Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, Part 81

Author: Burton, Clarence Monroe, 1853-1932
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 858

USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 81

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When Frank W. Eddy was a child his father was called to a pastorate in Northampton, Massachusetts, and in the Round Hill school of that place the son pursued his studies until he was fifteen years of age, when the family re- moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he at- tended the Polytechnic Institute, after which he entered Williams College, in which institution he remained a student for several years.

Mr. Eddy initiated his business career by taking a position as clerk in a wholesale hard- ware house in New York city, where he re- mained until 1873, when he went to California and located in the city of Sacramento. There he was identified with a similar line of enter- prise for some time, after which he was en- gaged in the newspaper and printing business in that city. In 1875 Mr. Eddy became a resi- dent of Detroit, where his parents had located about two years previously and where he has maintained his home during the intervening period of more than thirty years. Shortly after his arrival in the Michigan metropolis he se- cured a position as bookkeeper for James Nall & Son, and later in the same year he accepted a similar position in the establishment of H. D. Edwards & Company, to which concern he was admitted a partner in 1876: this connection proved the virtual foundation of his signally successful career as an independent business man. The enterprise conducted under the firm name noted dates its inception back to the year 1855, when it was founded by the late A. G. Edwards, who in that year opened a store for the handling of rubber goods. The business has been continued without interrup- tion during all the long intervening years and the house is now one of the largest of its kind in the United States, throughout the most di- verse sections of which its trade extends, as

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well as into foreign countries. The business is now entirely of a wholesale order, with direct manufacturing connections, and marine hard- ware and all kinds of mechanical rubber goods are handled. George W. Edwards and Frank W. Eddy are now the only members of the firm. Mr. Eddy is also a stockholder and di- rector of the corporation of Nelson, Baker & Company, manufacturing chemists. He was largely instrumental in securing to Detroit the great factory of Morgan & Wright, leading manufacturers of rubber vehicle tires in the United States, and of this concern also he is a director. He is a member of the directorate of the Rubber Goods Manufacturing Com- pany, of New York; is president of the Na- tional Can Company, of Detroit; is a director of the Detroit Oak Belting Company; and is a director of each of the Wayne County Savings Bank and the Detroit Trust Company, both of which institutions are specifically mentioned in this publication. He is also treasurer and general manager of The H. V. Hartz Com- pany, of Cleveland, Ohio.

Essentially liberal, progressive and public- spirited, Mr. Eddy has ever shown a lively interest in local affairs, and in political matters his allegiance is given to the Republican party. He and his family attend the Congregational church, and he is identified with the Detroit Club, the Detroit Athletic Club, the Detroit Country Club, the Yondotega Club, the De- troit Boat Club and other social and civic organizations of representative character. He is ex-president of both the Detroit Club and the Detroit Athletic Club.

In 1879 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Eddy to Miss Florence Taylor, of Detroit, and they have six daughters.

WILLIAM B. MORAN.

The honored subject of this memoir was a representative of one of the best known and most distinguished pioneer families of Detroit and was a scion of that fine old French stock which so early made its influence felt in the annals of the "City of the Straits." He him-

self became a representative member of the bar of his native city and state, but finally with- drew from the work of his profession to give his attention to his large capitalistic interests and industrial enterprises.

William Benjamin Moran was born in De- troit on the 24th of May, 1844, being the sec- ond of the five children born to the late Judge Charles Moran and Justine (McCormack) Moran, the former of whom was born in De- troit and the latter in Orange county, New York. The original French ancestors of the Moran family in America were numbered among the earliest settlers of the St. Lawrence valley in Canada. The progenitor was Pierre Moran, who was born at Batiscan, France, in 1651, and who, in 1678, married Madeline Grimard. This worthy couple left many descendants in Canada, where the name is still well represented, and in the several generations have been found men of distinction in the learned professions, in business life and in the financial world. The original orthography of the name was Morand, and thus it appears in certain ancient records in Canada. Jean Bap- tiste Moran, one of the sons of the original Pierre Moran, was married, at Quebec, Can- ada, in 1707, to Elizabeth Dubois, and Charles Moran, son of this couple, was the founder of the Detroit branch of the family. He settled here in the year 1734, and since that time the name has been indissolubly and prominently linked with the annals of the state of Michi- gan. This Charles Moran, in 1767, married Marguerite Grimard Trembley, whose family possessed the signeurie de Trembley as early as 1681. She died in 1771, leaving two sons, the younger of whom, Charles, was born in 1770, in Detroit. Charles Moran (2d) was married, in 1794, to Catherine Vissier deLaferté, whose only child was the late and distinguished Judge Charles Moran, of Detroit. The latter was born in Detroit, on the 21st of April, 1797, and here his death occurred in 1876, in the fulness of years and well earned honors. Judge Moran was twice married. In 1822 was solemnized his union with Julie

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DeQuindre, and they became the parents of five children, of whom the last to survive was Mary Josephine, who was the youngest and who was the wife of Robert E. Mix, a promi- nent citizen of Cleveland, Ohio. After the death of his first wife Judge Moran married Miss Justine McCormack, who survived him by several years, her death occurring in Detroit. They became the parents of five children, namely : James, who died when a young man, unmarried; William B., who is the immediate subject of this memoir; John V., who is one of the representative citizens of Detroit; Catherine, who is the widow of the late Henry D. Barnard, of Detroit; and Alfred T., of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this work.

Judge Charles Moran became one of the most extensive real-estate owners in Detroit and left to his children a large fortune. He was one of the city's most honored and in- fluential citizens, liberal and progressive be- yond his time, and an influential factor in pub- lic affairs in the state. He served as a member of the Michigan legislature at the time when Detroit was still the capital of the state, was judge of the territorial court for a term of years and held other positions of distinctive public trust and responsibility. On the roll of the revered pioneer citizens of Detroit his name must ever occupy a prominent place. For many generations the family has been repre- sented prominently in the Catholic church, of which Judge Moran was a devout communi- cant and one who did much to further the work of the church in its various departments.

William B. Moran, to whom this article is dedicated, secured his early educational disci- pline in the Patterson school, Detroit, and later continued his studies in St. John's Col- lege, one of the old and noble Catholic insti- tutions of Fordham, New York. He was grad- uated in this college as a member of the class of 1866, was a professor of mathematics two years, and soon afterward he began reading law under the preceptorship of William Gray, who was then one of the leading members of

the Detroit bar. He made rapid progress in the absorption and assimilation of legal lore, and was admitted to the bar of the state in 1870. Mr. Moran built up a large and repre- sentative law business and became one of the foremost members of his profession in Detroit, where he continued in active practice until about a decade prior to his death, when he re- tired, to give his attention to other interests, as has already been stated in this context. The records of the municipal, state and federal courts bear evidence of the powers and success- ful work of Mr. Moran in his profession, which he honored and dignified by his labors and services.

Mr. Moran was one of the founders of the Peninsular Stove Company and was actively identified with its management for many years. He was the owner of a large landed estate, including city property and also tracts of land at Grosse Pointe. He was one of the original stockholders of the American Harrow Com- pany and the Detroit Electric Light & Power Company, of which latter he was president at the time of his demise, and he was a member of the directorate of the People's Savings Bank. He was a citizen whose public spirit ever showed in apotheosis, and his interest in all that concerned the welfare of his native city and state was of the most insistent and loyal type. He was incumbent of the office of city comptroller during the administration of Mayor M. H. Chamberlain, and was a mem- ber of the Detroit park commission at the time when the present beautiful Belle Isle park prop- erty was purchased by the city. His political allegiance was given to the Democratic party, he was identified with various civic and social organizations, including the principal clubs of Detroit, was a communicant of the Jesuit Catholic church, and in all the relations of life he so ordered his course as to merit and receive the unequivocal confidence and esteem of his fellow men. His death occurred on the 11th of December, 1895, and thus Detroit recognized and manifested its appreciation of the loss of one of its most honored and valued citizens,-

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one who worthily upheld the high prestige of the name which he bore.

In 1872 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Moran to Miss Frances A. Desnoyer, who was born and reared in Detroit and who survives him, as do also their three children, namely: Katherine M., wife of Strathearn Hendrie, of Detroit; William R., of Detroit; and Henry D.

WILLIAM C. MAYBURY.

Standing representative of the deepest public spirit and civic loyalty, Hon. William C. May- bury, former mayor of Detroit and ex-member of congress from this district, has long been a dominating and honored factor in his native city, and he is one of the leading members of the bar of the state of Michigan.

Mr. Maybury was born in Detroit, on the 20th of November, 1849, and is a son of the late Thomas Maybury, to whom a memoir is accorded on other pages of this volume, so that a further review of the family history is not demanded at the present juncture. In the pub- lic schools of Detroit William C. Maybury gained his early educational discipline, and was graduated in the old Capitol high school as a member of the class of 1866. In 1870 he was graduated in the literary department of the University of Michigan, which conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in 1871 he graduated, with high honors, in the law department of the same institution, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In 1880 his alma mater conferred upon him also the degree of Master of Arts. After completing his course in the law department of the University Mr. Maybury returned to Detroit, where he entered the law office of Hon. George V. N. Lathrop, with whom he remained until 1871, the same year when he was duly admitted to the bar of his native state,-shortly after attaining his legal ma- jority. He then formed a professional part- nership with Colonel Edwin F. Conely, with whom he continued to be associated until the latter's death, in 1882. Thereafter he main- tained for nearly a decade a professional alli-

ance with John D. Conely and Alfred Lucking, and the firm title was Conely, Maybury & Lucking until the retirement of Mr. Conely, after which the title of Maybury & Lucking obtained until 1892, and now the firm is May- bury, Lucking, Emmons & Helfman.

Mr. Maybury has gained a high reputation as a lawyer of fine attainments and has been most successful both as a trial lawyer and a coun- selor. He has been concerned in much im- portant litigation and has been retained as counselor by important business corporations and representative capitalists.

As a staunch advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party, Mr. Maybury has done yeoman service in its cause, and early in his professional career he was called upon to serve in public office. From 1875 to 1880 he was incumbent of the office of city attorney of Detroit, and in 1882 he was elected to rep- resent the first congressional district of Michi- gan in the forty-eighth congress. He was chosen as his own successor in 1884 and his congressional record was one altogether to his credit and to that of the great commonwealth of which he was thus the accredited represen- tative. He was accorded membership on the important judiciary committee and also that on ways and means. Within the period of his service in congress was purchased the site of the present magnificent postoffice building in Detroit and the work of erection was insti- tuted. It was largely due to his earnest efforts that congress passed the bill permitting the building of the Belle Isle bridge, connecting Detroit with its beautiful island park. This bill was drawn and presented by Mr. Maybury.

Upon the expiration of his second term in congress Mr. Maybury returned to Detroit and resumed the active practice of his profession. On the 10th of April, 1897, he was chosen to serve the unexpired term of Mayor Hazen S. Pingree, who had been elected governor of the state. On the 5th of the following November he was duly elected mayor of Detroit for the full term of two years, and his administration was marked by progressiveness, correct busi-

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ness methods and independence. His regime in the mayoralty was one that gained unequivo- cal popular commendation, and he retired with a closely cemented hold upon the respect and confidence of all classes of citizens. . Mr. May- bury is a prominent figure in the Masonic fra- ternity, in which he has passed every grade in both the York and Scottish Rite bodies, in- cluding the thirty-third degree. In 1898 he served as commander in chief of Michigan Sov- ereign Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. He is senior warden of St. Peter's church, Protestant Episcopal, and a director of the local organization of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, an admirable church organiza- tion. Mr. Maybury is a bachelor.

WILLIAM HARSHA.

William Harsha, editor and publisher, founder of the first exclusive job-printing es- tablishment in the Territory of Michigan, and a citizen of prominence and influence in the early years of its statehood, was born in Wash- ington, Pennsylvania, on the 31st of December, 1806, a son of John and Esther (McMillan) Harsha. His ancestors, both paternal and maternal, were among those who took part in the early colonization of America, and num- bered among them have been those who achieved distinction in the French and Indian wars, the war of Independence and who have filled many positions of usefulness in the town, state and nation.

The Harsha family was founded in America by three brothers, natives of the famous old city of Newry, long the capital of the Irish kings, in the county of Armagh, Ireland. They were soldiers of fortune and joined that gal- lant band of adventurers who .accompanied Captain John Smith to the New World and, in 1607, founded with him the colony of Vir- ginia. William Harsha, the earliest of the family of whom authentic records can be found, was born in Pennsylvania, served in the Con- tinental line in the war of Independence, and married Elizabeth Strain. Another member of

the family was also in the Continental service and attained the rank of captain. Elizabeth Strain was a member of the well known and influential family of that name and a near relative of Commodore Strain, United States navy, concerning whom the following data are secured from Johnson's Encyclopedia :

"Strain, Isaac G., born at Roxbury, Penn- sylvania, in 1821, entered the navy as mid- shipman ; in 1845, at the head of a small party, made explorations in the interior of Brazil, and in 1848 in Lower California. In 1849 he crossed South America from Valparaiso to Buenos Ayres, publishing a narrative of this journey, under the title 'The Cordillera and the Pompa' (1853). In 1850 he was for a short time attached to the Mexican boundary commission. He afterward commanded an expedition to explore a route for a ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama, the party suf- fering extreme hardships and losing several of its members; an account of this expedition, compiled from his papers by J. T. Headley, appeared in Harper's Magazine in 1856. In 1856, in the steamer 'Arctic,' he made sound- ings which demonstrated the practicability of a telegraphic cable between the United States and Great Britain. He died at Aspinwall, May 15, 1857."

John Harsha, son of William Harsha through marriage with Elizabeth Strain, was born in Pennsylvania, on the 17th of March, 1778. He was one of the first settlers of Washington county, that state, and a pioneer in the transportation of freight from the eastern section of the state to the western. The enter- prise was attended with many hardships and great difficulty, owing to the almost impassable mountains and suitable roadways, while the Indians were a danger to be constantly reck- oned with. He became the owner of a large landed estate and was a citizen of prominence and influence. He married, on the 26th of July, 1805, Miss Esther McMillan, a member of an old colonial family. John Harsha died on the 15th of June, 1859, and his wife on February 3, 1860. They were the parents of

Havia Marcha

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twelve children, of whom William, our subject, was the eldest.

William Harsha received his rudimentary education in the public schools of Washington county, Pennsylvania, and later became a stu- dent in the Washington & Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, that state. While attending the latter institution he was a classmate of the late Hon. James G. Blaine, and formed with him a close friendship, which remained un- broken to the time of Mr. Harsha's death. On completion of a term in this college he was ap- prenticed to Butler, of Pittsburg, then the most famous printer of the west. With him he be- came a journeyman printer, subsequently lo- cating in Ravenna, Ohio, at that time known as the Western Reserve. Here he established a printing and binding plant and engaged in the publishing of books and newspapers. He was successful as a publisher and editor and eventually sold the business with profit. In search for a new location, he visited Cincinnati and Toledo, Ohio. Failing to find conditions to his liking in these places, he journeyed on to Detroit, where he located. He first engaged in establishing printing plants in various towns in the territories of Michigan and Wisconsin, selling them on time payments, thereby making possible the early development of the news- paper field, which otherwise would necessarily have been a matter of time. His first connec- tion with the printing art in Detroit was in the capacity of compositor on the Detroit Free Press. In 1835 he established the first exclu- sive job-printing plant in the territory. The first city directory, that of 1837, and also the second, that of 1845, were printed by him. In 1845, he printed and bound in his establish- ment the first legal work to be published in the state,-"Walker's Chancery Reports." The original copy of this work filed for copyright with the clerk of the United States court, as was necessary at the time, by the publisher, Henry N. Walker, at the time one of the own- ers and editor of the Detroit Free Press, is now in the custody of Walter S. Harsha, son of the printer and the present clerk of the

court. Its cover bears the signature of John Winder, then clerk, and the date, May 14, 1845.

Mr. Harsha subsequently engaged in the publishing of newspapers and was connected with several as editor and owner. He was the founder of the "Western Farmer," its editor and publisher for several years, and later sold it to New York parties, who renamed it the "Rural New Yorker." He was for a time the owner, editor and publisher of the "Detroit Daily Advertiser." In disposing of this pub- lication one of the conditions of the sale was that Mr. Harsha contract to furnish one col- umn of editorial matter per day for the term of one year. He often remarked in after life that this was the most difficult task, to accom- plish in a creditable manner, he had ever un- dertaken. His entrance in the field of jour- nalism in Michigan, at a time when men who were proficient in the knowledge of both the editorial and mechanical departments of the profession were few, offered him an oppor- tunity in which to display his versatility, and his impress on the press of the time was marked with broad and convincing contributions, while his business management of the various enter- prises with which he was connected was equally marked with success.

Mr. Harsha was an active and influential force in the political life of his time and filled with credit several positions in the gift of the people. In his early life he was an old-line Whig. He later became a strong abolitionist and was a member of the party "under the oaks" at Jackson, Michigan, and therefore one of the founders of the Republican party. He was for a time a supervisor, elected from the township of Springwells, in which he resided, and his residence, near the corner of Sixth and Porter streets, was included in its bounds. He also served one term in the office of treasurer of Wayne county. He was one of the or- ganizers of the Mechanics' Society and held numerous offices in the same. This society were builders of the Mechanics' block, subse- quently purchased by the late Thomas McGraw.

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who renamed it the McGraw Building, and lo- cated at the corner of Griswold street and Lafayette avenue. Mr. Harsha was an active and influential member of the local Typo- graphical Union and served as its president for one term. He was also an enthusiastic and popular member of the old volunteer fire department and was for many years connected with Lafayette Company, No. 4, of that organization.

Mr. Harsha married, on the 20th of August, 1839, Miss Mary Ann Cook, daughter of Dr. Robert Cook, of Argyle, Washington county, New York. Dr. Cook was a son of Thomas Cook, an architect and builder, who was born in Cork, Ireland, on the 26th of December, 1747, and emigrated to America in 1764, ar- riving in New York city on the 15th of De- cember. He married in that city, on the 31st of July, 1769, Miss Mary Ann Mahon, who was born in Cork, Ireland, on the 7th of Feb- ruary, 1756, and who came to America in 1763, arriving in New York city on the 15th of June. Thomas Cook engaged in his dual capacity of architect and builder in and about the cities of New York and Albany until the 24th of August, 1777, when he enlisted for three years, as a private in the Fourth Com- pany, under Captain Abraham Swarthout, in the Third Regiment New York Continental Infantry, under Colonel Peter Gansevoort, of Albany, New York, and was ordered with his regiment to old Fort Stanwix, then known as Fort Schuyler, on the Mohawk river (present site of Rome, New York). He assisted in re- pairing the defenses, which had been allowed to become dismantled, and participated in the gallant defense of the fort, which lasted unre- mittingly from the 2d to the 22d of August, 1777, when the siege was raised. During the battle of Oriskany, on August 6, 1777, a por- tion of the besieging force was withdrawn to assist in repelling the force of General Her- kimer, who was marching to the assistance of the garrison, and while so employed a suc- cessful sortie was made from the fort by Lieu- tenant-Colonel Marinus Willett, Third Regi-

ment Continental Infantry, with a detachment of two hundred men, of whom Thomas Cook was one, and there were captured from the besiegers twenty-one wagon loads of spoils, the English commander's (Sir John Johnson) baggage and papers and five standards. He remained with his regiment at the fort until April 17, 1779, when he participated in the expedition under Goose Van Schaick, First Regiment New York Continental Infantry, which destroyed the Onondaga villages, kill- ing twelve Indians, capturing thirty-three, and returning to the fort in five and one-half days, -a journey of one hundred and eighty miles. The Continental congress presented its thanks to Colonel Van Schaick and the officers and men of his command, General Washington having previously done so in general orders, dated headquarters, Middlebrook, May 8, 1779. He also served with his regiment in Brigadier-General Clinton's brigade, New York Continental Infantry, in Major-General John Sullivan's expedition against the Six Na- tions, and marched June 30, 1779, for Lake Otsego. After joining Major-General Sulli- van he participated in the battle of New Town, near Elmira, New York, on August 25th, in which the Indians and their tory allies were defeated. The command then marched to the Genesee valley, entered Pennsylvania and made its way through the Wyoming valley and across the mountains to Easton, then joined the main Continental army in New Jersey, and on the 7th of December, 1779, began the con- struction of winter quarters near Morristown. The Third New York remained here during the winter of 1779-80, and was in the earlier operations of General Washington in New Jersey in 1780, terminating in the battle of Springfield, in June, and in the following month of July the regiment took post in the highlands of the Hudson, whence it subse- quently proceeded to Fort Edward, in the present Washington county, where, on January I, 1781, it was incorporated with the First Regiment, New York Continental Infantry. Mr. Cook's term of enlistment expired on Au-

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Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, Part 81

Author: Burton, Clarence Monroe, 1853-1932 Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago H. Taylor & Co. Number of Pages: 858

Author: Burton, Clarence Monroe, 1853-1932
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 858