USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 48
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battles, among them those at Buzzard Roost and the siege of Atlanta. In the fall of 1864 he was made first lieutenant of Company A, and he served as such until his discharge in the fall of 1865. Returning to his Michigan home, he oper- ated the farm for a year and then engaged in contracting at Monroe until 1869. That year was passed at Constance, and the next he moved to Kalamazoo and began building fences along the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad under contract, continuing in this occupation two years and building most of the fencing along the line of the road between White Pigeon and Grand Rapids. During the next eight years he was a member of the police force of Kalamazoo. In 1887 he started a furniture business, which he conducted until 1903, retiring from it in July of that year. Always being active and serviceable in public local affairs, he was elected in 1900 alderman from the first ward of the city, and in that position won general commendation for his prudence and fidelity to the interests of the mu- nicipality. On June 10, 1866, he united in mar- riage with Miss Margaret McGovern, a native of Lenawee county, this state, where her parents were early settlers. Mr. and Mrs. Lamb have four daughters, three of whom are Sisters of Nazareth Academy. Mr. Lamb is a faithful Democrat in political affiliation, but, although he has served in the city council, he has never been desirous of public office. He and his family be- long to the Catholic church.
MINER C. TAFT.
This accomplished professional man and prominent citizen of Kalamazoo, who has been actively connected with works of improvement in various lines of construction from his early manhood, and who is now the city engineer of Kalamazoo, was born in Wood county, Ohio, on July 19, 1862. The Taft family came to Massa- chusetts in 1670, the founder of the family in this country being Robert Taft, a carpenter by trade. He entered a large tract of wild land near Mendon, Mass., but they had trouble with the Indians and were driven from their land.
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Robert Taft was a Scotch Puritan who came to this country to escape persecution. He was a man of some prominence and held local town office. During the Revolutionary period two of his great-grandchildren, Aaron and Henry, emi- grated to Vermont and from Henry the subject of this sketch is descended. From Aaron is de- scended Governor (now secretary of state) Taft. The subject's grandfather. Amos Taft, came to Fulton county, Ohio, in 1844, and there followed farming. In his last years he removed to Iowa, where he died, but is buried in Ohio. The Cole family, from which sprang the subject's mother, are direct descendants of Stephen Hopkins and Elder William Brewster, who came to Massa- chusetts on the "Mayflower" and were leaders in the Plymouth Rock colony. Great-great- grandfather Cole served in the Revolutionary war and Daniel Cole in the war of 1812. Miner C. Taft's parents, Rev. Howard B. and Harriet C. (Cole) Taft, were natives, respectively, of New York state and Ohio. The father was a Baptist minister, and first came to Kalamazoo from his Ohio home as a student at the college. being graduated from the collegiate department in 1859, and from the theological department in 1861. He then preached in Ohio two years, and in the winter of 1864-5 again came to this state and located at Salem, Washtenaw county, for a time, after which he was stationed at different places during many years of continuous service in the ministry. He is now living retired in Lenawee county, and has been a trustee of the college four years. The mother died when her son was but five years old. He was reared and educated in Michigan, being graduated from Kalamazoo College in 1885 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Soon afterward he entered the office of the city engineer, and after a service of some years there became a student at the Uni- versity of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1889. Some time was next passed in Ohio and Illinois on canal, railroad and sewer con- struction work in connection with George S. Pierson, M. Am. Soc. C. E. In 1891 Mr. Taft returned to Kalamazoo and became assistant city engineer, the next year being appointed city
engineer, an office he held at that time six years. When he retired from this office he engaged in railroad construction work, building the road to Pavilion. He also served at times as clerk and at times as assistant city engineer, and did other general construction work in different parts of the state. In 1903 he was again appointed city en- gineer and he is still filling the office with pro- nounced satisfaction to the people, benefit to the city and credit to himself. During his tenure of the office many of the public improvements of the more important character have been made, such as the heavy grading and paving, the sewer- age improvements and similar work of magni- tude. In 1892 he was united in marriage with Miss Mary J. Hogg, a native of Scotland. They have three children living, all daughters. Mr. Taft is a member of the Michigan Engineering Society, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Baptist church, being a trustee of the last. He has always taken an active, earnest and in- telligent interest in the welfare of the city, and in his daily walk and demeanor has ever shown the best attributes of an elevated American citi- zenship.
JAMES TALLMAN.
James Tallman, an carly settler of Alamo township, was born in Geneva, Ontario county, N. Y., in 1796. His father, Henry Tallman, born in 1754. was for many years a prosperous farmer in the state of New York. In 1837 James Tall- man, with his family, became a resident of Washtenaw county, Mich., and two years later located in Alamo, where he bought of Mr. God- fry five hundred and sixty acres of wild land, on sections 20 and 21, an unbroken wilderness with no road leading to it. The family, consisting of Mrs. Elizabeth (Veddar) Tallman. a native of New York, and six children, two daughters and four sons, came from Detroit with Mr. Tallman in wagons containing their household goods also. They found hospitable shelter in the home of Daniel Ball, one of the few residents of the town- ship. In two weeks a comparatively comfortable cabin was erected, they taking immediate posses- sion. About two years later a school house was
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built at Alamo Center, where the children at- tended school a few months each year, the sons working with and for their father until they were of age. Mr. Tallman was a Whig and later a Republican, he with his wife being members of the Presbyterian church for many years. Mrs. Tallman died in 1863 and five years later Mr. Tallman married Mrs. Martha Whipple, of Grand Rapids, Mich., who survived him, his death occurring in 1874.
Esther, the older daughter, married George Kendall, of Vermont, settling in Grand Rapids, Mich., in the early '50s, where they lived to a good old age. Agness, referred to elsewhere in this history as the wife of Charles W. Barber, spent a long and useful life on the farm adjoining her father's homestead on the east. The sons, John Veddar, Easton and Henry A., owned and occupied the three farms adjoining the home- stead on the west, making of them, by thrift and industry, comfortable and pleasant homes. John V. Tallman, oldest son of James Tallman, born February 12, 1824, came to Alamo, when fifteen years old. When twenty-three years of age he was married to Miss Charlotte, daughter of George and Sarah (Spratt) Piper, natives of England. Six children were born to them, Sarah, who died in 1879, Horace Jay, whose death oc- curred in 1873. Esther Ellen, Mary C., who died in 1876, and two sons dying in infancy. Mrs. Tallman died in 1885 and three years later Mr. Tallman married Miss Lizzie, daughter of Nicho- las and Ann Elizabeth Miller, natives of Ger- many. Mrs. Tallman now owns and occupies the old home, Mr. Tallman having died in 1900. Easton Tallman, second son of James Tallman, born in 1827, came to Alamo when twelve years of age, beginning life for himself when twenty- one years old, on eighty acres of land just east of his father's farm. Two or three years later he moved to his present home. In 1855 he was mar- ried to Miss Helen S., daughter of John G. and Louisa Tarbell, natives of New York. To them were born five children, John, Nellie, Mary, Frances and Esther. Mrs. Tallman died in 1880 and Nellie did not long survive. Mr. Tallman, now seventy-eight years old, a good Republican.
active and energetic, is buying and shipping stock in addition to caring for his farm. Aaron Tall- man and Agness, "the twins," were born Septem- ber 26, 1830, coming to Alamo when nine years old. On reaching his majority Aaron began life for himself on what is now known as the Henry Tallman farm. In 1852 he was married to Miss Sarah, daughter of George and Sarah (Spratt) Piper, natives of England, and in 1855 they ex- changed farms, returning to the homestead where they remained. Two daughters, Caroline D. and Anna B., came to them. Mr. and Mrs. Tall- man, now seventy-five and seventy-two years of age, are active, useful members of the community, interested and helpful in the Congregational church, of which Mrs. Tallman has been an efficient member since its organization in 1867. Mr. Tall- man sent a substitute to the Civil war and gave freely of both time and money securing recruits. Since then he has engaged in threshing grain and lumbering in various ways, in addition to the management of his farm, where he raised stand- ard-bred road horses for market. A good Re- publican always, casting his first vote for Presi- dent in 1856. A public-spirited citizen, especially active in securing a railroad through the town and a helpful man in practical ways. The public will long be reminded of him by the fine maple trees shading the highway; these he brought from the woods and planted in 1860. "They will make a shade for some one," long after the pleas- ant, comfortable old home passes into other hands. Henry A. Tallman, born in 1833, became a resident of Alamo at six years of age. On Feb- ruary 26, 1854, he was married to Miss Pheby, daughter of Pheby and Garrett Vanarsdale, na- tives of New York. Three children were born to them: James G., Lizzie and Martha W. Mr. and Mrs. Tallman sold their home in 1905, going to Boise, Idaho.
CHARLES RORABECK.
This well-known live-stock dealer of Au- gusta, this county, while not among the first set- tlers here, was an early resident of this state, coming hither with his parents in 1860 when he
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was but thirteen years old, and at a time when there was yet a large amount of uncleared land and plenty to do in redeeming the wilderness to fertility and transforming its long, undisturbed expanse to comfortable and productive homes. He was born in Allegany county, N. Y., on April 17, 1847, and is the son of Orin and Betsey (Mc- Elhaney) Rorabeck, both natives of New York, the father born in Madison and the mother in Yates county. The father represented for many years a manufactory of gloves and mittens at Gloversville, in his native state, traveling over the country and making his sales from a wagon. He also manufactured on a small scale the com- modities he handled. He came to Michigan in 1860, as noted above, and bought land in Barry county, which was then almost unbroken and the greater part of it covered with a dense forest. On this place he lived until about 1884, then moved to Hastings and built the Farmers' Sheds, which he managed until his death, on February 11. 1897. The mother was killed in the destruction of their dwelling by a cyclone in 1882. They had five sons and three daughters, of whom four of the sons and one of the daughters are living, three of the sons in this county. The father was a leading Democrat in his locality and took an ac- tive part in local affairs, rising to prominence and influence in the councils of his party and render- ing it good service in many a hard-fought cam- paign, but not aspiring to public office, his party loyalty and zeal being inspired by earnest convic- tion and not by a desire for personal honors or aggrandizement. The grandfather, George Rora- beck, was a worthy and esteemed shoemaker and farmer in Allegany county, N. Y., where he died at a good old age after a long career of estimable citizenship and usefulness. Charles Rorabeck passed the first thirteen years of his life in his na- tive county, and then accompanied his parents to this state. He assisted in clearing the land his father bought and located on, wielding the axc in felling the forest and holding a breaking plow in opening up the soil for cultivation. He also split thousands of rails for fencing in the farm. and did all other kinds of work required in a new country in the first stages of its transforma-
tion from the haunt of the red man and the lair of the wild beast to the home of the husbandman and the center of civilization, the time being with- out modern machinery in its stupendous devel- opment of today and dependent on manly muscle for its work, and the habit of supplying his own needs educating the body to every man to won- derful performances. At the age of twenty-one he set out for himself as a farm hand, and soon afterward passed some little time at clerking in a store at Hickory Corners. His mind was, how- ever, attuned to farming, and he soon quit mer- cantile life and rented a farm on which he lived and labored ten years. He then moved to Au- gusta, and began buying and selling live stock and wool for shipment to Eastern markets, and now handles over one hundred thousand dollars' worth of these commodities a year. He has an extensive trade and is widely and favorably known in business circles from his home to the Atlantic coast. On September 13. 1874, he was joined in marriage with Miss Maria Elliott, a na- tive of Hickory Corners, Barry county, where her parents, Adam and Katharine (Malloch) El- liott, settled in the days of the carliest pioneers when the whole region was virgin to the plow and almost untrodden by the white man. The fa- ther died some years ago, but the mother is liv- ing, in the midst of the development she helped to start, but still not unmindful of the carly hard- ships and struggles which founded it. Mr. Rora- beck is well known as a leading Democrat in po- litical affairs, with an carnest interest always in the welfare of his party, which he always helps to promote, and as an enterprising, wide-awake and far-seeing citizen, with patriotic devotion to his county and state, and a commendable energy and zeal in leading and concentrating public sen- timent in behalf of their best interests.
EDWIN MASON.
Foremost among the early settlers of Richland and in this country is Edwin Mason, who cour- ageously braved the dangers and endured the hardships of frontier life, being a renowned hunter of the wild game with which the forest
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about him then abounded. During all the hard- ships and vicissitudes of his early frontier life he never once swerved from his high principles of living, but clung tenaciously to his own con- victions. He not only believed his creed, but what is far nobler, he lived it.
Edwin Mason was born at Litchfield, Conn., on August 17, 1803, one of twelve chil- dren. His father, Elisha Mason, served for three years in the Revolutionary war and was at West Point when Arnold planned its surrender to the British. He was also present at the execution of Major Andre. He united with the Congregational church in Litchfield, then under the care of Dr. Lyman Beecher, in 1824.
On December 13, 1826, he married Miss Clarissa Johnson, of Morris, Conn. Six years later he became a resident of Richland township, in Kalamazoo county, where he passed the rest of his life. After his arrival in this country he joined the Presbyterian church, and for many years held the office of deacon and ruling elder.
Edwin Mason lived in peace with all men, per- forming every duty of citizenship with fidelity and energy. He was accompanied to this state cultivation and improved with a little frame by his wife and three children, Maria, deceased, Cornelius, and Laura, deceased. Five children were afterwards born in the family, of whom, Cornelius Mason died in infancy. Betsy Ann and Cornelia are still living. Mrs. Conrad Mil- ler's grandfather was the well known Rev. Leonard Slater, who was one of the most prom- inent pioneers of the state.
THOMAS ANDERTON.
The late Thomas Anderton, of Ross town- ship, was a Kalamazoo county pioneer of 1852, and from that year until his death lived in the township and gave intelligent and energetic at- tention to its development and progress. He be- came one of its leading farmers and public men, and by the geniality and cordiality of his man- ners and his obliging disposition, one of its most popular citizens. He was born in Lancashire, England, on April 7, 1822, the son of William
and Ann (Summers) Anderton, who were also natives of that county. The mother died there, and soon afterward, in 1849, the father came to this country and went to California, then ablaze with enthusiasm over the recent discovery of gold. He was successful in his mining opera- tions, and after accumulating a considerable for- tune in the precious metal, was killed and robbed of all he had. The family comprised four sons and one daughter, all now deceased. Thomas was reared to the age of eighteen in his native land, and there received a good education and served seven years as apprentice to a cotton bleacher, mastering the trade thoroughly in all its details. Thus prepared for usefulness in al- most any emergency, he harkened to the persua- sive voice of the New World, and made ready to accept the advantages it offered to young men of enterprise and skill. He sailed from Liverpool on an American-bound steamer in 1841, and in due time found himself at Providence, R. I., where he passed ten years or more working at his trade. He then came to this county and bought a farm of eighty acres in Ross township. Four- teen acres of the tract were in a state of inchoate
house. Moving on the farm, he began to develop it, and as he got that tract cleared and under cul- tivation, bought additional land until he owned nearly five hundred acres, which he worked until his death on November 26, 1892, and which he made in time one of the best farms in the county. He replaced the little frame cabin of early days with a commodious brick dwelling in 1885, which is one of the -impressive landmarks of progress in the township, and also erected, prior and sub- sequent to that time, other necessary buildings, providing his farm with all the required equip- ment of a first-rate rural home, and all the needed appliances for carrying on his farming operations on a large scale and in a thoroughly up-to-date manner. And there he wrought and prospered, as the years went by, greatly to his own advan- tage and the benefit of the community around him. On April 16, 1848, he was married at Providence, R. I., to Miss Ann Craven, a native of Lancashire, England, the daughter of Thomas
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and Anna (Thorp) Craven, also of that nativity. She emigrated to this country the same year that Mr. Anderton did, but they were not then ac- quainted. Six children were born to them. Of these, Mary A. is now Mrs. William Brewer, of Kalamazoo, and they have six children, George H., Willard A., Laura A., Mary, Eva M., and Lib- bie; Esther is now Mrs. William Robinson, of Yorkville, and a widow : Annie is now Mrs. Mat- thew Genton, and they have one child, Mary A .. William, John and a son who died in infancy are dead. Their mother died September 14, 1905, in Ross township, aged eighty-two years. Mrs. Rob- inson was formerly Mrs. Porter Smith, and by her first marriage had three children, Edna A., the wife of Clifford Flower, of Ross township, Charles A. and John W., the last some years deceased. Mr. Anderton was a Republican politically. He served as township supervisor, highway commissioner and road overseer, holding the office last named more than thirty years. Fraternally he was an Odd Fellow, and in religious affiliation was con- nected with the church of England. He made two trips to his native land after leaving it, one in 1859 and the other in 1882. In the latter his wife accompanied him.
HENRY M. MARVIN.
Henry M. Marvin, of Augusta, one of the best known and most progressive business men of his township, was born at Bedford, Calhoun county, this state, in 1859, and is the son of Hunt- ington M. and Lucinda (Riley) Marvin, natives of Orange county, N. Y .. who settled in this state in 1844, and a sketch of whom will be found on another page of this work. He was reared in his native county and educated at Olivet, Mich., in the common schools and at Olivet College. Un- der the instruction of his father he learned his trade as a miller, remaining at home until 1881, when he moved to Augusta, and at that place was associated in business with his father until the death of that worthy gentleman and ener- getic commercial and industrial promoter. Then taking up the burden of the various enterprises where the father laid it down, he has ever since
steadily kept all in motion and enlarged their scope, until he has become one of the most exten- sive lumber merchants and business men in other lines in the village which has the benefit of his useful and inspiring citizenship. In 1902, desir- ing to confine his operations specifically to lum- bering, and the trade incident thereto, he sold his mill at Augusta to the Hubbard Food Com- pany, but in addition to his large and exacting lumber interests he conducts a private bank, which is one of the stable, serviceable and appre- ciated fiscal institutions of the place. In the pub- lic life of the community he takes an active and helpful interest as a broad-minded and public- spirited citizen, and in political affairs in the state and nation as a stanch and loyal Democrat. In fraternal circles he is an enthusiastic member of the order of Elks, with membership in Kalama- zoo Lodge, No. 50, of the order. In 1880 he was married in the state of Ohio to Miss Florence Cooper, a native of that state. They have four children, Harry C., Fred, Bessie and Elizabeth. Trained for business under the eye of a careful father, who was himself an energetic, accom- plished and resourceful business man, and a suc- cessful one, Mr. Marvin has met every require- ment of his duty in a manly and straightforward manner, applying with skill and sagacity the les- sons of his tutor and following ever his example, thus giving the community, which is the scene of his activity, the same high tone in business meth- ods and citizenship in the second generation which it had from his father in the first. And while starting with the family name well estab- lished in the esteem of the mercantile and social world around him, he has kept it up to the stand- ard it attained before him, and abated naught of its force as a synonym for integrity in trade, en- terprise in behalf of the public weal, and potency in every form of useful effort. mercantile, indus- trial, social and civic.
HON. SIMPSON HOWLAND.
The parents of Hon. Simpson Howland, Ed- ward K., and Margaret (Simpson) Howland, were among the earliest pioneers of Ross town-
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ship, this county, having come to the county in 1836, from Stillwater, Saratoga county, N. Y., where their son was born on May 18, 1822. Both parents were of English ancestry, whose Ameri- can progenitors became residents of the United States in colonial times, three brothers Howland, on the one side, settling at New Bedford, Mass., before the Revolutionary war. On their arrival in this county the family located on a tract of land in Ross township, and on this land the son now resides, living retired from active pursuits after nearly seventy years of active usefulness in pro- moting the development and progress of the sec- tion and the substantial welfare of its people. The land when they took possession of it was in its state of natural wildness, and lay in the midst of a vast wilderness wherein the foot of the white man had seldom trodden, and the dawn of civili- zation was just at hand. The children of the household, now all deceased but the subject of this sketch, and one sister, Margaret, who resides with our subject, were obliged to undergo all the privations, dangers and hardships of the wildest frontier life, and grew to maturity amid scenes of toil and peril, without the conveniences of comfortable living, receiving meager scholastic training at the primitive country schools around them, and securing the greater and most valuable part of their education from actual experience in the duties of life, overcoming its difficulties, meeting with sturdy will and ready hands its ar- duous requirements, and depending on their own resources for every step of their advancement. The many-voiced forces of nature were their tu- tors, and the exactions of every hour of strenuous life their stimulants to earnest endeavor. So they became men and women, with hearts attuned to the simple life of the frontier, and hands skilled in its necessary labors, ready for any emergency, fortified against any disaster, and equal to any re- quirement, rather than prodigies of scholastic at- tainments or social graces. At the same time, the very alertness and breadth of view begotten of their circumstances, made them studious, and gave them a wide range and considerable store of use- ful general information. Their father died in 1881 and their mother in 1848, both seeing the
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