USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 35
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HENRY A. HALE.
While the life story of the hardy pioneers in any new country is one of continued and thrilling interest, and of the greatest importance as show- ing the conditions surrounding the founders of the commonwealth and the salient characteristics of mind, spirit and body with which they were endowed, and indicating the sources from which any subsequent greatness has come, that of the second generation, who took up the work where
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the trail-blazers had laid it down after they had opened the way to the new civilization that was to' follow. is of scarcely less importance, as showing that the lessons they learned from their parents were well applied, and that the trust sur- rendered by the sires was faithfully kept by the sons. To this generation belongs Henry A. Hale, one of the successful and enterprising farmers of Richland township, this county, and that he has kept with fidelity the faith which he inherited is well shown by his record in the county, for he is wholly a product of the institutions which his parents helped to found, and has never wavered in the work of progress here which they inaugu- rated. He was born in Cooper township on Jan- uary 4, 1859, and is the son of Charles P. and Frances L. ( Perdue) Hale, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of Connecticut. The father was reared by an uncle in Massachusetts and there learned his trade as a wool carder, also working at times in a cutlery factory. In 1849 he accompanied his uncle to California, where they mined successfully two years. He then re- turned to Massachusetts and soon afterward was married and moved to Michigan. He and his wife found their first home in this county in the southern part of Cooper township, but about the close of the Civil war changed their residence to Richland township, where they lived until 1883. then moved to Plainwell and later to Otsego. There the father died in 1899 and the mother is still living. They had three sons and a daughter, all of whom are living, Henry A. being the only one resident in this county. He was reared and educated in the county and has been a tiller of its prolific soil all of his life so far, improving and developing the place on which he now lives. He was also married in this county, uniting in wed- lock with Miss Florence Wilson, a native of Barry county, on March 8, 1883. Her parents still reside in that county. Mr. and Mrs. Hale have six children, Harry. Frank, Clare. Hobart, Nettie and Charles F. Devoting himself wholly to his farming interests and in a general way to the interests of the county. Mr. Hale has stead- fastly resisted the temptation to public life of any kind and the importunities of his friends to be-
come a candidate for political office. Fraternally he belongs to the order of Odd Fellows. He takes his part as a good citizen in all the local affairs of his township without regard to political consid- erations, and has the regard and good will of his fellow citizens in a high degree, being looked upon as one of its leading farmers, strong pro- gressive forces and most worthy and representa- tive men. His parents were prominent members of Spring Brook Methodist Episcopal church, which he and his wife also attend.
JAMES H. HOPKINS.
Becoming a resident of Michigan when he was seven years old. James H. Hopkins, of Kala- mazoo, has passed the subsequent sixty-nine years of an active life among its people, earnestly en- gaged in helping to develop its resources, build up its industries, expand its commercial activities and plant on its soil the religions and educational agencies which make a state great and good. Mr. Hopkins is still actively engaged in the real-estate business, looking after his large interests here. He enjoys the esteem of his fellow citizens, the cor- cial regard of his numerous friends and the bene- fits of the civilization he aided materially to im- bed and cultivate in what was, when he came, a far western wilderness. His life began in Ca- vuga county, N. Y., on November 4, 1828, where his parents, Henry and Mary E. (Casey) Hop- kins, were then living. The father was a native of Washington, and the mother of Dutchess county, that state. They were farmers, follow- ing the vocation of the old patriarchs in their na- tive state until 1835, then transferring their en- ergies to Michigan. The grandfather. David Hopkins, was born in Rhode Island and settled in Washington county, N. Y., about 1776. He was for a time judge of the county court, and for a period of twenty-eight years represented his county in the state legislature, part of the time in the lower house and part of the time in the senate. In 1812 he departed this life after a long career of usefulness and public renown, having rendered efficient service to the cause of the Fed- eralists in politics. He was a cousin of Stephen
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JAMES H. HOPKINS.
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
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Hopkins, a signer of the Declaration of Inde- any proper means. He was one of the organizers pendence. He left a family of seven sons and five of the grange of the Patrons of Husbandry at Galesburg, and during his residence there was a zealous participant in its work, serving at its first secretary and pushing its growth by his influ- ence and enthusiasm. His long and prominent residence in the state has made him well known. and his sterling worth as a man and breadth of view as a citizen has won him wide and enduring respect. daughters who grew to maturity. In 1835 the parents of James Hopkins removed their family to Michigan, making the trip by way of the Erie canal to Buffalo and from there by steamer to De- troit, whence they journeyed with ox teams to the vicinity of the present town of Niles over the old territory road. He had very limited means, and during the first two years of his residence here he worked land on shares. In 1837 he moved to JOHN G. HASKINS. Kalamazoo county and settled on a tract of wild land in Charleston township, which was named With the business acumen and clearness of vision in commercial transactions for which the people of his native section of the country are re- nowned, John G. Haskins, of Cooper township, where he is one of the leading and most progres- sive farmers, on corning to this county in 1857, be- gan at once to see opportunities for good profits in buying and selling land, and for a number of years gave his attention to that business much to his own advantage and the benefit of the county. He was born at Middletown, Rutland county, Vt., in October, 1834. His parents, Ezra and Phebe (Grandy) Haskins, were also natives of Vermont, and for a number of years the father farmed in that state, then moved to Wisconsin, where he died some time later. The mother died in her native state when her son John was ten years old. They had eleven children, all living but two of the daughters. Five of the sons were Union soldiers in the Civil war, serving in Wis- consin regiments. Their grandfather, Richard Haskins, was a Revolutionary soldier and died in Vermont. John G. Haskins grew to manhood in Vermont and New York, and in 1857, at the age of twenty-three, he came to this state and for a time worked on farms in Barry county. Then he bought a tract of wild land, and after partially clearing it lost it. Soon afterward he bought eighty acres in Cooper township, this county, and sowed thirty acres to wheat. The yield was six hundred bushels, which he sold at two dollars a bushel, thus getting more than enough to pay for his land and his work on it. Some little while afterward he sold this land for one thousand, six hundred and and fifty dollars, for one of his uncles. Here he cleared forty acres of land, and afterward moved to Bedford, Cal- houn county, where he cleared a good sized farm on which he and his wife died, he in 1865 and she in 1896, aged ninety-nine years. He was a soldier in the war of 1812 and fought in the battle of Plattsburg, N. Y. In politics he was an active Democrat, but he never sought public office or desired it. Five sons and three daughters were born in the family, of whom two sons and one daughter are living. James grew to manhood in this and Calhoun counties, and in 1860 returned to this county, settling near Galesburg on a farm which he bought and which was his home for twenty-eight years. In 1888 he sold his farm and took up his residence in the city of Kalamazoo, where he has since lived, and during a number of the subsequent years he has been engaged in the real-estate business and has furnished the capi- tal for putting up more than eighty dwelling houses, which he has sold to people on the install- ment plan, thus adding to the growth of the city and the welfare of its people. He erected nine . houses in 1904 and two in 1905. He was married in 1861 to Miss Jane McNulty, who died in 1900, leaving one daughter, now Mrs. Frederick Shel- leto. Within the same year the father married a second wife, Miss Carry Bylardt, a resident of the city, born in Illinois. In political affairs Mr. Hopkins has been a life-long Democrat, but he has never consented to accept a public office of any kind. He has throughout his mature years taken a great and helpful interest in agriculture and has been ever ready to promote its welfare by
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and after working a month bought a farm in Richland township for two thousand dollars, which he sold two years later for three thousand dollars. He next bought his present farm in Cooper township. He has cleared up this and erected the buildings on it, and now has a well improved and extensive cultivated farm of two hundred and twenty acres which is steadily grow- ing in value at a rapid rate. Mr. Haskins was married in 1860 to Miss Janet Hoyt, a daughter of Theodore Hoyt, one of the pioneers of Rich- land township who settled there in 1836, coming from Windsor county, Vt. Some years later he moved to Cooper township, where, after clearing up a good farm and working it for a number of . years, he died. Mr. and Mrs. Haskins have four children, Lily, at home ; Charles and Ira, farmers ; Lizzie, wife of Charles Brignall, of Chicago.
HON. CHARLES E. FOOTE.
Hon. Charles E. Foote, pension attorney, of Kalamazoo, who was a soldier in the Civil war and bears the marks of its wounds in his body, and for years afterward a valued official in the service of the United States government, and who was recently a member of the Michigan legis- lature for two consecutive terms, has had an in- teresting career and has seen in it many forms of life and public service and met many men of dif- ferent classes under a great variety of circum- stances. He was born on September 6. 1840, at Franklin, Delaware county, N. Y., and is the son of Stephen S. and Nancy O. (Strong) Foote, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of Massachusetts. The father was a farmer who moved with his parents in 1802 to the state of New York, where he grew to manhood and died after a life of useful industry in 1882, aged eighty years. He was prominent in the local pub- lic life of his section and took an active part in suppressing the "anti-rent" war in Delaware and other counties of the state in the early '50s. The grandfather, Stephen Foote, was born in Connec- ticut, and his father, Ichabod Foote, was a Revo- lutionary soldier in a Massachusetts regiment. Hon. Charles E. Foote was reared and educated in
his native state. In 1859 he moved to Otsego county and there began learning the trade of a carriage ironer, working at it until the outbreak of the Civil war. On August 5, 1861, he enlisted in Company D, Third New York Cavalry, and was soon at the front near the historic Potomac. The first engagement between the hostile sec- 'tions in which he took part was the battle of Ball's Bluff, where General Baker, of Oregon, met his untimely death. He also fought at Win- chester and Edwards Ferry, and from that sec- tion was transferred to North Carolina, where he was almost continually in the field. At little Washington, that state, he was wounded in a hand-to-hand fight with a Confederate soldier. His military service covered three years, he be- ing discharged on August 11, 1864. After his return home he finished his trade and thereafter worked at it until 1873, when he engaged in busi- ness for himself in his native state. In 1878 he was appointed postmaster of Cobleskill, N. Y., and this position he held until 1882. He was then appointed to a clerkship in the pension de- partment at Washington, D. C., and later was made a special examiner for the department and afterward assistant to the board of appeals. He continued as special examiner until 1888, when he was removed from the office by Secretary of Interior Lamar. He first came to Michigan and was stationed at Jackson as special examiner in 1883, remaining until July, 1885. At that time he was transferred to Wauseon, Ohio, and in the fall of 1887 established his headquarters at To- ledo, having sixteen counties in northwestern Ohio under his charge in the official work to which he was assigned. In March, 1888, he be- came a resident of Kalamazoo and started his present business, which he has conducted with ability and success. In the fall of 1895 he was elected to the state house of representatives from the first district of this county. In the ensuing session he held a high rank in the body to which he belonged and served on important committees. In 1897 he was re-elected and became chairman of the committee on railroads and also of the committee on fish and game. In 1896 he was appointed quartermaster general of the Grand
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Army of the Republic, Department of Michigan, under General William Shakespeare, department commander. On January 23, 1868, Mr. Foote was married in New York to Miss Laura C. Gil- lett, a native of that state. They have two chil- dren living, their son George E., who is in busi- ness with his father, and their daughter Cora A. Mr. Foote has been a life-long Republican, hav- ing cast his first vote for Lincoln for president in 1864. He has also been a very active member of the Grand Army of the Republic since 1873. He organized a post in this organization at Co- bleskill, N. Y., and served two years as its com- mander. In 1886 he was transferred to Orcutt Post at Kalamazoo and also served as its com- mander. He belongs to the Congregational church and to the Masonic order, holding his membership in the latter in Anchor Lodge of S. O., No. 87. In addition to being a good business man, a useful citizen and a cultivated and enter- taining gentleman socially, Mr. Foote is a true sportsman and loyal to every claim and feature of the guild. For years he has been most active himself and stimulated others in keeping the lakes stocked with game fish, and in protecting them and all other game from injury by improper or unseasonable pursuit. He is, however, an enthu- siastic hunter, making annual trips to gratify this taste to northern Michigan, and has his office decorated with trophies of the chase. He was one of the original promoters of the erection of the Grand Army Memorial Hall in Kalamazoo and was a valued member of the building .com- mittee.
CONDON J. BROWN.
Born and reared to the age of sixteen in Wash- ington county, N. Y., then coming with his parents to Michigan, and ever since engaged in the stirring activities of a new country in which everything in the way of conquest over the wild forces of nature and the subjugation of an un- . tamed soil to the will of the husbandman was yet to be done, Condon J. Brown, of Richland township, has in the nearly seventy years of his life lived strenuously and usefully, and seen many phases of American progress and develop-
ment. He came into the world on February II, 1825, and is the son of Condon and Selva (Hitch- cock) Brown, the former born in Rhode Island and the latter in New York. The father's life began on March 13, 1801, and while he was yet an infant his parents moved into the eastern part of New York, locating in Washington county, where he was reared, and where, after reaching man's estate, he carried on a dairy with success until 1841. He then gathered his household goods about him and set out for a new home, as his fa- ther had done before him, and coming to Michigan, bought one thousand acres of unbroken land in Eaton county. A year later he moved to Calhoun county, where his wife died in 1863, and four years after this event he took up his residence in Kalamazoo county, where he died in 1898. In early life he was a Whig, but when that party died he became a Republican and adhered to this organization until his death. He was never, how- ever, desirous of public office, although loyal and devoted to his political allegiance. For many years he was a devout and active Methodist. His family comprised two sons and three daughters, all of whom are living. Condon J. accompanied his parents to this state in 1841, when he was about sixteen years of age, and at once took his place in the force put to work to clear the land his father purchased and bring it to productiveness. In 1867 he became a resident of this county, locat- ing in Richland township, where he bought land which he has converted into a good farm and on which he has continuously lived since his arrival · in the county. He was married in 1862 to Miss Frances H. Vandewalker, a native of this county and a niece of John Vandewalker (see sketch of him elsewhere in this work). They have four living children, Morris, Mattie, wife of Horace McGinnis, John and Nellie. Like his father, Mr. Brown supports the Republican party in state and national issues, and, like that worthy gentleman, he eschews public office and all prominence in political affairs. He is cordially devoted to the welfare of his state and county, and omits no ef- fort to advance their best interests. For a period of thirty-five years he operated a threshing out- fit all over this and adjoining counties, and thus
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became well and favorably known to all classes of people throughout a wide extent of country. In this work he had many interesting experiences. and his whole life has been one of incident and adventure. While of the second rather than of the first generation of Michigan pioneers, he is by no means lacking in the knowledge of the hard- ships and dangers of frontier life gained in pass- ing through its trials and exacting labors, and he is therefore well qualified to enjoy in full meas- ure the splendid development and striking prog- ress of the present day for which the early settlers opened the way.
JAMES A. TAYLOR.
James A. Taylor is well and favorably known as one of the most enterprising and prolific real- estate men in Kalamazoo, owning now Taylor's and the Linden Park addition to the city, and improving his property with commendable ac- tivity and taste. He was born in Roxburgshire. Scotland, at the village of Kelso. His parents, George and Jane (Dodds) Taylor, were also born in that county, and there the farther carried on an extensive nursery until 1855, when he brought his family to the United States, com- ing direct to Kalamazoo, where he then had two brothers, Andrew and James Taylor, in business. He brought with him a stock of evergreens, shrubs, etc., and started a nursery in the West End, conducting his business in that portion of the city until 1867, when he moved it to a property on Portage street, now owned by his son James. Here he remained and flourished until his death, in 1892. He was among the first to raise celery for market in this neighborhood, beginning the culture of it in 1856. He had a struggle to get it into general use, but after considerable effort suc- ceeded in working up a good trade and made large shipments to other points. He was also the pioneer nurseryman in this region, and car- ried on an extensive business in that line for his day. In 1842 he was married to Miss Jane Dodds. They had six children, four sons and two daughters, of whom James and one brother, George D .. and a sister living in California, are
all who are living. The father was an original Republican, voting for General Fremont for president in 1856. He was a strong abolitionist and an ardent worker in the cause. In religious belief he was a Presbyterian, well known and widely esteemed in church circles as an active and effective worker. The mother died in 1860. Their son James grew to manhood in Kalamazoo, at- tending the common schools and Parson's Busi- ness College. After leaving school he associated with his father in business and remained with him until his death in 1892. He then started out for himself in the real-estate trade and in this he has been very successful. In the public affairs of the city he has been active and service- able, being a member of the city council for three terms as alderman from the fifth ward. He has also been for some years a director of the Citizens' Mutual Fire Insurance Company. In political · faith and action he is independent, but he is ever at the front in all undertakings for the general welfare of the city.
THE KALAMAZOO COLD STORAGE COMPANY.
This fine and enterprising organization, which conducts an enormous trade in all parts of the United States and Canada, was founded in 1891 with a capital stock of twelve thousand dollars as a limited corporation. The first officers were : J. N. Stearns, president ; F. C. Balch, vice-presi- dent : A. C. Balch, treasurer, and J. B. Balch, secretary. The company erected a plant on Wal- bridge street, forty by eighty feet in size and three stories high, with commodious dry ware- houses for the storage of non-perishable merchan- (lise, and ample facilities for the cold storage of commodities of the other class. The capacity of the establishment is sixty-five carloads and it handles every kind of produce, being the most extensive jobber in onions in the state. The com- pany is the pioneer of South Haven in carload shipments, and one of the most extensive dealers in this sort of traffic, having shipped in one year more than two hundred carloads, sending theni all over the country. It was the third company
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
started in Michigan and is now the third in the magnitude of its business. In 1897 a reorganiza- tion was effected with the same capital stock but a new directorate, the officers chosen at that time and still serving being J. B. Balch, president, and B. E. Pierce, secretary, treasurer and manager. Mr. Balch was born in Allegan county, this state, in September, 1868. He is a son of A. R. Balch, a brother of the late Hon. Nathaniel A. Balch, one of the leading lawyers and public-spirited citi- zens of this county, whose forensic efforts and public services won him high renown throughout the state and gave him a high reputation far be- yond its borders. A. R. Balch, the father of the subject of this writing, was a pioneer of Allegan county and owned large tracts of pine land in that county. He also lived for a number of years in this county, but died in Allegan county in 1872. Like his brother Nathaniel, he was prominent in politics, and to the end of his life was a faithful and earnest Democrat. He operated large saw mills and carried on an extensive lumber business, furnishing large quantities of pine lumber to the industries in Kalamazoo. His son, J. B. Balch, grew to manhood in Allegan county and was educated in the public schools and at the Kalama- zoo Baptist College. He entered business as a clerk for Robert R. W. Smith & Sons, of Kala- mazoo, with whom he remained two years at a compensation of three dollars a week. Then, after passing two years in the employ of P. W. Henley, he became a traveling salesman for the Busch Cattle Guard Company, through the South, remaining with that company until the organiza- tion of the cold storage company, of which he is now president. In 1897 he married with Miss Mabel S. Severance, a daughter of Judge Sever- ance (see sketch of the Judge on another page of this work). Mr. Balch has never taken an active interest in partisan politics and has never accepted or desired public office of any kind, be- ing well pleased to serve his city, county, state and country from the honorable post of private citizenship and with earnest attention to their best interests in every way but through political contention. He was the candidate of the Demo- cratic party for secretary of state in 1904, the
nomination being a surprise and unsolicited by him. Throughout southern Michigan and the neighboring territory he is highly respected as a leading and representative business man and citizen.
THE SUPERIOR PAPER COMPANY.
The Superior Paper Company, of Kalamazoo, one of the interesting and progressive industrial institutions of the city, with a large trade and en- gaged in the production of a great variety of choice marketable products, was organized on January II, 1901, with a capital stock of one hun- dred and twenty-five thousand dollars, the stock- holders being nearly all local men. The company manufactures high grade sized and super calen- dared and machine finished book and lithograph, catalogue, French folios and other specialties in paper. The officers are W. S. Hodges, presi- dent and general manager, H. H. Everard, vice- president, Frank H. Milham, secretary, and H. P. Kauffer, ex-president of the Home Savings Bank, treasurer. The company is but three years old, but it has been managed with vigor and en- terprise and has built up a very large trade with patrons in all parts of the country. Mr. Hodges, the president and manager, is a native of this county, born near Galesburg in 1855. His par- ents. George S. and Mary E. (Ellis) Hodges, were born and reared in the state of New York. The father became a resident of this county in 1844, taking up a farm in South Comstock town- ship, where he farmed a number of years, then moved to Galesburg. In 1861 he enlisted in de- fense of the Union in Company I, Second Michi- gan Cavalry, and was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland. He remained in the service un- til the close of the war and saw much active field duty, participating in many important engage- ments, among them the battles of Franklin, De- cember 24, 1863, Franklin, January 4, 1863, and Mossy Creek, December 29, 1863, and the cam- paigns incident thereto, with other campaigns of his branch of the service. He was mustered out as captain of his company. Returning then to Kalamazoo, he served two years as sheriff of the
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