USA > Michigan > A history of northern Michigan and its people, Volume II > Part 31
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EARL FAIRBANKS, M. D .- One of the longest established and most highly respected physicians and surgeons of Luther, Lake county, is Earl Fairbanks, M. D., who is also entitled to the term, "Honorable," having served in the Michigan legislature with credit to himself and his constituents for two terms in the house of representatives, and two terms in the senate. A native of Michigan, he was born in Allegan county, July 19, 1860, of sturdy New England stock.
Stephen Fairbanks, the Doctor's father, was born, bred and educated in Massachusetts, growing to manhood on the ancestral farm. In search of "pastures new," he came as a young man to Michigan, locating in Kalamazoo county, where he resided until after his marriage. Re- moving from there to Allegan county, he entered one hundred and sixty acres of Government land, and immediately began the pioneer task of clearing a farm from the wilderness. He was busily engaged in his work when the Civil war was declared. Inspired by patriotic zeal, he enlisted, in 1861, in the Eighth Michigan Cavalry, in which he served bravely until after Stoneman's noted raid. Taken severely ill from ex- posure on the field, he returned to his home in Allegan county, and died soon after, his death occurring January 21, 1865, when but thirty- five years of age. He married Sarah Earl, who was born in New York
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State, and there brought up and educated. Four children were born into their home, namely : Emeline, Isabel, Frank, and Earl.
The youngest child of the parental household, Earl Fairbanks began as a boy to assist his widowed mother in the care of the home farm, doing such chores as he was able. When old enough he became self-sup- porting, his first wages being earned when but sixteen years old as a school teacher. After teaching one term in the district school, he decided to try an entirely different line of occupation, and entered the employ of the Pere Marquette Railroad Company, then known as the Western Michigan Railroad Company, as a common laborer and a brakeman. He subsequently worked in the woods a few seasons, and in 1882 settled in Luther, Lake county, and was here employed the next three years in piling, inspecting, and loading lumber in a large lumber yard. His natural tastes and inclinations making him desirous of obtaining a knowledge of medicine, Mr. Fairbanks went to Ann Arbor in 1885, and in 1888 was there graduated from the medical department of the Univer- sity of Michigan. Returning to Luther, Dr. Fairbanks has been in active practice here since, his talents, skill and wisdom classing him among the more successful physicians of the place.
Active and influential in political circles, the Doctor has held various township and county offices, and for twelve years served as postmaster at Luther. Elected to the legislature in 1892, he served in the house two terms, and has since been twice chosen to represent the Twenty- sixth Senatorial district in the state senate. In 1900 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention, held in Philadelphia, and in 1896 was alternate delegate to the convention held at Saint Lonis. He is much interested in ancestral history, and is vice president of the association known as the Fairbanks Family of America.
Fraternally the Doctor is a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to the Knights Templar Commandery, and to the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows; belonging to the lodge, the encampment, and the canton; of the Modern Woodmen of America ; of the Knights of the Maccabees; and of the Royal Neighbors.
On September 25. 1886, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Dr. Fairbanks married Fannie Downer, who was born and reared in that city, and be- fore her marriage taught school in Luther. Six children have blessed their union, namely: Earl; Guy; Fannie, Stephen; Harry, deceased ; and Joie, deceased. The Doctor is now serving as president of the vil- lage of Luther, and as a member of the Luther board of education. He is a member of the county board of supervisors, and has served as chair- man of the Republican County Committee of Lake County for years. which position he still holds.
WESLEY M. CROSS, general merchant and postmaster at Temple, Mich- igan, is a self made man and the members of the community say he has done a remarkably good job. For a man to make a snecess of his life under any circumstances, in this age of competition, is a subject for con- gratulation, but when he has all the difficulties to encounter that Mr. Cross has surmounted, he may justly be proud of himself. As a matter
antoine & Cartier
Thas Cartier
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of fact, however, Mr. Cross is a very modest man in regard to his own attainments and capabilities.
He was born in October, 1871, in St. Louis county, Missouri. At that time his father was living on a farm near St. Louis, then only a village, but as he knew more about carpentering than he did about farming and did not make a success of the latter, the family moved into the village of St. Louis. IIere Wesley attended the village school, having only just commenced to go to the district school before they left the farm. When he was ten years old his school days ended abruptly, as he left home and has never seen his father since that time. Young as he was, he secured work in a shingle factory. He worked in various mills for several years, then beeame a stationary engineer. following this occupa- tion for some time. Not desiring to be a mechanic all his life. he next secured work in a store at Riverdale, then at Tawas City and later at Whittemore. From these experiences he gained his commercial educa- tion, a slower method than by attending a business college, but more practical. In 1893 he came to Clarenee, opened a general store, carry- ing a very full and complete line of goods. He also filled the po- sition of postmaster. Ten years later he purchased a farm which he managed himself. Since he was a very small boy he had not had any experience of farm life, but he nevertheless made a suceess of that, as of everything to which he turned his hand. In 1905 he came to Temple and again opened a general store, which has grown very considerably within the last six years. He is also the postmaster of Temple.
In the year 1902 he married Miss Minnie Smith of Temple, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Cross' only child is Lee, born in September. 1906.
The Republicans have a staunch adherent in Mr. Cross and they ap- preeiate his many good qualities, showing same by the honors they have bestowed on him. He is supervisor of Redding township, having been for three years a member of the county board of supervisors. Ile is the chairman of the committee on equalization. He is also a director in the Northeastern Michigan Development Bureau Association. He he- longs to the fraternal order of the Gleaners, standing high in the or- ganization. Although he lives in Temple, he still owns his three hun- dred and sixty acre farm and manages it himself. There are very few men in Michigan who have had sneh a remarkable career as Mr. Cross, a man as popular as he is well known.
CHARLES E. CARTIER .- The present representative of the Twenty- sixth district of Michigan in the state senate is an exponent of that progressive spirit that has caused the northern counties of Michigan to forge so staunehly forward along industrial and commercial lines within the past two decades. and he is numbered among the veritable captains of industry in the city of Ludington, where he has lived since his childhood days and where he is vice-president of each the Cartier Manufacturing Company and the Cartier Lumber Company, two of the important industrial concerns of Mason county. Adequate as- surance as to his hold upon popular confidence and esteem in this sec- tion of the state is given by the distinguished official preferment ac- corded him, and such are his loyalty and ability that he can not but
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prove a valuable member of the upper house of the state legislature, to which he was elected in November, 1910.
Hon. Charles E. Cartier was born in the eity of Manistee, Michigan, on the 24th of March, 1875, and is the eighth in order of birth of nine children of A. E. and Eliza A. (Ayres) Cartier. The father was long numbered among the representative business men and influential eiti- zens of northern Michigan, and on other pages of this publieation is entered a memoir to this honored resident of Ludington, where ile died on the first of March, 1910. He whose name initiates this review was but three years of age at the time of the family removal from Manistee to Ludington, in which latter city he gained his early educa- tion in the publie schools. After completing the curriculum of the high school he entered the University of Michigan, in which he con- tinued his studies for two years. He then became associated with his father's extensive business enterprises, with which he has sinee been actively identified, proving an able executive and showing deep in- terest in the furtheranee of these and other industrial undertakings that have given so noteworthy prestige to the thriving and beautiful little city of Ludington.
Senator Cartier has shown a broad and liberal public spirit and has been an active factor in the councils of the Republican party in this section of his native state. He served as mayor of Ludington in 1908-9 and gave a most progressive and business like administration of the municipal affairs. In the Republican primaries in the fall of 1910, he was nominated, without opposition, for representative of the Twenty-sixth distriet in the state senate, and in the ensuing election he was, after a spirited and effective campaign throughout the dis- triet, elected by a most gratifying majority. He took his seat in the senate on the 4th of January, 1911, and has already shown his mettle as a conscientious and loyal member of the state legislature. He is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association, the Modern Woodmen of America, and Ludington Lodge, No. 736, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, in which popular fraternal organization he served one term as district deputy for west- ern Michigan. He is a member of the directorate of the First National Bank of Ludington and has other capitalistic interests of importance, being a worthy representative of one of the well known and highly honored families of northern Michigan. Both he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic church, in whose faith he was reared.
On the 6th of September, 1899, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Cartier to Miss Ellen M. Coady, daughter of Patriek Coady, a representative citizen of Pana, Illinois, and the two children of this union are Charles E., Jr., and Helen M.
PAUL WEINE, who is now giving most efficient service in the office of county register of deeds of Alpena county, has filled a number of important offices of publie trust and he is recognized as a loyal and progressive citizen. He was born in the province of Brandenburg, Prussia, Germany, on the 2nd of March, 1862, and is a son of John and Angusta (Poland) Weine, both of whom were likewise born in Branden-
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burg, the former in 1832 and the latter in 1820. Mr. and Mrs. Weine were married in Germany and they became the parents of one son, the immediate subject of this sketch. Mr. Weine embarked for America in 1869 and after a long and weary trip on a sailing-vessel he landed in the city of New York, whence he proceeded to Buffalo and thence to Saginaw, Michigan. He was a wagon-maker by trade, having served an apprenticeship at this trade in his native land. On his arrival in Michigan he hired out as a farm hand and in 1870 he removed to Alpena county, where he obtained employment in a saw mill. In 1871 he sent for his wife and son and they made the voyage by steamer, arriving at Alpena January 9, 1872, having made the trip from Standish to Alpena by stage. In 1876 Mr. Weine, with his family, located in Alpena township, Alpena county, on a tract of eighty acres of land. He literally hewed a farm out of the wilderness and he continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits during the remainder of his life, his death having occurred in May, 1908. His devoted companion passed away in 1892, at the age of seventy-two years. In politics John Weine maintained an independent attitude, voting for men and measures meeting with the approval of his judgment. He and his wife were devout members of the German Lutheran church, in whose faith they had been reared in the fatherland.
Paul Weine was a lad of about ten years of age at the time of his arrival in America. He attended school for three years in Germany and for two years in Alpena. When fourteen years of age he began to work in a shingle mill and continued to be so employed during the summers until twenty-six years of age. The winters he devoted to cut- ting timber on his father's farm. In 1889 he purchased forty acres of land in Alpena township, Alpena county, and soon after his marriage, in 1891, he established his home on this land, gradually reclaiming it to cultivation and making many improvements. He engaged in diversi- fied agriculture and his farm is now one of the finest in the county. Mr. Weine's first public office was as a member of the school board and he held this position from 1888 until his election to the office of county register of deeds, in November, 1908. He was elected as his own successor in this latter office in the fall election in 1910. For five terms he was incumbent of the office of township treasurer and he was township supervisor for four terms. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees and the Harugari Society. In politics he accords a stanch allegiance to the cause of the Republican party and he has ever given most freely of his aid and influence in support of all measures and enterprises advanced for the general welfare of the com- munity. He is a man of progressive ideas and no citizen is held in higher confidence and esteem in Alpena. Both he and his wife are mem- bers of the German Lutheran church.
On the 12th of September, 1891, Mr. Weine was united in mar- riage to Miss Amelia Genshaw, who was born in Alpena county and who is a daughter of William and Amelia (Simmons) Genshaw, both of whom were born in Germany. Mr. Genshaw emigrated to America when a young man and began life as a farm hand. He gradually accumulated the means wherewith to purchase a farm and he was
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identified with agriculture until his death. Mrs. Genshaw now resides in Alpena township and of her five children four are living,-William, Amelia, Charles and Annie. Amelia Genshaw Weine was reared and educated in her native county and she and her husband became the parents of seven children, two of whom are deceased. Those living are,-Richard, William, Albert, Dora and Clarence.
CANUTE A. JOHNSON, postmaster and one of the substantial business men of Mikado, where he has been engaged in the general merchandise business for the past twenty years, is the owner of a splendid farm of two hundred and twenty acres, the same being one of the finest in this township. In addition to his other real estate holdings Mr. Johnson has a tract of one hundred and twenty acres of unimproved land in Mikado township, Alcona county, Michigan.
Although Mr. Johnson is not a native American he has resided in the United States since he was an infant three years of age. He was born in Norway, on the 12th of February, 1854, and is a son of John Johnson, also of Norway, who with his family of six children emigrated to the United States in 1857, locating in Orleans county, New York. The father was a laborer during much of his active business career and he was summoned to the life eternal in 1906, his wife having passed away in 1897. Of the family of six children, two are now living, Enger M., who is now Mrs. Skinner and who resides at Carlton, New York and Canute A., the immediate subject of this review. Mr. Johnson received his preliminary educational training in the common schools of Orleans county, New York, and in 1874, at which time he was a youth of twenty years, he removed to Shiawassee county, Michigan, where he turned his attention to farming. In 1891 he established his home in Mikado, where he purchased a tract of eighty acres of farm land, to which he has kept adding year after year until at the present time his holdings amount to three hundred and forty acres. After his arrival in Mikado he estab- lished his present mercantile concern, this being the second store of its kind in the town ..
Politically Mr. Johnson endorses the cause of the Republican party and for the past sixteen years he has been postmaster of Mikado, being the second man to hold that office. He has also been incumbent of the offices of township treasurer and township clerk and now, in 1911, he is justice of the peace, having remained in tenure of that position for the past twelve years. In all his business relations Mr. Johnson is known as a man of unquestioned honesty and sterling integrity. Through thrift and pertinacity of purpose he has made all his ventures count for good and to-day he is recognized as one of the most prominent and in- fluential men in the county. Fraternally he is affiliated with Harris- ville Lodge, No. 292, Free & Accepted Masons, the Knights of the Mae- cabees and the Grange.
In 1895 Mr. Johnson married Miss Mary McFarland, who was born and reared at Buffalo, New York, and who is a daughter of Malcomb and Jennett McFarland. To Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have been born two children, Newton E. and Jennie M. The religious faith of the family is in harmony with the tenets of the Presbyterian church at Mikado.
Míos Semurthwaite
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GEORGE W .. BAILEY is a pioneer settler of 1873 in Charlevoix county, and has been identified with the progress of this part of the state for nearly forty years. He was born in Erie county, New York, April 9, 1837, and was reared and educated there. On May 28, 1861, he re- sponded to one of the first calls of the war and enlisted in company E, Seventy-second New York Volunteers, this regiment forming part of Sickle's Brigade. He participated at the siege of Yorktown, at Will- iamsburg, was thirty days on the firing line in the Fair Oaks campaign and on the seven days' retreat, was at Malvern Hill, Harrison Landing, Catlett's Station, the second Bull Run, and Chantilla. He was then on detached duty under Gen. D. Ulman at Port Hudson, Louisiana, and was there at the surrender, July 9, 1864. After having participated in all the battles and skirmishes of his regiment he was honorably dis- charged at New Orleans, October 8, 1864.
He returned to New York to engage in farming until 1873, when he moved to Wilson township, Charlevoix county, and entered one hundred and sixty acres of land out of the wilderness that then prevailed almost unbroken in this part of the state. He cleared sixty-five acres, built him- self a home, and lived there until 1887, when he became a resident of Boyne village, now Boyne City. For about six years he worked as scaler of logs. While living in Wilson township he served twelve years as town- ship supervisor, as superintendent of schools in the township for five years, after which he moved to the village of Boyne City, was elected supervisor of Evangeline township-which office he held for twelve years consecutively. When Boyne City was incorporated in 1905 he was elected city assessor, which office he has since held; was deputy county clerk two terms, deputy sheriff two terms. In politics he is a Republi- can, belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, and is a member of Boyne City Lodge No. 391, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
Mr. Bailey comes of a New England family, who emigrated to America from England in the year 1681. His parents were Joseph and Fannie (Lake) Bailey. The former was born in Shaftsbury, Vermont, in 1810, and died in 1871, and the latter was a native of New York state and lived to the age of eighty-nine years. Three of their seven children are now living: Daniel W., of Buffalo, New York; George W .; Albion J., of Fredonia, New York. The father passed his active life as a farm- er in Erie county, New York.
August 24, 1858, Mr. George W. Bailey married Miss Caroline Park- inson, who was a native of Erie county, New York, and died in 1980, leaving four children : Wellington R., a farmer in South Dakota; Wir- field, also a farmer in that state ; Frauk L., a farmer; William W., in t' e drug business at Boyne City. Mr. Bailey's second marriage occurred August 24, 1882, when Emma F. Hull became his wife. She is a native of Michigan. Four children were born of this union: Floyd and Mon- roc, who live at Battle Creek; Paul and Marion Pauline, at home.
THOMAS SMURTHWAITE .- One of the valued contributors to the generic historical subject-matter of this publication is this well known and highly esteemed citizen of Manistee, and it is the wish of the pub- lishers to accord in this volume a permanent mark of appreciation of Vol. U-16
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the co-operation given by him and also to enter a brief review of his career as one of the world's earnest and productive workers. He is recognized as one of the representative members of the bar of northern Michigan and has been called upon to serve in various offices of dis- tinctive public trust, including that of prosecuting attorney of Manis- tee county.
Mr. Smurthwaite was born in the city of Toronto, Canada, on the 18th of January, 1850, and is a son of Thomas and Lavinia (MeLellan) Smurthwaite, the former of whom was born near Richmond, Yorkshire, England, and the latter near the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Thomas Smurthwaite, Sr., was eight years of age at the time when his parents emigrated from England and established their home in the province of Ontario, Canada, where he was reared and educated and where he continued to reside until 1865, when he came with his family to Michi- gan, within whose borders he has since maintained his home. Now venerable in years. he resides with his daughter, Mrs. William H. Tucker, of Flint, Michigan, his cherished and devoted wife having been summoned to the life eternal on the 10th of February, 1895. The major portion of his active career was devoted to the manufacturing of brick. The lineage of the Smurthwaite family in England is traced back to the time of the Norman conquest, and the name has long been identified with the annals of sturdy old Yorkshire.
Thomas Smurthwaite, Jr., whose name initiates this article, was reared to the age of fifteen years in the province of Ontario, Canada, where he worked in his father's brick yard and on the home farm, and where he gained his rudimentary education in the common schools. When he had attained to the age noted he came with his parents to Michigan, and he was reared to maturity in Sanilac county, where he gained his full quota of experience in ardnous toil and endeavor. He has continued his residence in Michigan without intermission during the long intervening period, except for one year passed in Tacoma, Washington. His education has been principally gained through self- discipline, and he is a graduate of neither high school nor college, though he was for a time enabled to attend the excellent schools of the city of Toronto, prior to the removal of the family to Michigan. After leaving school he assisted in the work of his father's brick yard, in Sanilac county, during the summer seasons, and in the winter terms he taught in the country schools, thus showing that he had made good use of such advantages as had been accorded him. Later he was em- ployed as foreman in brick yards at St. Clair and Dearborn, this state. In 1875-6 Mr. Smurthwaite was a teacher in the village schools of Bald- win, Lake county, and in the meanwhile he had taken up and carefully prosecuted the study of law, under effective preceptorship. He was admitted to the bar at Baldwin on the 14th of July, 1876, and in the spring of the following year he entered the law office of Judge Edward E. Edwards, of Fremont, Newago county, where he was associated with the Judge in professional work for one year. He then returned to Baldwin, in the spring of 1878, and there engaged in the practice of his profession in an individual way. In the autumn of the same year he was elected prosecuting attorney of Lake county, and the best evi-
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dence of the efficiency and acceptability of his service was that accorded in his election as his own successor in 1880. In 1884 Mr. Smurthwaite removed to the city of Tacoma, Washington, where he remained one year, and upon his return to Michigan he located in Detroit, where he engaged in the active practice of his profession under auspicious con- ditions. Impaired health, however, compelled him to abandon his work in the metropolis of the state, and in the autumn of 1886 he removed to Manistee, where he continued in the successful practice of his pro- fession and where he has gained secure vantage ground as one of the versatile and resourceful members of the bar of this section of the state. In 1890 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Manistee county, and at the expiration of his first term he was re-elected, in 1892, thus continuing ineumbent of the office for four consecutive years. lle made an admirable record as public prosecutor and has long held high reputation as a skillful trial lawyer.
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