USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 24
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partridges, black and gray squirrels were plenti- ful, and no one need lack for game. He has seen the game disappear, one kind after another, till hardly anything but rabbits and skunks are left. He has seen the postal service change from the weekly rider, who could carry all the mail for an office in his coat pocket, to the rural free delivery. with its daily delivery at the farmer's own door. He has seen the installation and growth of the railway, the telegraph and the telephone lines. the bicycle and the automobile, the sower, the harvester, the thresher and the husker. He has seen the good old-fashioned, honest, steady, re- liable, hard-working hired man disappear and his place taken by machinery, and wonders if after all we are any better or any happier than folks were fifty years ago.
BIG FOUR MERCANTILE COMPANY.
The Big Four Mercantile Company, of Scott, Pavilion township was organized on November 23. 1902, with a capital stock of twenty thousand dollars, and the following officers : President. J. A. Richardson: vice-president, Albert J. Hard- ing; and secretary, Wells N. Adams. It suc- ceeded the Richardson Mercantile Company, which had been founded some years before by Mr. Richardson and others. The new company erected more buildings and enlarged the stock, and now handles everything from a threshing machine to a paper collar, carrying on an im- mense general merchandising business, with a large extent of territory tributary to its trade, and all conducted in the most vigorous and system- atic manner. The present officers of the com- pany are the same as when it was organized, ex- cept that Ross E. Adams is secretary instead of Wells N. Adams.
Albert J. Harding, the vice-president and practical manager of the business, is a native of Genesee, N. Y., born January 13, 1853. He came to Michigan with his parents, Abraham and Jane (Ransom) Harding, and their four other chil- dren. They located in Climax township, this coun- ty, where the father worked at his trade as a car- riage maker, for a short time, then moved to
Barry county, and some years later died in north- ern Michigan. He was a soldier in the Civil war, and saw much active and arduous service in the memorable contest, participating in a num- ber of its most important battles. The mother (lied when her son Albert was a child. He was reared in Climax township and educated in the district schools. After leaving school he worked out by the month for a time, then bought a farm in the township, which he still owns, and which he has increased to two hundred and eighty acres. This he operated until 1902, when he moved to Scott and became connected with the mercantile company for which he is now operating and of which he is so important and productive a factor. He was married in Calhoun county on February 20. 1878. to Miss Ida Mapes, a native of that county, and a daughter of Anson and Maria ( Bloss ) Mapes, who settled there in 1835, and lied there after many years of successful farm- ing. Mr. and Mrs. Harding have had six chil- dren. three of whom are living : Zella M., wife of J. R. Campbell; Myrtic M., wife of Ross E. Adams, secretary of the company ; and Winnic O., who is living at home. In the six children there were two pair of twins, three of whom have (lied. In politics Mr. Harding is a Republican. Fle is a justice of the peace and has served six years as highway commissioner. He is a third- degree Mason, a Modern Woodman of America and a Knight of the Maccabees. Mr. Harding began life as a poor boy and was reared by stran- gers. He has made himself what he is, a well- informed. high-minded and successful business man, an excellent citizen, and a social and indus- trial force of magnitude and influence.
WALTER C. SMITH.
This esteemed citizen and farmer of Wak- eshina township, in this county, who retired from active work some years ago and took up his resi- dence at Vicksburg, is a native of Oakfield, Gene- see county, New York, where he was born on March 1. 1843. His parents. William and Mary E. (Shoemaker) Smith, were also natives of the state of New York and born in Montgomery
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county. The father was a blacksmith and later a farmer. The family came to Michigan in 1867, and after a residence of eleven months in Cal- houn county moved to Charleston township, in Kalamazoo county, where they bought a partially improved farm on which he died in 1872 and his wife in 1881, in Wakeshma township. They had three sons and two daughters, all now dead but their son, Walter C. The grandfather of the last named, Abraham Smith, was a shoemaker in New York state, and died there, as did his wife, whose maiden name was Mary E. Kelley. Walter C. Smith reached man's estate in this county, and began life as a farmer. In 1876 he purchased a farm of his own in Wakeshma township, which he still owns, but is now worked by his son. The father and mother have lived in Vicksburg dur- ing the last twenty-two years. They were married in 1867, the mother being Miss Josephine L. Burnham prior to her marriage, the daughter of Hiram O. Burnham. a pioneer of Charleston township, this county, who died in Charleston township aged eighty-two years. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have two children, their daughter. Nellie L., now the wife of F. A. Robinson, of Vicksburg, and the mother of two children, Margerie and Walter N., and their son Fred R., who is living on the homestead. The latter married Miss Anna L. Mason and has one son, WV. Mason. Mr. Smith has served four terms as township treas- urer. He and his wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a trustee.
CHARLES V. MOTTRAM, M. D.
Notable in his professional career, distin- guished in military service, and widely known and highly esteemed in private life, the late Dr. Charles V. Mottram, of Kalamazoo. after his death, was laid to rest in Mountain Home ceme- tery with every demonstration of popular regard and affection. He was born at Gilbertville, Otsego county. New York, on December 25. 1823, and was the grandson of Colonel Jasper Bedient, a Revolutionary patriot who took part in the battle of Bunker Hill, Saratoga and Yorktown. The Doctor obtained his primary education in the com-
mon schools and academy of his native place, and had partially completed a course of higher in- struction at Hamilton College, New York, when he moved to Michigan and took up the study of his profession in the office of his brother, Dr. William Mottram, then located and engaged in a large practice at Nottawa in St. Joseph county. In 1847 he was graduated with distinc- tion from the State Medical College at La Porte, Indiana, serving, during the last year of his course, as demonstrator of anatomy, a branch of medical science in which he was unusually proficient. After his graduation he returned to Nottawa, and there practiced in association with his brother until 1850, when they moved to Kala- mazoo, where he remained actively and success- fully engaged until the breaking out of the Civil war. During his first residence in Kalamazoo he made a widely extended acquaintance, especially in the outlying districts, where he became popular with all classes of citizens. He was interested and active in public affairs, and built a large hos- pital of concrete on the lot south of Corporation hall, which was destroyed by fire just as it was ready for occupancy. In June, 1861, he was ap- pointed surgeon of the Sixth Michigan Infantry, and the following autumn the regiment was or- dered to Baltimore, Md., where it remained in active service until February, 1862. It was then ordered to New Orleans as a part of the force detailed for the reduction of that city. The Sixth Michigan, Fourth Wisconsin, Twenty-first Indiana and Norris Battery being brigaded, Dr. Mottram was appointed brigade surgeon, and was subsequently made chief medical officer on the staff of General B. F. Butler, who commanded the land forces of the expedition. He was with Commodore Farragut at the passage of Forts Jackson and St. Philip on April 24. 1862. At the occupancy of New Orleans he was promoted to be medical director of the Department of the Gulf. and was particularly distinguished at the battles of. Baton Rouge and Port Hudson for his hos- pital service on the field. He was with General Banks on the Red river expedition, in the bat- tles of Alexandria and Grand Ecole, and partici- pated in the capture of Forts' Morgan and Gaines
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and other defenses at the entrance of Mobile bay. In1 1864 he was enrolled as a veteran and remained on duty until September, 1865. his closing service being on a hospital steamer in charge of sick and wounded soldiers who were being returned to their place of discharge. Previous to his retire- ment from the serviec he was offered the colonelcy of his regiment, but declined the honor. For three ycars following his "muster out" he was an in- valid from diseases contracted during the war. Hc then. after a second residence and interval of practice at Kalamazoo, removed to Lawrence. Kan., where he soon achieved state-wide distinc- tion as a physician and surgeon. He was a mem- ber of various local medical societies of both Michigan and Kansas, and a permanent member of the American Medical Association, and was the delegate to the international convention of the last named body at Paris. After attending this convention he passed several months on the con- tinent and at London in researches through a number of colleges and hospitals. Fraternally he was an Odd Fellow and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and in religious faith a firm believer in the doctrines of the Christian re- ligion, and in practice a man of active charities and great humanity. He loved his profession and devoted all his energies to its practice. In the war he had a high reputation with men of learning for his great acquirements, and on the field, by his kindly solicitudc for the sick, wounded and sore distressed, he won the closest and most cor- dial regard of the soldiers.
OSCAR M. ALLEN. SR.
To the interesting subject of this brief and in- adequate review the city of Kalamazoo is proba- bly indebted for usefulness in as many capacities as to any other man among her citizens. There is scarcely any form of productive enterprise or public interest which has not been quickened by the touch of his tireless hand or widened by the force of his active mind. The merc list of the enterprises of value with which he is connected now or has been in the past is in itself a broad suggestion of his multiform energy and fruitful-
ness in commercial and industrial life. and if the full story of his service in these capacities could be told in detail it would form one of the most interesting and impressive in American biogra- phy. As an extensive real estate operator Mr. .Allen added several beautiful tracts to the munici- pality for residence or business purposes. He was one of the original and most effective pro- moters of the Henderson-Ames Company for the manufacture of uniforms, regalia and kindred products. He has been an extensive patentce of his own inventions and those of others, helping many a poor man to good returns for his invent- ive genius. He has been for years largely inter- ested in the paper manufacturing industry here and elsewhere, has aided in founding and main- taining benevolent institutions, has been of ma- terial assistance in building and equipping an im- portant railroad in the state, has contributed lib- erally to schools and churches, has catered to and raised the standards of taste in engravings, and has been a leading official and directing potency in financial institutions of wide uscfulness and growing power. AAnd while carrying on all thesc enterprises, the value of any one of which would have been a handsome tribute to the usefulness of his life, he has been an unassuming and un- ostentatious citizen, performing with fidelity to duty every good work that has come before him without reference to the showy reward that is to be found in men's praises or positions of promi- nenee. Mr. Allen was born in Niagara county. N. Y., in 1828, and is the son of Thomas and Hannah (Chesbrough) Allen, natives of Ver- mont. The father was a tanner who brought his family to Michigan in 1837 and settled in Jack- son county, where he became a prosperous farmer and passed the remainder of his life. His father was a soldier in the Revolution and fought un- der Stark at Bennington. Oscar M. Allen. Sr .. was one of seven children, five sons and two daughters, born in his father's family, all of whom are now deceased but himself. Coming with the family to this state when he was nine years old. he here grew to manhood and completed the common-school education which he had begun in his native state. He remained in Jackson county
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OSCAR M ALLEN.
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until 1845, then, a youth of seventeen and desir- ous of a different life from that offered on his father's farm, he went to Detroit and learned the trade of coach painting. After eight years of ac- tive work in this line in Detroit he moved to San- dusky, Ohio, where he wrought in the same line, painting the first four passenger coaches for the Michigan Central Railroad after it was purchased from the state. At Sandusky he had a shop of his own and carried on general house and coach painting five years. He then returned to De- troit and there passed three years in the produce trade. In 1853 he moved to Kalamazoo and opened a large establishment for the work of painting and decorating, papering walls and col- lateral lines of work, and selling the materials for the industry. In this undertaking Mr. Rice was his partner, the firm being Rice & Allen, and continuing in business fifteen years. They also conducted a branch business in Chicago. At the end of that time Mr. Rice retired and Mr. Allen added a large stock of superior grades of furni- ture. After some time he sold out the furniture and a little later the entire business. He then opened the first dollar store in the city and found the project a decided success from the start. After conducting it for a number of years he dis- posed of his interest in it and founded the Globe Casket Manufacturing Company, the first estab- lishment engaged in the manufacture of cloth covered caskets in this country. Selling his in- terest in this business, he became largely en- gaged in real estate operations in and around the city, and, in company with Heber C. Reed, formed the South Side Improvement Company and plat- ted for a residence section its addition of forty acres to the city, in which they built over five miles of sidewalks and which has helped to make one of the most desirable residence portions of the town. He was also one of the earliest and heaviest investors in paper manufactories and one of the early promoters of the Henderson- Ames Company for the manufacture of uniforms, an account of which will be found on another page of this work. He is a stockholder in the Kalamazoo Corset Company, and was an original subscriber to the stock of the City National Bank,
in which he is still a director. He also assisted in founding the Michigan National Bank. He added to the city domain the Allen place and the Elm place, which together have a ten-thousand- dollar cement boulevard. In addition he platted the Allen farm north of the city, containing one hundred and forty acres, into small tracts for raising celery, on which thirty tenants now live and thrive. Being of an inventive turn of mind, he designed and patented the movable glass plate in caskets which is now in general use. He also took out other patents for some of his own de- vices and those of other mnen, thirty-two in all, thus aiding more than one poor inventor to a proper compensation for his invention. He is a stock- holder and director in several paper mills, among them the Bryant, the Imperial Coating Mill and the Superior, and also in the Illinois Envelope Company of Kalamazoo. For twenty-five years he has been a stockholder in and trustee of the Charlevoix Home Association. Foreseeing the need of increased transportation facilities for this section, he was one of nine men to build the Kala- mazoo & Saginaw Railroad, in which he was a di- rector for a number of years. While associated in business with Mr. Rice they had a branch house in Chicago, of which he was the resident manager, and during his residence in that city he sold a piece of property on State street, one hundred by one hundred and fifty feet wide, for twenty-five thousand dollars, which is now
worth a million dollars. Prior to going there he was engaged for a time in publishing steel plate engravings of the illustrious men and women of the world and had almost exclusive control of the business. His benefactions to re- ligious and educational institutions have been on a par with his business enterprise and success. He gave five thousand dollars to the Congregational church, of which he has long been a member, and has given freely to all other denominations
in the city. He was also one of the first sub- scribers to the Michigan Female Seminary in Kalamazoo and is still a trustee of the institution. Always a liberal friend of the cause of education, he has never withheld his bounty from its needs, whether those of institutions or individuals, and
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has helped many a worthy poor young man and lady to good school facilities. In politics he was a Whig until the formation of the Republican party and since then he has been an ardent supporter of that organization. Mr. Allen was married in Detroit in 1849 to Miss Hannah Smith, a native of Leeds, England. They have had five sons and two daughters, all of whom are living but one. In fraternal life he has been a Master Mason for a long time and a Knight Templar for twenty- eight years. Now on the verge of four score years and ten, he is passing the evening of life with the people among whom he has lived and labored to such good purpose, and there is none among them who does not call him blessed
JAMES A. CRANE.
Like many another of the prominent, progres- sive and successful farmers of southern Michi- gan, James A. Crane was a native of the state of New York, and grew to manhood and received his education there. He was born in Seneca county, of that state, on April 24. 1828, the son of Amza L. and Nancy ( Crosby) Crane. the former a native of New Jersey and the latter of New York. The parents were farmers, and their son was reared on the parental homestead and took his part in its useful labors. He remained at home until 1861, when he came to this county and settled on the farm on which he lived until 1902. At that time he moved to Augusta, where. until cleath called him on August 29, 1905. he was ac- tively engaged in overseeing the work on his farm and doing his share of it. This land, which had never yet heard the voice of command calling it forth from its wilderness and lethargy to re- sponsive productiveness when he took possession of it. yielded to his persuasive industry with alac- rity, and rewarded his faith by developing into comeliness, fruitfulness and great value. On July 5. 1869. Mr. Crane united in marriage with Miss Flora E. Forbes, a daughter of Nathan and Laura ( Willmoth) Forbes, the former a native of New Hampshire and the latter of New York. They were carly settlers in Kalamazoo county. and after residing for a time in Oshtemo and
Alamo townships, some time in the '6os located in Ross township, where they remained until death. Mr. Forbes was a deicon in the Baptist church, to which his wife also belonged. Mrs. Crane is one of their three children, the other two being her brothers, Francis M. and Benja- min F. She was reared in this county, and after completing her education taught two terms of school in Alamo township. She and her husband adopted a son, George E. Crane, on whom they bestowed great care, educating him both by home training and educational advantages of the best character for a position of usefulness in the world. In religious belief Mrs. Crane is a Baptist, and is prominent in church work and in the best social circles in her community. In connection with his general farming interests Mr. Crane raised num- bers of well-bred live stock, making this industry a specialty in which he took the greatest interest and found much enjoyment. He was very suc- cessful in his efforts, having made a study of the work and familiarized himself with all its phases and requirements, and he omitted no effort on his part to secure the best results. Politically. he was a pronounced Democrat. He was always prominent and influential in local affairs in his township, and was as favorably known from one end of the county to the other as an excellent farmer, reliable man and representative citizen, and it is with much sorrow that his many friends reckon him among those departed this life.
WILLIAM WAGNER.
William Wagner, one of the pioneer business men of Kalamazoo, and at the time of his retire- ment from traffic the oldest merchant of his line in this city, is a native of Germany, born in Sep- tember. 1835. and the son of David and Mary Wagner, also natives of the fatherland. The father was a government officer, and died when his son William was five years old. The son grew to manhood in his native place and attended the schools there until he was fifteen. He then learned his trade as a tailor and followed it in Germany until 1851. when he came to the United States, being forty-four days on the ocean. On
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his arrival in this country he came at once to Ann Arbor, Mich., where he found employment at his trade with an uncle, in whose employ he re- inained two years. Being somewhat dissatisfied with his craft, and having a favorable opportunity to master one more to his taste, he apprenticed himself to a harnessmaker, and spent three years at his apprenticeship. Thereafter he wrought at the new trade in various places in this state until the summer of 1859, then came to Kalamazoo and worked as a journeyman until 1873. In that year he began the business for himself, and car- ried it on briskly with an increasing trade until December, 1903, when he retired from active pursuits. He is a stockholder in the Central Bank and has long been a factor of importance in the fiscal and commercial life of the city, and is in all respects a worthy and well esteemed citizen. He was married in 1859 to Miss Anna M. Yaw- ager, a native of New Jersey and of German an- cestry. They had one child, William W., who is a resident of Kalamazoo. The parents of Mrs. Wagner, James W. and Anna (Crater) Yawager, were among the first settlers of Lan- sing, going there from Northville, Mich., and making the journey by team through the un- broken forests, crossing swamps and unbridged rivers, often carrying their effects so as to enable the teams to get through, and suffering all the hardships of that sort of travel in a new and un- inhabited country. The father erected the first log cabin at the place, the commissioners who lo- cated the capital assisting him to cut a road to his land and build his little log shanty. The site was in the midst of a boundless wilderness, with all the concomitants of savage life infesting it, and the outlook for comfort within a human life was far from promising. Indians were plentiful and not always friendly, wild beasts and rep- tiles contested possession of the land with the new dwellers, the conveniences of civilization were scant and hard to get, and those who cast their lot there faced every form of danger and were called upon to endure every form of privation incident to life in the remotest wilds. That they were resolute in spirit and vigorous in action in meeting and subduing the difficulties of their
situation. the rapid growth of the city in its earlier history, and its splendid development abundantly attest. Mr. Wagner's wife died on October 7, 1905, at the family residence on west South street, in the city of Kalamazoo, after an illness which lasted three days. She was a woman of remark- able character, and left many friends to mourn her. Mr. Wagner has never had an active part in politics, nor sought nor desired public office. He has, however, been interested in the fraternal life of the community, and freely mingled in it as a Freemason and a United Workman. He dwells quietly now, at rest from active labor, amid the institutions he has helped to build up, and is highly respected among the people among whom he has lived and labored so long.
ROBERT JICKLING.
As the virgin forest of Kalamazoo county, which for ages towered aloft in their great growth and storm-defying might, showed the richness and strength of its soil, the high charac- ter of its civilization, the excellence and vigor of its civil institutions, and the amplitude and wealth of its commercial life, abundantly prove the virile force, lofty courage, resolute energy, and com- prehensive breadth of view of it's founders and early settlers. Among these, one worthy of spe- cial mention is Robert Jickling. until recently one of the prosperous and enterprising farmers of Comstock township, but who spent the later years of his life retired from active pursuits. He was born at Hitcham, Norfolkshire, England, on September 2, 1821, and was the son of Robert and Mary (Lee) Jickling, who were born and reared in the same locality as their son. In 1835 the family emigrated to Canada, and took up their residence at Overbeck, in the province of Ontario. The journey across the ocean and into the interior covered seven weeks and three days. The mother died in her native land on December 19, 1831, at the age of forty-three years. The father became an early settler near the town of Woodstock, and there passed the remainder of his life as a farmer, . dying on April 9, 1872, aged seventy-eight years. Robert was the third son and third child of his
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