Biographical history of northern Michigan containing biographies of prominent citizens, Part 47

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

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while yet young men, these brothers have attained to a success and standing in the business world far surpassing their fondest anticipations. Besides conducting a leading mercantile establishment in Kalkaska, their annual business reaching an average aggre- gate of sixty thousand dollars, they are also interested in the firm of Tower & Cole Brothers, of Leetsville and Elk Rapids, in which villages they are conducting well equipped general stores which control an excellent business. As dealers in produce the Cole brothers are widely and favorably known both at home and in the metropoli- tan markets, their shipments in this line averaging two hundred car-loads annually, and involving the distribution each year of fully an average of fifty thousand dollars among the farmers of this county. In Kal- kaska they have a brick storage house forty- five by sixty feet in dimensions, the same affording a storage capacity of twenty thous- and bushels of produce, and they control a very large part of the produce business of this section. Under the firm name of Bow- erman & Cole Brothers they conduct the leading business in Kalkaski county in the handling of grain, hay, cement and allied lines. The brothers have been most closely associated in all lines of advancement from their boyhood days and the utmost harmony has attended their relationship. Both are stanch advocates of the principles of the Republican party; both are identified with the Masonic fraternity, the Knights of Pyth- ias. Sons of Veterans and Knights of Mac- cabees, while they are also active members of the Methodist Episcopal church, as are likewise the Mesdames Cole.

The domestic chapters in the careers of the Cole brothers are also closely analogous,

both having been married on the same date, September 27, 1892, when Miss Zora B. Flagg became the wife of Claude Cole and Miss Nettie A. Campbell the wife of Clyde. The two brides had been graduates in the same class in the local high school and both had been successful and popular teachers prior to their marriage, while they had been devoted friends in their school days, a rela- tionship which has not only remained invi- olate but has been also more closely ce- mented through the even more intimate as- sociation which is now theirs. Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Cole have two daughters and one son, Clarence W., Bernice and Bertine. Messrs. and Mesdames Cole are prominent in the social life of their attractive home town, where their circle of friends is coincident with that of their acquaintances.

JAMES A. HARRIOT.

A representative citizen of Kalkaska county is Mr. Harriot, who is prominently identified with business and civic interests here and who is one of the popular and highly esteemed business men of the city of Kalkaska.

Mr. Harriot has the distinction of being a native of our national metropolis, having been born in New York city, on the IIth of April, 1846, his father being a native of New Jersey and a contractor and builder by vo- cation. The father continued his residence in New York city until his death, and there also occurred the death of his wife. The subject of this review secured his early edu- cational training in the schools of his native city and was graduated in what was known

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as the free academy. As a boy he secured employment in a wholesale dry-goods estab- lishment in New York, and in the same he was engaged as a salesman at the time of the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion. On the 15th of April, 1861, four days after his fifteenth birthday anniversary, Mr. Harriot enlisted as a private in Company C, Fourth United States Cavalry, joining his regiment at Car- lyle Barracks and being thence sent with his command to Missouri, under General Lyons. He took part in the battle at Wilson's creek, that state, on the Ioth of August, 1861, and witnessed the death of General Lyons, who sacrificed his life in that engagement. Mr. Harriot had shortly before been wounded in a skirmish at Blackwater, but remained with his regiment, notwithstanding his in- juries. He continued in active service until the expiration of his three years' term of en- listment, receiving his honorable discharge in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1864. His regi- ment finally became a part of the Army of the Cumberland, and in this connection he saw much arduous service, taking part in a number of the leading battles incidental to the progress of the great fratricidal con- flict. He was a participant in thirteen bat- tles and twenty-four skirmishes, and aside from the wound received while in Missouri, as noted, he also received a saber wound while with his command in making a charge in the battle of Stone River. He was thrown from his horse but kept on with his com- rades and did his part in the spirited work of that memorable battle. After his dis- charge he was offered a commission as cap- tain, but refused the position, having been but eighteen years of age at the time.

After the close of his valiant military

career the youthful veteran returned to New York city, and for the ensuing thirteen years was employed as a mail carrier in the me- tropolis. At the expiration of this period Mr. Harriot came to Michigan, making Mancelona, Antrim county, his destination. his purpose in coming to the wilds of north- ern Michigan having been to recuperate his health. He made Mancelona his headquar- ters for two years and then came to Kal- kaska. Here a banking business had been established about two years previously, as a branch of the private banking business of the firm of Wiley, Curtis & Company, of Petoskey, and when the Kalkaska business was purchased by A. Bleasby, Mr. Harriot was tendered the position of cashier of the bank, which was a private institution. Mr. Bleasby was one of the leading members of the bar of this section and was also the leading merchant of Kalkaska, while he was also prominently identified with the lumber business. Mr. Harriot continued incum- bent of the position of cashier of the bank for sixteen years, until the institution was closed by reason of the failure of Mr. Bleasby, whose other and varied interests had brought about his financial overthrow, the bank having been a success as an indi- vidual enterprise, while its closing entailed no loss save to its owner. After the closing of the bank Mr. Harriot engaged in the grocery business, in which line he continued two years, then disposing of the business and turning his attention to the establishing of a general insurance agency. With this im- portant line of enterprise he has since been successfully identified, representing a num- ber of the leading fire and life insurance companies and controlling a large and representative business. He is also the

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secretary and treasurer of the telephone company, of which he is one of the principal stockholders, while he has conducted a shoe and harness store in the village of Central Lake, Antrim county, this being in charge of his son-in-law. In politics Mr. Harriot gives an unfaltering allegiance to the Repub- lican party, taking a deep interest in the ad- vancement of the party cause and being fre- quently a delegate to state and county con- ventions. He has served as village treas- urer of Kalkaska since 1896 and is recog- nized as a loyal and public-spirited citizen. He is prominently identified with the Knights of Pythias, being past chancellor commander and having been a delegate to the grand lodge of the state, and in the Ma- sonic fraternity he has passed the ancient- craft and capitular degrees, having been master of his lodge while a resident of New York city.

In Kalkaska was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Harriot to Miss Augusta Fer- guson, who was born and reared in Indiana, and they have two daughters, Corinne, who is the wife of Arthur J. Gibson, manager of the subject's business interests at Central Lake, Antrim county, and Laura V., who is a successful and popular teacher in the Kal- kaska high school.

EARLY EVENTS IN ANTRIM COUNTY.

In the year 1865 Antrim county was nearly an unbroken forest. On the upland grew principally maple and beech ; hemlock, cedar and birch in the lowlands and swamps, with a sprinkling of pine, ash and other

kinds. The firm of Dexter & Noble, operat- ing at Elk Rapids, had cut out about all the solid pine there was and, considering that lumbering was about over, were preparing to go out of business. Here and there an old settler had commenced in a very small way to clear, but the clearings were small, few and scattered. The problem of getting rid of the timber was the great and absorb- ing one, and the merits of jamb piling, wind rowing, chopping into log lengths or even girdling, were all argued and dis- cussed, and each had its advocates. A few located near Traverse bay got out shipping wood (body wood maple) and that, with making sugar from the sap, was about the only use it then appeared that maple could be put to.

In 1868 Mr. J. H. Silkman, of Milwau- kee, erected a mill at Torch lake and com- menced manufacturing hardwood and hem- lock lumber and was the pioneer in this busi- ness in this county, and really, on a large scale, in the Grand Traverse region. He depended principally on buying logs for his supply, and there was no difficulty in buy- ing plenty of logs, the trouble came in get- ting sale for the product, and for years it was an uphill business, and, though logs were very cheap, after several years of op- erating, he failed. About that time, 1869 to 1874, logs could be bought, per thousand feet board measure on the banks of Torch lake and its tributaries, about as follows : Ash, $3.50 ; basswood, $3.00; beech, no mar- ket : birch, $3.00; elm (gray or rock), $2.50; maple, $2.50: hemlock, $1.25 to $1.50. These were current figures and were only about enough to pay the cost of skidding and hauling, but people were glad to get the timber off the ground at any price, and in

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fact logging at even these prices was of one-half millions annually of all kinds. Then some advantage to such as really wanted to clear up their land and go to farming. But as pine became scarcer and dearer and hard- wood lumber gradually advanced in value, logging and cordwooding became more and more a business for the settler, too often to the neglect of his farm; and getting rid of the timber, which was at first a great ad- vantage, became gradually a detriment.

Logging in the early days as done by farmers was without any particular system -cutting down a tree into log lengths and hauling it in small loads, on poor roads ; but as the business of manufacturing grew and mills became numerous, the set- tler could no longer be depended on for a supply of logs and the mill man had to buy tracts of timber land and do the logging himself. From 1875 to 1885 the general system was to start the logging camp about the first of November or earlier, make roads, cut and skid until such time as there was sufficient snow to haul on sleighs, and then the hauling was done di- rect to the mill or to the banks of some waters, whence the logs could be floated to the mill the following summer. Hardwood logs, while they are not well adapted to raft- ing, still with due care they can be and have been in the past, successfully rafted to the mill; in fact up to about 1885 that was the general method; since that time, however, large mills depend almost entirely on rail- roads and keep cutting and hauling the year around. In Antrim county, cut up as it is by various lakes, there has not been much done with logging roads-that is in the western part of it.

Up to 1873 J. H. Silkman, at Torch lake, manufactured about two or two and

or about that time the butter dish fac- tory and the broom handle factory at Man- celona commenced operations, consuming probably ten millions of logs annually. The Elk Rapids Iron Company, at Elk Rapids, started in about 1876 and from making at first four or five million a year, gradually in- creased their operations until they bought or got out in one year twenty-six millions. Cameron Lumber Company, successors to J. H. Silkman at Torch lake and Central lake, have cut since 1883 probably all told two hundred and fifty millions, an average of twelve millions annually.

C. L. Houseman, at Bellaire, com- menced operations about 1895, and has cut on an average about five millions annually ; at Bellaire also were the plants of Richardi & Bechtold and Tindle & Jackson, who probably used one hundred million feet dur- ing their operations.

I think since Silkman began operations in 1868 until now there has been cut in this county in all at least one billion five hun- dred million of saw logs, to say nothing of the shipping wood, furnace wood, ties and shingle stock, and that is a low estimate.

Well, the end is in sight-we can see through the woods. In 1866 and about that time a small clearing of any kind was called an improvement, and was taxed as such. The timber land was looked on as of no value. Some mourn the disappearance of our forests ; but we should remember that we could not have the forest and at the same time the people. Our trees have gone to hunt the buffalo and keep company with the last of the Mohicans; but in their place we have a large supply of hearty young men, pretty girls, and any amount of the best look-

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ing babies on earth. And when all our tim- ber has disappeared we will only have ar- rived at the point that the early.settler came for, praying for and working for,-to get the land in shape for white people to live on.

One acre of potatoes or beans will, on an average, be worth (net) as much as an acre of timber, and we can raise a crop every year, so our young people must not look back regretfully to the days of the early set- tler, the days of long walks (for there were no buggies or roads to drive them on), or smoky shanties, leeky butter, mosquitoes and all manner of discomforts. We now have in fact what we so much desired in 1865,-the chance to till the soil and make it bloom; and if it does not, the fault will lay with us. ARCH CAMERON.

DAVID P. BEEBE.

Honored and esteemed by all, there are few citizens of Kalkaska county who are more prominent in business and civic affairs than David Porter Beebe, who stands as one of the pioneers of the county, where he settled nearly forty years ago, when this sec- tion was essentially an unbroken wilderness.

Mr. Beebe is a native of Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 20th of November, 1838, and where he was reared to manhood under the sturdy discipline of the farm, in the meanwhile availing himself of the advantages afforded in the common schools of the locality. He was still living in his native county when there came to him the call to higher duty, the integrity of the Union being jeopard- ized through the rebellion of the Confeder- acy. In response to the President's first

call he enlisted as a private in Company H, One Hundred and Forty-third Pennsyl- vania Volunteer Infantry, with which he proceeded to the front, continuing in active service until August, 1863, when he re- ceived his honorable discharge, by reason . of physical disability. His health had be- come seriously impaired and he has never fully recovered from the effects of his army service. Mr. Beebe continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits in Brad- ford county, Pennsylvania, until the spring of 1867, when he came to Kalkaska county, Michigan, and became one of the first set- tlers in what is now Clearwater township, his original entry of land having been twenty-five miles east of Traverse City, from which point he transported provisions on his back on a number of occasions, as that village was then the nearest supply point. He reclaimed twenty-three acres of land to cultivation, accomplishing most of this her- culean task against great odds, as he did not have a team until after residing in the county four years,-in fact there was but one team in the county at the time when he located here, that having been owned by William Copeland, who was the first per- manent settler in the county, which was at that time a part of Antrim county. Among those who settled in the county about the same time as did our subject were Loren and Cyrenus Rice, William Richardson, Antoine Buckle, William Gerber, George Smith, and Charles Bookmeyer. Of these pioneers the only one who still resides on his old home- stead is Loren Rice. The men mentioned were practically the only settlers in the county in the spring of 1867, but the fol- lowing autumn witnessed the arrival of several more. Rapid River township was

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organized in the autumn of 1868 and originally included the territory now com- prised also in Clearwater, Wilson and Kal- kaska townships. Round Lake township was organized still later. The first mercan- tile business inaugurated in the county was conducted by A. T. Kellogg, at his home in Round Lake township, and here the first postoffice was established, under the name of Clearwater, which title was soon applied to the entire township, the name having ever since been retained. The first election in the county was held at the home of Norman Ross, in 1868, and the ballot-box utilized on that memorable occasion is now owned by the subject of this sketch and is prized as a valuable historical relic. Mr. Beebe was elected the first treasurer of his township, and it is worthy of note that a man named Sheldon, who was elected the first sheriff, likewise had the less honorable distinction of being the first man to be placed in jail and tried for misdemeanor in the new county. Mr. Beebe was for several years incumbent of the office of superintendent of the poor. while he was almost continuously in tenure of township offices for many years. Upon the organization of the county it was found necessary to elect a non-resident as prose- cuting attorney, E. S. Pratt, of Traverse City, being chosen, while A. T. Kellogg was the first resident of the county to be elected to this office, having been admitted to the bar in the interim. In the election of 1868 not a Democratic vote was cast in the county. The first school house was at Rice Hill, but Mrs. H. U. Hill had previously conducted a school in a building erected for a bar, she having been the first teacher en- ployed in the county. She also had charge of the school after the erection of the first

building for the purpose, this being a prim- itive log structure which is still standing and which should assuredly be preserved as an historical landmark. In 1868 was also effected the organization of a Sunday school, and many of those who attended the first meeting came barefooted. A Baptist clergy- man named Kilgore took up a homestead in the county and he organized the first class of his denomination here, the Baptist church in Kalkaska being the outcome of this early effort.

Mr. Beebe gave his attention to the reclamation and cultivation of his farm during the first nine years of his residence in the county, and then sold the property to the county for use as a poor farm, but the place was later sold again to a private in- dividual, being now owned by Mr. Leiphart. Upon disposing of his original farm Mr. Beebe removed to the village of Kalkaska and soon afterward took up land northeast of the town, which he previously entered, in Excelsior township. This property he has improved, making it one of the valuable farms of the county, the same comprising eighty acres, a portion of which is under effective cultivation. He still retains this property, though he has consecutively been a' resident of Kalkaska since the spring of 1876. In that year he was elected sheriff of the county, giving a most able and dis- criminating administration and being chosen as his own successor two years later. In addition to this four years of service he has also been called upon to act as deputy sheriff at various times, and is now deputy sheriff. In this way, particularly during the sessions of the circuit court, he has gained a wide acquaintance throughout this section, having a host of friends in the

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county to which he came as a pioneer so many years ago. In January, 1887, Gov- ernor Cyrus G. Luce appointed Mr. Beebe county agent of the state board of correc- tions and charities, and by successive reap- pointments he has ever since continued in- cumbent of this important office, in which he has accomplished a worthy work. He has been deeply interested in the work of this board and especially in the home for indigent children, in Coldwater, Branch county, having secured for about six of these little wards of the state good homes in Kalkaska county in the year 1903 alone. Over these and others whom he has thus aided in securing homes he keeps careful watch until he is fully assured of their wel- fare. In politics he has ever given an un- wavering allegiance to the Republican party, in whose cause he has been an active worker in a local way, having served as dele- gate to the various conventions and being an influential factor in the party ranks in his county. Mr. Beebe has witnessed the de- velopment of Kalkaska county into one of the most attractive divisions of the Wolver- ine state and has personally done his share in pushing forward the wheels of progress. Land which was sold for fifty cents an acre when he first came here is now valued at one hundred dollars an acre, and fine farms and thriving villages now stand in evidence where once was the virgin forest in whose dim aisles he sought for deer, bear and other wild game in the pioneer days, bring- ing down many a fine trophy of the chase by means of his rifle.

Mr. Beebe has been identified with the Masonic fraternity for about two score of years, and is one of the charter members

of Kalkaska Lodge, No. 332, which was or- ganized in 1875, the others concerned in the organization being his brother Amos C .; Dr. Almon Pool, now of Boyne Ciy ; George Lybarker, Austin Corp and D. E. McVain, the last mentioned of whom was the first master of the lodge. The subject is also affiliated with Colonel Baker Post, No. 84, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is a charter member.

In 1861, in Susquehanna county, Penn- sylvania, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Beebe to Miss Ellen Ross, and they have four children, Enoch, who is a success- ful farmer of this county; Juliet, who is the wife of Clarence Ayres, who resides in Traverse City ; Edward, who is an artist and teacher in Kalkaska, and Orrin, who is em- ployed as deliverer on a rural mail route in this county.

TRACY D. HOBBS.

Upon the roll of the representative cit- izens and prominent and influential business men of Kalkaska consistently appears the name which initiates this paragraph. Mr. Hobbs has been a resident of this county since his youth and has worked his own way to a position of marked precedence in con- nection with business affairs, while he is held in unqualified esteem by the people of the community. He is one of the interested principals of the Palmer & Hobbs Com- pany, dealers in general merchandise, and has the active supervision of the large and well equipped department store conducted under the title noted.

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The Palmer & Hobbs Company was or- ganized on the Ist of January, 1903, being duly incorporated under the laws of the state, with a capital stock of fifteen thou- sand dollars, while results have already shown the annual business transactions to represent an aggregate of from forty to forty-five thousand dollars. In the establish- ment of the company is carried full and se- lect lines of general merchandise, with the exception of groceries, and the business con- trolled is of distinctively representative character, the concern being one of the larg- est and most important of the sort in this section of the state. The store occupied is twenty-five by one hundred and fifty feet in dimensions, and is arranged admirably for the accommodation of the various depart- ments, the stock carried reaching an av- erage valuation of twenty thousand dol- lar. The enterprise is not as new as the date of organization might imply, for the com- pany is the direct successor of the firm of Palmer & Hobbs, which inaugurated busi- ness in 1894, utilizing the same quarters as does the present company. The original business was founded by Ambrose E. Palmer nearly thirty years ago, and thus the present concern represents one of the pio- neer mercantile houses of this county.

In the early years' Josiah C. Gray and Arthur Gibson became associated in the busi- ness, which was conducted for one year under the firm name of Palmer. Gray & Gib- son. Mr. Gray then disposed of his interest. after which the enterprise was continued under the title of Palmer & Gibson, for several years, the junior member finally re- tiring, after which Mr. Palmer individually continued the business until 1893, when Mr. Hobbs became a member of the firm, while

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Biographical history of northern Michigan containing biographies of prominent citizens, Part 47

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