USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 70
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Edward H. Doyle was born in the beautiful and historic old city of Quebec, Canada, on the 20th of April, 1849, and is a son of Law- rence and Bridget (Gahan) Doyle, both of whom were born in county Carlow, Ireland, being representatives of sterling old stock in the fair Emerald Island. The father was a man of fine intellectuality, having been afforded the advantages of the best of educa- tional institutions of his native land. In 1834 he came to America and took up his residence in the city of Quebec, Canada, where he con- tinued to be engaged in the work of his pro- fession of teacher until his death, which oc- curred in 1852. He became one of the well known and popular educators of the province and wielded a wide and beneficent influence in his chosen field of endeavor. His widow
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survived him by many years and was called truth of the old adage that "the boy is father to the life eternal in 1871, both having been to the man." communicants of the Roman Catholic church. They became the parents of five sons and one daughter, of whom the daughter and three of the sons are living, all of the sons being now residents of the United States.
Edward H. Doyle, the immediate subject of this review, was but three years of age at the time of the death of his father, and his mother soon afterward came with her family to Michi- gan and located in Bay City, Michigan, where she passed the remainder of her life. The financial condition of the family was one of almost penury, and thus the future associate owner of the Majestic building had the most limited of educational advantages in his youth, as he early began to depend upon his own re- sources and to assist in the support of his widowed mother. With the true dignity of one who has wrought out his own success, Mr. Doyle reverts to his early struggles with naught of subterfuge, being willing that all should know the obstacles which he had to overcome and that the lesson of emulation be learned by such as can appreciate the same. He is authority for the statement that his entire attendance in the school room never covered a period of more than one year for his entire life, and yet none familiar with his career can fail to discern how well he has profited by the educational advantages afforded in the broad school of experience. He is to-day a man of most alert mentality, mature judgment and broad intellectual grasp. From the time he was nine years of age until he had reached that of nineteen years he worked every week- day in a saw mill, devoting the major portion of his earnings to the care of his mother, whose love and guidance he recalls as one of the most precious and inviolate memories of his entire life. When twelve years old he swept out a country school, built the fires and tended the lamps for a writing teacher, who requited his services by giving him lessons in penmanship. The characteristic ambition of the man was thus early manifested in the boy, and, indeed, one here finds a striking exemplification of the
As a youth Mr. Doyle had been employed for several years in Bay City, where he remained until he was twenty years of age, when he went to Saginaw and entered the employ of B. B. Buckhout, who is still engaged in the hardware business in that city. At the age of twenty-three years Mr. Doyle married, thus assuming added responsibilities, and even after this he attended night school at such intervals as opportunity presented. A year after his marriage he entered the service of Thomas Nester, the well known lumberman, in whose employ he was stationed in the northern pin- eries for the ensuing three years. He then allied himself with Jacob Seligman, of Sag- inaw, widely known under the more familiar title of "Little Jake," and with this leading capitalist of the Saginaw Valley he remained several years, having financial charge of the many and varied financial interests of Mr. Seligman.
In 1885 Mr. Doyle located at Wyandotte, Wayne county, where he engaged in the manu- facturing of hoops and staves, and with this industry he was actively identified at the time when he linked his fortunes with the Majestic building in Detroit. As originally projected and erected this building was fully a decade ahead of the times, and when, in 1896, the crash came, with the structure partly completed but not in shape to yield any returns, the situa- tion was at least disquieting to those whose investments were thus tied up. Mr. Doyle's confidential friend and former patron, Mr. Seligman, held one-half of a second mortgage on the building, said mortgage being in the amount of three hundred thousand dollars, while the first mortgage represented eight hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars. As the build- ing stood it represented a practically losing in- vestment, and the only recourse on the part of those interested was to complete the structure. At a meeting of the contractors in the year mentioned Mr. Doyle was present as repre- sentative of Mr. Seligman, and the contractors finally agreed to carry forward the work to completion if Mr. Doyle would take the man-
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agement. By this means only could they hope to protect their own involved interests as well as those of the capitalistic principals. Under these conditions Doyle assumed the manage- ment of the work, though his original inten- tion was to remain identified with the same only for six months, within which time he was assured that the building could be com- pleted. The prescribed limitations set on a publication of this nature are such that it is neither necessary nor compatible to enter into details concerning the carrying forward of the great enterprise with which Mr. Doyle thus identified himself, but it should be said that all that the building represents in itself and to Detroit may be placed in largest measure to his credit. Of the conditions obtaining at the time he assumed control the following per- tinent statements have been made: "When erected the Majestic was ten years ahead of its time, but it was rightly planned for the growth of the city, as is proven by the many tall office buildings that have been erected in the mean- time. Edward H. Doyle was the first man to see Detroit's future as it really is to-day, and his foresight, so amply vindicated and crowned with success, caused him unmeasured criticism in the earlier years." He is now associated with Waldo A. Avery as half owner of the Majestic, whose valuation is placed at the highest of any single business building in the city, and his connection with the same repre- sents his chief capitalistic investment besides being a source of unmistakable pride, as well it may be. He is one of the largest stockhold- ers in the Peninsular Savings Bank, of which he served as vice-president for ten years, and he has other investments in and about Detroit, giving his supervision to his various interests and otherwise being virtually retired from active business, though still in the prime of a strong and vigorous manhood. Honest and loyal, straightforward and frank, Mr. Doyle has naught but contempt for insincerity and equivocal methods. He places a true valuation upon the man rather than his possessions and environments, and has the greatest respect for those who are the world's workers. In politics he gives his support to the Republican party.
In the year 1872 Mr. Doyle was united in marriage to Miss Sarah J. Walsh, of Saginaw, and of their six children three are living : James B., Thomas J., and Mary E.
RICHARD H. FYFE.
The difference between the generations of any country with a history is commonly not one of principle but of emphasis. The great American republic owes its magnificent up- building to the fact that it has developed men of distinct initiative power. There has been room for such men in every progressive busi- ness, however crowded it might be. The strength of the man with initiative is one both of ideas and the ability to shape those ideas into definite accomplishment. He knows how to make beginnings and how to expand his practical ideas according to demands or ulti- mate possibilities. Such a man in the commer- cial life of Detroit and Michigan is Richard Henry Fyfe, whose name has long represented a power in mercantile and financial circles in the metropolis of the state and whose advance- ment has come through his own ability, his own mastery of expedients. As one of Detroit's honored captains of industry he is specially worthy of consideration in this publication.
Mr. Fyfe is a scion of one of the old and honored families of Scotland, with whose an- nals the name has been prominently identified for many generations. His grandfather, John Fyfe, was the first to adopt the present ortho- graphy of the name, whose original form was Fiffe. This worthy ancestor, who was a son of John Fiffe, of Fifeshire, Scotland, was reared and educated in that county, whence he immigrated to America in 1775, settling in the colony of Massachusetts, near the city of Bos- ton. He showed his loyalty to the cause of independence by serving with the Massachu- setts troops while the seat of the war of the Revolution was near Boston, and his enroll- ment continued until victory crowned the col- onial arms. On the Ist of February, 1786, John Fyfe married Elizabeth Strong, a de- scendant of John Strong, one of the founders of Dorchester, Massachusetts, to which colony
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he immigrated from England in 1730. The uary 5, 1839, and was an infant at the time of Strong family has been one of special distinc- tion in connection with American history, and has well been said, "Few families have had more educated or professional men among them." Soon after his marriage John Fyfe re- moved to Salisbury, Vermont, becoming one of the pioneers of that section of the old Green Mountain state, where his death occurred, on the Ist of January, 1813. His wife survived him by nearly a quarter of a century, her death occurring in November, 1835. They became the parents of four sons and three daughters, and the youngest of the number was Claudius Lucius Fyfe, father of him whose name ini- tiates this article.
Claudius L. Fyfe was born in Vermont, January 3, 1798, and in his native state he was reared to manhood, receiving such educational advantages as were afforded in the somewhat primitive school of the locality and period. At Brandon, Vermont, on the 6th of April, 1825, was solemnized his marriage to Abigail Gilbert, whose parents were numbered among the earliest settlers of Genesee county, New York. Claudius L. Fyfe was reared to agri- cultural pursuits, to which he devoted his at- tention during the earlier years of his inde- pendent career, and later he was engaged in the tanning and leather business. In 1830 he removed with his family from Vermont to Knowlesville, Orleans county, New York, and for a time thereafter he resided in Chautau- qua county, that state. From Knowlesville he came with his family to Michigan in 1837,- the year which marked the admission of the state to the Union. He remained a short time and then returned to New York, but he event- ually settled at Hillsdale, Michigan, where he remained until his death, which occurred in the year 1881, his wife having passed to the life eternal in 1848. They became the parents of five daughters and one son, and the latter, subject of this sketch, was the youngest of the children, of whom only one other is now living.
Richard Henry Fyfe was born at Oak Orch- ard Creek, Orleans county, New York, Jan-
his parents' return to Michigan. As a lad he was enabled to attend the common schools in Litchfield, Hillsdale county, but when but eleven years of age he began to face the re- sponsibilities of life, as his father had met with financial reverses which placed the family in somewhat staitened circumstances. At the age noted young Fyfe became a clerk in the drug store of Mott Brothers, of Hillsdale, and later he was similarly employed in the drug store of E. B. Booth, of Kalamazoo. In 1857 he came to Detroit, where he secured a position in the boot and shoe store of T. K. Adams, having in the meanwhile made good use of his otherwise unoccupied time by read- ing and study, in order to make up for his earlier educational handicap. After remaining with Mr. Adams about six years he took a similar position with the firm of Rucker & Morgan, in the same line of trade. In 1865, having scrupulously husbanded his resources, he was enabled to purchase the business of C. C. Tyler & Company, who had succeeded his former employer Mr. Adams. The estab- lishment was located at IOI Woodward av- enue, and here a substantial five-story building was erected in 1875, offering accommodations for the large trade which he had already built up. His record as a business man in Detroit has been one of solid and consecutive growth, and he to-day stands unmistakably at the head of the custom and retail shoe trade in this city. In 1881 he bought the boot and shoe establishment of A. R. Morgan, at 106 Wood- ward avenue, and conducted this as a branch of his other store. In 1885 he established his present store at 185 Woodward avenue. The business has been conducted under the firm name of R. H. Fyfe & Company since 1875, and while he has had able coad- jutors, the upbuilding of the great enterprise which he now controls has been almost entirely due to his own efforts and able management. Mr. Fyfe is a man of forceful individuality, as may well be understood, and his course has ever been dominated by the highest principles of integrity and honor,-the elements which
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justify success. His thoughts have not been held within the narrow boundaries of personal advancement, but he has been a liberal and pub- lic-spirited citizen and has done all in his power to further the civic and industrial progress of his home city, where his circle of friends is numbered only by that of his acquaintances. He was one of those primarily interested in the reorganization of the Citizens' Savings Bank, in 1890, and served thereafter as its vice-presi- dent until 1898, when he was elected president of the institution, an office of which he still remains incumbent.
Mr. Fyfe served for a term of years as a trustee of Michigan Medical College, assisted in effecting its consolidation with the Detroit Medical College, under the title of the Michi- gan College of Medicine, and he has served as trustee of the combined colleges, one of the splendid institutions of the state in offering ad- vantages for technical education. He is a large holder of valuable realty in Detroit and has done much to further the city's material up- building and development. His political sup- port is given to the Republican party, but he has never manifested any desire to enter the domain of "practical politics." He and his wife attend St. Paul's church of which Mrs. Fyfe is a member. He was at one time president of the Detroit Municipal League, which rendered most valuable service during his administration, and he holds mem- bership in the local organizations of the New England Society and the Sons of the American Revolution, of the former of which he was formerly president, and of the latter of which he is president at the time of this writing, in 1908. He is also identified with the Detroit Board of Commerce, the Old Club, at St. Clair Flats, the Detroit Club and other social organ- izations. He was formerly a member of Grosse Pointe Club.
On the 27th of October, 1868, Mr. Fyfe was united in marriage to Miss Abby Lucretia Albee Rice, who was born at Marlboro, Massa- chusetts, a daughter of Abraham W. Rice. She has long been prominent in church, chari- table and social work in Detroit, is at the
present time vice-state regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution, having formerly been regent of the Detroit chapter of the same. For some time she was first vice-president of the Thompson Old Ladies' Home. She is also president of the Colonial Dames, was secretary of Protestant Orphanage, and honorary member of the same for twenty-three years. Mrs. Fyfe has also been prominently identified with the Mount Vernon association in Michi- gan, of which she served as president.
WILLIAM LANE HOLMES.
Mr. Holmes has been one of those alert and progressive spirits through whose efforts has been conserved the material upbuilding and industrial progress of Detroit, and he is recog- nized as one of the city's representative busi- ness men and loyal citizens. He has done much in the development of local real estate and is identified with various industrial en- terprises of important order, both in Detroit and elsewhere.
William Lane Holmes was born near the village of Blythe, Huron county, Ontario, Canada, on the 13th day of July, 1859, and is a son of Matthew and Martha (Lane) Holmes, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of Canada. The Holmes genealogy is traced back to stanch and ancient Anglo- Saxon stock. One of its representatives be- came an officer in the army of Oliver Crom- well, and was given by Cromwell a castle in county Tipperary, Ireland, where he founded the hamlet of Holmes Grove and where the family long continued to be one of prominence and influence. Richard Holmes, the last of the family to reside there, immigrated to America about the year 1840, and settled in Huron county, province of Ontario, Canada, where he became a pioneer and where he engaged in agricultural pursuits. His son Matthew, father of the subject of this review, was born at Holmes Grove, Ireland, and was a child at the time of his parents' immigration to America. He was reared in Huron county. Ontario, and early became familiar with the work of an agriculturist, while his educational
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advantages were those afforded by the com- mon schools of the locality and period. In 1865 he removed with his family to Birming- ham, Oakland county Michigan, where he be- came a farmer. In 1878 he removed to De- troit, where he still lives. Of his children four are living. Martha Holmes, the wife of Matthew and the mother of William L., died in Detroit in 1887. Her name is honored and commemorated in the beautiful Martha Holmes Memorial Methodist Episcopal church, at the corner of Lincoln and Putnam avenues. William Lane, the maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a native of county Tipperary, Ireland, whence he immigrated to America at the same time as did Richard Holmes. He settled at Thornhill, Ontario, where he became a successful farmer. One of his brothers became a member of the Canadian parliament and other representatives of the family have been prominent in public and industrial affairs of the dominion.
William Lane Holmes, whose name intro- duces this article, was but six years of age at the time of his parents' removal from On- tario to Oakland county, Michigan, and he attended the public schools of Birmingham, where he completed the course in the high school as a member of the class of 1875. In the same year he came to Detroit, where he entered the employ of J. M. Arnold & Co., dealers in books and stationery, at 189 Wood- ward avenue. Within the same year he was employed in the clothing store of C. R. Mab- ley. From 1876 until 1879 he was again in the employ of J. M. Arnold & Co., as book- keeper, and thereafter he served until 1881 as bookkeeper in the wholesale dry goods house of Allan Shelden & Company. From 1881 to 1883 he held a similar position with Peter Hayden & Company, wholesale dealers in saddlery hardware. In the latter year he became Michigan representative for the well known publishing house of D. Appleton & Company, of New York. In this position he was very successful, having built up a large business for the company, and laid the found- ation for his future financial success. In 1890 he resigned his position with D. Appleton &
Company to engage in real estate operations in Detroit. He confined his business to the platting, selling and improvement of his own property. From 1890 to 1894 he placed on the market and sold about fifteen hundred lots in what was then the suburbs of Detroit. He has erected many houses in various sections of the city.
Mr. Holmes became interested in the financ- ing and construction of the system of the De- troit Telephone Company, with which he iden- tified himself at the time of its organization, in 1896. He served as its treasurer in that year, and thereafter was president and gen- eral manager of the company until its busi- ness and property were sold to the Michigan State Telephone Company, in 1899. He was also instrumental in the organization of the New State Telephone Company, in 1896, and was its president and general manager until 1898, when its interests likewise were sold to the Michigan State Telephone Company. He wielded a pronounced influence in the de- veloping and extending of telephone service in the state, and in other lines of enterprise he has likewise given the benefit of his co- operation, financial support and executive tal- ents.
In 1898 Mr. Holmes became interested in the development of the Portland cement in- dustry which has had such astonishing growth during the past ten years, but which at that time was in its infancy. Mr. Holmes went to Germany to study the cement business and brought to America one of the leading Ger- man chemists to assist him in the work.
Mr. Holmes, with others, in 1898, formed the Michigan Portland Cement Company, which built two large cement works, one at Coldwater, Michigan, and one at Quincy, Michigan, which have proven to be very suc- cessful. Mr. Holmes was president of this corporation for several years. In 1902 the Wolverine Cement Company succeeded the Michigan Company in the ownership and op- eration of the plants at Coldwater and Quincy and Mr. Holmes is still identified with this company.
In 1899 Mr. Holmes was one of the organ-
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izers of the Iola Portland Cement Company, which was incorporated with a capital stock of four and one-half million dollars and the works of which are located at Iola, Kansas. Of this company he was the first president, an office of which he continued incumbent until 1904, when he resigned, having disposed of his principal interest in the concern. In 1907 he became one of the organizers of the Ohio Cement Company, which has a capital stock of four million five hundred thousand dollars. This company controls a valuable tract of three thousand acres of mineral land in Vinton county, Ohio, where it has developed practically inexhaustible deposits of coal, lime- tone, shales and iron ore. The company has built its own railroad to connect the property with four trunk lines, and is now building a 100,000 per day high-grade brick plant. On the property the company will also build a large cement plant and an iron furnace. All minerals entering into the manufacture of the various products are to be had on the lands owned or controlled by the company. Of this important corporation Mr. Holmes is presi- dent and general manager. He is also presi- dent of the Detroit Tool Company, of which specific mention is made on other pages of this volume. Mr. Holmes was one of the original stockholders of the newspaper company which published the Detroit Today, and when this was succeeded by the Detroit Times he con- tinued as one of the large stockholders of the latter.
In politics Mr. Holmes is aligned as a stal- wart supporter of the principles of the Re- publican party, but he has never manifested any inclination to become a candidate for pub- lic office. He is a member of the Detroit Board of Commerce, and is a life member of the Fellowcraft Club. Both he and his wife are active and influential members of the Martha Holmes Memorial church, Methodist Episcopal, and he served three years as presi- dent of the Methodist Episcopal Church & Sunday School Alliance of Detroit, and two years as trustee of Albion college, at Albion, Michigan. Mrs. Holmes is prominent in the various women's societies connected with the
church of which she is a member, is influential in the support of charitable and benevolent objects, and is a valued and appreciative mem- ber of the Century Club of Detroit.
On the 27th of April, 1881, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Holmes to Miss Emma L. Wheeler, daughter of the late Aaron Wheeler, a representative citizen of St. Louis, Gratiot county, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes have four children-Harold Wheeler, Florence Julia, Helen, and Ruth. Harold W. Holmes was afforded the advantages of the Detroit School for Boys, and in 1901 he became a student in the engineering department of Cor- nell University, at Ithaca, New York. In the following year he was matriculated in the same department of the University of Mich- igan, where he completed his course in en- gineering in the class of 1906. He is now as- sociated with his father in the latter's various business enterprises. Florence Julia, the eld- est of the three daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, is now the wife of Frederick C. Solms, who is purchasing agent for the cement company, at Hamden, Ohio. The two younger daughters are students in the Detroit Home and Day School.
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