USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > Compendium of history and biography of the city of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan > Part 99
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In the city of Detroit, in 1878, was solem- nized the marriage of Dr. Lyons to Miss Edith Malvina Eddy, a daughter of Rev. Dr. Zachary Eddy, who was a prominent clergyman of De- troit and who was a descendant of John Alden and Miles Standish, of colonial fame. Dr. Lyons has two children, Miss Lucia E. Lyons, who is a missionary of the American Board in China, located at Pang Chuang; and Bert E. Lyons, graduate of the University of Michi- gan (A. B.), and post-graduate student in Harvard University.
KONRAD E. KOPPITZ.
In a department devoted more specifically to a consideration of the representative industrial concerns of the city of Detroit the pages of this work contain a brief review of the his- tory of the Koppitz-Melchers Brewing Com- pany, of which Mr. Koppitz is president, and to the article in question the reader is referred for details concerning the enterprise. Mr. Koppitz is one of the representative business men and popular citizens of Detroit, where he has attained to definite success and precedence through his own well directed efforts, and he is known as an authority in all details of the industry with which he is now so prominently identified.
Mr. Koppitz was born in Nieder Hillersdorf, Schlesien, Austria, on the 18th of March, 1854, and is a scion of one of the old estab- lished families of that section of Austria. He is indebted to the excellent schools of his na-
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tive land for his early educational training, and in 1868 he went to Yanowitz-Mähren, Austria, where he entered upon an appren- ticeship at the brewer's trade, serving three years and familiarizing himself with all de- tails of the business and the technical scien- tific principles involved. From 1871 until 1873 he was employed at his trade in the beautiful old city of Vienna, and in the latter year he severed the ties which bound him to home and fatherland and set forth to seek his fortunes in America, having been nineteen years of age at the time. Soon after his arrival in the port of New York he made his way to Chicago, where he remained about three years, within which interval he was in the employ of lead- ing brewing concerns of the western metropo- lis, including those of Bemis & McAvoy and P. Schoenhofen. In the centennial year of our national independence, 1876, Mr. Kop- pitz removed to the city of Philadelphia, where the Centennial exposition was in progress, and there he secured a position in the brewery of Bergdoll & Psotta. Within the same year he went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he re- mained for a short time, and he passed the winter of 1876-7 in Belleville, Illinois. Dur- ing the greater portion of the following year he was again in the employ of the Schoenhofen brewery, in Chicago, resigning his position in the fall of 1878 and going to Worms, Ger- many, where he became a student in the famous school for brewers, greatly amplifying his scientific and practical knowledge of the brew- ing business and being graduated as a mem- ber of the class of 1879. He holds a diploma from this institution, recognized as one of the best in the world. Soon after his graduation Mr. Koppitz returned to Chicago, where he secured a responsible position in the brewing department of the McAvoy Brewing Com- pany, then, as now, one of the largest in that city. After a few weeks he was promoted to the position of first cellar man, in which ca- pacity he continued to be employed until 1884, when he resigned, to accept the position of brewmaster for the Stroh Brewing Company,
of Detroit. With this well known company he remained as a valued and popular employe until December 1, 1890, when he resigned to engage in an independent business venture along the line to which he had been so thor- oughly trained. At this time he became one of the organizers and incorporators of the Koppitz-Melchers Brewing Company, of which he became vice-president and general manager of the manufacturing department. He still retains his general superintendency and since April, 1907, he has been president of the company, whose distinctive success has been in a great degree due to his ability both in a technical and administrative way. Mr. Koppitz is a charter member of the United States Brew Masters' Association, and was first treasurer of the same, taking a deep in- terest in the work and conferences of the or- ganization. He is a member of the American Insurance Union and is affiliated with Schiller Lodge, No. 263, Free & Accepted Masons. He and his wife hold membership in St. Mat- thew's church, a German-Lutheran parish.
On the 3d of May, 1881, Mr. Koppitz was united in marriage to Miss Emilie Esche, a daughter of Albert Esche, who was at the time engaged in the retail meat business in Chicago, and they have three children.
WILLIAM R. KALES.
One of the talented mechanical engineers and progressive young business men of De- troit is Mr. Kales, who is vice-president and engineer of the Whitehead & Kales Iron Works, of which mention is made on other pages of this work.
Mr. Kales is a native of the city of Chi- cago, where he was born on the 8th of August, 1870, being a son of Francis H. and Ellen (Davis) Kales, the former of whom died in 1883 and the latter in 1882. The father was a prominent lawyer. The subject of this re- view prosecuted his studies in a preparatory school at Exeter, New Hampshire, and after . leaving the same he entered the Massachusetts
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Institute of Technology, in Boston, from which institution he was graduated as a me- chanical engineer in the spring of 1892. He was for three years engaged in engine de- signing and erecting and in 1895 became a member of the corps of designing engineers in the works of the Brown Hoisting Machinery Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, with which im- portant concern he remained four years, gain- ing valuable experience in the technical and practical work of his chosen profession.
In 1899 Mr. Kales came to Detroit, where he became associated with James T. Whitehead in the organization of the firm of Whitehead & Kales, of which the Whitehead & Kales Iron Works represents the immediate succes- sor. Concerning the upbuilding of this suc- cessful industrial institution adequate data are given in the article descriptive of the same, and in the connection can readily be under- stood the strong influence which Mr. Kales has wielded in bringing the company up to its present high standard and pronounced success.
Mr. Kales is identified with the Detroit Board of Commerce and the Detroit public- lighting commission. He also holds member- ship in the University Club, Detroit Boat Club, Detroit Engineering Society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
On the Ist of October, 1895, Mr. Kales was united in marriage to Miss Alice Gray, daughter of the late John S. Gray, who was a member of the firm of Gray, Toynton & Fox, one of the representative wholesale concerns of Detroit. Mr. and Mrs. Kales have two children,-Margaret and Robert Gray.
JOSEPH BOYER.
No slight distinction is that appertaining to Mr. Boyer through his executive connection with one of the greatest industrial enterprises of Detroit, and it is further to his credit that this industry was secured to the city primarily through his influence and efforts. He is dis- tinctively one of the representative "captains of industry" in the Michigan metropolis, a
firm believer in the larger and greater Detroit, and a citizen of unalloyed progressiveness and public spirit. He is president of the Bur- roughs Adding Machine Company, of which splendid concern adequate mention is made on other pages of this volume, and to the article in question reference should be made for in- formation definitely supplemental to that of fered in the review at hand.
Mr. Boyer was born on a farm about thirty miles east of the city of Toronto, Canada, on the 19th of September, 1848, and is a son of David and Modlany (Brown) Boyer, both of whom were likewise natives of the dominion of Canada, where they passed their entire lives and where the father followed the vocation of farming.
Joseph Boyer was reared to maturity in his native province and is indebted to its common schools for his early educational training. At the age of eighteen years he entered upon an apprenticeship to the machinist's trade, in the town of Oshawa, Ontario, and in due course of time he became a thoroughly skilled artisan. He continued to follow the work of his trade in Canada until 1869, when, shortly after at- taining to his legal majority, he came over to the United States. He made his way to California, where he arrived about two weeks after the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad to the western coast,-an accom- plishment which was celebrated with great and prolonged enthusiasm in the Golden state. He remained in San Francisco for a few months and then returned eastward as far as St. Louis, Missouri, where he eventually became the owner of a little machine shop, on Dickson street. It is worthy of record that in this little shop, through the kindness and consid- eration of the owner, it was made possible for William S. Burroughs, who was then in prac- tically indigent circumstances, to prosecute the experimentation which eventuated in the Bur- roughs adding machine as manufactured to- day. It is also significant that Mr. Boyer has been able to reap just profits from his asso- ciation with an enterprise built up on this
Joseph Boyer
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great invention of his old-time friend, to whom he rendered material assistance while the lat- ter was struggling to perfect his valuable and unique mechanism.
Mr. Boyer succeeded in building up a suc- cessful business in St. Louis, where he formed the Boyer Machine Company and continued to reside until 1900, when he came to Detroit. He had personally perfected the invention of various and superior types of pneumatic tools, and it was for the purpose of increasing the manufacture of these devices that he took up his location in Detroit, of whose commercial advantages he had become deeply appreciative. Under these conditions he was engaged in the manufacturing of his patented tools until he identified himself with the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, as noted in the article de - scriptive of the same. He has marked me- chanical talent and has gained no equivocal prestige as an inventor, but his administrative and initiative ability has been the force which has brought him to such distinctive prominence in the industrial and commercial world.
PETER N. JACOBSEN.
As a railway promoter and as an authority in the matter of transportation facilities the subject of this sketch has attained to dis- tinctive prestige, having been concerned in many important ventures in the field of elec- tric and steam railway promotion and con- struction and having been unequivocally suc- cessful. He is essentially a self-made man, and none can more worthily bear this proud American title than this well known and pro- gressive citizen of Detroit.
Mr. Jacobsen was born in the city of Que- bec, Canada, on the 3Ist of October, 1863, and is a son of Peter N. and Catherine (Fitz- gerald) Jacobsen, the former of whom was born in the picturesque old city of Christiania, Norway, and the latter of whom was a native of county Kerry, Ireland. In 1874 Peter N. Jacobsen, Sr., removed with his family from the Dominion of Canada to the city of De-
troit and thereafter he served continuously as immigration agent of the Grand Trunk Rail- way, for the Detroit district, until 1887, when he permanently retired from active business. He was a man of superior intellectual force and business ability, and in the office men- tioned he accomplished valuable work, having been a potent factor in securing the immigra- tion and placing of the Scandinavian element which has proven so great and worthy a power in connection with the development of many sections of the west and northwest. A very large proportion of the Norwegian, Swedish and Danish immigrants who have settled in Wisconsin, Minnesota and the more western states were brought to America through the agency with which Mr. Jacobsen was identi- fied and have become respected and useful citizens of our republic, of whose advantages they are invariably appreciative. Mr. Jacob- sen continued to reside in Detroit until his death, which occurred on the 25th of April, 1902. He was never active in political affairs or public life, but was a man who gained and retained staunch friends in all classes. His integrity and honor ever assured him the con- fidence and esteem of his fellow men, and he was especially popular among his confreres in railway circles. His wife is still living and also their six children.
Peter N. Jacobsen, Jr., the immediate sub- ject of this review, received his education in Assumption College, Sandwich, Ontario, hav- ing been about ten years of age at the time of the family removal to Detroit, where he was reared to manhood and where he has main- tained his home during the greater part of, the intervening period. At the age of seventeen years he became office boy for James H. Muir, treasurer of the Detroit, Grand Haven & Mil- waukee Railroad Company, and through faith- ful and effective service he soon won promo- tion, being finally, in 1882, advanced to the position of assistant chief clerk of the auditing department of the railway just mentioned. This position he retained until 1885, when he resigned the same to accept that of chief clerk
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in the general freight department of the De- troit & Cleveland Steam Navigation Company. Upon the death of James H. Henderson, head of this department, in 1887, Mr. Jacobsen was advanced to the office of freight claim agent, and in 1889 he became acting general freight agent of the line. The following year his headquarters were transferred from Detroit to Cleveland, where he maintained his home for three years, continuing incumbent of the office mentioned.
While in Cleveland Mr. Jacobsen became in- terested in the promotion of a projected elec- tric railway from Toledo, Ohio, to Monroe, Michigan, and in 1902 he resigned his po- sition with the Detroit & Cleveland Steam Navigation Company to devote his entire at- tention to the interests of the Toledo-Monroe line, in which connection he was associated with Joseph Ainsworth, Edward Eaton and J. N. Beck. Later he found it expedient to interest other capitalists in the enterprise, and upon the reorganization he secured as his coad- jutors Waldo and William C. Johnson, of Detroit. Before the promotion of the new line had been brought to successful issue an- other financial and executive arrangement be- came necessary, and Mr. Jacobsen ably met the emergency by securing the co-operation of Eldredge M. Fowler, Albert E. F. White and Clarence Black, representative capitalists of Detroit. With these associates he vigor- ously pushed forward the work and the road was completed in the spring of 1903.
Mr. Jacobsen next turned his attention and energies to effecting the building of the con- necting link between Monroe and Detroit. At this juncture he enlisted the co-operation of Charles W. Hannan, of Boston; Matthew Slush, of Mount Clemens, Michigan; and Hon. Cornelius J. Rielly, of Detroit, and the line was completed to Detroit. The two divisions now constitute what is known as the Detroit & Toledo Short Line. Mr. Jacobsen was the owner of a considerable block of the stock of each of the two companies concerned in the
building of this important line, but he disposed of his holdings in the same.
Long service in connection with the trans- portation business made Mr. Jacobsen familiar with the needs of the constantly expanding manufacturing industries of Detroit in the providing of eligible sites for plants, with suit- able rail facilities. Under these conditions he conceived and formulated the plans for an outer-belt line of railway to circle the city, and he presented his proposition in such a way as to secure the tangible support of such leading Detroit capitalists and business men as the late Theodore D. Buhl and Joseph H. Berry, Charles B. Warren and William B. Cady, besides others, and through such sub- stantial financial co-operation the noteworthy project was brought to successful completion in 1907. Thus through the progressive ideas and indefatigable efforts of Mr. Jacobsen, De- troit gains a system which is certain to bring about the development of a large outlying sec- tion, which will be built up with manufactur- ing plants and comfortable homes. In this one connection Mr. Jacobsen merits a place of distinction as one of those who have con- tributed greatly to the furtherance of the in- dustrial supremacy of the new and larger De- troit. The completed outer-belt line was sold in 1907 to the Michigan Central and Grand Trunk Railroad Companies. About one and one-half millions of dollars were expended in the securing of the right of way and the build- ing of the line, which runs from a point at the confluence of Conner's creek and the Detroit river around the outer circle of the city to a point on the same river in Ecorse. At the time of this writing, at the opening of the year 1908, Mr. Jacobsen is giving his atten- tion to the promotion of a union railway sta- tion to be located on Woodward avenue at the junction of the Michigan Central and Grand Trunk tracks, and is also working for the definite promotion of the proposed Bay City & Port Huron Railroad, a steam road, about one hundred and forty-five miles in length. His brilliant success in the past augurs well
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for the future of these two ventures. From his youth to the present time Mr. Jacobsen has been constantly engaged in or identified with the solving of transportation problems, and his technical knowledge and his keen dis- crimination in the foreseeing of demands in this line of undertaking have been demon- strated by the high-class financial co-operation he has been able to secure in the promotion of his several propositions. He is well known and highly esteemed in the business circles of Detroit and is recognized as one of the reli- able and successful promoters of the country. Strong and aggressive, and still in the very prime of life, his influence is certain to be felt in other important fields of promotive enterprise.
In politics Mr. Jacobsen gives his allegiance to the Republican party, and he is a communi- cant of the Catholic church, being identified with the parish of the Church of the Annunci- ation. He was one of the organizers of the Detroit Wheelmen, and was secretary of this association for many years. He was also one of those concerned in the organization of the Detroit Curling Club, of whose directorate he is a member. He is also a director of the De- troit Boat Club and takes much interest in athletics and sports afield and afloat. Mr. Jacobsen is a bachelor.
JOHN KELSEY.
One of the progressive business men of the city of Detroit is Mr. Kelsey, who is secretary and treasurer of the Kelsey-Herbert Company, described on other pages of this work, and who has through individual effort and ability risen to prominence in connection with the industrial life of his native city.
Mr. Kelsey was born in Detroit, on the 15th of March, 1867, and is a son of Frank and Jessie (Brobyn) Kelsey, natives respectively of America and London, England. The parents continued to reside in Detroit until their death.
John Kelsey, the immediate subject of this review, was reared to maturity in Detroit, to
whose public schools he is indebted for the educational discipline which he received in his youth. He initiated his business career when a lad of but fourteen years, entering the em- ploy of Barnes Brothers, who were engaged in the paper business. In 1887 he became asso- ciated with A. V. McClure in the wholesale and retail hardwood lumber business, under the firm name of McClure & Kelsey, and they had their business headquarters at 520 Frank- lin street, where they built up a most pros- perous enterprise. Mr. Kelsey retired from the lumber business in 1900, since which time he has given his attention to the affairs of the Kelsey-Herbert Company, of which he was the virtual founder. He is also president of the Detroit Bent Goods Company and the Kel- sey Hickory Company, and is vice-president of the Fox Brothers Company.
Mr. Kelsey gives his political support to the Republican party and has been an active factor in the domain of practical politics. He is iden- tified with various fraternal and social organi- zations in his native city, takes a specially deep interest in athletics and is president of the Detroit Athletic Club.
In the year 1893 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Kelsey to Miss Margarette Dallas, of Detroit, and they have one son, Dallas Sherrill Kelsey.
A. MILTON HOLDEN.
Associated with the firm of Fred S. Osborne & Company, stock brokers, Mr. Holden is one of the leading representatives of this line of enterprise in Detroit, where he is known as a progressive and reliable business man.
Mr. Holden is a scion of old New England stock, and the name which he bears became identified with the annals of American history in the early colonial epoch. He was born at Frankfort, Will county, Illinois, on the 16th of April, 1857, and is a son of Dr. Newton P. and Caroline (Parrish) Holden, the former of whom was born in Vermont and the latter in the state of New York. Dr. Holden was
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graduated in Rush Medical College, Chicago, as a member of one of its early classes, and for many years he was engaged in the practice of his profession in Will county, Illinois, where he labored faithfully in ministering to suffering humanity and where he was loved and venerated by all classes of citizens, having been a man of prominence and influence in his community. He retired from active practice in 1880, and continued to reside in Frankfort until his death, which occurred in 1902. His wife died in 1899, and of their children only the one is living. Dr. Holden was a son of Phineas H. Holden, who was one of the ster- ling pioneers of Will county, Illinois, where he took up his residence in 1836, and where he became one of the founders of the village of Frankfort.
The subject of this review gained his early educational discipline in the public schools of his native town and later continued his studies in the high school at Englewood, a suburb of the city of Chicago. From 1879 to 1882 he was employed in a stock-brokerage office in Chicago, and thereafter was similarly engaged in Jackson, Michigan, until 1885. In the year last mentioned Mr. Holden came to Detroit, where he formed a partnership with J. K. P. Norville and engaged in the stock-brokerage business, under the title of J. K. P. Norville & Company. With this firm he continued to be identified until July, 1890, when he sold his interest in the business. Within the same year he became a member of the brokerage firm of Williams & Holden, in which he was asso- ciated with Charles R. Williams until 1900, when he retired from the firm. In 1902 he lo- cated in Los Angeles, California, where he be- came identified with gold-mining enterprises, and in 1905 he returned to Detroit and entered into his present association with Mr. Osborne. The firm has built up a large and substantial business in the handling of stocks, bonds and other securities, and Mr. Holden gives his per- sonal attention largely to the grain and pro- vision department. He is a stockholder in the Mexican Crude Rubber Company ; the Coahuila
Mining Company, of Mexico, which is inter- ested in the development of the zinc, copper and coal deposits of that country; the Cresson Mining Company, of Cripple Creek, Colorado; and the Esperanza-Cobalt Mining Company, of Detroit, whose properties are located in the Cobalt mining district of Canada.
In politics Mr. Holden maintains an inde- pendent attitude, and he is essentially progres- sive and public-spirited as a citizen. He is identified with the Detroit Golf Club, the Bankers' Club, and the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mining Exchange.
On the 30th of June, 1885, Mr. Holden was united in marriage to Miss Mary Nick- lisson, daughter of Charles Nicklisson, of Jackson, Michigan, and her death occurred in Los Angeles, California, on the 30th of No- vember, 1903. She is survived by three chil- dren, namely: Margaret, who is a graduate of the Girls' Collegiate School, of Los Ange- les, California, and of Mount Vernon Semi- nary, Washington, D. C .; Carolyn, who was graduated in the Detroit Home & Day School; and N. Parker, who is now a student in the public schools of Detroit.
AUGUST KLING.
The subject of this review is one of the rep- resentative business men of the younger gen- eration in Detroit and is one who has shown a distinctive interest in the promotion of all interests and projects which make for the up- building of the larger and greater industrial city. He is the elder of two sons of Philip Kling, an honored pioneer of Detroit, and is vice-president and general manager of the Philip Kling Brewing Company. A descrip- tion of the business of this corporation and also a sketch of the life of his father are given place in this publication, so that a further review is not demanded.
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