USA > Michigan > A history of northern Michigan and its people, Volume II > Part 6
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Married in 1883 to Miss Mamie W. McAllister, daughter of Ephraim and Mahala McAllister, Mr. Weimer has become the father of two daugh- ters and a son, viz: Bessie May ; Gertrude, now the wife of F. W. Kelilet, of Los Angeles, California ; and Emery D., Jr., who is at home.
SAMUEL EMMETT NEIHARDT, M. D .- Holding high place among his professional brethren in northern Michigan is Dr. Samuel Emmett Neihardt, a physician of much ability and usefulness in the community in which his interests are centered. Into his composition enters that sterling element,-the German-and his family has been founded for a considerable length of time in America. Dr. Neihardt was born in West Unity, Ohio, February 14, 1863. One of the earliest Neihardts was Con- rad, who was born in Maryland, of German parents, and resided later in life in Pennsylvania. IIe was an unlearned farmer and a Protestant and he reared a large family of children. He was a minute man in the Indian wars, which were numerous during his lifetime. His publie serv- ices of civic and religious character are not known to the present gen- eration. His wife was Elizabeth Kruger, an American of German an- cestry, born in Pennsylvania on the day of the Cherry Valley massacre. Their son, Jacob Neihardt, was born in Pennsylvania and came to Ohio in his youth. He located in Williams county, that state, as early as 1837 and there died at an old age. He was an unlearned farmer, as were most of his contemporaries, but none the less a good citizen ; he held no office; he was a Lutheran and was active in building up the church at Melbern, Ohio. He reared a large family. George W. Neihardt, son of the foregoing and father of the subject, was born in Holmes county, October 23, 1835. He was a school teacher and farmer and received a good education. He was graduated from the literary department of the University of Michigan with the class of 1861. In religious convic- tion he was of the Protestant Lutheran faith, and in politics he was in- dependent, having voted with all parties, for he believed in supporting the better man and the better measure, irrespective of partisanship. He was for many years principal of the academy at Orland, Indiana. The subject's mother's grandfather, Adam McGowan, was a pauper child sent from Scotland to this country and sold into service to pay for his passage. Her father, Samuel McGowan, was born in Ohio and was one of a large family. The mother, whose maiden name was Mary M. Mc- Gowan, was born in Mahoning county, Ohio, December 26, 1840, and is
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the youngest of a family of ten. Her mother and maternal grandmother were of German ancestry.
Dr. Neihardt was educated in the country schools of Lagrange county, Indiana, whence the family removed when he was a boy. He was in due time graduated from the Orland high school and his first adventures as a wage earner were in a pedagogical capacity, for he taught school in both Indiana and Michigan. This extended over two years or until he was nineteen. He then began the study of medicine at Orland with the late Dr. James Wallace, and in 1884-5 he matriculated in the Uni- versity of Michigan and received his degree of M. D. from the medical department of the University of Wooster, Ohio, near the city of Cleve- land, in 1886. He first began the practice of his profession at South Boardman on August 25, 1886, and it is a favorable commentary on the confidence he has won and the general opinion of his wisdom and usefulness that he has ever since remained here, becoming the friend and physician of hundreds of families.
Dr. Neihardt is eminently public spirited and takes a helpful in- terest in all affairs concerning the public welfare. In political convic- tion he is a Democrat and he has held nearly all the village, township and school offices, while for fourteen years he has been pension exam- ining surgeon. In all public work his services have been a credit to himself and an honor to his constituents. He is a member of the Ma- sonic blue lodge, Kalkaska lodge, No. 332; Traverse City Chapter and Traverse City Council. He is likewise affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Independent Order of Foresters.
Dr. Neihardt was first married to Lily Thrift, in Toledo, Ohio. She was a graduate of the Toledo high school and a teacher in the schools of the city. Her parents are E. Washington and Rachel Thrift, the former a newspaper man a member of Lee's Black Horse Cavalry, serving four years in the Confederate army. The Thrifts are an old Virginia family. Mrs. Neihardt died in March, 1889, leaving no children. The subject was married, August 30, 1891, to Addie J. Gardner at South Boardman. She was a daughter of Charles A. and Catherine Gardner the former a farmer and justice of the peace; she was a graduate of the Kaskaska schools. She passed away in September, 1901, leaving five children, three girls and two boys. Dr. Neihardt was united in mar- riage on December 30, 1901, to Maude Mary Dick, daughter of William and Susan Dick, the father a farmer and prominent man who has held many offices. A number of children have been born to the last union.
The children of Dr. Neihardt are as follows : Mary, born August 28, 1892; Catherine Dora, October 21, 1894; Samuel Emmett, April 12, 1897; Charles Elton, April 12, 1897; Lola Ethel, September 7, 1899; Olga May, December 30, 1902; Gretchen, March 5, 1904; Mildred Eliz- abeth, June 25, 1905; and Helen, September 26, 1909.
Dr. Neihardt is of a type eminently well fitted physically for a doc- tor, being strong and healthy, and fond of out-door sports. He has a disposition to indulge in active out-of-door work and has built up a large practice in a rough new country. For a long time he had the
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difficult work of caring for a large practice of a very scattered sort, but his ministrations are now more concentrated.
AMIL F. NERLINGER .- Though this representative member of the bar of Grand Traverse county claims the old Keystone state as the place of his nativity he has been a resident of northern Michigan since his early childhood. His honored father was one of the pioneer exponents of the agricultural industry in Grand Traverse county, where he reclaimed a farm from the wilderness and where he still maintains his home.
Amil F. Nerlinger was born in the city of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, on the 2d of May, 1875, and is a son of John and Frederica (Yost) Nerlinger, the former of whom was born in the kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, on the 21st of August, 1848, and the latter of whom was born, August 2d, 1849, in Alsace-Lorraine, France, a province that was wrested from France in the Franco-Prussian war, since which time it has been a part of the German empire. The marriage of the parents was solem- nized in the city of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on the 24th of July, 1874, and of the four children the eldest is he whose name initiates this re- view; Carrie E. died in infancy; Charles is a resident of the State of Washington, where he is engaged in farming and lumbering; and John, Jr., is engaged as a plumber at Traverse City, Michigan. John Nerl- inger, Sr., was reared to maturity in his fatherland, where he was af- forded the advantages of the common schools and where also he learned the trade of a cooper. In the spring of 1868, when about twenty years of age, he severed the ties that bound him to home and native land and set forth to seek his fortunes in America, whither he came without finan- cial resources of more than nominal order, but fortified with resolute purpose, industrious habits and definite ambition. He landed in New York city, where he was employed at his trade for three months, at the expiration of which he removed to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he remained a short time. He established his home in Allegheny City, that state, after his marriage and there he remained until 1878, when he came with his family to Michigan and made Grand Traverse county his des- tination. He arrived in Traverse City in March of that year and pur- chased a tract of wild land in East Bay township, where he developed a productive farm, upon which he and his devoted wife have since con- tinued to reside. He has made excellent improvements on the homestead, which comprises eighty acres of arable land, and twenty acres are devoted to a fine fruit orchard, which gives excellent returns for the labor ex- pended in its plauting and cultivation. John Nerlinger, Sr., is known as one of the substantial citizens of the county and his sterling character has gained to him the high regard of all who know him. He has given his support to the measures and enterprises that have tended to ad- vance the social and material welfare of the community and he served several terms as a member of the school board of his district. In politics he is a stalwart Democrat.
Amil F. Nerlinger was three years of age at the time of the family removal to Grand Traverse county, and here he was reared to adult age under the discipline of the home farm, in the meanwhile availing himself of the advantages of the district schools and finally of the Trav-
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erse City high school. At the time of the inception of the Spanish- American war Mr. Nerlinger was a senior in the Traverse City high school and was president of his class. He showed his patriotism by promptly tendering his services as a volunteer soldier. On the 16th of May, 1898, he enlisted as a private in Company M, Thirty-fourth Mich- igan Volunteer Infantry. This regiment was mustered into the United States service on the 25th of the same month, and Colonel John P. Peter- mann assumed command of the same. The regiment left for Camp Alger, Virginia, on the 6th of June, and thereafter the command re- ported for duty on Cuban soil. It landed at Siboney on the 1st of July and after marching all night reached the scene of hostilities early on the morning of the second day of the battle of San Juan hill. The regiment was assigned to duty on the line in support of the batteries and later it did outpost duty. It thus participated in the Santiago ex- pedition under General Shafter and bore its full share of hardships and dangers. The members of the regiment were mustered out of the government service at Traverse City, Michigan, where the boys of Com- pany M received their honorable discharge on the 9th of December, 1898. Mr. Nerlinger has cemented the ties and vitalized the associations of his military service by his membership in the United Spanish-Amer- ican War Veterans' Association.
After the close of the war Mr. Nerlinger determined to prepare him- self for the legal profession and in September, 1898, he was matriculated in the law department of the University of Michigan and graduated with the class of 1901. He duly received his well-earned degree of Bachelor of Laws and was by the supreme court of Michigan admitted to the bar of the state June 19, 1901. He began the practice of his profession at Elk Rapids, Antrim county, where he served his novitiate and tried his mettle. He there remained about one year and during this time was as- sociated in practice with Steven D. Lardie, who had been his class- mate in the University. In September, 1902, Mr. Nerlinger, for the purpose of finding a broader field for the exercise of his energies and powers, opened an office in Traverse City, where he has since been en- gaged in the general practice of his profession, in which he has shown himself a resourceful trial lawyer and well fortified counselor. He is careful in the preparation of his cases and as an advocate before court or jury is concise, clear and cogent in his presentation of his canse. Ile has appeared in connection with a number of important litigations and has been counsel for representative persons and corporations. He has served as justice of the peace since 1903 and in April, 1907, he was elected judge of the recorder's court of Traverse City.
In politics Mr. Nerlinger accords an unwavering allegiance to the cause of the Republican party, and in this connection he is ever ready to give a reason for the faith which he holds. In the Masonic fraternity his affiliations are with Traverse City Lodge, No. 222, Free and Accepted Masons; Traverse City Chapter, No. 102, Royal Arch Masons; and Traverse City Commandery, No. 41, Knights Templars. He is also identified with the local organizations of the Knights of Pythias, of Traverse City Lodge, No. 73; the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Traverse City Lodge, No. 323; the Independent Order of Odd Fel-
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lows, Equality Lodge, No. 503; the Modern Maccabees Tent, No. 136; Hannah Camp, No. 23, U. S. W. V., and other fraternal and social or- ganizations.
On the 8th of June, 1904, Mr. Nerlinger was united in marriage to Miss Rozella Vogelsang, who was born at Fostoria, Ohio, and whose parents, William P. and Eva (Walter) Vogelsang, now reside in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. On April 2, 1911, a daughter, Mar- garet Frank Nerlinger, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Nerlinger.
BYRON BURMEISTER .- One of the prominent business men of northern Michigan is Byron Burmeister. He was born at Mishicott, Manitowoc county, Wisconsin, on April 20, 1852. His parents were natives of Ger- many. His father, William Burmeister, was one of the pioneers of the county, settling at Mishicott in 1843. At an early age Byron Burmeister with his parents moved to Manitowoc, where he was reared until he was ten years of age. He accompanied his father back to Germany, where he attended school for one year. They made the trip to Germany in a sailing vessel, being on the way five weeks, and while abroad visited London, Hamburg and many other noted cities and places. Upon his return to Wisconsin Byron continued to attend school, after which he followed the carpenter's trade for a few years. In 1865 he took to sailing and continued in that line of enterprise for just twenty years, first as a common sailor but at the age of twenty-three as a captain. At one time he was owner of several vessels. On the 20th of November, 1885, he established his home in Onekama, where he built a store and engaged in the general merchandise business. The fire of October 1, 1891, de- stroyed all his property, but as he held a partial insurance, he imme- diately commenced to construct another building, the one his store now ocenpies, which was completed on December 10th. At this time he re- commenced a general mercantile business, in which he is still engaged. Soon after his arrival at Onekama he began to handle tan bark and cord wood, using his own vessels to transport these commodities to various ports of the Great Lakes. As agriculture in his county developed, he took up the shipping of farm products, until he became the heaviest shipper of these products in this part of the state.
By nature Mr. Burmeister is honest and honorable, genial and kindly. His integrity is never questionel by either buyer or seller. In politics he is a Democrat. He has held various offices of a local nature for many years, in none of which he ever accepted compensation. He is ever on the alert to do all in his power to advance the general welfare of the community he has elected to make his home. At present he is president of the village of Onekama, and has been a member of the village council since the incorporation of Onekama in 1891.
On September 9, 1885, Mr. Burmeister married Miss Mary Falge, of Manitowoc, Wisconsin. She was born in Austria Hungary, on October 22, 1866. At the age of three she came to America with her mother. At the time of her marriage she was a prominent school teacher of the city of Manitowoc. Mr. and Mrs. Burmeister have three children, namely : Alberta, born in 1886; William, in 1893; and Norma, in 1895. Alberta was graduated in the Onekama high school, after which she attended the
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Ferris Institute for one year, then entered the University of Michigan, from which institution she graduated in the class of 1908. At present she is assisting in the management of her father's business. William is a student in the local high school and Norma is just about to enter therein.
THOMAS TOMLINSON BATES, of Traverse City, Michigan, was born December 13, 1841, at Keeseville, Essex county, New York. His father was Rev. Merritt Bates and his mother Eliza A. Tomlinson, both being of English ancestry. The father was a Methodist Episcopal clergy- man, and an active and uncompromising anti-slavery man through all the thirty-five years preceding the Civil war. A man of strong convic- tions and great ability, he occupied a prominent place in his church, and lived to see the triumph of the cause to which he had given the best years of his life. His mother was of the old New York family of Tom- linsons, prominent in New York city in Revolutionary times and the years immediately following.
Thomas T. Bates was educated in the public schools. At sixteen he began life for himself, clerking at one dollar a week and boarding him- self. A year later he was general helper in a bank at Glens Falls, New York. At eighteen he occupied an important position in a banking house in Memphis, Tennesee, but came north at the outbreak of the war. He removed to Traverse City in 1863, was cashier for Hannah, Lay & Company two years, and resigned to open a real estate office with Hon. D. C. Leach, whose interest in the business he bought in 1871. In 1858 his uncle, Hon. Morgan Bates, established the Grand Traverse Herald, and sold the paper in 1867 to Hon. D. C. Leach. Thomas T. Bates, who had had the management since 1865, bought the Herald of Mr. Leach in 1876, and has since that time been its editor. His wife, Mrs. M. E. C. Bates, was for many years associate editor, his daughter Miss Mabel, now Mrs. Mabel Bates Williams, of Denver, Colorado, local and society editor and associate manager, and since the death of Mrs. Bates, editor of the Home Department of the Herald and Evening Record, while since her mother's death, Miss Clara Bates has been president of the Herald Young Folks Sunshine club, and editor of that department in the Herald.
Mr. Bates has always been active in politics. He was prominent in eastern New York in 1856, when only fifteen years old, in the youths' organization of "The Rocky Mountain Boys" in the Fremont cam- paign. His first presidential vote was for Lincoln in 1864, and he has never missed voting a straight Republican ticket since. He has never been a political office-holder, with the exception of that of postmaster at Traverse City, 1881-3, resigning the position on account of the in- creasing business of the Herald, which demanded his time. He was for several years chairman of the township and county committees. In 1880, he was chosen a member of the state central committee of his party and served ten consecutive years, the longest consecutive service ever given by any member of the party. He represented his distriet as delegate in the Republican national convention in 1892, and was made secretary of the delegation.
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In 1885 Mr. Bates was appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the Northern Michigan Asylum, now the Traverse City State Hos- pital, located at Traverse City, and which was opened to patients that year. He was re-appointed in 1889, again in 1895, again in 1901 and again in 1907 and is still acting on the board. This is the longest ser- vice ever given by any member of any board of managers of any state institution in Michigan. He was President of the Board from 1886 to 1892, and again from 1907 to 1910. In the fall of 1885 he was also ap- pointed a member of the Board of Building Commissioners for the same institution, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hon. Perry Hannah, and was at once chosen chairman of the Board, serving in this capacity until the completion of the work of the commission in the fall of 1886. He was elected secretary of the Traverse City Railroad com- pany upon its organization in 1871 and served in that capacity until the road was leased to the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad Com- pany ; was then placed upon the Board of Directors of the Traverse City Railroad Company and still holds the position, and for several years was president of the company. For several years he was a member of and President of the Board of Library Trustees of Traverse City. For a number of years he was President of the Traverse City Business Men's Association, which was instrumental in locating at that point many of the important manufacturing establishments of Traverse City. In 1897 he established with J. W. Hannen, The Evening Record, and the enter- prise has been very successful. In 1904 the business was incorporated as the Herald and Record Company and Mr. Bates has been President of the company since its organization. In 1910 the Eagle Press, daily, semi-weekly and job department, was consolidated with the Herald and Record Company, as were also the Fife Lake Monitor and Kingsley Echo, both weekly papers published in the county.
In 1904 Mr. Bates was a member of the Executive Committee having in charge the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the Republican party "Under the Oaks" at Jackson, and which took place July 6th of that year.
In 1909 he was appointed by the governor one of the Michigan members of the Lincoln National Memorial Association to arrange for the observance of the one-hundreth anniversary of the birth of Abra- ham Lincoln at the birthplace of the martyred President, and to pro- vide for a national monument on the spot to commemorate the event.
Mr. Bates was married in 1867 to Miss Martha E. Cram, daughter of Jesse Cram, who for many ears was identified with the early history of Wayne and Genesee counties, and who was also one of the pioneers of Grand Traverse county. Mrs. Bates died in 1905. The family con- sists of two daughters, Mrs. Mabel Bates Williams and Miss Clara, and a son, George G., who was for many years in the publishing business in Chicago, and who is now a resident of Traverse City and is Vice-Presi- dent and actively interested in the Herald and Record company.
SAMUEL GILPIN .- A widely known business man and citizen of pub- lic affairs Samnel Gilpin, of Cheboygan, is now specially identified with the lumber business of northern Michigan. Like many others in his
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section of the state who have contributed in large measure to the pros- perity and civic progress of that section, he is a Canadian of English ancestry. Mr. Gilpin was born in Northumberland county, Canada, on the 7th of February, 1854, and is a son of John and Minerva (Pickle) Gilpin, the father a native of Cornwall, England, who died in 1854, and the mother of Essex county, Canada, who passed away in 1898. The chil- dren born of their marriage were Margaret, who became the wife of Thomas Blackmore, both residents of Omaha, Nebraska, and Samuel, of this biography.
The father came to Canada with his parents in 1838, he being the only son in a family of four children, and the daughters were Mary, Ann and Elizabeth. The son continued his old-world occupation of farming in Northumberland county, conditions at that time being primitive in the extreme; in fact, the Gilpin family was rated among the pioneer agricultural element of that section of the dominion.
Samuel Gilpin received his education at Campbellford, Northumber- land county, Canada, and spent his boyhood days on the homestead farm, varying its labors with work at the forge and in the lumber camps. When he came to Cheboygan in 1881 he was, therefore, in good training to make a success of the typical industries of that section of the States. Coming hither as agent for Raber & Watson in the lumber business, he at once established himself as a permanent factor in the growth of the place, and was soon engaged in his chosen field as an independent unit, as a member of the well known firm of Watson & Gilpin, extensive handlers of lumber, railroad ties and cedar poles and posts.
Mr. Gilpin's good sense, independence and stanch Republicanism also brought him into favorable public notice, with the result that he was elected as the first alderman from the Second ward of Cheboygan, in which office he served most acceptedly for three terms of two years each, and that he also held membership on the County Drainage Board for four years. Mr. Gilpin has broad and active standing as a fraternal- ist. In 1872 he joined the Masonic order at Campbellport, Canada; has been a member of the Maccabees for the past twenty years; be- longed to the Orangemen while a citizen of the Dominion; and is identi- fied with the Cheboygan Lodge, No. 504, B. P. O. E.
In 1876 Samuel Gilpin married Miss Charlotte Ming, a native of Germany and daughter of Henry and Mary (Roenigk) Ming, both also horn the Fatherland. Her father died in 1877, at the age of fifty-nine years, her mother surviving until 1902, when she dropped her earthly burdens at seventy-six. Of their ten children, three were born in Ger- many and five are still living. In 1859 the Ming family boarded a sail- ing vessel for the United States and, after a voyage of six weeks, entered New York harbor and were soon located at Oswego. Later they moved to Canada, where Mr. Ming followed his profession as a veterinary surgeon, in which he had previously been engaged in connection with the Prus- sian cavalry service. Ile finally located at Norham, Ontario, where he continued in that line and became a leading citizen. Mr. Ming was prominently identified with the good work of the Methodist church in Norham, and served as a member of the school board for a period of thirty years. In polities he was a Republican.
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