USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan > Part 60
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" Colonel Jacob L. Greene, the chief marshal, served with honor and distinction in the field, and was brevetted for 'distinguished gal- lantry at the battle of Trevellyan Station, and for meritorions and faithful services during the war.' He was born at Waterford, Maine, August 9, 1837. The races in both lines of descent represented in him have been distin- guished through many generations for enter- prise and courage, for physical vigor, for intel- lectual force and for positive conviction and strong religious views.
" On the paternal side, his great-grandfather, Lieutenant Thomas Greene, was a pioncer set- tler of the town of Waterford, moving from Row- ley in Massachusetts with his whole family of eight children at a time when the region was a wilderness, with no opening or roads, and no paths to guide the traveler but the Indian trail.
" He had been an officer in the French and Indian war of 1755, and in the army of the Revolution. History relates of him that he was famous for his courage and enthusiasm in battle; and tradition has it that he once led his regiment to victory after its commander bad fled. Colonel Greene's father. Captain Jacob H. Greene, was a man of staunch character, and maintained a decidedly and constantly relig- ious life, punetiliously attending publie worship
on the Sabbath, with his whole family, unde terred and undaunted by the heat of summer or the cold of winter, and unprevented by the dis- tance to be traveled, or the badness of the roads. On the maternal side Colonel Greene's great- grandfather was General Joseph Frye, who was the original grantee and the pioneer settler of the beautiful town of Fryeburg, on the Saco River. It was from him that the town received its name. General Frye belonged to a family many of whom were distinguished. He was born in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1711, was justice of the peace, representative in the gen- eral court, and otherwise useful in the affairs of his native town. He served in the French and Indian war, and was at the siege of Louis- burgh. He was colonel of a Massachusetts regiment at the unfortunate capture of Fort William Henry, on Lake George, by Montcalm, in 1757. He was a major-general in the Revo- lutionary War, and served for a time with the troops at Cambridge, under General Wash - ington. He died at Fryeburg at an advanced age.
" Colonel Greene's mother was born in Frye- burg in the house built built by her great ancestor. She was a lady of most affable char- acter, winning and graceful in manner, and thoroughly intelligent, loving children and loved by them, and particularly devoted to the welfare and advancement of her own. The place of Colonel Greene's birth must have been distant at least five miles from any village or church, and hardly less than a mile from the nearest district school house. But it was in the midst of natural scenery as grand and as in- spiring as any that New England can boast, even in her most favored localities. At an early age he showed a strong disposition for study, and sought every opportunity within his reach for intellectual attainment. The Michigan University at that time opened its doors without cost, so far as tuition was con- cerned, and the young student turned his steps thitherward. There he completed his course of studies, and engaged in the practice of law at Monroe, Michigan, where he married Miss Nettie Humphrey, the daughter of General Levi S. Humphrey. Hardly had he begun his profession when the war broke out. The blood of a noble ancestry burned within him, impell- ing the consecration of himself to the Union cause. He enlisted as a private in the Seventh
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INEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY,
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Michigan Infantry in June, 1861, and was soon afterward made a commissioned officer. His regiment was ordered to the School of Instruc- tion at Fort Wayne, where it was filled up, and in August was sent to the front. Colonel Greene served until the spring of 1862, advanc- ing to the first lientenancy of his company. In 1862 he suffered a long and exhaustive ill- ness, prostrating him for an entire year. Ile recovered, however, during the summer of 1863. and returned to the field, serving for two months as a volunteer aid on General Custer's staff. Meanwhile he was appointed a captain in the Sixth Michigan Cavalry, but did not join the command. He accepted an appoint. ment as assistant adjutant-general on Custer's staff, and served with him until the battle of Trevellyan Station, where he was captured, June 11, 1864. He was in Libby, Macon and Charleston prisons. While at Charleston he was one of the Union officers placed under the Union fire by the rebel authorities. He was afterward removed to Columbia, where he was paroled and transferred to the Union lines. He was not able, however, to secure an ex- change until April 8, 1865. In the meantime he was at Annapolis, Maryland, mustering paroled prisoners. Immediately after his cx- change, he returned to the front, joining Gen- eral Custer at Burksville Junction, April 10. After the grand review of the Army of the Potomac at Washington, General Custer was ordered to New Orleans. Colonel Greene ac- companied him, and went with him up the Red River to Alexandria, where a division of cav- alry was organized. Thence Custer advanced into Texas, having been made commander of the Central Division of Texas, and of the cav- alry in the department, with headquarters at Austin. Colonel Greene was made chief of staff in both commands; meanwhile he had been promoted to the full rank of major, and was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for distin- guished gallantry. When Custer was mustered out as a major-general of volunteers, Colonel Greene applied for his muster out, and finally received it in April, 1866, one year after the close of the war. He spent the next four years at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where his brother, Dr. William Warren Greene, resided. At Pitts- field Colonel Greene became assistant secretary of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company. He began his insurance career as an agent of the
company named, but his executive ability soon manifesting itself he was asked to take a posi- tion on the office staff. That he was born to be a leader in life insurance, as well as in the army, subsequent events show. He visited England and studied its history and progress that he might know what to copy and what to avoid. He was called to Hartford June 1, 1870, as assistant secretary of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company. He was made secre- tary in April, 1871, and president of the com- pany in March, 1878, succeeding the late. Presi- dent Goodwin. He is at the head of one of the largest insurance organizations in the United States, and has made his way to that high and honorable position by ability and industry alone. He is a man of superior intellectual qualities, and one of the ablest business man - agers in New England. Colonel Greene was the orator of the day at the Grant memorial observances in Hartford, and his address was on all sides pronounced a splendid example of eloquence and power."
In life insurance circles Colonel Greene now occupies a conspienous and unique position. He is known to be well equipped by nature, education and experience to fulfill the duties of his high office, well poised, studious and ener- getic, and naturally his course and his opinions are closely observed by life underwriters. His annual addresses to the members of his com- pany find many readers in the ranks of other companies. They are comprehensive reviews of the whole field of life underwriting, and the conclusions drawn by their author from the statistics and facts which they contain are not apt to be challenged.
Throughout his entire business career Colo- nel Greene has been upright and conscientious. He is popular with the company's agents, and he is proud to have their confidence and es- teem. A general agent remarked, "I have known Colonel Greene for many years, and I am acquainted with no one else who has so many qualities that deserve admiration."
As a citizen Colonel Greene's influence is always on the side of what is best. The great- est good for the greatest number is an expres- sion that aptly defines his course of action in all the walks of life. Everything that will en- able the human family to live happier and better finds in him a strong champion. His name is not only on the roll of many useful
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societies: he is an active worker. He is a vestryman of Trinity church, a trustee of the Bishop's Fund, a leading member of the Church Temperance Society - a society, by the way, which was organized on novel principles, and whose existence has been productive of the best results in a field of endeavor where discourage- ment is usually the only end - he is a director of the Connectiont Trust and Safe Deposit Company, occupies a similar position in the Society for Savings, which tries to inculcate habits of thrift by extending its good offices to the poorest of the city's inhabitants; he is a frequent and popular speaker at meetings of religious and scholastic bodies, and he is warmly esteemed by Hartford's young men, for he is a defender of all rational amusements that lead to greater physical and mental strength. He is also a director of the Hart- ford Fire Insurance Company and of the Phoenix National Bank. In all his relations to society, as a business man, as a financier, in religion and education, there is one charac- teristic that always stands out conspicuously in Colonel Greene - he is eminently practical.
As already noted, Colonel Greene's position in American life insurance has few, if any, parallels. That his whole life has been one of honor will be admitted by every student of character. In life insurance, as in everything else where his talents have been given an opportunity to expand, he has proved himself a leader whom it has always been safe to follow.
JAMES S. GORMAN,
Senator from the Fourth District, Washtenaw and Monroe counties, was born at Lyndon. Washtenaw county, on the farm on which he now resides, December 28, 1850, and has been a resident of Michigan all his life. IIe was educated in the union school of Chelsea, grad- uated from the law department of the Uni- versity in 1876, and immediately began the practice of law in the city of Jackson with James A. Parkinson. Was assistant prosecut- ing attorney for two years under Mr. Parkin- son. He removed to Dexter in the fall of 1879. In the spring of 1880 he was elected justice of the peace. and in the fall was elected to the House of Representatives by his fellow Demo-
crats. In the House of 1881-2 he rose to the front rank of his colleagues as an orator and debater, and was recognized as one of its leaders. His unswerving devotion to duty, his thorough understanding of every important measure, his close observation of every act, coupled with a keen and brilliant ability, placed him in an envied position which honest men admired and his colleagues respected. Mr. Gorman was the author of the famous " Frog bill," the veto of which by Governor Jerome did so much to elect Begole. He championed the famous "Brule River Railroad " bill, the " Howell Compilations," and the Kochville bill. He left public life at the carnest solicitation of his aged parents, owing to the failing health of his father, and now manages his own large farm of two hundred and eighty acres. In 1885 he was elected on the Democratic ticket to the State Senate, and was re-elected to the Senate of 1889-90 by a vote of 9,323 to 7,957 for C. Cornwall, Republican, and 745 for J. Schumacker, Prohibitionist.
SAMUEL P. JACKSON,
Representative from the First District of Mon- roe county, has always been a Democrat and thinks he has good reason for that faith. He was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire, in 1817. His father moved to the adjoining town of Manchester in 1819. From that time to 1845 he had the advantages of farm life educa- tion, aided by the common schools, the New Hampshire Patriot, and the New York Tribune, each representative of the political parties of the olden time. In that year he commenced mercantile life in the city of Manchester, from which he retired in 1874. He has served on the school board in that city, and was twice elected to the legislature of his native State, and to the constitutional convention in 1876. In 1883, after a residence of sixty years in one town. he removed to Monroe, and with his sons engaged in the manufacture of paper, and has contributed somewhat to the success of the Monroe Manufacturing Company. He was elected to the House of 1889-90 on the Demo- cratic ticket, by a vote of 1,911 to 1,629 for Josiah IIall, Republican, and 102 for Joel H. Hoyt, Prohibitionist.
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MUNSELL & CON.Y.
William Dunbar
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CHARLES ANGERER,
Representative from the second district of Monroe county, was born in the township of La Salle, Monroe county, Michigan, September 26, 1843. His early life was spent on a farm with his parents and his only education was that obtained in a German Lutheran school in Raisinville, about five miles west of Monroe. He left home in 1865, and for several years traveled through various States of the Union, stopping at Cleveland, Ohio, St. Louis, Missouri, New Orleans, Louisiana, Houston, Texas, Adrian and Hudson, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio, learning the trade of carpenter, bridge builder and architect. While at Houston, Texas, he learned the trade of bridge building of A. B. Brown, and in 1869 entered the em- ploy of the Smith Bridge Company, of Toledo, as their superintending foreman, in which ca- pacity he resided at Monroe City from 1869 to 1875, engaged in the building of railroad and highway bridges. April 1, 1869, he married Mary, daughter of Conrad and Elizabeth (Zch) Reinhard, who has a promising family of four boys and three girls: Charles F., born January 31, 1870; Mary, born May 26, 1872; Herrman, born December 4, 1874; Rosa, born May 12, 1877; Elizabeth, born January 9, 1880; John William, born November 22, 1882, and Henry, born December 31, 1885. In 1875 he removed from Monroe City and setttled in Exeter township, on section twenty-eight of town five south, of range eight east, clearing off a farm and engaging in the manufacture of lumber and charcoal and opening a general store in the village of Scofield. Mr. Angerer cast his first vote in 1868, and has ever since voted with and been an active Republican. He was elected justice of the peace in 1884 and again in 1888. His popularity is shown by his election to the House of Representatives of 1889-90, to which he was elected in a strong Democratic district by a vote of 1,937 to 1,869 for his opponent on the Democratic ticket. Mr. Angerer has from his youth up been a member of the Lutheran church, in which for many years he has been one of the board of trustees. September 4, 1889, he was initiated in Monroe Lodge, No. 27, Free and Accepted Masons.
WILLIAM DUNBAR
Was for nearly forty years a resident of Mon- roe county, respected by all as an honorable,
upright and just man, and the business mat- ters of his neighbors were frequently entrusted to his care. He was born in West Stockbridge. Berkshire county, Massachusetts, February 22, 1807, and September 13, 1831, was united in marriage to Merey A., daughter of Edward A. and Polly (MeLouth) Aldrich, at Church- ville, Monroe county. New York ; she was born in Cheshire, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, October 11, 1808. During the following year (1832) he took up his residence in Monroe county, locating in Bedford, of which town- ship at its organization in 1836 he was elected supervisor, which office he held for several years, also serving as clerk for a long time.
His only living child is Addison E., born January 9, 1835. Out of a family of four boys and three girls, but one boy (Addison E.) lived more than five months.
In 1855 he moved to Monroe, where for sev- eral years he was elected clerk and justice of the peace, and for four years served as sheriff of Monroe county. He represented in the State Legislature the first district of Monroe county for two terms (1857 and 1859). During his long and varied career as a public officer the conduct of Mr. Dunbar was such as to win the respect and confidence of political oppo- nents as well as partisan friends.
Discharging all his official duties honestly and faithfully he showed to a marked degree the family trait of personally overseeing any duty for the performance of which he was held responsible. To the latter trait may be attributed his death, as during his term as county sheriff some prisoners escaped, and he pursued them in the dead of winter to the Saginaw valley, contracting a cold, to which no attention being paid it soon developed into that dreaded disease, consumption, from which he died August 27, 1870, regretted by all his friends and associates as an honorable man and citizen, and as a kind neighbor, husband and father. His wife survived him nearly twenty years, dying February 4, 1889. While not a member of any church, yet Mr. Dunbar was a Godfearing man, who sought to follow the in- junction to deal justly and walk uprightly. That he was a believer in the Scriptures may be inferred from the fact that as far back as 1850 it was his daily practice to read a portion of the Bible unless prevented by circunstances beyond his control. In 1858 he connected
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himself with the Masonic order, being raised in Monroe Lodge, No. 27, of which body he was treasurer for many years, and at the time of his death he was the custodian of the funds.
ADDISON EDWIN DUNBAR
Was born in the township of Bedford Jannary 9, 1835, his parents being William and Mercy A. (Aldrich) Dunbar, who settled in Bedford in the year 1832. Mr. Dunbar is the second of a family of seven children, four boys and three girls, all of whom, with the exception of him- self, have gone to that better land. His early life, until his seventeenth year, was spent on his father's farm, a few months in the winter being given to schooling ; but looking forward to something more congenial to his tastes, and desiring a thorough education as a base for future greatness, at that age he matriculated in the Michigan Central College at Spring Arbor, making his own way by hard work during vacation and out of hours. Failing health compelled him to leave before complet- ing the full course, and he began the study of surveying with a view of making it his life work. For two years he was employed by the Government, under Thomas Whelpley, in the survey of Michigan, settling disputed bonnd- aries at the Soo, and at the early age of twenty- two was elected county surveyor, which office he held for two terms, after which he returned to farming.
A Democrat from birth, by the social qual- ities inherited from the Scotch ancestry on his father's side, and gennine mother Irish wit and good humor of his mother's ancestors, he has so endeared himself to his fellow-citizens that, without solicitation or effort on bis part, he has been almost constantly in public office since his majority, being elected justice of the peace several times, superintendent of the poor six years, school inspector fourteen years, town- ship drain commissioner one year, township clerk for twenty-four years, twelve in Bedford and the same length of time in Monroe, and in 1884 and 1886 was elected on the Democratic ticket as representative from the first district of Monroe county by a vote of 1,617 out of a total vote of 2.795 in 1886 and 1.829 votes out of 3,403 in 1884. In the fall of 18SS he was elected judge of the probate court of Monroe
county, and resigned the office of township clerk. In all his official career he has so conducted the affairs of his office as to win the confidence and esteem, not only of his partisan friends, but of all with whom he has been brought in contact.
Deeming it not wise for man to live alone he was married in Bedford March 31, 185S, the bride being Caroline, daughter of The- ophilus and Roxa (Brightman) Osgood, whose children are: William, born November 7, 1858, now living in Bedford. of which township he has been treasurer for several years; Addis Emmit, born October 27, 1859, and at present bookkeeper in the bank of B. Dansard & Sons ; Charles, born August 21, 1861, and died De- cember 24, 1863 ; Mercy Blanch, born Septem- ber 4, 1864, and a clerk in the probate office ; Grace Atilda, born December 29, 1865, and Edwin Morris, born January 24, 1870, the last three living at home on the farm, about a mile south of Monroe.
Mr. Dunbar for many years has been a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, at present being treasurer of the lodge, chapter and commandery. He was made a Mason in Russell Lodge, No. 144, at Lambertville, in which he was Senior Deacon for two years and Secretary until he removed to Monroc, when he demitted and affiliated with Monroe Lodge, No. 27, in which he held every office except that of Master and Tyler. In 1873 he joined River Raisin Chapter, No. 22, R A. M., and Monroe Commandery, No. 19, Knights Templar, in the former of which he has been Secretary for five years and King for two, be- sides filling other subordinate offices; in the latter he has been Recorder and Warden.
In his entire life he has shown the family trait of personally seeing to everything com- mitted to his charge, and not leaving it to sub- ordinates, and the faithfulness with which he has attended to his work is shown by the oft repeated times his fellow-citizens have given the verdict " Well done, thou good and faith- ·fil servant," by again placing the office in his hands. In addition to his official duties he has for many years followed the business of administrator and executor of estates. A healthy life has been interrupted but once, when the close confinement in taking care of his father during his last illness compelled him to drop work and take a knapsack journey
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through Florida, his weight being reduced from 176 to 125 pounds. His return in 1871 showed him as well as ever, and he now tips the beam at over 200, and no matter how busy he always has time for a pleasant word with his friends, and his enemies are so few that they are not worth mentioning, as they well know that Mercy can always be found in the probate office.
GEORGE ROBINSON HURD
Was born in Monroe January 2, 1832, his parents being Munson and Agnes L. (Thomp- son) Hurd. His father was a farmer, and, after the War of 1812, in which he served as a pri- vate soldier in a Vermont regiment, of which State he was a native, settled in Orange county, New York, from where he migrated to Monroe county in 1831. His mother was a native of Ireland and a member of the Irish Presbyte- rian church. The former was born September 1, 1791, and died March 23, 1855 ; the latter was born August 15, 1795, died January 26, 1886. Of his five brothers all have paid the debt of nature with the exception of the second, Horatio B. Morgan S. Hurd went to Califor- nia in 1852 and engaged in mining until 1866, when he entered the employ of the Central and Southern Pacific Railroad, with whom he was connected in the capacity of claim adjuster until his death, which occurred in 1889.
In his early days Mr. Hurd had only the meager advantages of the common district school in which to prepare himself for the battle of life; that he made the most of what little chance he had is evinced by his present position in the community in which he lives. Like his brothers and father he followed the business of farming, for many years living on a farm in Frenchtown, about four miles north of Monroc, . until in 1871 he moved to the city. He mar- ried Rosetta, the daughter of William R. and Betsey (Palmer) Nowlen, who was born Octo- ber 29, 1835, and became Mrs. Hurd October 15, 1855, in Monroe, and is the mother of eight children, five boys and three girls, of whom three boys and one girl are living : John A., born February 7, 1859; Delia B., born Octo- ber 23, 1865; Barton W., born October 30, 1868, and William Munson, born December 11, 1875.
During the War of the Rebellion, while Mr.
Hurd did not go to the front as a soldier, he probably did his country equally as good ser- vice as a member of the enlistment committee in the township of Frenchtown, taking an active part in seeing that the quota of his town- ship was always filled withont resorting to a draft ; for two years he was treasurer of the committee paying the bounties to volunteers, and as the money was all raised by subscrip- tion, and he had most of the work to see to, the office was anything but that of a sinecure, and practically for the most of that time he at- tended to the work to the neglect of his own business.
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