USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > Compendium of history and biography of Hillsdale County, Michigan > Part 50
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CHARLES H. MORGAN.
A leading citizen of Hillsdale county, Mich., prominent alike in the business, social and public life of the county, is Charles H. Morgan, of this biography. He is a native of Hillsdale township, in the county where he now resides, born on the place which is still his home on May 31, 1845. His parents were Samuel and Sarah (Roode) Morgan, natives of the state of New York, who removed many years ago to the then territory of Michigan, and were well known pioneers of Hillsdale county. The father of Mr. Morgan was born in the city of Albany, New York, on Feb- ruary 15, 1814, of parents who were natives of the state of Massachusetts. In his early life he was a schoolmate of Samuel J. Tilden. When
but a young man of nineteen years he determined to build for himself a home in the western wilder- ness, and, leaving the scenes of his childhood and early manhood in New York state, he made
Mr. Morgan was one of the successful and prosperous farmers of that section of the state, being the fourth child of his father's family. He grew to manhood in this county, where, during his early childhood, he attended the district schools of the neighborhood. At the age of four- teen years he attended the village school, four years later becoming a teacher. Subsequently he matriculated at Hillsdale College, where he remained for two terms. At the end of that time he was compelled by circumstances to leave col- lege, thereafter teaching during the winter sea- sons, while in summer he followed the vocation of farming. In this he was occupied for seven years. On June 1, 1871, Mr. Morgan was mar- ried in Moscow township, Hillsdale county, to Miss Celestia J. Nutten, a native of that town- ship, a daughter of Jonathan and Susan (Under- wood) Nutten, the former a native of the state of New York and the latter of Rhode Island. The father of Mrs. Morgan, who was born on April 8, 1812, removed to Hillsdale county, Mich- igan, in 1843, and engaged in agriculture in Mos- cow township up to the time of his death on August 31, 1884. He was a man of ability and accumulated a fine property, which he left as an inheritance to his children. The mother, who was a woman of strong character and of deep piety, passed away in July, 1860.
To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Morgan were born five children, Charles L., Sarah L., Samuel R., Earl S. and Hubert H. The oldest son, Charles L., who married Miss Elizabeth Hodges, of Hillsdale county, is now residing in Adrian, Mich. Previous to her marriage, Mrs. Morgan was a teacher. She received a thorough educa-
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tion in the college at Hillsdale, where she pur- sued a literary course of study, extending over a period of three years. She is a woman of re- finement, as well as of education, and her home is well known for its culture, and the gracious hospitality which is there dispensed. Since 1876. in addition to his farming pursuits, Mr. Morgan has been engaged in the sale of agricultural im- plements, and in this he has met with a marked success. He has also been somewhat extensively engaged in dairying. He is one of the most progressive and successful men in his section of the county. Politically, he is a man of inde- pendent thought and action, although he has usually been identified with the Republican party. Ever more or less active in public affairs, he has held the offices of superintendent of schools, supervisor and clerk of Hillsdale township, and also that of justice of the peace, a position he still holds. In every position to which he has been called by the favor of his fellow citizens, he has been found faithful to every duty, having cievoted himself to his public functions with a fidelity that is unusual as well as commendable.
FREDERICK WILLIAM STOCK.
Frederick William Stock, the proprietor of the Hillsdale City Mills and also of the Litchfield Mills, has been a resident of Hillsdale since 1869, when he purchased what was then the Cook & Waldron mills. In the latter part of that vear he remodeled and rebuilt the mills and supplied them with the most improved machinery of the day. He also increased the water power by deep- ening the millrace from Baw Beese lake. Some years later, he again improved them by intro- ducing steam power, which he uses in connection with water, and installing new engines of in- creased capacity. In 1882 a roller system was in- troduced and this raised the capacity of the mills to 400 barrels a day. Two years later he erected an elevator, 40x50 feet in dimensions, with a capacity of 50,000 bushels, the mills and eleva- tor proper occupying an area of eighty-five feet square, being four stories high. He has since added many improvements, both in method and
equipment, so as to bring his plant and its facili- ties strictly down to date in every respect, and these have increased the capacity to 1,200 barrels. One of these later improvements was the installa- tion of an electric lighting plant, which was first used to furnish light for the mills and his resi- dence ; this being found so successful and satis- factory that he took a contract to provide electric lighting for the city, and, to accomplish this ob- ject, he put in a plant costing $23,000, which he afterwards sold to the city at a loss to himself.
In connection with his mills and milling busi- ness he also operates a cooper shop, in which he mannfactures all the barrels necessary for his trade, employing thirty men in the industry and, oftentimes, a third as many more. In 1894 the cooper shop was destroyed by fire, but was at once rcbuilt on an enlarged scale and with improved appliances. Finding the demand for his output far beyond his ability in production, Mr. Stock in 1880 built his Litchfield mills, and, in con- nection with them also, he conducts a cooper shop. These he has completely fitted up with the latest models of machinery, raising their capacity to 250. barrels. These enormous enterprises af- ford a ready market for the local production of grain and are actual benefactions to the communi- ties in which they operate. Their output is shipped to all parts of the Eastern and Southern states, to many European ports and to the islands between the two continents, the insular and foreign trade being supplied from a branch office at Norfolk, Virginia, which is in charge of Mr. Stock's son, Alexander, who resides there.
Mr. Stock has amply demonstrated his ability to conduct large enterprises and to make them pay. He is a gentleman of wide experience, fine executive capacity, having business qualifications of a high order. In his make-up he combines, in a most serviceable way, the persistency and ciogged determination of his German ancestry with the energy, alertness, enterprise and re- sourcefulness of the American mind. He is a native of the great German empire, born in a Rhine province of Prussia on September 11, 1825. the very same province in which his parents, John W. and Mary Catherine (Dorp) Stock.
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were also born and, after long lives of useful- ness, were buried, and where also the forefathers of the family had lived during time out of mind.
The father was a farmer who was also en- gaged in the grain and flour trade. Six sons were born in the family and no daughters, all of the boys remaining in their native land but Fred- erick. There he was reared and educated, and, in 1855, at the age of twenty, after serving one year in the Prussian army, he came to the United States. His first location was at Cin- cinnati, where he began his life in the New World by clerking in a flour store at twelve dollars a month. In 1858 he rented a mill at Leesville, Crawford county, Ohio, which he conducted un- til the autumn of the year when he removed to Iowa and there he passed the winter. In the spring he went to milling at Tiffin, continuing to be thus employed until 1860, when he went to McGregor and engaged in the same business. At the end of a year the mill he was operating exploded, and as a result the fireman was killed and several other men were injured.
The next few years Mr. Stock passed at Del- phos and Defiance, Ohio, and at Peru, Indiana. From the latter place, Mr. Stock removed to Rochester, and there remained five years. From thence he came to Michigan and this state has since been his home and the seat of his extensive commercial and industrial operations.
In 1858 Mr. F. W. Stock married with Miss Minnie Augusta Charlotte Seidel, a native of Pommern province in Prussia. Of their eight children, four are living and one died in infancy ; August was killed by an accident in the mill in 1883 ; Alfred F. and Josephine died of consump- tion in 1884 ; Adolphus has charge of his father's business at Hillsdale and Litchfield; Frederick W. is at Lewiston, Maine, in charge of a branch office; Alexander is at Norfolk, Virginia, in charge of another branch office ; Louisa A. is mar- ried to Chauncey F. Cook, of Hillsdale. Mr. Stock is a man of great public spirit, always in- terested in whatever may improve or benefit Hillsdale and the county. All of his grain is bought in the state and his money is here kept in circulation. He is an uncompromising Repub-
lican in politics, but, with the exception of serv- ing one term as alderman soon after his arrival in the city, he has never accepted office of any kind. He enjoys universal esteem and confidence.
ST. ANTHONY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH.
St. Anthony's Catholic church of Hillsdale was established, first as a mission in 1856, and, during the half century of its existence, it has had a life of interest, and of continual, although somewhat irregular, progress. Within that period seven priests have blessed it with their ministra- tions, while its congregation has grown from a feeble, and numerically small, beginning, to a membership of eighty families, possessing one of the finest church edifices and homes to be seen in this part of the country. Its founder and first pastor was Rev. J. Kindekans, of Adrian. He established it as a mission, with a few families in its membership, remaining in charge of its in- fant interests until 1858, when Rev. Charles Ry- kaert took charge of it and purchased a church that had been built by the Presbyterian Society, and placed the bantling in a home of its own. He also had charge of the Coldwater mission and remained in active control of both until 1871. He was a native of Belgium, reared and educated in his native land. After leaving Hillsdale he went to Mt. Clemens and there he died in 1890.
· He was succeeded by Rev. W. St. Driessen, who remained in charge until 1873. He was born, educated and prepared for the priesthood in Ger- many. Following him came Patrick Duhig, a native of Ireland, who remained until 1878. He died at Chelsea, in this state. The next minis- trant in the sacred office for this church was Rev. P. J. Slane, also a native of Ireland, educated in Europe. Under his careful management and vig- orous business capacity the present church edifice was erected and the home was built, both being completed in 1883. His pastorate lasted until 1896, and from here he went to Owosso, this state, where he now resides. His successor was Rev. D. J. Mclaughlin, a native of the state, born at Wyandotte. In June, 1899, the present accom- plished and popular pastor took charge of the
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church and its interests, and under his manage- ment it has made steady and substantial progress, becoming more and more firmly established in the affection of its people and in the confidence and high esteem of the community in general.
Rev. James Cahalan is a native of lonia coun- ty, Michigan, born in 1870, the son of John and Mary (Needham) Cahalan, who were Irish by birth and emigrated from Ireland to the United States about 1856 and came to Michigan in 1860. They settled in Fonia county and were prosperous- ly engaged in farming when the father died in May, 1895, leaving a widow who still lives there. In 1848 he began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Cyrus Powers, of Moravia, N. Y., re- maining with him under his instruction three years, finishing his professional and technical education at the medical department of the Uni- versity of New York, being graduated from that Their son, James, received his preliminary educa- tional training in the district and parochial schools of his native county, and, in 1885, at the age of fifteen years, he entered the St. Francis Seminary at Milwaukee where he remained a year, after that passing seven years at Assumption . institution in due time, to enter upon the practice College at Ontario, Canada, then completed his preparation for his sacred office at St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, in 1893. His first pastoral work was at Trenton, Wayne county, in this state, where he remained until he was assigned to Hills- dale in June, 1899. The Hillsdale church is now prosperous and healthy in condition, having a membership of eighty families, and it is pervaded by a spirit of lofty devotion to the cause it repre- sents and to its own particular mission among this people. The pastor is literally such, for he carefully leads his flock and cares well for their spiritual wants. By his broad and liberal spirit he has won the friendship of all classes outside his church as well as within its own membership. of his profession in Pennsylvania. Here in a short time, he secured a large and lucrative. patronage, to which he gave assiduous attention for twenty years. He then came to southern Michigan, arriving in Hillsdale county in 1869, taking up his residence for a year in Litchfield township. From there he removed to Jonesville and engaged in the hotel business, there' con- ducting a public house for two years. He then removed to Allegan, and conducted the Chaffee House for a year. Next he purchased what he rebaptized the Mosher House in Hillsdale, and, in that commodious and well-appointed hostelry, he ministered to the wants of the traveling public until 1902, when advancing age induced him to retire from active business, since which time he DR. GEORGE W. MOSHER. has been living a life of pleasant leisure.
A pioneer of 1869 in this county, for more than thirty years the capable, genial and popular proprietor of one of its leading hotels, Dr. George W. Mosher, now of Hillsdale, has been a potential force in the progress and development of the county, and has lived a life of great use- fulness to its people. He was born in Dutchess county, New York, on September 30, 1823, being a son of Stephen and Phoebe (Gifford) Mosher, natives of Massachusetts, of pure English an-
cestry. Soon after their marriage, his parents settled near the place of their nativity, from whence they removed a few years later to Dutch- ess county, New York, thence in a short time to Tioga county. They remained there but a few years, then took up their residence in Cayuga county, where their son, George, grew to mail- hood and received the greater part of his scholastic training. After completing his educa- tion in the public schools and at Moravia Academy he engaged for a number of years in teaching school.
Doctor Mosher has ably demonstrated that he possesses excellent business capacity, together with an extensive and accurate knowledge of hu- man nature, qualifications which gave him un- usual fitness for the business of keeping a hotel, and, in this business, he was eminently success- ful and highly esteemed, making his house one of the most appreciated of its kind in this portion of the state, becoming one of the most widely known and popular bonifaces and hosts ever lo- cated in this county. From his early residence
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here he was always actively interested in the welfare of the community, ever ready to aid in the promotion of. every enterprise for its benefit. While living at Jonesville he served with credit as president of the village, and there left a good record of fidelity and ability.
Since 1852, for more than half-a-century, he has been connected with the Masonic order in lodge, chapter and commandery, being three times the eminent commander of the body of Knights Templar to which he belonged. He was also at one time an active member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. He married, on January 25, 1855, at Millgrove, New York, Mrs. C. T. (Rea) Wright, who was born in that town, the daughter of Walter and Mary Rea, the former a native of Scotland and the latter of New York. They had one child, a daughter, who is deceased. Mrs. Mosher had one daughter also by her first marriage, who is now Mrs. G. W. Kelley, of Hillsdale. At the venerable age of eighty years, after a life of usefulness and industry. with a long record of good deeds in every public and private capacity to his credit and with feel- ings of benevolence toward all mankind, Doctor Mosher is well worthy of the general and cordial regard in which he is held by the people of this county, and he has earned by the faithful per- formance of every duty the peaceful rest which he now enjoys.
JOSEPH B. PATTERSON.
Joseph B. Patterson was for years a highly esteemed farmer of Pittsford township, deeply interested in all that aids in improving the methods and conditions of the branch of indus- trial effort to which his energies were devoted. He was born near Bedford, in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, on February 2, 1833, a son of James and Susan (Sheets) Patterson, natives of New Jersey. The father moved from his native state to Ohio, when he was a child, with his parents, who died soon after, and he was bound out to a farmer of the neighborhood, where he grew to manhood, without the advantages of education. He served his time, married and engaged in farming, re-
maining there until 1853, when he came to Michi- gan and settled on 160 acres of land, which he purchased in Pittsford township in this county. The land was partially improved, he worked it skillfully and extended its improvement, greatly increasing its fertility, attractiveness and value. Both he and his wife died on this estate. She was a devout member of the Baptist church and both were generally respected throughout the country-side where their home was located. Five of their nine children are living.
Their son, Joseph B. Patterson, reached years of maturity, received a common-school educa- tion in Ohio, and began farming there upon leaving school, continuing his enterprise in that state until 1856, when he came to Hillsdale coun- ty, where he has since resided. Here he also en- gaged in farming and carried on this industry successfully until August 15, 1862, when he en- listed in the Union army in Co. I, First Michigan Light Artillery, in which he served until the close of the Civil War. He was for a time in the Army of the Potomac and took part in some of the most noted battles fought during the war. He was at Gettysburg, the siege of Atlanta, Buz- zards' Roost and many other sanguinary points of contact with the enemy in the great contest. When he was mustered out of the service at Detroit in 1865, he returned to his Hillsdale county home and resumed his farming opera- tions. By his industry and thrift he made his work profitable, by his skill and good judgment he raised his farm in value and so improved it in appearance that it became one of the most desir- able in his part of the county. He recently sold it and removed to the village of Pittsford, where he is living comfortably in retirement from arduous labors.
. Mr. Patterson was married in Ohio, on Feb- ruary 22, 1853, to Miss Melvina Haynes, who died three years later, leaving a daughter, Nettie, the wife of James Freeman, of Cleveland, Ohio. On May 30, 1859, his second marriage occurred, being then united, in this county, with Miss Sophronia Cunningham, a sister of Parmenus Cunningham, a sketch of whom will be found on another page of this volume. They had four
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children, Ida, wife of Bert Tripp, of New York state; Anna, wife of Lawrence Salisbury of Gratict county, Michigan ; Lois, wife of Herbert Joughen, of Gaylord, Otsego county, this state; Jay, who died at the age of six years in May, 1882. Mrs. Patterson died on April 26, 1889. The third marriage of Mr. Patterson was with Miss Addie Taylor, a native of Adrian, Lenawee county, Michigan, a daughter of J. F. and Bar- bara (Bump) Taylor, the former being a native of Pennsylvania and the latter, of New York. They were pioneers of Hillsdale county, both be- ing now deceased.
In political allegiance Mr. Patterson is an ardent Republican, always found in the ranks of the workers for the principles and candidates of his party. He has served the township as high- way commissioner, and, for nineteen years, he was one of the board of directors of the county agricultural society. He belongs to the order of Patrons of Husbandry, holding an active and valued membership in the grange at Pittsford. By all classes of persons in the township, and throughout the county where he is known, he is highly respected as a leading and representative man, an excellent farmer, a straightforward, up- right, public spirited and progressive citizen.
JESSE D. PAYNE.
Jesse D. Payne, one of the first settlers in Somerset township, Hillsdale county, Michigan, was born on September 26, 1811, in Ontario county, New York, where his parents, John and Phoebe (Lane) Payne, settled about the year 1800. They were natives of New Jersey and re- mained in their New York home, which was then on the frontier, in a region but little advanced in development and cultivation, until 1836, when they removed to this state and located on section No. 30, of what is now Somerset township. They put up a log house 16x18 feet in dimensions, be- gan at once to clear their land and make it into a comfortable home, bravely daring the dangers of their situation in a wild country still inhabited by Indians and the habitat of wild beasts, patiently enduring its incident privations and arduous la-
bors. Into the cultivation and improvement of this land they put the energies of the few years of life left to them, the father dying here in 1841 and the mother in 1873. Their son, Jesse, was a man of twenty-five years, and but recently married, when he accompanied them to their new home, seeing at that time almost the very beginning of civiliza- tion and of the white man's dominion over this section. The wagon owned and used by his par- ents was the first wagon brought into the town- ship, and many of their belongings were the first of the kind ever seen hierc.
Reared on the farm in New York and educat- ed at the district schools in its vicinity, after leav- ing school Mr. Payne was engaged for a num- ber of years in boating on the Erie canal, then one of the new and mighty highways of com- merce from the Atlantic seaboard to the West. On his arrival in Michigan he also took up a tract of wild land, which, in a greatly changed condi- tion, is a portion of the farm on which his widow and son are now living. He added to his original tract by subsequent purchases until he owned 240 acres, all of which he cleared but eighty acres. on which he built a comfortable residence, good barns and other necessary outbuildings, as pros- perity followed his labors and provided the means. Before leaving his native county, he was married, in 1836, to Miss Rebecca A. Palmer, a native of that county, like himself, and a daughter of John B. and Margaret (Wallas) Palmer, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Wash- ington, D. C. His wife and his mother were among the first white women who ever lived in Hillsdale county, and their longing for compan- ionship of their own sex, and their need of such help as only women can give in times of trouble, can now be imagined but faintly, and it cannot be described in words.
Mr. and Mrs. Payne became the parents of eight children, six of whom are now living and all are well established in life. They are: Wil- liam W., professor of astronomy at Northfield (Minn.) College : John A., a prosperous business man of Kalamazoo ; Zachariah B., extensively en- gaged in the stock industry at Colorado. Texas ; James F., one of the leading farmers of Lenawee
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county ; Phoebe E., wife of R. C. Ostrom, of Branch county, Mich .; Henry L., who is still living with his mother on the family homestead. Mr. Payne was a Republican in politics, but not an active partisan and never desired public office. He did, however, serve the township as its treas- urer and highway commissioner and in other local positions. His life came to its end on December 12, 1872, and his name is now enshrined in the cordial regard of the whole community. His widow is eighty-seven years of age and the even- ing of her life is made pleasant by the loving at- tention of hosts of friends who have witnessed and experienced her usefulness and love.
WILLIAM O'MEARA.
William O'Meara, alderman from the first ward of Hillsdale, is a well-known and highly respected business man, who has passed almost the whole of his life among the people of the city, and has demonstrated in every walk of life his right to the exalted place he holds in the good will and cordial regard of the community. He was born on April 8, 1860, in Wayne county, New York, his parents being Daniel and Ellen (Powers) O'Meara, who had emigrated to the United States from their native Ireland in early life. They came to Hillsdale to reside when their son, William, was but four years old and have continued to make that city their home. They are both devout members of the Catholic church, giving their faith full proof in their good works, having assisted in building the church edifice in which they now worship, also being prominent in working out its progress and de- velopment in official station and as faithful mem- bers of its congregation. Their family consists of three sons and one daughter. The second son, Matthew, is associated with his brother William in the firm of O'Meara Bros., painters and paper- hangers, and the third son, John O'Meara, is liv- ing at the parental home. The daughter Mary is the wife of J. A. Patton, of Hillsdale.
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