USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 72
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He whose name initiates this article secured his early educational training in the public schools of his native city, after which he con- tinued his studies in Hamilton Collegiate In- stitute, at Hamilton, Ontario. In 1883 he assumed the position of traveling salesman for the Galt Machine Knife & Edge Tool Works, an incumbency which he retained until 1888, when he engaged in the retail hardware busi- ness in Galt, where he built up a prosperous enterprise. He disposed of his business and removed to Detroit, where he engaged in the manufacturing of robes and various lines of cloth. This enterprise was conducted for a number of years under the title of the Western Robe Company, and since 1907 the present corporate name, the Hugh Wallace Company, has obtained. The business, under the able generalship and control of Mr. Wallace has been developed to great magnitude, and adds no insignificant quota to the industrial prestige of Detroit. As before stated, a description of the concern appears elsewhere in this work, so
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that further review is not demanded in the present connection.
Mr. Wallace was one of the organizers of the Detroit Concrete Stone Company, which was incorporated in 1905, and he has been president of the same from the start. This likewise represents one of the important in- dustrial enterprises of the Michigan metropo- lis. In 1907 Mr. Wallace was elected vice- president of the Citizens' Savings Bank, and of this office he has since remained incumbent, taking an active part in directing the affairs of the institution. He is one of the valued and enthusiastic members of the Detroit Board of Commerce, of whose directorate he was a member from 1905 until 1907. In 1907 he was elected president of the Milwaukee Junc- tion Manufacturers' Association, and he still continues at the head of this organization. In politics Mr. Wallace is found arrayed as a loyal and staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and in a local way he is active in the party work, though he has never consented to become a candidate for public office of any description. Mr. Wallace well deserves mention as a member of that aggressive class of progressive, loyal and sub- stantial business men to whom has been due the great industrial and commercial advance- ment of Detroit within the past decade, and his popularity in this city is to be measured only by the number of his acquaintances. He is fond of travel and finds opportunity to in- dulge himself in this line. Each year he passes from two to four months in England and on the European continent, and these tours are made an effective association of busi- ness and pleasure.
On the 25th of March, 1899, was solemn- ized the marriage of Mr. Wallace to Miss Louise Arms, daughter of the late Edwin Arms, who was a prominent and influential citizen of South Lyons, Michigan, and a de- scendant of William Arms, who settled in Con- way, Masachusetts, in 1660; further data con- cerning the family history is given in a sketch of the career of his son, Floyd G. Arms, on
other pages of this publication. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace have two children-Edwin James and Ruth Louise. The attractive city home of the family is located at 33 Virginia avenue and is a center of gracious hospitality. Mrs. Wal- lace is identified with the social activities of the city, is an influential member of the Twen- tieth Century Club, and is also a member of other leading organizations of a social and literary order. Both she and her husband hold membership in the Westminster Presby- terian church.
OSCAR R. LOOKER.
Prominent in the domain of life insurance and one of the representative business men of . "Greater Detroit" is Mr. Looker, who is presi- dent of the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Company, a review of whose history appears elsewhere in this work.
Mr. Looker has been identified with life-in- surance interests during the greater part of his active business career and is a recognized authority in this important field of enterprise. To him more than to any other one man is due the magnificent expansion and amplification of the functions of the company of which he is the executive head, and in every department of his chosen vocation he is able to lend to his methods and policy the emphasis of thorough knowledge of all details and intimate command of technique.
Oscar R. Looker claims as the place of his nativity the fine old Buckeye state, having been born in Columbus, Franklin county, Ohio, on the 19th of June, 1846. Like many another man who has attained to definite and splendid success in broader fields of human endeavor, he was reared to the sturdy and invigorating disci- pline of the farm, the old homestead having been located near the capital city of Ohio. He was afforded the advantages of the common schools of the locality and period and in the same laid a substantial foundation for future successful manipulations as a man of affairs.
Although Mr. Looker had barely passed his fifteenth year at the inception of the civil war,
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his intrinsic though youthful patriotism was ton, South Carolina, and from that city to roused to immediate and responsive protest, Florence, North Carolina, where he was placed in a stockade prison. From this pen he man- aged to effect his escape, and he made his way into the marshes of the vicinity, where he suffered untold hardships from exposure and hunger, while to add to his misery he was badly afflicted with scurvy. Some kind-hearted negroes assisted him to the extent of their power and wished to secrete him until he was able to continue his journey toward the Union lines. So miserable was his condition, how- ever, that he voluntarily returned to the stock- ade and surrendered himself. He was soon afterward shipped with other prisoners to Sal- isbury, North Carolina, and while en route he jumped from the freight car under cover of darkness, and after the train had proceeded, he set out to the east, running into the Union lines near Wilmington, North Carolina, being practically devoid of clothing and nearly starved at the time when he again came within the sheltering province of the federal forces, in April, 1865, shortly before the final surrend- er at Appomattox. He received his honorable discharge, at Columbus, Ohio, in the same month, and his military career is one which will ever bear its quota of honor to his name. and his ambition was satisfied only when he was permitted to tender his active assistance in defense of the integrity of the Union. In August, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Com- pany E, First Battalion of Eighteenth United States Infantry, Regulars, and soon after the organization of his regiment he was made a sergeant in the same, serving in this office until the close of the war. His regiment was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland and its history offers the record of his faithful and valiant career as a soldier of the Republic and as one who lived up to the full tension of the great struggle through which the Union was perpetuated. As may be naturally inferred, he participated in many important engagements, and at the battle of Chickamauga, Tennessee, in September, 1863, he was captured by the enemy, being held as a prisoner for a period of nineteen months. He was first confined in a stockade at Atlanta, Georgia, and was thence transported to Richmond, Virginia, being held for a time in Belle Isle prison and then trans- ferred to a tobacco warehouse, known as Smith's prison, in the capital city of the Con- federacy. In the winter of 1864 he was taken from this place to Danville, Virginia, where he After the close of the war Mr. Looker lo- cated in Columbus, where for a time he gave his attention to reading law. However, his disposition was too alert long to permit him to follow the prosaic technical study demanded in this connection, and soon he is found en- listed in the field of enterprise in which it has been his to gain so marked success. His first experience in the insurance business was in the general agency of the Equitable Life In- surance Company in Columbus, and in 1869 he became connected with the Cleveland, Ohio, office of the Berkshire Life Insurance Com- pany, of Massachusetts, with which he re- mained two years. At the expiration of that period he joined the forces of the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Company, to the execu- tive head of which he was destined to rise through his own ability and resourcefulness. was again placed in a prison converted from a tobacco warehouse. Here he was attacked with smallpox, as were others of his unfortu- nate comrades in distress, and he with others was practically cast out to die. Those suffer- ing from the noisome disease were taken to an old stable and two of the men who were placed with him under the same blanket succumbed to the malady. Mr. Looker's strong constitu- tion and previous clean living now stood him well, for he recovered, though he had suffered from lack of attention and from the care which even a minor illness would demand. He was taken from Danville to Andersonville prison, where he was confined about eight months, at the expiration of which he was once again transferred, being sent to Millen, Georgia, from which point he was later sent to Charles-
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He came to the home office of the company, in Detroit, and this city has ever since represented his home.
Concerning his labors in this field the Michi- gan Investor of August 27, 1904, spoke as follows: "He was able to demonstrate to the directors from time to time the perfect knowl- edge he had attained of the life-insurance busi- ness, and when John T. Liggett, secretary of the company, dropped out, in 1883, Mr. Look- er was given his position and was also made general manager of the company. In 1893 he was elected president, in which office he has since served with consummate ability, retaining the while the active management of the com- pany's affairs. The great growth of the Michi- gan Mutual Life dates from the day, more than twenty years ago, that Mr. Looker became the director of the company's business. He had unbounded faith that ultimately the Michigan Mutual Life would be able to hold its own with any of the big companies of the country, and his faith is being justified. First he pulled the company out of the narrow rut into which it had fallen, and hewed paths for it into new ter- ritory. Next he convinced the directors that the company must do a diversified business, such as other companies were doing. He got their hearty support, and to-day the fact that the Michigan Mutual Life is to become one of the large insurance companies of the world is absolutely assured."
Mr. Looker has not hedged in his life with the demands and exactions of the great concern of which he is the head, but holds precedence as one of the liberal, broad-minded and pro- gressive citizens of Michigan's metropolis. His political support is given to the Republican party, and in a fraternal, business and social way, he is identified with many local organiza- tions, including Detroit Post, No. 384, Grand Army of the Republic, in which he takes a deep interest and of which he is past com- mander. He is also a Mason of high rank, having completed the round of the York Rite bodies, including membership in Detroit Com- mandery, No. I, Knights Templars, and also
having attained the thirty-second degree in the Michigan sovereign consistory of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite.
In the year 1895 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Looker to Miss Libbie C. Sulli- van, who was born and reared in Pontiac, this state, and they have two children,-Oscar F. and Ream C.
GILES B. SLOCUM.
True biography has a more noble purpose than mere fulsome eulogy. The historic spirit, faithful to the record, the discerning judgment, unmoved by prejudice and uncolored by en- thusiasm, are as essential in giving the life of the individual as in writing the history of a people. Indeed, the ingeniousness of the for- mer picture is even more vital, because the individual is the national unit, and if the unit be justly estimated the complex organism will become correspondingly intelligible. The world to-day is what the leading men of the last generation have made it. From the past has come the legacy of the present. Art, science, statesmanship, government and in- dustrial prosperity are accumulations. They constitute an inheritance upon which the pres- ent generation have entered, and the advan- tages secured from so vast a bequeathment de- pend entirely upon the fidelity with which is conducted the study of the lives of the principal actors who have transmitted the legacy. This is as true of those whose influence has been more or less localized as of those whose labors have had a permeating effect in the national life. To such a careful study are the life, character and services of Giles B. Slocum pre- eminently entitled, not only on the part of the student of biography but also of every citizen who, guided by the past, would in the pres- ent build wisely for the future. A strong man and true was this honored pioneer of Michigan, and his life and labors had significant bearing upon the development and material and social prosperity of the commonwealth with whose annals his name was linked for a long period and up to the time of his death.
The Slocum family is of sturdy English
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stock and representatives of the same were among the founders of the Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers. The subject of this memoir was a direct descendant of Giles Slocum, who was born in Somersetshire, Eng- land, and whom history records as having been a resident of Portsmouth township, Newport county, Rhode Island, as early as 1638. Jona- than Slocum, great-grandfather of him whose name initiates this sketch, was killed in the Indian wars, on the site of the present city of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, to which locality he had removed with his family from Rhode Island about 1774. His son Giles, grandfather of the future Michigan pioneer, was born in Rhode Island, and accompanied his parents to Pennsylvania when young. He was one of the sufferers in the historic Wyoming massacre in Pennsylvania, being one of the sixty who escaped the frightful onslaught of the Indians. His sister Frances, then five years of age, was held captive by the Indians, among whom she grew to maturity, eventually marrying one of the tribe. Her relatives could find no trace of her for sixty years, and then she was found living in Miami county, Indiana, in 1837, with numerous descendants about her. She was a woman of intelligence, even under the handicap of the circumstances under which she grew up, and found gratification in learning of her kin- folk, though she refused to leave her Indian family or to radically change her mode of liv- ing. She lived to a venerable age and her name has been perpetuated in history, song and story. Her remains rest in a grave near the former Miami Indian village where she lived for so long a period, and in that section of Indiana are found to-day many of her de- scendants,-folk of high character and stand- ing. Through the efforts of kindred, direct and collateral, a suitable monument was erected over her grave, the same having been unveiled, with appropriate ceremony, on the 17th of May, 1900. The chairman of the committee in charge of the placing of this memorial was Elliott T. Slocum, of Detroit, of whom indi- vidual mention is made in this work and who is a son of the subject of the memorial here entered.
Giles Slocum (2d) was a volunteer in Sul- livan's expedition against the Indians in the Genesee valley, and soon after the close of the war of the Revolution he removed from Penn- sylvania to Saratoga Springs, New York, settling on a farm about four miles distant from the present village of Saratoga and becoming one of the influential pioneers of that section of the Empire state, where he passed the re- mainder of his life. He purchased his land from General Schuyler, the valiant Revolution- ary officer, and they were warm personal friends. His son Jeremiah married Elizabeth Bryan, a representative of an old and promi- nent Connecticut family, and of their children the subject of this memoir was one.
Giles Bryan Slocum was born on the home- stead farm, near Saratoga Springs, New York, on the IIth of July, 1808, and his early train- ing was in connection with the great basic art of agriculture, through association with which he waxed strong and reliant, both mentally and physically, while the home influences were of the most beneficent order for character build- ing in the youth. His educational advantages were those afforded in the common schools of the locality and period, and that he made good use of his opportunities is evidenced by the fact that he became eligible for pedagogic honors, having taught school during four winter terms when a young man, in the neighborhood of his home and at Lockport, New York. During the summer of 1830 he was engaged in farming in the northern part of his native state, and in the following year he came to Michigan, mak- ing the trip by way of the Great Lakes and landing in Detroit, from which point he started on an extensive prospecting trip in the interior country, which was then little more than a wilderness. He made special investigations in the forests above Black river. He settled for the winter on the site of the present city of Toledo, Ohio, having there aided in laying out the town of Vistula, the nucleus of the city mentioned. There he opened the first store and he also assisted in getting out timber for the construction of the first dock at that now important entrepot. The death of his father, in 1832, necessitated his return to his home in
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the east, and in the adjustment of the affairs of the estate he purchased the interests of the other heirs. Early in the winter of 1833 Mr. Slocum returned to Michigan and located at the head of Swan creek, on the site of the pres- ent village of Newport, Monroe county, where he established a general store and was also interested in the operation of a stave mill. It is interesting to recall the fact that in the spring of 1834 he paddled a canoe from the city of Jackson down the Grand river to Grand Rapids, at which latter place there was practi- cally little semblance of a settlement at the time.
In the summer of the year last mentioned Mr. Slocum established the first store and dock at Truaxton, now Trenton, on the Detroit river, where he continued to be identified with the merchandise business for a long term of years, with but slight intermission. His op- erations in real estate in Michigan dated prac- tically from 1837, when he sold the old family homestead in Saratoga county, New York, having definitely established his home in Mich- igan, which was admitted to statehood that year. An important event in his career oc- curred in 1838, when was solemnized his mar- rige to Miss Sophia Maria Brigham Truax, daughter of Colonel Abraham C. Truax, founder of the village of Trenton, Wayne county, Michigan,-an honored pioneer of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this work.
Among the primary purchases of realty made by Mr. Slocum was a tract with a frontage of about three miles along the Detroit river, in the vicinity of Trenton, and for about a score of years thereafter he gave special at- tention to farming and sheep raising, becoming one of the largest wool-growers in the state. Each year he added to the area of his landed estate, and at the time of his death there stood to his credit the reclamation of about two thousand acres of land in the vicinity of Tren- ton; the major portion of this he had placed under effective cultivation. The timber from these lands was largely used in ship-building at Trenton and in the manufacturing of staves, which were shipped to New York. For several
years also Mr. Slocum conducted a profitable enterprise in the building of docks at Detroit, Windsor, Springwells, Trenton, Sandwich, Gibralter and Grosse Ile.
On the 7th of June, 1848, Mr. Slocum en- tered into a contract with the county of Wayne to construct three bridges,-two across the river Rouge and one over the Ecorse river,- and through the terms of this contract he came into possession of several large tracts of land in the eastern part of Muskegon county, said lands having been donated by the state to aid in the building of such bridges.
At a point now known as the village of Slocum, in the heart of a tract of about five thousand acres of heavily timbered land, in Muskegon county, Mr. Slocum erected a saw mill, and there he built up a lumbering busi- ness which he conducted for many years, in company with his son, while they also made large incidental improvements in the develop- ing of the agricultural resources of the land, as it was gradually reclaimed, and with the ex- tension of railroad facilities this property has become very valuable. In the late '50s Mr. Slocum purchased large tracts of valuable tim- ber land on White river and White lake, and in 1859, with Charles Mears, of Chicago, he laid out and platted the present village of Whitehall, on White lake, in Muskegon county, Michigan.
Mr. Slocum lent a hearty co-operation and support in the construction of the Detroit, Mon- roe & Toledo Railroad, in 1856, donating to the company the right of way through his own property and personally purchasing land from others for that purpose. On the completion of the Toledo, Canada Southern & Detroit and the Chicago & Canada Southern railways, the junction of the two roads was made on his property near Trenton. Of his life and labors another has written the following appreciative summary: "Notwithstanding the many com- mercial changes and business revulsions of his time, Mr. Slocum always met his obligations, and the fortune he accumulated was the re- sult of the numerous enterprises which he con- ducted with care and clear business judgment. His honesty was never questioned, and he pos-
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sessed the unbounded faith and confidence of those with whom he did business. None of the early pioneers of this section was more widely known throughout the state nor more sincerely respected and esteemed. He had a kind heart, and helped many men to obtain homes, farms and fortunes." The last sentence in the above quotation clearly indicates the man as a man, and when his measure is thus gauged what more need be said? "He had a kind heart," yes, and he was humanity's friend in the best sense,-hopeful and helpful and ever faithful to principle.
Mr. Slocum was originally an old-line Whig in his political affiliations, but when a new party came into existence as representative of the principles which met his approval, he at once transferred his allegiance, becoming a stalwart supporter of the Republican party, of which he was one of the founders, having been a delegate to the historic convention "under the oaks," at Jackson, Michigan, in 1854, where the party came into existence under its present proud title. He was a man of broad mental ken, and naturally took a lively interest in public affairs of the state in which he had taken up his abode in the territorial days. He thus wielded no little influence in political affairs, and he was especially active in several sena- torial campaigns. In the first two senatorial elections of the Hon. Zachariah Chandler, Mr. Slocum occupied the same room and shared the same bed with him at the senatorial head- quarters, at Lansing, and took an active part in his election. During the civil war his aid and influence were freely and loyally given in upholding the hands of the administration, and he did much to assist in raising funds, recruit- ing troops, equipping the same, and otherwise helping the state to do its part in the great struggle which determined the integrity of the republic. For several years prior to his death' Mr. Slocum was a trustee of the Saratoga Monument Association, of which ex-Governor Horatio Seymour, of New York, was at the time president. His religious faith was that of the Protestant Episcopal church, and he was ever active in the promotion of moral and educational advancement.
This honored pioneer died at his attractive home on Slocum's Island, in the Detroit river, on the 26th of January, 1884, and his mortal body was laid to rest in Elmwood cemetery, Detroit. His widow is still living (January, 1908,) at the venerable age of eighty-nine years. Her life has been one of signal gra- ciousness and kindliness, and she is one of the oldest representatives of the pioneer families of Detroit and Michigan. Of her father, Colonel Abraham C. Truax, a memoir appears in this work, as already noted.
Mr. and Mrs. Slocum became the parents of three children,-Elliott T., of whom individual mention is made elsewhere in this publication ; Alice, who died at the age of twenty-three years; and Mrs. Elizabeth T. Nichols, who is a resident of Detroit.
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