USA > Michigan > A history of northern Michigan and its people, Volume II > Part 39
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J. A. GERHARDT .- Distinguished not only as a worthy representative of the native-born citizens of Reed City, Osceola county, but as one of the foremost business men of the place, J. A. Gerhardt is eminently de- serving of special mention in a work of this character. He comes of sub- stantial German and pioneer ancestry, and was born October 19, 1881, in Reed City, a son of John Gerhardt.
Born in Cassel, a walled city of Germany, John Gerhardt lived there until eighteen years old, when, lured to America by the stories told throughout the Fatherland of its rich soil and many opportunities of- fered a poor man for obtaining wealth, he crossed the ocean, locating shortly after his arrival in Michigan. Locating at Reed City, Osceola county, when but twenty-three years old, he has resided here sinee, and now, at the age of seventy-two years, has the distinction of having lived in the county more years than any other resident. Energetic and thrifty, he has accumulated considerable property and is now living re- tired from active business, enjoying the fruits of his earlier days of toil. The farm on which he settled when coming to this part of the state was located three miles south of Reed City, and through his wise and judicious labors became one of the best improved and most productive estates of his community. He married Catherine Bittner, who was born sixty-eighty years ago, and of their ten children eight are now, in De- cember, 1910, living.
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J. A. Gerhardt, the seventh child and sixth son of his parents, was reared on the home farm and gleaned his first book knowledge in the rural schools of his native district. Not content to settle in life as an agriculturist, he entered a general store as a clerk, and during an ap- prenticeship of two years in that capacity acquired a practical knowl- edge of mercantile pursuits. Forming a partnership with his cousin, he carried on business for a time under the name of Gerhardt Brothers, a firm which was subsequently merged into that of the C. E. Gerhardt Company. Mr. Gerhardt has since bought out all of the stock belonging to Mr. C. E. Gerhardt, and is not only president of the company but its sole owner, although its name has not yet been changed. His estab- lishment is one of the leading ones of its kind in this part of Osceola county, and in the management of its different departments he keeps twelve people busily employed, his trade being extensive, as well as lucrative.
Mr. Gerhardt married December 15, 1908, Alice Gingrich, a daughter of Joseph and Barbara (Mosser) Gingrich, well-known and highly es- teemed residents of Osceola county.
THOMAS QUINLAN AND JOHN F. QUINLAN .- Thomas Quinlan, of Pe- toskey, is chairman of the Thomas Quinlan & Sons Company, Ltd., and is a member of the family which have been prominently identified with the commercial and financial life of Petoskey since the beginning of this city's importance among the centers of northern Michigan. In recent years the principal activities of the family have been concentrated under the title of Thomas Quinlan & Sons Company, Ltd., which was organized February 3, 1908, and whose board of managers is as follows: Thomas Quinlan, chairman; C. C. Quinlan and M. M. Burnham, vice chairmen ; William T. Quinlan, treasurer; and John F. Quinlan, secretary. The company handle mortgage securities, and its capital stock is one hun- dred thousand dollars, seventy thousand dollars of which is paid in.
The parents of Thomas Quinlan were John and Elizabeth (Flood) Quinlan. The former was born in county Tipperary, Ireland, and lived to the age of eighty-two. When a young man he came to this country on a sailing vessel, and from New York went into Vermont, where he began farming and for thirty-eight years was engaged in buying and shipping live stock to the old Brighton and Cambridge markets. He was also elected to the Vermont legislature, being an active Democrat in politics. His first wife was a native of Vermont, and their five chil- dren are: Michael, who served with the First Vermont Cavalry through the Civil war; William, now deceased, was a merchant of Albany, New York; John, who served during the war as a member of the First Ver- mont Sharpshooters; Martin; and Thomas, of Petoskey. His second wife was Margaret Harney, a native of Ireland, and she was the mother of three sons and three daughters, of whom the following survive: Jo- seph, now living on the old Vermont homestead and a buyer and shipper of stock ; Nellie; Mary ; Frank ; and Kate.
Thomas Quinlan, son of John Quinlan, was born at Charlotte, Chit- tenden county, Vermont, December 22, 1848. was reared on the Ver- mont homestead and received his education in a schoolhouse located on
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his father's farm. His first experience in business was as a clerk when he was seventeen year old, after which he returned to the farm. In October, 1871, at the age of twenty-three, he came west to Norwood, Michigan, and after working as a clerk for several years located at Petoskey in November, 1874, an early year in the history of this city.
He came here as manager of the Fox, Rose & Butters general mer- chandise business and continued in that capacity for several years. In the spring of 1878, with Philip B. Wachtel, he established the first banking house of Petoskey, known as Wachtel & Quinlan, bankers. His interest was later sold to W. L. Curtis of Kalamazoo, and he was then engaged in the real estate and insurance business up to 1908, when the Thomas Quinlan & Sons Company, Ltd., was organized and took over his interests, he being now chairman of the board of managers.
In politics Thomas Quinlan is a Democrat and his first important public office was register of deeds, to which he was elected in 1880 and re-elected in 1882. He also served as township treasurer and village treasurer of Petoskey.
September 23, 1879, he married Miss M. Barbara Wachtel, a native of Pennsylvania. They had four children: John F .; William T., treas- urer of the company, and secretary-treasurer of the Detroit Life In- surance Company; Carlos C., vice president, and who organized the Detroit Life Insurance Company and is now organizing the National Fire Insurance Company of Detroit; and Edith M. All the sons have won conspicuous places in the financial and business world.
John F. Quinlan, the oldest of the three brothers, was born at Petoskey, November 1, 1880, and received his education in the public schools here and the Ferris Institute at Big Rapids. For four years he was employed in the postoffice under his uncle P. B. Wachtel, for a year was bookkeeper for the Belding-Hall Manufacturing Company, and then for four years had charge of the office of the Bogardus Land & Lumber Company at Pellston. He then continued at Pellston in the real estate and insurance business on his own account until 1908, when he became one of the organizers of Thomas Quinlan & Sons Company, Ltd.
A Republican in polities, he was elected city treasurer for 1909-10. He is a member of Petoskey Lodge No. 629, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks., and Inawandiwin Lodge No. 56, Knights of Pythias. November 28. 1904, he married Miss Grace Witherspoon. She was born in Harrison, Michigan. They have one daughter. Grace Edith.
THOMAS Y. KIMBALL, M. D .- During the years which mark the period of Dr. Kimball's professional career he has met with gratifying success and during the period of his residence at Fife Lake, Michigan, he has won the good will and patronage of many of the best citizens here. He is a thorough student and endeavors to keep abreast of the times in everything relating to the discoveries in medical science. Progressive in his ideas and favoring modern methods as a whole, he does not dis- pense with the time-tried systems whose value has stood the test of years. There is in his record much that is worthy of the highest commendation, for limited privileges and financial resources made it necessary that he
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personally meet the expenses of a college course. In doing this he dis- played the elemental strength of his character, which has been the foundation of his success. He now stands very high in the medical pro- fession of the state and is in the fullest sense of the term a self-made man.
A native of the fine old Keytone state of the Union, Dr. Kimball was born at Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, on the 20th of June, 1874, and he is a son of Charles T. and Isabelle (Sligh) Kimball. both of whom were born and reared in Pennsylvania. The father was a lumberman by oc- cupation and he removed to Fife Lake, Michigan, with his family, in the year 1886. Here Charles T. Kimball was engaged in the mercantile business and in lumbering for a number of years and he was ever a prominent and influential factor in all matteis affeeting the good of the general welfare. He was summoned to eternal rest in the year 1904, at the age of sixty-four years. His cherished and devoted wife, who is still living, makes her home with her son, the Doctor.
Dr. Thomas Y. Kimball was educated to the age of twelve years at Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, and after the family removal to Fife Lake, Michigan, he completed his school work in this place. For some four years after reaching his majority he was engaged in teaching school in the northern section of Michigan and at the expiration of that time he decided upon the medical profession as his life work. With that object in view he entered the Milwaukee Medical College, in 1895, continuing as a student in that institution for one year. He was then matriculated as a student in the Grand Rapids Medical College, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1899, duly receiving his well earned degree of Doctor of Medieine. Since that time he has broadened his medical knowledge by attendance in post-graduate schools at De- troit, Chicago and at Rochester, Minnesota, in the last-mentioned place having been under the instruction of the far-famed Mayo brothers. Im- mediately after his graduation, in 1899, he located at Jennings, Mich- igan, where he was engaged in the active practice of his profession for one year. He then returned to Fife Lake, remaining here for some six years, at the expiration of which, in 1907, he went to the upper penin- sula of Michigan as physician and surgeon for the Worden Lumber Company. Eighteen months later he returned to Kalkaska, where he entered into a partnership alliance with Dr. S. A. Johnson, of Kalkaska, Michigan. At the time of Dr. Johnson's death, in 1908, Dr. Kimball was offered a position as head surgeon and medical advisor of a hospital at Spirit Lake, Idaho, whither he journeyed in the fall of 1909. This hospital was supported by the Idaho and Washington Northern Rail. road Company and Dr. Kimball continued as its head for a period of fourteen months, when, on account of his mother's failing health, he was forced to return to Michigan. Ile then located at Fife Lake, where he is now established with a large and lucrative patronage and where he is accorded recognition as one of the ablest physicians and surgeons in Grand Traverse county.
On the 23d of September, 1906, Dr. Kimball was united in mar- riage to Miss Florence Lueier, of Sault Ste Marie, Michigan. She is a daughter of Peter and Maggie (Buttrell) Lucier. of that city. Mr.
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Lueier is a millwright by trade and has long been engaged in the work of that line of enterprise. Dr. and Mrs. Kimball have no children. They are popular factors in connection with the best social activities of Fife Lake where their attractive home is recognized as a center of refine- ment and most gracious hospitality.
In his political adherency Dr. Kimball is aligned as a stanch sup- porter of the principles and policies promulgated by the Republican party and while he has never shown aught of desire for political prefer- ment of any description he has been the able incumbent of the office of village clerk of Fife Lake for a period of four years. In connection with the work of his profession he is a valued and appreciative member of the Grand Traverse County Medical Society and of the Michigan State Medical Society. In a fraternal way his affiliations are with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and his religious faith is in harmony with the tenets of the Presbyterian church, in the differ- ent departments of which he is an active factor. Dr. Kimball is a man of broad information and deep human sympathy and by reason of his fine medical skill, his genial disposition and true gentlemanliness he is a man of mark in the community in which he maintains his home.
CLINTON D. WOODRUFF, M. D .- A well-known and successful physi- cian and surgeon of Reed City, Michigan, Clinton D. Woodruff, M. D., has gained marked prestige in his profession and is held in high esteem by his fellow-citizens. A native of New England, he was born June 26, 1832, in Avon, Hartford county, Connecticut, coming on the paternal side of Welsh ancestry.
Arden Woodruff, the Doctor's father, was born and reared in Con- necticut, spending his earlier years on a farm. After serving an ap- prenticeship of seven years at the trade of a tanner and currier, he fol- lowed it for a time in New England and later in Allegany county, New York. Going thence to Wyoming county, New York, he was engaged in agricultural pursuits at Warsaw for a while, and then settled in Stry- kersville, the same county. A man of much ability and intelligence, he became active in public affairs, while there serving for two years as representative to the state legislature. Disposing finally of his property in that section, he moved to West Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York, where he spent his last years, passing away at the venerable age of eighty-one years. He married Sophia Tillotson, a native of Connecticut. She survived him, living to be almost ninety years of age. She was an unusually bright and active woman, able to take care of her room until almost her very last days. Of her children, two sons grew to manhood, namely : Edward P., a bookkeeper, died in Chicago; and Clinton D., the subject of this brief personal record.
Spending his boyhood days in Wyoming county, New York. Clinton D. Woodruff obtained the rudiments of his education in the district schools of Warsaw, after which he attended a select school at Strykers- ville for a year, subsequently continuing his studies in Albany. Begin- ning his career in Warsaw, he was there clerk in a dry goods establish- ment for ten months, after which he spent a year farming. Removing to Kilbourn City, Wisconsin. in 1856, he remained there a few months
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looking about, and in the spring of 1857 accepted a position as clerk and manager of a drug store. Succeeding well and liking the work, he then bought out the establishment at the end of two years and con- tinued the business until 1866. In 1860 he begun the study of medicine, and in 1862 attended a course of lectures in the medical department of the University of the City of New York. Returning to Kilbourn City, he continued the practice of his profession there, and in 1865 was appointed by the governor as assistant surgeon of the Thirteenth Wis- consin Volunteer Infantry. In this capacity Dr. Woodruff went with the Texas expedition from Orleans to San Antonio, Texas, where he remained with his regiment until mustered out of service in December, 1865, at Madison, Wisconsin.
Resuming his practice and the management of his drug business, the Doctor continued his residence in Wisconsin until 1875, when he sold out and returned to New York state to care for his father, who was in feeble health at that time and who lived but a brief while after. Lo- cating in Lima, New York, after the death of his father, Dr. Woodruff bought ont the practice and good will of Dr. Tisdal and was there in active practice six years. He subsequently spent a short time in Buffalo, New York, from there moving to Allegan county, Michigan, where he practiced medicine ten years. The ensuing six years he was in practice at Grand Rapids, Michigan, where his wife died. He spent the following year with his son, and then returned to Allegan county, Michigan, where he continued his professional labors for two years. From there the Doctor was called to the Reed City Sanitarinm, where he was house physician and surgeon until the burning of the institution, two and one- half years later. Then, after spending three months as physician at the Kalamazoo Sanitarium, Dr. Woodruff removed to Mesick, Michigan, where he practiced for a year. Returning then to Reed City, he has since been actively and successfully engaged in the practice of his pro- fession, his skill and wide experience gaining for him an excellent patronage.
The Doctor is a member of the Osceola County Medical Society and its president in 1909; and belongs to the Michigan State Medical So- ciety. Religiously he is a valued member of the Congregational church and superintendent of its Sunday-school. A life-long Republican in politics, he has helped elect every Republican president since the forma- tion of his party.
Dr. Woodruff has been twice married. He married first, in 1854, in Warsaw, New York, Emma Tillotson, who died in Grand Rapids, Mich- igan. Three years later, in Allegan county, Michigan, he married Helen M. Peck. Of the Doctor's four children, one son and one daughter have passed to the life beyond, and two sons are living, namely : Herbert A., assistant cashier in the old National Bank at Grand Rapids; and Ernest O., vice president of the W. G. Hutchinson Company of Los Angeles, California. The daughter, Lillian B. Woodruff, was educated in music at Lima, New York, and afterward taught music in Allegan, Plainwell and at Grand Rapids, being very successful. She lived to be thirty-four years old, her death at that age being deeply regretted by a host of warm friends.
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WILLIAM W. SMITH .- While the disposition to do honor to those who have served well their race or their nation is prevalent among all en- lightened people and is of great value everywhere and under all forms of government, it is particularly appropriate to those fostered in this country, where no man is born to public office or public honor, coming to neither by inheritance, but where all men are equal before the law, where the race for distinction is over the road for public usefulness and is open to everyone who chooses to enter, however humble and obscure he may be, and where the advantageous circumstances of family and wealth count, in the vast majority of cases, for but little or nothing. In an enumeration of the men of the present generations who have won honor for themselves and at the same time have honored the state to which they belong it is imperative that distinct recognition be accorded to William W. Smith, for he is one of the distinguished citizens of northern Michigan, where he has figured prominently in public affairs.
William W. Smith is a native son of New York, his birth having oc- cured at Constantia, Oswego county, on the 22nd of August, 1849. He is a son of William W. and Ada A. (West) Smith, both of whom were likewise born in the old Empire state of the Union, the former in the year 1817, and the latter in 1822. In 1846 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and they became the parents of four children, two of whom survive at the present time, in 1911,-William W., the immediate subject of this review; and Frank, who is now senior mem- ber of the firm of Smith & Hull, of Grand Traverse county. The father was a lumberman by occupation and he passed his entire life in the state of New York, where his demise occurred in 1857, at the compara- tively young age of forty years. The mother is now deceased.
The boyhood days of William W. Smith were passed in Oswego county, New York, to the public schools of which vicinity he is indebted for his early educational training. He came to Traverse City, Grand Traverse county, Michigan, in 1860, at which time he was a child of about eleven years of age. He continued to attend school until he had attained the age of thirteen years, at which time he entered the employ of the firm of Hannah, Lay & Company, as an assistant in a saw mill. Subsequently he grasped the opportunity of becoming a cabin-boy on one of the company's steamers, retaining that position from 1864 until 1866. From 1866 to 1874 he was engaged in general work for the firm and for the ensuing ten years he was a clerk in one of their grocery stores. Thereafter he performed whatever work was assigned to him, in the sawmill in the summer, in the woods in the winter, as steward and clerk on the steamer "City of Traverse," and later as clerk on the steamer "Faxton," plying between Traverse City and Charlevoix, Pe- toskey and Harbor Springs. After serving one year in the lumber of- fice he was placed in charge of the company's large flouring mill, situ- ated on the south bank of the Boardman river, near Sixth and Union streets. For fully a quarter of a century he has been the efficient and popular incumbent of this position, which he holds to the present time.
In his political convictions Mr. Smith is a staunch advocate of the principles promulgated by the Republican party and during his resi- dence in Traverse City he has been honored by his fellow citizens with
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many important offices of public trust and responsibility, in all of which he has acquitted himself with honor and distinction. For ten years he was alderman from one of the wards of the city; for two years he was mayor of the city, in connection with the duties of which office he gave a most admirable administration of the municipal affairs; and in 1903 he was water commissioner. In addition to his work as manager of the flour mill of Hannah, Lay & Company, he has various financial inter- ests of broad scope and importance. Ile is a director and stockholder in the State Bank and has considerable valuable property holdings in this city. He stands high in fraternal and social orders in northern
Michigan, holding membership in Traverse City Lodge, No. 222, Free & Accepted Masons; Traverse City Chapter, No. 102, Royal Arch Ma- sons; Traverse City Commandery, No. 41, Knights Templars; Saladin Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Grand Rapids; and DeWitt Clinton Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scot- tish Rite, being a thirty-second degree Mason. He is also affiliated with Grand Traverse Lodge, No. 200, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is past noble grand; Traverse City Lodge, No. 323, Benevo- lent & Protective Order of Elks; the Knights of the Maccabees, and the Independent Order of Foresters.
On the 8th of June, 1874, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Smith to Miss Susan E. Reynolds, a native of New York, where she was born on the 3d of December, 1853. She is a daughter of Edward Reynolds, a native of Greenfield, Vermont, and a lumberman by occu- pation in the ante-bellum days. He enlisted as a soldier in the Union army and made a splendid record for himself as a brave and dashing soldier but was killed at the battle of Monocacy Junction, Maryland, on the 30th of July, 1864. He married Miss Mary Berryman who died at the age of eighty-three years, she having been a resident of Traverse City. Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds became the parents of five children, con- cerning whom the following brief record is here entered,-James is en- gaged in agricultural pursuits in Garfield township, this county ; Susan E. is the wife of Mr. Smith, as already noted; Richard is employed at the mill of which Mr. Smith is manager; Anise is the wife of E. L. Parmenter, an agriculturist in Leelanau county; and Josephine is the wife of C. D. Monroe, a machinist in Traverse City. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have the following children: Ada, who is the wife of Sprague Pratt, of Los Angeles; William E. is identified with the Hannah & Lacy Company of Traverse City ; Jennie M. married W. J. Rennie and resides at Traverse City; and Jay P. and Helen E. remain at the parental home.
Although not connected formally with any religious organization, Mr. Smith attends and gives his support to the Congregational church, of which his family are devout members. It is most gratifying to note, in view of the very meager educational training afforded him in his youth, that through persistent effort and extensive reading he has be- come a wonderfully well informed man. He was forced to leave school at the early age of thirteen years and thereafter he completed his dis- cipline in the school of experience. He has been in the employ of one firm for the past forty-seven years, nearly half a century, and during
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all that time he has advanced from one position of responsibility to another until he is now manager of the big flour mill at Traverse City. In all the relations of life his record has been characterized by fair and honorable methods and as a result no man in this section holds a higher place in popular confidence and esteem than does he.
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