USA > Michigan > Genesee County > History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume II > Part 20
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WILLIAM A. LAKE.
In pioneer days when farming implements were of the crudest kind, requiring a goodly supply of both muscle and grit to use them to advantage, brawn, more than brains, was needed in the business of farming, in order to rescue the fertile soils from the wilderness and wild prairie growth. But today the successful farmer must use his wits more than his physical prowess to succeed as a farmer. William A. Lake is one of Genesee county's suc- cessful farmers on a small scale. He was born in Jackson county, Ohio, November 24, 1859, and is a son of John and Mary (Crull) Lake. He
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grew up in the Buckeye state and there received such education as the district schools afforded, working on his father's farm in the summer months. In the spring of 1881 he came to Genesee county. locating in Gaines township. working out by the month at farm work here and in Shiawassee county. Saving his earnings. he purchased, in 1800, the eighty-acre farm on which he now lives in Gaines township and here he has made a comfortable liveli- hood, living here twenty-six years continuously.
Mr. Lake was married on September 6. 1889, to Jane Borst, a daughter of William Henry Borst, a pioneer settler of Gaines township. To this union two children have been born, namely: Ray is engaged in farming in Gaines township; Clara is the wife of Frank Smith and they live in Durand, Michigan.
Politically, Mr. Lake is a Republican, but has never been active in public affairs. Fraternally, he belongs to the Grange at Gaines.
ROBERT BRADLEY.
One of the foreign-born citizens of Genesee county. who has stamped the impress of his strong individuality upon the minds of the people of this locality, is Robert Bradley, the present efficient mayor of the town of Lin- den.
Mr. Bradley was born at Oxford, Canada, August 31, 1860, and is a son of Robert and Margaret ( Reany) Bradley. His grandfather was a native of Ireland, where he spent his life with the exception of a few years in Scotland, where the father of the subject was born. The latter was reared and educated in Ireland. He came to Canada when eighteen years of age and located in Oxford, where he spent the rest of his life. His wife. mother of the subject, was a native of Ireland. They were members of the Presbyterian church. They were parents of the following children: Agnes. deceased ; William. Archie, Mary, Robert, Jr., Ephraim, and Edith, deceased.
Robert Bradley, of this sketch, spent his boyhood in Canada and at- tended the public schools there. He came to Genesee county, Michigan, in 1880. When a boy he learned the blacksmith's trade, in which he became highly skilled, following this line of endeavor umtil 1906, when he located on a farm of one hundred acres near Linden, on which he has since resided and is still engaged in general farming.
Mr. Bradley was married in 1885 to Anna Warren, whose death oc- ..
Robert Bradley
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curred on May 19, 1913, at the age of forty-four years. To this union two children were born, namely: Preston, who married Grace Thayer Wilkins, and Beulah, who married Russell Judson, and they have one child, Jean Elizabeth Judson.
Mr. Bradley is a Democrat and has been active in the affairs of his party for some time. He was village clerk a number of years ago and was a member of the council for a period of eight years. He is now mayor of Linden, which office he has held about one year. He is also president of the school board. As a public servant he has ever discharged his duties in an able, conscientious and commendable manner, and has done much toward the general upbuilding of Linden. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is an exceptionally well-read man, keeping up with current opinion on all lines of general public interest.
JAMES W. MISNER.
The man who gains success in this age of materialism is he who can see and utilize the opportunities that come in his patlı-seize them at the right time and use them properly. To do so requires innate tact, keen dis- crimination and sound judgment. One of the successful business men of Genesee county is the pioneer merchant, James W. Misner, of Otisville.
James W. Misner was born on a farm in Norfolk county, Ontario, Canada, December 29, 1848, a son of William and Joan (Smith) Misner, both of Scotch and English descent and both born and reared in Canada. After their marriage William Misner and wife lived on a farm in their native locality until in 1858, when they sold out and came to Michigan, settling in Forest township, Genesee county, where William Misner purchased forty acres of woodland. While developing his own place he and his family lived on the Dirr farm in that vicinity, which they rented for a number of years. William Misner finally cleared and developed his own farm and there he and his wife spent the rest of their lives. They were the parents of the children, seven of whom are still living.
James W. Misner was ten years of age when his parents came to this county and he grew up on the home farm, receiving his education in the district schools. He remained at home until his marriage on May 3. 1872, to Mary Ann Craig, who was born in Laper county, Michigan, a daughter of Robert and Mary Craig. After his marriage James W. Misner bought
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a farm of twenty acres on which he lived a number of years, working in saw-mills and in the lumber woods during the winter months. He worked as a shingle sawyer in the mills for several summers and finally sold his farm and rented a large farm in Marathon township, Lapeer county, on which he spent eleven years, at the end of which time he bought a small farm in that township, on which he spent two years. He then returned to Genesee county and located at Otisville, where he clerked for Stringer & Osban for fourteen years and was also connected with the local elevator for twelve or fifteen years. In the fall of 1915 Mr. Misner bought a half inter- est in the store of P. L. Laing at Otisville, since which time the firm has been Laing & Misner.
To Mr. and Mrs. Misner nine children have been born, namely: Rob- ert, who died when four years of age: Wallace, who died when fourteen months of age; Ethel, the wife of Alfred Ward, of Flint: Elsie, the wife of Ronald Laing, of Otisville; Charlie, who lives in Grand Haven ; Mary, the wife of Sherman Gale, of Long Lake; Mabel is employed by Veaton Davison, as a bookkeeper and lives in Flint; Lennie, the wife of Bert Bristol, of Flint: Amanda, the wife of John Barden, a farmer, of Otisville, and Paul. who is still in school.
Politically, Mr. Misner is a Democrat. He served as township clerk for a period of eight years, was president of the village of Otisville for two terms and has also served on the village council thirteen years. He is a member of Otisville Lodge No. 401, Free and Accepted Masons, and a member of the Episcopal church, of which he has been treasurer and a member of the board of trustees for a number of years.
OTIS G. HIBBARD.
The business of farming comprises among many other points the con- sideration of what crops to grow, how to grow them to the best advantage, whether for sale or for use on the farm. It brings out more than any- thing else the business acumen of the farmer, and is more or less the very keynote to success or failure. A successful farmer of Mundy township, Genesee county, is Otis G. Hibbard, who was born in Gaines township, this county, August 31, 1865, a son and only child of Albert and Sophronia ( Barnum) Hibbard. Albert Hibbard was born at Sodus Bay, New York. where he spent his boyhood, being thirteen years old when he came with
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his parents, Ambrose Hibbard and wife, to Michigan, the family locating on a farm in Mundy township, Genesee county, renting the old Mack Thompson place for three years. Then Ambrose Hibbard, who was born on April 5, 1809, bought eighty acres in Fenton township, where the family lived a number of years, then moved to near the outskirts of the town of Flint, where Ambrose Hibbard spent the rest of his life, dying on December 20, 1892.
Albert Hibbard married Sophronia Barnum, a native of the state of New York, from which she removed with her parents to Genesee county, Michigan, in 1854, about one year after the Hibbards came. After his marriage, Albert Hibbard located on the old Woodhall place in Fenton township, which he rented, later moving to Tyrone township, Livingston county, where he bought forty acres, just across the line from Genesee county, and lived there eight years; then lived on various farms until late in life when he came to live with his son, Otis G., where his death occurred September 30, 1914, his wife following him to the grave five weeks later, November 8, 1914.
Otis G. Hibbard grew to manhood on the farm and received a comnion school education. On February 3, 1887, he married Cora E. Cox, a daugh- ter of John and Martha (Hill) Cox, and a native of Fenton township, Genesee county. Her parents were both born and reared in England, from which country they came to America with their respective parents in their youth, the mother of Mrs. Hibbard being but ten years old at the time of her arrival in this country. Her family located in Washtenaw county, Michigan. John Cox was twenty years old when he came to Michigan, locating in Mundy township, Genesee county. Mr. and Mrs. Cox are now living in Linden, Fenton township. Six children were born to them, four of whom grew to maturity, namely: John H., who is a traveling salesman and lives in Fenton, Michigan; Cora E., wife of Mr. Hibbard; Clayton R., who is assistant superintendent of the Saginaw, Flint & Bay City Railroad Company, and lives at Saginaw, and Mabel E., the wife of Gordon W. Osborn, of Flint.
To Mr. and Mrs. Hibbard three children have been born, namely : Glen B., who lives on the home farm, married Luella Brown, and has one child, Laverne D .: Clifford Ross, who lives in Grand Blanc township, married Sarah Williams, and has two children, Arthur and Esther and Ivah G., who is still in school. Politically, Mr. Hibbard is a Republican.
Mr. Hibbard first rented the place on which he now lives many years.
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then bought it. It consists of one hundred and ten acres, in Mundy town- ship. tive and one-half miles from Flint, and is known as the "Maple Valley Farm." He is carrying on general farming and stock raising successfully, handling a good grade of live stock of all kinds.
CALVIN D. BEECHER.
Calvin D. Beecher, one of the best-known and most progressive farmers, stockmen and orchardists of Clayton township, this county, owner of a fine farm of one hundred and twenty acres in section 10 of that township, on the Beccher road, rural route No. I, out of Flushing, is a native son of Genesee county, born on the farm on which he now lives, and has lived in this county all his life. He was born on January 8, 1869, son of Norman .1. and LaVerna L. ( Billings ) Beecher, both natives of the state of New York. who came to Michigan in the latter fifties and spent the rest of their lives in this county.
Norman A. Beecher was born at Owego, the county seat of Tioga county, New York, in 1830, and grew to manhood on a farm in that county, becoming a school teacher. teaching during the winters and farming during the sunmers. His work as a teacher took him to Albion in Orleans county, that state, and there he married LaVerna I ... Billings, who was born at that place. For two or three years after their marriage he and his wife made their home on a farm in Orleans county and then, in 1857, came to Michigan and settled in Genesee county. Norman A. Beecher and his brother bought a farm of eighty acres in Clayton township, a part of the farm on which the subject of this sketch now lives, and there the former established his home, after awhile buying his brother's interest in the place and adding to the same until he became the owner of one hundred and twenty acres. For several winters after coming here Norman A. Beecher taught school in Clay- ton and Flushing townships, meantime continuing to improve and develop his farm, becoming one of the substantial and influential farmers of that neighborhood. His wife died in 1874, leaving two sons, Elbert L., now a well-known resident of Flushing, and the subject of this sketch. Not long afterward Mr. Beecher returned to his old home in New York and there he married Marcelia A. Wood, daughter of Colonel Wood, and returned to his home in this county, where he spent his last days, his death occurring in 1802. His widow still survives him and is now making her home with her
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daughters in Detroit. To that union two daughters were born, Nellie A .. who married Dr. C. C. Goods, of Detroit, and Fannie H., who married Dr. V. L. Smith. also of Detroit.
Calvin D. Beecher was reared on the paternal farm, receiving his ele- mentary education in the district school, supplementing the same by a course in the high school at Flushing and later took a course in the Michigan Agri- cultural College at Lansing. When twenty-three years of age he married and established his home on a farm of eighty acres he had bought in section 5 of his home township and there he and his wife lived for seven years, or until 1899, when he bought his father's old home place, where they ever since have made their home and where they are very comfortably and very pleas- antly situated. In addition to his general farming and stock raising, Mr. Beecher gives considerable attention to the cultivation of apples and has a fine orchard of sixteen acres. He is a Republican and was inspector of schools in his home township for two years.
On November 23, 1892, Calvin D. Beecher was united in marriage to Lura Penoyer, who also was born in this county, daughter of Rufus J. and Emerett (White) Penoyer, both natives of this county, members of pioneer families. Mr. and Mrs. Beecher take an earnest interest in the general social activities of their home community and are helpful in advancing all good causes thereabout. Mr. Beecher is a Royal Arch Mason and a Knight Templar, a member of the "blue" lodge and the chapter at Flushing and of the commandery at Flint, while both he and his wife are members of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star at Flushing and of the Grange at that place. He also is a member of the local "tent" of the Knights of the Maccabees at Flushing and in the affairs of all these organizations takes a warm interest.
MARTIN B. VAN SLYKE.
Martin B. Van Slyke, a farmer and stockman, of Flint township, was born in Genesee county on October 28,. 1841, the son of William and Eliza- beth (Rogers) Van Slyke, natives of Genesee county, New York, where they grew to manhood and womanhood and were married and where their chil- dren were born. In 1836 William Van Slyke and family left their native state and proceeded by boat to Detroit and thence by wagon to Flint, where they remained but a short time, the present farm of Martin B. Van Slyke then being purchased and the family taking up their residence there. That
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was the home of William and Elizabeth Van Slyke until their death, the former dying in 1874 and the latter in 1902.
William and Elizabeth Van Slyke were the parents of nine children, those besides the subject of this sketch being as follow: Frank, of Flint township; Martha, of Bay City, widow of William Needham: Julia, deceased, who was the wife of Walt E. Leesley; Sarah, wife of Herman Sheldon of Flint township; Amelia, wife of Lyman Boomer, of Flint; Mary, wife of Eugene Wright, of Minneapolis, Minnesota: Hattie, wife of Aaron Will- iams, of Clio; William. and Eliza. deceased, who was the wife of Allen Clarke, of Flint.
Martin B. Van Slyke was reared on the home farm and was educated in the schools of Flint township. He remained at home until 1867 when he went to the copper mines of northern Michigan, where he spent five years. In 1871 he returned home for a year, after which he spent three years in the West, working on farms. He then again returned to the old home and purchased the farm. In September, 1873, Mr. Van Slyke was married to Lucena Sweet, of Burton township.
Martin B. Van Slyke and wife are the parents of three children: Will- iam, who is a graduate of the Flint high school and makes that city his home; Mix, a graduate of the normal school, who is still at home, and Stella, who also is at home with her parents.
Fraternally, Mr. Van Slyke is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, as is his son Mix, both members of Friendship Lodge No. 24, of which Mr. Van Slyke has been a member since 1868. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and take much interest in all church work. Politically, Mr. Van Slyke is a Democrat and has served his township as treasurer and road supervisor for a number of years.
EGGLESTON BROTHERS.
Lyman and Jasper Eggleston, two prominent and successful farmers of Genesee county, residing five miles southwest of Flint, are the sons of John D. and Marilda ( Beecher) Eggleston.
In 1837, John D. Eggleston and family left their home in the state of New York and came to this county, locating in Flint township, where they purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land. They lived there for a short time, after which they sold the farm and purchased another of forty
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acres, a few miles south, where Lyman and Jasper Eggleston now reside. It was there that the father and mother made their home until their death. John D. Eggleston dying on November 28, 1892, and Mrs. Eggleston, June 30, 1894.
John D. Eggleston and wife were the parents of the following children : Lyman ; Martha, the widow of George Dye, resides in Flint township; Mary, who resides in Flushing, the widow of Charles L. Packard; Chauncey J .. who died in 1911; Sarah A., wife of Robert Knight of Maple Grove town- ship, Saginaw county: Jasper; Marilda, who died at the age of six years; A. Delera, the wife of John H. Carey. of Flint township: Clarence, who died at the age of eleven months; Anna M., the wife of William Goodu, of Flint, and Etta R., who died on January 9, 1903, the wife of Robert Noble.
At the time John D. Eggleston and family came to this county, John A. Eggleston, the father, eame with them and located in Flint township, where he purchased five hundred acres of land and where he made his home for a number of years.
Lyman Eggleston was born in Yates township. Orleans county, New York, November 21, 1836, and came with his parents to Michigan when but one year old. Lyman and Jasper Eggleston received their education in the district school and grew to manhood on the home farm. The boys of the · family remained together until they had two hundred and forty acres of well developed and improved land. The farm was then divided. Lyman and Jasper remaining together, while Chauncey farmed alone for a short time and then moved to Flint, where he died on April 30, 1914.
On January 7. 1889, Jasper Eggleston was married to Mary Ellen Garey, the daughter of John and Nora (Moore) Garey, of Saginaw. To this union two children have been born, Blanche Anna and John Elmer. Blanche, who was born on February 6, 1890, after completing her schooling. married Robert J. Ferguson, of 512 Asylum street, Flint. John Elmer Eggleston was born on January 10, 1892. He completed the common-school course, after which he took a special course in banking, at the Baker Institute and is now with the Buiek Company at Flint.
John Garey, father of Mrs. Eggleston, came to Michigan from Canada. He had grown to manhood in Canada and there met and married Nora Moore, a native of Ireland, who left her native home when but nine years of age. Soon after their marriage they came to Michigan and located in Calhoun county. John Garey died in Saginaw county, in June. 1875. Mrs. Garey died in Grand Rapids on November 28, 1911. John Garey and wife were the parents of the following children: John, of Gladstone, Michigan ;
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Edward H., of Saginaw; Michael, who lives in Idaho; Mary Ellen, wife of Jasper Eggleston : Frank, of California: Joseph, who died in 1889, and Will- iam, who died in Saginaw in December, 190.4.
Fraternally, Lyman and Jasper Eggleston are members of Flint Lodge No. 23, Free and Accepted Masons, and Jasper Eggleston is a Knight Temp- lar, a member of the commandery at Flint. Politically. they are affiliated with the Democratic Party and Lyman Eggleston has served as treasurer of the township for two years and as highway commissioner for five years.
CHARLES S. MOTT.
Charles Stewart Mott, president of the Weston-Mott Company of Flint. president of the Industrial Savings Bank of that city, former mayor of Flint, and for some years past one of the most conspicuous figures in the commercial and industrial life of that city, is a native of New Jersey, born in the city of Newark, that state, June 2, 1875. He is a son of John C. and Isabella Turnbull (Stewart ) Mott, the former a native of New York and the latter of New Jersey. John C. Mott and wife were the parents of two children, Charles S., and Edith Stewart, who became the wife of Herbert E. Davis and is now living at Glen Ridge, New Jersey. John C. Mott died in 1899, at the age of forty-nine years, and his widow is now living at Glen Ridge, New Jersey.
Until he reached the age of thirteen years, Charles S. Mott attended the public schools and then entered Stevens School at Hoboken, New Jersey ; at the age of seventeen he entered the Stevens Institute of Technology. After finishing his sophomore year. in August, 1894, at the age of nineteen years, he went abroad and for a year pursued the study of zymotechnology and chemistry at Copenhagen and Munich, with a view to taking an active part in his father's business, the latter having been an extensive maker of cider and vinegar. Upon his return to America he re-entered the Stevens In- stitute of Technology at Hoboken, from which he was graduated in 1897. The next year, upon the breaking out of the Spanish-American War, he en- listed in the naval arm of his country's defense, receiving rating as gunner's mate, and served throughout that brief but decisive conflict on board the United States ship "Yankee," being honorably discharged at the end of the war. In 1894 he entered the naval militia of New York and received his discharge as chief gunner's mate in 1900. Amply equipped by reason of
comot
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his technical training, Mr. Mott, in 1897, engaged in business with his father. under the firm name of C. S. Mott & Company, in the manufacture of carbonators. In 1900, the year following the death of the elder Mott, the plant was moved to Utica, New York, and there was merged with that of the Weston-Mott Company, which had been organized in 1896 and of which Mr. Mott was even then a director, the chief output of that concern having been axles, hubs and rims. With the rapid development of the auto- mobile industry, beginning about that time, the business of the Weston-Mott Company grew with phenomenal rapidity and it presently became advisable to move the plant to a point more nearly the center of the automobile trade ; consequently, in 1907, the present great plant of the Weston-Mott Company was established at Flint and has ever since been one of the chief industries of that city. The plant comprises seven large factory buildings, with an aggregate floor space of four hundred thousand square feet; the company is capitalized at one million, five hundred thousand dollars and carries more than two thousand persons on its pay-roll, the products of the factory now being sold in all parts of the world.
Not long after locating in Flint, Mr. Mott became one of the organizers of the Industrial Savings Bank of Flint and was elected president of the same, a position he has since occupied. This bank was primarily organized as an institution for the benefit of the industrial community. Its north end branch is housed in a modern two-story brick structure opposite the Weston- Mott factories, at the corner of Hamilton and Industrial streets, while its Fairview branch is located on St. Johns street, in the foreign district. It has a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, with a surplus of over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Owing to the rapid growth of the business of the Industrial Savings Bank, it became necessary, in the spring of 1913, to move its main office to the E. P. Smith building on Saginaw street. Mr. Mott is also a member of the board of directors of the Genesee County Savings Bank; is a director of the Flint Sandstone and Brick Company, of which concern he is secretary and treasurer; is vice- president and director of the Buick Motor Company, and is also connected with the directorates of the Copeman Stove Company, the Sterling Motor Company of Detroit, the General Motors Company, being a member of its executive committee, and the Brown-Lipe-Chapin Company, of Syracuse, New York. In the spring of 1912, as an independent business man and without any particular party support, Mr. Mott was elected mayor of Flint, serving two terms, and during his incumbency in that office did much for the
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