USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 34
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He came from Otsego county, N. Y., having been graduated in the classical course at Hamilton College and read medicine at Cooperstown, that state. He rode horseback from Detroit to this county, and until 1855 he was actively engaged in the practice of his profession here. In that year he removed to Bureau county, Ill., where he devoted his time to farming and raising Percheron horses of a high grade, and died in 1895, aged eighty-four years. He was married in this county to Miss Jane Miller, a daughter of Joseph Miller, one of the Richland township pioneers of 1834, and a native of Connecticut. The Doctor and Mrs. Stetson had five sons and one daughter, the daughter being Mrs. Chandler. All the sons are living but one. In politics Mr. Chandler is a pro- nounced Democrat. He has taken an earnest in- terest in township affairs and served the com- munity well as a justice of the peace eight years in succession. He has also held other local offices. and at all times has been foremost in advocacy and support of commendable undertakings for the benefit of the section. Fraternally he has long been a zealous member of the Masonic order. No citizen of the township has better deserved the re- gard and good will of his fellow men, and none has secured it in greater degree.
THE GLOBE CASKET COMPANY.
This active and fruitful manufactory was or- ganized and incorporated in 1870, and during the twenty-four years of its life it has given employ- ment to many men and kept in circulation in this city a vast amount of money. It has been man- aged with skill and enterprise, steadily gaining in patronage and widening the territory tribu- tary to its coffers, until it has the whole of this country for its market. As it was the first mer- cantile entity to make cloth-covered caskets in the world, so it has kept pace with the march of progress in the matter of its commodities, and offers now to the trade the best articles in its line to be found anywhere. The founders of the com- pany were O. M. Allen, W. B. Clarke and J. P. Woodbury. The patentees were M. F. Carder and Hosea Henika. In the course of a few years,
the business passed into the hands of O. M. Allen, who owned it until 1887. Then the company was reorganized with a capital stock of fifty- seven thousand five hundred dollars and the following officers: O. M. Allen, president ; R. D. Mckinney, vice-president; George H. Henshaw, secretary ; and J. Allen, treasurer. Mr. Allen continued as pres- ident until 1899, when he retired and Mr. McKin- ney succeeded him. At that time C. A. and Hor- ace Peck, Edward Woodbury, George A. Bar- deen and G. L. Gilkey became interested in the enterprise. The factory was erected in 1900, a building seventy by one hundred sixty-five feet, five stories high. The establishment employs one hundred persons and manufactures cloth-covered caskets, being the pioneer in these forms of bur- ial furniture and never losing the lead in the quality of its output. The products of the factory are shipped all over this country, and the busi- ness is constantly on the increase. R. D. McKin- ney, the president and general manager of the company, is a native of Hamilton, Ohio. He came with his parents to Michigan, and with them he settled at Lawton, Van Buren county. His father was a Union soldier in the Civil war, serving in the Sixty-first Ohio Infantry ; and he had four brothers in the service on the same side. The elder Mckinney was a quartermaster. The son, R. D. Mckinney, reached manhood at Law- ton, and was educated in the public schools of that town, also attending Kalamazoo College one term. After leaving that institution he entered the employ of O. M. Allen in the casket factory, beginning his service there in 1881, and being connected with the business continuously since then. Within his observation and by his aid the business has grown from a very small beginning to its present proportions, affording a strong proof that the American people are quick to see and diligent to use an article of sterling merit.
Mr. Mckinney is also a stockholder in the City National Bank. He is held in high regard in the mercantile world, and in the fraternal life of the community he is a Freemason of the Knights Templar degree and a Noble of the Mys- tic Shrine, and also as an Elk.
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
DR. J. L. W. YOUNG.
Born on February 18, 1849, in the upper end of the Shenandoah valley, Virginia, at a time when our country was rapidly preparing for the momentous Civil war which soon afterward plunged it into sanguinary strife and stifled all the productive energies of his section, Dr. J. L. W. Young, of Kalamazoo, began life under un- favorable auspices which did not improve during his childhood and youth. He is the son of John K. and Mary M. (Shank) Young, also native's of Virginia. The father was a carpenter, and, fer- vent in his loyalty to his section, was among the first to enter the Confederate army at the begin- ning of hostilities, becoming a member of the Second Virginia Cavalry under command of Gen- eral Fitzhugh Lee. In that very active fighting or- ganization he had ample opportunity during the awful conflict of arms to see and experience all the horrors of the Civil war, and although he escaped death, wounds and captivity, he suffered great hardships, encountered great dangers and underwent great toil and privation. The Doctor was the only son born to his parents and remained in his native state until he reached the age of twenty years, securing his academic education in private schools there. In 1868 he entered the medical department of the State University of Michigan, and after passing two years in that in- stitution he completed his course of professional training at the Missouri Medical College in St. Louis, where he was graduated in 1871. In the meantime, in 1870, his parents had moved to Muncie, Ind., and he began practicing his pro- fession in that state. But soon afterward changed his residence to Big Rapids, this state, and in 1874 settled at Cooper, Kalamazoo county. Here he remained eight years, then moved to Lowell in Kent county, where he passed ten years, all the while engaged in an active general practice. In the autumn of 1892 he became a resident of Kalamazoo, and in that city he has ever since lived and practiced. He is a member of the Kalamazoo Academy of Medicine and secretary of the Na- tional Practice Association. In 1872 he was mar- ried to Miss Mary E. Murdock, a native of Michi-
gan. They have one child, their daughter Maud, wife of Colonel P. L. Abbey. The Doctor has given his whole time and energy to his profession, allowing nothing to come between him and it, and has built up a large and representative practice, numbering among its patrons many of the leading families of the community, and has also risen to a high rank in the estimation of his professional brethren and the public generally.
H. CLAIR JACKSON.
H. Clair Jackson, Esq., prosecuting attorney of Kalamazoo county, elected to the office as a Republican in the fall of 1902, is a native of Al- legan county, this state, born on January 3, 1871, and the son of Herbert L. and Emma J. (Heath) Jackson, the former born in Michigan, and the latter in the state of New York. After a life of usefulness as a progressive farmer, the father died in this county; the mother died December 10, 1905. The paternal grandfather, Henry Jack- son, who was born and reared in Vermont, came to Michigan in about 1849, and settled near Rich- land. He was prominent in the local affairs of his neighborhood, and while living in Allegan county, served on the board of supervisors. The prosecuting attorney was partially educated in the schools of Plainwell, being graduated at the high school there in 1889. Then for two years he clerked in the mercantile establishment of Bruen & Skinner, and at the end of that period entered Kalamazoo College, where he was gradu- ated in 1896, paying his way through the insti- tution by his own earnings. He began the study of law in the office of N. H. Stewart, and while engaged in the study was elected justice of the peace in 1898. He filled the office one year, then resigned and was admitted to the bar in 1899. Soon afterward he formed a partnership with A. S. Frost, which lasted until Mr. Jackson assumed charge of his present office on January I, 1903. In political matters he gives an ardent and serv- iceable support to the principles of the Republican party. He served the organization two years as chairman of the third ward committee, and one year as president of the Republican Club of the
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county. He has also rendered good service to the community as secretary of the board of trustees of Kalamazoo College. While mingling freely in the social life of the community, in which he is al- ways a warmly welcomed addition to the best circles, and while taking his place with interest and zeal in all matters of public import touching its general welfare, in which his counsel is valued and his industry is of advantage, he devotes him- self chiefly to his profession as the matter of su- preme importance to him at this time, and in it he is winning his way with a safe and steady progress. On all sides he enjoys in a marked degree the regard and good will of his fellow men, and is worthy of their esteem.
JUDGE LAWRENCE N. BURKE.
This eminent citizen of Kalamazoo, the first judge of the municipal court of the city, and for many years a leading member of the bar, was born in county Tipperary, Ireland, on Novem- ber 7. 1850, and is the son of James and Johanna Burke, who were born and reared in the same county as himself. The mother died when the subject of this sketch was a mere child and the father emigrated to the United States about the year 1855, and settled near Syracuse, N. Y., where he died. The Judge grew to the age of nineteen in New York state, receiving a preliminary education in the common schools and attending a good academy at Homer, where he pursued a partial course of instruction. In 1869 he became a resident of Kalamazoo and soon found employment in the asylum, where he worked two years. He then attended the Par- son's Business College, and at the end of his term in that institution entered the law office of J. W. Breese as a student. Soon after his admission to the bar he formed a partnership with Judge W. W. Peck, which lasted three years. At the end of that period the state of his health obliged him to seek a milder climate and he spent a year in the South. He was admitted to practice in 1873 and after his return from the South opened an office by himself, and he has been alone in the practice ever since. In 1884 he was elected judge of the
recorder's court, serving a term of four years. In 1891 and 1892 he was prosecuting attorney, and later for three years was city attorney of Kala- mazoo. He has always been in an active general practice except when he was on the bench, and has achieved success and prominence in his pro- fession, being accounted one of the leading law- yers and most representative citizens of the county. He was married at Kalamazoo, in 1877, to Mrs. Mary Webster, of Detroit, by whom he had two sons and one daughter, the sons being now residents of St. Louis, The mother died in 1893, and in 1901 the Judge married a second wife, Miss Clara M. Masch, of Kalamazoo. In political faith and allegiance the Judge is now a Democrat, but was in his earlier life a Greeley Republican. He has always taken an active and zealous part in the campaigns of his party and has rendered valuable service to its organization as a member of its county and state central com- mittees and chairman of the city and county com- mittees. He was chairman of the county com- mittee in the contest of 1896, and was at the time a candidate for the office of probate judge, but lacked twenty-nine votes of a majority at the elec- tion. For many years he has been prominent in the order of Odd Fellows, serving at one time as grand master of the order in the state, the youngest man who ever held the position in Mich- igan. He also represented the grand lodge of the state in the sovereign grand lodge of the order at Baltimore in 1885 and at Boston in 1886. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Elks. For some years he was a director and the attorney of the Kalamazoo Building Associa- tion. His religious leaning is to the Presbyterian church, of which he is a regular attendant. In his professional career, in official life and in social relations he has won and holds the esteem of all his fellow citizens and numbers his friends by the host.
EDWARD A. BISSELL.
The army of axmen in this country, whose sharp blades and lusty strokes leveled the mon- archs of the forest which for ages kept apart the sunshine and the soil, and whose arduous toil
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
blazed the way for the onward march of civiliza- tion, has been a race of heroes at all times in our history and in all parts of our country, and is none the less entitled to be sung as such because their undertakings and achievements have been unostentatious rather than showy and quiet rather than noisy. To this race belonged the par- ents of Edward A. Bissell, of Richland township, this county, and in his day he was a member of it himself. They were pioneers in Portage county, Ohio, pitching their tent there almost on the heels of the retreating red man, and in his turn he did the same here. History has made the soldiers in this army its darling theme and poetry has painted their picturesque and rugged life in its most en- gaging tints. But our own electric age hurries over their career with heedless foot, and unless their memory is repeatedly recalled, what they ac- complished for our country and the world is likely to be belittled or even forgotten, so little audience does the present give the past. Edward A. Bissell comes of families who came to this country in early colonial times and whose descendants have been found at every subsequent epoch in the fore- front of adventure and accomplishment, of con- test with nature and conquest over its opposing forces. He was born on August 6, 1823; in Portage county, Ohio, where his parents settled at the dawn of its civilization, making the trip from their native Litchfield, Conn., to that then almost trackless waste with teams to Buffalo, then by boat to Cleveland, and from there again with teams to their destination in the heart of the wilderness. They were Elijah N. and Flora (Loomis) Bissell, and by their efforts and endur- ance built a good home in their new domain and rose to consequence and prominence among its people. The father cleared two good farms of heavy timber land, and lived on them until 1844, when he sold them and moved to this county, buy- ing a tract of wild land on which the widow of . his son Albertus now lives. Here he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, hers ending in 1864 and his in 1852. They had six sons and three daughters. One of the daughters died in Ohio, and the rest of the children in this state, except three of the sons who are living, two in Kalama-
zoo county and one in Iowa. Here, as in Ohio, the father took an active part in the local affairs of his township and county, serving for years as a justice of the peace and aiding in giving incite- ment and trend to public opinion. His son Ed- ward grew to the age of twenty-one in his native county, and in the primitive country schools of the place and period obtained the rudiments of an education. In the fall of 1844 he became a resident of this county, traveling to it by stage from Marshall, in Calhoun county. For some time he worked on farms at ten dollars a month and his board, then bought eighty acres of his present farm in Richland township, to which he has since added sixty-two acres by purchase. This he has improved into one of the best farms in the township, and one of its most comfortable and at- tractive homes. He was married in Illinois in 1855 to Miss Maryett Densmore, a native of New York state, where her parents were pioneers. Three children were born of their union, two of whom are living, their son Cassius and their daughter Flora, both dwelling at home with their parents. Cassius, the son, was married in 1886 to Miss Georgia Peak, a native of Richland township, and is taking the place in the farm management and the local affairs of the community his father is preparing to vacate. He was educated in the lo- cal schools and has passed the whole of his life among the people of this region. He is there- fore well acquainted with their needs and aspira- tions and in touch and full sympathy with their loftiest desires, and will be able to render them good service in any post of trust and responsibility to which he may be called. 'He and his wife are the parents of two sons, Clark and Ernest. Mr. Bissell, the elder, is a staunch and loyal Demo- crat in political faith, but he has never had a taste for public life in any capacity, yet he has never withheld his due share of the stimulus and support necessary to carry forward the general improvement and development of this section of the state. Assuming at an early day the burden of a good citizen's portion in the progress of his neighborhood, he has borne it faithfully until now, and the work of his manhood is a creditable memorial to him. He is one of the few pioneers
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
left to tell the tale of early trials and dangers, and to witness with increasing satisfaction the grand results to which they have led.
GEORGE M. EVERS.
That "Freedom's battle, once begun, be- queathed from bleeding sire to son, though baffled oft is ever won," is happily illustrated in the ca- reer of the interesting subject of this memoir, now the leading grain merchant of Richland, this county, whose grandfather was a valiant soldier in the Revolution, and who was himself a soldier for the Union in the Civil war. And his career affords an equally striking illustration of the fact that the American people are mainly concerned with the pursuits of peaceful industry and only engage in war as a necessary incident when some sharp and momentous emergency calls them to the field. Mr. Evers is a native of Warren county, Pa., born on November 9, 1840, and the son of John and Emeline (Fellows) Evers, the former born in Pennsylvania and the latter in the state of New York. The father, who was a farmer and lumberman, brought his family to Michigan in 1855, and located at Prairieville, Barry county, where he purchased a tract of land known as the Slater farm, on which he lived until 1867, when he sold it to his son George and moved to Gales- burg, this county. Some years afterward he changed his residence to the village of Augusta, where he died in 1879. His widow is still living, at the advanced age of ninety-two years. They had six sons and three daughters, all living but one son and one daughter. George M. and his sister, Mrs. Bissell, being the only resident ones in this county. The paternal grandfather, An- drew Evers, was born on the ocean, while his par- ents were emigrating from their native England to this country in colonial times. As a young man he ardently espoused the cause of the colo- nies in their struggle for independence, and served through the Revolutionary war, fighting valiantly on many a bloody field, enduring the weariness of many a forced march by day and night, suffering the hardships and privations of many a winter camp like that of Valley Forge.
Mr. Evers was fifteen years old when his parents moved to this state, and here he grew to manhood and completed his education in the local common schools. He began life as a farmer and con- tinued to follow that vocation until 1870, ex- cept during the greater part of the Civil war. In 1862 he enlisted in Company D, Seventeenth Michigan Infantry, under the present United States Senator J. C. Burrows as captain. The regiment was assigned in turn to the Army of the Potomac, the Army of the Cumberland, and the Army of the Mississippi, and participated in the following engagements of importance: The bat- tles of South Mountain and Antietam, in Mary- land, Fredericksburg, Va., the siege of Vicks- burg and Jackson, Miss., the battle of the Wild- erness and Spottsylvania Courthouse, and the siege of Petersburg, Va., and finally helped to re- ceive the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. It afterward attended and took part in the Grand Review of the Union forces at Washington. Mr. Evers was shot through the left hip in the Wil- derness and was in consequence of his wound out of active service five months. He entered the army as a private and was mustered out as a first lieutenant in June, 1865. Returning then to Michigan, he purchased his father's farm, as noted above, and farmed until 1870, when he moved to Richland Center and started a mercan- tile enterprise with a branch store at Prairieville, which he conducted until 1880. In 1884 he built a grain elevator and from it shipped the first car- load of grain from Richland station. Since then he has been continuously engaged in the grain and produce business at this point, purchasing all kinds of farm products and shipping them East and elsewhere to active markets. He is also in- terested in other lines of business, and is one of the commercial potencies of the county. His trade has steadily enlarged and is now of commanding importance both in its magnitude and its range of benefits to the community. He was married in 1867, in Genesee county, N. Y., to Miss Lucinda Addey, a native of that county. They have no children, but make their pleasant home a center of sociability and gracious hospitality to their own immediate community and the whole sur-
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rounding country. In politics Mr. Evers is in- dependent, loyally devoted to the welfare of his county, state and country, but not bound by party ties. He has been a faithful and serviceable friend to the village of Richland, serving on its board of trustees for more than thirty years, and on all occasions giving his aid to commendable projects for its improvement or the comfort and convenience of its people. In fraternal circles he is prominent in the Masonic lodge and the lodge of Odd Fellows at Richland, and in the church life of the township he takes an active part as a leading Presbyterian. For nearly fifty years a resident of the county, and crowned with the guerdon of merit and honest effort in his busi- ness, and the genuine esteem of his fellow men, he is not only one of the patriarchs of its expand- ing greatness, but as well one of its chief sup- ports.
WILLIAM H. BENNETT.
William H. Bennett, at present (1905) the supervisor of Richland township and a resident of Kalamazoo county since he was but one year old, was born at Peterborough, Canada, on April 13, 1856. He is the son of Robert and Ann J .. (Newell) Bennett, both natives of the Dominion, the former of Irish and the latter of English an- cestry. The son has inherited the best traits of each race and in the happy combination which they form in his character and make up, as har- moniously developed by careful home training under the benign influences of American institu- tions, he presents the most desirable attributes of good citizenship, honesty, industry, persistency, resourcefulness and frugality, with progressive- ness of spirit and breadth of view. The father was a farmer in his native land until 1857, when he emigrated to this county and settled in Rich- land township, on land which he farmed until 1892. In that year the parents moved to Marshall, Calhoun county, where they now reside. They had four daughters and two sons, but only two of them live in this county, William H. and his sister, Mrs. George H. Cornell, of Kalamazoo. The father is a staunch Republican, but has never sought or desired public office of any kind.
Reared in this county and educated in its district schools, and all of his life so far engaged in till- ing its soil, William H. Bennett is not only sub- stantially one of its products, but with an earnest devotion to its welfare is one of its best and most representative citizens. His farm is a model of thrift and skill in agriculture, and his public life is an incitement to laudable endeavor and an example of excellence in administrative ability. In 1855 he was joined in wedlock with Miss Mary C. Whitney, a daughter of Norman S. and Au- gusta (Nevins) Whitney (see sketch of them on another page). Mr. and Mrs. Bennett had six children and five of them are living, Katharine A., Sidney H., Anna W., Rose M., and Dorothy B. Their mother died in 1902, and on December 23, 1903, the father married again, being united on this occasion with Miss Alice I. Clark, a na- tive of Calhoun county, this state. Mr. Bennett is a zealous and active Republican in political re- lations, and as such has been the supervisor of the township since 1902. He has also served as township treasurer, holding this office in 1886 and 1887, and in various school offices for many years. Fraternally he belongs to the order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of the Maccabees. Now in the noonday of life, with all his faculties in full vigor, his manhood in business and in public and private life well established, and the regard and good will of his fellow citizens of the county fully assured to him, Mr. Bennett has before him the prospect of a long and honorable career of public usefulness and private prosperity, and can be safely counted on as one of the wisely progressive and fruitful sources of good to his community.
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