USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 65
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MANFRED HILL.
This prominent business man, who is the pio- neer merchant of the village of Vicksburg, Kala- mazoo county, and who for more than thirty years has profitably conducted a flourishing crockery and grocery trade, which he started in 1874 in the first frame house erected in the village, is a native of this county; born in Brady township on
March 20, 1847. His parents, Norman A. and Lucy A. (Backus) Hill, were natives of New York state, the former born in Allegany county in 1812, and the latter in Genesee county in 1819. The father reached man's estate in his native county and was educated in the district schools. He was reared on a farm and early in life worked also in a potash factory and a woolen mill. In 1837 he came to Kalamazoo, but soon afterward located in St. Joseph county, this state, for a short time. Then returning to this county, he bought a tract of wild land in Brady township, which he began to clear and improve, meanwhile, during this operation, teaching school for a number of years in St. Joseph county. During the same period he read medicine under the instruction of Dr. William Motrum, of Nottawa Prairie, later attending a course of lectures in the medical de- partment of the State University at Ann Arbor. He opened an office on his farm and from there engaged in practice in association with his precep- tor, continuing to have his office on the farm un- til 1853, when he moved to Vicksburg and bought the home now owned by his son Manfred. From there he continued in active practice until his death, in 1881. He was a man of great pro- gressiveness and public spirit. He was a great friend of the public-school system and did much to aid the schools of those days. He took a lead- ing part in political affairs as a Jacksonian Demo- crat, having cast his first vote for General Jack- son for President in 1832. He filled a number of local offices, among them that of supervisor of Brady township. His marriage occurred in St. Joseph county on October 4, 1839, and he and his wife became the parents of three sons and two daughters, of whom four are living, Julia, wife of 'Austin Martin ; Lucy, Manfred and Motrum, who is also a resident of Vicksburg .. The mother died in 1893. Mr. Hill's grandfather, Adino Hill, was a native of Connecticut, and for many years farmed in New York, where he died. Manfred Hill was reared in Brady township, this county, and in Vicksburg. He followed farming and other pursuits, helping, as one of his engagements, to build the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad. In .1874 he opened a grocery and crockery store in
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the first frame house put up in Vicksburg, and to this trade he has devoted his energies continu- ously since that time. He has never married, but this has not lessened his interest in the general welfare of the community or his activity in pro- moting it. He has been a life-long Democrat, and while not burdened with ambition for public office, prefering to give his attention to his business, he has served very acceptably as the village treasurer for a number of years. In fraternal relations he is an Odd Fellow and a Knight of the Maccabees. He is prosperous and has a large trade as a merchant, widely known and well esteemed as a citizen, and cordially welcomed in the best social circles as an admired addition to their sources of entertainment.
DR. SAMUEL C. VAN ANTWERP.
Descended of old Holland Dutch ancestry and of a line that in this country has met, in the ex- ercise of citizenship, every claim of duty in war and peace with manliness and patriotism. Dr. Samuel C. Van Antwerp, the pioncer physician of Vicksburg. Kalamazoo county, has had by in- heritance the highest incentives to useful and manly living, and in his natural powers and the training for life's battle which he received, he was well prepared for every claim of the most ex- acting duty. He was born at Hume, Allegany county, N. Y., on March 21, 1847, the son of Rev. John and Lucy (Carter) Van Antwerp, also na- tives of New York, the father born near Albany, in 1820. He was reared and obtained his schol- astic training in his native state. He was or- dlained in the Presbyterian church and had his first charge at Hume, N. Y., where he remained six years. In 1854 he moved to Oswego, Ill., and there he joined the Congregational church and preached three years, then took charge of a pas- torate at DeWitt in that state, where he preached fourteen years. From there he came to Lenawee county, Mich., and a year later moved to Mo- renci, this state, making that place his home for ten years, during all of which he was actively en- gaged in the ministry. The next three years he passed at Alma, Mich., and the following five at
Augusta, this county. At the end of that period he took up his residence at Vicksburg, where he remained until his death on June 9, 1902, his wite dying at Vicksburg in 1898. He was a finishe 1 scholar, deeply learned in Greek and Hebrew, devotedly attentive to his pastoral duties, and elo- quent and impressive in the sacred desk. Wher- ever he lived he was dearly beloved by his parisli- ioners, and in every respect was well worthy of their regard. He and his wife were the parents of two children, the Doctor and a daughter, the latter of whom is deceased. The paternal grand- father was James Van Antwerp, a native of the Mohawk valley in New York, and a son of a Revolutionary soldier who served in a New York regiment in the great struggle for inde- pendence. The Doctor's father also saw trying and arduous military service, being chaplain of the Twenty-fourth Jowa Infantry during the Civil war, and was held in high esteem by the regiment. The Doctor grew to manhood in Illi- nois and Iowa, and while pursuing his academic studies at Oberlin College, Ohio, enlisted in de- fense of the Union in May, 1864, in Company K, One Hundred and Fiftieth Ohio Infantry, which was composed wholly of college students. They were stationed near Washington, D. C., and helped to defend that city against the threatened raid of the Confederate General Early in 1864. The fall of that year saw the end of their service in the army, and after being mustered out the Doctor returned to Oberlin College, where he re- mained until 1868. Returning then to his home in Iowa, he taught school one year, and while doing so read medicine. In 1870 he entered the medical department of the University of Michi- gan, from which he was graduated in 1872. He began his practice at Orland, Ind., and remained there five years, then located at Vicksburg, this county, and formed a partnership with O. P. Dunning in the drug business in connection with his practice. At the end of six years the Doctor retired from the partnership, and since then he has given his whole attention to his practice. He is a member of the Kalamazoo Academy of Medi- cine, and has served as president of the County Medical Society. In 1872 he was married to
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Miss Isabelle Beverage, who died at Orland, Ind., in 1874. He was married a second time at Niles, Mich., being united on this occasion with Miss Carrie L. Clapp, a daughter of George S. Clapp, a leading attorney of southwestern Michi- gan, who enjoyed a large practice throughout this part of the state and before the supreme court and the United States court. He died at Niles, Mich., on October 9, 1895. He had served s prosecuting attorney of Barry county, Mich. Fraternally he was a Knight Templar ยท Mason, and was widely known. He is a Repub- lican in political affiliation, but has never been an active partisan or sought public office, but has served for many years on the board of education, and as president of the board most of the time. He has also been the local health officer for some time. Fraternally he is a Freemason and a Knight of the Maccabees. He is one of the leading phy- sicians of the county, as well as the pioneer prac- titioner at Vicksburg, and has an extensive prac- tice throughout all the surrounding country, be- ing everywhere highly esteemed.
LEWIS C. BEST.
Largely engaged in the lumber trade at Vicks- burg, this county, as one of the proprietors of the Vicksburg Lumber Company, with which he has been connected since 1897, Lewis C. Best has been for years an important factor in the business life of Schoolcraft and Brady townships, and by his persevering enterprise has contributed greatly to building up and establishing the commercial interests of that portion of the county. He was born in Brady township on April 25, 1857, the son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Harman) Best, na- tives of Pennsylvania, who came to Kalamazoo county in 1849 and located in Brady township on a partly improved farm which they bought there. They continued to live on this farm until the death of the mother in 1863, when the father moved to Isabella county, where he passed the remainder of his days, dying there in 1903. The family comprised four sons and one daughter, all living but only Lewis and his brother John, resi- dents of this county. Lewis was reared by Wil-
liam Jenkinson and obtained his education in the common schools. After leaving school he gave his close attention to assisting Mr. Jenkinson on his farm, which he rented when he was twenty years old and thereafter farmed for a period of twenty-two years. In 1897 he moved to Vicks- burg, and, in partnership with John Weinberg, purchased the lumber business of A. J. Turner. Mr. Weinberg remained in the business until 1903, then sold his interest in it to John F. Hum- bertsone, and the new firm assumed the style of the Vicksburg Lumber Company. Mr. Best was married on January 22, 1880, to Miss Carrie Morse, a daughter of George Morse, who was born in the state of New York and early became a resident of Brady township, this county, where he farmed and conducted other lines of business extensively, and rose to consequence and influence as one of the leading and most representative citizens of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Best have one child, their daughter Theil, who is living at home with her parents. While devoting himself energetically to whatever business he has had on d hand, Mr. Best has not neglected the claims of the community on his citizenship, nor those of the social and fraternal life of his locality. He has served four years as treasurer of Brady township, and has long been active and serviceable as a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of the Maccabees and the order of Elks.
WILLIAM JENKINSON, late of Brady town- ship, whose long and useful life of over eighty- three years came to an end in Vicksburg in Janu- ary, 1900, amid the people who had known him for more than half a century and near the soil which was hallowed by his long and profitable labors, was an early and constant friend to Mr. Best, and one of the leading and most prosperous citizens of the county. He was born in county Wicklow, Ireland, in 1816, and accompanied his parents to America in 1826. The family landed at Halifax, N. S., and after living there two years, moved to Boston, Mass., where two years more were passed, and after that two were passed at Baltimore, Md. During what is known as the Patriot war in Canada the father was an insurrec- tionist, and after the close of the conflict was kept
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in a jail six months. He and his wife, whose maiden name was Lucy McGuire, came to Michi- gan in 1840, and six months later the father died. The mother, who reared nine of her ten children, died in this county at the age of sixty-five. Their son William was reared on a farm and educated in the common schools. At the age of eighteen he was apprenticed to a machinist to learn the trade, and in 1839 came to this county, arriving one year ahead of his parents and the rest of the family. His journey hither was made across the lakes from Buffalo to Chicago, and in the latter city he bought teams and drove overland from there to his destination. On his arrival he pre- empted one hundred and sixty acres of land which was then a part of the Indian reservation, and be- gan trading at several places, among them School- craft, Milling, Flourfield and Kalamazoo. After residing here a year and a half he went to New Orleans and in the neighborhood of that city he worked on a plantation two years. Returning to Michigan in 1852, he joined a party of twenty- seven men in a jaunt across the plains to Cali- fornia. They were one hundred days on the way, lost nearly all of their cattle, and suffered greatly from the cholera, of which several of the party died. Mr. Jenkinson made some money in mines in Oregon and Montana, and then followed the lumber business at Humboldt, Nev., two years. On his way home by water the voyage was sad- dened by a number of deaths on board the vessel from cholera, which was very bad among the pas- sengers and crew. In 1862 he went West again, crossing the plains to Virginia City, Idaho, where
he remained eight months, then came back once more to Michigan. Here he passed the rest of his days, moving to the village of Vicksburg in 1892 and dying there in January, 1900. Mr. Jenkinson was married in 1851 to Miss Lucinda Grout, a native of Schoolcraft township, this county, who lived only a short time after their marriage. They had no children, and Mr. Jenkinson took Mr. Best to raise when the latter was but seven years old, and from that time on until his death was all that a father could have been to him in care and kindness. At the time of his death, Mr. Jenkin- son owned two hundred and eighty acres of ex-
cellent land, all of which he cleared and improved himself. On this he carried on general farming extensively and raised large numbers of cattle, sheep and hogs. The dwelling now on the place was erected in 1864, and the fine barns and other outbuildings some years later. A staunch Demo- crat in political faith, and devoted to the welfare of his party, Mr. Jenkinson never withheld his utmost industry in the campaigns or in official service. He was clerk, treasurer and tax collector of his township for eighteen or twenty years, and at different times filled other local offices. Fra- ternally he was a member of the Masonic lodge at Vicksburg, and took an carnest interest in its proceedings. He was a man of high character and excellent judgment; and his generosity to the needy and those wanting a start in life made him a very useful citizen in other lines than those of his public services, and aided in winning him the confidence and regard of all who knew him. No citizen of the county stood higher than he in life, and none has been more gratefully remem- bered after death.
CHARLES A. MORSE.
This leading merchant, progressive farmer and valued public official of Brady township, this county, who is now approaching the meridian of life, has passed nearly the whole of his life from infancy in the county, coming hither with his parents when he was but six weeks old, and re- siding in the county ever since. He was born on June 1, 1857, in Will county, Ill., the son of George and Mary (Deming) Morse, the former born in the state of New York on January 10, 1833, and the latter in Schoolcraft township, Kalamazoo county, on April 18, 1836. They be- came residents of Kalamazoo county in 1857, and here they passed the remainder of their lives, the mother dying here in 1872 and the father at Vicksburg in 1901. Their son Charles was reared and educated in this county and farmed at home until he was twenty, then taught school. He fol- lowed farming until 1895 in Brady township, then moved to Vicksburg, and during the next five years carried on a flourishing undertaking busi-
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ness. After that he dealt largely in grain for a period of three years, and at the end of that period bought the business which he is now con- ducting, and in which he has been engaged from the time when he purchased it. He was married in this county in 1879 to Miss Mary C. Platt, a native of Clarion county, Pa. Her parents, Samuel and Lavina (Gilbert) Platt, were also natives of Pennsylvania, and located on a farm in Brady township, Kalamazoo county, in 1864, where they lived until the death of the mother in 1890, since when the father has lived a retired life in Vicks- burg. Mrs. Morse is a most estimable and cul- tured lady, and is the mother of one child, their daughter Mollie Belle. Mr. Morse is a Democrat in political allegiance. He has served seven years as supervisor of Brady township, being the chair- man of the county board in 1890, and all the while taking an active part in its legislation of a gen- eral county character, while conducting vigorously and wisely the affairs of the township immediately under his control. He was also highway commis- sioner one year, and town clerk and a member of the village council of Vicksburg several years. He has lived on two different farms in his town- ship ; the first one of eighty acres he occupied un- til 1883, and on it he made many and valuable improvements. In the year last mentioned he bought his present farm, which also comprises eighty acres, and which he has under advanced cultivation, carrying on a general farming in- dustry and raising large quantities of grain and stock. He formerly owned a large flock of full- blooded Shropshire sheep, a strain to which he long devoted attention, raising and selling great numbers greatly to the improvement of the stock in the county and surrounding country. These he has since disposed of. The commodious and at- tractive dwelling which now adorns his farm was built in 1884, and of the two large barns on the place, one was put up in 1890 and the other was rernodeled in 1884. Mrs. Morse is a valued and consistent member of the Lutheran church. Fra- ternally Mr. Morse is connected with the Ma- sonic order, the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. In his business he is straightforward and enterprising, and in all his undertakings he is farseeing and successful.
LEWIS C. KIMBLE.
In the lavish distribution of her gifts among men nature sometimes bestows upon' single fami- lies a varied and generous share of capacities of more than usual usefulness and value, while to others she gives almost nothing out of the ordi- nary, and even within that limit is painfully par- simonious. One of the families on which she laid her benefactions with freedom and in abun- dance is the Kimble family of this county, whose members have displayed in the three generations of their life here a wide diversity of manly quali- ties and mechanical talents. The first of the house to make his home in this region was Charles Kimble, a native of Connecticut reared in Pennsylvania, who became a resident of the county on July 4, 1837, having made the journey hither from his home in Wayne county, Pa., with his wife and six children, by team and wagon, being twenty-one days on the way. His father, Walter Kimble, was a soldier in the Revolution, and one of the earliest settlers in that part of the Keystone state. At the time of the Wyoming Indian massacre he was obliged to leave his home and family in moccasins and but half clothed to escape the fury of the savages, and in his ex- posure to the cold in this condition was badly frozen. Later he returned to his home, and there he lived to a good old age and died on his farm, known as Indian Orchard. On his arrival in this county Charles Kimble located on the farm later owned by his son Lewis C., the immediate subject of this memoir. It was on the Indian res- ervation and not then in the market, so Mr. Kim- ble became a squatter, a year or two later receiv- ing a deed for a quarter section, on which he lived until his death, on November 20, 1852. His son, Lewis C. Kimble, was born in Wayne county, Pa., on January 12, 1815. He was the oldest of the children who came to Michigan, and from the start had almost full charge of the farm. His father was a blacksmith and wheelwright, and passed much of his time working at his trades, and much in hunting and trapping, a profitable industry in those days in which he found great enjoyment, and was very successful. The son was young and strong, and the clearing and im-
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proving of the place was effected mainly by his labor and management. The family was the sec- ond to settle in the township, and at his death Lewis Kimble was the oldest settlers within its limits. He was the second supervisor of the town- ship, being elected to the office when he was still a very young man, and holding it during four- teen consecutive terms, a longer period than any other man has ever held it. When he was first elected he was poor and did not own a horse, so in attending the meetings of the board he was ac- customed to walk to Kalamazoo and back, a dis- tance of thirty-six miles. He also served a num- ber of terms as a justice of the peace, and filled other local offices from time to time. In his offi- cial positions he worked for the best interests of the township, and filled them with credit to him- self and benefit to the people. In politics he was an unwavering Democrat; in religion, a broad- minded liberal. On October 13, 1844, he was married to Miss Amanda M. Osborn, a daughter of Judge Nathan Osborn. She died on June 16, 1853, leaving three children, E. Ransom, Ann Vennette, now Mrs. Gleason, of Plainwell, and James E., who, like his brother Ransom, lives at Vicksburg. A daughter named Lorinda died on August 6, 1850, three years before her mother passed away. The father married for his second wife Mrs. Elizabeth A. Seymour, who bore him one child, their son Lewis S., who also is a resi- dent of Vicksburg. Mr. Kimble died on July 12, 1889, and his second wife in March, 1891.
RANSOM E. KIMBLE, the oldest son of Lewis C. and Amanda M. (Osborn) Kimble, was born in Kalamazoo county, Brady township; on July 29, 1845, and was reared on the paternal home- stead, in the arduous and exacting labors of which he assisted until he attained his majority, when he engaged in farming for himself, and continued his enterprise in this line until 1844. He then moved to Vicksburg, and for eleven years thereafter he was on the road as a salesman of the Walter A. Wood harvester. In 1885, in partnership with his brother Emory, he started the manufacture of the Kimble steam engine at Comstock, of which the brother was the inventor. Ransom remained with the company a number of
years, and then, in company with the same broth- er and Dr. Charles McKain, organized the Eclipse Governor Company, of Vicksburg, which also his brother invented, and which was made by the partnership then formed until the latter was re-organized into a stock company, an account of which is given elsewhere in this work. He also became interested in the Dentler Bagger Com- pany, in 1899, and still has an interest in it. This company manufactures the Dentler door roller, and an automatic closing fire door which is a great protection in case of fire in a building. It is a stock company and Mr. Kimble is one of the directors. He also owns a farm and the grain elevator and one of the best business blocks at Vicksburg. In 1870 he was married in St. Joseph county, this state, to Miss Alice E. Holmes, a na- tive of that county. They have one child, their daughter Eudora, now the wife of Clinton Scott, of Marcellus. Mr. Kimble is a Democrat in poli- tics, but he has never been an active partisan or filled public official positions of any kind. In fra- ternal life he belongs to the Masonic fraternity, blue lodge, and finds pleasure in the work and social features of the order.
FRANCIS NOTLEY.
Badly injured in a runaway of his team in 1890, Francis Notley has most of the time since then lived retired from active pursuits and in the enjoyment of the fruits of his previous long years of useful and profitable labor, and the esteem of his fellow citizens who witnessed its persistent continuance and shared in the benefits of its re- sults. He is a native of Ireland, county Leitrim, born on April 6, 1828, and the son of Francis and Phebe (Wilson) Notley, both born in Ireland, the father of English parents. They farmed with profit in their native land and passed their lives there, and when the end came they were ten- derly laid to rest in the soil on which they had lived and from which they had drawn their stat- ure and their strength. Five sons and three daughters blessed their union and brightened their home, and of these three of the daughters and three of the sons are living. Francis and one
FRANCIS NOTLEY.
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
of his brothers came to the United States. The brother died in this country, so that the subject of this brief review is the only representative of the family of his generation in this country. Fran- cis was reared and educated in the Emerald Isle, and farmed there until 1850. Then in the full flush of his young manhood, and burning with desire for better opportunities than his own coun- try offered to carve out a destiny of credit to him- self, he determined to come to the land that had opened the way to fortune and distinction for so many of his countrymen. Accordingly, he set sail for the United States, and on his arrival lo- cated in the state of New York, where he followed farming and railroading four years. In 1854 he became a resident of Kalamazoo county, the next day after reaching it purchasing the home which he now owns and at which he has lived ever since. Being handy and resourceful, as well as industrious and steady, he at once began to make a good living, and from that time on his progress was steady and continuous. During the Civil war he was engaged in butchering on a large scale, and afterward he followed that occupation and shipping stock to Eastern markets until he met with the accident already alluded to in 1890. And by the time this occurred he had made a record of attempts and achievements in business and usefulness in citizenship that many men fail to equal in a much longer period of effort even though they be men of force and unflagging in- dustry. Mr. Notley has borne a heavy hand in the development of his home town and township, aiding every commendable undertaking for the benefit of their people and the enlargement of the material wealth of the section. He is now a stock- holder in the paper mill at Vicksburg, of the Lee Paper Company, and other industrial enter- prises, and has other commercial interests in the county. He was married on July 1, 1854, to Miss Jane Carruthers, like himself a native of Ireland and an emigrant to this country in the dawn of mature life, coming hither as his wife of a few months when he came. They became the parents of four sons and four daughters, all liv- ing but one son and one daughter. Those living are Phebe, wife of Charles Brown; William F.,
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