USA > Michigan > Kent County > Grand Rapids > Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan: History and Account of Their Progress from First. Vol. II > Part 18
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the courtesy and refinement which make one a leader in social life usually unfit him for the stern conflicts which business requires of her votaries. However, in the case of Charles William Garfield, it would seem that nature had been lavish in her gifts and that his char- acter has combined in rare proportion all the afore-mentioned ele- ments. Mr. Garfield was born at Milwaukee, Wis., March 14, 1848, a son of Samuel Marshall and Harriet Eliza (Brown) Garfield. The greater part of his life has been passed in Michigan and here he se- cured much of his educational training, graduating at the Michigan Agricultural College in 1870, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. In 1873 he was granted the degree of Master of Science by the same institution, and in 1917 the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by the same institution. From 1873 until 1877 he remained as a member of the faculty of that institution, and during the forty years that have followed has been in turn and together farmer, teach- er of forestry, horticulture, business man and public servant, and in each field has won remarkable success. As an agriculturist he fol- lowed in his daily work the methods which he taught to the younger generation, and out of his experience worked a notable prosperity, becoming the owner of one of the fine country estates of Kent county. For twelve years he served as a member of the State Board of Agri- culture, and he is still a trustee of the Michigan Agricultural Col- lege. During nine years he was president of the Michigan Forestry Commission, and for a decade served as secretary of the Michigan Horticultural Society. He served for several years as president of the Michigan Forestry Association. As an authority upon these three subjects he has written numerous books and pamphlets which have added to the literature of the fields and woods and are interesting works, not alone because of their authenticity, but because of their graceful style and careful preparation. Mr. Garfield has won worth- while success as a business man, and at present is chairman of the board of directors of the Grand Rapids Savings Bank, president of the Grand Rapids Stationery Company, and a director of the Grand Rapids Dry Goods Company, the Worden Grocery Company and the Preferred Life Insurance Company of America. He is likewise prom- inent before the public as a director of the Grand Rapids Park and Boulevard Association. In 1881 and 1882 he was a member of the Michigan House of Representatives. He affiliates with the Repub- lican party in matters of public polity and is a member of the Con- gregational church and of the Phi Delta Theta college fraternity. A life of unwonted activity, crowned with the rewards of industry and fidelity, has earned the repose which, with still unabated mental and physical vigor, he lives to enjoy. Mr. Garfield was married at Grand Rapids, Nov. 24, 1907, to Jessie Robertson Smith, a native of Scotland.
Rev. John Adam Gervickas, pastor of SS. Peter and Paul par- ish at Grand Rapids, combines with deep scholarship, as demanded of the Catholic clergy, the practical qualities indispensable to a min- ister in a large city parish. The prosperity that attends the church of SS. Peter and Paul attests these qualities. Father Gervickas is very highly regarded and in his own congregation is looked upon as a trusted and beloved leader, and outside his own communion is re- spected for his manly Christian character. . He was born Dec. 25, II-9
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1880, in the village of Plasapnikai, Lithuania, son of Adam and Ur- sula (Michaulmte) Gervickas, natives of the same place, where the youth attended the parochial schools. Later he went to Vilnius Col- lege, and in 1908 came to the United States, where he was a student at a seminary at Detroit, and was ordained as a priest of the Catholic church, June 24, 1911. In the meantime he had entered upon his du- ties as assistant at SS. Peter and Paul parish, and after six months was made pastor. This parish was organized about 1906 by Rev. John Ponganis, who was pastor of St. Adelbert church, but the first resident pastor was Rev. Venslaus Matutaitis, who remained from 1907 until Feb. 10, 1911, when Father Gervickas assumed the duties of pastor. This is one of the large and important parishes of the city of Grand Rapids, having 750 families, while the parish school has 318 pupils, taught by six teachers belonging to the St. Dominican Sisters. The church edifice, which was dedicated in 1906, is a hand- some structure and cost in the neighborhood of $25,000. Father Gervickas has proved a great and constantly growing force in the spiritual advancement of the community in which his labors have been centered, and has also handled the business affairs of his par- ish in an admirable manner. Noble natured, kindly, generous and entirely unselfish in all ways, he is a true type of the Catholic priest, on all occasions a friend to those in need, but an unswerving upholder of his religion and the rights of the church.
Clark H. Gleason .- High on the roster of Grand Rapids' citi- zens appears the name of Clark H. Gleason, for years one of the at- torneys practicing before the Kent county bar, a legist whose talents have gained him much more than local reputation, and a man uni- versally honored and respected in and outside of his profession. He has been a resident and legal practitioner in Grand Rapids for more than forty-three years, and during all of this period has respected the highest ideals of his calling. Mr. Gleason was born in Chenango county, New York, Jan. 29, 1847, son of John R. and Susan Sophia (Hough) Gleason, farming people of New England stock who passed their entire lives in the East. The public schools of his native vicin- ity furnished the youth with his early education, and he was reared to agricultural pursuits, but farming did not appeal to him as a voca- tion, his inclinations running to the law. After a preparatory course at Oxford (N. Y.) Academy, he became a student at the University of Michigan, where he completed his literary course in 1873 and his law course in 1875, and in the latter year commenced practice at Grand Rapids, which city has since continued to be his home and the scene of his success. His first partner was Henry B. Fallass, with whom he was associated for two years, then practicing alone until 1881, when he formed a connection with McGeorge Bundy. They were together for seven years, when the association was mutually dissolved, and Mr. Gleason continued alone until 1904, when Walter C. Lee, a nephew, became his partner. The firm of Gleason & Lee maintains offices at 610 Murray building and is engaged in a general practice, the greater part of its work coming in the form of adminis- tering estates and serving as their executor. Mr. Gleason is a lawyer thoroughly informed in his profession and of excellent professional standing, being very highly regarded by his fellow-members in the Grand Rapids and Michigan State Bar Associations. He is an inde-
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pendent Republican in politics and has never sought public office. For a long period a member of the Park Congregational church, he was for several years superintendent of the Sunday school thereof and also acted as a member of its business committee. Mr. Gleason was married Aug. 1, 1905, to Miss Mary Louisa Robinson, daughter of Thomas and Mary M. (Nudd) Robinson, of Washington, D. C., and of this union there has been born a son, Clark H., Jr.
W. W. Goozen .- The vast lumber interests of Kent county and particularly that part included in Solon township have a worthy and honorable representative in the person of W. W. Goozen, who resides in the Cedar Springs community. From the outset of his career he has been identified in one or another way with this industry, and his knowledge thereof makes him an authority on all matters connected with lumber, timber and their allied interests. He has also engaged in other occupations, but the lumber business has held out attractions for him chiefly and this has been his main occupation. Mr. Goozen was born on a farm in Solon township, Kent county, near the village of Solon Center, where he received a common school education. Grow- ing up among the woodsmen, he naturally took to that line of work in his youth, and his industry, energy and faithfulness, together with an ability to govern others, soon won him the position of foreman. This office he held for many years, being connected with some of the leading and largest dealers in this line in Kent county, but his knowl- edge of his business gives him a reputation that is not confined to the county of Kent, but extends to many parts of Michigan. He is fa- miliar with the machinery necessary to the handling of logs in large quantities, a knowledge that is of great practical value to one in his line of work. Mr. Goozen is a man of reliability and public spirit who connects himself with enterprises for the welfare of his com- munity. He is a property owner in section 18, Solon township, and has his home at Cedar Springs. As a fraternalist he has passed through the chairs of Cedar Springs Lodge No. 213, F. & A. M., and belongs to Lodge No. 48, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, at Grand Rapids.
Thomas Dewitt Gordon, M. D .- Others of the learned callings contribute to the welfare and minister to the needs of the people, but none holds the position of importance occupied by that of the phy- sician and surgeon. Man can adjust his differences with his fellow- men without the aid of the bar and bench; he can work out his own salvation ; but in times of serious bodily afflictions he is absolutely dependent upon the skill of the doctor. Long before there were rec- ords made of any nation the medicine man held an honored position, and as civilization has advanced so has the dignity and prominence of the follower of the medical science, until today there are no men, taken as a body, who deserve or hold in so great a degree the respect and esteem of their fellow-citizens. Grand Rapids is the home of many men who have attained prominence in this honored calling, and among them one who, while he belongs to the more recent re- cruits to the ranks of medical practitioners here has already achieved no small amount of reputation, is Dr. Thomas DeWitt Gordon. Dr. Gordon was born at Maxwell, Ontario, Canada, Nov. 1, 1880, and is a son of Rev. Robert and Margaret (Davidson) Gordon, natives, re- spectively, of Pickering and Wareham, Ontario. His father, a min-
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ister of the Congregational church, brought his family from Canada, where he had held numerous charges, to the United States, and in 1887 settled at Ransom, Mich. Later, at various times he had churches at other places, filling pulpits in Hillsdale, Allegan and other coun- ties of Southern Michigan, and at the present time is located at Mo- line, in the last-named county, where he is ministering to a small flock. Thomas DeWitt Gordon had the advantage of growing up in a cultured home, where he was trained along lines that developed his mind while not neglecting his body. He was educated primarily in the public schools, and after his graduation from the Addison (Mich.) High School, he taught school for six years, and then began his med- ical studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he completed a full course and was given his degree of Doctor of Medi- cine as a member of the class of 1909. During his college career he had become particularly interested in the matter of internal medi- cine, and when he secured his diploma he remained at his alma mater for another year as first assistant of internal medicine at the Uni- versity of Michigan Hospital. In 1910, Dr. Gordon came to Grand Rapids and began practice, specializing in internal medicine and children's diseases, and a representative clientele was soon attracted to the young physician because of his very evident ability and broad knowledge of his subject. He was not content with his preparation, however, and when he could arrange to leave his practice, in Au- gust, 1913, he left the United States and went to Vienna, Austria, where he spent nine months in studying the special diseases which he had decided upon as the ones to which he would devote himself in their cure. He returned to this country in May, 1914, thus es- caping the great war, and resumed his practice at Grand Rapids, where he has continued to meet with constantly growing success. He is a member of the Kent County Medical Society, the Michigan State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and belongs to the staffs of the Butterworth Hospital, the Blodgett Me- morial Hospital and the D. A. Blodgett Home for Children. Fra- ternally, he belongs to the Masonic order, and while at college be- longed to the Alpha Omega Alpha and Sigma Xi fraternities. On June 28, 1917, he was commissioned captain in the Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps. Dr. Gordon has always respected the best ethics of his calling and his standing among his professional brethren is an ex- cellent one.
William J. Gordon .- It is a fact worthy of note that the agri- culturists of any community who conduct the best and most profit- able farms are those who have the best interests of their community at heart and who take the most active part in the upbuilding and development of the section in which they reside, and this is true of the farmers of Kent county. In this class of men in Nelson township is found William J. Gordon, who has always been in the leading ranks of any movement likely to prove of benefit to his locality, and who is the owner and operator of a handsome tract of land which he has made profitable by his industry and intelligent application of modern methods of agricultural work. Mr. Gordon was born in County Dundas, Ontario, Canada, May 21, 1864, son of William Gor- don. As the name would suggest, the family is of Scotch origin, William Gordon having been born in Scotland, from which country
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he emigrated in young manhood to Canada. Embarking in the mer- cantile business, he was engaged therein successfully for a period of thirty-six years, during which time he built up a reputation for fair- ness, integrity and honorable dealing that was on a par with his standing as a man of sound business judgment, industry and fore- sight. He was married in Canada to Martha Wingard, who came from an old and honored Pennsylvania family, of sturdy Pennsylva- nia-Dutch stock, a daughter of Peter Wingard, who was a life-long farmer. Of this union were born the following children: Isabel, Alice, Sarah, Ida, Anna, Alma, Martha and William J. The young- est child and only son of his parents, William J. Gordon received his education in the district schools of County Dundas, Canada, and was a young man when he came to Michigan, where, for a short time, he served as a clerk in the mercantile establishment of Cody & Moore, and for other concerns. He was thus engaged until the time of his marriage, when he transferred his activities to farming, and this in- dustry has since received his attention and been the medium through which he has worked out his success. He is at this time the owner of a well-cultivated property, located in Nelson township, where he has model buildings, splendid equipment, and improvements of a modern character, all installed by himself and all illustrating the in- dustry and energy which have combined to make his work a success. He has made a study of his vocation in all its departments and keeps fully abreast to the changes which are constantly being made in methods and procedure, and when new movements have been found practicable is one of the first to adopt them. As has been noted, he takes an active part in the movements in his community and has been a friend of the institutions of Nelson township, where he served for several years as a member of the board of school directors. Politi- cally he is a Democrat, and is fraternally well known and popular, belonging to Cedar Springs Lodge No. 213, F. & A. M., the Knights of Pythias and the Order of the Eastern Star, to the last named of which the members of his family all belong. His eldest son also be- longs to the Masonic Lodge. Mr. Gordon married Anna J., daugh- ter of Horton Thompson, a farmer of the Solon Center community of Kent county, and of this union there have been born four chil- dren: Lillian, who is the wife of Fred Hart, a farmer of Nelson township, and has an infant child, Fay; Fay Thomas, in Company 120, Field Artillery, Battery B, Thirty-second division National Guard; Maud, a teacher in the schools of Kent county, now in charge of District No. 1, and Raymond, assisting his father on the home- stead.
Fred Goul .- One of the enterprising and progressive agricul- turists of the northern part of Kent county is found in the person of Fred Goul, who during a long period of years has carried on opera- tions in Solon township. Prosperity has attended his well-directed efforts and he is today a well-to-do and substantial general farmer, owning a handsome property in section 3. Mr. Goul was born near the city of Buffalo, Erie county, New York, May 3, 1854, a son of Mathias and Mary (Dekheimer) Goul, natives of Germany. His fa- ther, who was a carpenter by trade, was a man of general worth and industry, but did not make satisfactory progress in his own country and therefore decided to try his fortune in America. Accordingly,
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with his wife and several small children, he emigrated to this side of the Atlantic and made his first settlement in Erie county, New York, where in addition to his trade he took up farming. He con- tinued to divide his time and attention between the two vocations during the rest of his life and died at Mill Grove, July 3, 1879. Mr. Goul married Mary Dekheimer, and of this union were born the fol- lowing children: Henry, who died in Germany; Joseph F., born in Germany, a resident of Tonawanda, Niagara county, New York, en- gaged as a blacksmith with the New York Central railroad; John, a stationary engineer at Tonawanda, N. Y .; Libbie, wife of Jacob F. Graff, of Lockport, Niagara county, New York; Fred, of this notice; Mary, wife of Mr. Munroe, of New York state; Larrie, wife of An- drew Tenbrook, a farmer of Niagara county, New York; Sophie, wife of C. H. Compton, formerly of Cedar Springs, and now in the em- ploy of the New York Central railroad in New York state; Carrie, wife of William Rever, now deceased; Melchoir, of Lockport, N. Y., an undertaker and proprietor of a furniture establishment; William, engaged in agricultural operations in Niagara county, New York, and Maggie, wife of Henry Pilts, proprietor of a sash and door fac- tory at Niagara, N. Y. Fred Goul was educated in the public schools of Niagara county, New York, where he had been taken as a child and where he grew to manhood and engaged in farming for some years. About the time of his marriage, Mr. Goul decided to strike out for himself in the West, and, gathering such capital as he could put his hands on, made the journey to Michigan and settled on his farm in Solon township. Here he has been successful in the develop- ment of a valuable and attractive country estate upon which he has erected good buildings and made numerous other improvements. In the achievement of his business successes Mr. Goul has used no ques- tionable methods. He has been fair and above-board in his dealings with his fellow-men and as a result his name has an excellent stand- ing in business circles. He married Miss Sarah Low, daughter of Peter and Louisa (Mitchell) Low, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Canada. Mr. Low was a crock-maker and followed other lines of work in Niagara county, New York, until his death. Mr. and Mrs. Goul have had the following children: Mary L., who died May 27, 1905; Sinco J., a farmer of California, who married Gladys Hancock and has two daughters, Gertrude and Eileen ; Eugene H., working as a blacksmith in the railroad car shops at Durand, and Clinton Melchoir, who was in the first draft for troops for the United States army subject to call, now at home with his parents and assist- ing his father in the work of the home farm, married Ethel Wain- right, daughter of Warren and Nancy (Nicholson) Wainright and has three children-Eugene, Melchoir and Melford-the two elder attending school. Mr. Goul has filled the office of school director in Solon township. He is independent in politics and he and the mem- bers of his family belong to the Methodist Episcopal church.
John E. Goul .- In every community of Kent county there are to be found men who have risen above their fellows, not because they have enjoyed superior advantages, but because their natural abilities have created opportunities of which they have been quick to take advantage. In a section like Kent county, where good and reliable men are easily found, he who is given preferment above his fellows
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may indeed be said to have attained distinction, for, naturally, he must have proven himself one in whom his community can place im- plicit confidence. John E. Goul, of Sand Lake, is one of the men who has enjoyed such eminence. A resident of this community for a period of forty-five years, he has been prominent as a business man, and during the greater part of his residence here has occupied posi- tions of public importance within the gift of his fellow-citizens. Mr. Goul was born Jan. 23, 1857, in the State of Ohio, and was one year of age when he came to Michigan, coming to Sand Lake in 1873. He had received a public school education in his native locality, and was possessed of only ordinary advantages, but his industry and re- source, determination and initiative, soon raised him above the work- ing class and placed him in among the employers of labor. Entering the shingle and lumber business, for a quarter of a century he was one of the important factors in that industry at Sand Lake, and then turned his attention to the grain elevator business, in which he is engaged at the present time. During his long business experience here he has gained and held a reputation for honesty, integrity and capability, and these qualities have also been noted in his public service. Always interested in anything that has promised to be of benefit to his community, he has accepted public service as a respon- sibility of citizenship and has applied himself as assiduously to the discharge of his official duties as he has to the carrying out of the business activities which have gained him success. The cause of education has found in him a good friend, as for many years he has been a member of the school board and for thirteen years president thereof ; while for twenty years he has served as a member of the board of supervisors for Nelson township. Such long and meritori- ous service merits recognition and appreciation and stamps Mr. Goul as one of the decidedly useful men of Sand Lake. At one time Mr. Goul was a candidate for sheriff of Kent county, but conditions that year were not favorable for his election and he met defeat at the polls, about the only time he has failed of election to an office for which he has been nominated. He is a stanch Democrat in politics and is considered one of the influential men of his party in northern Kent county. Mr. Goul belongs to several social orders and is popu- lar among his fellow-citizens. His son, George E. Goul, one of the energetic business men of Sand Lake, is equally active in public af- fairs and for several years has been efficiently discharging the duties of postmaster at Sand Lake.
Hon. Robert D. Graham .- In considering the career and char- acter of Hon. Robert D. Graham, the impartial observer will be dis- posed to rank him not only among the most capable business men and financiers of Grand Rapids, but among the most helpful and public-spirited men of his state. Whether one considers the pa- tience and persistence with which he mastered a difficult profession in his youth, only to give it up in order that he might conduct the home farm; the worthy motives which have impelled him through a long and busy life; the ability which he has brought to the manage- ment and direction of great enterprises, and his untiring and per- sistent labors in public positions and in behalf of the public welfare, he will be impressed that all these qualities, and others less marked, rank him far above the ordinary individual and entitle him to be
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classed with those to whom Grand Rapids and Kent county owe the prestige that is theirs. Mr. Graham was born in Canada, Nov. 11, 1855, and is a son of Elwood and Anna M. (Kipp) Graham. His par- ents, natives of Ontario, Canada, came to Michigan in 1864 and set- tled on a farm in Walker township, Kent county, and there rounded out their lives in agricultural pursuits, the mother dying in 1911 and the father one year later. Mr. Graham was a Prohibitionist and he and Mrs. Graham were originally members of the Society of Friends, but after coming to this country joined the Unitarian church. They were the parents of four children: Isabella, who is deceased; Rob- ert D .; Eliza, who is the wife of Cleanthus Michaelides, of Hull, England, and Thomas E., who is still engaged in farming in Walker township. Robert D. Graham was reared on the home farm, but secured his early education in the grammar schools of Grand Rap- ids. He had first decided upon the law as the medium through which to work out his life's success, and with that end in view stud- ied in the office of E. A. Maher, of Grand Rapids, to such good pur- pose that he was admitted to the bar in April, 1879. At that time, however, he was called home to take charge of the farm, and his law practice was therefore confined more or less to giving counsel to his neighbors in the country. As a farmer he proved very successful, his efforts being mainly in the line of fruit growing. He early inter- ested himself in politics, and as a strong and forceful speaker soon came before the public, which found him made of good official tim- ber and elected him a member of the board of supervisors of Walker township, in 1894. In that capacity he made a decidedly favorable impression, and in 1894 was the Republican candidate for the State Legislature, to which he was elected from his district by a handsome majority. When his two terms in the lower house was finished, his record showed that he was ready for still higher honors, and he was sent to the State Senate in 1898, and served therein with conspicu- ous ability. His record as legislator was one which reflected credit upon his fidelity to the best interests of his constituents, his commu- nity and his state, and he returned from the Legislature to find that he had won a firm place in the confidence of the public. In April, 1899, Mr. Graham was elected president of the old Fifth National Bank of Grand Rapids, and continued to occupy that position until its consolidation, in 1908, with the Commercial Savings Bank. He continued with the new institution until December, 1914, when he resigned to accept his present position as president of the Grand Rap- ids Trust Company. Mr. Graham is also a director in the Fourth National Bank and the Commercial Savings Bank and has numerous other interests, both of a business and financial character. He was first a member of the Michigan State Board of Agriculture in 1904, and was reappointed to that body by Governor Warner and is now serving as chairman. He was also formerly chairman of the Michi- gan State Board of Forestry, and in 1909 was a member of the Com- mission of Inquiry by appointment from Governor Warner. He is a deep student of horticulture, and is widely known throughout Michi- gan as such. In 1917 he presented to the state of Michigan fifty acres of land, situated in section 21, Walker township, Kent county, to be used as an experimental station. While Mr. Graham has many business interests, he still maintains his home on his farm. He has
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