USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 17
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Tree Creek in Georgia, those incident to Sher- man's march to the sea, and many others. Po- litically he is a strong Republican, and as such has been chosen to and rendered effective serv- ice in a number of township offices. In fraternal relations he is prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic.
LUCIUS V. LYON.
This scion and honored representative of a distinguished pioneer family of southern Michi- gan, was born in the village of Schoolcraft, Kala- mazoo county, on March 6, 1837, and is there- fore one of the oldest residents now living within the borders of the county. lle was an officer in the Union army during the Civil war, and won military honors that brought additional credit to his command and the cause in which it was en- listed. In the pursuits of peaceful industry he has also been distinguished for versatility of tal- ent and effort, and general success in his under- takings, and also for his usefulness in the general progress and development of the section of his home. His parents were Ira and Anna ( Lewis) Lyon, the former born in Vermont in 1801 and the latter in New York state in 1802. They were married in Rochester, N. Y., and some time afterward came to Michigan, making the journey through the wilderness from Detroit to this county in 1828, in a wagon drawn by oxen. Ira Lyon's brother Lucius had come hither previously to conduct the government survey of what was then the new territory of Michigan. He soon became prominent and influential in the territory. and after its admission to the Union as a state, was one of its first two United States senators. Ira Lyon took up two hundred and forty acres of government land on the prairie near School- craft, and made a number of improvements on it before his labors were cut short by his un- timely death in 1841, when he was in the very prime of life and the midst of a great usefulness. His wife died in 1873. They had nine children. four of whom are living: Addison, of Russell Springs, Logan county, Kan .; Worthington S .. of San Francisco, Calif .; Sarah A .. now Mrs.
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Whitcomb, of Wapello, Iowa; and Lucius V. The last named had a full experience of pioneer life in his boyhood, and has a distinct recollec- tion of the times when Indians were not unusual visitors at his early home, and when deer, wolves and bears were seen in the forests near by many times in a week. He began his education in the primitive district schools of the time and local- ity, and although the early death of his father caused him to go to work with his brothers and sisters to aid in the support of the household while he was yet a mere boy, to which the mother contributed essentially by the fruits of her loom, he managed to secure a higher training at the Baptist Seminary, where he paid his way by per- forming janitorial duties. At the age of twenty he was married, but he continued working out for wages until his enlistment, on August 20, 1862, in Company C, Sixth Michigan Infantry, which became a part of the Nineteenth Corps of the Army of the Gulf, commanded by Gen. B. F. Butler. From then on he was in active service until mustered out at New Orleans on September 22, 1865. His regiment was engaged in guard duty at Baltimore until April, 1863, and during its detention there had a number of spir- ited contests with the enemy along the Virginia border. In April, 1863, the regiment was ordered to go on his New Orleans expedition with Gen- eral Butler, and three thousand five hundred men were packed on one steamer that passed around" Ship Island and thence up the Mississippi to the Crescent City, the passage being hotly op- posed by the Confederate batteries along the shore and the Confederate gunboats on the river, sixty of the latter being captured at New Or- leans. Mr. Lyon witnessed the execution of the Confederate Mumford, by the order of General Butler, for pulling down the United States flag' from the government building and trampling it in the dust, the rope with which he was hanged being made from the flag he had insulted. The regiment was next sent up the river to Baton Rouge, then to Port Hudson, and from there to Mobile, Ala., the capture of forts and engage- ments with the Confederates under General Breckenridge furnishing active employment for
many months. The climate was unhealthful and many soldiers sickened and died. While on the Red River expedition, the boat in which Mr. Lyons was traveling was fired upon by secluded batteries and totally destroyed. Many of the soldiers were shot down on board or sank with the boat, while others jumped into the river and were shot while swimming. Mr. Lyon and eight others managed to escape and get to shore. After traveling a long distance they were directed by an old negro to a Union man's house, where they were fed and secreted, and during the night were rowed across the river and started in the right direction for the Union lines. They were obliged to break through four Confederate picket lines, and to kill one picket guard to avoid being exposed. They finally reached a Union foraging party and were safely conducted within the lines at Alexandria. After that their regiment was converted into a heavy artillery regiment to man batteries. On the results of a rigid examination Mr. Lyon was commissioned second lieutenant of the Seventy-third Colored Regiment of New Orieans, which under him did some hard fighting, and later were ordered to Mobile, from where with six boats they patroled the Alabama river and confiscated twelve boat-loads of cotton, which they took to Mobile. In August, 1864, the sub- ject was promoted first lieutenant of the same regiment, as it was found that he handled the colored troops with great tact and wisdom, and was a strict disciplinarian. He was also sent north that year to do recruiting, and rendered admirable service in that line. He remained with his command until he was mustered out of the service, then returned home and bought his present farm of sixty-four acres in Brady town- ship, this county. It was covered with heavy timber at the time, but is now a well improved and valuable property. Much of his time since the war has been devoted to public duties. He has been justice of the peace, pension claims agent, and several other things of an official character. In politics he is a Republican, active and vigilant in the councils of his party and recognized as one of its valued leaders. Frater- nally he belongs to the Freemasons, the Odd Fel-
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lows and the Grand Army of the Republic. All the members of his family are members of the German Reformed church. Mr. Lyon was hap- pily married in September, 1857, to Miss Julia Ainsworth, a lady of superior merit, born in the state of New York on October 13, 1836. They have two sons and two daughters. Of these Mertie J. is now the wife of Albert Merchant, of Kalamazoo; Mary B. is Mrs. Alvin E. Young, of Fulton ; Orville C. married Miss Amelia A. Sny- der and has three children, Ernest W., Pearl C. and Gladys; and Charles married Emmoa Van Avery and lives four miles south of Vicksburg. They have four sons and two daughters, Forest A., Hazel M., Bernice L., Harold B., Clifford and Kenneth. Mrs. Lyon's father came to Michigan in 1845 and died at her home at the age of eighty-eight.
DANIEL F. BARTSHE.
The history of this country has been a contin- uous progress of civilization following in the track of the setting sun from the Atlantic to the Pa- cific, cach succeeding generation taking up the march of conquest where the preceding one dropped it, thus laying all sections of the country under the dominion of man and tribute to his enterprise and advancement. Daniel F. Bartshe is a scion of an old Pennsylvania family, members of which in time colonized in Ohio, then in In- diana and later in Michigan. He was born in Putnam county, Ohio, in 1842, on March 17, the son of George and Barbara (Wideman) Bartshe, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Canada. The father was taken to Wayne county, Ohio, in his infancy, and when he was but four years of age his father was killed there at a raising. George Bartshe was reared in Medina county, Ohio, and moved to Elkhart county, Ind., in 1842. After a residence of seven years on wild land there, which he cleared and transformed into some semblance of a productive farm, he returned to Medina county, Ohio, where he died in 1863, his wife surviving him until 1901. They had nine children, of whom four sons and one daughter are living. Daniel F. being the only one
of them who resides in Kalamazoo county. He grew to manhood in Medina county, Ohio, and farmed there until 1870, when he came to this county and settled on the farm on which he has since had his home. This farm he took hold of as an unbroken tract and of it he has made an excel- lent farm and enriched it with good buildings, all the result of his industry and systematic applica- tion to his business. He was married in Ohio in 1868 to Miss Julia Lance, a native of that state. Five children have blessed their union: Hattie, wife of Albert Rom, of Wakeshma township; Mertie, wife of Simon G. Wise, of Wakeshma township; Howard, who married Rose Fleisher, has two children; Frank, who married Miss Au- gusta Young, now deceased, and has one child, his son Ross A. ; and Earl, who is living at home. Mr. Bartshe is a Republican in political allegiance, and has filled the office of justice of the peace. He is a prominent and active member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and devoted to every element of progress and improvement in his county. He is widely known and highly esteemed throughout the county.
CAPT A. A. HOLCOMB.
Coming to this state in the very dawn of its civilized history, and from then until now taking an active and serviceable part in all the transac- tions of a public nature which tended to build up the section in which they lived, and at the same time winning their way to consequence and com- petency through industrious and judicious efforts, the Holcomb family of Kalamazoo county is justly entitled to all the credit that belongs to both pio- neers and their descendants of the best type, and to citizenship of the most elevated and sterling char- acter. The Captain is a native of the state and was born at Lodi, Washtenaw county, on May 29, 1833. His parents, Alanson and Nancy (Slaughter) Holcomb, were born in Yates county, N. Y., the father in 1798 and the mother in 1807. They were reared and married in their native county in 1827, and the next year joined the mighty march of the industrial army which has conquered this country from the wilderness, jour-
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neying up the Erie canal to Buffalo, from there across the lake by steamer to Detroit, and thence by team to Washtenaw county, this state, where they entered government land, on which they lived four years. They then moved to Jackson county and bought more government land, and on that they resided until 1853, when they moved to this county, locating in Charleston township. There the father bought a farm of Langford Bur- dick, on which the family dwelt until 1865, then sold it, and took up their residence at Galesburg. Both parents died at the home of their son, the Captain, in Vicksburg. The household comprised three sons, all of whom are living, Horace in Cali- fornia, George in North Dakota, and Albert in this county. The grandfather of these sons, Eben- ezer Holcomb, passed the whole of his life in the state of New York, and was a prosperous farmer there. His ancestors were English, the American progenitor of the family emigrating to this coun- . try in 1680. Captain Holcomb was reared from infancy to the age of twenty in Jackson county, and obtained a limited education in the district schools. He came to Kalamazoo county with his parents in 1853 and farmed here until 1864, when he enlisted in the Union army, entering the serv- ice on August 2d of that year, in Company I, Twenty-eighth Michigan Infantry. The regi- ment became a part of the Twenty-third Army Corps, took part in the battle of Nashville and other fierce engagements, and joined General Sherman at Goldsboro, N. C., and remained un- der his command to the close of the war. The Captain went into the service as a second lieu- tenant, but soon rose to the rank of cap- tain, and as such was mustered out. After the close of the war he returned to his farm in Wakeshma township, which was yet all wild, unbroken land, without a road on it or leading to it, not a tree having been felled within a mile and a half of it when he first took posses- sion of it in 1863. It originally comprised two hundred and forty acres, but by additions has be- come one of the largest, and by judicious cultiva- tion and improvement one of the most productive in the county. Captain Holcomb cleared the land himself and made all the improvements on it. He
lived on this farm during the greater part of his life since returning from the war, dwelling a few years in the village of Vicksburg. In 1890 he was elected register of deeds, filling the office with credit six years, and prior to that time served seven years as township supervisor. He also served as deputy sheriff eight years under Lyman Gates and two years under John H. Dix. He was married on November 15, 1858, to Miss Elizabeth Minnis, a sister of Albert C. Minnis (see sketch of him on another page). They, have two chil- dren, their sons Bernard A., who is in the office of the auditor general of the state at Lansing, and their other son, Howard, who is in the United States railway postal service on the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railway. The Captain has been a Re- publican from the organization of the party, and has ever taken an active part in the campaigns of his party, being recognized as one of its leaders, and representing his section in district, state and congressional conventions during the last forty years. In fraternal relations he is a Freemason of the Knight Templar degree and a Grand Army man. He also belongs to the Grange. Having passed three-score and ten years of life, he is resting in large measure from active labor, and enjoying the fruits of his industry and the esteem of his fellow men of all classes.
THOMAS E. GUTHRIE.
This prosperous and progressive farmer of Brady township, this county, was born in Wash- tenaw county, Mich., on March 29, 1852, and was reared and educated in that county. He lived on the home farm with his parents until 1878, then came to Kalamazoo county and bought the farm in Brady township on which he now lives. This he has cleared and improved to good ad- vantage, carrying on his farming operations with vigor and success and also working at times at his trade as a carpenter. In addition to these in- dustries he ran a threshing outfit for eleven years and has worked at other useful lines of activity. In 1878 he was united in marriage with Miss Amy H. Pierce, a daughter of Hiram and Cath- erine (Cassady) Pierce, the former a native of
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the state of New York and the latter of Michi- gan. The father of Mrs. Guthrie died in Wash- tenaw county, and the mother died on August 2, 1905. Mr. and Mrs. Guthrie have five children living and one dead. Those who are living are John H., Hiram P., Fred T., Bertha and Sher- man. In political faith Mr. Guthrie is a Repub- lican, and while zealous in the interest of his party, he has preferred to serve his people from the honorable post of private citizenship, never seeking or wishing for public office. He has, however, with a good citizen's fidelity to duty, consented to serve as highway commissioner, and in the position he gave the township a wise and useful administration. He belongs to the Masonic order, and for many years has been a devoted participant in its mystic rites and follower of its moral teachings. Throughout the length and breadth of the county he is well known and highly esteemed as a good citizen and an upright man, as a firm friend, excellent neighbor and warmn advocate of what is right.
JACOB K. WAGNER.
The pen of the biographer has seldom a more engaging thenie than the life story of a good citi- zen who has grown old in the service of his peo- ple, and has lived to see the fruit of his labors in their prosperity and happiness, and the established success of valued public institutions to whose crea- tion and development he has essentially and sub- stantially contributed. Such a theme is presented in the career of the late Jacob K. Wagner, of Kalamazoo, who, on Friday, June 17, 1904. sur- rendered his trust at the bequest of the Great Dis- poser, at the ripe age of seventy-two years, and left to the city he loved and his sorrowing friends the priceless legacy of a good name untarnished by any unworthy act or motive and a record of usefulness which in itself is a measureless bene- faction to American citizenship. Mr. Wagner came to Kalamazoo on January 13. 1855. when the city was practically in its infancy and when he was himself a young man of twenty-four. That he arrived on the scene of his great activity and fruitfulness for good to the community with only
six cents in money in his possession, and with no influential acquaintances to aid him to prefer- ment and consequence, or even to opportunities for employment, only heightens the value and im- pressiveness of liis achievements and adds force to the lesson of his life. That fact and the sub- sequent productiveness of his energy and capacity also illustrate the firmness of his inherent fiber of character and cogency of many qualities he in- herited from a long line of forceful and enterpris- ing ancestors, who on many fields of manly en- deavor met fate with an unruffled front and dared the worst of her malignity in the contest for su- premacy. Mr. Wagner was born in the state of New Jersey, at Stanton, Hunterdon county, on November 13, 1831. His parents, Jacob and Elizabeth (Poulson) Wagner, were natives of the same county, the Wagners being of German origin. The paternal grandfather, Jacob Wag- ner, was a well-to-do farmer of independent char- acter and action, and the same relative on the mother's side was for more than sixty years a highly esteemed Baptist clergyman of influence and eloquence. The father was a mechanic and farmer, and both he and his wife passed their lives in their native state. They had a family of ten children, of whom one son and four daugh- ters are now living. Jacob was reared to man- hood on the farm whereon he was born and was educated in the district schools in the neigh- borhood. He began to earn his own living as a clerk and salesman in a general store, and after passing a few years in this humdrum and unin- teresting life, which, however, gave him a good knowledge of himself and his fellow men, he came to Michigan in 1855, arriving carly in the year with a capital of six cents in money, as has been stated. Soon after his arrival at Kalamazoo he found employment as a clerk for Andrew Tay- lor & Company, with whom he remained a short time. Saving his carnings, and making friends by his fidelity and capacity, he was soon able to open a small book store of his own, and this he conducted for a period of twenty years with in- creasing business and profits. This enabled him to gratify his great taste for reading, and with his strong mental endowment, discriminating
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J. K. Hagnes)
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judgment and genial disposition, he became, in a few years, one of the most cultivated and enter- taining men in the city. But he had a keen in- sight into business of a larger scope, as well as a taste for literature, and an almost intuitive per- ception of the needs and possibilities of the com- munity in the way of industrial enterprise. In 1876 he founded the Kalamazoo Spring & Axle Works by organizing a stock company for con- ducting the business, which was begun in a small way, but soon expanded to such dimensions as to necessitate the erection of the large factory in which it is now so comfortably housed on Portage street, although the factory was not at first as large in size or as complete in equipment as it is now, continuous expansion of its trade requiring successive enlargements and additions to its appli- ances. Mr. Wagner acted as secretary and gen- eral manager of this establishment until 1879. when he started the Harrow Spring Tooth Fac- tory and became secretary of the stock company, formed for the purpose, and general manager of its business, occupying this position until 1887. when he was elected president of the First Na- tional Bank, and also president of this company. In 1893 he resigned the bank presidency, having more business interests under his immediate man- agement than his advancing years made agreeable to him. At the time of his death he was a stock- holder in the First National and the Michigan National Banks, president of the Spring Tooth Company and a stockholder in the King Paper Company and several other corporations. includ- ing the Electric Light Company of the city. Mr. Wagner was a great lover of travel as well as of good literature, and in spite of his large and exacting business interests, he was able to gratify this taste and secure the benefits of intercourse with minds which have profited by an extensive comparison of nations, climates and customs, and of the refining, harmonizing, expanding influences of general society. He crossed the Atlantic many times and made his way understandingly into the principal cities of the old world and came back laden with the rich spoils of his observation of their institutions and the aspirations and tenden- cies of their peoples. His travels in various parts
of our own country were also extensive and profit- able. On October 24, 1858, he united in marriage with Miss Ellen E. Carpenter, of Kalamazoo, a young lady of great promise, and like himself a lover of books and refined in taste and elevated in aspirations. She was a daughter of Orson and Laura (Royce) Carpenter, natives of Vermont. Two children blessed their union, Laura R. and Elizabeth P., the latter now the wife of Arthur L. Pratt. In political faith Mr. Wagner was an unwavering Democrat, and in fraternal circles he found enjoyment in the Masonic order, of which he was for many years an enthusiastic member. While averse to public office for himself, he con- sented on one occasion to serve as a member of the village and the city council for the public good. In 1896, deeming the policy of his party too radical for the general welfare, he became in- dependent of party control and remained so until his death. Now gathered to his fathers in the ful- ness of years and of usefulness, his death has left a void in the business and social life of his city and county, and an example of stimulating po- tency to all who knew him or know his record.
STEPHEN HOWARD.
Among the earliest settlers of Portage town- ship, this county, was Stephen Howard, who moved into the township in the summer of 1831, when the deep woods, the growth of centuries, was still unbroken by the arteries of traffic, the swamps were undrained, the "garden beds" of a dead and gone race were plentifully visible, and the wild inhabitants of the region, man and beast and reptile, were yet abundant and dangerous. And he lived to see the whole face of the country changed and all its resources ministering to the wants of a sturdy and enterprising race of men whose call on the forces and storehouses of nature were made in such voice as to compel them to lib- eral obedience and benefaction. Sixty-two years of his active and useful life were passed in this county and they were years full of industry and fruitful with good results. He settled in the township a young man of twenty-three and passed over from the toils of this life to the ac-
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tivities that know no weariness at the age of eigh- ty-five. Mr. Howard was born in Silver Creek township, Chautauqua county, N. Y., on January 1, 1808, and was the son of John E. and Lydia ( King) Howard, the former a native of Ver- mont and the latter of Rhode Island. The fa- ther was a hotelkeeper in New York, but in 1830, impelled by the spirit of discovery and adventure that had brought him westward from his native state, he made a trip to this part of Michigan, and being well pleased with the appearance and promise of the country, entered government land in Portage and Alamo townships. He then re- turned to his home and settled up his business there, and the next year moved his family to this county. The children then numbered four sons and three daughters. They made the trip with teams of oxen and consumed several weeks of weary journeying and great hardship in making it, building their own roads over swamps and cut- ting their way through miles of trackless forests. They reached their destination on August 10. 1831, and built a little log house on their land in which they all lived the first year, the par- ents lived on the farm the remainder of their lives, the father dying there in 1855 and the mother some years before. Their son Stephen assisted in clearing up the farm and getting it ready for cultivation two years, then moved to his own place in section 8. which he entered on his arrival in the county. This place he improved and made it his home until his death in 1893. He was married in this county in 1838 to Miss Eliza C. Payne, who was also an carly arrival here. They had six children, four of whom are living, Harriet, widow of Henry E. Brooks, Amanda M., who is living on the home farm, Celia E., wife of Fred Burkhout, of Kalamazoo, and George S., who is also living on the home- stead. Their mother died on December 24, 1890. Mr. Howard was a Whig and later a Republi- can, but he was never an active partisan, although he filled a number of local offices. In religious faith he was a Universalist. He was everywhere recognized as one of the leading citizens of the township and county, and was universally held in high regard.
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