USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 95
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about forty thousand acres of land in Roscom- mon and Gladwin counties, and at a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars he built a broad-gauge railroad, twenty miles in length, to assist in moving the timber from this tract, which was not accessible to streams by which the logs could be floated. From the first year's operations he cleared sufficient money to de- fray the cost of constructing his railroad, a work which he considered one of the most im- portant which he ever undertook. Somewhat later Mr. Nester was associated in intimate partnership relationships with such well known capitalists as A. W. Wright and Wells, Stone & Company, of East Saginaw, and these as- sociations were to him of the most pleasing order, as were they also to his partners: through the connection large profits were real- ized. Mr. Nester eventually sold his railroad for somewhat more than five hundred thou- sand dollars, and it is now a part of the Pere Marquette system.
In 1882 Mr. Nester disposed of his various interests in the Saginaw region, and at that time he removed from Saginaw to Detroit, where he passed the residue of his life. He became a stockholder in the People's Savings Bank and had other local capitalistic interests, but the greater portion of his wealth was rep- resented in his holdings of timber lands in various sections of the state. Mr. Nester was a man of forceful individuality and his optim- ism was always of the most inspiring type. He was generous in his relations with his fel-
CYRENIUS A. NEWCOMB, JR.
In the local business field the subject of this brief review is well upholding the prestige of the name which he bears, and he is recog- nized as one of the representative business men of the younger generation in his native city. He is a son of Cyrenius A. Newcomb, Sr., one of the founders and the present head of the corporation known as the Newcomb, Endi- cott Company, and in the sketch of the life of the father, appearing on other pages of this work, is given adequate genealogical record and also details in connection with the busi- ness enterprise of the Newcomb, Endicott Com- pany, the most important and extensive of the retail dry-goods houses in the state of Michi- gan. Of the corporation noted the subject of this article is secretary.
Cyrenius Adelbert Newcomb, Jr., was born in Detroit on the 14th of January, 1871, and his earlier educational discipline was secured in the public schools of this city. He was graduated in the Central high school as a member of the class of 1889, and later en- tered the literary and scientific department of the University of Michigan, in which he com- pleted the prescribed course and was grad- uated in 1893, with the degree of Bachelor of Letters. On the Ist of August, 1893, he assumed a position of minor order in the em-
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ploy of Newcomb, Endicott & Company, and he has learned the business in all its details, advancing gradually through the various grades of responsibility and trust until he finally became secretary of the company. In 1897 Mr. Newcomb became buyer for the de- partment devoted to linens, woolens, domes- tics, etc., having been admitted to partnership in the firm in the preceding year. Upon the incorporation of the business, under the origi- nal title, in 1903, he was elected secretary, and of this office he has since remained in- cumbent. As an executive he has shown marked discrimination and resourcefulness, and in addition to the office of secretary he has his share of the supervision of the business.
In politics Mr. Newcomb is aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republi- can party. He is a member of the University Club, the Detroit Boat Club, the Detroit Coun- try Club and the Fine Arts Society. He is also identified with the Aldine Association, of New York city, and the Psi Upsilon fraternity of his alma mater, the University of Michigan. He has a deep and abiding interest in all that per- tains to his native city and is ever ready to aid in the support of measures and enterprises tending to the advancement of Detroit along both material and civic lines.
On the 16th of December, 1896, Mr. New- comb was united in marriage to Miss Brownie Jenness Kellie, daughter of Ronald Scott Kellie, who is a representative member of the Detroit bar and personal mention of whom ap- pears on another page of this work. The three children of this union are: Cyrenius Adel- bert (3d), Alice J., and John Jenness.
HARRY D. MORTON.
Mr. Morton is to be given consideration in this work as one of the enterprising and prominent business men of the younger gen- eration in Detroit, and through the industry with which he is connected he is contributing his quota to the commercial advancement of the Michigan metropolis. He is treasurer and
general manager of the Gies Gear Company, of which adequate description is given on other pages of this publication.
Harry D. Morton was born in the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the 17th of Decem- ber, 1872, and is a son of Andrew N. and Bettie N. (Congdon) Morton. His father was born at Marengo, Calhoun county, this state, in 1844, a son of Davis Morton, who was a native of Freetown, Massachusetts, and who became one of the sterling pioneer set- tlers of Washtenaw county, Michigan, where he passed the residue of his life, which was largely devoted to agricultural pursuits. An- drew N. Morton has been identified with the railway mail service for nearly twenty years, and has a run between Detroit and Grand Rapids. He and his wife maintain their home at Chelsea, Michigan. Mrs. Morton is a daughter of the late Elisha Congdon, founder of the village of Chelsea, Michigan, to which place he removed from Norwich, Connecticut. He became a large landholder in the vicinity of Chelsea and was there engaged in the gen- eral merchandise business for many years. His wife, whose maiden name was Eloise Standish, was a descendant on the paternal side in the seventh generation from Captain Miles Standish, of Massachusetts, whose name has been perpetuated in history and in the works of the New England bard, Longfellow.
Harry D. Morton attended the public schools of Chelsea until he was seventeen years of age, when he came to Detroit, where he com- pleted a thorough course in the Pernin short- hand school. After his graduation he secured employment in the offices of Daniel Scotten & Company, the extensive tobacco manufactur- ers of Detroit, and he was thus engaged until 1893, when he assumed the position of office manager for the Howard Publishing Com- pany of this city. In 1895 he entered into partnership with Frederick G. Coryell, under the firm name of Morton & Coryell, and they established an office as general stenographers, in the Chamber of Commerce building. In 1900 Mr. Morton became manager of
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the legal department of the Farbenfabriken of Elberfeld Company, New York city, manufac- turers of analine dyes, and also of a varied line of drugs and chemicals, and originators of phenacetine. He remained with this con- cern until 1906, when he returned to Detroit and became one of the principals in the or- ganization and incorporation of the Gies Gear Company, of which he has since been treas- urer and general manager. He is a Repub- lican in politics.
JOHN S. VAN ALSTYNE.
This well known and highly honored citizen of Wayne county may consistently be termed the father of the village of Wyandotte, with whose upbuilding he has been most con- spicuously identified, along both civic and in- dustrial lines, and he is to-day one of the best known and most thoroughly representative citizens of the village mentioned. He was the first president of its common council and dur- ing the long years of his residence there he has been at all times loyal and progressive, giving his co-operation and influence in sup- port of measures inuring to the general good of the community. He was one of the organ- izers of the Wyandotte Savings Bank, of which he has been president during the entire period of its existence, and of this popular and stable financial institution specific mention is made on other pages of this publication.
As the name clearly indicates, John Scher- merhorn Van Alstyne is of sturdy Holland Dutch ancestry, and the Van Alstyne and Schermerhorn families were numbered promi- nently among the founders of the Dutch colo- nies in the present state of New York. The original American progenitor in the agnatic line was Jan Martense Van Alstyne (de- Wever), who came to America prior to July, 1655, and who resided for some time at Al- bany, New York, and later at Kinderhook. He married Dirkie Harmens, and their son Abraham Jans Van Alstyne, who was an elder of the Dutch church at Kinderhook in 1716,
married Marreitje Van Deusen. The next in line of direct descent to the subject of this sketch was their son Sander Van Alstyne, who married Elbertie Van Alen, and who served as captain of a militia company at Kinderhook. His son Johannes Van Alstyne was a soldier in the war of 1812 and chose as his wife Sarah Van Der Poel. Their son Alexander married Mary Witbeck, and of this marriage was born Dr. John S. Van Alstyne, father of him whose name initiates this sketch. It will thus be seen that Mr. Van Alstyne is both directly and collaterally identified with many of the old and honored Knickerbocker families whose names have been prominently linked with the annals of the old Empire state from the early colonial epoch.
John Schermerhorn Van Alstyne was born in Greenbush, Rensselaer county, New York, on the 25th of October, 1834, and is a son of Dr. John S. and Anna Maria (Schermerhorn) Van Alstyne, both of whom passed their entire lives in New York state. Dr. Van Alstyne became one of the representative physicians and surgeons in the city of Albany, where his death occurred in 1844; his wife survived him by several years, and of their four children only one is living at the present time,-the subject of this sketch. After a due prelimi- nary training in the common schools the sub- ject of this review completed a course of study in a well conducted academy at Schodack Landing, New York.
In 1850, at the age of sixteen years, Mr. Van Alstyne came to Michigan and took up his residence in Detroit, where he became a student in the law office of Barstow & Lock- wood, and in 1855 he was admitted to the bar of the state, being well equipped for the prac- tical work of his chosen profession. Through the influence of circumstances, however, he found it expedient to turn his attention to other lines of endeavor. About the time of his admission to the bar the Eureka Iron Com- pany was organized, and among its interested principals were numbered Messrs. Barstow and Lockwood, his law preceptors. They se-
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cured for Mr. Van Alstyne the position of manager of the company's large real-estate holdings in Wyandotte, where about two thou- sand acres of land had been purchased by the new corporation. About six months after re- ceiving this appointment Mr. Van Alstyne was made manager of the company's business, having proven himself well qualified for the assumption and discharge of the important duties which thus devolved upon him. In 1861 he became associated with Alexander Stewart in forming the firm of Stewart & Van Alstyne, and they engaged in the manufac- turing of lumber, with headquarters in Wyan- dotte. From March, 1862, until June of the following year Mr. Van Alstyne was in the service of the government, having been as- signed to the paymaster's department of the United States army, and having been on duty in the national capital, New York city, South Carolina and with the Army of the Potomac. Upon receiving his release from the govern- ment service Mr. Van Alstyne returned to Wyandotte, and continued in the lumber trade until 1872, when he resumed the management of the business of the Eureka Iron Company, with which he continued to be identified in this capacity until the closing of the enterprise, in 1892. During and subsequently to the panic of 1873, with characteristic prescience and discrimination, Mr. Van Alstyne leased, at a nominal rental, a large amount of the company land at Wyandotte, and this he placed at the disposal of the people of the com- munity to enable them to raise vegetables and other products and through this means aid in tiding over the period of so great financial depression. In this matter, with true and practical benevolence, he anticipated by many years the policy of the late and honored Gov- ernor Pingree, who had recourse to the same means in aiding the poor of the city of De- troit.
mittee which secured a city charter for Wyan- dotte. He was elected the first mayor of the city and served one term. Though urged by prominent members of both political parties to become a candidate for a second term, he felt constrained to decline the overtures. In 1871 he was one of the organizers of the Wyandotte Savings Bank, of which he has been president during the entire intervening period and which, under his wise and careful administration, has ever held a high reputation and commanded unqualified confidence, so that it is to be regarded as one of the representative financial institutions of Wayne county. He is a director of each the Eureka Land Com- pany and the Wyandotte Land Company, and has other important interests. Through his well directed efforts he has gained large wealth, and throughout his entire career, marked by energy, enterprise and progressive- ness, his reputation for impregnable honesty and integrity of purpose has remained unsul- lied. In 1887 Mr. Van Alstyne had supervi- sion of the borings made for natural gas in Wyandotte. The contracts for this important and expensive work were drawn by him, and at no time was there the slightest friction or a dispute as to the application of any portion of the money invested in the enterprise. Though the boring was carried to a depth of five thousand six hundred and forty-five feet, no gas was discovered, but at a depth of seven hundred and thirty feet salt was found,-a bed three hundred and four feet deep. These experimental operations were protracted over a period of about two years, and from the dis- coveries incidentally made has been developed the great soda-ash industry carried on to-day in Wyandotte. The borings were made on land owned by the Eureka Iron Company, and after the failure to find gas, twenty acres of this land were sold to Captain John B. Ford, at a figure sufficient to entirely cover the ex- penditures made in the search for gas. The No. I works of the Michigan Alkali Company are now located on the tract of twenty acres
In all public affairs of a local order Mr. Van Alstyne manifested from the beginning a commendable interest, and in 1867 he was a prominent and influential member of the com- just mentioned. Mr. Van Alstyne is essen-
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J. J. Vano Aleper
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tially a business man and unremitting appli- cation has marked his entire career. Right living and enthusiastic interest in material and social affairs have kept him alert and in his vigor and appearance there is slight indication that he has passed the psalmist's span of three score years and ten. He has the spirit of perennial youth and has ever found life worth the living.
In his political allegiance Mr. Van Alstyne is aligned as a loyal supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and his religious faith is that of the Dutch Reformed church. He was one of the founders and charter members of Wyandotte Lodge, No. 170, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, and of the same he has served as master for fifteen or more years, at varying intervals. He has advanced to the supreme degree, the thirty-third, in this time-honored fraternity, having gained this distinction through election to the same at the annual meeting at Boston of the Consistory of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in 1905. For five years he served as high priest of Wyan- dotte Chapter, No. 135, Royal Arch Masons, and he is also identified with Monroe Council, Royal and Select Masters, Detroit; Michigan Sovereign Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides holding membership in Moslem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in Detroit.
On the 15th of October, 1863, Mr. Van Alstyne was united in marriage to Miss Ellen Folger, a daughter of the late Andrew J. Folger, of Wyandotte. Concerning the child- ren of this union the following brief data are given : Anna Folger is the wife of Robert B. Burrell, of Wyandotte; John Schermerhorn, Jr., who married Miss Isabella Watkins, is the vice-president of the Peninsular Engrav- ing Company, of Detroit; and Frederick Easton, who married Blanche Lacy, is cashier of the Wyandotte Savings Bank. The family has ever been prominent in the best social life of the community and the attractive home- stead is a center of gracious and refined hos- pitality.
CHARLES F. MELLISH.
From the early settlement of Michigan no state has contributed a larger quota of sterling citizens than has the fine old Empire com- monwealth, and at the present time that state has in Detroit a worthy representative in the person of Charles F. Mellish, who is a promi- nent figure in local business circles, and who here numbers his friends by the roster of his acquaintances. He is a director of the Har- greaves Manufacturing Company, of which description is given on other pages of this work, and in the capacity of assistant manager he is actively identified with the administration of the business of the company.
Mr. Mellish was born in the city of Buffalo, New York, on the 7th of December, 1859, and is a son of Captain James William Willoughby- Mellish and Lavinia (Suthen) Mellish, the for- mer of whom was born in the city of London, England, and the latter of whom was a native of Ipswich, England. Captain Mellish was reared and educated in his native city and as a youth he entered the English army, in which he event- ually attained to the rank of captain. He finally resigned his commission and came to America, where he became prominently identi- fied with manufacturing industries. He first located in the city of New York, after which he resided for a time in the city of Buffalo, and finally he took up his residence in Lock- port, that state, where he was associated with others as one of the interested principals in the Hydraulic Manufacturing Company, in which he was a stockholder and director. He was a prominent and influential citizen of Lockport for many years, having been active in both the business and civic affairs of the community and having been a man of marked ability and fine intellectuality. Both he and his wife con- tinued to reside in Lockport until their death.
Charles Fillmore Mellish, the immediate sub- ject of this review, gained his early educational discipline in the public schools of the city of Lockport, and the inception of his business career was through his connection with the establishment of the firm of R. W. & E. Beck.
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art dealers in that city. He entered the em- ploy of this firm in 1878 and remained with the same, as a salesman, until 1883, in which year he was offered a position as traveling salesman for the Hargreaves Manufacturing Company, of Detroit, manufacturers of picture frames, mouldings, etc., and dealers in all kinds of pictures. With this extensive con- cern he has since continued to be identified and he has risen to a position of authoritative in- terest in the business, which is one of the largest of the kind in the United States, as may be seen by reference to the article descrip- tive of the same. He became one of the most successful representatives of the house and re- mained "on the road" until 1900, after which he became a factor in connection with the office affairs of the company. He finally secured an interest in the business, and in 1900 he was made assistant manager, also having charge of the sales department. His services have been potent in forwarding the success of the enterprise and its expansion into new terri- tory, and he is one of the able and valued officials of the company. As a progressive business man and loyal citizen Mr. Mellish ' holds membership in the Detroit Board of Commerce, in whose work he maintains an active interest.
Mr. Mellish is aligned as a stalwart sup- porter of the cause of the Republican party and he has done effective service in the local ranks of the "Grand Old Party." He was a most ardent supporter of the Hon. Edwin Denby in the latter's campaigns for congress and aided materially in securing the election of this able representative from Michigan. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that Messrs. Denby and Mellish greatly resemble each other in facial lines and physical contour and that they are often mistaken one for the other. Mr. Mellish is a member of the De- troit Club, the Detroit Country Club, the Pic- ure Frame Manufacturers' Association of America, and other social and business or- ganizations. He and his wife are communi- cants of the Protestant Episcopal church, being
identified with the parish of Christ church. The family residence is at 625 Jefferson ave- nue, and the same is notable for its generous hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. Mellish are active in the best social life of the city.
On the 2d of July, 1884, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mellish to Miss Sarah Estelle Butler, daughter of the late Titus S. Butler, a prominent merchant of Lockport, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Mellish have one daughter, Mar- jorie Butler Mellish, who was graduated in the Detroit Home and Day School and who is now attending Miss Douglass' school in New York city.
NEIL McMILLAN.
For more than a quarter of a century Mr. McMillan has been identified with important industrial interests in Detroit, where he is now secretary and general manager of the Na- tional Can Company, of whose business an adequate description is given on other pages of this volume. He is a Scotsman by birth and typical of the sturdy race from which he is sprung, while he is known as one of the representative business men of the beautiful metropolis of the Wolverine state.
Mr. McMillan was born in Tranent, Scot- land, on the 18th of March, 1852, and is a son of Michael and Jean (Ballantine) McMillan, both of whom passed nearly their entire lives in the land of "brown hills and shaggy wood." He was educated in the schools of his native land and after leaving school clerked in a gen- eral store and in the office of the Duke of Portland. In 1870 Mr. McMillan came to America and took up his residence on a farm near London, Ontario, Canada, and later lo- cated at Bothwell, conducting a general store until 1876, when he moved to California and with his brothers operated a stock ranch until 1882, when he removed to Detroit, where he effected the establishment of the Dry Dock Sheet Metal Works, which later became known as the Detroit Sheet Metal & Brass Works. Of this concern he was secretary and treas-
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urer, Frank E. Kirby having been president. The business was eventually sold to the De- troit Ship Building Company. The enterprise, under the personal supervision and manage- ment of Mr. McMillan, was built up to large proportions, and the brass foundry of the com- pany at the time was the largest in the city. The concern gave employment to fully two hundred skilled workmen and controlled a large and substantial business, principally in the line of work and equipment for steamboats and railroad cars.
In 1887 Mr. McMillan organized the Art Stove Company, of which he was first treas- urer and later president, being one of the heaviest stockholders in the corporation. He finally sold his interest in the business, after making the enterprise a distinctive success, which it continues to the present time. Mr. McMillan became identified with the National Can Company at the time of its organization and incorporation, in 1901, and the article de- scriptive of the company offers further details concerning his connection with the same. As the chief practical executive officer of the com- pany he gives to its affairs the major portion of his time and attention, and the business is now one of the most important of the kind in America. Mr. McMillan has long been rec- ognized as an aggressive and able business man, and none is more loyal to Detroit or a more staunch believer in the still more splendid future which shall be the city's along general industrial and civic lines.
In politics Mr. McMillan gives his allegiance to the Republican party, but the honors and emoluments of public office have never had aught of allurement for him. He is an ap- preciative member of the time-honored Ma- sonic fraternity, and is affiliated with Union Lodge, King Cyrus Chapter, and Detroit Commandery, No. 1, Knights Templars. He holds membership and is a trustee in the Mary Palmer Memorial Methodist Episcopal church.
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