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 32
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daughter of Gen. George Spalding and Augusta (Lewis) Spalding. Abby Lucinda Sterling, born August 17, 1873; married Habeck W. Lan- don, of East Lansing, Michigan. Nellie Louise Sterling, born March 7, 1875; married Thornton Dixon, one time prosecuting attorney of Mon- roe county, owner of the Monroe Shore Line Stone Company, and inter- ested in many other enterprises of an important nature. He is at pres- ent commodore of the Monroe Yacht Club.
Ada Mae Sterling, born February 12, 1877, married Alfred Muller, of Erfurt, Germany, on June 26, 1909. Mr. Muller is the owner of the famous J. E. Schmidt Seed and Nursery Houses of Erfurt, established there some two centuries ago.
WILLIAM CADWELL STERLING, JR., is the only son of his parents. William Clark and Ada E. (Calhoun) Sterling, of whom extended mention is made on other pages of this work, so that further details with regard to the parentage and ancestry of the immediate subject need not be here incorporated. Mr. Sterling was born on April 7, 1872, and is one of the four children of his parents.
Born in Monroe, Mr. Sterling received his early education in the schools of that city, his training in his home town being followed by three years at the Chicago Manual Training School in Chicago, Illinois. Since the completion of his education Mr. Sterling has been associated with his father in all his many business ventures, and he is now manager, secretary and treasurer of the W. C. Sterling & Son Company, dealers in cedar poles, ties, posts and forest products in a wholesale way, and the oldest firm of its kind in the United States. He is also district man- ager of the Michigan State Telephone Company, vice president and treasurer of the Sterling Cedar & Lumber Company, wholesale dealers in lumber and producers of forest products, and a junior member of the firm of W. C. Sterling & Son, dealers in coal and ice in a wholesale and retail way. He is treasurer of the Monroe Water Company and a director of the Elkhart Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of magnetos for gas engines. At one time Mr. Sterling was a director in the Detroit Telephone Company, and the new State Telephone Com- pany, operating throughout the state of Michigan. He was a director of the National Telephone Equipment Company, manufacturers of telephones and switchboards ; secretary of the Monroe Lumber Company, a retail concern of the city; treasurer of the Squires & Sterling Mer- cantile Company, at Omer, Michigan; treasurer of the Holihan & Ster- ling Company, at Millersburg, Michigan ; secretary and treasurer of the Monroe Produce Company, once a leading cold storage house of the city ; was secretary of the Omer Stave & Heading Company ; secretary of the Augres River Cedar Company, at Augres, Michigan; secretary of the Michigan Cedar Company, of Bay City, Michigan; secretary and treasurer of the Michigan State Game and Fish Protective League; secretary of the Monroe Pier Hotel & Park Company ; collector of cus- toms for the port of Monroe; and a member of the inspection committee of the Northwestern Cedarmen's Association, and is a stockholder in several banks and other prominent business firms in Monroe.
This list will give an approximate idea of the multiplicity of the
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business associations and responsibilities of Mr. Sterling, and indicate in a measure the enterprise and progressiveness of the man as a factor in the business life of the city. His record thus far has in every respect reflected credit upon his father and grandfather, both of whom have done so much in the making of Monroe, and who have been identified with the state of Michigan in this district for the past seventy-five years, dating from the earliest advent of Joseph M. Sterling in Michigan in 1836.
Mr. Sterling is a Democrat, but has never aspired to political office of any sort, although he was once appointed United States customs collector for the port of Monroe, which office he held for several years and of which mention is made in the foregoing paragraph. He is secre- tary of the Monroe Citizens' Committee, and was active in the securing of the Elkhart Manufacturing Company for Monroe. He has at various times been a member of the Democratic county and city committees, and has done good work for the party in that connection.
As a member of Trinity Episcopal church of Monroe, Mr. Sterling has long been a vestryman and is treasurer of the church and has always been actively connected with the work of the church in its various departments. He is president of the Monroe Club, a member of the Detroit Club, the Toledo Yacht Club, the Monroe Yacht Club, in the latter of which he was active in its organization and was its first treas- urer and a member of its first directorate. Like his father, he is an enthusiastic sportsman, yachting being a favorite pastime. He is a member of the O. L. Club, treasurer of the Monroe Gun Club, secretary of the Monroe Driving Club in 1901. With further reference to his yachting record, he was at one time fleet captain of the Inter Lake Yachting Association, rear commander of the Inter Lake Cruising Club, and has been skipper and owner at various times of the "Restless," the yawl "Areola," the sloop "St. Clair," and other craft.
On December 26, 1894, Mr. Sterling was united in marriage with Miss Emma Lewis Spalding, the daughter of General and Augusta (Lewis) Spalding. She is a graduate of the Monroe high school. Gen- eral Spalding, veteran of the Civil war, entered as a private and finished with the rank of general. He participated in many of the important engagements of the war, and distinguished himself as a valiant soldier. He was a member of congress from the second district of Michigan for two terms, and was one time mayor of Monroe. He was postmaster of the city for several years, and at present is president of the First National Bank of Monroe. Two sons and a daughter have been born to Mr. and Mrs. William C. Sterling. William C. Sterling, third, born in Monroe, August 20, 1898, is now a student in the public schools of Monroe, as is also Joe C. Sterling, second, born in Monroe on March 2, 1900. The daughter, Elizabeth, was born on October 23, 1911.
REV. HOWARD H. BOWSER, deputy sheriff of Monroe county, Michi- gan, lives on a farm in Bedford township. He is well known here, having spent all his life in this county with the exception of five years in Lucas county, Ohio, and having served efficiently in several
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local offices. A brief review of the facts regarding his life is here- with presented.
Rev. Howard H. Bowser was born in Monroe county, Michigan, March 10, 1877, son of Howard W. and Dora Bowser, and traces the line of descent back to German ancestry. His grandfather, Anthony Bowser, was born in Pennsylvania, as also was his father, Howard W., the latter being a native of Bedford county, from whence he came to Monroe county, Michigan, where he still lives. He has been twice married. By his first wife he has three children: Anna, wife of John Slikes; Anthony, a resident of Toledo, Ohio, and Howard H. Bowser,
His mother having died when Howard H. was three years of age, he was cared for by his grandmother until he was five, when his father married again. Up to the time he was thirteen he attended district school in winter; until he was eighteen he worked for his father, and after that until he reached his maturity he worked away from home for wages, but gave his earnings to his father. Then he engaged in the dairy business, and was thus occupied for eleven years, selling his product in Toledo, Ohio. Since that time he has lived on a farm and called himself a farmer, various other interests, however, at intervals claiming his attention. He is a stockholder and one of the directors of the Farmers Independent Telephone Company of Temperance, Michigan. He has served as constable and highway commissioner of Bedford township, and since his appointment, in 1909, to the office of deputy sheriff of Monroe county, has faithfully performed the duties of this position.
Reverend Bowser married, December 10, 1899, Miss Anna A. Lowe, who was born and reared in Bedford township, daughter of Hans and Mary A. Lowe. They have one child, Clyde J., born May 25, 1901.
Reverend Bowser is one of the trustees of the Baptist church at Temperance, and is superintendent of the Sunday school. He was, fraternally identified with Lambertville Lodge, No. 467, I. O. O. F., and K. O. T. M., No. 832, and his political affiliation is with the Republicans.
The Reverend Bowser is in every sense of the word a self-made and self-educated gentleman.
In his boyhood days he knew what it was to be without many of the pleasures that boys of his age possessed, as at the early age of three years he was deprived of the care and love of his mother, and at the age of eleven he sold milk on the streets of Toledo, and of his hard earnings, gave to his father to help support the other children.
He is a gentleman, as seen by this text, who has been active as well as upright and honorable during the years of his life.
He is now a licensed minister of the gospel in the Baptist church, and has been a forceful factor in the Sabbath school, (which is really the threshold of the church).
In the Sunday School convention work of his county he has been closely associated with such active workers in the Sunday school as George Lang of Carleton and F. Wm. Schafer of Ida, Monroe county.
He expects to take charge of two different Baptist societies, one located at Okomes, and the other at Haskett in Ingraham county, Michigan. Reverend Bowser is possessed of a pleasing personality, Vol. II-16
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benevolent and kind in manner and is a man who has hosts of friends, who extend to him the hand of cordiality and we are pleased to note the above, to be preserved in the history of his adopted county of Monroe, Michigan.
WILLIAM DUNBAR, of Samaria, Michigan, is one of the native born energetic, enterprising and wide-awake business men of Monroe county and is ably sustaining the prominence for worthy and true citizenship which this family name has held in Monroe county for a century. Addison E. Dunbar and William Dunbar, father and son, were both born in Bedford township of this county, the former, January 9, 1835, when Michigan was almost an unbroken wilderness, he being the oldest surviving native born resident of Bedford township, and the latter on October 27, 1858. Addison E. Dunbar married Caroline M. Osgood, who died February 19, 1910, and William is the eldest of their six children, five of whom are living.
Educated first in the district schools near his boyhood home and later in the state normal school at Ypsilanti, Michigan, William Dunbar took up the profession of teaching as his line of independent endeavor and was thus engaged for several years in Bedford township, in Erie and Whiteford townships. He taught four terms in the same build- ing in which he now conducts a mercantile business at Samaria. He has also entered prominently into the public life of his native town- ship in other ways besides as a teacher and merchant, having served for thirty years as a notary public and also having served as town- ship treasurer. Occupying a firm place in the confidence and esteem of his fellow men, he has frequently been made the deminstrator of estates, a number of which have been of considerable importance, his education, business ability and strict integrity enabling him to con- clude these responsible trusts to the satisfaction of all concerned in them. In politics he is a Democrat.
On April 16, 1879, he was happily married to Miss Minnie L. Crip- pen, of Ypsilanti, Michigan, a former student of the state normal school there and a teacher prior to her marriage, by whom he has six children, four sons and two daughters, as follows: William E., an electrician, a graduate of the Monroe high school, now assistant manager of Aurora Railway, who married Louise Pfefferle of Monroe, Michigan, and now resides at Wheaton, Illinois; Roy A., who mar- ried Miss Mina Hummel and is now employed with his father in the store; Ervin A., an electrician who is married and resides at Warren- ville, Illinois; Blanche L., now Mrs. Frederick Teal, of Toledo, Ohio; Floyd O., who married Miss Myrtie Cox of Bedford, Michigan, and re- sides at Dundee, Michigan; and Grace, who is at the parental home.
Mr. Dunbar is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He takes an active interest in the work of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is one of only five charter members of Lambertville Lodge No. 467, the only other surviving members at this date (1912) bearing this distinction being Frank G. Jackman, William H. Howenstine and P. A. Nearhood. Mr. Dunbar has filled the chairs of his local lodges, is a member of the Encampment at Lambertville, Michigan, and
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is also a member of the grand lodge of this order in Michigan. Both Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar are members of Eva Rebekah Lodge No. 299, of which Mrs. Dunbar is a past grand, and both are members of the Re- bekah Assembly of Michigan. They stand high in the regard of their community and are numbered among the prominent people of Monroe county.
JAY R. FAUNCE. Among the progressive and enterprising citizens of Summerfield township, whose activities in the agricultural field have served to advance the interests of Monroe county in no small degree, is Jay R. Faunce, who in addition to being engaged in general farming has served efficiently for the past seven years as a member of the town- ship board of supervisors. Mr. Faunce, while not a native of this county, has spent the greater part of his life here, having come to this section when five years of age. He was born September 17, 1867, in Allen county, Ohio, and is a son of Isaac and Nancy (Clark) Faunce. His mother died in Ohio in 1869, and three years later, in December, 1872, the father brought his children to Summerfield township, where he spent the remainder of his life in agricultural pursuits. He was twice married, and by his first wife had two children : Jay R. and Alvin E., the latter being a resident of Toledo, Ohio.
Jay R. Faunce accompanied his father and brother to Michigan in 1872, and was reared to the vocation of a farmer. During his youth he worked on his father's farm in the summer months, and during the winter terms attended district school No. 8, in Summerfield township, continuing to so occupy his time until he was seventeen years of age. At that time he began to give his whole time to working on the home farm, and when he was twenty-one years old, at the time of his marriage, rented the property of his father. Since that time Mr. Faunce has been engaged in general farming, and now owns a tract of ninety acres in section 2, where he breeds fine stock and raises good crops.
On November 28, 1889, Mr. Faunce was married to Miss Sophia Sa- dorf, who was born in Raisinville township, Monroe county, Michigan, December 10, 1867, and received her education in the district schools. They have one son, Floyd I., born April 8, 1894, who graduated from the district schools at the age of fourteen years, and is also a graduate of the Petersburg high school. Mr. and Mrs. Faunce are consistent members of the Christian church, in which both have been very active, Mr. Faunce being one of the elders of the church, and has served in various other official capacities both in church and Sunday school. Mr. Faunce was formerly superintendent of the latter. Fraternally he is connected with Blanchard Lodge No. 102, of the Masonic order, as well as with the Ancient Order of Gleaners, in which he has insurance. In politics he is one of the leaders of the Progressive party in his sec- tion, and was formerly a member of the Republican county central committee, and in 1905 was elected a member of the board of super- visors of Summerfield township, a position which he holds at the present time. He is always among the foremost men in the township in any enterprise tending to benefit the community in general, and in
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business, public and private life has numerous friends throughout the county.
WILLIAM A. SMITH, M. D. Every profession has its prominent men, some made such by long membership, others by their proficiency in their calling. Dr. William A. Smith is made conspicuous among the physicians and surgeons of Monroe county, Michigan, not so much by the length of time he has devoted to the calling, for he is as yet a young man, as by the eminent success he has already made of it. Dr. Smith, whose chosen field of practice is the flourishing village of Petersburg, was born near Cleveland, in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, June 8, 1877, and is a son of Albert W. and Amelia (Perkins) Smith.
The first-born of his parents' four children, William A. Smith was reared to the vocation of an agriculturist, and is principally a self- made and self-educated man, his earlier education having been limited to attendance in the district schools of Cuyahoga county, Ohio, and Monroe county, Michigan. At the age of fifteen years he began to work his way through high school, teaching the little school at Ottawa Lake and attending high school at Blissfield, Michigan, and later at Hudson, Ohio. On being graduated from that institution in 1899, he entered Cleveland Medical College, having decided even in his youth that he would follow a professional career in preference to that of an agriculturist, and was enabled to follow his medical course through to a conclusion on money he had saved while teaching school. In the spring of 1903, having secured his diploma, Dr. Smith came to Peters- burg and engaged in practice, and since that time has built up an ex- cellent professional business. At this time he is one of the directors of the Petersburg Bank, owns sixty acres of land in Summerfield town- ship, and has interested himself in various ventures of a professional and business nature. Dr. Smith is one of those men who may be said to have chosen well. Possessed of a kind, sympathetic nature, a keen sense of discrimination and a natural taste for the various branches of the medical profession, he has made a signal success, having the con- fidence and esteem of his patients and of his professional confreres. He is a close and careful student, keeping fully abreast of the various changes and advancements in his profession, being a subscriber to the leading medical journals of the day and an interested member of the various organizations which are working to further the interests of the sciences of medicine and surgery. He is a member of Hahnemann Medical Society, the State Homeopathic Society, the Northwestern Ohio Medical Society and the American Institute of Homeopathy, and at the present time is acting in the capacity of health officer of Peters- burg. In political matters he is a Republican, but has never taken a very active part in public matters, preferring to devote his attention to his rapid-growing practice. In fraternal affairs he is connected with Russell Lodge, A. F. & A. M., Mount Vernon Chapter Royal Arch Masons, and he and Mrs. Smith are members of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. They are members of the Christian church, but attended the church of the Presbyterian faith in Petersburg.
On April 14, 1903, Dr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss
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Bertha Curtis, who was born in Summit county, Ohio, and educated in the Hudson (O.) high school and Hiram College. The Doctor and his wife have two children: Curtis A., who is eight years of age; and Mae Florence, aged four years.
HENRY L. MECK, M. D. The physician occupies one of the most responsible, as well as confidential, relations in our social existence. To him are entrusted our innermost secrets, as well as the lives and wel- fare of our dearest friends. To worthily and acceptably fill such a position is one of the most difficult tasks ever imposed on man, and such a task we find is assumed by Henry L. Meck, M. D., of Petersburg, Michigan, who, though yet but a young man, is not without considerable experience in his profession. Dr. Meck was born in the village of Osce- ola, Crawford county, Ohio, March 21, 1885, and is a son of Benjamin and Mary (Mclaughlin) Meck, both of whom are residents of Craw- ford county, Dr. Meck's father being one of the leading attorneys of Bucyrus.
The oldest of his parents' children, Dr. Meck was reared at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and received his early education in the public schools of that place where he graduated from the high school in the class of 1904. Following this he entered the Ohio Northern University, at Ada, Ohio, and after graduation from that institution entered the Tri-State College, Angolia, Indiana, where he was graduated in phar- macy in 1906, with the degree of Ph. G. After this preparation he entered the Detroit College of Medicine, where he was graduated in 1910 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and thus thoroughly equipped for the practice of his profession settled in active practice in the village of Petersburg, January 1, 1911. Almost immediately Dr. Meck was recognized as a young man of much more than ordinary profess- ional ability, and the success that has rewarded his efforts has shown him to be possessed of those attributes which go to make up the leaders in the sciences of medicine and surgery. He takes a deep and active in- terest in the work of the leading medical organizations, being a valued member of the Monroe County and Michigan State Medical Societies, while his fraternal connection is with Russell Lodge No. 102, A. F. & A. M. In his political proclivities he is a Democrat, but his profess- ional duties have demanded his whole attention and he has not found time to engage actively in public matters, although he takes a good citizen's interest in anything that affects his adopted community, and is at all times ready to lend his aid and influence in behalf of measures calculated to be of benefit to Petersburg or its citizens.
Dr. Meck was married June 16, 1910, to Miss Clara Lynch, a native of Sycamore, Ohio, and a graduate of Sycamore high school and the business department of the Tri-State Normal College of Angolia, Indi- ana. Both the Doctor and his wife are highly esteemed in social cir- cles of Petersburg, where the Doctor, by his sterling integrity and gentlemanly bearing, has drawn around him many warm friends.
CLARENCE C. FILLMORE. In every large community all lines of en- deavor are likely to be represented, and all require different grades of
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ability to prosecute them properly. No line of work requires more tact, or consideration for the feelings of others, than does that con- nected with the undertaking business, for, next to the physician, he who has charge of the last sad prepartions for the burial of our dear ones, has the confidence of the family to a greater extent than any other individual. One who is eminently fitted for this profession, and whose sympathetic nature and kindness have tempered the grief in many stricken homes is Clarence C. Fillmore, funeral director and furniture dealer at Petersburg, Michigan. Mr. Fillmore is well known to the citizens of this section, as he was born in Summerfield township, Jan- uary 9, 1871, and is a son of John W. and Margaret (Doremus) Fill- more. Mr. Fillmore's father was born in Dexter township, Monroe county, August 24, 1839, and his mother in Livingston county, Septem- ber 23, 1837, and both are now deceased. They had a family of three children, of whom two are now living: Clarence C. and C. D. The latter, a farmer of Augres, Arenac county, is a graduate of Brown's Business College, Adrian, Michigan, and married Elizabeth Rose.
Clarence C. Fillmore was reared on the home farm, and received his early education in the district schools, subsequently attending the high school at Dundee, Michigan. He then engaged in agricultural pursuits for a number of years, but in 1905 opened a furniture and undertaking business in Petersburg, and after two years purchased another stock. He is the only funeral director in Petersburg, is a graduate embalmer, and carries a large stock of both furniture and undertaking supplies, having every equipment necessary for dignified and efficient funeral directing. He has been successful in his business enterprises because he possesses the qualities which bring success-good judgment, busi- ness faculty, a high sense of honor and a just appreciation of the rights of others.
On November 29, 1893, Mr. Fillmore was married to Miss Della M. Lloyd, who was born at Beaver Dam, Ohio, and educated in the schools of Michigan, whence she was brought by her parents when she was eight years old. Mr. and Mrs. Fillmore have two children: Lloyd O., born July 12, 1895; and Mary M., born June 29, 1899. The family is con- nected with the Methodist Episcopal church, Mr. Fillmore being a mem- ber of the board of trustees and superintendent of the Sunday school. Fraternally, he is connected with Blanchard Lodge No. 102, of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Odd Fellows lodge at Deerfield, Mich- igan. Politically he is a Republican, and at present is serving as town- ship treasurer of Summerfield township, a position to which he was elected in April, 1912.
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