USA > Michigan > Genesee County > History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume II > Part 3
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William Crapo Durant was born in Boston, December 8, 1861. His father was William Clark Durant, a resident of Boston, and his mother was Rebecca Crapo, daughter of Governor Henry Howland Crapo, fourteenth chief executive of Michigan and one of the leading lumber manufacturers in the Wolverine state. His uncle, William W. Crapo, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, is one of the foremost financiers and public men of the Bay state, having served several terms in Congress.
When Mr. Durant was nine years old the family moved from New England to Flint, Michigan, where he grew to manhood, received his educa- tion, and spent thirty-five years, the last twenty-five in active business as a manufacturer. At seventeen years of age he started for himself as an employee in the Crapo lumber yard and mill, owned by his grandfather. He gained a thorough knowledge of the business, starting in as a mill hand, then in the yards as salesman. His ability had been recognized to such an extent that at twenty-one years of age he was asked by the board of direc- tors of the Flint City Water Works Company to reorganize its business and put it upon a sound footing. It was a big task, but he accomplished it, plac- ing the company on a profitable basis.
Mr. Durant was made a director of one of the leading banks of Flint
(3a)
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and became identified with several of the largest business houses of the city. He brought a number of fire insurance agencies together and, while not giving his entire time to it, yet, as its directing head, built up one of the largest agencies in central Michigan. About this time he became connected with the George T. Warren Cigar Manufacturing Company, starting as shipping clerk, and eventually effected a complete reorganization of the busi- ness, building up what became one of the largest concerns of its kind in the state. In 1893, during the panic of that year, Mr. Durant organized thie Clearing House Association in the city of Flint and was elected secretary, serving for three years. His work in this special line attracted favorable attention from all the banks of the state.
When still under twenty-five years of age, he associated himself with J. D. Dort in the manufacture of road carts. Later, in August, 1886, they organized the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, with F. A. Aklrich as secre- tary. The roadster, or road cart, had bounded into favor with the farmers and not only made a large amount of money for the company. but estah- lished a reputation for Mr. Durant and his associates, which they were quick to turn to account by engaging in the manufacture of carriages upon an extensive scale. By producing in large volume they brought about a revolu- tion in the price of carriages, and their business grew to an annual output of more than one hundred and fifty thousand vehicles. In the meantime they had taken over the Castree-Mallery Company, a large agricultural imple- ment manufacturing plant, which was not a financial success, and converted it into a modern carriage factory to be owned and operated by the Webster Vehicle Company, a unit of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company. About this time the Pellett Table Company, having a large factory and equipment, was acquired by the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, making the third unit ; this company was known and operated under the name of the Diamond Buggy Company. The Durant-Dort Carriage Company, with its three large carriage-manufacturing plants and the various accessory factories, together with two other carriage companies, the W. A. Paterson Company and the Flint Wagon Works, gave to Flint the title of the "Vehicle City," by which it was known in every state in the Union.
Mr. Durant was a pioneer in the development and manufacture of the automobile. The Flint Wagon Works had started to manufacture a gaso- line engine brought out by a man named Buick. They hoped to market this farm engine through their regular distributors who handled their farm
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wagons and carriages. In the meantime Mr. Buick was working to perfect a motor vehicle, utilizing the motor originally planned as a stationary en- gine. Mr. Durant had for some time been quietly investigating motors and making ready to enter into the business of manufacturing motor cars and was solicited to take over the motor part of their business. The outcome was the formation by Mr. Durant of the Buick Motor Company in 1904 and the foundation laid for what became in 1908 the largest automobile factory in the world.
The industry was entirely new. Capital was timid. It required a very large amount of money to handle a business of such magnitude. Steel, aluminum, brass, copper, sheet metal, leather, hickory, white wood-every- thing entering into the building of a car-had to be purchased in enormous quantities. Special tools and machinery had to be made, new buildings erected, and, last but not least, a sales organization, with branches and dis- tributors covering the entire American continent, must be provided. It was a task for an empire builder. Mr. Durant's keen vision had foreseen, in larger measure than any other man, the enormous demand which would come for the motor car when it should have displaced the horse-drawn vehi- cle, which situation he was the first to predict. The sales organization and distributing units brought into being by Mr. Durant's personal activities and direction, stand as a monument to his generalship. But, given the means to absorb the large volume, the herculean task rernained to make certain that the manufacturing branch of the business could provide for the deliv- eries. In 1907, against the great odds of one of the worst financial panics the country had ever known, Mr. Durant built the mammoth buildings mak- ing up the plant of the Buick Motor Company.
In 1908 he organized the General Motors Company, of which the Buick was the nucleus. He purchased the Cadillac Motor Car Company of De- troit, the Olds Motor Works of Lansing and the Oakland Motor Car Com- pany, adding them to the General Motors Company ; also the Northway Motor Company of Detroit, the Jackson Church Wilcox Company of Saginaw, the General Motors Truck Company of Pontiac, and in 1909 had created a company which showed net earnings for that year of $9,721,973.91, and for the year 1910 a net profit of $11,090,753.72. At the end of the latter year, the volume of business exceeded $50,000,000 annually.
The General Motors Company fulfilled in volume and earnings every forecast made by its founder. The organization which Mr. Durant brought together has remained practically intact, save for the addition of Walter P.
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Chrysler as factory manager of the Buick. In 1915 Mr. Durant acquired complete control of the company and in 1916 became the president of the great industrial corporation which he had created.
In the meantime Mr. Durant organized the Chevrolet Motor Company and commenced the manufacture of the lowest priced electrically equipped touring car on the market. He placed the business on a sound basis, estab- lishing at Flint a group of the most modern factories in the coun- try, with complete axle and motor plants, factories in Tarrytown and New York City, also a transmission plant at Toledo, an accessory plant at Bay City, with assembling plants at Oakland, California, and Fort Worth, Texas, and allied factories in St. Louis, Missouri, and Oshawa, Ontario.
The Chevrolet became a household word, not only on the American continent, but in nearly all of the civilized countries of the globe. The vol- ume of business of the General Motors Company and the Chevrolet Motor Company reached nearly $200,000,000 per annum, and the name of Mr. Durant was linked with those of Andrew Carnegie, Thomas A. Edison, Charles M. Schwab and other giants of the industrial world.
In the meantime the erection of the Chevrolet plant and the units of the General Motors Company in Flint, such as the Buick Motor Car Company. the Champion Ignition Company and the Michigan Malleable Castings Con- pany, had transformed the city from a population of less than fourteen thousand, as shown by the United States census of 1910, to approximately eighty-five thousand at the close of 1916. Property values advanced in some cases six to eight fold and fortunes were made by a very large number in real estate and mercantile pursuits, as well as by those who had been asso- ciated with Mr. Durant in his various companies. In 1916 the Chevrolet Company acquired a large block of stock of the General Motors Company and a mutuality of interests obtained. principally because Mr. Durant and his friends owned a majority of the stock of both companies.
In 1916 Mr. Durant organized the Perlman Rim Company and, later. the United Motors Company, comprising seven of the strongest motor car accessory companies, and the same year consolidated the Sterling Motor Company with the Scripps-Booth Company, and was influential in the formation of the Motor Products Company.
Easily the leader in the motor car field, Mr. Durant is recognized as a constructive builder, manufacturer, financier and salesman. When, in 1907. he predicted that within fifteen years it would require the manufacture of two million motor cars annually to meet the foreign and domestic demand
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for American-built cars, many financiers expressed doubt at the possibility of the country absorbing such a large number, yet in 1916 the industry had grown to such magnitude that its volume was exceeded only by steel and cotton, with a practical certainty that it would pass cotton and become sec- ond only to steel within a very short time. In fact, the 1917 schedule of the General Motors Company and Chevrolet contemplates an output in ex- cess of three hundred thousand cars.
In 1916 Mr. Durant was elected one of the directors of the Flint Board of Commerce and was actively identified with the movement to build five thousand additional homes in Flint for the employees in the several General Motors and Chevrolet factories. The fine postoffice building at Flint- was secured largely through the efforts of Mr. Durant, who as a member of the committee appointed by the city, gave undivided attention for several weeks to bringing before Congress the needs of Flint as a coming manu- facturing center.
Such has been the career of Flint's foremost citizen, whose activities have extended its fame to the ends of the world and made it a city of homes, schools and churches, taking front rank among the manufacturing cities of the country.
Mr. Durant is a philanthropist and generous contributor to worthy charities and educational and religious work, but steadfastly adheres to a fixed rule that his name shall not be published in connection with any gifts for such purposes. Mr. Durant is a member of the Detroit Club, Detroit Athletic Club, Calumet and Lotos Clubs of New York, and the Flint Coun- try Club, and holds a life membership in Flint Lodge No. 222, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a Presbyterian and his political affilia- tions are with the Republican party.
He has two children, a daughter. the wife of Dr. Edwin R. Campbell, of New York City, and a son, R. Clifford Durant, of San Francisco, Cali- fornia.
HON. DAVID DEMOREST AITKEN.
Hon. David Demorest Aitken, former member of Congress from the sixth Michigan district, former mayor of the city of Flint, former president of the Michigan State Fair Association, president of the Holstein-Friesian Association of America, former president of the Flint Chamber of Com- merce, a leading member of the bar of the Genesee circuit court and for years
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one of the most active figures in the financial and industrial life of this sec- tion of the state, is a native son of Genesee county and has lived here all his life. He was born on a farm in Flint township, September 5. 1854, son of the Hon. Robert P. and Sarah J. (Johnson) Aitken, prominent pioneer resi- dents of this county, the former of whom represented this district in the Michigan Legislature and in other ways contributed largely to the develop- ment of this region.
Robert P. Aitken was born on a farm near the village of Scotchbush, Montgomery county, New York, son of William and Helen (Chalmers) Aitken, both natives of New York state, of Scottish descent, who spent their last days in the Scotchhush neighborhood, both living to good old ages. They were the parents of six children, of whom Robert P. was the eldest. the others being John, William. James, Grace and Isabella. Robert P. Aitken, when a young man, left the home farm and became a clerk in a store in New York City, where he married Sarah J. Johnson, who had just com- pleted her schooling in a young ladies' seminary at Newburgh. She was the daughter of William and Hannah ( McCartney) Johnson, the former of whom was a native of Ireland, of Scottish descent. After coming to this country, he made his home in New York City, but later he and his wife fol- lowed their children to Michigan and settled in Flint township, this county, where both spent their last days, the former dying when not much past mid- dle age and the latter living to a ripe old age. They had three children, Sarah Jane, Matilda and William. In 1841 Robert P. Aitken and his wife came to Michigan and settled on a pioneer farm in Flint township, this county. Mr. Aitken was a man of strong personality and at once took an active part in local affairs. For thirty-one consecutive years he served as supervisor of Flint township and during the years 1863-64 served as a repre- sentative from this district to the Michigan General Assembly. He lived to the great age of eighty-seven years, his death occurring in 1896. His wife had preceded him in death fifteen years, her death having occurred in 1881. She, too, had taken a prominent part in the social and cultural life of her community and for years had exerted a strong influence for good.
David D. Aitken was reared on the paternal farm in Flint township and received his elementary education in the district school, which was situ- ated about a mile and a half from his home, supplementing this schooling by a course in the Flint high school, upon completing which he became engaged as a bookkeeper in a Flint commercial house and later became a salesman in a store. While thus engaged, in 1879, he married and, in pur- suit of a long-cherished design, entered seriously upon the study of law.
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In 1883 he passed the required examination and was admitted to the bar, at once entering upon the practice of his profession at Flint, where he ever since has made his residence. Mr. Aitken long has made a specialty of insurance law and has had much to do with shaping towards solvency the fraternal insurance associations of the country, with which he has been intimately identified, having been the general counsel for two of the largest of these concerns. From the beginning of his professional career in Flint, Mr. Aitken has taken an active and an influential part in local politics. In 1892 he was elected to represent this district in Congress and was re-elected in 1894, serving two terms, at the end of which time he declined to stand for further nomination. In 1906 he was elected mayor of Flint and rend- ered admirable public service in that capacity. Earlier he had served as city clerk and also had been city attorney for some years.
Mr. Aitken also has taken an active interest in commercial and indus- trial affairs. He assisted in the organization of the Citizens Commercial and Savings Bank and the Industrial Savings Bank, of Flint, and has been a director in both since their organization. He is president of the Imperial Wheel Company, of Flint, and of the Pine Bluff Spoke Company, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and is a director in the Marvel Carburetor Company. For many years Mr. Aitken has taken an active part in the affairs of the Mich- igan Agricultural Society and for some time served as president of the Mich- igan State Fair Association. He also for some time was president of the Flint Board of Commerce and in other ways has exerted his personal influ- ence and executive ability in behalf of the advancement of the best interests of his home town. Mr. Aitken also is largely interested in farming and is the owner of what is declared by many to be the best-equipped dairy farm in the state. He has an excellent herd of Holstein cattle and is president of the Holstein-Friesian Association of America, the largest organization of pure bred live stock breeders in the United States. In addition to his model farm at the edge of the city, Mr. Aitken is the owner of the old home- stead farm where his father and mother settled in 1841 and which he expects to retain as long as he lives. He owns one of the most beautiful homes in Flint at No. 326 Fast Third street, where he and his wife are very com- fortably situated.
In 1879, David D. Aitken was united in marriage to Ada Elizabeth Long, who was born at Milburn, New Jersey, and whose father died there when a little past thirty years of age, leaving two children, there having been a son, William Henry Long. The Widow Long married, secondly,
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Wesley R. Ayres and is still living at Milburn, at the age of eighty-three years. To her second marriage one daughter was born, Grace, who mar- ried William E. Fellows, a well-known jeweler at Flint. The paternal grandparents of Mrs. Aitken were Joseph and Elizabeth (Wilkinson) Long. natives of New Jersey, the former of whom died in that state at the age of twenty-six and the latter of whom lived to the age of seventy. They were the parents of three children. Harriet, Mary and William Henry. Her maternal grandparents were Robert and Esther (Tichenor) McChesney, natives of New Jersey, who died there, he at the age of thirty-eight and she at ninety-one. They were the parents of four children, Aaron, Andrew Jackson, Martha and Sarah Jane. Mrs. Aitken's maternal great-grand- father, Caleb Tichenor, was a soldier in the patriot army during the Revolu- tionary War and there were several others of her kinsmen in that generation who contributed to the success of the cause of the colonists. Mrs. Aitken is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and is vice-regent of the Genesee chapter of that patriotic organization. Mr. Aitken is a thirty- second-degree Mason. a Knight Templar as well as a member of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, and is a noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
Mr. Aitken has been greatly interested in public welfare work, to which he has contributed liberally of both time and money. He is treasurer and trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association and trustee of the Young Women's Christian Association, in both of which institutions he is intensely interested.
EARL F. JOHNSON.
Earl F. Johnson, mayor of the city of Flint and business agent for the Union Trust and Savings Bank of that city, former county treasurer and for years actively identified with the business interests of Genesee county and his home city, is a native son of Genesee county and has lived here all his life. He was born on a farm in Thetford township. March 30, 1868, son of Delos I. and Hannah J. ( Scott ) Johnson, the former a native of the state of New York and the latter of Ohio, who were the parents of three children, of whom Mayor Johnson was the last-born, the others being Charles, deceased, and Clara, wife of D. W. Ramsey, of Spokane. Wash- ington.
Delos I. Johnson was born in Erie county, New York, son of John and
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Esther ( Miles) Johnson, natives of that same state, and was the eldest of the seven children born to that parentage, the others being George P., Homer L., Devillo M., Evelyn J. and two who died in infancy. The mother of these children died in her home in New York and in his later years John Johnson came to Michigan and spent his last years in Genesee county, being eighty-four years of age at the time of his death. Delos I. Johnson was reared in his native county in New York and when a young man came to Michigan, settling in Genesee county, where he began teaming and was for some time thus engaged in freighting through from Pontiac, Holly and Sag- inaw. Later he became engaged in the milling business and for some time operated a saw-mill in Thetford township. There he married Hannah J. Scott, who was born in Ohio, daughter of Charles and Rachel ( Moulthrough) Scott, natives of that same state, who came to Michigan in the early days of the settlement of this state and settled in Genesee county, becoming substan- tial farmers of Thetford township. There both spent the rest of their lives, she dying in middle life and he at the age of seventy-five years. They were the parents of six children, of whom Mrs. Johnson was the second in order of birth, the others being Melissa. Walter, Charles, Louisa and Albert. While he was milling, Delos I. Johnson became the owner of two hundred and forty acres of timber land in Thetford township, which he cleared and where he established his home, spending there the rest of his life, his death occurring on April 26, 1911, he then being seventy-nine years of age. His widow, who survives him, is now in her seventy-sixth year.
Earl F. Johnson was reared on the paternal farm in the near vicinity of Fast Thetford, receiving his elementary education in the schools of that dis- trict and supplementing the same by a course in the normal school at Flint, after which he taught school for three years in the district schools of this county. He then married and engaged in the mercantile business, opening a general store at East Thetford, and was there engaged in business for ten years. Mr. Johnson is a Republican and has ever given his close attention to the political affairs of his home county. During his residence in Thet- ford township he served as treasurer of that township and also as supervisor. In 1898 he was elected treasurer of Genesee county, serving the county in that important capacity for four years. Following his election to the office of county treasurer, Mr. Johnson moved to Flint, the county seat, and has ever since made his home in that city. Upon the completion of his term of service in the treasurer's office. in 1903, he was appointed division deputy revenue collector for the first district of Michigan and continued in that office until October 1, 1914. On February 1, 1915, he became the business
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agent for the Union Trust and Savings Bank of Flint and still occupies that position, although he lately has been called on to perform the duties of chief executive head of the city of Flint, a position which he now occupies. On .April 3, 1916, Earl F. Johnson was elected mayor of Flint and it is a suffi- cient attestation of his personal popularity in that city to note that he was elected by the greatest majority ever given a candidate for the office of mayor in the city of Flint.
On December 31, 1880, Earl F. Johnson was united in marriage to Emma B. Johnson, who also was born in Thetford township, this county, September 18, 1868, daughter of Theodore and Adelaide Johnson, both now deceased. The former was a native of Vermont and the latter, of Ohio. They came to Michigan many years ago and settled on a farm in Thetford township, where they reared their family and spent the rest of their lives. They became the parents of six children, of whom Mrs. Johnson was the last-born, the others being George, Lynda, Antoinette, Millie and Walter. To Mayor and Mrs. Johnson seven children have been born, namely : Zella, who married George D. Perry, of Flint, and has a son, Earl J .; Walker B., a student in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and Gladys H., Maynard D., Edith B., Irving E. and Donald E., who are at home.
Mayor Johnson is a thirty-second-degree Mason, a member of Genesee Lodge No. 174, Free and Accepted Masons; Washington Chapter No. 15, Royal Arch Masons; Genesee Valley Commandery No. 15, Knights Temp- lar, at Flint: affiliated with the Michigan Sovereign Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, at Detroit, and is a noble of Moslem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in the latter city, and is also a member of Flint Lodge No. 222, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, at Flint.
ORSON MILLARD, M. D.
Orson Millard, M. D., was born, October 27, 1845, in the town of Utica, Macomb county, Michigan, and is a descendant of a family of Hugue- nots who fled from France in 1632. His father, James Madison Millard. was a cousin of Millard Fillmore, the thirteenth President of the United States, and his maternal grandmother was one of the Conger family, to which ex-Senator Omar D. Conger belonged.
Orson Millard graduated from the University of Michigan in 1870 and came directly to Flint, where he has since resided. He was for a num-
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