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 44
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When he was twenty years old, there seemed a specially favorable opening for a commercial life, and, although prepared to enter college the follow- ing spring, he gave up the idea, entered the general store of his uncle, C. A. Shaw, and after four years became a partner with him, under the firm name of C. A. & D. R. Shaw. In January, 1857, he sold out his interest in the store, and with Samuel Rogers and J. N. Jenness, entered the lumbering business, in which, owing to his ener- getic endeavors, he met with good success, continu- ing therein for sixteen years.
In 1874 he came to Detroit, and has since been engaged in buying and selling lands, and in min- ing interests.
Mr. Shaw is a member of the First Congrega- tional Church, is retiring and conservative, has never been an aspirant for any kind of office, but has had various minor offices thrust upon him. 'He is at present director of the First National Bank of Pontiac, a position he has held for the past twelve years, and is also a director in the Muskegon National Bank.
He was married to Harriet Dewey, of Almont, in November, 1849. They have had five children. Their names are: Mrs. R. H. Holmes, James T., and Bessie H. Shaw, all of whom are living in Detroit; another daughter, Mrs. George F. Com-
OR. Stacey
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stock, Jr., resides in Syracuse, New York, while a fourth daughter, Mrs. Lester McLean, lives in Elyria, Ohio.
ELLIOTT TRUAX SLOCUM was born at Trenton, Wayne County, Michigan, May 15, 1839, and is the only son of Giles B. and Sophia M. B. (Truax) Slocum. His mother was a native of Wayne County, and a daughter of Colonel Abraham C. Traux, who came to Michigan in 1800, and was a volunteer in the United States army at the time of Hull's surrender, and a prominent merchant of Detroit as early as 1808. Mr. Slocum passed his boyhood in the vicinity of Trenton, and was pre- pared for college by Rev. Moses Hunter, at his Episcopal school for boys, on Grosse Isle, finishing his preparatory course in 1857. He afterwards attended Union College, at Schenectady, New York, and graduated Bachelor of Arts in the class of 1862. His diploma was one of the last signed by Dr. Eliphalet Nott, for so many years the widely known President of that institution. Mr. Slocum also took a course in the University of Michigan, and received from that institution his second degree, Master of Arts, in 1869.
From 1862 to 1872 he was extensively engaged in farming and stock raising on lands along the Detroit River, and, in connection with his father, carried on one of the largest stock and grain farms in Michigan. He subsequently enlarged his business interests by the purchase of extensive tracts of land in various parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, which, through the development of cer- tain railroads, have become valuable investments. He is also interested in business enterprises at Muskegon, Whitehall, Slocum's Grove, and other parts of Western Michigan. He was one of the first directors of the Chicago & Canada Southern Railroad, one of the founders, directors, and Vice- President of the First National Bank of Whitehall, and at present is one of the directors of the Detroit National Bank. He is also a Trustee of the Sara- toga Monument Association of New York, and, with Senator Warner Miller, George William Curtis, S. S. Cox, and others, took an active interest in the erection of one of the finest monuments in America, on the field of Burgoyne's surrender, at Schuylerville, New York, near the old homestead of his father's family. He is one of the Com- missioners and has been President of the Belle Isle Park Commission, is now serving his second term, and takes much interest in the development of this promising pleasure-ground of Detroit. He has trav- eled extensively in Europe, and is a member of the Detroit and Grosse Pointe Clubs.
Politically he has been an earnest and active Republican, and represented the Third Senatorial
District in the State Legislature for the term com- mencing in 1869, and at that time was the youngest member in the Senate. His course as a legislator was marked by diligence and a conscientious dis- charge of his duties, which earned the good opinion of his constituents, and secured for him the warm friendship of Senator Jacob M. Howard and the late Governor John J. Bagley. The benefit of his personal labors has always been freely given to furthering the success of his party. He is a mem- ber of the Michigan Club.
He was married July 30, 1872, to Charlotte Gross, daughter of the late Ransom E. Wood, an old resident and wealthy capitalist of Grand Rapids. In the management of numerous business interests left by his father, and in the creation and development of new projects, Mr. Slocum has displayed good judgment, and has been uniformly successful. He is cautious and shrewd, while the honesty and integrity of his public and private life have made him a popular and respected citizen.
GILES BRYAN SLOCUM, one of the pioneers of Wayne County, and for more than half a cen- tury an honored and influential resident of Trenton, was born at Saratoga Springs, New York, July II, 1808. He was of a Quaker family, and descended from Giles Slocum, a native of Somersetshire, England, who resided in the township of Ports- mouth, Newport County, Rhode Island, in 1638. Jonathan Slocum, his great-grandfather, one of the first of the family in America, was killed in the Indian wars, on the site of the present city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. His son Giles, the grandfather of Giles B. Slocum, was born in Rhode Island, but about 1774 moved with his parents to Wilkes-Barre. He was among the sufferers by the Wyoming massacre, and was one of the sixty who escaped. His sister Frances, then five years of age, was carried off by the Indians, and after a captivity of sixty years was found near Logansport, Indiana, in 1837, by Colonel Ewing. A very inter- esting account of this circumstance has been written by Benson J. Lossing. Giles Slocum was a volun- teer in Sullivan's expedition against the Indians in the Genesee Valley. Soon after the close of the War of the Revolution, he moved from Pennsylvania to Saratoga Springs, settling on a farm about four miles from the site of the present village of Sara- toga. He purchased his farm of General Schuyler, of Revolutionary fame, and the warmest friendship and esteem existed between them. His son, Jeremiah Slocum, married Elizabeth Bryan, who was of a Connecticut family. They were the parents of Giles B. Slocum, and nature and ancestry com- bined to give him a good mental and physical equipment for the work he was destined to do.
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His boyhood days were passed on a farm, about two miles from the scene of Burgoyne's surrender. He received the educational advantages which the common schools afforded, and during his early manhood taught school four winters in the neigh- borhood of his home, and at Lockport, New York. The summer of 1830 he spent in farming, in Northern New York, on the Au Sable River. He first came to Michigan in 1831, landed at Detroit, and after prospecting extensively in the interior, and through the woods above Black River, he settled for the winter, and assisted in laying out the town of Vistula, now Toledo, Ohio, where he opened the first store, and engaged in getting out timber for the first wharf at that place. On the death of his father in 1832, he returned East, and purchased the interest in his father's estate, owned by the remaining heirs. He returned to Michigan early in the winter of 1833, and spent the re- mainder of it in the stave business at the head of Swan Creek Bay, now Newport, Monroe County, where he established a store and engaged in gen- eral trade. In the spring of 1834, among many other pioneer experiences, he paddled a canoe from the city of Jackson down the Grand River to Grand Rapids.
In the summer of 1834 he established the first store and dock at Truaxton, now Trenton, and continued in the mercantile business, with slight intermission, for many years. In 1837 he sold the family homestead at Saratoga, and from that date began his career as a real estate operator in Michigan. He was married in 1838, to Sophia Brigham Truax, daughter of Colonel Abraham C. Truax, founder of the village of Trenton. Among his early land purchases was a frontage of about three miles on the Detroit River, in the vicinity of Trenton, and for fifteen or twenty years following 1837 he turned his attention, among other interests, to farming and sheep raising, and during that period was one of the largest wool growers in Michigan. Each year he increased his landed interests, and at the time of his death he had cleared and brought under cultivation about two thousand acres of land in the vicinity of Trenton. The timber from these lands was largely consigned to New York as staves, or used in shipbuilding at Trenton. For several years he was also engaged in building docks at Detroit, Windsor, Springwells, Trenton, Sandwich, Gibraltar, and Grosse Isle. In 1859, with Charles Mears of Chicago, having pre- viously purchased large tracts of land on White River and White Lake, they laid out the village of Whitehall, in Muskegon County. Through a con- tract made July 7, 1848, with the County of Wayne, for building two bridges over the River Rouge, he became possessed of several large tracts of land
donated by the State to aid in building such bridges. The lands were located in the eastern part of Mus- kegon County, and by subsequent purchases were increased, so that they included five thousand acres. This property became exceedingly valuable by the extension of railroad facilities. On it, at a place now known as Slocum's Grove, he built mills, where, in connection with his son, he conducted a lumbering and farming business for many years. In 1856 he took an active interest in the construc- tion of the Detroit, Monroe & Toledo Railroad, donating the right of way through his own property and purchasing land from others for that purpose. On the completion of the Toledo, Canada Southern & Detroit, and Chicago & Canada Southern Rail- roads, the junction of the two roads occurred on Mr. Slocum's property, near Trenton.
He took a warm interest in the politics of the country, and was a member of the first Republican Convention, held in 1854, at Jackson, and was ever after an influential supporter of the party, and especially active in several memorable senatorial contests. During the war with the South, he was earnest and efficient in support of the Government, and aided much in raising men and money, and equipping soldiers for the field. For several years preceding his death he was a Trustee of the Sara- toga Monument Association, of which the late ex-Governor Seymour was President.
Notwithstanding the many commercial changes and business revulsions of his time, Mr. Slocum always met his obligations, and the fortune he accumulated was the result of the numerous enter- prises which he conducted with care and clear business judgment. His honesty was never ques- tioned, and he possessed the unbounded faith and confidence of those with whom he did business. None of the early pioneers of this section were more widely known throughout the State, nor more sincerely respected and esteemed. He had a kind heart, and helped many men to obtain homes, farms, and fortunes.
He died at Slocum's Island, January 26, 1884. He had three children, two of whom, Elliott Truax Slocum and Mrs. Elizabeth T. Nichols, are living.
JOHN DANA STANDISH was a lineal descend- ant of Captain Miles Standish, the most striking figure of that age of the Pilgrims which Rufus Choate so fitly described in one of the most memorable of his orations as The American Heroic Period. Of the six children of the sturdy Puritan soldier, Josiah, the third son, after passing the greater part of an active and influential life in Eastern Massa- chusetts, finally removed with his family to Preston, Connecticut. His son Samuel and his grandson Samuel remained in that State, but his great-
enac A. cbrain
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grandson, also Samuel, removed to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He served in the Patriot Army of the Revolution, sharing in considerable border fight- ing, and being once captured by the British, and while a prisoner witnessing the murder of Jane McCrea by the Indians. After peace was estab- lished, he removed to Vermont, and subsequently to North Granville, New York. There was born his only child, the fourth Samuel, who became a leading resident of Northern New York, hold- ing, during his long life, many positions of local prominence, including the office of Surrogate of Washington County. The youngest of his children, the seventh in direct descent from Captain Miles Standish, was John Dana Standish. He was born at North Granville, on October 1, 1817, inheriting from his ancestry a vigorous constitution, physical energy, and the sturdy attributes of the typical New England character. He enjoyed the advantages of wise home training, and of thorough study within the limits of an academic course at one of the best institutions of that day, presided over, at Granville, by Dr. Salem Town. The current of emigration to the West, which was so powerfully stimulated by the completion of the Erie Canal, almost drained Northern New York of its young men half a century ago, and in 1837 Mr. Standish, not yet of age, arrived at Detroit, in search of a new home and of the opportunities offered in a growing State. Here he fortunately made the acquaintance of S. V. R. Trowbridge, a splendid representative of the pioneer settlers of Michigan, and by his advice established a select school at Birmingham, in Oakland County. In this calling he spent three years of his early manhood, and among his pupils were not a few lads who have since risen to positions of influence. This experience he often recalled with much pleasure.
In 1841 Mr. Standish began his business career as a merchant at Pontiac, and at this time married Emma L. Darrow, of Lyme, Connecticut. His domestic life was an unusually happy one, his wife proving indeed a "help-meet," and their four chil- dren growing to manhood and womanhood by their side, forming a family circle which death did not break until, in 1884, both parents were buried after forty-three years of wedlock.
The rewards of fifteen years of unremitting industry, at Pontiac, Ionia, and Romeo, were meagre, and finally, in 1856, a fire swept away all of Mr. Standish's savings, and left him in debt. He was, by this blow, compelled to compromise with his creditors, but when prosperity came to him, every dollar of his obligations was paid in full. After the fire he removed to Detroit, and at first obtained employment as a clerk. An opportunity
soon offering, he entered the commission business, and this venture proved exceedingly successful. He then rapidly extended his operations in a variety of directions, and with uniform good fortune. He dealt largely in pork, provisions, and wool, be- came interested in the manufacture of paints and of lumber, invested liberally in pine lands and in city real estate, and held stock in many Detroit corporations. He laid out and founded the village of Standish, in Arenac County, and built and operated the first saw-mill in Otsego County. At differ- ent times he held the management of the Detroit office of the Tappan & McKillop commercial agency, and acted as agent for Michigan of the Northwest- ern Mutual Life Insurance Company. At the time of his death he was President of the Market Bank and a director of the Detroit Fire and Marine Insurance Company. In 1872 he commenced gradually to curtail his business, and during the last few years of his life gave his attention to the management of his property and to his public duties.
While not an active partisan, Mr. Standish, although originally a Democrat, was radically anti- slavery in his opinions, and during the political upheaval attending the Kansas-Nebraska struggle became a Republican. In 1869 he received that party's nomination for Mayor of Detroit, and, although defeated, ran largely ahead of his ticket. He was subsequently chosen a member of the Board of Estimates, and in 1880 was appointed to the responsible office of City Assessor. Three years later he was made a member of the new Board of Assessors, for the long term, and was the first President of that body.
Mr. Standish was from his youth a member of the Baptist Church, and was always one of the active laymen of his denomination in this State.
He was a consistent member and a deacon of the Romeo Church, and of the Lafayette (now Woodward) Avenue Baptist Church, of Detroit. In the last Society he was President of the Board of Deacons, and he was also President of the Baptist Social Union of Detroit. His loyalty to his church was free from sectarianism, and he was liberal with- out as well as within the channels of its action.
Mrs. Standish died in July, 1884, after a prolonged illness, and four months later, apparently in the full vigor of health, and in the midst of an active life, Mr. Standish was seized with some obscure disease of the heart, and expired instantly. He left four children : Mary, wife of William C. Colburn, Eva, wife of Charles K. Backus, James D. Standish, and Fred. D. Standish. His death ended an industri- ous, honorable, and prosperous life, crowned with an enviable memory.
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ISAAC NEWTON SWAIN, one of the earliest pioneers in the western part of the lower peninsu- la of Michigan, was born in Jefferson County, New York, near Sackett's Harbor, November 20, 1807, and was the son of Richard Swain. He was of English descent, and his ancestors were among the earliest Quaker settlers in this country. They came from Plymouth, in Devonshire, England, and first settled in Salem; but in 1790, on account of the persecution growing out of the Salem witch- craft, they removed to Nantucket, Massachusetts, where many of their descendants still reside. Richard Swain was born in 1773. In early life he engaged in mercantile and real estate business, and in 1796 purchased a valuable tract of land on the east shore of Lake Cayuga, in the town of Scipio, Cayuga County, New York. After several years' residence he found the title defective, and removed to Jefferson County, New York. When twenty- three years old he married Martha Seaman. The founder of her family in America was Thomas Seaman, who came from Rehoboth, England, in 1696, and settled in Massachusetts, twelve miles east of Providence, on a tract which he named Rehoboth. There one of his grandsons preached until he was one hundred and four years old. Three others also attained a great age. Mrs. Swain was a woman of rare intelligence, a diligent student of the Scriptures, and did much to inculcate the sound principles which ever animated the actions of her son. In 1816 the family removed from Sack- ett's Harbor, and settled in a dense wilderness on the Holland Purchase, since known as Royalton, in Niagara County, New York. Here, with his par- ents, Isaac N. Swain passed through all the priva- tions and hardships of early pioneer life in Western New York. His early education was obtained in the log school-house, and he was specially aided by the encouragement and assistance of his mother.
In the fall of 1821, although only fourteen years old, he assisted in the construction of the Erie Canal, and continued in the work until cold weather prevented further labors. At the age of sixteen he received a teacher's certificate, and for the next, four years taught during the winter months. He devoted the proceeds obtained by teaching to de- fraying his school expenses at the Middlebury Academy, located about forty miles from his home, walking to and from the academy when he could be spared from work on the farm. In order to obtain money for a collegiate education, he went South, and taught school until his health failed. Returning North, he made a tour of three months through Michigan, and purchased eighty acres of land near the present site of Jackson. In 1830 he married Vallonia, daughter of William Smith, of Royalton, and removed with his wife to Michigan.
The next year he purchased some government land in what is now Spring Arbor, Jackson County. Here he built a house and settled down. At this time he was the only white settler within a radius of many miles from his residence. Indians were numerous and troublesome, and personal encoun- ters with wild beasts, especially wolves, were fre- quent. He resided at Spring Arbor, enduring all the hardships of frontier life, until 1834, when he removed within four miles of the village of Con- cord, where he continued his farming, and at the same time did much in the way of surveying and engineering. With the means thus acquired, he embarked in the lumber business, and for a time also conducted a saw-mill and engaged in mercan- tile pursuits. After trying in vain to secure a canal or a railroad in the vicinity of Concord, he removed into the then dense forest in the Paw Paw valley, and began clearing a farm near the present site of Watervliet, Berrien County, supposing he had set- tled on what would be the route of the proposed Michigan Central road. In this he was disap- pointed, but he continued to prosecute his business enterprises with energy and success.
The years from 1855 to 1858 were spent in trav- eling, in the hope of restoring his wife's health, but it proved unavailing, and during the latter year she died. At this time, by his labors in farming, sur- veying, merchandising, and lumbering, he had not only accumulated a large fortune, but had performed an important part in developing the resources of the State. After his wife's death, he purchased twelve acres of land on the western bank of the Detroit River, fronting on Fort Street. Here in 1862-3 he erected a large and beautiful residence, where he resided until his death.
He was a man of extensive reading, a great lover of books, and possessed of rare literary attain- ments. He collected a fine library, and found his greatest comforts during the latter years of his life in study and investigation, time for which, during the earlier period of his life, was denied him. He was simple in manner, kindly in disposition, firm in his friendships, took great delight in social intercourse, and was notably benevolent and char- itable.
In early life he was a Democrat, but from 1864 voted with the Republican party. He was how- ever, without political aspirations, and never held a public office. During the Civil War he gave his hearty support to a vigorous prosecution of the Union cause. He always sympathized with the temperance movement, and was an earnest advo- cate of total abstinence from alcoholic liquors, occasionally delivering public addresses upon the subject. His personal appearance was such that he would command attention anywhere. He was
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Sara & Warner
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over six feet in height, with large physical frame, and an ideal specimen of the sturdy pioneer.
He married his second wife, Eleanor J. Champion, of Ypsilanti, September 1, 1859. He died at Detroit, April 30, 1880.
ANSON WARING is of English descent and of Quaker ancestry. His grandfather, Anson War- ing, married Margaret Adams, of Massachusetts, and settled in Saratoga County, New York, about the year 1800. One of his children, Joseph Adams Waring, married Susan Tompkins Jeffers. Their son, Anson Waring, was born in Farmington, Ontario County, New York, January 16, 1832. In 1835 the family removed to the adjoining County of Wayne, where, at the age of eighteen, with a good English education, acquired at Lyons Academy, Anson Waring commenced his business career as a clerk in a dry goods store.
In 1856 he came to Michigan, remaining until 1863, when he went to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and engaged in the wholesale iron and hardware trade, continuing in that line for a number of years. In the meantime, he assisted in organizing the National Pin Company of Detroit, of which he was chosen Secretary, and in 1875 came to Detroit, to look after the interests of the company. He was subsequently instrumental in organizing the Imperial Life Insurance Company of Detroit, and has been the Secretary of the company since its organization.
He is well known as a careful, conservative, and successful business man, and though naturally some- what retiring in disposition, is not lacking in energy or firmness. His personal character and worth are indicated by the positions which he fills. He is a member of the Church of Our Father, and one of its Board of Trustees, and Treasurer of the Society.
He has always been a steadfast Republican, but takes little active part in political affairs.
He was married in December, 1852, to Mary, daughter of Tunis Woodruff, of Wayne County, New York. They had two children, both of whom are living. Their mother died. In 1858 Mr. Waring married Eleanor Fuller, of Plymouth, Michigan. She died, leaving two children, both of whom are living. On February 9, 1887, he married Mary Virginia Hard, of Detroit.
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