USA > Michigan > Allegan County > A twentieth century history of Allegan County, Michigan > Part 25
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business ability, insight and discernment are equal to that of the husbands. fathers and brothers whom custom, in former years, accorded the work of furthering the business interests. Perhaps there is no woman in Allegan county who can compare with Mrs. Raymond in the conduct of agricultural and stock raising interests. Her farm is one of the finest properties of the county, indicating in its splendid condition her excellent management and supervision. The place is known as the Loeland Stock Farm, and is situ- ated in Ganges township. It comprises a tract of seven hundred and seventy acres, whereon cattle, horses, hogs and other stock of high grades and purest blood are extensively and successfully raised.
Mrs. Raymond is a daughter of Francis H. and Jane ( Purdy) Clark, who were natives of Niagara county, New York, and removed to Michigan in 1865. Mr. Clark bought eighty acres of land here, but soon afterward went to California. Not liking that state as well as Michigan, however, he returned and settled on section 26, Saugatuck township, Allegan county, where he lived until his life's labors were ended in death on the 19th of February, 1893. His widow is now living with her daughter, Mrs. Ray- mond, who is the only surviving member of the family of three children that were born to Mr. and Mrs. Clark.
It was in 1892 that Hattie A. Clark gave her hand in marriage to Frank S. Raymond, and in 1896 one son, Frank C., was born to them. Mr. Ray- mond was a native of Goshen, Indiana, born February 7. 1850, and was a son of Ebenezer and Nancy (Thomas) Raymond. His father was a resi- dent of Michigan for some years and was extensively engaged in the lumber business. His family numbered eleven children, but only two reached years of maturity. The last surviving member of the family was Frank S. Ray- mond, who died on the 6th of November. 1898, leaving a widow and two sons. In 1867, when seventeen years of age, he came with his parents to Pier Cove, where his father conducted a mercantile business. In 1872 he was married to Flora Fisk, who died one year and eight months later. He was again married. July 12, 1876. to Effie Loomis, and unto them were born two children, Flora Effie, who died in infancy, and F. Raymer Raymond. who is now twenty-eight years of age. Mrs. Effie Raymond passed away July 12, 1888, and after four years Mr. Raymond was married to Miss Hattie Clark, on the 20th of January, 1892.
Mr. Raymond was a man of considerable ability and exerted an influence in public affairs of the township. For years he resided in Fennville, during which time he was president of the borough. In 1884 he bought a portion of the Loeland Stock Farm, the boundaries of which he extended from time to time by additional purchase until it reached its present extensive dimen- sions, comprising seven hundred and seventy acres. Widely recognized as a man of excellent business ability, he displayed in all his undertakings keen discernment and enterprise and whatever he undertook was carried forward to successful completion.
At the time of her husband's death Mrs. Hattie A. Raymond assumed the management of the property, which she has since successfully controlled. and is now accounted one of the most prominent representatives of the agricultural and stock raising interests in Allegan county, displaying excel- lent executive force and business capacity. She carefully manages all of the details of the business and by employing competent help has continued the
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farm work with results that are highly profitable as well as satisfactory and gratifying.
CHARLES F. VAN VALKENBURG is the owner and proprietor of a fine farm of sixty acres which is known as the Ridgland Fruit Farm, and is beautifully located on the shore of Lake Michigan and adds to the attrac- tive appearance of this district, for the property is characterized by thrift and neatness, giving indication of the careful management and industry of the owner. As the name indicates, our subject comes of Holland ancestry. His birth occurred in Wood county, Ohio, July 6, 1855, a son of William and Harriet Van Valkenburg, the former born in New York state, while the mother's birth likewise occurred in the Buckeye State, where they now make their home, being prosperous and worthy people of that state.
Mr. Van Valkenburg's life has been rather an eventful one. He was reared in the place of his nativity and the public schools afforded him a liberal education, which fitted him to later assume the responsibilities of life when he started out upon an independent career. He arrived in Allegan county, this state, in 1888, being then a young man of thirty-three years. For ten years he sailed on the lakes, subsequent to which time he worked at the painter's trade through the succeeding three years. He, however, noted the opportunities which this state offered in the line of horticultural pursuits and accordingly abandoned his other business interests and decided to try his fortune in this venture. His work in former years having brought him sufficient capital to engage in business on his own account, he purchased a tract of twenty acres situated in Saugatuck township, and later acquired forty acres more, to which he has since given the name of Ridgland Fruit Farm. It is well located on the lake front, and he has made it a valuable and well-improved property through the improvements which he has placed upon it. He has here a nice home and his land is fertile and productive, well adapted for the use to which it is put. He has a fine orchard, containing thirty-five hundred peach trees, two hundred pear trees, thirty apple trees, thirty cherry trees, and he also raises much small fruit, including straw- berries, raspberries, etc., and thus his farm is a very busy place from the early summer until late in the autumn after his crops are all gathered. Mr. Van Valkenburg has no cause for regret because of his venture in the fruit raising business, for he has met with excellent results, and each year adds materially to his financial resources.
January 2, 1883, occurred the marriage of Mr. Van Valkenburg and Miss Mary E. Walters, who has indeed proved to him a faithful companion and helpmate on life's journey. Their marriage has been blessed with seven children, but only four of the number now survive, namely : James H., Cora G., Morris V. and Vera E. Mr. Van Valkenburg takes an active inter- est in all matters pertaining to the advancement of his home locality and has served his township as pathmaster. He holds membership relations with the Maccabees and the Knights of Pythias, and is also identified with the Grange.
Industry, honesty and integrity have formed the basis of his success. Like others, since starting out in life, he has met with difficulties and ob- stacles, but has never allowed these to deter him in his onward march toward the goal of success, but has worked persistently and energetically to acquire
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a competence, and today his fine fruit farm is the visible evidence that his efforts have been richly rewarded.
BRAVO.
Bravo is now a center of one of the most enterprising communities of southwestern Allegan county. It is an important shipping point, claim- ing a population of about 200, is unincorporated, and its business and vil- lage features entitle it to a brief description among the centers of the county. Bravo was long known by the name of Sherman. Alonzo Sher- man, with an associate. came to section 32 of Clyde township in 1867 and set up a sawmill. A considerable force of men were employed at the mill, besides the settlers in that vicinity, and a store was soon opened near the mill, the community being known as Sherman. Then came the railroad. and the postoffice established at that point took the name Bravo, which in time has come to designate the business and social community at that point. Chandler Eaton was the first postmaster. With the decline of the lumber industry this center has become a fruit shipping point.
PEARL.
The settlement formerly known as Clyde Center had its beginning in a sawmill erected in 1872 by Eggleston and Hazleton. A large force of men were employed in their milling and lumbering business, and the result was that a store, a railway station and a postoffice were established at that point. A school house was built there, the town meetings were held there. a Free Will Baptist church was formed, and as long as the mill remained the cen- ter was of considerable 'consequence. The lumber resources were exhausted by 1877. and when the mill was removed most of the settlement went with it. Gradually farming and fruit growing have taken the place of lumbering, and the settlement is still a recognized community in the county. The change from Clyde Center to the present name is recorded in the following sketch of S. O. Pearl :
SIMEON O. PEARL. a thrifty and progressive farmer of Clyde township. where he owns and cultivates eighty acres of good farming land devoted to general produce and small fruit, was born in Erie county, Ohio, in 1851. where he was reared and educated in the district school. He is a son of Oliver and Orinda (Blackman) Pearl, both born in the State of Ohio, whose family numbered eight children, two of them residing in Michigan, our sub- ject, however, being the only one residing in Allegan county.
In 1879 Simeon O. Pearl migrated to Michigan and purchased his first farm of eighty acres in extent in Clyde township. on the state road. This he owned and operated until 1901, when he purchased his present farm of eighty acres.
In 1881, when the name of Clyde Center postoffice was about to be changed. the name Pearl, as a mark of courtesy to our subject, was for- warded to the department at Washington as a substitute name. This was accepted by the government, and the postoffice now bears this name. Mr. Pearl has been the recipient of honors at the hands of his fellow citizens in his election to the office of moderator of the school board, which office
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he has held for three years. In 1905 he was appointed justice of the peace and he has filled that office with justice and fairness.
Mr. Pearl was married in 1882 to Miss Mary E., daughter of Mr. E. P. James, and their marriage has been blessed by seven children, the following six of whom are living: Arthur, Alpha, Ray, Mead, Helen and Cora.
ALLEN BROWN, of Pearl, Michigan, who is a well-known farmer of Clyde township, was born in Rush county, Indiana, in 1837, and is a son of William and Elizabeth ( Brown) Brown, both natives of North Carolina.
William Brown and his wife moved to Indiana the year that our subject was born, and here on a small farm reared their family of twelve children, only three of whom are living at this date, 1906, viz. : Dolson, Lusana and Allen. The paternal grandfather of our subject was a soldier in the War of the Revolution and served for four years in defense of the colonies.
Allen Brown moved to Michigan in 1859, and in 1872 located in Clyde township, Allegan county, on a farm of sixty acres. He subsequently sold this and purchased the farm of eighty acres upon which he now resides. He relates that his first farming operations were done with the aid of an ox team; that his plowing, cultivating and even the drawing of his carriage was done with oxen. In this way, and by dint of hard and continuous labor, his farm was cleared and put under cultivation. His time is devoted to fruit raising and farming of a general character.
Mr. Brown was married in 1869 to Miss Emily A. Cannady, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, of which union there has been no issue. The Free Will Baptist church, which he was instrumental in organizing in his community in 1872, is the one to which our subject lends his support ; and is, in fact, a deacon in that body. That church was organized by the Rev. Mr. Whitaker with twelve members, of whom Mr. Brown was one. It is a source of great pleasure to him in his old age to see this church, the growth of which he has watched from its inception, becoming more and more a power for good in the community and to feel that he has had a share in its upbuilding.
JAMES T. HOLLIS is well known in Pearl, Michigan, on the Grand Rap- ids division of the Pere Marquette Railway, being a merchant, postmaster and station agent in that town. In 1899 he entered the employ of the railway in the capacity of station agent, and has filled that position with satisfaction to all concerned. He opened at the same time a store, which he stocked with a first-class line of merchandise, and has done since a thriving business in this line. In June 22 of this same year he was also appointed to the office of postmaster, the duties of which office he has creditably discharged up to the present time.
Mr. Hollis was born in Berrien county, Michigan, November 26. 1858, where he spent his early years. During his residence in that county he held the office of township treasurer of his home township for two terms. He is a son of George and Marilla (Brookfield) Hollis, his father having come to Michigan in 1855, and his mother is a native of the state. They are both now deceased. Their family numbered two children, our subject and one sister, who became Mrs. Joseph Barmore.
James T. Hollis was married in April, 1899, to Miss Carrie M., daugh-
MR. AND MRS. ALLEN BROWN
MR. AND MRS. MARTIN A. STAFFORD
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ter of George and Mary A. Summers, who is also a native of Berrien county, having been born there October 17, 1881. Mr. and Mrs. Hollis are the parents of two children, R. G. and Marilla. Mr. Hollis is a respected and loyal member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the U. W. of A.
DANIEL MAHONEY, one of the early settlers in the southern part of Clyde township, whose postoffice is Pearl, was born in Ohio in the month of September, 1837. He is the son of James and Betsey (Sisco) Mahoney, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter born in Ohio. They were the parents of eleven children, four of whom are living, Daniel, Barney, George and Abagail.
In 1876, the date when Daniel Mahoney settled in. Clyde township, that community was rather sparsely settled, and, purchasing forty acres of land, he began immediately to clear it and get it into shape for its future pro- ductiveness, building a comfortable dwelling and substantial outbuildings. His farm is now of a general character, including the culture of peppermint, to which he devotes three acres.
Mr. Mahoney was married to Miss Harriet Peck, of New York State, to whom eight children were born, in the following order of birth: Mary, now Mrs. R. Rouse ; Frank ; Matthew ; Edith, wife of F. Mitchal ; Munroe, deceased ; Arthur; Genette, deceased ; and Homer, deceased.
His fellow citizens of Clyde township have honored Mr. Mahoney by electing him to the office of constable, of which he is the present incumbent. having held the same for the past fifteen years. He also held the office of pathmaster for several years.
F. M. WARD, station agent at Bravo, in Clyde township, on the Chicago division of the Pere Marquette Railway, has been in the employ of that com- pany for ten years, five years of which service were put in as operator and agent at Buchanan, removing thence to Bravo, his present residence. Mr. Ward is one among the hundreds of progressive young men throughout the west who do not, in the sense of the world-famous Mr. Micawber, wait for "something to turn up," but who rather forestall that operation by turning it up themselves.
Our subject is a descendant of two old pioneer families that came to Michigan in 1836, his paternal grandfather, Caleb Ward, coming from New York State, and his mother's father, John King, immigrating from England. He is the son of Emmet and Mary A. (King) Ward, whose children num- bered seven, the five following of whom are living: Myron, Frank M., Herbert, Ernest and May B. Frank M. Ward was born in Allegan county in 1870 and here received a thorough and liberal education. In 1893 he was united in the bonds of matrimony to Miss Vena, a daughter of A. H. and Martha Lovelace, who is the mother of one child, a son, whom they have named Rex.
MARTIN A. STAFFORD, whose postoffice is Pearl, is a well-to-do farmer of Clyde township, where he owns a fertile farm of one hundred acres. He was born in Randolph county, Indiana, December 29, 1841, and at the age of twelve years went to Van Buren county, Michigan, where he resided until 1876, when he moved to his present farm in Clyde township. He is a
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son of Jeremiah and Annie Stafford, the former born in North Carolina and the latter a native of West Virginia, who moved to Clyde in 1850, taking up from the government forty acres of land and later purchasing forty acres more, this being the original eighty, which is part of the farm now owned by our subject. Jeremiah Stafford was little interested in farming as a pursuit and spent his time mainly in hunting and in the manufacture of hand-made shingles. For more than twenty years during his residence in Indiana he followed the trade of cooper. His children numbered fifteen, of whom seven are living: George, Martin A., Charity E., James R., David A. M., Jason L. and Lydia M.
Our subject married a Miss Fannie Turner, who was the mother of four children, Penfield, Cyrus, Minnie and Alta. After the death of his first wife he married a Miss Emaline Chevis, of Indianapolis, Indiana.
Mr. Stafford has been honored, among others, by election to the offices of drain commissioner and highway commissioner. He is a devout member of the Free Will Baptist church and a deacon of that body. He has been Sunday school superintendent, and has the welfare of the children as well as the adult members of his church much at heart. He has been in times past and still continues to be a financial pillar in the church of his choice. The full confidence and respect not only of his brethren in the church but of the community at large are moral assets that have contributed largely to the success and prosperity of our subject.
PULLMAN.
Pullman is an enterprising center in Lee township. It originated in the lumber industry, but has retained its importance in the later days of general farming and fruit growing. Until recently the postoffice and the village was known as Hoppertown, the name being given by a Mr. Hopper, who owned an interest in the land on which the village grew up. The first sawmill was erected here in 1870, and the work of clearing off the land and converting the heavy woods to lumber was begun. In the brief space of two years four mills were erected, one a shingle mill, and their industry sup- ported a population of over two hundred people grouped about them. But the lumber supply was consumed in four years' time, and when the mills moved away it is said that only two families remained, those of Aaron Bowles and A. D. Hurlbut. Since then the general business activity has gradually increased. Fruit shipping soon ranked alongside the humber busi- ness, and the surrounding country supported a fair amount of trade enter- prise at this point. The postoffice has been located at this point since 1876, Ransom Snell being the first postmaster. The change of the name from Hoppertown to Pullman is recorded in the history of the present postmaster, J. U. Gilpin, one of the leading citizens of the place.
JAMES U. GILPIN, the present postmaster of Pullman, was born in Casco township, Allegan county, February 4, 1870, where he remained until four years of age. In 1874 his parents moved to East Jordan, Charlevoix county, where they remained for fourteen years on a farm. They then came to Horseshoe, Lee township, where they remained seven years, and then moved to Pullman, where they have resided since. Mr. Gilpin was appointed postmaster April 3, 1896. The office was then called Hoppertown, but the
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name was changed January 15, 1902, to Pullman. He has been a notary public since coming to this village in 1895, and has held the office of township clerk from April, 1904, to April, 1906.
He has been a Republican all his life and has been an active member of his party, having an abiding interest in all that concerns the interest of his fellow citizens. Two years ago he took E. J. Huffman into partnership in his business, which ran under the name of Gilpin & Huffman until Oc- tober 27, 1906, when our subject bought him out. While residing in the northern part of the state he contracted rheumatism, which has deprived him of the use of his lower limbs, and he is forced now to use a wheel-chair. He is a member of the Mutual Protective Legion and the Prudent Patricians of Pompeii.
He is a son of William and Caroline ( Randall) Gilpin, the former a native of Ohio and the latter was born in Detroit. She died in Pullman, February 9, 1903, at the age of fifty-nine years. Mr. Gilpin is the third of twelve children ; a brother died at the age of fourteen and two children died in childhood.
GEORGE K. TAYLOR, a leading merchant of Pullman, Lee township, was born in Canton, Pennsylvania, April 27, 1875, where he resided until he reached his majority. His early life was spent on the farm. He attended high school and subsequently taught school for two years in Pennsylvania. He came to Lee township in 1896 and for a time continued the vocation of teacher. In 1898 he started a general merchandise store in a modest way at Pullman, and now has a fine store building of two stories, with dwelling attached. He has also erected a large warehouse and lumber shed, handling sash, doors, blinds and building material of all kinds. In a general merchan- dise way he handles dry goods, groceries, boots, shoes, hardware, furniture and farm implements. He recently purchased fourteen acres on Lower Scott Lake, which he is developing into a remarkably attractive summer resort. In addition to this property he is also owner of one hundred and seventeen acres of land in sections 16, 17, 18, 19, which includes a strip three-quarters of a mile long to the east of the Pere Marquette Railroad at Pullman station. In addition to these industries at home he has built up a lucrative business in the buying and shipping of produce of all kinds.
In politics Mr. Taylor is a Republican, and has been honored by that party in the election to the office of justice of the peace, which he, however, resigned. He is now school assessor of Pullman and takes an active interest in all that pertains to the educational growth of the town, a work for which he is well fitted as his early experiences have given him a knowledge of and a sympathy with the work of the teacher.
He is a member of a number of fraternal orders, including the Odd Fellows at Pullman, the Masons at Fennville, the Maccabees at Leisure, and the Legion also of Pullman. He is a son of George Kendrick and Abbie (Fellows) Taylor, both natives of Pennsylvania. His mother died when he was but ten days old, but his father is still living, and retains his farm near Canton, Pennsylvania.
The subject of this sketch was married May 29, 1900, to Leta Reynolds, a daughter of George and Belle Reynolds of Kalamazoo county, Michigan.
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Three children were born of this union; George Harold and Mildred Belle, who are living, and Evelyn, who died at the age of eight months.
Mr. Taylor's store, dwelling, warehouse, and lumber sheds have all been built by him since 1900, and have added no small part to the buisness facilities of the town. He is respected as an up-to-date and thoroughly re- liable business man, and probably operates more extensively than any of the country merchants of Allegan county.
GEORGE AMBROSE WELLINGTON was born in Stueben county, New York, January 20, 1850. When but twelve years of age he moved with his parents to Casco township, Allegan county, Michigan, where he resided until 1905. He is essentially a self-made man, and what he has made since coming to Michigan has been the result of his own untiring efforts.
He started in Spring Grove, Casco township, where he purchased and improved a farm of forty acres. Part of this farm he afterwards traded for business interests in South Haven, viz., a fuel, teaming, and bus business, at which he spent four years. He then returned and purchased forty acres in section one, Casco township, where he owned forty acres, and where he resided until the fall of 1905. In that year he came to Pullman and started a feed mill. He erected the mill building twenty-four by thirty feet, and also a good dwelling. He does a general milling business, and in addi- tion handles grain of all kinds and coal.
He is a member of the fraternal order, K. (). T. M., and in politics is a Republican of long standing. He is a son of Aaron and Mary Jane ( Pat- terson) Wellington, natives of Canada, both of whom are deceased. Of a family of six, five boys and one girl, he is the the eldest.
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