Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, Part 49

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 49

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Joseph Lowthian Hudson was born at New- castle-on-Tyne, county of Northumberland, England, on the 17th of October, 1846, and is a son of Richard and Elizabeth (Lowthian) Hudson, both of whom were likewise natives of England. The father was for many years en- gaged in wholesale tea, coffee and spice business in Newcastle, but finally encountered financial reverses which led him to seek a start anew in America, whither he came in 1853, his family joining him two years later. He located in the city of Hamilton, province of Ontario, Can- ada, where he secured a clerical position in the employ of the Grand Trunk Railway Company. Richard Hudson later removed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was a representative of the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Rail- road for about a year. In 1864 he became as- sociated with Christopher R. Mabley in open- ing a clothing store in Ionia, Michigan, and he later became successfully identified with other lines of enterprise in that place, besides buying pine lands upon a somewhat extensive scale. He continued to reside in Ionia until his death, which occurred in February, 1873. He was a man of sterling integrity and much business ability, and the subject of this review ever gives credit to the father for valuable dis- cipline received in the early days of their asso- ciation in business, as will be noted in later

paragraphs. The devoted mother, a woman of gracious and noble character, died in April, 1863. Of the children seven attained to years of maturity and of this number all are now living. The eldest brother is Professor Rich- ard Hudson, one of the leading men at Michi- gan University ; James B. Hudson is vice-presi- dent and has charge of the Cleveland J. L. Hudson Company; William Hudson is vice- president of the J. L. Hudson Company, Buf- falo. Mr. Hudson's sisters-Mrs. R. B. Tan- nahill, Mrs. J. T. Webber and Mrs. Wm. Clay -all reside in Detroit.

Joseph L. Hudson began his educational training in his native place, having entered school when a lad of five years and having been nine years of age at the time when the family came to America. In Hamilton, On- tario, he continued his studies in the public schools, where one of his schoolmates was the late Hugh McMillan, of Detroit, brother of the late United States senator from Michigan. Concerning the school work of Mr. Hudson in Hamilton, the following words were written in a newspaper article which appeared a num- ber of years ago: "Here, as in his native town, he was one of the best pupils in the school, being clear-headed, gifted with a remarkable memory, and, for his years, an expert in mathe- matics, and a rapid accountant." He contin- ued his studies for four years, at the expiration of which he manifested his wish to initiate his business career, though only thirteen years of age at the time. He accordingly secured a position as telegraph messenger at the Great Western depot in Hamilton, receiving in com- pensation for his services the sum of ten dol- lars a month. The messenger service was dis- continued two months later and he was com- pelled to seek other fields of endeavor, finally becoming a clerk in a grocery store, where his pay was but five dollars a month. Three months later the family removed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where they remained a year, the father having in the meantime been em- ployed in Milwaukee, from which point he made a trip each week to visit his family. The subject of this sketch attended school in Grand Rapids about six months and during the re-

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mainder of the time was employed on a fruit farm near the city at twenty-five cents a day. In June, 1861, the family removed to Pontiac, Michigan. There Christopher R. Mabley, who later became one of the great merchants of Detroit, was at the time conducting a small clothing store in which Mr. Hudson became cash boy, porter, salesman and bookkeeper in quick succession. He remained in the estab- lishment for nearly five years, within which the annual business had been increased to an average of one hundred thousand dollars, about half of the trade being of wholesale or jobbing order. In the meanwhile Mr. Mabley and Richard Hudson, father of the subject of this review, had opened a clothing store in Ionia, this state, and in February, 1866, Mr. Mabley sold his interest in the Ionia business to Rich- ard and Joseph L. Hudson, the father and son thereafter continuing to be actively associated in their business enterprises until the death of the former, in 1873, as already noted. Of their operations in Ionia the following has been writ- ten : "Their capital was limited, but Joseph's ability and industry made up for the disad- vantage, and at the close of the first year they had made four thousand dollars. They also went into the stave business, which at first was quite profitable. Their next acquisition was a flouring mill and the next was a purchase of pine land. They made money in a compara- tively rapid way and spread out considerably." Upon the death of the father the business was appraised at a value of forty thousand dollars, half of which was owned by Joseph L., who continued operations under the original firm name of R. Hudson & Son, the interest of the father's estate being retained in the business.

When came the memorable financial panic of 1873 Mr. Hudson, though immeasurably careful and conservative, encountered his full quota of vicissitudes in business. His firm lost heavily along first one line and then another, and though Mr. Hudson made a valiant strug- gle to weather the storm of financial disaster he finally found himself unable to meet the demands placed upon him and succumbed to the inevitable in 1876, with liabilities of about sixty-eight thousand dollars and with assets

greatly depreciated from legitimate valuations. With typical courage and honesty of purpose, he visited his various creditors and after fully explaining the situation was enabled to settle with all save one on the basis of sixty cents on the dollar. The one firm made an abusive pro- test and was forthwith paid in full, though this so crippled Mr. Hudson as to leave but little provision for the ordinary exigencies of life. He returned to Ionia and resumed the business of selling clothing, and the confidence reposed in him by the wholesale trade was shown in the fact that his credit continued unimpaired, those with whom he had previously had deal- ings standing ready to extend him every possi- ble courtesy. Through indefatigable applica- tion and good management the concern was put on good footing again and all debts were paid with interest.

In the meantime Mr. Hudson's old friend and employer, C. R. Mabley, had located in Detroit, after one of the most spirited and pro- tracted contests known in the history of mer- chandising in Michigan, his competitor in the fray having been "Little Jake" Seligman, who later became the street-car magnate of Sagi- naw. Mabley had built up a most extensive business in Detroit, and he finally placed the management of the enterprise in the hands of Mr. Hudson while he himself made a trip abroad, in 1877. The following description of the renewed association of Messrs. Hudson and Mabley is worthy of perpetuation in this arti- cle : "Mabley went with his family to Europe and was back in two months. Then another bargain was made, by which Hudson was to receive fifty dollars per week during the six months terminating January 1, 1878, and also an honorarium which was to be left to Mab- ley's discretion and the amounts of profits real- ized during that time. When the six months had elapsed, a calculation was made and it was found that, counting the cost of Mabley's trip to Europe and the fifty dollars per week paid to Hudson, there was a handsome profit of twenty-five thousand dollars. Mabley was de- lighted and handed ten per cent., or twenty-five hundred dollars, to his efficient friend and em- ploye." The final outcome of this virtual ex-

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periment was that Mabley offered Hudson a quarter interest in the business, with a guar- anty of seven thousand five hundred dollars a year, on the basis of an association thus main- tained for a period of three years. It may be said that under the effective generalship of Mr. Hudson the business made splendid gains, and while it is not consonant that details be entered against the peculiar circumstances which finally led to the overthrow of the business associa- tions and kindly personal relations of Messrs. Hudson and Mabley, it is well known that the separation came through no fault of Mr. Hud- son, but rather was the result of his fidelity to the interests of Mr. Mabley. He has never lacked the courage of his convictions and he maintained them at this time under conditions that in retrospect are scarcely more than amus- ing

Mr. Hudson severed his connection with the Mabley establishment in December, 1880, and forthwith he secured a lease of the stores in the old Detroit Opera House building, pre- viously occupied by Newcomb, Endicott & Company. Mr. Hudson retired from the Mab- ley firm with sixty thousand dollars as his share of the profits for the three years, his actual withdrawal occurring on the 10th of January, 1881. Soon came the inception of a battle royal between this valiant business man and his quondam employer and associate, Mr. Mabley, and in reverting to this noteworthy business contest it must be said that Mabley found a "foeman worthy of his steel." The contest was protracted and was not even interrupted by the death of Mr. Mabley, in 1885. It has well been said that the "sacrifice" sales instituted by Mr. Hudson and emulated by the Mabley in- terests, were "the apotheosis of apparently reckless competition, business duels in which each merchant tries to outdo his rival. Dur- ing the tremendous sacrifice sale in the last week of June, 1883, Hudson and Mabley fought like tigers for supremacy. After each day's sales the respective stores were a hetero- geneous mass of odds and ends, the huge piles of garments all scattered and mixed, and ev- erything in chaos. The clerks worked double time and took their meals in the stores, while

the managers scoured the wholesale stores per- sonally and other clothing centers by telegraph, to replace their broken stocks. Hudson on this occasion demonstrated his phenomenal capacity for mental and physical endurance. When the sale commenced he arrived at his store on Mon- day morning at five o'clock and never left it except on business until Thursday night at ten o'clock. He rushed home and took only two naps, of five hours each, during the whole of the fifty-eight hours. His meals were all eaten at the store. The specialty of the sale was five- dollar suits, and he sold over nine hundred suits the first day, besides doing a fair business in other goods."

Thus Mr. Hudson's independent business venture in Detroit was made in the thick of battle, and the position which he to-day occu- pies indicates in an emphatic way that he was not worsted in the fray but emerged with the well won laurels and dignities of victory.

The true caliber of the man has not been shown in a more significant manner than in his action relative to the settlement of claims which were held against him at the time of his business failure in 1876. No legal obliga- tion rested upon him to pay on these claims more than the percentage which had been agreed upon by his creditors, but he never felt for a moment but that the moral obligation remained his. How few have shown this rec- ognition in the world of business is too well known to require mention here, save in mat- ter of comparison to the lasting honor of Mr. Hudson. In 1879, a year after coming to De- troit, he went to all his local creditors and paid them the extra forty per cent on the claims which had been adjusted in 1876 at sixty cents on the dollar. In addition to this he insisted in paying also compound interest for the inter- vening period. In August, 1888, he was able to make the same provision with his eastern creditors, paying out a total of more than twen- ty-five thousand dollars. His course caused ab- solute amazement in trade circles, so unprece- dented was such an exhibition of scrupulous honesty and integrity. Mr. Hudson has ever disclaimed any credit for his manly action, maintaining that it was the right course and

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modestly warding off praise, as he has done in other innumerable instances where he has wrought good works and "blushed to find them fame."

In 1881, just before leaving the Mabley es- tablishment, Mr. Hudson and his brother, James B., purchased the William Mabley store in Toledo, and the business was conducted under the firm name of J. L. & J. B. Hudson for many years, that firm being succeeded by the J. L. Hudson Company. In 1883 Mr. Hud- son started branch stores in Flint, Owosso and Saginaw, Michigan, but these were discontin- ued when he went forth into broader fields of commercial enterprise. In February, 1884, Mr. Hudson became associated with Campbell Symington in the purchase of the carpet and drapery business which had previously been conducted by Abbott & Ketchum, and the new firm of Hudson & Symington built the enter- prise up to a point attained by no other similar concern in Detroit. In January, 1885, Mr. Hudson bought the Excelsior clothing store in Cleveland, one of the finest in the middle west, and the same has since been successfully con- ducted under his control, doing an average an- nual business of many hundred thousand dol- lars.

In a publication of the province assigned to the one at hand it is specially gratifying to note that Mr. Hudson's most important, most suc- cessful and most brilliant achievements in busi- ness have been in Detroit, his home city, and one to whose every interest he has at all times been loyal. His first independent enterprise after severing connection with the Mabley in- terests was, as already intimated, that involved in his opening the clothing store in the old De- troit Opera House block, which was later de- stroyed by fire. This was the nucleus of the mammoth and thoroughly modern establish- ment of which he is now the head and which is conducted under title of the J. L. Hudson Company. He utilized the original quarters for a period of five years and then removed north on Woodward avenue, to the Henkel building, where he remained until September, 1891, when he took possession of his present magnificent building, which he had erected at the corner of Gratiot avenue and Farmer street.

In no way has his confidence in the develop- ment of Detroit, the expansion of its retail dis- trict and the ultimate centering of the district farther north from the Campus Martius been better shown than in his making this change of location, which was viewed with question- able approval and in some instances with defi- nite ridicule by the leading business men of the city. His prescience as to ultimate results has been amply justified, and to him is due all of credit for having led the advance march, putting to blush those of less faith. In 1889 Mr. Hudson purchased the land on which the building stands-two hundred and twenty-one feet on Farmer street and one hundred feet on Gratiot avenue, and here he erected what was at the time unmistakably the finest business block in the city-one which is yet among the best. The building is of brick and granite and steel construction, is eight stories in height and represented an original expenditure, for land, building, fixtures and furniture, of about five hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In 1907 an addition was completed on the Farmer street front, of the same height and architecture of the original building and thirty-three feet in width, seven new elevators of the latest plunger type were installed, as well as a new electric- light plant, new fire sprinkler equipment, new boilers, an entire new steam plant-the best and most complete store service in Michigan. The cost of the new building and all the im- provements was approximately three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The fine establish- ment is now conducted as a general department store and is one which compares more than favorably with the leading concerns of the sort in the largest metropolitan centers of the coun- try. It is needless to give details as to depart- ments and the facilities and equipment of the gigantic trade mart, still the largest of the sort in Detroit, but an idea of the magnificent scope of the business is afforded when it is stated that the annual transactions have now attained an average aggregate of two millions of dol- lars. The entire building is utilized by the Hudson Company, which is capitalized at five hundred thousand dollars, under title of the J. L. Hudson Company. No one has better

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deserved the title of "captain of industry," and none has done more than Mr. Hudson to for- ward the advancement of Detroit along normal and substantial lines of business enterprise. As an employer he is kind and liberal, but his ad- ministrative policy has never been flexible in matter of discipline. His faculty for the mar- shaling of forces under his command shows how thoroughly he appreciates the value of dis- cipline, and in his store have been trained many whose success in life has been the result of his admonition, interest and direction. He is es- sentially a man of his word, and in a business sense no better commendation can be given than to pronounce this dictum. His great business enterprise has been built up on honor, upon such integrity as would naturally animate a man who insisted on paying a residuum of in- debtedness not tallied against him on any other score than that of just such high ethical prin- ciples. These things adequately designate the standing of Joseph L. Hudson in Detroit and in the general business world, so that further commentary is not demanded in this sketch.

In all lines of public enterprise Mr. Hudson has given his influence and co-operation with utmost liberality. He has served as president of the Detroit Board of Commerce, and did much to further the beneficent plans and enter- prises of that valued organization. He is at the present time president of Harper Hospital and also of the Associated Charities of Detroit. He is likewise retained in the presidency of each the Municipal League and the Provident Loan Society of Detroit; is vice-president of the Dime Savings Bank; a director of the American Exchange National Bank; a trustee of the Central Methodist Episcopal church; a member of the advisory board of the Detroit Young Men's Christian Association and also a member of the commission having in charge the erection of the new building of the associa- tion; and is a member of the advisory board of the Young Women's Christian Association, and chairman of the board of trustees of the McGregor Mission.

Mr. Hudson is not bound to strict partisan lines in the matter of political affiliation, but is a believer in the basic principles for which the

Democratic party stands sponsor. In local af- fairs, especially, he exercises his franchise in support of the men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment, irrespective of party allegiance. He is an uncompromising foe to the liquor traffic and voices his opinions with- out fear or favor, being animated, as in all other relations, by high humanitarian princi- ples, though ever kindly and tolerant in his judgment, by reason of his appreciation of the springs of human thought and action and the varying limitations of different persons. He has been most liberal in his benefactions to charitable and benevolent institutions and ob- jects, and generous in the matter of private benevolences. That he is essentially humanity's friend has been proven on so many occasions and in such definite ways that no further af- firmation of the fact is required in this connec- tion. He has not been unmindful of his civic duties and, amidst the cares and great exactions of his great business interests, he has consented to serve in unsalaried municipal offices, having served as a member of each the water commis- sion and the electrical lighting commission. He has, however, never had aught of inclination for practical politics and has never sought or desired official preferment. Mr. Hudson is a bachelor, but, notwithstanding that, he has an ideal home life, living in the old David Whit- ney house on Woodward avenue, where he has with him eight members of his immediate fam- ily. The children there think there is no one else in the wide world as good as "Uncle Joe."

CLARENCE M. BURTON.

It is the earnest desire of the publishers of this work to offer in its pages a permanent mark of the appreciation due from them to Clarence M. Burton, whose able co-operation has been most courteously accorded in the re- vision of the historical manuscript which has entered into this compilation. No resident of the state has a wider and more intimate knowl- edge of its history, even to the most obscure details, than has he, and this fact gives em- phasis to the value of his assistance in the colla- tion and arrangement of the material for

ENGRAVED BY HENRY TAYLOR JR . CHICAGO

bir Burton

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this publication. A man of the highest liter- ary appreciation, of most comprehensive read- ing and study, and of distinctive intellectual force, he has otherwise contributed in large measure to perpetuating matters of historic in- terest in Detroit and Michigan. He is a mem- ber of the bar of the state, though not engaged in the active work of his profession, is a citi- zen of insistent loyalty and public spirit, and is known as one of the representative business men of Detroit, where he has provided and as- sembled most complete and authoritative ab- stracts of land titles for Wayne county, af- fording the best of reference facilities, besides which he has for a number of years past been an extensive operator in the local real-estate field.

Mr. Burton is a native of fair state of California, having been born in Sierra county, on the 18th of November, 1853, and being a son of Charles S. and Annie E. (Monroe) Burton, both of whom were born and reared in Seneca county, New York,- the heart of the beautiful lake district of the Empire state. In 1855, when he was but two years of age, his parents removed to Michigan and took up their residence in Hastings, the judicial center of Barry county. They passed the residue of their lives in this state, where the father's prin- cipal occupation was that of physician.

Clarence M. Burton secured his preliminary educational training in the public schools of Hastings, and in 1869 he was matriculated in the literary department of the University of Michigan, where he continued his studies for three years but did not complete his course. In 1872 he entered the law department of the same institution, in which he was graduated in March of the following year, after a credit- able examination. He had previously read law under the direction of private preceptors. The day succeeding his graduation and inci- dental acquiring of the degree of Bachelor of Laws, Mr. Burton came to Detroit. As he had not yet attained to his legal majority, and was therefore ineligible for admission to the bar of the state, he entered the law office of Ward & Palmer, under whose direction he continued his study, with incidental profes-

sional work of a preliminary order, until the 19th of November, 1874, when he was admitted to practice in the circuit court of Wayne county,-the day following his twenty-first birthday. The firm with which he had been associated for the several preceding years made a specialty of extending financial loans on real- estate security, and his duties had been largely in the examining of land titles. The senior member of the firm, John Ward, was also a member of the firm of E. C. Skinner & Com- pany, engaged in the abstract business, and in the well ordered offices of this latter firm Mr. Burton found employment at leisure moments and at night, with the result that he soon made himself an indispensable factor in the enter- prise, which was one of large proportions. In 1883 he secured an interest in the business, of which he became the sole manager in the fol- lowing year. Since that time he has given the major portion of his time and attention to the abstract business, in which he has recognized priority over all other similar concerns in Wayne county. He was associated in this busi- ness with his former employer, John Ward, until 1891, since which year he has maintained the entire ownership and control of the large and splendidly organized business to whose up- building he had contributed in so large a meas- ure. It has been said with all of consistency that "A Burton abstract is considered by deal- ers in real estate, either sellers or purchasers, as good as a deed itself." The perfect system of conducting the business finds exemplifica- tion in simplicity and absolutely exactitude, and neither labor nor expense has been denied in the preparation of the abstracts, which num- ber fully 150,000. Research and investigation have been most careful and exhaustive, so that the business is founded upon a basis absolutely authoritative.

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Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, Part 49

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