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 38
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Hazen S. Pingree was born at Denmark, Maine, August 30, 1842, and is the fourth child of Jasper and Adaline Pingree. His father was a farmer, and resided at Denmark from the time of his birth in 1806 until 1871, when he came to Detroit, where he died in 1882. Hazen S. Pingree resided with his parents until fourteen years of age, when he went to Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and secured employ- ment in a shoe factory. Here he learned the trade of cutter, at which he worked until August 1, 1862, when he enlisted as a private in Company F, First Massachusetts Regiment of heavy artillery. This regiment was assigned to duty in the Twenty-second Army Corps, and its first service was rendered in defense of the Nation's capitol. During General Pope's Virginia campaign the regiment was ordered to the front, and participated in the battle of Bull Run, on August 30, 1862. It afterwards returned to duty in defense of Washington, and remained there until May 15, 1864, when the time of service of this regiment having expired, Mr. Pingree, with enough others re-enlisted to keep up the organiza- tion of the regiment, which was then assigned to the Second Brigade, Third Division, Second Corps, of the Army of the Potomac, and took part in the
battles of Fredericksburg Road, Harris Farm, and Spottsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, North Anne and South Anne. At the battle of Spottsyl- vania Court House, his regiment opened the engagement, and lost five hundred men, killed and wounded. On May 25, 1864, Mr. Pingree and a number of his comrades, while reconnoitering, were captured by a squad of men commanded by Colonel Mosby. As prisoners of war, they were brought before that rebel officer, who exchanged his entire suit of clothes with Mr. Pingree, but afterwards gave back the coat, remarking that his men might shoot him for a "Yank," a result he certainly did not desire. After his capture, Mr. Pingree was confined for nearly five months at Andersonville, and for short periods was confined at Gordonsville, Virginia; Salisbury, North Caro- lina; and Millen, Georgia. At the latter place, in November, 1864, he was exchanged, rejoined his regiment in front of Petersburg, and soon after took part in the expedition to Weldon Railroad, and in the battles of Fort Fisher, Boydton Road, Petersburg, Sailor's Creek, Farnsville, and Appo- mattox Court House. From the battle of the Wilderness to the fall of Richmond, his regiment lost one thousand two hundred and eighty-three men and thirty-eight officers. It was complimented, in special orders by Generals Mott and Pierce, for particular gallantry in the last grand charge on Petersburg, in which it took a leading part. Mr. Pingree's second enlistment was for three years, or the close of the war, and when the surrender of Lee took place, his regiment was in close proximity.
He was mustered out of service on August 16, 1865, and shortly after his discharge came to Detroit. Here for a short time he was employed in the boot and shoe factory of H. P. Baldwin & Company.
Deciding to embark in business for himself, in December, 1866, with C. H. Smith, he purchased the small boot and shoe factory of a Mr. Mitchell, on the corner of Croghan and Randolph Streets, the entire capital represented by the firm of Pingree & Smith, when established, being but $1,360. The first year they employed but eight persons, and the value of their production reached only $20,000. After a few months' they removed to the Hawley Block, on the corner of Woodbridge and Bates Streets, where they remained two years. During the following three years they occupied the Farns- worth Block, on Woodbridge Street, and in 1871 they moved to the southeast corner of Woodbridge and Griswold Streets, using at that time but one- half of the building.
Their venture was a success from the very start, and has shown a steady increase from year to year. For years they have maintained their position as
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the most extensive boot and shoe manufacturers in the West, and their factory is excelled by but one or two in the United States. Over seven hundred persons are employed, and their weekly pay-roll amounts to between $5,000 and $6,000. The value of their annual products amounts to about $1,000,000. Their sales extend all over the West, but are more especially confined to Ohio, Michigan, and the Northwestern States. From the beginning of this enterprise, Mr. Pingree has had general super- vision over the complicated details of the entire establishment. Mr. Smith retired from the firm in 1883, but the firm name, Pingree & Smith, has been retained. Mr. Pingree's success has been the result of hard work and good management.
In social life he is large hearted and generous, a faithful friend, and a good citizen. He has confined his energies almost solely to the advancement of his business, but has ever evinced a commendable pub- lic spirit, and a willingness to do his full share to promote all public projects.
He was married February 28, 1872, to Frances A. Gilbert, of Mount Clemens, Michigan. They have three children, two daughters and a son.
DAVID M. RICHARDSON is descended from English ancestors, who came to this country about two hundred years ago, and settled in Woburn, Massachusetts. His grandfather on the paternal side was a soldier in the War of the Revolution. His father, Jeremiah Richardson, was born in New Hampshire, December 30, 1795. Soon after the close of the War of 1812, at the age of nineteen, he settled in the town of Concord, Erie County, New York, thirty miles south of Buffalo, then an almost unbroken wilderness. Having but limited means, he contracted with the old Holland Land Company for one hundred acres of land. He made his way to the locality and commenced the work of making a home. Four years later he returned to Vermont, and on November 29, 1818, was married to Anna Webster, and soon thereafter returned with his wife to his wilderness home. His wife died in 1832, and he subsequently married Jane Ann Woodward, who died in 1868. He lived on the old home- stead until his death in 1879. His son, D. M. Richardson was born at Concord, January 30, 1826, and until his twenty-first year remained at home, and during the greater portion of the time assisted his father in farm labors. He received a thorough education in the public schools, and at the Spring- ville academy, in his native town, and at the age of twenty began to teach in the district schools of Erie County during the winter months. His time was thus occupied until the spring of 1847, when he went west to view the country, and possi- bly locate a future home. He prospected in the
States of Illinois and Wisconsin, which were at that time but sparsely settled, and at Burlington, Iowa, began teaching a select school. Towards the close of the summer he was taken ill with cholera, then prevalent in that section, and in September of that year, while still suffering from the effects of dis- ease, he started for Milwaukee, journeying by stage from Burlington to Peoria, by steamer to La Salle, by canal to Chicago, and thence by steamer to Milwaukee. There in November, 1852, he estab- lished a school and met with such success that at the end of the summer term he erected a brick build- ing, three stories high, on the corner of Mason and Milwaukee Streets, and conducted a school therein which was incorporated as the Milwaukee Academy. This undertaking was successfully continued until December, 1853, when the building was destroyed by fire, and he suffered a loss of over $10,000. Prior to the fire, 300 pupils were receiving instruc- tion in the academy, and five assistant teachers were employed. After its destruction the citizens offered to rebuild the institution at their own ex- pense, but Mr. Richardson, after careful considera- tion, having determined to embark in mercantile pur- suits, declined the offer, and with a capital of five hundred dollars, left him after closing up the busi- ness of the academy, went to Madison, Wiscon- sin, where he established a wholesale and retail grocery on King Street, and for two years did a very profitable business.
On January 1, 1856, he sold out and came to Detroit, and with J. W. Hibbard as partner, under the firm name of J. W. Hibbard & Company, started the first match factory in this city, on Wood- bridge Street, at the foot of Eleventh Street. On January 1, 1858, Mr. Hibbard retired, and M. B. Dodge became a partner, under the firm name of Richardson & Company. This firm continued until May 1, 1859, when Mr. Richardson assumed entire control of the business. On Sunday night, June 3, 1860, the factory was destroyed by fire, inflicting a heavy loss, leaving Mr. Richardson deeply in debt, about $19,000 worse off than noth- ing. He effected an amicable settlement with his creditors by agreeing to pay twenty-five per cent. of his indebtedness, but within six years he had re-imbursed every creditor in full. After the fire, with the assistance of his friend, N. W. Brooks, he rebuilt on the same site, and the forepart of the following September he again began manufacturing. In March, 1863, he purchased the site occupied by his present factory, on the corner of Woodbridge and Eighth Streets, and in the fall of 1863 erected the main brick building. During 1864, he erected a large brick warehouse and as the growth of the business demanded, several additional buildings have been built, until at the present time the factory
DH Richardson
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is one of the largest and best equipped of its kind in the country, and gives employment to about 300 persons. Mr. Richardson was sole proprietor of the business until April 1, 1875, when a stock company, known as the Richardson Match Company, was formed, which continued the business until 1881. when the concern was purchased by a syndicate known as the Diamond Match Company, Mr. Rich- ardson being the Detroit manager. Mr. Richard- son was a pioneer in this industry in the West, and perhaps did as much to make it an important branch of manufacture as any one man in the United States .. Prior to the beginning of his estab- lishment, matches were mostly made by hand, but in no locality had the business become extensive. He did much to develop the methods of making matches by machinery, the only mode now em- ployed, and from 1865 until 1880, his establishment was the largest and most complete in the United States. The extent of his business will in part be realized by the fact that from 1865 to 1883, he paid internal revenue taxes to the amount of over $5,000,000.
In 1876 Mr. Richardson, with several capitalists, organized the Union Mills Company. Their flouring mill, erected on Woodbridge Street, was at that time one of the largest and finest ever built in the United States. Mr. Richardson, the largest stockholder, personally superintended the building of the mill. Operations were begun in 1876, but the undertaking, for causes beyond Mr. Richardson's control, was not successful, and as he had become almost sole owner of the concern, assuming heavy liabilities in doing so, at a time when every business was greatly depressed, he was compelled to suspend and make an assignment for the benefit of his creditors. In less than two years after his failure, he made satisfactory arrangements with every creditor, and was enabled to continue his old business, which had temporarily passed into other hands.
During all his busy life, Mr. Richardson has been a close student of the causes which tend to foster and protect the manufacturing interests as the great source of national prosperity. As the result of his studies upon social, political, and economic ques- tions, he has prepared several pamphlets containing valuable facts and suggestions upon these topics, which have been widely circulated and warmly commended.
Among the subjects which early enlisted his attention was the system of internal taxation adopted by the government for the purpose of rais- ing money to carry on the Civil War. These taxes were particularly burdensome to the manufacturing interests. After the war closed, the manufacturers naturally desired to be at least in part relieved from the burdens that had been imposed upon them.
The question was how to relieve the productive industry of the country without impairing the ability of the government to meet its obligations. To the solution of this question, Mr. Richardson gave much time and attention, and in December, 1866, as chairman of the committee on internal revenue taxation, appointed by the Manufacturers' Associa- tion of Detroit, he wrote a report on the subject, but his advanced ideas did not meet with approval. The following January he proceeded to Washing- ton, and spent several weeks in examining the methods and sources of revenue of European countries, and the prospective necessities of taxa- tion in our own country, and as the result of his researches, in March, 1867, he made a report to the Detroit Manufacturers' Association, in which he advised that "taxation should be so levied as to exempt all articles of prime necessity to the great- est extent possible, and remain upon articles of luxury, where it will be the least obnoxious to the people." His report included a list of ten sources from which he claimed sufficient revenue could be levied to meet all obligations of the gov- ernment. This report, which was published, caused considerable discussion all over the country, and in October, 1867, he submitted an abbreviated report, embracing the essential conclusion of the original report, and it was adopted by the Detroit Manufacturers' Association, and that body issued a call for a national convention of manufacturers to consider the questions at issue. The convention was held at Cleveland, on December 18 and 19, 1867, and was attended by over six hundred leading manu- facturers, from twenty-four States, estimated to represent over $400,000,000 of manufacturing capital. Mr. Richardson's report, as adopted by the Detroit Association, was adopted by a com- mittee of this convention, reported to, and adopted without change by the convention, with only six dissenting votes, and a committee was appointed to present the report to Congress. A similar conven- tion, of over fifteen hundred New England manu- facturers also adopted Mr. Richardson's report without material change, and the laws in relation to the internal revenue, passed by the Congress of 1868, embody the essential provisions which he pro- posed. The prosperity which followed was largely due to the relief thereby offered the manufacturers, and as Mr. Richardson did so much to bring about these results, it is his due that the facts be made known.
In December, 1869, he issued a pamphlet en- titled, " A Plan for Returning to Specie Payment, without Financial Revolution," in which the plan adopted by the government several years after was outlined, but which was not entered upon until after the panic of 1873. During recent years he has pre-
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pared and extensively circulated, several pamphlets suggesting methods for the creation of foreign markets, for the surplus products of American indus- try. As an important aid in this direction, he has urged the construction, at government expense, of the interoceanic canal, via Lake Nicaragua. He has also advocated the adequate defense of our sea coast and a strong navy, the encouragement of ship-building and of ocean commerce by establish- ing mail transportation in American ships to the leading commercial centers, and suggests various industrial policies which would tend to the better- ment of the laboring and producing classes. He is also in favor of liberal government aid to public schools, especially for the late slave-holding States and Territories, and of stringent legislation for the suppression of polygamy.
In political faith Mr. Richardson is a Republican. The first elective office held by him was that of a member of the Board of Education of Detroit, representing the Ninth Ward during the years 1863 and 1864. During this period the public school system of the city was greatly improved and the High School established in the old Capitol building.
In 1872 Mr. Richardson was elected to the State Senate from the Second Senatorial District, receiv- ing a majority of 1,377 votes over his opponent. During his term he served as chairman of the com- mittee on the State Public School for Indigent Chil- dren, at Coldwater, Michigan, and was especially instrumental in securing an appropriation for the purchase of additional land and in increasing the amount of appropriation for the erection of a suitable building and the equipment of the same. He also served as chairman of the committee on the State Capitol. As a member of the committee on the State University, he successfully labored in securing an ap- propriation to complete University Hall, and to pro- vide for the erection of a new laboratory ; he also aided in obtaining the law for a tax of one-twentieth of one mill for the support of the University. He was a member of the committee on railroads, and aided in creating the law relative to the establishment of a Railroad Commission, and the fixing by statute the rates of fare to be charged by railroads within the State, and of the law that lands granted to rail- road companies should not be exempted from taxation after the grants had been earned. He also aided in securing the passage of laws establishing the Board of Public Works of Detroit, creating the Board of Estimates, permitting the city to issue $1,000,000 in bonds to build new water works, and establishing the Superior Court of Detroit.
Mr. Richardson is a member of the First Con- gregational Church, with which he has been con- nected since 1856. In 1867 he assisted in organiz-
ing the Ninth Avenue Union Mission School. During the erection of the building, completed in 1868, at a cost of $8,000, he was chairman of the building committee, and, for the first ten years, acted as superintendent of the Sunday-school. The building was subsequently moved to the corner of Trumbull Avenue and Baker Street, and formed the nucleus of the Trumbull Avenue Congregational Church. Both this church and also the Woodward Avenue Congregational Church, found in him a liberal supporter.
Mr. Richardson has been twice married. His first wife was Ellen L. Hibbard, daughter of I. W. Hibbard, whom he married November 23, 1854. She died December 20, 1868. Their daughter, Laura M., was born July 14, 1856, and died March 26, 1876. His second wife was E. Jennie Holliday, a daughter of William Holliday, of Springfield, Erie , County, Pennsylvania. They were married May 23, 1871, and have had two children, David M. Jr., who was born May 30, 1873, and died May I, 1876, and Arthur J., born August 12, 1876.
FORDYCE HUNTINGTON ROGERS was born in Detroit, October 12, 1840, and is the son of George Washington and Jane Clark (Emmons) Rogers. His father was born at Vergennes. Ver- mont. December 14, 1799, and was a descendant of Russell Rogers, who came from England and settled in Vermont prior to the Revolutionary War. He and other members of the family were ardent patriots, and took an active part in the war. George W. Rogers, who had been engaged in the manufac- ture of stoves at Vergennes, came to Detroit in 1840, and after his arrival in Michigan established and for several years conducted a general merchandise store in Pontiac, where he died in 1860. Mrs. George W. Rogers was a daughter of Adonijah Emmons, and a sister of Judge H. H. Emmons, a distinguished mem- ber of the Detroit bar, and one of the circuit judges of the United States courts. Mrs. Rogers died soon after the birth of her son Fordyce H. Rogers. His father's second wife was Harriet L. Williams, a daughter of Oliver Williams, a trader in Detroit and vicinity prior to the War of 1812.
Fordyce, or as he is usually called, Ford H. Rogers, was educated in the public schools of Pontiac ; came to Detroit in 1856 and entered the store of T. H. & J. A. Hinchman, wholesale drug- gists, where he remained one year. The follow- ing year he was employed in the clothing store of Eagle & Elliott. He then went to San Francisco, where an elder brother had preceded him, and was engaged in various occupations until the sum- mer of 1859, when he secured a position with a water company in the mining district of the Sierra Nevada mountains. In the fall of the same year
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he returned to Pontiac, and until 1861 was engaged in mercantile enterprises at Lapeer and Detroit. The Civil War having then broken out, in June, 1861, he was the first man to join Col. Thornton F. Broad- head, and assisted in raising the First Michigan Cav- alry, which was mustered into service in August following. Mr. Rogers, who at this time was a minor, was commissioned as Second Lieutenant, but soon after the regiment arrived in Washington he was appointed First Lieutenant and Battalion Adjutant. The regiment was assigned to the Army of Virginia, under Gen. Banks, and lay in camp at Frederick, Maryland, a considerable portion of the winter of 1861-'62, its principal service subsequently being on the Upper Potomac, in the Shenandoah Valley, and near the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge. It saw very active service, especially dur- ing the summer of 1862, when it was assigned to Gen. Pope's division and formed a portion of Gen. Beauford's brigade. Lieut. Rogers, who was nat- urally of a restless and adventurous disposition, grew impatient under the inaction of army life, and at his own solicitation was frequently entrusted with scouting parties, engaged in secret patrols and special duty. His service in this line of duty proved in many instances of great value to the Union forces, and upon one occasion while Gen. Beau- ford's brigade was on a cavalry raid in the vicinity of the Rapidan River, he performed an almost invaluable service to the Union army. While on the march, and in close proximity to a large force of the enemy, Lieut. Rogers, left the lines and pur- sued two mounted rebel officers. The latter, in their flight, led him near the headquarters of Gen. J. E. B. Stewart, who, with his staff officers, being warned of the supposed approach of Union forces, beat a hasty retreat. Lieut. Rogers, who was now all alone, pursued Gen. Stewart for some distance and fired two shots at that rebel officer. He then en- tered the deserted headquarters and secured a haversack containing all the papers of instruction from Gen. Lee to Gen. Stewart, then in command of the cavalry advance guard of the rebel army. These papers furnished valuable information to the Union army and revealed plans of the rebel com- manders, which once known were easily averted, but otherwise would have been far-reaching in their disastrous effects and might have led to the cap- ture of Washington.
Lieut. Rogers participated with his regiment in all its engagements until he was mustered out of service at Washington, September 11, 1862. Shortly after he was mustered out he was tendered the rank of Major in both a Michigan and New York cavalry regiment, but declined.
After the close of his army experience he re- turned to California, and was variously occupied
in San Francisco until 1865, when he served as bookkeeper in the Pacific Bank of San Francisco; was soon after made paying teller, and from 1867 to 1872 was cashier. He then became interested in mining and stock brokerage, and at one time was secretary and treasurer of thirty mining companies. In 1879 he returned to the east and for nearly two years was a member of the American Mining Board of New York City. In 1880 he returned to Detroit and purchased the Detroit White Lead Works. The works had been established since 1865, but at the time of Mr. Rogers's purchase, through poor management was very far from being a profitable concern. Associating Ford D. C. Hinchman and Horace M. Dean in the enterprise, the business was incorporated under the name of the Detroit White Lead Works. The reputation of the corporation was soon established on a firm basis, and in a remarkably short time the liberal policy and business-like methods of the managers resulted in building up an extensive business. Year by year additional buildings have been erected to meet the demands of their varied line of manufac- tures, and at the present time their plant is one of the most complete and best arranged for the pur- poses required, and one of the best in the country. Mr. Rogers, as treasurer and manager of the com- pany, has been indefatigable in his exertions, and the business management has been entrusted almost entirely to him ; and to his judgment, ingenuity, and energy, the corporation is largely indebted for the success attained. He is possessed of great executive force, is shrewd and careful in his business habits, and the evidence of his work is seen in every branch of the business, but especially is this true in the selling department, where unlimited competition makes success no easy problem. Fifteen salesmen are employed, and their goods find a ready market all over the country.
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