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 50
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Lewis M. Schroeder was reared to adult age in his native town, to whose excellent public schools he is indebted for his early education. He early gained practical training in business, in the mercantile estab- lishment of his honored father, and in 1886 he initiated his independ- ent career by removing to Clyde, Cloud county, Kansas, where he suc- cessfully conducted a general merchandise business during the ensuing nine years, at the expiration of which he removed to Nevada, Vernon county, Missouri, where he was engaged in the dry goods business for six years. His brother Sherman became associated with him at Clyde and they have continuously maintained their effective alliance since that time, their relations having been always of the most harmonious order, as each has been deeply appreciative of the ability and earnest co-operation of the other. The title of Schroder Brothers Company was adopted while they were engaged in business in Kansas, and upon coming to Battle Creek, in October, 1900, they opened their dry goods store at their present location. They originally used but limited space and confined their attention exclusively to the handling of dry goods, but with the expansion of business other departments were added and the business quarters were amplified to the present large dimensions. At the start they utilized floor space of about eight thousand square feet, and the substantial growth of the enterprise is indicated when it is stated that more than fifteen thousand square feet of floor space are now demanded for the accommodation of the large and substan- tial business. Both the first and second floors of the building at the numbers indicated are now in commission, as is also the basement. The company carry a good, subsantial grade of stock in all lines and their large patronage, which may be said to be drawn from the "great
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majority," stands as the tacit recognition and appreciation of effective service and fair and straightforward dealing. The concern has insist- ently kept faith with its patrons, and its advertising policy is broad and liberal. The Schroder brothers are among the most extensive newspaper advertisers in Battle Creek and the value of their adver- tising is enhanced by the fact that they have at no time or through no agency permitted no equivocal or exaggerated statements to appear in their public announcements. This has begotten popular confidence and support of the most insistent type, and thus has been built up an enterprise creditable alike to its promoters and to the city in which it is established.
The Schroder Brothers Company was incorporated in 1906, with a capital of sixty thousand dollars, and the stockholders and execu- tive officers of the company comprise Lewis M. Schroder, president; Mrs. Elizabeth M. Schroder (wife of the president), vice-president; Sherman Schroder, secretary ; and Mrs. Hattie M. Schroder, treasurer, the latter being the wife of Sherman Schroder.
Lewis M. Schroder is well fortified in his opinions concerning poli- tical tenets and policies and is a stalwart advocate of the principles of the Republican party, though in local affairs, where no issue is involved, he is not constrained by strict partisanship, as he gives his support to the men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment. He and his wife are most zealous and valued members of the First Pres- byterian church in their home city and he has been an elder in the same for the past decade. He is a member of the board of directors of the Battle Creek Industrial Association and served as its president for two years. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and is a member of the Athelstan Club, the leading social organization of Bat- tle Creek business and professional men.
On the 3d of November, 1887, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Schroder to Miss Elizabeth M. Malloch, who was one of his school- mates at Galesburg in his boyhood days. Mrs. Schroder was born in the state of New York and was about seven years of age at the time of her parents' removal to Galesburg, Michigan. Later the family removed to Harvard, Nebraska, where she completed her education, and her parents were residents of Bellevue, Kansas, at the time of her marriage to Mr. Schroder. Her father, who devoted the major part of his active career to merchandising, died at Houston, Texas, in 1899, and her mother is now with her as a loved and gracious inmate of the home in Battle Creek. Mrs. Schroder is a member of the Woman's League and is active also in church work, besides being a popular fac- tor in the representative social activities of her home city. Mr. and Mrs. Schroder have three children,-Lloyd J., who was born at Clyde, Kansas, and is now employed in the store of the Schroder Brothers Company ; Keith M., who was born at Nevada, Missouri, and who is attending the public schools, as is also Ronald, who was born in Battle Creek. The respective dates of birth of the three fine sons are here entered : October 31, 1888; April 14, 1899; and April 18, 1902. The eldest son was graduated in the Battle Creek high school and also in the Michigan Business & Normal College, in this city. The attractive family home is at 122 Fremont street.
Apropos of the broad and effective advertising policy of the Schroder Brothers Company, it may be noted that in the spring of 1912 they made a most benignant and timely innovation, by the dis- tribution of five thousand seedlings of catalpa among the school chil- dren of the city. the distribution being made on Arbor Day, in order that each pupil might have the opportunity of planting his own special Vol II-22
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tree on that day, the district schools of the vicinity also being supplied. Concerning this interesting and worthy enterprise on the part of the Schroder Company the Battle Creek Evening News spoke, in part, as follows: "It is the intention to give every boy and girl in the gram- mar grades a seedling tree, to be planted and cared for until it is big enough to grow by its own hardihood. The Schroder Brothers Com- pany has been planning this useful innovation in advertising for sev- eral months. The consent of the school board and its approval of the project have been secured, and distribution will be made through the principals of the schools. 'It is our thought that the planting of such trees will give new impetus to the nature study that is now being fostered in the schools', said Lewis M. Schroder. 'It should give to the children a continually increasing interest in the great outdoors. It may, in cases where such planting is possible, enlarge the field for school gardens.' "'
SHERMAN SCHRODER. On other pages of this publication is entered a review of the career of Lewis M. Schroder, elder brother of the sub- ject of this sketch and president of the Schroder Brothers Company, of which the latter is secretary. In the article to which reference is made is given adequate record concerning the fine business enterprise built up and controlled by the company, in the handling of dry goods, millinery, women's garments, etc., and also a brief review of the fam- ily history, so that it is not necessary to repeat the data in the present connection with the upbuilding of the business noted and has been associated with his brother since 1888, when they conducted business at Clyde, Kansas, as did they later in Nevada, Missouri, from which place they removed to Battle Creek and established their present ex- tensive enterprise in October, 1900.
Sherman Schroder was born in the village of Galesburg, Kalamazoo county, Michigan, on the 10th of January, 1866, and to the public schools of his native place he is indebted for his early educational train- ing. There he gained his initial business experience in the mercantile establishment of his father and later he held a clerkship, for one year, in the store of the old-time firm of Bruen & Skinner, in the city of Kalamazoo. In 1888 he became associated with his brother Lewis M. in the mercantile business at Clyde, Kansas, where operations were continued for nine years, at the expiration of which removal was made to Nevada, Missouri, which was the stage of the business activities of the brothers until they came to Battle Creek, in the year noted above. The brothers have been thus closely associated for nearly a quarter of a century, and both have gained high reputation and distinctive suc- cess as thorough, reliable and progressive business men,-citizens well worthy of the confidence and esteem in which they are uniformly held.
In his political proclivities Mr. Schroder is a staunch Republican, and he and his wife are specially active and valued members of the First Presbyterian church of Battle Creek, in which he is the zealous and popular assistant superintendent of the Sunday school at the time of this writing, in 1912. Mr. Schroder is affiliated with A. T. Metcalf Lodge, No. 419, Free & Accepted Masons; Battle Creek Chapter, No. 19, Royal Arch Masons; and Battle Creek Commandery, No. 19, Knights Templar, of which commandery he is past eminent comman- der, besides which he has passed various official chairs in the lodge and chapter. He is also past chancellor of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias and is a member of the building committee of the local Masonic Temple association. He is a popular member of the Athelstan Club and
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the Gull Lake Country Club, and at the lake mentioned he has an at- tractive summer cottage.
On the 6th of September, 1893, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Schroder to Miss Hattie M. Coulter, of Iowa City, Iowa. She was born and reared at that place, the seat of the University of Iowa, in which institution she completed her education. She is a daughter of the late Dr. J. P. Coulter, who was one of the representative physicians and surgeons of Iowa City for many years prior to his death, his wife like- wise having passed the closing years of her life in that city. Mrs. Schroder is prominently identified with the leading social activities of her home city and is a prominent member of the Woman's League. The family home, at 113 Frelinghuysen avenue, is a center of gracious hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. Schroder have two children, Mildred Mau- reen and Wayne Maurice. Miss Mildred Schroder is one of the most popular factors in the social and musical circles of her home city and is a specially talented musician. She was born at Clyde, Kansas, and was graduated in the Battle Creek Conservatory of Music when only fourteen years of age, the youngest person ever graduated in this ex- cellent institution, whose director, Professor Barnes, pronounced her one of the most talented students ever graduated in the conservatory. As a pianist she is much in demand in concert work and public and private recitals in her home city. She is now a member of the class of 1913 in the Battle Creek high school. Wayne Maurice Schroder was born in Battle Creek on the 16th of June, 1907, and is a sturdy young- ster who never permits an atmosphere of lethargy to pervade the family home.
ANDREW KNIGHT. So varied and interesting has been the career of this honored citizen of Battle Creek and so closely has the family name been identified with the history of Calhoun county that it were impossible within the compass of a publication of this order to do more than give the merest epitome of his life record and of the history of the sterling family of which he is a worthy scion. His parents estab- lished their home in Calhoun county the year prior to the admission of Michigan to the Union, and he is a native son of the county, which he saw develop from little more than a forest wilderness to its present state of opulent prosperity. The name which he bears has been most prominently identified with industrial and civic progress in this favored section of the Wolverine state and in connection with industrial inter- ests in Battle Creek he himself well upheld the prestige of the name which he bears. His reminiscences touching the pioneer era in the history of the county are graphic and of distinctive interest, and few residents of this part of the state have a more intimate knowledge concerning the various stages of progress that have marked the passing years. Even these brief statements indicates how many are the salient points that might well be touched in offering a resume of the career of Mr. Knight, but it is hoped that even the brief sketch here presented may prove adequate to reveal somewhat of his personal achievement and of the family record.
Andrew Knight was born in Marshall, the judicial center of Cal- houn county, Michigan, on the 2nd of May, 1838, the territory having become in the preceding year one of the sovereign commonwealths of the federal Union. He is a descendant in the fifth generation from Charles Knight, who was a native of England and who came to America in 1724. This sterling ancestor secured a tract of land near Worcester, Massachusetts, and there he passed the residue of his life. His son Charles, great-grandfather of him whose name initiates this review,
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likewise lived and died on this ancestral homestead, and the latter's son, Charles (III), was there born and there passed his entire life. In addition to being successfully identified with the agricultural industry he also owned and operated both a saw mill and grist mill. He was a citizen of prominence and influence in his community and was a valiant soldier of the Continental line in the war of the Revolution. His son Charles (IV), father of the subject of this sketch, was born at Worcester, Massachusetts, where he was reared and educated and where he learned the business of manufacturing sash, doors and blinds. As a young man he removed to Clarence, Erie county, New York, where he engaged in that line of enterprise in an independent way, and there also was sol- emnized his marriage to Miss Angeline Nash, daughter of Moses Nash, a representative citizen of that section. They continued to maintain. their home at Clarence until 1836, when Mr. Knight disposed of his interests there and came to the territory of Michigan, which was at that time beginning to draw largely upon New York state in the settling and developing of its southern counties.
Upon coming to Michigan Charles Knight established his home in Marshall, Calhoun county, which was then a small hamlet, with only a few business places. There he began the manufacturing of sash, doors and blinds and also initiated business as a contractor and builder. He was one of the first regularly equipped contractors in this line in the county, and he soon built up a prosperous business. In 1840 he re- moved with his family to Clarendon, this county, and in the autumn of 1842 he established a permanent home in Battle Creek. Here he en- gaged in the same line of enterprise which he had previously followed, and his manufacturing plant was located on the site later occupied by the original threshing-machine works of Nichols & Shepard. After a . time he erected a factory adjoining the Mason & Ward woolen mills, on what is now Madison street, and he continued to be actively engaged in the manufacturing business of the one order until the close of his life. He was originally a Whig in his political proclivities but espoused the cause of the Republican party at the time of its organization and ever afterward continued a stalwart advocate of its principles and policies. Both he and his wife were zealous adherents of the Presby- terian church and were numbered among the leading members of the First Presbyterian church in Battle Creek. Of the children of these honored pioneers, six sons and four daughters attained to years of maturity, Andrew, of this review, having been the fourth in order of birth, and of the others one son and but one daughter are living at the time of this writing, in 1912.
Andrew Knight was a child of about four years at the time of the family removal to Battle Creek, and here he gained his early educa- tion in the pioneer schools, his first teacher having been A. D. P. Van Buren, and the original "temple of learning" which he attended having been a log building, twelve feet square, with a slab door, puncheon floor and slab benches, the heating facilities being summed up in a huge fireplace in one end of the room. Later Mr. Knight attended a select school and he completed his youthful education in the building of the first union school established in Battle Creek.
At the age of nineteen years, in 1857, Mr. Knight went to Chicago, which then gave slight evidence of being the nucleus of a great met- ropolis, and he secured a position as clerk in the general store of Chris- topher Metz, at 52 State street. He was thus engaged for a period of eighteen months and soon afterward he went to New York city, whence he sailed to Savannah, Georgia. After making two trips of this kind he accepted the position of storekeeper on the steamship "Ariel," on
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which he made five voyages to important ports of England, France and Germany. On his final return voyage to New York the vessel encountered a terrible storm, with which it battled for twenty-eight days. The boat nearly met wreck at several times; the captain was killed at the post of duty and all of the other officers were disabled. The vessel finally reached port in New York, when fourteen days over- due, and it had been given up for lost ten days previously. All on board suffered great hardship, but the experience did not discourage the seafaring propensities of Mr. Knight. Soon afterward he embarked on the "Philadelphia," bound from New York to New Orleans, by way of Havana, Cuba, and thereafter he and his brother Charles M., were identified with navigation interests on the Gulf of Mexico until May 16, 1861. When the Civil war was precipitated upon a divided nation he was held under close surveillance in the south, as it was known that he was a northern man, and two weeks passed before he was able to escape espionage and set forth for the north. He took passage on the "William H. Morrison," and on this packet steamer he made his way up the Mississippi river from New Orleans to St. Louis, this having been the last ship to make the voyage up the river prior to the estab- lishing of naval and military regulations along its course. Mr. Knight arrived in St. Louis two days after the serious riots there caused by sectional animosities, and he arrived at his home in Battle Creek on the 16th of June, 1861.
On the 20th of June, 1862, in response to President Lincoln's call for three hundred thousand volunteers, Mr. Knight enlisted in Com- pany C, Twentieth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and after the com- mand made rendezvous in Jackson it proceeded to Washington, D. C., where it arrived just after the battle of Chantilly. The regiment became a part of the First Brigade, Second Division, Ninth Army Corps, under General Burnside, and it made a most gallant and merit- orious record, as it participated in thirty-two battles besides numerous skirmishes and other minor engagements. After participating in the engagements at Fredericksburg, Vicksburg and Jackson, the Twentieth Michigan was sent back to eastern Tennessee, where he took part in the battles of London Bridge, Campbell Station, Knoxville, and Straw- berry Plains, with incidental skirmishes at frequent intervals for nearly a year. In the spring of 1864 the regiment returned to the national capital, and thereafter participated in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Courthouse, Nye River and Bethesda Church. It then crossed the James river, arriving at Petersburg on the 16th of May, 1864, Mr. Knight was in the conflicts at that point on that and the succeeding day and, on the night of the 17th his brother George C., who was captain of the First Michigan Sharpshooters, was killed. Mr. Knight himself went into the battle again on the next day, but about ten o'clock in the morning he was wounded so severely that he had to be removed to the field hospital, from which he was transferred to the Army Square hospital, in the city of Washington, where he re- mained for a year. He was then transferred to the hospital at Ches- ter, Pennsylvania, and there he received his honorable discharge on the 22d of June, 1865. For six years after he sustained the wound in bat- tle Mr. Knight was an invalid from the result of the injury, and he patiently endured much suffering during this long period.
In 1879 Mr. Knight assumed the management of the manufactur- ing business which had been founded by his father in Battle Creek, and he amplified the same by manufacturing a general line of building material, in addition to the original output of sash, doors and blinds. The family name was perpetuated in connection with this line of enter-
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prise in Battle Creek for about six decades, and at the time of his retire- ment he was the oldest man in this field of industry in Calhoun county. Many other enterprises of like order had been established in Battle Creek, but his outlived them all. He had an extensive plant at 147-9 West Main street. His original plant, that established by his father, was destroyed by fire, and after renewing operation in the Leggett building he again met with similar disaster, after which he built the large plant on West Main street, where he built up an extensive and prosperous business. Eventually the available supply of lumber in this part of the state became so depleted that he deemed it expedient to close his factory, and he was further led to take this action on ac- count of advanced age and somewhat impaired health. He accordingly retired from active business in 1910, and there is no factory of similar functions in the city at the present time. The factory building has been remodeled and is now rented as an automobile garage. Along the frontage on West Main street Mr. Knight has erected a series of ten stores, which are rented for various lines of business. Mr. and Mrs. Knight have occupied their present home, at 52 West Van Buren street, for the past thirty-six years, and the gracious hospitality of the same has never waned.
In politics Mr. Knight has ever given unqualified allegiance to the Republican party and he is admirably fortified in his opinions con- cerning matters of public polity. He has taken deep interest in all that has tended to advance the civic and material progress and pros- perity of his home city and native county, both of which are endeared to him by many gracious associations and memories. He and his wife have been for many years zealous members of the First Baptist church and both were formerly active in connection with the various depart- ments of its work, especially the Sunday school. Mrs. Knight is at the present time (1912) president of the Ladies Aid Society of this church, but advancing years and the cares of her home now prevent her from giving as much time as she formerly did to the affairs of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, various clubs and general social affairs. Both she and her husband are well known in Calhoun county and their circle of friends is limited only by that of their acquaintances. Mr. Knights is affiliated with Battle Creek Lodge, No. 12, Free & Accepted Masons and is a charter member and honored and valued comrade of Farragut Post, No. 32, Grand Army of the Republic.
On Christmas day of the year 1874 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Knight to Miss Delia A. Dilley, who was born and reared in Akron, Erie county, New York, and their ideal companionship has thus continued for nearly half a century. Mrs. Knight is a daughter of William Dilley, who came from Akron, New York, and established his home in Jackson county, Michigan, in the pioneer days. Mr. and Mrs. Knight have two children,-Willard A. and Lloyd O. The elder son is a representative member of the bar of Battle Creek and is individ- ually mentioned on other pages of this work. Lloyd O., who was en- gaged in manufacturing with his father in this city, married Miss Mary Courter, daughter of Prof. Frank C. Courter, a talented artist residing in the city of New York, and they have two sons,-Maxwell Lloyd and Robert Louis. Lloyd O. Knight and his family reside in an attractive home which adjoins that of his father and which was erected by the latter in 1876.
GEORGE S. SMITH. One of the fine old veterans of the Civil war, who has also worthily lived the useful life of a traveling man is George S. Smith, whose genial nature has won him many friends during his
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life's journey. He has lived in Calhoun county since he was a lad of eleven years and has therefore seen more than fifty years of develop- ment in this vicinity. His parents, Sidney and Mary P. (Lighthall) Smith, were both natives of New York state. They came to Michigan in 1854, locating in Calhoun county. The first farm purchased by Sid- ney Smith was in Marshall township, his later property being in Fre- donia township, where he erected good buildings and became one of the prosperous farmers of the community. His last residence was in the city of Marshall, where he died in 1883, the seventy-sixth year of his life. Mrs. Sidney Smith lived until 1887. She and her husband were the parents of five children, of whom George S. was the first.
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