USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 38
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as he gives his personal attention to every depart- ment of the work nothing is wanted that the eye and the energy of a master can furnish for its complete success. In politics he has been a life- long Republican and for many years lias belonged to the order of Odd Fellows. His interest in the welfare of the city, its business interests, its edu- cational and moral life and its substantial prog- ress in every commendable line of enterprise, is manifested by close and intelligent attention to their needs and active aid in promoting them. He is well esteemed on all sides as a worthy and en- terprising citizen, wide-awake to his own oppor- tunities and the general weal, and ever ready to make the most of any opening for their advance- ment ; while in social and fraternal life he has a high rank as an earnest and serviceable factor.
LEONARD G. BRAGG.
To start well, to keep progressing in spite of all difficulties and obstacles, to maintain the pace with all competitors, surviving many and lagging behind none, to attain such a fullness of growth and be established on so firm a founda- tion as to become almost a classic, so to speak, in a business way,-if these are not proofs of ex- cellence and worthy of the highest admiration, it would be difficult to designate what are. What- ever tribute to excellence is involved in these con- ditions properly belongs to Leonard G. Bragg, founder and manager of the Union Nursery Company, or more properly speaking, of the firm of L. G. Bragg & Company, which owns and con- ducts one of the leading nurseries in this part of the country. For nearly half a century Mr. Bragg has been a leading business man in or near Kalamazoo, starting his enterprise at Paw Paw in the adjoining county of Van Buren in 1857 and moving it to Kalamazoo in 1869. The nursery comprises two hundred and seventeen acres and is particularly devoted to fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs, which are produced with the greatest care both as to selection and growth. and are sold by agents of the company throughout nearly a dozen of the surrounding states. Eighty to one hundred men are employed in the business,
and through its well-directed efforts and unvary- ing business fairness the company enjoys a very large trade. The beginning of this large and well established business was small, but in the passing years no effort has been spared to expand the trade and keep the products for the market up to the highest standard. The head of the company, Leonard G. Bragg, was born in Monroe county, New York, on August 19, 1830, and is the son of Leonard and Philinda (Gilmore) Bragg. His father was a farmer, and while the son was in his boyhood the family moved to Orleans county, in his native state. There on the paternal home- stead he grew to manhood, assisting in the labors of the farm and securing his education at the neighboring district schools. In 1857 he came to Michigan and located at Paw Paw, where he started in the nursery business in which his brother, P. I. Bragg, was associated with him. The industry was wisely managed and it throve, and in course of time demanded a larger base of operations. Accordingly in 1869 it was moved to Kalamazoo, and here its expansion and pros- perity has been greatly enhanced. In 1887 Mr. Bragg formed a partnership with W. C. Hoyt, and the firm name of L. G. Bragg & Company was assumed. The business is one of the largest as well as one of the oldest of its kind in the middle West, and has a standing throughout the vast country under tribute to its coffers second to no other. Mr. Bragg was married in 1853 to Miss Mary Sherwood, a daughter of Anson Sher- wood, of Orleans county, New York. They have one child, their daughter Lena, wife of Charles A. . Burton, of Chicago. Mr. Bragg owns con- siderable valuable real estate in the city including his beautiful home at Elm and West Main streets : and he also has a fine farm of two hun- (red and forty acres, well improved with first- class buildings and in a high state of cultivation.
MEYER DESENBERG, SR.
That thrift and industry in the careful con- servation of small things until they amount to great ones in the aggregate and lead to still greater ones by the force which they add to a
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man's resources, will always succeed in this land of boundless opportunity, is forcibly illustrated in the career of Meyer Desenberg, Sr., one of the pioneer Hebrew merchants of Kalamazoo, who began operations in this part of the world as a foot pedlar of small wares and from that labo- rious but interesting occupation rose to the rank of a wholesale merchant, successful miner and ex- tensive general business man. He was born in Prussia on February 28, 1834, and is the son of Levy and Adelaide ( Bermann) Desenberg, who were born and passed their lives in that country, where the father was a merchant and small farmer. The son was educated in his native land, being graduated from one of its excellent high schools, and in 1854, at the age of twenty, gathering the hopes of his dawning manhood about him, he came to this country, locating at once at Kala- mazoo. Here he joined his brother, Bernhard L., who had come to this city the year before and was employed as a clerk by M. Israel. The new arrival began work as a pedlar, walking through the country from farm to farin, carrying his tin box and learning the English language. After ten months of successful work in this line he passed a short time clerking for Henry Stern, then in 1856 went to California by way of New York and the Isthmus, arriving after a long but interesting voyage at San Francisco, and he soon afterward engaged in the cigar and fruit trade at the mines northeast of the city. A year later he turned his attention to placer mining, in which he was successful for three years. He then returned to Kalamazoo and joined his brother in a retail grocery trade under the firm name of Desenberg & Brother. The firm was afterward changed to B. Desenberg & Company, and under that name is still doing business. In the course of a few years they began wholesaling, and in 1868 separated this branch of the business from the retail branch. In 1879 Meyer sold his in- terest in the establishment and for a short time retired from business. He next went to Salt Lake City and invested in mining properties, but after two years returned again to Kalamazoo and once more entered the grocery business, this time in partnership with Julius Schuster, the style of
the firm being Desenberg & Schuster. The founders of this firm retired from the enterprise in 1896. Since this event Mr. Desenberg has been carrying on a small trade in coffees and teas. He has always been progressive and enterprising, full of public spirit and eager for the develop- ment of all the natural resources of the section in which he lives. He was one of the first of Kalamazoo's citizens to encourage boring for gas and oil in the neighborhood, and also one of the earliest stockholders in the Electric. Lighting Company, which was organized in the '8os. In 1865 he was married, in Kalamazoo, to Miss Lizzie Bohm, a native of Ohio. They have one living child, their son Henry M., who is engaged in the electrical business and has been for nine years connected with the' Kalamazoo Savings Bank. In political faith Mr. Desenberg is a Re- publican, 'but he has never sought or desired a public office for himself. Firm in his loyalty to his race, he was actively instrumental about thirty-five years ago in founding the Jewish B'nai- Israel congregation of the city and ever since he has been one of its most zealous friends and supporters. Fraternally he has been a blue-lodge Mason since 1863, and during all of his pilgrim- age among the mystic symbolism of the order he has been an attentive and devout student before the triple lights. Widely esteemed in the busi- ness world, and standing well in social circles, Mr. Desenberg is an ornament to the city as"a useful and patriotic citizen of a high type. He is liberal in religious views, visiting and con- tributing to any of the Gentile churches which happens to appeal to his taste, as he declares there is something good to be obtained from any re- ligious assembly.
ALBERT L. CAMPBELL.
The matter of taxation for the support of the government, state, county or municipal, is one that comes very near to the heart of the Amer- ican citizen, and while in the main most men are willing to bear their share of the burden"and do it: cheerfully, they do wish to know that: the tax 'is levied fairly and' bears with equal force on" all
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classes of persons and property. This usually happens when the laws are just and the officials who administer them are capable and honest. In this respect the people of Kalamazoo have reason for satisfaction at least in the person and official conduct of their city assessor, Albert L. Camp- bell, who fixes the value of property for taxation, whom they find wise in judgment and square and firm in action. He has given them three years of excellent service in his important office, and they appreciate his administration of its affairs. Mr. Campbell was born in Kalamazoo county on November 8, 1851, and is the son of Hugh and Mary (Gilmore) Campbell, the former a na- tive of Scotland and the latter of Ireland. The father was a baker. He came to the United States and went direct to Kalamazoo in 1844. After' working at his trade for years in the city he bought a farm in Portage township which he owned and lived on until 1865, then moved to Texas township and farmed there until 1883. In that year he changed his residence to Schoolcraft, where he died soon afterward. He took an active part in local affairs as a Democrat and served as township treasurer and in other local offices. The mother died in 1896. They had a family of six sons and three daughters. All of the sons and one of the daughters are living. Albert grew to manhood on the farm and was educated in the district schools, and after completing the course engaged in teaching for ten years and also farmed. He then went into business at Schoolcraft, being a grocer there six years and postmaster two and a half. He was also postmaster at Texas Corners, in Texas township, and township clerk and for two terms township treasurer of School- craft township. In 1899 he became a resident of Kalamazoo and here he has since had his home. For six years he traveled, and in 1901 was ap- pointed city assessor, an office which he is still filling. He was married in 1875 to Miss Ella S. Wagor, a native of Texas township. They have one son and one daughter. The son is a physician and is superintendent at Newberry Asylum, or Northern Peninsular Hospital of Michigan. · Mr. Campbell has been a life-long Democrat and has from the dawn of his manhood
been an active worker for his party. Fraternally he belongs to the Masonic order, the order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church. He was successful in business, is acceptable in office and is highly esteemed as a citizen.
KALAMAZOO SPRING AND AXLE COMPANY.
'T his enterprise of commanding importance in the community was one of the pioneer industries of Kalamazoo, and was started as a branch of the Kimball & Austin Manufacturing Company. At first only buggy springs were made, but in time the line of products was extended to include wagon seat springs and other commodities of a similar character. Soon after the beginning of the business a stock company was formed under the name of the Kalamazoo Spring Works, under the leadership of L. Egleston. This continued for a number of years and was succeeded by the firm of Eagleston & Wagner, which in 1878 erected the present plant. In 1879 L. Egleston became the sole proprietor and remained such until 1884, when the Kalamazoo Spring & Axle Company was formed by the late Senator Stockbridge and G. E. Stockbridge with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars. The Senator was chosen president and served the company in that capacity until his death. The other officers were G. E. Stockbridge, treasurer, and S. S. McCamly, secretary and general manager. These gentle- men died in 1894, then J. L. Houghteling was made president and Fred V. Wicks vice-presi- dent and treasurer, with J. E. Bidwell secretary. Mr. Wicks served as general manager until John G. Rumney was chosen to that position, with the office of vice-president, at which time Mr. Wicks became secretary and treasurer. The busi- ness is the pioneer in the manufacture of springs in the West, and it is now the largest of its kind in that section of the country. The company's output is more than two thousand tons a year and its products are sold all over the United States. It employs regularly about one hundred persons and is conducted with great spirit and
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enterprise, laying all markets under tribute to its trade and keeping the reputation of its work and materials up to the highest standard. Fred V. Wicks, the treasurer, is a native of Kalamazoo, born in 1860, and the son of Edward S. and Mary (Vail) Wicks. His father was a pros- perous farmer of Cooper township who came to the county in the early days. The son grew to manhood in the county and received his education in its schools. Here also his business career was started and here it has been worked out. He be- gan working for the Kalamazoo Springs Com- .pany in 1879, and he continued his association only with that establishment and its successors until 1903, when he became secretary and treas- urer of the French Garment, Company, a stock company engaged in the manufacture of French garments for ladies, another business enterprise in which his capacity and genius for successful management finds congenial occupation. Through- out the business world of southern Michigan he is well and favorably known as a leading busi- ness man, and has a firmly fixed reputation for turning everything he touches to success. In social life he is also well esteemed and in all undertakings for the general good of the com- munity he is everywhere recognized as wise in counsel and prompt and energetic in action. Fra- ternally he is connected with the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias.
FIDELITY BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATION.
The Fidelity Building and Loan Association, of Kalamazoo, which is one of the city's most use- ful and stable fiscal institutions, was organized as a stock company in September, 1897, with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, which was increased in April, 1898, to five hun- dred thousand dollars and on August 8, 1900, to one million five hundred thousand dollars. The first officers were James H. Hatfield, president, Otto Ihling, vice-president, Willis J. Burdick, secretary, John Pyl, treasurer, and George P. Hopkins, attorney. The present officers are the same with the exception of the treasurer, Mr.
Pyl having been succeeded in this office by Sirk Wykkel. Directors in addition to the men named are H. G. Colman, wholesale and retail druggist, and Clarence B. Hayes, manager of the Imperial Wheel Company of Jackson and Flint. The company offers to investors an invest- ment that is safe, profitable and quickly available in time of need, and for borrowers it provides loans on easy monthly payments, at moderate rates of interest and on liberal and flexible terms of repayment. This policy brought it an enor- mous patronage and enabled it to build up one of the most extensive and profitable businesses in the city, one that is profitable alike to the com- pany and the city itself, it having enabled a large number of wage earners to build homes of their own and thus add to the extent and wealth of the city. . The company has a member- ship of over seven hundred, the greater part of them being residents of Kalamazoo, although some live in other cities and states. Willis J. Burdick, the man principally concerned in or- ganizing the company, and from its start its ef- ficient secretary and general manager, was born, reared and educated in Calhoun county, this state, and passed his early life on a farm. Desiring a business career, he traveled for a commercial house and also clerked in a drug store at Climax. In 1885 he located in Kalamazoo and after at- tending the Parson's Business College through a . course of business instruction accepted a position as bookkeeper with the Zoa Phora Medicine Com- pany, with which he remained two years. The next two years he spent at Charlotte, and on his return to Kalamazoo entered the employ of A. Lakey & Co., remaining in their service five years. His next engagement was with the Kalamazoo County Building and Loan Association, and he remained with that company until the organiza- tion of the Fidelity. In this he has found proper scope for his fiscal ability and business capacity and through his enterprise, energy, force of char- acter and general knowledge, he has built up for it its great business and won its pronounced suc- cess and wide reputation for skillful manage- ment. He is a trustee of the First Congrega- tional church and has been treasurer of the
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church, a post of responsibility in which he has served nearly seven years. He is also a director of the Young Men's Christian Association. The general interests of the community have his earnest and helpful attention, but political con- tentions have never been to his taste and he has taken no part in them.
DOUBLEDAY BROS. & CO.
The original of this flourishing and enter- prising corporation was founded in 1844 by the gentlemen owning and conducting the Kalamazoo Telegraph, and for a number of years was known as the Kalamazoo Publishing Company. It 1898 it was merged in the present company, which was formed by Capt. A. D. Doubleday and his sons, Ward F. and Fred U. Doubleday, and since the death of their father, on November 20, 1903, the sons have controlled and managed the business. The company manufactures blank books, printers' supplies and a general line of fine stationery, and does an extensive business in county, city and bank work, its chief concern being to keep its out- put up to a high standard of excellence and meet all demands promptly and. in the spirit of the utmost business fairness and enterprise. The concern is one of the leading high-grade estab- lishments of its kind in this part of the country, and enjoys an excellent reputation throughout the trade, laying all of Michigan, Indiana and Wis- consin under tribute to its business and having a large trade as well in other states.
The real founder of the present house, Capt. Abner D. Doubleday, was a valiant soldier on the Union side in the Civil war, and after a military record which was highly creditable to him, be- came an honored citizen of Kalamazoo, where he and his estimable wife held an exalted place in the regard of the community, to which they were well entitled by their nobility of character and their general social qualities. Captain Doubleday was born in Otsego county, New York, on March 9, 1829, and was the son of Demas A. and Sally (Calkins) Doubleday. His grandfather was a Revolutionary patriot and, with five brothers, fought under Washington at Bunker Hill; and
his cousin, Gen. Abner Doubleday, served gal- lantly in our war with Mexico, and throughout the Civil war with distinction, firing the first gun on the Confederate forces at Fort Sumter, com- manding a division at the deluge of death at Antietam and taking the place of the lamented Reynolds at Gettysburg when that hero scaled his devotion to his country with his life. After receiving a common- school education Captain Doubleday began teach- ing school at the age of seventeen and was so employed for a period of five years. He then entered Oberlin College, Ohio, and after studying there some time, returned to New York and fol- lowed mercantile life for seven years, doing busi- ness in New York city. Failing health induced him to seek an outdoor life and he was a farmer until the beginning of the Civil war. At the be- ginning of that momentous conflict he assumed charge of his mother and sisters in addition to that of his own family, his brother, Ulysses F., entering the Union army as first lieutenant. By the death of his superior he was promoted captain and served in that capacity until his death on the field of Fredericksburg in 1863. After this event Abner disposed of his business interests and his farm, and, taking up the sword his brother had worn so valiantly, he also entered the Union army in Company L, Second New York Heavy Artillery. After serving six months as a private he was promoted for meritorious service to the rank of second lieutenant on June 10, 1864, at Cold Harbor, Va. During the continuous fight- ing at Petersburg, his superior officers being killed, he acted as captain and adjutant on the same day. On August 15, 1864, he was disabled by a sunstroke and sent to the field hospital, later being transferred by four successive moves to Washington, where the surgeons decided that he was no longer able to endure field service. He ac- cordingly resigned, but his resignation was not accepted until 1865. At the close of the war he came to Michigan and located on a farm of two hundred acres in Alamo township, this county, which his father had bought from the government and which he purchased of his father in 1853. He afterward sold this farm and bought a small one
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adjacent to Kalamazoo, which in 1883 he divided into town lots, forming Doubleday's addition to the city, which is now all built on and is one of the most attractive subdivisions of the town. The Captain was married on January I, 1857, to Miss Maria R. Casler, a native of Springfield, Otsego county, New York, and the daughter of John I. and Hannah (Simmons) Casier, the former a native of New York and the latter of Rhode Island. The father was a farmer and served in the war of 1812 in a New York regiment, being but eighteen years old and just married when he · entered the service. He died in his native state. He was one of the founders of the Republican party, voting for General Fremont, its first pres- idential candidate. His ancestry was German and that of his wife was Scotch-English. Captain Doubleday's father was a native of Connecticut who moved to New York in his young manhood and to Michigan in 1835, dying in this state about 1862. The Captain was a Baptist in church affiliation and independent in politics.
JEREMIAH P. WOODBURY.
In many parts of our country nature has been prodigal in her gifts of resources for the enter- prise of man through which they may have count- less and almost immeasurable benefits. Fertile fields, vast forests, great mineral wealth and mighty water ways wherewith to work up the raw material and transport the products to other places are bestowed with lavish hand. But whatever the bounty of our mother earth in these respects, she puts upon it the inevitable price of human industry, enterprise and skill to make them avail- able. No measure of her benefaction avails for usefulness until the man who can develop it and transform it into marketable produce is at hand. Kalamazoo county is one of the favored sections, having within its boundaries almost every form of material wealth and many channels of natural power to make it serviceable. And yet for ages it all lay dormant because there was nobody with the requisite ability and skill to develop it into well favored money-making results. There came to this region, however, in the course of time a
people full of the proper spirit and the needed capacity, and they transformed it into one of the most prolific and fruitful sections of our land, using with good judgment and forceful energy all its natural advantages, and subduing to their needs every obdurate condition. Among this peo- ple few if any exhibited more capacity or energy, or rendered the section more signal service than the late Jeremiah P. Woodbury, whose long and productive life in the community was a positive blessing to its citizens, aiding in the development and sustenance of almost every form of industrial and commercial activity. Mr. Woodbury was born at Charlton, Mass., on February 7, 1805. His parents, Caleb and Salina (King) Woodbury, were also natives of Massachusetts, in which the ancestors of both lived for many generations, the mother being a member of the renowned Dwight family of that state. The father was a merchant and a politician, or rather a man deeply interested in public affairs and gave his county good service in the state legislature of which he was several times an honored member. They had a family of ten children, all sons, nine of whom grew to maturity and two of them, Jeremiah and his brother Caleb, became citizens of Michigan. They were reared and educated in their native state, and there were thoroughly indoctrinated in the spirit of industry and thrift characteristic of the New England people They came to Mich- igan in 1836 and engaged in merchandising at Bellevue, Eaton county. The partnership lasted until 1847, and when it was then harmoniously dissolved Jeremiah moved to Kalamazoo and formed another with Jonathan Parsons in the dry- goods trade. Afterward he entered into partner- ship with Hon. Allen Potter in an extensive hard-
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