Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, Part 82

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

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gust 24, 1780, when he was honorably dis- charged; but he re-enlisted for four months longer and served until January 1, 1781, when he was mustered out. Official records show that he was subsequently taken prisoner, in 1781; the place of capture, however, is not stated, but the probabilities are that it was in the Indian incursions into Tryon county in July, 1781. On conclusion of his service to his country, Mr. Cook located in Owasco, Cayuga county, New York, later removing to Cam- bridge, that state, where he died on the 19th of February, 1789. His wife died on the 2d of October, 1807, having survived him eighteen years. They were the parents of seven chil- dren, of whom Dr. Cook was the fourth. Robert Cook was born in Lensingburgh, Rennsalaer county, New York, on the Ist of September, 1775, and died in Jamestown, Chautauqua county, that state, on the 6th of October, 1861. He married, in 1806, at Argyle, New York, Miss Elizabeth Suther- land, who was born in Montreal, Canada, on the 3d of April, 1789, and who died at James- town, Chautauqua county, New York, on the 2Ist of July, 1863. Dr. Cook was a graduated physician, a practitioner of successful stand- ing and a man of wide acquaintance and in- fluence. Dr. and Mrs. Cook were the parents of ten children, of whom Mary Ann, the wife of William Harsha, was the second. She was born in Argyle, New York, on the 10th of October, 1810, and died in Detroit, Michigan, on the 18th of June, 1894, surviving her hus- band, William Harsha, who died on the 21st of September, 1886, aged eighty years. Mr. and Mrs. Harsha were the parents of three children, two of whom died in childhood. They are survived by one son, Walter S. Harsha, clerk of the United States circuit court for the eastern district of Michigan, a review of whose career is given on other pages of this publication.

ROYAL CLARK REMICK.

It was given the subject of this memoir not only to gain precedence as one of the most

prominent principals in the early development of Michigan's lumber industry, but also to typify the highest order of citizenship, as he was essentially loyal and public-spirited, vigor- ous and progressive and animated by an in- violable integrity of purpose. He was among the first to recognize the great commercial pos- sibilities of the timber wealth of the state and as early as 1852 he had acquired extensive holdings of pine lands in Tuscola county. In the cutting and transportation of timber from forest to mill, in which he was one of the most successful men of his time, in the devising of advanced methods of operation and the ac- quirement and installation of improved equip- ment, he was ever a leader. He was the first to employ steam as a motive power in connec- tion with the logging industry, building, in 1877, the first logging railway. He possessed executive ability of high order, strong initia- tive and marked constructive talent, and the methods he originated, together with the poli- cies he inaugurated, were of great value to the industry in which he was so progressive a factor.

Royal Clark Remick was born in Cornish, York county, Maine, on the 27th of March, 1812, the son of Rev. Timothy and Mary (Chadbourne). Remick. The progenitor of the Remick family in America, was Christian Remich, born in 1631, probably in Holland. There is a town named Remich in the Duchy of Luxemburg, which was so named at the time of the Roman occupation; and probably the Remicks came from there. Christian came to America when young, as he was living in the town of Kittery, Maine, in 1651, and con- tinued there until his death, in 1710. He was one of the proprietors of the town, was granted land in what are now the towns of Kittery, Eliot and South Berwick, about five hundred acres,-the most of which remains in posses- sion of his descendants bearing the family name. His occupation was that of planter and surveyor. He was town treasurer, selectman (chairman of the board most of the time), and representative to the legislature. He mar-

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ried about 1654; his wife's baptismal name was Hannah, and by her he had nine children. Their children were well educated for the times and their descendants have filled many positions of usefulness in the town, state and nation. One of the most distinguished was the late Morrison Remick Waite, chief justice of the United States supreme court. David Remick, a great-grandson, was a captain in the Massachusetts line at the capture of Ticon- deroga and Crown Point, in 1759, and he in turn was the great-grandfather of General David Remick of the Union army, 1861-5. Major Timothy Remick, a great-grandson of Christian and Hannah, probably served longer than any other soldier in the Continental line in the war of Independence,-May 8, 1775, to November, 1783. Captain Benjamin Remick, a great-great-grandson, served in the Massa- chusetts and Continental navy in the Revolu- tion. He was a celebrated naval constructor and shipbuilder in New Hampshire and Maine. Among the more celebrated of his vessels was the sloop of war "Ranger," built at Kittery, Maine. This was the first man of war com- manded by Captain John Paul Jones, and sailed from Kittery, December 2, 1777; it was also the first American-built war ship to show the national flag in Europe, where it was saluted by the French admiral, February 13, 1778, in the bay of Quiberon, being the first salute in Europe to our national flag by a for- eign power. Christian Remick, great-grand- son of Christian the emigrant, was likewise a sailor, serving in the Massachusetts and Con- tinental navies. He was a master mariner and pilot and commissioned lieutenant. Prior to the war of Independence he was engaged in painting and drawing in water colors, also making geographical plans of harbors, sea coasts, etc. He painted several copies of the view of the landing of British troops in Bos- ton in 1768. The New England Historic- Genealogical Society and the Essex Institute each own a copy. He was born April 8, 1726, and records show that he served throughout the Revolution. Several of his paintings were

displayed in the art collection of the James- town Exposition of 1907. Royal Clark Rem- ick traced his descent from Christian, the emi- grant, as follows: Joshua, son of Christian and Hannah, born July 24, 1672, died in Kit- tery in 1738; married Anne Lancaster. Isaac, son of Joshua and Anne, born February 14, 1706, was a soldier in the French and Indian wars, serving in 1722, in Colonel John Wheel- wright's company of rangers; he married Mary Pettegrew. Timothy, son of Isaac and Mary, was born September 9, 1755, in Kittery, Maine. He enlisted May 8, 1775, in Captain Tobias Fernald's Company of the Thirtieth Foot Regiment of North America. He was promoted to Corporal soon after, serv- ing the year out. On January 1, 1776, enlisted as sergeant in same company. He was pro- moted lieutenant of his company November 13, 1776, thus being a commissioned officer at the age of twenty-one years. In December, 1776, he was transferred to the Twelfth Mas- sachusetts Regiment. On June 27, 1777, Lieu- tenant Remick's company helped to man the American fleet on Lake George. He was at the battle of Saratoga on October 7th, and witnessed the surrender of General Bur- goyne's army, on October 17, 1777. His regi- ment joined General Washington's army and he was with him at Valley Forge. He was promoted to captain July 5, 1779, transferred to the First Massachusetts Regiment of the line, January 1, 1781, and was appointed major of the First Massachusetts Brigade, May 14, 1781. The brigade remained around New York until November, 1783, when the American army was mustered out of service. Major Timothy Remick, after serving his country faithfully over eight and one-half years in the Continental army, was honorably discharged. He had commanded, for short times, both the Twelfth and the First Massa- chusetts Regiments, and served on the staffs of Brigadier-General Paterson, Major-General Lincoln and General Washington. He signed the oath of allegiance at Valley Forge and was an original member of the Society of the Cin-

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cinnati. He married Mercy Staples, of Kit- tery, Maine, July 25, 1775. She was born Oc- tober 24, 1757, and died in Cornish, Maine, in 1808. They were the parents of three chil- dren,-Timothy, born September 30, 1776; Simon, born December 26, 1777; and Polly, born November 4, 1780. Major Remick's health was ruined by his army life, and he died, at his home in Kittery, Maine, in Febru- ary, 1785, at the early age of twenty-nine years, not having lived to enjoy the liberty he had done so much to gain for his country. His remains are in the old Remick burying ground on Eliot Neck, Maine (now owned, 1908, by Lieutenant Oliver P. Remick, United States Engineers,) with the bones of his father, Isaac, grandfather, Joshua, and great- grandfather, Christian Remick. A suitable monument, erected in 1895 by members of the family, marks their resting place.

Timothy Remick, Jr., son of Major Tim- othy and his wife Mercy Staples, and father of our immediate subject, was born in Kit- tery, Maine, on the 30th of September, 1776. He was given such educational advantages as were afforded by the schools of the time. He became a minister and was ordained as a Bap- tist clergyman in 1805. He served as pastor of the Baptist church in Cornish, Maine, for a period of forty-five years, being incumbent of that position at the time of his death, on the 29th of November, 1850. He was elected a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, to succeed his father, but never qualified. He married Mary Chadbourne, daughter of Rev. Levi Chadbourne, of Parsonfield, Maine, who was a soldier in the Continental line in the war of Independence. To them were born thirteen children. Several of the sons served in the war of 1812, and many of his grandsons were in the civil war.

Royal Clark Remick, the immediate subject of this review, received his education in the public schools of Cornish, and later completed a course in Buxton Academy. Subsequently he engaged in lumbering operations, of which the state of Maine at this time was the chief

source of supply. He gained an intimate knowledge of the details of the logging feature of this industry and was successful in the con- duct of the various enterprises which he un- dertook. In 1852 Mr. Remick visited Detroit and a portion of Michigan. His experience in the lumbering industry of his native state en- abled him to correctly forecast the future pre- eminence of Michigan as a lumber-producing region. With the late Charles Merrill, an uncle of his wife, he purchased an extensive tract of pine lands in Tuscola county. The following year he removed with his family to Detroit, becoming a resident of the city in which he remained a citizen until his death. With Charles Merrill he formed the firm of Merrill & Remick, and engaged in the cutting of timber from their own lands and the trans- portation of it to the mills. He retired from this firm in .1855, and until 1867 operated on his individual account. In 1867 he formed with the late David Whitney, Jr., the firm of Whitney & Remick, in which firm each was an equal partner. The operations of this firm, among the most prominent and extensive in their line of industry in the state, were con- fined to the cutting and transportation of tim- ber from their own lands, situated in Isabella and adjoining counties. The extent of their cut equalled if it did not exceed that of any firm in the state, totaling thirty million feet of logs per annum. Mr. Remick was the first to apply steam as a motive power in the trans- portation of logs from the forests to market, and in 1877 began the construction of the first logging railway in the country, traversing their lands in Isabella and adjacent counties and making connection with the Flint & Pere Mar- quette system.

In the conduct of the business of this firm Mr. Remick was from the time of its forma- tion until its death in active charge of opera- tions. He was one of the organizers of the Tittabawasse Boom Company, which engaged in the rafting and sorting of logs for the vari- ous firms operating in territory tributary to the Saginaw river, of which the Tittabawasse

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was the principal feeder. Practically all of the logs cut and driven in the Saginaw valley re- gion were rafted and sorted by this company. A considerable portion of the lands from which Mr. Remick had removed the timber was afterward cleared and placed under culti- vation by him. In Oakland county he was the owner of a large and valuable farm in which he took great pride and to which he devoted considerable time and attention. On this prop- erty he became an interested and extensive breeder of both draft and driving horses, as well as short-horn cattle. In his farming and kindred occupations he found his chief source of recreation, aside from the pleasing incent- ive of attaining a reputation as a successful breeder. His political affiliations were given to the Republican party from the time of its founding, although he had previously been a Democrat. His first vote as a Republican was cast for Fremont. Political office never ap- pealed to him, though he never neglected his civic duties and obligations, and while not an active partisan he was an interested and influ- ential member of his party. Mr. Remick was an active worker in the cause of Christianity, was a member of the First Unitarian church of Detroit, and for many years one of its board.of trustees. Associated with him on the board were Hon. Thomas W. Palmer, George C. Wetherbee and the late Governor Bagley. His charities were many and generous, ex- tended in an unostentatious manner, and in the support of his church he gave liberally of his time and means. The old Remick home- stead was situated on the southwest corner of Shelby street and Lafayette avenue and was sold by his son, George B. Remick, to the gov- ernment for a portion of the site on which was built the present postoffice building. The church edifice of the congregation in which he was so long a member was on the opposite or northwest corner of the same thoroughfares

Mr. Remick married, in 1835, Miss Mary Ann (McKenney) Remick. In this compila- ney, an influential and respected citizen of Gray, Cumberland county, Maine. Two chil.

dren were born of this marriage: Henrietta Antoinette, wife of Charles T. Cook of De- troit, Michigan, and Royal Alphonso Remick, personal mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Remick died in Lincoln, Maine, in 1840.

Mr. Remick married on the IIth of Octo- ber, 1841, Miss Lucy Merrill, daughter of Joshua Merrill, of Portland, Maine, and granddaughter of General James Merrill. a distinguished officer in the Continental line iD the war of the Revolution. They were the parents of three children: James Albert and George Bradford, who are specifically men- tioned on other pages of this work; and Frank. Frank Remick graduated from the literary de- class of 1871. On the completion of his col- lege course he entered the employ of Whitney & Remick. Pneumonia, contracted while en- gaged in his duties with this firm in the lum- ber region near Saginaw, resulted in his death, at one of the firm's camps, May 2, 1872.

Royal Clark Remick was an active and in- fluential factor in Michigan's commercial ad- vancement for twenty-six years. In that de- partment of the University of Michigan in the partment of its business life in which his use- fulness was employed, his undoubted talents found their greatest development. His death occurred at a time when the success of inno- vations in methods and equipment which he had conceived were beginning to prove their value. He was completing the first logging railway to be constructed in Michigan, when he contracted pneumonia, which resulted in his gaged in lumbering operations in Tuscola Dany the son was offered a commission, but in death, while at one of his camps in Isabella county. His last hours were passed in the com- pany of his wife and his sons, Royal A., James A. and George B., and his death oc- curred on the 4th of May, 1878. Mrs. Rem- ick was a woman of refinement and culture, of practical and generous charity, and was an esteemed and active member of the First Uni- tarian church. Her death occurred on the 26th

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of August, 1891, at the residence of her son, sided after the death of her husband.

command, he enlisted as a private. The his- George B. Remick, with whom she had re- tory of his regiment, the Twenty-third Michi- gan Volunteer Infantry, in which he was a member of company D, is the record of his ROYAL ALPHONSO REMICK. service. His first promotion from the ranks was to that of orderly sergeant, and successive promotions covered the various grades to that of first lieutenant, the rank he held at the time of his honorable discharge, in July, 1865, on the mustering out of the regiment.

To have served his country in time of peril, to have attained success in the commercial world, and to have filled with credit positions of public trust and honor ; should, to the aver- age man, fill to the full the measure of ambi- tion. It was given to Mr. Remick to render valiant service as a loyal soldier in the late civil war, and that he did well his part in the great internecine conflict which determined the integrity of the nation, is attested by the several promotions in rank which were con- ferred upon him. In all the relations of life he maintained an inflexible honesty, and his genial personality gained to him a wide circle of appreciative friends.

Royal Alphonso Remick was always known to his friends and intimates as "Phonse Remick," that being a distinctive form of his middle name. He was born in Lincoln, Penobscot county, Maine, on the 30th of No- vember, 1839, a son of Royal Clark and Mary Ann McKenney, daughter of Joseph McKen- tion is entered a memoir to his father to which the reader is referred for information concern- ing the family. He received his early educa- tion in his native place, where he attended the public schools and its local academy. He was prepared for college in Bacon's and Dr. Solden's private schools in the city of Detroit, to which he had removed with his father in 1853, and in 1858-9 he was a student in the literary department of the University of Wis- consin. During the summer vacation of 1862 he joined his father, who was extensively en- county, Michigan, and who was actively in- terested in equipping a company of infantry, recruited largely from among his employes, for service in the great conflict then raging between the north and south. In this com- deference to the wishes of his father, who con- sidered him too young and inexperienced for a

On the completion of his service in the army Mr. Remick was for a short time in the em- ploy of his father, subsequently accepting a position with the well known lumber firm of Avery & Murphy, in the sales department, with headquarters in Chicago, where he re- sided until 1878. On the death of his father, in the year last mentioned, he returned to Michigan and was made manager of the farm- ing property owned by his estate, establishing his residence in Oakland county. On the ex- tensive farm, in this county, which his father had placed under a high state of cultivation and where he had found recreation, pleasure and profit in the breeding of horses and cattle, Mr. Remick gave proof of his versatility, in equaling his father's success as an agricultur- alist and breeder. In the politics of the county he took active part and as chairman of the Republican county committee served with credit to himself and to the advantage of his party. He was appointed by the late General Russell A. Alger, at the time governor, a member of the first board of trustees of the Michigan Soldiers' Home, at Grand Rapids, and served one term.

Mr. Remick married, in December, 1868, Miss Marie Cummings, daughter of Redmond Cummings, of Chicago. They were the parents of three children: Royal Clark Remick, of Wilmington, North Carolina, a prominent lumberman of that state; Jesse Cum- mings Remick, of Taft, Louisiana, a principal in the Cummings-Moberly Cypress Company, lumber manufacturers; and Mary Ethel Remick, wife of Irvin McDowell, of Chicago, Illinois.

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Mr. Remick died on the 30th of March, Daniel McCoy, one of the most promi- 1888, at the Remick farm in Oakland county. He was survived by his widow, now deceased, and his three children.

nent and successful business men of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the late John Riggs, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, he engaged in lum- JAMES ALBERT REMICK. bering operations on Pine river, Manistee county, under the firm name of Remick, Riggs The closing years of the nineteenth century saw the decline of one of Michigan's most im- portant industries,-an industry which in its growth and development offered to a large number of men a fertile field in which to ex- ercise business talents of the highest order. In the felling, manufacture and marketing of her great pine forests, the conducting of which required large capital and commercial methods of high efficiency, there was developed a group of men who, from the standpoint of construct- ive, initiative and executive ability, will pass down to posterity as among the most forceful in the history of the commercial life of the state. Numbered among those who realized a large and substantial success in this industry, with which he was identified for nearly forty years, and who may be justly termed one of its most progressive and sagacious captains, is he whose name initiates this article. & McCoy. In 1873 Mr. Remick withdrew from the firm, and during the ensuing five years he conducted independent enterprises of a like character. On the death of his father, in 1878, he was appointed one of the admin- istrators of the latter's estate, became manager of its interests in the firm of Whitney & Remick, conducting one of the largest enter- prises in the state, and succeeded his father as manager of the logging and transportation departments of the concern. He continued in this capacity until the liquidation of the af- fairs of the firm, in 1895. In continuing the policies and methods which his father had in- augurated for the conduct of the business and which he amplified with those of his own con- ception, in the amplification and perfecting of equipment from experimental to practical use, and in the control and guiding of the large number of employes required in the various James Albert Remick was born in Lincoln, Penobscot county, Maine, on the 12th of July, 1843, a son of Royal Clark and Lucy (Mer- rill) Remick. In this compilation is entered a memoir to his father, the late Royal Clark Remick, to which the reader is referred for information concerning the family, whose origin in America dates from the early settle- ment of Massachusetts colony. In the public schools of the city of Detroit, whither he had localities in which the operations of the firm obtained, he attained recognition as one of the most progressive, energetic and sagacious lum- bermen of the Saginaw valley. On the liquida- tion of the business, in 1895, he returned to Detroit and to the management of the affairs of the R. C. Remick estate, in which he was associated with his brother, George B. Remick, and to his private interests. He was a stock- holder in several lake-marine lines, among removed with his parents in 1853, Mr. Remick . which was the Whitney Transportation Com-

acquired his early education, which he later supplemented by a course of study in the Bacon (private) School. In 1862 he entered the employ of his father, who at that time was engaged in lumbering operations on a large tract of land which he acquired in Tuscola county. Under his father's instruction he gained an intimate and thorough knowledge of the industry with which he was identified during his lifetime. In 1870, associated with

pany. He was one of the founders of the City Savings Bank of Detroit, and a member of its board of directors from the time of its incorporation until 1902, when he resigned, on account of his dissatisfaction with its manage- ment. During his identification with the lum- ber interests of the Saginaw valley he served as secretary of the Tittabawasse Boom Com- pany, of which his father was one of the or- ganizers and in which he held large stock in-

Bry truly yours Janus a Remuch

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terests. He was always a staunch Republican and although often invited to accept nomina- tion for office, his business interests made such demands upon his time as to make it imprac- ticable, had he the inclination. His one ex- ception was a term as trustee of the state asylum for the insane at Pontiac. While in the performance of his official duties at this institution he became deeply interested in the treatment of mental diseases. His interest in the subject resulted in the establishment of a sanitarium for their treatment and cure, lo- cated at Flint, Michigan, and operated by a company whose corporate name is Oak Grove. Of this company the late Warren G. Vinton, Dr. Palmer and Mr. Remick were the or- ganizers. To its successful establishment he gave consistent attention and as a member of its board of directors was active in the super- vision of its affairs. The institution is the owner of sixty acres of land within the city limits of Flint, improved with buildings as perfect in construction as experience could de- vise, and has, under the efficient management of its present medical director, Dr. C. B. Burr, established a reputation as one of the fore- most institutions of its character in America. Mr. Remick was a member of the First Uni- tarian church, in which for many years his father was a trustee. To its support he was a generous contributor as well as to its chari- table organizations.

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Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, Part 82

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