USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > History of Detroit and Wayne County and early Michigan: A Chronological Cyclopedia of the Past and Present, Vol. II > Part 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92
He married his first wife, Mrs. Hannah Mack, on March 27, 1822. She died at Avon, New York, November 6, 1824. They had one daughter, De- lecta Ann, who married Rev. Jackson Stebbins, of Iowa On May 29, 1825, he married Anna Mul- lett, of Darien Centre, New York. She was born at Halifax, Vermont, September 4, 1792, and died at Detroit, July 18, 1872. She was a sister of the late James Mullett of Fredonia, and Buffalo, New York, and of John Mullett, one of the pioneers of Detroit, from whom the Mullett farm and street take their names. Their parents, Robert and Elizabeth Gib- bons Mullett were from Milton Abbas, England, and descendants of William Malet de Graville, whose name appears on the roll of Battle Abbey.
John Farrar died at Detroit, January 14, 1874, aged 80 years. He was buried in Elmwood Ceme- tery with Masonic honors. The children of John and Anna Farrar were Francis Mullett Farrar and Chileon Cushman Mullett Farrar, of Buffalo, New York ; Huldah Mullett Farrar, wife of Jerome B. Starring, of Detroit ; Harriet Mullett Farrar, of De- troit, and John Perry Farrar, of Chicago, Ill.
BENJAMIN F. FARRINGTON, for several years one of the leading wholesale grocers of Detroit, was born near Albany, New York, June 30, 1834, and was the son of Robert and Clarissa Farrington. When he was five years old he accom- panied his parents to St. Clair, Michigan, where, after completing a brief course of instruction in the public schools, he became a clerk in a dry goods store. He remained at St. Clair until 1855, when he secured employment as clerk in the general merchandise store of J. L. Wood & Co., at Lexing- ton, Michigan, and his services were so highly appreciated that in 1862 he was offered and accepted an interest in the business.
Three years later, as he desired to enter a wider field, he severed his connection with the above firm, and came to Detroit. For three years, from 1865 to 1868, he served as traveling salesman for Under- wood, Cochrane & Co., boot and shoe dealers. In 1868, with A. D. Pierce and Hugh McMillan as partners, under the firm name of Pierce, Farrington & McMillan, he embarked in the dry goods business. They occupied for a short time a store on the east side of Woodward avenue, just below Jefferson avenue, but subsequently removed to 77 and 79 Jefferson avenue. Here, in 1870, their store was
destroyed by fire, after which the affairs of the firm were amicably settled, but business was not resumed. During the same year Mr. Farrington, with J. T. Campbell as partner, established a coffee and spice store on Woodward avenue, just south of the Finney House, under the firm name of Farrington, Camp- bell & Co. They soon removed to a store under the Michigan Exchange, and from there, in 1878, to Nos. 73 and 75 Jefferson avenue. In 1880 Mr. Campbell retired, and the firm name was changed to B. F. Farrington & Co., and in 1883 the business was removed to the large and commodious business stores at Nos. 54 and 56 Jefferson avenue, which had been erected by Mr. Farrington.
He was one of the organizers of the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Exchange, a man of great busi- ness ability, and of indefatigable energy. In a few years he succeeded in building up a large and profitable business, and it is doubtful if any com- mercial house in this section of the country made more rapid and substantial progress in the same period of time. The personal labor he expended in accomplishing this was done at the expense of health. His overtaxed physical force produced an affection of the brain, which resulted in his sudden death on November 2, 1886. He was an exemplary citizen, an honorable, straightforward business man, and of irreproachable moral character. His disposition was kind and genial, and his sunny temperament made him socially an agreeable com- panion, and he possessed many warm friends.
Mr. Farrington was married September 23, 1862, to Emma Fletcher, of Mount Clemens, Michigan, who still survives him. Their one child, a son, died in infancy.
DEXTER MASON FERRY was born at Lowville, Lewis County, New York, in 1833, and is a son of Joseph N. and Lucy (Mason) Ferry. The name marks the family as originally French, yet its first appearance in America was in 1678, when Charles Ferry came from England and settled in Springfield, Massachusetts. Dexter Mason, mater- nal grandfather of D. M. Ferry, represented for several terms the ultra-conservative district of Berk- shire, in the Massachusetts Legislature, and was a cousin of the late Governor George N. Briggs, of that State. The paternal grandparent of D. M. removed from Massachusetts to Lowville, New York, where his father, Joseph N. Ferry, was born, reared and lived until his death in 1836. Shortly after his death the family removed to Penfield, eight miles from Rochester, in the county of Monroe, New York.
D. M. Ferry passed his boyhood at Penfield, and at the age of sixteen began life on his own account by working for a neighboring farmer at the
II44
MERCHANTS.
moderate wages of ten dollars a month, spending two summers in this way, attending the district school during the winters. In 1851 he entered the employ of Ezra M. Parsons, who resided near Roch- ester, his object being to secure the benefits of the more advanced schools of that city. The fol- lowing year, through the influence of his employer, he obtained a position in the wholesale and retail book and stationery house of S. D. Elwood & Co., of Detroit, where he was first errand boy, then salesman, and at last bookkeeper.
In 1856 he was one of the organizers and junior partners of the firm of M. T. Gardner & Co., seeds- men. The partnership so formed continued until 1865, when Mr. Gardner's interest was purchased, and Mr. Ferry became the head of the firm. Eventually the firm of D. M. Ferry & Co. was formed, composed of D. M. Ferry, H. K. White, C. C. Bowen, and A. E. F. White. Mr. Ferry, however, is the only person who has been continu- ously connected with the business from its begin- ning in 1856. In 1879 the organization absorbed the Detroit Seed Company, and the business was Incorporated, retaining the name of D. M. Ferry & Co., with a capital of $750,000. Mr. Ferry retained the largest amount of the stock, and became the president and manager.
To build up this, the largest and most successful seed establishment in the world, has required im- mense labor and skillful business methods and mercantile generalship of the highest order. The business was begun on a very small scale in a Monroe Avenue store ; its entire sales for the first year were about six thousand dollars, and its market was confined to a very limited territory. To-day the sales extend to almost every township in the United States and Canada, and even reach many foreign countries, and have amounted to over a million and a half dollars in one year. The importations from English, Dutch, French, German and other Euro- pean concerns, are the largest of any house in this line of trade in the country. The corporation sup- plies over eighty thousand merchants with a complete assortment of seeds for retailing, and also ships large amounts to dealers and jobbers in bulk, the ship- ments averaging more than three car loads of seeds every day in the year. The concern grows enormous quantities of seeds, but the great proportion of the stock is raised and cared for under contract by seed farmers in many parts of the United States and in various sections of Canada and Europe.
On the first day of January, 1886, their four- story brick warehouse, containing about five acres of floor space, was destroyed by fire. The build- ing occupied the easterly half of the large block bounded by Brush, Croghan, Lafayette and Ran- dolph Streets, and every building save one was
destroyed. The loss by this fire was the most severe ever suffered in Detroit, and of this the Ferry Company's share reached the sum of nearly a million of dollars. The recuperation from this stunning blow was amazing, and is to be credited to the presence of mind and unlimited resources of Mr. Ferry and his corps of able assistants. From every source of supply, seeds were gathered and hurried to Detroit. Several large buildings were leased, and the various departments of the company were organized, and within a few days, work was going on with almost its normal efficiency, an accomplishment which best illustrates the business energy which has ever characterized Mr. Ferry's career. Not one of their great army of customers knew by any delay, failure or defect of quality, that on the first day of the year the whole working ma- chinery of the company was swept out of existence. A new six-story warehouse, larger and more com- plete than the old, was erected in 1887, on the site of the one destroyed, and is elsewhere shown.
The building up of this great industry, which is far-reaching in its influence, and contributes not only to the prosperity of Detroit and to an army of employes, is doubtless a more beneficent factor in commercial affairs throughout the country than almost any other establishment in the West. In its management from the beginning, Mr. Ferry has had a decisive influence, and that its great success is largely attributable to his persistent energy, saga- city, integrity and rare talent for organization and administration, is freely and readily acknowledged by those most conversant with its beginning, growth and development Through this extensive commercial establishment his name and work have been made more widely known than those of almost any other merchant in the United States. His efforts have been justly rewarded in the accumu- lation of a large fortune, nearly all of which is invested in various financial and manufacturing enterprises in Detroit. His most prominent real estate investment is the magnificent five-story iron building on Woodward Avenue,' erected in 1879, and occupied by Newcomb, Endicott & Co. He is the largest stockholder in the National Pin Company, established in 1875, and has been its president from the first. He is a director and vice-president of the First National Bank ; was one of the organizers, and from the beginning has been a trustee of the Wayne County Savings Bank, and of the Safe Deposit Company. He aided in organizing the Standard Life and Accident Insurance Company of Detroit, of which he is president. He is also presi- dent of the Gale Sulky Harrow Manufacturing Company; vice-president of the Michigan Fire and Marine Insurance Company, and director of the Detroit Copper Rolling Mill Company, the Fort
Hours inly
Douter.
1145
MERCHANTS.
Wayne & Elmwood Railroad Company, and of several other corporations.
His own taste, as well as the engrossing demands of a great business, have prevented Mr. Ferry from entering the field of active politics. He is a strong and steadfast Republican, but has rarely been a candidate for an elective office, and has held public place only when it came without solicitation on his part. He was made a member of the Board of Estimates in 1877-8, and at the end of his term declined a renomination. In 1884 he was appointed a member of the Board of Park Commissioners by Mayor Stephen B. Grummond. During his term he strongly opposed the sale of beer and other intoxicants on Belle Isle Park, and with William A. Moore, another member of the Board, defeated such a prostitution of this public recreation ground, and his course met the approval of the best public opinion of the city. His term of office expired in 1885, and he was again nominated by Mayor Grum- mond. His conscientious and praiseworthy action in regard to the intrusion of beer in Belle Isle Park, which had earned him the gratitude of the respect- able element of the community, had, however, excited the enmity of the small politicians who sat in the Council, and his nomination by the Mayor was defeated. This action was denounced, not only by the public press regardless of party, but by a large ' mass meeting held in April, 1886, which adopted a resolution thanking Messrs. Ferry and Moore for their stand in the interest of the public good.
With commendable public spirit he gives his influence freely to every project, business, social or charitable, that promises to be of public benefit, and his private charities are large, discriminating, and entirely lacking in ostentation. In 1868 he became connected with the management of Harper Hospital, and in 1888 was elected Vice-President of Grace Hospital, and is also a trustee of Olivet College. He has taken much interest in the art movement in Detroit, and was one of the original contributor to the building fund, by which has been insured to the city a permanent museum of art.
He was reared in the Baptist faith, and when quite young united with that church. In later years he became connected with the Congregational denomination, and is now a trustee of the Second Church of Detroit. He is broad and liberal in religious views, and strongly opposed to extreme sectarianism.
No person in Detroit is more important as a fac- tor in its commercial prosperity, and Mr. Ferry's success has been so justly earned, and so well does he use it, that none begrudge him his good fortune, and all rejoice that Detroit possesses such a citizen. He is natural and unaffected in manner, and one to whom false pride is unknown. Always affable and
pleasant, he is kind and considerate to those in his employ, and easily wins their confidence and respect ; is equally popular with the public at large, and possesses a host of close friends. He is an indus- trious student, and even while deep in the cares of business, finds time to keep up with the current thoughts of the day. His life, public and private, viewed from all sides, furnishes us with one of the best types of mercantile life to be found in any country.
He was married October 1, 1867, to Addie E. Miller, of Unadilla, Otsego County, New York. They have four children living, three daughters and one son.
AARON CODDINGTON FISHER, the fourth son in the family of twelve children of Jeremiah and Hannah (Coddington) Fisher, was born in Somer- set County, New Jersey, September 22, 1820. His father was a descendant of Hendrick Fisher, of Bound Brook, New Jersey, who was born in 1703, the year that Hendrick Fisher, Sr., arrived at that place.
The elder Hendrick Fisher died on October 17, 1749. From an old number of the Messenger of Somerville, New Jersey, we gather the following particulars concerning the son: Hendrick Fisher was a man of earnest piety, and much respected. He was one of the founders of Queen's, now Rut- ger's College, and was a noted man in the province for many years. He possessed great intelligence and energy, and was always on the patriotic side in every controversy, and of an irreproachable charac- ter. He earnestly supported his pastor-the Rev. Theodore. J. Frelinghuysen-in his efforts to intro- duce a strict evangelical life in his church, and per- haps no person had more influence than he had in securing the results that were reached. When the oppressive acts of the King and Parliament aroused the Colonies to resistance, he, in company with Jo- seph Borden and Robert Ogden, represented the province of New Jersey in the Congress known as the " Stamp Act Congress." He was a delegate to the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, which met at Trenton in May, 1775, of which important body he was elected President, and in his opening ad- dress set forth in a forcible manner the grievances of the American Colonies. He was Chairman of the Committee of Safety, exercising legislative au- thority during the recess of Congress, and held other offices of honor and trust. He was a member of the Assembly previous to the breaking out of the Revolution, and in the Provincial Congress at Tren- ton, in December, 1775, moved that the delegates to the General Congress be instructed to use their influence in favor of a Declaration of Independence, and when the immortal document was received, he
1146
MERCHANTS.
was the first to read it to his neighbors and con- stituents. When he had finished, so great was their joy, that they mounted him on their shoulders and paraded him through the street (there was but one -- the great Raritan Road) in triumph. The old bell of " Kets " Hall, which then hung in the belfry of the Presbyterian Church, was rung, cannon were fired, and the patriots drank toasts at the bar in the tavern of Peter Hardending. He died on the tenth of May, 1779, leaving two sons, Jeremiah and Hendrick. The former was probably the great- grandfather of A. C. Fisher. The mother of the last named was born in New Jersey in 1792, and his par- ents were married in 1811.
About the year 1825 the family moved from New Jersey to Genesee County, New York, and lived there about twelve years. In 1837 they moved to Monroe County, Michigan, where they remained three years, and then moved to Mount Vernon, Ohio, remaining there seven years, and then in 1847 coming to Detroit. Here, in 1853, the elder Mr. Fisher died, and on April 16, 1883, the wife and mother also passed away.
In his youth Aaron C. Fisher attended school in the winter, and in the summer worked on the farm. As he grew to manhood he not only provided for himself, but assisted his parents also. Wages at this time were so low that, at the age of seventeen, he worked a whole month for a barrel of flour. At this period he was already learning the rudiments of his subsequent occupation as a builder, and was employed in a brickyard at sixteen dollars per month and his board. When he had reached his eighteenth year he began to feel anxious to settle down in some permanent occupation and in the Spring of 1839, seeing no other opening, he com- menced to learn the business of an iron molder and served an apprenticeship at the business, fol- lowing the same nearly seven years, but disliking this occupation he began to look around for one that suited him better. His elder brother being a bricklayer and builder in Mount Vernon, Ohio, where he was then living, he at intervals turned his attention to the art of bricklaying and became a thorough and practical workman.
In 1847 he came with his father's family to De- troit, and during the first year after his arrival here he worked about six weeks at molding in O. M. Hydes' foundry near the old Water Works. He then turned his attention to building, and in the year 1848 entered into partnership with his brother Elam, who was also an expert bricklayer, and the firm soon became prominent builders and con- tractors. The partnership continued under the name of E. & A. C. Fisher for about seventeen years, and was dissolved in 1865. During the con- tinuance of the partnership the firm erected many
prominent structures, and scores of buildings of their erection are still standing ; among them may be named the building on the northwest corner of Jefferson Avenue and Griswold Street, occupied by A. Ives & Son, bankers, also the block opposite on the northeast corner, erected for the late John S. Bagg ; they also built the " Rotunda," formerly standing on the site of the present Newberry & McMillan Building ; also the north half of the Mer- rill Block, formerly known as the Waterman Block, on the corner of Woodward Avenue and Larned Street. Later on they built the north half of the entire block on the east side of Woodward Avenue, between Congress and Larned Streets, also the block on the corner of Monroe Avenue and Farmer Street, running down to the Kirkwood House. They also erected the residence of the late Zachariah Chandler, the Fort Street Congregational Church, the First Presbyterian Church, on the corner of Farmer and State Streets, and the Fisher Block, facing the Campus Martius.
After the dissolution of the partnership in 1865, A. C. Fisher carried on the business on his own account until the Spring of 1867, and then, with David Baker, he embarked in the carriage hard- ware trade, under the firm name of Fisher, Baker & Co. The firm continued until March 1, 1882, when Mr. Fisher sold out his interest to Baker, Gray & Co., and since that date he has given his entire time to the care of his own large landed interests and to the administration of the large estate left in his care by his deceased brother Elam. Mr. Fisher is modest, quiet, and retiring in disposition, prompt in his business engagements, faithful in the dis- charge of whatever trusts are confided to him, and is in every way a worthy and estimable citizen.
He has been a member of the Methodist Episco- pal Church since he was eighteen years old, and for the last thirty-five years has been an official and leading member of the church in Detroit, and at present is President of the Board of Trustees of the Central Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a lib- eral giver, conscientious in his duties, and a wise counsellor. Until five years ago he voted with the Republican party. He then united with the Pro- hibition party, and upon this issue ran for State Treasurer in 1886, and gives, and lives, and labors in the hope of the final triumph of Prohibition.
He was married March 21, 1844, to Eliza L. Willis. They have had three children, Adelaide, Mrs. Lottie F. Smalley and Mrs. Charles B. Gray. The last named is the only one now living.
RICHARD HENRY FYFE traces his ancestry to Scotland. His grandfather, John Fyfe, the first of the family who adopted the present mode of spelling the name, was a son of John Fiffe, of the
-
1147
MERCHANTS.
county of Fife, in Scotland. He emigrated to America about a year before the commencement of the Revolutionary War, and served in the colonial forces while the seat of war was near Boston, Massa- chusetts. On February 1, 1786, he married Elizabeth Strong, and shortly after moved to Otter Creek, Salisbury, Vermont. His wife represented one of the most distinguished of the early New England families, and several of his descendants have been eminent in literature and science. John Strong, the progenitor of the American branch of this family, came from England, settled in Massachusetts in 1730, and assisted in founding the town of Dor- chester.
A history of the descendants, written by Benjamin W. Dwight, forms a large volume, embracing nearly 30,000 names. It says : "The Strong family has been one of the largest and best of the original families of New England. They have ever been among the foremost in the land to found and favor those great bulwarks of our civilization, the church and the school. Many have been the towns, the territories and the states into whose initial forms and processes of establishment they have poured the full current of their life and strength. Few families have had more educated or professional men among them. The list includes scholars, physicians, lawyers, teachers, preachers, judges, sen- ators, and military officers." John Fyfe died on January 1, 1813, and his wife, in November, 1835. They had seven children, four sons and three daughters. The youngest, Claudius Lycius Fyfe, was born January 3, 1798. On April 6, 1825, he married at Brandon, Vermont, Abigail Gilbert, whose parents were among the first settlers of Genesee County, New York. His early life was spent in agricultural pursuits, but his latter years in the leather and tanning business. He removed with his family to Knowlesville, New York, in 1830, three years later he moved to Chautauqua County, New York, and then back to Knowlesville. In 1837 he emigrated to Michigan. Soon afterwards he re- turned to New York, but eventually settled at Hillsdale, Michigan, where his last years were passed. His wife died in 1848, and he in 1881. They had six children, all girls except the youngest, Richard Henry, who was born at Oak Orchard Creek, Orleans County, New York, January 5, 1839.
After his parents returned to Michigan, Richard H. Fyfe attended school at Litchfield, but at the age of eleven, through unfortunate business specula- tions of his father, he was obliged to begin life's battle for himself, and became a clerk in a drug store at Kalamazoo, and subsequently at Hillsdale. During his period of clerkship at the above places he spent much of his leisure time in study, and although his business has demanded close attention,
he has always taken time for reading and study, and is more than usually well informed in current and general literature.
In 1857 he came to Detroit from Hillsdale and entered the employ of T. K. Adams, boot and shoe dealer. He remained with Mr. Adams about six years, after which he served in a similar position with the firm of Rucker & Morgan, who were in the same line of trade. In 1865, with the savings which his industry and economy had accumulated, he purchased the business of C. C. Tyler & Co., who had succeeded T. K. Adams. The establish- ment was located on the site of store No. 101 Woodward Avenue, still occupied by Mr. Fyfe. With limited capital, he was environed by difficulties, but through native pluck and careful business man- agement from year to year his business steadily in- creased, until he is at the head of his line of trade in Detroit.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.