USA > Michigan > Cass County > A twentieth century history of Cass County, Michigan > Part 70
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Isaac S. Pound
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Bus Isaac B. Powmed
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Republican party, when he joined its ranks and continued one of its sup- porters until his death. He served as highway commissioner and acted as a member of the grand jury that held a session in 1856. His re- ligious faith was indicated by his membership and loyalty to the Protest- ant Methodist church. He died upon the old homestead November 26, 1803, and was for some years survived by his wife, who reached the advanced age of eighty-three years. In their family were eight chil- dren, seven sons and a daughter, of which number five reached adult age, while four are still living.
Isaac S. Pound, the second child and the first son born of this mar- riage, was a lad of seven summers when brought by his parents to Cass county. His education was acquired in one of the old-time log school- houses of the township, with its slab seats and other primitive furnish- ings. The building was heated by a large fireplace, occupying almost one entire end of the room. His educational privileges, however, were very limited, for his services were needed upon the farm and he assisted in the development of the fields until about twenty-one years of age. He afterward took charge of the old homestead property, which he farmed for three years, when he purchased the place upon which he now resides. For a year thereafter he kept "bachelor's hall," but in March 1862, won a companion and helpmate for life's journey, being married at that time to Miss Elizabeth Hinchman, a daughter of J. K. and Panena (White) Hinchman. Mrs. Pound was born in Boone county, West Virginia, and was seven years of age when she came to Cass county with her parents, who settled in Silver Creek township. She was the youngest in a family of eleven children. At the time of his marriage Mr. Pound brought his bride to the farm upon which he now resides, having lived here for forty-five consecutive years with the ex- ception of a brief period of four years spent in Van Buren county and luis terni of service in the war of the Rebellion. In August, 1864, hie responded to the country's urgent need for troops, enlisting as a mem- ber of the Fourteenth Michigan Battery of Light Artillery, and served until July, 1865, when, the war having closed, he was mustered out as a private and returned to his home. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Pound has been blessed with six children, who are yet living: Ella. now the wife of Fred W. Timm, a resident of Cassopolis; Fred J., a mail carrier living in Marcellus, Michigan : Eva E., the wife of Andrew J. Poe, whose home is in Newberg township; Carrie, the wife of Thomas G. Barks of Vandalia; Arthur W., who is living upon the old home farm; and Jane, the wife of W. Butler of Newberg township.
Throughout his entire life Mr. Pound has followed the occupation of farming, and is now the owner of one hundred and twenty acres of arable land, which he has brought under a high state of cultivation, and it is known as " The Maple Grove Farm." There are good build- ings upon the place and he has divided the land into fields of convenient
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size by well kept fences. He has secured many of the late improved farm implements and in all of his work is progressive and enterprising. He votes with the Republican party and is unfaltering in his advocacy of its principles. He has attended the county conventions for forty years or more, usually as a delegate, and his opinions have carried weight in the party councils. He held some minor offices, and at all times is loyal and progressive in his citizenship. He belongs to W. J. May post. No. 65, G. A. R., in which he has filled all of the chairs save that of chaplain, and he has been a member of the Grange for more than thirty years. His residence in the county covers a period of sixty-one years, and he has been closely and helpfully identified with its develop- ment and progress. When the family located in Michigan there were only about twenty-five voters in Newberg township, and now there are about five hundred. There were a number of wild animals and consid- erahle wild game, including bears, wolves, deer and turkeys and prairie chickens, so that it was not a difficult task for the pioneer settler to secure game for his table. This was largely a timber region, the for- ests having as yet been uncut, but to-day there are seen waving fields of grain where once stood the native trees. The little pioneer cabins have long since given place to commodious and substantial farm residences, while here and there towns and villages have sprung up, containing excellent industrial and commercial interests. Mr. Pound rejoices in what has been accomplished, and at all times he is regarded as a citizen whose aid can be counted upon to further every movement or measure for the public good.
C. H. FUNK, D. D. S.
Dr. C. H. Funk is engaged in the practice of dentistry in Cassop- olis, where he has a well equipped office, and in his work he keeps in touch with modern scientific research and with the most advanced ideas and methods of the profession. He was born in Elkhart, Indiana, May 17. 1855. His father, William Funk, was a native of Pennsylvania and became one of the early settlers of Elkhart county, Indiana, where he carried on farming and milling. He was of German descent, as was his wife, who bore the maiden name of Catherine Myers. In their family were four sons and five daughters, all of whom reached adult age and are still living with but two exceptions.
Dr. Funk is the third child and eldest son. He was reared and educated in Elkhart county, pursuing his studies in Goshen, Indiana, after which he engaged in teaching school for four years in that county. The year 1878 witnessed his arrival in Cassopolis. He had previously studied dentistry under the direction of Dr. Cummins, of Elkhart, and he practiced for four years in Cassopolis. He afterward attended the Indiana Dental College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1883, when he once more resumed practice in Cassopolis, where he has
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remained continuously since. By reading, investigation and study he has kept in touch with the progress made by the dental fraternity and he has the mechanical skill and ability without which no member of the profession attains the highest success. His work has given a uniform satisfaction and his patronage is large and growing. He is also inter- ested in real estate, has negotiated some important property transfers and has contributed to the improvement of the city through the build- ing of the Ritter & Funk block and the postoffice block in Cassopolis. He is also interested in farming in connection with Mr. Ritter, so that the extent and scope of his activities have made him a prominent busi- ness man of Cassopolis.
Dr. Funk was married in 1890 to Miss Ellen R. Ritter, a daugh- ter of Joseph K. and Amanda F. (Kingsbury) Ritter. She was born and reared in Cassopolis and has become the mother of two sons, Le- land R. and Cyrus R.
Dr. Funk is a well known Mason, having taken the lodge and chap- ter degrees in the craft. He is an honorary member of the Indiana State Dental Society, a member of the Michigan State Dental Society since 1885, and is president of the Southwest Michigan Dental Society. He supports the Republican party, giving his ballot to those men who are pledged to uphold its principles, and in the work of the organization he has taken an active and helpful part, serving as secretary of the Re- publican county central committee. His residence in Cassopolis covers twenty-eight years, during which time he has served for five years on the school board and for three years as its treasurer. The cause of edu- cation finds in him a warm and stalwart friend and he is also the cham- pion of every progressive movement that tends to prove of practical and permanent good to the county. He is wide-awake, alert and enter- prising, and is a typical representative of the citizenship of the middle west productive of the rapid and substantial advancement of this sec- tion of the country.
JOHN ATKINSON.
The growth and substantial progress of a community do not de- pend upon the efforts of a single individual but are the result of the aggregate endeavor of many who have due regard for opportunity and exercise their powers for the general improvement and progress. To this class belongs John Atkinson, a dealer in carriages, wagons, farm implements, hay and grain in Cassopolis. He possesses the enterprising spirit which has been the dominant factor in the upbuilding of the west. He is a western man by birth, training and preference, having first opened his eyes to the light of day in Mason township. Cass county, on the 8th of May, 1858. His father. Thomas Atkinson, was a native, of England, and in an early day crossed the Atlantic to the new world. settling in the state of New York, whence he afterward removed to Elkhart, Indiana. On leaving that locality he came to Cass county.
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Michigan, where he met his death, being killed when forty-five years of age. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Jane Ann Ingledo, was a native of England and also became a resident of New Castle, Indiana. She long survived her husband and died in Cass county at the ripe old age of seventy-eight years. In their family were thirteen children, eight of whom reached adult age, while seven are now living.
Mr. Atkinson is the tenth in order of birth in the family of thirteen children. He was reared in his native township and remained at home, assisting in the work of the farm in his early youth and when twelve years of age beginning work as a farm hand in the neighborhood by the month. The first pair of boots which he ever owned were paid for by a month's wages at farm labor. The money which he made during his minority went to support the family. He was only about five years of age when his father was killed, leaving a family of seven children, one of whom was born after the father's demise. The family were left in limited financial circumstances, so that the boys had to support the mother and the smaller children. Mr. Atkinson early came to a real- ization of the value of earnest and persistent endeavor and by his close application and stalwart purpose he made good progress in the business world. After working by the month for eleven years Mr. Atkinson went to Manistee county, Michigan, and engaged in lumbering in the midst of the forests of that district. He worked for a part of the time by the month, spending about two years in the lumber trade. Leaving the lumber woods' he came to Cass county, Michigan, where he engaged in the manufacture of ties for the Michigan Central Railroad. He also devoted a portion of his time to farm labor, spending two and a half years in this way, on the expiration of which period he came to Cassop- olis and engaged in shipping wood and in baling hay. He also traded in hay and wood, getting in exchange wagons and buggies from the Stude- baker Company of South Bend, Indiana. He also traded for the brick which was used in the construction of the first hotel in the town. He has now one of the largest business enterprises of Cassopolis, his trade representing one hundred thousand dollars per year. He is in the grain business in addition to the agricultural implement business, and in the various departments of trade with which he is connected he has secured a liberal patronage. He shipped one hundred and sixty car loads of hay, straw and grain in 1900. He has likewise extended his efforts to the field of real estate operations, buying and selling farms. He makes a specialty of heavy farm machinery and has sold threshing machines to the value of fifteen thousand dollars since the Ist of February, 1905. He also handles sawmill machinery, boilers and engines and does all of the trade in this line in the county. In the year 1905 he sold sixty- seven head of horses. He has a farm comprising about two hundred acres of land, and as has been indicated his business interests are of a varied and important nature, bringing to him gratifying success by rea- son of his careful control, capable management and keen insight.
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On the 15th of June, 1888, Mr. Atkinson was united in marriage to Miss Ida Belle Hunt, who was born in Ontwa township, Cass county, and was reared by Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Hunt. Mr. and Mrs. Atkin- son have become the parents of five children, but lost their daughter, Zerl. The others are: Maud, Lueile, Louis and Cyrus.
Mr. Atkinson is a lifelong Republican, who has worked earnestly in behalf of the party but has never souglit or desired office, nor would he accept any political preferment. He is a member of the Modern Wood- men camp and is well known in the county as a liberal man who has contributed generously to the support of many measures for the general good. He is also a stalwart advocate of the temperance cause, working earnestly in behalf of the party. An analyzation of his life record shows that energy and strict attention to business have been his salient char- acteristics and have constituted the secret of his success. He has sought to live honorably and peaceably with his fellowmen, practicing the golden rule in daily affairs and at all times he has enjoyed in full measure the confidence, good will and trust of those with whom he has been brought in contaet.
HARSEN D. SMITH.
Harsen D. Smith is a prominent attorney of Cassopolis equally well known because of his activity in political circles. He has chosen as a life work a profession in which success results only from individual merit, from comprehensive knowledge and close application, and his high reputation is well deserved because he has manifested all of the salient characteristics demanded of the successful and able lawyer. A native of Albion. New York, he was born on the 17th of March, 1845, and is a son of E. Darwin and Maria (Arnold) Smith, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of New York. The paternal grandfather. Moses B. Smith, was a minister of the Universalist church and had a very wide and favorable acquaintance in the western part of the Empire state, to which he removed from New England. He was of Scotch line- age, his father, Moses Smith. Sr., having emigrated from the land of the hills and heather to the new world. E. Darwin Smith, father of our subject, was a manufacturer of agricultural implements. Following his removal to New York he devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits. He married Miss Maria Arnold, a native of the Empire state and a daughter of Benjamin Arnold, who was of English descent. They be- came the parents of three children, two daughters and a son.
Harsen D. Smith, who was the second in order of birth, acquired an academic education at Newark. Wayne county. New York, where he was graduated. He afterward engaged in teaching school in that state for a short time, and in 1862 he went to Iowa, locating at Eldora. where for one year he acted as principal of the Eldora Union Schools. He then became a teacher in the Iowa Lutheran College at Albion, Iowa,
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being professor of mathematics. In the meantime he had taken up the study of law and for a period was a student in the office of Governor Eastman, of Towa. Subsequently he went to Rochester, New York. where he entered the law office of Judge George F. Danforth, a mem- her of the court of appeals of the Empire state. For about two years Mr. Smith remained in that office and was then admitted to the New York har, after which he removed to Coldwater, Michigan, and spent about six months in the office of E. G. Fuller. He afterward removed to Jackson, Michigan, and entered the office of Hon. W. K. Gibson. In August. 1870, he removed to Cassopolis, where he formed a partner- ship with Hon. Charles W. Clishee, with whom he continued for two years. He then practiced hy himself for a year, after which he formed a partnership with Judge Andrew J. Smith, that connection being thus continued until Andrew J. Smith was elected circuit judge, since which time Harsen D. Smith has been alone in practice. He has for thirty-five years been a representative of the Cassopolis bar and is therefore num- hered among the pioneer attorneys of the county. He has gradually worked his way upward, demonstrating his ability to cope with intricate problems of jurisprudence and in the handling of his cause he displays great strength, while his devotion to his clients' interest is proverbial.
In October, 1873. Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Sate R. Read, who was born in this county in 1853, and is a daughter of S. T. and Rhoda R. (Hayden) Read.
In his political views Mr. Smith is a stalwart Republican, thor- oughly in sympathy with the principles of the party. He was elected and served as chairman of the Republican County Central Committee for ten years, was a member of the State Central Committee for six years, and for four years a member of the executive committee. He is widely recognized as one of the foremost Republicans of Michigan, and his efforts in behalf of the organization have been far reaching and bene- ficial. In 1876 he was elected prosecuting attorney, filling the office for four years, and in 1898 he was appointed by the governor to the posi- tion of circuit judge to preside over the bench of a new circuit until an election could he held. He served in that capacity for one year. He was a member of the state pardon board for about seven years, but when appointed judge resigned that position. Following his retirement from the bench he was reappointed on the pardon board. He was nom- inated for state senator in 1884. but that was the year of the Demo- cratic landslide. Fraternally he is connected with the lodge, chapter and commandery in the Masonic fraternity and also with Saladin Tem- ple of the Mystic Shrine at Grand Rapids. He has been very success- ful in his practice, being connected with the greater number of the im- portant cases tried in his district and his broad intellectuality, great strength of character and determined purpose have made him a valued factor, not only as a legal practitioner but also in social, fraternal and
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political circles. He has done much to mold public thought and opinion in his community and is justly classed with the prominent and represen- tative citizens of Cass county.
JOHN F. SWISHER.
John F. Swisher devotes his time and energies to agricultural pur- suits. More than a century ago George Washington said that "agri- culture is the most honorable as well as the most useful occupation of man," and the truth ot this assertion has been abundantly verified in all the ages. Mr. Swisher has given his entire life to farm work and now has a good property on Section 8, Silver Creek township, which is the farm upon which he was born, his natal day being March 7, 1858. His father, John T. Swisher, was a native of Virginia, born in 1812, and with his parents he removed to Ohio when seventeen years of age, the family home being established in Preble county. There he grew to man- hood and was married there to Miss Millicent Elliott, a native of South Carolina, who was brought to Preble county, Ohio, during her infancy and was there reared. Her parents died when she was a small child. She remained in Preble county until after she gave her hand in marriage to Mr. Swisher. About 1849 they removed to Cass county, Michigan, settling in Silver Creek township, where their remaining days were passed. Mr. Swisher departed this life in his seventy-ninth year and left behind him that priceless heritage of an untarnished name, because he had always been loyal in citizenship, straightforward in business and honorable in private life. He took an interest in political questions and situations and was a stanch Republican who held various township of- fices, the duties of which were capably and promptly performed. He was a devoted member of the Christian church and was a leader in the work of building the house of worship, while in the various church activities he took a helpful part. His wife, who was a faithful com- panion and helpmate to him on life's journey and who displayed many sterling traits of heart and mind, also passed away in Cass county. In their family were nine children, four sons and five daughters, all of whom reached adult age.
John F. Swisher, the youngest of this family, was reared upon the old homestead farm, where he now lives. His early educational priv- ileges were afforded by the district schools of Silver Creek township and later he continued his studies in Battle Creek high school. During the periods of vacation he worked in the fields, assisting his father in the task of developing and improving his land, and he thus gained good practical knowledge of the best methods of farm work. Ile was mar- ried in 1883 to Miss Alice G. Calvert, and unto them have been horn two children, Clarence and Erma, but the latter died January 9, 1891. She won the first premium as the prettiest girl among thirty-three con- testants at the Dowagiac fair in 1890. Her loss was deeply felt by
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her parents and many friends. Her mother survived her for only a few months, passing away August 23, 1891, at the comparatively early age of thirty-three years. In 1893 Mr. Swisher was again married, his second union being with Emma J. Benner, the widow of George Nor- ton. There is one child of this marriage, Neal, who is now eight years of age.
Mr. Swisher has been a general stock farmer and in addition to till- ing the soil has raised high grades of stock, finding both branches of liis business profitable. He has led a busy and useful life, characterized by thorough understanding of his work, by diligence in all that he does and by straightforward dealing at all times. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, and he is a firm advocate of its prin- ciples and does all in his power to promote its growth and extend its influence. In 1902 he was elected to the office of supervisor, and his capable service during his first term of service led to his re-election in 1903. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Chris- tian church, in which he is now serving as deacon, and for twelve years, with the exception of a brief interval of two years, he has been con- tinuously superintendent of the Sunday-school. His efforts in behalf of the church have been far-reaching and beneficial and he is most earnest and zealous in his labors to promote religious instruction among the young, realizing the beneficial effects upon one's after life. He has always lived in this county and is a valued representative of a worthy pioneer family. The circle of his friends is extensive because he has ever displayed those sterling traits of character which in every land and clime command confidence and regard.
CHRIS A. HUX.
Chris A. Hux, well known in financial circles in Cass county as the cashier of the Lee Brothers & Company bank at Dowagiac, is a native son of Michigan and scems imbued with the spirit of enterprise and energy which have been the dominant factors in the upbuilding of the middle west. His birth occurred in Grand Haven on the Ist of June, 1868. His father, Christian Hux, was a native of Germany, and in that land spent his youth and acquired his education in the schools of Wurtemberg. Crossing the Atlantic to America, he made his way into the interior of the country, locating at Lansing, Michigan, where he followed the machinist's trade, which he had mastered in his native country. Ile later was engaged in similar work at Grand Rapids, and subsequently took up his abode in Grand Haven in 1866. There he carried on business as a machinist until his removal to Owosso, Mich- igan, where his last days were passed, his death occurring when he was in the fifty-ninth year of his age. He had married subsequent to his arrival in the new world Miss Frederica Lambert, a native of Wurtem- berg, Germany, who came with her parents to the United States, the
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family settling in Lansing, Michigan, about 1864. She is still living and now makes her home in Dowagiac. The members of the family are: Chris A., of this review; Lizzie, the wife of William Elliott, of Owosso, Michigan; Fred, who is residing in Durand, Michigan; Emma; and Charlie, who is also living in Owosso.
Chris A. Hux, the eldest of his father's family, spent the greater part of his youth in Owosso, whither his parents removed in his early boyhood days. He spent five years as a student in the Flint school and was afterward sent to the Fenton public schools. After putting aside his text books he secured a position in the employ of the Michigan Central Railroad Company in the freight department at Owosso. Later he was transferred to Jackson, Michigan, and subsequently sent to Grand Rapids, to Augusta and to Dowagiac, whence he went to Chi- cago Heights, Illinois, on the 13th of October, 1892. In 1896, however, he returned to Dowagiac and became cashier in the private bank of Lee Brothers & Company, in which capacity he has since remained. He has thoroughly acquainted himself with the banking business in every de- partment and has rendered faithful and capable service to the house which he represents. At the same time he has become popular with its patrons by reason of the uniform courtesy which he extends to them and the promptness and ability with which he discharges the business which he transacts for them.
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