A twentieth century history of Berrien County, Michigan, Part 100

Author: Coolidge, Orville W
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1314

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EZRA BRANT, representing one of the prominent and well known pioneer families

of Berrien county, was born November 17, 1873, in the house which he yet occupies, and was the second of the four children of Daniel and Nancy Jane ( Kennedy) Brant. The father was a native of Rochester, New York, and in early manhood he married Marietta Hazzard, who was born in Ellis- burg, New York, but they were married in Benton township, Berrien county, about 1840. Daniel Brant when eighteen years of age had driven a yoke of oxen from Roches- ter to Pokagon township, Cass county, where his father, Simeon Brant, had already set- tled. Edward Brant's father, who died en- route from California, was a cousin of Dan- iel Brant, and further mention of the fam- ily is made on another page of this work. The family is in fact a prominent one of Berrien county, having numerous repre- sentatives who have been active and in- fluential in business circles and in public affairs. Daniel Brant remained a resident of Pokagon township until all of the mem- bers of the family removed to Bainbridge township, cutting the road through the forests for miles. Simeon Brant secured a claim constituting the southeast quarter of section 31, while Daniel's place was the southwest quarter of section 32, and Artaxerses Brant took the east half of the southeast quarter of section 31. Nathaniel Brant obtained the northwest quarter of sec- tion 32, and thus altogether they secured the four corners. Nearly all of this land is still in possession of members of the Brant fam- ily, although Nathaniel Brant is the only one of the original owners now living. Simeon Brant, the father, died at the old homestead at a very advanced age, while Artaxerses Brant died at the age of seventy-five years, and Daniel passed away at the old home when sixty-six years of age. Artaxerses Brant had one son in Ma- son county and three grandchildren. The children of Jerome Brant are still on the old homestead. Nathaniel Brant resides upon his old home place, which has now been in his possession for many years.

Daniel Brant, father of our subject, placed about one hundred and twenty acres of his homestead under cultivation. He like-

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY

wise secured and improved two other tracts of land of eighty and eighty-five acres re- spectively, and he also had two houses in Benton Harbor at the time of his death. He likewise owned one hundred and twenty acres of land in Pipestone township, which he improved, and he gave a farm to each of his children, amounting to over one hundred and sixty acres of land. He placed more than two hundred acres of land under culti- vation and thus contributed in large meas- ure to the substantial development and re- clamation of this part of the state. His wife was a fine business woman and he largely attributed to her influence and assistance the success which he has achieved. She died about fifteen years prior to the death of her husband, being about fifty years of age when she passed away. They had traveled life's journey together, however, for many years, for she was but seventeen years of age at the time of their marriage. Her life was devoted to her family and although never very strong or robust she was am- bitious and energetic and her capable man- agement of the household affairs and the assistance and encouragement which she rendered her husband were valued factors in their prosperity. They became the par- ents of seven children, as follows: Lafay- ette died on Ship Island, New Mexico, while in the United States service, having left high school in St. Joseph in order to enlist. He was a member of the Sixth Michigan In- fantry and passed away when twenty-two years of age. Francis is living in Pipestone township.

Marion resides in Bainbridge township on land given him by his father. Henry is a resident of Fountain, Mason county, Michigan. Lucretia married John Harmon, and lives in Seattle, Washington. Rosella married William Burnett, of Bain- bridge, and resides at Spokane, Washington. Having lost his first wife Daniel Brant was married to Miss Nancy Kennedy, who sur- vives him and is yet living in Benton Har- bor. Their children are: Sherman; Ezra, the subject of this review; Lillie, the wife of William Denneke, of Benton Harbor; and Roy.

Ezra Brant, after spending his entire life upon the home farm with the exception of

one year, now owns the old homestead property which was for many years in pos- session of his father, Daniel Brant and which was settled in 1836. It comprises one hun- dred and sixty acres and is a very valuable tract. He has about sixty-seven acres in fruit, forty acres in peaches, six acres in grapes and nine acres in apples, of which five acres have been in bearing for fifty-six years. He also has three acres in raspber- ries and an acre and a half in strawberries, and five acres in pears. All of his fruit is profitable, for he gathers annually good crops. In 1905 he raised eighteen hundred bushels of peaches and forty-eight barrels of apples. His business is continually grow- ing and in connection with fruit-raising he has engaged in general farming. He pur- chased his place with five separate purchases and has now an extensive and valuable tract of land under a high state of cultivation and well adapted for the purposes for which it is used.

On the 22d of July, 1896, Mr. Brant was married to Miss Floy G. Moore, a daughter of William Moore of Sodus town- ship, and now living in Benzie county, Mich- igan. Mrs. Brant was born in Sodus town- ship, and by her marriage has become the mother of two sons and a daughter, Ellis Ezra and Russel Jaleb and Violet Orene. Mr. Brant is recognized as one of the most enterprising young business men of the town- ship, alert and energetic, brooking no ob- stacles that can be overcome by determined, persistent and honorable labor.

WILLIAM CAMFIELD was the pio- neer in the spraying of fruit trees in Ber- rien county. He began this work twenty years ago and demonstrated that it was fol- lowed by such excellent results that the custom soon came into general use. He has long been known as one of the prominent and successful fruit-growers of this portion of the state and now lives in Hagar town- ship, where he has valuable property. He was born in County Norfolk, Ontario, Can- ada, October 9, 1832, and was reared to manhood in that country, He remained at home until his marriage, which, however, was celebrated before he was twenty years

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rof age. The lady of his choice was Miss Sarah M. Ferguson, and they removed from Norfolk county to Walsingham, on Long Point Bay, an arm of Lake Erie, where Mr. Camfield improved two farms. He there resided until the spring of 1866, when he came to Berrien county, Michigan. He had a brother, Leavitt Camfield, who had been a resident of St. Joseph for two years at that time and was engaged in blacksmith- ing. William Camfield had a contract to put in wood which he was piling on the bank of Lake Erie, when a freshet swept it into the lake and he thus lost three thousand cords. This left him without financial re- sources and in this condition he came to Michigan. Here he cleared a part of a farm for his brother, the tract lying just north of Benton Harbor, and upon that place Leavitt Camfield made his home until his death, which was occasioned by the kick of a horse. He erected the octagonal brick house a mile and a quarter north of Benton Harbor, which is one of the landmarks in this sec- tion of the county.

In 1867 William Camfield located on his present farm, first purchasing seven acres where he lives on the border of Hagar and Benton townships, three and a half miles north of the city of Benton Harbor. He erected here a log house and for thirty- eight years has resided continuously upon this place. As his financial resources have increased he has added to his farm until it now comprises twenty-nine and a half acres. He started in debt for the seven acres, for which he paid seven hundred dol- lars, and in addition he owed two hundred dollars. His seven acres was all covered with timber and he had to cut a road to get to it, making the road along the town line. Two years later lie paid one thousand dollars for five acres adjoining. This was planted to berries. He worked energetic- ally, persistently and capably in the devel- opment and care of his property and the year 1873 found him free from debt. He then arranged to purchase sixty acres of land for nine thousand dollars in company with his son-in-law. This he had also pur- chased on time. It was planted to peaches

but the yellows took his trees and in two years he let the property revert to the origi- nal owner, losing two thousand dollars on the deal. He then engaged in lumbering, in which he continued for seven years. He got out the lumber and timber for The Lora, the first steamboat that was built in this lo- cality, selecting the timber in the woods. It was cut and hewed by him, after which it was sawed. He would take contracts for lumbering and at times kept several teams, having as high as seventy one winter. He employed a number of choppers and some- times boarded his men. One winter he cleared one hundred and fourteen acres of heavy timber at Sister Lakes fifteen miles from Benton Harbor. Half of this was sent to Benton Harbor and the remaining half to Dowagiac. In his lumbering operations he prospered and in the meantime he oper- ated his little farm of twelve acres, and also turned his attention to dealing in fruit. He would purchase fruit on the trees and in one season paid four thousand dollars for peaches on the trees. He bought fruit in this way from fifteen to twenty years and generally met with success in this under- taking. He added more land from time to time, buying in small tracts and for one tract of five acres paid seven hundred and fifty dollars. It is eighteen years since he bought a ten-acre tract in Benton township opposite his present farm for eight hundred dollars, and eighteen years ago he married his pres- ent wife. He deeded to his son by his first wife fifteen acres of land, but three years later he paid him twenty-three hundred dol- lars for this same tract. This gives him now twenty-nine and a half acres near Lake Michigan. It is all high-grade fruit land, unsurpassed by any in the county and de- voted to the raising of fruit, including ap- ples, pears. peaches, cherries and grapes. He has sold his apple crop for fifteen hun- dred dollars in a single season. In 1905 he had over thirteen hundred dollars clear income above all expenses of operation. In 1903 he took in three thousand dollars, in 1904 fourteen hundred dollars and in 1905 two thousand dollars, clearing one thousand dollars above all expenses. He makes a

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY

specialty of Dutchess apples, the trees be- ing worth one hundred dollars apiece and if his entire farm were covered with trees as good as his one hundred trees of this va- riety, it would pay an interest on a basis of one hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Cam- field has great faith in a brilliant future for this section of the country as a fruit belt and has often expressed himself that "this coun- try is the best place for a live man but the poorest for a dead one to be in." He is growing for commercial purposes and his orchards are in excellent condition, being cared for along modern progressive meth- ods. Formerly Mr. Camfield engaged quite extensively in raising berries, having seven hundred dollars worth of berries picked in a single day in 1874, and for a time he was known as the berry king of the county. He was the pioneer in the process of spraying trees, beginning this twenty years ago in or- der to exterminate the codling moth on ap- ple trees. The result surprised all and the second year he sprayed for several other FREDERICK A. HOBBS. There is particular satisfaction in reverting to the life history of the honored and leading citi- zen whose name initiates this review, for he has attained to a position of distinctive prominence in the thriving city in which he makes his home. He is not a witness of the trend of events, but is making history through the establishment and control of business interests on which rest the progress and upbuilding of any community. His birth occurred in Terre Haute, Indiana, No- vember 26, 1859. His paternal grand- grandfather was Robinson Hobbs, of Eng- lish descent. The father, Thomas F. Hobbs, was a native of Maine and a farmer by fruit-growers of the community. Leading men said after the crop was harvested that he had added six hundred dollars to their profits. One man said an hour's work of this kind in his orchard paid him one hun- dred dollars. One man refused to pay for spraying, saying that it had hurt several trees. Mr. Camfield therefore bought the man's crop for five hundred dollars less the spraying bill and a few weeks after the spraying was done he sold the orchard for fifteen hundred dollars, thus clearing one thousand dollars. His efforts in this direc- tion being so successful he was then sought to write articles for papers as to the benefit of spraying and is considered an authority . occupation. In connection with the tilling upon the subject.

In July, 1887, Mr. Camfield lost his first wife after they had lived together for thirty- four years. On the 3Ist of December, 1888, he married Miss Exilea C. Gordon, who was reared in Brooklyn, New York, but was visiting her sister in Berrien county. Her family are of French lineage. Her father owned an island in Lake Champlain, on which she was born and by reason of that fact she was named Exilea. She was reared, however, in Brooklyn. Her father was part

owner of a vessel on Lake Champlain. Coming to the west to visit she met Mr. Camfield while in Berrien county and gave him her hand in marriage. Two children have been born unto them: John Nellis, nine years of age; and Victor Newton, three years of age. By his first marriage Mr. Camfield had seven children. Two sons, Charles E. and Fred Lorenzo, are fruit-growers of this vicinity. George Al- len is a farmer of Mason county. Alexa is the wife of John McKenzie, of Hagar town- ship. The others are deceased.

Mr. Camfield gives his entire time and attention to the supervision of his fruit- raising interests and in operating the place employs two or three men. In his political views he is a Republican and rather inde- pendent. His efforts have been a practical demonstration of the value of this district as a fruit producing center and his success has been the direct result of his untiring labors.

of the soil, however, he carried on business as a contractor and builder, in which he continued up to tlie time of his demise in 1901, when he was seventy years of age. Having removed from the east he became a resident of Indiana, and at a later date took up his abode in Benton Harbor. His wife bore the maiden name of Hulda Creal and was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, while at the present writing she makes her home in Chicago, Illinois. By her marriage she be- came the mother of four children : Mrs. Rob-

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ert A. Smythe; Mrs. F. R. Gilson; Mrs. Willard S. Bracken, who is living in Chi- cago and is a vocalist of well known ability; and Frederick A. The maternal grand- father, Anthony Creal, was a native of the Empire State, but became one of the pio- neer residents of Indiana, where he settled in 1820.

Frederick A. Hobbs, although a native of Indiana, was reared in Dewitt, Clinton county, Iowa, and his early education, ac- quired in the public schools there, was sup- -plemented by further study in Davenport, Iowa. Returning to his home in Dewitt he was engaged in clerking in the postoffice of that city and in a general merchandise store for several years, and in 1885 he came to Benton Harbor, where he has since made his home. Closely associated with interests and interprises, he has had direct and per- manent effect upon the development and prosperity of the community. Soon after his arrival here he purchased a half interest in the Palladium, a newspaper, in the owner- ship of which he was connected with the late F. R. Gilson for three and a half years, at the expiration of which period he sold out to his partner. The paper had been origin- ally published only as a weekly, but the firm of Hobbs & Gilson established also a daily issue, which proved a successful venture and is still published by an incorporated com- pany which purchased the paper following the recent death of Mr. Gilson.

After his retirement from the newspaper field Mr. Hobbs engaged in the retail coal business and later continued in the same trade save on a wholesale scale. He first became the successor of the firm of Stearns & Mott, coal merchants, and conducted the business alone for four or five years, after which it was incorporated under the name of the Benton Har- bor Fuel Company in 1893, with Mr. Hobbs as president and treasurer, Thomas T. Hobbs as vice-president, and Clar- ence Warner as secretary. William H. Poundstone has succeeded Mr. Warner as secretary, but the vice-presidency has re- mained vacant since the death of its first incumbent in 1901. The business has grown

to six or seven times its original proportions and is one of the paying commercial enter- prises of the city. Mr. Hobbs, however, has not concentrated his energies entirely upon this one line. In fact he has been a close ob- server of business indications and possibili- ties and to various fields has extended his efforts with good results. In 1891 he became interested in the Michigan Salt Association, which handles salt in car load lots. This company owns salt warehouses in St. Jo- seph and Benton Harbor and has spurs on the Big Four and Michigan Central Rail- roads, thus furnishing excellent transporta- tion facilities. They ship one hundred thou- sand barrels of salt per year. In 1895 Mr. Hobbs embarked in the wholseale flour busi- ness, in which he is still interested in addition to the above mentioned concerns. Besides owning considerable stock in the salt company he is its active agent. In 1889 he organized the Benton Transit Company, connected therein with Captain R. C. Brit- ton. The business was incorporated the same year with William G. Newland as president, Captain R. C. Britton vice-presi- dent and general manager, and Frederick A. Hobbs as secretary and treasurer. Cap- tain Britton died in October, 1904, and Mr. Newland withdrew from the firm, leaving Mr. Hobbs as active manager of the com- pany, which makes a specialty of carrying fruit in season to Chicago. The enterprise has proved a remunerative one, the business having reached extensive and profitable pro- portions. In connection with others Mr. Hobbs organized the Michigan Lake Sand Company, which was incorporated in 1905, with Frederick A. Hobbs as president, John J. Eager, of St. Joseph, Michigan, as sec- retary, and William H. Poundstone as treasurer. On the 7th of June. 1906, he was elected president of the Michigan and Indiana Retail Coal Association, which now has eleven hundred members.

On the 24th of May, 1882, occurred the marriage of Mr. Hobbs and Miss Nettie Stephenson, of Dewitt, Iowa, where the wedding was celebrated. She was born in Virginia, is a daughter of George Stephen- son and is of English descent. Three chil-

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dren grace this union : Laura and Edith, who were born in Iowa ; and Fred S., whose birth occured in Benton Harbor.

In his political views Mr. Hobbs is a Republican and for six years served as chair- man of the Republican city central commit- tee. When the city was incorporated he be- came its first mayor, in 1891, serving for one term. He had been town clerk under the village administration and he is now treasurer of the Republican county central committee . His labors in behalf of the party are recognized as of value because he brings to this work the same keen discernment and spirit of enterprise which characterize his private business affairs. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias fraternity and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in both of which he has been honored with of- fice, representing both in the grand lodge and serving as the first presiding officer in the Elks lodge. He is one of the trustees in the Universalist Church and is active in its work. In manner he is never ostenta- tious, but he possesses that true worth which cannot be hid and which is always recog- nized by people of superiority. He indeed deserves mention among the most promi- nent of Benton Harbor's business men and representative citizens and should find a place in the history of the leading residents of Berrien county, whose force of character, sterling integrity, control of circumstances and whose marked success in establishing important industries have contributed in such an eminent degree to the solidity and progress of the city in which he makes his home. His life has been manly, his actions sincere and he has left the impress of his individuality upon the annals of Berrien county.

JAMES FLOOD, deceased, was one of the enterprising agriculturists of Berrien county, who long devoted his energies to the tilling of the soil in this part of the state and resided in Hagar township, having come to America in 1848. He made his way to this county with his brother William, and being unmarried remained with his brother until 1852, when he bought land on section

34 of the same township, becoming the owner of sixty-five acres, which was entirely wild and unimproved. It lay along the Paw Paw river and he began the arduous task of clearing and cultivating it. Two years later his sister Mary also came to the United States from Ireland, her native land, and made her way to Michigan, where she acted as housekeeper for her brother James until her death, which occurred in 1872.

James Flood never married, and his housekeeper for many years was his niece, Jane Frances Flood, a daughter of William and Rose Flood. When only three years of age she went to live with her uncle and aunt, James and Mary Flood. Later she returned to her mother's home but after two years again took up her abode with her aunt and uncle, and continued to live with Mr. Flood until his demise. She was eighteen years of age at the time of her aunt's death, and she then took charge of the house and gave her attention to her uncle's interests and the management of his home.

James Flood cleared about twenty-five acres of the original sixty-five acres and also another tract of forty acres and he added to his first purchase until at the time of his death he owned about two hundred acres of good land. . He willed the homestead to his niece, Jane, while the remainder of his prop- erty went to other relatives. He was ener- getic and enterprising and carried forward to successful completion whatever he under- took. In his political views he was a Demo- crat. He was called to various local posi- tions of honor and trust, serving as justice of the peace and highway commissioner. In the latter office he laid out many of the township roads and he continued in public life for many years, doing effective and help- ful service for the general welfare. He was an active member of the Catholic church at St. Joseph, and died in that faith February 8, 1887, at the age of seventy-two years. He had lived a life of uprightness and honor and had enjoyed to the full extent the re- spect and good will of his fellowmen.

EDWARD BRODRICK, one of the progressive and energetic farmers of Hagar

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township, was born in Wayne county, New York, on the 16th of February, 1851, and when six years of age was taken by his par- ents to Keeler township, Van Buren county, Michigan. In the fall of 1860 the family re- moved to Bainbridge township, Berrien county, where his parents, James and Brid- get (Costello) Brodrick, spent their remain- ing days. They were both natives of Coun- ty Galway, Ireland, and after coming to Berrien county the father owned a good farm and made his home thereon for many years, carefully cultivating and improving the property up to the time of the death of his wife. His last years were spent at the home of his son, Edward Brodrick, and he departed this life on the 8th of September, 1880, when more than seventy-five years of age, having survived his wife for six years, as her death occurred on the Ist of Decem- ber, 1874.

Edward Brodrick was reared under the parental roof, spending much of his boy- hood and youth in Michigan amid the sur- roundings and environments of pioneer life. On attaining his majority he was married on the 28th of February, 1876, to Miss Jane Frances Flood, a daughter of William and Rose Flood. She was only three years of age when she went to live with her uncle and aunt, James and Mary Flood, but though she afterward returned to her mother for two years, she again took up her abode upon her uncle's farm and after her aunt's death she took charge of the household, be- ing then a young lady of eighteen years.

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A twentieth century history of Berrien County, Michigan, Part 100

Author: Coolidge, Orville W Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Coolidge, Orville W
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1314