USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 114
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CHARLES H. JACOBS.
Charles Huntington Jacobs was the second of six children of the late Nathaniel P. and Catherine M. Jacobs. His father at the time of his birth was a large wholesale grocer and
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President of the Common Council of Detroit. Somewhat later he was appointed Consul Gen- eral of the United States at Calcutta, India, where he served with distinction for ten years .. Mr. Jacobs is a graduate of the Cass School, the Detroit Central High School and of the literary department of the University of Mich- igan, from which he obtained his degree of Bachelor of Arts at the age of nineteen years.
Upon leaving college Mr. Jacobs entered the hardware jobbing business of Buhl Sons & Company, becoming a partner in 1888. In the same year Mr. Theodore D. Buhl organized the Buhl Stamping Company, of which Mr. Ja- cobs was made Vice-President, and in 1892 he became its active Manager. During the fifteen years which he retained this position the con- cern grew from a factory of local reputation with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars to one of national repute, with a paid-up capital and surplus of four hundred thousand dollars.
In 1907 Mr. Jacobs resigned his position of Manager, but is still a director of the Stamp- ing Company and also Vice-President and a director of the Detroit Meter Company, a stockholder of the Michigan Brass & Copper Company, the Old Detroit National Bank and the Security Trust Company. He has pur- chased an orange ranch of two hundred and eighty-seven acres in Ojai valley, near Nord- hoff, California, which is his present residence and place of business.
When asked what he considered his best work, Mr. Jacobs replied, "The foundation of the Detroit High School Scholarship Fund." For the past sixteen years Mr. Jacobs has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees of this fund, through the beneficence of which forty- five graduates of the Detroit High Schools have been enabled to secure an education at the University of Michigan. Twenty-eight thousand three hundred and forty-four dollars has been loaned to these students, of which fifteen thousand seven hundred and twenty-one dollars has been repaid, and the total expense of administering this fund since its establish- ment in 1891 has been only one hundred and
fifty-one dollars and eighty-three cents. The plans devised to secure the return of money loaned from this fund were unique and have been widely copied in many cities.
In politics Mr. Jacobs is a low-tariff Repub- lican. He is a member of St. Paul's Episcopal church, of the Detroit Club, Country Club and Detroit Boat Club, also of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity, Sons of the American Revolution and American Gas Institute.
In spite of his close application to business Mr. Jacobs has traveled extensively through every state in the Union and many foreign countries.
Mr. Jacobs' family consists of his wife,- who was Miss Mary Hubbard, daughter of the late Bela Hubbard, Esq.,-two sons and two daughters. A third son was drowned in 1905 while a sophomore at Harvard University.
THOMAS BARLUM.
A sterling and well known citizen and pio- neer business man of Detroit is he whose name initiates this article. He is the founder of the firm of Thomas Barlum & Sons, wholesale and retail dealers in meats and manufacturers of pork products, and to his indefatigable energy, wise management and correct methods is due the upbuilding of the fine enterprise controlled by this firm, though he initiated operations upon a most modest scale. A description of the business appears on other pages of this work.
Thomas Barlum was born in Ireland, in the year 1835, and is a son of Michael Barlum, a representative of fine old Irish stock. In 1841 Michael Barlum immigrated with his family to America and took up his residence in Detroit, where he entered the employ of the Michigan Central Railroad Company, with which he re- mained, in various departments of service, dur- ing the residue of his active life. He and his wife continued to reside in Detroit until their death. Both were devout communicants of the Catholic church.
The subject of this sketch was about six
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years of age at the time of the family removal from the Emerald Isle to America, and he was reared to manhood in Detroit, where he at- tended parochial schools as a boy, his educa- tional advantages being somewhat limited. His alert mentality, however, developed sym- metrically under the discipline of business life and he has gained a wide fund of practical knowledge and is an able and discriminating business man. Mr. Barlum entered the em- ploy of the late Martin Flannigan, who con- ducted a retail meat market, and he in due time familiarized himself with the details of the business in which he has personally attained to such definite success and prestige. He finally rented a stall in the historic old Central Mar- ket, which stood on Cadillac Square, in the very heart of the business center, and there he con- ducted a successful retail meat business until the demolition of the market building, when he secured place in the new market building, at the corner of Bates street and Cadillac Square. Here the firm still has a market, in addition to the finely equipped manufacturing and whole- sale and retail establishment in the Barlum building, at the corner of Grand River avenue and Fifth street. The history of the develop- ment of the fine business of the firm of Thomas Barlum & Sons is given in a specific article in these pages, as has already been stated. With the increase of his capitalistic resources, Mr. Barlum began to make judicious investments in Detroit realty, and no citizen has shown more confidence in the development of the "Greater Detroit" than has he. He erected the Barlum flat building at the location noted, uti- lizing the basement and ground floor for his business establishment, and in 1905 he and his sons purchased the market building occupied by them at the corner of Bates street and Cad- illac Square. He is also associated with his eldest son, John J., and with William B. Thompson and others, in the ownership of the hotel property, on the corner opposite from the market building last mentioned. This latter property has been extensively remodeled, at an expenditure of fully fifty thousand dollars, and
is one of the valuable properties in the center of the city. Mr. Barlum is also the owner of other valuable real estate in the city which has been his home from his boyhood days. He is a heavy stockholder in the Stewart Transpor- tation Company and the Postal Transportation Company, both engaged in lake-marine freight traffic, and is a stockholder in the Peninsular Savings Bank, of which he was a director for several years.
In his political proclivities Mr. Barlum is a stalwart Democrat, and while he has often been importuned to become a candidate for local office of a public nature he has invariably re- fused to permit the consideration of his name in this connection. He and his family are com- municants of the Catholic church and he is affiliated with the Catholic Mutual Benefit As- sociation, the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
Mr. Barlum was united in marriage to Miss Bridget McNamara, who was born in Ireland, whence she came to America with her parents when she was a child. Of the children of this most felicitous union the following brief data are given: Katherine is the wife of Charles F. Beilman, of Detroit; John J. is individually mentioned in this work; Anna F. is the wife of George B. Greening, of Detroit; Agnes is the wife of Harry J. Fox; Cora is the wife of Tyler Packer, a well known carriage dealer in the city of Saginaw; Ellen is the wife of George Finn; and Thomas J. and Louis P. are members of the firm of Thomas Barlum & Sons. The subject of this sketch now lives practically retired, but he still retains a general supervision of his varied business and capi- talistic interests. He has achieved success and independence through worthy means and is well entitled to the respect and confidence so uniformly accorded him.
FRED POSTAL.
Through definite accomplishment along vari- ous lines it has been the fortune of Mr. Postal
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to come prominently into the white light of publicity, and he has not only made a high reputation for enterprise and public spirit, but has also gained a wide acquaintanceship and distinctive popularity, emphasized by his suc- cess in divers fields of endeavor. Of late ac- complishments none has brought to him more commendation and honor than the able efforts he has put forth and the generalship he has manifested in connection with the Michigan State Fair Association, of which he was re- elected president at the time of the magnifi- cently successful fair in the autumn of 1907, being re-elected in 1908. He is also president of the board of poor commissioners of the city of Detroit and is senior member of the firm of Postal & Morey, proprietors of the Griswold House and the Oriental Hotel, two of the leading hostelries of the Michigan metropolis. Perfervid public spirit animates Mr. Postal and among those manifesting a helpful interest in the promotion of the "Greater Detroit" he is especially entitled to consideration.
In 1902 the firm of Postal & Morey, while still continuing in control of the Griswold House, expanded its scheme of hotel opera- tions in a noteworthy way, securing from Ga- briel Cheira the lease of the Oriental Hotel, on Farrar street, opposite the Detroit public library. This fine property, of thoroughly modern construction and equipped with as ele- gant a system of Turkish and other special bath rooms as can be found in Detroit, had been conducted at a loss for several years, but under the regime inaugurated by Postal & Morey it has been placed on a substantial and remunerative financial basis and is recognized as one of the most attractive and popular hotels for men only to be found in the west. It is needless to say, in view of the statements already entered, that the subject of this sketch has gained a position as one of the representa- tive hotel men of the United States.
The ambition and energy of Mr. Postal have led him into other fields of activity, however, and these have been in character far removed from that pertaining to hotel management. In
1902 he manifested the versatility of his genius by securing a franchise in the American base- ball league for the city of Washington, and he was the chief owner of the base ball club put into the field by the national capital from that year forward until 1905, when he retired from this special line of enterprise, after having made an excellent record in an executive ca- pacity under his franchise. In 1905 he was elected president of the Michigan State Fair Association, and by re-election in 1906 and 1907 he has since remained incumbent of this office. The work he has accomplished in this position has gained to him the strongest com- mendation and endorsement on the part of those primarily interested, as well as emanat- ing from state officials and the general public, for he has been unflagging in his efforts, to which is largely due the magnificent success which has attended the annual state fairs in Detroit under his regime, especially those of 1907 and 1908. The fairs of the association are now eminently creditable to the state and afford to its people many valuable privileges and distinctive pleasures. In 1901 Hon. Will- iam C. Maybury, mayor of Detroit, appointed Mr. Postal a member of the city board of poor commissioners, for a term of four years, the distinction being the greater from the fact that he is a staunch Republican and thus, in a parti- san way, at variance with the administration. In 1905 he was reappointed by Mayor Codd for a further term of four years, and he has served as president of the board for two terms. As a member of this important board Mr. Postal has not figured in any sense as a super- numerary or nominal official, but has taken a very deep interest in the work of his depart- ment of the municipal service,-a work which is significantly humanitarian in its functions. . Aside from his hotel interests Mr. Postal has made judicious investments in the stock of manufacturing concerns and also in real estate. No citizen of Detroit takes more zealous in- terest in the development of its commercial and industrial supremacy; and his civic loyalty is shown by the exerting of his influence in the
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upbuilding of the larger and greater city. He fluential citizens of his community and con- has achieved marked personal success, but is fully appreciative of the intrinsic opportunities which Detroit has offered and of which he availed himself.
In 1885 Mr. Postal was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Southworth, daughter of Leonard Southwort, of Evart, Michigan, and they have four children,-Harry F. and Charles L., who are students in the Michigan Military Academy, at Orchard Lake; and Mar- gery B. and Dorothy, who are attending school in Detroit.
JAMES E. BURGESS, M. D.
Dr. Burgess has practically retired from the practice of his profession, in which he attained to distinctive prestige and success, and is de- voting his time and attention to his various capitalistic interests. He was born at Wood- stock, province of Ontario, Canada, and is one of the many progressive citizens which the do- minion has contributed to Detroit. He is a son of Joseph L. and Harriet (Rounds) Burgess, both of whom were likewise born and reared in Ontario, where the respective families were early established. The founder of the Burgess family in America was Edward Burgess, who was born in England, whence he immigrated to the New World in 1770, becoming the owner of a large landed estate in the vicinity of the city of New York. At the inception of the war of the Revolution he remained loyal to the English crown and became a member of the United Empire Loyalist Society. In 1776, by reason of the attitude assumed by the colonists, he felt impelled to take up his residence in St. John, New Brunswick, and in that locality he became the owner of a fine landed estate. His real-estate holdings near New York were con- fiscated by the United States government at the conclusion of the war and he received no com- pensation for the same. His son Edward, Jr., grandfather of the subject of this review, be- came a pioneer settler of Oxford county, On- tario, where Burgess Lake was named in his honor. He was one of the prominent and in-
tinued to reside in Oxford county until his death. His son Joseph L., father of the Doc- tor, well upheld the prestige of the family name and was a man of marked intellectuality and distinctive business acumen. In early life he was a successful teacher and eventually he became one of the leading general merchants at Drumbo, Ontario, where he dealt extensively in butter, cheese, apples and general farm produce, for which he exchanged his merchan- dise. He was the first postmaster of the town, was imbued with the highest principles of in- tegrity and wielded much influence in local affairs of a public nature. He died in Drumbo, in 1893.
Dr. James E. Burgess secured his early edu- cational training in the public schools of Drumbo and later completed a course in Wood- stock College, in his native village, being there graduated as a member of the class of 1885. After leaving this institution he was employed for some time as a salesman in his father's store, and in the meanwhile began reading medicine under effective preceptorship. He later became traveling representative for J. C. Cochrane & Company, publishers of financial journals, and incidentally had charge of the firm's advertising for Michigan, Ohio, New York and Ontario. In 1889 he resumed the study of medicine, having as his preceptor Dr. O. Taylor, a leading physician and surgeon of Princeton, Ontario, and in 1890 he was ma- triculated in the Michigan College of Medicine, Detroit, where he completed the prescribed technical course and was graduated in 1893, duly receiving his well earned degree of Doc- tor of Medicine. He forthwith established himself in the practice of his profession in De- troit, and his novitiate was of brief duration, since he soon built up a large and representa- tive general practice in the northeastern sec- tion of the city, where he gained precedence of all others in the numerical strength of his pro- fessional clientage. From 1897 until 1902 Dr. Burgess served as health officer of the village of Hamtramck, and he accomplished a most
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successful work in the improving of the sani- tary conditions of the locality and in the gen- eral protection of the public health. He also became an active member of the American Medical Association, the Michigan State Medi- cal Society, and the Wayne County Medical Society, besides serving as medical examiner for the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany, the Canada Life Insurance Company, the Ideal Reserve Insurance Company, and the In- dependent Order of Foresters, in which last he was for eight years court physician for Court Kirby, at Hamtramck.
In December, 1905, Dr. Burgess retired from the practice of his profession, and in the fol- lowing month was elected treasurer of the Northwestern Foundry & Supply Company, in which he had purchased a large stock interest. He has shown much initiative and executive ability along commercial lines and is recognized as a thoroughly progressive business man. He is the owner of extensive mining interests, being president and general manager of the Spider Lake Mining Company, which owns and operates valuable property in the Parry Sound mining district of Canada. These prop- erties are showing excellent productions of gold, silver and copper, and the development has been pushed forward most successfully, very rich veins of ore having been opened and the property controlled being one of the best in the district. The Doctor is also the owner of about fifteen hundred acres of land in Ne- waygo county, Michigan, and the same is being rapidly developed into most productive farms. In politics he has been aligned as a stalwart supporter of the principles and policies of the Republican party, in whose cause he was a most active and effective worker until the exi- gencies of his business interests placed so great demands upon his time. The attractive family home is located at 1831 Woodward avenue, and the same is a center of gracious hospitality. Dr. Burgess still retains a deep interest in the profession in which he gained so large and gratifying success and has not permitted him- self to lapse in the matter of keeping in touch
with the advances made in the sciences of medi- cine and surgery.
In October, 1889, was solemnized the mar- riage of Dr. Burgess to Miss Gladys H. Franch, daughter of William F. Franch, a leading general merchandise dealer at Wolver- ton, Ontario, and a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of Oxford county, where he is the owner of a large amount of valuable realty. Dr. and Mrs. Burgess have one son, Harold J., who is a student in the Eastern high school of Detroit.
PERCY E. BOURKE.
Among those prominently identified with lake-marine interests in Detroit is Mr. Bourke, who is manager of the Anchor Line of pas- senger and freight steamers, one of the impor- tant lines operating out from Detroit as head- quarters. He is a native son of the beautiful old "City of the Straits," and here has ever maintained his home, while he has advanced to his present important office through his own well directed efforts, being one of the popular and progressive business men of his native city.
Mr. Bourke was born in Detroit, on the 13th of May, 1867, and is a son of the late Oliver Bourke, who was an honored and representa- tive citizen. Percy E. Bourke reverts to the public schools of Detroit as affording him his early educational advantages, and in 1883 he entered the employ of the Detroit Free Press Company, being identified with the circulation department of its office until 1885, after which he entered the service of the Wabash Railroad Company, being employed in its local freight office, at the foot of Twelfth street. In Feb- ruary, 1897, he resigned his position and be- came cashier in the freight and passenger de- partment of the Detroit office of the Lake Su- perior Transit Company, thus initiating his connection with marine interests, with which he has since continued to be identified. He is now manager of the Anchor Line, which has a large fleet of substantial vessels in the freight service and which also operates the fine pas-
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senger steamers "Lionesta," "Juniata" and foundry department of the stove manufactory "Japan." The line has excellent dock facili- ties at the foot of Cass street and controls a large business in both its passenger and freight traffic, adding materially to the precedence of Detroit as one of the most important ports on the Great Lakes system.
Mr. Bourke is identified with the York Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, and is past master of Zion Loge, Free & Accepted Masons.
HERMAN D. KELLER.
It has been no static energizing that has brought Detroit into the front rank as an in- dustrial and commercial center, but, on the contrary, the precedence has come as the re- sult of intelligent dynamic force brought to bear by business men of ability and faith and confidence. Among this number stands Mr. Keller, who was formerly president of the Northwestern Foundry & Supply Company, of Detroit, and is president of the Bellevue Pipe & Foundry Company, of Bellevue, Ohio.
Mr. Keller claims as his fatherland the great empire of Germany, having been born in the kingdom of Bavaria, on the Ist of November, 1855. His parents immigrated to America when he was nine years of age. The family located in the city of Buffalo, New York, and there the subject of this sketch was afforded good educational advantages, including the privilege of a course of study in St. Joseph's College. In 1874 Mr. Keller took up his resi- dence in Detroit, where he entered the employ of the Detroit Iron & Brass Company, in whose shops he served an apprenticeship at the mould- er's trade. From 1879 to 1881 he worked as a journeyman moulder in the establishment of ยท the Detroit Stove Works, and thereafter was employed, until 1883, in the stove works of Cribben & Sexton, of Chicago. In the year last mentioned he assumed a position as fore- man of the foundry department of the Che- mung Hollow Wire Works, at Elmira, New York, and in the following year he resigned this place to accept that of foreman of the
of Rathbone, Sard & Company, of Albany, New York. In 1886 he became superintendent of the Fuller, Warren & Company stove manu- factory, at Troy, New York, and in 1889 he had the superintendency of the construction of this firm's new plant at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1891 he was placed in charge of the general manufacturing department of this plant, where he remained until 1893, when he again entered the employ of Cribben & Sexton, in Chicago, whom he represented as traveling salesman until the following year, when he was made general superintendent of the plant, an in- cumbency which he retained until 1897, when he was compelled to resign on account of impaired health.
In 1898 Mr. Keller rented the plant of the Detroit Heating & Furnace Company, which he utilized in making castings for said com- pany and also for a general jobbing business. In 1899 he organized the Michigan Heater Company, which took over the business of the Detroit Furnace & Heating Company, and upon the incorporation of the former he be- came president and general manager. In 1901 the business was reorganized under the title of Northwestern Foundry & Supply Company, and the capital was increased to meet the exi- gencies of the rapidly growing business. Mr. Keller became president and manager of this company at the time of its formation, and his executive policy was a most progressive one.
Mr. Keller promoted the organization of the Bellevue Pipe & Foundry Company, of Belle- vue, Ohio, and he has been its president and general manager from the start, giving a por- tion of his time to the direction of the enter- prise, which is devoted to the manufacture of plumbers' cast-iron specialties. Mr. Keller has also made judicious investments in real estate, being at the present time owner of about six thousand acres of valuable farming land in Newago county, Michigan. He is progressive and public-spirited as a citizen and is a valued member of the Detroit Board of Commerce, which body has done and is doing a most ad-
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mirable work in promoting the advancement of the city along industrial and commercial lines. His success is the more gratifying to contem- plate on the score that it has been achieved through his own efforts. He is an expert in his line of business and is one of the world's workers, realizing that skilled hands and in- dustry constitute the master key to the portal of definite success and advancement. He has traveled extensively, has devoted much atten- tion to the reading of standard literature, and finds much pleasure in his fine library, his at- tractive residence being located at 78 Hendrie avenue. He was reared in the faith of the Catholic church and the family are communi- cants of Holy Rosary parish. He has never had aught of desire to enter actively into politi- cal life. He is thoroughly appreciative of the values of education and has given his children excellent advantages, well fitting them for the practical duties of life.
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