USA > Michigan > Montcalm County > History of Montcalm County, Michigan its people, industries and institutions...with biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families Volume I > Part 46
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12. 1907, as the result of illness caused from exposure at the inauguration of Governor, now Justice, Hughes of the United States Supreme Court, his successor.
The lumber days of Stanton and Montcalm county produced numerous men who made good in a large way. Few of these men are living today and fewer still made this city their permanent home after prosperity had smiled upon them in a large way. Generally they sought new fields where they might continue in the same business or where the variety of commercial opportunities was wider than Stanton had to offer after the lumber was gone. Among these men, residents at one time of Stanton or the immediate vicinity were Edwin K. Wood, John M. Weatherwax. Giles Gilbert, Nelson M. and William F. Turner, Oscar Fenn, Daniel M. Gardner, Lorenzo Corey, George F. Case and James W. Willett.
JOIN MARTIN WEATHERWAX.
Jchn Martin Weatherwax was born in Peru, Clinton county, New York, February 14, 1827. the son of Jacob and Amice ( Ketchum) Weatherwax. His parents moved to Michigan, when he was a mere lad and settled near Adrian. When he was twenty-two years old, he accompanied a cousin to Washtenaw county and there met Doctor Post with whom he read medicine for the next three years. After finishing his medical education, he began the practice in Lenawee county but was taken sick at the end of two years and returned home. He never returned to the practice of medicine but engaged in the lumber business at Grand Rapids with his brother. After working for a time in the construction of a railroad, he bought an interest in his brother's business. The business was somewhat crippled by the depression of 1858-59.
At the breaking out of the Civil War, John M. Weatherwax was com- missioned a second lieutenant in the Second Michigan Cavalry under Capt. R. A. Alger and served three years and three months.
After the war, Captain Weatherwax, as he was familiarly known, invested heavily in pine lands in Michigan. In 1874. he built a large mill in Evergreen, Montcalm county, but in the meantime operated a store at Lowell in Kent county. Later, he sold the Lowell store. Captain Weather- wax continued to operate the mill on Fish creek, in Evergreen township, until 1885 when he went to Gray's Harbor, Washington, built a mill and bought large hollings in real estate in the village of Aberdeen. Captain Weatherwax was a wealthy man when he left Stanton but his mill venture in
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the west was not very successful. His real estate holdings, however, made up for other losses. He was married in 1864 to Mattie E. Keys, of Grand Rapids, by whom four children, three sons and a daughter, were born. Mrs. Weatherwax died in September, 1892, and her husband some years later in Stanton. Both are buried in Grand Rapids.
NELSON M. TURNER.
Nelson M. Turner, an early merchant and lumberman, of Stanton, was born at Winfield. New York, December 10, 1817, and died on May 17, 1874. ITis father had served as a member of the New York state constitutional convention and was a machinist by trade. The family settled in North Fair- field, Ohio, in 1838. and the father died there in 1850. In 1852, the family moved to Hillsdale county, Michigan, where with his brother, William, he engaged in the lumber business. Later, they manufactured furniture at Mason, in Ingham county, for four years, and in 1868, Nelson M. Turner moved to Stanton. Here he became the senior member of the firm of Turner Brothers, pine land and saw-mill owners; member of the firm of Kent & Turner, furniture manufacturers; Turner Brothers, shingle mer- chants. and the builder and half owner of the Turner-Vinecore block.
On the day of Mr. Turner's burial, business in Stanton was suspended and the town gave token of its mourning for one of its most beloved and valuable citizens. "In his death," read an obituary notice at the time, "Stanton has lost one of its best and most influential citizens ; a man of great energy and perseverance. he has added greatly to the material wealth of the village, and, in generosity, has liberally contributed to every moral and Christian enterprise."
Nelson M. Turner was a director and a promoter of the railroad from Icnia to Stanton. He was married on January 15, 1838, to Harriett N. Sutton and by her had six children.
WILLIAM F. TURNER.
William F. Turner, a younger brother of Nelson M. Turner, was also prominent in the early history of Stanton as a merchant and manufacturer. He was born at Homer, Courtland county, New York, December 10, 1824. William F. Turner came to Stanton in 1866 and for many years operated a shingle mill, first in partnership with his brother and after the brother's death, alone. Mr. Turner served as supervisor of Sidney township, a por-
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tion of Stanton, nine years and during seven of the nine years was chairman of the board. He also served two terms as a member of the school board and as postmaster in Hillsdale county before coming to Montcalm.
On February 14. 1849, William F. Turner was married to Salome Tuttle, who was drowned at Clear Lake, Indiana, July 4, 1859. In November, 1861, he was married to Adelaide E. Campbell. Mr. Turner was a Mason, Whig, Free Soiler and Republican. He died on September 2, 1904.
GILES GILBERT.
Giles Gilbert, another well-known lumberman of Stanton a generation ago, was born in Wyoming county, New York, September 7, 1840, the youngest of eight children born to Hiram and Maria Gilbert. Young Gil- bert's parents were poor but he was permitted to attend the Genesce Confer- ence Seminary and after leaving school worked on the farm until the Civil War broke out when he enlisted in the Seventeenth Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry. Ile was discharged after the battle of Chancellorsville in 1863 and came to Stanton, Michigan, investing his savings with E. K. Wood in the mercantile business.
This business soon embraced extensive lumbering increasing steadily until 1874 when Mr. Gilbert established a mill at Derby lake, in Sidney town- ship. Subsequently, he bought the interest of Mr. Wood and operated until about 1882 when he went to Mecosta, a small village in Mecosta county and engaged in lumber operations with A. W. Wright and others. After the timber was cut out, he moved to Duluth, Minnesota, where he became inter- ested in iron ore lands with Orrin T. Higgins, the father of the late Gov. Frank Wayland Higgins, of New York. Until three or four years ago when his death occurred he was heavily interested at Duluth. In the meantime, he had invested in Oregon lands, of which his sons, Wells and Frank Gilbert, had charge. Mr. Gilbert was possessed of a vast fortune at the time of his death. In April, 1868, Mr. Gilbert was married to Frances Smith, to whom there were three children born. The daughter, now married, lives at the old home in Duluth.
OSCAR FENN.
Oscar Fenn, once a well-known farmer and lumberman of Stanton, was born in Medina county, Ohio, June 25, 1836, the son of Daniel D. and Ada- line (Gardner) Fenn. Fenn lived on a farm in Ohio until 1866 when he removed to Stanton and engaged in the dry goods and grocery trade as a
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clerk for D. M. Gardner. After six months, he was taken into the business as a partner and so continued until 1872 when he sold his interest and formed a co-partnership with E. D. Finch for the real-estate business. In the fall of 1872, he was elected register of deeds and re-elected in 1874, holding the office two terms. In 1874, he abandoned the real-estate business and engaged in the manufacture of shingles.
In addition to the office of register of deeds, Mr. Fenn was also town- ship treasurer three years, president of the village, member of the board of village trustees, member of the school board and Republican county chair- man in 1876. He was judge of probate of the county at the time of his death.
Oscar Fenn was married on March 13. 1861, to Salina F. Wilson, who died on March 10. 1872, leaving two children. Mr. Fenn was married, secondly November 6, 1873, to Kate C. Wallace, of Birmingham, Michigan. The Fenn family, including Mr. Fenn, were active in the Congregational church.
GEORGE F. CASE.
George F. Case, who operated a shingle mill in Montcalm county for many years, and who resided for a time at Stanton, was born near St. Albans, Franklin county, Vermont, January 20, 1830, the son of Truman and Melinda (Freeman ) Case. In 1846, he removed with the Case family to Jackson. Michigan, and four years later was married to Mary E. Freeman. Afterward, he engaged in the lumber business at Greenville, but in 1863 removed to Stanton.
Mr. Case was a delegate from Montcalm county to the constitutional convention of 1867 and served altogether twelve years as a member of the board of supervisors. He also held the offices of justice of the peace and road commissioner. Case was a well-known temperance worker in his. day, a Mason, Odd Fellow, Baptist and Republican.
DANIEL M. GARDNER.
Daniel M. Gardner, old-time merchant and lumber manufacturer of Stanton was a native of Skaneateles, New York, January 19, 1835. After the death of his father in 1835. Mr. Gardner lived with a brother near Skaneateles until twenty years old, starting to Michigan in 1856. He remained at Cascade, near Grand Rapids, for ten years. In 1866, he settled at Stanton, then a small settlement in the pine forests. At Stanton, he built
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a store where he carried on a general mercantile trade and a little later estab- lished a large mill six miles from Stanton. Mr. Gardner was chosen post- master and continued in the office for about twenty-five years. As a matter of fact, Stanton had had only three postmasters before Mr. Gardner. The office was filled by Levi Camburn from March 10, 1862, to December 20, 1864, when Captain J. P. Beers was appointed. George A. Smith was appointed on October 25, 1866, and Daniel M. Gardner, July 15, 1867. Mr. Gardner contributed liberally to the construction of the railroad from Stanton to Ionia.
On October 1, 1867, Mr. Gardner was married to Polly Gardner, the daughter of a prominent farmer of Medina, Ohio. They had three chil- dren. Mr. Gardner was a Republican in politics.
LORENZO COREY.
Lorenzo Corey, who came to Stanton in 1875 as a common laborer, enjoyed a unique and almost unequalled success in the history of the lumber industry in the vicinity of Stanton. He began the lumber business with little or no capital but with the co-operation of local manufacturers was soon heavily engaged. Subsequently, he became interested in the firm of Herd- man, Harland & Company, of Zanesville, Ohio, and he was given an interest in the firm. He was accustomed to pay above the conservative prices for lumber, land and shingles but dealt on a rising market and thus became very wealthy. After operating at Stanton until the lumber industry ceased to be profitable, he went to New Decatur, Alabama, and there lost considerable money in townsite speculations. Upon returning to Michigan, he settled at Detroit where he lost more money in the "River Rouge" enterprise. Still later he removed to Toledo, Ohio.
MONTGOMERY A. REYNOLDS.
Montgomery A. Reynolds, now secretary of the National Millers' Association, with headquarters in Chicago, was one of the early merchants of Stanton. Mr. Reynolds was a native of Ulster county, New York, where he was born on October 29, 1850, and was of German and English parent- age. He was reared on the farm and obtained only a common-school educa- tion. After working as an apprentice to a stonecutter for two years, he came west to Stanton in 1869 and was employed in the general store of the
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venerable H. II. Hinds, now living in Stanton and of whom extended men- tion is made elsewhere in this work.
When Mr. Reynolds had completed four years in the service of Mr. Hinds, he invested his savings in the drug and grocery business and for two years was a member of the firm of Reynolds & Hawley. He then sold out and in August, 1876, joined Turner Brothers in building the first grist-mill in Stanton. Subsequently, he purchased the Turner interests in the business and operated the mill himself.
During his residence at Stanton, Montgomery A. Reynolds served as township treasurer and village treasurer. He belonged to the Knights of Honor and was assistant dictator of the order. Politically, he was identified with the Republican party. Mr. Reynolds married Emma S. Turner, daugh- ter of Nelson M. Turner.
CLARENCE W. CHAPIN.
Clarence W. Chapin, one of the early bankers of Stanton, deserves notice in any history of the Montcalm county seat. Mr. Chapin was born in Livingston county, New York, January 23, 1842, and when two years old removed with his parents to the wild timber lands of Ingham county, Michigan. He was reared amidst pioneer surroundings, but when eighteen accepted a position as clerk in the mercantile store of S. W. Webber, of Lyons, where he remained seven years. At the end of seven years, Mr. Webber engaged in the banking business and Chapin remained with him two years longer.
Having spent three years in Oregon for the benefit of his health, Mr. Chapin returned to Michigan in 1873 and with P. R. Howe started a bank at Stanton. After six months, Mr. Howe sold his interests to Oscar Webber and for a time the institution was owned and managed under the firm name of Webber & Chapin. During this period, Mr. Webber resided at Ionia and Mr. Chapin had sole charge of the bank.
Clarence W. Chapin was a Democrat but never active. He was not a, member of any church, though in sympathy with church work. On August 31, 1874. he was married to Alice E. Bennett, the daughter of Horace Ben- nett of Greenville. Mr. Chapin died in Ypsilanti.
JACOB WEATHERWAX.
Jacob Weatherwax, a brother of John M. Weatherwax, came from Georgetown to Stanton and for a number of years was an insurance agent in
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Stanton. He emigrated to the West and was buried at Aberdeen, Wash- ington. Jacob Weatherwax entered the army on October 3, 1863, at George- town, as sergeant of Company M, Tenth Cavalry, and was promoted to second lieutenant, January 22, 1864.
E. D. HAWLEY.
E. D. Hawley, one of the early merchants of Stanton, engaged in the mercantile business of what is now the hotel corner in the spring of 1874 under the firm name of Reynolds & Hawley, the other member of the firm being Montgomery A. Reynolds. Mr. Hawley soon bought out Mr. Rey- nolds and ran the business alone for a time. He then took William B. Pratt into the business as a partner and later bought out Pratt's interest and formed a partnership with William H. Owen. Subsequently, Mr. Hawley bought out Mr. Owen and formed a stock company known as the E. D. Hawley Company. Hawley then purchased the real estate where are now located the store of Smith Brothers and the Cummins' drug store and until his death occupied the building on this site erected by John M. Weatherwax. After Hawley's death on August 14, 1903, a part of the business was sold to Smith Brothers and the remainder to E. B. Swift, who, in turn, sold it to Mr. Cummins, the present owner.
JAMES W. WILLETT.
James W. Willett was born in the city of Auburn, New York, March 13, 1839. At the age of seventeen he came to Michigan, locating in the town of North Plains, Tonia county. He learned the trade of carpenter and joiner, which he followed for several years. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War, he enlisted in Berdan's Sharpshooters, and went to the front. He remained in the service until 1864. when he returned to North Plains and engaged in farming.
In 1872, in company with his brother, Mr. Willett engaged in the manu- facture of sash, doors and blinds in the village of Muir. ITere he suffered the loss of his property by fire. In 1876 he removed to Stanton, where he engaged in the manufacture and sale of lumber. In 1864 he was married to Mary Annette, daughter of the Hon. G. W. Germain, a pioneer of North Plains. To this union were born six children.
During his residence in Stanton Mr. Willett identified himself with its growth and development. In 1894 he was chosen mayor of the city. In
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1904 Mr. Willett removed to Ontonagon county where he engaged in lum- bering. His death occurred on October 17, 1906.
THOMAS NICHOLS STEVENS.
Capt. Thomas Nichols Stevens, son of David Stevens ( 1795-1878) and Nancy Nichols Stevens ( 1799-1848), was born at Varysburg, New York, May 6, 1835. In 1852, a motherless lad of seventeen, he went to Wisconsin, where he lived at Oconomowoc, Columbus, Stevens Point, and New Lisbon. On January 31, 1857, he was married to Caroline E. Silsbee, of Columbus, Wisconsin. She was the daughter of Thomas Silsbee ( 1807-1864) and Jane Howard Silsbee ( 1810-1885).
From Oconomowoc Mr. Stevens went as captain of Company C, Twenty-eighth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry to Milwaukee to be mustered in for service in the War of the Rebellion and served until the close of the war in 1865.
Early in 1866 Captain Stevens removed with his family to Greenville, Michigan, to engage in the abstract business with E. H. Jones, who was his lifelong friend, and business partner for many years. In 1879, he made Starton his home, being register of deeds from 1879 to 1888 and managing in addition his abstract business until his retirement from actual business in 1906, after forty years of active business; selling the abstracts to his son- in-law, Delos A. Towle.
In politics Captain Stevens was a Republican, and in 1880 was a dele- gate from the seventh district to the Republican national convention in Chicago. He was a member of the Congregational church of which he was treasurer at the time of his death; a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. of the Army of the Tennessee, of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and was president of his regimental association, the Twenty-eighth Wisconsin.
llis death came on January 19, 1908, at his home in Stanton, and the burial was in the family lot in Greenville. He had five children: Howard S., died in 1858; Mrs. Lu E. Towle, of Stanton; Mrs. Mary F. Barnes, of Belding; Carolyn N., died in 1901; Mrs. Bertha Walker, of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
EDWIN K. WOOD.
Edwin K. Wood, one of the most successful lumber dealers who ever lived in Montcalm county and who is now living in California, was born in
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Wyoming county, New York, in 1840. His early life was spent on a farm, from which work he was called by Father Abraham, enlisting in May, 1861, as a private soldier in Company K, Seventeenth Regiment, New York Volun- tec: Infantry. He served until the regiment was discharged in 1863. Com- ing to Michigan in 1865 in company with Giles Gilbert, they built several mills on the state road running north and south through Stanton. They invested some of their earnings in pine lands in the vicinity of Stanton and these lands became very profitable. They also operated a store in Stanton under the firm name of Wood & Gilbert. When Gilbert sold out to Wood, Mr. Wood retained the store and carried a line of drugs, groceries and pro- visions. Later he bought large tracts of timber land between Stanton and the present village of McBride and operated a shingle mill. His large mill was located at a place called at the time Wood's Mills until 1883 and during this period he amassed a fortune of approximately a quarter of a million dollars. Mr. Wood sold the land, comprising eight hundred acres, to S. Perry Youngs in 1883 and then engaged in business at Gray's Harbor, Washington and San Francisco, California, with S. E. Slade, under the firm name of the S. E. Slade Lumber Company. Wood remained at Stanton a few years and then removed to California. In the meantime, he had oper- ated rather extensively at Town Line lake, in Cato township. After he had sold out at Stanton, he lived for a short time on a large farm near McBride. He also owned another in Douglass township. Mr. Wood now lives at Oak- land, California. He has been immensely successful in the West, adding many mills and lumber yards to his holdings. He owns an interest in a fleet of vessels and gets the maximum profit from his operations. Edwin K. Wood is a man of sterling qualities and respected for his well-known habits of fair and honest dealing and his generous heart. Having bought out S. E. Slade, Mr. Wood's business has been carried on for many years under the firm name of the E. K. Wood Lumber Company.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
CITY OF GREENVILLE.
The history of Greenville, the first city in Montcalm county, first in origin, first in population, first in manufacture and first in wealth, dates from the landing, in 1844, of John Green, its first settler and founder, whose name it has always borne during the three score years and ten of its exist- ence; not a long time in the life of a community, but sufficient to carry into the great beyond the rugged pioneers who blazed the trail and laid the founda- tions of the beautiful little metropolis of Montcalm.
Michigan had been admitted into the Union seven years when John Green left his home in Fulton county, New York, and, with his face turned to the westward, journeyed to the then wilds of Michigan, traveling by canal and railroad as far as Jackson, Michigan, down the Grand river by boat and thence by wagon to Otisco, Ionia county, and in June, together with others, entered upon the government lands on section 9 in the town- ship of Eureka, which now constitutes a part of the city of Greenville, and upon which he erected the first house in which he and his family resided.
While John Green was the first settler and the founder of Greenville, he was not the first purchaser of land within the boundaries of the present city. Five years previous to his coming, Charles S. D. Harroun purchased from the United States seventy-one and fifteen hundredths acres embracing that part of the city where the Pere Marquette depot now stands and bordering on Flat river. Mr. Harroun came to Michigan from Franklin county, New York, in 1836, via Buffalo and Detroit, and thence to Portland and Lyons, Ionia county, and later to the vicinity of Greenville, being directly and intimately associated with the early history of Greenville, where he was a familiar and respected figure until his death, in 1915, at the ripe old age of ninety-three, in full possession of his faculties up to the time of his death, a flattering commentary on the virtue and ruggedness of the pioneer character. A year or so preceding his death, he gave a most interesting and graphic review of the early history and conditions in Greenville. It was in the form of an interview with Mrs. O. W. Green, which was so ably edited and reported by Mrs. Green at a meeting of the Pioneer Society in 1914, that a
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quotation therefrom at this time will not only preserve this authentic report but be of much historical interest to the present generation. When he arrived in Detroit it was but a small village. ITis journey from Detroit is interesting and in decided and strange contrast with the methods of trans- portation that are open to, and enjoyed by, the people now coming and going from Greenville with its two lines of railroad and its state reward roads in every direction.
The roads leading ont of Detroit were so rough and muddy that at the end of the first day's journey he and the settlers coming out with him could still obtain a pretty distinct view of the city of Detroit behind them. He says of these roads that they were sure enough railroads, only that the rails were laid crosswise, instead of lengthwise, and that it took rails and the united efforts of these carly settlers to pry the wagons out of the mud for miles after Detroit had long disappeared from view. He came first to Port- land, soon afterward going to Lyons, where he learned the carpenter's trade, working at it for some time, and doing different kinds of work as it came to him to do. He worked at one time for a Mr. Baldwin, who was destined afterward to give his name to Baldwin lake. in this city. While in the vicinity of Lyons he fell a victim to that dread malady, ague, and as a result this young pioneer was not only real sick, but, for the first time since leaving his home in New York, homesick. In 1838 he came up to what was then known as the Fiat River district, but now known as Otisco. If he had listened to the advice of one Mr. Jenks he would not have come to the Flat River district. for this early pioneer argued that according to his notion "Flat river must run through a flat country and a flat country meant fever and ague; wherefore that a man going there would be laid flat on his back and would have to be fetched home in the end," and I am very certain that the early comers who settled on Flat river recognized the perfect soundness of this logic.
After Mr. Harroun's earlier experience with the public highways of Michigan, when he reached the Flat River district, or, as we know it now, Otisco township, there were no roads in evidence-nothing but the ancient highways, long before worn smooth and firm by the feet of the innumerable Indians who had passed over them long before the palefaces came; and right here I wish to turn aside for a little and speak of these trails, quoting from an article written sometime since on these highways by E. H. Jones, a pioneer citizen of this city, now living in Denver, Colorado.
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