Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, Part 106

Author: Burton, Clarence Monroe, 1853-1932
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 858

USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 106

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In 1881 Mr. Moore married Miss Sack Mar- tineau, of Roseville, Ohio. They have no children.

HERBERT W. NOBLE.

The subject of this brief sketch is one of the able and popular business men of the younger generation in Detroit and is the executive head of the well known firm of W. H. Noble & Company, dealers in stocks and bonds,-a concern of which adequate description is made

659

DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY

on other pages of this work. He has gained precedence in the handling of high-grade se- curities and is one of the staunch fiscal agents engaged in business in his native city.

Mr. Noble was born in Detroit, on the 8th of February, 1867, and is a son of Garra B. and Eliza (Crosman) Noble, the former of whom was born in New York state and the latter in Scio, Washtenaw county, Michigan, where her parents took up their residence in the early pioneer days. Garra B. Noble was reared and educated in his native state, and in 1840 he came to Michigan and took up his residence in Dexter, Washtenaw county, where he engaged in the general merchandise busi- ness and also became the first postmaster of the little pioneer village. In 1856 he removed to Detroit and soon afterward became asso- ciated with the old Ward line of lake boats. He was later, and for many years, financial manager of the firm of K. C. Barker & Com- pany, long recognized as one of the most im- portant in the middle west. He did much to further the upbuilding of the enterprise, with which he continued to be actively identified until the firm was succeeded by the American Eagle Tobacco Company, after which he lived practically retired until his death, which oc- curred in Detroit, in 1897, at which time he was eighty-one years of age. He was a man of exalted integrity and great business acu- men, was broad-minded and public-spirited and ever commanded the confidence and esteem of the people of the community in which he so long maintained his home and with whose business and civic interests he was so promi- nently identified. His wife was summoned to the life eternal in 1892 and they are sur- vived by two sons,-Herbert W., who is the immediate subject of this sketch; and Charles C., D. D. S., who is engaged in the practice of his profession in Los Angeles, California. Garra B. Noble was especially conspicuous in the time-honored Masonic fraternity, and he was grand master of the grand lodge of Michi- gan in 1865, commander of Detroit Command- ery, Knights Templar, in 1867, and grand re-

corder of the grand council of Royal & Select Masters in 1868. The beautiful jeweled in- signia presented to him by the Masonic bodies are now in the possession of the subject of this review. It should be stated that the Noble family was founded in America in the early colonial era, the original progenitor having been Thomas Noble, who immigrated from England and located in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1640. Cyrenus Noble, grandfather of him whose name introduces this article, was born in Weathersfield, Connecticut, in which state he was reared to maturity. He eventually re- moved to Unadilla, New York, where he passed the residue of his life, having been one of the honored and influential citizens of his county. He married Hannah Weston, daugh- ter of Benjamin Weston, of Connecticut, who was one of the first to tender his services when the colonies took up arms against England. Benjamin Weston became a member of a Con- necticut regiment and took part in the battle of Lexington and many other engagements. He was promoted to the office of ensign, but resigned this position to enter the navy, in which he continued to serve until the close of the war.

Herbert W. Noble attended the public schools of Detroit until he had attained to the age of sixteen years, when, in 1883, he became a clerk in the offices of Conely, Maybury & Lucking. He finally became bookkeeper for the firm and also had charge of the collection department, proving an able and popular em- ploye. In 1887 he assumed a clerical position in the Third National Bank, in which he was promoted to the office of paying teller in 1893. In the following year he gained distinctive preferment in being elected assistant manager of the Detroit clearing house, under Clement M. Davison, and in 1896 he became manager of this important financial institution,-a po- sition which he has since retained and one in which his services have gained the unequivocal commendation of all the banking houses rep- resented in the clearing-house association. Of his successful operations as head of the firm

660

DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY

of H. W. Noble & Company sufficient record is given in the specific article devoted to the firm. He is a member of the American Bank- ers' Association, as well as those of Michigan and Pennsylvania, is identified with the De- troit Board of Commerce and holds member- ship in the Detroit Club, Bankers' Club, De- troit Boat Club, Detroit Golf Club and De- troit Automobile Club. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he and his wife are communicants of St. Paul's church, Protestant Episcopal.

On the 22d of April, 1891, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Noble to Miss Gertrude Delbridge, daughter of James B. Delbridge, a member of the firm of Delbridge, Brooks & Fisher, leading lumber manufacturers and dealers of Detroit. Mr. and Mrs. Noble have two children,-Sheldon R., who was born in 1892, and Irene, who was born in 1896.

HENRY W. WALKER.

The corporation designated as Walker & Company is a Detroit institution which exer- cises most important functions in the field of publicity and general out-door advertising, and a description of the same is given on other pages of this work, so that a further review is not here demanded. Mr. Walker has been the dominating force in the upbuilding of the business and is president and general manager of the company, while he has long been known as one of Detroit's representative business men and loyal and progressive citizens. He ren- dered gallant service in defense of the Union during the civil war and after the close of that great internecine conflict he continued in serv- ice as a member of the United States army for a period of seven years.

Henry William Walker was born at West- field, Chautauqua county, New York, on the 5th of April, 1835, being a son of John R. and Emily (Dickerson) Walker, the former of whom was born in Chautauqua county, New York, and the latter in Stillwater, Saratoga county, that state. The mother was a daugh-

ter of Daniel Dickerson, the maiden name of whose wife was Seymour, and she was a first cousin of Hon. Horatio Seymour, one of the early governors of the old Empire state. John R. Walker was a machinist by trade and be- came a prominent and influential business man in Chautauqua county, New York, where he owned and operated flour, plaster and saw mills and where he was also engaged in the general merchandise business for a number of years. He was a son of John Walker, who was one of the sterling pioneers of New York, having been one of the first three settlers to take up land in the section lying between the city of Buffalo, that state, and Erie, Pennsyl- vania. His landed estate, which he developed from the wilderness, was located about forty- five miles to the west of Buffalo. John Walker was a native of Rhode Island and was a valiant soldier in the war of 1812. The founder of the Walker family in America came from Scot- land with Roger Williams and settled in Rhode Island, having been a personal friend of that historic figure in the history of the most diminutive state in the Union.

Henry W. Walker, the immediate subject of this review, had such educational advan- tages as were afforded in the common schools of his native village of Westfield, and while still a boy he began to assist his father in his various business operations. In 1851, when sixteen years of age, he came to Michigan and first located in Detroit, where he found em- ployment at gardening, this work being taken up in order that he might recuperate his health, which had become much impaired. In the fol- lowing year he entered upon an apprenticeship at the trade of machinist, but shortly after- ward he found somewhat profitable requisition for his services in selling mill-machinery, in which connection he covered territory ex- tending between Detroit and Galena, Illinois. In 1858 he engaged in the lumbering business in Shiawassee county, Michigan, and with this line of industry, then and for many years thereafter one of the most important in the state, he continued to be concerned until the

661

DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY

integrity of the Union was thrown into jeopardy through armed rebellion. He was among the first to respond to President Lin- coln's call for volunteers. In June, 1861, he enlisted in Company H, Second Michigan Vol- unteer Cavalry, as a private, and his command was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, with which command he saw much arduous service. The history of his gallant regiment offers the essential record of his career as a soldier during the war. In the early part of the year 1862 Mr. Walker was promoted to the rank of corporal and in the following year he became regimental quartermaster's sergeant, being detailed as master of transportation under General Edward McCook, who was then maneuvering his forces in the Army of Cum- berland. In June, 1864, Mr. Walker was trans- ferred by General McCook to the Sixth United States Cavalry, with which he served, on the frontier, until June 1I, 1872, when he received his honorable discharge, at Camp Supply, In- dian Territory. From the close of the war until his final discharge he was on detail duty in the transportation service, in which capacity he rendered most effective work for his di- vision. He saw much Indian service and was for varying intervals in the commands of Gen- erals Canby and Miles. Mr. Walker per- petuates the more gracious memories of his long military career by retaining membership in Fairbanks Post, Grand Army of the Repub- lic, and he has a secure place in the esteem of his old comrades in arms, whose ranks are being rapidly thinned by the one invincible foe.

Upon his retirement from the army Mr. Walker returned to Michigan and located in Detroit, where he was for a time employed by his uncle, William Walker, the virtual founder of the fine business enterprise of which the subject of this sketch is now the head. He later became concerned in lumbering opera- tions in Lapeer county, and there continued until his mill, at Fish Lake, was destroyed by fire, in 1883. His active career in connection with his present line of business in Detroit dates from the year 1883, and for the details

concerning the business of Walker & Company reference should be made to the article de- scriptive of the same, on other pages of this volume. Suffice it to say at this juncture that Mr. Walker has developed the enterprise into one of the most important of the sort in the Union.

Though never ambitious for public office, Mr. Walker has ever been signally true to the duties of citizenship. He is a valued member of the Detroit Lodge, No. 34, Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, while much of his social interest centers in his post of the Grand Army.

In March, 1875, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Walker to Miss Eva Bassett, daughter of Rev. Philo Bassett, who was a clergyman of the Baptist church, at that time a resident of Ovid, Clinton county, Michigan. The great loss and bereavement of Mr. Walker's life came on the 28th of July, 1900, when his cherished and devoted wife was sum- moned to the life eternal. She is survived by one son, Harry C., who is secretary and treas- urer of Walker & Company and who is indi- vidually mentioned in this publication.

FRED S. OSBORNE.

In connection with the promotion of capi- talistic enterprises of broad scope and impor- tance Mr. Osborne has been a potential factor, and he is now one of the leading stock brokers of Michigan, being the head and front of the firm of Fred S. Osborne & Company, of De- troit, and being recognized as one of the most progressive and public-spirited citizens of the metropolis of the state.

Mr. Osborne claims as the place of his na- tivity the Badger state, since he was born at Bloomington, Grant county, Wisconsin, on the 13th of May, 1867. He is a son of Aaron S. Osborne, producer and owner of extensive in- terests in Wisconsin, where he was a pioneer settler. His wife, whose maiden name was Virtue Sealy, was a representative of an old and honored family of the same state.

662

DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY

Fred Sealy Osborne attended the public schools of his native town until he had attained to the age of fifteen years, and he then initi- ated a business career which has been one of most significant success and prominence. At the age noted he entered the employ of George K. Sistare's Sons, general stock brokers, be- coming a clerk in the Detroit office of the firm and later being promoted to the position of cashier, of which office he remained incum- bent until 1888, when he resigned to accept the management of the brokerage business of J. V. Campbell & Company, of Detroit. Of this firm, which controls a very large and impor- tant business, Mr. Osborne still remains one of the interested principals, and it is largely due to his able efforts that its prestige is so secure and admirable and that its operations have been so successful. In 1897 Mr. Osborne was one of those interested in the purchase of the Baltic copper mine, at Houghton, Michi- gan. He has otherwise been identified with many important transfers and developments in connection with mineral properties in the upper peninsula of Michigan. In March, 1905, Mr. Osborne established his individual stock- brokerage business, under the title of Fred S. Osborne & Company, and to this en- terprise he has gained unmistakable priority, handling stocks and bonds of general order and controlling a very large business. He was a promoter of and is a stockholder in the Esperanza Cobalt Mines Company, organized in 1906, for the development of properties in Mexico and in Cobalt, Ontario, and incorpo- rated with a capital stock of one million dol- lars. He is also interested in copper, silver and other mining properties,-in Mexico, On- tario, Michigan and western states. His of- fices, in the Penobscot building, are the most commodious and sumptuously furnished of all similar offices in the city. Mr. Osborne holds membership in the Chicago Board of Trade, as well as the Chicago Mining Exchange. For a considerable period his firm was the only one in Michigan represented by membership in the New York Stock Exchange. He is a

valued member of the Detroit Board of Com- merce and is a member of each the Detroit Club and the Fellowcraft Club, besides being identified with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained to high degrees in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. In politics he gives his allegiance to the Republican party.

On the 22d of September, 1892, Mr. Os- borne was united in marriage to Miss Tessa A. Wight, daughter of Charles B. Wight, who was for many years a prominent hardware merchant of Holly, Michigan, and who died in Detroit in 1903.

ALEXANDER A. BOUTELL.

Manufacturer and man of affairs, president of the Detroit Graphite Company, of which he was the founder, and for the past thirty years prominently identified with the commercial ac- tivities of the city of Detroit, Alexander A. Boutell was born in Avoca, Steuben county, New York, on the 13th of January, 1840, and is a son of Samuel J. and Caroline (Billson) Boutell. Samuel Boutell, great-grandfather of Alexander A. Boutell, was a native of Mas- sachusetts colony, served as a soldier in the Continental line in the war of the Revolution, and later was a hotelkeeper and farmer near Bennington, Vermont. He served as justice of the peace and was a member of the Ver- mont legislature for thirty-three years. Sam- uel Boutell, Jr., father of Alexander A. Bou- tell, was born near Bennington, Vermont, in 1801. In 1824 he married Caroline Billson, born near Albany, New York,, of Holland Dutch descent. In the latter years of the war of 1812 he was a minute man. Four children were born to Samuel, Jr., and Caroline ( Bill- son) Boutell, namely: Henry S. Boutell; Hiram S. Boutell, of Ypsilanti, died in 1908; Alexander A. Boutell, subject of this sketch; and John A. Boutell, retired agriculturist of Howard, Elk county, Kansas.

Alexander A. Boutell received his early edu- cation in the schools of Monroe county, New York, and in 1853 removed with his parents

663

DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY

to Oakland county, Michigan, settling in High- land township. He completed his student life in the Milford Academy. On completion of his course in the academy he became a teacher, and during the winters of 1860-3, inclusive, was engaged in this occupation. In 1861 he enlisted in the First Michigan Lancers, but never saw service, being mustered out in 1862. In October, 1864, he was appointed clerk in the transportation division of the quartermas- ter's department of the Union army and as- signed for duty in Nashville, Tennessee. On conclusion of the war he returned to Michi- gan, and resumed teaching in Milford, Oak- land county. In 1866 he entered the Eastman National Business College, at Poughkeepsie, New York, graduating in the fall of that year. On completion of his course in the institution he was offered and accepted a position as one of the faculty, serving in the various depart- ments of the college until 1867, when he resigned and returned to Michigan.

Mr. Boutell initiated his commercial career in the city of Detroit in 1867, accepting a po- sition with the firm of I. Mowry & Company, manufacturers of tobacco. He was connected with this firm until 1874, first as manager of the sales department and in charge of cor- respondence, and upon the death of Mr. Mowry, as manager in closing out the busi- ness. In the latter year he became an inter- ested principal in the banking firm of Bowen & McGowan, of Coldwater, Michigan, retiring in 1876 and returning to Detroit, where he entered the employ of Walker, McGraw & Company, tobacco manufacturers, and was given charge of the office. In 1878 the Globe Tobacco Company was incorporated, succeed- ing the firm of Walker, McGraw & Company, and Mr. Boutell was elected secretary of the Globe Tobacco Company, of Windsor, Cana- da, a subsidiary organization for handling the Canadian business of the Detroit corpora- tion. His success in the management of this branch and the development of the territory in Canada resulted in his election by the board of directors of the Detroit company to the

office of secretary and treasurer and to his appointment as general manager. During his service with the company in these several ca- pacities he succeeded in developing a business which was one of the most extensive in the country and the company's name and prod- ucts were known throughout the United States and Canada. In 1888 Mr. Boutell became in- terested in the Baraga Graphite Company, owners of extensive graphite deposits in the upper peninsula of Michigan, and in order to protect his investments in this company he re- signed from the Globe Tobacco Company, and took charge of the affairs of the former com- pany, in which he was made secretary. In 1892 he organized the Detroit Graphite Com- pany, of which he is the present executive head, and was elected its first treasurer. In the last mentioned year he was elected secretary of the Detroit Chamber of Commerce, an of- fice in which he displayed his loyalty and pro- gressiveness as a citizen and which he filled with credit to himself and the commercial in- terests of the city. In 1896 he resigned the latter office in order to effect a reorganization of the Detroit Graphite Company, of which he became general manager. To his initiation of new policies and inauguration of new methods of business operation the enterprise owes its present successful standing. In 1907 the de- mands of the business had so far outgrown its limited capitalization that a further reorganiz- ation was made and its capital increased to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Mr. Boutell was elected president and general manager and has since continued in these dual capacities.

Political office has never appealed to him although he never neglects his civic duties and obligations, and while not an active partisan he takes a keen interest in the questions of the day and in the policies of the Republican party, of which he has been a life-long mem- ber. Mr. Boutell is president of the Mer- chants' & Manufacturers' Club of Detroit, and is a member of the Old Club, at St. Clair Flats,

664

DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY

the Detroit Club, the Detroit Boat Club and the Wayne Club.

On the 20th of July, 1868, Mr. Boutell mar- ried Miss Harriett Jane Carpenter, daughter of the late Horace Carpenter, of Ypsilanti. Mrs. Boutell died in Detroit, in December, 1906. They were the parents of one daughter : Alice May Boutell, who is a graduate of the literary department of the University of Mich- igan, and who is a woman of broad education and refinement and of decided literary ability.

In his business career, covering a period of some thirty years, and in the management of the various interests with which he has been connected, Mr. Boutell has by his fairness and courtesy advanced the prestige of those inter- ests, while through his foresight and indus- try he has constantly added to the value of the investment. He possesses initiative, construc- tive and executive talent of high order and his progressiveness and energy are in keeping.

WILLIAM W. HANNAN.

The interposition of the able, progressive and reliable real-estate dealer has greater influence than all other agencies in forwarding the ma- terial upbuilding and advancement of any city, and in this important field of operations no citizen of Detroit has to his credit greater ac- complishment and prestige than Mr. Hannan, who is general manager and treasurer of the Detroit Realty Company, which company owns and controls the following apartment houses : The Pasadena, the Lenox, and the Madison. Mr. Hannan's chief business for twenty-five years has been exclusive real-estate business. He is distinctively one of Detroit's representa- tive business men, and his standing in public confidence and esteem is of the most impreg- nable order.

The old Empire state of the Union figures as the native heath of Mr. Hannan, since he was born in the city of Rochester, New York, on the 4th of July, 1854. William W. Han- nan was about two years of age at the time when his parents took up their residence in

Dowagiac, Michigan, in whose public schools he received his early educational discipline, including a course in the high school, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1873. In 1876 he pursued a preparatory course in Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, after which he was matriculated in the literary de- partment of the University of Michigan, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1880, receiving the degree of Bach- elor of Arts. After thus completing his academic course he entered the law depart- ment of the university, and here he was grad- uated in 1883, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Within his college course he organ- ized excursions to various summer resorts in the state and through this means he realized considerable profit, using his funds to continue his educational work. As collegian he was well known in athletic circles, and he made especially good record as a sprinter.

In 1881-3 Mr. Hannan served as engrossing clerk of the house of representatives of the state legislature. In 1883, prior to his grad- uation in the law department of the university, he was admitted to the bar of the state, upon examination before the Washtenaw circuit court. After the close of the legislative ses- sion of that year Mr. Hannan came to Detroit and established himself in the practice of his profession, in which he associated himself with Judge William L. Carpenter, under the firm name of Carpenter & Hannan. This alli- ance continued for a year, at the expiration of which Mr. Hannan virtually withdrew from the work of his profession to enter the field of enterprise in which he has since attained to splendid success and precedence. He formed a partnership with the late Herbert M. Snow, under the title of the Hannan & Snow Com- pany, and engaged in the real-estate business. Within the same year (1883), however, this partnership was dissolved and he then founded the Hannan Real Estate Exchange, through which he gave his attention principally to the handling of subdivision properties for a num- ber of years. This concern grew to be the

665

DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY

most important of its kind in the state, and its operations have been amplified to include a general fire-insurance and loan business. Mr. Hannan has continued the executive head of the Hannan Real Estate Exchange, has or- dered its affairs with consummate discrimina- tion and ability and is recognized as an au- thority on real-estate values in Detroit and its environs. The operations of the exchange have been of most extensive and important order, including the opening and improving of sev- eral subdivisions to the city and the erection of a number of the largest and finest apartment buildings in Detroit. In an individual way also Mr. Hannan has erected several apart- ment buildings, which he still owns. Not fewer than five of these great apartment build- ings have been erected by this firm, and the expenditure in this connection was more than a million dollars. Each year also have been erected a large number of houses, which have been sold on the installment plan. Mr. Han- nan's operations in the local real-estate field within the past twenty-five years have ex- ceeded in scope and importance those of any other individual, and he has been a leading factor in promoting the upbuilding of the larger and greater Detroit. From an attrac- tive brochure entitled "Detroit-Illustrative and Descriptive," issued in the spring of 1908, are taken the following appreciative statements concerning Mr. Hannan :

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, Part 106

Author: Burton, Clarence Monroe, 1853-1932 Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago H. Taylor & Co. Number of Pages: 858

Author: Burton, Clarence Monroe, 1853-1932
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 858