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 27
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On the 26th of December, 1882, M. Snyder was united in marriage to Miss Mary A. Benfer, who was born and reared in Park township, St. Joseph county, Michigan, and who is a daughter of Henry Benfer, a representative farmer of that county; both Mr. Benfer and his wife are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Snyder have one son, Leon Romaine, who was born at Mendon, Michigan, on the 27th of December, 1883, and who received his education in the public schools of Chicago, where he was reared to manhood and received his initial business training. Leon R. Snyder has been twice married and has one son, Leon R., Jr., who was born in Battle Creek, September 18, 1904, and who is being reared in the home of his paternal grandfather. On the 5th of March, 1911, Leon R. Snyder contracted a second marriage, having then espoused Miss Nellie Wenrich, who was born and reared at Joplin, Missouri, where her father is a representative business man. They reside at 74 Henry Street, and Mr. Snyder, like his father, is a Republican and is identified with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Henry V. Snyder has an attractive modern residence at 202 North Washington Avenue, and the same is pervaded by an atmosphere of generous and unostentatious hospitality. The offices of the firm of H. V. Snyder & Son are located at 55 South McCamly street.
0. FENN SPAULDING. Among the successful young business men of Battle Creek, O. Fenn Spaulding has a high place of esteem. Through good management and basing his service on the best interests of the public, he has elevated his profession and business to a worthy dignity and appreciation in this city. The undertaking business of which he and his brother are proprietors is located at 24 Marshall street.
Mr. Spaulding was born in this city, December 30, 1881, and be-
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longs to one of the old and highly respected families of Calhoun county. His grandparents, John Allen and Eliza Adeline (Smith) Spaulding, were among the early settlers of Emmett township in this county. The father was the late Henry C. Spaulding, who was superintendent of the city parks of Battle Creek at the time of his death, which occurred July 3, 1903. He was born in Emmett township, January 23, 1845, and up to the last twenty-three years of his life was engaged in farm- ing. He then moved to this city and for a number of years worked at the carpenter trade, which he gave up finally on account of ill health. During his youth in Emmett township he had attended what was known as the Spaulding school. He was a Republican in politics, and was affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Select Knights. He married Miss Lucy A. Carey, of Newton township, a daugh- ter of Charles Carey. Since the death of her husband she has resided in Los Angeles, California. The four sons and one daughter of these parents were: Frank C., who is the associate of his brother O. F .; May E., who lives with her mother in California; V. E., a druggist of Kalamazoo; H. Allen, who died September 19, 1910; and O. F., the youngest of the family.
Mr. Spaulding was reared and educated in Battle Creek, and ex- cept for five years' residence in Wisconsin, for the purpose of regain- ing his health, he has always lived in this city. His business he ac- quired through practical experience, working for W. S. Keet and for William D. Farley, undertakers of this city. In 1904 he was made a state licensed embalmer, and also obtained a state license from Wis- consin during his residence there. In the building at 24 Marshall street he began business for himself in 1904, and was the first tenant of these rooms which he had arranged to suit the purposes of the business. Having a silent partner, he did the business under the name of O. F. Spaulding & Company. After bringing the establishment to a profit- able condition, ill health caused him to sell out to Caldwell & Hayner, and he then removed to Wisconsin. In October, 1911, he and his brother Frank again bought the establishment, and have continued the business in a very successful manner.
Mr. Spaulding is a member of the Elks lodge and of the Baptist church. On November 18, 1903, he was married to Miss Carol G. Payne. She was born in Union City, but received her education in Battle Creek. Her father is Victor T. Payne, who has been identified with the Nichols & Shepard Company for the past thirty years, and is one of the superintendents of the works and a stockholder in the company. Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding, are the parents of two children : Carlton F., born March 27, 1905; and Isidine L., born in 1911.
VICTOR T. PAYNE. Forty years ago Victor T. Payne entered the employ of The Nichols & Shepard Company, then a small but enter- prising concern, and began his business career in Battle Creek in a humble capacity. A number of other young men were coming here, full of hope and ambition, and resolved to win fame and fortune, many of them setting out in the race better equipped, to all appearances, than Mr. Payne. They had friends or money, many both, and some a college education ; Mr. Payne had none of these. Some of these young men failed utterly, others achieved only a small measure of success, but what has been accomplished by Mr. Payne is well known to the citizens of Battle Creek. At the present time he is a stockholder in the concern with which he has been connected for so long, and to the success of which he has so materially contributed, and is recognized as an influential factor in the manufacturing interests of the city.
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Victor T. Payne was born in Battle Creek township, Calhoun county, Michigan, September 1, 1852, and is a son of Rufus and Jane (Lara- way ) Payne.
Rufus Payne was born August 16, 1822, at Victor, New York, and was nineteen years of age when he came to Michigan and settled at Marshall. There he was married at the old Pacey House to Jane Laraway, who was born in Washtenaw county, Michigan, and who was brought to Marshall as a child, their union resulting in the birth of three sons: Fred, born in Battle Creek township, who died at the age of seventeen years; Victor T .; and Claud G., born in LeRoy town- ship, and died in Battle Creek, October 25, 1907, at the age of fifty- one years, his wife passing away July 25, 1907, and their two daugh- ters now being residents of Los Angeles, California. Rufus Payne was a sawmill operator, and during the earlier years of his life operated a mill in Battle Creek township, subsequently being the owner of a mili in LeRoy township for about twenty years, and finally retiring from active business and moving to the city of Battle Creek about six years before his death, which occurred February 2, 1881. His wife passed away August 28, 1895, and both are buried in Beckley Cemetery in Battle Creek township.
Victor T. Payne received his educational training in the district school of Battle Creek township, and in May, 1872, entered the em- ploy of the Nichols & Shepard Company as a member of the packing room force. General efficiency and faithfulness to duty caused his promotion from time to time, and for about thirteen years he traveled extensively for the company, subsequently becoming a foreman, He has been foreman of various departments, and now has charge of the planing room and is a stockholder in the company. A natural-born mechanic, possessed of progressive ideas and the ability to carry them out, Mr. Payne has been constantly seeking to improve the product of the company. With a fellow employe he made the first Flagg Sepa- rator from the original draught, subsequently patented the Payne Feeder, which is manufactured by the concern, and has later improved at different times the other machinery owned by the company. He has demonstrated his confidence in the future of Battle Creek by invest- ments in real estate, and owns farming property in Battle Creek and LeRoy townships, as well as his home, at No. 251 Marshall street, which he had erected seventeen years ago.
On September 1, 1875, Mr. Payne was married to Miss Frances Isadene Pearl, at the home of the bride, in Battle Creek township, the occasion taking place on Mr. Payne's twenty-third birthday. Mrs. Payne was born in Clinton county, New York, and received her educa- tion in the district schools of Battle Creek township, Lyons High school and Olivet College. Her father, Cassius Pearl, was born at Grand Isle, Vermont, in 1812, and was a land owner and speculator in farm lands, and in 1863 came to Calhoun county, Michigan, settling in South Battle Creek, on the old John Pearl place, which had been origi- nally owned by his brother. His death occurred here in 1887, at the age of seventy-five years, while his wife, who bore the maiden name of Rosilla Safford, passed away in February, 1896, at the age of eighty- four years. Their ten children are all still living, Mrs. Payne being the youngest. To Mr. and Mrs. Payne there were born three chil- dren : Grace Pearl, born and educated in Battle Creek; Carol G .. born in Union City, Branch county, Michigan, and educated in Battle Creek, now the wife of O. F. Spaulding of this city; and John How- ard, born in Battle Creek township, educated in Battle Creek, and now a machinist in the employ of the Nichols & Shepard Company. He is
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a member of the Elks. As a public-spirited citizen Mr. Payne deserves the high credit he possesses in the good opinions of the people of Battle Creek, and his friends in the city are legion.
AWRA A. HOYT, M. D. Dr. Hoyt has gained prestige as one of the able and popular representatives of the medical profession in his na- tive county and is engaged in active general practice in the city of Battle Creek, with offices at 210 Ward building, and residence at 222 Lathrop avenue. He has thoroughly fortified himself for the exacting duties of his chosen profession and in the same is an effective exponent of the benignant Homeopathic school of practice.
Dr. Hoyt was born in Battle Creek on the 27th of July, 1879, and is a son of Wallace A. and Hattie (Pierce) Hoyt, the former of whom was born in Syracuse, New York, and the latter in Barry county, Michigan, where her parents were pioneer settlers. Wallace A. Hoyt passed his boyhood days in his native state, though he was but fifteen years of age when he came to Michigan. He learned the machinist's trade and for a number of years he was employed at his trade in the extensive plant of the Nichols & Shepard Company, of Battle Creek. He then became a locomotive engineer for the Grand Trunk Railway Company and in this capacity he was employed for many years, during which he continued to maintain his home in Battle Creek, where all of his children were born. After his retirement from railroad work he was for a time employed as a machinist by the Union Steam Pump Company, of Battle Creek, and he then purchased a small farm, of thirty acres, in Bedford township, this county, where he and his wife now reside, this change in occupation having been made primarily for the purpose of giving him opportunity to regain his physical powers, his health having become much impaired. He came to Battle Creek soon after the close of the Civil war and he is well known and highly esteemed in the county that has represented his home for many years. The Hoyt family in America was founded by two brothers of the name who immigrated from England and established their home in Massa- chusetts, in the early colonial era of our national history. The pater- nal great-great-grandfather of Dr. Hoyt was a valiant soldier of the Continental line in the war of the Revolution, and representatives of the name were also participants in the war of 1812 and the Civil war. The maternal grandparents of Dr. Hoyt were numbered among the pioneer settlers of Eaton county, Michigan, and later removed to Barry county. He whose name initiates this review is the eldest in a family of three children; Teresa L., the second child, died on the 9th of Sep- tember, 1905, at the age of twenty-one years; and Elsie L. is now the wife of Glenn Beckwith, of Battle Creek.
Dr. Hoyt gained his early education in the public schools of the city in which he was born and which is now his home. He was gradu- ated in the Battle Creek high school in 1899, and in the autumn of the following year he was matriculated in the Homeopathic medical department of the University of Michigan, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1904 and from which he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He passed the summer of that year as an in- terne in the Hahnemann Hospital in the city of Rochester, New York, and he then located in Assyria township, Barry county, Michigan, where he continued in the practice of his profession until the 1st of January, 1907, when he initiated his practice in Battle Creek. He opened an office at 7 East Main street and about one year later he removed to 53 West Main street, where he became associated in prac- tice with Dr. C. C. Landon. In October, 1911, he opened his present
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office, in the Ward building, and he has since been engaged in practice of a general order. He has built up a substantial and profitable pro- fessional business and commands secure place in the confidence and esteem of the people of his native city.
In politics Dr. Hoyt is found arrayed as a staunch advocate of the principles of the National Progressive party, and he is affiliated with Battle Creek Lodge, No. 12, Free & Accepted Masons; Assyria Tent Knights of the Modern Maccabees; and Wideawake Court No. 591, Inde- pendent Order of Foresters, of which last mentioned he is examining physician. He is also a member of the County Medical Society and the State Medical Society.
On the 5th of September, 1906, Dr. Hoyt was united in marriage to Miss Helen R. Jewell, who was born and reared at Assyria, Barry county, Michigan, and who is a daughter of Preston K. and Belle (Tompkins) Jewell, representatives of honored pioneer families of that section of the state. Mr. Jewell has long been engaged in the general merchandise business at Assyria and is one of the prominent and in- fluential citizens of that locality. The Tompkins family was founded in Assyria township in the early pioneer days and the family name has been closely identified with the development and progress of Barry county. Dr. and Mrs. Hoyt have one son, Jewell A., who was born on the 28th of April, 1908.
WILLARD N. PUTMAN, M. D. At 205 Ward building, in the city of Battle Creek, are located the office headquarters of this representa- tive young member of the medical profession in Calhoun county, and the substantial practice which he controls offers most effective voucher for his ability as a physician and surgeon and for his possession of those characteristics which make for objective confidence and esteem.
Dr. Willard Nichols Putman claims the old Empire state of the Union as the place of his nativity and is a scion of a family early founded in that commonwealth. He was born on a farm in DePeyster' township, St. Lawrence county, New York, on the 12th of April, 1881, and is the younger of the two surviving children of Charles Edward Putman and Lucretia (Willard) Putman, both of whom were born and reared in the state of New York, where their marriage was solem- nized and where the former was engaged in agricultural pursuits dur- ing the earlier period of his active career. He later became a traveling salesman, with residence and business headquarters in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he maintained his home until the au- tumn of 1903, when he removed to Detroit, Michigan, where he has since maintained the agency for the products of the flouring mills of George C. Christian & Company of Minneapolis. He is a staunch Progressive in politics and both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. The elder of their two surviving children, is the wife of Ira M. Cook, who is in the employ of the Russell Miller Milling Company, of Minneapolis, in which city he and his wife reside.
Dr. Putman gained his rudimentary education in the public schools of his native state and was fourteen years of age at the time of the family removal to Minneapolis, where he was graduated in the high school as a member of the class of 1900. Thereafter he continued his higher academic studies for two years in Hamline University, in that city, after which he was matriculated in Hahnemann Medical College, in the city of Chicago. In this admirable institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1906, his degree of Doctor of Medicine having been conferred upon him on the 18th of May of that year.
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From January 1, 1907, until the 1st of the following January he served as interne in the Chicago Homeopathic Hospital, in which he gained valuable and varied clinical experience, and on the 1st of January, 1908, he opened an office in Battle Creek. Here he has built up an excellent general practice, in which he has admirably exemplified the efficacy of the benignant Homeopathic system, and where his support is of representative order. He has put forth every possible effort to fortify himself for the exacting work of his profession and has taken effective post-graduate courses in Chicago, where he availed himself specially of the able instruction given in orificial surgery by Dr. Edward H. Pratt, a distinguished surgeon of the great western metropolis. The Doctor is identified with the Michigan State Homeopathic Medical Society. In politics he is aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Progressive party, and he is affiliated with A. T. Metcalf Lodge, No. 419, Free & Accepted Masons; with Battle Creek Chapter, No. 355, Order of the Eastern Star, of which Mrs. Putman likewise is a member ; and with the local organization of the Woodmen of the World. He is a member of the Athelstan Club and both he and his wife attend and support the Maple Street Methodist Episcopal church, of which Mrs Putman is a member.
On the 16th of December, 1908, Dr. Putman was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Gatiss, daughter of Henry Gatiss, of La Salle, Illinois. Mrs. Putman was born and reared in La Salle, where she was gradu- ated in the high school as a member of the class of 1903. She was also graduated in the training school for nurses maintained by the Chicago Homeopathic Hospital, and there formed the acquaintance of her future husband. Dr. and Mrs. Putman have one son, Willard Gatiss, who was born in Battle Creek on the 11th of August, 1909.
RAYMOND D. SLEIGHT, M. D. It is gratifying to be able to accord in this publication specific recognition to an appreciable number of the representative physicians and surgeons of Calhoun county, and well entitled to such consideration is Dr. Sleight, who is engaged in the practice of his profession in the city of Battle Creek, with offices at 201 Post building. In the work of his chosen calling he has seen the expediency of concentration of effort and thus he has become a skilled and successful specialist in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat.
Dr. Sleight finds a due measure of satisfaction in reverting to the fine old Wolverine state as the place of his nativity. He was born on the homestead farm of his parents, in Victor township, Clinton county, Michigan, and made his appearance on the stage of life's ac- tivities on the 10th of July, 1875, the eldest of the three sons of James D. and Louise (Reed) Sleight, both of whom still reside on the home farm mentioned, the same being a well improved and valuable landed estate of two hundred acres. James D. Sleight was a valiant soldier of the union in the Civil war, in which he served three and one-half years, as a private in the One Hundred and Fiftieth New York Volun- teer Infantry, with which he accompanied General Sherman on the memorable march from Atlanta to the sea. He took part in many of the important engagements marking the progress of the great conflict between the north and the south and as a citizen he has shown equal loyalty in the "piping times of peace." He is one of the substantial agriculturists of Clinton county and is held in unqualified confidence and esteem in the community that has represented his home for many years. He is a Republican in politics. Of the three children the second,
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Roscoe E. is now professor of mathematics in Albion College, one of the leading educational institutions of Michigan; and Roland W. is a member of the class of 1915 in the Michigan Agricultural College. The two elder sons were graduated in the Laingsburg high school and the youngest son in the high school at St. Johns, the judicial center of Clinton county.
Dr. Raymond D. Sleight was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and after completing the curriculum of the district school he en- tered the high school in the village of Laingsburg, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1893. His ambition did not lie along the line of agricultural enterprise and he early formulated definite plans for his future career. After leaving the high school he was matriculated in the medical department of the University of Michigan, and in the same he was graduated as a member of the class of 1897. After receiving his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine he opened an office in the village of Maple Rapids, in his native county, and there he continued in active general practice for five years. His distinctive ability and enthusiasm in his profession gained more than local recogni- tion, since, in 1901, he was called back to his alma mater, the Univer- sity of Michigan, where he was first assistant to the chair of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, in the medical department, until 1904, in September of which year he established his home in Battle Creek, where he has since controlled a substantial and representative practice as a specialist in the treatment of the diseases just mentioned. In 1907 Dr. Sleight did effective post-graduate work in the city of Vienna, Aus- tria, where he remained one year and where he devoted special atten- tion to the study of and clinical work in the diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, so that he has amply fortified himself for the work of his chosen field of practice. He is the local eye specialist for the Grand Trunk Railway Company and for the Nichols Memorial Hospital.
In politics Dr. Sleight is found aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party. He is president of the Calhoun County Medical Society, and is also actively identified with the Michigan State Medical Society and American Medical Association, as well as the Ameri- can Academy of Ophthalmology & Otolaryngology. Dr. Sleight is the owner of a valuable farm of one hundred acres in Emmett township, just outside the corporate limits of Battle Creek, and there is reason to believe that much of this land will eventually be included within the city, as everything augurs well for the continuous growth and progress of the fine metropolis of Calhoun county. The doctor is affiliated with Battle Creek Lodge, No. 12, Free & Accepted Masons; Battle Creek Chapter, No. 19, Royal Arch Masons; and Battle Creek Commandery, No. 33, Knights Templar. He is also a popular member of the Athelstan and Country Clubs. He is the owner of his attractive residence property, at 60 Orchard avenue, and the home is known for its cordial and gracious hospitality.
On the 15th of February, 1899, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Sleight to Miss Ambra A. Patterson, daughter of Henry J. Patterson, a representative citizen and business man of St. Johns, Michigan, where Mrs. Sleight was born and reared. Her mother, whose maiden name was Margaret Shattuck, is deceased and her father still resides at St. Johns. Dr. and Mrs. Sleight have no children.
HENRY A. BROMBERG. A popular citizen and enterprising and rep- resentative business man of the city of Battle Creek, Mr. Bromberg has manifested the initiative and executive powers which ever make for definite success in connection with the practical affairs of life, and none is more deeply appreciative of the advantages afforded in the United
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States, none more loyal to our national institutions. He came from Rus- sia to this country when a young man and through earnest and well directed effort has gained secure place as a substantial business man and progressive and public-spirited citizen of the metropolis of Calhoun county. Here he is senior member of the firm of Bromberg & Gregory, wholesale and retail jewelers, and through his energy and ability has been built up a splendid business enterprise-one of the largest and most successful of the kind in southern Michigan.
Henry A. Bromberg was born in the town of Kherson, capital of the province of the same name, in southern Russia, and the date of his nativity was August 7, 1860. He is a scion of one of the sterling fam- ilies of that section of Russia and his parents there passed their entire lives, his father having been a general broker by vocation. Mr. Brom- berg attended the schools of his native town until he had attained to the age of thirteen years and thereafter served an apprenticeship of seven years in the establishment of Karl Maill, the leading jeweler and imperial watchmaker of Russia. In this establishment, located in the city of Odessa, Mr. Bromberg learned the jewelry and watchmaking business most thoroughly and he is a recognized expert in this field of enterprise. After completing his apprenticeship he was employed for several years as a journeyman jeweler in his native land, and later he traveled extensively through Europe and the oriental countries, finding profitable employment at his trade. He was thus engaged in Switzer- land and in the cities of Vienna and Amsterdam, and in 1883 he came to America. He followed his trade in New York city, Washington, St. Louis and other metropolitan centers, and in 1886 he came to Battle Creek, where he entered the employ of the firm. of. Galloup & Hollister. Later he was engaged for a time in independent business and he then went to Paris, France, to attend the exposition. In 1889 he returned to Battle Creek and laid the foundation for his present extensive busi- ness by opening a small jewelry store in the Nichols & Austin block. Careful and honorable dealings soon enabled him to build up a pros- perous enterprise, and the same constantly expanded in scope, with the result that he found it expedient to secure larger quarters. He accord- ingly removed to 361/2 West Main street, where he continued business until his removal to his present large and attractive quarters in the fine two-story brick block which he erected in 1910-11. This is one of the most attractive business structures in the central district of Battle Creek, and the same is located on Monument Square, opposite the post- office, with numbers from 88 to 94 East Main street. The establishment of Bromberg & Gregory occupies the corner store, which is metropolitan in all appointments, including large and admirably arranged display windows. The magnificent establishment, in which are handled dia- monds, watches, jewelry of all kinds, silverware, etc., has been designated as the "home of jewelry" and as one in which popular prices prevail. The trade has become one of large volume, both in the wholesale and retail departments, and the high reputation of the concern constitutes its best commercial asset. The firm originated the diamond refunding- price system, and the same has been accorded distinctive appreciation by the public.
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