USA > Michigan > A history of northern Michigan and its people, Volume II > Part 40
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ROLA E. PRESCOTT .- As owner and publisher of the decidedly enter- prising paper known as the Alcona County Herald, Mr. Rola E. Prescott is rapidly gaining precedence as one of the foremost newspaper men in this part of the state. This publication was established at Lincoln, Michigan, on the 1st of January, 1908, it being then a seven column folio with a circulation of about two hundred with two pages home print. It was purchased by Mr. Prescott, in March, 1910. The paper was then reduced to six folio, with four pages home print and will be made all home print at an early date. The circulation has increased four hundred per cent under its present management, now number- ing eight hundred. It is the only country weekly in the United States having its own cartoonist and giving its readers a live cartoon on county subjects in every issue. "It's Different" is the Herald watchword; and it is. Mr. Prescott is a believer in originality and personality. Besides the cartoon service it has many features belonging more to the city daily than the country weekly class. Advertising cannot be se- cured on the front page, nor will it be found mixed with news. The paper is not sensational but gives all the news without fear or favor, and has a live editorial column in which the paper's views are given-and all the views are confined to this column, the paper's position not being allowed to influence the news columns. Several special writers con- tribute to its columns on various subjects. In addition to the publica- tion of the paper a jobbing department is conducted, where job print- ing, designing and engraving are carried on.
In Huron county, Michigan, on the 4th of July, 1881, occurred the birth of Rola E. Prescott. He is of Irish descent and is a son of Edward and Allie (Smith) Prescott, the father having been born in Erin and the mother in Canada. The father was a sailor, but is now retired and living at Harbor Beach. Rola E. is one of three sons born to Mr. and Mrs. Edward Prescott. His mother died when he was ten years of age, and he was thrown upon his own resources at the age of thirteen starting as a delivery boy in a grocery, and later following his father's calling-that of a sailor. Improving spare moments in study, he was able to secure a teacher's certificate when sixteen. He later took a business college course in the Cleary College at Ypsilanti. He was assistant postmaster at Harbor Beach, Huron county, Michigan, from 1900 to 1904 and in the latter year he removed to Kalamazoo, where he was half owner and manager of the Art Printing Company. He was city salesman and assistant manager for the American Type Founders Company, of Detroit, in 1905-6 and from 1906 to 1910 he was secretary and treasurer of the Harbor Beach (Michigan) Times. In March of the latter year he purchased the Alcona County Herald and since that time he has been a prominent and influential resident of Lincoln.
On the 7th of September, 1904, was celebrated the marriage of Mr.
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Prescott to Miss Ethel Mann, a daughter of Alexander and Rachel Mann, of Berkshire, Michigan. To this union has been born one daugh- ter, Erva Claire, whose natal day is the 28th of May, 1905.
In politics Mr. Prescott is an independent, believing that the man or the principle ever count more than party. He is president of his home village and has ever manifested a deep and sincere interest in all matters projected for the general welfare of the county and country. He is a man of energy and integrity. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with Huron Lodge, No. 361, Free & Accepted Masons, and is also con- nected with the adjunct Masonic organization, the Order of the Eastern Star, of which his wife is likewise a member. He is a member of the Loyal Guards and of the Grange. In their religious faith Mr. and Mrs. Prescott give their support to the doctrines upheld by the Presbyterian church and they hold a high place in popular confidence and esteem.
MICHAEL O'BRIEN .- One of the representative men of the northern part of the Lower Peninsula of the state of Michigan is well known and highly honored citizen of Alpena, where he has maintained his home for forty-two years and where he is engaged in the practice of law, be- sides being identified with various important lines of business enter- prise. He has assisted as one of the builders of Alpena, of which city he has served as mayor, and at all times has contributed his share to the material and civic progress of this thriving city. Mr. O'Brien has triumphed over adverse conditions and pressed forward to the goal of worthy success. He is a self-made man, and integrity and honor have characterized him in all the relations of life, so that he well merits the esteem so freely accorded him in the community in which he has so long made his home and in which he is a prominent and influential citizen.
Michael O'Brien well exemplifies the sterling traits of the race from which he is sprung, and his alert mentality, mature judgment and keen business sagacity are on a parity with his genial and whole-souled personality. He was born on a farm near Belleville, province of On- tario, Canada, on the 18th of September, 1852, and is the eldest son in a family of three sons and three daughters born to Patrick and Catherine (Fitzgerald) O'Brien, both of whom were natives of county Limerick, Ireland, where the former was born in the year 1821 and the latter in 1833. The parents were young at the time of coming to America; the father came in 1846 and the mother in 1848, and their marriage was solemnized at Belleville, Ontario, on the 20th of August, 1849. The father died on the 14th of March, 1869, and the mother long survived him, having been summoned to eternal rest on the 21st of May, 1910, in the city of Alpena. Both were devout members of the Catholic church, and of their children two sons and three daughters are now living. Patrick O'Brien was reared and educated in his native land and in 1846 he came to America. He bought a piece of land in the county of Has- tings and soon became identified with agriculture and, being a cabinet maker, also worked at his trade near Belleville, Ontario, until about the year 1855, when he removed with his family to the city of Detroit, Michigan ; later he entered the employ of the Great Western Railroad Vol. II-20
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Company, which necessitated his removal to Windsor, and in the service of that company he continued for some time. Later on he became connected with the post office department and he continued to reside in Windsor until his death.
Michael O'Brien, whose name initiates this review, gained his early educational discipline in the Catholic parochial schools of Windsor, Ontario, and supplemented this by a course in the old Bryant & Strat- ton Business College in the city of Detroit. At Windsor he learned the trade of shoe-making, in which he became a skilled workman and in 1868, at the age of sixteen years, he began working as a journeyman at his trade, in which connection he was employed first at Trenton and later at Lexington, Michigan. He was not yet seventeen years of age at the time of his father's death, and his widowed mother was left with the care of five children besides Michael, the eldest son. The latter thus became the virtual head of the family, and beyond the bare neces- sities of life for himself he devoted his earnings to the support of his mother and children.
On the 28th of July, 1869, Mr. O'Brien came to Alpena, which was then a small lumbering town, and here he secured work at his trade by entering the employ of Murdoch McLeod, and when that gentleman went out of business he went to work for the late John W. Creighton. That he had made good use of his earlier educational advantages was shown soon after he established his home at Alpena. He attended night school three years, after which he passed the required examination and proved himself eligible for pedagogic honors. In 1872 he brought his mother and the other children to Alpena and he continued to support the family until the younger children were able to do for themselves. No son ever accorded more earnest and devoted filial solicitude than did he, and his noble old mother never failed to mark her appreciation of his fidelity during these carlier years of vicissitude.
In 1875 Mr. O'Brien engaged in the manufacturing and retail boot and shoe business on his own account and he was on the road to suc- cess when disaster overtook him, February 21, 1876, in that his store and stock were destroyed by fire with other stores, with the result that he was compelled to resume the work of his trade and again start at the foot of the ladder. In the meantime he had seenred firm vantage ground in the confidence and good will of the community and his per- sonal popularity was significantly shown by his election as alderman in April, 1880, and in November of the same year he was also elected to the office of county clerk of Alpena county, and through successive re- elections he served four consecutive terms in this important office, a total of eight years, and the administration of the office was careful, systematic and thorough. While incumbent of this position Mr. O'Brien began the study of law and was admitted to the bar on the 31st of De- cember, 1887.
In 1889 Mr. O'Brien purchased the law and abstract business of the late Joseph B. Newton and entered into a professional and business partnership with William T. Sleator, who was then in the abstract busi- ness, and with whom he continued to be associated for ten years. Since July 1, 1899, his law and business partner has been Hon. James Francis,
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a former representative of Alpena county in the state legislature. They control a large and representative law practice and also conduct a gen- eral real-estate and loan business. In 1890 Mr. O'Brien was elected mayor of Alpena and he gave a progressive administration of the affairs of the municipal government. Within his regime, which comprised three terms of two years each, many important publie improvements were effected in the eity, ineluding the erection of the present splendid high- school building. As mayor of the eity he was the prime factor in secur- ing the construction of the first big brick sewer within the municipal limits. This is two miles in length, flushes itself automatically and af- fords effective drainage for the whole south side of the city, besides which it is the only sewer of the kind in the entire state.
Everything that has tended to conserve the best material and civic interests of his home eity has received the earnest support of Mr. O'Brien, and he has been identified actively with all important move- ments and enterprises along this line. He was the first president of the Alpena Business Men's Association, and is a director of the Alpena Chamber of Commerce, of which he was elected the first president, an office which he held for two years. He is also a stockholder and director of the Alpena County Savings Bank. He is the secretary and a director of the Alpena Land Improvement Company, and is president of the Alpena Roller Flour Mills, incorporated in 1899. His various in- terests, professional, business and eivic, place insistent demands upon his time and attention, but he has found ample opportunity for effective service in behalf of the cause of the Democratic party, of whose policies and principles he is an ardent advocate. In 1902 he was a candidate for Congress, his opponent being Colonel Loud. He has also served as chairman of the county, city, judiciary and of the legislative com- mittees and has been a member of the committee for the Tenth congres- sional district.
Both Mr. O'Brien and his wife are members of the Catholic church and are active and liberal in the support of the various departments of work in the parish with which they are identified, that of St. Bernard's church. He is identified with the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association. the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On the 28th of November, 1882, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. O'Brien to Miss Mary Ann Coppinger, who was also born at Belleville, province of Ontario, Canada, and who is a daughter of the late Mark Coppinger.
COLONEL GEORGE W. DICKINSON, who has been incumbent of the office of county clerk of Emmet county for nearly a score of years, is one of the best known and most highly esteemed citizens of this county and he may well be designated one of its pioneers, as he has here maintained his home for nearly half a century, within which he has witnessed and aided materially in the development and upbuilding of this favored seetion of the state. He has held varions offices of public trust and has shown the highest type of civic loyalty, even as his patriotism and loy- alty were insistently manifested through his long and valiant service as
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a soldier of the Union in the great conflict through which the integrity of the nation was perpetuated. Through gallant and meritorious serv- ice he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and he lived up to the full tension of the weary and sanguinary struggle between the north and the south. He was in active service during practically the entire period of the war and his record as a soldier and officer is one that gives lasting honor to his name. As a broad-minded, progressive and liberal citizen he has ever done his part in furthering those measures and enterprises that have compassed the development of the fine county in which he has so long maintained his home, and his official headquarters are in the city of Petoskey, which is now the judicial center of Emmet county. He formerly resided in the beautiful little city of Harbor Springs, about ten miles distant from Petoskey, on the shore of the fine Little Traverse bay, and the latter place was originally the county seat. In this history of northern Michigan and its representative citizens there is all of con- sisteney in according a tribute to the honored pioneer whose name initiates this paragraph and whose friends in this section of the state are equal in number to his acquaintances.
Colonel Dickinson finds a due measure of pride in reverting to the fine old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity, and he can well appreciate the humorous paraphrase of a familiar quotation as offered by Hon. Chauncey M. Depew in one of his characteristic addresses : "Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some are born in Ohio." The colonel was born on a farm in Johnson township, Trum- bull county, Ohio, on the 5th of October, 1841, and is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of the historic old Western Reserve. He is the only son of Elisha and Caroline (Bates) Dickinson, and of the other two children one died young, the firstborn having been Jeanette, who is the widow of Webster Beaman and who now resides at Cleveland. Elisha Dickinson was born in Connectient and the family, of staunch English lineage, was founded in New England in the early colonial epoch of our national history. Elisha Dickinson was a son of Philip Dickinson, who likewise was a native of the fine old state of Connecticut, whence he immigrated with his family to the Connecticut Western Re- serve in Ohio in the year 1825; he became one of the pioneer settlers of Trumbull county, where he reclaimed a farm from the wilderness and where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1858, his devoted wife having likewise died in that county. Elisha Dickinson was a youth at the time of the family removal to Ohio and he there gained his full quota of experience in connection with the labors and conditions of the pioneer days. He eventually became one of the pros- perons agriculturists of Trumbull county and his success was the direct result of his own industry and careful management of his affairs. He was a man of strong mentality and his life was guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity and honor, so that he was naturally qualified for leadership in thought and action. He was influential in public affairs of a local order and was called upon to serve in various offices of trust in his home county, where he continued to be actively identified with the great basic industry of agriculture until ahont a decade hefore his death, which occurred at the home of his only son,
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Colonel Dickinson, at Harbor Springs, Michigan, on the 3d of November, 1893, at which time he was eighty-three years of age. His loved and devoted wife, a woman of most gentle and gracious personality, preceded him to eternal rest by nearly a decade, as her death occurred in 1884, on the old homestead farm in Trumbull county, Ohio. She was about seventy years of age when she thus passed forward to the "land of the leal," and both she and her husband were zealous members of the Disciple church. In politics Elisha Dickinson was originally an old- line Whig, but he transferred his allegiance to the Republican party at the time of its organization and ever afterward continued a stalwart supporter of its cause. He was a staunch abolitionist in the period lead- ing up to the Civil war and during the progress of that conflict he did all in his power to support the cause of the Union. In the pioneer days in Ohio he assisted in the construction of the state road from Warren, Trumbull county, to Erie, Pennsylvania, and he was otherwise promi- nent in the furthering of measures for the general good of the com- munity.
Colonel Dickinson was reared to the sturdy discipline of the old homestead farm ou which he was ushered into the world and he contin- ued to assist in its work and management until he heeded the call of higher duty and went forth as a soldier of the Union. In the meanwhile he had duly availed himself of the advantages afforded in the common schools, and thus he laid the foundation for the broad and accurate knowledge which he later gained through self-discipline and varied ex- periences in connection with the practical activities of life. When it became evident that civil war was to be precipitated upon a divided nation Colonel Dickinson, who was at the time not twenty years of age, determined that the Union army should have his services as soon as war was declared. Even before hostilities were instituted, by the attack on old Fort Sumter, he had enlisted in the United States regular army, on the 15th of August, 1860, and he was assigned to Battery E, Third United States Artillery, with which he served until March 5, 1862, when he received his honorable discharge. He forthwith identified himself with the volunteer service, and concerning his military career thereafter the writer of the present article has previously given the following succinct account :
"Upon leaving the regular army Colonel Dickinson became identified with the recruiting service, in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, where, on the 15th of October, 1862, he was commissioned second lieutenant of the Sixth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. On the 29th of the following January he was promoted captain, and on the 25th of July, 1864, he received commission as major of this regiment, of which he became lieutenant colonel on the 12th of the following November. His command was as- signed to the Army of the Potomac and he took part in many of the important battles of the great internecine conflict, among the more noteworthy being the following named: Bristow Station. Sulphur Springs, Mine Run, Todd's Tavern. Bottom's Bridge, Cold Harbor, St. Mary's Church, Malvern Hill and Weldon Railroad. He was with his regiment during the ever memorable Wilderness campaign and par- ticipated in the sanguinary battle of Gettysburg. His fidelity to duty
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was proverbial and his enthusiasm unflagging, so that he ever held the confidence and high regard of the members of his command and proved a most zealous and able officer. Physical disability compelled his re- tirement from active service shortly before the close of the war, and he received his honorable discharge, in the city of Washington, D. C., on the 20th of February, 1865."
After the close of the war Colonel Dickinson continued to be iden- tified with agricultural pursuits in his native county about one year and he then located in Warren, the county seat, where he engaged in the coal business, with which he there continued to be successfully con- cerned until 1870, when he was elected sheriff of Trumbull county,- a preferment well indicating the high regard in which he was held in his native county. He retained this office four years and shortly after his retirement therefrom he came to northern Michigan and established his home at Harbor Springs, which was then the judicial center of Emmet county. Here he took up his abode in May, 1875, and in the following year he here erected the Emmet Ilouse, which hotel he suc- cessfully conducted for several years, after which he was engaged in the livery business for some time. In 1879 Colonel Dickinson found again an opportunity to exercise the functions of the shrievalty, as in that year he was elected sheriff of Emmet county. The best voucher for the efficiency and acceptability of his services in this capacity was that given by his election as his own successor, in 1881, and he thus contin- ued incumbent of the office for four consecutive years. After his re- tirement he gave his attention principally to the management of his livery business until 1894, when he was again accorded distinctive mark of popular confidence and esteem, in his election to the office of county clerk, and by successive re-elections he has continued incumbent of this important position during the long intervening years, which have shown on his part a most scrupulous consideration of the interest of the county and its people, the while his administration has been admirable in every respect, as is emphatically shown by his long retention of office.
From the time of attaining to his legal majority Colonel Dickinson has been an uncompromising advocate and supporter of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor, and he cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln while he was with his regiment in front of Petersburg, just after the second attack on that Confederate stronghold. He is well fortified in his opinions as to matters of public polity, has been a zealous worker in behalf of the cause of the "grand old party" and as a citizen has given his co-opera- tion in the furtherance of measures that have tended to advance the gen- eral welfare of the community along civic and material lines. He has ever retained a deep interest in his old comrades in arms and signifies the same by his membership in I. B. Richardson Post No. 13, Grand AArmy of the Republic, in Harbor Springs, of which staunch organiza- tion he has served several terms as commander. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity his affiliations are here briefly noted: Harbor Springs Lodge, Free & Accepted Masons; Emmet Chapter, No. 104. Royal Arch Masons; and Ivanhoe Commandery, No. 36, Knights Tem- plar. He is also a valued member of Petoskey Lodge, No. 629, Bene-
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volent and Protective Order of Elks, and holds membership in the local organization of the Knights of Pythias.
In the year 1862 was solemnized the marriage of Colonel Dickinson to Miss Agnes Elder, who was born and reared in Trumbull county, Ohio, where her parents established their home in the pioneer days. The wife of his youth remained Colonel Dickinson's devoted companion and helpmeet for a period of thirty years but the gracious relations were severed when she was summoned to eternal rest, at Harbor Springs, on the 2d of October, 1893, secure in the affectionate regard of all who had come within the sphere of her gentle and gracious influence. She was survived by three daughters,-Caroline M., who is the wife of Wade B. Smith, of Petoskey; Margaret D., who became the wife of Walter Tillotson and who died at her home in Grand Rapids, in 1907; and Susan G., who is the wife of Dr. Hugh W. Dicken, a representative physician and surgeon of East Jordon, Charlevoix county. On the 17th of December, 1895, Colonel Dickinson contracted a second marriage, by his union with Mrs. Sarah M. (Hill) Rigg, widow of the late Richard Rigg, of Harbor Springs. Mrs. Dickinson was born in Ohio, and was reared and educated in her native state. She is a woman of gracious personality and is a popular factor in the social activities of her home city. No children have been born of the second marriage.
EUGENE H. FURBUSH .- One of the representative citizens and enter- prising business men of Alpena, Michigan, is Eugene H. Furbush, who is engaged in the transfer and trucking business and who was former city supervisor of the First ward. A self-made man of the most ad- mirable type, he has experienced unequivocal success in the city in which he has elected to maintain his permanent residence and his own individual progress is of the sort which contributes to the prosperity of the whole community,-the final test of good citizenship.
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