Biographical history of northern Michigan containing biographies of prominent citizens, Part 18

Author:
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 966

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Mr. LaForge's military career, of four years' duration, covered the entire period of the Civil war and was characterized by strenuous and thrilling experiences which if narrated in detail would far transcend the limits of this brief review. He entered the service November 1, 1861, enlisting in Com- pany B, Fifteenth Michigan Infantry, and in due time by succession rose to the rank of captain, besides filling for a considerable period the office of adjutant, in which ca- pacity he distinguished himself by especially brilliant and effective service. His regi- ment's most marked experience in actual warfare was under the matchless leadership

of the brave McPherson, of the Fifteenth Army Corps, and he was in close proximity to the gallant general when the latter met his death at Atlanta, Georgia. It is a mat- ter of history that the rebels who killed Mc- Pherson were captured by the Fifteenth Michigan, which regiment bore the brunt of fighting in the above bloody action, as it did in a number of other battles during the cam- paigns in which it participated. After the death of General McPherson it was Mr. La- Forge's good fortune to serve under General John A. Logan, who led his command to victory on many sanguinary and hotly con- tested fields, and subsequently he was with Sherman on the celebrated march to the sea. thence to Washington where he took part in the Grand Review, which proved such a fitting close to the war.

The first battle of note in which Mr. La- Forge participated was Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing, where he received a painful wound in the left shoulder. Though suffering very much from the injury, he refused to leave the field and in the evening called the roll of his company as usual besides at- tending to all the other duties coming within the province of the office which he then held. He shared with his comrades the fortunes and hardships of war in the twenty-one regular battles in which the regiment took part, to say nothing of numerous skirmishes and other minor engagements, and when he was mustered out of the service it was with a record undimmed by dishonor.

On July 22, 1864, during the battle of Atlanta Mr. LaForge distinguished himself by an act of bravery which merits more than passing notice. While riding between the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Army Corps General McPherson was struck by the missile

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which terminated his life and immediately years afterwards an ex-Confederate officer, thereafter General Logan took command and in an article on "The National Tribune," referred to this action of Mr. LaForge as the most signal act of bravery and daring he had witnessed during the war. ordered the men forward to fill a gap before the enemy had intrenched themselves be- hind a line of hastily constructed earth works. Mr. LaForge, as sergeant major. At the expiration of his period of service Mr. LaForge returned to his native state and on November 29, 1866, was married to Miss Mary Rankin, daughter of James and Jane (Galloway) Rankin, the father a pioneer lumberman of Elk Rapids, where he began business as early as 1852. Mr. Rankin was long prominent as a manu- facturer of lumber and from 1852 until the panic of 1857 did a large and thriving busi- ness in partnership with his sons, William and John, operating during that time two mills at Elk Rapids near where the River- side House now stands. The former of these sons, a well known and highly suc- cessful business man, was drowned at the age of twenty-five, the shock of which event so wrought upon the father as to break the latter down and cause him to retire from business. The elder Rankin had extensive landed interests in various parts of Michi- gan, from which he received a large income, but later he disposed of these and his mills and moved to Detroit, thence retired to a farm near Big Rapids on which he spent the latter years of his life. One of his sons became a prominent and influential business man of Detroit and another, James Rankin, has for the last fifteen or sixteen years been identified with the industrial interests of Elk Rapids. was some distance in advance of the regi- ment, but had not proceeded very far until he saw what he supposed to be a white flag floating from a long staff in the enemy's works. Taking this to mean capitulation, he at once accellerated his steps for the pur- pose of receiving the surrender, but on a nearer approach what was his surprise to see instead of a signal of yielding only a white regimental flag on which was some kind of an emblem or device not discernable from any considerable distance. Meanwhile the men had halted and the enemy were with- holding fire to ascertain what the purpose of the intrepid Federal officer might be, some of them laughing the while, in which, as he advanced closer, not a few of his own men joined. In this dilemma he wished very much to turn about and run, but putting the best face on the matter possible and think- ing that the enemy might perhaps capitulate, he boldly mounted the breastworks and without further ado peremptorily demanded their surrender. Taken aback by the bold- ness of the demand and thinking discretion the better part of valor, the Confederate commander, Major Pierson, stepped for- ward and placed in Mr. LaForge's hands the identical banner which a few minutes be- fore he had taken for a flag of truce. By this bold and daring movement the line of Miss Rankin came to Elk Rapids in 1865 to visit her sister and while here taught school until her marriage, the following year. Mr. LaForge became a resident of Antrim county in 1871 and for a number of intrenchments was soon in possession of the Federals, together with seventeen officers and one hundred and sixty-seven men, who yielded themselves prisoners. A number of

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years thereafter was in the employ of Dex- ter & Noble, proprietors of the Elk Rapids Iron Company, as salesman in the mercantile department of that concern. He severed his connection with the company in 1902 and moved to his farm and has since devoted his attention to the management of the same. He has served as school director and as member of the local school board manifests an abiding interest in all progressive measures for the good of his community and keeps in close touch with the leading public and political questions of the times.

The family of Mr. and Mrs. LaForge consists of seven children, whose names are as follows: Charlotte Jean, who lives at home; Euphemia and Grace May, teachers in the Elk Rapids public schools; Guy Scott, engaged in the cement works laboratory at the above place; Carl Roy; Zoe Louise, a nurse in the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and Elizabeth McQween, who is fitting herself for a professional nurse in one of the lead- ing hospitals of the state.

Captain LaForge is a consistent and active member of the Presbyterian church, in which he has been an elder for the past thirty years; he has also been a trustee of the same.

MOSES F. GATES.

The subject of this review was for many years an honored citizen of Antrim county and an influential factor in promot- ing the material advancement and moral welfare of the community with which a con- siderable part of his life was very closely identified. Moses F. Gates was a native of New England and inherited in a marked

degree the sturdy qualities and character- istics for which the people of that part of the union have been distinguished. He was born August 1, 1818, in the state of Ver- mont, but when eight years old was taken by his widowed mother to northern Ohio, where he grew to manhood. His.early ex- perience in the woods of the Western Re- serve was calculated to develop his physical powers, as he was obliged to labor early and late cutting timber, burning logs, grubbing and the other hard work necessary to clear a farm in a new and undeveloped country. While thus engaged he attended a few months of the winter season such indifferent schools as the country afforded, but, not- withstanding poor teaching and the lack of proper educational facilities, he made such rapid progress in his studies that before his twentieth year he was sufficiently advanced to take charge of a school himself. After teaching several years Mr. Gates took a trip through the South, during which he taught a term at Memphis, Tennessee, also in the city of New Orleans, but later he returned to Ohio, and on October 24, 1850, was mar- ried to Miss Eunice Gore, whose birth oc- curred in Ohio August 18, 1829.

Mrs. Gates' parents, also natives of Ver- mont, were among the early pioneers of the Western Reserve, having moved to Geauga county shortly after the country was opened for settlement. They were people of sterl- ing worth, energetic and industrious, and. like the majority of newcomers, experienced their full share of the hardships and grind- ing toil of the pioneer period. Immediately after his marriage Mr. Gates started for the West and in due time reached Muscatine county, Iowa, which was then on the remote outskirts of civilization. Seeing a favorable

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opening for teaching, he at once engaged in that line of work and continued the same during the ensuing ten years, the mean- while earning a creditable reputation as an able and popular educator. In the year 1864 he enlisted in Company B, One Hun- dred and Thirty-seventh Iowa Infantry, but owing to ill health was not permitted to go to the front, having been discharged on ac- count of physical disability shortly after entering the service. The climate of Iowa not agreeing with him, Mr. Gates finally decided to move to a country where his broken health could be recuperated, accord- ingly he disposed of his interests in Musca- tine county and in the latter part of 1864 brought his family to northern Michigan and bought a tract of wild land two miles north of Elk Rapids, Antrim county, which he at once proceeded to improve. By per- severing toil he soon succeeded in clearing and reducing to cultivation forty of his one hundred and sixty acres, and a few years later he not only had a good farm and a com- fortable home, but had added to his real estate until his holdings amounted to four hundred acres of valuable land. Mr. Gates became one of the leading fruit growers of his section of the country and as a public spirited citizen, deeply interested in what- ever made for the good of the community, he enjoyed the high esteem and unbounded confidence of his neighbors and friends. In his younger days Mr. Gates was an active member of the Sons of Temperance and as long as he lived he never ceased fighting the liquor traffic, considering it the crowning evil of the times and a plague spot upon the fair fame of the nation. He was strictly a temperate man, never having used intoxi- cants of any kind and tobacco in all of its

forms was one of his especial abominations. He was a Republican in his political belief, but not a politician and he never sought office at the hands of his fellow citizens nor aspired to any kind of public honors. Mr. Gates was honest and upright in all his deal- ings and his character was always above reproach. He departed this life on the 5th of November, 1894, in his seventy-sixth year, and was followed to his last resting place by a large concourse of sorrowing friends and fellow citizens who deeply la- mented his death.

To Mr. and Mrs. Gates were born ten children, eight of whom are living, namely: Ella, the wife of Levi Bixby, of Oakland, California; Ida, who married Claus Alpers, of Leland, Michigan; Alfred, a resident of Elk Rapids; Emma, now Mrs. Charles Dewey, of Pelston, this state; Howard, whose home is at Bliss, Michigan ; Harlan, an enterprising farmer and stock raiser who superintends the homestead and looks after his mother's interests; Mina, formerly a teacher in the public schools of Antrim county, but now the wife of DeLoss Wilcox, who owns a farm adjoining the home place, and Paul, also a teacher who now holds an important position in the graded schools of Antrim county.

JAMES R. AND MARY M. CHILD.

Mr. and Mrs. Child are numbered among the oldest pioneers of Antrim county and are well known in this section of the state, where they are held in the highest regard, and they are now residing in the present little village of Central Lake, having contributed their

MRS. MARY M. CHILD.

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share to the development and progress of the county, while in the early days they en- dured the inconveniences and deprivations which are ever the portion of the early set- tlers in a district remote from populous cen- ters.

Mrs. Mary M. Child was born in Huron, Erie county, Ohio, on the 14th of March, 1833, and is a daughter of Jeremiah and Susannah (Dimmes) Havelick, both of stanch Holland Dutch lineage and both na- tive of the state of Pennsylvania. Through the maternal line Mrs. Child is one of the heirs of a large estate in Germany, the prop- erty having been in litigation for many years. Mr. Havelick was one of the pioneers of the old Buckeye state, where both he and his wife lived until death, his vocation having been that of farming during the major por- tion of his active career. Mrs. Child was reared to maturity in her native county, in whose common schools she secured her edu- cational training. At the age of nineteen years she was there united in marriage to Edwin Wolverton, and they continued to reside in Ohio until about 1857, when they removed to the newly opened state of Iowa, where they remained a short time. They then returned to the East and settled in Hud- son, Lenawee county, Michigan, where Mr. Wolverton became editor and publisher of the Saturday Evening Post, which he con- ducted only a short time, as his death oc- curred six months later, on the 9th of Oc- tober, 1857. He was born at Prattsburg, Steuben county, New York, on the 20th of January, 1831, and was a man of high in- tellectuality. Of this union were born four children, the youngest having been posthu- mous, the father having died a few weeks previously. Mrs. Child bore the remains of

her husband to Ohio for interment and then settled up his affairs, disposing of his news- paper interests. After residing for a few years in Ohio she returned to Michigan, for the purpose of visiting friends in Hillsdale county, and there, in 1861, was solemnized her marriage to Cyrenus Powers. In 1864 they came to Antrim county and numbered themselves among the pioneers of this now attractive section of the state, where Mrs. Child has maintained her home for the past score of years. Mr. Powers took up a home- stead in section 6, township 31, range 8, the property being located one mile north of the head of Torch lake. At that time only two men had settled near the head of the lake, while George Quigley was the only settler in what is now Central Lake township, though Daniel Blakely there took up his abode a month later. In Banks township were to be found only three families, those of Richard Knight, Rudolph Shearer and Edward Skinner. Thus it is evident that Mrs. Child holds precedence as one of the oldest living pioneers of this county, while her memory forms an indissoluble chain, linking the crude and formative epoch with that of latter-day progress and opulent pros- perity. Mr. and Mrs. Powers' capitalistic resources at the time of locating here were represented in the sum of about one thou- sand dollars, and a considerable portion of this was devoted to the purchasing of land, their homestead having been somewhat hilly and well timbered, with a considerable por- tion of swampy order. The family came by boat to Northport, and Mr. Powers and his son drove their cow and yoke of oxen through to Traverse City and thence to Elk Rapids, from which then embryonic vil- lage they had to cut a way through the

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forest to the newly located homestead, eigh- teen miles distant. The first domicile pro- vided for the family was a log cabin of the most primitive type, its roof having been covered with bark, while its accessories and conveniences were of the crudest order. The family lived for the first seven weeks in the house of Mr. Skinner, who has been previously mentioned, and then took up their abode in their own little house, just com- pleted in the midst of the virgin forest. Mr. Powers was not a man of much physical strength, and thus much of the work of clearing his land was relegated to others, while he found no little demand for his services as a surveyor in this section, in which connection it may be stated that he surveyed the original road from Central Lake to Eastport, while he otherwise proved a valuable factor in the pioneer community. He added to his income to a considerable de- gree by selling wood for use as fuel on the freight boats touching the nearest port, while he utilized his sailboat in transporting pro- visions from Northport and Elk Rapids to his home. The family larder often came to a point where variety was noticeable only by its absence, and on one or more occasions recourse was had to musty cornmeal which had been purchased for the cattle. The nearest postoffice was at Antrim. six miles north, and a charge of twenty-five cents was levied upon the family each time mail was brought to them. Mr. Powers was a man who commanded the unqualified confidence and regard of the people of this county, and his name merits a place of honor on the roll of its sterling pioneers. He continued to re- side on his homestead until his death, which occurred on the 5th of July, 1879. Within the fifteen years of his residence here he

placed thirty acres of his land under cultiva- tion, while he had also made other improve- ments, including the erection of a better residence. His widow continued to reside on the farm for one year after his death and then rented the property. On the 18th of November, 1880, she consummated a third marriage, being then united to her present consort, J. R. Child. He is a native of the old Empire state, having been born in Skeneateles, Onondaga county, New York, on the 19th of November, 1830, and being a son of William H. Child. In 1840, when he was a lad of ten years, his parents came to Michigan and located in Ingham county, being pioneers of that section, the capital of the state having not been located at Lansing, that county, until many years later. There he was reared to maturity, re- ceiving a common-school education and growing up to the sturdy discipline of the pioneer farm. At the age of thirty-three years Mr. Child was united in marriage to Miss Helen E. Kimberly, of Adrian, Lena- wee county, where he was engaged in busi- ness for a period of ten years, at the ex- piration of which he returned to Ingham county, where he followed the vocation of farming until 1874, when he came to Antrim county, having arrived on the Ist of May. He took up his residence on a farm in sec- tion 22, Chestonia township, this being one of the eastern townships of the county. At the time of his establishing a home there the permanent settlers in the township were summed up in the families of Willard and Charles Harris and Messrs. Stephens and Hitchcock, all having been soldiers in the Civil war, as was also Mr. Child. In the year 1874 about twelve other veterans of the Rebellion also took up land in the township.

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Mr. Child made an addition to the little shanty occupied by the Hitchcock family and passed the first summer in this primitive dwelling. In the spring of 1875 he took a prominent part in bringing about the organi- zation of the township, twenty-one votes being cast at the first election, in which he was elected school inspector. He instituted the development of his farm and continued to reside upon the same until his second mar- riage, his first wife having died in 1867, leaving two daughters,-Sarah, who is the wife of Edmund Wolverton, a son of Mrs. Child by her first marriage, the wedding of the children having been solemnized only a short time after that of their respective par- ents, who figure as the immediate subjects of this sketch; and Hattie, who is a trained nurse and a resident of the city of Kala- mazoo at the time of this writing.

Mr. and Mrs. Child resided on the latter's farm during the first summer after their marriage, and for one season she conducted a millinery store in the village of Alba. They then removed to a resort on the Jor- dan river, twelve miles east of the village of Clear Lake, and there conducted a board- ing house, the same enjoying marked popu- larity by those who came here in search of sport and recreation. While residing there Mr. Child held the office of postmaster of Chestonia for six years. The resort was a most attractive one as trout were then abundant in the Jordan river, and Mr. and Mrs. Child entertained many notable guests from Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Grand Rapids and other cities. Since 1899 Mr. and Mrs. Child have resided in the village of Central Lake, and here they are surrounded by a circle of most devoted friends and are enjoying the rewards of their former toil

and endeavor, while it is theirs to recall many interesting scenes and events touching the pioneer era in this section, their reminis- cences being well worthy of perpetuation.

Concerning the service of Mr. Child as a valiant soldier of the Union during the Civil war we enter the following brief data : In November, 1863, he enlisted as a private in Company H, Fourth Michigan Cavalry, joining his command at Nashville, Ten- nessee, and serving until the close of the war. He was on detail duty much of the time. In the spring of 1864 he started south and at Columbia, Tennessee, was appointed mail carrier for his detachment. In the following autumn he returned with his command to Louisville, and at the time of receiving his honorable discharge he was located in Nash- ville, Tennessee. He is a prominent and ap- preciative member of George Martin Post, No. 267, Grand Army of the Republic, in Eastport, and served as its commander for one term, while he also acted as colonel of a regiment during one of the national en- campments of the Grand Army. In politics he is a stanch Republican and has ever shown a lively interest in the party cause. Both are members of the Congregationalist church, holding membership at Eastport.

By her marriage to Mr. Wolverton Mrs. Child became the parents of four children, namely : Loraine, who is the wife of Elmer Mudge, of Charlevoix ; Hattie A., who is the wife of Frank Lockhoff, of Mancelona, this county ; Chester D. and Edwin, the latter of whom is a well known and representative citizen of Antrim county, while Chester is a resident of North Dakota. By the second marriage, to Mr. Powers, were born seven children, of whom only one is living, Lu- cinda S., who is now the wife of Thomas

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Guyer, a successful farmer of Banks town- ship. She was the first child born in what is Torch Lake, which was then in Banks town- ship.

FRANCIS H. THURSTON.

Francis H. Thurston was born December 21, 1833, at Lancaster, Massachusetts. His parents were Hon. John Gates Thurston, also born at Lancaster, and Harriet Lee, daughter of Seth Lee, Esq., and Anna Pat- rick Lee, of Barre, Massachusetts. He was educated at Lancaster Academy and Leices- ter Academy, besides the ordinary common schools, but was not noted as a scholar. His father was a merchant, having begun busi- ness in 1817, and had four children, two sons and two daughters, one of the latter, Josephine, having died in infancy. Francis was the youngest and, when about fourteen, entered his father's store as a clerk. In the spring of 1852 his father sold out the mer- chandise business and rented his store to his brother, Wilder S. Thurston.

In 1853 the town of Lancaster held the bi-centennial celebration in commemor- ation of the two hundredth anniversary of its incorporation. F. H. Thurston took part in this and, dressed as an Indian, rode along the line of the procession, from the great dining tent in South Lancaster to the old brick church in Lancaster Centre, about a mile. In September, 1853, he went as clerk into the dry-goods store of Chamberlin, Barnard & Company at Worcester, Massa- chusetts. Fifty years later, in 1903, he at- tended the two hundred and fiftieth an- niversary of the incorporation of the old town, by invitation of the town committee,

and, having neglected to bring the proper ticket, was admitted to the church cere- monies on the admission ticket of fifty years before. He also visited the store of Cham- berlin, Barnard & Company, at Worcester, and the Leicester Academy, where fifty-six years before he went to school. Of all the clerks and partners he had known at the store, but one remained, Otis Putnam, then proprietor, but whom he had known as senior clerk. At Leicester the school build- ings were closed, it being in the summer va- cation, but there was nothing left to remind him of the place as he had known it.

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Biographical history of northern Michigan containing biographies of prominent citizens, Part 18

Author: Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 966

Author:
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 966