USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun County, Michigan, a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 17
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The second generation of William Farrington's family consists of one son, W. Roy Farrington, who was born in Allegan county on Sep- tember 25, 1886. He attended the city high school and has also had the advantages of a business course in the Michigan Business and Normal College of this place. He is a bookkeeper for the Battle Creek gas company. In 1908 he was married to Miss Nina B. Nichols of Battle Creek ; they are the parents of one son, Norman. Mr. Roy Farrington, is exceptionally free from such habits as the use of tobacco and liquors. His residence is 117 Highway street.
Chief Farrington is a member of the Knights of Pythias here and also of the organizations of the Odd Fellows, and the Maccabees. Mrs. Farrington holds membership in the Lake Avenue society and in other clubs of Battle Creek. The family residence is at 25 Post avenue.
Although William H. Farrington is a man who in his municipal ac-
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tivities disregards party in the matter of appointments of this sort, he nevertheless believes in the principles of the Republican party and acts upon them with great consistency when making use of his franchise. His first presidential ballot was cast for James A. Garfield in 1880.
JAY L. MARSHALL, whose business is "everything in real estate," has been successfully identified with the business community of Battle Creek since 1901. He is one of the most progressive and enterprising real estate men in southern Michigan, is a liberal advertiser, and not only does a large volume of business, but also a business whose character results in the permanent improvement and benefit of the city and vicinity. As a medium for the exchange of realty he leads all the real estate men in Battle Creek, and his reputation in all lines of the business is based on reliable dealing and high-class methods.
Mr. Marshall is a native of Minnesota, and was born at Root River on Thursday, April 4, 1867. His parents were James A. and Nancy B. (Squires) Marshall. His father was a native of New Hampshire and the mother of New York, and they were married in Iowa. The father was a machinist, engineer and "lime burner" or master mechanic, and his death occurred in Iowa, and his widow still resides at Marcus, that state. Besides Jay L. there are three other children : Charles, of Lowell, Arizona; Mrs. Arthur Reed, of Hopkinton, Iowa; and Mrs. Charles Fay, of Anoka, Minnesota.
Jay L. Marshall, the only member of the family to make Battle Creek his home, was educated at Hopkinton, Iowa, attending the Lenox College at that place. For a number of years his business was traveling sales- man and contractor. He dealt in building material at Hopkinton four years, and for twelve years he represented the Prudential Life In- surance Company of New York, for ten years of that time being assist- ant superintendent of the company. In that business he was located for varying periods of time at St. Louis, Alton, Illinois, Grand Rapids, and at Battle Creek. He has been a resident of this city since 1901, and for about six years continued in the insurance business, finally selling his fire insurance interest business which he had built up from this headquarters.
He then engaged in the real estate business, and as already mentioned deals in everything that comes under that head, being both an inde- pendent operator and also broker. Among his enterprises, he owns and conducts a fruit farm of twenty-five acres two and a half miles east of the city in Emmett township. This is a property in which he takes justi- fiable pride. It contains seven hundred apple trees, seven hundred peach trees, one hundred pear trees, two hundred cherry trees, two hun- dred plum trees, two thousand grape vines, two thousand raspberry bushes and approximately five thousand strawberry plants. This in itself is a big business. In the city of Battle Creek he is buying and selling property all the time.
His first two years of connection with the real estate business, Mr. Marshall was in the employ of Alfred E. Paulsen. Later he and Her- bert E. Butler bought the business and continued under the name of Marshall & Butler. Herbert W. Taft bought Butler's interest, but after a short time Mr. Marshall acquired the entire business. His office is at 8 East Main street.
December 19, 1891, Mr. Marshall married Miss Nida E. Jackson, of Delhi, Iowa. She was born and educated in Delaware county, Iowa. They are the parents of one son, G. Russell, who was born at Hopkinton, Iowa, November 19, 1892. After being educated in Grand Rapids and in the Battle Creek high school, he learned the art of photo-engraving
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and is now employed in that work with the Gage Printing Company, Ltd., of Battle Creek. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall reside at 128 Fountain street West. They have membership in the First Methodist church of this city.
CHARLES J. ARGUBRIGHT. So attractive, cogent and effective is the presentation of facts in the literature issued in the annual catalogue and other brochures of the Michigan Business and Normal College, of Bat- tle Creek, that even a cursory survey of the same cannot fail to give definite voucher for the high standing of the institution and the un- equivocal success of its work. It has been consistently pronounced the only real "actual-business" training school in southern Michigan, and its functions in every department are practical and benignant. In this review of the career of the president of this staunch institution, it is not necessary to enter into details concerning the advantages offered and general fine equipment of the college, for adequate information along these lines is to be gained by application for the admirable descriptive literature sent forth, but it is established beyond contradiction that no institution of similar character in the entire state can claim precedence over this, and it is a matter of pride to the metropolis of Calhoun county that so noteworthy a school is here maintained, the same having been established in 1882, incorporated in 1896 and reorganized in 1898. The college maintains the ablest of instructors in each department, occupies five thousand two hundred and eighty square feet of floor space, gives most scrupulous individual instruction and has no vacation intervals, so that new pupils can enter at any time throughout the entire year. Tui- tion rates are reasonable and positions are guaranteed to graduates. The unqualified testimonials given by those who have availed themselves of the privileges of the college and have proved valuable factors in the domain of practical business activities, afford ample evidence of the excellence of the work in all departments, and the school is recognized as a most valuable addition to the educational system of the county and the state of Michigan.
Charles J. Argubright claims the Hawkeye state as the place of his nativity and is a representative of one of its sterling pioneer families. He was born in Linn county, Iowa, on the 2d of November, 1870, and is a son of John T. and Lois M. (Brown) Argubright, the former of whom was born at La Salle, Illinois, July 3, 1838, and the latter at Brook- field, New York, July 12, 1839. The father became one of the prominent contractors and builders of Northwestern Iowa in the pioneer days and maintained his home in Sioux county, that state, from 1873 until 1903, when he removed to the state of Washington, where he continued to be identified with the same line of enterprise during the residue of his active career, his death having occurred at Everett, that state, on the 5th of July, 1911, and his widow being now a resident of Victoria, British Columbia. She is a woman of special culture, as she has ever been an appreciative reader of the best literature and has notably excel- lent memory, so that she has been able to absorb and assimilate the knowledge gained through reading and study, her husband likewise hav- ing been a man of superior mental ken. Thus it may well be understood that the subject of this review had excellent advantages in the very en- vironment and associations of his home life as a boy and youth, and his heritage from an honored father and mother is one of which he is deeply appreciative. He is the only son in a family of four children, and two of his sisters are living.
Charles J. Argubright is indebted to the public schools of his native state for his early educational discipline, and this was effectually sup- Vol. II-8
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plemented by a course in Hull Academy, at Hull, Iowa, in which insti- tution he was graduated when seventeen years of age. In the same school he also completed a post-graduate course of two years in univer- sity work, and in 1892 he was graduated in the Iowa Commercial Col- lege, at Davenport, Iowa. In the following year, after having deter- mined to devote his attention to pedagogic work along the line of prac- tical business training, he went to Helena, the capital of the state of Montana, where he was a teacher in the Helena Business College for the ensuing two years. During the following year he was a member of the faculty of the Rock Island Business University, at Rock Island, Illinois, and thereafter he held for one year the position of bookkeeper and cashier for the National Packing Company, in that city. He then returned to Helena, Montana, where he was executive head of the Helena Business College for eight months, and during the ensuing year he was in charge of the Woodbine Normal and Commercial College, at Wood- bine, Iowa. He then came to Battle Creek, in 1897, to accept the posi- tion of traveling and editorial representative of the Ellis Publishing Company, but within a short time thereafter he purchased the Krug Business College, of which he thus became the proprietor in January, 1898. On the 17th of that month he effected a thorough reorganization of the institution, the title of which was changed to the present form, the Michigan Business and Normal College. His thorough training in the line of work to which he has devoted the major part of his active career has been supplemented by admirable executive and administrative ability, and thus he has been able to upbuild one of the best business col- leges in the state. He has been indefatigable in his efforts and has enlisted the co-operation of instructors of the best ability in their respective lines. From the institution of which he is the executive head have been graduated hundreds of young men and women who predicate their success to the instruction here received, and it should be noted that Clyde H. Marshall, of New York city, who won the world's champion- ship as the fastest shorthand writer in 1910, was graduated from this school. The college has an average annual enrollment of two hundred and sixty students, and the equipment and facilities throughout are of the highest order, the average daily attendance of students being about one hundred and forty, with an average of two hundred during the winter months. Concerning David Sillers, the secretary of the college, individual mention is made on other pages of this volume.
Mr. Argubright initiated his pedagogic career before he had attained to the age of fifteen years, as a teacher in a district school in his native state, and he has amplified his mental ken by close and effective reading and study along many lines. He gave special attention to the study of law while he was still engaged in teaching, and gained a thorough basic knowledge of the science of jurisprudence, though he has never made application for admission to the bar. Like many other successful educators, Mr. Argubright believes that the national public-school sys- tem of the United States is distinctively ineffective in many ways. He believes that the pupil should be led to think for himself, to make his knowledge practical and to develop his special powers or "potential," instead of being rushed through to so-called graduation without regard to individual predilection,-along which lies his greatest power for worthy and gratifying achievement. In his own school Mr. Argubright has thus made an insistent effort to develop the intrinsic powers of the individual person and not to cause all to follow a definite routine. The success of his work is the most effective evidence of the legitimacy of his system and policies. He realized that not a tithe of the pupils who come to his school for instruction have as thorough and accurate a
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knowledge of English construction as he had when he was fifteen years of age, and this in face of the fact that a large proportion of students are high-school graduates. He holds to high ideals and high ambitions in his chosen fields of educational work, and in connection with the same has been signally fortunate in promoting the same attitude on the part of students. Thus the success of the Michigan Business and Normal Col- lege has been not an accident but a logical result.
Mr. Argubright is progressive and public-spirited as a citizen and takes lively interest in all that touches the civic and material prosperity of his home city. He gives his allegiance to the Republican party, and is affiliated with the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias. His home is at 78 Chestnut street.
On the 22d of December, 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Argubright to Miss Mary T. Dailey, of Port Byron, Illinois, where she was born and reared. There she was graduated in the high school and later she completed a thorough course and was graduated in the Iowa Commercial College, at Davenport.
DAVID SILLERS. As secretary of the Michigan Business and Normal College, one of the staunch and valued educational institutions of Cal- houn county, Mr. Sillers has been actively identified with the upbuild- ing of the school and has been a potent factor in gaining to the same distinctive precedence among other similar institutions in the state. Concerning the same, adequate mention is made in the sketch dedicated to its president, Charles J. Argubright, on other pages of this work, and thus the article at hand needs but to give recognition to Mr. Sillers him- self, as one of the representative factors in the educational circles of the county and as one of the popular citizens of Battle Creek.
Mr. Sillers was born in Oxford county, province of Ontario, Canada, on the 19th of July, 1861, and is a son of Thomas and Charlotte (Peat) Sillers, both of whom were born in the vicinity of the city of Glasgow, Scotland, their marriage having been solemnized in the Dominion of Canada, to which Thomas Sillers immigrated when a young man, his wife having come to America with her parents. Thomas Sillers became one of the representative agriculturists of Oxford county, Ontario, and both he and his wife continued to reside on the old homestead until their death. Both exemplified to the fullest extent the sterling qualities of the race from which they were sprung, and both commanded unequiv- ocal confidence and esteem in the community that represented their home for many years. They were devout members of the Presbyterian church and their lives were lived in harmony with the faith which they thus professed. They became the parents of seven sons and two daugh- ters, all of whom are living.
David Sillers was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and gained his early education in the district schools of his native county, after which he continued his studies in the high school at Weston near the city of Toronto. High academic studies were then taken by him in the Woodstock Collegiate Institute, at Woodstock, Ontario, and after teaching in the country schools for two years he attended the Baptist Institute of Woodstock, in the commercial department of which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1884. Thereafter he took a six months' course in shorthand at the Pernin Institute, in the city of Detroit, Michigan, after which he passed about one year at Windsor, Ontario, as a stenographer. For six months thereafter he instructed a private class in shorthand at Woodstock, that province, and he then came to Battle Creek, in 1886. He remained one year as instructor in the Krug Business College and then went to the capital city of Mon-
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tana, where he was an instructor in the Helena Business College for one year. He then returned to Battle Creek and again identified him- self with the Krug Business College, of which institution he became secretary upon its reorganization under its present title of Michigan Business and Normal College. He has been a most able and valued coadjutor of the president, Charles J. Argubright, and their relations have at all times been of the most pleasing order, with common aims and ambitions. Both were also associated in the organization of the Hygienic Food Company, of Battle Creek, and are still stockholders in the same.
In politics Mr. Sillers gives staunch allegiance to the Republican party. He has passed the various chairs in the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias, of which he is now a trustee, and he is also treasurer of the Battle Creek Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He finds recreation in motoring and other outdoor sports and is a popular member of the Athelstan Club, the leading social organization of repre- sentative business men in his home city, where he resides at 165 Fre- mont street, the home being a center of gracious hospitality, as Mrs. Sillers was born and reared in Battle Creek and is a member of one of the old and honored families of Calhoun county.
On the 13th of September, 1888, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sillers to Miss Nellie H. Finley, daughter of Ebenezer R. Finley, one of the sterling pioneers of the county, where he continued to reside until his death.
ALBERT P. GROHENS. As secretary and general manager of the Lam- bert Machine Company and also secretary of the Marshall Business Men's Association, Mr. Grohens occupies a place of distinctive promi- nence and influence in connection with the civic and industrial interests of the beautiful little city of Marshall, the judicial center of Calhoun county. His progressiveness, loyalty and public spirit have been exem- plified in many directions and his character and achievement make him specially eligible for consideration in this history of the county in which he has maintained his home since 1900, and in which he has gained secure vantage ground in popular confidence and esteem.
It would be impossible, even within the limitations of so necessarily brief a sketch as the one here presented, to refer to the career of Mr. Grohens without directing special attention to his achievements in con- nection with the business and success of the Lambert Machine Company, of which he is the executive head and which represents one of the im- portant industrial enterprises of Calhoun county and its capital city. If dauntless courage, honesty of purpose, careful and straightforward business methods ever proved potent in saving a concern which all but hung over the precipice of failure; in bringing order out of chaos and success from the doom of defeat,-then the name of Albert P. Grohens will live in exemplification of what sterling character, worthy ambition and insistent progressiveness are capable of accomplishing in any legiti- mate business.
The Lambert Machine Company was organized in 1901. Among the principal stockholders were Joseph Lambert, Dr. Isaac W. Houston, Sidney H. and George H. Edgerton, and Albert P. Grohens. The chief object was to manufacture a line of breakfast foods and to con- tinue the making of a small peanut-butter mill and hand peanut-roaster, which machines had been manufactured for several years previously at Battle Creek, this county, by the firm of which Lambert and Grohens were members. The company as organized in 1901 was known as the Lambert Food & Machinery Company, with Joseph Lambert as the head and general manager. The breakfast-food proposition soon
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proved a failure. Mr. Lambert sold his interest in and retired from the business. The concern was in a bankrupt condition and for a time the only feasible plan seemed to be to wind up the business for the benefit of the creditors.
Finally, in 1904, with the help of several of the principal stock- holders, Mr. Grohens reorganized the company and formulated a plan upon which to carry forward the enterprise. This plan contemplated the manufacture of a special line of food machinery, such as peanut- butter mills, peanut cleaners, and cereal and peanut roasters, and also to perfect a line of coffee-roasting machinery. In view of the fact that the first peanut-butter mill-a small hand machine-was first invented by Joseph Lambert, in 1898, and that this little mill thus formed the nucleus of the new industry instituted in 1904, it was deemed best to retain the name of Lambert, and the title of Lambert Machine Com- pany was definitely adopted.
So well has this business prospered within the last few years that not only is the original indebtedness wiped out, but the company also has tangible assets of more than forty thousand dollars, to say nothing of the commercial worth and intrinsic value of the patents, machinery, patterns and designs, and the good will of a firmly established industry. Mr. Grohens is a thorough believer in modern equipments and is bend- . ing his entire energies to designing and perfecting new ideas to be in- corporated in the line of products manufactured by his company, as well as to amplifying by new additions. The Lambert electric coffee roasters, the Lambert electric peanut mills and all the rest of the machines made by this concern and marketed under the name of "Lambert" have earned a national and even international reputation, and yet the man who is responsible for them, the man who is at once the designer, manager and salesman, modestly continues to work all the harder for the success of the business and for a line of machinery which bears another man's name.
Born in the beautiful province of Alsace, Germany, on the 22nd of March, 1868, Mr. Grohens there received excellent educational advan- tages in the German and French schools, and besides being a master of the German and French languages he has perfected himself in the Eng- lish language, which he speaks and writes with much grace of diction and absolute fluency. This is shown by the fact that he frequently con- tributes to leading trade journals articles of interest, on topics in con- nection with which he is an acknowledged authority. He came to the United States when a mere youth and the foundation of his business career was laid by his completing a full course of studies in the Battle Creek Business University, in which he was graduated in 1891. He is an extensive traveler and the requirements of the business in which he is engaged have brought him into close touch with conditions in prac- tically every state of the Union. But it is when at home with his fam- ily that Mr. Grohens finds his real comfort and enjoyment, and any- one passing his beautiful suburban home in the early morning hours may see him busy making garden, pruning fruit trees or attending to the horses, cattle, chickens, etc.
Mr. Grohens has shown a loyal interest in all that touches the prog- ress and prosperity of the city of Marshall, and in January, 1911, he was elected secretary of the Marshall Business Men's Association. He still retains this position and has been earnest in his efforts to pro- mote the high civic ideals for which the organization stands sponsor. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and is a captain in its military rank.
In politics a Progressive. June 24, 1899 he married Miss Rebecca
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Atteberry of Keeneville, Illinois, and they have two children: Inez and William, the last named being so called in honor of William Mckinley.
FRED W. BARNEY. A man who can claim the combined distinctions of belonging to one of the pioneer families of this region; and of hav- ing made good to an enviable degree in the business circles of Battle Creek; and of having reared a family creditable to his character is Fred W. Barney, the successful coal dealer of Jefferson avenue and the genial commercial-traveling representative for the W. J. Hamilton Coal Company.
The Barney name has been well known in Calhoun county and Bed- ford township for four generations. The grandfather of Fred W. Barney was Nathaniel Barney, the popular old host of Barney Tavern of early pioneer days. His son, Oliver Barney, was himself a man of note as a pioneer. From 1832 until his death in 1900 at the age of seventy-eight he was a resident of this community. He was widely known and highly esteemed throughout Southern Michigan. Mrs. Phoebe Barney, his widow, is still living on the old farm, which is now only a mile from the city limits and seemingly brought much nearer by the interurban street-car line, which passes it.
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