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 67
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The personal history of this late citizen of Battle Creek is closely related with the history of this portion of the state from the pioneer period down to the present time. The Eldreds were not only among the first settlers but were among the builders of the civic and business structure most characteristic of this part of the state.
Nelson Eldred was born at Laurens, Otsego county, New York, January 9, 1822, and died at Battle Creek, September 9, 1903, aged eighty-one years and eight months. Vermont was the original home of the family during the late colonial period, and Daniel Eldred, the grandfather of Nelson, was a highly respected citizen of Pownal, that state, where he spent his entire life. At Pownal also were born Caleb and Phoebe (Brownell) Eldred, the father and mother of the late Battle Creek citizen. Caleb was born in 1781 and his wife in 1783, and they were married in 1802. The following year they made the first stage of their westward migration and settled in the wilderness at Laurens,
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New York. Here Caleb Eldred bore the brunt of pioneer development in the clearing and improvement of about five hundred acres of land. His was one of the first brick residences in that vicinity, and he burned the brick on his own farm. He was one of the big factors in an early community, and besides directing the agricultural operations over a large tract of land he was one of the early manufacturers of local necessities. His grist and sawmill was a supply center for his neighborhood, and also, in the days when the business had no public opprobrium, he con- ducted a distillery. His prominence in the county led to his election to the state legislature.
In 1830, six years before Michigan became a state, Caleb Eldred made a prospecting tour of this western country. At Jackson, where he was confined by illness for several days, only two log houses marked the site of the now prosperous city. The following year witnessed his emigration and permanent settlement in southern Michigan. As those familiar with the early history of Michigan, know, at that time the country was "settled up" hardly further west from Detroit than Ann Arbor and all the now wealthy and populous counties to the west were still in the wilderness domain with settlers' cabins only here and there. From New York Mr. Eldred made the long trip with team and wagon, and crossed the Detroit river on the ice. Continuing along the route of the old Detroit-Chicago road to St. Joseph county, much of the time his journey being made through snow, he finally reached the site of Kala- mazoo, which then contained one house. The settlement at Comstock, in the same county, it was thought, would be chosen for the county seat, and there Caleb Eldred built his cabin and spent the winter. The achievement by which he gained lasting recognition in the pioneer history 'of Kalamazoo county was his building of the first grist and saw mill, during the summer of 1832. The same summer he was joined by the rest of his family from the east. The land office at White Pigeon for the sale of all this portion of the state had been opened only in June, 1831, and improvement had hardly progressed to the point of laying out the traces of public roads; not a stream or marsh was yet bridged between Ann Arbor and Comstock.
In the meantime Caleb and one of his sons had found a beautiful little prairie which they had chosen as the site for their permanent settlement. In the discussion of a name for the prairie, the son (Daniel B. Eldred) said: "This caps the climax of all we have seen, and I pro- pose we call it Climax," which name was at once adopted and has been retained to the present day. In this vicinity Caleb Eldred entered three quarter sections, and his sons secured themselves other tracts. After two years at Comstock he sold his mills and removed to Climax prairie, which was his home until his death.
In many ways Caleb Eldred was distinguished among his contem- poraries. For a brief time after his arrival in the state he served in the territorial legislature, and became a member of the first state legislature, during the time Stephen A. Mason was governor. He was also in the legislature when its members were invited to ride on the first train run over the railroad west as far as Ypsilanti. During the territorial period he was appointed a circuit judge in Kalamazoo county. In politics in early life he had been a Democrat but afterwards became and remained .a stanch Republican. As a member of the Baptist church, he had taken an active part in the organization of the first society on Climax prairie. In a very practical sense he was one of the founders of Kalamazoo Col- lege. Elder Merrill, an educated clergyman from the east, whose family then lived in Pontiac, Michigan, cherished the project of found- ing an institution of higher learning and had ridden over a large area
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of this region partly on his clerical duties and partly to encourage the idea of a college among the citizens. In Mr. Eldred he found an able and enthusiastic coadjutor, who at once took much of the preparatory work on himself. Together they finally secured a charter for the loca- tion of such a school at Kalamazoo, and with the funds raised through their efforts the schools was begun, under the auspices of the Baptist church. For a number of years Caleb Eldred was chairman of its board of trustees. The institution was reorganized under its present name and charter in 1843.
Caleb Eldred died in 1876, at the advanced age of ninety-five, having survived his wife twenty-three years. Ten of their children reached mature years.
Nelson Eldred was ten years old when the family came to Michigan, so that he grew up amid the pioneer environment. From that time on his education was such as the limited local facilities could supply. His father had a private tutor for the children one winter, and in the fall of 1837 he entered the institute at Kalamazoo which his father had been instrumental in founding. Four years of his student days were spent there. In 1841 he took up the practical affairs of life on the farm at Climax prairie, and for many years followed farming as a vocation. At the time of his death he still owned the tract of land where he had begun his career, and the buildings which he erected in 1849 are still standing. A part of the land which had been entered by his father has never been out of the family name. His own homestead consisted of two hundred and forty acres, all highly improved, and not far away he owned another tract of eighty acres. This farm was his home until 1866, in which year he took up his residence and began his business career in Battle Creek.
The previous year he had purchased the hardware store of Brooks & Barber, and now engaged in its active management. In 1866 he bought the residence property at 211 Maple street which was his home during the remainder of his life and where his son Willard now lives. The firm of Eldred & Peters continued in the hardware business until 1871, when Mr. Eldred sold his interests. He then, in association with Richmond and R. P. Kingman, established the City Bank of Battle Creek, a successful institution which is largely a monument to his financial sagacity and judgment. He was one of its first board of directors and the last survivor of this membership of seven. From 1875 until his death he was president of the bank, and when he died was the oldest bank president in southern Michigan. His sound judgment in financial transactions was rarely, if ever, at fault, and this faculty had much to do with the permanent prosperity of the City Bank.
At the organization of the Battle Creek Gas Company in 1871 he became one of the directors, and was connected with this public utility until it was transferred to the new company a few years before his death. Various other corporate business concerns enjoyed the benefit of his financial interest and management. Adjoining the city and near Goguac Lake was his fine farm of two hundred acres, forty acres of which has since been subdivided and constitutes the addition known as Highland Park.
November 15, 1848, Nelson Eldred married Miss Sarah Holden, and fifty years later, at their home on Maple street, they celebrated the golden anniversary commemorating their long and happy wedded life. Mrs. Eldred was born at Arlington, Bennington county, Vermont, a daughter of John Holden. The family located in Michigan in 1838, but she remained in the east until her education was completed, and joined her parents in South Climax in 1845, where three years later she was
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married. Her death occurred April 11, 1900, at the age of seventy- four. She was a member of the Episcopal church, while her husband attended and supported the Baptist denomination in which he had been reared. Of their two children, the son Nelson died in infancy, and the family's only representative in this branch is now Mr. Willard H. Eldred, whose sketch is given below.
The late Mr. Eldred in politics gave his allegiance to the Democratic party. He was never in practical politics, but as a successful business man and public-spirited citizen his services were sought for the man- agement of several local offices, so that he served as supervisor of his town in Climax, and in Battle Creek was a member of the school board and was mayor of the city for a time. In features and expression his friends often noted his resemblance to Lincoln, and he had many of the rugged but kindly, sagacious but straightforward qualities that such a resemblance would suggest. His life was broad in its interests, largely useful in its activities, and benevolent in its character. He was a citizen deserving the memory of subsequent generations.
WILLARD H. ELDRED, only son of the late Nelson Eldred, in the business circles of Battle Creek is probably best known through the large establishment at the corner of Jackson and Carlyle street where his business as wholesale manufacturer of harness and saddlery and jobber in saddlery, hardware, etc., is conducted. He is closely identified with the larger activities of his home city, and is one of the citizens upon whom the welfare and permanent prosperity of Battle Creek largely depend.
Mr. Eldred was born at the old family estate in Climax township of Kalamazoo county, April 23, 1855, and has been a resident of Battle Creek since he was eleven years old. His education was obtained in the local schools and he was a member of the high school class of 1871.
The harness and saddlery business was established here in 1877, and was conducted as a retail concern up to 1898, since which date he has confined the business to manufacturing and wholesaling of everything in this general department of trade. A number of traveling salesmen represent the house in different states. While this has been Mr. Eldred's principal business for the past thirty-five years, he has also been busied with many other interests. From his father's death up to April, 1910, he served as president of the City Bank, and is still a member of the board of directors. He is owner of a farm, aggregating one hundred and ten acres, just outside the city, and thirty-five acres is within the corporation limits. The old homestead of three hundred and seven acres, in Climax township, is still in his possession. Part of this land has had only two transfers, and he treasures the old deeds patent which were signed by President Andrew Jackson. Among his city real estate is the Eldred block at 2 Main street East, where the Kapp Clothing Company is. His father built this block. Another block on State street is also owned by Mr. Eldred.
A Democrat in politics, Mr. Eldred served on the board of public works during Mayor Green's administration. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias lodge, is a member of the Athelstan Club, and was a charter member of the Country Club but is not now a member of this organization.
June 23, 1880, Mr. Eldred married Miss Jessie M. Green. Her father was William H. Green, one of Battle Creek's prominent citizens. Mrs. Eldred was born and reared in this city. They are the parents of two children : Helena M., the wife of A. T. Dusenbury, of New Orleans, graduated from the Battle Creek high school just thirty years to a day later than her father. She was a student of Vassar College for a time,
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and later was in the public library at Battle Creek until her marriage. Miss Morna M., who lives at home and is a teacher in the public schools, was educated in this city and finished at Boston, where she prepared herself especially for kindergarten work. For one year she was in the government Indian school at Shawnee, Oklahoma, but has since lived at home.
WILLIAM H. GREEN. In the death of William H. Green, April 25, 1893, Battle Creek lost one of its valued citizens, a man who had been identified with the community for nearly forty years, and one of the early merchants of the city.
He was born in South Shaftsbury, Vermont, November 22, 1814, and became a resident in Battle Creek in 1856. In the list of merchants engaged in business during the succeeding years his name had high rank. He was an upright and honored citizen, and his career was fruitful of good service to the community.
Besides his contemporaries among the citizens who honor and respect his memory, Mr. Green's family are still represented in this city. He was first married at Poughkeepsie, New York, where he conducted a hardware business for several years, to Miss Sarah T. Free. Her death occurred in Poughkeepsie. In 1853 he married Miss Dorcas F. Lattin, who died at Battle Creek, in November, 1892. The living children of Mr. Green are as follows: Mrs. Burgette L. Dewey, of Dowagiac, Michigan, who is the only one living of the three children by his first wife; Mrs. Willard H. Eldred, of Battle Creek; Mrs. Fred S. Parker, Miss Anna Green of Aurora, Illinois; and W. A. Green, of Toledo, Ohio; Horace L. Green, of Chicago, Illinois; S. B. Pittee, of El Reno, Okla .; Mrs. A. W. Mather, deceased; and Miss Elizabeth A. Green, also de- ceased.
CHARLES W. GATCHELL. The annals of Calhoun county show many records of the lives of farmers who have rounded out the duties con- nected with agricultural pursuits, and have amassed considerable for- tunes gathered from the fertile soil. One who has met with remark- able success along these lines, and who has the added distinction of be- ing one of the county's self-made men, is Charles W. Gatchell, of Fre- donia township, where he is the owner of a handsome property consist- ing of 117 1-2 acres of well cultivated land. Mr. Gatchell was born in Clarendon township, Calhoun county, Michigan, October 3, 1856, and is a son of William J. and Diana (King) Gatchell.
William J. Gatchell was born in the State of Massachusetts in 1823, and as a young man came to Michigan and settled in Marshall, where he worked as a day laborer. During the excitement over the discovery of gold in California, Mr. Gatchell went to the Golden State to try his fortunes, and there was successful in his mining operations. On his return he engaged in farming, and at the time of his death left an estate valued at about $16,000. He was a Democrat in his political views, and with his family, attended the Methodist Episcopal church, in the faith of which he died in 1874. His wife, a native of New York, passed away in 1869, having been the mother of five children, of whom Charles W. was the third in order of birth.
Charles W. Gatchell attended the district schools of Clarendon town- ship, and as a youth began his business career as a farm hand, work- ing as such seven years. Being enterprising and industrious, by the end of this time he had accumulated enough money to purchase his sister's interest in an eighty-acre farm in Clarendon township, and
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immediately began to clear it up, selling many railroad ties and much timber to the railroad company. In 1898 Mr. Gatchell disposed of his Clarendon township interests and came to Fredonia township, where for nine years he rented a farm from the Westfall & Briggs estate. In 1906 he became the purchaser of his present fine property, a tract of 117 1-2 acres, which he has developed into one of the nicest farms in this part of the county, improving it with the erection of a new set of buildings and in many other ways. It has been greatly increased in value by reason of his intelligent operation of it and he has every reason to be proud of his success.
In 1884 Mr. Gatchell was married to Sarah Lee, daughter of James Lee, an early settler of Fredonia township, where he spent the last years of his life in farming, and a native of England. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gatchell: Alta, who attended the Marshall high school and then took a course in domestic sciences at Lansing, fol- lowing which she taught school for three years and now resides at home. She is a member of the Baptist church, in which she has been an active worker. Mr. Gatchell is a Republican in politics and supports that party's candidates, but does not seek public notice. He is a whole- souled, big-hearted man, always ready to help others, and always will- ing to assist in the advancement of his community. No movement for the betterment of the township which he approves fails to receive his support, and he has done much to bring about present prosperous con- ditions. It is to such men as he that the people of Calhoun county are proud to point as representative of their business men and agricultur- ists.
JOHN C. GOODRICH. With many men there seems to be but one line which they can follow, one vocation which fits their abilities, one special occupation in which they can find success, and until they have settled themselves in that special groove they make but little headway. To the man of versatile traits and abilities, however, any line of occu- pation which presents itself is acceptable, and if he be persistent enough he will win success in whatever field he finds himself. In this con- nection it is not inappropriate to sketch the career and activities of John C. Goodrich, of Ellis Corners, who is not only a man of versatile abilities, but is also a good example of the successful self-made man of today. Mr. Goodrich was born April 23, 1871, in Fredonia township, Calhoun county, Michigan, and is a son of John Christopher and Mar- ietta (Fox) Goodrich.
John Christopher Goodrich was born in Wurttemburg, Germany, in 1840, and came to the United States at the age of fourteen years, set- tling in Michigan, where he lived until 1896, when he left the state. Mr. Goodrich's paternal grandparents never left the Fatherland, but the maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Fox, natives of Penn- sylvania, were early settlers of Fredonia township, the grandfather being very successful in his business ventures and accumulating an estate valued at $55,000. In politics he was a Republican, was a faith- ful member of the Lutheran church, and was well and favorably known all over Calhoun county.
John C. Goodrich received his education in the country schools, and subsequently spent one year in Albion. For a part of one year Mr. Goodrich was employed in a drug store in Marshall, and in 1895, the same year that he was married, started a business establishment of his own at Ellis Corners, where he also acted as postmaster until 1904, a period of eight years, when the office was abandoned when the rural delivery route was done away with. He has a very large and profitable
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business, extending over a great deal of country territory in Calhoun county, and the success that has rewarded his efforts in this line has been duplicated by that which has come to him as a farmer, he being the owner of an excellent tract of seventy-seven acres. He handles a full line of high class goods needed by the people of his community, and his practice of giving the farmers with whom he deals the full worth of their produce as well as a square deal for their money, has won him a fine trade throughout the town and its vicinity. He is a good business man and realizes that his best profits will come through doing a large amount of business and having the confidence of his cus- tomers, and his business has increased correspondingly. He will be found supporting all movements for the good of the public or the com- munity. In politics he is a Republican, and in addition to having been postmaster, has also served one term as township treasurer. Fraternally he is connected with the Knights of the Maccabees, while in religious matters he is a Lutheran and Mrs. Goodrich a Congregationalist.
Mr. Goodrich was married in 1895 to Miss Lois Fry, daughter of Charles Fry, a farmer in Newton township, a German by descent who at his death left an estate valued at about eight or nine thousand dollars. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich, namely : Neva L., who is attending the Marshall high school; and Ruth M., the baby, who is two years of age.
JOHN BLUE. "When agriculture flourishes," observes Xenophon, "all other pursuits are in full vigor; but when the ground is forced to lie barren, other occupations are almost stopped." The truth of this statement has been proven time and again in every part of this country when drouth, long continued, has caused a crop failure, or when any of the various enemies of the farmer have caused there to be a shortage of the agriculturists' products. Therefore it is necessary that the agri- cultural interests of every community should be carefully conserved, and it is a noticeable fact that those communities which are the most prosper- ous are the ones which possess men skilled in the vocation of tilling the soil. In this respect Calhoun is indeed fortunate, some of the finest farms in the state being found within its borders, and among those who are assisting in advancing the development of the farming interests here is John Blue, of Fredonia township, where he was born January 11, 1850, a son of Gilbert and Nancy (Born) Blue.
Gilbert Blue was born in the state of New York, in 1816, and as early as 1836 came to Calhoun county, Michigan, and settled in Fredonia township, where he spent the remainder of his life in farming. He was twice married, having one child by his first wife, and by the second mar- riage there were the following children: Selina, who married Frank Cogswell and lives in Tekonsha; John; Leonard, living in the state of Washington; Arthur, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Willis, living in Clarendon township; and one who died in infancy. As a successful and progressive farmer, Mr. Blue accumulated a large tract of land, and at the time of his death in 1884 gave all his children the equivalent of 120 acres of land. The present home in which John Blue lives at this time, was built by the paternal grandfather, Ezekiel Blue, a native New Yorker, who came to Michigan in 1836, took up land from the govern- ment, and there spent the rest of his life in farming. The maternal grandfather, also a native of the Empire state, came to Michigan in 1838 and settled on a farm in Calhoun county, there spending the rest of his life in Calhoun county. Mrs. Blue, who was born in New York in 1828, died in July, 1908, in Tekonsha township. Mrs. Blue's father, Wm. A. Warner was a soldier in the Mexican war, and one of the party
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who traveled overland to the gold fields of California in 1849. Was there two years, was successful there and then returned to Calhoun county.
John Blue was educated in the district schools and subsequently at- tended a commercial college for a short period, and when his schooldays were over he gave his attention to the operation of the home farm. Later his father gave him 120 acres of land in Clarendon township, on which he resided for twenty-three years, accumulating 236 acres, and in 1900 came to his present farm in Fredonia township, where he has fifty-eight acres of well-cultivated land.
Mr. Blue was married March 15, 1883, to Miss Mary Warner, daugh- ter of William A. and Maria (Finch) Warner, natives of New York, where the former was born in 1816 and the latter in 1820. Mr. Warner came to Michigan with his father and Asie Finch, in 1832 and took up a great deal of land in Albion township, where he spent the remainder of his life. The paternal grandfather, Warham Warner, became a promi- nent man of his township and gave all of his children a home. His son, William A. Warner, was well known in Democratic politics and held numerous township offices in Calhoun county. His death occurred in 1884 and that of his wife in 1906, Mrs. Blue being the seventh in order of birth of her parents' nine children, of whom six are now living. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Blue, namely: Florence, a graduate of Marshall high school and of Kalamazoo Normal, now a teacher in Coldwater public schools; and William, who graduated from high school, took a three-year course in the agricultural college, and now resides at home and is assisting his father in working the home farm.
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