in his power to pro- mote the good of his county.
OLAF SORENSON AND SONS .- Among the well-known, well-patronized, and prosperous business firms of Grayling, that of Olaf Sorenson & Sons occupied a noteworthy position, being one of the leading companies to deal exclusively in confectionery and tobacco. Their establishment, which would, indeed, be a credit and an ornament to cities of much larger size and of more importance, is one of cleanest, neatest, and most appropriately furnished, of any store of its kind in Crawford county.
Olaf Sorenson, the head of the firm, was born in Denmark, a son of Severin and Lena (Peterson) Sorenson, who came from Denmark, the land of their birth, to the United States in 1888, locating in northern Michigan, where seven of their eleven children, eight of whom emi- grated to this country, are now in business.
Coming to America, the poor man's paradise, Olaf Sorenson located in Grayling, Michigan, where he has since been extensively engaged in the lumber business, now, in 1911, being one of the trusted overseers of the affairs of Salling, Hanson & Co., lumber manufacturers and deal- ers. In searching for a business which would give him more leisure, at the same time being more lucrative, and furnish employment for his chil- dren, Mr. Sorenson, in 1909 bought out James W. Sorenson, a dealer in tobacco, and in the years that have since elapsed has built up his present large and profitable trade in tobacco and confectionery. Catering to the wants of their numerous enstomers, the firm of Olaf Sorenson & Sons carries the very best brand of domestic and imported cigars and tobacco, and deals in pure and wholesome candy only, the confectionery so temptingly displayed on the well arranged shelves of the establishment being of standard makes, and especially enticing to the passer-by.
In the management of his mercantile business Mr. Sorenson has the assistance of his three sons, who are members of the firm, as follows: Alfred Sorenson, born in 1886; Carl, born in 1889; and Herluf, born in 1891. Religiously Mr. Sorenson and his family are valued members of the Danish Lutheran Church.
REUBEN G. PORTER, D. D. S .- The standing of every profession is marked by the character of the men who represent it, and the reputa-
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tion of Dr. Reuben G. Porter stands second to none in Petoskey as a successful and popular dentist. Excellent technical training as coupled with some twenty years' active practice in dental work makes Dr. Porter an adept in his chosen field of work. He is a native of Petoskey, where his birth occurred on the 23d of May, 1858, and he is a son of Andrew and Mary (Glenn) Porter, both of whom were born in Pennsylvania, the former in Venango county and the latter in Butler county. The father died in February, 1899, at the venerable age of eighty-two years, and the mother passed to the life eternal in June, 1903, at the age of eighty-two years. Mr. and Mrs. Porter were married in Butler county, Pennsylvania, and they became the parents of four children, all of whom are deceased except the immediate subject of this review, who was the third in order of birth. Andrew Porter was a cabinet-maker by trade and for a number of years he was a contractor and builder in Pennsyl- vania, where he erected a number of churches. He came to Michigan in 1852 and located on the Mission farm in Emmet county, the same hav- ing been located about one mile south of the village of Petoskey. He was a Presbyterian missionary and for a time was in the employ of the government as a teacher. During his residence in Michigan he also acted as interpreter for the Indians and acted in that capacity on the occa- sion when Rev. John Ridpath first preached to the Indians in the old Mission school house. Mr. Porter was identified with mission work for a period of twenty-two years and during that time was the popular and efficient incumbent of a number of township and county offices. In politics he was a stanch supporter of the Republican party after its organization, in 1858, and he was an active factor in the local councils of that party.
Dr. Porter received his rudimentary educational training in the commission schools of Petoskey and he also studied for a time in West Sunbury Academy, Pennsylvania, and took a normal course at Washing- ton, Pennsylvania and at the Pennsylvania Dental College at Philadel- phia, he spent a few months. In the year 1889 he was matriculated as a student in Washington University, at St. Louis, Missouri, in the dental department of which excellent institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1891, duly receiving his well earned degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery, taking the first prize as best operator in the class. Im- mediately after graduation he located at Petoskey, where he rapidly gained prestige as one of the most skilled dentists in this section of the state. He controls a large and lucrative patronage in this city, where he is universally esteemed for his splendid citizenship and his fine professional ability. In connection with his life work he is a member of the Michigan State Dental Society and in politics he is a stanch advocate of the principles and policies of the Prohibition party.
On the 20th of September, 1882. Dr. Porter was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Jarman, whose demise occurred in the year 1895. This union was prolific of five children, whose names are here entered in respective order of birth,-Edith, Isebelle, Esther, Howard and Lowrie. On the 23d of December, 1896. Dr. Porter married Miss Retta Wilford, who was born and reared at Elyria, Ohio, and who is a daughter of Samuel Wilford. Dr. and Mrs. Porter have one son, Wilford. In their
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religious faith Dr. Porter and his wife are devout members of the Bap- tist church, to whose philanthropical work they are most liberal contri- butors. The Doctor is a man of wide experience and broad informa- tion and it has been said concerning him that his charity knows only the bounds of his opportunities.
WILLIAM GREENFIELD :- As a farmer, a lumberman cutting timber in the woods, a logger driving his cut and that of others down the river toward its place of manufacture, and a banker uniting with others in founding and conducting one bank and afterward organizing and ope- rating one of his own, and now dealing in cedar lumber as a merchant, William Greenfield of Onaway has tried his hand at several different occupations, and has shown skill and capacity in all. Mr. Greenfield is not a native of the United States but has been a resident of Michigan during the last thirty-four years. He is therefore thoroughly Amer- icanized and feels as much devotion for the land of his adoption as he ever could have felt for that of his birth. His life began in the city of Goole, Yorkshire, England, on October 13, 1858, and in 1869, when he was eleven years of age, he accompanied his parents to Canada, finding a new home in the province of Ontario, county of Elgin.
He is a son of Joseph and Ann (Ellis) Greenfield, also natives of Goole, where the father and mother were both born. Both have passed to their final account after long years of labor, the father having died at the age of sixty-four and the mother at that of fifty-seven. They were the parents of six children, three sons and three daughters. Three of their offspring are living: Annie, the wife of William Parkes, who is living in Manchester, England; Mary, the wife of William Gainsbeck, a resident of Los Angeles, California; and William, the subject of this brief review. The father followed farming in Canada for a number of years, as he had done from his boyhood in his native land. Some time before his death he retired from active pursuits and located in London, Ontario, where he died in 1894.
His son William began his education in the state or public schools of England and completed it in those of Ontario. He worked on his father's farm in both countries, taking a full hand in the labor even in early youth, and remained at home until he reached the age of nine- teen. In 1877 he came to Michigan, arriving in the fall of the year, and took up his residence near the city of Port Huron. There he wrought in the woods as a lumberman during the winter and as a hired man on farms during the summer for a time.
From the vicinity of Port Huron he moved to Alpena, but he still continued lumbering in the winter and driving logs down the river on their way to the mills in the summer until 1885. Then he married and bought eighty acres of land in Montmorency county. Of this tract he cleared seventy acres, after building himself a dwelling and other nec- essary structures, and followed farming until 1901. He found the life of a farmer agreeable in many particulars, although under the circum- stances in his case the work was very hard, and the profits of his indus- try were satisfactory in a large measure. But he still felt a longing to
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be connected with the lumber trade in some way and determined to gratify the strong desire.
In 1901 he moved to Onaway and went to work for the Lobdell & Bailey Manufacturing Company, exercising a careful supervision over the company's timber lands. He continued to serve the company in this capacity for four years, then passed the next three as superintend- ent of its logging business. During this period he also gave attention to another line of profitable endeavor. In 1902 he helped to found the Onaway State Savings Bank and for a time served as one of its direct- ors. He still owns stock in the bank but is not now a director, having given up this position in 1909 in order to engage in the banking business on his own account at Tower, Cheboygan county, where he founded the Tower Exchange Bank and became its president. He also, about the same time, began the extensive business as a dealer in cedar lumber which he is still conducting in Tower, putting on the market the yield from his own large acreage of timber land as well as that of other tracts available to him which are rich in the kind of lumber he handles.
Mr. Greenfield still has his home in Onaway, however, and takes an earnest interest and leading part in the public affairs of the city and the county in which it is located. He has been a member of the school board in Onawa for five years, and while he lived in Montmorency county served as supervisor of Hillman township there for two years. Ile is zealons always for the best and most wholesome development of the community in which he lives, and cheerfully bears his full share of the burden incident to pushing needed improvements to completion, and furnishes his full share of the inspiration and enterprise required to start them.
In political faith Mr. Greenfield is an ardent Republican and, acting on firmly held convictions, he is an energetic and effective worker for the success and proper guidance of his party. Fraternally he holds membership in Onaway Lodge No. 425 of the Masonic order, and in several other benevolent and fraternal associations. On October 27, 1885, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary McDonald, a native of Lexington, Michigan, and a daughter of Alexander and Saralı (Rey- nolds) McDonald. Three children have been born of the union, two daughters and one son: Ada, who is attending the University of Chi- cago and is now in her second year of the course; Alene, who is at home with her parents; and Arthur, who is also still a member of the parental family circle. All the members of the family have shown themselves to be upright and useful citizens, and all are highly esteemed in accord- ance with their demonstrated merit.
HON. WILLIAM H. McFADZEN, one of Manistee county's representative citizens and business men, comes on both sides of his family of that nation which, never conquered though often beaten, gave kings to Eng- land, field-marshals to France, Prussia and Russia, cardinals to Rome, the second greatest man to the Reformation and to America a body of citizens whose priceless value can not be reckoned and who have made such an imprint upon our history that any of our citizens are proud to claim Scotch blood. Mr. McFadzen has been identified with the com-
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mercial interests of the county since the year 1889 and now is accounted one of its principal merchants. Few men are better known than he throughout its length and breadth, and the fact that he is an excellent linguist, speaking Polish and German as well as his own language, has given him popularity among the foreign element which is by no means small in this section. He is one of the leaders in Republican party ranks and has held public office to the satisfaction of all concerned and he has mining and other capitalistic interests of great importance in sev- eral sections of this country of ours.
Like a good many of the citizens of this part of Michigan Mr. Mc- Fadzen is a native of Canada, his birth having occurred February 14, 1862. His father, John McFadzen, was a native of Highland, Scotland, but came to the much vaunted land of opportunity,-America-when a boy. He chose timbering and land-looking as an occupation and he married Bell Douglas, who was a Canadian by birth but of Scotch descent. The father and mother spent their later years at Filer City, Michigan, the former dying at the age of eighty-two years and the latter at seventy-nine. They were the parents of six children, three of whom grew to maturity.
Mr. McFadzen was a child of four years when his parents removed to Manistee county, Michigan, with their family. In the district schools of the county he secured his education but it was of a somewhat limited character, since at the early age of fifteen years he found it expedient to enroll himself among the wage-earners. He found employment in the shingle mills of Manistee and continued in this capacity until 1888. As previously mentioned, in 1889 he inaugurated his mercantile career and with the capital which his savings represented he set up in business at his present location, the date being April, 1889. In the succeeding twenty-one years he has encountered the greatest success and now en- joys a large and ever-growing patronage. Besides groceries and dry goods he handles among other things hay, flour and feed and many other lines of produce and commodity.
Mr. McFadzen has long been interested in public matters and has played an influential role in local party affairs. He has also won the confidence of the community, and one evidence of this was his election to the office of supervisor of files, and to this trust he gave efficient and faithful service for the space of five years. He was elected chairman of the board of supervisors in 1907 and 1908 and was re-elected in 1910. He is very loyal to the interests of the locality in which he has spent nearly his entire life. He has even had the experiences of the North- ern woodsman, having followed his profession for a time as a youth.
Mr. McFadzen was married in November, 1885, in Milwaukee, Wis- consin, Miss Maggie C. Jeneau, becoming his wife. She is a descendant of Solomon Jeneau, one of the pioneers of the vicinity of Milwaukee, and she was born and reared in the Wisconsin city. They have four children living, namely : Bell C., teaching her third year in the Oak Hill schools; Arthur R., a cooper with the Sands Salt & Lumber Com- pany ; Donald W., a student in the high school of the city of Manistee; and Ellis J., attending the district school of Oak Hill. Eva M. died at the age of three years.
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Mr. McFadzen finds no small amount of pleasure in his lodge rela- tions, which extend to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, No. 250, of Manistee, and to the Modern Maccabees, No. 316, in both of which he enjoys great popularity. In addition to his previously men- tioned business interests he has stock in the Bull Frog Mining Com- pany of Springdale, Nevada, and with the O. K. Land Company of Madison, Wisconsin.
WILLIAM BURSTON .- An energetic young man, earnest and steadfast in purpose and action, William Burston, a prosperous druggist of Far- well, has gained an assured position among the foremost men of the com- munity, and has rendered valued service in many public positions of trust and responsibility. A native of Michigan, he was born, September 4, 1851, in Ypsilanti, of English ancestry.
His father, F. Richard Burston, was born, bred, and married in England. Emigrating with his bride to the United States, he lived in various towns and cities in Michigan, following his trade of a merchant tailor, having been located first in Ypsilanti, then in Detroit, from there moving to Manistee, thence to Cadillac, and later to Saginaw. He finally returned to Cadillac, where he spent his last days. He married Bessie Rosvere, who was born in England, and is now living with her son William, in Farwell.
William Burston attended the public schools of Manistee, Saginaw, and in Cadillac completed the tenth grade. Entering then the drug es- tablishment of Davis & Maurer, at Cadillac, he remained with the firm nine years, during which time he took the druggist's examination before the Michigan State Board of Pharmacy, and was granted a certificate as a registered pharmacist, locating in Farwell on January 10, 1906. Mr. Burston bought out Mr. H. M. Roys, and has since carried on a suc- cessful drug business, having an extensive and lucrative patronage.
Identified in politics with the Republican party, Mr. Burston was elected village clerk of Farwell in 1907, and the same spring was chosen clerk of Surry township. He served so satisfactorily in both positions that he was re-elected at the expiration of his term of service. He was for two years village trustee, and in the spring of 1911 was honored with an election as president of the village. Mr. Burston is a member of the Retail Drug Association of Michigan. He is a regular attendant of the Methodist Episcopal church, and gives as liberally as his means will allow to all worthy objects. He married July 26th, 1911, Miss Florence Clark, of Farwell.
WARREN J. RACHOW .- The history of a nation is nothing more than a history of the individuals comprising it, and as they are characterized by loftier or lower ideals, actuated by the spirit of ambition or indiffer- ence, so it is with a state, county or town. Success along any line of endeavor would never be properly appreciated if it came with a single effort and unaccompanied by some hardships for it is the knocks and bruises in life that make success taste so sweet. The career of Warren J. Rachow, who is the present able and popular incumbent of the office of cashier of the Charleviox State Savings Bank, but accentuates the
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fact that success is bound to come to those who join brains with ambi- tion and are willing to work. It is entirely through his own well di- rected endeavors that Mr. Rachow has reached so high a place on the ladder of snecess and in view of that fact his achievements are the more gratifying to contemplate.
Warren J. Rachow was born on a farm in Oakland county, Mich- igan, the date of his nativity being the 16th of May, 1879, and he is a son of Christopher and Mary (Young) Rachow, both natives of the great Empire of Germany. The father was born in 1846 and the mother in 1859 and their marriage was solemnized at Orion, Michigan, in 1875. Of the three children born to them two are living at the present time, namely,-Emma, who is the wife of Oscar Brewster, a representa- tive business man at Pontiac, Michigan; and Warren J., to whom this sketch is dedicated. Christopher Rachow was educated in Germany and as a young man he was enlisted for service in the German army. He served with the utmost efficiency in the French and German war dur- ing the years 1870 to 1872 inclusive, having been a member of the German cavalry, and at the close of that sanguinary conflict he was presented with a medal by Emperor Wilhelm for his successful delivery of numerous important messages. In 1847 he decided to try his for- tunes in the New World and accordingly severed the ties which bound him to home and native land and emigrated to the United States. After landing in the harbor of New York City he proceeded directly to Michigan, locating on a farm in Oakland county, where he became the owner of some forty acres of wild land in the vicinity of Orion. He literally hewed himself a farm out of the wilderness and with the pas- sage of time he added continually to his original estate until he is now the owner of a finely improved farm of two hundred and twenty acres of some of the finest land in the entire state. He is engaged in diver- sified agriculture and the raising of high-grade stock, being a great lover of horses, sheep and cattle. In his political convictions he is a stalwart supporter of the principles and policies for which the Demo- cratic party stands sponsor and at the present time, in 1911, he is serving with the greatest satisfaction to his constituents as justice of the peace of his home township. He has ever manifested a deep and sincere interest in educational affairs and for twelve years was a member of the school board. He is a man of broad mental caliber and fine moral fiber; is genial in his associations and in every sphere is accorded the unalloyed confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens, who admire him for his sterling integrity and worth.
In the common schools of Oakland county Warren J. Rachow re- ceived his preliminary educational discipline, the same having been ef- fectively supplemented by a course of study in the Orion high school, in which he was graduated. Subsequently he attended the Commercial College at Valparaiso, Indiana, and at the age of twenty-two years he entered the employ of the Oakland County Savings Bank, at Pontiac, Michigan, remaining in that institution in a clerical capacity for the ensuing eighteen months. At the expiration of that period he helped D. H. Power to establish a chain of banks in the following localities,- Sheridan, Mount Morris, Kingsley, Sutton Bay, Northport, Cedar and
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McBain. In January, 1905, he decided to launch out into the banking business on his own account and at that time established a bank for himself at Copemish, Michigan, the same being conducted for three years by the firm of Hodge & Rachow. Eventually disposing of his in- terest in the latter concern Mr. Rachow purchased the controlling stock in the Charlevoix State Savings Bank, one of the most substantial finan- cial institutions in Charlevoix county. This bank was incorporated under the laws of the state of Michigan in the year 1905, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars and its official corps is as follows,- R. P. Foley, president; H. S. Harsha, vice-president; and Warren J. Rachow, cashier. Mr. Rachow is a business man of unusual executive ability and tremendous vitality and it is largely through his own per- sistency and determination to forge ahead that he has been so success- ful in his various undertakings. In politics he is a Republican and in fraternal orders he is affiliated with Rochester M. Lodge, Knights of the Tented Maccabees; and with Pontiac Lodge, No. 810, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On the 23d of February, 1905, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Rachow to Miss Mary L. Langley, a native of Toronto, province of On- tario, Canada, and a daughter of Simeon C. and Isabella (Dennis) Langley, the former of English and the latter of Irish descent. Mr. and Mrs. Langley have four children, of whom Mrs. Rachow was the first born. She was reared and educated in Toronto and came to Michi- gan in the year 1895. Mr. and Mrs. Rachow are active in church work and they are popular in the best social circles of their home community, Mrs. Rachow being particularly interested in all things of a musical nature.
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