USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 31
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the A. L. Lakey Company, handling paints and oils; the Kalamazoo Beet Sugar Company, the Lee Paper Company, of Vicksburg, Mich .; a director and member of the Excelsior Medicine Company, and a member of the executive com- mittee of the Kalamazoo Trust Company. Fra- ternally he is connected with the Knights of Pythias, holding the rank of past chancellor in Lodges No. 25 and 170, of which latter he was the founder. He also belongs to the order of Elks and is a trustee of the local lodge. In his own race he is president of the local Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, a Jewish fraternal society, and is past grand president of the order in district No. 6, and also secretary of the local congregation of B'nai Israel and director of the Cleveland Or- phan Asylum. In addition he has served during the last ten years as president of the Humane So- ciety. He was married in 1886 to Miss Jennie Friedman, of Kalamazoo, and has three sons.
PHILIP SCHAU.
Whatever may be said of the pursuit of agri- culture, its independence and freedom, its pleas- ures and profits, it is a life of toil and exaction, laying all the resources of him who follows it un- der steady tribute, and not always bringing in a recompense commensurate with the outlay of labor and care. And there are many well-to-do men engaged in it who would be well pleased to be relieved of its burdens, if, like the subject of this sketch, they could find an agrecable retire- ment in an interesting and busy city like Kalama- zoo, where all the activities of industrial and com- mercial life might engage them as lookers-on, without involving them in the stir and whirl as active participants. Mr. Schau has not, however, abandoned the field of energetic labor without having wrought his hours of duty, but has meas- ured time for many years with the busiest of men. and has reaped an abundant harvest from his dili- gence. Philip Schau comes from a sturdy Ger- man ancestry, being related on his father's side to Jacob Dorst, founder and proprietor of the Mansion House of Buffalo, N. Y., and on his mother's side to the Pfirrmann-Lugenbeel fami- lies. His grand-uncle, Philip Pfirrmann, served
under Napoleon and was promoted for bravery on the field of battle to the rank of general, after which he was made commander of the provinces of Alsace and Loraine. His grandfather, David Pfirrmann, was a wine merchant, and owned the ancestral estates, consisting of large vineyards. Philip Schau was born in Cooper township of this county on June 24, 1885, and is the son of Jacob and Catherine (Pfirrmann) Schau, natives of Germany, their lives having begun in that country on the banks of the historic Rhine, near the no less historic city of Heidelberg. Here has been the ancestral home of the family for many gen- erations, and its memory closely identified with the history of the old Fatherland. The father was a merchant and large land owner there, and the son of William Schau, a prominent man in the section and for twenty years mayor of the city. ITis son, the father of Philip Schau, re- mained in his native land and helped to manage a portion of his father's estate until 1853, when he brought his family, consisting of his wife and six sons, to this country. After passing nearly a year in New Yory city with his brother-in-law, he moved to Michigan, and joined another broth- er-in-law, who owned one thousand forty-seven acres of land in Cooper township, this county. On a portion of this land he settled, and in time cleared one hundred acres, making it his home for six years. Ile then moved two miles north on one hundred sixteen acres, where he lived for eight years. At the end of that time he sold this tract to his sons, Jacob and William Schau, and afterward bought a farm on the eastern side of the township on which he lived until his death in 1898, at the age of eighty-one years. The mother died in 1892. Five of their sons are still living, and all but one are residents of this state. Their father was an active man in local affairs, and filled a number of offices, holding a high place in the confidence of the people as a man of strict integrity and great usefulness. He and his wife were members of the German Lutheran church. Their son Philip lived at home until he reached the age of seventeen, when he went to Cincinnati to complete his education at a select German school, and to take a course of instruc- tion in a business college. After leaving the lat-
PHILIP J. SCHAU.
MRS. PHILIP SCHAU.
*151. r. r2.
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ter, he entered the business house of his uncle, with whom he remained more than a year. He then returned home, and during the next five years had charge of his father's farm. During this period he invented a broadcast grain seeder, and in 1881 a wheel harrow, entering into part- nership with Julius Schuster, formerly of this city. Soon afterward he helped to organize the Wolverine Harrow Company of Kalamazoo, and for some years was, one of its directors and its general manager. He next purchased a farm in Cooper township, which he operated until 1890, when he sold it and returned to the paternal homestead. . This he purchased on the death of his father in 1898. In 1900 his wife died, and the next year he moved to Kalamazoo, where he has since resided, giving his attention to the affairs of the Schau tire setter, invented by his brother William, and in which company he has an in- terest. In politics he is a Democrat, and as such has been chosen for a number of local offices. He was married in 1882 to Miss Anna J. Travis, a daughter of Wellington and Abigail (Went- worth) Travis. Three children were born to them, all of whom are living, Philip L., Edith and Florence C. Their mother died in 1900, as has been stated. The father is a member of the First Methodist church, and is looked upon ev- erywhere as a model citizen, and one whose life has been very useful to the county and city. On the opposite page may be seen a splendid like- ness of this worthy man, who has worked so un- tiringly for the good of his state.
LOYD NICHOLS.
It is one of the glories of our country, and a great source of strength to it, that while its peo- ple are proverbially fond of peaceful industry, and give their attention almost wholly to the oper- ation and development of its productive and civil- izing potencies, when the occasion demands it they are at once transformed into determined warriors, with courage to assert and ability to maintain all their rights against all opposers. The citizen soldiery of the United States, drawn from the pur- suits of quiet and fruitful industries, and from the
forum, the sacred desk, the academic halls, and even the cloister, have never yielded finally to a foe in war, but have maintained the honor of the country against the trained veteran of other lands, whose trade was carnage, and in every contest of this character have established Ameri- can valor at a higher standard. When the Civil war tore the land asunder and arrayed the sec- tions against each other in deadly conflict, this element of the national character came forth in its loftiest development and most striking volume. Whether in that great deluge of death its citizens fought under the Star Spangled Banner or the Bonnie Blue Flag, they proved foemen worthy of any steel and gave the world an exhibition of valor and endurance that commanded universal admiration. In that war the subject of this re- view bore an honorable part and he still carries the marks of its fierceness. He was born in Alle- gany county, N. Y., on June 3, 1843, and is the son of Solon J. and Sophronia (Griffin) Nich- ols, natives also of that state and born in Franklin county. The father was a blacksmith and wrought at his trade industriously thirty years. In 1873 he moved to Kalamazoo, here he re- mained until 1884, then changed his residence to Topeka, Kan., and there h s wife died in Jan- uary, 1893, and he on Dece. er 30, 1899, at the age of ninety-four years. They had three sons and one daughter, all now deceased but two of the sons, Loyd and his brother Rollin. Loyd re- mained in his native county until he reached the age of eighteen, obtaining his education in the common schools and a two-year course at Rush- ford Academy there. In August, 1861, he en- listed for the defense of the Union in Company F, Eighty-fifth New York Infantry The regi- ment became a part of the Army of e Potomac, and was almost constantly in active se vice. Mr. Nichols took part in the battles of Wii "amsburg and Fair Oaks. and at the latter was shot through the right elbow, which disabled him for farther service, and in August, 1862, he was discharged with the rank of first sergeant, to which he had .. risen by meritorious conduct. In 1865 he came to Michigan, and a year later moved ยป Kan S. He was a prosperous citizen of that s ie a
14
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
number of years, but suffering a serious accident there, he returned to this state in 1888, and has since then lived in Kalamazoo county. In the year of his return he was married to Miss Sophia Humphrey, a daughter of William J. and Elmira (Spear) Humphrey, the father a native of the state of New York and the mother of Vermont. Both were pioneers in the county, the father set- tling here in 1840 and the mother coming with her parents in 1833. On his arrival in the state the father located in Barry county on sixty-five acres of land, for which he had paid his brother-in-law two hundred dollars, money he earned before at- taining his majority. As there was no provision for his living on reaching his land, he found it necessary to go to Gull Corners, where he took supper with the family of Mr. Giddings and en- tered his employ. Soon after this he hired to a man named Jones for three years, receiving eleven dollars a month the first year and twelve the second. The summer following his term of ser- vice with Mr. Jones he worked a breaking-plow. and in the ensuing winter hired to a Mr. Smith. This gentleman wished to rent his farm and Mr. Humphrey took it for two years. In 1847 he bought one hundred and thirty acres of land of Judge Logan and the next year moved on this land, on which, with the assistance of Deacon Mason, he built a board shanty. Three months later he erected a frame dwelling, and in 1861 put up the one which now adorns the farm. In 1844, on March 13th, he was joined in marriage with Miss Elmira Spear, of Richland, who had come from Vermont, in 1833, to this county with her father, who died here in 1876. The Humphrey farm now comprises four hundred and twenty acres, and is one of the most valuable in the town- ship. Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey were the parents of five children, Elizabeth ( deceased). George L. (deceased), Sophia, Franklin M. and Charles. The parents were devout Presbyterians. Mr. and Mrs. Nichols have two children, their daughter Ruth L. and their son Ray L. Their father has never taken an active part in politics and is not a partisan. He and his wife belong to the Presby- terian church, and are among its most zealous and useful members. With fidelity to duty in every
line of life, showing an abiding and serviceable in- terest in the welfare of his community, and hold- ing out an open hand of help to all who need it and are worthy, Mr. Nichols is well deserving of the general esteem in which he is held as one of the leading and representative men of his town- ship.
NORMAN S. WHITNEY.
The story of the carly settlers of this country, their sanguinary conflicts with the aborigines, their dangers from wild beasts and from the fury of the elements, against which they were so inade- quately provided, their want of the conveniences and often the necessaries of life, their difficulties and sufferings of every kind, and their heroic stand against them all, followed by their bold and rapid progress, first in material conquest over na- ture and its brood of hostile forces, and after- ward in all the forms of industrial, commercial, educational and refining greatness, all of which bred in them and stimulated a resolute indepen- (lence and self-reliance that defied outside dicta- tion or control as well as internal peril, which thrilled the heart, called forth the sympathy and compelled the admiration of all the older world when our country was but a strip of land along the stormy Atlantic, has been so often repeated of other sections of the land, that it now awakens little more than passing interest. Yet it is every- where a record of heroism and stern endurance, as well as force of character. that is worthy of close and continued attention; for in it is in- volved not only the subjugation of a new world to the uses and benefits of mankind, but the crea- tion and development of a new political system which recognizes enlightened public opinion as sovereign and relies on the moral forces engen- dered thereby. And when the story embodies a repetition of its salient features in several suc- ceeding generations, as it does in the case of the Whitney family to which the subject of this narra- tive belongs, it is many times multiplied in interest and importance. The American progenitor of this family was John Whitney, a native of Eng- land, who emigrated to America in 1635 and set- tled at Watertown, Mass., the same year. His
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, KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
descendants lived in that state several generations, diligent in labor, upright in manhood and zealous in patriotism in all the various walks of life, until when Lemuel Whitney, a deacon in the church and otherwise a man of local prominence, moved . to Vermont, locating in Windsor county. He was a leader in the Revolutionary war, heading a party of volunteers who captured a gathering of Tories and stayed their destructive hands when they were about to burn Charlestown, N. H., and he afterward rendered valiant service in the colonial army. From him is descended the branch of the family to which Norman S. Whitney, of Richland Center, this county, belongs. He was born in Windsor county, Vt., on December 28, 1836, and is the son of Norman K. and Mary R. (Pratt) Whitney, both natives of that state. The father was born in Springfield in 1812, and married there on March 30, 1836. He was a ma- chinist and cast the first cast iron stove made in his native place. He also manufactured fine shears for shearing the nap off the cloth. He brought his family to Michigan in 1854 and took up his residence in Richland township, this
county, where he worked on rented land ten years. In 1864 he moved to Calhoun county, and there bought a farm in Bedford township, on which his wife died in October, 1876, and he in 1877. They had five sons and one daughter, all now deceased but three of the sons. Two of his sons were Union soldiers in the Civil war. One of them lost an arm and the other was killed in the service. Norman S. is the only member of the family living in Kalamazoo county. He grew to the age of eighteen in his native county, work- on the home farm and attending the district school in the neighborhood. In 1854 he accompanied his parents to this county, and after working with his father a few years, in 1862 bought his first farm. He has been engaged in farming all his life so far and is still in active charge of a large body of land. At one time he was interested in a grain elevator at Richland, which he and George A. Knappen built and operated in partnership, but since disposing of his interest in that enterprise he has devoted himself exclusively to farming. Carrying out the habit of the family of succeed-
ing at whatever they undertake, he has prospered in his business and is one of the substantial citizens of his township. He takes an earnest and intelli- gent interest in local public affairs as a Republi- can, and has been rewarded for his zeal and wis- dom by being chosen to office time after time, serving as township supervisor for nine consecu- tive years and township treasurer two years. In the fraternal life of the community he is service- able as a member of the order of Odd Fellows. On September 3, 1861, he united in marriage with Miss Augusta Nevins, a native of Middlesex, Vt. She came to Kalamazoo county with her par- ents, Alfred and Cinthia Nevins, in 1844. They took up their residence in Richland township and there both parents died. They were also natives of Vermont. Mr. and Mrs. Whitney have had four children: Mary, now deceased, who was Mrs. W. H. Bennett at the time of her death ; Rose, the wife of H. A. Lamb, of Belding, Mich. ; and Wilber C. and Emma N., who are living at home. It should be stated of Mr. Whitney's great-grandfather, Lemuel Whitney, that he man- ufactured saltpetre for the colonial army to make gunpowder with during the Revolution, and that he was a man of remarkable endurance and en- ergy, one proof of which he gave by walking from Springfield, Vt., to Spencer, Mass., a dis- tance of eighty miles, in one day. Mr. Whitney's grandfather was Cyrus Whitney, a native of Massachusetts and a farmer in Vermont, where he died.
ORSON K. WHITLOCK.
In time of war a valiant soldier in defense of his country, and after the restoration of peace, when the vast armies of the republic melted again into the masses of the people and took their places in the productive industries of the land a hardy and determined pioneer, waging against the hostile forces of nature the same quest he had helped to wage against the armed resistance to the established government, Orson K. Whitlock, an industrious and progressive farmer of Rich- land township, this county, met the requirements of his utmost duty in each domain of activity and won the approval of his associates in both. He
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
was a native of Wayne county, N. Y., born on January 13, 1837, and the son of Samuel and Mary (Kelsey) Whitlock, also born in the Em- pire state. They moved to Michigan in 1839 and settled in Richland township, Kalamazoo county, on what is now known as the Bear farm, and which at that time was all wild land. On that place in 1846 the mother died and then the family was broken up and scattered. The father mar- ried a second wife in 1869 and moved to Iowa, where some years afterward he died. Five of his sons grew to manhood in this county and four of them were in the Union army during the Civil war, all in Michigan regiments. Orson was reared in this county, Cooper township, and soon after the death of his mother was bound out to service to Lewis Crane, with whom he lived until he came of age. Then he began working for himself by the month, and continued to do this until soon after the beginning of the war, when he enlisted in the Nineteenth Michigan Infantry. Company F. His regiment was one of the fight- ing ones in the momentous conflict and he saw active service almost all of the time while he was in the army. At the close of the long and try- ing struggle he returned to his Michigan home broken in health and largely incapacitated for active work. But he resolutely resumed his farm- ing operations and continued them until his death, on February 2, 1886, giving close attention and the best energies at his command to his work and making them tell to his advantage. His farm was well tilled and in improvement was kept in good condition and steady progress. On October 19, 1870, he was married to Miss Nancy Hitchcock. a native of Schuyler county, N. Y., who came to Michigan in early life with one of her uncles They had one child, their son James B. Whitlock, who was born on May 11, 1877. His life from . the age of nine to that of nineteen was passed in the state of New York, and there he obtained his education and training for life's duties. Since the death of his father he has managed the home farm, and it can be truthfully said, to his credit, that he has kept pace with the march of improve- ment in his vocation and continued on the place the spirit of vigorous husbandry and advance-
ment which his father inaugurated. On Decem- ber 12, 1900, he united in marriage with Miss Electra Crane, a sister of Jay Crane, of Cooper township, a sketch of whom will be found on an- other page. Mr. and Mrs. Whitlock have one child, their daughter Helen M. The elder Whit- lock was a Republican in politics, as is his son, and belonged to the order of Odd Fellows. The family is one of the oldest, best known and most generally respected in the township, and is well and favorably known in other parts of the county and the neighboring country.
HENRY KNAPPEN.
The late Henry Knappen, who died in Rich- land township, this county, on January 2, 1862, was a well-known and progressive farmer of the township for many years, and was reared from the age of thirteen on the farm on which he passed the remainder of his life. He was born at Sudbury, Vt., in 1820, and was the son of Mason and Clarissa (Hutchison) Knappen, who were born and grew to maturity in Vermont. The father was a Congregational minister and fol- lowed his sacred calling in his native state until 1833, when he moved his family to this county, making the journey from his New England home with teams through Canada to Detroit and from there to Gull Prairie, where he entered a tract of four hundred acres of government land in Rich- land township, which is now owned by his grand- sons, Eugene F. and George A. It need scarcely be said that at the early day of his arrival in this part of the country it was almost wholly unset- tled and the land he entered was a virgin forest of heavy growth. He at once began to clear his land and built a log cabin for a dwelling. But while devoting himself with ardor and continuous industry to the improvement and cultivation of his farm, he also found time for much missionary and other ministerial work among the early set- thers. He lived on the farm until his death in 1862, having survived his wife but six weeks. She was his third wife and the mother of the sub- ject of this review. There were nine children in his family, two of whom are yet living, Mrs.
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Stellman Jackson, of Richland, and Rev. A. A. Knappen, of Albion, this state, the latter being the father of Frank Knappen, of Kalamazoo (see sketh of him on another page). Henry Knappen being about thirteen when he became a resident of Michigan, was at an age when he could appreciate the romance of his adventurous situation in a remote wilderness, wherein men, beasts and even nature herself seemed armed against him, for the red man was still present in numbers and wild beasts abounded in the forest around him, often threatening the lives of the family at the very threshold of their humble and inconvenient dwelling. He had also the New England spirit of daring and self-reliance, and while the wild life to which he had come gave him pleasure, its dangers did not appall nor its toils dishearten him. He entered with ardor on his appointed sphere, and gave abundant proof of his ability to cope with difficulties and endure privations in his efficient help in clearing the farm and submitting to the hard conditions the frontier laid upon him. Deprived of the advantages of good and regular schooling, he made the most of the primitive facil- ities at hand for his education in the little log schoolhouse of the time, acquiring practical knowledge for his future use in the vocation he had chosen and to which he devoted all his subse- quent years, the cultivation of the soil. When his father retired from its active labors and con- trol he assumed charge of the farm, and he man-' aged its operations until his death, continuing the improvements his father had begun, enlarging its productive acreage and raising its value steadily all the time. He was married on March 17, 1844, to Miss Theoda Spaulding, a native of Tenbridge, Vt., the daughter of Charles. W. and Lucinda (Gilky) Spaulding, who were born in Vermont and moved to Michigan in 1832 as pioneers. They located on Climax Prairie, and three years later moved to Barry county, where they died many years afterward. Mr. and Mrs. Knappen had four children, all sons. Two of them died in childhood and Eugene F. and George A. are liv- ing, as is their mother. Their father was a Re- publican and filled a number of local offices from time to time, among them that of township super-
visor. He was a member of the order of Odd Fellows, in whose work he took an unbroken and useful interest.
EUGENE F. KNAPPEN, the younger of the two living sons of the family, was born on the home farm on June 12, 1853, and was reared to habits of serviceable industry amid its exacting labors. He was educated in the district schools and at Olivet College. Taught in his early years to look upon the homestead as the scene of his fu- ture activity, he took an abiding interest in its management and development, and after the death of his father he and his brother George became its owners and the conductors of all its interests. They farmed the place jointly for a number of years, then divided it between them, each taking charge of his portion. Eugene lived on his part until 1892, when he moved to Richland Center and started the feed, provision, live stock and grain business which he is now carrying on. He was married in 1874 to Miss Elizabeth Brown, a . daughter of Charles D. Brown, one of the first settlers at Richland. They have three children, Henry E., who is living on his father's farm, and Theresa Theoda and Charles B., who are at home. Their father is an active Republican and has for some years been chairman of the county central committee of his party. He is widely known in business and political circles, and is uni- versally respected by all classes of the people of his county.
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