USA > Michigan > A history of northern Michigan and its people, Volume II > Part 34
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Acquiring his rudimentary education in the public schools of Charle- voix, William F. Lewis was subsequently graduated from the Charlevoix High School. Later he continued his studies for five years in the Cin- cinnati Medical School, from which he was graduated with the class of 1895. The following two years he was house surgeon at the Willie Hipp Ilospital in Chicago, Illinois, where he gained an experience of great value to him in his after career. In 1898 aud 1899 Dr. Lewis was in ac- tive practice of his profession at Charlevoix, Michigan, from there going to Elk Rapids, where he remained six years, being busily employed at his profession. Retiring then from active practice for a time, he was for two and one-half years associated with the Wooster Lumber Com- pany at Saginaw, Michigan.
Coming to Luther in March, 1910, the Doctor opened an office, and has since devoted his energies to the practice of medicine, and has won a fair share of patronage, much of his business being in the rural dis- triets. He was United States pension surgeon five years. The Doctor has two children, namely: Franklin L. and Audrey Louise. He is a steadfast Republican in his political views, and is now serving as health officer of Luther. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias. and to the Knights of the Maccabees.
FRED P. SMITH .- One of our greatest American writers, Oliver Wen- dell Holmes, wrote of a brilliant classmate,
"There was a young fellow of excellent pith,
Fate tried to obscure him by naming him Smith."
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If Fate had any such design in the case of the subject, she has again been thwarted, for Fred P. Smith is one of the brilliant and able young lawyers of Alpena and his activities in public life have been of the highest character.
Mr. Smith was born in Alpena, Michigan, June 6, 1877, and he is the son of Samnel P. and Margaret M. (Allen) Smith. The father was by birth a Canadian, his eyes having first opened to the light of day at Dunway, Quebec, May 1, 1847, and his demise occurred in 1899. The mother was born at St. Clair, St. Clair county, Michigan, and survived her honored husband many years, dying January 1, 1911. One son, the subject, was the only issue of the union. Samuel P. Smith came to Mich- igan in 1864, located at Alpena, Michigan, and engaged as a lumberman and mill sawyer, subsequently removing to a farm in Alpena county where he cleared him a homestead out of the wilderness. He was a Republican in politics and a member of Alpena Lodge, No. 199, Free & Accepted Masons, having first become a member of the time-honored order, June 2, 1875.
Mr. Smith has spent nearly his entire life in this place and has had the advantage of an excellent and varied education. After finishing such education as was afforded by the public schools of Alpena, Mr. Smith entered the State Normal College at Ypsilanti and subsequently the University of Michigan, from whose law department he was gradu- ated with the class of 1905. He elected to begin his practice in the city of his birth, and the scene of his happiest experiences, and the success he has encountered here has been indeed gratifying. In addition to his professional duties, he has found time for valuable public service and has been a member of the school board in 1900 and of the board of county school examiners in 1900-1-2-3. He also filled a vacancy in the former body in the year 1905. In 1908 Mr. Smith received unmistakable mark of the confidence and regard he enjoys in the community by his election to the office of prosecuting attorney and so excellent were his services in this capacity that he was reelected in November, 1910.
The subject is one of those who find no small amount of pleasure in their fraternal relations. He is a Mason, belonging to Alpena Lodge. No. 199, Free and Accepted Masons, and in his ideals are incorporated the principles of moral and social justice and brotherly love, which since fable-environed ages have been the fundamentals of the organization. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being Past Grand of Myrtle Lodge, No. 432, and being identified with Thunder Bay encampment. No. 87. He gives heart and hand to the men and meas- ures of the Grand Old Party. Mr. Smith married July 12, 1911, Cora B. Langworthy, of Alpena.
JOHN Q. ZUCK, commissioner of schools in Missaukee county, is proud to consider himself a farmer. He has not spent all his previous years in the cultivation of the ground, although he has been zealous in sewing seed of another character and in different soil and in both cases his efforts have been productive. It is such men as Mr. Zuck who ele- vate the farming profession. He is not one of the men who believe that any one can farm. He knows that it takes brains and education to get
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out of the soil all of which it is capable. The reason why so many men make failures of their farms is not because they do not labor enough, but because they do not use their heads enough. This is not the fault of Mr. Zuck; he has made an unmitigated success of farming. He is how- ever, much more than a farmer; he is a man who has done much good for the county and for the world at large. He is a man whose private life has been exemplary, who has taught by example and by precept, who has worn himself out in his efforts to give to others the best that was in him.
John Q. Zuck was born at Chambersburg, Franklin county, Pennsyl- vania, June 8, 1876. His father was John Zuck, of German descent. He was a farmer and married Lydia Borrah, the daughter of a farmer. Soon after their marriage the family moved to Cedar county, Iowa, where they still live.
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When John Q. was a very small boy he went with his family to Cedar county, Iowa, and there attended the district school and subsequently the high school. Later he attended the Mt. Morris College three years and the Northern Illinois College two years, graduating from the normal department of the latter school in 1898 and taking the degree of Bach- elor of Science the following year. From the time he left high school he had decided that he wanted to teach. During his childhood days he had learned to work on the farm and had imbibed a great deal of knowl- edge of farm life, but he did not feel that he wanted to be a farmer. Having spent so many years in acquiring knowledge, he now wanted to become a distributor. Knowledge is like charity, it blesses him that gives and him that takes, it is something that one can give away and still possess in even greater abundance. Having decided to teach, he did not have to work up as most teachers do, but as soon as he was grad- uated from the Northern Illinois College he was offered the position of principal of the schools at Dixon, Iowa. He remained here for six years and then went to Chappell, Nebraska, and was principal of the sehools there for two years. Next he was superintendent of schools at Battle Creek, Nebraska. While he was in Nebraska he was employed by the states of Colorado and Nebraska to leeture before various institutions and normal colleges of the state. He is a very ready speaker, his lan- guage being both fluent and forceful. He has something of interest and use to say and he says it in the clearest, most interesting manner possi- ble. After spending two years at Battle Creek, Nebraska, his health failed and he was compelled to tender his resignation. Some time pre- vious to this he had invested in a farm of one hundred and twenty acres at Falmouth, Michigan, Missankee county. When he found himself compelled to desist from his arduous labors, he came to the farm where he has since resided. He has purchased one hundred and twenty addi- tional acres of land, so that now he has a farm of two hundred and forty aeres, upon which he expends the same amount of work and energy that he put into his pedagogical labors. In April, 1910, there was a vacancy in the office of the superintendent of schools of the county and he was indneed to fill the vacancy. With the outdoor life his health had greatly improved and he accepted the position. His work was so excellent
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that in the fall of 1910, when he was again nominated for the same office, he was elected without any opposition.
In 1898 he was married to Miss Ruth Willey, the daughter of Charles and Lydia Willey, farmers in Bennett, Iowa. Mr. Zuck made her ac- quaintance while he was attending school in Iowa and the friendship then begun broadened into matrimony. Mr. and Mrs. Zuck have three children, Marlin D., born in 1899, Leo H., born in 1903 and Gerald C., born in 1909.
In polities Mr. Zuck is a Republican. He belongs to two fraternal orders, the Elks and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is not a member of any church, but he gives liberally to any object which he deems worthy of support. Although Mr. Zuck has been engaged in scholastic work for so many years, he is nothing of a pedant, on the other hand he is simple in his speech and manners. He is most genial ' and hospitable and it gives him great pleasure to entertain his numerous friends at his farm and to show them the workings of its details. It is to be hoped that he has a long life of nsefulness still before him.
GEORGE S. DANSER is general manager of the Petoskey Grocery Com- pany, one of the largest wholesale houses of northern Michigan. The management of the business has been in his hands since March, 1900, and its reputation and success are chiefly due to his ability and experi- ence as a business man.
Mr. Danser was born at Weston, West Virginia, January 23, 1870. His father, George C. Danser, who was born on a farm in Pennsylvania in 1829 and died at the age of sixty-four in 1893, moved to West Vir- ginia when a young man and with his father, William Danser, engaged in the foundry business at Weston, where he remained one of the sub- stantial business men up to his death. He also took a prominent part in public affairs. He served as mayor of Weston two terms, was alder- man, and a member of the sehool board. His politics was Republican, and he was a member of the Presbyterian church and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Daugherty, was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 1831, and died in 1903, aged seventy-two. Of their nine children, three sons and three daughters are living, George S. being the sixth in order of birth.
After a good general education in the public schools of Weston and a course in a commercial college, George S. Danser got his first busi- ness experience as clerk in a retail grocery store, the proprietor being Mr. Patterson. This beginning was made while he was still a boy, and in 1891 he was advanced to the wholesale grocery house of Ruhl, Koble- gard & Company of Weston. His promotion to larger duties was steady, and in March, 1900, he was selected as general manager of the Petoskey Grocery Company, Ruhl & Koblegard being the principal owners of this eoncern.
Mr. Danser was married in 1904 to Miss Fannie Hastings. She was born in Petoskey, a daughter of David Hastings, a blacksmith of this eity. Mrs. Danser was the youngest of six children, five of whom are living. Mr. and Mrs. Danser have two children: George William and Ruth Janet. In political belief he is a Republican.
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RICHARD G. PETERS is one of the leading representatives of the busi- ness interests of the northwest and there is in the city of Manistee prob- ably no man who has done more for the industrial development and substantial upbuilding of this part of the state than has Mr. Peters. He deserves great credit for what he has accomplished, as he started out in life empty-handed, possessing no capital in money but having a rich store of determination, of strong purpose and integrity. Upon these qualities as a foundation he has constructed his success and as the architect of his own fortunes has bnilded wisely and well. His career is certainly one worthy of emulation and he belongs to that class of representative Americans who while promoting their individual interests have also advanced the general welfare and public prosperity.
Mr. Peters was born in Delaware county, New York, on the 2nd of July, 1832, and is a son of James H. and Susan (Squires) Peters, both of whom are now deceased. The father was identified with agricultural pursuits in the Empire state at the time of the birth of Richard G. and a few years thereafter the family home was established in the city of Syracuse, New York, whence removal was eventually made to Cincin- nati, Ohio, where Mr. James H. Peters was engaged in the hotel busi- ness. In 1849 Mrs. Peters was summoned to the life eternal and Richard H., being a lad of about fifteen years of age, went to live with his grandparents at Tully, New York. For two years he divided his time between work on the farm in the busy seasons and attendance in the district schools during the winter months. In 1851 he was for one year in the employment of his uncle as gate keeper upon a toll road at Syracuse. When eighteen years of age he rejoined his father in Cin- einnati and a short time later he fell in with a cousin who resided at Monroe, Michigan, returning with him in 1850 and working for him upon his farm until late in the antumn of that year. Thereafter he en- tered the employ of the Michigan Southern Railroad Company and for a time had charge of a division of that road in the capacity of assistant civil engineer, retaining that position for the ensuing four or five years. In 1855 he entered the employ of the late Charles Means, assuming charge of that gentleman's lumber and mill interests at Big Point, Au Sable, Michigan. He was thus engaged for the next few years, at the expiration of which he went to Ludington, where he purchased a small tract of government land, devoting a year to getting out the timber ou it. He later accepted an offer from James Ludington, then an extensive lumber operator at the mouth of the Pere Marquette river, this site later becoming the village of Ludington, to take charge of his mill and lumber operations at that point. Two years later, in 1866, he became associated with M. S. Tyson and G. W. Robinson, both of Milwaukee, in the purchase of the large property holdings of Fiton & Tyson, at Manis- tee. the same consisting of a large body of pine lands on the Manistee river, two saw mills at the mouth of the river and a large portion of the site of the city of Manistee. For this valuable property the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was paid. The partnership then formed lasted but two years and from that time to the present Mr. Peters has been practically alone in the gigantic lumber industry in that section of the state, being widely known under the sobriquet of "King
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Among Lumbermen." In due time he became the owner of perhaps the largest tract of pine stumps ever held by any individual person in the state of Michigan. In 1869 he purchased the large mill property of Wheeler & Hopkins, on Manistee Lake, and continued to operate that plant for the following thirteen years, at the expiration of which it was destroyed by fire. The annual output of that mill was twelve million feet of lumber. After the destruction of the mill Mr. Peters purchased forty acres of land with the mill hitherto operated by Louis Sands, the same being located on what is now known as the village of East Lake, on the east side of Manistee Lake. This mill has since been rebuilt and enlarged and a second mill added in order to accommodate the large amount of business demanded of it.
Soon after the discovery, in 1885, that Manistee was underlaid by a fifty-foot strata of rock salt wells were bored to a depth of two thousand feet and salt blocks, with a capacity for turning out eighteen hundred barrels of salt daily, were erected. In this line of enterprise Mr. Peters became deeply interested in a financial way and about that time his pay- roll included about eight hundred names. In connection with his lum- ber operations a railroad into the timber region was constructed and at the time of this writing, in 1911, it comprises some seventy miles of track and is well equipped both for logging purposes and for transpor- tation. About the time of the purchase of the East Lake property Mr.
Peters, in company with Horace Butter, bought two large bodies of the land grant of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad Company and on the same laid out the town of Tallman, some twenty-eight miles south of Manistee, on the Flint & Pere Marquette road. The two tracts of land were estimated to contain about one hundred and thirty million feet of pine, and on the same a mill was constructed by Butter & Peters, which was in operation for four years and which was then destroyed by fire. It was never rebuilt. This firm had previously purchased a large mill at Ludington and at the time of the destruction of the above mill by fire it was enlarged and a salt block added to its former scope of operations, a force of about four hundred men being constantly em- ployed. Included in that property was some thirty miles of railroad.
Mr. Peters was also interested at Chase, Michigan, in the firm of Dunham, Peters & Company, extensive lumber manufacturers. He also had an interest in the Stronach Lumber Company, of Manistee, and as a member of the firm of Peters & Morrison controlled fifteen thousand acres of pine land on the Menominee river in the Upper Peninsula, this same concern being also interested in the large mill of the Interior Lumber Company at Interior, Michigan. In his own name Mr. Peters at one time held fully one hundred and fifty thousand acres of pine timber lands in Michigan and Wisconsin, and he was also part owner of one hundred thousand acres of yellow pine lands in Alabama and the Carolinas. Aside from the lumber industry Mr. Peters has other financial interests of broad scope and importance. He is president of and an extensive stockholder in the Manistee National Bank and is a director in the Fifth National Bank at Grand Rapids. In politics he accords a stalwart allegiance to the cause of the Republican party and he is most liberal in his views and charitable in his dealings with all
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people. His religious faith is in harmony with the tenets of the Con- gregational church and as a citizen his loyalty and integrity have never been questioned.
In 1858 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Peters to Miss Evelyn N. Tibbitts, who was a daughter of a prominent farmer in Lenawee county, Michigan. She was summoned to her reward on the 10th of February, 1897.
E. GOHEEN, who is ably filling the office of postmaster of Lincoln, Alcona county, Michigan, of which position he has been incumbent since 1898, is successfully engaged in the general merchandise business in this place, where he is honored and esteemed as a citizen of intrinsic loyalty and public spirit. Mr. Goheen was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, in July, 1861, a son of Joseph and Statira Goheen, the former of Dutch and the latter of Irish origin. Mr. and Mrs. Goheen became the parents of nine children, two of whom maintain their homes in the United States.
Mr. Gohen, of this review, was the fifth in order of birth in a family of nine children and he received a good education in the common schools of his native place prior to his immigration to the United States, in 1883. That he put his scholastic attainments to good use is evident when it is stated that he was engaged in the pedagogic profession for a period of sixteen and a half years-two years in Canada and the re- mainder of the time in the United States, whither he came in January, 1883. He engaged in the general merchandise business, in 1897, at Lincoln, Alcona county, Michigan, and he now owns and condnets one of the most modern and well equipped establishments in this section of the state. In politics he is a loyal Republican and during his residence in Lincoln he has been honored with the following offices : he was justice of the peace for four years : was treasurer of Lincoln township for two years; was a member of the board of township supervisors for four years; and since 1898 he has been postmaster of Lincoln, having been first appointed to that office by President Mckinley. Mr. Goheen mani- fests a deep and sincere interest in all matters pertaining to education and has long been a member of the board of school examiners. He has resided in Lincoln township since 1883 and in Lincoln since 1891 and during all that time he has been constantly on the alert to do all in his power to advance the general welfare of the county and state at large. In addition to his mercantile interests he has two fine farms of forty acres each, to the operation of which he gives a general supervision. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the L. A. R. and with the Knights of the Maccabees.
In the year 1886 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Goheen to Miss Belle Springstead, who was born and reared in the province of Ontario, Canada. To this union have been born five children, namely,-Ray- mond C., Nettie B., Ward J., Hermon M. and Vivian M., all of whom remain at the parental home.
JUDGE ISAAC GRANT .- Deeply interested in the growth and advance- ment of his home community, Judge Isaac Grant holds a place of note
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in Reed City, where he has served with ability and fidelity in the vari- ous offices of trust and responsibility to which he has been elected by his fellow-townsmen. A son of Charles Grant, he was born in Saint Johns, Clinton county, Michigan, June 25, 1846. His paternal grand- father, Dr. Isaac Grant, was born and bred in Massachusetts, and was there educated for the medical profession. He subsequently located in Michigan as a practicing physician, and spent his last days in Albion. He was of pure Scotch ancestry, the descendant of the same emigrant ancestor as the late General U. S. Grant, said ancestor having been one of three brothers that emigrated to New England from Scotland in Colonial days. Mr. Grant's grandfather was a sergeant in the Revolu- tionary war, going out from Massachusetts and serving all through the war. He was taken prisoner at New York and put on the old prison ship, and was one of only four of the original number of one hundred and twenty-five that came out alive after being on the boat. His name was also Isaac Grant.
Charles Grant was born in Massachusetts, and there educated. In 1836, while Michigan was still under territorial government, he came here in search of a favorable location, and after spending a while in Detroit and in Iona, took up a tract of wild land in Saint Johns, Clinton county. Felling the giant progeny of the forest, he cleared and im- proved a homestead from the wilderness, and was there employed as a carpenter, builder and farmer until his death, at the venerable age of ninety-two years. He served as a soldier in the war of 1812, being cap- tain of a company raised in New York state. He married Emeline Gil- bert, who was born in New York state, a daughter of Isaac Gilbert, who was, likewise, of Scotch descent. She lived to a ripe old age, her death, when ninety-one years old, being caused by an accident. She was his second wife, and of their seven children Isaac, the subject of this sketch, was the fourth child in succession of birth. By his first marriage Charles Grant reared four children.
Receiving a practical education in the public schools of Saint Johns, Isaac Grant remained beneath the parental roof-tree until 1863, when, on October 2, he enlisted in Company I, Tenth Michigan Volunteer Cay- alry, as a private, and served until the close of the war, being honor- ably discharged November 11, 1865, as sergeant of his company. Dur- ing his service, he took an active part in fifty-two different engagements, some of them mere skirmishes and some hotly-contested battles, but he was never wounded, receiving not even a scratch. Returning to Saint Johns, Mr. Grant was there engaged, with the exception of one winter spent in the pine woods, as a farmer until 1868. Marrying in that year, Daney Clark, he located in Saint Louis. Gratiot county, Mich- igan, where he was in the flour and feed business two years. Going to Mount Pleasant. Michigan, in 1870, he was there a general merchant for two years, when, in 1872, he moved with his family to Baldwin. Lake county, and, in addition to his mercantile business he engaged in Im- bering and contracting.
While there, in 1874. Mr. Grant was elected sheriff of Lake county, a position which he filled two years. In 1880 he was again elected sheriff, and served another term of two years in that capacity. Ile was
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subsequently in the livery business there for about nine months, but in September, 1883, he transferred his business and residence to Reed City, and continued as a liveryman for a year. Embarking then in the lumber, flour and milling business, he met with deserved success in his operations, continuing until 1908. Elected judge of probate in 1904, he served acceptably for four years. In 1909, when his judgeship expired, Judge Grant, who had disposed of his milling interests the previous year, was elected assessor of Reed City. He still holds that position, and is also justiee of the peace and notary public. He deals extensively in real estate, and is the owner of considerable property of value.
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