USA > Michigan > A history of northern Michigan and its people, Volume II > Part 7
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The following children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gilpin : Dr. John H., a graduate from the medical department of the Michigan Uni- versity, class of 1904, and now a practicing physician of Fort Wayne, Indiana; Mary Minerva, wife of M. D. Fralich, a merchant of Cheboy- gan; Charles H., associated with his father in the lumber business; Lot- tie Maud, a student at the Michigan University; Thomas Franklin and Margaret, students in the Cheboygan high school.
GEORGE A. LISK .- One of the most active, progressive, and intelligent newspaper men of Northern Michigan, George A. Lisk, of East Jordan, is well known in journalistic circles as editor and proprietor of the Charlevoix County Herald, which he purchased in 1905 It was es- tablished in 1896, and had many ups and downs during its existence until taken in charge by Mr. Lisk, who is building it up to a good posi- tion among the leading publications of the county. A son of George and Mary J. (Cooley) Lisk, he was born at Arcadia, Lapeer county, Michigan, February 19, 1874, coming from good old New England an- cestry. His father, George Lisk, was born and reared in that quaint old seaport, Gloucester.
Born and brought up in Gloucester, Massachusetts, George Lisk nat- urally engaged in seafaring pursuits, and until twenty-one years of age sailed before the mast. In 1862 he enlisted in the Thirty-fifth Mass- achusetts Infantry, and subsequently took part in many of the hard- fought battles of the Civil war, being under fire at Fredericksburg, South Mountain and Antietam. Wounded in the latter battle, he was sub- sequently transferred to the Relief Corps. At the close of the conflict, he enlisted in the First United States Infantry, and after his discharge from the service, at Fort Wayne, settled in Michigan. Engaging in con- struction work, he assisted in the building of the Pontiac, Oxford & Northern Railroad, at its completion locating on a farm in Arcadia, Lapeer county.
Receiving his preliminary education in Lapeer county, Michigan, in Arcadia and Lapeer, George A. Lisk subsequently continued his studies for several years in the schools of Lansing, Michigan, and Gloucester, Massachusetts. Returning to Michigan, he served an apprenticeship at the printer's trade in the office of the Lapeer Clarion, a weekly paper published in Lapeer, with which he was connected for thirteen years. Soon after leaving Lapeer, Mr. Lisk came to East Jordan, and having purchased the Charlevoix County Herald, and the good will of the paper and its patrons, has since edited and published it successfully, each sea- son adding to its attractions and value, and largely increasing its cir- culation. He is a stanch supporter of the principles of the Republican party, but is not active in politics.
Mr. Lisk married, June 25, 1902, Jennie M. Bonney, of Imlay City, Michigan. She was born in Sanilac county, Michigan, a daughter of Moses and Jeannette (Howard) Bonney, natives of New York state. Fraternally Mr. Lisk is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and of the Knights of the Maccabees, his wife belonging to the Ladies of the Maccabees. Although neither Mr. or Mrs. Lisk are connected by membership with any religious organization, they are generous and Vol 11-4
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charitable, giving freely to any and all worthy objects, and are ever ready to aid the establishment of any enterprise calculated to benefit the place or the people.
JOHN MONAGHAN .- Among the sterling citizens who have contributed to the material and civic development and progress of the city of Alpena is John Monaghan, who has been a resident of Michigan for more than half a century and who has maintained his residence in Alpena for nearly thirty years, within which he has been identified with various lines of business enterprise. He has been the architect of his own fortunes, as he came from his native land to America when a youth and dependent entirely upon his own resources. His career has been marked by integrity and honor and he has thus merited the confidence and esteem so uniformly reposed in him.
Mr. Monaghan was born in County Wexford, Ireland, on the 1st of November, 1835, and is a son of Patrick and Ann (McGuire) Monaghan, both of whom were likewise natives of that county. The father passed the last eight years of his life in Detroit, Michigan, where he died at the age of seventy-eight years, and the mother passed the closing years of her life in the home of her son John, subject of this review. She at- tained to the venerable age of eighty-one years and had been a resi- dent of Alpena for several years prior to her death. Of the seven chil- dren only two are now living, John being the elder and George being likewise a resident of Alpena, where he is district agent for the Stand- ard Oil Company. Patrick Monaghan was a farmer in his native county and continued to reside in the Emerald Isle until he was about seventy years of age, when he came with his devoted wife to America, to join his sons, who accorded him and his wife the utmost filial care and solicitude during the residue of their lives. Both were devout communicants of the Catholic church.
John Monaghan passed his boyhood days on his father's modest farm in Ireland, and in the meanwhile he attended the parochial schools in a somewhat irregular way. When but twelve years of age he went to the city of Dublin, where he secured employment as clerk in the mercantile establishment of Patrick McGuire, and he continued his res- idence in Dublin until he had attained to his legal majority, when, in 1856, he embarked on the small sailing vessel "New Ross," two hundred and fifty tons displacement, and set forth on the long and weary voyage to America. After five weeks on the ocean he landed in the city of Quebec, Canada, whence he proceeded down the St. Lawrence river and by Lake Erie to Kingston, Ontario, from which point he made the trip by railroad to Detroit, Michigan. He was without financial resources but was ready to turn his attention to any occupation that would yield him an honest livelihood. In Detroit he secured employ- ment as waiter in the old National hotel, which was located on the site of the present magnificent Pontchartrain hotel, the finest in the state. Later he secured a position as clerk in the wholesale grocery establish- ment of Thomas A. Parker, and that he proved a valued factor in con- nection with the enterprise is indicated by the fact that he was event- ually admitted to partnership in the same. After he had thus become
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an interested principal in the business a department of ship chandlery was added. After having been identified with this concern for a period of years Mr. Monaghan engaged in the same lines of enterprise in an individual way, and he continued to be engaged in business in Detroit until 1882, when he disposed of his interests there and removed to Alpena, where he entered into partnership with John P. Healey and engaged in the retail grocery trade, under the firm name of J. P. Healey & Company. Later he engaged in the contracting business, in the installing of cedar-block street pavements, and in this connection he built up an extensive and prosperous enterprise. In 1898 Mr. Mon- aghan and William II. Johnson became associated in the organization and incorporation of the Alpena Coal Company, of which he has since been secretary, treasurer and general manager. In 1899 he also be- came one of the organizers and incorporators of the Alpena Portland Cement Company, and he has since had the general management of the land interests of this company. He has been essentially progres- sive in his civic attitude, and it should be noted that it was primarily due to the efforts of himself and Charles H. Reynolds that the first macadam street paving was done in Alpena,-eight blocks on Chisholm street. He was also one of the organizers of the Alpena Mutual Ben- efit Telephone Company, of which he is a director, and in various other relations he has been a factor in advancing local interests. In politics Mr. Monaghan has given an unfaltering allegiance to the Democratic party, and while a resident of the city of Detroit he not only served as representative of the Eighth ward on the board of aldermen but also as a member of the board of education. He is a zealous com- munieant of the Catholic church and member of the parish of St. Bernard's church. He is affiliated with Alpena Council, No. 529, Knights of Columbus, and with the local branch of the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association. The life of Mr. Monaghan in the early years of his residence in America was one of struggle and vicissitude, but his courage and ambition enabled him to surmount obstacles and to win eventually a worthy success. Though not a man of large wealth he has achieved definite success and is one of the substantial citizens of Alpena, where his circle of friends is limited only by that of his ac- quaintances.
In the year 1860 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Monaghan to Miss Susan Leddy, and their gracious companionship on the journey of life was continued for more than forty years. It was severed by the death of the devoted wife and mother in 1904, and thus was entailed the maximum loss and bereavement in the life of him to whom this sketch is dedicated. Mrs. Monaghan was born in Detroit, Michigan, and was a daughter of Thomas and Rose Leddy, both of whom were born in Ireland, of Scottish ancestry. They passed the closing years of their lives in the city of Detroit and all of their children, four in number, are now deceased. Thomas Leddy came to America when a young man and his marriage was solemnized in the state of New Jersey, whence he later removed to Michigan and established his home in De- troit. Mr. and Mrs. Monaghan became the parents of thirteen chil- dren, and of the number seven are living. Mr. Monaghan has reason
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to be proud of what has been accomplished by his children, all of whom have honored the name of the family, and concerning the seven surviv- ors the following brief data are given: Thomas, who is now engaged in the grocery business in Alpena, was born and reared in Detroit, where he received the advantages of the celebrated Detroit College, con- ducted by the Jesuit Fathers. He married Miss Beatrice Redmond. William, who likewise availed himself of the privileges of Detroit Col- lege, is now sales manager for an extensive Portland cement company at Belleville, Michigan; he married Miss Celeste Saguyn. James P. attended Detroit College and later was graduated in St. Louis Uni- versity, in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. He was ordained to the priesthood of the Catholic church and after passing one year at Bar- celona, Spain, he returned to St. Louis, being later sent to the Philip- pine islands, where he served as assistant rector for three years, be- sides holding commission from the United States government as assist- ant to Father Algie, who was in charge of the local observatory of the government weather bureau. Ill health finally compelled his return to the United States, and after passing some time in Alpena, where he recuperated his energies, he was called to his alma mater, the Univer- sity of St. Louis, where he has since held the chair of sciences. He is a priest of the Jesuit order and a man of especially fine intellectual attainments. Martin, who is engaged in the practice of law in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, gained his literary or academic education in Detroit College and St. Louis University, after which he entered the law department of Georgetown University, in the District of Col- umbia, the oldest Catholic university in the Union, and in this institu- tion he was graduated, since which time he has achieved status as one of the representative members of the bar of Minnesota. He married Miss Agnes Gavagan. Frank, who was graduated in the Alpena high school, continued his studies in the University of Michigan, in which he completed thorough courses in chemistry and mechanical engineer- ing, and he is now engaged in the work of the profession for which he thus fitted himself, being incumbent of a responsible position with the Buick Automobile Company, of Flint, Michigan. He married Miss Lucy DeRoche and they have one son. Annie, who is a member of the Catholic order of Sisters of Charity, is connected with St. Leo's convent, in the city of Detroit, where she is a teacher of music; and Susan M. has presided over the domestic economies of her father's home since the death of the loved wife and mother.
DONALD W. MCKAY is the accommodating and efficient cashier of the firm of Early, Mckay & Company, bankers, whose place of business is situated in Tawas City, Iosco county, Michigan. This highly com- mendable monetary institution was founded in 1905. Mr. McKay was born in Caro, Tuscola county, Michigan, in 1883. He is a son of Will- iam and Mary (MacKie) Mckay, the former of whom was born in Scotland, on the 9th of September, 1840. The father immigrated to the United States in the year 1856, at which time he was a lad of sixteen years of age. He located at Almont, Lapeer county, Michigan, where he continued to reside until 1876, in which year he removed to Tuscola
"In" Parker
EDITOR CLARION, REED CITY, MICHIGAN
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county, where he was identified with agricultural pursuits. He was a man of prominence and influence in his home community and he served his fellow citizens in many publie offices of trust and responsibility. For twelve years he held the office of township supervisor and in 1882 he was elected sheriff of Tuscola county, remaining incumbent of that office for four years. In 1889 he was given further mark of the high regard of his fellow men in that he was then elected to represent his district in the state legislature. He served in the house in the sessions of 1889-1900 and 1900-1901 and he was again chosen representative in 1905. He was a man of unusual foresight and extraordinary execu- tive ability. In politics he endorsed the cause of the Republican party and he was ever on the alert and enthusiastically in sympathy with all measures projected for the good of the general welfare. To Mr. and Mrs. William MeKay were born nine children, concerning whom the following brief data are here incorporated: H. W., Minnie and Hester are deceased ; James is cashier of the Prescott Bank, at Prescott, Mich- igan; Mary N. is state librarian at Lansing, Michigan; Robert C. of the Ogemaw County Bank; Estelle is a resident of Cleveland, Ohio; Lloyd is cashier of the East Tawas Bank; and Donald W. is the im- mediate subject of this review. William McKay was summoned to eternal rest on the 12th of February, 1907, and his cherished and de- voted wife, who preceded him to the life eternal, died on the 11th of May, 1891.
Donald W. McKay was reared and educated at Caro, Michigan, to whose public schools he is indebted for his early educational discipline, the same including a course in the local high school, in which he was graduated. After leaving school he was for several years connected with the Western Land & Sugar Company, at Grand Junction, Color- ado, whither he had gone. Later he was proffered and accepted the position of cashier of the bank of Early, MeKay & Company, and since that time he has been a loyal and public-spirited citizen of Tawas City, Michigan, Politically he gives his support to the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and while he has never as yet held any public office he is recognized as a man of liberal ten- dencies and as one much interested in the general welfare of the city and state at large. He is popular and prominent in local social or- ganizations.
LORENZO A. BARKER,-Honored and respected in every class of society, "Ren" Barker, as he is familiarly known, has for many years been a leader in thought and action in the public life of northern Mich- igan, and his name is inscribed high on the roll of its foremost citizens, his honorable career adding lustre to the history of the state. Faith- fulness to duty and strict adherence to a fixed purpose in life will do more to advance a man's interest than wealth or adventitions circum- stances. The successful men of the day are they who have planned their own advancement and have accomplished it in spite of many obstacles and with a certainty that could have been attained only through their own efforts. This class has a worthy representative in "Ren" Barker. who is a Civil war veteran and who has recently written a book which
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is the history of his company-"D", Sixty-sixth Illinois, also known as Birge's Western Sharpshooters.
The following history of Mr. Barker and his book consists largely of extracts taken from articles which appeared in the Detroit News- Tribune of Detroit, Grand Rapids Daily Herald, Detroit Saturday Night, Traverse City Daily Record, Saginaw Courier, Herald, and other state papers.
"Mr. Barker has now attained to the venerable age of seventy-two years but he is wonderfully well preserved and does not look a day over fifty. He was born in Naples, Ontario county, New York, on the 16th day of August, 1839, and is a son of George W. and Welthy (Tyler) Barker, the father having been born in Litchfield, Mass., and both father and mother were reared in New York. Both are now deceased The young 'Ren' received his preliminary educational training in the public schools of Italy, Yates county, New York. He entered upon an apprenticeship at the printer's trade in the Battle Creek Journal office when still a youth and in that place he also became an ardent Whig in his political convictions. He came to Battle Creek, Michigan in 1852. He has ever been an ardent politician; he was 'Under the Oaks' at Jackson, at the organization of the Republican party, in 1854; hurrahed for John C. Fremont in the presidential campaign of 1856, though then not old enough to vote, and he has hurrahed for every Republican can- didate since, and expeets to live to hurrah for several more. His war service as a sharpshooter covered three years, ten months and nine days, but more of that anon.
"In 1867 he helped establish the Flint Globe; later was foreman and reporter of the Sioux City, Iowa, Times in 1878; founder of the Sibley, Iowa, Gazette in 1872; manager of the Chelsca, Iowa, Bugle in 1875; foreman and manager of the Hastings, Michigan, Banner in 1876; starter of the Lake City Journal in 1877; and since 1884 he has owned and operated the Reed City Clarion, at Reed City, Osceola county, Michigan." The ensuing resume of Mr. Barker's book will serve to il- lustrate his experiences in the Civil war, and it may be said here that the book is well worth reading as history and recreation.
Company D, Sixty-sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, was re- eruited principally in Battle Creek, Hartford, Keeler, Watervleit, Ben- ton Harbor and St. Joseph, in September, 1861, by Captain John Piper of Battle Creek, who was killed at Spottsylvania. It was sent to bar- racks at St. Louis, Missouri, and mustered in as the Fourteenth Mis- souri, afterward called the Sixty-sixth Illinois. It was under fire for the first time at Mt. Zion, Missouri, December 28, 1861. Early in 1862 it formed a part of Grant's army that captured Forts Henry and Donel- son and many thousand prisoners. It was in the thickest of the fighting at Corinth and Shiloh in the spring of 1862. Its first eolonel, Birge, was superseded in June, 1862, by Pat Burke, a regular army artillery cap- tain. Burke was a daredevil in battle and was mortally wounded in the Atlanta campaign.
"Ren" and in fact most of the soldiers in Grant's army, supposed the fall of Forts Donelson and Ilenry ended the war, so they proceeded to collect all sorts of relies to take home. Included in the relies Mr. Barker
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stowed in his knapsack was a six-pound cannon ball, which he carried on a march of eighteen miles. Then he discarded it and the rest of the relies. Three years of fighting was ahead of them before they could take relics home.
In the summer of 1862 Company D was on duty at General Grant's headquarters at Corinth. In April, 1863, it made a march of sixty-four miles in twenty-four hours while on a scouting expedition, which is said to be the longest march ever made by a company in that time. In De- cember, 1863, the men of Company D discarded their old rifles and pur- chased at their own expense the newly invented 17-shooter Henrys, paying fifty dollars each for the guns. The men continued to own their rifles to the end, the government furnishing the ammunition. Mr. Barker still has his Henry which he carried from 1862 to 1865, and he has the names of all the battles in which he used it engraved on the brass mountings of the stock. It is the only Henry still owned by a veteran of Company D.
Company D and the rest of the Sixty-sixth were assigned to Sher- man's army for the Atlanta campaign. It had the distinction on May 9, 1864, of opening the fighting of the army of the Tennessee, in this campaign. In the campaign the company was under fire one hundred and twenty days, the regiment losing two hundred and twenty-five men in killed and wounded. Company D lost all of its officers. After the fighting of July 22, the regimental flag showed sixty-six bullet holes in it. Mr. Barker himself was shot in the foot. Company D continued with Sherman's army on the march through Georgia and in the cam- paign through the Carolinas, culminating in the surrender of Johnston's army. It participated in the Grand Review at Washington, in May, 1865, and July 7th was mustered out of the service. This little band of Wolverine sharpshooters, for they were all Michigan young men, in its three years and eleven months' service, marched five thousand miles, fought twenty pitched battles, beside skirmishes innumerable, and lost almost as many men in killed and wounded as it contained at the close of the war. For twenty-seven years Company D has held its annual reunions at Watervleit, Berrien county.
Company D was on duty at the hanging of a somewhat noted Con- federate spy, Sam Davis, at Pulaski, Tennessee, November 1863, to whom the Daughters of the Confederacy only last year erected a monu- ment. Davis was caught with documents which he could only have secured from some disloyal Union officer. He was offered his life if he would reveal the officer's name, but he refused. Mr. Barker, who was corporal at that time gives a graphic description of that occurrence in his book. It is most interesting but rather grewsome and will not be included here on account of limited space.
Mr. Barker reprints in his book a letter he wrote to his father in the summer of 1863, just after the Division Commander, General Ogels- by, had resigned his commission. It reads:
"Dear Father: The address I enclose is from our brave General Ogelsby on taking leave of us. We regret to part with him as he is a perfect soldiers' man. I received the papers you sent and am very much obliged for them. At the present time of writing, I feel first-rate. In
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my last letter I wrote about the capture of nine rebels by us. One of them was recognized as having deserted the rebels and joined our forces then after he had gotten a full equipment, a horse, saddle, car- bine, revolver, saber and uniform he deserted our forces at Corinth. He was recognized, tried and shot last Thursday. It will be apt to teach others a lesson.
"Who would not belong to the Second Brigade? Thank God that I do, and that I was in the fight of the 3d of October, 1862, that General Ogelsby speaks of. * * * Your son, 'Ren' Barker."
Mr. Barker, despite the hard and continuous fighting of Company D, in the Atlanta campaign, like Silas Wegg, occasionally dropped into poetry. He wrote some that was sung by Company D on its marches. One set was labeled for their corps commander, General Logan, and sung to the tune of "The Kingdom's a'Comin'." It had this chorus :
"The Johnnies run, aha ! They'll fight us soon no more, They must have heard that Logan's a'comin' With the Fifteenth army corps."
Mr. Barker, in these piping times of peace, calls himself a "rabid Republican," a "stalwart of the stalwarts." He was a Blaine and Lo- gan presidential elector in 1884, and a Harrison presidential elector in 1889, also a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, that nominated Mckinley and Roosevelt; Past Chancellor Commander of the Reed City Knights of Pythias, has been secretary of Company D, Sixty-sixth Illinois Reunion Association for twenty-seven years; adjutant for Steetman Post, Reed City, G. A. R., ten years; adjutant for General I. C. Smith Post, Reed City, G. A. R., for eleven years; member of the Republican State Press Association and the Michigan State Press Association for years; was a member of the Michigan State Central Committee, under McMillan for eight years; is also a member of the Elks Lodge at Big Rapids; also honorary mem- ber of the Moose Lodge of Reed City, and is a valued and appreciative member of various other representative social and fraternal organiza- tions of prominent order. He is permanent historian of Company D. He has been delegate to the National Grand Army Encampments : Boston twice, Washington, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Detroit, St. Louis, St. Paul, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Denver, and to every state encampment since 1884. He was Postmaster of Reed City under President Harrison; has just been made Michigan's Honorary Vice President of the National Bureau for the Advancement of Patriotism. He is a loyal and public spirited citizen and has contributed gener- ously toward measures tending to advance the general welfare of the community. As a man he is affable and courteous in manner and in all the relations in life his record will bear the search-light of fullest investigation. ,
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