USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Chronography of notable events in the history of the Northwest territory and Wayne County > Part 35
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MATTHEW W. BIRCHARD.
The following is an extract from the Detroit Tribune, January 6th, 1889 :
Matthew W. Birchard, the Detroit centenarian, died at his resi- dence at 55 Adelaide street, Saturday night, January 5th, 1889. He was born July 4th, 1788, and was consequently aged 100 years, 6 months and I day. He was born at Becket, Mass., on his father's farm, but his boyhood was spent at Shoreham, Vt., to which place his father removed when he was one year old. His first work was teaching school. Then he was a painter's apprentice and clerk in a store. He came to Detroit in 1839, when it contained only 9,000 inhabitants. He built a frame store and dwelling at the northwest corner of Woodward avenue and Congress street, which he afterwards replaced with a brick block, that stands there to-day. In 1851 he leased the property at the northeast corner of Congress and Griswold streets, from Judge Abbott and erected the Howard House, now known as the Griswold House. About ten years ago his mind began to fail, and realizing it, he aston- ished Probate Judge Durfee by a personal application that a guardian for himself be appointed. The Judge granted the request and appointed John Ward, who has managed his estate ever since.
Mr. Birchard was twice married. His first wife was Amanda Farrell, of Shoreham, Vt., who died in this city in 1856. His second wife was Miss Maria Rockwell, proprietress of a ladies' seminary, who died in 1881. George Anderson of the banking firm of Mclellan & Anderson, is grand son-in-law and James T. Birchard, formerly of Washington, and now of Detroit, is his son. Mr. Birchard has eleven grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren living. His estate is worth $100,000.
CROZIER DAVISON.
The following is an extract from the Detroit Tribune:
Crozier Davison, of 424 Woodward avenue, died January 5th, 1889, after an illness extending over twelve years.
Mrs. Davison was a well-known citizen and business man. He was a native of England, but came to America early in life, and spent part of his boyhood in Royal Oak. Afterward he went "up the lakes," engaged as a fisherman, and in his 27th year was considered the largest and most successful fish taker on the lakes. He operated several smacks, and barreled and shipped his take direct to the Detroit dealers. During his residence up north he became an expert woodsman, and about 26 years ago he left the water and became a " lumber looker."
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He proved very successful at this, located a great deal of pine lands and sold at good profits to large lumbering firms. Gen. Alger at one time bought 30,000 acres from him. Twelve years ago he was obliged to give up active work, and soon after moved to Detroit, where he has lived ever since. He remained an energetic man, however, and often went down town to transact business when he was hardly able to get out. For a year previous to his death he had been incapacitated, and for the last two months he was confined to his room. Although very feeble he remained cheerful to the end.
GEORGE W. BEADLE.
The following is an extract from the Detroit Tribune:
For the major portion of thirty-three years George W. Beadle had a merchant tailor shop at 162 Woodward avenue, under the Finney House. Several years ago the firm became George W. Beadle & Co., and three years ago, after a well earned rest, Mr. Beadle, Sr., retired and left the business to his son.
On Christmas day, 1888, Mr. Beadle was taken ill, and January 5th, 1889, he died at his residence, 336 Sixth street, at the age of seventy- seven years. Deceased was of English birth, his native town being Hertford. He came to the United States in 1857. His widow is seventy-six years old and a sister-in-law of William Wright, the deco- rator. His son, James T. Beadle, was in partnership with him. John T. Beadle, another son, is in business in Traverse City, and Henry T. Beadle, a third son, is with Allan Shelden & Co. He also leaves two daughters.
COL. FRED. MORLEY.
The following is an extract from the Detroit Tribune of February 28th, 1889:
Col. Morley was born December 23d, 1821, in Derby, England. While a young lad he was a companion of Herbert Spencer, the Eng- lish philosopher. He came with his parents to this country at the age of seven, settling in western New York. He early became interested in politics, was attracted to the Whig party, and while still a very young man his abilities secured the favorable attention of Thurlow Weed and William H. Seward. He drifted into journalism, and soon after his arrival in Detroit associated with Rufus Hosmer in the conduct of the Detroit Enquirer. In 1858 he became editor and publisher of the Advertiser, retaining that position for about three years. During the
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war he was Assistant Adjutant General, and after the retirement of Carl Schurz from the Detroit Post in 1867, he for ten years had charge of that paper, retiring in 1876 on account of ill health. For a few months of ISS3-4 he resumed his connection with that paper, under the name of the Post and Tribune, but enfeebled health again interrupted his work.
Since that time he had led a private life, deeply interested, how_ ever, in all public questions, especially of a political character, and indulging in occasional contributions to the city press. In intervals of newspaper work he engaged in the bookselling business with John A. Kerr, from 1854 to 1858, and was Immigration Commissioner of Michi- gan in the years 1881 and 1882. In 1875 he was appointed Consul General to Cairo, Egypt, but declined the appointment.
Col. Fred. Morley died February 27th, 1889. He left a widow, but no children.
HENRY P. BALDWIN.
"The duty of the business man is to protect his credit, without the sacrifice of moral obligation (duty to God). How much more binding is this principle upon a State or municipality ? In the former, the name of the individual is tarnished by its violation, while for the State or municipality to repudiate an obligation entered into under the form of legal enactment, as the representative of a whole people, is corrupt in its influence upon the masses, and degrading in the estimation of the people of other localities: it fixes a stigma which the lapse of genera- ations cannot wipe out."
The foregoing sentiment is that of Henry P. Baldwin, as expressed by him (although not in the same language) in one of his messages while Governor of Michigan.
Mr. Baldwin was born at Coventry, Rhode Island, February 22, 1814. His father, John Baldwin, was born at Palmer, Massachusetts, February 13, 1770, and was a graduate of Dartmouth College. His mother was the daughter of the Rev. Nehemiah Williams, a graduate of Harvard College, for twenty-one years pastor of the Congregational church at Brimfield, Massachusetts, where he died in 1796. She was born at Brimfield, Massachusetts, September 10, 1776. The parents of Mr. Baldwin were married at Brimfield, Massachusetts, July 25, 1796. His father died at North Providence, Rhode Island, in 1826, and his mother at the same place, in 1818. They left six sons and five daughters.
Mr. Baldwin is descended on the paternal side from Nathaniel Baldwin, a Puritan, from Buckinghamshire, England, who came to America and settled in the Province of Connecticut, near what was
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then known as " Milford Settlement," and on the maternal, from Robert Williams, also a Puritan, who settled in Roxbury, Province of Massa- chusetts, in the year 1638.
In boyhood, Mr. Baldwin attended the schools of his native State until reaching the age of twelve, when his parents having died, he engaged with a merchant as a clerk, with whom he remained until twenty years of age, meanwhile employing his leisure hours in close application to the study of books.
In 1834 he commenced business for himself in his native State. In 1837 he visited the West, and being favorably impressed with Detroit, in March, 1838, removed to the city which has ever since been his home.
We find that he established the house which has since borne his name, locating first on Jefferson avenue, between Bates and Randolph streets, and resided on Griswold, near Congress street.
The life of Mr. Baldwin during the past fifty-one years in Michi- gan, has been intimately associated with every enterprise of a public nature promoting the growth of the State and of his adopted city.
Being an Episcopalian in religious belief, he has been foremost in the building of churches, chapels, hospitals, schools, parsonages, and in the organization of parishes, not only in Detroit, but also in the towns and villages throughout the State. Among the material evidences of his liberality, earnestness and enterprise in this direction, are the edifices of St. John's Church parsonage and Home Mission, St. Luke's Hospital, St. James Church, corner Bagg and Seventh streets, in all of which he is represented as the chief promoter in the organization and construction. To aid other parishes and churches in the city and country he has not withheld his money or influence, neither has he been confined in his generosity to his own denomination, but all efforts and objects tending to improve the morals and elevate humanity have received from him material aid and hearty sympathy.
In business, his transactions have been large and extended, and have been conducted in such a manner as to furnish no cause of com- plaint from the thousands who have dealt with him. He was a director of the Michigan State Bank until its charter expired, and was the President of the Second National Bank during the entire term of its first charter, and when re-organized as the Detroit National, became its President, which position he held until ill health induced him to withdraw.
As a public man, he was elected a member of the State Senate in 1861, and was Chairman of the Finance Committee, Chairman of the Joint Committee of the two houses to investigate the Treasury Depart- ment and the official acts of the Treasurer, and of the committee to let the contract for the improvement of the Sault Ste. Marie Ship Canal ;
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also a member of the Senate Committee on Banks and Corporations. He was elected Governor in 1868, and re-elected in 1870, serving four years. Among the most important measures initiated by him were the establishment of the State Public School for dependent children, the Eastern Asylum for the Insane, the State House of Correction, im- provements to the existing charitable and reformatory institutions of the State, and creating the present State Board of Health; the building of the new Capitol, also, had its origin with him.
During the administration of Governor Baldwin, occurred the devastating fires of the Northwest and Chicago.
The promptness of Governor Baldwin in taking steps for the immediate relief of the sufferers, and its magnitude, excited the com- mendation of the charitable in every State of the Union, as well as the asting gratitude of those who were the recipients of his benevolent efforts.
The death of Senator Zachariah Chandler, November 1, 1879, created a vacancy in the United States Senate, and Governor Croswell immediately appointed Governor Baldwin to succeed him, which appointment was confirmed by the Legislature. During his term as Senator, he introduced the bill making an appropriation for the new Custom House at Detroit, also sundry other Bills for the better regula- tion of the National Banks and the administration of Government Fin- ances. Since his term as United States Senator expired, he has held no public office, but has always responded to the call of party obliga- tions.
GEORGE V. N. LOTHROP.
George VanNess Lothrop, late Minister of the United States to Russia, was a native of the State of Massachusetts, and was born in the town of Easton, Bristol county, in that State, August 8, 1817. His boyhood was spent on his father's farm. He was prepared for college at Day's Academy, Wrentham, entered as freshman at Amherst Col- lege, where he spent one year, and subsequently, in 1835, entered the sophomore class at Brown University, where he graduated in 1838. He then entered the law school of Harvard University, where he prosecuted his studies under the instruction of Judge Story and Pro- fessor Greenleaf, but did not complete a full course by reason of impaired health. In the autumn of 1839 he decided to visit the West, and having a brother, the late Hon. Edwin H. Lothrop, residing at Prairie Ronde, Kalamazoo county, he made his home with him for two or three years, pursuing farming as a means for recruiting his health.
Resuming his studies in the law office of Messrs. Joy & Porter, at
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Detroit, in March, 1843, he was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Detroit with D. Bethune Duffield, as law partner, in the spring of 1844. Among his contemporaries at the bar at this period were Elon Farnsworth (then Attorney-General), Henry T. Backus, Barstow & Lockwood, George C. Bates, Alexander W. Buel, Samuel T. Douglass, H. N. Walker, H. H. Emmons, Jacob M. and William A. Howard, James V. Campbell, James A. VanDyke, James F. Joy and Augustus S. Porter, all of whom had become famous, not only in Michigan but in other States, and some of whom became more distin- guished subsequently, none of whom are now living except Samuel T. Douglass, James V. Campbell, James F. Joy, and D. Bethune Duffield. With such men Mr. Lothrop began a career which has since been most successful and brilliant.
In April, 1848, Edward Mundy, Attorney-General of the State, having resigned, Mr. Lothrop was appointed his successor. This posi- tion he held until 1851. At this time some excitement existed, occa- sioned, as alleged, by an attempt on the part of the Roman Catholics in Detroit to secure a portion of the school funds for their private schools. Mr. Lothrop had taken very earnest action to counteract the scheme, and an independent ticket for city officers was the result. Mr. Lothrop was nominated and elected Recorder. This was the first position held by him under the city government.
He has several times received the vote of the Democratic mem- bers of the Legislature for the United States Senate, was a member of the State Constitutional Convention in 1867, and was appointed in 1873 by Governor Bagley to a convention authorized by the legislature to prepare amendments to the Constitution, which he declined. For nearly thirty years he was the General Attorney of the Michigan Cen- tral Railway Company.
In May, 1885, he was appointed Minister to Russia by President Cleveland. After a service of over three years at St. Petersburg, Mr. Lothrop resigned his post and returned to Detroit in the autumn of 1888. He has never resumed the practice of his profession.
As a public man, Mr. Lothrop is highly esteemed by all parties. As a lawyer, his name runs through all the Michigan Supreme Court Reports from 1844 to 1884.
As a politician he has been recognized as the leader in his party. He was a member of the famous Charleston National Convention of 1860. He served there as the Michigan member of the Committee on Resolutions. In that committee, which sat for nearly a week, but whose debates and proceedings have never been published, the real battle between the Union and the Secession Wings of the Democracy was fought. In all this struggle, as in the political campaign that followed, Mr. Lothrop stood unflinchingly with the Douglass wing of
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the Democracy. He saw clearly the coming of the bloody strife that was about to sever the country, and from the outset took the stand for the Union and Constitution, which he maintained to the last.
He was the Democratic Candidate for Congress in his district in 1836 and 1860, but was defeated in both canvasses.
As a citizen, his geniality and uniform courtesy has secured for him the love and esteem of the rich and poor alike.
Mr. Lothrop is a member of several benevolent and literary asso- ciations. We find him one of the managers of the Detroit Young Men's Society in 1844, a member of the Historical Society, an Adviser for the Ladies' Orphan Asylum, with the late Hon. C. C. Trow- bridge. He has ever been active in all enterprises tending to beautify and adorn the city, as well as in those promoting its substantial business growth.
As a member of the Historical Society, he is recognized as a member of the Pioneer Society, by virtue of the former being merged into the latter.
EDWARD CAREY WALKER.
Bishop Whately says: "Nothing but right can ever be expedient, since that can never be true expediency which would sacrifice a greater good to a less. Render to all their dues."
St. Paul defines what true expediency is: That law and custom may justify many personal acts, but great wrong may be done others thereby. Those who have known the subject of this sketch and the manner of his life, we fancy, will not charge us with fulsomeness if we apply the sentiment as governing the life and conduct of Edward Carey Walker. The history of the family from which he sprang is given in the sketch of his brother, the Hon. Charles I. Walker, hence it is not necessary to detail his antecedents, only as they relate to him personally.
Mr. Walker was born July 4th, 1820. He received his academical education under the instructions of Prof. Zenas Morse and Nathan Bishop. At the age of fifteen he studied practical engineering with William J. McAlpin, resident engineer of the Chenango Canal. He continued with him until a serious accident prevented his return to field work, and on a visit to his sister in 1837, was prevailed upon by his brother-in-law, Mr. A. C. McGraw, to enter upon the study of law, and as preliminary thereto, he commenced his course under the instructions of C. W. Fitch, D. D., principal of the Branch University, who fitted him for the Junior Class of Yale College, which he entered in 1840. He graduated from Yale in 1842, in the same class with Professors
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James Hadley and J. A. Porter, and at once began his law studies with Messrs. Joy and Porter, with whom he remained three years, with the exception of the year spent under the tutorship of Judge Story at Cam- bridge Law School. Among his class mates at the latter were Anson Burlingame and B. Rutherford Hayes. In 1845 he was admitted to the bar at Detroit, and has continued the practice of his profession here continuously up to the present time, making collections a specialty. During this period he has had as associates his brother, Hon. Chas. I. Walker, Hon. Alfred Russell, Hon. Chas. A. Kent, and has at the pres- ent time his son Bryant Walker, who constitute the firm of Walker & Walker.
Although Mr. Walker was educated in the Quaker faith, he in early youth united with the Presbyterians, and is a member of the Fort street Presbyterian church of Detroit, and has been promi- nently identified with its interests for over forty years. As a citizen Mr. Walker has been ardent and active in promoting and establishing in the city and throughout the State educational and moral institutions. He was for several years a member and Secretary of the Board of Education of Detroit. He was elected Regent of the State University in 1863, and was re-elected continuously, serving as such up to 1881. He was a member of the State Legislature in 1867-68, serving as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Walker in politics is, and has been since the organization of the party, a Republican; was a member of the committee appointed in Detroit for the preliminary inception of the convention at Jackson in 1854.
In business connected with his profession, Mr. Walker is recognised as leading in the matter of titles to real estate. Capitalists at the east have long employed him as their agent in loans. He has also been largely interested in manufacturing industries in Detroit, and in all his walks, whether as member of the church, as an attorney, as a public man or as a private citizen, he enjoys the confidence and respect of all who have intercourse or bear relations with or to him in these varied responsibilities.
June 16th, 1852, he married Miss Lucy Bryant, daughter of Dea- con Abner Bryant, of Buffalo, New York. She was born at Buffalo in 1827, and departed this life at Detroit, March 10th, 1883, leaving two children, Bryant, who is associated with him in business, and a daughter, who recently married the Rev. Dr. Wallace Radcliffe, pastor of the Fort street Presbyterian Church.
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FRANCIS GRANGER RUSSELL.
Being to the " manor born," the subject of this sketch can safely be classed among the pioneers of Michigan.
Mr. Francis Granger Russell, as his name suggests, belongs to a race somewhat allied to those whose names in England and America are identified and are recognized as progressionists, indicating inde- pendence, enterprise and integrity, all of which qualities have been manifested as possessed by his immediate ancestors, of which he is a fair exemplar and representative. He was born in Livingston county, Michigan, April 16th, 1837, or about two months prior to Michigan's admission to full communion with the other States. His father, William Sanderson Russell, was born at Sunderland, Massachusetts, on the 26th day of November, 1807. His mother, Jane Althea Knox, was born near Bennington, Vt., on the 4th day of February, 1817. As her name indicates she came from the family of Washington's chief of artillery, General Knox, who was nearly related to Commodore Perry, of later fame. Mr. Russell's parents were married at Riga, Monroe county, New York, on the 3d day of February, 1833. There were three sons and two daughters born to them. His mother died October 8th, 1850, and his father August 27th, 1870. That the parents were of an enterprising character, as well as independent and self-reliant, is evidenced by the manner of their early life; leaving a well settled region in Monroe county, New York, traveling through Canada with an ox team until they reached the Territory of Michigan, they located on the Grand river trail at its intersection with the Huron river, thirty- seven miles from Detroit, and made a home among the oak openings of Livingston county. His minority was crowded with hard work on the farm, yet not monotonous, for he utilized every spare moment in reading, inspired by the injunctions of his mother "to fit himself as a proper representative of his race to take a position among the men of his time." He was but thirteen years of age when his mother died, and having acquired, at the district school, the preliminary training, at the age of seventeen he entered the State Normal School, from which he graduated in the spring of 1858. His following history in chrono- logical order is-That from 1858 to 1861 he was principal of the Middle Union school, of Lansing. From April, 1861, to July, 1864, he was connected with the Interior Department, Washington, and for about three months served in the local organization mustered for the defense of Washington. Department life not suiting him, and the climate not being agreeable, he resigned his position and came to Detroit. In 1865
. he became secretary of the metropolitan Police Board of Commissioners, then just created. In the fall of 1868, upon a rigid and open examina- tion before a full bench he was admitted to practice law, by the Supreme Court. At this time Governor Henry P. Baldwin being then just
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elected, made him his private secretary. Three years subsequently he was elected, over a very popular competitor, City Attorney of Detroit, and at the end of his term was re-elected, serving the city as its attor- ney four years. He was elected alderman of his ward in 1877 and during his incumbency of that office, among other things, was conspic- uous for his advocacy of the city's purchase of Detroit's beautiful island park. In the fall of 1879 he was again elected city attorney. His main business since has been the management of bankrupt estates, in which he has had large experience.
In public and private life, as exhibited by Mr. Russell, we have an instance of what independence, energy and honesty will make in a man, whose early instincts are directed by proper maternal education- "an American citizen."
In September, 1863, he went to Ohio and married on the 10th of that month, Miss Helen Edwards, daughter of O. Jay Edwards, of Springfield, Ohio. She was born at Medina, New York, in 1843. Her ancestors were of English descent and her uncle, Silas M. Burroughs, was congressman from New York. Mrs. Russell died May 3d, 1890.
Mr. Russell has three children, born as follows: Clinton W., November 19th, 1864; Lela, April 23d, 1866; Frank P., April 26th, 1870. A bright and promising son, Walter Knox, born May 14th, 1868, died September 23, 1883.
He had one brother, DeWitt Clinton, who died in the army December 3d, 1861, and has living one brother, Wm. Henry Harrison -a lawyer-and two married sisters, Mariam H. Brooks, of Detroit, Michigan, and Helen R. Ulrich, of Chicago.
WILLIAM A. HOWARD.
" I was born in poverty, and my mother had a struggle against it through all the years of my young life. I have been sick a great deal, but I can truly say that mercies have been scattered all along-good- ness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life, and my only regret is, that I have not been more perfectly transformed."
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