USA > Michigan > Genesee County > History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume II > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85
The only child of his parents, Josiah Dallas Dort was ten years of age when his father died. His education was acquired by attending the district schools, the Wayne high school and the State Normal at Ypsilanti. Leav- ing school, he helped his mother carry on the business, the burden of which she had resolutely borne from the time of her husband's death. She herself was a most capable business woman, but had her double responsibilities for only a few years, since her son proved himself more than ordinarily capable and assumed all the weighty responsibilities of business. The mother was a devout Baptist, had decided Puritanical principles and was a woman with a nature serene, cheerful, loving, beautiful and tireless. She so ordered her household that, although great riches were never present, poverty _was unheard of and her son was reared wisely and well, so as to adopt honesty and integrity, and shun anything like idleness, extravagance or dissipation.
Mr. Dort, at the age of fifteen, left his school work to enter the employ- ment of a crockery firm in Ypsilanti and three years later transferred his services to a similar firm in Jackson, where he remained a period of two years. About that time his father's estate was settled and in 1881 he engaged as clerk at Flint for Whiting & Richardson, hardware merchants. Two years ater he was employed by the firm of Hubbard & Wager and for one year he was with Morley Brothers at Saginaw. Having been thrifty and economical, and saving of his earnings, with a little help from the estate he was then able to return to Flint and engaged in the hardware business as ' a co-partner with James E. Bussy. It was not until September, 1886, that Mr. Dort entered the field in which his greatest success and accomplishment as a manufacturer and business man has been wou. At that time, with William C. Durant, he started in a modest way the manufacture of road carts, employing about twenty men. This subsequently grew into the largest
54
GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
business for the manufacture of horse-drawn pleasure and business vehicles in the state, and became the parent of the principal industries of Flint.
Mr. Dort is president and acting directing head of the Dort Motor Car Company, the Durant-Dort Carriage Company and its allied institutions, and also one of the founders of the Imperial Wheel Company, Flint Varnish Works, Flint Axle Works, the Dominion Carriage Company,, Limited, of Toronto, Canada, the Blount Carriage and Buggy Company, of Atlanta, Georgia, and the Pine Bluff Spoke Company, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Among other industries Mr. Dort was largely instrumental in establishing, should be mentioned the Weston-Mott Axle Company, the McCormick Har- ness Company and the Copeman Electric Stove Company. Through the interests of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, Mr. Dort's was one of the largest interests in the Buick Automobile Company and the General Motors Company. These institutions thus named employ many thousand of workmen, and during the days before the advent of the automobile the vehicle and accessory plants had upward of two thousand men on their payrolls.
For several years Mr. Dort carried on as a side line a fine stock farm, which was devoted to the breeding of prize-winning Hackney horses, and he is at this time a holder of a King George medal and other American and Canadian trophies.
In these days of almost constant strife between labor and capital, it is worthy to note that these troubles are totally unknown in the Dort institu- tions. Such favorable conditions may be largely accredited to Mr. Dort's honorable dealings with the men in his employ. He inaugurated a policy of interesting employees in the stock of his companies and a system of loyalty payments for long service. Mr. Dort was instrumental in the organ- ization of the Flint Factories Mutual Benefit Association, a splendid Work- men's Club in connection with the same, and of the Flint Associated Fac- tories organization, sustaining a workmen's supplemental compensation department. He is a director of the Michigan Workmen's Compensation Mutual Insurance Company, of Detroit, an association composed of Mich igan manufacturers for the purpose of making such payments as workmen are entitled to under the Michigan workmen's compensation act and which is one of the best institutions of its kind in the United States.
It may be said that Mr. Dort's idea in acquiring wealth is that it may be used as a means for greater service, it being well understood that his income is largely utilized for the common good. He is active in charitable
55
GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
work and has donated liberally to hospitals, churches and other public institu- tions, seldom refusing aid to any worthy object.
Mr. Dort has long been identified with civic activities and, although steadfastly refusing public office, as well as honorary positions on various state boards, has served his people in the line of public utility. One of his best contributions to the beauty of Flint is the public park system, which when completed will cover eight miles of parkway and completely surround the city of Flint, the park and boulevard following the banks of Flint river. For this notable improvement Mr. Dort had the place drawn at his own expense and, as the enterprise is now fairly launched as a result of his earnest and untiring efforts, its success is practically assured at no distant date.
Mr. Dort is a director in the Genesee County Savings Bank of Flint, and first vice-president of the Board of Commerce. His guidance and leadership in large business affairs are constantly sought and he is an ex-president of the Carriage Builders National Association, vice-president of the Michigan Manufacturers Association, and in every way a business executive with a broad mind and a thorough understanding of modern con- ditions and ideas. Mr. Dort was a delegate to the Conservation Congress held in the White House at Washington in 1907. He was one of the prin- cipal factors in drafting the law creating the Michigan railroad commission.
First of all in its claim on his attention and energies are important and varied industrial interests. But when these claims are properly satisfied. Mr. Dort never refuses his consideration and aid to those other activities which are not the less important as features of a well balanced life. Mr. Dort is a patron of art, a lover of music, literature and architecture, an upholder of the best ideals and standards in social life. Like all virile, energetic men, he gives a part of his attention to outdoor sports and is an enthusiastic golfer and automobilist. His club relations include membership in the Flint, Country, Detroit Athletic, Detroit, Detroit Golf clubs and he is also a thirty-second-degree Mason and Knight Templar, and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His religious affiliations are with the Episcopal church and he is now a member of the board of vestry- men of St. Paul's church at Flint.
Mr. Dort has been twice married. His first union was with Nellie Matilda Bates, who died at Phoenix, Arizona, in March, 1900, and was laid to rest in Glenwood cemetery, Flint. Two children were born to this union : Ralph, born November 11, 1891, at Flint, a student at Princeton University, who was married, October 15, 1913, to Helen Wilson, of Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania, and is now engaged as advertising manager of the Dort Motor Car
56
GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Company at Flint, where he resides; and Dorothy, born September 12, 1893. at Flint. a graduate of Miss Chamberlain's school of Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Dort's second marriage occurred on May 8, 1906, when he was united with Marcia Webb, of Mackinac, Michigan. daughter of Major Charles .1. Webb, at one time commandant at Fort Mackinac. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Dort: Dallas Webb, born February 17, 1907; Margery, born May 19, 1911, and David Truscott, born June 7. 1916.
EDWIN ORIN WOOD, I.L. D.
Edwin Orin Wood, editor of the "History of Genesee County" and author of "Historic Mackinac," and one of the best known citizens of Michigan, was born at Goodrich, Genesee county, Michigan, October 29. 1861. His parents were Michigan pioneers, Thomas Parmalee Wood and Paulina M. Wood, both of whom came from western New York. The grandfather and great-grandfather of Thomas P. Wood served in the Revo- lutionary War. The parents of the subject of this sketch lived together sixty-two years and are buried in the Goodrich cemetery.
Edwin O. Wood attended the public schools in Goodrich, studying Latin and Greek outside of school hours with Reverend Sanderson, a Congrega- tional minister, as tutor; later he put in one year at the Saginaw City high school. Leaving school, he was a clerk in the general stores of D. M. Scriver, Seth B. Pixley and D. W. and William Campbell at Goodrich; also in the store of Levi Campbell at Metamora, Michigan. While with D. M. Scriver he learned the tinner's trade. For five years he was a clerk in the clothing store of George W. Buckingham, in Flint, Michigan. In 1885 he was appointed a railway mail clerk, but resigned to accept a position as traveling salesman for the wholesale grocery firm of W. J. Gould & Com- pany, Detroit, remaining five years, following which he was the Michigan representative of Hackett, Carhart & Company, wholesale clothiers of New York.
In March, 1893, he was appointed a special agent of the United States treasury by Secretary of the Treasury John G. Carlisle. In May of that year he was assigned to special work on the Pacific coast. He seized the steamship "Haytien Republic" for violation of the revenue and immigra- tion laws. More than thirty persons were indicted by a special grand jury
44
Edin & Food
57
GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
called at Mr. Wood's request. The steamship "Haytien Republic" was con- fiscated by the government. The case was tried in the United States district court at Portland, Oregon, appealed to both the United States circuit court of appeals at San Francisco and the United States supreme court and affirmed by both of these tribunals. It was shown in the trial that the smuggling ring, which included federal officials and the owners of the Mer- chants Steamship Company, of which the "Haytien Republic" was a unit. had defrauded the government out of three hundred sixty thousand dollars in a period of seven months by the smuggling of opium, and that more than one thousand five hundred Chinese laborers had been admitted into the United States illegally. The collector of customs had received fifty dollars per head for landing these Mongolians, or a total of seventy-five thousand dollars. Both the collector and special agent of the United States treasury for that district, Charles J. Mulkey, were convicted, as well as a score of their associates. The trials of these cases attracted nation-wide attention. the operations of this gang of conspirators equalling in magnitude the "whiskey ring" of a few years previous. Mr. Wood received the personal thanks of President Cleveland and the secretary of the treasury in recogni- tion of his services in these cases. Judge George H. Durand, of Flint, Michigan, was, at the request of Mr. Wood, appointed special counsel for the government and had charge of the prosecution. Later, Mr. Wood brought to light a defalcation of more than forty thousand dollars in a United States bonded warchouse in Boston, and also a shortage of three thousand dollars in the cashier's office of the Detroit custom house.
In 1897 Mr. Wood resigned as special agent, although the position had been extended into the civil service and he had been especially requested to remain by Gen. O. L. Spaulding, assistant secretary of the treasury.
. Mr. Wood was one of the founders of the Loyal Guard, a fraternal beneficiary society and for many years was its president. He was chosen president of the National Fraternal Press Association and one year later president of the National Fraternal Congress.
He served as chairman of the Genesee county Democratic committee and in 1904 was elected chairman of the Democratic state central committee. In 1908 he was elected a member of the Democratic national committee, re- elected in 1912, and again re-elected in a state-wide primary in 1916. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention in Denver in 1908, a delegate-at-large and chairman of the delegation in 1912, and a delegate-at- large again in 1916. Following the national convention at St. Louis, he
58
GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
resigned from the national committee in June, 1916, his business requiring that a large part of his time be spent in New York City.
Mr. Wood was appointed by Governor Fred M. Warner, of Michigan. as one of the commission to purchase a silver service for the battleship "Michigan." He was tendered an appointment as a member of the Michi- gan state tax commission by Governor Chase S. Osborn, but declined. Hc served as president of the Genesee County Pioneer and Historical Society and upon the creation of the Michigan Historical Commission in 1913 was named as one of the commission by Governor Woodbridge N. Ferris. In 1016 he was elected president of the commission.
In 1913 Mr. Wood was appointed a member of the Mackinac Island state park commission by Governor Ferris and served as vice-president of the commission, resigning in September, 1916. He was instrumental in the placing of a bronze tablet on Mackinac Island to Jean Nicolet, the first white man to set foot on Michigan and the old Northwest territory, also a memor- ial tablet in honor of Lewis Cass, one of Michigan's foremost statesmen. Mr. Wood erected a memorial fountain on Mackinac Island in memory of his son; it is known as Dwightwood Spring and was dedicated with impres- sive ceremonies. He gave to the state museum at Mackinac Island a valu- able historical collection.
Mr. Wood was named by Governor Ferris as a delegate to the centen- ary peace commission in 1914. In 1915 he was one of the board of arbitra- tion representing Flint in the matter of fixing the price to be charged for gas. As a result of this arbitration the price of gas was reduced from one dollar to eighty-five cents.
In 1910 Mr. Wood was elected a vice-president of the General Motors Company, but resigned when the control was placed in the hands of a voting trust. In 1915 he again became connected with Mr. W. C. Durant and was elected early in 1916 a director in the Chevrolet Motor Company.
Mr. Wood initiated and secured the required stock subscriptions which brought about the founding of the Industrial Savings Bank of Flint, Michi- gan.
Mr. Wood is a Knights Templar and thirty-third-degree Mason. He was one of the committee which raised the funds to build the Masonic Tem- ple in Flint and was a member of its board of trustees from its inception until 1915, when he resigned. He is a member of the Mystic Shrine, the Elks and various other fraternal societies. He was president of the Pioneer Guard of Michigan Sovereign Consistory and is a member of the "Old Guard" of Genesee Valley Commandery, Knights Templar.
59
GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Mr. Wood is a student of Michigan and Old Northwest history and has been a collector of early maps for many years. His special Old North- west library is one of the largest private collections in the country. He is the author of many papers on the Old Northwest and of Historic Mackinac. In 1916 the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by Notre Dame University in recognition of his service along historical lines.
Mr. Wood was married in 1889 to Emily Crocker, daughter of Stephen and Prudence Crocker, pioneer residents of Genesee county. Four children blessed their union, Dwight Hulbert, who was killed by a fire wagon in 1905 at the age of fourteen years: Albert Crocker, Leland Stanford and Mary B. Mr. and Mrs. Wood are members of the Episcopal church, he serving on the vestry of Trinity church at Mackinac Island.
He is a member of the Sons of the Revolution and the Detroit Ath- letic Club. Although a member of the Episcopal church, Mr. Wood has a profound respect for the work accomplished by the Catholic church and on every public occasion commends its influence for good. He dedicated the "History of Genesee County" to Rev. T. J. Murphy, and his work, "His- toric Mackinac," to Rt. Rev. Monsignor Frank A. O'Brien, LL. D., both life-long friends.
Mr. Wood was a member of the committee appointed by the city of Flint to secure the new postoffice building. His associates were W. C. Durant, John J. Carton and Judge George E. Taylor.
The fund necessary to secure a life-size painting of Governor Ferris for presentation to the state of Michigan, was secured through the initial efforts of Mr. Wood, more than one. thousand two hundred dollars being contributed by twelve hundred citizens, no one being permitted to give more than one dollar.
At the celebration of the Golden Jubilee marking the fiftieth anniver- sary of the incorporation of the city of Flint, in 1905, Mr. Wood was chair- man of the executive committee. He was one of the original board of directors of the Flint Improvement League, now the Flint Board of Com- merce. During his term as mayor of Flint, Bruce J. McDonald appointed Mr. Wood a member of the police commission. He has been active and public spirited in everything pertaining to the advancement of the best inter- ests of the city, county and state.
60
GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
SAMUEL SIDNEY STEWART.
Sanmel Sidney Stewart, president and treasurer of the W. F. Stewart Company, manufacturers of automobile bodies, at Flint, is a native son of that city and has lived there all his life except four years in Pontiac. He was born on May 14, 1876, son of. William Francis and Olive (Wyrick) Stewart, the former of whom was born in the dominion of Canada and the latter in the state of Ohio. Olive (Wyrick) Stewart was the daughter of Andrew and Julia ( Kibler ) Wyrick, who were the parents of five children, John, Olive, Edwin, Elizabeth and Julia.
William F. Stewart was born on a farm near the city of London, in the province of Ontario, Canada, the second of the eight children born to his parents, natives of Scotland, who emigrated to Canada and settled near Lon- don, where they spent the rest of their lives, the others of their children being John, Samuel, James, Charles, Sarah, Eliza and Martha. Though reared on a farm. William F. Stewart's tastes in the way of occupation ran in another direction and he early became apprenticed to a carriage-maker in London. where he became thoroughly grounded in the details of his craft. becoming a skilled and very competent workman After learning his trade. he went to New York City and for some time worked there, later coming to Michigan and locating at Flint, where he entered the employ of W. A. Pater- son and worked in the latter's carriage shop for several years. At the end of that time he opened a shop of his own and set up in business for himself, in a small way, on the site of the present Walsh building, at the corner of Saginaw and Detroit streets, where for several years he engaged in the manufacture of buggy bodies. He then moved to Pontiac, where he estab- lished a similar factory, but presently returned to Flint and resumed the manufacture of buggy bodies, occupying the top floor of the old Beardsley & Gillies planing-mill. His business quickly outgrew the cramped quarters he had there and he built a plant on Second street and enlarged his facilities. That plant was destroyed by fire in 1892, but Mr. Stewart immediately rebuilt on a larger scale and, his business continuing to expand, he presently bought the Beardsley & Gillies plant, which he styled his "No. 2" factory. the Second street plant being known as "No. 1." and continued to operate the two plants very successfully. In 1900 Mr. Stewart found it necessary again to enlarge his facilities for handling his growing business and he built a "No. 3" plant at the foot of Harriet street and in 1907 a "No. 4" plant was erected for the exclusive manufacture of automobile bodies. In the meantime, in 1898, the business was incorporated under the firm name of
61
GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
The W. F. Stewart Company. After 1900 W. F. Stewart gradually retired from the active affairs of his business, turning the management of the same over to his son, and lived practically retired the closing years of his life, his death occurring on May 20, 1911, he then being sixty-five years of age. In addition to his extensive manufacturing interests, Mr. Stewart owned a farm of three hundred and sixty acres the old Vose farm, just east of Flint, and was largely engaged in the raising of live stock and in dairying, taking great interest in the place, which he called "Woodside Dairy Farm." He also was a member of the board of directors of the Union Trust and Savings Bank of Flint and was in other ways interested in the business activities of his home town. He was a Republican and ever gave a good citizen's attention to local civic affairs, but was not an office seeker. He was reared in the Church of England and his widow, who still survives him, is a member of St. Paul's Episcopal church. She was born in Ohio and was but a girl when her parents came to Michigan in the early days of the settlement of this sec- tion of the state. To William F. Stewart and wife two sons were born, the subject of this biographical sketch having a brother, William E. Stewart, of No. 903 East Court street, Flint.
Samuel Sidney Stewart was reared in Flint, the city of his birth, attend- ing the public schools of his home town and early learning the details of his father's business, working in the shop on Saturdays and during school vacations. When fourteen years of age he quit school and went to work in the factory, working at the bench for about two years and thoroughly familiarizing himself with the details of the business. He then returned to school for a time and later was given a place in the Union Trust and Sav- ings Bank, where he remained for nearly three years. At the end of that time he was made assistant to the general manager of the manufacturing plant of W. A. Paterson & Company and was thus engaged until he became associated with the W. F. Stewart Company. Upon the death of his father, he succeeded the latter as president and treasurer of the W. F. Stewart Company and continues in that capacity as the active directing force of the extensive manufacturing concern. When he became connected with the con- cern it was devoted wholly to the wood-working side of carriage making. but, since the death of the elder Stewart, has been given over exclusively to the manufacture of metal bodies for automobiles, the output of the plant for 1916 being about forty thousand bodies and continually growing. The concern is incorporated, with a capital and surplus of about three hundred thousand dollars and employs about five hundred persons. Mr. Stewart gives considerable attention to the general business activities of his home
62
GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
town. in addition to the management of his large manufacturing concern, and is a member of the board of directors of the Union Trust and Savings Bank and of the Industrial and Savings Bank of Flint. Mr. Stewart is a Scottish-Rite and Royal Arch Mason, a Knight Templar, a noble of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a member of St. Paul's Episcopal church and his wife is a member of the First Presbyterian church.
On May 29. 1901, that Samnel S. Stewart was united in marriage to Emma Cristy Willett, who also was born in Flint, daughter of J. Leverett and Rosa (Durant) Willett. She supplemented the course in the public schools of that city by a course in a finishing school for young women in Boston. Her parents also were both born in Flint, the Willetts and the Durants having been prominent in the early life of that city. Dr. John Willett, father of J. Leverett Willett, was a pioneer physician in this part of the state and also conducted a drug store at Flint. He and his wife were the parents of four children, Frank. Leverett, John and Vienna. Leverett Willett's young manhood was spent in his father's drug store and he later became one of the best-known traveling salesmen in Michigan. Both he and his wife are now deceased, his death having occurred on February 17, 1912, he then being about fifty-four years of age. They were the parents of three children. Mrs. Stewart having a brother. Wallace Willett, and a sister, Anna. Mrs. Stewart's maternal grandparents were William C. and Rebecca (Crapo ) Durant, natives of Massachusetts, the latter of whom was a dangh- ter of former Governor Crapo, of Michigan, and who were the parents of two children, her mother having had a brother, William C. Durant. To Mr. and Mrs. Stewart one child has been born, a son. Samuel Sidney Stewart. Jr. The Stewarts reside at No. 830 Avon street.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.