USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 32
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NORMAN C. JEWETT.
This scion of old Puritan families who sought religious freedom on the inhospitable shore of New England in the early colonial times, braving the fury of the elements and all the hostility of untamed nature in man and beast and climate, rather than the rage of intolerance under the guise and armed with the weapons of civiliza- tion, and in the new world established themselves and founded households from which widening streams of benefaction have flowed forth to en- hance the worth and augment the power of every line of useful activity among men, was born in Bennington county, Vt., on September 1, 1836.
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
His parents, William N. and Serepta (Bennett) Jewett, were also natives of Bennington county, Vt., the father having been born in the same house as the son, it being the family home for genera- tions. The father was a shoemaker and wrought at his trade to the end of his days. He moved to Kalamazoo county in 1857 and located at Rich- land, where he kept a hotel a number of years. then turned to his trade again and worked at that until his death in 1874. His wife survived him three years and died in 1877. They had a family of four sons and four daughters, all of whom are now dead but three of the sons, Norman C., George W. and Samuel P. One of the sons, Ed- ward M., was a sharpshooter in the Union army during the Civil war, attached to the Thirteenth Michigan Infantry, and died in the service at Port Hudson in 1863. The boyhood and youth of Norman were passed in Vermont, Illinois and Massachusetts. In the state last named he learned the trade of a carpenter. He worked at this some years in Chicago and other parts of the West, and for a time in this county. He then turned his attention to farming, and this has been his occupation ever since. In all the lines of ac- tive work which he has followed he has succeeded in making an advance in his financial condition and a good record for industry and capacity. The houses he helped to build here and elsewhere stand to his credit as a cunning craftsman and his farm is a silent but eloquent and convincing witness to his sagacity, diligence and enterprise as a cultivator of the soil, and his knowledge of the requirements of a comfortable and desirable home. In February, 1867, he united in marriage with Miss Almyra Buell, a daughter of Josiah Buell, one of the honored pioneers of this county. Josiah Bell was born in New Hampshire in 1802. He moved with his parents when quite young to western New York and there grew to manhood. He came to Michigan when a young man and bought an unimproved tract of land adjoining the present village of Richland, then known as Gull Corners. This farm he improved and lived on until his death in 1885. He was three times married, first to Elmira Brown, who lived but one year. He then married Sylvia John-
ston, who bore him two children, Mrs. Jewett and Homer Buell. She died in 1857, and he then married Adeline Manchester, of New York state. She bore two children, Addie M., now Mrs. T. H. Etter, of this township, and Viola N., now dead. His last wife died in 1899. Mr. Buell was a great worker in the Presby- terian church, and was a deacon for many years of the church at Richland. He was a Republican, but not an office seeker. Mr. and Mrs. Jewett have had seven children : Elmer B., who is a chemist in West Virginia; Nelson J., who lives in Canada; Harry M., who is a resident of Cleveland, Ohio; Ralph N., who is a mining engineer: Dwight C., who has his home in Kalamazoo; Ray, who was drowned in Gull Lake; and Esther, who is living at home with her parents. Mr. Jewett is a Republican in politics and has been a justice of the peace for many years. He belongs to the order of Odd Fel- lows and he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church. In municipal affairs he has long been prominent, serving as president of the village and in other positions of importance to the community, and filling all stations with credit to himself and profit to the people.
JOHN F. GILKEY.
The Gilkeys, who, father and sons, have been residents of Richland township almost from its first settlement, are sprung from old colonial families and of Scotch descent. The American progenitor of the family was John Gil- key, who settled in Waldo county, Maine, in 1750. and built a house near what is now known as Gilkey's Harbor. This was so well constructed that in spite of the storms of more than one hun- dred and fifty years, and the natural decay of ma- terial substances in that length of time it is still standing and in a good state of preservation. He had seven sons and three daughters, who, in the course of time, located in various parts of the neighboring states, New Hampshire and Vermont, one son, bearing the same name as his father, tak- ing up his residence in the latter state and be- coming the grandfather of the subject of this
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
brief. memoir. This, the second John Gilkey, and his son were farmers in Windsor county, Vt., and it was from there that John F. Gil- key came to Michigan in 1832 and bought land in Richland township, this county, his purchase being yet a part of the family estate. Soon after his settlement here his parents and his two broth- ers, William Young and Charles Gilkey, followed him hither and became permanent residents of the county. With New England thrift and energy. Mr. Gilkey cleared and improved his farm, and with true American patriotism he took an ac- tive part in the development of the new region and the establishment and administration of its gov- ernment. He prospered by reason of his con -. tinued and well-appplied industry, and his force of character gave him a potent voice in reference to all public affairs in the township and made him one of its leading citizens. In February, 1840, he married with Miss Mary M. Lovell, a daughter of Willard and Zerviah (Taft) Lovell, natives, respectively, of Vermont and Massachusetts, and sister of Dr. Lafayette WV. and Enos T. Lovell. distinguished citizens of Climax township. She died in 1857, leaving four sons. Edgar W .. Pat- rick H., George L. and Julian F., all of whom are yet living but Edgar W., who died a few years ago after a career of more than ordinary in- terest and success in farming and mercantile life. Like both their parents, the sons all grew to un- usual height. each being over six feet tall. Their father was not an active politician, but through life took enough interest in political affairs to dis- charge his duty as a citizen, voting with the Whig party until its death and with Republicans ever afterward. Some years after the death of his first wife he was married to Mrs. Fonda, ,a widow. who died before he did, his death occurring in 1877. When he passed away he owned valuable property in several localities in addition to his home farm, leaving to his children a comfortable estate as well as an unblemished name, and a rec- ord of great public and private usefulness.
PATRICK H. GILKEY, the oldest living son of John F. Gilkey, and for many years the leading merchant of the village of Richland, was born in the township of his present residence on No-
vember 15, 1843. He received a good scholastic and business education, attending the common schools and Prairie Seminary for the first and Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., for the latter, being graduated from this institution in 1865. On October 13, 1869, he was united in marriage with Miss Adella Parker, a na- tive of this county, where her parents, Amasa S. and Celestia C. (Barnes) Parker, the former born at Washington, Litchfield county, Conn., in 1805, and the latter at Camden, N. Y., in 1813. The father came to Michigan in 1830, and for a time thereafter he taught school at Beards- ley's Prairie, Van Buren county. In June, 1834, he was married to Miss Celestia C. Barnes, who taught one of the first schools in Richland town- ship, and her father built the first mill at York- ville at the outlet of Gull Lake. Early in 1832 Mr. Parker bought the first land sold in Barry county, and located a farm there on what was then known as Garden Prairie. After his mar- riage he settled on this land and made his home there until 1850. He then moved to a farm which he had bought in Richland township, this county, and lived on that until 1865. improving it to great value and high fertility. In the year last named he bought another farm one-half mile west of the Presbyterian church, on which he lived un- til his death on September 14, 1878. In 1834 he and his wife joined the Presbyterian church, and for thirty years he was its ruling elder. His wife survived him a number of years and died in 1898. They had two sons and three daughters, who sur- vived them both and are vet living. with good standing in society and a general public esteem. Patrick H. Gilkey began his mercantile career at Richland in 1878. being a farmer until then. He was first in partnership with G. M. Evers, un- der the firm name of G. M. Evers & Company. and after the dissolution of this partnership he was with a Mr. Parker and others, the firm doing an extensive and profitable business under the style of Parker & Gilkey. They were associated until 1886, and after that time Mr. Gilkey car- ried on the business alone until 1903, when he sold out and retired from active pursuits. In addition to his mercantile interests he has long
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owned a valuable stock farm in Richland town- . in May, 1856, and while it prospered from the ship, and for many years he was engaged in rais- ing fine trotting horses of superior breeds, having at the head of his stud the noted stallion "Bay Ambassador," sired by "Ambassador," with a record of 2:21 1-4, and sired by the famous "George Wilkes." The dam of "Bay Ambassador" was by "Masterlode," the sire of twenty-four colts whose records were 2:30 and under. A few years ago Mr.Gilkey disposed of his stud andquit the raising of horses. He is now living quietly in the enjoyment of an ample fortune and the uni- versal esteem of the people of his county, which is freely accorded to him on his merits as an ex- cellent citizen and genial and accomplished gen- tleman. He is a director of the Union Bank of Richland and a stockholder in the Kalamazoo Na- tional Bank, the Kalamazoo Paper Company and the Phelps & Bigelow Wind Mill Company of Kalamazoo. In politics he is an ardent and in- fluential Democrat, one of the leaders of his party in the county and one of its most effective work- ers. He has frequently been its candidate for of- fices of trust and honor, and although each time leading a forlorn hope, he has nevertheless made a most vigorous and striking campaign in behalf of his cause. In business, in politics and in pri- vate life he has lived to a lofty ideal of manhood and citizenship, and is well worthy of the good opinion of his fellow men which he so abundantly has.
BUSH & PATERSON.
This old and well esteemed firm, which was one of the pioneer firms in construction work in Kalamazoo and concerned in much of the build- ing in the early history of the place. furnished an impressive illustration of the value of harmony as well as enterprise in business. The partners were associated in their business for a period of thirty-six years, and during the whole of that time they kept but one pocketbook between them and shared their profits and losses equally, with- ' out ever having a word of disagreement over anything. For some years after they began oper- ations they were obliged to take the pay for their work in trade and merchandise, cash being scarce in the community. The partnership was started
start the first cash job it did was the erection of the first fair buildings in 1859 on the ground where "Flora Temple" made her great record as a trotter. Mr. Bush was born in England and when he was about five years old the family came to this country and located in Orange county, N. Y., but three years later, or in 1840, Mr. Bush, then a lad of eight, was brought to Kalamazoo by Mr. Tomlinson, who was in business in that city, and with whom he remained about three years. He was then apprenticed to the trade of a carpen- ter under the direction of A. Kneer, and he re- mained with him until 1848. In that year he re- turned to New York city and there was employed at his trade a number of years, helping to build the St. Nicholas Hotel and other imposing struc- tures. After this hotel was completed he passed a year in it as clerk, and in 1855 came again to Kalamazoo, and the next May induced Mr. Pater- son, whom he had met in New York, to join hini in business here. They put up B. M. Austin's house, on the hill, the first year, and then built a small shop for themselves on North . Burdick street where they remained three years. They were busily occupied all the time, erecting most of the principal buildings in those days. The part- nership lasted until the death of Mr. Bush in 1892, and since then Mr. Paterson has retired. Mr. Bush was married in 1857 to Miss Louisa Hines, a native of this county. They had three children, Frank, born in 1859, Benjamin born in 1861, and another who died in infancy. In 1869 the firm built the present jail and also remodeled the old court house. In 1867 they added a plan- ing mill to their plant and began the manufacture of legs for billiard tables, which they continued five years. Then they added a factory for making sash. doors and blinds and a general lumber and building material trade. The academy was erected by a stock company which could not run it suc- cessfully, and Messrs. Bush & Paterson pur- chased the building, which is now owned by Mr. Bush's son Benjamin, and managed by him. Mr. Bush always took an active part in pushing for- ward the progress of the city and the surround- ing country. He. was one of the early promoters and most diligent spirits in building the Chicago,
FRED BUSH.
THOMAS PATTERSON.
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Kalamazoo & Saginaw Railroad, and served as its president until his death. He was a stockholder in the Michigan National Bank, and the firm was interested in the old cement plant and operated it for a number of years. In political faith Mr. Bush was a Republican and gave earnest attention to public local affairs, serving as village trustee before the incorporation of the city, and at the time of his death was mayor. He was on all sides considered one of Kalamazoo's best and most progressive citizens, and when his long record of public and private usefulness was ended, he was laid to rest with every demonstration of popular esteem and good will.
THOMAS PATERSON, the senior member of the firm, was born in the city of New York in 1828. His parents were Scotch by nativity and emi- grated to this country about the year 1816. The father was a machinist and died of the cholera in New York in 1832, when the son was but four years old. The mother survived him some years and also died in New York. Their son Thomas was educated in the public schools of his native city, and at the age of sixteen was apprenticed to a carpenter to learn the trade, being bound to it until he reached his legal majority. He wrought at his craft in New York until 1856, when he joined Mr. Bush in Kalamazoo, and from then until the death of the latter they were associated and had everything in common between them. Mr. Paterson never married. He has been a life- long Democrat in political allegiance, but has not sought or desired public office. Since Mr. Bush's death he has lived retired from active pursuits, secure in the possession of a competence and en- joying in a marked degree the confidence and regard of the whole community.
THE KING PAPER COMPANY.
This highly appreciated industry is under the direction of a stock company formed in 1901 with a capital stock of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The men who organized the company were F. M. Rowley (now deceased), L. M. Gates, A. B. Sheid. J. K. King, George O. Comfort, Arthur Pratt, George B. Davis (also deceased)
and Charles B. Hays, the last named being the principal promoter of the enterprise and its finan- cier. The first officers were Arthur Pratt, presi- dent, George O. Comfort, vice-president, August Sheid, secretary, and John K. King, superintend- ent. The plant was erected in 1902 with a capacity of thirty tons a day and now employs one hundred fifty to two hundred hands. A general line of book and bond papers are made and sold all over this country and in parts of Europe and other foreign lands. The progress of the business from the start has been steady and the company has lost no ground that it has once occupied. Its product is well known to the stationery trade in several parts of the world and is highly esteemed wherever it is known. The president of the com- pany, Arthur Pratt, who has long been one of the most prominent and successful business men of the city, is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. He came to Kalamazoo in his boyhood, and here he grew to manhood and received his education. His rise in business was rapid and he was recognized as a potential business factor from the time of his en- try into commercial life. He is a director of the First National Bank, and is also the owner of the Pratt block. He has devoted his time mainly to his mercantile interests, eschewing political con- tentions and never indulging an ambition for pub- lic office. At the same time he has shown on all occasions a deep and intelligent interest in the progress of the city and the enduring welfare of its people. Finding his bent early in life, he never lost the realization that his best opportunity for serving the general weal was in the line of busi- ness, and with this view ever in his mind, he has been quick to sell and alert to grasp the chances that have come his way for his form of usefulness, then he has used his opportunities with vigor, in- dustry and breadth of view. He is one of the men, invaluable in any community, who have the capacity and the disposition to build up great en- terprises and carry them on with wisdom and suc- cess ; and he has won the guerdon of his worth and ability, of his energy and constancy of pur- pose, in the general regard and good will of his fellow citizens and their high appreciation of his services to the city and county.
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
FREDERICK SHAY.
Whatever value we may attach to manufactur- ing and commercial industries, and we can scarcely estimate them too highly, there is no in- terest or source of production that can surpass agriculture in importance to a great country of boundless domain like ours, wherein all climates and their products are to be found, and the great mass of the people are engaged in bringing forth the fruits of the soil and placing them in the channels of trade and enterprise. The earth is the source and sustenance of all animal life, and with- out its yield in abundant measure all forms of human enterprise would languish and die. More- over, the vocation of the farmer is steadily be- coming more and more an intellectual and expan- sive one, and the genius of improvement. through the application of the truths of science to the daily economics of life, is all the while elevating it in tone, broadening it in scope and enlarging it in function and usefulness and at the same time raising the man who follows it to the position he may and should occupy, that of the master of the elements, commanding them and their forces to his service, instead of being as he long has been through ignorance and imperfection their slave. and bowing obediently to their destructive will. In this class of useful producers and progressive workers is found Frederick Shay, of Richland township, this county, who by close attention to every element of advancement in his chosen line of activity has become a model farmer and is giv- ing an example of high worth to others who as- pire to excellence in the same pursuit. Mr. Shay is a native of this state, born in Allegan county on April 10. 1844, and the son of Harrison and Mary ( Patterson) Shay, the former born in the state of New York and the latter in Virginia. The father was a farmor and came to Michigan in the '3os, locating in Allegan county among its carly settlers, and there passing the remainder of his days, dying on the farm which he redeemed from the wilderness and improved to fruitfulness and value, as did his wife, after long years of useful- ness. They had four sons and three daughters. and five of their children are living. Frederick.
was reared and educated in his native county with the experiences common to country boys in a new section, working industriously on the farm in proper seasons and finding recreation as well as profit in the neighboring district school at other times. On August 8, 1862, when he was not yet nineteen, he obeyed the agonizing call for volun- teers to defend the Union against its armed assail- ants, and enlisted in Company D. Seventeenth Michigan Infantry. His regiment was assigned to the Ninth Corps in the Army of the Potomac. and found full use for all its valor and endurance in that great fighting organization. It took part in many bloody battles, the most important at that period being those of South Mountain and Antie- tam in Maryland and Fredericksburg in Virginia. Soon after the last named it was transferred to Newport News and from there to Kentucky, and after rendering good service to the cause of the Union in that state, was sent to join General Grant before Vicksburg. The fall of that city re- leased the command from duty there and it was sent in pursuit of General Johnston through Mississippi, overtaking and engaging him in bat- tle at Jackson, that state. Thereafter its service was in Kentucky and castern Tennessee for a time, and at the end of that campaign it was again attached to the Army of the Potomac; having first. however, helped to fight the battle of Knoxville. After again reaching the center of the war storm the regiment suffered heavily in that deluge of death, the seven days battle of the Wilderness. and again at Spottsylvania Courthouse, where Mr. Shay and ninety-seven other members of it were taken prisoners on May 12th. They were sent to Andersonville, where Mr. Shay was confined un- til the following September, then transferred to Florence, North Carolina, from there to Wil- mington, to Goldsboro, and back to Wilming- ton. At the last named he was exchanged on February 2. 1865. and was obliged, owing to his weakened condition, to lie in bed until March be- fore he was able to travel, weighing at the time less than 100 pounds: He was mustered out of the service in the ensuing June. His prison ex- perience of nine months was full of the utmost hardship, privation and cruelty, and cannot be re-
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. KALAMAZOO ' COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
called to his mind now without horror. After his discharge from the army he located at Kalamazoo, and after working in that neighborood for some time, moved to Battle Creek, where he passed twelve years in the employ of the Nichols & Shepard Threshing Company. In 1886 he bought the farm on which he now lives and on which he has since made his home, devoting his energies to its improvement and proper cultivation. On May I, 1883. he was married to Miss Adeline Jickling, a daughter of Robert Jickling, a sketch of whom will be found on another page. They have one child, their son, Harry F. Shay, who was born on January 26. 1885. Mr. Shay is a Republican and has served as postmaster and school assessor of his township. In fraternal circles he is an active Freemason of the Knight Templar degree, belong- ing to the lodge at Richland and the chapter and commandery at Battle Creek.
CHARLES BELL.
. The late Charles Bell, one of the leading mer- chants of Kalamazoo for many years, and one of its best known and most respected citizens, was born at Hadley, Mass., on October 24, 1814, the son of Reuben and Aletha (Smith) Bell. The father was of Scotch ancestry, was a physician and surgeon, and died at Hadley, Mass., after a long, active and useful life in the industrious practice of his profession. His son Charles grew to manhood in his native town, and engaged in the manufacture of paper in Hadley for a few years, when the mill was destroyed by fire. He then went to New York city and engaged in mer- chandising in partnership with his brother, re- maining there and in business until 1857, when he came to Kalamazoo and, in partnership with Charles Gibbs, formed the firm of Gibbs & Bell for the purpose of carrying on a grocery trade. At the end of two years he bought Mr. Gibbs out and from then until 1881 conducted the business alone. Being then well advanced in years and having borne the heat and burden of his day in active effort and zealous attention to duty, acquir- ing a competence thereby, he retired from active pursuits and passed the brief remainder of his life
in quiet enjoyment suited to his tastes, among his most satisfying pleasures being the manifestations of the esteem in which he was held by all classes of the people in the city. He died on September 3, 1894, at the age of nearly eighty years. He was married in Kalamazoo on March 1, 1860, to Miss Eliza Phillips, a native of England, who died on April 30, 1904. They had two sons and two daughters, and all are living but one son. Edward L., the living son, is now farming in Richland township. He was born in 1862 and received his education in the Kalamazoo public schools. After leaving school he went to farming in Portage township and remained there until 1895. He then came to Kalamazoo and in 1899 he moved to the. farm he now occupies, and on which he is now living in Richland township, to the improvement and cultivation of which he has since devoted his energies. In 1889 he was mar- ried in this county to Miss Flora M. Snow, a native of Alamo township, the daughter of Ervin C. and Mary (Coshun) Snow, early settlers of that township. Mr. and Mrs. Bell have one daughter, Alta M. Mr. Bell has worthily fol- lowed in his father's footsteps in the uprightness of his life. the energy of his labor, the breadth of his views as to local affairs, and the general eleva- tion of his citizenship. Throughout the county he is well and favorably known, and in many lo- calities has hosts of cordial friends.
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