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 29
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
The dull, prosaic life of the average New England farmer's boy, and the limited school advantages there obtainable, however, illy suited his active temperament, and at the age of fourteen he left home, determined to secure an education by his own efforts. Going to Johnson village, a few miles from his father's residence, by working after school hours and during vacations he obtained three years' tuition at the Johnson Academy. Deeply regret-
CHAUNCEY HUREBUT.
Jushua Ingalls
1157
MERCHANTS.
ting his inability to pursue his studies further, he then began his business career by becoming a clerk in a general country store at Concord, Massachu- setts, conducted by John Brown. His diligence, close attention to duties, and natural business apti- tude, won the confidence of his employer, and at the end of a year he provided him with capital to start a general store at Acton Centre, Massachu- setts. He managed the store for a year, and then disposed of his interest for a farm. Subsequently he was employed as a salesman in Boston, Massa- chusetts, and at Akron and Cleveland, Ohio. At the latter place, after several years as clerk in a crockery store, he became a partner in the firm of Fogg, Ensworth & Company, crockery merchants. The business was successfully continued for two years, and then in 1860 the firm was dissolved, and Mr. Ingalls entered into partnership with Philip Thurber, under the firm name of Thurber & Ingalls, and established a crockery and glass store at Jack- son, Michigan. At the end of a year and a half Mr. Thurber retired, and A. A. Bliss became a partner, under the firm name of Bliss & Ingalls. They continued together until 1869, when the firm dissolved.
In the meantime, as early as 1862, Mr. Ingalls had established at Jackson the first oil agency ever started in the State of Michigan. He continued it with success until 1869, when he went to Cleve- land, and in partnership with a Mr. Olliphant opened a crockery store. This venture did not prove advantageous, and in 1872 the firm discontinued business, and Mr. Ingalls spent the next two years as a traveling salesman for a Cleveland crockery firm. In 1875 he came to Detroit, and with C. C. Bloomfield established the oil agency of Ingalls & Company. The business was almost immediately successful. In 1884 the company was incorporated as Ingalls & Company, and in 1886 was consolidated with the Standard Oil Company, under the corporate name of the Ingalls Oil Company, and is now the distributing agency of the Standard Oil Company for the State of Michigan. The development of the business in Detroit is largely due to Mr. Ingalls's business foresight and judgment, and through his efforts, Detroit has become one of the largest distributing points for kerosene oil in the whole country.
Since 1882 Mr. Ingalls has also been largely interested in an extensive lumber company, of which he has been the President since its organization, and is now sole manager and owner, and makes large shipments of Michigan pine to the New Eng- land and Eastern States. Mr. Ingalls's business success is the result of persistent and hard work. He is independent and self-reliant, and, when determined on a line of action, pursues it with bold-
ness and vigor. Although on two occasions his earlier business ventures turned out disastrously to himself, he allowed no one else to be a loser, but, when prosperity was again achieved, he paid in full every dollar of his old indebtedness, an example of absolute honesty worthy of universal imitation.
He has never held public office, but takes a deep interest in political movements, and is an enthusi- astic Republican. Honest and straightforward in business transactions, with excellent financial abili- ties, pleasing address and courteous manner, he is a good type of the business men who create and sus- tain the commerce of the city.
He was married in 1862 to Amelia H. Thurber, of Syracuse, New York. She died in 1885, and the following year their daughter, Florence, married Oakes Ames, of Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. In- galls's home being broken up, he decided to retire from active business and make his home in New England. Leaving Detroit in 1887, he went to Boston, and before many months was again per- suaded into business life, and became one of the proprietors of the Albion, Michigan, Milling Com- pany, and controls its large New England business.
CHARLES STORRS ISHAM was born in Hudson, Ohio, January 16, 1835. He is a son of Warren and Melissa (Parsons) Isham, who had four children, namely, Warren, deceased ; Jane L., widow of the late David Crane, of New York ; Maria P., who in 1847 married Wilbur F. Storey, of the Chicago Times, and is now residing in Europe, and Charles Storrs Isham, who was the fourth and youngest child.
Warren Isham, the father, was a Presbyterian minister, and a writer of considerable note. He was born at Watertown, Jefferson County, New York, was a graduate of Union College, and estab- lished, at Hudson, the Ohio Observer, the first religious newspaper in Ohio ; he published it until 1835. He was afterwards widely known in Michigan as the editor of the Michigan Observer, and also of the Michigan Farmer. In these papers he displayed marked ability. About 1853 he published a volume of travels in Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land, and also a volume entitled "The Mud Cabin," an exposé of the lower stratum of English life. Both of these works were quite popular and financially successful. The last years of his life were spent at Marquette, Michigan, where he published the Mar- quette Journal, and was engaged in other literary work. He died at that place in 1863. His wife, Melissa Parsons Isham, was related to the Bard- wells of England. She was born in Belchertown, Massachusetts, in 1800; was a woman of strong character, great family pride, an earnest Christian, and unwearied in her devotion to the welfare of her
1158
MERCHANTS.
children. She died in Detroit in 1880. Several of the family inherited the literary taste and talent of their father. Warren, the eldest son, attracted much attention as a writer in connection with the editorial staff of the Detroit Free Press and the Chicago Times. His writings were noted for the humor which they contained, and he especially distinguished himself as war correspondent of the Chicago Times during the early years of the war. Some of his communications were disapproved by General Grant, and he was imprisoned several months, but released without any charges being preferred against him. He was then re-employed on the staff of the Times, and promoted to the chief editorial charge under Mr. Storey. In 1863, soon after his father's death, he went to Marquette to see about his father's affairs, and on the return trip, on board of the ill-fated steamer " Sunbeam," was lost on Lake Superior. As a writer, he owed little to study or application, but with the spontan- eity of true genius he excelled in whatever he under- took, and his earliest efforts had all the ease and polish of a practiced writer.
Charles Storrs Isham was brought to Detroit by his parents when he was a small child, and before the age of six attended the private school of Mrs. Campbell, now Mrs. Solomon Davis. When he was six years old, his parents removed to Jackson, where he attended school six years, and afterwards spent one year in the schools of Springfield, Massa- chusetts. At the age of fourteen he was placed in a store at Jackson, Michigan, and remained three years. He then returned to Detroit, and from 1852 to 1854 was engaged as traveling agent for the Free Press. The following year and a half he spent in traveling in Louisiana and Texas, and gained much knowledge of the condition of the Southern States during a most interesting period. In the fall of 1856 he entered the wholesale dry goods house of Carter, Quinine & De Forest, in New York City, and was engaged as clerk, and during the winters as traveling salesman for the house in the West. He occupied the position about four years, and then engaged with a merchant to go to Galveston, Texas, with the intention of making his home in the South ; but, just as he was about to depart, he received a telegram from his brother Warren, urging him to come to Detroit ; he concluded to do so, was released from the en- gagement, and came here. During the first three years of his residence he was engaged in the dry goods store of Farrell Brothers, the predecessors of Newcomb, Endicott & Company. In 1864 he formed a partnership with George I. Major, in the commission and forwarding business, under the firm name of Major & Isham. This firm has been in business twenty-four years, and is one of the few
in the city that has remained unchanged for that length of time.
Mr. Isham has attended strictly to his business, and has not sought outside work or duty of any sort. In politics he is a Democrat. As a business man he is prudent and conservative, sound in judgment, and of large energy and perseverance ; his integrity is undoubted, and he is genial and courteous towards all with whom he comes in contact. He has traveled extensively in the United States, and in 1884 made a trip to Europe, spending a large part of the year at different points on the continent.
He was married July 9, 1864, to Lucy B. Mott, daughter of the late John T. Mott, of Detroit. They have four children, Charles Storrs, Jr., Fred. Stewart, Jennie M., and Warren Parsons. Charles S., now in the commission business in this city, spent two years on the Chicago Times as a reporter and foreign correspondent, and was entrusted with the special correspondence of the paper in Mexico. Fred. Stewart graduated from the High School at sixteen, and at once became a reporter for the Detroit Free Press, remaining there until 1884, when he went to Europe. He spent one year in Paris, a year at Munich, and two years in London, studying art and music under the best masters. While in London he made his first venture in book authorship, in an ingenious novel entitled "The Twice-Seen Face." It has passed through the first edition and is entering upon the second.
Mr. and Mrs. Isham are both members of the Westminster Presbyterian Church.
RICHARD MACAULEY was born in Roch- ester, New York, November 28, 1838, and is the son of Richard and Jane (Maguire) Macauley. His father was one of the early millers at Genesee Falls, an interest which had much to do with the building up of the city of Rochester, which is known everywhere as the Flour City.
Mr. Macauley was educated in the public schools and at the Academy in Rochester, and was known as a diligent student. He was offered a college education, but preferred to enter at once into active business life, and in 1859 became a clerk in the large dry good's store of Hubbard & Northup, at Rochester, where he secured an excellent business training, and was brought into social and religious circles which largely shaped his future. While thus engaged he became a member of the Fifty-fourth Regiment of National Guards, which was occa- sionally called into active service until the close of the war. In 1864 he resigned his commission of Captain in the regiment, and went to Cairo, Illinois, where he engaged in the wholesale and retail book and stationery business, his employers doing a large
Charles Sets.han
1159
MERCHANTS.
business throughout the West and South. Mr. Macauley, however, was not able to endure the malaria prevalent in that region, and the next year returned to Rochester and secured employment in the wholesale millinery house of Edward Wamsley, as traveling salesman in the Lake States. In visiting Detroit, he saw that this was a favorable location for a wholesale millinery house, and in 1870, in connection with his former employer, he established the first exclusively wholesale millinery house in Michigan, under the firm name of Macauley & Wamsley. Two years later he bought out his partner's interest, and with his brother, Alexander Macauley, formed a new firm under the style of Macauley Brothers. One year later his brother retired from the firm, and the business was contin- ued under the name of Richard Macauley for eight years with unabated success, and he gained a high reputation with merchants, importers and manu- facturers at the East, and with the trade generally throughout the West, as a successful merchant in a line of trade in which others had frequently failed, and which requires exceptional forethought and judicious management. In 1880 he admitted Edwin Jackson, of Toledo, and his brother, Alexander Macauley, into the firm, which was changed to Richard Macauley & Company. Since then there has been no change, except the retirement of Mr. Jackson in 1887, and the success of the house has been permanent and continuous, and it has grown to be the largest of the kind in the State. In addi- tion to his interest in the Detroit house, Mr. Macau- ley owns the entire interest in, and is the manager of a similar house in Toledo, which is quite as suc- cessful as the one in Detroit.
Mr. Macauley has given his close attention to business interests, is both cautious and enterprising, a good judge of mercantile values, and an excellent financier. He has mastered the details which ensure success, and feels a just pride in the fact that he has always met his obligations fully and promptly. He is highly esteemed for his social qualities and for his integrity of character. He is a member of the Detroit Club and also of the Michigan Club.
In political faith he is a Republican, and is public- spirited in all matters pertaining to the prosperity of the city. He is a director in the American Bank- ing and Savings Association, and in the American Trust Company, and a stockholder in the Detroit National Bank.
He was married July 9, 1867, to Josephine A. Foster, daughter of George D. Foster, a prominent merchant of West Winfield, New York. Her mother's maiden name was Emerancy B. Thurston, a direct descendant of Edward Thurston, one of the early colonists of Rhode Island, in 1642. They have three children, George Thurston, Fanny Wood,
and Richard Henry. All of the family are mem- bers of St. John's Episcopal Church.
THOMAS MCGRAW, the widely known wool merchant, was born at Castleton, on the River Shannon, County of Limerick, Ireland, September 17, 1824. His father, Redmond McGraw, emi- grated to America, landing at Quebec in 1825, and subsequently purchased a tract of land in Essex County, New York, and after clearing it and find- ing it undesirable, he removed to a point near Ogdensburgh, where he repeated his experience. From this farm he removed to Canada, buying land near St. Thomas, sixty miles from Detroit. In 1835 he sold out his interests in Canada and emigrated to Michigan, and settled in the township of Canon, Wayne County, where he passed the remainder of his days. His previous changes of location were doubtless caused by the fact that in the old country the possession of lands was the most reliable wealth that one could have, and as he had been the finan- cial manager of a very large estate for many years previous to his emigration, it was very natural that his ambition should be in the direction of a land- holder, and having no reliable knowledge of the soil and climate of the different sections of America, it was only by several trials that he at last found in Michigan the location he desired. He was a man of liberal education and personal culture, and a steadfast upholder of the Protestant religion. He was born in Ireland in 1777, and died at Canton in 1852. His mother's family were German Luth- erans; her maiden name was Elizabeth Faught. She died about three years after her arrival in America.
Thomas McGraw did not inherit his father's taste for agriculture, and the greater portion of his time until 1840, was spent in study at school and at home. From some romantic source he obtained a favorable idea of a sailor's life, and made up his mind to go to sea. At the age of fifteen he set out to become a sailor, and reached the city of Rochester, New York, before he quite made up his mind that a life spent upon the ocean would not be desirable. In that city he engaged as clerk with a substantial merchant at a salary of ninety- six dollars a year. During his stay in Rochester of a year and a half, he attended a night school, and devoted nearly all his leisure moments to study. In the fall of 1841 he returned to his home in Michigan. The next year he entered into partner- ship with his brother in clearing twenty acres of land. In the fall of the year they sowed the land to wheat, but the enterprise turned out disastrously, as the severe frost of the following June destroyed the crop, the damage being general throughout the State.
1160
MERCHANTS.
-
In 1843, at the age of nineteen, Mr. McGraw came to Detroit and took a place as clerk in the office of the Pittsburgh Iron Company, where he remained four years. Leaving Detroit, in 1847, he purchased a small stock of general merchandise, and opened a store at Novi, Oakland County. That county and those adjoining are noted for their pro- ductions of fine wool, and Mr. McGraw soon drifted into the wool trade. It was not long before this interest became so extensive that his general mer- cantile business was only a convenient appendage, and he was compelled to seek a more central location, and removed to Detroit in April, 1864. Soon after coming here he opened a branch house in Boston, Massachusetts. His business success has been remarkable, and he has been the largest buyer of wool outside of the Atlantic cities. Although an attentive listener to the opinions of others, he makes a thorough canvass of the infor- mation bearing on any question or transaction he is contemplating, and his mind once made up, he never wavers, and, is ever on the alert until the enterprise he has undertaken is finished. His reputation as a wool merchant is such throughout New England that his grades of wool are preferred by manufacturers, as they have uniformly been found to be of the very best quality. His system is such that he transacts his large wool business with ease, and in 1887 his wool purchases amounted to about five million pounds.
He has, for years, taken a great interest in Detroit and its institutions, and his chief investments are in business and real estate in the city. He is the largest stockholder in the Globe Tobacco Gompany, and has for many years been its President. He was one of the organizers, and for five years President of the Michigan Savings Bank, and for twenty years a stockholder, and for seven years a director, of the American National Bank of Detroit. In 1876 he purchased the Mechanics' Block, expending large sums for its general improvement, making it thoroughly modern in accordance with the require- ments of the times. He has provided in the building, for the free use of its occupants, a fine library of three thousand volumes, known as the McGraw Law Library, and has arranged to lay aside a certain sum each year for the extension and improvement of this library, to the end that it may be one of the leading libraries of its kind.
In politics Mr. McGraw is independent, but usu- ally acts and votes with the Republican party. He was for two years a member of the Board of Esti- mates of Detroit.
During August and September, of 1886, Mr. McGraw made a trip to Europe, visiting Germany, Belgium, France, England, Scotland, and Ireland.
In 1848 he married Sarah I. Seldon, grand-
daughter of Rodman Hazard, a well known figure in the earlier history of Western Massachusetts, and noted throughout New England as a pioneer woolen manufacturer, and also a politician, having served upwards of twenty years in the State Legis- lature. One of his lineal descendants was in Frankfort, Germany, during the late Civil War, and used his influence in the early part of the conflict to induce German bankers to purchase American bonds.
Mr. McGraw is most esteemed by those who know him most intimately. He is appreciative of whatever is truest and best in those with whom he comes in contact, and his old time courtesy and friendly spirit make it pleasant for those who have social or business relations with him. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, but his love for Christianity is broader than his love for any one church, and this is doubtless the truest loyalty.
NICOL MITCHELL, for many years one of the most extensive builders and contractors of Detroit, was born at Kilsythe, near Sterlingshire, Scotland, November 19, 1821. There he spent his youth and early manhood, and served an appren- ticeship at the carpenter's trade.
In 1847 he emigrated with his family to America, coming directly to Detroit. Here he secured em- ployment as a journeyman with Hugh Moffat, and subsequently rose to be foreman, and when Mr. Mof- fat abandoned the work of a contractor to engage in other pursuits, Mr. Mitchell succeeded to a por- tion of his business. A few years after he formed a partnership and engaged in building with a Mr. McDuff, under the firm name of Mitchell & McDuff. In 1863 he became a member of the firm of Mor- hous, Mitchell & Bryam, and for several years there- after was more extensively engaged in building than any other firm in Detroit. His connection with the firm ceased in 1874, when Mayor Moffat ap- pointed him a member of the first Board of Public Works, a position for which his practical experience as a mechanic rendered him eminently fitted. He served in this capacity four years, and at the close of his term, one of the Detroit daily papers voiced the opinion of the community in saying : "Mr. Mitchell, who, after four years of faithful service on the Board of Public Works, now retires to private life, is one of the kind of men that few cities are lucky enough to obtain as officers. A successful builder, of enterprise and workmanlike capacity, he was selected for a position that he has filled to the satisfaction of the whole community."
At the expiration of his term he again gave his entire attention to building, and during the latter years of his life most of his time was devoted to the
Thomas Melhores
1161
MERCHANTS.
superintendency of the erection of buildings for Messrs. Newberry & McMillan, and during thirty years he personally superintended the construction of many of the largest buildings in Detroit. The following were erected under his supervision : The Detroit Opera House, Fort Street Presby- terian Church, Christ Protestant Episcopal Church, Central Methodist Episcopal Church, St. Joseph's Catholic Church, St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Young Men's Hall, Michigan Central Elevator No. 2, the Union Depot Elevator, the Wabash Elevator, and numerous business blocks. His last work was in connection with the erection of the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Elevator.
He was one of the organizers of the Michigan Savings Bank, and from the first one of its direc- tors, and from June, 1878, its vice-president
He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Repub- lican party, but never a seeker after political honors. In religious and charitable work he was earnest and active. He was emphatically a God-fearing and devoted Christian gentleman. He became con- nected with the United Presbyterian Church at its organization, and for over thirty-five years served as an elder. He was a valued member of the Detroit Commandery of Knights Templar, and of the St. Andrew's Society. In the latter society he was three times elected to the presidency. His " brither Scotsmen " in their tribute to his memory, record their high appreciation of his " excellent business ability, rare mechanical skill, sterling integrity, and unflinching devotion to duty."
For nearly a year preceding his death Mr. Mitchell had been in ill health, but attended to his business as usual until March 29, 1887, when he was stricken with paralysis, and a few days later sank into apparent unconsciousness, from which he never rallied. He died April 10, 1887. His death was mourned by a wide circle of friends, to whom his many admirable traits of character had become well known.
His long residence in Detroit and prominent identification with important trusts faithfully dis- charged, had made him one of the best known and respected characters in the city. He was prac- tical, straightforward, hard-working, and conscien- tious, with an unsullied reputation. He loved the vigorous pursuits of his trade, and in the man- agement of large bodies of men was remarkably successful. His kindness and consideration for others were his strongest characteristics. Without early educational advantages or influential friends, by his individual worth and energy, he won a de- serving place among the successful business men of Detroit. He was married to Lillie Kirkwood, at Sterlingshire, Scotland, December 5, 1845. They had four children. Their eldest son, William, died
in Detroit in 1881, at the age of thirty-one years. The remaining children are Jessie Dean, wife of W. R. Hamilton, Margaret C., and John K., a civil engineer of 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.