USA > Michigan > A history of northern Michigan and its people, Volume II > Part 47
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ALONZO B. GREEN .- A resident of Alpena county since his boyhood days, Mr. Green is a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of the county and is one of the representative farmers and stock-growers of this favored section of the state. He is the owner of an extensive and finely improved landed estate and has also been successful as a dealer in real estate, especially farm property, in which connection his extended operations have had marked influence in furthering the development and upbuilding of Alpena county and other counties in this part of the state. Mr. Green is a man of distinctive progressive- ness and marked public spirit and has been called upon to serve in various offices of trust, including that of supervisor of Green township, which was named in honor of his father, and he is at the present time chairman of the county board of supervisors, besides which he is serving as deputy state oil-inspector. Every enterprise and measure projected for the material and social good of the community receives his hearty support, and as one of the thoroughly representative citi- zens of Alpena county he is eminently entitled to recognition in this publication.
Alonzo B. Green claims the old Pine Tree state as the place of his nativity and is a member of a family that was founded in that com- monwealth in an early day. The lineage is traced back to staunch English origin and the name became identified with the annals of New England in the Colonial epoch of our national history. He was born at Dover, the judicial center of Piscataquis county, Maine, on the 6th of June, 1860, and is a son of George M. and Nancy A. (Royal) Green. both of whom were born and reared in Maine. They passed the closing
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years of their lives on their fine old homestead in Alpena county, Michigan, where the father died in June, 1894, when about seventy- three years of age, and where the mother was summoned to the life eternal in April, 1902, at the age of seventy-seven years. They became the parents of four children, concerning whom the following brief data are given : Edwin is a resident of the state of Washington; Eva is the wife of William Alee and they reside in Alpena; Alonzo B., of this review, was the next in order of birth; and Warren W. is a resident of Green township, Alpena county, where he is engaged in farming.
George M. Green was identified with the lumber industry in his native state until 1869, when he removed with his family to Michigan and numbered himself among the sterling pioneers of Alpena county. Here he secured a homestead of one hundred and twenty acres of wild land in Wilson township, and set himself right earnestly to the heren- lean task of reclaiming a farm from the primitive wilds. His inde- fatigable and well directed efforts were attended with a due compen- sation, and the place which he thus developed is now one of the finest farms of this section of the state. He added materially to his landed estate. He was one of the most prominent and influential men of his section of the county and it was largely due to his efforts that Green township was segregated from Wilson township. He was one of the organizers of the new township and its citizens paid him a fitting trib- ute when they named the same in his honor. He was the first super- visor of the township which bears his name and in which his original homestead is situate, and prior to this he had served in the offices of treasurer and supervisor of Wilson township. He was a man of strong individuality, mature judgment and impregnable integrity, and he did much to further the industrial and civic development and progress of Alpena county, where both he and his wife continued to reside until their death and where their names are held in high honor by all who knew them.
Alonzo B. Green was a lad of about nine years at the time of the family removal to Alpena county, where he was reared to adult age under the benignant influences of the pioneer farm, to the work of which he early began to contribute his quota of labor. He had gained rudimentary instruction in the schools of his native state and supple- mented this by prosecuting his studies in the district schools of Green township and the public schools of Alpena.
A short time prior to his twentieth birthday anniversary Mr. Green initiated his independent career by the purchase of eighty acres of tim- ber land in Green township. IIe cleared two acres of the tract the first year and in the spring of 1880 he erected on the place a house, which was built of lumber which he himself had cut and sawed for the pur- pose. He bent all his energies to the development and judicious improvement of his farm and gradually added to the arca of his landed estate until he is now the owner of six hundred and twenty acres, of which two hundred acres are now available for cultivation. This land is located in Green township and Mr. Green's farm is one of the best in this favored section of the state. The permanent improvements are of excellent order, including the attractive modern residence, erected
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in 1890, and other buildings required in connection with the various departments of farm industry. In addition to diversified agriculture and horticulture Mr. Green has given special attention to the breeding and feeding of high-grade live stock, in which he has been most success- ful. He raises horses, cattle, sheep and swine and has the best of facilities for the care of his live stock. For several years past he has also been engaged in the handling of farm land and his operations in this line have been of wide scope. Within the year 1910 he handled fully fifteen hundred acres of land, and he is ever active in encourag- ing the work of development, as he realized that progress and pros- perity are best conserved in this section of the state through the proper exploitation of the agricultural and stock-growing industries, now that the lumbering interests are falling into abeyance.
Mr. Green is broad-minded and public-spirited in his civic attitude and his fine equipment for leadership in public affairs of a local order has not lacked objective appreciation. In the spring of 1887 he was elected clerk of Green township, and in this office he served five con- secutive terms of one year each. He was then, in 1893, elected township supervisor, of which position he continued incumbent for six consecu- tive years and from which he retired in 1899. In 1901 he was again called to this office, to which he was elected by a most gratifying major- ity, as has he also been in each of the ensuing elections which have compassed his continuous retention of the position up to the present time. His services as a member of the board of county supervisors have been marked by an insistently progressive policy and he has done much to foster the best interests of the county along all material and civic lines. In 1905 he was accorded the distinction of being elected chair- man of the board of supervisors and he has since retained this position, through the appreciative support of his valued confreres on the board. In 1904 Mr. Green was appointed deputy state oil-inspector for the Fifteenth district of Michigan and he has since retained this position. In polities he is a stalwart in the local camp of the Republican party and he has been one of its leaders in Alpena county for a number of years.
Mr. Green is one of the active and influential members of the Alpena County Agricultural Society, and served a number of years as vice- president of the same. He is now serving his second term as treasurer of this important and vital organization, the annual fairs of which have been potent in directing public attention to the splendid natural resources of the county. He is a stockholder and director of the Mont- morency County Savings Bank, at Hillman, where he is also a stock- holder of the Hillman Creamery Company, and he is a stockholder of
the Alpena County Savings Bank, in the city of Alpena. He is a valued member of the Long Rapids Grange. In the Masonic fraternity his affiliations are with Alpena Lodge, No. 199, Free & Accepted Masons; Thunder Bay Chapter, No. 74, Royal Arch Masons; Sahgonahkato Council, Royal and Select Masters; and Alpena Commandery, No. 34, Knights Templars. He and his wife are also identified with the auxil- iary organization, Alpena Chapter, No. 143, Order of the Eastern Star. He holds membership in Alpena Lodge, No. 505, Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks; Myrtle Lodge, No. 434, Independent Order of
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Odd Fellows, in which order he is also identified with Thunder Bay Encampment, No. 87, and with Beulah Lodge, No. 91, Daughters of Rebekah, in which latter Mrs. Green likewise is an active member. He has further identified himself with the Gleaners and the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and these connections offer another evidence of his wide acquaintanceship and marked personal popularity in the county that has represented his home from his childhood. His wife holds mem- bership in the Greely Baptist church in Green township, and they are prominent in the social life of the community in which they reside.
On the 7th of July, 1891, Mr. Green and Miss Dorah B. Eaton were united in the bonds of matrimony, and thus was formed a companion- ship that has been ideal in all its relations. Mrs. Green was born at Skowhegan, Somerset county, Maine, and is a daughter of Moody and Oretta (Nelson) Eaton, both of whom were likewise natives of the old Pine Tree state, whence they came to Michigan and located in Alpena county in the early '70s. Here Mr. Eaton was long in the employ of the Thunder Bay Boom Company, and both he and his wife continued to be residents of this county until their death. Of their three children Mrs. Green is the eldest; Guy is a representative business man of the city of Alpena and formerly served as treasurer of the county; and Ray is a sailor. Mr. and Mrs. Green have two children,-Edna L. and Ray, whose respective dates of birth are as follows: June 7, 1894, and May 10, 1906.
THE HON. GEORGE J. CUMMINS is one of the brilliant and widely known attorneys and public spirited citizens of northern Michigan and distinctive mark of the strong hold he has gained upon the popular es- teem of the community has been given in his elevation to numerous pub- lic offices, possibly the most important of these being the office of state representative from Clare district, which includes the counties of Clare, Gladwin and Roscommon. He is particularly well fitted for the duties of his trust and has carried with him to the state assembly well-defined and unfaltering ideas of duty toward his constituents. He has been mayor of Harrison, and prosecuting attorney of Clare county, and in every capacity .he has manifested an unselfish devotion to the best in- terests of the community.
By the circumstance of birth Mr. Cummins is a native of New Jer- sey, his eyes having first opened to the light of day in Vienna, Warren county, on November 4, 1853. He is the son of Opdyke H. and Ellen (Axford) Cummins, natives of New Jersey. Mr. Cummins was less than ten years of age, when his parents decided upon a change of residence, the new home at Clarkson, Michigan, being established in April, 1863. The early education of the subject was secured at Clarkson and in course of time he entered the academy of that place, from which he was subse- quently graduated. His parents, with a view to educating their son in the best manner possible, removed to Ann Arbor, in 1871, and in 1873 young Cummins entered the law department of the University of Michi- gan, and was duly graduated with the class of 1875, receiving the de- gree of B. L. Thus prepared for the profession which he had chosen for his own, Mr. Cummins was fortunate in opening his career in the law office of Judge Kinney, of Ann Arbor, and he remained for one
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year in association with that well-known gentleman, receiving a practi- cal training such as it would be impossible to secure in a college. Ilis identification with Farwell dates from the year 1876, his actual practice being inaugurated in that place. In 1879 he became a member of the board of supervisors which selected the location of the county seat for Clare county, and he soon enjoyed an enviable and growing prestige as a lawyer. After a residence there of almost a decade's duration, he re- moved in June, 1885, to Harrison, where many honors awaited him. In 1888 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Clare county and held the office for one term and in 1898 after an interim of ten years he was again elected to that important office, and so satisfactory were his serv- ices that he was reelected in 1900 and 1902. For years he has held the office of circuit court commissioner of the county, devoting his best ener- gies to its duties and in many ways he has demonstrated the publie spirit that makes him so good and patriotic a citizen. In office and ont of office he has always done all that has been within his power to ad- vance the best interests of his fellow citizens and especially as an official has he commended himself by his fidelity and indefatigable devotion to duty. As mayor of Harrison for the two terms including the years 1898 and 1906 he gave the city a clean and progressive administration. In 1908, he was first elected to the office of representative and in 1910 he received the unmistakable compliment of reelection. During his first term in the state assembly he was a member of the committees on Re- vision and Amendments of the Statutes of the State; of Public Health; and Revision and Amendments to the General Constitution of the state. During his second term, he was made chairman of the State Sanatorium Committee; a member of the Michigan State Normal School Committee at Mt. Pleasant; of the Elections Committee; on Revision and Amend- ments to the Statutes of the State; and that on Geological Survey. He holds at the present time the position of city attorney for Harrison.
Mr. Cummins was happily married when on the 19th day of April, 1884, Mrs. Celia E. May, nee Amsden, of Greenville, Michigan, became his wife. Mrs. Cummins is a daughter of Elisha Amsden, who was a farmer and part owner of the woolen mills at Lyons. Michigan. Their home is an attractive and hospitable one and is one of Harrison's favor- ite gathering places. The subject's fraternal relations extend to the time-honored Masonic lodge of which he is a thirty-second degree mem- ber, a Shriner, and to the Knights of Pythias, of which latter he is a charter member. In his political allegiance he is a staunch supporter of all those principles for which the Republican party stands sponsor and he is ever ready to go anywhere, to do anything in its behalf. He and his wife are attendants at the Congregational church of which Mrs. Cum- mins is a member.
HENRY BEEBE .- One of the venerable and highly honored citizens of the city of Alpena is Henry Beebe, who is a native son of Michigan and a scion of one of its early pioneer families, as his father came to this now opulent commonwealth a number of years before its admission to the Union. Mr. Beebe has been dependent upon his own resources from his boyhood days, and his career has been varied and somewhat event-
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ful. He is now one of the substantial capitalists of Alpena, where he has made his home for many years and where he is now engaged in the real-estate business, in connection with which he has made noteworthy improvements in the erection of buildings and thus contributed to the growth and development of the city.
Henry Beebe was born in Rochester, Oakland county, Michigan, on the 7th of October, 1837,-the year which marked the admission of the state to the Union, so that there is more than usual significance in his being literally a native son of this commonwealth, whose birth was practically simultaneous with his own. He was but a boy at the time of the death of his mother and has no definite information as to her family name or place of birth. His father, Chauncey Beebe, was born in the state of New York and came to Michigan when a young man, prior to 1830. He became one of the early settlers of Oakland county, where he followed his trade of cooper and where he also reclaimed a farm from the wilderness. He was a Democrat in his political pro- clivities and his religious faith was that of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which his wife also was a devoted adherent. They became the parents of thirteen children, of whom the subject of this review was the eighth in order of birth, and of this once large family only one other son is now living. The father continued to reside in Michigan until his death, at the age of seventy-two years.
Henry Beebe was six years of age at the time of his mother's death, and his father was compelled to make such provision for the motherless children as he could. Under these conditions young Henry was in- dentured, or "bound ont," as the common expression was, to a farmer, Harley Potter, of Oakland county, but the boy found his lot an un- pleasant experience and when he had attained to the age of twelve years he "took French leave" of the Potter home, in which he had ex- perienced altogether too many physical contacts with a broomstick wielded with marked vehemence by Mrs. Potter, who showed him few attentions more tender than this. He had in the meanwhile received the most meager of educational advantages, and it may well be said that his education has been gained under the direction of that wise but stern headmaster, experience. He gave his attention to such employ- ment as he could secure and finally made his way to Bay City, where he was identified with the fishing business for some time. Later he fol- lowed the same vocation at Au Sable for two years and thereafter he was associated with a man named Willis in the drilling of salt wells in Bay county. For a time he was employed in the general store con- dueted by the great humbering firm of MeDongall & Paek, and in the spring of 1864 he came to Alpena, where he engaged in the general mer- chandise business on his own account. He opened a small store and conducted the enterprise successfully until April, 1866, when he sold the stock and business to the firm of MeRae & Bolton. Thereafter he was engaged in fishing operations until 1867, and for the ensuing two years he conducted a pool-room and retail liquor business in Alpena. At the expiration of this period he engaged in the hotel business, in which connection he was proprietor of the Star hotel for about three years. About one year after retiring from this line of enterprise he
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engaged in the lumber business, in which he conducted operations for two years, at the expiration of which he sold out and engaged in the grocery and drug business, to which he continued to devote his atten- tion for the ensuing ten years, in the meanwhile building up a sub- stantial and representative trade. Since his retirement from this line of enterprise Mr. Beebe has given the major portion of his time and attention to real-estate and building operations in Alpena, where he has erected a number of residence and business buildings. In 1900 he built the Beebe bloek, a fine stone and brick structure, three stories in height and of modern design and appointments. This building is lo- rated at the corner of Second and Washington avenues, is utilized for store and office purposes, and is one of the best business blocks in the city. Mr. Beebe has never failed to give his aid and influence in sup- port of enterprises and projects that have been advanced for the gen- eral good of the city in which he has so long maintained his home, and while he has had no desire for public office of any description he has given an unequivocal allegiance to the Republican party, as a member of which he cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the local organization of the Knights of Honor.
On the 14th of November, 1866, Mr. Beebe was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Orentt, who was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, and who is a danghter of Peter and Betsey (Schuttler) Orcutt, both natives of the city of Montreal, Canada. The father was eighty- three years of age at the time of his demise, and the mother passed away at the age of forty-eight years. . They became the parents of eleven children, and of the number three sons and five daughters are now liv- ing. Mrs. Beebe having been the third in order of birth. Mr. Orcutt was a young man at the time of his removal from Canada to St. Law- rence county, New York, and his active career was one of close identifi- cation with agricultural pursuits. A few years prior to his death he came to Alpena. Michigan, where he lived retired until he was sum- moned to the life eternal. Mr. and Mrs. Beebe became the parents of four children, of whom one daughter died in infancy: Lillian is the wife of A. E. Morey ; Harry is a resident of Alpena and is engaged in the antomobile business : and Winifred is the wife of Frederick H. Orcutt.
GLENN RUSSELL MINER, editor and proprietor of the Otsego County Herald and Times, has one of the excellent newspaper and printing plants in this section of the state of Michigan. Although not old in years, he has had a long and varied experience in journalism and is one of the enterprising representatives of the Fourth Estate in Northern Michigan. Mr. Miner is a native of Steuben county, New York, his birth having occurred in Greenwood June 12, 1869, the elder of two children born to Alphonso R. and Mary F. Miner. now residents of Canisteo, New York, where he removed with his parents in January, 1873, and there received his education in the excellent public school and splendid private academy. While attending Canisteo Academy, a youth of less than sixteen years, he first tried his journalistic wings as editor and publisher of the school paper of the academy, continuing in that
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capacity for two years and a half. In 1886, soon after graduation from the academy, when only in his seventeenth year, he became city editor of the Hornellsville (New York) Evening Tribune, and retained this position until 1890. As his father was a contractor and builder, as a boy he had become conversant with that line of business, although early drawn toward the trade and profession which finally became his life occupation.
After leaving the Hornellsville Tribune, Mr. Miner's next venture was in the greenhouse business, but it was of brief duration. In April, 1891, he accepted a position on the Buffalo Courier, remaining in such association for eighteen months, and then acting in a reportorial capacity for some six or seven months on the Buffalo Enquirer. Leaving there to accept a similar place on the staff of the Buffalo Express, resigning there in 1895 to become a resident of the Wolverine state through his acceptance of a position in a general reportorial capacity on the Detroit Tribune, and in course of time he assumed that post requiring great ex- ecutive capacity and alertness,-the assistant city editorship, and he remained as such until 1898. He was then obliged temporarily to relin- quish journalism on account of an affection of the eyes, but during the time in which he was not actively engaged in his profession he did a good deal of correspondence for Eastern papers, and on one occasion reported one of the most stirring of the speeches of Theodore Roosevelt. He returned after his "furlough" in 1903 as part proprietor and man- ager of the Peninsular Record at Ishpeming, Marquette county, from which he withdrew in 1905 and purchased the Courier at Fenton, Gen- esee county.
In April, 1907, Mr. Miner purchased the Otsego County Times at Gaylord, and in December, 1909, he also became proprietor of the Ot- sego County Herald, which he combined under the present name of Ot- sego County Herald and Times, the Herald, which was established in 1895, taking precedence in the title of the paper because of its greater age. Charles L. Fuller was the author of its being and it was established at Otsego Lake, which was then the county seat. Mr. Fuller removed his plant to Gaylord and in 1884 the paper was purchased by H. C. Mc- Kinley, who continued his journalistie and printing enterprise until it went into the hands of Mr. Miner, as stated.
Under its present ownership and editorship, the Otsego County Herald and Times represents a newsy, staunch principled, well con- ducted newspaper, backed by twelve hundred subseribers and a well managed and complete job printing plant. It is truly a credit to the county and is the largest and best plant north of Bay City, Michigan. Mr. Miner's fraternal relations extend to the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America and he is warmly welcomed into more contracted social circles. He was married June 18, 1903, to Miss Jennie Ferguson, of Midland, Michigan.
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