USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Chronography of notable events in the history of the Northwest territory and Wayne County > Part 18
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HENRY A. WIGHT.
Mr. Henry A. Wight was the son of Buckminster Wight, and was born at Stourbridge, Mass., October 28, IS21. He came with his father and mother to Detroit, March 22, 1832. On reaching manhood, he became associated with his father and his brother Stanley in the manufacture of lumber. He married November 21, 1854, Miss Sarah Davenport, daughter of Louis and Sarah Davenport, of Detroit. She was born in Detroit, September 18th, 1834. He died at his residence on Jefferson avenue, February 2nd, 1880, leaving a wife and three children.
He left to his family and a large circle of friends, an excellent reputation, as to business capacity and integrity, a kind husband, an affectionate father, and a warm hearted and genial friend.
In 1842 he went to Boston, and was engaged with his uncle, Lathrop Wight, in the wholesale grocery business. Returning to Detroit in 1847, he engaged with his brother in the lumber business.
MAJOR EDWIN B. WIGHT.
Major Edwin B. Wight, was mustered into the service of the United States as captain in the 24th infantry, July 26, 1862, was pro- moted a major June Ist, 1863. Wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, Pa., July Ist, 1863, and honorably discharged November 17, 1863, being disabled on account of his wounds from further service.
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He is the son of Buckminster Wight, and Sarah (Marsh) Wight, and was born in Detroit, September 2, 1837.
He made a good record as a soldier, and bears an enviable reputa- tion as a citizen. He is a graduate of Michigan University and of Howard Law School. He married Miss Mary Otis, 26th January, 1876, daughter of W. H. C. Otis and Laura (Lyman) Otis, of Cleve- land, O., who was born June 14, 1847. Since the death of his father and mother Major Wight has permanently resided in Cleveland. They have one son, Otis Buckminster, born May 28, 1877.
J. M. HOWARD.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall be duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by appropriate legislation .- Thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, declared ratified by proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated December 18th, 1865.
Jacob M. Howard, who drafted, and is the acknowledged author of, the foregoing amendment, was born in Shaftesbury, Vermont, July Ioth, 1805. His father was the sixth in descent from William Howard, who settled in Braintree, Mass., in 1635.
Mr. Howard in boyhood assisted his father, who was a substantial farmer, during the summer in his farm labors, and in winter attended the school in his native town. He early evinced a taste for study and at the age of fourteen attended the academy at Bennington, and after- ward that at Brattleboro, from which, after full preparation, he entered Williams College, Massachusetts, in 1826, graduating therefrom in 1830, and at once began the study of law in Ware, Mass. In 1832 he removed to Detroit, where he was admitted to the bar.
The first appearance of Mr. Howard prominently before the pub- lic was in the controversy over the boundary line between the Terri- tory of Michigan and Ohio. Mr. Howard took strong grounds against the claims of the latter, and when Governor Mason thought a resort to military force must decide Michigan's claims, Mr. Howard volunteered and proceeded with arms to enforce the argument he had advanced. Happily, through the intervention of Congress, a collision between the armed troops of Ohio and Michigan was avoided. In 1838 Mr. Howard was chosen a member of the legislature, and to him was the young State of Michigan indebted for the wise and salutary code of laws enacted, by which it was rescued from threatened bankruptcy, occasioned by the reckless legislation of preceding Legislatures. In the presidential contest of 1840, which resulted in the election of Gen. William Henry Harrison, the grandfather of the present President (Benjamin Harri-
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son), he took a prominent part, and was himself elected a member of Congress. In the campaigns of 18.44, 1848 and 1852, he was active in promoting the election of Clay, Taylor and Scott, and was in full accord with the Whig party, although he confidently predicted that the time must come when it would be merged into a great political party, based upon principles opposed to the aggressions of slavery. That he was firmly grounded in this belief is evident, because we find that as early as 1859, on the trial of a slave case under the Fugitive Slave Act in the United States court before Judge McLean, "he denounced that act as a defiance, a challenge to a conflict of arms by the South to the North, and predicted that the day was not far distant when the challenge would be accepted by the latter." On the defeat of General Scott he decided to withdraw from politics, but the passage of the Missouri compromise act in 1854 aroused all his antagonisms to slavery and its further encroachments, impelling him to once more enter the political field, and at the sacrifice of personal interests, advocate the organization of an influence which should prevent the aggressive power of slavery from further extension. At this period the anti-slavery element in the Whig party was very large in Michigan. The Abolition party and the Free Soil Democracy having united, it was determined to call a mass con- vention of the representatives of all these elements. This call was issued and the convention assembled at Jackson, July 6th, 1854, when the union of the three elements resulted in the organization of the Republican party, and as chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, Mr. Howard presented the platform (prepared and written solely by him) upon which the subsequent action of this great party was based. At this convention Mr. Howard, against his personal protest, was nominated for attorney general and elected. Mr. Howard was a member of the committee on the address of the first National Repub- lican Convention held at Pittsburg, February 22d, 1856. He held the
office of attorney general six years. Reference to the docket of the Supreme Court of Michigan attests to his industry and the immense amount of efficient legal labor bestowed, and the thorough legal ability displayed by him in the discharge of his duties. Kingsley S. Bingham was elected United States Senator in January, 1859, and died in October, 1861. On the assembling of the Legislature the January following, Mr. Howard was chosen to fill the vacancy. His fame as a lawyer preceded him and he was immediately placed upon the Senate Judiciary Committee and also on that of Military Affairs. He was one of the first to favor the amendment of the constitution abolishing slavery throughout the United States, and the draft of the first and principal clause was made by him in the exact language as it appears in the constitution. In January, 1865, Mr. Howard was re-elected to the Senate for the full term. Mr. Howard made the greatest effort of his life in his speech of February 25th, 1865, in opposition to the joint
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resolution for the recognition of Louisiana as organized under the military order of General Banks, his doctrine being that a State seceding from the Union and making war upon the Union ceased to be a State, and that neither the executive or military could restore it; that the law-making power alone had the right to determine how and when it could be restored. This doctrine prevailed. During the session of 1865-66 Mr. Howard served on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. The principal result of the labors of this committee was the submission of a proposition to amend the constitution now known as the fourteenth amendment. It passed both houses of Congress and was submitted to the States for ratification. President Johnson and a majority of his cabinet strenuously opposed and were able to defeat its ratification by those States previously restored by the President's proclamation. Congress, therefore, in order to vindicate its authority and prevent anarchy in those States, in March, 1867, enacted a series of statutes known as the Reconstruction Acts, which declares those States without legal government and subjected them to military domi- nation until proper State governments could be formed on the princi- pal of impartial suffrage, and until Congress should readmit them. Mr. Howard drew the committee's report on the removal of Edwin M. Stanton as Secretary of War, by President Johnson, condemning the act and charging the latter with complicity in the New Orleans riots.
On the organization of the Senate Committee on the Pacific Rail- road, Mr. Howard was chosen chairman, which position he held until the close of his last term. On the impeachment of President Johnson by the House of Representatives, Mr. Howard voted the accused guilty and filed an elaborate opinion thereon. Prior to the expiration of his senatorial term, President Grant tendered Mr. Howard the Presidency of the Southern claims commission, which he declined, and a short time prior to his death he was offered the position of Solicitor General of the Northern Pacific Railway, the acceptance of which he had under consideration the day before he was stricken with the disease which terminated his earthly life.
It was said of him by one who knew him intimately: "The name of Jacob M. Howard should be a household word in Michigan. * During all the years of the State's existence he was one of its pillars, and has left upon it the impress of his great mind. He grew up to man- hood with it and was closely identified with every interest tending to its development. He was a man of mark. The stranger stopped and looked at him and instantly received the impression that he was in the presence of a man of great physical and mental power. Mr. Howard was a true man-true to his client, to his convictions, and true to all the varied interests committed to his care. He was true to his country when armed treason sought its life, and he loved its institutions with a
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passionate zeal, to the exclusion of all personal interests. No man can charge him with trickery or dishonesty. He was by common consent the leader of the bar. A member of the Senate with large opportuni- ties, at a time when others are said to have grown rich, he died com- paratively poor. Jacob M. Howard always kept within the golden rule. Indeed, like Webster, whom he strongly resembled, he cared too little for the accumulation of wealth."
Chief Justice Campbell says of him : " Mr. Howard's style of legal eloquence was remarkable. He never appeared in a court of justice ex- cept with great gravity of demeanor, not put on for the occasion, but nat- ural to a man impressed with the feeling that he was a minister of justice. His diction was of that lofty kind, that, applied to lesser subjects, would have been very inappropriate, and adopted by lesser men would have had little effect. But when behind his ponderous language was a ponderous intellect, and when every word that he said had its meaning, and every idea came out with all the force that language could give, then those rounded periods had something of magic in them, and there was as much gained by his manner as could be secured by any aids of rhetoric that have ever been devised. In private life he was a model of manly simplicity, a perfect representative of what republican insti- tutions should bring forth. He lived and dressed plainly. He had no false dignity which would lead him to regard any man except upon his merits. While Mr. Howard possessed this plainness and despised all things despicable, he had a most profound admiration of everything that could really ennoble and embellish life. As a scholar, I know of no one whose reading was more extensive and select. * * He possessed a keen sense of humor. When he spoke to a jury, or addressed a court, if that court possessed ordinary qualifications and com- mon sense, he knew how those ideas would affect the court, and when he addressed the Senate, or the larger audience of the people of the United States, in like manner he knew that, whether they agreed with him or not, he was sure of their understanding and appreciation. When his fame has become the property of future generations, although he may be remembered for his learning, for his eloquence and for the qualities that have most attracted admiration, he will be still further venerated and remembered as a representative American who valued, above all things, the great and essential principles of man- hood."
While a member of the United States Senate, Mr. Howard had as associates, Fessenden, Morton, Reverdy Johnson, Sumner, Wade, Morrell (of Maine), and Edmunds, men whose names will pass into history as representing the embodiment of legal acumen, scholarly attainments, and a profound knowledge of constitutional requirements and laws of nations, with whom he ranked as peer, and by whom he was respected, loved and revered.
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Among the most important criminal cases in which Mr. Howard was engaged, and in the trial of which he gained special distinction and a national reputation, were the great railroad conspiracy case in which the late William H. Seward was opposing counsel, the "Tyler" case, and the Adams Express robbery case, and of civil cases the Chevalier Repeutigny case, decided in the United States Supreme Court in 1865. Although in his religious views he was unorthodox, he was a daily reader of the Bible, which he regarded "the greatest book on earth."
In 1835 Mr. Howard married Miss Catherine A. Shaw, of Ware, Mass. She died at Detroit.
On the 3Ist of March, 1871, he was stricken with apoplexy, and was unconscious from that hour. He died at 3 A. M., April 2d, 1871, leaving five surviving children, Mrs. Dr. Hildreth (since deceased), Mrs. Samuel Brady, Col. J. M. Howard, of Minnesota; Hamilton G. Howard, attorney, Detroit, and Charles M. Howard, attorney.
JAMES A. VANDYKE.
" All we possess on earth, is the reward of labor protected by law. It is law alone which keeps all things in order ; guards the sleep of infancy, the energy of man- hood and weakness of age. It hovers over us by day, it keeps watch and ward over the slumbers of the night ; it goes with us through the trackless paths of the mighty waters. The high and the low, each are within its view, and beneath its ample folds. It protects beauty and virtue, punishes crime and wickedness, and vindicates right. Honor and life, liberty and property, the wide world over are its high objects. Stern, yet kind ; pure, yet pitying ; steadfast, immutable, and just. It is the attribute of God on earth. It proceeds from his bosom, and encircles with its care, power and blessings. All honor to those who administer it in purity, and reverence its high behests."
The foregoing, being the utterances of the subject of this sketch, furnishes a far better diagnosis of the character of the man than any biographer can write.
James A. VanDyke was born in Franklin county, Pa., December 10, 1833. He was the eldest son of William VanDyke, whose ances- tors were among the first builders of New Amsterdam; who, after its surrender to the English in 1664, first went to Maryland, and subse- quently settled in Pennsylvania, where James A. VanDyke was born. The mother of James was Nancy Duncan. On the paternal side, her ancestors were from Scotland, and located in the mountainous county of Cumberland, Pennsylvania.
William and Nancy Duncan VanDyke had six children : Lambert, who settled and died in Red Run county, Texas; Ellen, who lived and died in her native county and State; William R., who also lived and died in the county of his birth; John H. (who became a lawyer), and
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Samuel W., who removed to Wisconsin, where they both died, and James A., the subject of this memorial, who, after being fitted by pri- vate tutors, entered Mercer College, Pennsylvania, in 1828, from which he graduated with high honors in 1832, and commenced the study of law with the Hon. George Chambers, of Chambersburg. At the end of a year he continued his studies under the direction of the Hon. William Price, of Hagerstown, Md., who fought a duel with the Hon. Frank Thomas, the father of Gov. Thomas, of Maryland. He completed his studies of law with him and then went to Baltimore, where he remained until 1834, when he started for the West, intending to locate in Pittsburg, but either the atmosphere or some other influ- ence, making it uncongenial, he decided to go further west. He had a letter of introduction to the late Alexander D. Frazer, and on reach- ing Detroit, was persuaded to enter his office, and at the end of six months (the time the law required) was admitted to practice his pro- fession at the bar, of which he was a member, until called to a higher and more exalted one.
In 1835 he formed an association with the Hon. Charles W. Whipple. This connection continued until Mr. Whipple was called to the bench of the Supreme Court of Michigan, in 1838. He then formed a co-partnership with Mr. E. B. Harrington, which was dis- solved by the death of that gentleman in 1844, when the firm of Van Dyke & Emmons was established, and remained such until both mem- bers had practically retired from general practice.
As a public man, Mr. VanDyke in 1840, was appointed Prosecut- ing Attorney of Wayne county, and while occupying that position became the terror of all violators of law, clearing the city and county of all the perpetrators of crime.
In 1843 he was elected alderman, and became chairman of the com- mittee of ways and means. This, at that period was an important position, as the city was almost hopelessly in debt. At great personal sacrifice, Mr. VanDyke by his indefatigable labor, succeeded in saving it from bankruptcy, and restored its credit. Subsequently, in 1847, when elected mayor, he was able to formulate and establish a system which has prevented a recurrence of financial embarrassment.
Mr. VanDyke was long a member of the board of water com- missioners, and in that capacity, with his characteristic sagacity, he matured the plans which have since made that branch of the city government so efficient.
Mr. VanDyke was a working fireman, running with the Engine of Protection, No. I, and for seven years manned its brakes, and served the fire department as its president for four years. It was through him it became possessed of the hall and realty, the proceeds from the recent sale of which, and the revenue from its rents, have since furnished sub- stantial aid to indigent firemen and their families.
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It was a privilege as well as an honor to be considered a friend of James A. VanDyke. They inhabited not only Detroit, in the State of Michigan, but were found in every city of the Northwest, as well as those of the Eastern States. His name was a synonym for honor, integrity, sagacity, civic virtue, fidelity and "defender of law." He exhibited a love and appreciation for art and literature, which in later life he was able to gratify, as the walls of his house and shelves of his library bore silent witness.
In social life, the gentleness of his manners won for him the affec- tion of all he came in contact with, while his strength of will, energy, industry and enterprise, secured the admiration and veneration of the good, and the fear and respect of the bad.
While he revered and obeyed his father, who was somewhat aus- tere, and imbued with the rigid notions of past generations ; for his mother, whom he was said to have resembled in person, as well as in tenderness of heart and depth of feeling, he loved and idolized.
In his domestic relations he exhibited all that love and affection which he inherited from his mother, which spurred him to accumulate the means to gratify all their desires and wishes, and this he accom- plished without parsimony or encroachment upon the rights of others.
In December, 1835, he married Elizabeth, daughter of the late Hon. Peter Desnoyers, a sketch of whom will befound else where in this volume. This union proved a happy one, and was blessed with eleven children, eight of whom survived him. He departed this life at his home, May 7th, 1855.
CHARLES C. TROWBRIDGE.
Charles C. Trowbridge, a native of the Empire State, was born at Albany, N. Y., December 29, 1800. His father, Luther Trowbridge, was of Massachusetts ancestry, was an officer in one of the regi- ments from that State, and served with distinction during the Revolu- tionary War. At its close, he removed to the State of New York. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Tillam. His parents were mar- ried at Albany N. Y., in 1786. Mr. Trowbridge was one of six children.
To those not his contemporaries, it is difficult to express in words, just what the life and acts of such a man as Mr. Trowbridge must have been to so endear him to those who knew him, and we can only by a review of the notable events incident thereto, in which he was the chief actor and participator, demonstrate why he was so loved and res- pected while living, and his memory so reverentially cherished since his death.
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At the early age of twelve years, Mr. Trowbridge sought and obtained a situation as clerk in the store of Mr. Horatio Ross, a mer- chant of Oswego, New York State.
In ISI9 he decided to come West, and removed to and settled in Detroit, which was his home until called to a more beautiful city, to dwell in a " house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
Soon after his arrival in the City of Detroit, he gained the friend- ship and confidence of General Lewis Cass, then Governor of the Territory of Michigan, and by him was entrusted with many important duties connected with the treaty negotiations then pending between the general government and the Indians of the Northwest Territory. So well did he perform the work assigned him, and so highly was he esteemed by General Cass, that on accepting the portfolio of War from President Jackson, he tendered Mr. Trowbridge a prominent position in his department, but his disinclination to a political life, and his love for Detroit, led him to decline the honor.
In 1825 he accepted the position of "cashier" of the old Bank of Michigan. A brief review of the history of this bank, and of its condi- tion at this period, will show the grave responsibilities assumed by Mr. Trowbridge, and its subsequent history, the manner in which he dis- charged them.
The first bank established in the Northwest was the Bank of Detroit, chartered September 15th, 1806. Its bills circulated until 1809, and from that date to ISIS there was no local currency. Bills of New York and Ohio banks (many of them worthless) were the only medium of exchange. The necessities of business men demanded a bank, and the Governor and Judges consenting, the old Bank of Michigan was incor- porated in 1818. The bank began with limited means, and the business was small. Two-thirds of its capital stock of $100,000 was owned east, and of the balance only $16,000 had been paid in. In the fall of 1824, $20,000 more was paid up, and the eastern capitalists fearing some mismanagement, sent Mr. Eurotus P. Hastings as their agent to investigate its affairs. His investigation developed a shortage of $10,- 300 in the cashier's account, $40,000 in discounted paper which had matured without having been protested, and a general lack of confi- dence as to the solvency of the bank, both at home and in the east. Such was the situation of this institution in the autumn of 1825, when Mr. Trowbridge consented to accept the conduct of its affairs. Under his, and the management of Mr. Hastings, within three years, the $40,000 of unsecured paper had been collected (except $300), the capital stock of the bank had been paid up, and increased to the limit of $500,000. It possessed unlimited confidence at home and abroad. No enterprise undertaken at Detroit or elsewhere in the territory but was dependent upon, and received aid from the old Bank of Michigan,
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between 1830 and 1836. Its deposits at times reached over $3,000,000, and its bills circulated as freely in New York, Texas, Louisiana or Maine, as in Michigan.
In 1836, Mr. Trowbridge resigned as cashier, but in 1839, much against his inclination, was induced to accept the presidency of the bank. His relations continued until the final winding up of its affairs in 1854. Much space has been given to the circumstances attending the history of Mr. Trowbridge during this period, because he himself regarded it as being the most important era in his business life. Not only as relating to himself but to the development of Detroit, and the whole State, in point of substantial growth, in wealth and general pros- perity. Positions of trust, honor and responsibility, held by him subse- quently, will be detailed in chronological order : how he filled them, and discharged the duties pertaining or imposed, the results achieved and existing will show.
In 1834, Mr. Trowbridge was mayor of Detroit. History will relate the onerous duties and cares devolving, and how they were performed. He lost sight of his personality in his anxiety to relieve others from the cholera pestilence which prevailed during that period.
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