USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 94
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course in the Michigan State Agricultural Col- lege, at Lansing, in which admirable institu- tion he was graduated in 1897. Soon after leaving college he became assistant manager of the business of Walker & Company, and upon the incorporation of the business, in March, 1906, he was elected to his present dual office of secretary and treasurer, also con- tinuing to act as assistant manager. He has amply demonstrated his ability for the handling of business affairs of important or- der and has effectively assisted his father in the building up of the fine enterprise with which he has been identified for a period of ten years. He has thoroughly familiarized himself with the details and technicalities of the advertising business, and is recognized as an expert in the field of out-door advertising. He has shown marked facility in securing to his company new business and stands as a type of the enterprising young men who are doing much to further the material, commer- cial and civic advancement of Detroit.
Mr. Walker was prominent and active in athletic circles for many years, but has largely withdrawn from the same since the exactions of business have pressed upon him. While a student in the Central high school he was the able and popular manager of both its foot- ball and base-ball and track teams, and manœu- vered his forces in such a way as to admirably uphold the prestige of the school in the field of amateur athletics. For two seasons he also was the successful manager of the base-ball, foot-ball and track teams of the Detroit Ath- letic Club, in which he still retains member- ship. He is a member of Corinthian Lodge, Free & Accepted Masons, Detroit Golf Club, Detroit Yacht Club, Detroit Motor Boat Club, the Adcraft Club, the Harmonie Society, and the Rushmere Club, at St. Clair Flats. Politically he is independent. Member of the Associated Bill Posters of United States and Canada. Mr. Walker enjoys uniform popu- larity in business and social circles of the city which has ever represented his home.
On the Ist of June, 1903, Mr. Walker was
united in marriage to Miss Edith Tidd, daugh- ter of Edward B. Tidd, who is a representa- tive citizen and insurance man of the city of Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Walker have two children,-William Tidd Walker, born February 22, 1904; and Jane, born Decem- ber 15, 1906.
BERT C. WILDER.
One of the well-known representatives of lake-marine interests in Detroit is Bert C. Wilder, who is general auditor of the De- troit & Cleveland Navigation Company, of which due description is given on other pages of this work. He also holds the same office with the allied corporation, the Detroit & Buf- falo Steamboat Company, the most important corporations operating passenger and freight service on the Great Lakes.
Mr. Wilder takes pride in the fact that he can claim the old Wolverine state as the place of his nativity. He was born at Richmond, Macomb county, Michigan, on the 12th of No- vember, 1865, and is a son of Henry L. and Minerva (Carter) Wilder, the former of whom was born at Kingston, province of On- tario, Canada, and the latter of whom was born at Rockport, Ohio, January 28, 1838, being now deceased. The Wilder family was founded in Michigan by John Wilder, grand- father of the subject of this sketch, and this worthy pioneer of the state came from his native town of Kingston, Ontario, and be- came one of the early settlers of Macomb county, where he purchased a tract of wild land, in Armada township, eventually reclaim- ing the greater portion to cultivation. He was an honored and respected citizen of the commonwealth and a man of impregnable in- tegrity. He and his wife were residents of Macomb county during their lifetime. The Wilder family is of English origin and was early founded in the province of Ontario. Representatives of the name are now scattered over the provinces and the United States.
In the maternal line Mr. Wilder is a direct descendant of John Carter, of Hampshire,
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England, who immigrated to America in 1600, settling in Salisbury, Massachusetts. From him to the subject of this sketch the line is traced directly, in turn, through Rev. Thomas Carter, who was born in 1610 and died in 1684, having been graduated in famous old Cambridge University, England, and having been one of the prominent, scholarly and in- fluential clergymen of the Massachusetts col- ony; his son Thomas was born in 1655 and died in 1754; the ancestor in the next genera- tion was Thomas, who was born in 1685 and died in 1772; the latter's son Samuel, born May 31, 1734, served as a soldier in the Con- tinental line in the war of the Revolution, in which he rose to the rank of lieutenant, and he died April 1, 1821; Samuel, Jr., son of Lieutenant Samuel Carter, was born in War- ren, Connecticut, April 9, 1760, and died March 22, 1813. David Carter, son of Sam- uel, Jr., and Sarah (Newcomb) Carter, was born May 1, 1796, and died May 9, 1840. He was the father of Minerva (Carter) Wild- er, mother of our immediate subject.
Further data concerning the Carter geneal- ogy may be found in the memoir dedicated to the late David Carter, of Detroit, and appear- ing on other pages of this volume.
Bert C. Wilder received his education in the public schools, and in 1881, when sixteen years of age, entered the employ of the whole- sale grocery firm of Symons, Smart & Com- pany, of Bay City, Michigan, where in the meanwhile he attended the high school. He remained with the firm mentioned until 1886, being promoted to the position of cashier dur- ing the second year of his connection with the concern, and later becoming general book- keeper. During the last two years of his con- nection with the house he resided in Saginaw, to which city the firm had transfered its head- quarters.
In March, 1886, Mr. Wilder was offered and accepted the position of general cashier of the Detroit & Cleveland Steam Navigation Company, this office being tendered him by his uncle, the late David Carter, who was at the
time secretary and general manager of the company. Upon the death of Mr. Carter, in 1901, Mr. Wilder was elected secretary of the recently organized Detroit & Buffalo Steam- boat Company, of which he also became as- sistant treasurer, as did he also of the Detroit & Cleveland line. In February, 1906, still further and well merited recognition came to him when he was made auditor of both com- panies, of which office he has since remained incumbent, justifying here, as at all times, the trust reposed in him. He is well known in marine circles and has so ordered his course as to retain the confidence and esteem of those with whom he has come in contact in either a business or social relation.
In politics, though not active in partisan af- fairs, Mr. Wilder is a staunch adherent of the Republican party, and both he and his wife are valued members of the Martha Holmes Methodist Episcopal church, taking an active interest in the various departments of church work. Mr. Wilder has been a trus- tee of the church for the past fifteen years and has been connected with the Sunday school for practically the same period. He was for years a member of the Young Men's Christian Association, and is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, and the Detroit Transportation Club.
On the 20th of February, 1889, Mr. Wilder was united in marriage to Miss Florence S. Cogswell, daughter of Mr. Don Cogswell, a well known lumber inspector of the Saginaw valley, and they have five children,-Gerald F., Cyril H., Bert C., Jr., David Carter, and Florence Ruby.
HENRY C. HODGES.
Henry Clay Hodges was born in the town- ship of South Hero, Grand Isle county, Ver- mont, on the 2d of March, 1828. His family is of stanch English stock, the original pro- genitor in America having come from Eng- land the later part of the seventeenth century and taken up his residence in the colony of Massachusetts.
Asoph Nathaniel Hodges, the great-grand-
1
Arcy Clay Badges
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father of Henry Clay Hodges, was born in the historical town of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1723, removing when a young man to Es- sex county, New York, where he passed the remainder of his life. His son, Ezekiel Hodges, was born in Essex county, New York, in 1755, a few years prior to the inception of the Revolution and served with General Van Rensselaer during that war.
Nathaniel Hodges, son of Ezekiel, and the father of Henry Clay Hodges, was born in Washington county, New York, in the year 1787, and passed his boyhood in the Empire state, removing to Grand Isle county, Ver- mont, in 1813. He served in the war of 1812. He was recognized as a strong char- acter, having the courage of his convictions, was broad and liberal in his views, a deep student of history, and possessed of a remark- able memory. In politics he was a Henry Clay Whig, voting the Whig ticket until the organization of the Republican party when he became a supporter of the Lincoln policy. He died in his eighty-third year.
Clarissa Phelps Hodges, mother of Henry Clay Hodges, was born in the town of South Hero, Vermont, in the year 1793. She came of the Connecticut branch of the Phelps and Pearl families, which settled in Hartford and vicinity in the early colonial days. She be- came a member of the Methodist church at the age of twelve, was devoted to the study of the Bible and was recognized as an able contrib- utor to the religious papers of the country until she reached her eighty-fifth year. She died at the age of ninety-one.
Henry Clay Hodges was reared under the invigorating influences and environments of the old Green Mountain state, receiving the advantages of the common school education in his home county. It is needless to say that his academic opportunities were limited. in scope, though this handicap did not prove sufficient to hinder in the least the development of his in- tellectual talents. Apprenticed at the age of sixteen to the trade of carriage-making, at the age of twenty he had so far mastered his
trade as to enable him to start in business for himself. At the age of twenty-two he arrived in Detroit, on the Ist day of December, 1850. Going from Detroit to Marshall, he became the clerk and cashier of the Michigan Central Railroad hotel, which was at that time the most celebrated between New York and Chi- cago.
In 1852 Mr. Hodges began the study of law under the preceptorship of Judge James R. Slack of Huntington, Indiana. While pur- suing his law studies he also taught in the country schools in the vicinity during the win- ter terms. In 1853 he returned to Michigan, locating at Niles, where he entered the em- ploy of the J. F. Cross Company which con- trolled extensive marble quarries in Vermont. The following year he was admitted to part- nership in the business and removed to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where the firm established branch quarters. In 1854 he was married to Miss Julia Bidwell of Hastings, Michigan. Returning to Michigan in 1862, he entered into partnership with his brother, Charles C. Hodges and Edward Barker under the firm name of Barker, Hodges & Brother, they hav- ing been given the general agency for the Con- necticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Hartford, for the states of Michigan, Wiscon- sin, Iowa and Minnesota. In 1864 Mr. Bar- ker retired and the firm then became Hodges Brothers, with headquarters in Detroit. Be- sides engaging in the insurance business, the Hodges Brothers were also pioneers in real- estate business in this city, handling largely their own property, which included about seventy-five acres of the Woodbridge farm. In 1871 they purchased a tract of land in the northern suburbs of Detroit, donating a tract seventy feet in width and giving it the name of Lincoln avenue. Through Mr. Hodges' efforts, Trumbull avenue, which was then about sixty feet wide, was increased to eighty feet. In the same year they purchased the property at the corner of State and Gris- wold streets, where the Hodges building now stands.
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To Mr. Hodges and the late David M. Richardson the city is indebted for the concep- tion of the idea of establishing the boulevard which now encircles the city. Though a somewhat different route was originally pro- jected, the interest aroused through the efforts and suggestions of Messrs. Hodges and Rich- ardson finally culminated in the building of the present magnificent driveway.
In 1879 the Hodges Brothers purchased the business of John R. Grout, manufacturer of lubricating devices, and thereupon organized and incorporated the Detroit Lubricator Company, of which Mr. H. C. Hodges was president. The plant of this company has been enlarged from time to time until it is the largest and most important of its kind in the world.
In 1872 Mr. Hodges became vice-president and one of the managing directors of the Wyandotte Rolling Mills, and after the death of Captain E. B. Ward succeeded him as presi- dent. He, with Captain Ward and others, organized the Detroit-Arizona Copper Mining Company and was vice-president of the corpo- ration until the death of Captain Ward, when he became president. The mines controlled by this company have since become among the largest copper-producing mines in the country.
In 1882 he and his brother effected the cor- poration of the Detroit Steam Radiator Com- pany, this company being the first to manufac- ture the type of cast-iron radiator which has since become standard the world over.
Mr. Hodges is still largely interested in real estate in the city. In politics he is a Re- publican, in so far as national issues are in- volved, and attended the convention, in 1860, which nominated Lincoln. But he is essen- tially a man of independent views and is not constrained by partisan lines. He is public spirited to a degree and has ever shown a loyal interest in all that is for the well being of the city in which he has so long maintained his home and in which his name is a recog- nized synonym for honor and integrity.
Thus far reference has been made to the
business phases in the career of Mr. Hodges. In the world of literature he has gained a position of prominence. He is an original thinker and has given to the world in his published works a valuable contribution. In the ancient science of planetary influences he has made most extensive researches and is known as one of the leading exponents of the same at the present day.
His investigations in this direction have been very thorough, the results being pub- lished in his work of six volumes entitled, "Science and Key of Life," as well as other books on astrological science. These works show the wide scope of his investigations and deep knowledge of the subjects treated.
He is editor and publisher of the "Stellar Ray," a monthly magazine devoted to the prac- tical problems of life.
Mr. Hodges' entire life has been one of broad usefulness. A close student by nature, and possessed of a remarkable memory, his wide reading has resulted in a fund of knowl- edge possessed by few men who have been so actively engaged in business affairs.
LEWIS NEWBERRY.
On other pages of this volume is entered a sketch of the Newberry Baking Company, of which Lewis Newberry is president, and it is but consistent that a review of his career also be incorporated, as he has gained recognition as one of the progressive and successful busi- ness men of the Michigan metropolis.
Mr. Newberry was born at Rochester, Oak- land county, Michigan, on the 6th of January, 1859, and is a son of George and Mary J. (Bemis) Newberry. George Newberry like- wise was born in the village of Rochester and is a son of Seneca Newberry, who was one of the honored pioneers of Oakland county and one of the first merchants of Rochester, where he took up his residence about 1829. Seneca Newberry was a man of distinctive promin- ence and influence in his community, and rep- resented Oakland county in the first legisla-
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ture of the state of Michigan. He was a staunch supporter of the principles of the Democratic party and was one of its leaders in Oakland county, where he continued to reside until his death. George Newberry and his brother Homer became associated with their father in the building and equipping of a pa- per mill in Shiawassee county, about 1862, and they operated the same for many years. Since 1895 George Newberry has lived prac- tically retired from active business, and he and his wife still reside in Rochester. He has al- ways been aligned as a supporter of the cause of the Democratic party and has been influen- tial in its councils, though he has never sought or held public office. He resided in Detroit for a period of about thirty-five years, during which he here represented the manufactory of the Shiawassee Paper Company, of which he was a member. He was one of the organizers of the Detroit Yacht Club and was its first commodore, as was he also of the Citizens' Yachting Association, in which he held this office for several years.
Lewis Newberry gained his early education- al discipline in the public schools of Detroit, and in 1877 he became a traveling salesman for the Shiawassee Paper Company, but in the following year he identified himself with rail- road interests. He continued to be thus en- gaged, with various companies, until 1886. In the year mentioned he returned to Detroit, where he assumed the position of shipping clerk for the Morton Baking Company, with which he continued to be connected until 1906, when he became one of the organizers and in- corporators of the Newberry Baking Com- pany, of which he has since been president and to the interests of which he gives the major portion of his time and attention.
Mr. Newberry is affiliated with Ashlar Lodge, No. 91, Free & Accepted Masons, and Peninsular Chapter, No. 16, Royal Arch Masons.
In 1898 Mr. Newberry was united in mar- riage to Miss Addie Ohl, of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
THOMAS NESTER.
The great lumbering industry of the state of Michigan in the days past made many mil- lionaires and one of the most picturesque fig- ures who achieved fortune through his con- nection with the same was the late Thomas Nester, who rose from the position of a man- ual laborer in blacksmith shop and sawmill to a place in the class mentioned above. He became a resident of Detroit after he had gained his position as one of the lumber barons of the state and here he continued to make his home until his death, which occurred on the 12th of May, 1890. Genial, broad-minded, whole-souled, Thomas Nester was a man among men and he made his life count for good and for genuine helpfulness.
Mr. Nester was born in the historic old town of Newport, county Mayo, Ireland, in January, 1833, and was a son of Patrick Nes- ter, who was a blacksmith by trade. The sub- ject of this sketch was reared to the age of thirteen years in his native land, where he re- ceived such rudimentary educational advan- tages as his parents were able to afford him. He waxed strong in physique and had the typical mental alertness and good humor so characteristic of his race. In 1846 the par- ents came with their five children to America and settled in a small town near Hamilton, province of Ontario, Canada, where the father erected a cross-roads blacksmith and wagon shop and resumed the work of his trade, by which he gained an honest living and made the best possible provision for his children, the youngest of whom alone was born after the immigration to America. This youngest was Timothy, who was later to wield distinctive power in the political affairs of Michigan, of whose bar he became a rep- resentative member.
Thomas Nester attended the little village school at intervals and soon began to assist his father as helper in the blacksmith shop just mentioned. At the age of seventeen years he left the parental roof, his father having in the meanwhile removed to a farm of forty acres
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which he had purchased near London, On- tario, and he then came to Michigan, where he initiated his independent business career in a most modest way. In 1851 he disembarked from a lake boat at Bay City, and his employ- ment for the first winter was as driver of a team of oxen, in service in connection with a sawmill in the vicinity, He received in com- pensation twelve dollars a month and his board. In the spring he secured employment in a saw mill at Bangor, and from that point he finally went to Port Huron, where he became head sawyer. His services in this capacity were requited in the wages of twenty-four dollars a month, with long days of arduous toil. In the winter season he went into the lumber camp, where he did his full share of work in chopping, driving team, etc. In the opening spring he was one of the best men in the "drive" of the logs down the stream to the mill, and in the latter he then resumed his work as head sawyer. This line of herculean labor the future millionaire continued to fol- low about six years, or until he had attained to the age of twenty-two years. In the mean- while his parents also had come to Michigan, and he had the privilege, as he always con- sidered it in after years as well as at the time, of making the payments on the farm which his father purchased, in Sanilac county; when the final payment was made Thomas, or "Tom," as he was ever known by his friends, gave to his father the deed to the property. His parents passed the remainder of their lives in Michigan, simple, honest, God-fearing folk.
An incident in the career of Mr. Nester has been related and has sufficient incidental sig- nificance to be worthy of reproduction in this article: The lumber business was booming in those times, and the Port Huron mills fre- quently had two shifts of men at work. One night Tom Nester was working his shift when he became aware that a raft of logs belong- ing to Avery & Murphy and moored in the St. Clair river, adjoining the mill, had become un- fastened and was moving out of the boom into the river, where it would become scat-
tered and lost. The raft consisted of about five million feet of logs and its value at that time was about fifty thousand dollars. Young Nester promptly went to the home of Mr. Avery, whom he aroused and to whom he stated the facts in the case. The millionaire Avery and the young sawyer together, and without other aid, succeeded in saving the raft, but Mr. Avery had been thrown into the water and would have undoubtedly drowned had it not been for the prompt efforts of Nester in rescuing him from his perilous position among the twisting and jamming logs. Filled with gratitude, and admiring the dexterity and courage of the young man, Mr. Avery sent for him the next morning and insisted that he should enter the employ of the firm. In this connection Nester rose to the position of small boss and through the opportunities secured for sub-contracting in a small way, he man- aged to accumulate a little money. His con- tracting operations gradually increased in ex- tent and importance, and through the same was laid the foundation for his ample fortune. It is not necessary to enter into details con- cerning the various steps in his career as a lumber operator, for the development of the same has often been related in connec- tion with him and others who had to do with the developing of the lumbering industry in the northern pine districts.
In 1865 Mr. Nester entered into partnership with Colonel William L. Little, a banker of New York, and James F. Brown, cashier in the former's bank. The two partners sup- plied the requisite funds as against the skill and experience of Mr. Nester, who had thor- oughly proven his trustworthiness and reso- lute honesty of purpose through his previous operations. The first investment made by the new firm was in the purchase of a tract of fif- teen hundred acres, at ten dollars an acre, and within three years, from the cutting of the timber and the manufacturing and sale of the lumber therefrom, they each realized about thirty thousand dollars. The compact was then terminated, and thereafter Mr. Nester
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was similarly associated with Jesse Hoyt, the low men, liberal and public-spirited as a citi- zen, and sincere and honorable in all his busi- ness relations. He was a Republican in his political faith, but was not so strongly par- tisan that he was not ready to use his pleasure and judgment in casting his vote for the one he considered the best man. He was reared in the faith of the Catholic church and was a liberal supporter of the same. New York capitalist, until 1873, when Mr. Nester sold his interest in the business to his partner. In the meanwhile he had purchased lands and cut pine on his own account, and when the partnership mentioned was dissolved he placed his capitalistic resources at about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. For sev- eral years he continued his individual opera- tions, which continually broadened in scope April 21, 1860, occurred the marriage of Mr. Nester to Miss Margaret Mahon, daugh- ter of a prosperous farmer of Sanilac county, and importance, and he built a large sawmill at what is now known as the village of Alger. Between 1878 and 1880 Mr. Nester bought . and she survives him, as do also four of their children,-George and John, of Detroit; Frank, of Duluth, Minnesota; and Mary, Mrs. M. J. Bourke, of Detroit.
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