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 59
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WILLIAM G. COBURN, superintendent of schools of Battle Creek, and one of that city's foremost citizens, was born in Scotland, not far from Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott, March 27, 1864. When four years of age he came to the United States with his parents, the family locating in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where Mr. Coburn attended the public schools. When he was twelve years old the family went to Richmond Michigan, the father, William Coburn, there following the trade of a blacksmith. His death occurred in Kalamazoo county in 1905, and his widow, who bore the maiden name of Margaret Laidlaw, now resides near Galesburg, in that county. There were four sons and two daugh- ters in the family, one of the sons being now deceased, and William G. is the third in order of birth.
In 1877 William G. Coburn began working on a farm, an occupation which he continued until he was eighteen years of age, spending only four months of each year in the schoolroom. After two years experience as a country schoolteacher, he entered the preparatory department of Kalamazoo College, whence, having completed the sophomore year, he entered the University of Michigan as a junior. He finished the course in 1890, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and also a State certifi- cate. In the fall of the same year he was offered the chair of Greek in an Ohio college, but, preferring public school work, he accepted the prin- cipalship of a high school in Minnesota. Returning to his own state after a year in the west, he accepted the superintendency of the Vicksburg schools. Notwithstanding the fact that the schools there were little better than those of rural districts, he improved them after three years of labor by the placing of the high school upon the University of Michigan list for two courses and the school board there showed its appreciation of his ability by raising his salary beyond the limit of the former super- intendents. However, this town could not compete with large places, and much to the regret of most of the citizens Mr. Coburn accepted an offer from Allegan, Michigan, such as Vicksburg could not hope to make. There he met with equal success, and in the spring of 1895 he added that school to the University of Michigan list for three courses, viz : B. L.,
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B. S. and Ph. B. In 1895 Mr. Coburn accepted the superintendency of the Battle Creek schools, and at the present time is holding that posi- tion. He belongs to Battle Creek Commandery No. 33, and was com- mander thereof for two years, and also belongs to the Blue Lodge of Galesburg, and Battle Creek Chapter, and to the Knights of Pythias. His religious connection is with the First Methodist Episcopal church.
On July 3, 1895, Mr. Coburn was married at Galesburg, Michigan, to Miss Nina M. Tobey, daughter of Hiram D. and Margaret M. (Mason) Tobey. Mrs. Coburn was educated in Battle Creek, and is a graduate of the Battle Creek high school and attended the University of Michigan. Her father, a farmer by occupation, is now deceased, while her mother makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Coburn. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Coburn : Margaret M., Catherine L. and William M., all in Battle Creek. The family home is at No. 14 West street, and Mr. Coburn maintains an office in the Willard Library. Mr. Coburn has made an excellent official, giving a conscientious regard to his duties that has been the medium through which many changes have been wrought in the public school system of Battle Creek. He is highly respected by his numerous acquaintances and associates, and is a man in whom the people of the county in which he resides have great confidence.
LAWRENCE P. HUBBARD. With practically unimpaired mental and physical vitality, Mr. Hubbard is one of the most venerable citizens of all who have continuously maintained their home in Calhoun county, and he has been familiar with its history from the territorial epoch in the annals of Michigan, so that his memory compasses the entire period of the history of this commonwealth as one of the sovereign states of the Union. Mr. Hubbard has had a career of marked activity and useful- ness and was long and prominently identified with the agricultural and stock-breeding interests of Calhoun county, within whose borders he still retains a valuable landed estate in Marshall township. This includes his finely improved farm of three hundred acres and also the little farm of sixty acres on which he resides, the latter being within the city limits of the city of Marshall. He is now living virtually retired and is en- joying the well earned rewards of former years of earnest toil and endeavor, the while he has secure place in the confidence and regard of the people of the county which has so long represented his home and in which he is now one of the representative pioneer citizens.
Lawrence P. Hubbard was born in Sherburne, Chenango county, New York, on the 6th of July, 1825, and is a son of Cyrus and Clarice (Preston) Hubbard, the former of whom was born in Massachusetts and the latter in Connecticut, both having been representatives of families that were founded in New England in the colonial days. In 1836 Cyrus Hubbard came to Michigan and purchased a tract of eighty acres of timbered land in Marshall township, Calhoun county. He thus estab- lished his home in the county the year prior to the admission of Michi- gan to statehood, and he contributed his quota to the civic and indus- trial development and progress of Calhoun county. He added to his holdings until he had a farm of two hundred acres, and both he and his wife continued to reside on their original homestead until their death. Their first dwelling was a log house, twenty-four by thirty feet in dimen- sions, and in completing the same he purchased lumber pine at the rate of six dollars a thousand feet. Cyrus Hubbard was a man of superior mentality and marked force of character, so that he became influential in connection with public affairs in the pioneer community, in which he was ever ready to lend his co-operation in the carrying forward of progressive enterprises. He was about 76 years of age at the time of his
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demise and his devoted wife passed away when about 84 years of age. Of their children three attained to years of maturity and of the number one son is now living.
In the pioneer public schools of Marshall, the judicial center of Cal- houn county, Lawrence Preston Hubbard acquired his early educa- tional discipline, as he was about eleven years of age at the time of the family removal to Michigan. In a reminiscent way he recalls the cir- cumstance that when a lad of fourteen years he was sent with team and wagon to Detroit, with sixteen barrels of flour, and seven days were re- quired to make the trip. After leaving school he continued to be iden- tified with the work and management of the home farm until he had attained to the age of twenty-six years, when, in 1851, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Henrietta Hotchkiss, who was a graduate of Olivet College and a representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of Oswego, New York. After thus assuming connubial responsibilities Mr. Hubbard purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land, in Bedford township, and later he purchased an additional tract of one hundred and twenty acres. He bought the latter in November, for a consideration of four thousand dollars, and sold the same for seven thousand dollars. After disposing of his original farmstead Mr. Hubbard returned to Marshall township, where he purchased an excellent farm of one hundred and twenty acres and turned his attention specially to the breeding of high-grade short-horn cattle. He gained wide reputation in this im- portant field of industrial enterprise, in connection with which he ex- hibited his stock at state and county fairs and sold many fine animals for breeding purposes, throughout divers sections of the United States. The high class of his stock will be recognized when it is stated that he sold one cow for four hundred dollars and a calf for six hundred dollars. He became one of the leading cattle breeders of this section of the state and continued to be identified with this line of enterprise for many years, in addition to which he utilized his farm also for diversified agriculture. Energetic and progressive and endowed with excellent business acumen, Mr. Hubbard gained large and worthy success, and tangible evidence of the same is shown in his fine landed estate of the present day. He has other investments of a capitalistic order and is one of the substantial men of the county, even as he is one of its best known and most highly esteemed pioneer citizens, and has resided on his attractive little farm, just outside the corporate limits of Marshall, since 1872.
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In politics Mr. Hubbard espoused the cause of the Republican party at the time of its organization and supported its first presidential can- didate, Lincoln. He voted for Grover Cleveland as the Democratic candidate for the presidency, when he showed his independence and his determinate convictions by supporting the latter. Since that time he has been aligned in the ranks of the Democratic party, though in local affairs he gives his support to the men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment, without regard to strict partisan lines.
On the 16th of July, 1912, Mr. Hubbard celebrated his eighty-seventh birthday anniversary, and that he is one of the youngest of pioneer citizens and gives effective denial of the years that have passed over his head is shown by the fact that one of his chief diversions is to possess himself of a cane pole and other adequate facilities and set forth on a fishing excursion. On each occasion he proves that his ability as a pis- catorial artist has not waned. He has a host of friends in the county that has been his home since his boyhood days, and his reminiscences concerning the pioneer era in the history of this favored section of the state are most graphic and interesting.
Mrs. Henrietta (Hotchkiss) Hubbard, the first wife of the subject of
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this review, was summoned to the life eternal, and the three surviving children of this union are : Cyrus M., a representative merchant of Kala- mazoo, Michigan; Susan E., who is the wife of Frank Tillitson, of Mar- shall; and Helen C., who is the wife of Charles Mayne, of Los Angeles, California. Mr. Hubbard married second Miss Nancy M. Brown, and she passed away in 1905, being survived by two children, Mary M., who is the wife of Frank D. Mitchell, and Clara M., who is the wife of Robert Morrison, of New York city.
WILLIAM C. GAGE. The late William C. Gage was one of the business builders and civic leaders of Battle Creek, and at his death, which occurred on Monday, September 9, 1907, the sense of the community agreed in this estimation and also that one of its fine characters had been removed from the living citizenship.
The late Mr. Gage was born at Pepperell, Massachusetts, January 10, 1842, a son of Caleb and Susan (Claggett) Gage. When he was two years old his parents returned to their native state, New Hampshire, where he was reared and received his early schooling. Over fifty years of his life were spent in the printing trade and business, so that he began his apprenticeship very young, learning the trade at Manchester, New Hampshire. When he first located at Battle Creek, in 1867, he was con- nected with the office of the old Review & Herald. Ill health caused him to return to New Hampshire, where he remained for seven years, and then became a permanent resident of Battle Creek. For a few years he was again with the Review & Herald, but in 1883 began independently, on a small scale, a printing business which, under its present form and equipment, is one of the most prosperous concerns of the kind in the state of Michigan. It was his energy, skill and business principles which proved the substantial foundation on which the modern establishment rests. At the time of his death he held the office of chairman of the Gage Printing Company, Ltd., although he had not been active in the management of the business for some time previously.
As a successful business man Mr. Gage had also taken part in the public responsibilities of citizenship. He served as mayor in 1882, and . was also a trustee of the public schools and a member of the Board of Public Works for some time. For many years he had been an adherent of the Seventh Day Adventist faith and a member of the local church, his large funeral being conducted at the Tabernacle. His widow, Mrs. Nellie L. Gage, and four children survive him, namely : Fred W. Gage, Frank H. Gage, Mrs. Paul Roth and Mrs. L. C. Coulston.
FRED W. GAGE. The large four-story building at 25-27 McCamly street, North, contains one of the leading enterprises of Battle Creek, the Gage Printing Company, Limited. Besides its facilities for printing, especially for high-class typographical work, the plant includes a bind- ery, and engraving and electrotyping departments. So extensive are its facilities, that its products go to every part of the state and many other states. Finely illustrated catalogues have been a specialty for a num- ber of years, and the company has also furnished large amounts of print- ing for the Michigan Central, the Grand Trunk and other railroads. The present officers of the company are : Mrs. Nellie L. Gage, chairman ; John B. Neale, vice chairman; Thomas C. Morgan, secretary ; Fred W. Gage, treasurer.
The founder of this business was the late William C. Gage, whose career has been sketched above. Associated with his father for many years and finally assuming the responsibilities of the business from him, Fred W. Gage, the company's treasurer, has devoted all his active career
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to the printing business. Born at Manchester, New Hampshire, April 5, 1866, he spent most of his youth at Battle Creek and completed his education in the Battle Creek College. He became a practical printer in the employ of the old Review & Herald while his father was connected with that establishment. He then joined the latter in establishing the independent business of William C. Gage & Sons. Through the energy of its owners, this business has kept pace with the growth of Battle Creek, and now ranks among the leading printing establishments of the state. The building where the plant is located was erected in 1890, and ten years later the business was incorporated as the Gage Printing Company, Ltd.
Mr. Fred W. Gage outside of business is identified with much of the social and civic life of his city. Music has been one of his avocations, and he is president of the Battle Creek Amateur Musical Club. He is himself a pianist of some ability. At this writing he is also president of the Employing Photo Engravers Association of America, is a member of the executive committee of the International Photo Engravers Associa- tion, and of the International Electrotypers Association, and is a member of the Chicago Press Club. As secretary he has been of much service to the Battle Creek Chautauqua Association. The Athelstan Club and the local lodge of Elks are his social clubs.
Mr. Gage and family reside at 15 Bidwell street West. He was mar- ried in 1887 to Miss Kate M. Amadon, who died in 1909. Their four sons are Harry L., Edwin B., Walter H. and William C.
JAMES M. POWERS. On the roll of Calhoun county's honored and representative citizens is to be found the name of James M. Powers, for many years one of the leading legists of Battle Creek, and still one of the greatest criminal lawyers in the State. Mr. Powers was born in Attica township, Wyoming county, New York, February 17, 1848, a son of John R. and Hannah (Johnson) Powers, the former descended from Irish ancestors who settled in Vermont, and the latter of Scotch extraction, her people having settled in the western part of New York.
James M. Powers was three years of age when his parents came to Michigan and settled in Assyria township, Barry county, and there he passed his boyhood days, working on his father's farm and attending the common schools in the winter until he was twenty years of age. From 1868 until 1876 he taught school during the winters, with the exception of two years which he spent in the pineries, and worked at the carpenter trade in the summer, usually attending normal school in the fall. Many influences were drawing him to the law as a great life labor. His brother was studying law in the University of Michigan, and James went to Ann Arbor with him to stay until the brother got started in his studies. While there he became interested in the law himself and determined to take a full course. On October 1, 1876, he entered the law department of the University of Michigan, graduating in the class of 1878, and was admitted to the bar at Charlotte, Michi- gan, during the April term of court, 1878. He then practiced alone for a time at Bellevue, Michigan, then removing to Charlotte, where he carried on a general practice by himself until March 1, 1894, then entering into a partnership with one of the priminent attorneys of the central part of the state, under the firm name of Powers & Stine. Mr. Powers gained a wide reputation as a trial lawyer, exercising the greatest care in preparing his cases so as to cover every possible line of attack and defense. He was the Democratic candidate for circuit judge in 1893, but was defeated by a very small vote; was delegate to Vol. 11-26
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the Chicago convention in 1896; served as mayor of Charlotte in 1897, and was city attorney there for several years. In July, 1902, Mr. Powers came to Battle Creek and established offices in the Ward build- ing, but after the death of his son, in 1910, removed to suite No. 2, in the Kingman Block, where he carries on an active and representative general practice. His residence is located at No. 291 West Main street. Fraternally, Mr. Powers is a Royal Arch Mason, member of Blue Lodge No. 12 of Battle Creek and Royal Arch of Charlotte and the Council of Charlotte, and in politics, since the nomination of Theodore Roose- velt has voted the Republican ticket in national matters, although in local affairs he reserves the right to vote for the man he deems best fitted for the office at state, irrespective of party lines.
On December 27, 1877, occurred the marriage of Mr. Powers with Miss Eliza Davis, of Assyria township, Barry county, Michigan, where her father was one of the solid and substantial farmers of the com- munity. Three sons were born to this union: LaVerne, Harold and Leslie. Leslie took a course as electrician but his health failed and so he is living quietly at his father's home. Harold graduated in Busi- ness College at Battle Creek, studied in his father's office, was book- keeper two years and three years with Nichols & Shepard as steno- grapher and is now doing a profitable mail order business in Battle Creek for himself. Harold married Mabel Kelsey of Battle Creek and they have a son, Harold J., born March 25th, 1909.
La Verne Powers, who was known as one of the most able trial lawyers of the younger generation in the state, was born at Bellevue, Eaton county, Michigan, October 2, 1879, and after graduation from the high school entered the law department of the University of Michi- gan. He was admitted to the bar in April, 1902, by the Supreme Court of Michigan, and took charge of his father's practice in Charlotte. About two years later he joined his father in Battle Creek, and was engaged in practice with him in the Ward building until his death, July 3, 1910, although he had also conducted an office in Marshall, Michigan, for a short period. With an excellent training, natural in- clination for his profession and inherited ability, he had a brilliant future before him, and his death was a distinct loss to the profession as well as to the many friends who had been drawn to him by his at- tractive and manly qualities. In September, 1902, he was married to Miss Estella Wollford, of New York, and to this union a daughter, Jane Lucille, was born April 22, 1910. The widow and child now make their home in Battle Creek.
DAVID HENNING FRAZER. To a former generation one of the names most intimately associated by the citizens of Calhoun county with busi- ness sagacity and enterprise was that of David Henning, often called the "apple king" of Michigan. Though not a regular resident of this county, he was known personally and through business relations to hundreds of apple raisers and citizens generally throughout this section of the state. His name and family, however, are permanently repre- sented in Battle Creek by his grandson, David Henning Frazer, vice president of the Battle Creek Gas Company, who has been identified with .this city since 1898 and is prominent in business and civic affairs.
Mr. Frazer was born in Chicago, March 14, 1876, a son of Sidney L. and Mary L. (Henning) Frazer. His father, who was a native of Covington, Kentucky, was a stock broker of Chicago, where he died in April 1911. The mother, who was born at Ann Arbor, is now living in New York City. David Henning, her father, who died in April, 1901, spent most of his life as a resident of Chicago, though his business inter-
D.H. Frazes.
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ests were of such varied scope that he was practically a citizen of many communities. His business as an apple dealer brought him in contact with the producers of this fruit in many states, and he had his apple stations all along the line of the Michigan Central. In his later years he retired from this business, and then became interested in gas nnd electric lighting enterprises. His capital and management were in the gas and electric plants at Leavenworth, Kansas, Springfield and St. Joseph, Missouri, and in 1898 he bought the principal stock in the Battle Creek Gas Company, of which he was president up to the time of his death, and part of the time was a resident in this city.
David H. Frazer is the oldest of three children. His sister is the wife of S. J. Rathbun, of the Rathbun-Kraft Lumber Company at Battle Creek, and his brother, Sidney L., is a resident of Grand Rapids.
Dr. Frazer was reared and educated in Chicago until he was nine- teen, at which time he became connected with the management of his grandfather's plant at Springfield, Missouri. Three years later, in 1898, he took charge of the gas company in Battle Creek. At that time only six hundred patrons used the product of the company's plant; now there are over six thousand customers, and the business has been devel- oped to one of the most important of the public service facilities of the city. Mr. E. Henning, an uncle of Mr. Frazer, is president of the company and resides in Chicago, while Mr. Frazer is vice president, treasurer and general manager.
As a citizen Mr. Frazer has taken an active part in many of the progressive movements of his home city. He served as president, during 1908-9, of the Battle Creek Industrial Association, and was president of the Michigan Gas Association in 1908. He is a member of the Elks club in Battle Creek, and was president of the Athelstan Club from Oc- tober, 1910, to the same month in 1911. He is also a member of the Country Club, of which he was vice president in 1910, and for the past nine years has been a member of the vestry of St. Thomas Episcopal church. He and his family reside at 65 Orchard avenue.
December 1, 1899, at Springfield, Missouri, Mr. Frazer married Miss Hattie Hubbell. She was born and received her education in Springfield. Her family goes back a number of generations in American history, and as a member of the Daughters of the Revolution is a lineal descendant of one of the patriots of '76. Her father was L. W. Hubbell of Springfield. Her grandfather, E. C. Leach, was prominent in early Michigan history, was one of the men who founded the Republican party in their famous convention at Jackson. During the Civil war he was one of Michigan's congressmen, and also served in the state legislature. For a number of years he was editor of the Traverse City Herald, and at one time held the position of government Indian agent.
Mr. and Mrs. Frazer are the parents of four children: Ruth Shelton, David Henning Jr., Mary Elizabeth and Barbara Leach.
HON. JAMES GREEN, was born in Littleport, England, on October 5, 1840, and died in Battle Creek, Michigan, July 27, 1900. He came to America in 1844 with his parents who first settled in Stratford, New York, but later came to Michigan. In 1852, James Green, then a lad of twelve years, came to Battle Creek and made his home with the family of the late Charles P. Coy, then residing on what is now the Foster farm at Goguac lake. When a young man he came into the city, believing that with his particular ability success for him lay in mercantile pursuits, a decision which his successful career has amply justified. In 1873 Mr. Green, who had for some time been connected with the Sweetland & Smith Lumber Company of Battle Creek, be- came associated with Messre. Mason & Rathbun, who had in 1868 estab-
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