USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 68
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THE KALAMAZOO PUBLISHING COMPANY.
This company was organized as a stock com- pany on October 3, 1874, with a capital stock of twenty-seven thousand five hundred dollars and the following directorate: Lucius B. Kendall, president; Lyman M. Gates, treasurer; Otto Ihling, secretary; and Reinhold Ihling, Arthur Brown and George M. Buck directors in connec- tion with the gentlemen named above. Some little time later Mr. Gates disposed of his stock to J. D. Sumner and the Ihling brothers sold a part of theirs to Dwight May, who also soon afterwad be- came the owner of Judge Buck's stock. In Octo- ber, 1877, the Ihling brothers leased the bindery plant and conducted the business for some time. In February, 1880, the following officers were elected : J. B. Kendall, president ; W. S. Eaton, vice-president ; E. T. Mills, secretary, and John V. Redpath, treasurer. At the same time a bind- ing department was added by the purchase of the tools and appliances of E. P. Flynn & Company. The company began the publication of the Kala- mazoo Telegraph, and in 1881, owing to the rapid increase of its business, the capital stock was in- creased to thirty thousand dollars. In 1888 the Telegraph was sold for the sum of thirty-five thousand dollars to N. Dingley, Sr. In the same year T. P. Gleason became a stock- holder and the company began the publication of the Kalamazoo News, which it continued for five years. Then Mr. Kendall died and the paper was sold to and consolidated with the Gazette un- der the name of the Gazette-News. The bindery was also sold, Doubleday Bros. & Company becom- ing the purchasers. After this sale Mr. Gleason took entire charge of the job department, and he has conducted it ever since under the old articles of incorporation as the Kalamazoo Publishing Company. He is an excellent manager, thoroughly devoted to his enterprise and thoroughly familiar with the business in all its details, and he has made a pronounced success of his work. The plant is actively engaged in job book work and the publication of periodical literature, among the publications issued by. it which have special merit being Higher Thought, Picturesque Mich-
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igan and some other similar works. Mr. Gleason is a native of Ireland and came to the United States with his parents when he was two and one-half years old. He grew to man- hood in Detroit and learned his trade as a printer on the Detroit Post, which was then under the management of Hon. Zachariah Chandler and the editorship of Hon. Carl Schurz. After complet- ing his apprenticeship he moved to Grand Rapids, where he was in the employ of the Democrat and the Times variously until 1872. In that year he became a resident of Kalamazoo and associated himself with the Ihling brothers and remained with them until he assumed charge of this com- pany in 1888. He has been a citizen of activity and influence in local affairs from the first, always taking an earnest interest in the welfare of the city, serving as a city councilor in 1892. and in many other ways at different times giving his time and talents freely to the service of the community. In business circles, in political movements and in social life he is highly esteemed and easily takes rank as one of the lead- ing and most useful citizens of the city and county.
WILLIAM G. KNIGHT.
Hale and hearty at the age of seventy-five, with his faculties in full vigor, his spirits un- clouded and his interest in all the affairs of life as keen as ever, William G. Knight, of Schoolcraft, is keeping up well the custom of his family and following steadily in the footsteps of his fathers. He comes of a long-lived family, his grandfather, William Knight, an Irishman by birth, having died in Ontario county, N. Y., at the age of one hundred and fourteen years, and his father, the late Godfrey Knight, of this county, at that of one hundred years, eight months and twenty days. Mr. Knight was born in Ireland and was brought to Ontario county, N. Y., when an infant. In 1832 they moved to this county, making the trip hither with teams from Detroit and passing the first night in the wilderness of Michigan in the store of a Mr. Marantat, a fur trader at Mendon in St. Joseph county. On their arrival in this
county they took up land on section 30 in School- craft township, where they lived the remainder of their days, the mother passing away on March 7, 1863, and the father on February 20, 1887. They entered actively upon the arduous labors of fron- tier life, and in spite of them and the privations incident to their situation, they were cheerful and happy, inspired by a high sense of duty toward their children and the community in which they had cast their lot. Their industry and persever- ance were rewarded with a goodly store of worklly wealth, and their elevated characters and useful conduct with the universal esteem of all around them. They had nine children, six of whom grew to maturity and four are living now, Mary Ann, the widow of Albert Wood; William G .; John T., who is probate judge at Red Lake Falls, Minn .; and Godfrey E. A son named James K. was circuit judge in St. Louis, Mo., at the time of his death on November 25, 1876. William grew to manhood on his father's farm in Schoolcraft township, disciplined in the stern school of experience, and thereby prepared to meet every emergency in life with a steady and a ready hand. Until he retired from active pursuits in 1893 and moved to the village of Schoolcraft, he passed his life as an industrious and thrifty farmer and devoting considerable time and energy to raising fine stock. He always owned valuable horses and for years had a fine track on his farm on which to train and speed them. His landed estate comprises one thousand eight hundred and nine acres, of which six hundred are in School- craft and Prairie Ronde townships, this county, seven hundred and twelve are in St. Joseph county, Ind., and devoted to the culture of pepper- mint, and the remainder is in northern Michigan. In addition he has one of the most imposing and valuable residences in Schoolcraft. All his farms are supplied with the best buildings and farm machinery, and managed with the utmost skill and enterprise. Mr. Knight was married in the township of his present home, on May 9, 1874, to Miss Grace Lawther, who was born in county Down, Ireland, on March 8, 1837, and is the daughter of Thomas and Ann (Donnie) Law- ther. They have an adopted daughter, Miss Ma-
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
bel E. Knight. In the political affairs of his county and state Mr. Knight has taken an active part from his young manhood as a firm and loyal Democrat. He started in life with almost nothing . and now is one of the most prominent, influential and wealthy men in the county, and what he is and has he has made himself. Moreover, he is a nimrod of wide celebrity, and annually during the last forty-seven years he has gone to the northern part of the state on successful deer hunting ex- peditions. His youngest brother, Hon. Godfrey E. Knight, was born on the home farm on Sep- tember 15. 1838, and obtained his early education in the common schools, later matriculating in the literary department of the State University at Ann Arbor, from which he was graduated in 1860. He then studied law for about a year and a half and farmed for two years. Then he fol- lowed mercantile pursuits seven years at School- craft, and during that period was elected presi- dent of the village. He also served as a justice of the peace for a short time, and in the fall of 1874 was elected to the state house of repre- sentatives. Then for a number of years he was the proprietor of the Oliver hotel at South Bend, Ind. Since returning to Schoolcraft he has made his home with his brother William. Both are widely known and highly esteemed throughout this and the neighboring counties.
JAMES STOCK.
It is thirty-six years since the subject of this brief mention became a resident of this county, and in that period he has witnessed the trans- formation of what was a wilderness when he came here to a land of peaceful industry and smiling plenty, strenuous in industrial and com- mercial life and enriched with all the concomitants of an elevated and progressive civilization. He was born in Summit county, Ohio, on October 19. 1843. and is the son of Richard and Mary ( Per- hamus) Stock, the former a. native of Liverpool, England, and the latter of Pennsylvania. The father was reared to manhood in his native land and followed butchering there until 1840, when he came to the United States and joined his parents,
who had emigrated to this country two years be- fore. They settled on a tract of unbroken land forty-five miles south of Cleveland, where the grandparents and the parents of Mr. Stock died. his father passing away there in 1862 and the mother in 1882. There were five sons in the family. all of whom are living, two in this county. James Stock grew to manhood in his native county and remained there until 1869. He then came to Kalamazoo county and bought a farm in Wakeshma township, which at the time of his purchase was all unbroken forest. He has cleared his land and brought it to a high state of fruitful- ness. and improved it with good farm buildings. He also operated a saw mill for a period of twenty years, sawing the lumber for most of the dwell- ings and other buildings in his neighborhood, and contributing by his general industry and enter- prise to the development and improvement of the township. He lived on his farm until 1900, when he moved to Fulton, where he has since made his home. In 1866 he was married in Ohio to Miss Sarah Hougland, a native of Medina county, that state. They have had five children, Cora I .. now Mrs. Frank Owens, Thurston R., Mary (de- ceased), Sarah, now Mrs. Charles C. Wedel, and Dare. In politics Mr. Stock is an active Repub- lican, but he neither seeks nor desires public office. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of the Maccabees and takes an earnest and helpful interest in the affairs of the order. In his long residence in this community he has seen many of his old neighbors lie down to their long sleep. and has helped to bury their remains. He has also witnessed the progress of events so beneficial .to the section, and has aided materially in helping along everything likely to advance the best in- terests of the section. Now among the older resi- dents of the township, he is also one of its most respected citizens, and is looked upon as a wise counselor regarding all matters affecting the gen- eral welfare.
LEMUEL W. COON.
The late Lemuel W. Coon, one of the leading lumber merchants and builders of Kalamazoo. was a native of this state, and was born in Cal-
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houn county on August 24, 1857. Her parents, Lyman and Laura ( Beard) Coon, were born and reared in Vermont and came to Calhoun county, Mich., as pioneers. The father died there in 1869. They had three sons and six daughters, of whom one son and five daughters are still living. Lemuel was reared and educated in his native county, except that for a few years after the death of his father, who passed away when the son was twelve years old, he lived in Boston, Mass., with an uncle for whom he worked. Re- turning to Michigan and joining his mother at Mancelona, in Antrim county, where she still re- sides, he there engaged in the clothing trade for three years. In 1886 he and Mr. North came to- gether to this county and at Vicksburg established the lumbering firm of North & Coon. Three years later they moved their business to Kala- mazoo, where the business is still conducted and is in a flourishing condition. During the remainder of his life Mr. Coon gave his entire attention to this business and by his industry, close attention to the trade and farseeing business intelligence built up a very large and profitable traffic, and at- tained a high rank in business circles as a capa- ble and resourceful merchant. He also aided largely in improving and building up the city by purchasing vacant lots and erecting on them busi- ness and dwelling houses. His useful life was ended by his death, on May 7, 1893, and since then Mr. North has carried on the business alone. Mrs. Coon still retains her interest in the business. In 1882 Mr. Coon was married to Miss Harriet North, the sister of his partner. They had four children, of whom those living are Beulah, Hazel and Cora, and one who died, Leila. In fraternal life the father was a Freemason, and in religious faith a Methodist.
CORNELIUS OSTERHOUT.
Of Holland Dutch parentage but American nativity, and born in 1794, probably in Cayuga county, N. Y., where he grew to manhood and learned his trade as a carpenter, the late Cornelius Osterhout, of Schoolcraft, who departed this life in 1873, long enough ago to have become a classic,
but who is still remembered with admiration by a grateful people for whom he did much in pro- viding the conveniences of life in the early days of frontier existence in what was then a vast and sparsely populated wilderness, was one of the first settlers of southern Michigan, living at a number of different places and leaving behind him everywhere when he left, substantial monu- ments to his skill as a mechanic and his enterprise and public spirit as a pioneer. In September. 1824, he started from his New York home for the wilds of this state, and as the Erie canal had not then been built. traveled by stage coach to Buffalo, where he embarked on the sailing vessel "Eclipse" for Detroit, reaching the latter city after fifteen days of leisurely progress over Lake Erie enlivened by an occasional storm. At De- troit he bought two four-house teams with which to transport his family and household effects to Ann Arbor, which was then a, hamlet of eight families, a few log cabins, and a number of pro- jected streets. Five days more were consumed in the overland trip, for there were few roads and the way was rough and difficult. Locating then at this infant town, he built and operated the first saw mill in the neighborhood, put up the first frame house, erected the first store and church, and several of the first comfortable dwellings there. He also built the first bridge across the Huron river. Sometime afterward he moved to the village of Dexter, and there also he put up the first saw mill and the first frame house. After a residence of three years at Dexter, he removed in 1835 to Allegan county and built a saw mill on Black river, which he operated for two years, then in 1837 became a resident of Prairie Ronde township, this county. Ilere he married his sec- ond wife, Mrs. Jacob Hendricks, a widow, his first wife having died on Black river, and the next year brought his children to his new home. From that time on for a number of years he gave his attention to farming, later running a brick yard which furnished brick for many of the earlier houses in the county. Then he started the manufacture of bob sleighs, which he continued until 1861. He kept his residence on his farm
CORNELIUS OSTERHOUT.
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
until 1871, when he moved to the town of School- craft, where he died in 1873. His first wife was Miss Lavina Vernoa, of New York state, who bore him three sons and two daughters, all of whom are now dead but one son, Peter Osterhut, who lives at Grand Rapids, aged eighty-one years. Of his second marriage, three sons and two daughters also were born. Four of these are living, Mrs. Lavina A. Brown, widow of George W. Brown, of Schoolcraft; Mrs. Libby Guthrie, of Elery, Ohio; George C., of Conway Springs, Kan .; and Lucius K., of Hobart, Oklahoma. Their father was a leading Whig until the organ- ization of the Republican party, when he became one of its ardent supporters, being all his life, until the emancipation of the slaves, an earnest abolitionist. He was never, however, an office seeker, but refused all persuasions to become a candidate for official station of any kind. He be- longed to the Methodist Episcopal church and the Masonic order, being a prominent and zealous worker in the latter organization.
ORVIN M. GATES.
The scion of a race of warriors, and also of men and women of earnest and useful activity in peace, it is not surprising that the interesting subject of this review obeyed an early call to the defense of his country when the dark cloud of civil war threatened the integrity of the Union, and in the awful conflict between the sections of our unhappy country, did gallant service for the cause he had espoused with so much ardor; nor is it to be wondered at that when "War smoothed his wrinkled front" and the battle flags were furled, he entered into the fields of peaceful and productive industry with the same spirit of de- termined loyalty to duty he had shown on the battle field. Mr. Gates was born in a log cabin at Mayfield, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, on January 31, 1839, and attended the district schools when a boy, going at the age of sixteen for more ad- vanced instruction to the Mayfield Academy, which stood at that time on a corner of his fa- ther's farm. The first of the family to settle in this country came hither from England about 1700 " participating in the battles of Spring Hill, Arm-
and located in Litchfield county, Conn., and his son, Jonathan Gates, served in the Revolution un- der his cousin, Gen. Horatio Gates, in the decisive battles which resulted in the surrender of the British General Burgoyne, and practically broke the backbone of the British cause. Jonathan Gates had five children, Nehemiah, Samuel, James, Stephen and Lydia. His third son, James Gates, was born on June 29, 1776, and in 1800 was married to Miss Ann Keeler, who died within a few years thereafter, and on March 14, 1807, he was married to Miss Eunice Thomas. He served a short time in the war of 1812. Truman Gates, the first born of his eight children, was born in the wilds of Onondaga county, N. Y., on June 6, 1808, the section being then on the re- mote frontier. On August 20, 1835, he married Jane Shuart, and soon after their marriage they journeyed by the Erie canal to Buffalo and from there by steamer to Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Gates bought eighty-five acres of timber land at six dollars an acre, twelve miles east of Cleveland, near the present town of Mayfield, not far from the farm of his brother Lewis M., who had located there a year before. The country was an utter wilderness then, there being not even a road in Mayfield township. The next year his father and the rest of the family drove through with horses and a wagon, and located on a wild farm in the adjoining township of Orange, where the father died in 1845 and his wife the next year. Truman Gates and his wife had five children, George D., Orvin M., Corrill T., Mary E. and Albert. The second son, Orvin M., after attending the May- field Academy six terms, passed one year at Geauga Seminary at Chester, Geauga county, and then taught during the winters of 1859 and 1860. In August, 1862, he enlisted in the Union army for the Civil war as a member of Company E. One Hundred and Third Ohio Infantry, and after nearly a year in Kentucky, passed in march- ing, skirmishing, raiding and drilling, the regi- ment was assigned to duty under General Burn- side, and with him marched over the mountains from Danville, Ky., into eastern Tennessee. Mr. Gates was with the regiment in all its service,
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strong's Hill, the siege of Knoxville, the engage- ment at Dandridge, and many others. On May 4. 1864, the command crossed the line into Geor- gia, and was put into the Twenty-third Army Corps under General Schofield; and while in this commaud Mr. Gates was wounded in the side of the right heel while charging the enemy at Re- saca. He was under fire over one hundred days until the capture of Atlanta, was promoted cor- poral in the fall of 1862, and sergeant in 1863. On October 4, 1864, he was detailed as com- missary sergeant at General Schofield's head- quarters, where he remained until the close of the war, taking part in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, and after the latter marched to the Tennessee river near where it crosses into Mlis- sissippi. From there he went down the river to Cairo, Ill., then up the Ohio to Cincinnati, and from there by rail to Washington, D. C. From the federal city he went down the Potomac to the Atlantic, and after being on the boat nine days landed at Fort Fisher, N. C. He was pres- ent and assisted in the capture of Fort Anderson, N. C., and was at Raleigh when the war closed. He returned home after the cessation of hostili- ties and was mustered out on June 23, 1865. On September 13th following he was united in mar- riage with Miss Belle Miner, the daughter of Harvey S. and Anna (Shepard) Miner, natives of Connecticut who settled at Mayfield, Ohio, in 1840. A few days after his marriage Mr. Gates came to Wakeshma township, this county, and bought seventy acres of land on which he and his wife located in the spring of 1866. The township was nearly all woods and the houses were built of logs at that time. Mr. Gates taught the winter school in his district at Gardner's Corners in 1869-70 and again in 1870-71, and in 1874 bought forty additional acres adjoining his farm. His father and mother, having sold their farm, came to Michigan at this time and located near them in the village of Fulton, where they passed the re- mainder of their lives, the mother dying in Feb- ruary, 1892, aged eighty years, and the father in 1898, aged ninety. Two children have been born in the Gates household. Walter F. and Anna B. In October, 1892, Walter married Florence Stead- man, whose parents were from Rochester, N. Y.
He has three children, William T., Doris E. and Orvin S. Anna B. is now the wife of Amos B. Gibson, of Grand Rapids. In the spring of 1893 Mr. Gates rented his farm to his son Walter and moved to the village of Fulton, where he has since resided. On January 19, 1902, Mrs. Gates died, and on November 4. 1903, Mr. Gates married Mrs. Hannah ( Bonner) Cramer, a native of Or- well, N. Y., born on June 4. 1842. On Novem- ber 20. 1860, she was married to Abram W. Cra- mer, of Orwell, who served in the Civil war more than three years as a sergeant in the One Hun- dred and Tenth New York Infantry. He was in the Red River campaign and the battles which resulted in the capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, Miss., also in General Banks' expedi- tion to Texas. In the summer of 1864 the regi- ment was sent to Fort Jefferson on Dry Tortugas island south of Florida to guard prisoners, and there it remained until the close of the war. Mr. Cramer was mustered out of the service on Au- gust 28. 1865. The next fall he and his wife came to this county and located on a farm on sec- tion 4 in Wakeshma township, across the road from Mr. Gates' farm. Mr. and Mrs. Cramer had two children, their son Albert E. and their daughter Minnie M. Albert E. married Miss Hattie Hutchinson, of Vicksburg, Mich., in June, 1889, and has two children, Gladys and Howard A. Minnie M. married Wilbur Fenwick in No- vember, 1896. They live on the farm on section 3 which Mr. Fenwick's father cleared and im- proved. Owing to failing health Mr. Cramer rented his farm to his son in the spring of 1898. and moved to Fulton, where he died on Septem- ber 16th of that year. Mr. Gates sold his farm to his son Walter in June, 1900. He has been a member of the Methodist church since 1875, and his wife since she was fourteen years old. He is a Republican in politics and has held the town- ship offices of school inspector and commissioner of highways. In his farming operations he has been very general, but in breeding live stock he has given special attention to fine wool sheep. His farm is all cleared and well improved with good buildings, all the result of his industry and good management. In fraternal relations he is a prom- inent and enthusiastic member of the Grand Army
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of the Republic, and has served well as. com- mander of his post. His taste for novelty and adventure has been gratified by extensive travel, as he has been on both the Atlantic and the Pa- cific, in nearly every state and territory in the Union.
IRA A. RAMSON.
One of the leading business men and promot- ers of Kalamazoo, Ira A. Ramson has been con- nected in a prominent and forceful way with most of the commercial enterprises of value in the city than almost any other man and has been of great service to the community in pushing forward its material development, its mercantile and indus- trial activities and keeping its tides of business flowing in vigorous measure for many years. He is well known and highly esteemed throughout the county and a large extent of the surrounding territory as a hustler in business, a man of broad views in the line of municipal progress and a ge- nial and companionable gentleman. Mr. Ram- son is a native of Castleton, Rutland county, Vt . born on February 20, 1845, and the son of Justice H. and Sarah (Northrup) Ramson, who were also born in Vermont and belonged to old New England families. The father was a farmer and passed his life in his native state. The son grew to manhood there and received his educa- tion there in part and in part at the Flushing In- stitute on Long Island. After leaving school he came to Michigan, and locating at Kalamazoo, showed that he was well educated in knowing how to do, what to do, and standing ready to do what- ever offered that was profitable and gave scope for his faculties. He passed two years in the employ of the Michigan Central Railroad and fol- lowed that period of service with two years in the employ of H. S. Parker, a prominent hatter of the city. In 1870 he moved to Marshall and engaged in the boot and shoe trade for a year. Then he became connected with the Kalamazoo Gas Company as president and general manager, taking active charge of the works and all the inter- ests of the company and giving them his close personal attention. Under his management the
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