USA > Michigan > American Biographical History of Eminent and Self-made Men.: Michigan Volume > Part 27
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JEILLY, CORNELIUS J., of Detroit, Judge of the Third Judicial District, was born at Heart Prairie, Wisconsin, May 26, 1848. His father, John Reilly, was formerly engaged in the manufacture of reapers and mowers, at Racine, Wisconsin ; and is times, being one of the most able and logical speakers the inventor and patentee of the "Badger State Reaper within the conference. Mr. Russell has become widely ' and Mower." Judge Reilly's parents still reside at Ra- known to the public in connection with the temperance cine, where he received a collegiate education. After question, and, for ten years, has been appointed tem- leaving college, he came to Detroit, when about nine- perance agent of the conference. He is a promoter of ; teen years of age, and entered the law office of Mocre
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& Griffin, where he remained four years. He was then | Michigan courts, and is still ardently devoted to the pro- admitted to the bar, and engaged in the practice of his fession, in which he has spent nearly half a century of study and practice. Brought up in the Democratic school of politics, he has been a strong advocate of the principles of that party; yet, during the late civil war, he was an earnest supporter of President Lincoln, and of the war. He was frequently called upon to address meetings for raising volunteers, and to make speeches of encouragement to the troops rendezvoused in Detroit previous to their departure for the seat of war. Though often solicited, he has steadily refused to accept public office of any kind. A gentleman of extensive literary culture, he was selected by a committee of citizens in 1876, as orator at the Centennial Fourth of July cele- bration in Detroit; and the oration he then delivered met with such approbation as to fully exemplify the wisdom of the committee in their choice. profession, until appointed Circuit Court Judge by Gov- ernor Bagley, in November, 1875, on resignation of Judge Patchin, whose term expired January 1, 1876. Preceding the appointment, in April, 1875, he had been elected, for six years, from January 1, 1876, to the same judicial office. Judge Reilly was one of the School Board in 1870 and 1871. He votes and works for the Democratic party. Religiously, he is a member of the Episcopal Church. He is an active member of the Detroit Boat Club, and of several societies in that city. He was married, November 22, 1877, to Miss Ada Buhl, daughter of C. H. Buhl, of Detroit. Judge Reilly is still a young man, and much of his record naturally belongs to the future biographer. He is a close student, and his decisions, rulings, and conduct on the bench, thus far, have been generally satisfactory.
OWLAND, THOMAS, Detroit, Michigan, was born in Ohio. He served as a Major of Infantry under General Hull, in 1813-14; and retired from the army in 1815, locating in Detroit. He held the position of Secretary of the Territory of Michigan; was subsequently made United States Marshal for the De- troit district; was appointed Postmaster of that city by General Harrison; was elected Secretary of State in 1840; and died in Detroit in August, 1848. He was a man of culture, and was highly esteemed. In 1819, he read a paper before the Detroit Lyceum on "Hull's Cam- paign," which has frequently been quoted with commen- dation.
OMEYN, THEODORE, Lawyer, of Detroit, Michigan, was born in New Jersey, in 1810, and Nm is descended from the Knickerbocker family of that region. He was educated at Rutgers College, studied law, and was admitted to practice at Albany in 1832. He removed to Detroit, Michigan, in 1836, entered upon the practice of law, and has resided there ever since, with the exception of ten years, from 1848 to 1858, which he spent in New York City, engaged in his profession. Among the more notable successes in his early years as a lawyer, may be mentioned his attack upon the general banking laws of the State, proving their unconstitutionality in both the State and Federal courts ; which resulted in the breaking up of the "wild- cat" banks, and in much financial disaster consequent thereon. He has participated, as counsel, in some of the most notable cases which have been tried in the | time, but little lake commerce existed, and, during the
HELEY, HON. ALANSON, of Detroit, Michigan, Wholesale Druggist, was born August 14, 1809, www at Albany, New York. When nine years old, he moved to Jefferson County, New York, with his grand- parents, who settled in the woods and commenced clear- ing a farm. Here he spent eight years of his early life assisting his grandfather, and attending the common schools. May 31, 1826, he started on a raft from Mul- let Creek, now called Fisher's Landing, on the St. Law- rence River, for Quebec. He went down the rapids on his raft, and arrived at Quebec about the Ist of July. This was the year in which almost all the lumbermen who depended on the Quebec market failed,-the money which the hands received being barely enough to take them to their homes. When seventeen years of age, Mr. Sheley commenced learning the trade of stone- mason and builder, with Henry Raught, at Watertown, New York. Three years after, having finished his ap- prenticeship, he was employed as a foreman in construct- ing the Reddo Canal, in Canada. In the summer of 1831, he started for the West, taking passage at Buffalo on the steamboat "William Penn." August 31, of the same year, he landed in Detroit, the farthest point west to which steamboats then took emigrants, and here con- cluded to remain. Detroit was then but a small town, containing two thousand inhabitants, with now and then a log-cabin. In one of these, located on the corner of Bates and Larned streets, he found lodging. In the summer of 1832, he received an appointment from the United States Government to superintend the construc- tion of a light-house in Thunder Bay, Lake Huron ; and, in July, with fourteen men, began work. The building was completed the following October. At that
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three or four months that the work was in progress, only | helping hand to a friend, or to relieve distress. While an occasional vessel was seen to pass on Lake Huron. When the work was completed, the party was taken back to Detroit in the schooner "Marshall Ney," sent for
he has always been a strict teetotaler, he has a strong sympathy for the inebriate; and, by kind words and generous deeds, which are more effective than words, that purpose. This schooner was owned by the father | seeks to accomplish his reformation. His business life of the late Captain E. B. Ward, and commanded by has been one of continued prosperity; and he is re- garded as one of the most successful of the older mer- chants of Detroit. . Captain John Stewart. Mr. Sheley then followed the business of contractor and builder in Detroit. In 1834 he built the First Presbyterian Church, on the corner of Woodward avenue and Larned street. This building was destroyed by fire about twenty years later. In 1834 the Black River Steam-mill and Lumber Company was EXTON, JARED A., Detroit, Ex-Sheriff of Wayne County, and senior partner in the banking firm " of Sexton & Hall, was born in Dearborn, Wayne chartered by the Territorial Legislature; and, in 1835, Mr. Sheley 'became its general manager. He continued
in that position until the expiration of the charter, and County, Michigan, September 29, 1838. Ilis parents, the winding up of the company's affairs in 1855. He Jared and Nancy Sexton, emigrated from New Jersey carried on the lumber business on his own account three to Michigan in 1833. His father was a skilled work- years longer, retiring in 1858. In 1851 he erected a man in the building and cabinet trade; and, during the large four-story building, on the east side of Woodward construction of the Michigan Central Railroad, superin- avenue, between Congress and Larned streets, which, itended the building of the bridges and culverts. Upon when completed, was occupied by J. S. Fariand in the opening of the road for traffic to Ypsilanti, he was May, 1859, as a drug store. Mr. Sheley formed a co- ; appointed by the company as agent at Dearborn. About partnership with Mr. Farrand ; and the firm occupied | this time, he purchased from the Government a large tract of wild land in the township of Taylor, in the southern part of Wayne County. In the latter part of 1847, he removed, with his family, on to this land, and began to clear and bring under cultivation a farm in the wilds of Michigan. Here Mr. Sexton first displayed that spirit of indomitable perseverance which has character- ized his every undertaking. Here he passed his boy- hood, working with the unflagging zeal of a young pioneer in the summer, and attending the district school during the winter months. At the age of nineteen, he entered the Normal School, at Ypsilanti, to study with a view to becoming a teacher, defraying the expenses of his collegiate course by teaching penmanship during his vacations. His course was completed at the age of twenty-three; and then, with education, energy, and the strong impulse of necessity, he commenced life. Owing to the death of his mother, in January, 1861, he returned home to take care of his father, who had reached the age of seventy, and to cultivate the farm which had been the home of his early boyhood. In May,
the same store as wholesale and retail druggists. Their business increased with the growth of the State; and, in 1872, they erected one of the largest drug houses in the West. Mr. Sheley still retains his interest in the business. The firm has been enlarged by the admission of several of its oldest employes, and is now known as Farrand, Williams & Co. Mr. Sheley has been a zealous member of the Common Council of the city of Detroit for five years; a member of the Board of Sewer Com- missioners eight years; and represented the First Dis- trict of Michigan in the State Senate two terms, serving in the sessions of 1867-68, and 1871-72. In early life he was a Whig; he has been a stanch Republican since the organization of that party. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Detroit, in which, for many years, he has held the office of ruling elder. Hle has been Superintendent and assistant Superintendent of the Sabbath-school over thirty years. Mr. Sheley, though now nearly seventy years of age, is in the pos- session of robust health. He is still actively engaged in business, managing the finances of the large firm of ; 1861, he married Harriet E. Bradford, eldest daughter which he is a member ; and bids fair to continue his work of Benjamin Bradford, a farmer in the township of Can- for some years to come. In an active business career of , ton, Wayne County. The home farm again became the over forty-five years in the city of Detroit, he has ever scene of carnest work; but small capital and poor mar- been honored for integrity and upright dealing. Hav- ket facilities rendered the outlook anything but encour- ing a deep interest in all that pertains to the material aging. After two years of unremitting toil, having accu- welfare of Detroit, he has, both as an officer and a! mulated a capital of one hundred and fifty dollars, Mr. Sexton opened a store, with a post-office attached, called Taylor's Centre. This was the pioneer post-office of the township. The enterprise was the first step towards the exclusive adoption of mercantile pursuits. The next was the selection of a larger and more desirable field private citizen, aided in its growth and prosperity. He has taken an active part in building up religious and benevolent institutions, and has contributed liberally to their support. Strong in his personal friendships, and of generous impulses, he is always ready to extend a
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of labor, having railway communication. Finally, the | books for a lumber firm in that city. This business did farm was rented, and the store and post-office in Taylor's | not prove congenial to his tastes; and, having a strong Centre changed owners. In 1868 Mr. Sheldon built a desire to become a journalist, he obtained a position as reporter for the Chicago Press and Tribune. He held this position for a year or more; and then, in 1859, re- moved to Detroit, Michigan, and became connected with the Detroit Advertiser, as its commercial editor. In 1862, having become pecuniarily interested in that paper,-now the Advertiser and Tribune,-he was chosen business manager, which position, or that of managing editor, he held until 1873. In that year, he retired from the Advertiser and Tribune, and started the Evening News, a cheap afternoon paper, which has since become a re- markable success. Politically, Mr. Scripps is a conserv- ative Republican. He married, September 16, 1862, Harriet J. Messinger. They have three children living. brick store in Dearborn; and, in the spring of 1869, opened it for business. This business he carried on successfully until the spring of 1874, when a still larger field of work became necessary. He sold the store at : Dearborn and removed to Detroit. Taking the advice of friends, during the political campaign of 1874, he accepted the nomination for Sheriff of Wayne County, and was elected. In 1876 he was again nominated, but defeated, owing to the enmity of many of the small liquor dealers, incurred by the faithful performance of duty as Sheriff, in enforcing the payment of the heavy liquor tax. In 1877 he opened the present banking business, in association with Mr. O. F. Hall, under the name of Sexton & Hall. Mr. Sexton began his public career as School Inspector and Town Clerk in the town- ship of Taylor, serving two terms in each of these posi- tions. He was in the State Legislature of 1867; Super- visor of Dearborn in 1870 and 1871; and Sheriff of Wayne County in 1875 and 1876. He has always been a warm supporter of the Democratic party; and, by the manifestation of well-directed zeal, and untiring energy in the interest of the party, has won general confidence and the attachment of its leaders. He is strictly tem- perate in all things, and a man who commands the respect of the community. He has been a member of the Masonic Fraternity since 1865. Mr. Sexton is to-day a fair specimen of a man who has made his own way from poverty to prosperity. His character is marked by integrity, geniality, and true benevolence. He is a fine representative of the self-made man of our day.
ILL, JOHN M. B., Superintendent of Public Schools, Detroit, was born, November 24, 1831, at Black Rock,-now a part of Buffalo,-New York. He is the son of Joseph and Eliza B. Sill, who died when he was eleven years old. Soon after the death of his parents, he went to Jonesville, Michi- gan, where he attended the village school. He pre- pared himself for the University of Michigan, but, not possessing sufficient means to enter, he pursued his col- lege studies privately. He graduated from the State Normal School, in 1854, after an attendance of nearly two years, during which time he was an assistant teacher. The University of Michigan has since conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts, for merit and pro- ficiency in scholarship. In acquiring an education under great difficulties, he was sustained by the ambition to become a lawyer; but, while teaching, he gained a de- cided taste for that profession, and, upon receiving an offer from the State Board of Education, engaged to teach in the State Normal School. During the period of his stay in Ypsilanti, he wrote a book on English Grammar, for schools, which was published by Ivison & Phinney, of New York. He was one of the early work- ers in the Michigan State Teachers' Association, and was its President in 1861. In August, 1863, he accepted an appointment as Superintendent of Schools, in Detroit, which position he held for two years. He then resigned to engage in conducting the Detroit Female Seminary, which he did with great success for ten years. In 1875 he was again unanimously elected, by the Board of Education, Superintendent of the Public Schools of Detroit. Mr. Sill was appointed by Governor Crapo, in 1867, a member of the Board of Regents of the Uni- versity, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Mr.
CRIPPS, JAMES E., Detroit, Editor and Pub- lisher of the Detroit Evening News, was born in London, England, March 19, 1835. His parents were James M. and Ellen Mary (Saunders) Scripps. His father was a book-binder of prominence, and his grand- father a well-known London publisher, having published the London Daily Sun, in the early part of the century; and later, the London Literary Gazette. Mr. Scripps came, with his father, to this country in the year 1844, settling upon a farm in Schuyler County, Illinois. His education was received in the district school, his attend- ance being limited to a short season during the year. He lived and worked on the farm until twenty-two years of age, devoting his leisure to study and the read- ing of such books as he could procure; but books of all kinds were rare in the locality in which he resided. In 1857 he went to Chicago, Illinois; took a course in the Commercial College; and, for a short time, kept | Knight. He held the position until the expiration of
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his term of office on the 31st of December, 1869. In | the war of the Revolution, settling about four miles 1876 he was the President of the Detroit Scientific Asso- | from the site of the present town, at the outlet of Sara- ciation. He was reared in the Presbyterian faith; but, when twenty-three years of age, he became a member
toga I.ake. He purchased his farm of General Schuy- ler, of Revolutionary fame, and they became warm of the Episcopal Church. In politics he is a Democrat, friends. Jonathan Slocum, father of Giles, and great- and was once a candidate, on the Democrat ticket, for Regent of the University. He was married, March 22, 1854, to Miss Sally Beaumont, of Jonesville, Michigan. They have had four children, two of whom are living. As an educator, Professor Sill has been eminently suc- cessful. He has done much to simplify the work of both scholars and teachers; and is earnest and diligent in his efforts to elevate the standing of the city schools, which show the result of his labors in various ways.
grandfather of Giles B. Slocum, was killed in the In- dian war, on the site of the present city of Wilksbarre, Pennsylvania. Jeremiah Slocum, son of Giles Slocum, and Betty Bryan (Slocum), who was of a Connecticut family, were the parents of Giles B. Slocum, the subject of this sketch. Descended from ancestors who were active participants in the struggles and trials from which have sprung American liberty and civilization, the strength of character which Mr. Slocum inherited, received culture and discipline through early habits of industry and self-reliance. His boyhood years were passed in labor on a farm about two miles from the scene of Burgoyne's surrender. He had the educational HELDEN, ALLAN, Detroit, senior partner in the wholesale dry-good, firm of Allan Shelden & Co., was born in Kinderhook, New York, July 16, 1832. His early education was with a view to practical busi- ness; and, at the age of nineteen, he left school, and soon after commenced an apprenticeship in a mercantile house. In the spring of 1855, he came to Detroit, and took a position in the dry-goods house of Z. Chandler & Co., becoming a partner in 1857. As the head of the ! house since 1863, he has maintained a high reputation i the town plat of Vistula, now Toledo, Ohio. He had and has added to its business position and income. In stature, Mr. Shelden is moderately tall, and rather slen- der; he is of a quick, active temperament. Though thoroughly devoted to a business life, he gives such attention to public and benevolent enterprises as is demanded of the good citizen. While comparatively young, he has acquired a handsome fortune. He is a Director in the Second National Bank of Detroit. advantages which the common schools afforded ; and, during his early manhood, taught school three winters in the neighborhood of Saratoga, and one winter near Lockport, New York. He spent the summer of 1830, in Northern New York, farming on the Au Sable River. His first visit to the West was in 1831, when he landed at Detroit ; and, after prospecting extensively in the interior, and through the woods above Black River, he settled for the winter, and assisted in laying out the only store there; and was engaged in getting out timber for building the first wharf at that place. On the death of his father, in 1832, he returned to the East, and purchased the interest in his father's estate, owned by the remaining heirs. He returned to Mich- igan early in the winter of 1833, and spent the winters of 1833 and 1834 in the stave business, at the head of Swan Creek Bay, now Newport, where he established a store, went into a general trade; and succeeded in get- ting the small steamers, "Jack Downing," "Jackson," and "General Brady," to run up Swan Creek, from Lake Erie, to his place. In the spring of 1834, among LOCUM, GILES BRYAN, of Trenton, was born at Saratoga Springs, New York, July 11, 1808. F His grandfather, Giles Slocum, was a Quaker, born in Rhode Island, who moved, at an early date, to Pennsylvania. He was among the sufferers by the Wyoming massacre of 1778, and was one of the sixty who escaped with their lives. His sister Frances, then five years of age, was carried off by the Indians; and, after a captivity of sixty years, was found, near Logans- port, Indiana, in 1837, by Colonel Ewing. A very interesting account of this circumstance, written by Lossing, the historian, is now extant. Giles Slocum was a volunteer in Sullivan's expedition against the Indians, other pioneer experiences, he paddled a canoe from Jackson down Grand River to Grand Rapids. In the summer of 1834, he established the first store and dock at Truaxton, now Trenton, and continued in the mer- cantile business there, with slight intermission, for many years. In 1837 he sold the old homestead, and became a Western man; from which time he dates his career as a large real estate owner and operator. Among his land purchases in the vicinity of Trenton was a frontage of over three miles on Detroit River. For fifteen or twenty years following 1837, he turned his attention to sheep-raising; and, during that time, was the largest wool-grower in Michigan. Each year in the Genesee Valley. He removed from Pennsylvania | he has increased the number of his acres; and during the to Saratoga Springs, New York, soon after the close of | past forty years, he has cleared, and brought under culti-
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vation, upwards of fifteen hundred acres of heavily tim- | obtain the right of way. Soon after the completion bered land in the vicinity of Trenton; the timber from of the Toledo and Canada Southern Railroad, the junc- which has been shipped to New York as staves, used in tion of the two roads, which was made on Mr. Slocum's property, took the name of Slocum's Junction. In 1861, and during the war, Mr. Slocum was an earnest supporter of the Government; and was influential in raising men and money, and assisting in equipping regi- ments for the field. Mr. Slocum was also active in obtaining subscriptions and supplies for the Sanitary Commission. Mr. Slocum_is one of the trustees of the Saratoga Monument Association,-a purely patriotic enterprise, -of which Horatio Seymour is President. ship-building at Trenton, as cord-wood sold to steam- boats for fuel, or shipped to Detroit. He was also en- gaged, from 1843 to 1851, in driving piles and making docks in Detroit, Windsor, Springwells, Trenton, Sand- wich, Gibraltar, and Grosse Isle. In 1859 Mr. Slocum and Mr. Charles Mears, of Chicago, having each previ- ously purchased large tracts of land on White River and White Lake, laid out the present thriving village of Whitehall. Mr. Slocum now holds the proprietary right of one-half the land within the limits of the vil- ; He has bought and sold large tracts of land -of which lage; and, in addition, large tracts in the vicinity out- | bundles of canceled contracts bear witness -- without litigation; having always given ample time for their performance. He is one of the few men doing a large business who have stood erect through all the commer- cial inflations, revulsions, and contractions of his time. Mr. Slocum has always done business exclusively on his own capital; he has never made a mortgage, nor given his note for advance of money; and what he could not do with his own means he left undone.
side the corporate boundary. About the year 1848, Mr. Slocum made a contract, with the county of Wayne, to build two bridges across the river Rouge, and to re- ceive his pay in State lands. These lands he located in the eastern part of Muskegon County, making extensive additions to them by purchase from the State and Gen- eral Government, and from private parties. This prop- erty has become exceedingly valuable, through the ex- tension of railroad facilities. He has built mills there, on the place known as Slocum's Grove, where he con- ducts a large business in lumbering and farming. In 1838 Mr. Slocum married Sophia Maria Brigham Truax, daughter of Abraham C. Truax-founder of the village of Trenton-who is elsewhere mentioned in this work. Three children were born to them, two of whom-a son, Elliott T., and a daughter, Libbie T .- survive. The son, Hon. Elliott T. Slocum, was born at Trenton, in 1839. He prepared for college at the Episcopal school for boys, kept by the Rev. Moses Hunter, on Grosse Isle, and graduated at Union College, Schenec- tady, New York, in the class of 1862. His diploma was one of the last signed by Dr. Eliphalet Nott, for so many years President of that institution. He repre- sented the Third Senatorial District, in the State Legis- lature, in 1869. Ile is connected in business with his father. Both father and son have taken considerable interest in politics; both were active in the memorable Senatorial contest of 1875, and were influential in secur- ing the election of Senator Christiancy at that time. The elder Mr. Slocum was a member of the convention, under the leadership of Hon. Jacob M. Howard, which organized the Republican party, at Jackson, in 1854; and he has since been a consistent Republican. In 1856 Mr. Slocum took an active interest in the con- struction of the Detroit, Monroe, and Toledo Railroad; aiding in obtaining right of way,-which he donated through his own property; and purchasing land of others for that special purpose. He was a member of the first Board of Directors of the road. Mr. E. T. Slocum was one of the first directors of the Chicago and Canada Southern Railroad, for which he did much to
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