USA > Michigan > Barry County > History of Barry county, [Michigan] > Part 10
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While in Hastings, Mr. Knappen held a number of public offices. From 1879 to 1883 he was prosecuting attorney for Barry County, and from 1880 to 1888 he was United States Commis- sioner. He was also a member of the Hastings Board of Education for three years, being president one year.
After the closing of the Hastings office, Mr. Knappen con- tinued as a partner of Mr. Stuart until 1893, the firm name being Stuart & Knappen. In 1893 Mr. Knappen became associated with Messrs. Taggart & Dennison under the style of Taggart, Knappen & Dennison. This firm continued six years.
In 1899 Mr. Knappen entered into partnership with George P. Wanty and continued in this relation until his partner was elevated to the federal bench. He then became associated with Jacob Kleinhans in the firm of Knappen & Kleinhans. Later Mr.
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Knappen's son, Stuart E., was taken into the firm, which was then styled Knappen, Kleinhans & Knappen. It was while Mr. Knap- pen was still a member of this firm that there came to him, in 1906, an honor for which he was universally held to be splendidly equipped. This was his appointment as United States District Judge for the Western District of Michigan. That this appoint- ment was a fitting one was well shown when a little more than three years later Mr. Knappen was made United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth District, which position he still holds.
Besides his judicial offices Mr. Knappen was a member of the Grand Rapids Board of Education for two years, 1898 to 1900. For seven years, from 1904 to 1911, he was regent of his alma mater, the University of Michigan, and in 1905-6 he was presi- dent of the Grand Rapids Bar Association.
Mr. Knappen is a Mason and a Knight of Pythias.
In 1876 Mr. Knappen married Amelia I. Kenyon, of Hastings. There are three children, all living in Grand Rapids, Stuart E., Fred M., and Florence, who is Mrs. Arthur D. Perry.
ARCHIE McCOY
A man who has done much to help Hastings to become a real city by his enthusiastic interest in progressive public movements is Archie McCoy, now established in business in Grand Rapids, but always at heart a citizen of Hastings.
Archie McCoy was born at Brockport, New York, July 11, 1853. He was the son of George B. and Ellen Barke McCoy and is of Scotch-Irish extraction. In 1854, when only an infant, young Archie was brought from his birthplace to Hastings by his parents. They stopped for a while with his grandfather, John Burke, who lived north of the Gardner farm. During this time his father built a house on the Cale Garwood farm. Mr. McCoy remembers guarding cattle while his father felled trees for them to browse upon.
At the age of 17 Mr. McCoy entered the employ of Harvey Wright of Middleville as clerk in that gentleman's general store. Here he received his first experience in the furniture business. Two years later he went to Hastings, where for a time he engaged in the draying business. Later he found employment as tool boy on the Grand River Valley Railroad, now the M. C., and worked
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ARCHIE McCOY
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his way up until he became conductor on a mixed train, but he had other ambitions and gave up railroad work.
In 1875 he became interested in the furniture business with John M. Bessmer. The venture flourished and from an original stock valued at $324, a large and thriving business resulted. In 1881 Mr. McCoy bought Mr. Bessmer's interest, although Mr. Bessmer remained with Mr. McCoy for many years.
In 1908 Mr. McCoy sold his stock to Stebbins & Glasgow. Mr. McCoy, however, did not go out of the furniture business by any means after this sale, for he is now Assistant Manager of the Furniture Exchange in Grand Rapids, where he has a very pleas- ant and profitable vocation. The Furniture Exchange is one of the large furniture show buildings in the Furniture City and in it are displayed the lines of many large furniture manufacturing concerns who desire in this way to get into connection with the retail merchant.
Mr. McCoy is certainly a pioneer of Hastings. While on the railroad Mr. McCoy was greatly impressed with the beauty of other cities. With a genuine loyalty for Hastings, he looked for- ward to the day when it, too, should become as beautiful as other cities. With the ambition to fulfill this wish he worked during his entire business life in Hastings. Instead of being selfishly wrapped up in his own pursuits he has always found time to devote to public improvements.
In 1880 Hastings was a backwoods town. Cows ran its streets at large and citizens were forced to put fences about their property. The streets were lanes, there were no sidewalk grades, no street parkings, no lawns, no water system. There was a mill pond which extended along the present course of Fall Creek from State street dam to beyond Grand street. Its stagnant waters filled with the refuse of years, was a dreadful menace to public health. All these things Archie McCoy tried to remedy, and that conditions were changed was greatly due to his efforts.
The matter of a water works system is something with which Mr. McCoy was especially active. After the fire of 1885 progres- sive citizens were convinced that the city needed fire protection if factories were to locate in it. This was aside from the element of safety in a pure drinking supply. The people voted to have a water works system, but the council refused to carry out the
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wishes of the citizens. At the next election citizens, irrespective of politics, elected men as Aldermen whom they knew would carry out their wishes. They elected Mr. McCoy, W. H. Stebbins, John M. Bessmer and E. Y. Hogle, who were the committee who constructed the system, assisted by J. W. Bentley and W. C. Kelley. The work covered a period of two years. Their results are evident today.
Following this work Mr. McCoy was elected Mayor, serving two years, being elected in 1890 and re-elected in 1891. He saw the possibility of beautifying Riverside cemetery and in his executive position succeeded in having a water main extended to the cemetery.
At this time Mr. McCoy was engaged in other public move- ments. He used his influence in helping the sale of stock for the construction of the C., K. & S. Ry. He also helped to organize a Building and Loan Association and also assisted in forming the Hastings Electric Light Company, of both of which concerns he was treasurer. Mr. McCoy was also largely instrumental in having the Soldiers' monument erected in its present location. He has also always liberally supported the churches of Hastings and there is not a church in the city which he has not been glad to aid financially in its construction.
There was in the early nineties a general movement among the business men to build up the town by inviting factories to locate in it. This has resulted in doubling the population. The first factory to be organized was the Hastings Furniture Company. of which Mr. McCoy was president and a large stockholder. This factory is now the Grand Rapids Bookcase Company. A little Ister the whip factory was organized and Mr. McCoy was one of the principal stockholders. Later, the putting of this factory building at the disposal of Emil Tyden brought that gentleman and his interests to Hastings. The Hastings Chair Company, now the Table Factory, was next organized and Mr. McCoy's stock in this company was also heavy.
Then, when Mr. McCoy was holding all of this stock, came the panic of '93, in which Mr. McCoy's factory stock became worthless. In settlement for these stocks, which had so depreciated in value that he was forced to sell six dollars worth to pay one, Mr. McCoy sacrificed his entire business and property, including
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JUDGE J. B. MILLS
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his exemptions, mortgaging his home. He began his business life anew and paid up all his debts.
In 1906, with the beauty of the city still foremost in mind, Mr. McCoy built the McCoy Block on Main street. This up-to- date building is a fitting memorial to its builder.
In fraternal circles Mr. McCoy is a Knight of Pythias and a Mason. He was left guide of the famous Pythian drill corps which won three times the world's championship. Mr. McCoy had a record in this connection of never missing a practice drill.
July 16, 1876, Mr. McCoy married Miss Myrtie D. Buckle, who died March 16, 1891, at the age of 34 years. April 23, 1899, he married Miss Ida Fitzsimmons. Mrs. McCoy is intensely interested in music and is a leader in Hastings musical circles. She studied five years at the Chicago College of Music, graduating in 1890. She also graduated from the New School of Methods in Chicago in 1898 and from the Thomas Normal Training School of Detroit in 1903. She now conducts a school of musical and dramatic art in 'Hastings. This school was organized in 1897 and was then styled the Hastings Musical Club. It was through Mrs. McCoy's efforts that music was first taught in the public schools of Hastings. It took five years' good hard work to do this.
Mrs. McCoy was the daughter of Warren Fitzsimmons, a pioneer miller of Ionia.
JUDGE JAMES B. MILLS
A man whose death removed from Barry County a highly respected and substantial citizen was Judge James Betty Mills, and it is to do honor to his memory that this sketch is written here.
James B. Mills was born in Washington County, Maryland, February 8, 1836, and died in Hastings April 24, 1903. His father was a clergyman of the Methodist Protestant church and in the discharge of his duties moved with his family to Monroe County, Michigan, in 1846. After living in different parts of the State for some time, in 1854, at the age of 18, young Mills went to Kansas and took up a government claim. He lived in the Sunflower State until the opening of 1859, when he returned to Michigan, this time going to Schoolcraft, Kalamazoo County,
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where on October 2 of the same year he was married to Miss Louisa M. Smith, who died May 21, 1911.
Shortly after their marriage the young couple went to Kansas and there lived until 1861, when, on account of Indian troubles they were obliged to return to Michigan, locating at Pennfield, near Battle Creek. It was about this time that the Civil war broke out, and although a Southerner by birth, Mr. Mills hastened to enlist to fight for the Union, but he was twice rejected for failure to pass the physical examination.
In 1868 Mr. and Mrs. Mills moved to Assyria, where they resided until 1884. During most of this time Mr. Mills held the office of Justice of the Peace and gained such a knowledge of law that on February 5, 1883, he was admitted to the bar. Previous to this he had studied law in the office of Walter Webster, of Nashville, whose practice he bought when that gentleman located in Manistee in 1884. Later Mr. Webster returned to Nashville and became associated with Mr. Mills in the firm of Webster & Mills.
In 1896 Mr. Mills was elected Judge of Probate on the Repub- lican ticket, and four years later, in recognition of his good, clean administration, he was again elected to the same office, which he held at the time of his death.
Judge Mills was pre-eminently a man who loved his home. He was a devoted husband and a loving father. He was a man whose career was without spot or blemish and he left behind him a record for integrity and rectitude of which not only his family, but the entire county, may well be proud.
Judge Mills was the father of five children, all of whom are now living. They are Mrs. Helen L. Durham, of Lacey; Albert E., of Nashville; John L., of Tacoma, Wash .; Mrs. Jennie M. Warren, of Sunfield; and Mrs. Ella Eggleston, of Hastings.
EZRA MOREHOUSE
Ezra Morehouse is the son of Daniel Morehouse and Emma Shepherd, both, originally, from Steuben County, New York.
They came to Michigan in 1864, making a long and hazardous journey across the country in a covered wagon, and settled in Orangeville.
The date of their arrival in the vicinity is a memorable one, as they embarked on their struggle with the still crude conditions of
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EZRA MOREHOUSE
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their new home, on the eve of the new year, 1865, a day that still lingers in the memory of many old settlers as one of intense cold.
The family located on a farm, comprising for the most part acres of uncleared land. The buildings, were of logs and the task of preparing the soil for the raising of crops was a strenuous one.
Ezra Morehouse was born June 30, 1868, and was the youngest of eleven children. His father died when he was four years old, and up to the time that he was fourteen, young More- house continued to live at home, living the active outdoor life of the country boy of the period, working hard and learning early to meet and shoulder the many responsibilities that confronted him as one of a large and fatherless family.
When he was fourteen his mother died and the home was broken up. The family scattered and Mr. Morehouse entered the employ of Joseph Kelly, a well known and prosperous farmer of the neighborhood. His salary was twelve dollars a month and board, and his duties comprised all of the tasks that usually fall to the lot of a full grown man.
At this time he was securing a desultory education in the district schools, being able to attend only a few months out of the year. For five years he worked for the farmers in his community, making the best of the opportunities for advancement that pre- sented themselves.
In 1887 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and here, as assistant to Stephen Doster, then overseer of a large estate belonging to his sister, from fourteen to twenty-one, saved the sum of one thousand dollars. This he resolved to devote to the finishing of his educa- tion, and with this object in view he entered Oberlin College in 1889. During the two years of his stay in Cleveland, Mr. More- house attended night school, taking a course in law and business. He remained at Oberlin four years, partly in preparatory, and partly in college work.
In 1893 he went to Chicago and entered the Moody Insti- tute, a theological training school, where he prepared to enter the ministry. One year was spent in this manner, part of which time he attended a branch of the Moody Institute in Kalamazoo.
In conjunction with his work as a student, Mr. Morehouse also acted as pastor of the Congregational church at Doster, Mich., during this time. He superintended the erection of a new place
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of worship there and did much good work in the interest of the church.
This same year (1893) he married Miss Lucinda Doster and assumed active charge of the Congregational churches at Hopkins, Hilliard and Allegan, Mich. He continued his duties as pastor of these churches for two and one-half years, at the expiration of which time, owing to a severe nervous breakdown, he retired from the ministry.
In 1896 he moved to Prairieville and settled upon a farm. He combined the handling of a lumber business with his agri- cultural pursuits, and remained there until 1901, at this time removing to Delton, where he built and opened the first bank in that community.
He maintained this bank as a savings institution under the name of E. S. & L. S. Morehouse. Four years later he organized the Delton State Bank, of which he became cashier. Mr. More- house witnessed the growth of his banking enterprise, from the first dollar deposited to a sound financial basis, aggregating assets of $140,000, this increase being due to the sound integrity and busi- ness sagacity of its promoter. He was connected with the Delton State Bank for two years.
Mr. Morehouse is widely known throughout Barry, Eaton and Allegan Counties as an active and conscientious worker in the cause of local option. He instituted and won the first damage suit brought against liquor dealers in Barry County. Following his lead, seventeen similar cases were tried and the verdict in each instance was disastrous to the interests of the saloons.
In his ably conducted fight to eliminate the saloon from his own and other counties in the State, Mr. Morehouse met with all the opposition that such a cause would necessarily entail, from those interested in its defeat. That his policy of local option has won recognition in the field of his endeavors is a gratifying reward of his efforts in the cause of right.
He is at present a resident of Delton, where he conducts a real estate, loan and insurance business.
In 1910 he married Miss Nora Fox, daughter of S. S. Fox of Allegan. Two children were born of the first union, Floy and Pauline, both of whom are living.
He has been justice of the peace for sixteen years, was director
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J. W. MUNTON
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of the Prairieville School from 1898 to 1901, and was director of the Delton Schools from 1903 to 1906.
Mr. Morehouse is at present candidate of the Progressive party in Barry County for the office of Probate Judge, being nominated unanimously by his constituents.
He is a member of the Yeomen lodge and still retains his connections with the ministry of the Congregational church.
Mr. Morehouse is essentially a man of broad and progressive ideas and is a valuable citizen in his community and in the county.
J. W. MUNTON
John W. Munton is a man who is well and favorably known in Barry County because of his absolute integrity of character and rectitude of life. He is an efficient and successful business man and is the father of a family of whom any citizen might well be proud.
Mr. Munton is a native of England, being born in Lincoln- shire in 1849. His parents came to the United States in 1853, locating in Marshall, this state.
Young Munton grew to manhood in Marshall. He attended the public schools there and learned the carpenter's trade, later having charge of a sash and door factory. In 1872 he located at Big Rapids in the same business and was united in marriage to Miss Alice L. McClure, daughter of David G. McClure of Mar- shall, in the fall of the same year.
In the spring of 1873 the young couple moved to Greenville, where Mr. Munton had charge of a sash and door factory for Hall & Dodge. In 1876 he engaged in the building business for him- self, continuing in this business intermittently until 1895, when business matters called him to Morgan, this county, where he engaged in the saw mill and elevator business. Here by square dealing and diligence he has built up a good, successful business.
Mr. Munton is a member of the Baptist denomination, having united with the church of that denomination at Marshall. He was honored by the church at Marshall by being erected super- intendent of the Sunday school, and the church at Greenville elected him to the same office. In the latter church he was also made a deacon.
Mr. Munton is a member of the Masonic fraternity. He is
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actively connected with Hastings Lodge No. 52, F. and A. M., and is Past High Priest of Hastings Chapter No. 68, R. A. M. He is a member of Giblum Council No. 49, Hastings, and Charlotte Commandery No. 37. He is also Past Worthy Patron of the Hastings Chapter No. 7, Order of Eastern Star. He is a man who tries to set forth in his daily life the excellent precepts of these institutions, and his efforts in this direction have indeed borne splendid fruit.
Mr. and Mrs. Munton have been the parents of six children, Clarence J., Charles H., Herbert I., Harry B., Alice, Beatrice, and Cecil G. Of these, all are living except Charles, who died in 1900, just as he was entering upon his promising young manhood.
Of Charles H. Munton it is very fitting that there should be a memorial written here. In 1894 he received an appointment to West Point, ranking at that time forty-fifth in his class. He graduated in 1898, eleventh in his class, with the rank of second lieutenant, and became a member of the Twenty-third infantry.
While with this command he was detailed to take charge of a transport from the Philippines to San Francisco. In the latter city he was offered leave of absence to visit his parents, but learn- ing that hostilities had broken out in the Philippines he decided not to avail himself of the opportunity and returned to his com- mand. Soon after his return he was transferred to the Twelfth Infantry with the rank of first lieutenant, and while with this regiment he contracted typhoid fever. He was taken to the hos- pital and on becoming convalescent was given sick leave to return home. On board transport he suffered a relapse and died at sea. Funeral services were held at Greenville and he was buried at Marshall with military honors. Special memorial services were held for him at West Point and many were the letters which poured in upon his parents from his superior and brother officers, who had known him at West Point and on the field, attesting to his courage and fine manly characteristics.
The oldest son, Clarence J. Munton, is now a resident of Ken- dallville, Indiana, where he is superintendent of an interurban railway. Herbert I. lives in Pontiac and is assistant superinten- dent of the Pontiac Division of the Detroit United Railways. Harry B. is engaged in the railway mail service and lives in Grand Rapids. Miss Beatrice Munton recently married Raymond
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JOHN MORSE NEVINS
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W. Knapp of Detroit. She is a graduate of the Hastings High School and of the State Normal School of Ypsilanti. Cecil G. Munton has just left home for Detroit, where he entered the pas- senger department of the Detroit United Railways.
Mr. and Mrs. Munton certainly have the right to that feeling of satisfaction which must arise in the hearts of all parents whose children have acquitted themselves well and successfully in the world.
JOHN MORSE NEVINS
Hon. John M. Nevins, pioneer business man and politician, of Barry County, was born in Braintree, Vt., April 26, 1826, and was raised on a rugged farm on the eastern side of the Green mountains. In May, 1844, with his father's family, he removed to Richland, Kalamazoo County, Mich., where he learned the car- penter's trade, which he followed during the summer months, teaching school during the winter.
September 27, 1849, he married Maria Mason, eldest daughter of Edwin Mason. April 13, 1853, he removed to Hastings, Barry County, where he resided till his death, January 8, 1890.
His home was at the corner of Jefferson and Walnut streets. The upright was built in 1855, much of the carpenter work being done by himself. Here his two sons, Morse E. and Mason C., and his two daughters, Eva C. and Anna C., were born. Morse E. Nevins still resides in Hastings and has business interests there. Mason C. Nevins resides at Wichita, Kan., where he has real estate interests. Eva C. Kenaston, widow of the late Hon. A. E. Kenas- ton, resides on the lots formerly occupied by the old Nevins homestead. Anna C. Campbell, wife of Attorney T. D. Campbell, has long been a resident of West Bay City, Mich.
Mr. Nevins clerked for Edwin and Heman Knappen his first year in Hastings and then, in 1854, when both Edwin and Heman Knappen died of typhoid in the epidemic which then visited the village and removed many of its citizens, young Nevins formed the partnership of Nevins & Knappen with Ashman Knappen, brother of Edwin and Heman, and continued in the mercantile business, their location being on the north side of State street.
Having left the mercantile business, in the summer of 1857
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Mr. Nevins became editor and publisher of the Hastings Repub- lican Banner, and continued as such till April 1, 1866.
In politics, a Whig until 1854, he in that year joined his political fortunes with the Republican party upon its organization, and to this party he ever afterward strongly adhered.
He represented Barry County in the lower branch of the Legislature in 1857-8 and in 1865-6 he represented the Barry and Eaton district in the state Senate. In politics his sterling qualities and fealty to party brought him into prominence. He was elected a member of the State Republican Committee and served as such in 1860-2 and again in 1870-2, and a greater portion of the time from 1858 to 1876 he held the position of Chairman of the Barry County Republican Committee. For seventeen years he served almost continuously as one of the County Superintendents of the Poor, and for twelve years he was Secretary of the Barry County Agricultural Society, and from 1875 to 1883 he was Postmaster of Hastings and also for eighteen years was a member of the Board of Education of the City of Hastings.
A matter which is of much interest in connection with Mr. Nevins' political career is that at the State Republican convention in 1870 it was an unexpected and felicitous speech by Mr. Nevins that secured for Daniel Striker the nomination for Secretary of State, to which office he was duly elected. In this speech Mr. Nevins stated that Barry County in her modesty had never asked nor had a state official, but with a candidate like Daniel Striker she now cast this modesty aside and asked, and expected, Mr. Striker's nomination.
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