USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 107
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"His onward march as a real-estate operator has been a veritable march of triumph, marked by the following achievements: The deal whereby the Ford interests of Toledo bought the land on the corner of Griswold and Con- gress streets and began the erection of the eighteen-story Ford building, which is now completed and is the finest office building in the city; the sale of the Hammond building ; the sale of the Hodges building; the erection and management of the finest and best con- ducted group of apartment buildings in the country,-the Pasadena, the Lenox and the Madison; the handling of a score of subdivision properties in the north and northeastern sec-
tions of the city, embracing Park Hill, the banner subdivision of Detroit; that more per- sons have secured the beginning of their homes through him than any other source; that he now ranks as one of the leading factors in the construction of apartment buildings west of New York; and for all that, as an exponent of good in the uplifting or betterment of Detroit and her environments, he stands second to none. In brief, he is of that character that can not fail to make its impress upon whatever enterprise or community with which it comes in contact, and to the benefit of that enterprise or community."
For eight years Mr. Hannan has served as a member of the Detroit board of estimates, holding the office of president during one term, with great credit to himself and entire satis- faction to the city's welfare.
In politics Mr. Hannan is arrayed as a staunch supporter of the principles of the Re- publican party; he is identified with the Ma- sonic fraternity ; and holds membership in the Detroit Club, the Country Club, and other so- cial and business organizations. His public spirit and progressive ideas have borne much fruit in connection with the advancement of Detroit along industrial and general material lines.
WALTER S. HARSHA.
Success in any profession, in any line of occupation, is not a matter of spontaneity ; but represents the result of the application of definite subjective forces and the controlling of objective agencies in such a way as to achieve desired ends. As an official of the United States circuit court as well as a member of the legal profession, Mr. Harsha has enjoyed for many years a reputation which well exemplifies the truth of the foregoing statements. He is also an interested principal in several financial, industrial and commercial enterprises of the city and state and is one of the distinctively representative citizens of Detroit. Progressive and energetic in the conduct of his official du- ties and in the management of his varied com-
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mercial interests, loyal and public-spirited as a distinct individuality. He has found time, citizen, he holds a secure position in the confi- dence and esteem of the community and has contributed in large measure to the advance- ment of the city.
Walter S. Harsha was born in Detroit, Michigan, on the 15th of June, 1849, and is the only surviving child of the late William and Mary Ann (Cook) Harsha, personal mention of whom precedes this article. Mr. Harsha received his early education in the schools of his native city, subsequently prepared for col- lege, and entered the literary department of the University of Michigan, in which he was graduated Bachelor of Arts in the class of 1871. In 1875 he was further honored by his alma mater, which then conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. In June, 1871, he was appointed deputy clerk of the recor- der's court of the city of Detroit, retaining that position about two years. Upon the es- tablishment of the superior court of Detroit, on June 3, 1873, the county clerk being ex officio clerk of said court, Mr. Harsha was ap- pointed deputy clerk and vested with full power of organization of the court. During his in- cumbency of this position he read law with the late C. I. Walker, and he was admitted to the bar on the 5th of January, 1878. On the Ist of January, 1879, he was appointed deputy in charge of the Wayne county clerk's office, a position which he filled with credit and in which he remained for two and one-half years. The systems originated by him for the conduct of the business of the Wayne circuit and the recorder's courts of Detroit are still in use and remain practically unrevised.
On the 6th of June, 1882, Mr. Harsha was appointed to his present position, that of clerk of the circuit court of the United States for the eastern district of Michigan. During the twenty-six years in which he has filled this position the results of his labors have been such as would give precedence and reputation to any man, were they to represent the sum total of his achievements; but Mr. Harsha is a man of broad mentality, strong initiative and
aside from his official duties, in which to take an active part in the commercial development of the city and state, and has also contributed much time and labor in the elaboration of a scheme of practice for courts and in the re- vision of legal forms. On the Ist of April, 1886, Mr. Harsha was appointed United States commissioner for the eastern district of Mich- igan, the appointment being made by Hon. Henry B. Brown, then United States district judge. Mr. Harsha served under this appoint- ment until 1905, when a change in the law relative to the appointments for this office was made and under the new law he was appointed for a further term, by Judge Henry M. Swan. In his capacity as commissioner there are held before him all preliminary hearings in criminal cases for violations of the United States laws.
Upon the establishment of the United States court of appeals, in 1891, he elaborated a scheme for practice with rules for its conduct, which were submitted to and approved by the United States supreme court, and upon rec- ommendation by this court were duly adopted by all of said courts of appeals throughout the country. A uniform system of practice was thus established and up to the present time it remains practically unchanged. In recogni- tion of this valuable service Mr. Harsha was appointed clerk of the United States circuit court of appeals for the sixth circuit, with clerk's office at Cincinnati, Ohio. He remained incumbent of this position, while still perform- ing the duties of clerk of the circuit court at Detroit, until October 2, 1894, when he re- signed the Cincinnati office. For a number of years he gave a large portion of his time to the revision of legal forms in use in Michi- gan,-the permanent value of which work is inestimable,-and to the annotating of some volumes of Michigan supreme-court reports, which work was subsequently completed by others. In 1886 he edited and published "An- notated Federal Court Rules," a work which has had a successful sale, its circulation being general throughout the United States, while
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the legal profession has extended to it the highest commendation.
Mr. Harsha has valuable commercial inter- ests in St. Clair, Michigan, being president of the Oakland Hotel Company, the Oakland Heights Land Company, and the Salutaris Water Company, all of that city. He was one of the organizers of the Michigan Savings Bank of Detroit, in which he remained a stock- holder for thirty years. He is a director in Woodlawn Cemetery, of Detroit, and a stock- holder in a number of financial, industrial and commercial corporations of the city and state. Mr. Harsha is a Royal Arch Mason, a mem- ber of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, the University Club, the Detroit Club, the Coun- try Club, the Detroit Boat Club, and Mich- igan Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.
On the 18th of January, 1881, Mr. Harsha married Miss Isabella Mott, daughter of the late Asa Mott, of Montreal, Canada. Mrs. Harsha is a woman of broad culture and re- finement and the family residence, on Peter- boro street, is known for the gracious hospi- tality extended to a large circle of friends. The family have been long and favorably known in the best social circles of the city.
Mr. Harsha is in all respects a high type of the conservative, unassuming American, dili- gent in his official duties and commercial affairs and conscientious in all things.
FREDERICK P. SPRAGUE, M. D.
One of the representative physicians and surgeons of Wayne county is Dr. Frederick P. Sprague, who is engaged in the practice of his profession in Detroit and Wyandotte, and who has built up a large and important business in the work of his chosen and exacting vocation.
Dr. Sprague finds no little satisfaction in that he is able to revert to the old Empire state of the Union as the place of his nativity. He was born at the city of Elmira, Chemung county, New York, on the 23d of May, 1868, and is the third son of Edward P. and Maxi-
milia (Morris) Sprague. The Sprague family was founded in America by Francis Sprague, who was born and reared in England and who came to the New World in company with En- dicott, Miles Standish, John Alden, and others of the fine old Puritan stock which settled in New England and laid broad and deep the foundation for much of our national pros- perity and power. Francis Sprague was an intimate friend and associate of these historic characters and was a man of prominence and influence in his community, where he took a proper part in the administration of the affairs of the colony and lived a life of signal useful- ness and honor.
Each generation since has played an impor- tant and useful part in the progressive devel- opment of the nation, both in public life and private business and professional pursuits. The family has been well represented in De- troit and its vicinity. The late venerable and loved Rev. Dr. Isaac Newton Sprague, grand- father of the subject of this sketch, was born in 1801, at Poultney, Vermont, the second son of Daniel Sprague, one of the state's solid men. Rev. Dr. Sprague preached almost contin- uously from 1822, the time of his graduation, until he retired, in 1886. He was one of the famous pulpit orators of his day and an untir- ing opponent of slavery during the troublous times when the traffic in slaves was the para- mount national issue. It was through him that Henry Ward Beecher obtained his charge at Plymouth church. He was twenty times elected moderator of the Presbyterian synod of New Jersey, and in 1876, intending to re- tire, he moved to Detroit, where he resided with his distinguished son, Colonel Thomas Spencer Sprague. But he did not long re- main inactive. At that time the Presbyterian church of Wyandotte was feeble and strug- gling, and he took charge of the pulpit, re- fusing a salary, and by his energy and good- ness he succeeded in building up a substantial parish, donating very largely of his own pos- sessions and building a parish house and chapel. The year 1886 marked his retirement
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from the toil he loved so well, and he pur- chased an estate in his native town in Ver- mont, where he died in 1896, aged ninety-six .years.
Colonel Thomas Spencer Sprague, uncle of Dr. Sprague, of this review, long resided in the city of Detroit. He was in command of one of the Michigan regiments during the civil war,-a regiment equipped almost en- tirely from his private purse. Together with his brother, Charles H., he founded the Detroit Tribune, in the early '40s. For many years Colonel Sprague eminently conducted the prac- tice of law, and although he died nearly twenty years ago his memory still commands the esteem of his fellow citizens, while the law firm of which he was the head for many years still retains his name. The beautiful brass pul- pit in Emmanuel Episcopal church was his do- nation in memory of his deceased wife.
Edward Payson Sprague, youngest son of Rev. I. N. Sprague, is the father of Dr. Sprague. He was born in New York city in 1837 and graduated at the New York Col- legiate Institute at the age of fourteen. When about fifteen years old he came to Detroit to study architecture, and assisted in designing and erecting the city hall, and many other pub- lic buildings, churches and private edifices. During this time he had been making a care- ful study of the pipe organ. He soon became so proficient on this instrument that it brought him national fame. Soon afterward Mr. Sprague took up the study of the voice and he was later accorded the degree of Doctor of Music by a New York institution. He has been organist of Brooklyn Trinity and many other of the largest churches throughout the country. In Detroit he has officiated at the First Baptist, First Congregational, Wood- ward Avenue Congregational, and the Simp- son and Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian churches. He was one of the best known or- ganists in the east, and his fame as an har- monist and improvisor is widespread. For many years Mr. Sprague has been engaged in teaching voice, in which profession he has
gained a broad reputation as the successful tutor of many famous stage singers.
Not less prominent in its gifts to the prog- ress of civilization is the doctor's maternal an- cestry. His mother, Maximilia Morris, was born in Malden, West Virginia, in 1845, one of the beautiful daughters of William Morris, a business man of prominence and wealth and the inventor of the now indispensable artesian- well drill. The Morris family of Virginia has been conspicuous in its service to the nation ever since Robert Morris, the founder of the family in America, first stepped upon its beau- tiful shores as one of the Pilgrims of the May- flower. In the war of Independence and dur- ing the regeneration of the nation the Morris family has been prominently represented.
Frederick -P. Sprague, the immediate sub- ject of this review, was about ten years of age at the time of his parents' removal from New York state to Detroit, and in the schools of the Michigan metropolis he gained his early educational discipline. He was graduated from the Detroit schools as a member of the class of 1881. In the same year he secured a clerical position in the offices of Hammond, Standish & Company, wholesale dealers in meats and provisions, and he continued in the employ of this well known Detroit concern until 1883. In the year 1884 he became an assistant in the office of the Germania Oil Company, of Detroit, of which his father was an interested principal, and in 1885-6 he was cashier in the wholesale jewelry establishment of Eugene Deimel, of Detroit. In 1888 Dr. Sprague made a radical change in his occupa- tion and brought into play his distinctive mu- sical talent. He engaged in teaching banjo music and also made a tour of the country as an expert performer on this instrument, being identified with star courses and visiting the principal cities of the Union. He became one of the most widely known and popular public banjoists in the country, and he continued in musical work of the order noted from the year 1888 to 1893.
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Dr. Sprague began the study of medicine in 1890, in Cleveland, Ohio, where he had an able preceptor, Dr. Gustav C. E. Webber. In 1893 he entered the medical department of the University of Wooster, Ohio, and in this in- stitution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1896, in which year he duly received his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. In June of the same year he located in Wyan- dotte, one of the prosperous suburbs of De- troit, and here his success in the work of his profession has been of unequivocal order, im- plying a support of representative character and a personal popularity of unmistakable sort. The Doctor is an appreciative member of the American Medical Association, the Michigan State Medical Society, and the Wayne County Medical Society. He is held in high esteem by his professional confreres in Wayne county and is a zealous devotee of his profession, of whose best literature he is a close student, keeping constantly in touch with the advances made in both medicine and surgery. He is a medical examiner for the Equitable Life In- surance Company, of New York; is consult- ing surgeon for the Preferred Accident Asso- ciation, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; is grand medical director of the Grand Lodge K. E. P .; and is medical examiner for the Knights of Pythias and the Maccabees of the World. He is, as may be inferred, a member of each of the fraternal organizations mentioned. The Doctor is also surgeon of the First Michigan Independent Infantry, with which he holds the rank of captain. In 1901 he was selected as surgeon for the contingent of Canadian troops to be sent to South Africa for service in the Boer war, but the war ended before the troops were ordered to the scene of conflict and he resigned his commission. The Doctor is fond of the automobile and the motor boat, and through these finds his chief diversion from the cares and exactions of his professional work. In politics he gives his allegiance to the Republican party. Dr. Sprague was early in life attracted to the Episcopal church. As a boy he sang in the choir of Trinity church,
and in 1880 was confirmed in St. John's church, of Detroit.
On the 25th of June, 1898, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Sprague to Miss Cora Elsie Butts, and they have one daughter, Ethel Phoebe Ruth, who was born on the 22d day of June, 1899.
Dr. Sprague is one of a family of nine, four of whom died in early youth. His four living brothers, two of whom were born in Detroit, have all achieved success in their various call- ings. The eldest, William Spencer, is now manager of a large retail store in Cincinnati, Ohio. Louis Waldemar is a celebrated pianist and teacher of piano and theory. He heads conservatories of music in Cincinnati, Dayton and Springfield, Ohio. Isaac Newton is sec- retary and treasurer of the Columbus Citizen, a Columbus daily newspaper. Richard Mal- lory is a well known lawyer, practicing at the Detroit bar.
JAMES WILKIE.
Of all the manifold agencies that have con- tributed to the industrial and commercial up- building of the city of Detroit and have car- ried her fame throughout the civilized world, none can claim precedence of Parke, Davis & Company, manufacturing chemists and phar- macists, whose institution is uniformly con- ceded to be the most extensive of its kind in existence and whose great home plant is a source of pride to Detroit and of interest to all who make a survey of the industrial concerns of the Michigan metropolis. Of this gigantic plant the subject of this sketch is mechanical superintendent, and as a skilled mechanician and versatile inventor he has done much to forward the success of the enterprise with which he is thus connected.
Mr. Wilkie is a native son of the city of Detroit, where he was born on the 23d of No- vember, 1853, and he is a son of David and Elizabeth (Buick) Wilkie, both of whom were born and reared in Scotland, being representa- tives of sturdy old families of that historic
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land. They came to America in 1852 and soon after their arrival took up their residence in Detroit. David Wilkie had learned in his native land the trade of tinsmith, and in De- troit he readily found employment at this vo- cation, having been identified with various leading hardware establishments and finally having established himself in the same line of business on Gratiot avenue, where he built up a prosperous trade. He later removed to a more eligible location, on Michigan avenue, where he continued in business until about 1898, when he retired. He died in July, 1907. His devoted wife passed to the life eternal in 1888, and of their children five are living.
James Wilkie gained his early educational discipline in the public schools of Detroit, and it is worthy of note that he entered the Bishop school on the first day that it was opened for school work. At the age of eleven years he entered upon an apprenticeship at the tinsmith's trade, under the effective direction of his father, and he became an expert artisan in this line. In 1869 he secured employment at his trade in the hardware establishment of Glover & Powell, and when this firm was succeeded by T. B. Rayl & Company, he continued with the latter well known concern, becoming fore- man and finally superintendent of its tin and sheet-iron department. In 1878 he was pro- moted to the position of salesman in the house- furnishing and stove department, and fron 1887 until 1891 he had charge of this depart- ment. He also acquired an interest in the business, and upon the incorporation of the T. B. Rayl Company he continued as one of its stockholders. He disposed of his interest in the business in 1897.
In 1891, in company with his father-in-law, John L. Warren, who had previously been connected with the pharmaceutical works of Frederick Stearns & Company, Mr. Wilkie became one of the organizers of the Warren Capsule Company. Prior to this he had be- come somewhat interested in the inventing of devices for the improvement of capsule-making machinery, and after the formation of the
Warren Capsule Company he continued to make careful investigation and experimentation along the same line, with the result that he devised and put into practical use many im- proved appliances. This concern was event- ually consolidated with the Michigan Capsule Company and the National Capsule Company. of Indianapolis, under the title of the United Capsule Company. This amalgamation of im- portant interests occurred in 1893 and with the new concern Mr. Wilkie continued as a stockholder and held the office of superintend- ent and manager. In 1895 an arrangement was made with Parke, Davis & Company, who erected near their plant in Detroit a building in which the United States Capsule Company installed its machinery. The latter company operated the plant and twenty-five per cent. of the product was utilized by Parke, Davis & Company, while the remainder was sold to the general trade outside. Mr. Wilkie was not only a stockholder in the business but also assumed the office of superintendent of the plant, of which he became general manager in 1901, as successor of Charles Stephens. In the autumn of the same year this plant and business were purchased by Parke, Davis & Company, and under the new regime Mr. Wilkie was retained in general supervision. In 1902 the plant of H. A. Hubel, the pioneer in the manufacturing of capsules in Detroit, was likewise purchased by Parke, Davis & Company, and in the following year the ma- chinery was removed from this plant and in- stalled in that of the company mentioned. It may be noted incidentally that at the present time the output of the Parke, Davis & Com- pany plant comprises seventy-five per cent. of all the capsules manufactured in the world.
The machines utilized in the manufacture of these indispensable containers of medicine are all automatic, and one of the machines does a work which demanded the service of a number of operatives by the old hand methods. A great improvement is also made in the quality of the product, which is absolutely clean and antiseptic and free from any pos-
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sible defect. One machine cuts and then joins the two sections of the capsules and counts them into boxes, ready for the market. An- other machine opens the two parts and throws out such as are defective, after which it pro- ceeds to fill them with the desired medicinal preparation, joints them together again and counts them into boxes, ready for the drug- gist. The latest improved machines in use in this department of the great industry of Parke, Davis & Company are the invention of Mr. Wilkie and were constructed under his direct supervision in the machine shops of the institution. These improvements have made possible a reduction of seventy-five per cent. in the selling price of capsules within the past twenty years, and have made Parke, Davis & Company the dominant manufacturers in the capsule trade.
In 1907 Mr. Wilkie perfected and installed a process for the manufacturing of capsules during the warm months of the year,-a period during which the work had previously been necessarily brought to a practical standstill, the factory being shut down on account of the heat and humidity, which rendered it impos- sible to handle and form the gelatine, which could not be sufficiently dried. This caused the laying off of a valuable force of employes, many of whom could not be again secured when needed. Mr. Wilkie was allowed by the company to perfect and put in operation his new system, and he accomplished the work with unqualified success,-a work of inesti- mable value in connection with this depart- ment of manufacture. The gelatine room is sixty by ninety feet in dimensions and is arti- ficially maintained at a temperature of seventy- six degrees Fahrenheit, and with this provision the work can proceed without interruption during the entire heated term of the summer.
The machine shops of the plant are also under the direct supervision of Mr. Wilkie, and in this department employment is given to twenty-five expert artisans and fifty regular mechanics. Here is constructed all the ma- chinery utilized in the entire plant and here
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