USA > Michigan > Genesee County > History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 68
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Eternal Father, Sovereign Lord, Accept the praise we bring; And when we stand on crystal sea, A nobler song we'll sing.
Mr. Stevenson was for many years a valued member of the Flint board of education, and the Stevenson school, which occupies a site on a large tract of land formerly owned by him in the northern part of Flint, is named in his honor. Dr. Thomas R. Buckham, a well-known physician of Flint from 1868 to 1891, was the author of a work on the legal aspects of insan- ity, published in 1883, and bearing the title, "Insanity Considered in Its Medico-Legal Relations." The work is of great erudition and shows its author to have been of high intellectuality and of unusual sociological pre- science. It has been used as authority in deciding important cases in the supreme courts of several states. This volume and others of like character may be regarded as potent causes for the present rarity of the plea of insanity as a defense in legal cases and the discriminating suspicion which attaches to such a defense.
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Egbert L. Bangs, of Flint, was the author of a number of poems, which are soon to be collected and published in book form, by his son, Dwight L. Bangs. Mr. Bangs for many years occupied a prominent place in affairs literary in Flint, and the Bangs Shakespeare Club, a society of many years standing, was named in his honor.
Sidney Austin Witherbee, a son of Austin Witherbee, who was a prominent resident of Flint in the fifties and sixties, and grandson of Col. E. H. Thomson, is the author of several books of poems which were pub- lished a few years ago. At the close of the Spanish-American War he also issued a volume of "National Songs," under the nom de plume of "Netsua Yendis."
Miss Effie Douglas Putnam, of Flint, published in 1888 a volume of poems under the title of "Margaret and the Singer's Story," and also issued in 1903 "Cirillo," the story of a musician, published by the Life Publishing Company of New York. Miss Putnam was the leading member of the Rhea Dramatic Club, which was organized in Flint in 1884, which for a number of years was an active theatrical society. She was also a talented musician : and a proficient performer on the harp. The following poem, "My Harp," is included in her book of verse:
On polished floor it stands, a harp of gold, Of dainty carving, and of graceful mould, Strung with its chords of silver, red and blue, Tuned to high key, melodious and true.
I speak to it, as a faithful friend Which hath no interest, nor selfish end, It answereth. Ah me, the lovely tone! It is the sweetest voice that I have known.
I pass my hands along the silent strings, And soft the sad, the melancholy things Wake with a touch; with very life they sigh. Like forest leaflets when the wind is high.
The venerable Rev. Seth Reed, whose long life of ninety-three years has been spent principally in the Methodist ministry of the state of Michi- gan, and much of it in the vicinity of Genesee county, has written an auto- biographic account of his activities as a circuit rider, preacher and mission- ary among the pioneers of the state and also among the Indians. This work is replete with interesting incidents of early times and is in itself a history of the religious side of pioneer life. Mr. Reed is still a resident of Flint and has recently celebrated the seventy-third anniversary of his entry
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into the ministry. He was elected in 1916 as president emeritus of the Genesee County Historical Society.
The Rev. W. Dudley Powers, D. D., a Virginia gentleman who was for some years the rector of St. Paul's church in Flint, and a talented, brilliant speaker, was the author of a volume of poems entitled "My Songs in the Evening," from which "Taps" is selected as an example of his poetical gifts.
TAPS.
Go to sleep! Go to sleep! Go to sleep! It is night, the soldier's day is done. It is night, the soldier's fight is won.
Go to sleep! Go to sleep! Go to sleep! O'er the hills and through the glen Where the winding river glides, Where the song bird frightened hides, To the mountain's laureled sides, Drifts the bugle's night "Amen."
Go to sleep! Go to sleep! Go to sleep! Fame and love and honor hover -- Lover's love about a lover- Round thy forms, ye soldiers brave, Rest ye, rest ye in thy grave. Go to sleep! Go to sleep! Go to sleep!
Among the writers who have attained distinction in the literary world is Arthur J. Eddy, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Eddy, who was born in Flint in 1859. Mr. Eddy studied law at Harvard Law School and was admitted to the bar of Genesee county by Judge Newton. For a number of years he was owner and publisher of the Genesee Democrat, the Sunday Democrat and the Daily News. He went to Chicago to practice law in 1889 and formed a partnership with Edwin Walker, of that city, the firm of Walker & Eddy being counsel for the World's Columbian Exposition and for a number of railroads and other large corporations. Since the organization of his own law firm in 1900 Mr. Eddy's professional work has been confined exclusively to certain phases of corporation work and he is the specially retained counsel for many of the largest corporations in the country.
Among his literary productions are "Two Thousand Miles in an Auto- mobile," which was issued in 1902. This volume is descriptive of the first long journey taken in an automobile in America and is the pioneer book on automobiling in this country. "Tales of a Small Town" are impressions
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of Flint, and many of the characters are easily recognized by people of their day and generation. "Ganton & Co.", a novel of the Chicago business world, was subsequently dramatized under the title of "The Great John Ganton" and produced with George Fawcett in the leading role. Mr. Eddy's work on "The Law of Combinations," published in 1900, has remained the standard legal work on combinations, and "The New Competition," a law work dealing with competitive conditions along radical and revolutionary lines, has already passed through four editions. Mr. Eddy's appreciation of art and literature has placed him in a conspicuous position in the art world, and for some years he has been a discriminating patron of the Chicago Art Institute and connected with its various committees. Among his books on art are "Delight, the Soul of Art," a compilation of five lectures delivered at the Chicago Art Institute and elsewhere; "Cubists and Post-Impression- ists," a large and fully illustrated work dealing with the modern movement in art, and the "Recollections and Impressions of James McNeill Whistler." Whistler painted a full-length portrait of Mr. Eddy in 1894, at which time a friendship began which lasted until the artist's death in 1903. Mr. Eddy's collection of modern pictures is the only one of its kind in America and one of the largest and most complete collections in the world.
Mr. Eddy was chairman of the committee which entertained Prince Henry at the time of his visit to Chicago, and was afterwards decorated by the German Emperor, being made Knight of the Red Eagle.
Mrs. Eddy, who was Miss Lucy Crapo Orrell, the granddaughter of Gov- ernor Henry H. Crapo, is the author of some very charming verse, the fol- lowing lines being written for "A California Flower Calendar :"
Night sleeps, day dawns, through the shadowy fir, O'er the manzanita, wild wings whir, Wake the purpling valleys, violet breezes stir.
Daffodils and jonquils, rain drops fall, Winter storms are brewing, song birds call : Blooms the rose of Sharon, loveliest of all.
Blow wistaria blossoms, blow acacia tree, Orange boughs and almond, purple fleur-de-lis. Cherokee anemone, winds of Arcady.
Sunbells, could-bells, wild flowers fair ; Songs of mountain waters, ringing in the air: Mariposa lilies, poppies everywhere.
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Gold of Ophir roses, touch and go, Fleeting as the sunset's afterglow. When we try to woo them, away they blow.
Gleams the amaryllis, shine the lilies white, Float on dusky waters lotus blossoms bright; On the distant mesa looms the yucca light.
Through the jacaranda sapphire blossoms swing, Like a flock of blue-birds fluttering on the wing. Joy is in the tree-tops, sweetly carolling.
Myrtles wreathed in rose mists, crown the wandering breeze, Bend the laden fruit-boughs, drone the honey-bees, In the phlox, hollyhocks, oleander trees.
Fragrant are the vineyards, blue graves twine. Flash the tiny sickles, stripping every vine, From a thousand presses flows the ruby wine.
Fades the flaming sunset, night-birds wing, Through the sage and chaparral arroyo breezes sing ; Silvery twinkling trail-bells far off ring.
Twinkle starry petals in the autumn gleams, Glimmering on green stalks, fringed moonbeams; Twilight shadows deepen, the year dreams.
Time and petals drifting softly through the bowers. Float the flaming dials, yule-tide hours; Eucharistic lilies, scarlet Christmas flowers.
Miss Elizabeth Steele Hicock, of Flint, well known in literary life of the community, is the author of delightful stories for children which have appeared in St. Nicholas, Harper's Young People and other publications. Miss Hicock has also written a number of poems, some of her more recent ones appearing in The Outlook. She was also some years ago a contributor to The Illustrator, an Eastern publication, and the New York Independent.
Dr. C. B. Burr, an eminent alienist of national reputation and for over twenty years the distinguished head of Oak Grove hospital, is the author of a volume published in 1906, entitled "A Primer of Psychology and Mental Disease." This work was designed as a text book for medical students and for attendants and nurses in training schools. It is also a valuable ready reference book for the general practitioner, is considered authoritative and has passed through several editions. After the third edition the title was changed to "The Handbook of Psychology and Mental Disease."
Dr. Francis Devereux Clarke, for nearly a quarter of a century the able superintendent of the Michigan school for the deaf, at Flint, with his
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broad knowledge of the brain development of the deaf, was able to give to the great work of special education a volume known as "Michigan Methods." This work treats of the presentation of the very beginnings of language, numbers, geography and other matters of vital importance in the teaching of the deaf. This valuable work is now being used in the schools for the deaf throughout the country and also in many similar institutions in Europe. For his educational service he was given the Doctor's degree in Humane Letters by Gallaudet College, in 1908. Doctor Clarke was a man of varied attainments. Besides being an able educator, a civil engineer and a naturalist, he was a writer of ability and, aside from his treatise on primary grade work, was the co-editor of the American Annals of the Deaf, the largest publication devoted to the interests of the deaf in this country, edited at Washington, D. C., and was also the author of a number of short stories for children. His death occurred at Flint, September 7, 1913.
John W. Fitzgibbon, reporter, war correspondent and prominent political writer of Michigan, although born in New Jersey, came with his parents to Genesee county at such an early age that he may be almost considered as one of the natives of this locality, his father settling on a farm near Flint when he was an infant. Mr. Fitzgibbon obtained his early education in Flint, Col. William B. McCreery giving him employment which enabled him to finish his course at the Flint high school. When about twenty years of age he went to Detroit, where he attracted the attention of the late James E. Scripps, owner and publisher of the Detroit Evening News, who became his life-long friend. For thirty years Mr. Fitzgibbon has been connected with the Detroit News. He represented the News in Cuba prior to and dur- ing the period of the Spanish-American War and in the Philippines during the insurrection. He has been correspondent for the News during several congressional sessions at Washington, D. C., and he has attended the legis- lative sessions at Lansing continuously for twenty years except while in Cuba, the Philippines, or at Washington. With the death of Joseph Greusel, Mr. Fitzgibbon became the dean of the legislative correspondents at Lansing.
Mrs. Wadsworth Warren, of Detroit, formerly Miss Adelaide Birds- all, of Flint, and granddaughter of James Birdsall, of the old Birdsall fam- ily of Fenton, has published several volumes of stories for juveniles, which have been justly popular. She is one of the active members of the Michigan Authors' Association and has also been engaged for the past two or three years in playwriting.
Charles Clark, of Detroit, formerly of Fenton, was the author of a book
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of travel entitled, "Japan, a Child of the World's Old Age," which was is- sued in 1910, following a year's sojourn in the Orient.
Mrs. Lizzie Beach Stevens, of Linden, was the author of a volume de- scriptive of the Columbian Fair, being a very interesting account of the ex- position, and was also the author of a book of poems.
The Rev. Dr. Hunting, D. D., pastor of the Presbyterian church in Flint, was the author of a book of poems of merit. His son, Gardner Hunt- ing, has taken up literary work as a profession and is a regular contributor to a number of leading magazines. He has also published several works of fiction, including "A Hand in the Game," a novel published a few years ago.
Luther L. Wright, formerly superintendent of public instruction for Michigan and now superintendent of the Michigan school for the deaf, and one of the most progressive educators of the country, is the author of a treatise on "The Teaching of Mental Arithmetic," prepared with a view to the obviation of text books in the study of mathematics. Mr. Wright is also a regular contributor to a number of magazines on subjects of an edu- cational nature.
Harry A. Franck, of Flint, a graduate of the high school, class of 1899, and later professor of Spanish and Greek in Columbia University, made his initial bow to the literary world in a volume of travel entitled, "A Vagabond Journey Around the World," which was published by the Century Company in 1910: A year or so later he produced, "Zone Policemen," followed by "Four Months Afoot in Spain." Mr. Franck is at present preparing for publication a work on the Mexican situation as viewed from the standpoint of the Mexican peon, his recent writings having attracted most favorable at- tention from leading critics.
Mrs. Rupert Hughes, formerly of Flint, the daughter of Mrs. Harry Mould, nee Mina Stevens, and better known to the theatrical and operatic world as Marian Manola, is the author of many short stories which appear from time to time in smart cosmopolitan publications. The amount paid for her scenario of "Gloria's Romance," recently written for film production, in which Miss Billie Burke has been featured, was twelve thousand five hun- dred dollars, said to be one of the largest sums ever paid for a moving pic- ture scenario. Mrs. Hughes is the wife of Rupert Hughes, the well-known author, playwright, composer and sculptor, whose home is at Bedford Hills. Westchester county, New York.
Mrs. Jacquette Hunter Eaton, the wife of Marquis Eaton, one of the most prominent attorneys of Chicago, and a niece of Mrs. Flint P. Smith, of Flint, with whom she made her home for some years, is the writer of
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many delightful short stories which have appeared in recent years in several of the leading magazines.
W. Harold Kingsley, of Flint, a young newspaper man, formerly with the Ithaca (N. Y.) Journal, and now with the Grand Rapids (Mich. ) Press, who, while a student in the literary department of the University of Michi- gan, was one of the leading contributors to the Michigan Daily, is the author of a number of poems which show much talent and which have been copied in the press of other states. The Boston Transcript recently published his Thanksgiving poem of 1915:
Out of a wild dissension, sheer in a new-known zest, The Spirit of Liberty rose and rode on a Dream-god's chariot-west ; Rode to a new endeavor, stood on Atlantis' banks
Facing the sun, with a task begun, Offering God her thanks.
Bearing a noble trumpet, crowned in a new ideal, The Son of Liberty rose and stood at Civilization's wheel ; Conquered a foe of his dreaming, hoping, struggling ranks, Facing the sky with a brow reared high, Offering God his thanks.
Out of a sterner grapple, out of an inborn strife, The Union of Liberty rose and stood a newer breath of life; Beating the sword to a plowshare, furrowed the yielding banks. Facing the dawn with a mightier brawn, Offering God her thanks.
Hoping and pitying, praying, bathing love in a tear, The Nation of Liberty stands alone, free from a phantom fear ; Drawn in a new formed legion, all Humanity's ranks, Facing the sun with a work well done, Offering God her thanks.
W. V. Smith has contributed many articles upon the Indians, and is a recognized authority, especially relating to the tribes of New France, New York and the old Northwest Territory.
Mrs. Kate E. Buckham is well known in newspaper and magazine circles as a popular writer.
Edwin O. Wood, LL. D., is the author of "Historic Mackinac" and a number of papers relating to the old Northwest Territory.
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CHAPTER XXII.
SOCIAL LIFE.
E. L. Bangs, in the "Book of the Golden Jubilee," has written charm- ingly of early social life in Flint. As he observes, social life results from one of the deepest cravings of human nature. Even the dog or the horse is lonesome as an "outsider," and will take strong measures to get in with his kind and make himself agreeable. Even in the primitive pioneer days of "Aunt Polly" and "Uncle John" Todd there was social life at Flint, which centered about the old tavern, but social intercourse was necessarily very limited in days when homes were far apart in the forest on Indian trails and cowpaths.
Nor is the record of that early social life easy to gather. Mr. Bangs says: "Interviewing those who have been dead for many years should be one of the accomplishments of one called upon to write up the early social life of Flint. Most of those who were prominent in that period and were themselves social factors are sleeping in the cemetery. Those who are still living do not remember to any great extent those particulars that would help to make an interesting sketch. All whom I have seen think social life in Flint was uncommonly pleasant, but I have found it difficult to obtain interesting particulars. In a general way they tell me some things, but just the things I would gladly see put in print are with the dead. With pencil and paper in hand one Sunday afternoon I tried to carry on the holy work of an interview for the good of the public with an old and valued friend of mine. She told me that she came to Michigan in 1833, living at first in Mt. Morris, in a house set up of blocks of wood, and she used to listen sometimes to the howling of wolves underneath it. Stalwart character ought to be the result of such environment-character such as could not be developed where no sterner sounds can be heard by moonlight than the voices of belligerent cats,
"Mrs. -, in 1836, lived on the river bank on the site of the old Red Tavern, which not many now living can remember. I asked about the social life of the children, for I do not happen to know any more pleas- ing sight than a lawn party of very young children, full of fun and frolic, such a party, I mean, as we often see today. And then their consumption of refreshments when the time comes is something noteworthy. 'Was any-
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thing of that kind done for very young children in your young days, my friend?' 'Children were children then as well as now,' was the answer. 'They had pleasant times, but there was no formality for them. Invita- tions were not issued for them, and their lives were more isolated than the lives of children are now.' Social life distinctively for children was not a feature of the early days of Flint.
"'Well, what did the older people do in the winter for amusement?' 'Sleighrides were quite frequent in my younger days; old and young enjoyed them together. The sleighrides usually culminated in a supper, and a return when the evening was considerably advanced.'
" 'Was there any love-making on such occasions?' My friend thought a moment, gazed thoughtfully on vacancy, and said she could not distinctly remember, but she thought there might have been.
"From a few ancient relics she produced several invitations on note paper, each suggestive to her of a pleasant occasion long past, but not one of them was dated with the day of the month or year, and how old they were she could not tell.
"She spoke of frequent dancing parties that were held in an old resi- dence on the corner of Court and Saginaw streets, known by everybody as the Hascall place. Mrs. has a vivid memory of parties that were given by various families. The invitations were quite general, for there was then no sharply dividing line that distinguished 'our set' from the other set.
"I asked about the dress on such occasion. She satisfied me that the ladies of that period understood the art of dressing, and I presume there never has been a time when they did not know how to array themselves attractively. 'Did the gentlemen appear in the conventional swallow- tail?' She could not distinctly remember to what extent the swallow tail prevailed, but said she, with emphasis, 'The gentlemen did look mighty well.'
" 'The caterer had not at that time appeared. The hostess of the even- ing at least supervised the refreshment department and the good things were chiefly home-made. Good they were, the variety was great, and the con- sumption was more than a make, believe. On some occasions, the gentlemen would quietly retire to a certain room for a quiet smoke.' 'And then,' she added, 'I can't say what else they went for.'
"Those were the palmy days of E .H. Thomson, who used to enter- tain those he met at evening parties with recitations from Shakespeare. He was, my friend told me, a fine story teller. Were there any dinner parties?'
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'Yes, they were quite frequent, but there were no toasts with formal responses until later years.'
" 'How about young ladies on such occasions?' 'I can't remember what they wore, but they looked as pretty as pinks.'
"Pleasant memories in the mind of Mrs. clustered around the old Boss tavern, a few miles from Flint. She called to mind one occa- sion of marked interest to her. There was a sleighride and a great supper had been ordered. A jolly spirit of rollicking good-will had taken posses- sion of all in the sleigh. Some had to stand in the sleigh for want of room. I can't understand why they had to do this. Had I been there I should have offered some one a seat, and at the same time should have retained my own. Perhaps that was done, but my informant made no mention of such an act of courtesy. There was singing all along the way. One strain of one song still lingered in her memory. It was this:
'Lightly row, lightly row, On the glassy wave we go.'
"The chaperone had not at that time appeared in Flint, though on that particular occasion there were some suspicious transactions that suggested a field of usefulness for a chaperone that could see, and at the same time be conveniently nearsighted. On that particular occasion a gentleman lost one of his mittens, a just penalty for not keeping it on, and hunted in vain for it. 'Where is my mitten? What has become of my mitten?' And in . response to this query there came a musical response from a young lady,
'Look high, look low, Look on my big toe,'
and there he found it. 'And it didn't seem a bit out of character then,' said my informant, 'but I suppose such a thing now would shock conventional proprieties; but we did have good times.'
"In the summer season the picnic party was in high favor. Lemonade flowed freely and there were eatables by the bushel. On such occasions one may be allowed to unbend his dignity, or, if he is very aspiring, he may climb a sapling and bend it down and drop from its top to the ground, if he chooses to, and be applauded as an acrobat. These early picnics, I am told, were free from gossip and from the slightest approach of rudeness. There was good talking not only of the kind that entertained, but not infrequently upon subjects that required previous good thinking to talk well upon.
"A woman once said of her husband, 'The trouble with Mr.
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