USA > Michigan > Hillsdale County > Compendium of history and biography of Hillsdale County, Michigan > Part 61
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Charles Cook was about fourteen when he came to live in Hillsdale county, and since then lie has continuously resided' in the county, ex- cept during a few short intervals. In the pub- lic schools of Ohio and of this state he received all his education, his opportunities for attending school being necessarily limited and irregular, as after the death of his father he was obliged to look out for himself, and did so by working on farms near his home and in Indiana by the month. On March 10. 1873, he married with Miss Libbie Ramsey, a native of Hillsdale coun- ty, and a daughter of John and Susan Ramsey, pioneers of the county and among its most re- spected citizens, both being now deceased. Soon after his marriage he purchased a farm of thirty- six acres adjoining his father's homestead and began farming on it for himself. Later he bought the paternal homestead and has since made his home on it. He owns 116 acres in all, and his farm is one of the best in Camden town- ship, the natural fertility of the soil being aided and increased by skillful farming, its original value having been greatly enhanced by well- planned and well-constructed improvements. His first wife died in May, 1876, leaving no children, and in March, 1877, he married with Miss Mag-
gie Clark, a native of New York, whose father died when she was quite young. Her mother afterwards contracted a second marriage and has since died. Mr. and Mrs. Cook have six chil- dren : Edna F., wife of Elmer Houtz, of Cam- den ; Libbie S., wife of Clarence B. Todd, of Montgomery: Bessie, a popular teacher, and Ethel M .. L. Grace and Hazel F., living at the paternal home.
In politics Mr. Cook is a firm and loyal Re- publican, and throughout his life of manhood he has given his party active and effective service. In 1894 he was elected supervisor of Camden township, and at the end of his term was ap- pointed and served a second term, having failed to be reelected. In September, 1901. he was ap- pointed to fill a vacancy. In 1902 he was elected to a full term, and in 1903 was again chosen, be- ing the present incumbent of the office. In the discharge of his official duties he has shown the same care, good judgment and unyielding up- rightness displayed in his own business, and the excellent results of his tenure are lasting proofs of the wisdom of his selection for the important post. He has also taken great interest in the cause of public education, serving many years as school inspector and for more than a quarter of a cen- tury as school director. He is an active, working member in the order of the Patrons of Husband- ry, holding membership in Acme Grange, No. 269, at South Camden.
JOHN MCDOUGAL.
John McDougal is one of the best known and most highly respected citizens and farmers of Somerset township, in this county, and has earned, by his thrift and his enterprise, the competence in worldly wealth which he enjoys and also the high position in the public estimation in which he is securely fixed. He is a native of this soil and was reared among this people, having been born on November 7, 1842, on the farm which is now his home, having passed his whole life so far in the township. He began his education in the public schools of the township and finished it with their higher 'courses, his duties in the work of
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JOHN MCDOUGAL
MRS. JOHN MCDOUGAL
MRS. ANDREW MCDOUGAL
ANDREW MCDOUGAL
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clearing the farm and carrying on its operations preventing him from seeking a more advanced instruction. His parents were Andrew and Mary (Gamble) McDougal, natives of Livingston coun- ty, New York, where the father was born in 1817 and the mother in 1819. They were reared and educated in their native county and there were married in 1837. They at once came to Michigan, making the trip by canal to Buffalo and thence across the lake to Toledo, whence they proceeded on the old wooden railroad operated by horses to what is now Lenawee Junction, making the rest of the trip with teams to the wild forest that is now the productive farm owned and conducted by their son, John.
This land had been entered by the two grand- fathers, John McDougal and David Gamble, who were natives of Scotland and emigrated to the United States as young men about the close of the Revolution. In 1835 they came together to Michigan, where each entered a section of gov- ernment land, after which they returned to their New York homes, and, two years later, when their families were united by the marriage of the son of one with the daughter of the other, they gave the young couple 320 acres of the land and it fell to them to clear it and make a home of it. The undertaking was an arduous one, the situation full of difficulties. The land was an unbroken forest and wild beasts jealously resented their invasion. But their spirits were determined, youth was vig- orous and hope was high. They went to work with resolute and persistent effort, first erecting a log cabin for shelter and clearing a small part of the land as a beginning. They soon succeeded in making an opening in the forest and in chang- ing the productions of the land from the wild growth of nature to the desirable and sustaining fruits of civilized life, and, before death ended their labors, the farm was one of the best, most highly improved and extensively and profitably cultivated in this part of the county. They died on this farm, the father in 1887 and the mother a year later. Their offspring consisted of one son and two daughters, the son, John, being now the only survivor of the family. The father was a man of prominence and consequence in the com-
munity, a Democrat in politics but not an office- seeker, although called upon at times to fill local positions of trust and responsibility. He assisted in organizing the township and took a lively in- terest in its welfare and progress. In religious belief he was a Presbyterian, being for many years an officer in the church. No man in the community stood higher or was more generally csteemed.
John McDougal grew to manhood on the farm and assisted in clearing it. He took charge of it early in his life and has operated it successfully for many years, holding it up to the highest stand- ard of excellence in cultivation, keeping its im- provements in good condition, modern in appear- ance and equipment. He married in 1876 with Miss Eliza Gregg, a native of New York, born in Genesee county. They had no children, and Mrs. McDougal died in 1890, since which time he has walked life's way alone. In politics he is a Democrat, but has never desired or filled of- fice. An active member of the Methodist Epis- copal church, he is held in the highest regard by not only his religious brethren, but by all classes of his fellow citizens in the township and sur- rounding country.
ORSON D. CHESTER.
Imperial in the range and sweep of his finan- cial transactions, holding a princely rank among the financiers of southern Michigan, and at the . same time conducting industrial enterprises of colossal scope and power, the late Orson D. Ches- ter was one of the most important and poten- tial factors in the business life of this portion of the country. His heart was as large and his benignity as omnipresent as. his business capacity was productive and his success was pronounced. He had the energy and versatility of Proteus without his malignity, and the touch of Midas without his sordidness. He could do whatever he wished in a business way, and was one of the few men who in making money outgrow the love of it. He may appropriately be said to have been born to a high career of financial suc- cess and industrial activity, and to have been
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trained for it from his cradle by circumstances. His father, Eason T. Chester, was one of the best known, most eminent and most wealthy of the pioneers of this section, and was also en- gaged in schemes of magnitude; and the son, who was born at Camden, Mich., in April. 1838, during his childhood and youth lived ever in the atmosphere of large transactions and amid lively currents of commercial activity.
Orson D. Chester was well educated in an academic sense, the foundation of his scholastic training being laid in the public schools of his native township, and its superstructure reared at Hillsdale College. After leaving this institu- tion he at once began operations in financial and manufacturing circles which steadily expanded from year to year, pouring out widening streams of benefaction among the people of his section. and in other places where they were conducted, which made him before his death one of the rich- est men and largest landholders in his part of the country. At Camden, where he lived, he owned and successfully conducted a bank, a large flour- ing mill, a sawmill, a wood-working factory, a creamery and cheese factory, a lumber yard and an extensive dairy farm. To each of these he gave his personal attention ; and, although they were far-reaching in variety and multitudinous in detail, so systematized were all his operations, and so highly endowed by nature was he with ex- ccutive ability, fiscal genius and capacity for large affairs, that he carried them on with more case and less friction than many a man has who conducts a corner grocery. He also owned a row of modern brick business blocks and several residence properties in Camden, and large tracts of land in many of the states. From his carly manhood he operated very extensively in lumber, wholesale and retail, and it was in this business that the bulk of his fortune was made.
Mr. Chester was at all times and in every way deeply and actively interested in the develop- ment of his township and county, and during the last years of his life spent much money and time in an effort to connect Camden with the rest of the world by rail. Notwithstanding the exactions of his enormous business, he never lost
sight of his native village nor was he indifferent to its welfare. To every element of its progress he was a liberal contributor, and to every means of elevation for its people, and the improvement of its moral, mental and social life he gave ear- nest and effective aid by personal influence and activity, and by substantial material support. He was also ambitious to see all classes around him thrifty and contented, and by his liberality he opened a door to successful enterprise for many a worthy man, who afterward became a force for good in the community. For the comfort and prosperity of his own employes he had ever great solicitude, which increased as time passed and was greatest in the closing period of his life. Among the special bequests in his will may be mentioned one of $1,000 to each of his three sis- ters ; one of $3,000 and a house and lot to Mrs. C. E. Divine, his housekeeper for nine years; a ninety-acre farm to Frank Chester; a double brick block, factory and two residence properties to John Curtiss, his factory superintendent ; a house and lot and a team to Dan Baker ; a house and lot to George Riggleman ; a $400 mortgage and a team to William and James Sutton ; a for- ty-acre farm to Henry Roggie, his farm super- intendent : a half interest in fifty acres of land inside the corporation to the village of Camden ; and there were many minor bequests to those who had faithfully served him. The residue of his large estate was left to Ben R. Alward, his cash- ier, business manager and confidential man at the time of his death, who entered his employ- mnt as a boy, grew to manhood in the business. and is now a prosperous banker at Camden. A sketch of him appears on another page.
In fraternal relations Mr. Chester was a loy- al and devoted Freemason, with membership in the blue lodge at Camden, the Royal Arch chap- ter and the commandery of Knights Templar at Hillsdale. At his death he was buried under the auspices of this commandery, which attend- ed the funeral in a body and conducted the ob- sequies. He was for many years a member of the board of trustees of the Methodist Episco- pal church and was a liberal contributor to the support of the church, although not a member.
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HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
In politics he was a lifelong and enthusiastic Democrat, standing with commanding influence in the councils of his party, serving a number of times as a delegate to its national conventions, several years as a· valued member of its state central committee, and, in the fall of 1902, as its candidate for county treasurer. On Friday, No- vember 7, 1902, his useful and inspiring life was ended, and he passed from being a living force in his community into an affectionately cherished memory, still potent in the influence of his ex- ample. It is a coincidence worthy of note that his death occurred on the same day of the week, the same day of the month, and at the same age as that of the late John B. Alward, who was for more than twenty years his confidential assist- ant in all his business operations. It has been forcibly said that the prodigality of the rich is the providence of the poor ; and in this view Mr. Chester was a beneficent agency in promoting the comfort and happiness of thousands of his fellow men, and those dependent on them, who now revere his name and hold his memory in lasting esteem.
EARL H. DRESSER.
Earl H. Dresser, a prosperous, progressive and highly respected farmer of Litchfield town- ship in this county, was born in Iroquois county, Illinois, on May 18, 1864, and when he was one year old came with his parents, Henry H. and Mary A. (Earl) Dresser, to Hillsdale county, and has since resided here. He was reared on the home farm and educated in the district schools of the vicinity, as so many of the substantial and representative men of the county have been, pass- ing his childhood and youth in the quiet pur- suits of the region in which he lived, without in- cident worthy of special note. His father was a native of Jefferson county, New York, and his mother of Lafayette, Indiana. The former was born in 1828, and, in 1837, at the age of nine years, accompanied his parents to Michigan, where they settled on 240 acres of land, on sec- tion 24 in Litchfield township, which the father had entered two years previous.
They traveled by boat to Toledo and from there with ox teams through the terrible Black Swamp on over the rugged and unbroken coun- try to their future home, making the trip with great difficulty, through the hardships that were enough to discourage any but persons of reso- lute hearts and determined perseverance. They went to work, clearing up the land, and also sup- plied a much felt want by keeping for years a tavern on their farm, which afforded a place of rest and entertainment for the great tide of emigration through this section, then swelling into proportions of magnitude. They lived on this land until 1866, when they moved to Jones- ville, and there the father and mother lived re- tired from active business until their final sum- mons to everlasting rest came, his in 1872 and that of his wife, whose maiden name was Lydia Cronkhite, in 1873, both dying active in the faith and membership of the Baptist church. They were the parents of nine children, of whom one son and one daughter are living.
Their son, Henry H. Dresser, the father of Earl, grew to manhood in this county and re- ceived a common-school education in the public schools near his home. He assisted in clearing the farm and in other duties for the family un- til 1849, when the great rush of the Argonauts to California occurred. This he joined, going to the new Eldorado by way of the Mississippi and across the Gulf of Mexico and the Isthmus. He remained in California nine years and was suc- cessful in mining operations, then returned to civilization and located at Lafayette, Indiana, where he was engaged in merchandising for four years. The next three years he passed at Buck- ley, Illinois, and in 1866 he came again to Hills- dale county and purchased the old homestead, on which he then resided until his death in 1896, having survived by more than thirty years his estimable wife, who died in 1864. Two sons had blessed their union, Marion, who was drowned in childhood, and Earl H. Dresser. Some time after the death of his first wife the father mar- ried her sister, Louisa Earl, who bore him.three children, their sons Niles and Arthur, and their daughter, Martha, now a resident of San Fran-
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cisco. The father was a Republican in politics, a man of local prominence and incumbent of various local offices from time to time. Deeply interested in the cause of agriculture, he took an active part in all efforts to raise its standard and improve its condition in the state, and to this end was an earnest worker in the order of the Patrons of Husbandry, holding charter member- ship in the grange at Litchfield. He was also a member of the executive board of the Michigan State Grange for a number of years.
Earl H. Dresser was reared and educated in this county, and for some years after reaching man's estate was engaged in the nursery business at Jonesville, conducting there the Dresser Fruit Farm. In 1896 he purchased the homestead. and since then has resided on and managed the operation of that excellent and highly developed estate. He is also interested in a leading way in the manufacture and sale of a patent coment post, which was the first post made of Portland concrete ever introduced to the manufacturing public. He was married in 1888, in Washtenaw county of this state, to Miss Hattie Moon, a na- tive of that county, and they have one child, Thomas H. Dresser. Mr. Dresser has been a lifelong Republican in politics, and filled a num- ber of local offices while living at Jonesville. Like his father, he was an earnest, intelligent and productive interest in the agricultural in- dustry, and is a valued member of the local grange in the Patrons of Husbandry. His life has been useful, though unostentatious, and per- haps all the more serviceable because of the ab- sence of display and spectacular features in its even course, and he has won by its high standard of excellence, and unvarying progress of indus- try and fidelity, the lasting respect of all classes of his fellow citizens.
COL. FREDERICK FOWLER.
Col. Frederick Fowler, late of Reading town- ship, was one of the oldest settlers of this county, one of its most extensive and successful general farmers and stockgrowers, and one of its most esteemed and representative citizens. For three-
score years and ten, until his death on Novem- ber 17. 1902, he lived and labcred among this people, and there is not one who does not do him reverence, so acceptable, so useful, and so far above reproach had ever been his life. Like Sir Condy Rackrent in the tale, he practically "sur- vived his own wake and overheard the judgment of posterity." He was born in Perry township, Geauga county, Ohio, on February 5. 1817, the son of Richard and Anna (Hill) Fowler, the for- mer a native of Massachusetts and the latter of Hudson county, but of Massachusetts parentage. Not long after their marriage they migrated with their small family to Ohio and settled in Geauga county, among the very early settlers in that re- gion, the most of which was then a dense wilder- ness still cocuiped by wild beasts and Indians, affording scarcely any of the conveniences of civilized life.
After residing a number of years in Ohio, and clearing up a home in the wilderness, having a good opportunity to dispose of their farm, and being desirous of trying the favors of fortune in a new field, they sold their Ohio estate and came to the wilds of Michigan, making their way overland by ox teams and locating on section 30 of what is now Adams township in Hillsdale county, being the first settlers in the township as it is now laid out. In 1835 there was a road cut out between the sites of the present towns of Jonesville and Hudson, and Colonel Fowler, then a youth of eighteen, carried the chain for the survey. On acount of the abundance of work for everybody in making the home and getting the land into fertility, the opportunities for schooling to the children of the time and locality were necessarily limited, while the facilities were primitive. By studious and judicious reading, however, Colonel Fowler supplemented his slen- der advantages in this line and made himself a very well informed man by the time life's duties came to him in a public and influential way.
He remained a member of his father's house- hold until his marriage, on January 13. 1842, with Miss Phoebe L. Willets, which was solem- nized at her home in Cambria township. Mrs. Fowler was born at Lockport, N. Y., on May
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14., 1824, and when a young girl she came with her brothers to Michigan, her parents having died in New York. Mr. Fowler, following the commendable example of his esteerned father, took an active part in the public affairs of the county from his early manhood, and made him- self so serviceable, and so impressed the people with his worth and wisdom, that in 1857 he was chosen as one of the county's representatives in the state Legislature. In the ensuing session he served as chairman of the committee on the State Agricultural College, and his views were sought and heeded on all matters of general state and national importance. Prior to this he had served as a justice of the peace and had acquired a good knowledge of common law. He was soon after elected president of the County Agri- cultural Society, being the second incumbent of the office, serving for four successive terms in this position.
In July, 1861, early in the Civil War, he raised a company of volunteers for the Union army, numbering 112 gallant men, and the or- ganization was known as Co. G of the Second Michigan Cavalry. He received a captain's com- mission and went with his command to Benton Barracks near St. Louis. After 100 days spent there in training for active service, they were sent to the front, Captain Fowler serving also as major of a battalion. Their baptism of fire came at New Madrid, Mo., at which point they routed the enemy, and their next engagement was at Corinth, Miss., where the regiment was in the thickest of the fight, Captain Fowler leading his men and the company suffering as much from the heat as from the fire of the foe. The regiment was then ordered into Kentucky, and at Champion Hills, in that state, it again met with considerable loss. Soon thereafter Captain Fow- ler was promoted to the rank of lieutenant col- onel, which he retained until his discharge in June, 1863.
On his return home he was cordially wel- comed with every demonstration of approval of his excellent work in the field, and was rewarded by his grateful fellow citizens with a seat in the State Senate for the session of 1864-5. In this
body he served on several important committees, among them that on military affairs. Politically he was an earnest and loyal Republican from the formation of the party, and gave it faithful tnd valuable service on all occasions. On taking leave of his men upon retiring from the army, he told them that if he should live long enough he would erect a monument in honor of the regiment and in memory of its gallant members who had been killed in the contest. This promise he was able to keep after the lapse of twenty years, erecting a beautiful granite shaft in the cemetery at Reading, which, by the special re- quest of his fellow soldiers, is thus inscribed : "Erected to the Memory of the Soldier Dead by Col. F. Fowler, Second Regiment Michigan Cavalry." In 1883 the Colonel visited several of the principal cities of Europe, London and Paris among them, and gained from the trip a vast fund of useful and pleasing information. He also traveled in his earlier days extensively in the United Sttaes.
Possessed of a commanding figure, with a keen but kindly eye and a genial countenance, the appearance of Colonel Fowler proclaimed him to even the casual observer to be a man of unusual force of character and capability. He was the father of six children, one of whom died at the age of two years and another at the age of four months. The oldest living . son, Henry, married with Miss Adelaide Bryan, and is living on a farm in Camden township; Helen is the wife of Julius C. Merriman, a farmer of Cambria township; Fremont married Miss Kate Richardson, and is also a cultivator of the soil of Cambria township ; Frederick R. married Miss Margaret Devine, and is farming in Reading township. Colonel Fowler's property comprised over 1,000 acres of valuable land in Reading, Cambria and Camden townships, and some very desirable real estate in the town of Reading. The greater part of this land is in an advanced state of cultivation and yields abundant crops of the characteristic products of southern Michi- gan. Resting peacefully in the evening of life amid the fruits of his labors, and with many val- ued institutions flourishing around him which
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