History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 32

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 761

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Gen. Dwight May, for years a sufferer from disease con- tracted in camp-life, died Jan. 28, 1880, and his remains were placed in " Mountain Home Cemetery," Kalamazoo, on the following Saturday, a bleak and gloomy day. A long line of his Masonic brethren were in his funeral procession. Judges of the Supreme Court and members of the bar of

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HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

Kalamazoo and adjoining counties were present, out of re- spect for one whose learning and legal character they recog- nized and admired. Many of his old comrades in the army came from far and near to honor the dead soldier,- the citizens of the town and county, young and old, were present to testify that death had stricken down one who had lived among them and had not lived in vain ; all agreed, in sad look and word, that a man, useful and patriotic in life, had left for all time his sorrowing family and friends.

Of the legal men of Kalamazoo County I have spoken of the dead, with a single exception. Two of the pioneer lawyers of the county are yet with us, well advanced in years, and it is proper that I should name them as pre-emi- nent in ability, and so recognized by all their old associates in the profession,-HON. NATHANIEL A. BALCH and HON. CHARLES E. STUART.

HON. NATHANIEL A. BALCH was born in Windham Co., Vermont, on the 22d of January, 1808. He read law, medicine, and some theology, in his native State, and was principal of Bennington Academy, Vt. He came to Kalamazoo in 1837. He has also been a college professor of mathematics. If you wish to find a more accomplished Greek and Latin scholar, don't look for him among the clergy, lawyers, or medical men of Kalamazoo County, for you can't find him. He is filled with acquired knowledge, and has worked like a high-pressure engine to get it. He has been the prosecuting attorney of the counties of Barry and Kalamazoo, and during his service put bad men and rogues to a vast deal of trouble. He was an able member of the Senate of Michigan in 1847, and, to the utter disgust of the good people of Detroit, exerted all his power to move the capitol of the State from the com- mercial metropolis, and set it down in the woods. He is a master in argument, and the opponent at the bar who has attempted to push him off the bridge has often found him- self in the water. He is now the president of the Bar Association in Kalamazoo County, and commands the re- spect and friendship of his associates for his learning and great excellence of character.

HON. CHARLES E. STUART was born in Columbia Co., N. Y., in 1810 ; emigrated to Michigan in 1835, and com- menced as a lawyer the same year in Kalamazoo, obtaining a business within a brief time greater than any other lawyer in Western Michigan. The court records in Kalamazoo and adjoining counties show his name in connection with almost all the important cases during 1836 and the fifteen succeeding years. He was elected a member of the House of Representatives for 1842 in the Legislature of Michigan ; was for two terms a member of the House of Representa- tives in Congress, and for six years a member of the United States Senate. During his last term of service in the House of Representatives in Congress he moved, and made a persistent effort for and accomplished, the passage of the law making a landed appropriation for the construction of Sault St. Marie Canal,-a law that has added more to the wealth of Michigan than any other that was ever en- acted. An associate member of the United States Senate, himself greatly distinguished, once said that Mr. Stuart was the ablest presiding officer of a deliberative assembly he had ever known ; that his rulings on questions of par-

liamentary law and practice were rarely at fault. Always, at the bar, and in every political position he has held, he has evinced ability ; now, in his seventy-first year, his mind is vigorous and active. His fluent conversational ability and remarkable memory enable him to entertain with stores of valuable facts and abundance of anecdotes of men who have come within his knowledge.

The following list embraces the names of attorneys, now living, admitted to the bar in Kalamazoo, most of them en- gaged in professional business : John W. Breese, Thomas R. Sherwood, John M. Edwards, Charles S. May, A. A. Knappen, Henry F. Severens, Arthur Brown, Robert F. Judson, William W. Peck, F. E. Knappen, Rufus H. Grosvenor, J. Davidson Burns, Robert Burns, James W. Hopkins, William G. Howard, Dallas Boudeman, Nathaniel H. Stewart, Allen M. Stearns, Edwin M. Clapp, Jr., Volney H. Lockwood, Elbert S. Roos, Thomas D. Trumbull, Sam- uel W. Oxenford, James H. Johnson, Luther Williams, William Shakespeare, Germain H. Mason, Henry C. Briggs, Hampden Kelsey, H. G. Wells, J. Franklin Alley, Geo. M. Buck, Edward Ranney, Kalamazoo, Mich .; Charles W. Lowrie, Gibson Browne, Keokuk, Ia. ; Charles R. Brown, Port Huron, Mich .; W. L. Booth, New York City ; George L. Otis, St. Paul, Minn .; William B. Williams, Allegan, Mich .; Chandler Richards, Paw Paw, Mich .; Joseph W. Huston, Dakota; Harrison A. Smith, Con- necticut; Cyrus B. Wilson ; A. C. Kingman ; T. C. Cut- ler ; A. L. Moulton ; Charles R. Brown, Port Huron, Mich .; Josiah L. Hawes, Kalamazoo, Mich .; Mitchell J. Smiley, William J. Stuart, Grand Rapids, Mich .; Henry A. Ford, Cleveland, Ohio; A. J. Mills, Paw Paw, Mich. ; William Fletcher ; James W. Reid; Henry H. Riley, Con- stantine, Mich. ; James M. Severens ; C. E. Bailey ; G. P. Doane, Mendon, Mich .; J. C. Bishop, Vicksburg, Mich. ; Arthur A. Bleasby, Big Rapids, Mich .; C. K. Turner ; E. S. Smith, Chicago, Ill. ; Lawrence N. Banks; Charles K. Turner, Kalamazoo, Mich .; Elisha W. Frazer, Jasper C. Gates, Detroit, Mich .; Rufus P. Edson ; Samuel A. York, New Haven, Conn.

Among those in the foregoing list of lawyers are some whose reputation is not circumscribed by the lines of the States in which they reside, and the entire list will compare favorably with any equal number of their profession to be found elsewhere on the score of ability and integrity.

MEDICAL HISTORY.#

Among "the ills that flesh is heir to," sickness and accidental injury are, and always have been, conspicuous. They give occasion and create the necessity for experts in medicine and surgery; and hence it is that wherever ag- gregations of civilized humanity are found, there " the doc- tor" is a recognized and an existing institution. Sickness and accidental injury, common enough everywhere, are pe- culiarly the liability and often the lot of the pioneer.

Away from the old home, its associations, its comforts, and its consolations,-away from an organized society reg- ulated by law and accustomed to order,-away from the newspaper, the market, the school, and the church, each of which ministers to a civilized human want; and in the

* Prepared by Foster Pratt, M.D.

THE PROFESSIONS.

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pressure of danger from an unaccustomed climate, from man and beast, from land and water, from forest and prairie, from hunger, heat, and cold, and from an imagination that conjures up many other dangers, real and unreal,-thus environed by danger to health, life, and limb, the pioneer naturally regarded the doctor as a guardian angel and his advent as an epoch in pioneer history.

Of the doctors entitled to rank among the real pioneers of Kalamazoo County, there are four who deserve conspic- uous and honorable mention in its local history. These are Dr. N. M. Thomas, of Schoolcraft; Dr. David E. Brown, first of Schoolcraft and afterwards of Pavilion ; Dr. J. G. Abbott, of Kalamazoo ; and Dr. D. E. Deming, of Cooper.

Of these but one is now living,-Dr. Thomas, who was probably the very first physician who made a home in the county, settling (in what is now Prairie Ronde) in the

He studied medicine at Mount Pleasant with Drs. Isaac Parker and William Farmer. After attending the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati, on the 3d of March, 1828, he was examined in that city by the censors of the First District Medical Society of Ohio, and the right to practice physic and surgery was conferred upon him by that body. He was engaged in the practice of medicine between one and two years in Ohio, when he came to Prairie Ronde and commenced practice in June, 1830. He became a member of the medical society of the Territory, and took such steps as enabled him to practice physic and surgery without a violation of law. The country being sparsely settled, his practice had a wide range, and some of his early visits were made at Diamond Lake, thirty miles dis- tant. He had quite a contest with " steam doctors," which caused some prejudice against him for a time. In less

NATHAN M. THOMAS, M.D.

spring of 1830. He yet lives ; and in his hale old age preserves to a remarkable degree his faculties, mental and physical.

NATHAN M. THOMAS, M.D.,* the first physician who located in the county of Kalamazoo, and the second in Western Michigan who engaged in the practice of medicine, was born at Mount Pleasant, Jefferson Co., Ohio, Jan. 2, 1803. His parents, Jesse and Avis (Stanton) Thomas, were Quakers. His maternal ancestors were of the same faith from near the origin of that church, and are traced back to Thomas Macy, the first settler on the island of Nantucket. His surroundings at his native place were such that he grew up with temperate habits. Under the teachings of Charles Osborn and Benjamin Lundy he became imbued with anti-slavery sentiments in early life.

than three months after his arrival he had an attack of fever, and, while it lasted, he fully realized all the priva- tions of log-cabin life. He prescribed for himself for some days, but finally felt the importance of yielding his case to other hands. The fact that the nearest physician was Dr. Loomis, of White Pigeon, presented an obstacle to be over- come. A messenger was dispatched for him, but found, upon his arrival at White Pigeon, that Dr. Loomis could not be had. He learned, however, of another physician who had temporarily located at that place, and he was obtained. Under his treatment, Dr. Thomas speedily re- covered. For the first two years after he located on the prairie his practice was not large, and but little more than paid expenses. He had barely sufficient means to enable him to practice medicine, with a few dollars in his pocket. Under such circumstances he could derive no benefit from the pre-emption law, nor purchase any government land until

* From material furnished by Dr. Thomas.

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HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

September, 1832, when he attended land-sales at White Pigeon, and purchased ninety acres of prairie land for three hundred dollars, a large part of the purchase-money being borrowed capital. The land sold at that time had been held back from market because it had been selected for the uni- versity, but, as a number of sections on the prairie had pre- emption claims on a portion of them, it was decided that the university could not hold the remainder of those sections. They were, therefore, thrown back into market and sold at a heavy advance on government price.

After he had spent two years in the country circum- stances were so changed that he worked speedily into a lucrative practice. Improvements had commenced at the village of Schoolcraft; Thaddeus Smith, J. A. Smith, E. Lakin Brown, Lyman I. Daniels, and Jeremiah Humphrey had preceded him in locating at that point. Others soon followed, and the indications were that Schoolcraft would very soon become the centre of business for Big Prairie Ronde, Gourd-Neck, and the surrounding country. Such being the case, he did not hesitate to change his residence to that place. His practice from the 1st of July, 1832, to 1841 was extensive. He applied himself closely to business, and for more than five years after he came to Schoolcraft did not spend twenty-four hours at a time beyond the range of his practice. During that five years, with all the loss of sleep and other conditions incident to the practice of med- icine in a sickly country, his health was never so far im- paired as to prevent him from attending regularly to his patients, which he attributes to the exercise of riding on horseback. He rarely rode otherwise during the first four- teen years which he spent in the country.

For a few years previous to the location of physicians at Paw Paw village, his practice extended to that place and to the Agard settlement. His brother, Dr. Jesse Thomas, assisted him in the practice of medicine during the summer of 1836, having previously studied with Dr. William Ham- ilton, of Mount Pleasant, Ohio. He attended a course of lectures at the Medical College of Ohio in the winter of 1836-37, and resumed practice with his brother the follow- ing spring. In 1838, from the 1st of July to the 1st of October, there was not a sufficient fall of rain to lay the dust. The marshes, lakes, and water-courses settled to a low stage. It was a very sickly year, and consequently in the months of August and September their practice was incessant and laborious. Their patients were numerous, and their business larger than in any other year during their professional life. The country was sickly for ten or eleven years of its first settlement, but after that period it passed to a more favorable condition, and gradually became as healthful as any part of the United States.

The 17th of March, 1840, Dr. Nathan M. Thomas was married to Pamela S. Brown, daughter of Thomas and Sally Brown, of Plymouth, Windsor Co., Vt., and sister to Hon. E. Lakin Brown, of Schoolcraft.

Previous to 1841 the purchase of land, making improve- ments, and other business began to claim the attention of Dr. Thomas to such an extent that between 1841 and 1844 it was his intention to gradually surrender his professional business to his brother within a few years; but meanwhile a surplus capital had accumulated from their earnings, and

their attention was turned to the West, as presenting the better opportunities for profitable investments. Accord- ingly, in the summer of 1845, Dr. Jesse Thomas, in com- pany with Hiram Moore, made an exploration of what is now Green Lake Co., Wis., and the country adjacent thereto. This led, in 1846, to the purchase of a large. tract of land near Green Lake, and Dr. Jesse's removal to it in the spring of 1847. The largest part of the accumulated capital that Dr. Thomas realized from the practice of med- icine he invested in land and the improvement of it, and at the time he retired from practice he was the owner of some two thousand acres of improved and unimproved land, with the larger part of the latter, producing no income. He therefore gradually sold the greater part of it, and invested the money in such a way as to produce a larger income than could be obtained from the practice of medicine. But the greatest and most important benefit was an exemption from the exposure incident to practice in a new country. It is now twenty-seven years since he relinquished practice. In 1859, after he had retired, he received the following official notice of being chosen an honorary member of the State Medical Society, of which Dr. Allen was president :

" WYANDOTTE, Jan. 27, 1859. " DR. N. M. THOMAS :

" Dear Sir,-I have the honor to notify you that at the last meet- ing of the Michigan State Medical Society, held at Lansing, January 19th, you were, on motion of Dr. Gunn, elected an honorary member of that society.

" Yours respectfully, " E. P. CHRISTIAN, Secretary."

Dr. Thomas' early education led him to adopt advanced views in relation to the anti-slavery cause. As it was both a moral and political question, he rejected the idea of rely- ing on moral suasion alone, but adopted the plan advocated by Benjamin Lundy, of carrying the question at once to the ballot-box, and using this great moral and political force as the lever for the overthrow of American slavery, which he reduced to practice in 1838 and 1839. In 1840 he favored the organization of the Liberty party, and voted for its candidates at the Presidential election of that year. In 1837, Dr. Thomas united with four hundred and twenty- two male citizens of the townships of Prairie Ronde and Brady in petitioning Congress against the annexation of Texas to the United States. He was induced to do so be- cause slavery existed in that country,-and that, too, after it had been abolished by Mexican law. He sent the petition to Lucius Lyon, one of the United States senators from this State, who acknowledged its reception with the remark, " This is the first memorial on this subject that has been received from Michigan, though many have come in from other portions of the United States." Dr. Thomas also united with other citizens, at different times, running through a series of years, in petitioning Congress on the same subject, for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and against the admission of any more slave States. In 1839 he united with other anti-slavery men for the establishment of a paper in this State devoted to the anti-slavery cause, which required quite an effort and much pecuniary sacrifice for its accomplishment. In 1845 he was nominated by the Liberty party for Lieutenant-Governor, on a ticket with James G. Birney for Governor, which received

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THE PROFESSIONS.

some three thousand five hundred votes. When the Lib- erty party was merged in the Free-Soil or Free Democratic party, in 1848, he became a member of that party, and as such was on the electoral ticket in this State for John P. Hale, when he was a candidate for President, in 1852. When the State mass convention was held in Jackson, in July, 1854, which organized the Republican party in this State, Dr. Thomas was one of the committee of sixteen chosen by a State mass convention of the Free Democracy, held at Kalamazoo, to represent that party in the Jackson convention, and in accordance with instructions, upon the adoption of a platform approved by that committee, the Free Democratic party was dissolved and merged in the Re- publican party. He was appointed one of the nominating committee which selected for the convention the Republican State ticket. Being a supporter of the Republican party, he was also a supporter of the government through the war of the Rebellion. From the time hostilities commenced he favored the extinction of slavery, as the only sure and speedy way of ending the war. He therefore sent a petition to Congress in November, 1861, signed by one hundred and sixty-seven citizens of Schoolcraft and vicinity, calling the attention of that body to the subject, of which the follow- ing is a copy :

" TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES :

" In accordance with justice, the spirit of the age, and to meet the approval of the good and the true throughout the world, and with a view of restoring four million native Americans to their rights, and bringing the war in which we are involved to a speedy termination, the undersigned, citizens of Kalamazoo County and State of Michigan, respectfully pray your honorable body to so exercise the right with which you are invested, under the war power of Government, as to declare slavery by act of Congress totally abolished."

Dr. Thomas was connected with the " underground rail- road,"-one of the organizers of the company,-and was the Schoolcraft station agent. The first " train" which arrived brought a single fugitive, who had escaped from the far South. He entered the State in Cass County, in October, 1838, and passed Schoolcraft, Battle Creek, Mar- shall, Jackson, and Detroit. Other fugitives soon followed on the track, and the underground railroad became estab- lished on that line, extending from the Slave State border, north and east, through Michigan to the Canada line. It was in existence nearly twenty years, and the numbers that passed over the line have been variously estimated at from one thousand to fifteen hundred. Some of the fugitives became permanent settlers in Michigan, but the great body passed on to Canada. During the Rebellion many of these fugitives had a strong desire to enlist, and, with the first opportunity, were mustered into the service and made brave soldiers. Four active young men, fugitives from Ken- tucky, came on the underground railroad to the Schoolcraft station in 1856. They went no farther, but remained in the State, and when the war commenced they were among the number who desired to enlist. After much delay and great effort, they succeeded in being accepted in different regiments and were mustered into service. In the course of events they came together at the capture of Charleston, and joined in singing the John Brown song as they marched through the streets of that city.

Dr. Thomas, appreciating the advantage of a good educa- tion and the general diffusion of knowledge among the masses as indispensable to the maintenance of republican government, has been at the expense of giving his children a collegiate education. His eldest, Avis, since deceased, graduated at Hillsdale College (the university not being then open to girls), married John J. Hopkins, a graduate of the same institution, and spent her short married life in Ohio. His youngest three children have received their education at the University of Michigan. Stanton, now a resident of Cassopolis, graduated in 1863, and Ella, at present teaching at Paw Paw, in 1875. His youngest, Malcolm, is a member of the class of 1880.

Dr. Thomas has now arrived at the ripe old age of sev- enty-seven years. His life is drawing to a close, and the end of everything earthly is near at hand. His efforts to push forward the cause in which his mind has been deeply enlisted in early manhood, and through mature life to old age, though not fully completed, their consummation is fast approaching, and he has strong hopes and expectations that reform movements will go forward in the future as in the past half-century to a full restoration of political rights, so that every human being of lawful age, sound mind, and unconvicted of crime, can have the full and un- contested right to a free ballot, without regard to class or sex.

During the summer of 1879 a controversy sprang up in relation to the date of the organization of the Republican party in Michigan, and Dr. Thomas, in common with numerous others to whom letters had been addressed on the subject, furnished what facts were in his memory regarding the matter. The following is a copy of his letter :

"To THE EDITOR OF The Post and Tribune :

"In response to your inquiries, without any record before me, I will state a few facts as I recall them in regard to the organization of the Republican party. I attended the Free-Soil or Free Democratic con- vention held at Jackson on the 22d of February, the mass convention at Kalamazoo, on the 21st of June, and the mass convention at Jack- son, on the 6th of July, 1854. The old anti-slavery men, previous to the origin of the Republican party, had felt the necessity of a com- bined effort against slavery and the aggressions of the slave-power of the country, and had been acting politically against that institution for years. In accordance with established usage, the Free Democracy, as the representation of their principles, met in convention at Jack- son, on the 22d of February, adopted resolutions, and in nominating the State ticket the canditates were selected with a view of reconcil- ing the feelings of the various shades of anti-slavery men and placing a strong ticket in the field. With that idea in view Kinsley S. Bing- ham was nominated for Governor. A strong desire was manifested by a few leading anti-slavery Whigs for a union of the Free-Soil and Whig parties on a State ticket. The late Judge Emmons, I well re- member, as one of their number, was present to make known their wishes upon that point. But the time for its consummation had not then arrived, nor was it foreseen that so great an aggression upon the rights of the free States as the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was so near in the future as the end of May of that year. The catastrophe occurred when I was on my way to visit friends in New England. Some ten days elapsed, and I was in Boston to witness the first opening in Faneuil Hall of the great fugitive slave case, where the voices of Parker and Phillips were heard presenting the fact of there being ' once a Boston and Massachusetts, but no Boston nor Massachusetts now.' The slave-power was supreme to the Canada line. A few days passed, and a war-vessel was in the port of Boston, and, under orders from the government of the United States, took Anthony Burns and returned him to slavery, from which he had just escaped. A few days later a line from a friend reached me in Vermont, urging my

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HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

return home, as a State Free-Soil Convention had been called during my absence. On my return I attended that convention, which was held at Kalamazoo to meet the emergency that had just been sprung upon the country and aroused the public mind to a greater extent than any event that had transpired since the memorable struggle against the admission of Missouri as a slave State, and led to the call of the mass State convention to be held at Jackson on the 6th of July. Under these circumstances the Free Democracy determined to meet at the time appointed in the mass convention at Jackson, and unite in a new organization, provided a platform was adopted embracing their principles. A committee of sixteen was appointed for the pur- pose of carrying out the will of the Kalamazoo convention. They met in Jackson, and, upon a platform being adopted that met the ap- proval of the committee, the nominations previously made were with- drawn, and the Free Democratic party of this State was dissolved and absorbed in the new organization, under the name of the Republican party, as adopted by the convention. When the organization was completed and the State officers nominated, the convention closed with a feeling pervading the mass that a great work had been accom- plished. Michigan was undoubtedly the first State to organize under the name of Republican. Ohio and one or two other States called conventions of those opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compro- mise on the 13th of July following, as the anniversary of the adop- tion of the ordinance of 1787, but the Republican party was not, of course, fully organized as a national party previous to the holding of the national convention at Philadelphia, in 1856.

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History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 32

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott Number of Pages: 761

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 761