USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 43
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throughout his life he practiced the benign and peaceful tenets of that sect, securing the regard of all who knew him, and taking rank as one of the leading citizens of the township by his active ef- forts to promote its enduring welfare. The son was educated in the public schools of the town- ship and at Prairie Seminary, passing his sum- mers in useful labor on the farm and aiding with all his powers to make it what it is. The efforts thus early begun he has continued until now, and every year has shown substantial improvement in the character and value of the place. He was married i: 1872 to Miss Jean Thompson, a native of Portage county, Ohio. They have no children. Mr. Peake has never been an active partisan in political affairs, and has never sought public office of any kind. But his well known fitness and a determined demand from his fellow citizens obliged him to accept the position of township treasurer for one term of two years and that of highway commissioner on another occasion. He takes an active interest in the general advance- ment of the township, and in aid of its business interests he was a stockholder in the Richland Bank and one of its directors. His retro- spect of the region covers the whole period from the dawn of its civilization to its present advanced development, and many thrilling episodes of great interest. In bringing about the change he has borne his full share of toil and trial, and now finds that his labors have not been for naught.
NEHEMIAH CHASE.
One of the highly respected citizens of Kala- mazoo, who has for many years been actively engaged in the promotion of its industrial and commercial life, Nehemiah Chase, is a native of Washtenaw county, N. Y., born on February 18, 1833. His parents were David and Eliza (Leonard) Chase, also natives of the Empire state and members of the society of Friends. The father was a farmer and came alone to Michigan about the year 1830, leaving his family at their New York home. He purchased a tract of wild land near Ann Arbor on which he settled and went to work. In 1836 the rest of the family
came to this state and, joining in his efforts to clear the land and make it productive, they soon had a comfortable home in the wilderness and one full of promise for future fertility and increasing value. In 1852 they moved to Kalamazoo and the following year to Allegan county, where they had bought another farm. There the parents died. They had three sons and two daughters. Of these only Mr. Chase of this sketch and one of his sisters are living. He grew to maturity in this state and in its schools, primitive and of narrow scope in his day, received a limited education. He labored hard and diligently in the interest of his parents, clearing up and cultivating the farm, enduring patiently many hardships and privations incident to frontier life. In 1852 he moved to Kalamazoo and entered the employ of a firm man- ufacturing agricultural implements, remaining with the establishment two years as salesman in this state. In 1858 he started an enterprise of his own in the manufacture of fanning mills, milk safes and straw cutters, and the next year he came to Kalamazoo and built a small factory for the purpose. The business grew gradually into larger proportions, necessitating a corresponding in- crease in the factory and its equipment, and was continued until 1888, during a part of the time Dewing & Sons being in partnership with him. He was also interested with Messrs. Taylor & Henry in the manufacture of spring-tooth har- rows and steel goods, a line in which he continued some years. He is now interested in the Com- stock Manufacturing Company, makers of steam engines, he being president of the company. In other enterprises of great value to the community and vitally affecting its commercial welfare he has been very serviceable, being a director of the First National, the Kalamazoo National and the Home Savings banks. In 1890 Mr. Chase erected the Chase block on the corner of Rose and Main streets, which has a frontage of eighty-three feet by one hundred and thirty-three, five stories high, devoted to offices and business rooms. In Novem- ber, 1856, he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Baird, a native of Wayne county, N. Y., daughter of Josiah W. and Mary (Allen) Baird, natives of New York who came to Michigan in
NEHEMIAH CHASE.
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1844 and settled in Allegan county, where they both died. They were farmers. Mr. and Mrs. Chase have had nine children, six of whom are living : Almeda, wife of V. T. Barker, of Kala- mazoo; Jennie E., wife of E. E. Ford, now of Detroit ; Alice D., wife of E. F. Hawkins, of Cali- fornia ; James B., Edwin W. and Jay G., all of Kalamazoo, James B. and Jay G. being in busi- ness with their father. Mr. Chase is a Republi- can in politics, an Odd Fellow in fraternal life and he and his wife are Presbyterians in church membership.
DR. JOHN M. RANKIN.
This eminent physician and well known druggist of Richland, this county, is a native of the rich and progressive county of Franklin, Pa., where he was born on February 12, 1833, and has applied in his professional and mercantile ca- reer the lessons of thrift, industry and enterprise which he learned in the great hive of labor of his nativity. He is the son of James H. and Mar- garet (McCurdy) Rankin, who were also natives of Pennsylvania, and were life-long residents of that state. They had four sons and four daugh- ters, all now deceased but three of the sons and one daughter, the Doctor being the only one liv- ing in this state. His scholastic training was se- cured in the district schools and at Millnwood Academy. For a few years after leaving this in- stitution he was occupied in farming, but in 1855 began reading medicine and some time later en- tered Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. where he spent the winters of 1855 and 1856. In 1858 he moved to Illinois, and until 1863 he prac- ticed his profession in that state, when he re- turned to Pennsylvania. The winter of 1862-3 was passed by him at Rush Medical College in Chicago, and he was graduated from that insti- tution in the spring of 1863. From then until February. 1865, he practiced in Clarion county, Pa., and on the date last given he enlisted as asr sistant surgeon in the Eleventh Pennsylvania In- fantry. He was six months in the Civil war, with the Fifth Army Corps in Virginia, and was at the battles of Hatcher's Run and Five Forks and the
surrender at Appomattox. Soon after the close of the war he left Pennsylvania and returned to Arcola, Douglas county, Ill., where he remained until 1870, then moved to Plainwell, Mich., and there he was engaged in the drug trade until 1872. In that year he located at Richland, where he has since lived. actively practicing medicine until 1898 and carrying on a prosperous drug business during the last twenty years. In 1858 he was married in his native state to Miss Har- riet Sharp, who died in 1871, leaving three sons, Edmund, Charles and James. His second mar- riage occurred in 1873 and united him with Miss Susan Rankin, by whom he had one son, John M., who died in 1900, his mother having passed away in 1879. In 1881 the Doctor contracted a third marriage, his choice on this occasion being Miss Martha A. McClelland. They have two children, their sons William W. and Harry M. In political faith the Doctor is a Republican, and while not often an active party worker, has an abiding interest in the welfare of the organiza- tion to which he belongs. He served as presi- dent of the village three years and his adminis- tration of its affairs was generally and highly commended. His religious affiliation is with the Presbyterian church at Richland. He is a mem- ber of the Kalamazoo Academy of Medicine and of the State Medical Association. His active practice for so many years brought him into in- timate acquaintance with a great number of the people, and his skill and industry as a physician and elevated and genial character as a man won him their lasting regard.
GEORGE F. READ.
The great glory of our country, next to the political and religious freedom it has ordained and the equality of all men before the law it has established, is that it has opened the way to the aspirations of strong, penetrating and healthy men in the less noticeable walks of life, and brought the sunlight of genius to bear on the common ways --- has dignified the sphere as well as facilitated the operations of the useful arts- has hallowed and exalted the pathway of honest,
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unpretending industry. With its vast domain of farming lands, its boundless wealth of mineral deposits, and its enormous powers and materials for manufactures, it has revolutionized every sphere of active usefulness, and has made all the gigantic and far-reaching resources of mind, of genius and science practically and intimately sub- servient to agriculture, the mechanic arts, and all the once rude and simple processes of day-labor. Especially in the domain of agriculture have the mighty empires of the Mississippi valley and the farther West enlarged the operations, multiplied the opportunities and augmented the rewards of industry, energy and skill, raising the farmer to commanding independence and crowning him a very king in the social economy of the time. It was therefore no idle aspiration or even urgent necessity that generations ago started a conquer- ing army of millions westward over the unoccu- pied territory of the land basking idly beneath the firmament for ages, to become zealous tillers of the soil, braving all the dangers, daring all the difficulties, and cheerfully enduring all the priva- tions of a really hard and very trying experience. Among the volunteers in this great army were the late George F. Read, of Richland township, this county, and his parents, Rufus and Rhoda (Dean) Read, all natives of Vermont, the son being born near Rutland, that state, on October 24, 1820. The father was a minister and also a farmer. On his arrival in this county he bought a tract of land in Richland township on which he lived three years, clearing the greater part of it and breaking it up for cultivation. At the end of that period he moved to Ohio and died in Cincinnati in about 1862, his wife passing away here in 1871. The son was reared and educated in his native state and from the age of fourteen earned his own living working on farms. In about 1845 he became a resident of Kalamazoo county, travel- ing by team to Buffalo, by steamboat from there to Detroit, and again by team to his destination. He purchased one hundred and twenty acres of school land on section 21, Richland township, on which he built a frame dwelling and at once began the arduous work of clearing and breaking up the ground. He lived to get the whole of the
tract cleared and make a good farm of it, dying there in 1874. He was married at Richland, Kala- miazoo county, in 1853, to Miss Caroline Fisher, a native of the state of New York. Her parents were Humphrey and Elizabeth (Francisco) Fisher, the former born in 1784 and the latter in 1793. They moved to this county in 1845 and settled two miles west of Kalamazoo. Some time afterward they changed their residence to Barry county, where the mother died in 1851 and the father in 1873. Mr. and Mrs. Read had seven children, four sons and three daughters, of whom two of the sons and two of the daughters are living. Their mother is also living and makes her home at Richland. All the family belong to the Presbyterian church. The father was a promi- nent man in his township, and was held in high regard by its people for his sterling worth and his earnest and intelligent attention to all matters of local improvement. The old homestead is owned by his son, Edward G. Read, who was born on it on September 3. 1864, and grew to manhood amid its stirring activities in which he took an in- dustrious part as soon as he was able. He began his education in the common schools, continued it at the Richland high school and completed it at the Baptist College and Parson's Business Col- lege in Kalamazoo. He has had control of the farm since he was fourteen years old, and has managed it with vigor and success, showing al- ways a progressive spirit and an ardent deter- mination to improve it to the highest degree. On November 14, 1894, he was married to Miss Ruba Ann Chandler, a daughter of D. R. Chandler. They have three children, their sons George S., Edward C. and Howard. The parents are active in the public and social life of the township and have hosts of friends in every part of it.
ROBERT R. TELFER.
Inheriting from a long line of Scottish ances- try the indomitable courage and perseverance of the race, Robert R. Telfer, of Richland town- ship, one of the enterprising and progressive farmers of Kalamazoo county, has well main- tained in his career of industry and fruitfulness
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
the traditions of his family, and at the same time met in a manly and commendable way the claims of an elevated and elevating American citizen- ship. Although his parents, George and Elizabeth (Redpath) Telfer, were born, reared and married in Scotland, he is himself wholly a product of this county. He was born on the farm which is now his home on January 22, 1858, was educated in the common schools and at Prairie Seminary in his native township, began life as a tiller of its benignant soil, and has passed the whole of his life so far in aiding to build up and improve its agricultural industry and the elements of wealth and comfort incident thereto. His parents emi- grated to this country in 1855, and made their early home in this country in Allegan county, this state. Not long afterward they moved to this county and settled on a tract of forty acres of wild land in Richland township, which is a part of the farm on which their son Robert now lives. The father followed railroading in his native land, but, although that industry was of magnitude in this country at the time of his arrival, and surpassing in the rapidity of its growth its development in every other land, he turned to the more inviting field of agriculture as the source of expanding his GEORGE A. BARBER. fortunes, and gave his energies and his pro- nounced capacity to the improvement of whatever Well fixed on his excellent farm of three hun- dred and sixteen acres in Richland township, this county, which is in a high state of productiveness and supplied with all the essentials and many of the luxuries of a comfortable home, all being the result of his energy, thrift and capacity, George A. Barber might laugh a siege of adversities to scorn. He was born in Erie county, Pa., on November 7, 1839, the son of Alpheus and Betsey (Dennis) Barber, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of Maine. . When he was seven years old the family moved to this county, journeying overland by teams from their Pennsylvania home and stopping a year in Ohio on the way. After their arrival in Kalamazoo he could get of the wilderness into well developed and productive farming land. In the course of time he owned, in company with his sons, five hundred and fifty acres, and all of it responded graciously to his commands and came forth un- der his skillful hand and theirs clad in the vest- ments of comeliness and abundance, smiling on them all with ready acquiescence to service and spreading their pathway with flowers and their table with plenty. The mother did not live to see the desired result of their venture in the new world fully realized, but died in the midst of their early struggles in 1864. The father survived her thirty-six years, passing away on May 22, 1900. Two years after her death, in 1866, he ' county they lived two years in Prairie Ronde married a second wife, Miss Eliza Correll. The township, then moved to Richland township. A number of years afterward the parents took up their residence in Barry county, where both died at advanced ages. They had nine children, of five children born to him were all of the first marriage and four of them are living, all resi- dents of this county. They are John, of Comstock
township; Robert R., the immediate subject of this article; James, also of Richland township; and Ellen, wife of Edward DeWolf, of Kalama- zoo. The father was a leading member of the Presbyterian church. In politics he was a firm and loyal Republican, and as such filled a number of local offices. After completing his three-years course at Prairie Seminary, Robert Telfer turned his attention to farming, for which he had been well trained in his boyhood and youth, and to this vocation he has adhered steadfastly ever since, giving but little attention to public affairs out- side of school offices, but rendering efficient ser- vice to the common weal in these for many years, supporting, however, the Republican party in all state and national contests. He was married in 1866 to Miss Mary E. Abbott, a native of Lan- sing, Mich., whose father, after an honorable career as a professor in Albion College, entered the Christian ministry and served as such many years. Mr. and Mrs. Telfer have had two children, but only one of them is living, their son Harry R. The father was also for years a trustee and elder in his church.
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whom their sons George A. and Philip are living. George grew to manhood amid the pioneer scenes of the locality of his present home and performed his share of the labor of redeeming the homestead from the wilderness and transforming it to fer- tility and beauty. It was in the dawn of the civilization of the region when he came, and the habitations of the white man were few and it was far between them, while wild beasts and Indians were plentiful and for the most part cither ac- tively or passively hostile to the new comers, the former looking upon everything available as law- ful prey, and the latter hearing from the ax of the woodsman the knell of their dying race. School facilities were few and meager, and the boys and girls of the day were dependent on the tuitions of nature and experience in large meas- ure for their training in mind and character. The school was rugged and the discipline 'stern, but it developed toughness and flexibility of fiber, and gave a force and resourcefulness not often the product of conditions of abundance wherein everything is ready to the hand of the learner. Mr. Barber had by nature an inquiring mind and even through the difficulties of his situation he found a means of gratifying its cravings in gen- eral and extended reading, which has made him an unusually wise and well informed man. On April 21, 1862, he was married to Miss Anna Peake, the daughter of Ira and Sarah ( Miller) Peake, the father born in Vermont and the mother in Connecticut. They were among the early set- tlers in the township and prominent in all phases of its civil and social life in their day. Mrs. Bar- ber was in her third year when the family moved to Michigan, in 1845, and when she was seven- teen she lost her mother by death, the father dy- ing at Richland village in 1887. He was twice married and the father of seven children, Oliver. Ira, Francis and Mary surviving him, and all living now but Francis and Mrs. Barber, who died October 30, 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Barber also have had seven children, of whom five are living, Oliver L., of Richland; Francis, of De- troit ; Carrie, living at home and teaching school at Hastings; Edith, the widow of F. J. Adams, and Bertha. Politically Mr. Barber is a stanch
and active Republican, zealous in the service and high in the councils of his party. He liberally supports the Presbyterian church, of which his wife was a prominent member, but at the same time gives freely to other denominations. Fra- ternally he belongs to the Odd Fellows lodge at Richland, and has long been active in promoting its best interests. He is progressive and public- spirited, well known and generally esteemed.
SILAS HUBBARD.
This hardy frontiersman, who ventured into the wilds of Michigan in 1836, taking his life in his hands because the whole country was then yet infested with the wild beasts and wilder men of the forest and both they and nature herself seemed armed against the advancing footsteps of civilization, and who lived to see the section in which he settled transformed into a garden of fertility abounding in all the grateful products of cultivated life and crowned with marts of com- merce and manufactures, was born at Gorton, Tompkins county, N. Y., on July 29, 1812, and was the son of Jonathan and Huldah ( Andrews) Hubbard, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of Connecticut. The mother died on the home farm in Tompkins county, N. Y., in 1830, and six years later the father moved to the village of Cortland, in the adjoining county of the same name, where he died at the age of eighty years. About the same time his son Silas, then twenty-four years old, started out in life for him- self, and coming to Michigan, located in Washte- naw county, where he lived two years. In May, 1838, he moved to Kalamazoo, then a hamlet of small population and in the midst of a territory still abounding in Indians. He passed the ensu- ing winter as teacher of the village school, and the next year started an enterprise in handling real estate, which he continued until 1870. Through his efforts the Kalamazoo Paper Com- pany was organized in 1868, and from then until his death, on September 9, 1894, he was con- nected with it and vitally interested in its wel- fare. He became an extensive property holder, owning several valuable farms, houses and lots
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in Kalamazoo, and a large block of stock in the paper mill at Otsego in addition to his interests in the Kalamazoo paper mill. In October, 1854, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Loomis, of Hudson, Mich., the daughter of Dan- iel and Caroline (Seelye) Loomis, and that union was blessed with three daughters, Caroline I., now the wife of Carl G. Kleinstueck; Mary H., the deceased wife of H. B. Hoyt, both of Kala- mazoo, and Frances I., who was the wife of R. D. Kuhn, of Cleveland, Ohio, and died on Febru- ary I, 1892. Mr. Hubbard assisted in the found- ing of the Republican party "Under the Oaks" at Jackson, this state, in 1854, whose fiftieth anni- versary was recently (1904) celebrated with im- posing ceremonies, and he steadfastly adhered to the party to the end of his life. He rendered good service to the county as supervisor and as- sessor and in other positions of honor and re- sponsibility from time to time, but was never an office seeker. He also aided in founding the People's church. His wife died in 1899, having survived him five years.
CARL G. KLEINSTUECK, the son-in-law of Mr. Hubbard, interested in the manufacture of peat bricks for fuel, was the first man to adapt it to domestic use in Michigan. He is a native of Saxony, was educated there and passed officer's examination in the army in that country. He first visited the United States in 1874, and six years later came here to live, locating at Kalamazoo. He had experience in the use of peat for fuel in his native land, 'and soon after his arrival in Mich- igan was impressed with the abundance of the material in this section and began to experiment in preparing it for use. He discovered that all the lands devoted to growing celery were in fact peat bogs, and that the peat was superior to that of foreign countries, and he began at once ac- quiring the ownership of such land, of which he now has one thousand acres in this and adjoin- ing counties. In 1885 he began using this form of fuel in his own home and business, and in 1903 he built a factory for its extensive manufacture at Gun Marsh, Allegan county. The equipment is of the German pattern and made known as the Dolberg Peat Machine, and of these he has
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enough in his factory to turn out eighty thousand bricks a day, each six inches long, three inches wide and two inches thick. After being dried in the sun the bricks are ready for fuel. As their manufacture is not costly, and the raw material is practically inexhaustible in this region, he hopes to be soon supplying a large demand at a cost of three dollars a ton. In 1891 he visited the peat-using countries of the old world and made a thorough study of the subject. This is a new industry in this country and promises great re- sults to its people and its other industries in cheapening fuel and increasing the supply. Mr. Kleinstueck is also connected with other institu- tions in manufacturing, being a director of the Kalamazoo Paper Company, the Comstock Manu- facturing Company and others. He is a Repub- lican in politics but never seeks or desires public office. He is a member of the German Working- men's Society and the German and Austrian Peat Societies, and is organizing a society of the latter class in this country. He was married on May 3, 1883, to Miss Caroline I. Hubbard, and they have four children, their son, C. Hubbard, and their daughters, Irene M., Frieda and Pauline. While an enthusiast over his new industry, Mr. Kleinstueck applies to its development and the discussion of its merits the wisdom and intelli- gence gained by a thorough examination of its possibilities and a full knowledge of all its phases. His undertaking is watched with interest by the coal producers and men engaged in every line of industrial production, as well as by the people generally who are interested in cheap and con- venient fuel for domestic and other purposes.
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