USA > Michigan > Gratiot County > Biographical memoirs of Gratiot County, Michigan : compendium of biography of celebrated Americans > Part 9
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man, and has two children, Oscar D. and Thelma. All are living on the family home- stead.
Oscar Oakes has been a member of the Board of Review of Wheeler township, was supervisor of that township for some time, and has been highway commissioner for a number of terms. He was formerly a Demo- crat, but since 1892 has been identified with the Republican party. He is an honored Comrade in Billy Cruson Post, No. 347, Grand Army of Republic, and also associated with the Masonic fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Monitor Grange. Mr. Oakes is one of the substantial and au- thoritative farmers of his section of the coun- ty, its prosperity and continual advancement being due to such residents as he-men of practical abilities, industry, perseverance and progressive ideas.
T THOMAS HARRISON, who owns a fine farm of 100 acres of well improved land in Bethany township, Gratiot county, Michigan, was born in the County of Perth, Ontario, June 10, 1857, the eldest of the five children of John and Margaret (Lawson) Harrison, also natives of Canada.
John Harrison was born January 19, 1833, in Kitley township, County of Leeds, Ontario, son of Thomas and Eliza ( Hunter) Harrison. The elder Harrison was a farm- er by occupation, and John remained at home following the same vocation, until sixteen years of age. He was married April 17, 1853, to Miss Margaret Lawson, daughter of Andrew and Mary (Thompson) Law- son. She was born in Elmsley township, County of Leeds, Ontario, June 30, 1839, and to her and her husband were born five children : Thomas ; Walter, deceased ; Eliza
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J., of South Haven, Michigan, who married V. B. Ludwig; James H., deceased; and John A., deceased. In 1866 Mr. Harrison and his family migrated to Michigan, and lo- cated at St. Louis, Gratiot county, where he was variously engaged for some time. In the spring of 1869 he purchased eighty acres of land in the section of his present resi- dence, lived on it for two years, then removed to St. Louis, and afterward returned to the farm. When he first took up the land it was heavily timbered, but, through his en- ergetic labors, it has been cleared, put un- der cultivation, and furnished with good buildings. Mr. and Mrs. Harrison are val- ued and consistent members of the Congre- gational Church. They are very highly es- teemed in the township in which they have so long resided, and are accounted among Gratiot's representative citizens. Mr. Har- rison has held the office of township drain commissioner.
Thomas Harrison was but nine years old when he accompanied his parents to Gra- tiot county. For two years they lived in St. Louis and then settled in Bethany township, where they resided for many years before removing to Ludington, Michigan, their present place of residence. Thomas lived with his parents until his marriage, March 21, 1881, to Miss Angeline Quidort, a na- tive of Pennsylvania, the daughter of Peter and Louise (Pushaw) Quidort. To Mr. and Mrs. Harrison the following children have been born : Laura E., who died when thir- teen years of age; Harry L., who died in his twelfth year ; and Wright, living at home.
When Mr. Harrison settled on his own farm he bought forty acres of land, and has added to it from time to time until he now owns 100 acres, having seventy-five acres
cleared and improved. He has made agri- culture his life business, and under his excel- lent management his farm has become very productive. For four years Mr. Harrison held the office of township treasurer, and he was justice of the peace for the same length of time. He is an active member of the Union Silver party and has the best inter- ests of his section at heart. He has been prominently identified with religious work and belongs to the Congregational Church in his township. He shows his interest in matters agricultural by his membership in the Ancient Order of Gleaners.
C OL. LEMUEL SAVIERS, president of the Commercial Savings Bank, and one of the leading capitalists at St. Louis, Michigan, was born December 12, 1840, at Antrim, Guernsey county, Ohio, a son of Cyrus and Matilda (Dean) Saviers, and a descendant of Revolutionary stock and French ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Gen. John Saviers, accompanied General LaFayette to America during the Revolu- tionary war, and his services, like those of his distinguished leader, were of the greatest benefit to the struggling patriots.
Colonel Saviers was a child of four years when, in 1844, his parents settled at Te- cumseh, Michigan, where he attended school until the age of fourteen. He then com- pleted his apprenticeship to the carpenter's and millwright's trade, at which he was em- ployed until he was twenty years old.
At the outbreak of the Civil war he was a member of a local company, an independ- ent organization known as the Adrian Light Guards, and thus had had some military training. He therefore enlisted in Berdan's Sharpshooters, of which organization he was
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COL. LEMUEL SAVIERS
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afterward appointed first sergeant. On October 8, 1861, he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant, and by 1862 had won his commission of captain of the Twenty-sixth Infantry. On May 15, 1863, he was made major, and on March 30, 1864, lieutenant-colonel. On account of disability caused by serious wounds the gallant soldier was honorably discharged on September 27, 1864. He holds his title of colonel on ac- count of gallantry on the field of battle, and also is entitled to that of general because of service on the staff of Gov. C. M. Croswell, serving thereon as quartermaster-general from 1877 to 1881.
After returning home with all his mili- tary honors, Colonel Saviers realized that his early education did not qualify him for the duties of the career which he desired to fol- low, and he entered a large class of students at the Tecumseh high school, where he was graduated. He then spent a year teaching higher mathematics in that institution.
On December 25, 1866, in Tecumseh, Colonel Saviers married Miss Caroline M. Bills, daughter of Hon. Perley Bills, of that place, and they have one daughter, Alice, wife of W. G. West.
During 1866-67 Colonel Saviers acted as special agent in the United States mail ser- vice, and was then appointed postmaster at Tecumseh. In 1874 he resigned the office, on account of ill health, and subsequently re- moved to St. Louis, attracted thither by the justly celebrated remedial waters. In his case they proved all that was claimed for them and, restored to health, he soon entered into business, becoming identified with the greater number of the leading enterprises which have served to make St. Louis the important point it now is. Colonel Saviers
invested extensively in pine lands and en- gaged in the manufacture of lumber. In 1874, he organized the Merchants' and Farmers' Bank, which later became Har- rington, Saviers & Co. In 1892 this became a State institution, reorganized under the title of the Commercial Savings Bank. Col- onel Saviers has been its president since its reorganization and still manages its affairs. He is also interested in the L. Saviers & Co. bank at Harrison, Michigan.
In addition to his large banking interests Colonel Saviers owns farming lands and has has been one of the most active citizens in promoting the city's material prosperity along the line of modern improvements. In 1888, with other capitalists, he built the plant of the electric light and power company at St. Louis, and still later purchased the entire stock and capably managed the enter- prise until 1899, when he sold the plant to the city.
Politically Colonel Saviers is a Republi- can, fraternally he is an Odd Fellow, and generally a man of bravery, determination, executive ability and broad financial exper- ience, which would make him a leader in any community.
C® HARLES A. BUTTON, postmaster at Sumner, Gratiot county, Michi- gan, has for a number of years been promi- nent in business and political circles of that place. He was born in Bloomfield town- ship, Oakland county, May 5. 1842, son of Leonard E. and Olivia (Case) Button, both of whom died in Oakland county. They had seven children, and of this family our subject was fourth in the order of birth.
Charles A. Button was reared and edu- cated in the village of Milford, Oakland
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county. In September, 1861, Mr. Button enlisted in Company A, First United States Lancers, in which he served seven months, the regiment at the end of this time dis- banding, and in September, 1862, he re-en- listed in Company D, Fourth Michigan Cav- alry, in which he served until the close of the war. At the battle of Noonday Creek he was slightly wounded. Mr. Button has an excellent war record, and is justly held in esteem by those who recall with gratitude those who so willingly offered their lives to their country in the perilous times of 1861.
After the war Mr. Button returned to Michigan, locating in Livingston county, where he engaged in lumber milling, and also followed that line in Ingham county for sev- en years. He then drove a stage between Pinckney and Dexter for four years, at the end of this time locating in Hubbardston, Ionia county, where he operated a hotel for three years. He then located in Gratiot county, in the spring of 1881, and for three years operated a hotel at Elm Hall. He was the proprietor of a hotel at Vestaburg, Mont- calm county, in March, 1889, locating in Sumner, where he has since remained. Mr. Button was appointed postmaster in Presi- dent Harrison's administration, and he has held that office to the present time, with the exception of four years. He was also justice of the peace of Sumner for fourteen years, and for one year was township clerk of Sum- ner township. Mr. Button has always been a stanch Republican, and is an ardent ad- vocate of his party's principles in this sec- tion. He is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity, and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and also belongs to Charles Sumner Post No. 329, Grand Army of the Republic.
Mr. Button was (first) married at Leroy, Ingham county, December 24, 1865, to Miss Lucy Rubert, born in Wall Lake, Oakland county, and to this marriage four children were born: Amos A .; Rose A., who married J. H. McGreanor ; Lucy, the wife of Charles Ferris, and Adella, who died in infancy. Mrs. Lucy Button died in Sumner, De- cember 14, 1900, and Mr. Button was mar- ried (second) to Mrs. Christian Miller, a native of Canada, the ceremony taking place at St. Louis, Michigan, October 20, 1901.
H JENRY B. GULICK is well-known among the leading agriculturists of Bethany township, Gratiot county, where he owns and operates a sixty-acre farm, also owning land in Midland county. He was born October 12, 1860, in Hillsdale county, Michigan, son of the late Dr. Thomas J. and Mary (Barber) Gulick, who came to Gratiot county in 1873, and settled in La- fayette township, where they died, she in her fifty-eighth year, November 18, 1890, and he on March II, 1892, when seventy-two years old.
Thomas J. Gulick, the father of our sub- ject, was born in Daviess county, Indiana, September 4, 1820. Until twenty-four years. of age he worked hard on his father's farm, and his education was consequently very limited. He had three uncles who were phy- sicians, one of whom, Hon. Jehiel H. Hal- sey, an ex-Congressman from New York, rendered Mr. Gulick assistance by good ad- vice and pecuniary loans. On leaving home- he went to Bradford county, Pennsylvania, where he was principally engaged in agri- cultural pursuits for two years. The next eight years he passed in Seneca county. New York, and came to Hillsdale county in Feb --
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ruary, 1854, and there followed farming un- til 1867, when he went to Iowa. He re- turned to Hillsdale county, and remained there until 1874, and then located in Gra- tiot county, where the rest of his life was spent. He married (first) in 1844, Phoebe Jane Pollard, and they had two children. Mr. Gulick's second marriage was to Mary E. Barber, a native of New York, and four children were born to this union : Henry B., Rachel E., Thomas J. and George N. Dr. Gulick was a Jacksonian Democrat, and he served as health commissioner for three years and as State road commissioner one year. He was a member of the Masonic Order. For fifteen years he was an efficient minister of the Gospel, though he at the same time fol- lowed other occupations as a means of live- lihood. Dr. Gulick was a self made man, close application winning him success.
Henry B. Gulick came to Gratiot county with his parents and lived at home until he was married, when he settled on a farm in Lafayette township, on Section 27. Here he lived about two years, when he traded his farm and moved to Tennessee, carrying on farming there for about three years, at the end of which time he returned to Gratiot county and settled on his farm in Bethany township, where he has since been a resident. His sixty-acre farm is well improved and he also owns a tract in Midland county, which is under the plow. Most of his attention is given to fruit growing and horticulture, and he has been very successful in these lines.
Mr. Gulick was married August 28, 1879, in Lafayette township, to Anna D. Moye, born in St. Clair county, Michigan, daughter of Albert and Louise Moye, and to this union have been born these children : Mary L., the wife of Adelbert Foster ;
Henrietta and Annetta, twins, who are both school teachers; Albert H .; Charles and Ar- thur. Mr. and Mrs. Gulick are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Gulick is a thrifty, industrious and self-re- liant man, who thoroughly understands the science of farming. He is also a most high- ly respected citizen and enjoys the good will of all who know him. Fraternally he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.
JOHN B. ROWELL, who is widely known in Gratiot county as an auc- tioneer, owns and operates 160 acres in Sec- tion I, Hamilton township. He was born in Lysander township, Onondaga county, New York, October 12, 1852, son of Major E. and Betsey A. (Tator) Rowell, natives of New York, the latter of whom is deceased. The mother died in December, 1895, aged sixty-four, while the father (born in Janu- ary, 1835) still resides in Onondaga county, New York. Besides John B., the other chil- dren were Eli D. and Joel E.
John B. Rowell is the eldest of the family and was reared on his father's farm, upon which he remained until he was twenty years old. He was married December 1, 1872, in Onondaga county, New York, to Miss Helen Betts, a native of that county, and two chil- dren were born to this union : Pearl A., the wife of Harold Mikesell, of Boston, Massa- chusetts, and mother of one daughter, Fran- ces ; and Frances, at home. Mr. Rowell con- tinued to reside in New York until 1880, when he migrated to Michigan and located in Gratiot county, settling on Section 35, Lafayette township, where he worked one year. He then returned to New York for two years, at the end of which time he again
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came to Michigan, this time settling in Ith- aca, where he engaged in the hotel business for about three years, operating what is now the "Imperial Hotel." He also engaged in a similar line at Alma, operating for one year the "Arcada Hotel." One year there- after Mr. Rowell engaged in lumbering in Wexford county, and in December, 1902, purchased a farm in Hamilton township, Gratiot county, which he sold before going to California, where at San Pedro he was engaged in the grocery business for about one year. He then returned to Gratiot coun- ty, and in March, 1904, settled in Hamilton township, Section 2, purchasing forty acres, which he operated for one year, trading it in the purchase of his present farm of 160 acres.
Mr. Rowell's second marriage occurred in Gratiot county, to Miss Agnes Derry, a native of Michigan, and to their union three children were born : Grace, Basil and Rex.
Mr. Rowell began auctioneering soon af- ter coming to Gratiot county, has followed that business, irregularly, ever since, and is well and favorably known in the line men- tioned. He has held the office of township treasurer of Hamilton township, and has been justice of the peace since April, 1904. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons, Edgemont Lodge, No. 257, and the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, belonging to the lodge and to Ithaca Camp. He is also a member of the K. O. T. M. M.
T IMOTHY D. ACKLES (deceased), one of the highly respected pioneers of North Star township, Gratiot county, was born in Onondaga county, New York, Au- gust 13, 1835, son of Terttules and Charlotte (Doolittle) Ackles, natives of the same
State. He was the youngest of twelve chil- dren, all except the following dying in early infancy : Othenial; Charles; Moses; John died at the age of two years ; Sarah married Andrew Newell; Mary became Mrs. George Stephens; Elizabeth was the wife of Leon- ard Robinson ; Hannah became Mrs. Joseph Wright; and Timothy D. The father died when Timothy D. was about two years old. The mother, who accompanied her son from York State and made their home in the for- est, with only three families as "neighbors" for miles around, survived her husband for nearly forty years, her death occurring Jan- uary 31, 1875, at the age of seventy-nine.
Mr. Ackles remained at home with his mother, attending the district schools in the winter and assisting in the support of the family during the summer. When he was nineteen years old he determined upon an independent venture. With foresight beyond his years, he perceived that the State of Michigan was the locality in which he was mostly likely to succeed, and which offered favorable opportunities for young men of perseverance and energy. Both of these qualities the youth possessed in great abund- ance. Resolved to win, he arrived in Clin- ton county in the spring of 1854, and in the fall of that year became a resident of Gra- tiot county, settling in what is now North Star township, afterward assisting in its organization. All the hardships and trials of the pioneer were experienced by him, but in the end he was successful, and at the time of his death was the owner of a fine tract of 375 acres of land in North Star.
Toward the latter period of the Civil war Mr. Ackles was engaged in Canada in buy- ing horses for the United States government and while thus employed in County Essex,
TIMOTHY D. ACKLES.
Abigail Ackles
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Ontario, met his future wife. On August 20, 1865, he married the lady-Miss Abigail Fox-born in the county named, September 7, 1845, the youngest of the three children born to Jacob and Elizabeth ( McLean) Fox. Her brothers, George and Peter, are both farmers of County Essex. Her family is of Dutch and Irish extraction, and both parents were members of the Church of England. They were married in County Es- sex, where Jacob Fox prospered as a farmer for many years, dying on July 19, 1869, at the age of seventy-nine. His wife, the mother of Mrs. Ackles, lived to the advanced age of ninety years, the date of her death being June 9, 1895. Jacob Fox had been twice married, his first wife, a Miss Wigle, of County Essex, dying in 1825, at the age of thirty-five, mother of the following : Julia Ann, deceased, Mrs. John Snyder; John I. and Jacob (deceased), residents of County Essex; Susan, Mrs. George McLean, of the county named; Sarah, Mrs. John Arner, living in the same county; Ann, deceased, Mrs. George Noble; and William, also a resident of County Essex. That the father attained to an unusual degree of prosperity may be safely inferred in that he reared all the children spared to him to maturity, and that to all of his sons and one daughter, Ann, he presented farms of one hundred acres each, still retaining at the time of his death a fine homestead of 360 acres.
Mr. and Mrs. Ackles were the parents of four children: Terttules J., who died when eight years old; George Timothy, de- ceased at the age of three months and six days; Floyd J., who died when three years and eleven months old; and Charlotte, who married Charles Moon, a promising citizen of the township, now operating the family
farm; they have one son, William Timothy, born November 15, 1905-the only grand- child of Mr. and Mrs. Timothy D. Ackles.
Mr. Ackles was an honest, earnest, indus- trious and unassuming man, representative of the yeoman element which is an assurance of the continuous prosperity of the township and the county. He was an active Repub- lican, and creditably performed the duties of several township and school officers. He also held membership in the Masonic frater- nity. He was, moreover, a man of Chris- tian character, reared as was his mother in the Baptist faith, but later attending the Presbyterian Church and being a supporter of not only all the religious organizations of his community, but of charitable and benevo- lent works in general.
Mrs. Ackles, widow of the deceased, is an active, well-preserved lady, lively in con- versation and of pleasant manners, and, as stated, is residing with her daughter and son-in-law upon the attractive family home- stead in North Star township. She is iden- tified with the Baptist Church, and is most highly esteemed for her many estimable qualities and her Christian character.
JOHN W. KERNEN, supervisor of Ithaca township, Gratiot county, is well and favorably known in that locality, where he is successfully engaged in the agricultural implement business. He was born in Char- lotte, Michigan, July 24, 1863, son of Ru- dolph and Margaret (Thoenen) Kernen, natives of Switzerland.
The parents of John W. Kernen emi- grated to America in August, 1850, and first settled in Batavia, New York, where they lived for some six years, later coming to Mount Clemens, Michigan, and two years.
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later coming to Charlotte, Michigan, where they lived until 1872. In this latter year they located in Gratiot county, and settled in Arcada township, where they spent eigh- teen years, at the end of which time they settled in Ithaca township, where they have since resided. Rudolph Kernen was a shoe- maker by trade, but has followed agricul- tural pursuits chiefly since coming to this country.
John W. Kernen was the eighth member of a family of twelve children, and came with his parents to Gratiot county in 1872, and has been a resident of this county ever since with the exception of two years, when he resided in Lansing, Michigan, engaged in the ice business. He was educated in the common schools of his district. When he started out in life for himself he engaged in the dray business in Alma, Michigan, but only continued in this line one year, engag- ing in farming in Pine River township for two years, and then engaged for two years in the ice business at Lansing, Michigan. He returned to Pine River township and farmed one year, and in August, 1893, located in Ithaca, where he engaged with his brother Frank in the ice business, in connection with his dray business, and in this they continued for nine years. In December, 1903, they sold this interest and embarked in the agri- cultural implement business, the firm trad- ing under the name of Kernen Brothers. John W. Kernen also operates the cold storage plant as agent for the Grand Rapids Brewing Company, and has operated the street sprink- ler since 1894.
In 1904 Mr. Kernen was elected super- visor of Ithaca township and he has been chief of the fire department since 1902. He
is a member of Ithaca Lodge, No. 123, Free and Accepted Masons, and of the Modern Woodmen of America, Ithaca Camp, No. 4713. He has been a member of the Village Council for seven years.
Mr. Kernen was married in Alma, Mich- igan, December 31, 1886, to Miss Sevila A. Boyer, a native of Gratiot county, daughter of George and Ella Boyer, the former of whom died in Alma February 22, 1887. Mr. and Mrs. Kernen have had these children : Rolla B .; Ruby M .; and Eddie, who died aged sixteen months.
C A. CRANE, M. D., a successful prac- titioner of medicine and surgery, and a most valued citizen of North Star, North Star township, Gratiot county, was born September 12, 1865, in County Elgin, On- tario, son of Anthony and Mary (McVicar) Crane, the former of whom was a farmer of Ontario, who died in 1898, at the age of eighty-six years, and the latter of whom was a native of Ontario, who died in County El- gin, in 1870, when upwards of forty years of age.
Dr. Crane was the sixth member of a family of seven children. He received a good education in County Elgin, in the high school at St. Thomas and the Detroit Col- lege of Medicine, from which latter institu- tion he was graduated with the class of 1891. He practiced for a time in Detroit, and then located in North Star, where he remained one year. He then removed to Harriette, Wexford county, Michigan, where he re- mained for four years, and in 1897 returned to North Star, where he has since remained, successfully engaged in the practice of his profession. His practice has grown encour-
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