USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 73
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JEREMIAH HOWE.
Fortified through technical knowledge, long and practical experience and marked facility and resourcefulness in directing men and util- izing the forces at his command, Mr. Howe has been prominently identified with the copper and brass manufacturing interests of the United States for a quarter of a century and is now incumbent of the responsible office of general superintendent of the Michigan Copper & Brass Company, which represents one of the important and successful industrial enterprises contributing materially to the prestige of De- troit and to the development of the larger and greater city.
Mr. Howe is a native of the fair Emerald Isle, having been born at Nenagh, county Tip- perary, Ireland, on the 15th of August, 1850, and being a son of Thomas and Bridget (Tuohey) Howe, both of whom passed their entire lives in Ireland. The early life of the subject of this sketch was spent in and about his native town, and his educational training was secured in the local schools. In 1871, soon after attaining to his legal majority, Mr. Howe came to America, having very limited financial resources and depending upon himself to gain a place in connection with the economic activi-
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ties of the strange land which he adopted as a home. He was not lacking in ambition, self- reliance and aggressiveness, however, and these attributes proved potent in his early career in America, as have they also in later years, marked by definite and worthy success.
Soon after his arrival in the United States Mr. Howe located in Torrington, Connecticut, where he secured employment as a laborer in the shops of the Coe Brass Company. He soon showed that he had much natural ability in the line of mechanics and also that he was able to render effective service in directing the labors of others : the consequence was that he did not long remain in a position of subordinate order, but, on the contrary, he was advanced through various grades of promotion and assumed duties of continuously increasing responsibility. He soon familiarized himself with the details of brass manufacturing and for a period of ten years he continued in the employ of the Coe Brass Company. At the expiration of that time, in 1881, he was tendered. and accepted a position with the De- troit Copper & Brass Rolling Mills, which had been founded but a short time previously and which constituted practically the first concern in this branch of industrial enterprise in Michi- gan. Mr. Howe's duties in connection with the corporation at the start were of generalized character, being both technical and administra- tive. The plant had not been operated profita- bly and it became evident that a reorganization of the company was expedient, in order that the business might be pushed forward under more favorable auspices. This desideratum was gained through the interposition of F. H. Buhl, and under the new regime Mr. Howe was made superintendent of the plant. Mr. Buhl retired from the company in 1882 and was succeeded by Oliver Goldsmith. The en- terprise began to assume evidences of pro- nounced success soon after Mr. Howe took charge of the shops, and by 1884 the business had outgrown the capacity of its original quarters. Under these conditions the company purchased a tract of land on Mckinstry av-
enue, contiguous to the tracks of the Wabash Railroad, and the first buildings of the present plant of the corporation were erected and equipped under the direction of Messrs. Gold- smith and Howe.
The development of this important industrial institution offers the record of Mr. Howe's suc- cess in his chosen field of endeavor and also designates the initial work accomplished in connection with the upbuilding of the brass and copper manufacturing industry in the state of Michigan. Mr. Howe continued incumbent of the office of superintendent of the plant until November, 1905, when he resigned to become one of the organizers of the Michigan Copper & Brass Company, with which he has since been identified as a stockholder and as general superintendent, being the technical expert of the company. The various additions to the plant were erected under his supervision and many improvements in special machinery were designed by him : these devices were construct- ed in the machine shops of the company. The application of these new machines has con- served economy of labor and also materially enhanced the quality and value of the output. Although a description of the company and its business is offered on other pages of this work, certain salient points should be noted in the present sketch, in so far as they pertain to the successful efforts of Mr. Howe. Under his direction when he assumed the superintendency of the Detroit Copper & Brass Rolling Mills, in 1881, a force of not more than one hundred operatives and assist- ants was employed, and at the time of his resignation, in 1905, the corps of operatives numbered fully one thousand persons. The output of a single day in 1905 equalled that of an entire month in 1881. This certainly repre- sents a splendid development, and none of those concerned with the business has failed to appreciate that the progress is most largely due to the indefatigable efforts and close ex- ecutive administration of Mr. Howe. He has been signally favored in the kindly relations which he has ever maintained with the men
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working under his supervision. They recog- nize his ability and loyalty and return to him unreserved confidence and esteem. In the twenty-five years of his identification with his present line of business he has never had a dis- pute with his men in the matter of labor condi- tions, and the Detroit companies of whose practical affairs he has thus been superintend- ent have never operated their plants with union labor. Mr. Howe is recognized as an expert in his knowledge of the mixing feature of the copper, brass and bronze business, and his ability in this line is the direct result of close investigation, experimentation and long ex- perience. In mechanical work he is equally facile, and this fact has enabled him to provide many devices of great value in the equipment of the plants of which he has been placed in charge. He has invented many special ma- chines and accessory equipments and the plant of the company with which he is now connected is a model in all departments, while its products are at all times maintained at the highest stand- ard. That the co-operation of representative capitalists and business men of Detroit was secured in effecting the organization of the Michigan Copper & Brass Company was large- ly due to the implicit confidence they reposed in the technical and executive ability of Mr. Howe. For a more comprehensive out- line of the history of the company reference should be made to the article descriptive of the same, appearing elsewhere in this volume.
Mr. Howe is an appreciative member of the Detroit Board of Commerce, the Detroit Engi- neering Society and the Rushmere Club, at St. Clair Flats. In addition to his stock in the company of which he is superintendent he has made judicious investments in local real estate, and his success in life is the result of his own energy and well directed efforts, as even the data of this brief article clearly indicate. He is loyal to the city which has so long been his home and is a firm believer in the still greater prestige which Detroit is to attain along civic and industrial lines. In politics he gives his allegiance to the Democratic party
and he and his family are communicants of St. Anne's Catholic church. He is also identified with the National Union, the Knights of Co- lumbus and the Catholic Mutual Benefit Asso- ciation.
In the city of Torrington, Connecticut, in May, 1876, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Howe to Miss Margaret Ganley, who was born in the state of Massachusetts, and they became the parents of nine children, of whom seven are living, two of the sons having died in infancy. Thomas W. is bookkeeper for A. Krolik & Company, of Detroit; Frank is a draughtsman in the employ of the Russel Wheel & Foundry Company, of this city; and Vincent, Leo J., Paul, Sylvester and Mary B. are attending school.
LEARTUS CONNOR.
Leartus Connor, physician and surgeon (eye and ear), medical teacher and medical journalist, of Detroit, Michigan, was born January 29, 1843, at Coldenham, Orange county, New York, a son of Hezekiah and Caroline (Corwin) Connor; both natives of the same county. His father was a lineal de- scendant of Jeremiah Connor, who emigrated to America about the middle of the seventeenth century and owned lands in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1664. His son, Jeremiah 2d, was captain of a company of scouts in the French and Indian war of 1702; the latter's son, Dr. Samuel Connor, was a lieutenant and surgeon with the Colonial forces which took part in the siege of Louisburg, 1745-6. John, a son of Dr. Samuel Connor (born in 1734, died 1796 in Walkill, New York), was a soldier in the battle of Ticonderoga ; a soldier in the war of the Revolution; settling at the close of the war near Scotchtown, Orange county, New York, becoming a successful me- chanic and farmer-the sword of his ancestor is possessed by his great-grandson, Leartus Connor. William Connor, son of John (born 1777, died 1854) was a soldier in the war of 1812, a mason, builder and farmer. On his farm near Scotchtown, Orange county, New
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York, was discovered a partial skeleton of one of the largest mastadons extant, now preserved in the New York State Museum, at Albany, New York.
Hezekiah Connor, son of William, father of Leartus (born 1807 near Scotchtown, New York, and died in 1888) was a mason builder and a farmer, a Republican and Presbyterian. Caroline (Corwin) Connor (born 1817, died 1864), mother of Leartus Connor, was a daughter of Phineas Corwin, a soldier in the war of 1812, carpenter, farmer, Presbyterian, a direct descendant of Matthias Corwin, who emigrated from England, settling in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1633 ; removing to Southold, Long Island, in 1640. From the same stock came Thomas Corwin, the celebrated Ohio lawyer, governor of Ohio, member of con- gress, United States senator from Ohio, and secretary of the treasury under Fillmore- said to have been one of the wittiest and most forceful of political speakers.
Leartus Connor was educated in the district schools, in Wallkill Academy, and Williams College, Massachusetts, graduating a Bachelor of Arts in 1865 and Master of Arts in 1868. He then served as assistant principal of Mex- ico Academy, in Mexico, New York, for two years, during his leisure studying the fauna and flora of that region, and medicine with Dr. George L. Dayton. During 1867-8 he studied in the medical department of the Uni- versity of Michigan, paying especial attention to practical work in the chemical laboratory. The two following years he spent in the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons of New York city, taking the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1870. During the intervals of his college courses he did practical clinical work, in dis- pensaries, hospitals and clinics, especially with Dr. Herman Knapp at his Ophthalmic and Aural Institute and with Dr. Cornelius Agnew at his Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital. He began practice at Searsville, New York, but in February, 1871, removed to Detroit to fill the chair of chemistry and director of the chemical laboratory in the Detroit Medical
College; in 1872 he was made professor of physiology and clinical medicine; in 1878 pro- fessor of diseases of the eye and ear. From 1871 to 1879 he was attending physician to St. Mary's Hospital; from 1881 to 1894 eye and ear surgeon to Harper Hospital, and from 1894 to 1906 consulting eye and ear surgeon; from 1887 to present date he has served as eye and ear surgeon to the Children's Free Hospital; from 1881 to 1890 he was consult- ing eye and ear surgeon to the Woman's Hos- pital.
From 1871 to 1895 Dr. Connor edited a medical journal known at different periods as the Detroit Review of Medicine and Pharm- acy, Detroit Medical Journal, Detroit Lancet, and the American Lancet.
From 1876 to 1883 Dr. Connor was secre- tary of the American Medical Association; from 1875 to 1881 secretary of the faculty of the Detroit Medical College; president of the Detroit Academy of Medicine 1888-9 and 1877-8, and its secretary 1871-2 ; president of the American Academy of Medicine 1888-9; president of the American Medical Editors' Association, 1883-4; chairman eye section of the American Medical Association, 1891 ; vice- president American Medical Association 1882- 3; trustee of the Journal of the American Medical Association, 1883-9 and 1892-4.
Dr. Connor is an active member of the De- troit Academy of Medicine ; the Wayne Coun- ty Medical Society, the Michigan State Medi- cal Society, the American Academy of Medi- cine, the Michigan Academy of Science, the American Medical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Oto-Laryngology, and the Detroit Ophthal- mological Club.
He was president of the Michigan State Medical Society 1902-3 ; chairman of its coun- cil 1902-5. (During this period the profes- sion of Michigan was reorganized and on a scientific basis that greatly increased its effi- ciency and power-a triumph of medical so- ciology.) From 1892 to 1894 he was a mem-
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ber of the committee of the American Medi- cal Association on revision of its constitution, by-laws and code of ethics.
Dr. Connor's contributions to medical lit- erature may be classified roughly as: (1) papers and discussions relating to his special eye and ear work; (2) those relating to the communal life of physicians; (3) public health; (4) general medicine; (5) presidential addresses before medical societies; (6) his editorial work during a period of twenty-four years. Space forbids a citation of but a few titles of these papers. In the first class we select "Hot Water in the Management of Eye Diseases"; "Optic Neuritis in Its Relation to Cerebral Tumor"; "Some Features of Stra- bismus"; "The Technique of Tenotomy of the Ocular Muscles"; "Strabismus as a Symptom; Its Causes and Practical Management"; "The Causes of Glaucoma"; "Diseases of the Lach- rymal Passages; Their Causes and Manage- ment"; "Some Sources of Failure in Treating Lachrymal Obstruction"; "The Giant Magnet in Ophthalmic Surgery"; "Does Opacity of Incipient Cataract Ever Regain Transpar- ency"; "What Contribution has Vibratory Massage Made to Ophthalmology."
(2) "The Communal Life of Physi- cians"; "A Year's Experience in Medical Or- ganization"; "The Medical Profession; Its Aim and Method"; "Free Medical Service to the Well-to-do in the University of Michigan Hospitals."
(3) "The Needs and Value of Public Health Work"; "Common Sources of Danger to Human Vision"; "How to Secure and Pre- serve the Best Eyesight."
(4) "Neuralgia of the Heart Treated by Nitrite of Amyl"; "Unity of Croup and Diph- theria"; "Causes of Phthisis Pulmonalis."
(5) "American Medical Journal of the Fu- ture as Indicated by the History of the Medi- cal Journals of the Past" (president's ad- dress) ; "Department of Medicine and Surg- ery, University of Michigan, Considered as a Living Organism and as a Factor" (address at the laying of the corner stone of the new
medical building by the president of the Mich- igan State Medical Society ) ; "Michigan State Medical Society ; Its First Eighty-three Years" (president's address, June, 1903) ; "American Academy of Medicine; Its Field Work and Suggestions for an Increase in Its Efficiency" (president's address); "The First Twenty Years of the Detroit Academy of Medicine" (president's address) ; "Methods for Promot- ing the Value of the Section on Ophthalmol- ogy, American Medical Association" (chair- man's address).
The addresses before the Michigan State Medical Society, the American Academy of Medicine, and the Section on Ophthalmology, American Medical Association, started move- ments which radically changed each society and the entire American Medical Association.
Dr. Connor is an elder in the Fort Street Presbyterian church; member of the Old Club; member of the Detroit Club; member of the Board of Commerce; member of the Detroit Bankers' Club; and director in the Home Sav- ings Bank. On August 10, 1870, he married Anna A., eldest daughter of Rev. Charles and Nancy (Page) Dame, of Exeter, New Hamp- shire, born at Falmouth, Maine, August 23, 1844. In 1866 she graduated from Mount Holyoke College, at South Bradley, Massa- chusetts. For the three following years she served as preceptress at Mexico Academy, Mexico, New York, and Monson Academy, Monson, Massachusetts. After building her home and rearing her family she devoted her life to advancing the intellectual, social, patri- otic and religious life of her city. She was a constant worker in the Fort Street Presby- terian church, generally an officer, and always a leader in one or more of the church societies. She was the founder of the Michigan Mount Holyoke College Alumni Association, and for many years its president; a founder of the Detroit Twentieth Century Club and of the Woman's College Club. She was a member, and twice regent, of the Louisa St. Clair Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. For several years she was cor-
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responding secretary of the Michigan Chapter of the Colonial Dames of America, and was completing her second term of service as its president at her death, July 21, 1907. With high intellectual attainments she blended a gracious personality and unswerving devotion to her friends, her country and her God. To Dr. and Mrs. Connor came two sons, Guy Leartus, born October 10, 1874, and Ray, born November 1, 1876. Both fitted for col- lege in the Detroit public schools and at the Detroit School for Boys; both graduated Bachelor of Arts from Williams College, Mas- sachusetts, 1897; and both graduated Doctor of Medicine from Johns Hopkins Medical School, 1901. Guy at once began medical practice in Detroit; for one year he was sec- retary and treasurer of the Wayne County Medical Society, and served as assistant editor of the Journal, Michigan State Medical So- ciety. Ray served as house surgeon at the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital in New York city till 1903, when he became associated with his father in eye, ear, nose and throat practice in Detroit. Both sons are connected with the Detroit Children's Free Hospital- Guy with the department of nervous diseases; Ray with the eye and ear service. Both are members of the American Academy of Medi- cine; of the Detroit Academy of Medicine; the Wayne County Medical Society; the Michigan State Medical Society; and the American Medical Association. Ray is a mem- ber of the American Academy of Ophthalmol- ogy and Oto-Laryngology, and secretary of the Detroit Ophthalmological and Otological Club and member of the Detroit Book and Journal club. He was founder of the Michi- gan Williams College Alumni Association and is its secretary and treasurer.
ELLIOTT T. SLOCUM.
Elsewhere in this volume is entered a me- moir to Giles B. Slocum, one of the honored pioneers and influential citizens of Wayne county, who was the father of Elliott T. Slocum, and in the present sketch it is there-
fore unnecessary to again review the data or take further cognizance of the family geneal- ogy. The subject of this sketch has proven a worthy successor of his father and has long held prestige as one of the prominent busi- ness men and leading citizens of his native county and state. His capitalistic interests are wide and varied and his individual and finan- cial forces have been exerted along lines which touch and enhance the general progress and material welfare.
Elliott Truax Slocum was born at Trenton, Wayne county, Michigan, a village which was founded by his maternal grandfather, Colonel Abraham C. Truax, individually mentioned in this work, and the date of his nativity was May 15, 1839. He is the only son of Giles B. and Sophia Maria Brigham (Truax) Slocum. Mr. Slocum was reared on the old homestead near Trenton, and his collegiate preparatory course was taken in the Episcopal school for boys maintained on Grosse Ile by Rev. Moses Hunter, an able educator and a prominent clergyman of the Protestant Epis- copal church. Mr. Slocum finished his pre- paratory course in 1857, and in the following year he was matriculated in Union College, Schenectady, New York-a locality which is the ancestral home of the Slocum family. He was graduated as a member of the class of 1862, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and his diploma was one of the last to bear the signature of Dr. Eliphalet Nott, who was for many years president of the institution and who held a very high reputa- tion in educational circles. In 1869 Mr. Slocum completed a post-graduate course in the University of Michigan, which conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. He has ever retained a deep interest in educa- tional affairs and has not retrograded in the matter of appreciative study of the best lit- erature, classical and contemporaneous, being known as a man of broad intellectuality as well as one of great business capacity.
After his graduation in Union College Mr. Slocum became actively associated with his father in the operation of their extensive stock and grain farm near Trenton-one of the
Elliott , Forum
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largest and most admirably conducted in the state-and they were also most intimately as- sociated in lumbering in Muskegon county for a number of years, as will be seen by ref- erence to the sketch of the life of the father. Elliott T. Slocum individually acquired by purchase extensive tracts of land in various parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, the greater portion being unreclaimed from the primitive forest, and with the advent of railroads in these sections, and the consequent develop- ment of the country, these lands greatly ap- preciated in value and constituted a most prof- itable investment. He is still interested in real estate in western Michigan, where he has large and valuable holdings, and where he is also concerned in various industrial and commercial enterprises of an incidental order. He is also the owner of a large amount of real estate in Detroit, and his possessions along the river front in Wayne county are exten- sive and exceedingly valuable. In this, as well as other connections, he has done much to further the material upbuilding and generic progress of his home city and county.
With a natural predilection for affairs of breadth, and trained by a father of great pragmatic ability, Mr. Slocum made distinc- tive progress along lines of legitimate busi- ness enterprise. He was one of the original directors of the Chicago & Canada Southern Railroad, was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Whitehall, Muskegon county, of which he long served as vice-presi- dent, and was formerly a director of the Dé- troit National Bank now known as the Old Detroit National Bank. He is at the present time a director and large stockholder in the Union Trust Company, a stockholder in the First National Bank of Detroit and the Citi- zens' Savings Bank, as well as the City Na- tional Bank of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is also one of the principal stockholders of the Michigan Wire Cloth Company, one of the successful industrial concerns of Detroit. Upon the death of his father he assumed control of the large estate, and the management of the same has demanded much of his time and at- tention during the intervening period of more
than a score of years. He succeeded his father as trustee of the Saratoga Monument Associa- tion of New York, and with George William Curtis, Samuel S. Cox, John H. Starin and others was actively concerned in the erection, under the direction of the association, of the beautiful monument on the field of Bur- goyne's surrender, at Schuylerville, New York, near the old homestead of his father's family. This monument is conceded to be one of the finest in America and is a worthy memorial touching one of the most important events in the nation's history. He was also chairman of the Frances Slocum Monument Committee, through whose efforts a fitting monument was erected over the grave of the Indian captive, Frances Slocum, in Miami county, Indiana. The romantic story of the life of this worthy woman, who was taken captive when a child of five years and who was reared among the Indians, has been told in the pages of history, and her kindred in generations far removed finally paid a defi- nite tribute to her memory by the placing of the monument mentioned, the same having been unveiled on the 17th day of May, 1900. The occasion was one of historic interest and called forth an assemblage of many represent- ative men, including a large number who could claim direct collateral kinship. Further men- tion of Frances Slocum is made in the sketch of the life of Mr. Slocum's father, and in that article is indicated the direct family re- lationship.
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