USA > Michigan > Barry County > History of Barry county, [Michigan] > Part 7
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DR. CHARLES S. BURTON
In the death of Dr. Charles S. Burton, December 5, 1902, Barry County lost a real pioneer and a man who in the course of his long life of seventy-eight years had experienced much and accomplished much.
Charles Seymour Burton was born at Waterloo, New York, on September 13, 1824, his ancestors on his father's side coming from near Manchester, England.
Charles Burton received his primary education in the Village of Waterloo and was assisted by his father in the higher studies at home. In order to pursue his studies at night, for he was a great student, he was compelled to read by the light furnished by pine knots burning in the fireplace of the little home. The family was large and money scarce, but by diligent work Charles man- aged to accumulate a little money with which ne pursued his studies in the City of Albany after he arrived at the age of 21.
Leaving Albany, he again went to work to accumulate more money and with this he went to New York City to study medi- cine, devoting his time as much as possible to Bellevue hospital. He did not graduate from any medical institution, but after studying in this hospital for some time he started out to practice as an allopath, at that time there being no homeopath school of medicine in the United States. He placticed allopathy but a short time when he concluded that homeopathy was the proper process to combat disease and started out under that school. Like all new theories, this practice did not take readily with the people and it was hard work to obtain sufficient practice to maintain him- self. But he was always equal to the emergency and when he failed in one direction to accomplish his object he turned in another way toward the same end. In the winter of 1847-8 he taught school in Romulus, New York, and among his pupils was a Miss Anna Eliza Monroe, the daughter of Ward Barnabas Mon- roe and his wife, Emmeline Janes Monroe.
The relationship of student and teacher soon changed to that
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of lovers and Miss Monroe became the wife of Mr. Burton on the 13th day of February, 1848. They still continued to live in Romulus until after the birth of their first son, Charles F., in November, 1849.
It was at this time that the California gold fever sprung up and swept over our country, and Dr. Burton concluded that he could make a ready fortune by going to California. With this end in view, he went to New York City and tried to engage passage either across the isthmus or around the Horn to the new Eldorado. He was much disappointed at finding that every avail- able space on all of the boats that were leaving New York which could carry passengers for this new country, was engaged for more than six months in advance, and that he would certainly be compelled to wait at least that length of time before he could make a start, and even then, after waiting so long, he could not be absolutely certain that he would obtain passage.
In consequence of this state of affairs he returned to Romulus and from that place, taking his wife and young son, he came to Michigan. During the latter part of this journey he was accom- panied by two homeopathic physicians who entered the state with him, and the three were the first homeopathic physicians in Michigan.
He looked around the City of Detroit but concluded it was not a good place for him to locate in, so he again went westward on the Michigan Central railroad to Battle Creek, which was as far as this railroad extended at that time. Here he took up his residence in 1850.
His practice as a physician not occupying his entire time, he formed a partnership with a man named Gant and purchased the type and press and started the Battle Creek Journal, Mr. Gant, Dr. Burton and his wife setting all the type and doing all the work connected with the paper. His medical practice was now quite lucrative and he managed to lay by a considerable sum of money.
He had not been fully cured of the gold fever and during the winter of 1852-3 he made arrangements with some other people similarly afflicted to start for California in the early spring of 1853. All of his accumulations were invested in material neces- sary for this journey. Early in 1853 they started westward on a
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journey, the difficulties of which cannot be fully expressed to the people of today by comparison with any hardships that we know. It was a journey of six months' duration, through the wilderness and across trackless prairies where the footsteps of the white man had never passed, where only at long intervals was a human being to be seen, and where the wild beasts and the wilder Indians put the traveler constantly on his guard for the preservation of his life and of his property. They were six months in reaching their final destination in the gold region near Father River, sixty-five miles northeast of Maryville in a little settlement called Whiskey Diggings.
Here commenced his miner's life and here on the 18th of November, 1853, their second son, Clarence M., was born. While he was quite successful in his mining operations, he did not make the fortune anticipated, and in the year 1854 he went with his family to San Francisco and engaged passage to New York City across the isthmus, taking the steamer Yankee Blade, which belonged to the Vanderbilt line, as far as the isthmus.
They set out on this vessel in October and had proceeded southward along the coast only about two hundred miles when the vessel, which had on board a goodly supply of gold, was taken in charge by a gang of ruffians who were called stowaway pirates. These men attempted to run the vessel ashore for the purpose of plundering it, but unfortunately ran the vessel upon a rock which split it asunder and she soon went down. Many of the passengers were drowned, but the larger portion succeeded in reaching the main land, some two miles distant, where they lived upon such food as was washed up from the vessel and such as they could obtain from the salt water, for about ten days, when they were taken off; part of them south to the Isthmus and the remainder back to San Francisco.
Dr. Burton and his family were all saved and all returned to San Francisco. They went back to their old mining camp and remained one year until the following October, when they under- took the same trip they had set out upon before. This time, after the usual delays of travel in that early age, they reached New York City safely.
From here they went to Seneca Falls, New York, where Mrs. Burton's parents were residing. Leaving Mrs. Burton here, her
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husband proceeded to the State of Michigan and settled in Hast- ings in 1855. He had been in Hastings but a short time when his wife and children came to make their home with him, which was from this time on their future home and where were born three more children, William, Ellen and Edward.
Dr. Burton took an active part in the campaign of John C. Fremont, the first Republican candidate for the presidency, and stumped the county for him.
After the defeat of Fremont and for the purpose of com- mencing then the work of the new presidential campaign, which resulted four years later in the election of Lincoln, Dr. Burton and some others purchased type, presses and paper and started the Hastings Banner. The doctor was an incessant worker and in addition to his political work he carried on the work of the news- paper, his work as a physician, which was constantly growing, and cleared and cultivated the farm which he had purchased when he first visited the village and where he resided so many years.
His medical practice grew so large that he was obliged to give up his paper, so he sold it out, but he never lost interest politically in the Republican party and always had time to spare to convert to his way of thinking any person who had been misled into any other belief. His accumulations brought him other property, both real and personal, the attending to which occupied all his time.
During the War of the Rebellion, he was one of the foremost in the accumulating of sufficient funds to fill the quota of the Township of Hastings, and it is well known that Hastings was one of the few places in which there was no draft. Those who lived in Hastings during these exciting times will remember the congregation that assembled every day in Dr. Burton's store to hear him read to the crowd the latest news from the battle ground and from the capital.
He carried his love for hard work through life and devoted as many hours to hard labor the last year as he did when he was young. His idea of thrift was carried to an extreme, but those who would impute this to him as a wrong would not do so if they could pass through all the walks of life that he passed through and see the absolute need of economy in order to have the neces- saries of life and the positive good that comes from affluence. He
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was an enthusiastic adovcate of popular education and the main- tenance of schools. His own children were put to school at an early age and kept there until they had passed through the highest branches which the state afforded.
He constantly used his efforts to persuade young men and women to obtain an education in order to better their situation in life and maintained that money thus spent was a better invest- ment than any other.
CHARLES F. COCK
Charles F. Cock was born at Charleston, Kalamazoo County, about a mile and a half east of Augusta, March 11, 1839. He comes from one of the oldest families in this country, certain of his ancestors having come to this continent in the seventeenth century by way of the Bermudas, settling first in Virginia and then on Long Island.
Charles Cock's father was Andrew Cock and his mother was Maria Reeves Cock. In 1836 they left their home in Wayne County, New York, and came to the then territory of Michigan. Arriving at Buffalo, they came down Lake Erie to Detroit and then made the journey to Charleston, which they made their des- tination, by trian. The country in which they found themselves was perfectly new territory and the land had to be cleared before it could be tilled at all. The two pioneers wrested a farm for themselves from the all-encompassing wilderness and lived on the same until their death, the mother dying in 1869 and the father in the next year.
Charles Cock had three brothers and one sister, and of this family of five, three are still living. Charles was the next to the oldest, the oldest brother being James Edward, who was killed at the battle of Shiloh. He had enlisted in the First Nebraska Regiment and was the first Nebraska man to be killed.
Young Charles' education was received first in the rural schools of Kalamazoo County and then in Olivet Institute, now Olivet College, which he attended in 1857 and 1858. At that time Olivet had about 250 students and was a co-educational institution, being peculiar because of this feature, women students not being generally admitted to higher educational advantages as they are today. Persident Bartlett was the head of the institute and on
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CHAS. COCK
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the faculty was Prof. Ormel Hosford. He was one of the strong pillars of the school and a man of great influence among the students. Later he became one of the state's first Superintendents of Public Instruction.
After studying at Olivet, Mr. Cock returned to Kalamazoo and went to farming, which has been his vocation all his life. It was not long, however, before the war of the rebellion broke out, and in September, 1861, Charles Cock enlisted in the Eighth Mich- igan Volunteers, Company F. This company was largely recruited from Hastings, although a few like Mr. Cock came up from Kalamazoo County and joined the regiment at Hastings. In the battle of James Island, June 16, 1862, Mr. Cock was wounded and was discharged because of his wounds. It might be well to note here that his regiment was styled the "Wandering Eighth", being said to have travelled more miles than any other in the service.
In August, 1870, Mr. Cock, at Ashtabula, Ohio, married Miss Ella King of Erie, Pennsylvania, and soon after came to Barry County, locating in Hope township on the same farm where he now lives.
In Hope Mr. Cock has prospered and has made many friends, while his absolute rectitude of character has led his neighbors and friends to place him in many offices of trust in the township. As a matter of fact he has held almost every office in the township, having been Justice of the Peace, Township Treasurer, Highway Commissioner, School Commissioner, School Inspector and Super- visor. This latter office he has held for nine terms, his first term being in 1879. An interesting fact is that at this time George Abbey, Charles Mack, Charles Polley and Edward Nye were also all new men and broke into service as supervisors at the same session.
In 1906 Mr. Cock was elected County Treasurer and in 1908 he was again returned to the same office. As a county official Mr. Cock was painstaking and scrupulously careful and made a most enviable record. In politics he has always been a Republican, casting his first vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1860.
Mr. Cock has one son, Maurice, who lives on his father's farm in Hope, and one daughter, Jessie, who is Mrs. Alonzo McCarthy of Shultz.
Charles Cock is known as a man of integrity and absolute
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rectitude. He is square in all his dealings and merits and pos- sesses the confidence of all who know him. He is a progressive citizen of whom his community may well be proud.
GEORGE E. COLEMAN
There is no county in the State of Michigan where more young men have made good than in Barry County, and among Barry County's successful young men we are glad to record the name of George E. Coleman as a young man who, by hustling and honest progressive methods, has earned the respect of all.
George E. Coleman is the son of Hiram and Julia Coleman, early pioneers of Barry County, they having come to Johnstown township in 1852 from Orange County, New York. They made this trip through Michigan as far west as Battle Creek by rail, but there they had to adopt other methods and proceed by stage, their drivers on the stage trip being the well known stage drivers, Hiram Merrill and William Burroughs.
Arriving in Johnstown, the pioneer couple located on the farm still owned by George E. Coleman. All was wilderness at that time and the land had all to be cleared before cultivation was possible. Those were days when men met nature with naked hands and wrested from her the stern necessities of life, and the then young Coleman was always sturdy and strong in the hard fight.
An interesting story of these pioneer days is that of the first election in Johnstown township. In this first election Hiram Coleman cast the very first ballot, walking six miles through the woods to register his vote. Twelve ballots were cast altogether at this first election, the polling place being at the home of Wil- liam P. Bristol.
It was on this farm in Johnstown township that George E. Coleman was born, May 24, 1868, he being the next to youngest of six children, three girls and three boys.
Mr. Coleman's youth and young manhood were all spent on the farm and his start in life was secured through the hard work necessary to farm life.
At the age of 23 Mr. Coleman married Carrie C. Fry, daughter of Henry and Anna Fry of Johnstown township, and from this marriage two children have been born, Annawave and
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GEO. E. COLEMAN
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Earle H., the former being a graduate and the latter a student of the Hastings High School.
Mr. Coleman has been entrusted frequently with public office and by careful attention to his duties has always justified the con- fidence of his fellow citizens. For nine years he was clerk of Johnstown township and for four years he was county treasurer.
After completing his two terms as treasurer, Mr. Coleman entered the City Bank of Hastings as assistant to cashier and then, after three years of banking work, he became treasurer of the Michigan Mutual Insurance Company, which insures against loss by wind and tornado. Mr. Coleman also conducts a fire insurance agency, having a strong and reliable list of companies.
Mr. Coleman has always been interested in the things which make for the advancement of his county and city and has been secretary of the Barry County Agricultural Society, giving the county excellent service in this respect. He is also treasurer of the Barry County Chautauqua Association. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and is treasurer of Hastings Lodge, F. and A. M. He is also a member of the Woodmen and is a staunch Presbyterian.
Mr. Coleman has a firm and unyielding belief that allegiance to one's word and perfectly square dealing with every one alike are bound to succeed in business and he has squared his actions to these ideas with the most excellent results.
George E. Coleman is known in Barry County as a man of absolute integrity who can be trusted fully in any capacity in which his services may be required. He is still a young man, but he has achieved enough to make his record an enviable one. Still Mr. Coleman is not content to rest on the past, but is ever on the lookout for other opportunities of service.
PHILIP T. COLGROVE
Mr. Colgrove is a native of the State of Indiana, having been born at Winchester in that state, April 17, 1858. His first Ameri- can ancestry is traced in the person of Francis Colgrove, born in 1667, who settled in Warwick, Rhode Island. Philip T. Col- grove's father was Charles H., who came from Steuben county, New York, and his mother was Catherine Van Zile, a sister of Judge Philip T. Van Zile of Detroit.
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Good educational advantages in his early youth, at Olivet College, coupled with a commendable energy and application, placed him some years in advance of the average student. He read law concurrently with his literary studies and was admitted to the bar before the Supreme Court of Michigan, on his twenty- first birthday, one of three out of a class of fourteen.
Mr. Colgrove's first practice was at Reed City, but in 1880 he removed to Hastings and formed a law partnership with Clement Smith, now Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit. The partnership was terminated upon the appointment of Mr. Smith to the judgeship in 1893 and Mr. Colgrove is now the senior member of the firm of Colgrove & Potter.
In 1882 Mr. Colgrove was elected prosecuting attorney of Barry County and was re-elected for two additional terms, in 1884 and 1886. In 1888 he was elected to the State Senate, and although nominated for re-election in 1890, declined the honor. During his term in the senate Mr. Colgrove was a member of the Judiciary committee and chairman of the Committee on Insurance. He has also been city attorney at Hastings for several years. He is a Republican in politics and during many campaigns has been an eloquent and effective speaker in the behalf of his party's principles and candidates, not only in Michigan, but in the nation at large.
Of recent years Mr. Colgrove has been actively interested in the cause of good roads. As president of the Michigan Good Roads Association he has done much to increase the efficiency of Michigan's highways and much of the present widespread interest in better thoroughfares must be directly attributed to the enthu- siasm and organized effort which Mr. Colgrove has given to the duties of his office as executive of the State association. During Mr. Colgrove's administration the membership of the association has grown almost unbelievably and he is always ready to preach the cause of good roads at public gatherings everywhere. Mr. Colgrove is without doubt the great apostle of good roads in Michigan.
Mr. Colgrove's business interests are many and varied. He is director and stockholder in numerous enterprises and is also the owner of a considerable number of successful farms. In the management of these farms he has shown conclusively that modern
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business methods pay well when applied to agriculture.
Mr. Colgrove is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Hastings lodge of the Knights of Pythias. In this latter fraternity Mr. Colgrove has been especially prominent. In 1886 he was a member of the Grand Lodge and was elected Grand Master-at-Arms of that body. In 1887 he was elected Grand Chancellor, and in 1889 and 1890 he was the representative of the Grand Lodge to the Supreme Grand Lodge. In 1894 he was elected Supreme Vice Chancellor. But the highest honors of the order awaited him in 1896 when, at the session of the Supreme Grand Lodge held at Cleveland in August of that year, he was elected Supreme Chancellor of the Supreme Lodge of Knights of Pythias of the world.
Mr. Colgrove has two children, Mabel, who is Mrs. William M. Stebbins of Hastings, and Lawrence, of Pontiac, Michigan. Two years ago Lawrence Colgrove married Miss Grace Grant of Hastings and to them has been born a son, Philip Grant Colgrove.
In church relations Mr. Colgrove is a vestryman of Emmanuel Episcopal church and has always been ready to put his shoulder to the wheel and help the church through all difficulties.
Mr. Colgrove is a lawyer of ability and learning. He is a convincing and eloquent pleader and speaker and an energetic citizen who is always to be found on the side of progress.
DAVID R. COOK
Scarcely another name in Barry County has been better known than that of David R. Cook. One of that group of hardy pioneers who have now nearly all gone to their rest, he will ever be remembered as one of the men who were foremost in the making of Barry County.
David Randolph Cook was born of sturdy German stock (the original name was Koch) in Mapletown, Steuben County, New York, September 1, 1830, and died in Hastings February 6, 1907. In the spring of 1854 he left his home in the Empire State and started for Michigan, arriving in Prairieville, where his sister already lived, May 24. The next year he and his brother, Syl- vanus Cook, bought a farm where the two brothers lived until Sylvanus was elected register of deeds in 1860. October 13, 1857, he married Martha M. Marshall of Prairieville.
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November 17, 1863, he moved with his family to Hastings and went into the office of his brother as deputy register of deeds, holding the position until his brother's term expired in 1868. While the two brothers were in this office they prepared the abstract of Barry County, which Philo A. Sheldon now owns.
Upon leaving the register of deeds' office the brothers formed a partnership in the abstract, real estate and loan business, but the following year this arrangement was broken by the death of Sylvanus. About a year later, or in 1870, Mr. Cook took into partnership with him Philo A. Sheldon, and for nineteen years the firm of Cook & Sheldon continued in business. Then Mr. Cook sold out to Mr. Sheldon and retired from active business, with the exception of being associated, at times, with Major G. M. Anderson in soliciting for railroad projects. After Major Anderson's death, Mr. Cook entirely refrained from active busi- ness, spending his later years pleasantly and quietly in his com- fortable home on West Green street. This home, which he built in 1868, is now the home of Kellar Stem.
Politically, Mr. Cook was in early life a Whig. When the Republican party was formed he joined it and was an active member thereof to the close of his life. He was treasurer of Prairieville township in 1858 and supervisor in 1860 and 1862. He was a trustee of the village of Hastings in 1868 and 1870 and supervisor of Hastings township, including the village. in 1871 and 1877. He was a member of the school board in Hastings from 1870 to 1872, and mayor of Hastings in 1872. having been the city's second mayor.
In 1876 Mr. Cook was elected to the State Senate, serving through the twenty-ninth session of the legislature. His health failing him at this time, he retired from public life. but five years later he was again elected to the senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Lewis Durkee. In 1880 he was one of the presidential electors on the Republican ticket. After the death of the late Henry A. Goodyear, Mr. Cook became president of the county pioneer society in whose proceedings he always took a deep interest.
Such is the brief resume of an active, successful and honorable life. Without the advantages of early schooling, he became by reading, observation and experience, an exceptionally intelligent
HISTORY OF BARRY COUNTY
D. R. COOK
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and well informed man. Possessed of strong will and intrinsic good sense, he won his way to success in business life and earned and deserved the confidence of his fellow citizens, the esteem of his neighbors and the affection of his family and friends. He was public spirited and generous, charitable and kindly of heart. He fought the battle of life bravely and well, and he came to its end with the calmness and peace that follows a work well and faithfully done.
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