USA > Michigan > Bay County > History of Bay County, Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 39
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L. A. L. GILBERT was born in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1841, and soon thereafter came to Michigan with his parents. In 1861 he located in East Saginaw, where he remained until 1871, when he came to Bay City and has since been a resident of the place. He has had the management of the Singer Manufacturing Company's business for northern Michigan during this time, and in that capacity has been eminently successful. He was married in 1863, to Miss Melissa Sine, of East Saginaw, and has one child, a daughter.
HENRY W. SIMMs was born in Jordan, N. Y., December 17, 1852, where he remained until 1861. His father was killed in the late war. Mr. Simms enlisted as a drummer boy in Company F, New York Heavy Artillery, and was wounded in both legs at the battle of Cold Harbor, Va. He was mustered out of service at Syracuse, N. Y. In 1871 he came to Bay City, where he has remained ever since, holding different positions of trust. He was for some time clerk in C. & A. S. Munger's store. He has also for several years had the care of some of the business blocks on Center Avenue, among which are the Westover Opera Block and the First National Bank. He is at present agent for the Jackson Fire Clay Company. Mr. Simms has many warm friends and has been successful as a business man.
The firm of See Bros. & Co., furniture dealers, consists of John A. and James A. See, and John W. Heisner. The See brothers are the active business men of the firm. They are natives of Lan- caster, Ontario, Canada, and came to Bay City in 1870. In Sep- tember, 1882, they began business under the above firm name, in the Watson Block, on Water Street, but soon finding the place too small for their large and rapidly increasing business, they removed to the new Shearer Bros. Block on Center Street. Their new establishment comprises four floors and basement, and is provided with elevator and all modern improvements and appliances of a first class furniture store. Their first floor is 20x100 feet and the other three floors each 40x100 feet. They carry a large and com- plete stock of goods. A view of the block appears in this work.
LEVI P. OLDFIELD was born in Genesee County, state of Michi- gan, May 2, 1853. He remained there up to 1873, during that
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time attending school and working on the farm. He then came to Bay City and opened a produce store, and continued in that busi- ness up to 1876, when he engaged with the Michigan Central Rail- road Company, and remained in their employ up to 1880. He was then elected justice of the peace at Bay City, which office he still holds and has filled with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of the people of Bay City. He was married October 18, 1882, to Miss Rosa Oghe, the only child of Mr. Leonard Oghe, a prominent real estate man of Bay City.
JAMES J. MILLER was born in the parish of Caithness, Scot- land, November 28, 1825. At the age of ten years he moved with his parents to Pickering, Canada, and was there four years attend- ing school; then moved to the town of Whitby, and was there up to 1850. While there he attended school, and worked on his father's farm. He then went to California, and was there four years, two years working in the mines, and two years engaged in business in San Francisco. Then he returned to Canada, and en- gaged in the lumber and mercantile business up to 1862. He came to Bay City and engaged in the lumber trade. He also superin- tended the building of forty-one miles of the state road from Bay City to the Straits of Mackinaw. He excavated and graded the grounds for the old High School, which is now called the Third Ward School. He excavated for the first gas receiver of Bay City. He was alderman of the Fifth Ward one term. He owns forty acres within the city limits, and controls 3,000 acres of land. Was married December 8, 1860, to Miss Margaret Ann Adams, a native of Ireland, and has one son, who is employed with Ross, Bradley & Co., as book-keeper.
WILLIAM W. CURREY, a son of Charles D. Currey, of Unionville, Mich., was born in the village of Drumbo, Ontario, on the 7th of May, 1857. He removed with his parents to Almont, Mich., in 1859, where he remained for five years; thence to Pontiac, Oak- land Co., where he remained three years, and soon after removed to Unionville, Tuscola Co. At the age of eighteen he left home, and began business for himself, learning the masons' trade, which business he continued for four years. He then came to Bay City, and engaged with the Domestic Sewing Machine Company, where he remained for two years, after which he engaged with Van Syckle, the music dealer, which business he followed one year. He then engaged with the Singer Sewing Machine Company, and remained with them for one year. He then engaged with his uncle, C. M. Currey, and once more began as a salesman for the Domestic Sewing Machine Company. He was married December 15, 1881, to Miss Hattie Niblack, of Tecumseh, Mich. His present residence is 510 Saginaw Street, Bay City, Mich.
WILLIAM B. G. MOORE, of the firm of B. Moore & Son, was born in Prince Edward Island, July 29, 1853, and remained there until he was twenty-one years old. During that time he attended school, was five years clerk in a general store, and learned the car- penters' trade with his father. In the Fall of 1873 he came with his parents to Bay City, and entered into copartnership with his father, under the firm name of B. Moore & Son, as contractors and builders, in which business he still continues with success. They have built some of the finest buildings in the city. He was married November 14, 1877, to Miss Catharine E. Jarmin, daughter of the late George Jarmin, of Napanee, Canada. Has two sons.
RICHARD KEALY was born in London, Canada, May 10, 1845, and remained there until he was about twenty-one years old. During that time he attended school and learned the boot and shoe trade. In 1865 he came to Bay City, and was employed with George Van Etten one year making and culling staves. In the Fall of 1866 he engaged with J. W. Featherley, as head stave culler, and remained in his employ ten years. Since then he has been
engaged on his own account lumbering and contracting. His resi- dence is 231 Jefferson Street. He has a wife and six children.
W. H. CULVER was born in Norfolk County, Canada, and came with his parents to Bay City in 1867. He attended the High School, and in 1871 was employed in the Exchange Bank of Bay City (now the Second National Bank) as collector, where he re- mained two years. In 1874 and 1875 he was a student at Cornell - University, Ithaca, N. Y. About 1877 he was employed in the grocery store of Ed. O'Connor; then was salesman in the cloth- ing store of Grow Bros., after which he was employed as book- keeper in the machine shop of George Ford. He then spent four years on his father's farm. Returning to Bay City in the Spring of 1883, he entered the employ of the Northwestern Gas and Water Pipe Company. He was married December 31, 1878, to Miss Grace McDonald, of Bay City, and has one child.
CAPT. WILLOUGHBY B. MILLARD was born in Oneida County, N. Y., April 1, 1824. In 1834 he moved with his parents to Marine City, then called Bell River.
In 1838 he shipped on board the schooner "Morning Star," laden with lumber for the fort at Malden, Ontario. In 1839 he shipped on board the "General Warren," bound for Sault St. Mary, but on the return trip was shipwrecked when off Presque Isle. In 1840 he shipped aboard the schooner "Loraine," under Capt. Poole, bound for Saginaw City. Arriving here they loaded with shingles for Detroit. There being no tug in the river in those days, they were obliged to work their way to the bay, which took them one week. In 1842 he shipped aboard the schooner "Grace Amelia" as master; in 1844 on the "Major Oliver." In 1856 he sailed the first steam-barge that entered the Saginaw River. In 1876 he came to West Bay City, where he still resides. He was married December 30, 1846, to Margiana Smith.
CAPT. RICHARD ARMSTRONG was born in Canada, in 1839, and moved to St. Clair, Mich., in 1850. He engaged in sailing on the lakes in 1855, and on salt water in 1857. Visited Japan and China on the United States frigate "Powhattan," with old Com. Tatnal. He was in California and Peru in 1859. Was twice around Cape Horn, and. fourteen times across the Atlantic, visiting England, France, Italy, and other places. He returned to the lakes in 1862, and enlisted in the One Hundred and Third Ohio Regiment, which command helped to stop Kirby Smith from burning Cincinnati, by stopping him at Covington Heights, and also drove the rebel legis- lature from the capitol of Kentucky. After being honorably dis- charged from the United States army, he returned to the lakes, where he has been master and owner of lake vessels since 1870. In 1881 he got up the first fire tug ever on the lakes. Is now manager and owner of the Saginaw River fire boats. Mr. Armstrong was married in 1865 to Harriet E. Scott, of St. Clair, Mich., and has three children, named William N., Cholula, and Paul, who are now attending the Bay City High School.
JOHN W. FEATHERLY was born on October 30, 1820, in Wayne County, N. Y. At eleven years of age he removed with his parents to Plymouth, Mich., where he engaged in farming. In 1840 he began railroading, which he continued for about fourteen years. In 1854 he removed to Bryan, Ohio, and established himself in the hardware business, which he carried on five years, when he sold out and purchased a boot and shoe store and stock in the same place. He afterwards engaged in the produce business, and in 1863 came to East Saginaw. The year following he came to Bay City, and established a grocery, which he run for one year. He then sold out and commenced lumbering, which he is now engaged in. Mr. Featherly has been very successful in his business ventures, and has accumulated considerable property. He has his farm in Hampton Township, and a handsome town residence on the corner
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of Eighth and Johnson Streets. In 1847 he was married to Miss Harriet Phillips, of Vienna, N. Y., and has four children.
PHILIP S. HAMILTON was born in Richmond, Ontario, November 25, 1846, where he remained until he was eighteen years of age, during which time he attended school and worked on his father's farm. In 1864 he went to Ottawa-the capital of the dominion- and joined the police force. The following March he was appointed chief detective, acting in that capacity up to 1876, when he resigned. He then came to Bay City and engaged in lumbering one year, since which time he has devoted his attention to hotel business, being at present the proprietor of the Moulton House, located on the corner of Fourth & Saginaw Streets, Bay City, where he is hav- ing a liberal patronage. Mr. Hamilton is a genial, accommodating landlord, and merits success. He was married to his present wife, Miss Emma J. Reid, February 8, 1883. She is a native of Ontario, Canada.
T. G. METCALF .- The well known confectioner, corner of Third and Water Streets, who having passed through the war with an hon- orable record, and carrying marks of the strife which would unfit almost any man from active business life, yet Mr. Metcalf came in the Fall of 1867 with all that was left him of physical man- hood, but with a courageous spirit and a helpmeet worthy of him, settled in the midst of the wilds of Iosco County, being with his father and his brother-in-law the first settlers there. Has since removed to Bay City, and engaged in trade, where he has suc- ceeded by honorable and fair dealing in establishing an enviable record.
JAMES GRAY was born June 9, 1850, at Toronto, Ont. He is of Scotch parentage, and came to Michigan with his parents in 1855. They settled in the Grand Traverse region. He learned the printing trade with the late Hon. Morgan Bates, in the Grand Traverse Herald office. He came to Bay City in 1871, and was at first in the employ of Culbert, Warren & Kroencke. He set up and printed the first copy of the Lumberman's Gacette, also Dow's "History of Bay City." He was for a short time publisher of the Bay City Observer. For nearly two years, and until the early part of 1883, was associated with George F. Lewis as publisher of the Daily Morning Call, having acted as business manager and local editor. He has been in the job printing business since 1875. Is
married.
JOSIAH HOOVER was born in Jefferson County, N. Y., December 21, 1838, and remained there until he was nineteen years old. After leaving school he worked in a saw mill until 1857, then went to Flint, Mich., and remained there one year with his father, lum- bering. He then returned to Carthage, New York State, and run a gang saw mill until 1861. He then enlisted in the Thirty-fifth New York Infantry; was in the service two years; returned home in 1863; re-enlisted in the Fourteenth New York Artillery Com- pany G, as sergeant, and remained until the close of the war; was in thirty pitched battles. He received three wounds during the war, and was ten weeks in the hospital; was discharged at Rochester, N. Y. He then returned to Carthage, New York State, and engaged in the saw mill business up to 1866, when he came to Bay City and now follows the lumber business. He resides on Third Street, between Sherman and Farragut Streets, No. 1107.
FREDERICK C. HAERING, of the firm of F. C. Haering & Son, was born in Weimar, Germany, September 29, 1825, and remained there until he was thirty years old. At the age of fourteen years he learned the tailor trade. In 1848 he engaged in business for himself and carried on that business up to 1855. He then moved to Detroit, Mich .; there worked at his trade up to 1861, when he moved to East Saginaw and engaged in the merchant tailoring business until 1871. He then moved to Bay City and opened a
merchant tailoring store, and has carried on the business ever since. In 1881, in company with his eldest son, Richard Haering, he pur- chased of C. & A. S. Munger the building and ground on Saginaw Street, between Fourth and Fifth Streets, and fitted it up for their business. The firm is F. C. Haering & Son. F. C. Haering was married November 15, 1851, to Ida Apal, of Germany. He has five children. His place of business is No. 910 Saginaw Street.
JOSEPH D. HUCKINS was born in New Hampshire, August 4, 1829, remaining there twenty-two years. He then moved to the state of Ohio, remaining there three years, and engaged in the railroad business. In 1854 he came to Bay City and en- gaged in the lumber business. He purchased a farm in the town of Bangor, then called Hampton. where he removed with his family. In 1878 he sold out to H. W. Sage & Co. He is at pres- ent engaged in lumbering, at Beaver Lake Station, on the Michigan Central Railroad, and has two mills and a lumber yard. He was married in 1856 to Cordelia Pierce, of Bay City, and has three children.
CHAUNCEY L. WATROUS was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, June 10, 1847, and remained there until he was sixteen. He then attended school at Ann Arbor one year. Then he moved to Meadville, Pa., engaged as clerk in a hardware store. In 1869 he came to Bay City, and in company with his brother, A. W., engaged in the manufacture of salt and staves one year. He then disposed of his property to John McGraw and purchased the interest of Southworth & Co., in the mill operated by Watrous, Southworth & Co., which they operated until 1875, when they sold out and built a planing mill at the Twenty-third Street Bridge, which was afterwards burned down. Since that time he has been engaged in the lumber- ing business. In 1870 he was elected recorder of the village of Portsmouth, and served in that capacity until it was annexed to Bay City, when he was elected alderman, which office he held for four years. He was married in 1870 to Minnie Wright, of Bay City.
ORVILLE A. WATROUS was born in Pennsylvania, January 20, 1835. Shortly after he moved with his parents to York State, where he remained until 1865, when he came to Bay City and en- gaged in the manufacture of shingles with his brother James M. Watrous, they purchasing an interest in the mill there owned by Wat- rous, Southworth & Co., which they operated for four years. In 1871 they purchased an interest in the Marston Mill, on the Middle Ground. In 1878, James transferred his interest to H. N. Watrous, O. A. Watrous and H. N. Watrous purchasing of Mr. Marston his interest, and becoming the sole proprietors, which they continued until 1881, when the mill was destroyed by fire. They are at present dealing in pine lands and manufacturing shingles. Mr. O. A. Watrous was married to Anna J. Starkweather, of Benning- ton, N. Y., and has two children.
JOHN BUCKLEY is a native of Onondaga County, N. Y. At twenty-one years of age he went to Tennessee and assumed the foremanship of a grist mill. When the war broke out he had his choice of joining the rebel army or leaving the country, and it took him about two seconds to decide upon the latter. He re- turned to York State and in 1862 came to the Saginaw Valley. Locating in East Saginaw he engaged in building salt blocks and was foreman of the first salt block built in that city. At the close of the year he removed to Watkins, N. Y., where he put down a salt well, and afterwards sunk two mineral wells at Barrington, Yates County, in the same state. After some time spent in his native state, he again returned to Saginaw, and in 1877, in company with Samuel Clay, opened as managers the "Saginaw Valley Theatrical Circuit," including the cities of Bay City, East Saginaw, Port Huron and Flint. Mr. Buckley was married
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in 1882 to Miss Catherine Welch, of Grand Rapids, and has one child. Residence, 253 Madison Street.
E. S. FITCH was born in Chippewa, Canada, December 26, 1851. At nineteen years of age he entered a store as clerk, and in 1870 moved to Elmira, N. Y., where he entered a hat, cap and fur store. In 1876 he established himself in business in the manufacture of a salt fertilizer, in Bay City. He is also station agent of the Eleventh Street F. & P. M. Depot, and holds several agencies. He was married November 5, 1873, to Miss Frances C. Gibson, of Elmira, N. Y., and has one son.
DR. FRED D. HIESORDT was born in Bay City in 1858; was graduated at the high school of Bay City in 1876; attended the university at Ann Arbor two years; then attended the Detroit Medical College, where he was graduated. He then returned to Bay City and commenced the practice of medicine. He is a fine young man and we predict for him a prosperous future. He is the son of P. S. Hiesordt, who taught the first graded school in Bay City. Dr. Hiesordt's office is in the Bank Block, where he can . be found at his regular hours. He resides with his parents at 910 Monroe Street.
GEORGE K. WENTWORTH, of the firm of J. &. G. K. Wentworth, was born in the state of Maine, October 28, 1842. He enlisted in the army July 25, 1862, and served three years. He then returned to Maine and remained until October 28, 1865, when he went to Tuscola County, Mich., and worked in the lumber woods one year. Then in company with his brother, S. R. Wentworth, and Ordway, he engaged in lumbering operations for one year. His brother then bought Ordway's interest, and the brothers continued the business for two years, after which it was carried on one year by George K. Wentworth alone, he having purchased his brother's interest. In 1869 the present firm was organized, J. Wentworth buying a half interest. George K. Wentworth was married June 10, 1878, to Miss Maggie Hamilton, of Sanilac County, Mich., and has two children. Residence 1409 Tenth Street.
RALPH THOMPSON was born in Simcoe, Canada, March 16, 1842. At the age of eighteen he went to Indianapolis, Ind., and was there employed for three years as clerk in a dry goods store. Then he returned to Canada for a short time, and went thence to Milwaukee, where he was employed two years as a clerk. He was then engaged as clerk in a dry goods house in Detroit; then in Memphis, Tenn., two years in the same business. Being obliged to leave Memphis on account of the cholera, in 1868, he came to Bay City and opened a dry goods store. After several years he sold out his busi- ness and removed to Detroit, where he remained six years and then returned to Bay City, where he has since resided. He is at present commercial traveler for Maltby, Page & Co., of Bay City.
DR. AARON A. PRATT was born in New York City, September 10, 1847. In 1848 his parents moved to Chicago, Ill., where he re- mained until 1860. During his early years he attended school and clerked in his father's drug store, (his father and grandfather were both physicians with extensive practice). He early attained profi- ciency in the drug business. He then began the study of medicine and attended medical college. He was three years in Wisconsin studying with different physicians of the best medical practice. Has since then studied with four, and at the same time practiced medi- cine. In 1875 he came to Bay City and located on Twelfth Street, near Washington. He has a dispensary and puts up his own pre- scriptions. He has a large practice, and also manufactures a large quantity of the best proved medicines in the form of pills and liquids. His manner is pleasant and affable and he has made many friends. Residence at his dispensary, corner Fitzhugh and Twelfth Streets.
J. E. BASSINGWAITE was born June 16, 1856, in Greenbank,
Ontario Co., Canada. Came to Bay City with his parents in the Fall of 1865. Attended the public schools regularly until he was fourteen years old, when he went into the employ of Whitney & Hallock as clerk and bundle boy in their boot and shoe store in Union Block, and remained with them about three years. In 1873 he went to work for Monroe Bros. as tally-man in the lumber trade, continuing in their employ nearly eight years. He is now shipping lumber from Oscoda during the season, making his home in Bay City during the Winter. He married in Woodstock, Champaign Co., O., June 29, 1880, and brought his wife to Oscoda, where he was then in busi- ness. In less than a year her health began to fail, and after a long and painful illness, she died of consumption, March 7, 1883, at Munson, O. She was born in Bay City, March 7, 1862.
DR. H. B. HULBERT was born in Denmark, N. Y., December 8, 1842. At the age of fourteen he commenced the study of dentistry with Dr. S. M. Robinson, of Watertown, N. Y., and remained with him for nearly nine years. In 1864 he enlisted in the Tenth New York Heavy Artillery, Company E, and served until the close of the war.
In 1868, after having successfully practiced his profession for four years in Union Mills, Pa., and Grand Rapids, Mich., he per- manently located in Bay City.
Dr. Hulbert's success in his profession has won for him an en- viable reputation in the city and surrounding country and placed him among the first dentists of the state. In 1872 he bought a house and lot on Monroe Street, and two years later built a resi- dence on Lincoln Avenue between Fifth and Center Streets, where he now resides.
His dental rooms in the Cranage Block are well furnished and equipped with everything needed in his profession.
The Doctor was married September 30, 1869, to Miss Hattie A. Van Campen, of Belmont, N. Y., who died September 2, 1881, leaving him with two children. He was married again February 13, 1883, to Miss Lizzie Lloyd, of Bay City, Mich.
WILLIAM H. FITZHUGH was born in Baltimore, Md., June 28, 1854. In 1860 he came with his parents to Bay City. Here he attended school until 1872. He then learned the machinist's trade with G. W. Ford, of Bay City, which business he has followed to the present time with good success. He is at present engaged with the Standard Machine Co., on the corner of Water and Twenty- sixth Street. He is the son of H. M. Fitzhugh, who was one of the original stockholders of the Northwestern Gas & Water Pipe Co., and the first president of the Saginaw Salt Association. W. H. Fitzhugh was married July 3, 1878, to Miss M. E. Carr, of Virginia.
CAPT. JOHN H. ANDERSON was born at Port Dover, Canada, Sep- tember 12, 1845. In 1866 he engaged in sailing for a number of years, and during his career as a sailor he visited South America. In 1879 he commanded the steam ship "Campana," laden with mules, sheep and corn, bound for Cape Town, Africa, for the Zulu war. It was a perilous trip on account of the heavy winds. Being short of fuel they were obliged to burn 100 mules and 800 bushels of corn. Arriving at Cape Town they discharged the cargo and re- turned to America, arriving at New York in 1880. Mr. Anderson then came to Bay City. He is at present engaged in the insurance business. He was married December 8, 1881, to Miss Imogene Ramsdell, daughter of the late James Ramsdell, of Bay City, and has one child. Residence, Jackson Street between Third and Fourth Streets.
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