USA > Michigan > Bay County > History of Bay County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 38
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home he stopped a short time in Rio Janeiro, where he was warmly welcomed by the old army officers and surgeons with whom he had served in Paraguay. Immediately on arriving home he set about finding some good location in which to again enter upon the prac- tice of his profession. After visiting New York, Chicago, and other places, he concluded to settle in Bay City. His previous ex- perience soon secured for him a good practice, which has so in- creased as to keep him constantly engaged. In 1862 he married Mary Jane Anderson, who was with him constantly during his eventful career in South America. He manifests great interest in young students, and has assisted several through college. He is master of four languages, and is still a great student, although his extensive practice allows him but few leisure moments. He is a gentleman of generous instincts, and no worthy object ever fails of receiving his encouragement.
DR. MAITLAND F. NEWKIRK was born in St. Williams, Canada, November 14, 1852. His father was a farmer, and he remained at home until fourteen years of age. At that age he began teaching school, which avocation he followed for six years. He then came to Bay City, and began the study of medicine with his brother, Dr. C. T. Newkirk, an eminent physician of this city. He graduated at the University of Michigan, in March, 1874, and went to Caro, Tuscola Co., where he practiced successfully three years. After that he went into partnership with his brother, Dr. C. T. Newkirk, in Bay City, where he is still in practice. He is county physician, and also endowment physician, for the Knights of Pythiias. Dr. Newkirk is a gentleman of culture, a master of three languages, and is very successful in his practice. He is a sharp student, and a man of great energy and activity, and in every respect a represen- tative man in the medical profession.
M. J. BIALY, superintendent of the Hitchcock Mill, is a native of England, and came to this country in 1863. In 1866 he came to Bay City from Detroit, and has resided here ever since. In 1872 he took the position of book-keeper in Mr. Hitchcock's office, and continued in that capacity for about six years. Since 1878 he has been superintendent of the mill. He is an industrious and honor- able man, and well qualified for his position.
H. M. BRADLEY was born in Lee, Mass., in May, 1824. With his parents he moved to Ohio in 1835, where he lived twenty years -the first six in clearing and working a farm, nine years in a woolen factory, and five years in manufacturing lumber. In 1855 he moved to Michigan with his family, locating in Lower Saginaw, now Bay City, and engaged in manufacturing lumber for other parties. In December, 1859, he bought the Stanton Mill property, at the foot of Tenth Street, and operated the same until 1877. In 1869 he erected a salt manufacturing establishment in connection with this mill, and his connection with the mill and salt works was continued until 1880.
He was elected one of the aldermen in 1859 under the first charter of the village of Bay City. In 1860 he was appointed chief engineer, and organized the first fire department, and acted as chief engineer for about five years. He served as alderman for three years, also as member of the Board of Education for three years, and as one of the commissioners of the Water Board from its first organization in 1871 until 1880, when he resigned, moving from the ward which he had represented. Mr. Bradley is prominently identified with the growth of Bay City, and the development of its interests.
CHARLES H. BRADLEY, son of H. M. Bradley, was born in Ohio, November 3, 1853, and came to Bay City with his parents in 1855. He commenced business in 1871 as a lumber merchant, and still continues in that pursuit. Mr. Bradley is one of the extensive shippers of the valley. He was married in 1875 to
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Margaret Teneyke, of Albany, N. Y., and has two children. Resi- dence corner of Fifth and Farragut Streets, No. 818.
ORRIN KINNEY was born in Cortland Co., N. Y., in 1813. In 1842 he came to Bay County and engaged with James McCormick as engineer in the first saw mill built in the county. In this mill he remained three years. He afterwards spent four years in Saginaw with Emerson & Eldridge and put the engines in the Buena Vista (the first passenger boat on the Saginaw River) of which he was engineer. In 1852 he married Elizabeth, daughter of James McCormick. They have four children, two of whom are married.
IRA MCKINNEY was born in Orange Co., N. Y., in 1804. In 1834 he came to Detroit and engaged in the steam saw mill of Dr. Rice. He afterwards came to Bay City, where he was engaged in lumbering for many years, six of which were spent with James Fraser. He was in the Albert Mill at the time it was blown up. Mr. Mckinney has been married twice, first to Elizabeth Somerville, a native of Ireland, in 1828, by whom he had six children, and in 1866 to Sarah Cochrane, of Canada, by whom he has one child. They reside in South Bay City.
DR. R. W. ERWIN, of Bay City, was born at Laceyville, Harri- son Co., O., May 24, 1842. His early life was spent on the farm, going to school in Winter and working in the Summer. At seven- teen years of age, after five months spent in an academy and three in a normal school, he began teaching a district school, and continued teaching, part of the time holding the position of superintendent of the schools in the township, until his enlistment in the One Hundred and Seventieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in the late war. After his dis- charge he entered the Ohio University, at Athens, in February, 1865, graduating in 1868, receiving for continued high standing in all depart- ments, a complimentary scholarship for the senior year. The study of medicine, which had previously been commenced, was continued through the next two years at Bellevue Hospital, Medical College, New York City, graduating in 1870. During this time he occupied the Chair of Geometry in Cooper Institute, New York. On the 19th of April, 1870, he was married to Miss Julia E. Carpenter, daughter of Dr. E. G. Carpenter, of Athens, O., and soon afterwards began the practice of medicine in that place. In 1871 was appointed United States examining surgeon, resigned in December, 1873, upon his removal to this city, since which time he has continued to practice his profession, giving it his full time and best energy.
GEORGE CAMPBELL was born in 1831, at Thurso, County of Caithness, Scotland. Thurzo is only eight miles from "John O'Groat's House," the most northerly point in Scotland. When but a mere lad, in 1843, he emigrated to Canada, his first stopping place being at Kingston, where he commenced to learn the trade of a car- penter and joiner. When he landed in that city he was the possessor of but one English shilling, save what clothing he had. But he was fortunate enough to get steady employment, and during the first year he was in Canada he was economical enough to save some $40, which he sent home to his parents in Scotland, who were in but moderate circumstances. During the two years following he commenced to make payments on some 2,00 acres of land in the township of Zorra, Oxford County. In 1845, having some ten acres cleared, he brought his father and mother out from Scotland and settled them on it, and where they remained as long as they lived. Times being dull in Canada, and thinking that he could make the money to pay for his land easier in the United States, he removed in that year to Cleveland, O., where he followed his trade. Before he was eighteen years of age he became a contractor, and as a builder became quite noted in that city. He remained there for nearly seventeen years, and at one time was the owner of some twenty-one buildings, among which was a four-story block of four
dwellings, which to-day is one of the ornaments of the famous "Euclid Avenue." It is known as the "Highland Block."
In 1861, owing to failure in health, he determined to retire from active business for a time, and spent some months in travel- ing. On one of his pleasure trips, (on the Hudson River, if his memory serves him right), he met the late James Fraser, who induced him to visit Bay City. On first coming here he had no in- tention of locating, but Mr. Fraser managed to get him to undertake some building contracts, and afterwards getting interested in some real estate, he decided to make Bay City his home for the future. In those days, 1862, it was but an insignificant village, and some of the best buildings of that day were erected under Mr. Campbell's super- vision. He built for Mr. Fraser the first brick business block that was put up in Bay City, being the one now occupied by Meeker & Adams, on Water Street. Among the more prominent buildings of which Mr. C. was the contracting builder, may be named the "Fra- ser House," the high school, school houses in what were then Portsmouth and Wenona, the First Baptist Church of Bay City, (now used as an armory), and a large number of business places and dwellings. In 1867 he commenced building the "Campbell House," which was opened to the public in 1868. He remained proprietor of the house until 1878, part of the time running it himself. It has since passed into other hands.
For a number of years Mr. Campbell had been more or less in- terested in lumbering operations, but in 1874 he became the manag- ing member of the firm of Van Etten, Campbell & Co., in which po- sition he continued some four years. His headquarters were in Pin- conning, where he built two sawmills. He also built what was proba- bly the first iron logging railroad in the state. It was fourteen miles in length, and ran from Glencoe to the lake, and was known as the Pinconning, Glencoe & Lake Shore Railroad. It is now under the control of the Michigan Central Ry.
Mr. Campbell has always been known as a public spirited citi- zen, and has lent his aid to all projects which have had for their object the promotion of the growth of the city. In company with James Fraser, William McEwan, N. B. Bradley and Marvin Butman, he helped to organize the street railway company, of which he was a director for a number of years, and at one time president. He was also a subscriber to the stock of the Bay City & East Saginaw Railroad, Detroit & Bay City Railroad, the Mid- land Railroad, and Grand Rapids projects, and as some other citizens know, money paid on railroad stock has been the same as a gift to the companies who now run the roads which were built. He was also a stockholder in the Twenty-third Street Bridge.
Mr. Campbell, though always taking a deep interest in public affairs, lias never been an office seeker. While in Cleveland he served one term as alderman and also one term as alderman for the Second Ward of Bay City.
Although he has retired from the contract building business, yet he is putting up an occasional building on his own property. He is also interested in farming to some extent, having some forty acres in the eastern part of the city, which he cultivates partially. He possesses some blooded stock. In horses his taste runs to Mambrino Turk breed, and in cattle to Durhams and Holsteins.
Mr. Campbell was married in the Fall of 1881 to Miss Mag- gie A. Johnson, of Windsor, Ont. They have one child, a daughter.
JOSEPH CUSSON, state salt inspector, is a native of Canada, born July 22, 1834; remained there until 1848, then moved to York State, where he learned the carpenter and joiner business. In 1851 he came to Bay City and commenced business as a car- penter and builder. In 1867 assumed the management of Eddy,
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Avery & Eddy's salt works, which position he still retains. Mr. Cusson was recently appointed deputy salt inspector, a posi- tion for which he is eminently fitted. He has also held the office of city treasurer for two years. Mr. Cusson helped to or- ganize the LaFayette Society, of this city in 1869, and was its first president. He was married to Miss Z. Owen, who died August, 1880, leaving seven children.
CAPT. H. C. LITTLE, proprietor of the Mansion House, corner Washington and First Streets, is a native of St. Clair Co., Mich. When about seventeen years of age he began sailing on the lakes, working his way up until he became captain of a vessel. He followed sailing for about nineteen years. In the Spring of 1882 he came to Bay City and leased the Mansion House. The Captain is a genial gentleman, and is doing a good business.
GUSTAV WALK is a native of Germany, and came to this country in 1871. He remained in Saginaw a short time and in 1872 settled in Bay City. In 1880 he went into partnership with Mr. J. George Trost, a liquor dealer on Third Street. He remained there until December, 1881, when he opened a saloon on Saginaw Street, where he still continues in business. Mr. Walk is an active member of the Arion Society and Odd Fellows Order.
J. MADISON JOHNSTON was born in Brown Co., Wis., in 1833. In 1845 he joined a club for the purpose of learning surveying. After finishing his studies he remained in Wisconsin till 1853, when he went to Detroit, Mich., and thence after a short time to Lower Saginaw, on the ill fated steamer "Huron," which struck a rock at the mouth of the Saginaw River. He remained in Lower Saginaw, now Bay City, in James Watson's store one year, when he returned to Detroit, stopping there about one year, when he re- turned to Bay City, where he has since resided, engaged in his pro- fession as surveyor. He married Hannah Read, of Richmond, O., who died in 1879. They had five children, two daughters now liv- ing, and a son and two daughters having died.
E. W. OAKES was born in Maine, in 1841. His father died when he was three years old. The family then moved to Oldtown. At the age of eight his mother died. At twelve he went to work for Rufus Dwinald in the lumber business. He stayed in his employ till the Fall of 1860, when he left Oldtown and went to Pan, in the employ of Phelps & Dodge, lumbermen. He left Pan in the Spring of 1861, and worked for L. G. Brown at contract jobs, building bridges, etc. Soon after he enlisted in the Thirteenth Regiment, N. G. S. N. Y. In the Spring of 1862 his regiment was ordered to the front, at Suffolk, Va. He remained four months, when the reg- iment was ordered home. He remained in New York until the Sum- mer of 1863, when he went to Maine and enlisted in Company E, Twelfth Maine Volunteers, and served until January, 1865. He was commissioned in the field by Samuel Carney, governor of Maine.
In the Spring of 1866 he came to Saginaw Valley and went to work for Sage & McGraw, in the timber business. In the Winter of 1869 he was elected superintendent of the Au Gres Boom Company. He went to Au Gres and built the boom, remaining for two years. In 1872 he engaged in lumbering on the Rifle River, in connection with N. B. Bradley. In 1875 he took up a residence in Au Gres, and entered into the dry goods and grocery business. He was elected supervisor of the township, and appointed postmaster, and remained until the Spring of 1882. He then came to Bay City, estab- lished an office in the Union Block, Water Street, and engaged in a general lumber business, where he remains till this time.
E. NEWKIRK, the subject of this sketch, was born in Norfolk County, Ontario, in the year 1836. He lived with his parents until he arrived at the age of fifteen years, when he shipped with Capt. Foster, and remained with him for seven years, being promoted from year to year until he became master of the ves-
sel he first sailed on. Mr. Newkirk followed the lake for six- teen years, during which time he became owner of a small vessel, and was in a fair way of prospering. But in October of 1867, all his bright prospects were blasted by the loss of his vessel; but hav- ing a good deal of will power, as well as natural ability, he resolved not to give up, but to try his fortune in another field. Accordingly, in the Spring of 1868, he moved to Bay City, where everything he touched seemed to turn to money for a few years, until he had got together $16,000 or $17,000 worth of vessel and barge property, when he was again overtaken by adverse winds, which stripped him of every dollar's worth of property and left him in debt. After this last mentioned disaster, Mr. Newkirk embarked in the news- paper business and became the publisher and proprietor of the Michi- gan Odd Fellow, which paper he conducted successfully for three years, since which time he has been engaged in the life insurance work, in which he has proved himself a success. During the past ten years Mr. Newkirk has been an active worker in the temperance cause, and no doubt but he has been instrumental in reclaiming thousands from the slippery walks of intemperance. His work in this direction was purely philanthropic. He took no pay for his business, and no man worked harder to lift up fallen humanity than he. Mr. Newkirk is now forty-eight years old, well preserved, and bids fair to live to good old age.
L. F. ROSE was born in Bath, Steuben Co., N. Y., November 7, 1835. He moved with his parents to Pinckney, Livingston Co., Mich., remained there until 1869, then came to Bay City and en- gaged in money loaning and real estate business. He has been a successful business man, and accumulated wealth since coming to the city. He owns considerable real estate and is considered one of the staunch business men of the city. He has a nice residence on the corner of Fifth and Washington Avenue. His office is adjoining his residence. He was married November 18, 1873, to Mary E. Trombley, daughter of Mr. M. Trombley, South Bay City, one of the early pioneers of Bay County.
CAPT. PETER TELLER was born in Oneida Co., N. Y., April 2, 1826, and remained there twenty-two years. He then went to Toledo, Ohio, where he remained three years, engaged in the machinist business. From there he went to New Orleans and remained in that vicinity a short time, engaged in putting up cotton gins. He then returned to Oneida Co., N. Y., and remained three years. During that time he was contractor on the Seneca and Cayuga Canal. Completing his contract, he went to Buffalo and remained a short time, then went to Chicago, Ill., where he remained three years. He then came to Bay City and engaged in the tug and dredge business, which he still continues. In the Spring of 1883 he purchased the large three-story hotel known as the "Auscomb House," on the corner of Third and Washington Streets, which he has fitted up with all the modern improvements, making it in every respect a first-class hotel. He also keeps the finest hotel stable in the city. He has an extensive acquaintance and is much respected. He was married February 25, 1869, to Miss Marian Hensel, of Bay City.
BIDWELL CHAPMAN was born in Pelham, Ont., in 1837; came to Bay City in 1861 and engaged in lumbering for Luther Westover, in company with his brother, George Chapman. For some years past they have been very extensively known in the lumber trade. They remained together up to the time of Bidwell Chapman's death. Having been in poor health for some time, he went South in 1881, hoping the change of climate might improve his health, but on November 14, 1881, he died at Nashville, Tenn. Mr. Chapman had many friends. As a business man he was prompt.and upright in all his dealings. He was married in 1876, to Miss Blanche Feath- erly, of Bay City. He left two children, both girls.
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CAPT. LEANDER DELAND was born in Ann Arbor, Mich., May 6, 1847. In 1848, with his parents, he moved to Flushing, Genesee County, and was there until 1861, when he moved to East Saginaw, remaining there one year. He then returned to Flushing, was there until 1864, then returned to East Saginaw, and sailed the tugs running in the river. On June 21, 1880, he was appointed by Avery & Co. to take charge of the lower half of the river and bay, looking after their logs and tugs. June 9, 1881, while changing tugs the line parted and struck his legs, breaking them both in two places. He was thrown thirty feet in the air and 100 feet from where he stood, falling on his head, smashing in his skull and losing one eye. He lias recovered, and is at his old business sailing as captain. He came to Bay City in 1881. He was married Novem- ber 12, 1874, to Miss Julia A. Blackmore, of East Saginaw, and has two children. He resides at No. 206 Bowery Street.
FREEMAN CHUTE was born near Port Burwell, Ontario, Canada, September 26, 1841. In 1846 his parents moved to Vienna, Ontario, where he lived with them until the Fall of 1860, when he adopted the life of a sailor on the lakes. Employed on sailing vessels in the iron ore trade from Lake Superior and the grain trade from Lake Michigan to lower lake ports, he steadily rose from cook to positions of trust. He first came to Bay City in the Winter of 1862-'63, and made this his home Winters, sailing on the lakes during the Summer. In 1870 he commenced steamboating on the Saginaw River and Bay, following that vocation until July 1, 1877, when he accepted an appointment as keeper of the United States Life Saving Station at Ottawa Point, (Tawas Point), Lake Huron. He served with credit in that position until August 15, 1880, at which time he was obliged to resign his commission on account of failing health, brought on by anxious watchfulness and care for the safety of those exposed to danger in stormy weather on the coast over which he had charge. During the time he was in the service he alone saved from imminent peril the lives of seven persons, and with his crew the lives of twelve others, and assisted in saving a great deal of property by assisting stranded vessels off the beach. His most memorable rescue was of the crew of the wrecked schooner "Chris. Glover," of Lorain, Ohio, at Au Sable, on the morning of the 17th of April, 1880. After every effort on the part of citizens, fisher- men and sailors in the harbor to rescue them by boats, and when one life, that of John W. Glennie, had been sacrificed by the burst- ing of a cannon in trying to shoot a line over the wreck, a messen- ger was sent to Tawas for the life-boat. News of the wreck reached Capt. Chute at 4 P. M. on the 16th, and at 4: 15 p. M. he, with his crew of six brave men, were on the way with the life-boat to the rescue, hauling the boat overland with team fourteen miles in the face of a driving northeast snow storm, through deep snow and sand along the beach, and through the woods half the distance. Arriving abreast of the wreck at 12:30 A. M., wet, cold. and fatigued, but nothing daunted, he immediately prepared for the rescue, and at 12: 45 A. M. launched the life boat against a formidable sea, amid darkness that obscured the wreck from the shore, and with skillful management and the heroic efforts of his crew reached the wreck, and securing the nearly perished crew of seven persons, some being helpless and speechless from the exposure, and with the sea break- ing over them (which made the rescue more difficult), he headed the life-boat for the shore, arriving there at 1 o'clock with his load of living freight, being only fifteen minutes in making one of the most daring and heroic rescues ever made on the lakes with a surf- boat. After resigning his position in the life saving service, he engaged in sailing again as master and pilot of steam tugs on the Saginaw River and Bay, in which capacity he is still engaged, serving with credit to himself and profit to his employers.
O. W. BOOTH was born in Leeds, Eng., in the year 1849, and
came to this country in 1874, locating first in Detroit, Mich., but afterwards getting an appointment from the Detroit & Bay City Railroad Company, he came to Bay City, and remained in their employ in the capacity of shipping clerk until 1881, when in August of that year he purchased the printing house of Charles C. Gustin, since which time, under Mr. Booth's personal management, the busi- ness has developed in a wonderful degree, bidding fair ultimately to establish itself as the center of the printing and bookbinding trades within a radius of seventy-five miles. He has added materially to his facilities by the acquisition of first class labor-saving machinery, run by steam power, the purchase of everything new and useful in types, etc., and a general disposition to keep up with the requirements of his rapidly increasing business, his latest venture at this date being the establishment of a stereotype foundry in connection with his general business, thus supplying a want long felt by the craft, and one that bids fair under his energetic management to become a great source of revenue. Also in connection with his general job printing and bookbinding business, he is making a specialty of chromo cards and novelties for advertising purposes, no other house in the state carrying so large a stock or great a variety. His busi- ness already extends to almost every part of the state, and in the near future the prospects are that it will extend even beyond its limits, the class of work executed by him being of a superior charac- ter, and his facilities for doing the same enabling him to compete with any in the land. We feel at liberty to express an opinion that the inhabitants of Bay City and County do not at this writing realize the importance of the business being established by O. W. Booth.
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