USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 23
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of all the people around him, illustrating in his continued and systematic diligence, and in his intelligent and far-seeing regard for the best in- terests of his township the best and most admired attributes of American citizenship. Mr. Searle was born in Wayne county, New York, on Sep- tember 30. 1835, and was reared to manhood and educated there, working on the farm of his parents until 1867. His parents were Almond and Sophia (Craw) Searle, the father a native of Vermont and the mother of the state of New York. They were farmers and followed the in- dustry in New York until death released them from their labors, the father dying there in about 1892 and the mother in about 1875. Their fam- ily comprised four sons and one daughter. Of these, all are now deceased but their son Charles and one of his brothers who still lives in New York. The former came to Kalamazoo county in 1867, when he was thirty-two years of age, and has since made his home in this county. He first bought a farm in Oshtemo township on which he lived two years. then purchased another in Alamo township comprising eighty acres, and on this he has since made his home. The land was almost wholly wild and unimproved when he took possession of it, and it is now one of the best de- veloped and most highly improved in the town- ship, its present condition being the result of his continuous industry and skill in farming it and his enterprise in providing it with good build- ings and other necessary structures. In 1858 he was married in New York state to Miss Caro- line Woolsey, a native of Cayuga county, in that state, whose mother became a resident of this county late in her life and died here. They have four children, Emma, now the wife of William D. Wyllis, of Kalamazoo; Bertha, at home; Ora, now the wife of Arthur Pickard, of Kalamazoo, and Burton A., who manages the home farmn. The father has served a number of years as highway commissioner, and in other ways has rendered the township excellent serv- ice. He has been an ardent Republican from the dawn of his manhood, casting his first vote for General Fremont, the first presidential candidate of his party. For a period of thirty years he has
been a member of the Masonic order, and for nearly or quite as long of the Methodist Epis- copal church. He is one of the best known citi- zens of the county, and none has a higher or more firmly established title to the regard and esteem of the people.
HON. ALLEN POTTER.
The late Hon. Allen Potter, of Kalamazoo, was a man distinguished in business circles and political affairs throughout southern Michigan. In every undertaking of his busy and useful life he succeeded well, and the various enterprises with which he was connected were many and im- portant. His life began in Saratoga county. N. Y., on October 2, 1818, and he was the son of Elisha and Maria (Allen) Potter, both born and reared in New York state. The father was a farmer there and for a number of years a manu- facturer of woolen fabrics. In his later life he moved to Hillsdale county, Mich., and settled near Moscow on a farm, which he afterward dis- posed of and took up his residence with his son at Kalamazoo, where he died. He was a son of Dr. Stephen Potter, a surgeon in the United States army during the war of 1812 and a well- known physician of the state of New York. Hon. Allen Potter, the only child of his parents, was reared and educated in his native county, and there he learned his trade as a tinner and worked at it seven years. In 1838 he became a resident of Michigan, and here he followed his craft in a number of different places, among them Jones- ville, in Hillsdale county, and later at Homer, at each place remaining several years. 'In June, 1845. he moved to Kalamazoo and opened a small hardware store and tin shop, and from this small beginning he built up an extensive trade which he conducted successfully in connection with a blast furnace. For some time he was in partner- ship with Mr. Woodbury, and afterward with Mr. Parsons and others. Subsequently he retired from active business pursuits in these lines and devoted his attention to private banking and after- ward became vice-president of the Michigan Na- tional Bank. He also held stock in the gas com-
allen Sollen
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
pany and, in company with Mr. Woodbury and Mr. Walter, purchased and owned the first plant. He was ever alive to the commercial interests of his city, in a number of other enterprises of value to the community and advantage to its people. Taking an active part in politics as a Republican, he was chosen to represent his county in the lower house of the state legislature and afterward as a representative of his district in the congress of the United States. In legislative work he exhibited the same energy, capacity and breadth of view that distinguished him in private business and displayed besides a wide and accurate knowl- edge of public affairs that made him a valuable member of the bodies to which he was sent as a representative. Locally, although he did not de- sire or seek public office, he served as president of the village and afterward as the first mayor of the city. He died on May 8, 1885, in the full maturity and vigor of his powers and with ap- parently many years of usefulness yet before him. In September, 1845, he married with Miss Charity P. Letts, a daughter of Abraham and Eliza (Smith) Letts, both natives of New York. The family moved to Michigan in 1835 and set- tled near Homer, Calhoun county, where the fa- ther engaged in farming. He died in Kalamazoo. His father was John Letts, a native of New Jer- sey and a soldier in the war of the Revolution in a New Jersey regiment in which he served seven years. In the service he had many narrow es- capes from violent death and often was obliged to have recourse to skillful strategem to save himself, being employed in a measure in the se- cret service of the army. He died at a good old age in Orleans county, N. Y. Mr. and Mrs. Pot- ter had three children. Their son, Allen Potter. Jr., died in 1883. The daughters, Mrs. May Knight and Mrs. Lillie Gardner, live in Kala- mazoo.
JOHN N. RANSOM.
Although not a pioneer of the state, John N. Ransom, a well-known, enterprising and prosper- ous farmer of Alamo township. this county, was undoubtedly an early arrival in the state, being born in the city of Kalamazoo on March 2, 1840,
less than ten years after the foundation of the vil- lage which has since become the city, and less than twelve years after the first stake was stuck to mark the claim of a white man to any of the land now within its limits. He is a son of Dr. Fletcher Ransom, who was born at Townsend, Vt., on August 22, 1800, and whose father was J. Ezekiel Ransom, also a native of Vermont. Dr. Ransom, the father of John N., was educated in his native state, being matriculated at Middlebury College in the town of the same name, and com- pleting there the scholastic training he had be- gun in the common schools. He afterward at- tended the Castleton Medical College in Rutland county, and was graduated from that institution with degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1830. For a number of years he practiced his profession at Putney, Windham county, and then at Glens Falls, N. Y., where he remained until 1837. In that year he came to Kalamazoo county and bought three hundred and twenty acres of government land in Alamo township, to which he added subse- quent purchases until he owned five hundred acres. He was active in political affairs, for a while as a Whig and afterward until his death as a Demo- crat, and early in his residence in the county was elected a justice of the peace, an office he filled many years. In 1845 and again in 1846 he was elected to the legislature. At the end of his term in that body he settled on his farm, which, in the meantime, he had greatly improved and developed, and for a number of years he devoted his time and energies almost wholly to its needs and culti- vation. His last residence was in the city of Kalamazoo, where he died in June, 1867. He was twice married, his second wife being Miss Lucia Lovell. The first, who was the mother of John N., was Miss Elizabeth Noyes, a native of Ver- mont. She died in 1840, leaving two sons, John N. and his brother Charles, who lives at Plainwell. John N. Ransom was reared in this county and educated in its public schools and at Kalamazoo College. He began life as a farmer and stock- grower, and in those lines of productive effort he is still engaged. He and his brother cleared the home farm themselves and erected all the build- ings on it. In the course of time he became the
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owner of this farm, and he has since increased its size until he is now the owner of nine hundred acres of excellent land. all under cultivation and brought to a high state of fertility. It is im- proved with a fine modern dwelling and other good buildings of every needed kind, and provided with all the most approved appliances for carry- ing on its work, or ministering to the comfort and enjoyment of the family. Mr. Ransom is president of the Citizens' State Savings Bank of Plainwell, a stockholder in the City National Bank of Kalamazoo, and president of the Alamo Valley Creamery Company of Alamo. He was married in this county on December 30, 1869, to Miss Caro- line Hydorn, a native of Alamo township and daughter of William and Susan (Jewell) Ilydorn, who were born and reared in New Jersey and came to Kalamazoo county in 1845. locating then in Alamo township, where they passed the re- mainder of their lives. Mr. and Mrs. Ransom have four children, Fletcher C., who is an artist and lives in Brooklyn, N. Y .; Fannie E., now. Mrs. Franklin Scott, of Plainwell; John W., a farmer in Alamo township, and Larkin N., living at home. The father is a pronounced Democrat in political allegiance, and is active in the service of his party. He has frequently been a delegate to its county and state conventions. He also served four years as township supervisor, and is one of the best known and most esteemed citizens of the county.
THE KALAMAZOO GAS COMPANY.
While it is but eighty-two years since gas was first used as an illuminator in this country, and for a considerable time after that its use as an illuminating fluid was almost wholly experi- mental, the spread of its employment in this ca- pacity has been wonderful and its use therefor is now universal in cities, villages. factories and offices, and even where electricty, that agrecable and convenient medium, is extensively in service. gas still has a strong hold on the good will and a large place in the work of the world. The facts in the case 'show how quick the enterprise of the American people is to harness to their service an
obedient and comfortable agency with power to accomplish desired results, and also their great resourcefulness in improving its character and adapting it to their needs. When the village of Kalamazoo was looking forward with hope to putting aside its swaddling bands and assuming the more ambitious habiliments of a more ma- ture stature. it demonstrated its disposition to keep pace with the march of progress then al- ready sounded in its midst by adopting every available modern appliance for the comfort and convenience of its people. In this state of mind the Kalamazoo Gas Company was organized by a few enterprising and far-seeing men in 1856, its founders being J. P. Woodbury, Allen Potter and James Walters, all now deceased. They formed a close corporation themselves, owning all the stock. The company started with a small plant, twenty consumers and two streets to light, some discouragement of the undertaking having been created by a previous attempt to introduce the illuminant by popular subscription. But these men had faith in their project, and at once began to enlarge the system and augment the number of its patrons. The company was changed into a larger stock company in 1886, and J. P. Wood- bury was chosen president, a position in which he served until his death. The capital stock was at first two thousand, seven hundred dollars. This was increased from time to time until in 1900, when the company re-organized with a capital stock of three hundred thousand dollars, and the following officers were elected : H. D. Walbridge. of New York. president ; Edward Woodbury, sec- retary-treasurer : and J. J. Knight, manager. At this time ( 1904) Mr. Walbridge is still president. Mr. Knight is vice-president, F. W. Blowers is secretary and manager, and D. H. Haines is treasurer. In this city it now has three thou- sond consumers and thirty-six miles of pipe, and the capacity of the plant has been raised to one hundred million feet per year, an increase of thirty per cent. a year from the start. The com- pany employs here sixty to seventy-five persons regularly. David H. Haines, treasurer, was born at Salem, N. Y .. in 1844. his parents also being natives of that state. The family moved to Ohio
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
in 1853, and there the son grew to the age of sev- enteen. In 1861 he came to Allegan, Mich., and in August of 1862 enlisted in defense of the Union as a member of Company L, Fourth Mich- igan Cavalry. His regiment was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland under command of General Buell, and took part in the battle of Chick- amauga and other engagements of that time and locality, beginning with Stone river. The regi- ment then was transferred to the cavalry corps of the Military Division of the Mississippi, and did active service in all the Atlanta campaigns. Later it went with General Wilson in his march across Alabama to Georgia and took part in the capture of. President Davis of the Confederacy. Mr. Haines was mustered out of the service in July, 1865, and returning soon afterward to Michigan, settled at Kalamazoo, where he passed a year at school, after which he found employ- ment seven years with the milling firm of Mer- rell & McCourtie. During the next ten years he was otherwise engaged, and at the end of that period the company was re-organized as the Mer- rell Milling Company, and he returned to it and remained as its secretary until 1890. For three years thereafter he conducted a milling business of his own, and in 1901 became associated with the gas company, with which he has been contin- uously connected since. He was married at Kala- mazoo in 1873 to Miss Lila Thayer, a native of Ohio. They have one child, their son, Donald H. Mr. Haines takes an active interest in the frater- nal life of the community as a Freemason and a member of the Grand Army of the Repubilc.
SAMUEL A. BROWNE.
The late Samuel A. Browne was one of Michi- gan's best known and most enterprising horse- men, breeding horses of the highest grade and giving his stable an envied renown all over this country. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, Septem- ber 18, 1833, the son of William and Anna ( Meg- lade) Browne, who were also natives of the Irish capital. Late in life they followed their son to the United States and died in Chicago. Their son was reared and educated in his native city, and
at the age of nineteen years came to this country and located at Chicago. Here he engaged in the lumber business and later in the lumber trade, al- ways having large interests in his charge in this line, even until his death, after he had begun to devote a large share of his attention to other pur- suits. In 1885 he moved to Kalamazoo, and asso- ciated himself with Senator Stockbridge in the firm of S. A. Browne & Company, bought a half section of land west of the city and began breeding horses of the best quality for the track. Among the renowned racers they bred and owned were "Grand Sentinel" and "Empire," both of which had excellent records, and afterwards "Ambassa- dor," which they refused an offer of seventy-five thousand dollars, but which afterward died at Kalamazoo. Later their "Anteeo" became a leading stud and was sold by them for fifty-one thousand dollars, and their "Bell Boy" brought thirty-five thousand dollars as a two-year-old. They also raised "Vassar," which made a record of 2:07, and "Dancourt," which won a ten-thou- sand-dollar stake at Detroit. In addition to these they bred a long list of fast horses including "Eminence," 2:18, trial 2:10. The stallions won a wide reputation throughout the continent, and as a horseman Mr. Browne was well known all over this and many foreign countries. He died on March 4, 1895, at Los Angeles, Calif. On November 15, 1899, he was married in Chicago to Miss Jane H. Hanna, a native of Ireland. They had five sons and one daughter, all of whom are now deceased but two of the sons. The father took a lively interest in the affairs of the city, especially in the matter of public improvements, and displayed great public spirit and enterprise in promoting the substantial welfare of the com- munity. While serving as alderman from the second ward he secured the paving of Main street. He was also a presidential elector from the ninth district in 1880 on the Garfield ticket. In fraternal life he was a Freemason of the thirty-second degree, and in church affiliation was a Congregationalist.
WILLIAM H. BROWNE, his son and the only member of the family now living in Kala- mazoo, except the mother, who survives her hus-
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band, is keeping the stock farm up to the high standard it reached under the management of his father, and carrying on the business on the same broad and elevated plane it occupied in the care of that progressive gentleman. He was born in Chicago and came to this county with his father. He was married to Miss Ella Drake, the daughter of Benjamin Drake, Jr., a short sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this volume.
FRANCIS HODGMAN.
Francis Hodgman, second son of Moses Hodgman and Frances (Bellows) Hodgman, was born in Climax, Kalamazoo county, Mich., November 18, 1839. His parents were both na- tives of New Hampshire, of good old English an- cestry, and on the mother's side he is closely con- nected with many eminent and distinguished men of the Bellows and Chase families. Among the most celebrated of these were Rev. Henry W. Bellows, of New York, who had a world-wide reputation as a clergyman, and also as the origi- nator and the president of the Sanitary Commis- sion, which did such a world of good for the soldiers during the war of the Rebellion; Hon. Henry A. Bellows, chief justice of the state of New Hampshire: Salmon P. Chase, who was Lincoln's secretary of treasury and chief justice of the United States. These men were all of them second cousins of Mr. Hodgman's mother. His father was a shoemaker, who came to Mich- igan with other pioneers in 1836, and located in Climax four years after the first settlement in the town. He was the first shoemaker in it. In those days it was common for shoemakers to go from house to house among a certain class of people who furnished their own leather, and the shoe- maker made it up into the footwear for the whole family. During the first dozen years of their res- idence in Michigan, the Hodgman family moved as many as six times, at last settling down at the homestead which has been the family home since 1848. Moses Hodgman gave his children the best facilities for securing an education that his lim- ited means permitted. They attended the district schools and Francis studied in the select schools
taught by Mary Norris in the old Farmers' Ex- change, which stood on the corner now ( 1905) occupied by the Willison and Aldrich block, by George A. Chapim in what has lately been known as the Buckberry house, and by J. L. McCloud in what is now the residence of Samuel Tobey. Ile also went for one term to the high school in Battle Creek. Ilis schooling was mostly in the winter. At the age of ten he began working out, the first summer being spent on what is now the Horace H. Pierce farm, where he worked for twenty-five cents per day. For several years he worked out by the month during the summer on neighboring farms and in a saw mill which his father and uncle had built in Wakeshma. In the winter of 1857-8 he taught the district school in District No. 6, Climax, having just passed his seventeenth year. The following spring he en- tered the Michigan Agricultural College, where he worked his way through-teaching winters and working on the college farm from three to eight hours per day while there. He graduated in 1862 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. Three years later the degree of Master of Science was conferred on him for special scientific work. The next year after leaving the college he went to Littleton, N. IL., where he spent about a year clerking for his cousins in a drug store. From there he went in 1860 to Sandusky, O., where he worked for six months in a photograph gallery. From there, in the spring of 1865, he went to Galesburg. Mich., where for three years he ran a photograph gallery except for the six months spent in Coldwater, Mich., studying law. When he entered college the question was asked him what he expected to become after leaving school. and the answer was "a civil engineer." Up to this time he had found no opportunity to enter upon his favorite work, but in 1868 the chance came without any solicitation or forcknowledge on his part. In that year, at the instance of M. O. Streater, a retired Kalamazoo county sur- veyor, he was nominated for that office at the Re- publican convention and a few days later was ap- pointed to fill a vacancy in that office. He held that position with the exception of one term, when he was engaged in railroad surveys until
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
1893, when failing health compelled him to re- tire from active field work. During that time he was engaged for a year as leveler on the line of the defunct Marshall & Coldwater Railroad and one year as engineer in charge of location and construction on several divisions of the Rio Grande Western Railroad in eastern Utah. He was married Noveinber 14, 1870, at Galesburg. Mich., to Florence B. Comings, making his home at Kalamazoo and Galesburg until March, 1874, when he removed to the old paternal homestead at Climax, where he has resided ever since. He has held some kind of public office ever since he was of age, beginning with school inspector and ending with cemetery trustee. He never sought but one public office, representative, and that he did not get. He was the active promoter and founder of the Kalamazoo County Husbandman's Club, while he was master of the Climax Grange and was the active worker and organizer in that club in its earlier years. He was one of the founders of the Michigan Engineering Society. and has been the secretary and treasurer of that society since 1886. He was active in procuring the incorporation of the village of Climax, and was its president for a number of terms. He is a musician and as such was for thirty years an active member and leader in choirs wherever he happened to be. In 1899 he published a volume of music of his own composition entitled "Home's Sweet Harmonies." He was one of the founders of the Michigan Agricultural College Alumni As- sociation, and has once been the orator and twice the poet at their triennial gatherings. His poems have been collected and published by him under the title of the "Wandering Singer and His Songs," of which two editions have been issued. He has written much for the press, mostly on farming and engineering topics. He has recently published a pamphlet of historical and reminis- cent sketches entitled "Early Days in Climax." He is one of the contributors to the volume en- titled "Michigan Poets and Poetry." He is an artist of ability and has his house decorated from one end to the other with oil paintings and photo- graphs, his own work. For the past twenty years he has edited the organ of the Michigan Engi-
neering Society, the "Michigan Engineer." In 1886, under the auspices of that society, he, in conjunction with Prof. C. F. R. Bellows, of Ypsi- lanti, wrote and published the "Manual of Land Surveying." Three years later he bought out Prof. Bellows and re-wrote the book which is now in the twelfth edition. It is pronounced by the author of another book on surveying to be "the most desirable work on land surveying in the English language." It is now accepted by all as the standard work on the subject and its author has been employed by the highest authori- ties in the United States as an expert on questions of boundary lines. On one occasion he published a criticism of the decision of the supreme court of Michigan in a boundary line case, Wilson vs. Hoffman, which so impressed that court that of their own motion they re-called the case and re- versed the decision. They could have paid him no higher compliment. Since his residence on the old homestead it has grown from a village lot of an acre to a small farm of fourteen acres, from which he receives excellent returns and enjoys overseeing it. He has three children by his first wife: Harry, who is a civil engineer employed by the United States government on the Detroit river improvement work; Fanny, married to Archer B. Tobey, a Climax farmer, and Lucy, married to D. A. Davis, principal of No. 2 city school, Battle Creek, Mich. His first wife died in the spring of 1888, and in October of that year he was married to Emma F. Smith, at Chicago. She died in 1898, and in October, 1902, he was married to Jennie A. Dickey, of Charleston, Mich., with whom he now lives. His present resi- dence has practically been his life-long home. He has seen his township change from a wilderness, with scattered settlements on the prairie and in the forest, to a fair land of cleared-up, prosperous farms, with two thriving villages in their midst. He has seen forests of black walnut, whitewood, ash, elm, basswood, cherry, beech, maple, oak and hickory disappear, which if they were now stand- ing as they did when he was a boy, would sell for more than the entire township and everything on it will sell for now. He has seen the land when bears, deers, wolves, turkeys, prairie chickens,
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