USA > Michigan > A history of northern Michigan and its people, Volume II > Part 51
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On the 3d of August, 1875, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. MeKinley to Miss Anna R. Robinson, of Ypsilanti, Michigan. To this union were born four children,-Ralph, who is deceased; Lena. who is
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now Mrs. H. N. Crandle, of Baker City, Oregon; Harry, who is de- ceased; and Raye, who remains at the parental home.
WILLIAM WENTE .- Hearty and earnest appreciation of personal worth offered voluntarily during the lifetime of the man who deserves it is perhaps the largest dividend that can fall to one. William Wente, who is secretary and treasurer of the Manistee Lumber Company, is one of the prosperous and highly esteemed citizens of Manistee, Michigan. He was born at Hanover, Germany, on the 22d of February, 1848, and is a son of Christian W. Wente. The mother died when William was a mere child and the father came with his son to America in the year 1848. Father and son settled at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in which city William pursued his educational training in the public schools up to the age of fourteen years. Thereafter he studied evenings in a com- mercial school and in 1865, at the age of seventeen years, he came to Manistee, Michigan, where he entered the employ of Filen & Tyson as a bookkeeper, later being employed by Mark S. Tyson & Company in the same capacity.
In 1872 Mr. Wente, in company with George W. Robinson and others, went to Pensacola, Florida, where he assumed charge of the books of the partnership, which was there manufacturing long-leaf yellow pine for the South American, West Indian, English and New York markets. Ile remained in the south for the ensuing three years and then returned to Manistee, where he was for one year in the em- ploy of C. F. Ruggles and for another year in the employ of the firm of Cushman Calkins & Company, big lumbermen in the northwest. From 1877 to 1882 he had charge of the books of Dempsey, Cartier & Company, and in the latter year, when the above firm was incorporated under the laws of the state, with the title of the Manistee Lumber Com- pany, he was elected secretary and treasurer of the organization, which position he has held during the long intervening years to the present time, in 1911. Mr. Wente is secretary and treasurer of the Eureka Lum- ber Company, which was organized and incorporated in 1890. The assets of the Manistee Salt & Lumber Company were bought up by the Manistee Lumber Company and the State Lumber Company. For fully forty years has Mr. Wente been a potent factor in lumber inter- ests in the Manistee district and as a business man and public bene- factor he has gained wide renown. In 1899 Mr. Wente became inter- ested in the lumber industry at Williams, Arizona. The name of the company with which he is connected is the Saginaw & Manistee Lun- ber Company, of which Mr. William F. McDermont, of Williams, Ari- zona, is president; Mr. W. B. Wershon, of Saginaw, secretary ; and Mr. Wente, treasurer. Mr. Wente is also president of the Crows' Nest Pass Lumber Company, which is doing an extensive business at Wardner, British Columbia, Canada.
In 1870 was solemized tahe marriage of Mr. Wente to Miss Hen- rietta E. Campbell, of Manistee. One son and four daughters survive the mother, who was summoned to the life eternal in 1888. The names of the children are: Olive M., Eva M., Frances, Robert C. and Eliza-
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beth. In 1899 Mr. Wente was united in marriage to Mrs. Ella T. Rus- sell. To this union no children have been born.
In politics Mr. Wente accords a stalwart allegiance to the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor, although he is very liberal in his views. He has served for several terms on the city board of aldermen and as mayor of Manistee, and for the past sixteen years he has been an interested member of the school board. In a fraternal way he has passed through the cireles of York Rite and Scottish Rite Masonry, being a Knight Templar and a thirty-third de- gree Mason. He is not affiliated with any church.
JOHN W. WEAVER .- One of the aggressive and enterprising business men who are aiding in the upbuilding of Petoskey and who is espe- eially well entitled to consideration in this volume, is John W. Weaver, a large real estate holder in Petoskey and the owner in its vicinity of valuable farming property upon which he is developing fine orchards and vineyards. He was for many years an extensive and well-known cattle dealer and he has been engaged in the lumber and timber busi- ness, in that important field of endeavor having achieved much suc- cess. Mr. Weaver has seen a number of far corners of this country of ours and gained his start in life as a mining prospeetor in Nevada and other states of the Golden West.
John W. Weaver is a native son of the state of Michigan, his birth having occurred in Berrien county, on the twenty-sixth of October, 1849. He is a son of Samuel and Caroline (Hunter) Weaver, the former of whom was born in Darke county, Ohio, in 1817, and died in 1907, having thus completed fourscore and ten years of life. To be exact, he was within four days of his ninetieth birthday, when summoned to the Undiscovered Country whence no traveler returns. The mother, who survives, was born in the same county which gave her husband birth, and has now attained to the venerable age of ninety-one years, her resi- dence being maintained in Berrien county, Michigan. To these worthy and useful citizens, whom it was granted by heaven to remain longer on the earth than the majority of mankind, were born ten children, six of whom survive, the subject being the fifth in order of birth. Samuel Weaver left the Buckeye state when a mere boy and came with his parents to Indiana where they remained for a time. They then went. on to Michigan and settled in Berrien county, where young Samuel grew to manhood and when his years and strength were sufficient, hewed him a farm out of the wilderness. He was greatly interested in fine stock and raised many fine specimens in his day. He was held in confidence and respect by his fellow citizens, who elevated him to sey- eral offices, including those of the county and township and the schools. he being a strong advocate of the best education possible. He was a member of the Advent church and in the early days was a Whig, upon the organization of the Republican party transferring his allegiance to the same.
John W. Weaver passed his boyhood days beneath the parental roof-tree, attending school during the winter months and in seed-time and harvest giving his young strength to the manifold duties to be en-
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countered upon the farm. In 1870, when not far from his twenty-first birthday, he must have come to the conclusion that "home-keeping youth have ever homely wits," as the Bard of Avon has put it, and he journeyed to Nevada, which in that day was still in a wild and lawless condition. Having engaged there for some time quite successfully in prospecting, young Weaver again made a change and removed by rail to Omaha. There was no bridge at that time over the Missouri river and the train was conveyed across on a rope ferry. He subsequently went by rail to Ogden, Utah, where he spent the years of 1871, 1872 and 1873, and also a part of 1874, with occasional journeys to Virginia City and Carson City, Nevada. He tasted to the full the adventures of the rough mining days and unlike so many others on the same quest of fortune, was quite successful. The charms of Michigan remained very vivid with him and in 1874 he returned to the state and returned to pastoral pursuits in Berrien county for three years. Subsequent to that he engaged in the stock business, buying and shipping cattle to Chicago and Buffalo markets for the space of sixteen years and after that engaged in the lumber business in Charlevoix, Emmet county, the Northern Peninsula and Wisconsin, and he bought and sold timber lands until within a short time ago. At the present time he is the owner of some fine timber lands and has a fine improved farm eight miles north of Harbor Springs. He also owns a fine farm east of Petoskey and as before mentioned is engaged in developing orchards and vineyards on the same. His city holdings amount to a value of fully twenty thousand dollars.
On February 14, 1874, Mr. Weaver was united in marriage to Miss Nelle J. Tew, a native of Ohio, and daughter of William and Eliza (Carter) Tew. To. the subject and his wife have been born three daughters and one son, the following being an enumeration: Austie. wife of Guy Williams, residing in Cheboygan county; Lenah, wife of Harold Britton, of Toronto, Canada; Nellie, wife of Bernard Clise, of Sturgeon Bay, Michigan; and Ward, who is engaged in business with his father and resides with his parents. The subject is a staunch Re- publican and is interested in all that pertains to good government and the prosperity and progress of society in general.
DONALD MCRAE .- In noting the name of this venerable and honored citizen of Alpena there can be no meed of conjecture as to sterling lin- eage, and he himself well exemplifies the canny traits that so thorough- ly indicate the sturdy Scotsman. From those of Scotch birth or ances- try the United States has had much to gain and nothing to lose, and he who can claim such genealogy has just reason for pride.
Like many other representative citizens of Michigan, Donald Mc- Rae claims the Dominion of Canada as the place of his nativity. He was born near the city of Montreal, on the 11th of November, 1836, and is a son of John and Isabella (McCrae) McRae, both of whom were born and reared in Scotland, where their marriage was solemnized and whence they came to America soon after this event. The father established his home in the province of Quebec, Canada, in 1819, and there followed the trades of harnessmaker and shoemaker for some time, after which
Donald E Para
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he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, to which he devoted his attention during the remainder of his active career. Both he and his wife attained advanced age and they passed the closing years of their lives near Montreal. They became the parents of four sons and three daughters, and of the two now living the subject of this review is the younger, his brother, Farquhar, being a resident of Vermont.
Donald McRae was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and is indebted to the common schools of his uative province for his early educational training. At the age of sixteen years he left the parental home and went to Winchester, Massachusetts, where he was employed in a manufactory for the ensuing six years. He then returned to the old home in the province of Quebec, Canada, where he remained until April, 1866, when he came to northern Michigan and numbered him- self among the pioneers of Alpena, which was then a mere straggling lumber town, with a population of about three thousand persons. Here he purchased the general merchandise store of Henry Beebe, in asso- ciation with Henry Bolton, and they continued the enterprise, under the firm name of Bolton & McRae, for a period of about twenty-six years, within which they built up a large and prosperous trade. In 1880 Mr. McRae identified himself with the lumber business, in which he continued to be associated with Mr. Bolton, under the original firm name, and they continued active operations in this line until 1909, when Mr. McRae retired from active business, as did also his honored partner and coadjutor. The firm finally transferred its mercantile business from one of general order to that of handling groceries ex- clusively, and with this latter line of enterprise Mr. McRae was con- cerned until 1891, when he disposed of his interest in the same. He has long been known as one of the loyal and appreciative citizens of Alpena and has contributed his quota to its material and social development and upbuilding, the while he has commanded the unqualified confidence and respect of all with whom he has come in contact during the long years of a husy and useful life. He is one of the best known and most highly honored pioneer citizens of this section of the state and through his well directed efforts has gained such a competency as to enable him to pass the gracious evening of his life in peace and prosperity and in the companionship of friends who are tried and true. In politics Mr. McRae gives his allegiance to the Democratic party and while he has never been a seeker of public office he gave effective service as a mem- ber of the Alpena board of education, with which he was identified for a period of eight years. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, as was also his cherished and devoted wife.
Mr. McRae is one of the substantial capitalists of Alpena and has done much to further its upbuilding, as he has taken a vital interest in every measure and enterprise projected for the general good of the community. He was one of the organizers of the Alpena County Sav- ings Bank, and has been continuously a member of its directorate. When he first came to Alpena he engaged in business in a small and altogether unpretentious wooden building on North Second avenue, and on this site he later erected the substantial brick building which is still standing. He has also erected a number of other buildings, both
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for business and residence purposes, and prominent among the number is the fine building occupied by the Alpena County Savings Bank. This was constructed a few years ago and is a modern brick and stone structure two stories in height and with the best of appointments. He still owns this building, as well as other valuable realty in his home city. For fully forty years Mr. McRae has been affiliated with Alpena Lodge, No. 199, Free & Accepted Masons, and in this time-honored fraternity he has attained to the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in which he holds membership in Michigan Sovereign Consistory in the city of Detroit, where he is also enrolled as a member of Moslem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. His further Masonic affiliations in his home city are with Thunder Bay Chapter, No. 74, Royal Arch Masons; Sahgonah- kato Council, Royal & Select Masters, and Alpena Commandery, No. 34, Knights Templars.
In the year 1873 Mr. McRae crossed the Atlantic to the Emerald Isle for the purpose of securing one of its fair daughters as his bride. In Wexford county, Ireland, on the 8th of September of that year was solemnized his marriage to Miss Anna Thackberry, who was born and reared in that county. She proved a devoted companion and helpmeet to her husband and their gracious alliance was terminated by her death in 1896.
JOHN A. COVERT .- A fine old veteran of the Civil war and a prom- inent and influential citizen of Gaylord, Otsego county, Michigan, is John A. Covert, who has attained to the venerable age of eighty years and who is held in highest regard by his fellow men. During his life time he has been a powerful influence for good in this section of the state, has held various important offices of public trust and responsibility and has ever had the welfare of the community at heart.
Mr. Covert was born in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, the date of his na- tivity being the 3d of January, 1831. He is a son of James and Martha (Judd) Covert, the former of whom was born in the state of New Jersey and the latter in the state of New York. The father traced his ancestry to French-Huguenot stock and he came to Ohio in 1807, locating on a farm in Cuyahoga county. He was twice married and became the father of twenty-two children, fifteen by his first wife and seven by his second wife. One of the sons was Charles, full brother of him to whom this sketch is dedicated, and who gave valiant service in the Union army during the Civil war, having been a soldier in the Twenty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He participated in the battles of Winchester, Fort Republic, where he was taken prisoner, and Gettysburg, after which he received his honorable discharge, being mustered out of service in Wash- ington in 1865. He was also a soldier of the Mexican war, serving four- teen months under General Scott. He died in Cuyahoga.
To the public schools of his native place Mr. Covert is indebted for his educational training and he early became interested in agricultural operations in his native state of Ohio. At the time of the inception of the Civil war he was fired by boyish enthusiasm to become a soldier and accordingly he enlisted as a member of Company B. Forty-first Ohio
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Volunteer Infantry, on the 27th of August, 1861. He served with all of valor and faithfulness for the period of one year, at the expiration of which he was discharged on account of disability. He has ever retained a deep interest in his old comrades in arms and signifies the same by membership in C. F. Door Post, No. 61, Grand Army of the Republic, at Gaylord. After the close of his military service Mr. Covert returned to the old Buckeye state, where he was variously engaged until 1878, in which year he came to Michigan, locating a homestead in Otsego county, the same consisting of one hundred and five acres of heavily timbered land situated five miles east of the village of Gaylord. He immediately set to work to clear a space of ground on which to erect a log cabin. He continued to clear a little of his land at a time and in a few years he had a large portion of it under cultivation, the same yielding to him large profits in the way of excellent crops. In his early pioneer life he was a very successful hunter and thoroughly enjoyed the chase, not only for its allurement but also for its profit, as a well stocked larder depended in large measure on his success as a huntsman. During his first six years in this section he killed as many as sixteen deer, all within gun shot of his home. He shot one wolf and trapped three bears, one of which weighed as much as three hundred pounds, and eight beaver, and he also trapped twelve fox. His reminiscences of early pioneer life are of an intensely interesting and exciting nature and he is also a good narrator of old war stories. For sixteen years the family home was maintained in the pioneer log hut and in 1898 a more pretentious frame dwelling with appropriate and substantial ontbuildings was erected. He continued to be actively identified with farming operations until 1905, at which time he disposed of the old homestead and took up his abode in Gaylord, where he.is passing the evening of his life in the en- joyment of former years of earnest toil and endeavor. He is the owner of a beautiful residence in this place and the same is the scene of great hospitality and generosity.
In his political proclivities Mr. Covert accords a stalwart allegiance to the principles promulgated by the Republican party and during his residence in northern Michigan he has been the efficient incumbent of many important public offices. He has served on various occasions as supervisor, clerk, treasurer, justice of the peace and as superintendent of the poor of Chester township. He is affiliated with different fraternal and social organizations of representative character and is also a valued and appreciative member of the Grand Army of the Republic, as pre- viously noted. Although he has attained to the advanced age of eighty years he possesses in marked degree the vitality and enthusiasm of many a younger man. He is genial, with a smile and kind word for everyone, and it may be said of him that the circle of his friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances. He has ever been a co-operant factor in all matters projected for the good of the community and as a loyal and public-spirited citizen he has no superior.
In the year 1853 Mr. Covert was united in marriage to Miss Anette Smith, who was born and reared in Georgia county, Ohio, and who was a daughter of John P. Smith. To this union were born the following children : Chauncey, Nancy, Charles and John. Nancy is the wife of
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Rev. George Badcon, a Congregational minister at Gaylord; Charles is a prosperous farmer in Antrim county, Michigan; Chauncey and John are deceased. Mr. Covert has three grandchildren and five great-grand- children, all residents of Michigan. Mrs. Covert was summoned to eter- nal rest in 1895. In his religious faith Mr. Covert is a devout member of the United Brethren church of Ohio, as was also his wife.
WILLIAM H. CAPLE .- To be numbered among the most enterprising and progressive of the business men and good citizens of Clare, Miehi- gan, is William H. Caple, dealer in real estate and loans. He is an ex- tensive dealer in lands and an authority on the subject and stands as an able exponent of the progressive spirit and strong initiative ability that have caused Clare to forge forward so rapidly. Although a young man, Mr. Caple has seen much more than the average man of this great country of ours, having visited every state and territory on the Pacific coast and traversed the length of the Mississippi river.
Mr. Caple is a native son of the Wolverine state, his birth having occurred at Hubbardston, Michigan, December 12, 1881. His parents, John S. and Olive (Hall) Caple, were natives of the Empire state.
The first sehooling of William H. Caple was secured in the public schools of Alma, and after finishing in the same, he matriculated in Alma Academy and eventually in Ahna College. He left the latter in- stitution in his junior year on account of his health, and with the hope of repairing his strength and vigor in the ozone of the western plains, he severed home ties and went west prospeeting. He visited every state and territory on the Pacific coast, tasting the various delights of each and he also investigated very thoroughly the Mississippi River region. He returned to his native state in mueh better physical condition and having enjoyed experiences of a nature that amounted in value to a lib- eral edueation.
Upon again taking up his residenee in Alma, Mr. Caple engaged in the hardware business, in which his father had been engaged before him. but he did not long remain in this connection, for he went to Midland to accept a position as manager for the Reardon Brothers Mercantile Company, an important concern operating three elevators and four gen- eral stores. After continuing at Midland for three years he went to Canandaigua, New York, and became associated with the Smith Brothers Roller Mills, which is owned by his brother. He entered into a partner- ship with him but his health again becoming poor, he returned to Michi- gan, and established himself in the real estate and loan business as first notieed. In addition to his other activities he handles a great deal of wild land and his dealings, which are of wide seope have been of the most satisfactory and successful character.
On the fourth day of September. 1905, Mr. Caple laid the foundation of a happy household by marriage, his ehosen lady being Miss Beulah Reardon, of Midland, Michigan, a native of that place. Her father. William Reardon. was a member of the Reardon Brothers Mercantile Company before mentioned. Their union has been blessed by the hirth of two young sons .- William Reardon, born June 2, 1908; and Robert Andrew. born January 2, 1911. Mr. Caple is a member of the time-
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honored Masonic order, exemplifying in himself the principles of moral and social justice and brotherly love. His wife is a member of the East- ern Star. The subject and his wife, although Presbyterian in religions convictions, attend the Congregational church.
ROLLIN FRANK LEMON .- One of the honored, useful and widely known citizens of Harbor Springs is Rollin Frank Lemon, who has held the office of postmaster since 1909, in this capacity giving the most faith- ful and satisfactory service to the people. He is also engaged in the in- surance and loan business and in times past has been both a merchant and a banker, being a man of versatile abilities. He has also held vari- ous public offices and there is nothing of public import at Harbor Springs and in the surrounding country in which he is not helpfully interested. Mr. Lemon was born at Byron, Shiawassee county, Michigan, December 24, 1869, and is the son of C. H. and Elizabeth E. (Kelsey) Lemon. The father was born in Avon township, Oakland county, Michigan, No- vember 17, 1836, and was called to his reward September 22, 1910. The mother, who is living in Lansing, Michigan, was also a native of Michi- gan, her birth having occurred in this state in the year 1841. These es- timable people were the parents of seven children, five of whom survive at the present day, namely: the subject and his brother, Earl, twins; Elizabeth ; Grace ; and Fannie. C. H. Lemon was engaged in the milling and merchandise business for twenty-five years and later was a traveling salesman with Jacob Brown & Company of Detroit, Michigan. After representing this concern for something like a decade, he made a radical change and engaged in the dry goods business in Lansing, Michigan, with his sons and became very successful. The firm was known as Lemon & Sons and is being continued by the subject and his brother. The father was the first village president of Byron and efficiently held the office of township supervisor and treasurer for many years. During the Civil war period he held the office of postmaster, being appointed for three terms and he was a model of useful and altruistic citizenship. The business he inaugurated is still in existence, being known at the present time as Lemon & Royce. In the early days he was a Whig and with the organization of the Republican party he became one of its stanchest adherents. His fraternal relations extended to the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows.
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