USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Chronography of notable events in the history of the Northwest territory and Wayne County > Part 15
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As a lawyer Mr. McClellan was terse and pointed in argument, candid and forcible in his addresses to juries, with whom he carried great weight. In his political addresses to the people he was especially happy as well as forcible. In private life a genial companion, and an earnest, faithful friend. His whole record as a public officer, a private citizen, and his domestic life is a good one, worthy of imitation, com- plimentary to himself, alike creditable to his native and adopted State.
In 1837, Mr. McClellan married Miss Sarah E. Sabine, of Williams- town, Mass. They had six children, two of whom survive him, Mrs. George N. Brady and Mrs. Benjamin D. Green, who, with his widow, mourn his loss. His death occurred August 30, 1880.
CHARLES MERRILL.
Charles Merrill, distinguished for his uprightness of character and business enterprise, as well as for his industry and perseverence, was the son of General James Merrill, of Falmouth, Maine, was brought up on a farm, and improved his time when the labors of the farm per- mitted, in acquiring a knowledge of books and the advantages which the schools of his native town afforded.
On reaching his majority he left the farm, and engaged in trade with his brother and a Mr. Scott at Portland, Maine, the firm name being "S. & C. Merrill & Co." Their business proved unsuccessful. He removed to the State of Virginia, and taking a contract to build a railroad out of Petersburg, was able to make enough money to pay his mercantile obligations at Portland. Soon after returning to Portland he took a contract to build a military road from Lincoln to Holton, which brought him profits enough to enable him to purchase lands in Maine, the sales of a portion realizing for him a moderate fortune. In 1836 he came to Michigan in company with ex-Governor Coburn, and entered large tracts of land in the vicinity of Port Huron and returned to Portland. In 1837 came the financial crash, and his partners in the Maine lands still unsold, becoming demoralized, proposed to quit-claim to him provided he would assume all the liens upon them. Mr. Merrill accepted the proposal, fulfilled the conditions, and thus became the owner of large tracts of land in that State. He then engaged in lum- bering in Maine and Michigan, and in 1848 took up his permanent residence in Michigan, made more extensive purchases of pine lands in
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various parts of the State, and built mills at Saginaw and Muskegon, and continued the lumbering business up to the period of his death. In 1858, he built the block on the corner of Jefferson and Woodward avenues, known as the "Merrill Block," one of the finest in the city of Detroit.
In religious belief, Mr. Merrill was Unitarian ; in politics, an old Whig, during its existence; and at the organization of the Republican party, united with it. He, however, never sought political prominence, but was zealous in promoting the success of his party. He was generous, and the demands of distress, physical or financial, appealed to his sympathies and received practical relief. He was one of the founders of the Unitarian Society organized in Detroit in 1850, and gave liberally towards the erection of its church edifice, which was dedicated in 1852.
While Mr. Merrill was successful in business and left a vast fortune, he was not grasping or parsimonious, and in many of his ventures he was known to furnish capital for his associates.
Mr. Merrill was born in Falmouth, Maine, January 3, 1792. In 1836 he married Miss Frances Pitts, daughter of Major Thomas Pitts, of Cambridgeport, Mass. She died in 1870, two years before the death of Mr. Merrill, which occurred December 28, 1872. One daughter, Mrs. Thomas W. Palmer, of Detroit, survives.
N. B. ROWLEY.
N. B. Rowley, long and well known in Detroit as a manufacturer of locks, bells, tools and other implements for the house and shop, was born in the town of Ogden, Monroe county, N. Y., November 17, 1813. After acquiring a common school education, at the age of eighteen years, he determined to go west, and cutting loose from boyhood asso- ciations, came to Michigan, landing at Detroit in the fall of 1831. From Detroit he proceeded to the town of Ypsilanti, where he married Miss Eudette L. Miller, in 1836. She was a native of Geneva, Genesee county, N. Y. She died February 22, 1890, leaving her husband and two children to survive her, Mr. M. N. Rowley, of Detroit, and Mrs. Mary Caroline Ney, of Indianapolis.
Mr. Rowley has ever been an ardent and active supporter of Republican institutions, and has ever taken pride in maintaining the dignity and interests of his adopted State. At the call for volunteers by Governor Porter, in 1832, during the Black Hawk War, so called, he was one of the first to respond. In 1835, when Governor Mason decided that a resort to arms could only settle and maintain the honor of Michigan, in her contest over the line between it and Ohio, he tendered his services, and again when war was declared with Mexico,
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he volunteered and accompanied General A. S. Williams through the entire continuance of the war. It is to such men that we owe the preservation of those principles which actuated the fathers of American liberties, to peril life, property and family to defend and perpetuate them. During the recent civil war, age only prevented him from enter- ing the army in defence of the Union, nevertheless he contributed time and means without stint, and in this way demonstrated his devotion to the Constitutional Government of his country. Mr. Rowley, although an ardent Republican, has never been ambitious for political emoluments, has never sought or held a public office. He is the honored secretary of the State Association of Veterans of the Mexican War, of which Gen. Andrew T. McReynolds, is President, and is active in his efforts to preserve the reminiscences of that war. Among the business men of Detroit his integrity is unquestioned, and he enjoys the confidence and respect of all who know him. His recent affliction by the death of his wife was a severe blow, and has broken up those pleasant domestic relations which he has always loved, and which were a source of joy and comfort to him in the journey of life.
HIRAM MILLARD.
Hiram Millard was born in Wayne county, N. Y., in 1825, came to Michigan in 1835 and engaged in farming and cleared up two farms. He recently retired from farming and has taken up a permanent residence in Detroit. Mr. Millard bears upon his face the impress of an energetic, firm but kind-hearted man, and one possessing integrity and strong sense of personal responsibility.
GEORGE MOREHOUSE.
George Morehouse was born in the State of New York, and came to Detroit with his parents in 1835. In his early life he worked on a farm with his father, between Wayne and Dearborn. He then learned the carpenter's trade, came to Detroit, and for a number of years was a member of a firm of builders known as Morehouse, Mitchell & Co., and did a large and profitable business. He has now retired from active business.
ZACHARIAH CHANDLER.
Zachariah Chandler, late United States Senator, was born in Bedford, New Hampshire, December 10th, 1813. He received his education at the schools and the academy of his native town, and in
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1833 moved to Detroit and engaged in the dry goods trade, which proved successful and led the way to the accumulation of a large fortune.
Mr. Chandler was a bold and enterprising man in whatever under- taking he engaged. He entertained no thought of failure. His plans were well considered and digested in advance. His judgment of men was remarkable, and that, undoubtedly, was one reason why he seldom failed in realizing the success of his plans. Had Mr. Chandler chosen the army he would have made himself as distinguished a name in military annals as that gained in the conduct of civil affairs. His rare executive ability, power of combination, and fearlessness would have placed him in the front rank of the generals of the age.
In 1851 Mr. Chandler was elected mayor of Detroit. In 1852 he was the nominee of the Whig party for Governor of Michigan and, though defeated, ran far ahead of his ticket. In January, 1857, he was elected to succeed General Cass in the United States Senate. He was re-elected in 1863, and again in 1869. In 1875 he was defeated by Judge Christiancy, but on the resignation of the latter in 1877 was elected by the legislature to serve out the remainder of Judge Christiancy's term, but unfortunately died before the term had expired. . Prior to his last election as Senator, he held the position of Secretary of the Interior, under President Grant, which he held until the inauguration of President Hayes.
The public life of Mr. Chandler was one of eminent service to the people and the government during the recent war of the rebellion. He never questioned the result, and when, at times, the government and people were depressed, he was full of hope and courage. While in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Commerce and the working member of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. Mr. Chandler's most noted speech in the United States Senate was delivered July 16th, 1862, on "The Conduct of the War," the effect of which hastened the transfer of Grant from the west to take command of the army of the Potomac, although Hooker, Burnside and Meade had respectively been in command of it during the interim.
Mr. Chandler died at Chicago November Ist, 1879, leaving a widow and one daughter, Mrs. Hale, wife of Senator Hale of Maine.
FUDGE HENRY CHIPMAN.
Among the first writers upon the laws which are adapted to the form of the Republican Government was Judge Henry Chipman, the subject of this sketch. He was born July 25, 1784, in Tinmouth, Rut- land county, Vermont, and was the son of Nathaniel Chipman, United
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States Judge and Senator from Vermont. It was the good fortune of Mr. Chipman that opportunities were afforded him to acquire a classical education. After a preliminary course he entered Middlebury college, from which he graduated in 1803, before reaching his majority. It was a sad reflection for him that he was the last member of his class who survived to attend the commencement exercises of that institution in 1866, on which occasion the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him. On his graduation, the close application given his studies, had so impaired his health as to make recreation and rest as well as a change of climate necessary, he therefore made a journey to Jamaica, West Indies, where he remained four years. On returning to the U. S. he settled at Charleston, South Carolina, where he formed the acquaint- ance of such leading men of that period as Huger, Pettigrew, and others of note in that city. The friendships formed then continued during the lives of each. From Charleston Mr. Chipman removed to the town of Walterborough, South Carolina, where he formed the acquaintance of and married Miss Martha Mary Logan. She was the daughter of John Logan, a wealthy planter, and a revolutionary soldier, and was a woman remarkable for energy, personal dignity of manner, intellectual acquirements, and a moral superiority which made her respected and influential. She was benevolent, of generous sympathies and strong attachments, and was versed and well read in all the public, political, and literary topics of the day, hence was a ready writer and a brilliant conversationalist. She was a kind and indulgent parent, win- ning the love and respect of her children. She died at a good old age in possession of all her faculties, beloved and lamented by a large circle of friends and acquaintances. The first visit of Mr. Chipman to Michigan was in 1823. Detroit had then a population of about 1,500. Its business, however, was large, being the center of a large trade in the furs of the Northwest. So well pleased was Mr. Chipman with the present and prospective of Detroit, that he decided to make it his per- manent residence, and in 1824 brought on his family. Soon after his arrival he associated with Mr. Seymour in the conduct of the "Morning Herald," then the most popular journal in the West. This he gave up on being appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Wayne County. In 1827, on the death of Judge John Hunt, he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Territorial Court, to fill the vacancy, and on the expiration of the term was re-appointed by President Adams. His colleagues on the bench were Solomon Sibley and William Woodbridge. At the close of his judicial term he devoted himself to his private practice, and and in writing for the press. On the organization of the Whig Party, he united with it and remained a Whig until the formation of the Republican party in 1854, thereafter acting with the Democratic party, or the Bell and Everett branch, and was one of the few in Michigan who cast their votes for these candidates.
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Judge Chipman was not a fluent speaker, but wrote with great ease, and with great accuracy. It is said that his papers would stand the most profound and rigid criticism .* "Laws of the United States" obtained for him an extended reputation as a jurist. This work, enriched with annotations and treatises, was regarded and used as a text book by the legal fraternity throughout the whole country. Judge Chipman became identified with the Episcopal church at an early day, and was a trustee and member of the vestry of St. Paul's, and was also a trustee of the Mariner's church, and was the promoter of its organization.
Judge Chipman had nine children, three of whom died in child- hood. His eldest son, Henry Logan Chipman, became a lieutenant in the navy, and died at the age of 32. Judge John Logan, the only living son, now on his second term as a Member of Congress, seems to have inherited the logical and judicial qualities of his father, and the fluency of expression from his mother. Physically he resembles the former, but in manner possesses the magnetism of the latter. J. Logan Chipman was born in Detroit June 5th, 1830. Receiving his prelimin- ary education at the schools of Detroit, he completed his classical and legal studies at the University of Michigan. In 1846 he explored the Lake Superior region in the interests of the Montreal Mining Com- pany. In 1854 was admitted to the bar, the same year he aided in the payment of the Chippewa Indians of Lake Superior, and participated in making the treaty of Detroit with the Ottawas and Chippewas of Michigan. In 1856 was elected City Attorney of Detroit, which posi- tion he held until 1861. Was a Member of the Michigan State Legis- lature in 1863. In 1865 was appointed Attorney of the Police Board of Detroit, which position he held until elected Judge of the Superior Court of Detroit, in 1879, to which he was re-elected at the end of six years, and continued to hold the same until elected to the Fiftieth Congress. At the end of his first term as Member of Congress he was re-elected, and is now serving on his second.
The daughters of Judge Henry Chipman inherited the qualities of their parents, and are refined, intellectual and charitable. They are held in high respect for their intelligent and cultivated manners, and for their kindly deeds and acts.
Judge Henry Chipman was of medium height, of well proportioned frame, his carriage was dignified, his manner courteous, but not full- some. He was not opinionated, but could maintain his opinion when occasion demanded with much force and enthusiasm. His eyes were
* The Judge was the descendant of a long line of lawyers and of a stock which (on the maternal side) came with the Pilgrims, the paternal following a few ships afterwards. His father was a revolutionary officer, and he, not the Judge, wrote " The Principles of Government." Judge Daniel Chipman, of "Chipman's Reports " and author of the works on " Contracts," was the Judge's uncle.
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light blue, and his countenance full of benevolence and expression, indi- cating a kind heart and generous disposition. Judge Chipman main- tained his vigor of intellect up to the close of life, and was an observer of current events at that period as in his earlier days. He died October, IS68.
John Logan Chipman, is a native of this County, in fact one of its products, and as such we take pride in exhibiting, as a specimen of his powers, the following extract from his eulogy, delivered in Con- gress April 19, 1890, on the late S. S. Cox, Member of Congress from New York, as (in our judgment) for eloquence, pathos and logic, it will compare and rank with the efforts of the most distinguished orators of ancient or modern times :
" It is difficult to speak on an occasion of this kind with the sober propriety which is respectful to ourselves, and to the dead. Eulogy is often but a tribute to ourselves. To love virtue is near akin to being virtuous. To comprehend great actions is an approach to greatness. So we place our wreath upon a tomb and think them more beautiful because they are ours. Yet, on this solemn occasion, in this great house of the people, I believe there is here to-day mourning and rever- ence for the worth and genius which only yesterday were our delight and pride. The career which has closed was not all sunshine. In many years of political strife there were storms as well as calms. Feeling often ran riot and there were those who could not conceive that they would be mourners here to-day : for in this man who has left us was an earnest, brave man. He clung to his faith in defeat as well as in victory. He lived his older years in the tempest of the Republic's history. He acted with strong men, bold men, great men, and struggled with the giants. He smote, and was smitten, but in the fierce contest his courage was serene and high, his patriotism incorruptible, and his abilities up to the standard of the exigencies of the times.
" This is saying a great deal of any man, but it is only saying that he bore himself nobly in a goodly company of the honored sons of his country. No doubt some of his contemporaries in those troublous days were impatient with him. We are all prone to be impatient with those we can neither bend nor break. That is human meanness, and fortunate is the man who discovers that it is meanness, and rises to higher planes of judgment. We all saw that this man had weaknesses and faults, but now that he is gone we see that he was our brother after all, and that he was wise and gifted beyond most of us. His faults only evinced his kinship to us. We see this clearly now, for it is the blessed power of death to give a better vision to the living, and lend to their gaze all the tenderness of the heart ; all the greatness of the soul. I hope, then, that I may be permitted by the members of this body to credit him with sincerity as a Democrat. He never
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faltered in that. He never counted the cost in that. It was his fortune to be opposed to a strong majority during a national convulsion, not opposed to the prosecution of the war for the Union, but to construc- tions of the Constitution, which he regarded as dangerous to liberty, and to a use of victory, which he felt to be unpatriotic. His sentiments were not always popular, but he did not shrink. He faced storms few men would have dared to face, and he and the great Pennsylvanian, whose sunset lingers in the tender glow of a people's love and the glory of his great achievements, asserted the principles of the Constitu- tion and advocated a wise statesmanship. I repeat it. He did not count the cost, when other men fled their party and sought refuge under the shadow of power. He knew whither they fled. The path to posi- tion and fortune was well beaten, but when the rebellion ended he thought good feeling should prevail, that the Union should be relaid in constitutional freedom and in the affection of restored brotherhood. For this I honor him. It was the highest loyalty. He was right. No doctrine of internecine hate can elevate the power or swell the pros- perity of the nation. We are one family-north, south, east, west- children of one mother. All our great policies prove that. Even our tariff differences cluster around the'necessity to seek each other's good. In his love for the Union and his hatred of rebellion, I sympathize with him; in his indomitable faith that the passions of war ought not to be terror-striking ghosts, haunting the blessings of peace, I reverence him."
COL. ABRAHAM CALEB TRUAX.
"The brave man is not he who feels no fear, But he whose noble soul-it fear subdues!"-Balie.
"A brave man bears no malice, but forgets At once in peace the injuries of war."-Cowper.
The foregoing quotations express the characteristics of one of the earliest of Michigan pioneers.
Colonel Abraham Caleb Truax was born at Schenectady, New York, in 1778. He was a cousin of Stephen Van Rensselaer, known as "the Patroon," of Albany, or Rensselaerwick, whose possessions, forty-eight miles long and twenty-four miles wide, extended over three counties.
Col. Truax, when a very small boy, was left to the care of an uncle, and while yet in his early "teens" he left the house of his uncle and made his way to Detroit (by the way of Canada), arriving there about the year 1800.
He engaged in whatever he could find to do, accumulated some means, and when war was declared between England and the United
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States he volunteered in Hull's army. When Detroit was surrendered by General Hull and his army was drawn up in line to be turned over to the British and sent to Canada as prisoners of war, Col. Truax con- cluded he would not go to Canada, and turning to Ben. Chittenden, who stood next to him in the ranks, he requested him to hold his gun, whereupon he stepped boldly out of the ranks and, passing both British and American sentries, he made his way to the fort where he saw General Hull (whom he felt like shooting) sitting on some bags. Having secured a small trunk he had there, he took to the woods, and after encountering many adventures he reached Schenectady, where he remained until peace was declared, when he returned to Detroit and resumed the mercantile business which the war had broken up.
On May 30, 1809, he purchased of Elijah Brush, for $300, a strip of ground on Jefferson avenue, between Wayne and Shelby streets, where the new part of the Michigan Exchange and the store next to it on the west now stand. About 1813 he erected on said ground a store which for those days was one of the best in Detroit, and for many years was known as the Truax building. May 11, 1815, he sold the same to James May for $2,900.
Soon after, and much to the regret of Gen. Cass, who had a very strong regard for Col. Truax, and who always commended him for his enterprise and energy, he decided to move from Detroit. Accordingly, about 1817, he fixed upon and located at a place below Detroit, which, in 1834, he laid out and platted, as the village of Truaxton, now Trenton, Wayne county. Col. Truax held many honorable positions under the territorial government. There is held by his daughter, Mrs. Giles B. Slocum, a captain's commission given him by Gen. Cass, another making him supervisor and commissioner of roads in 1820. She has also in her possession the commission of postmaster given him by Postmaster General John McLean in 1828; also a commission given him by Gen. Cass as justice of the peace in 1830, and one for the same office, dated 1833, signed by Governor Porter, and one as colonel, signed by Governor Stevens T. Mason in 1838. These documents, as relics of the early days, are very inter- esting. Accompanying them are many other memorials of well known residents of the territory of Michigan.
In 1818 Col. Truax married Lucy M. Brigham, of Hanover, New Hampshire. She died, beloved by her family and friends, at Trenton, Wayne county, Michigan, in 1837.
They had four children. Two only reached adult age, and at present Mrs. Giles B. Slocum is the only surviving child, George B. Truax having died at Detroit in 1869, after a successful business life. Hon. Elliott T. Slocum, of Detroit, is his grandson. Col. Truax was
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loved and respected by his neighbors at Trenton, and by the business men of Detroit, who knew him well, and by whom he was considered a man of unqualified integrity and energy.
He met his death by the explosion of the Steamer Vance on the Detroit River in 1844. His remains lie in Woodmere Cemetery.
GILES BRYAN SLOCUM.
" Care sat on his faded cheek, But under brows of dauntless courage."
He possessed industry, penetration, courage, vigilance and enter- prise. Such was the man Giles Bryan Slocum, born at Saratoga Springs, New York, July IIth, ISOS. He was of Rhode Island Quaker antecedents, his grandfather, Giles Slocum, having been born in that State and moved at an early date to Pennsylvania. He was one of the sixty who escaped at the Wyoming massacre in 1778. His sister, Frances, then five years of age, was carried off by the Indians, and sixty years after was found by Col. Ewing near Logansport, Indiana (see Lossing's History). Giles Slocum was a volunteer in General Sullivan's expedition against the Indians of Genessee Valley. At the close of the Revolutionary War he removed from Pennsyl- vania to New York and settled about four miles from the present site of Saratoga Springs. He purchased his farm of General Schuyler, of revolutionary fame. Jonathan Slocum, the father of Giles and great grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was killed by the Indians on the present site of the city of Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania. Jeremiah Slocum, the father of Giles B. Slocum, and Betty Bryan Slocum, were his parents. Thus descended from active participants in the struggle for American independence, it is not strange that he should exhibit those traits of courage, enterprise and fearless integrity which char- acterized his subsequent life. Mr. Giles B. Slocum had, in early life, the advantages afforded by the common schools, and taught school himself. In 1830 he farmed on the Au Sable River in northern New York, and came west in 1831, landing at Detroit. After prospecting in the interior for a time, about Black River, he settled for the winter on the Maumee, and assisted in laying out Vistula, now Toledo. His father dying in 1832 he returned east and bought out the interests of the other heirs to his father's estate. The following, as illustrating a historical reminiscence of the times, is here introduced :
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