USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests Volume II > Part 26
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DR. THEODORE O. POTTER. , Among the professional men of Monroe county who are of native birth is Dr. Theodore O. Potter, who was born
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in Whiteford township on December 8, 1858, and is now a practicing physician and surgeon in Dundee. He is a son of Oliver Potter and Cynthia (Hinds) Potter, representatives of two of Monroe county's pioneer families. Oliver Potter came to Whiteford township, Monroe county, about 1845, and the Hinds family had settled in that township in 1840, their farm being south of Ottawa Lake and remaining their homestead until the parents' death. Oliver and Cynthia Potter were the parents of two sons-Dr. Theodore O. Potter and Alfred H. Potter, the latter of whom is now a railroad engineer in Canada.
Dr. Potter was reared a farmer boy and received his earlier edu- cation in the public schools near his home and in the Sylvania high ' school. His professional training was received in the homeopathic de- partment of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he com- pleted his course in 1881. He began the practice of his profession in Grand Traverse county, Michigan, continuing an active practitioner there seventeen years. From there he removed to Sturgis, Michigan, where six more years were spent in professional service, and then in 1905 he returned to his native county of Monroe and took up practice at Dundee, where he has since remained. In each of his locations he has gained a representative clientele and has won the reputation of an intelli- gent and successful physician and of a most estimable gentleman.
On October 28, 1879, Dr. Potter was united in marriage to Miss Alice Vesey, and of the children born to their union four are living, namely : Theodore O., Jr., born in 1888; Leona F., a graduate of the Dundee high school and now the wife of Herman Covel; Pearl A., who is now Mrs. Earl Taylor; and William Franklin, now fourteen years of age and a graduate of the eighth grade of the public schools. In politics Dr. Potter is a Democrat and has served as health officer of Dundee. His fraternal associations are as a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of the Maccabees and the Modern Woodmen of America.
HARRY ARMITAGE CONANT. Harry Armitage Conant bears one of the old and honored names of American history, and he traces his ances- try back to Governor Roger Conant, the founder of the family in Amer- ica, who was born in 1592 and died in 1672. Mr. Conant was born in Monroe, Michigan, on May 5, 1844, and is the son of Dr. Harry Conant and his wife, Maria Stewart, the former being born in Mansfield, Conn., April 19, 1790, dying in 1851, at Monroe, Michigan, and the latter born in 1804, dying in 1895. They were married in 1821. He is the grand- son of Elezear Conant, who was born in 1751, and his wife, Eunice Storrs; the former died in 1819 and the latter in 1790, their marriage having taken place in 1777. Elezear Conant was the son of Lieut .- Col. Shubael Conant of Mansfield, Connecticut, one of the prominent men of his day, and was educated in Yale College, from which he was graduated in 1776, after which he studied theology, although he did not proceed to ordination. His marriage to Eunice Storrs occurred on July 10th, in the year mentioned previously, and he settled down in his native town. He was well equipped by education and training for a post of rank in the army, and as the son of a declared patriot and representative official, Vol. II-13
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it appears that he secured an appointment in the service as paymaster, and in September, 1877, was stationed with the American army at Peekskill, New York. The exact status of Elezear Conant in the army is impossible to be determined officially because of an incompleteness in the published records of the officers and men of Connecticut who served during the Revolution, as a result of loss or destruction of original and official manuscript, but family tradition has it that he served as a pay- master in the Connecticut Line, and letters in possession of the family written by him during the war period would bear out the belief. The powder horn which he carried during the war, bearing his name, is now in the possession of John S. Conant, the brother of the subject. His father, Shubael Conant, and the great-grandfather of Harry A. Conant of this review, was born in 1711 and died on September 16, 1775. He was one of the most able, active and trusted men of his time. He held field officer's rank in the Provincial Militia; he represented Mansfield in the General Assembly of Connecticut from 1741 to 1760 and was speaker of the house from 1753 to 1760, when he became a member of the Governor's Council and remained therein until the opening of the Revolution, when he was chosen a member of the Council or Committee of Safety, a position in which he was active until his death. He married Ruth, the daughter of Caleb Conant, in 1738 and she died in 1766.
Lieut .- Col. Conant was the son of Josiah Conant, born in 1680 and who died in 1765, and his wife, Joanna Dimmick, who was born in 1682 and died in 1766. Lieutenant Exercise Conant, the father of Josiah Conant and the great-great-great-grandfather of the subject, was born in 1637 and died in 1722, and he was the son of Governor Roger Conant, who was born in the parish of East Badleigh, Devonshire, England, on April 9, 1592. He removed to London, emigrated to New England in 1623, land- ing at Plymouth, and in the following year he was selected as governor of the settlement at Cape Ann and accordingly took up his abode at that place, founding the town of Salem and building the first house there. He died on November 18, 1679. Interesting side-light upon the Conant family as represented by Governor Roger Conant may be found in the book entitled "The Landing at Cape Ann, 1624," by John Wingate Thornton and published by Lincoln and Gould, Boston, 1854, also in the History of the Conant Family in England and America, by F. O. Conant, of Portland, Maine.
Harry Armitage Conant was educated in the public schools of Monroe, Michigan, the State Normal School at Ypsilanti, and the Univer- sity of Michigan, Class of 1865. He entered the university in 1861, but quitted it prior to the time when he should have been graduated. Mr. Conant first engaged in business on his own responsibility at Monroe, in 1867, under the firm name of J. G. McBride & Co., Tobacco Manufactur- ers. In 1870 he sold out his interest in the business, and since that time has engaged in no commercial pursuits, other than as a stock-holder or director in mercantile corporations. Although Mr. Conant was ad- mitted to the bar in 1873, he has never practiced his profession. He has been identified with various financial institutions, and for many years, until 1905, was vice-president of the First National Bank of Monroe, Michigan, resigning from the office in that year. He is now a director
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of the Union Trust Company of Detroit, and is connected with a number of other financial and commercial enterprises.
Mr. Conant has filled many of the municipal offices of Monroe, as well as those of larger importance in the state. He was state senator in 1879, secretary of the state of Michigan for two terms between 1883 and 1887, chairman of the Michigan State Board of Mediation and Arbitra- tion in 1901, American Consul at Naples, Italy, in 1880, and American consul at Windsor, Ontario, in 1905, which position he still holds. He has been identified with the Michigan Naval Reserves, and was first pay- master of the division, but saw no active service in the field. He is a member of the Yondotega Yacht Club of Detroit, the Detroit Club, the Country Club, the Windsor Club, the O. L. Club of Monroe, and the Monroe Yacht Club. He is also a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, his eligibility to membership in that society being estab- lished through his record of service of his grandfather, Elezear Conant, of whom more extended mention is made elsewhere in this sketch.
Mr. Conant was married on May 27, 1868, to Miss Mary Morris Thur- ber, daughter of Horace C. Thurber and Mary (Darragh) Thurber. Their one surviving child, Marguerite Stewart, is the wife of Charles: S. Withey, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, a son and daughter having died before becoming of legal age.
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MELVIN R. BRIGHTBILL. Among the well-known and prosperous men of Raisinville township, Melvin R. Brightbill takes a prominent rank, and as a miller in the town for the past fourteen years, he has earned the confidence and esteem of his fellow towns-people through years of business dealing with them. Born in Raisinville township on August 30, 1869, he is the son of Elias and Juliette (Umbarger) Brightbill, both of whom were born and reared in the state of Pennsylvania. They came to Monroe county, Michigan, in 1855, and there made their home. The father was a civil engineer, but he taught school for years and was quite popular and successful as a music teacher also. He died in 1906, but his widow yet survives him. Five children were born to them, three of whom are living at this time (1912). Winfield S. is unmarried and makes his home with his mother ; Elmer E. is identified with the farming activities of the township in which he was reared, and Melvin R. of this. review is the third and youngest son.
In the district school and the Monroe Union school, Melvin Brightbill secured his schooling, and when he had completed his training entered the teaching profession, continuing to teach in Raisinville township for eight years. He then learned the miller's trade, after which he leased the mill at this point and for fourteen years he has plied a busy trade among his townspeople and those from enjoining points, he being the proprietor of the Raisinville Flour and Feed Mill for the past ten years.
In 1895 Mr. Brightbill married Ada B. Kring, a native of this township. They have five children: Henry W., born July 3, 1897; Melvin L., October 27, 1898; Newton E., May 27, 1900; Harriet J., Octo- ber 24, 1905; Kring E., May 26, 1909.
Mr. Brightbill is a member of Monroe Lodge No. 19, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Monroe Encampment No. 180. He is a Re-
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publican, but has never taken an active part in the politics of the county, beyond the demands of good citizenship. He is one of the solid men of the township, and is held in high esteem by all within the limits of his acquaintance.
JOHN G. GOLD, who is a native of Germany, has been a resident of Raisinville township, Monroe county, Michigan, since 1902, and has been engaged in the general merchandise business at Grape, in Raisinville township since that time. He is one of the prominent and prosperous men of the township, and with his family, is held in the highest esteem by the people who have occasion to do business with them and have every opportunity to become conversant with their many admirable qualities.
Mr. Gold was born in Germany, as before stated, and is the son of George and Barbara (Femmell) Gold, both of whom passed their entire lives in their native land. The subject was born there on September 22, 1861, and when he was seventeen years old he came to the United States. Between the time of his landing and the time when he came to Raisinville township, Mr. Gold lived variously in Buffalo, Toledo and Detroit, locating in Grape in 1902. Since he became established in the mercantile business there, he has enjoyed a very pleasing success, and is known for one of the most prosperous men of the township. He is a man of progressive ideas, and has done considerable traveling in late years, having just returned in July from his sixth trip across the ocean. He is a Democrat, and a member of the Catholic church, he, with other members of his family, being communicants of the church of Ida.
In 1878 Mr. Gold was married in Buffalo to Miss Catharine Adser, and they have one daughter, Lydia, a graduate of the public schools. She is unmarried and makes her home with her parents.
Mr. Gold is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Arbeiters of Maybee, in both of which he carries insurance in the Ar- beiter Company. The family is one of prominence and popularity in Raisinville township, and all are held in the high esteem of the com- munity.
SOLOMON ANSTED, one of the well known and highly respected citi- zens of Bedford township, Monroe county, Michigan, while he has been a resident of this locality since he was five years old, claims the "Buck- eye State" as the one of his nativity. It was in Wood county, Ohio, July 29, 1859, that he was born, son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Welker) ยท Ansted, both of German birth. The grandparents of Mr. Ansted, both paternal and maternal, emigrated to this country with their respective families and settled in Ohio, and it was there that Jacob Ansted and his wife met and were married. They spent their wedded life in Wood county, and after his death, which occurred there, the widowed mother came with her children to Michigan and established a home in Monroe county. That was in April, 1864, when Solomon was five years old. Here the mother died in 1904 and following is her obituary.
"Elizabeth Welker was born at Darmstadt, Germany, December 9, 1818, and departed this life at the home of her daughter, Mrs. John
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TIIE ANSTED HOMESTEAD
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Grinage at Temperance, February 2, 1904, aged 85 years, one month and twenty-four days. In the year 1831, at the age of thirteen, she with her parents and an older brother traveled a distance of three hundred miles with a team and wagon to the seaport called Bremen. Here they embarked for America on the ship Alexandria; after being on the water nine weeks they landed at Baltimore, Maryland. Being weavers by trade they secured temporary employment in a cotton factory a few miles from this place. From here they moved to Frederick, Maryland, where they secured employment for a short time in helping to build the first railroad that was constructed in the United States. They then moved to Middletown, Pennsylvania, where they found employment for a few years in a woolen factory.
"In 1834 they left the brother, and Elizabeth with her parents trav- eled with one horse and a wagon through the wilderness, over hills and through swamps, to Sandusky county, Ohio, to a place known as black swamp, now Hessville. Here they traded their horse and wagon for forty acres of wild land, on which they settled and made their home. October the 18th, 1838, Elizabeth was married to Jacob Ansted. To this union were born thirteen children, of which nine survive her. In January, 1864, Elizabeth with her husband traded their property for a small piece of land in the township of Bedford, Monroe county, at the place now called the village of Temperance. While moving to this place, the husband, who was afflicted with an inveterate disease, sickened and died, leaving her with ten children; these ranged in ages from two years to twenty-four years. Here she spent the remainder of her life, and for many years toiled vigorously to maintain her support and rear her large family. 'Grandma Ansted,' as she was generally known, was an earnest and consistent Christian from her youth and departed this life leaving clear evidence of her peace with God. She was a friend to everybody and was readily befriended by all who knew her. The names of her children are Jacob W. Ansted of Samaria; Mrs. Catherine Steig, of Temperance ; Mrs. Libbie Carr, of Temperance; Lewis Ansted, of Toledo; Mrs. Annie Grinage, of Temperance; William H. Ansted, of Temperance; Franklin A. Ansted, of Temperance; Solomon Ansted, of Temperance, and Mrs. Caroline Dull, of Monroe. She was ancestor to thirty-nine grandchildren, thirty-seven great-grandchildren, and one great great grandchild. Of the grandchildren eleven have died and of the great-grandchildren five have died. She leaves a host of relatives and friends to mourn her departure and many will miss her. The fun- eral services were conducted at the Free Methodist church, February 5th, by Rev. L. H. Mulholland of Spring Arbor, assisted by Revs. J. W. Tolly and S. B. Smith. Interment was made in the Hitchcock Cemetery."
In the district schools of Bedford township Solomon Ansted laid the foundation for that broader education which he has gained in the school of experience. From the time he was seventeen until 1896, covering a period of twenty years, he devoted his energies to farming. Then he engaged in the hardware, implement and furniture business at Temperance, and successfully conducted the same until he sold out in 1906. The next three years he represented the International Harvest-
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ing Company. The farm, however, held its attractions, and again we find him engaged in agricultural pursuits. He owns fifty acres of land where he lives, in Bedford township, and twenty-two acres a mile south of this tract. Besides this, he has other real estate interests, including a house and lot in Toledo, Ohio, and a cottage and several lots at Toledo Beach.
December 25, 1883, Mr. Ansted and Miss Emma Butler, a native of Bedford township, were united in marriage. Mrs. Ansted was born February 24, 1866, and is the third in a family of five children, four sons and one daughter born to John A. and Calista (Belman) Butler. There are three of the children yet living: eldest is Chas. A., resident of Temperance, Michigan, educated in common schools and is married. Mrs. Ansted is next. Richard A., resident of Toledo, Ohio, is a carpenter and joiner. He is married. John A. Butler is a resident of Temperance, Michigan. He was a soldier in the Civil war, and was a carpenter by trade in years past. His wife is a native of Ohio and both are members of the Baptist church.
Mrs. Solomon Ansted was educated in the common schools and she is a lady of pleasing address and personality, and has been her hus- band's counselor and aid in life's work. Mr. and Mrs. Ansted have four children; the eldest is Ernest J., a resident of Toledo, Ohio, and is now a salesman for an automobile company; he was reared on his father's farm, and educated in the common schocls. He wedded Miss Carrie Grostefaune, and they have three children : Kenneth B., in school; Paul D. and Gilbert R.
Gertrude M. wedded J. Arthur Rowland, and they have two chil- dren, Floy Lucile and Grace Elenore. Mr. Rowland is a Republican and a traveling salesman.
Hanford S. B. completed the public schools and is now in the third year of the Toledo high school.
Beulah Ferne is in the public schools and has taken some musical training. Mrs. Ansted is a member of the Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union, as is also her husband.
Mr. Ansted is a member of the Free Methodist church at Temper- ance, of which he is a trustee, and an active worker. He takes little interest in politics more than to vote a straight Republican ticket.
GEORGE W. BARTOW. One of the most public-spirited and progressive agriculturists of Dundee township, Monroe county, Michigan, is George W. Bartow, a man of sterling qualities who through sagacious and sapi- ent business ability has achieved no uncertain success in a financial way and as a citizen of the progressive stamp has become one of the fore- most men of this community.
He comes of a respected Ohio family and was born at Milan, Erie county, Ohio, on September 19, 1861, a son of William and Anna (Hollister) Bartow and a grandson of Alvin Bartow. His father is now deceased but his mother is still living and continues her abode at Milan, Ohio, of which place she has now been a resident more than half a cen- tury. Four children came to these parents, of whom George W. of this review is the only one located in Monroe county, and is one of two now
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living, the other being his sister Cora, the wife of David Martin, of Prescott, Michigan.
Reared at Milan, Ohio, George W. Bartow during his youth was engaged in acquiring an education, having been a student in the com- mon schools there and in the Western Reserve Normal at Milan, Ohio. In the meantime, however, at the age of ten, he began independent activities and for eight years was employed in a ship yard, but was unable to save much of his earnings during this period. After that he worked by the month until he was twenty-three years of age. On October 14, 1884, he married Miss Etta Moore, a native of Dundee township, Monroe county, Michigan, and they have since been residents of Dundee township. Mr. Bartow owns 153 acres adjoining the village of Dundee, where he is engaged in general farming. He also is exten- sively engaged in the buying, feeding and shipping of cattle, and besides his well-tilled farm near Dundee he is the owner of realty in northern Michigan. He is at present, the general manager of the Farmers Tele- phone Company, and is now one of its directors. Fraternally he is affili- ated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows as a member of Thomas Lodge No. 211, at Dundee, is a past noble grand of his lodge and a past chief patriarch of the encampment, and is also a member of the Michigan grand lodge of this order. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bartow are members of the auxiliary order of Rebekahs. In politics Mr. Bartow is a Progressive, politically has been deputy sheriff of Monroe county, and has held all of the other township offices except clerk and supervisor. At all times he has been an ardent friend and advocate of education and public advance- ment, and frequently has given substantial support to different public enterprises without remuneration. Ever maintaining a strict character for probity and having made himself a useful as well as worthy citizen, he well deserves the high standing he enjoys in this community.
Mr. and Mrs. Bartow have five children: Myra, the eldest, is a graduate of the Dundee high school and was a teacher prior to her marriage to Otto Drake; Mildred E. is a graduate of the Dundee high school and the State Normal School at Ypsilanti and holds a life certifi- cate as a teacher, and Alvin E., Marion B. and Melba, aged respectively seventeen, ten and five years, are all at the parental home.
FREDERICK D. MOSER. One of the self-made and successful men of Monroe county, Michigan, is Frederick D. Moser, who is engaged as an undertaker and furniture dealer at Dundee. He is a direct descendant of German forebears. In presenting a brief sketch of his life in this volume several purposes obtain: to give due recognition to a citizen of worth and standing, to set forth a life story that tells of the steady and patient pursuit of a definite aim in life and of the success that al- most invariably rewards such perseverance and industry, and to recog- nize further the force for good which the German-American citizen is acknowledged to have been in all lines of activity since the beginning of our national life.
Mr. Moser was born in Toledo, Lucas county, Ohio, July 15, 1873, this month and day being of peculiar significance in the Moser family as the birth of the father and of two other sons occurred on July 15.
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George P. and Charlotte (Drayer) Moser, the parents of Frederick D., were both born in Germany. The father came to the United States when fourteen years old and the mother had reached the age of twenty ere she left the Fatherland for a home in the New World. After their marriage they first took up their residence in Cincinnati, Ohio, but later removed to Toledo, Ohio, and located on Washington street, where the father was engaged in the hardware and cornice business as a member of the firm of Moser, Henry & Reeder and where he con- tinued to reside until his death. Frederick D. Moser was reared in the city of Toledo and acquired his education there. He learned the uphol- stering trade and followed it in Toledo ten years before he engaged in business independently at Temperance, Monroe county, Michigan. Later he removed to Dundee, where he erected a building and opened a furni- ture and undertaking establishment but on a much larger scale than the one he had conducted at Temperance, his establishment being the only one of its kind in Dundee and unusually large and complete for a town of this size. Prosperity has attended the efforts of Mr. Moser but has come as a result of his own well-directed energies and business discern- ment, for all that he has he has gained for himself by diligence and economy and by many hard knocks.
Mr. Moser married Miss Clara Guldi, October 23, 1901, of Erie, Michigan, and one daughter, Dorothy, born in 1904, has been the issue of this union. In religious belief Mr. Moser was reared in the faith of the German Methodist Episcopal church, and fraternally he affiliates with the Masonic order as a Royal Arch Mason, and with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows at Butler, Indiana, and Mrs. Moser is a member of the Eastern Star and Rebekahs. In politics he is a Re- publican. Mr. Moser is essentially a business man, but of that sturdy, sterling type that is a force for good in any community, and the very qualities of character that have been the foundation of his business success have also made him a citizen that ranks among the most worthy of Monroe county.
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