USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun county, Michigan, With Illustrations descriptive of its scenery > Part 28
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AUGUSTUS O. HYDE.
Among the prominent merchants and leading citizens of the city of Marshall we find Augustus O. Hyde is justly placed. Coming to Marshall when it was but a small village, and casting in his fortunes with it, he has seen it steadily rise to a city of over five thousand inhabitants, with more than one hundred business houses and manufactures ; with schools and church privileges second to no city of even twice its size in the State. Connected as he has been with all of these enterprises from the beginning, it is with a commendable pride that he looks upon the progress and advancement of the city of which he has been a resident for nearly forty years. Mr. Hyde comes of full-blooded Yankee stock, his father, Ebby Hyde, being a native of glorious old Berkshire, Massachusetts, and his mother, Betsey (Osborn) Hyde, of Lebanon, Connecticut. His grandfather, Caleb Hyde, emigrated from Berkshire to Broome county, New York, in an early
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
day, and bought a large tract of land therein, which was divided among three or four sons, whose descendants gave to the portion of the township wherein they settled the name of Hyde settlement; and, though death has been busy among them, and emigration has taken its full quota from their midst, yet the township is still largely peopled by the Hyde family and their relatives.
The subject of this sketch, Augustus O. Hyde, was born in the town of Lisle, Broome county, New York, June 1, 1816, where he resided, with his parents, until he was fourteen years of age, when the family removed to Virgil, Cortland county, New York, where the youth resided for two years longer, having obtained in Broome and Cortland a good common-school education. At sixteen years of age he went to Ithaca, and entered the drug-store of Schuyler, where he remained four years, and thence to Elmira, into the drug-store of John Slover, for three years longer. In 1838 the young man came to Marshall, Michigan, seeking em- ployment, but, not finding it, engaged for some eight or nine months on the rail- road then in process of construction between Ann Arbor and Jackson. He then returned to New York for a few months, and came back to Marshall in 1839, and engaged in a grocery-store for a short time, at the end of which he bought the stock out, and converted it into a drug-store, on the identical spot he now occupies, making the transfer in 1840. Except a partnership with H. N. Joy, from 1858 to 1865, he has been mostly engaged alone in the druggist line of trade from 1840 to the present, continuously. In 1863 his store was burned out, but his trade was not thereby interrupted, except for a very brief period ; he gathered up the remnant of his stock saved from destruction, and added a new stock at once, and, in 1865, built his present fine brick store in State street. In connection with his druggist's trade, Mr. Hyde has been an extensive wool-buyer, in the season, for many years; in fact, nearly ever since there was any of that staple offered for sale in Calhoun County. He also deals largely in furs, and has been so engaged for twenty-five years past.
Mr. Hyde is a sterling member of the Republican party, and was an enthusi- astic Whig in the days of that grand old organization. He has been the alderman of his ward for several years, at the end of which term of service, in 1869-70, he was elected mayor of the city. He has been for seven years past a member of the school-board of the city, and for three years past the director of the board. In 1868, he was elected one of the county superintendents of the poor, by the board of supervisors, and still holds the position, having been re-elected twice for a term of three years each. Associated with him are Judge T. W. Hall, of Bat- tle Creek, who has been on the board of superintendents ten years, and E. H. Johnson, who has been a member of the same board fourteen years,-eleven years continuously. In this responsible and delicate position these gentlemen have won the admiration and commendation of the people of the county. The disburse- ments, which in 1850, at the time of building the almshouse, covered a few hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of dollars, now aggregate the magnificent sum of over twenty-three thousand dollars, every penny of which is expended under the careful scrutiny of these gentlemen. Their firmness must be equal to their humanity, and their discernment, in order to detect imposture, as keen as their sympathies for real misfortune are lively ; and the best proof of their fitness for the position is their continued re-election for successive terms to the same.
On the 1st day of June, 1841, Mr. Hyde was united in marriage to Miss Al- mira Downs, daughter of Lemuel L. and Harriet (Joy) Downs, natives of Con- necticut and Vermont respectively. The children of this marriage are as follows : James Downs Hyde, born December 19, 1843; Frederick Augustus, born July 16, 1849; Mary Wallingford, born February 1, 1855; William Lemuel, born May 9, 1857 ; and Harry Joy, born June 24, 1860.
Mr. Hyde's religious inclinations are towards the tenets of the Presbyterian church, his family, and both sides of his house, having been stanch members of that church. Mrs. Hyde is a member of the Presbyterian church of Marshall, of several years' standing.
EARL SMITH.
Mr. Earl Smith was born in the township of Union, Branch county, Michigan, on the day of reverential memory, February 22, in the year 1839. His father, Gideon, and mother, Betsy (Olds), Smith, were natives of New York State. In 1836 they removed to Branch county, Michigan, and took up their residence on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, in the township of Union. Here Earl was born. His life to his majority was spent much as was that of boys of that period, in attending the district schools and assisting on the farm. He attended a select school for a while, which finished his education by such means. He re- mained with his father until he was twenty-four years of age, and then went away
from the old homestead, having, on the 20th of February, 1862, taken to him- self a wife, Miss Sarah A. Adams, daughter of William and Mehitable (Bucking- ham) Adams, natives of New York. Mrs. Smith was born in Burlington town- ship, July 31, 1841, her parents being among the first settlers in that township.
In 1863, Mr. Smith removed to Burlington, where he now owns a fine farm of two hundred and sixty acres, which lies partly in the village corporation of Bur- lington. He sold goods in Burlington village for a number of years, and was division treasurer of the construction fund of the Mansfield, Coldwater and Lake Michigan railroad, which was graded through the township and village.
Two children have gladdened the homestead of Mr. and Mrs. Smith,-Elbie, born November 22, 1863, and Isola, born July 3, 1871.
Politically, Mr. Smith has always been a firm Republican. His first vote for president was cast for Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Three times his township chose him for the office of clerk. In 1872 he was elected to the office of county treasurer of Calhoun County, which position he now occupies, having entered upon his third consecutive term. January 1, 1877, Mr. Smith's popularity was amply attested by his re-election to the important and responsible position of cus- todian of the public funds continuously. He was nominated by acclamation for his second and third terms, each time receiving a majority which was more complimentary than the preceding ones.
SAMUEL J. BURPEE.
Among the earlier settlers of the city of Marshall was Samuel Stanford Burpee, the father of the subject of the present sketch. He was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, in the year 1801, and married Mary Ann Cummings, who was a native of Royalston, Massachusetts, and emigrated to Michigan in 1835, where, in the city of Marshall, he opened the first tinner's shop in Calhoun County, to which he subsequently added a hardware stock. On the 25th day of June, 1837, Samuel J. Burpee was born, the only child of the above-named marriage; Samuel S. Burpee also being an only child of his parents. Samuel J. resided at home, attending the public schools from and after a suitable age, until fourteen years old, when he was apprenticed to the tinners' trade, which avocation he followed in his father's employ until he attained his majority, at which period he entered the establishment of his father as a partner, and continued a member of the firm until the death of the elder Burpee, on the 31st day of December, 1864, since which time he has conducted the business alone. The firm built the present fine brick store occupied by Mr. Burpee, No. 110 State street, in 1861. Mrs. Burpee, the mother, resides on the same lot occupied also by her son, and is now aged sixty-five years. In political affiliations the senior Burpee was formerly a radical anti-slavery Whig, and was a member of the Republican party after it rose until his death. Samuel J. Burpee is a radical Republican, and always has been, and by his zeal and liberality has done much effective work for the cause the party advocates and has advocated. From 1868 to 1872, both years inclusive, he held the position of alderman of the second ward of the city. In 1873 he was elected mayor of the city, and in January, 1874, he was appointed postmaster of Marshall, which position he still holds. While alderman, and chairman of the Committee on the Fire Department, he recommended the adoption of the present artesian water system, and, so confident was he of its successful utilization, he procured the sinking of the first well upon his own responsibility. The hopes of the chairman being realized fully, the council at once adopted the system, and named the first well in honor of Mr. Burpee. While occupying the mayoralty, he also secured the opening of the old court-house square as a public park, the desires of many being to have it converted into lots and extend the street through it. The wisdom of the mayor is now acknowledged by all of the citizens in securing so beautiful a spot in the centre of the city for a park. Mr. Burpee has also been for twenty-two consecutive years a member of the fire department of the city. He is at the present time the president of the Marshall Boat-Club, and by his whole-souled liberality and genial good-fellowship has done much, and is continually doing more, to make the club a success and a credit to the city.
On the 30th day of August, 1856, Mr. Burpee was married to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of John and Eliza Ann (Vansicklen) Van Blarcon, then of Girard, Branch county, Michigan, but natives of Delaware county, New York, and New York City respectively. Mrs. Burpee was born in Delaware county also, December 8, 1836, her parents emigrating to Branch county, Michigan, in 1837-38. The only child of this marriage is Ada Aurora, who was born January 7, 1862.
In all things of a public nature pertaining to the advantage of the city of Marshall and its people Mr. Burpee is liberal and enterprising ; and being of an affable, courteous, and genial nature, he is per consequence a popular and rather prime favorite among all classes of the citizens of the city and county.
VANINGEN SNYDER
EARL SMITH.
SAMUEL J. BURPEE.
Saurostill
eston Mitchell
[Photographs by S. B. Smith, Marshall. ]
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
SAMUEL W. HILL.
To the studious observer of her works, Nature, in her visible forms, speaks with eloquence unrivaled. To him her dictum is authoritative, explicit, and infallible. To him she presents charms unapproachable by art, and, as her worshiper, his homage is exalted, reverential, and full of pathos. Her economic treasures, buried deep within her bosom, richly repay his most careful research, and most patient, persistent, and laborious investigation. Of the life and work of such an observer, worshiper, and investigator the present sketch is a brief outline. Samuel Worth Hill was born in Starksboro, Addison county, Vermont, November 6, 1815. His father, Richard, and mother, Betsey Hill, were natives of New Hampshire, the father removing to Vermont with his parents when but seven years of age, where, after his marriage, about 1813-14, he purchased a farm in Starksboro, on which he still resides, at the advanced age of nearly ninety years, with the wife of his youth, about eighty-three years of age, and where they have passed over sixty-four years of wedded life together. On this homestead, in the shadow of the Green mountains, the youth of Mr. Hill was passed. He attended the district schools of his township-excellent then and more excellent now-until he was sixteen years of age, showing a love for and adaptation to mathematics which soon placed him beyond the capacity of his teacher's acquirements, and at that age he attended the Friends' school, and at once began the study of the higher mathematics, pay- ing his own way by teaching school winters, and graduating at the end of two years in engineering and surveying. He continued to teach winters and work upon his father's farm a portion of the summers until he had attained his majority, in the mean time, however, procuring instruments and practically using his attain- ments in surveying in his native State. In 1839 he came as far west as Albion, in the State of New York, where he remained several months with an uncle, and from thence went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he arrived in October, 1839, and taught school the winter of 1839-40. He engaged, in the spring of the latter year, in the United States public land surveys, for the season, at the end of which he entered the corps of topographical engineers of the United States Army, who were engaged in the survey of the harbors of the lakes, and engineering on the internal improvements of the government in the then Territory of Wisconsin. In this service he was engaged until the spring of 1845, being one season associated with Lieutenant, afterwards General, J. D. Webster, of the United States Army, and lately deceased, in the hydrographic survey of the great lakes, then just begun. In 1845 he went to Lake Superior, and was associated with Dr. Houghton in the geological and lineal survey of the upper peninsula, he being detailed in charge of a party on the geological examination of the mining region, and the survey thereof. The winter of 1845-46 he spent in Detroit, drawing maps of his surveys and work, and in the season of 1846 completed Dr. Houghton's con- tract with the government, left uncompleted by reason of the doctor's untimely death. He remained in the Lake Superior country, pursuing his profession and investigating the metalliferous deposits of that region, until 1848, during which year and the following one he was associated with Foster and Whitney in the geologic survey of the mineral region, in the employ of the general government, to which they reported of their labors, recommending the sale of the mineral lands to settlers at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, the usual price of the public domain, these lands having been previously held at five dollars per acre. The government adopted the recommendation, and from this action dates the real development and settlement of the upper peninsula. Mr. Hill then turned his attention to mining copper, managing the interests of extensive and heavy cor- porations of eastern capitalists, and directing the active business of the develop- ment of their claims. He spent seventeen winters there, continuously, in which time, it is perfectly safe and just to say, he expended more money for the progress and settlement of the county, by reason of the immense works he initiated and brought to successful operation, than any other four men in that region. His disbursements for his clients ran from one-half million to one million dollars per annum, all made under his own direction. He made, in 1873, a general geologic survey of Isle Royal, which parties whom he represented were interested in, and extensive mines are now being opened and worked thereon. He has seen the first log cabin built and the first ton of copper and of iron mined in the upper penin- sula, which Michigan gained in exchange for the swamps of the Maumee; and during the period that has elapsed since his first attempt at development of the mining interest-less than thirty years-there has been shipped from that region alone copper to the value of $109,312,000, and iron to the value of $74,553,000, to the various parts of the world. Where, twenty-five years ago, the rude cabin of the Cornishman alone was the habitation of the white men of that region, now are found cities of stone and brick structures second to none in the older portions of the country. Schools and churches are the rule where once, and but a short time since, they were not known. Where once the Mound-builder mined the bright copper with wedge, stone hammer, and chisel, building his fires against
the rock, and casting water thereon to loosen and break up its texture, mines, eighteen hundred feet in depth, now hold in their recesses machinery, ponderous and costly, covering, in some instances, over $1,000,000 in value. And all this grand development, progress, and source of wealth Mr. Hill has been person- ally instrumental in largely producing. He is still engaged in the country in directing mining operations and managing extensive landed interests, spending his summers there and his winters in the city of Marshall.
On the 16th day of July, 1851, he was united in marriage to an estimable lady, a teacher in the public schools of the upper peninsula, whither she went, in company with others, when the cry for education was sent down from that country , to southern Michigan. Her name was Susan A. Warren, a daughter of Alanson B. and Phebe Warren, formerly of Genesee county, New York, but now residing; at an advanced age, in Calhoun County. She was born in the village of Arcade, in Genesee county, before named, October 15, 1821.
Mr. Hill is ardently Republican in his political sentiments, and has filled the various positions in the organization of the civil government of the mining region of Lake Superior in township and county, and also served his district three terms in the State legislature. These positions were filled by him not from choice or solicitation, but because the people found him the best fitted therefor, the best interests of the country being at stake. He is, and has been for the past twenty- two years, a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is also a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. Foster, in his " Pre-Historic Races," alludes to his archaeological discoveries in the mining region, in several noted instances. He is also a member of the Historical Society of the Upper Peninsula. As may be readily supposed, Mr. Hill's intimate rela- tions with the revelations of Nature in her secret recesses have somewhat shaken his faith in the theological idea of the earth and its formation and duration, and hence he is a bold, fearless, and advanced thinker on theology, in which senti- ments he finds a keen and intelligent sympathizer in his worthy helpmeet.
HON. PRESTON MITCHELL.
Among the prominent citizens of Calhoun County, Hon. Preston Mitchell takes his proper place. Stirring, energetic, and enterprising, he has wielded an influence in the county second to none of the worthy citizens thereof, by whom he has been preferred to places of honor and trust for twenty-four years of public life, receiving their suffrages or indorsement, as the case might be, and finding among his bitterest political opponents some of his warmest friends. From 1840 to 1876, Mr. Mitchell has filled official stations, without personal solicitation, in the township, county, city, and State, crowning his long public career with the important and honorable position of presidential elector of the grand common- wealth of Michigan, in 1876, on the Republican ticket, when men of nerve, tried patriotism, and sterling and unimpeachable integrity, were needed to resist seduc- tive influences the closeness of the contest rendered possible. Mr. Mitchell comes of the right stock to be unapproachable by such influences, for his ancestry were from the heather-crowned hills of bonnie Scotland, from whence they emi- grated to Yorkshire, England, where they resided for three generations, Lieutenant Matthew Mitchell-Preston Mitchell's great-grandfather-being born there in 1590. He was a dissenting churchman, and possessed of considerable fortune, but, by reason of the persecutions of the Established Church, was forced to flee with his family, as were many others, from his native country; and, on the 23d of May, 1635, he, in company with several sympathizers, set sail from Bristol in the ship " James," and arrived in Boston on the 17th of August following. From that time until the close of the year 1638 he lost heavily by fires and the depredations of the Indians, by which his property was destroyed and a son-in- law murdered by the latter, when he removed to Stamford, in the colony of New Haven, where he died in 1645. He left two sons, Jonathan and David, the former graduating from Harvard College in 1647, and preaching at Cambridge for eighteen years thereafter. David settled in Stratford, and is the immediate ancestor of David, the father of the subject of our sketch, who was born in South- berry, Connecticut, July 2, 1776, two days before the announcement of the declaration of American independence.
The grandfather of Preston bought a large tract of land in Delaware county, New York, and divided it between his three sons, on which they lived, adding largely to the original purchase until their death. Here, on this tract of land, in the town of Meredith, on the 24th day of April, 1812, amid the alarms of war, was Preston Mitchell born, the fourth child in a family of five sons and four daughters, to David and Sarah (Dibble) Mitchell, the latter a sister of the late P. Dibble, of Marshall city, Calhoun County. Preston's early education was mostly
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HISTORY OF CALHOUN COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
such as could be obtained at the district schools of the country in those days, and at the age of sixteen years he taught school one year and the year succeeding.
At the age of nineteen he engaged one year as a clerk in a store in Syracuse, at the end of which time he entered the academy in that place, where he re- mained one year. From that time until the summer of 1836 he was engaged in mercantile business in Syracuse and Baldwinsville, Onondaga county, New York, coming west to Marshall in July of the latter year, where, for a year or more, he was engaged as clerk in the store of his cousin, C. P. Dibble. But there was an attraction in the eastern home that could not be resisted, and the young man re- turned to redeem his plighted troth, which he did by marrying Sarah H., daughter of Captain Joseph Tyler, formerly of Greenfield, Massachusetts, on the 28th of August, 1837. Immediately afterward he engaged in mercantile trade in Syra- cuse for about a year, when he disposed of his stock, and bought another in New York city, and shipped it to Jackson, Michigan, but, on arriving at that place, he found no satisfactory opening, and came on to Marengo, Calhoun County, where he conducted a flourishing business for the next five years. Here his public life began, and he served successively as constable, school inspector, and justice of the peace.
In 1843 the state of his wife's health became alarming, and he closed out his business preparatory to seeking a milder climate ; but a favorable change setting in, she rapidly improved, and he removed to Marshall, where he re-entered his cousin's service, in which he continued until 1849, when, without previous notice or solicitation on his part, he was nominated to the office of county treasurer, and elected ; and re-elected in 1851, holding the position four years. The next two years he acted as deputy register of deeds, and from 1856-58 held the position of county treasurer again. In 1859 he was elected alderman of the city of Marshall for two years, at the end of which term he was called to the mayoralty of the city. In 1858-59 he was the supervisor of the township. On the 17th of September, 1862, he was appointed assistant United States assessor of revenue, which position he held for six years. In 1870 he was elected representative to the State legis- lature, and re-elected in 1872. In 1876 he was nominated by the State conven- tion as one of the eleven presidential electors on the Republican ticket, and was elected. Mr. Mitchell's continued preferment is the best testimony of his fitness for the positions to which he has successively been elected, and the surest token of the people's confidence and regard.
In the summer of 1869, Mr. Mitchell made a trip to Nebraska, where he bought some four thousand acres of very fine farming lands in the eastern part of the State; and the summer following, while on a trip to California, he bought some three thousand acres more, all of which he now owns. Ever since he came to Michigan he has been largely engaged in real-estate transactions, and, having made many fortunate and happy investments, is at present possessed of a large amount of property in the city and county. He owns the " Abstracts of Titles to Real Estate in Calhoun County,"-a most complete exhibit of the title to every tract and village lot therein. He gives to his private business the same close and prac- tical application that he ever has to the public business intrusted to his care, and consequently is reaping the reward which ever follows such a course.
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