A twentieth century history of Berrien County, Michigan, Part 62

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

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A native of Indiana, his birth occurred in Wayne county on the 21st of March, 1845. His paternal grandfather, David Spencer, was born April 19, 1791, and re- moved from Ohio to Wayne county, Indi- ana, at an early epoch in the development and improvement of the latter district. He married Miss Leah Pickering, who was born in Ohio, July 4, 1796, and they both passed away in the '50s, the grandfather's death occurring on the 25th of September, 1858, while his wife died August 30, 1853. In their family were eight children, of whom Nathan Spencer, father of our subject, was the fourth in order of birth. He was born in Zanesville, Ohio, April 20, 1820, and on

the 28th of March, 1844, was married in Indiana to Miss Louisa Hiatt, whose birth occurred in that State on the 29th of Octo- ber, 1822. Mr. Spencer had become a resi- dent of Indiana in his boyhood days, accom- panying his parents on their removal west- ward. He was reared to the occupation of farming and throughout his entire life fol- lowed that pursuit, whereby he provided a good living for his family. He died Jan- uary 25, 1892, when in the seventy-second year of his age, and his widow passed away on the 15th of November, 1899. In their family were seven children, of whom six are yet living, as follows: Benajah H .; Joseph Henry, who was born in Milton, In- diana; Mrs. Viola Griffith; Jerome; Mrs. Alveretta Steed; and Charles.

Benajah Hiatt Spencer was reared in Milton, Wayne county, Indiana, spending his youth upon a farm and acquiring his education in the district schools. He con- tinued under the parental roof until 1863 and on leaving home went to Illinois, where he worked as a farm hand for several months. He was ambitious, however, to secure a position in a factory and was of- fered one at New Troy, Berrien county, Michigan, where the manufacture of broom handles was carried on. He left the train at what was known as Avery Station and had to travel six miles north to New Troy. The roads were so impassable and the coun- ty so new that he had to walk this dis- tance, leaving his trunk at Avery Station with the intention of sending for it the next day. He could get no team to make the trip, however, on account of the condition of the roads, so he made a sled and went for the trunk himself, traveling through the forest. It was on the 18th of December, 1863, that he made the trip back to New Troy. The roads had frozen in the mean- time and he was thus able to haul his sled. He remained at that place until the follow- ing June, when the factory was removed to Avery Station and he continued to work there until 1865. On the Ist of March of that year, however, he went to Mishawaka, Indiana, where he secured employment in a furniture factory as wood turner, continu- ing to fill the position until October of the

BHSpencer

Mrs B& Spencer

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY

same year. He then secured employment in Buchanan, Michigan, working for C. S. and H. S. Black, with whom he continued for six years. On the expiration of that period he spent about two years in the service of the Buchanan Manufacturing Company, en- gaged in the manufacture of furniture, but was ambitious to enter business on his own account so that his labors might more di- rectly benefit himself. Therefore on the 20th of July, 1872, he formed a partner- ship with Jacob Allen under the firm name of Spencer & Allen and opened a retail fur- niture store and also a shop for job work. In October of the same year Mr. Allen sold his interest in the business to Augustus Willard and the firm became Spencer & Willard, this relationship being maintained until December, 1874, when Mr. Willard was succeeded by J. E. Barnes and the firm style of Spencer & Barnes was assumed. They continued at Buchanan, Michigan, their business constantly increasing, and at length its proportions caused them to estab- lish a plant elsewhere. They chose Benton Harbor as the scene of their new industry and in 1891 erected their present plant in this city. The same year C. D. Stuart was admitted to a partnership and the firm name became Spencer, Barnes & Stuart. They enlarged the business from time to time, in- creasing their facilities to meet the growing demands of the trade, which reached large proportions. After Mr. Barnes became in- terested they gradually entered the field of wholesale trade and more and more largely directed their energies to the manufacture of furniture, theirs becoming an important commercial and industrial enterprise.

In 1896 Mr. Stuart withdrew from the firm, and the business was incorporated under the name of the Spencer & Barnes Company, with J. E. Barnes as president, B. H. Spencer vice president, and Mary L. Spencer, secretary and treasurer. The firm manufactures all kinds of bedroom furni- ture of high and medium grades and is con- ducting a very profitable enterprise, em- ployment being now furnished to one hun- dred employes. The output finds a ready sale on the market because of the excellence of the product, the reasonable prices and the

well known reliability of the house. The manufactured product includes fine mahog- any, birds-eye maple and quarter-sawed oak bedroom furniture.

On the 9th of July, 1865, Mr. Spencer was united in marriage to Miss Betsy Ann Glidden, who was born May 17, 1846, in Stephenson county, Illinois, and is a daugh- ter of Greenleaf and Mary J. (Ames) Glid- den. Mr. and Mrs. Spencer have become the parents of five children. Ada is now the wife of O. K. Monson, of Chicago, Illinois, and has two sons, Laurence and Robert. Mary L. is the second of the family. Alice E. is the wife of Frank Shaw, of Oneida, Illinois. Irven E. married Ruth Robbins, and Jean W. completes the family.

Mr. Spencer votes with the Republican party and has endorsed its principles since age conferred upon him the right of fran- chise. He is a self-made man and one of the enterprising citizens of the county. From an humble financial position he has worked his way steadily upward to one of affluence and has made a business record which any man might be proud to possess, for it has ever been characterized by strict and unswerving integrity and by fidelity to all the principles which govern honorable manhood and un- flagging industry. The record of the self- made man is the one which the American citizen holds in greatest honor, for it is in- dicative of force of character, of keen busi- ness discernment and of genuine personal merit. In community affairs Mr. Spencer is deeply interested and has ever manifested a public spirited devotion to the general good. He is esteemed in public and private life, in business and social relations, and his many friends find him a companionable, genial gentleman.

EBENEZER P. MORLEY. The name Morley has been a prominent one in Berrien county for more than sixty years, and it is as a pioneer record that the biography of the above named is preserved in this work by Mrs. Maria A. Jones, of Galien, a daugh- ter of Mr. Morley and herself one of the esteemed residents of that part of the county.

Ebenezer P. Morley was born in Susque- hanna county, Pennsylvania, in 1814, and

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY

was reared and gained his schooling in Onondaga county, New York, where he met and married Alzina Lansing. She was born in Onondaga county July 24, 1822, and their marriage was celebrated August 8, 1840. They lived for a time in Susquehanna county and again in Onondaga county, and in 1845 joined the great movement of settlers to the lands of southern Michigan. Crossing Lake Erie by sail boat and com- pleting the journey along one of the great highways by wagon, they located in Lake township, Berrien county, and there entered eighty acres of land in section thirty-five. The first tree felled on that land was cut by Mr. Morley. Here he lived a number of years, until his first wife died in 1862, and in 1864 he married Mrs. Isabel Russell, of Burlington, Iowa, and in 1866 moved to New Troy, in Wesaw township, where he lived until his death October 27, 1882. He was a farmer and surveyor, and in the latter capacity did much work in Berrien county. He served as supervisor from Lake and We- saw townships, being in that office altogether for twelve years, and was a justice of the peace many years. He was a stanch Demo- crat and in religion a Spiritualist.

By his first marriage Mr. Morley was the father of ten children, of whom Mrs. Maria A. Jones was the first. The others were : Harriet A. Williams, of Ohio; and Helen N. Adams, of Wesaw township, being twins and natives of Onondaga county, New York ; Charles E., of Wesaw township ; Alvin, of Wesaw; Henrietta Spaulding, of Kansas; Horace L., of Wesaw ; Mary Hen- derson and Adelaide A., deceased; and Stephen Douglas, of Ohio. The two chil- dren of Mr. Morley's second marriage were Eliza J. Kelly, of Wesaw township, and Edgar Poe, of Nebraska.

Maria A. Morley was born in Susque- hanna county, Pennsylvania, March 26, 1843, spent a short part of her childhood in New York, and in 1845 came to Berrien county, which has been her home for sixty years. By her first mariage on November 6, 1864, she became the wife of Gottlieb Hagley, who was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, December 1, 1839, and came to Michigan with his parents when twelve

years old. He died February 11, 1889, the father of six children, namely: Alice L., wife of John F. Painter, of Wesaw town- ship; Nellie M., wife of Stephen A. Norris, of Michigan City, Indiana; Alma B., wife of Edwin A. Brodbeck, of Wesaw township; Warren A., on the Hagley farm in Wesaw township; Elda E., wife of Clarence Reu- barger, of Niles; and Festus G., who died at the age of nine months.

Mrs. Hagley married, March 16, 1892, William J. Jones, who died near Berrien Springs June 30, 1896. He was born in Portage county, Ohio, March 12, 1839, and was a school teacher and farmer, having the unusual record of having taught forty-three terms of schools. His four sons by a pre- vious marriage all live in Chicago. There was no issue by the second marriage.

RAYMOND B. GILLETTE, mayor of Benton Harbor and one of the prominent representatives of business interests here, has made a record that is in many respects notable. A man of good natural ability, his success in business has been uniform. He has persevered in the pursuit of a persistent. purpose and has gained the most satisfactory reward. A native of Little York, Cortland county, New York, his birth occurred on the 25th of May, 1865, his parents being Sylvanus N. and Martha ( Beebee) Gillette, who were also natives of the Empire state. The father was an inventor, possessing a mechanical turn of mind and was greatly interested in machinery. He had but limited educational privileges, yet he became a well informed man, being throughout his entire life a great reader and student. His atten- tion was entirely taken up with new ideas concerning inventions, many of which he patented, but he did not possess the practical business discernment and power for capable management which leads to the acquirements of capital. Because of his inventive genius and the concentration of his energies upon the working out of new ideas along mechani- cal lines it became necessary that Mrs. Gil- lette provide for her family, and when her son, Raymond B., was a small boy she went to Missouri, locating on a farm there. Mr. Gillette passed away at the age of eighty-

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one, but his widow is still living, at the ad- vanced age of eighty-one, and now makes her home in Benton Harbor. In the family were eight children, of whom six are living. One son, Willie, entered the Union army from New York at the age of seventeen years, and was captured and taken as a prisoner to Andersonville, where he died. Those living are as follows : Mrs. Helen J. Dayton is the wife of George W. Dayton, a Civil war vet- eran, and she is closely connected with the auxiliary work of the Grand Army of the Republic; Charles is living in Kansas City, Missouri; Herbert resides in Grand Rapids and is vice-president of the Gillette Roller Bearing Company; Walter and Wallace, twins, the former living in Los Angeles, California, and the latter in Albion, Mich- igan.

Raymond B. Gillette accompanied his mother on her removal to Missouri, but later went to Auburn, New York, where he at- tended the public schools, subsequently con- tinuing his studies in the normal school, and was for a time a student in Little York, his native city. He gave his attention to his studies through the winter months and in the summer season worked on a farm, thus providing for his own support. At the age of fifteen years, with two of his brothers and his mother, he came to Michigan, settling in Manistee, which was then the center of the great pine industry of the state, from there he entered the Valparaiso (Indiana) busi- ness college, and after completing a course in bookkeeping entered the employ of R. G. Peters, who was one of the leading lumber- men of that time. His close application, earnest purpose and unremitting diligence won him quick recognition, and he was placed in the general offices, at first as pay- master, which was a position of importance since the company employed about fifteen hundred men. Subsequently he became con- fidential cashier and had charge of the sales department of the Peters Salt and Lumber Company. When the pine became scarce and the company began cutting other lumber they decided to establish a distributing yard at Benton Harbor, Michigan, and Mr. Gil- lette was placed in that city, where, on the 23rd of February, 1897, he incorporated

what is known as the Peters Lumber and Shingle Company, with R. G. Peters as president, H. W. Carey vice president, and R. B. Gillette, as secretary and man- ager. The business has since been car- ried on successfully at this point. From a most humble position in the employ of Mr. Peters, Mr. Gillette has gradually worked his way upward until he is today one of the most prominent moving factors in the con- trol of an extensive business. His labor, keen discernment and business capacity have constituted a strong directing force and have been an essential element in the success which has attended the firm. Mr. Gillette is a man of resourceful business ability and has not confined his efforts to one line but on the contrary has extended his labors to other fields of activity. He is financially in- terested in and is secretary of the Gillette Roller Bearing Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and also vice president and treas- urer of the Cheboygan Railroad Company, of which he was one of the promoters upon its organization about two years ago. This company is now building a line in the north- ern part of Michigan, extending for sixty miles from Cheboygan to Petoskey. He is also interested in the Grand Rapids Acci- dent and Health Insurance Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is secretary and treasurer of the Lakewood Lumber Company of Lakewood, Michigan. In busi- ness affairs he is energetic, prompt and nota- bly reliable. Tireless energy, keen percep- tion, honesty of purpose and a genius for devising and executing the right thing at the right time are perhaps his chief character- istics.

In his political views Mr. Gillette is a stalwart Republican, and has been deeply interested in the success and growth of his party. He served as a member of the County Central Committee while living in Manistee and since coming to Benton Harbor has taken an active part in politics here. Shortly after his arrival here he was appointed to fill out an unexpired term occasioned by the death of an alderman from the first ward, and at the following regular election he was chosen to that position. On the expiration of his term in that office he received the

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nomination for mayor of Benton Harbor, and was elected by the largest majority ever given any candidate for the office. He is now serving for the third term and was nominated by acclamation before the last election. He has always received very large majorities, indicative of his personal popu- larity and the unqualified confidence re- posed in him by his fellow townsmen. He wished to retire from office on the expiration of his second term, but his friends protested so vigorously against it that he was obliged to again accept the nomination. His ad- ministration has stood the test of time. He is not given to making large promises which he cannot keep, but he is watchful of every opportunity for improving the city's wel- fare and his understanding of possibilities and needs is penetrative and practical. He has introduced measures for reform and progress and has brought to bear in the dis- charge of his public duties the same single- ness of purpose and concentration of energy that mark his private business interests. Fraternally he is a prominent Mason, active in the order, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He is also a charter member of the Elks lodge at Benton Harbor.

Mr. Gillette has one daughter, Gladys J. by a former marriage, and in 1898 was mar- ried to Janet J. Stows, of Indianapolis, Indi- ana, who has one son, Dwight George. Mr. and Mrs. Gillette occupy a prominent social position and the cordial and generous hospi- tality of their own home is greatly enjoyed by their many friends. Mr. Gillette is al- was courteous, kindly and affable and those who know him personally have for him warm regard. His business career has been marked by steady advancement. As has been truly remarked, after all that may be done for a man in the way of giving him early opportunities for obtaining the require- ments which are sought in the schools and in books he must essentially formulate, de- termine and give shape to his own character, and this is what Mr. Gillette has done. Through his unfaltering diligence his care- ful study of business situation and his practi- cal methods in shaping conditions to his own ends he has gained a gratifying measure of

prosperity. Moreover his life is exemplary in all respects, and he has ever supported those interests which are calculated to uplift and benefit humanity, while his own high moral worth is deserving of the highest com- mendation.

JOHN D. BURY. No history of Ber- rien county would be complete without men- tion of John D. Bury, for years a prominent and honored resident here. He came in pioneer times, one of the fearless strivers for the ever receding west, fascinating for its untried dangers as for its possibilities. He was one of the sturdy, brave men who fought and toiled and hoped and realized in varying measure, leading a life whose story has never nor will be adequately told be- cause words cannot reproduce the expe- riences which were common to the lot of all pioneers who faced the hardships and dan- gers of the frontier.

The Bury family is of English lineage. His father, John Colebrook Bury, was born in Cheapside, London, on the 6th of March, 1765, and was educated in Dublin, Ireland. In his native country he wedded Dorothea Sherwood, who died in England, and they became the parents of three children. John Colebrook Bury afterward canie to the new world, settling in Canada, where for a time he engaged in the practice of medicine. Later, however, he turned his attention to the work of a stone mason, carpenter and millwright. In Pennsylvania he was again married, his second union being with Eliza- beth Traver, and it was after this that he sent for the three children of his first mar- riage to come to the United States.

It was while his parents were living in Pennsylvania that the subject of this review was born on the 18th of August, 1804, and was given the name of John Darling in honor of one of his father's old classmates. When he was a small boy his parents removed to Kent county, Canada, settling in Ontario, where John C. Bury built the Malcolm Mills, which became the scene of a local war in 1812. He was for many years a prominent representative of industrial life in his sec- tion of Canada, and there died at the vener- able age of eighty-five years.

JohnD Bury

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HISTORY OF BERRIEN COUNTY

The educational privileges which John Darling Bury received were very limited. He attended school for only six months and possessed only a spelling book, yet he picked up a fair common school education through experience, observation and reading. He was always interested in questions relating to the welfare of his community and the country at large, and he increased in knowl- edge as well as in wealth as the years went by. He was the fifth in order of birth in a family of fourteen children, all born within twenty-three years. He remained a resident of Canada from his early boyhood days un- til 1835, and he started out in life on his own account with a capital of but fifty cents and an axe helve. With the fifty cents he bought an axe blade, and thus equipped started out to hew his fortune. In early manhood he married Miss Martha Freeman Green, also a representative of an old English family. She was born on the 24th of August, 1810, and they were the parents of three children when they came to Michigan. The year of his arrival was 1835, at which time he took up work in St. Joseph, which was then a little village situated on the flats, the town having not yet been extended to the high bluff. During the first season Mr. Bury was employed at work on the government docks, earning a dollar and a quarter per day and his board, so that in the fall he was enabled to secure a deed to one hundred and twenty acres of government land, his patent being signed by Martin Van Buren, then president of the United States. That land became his homestead in 1837, and he held it under the original patent until his death. It is still in possession of the fam- ily. In 1836 he was again in the govern- ment employ, and in 1837 he brought his family, consisting of his wife, a daughter and two sons to his new home in Berrien county, Michigan.

Unto John and Martha (Green) Bury were born eleven children, but only three of the number reached years of maturity, and the wife and mother passed away on the 27th of August, 1858, at the age of forty-eight years. Mr. Bury's second marriage was with Miss Fanny Byers, and was celebrated in

Bainbridge township, this county, on the 18th of August, 1860. She was born Sep- tember 12, 1825, in Livingston county, New York, and was a daughter of Jacob and rien county would be complete without men- to Berrien county two years prior to her marriage to visit her father's brothers' Tobias and Henry Byers, both of Van Buren county, and David Byers of Berrien county.

The old Bury homestead is situated three and a half miles east of Benton Harbor on Pear avenue. Mr. Bury added to his orig- inal purchase, extending the boundaries of his farm until it embraced two hundred and sixty-four acres of land, of which he placed one hundred and sixty acres under cultiva- tion. He planted his first orchard in 1840, ånd some of the old trees are still in bear- ing. He had good improvements upon his farm, including a substantial house and three barns. As his financial resources increased he invested largely in Berrien county prop- erty, becoming the owner of eleven hundred and twenty-one acres of land, most of which lay in Benton township. He bought this at an early period in the development of the county, the highest price which he paid for it being ten dollars per acre. He made the purchase between the years of 1837 and 1858, this being about the last tract of gov- ernment land to be had in the county. The only land bought of the government by J. H. Bury was the homestead in 1837. Four hundred acres of the fifteen hundred acres stated was Canadian land. In the work of early development and improvement he took an active and helpful part, aiding in sub- duing the wilderness and settling the fron- tier. He was a man of quiet tastes, had no expensive habits, and he was thus enabled to accumulate a handsome fortune as the years passed by. Moreover his labors were of direct and permanent good to the county. He helped erect some of the first buildings in St. Joseph. He was thoroughly reliable in his friendships and honorable in his busi- ness relations. He became thoroughly American in spirit and loyally devoted to American customs and institutions. He was prominent and influential in public life in various ways, serving as township treasurer

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for three terms, as supervisor and in other local offices. In his political affiliations he was always a loyal Democrat, unfaltering in his advocacy of the party, but was not a politician in the usual sense of office seek- ing. He was reared a Presbyterian, and although he did not become a member of the church he lived an upright moral life, and his influence was a valuable factor for good and for progress along various lines leading to substantial improvement in the county. He exemplified in his life many of the sterling principles of Christianity. was considerate of his friends, reliable in business and straightforward at all times, and in his family circle was a devoted hus- band and father.

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A twentieth century history of Berrien County, Michigan, Part 62

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