USA > Michigan > American Biographical History of Eminent and Self-made Men.: Michigan Volume > Part 17
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and returned to the Normal School in the winter of 1861. While there, he was prominently connected with the literary societies attached to the school, and was honored in being made their presiding officer. In the summer of 1862, he assisted in the organization of a company composed chiefly of students of the State Uni- versity and Normal School. The company was assigned to the 17th Michigan Infantry, and served through the South Mountain, Antietam, and Virginia campaigns. For disability, he was mustered out of service in 1863 ; and, shortly after, assumed the editorial control of the St. Clair Republican, which position he retained two UEBNER, EDWARD, Builder and Manufac- turer, of Detroit, was born in Goldberg, Silesia, in the kingdom of Prussia, February 15, 1822. Ilis father, Charles Huebner, was a farmer, who, with his wife Elizabeth, was a descendant from ancient German stock. Their families had been in that part of years. Moving to Detroit, he married Miss C. C. Bates, a former classmate at the Normal School, and engaged in teaching one year. He then accepted the position of Western agent of a large brush manufacturing company, in which he continued until 1869, when he established the Detroit Brush Company. In 1872 he was elected a Sile-ia for many generations. When they celebrated member of the Common Council of the city of Detroit, their golden wedding, in 1854, Elizabeth, Queen of Prussia, presented them with a fine Bible, having an and was re-elected in 1874. During his occupancy of this office, he was made President of the Board of | autograph letter written on the fly-leaf, commemorating
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the happy event. This book is held in their family as | of the cabin work on the large lake-going steamers, of an heir-loom. The subject of this sketch was educated which he makes a specialty. The work on the "Co- in a private school in Goldberg, where he was noted for |burn,"-which was lost some years since,-the "St. his readiness and aptness in his studies, his upright Paul," the "City of Duluth," the "Sheboygan," and many others, was done by this house. In 1876 Mr. Huebner formed a copartnership with Adolph Schulte. under the firm name of Adolph Schulte & Co., and en- gaged in a general trade in mechanics' tools, builders' hardware, and house-furnishing goods. He has since bought out Mr. Schulte, and is at present carrying on the business under the firm name of Edward Huebner & Co. He is a member of the order of Odd-Fellows, and also of the German Workingmen's Aid Society. He attends worship at St. John's German Lutheran Church. He was married, in Detroit, in 1853, to Mrs. Caroline Hiltzebecher, an educated and intelligent Ger- man lady. Her family, who were from Newmarket, near Breslau, in Silesia, were famous, and of the Prot- estant faith. Mr. Huebner gives just credit to this lady for the success which has attended his own career. In addition to the care and labor of rearing a family of nine children, eight of whom are still living,-four boys and four girls,-her good counsel, prudence, and frugality are represented in the common stock of this world's goods. In 1874 Mr. Huebner enjoyed a very pleasant and profitable visit to his friends in Europe. He still lives, in the prime of life, with the prospect of many years of usefulness, and the conciousness of a well- spent life of honest industry. deportment, and general popularity among his fellows. In Germany, boys are expected to complete their pri- mary education when fourteen or fifteen, at which age, if they are designed for intellectual pursuits or profes- sional life, they enter upon the higher courses of study; and, if for the arts and industrial pursuits, they are put in training for the particular calling for which they have a preference. Mr. Huebner was apprenticed, at the age of fifteen, for a term of three years, to a large firm in Goldberg, to learn the trade of a builder. After completing his apprenticeship, he spent several years in traveling, with his fortune in his hands in the shape of his trade, as is the custom in most countries of Europe. By this means, the artisan learns the ways of the world, acquaints himself with the methods and specialties of different localities, proves the stuff that he is made of, and fits himself for the master's work. Mr. Huebner spent three years and a half in Berlin, while there studying architecture and the theoretical and practical work of building, and has since been greatly benefited by the knowledge thus acquired. He had practical ex- perience with many firms in different portions of Ger- many, and has numerous certificates of high commen- dation from them, on which he sets a great value. In Schiefelbein, he was manager for a large contractor, and superintended the erection of many large buildings. In 1851, having a brother in Detroit, who was successfully pursuing his calling of a builder, he was induced to try his fortune on this side of the Atlantic, as so many thousands of his countrymen have done. He went im- mediately into partnership with his brother, under the firm name of W. Huebner & Brother. They worked up a prosperous and profitable business; and when, four or five years later, his brother retired from the firm for the purpose of engaging in farming, they were among the largest master contractors in Detroit. The business was continued with equal success by Edward Huebner, who, during the following year, erected many good and substantial buildings; among them, the well-known Lion Brewery, ice-cellars, and malt-houses, on Gratiot avenue, the largest of the kind in the State. In 1867 his en- tire establishment, including a shop, machinery, horses, dwelling, fixtures, etc., were swept away by fire, entail- ing a large loss, without insurance. Fortunately, how- ever, his prudence in business management had kept the site free from incumbrance, and he immediately set to work to rebuild his shop. In doing so, he changed, somewhat, the character of his business, going largely into the manufacture of sashes, doors, blinds, etc., and is now doing as large a trade in this line as any house
HOWARD, HON. JACOB M., late of Detroit, was born in Shaftsbury, Vermont, July 10, 1805. His father was a substantial farmer of Benning- ton County, and the sixth in descent from William Howard, who settled in Braintree, Massachu- setts, in 1635, five years after the town was established. The subject of this sketch, although frequently in requisi- tion to assist in farm labors, early evinced a taste for study, which he was permitted, at intervals, to gratify by attendance at the district school. Subsequently pursuing preparatory studies in the academies of Ben- nington and Brattleboro, he entered Williams College, Massachusetts, in 1826, and graduated in 1830. He immediately commenced the study of law in Ware, Massachusetts; and, in July, 1832, removed to Detroit, then the capital of Michigan Territory, where he was admitted to the bar in the following year. In 1835 he was married to Catherine A. Shaw, a young lady whose acquaintance he had formed at Ware. In his profes- sional career, Mr. Howard was ever faithful to the in- terests of his clients, bringing to their service great industry, a mind stored with legal learning, much native in Detroit. In addition to this indus. ry, he does much | sagacity, and great force of logic. In the controversy 11
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of 1834 and 1835, between the Territory and Ohio, | had put in nomination a State ticket, at the head of respecting a tier of townships which had always be- longed to Michigan, on her southern border, embracing the present city of Toledo, Mr. Howard took strong ground against the claim of Ohio, and employed his pen in repelling it. Finally, when Mr. Mason, the Terri- torial Governor, thought it necessary to employ military force against a similar force from Ohio, Mr. Howard volunteered, and proceeded with arms to make good the arguments he had advanced. The expedition was, however, productive only of wasteful expenditure to the Territory, and a large slaughter of pigs and poultry. In 1838 Mr. Howard was a member of the State Legis -; lature, and took an active part in the enactment of the code known as the " Revised Laws," of that year; in the railroad legislation of the State; and in examining into the condition of certain free banks, known as " wild-cat banks," that had come into pernicious exist- ence under the free banking system enacted the year before. In the Presidential canvass of 1840, which resulted in the election of General Harrison, Mr. How- ard was a candidate for Congress, and was elected by a majority of fifteen hundred. Michigan then had but one Representative. During the three sessions of the Twenty-seventh Congress, he seldom engaged in debate, but was an attentive observer of the scenes which passed before him. His feeling, and opinions had ever been against the influences, crime, and power of slavery. He left that Congress with the full conviction that the
which was the name of Kinsley S. Bingham as a candi- date for Governor. A call was issued for a convention, which met at Jackson, July 6; and Mr. Howard was the sole author of the series of resolutions which were then adopted, and became the key-note of the Republican party. Mr. Bingham was again nominated for Governor, and Mr. Howard, against his own earnest remonstrances, was put in nomination for Attorney-General of the State. At the ensuing November election, the whole ticket was elected by a large majority. Mr. Howard was a member of the committee on the address of the first National Republican Convention, held at Pittsburg, February 22, 1856. He held the office of Attorney- General of Michigan six years, and left it January 1, 18JI. While holding that important office, his inces- sant labors attested his fidelity to his trust; and the published reports of the Supreme Court evince his thoroughness and talents as a lawyer. To him the State is indebted for its excellent law, known as the "Regis- tration Act," by which all voters are required to enter their names on the proper books of townships and wards. While acting as Attorney-General,-although not required to initiate criminal prosecutions,-he suc- ceeded in detecting and breaking up the most formida- ble combination of counterfeiters and criminals ever discovered in the United States. In this task, he ex- pended much patient labor, and evinced a detective sagacity very rarely equaled. Mr. Bingham was elected final solution of the great question would be in civil | to the United States Senate in January, 1859, and died war; though hoping that some measure might be devised | in October, 1861. On the assembling of the Legisla- ture, in January following, Mr. Howard was chosen to till the vacancy. He was an active member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and that on Military Affairs. Ile gave earnest support to all measures for the prosecution of the war; and was among the first to recommend the passage of the Conscription Act of 1863, being convinced that the volunteer system could not safely be relied upon as a means of recruiting and increasing the army. Every measure for supplying men and means found in him a warm support. He favored the confiscation of the property of Confederates, and one of his most elaborate and eloquent speeches was made on that subject, in April, 1862. Mr. Howard was among the first to favor the amendment of the Constitution, abolishing slavery throughout the United States, in the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, who steps to effect the organization of a party embracing all ' reported the amendment as it was finally passed by both Houses and ratified by the State Legislatures. He
less radical and terrible, that should calm the deeply stirred passions of the people. He remained steadfastly attached to the Whig party; and, in the Presidential canvasses of 1844, 1848, and 1852, exerted himself to promote the election of Mr. Clay, General Taylor, and General Scott. In the trial of a slave case, under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, in the United States Circuit Court, before Judge McLean, he denounced that act as a defiance; a challenge to the conflict of arms by the South to the North, and predicted that, sooner or later, it would be accepted. On the defeat of General Scott, he resolved to withdraw entirely from politics; but, on the passage of the act of 1854, repealing the Mis- souri Compromise, he again entered the political arena in opposition to that flagrant encroachment of the slave power. Ile was among those who took the earliest the elements of popular opposition to the principles and aims of the slave-holders. This was to be obtained drafted the first and principal clause in the exact words by a union of the antislavery element of the old Whig in which it now appears. In January, 1865, Mr. How- party, which, in Michigan, was almost unanimous in | ard was re-elected to the Senate for the full term, com- opposition to the extension of bondage, with the old mencing on the 4th of March of that year. A joint resolution for the recognition of Louisiana, organized Abolition party proper, and the Free-soil Democracy. In Michigan these last two had already coalesced, and | under the military orders of General Banks, came before
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the Senate from the Judiciary Committee, and was the | hold this legislation, Mr. Howard was ever at his post subject of animated and elaborate discussion. Mr. How- of duty. He drew the report of the Committee on ard opposed it; and, 'on the 25th of February, 1865, Military Affairs, on the removal of E. M. Stanton, Sec- retary of War, by President Johnson, strongly condemn- ing that act, and exposing Mr. Johnson's complicity in the New Orleans riots. On the organization of the Senate Committee on Pacific Railroads, Mr. Howard was chosen Chairman, which position he held until the expiration of his last term. When the contest between the two branches of the Government resulted in the impeachment of Mr. Johnson by the House of Repre- sextatives, Mr. Howard voted the accused guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors charged in the articles of im- peachment, and filed a very elaborate opinion thereon. His last term expired March 4, 1871. Shortly before this date, President Grant offered Mr. Howard the Presidency of the Southern Claims Commission; but, feeling tired of public life, he declined the honor. His brilliant life was brought to a close by a stroke of apoplexy, April 2, 1871, at his home, in Detroit. A friend has said of him: delivered a speech in which he fully and clearly demon- strated that, in the reconstruction of the seceded States, the authority of Congress was supreme and exclusive; and that the Executive, as such, was invested with no authority whatever. He insisted that, by seceding from the Union, and making war upon the Government, the Confederate States became enemies by the laws of na- tions, and thus forfeited their rights and privileges as States; that, consequently, when subdued by the arms of the Government, they were conquered, and lay at the mercy of their conquerors, for exactly the same reason as prevails in cases of international wars; that it per- tained to the law-making power of the United States, not to the President, to deal with the subjugated com- munities; and that Congress, at its own discretion, was to judge of the time and mode of re-admitting them as States of the Union. This is the doctrine that prac- tically and finally prevailed, after a most gigantic strug- gle between the two branches of the Government. In "The name of Jacob M. Howard is a household word in Michigan. There is no man within its borders so poor or so ignorant as not to be familiar with that name. During all the years of the State's existence, he was one of its pillars, and has left upon it the impres- sion of his great mind. He grew up to manhood with the State, and has been closely identified with every interest tending towards its development. He was a man of mark. The stranger stopped and looked at him, and instantly received the impression that he was in the presence of a man of great physical and mental power. Mr. Howard was a true man ; true to his clients, true to his convictions, true to all the great and varied interests committed to his care. He was true to his country when armed treason sought its life; and he loved its institu- tions with a zeal that amounted to a passion. Amid all the rancor and hate engendered by partisan strife, no man could honestly charge Mr. Howard with trickery or dis- honesty. However much his power may have enriched others; having advantages for gain possessed by few; prac- ticing law for nearly forty years, and acknowledged by common consent of the bar to be a leader in the profes- sion ; actively engaged in the Congress of the nation at a time when it is said, and sometimes believed, that others grew rich, he died comparatively poor. Proud words these to adorn the monument of the dead statesman. They speak volumes for his honesty, and indicate that, whoever else may have enriched them- selves at the expense of the Government, Jacob M. Howard always kept strictly within the Golden Rule. Indeed, like Webster, whom he strongly resembled, he cared quite too little for the accumulation of wealth." Chief-Justice Campbell, at a large meeting of the bar held in Detroit, to take suitable action relative to the death of Mr. Howard, among other eulogistic remarks, made the following : the reconstruction legislation of 1867 and 1868, the principles of constitutional law, thus affirmed by Mr. Howard, were fully recognized and put into practice; for that legislation rests exclusively upon the ground that Congress, and not the President, is vested with the power of reorganizing the Confederate States. During the session of 1865-66, Mr. Howard served on the joint Committee on Reconstruction, one of whose duties was to inquire and report upon the condition of the South- ern States. For convenience, the committee divided them into several districts, and Mr. Howard was assigned Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. As the principal result of their labors, they submitted to Con- gress a proposition to amend the Constitution, now known as the Fourteenth Article; a most important amendment, which, after a thorough discussion, in which Mr. Howard took a leading part, passed both Houses of Congress, and was submitted to the State Legislatures for ratification. Had it been ratified by the State Gov- ernments of Confederate States, inaugurated by the exec- utive proclamations of Mr. Johnson, all the troubles that followed would have been avoided. But that singular man, and a majority of his Cabinet, strenuously opposed and defeated it in those bodies. The result is known. Forced to vindicate their own authority, and to prevent anarchy in those States, Congress, in March, 1867, enacted the first of that series of statutes known as the Reconstruction Acts, by which they declared those States without legal governments, and subjected them to a quasi military rule, until proper State constitutions "Mr. Howard's style of legal eloquence was remark- able. He never appeared in a court of justice except with great gravity of demeanor, not put on for the occasion, but natural to a man impressed with the feeling that he could be formed on the principle of impartial suf- frage of whites and blacks; and until Congress should formally re-admit them. In the earnest struggle to up- | was a minister of justice. His diction was of that lofty
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kind that, applied to lesser subjects, would have been | early training in the schools of his native village and at very inappropriate; and, adopted by lesser men, would Dunse. He served as an apothecary's apprentice at Dalkeith, and Edinburg; and 'spent several years in the latter city, in the employment of Messrs. Duncan & Flockhart, two of the most eminent druggists of Edin- burg. After the death of his father, he came to America, in company with the other members of the family, and established a drug store at Detroit, Michigan, in partner- ship with a brother. Determined to pursue the study of medicine, he entered the Medical College of Cleveland, Ohio, from which institution he afterwards graduated. At the end of this time, he returned to Detroit and engaged in the practice of his profession. His early business life was signalized by many disappointments and some hardships; practice came slowly, and money have had little effect. But when behind his ponderous language was his ponderous intellect; and when every word that he said had its meaning, and every idea came out with all the force that language could give, then those rounded periods had something of magic in them, and there was as much gained, perhaps, by his manner, as could be secured by any aids of rhetoric that have ever been devised. In his private life he was a model of manly simplicity, a perfect representative of what republican institutions should bring forth. He lived and dressed plainly; he had no false dignity, which would lead him to regard any man except upon his own merits. While Mr. Howard possessed this plainness, and while he despised all things despicable, he had a most hearty admiration of every thing that could really ennoble and embellish life. As a scholar, I know of no one whose reading was more extensive and select. While he read historical and other solid works, he did | was not plentiful. His courage and cheerfulness, how- not despise works of imagination. He delighted in poetry and song ; was an enthusiastic lover of music, and an intelligent and cultivated critic of art. No man delighted more in refined society, or performed his duties more faithfully. Although in public he never lost the gravity of demeanor that so well became one engaged in great pursuits, in private life he was genial. He possessed a keen sense of humor. When he spoke to a jury, or addressed a court, if that court possessed ordinary qualifications and common sense, he knew how those ideas would affect the court; and when he ad- dressed the Senate, or the larger audiences of the people of the United States, in a like manner he knew that, whether they agreed with him or not, he was sure of their understanding and appreciation. When his fame has become the property of future generations, although he may be remembered for his learning, for his eloquence, and for the qualities that have most attracted admiration, he will be still further venerated and remembered as a representative American, who valued above all things the great and essential principles of manhood."
ever, never deserted him. After years of perseverance, the sterling qualities of his head and heart began to make themselves felt, and he found himself in posses- sion of a large and successful practice, which steadily increased until the time of his death. As a medical practitioner, Doctor Inglis had few equals. He pos- sessed a singularly happy tact in the sick-room; succeed- ing almost invariably in commanding the respect and winning the confidence of his patients. His personal magnetism was something wonderful, and few could withstand its attractions. This arose from the earnest- ness and benevolence of his character, in connection with his overflowing sympathies which, in the presence of human suffering, were constantly active. His intel- lectual acuteness, knowledge of disease, and indomitable perseverance, together with his almost inexhaustible resources of treatment, made him a host in himself, while combating with disease. He never gave up a case so long as life remained. The relations he sustained to the profession throughout the State were of the hap- piest character. He was esteemed .one of the leading physicians of Detroit; the younger members of the profession, especially, delighted to honor him, and frequently called upon him for consultation. His tact, knowledge of human nature, and noble impulses were peculiarly manifest in these consultations. He seldom failed to establish the faith of the patient, or to inspire the consulting physician with more confidence. The regard of the profession throughout the State found
Perhaps the most important criminal cases in which Mr. Howard engaged were the great " Railroad Con- spiracy Case," the "Tyler Case," and the "Express Robbery Case; " and of civil cases, the "Chevalier de Repentiguy Case," decided in the Supreme Court in 1865. In his religious views he was unorthodox, although a daily reader of the Bible, and a great reader of religious works generally. Mr. Howard left surviving him five children : two daughters, -Mrs. Doctor Hildreth, and Mrs. Samuel Brady, both of Detroit; and three sons,-Colonel J. M. Howard, of Litchfield, Minnesota; Hamilton G. Howard, attorney, Detroit; and Charles | expression, in 1868, in his election to the Vice-Presi- M. Howard, now United States Receiver of Public dency of the State Medical Society; and, in 1869, to the Moneys, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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