USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people; its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume III > Part 6
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Josiah Royce married, September 12, 1854, Jeannette Stewart, who was born in Little Dundee, Scotland, April 1, 1835. Her father, David Stewart, located in Eramosa township, Ontario, where he cleared and improved a valuable homestead. On September 12, 1904, Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Royce celebrated the golden anniversary of their wedding at their old home, their children. grandchildren, and a host of friends gathering in large numbers to assist in the festivities, the occasion being a men- orable one. Thirteen children were born of their union, namely : Rob- ert A .; David S. ; John C .; Lizzie M .; James Stewart; Edwin S .; Henry L .; William A., died in infancy ; Jessie E .; Mary, lived but nine years ; Josiah C .; Ida May; and Jennie Kate.
At the age of sixteen years, having completed his education in the public schools. James Stewart Royce began working with his uncle. James Hunter, a manufacturer of flour barrels, for his work as a chore boy and in the shop receiving his board and ten cents a day. At the end of the first year he had saved twenty dollars of his wages. The following year he was similarly employed, his wages being increased, his accumu- lations at the end of the second year amounting to $250. When nine- teen years old, Mr. Royce bought out his uncle, and was engaged in the manufacture of barrels two and one-half years. Selling out at that time, Mr. Royce went to Paisley, Ontario, where for ten months he was in the employ of Robert Scott, a dealer in flour, feed, and general mer- chandise. Removing then to Harrison, Wellington county, he was there engaged in the flour and feed business on his own account for two years.
In 1888. having disposed of that business. Mr. Royce came to the Upper Peninsula, and until 1902 was engaged in the grocery business at Sault Ste. Marie. Selling out. he spent two years at Ypsilanti, Michi- gan. Returning to Sault Ste. Marie, Mr. Royce opened his present shoe store in May, 1905, and has here built up a large and remunerative busi-
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ness, being one of the most successful and popular boot and shoe men in the city.
Mr. Royce has been twice married. He married first, February 28, 1883. Emma Callahan, who was born in Simcoe county, Canada, a daugh- ter of William and Alice (Strong) Callahan, the former of whom was a native of Canada, and the latter of Ireland. She died February 10, 1888, having borne him two children, Mabel I. and Cecil, who died in infancy. Mabel I. was graduated from the Sault Ste. Marie high school with the class of 1901. She attended the Ypsilanti State Normal and after her graduation returned to the "Soo" and took up the profes- sion of teacher, her first experience being in the country schools. She has been a remarkably successful teacher. She is a member of the Christian church, a teacher in the Bible school and president of the Christian En- deavor Society. Fraternally she is a Pythian Sister.
Mr. Royce married, second, August 5, 1889, Lizzie Callahan, a sister of his first wife. She was also born in Simcoe county and was educated in the common schools. She was a student in the Wellington (Ontario) Model High School, and after securing her teacher's certificate, taught for three years in Canada, being only sixteen when she began teach- ing. She has also taught in the schools of Chippewa county. Mrs. Royce is a devout member of the Christian church and teacher of a boys class in the Bible school. She is a Pythian Sister and a member of the Re- bekahs and has passed through the chairs in both societies.
Politically Mr. Royce invariably supports the principles of the Re- publican party by voice and vote. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias; to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and to the Knights of the Maccabees, which he joined eighteen years ago. He is a trustworthy member of the Christian church, which his grandfathers served as elders, and in which his mother was baptized in Scotland when twelve years of age. At the present time Mr. Royce of this review is elder in the Christian, or Disciples of Christ church in Sault Ste. Marie, and he is one of the faithful teachers in the Bible school.
JEREMIAH T. FINNEGAN .- Bringing to the practice of his profession a well trained mind, a keen intellect, with a good capacity for concen- trated work, Jeremiah T. Finnegan is numbered among the honored and successful lawyers of Hancock, where he has built up a large and lucra- tive practice. A son of Michael Finnegan, he was born March 10, 1850, at the Cliff Mine, in Keweenaw county, of Irish stock.
His paternal grandfather, Jeremiah Finnegan, was a lifelong farmer in County Kerry, Ireland, where he married Catherine Sullivan, who was born, lived and died in the same county. Of the children that they reared, three sons came to America, Michael, Jeremiah and John. Jere- miah located in Houghton county, and here spent his remaining days. John located at Eagle River, Michigan, and there, on August 3, 1861, enlisted in Company D, Sixteenth Michigan Volunteer Infantry. Going south with his regiment, he lost his life, June 27, 1862, at the battle of Gaines's Mills.
Born in the parish of Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, Michael Finnegan lived there until after his marriage. In 1846 he came with his family to America, crossing the ocean in a sailing vessel, at the end of a six weeks' voyage, landing at Quebec. Coming from there directly to Northern Michigan, he arrived at Copper Harbor in season to assist in the very first Fourth of July celebration ever held in the Upper Penin- sula. He subsequently went to Lac La Belle, from there proceeding to
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Ontonagon county, where he helped open the Ohio Trap Rock Mine. He afterward spent a while at the Cliff Mine, from there going to Eagle Harbor, where he erected a building, and was afterward engaged in mercantile business until he was burned out. Erecting a hotel, he then kept a house of public entertainment for a time, and in 1856 located at Houghton, where he became a contractor in public works, and between 1865 and 1867 built the road from Houghton to the Ontonagon county line, cutting the way through the wilderness. He was enterprising and far-sighted, and having purchased land at different times, superintended the clearing of a farm, and continued his residence at Houghton until his death, in December, 1897, at the age of seventy-eight years. He married Margaret Tracy, who was born in the city of Cork, Ireland, a daughter of George Tracy, a native of County Wicklow, Ireland, and a lifelong miner in the Emerald isle. She died in May, 1898, aged seventy- seven years, leaving eight children, namely: Mary, Jeremiah T., Cather- ine, Bridget, Margaret A., Nellie E., Annie, and Michael J. A stanch Democrat in politics, Michael Finnegan served as a delegate to many distriet and county conventions, and in 1876 was a presidential elector.
Obtaining his primary education in the schools of Houghton, Jere- miah T. Finnegan subsequently attended a private school in Detroit three years, and in 1869 was graduated from the Houghton high school, being a member of the first class to graduate from that institution. He afterward assisted his father in business until 1871, when he went to Ann Arbor to enter the University of Michigan, becoming a pupil in the law department, from which he was graduated with the class of 1873. Becoming then clerk in a law office in Detroit, he remained on that po- sition until the fall of 1876, when he returned to Houghton. In 1875, when Baraga county was detached from Houghton county, and organ- ized as a separate county, Mr. Finnegan was elected its prosecuting at- torney, and took up his residence at L'Anse. Opening a law office in Hancock in 1876, he has remained here since, in the meantime building up an excellent patronage, being very successful in his particular branch of legal work, which includes searching and perfecting titles, his clientage in this line including individuals and great corporations alike.
Mr. Finnegan married, in 1888, Margaret Hennessey, who was born at St. Thomas, province of Ontario, Canada, a daughter of Henry and Julia (Barry) Hennessey, natives of Ireland. Hennessey M. Finnegan, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Finnegan, is now a student at Marquette College, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Mr. Finnegan is a man of good business qualifications and judgment, and has been an extensive and successful dealer in real estate. He owned and platted "Copper City," which sprung up as by magic in the year 1909. Politically he is a Cleveland Democrat, true to the principles of his party. He served as village and city attorney in Hancock for up- ward of twenty years, and has been a delegate to numerous district and county conventions.
DAVID J. SLINEY .- In the development and advancement of the ex- tensive and valuable mining interests of the Upper Peninsula David J. Sliney, of Ishpeming, has played an active and important part. having been continuously associated with the Michigan mines since his early boyhood. Beginning his career as water boy, he has gradually worked his way upward through his own painstaking exertions, and now holds the honored position of assistant to the general superintendent of the Oliver Iron Mining Company, of which William H. Johnston is the
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manager. He is known as a public-spirited and useful member of the community, paying careful attention to the interests of others and to those things that contribute toward the welfare and progress of society, being ever ready to endorse all beneficial enterprises. A son of Jere- miah Sliney, he was born, September 22, 1869, in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.
Jeremiah Sliney was born in county Cork, Ireland, in 1836, and there spent the days of his boyhood and youth. Emigrating to this country in his early manhood, he found work at Oakville, Ontario. About 1869 he came to Ishpeming, Michigan, where he was engaged in surface work at the iron mines for many years. In 1873 he went back to Ontario to get his wife and children, and subsequently spent the remainder of his life in Ishpeming. dying here in 1898. He was an industrious, honest man, faithful in his loyalty to the Roman Catholic church, of which he was a member, and an earnest supporter of the principles of the Repub- lican party. He married Ellen MeMenamin, who was born in county Mayo. Ireland, and is now living in Ishpeming, their union having been solemnized in Oakville. Ontario. Eight children were born to them. seven of whom are living, David J. being the fifth child in succession of birth.
Coming with his parents to Ishpeming in 1873, David J. Sliney ac- quired his education in the public schools, which he attended winters for several years. His first work as a wage-earner was during the sum- mer of 1881. when he secured a position as water boy at the Lake Su- perior mine. Three years later, on May 13, 1885, he proudly accepted the position of office boy for the same company, and performed his duties so faithfully that on May 1, 1887. he was made shipping clerk. On August 1. 1889. he was promoted to office clerk, and the following year, October 1, 1890, he was given the position of assistant bookkeeper, and continued as such until January 1, 1902, when he became assistant chief clerk of the company. a capacity in which he served most ably and acceptably until April 1. 1905. At that time Mr. Sliney accepted his present responsible position as assistant to William H. Johnston, general superintendent of the Oliver Iron Mining Company. and is here dis- charging his duties with the same ability, fidelity and punctuality that characterized his previous efforts.
True to the political faith in which he was reared, Mr. Sliney is identified with the Republican party. During ten or more years he represented the Second ward of the city of Ishpeming as alderman, hav- ing been first elected to the office in the spring of 1900.
PETER C. SERVATIUS .- Possessing in a large measure the habits of in- dustry, enterprise and activity characteristic of his German ancestors, Peter C. Servatius, of Menominee, has won well deserved success in his undertakings. and is an important factor in advancing the business in- terests of the community in which he resides. A son of Peter Servatius, he was born. September 6. 1865, at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where his early life was spent.
Born in 1813 in Germany, Peter Servatius was reared and educated in the fatherland. His prospects there for earning a livelihood not be- ing particularly bright he emigrated, in 1832, to America, crossing the ocean in a sailing vessel. From New York city he made his way to Buffalo, New York, where he followed his trade of a shoemaker for awhile, from there going subsequently to Grand Rapids, Michigan. A few years later he removed to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and was there
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engaged in the boot and shoe business until 1883. Having by good man- agement acquired a competency, he afterward lived retired from active pursuits until his death, in 1894. He married Gertrude Hall, who was born, in 1831, in Cologne, Germany, and is now living at Wausau, Wis- consin. Of the twelve children born of their union, ten are now living, Peter C., the special subject of this sketch, being the eighth child in succession of birth. Both parents were lifelong members of the Ger- man Roman Catholic church.
Having acquired a practical education in the public schools of Fond du Lac, Peter C. Servatius followed the painter's trade for five years. Desirous then of establishing himself in business on his own account, he went to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he conducted a meat market from 1883 until 1884, the following two years being similarly employed in Brooklyn, New York. In 1886 Mr. Servatius located in Menominee, and has here been exceedingly prosperous in his ventures, being now one of the leading business men of the city.
Mr. Servatius married, October 3, 1888, Marie J. Garon, who was born in Menekaunee, Wisconsin, being the eldest of a large family of children born to Joseph and Marie (Le Claire) Garon. Joseph Garon was born at Three Rivers, Canada, and in early manhood located at Green Bay, Wisconsin, which was the birthplace of his wife. He sub- sequently entered the employ of the Kirby Carpenter Lumber Company, having charge of their lathe mill as long as they continued in business in Green Bay, but is now living retired, enjoying the fruits of his many years of toil. He is a man of deep religious convictions, and a faithful member of St. John's Baptist Society.
Politically Mr. Servatius is independent in his views. voting for the best men and measures regardless of party restrictions. Fraternally he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America: of the Knights of Columbus; the Catholic Order of Foresters. St. Mary's Court, No. 281; of Goodtown Tent. No. 714, K. O. T. M. ; and of the Yeomen of America.
WALTER W. CASE .- As assistant treasurer of the Northwestern Leather Company Walter W. Case is numbered among the represen- tative business men of Sault Ste. Marie. He was born in Tremont, Tazewell county, Illinois, on the 20th of November, 1862, and is a son of Milton W. and Ella (Loomis) Case, the former of whom was born in the state of New York and the latter in Pennsylvania. Mr. Case was a child at the time of his parents' removal to Pennsylvania and in the public schools of that state he secured his early educational discipline. This was supplemented by a course in Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pennsylvania, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1884, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. After graduating he assumed a clerical position in the First National Bank of Greenville, Pennsylvania, and finally he located in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, where he was engaged in the insurance business until the year 1900, when he came to Sault Ste. Marie and assumed his present position of assistant treasurer of the Northwestern Leather Company.
In polities Mr. Case gives his allegiance to the Republican party and his Masonic affiliations are here briefly noted: Mount Horeb Lodge, Free & Accepted Masons of Woburn, Massachusetts: Woburn Chapter, Royal Arch Masons: and Hugh de Payens Commandery No. 20. Knights Templar of Melrose, Massachusetts; besides which he is identified with Ahmed Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles
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of the Mystic Shrine, in the city of Marquette, and is a member of Crystal Fount Lodge No. 9, I. O. O. F. of Woburn, Massachusetts. He is a member of the Phi Delta Theta College fraternity.
WILLIAM S. LALONDE .- Partieular interest attaches to the career of this well known citizen and representative business man of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, from the faet that he is a scion of a family that was founded at this place nearly eighty-five years ago, his paternal grandfather having here settled when the present thriving city had but three white families as residents.
Mr. LaLonde was born in Koshkawong, on St. Joseph Island, prov- inee of Ontario, Canada, on the 27th of May, 1848, at which time his mother was there visiting her old home, though the family residence was in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. IIe is a son of Seraphine and Char- lotte (Rousseau) LaLonde, the former of whom was born at St. Bon- iface, opposite Winnipeg, in the Red River of the North country, of Manitoba, on the 12th of May, 1822, and whose death occurred at Sault Ste. Marie on the 24th day of July, 1907, and the latter was born in Penetanguishene, province of Ontario, on the 4th of November, 1827. Her marriage to Seraphine LaLonde was solemnized in 1847, and she still retains her home in Sault Ste. Marie, being one of the most venerable pioneer women of this section of the state. Of the eight children born to them, five are still living and of this number, William S., the subject of this sketeh, is the eldest; John E. is a resi- dent of Sault Ste. Marie; Sophia A. is the widow of Charles H. Pease, to whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of this work ; Henry J. is a representative business man of Sault Ste. Marie, and Charlotte Louisa is a resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Seraphine LaLonde was about four years of age at the time his parents, Francis and Josette (Marlow) LaLonde took up their resi- dence in Sault Ste. Marie, in 1826, and at the time of his death he was the oldest continuous resident of this city, whose development he wit- nessed from the status of a mere hamlet in the midst of the forest to one of the thriving industrial and business eenters of the Upper Pen- insula. His father, prior to the removal of the family to Sault Ste. Marie, had for ten years been employed as a voyageur for the Hud- son's Bay Company in Manitoba and was a native of the province of Quebec, where he was born in 1767, a son of French parents. Sera- phine LaLonde was reared to maturity in Sault Ste. Marie, and be- came one of its prominent and highly honored business men. He served for seven years as inspector of customs at this point and upon retiring from this office he turned his attention to farming in Chippewa county. He became the owner of considerable property in Sault Ste. Marie, and through its appreciation in value he gained a substantial fortune. He was an influential eitizen and ever showed a loyal in- terest in all that touched the general welfare of the community which so long represented his home. He was the first white child christened in the first Catholic church established in Sault Ste. Marie. He was the seventeenth child of a family of eighteen children born of the same father and mother, and there was no twins. His wife who still resides in Sault Ste. Marie, is a daughter of John B. and Julia (De Lamerondier) Rousseau. The latter was born in Kalamazoo, Miehi- gan, and died in Sault Ste. Marie, on the 19th of May, 1903, at the remarkable age of one hundred years and four days.
William S. LaLonde was reared to adult age in Sault Ste. Marie, where he gained his early educational training and as a youth he
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entered upon an apprenticeship to the carpenter's trade in Detroit. Michigan, to which he devoted his attention for some time. In 1868 he became identified in railroading, first, on the Marquette & Ontonagon Railroad, now a part of the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantie R. R. as assistant yard master at Marquette, Michigan. In 1871 he entered the service of the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad, now a branch of the Northern Pacific R. R., at Duluth, Minnesota, as yard master, and later as a conductor from Duluth to St. Paul. In 1873 he removed to St. Louis, Missouri, and entered the service of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad, as a locomotive fireman and later was promoted to the position of locomotive engineer, in which he contin- ued to serve until 1877, when he became afflicted with malarial fever and found it necessary to make a change of location. Under these conditions he returned to Sault Ste. Marie, and here he was identified with the construction of the Weitzel Lock, on the St. Mary's river. He continued thus engaged until the lock was completed, in 1881, and in the summer of that year he had the pleasure of seeing the first ves- sel pass through the new lock. Soon afterward he removed to Duluth, Minnesota, where he was engaged in business until 1887, when he re- turned to Sault Ste. Marie, where he was engaged in the laundry bus- iness until 1892. Since that time he has devoted his attention to the real estate business, in connection with which he has also built up a successful insurance business, which he made an adjunct of his enter- prise in 1902. He is known as a progressive and reliable business man and as a worthy representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of the Upper Peninsula. In politics he is a stanch Republiean, having cast his first presidential vote for General Ulysses S. Grant and he is a communicant of the St. Mary's Catholic church. He is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, the St. Jean Baptiste Society and the Knights of the Maccabees.
On the 27th of December, 1885, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. LaLonde to Miss Emily Heck, who was born at Iron Mountain, Missouri, in 1864, and whose death occurred on the 23d of October, 1892. She was a daughter of David and Catherine Heck, the former of whom was born in Alsace-Lorraine, France, and the latter in Ger- many. The father died in 1879, and the mother now resides in Bis- marek, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. LaLonde became the parents of three children, William J., E. Barbara and Noletta K. All of the children have received excellent educational advantages, both William J. and Noletta K. having been graduated in the high school of their city. The former has taken up mining engineering as a vocation, and the latter is teaching school, and Barbara has attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio for two years, and here she will attend another year to fit herself as a music teacher in high schools.
MICHAEL B. McGEE .- A man of undoubted ability, worth and integ- rity, Michael B. MeGee occupies a place of prominence among the sub- stantial citizens of Crystal Falls, which has been his home for nearly a quarter of a century. He was born, January 29, 1852, in county Antrim, Ireland, a son of James McGee, of Scotch ancestry.
James McGee was born, either in Scotland, or in Ireland of Seotch parents. He was brought up and married in Ireland, living there until February, 1852, when he emigrated to this country. Accompanied by his wife and two children, he embarked on a sailing vessel, and after seven weeks on the water landed at Quebec. Proceeding to the province of Ontario, he bought land in the vicinity of Goderieh, and was there
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1816, in the parish of Koppie, county Tyrone, Ireland. In 1830 he came to the United States in a sailing vessel, after a voyage of seven weeks landing in Philadelphia. After spending a short time in Wash- ington county, Pennsylvania, he went to West Virginia, settling near Wellsburg. On January 21, 1837, he located in Ohio, and nine years later, in 1846, he bought one hundred and twenty acres of wooded land in Coshocton county, and having cleared a space in the forest erected the log cabin in which his son James was born, and which still stands on the old homestead. Working with energy and skill, he redeemed a good farm from the wilderness, from time to time adding by purchase to his original acreage, at the time of his death, in September, 1895, being owner of two hundred and eighty acres of rich and valuable land. He was a man of strict integrity, upright in his daily life, and was one of the first members of the Methodist Episcopal church of his vicinity, of which he was one of the organizers. A Whig in politics, he was a strong supporter of the Abolitionist party, at the presidential election casting his vote for John C. Fremont. He was very enterprising as a farmer, and in company with his brother shipped the products of his farm to Vicksburg and New Orleans, the leading ports of the Mississippi.
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