USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Chronography of notable events in the history of the Northwest territory and Wayne County > Part 26
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The captain was accustomed to have the furnishing and upholster- ing of the boats he built done on contract at some of the large lake cities, but after "Aunt " Emily's return to Marine City from Bois Blanc she took charge of this department of his shipbuilding. She set all the women in Marine City to work with their needles, and they made all the sheets, pillow cases, curtains, cushions, etc., required for the boats as fast as completed. It is said that "Aunt" Emily in this manner saved the captain five thousand dollars or more on every vessel he con- structed, and, as he built a great many, keeping some and disposing of others, during the years he was actively engaged as a vessel operator, the aggregate amount so saved must have been very large. "Aunt" Emily was his confidant and adviser in all these ventures, whose suc- cessful outcome tended to swell the amount of his accumulations. A large share of his property had its origin in her shrewd business sense.
"There !" said Captain Ward, one day, speaking to an intimate friend of a disastrous real estate investment, " Emily advised me not to go into that, and I wish I had done as she told me."
He often spoke of more happy enterprises in which he had pro- fited by " Aunt " Emily's counsel and had been successful.
In 1865 " Aunt" Emily came to Detroit, where her brother had moved some years before. In 1869 he built for her her large, old- fashioned home at 807 west Fort street, nearly opposite his own spaci- ous home, now occupied by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. It is known from conversations which Captain Ward held at different times with various persons that he regarded his great fortune as the result of the joint efforts and accumulations of "Aunt" Emily and himself, rather than his own alone. He always expected that he would outlive his sister, but his will provided that she should get her rightful share of the property in case of his death. The instrument made her a residu- ary legatee, and at the time the instrument was drawn he expected that her share of the estate would be a half million dollars or upward. At
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the time of his sudden death from apoplexy, January 1, 1875, however, his affairs were left in great confusion, and the values of his invest- ments were much depressed as a result of the great panic. The con- sequence was that, although by careful financiering a large portion of the estate was ultimately saved to the captain's second wife, "Aunt" Emily realized little or nothing from it, although she has since been the recipient of several thousand dollars at different times from Mrs. E. B. Ward, now Mrs. Cameron.
Since her brother's death "Aunt" Emily has continued to reside in honored and peaceful old age at her home in this city, frequently visited by her surviving and loving "children," and the many others whose lives she was enabled to brighten. Still a new family generation has been growing up about her-her " grandchildren's " children. Her household at present consists of her nieces, Mrs. D. P. Mayhew, widow of a State Normal School professor, Miss Mary Brindle, and a grand niece and grand nephew, children of Mrs. Mayhew.
JAMES F. JOY.
At the dedication of the Detroit Board of Trade Building, the orator on the occasion, Hon. Geo. V. N. Lothrop, opened with the following eloquently expressed sentiments: "The growth of communi- ties and people is marked by the monuments they build. What a State is, or has been, we find in its cities, its laws, its institutions, its acts, its commerce, or in its works of industry or science."
We would add that while these are evidences which convey to the future what man has accomplished, yet the heart which prompted, the brain which devised, and the hand that executed, would be unknown, except for the written record of the acts and deeds of the individual contributing.
It was this thought that suggested the action taken by the Pioneer and Historical Society in providing for the compilation of the lives of those men and women who laid the foundation stone upon which has been erected the beautiful city, the Metropolis of the prosperous State, "our Michigan."
Among those who have been prominently identified with the growth of Michigan is the Hon. James F. Joy, a native of the State of New Hampshire, and born at Durham, in that State, December 2d, ISIO.
The father of James F. Joy was a manufacturer of edge tools, a Calvanist in religion, a member of the Congregational church and a Republican in politics. He sought the moral and spiritual culture of his children, teaching them to be honest, prudent, studious and regular in their attendance upon religious exercises.
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In early life Mr. Joy gained, at the common school, sufficient knowledge to teach, and in this way obtained means with which (and what his father could give) to prepare for his college course. He entered Dartmouth College, graduating therefrom in 1833, and delivered the valedictory address. He then went to Cambridge and entered the law school under the patronage of the late Judge Story, and aided by his and the personal friendship of Professor Greenleaf, laid the found- ation of his future success. Judge Story frequently spoke in high praise of Mr. Joy's devotion to the law, and as early as 1840 predicted his triumph in any course he should select. Owing to his being unable to continue his studies on account of pecuniary circumstances, he obtained a situation as Preceptor in Pittsfield Academy, and afterwards was tutor of Latin classes at Dartmouth College.
At the end of a year he returned to Cambridge law school and completed his course. In September, 1836, he came to Detroit and entered the law office of the Hon. Augustus S. Porter, one of the noblest men that ever represented Michigan in the United States Senate. In 1837 he was admitted to the bar and became a partner of George F. Porter, under the firm name of Joy & Porter. The prom- inent members of the Detroit.bar at this period were George C. Bates, Henry N. Walker, A. W. Buel, Henry Chipman, Alex. D. Frazer, A. S. Porter, Theodore Romeyn, William Hale, J. M. Howard, John Norvell, Daniel Goodwin, Stevens T. Mason, William Wood- bridge, Charles W. Whipple, James A. VanDyke, Elon Farnsworth and George E. Hand. These were men of note then, and subse- quently acquired national reputation as jurists, judges and statesmen.
With such associates at the bar, Mr. Joy commenced the practice of his profession in Michigan. His partner, George F. Porter, having been engaged in banking and other financial operations which had given him an extended acquaintance with capitalists and men of wealth, at once brought to the firm a class of clients whose business afforded Mr. Joy the exercise and application of that logical mind and know- ledge of law with which nature and careful study had endowed him.
A brief review of Michigan, then, will best illustrate what such men as Mr. Joy must have accomplished to make the Michigan of to-day.
Although Congress had passed the Act (June15th, 1836) recogniz- ing its constitution and State government, it provided that the bound- aries defined by the Act must be assented to by the people through their delegates in convention. This assent was given December 15th, 1836, and on January 26, 1837, the Act passed, admitting Michigan and declaring it to be one of the United States.
Prior to this period the territory had been comparatively non-pro- ducing, the great bulk of its breadstuffs, provisions and manufactures
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being imported from the States of Ohio, New York and New Eng- land. In 1837 there was a change in agricultural products and from an importing it became an exporting State. This necessitated increased banking facilities and appliances for transportation of its products. There were then but three banks in Michigan of recognized credit outside the State-Bank of Michigan, Farmers' and Mechanics' and Michigan State Bank. Their aggregate capital stock was about $300,000. The Detroit and St. Joseph railroad (now the Michigan Central) and the Pontiac and Detroit (now known as the Detroit and Milwaukee) were the only roads existing, except on paper, the first having about thirty miles in operation and the latter but twelve miles. The entire tonnage of the lakes did not exceed that of three of the steamers of the present day. The Legislature, seeking to meet these necessities, passed a general banking law so liberal in character that there were few of the inhabitants of the State who could not afford to start a bank. The capital stock was based on landed property amount- ing to three times the value of the stock. Only a small amount of specie was required. The lands were appraised at fabulous prices. A few thousand dollars in specie, borrowed for a show to the commission- ers on their periodical visits, was sufficient to commence. There were at this time some fifty of these institutions in the State, whose notes flooded the country, and finding their way into the sound institutions were immediately paid out (but sometimes too late). The wild-cat system had but a short duration, as the banks were closed up within three years, and the three chartered banks referred to suffered largely in the end. The Legislature also provided for and established an Internal Improvement system which contemplated the purchase of all railroads, then chartered, also the construction of canals, toll roads, etc., and a negotiation of a loan to meet the cost. Pursuant to the authority conferred, the Detroit and St. Joseph railroad was purchased and the name changed to the Michigan Central. The work of construction on it, together with that upon the other improvements authorized, pro- gressed until danger of bankruptcy intervened, causing their sale or abandonment.
Returning to the detail of notable events in which Mr. Joy was a prominent and active participator.
Soon after the establishment of the firm of Joy & Porter it was made the attorneys and counsel of the old Bank of Michigan, then almost the only bank in the northwest, having a recognized credit with eastern banks and capitalists, hence this relation brought them a lucra- tive practice. Mr. Joy, as the legal head of the firm, was employed in most of the important cases in the Federal and State Courts. The Messrs. Dwight, of New York and Massachusetts, were the principal owners of the old Bank of Michigan. They also owned two banks in
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Cleveland, one in Buffalo, and one in Springfield. From 1837 to 1847 Mr. Joy was their confidential and leading counsel, and when, in 1841, the old Bank of Michigan, in consequence of a combination of circum- stances dating back to 1836, was compelled to make an assignment, Mr. Joy, as its attorney in the legal complication incident, was called to meet the most gifted and distinguished minds in the nation.
One of the most important cases conducted by Mr. Joy was that of Bates vs. The Illinois Railroad Company, and involved the title to the present site of the Michigan Central depot ground in Chicago, which was carried through the United States, District, Circuit and Supreme Courts and won by Mr. Joy. Opposed to Mr. Joy in this case at its different stages were John A. Mills and Matthew McLean, eminent in their profession as successful practitioners in the United States courts.
In 1846 Michigan, through the operations of The Internal Improve- ment System, was bankrupt. Through the efforts of Mr. Joy, and the influence directed by him, Boston capitalists were induced to purchase the Michigan Central Railroad and from that period until the present he has been identified with it and with the railway enterprises of Michigan and the west.
The sale of the Michigan Central road thus made, relieved the State and restored it to solvency. Towns and villages along its line sprang up, manufacturing industries were multiplied, farms were im- proved, and general business throughout the State assumed a pros- perous condition. After the completion of the Michigan Central to Chicago Mr. Joy organized the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Rail- road Company. The building of this road, at a cost of sixty million dollars, opened up a tract of country, the products of which transported over it have enabled the company to pay an annual dividend of ten per cent. To make his connections with the Hannibal and St. Joseph rail- road he spanned the Mississippi river at Quincy and the Missouri at Kansas City with magnificent iron bridges, and extended a branch to the Indian Territory, fixing his termini at Ft. Kearney, Nebraska. He thus had a continuous railway line from Detroit to Kansas and Nebraska.
Among the Michigan railroads since projected, and in the building of which Mr. Joy was the chief promoter, are the Detroit, Lansing and Northern, the Detroit and Bay City, the Air Line from Jackson to Niles, the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw, the Chicago and West Michigan, the Kalamazoo and South Haven, and the Wabash. He has also constructed the Detroit union railroad depot building at a cost, including the land, of $2,000,000. He has withdrawn from the active control of all the foregoing roads except the last named, but is still a stockholder and director in some of them. He is president of the company controlling and owning the Detroit Union Depot.
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From the period when Mr. Joy first became identified with the construction of railways, he has been the chief factor in the building of sixteen hundred miles of railroad within the State of Michigan. To deny that he has not been a large contributor to its growth in material wealth and population would be to deny that railroads are aids to the development of countries or people.
While Mr. Joy has been engaged in these vast enterprises he has not failed in the performance of his duties as a Christian, an education- ist or as a public citizen. In his religious views he is a liberal Congre- gationalist, time and study having somewhat modified the Puritan ideas imbibed in early life.
In educational interests, although taking delight in the study of Greek, Latin, French and English classics, few have done more than Mr. Joy to foster and develop our common schools.
In politics he is Republican-not a politician in the sense in which the term is ordinarily applied; not a seeker of public office. As in everything else, he is firm and earnest in advocating and maintaining his political views.
Mr. Joy has been a member of the State Legislature, and was elected a Regent of the State University but resigned before the expir- ation of the term for which he was elected.
In his personnel Mr. Joy is courteous and pleasant, but not effusive.
His physique is a proof of his having retained the habits formed in early life of avoiding the indulgence in all that is detrimental to physical organism.
WILLIAM MOORE.
William Moore was the great-grandson of John Moore of the McDonald clan, who was murdered in his own garden on the morning of February 13, 1692, at the "Massacre of Glencoe," so-called, in Argyleshire, Scotland, which massacre is so graphically described in the fourth volume of Macaulay's History of England. The widow of the murdered man hid herself from the slayers of her husband in a malt kiln, and while thus concealed, gave birth to a son whom she named John, and with whom she soon after fled to Londonderry, Ireland.
In the year 1718, John, with his mother and two sisters, who had survived the massacre, came over with a party of about one hundred and twenty other persons, to America, and settled at Londonderry, New Hampshire.
John married, and his third son, William, was born August 15,
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1731, and on the 13th day of December, 1763, he married Jennie Holmes, and removed to Peterboro, New Hampshire, settled upon a farm, and to them twelve children were born, the youngest of whom was the subject of this sketch, and was born at Peterboro on the 9th day of April, 1787.
At the age of eighteen he emigrated to Phelps, Ontario county, New York, where on the 7th of November, 1806, he married Lucy Rice, formerly of Conway, Massachusetts, who bore him ten children.
His trade was making small spinning wheels for spinning flax, at which trade he worked during the winter, and during the summer he cultivated and improved the farm he owned. He continued to reside there, holding various local offices; he was Justice of the Peace for six- teen years in succession, prior to the summer of 1831, when he removed to York, Washtenaw county, Michigan. In 1832 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and he held such office by appoint- ment and by election, after Michigan became a State, for the period of twelve years.
On the first day of September, 1845, his wife died, and on the 17th of April, 1847, he married Mrs. Sallie Holmes, with whom he lived until his decease.
He was a member of the convention called for the preparation of the first Constitution of this State, which convened May 11th, 1835. Edward Mundy, Abel Goddard, Orrin Howe and Robert Purdy were among his colleagues from Washtenaw county. He was a mem- ber of the first Senate after Michigan became a State, and was a member of the House from Washtenaw county of the session of 1843. He was a man of great energy of character, fearless in maintaining his own rights, liberal in his views and pocket. The latch string of his house was always out, and his house open to the early settlers in that portion of the State. His father was active in the War of the Revolu- tion, and fought at the battle of Bennington, July 19th, 1777. He (William) was a volunteer in the war of 1812, was at the burning of Buffalo, and the sortie at Fort Erie, and his widow, born June 24, 1787, living until June 10, 1887, received a pension from the Government for his services in that war. He was a farmer by occupation, a Baptist in religion, and a Democrat in politics. He died December 4th, 1850, and was buried at the family burial ground at Mooreville, leaving seven children surviving him, only one of whom, William A. Moore, of Detroit, is now living.
LEVI BISHOP.
Levi Bishop, long a celebrated lawyer in Detroit, came to the city sometime during the early portion of the thirties. In early life he
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learned the shoemaker's trade, and traveled around the country earn- ing a little money by doing "jour work." I presume in the shops where he worked and where he met jovial companions he acquired much of that ready wit and faculty of repartee which showed itself on many occasions when he met the members of the Detroit bar in legal encounters.
He worked at his trade in the city until he lost his right hand when firing off a cannon on the fourth day of July, 1836. After that accident he commenced the study of law, and in time arose to be one of the leading members of the Detroit bar. That is saying much for his ability, for there were scions there in his day. Before engaging much in the practice of his profession he acted as Justice of the Peace of the city and before him appeared many young "sprigs" or "limbs of the law" who subsequently acquired eminence in the profession. "Billy" Gray, G. V. N. Lothrop, James A. VanDyke, H. H. Emmons and Judge Campbell had many a tilt in the presence of his Honor, Levi Bishop. It has been often said by these tyros that his Honor had a happy faculty of disposing of causes, and occasionally pettifoggers, in court.
He was an official and faithful attendant upon divine service at St. Paul's church on Congress street, and probably during the entire period when Bishop McCoskey officiated there, he was seen very regularly in his pew repeating the formula and responses of his church. He was not a zealot in Christianity, and did not approve of Puritanical notions; was inclined to be tolerant in religion, and no one would form an opinion when hearing him deliver a Democratic speech or legal argument that he had any religious notions.
In politics he was a Democrat of the " Old Hickory School," hard shelled. The writer has heard him, in many Democratic wigwams, orate about the purity of his party, when he would be listened to and applauded by ex-Mayor Wheaton, John Paton, George Pattison, the Prentices and the faithful from "ould Ireland." Occasionally he was very sarcastic in his remarks when talking about the opposite party and their leaders. He was not an office seeker, and held only two political offices, one being a member of the Legislature of this State. He was an unsuccessful candidate in 1870 for the Legis- lature of 1871, his opponent defeating him by a small majority.
For several years he devoted much of his time and attention to the improvement of schools in Detroit, laboring zealously in building the foundation of the present successful and excellent school system. The Bishop Union School Building is a monument to his memory. He was at one time Regent of the University, and while there succeeded in effecting the removal of the learned and worthy Chancellor, the Rev. Dr. Tappan, who died recently and whose remains are interred in a
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foreign land. This was considered by many a very unwise movement by Mr. Bishop, rendering him unpopular and weaning from him many friends.
He was at one time president of the Young Men's Society in Detroit, and I heard him deliver a lecture before an audience in their hall which cost him much labor and on which he was engaged for a year, as he subsequently informed me. It was well written, clothed in beautiful language, and gave evidence that the speaker had indus- triously labored on the subject. Mr. Bishop was not in the habit of writing poetical compositions for the press or magazines, and conse- quently the reading public was astonished on the first appearance of a poetical Indian legend composed by him called "Tensha Gronde," in the style of Hiawatha. The reading public was divided in opinion about its merits. It probably was not a remunerative work to its author.
About the close of his life he was President of the Pioneer Society of Detroit and took an active part in writing up and collecting facts relative to the early history of Michigan and Detroit. I presume the papers which he composed, collected and revised would make several volumes.
Mr. Bishop was an industrious man, thorough in his labors, and probably no member of the Detroit bar ever prepared cases that exhibited more research than those which he attended to. He was a successful lawyer, and his name appears in many important cases in the Supreme Court reports of this state. He accumulated a large property and left an ample amount to his widow, a worthy and intellectual lady, his companion for years, who now resides in Detroit.
Mr. Bishop was born at Russell, in the State of Massachusetts, October 15th, 1815. He came to Detroit in 1835, and departed this life December 23d, 1881.
DONALD CAMPBELL HENDERSON.
Those who personally know the subject of this sketch will vouch for one of his characteristics-that of fidelity-and as one who " con- veys his love to a friend, as an arrow to the mark, to stick there, not as a ball against a wall, to rebound back to him." They will accord to him also originality in thought, words and acts, independence in his views and opinions, courageous and firm in defending and maintaining them, modest and unassuming in manner, kind and courteous in his bearing to all, with sensibilities as tender as a child's. Full of sympathy for the unfortunate, his heart and hand are ever open to relieve and mitigate the ills of humanity.
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Donald Campbell Henderson is of Scotch descent. His father, James Henderson, and his mother, Isabella Campbell, were natives of Caithnesshire, Scotland, and were allied to the families of Campbell, Sinclair and McIvors. His father was a man of culture, and was for a time private secretary to Sir John Sinclair, the admirer and cor- respondent of George Washington. In 1834 Mr. Henderson's parents removed to America, and for a number of years his father superin- tended the construction of mills at Hamilton, Canada, and Rochester, New York. He settled in Detroit in 1835, where he remained until 1838, when he moved to Allegan, Michigan, and built the first flour mill there. Subsequently he engaged in farming, which he continued until his death, September 30, 1875. Isabella Campbell Henderson died May Ist, 1872. She was a woman of great firmness of character and of rare intellectual ability. She was not only respected for these qualities, but loved by her neighbors and acquaintances for her gener- osity and kindness of heart. They left three sons-Alexander, sheriff for two terms of Allegan county; Donald C., the subject of this sketch, and James D., captain and assistant quartermaster during the War of the Rebellion (the last commission signed by President Lincoln was that assigning Captain James D. Henderson to take charge of the quarter- master's department at Richmond), and two daughters, Mrs. Elizabeth Sinclair Nichols, of Allegan, and Mrs. Anna B. Clubb, wife of Rev. Henry S. Clubb, of Philadelphia, Pa.
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