USA > Michigan > Biographical history of northern Michigan containing biographies of prominent citizens > Part 22
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WILLIAM RUSSELL.
During the early pioneer epoch in An- trim county the Russell family was founded within its borders, full two score of years having passed since the members of this well known family took up their residence amidst the sylvan wilds of Milton township. The Indians were still much in evidence and disputed dominion with the wild beasts of the forest, deers, bears, wolves and other animals could be found in large numbers throughout this now populous and opulent section of the state. It is most pertinent. therefore, that William Russell, one of the substantial and highly esteemed citizens of Milton township, should be accorded a place of honor in this work, among others of the sterling pioneers of this section of Michigan.
William Russell is a native of England, having been born in county Kent, not far distant from London, the world's great metropolis, on the IIth of October, 1838. He is a son of William and Hannah (Letch-
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ford) Russell, both representing stanch old English lineage. About the year 1856 the honored father of our subject came with his family to America, locating in the province of Ontario, Canada, where they remained eight years, at the expiration of which they came to Antrim county, Michigan, and be- came numbered among the first settlers in Milton township, where they settled in the virgin forest and prepared to clear the land which they purchased from the government. Here the parents passed the remainder of their long and useful lives, and their names merit perpetuation by reason of the part they played in connection with the early stages of development and progress in the county, where they endured the hardships and de- privations which are ever the lot of those who thus act as the advance guard of civilization under such conditions as were in evidence here.
William Russell, to whom this sketch is dedicated, secured his early educational dis- cipline in the excellent schools of his native land and was a youth of about eighteen years at the time of the family immigration from England to the dominion of Canada. He was there identified with farming until the year 1864, when he came with the other members of the family to Antrim county, where he has ever since maintained his home, his memory proving an indissoluble link between the early pioneer .epoch and the latter-day era of advanced civilization. He was a sturdy young man of about twenty-six years at the time of his arrival here, and thus he was well equipped for the strenuous labors which fell to his portion not alone in the reclaiming of his own land but also in rendering effective aid in the establishing of the first roads through the
county and in otherwise actively co-operat- ing in the advancing of public prosperity and material progress. Thus it may be noted that he aided in laying the logs for the state road, which was builded on the old corduroy plan, and did much to assist in the bringing of Milton township to a foremost position as an agricultural division of the county. He married in the same year which wit- nessed his arrival in Michigan, and soon established his home in a log cabin of the primitive type common to the locality and period. That prosperity has rewarded him in his earnest toils and endeavors is evident when we view his finely improved and ably conducted farm of the present day. His homestead is located in section 30, Milton township, and comprises eighty-eight acres, of which thirty-five are under most effective cultivation. The land was cleared by the subject and he made all the improvements on the place, including the erection of a substantial and commodious residence and other good farm buildings. He gives his attention to mixed farming and to the rais- ing of sufficient live stock to properly utilize the fodder grown on the farm, while he also has a good orchard on the place. Mr. Russell has lived a life of uprightness and indefatigable industry, and he has ever re- tained the unqualified confidence and esteem of the people of the county in which he has lived and labored for so many years. In politics he accords allegiance to the Re- publican party and both he and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church, he having been reared in the faith of the established church of England, of which the Episcopal is the American branch.
In the year 1864 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Russell to Miss Mary
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Powell, who was born in the province of in 1895. They became the parents of six Ontario, Canada, being a daughter of John children, all of whom are living except one. Powell, who was one of the early settlers in Antrim county, Michigan, where he still resides, having attained to the venerable age of upwards of eighty years. Two of his sons also are prominent citizens of the county and are individually mentioned on other pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Russell have six children, namely : Hannah, Eliza, Libbie, Frank, George and Violet.
HENRY MOORE.
He to whose career we now direct atten- tion is numbered among the progressive and successful farmers of Milton township, and he has been a resident of Antrim county since 1884, while he has gained prosperity through his own earnest efforts in connec- tion with the development of the natural re- sources of this favored section.
Mr. Moore comes of stanch Irish line- age, but is of the third generation of the family in America, his paternal grandfather having emigrated from the Emerald Isle and settled in the dominion of Canada in an early day. The subject was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, on the 17th of Febru- ary, 1854, and is a son of James and Eliza- beth (Chambers) Moore, both of whom were likewise born and reared in Canada, where they passed their entire lives, the father having been a farmer by vocation. The mother was of English descent and her family also was one which was early founded in the dominion of Canada. She was summoned into eternal rest on Novem- ber 28, 1885. and her husband passed away
Henry Moore, the immediate subject of this review, passed his youth on the old homestead farm, in Middlesex county, Ontario, and in the common schools of the locality secured early educational training. He continued to reside in his native province until 1882, when he came to Michigan, and he has been a resident of Antrim county for the past twenty-two years. For several win- ters he was identified with the lumbering in- dustry of this section, working in the woods, but his ambition from the first was to de- velop a farm and gain a position of in- dependence in the connection. In this he has been most successful, as he is now the owner of one of the well improved and valu- able farm properties of Milton township. His homestead comprises one hundred and sixty acres, and about one half of this area is now under effective cultivation and devoted to diversified agriculture, while the owner has also engaged in the raising of live stock to a certain extent and has made this a profitable feature of his farming enterprise. He has always worked hard and has made his labors count in the accomplishing of a definite object, and he is today numbered among the substantial, practical and highly esteemed members of the agricultural com- munity of Antrim county. In politics he is a stanch Republican, but has never sought or held office, and fraternally he is identified with the local organization of the Grange.
In 1884 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Moore to Miss Eliza J. Goodhew, daughter of George and Ann Goodhew, ster- ling pioneers of this county. Further men- tion is made of the honored father in an ap- pending paragraph. Mr. and Mrs. Moore
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have eight children, namely : Dollie, Joseph, Samuel M., Byron A., Frederick H., Pearl, Ellen and John.
George Goodhew, father of Mrs. Moore, was born in county Kent, England, near the city of London, in the year 1827, and is a son of George and Dorothea (Carley) Good- hew. He was reared to manhood in his na- tive land and there learned the trade of shoemaking. As a young man he came to America and located in Detroit, Michigan, going later to Traverse City, then to this county, having taken up his residence in Antrim county among the early pioneers and having been one of the first settlers of the now thriving village of Elk Rapids. He was the first shoemaker in the town and continued to be the only one there during a score of years. He is still living in that village, known and honored by old and young, and recognized as one of the sterling pioneers of this section of the state. In late years he gave his attention to agricultural pursuits, being the owner of a good farm of forty acres in Milton township. . His wife is also living, as are five of their eight chil- dren. Mr. Goodhew has ever been known as a loyal citizen and has done his share in aiding the march of progress and develop- ment in this county, while in a political way he maintains an independent attitude and votes for men and measures, rather than holding to strict partisan lines.
SALMA M. HEWETT.
This representative farmer and stock- grower of Antrim county is a native of the Wolverine state and has here passed his en-
tire life, while he has been a resident of Antrim county for more than a score of years, having come here with his parents when he was a boy. He is now the owner of a well improved farm in Milton town- ship and is one of the popular and promi- nent citizens of this section of the county.
Mr. Hewett was born in the village of Belleville, Wayne county, Michigan, on the 24th of January, 1863, and is the only child of Rev. Shubael P. and Mary E. (Moore) Hewett, both of whom were born and reared in the state of New York. The father has been a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church for the past forty years and was actively engaged in the work of his noble calling for more than a quarter of a century, having come to Michigan when only eleven years old and having had charges in various places in the state. He is a man of high intellectual attainments and is revered by all who have come within the sphere of his gracious and helpful influence. He has attained to the venerable age of seventy-six years at the time of this writing, in 1904, and is living retired in the home of the sub- ject, where he is accorded the utmost filial care and solicitude. Mrs. Hewett died on June 25, 1898.
The subject of this sketch secured his educational discipline in the public schools of the various towns in which his parents lived during his boyhood days, completing his school work in Elk Rapids, Antrim county, to which place his father came in 1882, as pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in that town. In 1884 the sub- ject and his father settled on his present farm, which comprises one hundred and twenty-eight acres. The property, which they purchased at that time, was partially
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cleared of the native timber, while certain other improvements had been made. Mr. Hewett has carried forward the work and now has eighty-eight acres of his farm under effective cultivation, while he has erected good buildings on the place and made many other excellent improvements, including the substantial fencing of the entire property. He set out an orchard of five acres and the same now gives most gratifying yields of fine apples, plums, pears and other fruits each season. In addition to diversified agri- culture our subject devotes no little attention to the raising of live stock, giving prefer- ence to the shorthorn type of cattle and the Berkshire and Jersey swine. In the line of dairy farming also he has operated success- fully, making as much as one hundred pounds of butter a month and finding a ready demand for the same at the highest market prices. He is known as one of the enterprising and progressive farmers of the county and his success and prestige repre- sent the due results of his energetic and well- directed efforts, while to him is accorded the unequivocal confidence and esteem of all who know him. In politics he gives his support to the Prohibition party, in whose cause he is an ardent worker, and fraternally he is identified with the Knights of the Maccabees and the Grange, in the affairs of each of which he takes marked interest. Both he and his wife are prominent and valued members of the Methodist Episcopal church and are specially zealous in its work, while they ever exert their influence in the support of those measures which conserve the uplifting of their fellow men and the producing of the highest standard of citizen- ship.
In the year 1887 was solemnized the
marriage of Mr. Hewett to Miss Eva A. Hubbell, a daughter of Wilson N. and Orissa (Still) Hubbell, who were numbered among the early settlers of Antrim county, having come hither from the province of Ontario, Canada. Mrs. Hewett was born in Iowa. Her father became one of the prosperous and influential farmers of this county, and he and his wife are now living in Antrim county. Mr. and Mrs. Hewett have two children, Alton P. W., and Leta L. E.
WILLIAM H. ANDERSON.
The collators of the data for this publi- cation have been much impressed in dis- covering how notable a percentage of the in- habitants of the northern half of the lower peninsular of Michigan have been con- tributed, either directly or indirectly, by the dominion of Canada, and among the worthy representatives of this class stands the sub- ject of this sketch, who is one of the suc- cessful business men of Antrim county and a member of one of its prominent and honored pioneer families. He is engaged in the general merchandise business in the vil- lage of Kewadin, having succeeded his father in the enterprise, and is held in high regard as a citizen and business man, while he has been prominently identified with local affairs of a public nature for a number of years past.
Mr. Anderson was born in the city of Toronto, province of Ontario, Canada, on the Ist of March, 1856, and is a son of Andrew and Elizabeth (Compton) Ander- son, both of whom were born and reared in Ireland, being of stanch Irish lineage. They
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came to Michigan in 1867 and were num- bered among the early settlers of Antrim county, where the father founded the suc- cessful business enterprise now conducted by the subject. Andrew Anderson died in November. 1892, his wife in 1899. The subject of this review passed his boyhood days in his native city, in whose schools he secured his early educational discipline. He was eleven years of age at the time of com- ing to Antrim county, in 1867, and he settled in Milton township and turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, his initial labors, however, having been in connection with clearing the land of its heavy growth of timber. The entire county at that time had but few settlers and but a small portion of its land had been cleared, while deers, bears and other wild game were to be had in abundance. For a period of eight years Mr. Anderson was employed in a clerical capacity in the extensive general merchandise estab- lishment of the great lumbering firm of Han- nah, Lay & Company, of Traverse City, and at the expiration of this interval he returned to Antrim county and entered into partner- ship with his honored father in the con- ducting of a general store in the village of Kewadin, where he has ever since continued operations along this line, controlling a large and prosperous business and being held in unqualified confidence and esteem in this community. He continued to be associated with his father for two years, since which time he has individually conducted the busi- ness, having purchased his father's interest in the same. He has been active in local af- fairs of a public nature and through his earnest efforts in this line has wielded no slight influence. For eight years he served as clerk of Milton township, while for twelve
years he was incumbent of the office of post- master at Kewadin, while he has also been a valued member of the board of education of his town. In politics he formerly gave his support to the Democracy, but becom- ing convinced of the party's digression from its basic principles he espoused the cause of the Republican party, which has ever since had his unqualified allegiance. Fraternally he is identified with Elk Rapids Lodge, No. 85, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is the owner of an attractive residence property in Kewadin, and this is a center of gracious hospitality.
In the year 1885 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Anderson to Miss Florence Frame, who was born in Ontario, Canada, being a daughter of Captain C. M. and Fan- nie (Wood) Frame. Her father, who was born in Canada, was of Scotch lineage and was for many years identified with the navigation of the great lakes, having been a captain of various vessels. He and his wife are now at St. Ignace, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have three children, all of whom remain at the parental home, namely : Charles, Altha and Tracy.
GEORGE MURRAY CLOW.
The name Clow is intimately associated with the founding of Central Lake, also closely interwoven with the town's subse- quent growth and development. Robert Clow, the father of the subject of this re- view, was one of the early settlers of the place and an influential factor in inducing
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others to locate in the vicinity and to him logs and stood in the northern part of the and a few kindred spirits is largely due the town near the site now occupied by the resi- dence of Arch Cameron. Among the first neighbors was S. B. Davis, who, with his family, settled about the same time on an ad- joining homestead, and a little later came James Wadsworth, who built a small house near the river, which he stocked with a mis- cellaneous assortment of merchandise, this being the first attempt at selling goods in the place. A Mr. Getty, who located on what is now the Echdart farm about two miles south of Central Lake, was perhaps the next settler, the locality up to the time of his arrival and for several years thereafter being known as Torch Lake or Elk Rapids. credit of publishing to the world the advant- ages of this section of Antrim county as a healthful and in many other respects a favor- able locality in which to establish homes and make investments. Mr. Clow was born in Ontario, of German-Scotch parentage, his wife. Eliza Wooley, being a native of New York and a descendant of one of the old English families of that state. Having read flattering accounts of the Traverse region of northern Michigan, and being favorably im- pressed thereby, Mr. Clow in 1866 emi- grated to what is now Antrim county and shortly after his arrival took up a homestead near Central Lake, a part of his original pur- Mr. Clow shortly after building his house and settling his family comfortably started a blacksmith shop, which soon had an extensive patronage, as it was the only es- tablishment of the kind within an area of several miles, the settlers coming to him from far and near for all needed repairs to their vehicles, farming implements, as well as for horseshoeing and general work in the black- smith line. A postoffice, with S. B. Davis in charge, was established in due time under the name of Central Lake, this being a point on the old Indian trail between Traverse and Petoskey over which the mails were carried by footmen. For their breadstuff the early settlers were obliged to go to Antrim City, twelve miles distant, where a good grist mill had been previously erected, but later, upon the construction of the state road from Traverse City to Petoskey, a mill was built at Mitchell which brought their flour and meal supply about eight miles nearer home. The proprietor of the latter mill was a man by the name of Walton and so eager were the people in the vicinity to aid him in the chase being at this time corporate limits of the village which he assisted in founding. His journey to the new home was made in the face of many discouraging circumstances, but, being a man of strong will and deter- mined purpose, he persevered in his under- taking and by his optimistic nature infused life and encouragement into the minds of those who accompanied him on the long and tiresome trip. Landing at Northport, he crossed the bay to Eastport, then but a small village, and from the latter place was obliged to cut a road for three and a half miles through a densely wooded region in order to reach his objective point at Central Lake. He came west with a fair outfit of this world's goods, including a team of oxen and one cow, which, in addition to household furniture and a few agricultural implements. enabled him to begin the struggle in the new country under more favorable conditions than the majority of the early pioneers. The first house in which the Clow family was domiciled was hastily constructed of round
I2
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work of building that they turned out en inasse on a stated day and constructed the clam across the creek which supplied the mo- tive power. Mr. Walton manufactured both lumber and flour and did a thriving busi- ness until larger and better equipped mills began to spring up in various parts of the country, when he discontinued operations.
The above historical facts are noted in- cidentally in connection with the career of the Clow family at Central Lake and to show the relation which the father of the subject of this review sustains towards the settlement and development of what is now one of the most intelligent and flourishing communities in the county of Antrim. Rob- ert Clow was well fitted by nature and train- ing for the work which fell to his lot in the early day and the influence he exerted, not only in the material advancement of Central Lake, but in the social and moral welfare of his contemporaries, had much to do in establishing the community upon the high moral plane for which it has since been dis- tinguished. Physically he was strong, rug- ged and exceedingly agile and he also pos- sessed the happy faculty of doing the right thing in the right way, his ability as a leader and his rare foresight as an inaugurator of important public measures having long been recognized and appreciated by his fellow citizens. In religion he was a Universalist, in politics a zealous Republican and for many years he was honored with offices and trusts of various kinds, including among others that of justice of the peace when the position carried much more dignity and re- sponsibility than it does now.
Mr. Clow departed this life November 23. 1883, in his eightieth year, his wife hav- ing preceded him to the other world in 1877.
Of their family of eleven children, seven sur- vive, six of the original number having ac- companied him to Central Lake and in a large measure linked their fortunes with his. Those now living are: William W., who owns and cultivates the family homestead; George M., of this review; Lodema, wife of George Montgomery, of this county, a man who has been honored by being an officer in about every capacity in the county, and who is now chairman of the county board; So- phia, now the wife of Fred Church, of Mitchell, official surveyor of Antrim county, and Permelia, who married R. T. Sisley, of Central Lake.
George Murray Clow, to a review of whose life and achievements the remainder of this article is devoted, was born in Leeds county, Ontario, May 12, 1845. His early life was spent in the land of his birth, where he enjoyed the advantages of a good com- mon school education, and in the fall of 1865 he accompanied his parents upon the family's removal to Michigan and assisted his father in clearing and cultivating the farm at Cen- tral Lake. Being the oldest son, and strong and vigorous for his years, much of the labor of developing the homestead fell to him and right nobly did he discharge the onerous duty, as is attested by the fact that he never shirked a responsibility nor ceased looking after the interests of the farm, beginning life for himself three years after attaining his majority. Leaving home at the age of twenty-three, Mr. Clow went to Wisconsin. where he soon afterwards contracted a matrimonial alliance with Miss Emma Davis, daughter of S. B. Davis, following which he settled on a part of his father-in- law's farm and engaged in the pursuit of agriculture for a livelihood. After clearing
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and reducing a goodly number of acres to again invaded his household and took there- cultivation and living on the same for several years, he started a boarding house at Torch Lake. A limited experience in the latter enterprise proving it unsuitable to his taste, he resumed tilling the soil, taking charge of the home farm after his mother's death and continuing its cultivation with success and profit until 1891.
Mr. Clow has long stood in the front ranks of Antrim county's enterprising and progressive agriculturists and as a citizen is public spirited in all the term implies, rank- ing among the leading men of the com- munity in which he resides. He has filled various local positions of honor and trust, served several years as township treasurer and school moderator and is now on his fourth term, of four years each, as justice of the peace, which office he has filled with signal ability, as is attested, not only by the large amount of important business brought to his court, but by the fairness and im- partiality of his rulings and decisions, few if any of the latter having suffered reversal at the hands of higher tribunals. Politically Mr. Clow is a pronounced Republican, but has never posed as a partisan or office seeker : fraternally, he 'is an influential member of the Knights of the Maccabees of Central Lake and takes an active interest in the wel- fare of this and other societies of a like char- acter with which his name is identified.
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