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 28
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The son of Dr. Wm. B. Hall was Samuel Holden Parsons Hall, State Senator of New York and Judge of the Court of Errors after 1846. He was a man of wealth, interested in educational matters, a pro- moter and director of the Erie Railway, and various other lines centering at Binghamton, New York, where he resided. His wife was Emeline Bulkeley, of Cincinnati, a lineal descendant of Rev. Peter Bulkeley, founder of Concord in 1635, and of Rev. Charles Chauncey, President of Harvard College.
Theodore P. Hall, the subject of this sketch, was a son of Samuel H. P. and Emeline Bulkeley Hall. His ancestors, as may be seen from the foregoing, were of New England Puritan stock, and practiced the old faith with earnestness and zeal. Mr. Hall received his preparatory education at the academies of Binghamton and Albany, New York; entered Yale College in 1852, graduating in 1856, in the
class with Judge H. B. Brown, Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, General Wager Swayne, Judge Benjamin D. Magruder, and others of note. He subsequently spent a year in the study of law, assisted in the management of a newspaper, acquired some bank- ing experience in the Central Bank of Brooklyn, New York, and later in the office of Thompson Bros., brokers of Wall Street. In 1859, with L. E. Clark and others, he established the State Bank of Michigan, which was later merged into the Michi- gan Insurance Company and First National Bank of Detroit.
In 1863 Mr. Hall entered into active business on the Detroit Board of Trade, and for twenty years, since 1868, has been in partnership with Rufus W. Gillett, under the firm name of Gillett & Hall, for years the leading commission grain house of De- troit. Of late he has retired from active participa- tion in the affairs of the firm and has devoted his time to travel, literary pursuits, and to the improve- ment of his handsome place at Grosse Pointe.
He enjoys making researches in the fields of his- tory, biography, and genealogy, and is a member of several historical societies. He possesses excellent taste, fine powers of analysis and description, with a rare ability in the way of generalization. He often lays his friends under obligation because of work done in their behalf, and for their advantage, and the public is probably unfortunate in that his possession of abundant means precludes the pecu- niary stimulus which might compel him to engage in definite and continuous literary labors. He is emphatically a lover of books, has accumulated a choice library, and possesses a scholarship compe- tent to appreciate a wide range of subjects and authors. Socially he is modest, free-hearted, agree- able, and makes warm friends.
He was married to Alexandrine Louise Godfroy, of Detroit, January. 11, 1860. They have three married daughters, Marie Stella, wife of Wm. Tone St. Auburn, of California ; Josephine Emeline, wife of Lieutenant R. J. C. Irvine, of Augusta, Georgia ; Nathalie Heloise, wife of James Lee Scott, of Balls- ton, New York ; also three unmarried daughters, Alexandrine Eugenie, Marie Archange Navarre, and Madeleine Macomb. Their only son, Godfroy Navarre, died in 1885.
The Godfroy family were among the early French settlers of Canada, coming from near Rouen, Nor- mandy. Several branches of the family were ennobled by Louis XIV. for bravery in the early Indian wars. The founder of the Detroit branch was married at Trois Rivières, Canada, in 1683, and his eldest son, Jacques Godfroy, came to De. troit with the founder, Cadillac, and died here in 1730. His son Jacques, born at Detroit, 1722, married the daughter of a French officer stationed at Fort Pont-
Theo. Jaunes Hall
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chartrain (Detroit). The latter's son, Colonel Ga- briel Godfroy, also born here under French rule in 1758, was Colonel of the first regiment of Territorial troops organized here, and was Indian agent for forty years. Hisson, Pierre Godfroy, one of the first Representatives chosen when the State was organ- ized, was the father of Alexandrine Godfroy (Hall), who is also lineally descended through her mother from Robert Navarre, first French Interdant and Notaire Royal, at this place. The name of Godfroy is a familiar one in the Records of Detroit, and is attached to two of the old farms now included within the limits of the city.
GEORGE H. HAMMOND, for years one of the most extensive dealers in dressed beef in the world, was born at Fitchburg, Massachusetts, May 5, 1838, and his parents, John and Sarah (Huston) Hammond, were of Puritan ancestry. His mater- nal grandfather, a native of Maine, served eight years as a soldier in the War of the Revolution, and lived to be ninety-four years old. The father of George H. Hammond was a builder, and erected numerous houses in the vicinity of his home.
Until his tenth year, George H. Hammond at- tended the common schools, and then, preferring business to school life, began making leather pocket- books for a Mr. Barrett, of Ashburnham, Massa- chusetts, a few miles from his native place. His employer soon gave up the business and Mr. Ham- mond, then only ten years old, continued it for about a year, employing twelve girls, and doing a profitable business. Steel clasp pocket-books then began to supersede leather goods, and he discon- tinued the business, and for a few months was employed in a butcher shop, and then for three years following, worked at Fitchburg, in the mat- tress and palm leaf hat factory of Milton Frost, at a salary of forty dollars per year, with the privi- lege of going to school three months in each year. At the age of fifteen, he purchased the business of his former employer, but at the end of six months sold out and came to Detroit, arriving here in 1854.
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For a short time after his arrival he was engaged in his old occupation, and then for two years and a half he worked in the mattress and furniture fac- tory of Milton Frost. He then started a chair factory on the corner of Farmer and State Street. Six months later, when he was only nineteen years old, the establishment was destroyed by fire, and after settling with the insurance company, he found his entire capital to consist of thirteen dollars, and a note for fifty dollars. With this amount he at once opened a meat store near the southwest corner of Howard and Third Street, and the venture was an immediate success. In 1860 he erected a brick building on the adjoining corner, to meet the de-
mand of his trade. His business rapidly increased, and in 1865 he removed to No. 38 Michigan Grand Avenue, where he built up a large and prosperous establishment. In the meantime he engaged exten- sively in beef and pork packing, forming in 1872, a partnership with J. D. Standish and S. B. Dixon, under the firm name of Hammond, Standish & Co. The firm erected large packing houses on Twen- tieth Street, and the business grew so extensive, that for several years preceding Mr. Hammond's death, they did the largest business of the kind in the city. One of the latest ventures of the firm was the establishment of one of the largest and most complete meat stores in the city, on Cadillac Square, opposite the Central Market.
Although substantial success followed Mr. Ham- mond's exertions in his regular line of trade, it is chiefly in connection with the transportation of dressed beef that he exhibited the largest business capacity. From the incipiency of the undertaking until he changed the method of carrying on the beef trade of the United States, his energy was the chief factor in the undertaking. The problem of how to preserve meats, fruits, and like perishable products for any length of time in transportation, without affecting their quality or flavor, had been practically unsolved until 1868, when William Davis, of Detroit, built the first successful refrigerator car, and until 1869, tried in vain to induce capitalists to take hold of the invention. Finally Mr. Hammond . had a car fitted up expressly for carrying dressed beef to the eastern markets. The experimental trip was made in May, 1869, from Detroit to Bos- ton, and was a complete success. Mr. Hammond, with characteristic boldness aud far-seeing business sagacity, soon after purchased the right to the ex- clusive use of the invention, and with Caleb Ives formed the dressed beef transportation company of Hammond, Ives & Co., which a few years after was changed to the firm name of George H. Hammond & Co. They commenced with one car, and the second year eleven were required ; the third they used twenty-one, the number yearly increasing until, at the time of Mr. Hammond's death, eight hundred cars were in constant use in their fresh meat trade with the Atlantic coast, and they sent three ship-loads weekly to trans- Atlantic ports. They established slaughter houses at Hammond, Indiana, and Omaha, Nebraska, actually founding and building the first named city, which now has a large population and all the usual accompaniments of a thriving city. At this immense establishment, fifteen hundred to two thousand head of cattle are killed each day, the business transacted reaching the sum of $12,000,000 to $15,000,000 annually. The creation of this business was almost entirely due to the enterprise and sagac-
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ity of Mr. Hammond, and the results accomplished have been of great benefit to the commercial world.
In many respects Mr. Hammond was a remark- able man. He scarcely had a boyhood ; beginning life's battles when ten years old, before he was twenty he carried upon his shoulders responsibili- ties that would test the powers of many mature men. His practical business training was supple- mented while yet in his teens, by a course of study in Goldsmith's Commercial College, begun and com- pleted in the evening, after the toil of the day was finished. These studies, with his practical business experience, gave him a knowledge of accounts that was of immense value. He was shrewd and careful, but clear business perception gave him courage and boldness. At forty-eight he had not only become one of the wealthiest men of Detroit, but one of the best known business men in the United States, and the central figure in a gigantic system of operations of which few people in Detroit realized the extent and which revolutionized the beef trade of the country, and made his name well known and respected in commercial circles in Chicago, New York, and Bos- ton. He was a large real estate owner, investing extensively in suburban property in and near Detroit, and realized so fully that his success was gained here, that he desired that the city should be advan- taged by his success. He was Vice-President of the Commercial National Bank, a director in the Michigan Savings Bank and Detroit Fire & Marine Insurance Company, and in innumerable ways was a reliable factor in the prosperity of Detroit.
In the full tide of his success, when wealth and honor had rewarded his efforts, and when seeming- ly he could be so illy spared from the management of the great interests his genius had developed, the end came suddenly and unexpectedly. Naturally of a strong, robust physique, the hard work and un- remitting toil of many years appeared to fall lightly upon him, but disease of the heart, baffling medical skill, terminated his life on December 29, 1886. He was confined to the house only a few days, and although he knew the shadow of a great danger overhung him, he faced it bravely, and as death came he was prepared to calmly accept whatever might befall.
His death caused deep and genuine sorrow wherever he was known, and the community in which he had long lived, mourned the loss of one whose name was the synonym of business honor, whose private life was unexceptionable, and whose future promised so much of good to the public.
He was not a member of any church, but made especially liberal gifts to church enterprises, and his contributions to charitable and benevolent objects were many, but unostentatious. He was reserved in manner, and gave his confidence only to a few,
whom he implicitly trusted and in whom he created unbounded faith. His chief pleasures were found in the domestic circle, and he was able to leave the perplexing, annoying cares of business outside of his home, where he was the ideal father and husband.
He was fond of travel, going twice to Europe with part of his family, visiting also California and the South, and frequently visited for pleasure or business, various parts of the United States.
Dying in the prime of life, he left the impress of his work upon the commercial history of his gen- eration, and to his family the rich legacy of a spot- less reputation.
He was married in 1857, to Ellen Barry. They had eleven children, eight of whom are living.
SAMUEL HEAVENRICH was born in Frens- dorf, Bavaria, June 15, 1839, and is the son of Abraham and Sarah (Brull) Heavenrich. His parents were both natives of Bavaria, his father being born in Frensdorf, in 1799, and his mother in Lichtenfels, in 1810.
Mr. Heavenrich attended school in his native town until twelve years of age, and was then sent for two years to a school at Regensburg (Ratisbon), Germany. In 1853 he left home, came to this country, and took up his abode in Detroit, where he has since remained. Upon his arrival here he entered the store of S. Sykes & Company, wholesale and retail clothiers, near the southeast corner of Jefferson Avenue and Bates Street, the firm subse- quently removing to No. 92 Woodward Avenue. He employed his evenings to good advantage, studying English and bookkeeping at Cochran's Business College, and improved so rapidly that he became of great service to his employers, and remained with the firm for seven years, during the last year as junior partner.
In 1862 he bought out the firm of S. Sykes & Com- pany, and took in as a partner his brother, Simon H., who had been in business at Leavenworth, Kansas, forming the firm of Heavenrich Brothers, which has continued since that time. In 1867 they gave up the retail trade, and devoted their entire attention to the manufacturing and wholesale business, and in the spring of 1871 found themselves so crowded for room that they removed to the stores known as 134 and 136 Jefferson Avenue. Their business continued to prosper, and on February 1, 1881, they moved into their present elegant and commodious quarters at 138 and 140 Jefferson Avenue. The building was erected by the late Francis Palms, expressly for their use, and is a model of excellence. It is six stories high, is nearly fire proof, and extends from Jefferson Avenue through to Woodbridge Street. Here the business of the firm has grown to enormous proportions ; they employ about three hun-
Dans
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dred and fifty hands, and manufacture an immense amount of men's, youth's, boys', and children's clothing, most of the cutting being done by steam cutting machines, the only ones of the kind in the State, and well worth an inspection. They will cut through two inches in thickness of cloth, and make two thousand revolutions per minute. The button- holes in all of their goods are made in the basement of the building, on machines run by an electric motor. Their sample room is a model of excellence, and is second to none west of New York. It occupies the entire second floor, and contains a sample of every piece of goods they have in stock. By their thrift, perseverance, and strict attention to business, both members of the firm have acquired a com- petency, and their business represents a capital of about $250,000.
Mr. Samuel Heavenrich was a member of the Detroit Light Guards for six years, but has mingled but little in general public affairs. Inclined to be conservative, he has uniformly declined the use of his name for political offices, but his courtesy, integrity, fidelity, industry, and great natural ability, are such that any trust committed to him would be carefully and successfully administered. He has been President of the Phoenix Club for five years, and is a director of the American Exchange National Bank, President of the Marine City Stave and Salt Company, and Vice-President of the Dexter Consolidated Iron Mining Company, and has held various offices in other corporations.
He has ever manifested a special interest in the welfare of young men, and has been a benefactor to many. Possessing a social and genial disposi- tion, his habits have often caused him to forego his own pleasure in order to be of service to others. By systematic efforts of this sort he has helped to brighten the path of many less fortunate than him- self. His friends and acquaintances are well aware that any service he can render, when they are sick or in need, will be heartily and cheerfully rendered, without considering his personal ease or comfort. He is a highly worthy representative of the Hebrew nationality, is a member of the Congregation Beth El, and commands the esteem of his business asso- ciates and of the public generally.
He was married March 21, 1866, to Sarah Troun- stine, at Cincinnati. She is a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Guiterman) Trounstine, of Bavaria. They have had six children, namely, Blanche, Wal- ter S., John A., Carrie H., Edith R., and Herbert S., all of whom are living at home with their parents.
EMIL SOLOMON HEINEMAN was born December 11, 1824, at Neuhaus on the Oste, near the port of Hamburg. His father, Solomon Joa- chim Heineman, was born in 1780, in the Bavarian
village of Burg Ellern, where his ancestors had lived in peace for many years, until compelled to seek another habitation through the religious intol- erance which was then directed against persons of the Protestant and Jewish faith, to the latter of which Mr. Heineman's family had always subscribed. Seeking a home in the more northerly part of Germany, near the seaport of Hamburg, where cosmopolitan ideas had prevented the lodgment of intolerance, he established himself at Neuhaus, and by hard work and honest endeavor became in time the foremost merchant of the place, and amassed what was then a more than comfortable fortune. He held for many years an honorable civil appointment from the government He mar- ried Sarah, the daughter of Leeser Franc and Regina Josef, and became the father of ten children, Emil S. being the fourth of five brothers.
It those days it was the custom, upon the expira- tion of his school days, to send a boy to some tradesman in another city, either to be taught a handicraft or to be given a business education. Accordingly, in 1840, when he was sixteen years old, E. S. Heineman was sent to the city of Olden- burg to learn the practical duties of business. The Revolution of 1848 raised hopes in the hearts of young men that Germany would become a united and great nation, but the reaction in 1850 dispelled these hopes, and Mr. Heineman determined to seek his fortune in the New World. Obtaining a reluc- tant consent from his father, he took passage on the Washington, the pioneer trans-Atlantic steamer, and after a phenomenally short trip of two weeks, landed in New York in the spring of 1851. Going from there to Cincinnati, after a short stay in the latter city he came to Detroit, where he secured employment in David Amberg's clothing store, in the old Smart Block, on the present site of the Mer- rill Block. His fellow clerk here was Edward Brei- tung, afterwards a prominent resident of the North- ern Peninsula, and its representative in Congress.
The commercial training and the instruction in the English language- which Mr. Heineman had received at home, enabled him in 1853 to engage in business on his own account, in the same block where he began as a clerk. The fire which in 1854 destroyed the old Presbyterian Church, and the block in which his business was located, necessi- tated his removal, and for many years he occupied one or more of the stores under the National Hotel, now known as the Russell House. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he became interested in furnishing military clothing to the State, and later to the General Government, and after this time was engaged solely in the wholesale trade. His two brothers-in-law, Messrs. Magnus and Martin Butzel, were admitted to partnership in 1862, and the firm,
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since known as Heineman, Butzel & Company, removed to the upper floors adjoining Messrs. G. & R. McMillan's present store, remaining there until 1871, and then removing to their present loca- tion on Jefferson Avenue. Thus for thirty-five years Mr. Heineman has been engaged in mercantile life in Detroit, and during this period has witnessed almost the entire growth of the city's industries.
He has been eminently a business man, and while not neglecting political duties, has never accepted party nomination or appointment, but has been a staunch Republican ever since the founding of that party. He has been connected with many of the representative corporations of the city, and was among the first subscribers to the Detroit Fire and Marine Insurance Company, and one of its directors since its organization. In like manner he became an original subscriber to, and director of the Michigan Life Insurance Company, and of the Fort Wayne and Elmwood Street Railway Company, of which he is at present Treasurer. He is known as a conservative in his business and investments, and judicious in his selection of real estate. In 1885 he erected a fine building on Cadillac Square, and has always had faith in the growing prosperity of the city, is known as a public-spirited citizen, and no more worthy representative of his nationality can be found anywhere.
Mr. Heineman, is almost as active as ever in business, not remiss in social duties, and is a man of quiet tastes and retiring disposition, to whom home presents the highest ideal of happiness. Al- most any afternoon, in summer, he may be seen busy among the flowers in his garden, which is one of the most attractive in the city, and its care is one of his favorite pastimes. He is a lover of books, and has given some attention to numis- matics, having a very interesting and valuable col- lection of coins.
He was married in 1861, to Fanny Butzel, of Peekskill, New York. The year following he pur- chased his present homestead on Woodward Ave- nue. He has two sons and two daughters.
CHAUNCEY HURLBUT was born in Oneida County, New York, in 1803, and came to Detroit with Cullen Brown in 1825. He worked at his trade of harnessmaker for a few years, and then in company with Jerry Dean, carried on a saddlery and harness store for three years. Mr. Hurlbut then decided to go into the grocery business with his brother-in-law, Alexander McArthur. The lat- ter soon left the city, and in 1837, Mr. Hurlbut built the store at 50 Woodward Avenue, where he engaged in the general grocery trade and continued in business up to a short time before his death.
From the year 1839 he served almost continu-
ously in some public capacity. He was successive- ly foreman, chief engineer, and president of the old Fire Department. From 1839 to 1841 he was Alderman from the Second Ward. In 1835 he was President of the Mechanics' Society. When the Board of Trade was organized in 1847, Mr. Hurl- but was chosen one of the directors. He was one of the original stockholders in the Second National Bank, and was a director during the twenty years of its existence. At the time of his death he held the same position in its successor, the Detroit Na- tional Bank. He was a Sewer Commissioner from 1857 to 1859. In 1861 he was appointed as one of the Water Commissioners, serving two years and being appointed over and over again after that time. From 1872, until his death, he continuously held the presidency of the Board and gave almost his entire attention to the improvement of the De- troit Water Works system.
His public duties were all fulfilled with a sturdy adherence to the maxim that " public office is a public trust." In 1841 he returned to the President of the Fire Department a warrant for one hundred dollars, which had been sent him for services as chief engineer, remarking that he was a believer in Franklin's doctrine, that no man should grow rich by emoluments of office. Mr. Hurlbut was an ardent Republican from the organization of the party, and a regular contributor to campaign funds. He was not demonstrative in his politics, however, and seldom attended caucuses or other party meet- ings. He was noted for his remarkable memory, and his extensive reading on historical and scientific subjects, had made his mind a cyclopedia of facts.
He died on September 9, 1885, and his widow followed him a few months later. He left almost all of his estate, nearly a quarter of a million dollars, to the Board of Water Commissioners, to be ex- pended in maintaining a library and improving the grounds belonging to the commission.
JOSHUA S. INGALLS was born in the town of Johnson, La Moille County, Vermont, February 12, 1833, and is a son of Simeon and Rhoda (Smith) Ingalls. His ancestors came from England, and settled at Andover, Massachusetts, in 1690. His father was a farmer, and his son passed his earlier years upon the farm.
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