USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > Compendium of history and biography of Kalamazoo County, Mich. > Part 72
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fused to give him his degree. However, sixty years later, when Colonel Curtenius was seventy- seven years old, the faculty reconsidered the mat- ter and sent him the long-deserved diploma. He left college in 1823, and took up the study of law, but not being satisfied with the life of a lawyer, he left three months later for South America, where, at the age of eighteen, he became a lieuten- ant in the army of Samuel Bolivar, the world- renowned patriot who fought to free the Peruvians from the despotism of Spain. After gallantly serving here, he returned to New York at the close of the war, and in 1831 became colonel of the New York militia. Having accumulated a lit- tle money by various enterprises, he set out for the west, arriving in Kalamazoo, where he bought a farm in 1835. In 1842 he was appointed one of the board of visitors to West Point Military Academy. He raised a company for the First Regiment of Michigan Infantry in 1847. and saw active service in the war of Mexico. From 1855 to 1861 he was adjutant-general of Michigan. When the Civil war broke out he was appointed colonel of the Sixth Regiment of Michigan In- fantry, and sent to Baltimore, where he remained six months in garrison, after which he took an important part in the expedition against New Or- leans, taking possession of the United States mint after the capture. He was ordered to take his own and two other western regiments to Vicksburg, but finding so small a force powerless, was or- dered from there to Baton Rouge, where, on ac- count of an unfortunate incident, he resigned his command and returned home. Some slaves having taken refuge within the lines of his regiment, the brigadier-general commanded Colonel Curtenius to return them to their owners, which he refused to do, saying that the state of Michigan had not commissioned him to return slaves to their own- ers. For this reply he was arrested, and this caused his resignation. He was fully sustained by the state of Michigan in his actions, and the general who had caused his arrest was rebuked. He had a splendid military career, and was thought more of by General John A. Dix than any other other regimental commander. In 1856 and 1867 he was elected to the state senate,
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and was appointed by President Grant in 1869 col- lector of internal revenue for Michigan. For sixteen years he was treasurer of the Michigan Asylum for the Insane, and was one of the heartiest supporters of the Michigan Female Sem- inary. In 1866 he was elected president of the vil- lage of Kalamazoo. For several years he was pres- ident of the Kalamazoo City Bank. In religion he was a Presbyterian. In 1826 he was married to Miss Elizabeth Fowler, of New York, who died in 1867. In 1868 he was married to Miss Kate Woodbury, daughter of the late J. P. Woodbury, of Kalamazoo. His death occurred at his home on July 13. 1883. and is survived by his wife and three children, Mrs. II. O. Statler, and .Alfred and Dwight Curtenius. . At his death appropriate reso- lutions were adopted by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Grand Army of the Re- public, of which he was a prominent member.
GEN. DWIGHT MAY.
Dwight May was born in Sandisfield, Mass .. September 8, 1822, and died in Kalamazoo, Mich., January 28, 1880. His parents, Rockwell and Celestia E. (Underwood) May, were of the old New England stock and, coming west in 1834, settled in Richland. Kalamazoo county, Mich .. where Dwight was given into the hands of that great American educator, farm life. His boyhood years were spent in work on the farm and at- tendance at district schools. In 1842 he entered the Kalamazoo branch of the University of Michi- gan, then under the charge of Rev. James A. B. Stone. By devoting his leisure time to tutoring he prepared for college, and in 1846 entered the sophomore class of the University of Michigan, graduating from the classical department in 1849.
As illustrating to some extent the character of the man, an incident of his life at the university is worthy of record. A branch of the secret so- ciety, Alpha Delta Phi, composed of university students, among them Mr. May, was organized without the consent or approval of the faculty. An order was issued making it compulsory for students to sever their connection with all secret societies under pain of expulsion from the univer-
sity. It is said that Mr. May, alone of all the members, stood by his colors. Eventually the faculty consented to the establishment of this and similar societies.
Soon after graduating Mr. May entered the law office of Lathrop & Duffield, at Detroit, and. in July, 1850, was admitted to practice in the su- preme court of the state. The following month he opened an office in Battle Creek, where he re- mained about two years. In 1852 he removed to Kalamazoo and formed a co-partnership with Marsh Giddings, and his home was in Kalamazoo continuously until the time of his decease.
Mr. May was elected prosecuting attorney of Kalamazoo county in 1854 and held the office three terms, six years. He was school inspector two years, and from 1853 to 1856 was superin- tendent of the village schools, a work in which he evinced much interest. In 1866 he was elected trustee of the village, and the same year was elected by the Republicans lieutenant governor of the state, and afterward attorney general, serving two terms, four years, in each office. He was president of the village of Kalamazoo in 1874 and was re-elected the following year.
In April, 1861, Mr. May became a private in the Kalamazoo Light Guards, and shortly after- ward was chosen captain. On President Lin- coln's first call for troops, these guards became Company F of the Second Michigan Infantry. Ex- pecting to be mustered in for three months, in- stead of three years as was the case, because of unfinished legal business, he was compelled to re- sign his commission, and, in December of the same year, returned home to give attention to per- sonal and legal business. October 8. 1864, he was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Twenty-fifth Michigan Infantry, then at Bolivar, Tennessee, and served throughout the war. In June. 1865, he succeeded Colonel W. H. Graves, and was soon afterward brevetted brigadier gen- cral. IIe was mustered out of service with his regiment. March 6. 1866, having participated in the battles of Blackburn's Ford. Manassas, Mid- dleburg-where he especially distinguished him- self-siege of Vicksburg, siege of Little Rock and Clarendon, Ark. In Arkansas, his head-
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quarters being at Clarendon, he was instrumental in breaking up one of the infamous cotton rings of the South.
Gen. May was married September 4, 1849, to Amelia Kellogg, at Sherwood, Mich. Three daughters were born to them, only one, Mrs. Minnie Kellogg Brown, of Ann Arbor, Mich., surviving.
After his return from the army, Gen. May was an almost constant sufferer from disease, resulting from the effects of exposure during the war. Notwithstanding this, he devoted his time constantly to his legal business and to those du- ties devolving upon him as a prominent citizen and member of the Republican party, which he joined on its organization and to whose principles he ever afterward adhered.
Mr. May did not make a specialty of any particular branch of the law of practice, but was a strong, well rounded lawyer, and though not an orator, presented his cases well and forcibly to court and jury.
At the time of his death, fitting resolutions were adopted by the various societies of which he had been a member. His going removed one who had, for more than a generation, been an ac- tive and prominent member of the community. He was a man of upright life, unflinching in his devotion to every principle and cause his convic- tions led him to support, a firm friend and citizen, whose honor and devotion to city, state and coun- try can not be questioned.
SENATOR JULIUS C. BURROWS.
Perhaps the most striking example in this county of a self-made man is that of Julius C. Burrows, United States senator from Michigan, and one of the best known men in the county, as well as in the state. Hon. J. C. Burrows was born at North East, Erie county, Pa., January 9. 1837, of New England descent. He attended the common schools near his home, and then came west to Ohio, where he took up the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1859, com- ing the following year to Richland, Kalamazoo county, where he was principal of the Richland
Seminary, after which he moved to Kalamazoo city, where he entered upon his profession as an attorney. In 1862 he raised a company for the Seventeenth Regiment of Michigan Volun- teer Infantry, of which he was made captain, serving in that capacity in several battles. Re- turning home in 1864, he again entered profes- sional practice, and was made prosecuting at- torney of Kalamazoo in 1866. In 1872 he was elected to congress, where he served several terms. He was delegate at large from the state of Michigan to the Republican national conven- tion in 1880. As a legislator he has not only brought credit to himself and his district, but to his state as well. He is a pronounced Repub- lican, and an eloquent and persuasive speaker. Senator Burrows has been married twice-to his first wife, Miss Jennie S. Hubbard, of Ash tabula county, Ohio, in 1856. He has one dangh- ter by this marriage, now Mrs. George McNeir, of New York city. He was married to his pres- ent wife, formerly Miss Frances Peck, daughter of Horace Peck, of Kalamazoo county, Mich., : in 1865.
SAMUEL APPLETON GIBSON.
The manufacturing of paper is one of the great industries of Kalamazoo county, and among the pioneers of this industry was Samuel Apple- ton Gibson, who was superintendent of the Kala- mazoo Paper Company. Mr. Gibson was born at New Ipswich, N. H., on August 17, 1835. His father was Col. George C. Gibson, of the New Hampshire state militia, and his mother Elvira Appleton, daughter of John Appleton, also of New Ipswich. Samuel A. Gibson received his early education in the common schools, and later attended the Appleton Academy at New Ips- wich. His early life, when not in school, was spent in his father's shops, where sleighs and carriages were manufactured. When twenty years of age Mr. Gibson was engaged as a clerk in a general store and postoffice at Concord, Mass., which he left two years later to take charge of a similar store in Ashby, Mass. He went into the grocery business at Fitchburg. Mass., in 1859,
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and remained there until 1867, when he removed to Kalamazoo, Mich., where he spent the rest of his life. Mr. Gibson was married in 1860 to Mrs. Mary A. Bardeen, daughter of Deacon A. Farnsworth, of Fitchburg, Mass. They had two daugliters, Alice Gertrude, wife of Mr. F. D. Hascall, and Susan Edith, wife of Mr. F. M. Hodge, both of Kalamazoo. In 1866, when the Kalamazoo Paper Company was organized, Mr. Gibson was one of the original stockholders. The company erected a mill on the Grand Rapids & Indiana branch of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, two miles south of the city of Kalamazoo, the plant being valued at one hun- dred thousand dollars. Here they commenced the manufacture of paper, and Mr. Gibson en- tered the company as mechanic and bookkeeper of the concern. Success was with this mill from the first, and under the able management of Mr. Gibson its business steadily increased, and addi- tions were made to the business in every way. Mr. Gibson was interested in various other enter- prises-he was one of the first directors of the Kalamazoo National Bank, and a member of the boards of trustees of the Kalamazoo College and the Congregational church, which he joined in 1858. In politics he was a Republican, although he never took an active part in politics.
THE KALAMAZOO SLED COMPANY.
This enterprising and far-reaching industrial institution was organized on February 14, 1894, with a capital stock of thirty thousand dollars. Its first officers were H. P. Kauffer, president. ยท H. B. Peck, Jr., vice-president, W. E. Kidder, secretary and treasurer, and the above with A. Pitkin and J. B. Wycolf, directors. The present officers are the same except that when Mr. Peck died a few years ago Mr. Pitkin succeeded him as vice-president. The company uses one of the old and long established plants of Kalamazoo. one formerly used for the manufacture of croquet sets. The sled company employs regularly one hundred persons and makes more children's sleds than any other factory in the world. It also manufactures lawn furniture extensively and has
branch offices and an active trade in Australia, South Africa, England, Germany and Switzer- land, and in New York and San Francisco. The company was founded by Mr. Kauffer and Mr. Kidder, and the latter has been its active man- ager and controlling spirit from its organization.
HON. STEPHEN S. COBB.
Among Kalamazoo county's list of self-made men there stands out the name of the Hon. Stephen S. Cobb, who was born at Springfield, Vt .. . April 10, 1821, his parents being Moses and Martha ( Printiss) Cobb. Mr. Cobb attended district school until he was twelve years of age, when he accepted a position in a dry-goods store at Andover, Mass. In 1835 he entered the Kim- ball Union Academy at Meridian, N. H., but left the following year to manage his grand- father's farm in Vermont. In 1842 he came to Schoolcraft, Kalamazoo county, Mich., where he ran a general store until 1849, when he removed to Kalamazoo, starting in the mercantile business. I11 1868 he retired from active business, and de- voted his time to looking after his numerous busi- ness interests. In 1873 he was made commis- sioner of railroads in the state of Michgan, in which capacity he did most valuable work. He was a stockholder in the Kalamazoo National Bank since its organization in 1865, when he was. elected one of its directors, which office he always held. He was also director of the Detroit Fire and Marine Insurance Company, the Kalamazoo & South Haven Railroad Company, the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad Company, the Webster Wagon Company, of West Virginia, and the Bar- deen Paper Company, of Otsego. In 1885 he was appointed treasurer of the Michigan Asy- lum for the Insane, and was elected a member of the board of trustees for the villiage of Kala- mazoo, of which he later was president. In politics he was a Republican, but he never sought to hold public office. He was married on July 21, 1847, to Miss Lucy A. Goss, of Montpelier, Vt. Mrs. Cobb died June 21, 1880. Stephen S. Cobb met life in all its phases with great success, due to his own efforts and perseverance, and enjoyed
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to an enviable degree the esteem of his fellow men, who could not but respect this man for his honor and uprightness.
HENRY BISHOP.
Mr. Bishop was married on June 8, 1847, to Mrs. Sarah (Bolet) Hineman, the widow of Herman Hineman, and a daughter of Coburn Bolet, a pioneer of Schoolcraft township. Four children were born of their union. Of these three died in infancy, and the son, who survives, is living on his farm east of Kalamazoo. His mother died on July 8, 1891. The father was a Whig until the organization of the Republican party, when he joined its ranks. He filled a num- ber of local offices in Schoolcraft township and some in the city of Kalamazoo, of which he be- came a resident in 1862, having his home in the city from then until his death, on January I, 1902, at the age of eighty-nine years. He was one of the founders of the Michigan National Bank, and served as one of its directors until his death. He was also one of the first stock- holders of the old Kalamazoo Paper Mill, but soon after it got well under way disposed of his stock. Although a regular attendant of the Prot- estant Episcopal church, he was liberal in his views and gave liberally of his means and influ- ence to all denominations. He had decided views on many subjects of current interest and perma- nent importance, and when he saw the end of life approaching, he wrote his own funeral ser- mon. As an antiquarian in local history he was regarded as a high authority, and his testimony went far to settle any disputed point. Every- where known throughout the county, he enjoyed the high respect of everybody.
HENRY L. BISHOP, the son and only surviv- ing child of Henry Bishop, was born at School- craft on April 2, 1848, and was educated in the public schools and at the Baptist Seminary in that village. He also passed four years in the Union school in Kalamazoo. In 1866 he entered mercantile life as a clerk in the dry goods store of Kidder & Brown, where he remained one year. In 1868 he formed a partnership with
Levi N. Perrin, in the same trade, and for three years thereafter the business was conducted by them under the firm name of Perrin & Bishop. At the end of that period Mr. Perrin retired and Mr. Bishop's father became interested in the establishment, the firm name being changed to Henry Bishop & Son. This firm continued until 1880, when the Bishops disposed of the business, and since then the younger Mr. Bishop has given his attention to farming. He is also a stockholder in the Michigan National Bank. In politics he is a Republican. He was married in 1878 to Miss Eva Scott Ashley. a native of Mas- sachusetts, who came with her parents to Kala- mazoo in 1866. Mr. and Mrs. Henry L. Bishop have four children, Charles A., Henry, Sarah M. and Edward M. Mr. Bishop has been a Knight Templar for thirty years, and is also a Knight of Pythias. He has been active in all phases of the public life of the county, and is esteemed as one of its leading and most representative citizens.
GEN. WILLIAM R. SHAFTER.
Gen. William R. Shafter, the well known com- mander of the American forces at the battle of Santiago, in the Spanish-American war, is one of the prominent men in Kalamazoo county, al- though he now makes his home in California. He was born in Kalamazoo county, Mich., on October 16, 1835, and entered the military serv- ice as a first lieutenant of the Seventh Michigan Infantry in 1861, being promoted the following year to major of the Nineteenth Michigan In- fantry, of which regiment he became lieutenant- colonel in 1867. The next year he was made colonel of the Seventeenth United States Colored Troops, this being one of the first colored regi- ments organized. Colonel Shafter was a partici- pant in the siege of Yorktown, in the battles of West Point, Fair Oaks, Savage Station, Glen- dale .. Malvern Hills, and in the affair at Thomp- son Station, and in the battles of December 15 and 16, 1864, in front of Nashville. Passing through the Civil war with great credit to him- self, he was, in 1865, brevetted brigadier-general,
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and mustered out of the service in 1866, having been made lieutenant-colonel in the regular army, and assigned to the Twenty-fourth Infan- try, and entered upon duty on the western fron- tier, in which service he was engaged until his promotion to the colonelcy of the First Infantry in 1879. At the outbreak of the Spanish-Amer- ican war. General Shafter, who was brigadier- general in the regalar army, was appointed by President Mckinley major-general of the volun- teers, and was assigned to the Fifth Army Corps. To him was intrusted the invasion of Cuba. which campaign was so quickly and successfully ended by his victory at Santiago. With the close of the war, General Shafter returned to his posi in command of the Department of California. IIe has won both praise and admiration from the American public on account of his great bravery and fine knowledge of military tactics.
GEORGE F. HARRISON.
Representing the third generation of one of the earliest pioneer and most distinguished fami- lies of Kalamazoo county, whose name is re- corded on almost every page of the county's an- nals and appears in connection with every line of useful enterprise among this people, the subject of this writing has inherited from a hardy and patriotic ancestry both force and breadth of char- acter, an elevated sense of citizenship and a stern devotion to duty, and also records and traditions of useful service to his country on some of its loftiest fields of action. He is a great-grand- nephew of Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. a cousin of the third generation of President William Henry Harrison and an own cousin to the late President Benjamin Harrison. His grandfather, Judge Bazel Harrison, located in this county in the autumn of 1828, and died here in 1874. at the age of one hundred and three years, five months and fifteen days. More ex- tended mention of him will be found in the sketch of his son. John S. Harrison, on another page of this work. The parents of George F.
Harrison are Dr. Bazel and Almira (Abbey ) Ilarrison, old and highly respected citizens of Kalamazoo county. He was educated in the dis- trict schools near his home, and at Cedar Park Seminary in Schoolcraft and Hillsdale College. After leaving college he began life for himself as a farmer, and he has steadfastly adhered to this pursuit ever since in spite of many strong temp- tations to go into other business. His farm comprises one hundred and forty-five acres of choice land and is one of the most highly im- proved and vigorously and skillfully cultivated in the comty. Ten years ago Mr. Harrison moved to Schoolcraft, and since then he has lived there during the winter months, spending his summers at his summer home at Gull Lake, Midland Park resort. He is now retired from active labor, enjoying the fruits of his past. in- dustry, the advanced state of development around him, which he has aided so materially to foster and prontote, and the universal respect and good will of the people in every portion of the county. In 1870 he was married to Miss Ora .A. Fletcher. the oldest daughter of Zachariah and Malansey ( Monroc) Fletcher, an account of whose lives is given elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Ilarrison have one child, their daughter Mabel I .. the wife of Rev. F. W. Nickel, a resident of Illi- nois. In politics Mr. Harrison is a stern and un- vielding Prohibitionist, but he takes no active part in partisan political contests and has never had an ambition for public office of any kind. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Epis- copal church and earnest workers in its religious and benevolent activities.
JOHN SCHAU.
Born on the banks of the castled and historic Rhine, the subject of this brief review had for the inspiration of his life in childhood some of the scenes of nature's most impressive grandeur and man's most notable achievements. His pa- rents, Philip J. and Catherine (Ferman) Schau. were natives of Germany in one of the river provinces, and there his life began in 1848. In his native land the father was a farmer and mer-
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KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
chant. In 1853 he brought his family, consisting of his wife and five sons, to the United States. A few months after their arrival in this country they became residents of Kalamazoo county, pur- chasing a farm in Cooper township, on which the parents lived until death, that of the father oc- curring in 1898 and of the mother in 1892. In this country their family was increased by three sons and a daughter. Of the nine, six are living, all sons and all residents of this county. John grew to manhood in Cooper township and began life for himself as a farmer there, for a number of years conducting the operations of the pater- nal homestead. Then he bought a farm of his own in Kalamazoo township which he sold after clearing and improving it. Following this he bought the farm on which he now lives, and on this he has since had his home. He was married in this county in 1871 to Miss Christina Kiltz, who was born in Erie county, Pa., and came to Michigan with her parents in 1865. The family settled on the farm now belonging to Mr. Schau, and here the father died. Mr. and Mrs. Schau have had six children. Three of them are living. Clara E., George P. and Margaret M. The three who died were Charles H., Bertha A., and Euna E. Entering with ardor into the spirit of his adopted land, and valuing with devoted patriot- ism its institutions and aims, Mr. Schau has per- formed the duties of citizenship with a fidelity and uprightness that have won him the regard and good will of his community and given him a high rank among its worthy men.
HORACE H. PIERCE.
One of the well known and highly respected farmers of Climax township, this county, Horace H. Pierce has well sustained himself as a good and useful citizen, and contributed his full share to the development and improvement of his sec- tion. He was born on March 3, 1831, in Niagara county, N. Y., and is the son of Isaac and Cath- erine (Archer) Pierce, the former born in Berk- shire county, Mass., on July 28, 1803. He was a man of firm constitution, great physical strength and indomitable will, seemingly formed by na-
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