USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 63
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Upon leaving college, he studied law in the office of Alfred Russell, then a leading prac- titioner at the bar, and in 1875 was admitted to practice. In 1877 he was appointed assistant attorney of the Michigan Central Railroad Company, under the late George V. N. Loth- rop, who was then its general counsel, and James F. Joy, the former president, and began his long association with Henry B. Ledyard, for many years president of that company. Mr. Russel's connection with the company has con- tinued ever since, and he is now the general counsel. He has become widely known in rail- road and professional circles, and is considered an authority and a wise and able legal adviser.
In 1878 the firm of Russel & Campbell was organized, then consisting of Henry Russel and Henry M. Campbell, and both have con- tinued with this firm to the present day, the name now being Russel, Campbell, Bulkley & Ledyard.
June 3, 1880, he was married to Miss Helen H. Muir, daughter of William K. Muir. They have had five children: Christine M., now Mrs. Allen F. Edwards; Anne Davenport, now Mrs. James Thayer McMillan; Helen; John Farrand; and William Muir,-all of whom, except John, are now living.
Mrs. Russel died on the 23d of November, 1908. She was born in Detroit, June 29, 1858. She was always active in church and charitable work, was a member of the Jeffer- son Avenue Presbyterian church and for many years served as president of the Pastor's Aid society of the church. She was a member of the executive board of the Thompson Home
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for old ladies, of the Woman's Exchange, and % Old Detroit National Bank, one of the most was connected with other charitable work.
In addition to his legal attainments, Mr. Russel is possessed of great business ability, and, in consequence, has large interests. Out- side of his professional practice he is director of many banking, railroad, manufacturing and land companies, and is president of several of them.
He has projected and effected the construc- tion of a number of important railroads and manufacturing institutions, and, foreseeing the growth and prospects of his native city, has also become largely interested in suburban real estate; he has done much for the development of the city and of the territory immediately surrounding it. He was the pioneer in the reclamation and improvement of the outlying marsh lands in the important River Rouge district.
Mr. Russel is a forceful man of wide culture and fine literary taste, and, notwithstanding his busy life, has found time to cultivate and maintain an intimate acquaintance with the best of classical and current literature. He is a Democrat, and a member and liberal sup- porter of the Presbyterian church.
His public spirit, genial disposition and rare humor have attracted to him many friends, and he is greatly in demand as an after-dinner speaker and orator upon social and public oc- casions. He is interested in outdoor sports, particularly golf and fishing, and is a member of the Detroit Club, Country Club, Detroit Golf Club, University Club and Fontinalis Club; also of the American, Michigan and Detroit Bar Associations.
ALEXANDER McPHERSON.
A member of one of the honored pioneer families of Michigan, Alexander McPherson has well maintained the prestige of the name through his leal and loyal services as a citizen and a man of large business affairs. He is one of the representative factors in the financial circles of Detroit, as is evident from the fact that he is at the present time president of the
solid and popular of the great financial institu- tions of a city and state noted for conservative banking. He has held the presidency of the bank from the time of its receiving charter under the present title, in November, 1902, and prior to this had served from 1891 as president of its immediate predecessor, the Detroit Na- tional Bank. He has other large capitalistic in- terests in the city and state and is a man whose integrity and resourcefulness have been potent in the progress of the commonwealth of Michi- gan.
Mr. McPherson is a native of the stanch old land of hills and heather, having been born in the village of Aberchirder, county of Banff, Scotland, on the 7th of June, 1836, and having been third in order of birth of the eight chil- dren of William and Elizabeth (Riddle) Mc- Pherson. Of William McPherson it has been written that he "is remembered and described in the pioneer annals of Michigan as a striking, rugged and thoroughly manly figure who came in the early days and gave the best part of his life to the upbuilding, advancement and better- ment of the community in which he long held a commanding place." William McPherson was born at Davoit, Scotland, on the 16th of January, 1804, and died at Howell, Livingston county, Michigan, March 16, 1891. He was reared and educated in his native land, where he remained until 1836, when he emigrated to America, with his family. On September 17th of the year mentioned he arrived at what was then known as Livingston Center, Michigan, a little' forest hamlet at that time the principal settlement in Livingston county. Here he built for himself a log house, second dwelling to be erected on the site of the present attractive lit- tle city of Howell, where he maintained his home during the remainder of his long and signally useful life. He thus became a resident of Michigan in the year preceding its admission to statehood, and at Livingston Center he en- gaged in work at the blacksmith trade, which he had learned in Scotland. In 1841 he took a half interest in a small general store, and later was for many years engaged in the mercantile business in an individual way. He was the
Alex. Mc Pherson
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founder of the large general store which has been conducted under the family name for more than half a century. His intelligence, in- tegrity and capacity for work brought success to his own business and made his services and influence desirable in matters concerning the general welfare of the community. Upon the organization of the Detroit & Howell Railroad Company, in 1864, he was elected member of its board of directors and also its treasurer. It was primarily due to his unremitting and well directed efforts that the funds were raised to complete the railroad between Howell and De- troit,-a consummation that proved of incal- culable benefit to all sections contiguous to the road. The line is now an integral part of the Pere Marquette system. William McPherson was essentially public-spirited but was never active in the arena of practical politics though he gave his allegiance to the Republican party from the time of its organization until his death. His marriage to Elizabeth Riddle, a na- tive of Scotland, was solemnized in his native land April 17th, 1831, and she accompanied him on his emigration to the wilds of pioneer Michigan, where her devotion and gentle wo- manliness continued to fill a large part of her husband's life during the long intervening years. Mrs. McPherson was summoned to the life eternal September 7th, 1874. This worthy pioneer couple became the parents of four sons and four daughters, concerning whom the fol- lowing brief data are consistently entered in this sketch : William, Jr., is engaged in banking at Howell, Michigan, and was formerly state railroad commissioner of Michigan during Gen. R. A. Alger's term of governorship; Alexan- der is the immediate subject of this review; Martin J. and Edward G. are engaged in the mercantile business in Howell, continuing the enterprise founded by their honored father in the year 1843; Isabella became the wife of Henry H. Mills, of Kalamazoo County, Michi- gan; Elizabeth became the wife of Edward P. Gregory, of Howell, Michigan; Mary L. became the wife of Henry T. Browning, of Howell, Michigan; and Ella became the wife of Frederick A. Smith, of Howell, Michigan. The parents were devout
members of the Presbyterian church and were active in its work. They participated in the organization of this church when it was founded, June 16, 1838, becoming two of its charter members. Alexander McPherson was but 21/2 months old at the time when his par- ents severed the ties which bound them to their native land and set forth to establish a new home in Michigan. He was thus reared under conditions and environments which marked the pioneer epoch in this state, and his early educational advantages were those af- forded in the common school of the little vil- lage of Livingston Center, as Howell was then known. As a boy he began to assist in the work of his father's store, and he early mani- fested that prescience and business acumen that have so greatly conserved his success as a man of affairs. Of him it has well been said that "he has proven to be a worthy representative of Scotch manliness and has exhibited the sal- ient traits and tendencies of the virile race through which his ancestry is traced." He con- tinued to be identified with various business in- terests in Howell until 1865, when he further expanded his local influence and connections by becoming the executive head of the private banking firm of Alexander McPherson & Com- pany. This well known Howell institution has held a commanding position in its financial field during the long intervening years and he is still at its head. It is now conducted under the title of Alexander McPherson & Company, with which it began. That Mr. McPherson gained more than loal recognition as a finan- cier was shown in the year 1891, when he was called from his old home in Howell to assume the presidency of the Detroit National Bank,- a preferment which came to him as the result of the appreciation of his ability as an execu- tie and as a man of sound and reliable business principals. In the presidency of the Detroit Bank he succeeded the late Christian H. Buhl, as is indicated in a review of the history of the bank, under the title of the Old Detroit National Bank, on other pages of this volume. When the charter of the Detroit National Bank expired and a reorganization took place under the present charter, Mr. McPherson was con-
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tinued as the president of the Old Detroit National Bank, so that his term of service as president has been consecutive for the past seventeen years. His wise administrative policy has greatly enhanced the prestige and. success of the great institution of which he is the head, and in local banking circles his judg- ment is recognized as that of an able and sa- gacious financier. Mr. McPherson is the owner of large tracts of pine land in the upper peninsula of Michigan, as well as in Mis- sissippi and Louisiana. He has a fine stock farm in Livingston county, near his old home, and finds much pleasure in maintaining the place as a model in its line. The farm is equipped with substantial brick buildings and is under a high state of cultivation. On this fine farm have been bred many high class thoroughbred draft and driving horses.
In politics Mr. McPherson is a loyal ad- herent of the Republican party, but public office has never had aught of allurement to him and he has invariably refused to permit the consid- eration of his name in connection with candi- dacy for preferment of this order. He and his wife are earnest members of the First Presby- terian church of Detroit, and he has served as one of its trustees since 1894. He is a mem- ber of the Detroit Club, the Country Club, the Michigan Club, and the St. Clair Shooting & Fishing Club. Through these social organiza- tions he finds relaxation from the cares of business, as does he also in travel and in the gracious associations and environments of his beautiful home. With a high sense of his per- sonal stewardship, he places a true valuation upon his fellow men, is tolerant and kindly in his judgment and holds the confidence and esteem of all who have come within the sphere of his influence. The courtesy and benignancy of the "old school" are intrinsically his, and amid the cares and perplexities of wide and important business interests he finds time to ap- preciate the higher ideals of life and to be humanity's friend in the broad generic sense.
In September, 1860, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McPherson and Miss Julia C. Ellsworth, of Greenville, Michigan. She was born at Salina, Wisconsin, 1840, and is a
daughter of Dr. William H. Ellsworth, who was one of the honored pioneers of Greenville, Montcalm county, Michigan.
EDWARD W. JENKS, M. D., LL. D.
One of the most distinguished physicians and surgeons who have lent dignity and honor to the medical profession in the state of Mich- igan, and one whose reputation far transcended local limitations, was the late Dr. Edward W. Jenks, of Detroit, where he maintained his home for many years, and where his name will be held in lasting honor. In the general work of his profession he attained much of success and distinction, as did he also in its educa- tional and, more specifically, scientific depart- ments, and he brought to his noble calling the strength and devotion of a great soul and a great mind. The records of such representa- tives of the world's workers and benefactors should assuredly not be allowed to perish, and a publication of this order exercises its supreme function when it takes recognition of their lives and services.
The lineage of the Jenks family is traced to English origin and staunch Quaker stock. A distinguished representative in the direct line was one of the early colonial governors of Rhode Island, and in the various genera- tions have been found men of prominence in professional, business and public service. Ed- ward W. Jenks was born at Victor, Ontario county, New York, March 31, 1833, and his death occurred March 19, 1903, while he was en route home from a trip to Mexico, on a train of the Wabash Railroad. The Doctor was a son of Nathan and Jane (Bushnell) Jenks, and the former was a son of Obediah and Clarinda (Watrous) Jenks. Nathan Jenks was a leading merchant of Victor, New York, for many years, and was a man of fine intellectuality and sterling character. He be- land in northern Indiana and did much to further the development of that section. He secured especially large holdings in La Grange county, where he founded the village of On-
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tario, and in 1843 he removed with his fam- ily to La Grange, where he passed the residue of his long and useful life. He founded and partially endowed the La Grange Collegiate Institute, which, for many years, was one of the leading educational institutions of its class, having a high reputation throughout Indiana and adjoining states. It was in this well ordered school that the subject of this memoir received his earlier educational discipline, as he was about ten years of age at the time of the family removal to Indiana. He continued his studies under the direction of private tu- tors, and finally entered the medical depart- ment of New York University, where he remained until impaired health compelled his relinquishment of his studies. He continued his medical studies in Castleton Medical College, at Castleton, Vermont, graduating in 1855. He returned to his home in La Grange county, Indiana, where he entered upon the strenuous career of a country doctor. The discipline proved most beneficial, however, as he soon regained his physical strength. He there con- tinued his professional work with much suc- cess, and his services were in demand also in adjoining counties in Indiana and Michigan. After the establishment of Bellevue Hospital Medical College, in New York city, he took a post-graduate course in that institution, in which his former preceptor, the distinguished Dr. James R. Wood, was a member of the faculty. From this college he received the ad eundem degree in 1864, and in the spring of the same year he took up his residence in De- troit, Michigan, where he entered into service as a contract surgeon for the United States Army, and where he soon built up a large and thoroughly representative private practice,- the diametrical result of his ability and his en- gaging personality. For four years Dr. Jenks was one of the most valued editors of the De- troit Review of Medicine, of which he was one of the founders, and in 1868 he was elected to the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women of Detroit Medical College, of which he was one of the projectors and founders and of
whose first faculty he was president. He was also called to serve in the chair of surgical dis- eases of women in the medical department of Bowdoin College, Maine, where he lectured in the spring months of each year, after the close of the season's work in the Detroit col- lege just mentioned. He resigned the position at Bowdoin College in 1875, owing to other exigent demands placed upon his time and attention. His life was one of consecutive en- deavor and he was always a hard worker, through his generous endowment of energy into many fields, but, like others, he was com- pelled to admit that the wings of even Jove's bird sometimes grew weary. Dr. Jenks was for many years surgeon in the department de- voted to the diseases of women and children in both St. Luke's and St. Mary's hospitals . and was consulting surgeon of the Woman's hospital of Detroit. His labors extended even farther in this line of professional service, for he was one of the attending physicians of Harper hospital from the time of its organ- ization until his resignation, in 1872. For a number of years he was chief surgeon of the Michigan Central Railroad, and his profes- sional alliances were many and distinguished. He was president of the Michigan State Med- ical Society in 1873, and was later elected an honorary member of the same, after his removal to Chicago. He also served as presi- dent of the Detroit Academy of Medicine, and was an honorary member of the Maine Med- ical Association, the Ohio State Medical So- ciety, the Toledo Medical Association, the Cin- cinnati Obstetrical Society, the Northwestern Medical Society of Ohio, besides other sim- ilar organizations of minor order. He was a corresponding member of the Gynecological Society of Boston, a fellow of the Obstetrical Society of London, England, and was one of the founders and active members of each the American Gynecologir al Society and the Detroit Medical and Library Association. He was a valued adherent of the American Med- ical Association, of whose obstetrical section he was chairman in 1878.
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The year 1879 marked the conferring upon Dr. Jenks of the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, by Albion College, at Albion, Mich- igan, and also the issuing to him of a call to fill the chair of medical and surgical diseases of women and clinical gynecology in the Chi- cago Medical College, where he succeeded the distinguished Dr. W. H. Byford, now de- ceased. The removal of Dr. Jenks to Chi- cago, in October, 1879, was viewed with distinctive regret by his confreres and the general public in Detroit, but he felt that he was entering upon a wider field of labor, and his ambition was ever an inspiration of action. He filled most admirably his collegiate chair in Chicago, where he also built up a large private practice. Failing health caused him to resign his position in the college in 1882, and in that year he established a private hos- pital for the treatment of the diseases of women, at Geneva, Illinois, the while continu- ing his residence and practice ir Chicago. Notwithstanding his great success ne found that the tension of his work in Chicago and the effects of its climate were making serious inroads on his health, and in 1884 he returned to Detroit, where he thereafter continued to reside until he was called from the scene of earthly endeavors, in the fulness of years and well earned honors.
Dr. Jenks early came to a realization of the value of concentration in his professional work and recognized fully that specializing was destined to become a most important phase of the same. He, therefore, devoted him- self with all of fervor and zeal to the specialty in which he attained to so great distinction and on which his high professional reputation largely rests now that he has passed away. His special or specific labors, as suggested by foregoing statements, were in the field of gynecology and obstetrics, and in these lines he was a recognized authority, even as his numerous articles and publications in this de- partment remain to-day distinctly authorita- tive. Within the compass of this article it is impossible to enter into full detail regarding his contributions to medical literature, but
among the more important of such offerings may be noted the following: "The Use of Viburnum Prunifolium in Diseases of Women;" "The Cause of Sudden Death in Puerperal Women;" "Perineorrhaphy, with Special Reference to its Benefits in Slight Laceration, and a Description of a New Mode of Operating ;" "On the Postural Treatment of Tympanites Intestinalis Following Ovar- iotomy;" "The Relation of Goitre to the Gen- erative Organs of Women;" "The Treatment of Puerperal Septicemia by Intra Uterine Injections;" "The Practice of Gynecology in Ancient Times," translated and published in the Deutsche Archiv für Geschichte der Med- icin und Med. Geographie, by Dr. Klein- wachter, to which is given an extended intro- duction, with strong commendation of the re- search and careful investigation made by Dr. Jenks; "Contribution to Surgical Gynecology," read before the Illinois State Medical So- ciety ; and many other articles of great scientific and professional value. Of the estimate placed upon Dr. Jenks by his profession it is possible to give example from distinguished sources, and in point of this is entered the following appreciation from Dr. Thaddeus A. Reamy, of Cincinnati: "His reputation as a writer is so thoroughly international that we need not speak of it, for I could add nothing to it. His articles show great research, es- pecially in classic history along the line of obstetrics and gynecological art and literature. He has long since proved himself an able teacher. He is a skillful operator in gyneco- logical and obstetrical surgery." In 1887 Dr. Jenks established a private hospital for the treatment of the diseases of women, at 626 Fort street west, and this he designated as "Willow Lawn." He made the home or hos- pital a distinctive power for good in the com- munity.
Dr. Jenks' devotion to his profession was one to which all else was subordinated, and he found his greatest pleasure in his study and in the active work of the vocation in which he achieved so much of success and distinction.
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He was a man of scholarly attainments, of positive character and of deep human sym- pathy. He made much of his life and its angle of influence widened graciously to com- pass and aid his fellow men. His ministrations to those in distress were ever kind and solici- tous, and from the deep sources of his essenti- ally strong and noble nature came refreshing draughts for those who came within the sphere of his influence. As a citizen he was loyal and public-spirited, though he had neither time nor inclination to enter into active associa- tion with political affairs, and his home life was one ideal in every respect.
Dr. Jenks was twice married. In 1857 he wedded Miss Julia Darling, a daughter of J. H. Darling, of Warsaw, New York, and she died soon after their removal to Detroit, leav- ing no children. On the 8th of November, 1867, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Jenks to Miss Sarah R. Joy, eldest daughter of Detroit's distinguished citizen, the late James F. Joy, to whom a memorial tribute is dedicated on other pages of this work. He is survived by two children,-Martha J., who is now the wife of Lieutenant-Colonel H. O. Peley, of the medical department of the United States army; and Nathan, who is a representative physician and surgeon of De- troit, where he is well upholding the prestige of the name which he bears.
DR. NATHAN JENKS, only son of the subject of this memoir, was born in Detroit, on the 3d of June, 1872, and after completing the curriculum of the public schools of his native city he entered Dartmouth College, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1896, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He next entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, from which he went to the medical department of Cornell University, New York city, in which he was graduated in 1899, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. After his graduation he became a member of the house staff of Bellevue hospital, in New York, where he remained until June, 1900, when he returned to Detroit, where he has since been estab-
lished in the practice of his profession. He is a member of the Michigan State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the Wayne County Medical Society, and the De- troit Academy of Medicine, lecturer on obstet- rics and clinical midwifery in the Detroit Col- lege of Medicine, and is visiting obstetrician to the Woman's Hospital and Infants' Home. In a social way he is identified with the Detroit Club, the University Club, the Detroit Boat Club, and the Society of Colonial Wars.
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