USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people; its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume III > Part 12
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LOUIS C. VASSEUR .- A venerable and respected resident of Ontonagon, Louis C. Vasseur has lived in this section of the Upper Peninsula for more than forty consecutive years, during which time he has been an interested observer of the many wonderful changes that have taken place in the face of the country, watching with pride and satisfaction its growing prosperity. A son of the late Charles Vasseur, Jr., he was born, October 19, 1829, in the village of Pentanguishine, Simcoe county, prov- ince of Ontario, Canada, of French descent.
His grandfather, Charles Vasseur, Sr., was born, bred, educated and married in Paris, France. Emigrating to this country, he followed his trade of a silversmith in New York City for a time, but subsequently followed the pioneer's trail to the northwestern territory, locating at Green Bay, Wis., when there were but few white settlers west of the
Louis C, Vasseur
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Ohio river. Establishing a trade with the Indians, he continued his resi- dence there until his death. His oldest son remained in France, but two daughters came to this country with him and his wife, and their other son, Charles, Jr., was born at Green Bay, Wis.
Charles Vasseur, Jr., grew up among the Indians at Green Bay, and when a young man went to Mackinac, and when the British soldiers withdrew from there he went with them to Drummond's Island, Lake Huron, where he married. He afterwards followed the soldiers to Canada, and settled permanently in Simcoe county, province of Ontario, purchasing three hundred and eighty acres of timberland, from which he cleared a good farm. He continued there a tiller of the soil until his death, which was accidental, he having been drowned, at the age of sev- enty-five years, in the Georgian Bay. He married, on Drummond's Island, Margaret MacAllister, who was born on Mackinac Island, in Lake Michigan. Her father, Mr. MacAllister, a native of Scotland, was then serving there as an officer in the British Army. He died soon after the War of 1812, and his body was taken back to Glasgow, Scotland, for burial. Mrs. Margaret Vasseur died at the age of seventy-seven years. She bore her husband fourteen children, twelve sons and two daughters.
Louis C. Vasseur grew to manhood in Pentanguishine, living there until twenty-four years of age. Coming then to Michigan, he sailed the Lakes a number of years. In 1863 he enlisted in Company B, Twenty- ninth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, at Marquette, and served with his regiment in all of its campaigns and engagements. In the battle before Petersburg, when the fort was blown up, he was dangerously wounded, and was thereafter confined in the hospital at St. David's Island until receiving his honorable discharge, on account of physical disability, in February, 1865. Mr. Vasseur immediately came to Ontonagon, Michi- gan, to visit a brother, and, with the exception of the following year, which he spent at Green Bay, Wisconsin, he has since resided in this place.
Mr. Vasseur married, in 1867, Harriet Benjamin, who was born in Ontonagon county, Michigan, a daughter of Joseph and Catherine Ben- jamin, and they have one child living, Joseph Vasseur. Four daughters were also born to them, Josephine, Pauline, Margaret, and Louisa, and all grew to womanhood, but have since passed to the life beyond.
RT. REV. G. MOTT WILLIAMS .- A distinguished representative of the priesthood of the Protestant Episcopal church is Rev. Gershon Mott Williams, of Marquette, who holds the distinguished office of Bishop of the diocese of Marquette, and who has labored with all of consecrated zeal and devotion in his noble field. The bishop is a scion of one of the honored pioneer families of Michigan and is the grandson of General John R. Williams, who was the first mayor of the city of Detroit, to which position he was elected six times, and who was the president of the Constitutional Convention of Assent, under which Michigan was ad- mitted to the Union. He organized the militia of the state and was its first major general. Judge Thomas Williams, great-grandfather of Bishop Williams, became a resident of Detroit about the middle of the eighteenth century, and he served as judge under appointment from the British government.
Bishop Williams was born at Fort Hamilton, New York, on the 11th of February, 1857, and is a son of General Thomas Williams, who served as major of the Fifth United States Artillery, commanded the Second Brigade of the Army of the Gulf in the Civil war, and who was killed in the battle of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on the 5th of
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August, 1862. He was born at Albany, New York, on the 16th of January, 1815. Mary N. (Bailey) Williams, mother of Bishop Wil- liams, was born at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, in 1835.
Bishop Williams received his early educational training in the schools of Newburg, New York, where he was graduated in the Free Academy, in 1871. Later he attended a classical school and in 1874 he went to Europe where he made an extended tour. He returned to America in the spring of 1875 and assumed the position of book- keeper in an agricultural implement manufactory in Newburg, New York. He won a competitive examination that entitled him to a course in Cornell University, where he remained a student until 1877, when he came to Detroit, Michigan, to attend to the interests of his father's estate in that city. There he began reading law in the office of Robert P. Toms and he was admitted to the bar on the 29th of De- cember, 1879. He had in the meanwhile determined to prepare him- self for the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal church and he pur- sued his divinity course under effective preceptorship until the 26th of December, 1880, when he received the orders of the diaconate in St. John's church, Detroit. He was ordained to the priesthood June 29, 1882. His first pastoral work was as curate to Rev. George Worth- ington, who was at the time rector of St. John's church in Detroit, and who was afterward bishop of the diocese of Nebraska. Bishop Wil- liams developed St. Matthew's church for colored people in Detroit, and for two years was also rector of the Church of the Messiah at Ham- tramck, now an integral portion of the city of Detroit. Thereafter he was in charge of St. George's church in Detroit until the spring of 1889, when he resigned the rectorship and went to Buffalo, New York, where he assumed a position in the diocesan cathedral. In the fall of the same year he became dean of the All Saints Cathedral in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in October, 1891, he was made archdeacon of the diocese of Michigan, and assigned to duty in the Upper Peninsula. At this time he established his home at Marquette, where he has since remained. In the office noted he took charge of the work of the church in the Upper Peninsula, as deputy to Rt. Rev. Thomas F. Davies, the reverend and honored bishop of the diocese of Michigan. On the 1st of May, 1896, at Grace church in the city of Detroit, Bishop Williams was raised to the Episcopate and became the first bishop of the new diocese of Marquette. He has given a most forceful and able administration of the affairs of his diocese and has greatly furthered the temporal and spiritual prosperity of the church in his jurisdiction. Bishop Williams is a man of high intellectuality and of marked executive ability so that he is admirably fitted for the high office to which he has been called in his church. In 1889 Hobart College at Geneva, New York, conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts, and in 1904 the same degree was conferred upon him by the University of Michigan. He was made D. D. in 1895, also by Hobart College. In 1896 he represented the Episcopal church in the convention held at Winnipeg, Canada, and in 1909 he represented the church as delegate to the religious conference held in Sweden, this appointment having been conferred upon him by the distinguished Arch-bishop of Canterbury, of England. The Bishop is Republican in his political allegiance and is identified with various patriotic and literary organizations. He was chaplain of the Wisconsin Comman- dery of the Loyal Legion at the time of his residence in Milwaukee; in 1889 he was editor of the "American Church Times" and from 1884 to 1886 he served as chaplain of the Fourth Regiment of the Michi- gan National Guard.
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On the 20th of February, 1879, was solemnized the marriage of Bishop Williams to Miss Eliza Bradish Biddle, of Detroit. She is a daughter of William S. Biddle and granddaughter of Major John Biddle, who was a distinguished pioneer of Michigan. Bishop and Mrs. Williams have seven children,-Susan D., Thomas Victor, Day- ton Ogden, Cecil H., Rhoda, John B. and Mary Josepha. Thomas Vic- tor is engaged in the practice of law in the city of Detroit; Dayton O. is engaged in the lumber business in the state of Oregon; and Cecil H. is an instructor in the University of Michigan.
JOSEPH HERMANN .- Germany has sent many of her stanchest sons across the Atlantic to become American citizens, and belonging to that class whose emigration must be accounted a loss to the Father- land is Joseph Hermann, a prominent jeweler and vice-president of the First National Bank of Calumet. Mr. Herman was born in Baden, Germany, January 4, 1842. His parents were John and Jresengia (Willman) Hermann, both of whom lived and died in the old coun- try. The father was a miller and followed this vocation throughout the best years of his life.
Joseph Hermann was educated in those excellent public schools which are the pride of his native country. He left his desk and school books at the age of fourteen and became an apprentice to a jeweler, serving faithfully for three years on a diminutive salary. Having completed the training for his trade he traveled for a time as a jour- neyman, visiting many cities and constantly acquiring new skill in his vocation. In 1864 he answered the beckon of Opportunity from the New World and came to the United States, landing at Castle Garden, New York. He went directly to Lake Superior and located on Eagle River at a place called Eagle Harbor where he was employed as cutter on a certain kind of jewelry. At the end of a year he em- barked in business on his own account, locating at Phoenix, Kewee- naw county, where he remained until 1868. He then removed to Calumet where he opened a jewelry store and was soon in the enjoy- ment of a profitable business, increasing his stock as his means accu- mulated. He also invested in real estate and erected a three-story brick building which is known as the Hermann block. His own store is located therein and the other rooms he rents to other businesses. He has other interests, being a director of the First National Bank of Calumet and vice-president of the same, which office he has held since 1905. He was at one time director of the Merchants & Miners Bank of Calumet.
In 1867 Miss Mary Miller, a resident of Keweenaw county, be- came the wife of Mr. Hermann. She is a native of Switzerland, who came to this country when a little girl. This union has been blessed by the birth of twelve children. John is associated with his father in the jewelry business; Lucas is also associated with his father; Ed- ward L. is a mining engineer; Adolph and Amandus are students in school; Bertha is at home, and the other daughters all are married and presiding over households of their own.
Mr. Hermann adheres to the principles of the Republican party and is well-informed as to public matters, having been for several years a member of the city council. He is retiring in his habits, has been industrious and frugal and has accumulated a substantial compe- tency for his old age. Both he and his wife are devout members of the Catholic church.
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HUGH B. LAING, present postmaster of Gladstone, Michigan, was born in Buckingham, Canada, April 22. 1859. He was reared on a farm in his native place, and attended Buckingham high school, after which he worked on the farm with his father until twenty-one years old; he came to the Northern Peninsula in 1880, spending a short time at Norway, and then locating at Iron Mountain. In the latter town he spent six years as bookkeeper for Laing Brothers, after which he removed to Gladstone and engaged in the grocery business with his brother Peter, which they still continue as P. & H. B. Laing. He is one of the oldest merchants in Gladstone, having been in business there twenty-two years, or since the town was founded. He is well known in the city and vicinity, and one of the most prominent and influential citizens. Besides his grocery business he is connected with many other enterprises, is secretary and treasurer of Gleason Explor- ation & Mining Company, of Gladstone, and secretary of the Glad- stone Land & Timber Company.
Mr. Laing has been a lifelong Republican, and has always taken an active interest in the advancement of the party's principles. He was appointed postmaster in 1898. was re-appointed by Roosevelt in 1902 and again re-appointed by him in 1906, having now held the office eleven years. He previously served three years as city treasurer.
In 1887 Mr. Laing married Carrie Kent, of Iron Mountain, Michi- gan, and to this union have been born two children, Edmund Leslie and Hazel Dean.
THOMAS M. WELLS .- A man of keen powers of discernment and dis- crimination, possessing undoubted executive and financial ability, Thomas Moses Wells holds a position of prominence among the sub- stantial and valued citizens of Negaunee, Marquette county, where he has been associated with interests of great importance, at the present time, in 1910, acting as administrator of the estate of Nicholas Laugh- lin. Of English lineage, and a descendant on both sides of the house of very early settlers of New England, he was born April 17, 1848, in Salisbury, Connecticut, the birthplace of both his parents, Silas and Jane (Lee) Wells.
Born in 1812, Silas Wells succeeded to the independent occupation of his ancestors, and was actively engaged in agricultural pursuits during his entire life, passing away on his Connecticut farm, in 1890. He was an honest, upright man, and a firm supporter of the principles of the Republican party. His first wife, Jane Lee, died in 1848. on the home farm, in Salisbury, Connecticut. She bore him five children,- four sons and one daughter, two of whom are living, Ruth Wells Brew- ster living in Willimantic, Connecticut, and Thomas Moses, the sub- ject of this memoir, who is the youngest child. Silas Wells married for his second wife Emily Ball, also a native of Connecticut, and to them five children were born, one of whom died in infancy. Lois, who married Henry Gaylord, of Lakeville, Connecticut, died in 1904; and Emma, Sarah and Julia are now residents respectively of Boston, Mas- sachusetts, Peekskill, New York, and Wichita, Kansas.
The immigrant ancestor of Thomas Moses Wells was one Thomas Wells, who came from England to New England in the early colonial days, and who, as a man of strong individuality and resolute purpose. soon became a leader among his fellow men and served as the first provincial governor of Connecticut. Inheriting in some measure the forceful characteristics of his immigrant ancestor, Thomas Moses Wells has met with much success in life, his courage and spirit of determina-
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Thowar In. Wells
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tion overcoming all obstacles. Brought up on the home farm until nineteen years of age, he received a good academic education. He subsequently worked in a woolen mill for three years, when, as a re- sult of its sudden failure, he lost his first deposited earnings. He then became a clerk in a store and at the end of two years, in 1873, was in- duced by the late senator William H. Barnum to come to Negaunee, Michigan, where for the ensuing eight years he was employed in the large mercantile store of the Iron Cliffs Mining Company, of which Senator Barnum was president. During that period Mr. Wells served for four years as a member of the county board of supervisors. From 1881 until 1884 he was deputy United States collector of internal reve- nue for the Upper Peninsula district, retiring from this position upon the incoming of President Cleveland's administration.
In 1887 Mr. Wells purchased the mercantile business of the Iron Cliffs Mining Company and conducted it until 1904. In 1894 he had the misfortune to be completely burned out, and he reopened a new store just in time to be caught in the three months' labor strike of Ne- gaunee, the most serious that ever occurred in northern Michigan. At that time Mr. Wells operated a branch store at what was then known as "Swanzy Location," but which is now Princeton. The Escanaba Land & Iron Company was there working a mine and Mr. Wells be- came a very heavy creditor by the company paying their employes through his store. Owing to grave dissensions in the company, a re- organization was made, J. B. Mass being made president of the com- pany, and Mr. Wells was elected secretary and treasurer, the treasury containing at that time but seventy-two dollars, while the outstanding bills amounted to over fifty thousand dollars. Being appointed re- ceiver for said company at the end of three months, Mr. Wells per- sonally operated the mine to the extent of keeping it free from water, and after three years he sold about one half of the acreage to Todd, Stambaugh & Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, for eighty-five thousand dollars, a sum that paid up all debts and the accumulated interest in full. Previous to that time, and while Mr. Wells was receiver for the Escanaba Land & Iron Company, the company's property was ex- amined under options by eight very heavy iron interests of the United States, each of which surrendered their options of purchase at seventy- five thousand dollars. After a few years Todd, Stambaugh & Company sold their holdings to the Cleveland Cliff Iron Mining Company, which concern also leased the remaining holdings of the Escanaba Land & Iron Company and which now has control of one of the most wonder- ful ore deposits of the Upper Peninsula. The Cleveland Cliff Iron Min- ing Company was one of the eight iron companies that examined, under an option of fifty thousand dollars, the property lying on section 18, while Mr. Wells was receiver, and this company was the only one that explored with a drill. Although then declining to give fifty thousand dollars, the company later, according to report, paid several hundred thousand dollars for the same property.
In 1902 Mr. Wells was employed by the state tax commission in the reassessment of the values throughout the state, his work being con- fined to the lower part of Michigan. He is now administering on the estate of the late Nicholas Laughlin, for many years one of the largest and most extensive mercantile dealers in the Upper Peninsula. In politics Mr. Wells is a stanch adherent of the Republican party. In 1902 he was elected to the state legislature and there served during the session of 1903-1904. He was defrauded from his second term on ac- count of a factional fight in county offices for which he was entirely unprepared.
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Mr. Wells was made a Mason in 1878 and is prominent in the order, having attained to the thirty-second degree. He is a member of Ne- gaunee Lodge No. 202, Free and Accepted Masons; of Negaunee Chap- ter, No. 108, Royal Arch Masons, of which bodies he has been secretary and treasurer respectively for several years; of Lake Superior Com- mandery, No. 30, Knights Templar in the city of Marquette; of Ahmed Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, also of Marquette; and of De Witt Clinton Consistory, in the city of Grand Rapids.
On the 15th of October, 1884, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wells to Miss Cora Snow, who was born at Greenfield, Massachusetts, and who is a daughter of Newell and Sarah (Hale) Snow, both natives of the old Bay state. Newell Snow was one of the men who were suc- cessfully engaged in mining for gold in Nova Scotia, acquiring wealth in his ventures. He was a prominent factor in the Republican party and served two terms in the state legislature of Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Snow became the parents of four children,-F. E., Ella, Cora, who is now Mrs. Wells, and Walter. Mr. and Mrs. Wells have three daughters, namely,-Ruth Snow, Florence Hale, and Cora Lee.
J. WELLS CHURCH, M. D .- At Drummond, on Harbor Island, which constitutes a portion of Chippewa county, Dr. Church has maintained his home for more than forty years and he is now one of the venerable pioneer citizens of the Upper Peninsula, where his career has abounded in interesting features and where he has ever held a secure place in the estcem of the people of this section of the state. In the early days he was familiar with the conditions and influences of the pioneer epoch as his father was engaged in trading with the Indians and he has contributed in large measure to the development of the great re- sources of the Upper Peninsula, to which his loyalty has been of the most insistent order. He is familiarly known by the title of captain, as well as that of doctor, and it is a matter of special gratification to the publishers of this work to be able to offer within its pages even a brief review of his interesting career.
Dr. J. Wells Church, oldest son of Philetus Swift and Elizabeth (Wells) Church, was born at Byron, Genesee county, New York, on the 8th of September, 1838, and he was a mere child at the time of his parents' removal to Detroit, Michigan, whence they removed to Mack- inac Island, about the spring of 1845. In the ensuing fall they went to Sault Ste. Marie, where they remained throughout the winter, at the expiration of which they established their home on Sugar Island, twelve miles down the St. Mary's river, at a point that was known as Church's Landing. This place is now on the "Old Channel," at the head of "Big" Lake George. At this primitive settlement, named in honor of his father, Dr. Church was reared to maturity and there he continued to reside until he had attained to the age of thirty years when, in September, 1868, in company with his wife and their little son, he removed to Traverse City in the lower peninsula of the state, where he remained a few months. Within this time his health became much impaired, as shown in the fact that he had frequent pulmonary hemorrhages. Under these conditions he decided to return to the St. Mary's river, and the return voyage was accomplished in a twenty- two foot Mackinac boat. With his wife and little son he arrived at Detour, at the mouth of St. Mary's river, on the 28th of November, 1868. Before the opening of the new year he established his resi- dence on Harbor Island, in the township of Drummond, this being one
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of the group of islands constituting the castern end of the present county of Chippewa. In this picturesque spot the Doctor has main- tained his home during the long intervening years, within which he has witnessed the development of this section from a primitive wilder- ness into one of the attractive and prosperous divisions of a great commonwealth. His early education was largely gained through self- discipline and he has become a man of broad and exact information, as well as of excellent ability as a physician. As a boy he became actively identified with his father's operations as Indian trader, in connection with which were handled furs, timber and other products of Indian labor, and having only Indian playmates he acquired a knowledge of the Ojibway language while still a youth. Partly owing to this fact and partly to the demands placed upon the few white set- tlers in the early days he was virtually forced into the practice of medicine, in which he became proficient. After his return to the Upper Peninsula his business soon became divided between marine architecture and the medical profession and with these widely dif- fering lines of occupation he has since been actively identified. Dur- ing his entire career his work has been mainly of educational order, as he has taught the natives, both Indians and mixed bloods, the arts of boat-building, steam-engineering, carpentry and blacksmith work, as well as instructing them in all kinds of lumbering and raft- ing. On the 9th of June, 1864, Dr. Church launched a tug, which was the first steam craft originated and constructed entirely in Chippewa county. Prior to this time a number of boats propelled by steam had been designed and framed in Detroit and thence shipped to the Upper Peninsula, where they were put together and where the machinery was installed, such boats being placed in commission on Lake Supe- rior. The tug thus constructed by Dr. Church was named the "Pio- neer," after the Pioneer line of steamboats previously established. Sheldon McKnight, Tolman Whiting and H. D. Walbridge of Detroit, were the promoters of the line which was more familiarly known as the McKnight line. The captain and doctor who figures as the sub- ject of this review, had previously constructed many boats and he still continues in the boat-building business, his last boat, built in 1910, being No. 105. For many years he and the late Dr. Oren B. Lyon, of Sault Ste. Marie, were the only medical practitioners of Chippewa county and in latter years Dr. Church has practiced only as a matter of charity,-mostly among the Indians. For nearly six years he served as deputy collector of customs, at Detour, and his commission bore date of November 1, 1881. Since his retirement from this office he has been more or less constantly engaged as official measurer of floating crafts of all kinds for government tonnage.
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