USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan > Part 76
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NAZARTH PAQUETTE
Was born on the ocean on the 1st day of March, 1824, and was reared at Chamblae,
Canada East. His father and mother, An- thony and Mary Death Paquette, were born in - Paris, France. At the age of fourteen he en- listed in the " Patriot War," and served for two months. In the spring of 1838 he left Canada and moved to Detroit, Michigan. In 1844 he moved to Monroe City and worked at the sad- dler's trade.
In 1846 he married Miss Harriet J. Hope, who died on the 12th day of April, 1849. Was married again to Miss Helen Michaw, and a third time to Miss Sophia Noble in 1887. In 1864 he enlisted in the Seventeenth Michigan Volunteer Infantry as a private. May 13, 1864, was detailed to the first division of the field hospital as assistant surgeon.
He began the practice of medicine in the year 1859, and since the close of the war he has been actively engaged in the practice of medicine at Petersburgh, Monroe county, where he still resides and practices medicine.
DR. JOSEPH L. VALADE
Was born at East Dover, Canada West, and now resides in Berlin township. His father, Louis, was born in Spain in 1769; his mother, Jane, in Detroit in 1782. His father was a sergeant under General Brock at the battle of River Raisin ; was crippled for life, and died when Joseph L. was eighteen years of age. He taught a French school four years, mean- while studying medicine. He passed an exam- ination before the general council, and came to Detroit and entered the office of Professor Zina Pitcher, and attended medical lectures at the university at Ann Arbor.
He settled in Monroe county in 1852, where he still resides. He has filled the office of school inspector, notary public, justice of the peace, and was a member of the State legisla- ture in the year 1877. He was appointed by the State Medical Society, at a session held at Lansing in 1878, one of the committee on or- ganization.
He was married November 14, 1858, to Mary A. Cousino, danghter of Francis and Margaret Cousino, both of whom were born in Monroe county. Dr. Joseph L. Valade and Mary had four children : J. Jerome, Leon G., Clara E., Joseph L., the latter a physician of Newport, Monroe county, Michigan.
ASTU LLY K ILEEN FOUS.
Cim Bookest fully
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THE MEDICAL, PROFESSION.
JOHN WARNER MASON
Was born in Orleans county, New York, Janu- ary 6, 1829; he came to Monroe county in 1854; when the war broke out he joined the Sixth Michigan Regiment November 2, 1861, serving as assistant surgeon. On December 23, 1864, he was promoted to the office of surgeon. Dr. Mason served in the Gulf department, and was discharged with his regiment September 20, 1865.
Dr. Mason was married in Ann Arbor to Sarah Matilda Walker, November 11, 1852. Their children are: Edward Walker Mason, born August 30, 1853, resides in Chicago; Charley Lee, born June 17, 1856, died Octo- ber 29, 1866; Ada Matilda, born February 24, 1866. Dr. J. W. Mason is enjoying as a physi- cian and surgeon in Dundee, Michigan, a very extensive and lucrative practice.
GEORGE W. JACKSON.
The subject of this sketch was born on the Holland Purchase, in the State of New York, September 21, 1836; was the oldest son of a family of eleven children. His father and mother were both natives of the State of New York. In September, 1846, they removed from Perry, State of New York, and accom- panied by their son George W., then ten years of age, settled in Dundee, Michigan, then nearly an unbroken wilderness. He endured all the privations and hardships that fall to the lot of a farmer's son on new and heavily timbered land. He attended school at the old red school house on the banks of the River Raisin, "Aunt Milly " Parker being the preceptress. He attended school three months in the year, working nine months in the twelve.
After attaining his majority he taught the distriet school in Raisinville at the Bruckner school house in the winter of 1857. Martha L. Andrews, at the public exercises, captured the first prize, and subsequently captured the teacher, and married Dr. George W. Jackson September 22, 1859. He continued teaching school most of the time until September, 1863, devoting his leisure time to the study of medi- cine, when he entered the medical depart- ment of the Michigan University.
He left the University and entered as a pri- vate in Company E of Eighteenth Michigan
Infantry, accompanied by three of the family, to assist in suppressing the Rebellion -four brave and efficient soldiers of the war. Mr. G. W. J. was stationed at Decatur, Alabama ; partici. pated in the defense of Decatur against General Hood's rebel forces October 26, 27 and 28, under the command of Colonel Doolittle. Mr. Jackson was one of the number sent out under Captain William C. Moore to dislodge a body of rebel sharpshooters that occupied a line of rifle pits near one of the Union forts. The movement was successfully executed under a galling fire, capturing one hundred and fifteen prisoners. December 19, 1864, was detached to act as surgeon by order of J. M. Evans, surgeon of Eighteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. Dr. Jackson received an honorable discharge May 26, 1865.
He returned to Dundee, and formed in Sep- tember of same year a copartnership with George D. Munger, druggist. In November, 1865, attended medical lectures at the State University ; also during the years 1866 and 1867, and received his diploma as Doctor of Medicine with the class of 1867. He then engaged in active practice in Dundee - an active and remunerative practice - until 1874, when from injuries received in the army his health failed, and he sought Colorado and Cali- fornia to regain it. He returned to Dundee in 1880 and engaged again in drugs and medi- eines. In 1869 erected a two-story drug store, the first story being occupied as a drug store, and second story by the Thomas lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, of which the Doctor is a member; is a member also of Simon Post Chapter, of the Monroe Commandery, and of the William Bell Post at Dundee, and now sur- geon of said post.
Mr. and Mrs. Jackson had two children : Cassie, born October 25, 1872, and James, who died of consumption April 19, 1889.
DR. TRACY SOUTHWORTH
Was born in the State of New York, July 16, 1798 ; was married in 1824 to Ruth M. Easton. In 1836 moved from Elmira, New York, to Monroe county, and settled on a farm in Erie township where he resided a number of years, having an extensive practice in the southern part of the county. He formed a copartner-
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
ship with Dr. George Landon and moved to Monroe. Died September 17, 1843, from result of a fall from a barn; was the father of Dr. Charles T. Southworth, sr., and grandfather of Charles T. South worth, jr., of Monroe, Michigan.
DR. K. GONSOLUS
Was born in Fredericksburg, Province of On- tario, May 3, 1850; attended the Napann Academy, graduated at the University of Kingston, Ontario, also the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons ; attended lectures at Bellevue, New York, in 1874, Paris and Berlin in 1876 and 1877 ; practiced in Petersburgh, Monroe county, Michigan, six years ; married in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Annie E. Hard- ing, October 9, 1878; has a daughter aged seven, and son two years. Removed to Dundee April 1, 1883, and has had an extensive prac- tice up to the present time.
DR. JAMES C. WOOD
Was born January 11, 1858, in Wood county, Ohio. Parents : Father, Major H. L. Wood, a native of New York State, but who came west at an early date, and was a large contractor and the first superintendent of the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad. After locating in Wood county, Ohio, he was honored with many prominent public positions. His mother, Jane C. Kunkle, of sturdy German stock, was a native of Pennsylvania. She, too, moved to Ohio with her parents at an early date.
James C. Wood attended district school until fifteen years of age, working on the farm sum- mers. At fifteen he attended one year the high school at Waterville, Ohio. He then took a three months' course at a business col- lege in Delaware, Ohio, and later spent three months at a normal college, Fostoria, Ohio. The following winter he taught a district school near Fostoria, Ohio, intending to pur- sue his literary studies the succeeding year. Breaking down in health he moved, in the spring of 1876, with his father to Monroe county, Michigan, on what is known as the Franklin Moses farm, six miles up the river from Monroe. His father kept this farm but six months, and in the spring of 1877 they moved to Monroe, where he entered the office
of Dr. A. I. Sawyer for the purpose of studying medicine, a long cherished wish.
In the fall of 1877 he entered the homco- pathic department of the University of Michi- . gan, graduating with honor and winning the only prize, a set of surgical instruments, ever given by the department, for the best examina- tions in surgery. He returned to the Ohio Wesleyan University the following fall with a view of completing his literary course, where he was ranked as a junior, having prosecuted his literary studies during his medical course. He was offered an instructorship in physiology in that institution, but accepted a proffered assistantship in the University of Michigan instead.
In the summer of 1880 he formed a partner- ship with his old preceptor, Dr. Sawyer, and remained with him for five years. His associ- ation with Dr. Sawyer developed a taste for surgery which he has ever since cultivated. In the spring of 1885 he was tendered the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women and children in the homeopathic department of the Uni- versity of Michigan, which he has very accept- ably filled ever since. At the time of appoint- ment he was the youngest full professor in the university.
December 28, 1881, he married Julia K. Bulkley, daughter of G. Bulkley, Monroe, and has two children, James L. and Edna B.
DR. EPHRAIM ADAMS
Was born at Bellows Falls, State of Vermont, Windham county, March 16th, in the year 1800. He died in the year 1874, on the 6th day of May, at Monroe City, Michigan.
Mr. Adams was of Puritan stock; his ances- tors came over on the Mayflower in the year 1620. He lost his parents in early youth, his father dying when he was three years of age, his mother when he was six years of age. His mother was left in straitened circumstances with five children, of whom the subject of this sketch was next to the youngest, the late James Q. Adams, lawyer and the sec- ond mayor of Monroe City, Michigan, being an older brother of his.
Mr. Adams, soon after the death of his mother, was bound out to a farmer, with the understanding that he should receive a colle-
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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
giate education, which he did. He was re- ceived at the Hanover Medical College, State of New Hampshire, as a student in the year 1819. He graduated from Dartmouth College, December 19, 1822. In November of the fol- lowing year Mr. Adams came west and mar- ried Mary Paddock, of Watertown, State of New York. By this lady he had eleven chil- dren, cight sons and three daughters; of these five sons and two daughters survive him.
In the year 1824 he came to Monroe and set- tled on the River Raisin, at the time when the Indian and the pioncer French held undis- puted sway, and were about the only people that resided upon the River Raisin. Mr. Adams, after his marriage, entered at once upon the practice of medicine and surgery. He seems to have struggled against poverty and ill fortune for some time. It was about this time that he was prosecuted for disinter- ring a dead body, which resulted in an honor- able acquittal.
Mr. Adams held several honorable public offices in the early history of our county. In the year 1827 he took his seat as judge of the county or district court, with Hon. James J. Godfroy as associate judge, and Hon. Ricley Ingersoll, justice. At the close of his term as judge Mr. Adams devoted his time to the practice of his profession, and at the time of his death (1874) he was one of the oldest practitioners of our county. In his profes- sional duties he seemed to care more for profes- sional success than he did for the emoluments arising therefrom. He gave just as much of his time and attention, when called to the
homes of the poor, without pay, as he did in the homes of the more wealthy, for pay.
He had the respect in a marked degree of the medical fraternity of our county, and it is a fact that the medical profession in our county at that time was second to none in this State ; that it stands high, and includes among its numbers some of the most able and accom- plished gentlemen and skilful surgeons in our State, among whom I may mention the names of Dr. A. I. Sawyer and Edward Dorsch, the latter now deceased.
In party affiliation Mr. Adams was a Demo- crat ; in religion a Catholic, and was generally found on the right side, and when the homeopathic school of medicine were trying to get their rights in the State University, he was one of the first to espouse their cause. Of his virtues, charity was the most prominent of all ; at his death the poor lost a sympathizing friend, and his remains were followed to the grave by a large number of the common people. T. D. A.
Doctor Adams more nearly filled up Pope's estimate of an honest man in the following lines, viz .: " An honest man is the noblest work of God," than almost any other man I have ever met. Besides being honest he was one of the purest, most unprejudiced and un- selfish of men.
And the poor of this county will never cease to mourn for him, and they never should, as he never waited for fair weather or moneyed re- muneration when called by them.
A CONTEMPORARY OF THE SAME PROFESSION.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE BAR OF MONROE.
COLONEL IRA R. GROSVENOR.
A WELL-KNIT and vigorous frame, an active step, an erect carriage, a keen yet kindly eye, bright and undimmed, a mind alert and ready to welcome and understand every ad- vance in literature, science or art, a cordial grasp and a cheerful greeting to every one- that is Colonel Grosvenor. The casual observer would venture to guess that he was some- thing over fifty years of age, yet it is given to few to see the changes which his eyes have seen. Over every State and Territory of our land extend thousands of miles of railroad ; yet he was a boy of fifteen when George Stephenson built his famous "Rocket" and made railroads possible. He was ten years old when the Stockton and Darlington line, the first railway to use steam power in the trans- portation of freight, was inaugurated. He had passed nearly the average span of human life, being thirty years of age, when that mes- sage " What hath God wrought!" sped on the wings of the lightning from Washington to Baltimore and the electric telegraph was born. Two years ago the rich and prosperous dominion of Michigan celebrated the semi- centennial anniversary of her entry into the sisterhood of States, yet he had attained his majority while the grand Commonwealth was still a Territory, for over that good gray head have passed more than the three score and ten years scripturally allotted to man.
The ancestors of Colonel Grosvenor came from England to America among the first set- tlers of the valley of the Connecticut. One of the early and sturdy representatives of the race was General Israel Putnam, the unique but distinguished figure of the Revolutionary war. The family settled at and near Pomfret, Connecticut, whence after the Revolution, the Reverend Daniel Grosvenor, a Congregational minister and a cousin of General Putnam, re- moved to the township of Paxton, Worcester
county, Massachusetts, then a wilderness but sparsely settled. There he established his home, following his sacred calling. To bim were born numerous sons and daughters. Of these Ebenezer Oliver was born and grew to manhood in the new home. He married Mary Ann Livermore, a daughter of Bradyll Liver- more, a patriot soldier of more than local re- nown. From this union sprang ten children, eight of whom reached years of maturity and filled well their parts in the drama of life, and four of whom, two brothers and two sisters, still survive. The oldest child of Ebenezer O. and Mary A. Grosvenor, Ira Rufus Grosvenor, was born at Paxton, Worcester county, Massa- chusetts, a few miles northwest of the present city of Worcester, on Saturday, March 18th, 1815. The father, who had adopted the pro- fession of teaching as his life work, remained at and near Paxton for nearly ten years after the birth of his eldest son. Then, moved, by that western spirit which has made our land what it is to-day, leaving his family in Massa- chusetts till he could build them a home in a " newer and a better country," he went to the State of New York. For a brief time he taught at Saratoga, but was soon drawn to Schenectady, then the " Athens of New York," the home of the famous Union College. Then, as now, a class of young men were sent to col- leges whose aim seemed to be almost anything but getting an education ; sons of wealthy parents, who deemed that money paid for all transgressions, and incorrigibles of whose re. straint at home their parents despaired. Col- lege faculties were long suffering and patient, but frequently infractions of regulations were so glaring that they could not be overlooked, and the last disciplinary resort, expulsion, was inflicted. Now all the expelled student has to do is to pack up his belongings and seek a more complaisant college, but in those days the doors of every college in the land were
[448]
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY.
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
449
THE BAR OF MONROE.
closed against an expelled student. Hence expulsion meant the cessation of a college career. Many of the expelled students, how- ever, were sincerely desirous of obtaining an education, and, when the ebullition of animal spirts had passed away, bitterly regretted their condition. With a view to affording to such an opportunity of obtaining an education, as well as of opening a school where students might prepare for college, Dr. Yates of Union, in com- pany with Ebenezer Grosvenor, founded at C'hit- tenango, Madison county, New York, "Yates Polytechnic " for the higher education, with which was also connected a preparatory acade- my. Hither Grosvenor removed his family, teaching in the academy and the Polytechnic. The oldest son was abont ten years of age when this removal was made, and for the ensuing six years was a student at the institutions in which his father was teacher. At the age of sixteen, being nearly prepared to enter college, he be- gan assisting his father. There were several brothers and sisters by this time, and the pro- fession of teaching did not open the way to munificent pecuniary results. There was a steady pressure upon what Malthus calls the " line of subsistence," and poverty had been a close friend of young Grosvenor in his attempts to gain an education. Naturally of an indom- itable spirit, he chafed at and resented some of the humiliations of his position, and determined to become a bread-winner as well as a bread- cater. For three years he earnestly did what- ever his hands could find to do. At the expira- tion of that time, having become an expert ac- countant, he managed to secure a position as clerk upon a small steamer plying upon Lake Ontario and starting from Charlotte. One of the owners of this boat was Dan. B. Miller, then recently appointed to the charge of the United States land office at Monroe, Michigan. Miller became interested in young Grosvenor, and told him the boat was no place for him, that he ought to go west, and wound up by offering him a position as clerk in the land office if he would go to Monroe. Grosvenor accepted the offer, accompanied the boat to destination, bal- anced and closed his books, settled with the proprietors and turned his face westward, to the city which was for more than half a century to be his home.
By the primitive means of transportation of that early day, partly by stage coach and partly
by canal, he journeyed to Buffalo and there took steamer for Monroe. It was a summer afternoon of the year 1835 that he landed on the dock at La Plaisance Bay, three miles from Monroe. Eastward lay the lake, northward an impenetrable marsh, southward a forest, and westward a plank causeway over the waters of the bay connected with a road stretch- ing away into the distance. When he landed on the dock his earthly possessions consisted of his little baggage and a solitary two-dollar bill. Some other passengers destined for Monroe landed at the same time. No houses were visi- ble, the village was three miles away, and there was some grumbling that there were no means of transportation at hand. Young Grosvenor, gathering up his belongings, started on foot to the town. Trudging along the turnpike he reached the foot of Scott street along which he passed to the corner of First, thence to Wash- ington, and then north to the tavern, the " Mansion House," kept by Leander Sackett, where Dansard's bank now stands. Here he gave notice of the arrival of the boat and of the fact that there were some passengers desiring transportation, and a vehicle was speedily sent for them.
It would be difficult for an inhabitant of our fair city of to-day to imagine the scene which was spread out before young Grosvenor as he looked about him that waning summer after- noon. The hotel, a two-story frame building, fronted the river, a long porch stretching on its north side. On the river bank and across the road was a saw-mill, with logs along the stream. West of that was a two-story brick building, the lower story occupied by Dan. B. Miller as a general store, the upper by the United States land office. West of this was another brick building, in which Thomas G. Cole (later superintendent of the Michigan Southern Railway) kept store; then a small building occupied by Dr. Samuel S. Parker; then the office and drug store of Dr. Conant, a two-story frame building on the site of S. M. Sackett's present store. Between this and the corner of Monroe street were a few small build- ings, the ephemeral structures of a new village, between which the steep river bank was visible. On the corner of Monroe street stood a two- story frame building, then used as a store, and which shortly afterward and for many years was occupied by the late Benjamin Dan-
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
sard. West of this corner were but a few strag. gling residences along the United States turn- pike. South and east from the hotel were a few buildings, chiefly used for mercantile pur- poses. Where now stands the store of L. Fried- enberg & Son was a dwelling, noteworthy as having in the cellar a flowing spring. This building was occupied by William L. Riggs, a justice of the peace, who dabbled in jurispru. dence in a small, one-story office, just south of his residence. From this office southward to the public square there were no buildings, but on the western side of the public square and north of First street was a one story house, the residence of Colonel Wood and his family. Across First street, and in what is now the square fronting the Presbyterian church, stood the county court house and jail, a plain, frame two story building painted yellow. The upper story was used as a court house, the lower as a jail, and to further add to the security of the latter the building was surrounded by a high stockade, made of good sized round timbers, sharpened and driven into the ground, with the tops fastened together. A few log and frame houses, principally the former, were scattered about in various directions. Such were young Grosvenor's surroundings, as accompanied by a flaring tallow dip he climbed the stairs of Sackett's hotel, and passed his first night in ex- actly- the same spot which half a century later his own well-appointed law office was to occupy. It were little wonder if, as the silent night came down and he thought of father and mother, brothers and sisters gathered around the hearth at the distant home he had left, the boy's pillow was wet with not unmanly tears. He had been born on a Saturday, and realizing the truth of the old rhyme that "Saturday's child works hard for his living," bright and early the next morning he arose and prepared for labor. Eating his breakfast, he repaired to the office to interview that august functionary, the clerk. Though lacking the diamond pin which is the badge of his fraternity at this day, the elerk of half a century ago had some traits in common with his later-born brother. Like Alexander Selkirk, he was "monarch of all he surveyed," and like the Ancient Mariner, he had the faculty of " fixing the guest with his glittering eye." It was with some trepidation, though with a determination to " start right," that Grosvenor confided to this dignitary the
fact that he had come to Monroe to work in the land office, and desired to make some arrange- ments about board. He was informed that his bill was already two dollars, and the solitary note which graced his slender purse was passed over to the frigid clerk. Grosvenor's opinion of the West was rapidly acquiring a basis of solid fact. Reporting at the land office he was set at work. Learning from another clerk that Colonel Wood kept boarders and that he (the clerk) boarded there, though owing to lim- ited room the Colonel could not furnish sleep- ing accommodations, Grosvenor made arrange- ments to board at Wood's, sleeping upon a cot in a room adjoining the land office, and entered upon his residence in Monroe.
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