USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 40
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including the thirty-second degree of the Scottish rite, the Knights Templar and the Mystic Shrine. He has served as worshipful master of the local blue lodge, No. 87, and high priest of Kalama- zoo Chapter. No. 13. In the public affairs of the community he is active and serviceable as a good citizen, but has never been an earnest partisan in politics. Throughout the city he is highly re- spected for his genuine worth and the correctness and uprightness of his life.
THE P. L. ABBEY COMPANY.
This company, which is engaged in the manu- facture of medicines on a large scale and is one of the widely known and representative industries of Kalamazoo, is a private corporation formed by Perley 1. Abbey in 1887. It started business in a small way with the manufacture of preparations of celery and was first known as the Celery Med- icine Company, bearing that name until 1897. when it was transformed into the P. L. Abbey Co. It manufactures celery preparations, and a general line of pharmaceutical preparations, which have a high reputation in the medical world and the trade, and are sold all over the country. Mr. Abbey, the founder of the company, was born at White Pigeon, Mich., on July 2. 1865, and is the son of Lewis C. and Nellie (Loring) Abbey. The father was for many years a leading pho- tographer and is now a highly respected citizen of Kalamazoo. The son was nine years old when he became a resident of the city, and he received his education here. He began business as a drug clerk for Brown & Berge, with whom he remained three years, then passed a number of years in the employ of J. A. Hoedamaker in the same capacity. In 1886 he began business for himself as a manu- facturing pharmacist, and he has been successful from the start. He has also taken an active and serviceable interest in the Michigan National Guard, in which he is now a colonel, having be- come a member of the Kalamazoo Light Guards more than sixteen years ago. He went to the Spanish-American war as major in his regiment, and was with his command at Tampa. In 1903 he was elected colonel of the regiment, a position
in which he has rendered excellent service to the organization. Fraternally he belongs to the Ma- sonic order through lodge, charter and com- mandery, and also to the Knights of Pythias and the order of Elks. In 1898 he united in marriage with Miss Maude Young, of Kalamazoo. Both are members of St. Luke's church, and are highly appreciated members of the best social circles in the city. Their home is a center of refined and gracious hospitality, where their hosts of friends always find intelligent and profitable entertain- ment.
CALVIN FORBES.
Successful and prominent in business, stand- ing high in the social life of the city and county, prominent as a promoter of the city's best inter- ests, and having by his enterprise and breadth of view added greatly to the wealth, beauty and commercial importance of the place, Calvin Forbes, one of the oldest and most extensive real- estate dealers in Kalamazoo, is wholly a product of the community in which he lives, and has given his best energies to its service. He was born in this township on April 22, 1847, was educated in its common and high schools, prepared himself for business at one of its commercial colleges, and started and has continued his business career among its people. His parents, James P. and Amanda E. (Bennett) Forbes, were born, re- spectively, in Connecticut and New York. The father was a contractor and builder who became a resident of Kalamazoo county in 1837, coming hither with ox teams from Detroit. He bought a farm on Grand Prairie and gave due attention to improving and cultivating it for fourteen years, but spent the greater part of his time working at his trade. He moved to Kalamazoo in 1851, and passed several years there, then returned to his farm, on which he lived during the next twelve. He then once more located in the city in 1864, and resided there continuously until recently, when he moved to Lawton, where he died in April, 1905. The son reached manhood on the farm and received his education in the public schools, at- tending the common schools until he was ready for the high school, then taking a course there.
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Afterward he pursued a course of business train- ing at Parson's Business College in the city. He learned the trade of a carpenter and followed it for a number of years. Soon after reaching his legal majority he began contracting and building, which he continued for years, buying his lumber and other supplies in carload lots. His father joined him in the business after a time and re- mained in association with him five years. The son then turned his attention to the manufacture of fork and broom handles, and other products of wood. In this enterprise he moved to Petoskey and carried on a flourishing business in the manu- facture of these commodities and general wooden- ware for a period of four years, when the factory was destroyed by fire, and he returned to Kalama- zoo and again engaged in buying and improving city lots, opening in his operations Douglas ave- nue, Forbes street west of that thoroughfare, Denner street, Hilbert street and Prospect Place. He also built a large terrace on Pine street, and in addition has handled many tracts which were plotted for building purposes. He now has charge of Pleasant View Park, which is a Forbes addi- tion to the city. His improvements have been made mainly at the west end of the city, and there he has put up a great many residences and other buildings. Some years ago he organized the Kalamazoo Casket Company, which was started as a private firm but was afterward changed into a stock company. A few years later he sold his stock in the company and not long afterward it went out of business. Among the most imposing and substantial business blocks he has added to the city is the Lawrence & Chapin building, on North Rose street. While support- ing with loyalty the principles of the Republican party, Mr. Forbes has never been active in polit- ical affairs. He was married in Kalamazoo, in 1868, to Miss Bertha Hilbert, and they have had seven children, all of whom are. now deceased except three daughters. All the members of the family are accomplished musicians and at one time they traveled extensively giving concerts and other musical entertainments in this state, Indiana and Ohio, in which they won renown and wide popularity. Mr. Forbes affiliates in fraternal rela-
tions with the United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of America. He was president of the National Union four terms.
HON. ALFRED J. MILLS.
Hon. Alfred J. Mills, of the firm of Osborn & Mills, lawyers, of Kalamazoo, and former judge of the circuit court of this circuit, is a native of Bedfordshire, England. His parents, Alfred and Caroline (Webster) Mills, also were natives of England, where they passed their lives. The father was a dry-goods merchant. The Judge was educated in private schools, at King Edward VI's Grammar School and at Cambridge, where i he studied law. He came to this continent in 1870, when he was under eighteen years of age, and after spending a few weeks in Canada moved to Kalamazoo. Here he soon found employment in the law offices of Arthur Brown, under whose direction he continued his legal studies and was admitted to the bar in 1874. In the following January he went to Paw Paw and formed a part- nership with Judge Richards, the firm name being Richards & Mills, which lasted until he was elected probate judge of Van Buren county in 1876. At the end of his term of four years he was renominated for that office by acclamation, but declined to accept the nomination. In 1881 he was elected circuit judge and two years later again took up his residence at Kalamazoo. He completed his six-years term on the bench of the circuit court and declined to be a candidate for a second term. In 1888 he formed a partnership with James W. Osborn and the firm of Osborn & Mills is still actively engaged in business, and has a large practice. In addition to the offices he has held in the line of his profession, the Judge served six years as a member of the school board, during four of which he was president. He has been eleven years a trustee of the asylum and four of them president of the board. He was re- appointed for a term of six years by Gov. Warner and re-served as president of the board. He was mayor of Kalamazoo two terms and was for several years a trustee of the Michigan Female Seminary. While his practice occupies the most
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of his time, he is still connected with the business interests of the city in a prominent way, being a director of the C. H. Dutton Company and the Puritan Corset Company. He has for several years been general attorney for the Michigan Traction Company. In 1874 he was married to Miss Florence G. Balch, a native of this state. They have four children, three daughters and one son. Fraternally the head of the house is a Master Mason, a Knight Templar, an Elk and a Knight of Pythias. Although born and reared in a for- eign land, Judge Mills is thoroughly conversant with and devoted to American institutions. He is a Republican in politics and gives active and effective support to the principles and candidates of his party.
SMITH SOUTHERLAND.
A pioneer of this county and reared to the age of seventeen in the interior of New York state where the conditions of life were at the time of his birth not far removed from what he found in Michigan when he came here, Smith Souther- land has seen frontier life in two great states now teeming with the industries and the products of high development and continued progress, and has witnessed and aided in bringing about the changes in each. He was born in Broome county, N. Y., on December 14, 1820, the son of Lot and Lydia (Bliss) Southerland, who were also na- tive in the Empire state. The father was a farmer and busily followed the business in his native state until 1837, when he moved his family to Michigan, making the long and trying trip with teams by way of Detroit, consuming many weary weeks in the journey and enduring almost insuf- ferable hardships on the way, often being obliged to cut his own road through the woods or build it over swamps, but persevering steadily until he reached his desired goal, where he found still greater difficulties to overcome before substantial comfort was attainable. They reached this county in the spring of the year and at once rented a tract of land on Genesee Prairie which they farmed for a number of years. The father then purchased land near Benton Harbor, on which he passed the
remainder of his life. The mother died on Gene- see Prairie, leaving five sons and three daughters, three of whom are living, Smith and one of his brothers and one sister. Smith Southerland was seventeen years of age when the family came to this state, and had received a limited education in the common schools of his former home. He made a vigorous hand from the time of his ar- rival in the work of the farm, arduous and unre- munerative as it often was on new ground, and in addition frequently worked on other farms, earn- ing the princely revenue of ten to fourteen dollars a month. In 1848 he bought the land on which he now lives in section 30, Kalamazoo township, of which he has made a model farm. When he settled on this land it abounded in the wild growth of centuries, and was still the home of the Indian and the savage beast. Game was plentiful and. unused to man's ravages in its ranks, was ignorantly daring in its approaches to the dwell- ings of the dawning civilization of the region. In the years in which he purchased his farm he was married to Miss Jeannettie D. Gibbs, a daughter of John and Miranda ( Kinne) Gibbs, the former a native of Otsego county, N. Y., and the latter of Braintrem, Pa., who became residents of Kala- mazoo township in 1832. The father belonged to a family of pioneers, his grandfather having been an early settler in Cherry Valley, N. Y., where at the time of the massacre on November TI, 1778, he saw his wife killed and scalped by the Indians under the half-breed Brant: Mr. Gibbs remained on his father's farm until he reached manhood. He learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner and also that of a millwright and worked at them until old age obliged him to discontinue. In October, 1832, in company with his brothers, Isaac and Chester, he came to this county, and few men have done more toward its development and progress then he. His services as a mechanic were in continual requisition and were always fruitful of good results. He raised the third frame house built in Kalamazoo, and built the first three barns on Grand. Genesee and Dry prairies. He also aided in building many of the early mills in the county, being always suc- cessful in making a dam stand when others had
SMITH H. SOUTHERLAND.
MRS. SMITH SOUTHERLAND.
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
failed, and when the railroad reached Kalamazoo he assisted in building the first bridge over the Kalamazoo river In 1850 he fitted out a team of horses and a wagon with a large supply of pro- visions and went to California. The party was months on the way and suffered many hardships. They passed three years in the new Eldorado engaged in mining and returned home by water. In 1859, still imbued with the spirit of the pio- neer and the love of adventure, accompanied by his second son, John, he visited Colorado; and he made another visit to that state in 1860 in company with his son Willard. In 1861 he re- turned to his home and there he remained to the end of his life. When he first came to Kalama- zoo with his family, they stopped with John Has- call. Mr. Gibbs selected a building site, and then hung his hat on a bush to show his wife where her future home was to be. In building some of the first saw mills in the county he was obliged to carry on his back the iron used in them. In poli- tics he was always a Democrat, but never an ac- tive partisan. On June 29, 1824, he was married to Miss Miranda Kinne; they had thirteen chil- dren, nine of whom were born in Kalamazoo. Of the thirteen, four sons and four daughters are living. Mr. and Mrs. Southerland have had three children, two of whom are living, Lydia M., wife of D. C. Williams, living on the home farm, and John S., a resident of Benton Harbor. Their mother died in 1885. Mr. Southerland is now one of the oldest citizens of the county, and one of the few of its earliest settlers left to tell the story of its infant days ; and he is held in general veneration as a patriarch.
HON. JOHN W. ADAMS.
From the time of his admission to practice in 1889 Judge John W. Adams, of Kalamazoo, has devoted himself exclusively to his profession, and the rewards of his devotion at his chosen shrine have been commensurate with the ardor of his worship. He has risen to the head of his profes- sion, and although not desirous of public office for itself, and seeking no advancement in public life as a politician, he has been found worthy of
choice by his fellow citizens to places within the range of his calling and has accepted them mainly because they were. He is a native of Clinton county, Pa., born at Lockhaven on November 30, 1859, and the son of Samuel and Eliza (Miller) Adams, also native of that state. The father was a prominent physician and surgeon, a graduate of the celebrated Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, and an active practitioner of his pro- fession in his native state until 1869. He then removed to Three Rivers, Mich., where he re- mained ten years, and in 1879 changed his resi- dence to Belmont, Iowa. There he rose to dis- tinction as a medical man and remained until his death in 1894. His widow is still living. They were the parents of one son and three daughters, all now dead but the Judge and his one sister who lives in Iowa. The paternal grandfather, Peter Adams, was a farmer in Pennsylvania, where he was born, living a useful life, and at a good old age was laid to rest in his natal soil. The Judge began his education in the public schools of this state, being graduated at the high school in Three Rivers in 1879, after which he entered Union College at Schenectady, N. Y., from which he was graduated in the scientific course in 1883. While in college the Judge was, on account of his high standing, one of ten allowed to compete for the Blatchford oratorical prize, which he won, as he also did the Allen essay prize. He was a member of the Greek- letter society, Eta Theta Ti. Upon the completion of his collegiate training he joined his father in Iowa and spent some time farming. In 1884 he was appointed postmaster at Belmond, and at the end of his term in 1887 moved to Kalamazoo and began the study of law under the direction of Dallis Boudeman, Esq., being admitted to the bar in 1889. The next year he formed a partnership for the practice with his preceptor, Mr. Boude- man, with whom he remained until his election to the circuit judgeship, the position which he is now filling with so much capability and such satis- faction to the people of the circuit generally. In 1896 he was elected prosecuting attorney for a term of two years. In 1899, by a large majority of the electors in the circuit he was elevated to the
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office of circuit judge, and is now occupying that highly honorable and important position, having been, in November, 1904, re-elected to that posi- tion for the term of six years. The life of a cir- cuit judge is in the main only a continuous per- formance of important duties, without the spec- tacular and striking features of official life often found in other posts of prominence ; and it is per- haps one of the best proofs of his worth and merit that he introduces no such features into his offi- cial round himself. This has been the course of Judge Adams. Faithfully meeting the require- ments of his daily routine, with continuous dili- gence and always with a high sense of his re- sponsibility, he has rendered signal service to his community and the personal and material interests of the people therein, and has won the guerdon of his ability and fidelity in their lasting esteem, regard and approval. He was married in 1885 to Miss Laura E. Wilcox, a native of Three Rivers, who bore him one child, their son Edward W. Adams. The mother died in July, 1888, and in June, 1893. the Judge celebrated a second mar- riage in which he was united with Miss Anna Humphrey, who was born in Canada. The fruit of this union also was one son. John H. Adams. In political faith Judge Adams has been a life-long Democrat and a firm believer in the principles of his party, which he has ardently supported on all occasions. At the same time he is enough of a wise and broad-minded citizen to aid in the growth and improvement of his home city and county by actively endorsing and helping along every commendable project in which the enduring welfare of their people is involved without regard to party considerations. In the fraternal life of the community he has for many years taken an earnest interest as a Knight of Pythias and a Freemason through the symbolic, capitular, cryp- tic and chivalric degrees.
DELEVAN ARNOLD.
This capable and energetic business man and most worthy citizen of Kalamazoo, who has done much to build up and enlarge the patronage of the Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company of Kala-
mazoo county, of which he has been secretary and treasurer during the last four years, was born in this county on January 25, 1839, the son of Hiram and Betsey ( Massey) Arnold, natives of Jeffer- son county, N. Y., where they were married in 1831. The father was a merchant's clerk for some years in his native state, and afterwards a merchant there himself. In 1837 the family moved to Michigan and located at Schoolcraft for a year, changing their residence to Kalamazoo in 1838, the father coming to this country to dis- pose of a damaged stock of goods which he had for sale. Soon afterward he associated himself in business with Isaac Moffet as a member of the firm of Moffet & Arnold, which lasted a number of years. Then Prentice Cobb became a member of the firm and the name was changed to I. Mof- fet & Company. These gentlemen were the first cash wheat buyers in the city or county, and shipped their grain to Buffalo, N. Y., by way of St. Joseph. They also operated a large distillery on North Burdick street. When Mr. Moffet re- tired from the firm after a few years of active business it became Arnold & Cobb, and so con- tinted until 1859. when Mr. Arnold retired and turned his attention to farming and keeping a private banking house for a few years. He con- tinued to farm until his death, in 1892, at the age of eighty-four years. He was a Democrat polit- ically but not an active partisan. His wife died in 1882, at the age of seventy-one. They were the parents of four sons and four daughters. all now deceased but the subject of this memoir and three of his sisters. The parents were members of St. Luke's church. The Arnold family originally settled in colonial times in Rhode Island, but the grandfather of Mr. Arnold died in St. Jo- seph county, this state. Delevan Arnold was reared in this county and received his education here and at the Jefferson County (N. Y.) Institute. He remained on the home farm with his parents until 1861, when he enlisted in the Union army for the Civil war as a member of Company I. First Michigan Cavalry. His command was attached to the Army of the Potomac and saw much of the active serv- ice in which that great fighting organization par-
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ticipated. Mr. Arnold took part in the battle of Winchester and the rest of the Shenandoah Valley campaigns. He was wounded in front of Wash- ington in 1863, and at Cedar Mountain had a horse shot under him, which fell on him, injuring him seriously. In 1864 he was promoted second lieutenant of the Ninth Cavalry, but was unable to accept the position because of the state of his health which disabled him for further active serv- ice. After leaving the army he worked two years as a bookkeeper in Detroit, then returned to Kala- mazoo, where he remained until 1869. In that year he married Miss Ida W. White, a native of New York, and thereafter he was engaged in fruit culture until 1891. Then he once more be- came a resident of Kalamazoo, which has since been his home. During the next ten years he was engaged in the implement trade as a bookkeeper, and in 1900 was elected secretary and treasurer of the Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company of Kalamazoo County, a post in which he is still rendering good and faithful service. This com- pany was organized in 1863 with John Milham as president and Moses F. Kingsley as secretary and treasurer. Mr. Kingsley was the organizer of the company and also of the Citizens' Mutual In- surance Company. The Farmers' has prospered steadily and now has 3,100 members and $6,368,000 of risks in this county alone, its aver- age gain in membership being nearly one hundred a year. The officers of the company at this time (1904) are : W. F. Montague, president ; Delevan Arnold, secretary and treasurer; and with these, Malachi Cox, David R. Chandler and W. W. Morrison, directors. It is managed with vigor and success and has a firm hold on the confidence and regard of the people. Mr. Arnold was a Democrat in politics until 1896. Since then he has been a Republican, and has from time to time taken an active and serviceable part in the cam- paigns. He was at one time his party's candidate for the office of county clerk. Fraternally he belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic and has filled all the offices in his post. He was also secretary of the Soldiers' Relief Committee for a number of years. No man in the county is better known or more highly esteemed.
GEORGE W. HARRINGTON.
The late George W. Harrington, one of the pioneer undertakers of Kalamazoo, had an inter- esting and eventful career in the military service of the United States and in his person bore many marks of its burdens and hardships. He was born at Waterloo, N. Y., in 1836, the son of Samuel Harrington, also native of New York. The father was a carpenter and leading builder, erecting many of the best buildings at Waterloo and in the surrounding country. He died at Waterloo, leaving two sons and three daughters, all now deceased. His son George grew to manhood in his native town and received his education there. There also he learned the trade of a cabinetmaker, which he worked at in company with his father. In his young manhood he enlisted in the United States army and for a time served as a recruiting officer in the state of New York. Later he crossed the plains in the command of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston and took part in the Mormon war and the Indian wars of the period. In fighting Indians he received numerous arrow wounds and suffered great pain and privation at times. After the close of those campaigns he remained in the military service and when the Civil war began became a member of Troop E, Second United States Cav- alry. He was in the thick of the conflict almost from the beginning and was several times badly wounded. At Malvern Hill he was shot through the mouth and was also taken prisoner. being con- fined to Libby prison, from which he escaped with a number of other prisoners. At Gettysburg he was shot through the left lung and was left as dead. He lay in the trenches two days there and was finally rescued by Sisters of Mercy who nursed him back to health. After the war he traveled some years for a commercial house and afterward sold caskets. In 1874 he came to live at Kalamazoo, and for a short time was in busi- ness as an undertaker in partnership with Mr. Olmstead and also with Mr. Cornell. Disposing of his interest in this business, he again became a commercial traveler and followed that line of work until 1894, when he once more became a resident of Kalamazoo and engaged in undertaking in
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