USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > Compendium of history and biography of Hillsdale County, Michigan > Part 23
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Andrew L. Davis was educated in the schools of his native state, finishing at an excellent acad- emy at Albion, Orleans county, New York, which he attended for six years. After leaving the academy he taught school in New York until
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1861, when he came to Hillsdale county and set- tled on the farm he has since occupied as his home. Fifty acres of it were then partially cleared and he has since cleared fifty more and also made extensive improvements on the tract. After coming to this state he taught school for twelve years. In 1878 he was elected supervisor of his township, serving continuously for fifteen years, except during one period of four years. In 1859 he was married to Miss Mary A. Teach- out, a New Yorker by nativity and the daughter of Jacob and Rachel (Curtis) Teachout. Iler mother died at their New York home, and, soon thereafter, her father made his home with Mr. Davis, dying at his house. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have had six children, all but one of whom are living. They are Letta and Louie, twins, the former Mrs. J. H. Cary, and the latter Mrs. E. J. Watkins, both residents of Hillsdale; Sabra A., wife of George Miles, but residing with her parents ; Julia, living at Toledo ; Miles T., a resi- dent of Detroit, who has recently been gradu- ated from the law school. Mr. Davis has been an active, working Republican during all of his ma- ture life, and in fraternal relations is connected with the Masonic order and the Patrons of Hus- bandry, taking great interest in the work of both organizations and giving both good and valued service. No citizen of the township stands high- er or is more generally esteemed.
HON. CHARLES T. MITCHELL.
Pioneer, merchant, banker, promoter, publicist and philanthropist, conspicuous in each of these lines of usefulness for the magnitude of his un- dertakings, the intensity of his energy, the con- stancy of his purpose, the correctness of his methi- ods and the success which followed his efforts, the late Hon. Charles T. Mitchell, of Hillsdale, Michigan, was for more than half a century one of the leading citizens of Michigan, being a po- tential factor in her growth and development, an unyielding bulwark in defense of her institutions, an inspiration to her educational and moral forces
and an ornament to her social life. He became a resident of the state in 1838, when he was twenty- one years old, and he was laid to his last earthly rest in her soil at the close of 1898, when sixty years of his active and multiform usefulness had brought innumerable and inestimable benefactions to her people.
Charles T. Mitchell was born on June 29. 1817, at Root, now Canajoharie, Montgomery county, New York. His parents were Charles and Lydia Kate (Brown) Mitchell, both natives of that state, the former born at Ballston in 1770. and the latter at Schenectady. The father, a prom- inent and prosperous farmer and miller, was the son of Col. Andrew Mitchell, the second in com- mand of a regiment of New York volunteers in the Revolution, who in that struggle fought val- iantly for American independence. In this regi- ment his two sons, Robert and William, were also soldiers, and they shared with him the hardships, privations and successes of its campaigns. It was stationed on the northern frontier, in what is now Saratoga county, and, on one occasion, a band of Canadian Tories and Indians crossed the line and captured the commander and many other officers. The command then devolved on Colonel Mitchell, who pursued the invaders several days, but was unable to overtake them. After the war Colonel Mitchell was a member of the Legislature of New York, when Montgomery county, which he in part represented in that body, embraced in its enormous arca all of the state west of Al- bany. To attend the sessions, which were held in New York city, he was obliged to go to Albany on horseback and then by sloop down the Hudson to the metropolis, the voyage down the river occupying from four to six days. During the Revolution he purchased a patent of title, based on the English grant of King James, giving him possession in fee simple to several hundred acres of land in Spraker's Basin, on the Mohawk just west of Anthony's Nose. The remaining years of his life were passed almost wholly in Saratoga. His son, Charles Mitchell, the father of Charles T., was born in that county on July 22, 1763. and in mature life married with Miss Lydia Kate Brown, also a native of that county, born on Feb-
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ruary 19, 1782. Soon after his marriage he moved with his wife to Montgomery county, in the same state, where his children, eight sons and four daughters, were born and reared, and where he died in 1857, his wife in 1865. This has been a long-lived family, for the father was ninety- four years old at his death, and the mother but one year less at hers. The first of the children to die was fifty-three years of age when the event occurred, and Charles T. Mitchell, the immediate subject of these paragraphs and the last surviv- ing member of the family, was eighty-one years and six months old when his death occurred on December 29, 1898.
Mr. Mitchell passed his boyhood and early youth in his native county, and received a limited education in its public schools, going to work for himself as a clerk in the store at Schoharie at the age of fourteen and remaining there in that ca- pacity for three years. In the spring of 1838 he came to Michigan, and for the next three years was connected with the construction of the rail- road from Adrian to Hillsdale. In 1843 he lo- cated at Hillsdale, engaged in the forwarding and commission business, continuing this industry un- til Hillsdale ceased to be the western terminus of the road. In 1851 he started a hardware busi- ness at Hillsdale, which he conducted with vigor and success until 1865, when other engrossing and more congenial business interests obliged him to retire from it. In 1855, in partnership with Henry Waldron and John P. Cook, he established the first bank of Hillsdale, the firm name being Mitchell, Waldron & Co. Mr. Cook withdrew from this enterprise in 1863, and, at that time, Messrs. Mitchell & Waldron established the Sec- ond National Bank of Hillsdale, whose business they carried on until the death of Mr. Waldron's brother in 1877 caused him to close his connec- tion with the bank. From that time Mr. Mitchell, as president of the bank, had full charge of its affairs until 1884, when his advancing age and declining health induced him to retire altogether from active business, and to seek, for the remain- 'der of an active and bountifully productive ca- reer, the quiet repose that comes only to the couch of private life. The bank which he had founded
was then firmly established on a sound financial basis, securely fixed in public confidence. It had received the impress of his broad, resolute and re- sourceful financial spirit ; for twenty years its' course had been guided by his master hand. The impulse to its activity and the trend of its prog- ress which he had so long given were its inspira- tion and its guiding power ; in unswervingly fol- lowing these it steadily advanced in prosperity, influence and usefulness.
In public affairs the services of Charles T. Mitchell to the state were exalted in character and of great value. He was appointed on the commission to locate and build the State Reform School for boys in 1855. This was erected at Lansing and is one of the most complete, con- venient and satisfactory public buildings in the state. In 1870 Governor Baldwin made him chairman of the State Board of Charities, while in 1873 Governor Bagley appointed him a trus- tee of the State Insane Asylum. In both positions he gave conscientious and devoted attention to the interests he had in charge, carrying to the performance of his official duties wide knowledge, extensive experience, fine business capacity and a broad and elevated humanity. His zeal for the welfare of his city, his county and his state was ever restless and unyielding, and he paid tribute in a most helpful way to every line of productive and improving local enterprise. He was largely instrumental in making Hillsdale the headquar- ters of several branches of the Lake Shore Rail- way, and almost every commercial, industrial and educational interest in the city and county was quickened by the touch of his tireless hand, broad- ened by the influence of his active mind. In pol- itics he was a Whig until the organization of the Republican party, and from 1856 until his death · he steadfastly adhered to and loyally supported the principles of that organization. In 1864 he was a delegate to the Republican National Con- vention, which, at Baltimore, nominated Abraham Lincoln for a second presidential term; in 1888 he was a member of the convention held at Chi- cago that placed the second Harrison in nomina- tion for the same office. In 1880 he was one of the presidential electors for Michigan.
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Mr. Mitchell married with Miss Harriet S. Wing, on September 2, 1847. She was the able daughter of Hon. Austin E. Wing, of Monroe, Michigan, who came on horseback from Mari- etta, Ohio, in company with General Cass and Governor Woodbridge as a pioneer to the state i11 1816. They were obliged to feel their way along Indian trails through a dense wilderness, ford turbulent rivers of unknown depth, cross high hills and trackless plains by the guidance of the stars, knowing that savage beasts and still more savage men were menacing their safe- ty. Mr. Wing located at Detroit, then but a hamlet on the river bank. He graduated from Williams College, and had a comprehensive and well-digested knowledge of public affairs. In politics he was an ardent Democrat, a tower of strength to his party in the new territory, which, at that time, embraced a vast area con- taining what is now the state of Wisconsin. HIc was appointed the first collector of customs at Detroit soon after his arrival there and later was twice elected a delegate from Michigan to Con- gress. His last public office was that of U. S. marshal for the state, to which he was ap- pointed by President Polk. His memorable pub- lic career only terminated at his death in 1848.
Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell became the parents of four sons and two daughters. Their living chil- dren are William W. Mitchell and Austin W. Mitchell, of Cadillac, in this state, and Mrs. Dr. W. H. Sawyer of Hillsdale. In accordance with the spirit of beneficence which animated his life, and with the active cooperation of his wife, Mr. Mitchell devised to the city of his home, the place of his business successes and his public services, his elegant residence at Hillsdale to be used as a library building, bequeathing also the sum of $10,000 for the purchase of suitable furnishings and books to form a permanent library, retaining therein only a life interest for his widow. This forms a visible, noble and enduring memorial of them, which will ever be typical of their lives, flowing on in a constant, steady, full current of active goodness, in whose benefits all classes in the community had a share.
BUCHANAN DOBSON.
Buchanan Dobson, whose untimely death on February 26, 1901, at the carly age of forty-five, when all his faculties appeared to be in full vigor. and life was full of promise, was a decided loss to the county and he was universally lamented, being one of the best-known and most prosper- ous and progressive farmers of Fayette town- ship. He was born and reared on the farm on which he died, and on this estate he passed the whole of his life, which began on August 27, 1856. His parents were Richard and Charlotte ( Havenor) Dobson, the former one a native of County Westmoreland, England, and the latter of Germany. The father came to the United States in 1839, when a young man, and made his way directly to Michigan, where he settled on the farm which is still the family estate, and here he passed his life engaged in its elevating and profitable labors, aiding, in his way, to push forward the growth and development of the township, and dying in 1863. His patriotic de- votion to the land of his adoption was shown by his continual interest in her welfare, and partic- ularly by his valiant service in the Black Hawk Indian War. He was a Democrat in politics, loyal to his party and zealous in its service. He was married in 1843 and his family consisted of nine children, six of whom are now living, as is his widow, who has accomplished the age of eighty-one years.
Their son, Buchanan Dobson, attained man- hood in his native township and was educated in its public schools. When he was twenty-two years old, he took charge of the home farm and conducted its operations during the remainder of his life. While warmly interested in the wel- fare of his community, giving to every undertak- ing for its development and improvement faith- ful and serviceable assistance, he was not an act- ive partisan in a political way, seeking no per- sonal preferment. On April 7, 1891, he mar- ried with Miss Lydia Waite, a native of Van Buren county of this state, where her parents, Lyman O. and Valeria B. Waite, now reside.
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HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Mr. and Mrs. Dobson had five children, Glenn, Kittie, Robert G., Blanche W. and Bertie. The latter died on January 15, 1903, at the age of two years and five months.
DR. ARTHUR G. DOTY.
One of the leading physicians and surgeons of Woodbridge township, in this county, who is also its active and vigilant health officer, is Dr. Arthur G. Doty, of Frontier, a native of Mis- souri, born in that state, on August 30, 1873, dur- ing a temporary residence of his parents. His father, Albert Doty, and also his mother, whose maiden name was Laura Wilcox, were both na- tives of Hillsdale county, and the father has here been engaged in farming all of his mature life, except during the short residence in Mis- souri already alluded to. The mother died in Missouri and the father soon after returned to Hillsdale county, Mich. The grandfather, Ormus Doty, came from Vermont to Michigan among the early arrivals in this part of the state and located in Ransom township, where he cleared up a farm of 160 acres of government land, dy- ing while he was diligently engaged in improv- ing and cultivating it. During the dark days of the peril of the Union he was a brave soldier in the Civil War.
ning golden opinions from the observant public and his professional brethren by his skill, cool- ness and excellent judgment in the performance of difficult and delicate operations. He is a member of the county medical society and a val- ued contributor to the interest and benefit of its meetings. As health officer of the township, his administration is vigorous and discriminat- ing, while vigilant and conscientious in looking after the public weal he is neither arbitrary nor unreasonable towards individual citizens, being highly appreciated as a professional man and also standing well as a citizen.
SILAS DOTY.
With the tide of emigration that flowed stead- ily into Michigan in the early forties, and for a. few years previous to that time, came Silas Doty, afterwards known as one of the most pro- gressive and successful pioneer farmers of the southern part of the state. He settled in Cam- bria township, this county, and in that section passed the remainder of his useful life, arriving in the state in 1840. He was a native of Cort- land county, New York, born on July 13, 1817, and the son of Isaac and Charlotte (Loomis) Doty, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of good New. English stock. They were Doctor Doty secured his preliminary acad- emic education at the public schools of Ransom township and concluded them at Hillsdale high school. After completing his course at the high school he became a teacher for a number of years and then until 1896 engaged in farming. At that time he entered the Michigan Medical College at Detroit, and, after passing three years in dili- gent study at that institution, he took a special course of instruction at the Detroit Homeo- pioneer settlers in Cortland county, there accu- mulated a valuable and well-improved property, and, in 1828, being again desirous of living on the frontier, they set out with their family of eight children, of whom Silas was the seventh, for the remote and unsettled territory of Michi- gan, journeying hither by teams to Syracuse, a distance of forty miles, thence by a canal boat to Buffalo, where they took passage on a steamer for Detroit. From that inchoate city they came pathic College, where he was graduated in April, . across the country by ox teams to Ypsilanti, 1900. He then spent a year in Grace Hospital, Detroit, and, at its conclusion, located at Fron- tier, in Woodbridge township, where he has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession, giving special attention to sur- gery, in which he has been very successful, win-
which was at that time a mere hamlet. Here they remained two years and, in 1830, removed to near Adrian, in Lenawee county, where their son, Silas, entered the employ of Darius Com- stock, one of the first settlers of that county. Soon thereafter the parents, with a part of the
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family, removed to Oakland county, and located in Highland township, where they passed the rest of their lives, the father dying at the age of seventy-two, and the mother at that of sixty- two. Their son, Silas, remained in the employ of Mr. Comstock until 1840, when, in January of that year, he came to Hillsdale county and went to work at Cambria for B. B. Willitts, a kinsman of Mr. Comstock. He was industrious and frugal, and, although his pay was only fifty cents a day he managed to save enough to pur- chase eighty acres of land in the township, which became the home of his mature manhood and the foundation of his fortunc. This he bought in 1841 and subsequently hc added another tract of eighty acrcs to the first, and, by great thrift and enterprise, he reduced both to subjection and brought to a high state of cultivation. In his' arduous work he was ably assisted by his excellent wife, who was formerly Miss Catherinc VanVlack, a native of Dutchess county, Ncw York, whom he married on October 26, 1842. They were the parents of four children, Henry F., Edwin, Addic and Mary. Addic married Sylvester Lawrence, who is now a resident of Kansas, and died at Reading, this state, in 1873; Henry F., married Sarah J. DePuy and is now a prominent business man of Reading; Edwin married H. Ellen Norris and resides on the homestead; Mary, now the wife of James Cur- ran, lives at Reading.
Edwin Doty was born in this county on May 26, 1846, and was reared on his father's farm and educated in the district schools near by. Sincc leaving school he has worked on the home farm and since he became of age he has managed its operations. He has given to his work in this line the most careful and thoughtful attention, has made free use of every means of wider knowledge on the subject of agriculture that has been available to him, and his farming has been productive of correspondingly agreeable results. He married on December 31, 1868, with Miss H. Ellen Norris, a daughter of Joel B. Norris, ore of the pioneers of the township and a scion of an old and famed Revolutionary family of New
England. He was born at Canandaigua, On- tario county, New York, on April 2, 1821, and was reared and educated in his native cou On December 16, 1846, he married Miss Mar- garct M. Brown, also a native of New York. . and, in 1853, they came to Michigan and took up their residence in Cambria township where they are now living. Mr. and Mrs. Doty have two children, their sons, Willard L. and Walter R. Mr. Doty has never taken an active part in politics, although giving his party, the Repub- lican, loyal support at all times, consenting at times to fill township offices for the general good of the community. He and his wife are meni- bers of the Baptist church and to its affairs both give their close attention, while in its active charitics they take a leading part. They are well esteemcd as among the best citizens of the township and have earned by their genuine worth and usefulness the general regard and good will in which they so securcly rest.
THE STATE BANK OF READING.
This highly appreciated and successful finan- cial institution was organized as a. state bank, in 1889, after a creditable and useful career, covering a number of years of active service to the community as a private banking establish- ment. It was founded as a private bank by H. B. and A. R. Chapman, and as such was conduct- ed by them for a number of years. They then sold to C. W. Waldron, who carried it on for several ycars, on the same basis, when it was purchased of Mr. Waldron by W. B. Northrop and Henry F. Doty, and by them continued as a private bank until December, 1899, when it was reorganized as a state bank, having a cap- ital stock of $25,000, Henry F. Doty being the president, George G. Clark vicc-president, and W. B. Northrop cashier. In 1900 Mr. North- rop resigned the cashiership and was succeeded by George B. Terpening ; on January 1, 1901, J. W. Chapman succeeded Mr. Clark as the vice- president. A general banking business is con- ducted by the institution and its liberal spirit of accommodation and excellent financial man-
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HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
agement have made it one of the most popular and appreciated fiscal enterprises in this part of the county. Its business has steadily in- creased, its hold on the favor and good opinion of the public has been enlarged and strengthened as time has passed. .
Henry F. Doty, the president of the bank and its ruling spirit and chief inspiration, is a native The prosperous and enterprising farmer of Allen township to whom this brief review is dedicated and an account of whose interesting life it records, was one of the first of the white children born in southern Michigan, where his life began, on September 26, 1840, in Lenawee county. His parents were William B. and Susan L. (Decker) Eldred, natives of the state of New of Hillsdale county, born in Cambria township, on April 28, 1844. His parents were Silas and Catherine (Van Vlack) Doty, natives of New York state, a sketch of whom will be found on another page of this work. They came to Mich- igan in early days and purchased a tract of un- broken land in Cambria township. This the fa- ther cleared and here he made his home until . York, well-to-do farmers there until 1835, when his death on May 1, 1890, when he was the own- the father was about twenty-five years of age, and they came to Michigan voyaging by way of the Erie canal to Buffalo, thence across Lake Erie to Toledo, from there by teams through the Black Swamp to where they first settled in Lenawee county. Four years later, they moved to Hillsdale county, and located in Adams town- ship, where they cleared up a farm and lived un- til 1864. In that year they moved to Allen town- ship, where the father died in 1890 and the mother in 1894. They were the parents of three sons and four daughters. The father was a stanch Republican, but not an office-seeker or an active partisan. The grandfather, Henry El- red, also a "York state" man, was killed by a falling tree before his grandson, Horace, was born. er of 160 acres. The mother is still living and makes her home at Reading. Their family con- sisted of two sons and two daughters, and two sons and one daughter are living. Henry F. was reared on the paternal homestead and was educated at the public schools in the neighbor- hood of his home. In 1869 he started a busi- ness enterprise in the drug trade in partnership association with S. C. Dodge, under the firm- name of Dodge & Doty, at Reading. After nine years of successful and prosperous business they sold, Mr. Doty thereafter serving for seven years as postmaster, giving up the office in 1889, when he organized the bank with which he is now connected. He was one of the organizers and original stockholders of the Reading Robe & Tanning Company, but disposed of his interest therein in the fall of 1902. In addition to his other industries, he manages the operations of a 210-acre stock farm. In politics he is a Re- publican and has always taken great interest in" the success of his party, and, although not at- .
tracted to public office, he has served in several local positions of importance. He married in 1867 with Miss Sarah J. DePuy, a native of Ohio, and a daughter of Philip DePuy of Hills- dale county. . They have two children, E. May, wife of E. A. Dunten, and Leroy H., one of the prominent young business men of Reading. Mrs. Doty died on December 10, 1900, and her death was lamented throughout the entire community,
which locality had been blessed by her long pres- ence and useful life, her genial companionship being most highly appreciated, and she will long be favorably and kindly remembered.
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