USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Chronography of notable events in the history of the Northwest territory and Wayne County > Part 46
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JAMES McMILLAN.
James McMillan, of Detroit, was born in Hamilton, Ontario, May 12th, 1838. He was the second of a family of six sons and one daughter born to William and Grace McMillan, who came to America from Scotland in 1834. The father occupied a responsible position in connection with the Great Western railway, and when he died in 1874, he left to his children a substantial fortune. James McMillan was fitted for college, but decided to enter upon a business life. He came to Detroit and spent several years in the hardware business. Then he became purchasing agent of the Detroit and Milwaukee railroad, and afterwards, while yet in his minority, he had charge of the men who built the railroad piers at Grand Haven. In this service with a firm of railroad contractors he rapidly developed those powers of financial fore-
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sight and ability to handle men which have been the sources of his suc- cess. In 1864 Mr. McMillan, in company with John S. Newberry, E. C. Dean and George Eaton, started the Michigan Car Co., out of which has grown the Detroit Car Wheel Co., the Detroit Iron Furnace Co., the Baugh Steam Forge Co., the Fulton Iron and Engine Works, the Newberry Furnace Co., the Detroit Pipe and Foundry Co., of all of which corporations he is the president. He conceived and carried out what is now the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic railroad, which . opened to settlement the Upper Peninsula; and he is now president of that road. He is president of the Sault St. Marie Bridge Co., of the Detroit and Cleveland Steam Navigation Co., of the Detroit and Duluth and Atlantic Transportation Co., and of the Michigan Tele- phone Co. He is also a director in the Detroit Savings and the First National Banks, in the Ferry Seed Co., and in the Detroit Dry Dock Co.
In 1876 and again in 1886 Mr. McMillan was a member of the Republican State Central Committee. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1888, receiving the unanimous vote of his party, in both the legislative caucus and the election.
In 1860 Mr. McMillan married Miss Wetmore, of Detroit. They have five children living, William C. McMillan, who is associated with his father in business; James H. McMillan, who is about to enter upon the practice of law; two younger sons and a daughter. It is not easy to find words to express the superlative degree of Mr. McMillan's useful- ness as a public spirited citizen. Grace Hospital in Detroit, the McMillan Shakespeare Library at the University, the Tupper collection of insects at the Agricultural College, are only the more visible signs of a benevo- lence at once widespread, discriminating, thoroughly helpful and entirely without ostentation.
DAVID WHITNEY.
Some writer has given the following significance to the word " shrewdness " as applied to men and their characteristics :
" Shrewdness is to the man of activity what scholarship is to the man of thought-the one is a knowledge of the contents of books, the other is the knowledge of the ways of men."
While it does not follow that a shrewd man in his business transac- tions is destitute of book knowledge, yet a man may possess that natural sagacity which enables him to read men, and anticipate the probable result following from their action, and thereby utilize it to his advantage.
That the subject of this sketch has exhibited more than ordinary
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sagacity in his business transactions, needs no proof further than to point to the results achieved by him since his advent into Michigan. Follow the principal streets of Detroit, and we find magnificent business blocks bearing his name, and others in process of construction, while his private residence, now occupied by him, and others claiming him as their projector, show how he has disposed of his accumulations, to beautify and adorn our city. Take a steamer at Buffalo for Lake Superior, and you meet or pass huge vessels whose papers indicate him as their owner, and that they are carrying the products of his pine and timber lands and the manufactures of his mills, to supply the Eastern demand.
They are only a moiety of the instruments employed by him to further the enterprises which his shrewdness has devised.
Examine the list of manufactories and incorporated companies, and you will note his name among the prominent stockholders.
The records of the churches, of the benevolent and educational institutions of the State and city, exhibit the evidence as to his liberality in promoting their establishment and conduct.
David Whitney, Jr., is a native of the State of Massachusetts. He came to Michigan in 1856, since which he has been engaged in the lumber and vessel business.
Mr. Whitney is Presbyterian in his religious convictions, and Re- publican in his political affiliations.
He has not sought or held any public political position, is thoroughly read in the theory of political economy, forms his own opinion as to the measures which will benefit public and private inter- ests and protect the rights of the people. He is not arrogant or osten- tatious in manner, or conversation, but is cordial, pleasant, placing time at its true value, is somewhat reticent and cautious, weighing well his words before uttering them.
Mr. Whitney is not an early pioneer, but has been in Michigan long enough to be recognized as having done so much to develope its natural resources, and in adding to its material wealth, that its history would seem incomplete without the association of his with the names of those pioneers who have made the city of Detroit and the State what it is to-day, and hence the name appears in this work.
JOSEPH W. DONOVAN.
Joseph W. Donovan, now widely known as a writer, is a native of Toledo, was born March 2d, 1842, and remained on his father's farm and in district schools up to 17, and later graduated from the Jonesville Academy, having paid his way through school by work at the joiner's
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bench. He was admitted to the Detroit bar in 1870, after taking law lectures in Ohio, and reading the Ann Arbor course with F. A. Baker. He commenced practice alone; soon he became attorney for a corporation, and traveled extensively, on a large salary, over the United States and Canada. Returning in 1872, he settled in Detroit and became a partner of John G. Hawley in 1873; was a year and a half with F. A. Baker in 1874-5; in 1876 and 1880 he was defeated for Prosecuting Attorney, his county strongly Democratic. In 1881 he published " Modern Jury Trials," and in 1883, "Trial Practice;" in 1885, "Tact in Court." His specialty is jury trials, of which he has prepared for the bar many rare specimens, his books being very extensively read. His law books were all written evenings, and after office hours. He is a well-known writer in all the legal periodicals of the day. His literary and legal items have been extensively copied, and all his books have a large sale, the themes being attractive, set in plain, strong terms, with pointed brevity and intense earnestness, while all illustrations come fresh from life, from travel, and the experience of excellent advocates, from whom he receives the latest and ablest arguments in America.
He was married in 1865 to Nettie L. Brainard, of Waterville, Ohio. At home he is a great lover of books of oratory, of whist, and fond of a good horse.
The father of the subject of this sketch, Michael Donovan, was of Scotch-Irish descent, and an early settler and pioneer farmer of Hillsdale county, having spent two years near Toledo, on his way from Syracuse, N. Y., where he had resided (up to 1840) from boyhood. He raised seven sons and three daughters, all of whom are living in Michigan. He was a very strong, hearty, friendly man, a great lover of books, and quite eloquent of speech; a Methodist in belief, who retained his vigor up to seventy-eight years of age, and died in 1873.
His wife, Rhoda Chambers, was of the well-known Chambers' Encyclopædia family, and died in 1865. Most of her surviving relatives reside near Toledo; one brother is now hale and hearty and over eighty. The Chambers family in England is very numerous, many of them quite wealthy. A large estate is still tied up in Chancery, to await a future division, a very small part having been distributed.
JOHN FITCH.
As the subject of this sketch was at one time a resident of Detroit, and as he is well known to have first suggested the use of steam as a motive power, it is deemed proper that he should be referred to in this compilation.
John Fitch, the inventor, was born at Hartford, Windsor county,
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Conn., January 21, 1743. In early life he evinced a great love for the science of mechanics. As early as 1760 he wrote an article on the employment of steam as a motor. In 1785 he exhibited to General Washington a model for its application to vessels, and in a letter pre- dicted that it would be used in crossing the ocean, and in driving carriages on land.
His first launch of a steamboat was in 1788, when he made a trip from Philadelphia to Burlington on the Delaware river. On the return trip the boiler burst. He subsuquently repaired it and made daily trips between Trenton and Philadelphia. He propelled with paddles and was no doubt the original inventor.
Prior to this period, in 1782, he was made a prisoner by the Indians on the Muskingum river, Kentucky, and by them brought to Detroit, traveling a distance of 1,000 miles, and delivered to the English as a prisoner of war. After being held as such some time in Detroit he was sent to Quebec and exchanged. He and his party were the first whites captured after Wilkinson's massacre of the Moravian Indians. John Fitch was a wanderer, and like other inventors, never realized anything from his inventions pecuniarily.
He died at Beardstown, Nelson county, Ky., in June, 1789. His only son, Shuler, became a farmer near Houlburd, Trumbull county, Ohio, where some of his descendents still reside.
GEN. ELLISON C. DUNCAN.
Gen. Ellison C. Duncan's well-known and strongly marked physi- ognomy and figure, the expression of the former indicating a kind and generous nature, combined with courage, independence and frankness, and the movements of the latter by the firm step and erect bearing showing that his body is under the control of a strong will, is familiar to many in Detroit.
Ellison C. Duncan was born at Lyons, Wayne county, N. Y., November 12th, 1817. His opportunities for acquiring an education, were the common schools of Lyons, which he improved to the extent of securing sufficient knowledge to venture into the world outside of his parental home at a very early age, and to rely upon himself for his future. In 1833 he took a canal boat for Albany, from thence he pro- ceeded to New York and Newark, N. J., and engaged in the service of the New Jersey Railroad, which subsequently became known as the Pennsylvania Railroad, serving from 1836 to 1861. In the latter year he came to Detroit, where he has since resided and conducted a suc- cessful business.
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His experince as engineer is so full of interest that we insert it as told by himself; the statements made in regard to most of it are con- firmed by General Schuyler, the superintedent of the road during a great portion of the period named:
"I worked for the Pennsylvania road from 1836 to 1861," said General Duncan. "In 1836 the road was not by any means completed between Washington and New York. Horses, dogs and steam con- veyed the mails between these two cities then. I was first employed in the horse department, and used to gallop from Newark to Jersey City with the mail. I have occasion to remember this, as I broke three ribs on one of these horseback rides. Between some of the stations blood- hounds were employed to carry the mail matter, the letters being fas- tened around their necks. Soon after, I was offered an opportunity to run a locomotive, and I at once bound myself over as an apprentice. My run was between Jersey City and New Brunswick. In the course of my long service, I carried the farewell message of President Jackson, the inaugural address of President William Henry Harrison and one of President Tyler's messages.
" I built the cab on my engine in 1838. Until that time our loco- motives, like the English, afforded the engineer no protection against the cold and wet. We all had to wear tarpaulins, and 'nor' westers,' like a sailor in mid-ocean, to keep out the rain and cold. When I sug- gested the idea of erecting a structure on the engine that would do away with the necessity of wearing these heavy garments, which seriously impaired the engineer's efficiency, the rest of the boys laughed at me and pooh-poohed at the scheme.
"I carried it out, however, by erecting four posts, two on each side of the boiler, roofing the open spaces over, and suspending curtains from the sides and rear. In front I constructed a frame work, into which an SxIo window was set. This commanded a complete view of the track ahead.
"I shall never forget the first run I made with my new fangled engine. It was a cold, blustering, stormy night. We arrived at the turn-out switch first, and ran out on the side track to wait for the train that was coming in the opposite direction, for there were no double tracks in those days. I was in my shirt sleeves, as it was warm and comfortable inside my cabin. Pretty soon the other train came by. I could see my brother engineer standing on the exposed platform, with his tarpaulin buttoned tight around his chin, his nor'wester pulled down over his ears and his hand on the throttle. I hailed him as he went by. He was traveling just slow enough to get a good look at me, in my shirt sleeves, for I pulled back the curtain on purpose to let him see how comfortable I was. When he arrived at the end of his route he said to the boys:
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"I'm darned if that cabin ain't a pretty good thing. I saw ' Dunk' standing there in his shirt sleeves as I passed him last night, looking as warm as could be, while I was nearly numb with the cold."
"Tom Rogers, of the Patterson Locomotive Works, saw how well my new idea worked, and liked it so well, that he adopted the general plan and built regular houses over the locomotives."
JOHN McBRIDE.
When our first parents violated the compact made with their Creator, their eyes were opened. Decency suggested that they should cover their offences and seek to make amends by pursuing and adopt- ing such a course as would neutralize the results of their alienation. They therefore adopted certain moral precepts and laws to govern their own, and the conduct of their descendants. The first was their duty to their Creator. The second, their obligations to society, and the observance of such rules and laws as would promote moral growth, physical health, and the development of those intellectual powers which are a part of that element which their Creator endowed them with- to distinguish them from the lower, or brute animals.
John McBride, the subject of this sketch, as will be inferred, when his ancestry and his personal experience is detailed, could not do other- wise than conform both in spirit and practice to the precepts inculcated and exemplified by his ancestors.
John is a descendant from a race who suffered persecution at the hands of the bloodthirsty Claverhouse and the equally bigoted and remorseless Bishop Sharpe, during the reign of Charles II., on account of their Cameronian belief and their refusal to part with their inherent rights: "To worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience."
John McBride was born in the Province of Ulster (Stewartstown), Ireland, November 8th, 1820. His father, Robert McBride, was also a native of the same locality and died there July 9th, 1846, leaving his widow, whose maiden name was Mary Mulholland, to the care of John, with whom she emigrated to the United States in 1850, landing at New York in the month of May of that year. After spending some weeks in New York they came to Detroit, where his mother, Mary Mulholland McBride died January 14th, 1882.
March 4th, 1850, Mr. John McBride married Miss Mary Cross. She was a sister of Major Cross, a distinguished physician, chief inspector in the British navy and surgeon general of the British army, and was born in the Province of Ulster, Ireland. They have three
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children, Mary the wife of John Bell, of Detroit; Robert McBride, agent of the Lake Shore railroad, and John, receiving clerk in the wholesale drug house of James E. Davis & Company.
Mr. McBride, since his residence in Detroit, has gained the con- fidence of its citizens and has served the general public faithfully in the several offices of trust and honor which they have bestowed.
He is Republican in sentiment and Scotch Presbyterian in his religious views, maintaining both his religious and political opinions with the same independence and courage as did his fathers before him.
NORTHVILLE.
The village of Northville, in this county, was so named because of its location, in the extreme northwest part of the county, and to distin- guish it from the village of Plymouth, immediately south, and within the township of Plymouth.
It is beautifully situated at the junction of the north and west branch of the stream known as the Rouge, in the valley of which it lies, sur- rounded by hills, reaching fine farms, with grand buildings and orchards, under a high state of cultivation, exhibiting evidences of wealth and in- telligence. Its citizens are enterprising and exemplary in their habits, cultivating and encouraging all influences of a moral and refining char- acter. It has a population of some three thousand, fine church and school buildings are mingled with comfortable and spacious dwellings in the midst of handsome grounds, and not one saloon or drinking place.
The following is a sketch of some of its projectors:
To any one now living who experienced the hardships, privations and sacrifices incident to the settlement of an uninhabited wilderness as was this portion of the Northwest Territory, prior to its becoming a State, the following narrative of one who passed through and was a participant, may prove interesting as well as instructive:
CAPTAIN WILLIAM DUNLAP, late of Northville, in this county, was born at Ovid, Seneca county, N. Y., February 1, 1796. After availing himself of the meagre educational advantages of that period, at the age of eighteen years he was drafted for service in the army of General Scott, which he joined at Buffalo, on the Niagara frontier, a few days after the battle of Lundy's Lane.
As drafted men could not be compelled to cross into Canada, there was a call for volunteers. Mr. Dunlap was one of the very few who responded, and crossing the river, took an active part in the siege of Fort Erie, and the other engagements which followed, serving until peace was declared.
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At the close of the war he returned to his home, receiving from his commanding officer a special certificate of honor, and was soon after chosen First Lieutenant in the local militia. Three years later, after a spirited contest, in which a most popular man was opposed to him, he was elected to the command of the company. Both his commissions are signed by Joseph Yates and De Witt Clinton, respectively Governors of New York.
On the 29th day of December, 1819, he married Miss Sarah Nevius, a native of the State of New Jersey, and born in Somerset county, in that State, May 21, 1801.
After this event they remained at Ovid until 1831, when they started on their journey to Michigan. Three weeks' time were con- sumed before reaching their future home, ten days of which were spent in crossing Lake Erie, and three in getting with ox teams to where the flourishing village of Northville is now located, where he had purchased the farm extending to the base line and lying north of the main streets, and the grist mill formerly owned by John Miller, who had taken up the land from the Government. He was the first to erect and occupy a frame dwelling within the present limits of the village of Northville, he and Daniel Lovejoy Cady laying it out and platting it.
For many years Captain Dunlap ground the grists of the farmers, for thirty miles distant, and it is related of him that he often forgot to take toll from the small grist of some indigent pioneer who had come a long distance, and whose descendants are now in the enjoyment of wealth and luxury. It is also said of him, that his house and larder were open to provide for the physical wants of the pioneer, and his barn fur- nished care for their oxen. As we remember him, he always had a kindly greeting and a pleasant word and smile for rich and poor, young and old.
Mrs. Dunlap was a woman of more than ordinary intellectual capa- city. She always impressed one as being possessed of superior culture and intelligence, and while dignified, she was exceedingly considerate, and readily accommodated her manner and words to the circumstances surrounding, devoting herself to good works, for her family, the church, and the morals of society.
Prior to leaving Ovid, Seneca county, N. Y., Captain Dunlap and his wife, received into their family under articles of adoption, David Clarkston. He subsequently became a wealthy and enterprising citizen of that portion of Wayne county. A brother of Mrs. Dunlap, the Rev. Elbert Nevius, was long a missionary to India, and is prominently men- tioned in the church and missionary history of the past fifty years. He is now living in New York City, 86 years of age, preaching until last year.
Captain William Dunlap, died at his home in Northville, April 10,
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1878, and Mrs. Sarah (Nevius) Dunlap, May 3, 1884. Their surviving children are Mrs. Mary (Dunlap) Yerkes, Mrs. Gertrude (Dunlap) Swift, Mr. George Dunlap, at one time an alderman of, now a resident of Detroit; Emmett, a resident of Montana, Charles, a resident of Detroit, Henry, a well known Presbyterian clergyman and scholar in Iowa, Mrs. Jennie (Dunlap) White and Mrs. Alice Yerkes, who still reside at Northville.
DANIEL LOVEJOY CADY, who was a contemporary of Captain Dunlap in the platting and organization of the village of North- ville, was born November 13, 1787, reached his majority in Mont- gomery county, State of New York, and then removed to Michigan in 1827, purchasing from the Government one hundred and sixty acres of land lying south of the present main streets of Northville, a portion of which he dedicated to the village plat. He was a Justice of the Peace, and received his first appointment as such from General Cass, and was subsequently elected as Justice after the organization of the township. He was married three times. By his first wife his children were all sons: Hiram (living), Anson (recently deceased), Hulse (departed some years since), and Daniel, Jr., who now resides at Mason, Ingham county. By his second wife, he had two children, William Henry, who died before reaching his majority, and Sarah, who is the wife of the Hon. William P. Yerkes, at one time Probate Judge of Wayne county. By his third wife, still living and residing at the old homestead in Northville, he had one daughter, Helen L., to whom the compiler is indebted for the foregoing information.
Daniel Lovejoy Cady died at his home in Northville, August 30, 1860.
Among others who participated in the establishing of Northville are Jabesh M. Mead, Samuel Mead, Jessie Cram, Merritt Randolph, John Jackson, Thomas M. Ladd and Hiram M. Perrin.
DAVID H. ROWLAND was somewhat aggressive, and did much toward making it a manufacturing village. He engaged largely in merchandising, was the owner of the "Argo " and Wayne County Flouring Mills, was somewhat prominent in State politics, was elected to the Legislature, and was a warm, personal and confidential friend of the late Robert McClelland. He was born at Newton, Fairfield county, Connecticut, in May, 1798, drifted to Perrington, Monroe county, N. Y., and in 1819 married Miss Mary Gregory, a sister of Sherrard Gregory, who was a member of the Michigan Legislature two sessions prior to the removal of the Capitol to Lansing, and of Dr. David Greg- ory, an eminent physician, who practiced in that portion of the county from 1832 up to 1857. As stated, David H. Rowland, was aggressive in business, in church matters, and in politics. He made himself felt in
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all the directions and interests named. Whatever he undertook he prosecuted to a definite result. His affiliations in the church and with his party at that day were strong and influential. Coming to the township in 1830, he experienced all the disabilities incident to pioneer life. He died June 11, 1860. He had nine children, but only one sur- vives him, Mrs. Cornelia Fox, the widow of the Rev. Thomas Fox, who subsequently married Mr. John Sands, and is still living at North- ville. Mr. John Sands, the husband of Cornelia (Rowland) Fox, is another old pioneer, and was born in West Chester county, N. Y., in 1818, first came to Michigan in 1827, spent a few years in Northville, then removed to Clinton county. He returned to Plymouth, and settled in Northville in 1848, where he has since resided.
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