USA > Michigan > Cass County > A twentieth century history of Cass County, Michigan > Part 83
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Mr. Lewis was married in 1885 to Miss Ella Wood, a daughter of Nathan Wood, of Deep River, Indiana, and they now have one child, Claire, who is at home. Mr. Lewis is an earnest Democrat in his polit- ical views and has taken an active part in advancing the welfare and promoting the growth of Democracy in this locality. Since 1897 he has served as a member of the board of public works and has proven a most capable official. For twenty-eight years he has been a member of the Masonic fraternity and is most loyal to its teachings, being in hearty sympathy with the principles of the craft. He is also connected with the Modern Woodmen. His residence in the county now covers a period of sixteen years, and the fact that he has been continuously in mercantile life has gained him a wide acquaintance, while his business methods and personal traits of character have won for him an enviable place in the warm regard of many friends as well as of those who have known him only through business relations.
ROBERT H. WILEY.
Robert H. Wilev. the secretary of the Farmer's Mutual Fire In- surance Company of Dowagiac. is numbered among the native sons of Cass county, his birth having occurred in Wayne township on the 7th of December. 1830. His father was William G. Wiley, a native of New York and a son of John B. Wiley, who was born in Ireland, but in early life crossed the Atlantic to the United States and settled in New York
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city. He became a resident of Cass county, Michigan, about 1830, being numbered among its settlers when this was a frontier region, giv- ang little promise of rapid development of improvement. By trade he was a cooper. Before coming to Michigan, however, he lived at differ- ent times in New Jersey and Ohio and it was in those states that Will- iam G. Wiley, father of our subject, was reared. He, too, arrived in Cass county in 1836, at which time he took up his abode in Cassopolis, where he worked at the cooper's trade, which he had learned under the direction of his father. He also lived for a number of years in Wayne township, and his last days were spent in LaGrange township, where he died in his fiftieth year. He filled the office of supervisor in both town- ships and was a progressive and public-spirited citizen, who labored earnestly for the promotion of general progress and improvement in the community in which he had cast his lot. He married Miss Harriet Sifert, a native of Ohio, who came to Cass county during her girlhood days. She was a daughter of Lemuel Sifert, who was born in this country but was of Dutch descent. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Wiley were four children, two daughters and two sons, all of whom reached mature years.
Robert 11. Wiley is the eklest of his father's family and was reared in Wayne township to the age of fourteen years. He acquired a com- mon school education and remained under the parental roof until he had reached his majority, assisting in the work of the fields. When twenty-three years of age he left his home and in 1864 crossed the plains to California by way of Salt Lake City, remaining for about a year on the Pacific coast. He made the return trip by way of the Isthmus of Panama and New York city to Cass county and resumed farming in LaGrange township. Following his marriage he located with his bride on a farm in that township, and he still owns the property, where for many years he carried on general agricultural pursuits, annu- ally harvesting good crops as the result of the care and labor which he bestowed upon the fields. In 1897, however, he retired from active agricultural pursuits and removed to Dowagiac. The same year he was appointed secretary of the Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company and has been four times re-elected to the office, which he now holds.
Mr. Wiley was married in 1867 to Miss Bina C. Hill, a daughter of B. W. and Paulina Hill. Mrs. Wiley was born in Michigan and unto this marriage there has been born a daughter, Harriet, who is at home with her parents. Mr. Wiley has served in a number of official posi- tions, acting for twelve years as supervisor of LaGrange township. He was elected on the Democratic ticket, having throughout his entire life been a stanch supporter of the party. His realty holdings embrace three hundred and sixty acres of good land in LaGrange township and this property returns to him a gratifying income. During sixty-five years he has lived in the county and has watched its development as it has
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emerged from the forest and become a highly improved and cultivated district with thriving towns and cities and fine farms. He has done his full share in reclaiming the wild land for cultivation and at all times has been a supporter of public measures that have resulted beneficially in upholding the legal and political status of this part of the state.
C. C. ALLISON.
Mr. C. C. Allison, whose position as dean of the newspaper frater- nity of Cass county is fortified by fifty years of experience with the paper of which he is now editor and publisher, was born at Blackberry, Illinois, in September, 1840. He has lived in Cassopolis almost continuously since he was eight years old. Shortly after, the National Democrat be- gan its career, and in 1855, a boy of fifteen, he formed the connection which has lasted through life. A printer's apprentice, learning to stick type, do the mechanical work and the many other details of a print- ing office, he was seven years in preparing himself for full responsibil- ity of publisher and editor, during which time he worked about a year in Dowagiac with the Cass County Tribune and then the Republican. In 1862 the stock company who controlled the National Democrat gave him the charge of its issue, and by purchasing the plant two years later he assumed a proprietorship which has continued to this day.
Mr. Allison served as postmaster of Cassopolis during Cleveland's second term. Interested in the cause of local schools, he has served some fifteen years as member of the school board and for about ten years past has been moderator. Aside from this service to the public and a steady activity and membership with the local lodge of the Masonic fraternity for many years, he has kept his attention and energies without variation focused on his newspaper, and the success he has gained in life he prefers to be identified with this vocation rather than with any minor honors or services.
On St. Valentine's day of 1890 Mr. Allison married Miss May F. Tompkins. She was born in Lansing, a daughter of John Tompkins. Their two children are Waldo and Kate.
DANIEL EBY.
Daniel Ehy. residing on section 21. Porter township, was born in this township April 21. 1858. He is the sixth child and fifth son in a family of eight sons and one daughter, whose parents were Gabriel and Caroline (Wagner) Eby. He was reared upon the old family home- stead in Porter township and began his education in the district school near his father's farm. His early educational privileges, however, were supplemented hv a year and a half's study in Valparaiso Normal School at Valparaiso, Indiana, and he also attended the Sturgis school in Mich- igan. When eighteen years of age he began teaching, being first em-
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ployed as teacher of district school No. 12, in Porter township. He has also taught in Newberg, Mason and Calvin townships, and for thirty years has devoted a part of his time and attention to educational work. He has also been engaged in farming and has one hundred and sixty- one acres of good land, which he carefully cultivated and improved, mak- ing it a productive tract.
On the 19th of March, 1884, Mr. Eby was united in marriage to Miss Ida Douglas, a daughter of Sylvester Douglas and a native of St. Joseph county, Michigan. They have one son, Leo S., now at home.
Mr. Eby has been a lifelong Republican, active and earnest in the interests of his party and doing all in his power to promote its success. Hle was elected township clerk in 1884 and has been re-elected to this office each year until his incumbency covers a period of twenty-two years-a service greater than that of any other clerk in the county. In the spring of 1906 he was elected supervisor of Porter township. He has held different local school offices and has done much to promote the cause of public instruction. He belongs to the Knights of the Mac- cabees and to the Grange. His entire life has been passed in Porter township and the Ebys are among the old and esteemed families of the county. His father cut the road to the farm, for at that time there was no public highway in this part of the county. Daniel Eby has a very wide and favorable acquaintance and his life work has been of a nature which commands for him the respect and goodwill of all with whom he has been brought in contact.
JERRY O'ROURKE.
Jerry O'Rourke. a prominent and influential farmer of Silver Creek township, living on section 21, was born in this township December 6, 1853. His father. Timothy O'Rourke, was a native of Ireland and in early life crossed the Atlantic to America. He became a resident of Cass county about 1841. settling in Silver Creek township. Hle mar- ried Margaret Haggerty, also a native of Ireland, who came to America with her parents in her girlhoud days. The Ilaggerty family was also established in Cass county in pioneer times. Mr. O'Rourke died when only forty-one years of age and was long survived by his wife, who passed away in 1893 at the age of seventy years. In their family were three children, who reached adult age.
Jerry O'Rourke. the second child and only son, grew to maturity, was reared in his native township and acquired a common-school edu- cation. He is a stanch Democrat, who throughout the period of his man -* hood has taken a deep and active interest in public affairs and does all in his power to promote the growth and insure the success of his party. The first office which he ever held was that of supervisor, being elected to the position in 1887 and serving for four consecutive years. He was again chosen in 1894, and at that time by re-election continued in office for seven years, so that his incumbency as supervisor covers altogether
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a period of eleven years. He has also served as a member of the Dem- ocratic county committee, and has taken an active interest in campaign work. He was the first Democrat ever elected to office in his town- ship, and the fact that he has so long been continued in positions of political preferment indicates his personal popularity and the confidence reposed in him.
For many years Mr. O'Rourke was interested in dealing in stock. He rents his farm, however, a part of the time. He has one hundred acres of land which is rich and productive, and he also buys and sells land, speculating to a considerable extent, in which undertaking he has made some money. He has always resided in this county and is well known here because of his business activity, his official service and his connection with various fraternal organizations. He belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of the Mac- cabees, and has a very wide and favorable acquaintance in the county.
MILTON P. WHITE, M. D.
The medical profession is one of the leading factors in all civilized parts of the globe, also one of the most arduous, as well as useful. The mild, cheerful and sunny physician in the sick chamber is oftentimes more penetrative in healing than the remedies he may prescribe. Dr. White of this review, who has been a physician and surgeon in Dowagiac for almost twenty years, is so well known in the northern part of Cass coun- ty that he needs no special introduction to the citizens of the city of Dowagiac. He is a native of Cass county, born near the village of Wakelee December 19, 1852, and is the youngest of seven children, six sons and one daughter, born to Jolin and Hannah ( Baker) White. There are three of the children living, the eldest being Henry, a resident of California, who went to the Pacific slope in search of gold in the fifties, and yet remains a miner ; Jasper, a prosperous farmer in Penn township, receiving his education in the common schools; Dr. White is the next in order of birth.
John White, the father, was a native of North Carolina, and was reared in his native state until reaching manhood, there learning the blacksmith's trade. He first located in Cass county when the county seat was officially but not actually situated on the banks of Diamond lake, and there had a foundry and blacksmith shop. He later bought a farm in Volinia township. Politically he was a Jackson Democrat. His death occurred when Dr. White was fourteen years of age. Mother White was a native of the Keystone state of Pennsylvania, descending from old German ancestry, and she was reared a Quaker. She was of a sweet, lovable and affectionate nature, and her prayers and admoni- tions will ever remain as a beacon to her children. She died a true Christian mother, whose whole life was a sweet reflection of the good deeds done to others.
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Dr. White was reared in Cass county, receiving his primary edu- cation in the district schools, and then attended a select school at Buchanan until he could pass his teacher's examination. He then taught a winter term near Niles, the following year depositing the first one hundred dollars he had made in the bank, and then entered the North- ern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso to better prepare himself for a teacher. And here let tis say Dr. White made his own way by working at any employment that was honorable which would aid him in securing an education. Besides teaching the country school he also taught one year in Galien, Berrien county, and during all this time he was spending his money in acquiring a higher education to fit him for the study of medicine. He took the business and literary course at the Northern In- diana Normal and during the summer and fall of 1876 he was in the of- fice of Dr. Beer, of Valparaiso, to read medicine. He next entered the medical department of the Northwestern University at Chicago, in 1877. where he continued until his graduation in 1880. He then returned to his home in Wakelee, and after some persuasion on the part of his dear old mother he began the practice of his profession at Wakelee. His practice steadily grew, and he remained there six and a half years, on the expiration of which period, in the fall of 1886, he located in the pretty city of Dowagiac, where his practice has steadily grown, and today he is one of the leading physicians in the city. His home is located at the corner of Telegraph and Center streets, and it is ever open to his and his wife's many friends.
Dr. White wedded Miss Rosella Carman September 14, 1882, and to this union have been born three children, one son and two daugh- ters, all living, namely: Baker T., a student in the now Northern In- diana University at Valparaiso; Ruth, in the senior year in the city high school of Dowagiac; and Cora M., in the fifth grade of the city schools. Dr. and Mrs. White are endeavoring to educate their children well. Mrs. White's father died at the age of eighty-two years, and her mother is yet living on the old homestead near Schoolcraft, Michigan, aged eighty-four years. Mrs. White was born in Kalamazoo county, Mich- igan, January 24, 1856, was reared in her native county, and received her higher education in the Northern Indiana Normal School. Polit- ically Dr. White is a Republican, having cast his first presidential vote for Hayes. He has strong temperance principles. Officially he was mayor of Dowagiac in 1901 and 1902, and fraternally he is a mem- ber of the blue lodge of Masons and the council. He is an honored member of the Cass County Medical Association, being twice president of the society, a member of the Michigan State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, also Kalamazoo Academy of Medicine. He is examining physician for the Penn Mutual, the Mutual Life of New York, the Northwestern of Milwaukee, and is one of the United States pension examiners, which office he has held for nine years. Mrs.
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White is a member of the Nineteenth Century Literary Club, which is composed of the leading ladies of Dowagiac. Besides his city property Dr. White has one hundred and sixty acres of good land in Pokagon township and several houses for rent in Dowagiac. He is surely to be commended for the success he has achieved from the fact that he began his professional career without capital, but now in the prime of his man- hood he has a competency which enables him to live in comfort. We are pleased to present this brief review of Dr. and Mrs. M. P. White to be preserved in the Twentieth Century History of Cass County.
L. BURGET DES VOIGNES.
The profession of the law, when clothed with its true dignity and purity and strength, must rank first among the callings of men, for law rules the universe. A prominent representative of the bar of south- ern Michigan is L. Burget Des Voignes, now judge of the thirty-sixth judicial circuit of Michigan. Born at Mt. Eaton, Wayne county, Ohio, October 14, 1857, he is a son of Louis A. Des Voignes and a grand- son of Peter Des Voignes. The last named was a native of Berne, Switzerland, where he was engaged in the dry goods business, and was well known in his native city as a man of excellent judgment and 10- bleness of character. With his wife and three sons, Augustus, Jules and Louis, he came to America in 1844, the family home being established at Mt. Eaton. Ohio, and there the father engaged in the shoe business. He allied his interests with the Whig party, and when the Republican party was formed he joined its ranks, remaining a stalwart supporter of its principles. He was a member of the Lutheran church, and in that faith he passed away in 1861.
Louis A. Des Voignes, the father of him whose name introduces this review, was eleven years of age when the family home was estab- lished in America. In 1855 he was united in marriage to Savilla A., a daughter of John Messner, of Mount Eaton, Ohio. The young couple took up their abode in that city, which continued as their home until about 1863, when Mr. Des Voignes was burned out by the rebels. He then entered the service and removed to Mendon, Michigan, where for five years he was employed as clerk in a store, and for seven years was engaged in the drug business. The wife and mother died on the 20th of July. 1887.
L. Burget Des Voignes received his early educational training in the Mendon schools, graduating from the high school of that city in 1876, and then entered upon the study of law. In 1877 he was admitted to the bar of St. Joseph county, but in the same vear entered the law department of the Michigan University at Ann Arbor, in which he was graduated the following year, 1878. He then removed to Marcellus, Michigan, and entered upon the practice of his profession. He has largely mastered the science of jurisprudence, and his deep research and
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thorough preparation of every case committed to his care enable him to meet at once any contingency that may arise. He is an active member of the Republican party, and his ability has led to his selection for pub- lic honors. From 1888 to 1891 he held the office of circuit court com- missioner, under appointment from Governor Luce, while from 1891 until 1893 he was prosecuting attorney of Cass county, declining a re- nomination at the end of his term. For five years he was a member of the board of education in Marcellus, a member of the village council for three years, and for thirteen years held the office of town attorney. He stumped the county for the Republican state committee in 1880, being an orator of much ability, and during the years 1884, 1888, 1892 he was a delegate of the state committee and was also a member of the County Republican Committee.
In 1896 Governor Rich appointed him judge of probate to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Bennett and at that time he removed to the village of Cassopolis with his family, where he now re- sides. He was nominated and elected for three successive terms for that office, serving a period of over ten years, and during this time was also a member of the Cassopolis board of education six years. In 1905 he was elected judge of the thirty-sixth judicial circuit, and is now occupying the bench in that circuit.
In 1880 Mr. Des Voignes was united in marriage to Allie M. Clapp, a native of St. Joseph county, Michigan and a daughter of Dr. Clapp, of Mendon. that county. One child has been born of that union, Jules Verne, now a student in university, who has written a number of arti- cles for Munsey's. Argosy and other magazines, and is a promising young man. In his fraternal relations Mr. Des Voignes is. a member of the Masonic order, being a Knight Templar, and of the Knights of Pythias. He ranks high at the bar and in political circles, and Cass county numbers him among her leading and influential citizens.
DONALD A. LINK, M. D.
Dr. Donald A. Link, whose death by drowning August 15, 1906, deprived the Cass county medical fraternity of one of its valued mem- bers, he having been engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in Volinia and the surrounding country, was born in Canada on the 22nd of October, 1865. His father, Alexander Link, was also a native of that country and by occupation was a lumberman. Crossing the border into the United States. he located at Superior, Wisconsin, but his last days were passed in Canada, where he died in 1904. He was of Pennsyl- vania Dutch descent. In early manhood he had married Ann Cameron, also a native of Canada, while her parents were born in Scotland. She still survives her husband and is about seventy-three years of age. In their family were six sons and two daughters, all but one of whom are vet living. namely : J. A., who resides in Superior, Wisconsin: Adam
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J., who is living in Alberta, Canada, where he is government inspector of claims in the government office; Catherine, the wife of Rev. Malcolm Mclellan, D. D., of Edinburgh, Scotland; Donald A., of this review; William K., also living in Superior, Wisconsin, assistant manager of the Superior Coal Company; Robert J., who is likewise living in Superior, Wisconsin; Ronald F., a marine engineer of Canada; and Margaret E., of Gravenhurst, Canada. The last named is the only one unmarried.
Dr. Link acquired a common school education at Lindsey, Ontario, and afterward pursued a three years' course in medicine in McGill Uni- versity at Montreal, Canada, while later he was graduated from the De- troit College of Medicine with the class of 1895. The same year he located for practice in Cassopolis, Michigan, where he remained for about three years and then removed to Dawson City in the Yukon ter- ritory in Alaska. He continued there for about two and a half years and in 1900 returned to Cass county, locating at Volinia. He had a good practice here and was popular with all classes. He had gone to Gravenhurst, Ontario, in August to visit his mother, and while on a conoe trip up Moon river, in the district of Muskoka, met the sad death which has been mentioned.
In December, 1895, occurred the marriage of Dr. Link and Miss M. Blanch McIntosh, the only daughter of Jacob and Emily McIntosh, who are mentioned on another page of this work. Dr. and Mrs. Link had a daughter, Margaret E.
Dr. Link maintained fraternal relations with the Knights of the Maccabees, the Benevolent Order of Elks and the Masons and had taken the Royal Arch degree in the last named organization. In the line of his profession he was connected with the Cass County Medical Society and the Michigan State Medical Society. He was conscientious and zealous in his practice, finding in the faithful performance of each day's duty strength and inspiration for the labors of the succeeding day.
JAMES M. TRUITT.
The Truitt family is one of the oldest in Cass county. and the name is indissolubly connected with its annals from an early epoch in its history. Peter Truitt, the father of him whose name introduces this review, was born in Slatterneck, Sussex county, Delaware, February 7, 1801, a son of Langford and Esther A. ( Schockley) Truitt. On the 25th of February, 1819. Peter Truitt married Mary Simpler, whose father was a soldier in both the Revolutionary and war of 1812, and their children were John M., Elizabeth C .. Henry P., David T. and Langford. By his marriage to Isabel McKnitt, Peter Truitt became the father of Mary J. and Esther A. His third wife was Deborah McKnitt. and their only child was James M., and his fourth wife was Sarah ( Mc- Knitt) Lane. In his political affiliations Mr. Truitt was first a Whig. and later joined the ranks of the Republican party, and for a number of
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