USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 58
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without extensive and valuable experience in con- nection with governmental affairs. He has fre- quently been a delegate to the county, state and district conventions of his party, and has been a leading member of its county central committee. And the courage and wisdom he has displayed in campaign work from time to time is an earnest that his service in the legislative body to which he has been chosen will be judicious and valuable, and that his career there will be marked by breadth of view, readiness and resourceful- ness, a comprehensive knowledge of the needs of his county and the state, and a loyal devotion to every interest of the people. He was on the fol- lowing committees during the session of 1905: Judiciary committee, constitutional amendments, federal relation, school for the blind, also deaf and dumb, Eastern Insane Asylum, and the North- ern Normal. He is now serving his fourth year as president of the village board of education. Highly endowed by nature with force of charac- ter and intellectual power, and trained in the rou- tine of public work. equipped with an extensive fund of general information and fortified with uprightness of motive and high integrity, he is unusually well fitted for the post to which he has been chosen, and his election reflects credit on the electors of his county even more than on him as their choice. Senator Cropsey was married in 1891 to Miss Carrie B. Yates, of Brady town- ship, whose parents were early pioneers there. One child has blessed their union, their son, Rob- ert E. The Senator is a zealous member of the Masonic order and its adjunct, the Order of the Eastern Star, a Knight of Pythias and a Knight of the Maccabees. He is generous in fostering and promoting the church interests and educa- tional forces of the county, and lends his aid without stint to every commendable industrial and commercial enterprise and every public movement in which the welfare of the county of the improvement of its people is involved.
DUNN & CLAPP.
Good banking facilities in a community, founded on a sound basis, convenient of access and liberal in accommodation, are among its most
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serviceable and productive agencies for carrying He died on February 2, 1690. The parents of Thaddeus S. Clapp were Edwin and Mary (Sted- man) Clapp, the former a native of Onondaga and the latter of what is now Livingston county, N. Y. The father was a farmer, and in 1831 came to Michigan in company with William Earl. After prospecting through various parts of the state, he located in Kalamazoo county on two hun- dred and twenty acres of land in the present Charleston township. On this he lived about ten years, then sold it and moved to Comstock town- ship, where his son Thaddeus was born on Jan- uary 13, 1846. The elder Clapp was a man of prominence and at different times filled almost every office in the gift of the township of his res- idence. Being the second permanent settler on the south side of the river between Goguac Prai- rie, Calhoun county, and the village of Kalamazoo, as it was then, he saw all there was of pioneer life, and justified the general commendations he received from his fellow pioneers by the stalwart and determined figure he made in it. His church affiliation was with the Congregationalists and his political connection with the Whigs and after- ward with the Republicans. He was successful in several lines of business and an example of lofty and upright manhood in social and public life. He and his wife were the parents of five children who grew to maturity, four of whom are living. Both parents died at their final home in the city of Kalamazoo. Their son Thaddeus was reared on the paternal homestead and educated in the dis- trict schools and at the business college at Pough- keepsie, N. Y. After leaving school he gave his attention exclusively to farming until 1894, and still owns and manages four hundred and eighty acres of fine land in this county. In 1890 he took us his residence at Galesburg, and here he has since made his home, having one of the best and most attractive residences in the village. In addi- tion to his interest in the bank he owns a large block of stock in the King Paper Company of Kalamazoo. He was married in 1874 to Miss Mary Sherwood, a native of Maryland whose have been born of the union, Edwin S., Carl C. on its multiform business. The township of Com- stock, this county, has at Galesburg such agencies in the banking house of Messrs. Dunn & Clapp, a private bank which does a general banking busi- ness, receiving deposits, issuing drafts, making loans, and conducting every other feature of the banking line as at present managed in such insti- tutions. This bank was founded in 1894 by Sid- ney Dunn and Thaddeus S. Clapp as a successor to the similar enterprise of Messrs. Olmstead & Storms, which failed there and the fixtures of which were purchased by Dunn & Clapp. In the ten years of its life this bank has won a high repu- tation for the care and skill of its management, the promptness and accuracy of its methods, and the liberality of its policy. It ranks among the best and safest institutions of its kind in the county and has a large body of well satisfied pa- trons and an extensive business which lays under tribute all the surrounding country. It is on an ascending scale of prosperity and magnitude, and while the profits to its owners is of gratifying volume, its accommodations to the community are fully in proportion, and the esteem in which it is held is commensurate with both. Thaddeus S. Clapp, one of its enterprising proprietors, is de- scended from an old New England family which dates its residence on American soil back to early colonial days, and numbers its members by the host in all the useful and honorable walks of life. The American progenitor of the family, Capt. Roger Clapp, arrived at Nantasket, Mass., on May 30, 1630, on board the good ship "Mary and John," from his native Salcombe in Devonshire, England, and became one of the first settlers of the town of Dorchester. He married Johanna Ford, one of his fellow-immigrants, in her seven- teenth year, he being in his twenty-fifth, and from this youthful couple the extensive family sprang. He was a man of great force of character and soon so impressed his worth on the approval of the settlers of Dorchester that they gave him com- mand of the local militia and chose him to repre- sent the town in the General Court. In 1665 this . parents came to the county in 1860. Three sons body appointed him commander of "the Castle" in Boston harbor, the chief fortress of the province. and Paul T. The oldest is engaged at farming in
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Oregon. Mr. Clapp holds his political allegiance with the Republican party. He has filled a num- ber of local offices and is now president of the village. He is one of the solid business men of the county, with a high order of capacity, and one of its leading and most representative citizens.
OLIVER D. CARSON.
Residents of Kalamazoo county for more than fifty years, father and son, the Carson family have been potential factors in its growth and prosperity and have given a good example of what can be made of its soil when managed with skill and industry and the most modern and com- plete appliances in the domain of agriculture which the searching eye of science has discovered and the cunning hand of art has fashioned. Mr. Carson began life as a farmer and followed that pursuit until 1902 in Comstock township, and then being appointed postmaster at Galesburg, and having borne a goodly portion of the heat and burden of the day in his operations, disposed of his farm and took up his residence in the village, where he has maintained his high posi- tion already won in the regard of the people and rendered them good service in an important of- ficial position with the same spirit of enterprise and consideration for the general weal that he displayed as a private citizen and productive force when on his farm. He was born in the county, in Richland township, on April 1, 1863, and is the son of David and Adeline (Forder) Carson, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio. They were farmers and be- came residents of Kalamazoo county in 1852 or 1853, locating on wild land which they improved and lived on until death, the father passing away in 1887 and the mother in July, 1903. They had three sons and three daughters, all living and three of them residents of this county. The father was a leading Republican and for years served the township faithfully and to the satis- faction of the people as a justice of the peace. He was a charter member of the Masonic lodge at Galesburg and took a great interest in the fra- ternal life of the community. His father, the
grandfather of Oliver, was born and reared in Pennsylvania. He served in the war of 1812, and at other times during his life was a progres- sive and enterprising farmer. He moved to Ohio when his son was five years old, and in that state he and his wife died at advanced ages. Oliver D. Carson grew to manhood in Richland township, on the farm on which he was born, and received his education in the district schools. After leaving school he continued for himself the occupation in which he had been engaged with his father during his boyhood and youth. He served the township as supervisor one term several years ago, and in the discharge of his official duties in that position gave signal proof of his capacity for administration, his zeal for the public good and his breadth of view and progressiveness. In 1886 he united in marriage with Miss Maria Campbell, of this county. They have one child, their daughter Adeline. Mr. Car- son is a Republican in politics and in fraternal life a Freemason, a Knight of Pythias and a Knight of the Maccabees.
JACOB SCHROEDER.
For nearly half a century Jacob Schroeder, of Galesburg, a retired farmer of Comstock township, has been a resident of this county, and during that period he has seen the wilderness emerge from its darkened and fruitless condition to its present state of advanced development and high productiveness, assuming by steady progress the habiliments of civilization and comeliness, and responding with greater and greater abundance to the persuasive hand of husbandry and industry and industrial enterprise. In the change he has borne his full share of the labor which wrought it, and leaving his mark' on the region in beneficent results, has well earned the rest which he is now quietly enjoying in the mild and pleasant evening of his life. He is a native of Germany, born in the province of Mechlenburg in July, 1835, and the son of William and Mary (Carp) Schroeder, also native in that portion of the fatherland. The parents were farmers all through their lives. They brought their family, comprising four sons
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and one daughter, to this country in 1848, and located at Lyons, Wayne county, N. Y., where they remained until 1855, then moved to Kala- mazoo county and located on a tract of wild land north of Galesburg. They at once began to clear this land and make it habitable and productive. enduring with steady courage the difficulties and hardships of their situation, confronting its dan- gers bravely and steadfastly, and overcoming the obstacles to their progress with unceasing indus- try and thrift. In the course of a few years they had transformed their unbroken wilds into a com- fortable and productive home, a source of case and prosperity to them and of increasing wealth and consequence to the community. On this land. which their enterprise redeemed from the waste and planted with beneficent fruitfulness, the par- ents died, the father in 1887. aged eighty-three years, and the mother in 1892, at the same age. Two of their sons and their daughter are living and are residents of this county. The parents were worthy and well esteemed citizens and active members of the German Lutheran church. The first thirteen years of their son Jacob's life were passed in his native land, and there he received the greater part of his education. At Lyons, N. Y .. he learned his trade as a blacksmith, and at this he worked nine years, part of the time in Chicago and part in lowa. In 1855 he came to Kalamazoo county, and during the first two years of his residence here worked at his trade in the employ of William Harrison. Losing his right eye at the forge, he abandoned blacksmithing and went to work for his father on the home farm. Afterward he bought a farm of his own which he has since fully cleared and made one of the best in his township. On this farm he lived until 1898. when he bought a home at Galesburg, where he and his wife have since resided. He was married on December 18. 1856. to Miss Barbara Meyer, a native of Switzerland who came to the United States with her parents in 1853. They were Frederick and Elizabeth (Zurlinden) Meyer, and on their arrival in this country came almost direct to Michigan, locating in Kent county and moving in 1857 to Kalamazoo county, where in the course of time they both
lied. Mr. and Mrs. Schroeder have had five children, William F., now living at Galesburg, Rosa, now Mrs. L. Tuitt, Charles, of Kalamazoo, Ernest, of Detroit, and Herman, deceased. Mr. Schroeder's church affiliation is with the German Lutherans. In politics he is independent. His wife belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church. Their residence in this county has been for the most part agreeable and they have prospered here, winning a good estate by their industry and a lasting place in public esteem by their worth.
CAPTAIN BARNARD VOSBURG.
With unwavering fidelity to duty, whatever (langer or difficulty lay in its pathway, with inflex- ible determination in a course wisely chosen, look- ing upon facts and circumstances to command and use them, not to cringe to them, and holding to his honor as with the tug of gravitation, the late Capt. Barnard Vosburg, of Comstock town- ship, this county, was a positive, high-minded man, with his positiveness all on the right side and his high-mindedness resting on true manli- ness and lofty ideals. A progressive farmer in times of peace, pursuing his vocation steadily under difficulties and without undue elation in the midst of case and prosperity, he was equally a gallant soldier when duty called him to the front, facing the dangers of the service with a courage that was as quiet and constant as his joy over the final triumph of his cause was considerate and generous. His untimely death, on December 21. 1887. at a little less than sixty-one years, bereaved an entire community and robbed it of one of the leading and forceful spirits which had built it up in the wilderness and made it great with all the power and bright with all the beauty of an ad- vanced and all-conquering civilization. He was born on January 18, 1827, in Columbia county, N. Y., which was also the place of nativity of his parents, Richard and Caroline (Van Dusen) Vos- burg. They had six children, of whom he was the fourth born. The Captain passed his early life in his native county and obtained a good prac- tical education in its schools. On December 26, 1850, he was united in marriage with Miss Laura
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Vosburg, a native of the same county as himself, her parents, Cornelius and Catherine (Whitbeck) Vosburg, being born in the same place. She was the fifth child and second daughter of their nine children, and was carefully reared in the family home, where she remained until her marriage. Soon after this event, the young couple, the hus- band at the time aged about twenty-seven and the wife a year younger, determined to come west and cast their lot in the new state of Michigan, which was just then generally attractive to home- seekers as one of the most promising regions for future development. Accordingly in the spring of 1854 they became residents of Kalamazoo county, and purchased a tract of two hundred and twenty acres of choice land on section I in Com- stock township. Here, notwithstanding the dan- gers which surrounded them and the hardships of their lot, in a sparsely settled portion of the wil- derness, they resolutely set to work to clear their land and convert it into a habitable and productive farm. In this endeavor they succeeded so well by patient and persistent industry, aided by their sons as they became able to assist, that at the Cap- tain's death it was, as it is now, one of the best cultivated and most highly developed rural home- steads in the county. The Captain, although a stanch Democrat, was a strong Union and anti- slavery man, and when the storm of sectional strife, which had long been threatening, burst on our unhappy country, he promptly responded to an early call for volunteers to defend the integrity of the Union, and enlisted in Company A, Thir- teenth Michigan Infantry, of which he was com- missioned captain, and in addition he helped to raise a company at Kalamazoo. His military career brought him hard and dangerous service on southern battlefields, but he proved himself a true soldier and an officer of intelligence and valor. After the war he was one of the leading spirits in organizing Bronson Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was an active and zeal- ous member until his death, and which buried his remains with military honors in the cemetery at Galesburg, assisted by Kalamazoo Post of the same organization. His widow, a most estimable and capable woman, survived him nearly thirteen
years, passing away at the family homestead on November 7, 1901. They were the parents of five sons, all living: Richard H., a resident of North Dakota; Victor A., a farmer of Comstock township; Frank B., also a farmer of Comstock township: John W., for years a teacher in the schools of the township, and later its supervisor for several terms ; and Harry D., who is located in Dowagiac, Mich.
John W. Vosburg, the fourth son of the Cap- tain, was born on March 9, 1864, and received his education in the district schools near his home, and at Galesburg. After completing his course he taught in the township schools nine years. Then, in 1896, he was elected supervisor of the township, and in that office he served the people faithfully seven years in succession. He is a pronounced and active Democrat and has fre- quently been a delegate to the county conventions of his party. Fraternally he belongs to the order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He is one of the representative and influential citizens of the county, well known all over its extent and everywhere highly esteemed.
DR. WILLIAM L. McBETH.
The Scottish people, in spite of their traditional love of country and of kin, are a conquering race, and have been driven by their restless energy and universal adaptableness to every quarter of the world, establishing themselves among all civiliza- tions, dignifying and adorning all walks of life, coalescing with all nationalities, making them- selves at home amid all circumstances, and show- ing their national and personal characteristics to advantage under every sky. Many of them were among the founders of Canadian civilization and its subsequent development, and many became potential in the settlement and upbuilding of our own land; and some have done good service in both. Among those belonging to the class last named the McBeth family, of which Dr. William L. McBeth. of Galesburg, this county, is a mem- ber, is entitled to a high rank and due considera- tion. His parents, Andrew and Jane (Lang) McBeth, were born in the land of Scott and
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Burns, the former in 1795 and the latter on Au- gust 13, 1807. The father emigrated to Canada about 1815 and took up land in Manitoba, where he remained eighteen months. From there he moved to Toronto and from that city to Bradford, South Simcoe county, in the province of Ontario, where he farmed until his death in 1864, and where his widow still has her home. Of the family of seven children, four are living, the Doctor, Barbara, wife of Dr. Sutherland, of Sag- inaw ; James, a resident of Sanilac county, Mich. ; and Andrew, who is still living at Bradford, Can- ada. Dr. William L. McBeth is the second born child of his father's second marriage and was reared and educated in his native place, Bradford, South Simcoe county, Ontario, where he was born on August 25, 1841. His scholastic training was completed at an excellent grammar school there, and his habits of useful labor and physical devel- opment were obtained in the work on his father's farm, on which he lived and toiled until he en- tered the Victoria Medical College at Toronto, fram which he was graduated in 1870. Immedi- ately after his graduation he came to Michigan, and after practicing his profession a year at Sher- wood, Branch county, as the partner of Dr. Fra- ser, hé located at Prairieville, Barry county, where he was actively engaged in practice for a period of five years. In 1876 he moved to Gales- burg, this county, and there he has since been continuously in the practice of his profession, covering a large extent of country in his benefi- cent ministrations and winning by his devotion to duty and his professional learning and skill the lasting regard of the people who have had the benefit of his services, and of all the territory in which they have been rendered. He is a diligent student of his calling and keeps abreast with the latest discoveries and most advanced thought in it, at the same time applying with good judgment and unusual care the results of his study in the daily routine of his work. His practice is large and lucrative and numbers in its patronage many of the leading families of the section in which he lives. On September 17, 1871, he united in mar- riage with Miss Jennie R. Gwin, of Branch county, the daughter of James and Julia .
(Hedger) Gwin, of that county, where they were early settlers and are highly respected citizens. The Doctor and Mrs. McBeth have had two chil- dren, their daughter Nellie and an infant who died unnamed. The Doctor is liberal in his polit- ical views and while living in Canada belonged to the Reform party. His fraternal associations are with the United Workmen, the Odd Fellows, the Knights of the Maccabees, and Galesburg Lodge, No. 92, Free and Accepted Masons.
BENJAMIN HUGGETT.
Scarcely anything is more inspiring to the im- agination or pleasing to the fancy than the long- continued hospitality of the United States and the readiness with which it has been accepted, with the most beneficial results to the country and the cmigrants. It is, of course, nothing new in the annals of mankind, except as to its extent, for the voice of history is emphatic in proof that nations liberal in naturalization have always grown and prospered. But here the benefaction has been so bountiful, the tender has been so generally and so largely welcomed, and the outcome has been of such tremendous magnitude, that it distances all comparison and marks a new epoch in even this time-worn policy. Among the men of worth and industry who heard the invitation with joy and accepted it with alacrity, and who have, moreover, made excellent use of it to their own advantage and the great development of the country, is Ben- jamin Huggett, of Comstock township, Kalama- zoo county, who was born in England on Decem- ber 12, 1833. His parents, Benjamin and Sarah Huggett, were born and reared in the mother country, and were prosperous and steady farmers there until the death of the father. After that event the mother brought her four sons and four daughters to the United States, and some years later she died in Chicago. Benjamin was edu- cated in a small way in his native land, and therc, after leaving school, which he was obliged to do at an early age, he went to work on a farm. In 1853, when he was but twenty, he reached this land of promise and opportunity, and located at Syracuse, N. Y., where he lived until 1855, then
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came to Kalamazoo county. and bought a farm north of the village of Comstock, comprising two hundred and sixty-five acres and partially im- proved. On this he has since resided, and while its cultivation was begun when he bought it, he has in the years since then found plenty to occupy his time and energies in enlarging its improve- ments and extending and raising the standard of its cultivation. This he has done so effectively that he has now an excellent and highly produc- tive place, with good buildings and other neces- sary structures, proclaiming in every way his skill and diligence as a husbandman, and steadily increasing in value. While pushing the develop- ment of his farm, and waiting for the larger re- sults of his efforts for which he wisely planned, he wrought some years at the harness and some at the butchering trade in Kalamazoo. He was fru- gal and industrious, and his prosperity was steady and continued ; and he is now one of the substan- tial and influential citizens of the township. In 1857 he was married in this state to his second cousin, Miss Sarah A. Huggett, who died in De- cember, 1903. They had four children that are living and one that died. Those living are Jennie, wife of Henry Nicholson, of Comstock township, Carrie, wife of Edward Thomas, of Kalamazoo, Elizabeth, at home, and Lena, wife of Frederick Cook, of Kalamazoo. Mr. Huggett has never been an active political worker, but he supports the Democratic party. He belongs to the Congre- gational church at Galesburg, as did his wife dur- ing her lifetime. A good farmer and a useful and worthy citizen, he stands high in the good will and regard of the community, and justly so.
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