USA > Michigan > American Biographical History of Eminent and Self-made Men.: Michigan Volume > Part 32
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
that day afforded. When George Winner was fifteen years old, he was apprenticed to Mr. Doubleday, printer, of Auburn, New York ; but, being dissatisfied, he left without permission at the expiration of one year. Hle was advertised, and a reward was offered for his return. He wrote to Mr. Doubleday, informing became a prominent Democratic politician in 1867, and him of his whereabouts, but added that it would not was, in the fall of that year, nominated and elected to be safe to force him to return. He also wrote to his the position of Mayor. This election was a flattering recognition of his ability and services. He held the office four years, being re-elected by a largely increased
parents that he had acquired a knowledge of his trade, and had obtained employment, as compositor, in a printing-office at Batavia, New York. About this time, majority in 1869. In his administration were inaugu- , the Masonic excitement was raised; Morgan di-ap- rated checks and reforms in municipal expense and
sonry as an invention of the evil one. The office was attacked by a mob, but the hands were prepared to defend the establishment; they fired on the assailant. government in all its departments, and its comparative i and scattered them. Mr. Wisner and one of the others
peared. In the printing-office where young Wisner "Government abuses. His measures have since received was employed, a paper was published denouncing Ma- the hearty praise and support of even his political opponents, and have made Detroit to-day the envy of the cities of the United States for the excellence of its
20
152
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF MICHIGAN.
belonging to the office were arrested, on a charge of | Neadway, and soon rose to distinction in the legal pro- attempting to murder, and were thrown into prison. [ fession. Mr. Wisner was one of the chosen leaders of William H. Seward volunteered to defend them, and the Whig party, and devoted his talents and energy to did so successfully. The members of Mr. Wisner's , its interests. In 1837 he was elected to the Legislature. family considered themselves disgraced by his conduct; In 1838 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Oak- and, feeling that this was an injustice, he left home, | land County. In the fall of 1847, General Williams, determined to live independently. Ile went to the editor and proprietor of the Detroit Daily Advertiser, accepted an army appointment for the Mexican War, and Mr. Wisner was strongly urged by the leading city of New York, and obtained employment in the office of the Journal of Commerce, in which he remained for over two years. He was strictly moral and studious ; Whigs in the State to accept the position which was in his habits, saved his surplus money, and prepared left vacant. Hle complied with their wishes, and, in himself for a higher sphere in life. In the spring of November, removed to Detroit, and took charge of the 1833, he joined William H. Day in the establishment Daily Advertiser. In the spring of 1848, the Whigs of of the New York Sun, -the first cheap daily paper pub- | Detroit triumphed for the first time, giving Mr. Wisner lished in the city. Mr. Day had started the paper; the credit of the victory. As soon as the fact was bat, his means being exhausted, he could not go on known, a party of Whigs assembled in front of his resi- alone. Mr. Wisner had a few hundred dollar, which ! dence, and gave vent to expressions of joy. Mr. Wis- he put into the business, and assumed the editorial, ner was in the act of speaking, when he was drenched work. lle was at this time twenty-one years of age, ; by a heavy shower; a severe cold was the result; and, and full of ambition and energy. He attended the |after suffering for nearly two years, he died of consump- Court of Sessions every morning, and reported the pro- Ition, in September, 1849, at the early age of thirty- ceedings in a humorous style. The firm employed only ( seven. He was sincerely mourned by all who knew him; all felt that a noble man was thus cut off in his
- Wisner, lawyer, of East Saginaw; and H. C. Wisner, lawyer, of Detroit, are now living.
one person, William M. Swain, who afterwards became distinguished as the proprietor and publisher of the prime. Mr. Wisner married, in the fall of 1834, Miss Daily Ledger, of Philadelphia. The three men did all | Katharine HI. Langan, only daughter of Daniel Langan, the work during the first six months. At the end of | of New York City. They had four children,-three this time, Mr. Wisner was satisfied that the paper had sons and one daughter,-of whom but two-O. F. become a success, and that more help was needed. In- stead of the small hand-press, one of Hoe & Co.'s steam presses was set up in the office, and two thousand copies per day worked off. Mr. Wisner suggested that boys be employed to sell the papers. The newsboys first came into notice at this time, and a great number were enabled to earn their living. Previous to this, papers IL.COX, ORLANDO B., of Detroit, was born in that city about the year 1826; and gradu- y ated at West Point Academy, in 1846. Hle took an active part in the Mexican War, as a Lieuten- ant of Artillery, and remained in the United States service until 1854. In that year, he resigned, and entered upon the practice of law, to the study of which, in a quiet way, he had previously devoted some attention. Prior to the civil war, he took a ¡lively interest in organizing the militia of Michigan ; had only been sold to subscribers; those published daily costing ten dollars per year, which placed them beyond the reach of the majority. A new era was now opened for the masses; and, during the noon hour, work- men might be seen grouped together listening to one of their number reading the news. In the summer of 1833, James Gordon Bennett offered to invest his fortune of five hundred dollars if the firm would admit him as an equal partner. This they declined. During the following year, the Herald made its appearance; and, ! and, when hostilities commenced, he offered his sword soon afterwards, the Tribune, Evening Star, Transcript, to the State, and was appointed Colonel of the Ist and several other penny papers. The mental and phys- ! Infantry. His regiment was the first from the West ical strain proved too great for Mr. Wisner, and he was to report for service at Washington. He was in com- 'mand at Alexandria just before the battle of Bull Run; forced to discontinue his editorial labors. In the sum- mer of 1835, he visited Michigan, and was so favorably | and engaged in that battle, in which he was wounded impressed with the country that he returned to New and taken prisoner, and, as such, remained in Rich- York at once, disposed of his interest in the paper, and mond about fifteen months. When General Lorenzo removed to Michigan in September. He settled in Pon- | Thomas was negotiating with the Confederate officer, tiac, and immediately began the study of law, in the | Robert Ould, for the exchange of prisoners, he made a office of William Draper. He was admitted to the bar special request in behalf of Colonel Wilcox, to which, in 1837, opened a law office in partnership with Alfred : in a short time, the Confederate assented. Colonel
.
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF MICHIGAN.
15.3
Wilcox soon afterwards returned to the army, and par- | they finally arrived at Detroit, February 26, 1817. The ticipated in many of the engagements in Virginia. He was subsequently promoted to the rank of Brevet Briga. dier and Brevet Major-General of Volunteers, for gal- lant and meritorious service at Spottsylvania and Peters- burg. He was mustered out in 1866, and appointed an Assessor of Internal Revenue at Detroit; but was again appointed to the army, as Colonel of the 12th Regiment of United States Infantry, and stationed on Angel Island, Bay of San Francisco, California. Colonel Wil- cox published, in 1856, Shorpack. Recollections; a W'ay- side Glimpse of American Life; and, in 1857, another work entitled Toca; an Army Memoir, by Major March.
.
HITING JOHN L., M. D., Detroit, was born November 28, 1793, at Canaan, Columbus County, « New York; and is the son of John Whiting and Lydia Leffingwell, both from Norwich, Connecticut. His father was a farmer and mill-owner. Mr. Whiting attended the Academy at Lenox, Massachusetts, and that at Lebanon Springs. He commenced the study of med- icine with Dr. Samuel White, at Hudson, New York, when nineteen years of age, remaining with him three years. In 1816, after casting his first vote for De Witt Clinton for President, he turned his eyes Westward, and left Hudson. His destination was Detroit; he com- menced journeying on horseback, stopping at Auburn by the way. From Buffalo to Cleveland, he traveled by cutter, driving two horses tandem, in company with Smith Knapp, who had previously lived a year in Detroit and was returning from a visit to the East. Cleveland, at that time, contained but one tavern, and a few rudely constructed houses. From Cleveland to Huron, Ohio, a distance of about forty miles, Doctor Whiting traveled on the ice, having constructed a rude jumper or sled, on which he carried himself and friend. At Huron, he was obliged to wait several days for the mail-carrier, on whose guidance he relied for finding his way through the terrible wilderness called the Black Swamp. During the time consumed in waiting the arrival of the guide, the snow disappeared ; when they finally proceeded on horseback, the track through the snow had become ob- literated, and they were lost, at a point near the end of their journey through the "Swamp." It appears that the mail-carrier relied too much on the snow, omit- ting the blazed trees, which it now became necessary to find. Doctor Whiting proposed that their guide should go due south in search of the lost track, himself going north, and Mr. Knapp remaining, as a rallying point, where they separated. Doctor Whiting, although a stranger, proved right in his conjectures, and found the road one half a mile north. Continuing their journey, |
entire city, at that time, was outlined by Brush and Cass streets on the east and west, and Congress street and the river on the north and south, -the river, east of Wool- ward avenue, extending along the present line of At- water street and west of the avenue, spreading out in a kind of bay up towards Woodbridge street. Doc- tor Whiting entered upon the practice of his profession in Detroit, continuing in the work for fifteen years. He then went into the forwarding and commission busi- ness in company with John J. Deming, who was after- wards succeeded by Henry K. Avery, continuing the same from 1832 to 1843. He next turned his attention to the business of a land and tax agency, which he fol- lowed until 1871, when a severe and protracted illness compelled him to retire from active life. In 1823 Doc- tor Whiting went on horseback from Detroit to Saginaw, through the unbroken wilderness, with a single soldier as a guide, to perform, temporarily, the duties of Post Surgeon, at the latter place, during the illness of the late Dr. Zina Pitcher. On account of the malarial fever then raging at Saginaw, the post was soon after discontinued, and the troops transferred to the garrison at Detroit. Doctor Whiting was a Whig up to the time of the for- mation of the Republican party, since which he has acted with that party. The only political office he ever held was that of Clerk of the city, to which he was elected in 1830, and re-elected in 1832. He resigned on being chosen Chairman of the Board of Health. He organized the first medical society in the Territory of Michigan, in 1819, called the " Medical Society of Mich- igan," himself drawing up the constitution and by-laws. Among those engaging in the organization were Dr. R. S. Rice, of Monroe; Drs. J. B. Chamberlain and Olmstead Chamberlain, of Pontiac; and five or six phy- sicians from Mt. Clemens, and other places. He was a leading member of the Masonic Fraternity up to the time of the Morgan excitement, in 1826, having been Worshipful Master of Zion Lodge, No. 1, of Detroit; Secretary of Monroe Chapter; and Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Michigan. In earlier times, the "First Protestant Society of Detroit " was the leading religious organization, outside of the Catholic Church, the several Protestant denominations not being sufficiently strong to maintain separate societies. Doctor Whiting became a member of this society in 1832, but on the organization of the Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church, he united with it, and has since remained a member. Doctor Whiting has been married three times. His first wife was Ilarriet C. Talman, whom he married at Hud- son, New York, in 1821. She died in May, 1829, hav- ing been the mother of four children, two of whom died in infancy ; the other two, Elizabeth H. and John Tal- man Whiting, still survive. His second wife was Harriet Rees, of Detroit, who was married in November, 1830,
154
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF MICHIGAN.
and died in April, 1852. She had eight children, three | was elected Regent of the State University; and, in of whom are living, -- George Loring, Henry Rees, and ; 1855, he was appointed Historiographer of the city of Shubael Conant. George Loring and Shubael Conant ! Detroit. In 1857 he was chosen Circuit Judge of Wayne reside in Detroit, and are both married. The oldest child ; County, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of. of this marriage, De Garmo Jones Whiting, entered the . Judge Douglass. He was re-elected to this office for two army as Lieutenant in the civil war; was promoted to j succeeding terms. He also filled the offices of Justice a Captaincy ; and died in Washington, in 1864. Henry , of the Peace and Recorder of the city of Detroit ; he Rees Whiting also served in the war; and was, for a was a member of the State Legislature, and also of the period of eight months, confined in Libby prison. Mr. ; Convention for the revision of the State Constitution Whiting's third wife was Rebecca Rees, sister of Har- held in 1850. From 1818 to 1854, he held, successively, the military offices of Lieutenant, Judge-Advocate, Gen- riet, whom he married in 1854. She is still living, without children. Doctor Whiting has traveled exten- eral, Brigadier-General, and Major-General. He was sively, during his sixty-two years of Western life, in the President of the State Historical Society, and of the States and Territories of the North-west, and in Ken- Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument Association. As his tucky and Virginia. He is a man of remarkably vigor- last public act, on the evening previous to his death, he ous mind and retentive memory, and speaks of the | presided over a meeting of the directors of this associa- occurrences of sixty and seventy years ago as if they tion. In 1824 he married Mary A. Sprague, of Poult- were but yesterday. A very complete description of the ! ney, Vermont. They had one son and three daughters. town of Detroit, as it existed in 1817, was published in the' Ilis wife died, August, 1834. In 1837 he married Delia Detroit Tribune of March 21, 1876, based upon the per- A. Ingersoll ; they had one child, -Charles I. Witherell. sonal recollections of Doctor Whiting. He is one of | Mrs. Witherell's death occurred in 1847; and, in 1848, the few of the early settlers who remain ; and, though he married Cassandra S. Brady, who died in 1863. he has of late been attacked with severe illness, he has Judge Witherell was better acquainted with the early withstood its more threatening symptoms, and at the age of eighty-five is still able to enjoy his walk on pleasant days.
history of Detroit than any other man in the State. His letters, which from time to time appeared in the Free Press, will attest this fact. He was an active and public- spirited citizen, whose hold upon the favor and confi- dence of the people never relaxed during a period of fifty years. His death occurred June 26, 1867.
ITHERELL, HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ! HAWKINS, of Detroit, Michigan, was born at Fair Haven, Vermont, August 4, 1797. He was the second son and fifth child of the Ion. James ILLARD, LUTHER B., late Director of the Poor of the city of Detroit, was born in Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, December 28, 1818. In 1832 his father's family removed to Rochester, New York, where he passed his boyhood ; and, at the proper age, learned the printing trade in the office of the Rochester Daily Advertiser. At the age of seventeen, he went to Detroit; and, before he had been an hour in the city, was employed in the job room of the Detroit Free Press, shortly afterwards becoming foreman of the office. In 1837, with the kind assistance of friends, he established the Toledo Blade, at Toledo, Ohio. This paper has since taken a high rank in journalism, one of its editors being the well-known Petroleum V. Nasby. Difficulties with his partner led Mr. Willard to leave Toledo; and, during the same year, he returned to Detroit, and resumed his former position as foreman of the Free Press. In this capacity, he devoted himself to the interest of the paper for thirteen years. In 1850 he was nom- inated, by the Democratic party, as Director of the City Poor in Detroit, and elected over two opposing Witherell, who came to Detroit as one of the Territorial Judges of Michigan, in 1807. From 1812 to 1817, Mr. Witherell studied under the tuition of Dr. Beaman, of Troy, New York. He returned to Detroit, in 1817, with the other members of his father's family ; making the jour- ney, by carriage, to Buffalo, and traveling the remainder of the distance, through Canada, on horseback. On his return, he commenced the study of law, in the office of Governor Woodbridge ; and, in 1819, was admitted to the bar of the Territorial Court before Judge Woodward. Ile immediately entered upon the practice of his pro- fession, in what was then the village of Detroit. On the motion of Daniel Webster, Mr. Witherell was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. For the greater part of the time between 1830 and 1840, he filled the offices of Probate Judge and Prose- cuting Attorney for Wayne County. In 1843 he became District Judge of the Criminal Court, the district con- sisting of the counties of Wayne, Washtenaw, and Jack- son ; and held the office until it was abolished by the a loption of the new Constitution of 1850. In 1848 he | candidates. So faithfully were his duties discharged,
y. R.Williams 2
UNIV.
OF
MICH.
1
OF
MICH.
155
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF MICHIGAN.
that he was successively elected every two years until | business. On his return, a partnership for carrying on 1862. In that year, after being nominated by the reg- a trade with the Indians was formed, and Mr. Williams was dispatched to Montreal, whence all goods had to be brought, by way of the St. Lawrence and the lakes. It was on this journey that he met with an adventure, much less common now than in the year 1800, when this took place. While on board a small sloop at Queenstown, he became engaged in an altercation with a Frenchman named La Salle, a descendant of the renowned navi- gator and explorer. It resulted in their fighting a duel ular Democratic Convention, he also accepted the nom- ination of the so-called Union party, -a sort of fusion made at that time by the conservatives of both parties,- and, consequently, lost the election. During the war, from 1862 to 1866, he was the State Agent of Michigan, his duty being to look after her wounded, and to attend to the interests of all her soldiers, wherever they might be. While serving in this capacity, he was captured and imprisoned by the enemy in Georgia. Two years of | across a table. in which La Salle was shot and severely this time he worked gratuitously for the State. In 1865 he was nominated by the Republican party for Director of the Poor, and held that office until his death, with the exception of one term of two years, when he was defeated by the Democratic nominee. Mr. Willard married, October 10, 1848, Electa Losey, of Covert, Seneca County, New York. They had three daughter .. Mr. Willard was, for forty years, a resident of Detroit; and more than twenty of these were spent in active public service. Such was his integrity, that even hi- political opponents could not detect a blemish in hi- character. As a printer, energetic and capable; as Michigan's State Agent, ever on the alert for the neces- sities of her wounded sons; as a Director of the Poor, sparing neither time nor strength in the discharge of his arduous duties, -Mr. Willard acquitted himself not only creditably to himself, but to his constituents. In his public life he enjoyed the confidence of the citizens of Detroit, who believed him to be, in the true meaning of the word, an honest man. Ilis death occurred July 28, 1877.
wounded. Mr. Williams was arrested, carried to Montreal, and was under bail for several months, awaiting his trial, in which he was honorably acquitted; the duello, in those days, being regarded as the only honorable way of settling disputes. In 1802 he returned to Detroit ; and, on his own account, embarked in the fur trade and gen- eral mercantile business, in which he continued until 1832. He was married, October 25, 1804, at Claverack, near Hudson, New York, to Miss Mary Mott, daughter of Major Gershom Mott, of the Continental army, a comrade of Montgomery at Quebec, in 1775. On return- ing to Detroit, he wrote, in 1805, the memorial to Con- gress, which resulted in the completion of the Governor and Judges' plan of the city of Detroit. At the decla- ration of war with England, he was made Captain of an artillery company, and was included in the surrender of Hull, in 1812. He was paroled, and moved with his family to Albany, where he remained until 1816, when he again went to Detroit and resumed his busi- ness. Ile was the author of the first charter of the city of Detroit, and was elected its first Mayor, in 1824, being re-elected in 1825, again in 1830, and subsequently in 1844, 1845, and 1846. Ile was a delegate to the first Con- stitutional Convention, held at Ann Arbor, in 1835, and was President of that convention, and presented its action to Congress at Washington. Ile wa- naturally a soldier, and took a great interest in military affairs,
ILLIAMS, GENERAL JOHN R., of Detroit, was born at Detroit, on the 4th of May, 1782. He was the only son of Thomas Williams, a both under the Territorial and State governments. He native of Albany, New York, who came to Detroit in 1765, and married a sister of the late Joseph Campau. He had one sister, named Elizabeth. He was appointed a cornet in the American army in 1796, and joined the troops under General Wilkinson, at Fort Marsac, on the Cumberland River, in Tennessee. Among his young companions in arms, at this time, were Alexander Macomb-afterwards Commander-in-chief-and the future Generals Zebulon Price and Moses Porter. Ile re- mained in the army until 1799, when he resigned and
was senior Major-General of the militia, and continued so up to the time of his death. At the breaking out of the Black Hawk War, he marched in command of the Territorial troops to Chicago, for the defense of the Western settlements. He died at Detroit, October 20, 1854, in his seventy-third year. General Williams always predicted the future greatness of Detroit. He was possessed of a large landed estate in and about the city, which he had purchased with singular judgment and foresight. To the improvement of this he gave his returned to Detroit, making the journey from Fort | chief attention, after his retirement from active business. Marsac on horseback, through what was then a wilder- In 1833 he built the first four-story brick building ness, following the Indian trail, and swimming his horse erected in Detroit. He was a strong advocate of wide across the rivers. His resignation was prompted by the and commodious streets and public parks, and in many strong solicitation of his uncle, the late Joseph Campau, | ways showed a liberal public spirit. John R. street, who wished Mr. Williams to join him in the mercantile | extending cast and turning north from Woodward ave-
156
REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF MICHIGAN.
nue, and Williams street, encircling the East Grand | grand intellects that have adorne.l, and helped to make, Circus Park, in Detroit, together commemorate the name of John R. Williams. He was hospitable, enter- taining largely and generously. He was liberal and benevolent, always interested in the welfare of the older inhabitants of the city, and eminently courteous in his demeanor. General Williams' administration of the city government presented the rare spectacle of a thor- oughly economical and watchful executive. Ile de- manded and obtained strict integrity in his subordinates, and to the confidence which he inspired among tax- payers may be attributed his frequent election to the office of Mayor. Throughout his life, he ever aided those enterprises which had for their object the advance- ment and prosperity of the city of Detroit and the State of Michigan.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.