USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 83
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Mr. Remick married Miss Mary Hosmer, daughter of the late Hon. Rufus Hosmer, a distinguished citizen of Detroit, and they be- came the parents of one child,-Jerome Hos- mer Remick, president of Jerome H. Remick & Company, a review of whose life follows :
Mr. Remick was a man of broad mentality, strong initiative and distinct individuality. He left a lasting impression in the field of en- terprise with which he was for so long identi- fied, but he was also a prominent, though un- ostentatious, factor in the commercial, social and religious life of the city. His own stand- ard of life was high and it was seen in the de- velopment of the enterprises with which he
was connected. He was generous, genial, and a general favorite among his acquaintances, and his death, which occurred on the 28th of December, 1903, was a distinct loss to the city in which he had resided for fifty years. He died rich in the possession of a well earned popularity and in the esteem which comes from honorable living. In his business life he was the embodiment of honor, as he was in his social and domestic life the perfection of love and gentleness.
GEORGE BRADFORD REMICK.
Capitalist, lawyer, man of affairs and a resident of the city of Detroit since 1853, George Bradford Remick was born in Lin- coln, Penobscot county, Maine, on the 4th of August, 1845, and is a son of Royal Clark and Lucy (Merrill) Remick, a memoir of whom is entered in this compilation. To this article the reader is referred for information con- cerning the family, whose history in America dates from the early settlement of Massachu- setts colony.
George Bradford Remick was prepared for college in the public schools of Detroit and completed his education in the University of Michigan. He graduated from its literary de- partment as a member of the class of 1866 and from its law department in 1868. He was ad- mitted to the bar in June of the year last noted. While a student at the university he read law in the offices of D. Bethune Duffield and Henry M. Duffield and upon his admission to the bar he engaged in the practice of his pro- fession, having as an office associate General Henry M. Duffield. As a lawyer he was suc- cessful and continued in active practice until 1882, when the demands of his private inter- ests necessitated his retirement. Upon the death of his father, in 1878, he was appointed one of the administrators of his estate, and with his brother, James A. Remick, managed its affairs until the death of the latter, in 1903. Mr. Remick is secretary and vice-chairman
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of the board of directors of the Whitney Com- pany, Limited, owners of extensive tracts of timber lands in Oregon, Washington and Cali- fornia, of which corporation he was one of the organizers. He is president of Oak Grove at Flint, Michigan, a sanitarium for the treat- ment of mental diseases, which was founded by his brother, the late James A. Remick. The institution has a wide reputation and is rec- ognized as one of the foremost of its character in America. He is also a stockholder and a member of the board of directors of the Union Trust Company of Detroit. Mr. Remick has stock investments distributed in a number of commercial, financial and industrial enter- prises and has been of material assistance in the development of the commerce of the city and state. He has always been a staunch Re- publican, and in his early life was an active and influential member of his party. In 1881 he was elected a member of the legislature. During his term of service he was a member of several important committees and was the chairman of that on lumber and salt.
A member of a family whose origin dates from the earliest Colonial period and which numbers among its members men who have held positions of influence and honor in town, state and nation, Mr. Remick has taken a deep and active interest in the society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is a member of the Michigan Chapter of the organization, is a member of the board of managers and has been several times a delegate to the national congress of the order. With the best social life of the city he has been prominently identi- fied, and his residence, on Woodward avenue, one of the city's most attractive homes, is known for its gracious hospitality. He is a member of the Detroit, Yondotega and Coun- try Clubs, the Old Club, at St. Clair Flats, and also of the Detroit Board of Commerce. He is a conservative, unostentatious Ameri- can, of broad education and culture, diligent in business and conscientious in all things. Mr. Remick has never married.
JEROME HOSMER REMICK.
Capitalist, publisher, man of affairs, and one of the most widely known and popular of Detroit's native sons; founder of the great publishing house of Jerome H. Remick & Com- pany, of which he is the president and general manager and through whose genius as con- structive and administrative executive the busi- ness of the company has been expanded until they are to-day the largest publishers and re- tailers of sheet music in the world, Jerome Hosmer Remick was born in Detroit, Michi- gan, on the 15th of November, 1868, a son of the late James Albert and Mary (Hosmer) Remick. In this compilation is entered a mem- oir to his grandfather, late Royal Clark Remick, to which the reader is referred for information concerning the family, whose founding in America dates from the early Colonial period.
Jerome Hosmer Remick gained his educa- tional training in the public schools of Detroit, later attending the old Legget (private) school, and was graduated from the Detroit Business University in 1887. He acquired his first ex- perience in commercial affairs as an employe of the Commercial National Bank of Detroit, serving in the capacity of messenger. In 1888 he entered the employ of the firm of Whitney & Remick, one of the most important of Michigan's lumbering concerns and one of which his grandfather was one of the founders and his father the manager of the operative and transportation departments. During his connection with this firm he filled the respec- tive positions of scaler, timekeeper, bookkeeper and supply-purchasing agent for the firm's lumber camps in Isabella and adjoining coun- ties. Four years covered his service with this industry, and in 1892, in company with his father, he made an extended tour of the Old World, returning to Detroit in 1893. On the 2d of January, 1894, he was elected secretary of the Home Building & Loan Association of Detroit, an office he filled with credit to him- self and the institution.' In January, 1896, he was appointed trustee of the Detroit Chamber
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of Commerce, and he was actively concerned in its affairs in this official capacity for two years. In 1898 Mr. Remick purchased a half interest in the Whitney-Warner Publishing Company, of Detroit, entering a field in which, ten years later, he was to become the largest publisher of sheet music in the world. His connection with this enterprise, at that time one of modest extent and reputation, was that of direction and management, and the policies he initiated and the methods he inaugurated resulted in an immediate expansion of the business. In 1900 he became the sole owner of the enterprise, and with the exception of a small interest which he disposed of and shortly afterward repurchased, held by George Engel and Emil Voelker, he conducted it, under its original title, until 1904. On January 1, 1904, the business was consolidated with that of a New York institution and the joint interests were incorporated under the laws of the state of New York as Shapiro, Remick & Company, with Maurice Shapiro, president, and Mr. Remick as secretary, treasurer and general manager. Mr. Shapiro's connection with the company ceased in December, 1904, and the business was reorganized and reincorporated as Jerome H. Remick & Company, with an authorized capital of two hundred thousand dollars, Mr. Remick being elected president and general manager. On January 10, 1907, he organized the J. H. Remick Printing Com- pany, a subsidiary concern, for the purpose of printing a portion of the sheet music published by the parent institution. The company was incorporated with an authorized capital, of which Mr. Remick is owner of seventy-five per cent. and of which company he is the president. An article descriptive of the company and of the subsidiary institution is printed elsewhere in this work.
Aside from his publishing interests Mr. Remick has valuable holdings in a number of financial, industrial and commercial enterprises of the city and state. He is a director in Oak Grove, at Flint, Michigan, a sanitarium for the treatment and cure of mental diseases, of
which his father was the founder, and which is one of the foremost institutions of its char -. acter in America. He is a large stockholder and a director in the Detroit Creamery Com- pany, which is the largest enterprise of its na- ture in Michigan and which is recognized as one of the most admirably conducted estab- lishments in the country. A review of its growth and development appears on other pages of this volume.
In politics Mr. Remick is aligned as a sup- porter of the principles and policies of the Re- publican party, in which he is an active and in- fluential member. He is an ardent partisan in matters of local interest and has been gener- ous in the matter of personal service and finan- cial support in the campaigns of recent years. He is a member of the leading business, social and commercial organizations and his mem- berships include the Detroit Club, the Coun- try Club, the Detroit Automobile Club, the St. Clair Fishing & Shooting Club, the Pointe Au Barques Association, the Michigan Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, and the De- troit Board of Commerce. He is also a mem- ber of the celebrated Lamb's Club of New York city and he includes among his friends and acquaintances the celebrities of the musical and theatrical professions of both America and Europe.
Mr. Remick has demonstrated in the de- velopment of the great enterprise of which, since its establishment, he has been the con- trolling spirit, an undeniable right to the title of captain of industry, and has displayed proofs of the possession of creative and administra- tive ability of the highest type. He is a pro- gressive, industrious and democratic American, a loyal and public-spirited citizen, and holds a secure place in the esteem and confidence of the community. He has contributed in large measure to the material advancement of the city in whose still greater commercial and civic prestige he is a firm believer.
Mr. Remick married on the 25th of June, 1895, Miss Adelaide Fenton McCreery, daugh- ter of Hon. William B. McCreery, of Flint,
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Michigan. They are the parents of two chil- dren,-Katherine, born April 3, 1897, and Jerome Hosmer Remick, Jr., born December 24, 1903.
JOHN PRIDGEON.
The late John Pridgeon was long and prom- inently identified with navigation interests on the Great Lakes and was one of those ster- ling citizens and progressive business men to whom Detroit has owed much in both mate- rial and civic lines.
Mr. Pridgeon was descended from a long line of sturdy English ancestors and was him- self born in Lincolnshire, England, the year of his nativity having been 1829. When he was a child his parents immigrated to Amer- isa and first settled in Detroit, whence they eventually removed to the province of On- tario, where they passed the remainder of their lives, the father having been a farmer by vocation. They became the parents of a large family of children, all of whom are now deceased with the exception of one daughter.
The subject of this sketch secured his rudi- mentary education in his native land, having been twelve years of age at the time of the family removal to America, where he contin- ued to attend school for some time. He ini- tiated his independent career by securing em- ployment on one of the boats plying the Great Lakes, and later went to sea as a sailor on the sloop of war "Albany," in service dur- ing the Mexican war. He was on this vessel at the time of and took part in the capture of the city of Vera Cruz, Mexico. He continued in the government service for a period of three years and then received an honorable discharge. He then returned to Detroit and resumed his connection with navigation on the lakes, in which service he rose to the po- sition of captain. Finally he purchased a small side-wheel steamer, with which he engaged in transporting sand from Fort Wayne to the city. This little vessel was named the "United," and on the same he and his family made their home. Later on Mr. Pridgeon ex-
tended his scope of operations by purchasing the propeller "Napoleon," which was a tug and lighter, and thereafter he bought other tug boats, including the "Canadian," the "John P Ward," the "Hamilton Morton," and the "John Martin." His tugs were the first to pass through from lake to lake and by enter- prise and discriminating management he de- veloped in time a large and prosperous busi- ness, becoming one of the leading operators in his line from the port of Detroit and being known throughout the marine circles of the entire lake system. In 1865 Captain Pridgeon purchased from Captain E. B. Ward the con- trolling interest in the Grand Trunk line of boats, operated in connection with the Grand Trunk Rialroad, and which ran between Port Huron and Chicago. When this connection was abandoned he placed in operation a line of "wild" boats, doing business all along the river and Lakes Erie, Huron and Superior. He continued in this line of enterprise until about 1889, when he retired, passing the re- mainder of his life in Detroit, where he died December 6, 1894. He was a man of sturdy integrity and held the respect and confidence of all who knew him. He accumulated a for- tune through worthy means, and no blot rests upon his record as a citizen or business man. He took a loyal interest in all that pertained to the welfare of his home city, and while never a seeker of public office he served for a number of years as a member of the board of water commissioners. His political adherence was with the Republican party. He became the owner of a large amount of valuable realty in Detroit and was a stockholder in numerous important industrial concerns.
As a young man Captain Pridgeon was united in marriage to Miss Emma Nicholson, who, like himself, was born in England, whence she came with her parents to America when she was a child, having been reared and educated in Detroit. She is still living. Cap- tain and Mrs. Pridgeon became the parents of two children,-John, Jr., of whom individual mention is made in this work, and Maria, who
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is the wife of Harry Milward of Detroit. They have one child living, Francis, and one son deceased.
SIGMUND ROTHSCHILD.
Everywhere in our land are found men who have worked their own way from humble be- ginnings to leadership in the commerce, the great productive industries, the management of financial affairs, and the controlling of the veins and arteries of the traffic and exchanges of the country. It is one of the glories of our nation that this is so. It should be the strong incentive to the youth of the country that such results are possible of accomplishment.
Prominent among the self-made men who have honored Michigan through their labors and worthy lives is the subject of this brief memoir, whose sudden death occurred in the apartments of his son Harry, in the Hotel Savoy, New York city, on the 15th of July, 1907. His had been a busy and eventful career, and he was the founder and last of the first-generation members of the great De- troit leaf-tobacco house of Rothschild & Brother. Shortly before his death he had re- turned from a sojourn of five months at Am- sterdam, Holland, one of the great tobacco marts of the European continent and one in which his concern had a branch establishment. While making an automobile trip in New York he was attacked with an acute disease of the heart and forthwith consulted a physician. The next morning his son found him lying dead in his bed,-a summary and deeply lamented termination of a life of signal usefulness and honor. He was one of the most substantial capitalists of Detroit at the time of his demise and left a record of splendid business enter- prise in two continents, though he prided him- self, as well he might, on being essentially and emphatically an American citizen. He, in- deed, stood as a stalwart type of what our republic recognizes as the best and most pro- lific in citizenship, and his loyalty to the land of his adoption was ever of the most insistent and inviolable order.
Mr. Rothschild was born near the historic
old city of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, likewise the home of the famous European family of the same name, as well as of the loved poet, Goethe. He was born in 1838, and thus he had attained to the psalmist's span of three score years and ten at the time when he was called from the scene of earthly en- deavors.
Concerning the career of Mr. Rothschild the following estimate appeared at the time of his death in one of the Detroit daily appers: "In early life he was apprenticed to the dry-goods trade, and traveled as a salesman for one year. In 1854 he emigrated to New York, where he spent a year in learning the trade of cigar- making. Before the close of the same year which marked his arrival in the New World he came to Detroit, where he soon assumed charge of the cigar stand in the old National hotel, later the Russell House. Within a short time he gave evidence of his self-reliance and initiative power by establishing the wholesale tobacco house, taking his brother Feist as partner. In 1865 the two were joined by a third brother, Kaufman S., who died in 1905. The death of Feist Rothschild took place in 1890.
"Sigmund Rothschild attended especially to the foreign business of the concern, which es- tablished a house in Amsterdam and another in Havana, Cuba. He was a man of keen in- sight and had a judgment of future develop- ments that was almost prophetic. He was a splendid organizer, and when occasion de- manded was a fighter feared by his opponents. He established a wide business acquaintance in England, Holland, Germany, and Cuba, and was one of the largest and most daring buyers of leaf tobacco in the world. In this branch of the business he conceived the system of buy- ing tobacco directly from the farmers in Cuba. Several times he stayed in the field when other dealers had been driven out by yellow fever, and proved a benefactor to the farmers who had their products piled up and spoiling.
"He was a tireless traveler, as much at home on the train or steamer as in his own home.
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He was broad-minded in his business rela- tions and was generous to worthy charities. He was a member and former officer of Tem- ple Beth El, Detroit. His home was at 37 Montcalm street east, and the same has long been known as a center of gracious hospi- tality."
Mr. Rothschild's connection with affairs im- mediately attendant upon the historic explo- sion of the battle-ship "Maine" should not be permitted to pass unnoticed in this all too brief tribute to his memory, for at the time he showed in a most significant way how strong was his humanitarian spirit, charity and sympathy. Early in 1898 he went to Cuba to protect as far as possible his plantation in- terests against the event of any possible war. . Weiler, the notorious Spanish officer, had is- sued orders to the effect that no cameras were to be taken on to the island, but with charac- teristic daring Mr. Rothschild had carried one along. He arrived in the port of Havana on the night of the 15th of February and was sitting on the deck of his steamer looking at the battle-ship "Maine," and viewing with gratification the Stars and Stripes of his home land, when there occurred the great explosion whose result was the ultimate wiping off of Spanish power on the western hemisphere. Mr. Rothschild was one of the first citizens of the United States to render aid to the injured men of the lost ship, working arduously all night in attending those who were brought to the vessel on which he was a passenger, sup- plying funds to secure necessary facilities and comforts for the unfortunate men and even donating his own extra clothing to meet the requirements of the case. In the morning he secured the first photographs taken of the wreck, and later he received letters of thanks from many of the naval officers and other offi- cials who wished to manifest their apprecia- tion of his benefactions and tender and sym- pathetic ministrations. In his photographs he was able to bring home priceless mementoes of the wreck.
Mr. Rothschild was essentially a business
man, and his strong character was moulded in the school of experience and broad association with business affairs. The concern of which he was the founder and which is still continued under the control of the family, is one of the largest in the country and therefore one of Detroit's valued industries. He was a man of alert and powerful mentality, and his person- ality was one which gained and retained to him inviolable confidence and esteem. His local interests were not hedged in by his purely personal affairs, business or social, and he was ever ready to lend his aid and influence in the promotion of enterprises or undertakings pro- jected for the general good of the community. He was conspicuously identified with the or- ganization and upbuilding of the Detroit Board of Commerce, in which he was one of the original officers, and he gave no little time and energy to this body, which has done much in advancing the greater industrial Detroit. His political support was given to the Repub- lican party and he ever showed a deep inter- est in all that touched the well being of the city in which it was his to gain so noteworthy a success through his own efforts. He had vari- ous capitalistic interests of importance in ad- dition to those represented in his tobacco busi- ness. He controlled valuable mining prop- erties in the Klondike, was a stockholder in various corporations, including financial insti- tutions, and in the 'zos he was concerned with the development of Michigan pine lands, hav- ing been prominently identified with the lum- bering industry for a number of years. He was a strong man, a worthy citizen, and he filled a large and secure place in the business world.
In 1860 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Rothschild to Miss Bertha Leser, who survives him, as do also their three sons,- Frederick, who has charge of his father's min- ing interests in the Klondike; Louis, who is actively identified with the management of the Detroit tobacco house of which his father was the founder; and Harry S., who represents the concern in New York city.
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HENRY HARRISON SWAN.
Among those who have lent dignity and dis- tinction to the bench and bar of the common- wealth of Michigan is Judge Swan, who is now presiding on the bench of the United States district court for the eastern distrist of Michi- gan,-an office of which he has been incumbent for more than seventeen years.
Judge Swan is a native of Detroit, where he has was born October 2, 1840, and is a rep- resentative of one of the old and honored families of this city. He is a son of Joseph G. and Mary C. (Ling) Swan, the former of whom settled in Detroit in 1835, prior to the admission of the state to the Union. Joseph G. Swan was born in Onondaga county, New York, in 1808, and was a machinist by trade. He continued to reside in Detroit until his death, which occurred in 1873. He was of Scotch-Irish descent and was a son of Nathan D. Swan, who was born in New Hampshire, and who was one of the pioneer settlers of Onondaga county, New York. Nathan D. Swan was a valiant soldier in the war of 1812, as was also one of his brothers; the latter lost his life while in the service, having been drowned in Lake Champlin while on an expe- dition for the government. Nathan D. Swan developed a good farm in Onondaga county, which continued to be his home for many years. The last years of his life were spent in Detroit, where he died at his son's home.
Mary C. (Ling) Swan, mother of Judge Swan, was born in Germany, and was a child at the time of her parents' immigration to America. She died in Detroit on the 12th of April, 1900, at the venerable age of eighty- two years, being one of the revered pioneer women of the city. Joseph G. and Mary C. Swan became the parents of six sons and one daughter, and of the number only two are liv- ing,-Henry H., the subject of this review, and Charles F., also a resident of Detroit.
Judge Henry H. Swan secured his early educational training in the public schools of Detroit and in a well known private school
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