USA > Michigan > Gratiot County > Biographical memoirs of Gratiot County, Michigan : compendium of biography of celebrated Americans > Part 51
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land, December 25, 1815, the son of a wealthy merchant. He attended school until he was thirteen, when his father be- came financially embarrassed and failed and shortly after died; John determined to come to America and carve out a fortune for himself. He landed in New York at the age of sixteen, and soon obtained employ- ment at the Howell Iron Works in New Jer- sey, at twenty-five cents a day. He soon made himself a place in the world, and at the end of three years had saved some twelve hundred dollars, which he lost by the failure of his employer, in whose hands it was left. Returning to New York he began to learn how to make castings for marine engines and ship work. Having again accumulated one thousand dollars, in company with three fellow workmen, he purchased a small foundry in New York, but soon became sole proprietor. At the end of four years he had saved thirty thou- sand dollars, besides enlarging his works. In 1856 his works were destroyed by a boiler explosion, and being unable to collect the insurance, was left, after paying his debts, without a dollar. However, his credit and reputation for integrity was good, and he built the Etna Iron Works, giving it capacity to construct larger marine engines than any previously built in this country. Here he turned out immense engines for the steam ram Dunderberg, for the war ves- sels Winooski and Neshaning, and other large vessels. To accommodate his increas- ing business, Mr. Roach, in 1869, pur- chased the Morgan Iron Works, one of the largest in New York, and shortly after sev- eral others. In 1871 he bought the Ches- ter ship yards, which he added' to largely, erecting a rolling mill and blast furnace, and providing every facility for building a ship out of the ore and timber. This immense
plant covered a large area, was valued at several millions of dollars, and was known as the Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding and Engine Works, of which Mr. Roach was the principal owner. He built a large percentage of the iron vessels now flying the American flag, the bulk of his business being for private parties. In 1875 he built the sectional dry docks at Pensacola. He, about this time, drew the attention of the government to the use of compound marine engines, and thus was the means of im- proving the speed and economy of the ves- sels of our new navy. In 1883 Mr. Roach commenced work on the three cruisers for the government, the "Chicago," "Boston" and "Atlanta," and the dispatch boat " Dolphin." For some cause the secretary of the navy refused to receive the latter and decided that Mr. Roach's contract would not hold. This embarrassed Mr. Roach, as a large amount of his capital was in- volved in these contracts, and for the pro- tection of bondsmen and creditors, July 18, 1885, he made an assignment, but the financial trouble broke down his strong con- stitution, and January 10, 1887, he died. His son, John B. Roach, succeeded to the shipbuilding interests, while Stephen W. Roach inherited the Morgan Iron Works at New York.
JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, one of the two great painters who laid the foundation of true American art, was born in Boston in 1737, one year earlier than his great contemporary, Benjamin West. His education was limited to the common schools of that time, and his training in art he ob- tained by his own observation and experi- ments solely. When he was about seven- teen years old he had mapped out his future, however, by choosing painting as his pro·
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fession. If he ever studied under any teacher in his early efforts, we have no au- thentic account of it, and tradition credits the young artist's wonderful success en- tirely to his own talent and untiring effort. It is almost incredible that at the age of twenty-three years his income from his works aggregated fifteen hundred dollars per annum, a very great sum in those days. In 1774 he went to Europe in search of ma- terial for study, which was so rare in his native land. After some timespent in Italy . he finally took up his permanent residence in England. In 1783 he was made a mem- ber of the Royal Academy, and later his son had the high honor of becoming lord chancellor of England and Lord Lyndhurst.
Many specimens of Copley's work are to be found in the Memorial Hall at Harvard and in the Boston Museum, as well as a few of the works upon which he modeled his style. Copley was essentially a portrait painter, though his historical paintings at- tained great celebrity, his masterpiece being his " Death of Major Pierson, " though that distinction has by some been given to his "Death of Chatham." It is said that he never saw a good picture until he was thirty-five years old, yet his portraits prior to that period are regarded as rare speci- mens. He died in 1815.
H ENRY B. PLANT, one of the greatest railroad men of the country, became famous as president of the Plant system of railway and steamer lines, and also the Southern & Texas Express Co. He was born in October, 1819, at Branford, Connecticut, and entered the railroad serv- ice in 1844, serving as express messenger on the Hartford & New Haven Railroad until 1853, during which time he had entire charge of the express business of that road.
He went south in 1853 and established ex- press lines on various southern railways, and in 1861 organized the Southern Express Co., and became its president. In 1879 he purchased, with others, the Atlantic & Gulf Railroad of Georgia, and later reorganized the Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad, of which he became president. He pur- chased and rebuilt, in 1880, the Savannah & Charleston Railroad, now Charleston & Savannah. Not long after this he organ- ized the Plant Investment Co., to control these railroads and advance their interests generally, and later established a steamboat line on the St. John's river, in Florida. From 1853 until 1860 he was general superintendent of the southern division of the Adams Express Co., and in 1867 be- came president of the Texas Express Co. The "Plant system" of railway, steamer and steamship lines is one of the greatest business corporations of the southern states.
W ADE HAMPTON, a noted Confeder- ate officer, was born at Columbia, South Carolina, in 1818. He graduated from the South Carolina College, took an active part in politics, and was twice elected to the legislature of his state. In 1861 he joined the Confederate army, and command- ed the " Hampton Legion " at the first bat- tle of Bull Run, in July, 1861. He did meritorious service, was wounded, and pro- moted to brigadier-general. He command- ed a brigade at Seven Pines, in 1862, and was again wounded. He was engaged in the battle of Antietam in September of the same year, and participated in the raid into Pennsylvania in October. In 1863 he was with Lee at Gettysburg, where he was wounded for the third time. He was pro- moted to the rank of lieutenant-general, and commanded a troop of cavalry in Lee's
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army during 1864, and was in numerous en- gagements. In 1865 he was in South Car- olina, and commanded the cavalry rear guard of the Confederate army in its stub- born retreat before General Sherman on his advance toward Richmond.
After the war Hampton took an active part in politics, and was a prominent figure at the Democratic national convention in 1868, which nominated Seymour and Blair for president and vice-president. He was governor of South Carolina, and took his seat in the United States senate in 1879, where he became a conspicuous figure in national affairs.
N TIKOLA TESLA, one of the most cele- brated electricians America has known, was born in 1857, at Smiljau, Lika, Servia. He descended from an old and representative family of that country. His father was a a minister of the Greek church, of high rank, while his mother was a woman of remarka- ble skill in the construction of looms, churns and the machinery required in a rural home. Nikola received early education in the public schools of Gospich, when he was sent to the higher "Real Schule" at Karl- stadt, where, after a three years' course, he graduated in 1873. He devoted him- self to experiments in electricity and magnetism, to the chagrin of his father, who had destined him for the ministry, but giving way to the boy's evident genius he was allowed to continue his studies in the polytechnic school at Gratz. He in- herited a wonderful intuition which enabled him to see through the intricacies of ma- chinery, and despite his instructor's demon- stration that a dynamo could not be oper- ated without commutators or brushes, began experiments which finally resulted in his rotating field motors. After the study
of languages at Prague and Buda-Pesth, he became associated with M. Puskas, who had introduced the telephone into Hungary. He invented several improvements, but being unable to reap the necessary benefit from them, he, in search of a wider field, went to Paris, where he found employment with one of the electric lighting companies as electrical engineer. Soon he set his face westward, and coming to the United States for a time found congenial employment with Thomas A. Edison. Finding it impossible, overshadowed as he was, to carry out his own ideas he left the Edison works to join a company formed to place his own inven- tions on the market. He perfected his rotary field principle, adapting it to circuits then in operation. It is said of him that some of his proved theories will change the entire electrical science. It would, in an article of this length, be impossible to ex- plain all that Tesla accomplished for the practical side of electrical engineering. His discoveries formed the basis of the at- tempt to utilize the water power of Niagara Falls. His work ranges far beyond the vast department of polyphase currents and high potential lighting and includes many inventions in arc lighting, transformers, pyro and thermo-magnetic motors, new forms of incandescent lamps, unipolar dyna- mos and many others.
C HARLES B. LEWIS won fame as an ) American humorist under the name of "M. Quad." = is said he owes his celebrity originally to the fact that he was once mixed up in a boiler explosion on the Ohio river, and the impressions he received from the event he set up from his case when he was in the composing room of an ob- scure Michigan paper. His style possesses a peculiar quaintness, and there runs through
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it a vein of philosophy. Mr. Lewis was born in 1844, near a town called Liverpool, Ohio. He was, however, raised in Lansing, Michigan, where he spent a year in an agri- cultural college, going from there to the composing room of the "Lansing Demo- crat." At the outbreak of the war he en- listed in the service, remained during the entire war, and then returned to Lansing. The explosion of the boiler that " blew him into fame," took place two years later, while he was on his way south. When he re- covered physically, he brought suit for dam- ages against the steamboat company, which he gained, and was awarded a verdict of twelve thousand dollars for injuries re- ceived. It was while he was employed by the " Jacksonian " of Pontiac, Mich., that he set up his account of how he felt while being blown up. He says that he signed it "M Quad," because "a bourgeoise em quad is useless except in its own line-it won't justify with any other type." Soon after, because of the celebrity he attained by this screed, Mr. Lewis secured a place on the staff of the "Detroit Free Press," and made for that paper a wide reputation. His sketches of the "Lime Kiln Club" and " Brudder Gardner" are perhaps the best known of his humorous writings.
Į TIRAM S. MAXIM, the famousinventor, was born in Sangersville, Maine, February 5, 1840, the son of Isaac W. and Harriet B. Maxim. The town of his birth was but a small place, in the woods, on the confines of civilization, and the family endured many hardships. They were without means and entirely dependent on themselves to make out of raw materials all they needed. The mother was an expert spinner, weaver, dyer and seamstress and the father a trapper, tanner,
miller, blacksmith, carpenter, mason and farmer. Amid such surroundings young Maxim gave early promise of remarkable aptitude. With the universal Yankee jack- knife the products of his skill excited the wonder and interest of the locality. His parents did not encourage his latent genius but apprenticed him to a coach builder. Four years he labored at this uncongenial trade but at the end of that time he forsook it and entered a machine shop at Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Soon mastering the details of that business and that of mechanical drawing, he went to Boston as the foreman of the philosophical instrument manufactory. From thence he went to New York and with the Novelty Iron Works Shipbuilding Co. he gained experience in those trades. His inventions up to this time consisted of improvements in steam engines, and an automatic gas machine, which came into general use. In 1877 he turned his attention to electricity, and in 1878 produced an incandescent lamp, that would burn 1,000 hours. He was the first to design a process for flashing electric carbons, and the first to "standardize" carbons for electric light- ing. In 1880 he visited Europe and exbibit- ing, at the Paris Exposition of 1881, a self- regulating machine, was decorated with the Legion of Honor. In 1883 he returned to London as the European representative of the United States Electric Light Co. An incident of his boyhood, in which the recoil of a rifle was noticed by him, and the apparent loss of power shown, in 1881-2 prompted the invention of a gun which utilizes the recoil to automatically load and fire seven hundred and seventy shots per minute. The Maxim- Nordenfelt Gun Co., with a capital of nine million dollars, grew from this. In 1883 he patented his electric training gear for large guns. And later turned his attention to fly-
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ing machines, which he claimed were not an impossibility. He took out over one hundred patents for smokeless gunpowder, and for pe- troleum and other motors and autocycles.
JOHN DAVISON ROCKEFELLER, one of America's very greatest financiers and philanthropists, was born in Richford, Tioga county, New York, July 8, 1839. He received a common-school education in his native place, and in 1853, when his parents removed to Cleveland, Ohio, he entered the high school of that city. After a two-years' course of diligent work, he entered the com- mission and forwarding house of Hewitt & Tuttle, of Cleveland, remaining with the firm some years, and then began business for himself, forming a partnership with Morris B. Clark. Mr. Rockefeller was then but nineteen years of age, and during the year 1860, in connection with others, they started the oil refining business, under the firm name of Andrews, Clark & Co. Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Andrews purchased the interest of their associates, and, after taking William Rockefeller into the firm, established offices in Cleveland under the name of William Rockefeller & Co. Shortly after this the house of Rockefeller & Co. was es- tablished in New York for the purpose of finding a market for their products, and two years later all the refining companies were consolidated under the firm name of Rocke- feller, Andrews & Flagler. This firm was succeeded in 1870 by the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, said to be the most gigantic business corporation of modern times. John D. Rockefeller's fortune has been variously estimated at from one hun- dred million to two hundred million dollars.
Mr. Rockefeller's philanthropy mani- fested itself principally through the American Baptist Educational Society. He donated
the building for the Spelman Institute at Atlanta, Georgia, a school for the instruction of negroes. His other gifts were to the University of Rochester, Cook Academy, Peddie Institute, and Vassar College, be- sides smaller gifts to many institutions. throughout the country. His princely do- nations, however, were to the University of Chicago. His first gift to this institution. was a conditional offer of six hundred thou- sand dollars in 1889, and when this amount. was paid he added one million more. Dur- ing 1892 he made it two gifts of one million each, and all told, his donations to this one institution aggregated between seven and eight millions of dollars.
JOHN M. PALMER .- For over a third of a century this gentleman occupied a prominent place in the political world, both in the state of Illinois and on the broader platforn of national issues.
Mr. Palmer was born at Eagle Creek, Scott county, Kentucky, September 13, 1817. The family subsequently removed to Christian county, in the same state, where he acquired a common-school education, and made his home until 1831. His father was opposed to slavery, and in the latter year removed to Illinois and settled near Alton. In 1834 John entered Alton College, or- ganized on the manual-labor plan, but his funds failing, abandoned it and entered a cooper shop. He subsequently was en- gaged in peddling, and teaching a district school near Canton. In 1838 he began the study of law, and the following year re- moved to Carlinville, where, in December of that year, he was admitted to the bar. He was shortly after defeated for county clerk. In 1843 he was elected probate judge. In the constitutional convention of 1847, Mr. Palmer was a delegate, and from 1849 to
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1851 he was county judge. In 1852 he be- came a member of the state senate, but not being with his party on the slavery question he resigned that office in 1854. In 1856 Mr. Palmer was chairman of the first Re- publican state convention held in Illinois, and the same year was a delegate to the national convention: In 1860 he was an elector on the Lincoln ticket, and on the breaking out of the war entered the service as colonel of the Fourteenth Illinois Infan- try, but was shortly after brevetted brigadier- general. In August, 1862, he organized the One Hundred and Twenty-second Illi- nois Infantry, but in September he was placed in command of the first division of the Army of the Mississippi, afterward was promoted to the rank of major-general. In 1865 he was assigned to the military ad- ministration in Kentucky. In 1867 General Palmer was elected governor of Illinois and served four years. In 1872 he went with the Liberal Republicans, who supported Horace Greeley, after which time he was identified with the Democratic party. In 1890 he was elected United States senator from Illinois, and served as such for six years. In 1896, on the adoption of the sil- ver plank in the platform of the Democratic party, General Palmer consented to lead, as presidential candidate, the National Dem- ocrats, or Gold Democracy.
W ILLIAM H. BEARD, the humorist among American painters, was born at Painesville, Ohio, in 1821. His father, James H. Beard, was also a painter of na- tional reputation. William H. Beard be- gan his career as a traveling portrait painter. He pursued his studies in New York. and later removed to Buffalo, where he achieved reputation. He then went to
Italy and after a short stay returned to New York and opened a studio. One of his earliest paintings was a small picture called "Cat and Kittens," which was placed in the National Academy onexhibition. Among his best productions are "Raining Cats and Dogs," "The Dance of Silenus," "Bears on a Bender," "Bulls and Bears," " Whoo!" " Grimalkin's Dream," "Little Red Riding Hood," "The Guardian of the Flag." His animal pictures convey the most ludicrous and satirical ideas, and the intelligent, human expression in their faces is most comical. Some artists and critics have re- fused to give Mr. Beard a place among the first circles in art, solely on account of the class of subjects he has chosen.
W W. CORCORAN, the noted philan- throphist, was born at Georgetown, District of Columbia, December 27, 1798. At the age of twenty-five he entered the banking business in Washington, and in time became very wealthy. He was noted for his magnificent donations to char- ity. Oak Hill cemetery was donated to Georgetown in 1847, and ten years later the Corcoran Art Gallery, Temple of Art, was presented to the city of Washington. The uncompleted building was utilized by the government as quartermaster's headquar- ters during the war. The building was completed after the war at a cost of a mil- lion and a half dollars, all the gift of Mr. Corcoran. The Louise Home for Women is another noble charity to his credit. Its object is the care of women of gentle breed- ing who in declining years are without means of support. In addition to this he gave liberally to many worthy institutions of learning and charity. He died at Wash- ington February 24, 1888.
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A LBERT BIERSTADT, the noted paint- er of American landscape, was born in Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1829, and was brought to America by his parents at the age of two years. He received his early education here, but returned to Dusseldorf to study painting, and also went to Rome. On his return to America he accompanied Lander's expedition across the continent, in 1858, and soon after produced his most popular work, "The Rocky Mountains- Lander's Peak." Its boldness and grandeur were so unusual that it made him famous. The picture sold for twenty-five thousand dollars. In 1867 Mr. Bierstadt went to Europe, with a government commission, and gathered materials for his great historic- al work, "Discovery of the North River by Hendrik Hudson." Others of his great works were "Storm in the Rocky Mount- ains," "Valley of the Yosemite," "North Fork of the Platte," "Diamond Pool," " Mount Hood," "Mount Rosalie," and " The Sierra Nevada Mountains." His "Estes Park" sold for fifteen thousand dollars, and "Mount Rosalie" brought thirty-five thousand dollars. His smaller Rocky mountain scenes, however, are vast- ly superior to his larger works in execution and coloring.
made him a fortune. At the close of the war he quit business and went to New York. For two years he did not enter any active business, but seemed to be simply an on-looker in the great speculative center of America. He was observing keenly the methods and financial machinery, however, and when, in 1867, he formed a partnership with the popular Charles J. Osborne, the firm began to prosper. He never had an office on the street, but wandered into the various brokers' offices and placed his orders as he saw fit. In 1873 he dissolved his partnership with Osborne and operated alone. He joined a band of speculative conspirators known as the "Twenty-third party," and was the ruling spirit in that or- ganization for the control of the stock mar- ket. He was always on the "bear " side and the only serious obstacle he ever encoun- tered was the persistent boom in industrial stocks, particularly sugar, engineered by James R. Keane. Mr. Cammack fought Keane for two years, and during the time is said to have lost no less than two million dollars before he abandoned the fight.
W TALT. WHITMAN .- Foremost among the lesser poets of the latter part of the nineteenth century, the gentleman whose name adorns the head of this article takes a conspicuous place.
A DDISON CAMMACK, a famous mill- ionaire Wall street speculator, was Whitman was born at West Hills, Long Island, New York, May 13, 1809. In the schools of Brooklyn he laid the foundation of his education, and early in life learned the printer's trade. For a time he taught coun- try schools in his native state. In 1846-7 he was editor of the " Brooklyn Eagle, " but in 1848-9 was on the editorial staff of the "Crescent, " of New Orleans. He made an extended tour throughout the born in Kentucky. When sixteen years old he ran away from home and went to New Orleans, where he went to work in a ship- ping house. He outlived and outworked all the partners, and became the head of the firm before the opening of the war. At that time he fitted out small vessels and en- gaged in running the blockade of southern ports and carrying ammunition, merchan- dise, etc., to the southern people. This , United States and Canada, and returned to
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Brooklyn, where, in 1850, he published the "Freeman. " For some years succeeding this he was engaged as carpenter and builder. During the Civil war, Whitman acted as a volunteer nurse in the hospitals at Washington and vicinity and from the close of hostilities until 1873 he was employed in various clerkships in the government offices in the nation's capital. In the latter year he was stricken with paralysis as a result of his labors in the hospital, it is said, and being partially disabled lived for many years at Camden, New Jersey.
The first edition of the work which was to bring him fame, "Leaves of Grass," was published in 1855 and was but a small volume of about ninety-four pages. Seven or eight editions of "Leaves of Grass" have been issued, each enlarged and enriched with new poems. "Drum Taps," at first a separate publication, has been incorporated with the others. This volume and one prose writing entitled "Specimen Days and Collect," constituted his whole work.
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