USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 28
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Kalamazoo. After leaving that institution he farmed a year, then entered the employ of the Bardeen Paper Company at Otsego, Allegan county, as foreman of the assorting department. AAfter three years of service in that capacity he was transferred to the office force as stock clerk and had charge of all stock and material that came into the mill. In 1895 he united with Noah Bryant, H. P. Kauffer, S. F. Dunkin and others, to organize the Bryant Paper Company, with a capital stock of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. He was made secretary and manager of this corporation, which is one of the largest paper manufacturies in the state of Michigan. It employs regularly over four hundred persons and has an an- nual output of more than twelve thousand tons of high-grade book, bond and other papers, and is the only paper establishment here outside of the trust. Mr. Milham is also secretary and a director of the Superior Paper Company, president and a director of the Imperial Coating Company, presi- dent of the Kalamazoo Railroad Supply Company, president and a director of the Illinois Envelope Company of Kalamazoo, secretary and a director of the Munissing ( Mich.) Paper Company, and a director of the Home Savings Bank of Kalama- zoo. He enjoys the distinction of having been at one time nominated by both parties for the office of mayor of Kalamazoo, and of having declined the nomination from both. He, however, served three years as president of the village council of Otsego, and is at present (1904) a member of the Kalamazoo board of education and a director and member of the building committee of the Kalamazoo Hospital. He was married on Octo- ber 20, 1885, to Miss Elizabeth Bryant, a daugh- ter of Noah Bryant (see sketch elsewhere in this work). They have one child, their daughter Nora. He is a thirty-second-degree Mason, an Elk and a Knight of Pythias. He has served his lodge of Elks as exalted ruler and his lodge of Knights of Pythias as chancellor commander.
DR. URIAH UPJOHN.
The late Dr. Uriah Upjohn, for a long time one of the leaders of the medical profession of Kalamazoo and throughout southern Michigan,
who died in the city in November, 1896, at the ripe old age of eighty-seven years, and after a long career of great usefulness in this community, was born in Wales in 1808, while his parents. Sibley William and Mary (Standard) Upjohn, natives of England, were on a visit to that country. The father was a civil engineer and for many years practiced his profession in his na- tive land, being connected with many works of construction of great importance there. among them the first. railroad built in the country, for which he made a portion of the survey. He was also a preacher of the Independent domination, founded by him, and in his zeal founded, built and maintained a church of this faith at Shaftesbury. He emigrated to the United States about 1826, and located near Albany, N. Y., where he farmed on a small scale until his death, which oc- curred there. He was the father of three sons, all of whom grew to maturity, became residents of Michigan and devoted themselves to the medi- cal profession, one of them, Dr. William Upjohn, being a surgeon in a Michigan regiment during the Civil war : another brother, Erastus, went as a pioneer to Nebraska and printed the first news- paper issued in that territory. He was also a surgeon in the Union army during the Civil war. A sister, named Helen, married Fenner Ferger- son, a former resident of Albion, this state, who was appointed by President Pierce the first chief justice of Nebraska, and afterwards sent as a delegate from that territory to the United States house of representatives. Later he was nominated for governor of Nebraska, but died while he was making the canvass for the office. Dr. Uriah Up- john passed from childhood to manhood amid the favorable influences of an excellent home and the discipline and thorough training of good schools in England. He remained at home until .April. 1828, when he and his older brother, Wil- liam, came to the United States, landing in New York in June. They spent the summer travelling and prospecting through some of the eastern and southern states. The following winter Dr. Uriah taught school, and early in the spring of 1830 re- turned to England to assist his parents in remov- ing to this country, where they arrived in his company in July. The family settled at Green-
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
bush (East Albany), N. Y. Here the Doctor began the study of medicine, or rather continued it, for he had already given the profession some attention in England, becoming a student under the direction of Dr. Hale, a learned man of high character, a graduate of Jefferson Medical Col- lege in Philadelphia, and the husband of Governor George Clinton's granddaughter, her father hav- ing been the well-known "Citizen Genet."" Dr. Upjohn pursued the full professional course at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and was graduated from that institution on March 25, 1834. He had also attended the practice of physic and surgery in the New York Hospital and two full courses in anatomy and surgery under Professor Alden March, of Albany. He began his practice at Brighton, Monroe county, New York, and in June, 1835, he and his brother, William, started out to seek their for- tunes in the far west, as it was then, crossing Lake Erie by steamer. From Detroit they jour- neyed to Kalamazoo on horseback through the wilderness, and located on section 31 in that part of Richland township since named Ross. Build- ing a little log house on their land, they began the practice of medicine in these western wilds, where the settlers were few and it was far be- tween them, the conditions laying them under tribute for prodigious industry and the endurance of great hardships and privations. On September 15, 1837, he was married to Miss Maria Mills, a daughter of Deacon Simeon Mills, one of the pio- neers of Gull Prairie. For a period of twenty years he rode horseback to visit his patients scattered through five counties, following the new-made track of the pioneer, or the Indian trail, or by blazed trees through the trackless forest, for there were no roads in this section at that time. Kindly, patiently, he went forth on his errand of mercy in all seasons and through all kinds of weather, giving his services as cheer- fully to the poor who could not pay as to those who could. In 1845 he was nominated for con- gress on the Free-Soil ticket, and while in the midst of his practice he and his brother, William, sent a memorial numerously signed to the legis- lature which resulted in the passage of the home-
stead law. Dr. Upjohn and his wife became the parents of twelve children, seven daughters and five sons. Eleven grew to maturity and of them five have graduated from the medical department of the University of Michigan : Mary and Amelia in pharmacy, the first lady graduates of the Uni- versity, and Helen, Henry U. and William E. as physicians. Helen (Mrs. Kirkland) was well established in practice at Kalamazoo, but died in 1902; James T .. in addition to the five named above, is a graduate of the State University and a physician in active practice. In 1885 William E. and Henry began the manufacture of pills and granules and on the death of Henry, James T. became a member of the company along with an- other brother, Frederick L. The enterprise is a stock company well capitalized and has an enor- mous business, which is constantly increasing in the volume and variety of its products. Mrs. Upjohn died in February, 1882, and the Doctor followed her to the other world in November, 1896. During the last ten of fifteen years of his life the Doctor was connected with his profession only as a consulting physician, but he never lost interest in it or eagerness for the promotion of its best interests. The earlier years of his work were full of exposure, hard labor and privation. Yet he was a sturdy man, inured to toil and exposure, and knew no other life. And nature, distributing her favors with a system of constant balances and compensations, gave him through his very hard- ships a flexibility of function and a toughness of fiber which kept him in condition for his work and enabled him to continue it so long and do it so well. He attributed much of the vigor of body and mind and elasticity of spirit which he en- joyed when approaching the verge of four-score and ten to his continued exercise on horseback in the open air during the long period of his country practice.
GEORGE B. DAVIS.
The late George B. Davis, of Kalamazoo, whose death occurred on May 4, 1902, was for many years one of the principal business men of the city, and by his thrift, industry and business acumen accumulated a large estate, especially in
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real property, demonstrating impressively that to the qualities he possessed there is great wealth of opportunity open in this land of unbounded possibilities. He was a native of Kalamazoo, born at the corner of South and Henrietta streets on February 27, 1839. His parents were Lewis R. and Nancy ( Simons) Davis, the former a native of New Jersey and the latter of New York. They settled at Kalamazoo in 1834, and for a number of years thereafter the father worked at his trade as a tailor in the city. He then purchased a farm east of the Michigan Buggy Works, and on this he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, the father dying there on March 11, 1889, at the age of eighty, and the mother on March 13. 1900, at the same age. Their offspring numbered three, one son and two daughters. Of these all are now deccased but one daughter. Isabella, who lives at Battle Creek, this state. The son George was reared and educated in Kalamazoo, attending the common schools, the Baptist College and Gregory's Business College, being graduated from the last named. Early in life he began run- ning a saw-mill built by his father on the farm, and to the industry which thus took his fancy as a youth he devoted the rest of his days, becoming an extensive lumber merchant, conducting large operations in the northern part of the state and running a number of mills in different sections, one of his specialties being hard woods. He also became an extensive dealer in real estate and owned many buildings in Kalamazoo, among them the Davis block, at the corner of Kalamazoo avenue and Rose street. He was one of the founders of the King Paper Company and a stockholder in the Home Savings Bank. While deeply and serviceably interested in public af- fairs, and devoted to the welfare of his city and county, he never filled or desired a public office, but in national politics loyally supported the Dem- ocratic party. On October 6, 1875, he was mar- ried to Miss Annette M. Lewis, a daughter of Hiram and Candice (Leeland) Lewis, pioneer set- tlers in Michigan, having come to Barry county in 1836. They were farmers and came to Kalama- zoo county in 1865, and both died here. Mr. and Mrs. Davis had two children, both of whom are living, George C., of Kalamazoo, and Annette
L., at home. Mr. Davis was everywhere highly respected and his death was felt to be a great loss to the community in which he so long lived and labored for the common good and the expansion of every element of commercial, educational and moral interest.
NOAH BRYANT.
Noah Bryant who is one of the veteran paper manufacturers of Michigan, and is more exten- sively engaged in the business than almost any other man in the state, may properly be said to have been born to the craft, his forefathers having been engaged in it for two or three generations before him. He was born at Alton, in Hamp- shire. England, on January 3, 1844, and is the son of Joseph and Mary (Brown) Bryant, also natives of that country. The father was largely occupied in the manufacture of paper throughout his life, much of the time in England and in later years in this country. He died at Florence, Mass .. at an advanced age. His father was also a paper manufacturer, doing his work by a hand process. He died in England. Mr. Bryant is one of seven sons born to his parents, all of whom eng .ed in making paper, and all but him are now living in Australia. He grew to manhood and was edu- cated in his native land, and there he learned his trade, serving an apprenticeship of seven years. In 1859 he emigrated to the United States and located at East Hartford, Conn., where he was employed a year in running a paper machine in the Goodwin mills. He then passed a year at Troy. N. Y., and thereafter was employed in different places in the east until 1871. He was with Crocker & Burbanks, of Fitchburg, Mass., for eleven years, having charge of two mills. He then moved to Cincinnati, where he had charge of a mill for one year. In the fall of 1871 he came to Kalamazoo as foreman of the old Kala- mazoo paper mill, which he built up in its busi- ness and placed on a paying basis, remaining with the company for a period of eleven years. In 1882, in company with Walter Hodges, George Barden and Jacob Hook, he went to Otsego, Mich., and founded the Bardeen Paper Mill, which he served as superintendent eight years. Then,
NOAH BRYANT.
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
in company with Frank Milham, John King, J. Cook and others, he organized the Bryant Paper Manufacturing Company, of which he was then made and is now president, and which is the largest and most prosperous company of the kind in Kalamazoo. Under his vigorous management and business capacity the trade of the mills has grown to large proportions and its profits have kept pace with its expansion. Mr. Bryant is also vice-president of the Imperial Coating Plant, a director of the Superior Paper Mill and a stock- holder in the Munissing Paper Mill, of Munissing, He also still holds stock in the Barden Paper Company. In 1864 he was married, in Fitchburg, Mass., to Miss Elizabeth Willmott, a native of England. They have one child, a daughter, who is now the wife of Frank Milham, of Kalamazoo. Mr. Bryant has found no food for his fancy in political contentions, and although a Republican in party faith he has never been an active partisan. In the fraternal life of the community, however, he has taken an active interest as a Freemason and an Elk. His business and his domestic af- fairs have engaged his attention to the exclusion of almost everything else, and in these he has been true to every demand of good citizenship. Throughout southern Michigan and the adjacent territory he is widely known and highly esteemed. Mr. Bryant enlisted in 1864 at Philadelphia in a Pennsylvania regiment for three months. The regiment was sent to Washington and various places in Pennsylvania, including Gettysburg, Chambersburg and Pottsville, doing guard duty and was finally sent back to Philadelphia, where they were discharged.
KALAMAZOO HACK & BUS COMPANY.
The greater the attractions, the commercial and industrial activity and the social mingling of a city or community, the more need there is for transportation facilities. The wants of Kalama- zoo in this respect are admirably provided for by the Kalamazoo Hack and Bus Company, whose capital stock is twenty-four thousand dollars, and whose equipment is one of the most complete and modern in this part of the world. The business was started by a firm of energetic and enterpris-
ing partners, and in 1890 the company was or- ganized with a capital stock of sixteen thousand dollars, by George Fuller, H. J. Fuller, Hall P. Kauffer, E. C. Dayton, W. R. Beebe, J. C. Good- ale, H. F. Badger, J. W. Osborn and C. A. Peck. The first officers were H. P. Kauffer, president ; George Fuller, vice-president ; W. R. Beebe, sec- retary and treasurer, and H. J. Fuller, general manager. At its organization the company had forty horses and twenty hacks and busses, and up to that limit was fully equipped for every re- quirement of the business. In 1893 it was re- organized, the capital stock was raised to twen- ty-four thousand dollars, and H. J. Fuller was elected president and general manager, . Mr. Kauffer having disposed of his interest and re- tired from the company. The other officers are still the same as when the first organization took place. One hundred horses are now in use in the enterprise. with a corresponding number of first- class conveyances, and it is claimed that this com- pany gives the best service in the United States for the least money. It controls the whole trans- portation industry in the city, and the demands on its facilities are constantly increasing at such a rate that it is now building a new stable on Pitch- er street with accommodations for one hundred fifty horses, which, when completed, will prob- ably be the largest one in this state. H. J. Ful- ler, the president and general manager, is a na- tive of Kalamazoo county, born on a west end farm in 1860. His parents, George and Hester A. (Slack) Fuller, were born in the state of New York. The father settled in this county in 1858 and farmed until 1863, when he moved to Kala- mazoo and engaged in manufacturing flour bar- rels. Some little time afterward he turned his attention to the grocery trade and followed it un- til 1870. Two years later he started a livery busi- ness, and in this he is still occupied, the pioneer liveryman of the city. He has taken a lively in- terest in the affairs of the city, serving two terms in the city council and otherwise giving good service to municipal matters. The son, H. J. Fuller, grew to manhood and was educated in this county. For some years after leaving school he was in business with his father, in the firm of George Fuller & Son, remaining with him until
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
the organization of this company, since when he has given its affairs his exclusive attention, and to good purpose. He is also a stockholder in the South Side Improvement Company, and a stock- holder and director of the Recreation Park Com- pany. He is besides the owner of valuable real estate in the city, among liis possessions being the Fuller block, which he has recently greatly im- proved and made into an office building. Fra- ternally he is connected with the order of Elks. In 1884 he was married to Miss Lizzie P. Kidder, a daughter of Lewis Kidder and niece of George F. Kidder. Her mother was Maria (Drake) Kidder, a daughter of Benjamin Drake, one of the pio- neers of Grand Prairie. Benjamin Drake was the first settler in the town of Oshtemo, locating there on September 1, 1830. The land he took up was not in the market at that time and was still occupied by Indians. In 1831 the govern- ment offered it for sale and he bid it in without opposition, although he had reason to fear trouble with a man named Washburn who had asserted a squatter's claim to it. With the help of the Indians, Mr. Blake built a log dwelling on his land, which was the first habitation for white per- sons on Grand Prairie. The Indians in the main were friendly, but occasionally showed an ugly disposition. The tract of unbroken prairie on which he settled was transformed by his industry into an excellent farm, to which he afterward added three hundred acres more, and the whole body became fruitful and beautiful to the last degree before his death, being considered one of the best in the county, and lying almost under the shadow of the growing city of Kalamazoo. This farm is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Fuller. It has never been out of the family or incumbered with a mortgage. Mr. Drake lived to the age of ninety-eight, enjoying the fruits of many years of toil and hardship, the wealth he acquired, not by speculation, but by continued and systematic in- dustry and frugality. He stood high in the county as a man of sterling worth and strict in- tegrity. In political faith he was an unyielding Republican but never an active party worker. On December 19, 1819, he married Miss Maria Og- den, a native of Quinte, province of Ontario,
Canada. It was his happy fate to see the un- occupied prairie and unbroken forest in the midst of which he settled changed into comfortable homes, fields of golden grain, and cultivated land- scapes, plentifully supplied with churches and schools.
WALTER R. TAYLOR.
.A lawyer in active practice, deputy county clerk and abstractor of titles, Walter R. Taylor, of Kalamazoo, leads a busy life, but he finds in his multiform and important duties the pleasure that comes from useful and profitable labor, and the best bulwark against discontent and real wea- riness. Ile is a native of Kent county, this state, born on November 5. 1859, and the son of Hollis R. and Hannah ( Howell ) Taylor, the former born in Vermont and the latter in the state of New York. The father was a farmer and builder. He came to Michigan in 1833, and after a resi- cence of a few months at Jonesville, Hillsdale county, moved to Coldwater, Branch county, where he built the third house put up in the town. In 1857 he moved to Kent county, where he died in 1800. Two of his sons were Union soldiers in the Civil war. Walter attended the public schools of his native county, and after completing his education there found employment in the office of the register of deeds in the adjoining county of Newaygo in compiling a set of abstracts, re- maining there until 1888. During his residence in that county he began studying law under direc- tion of Colonel Standish. In 1889 he was ap- pointed assistant reporter for the supreme court by W. D. Fuller, the reporter, and during his year of service in that capacity he continued his legal studies. He was admitted to practice before the supreme court in 1890 and at once moved to Kalamazoo, where he has since resided and con- ducted a large abstracting business in connection with his practice. On coming to Kalamazoo he was appointed deputy county clerk and still holds this position. He has prospered in his business and risen to consequence in the community as the reward of his industry and capacity and his close attention to every duty which has devolved upon him. He was elected mayor of Kalamazoo in
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
April, 1905, defeating the Hon. Samuel Tolz, the Democratic nominee. He is a director of the First National Bank and is connected with other interests of importance and usefulness in the city. He takes an active and helpful part in political affairs as a Republican, and has prominence in fraternal circles as a Freemason, an Odd Fellow and a Knight of Pythias. In 1855 he united in marriage with Miss Ella Hubbard, of Newaygo. They have two children, their son Walter H. and their daughter Edna R. Throughout southern Michigan Mr. Taylor is favorably known as an excellent citizen, a capable and conscientious busi- ness man, a lawyer of ability and industry and a genial and companionable gentleman. He has a host of friends wherever he is known, and he de- serves the high regard in which they hold him. His services as an abstractor are in continual de- mand and his work in this line has no superior anywhere, he being careful and painstaking with it to the last degree, doing this, as he does every- thing else with all his energy, and with the utmost attention to every detail.
H. N. ELWELL.
From the dawn of his manhood the pleasing subject of this memoir has been connected with public affairs, bearing his part of the burden of American citizenship first in the Civil war, and facing death on more than one hard-fought field of that sanguinary conflict, and since that mem- orable struggle passed into history in the more congenial fields of peaceful labor and official serv- ice. He came into this world in Kalamazoo county on May 10, 1842, where his parents, Ne- miah and Ruth (Whitford) Elwell, natives of the state of New York, settled in the spring of 1836. At that time the whole country in this section was an almost unbroken wilderness, and all that was to make it habitable and productive was yet to be done. Accepting the conditions with cheer- fulness and courage, they began to make a clear- ing for a home on a tract of government land in what is now Climax township, and in a few years, by assiduous industry and stern endurance of many privations, they had a comfortably im- proved and well cultivated farm. There the
father died July 20, 1904, the mother having died on the soil hallowed by their labor in 1895. The father has been a man of local prominence and influence, holding several township offices from time to time, and among them that of treasurer, of which he was the first incumbent Their son H. H. Elwell, who is now the county recorder of deeds, grew to manhood on this farm and gained hardiness of body and independence of mind in its useful though exacting toil. He received a common-school education through the primitive facilities afforded in his boyhood in the country, and before he reached his legal majority had mas- tered the carpenter trade. He worked at this and farming until August 7, 1862, when, under a call for volunteers to defend the Union, he enlisted in Company E, Twenty-fifth Michigan Infantry. His regiment was assigned to the Twenty-third Army Corps in the Army of the Ohio, and was soon at the front. Mr. Elwell participated in the battles of Tebbs Bend, Green River, Ky., Resaca, Dallas and Atlanta, in Georgia, and Nashville and those of the Franklin campaign in Tennessee. He was mustered out of the service in 1865 at Salisbury, N. C., with the rank of sergeant, and immediately returned to Kalamazoo. Here re- suming his former occupations of farming and carpentering, he found his services in demand and well paid for. He also took an active and helpful part in public local affairs, and as a Republican was elected township treasurer, servingtwo years, township clerk, serving six, and township super- visor, serving seven. On November 4, 1902, he was chosen recorder of deeds for the county, and re-elected to the position in November, 1904, and has been diligently occupied with his duties in this important office. On December 22, 1869, he was married to Miss Alice Harvey, a native of this county. They have three children, their daughters Ruth and Susan and their son Richard. Mr. Elwell is active in the fraternal life of the community as a Freemason and a United Work- man, and in its political life as a Republican. In all of the official positions he has held he has made a good record, and he is making one in the posi- tion he is now filling. He has well earned the regard and good will of his fellow citizens which he enjoys in an unusual degree.
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