USA > Michigan > Muskegon County > History of Muskegon County, Michigan: with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 33
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About the year 1847 Mr. Slocum made a contract with the County of Wayne to build two bridges across the river Rouge, and to receive his pay in State lands. These lands he located in the Townships of Casnovia, Moorland and Ravenna, Muskegon County. This property has become valuable, and is known as Slocum's Grove. He has built a mill there on Crockery Creek, and cleared up a farm. He also owns several other tracts of land in the county. Mr. Slo-
cum was a member of the convention which organized the Republi- can party at Jackson in 1854, under the leadership of the late lamented Senator Jacob M. Howard; and has ever since been a member of the party. In 1856 Mr. Slocum took an active in- terest in the construction of the Detroit, Monroe & Toledo Rail- road, and was a member of the first Board of Directors. In 1861, and during the war, he was an earnest supporter of the Government and Sanitary Commission, and was influential in raising men and money. He is one of the Trustees of the Saratoga Monument As- sociation of New York. In 1838 Mr. Slocum married Sophia Maria Brigham, daughter of Abraham C. Truax, Esq., founder of the vil- lage of Trenton. Three children have been born to them, two of whom survive; a son, Elliot T., is the subject of another sketch, and a daughter, Libbie T., now Mrs. J. B. Nichols, of Detroit.
HON. ELLIOTT T. SLOCUM was born at Trenton, Wayne Co., Michigan, May 15, 1839, and spent his early years farming in that vicinity. He prepared for college at the Episcopal school for boys kept by Rev. Moses Hunter, on Grosse Isle, and graduated at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., in the class of 1862. His diploma was one of the last signed by Dr. Eliphalet Nott for so many years pres- ident of that institution. He took his second degree from the Uni- versity of Michigan in 1869. Mr. Slocum represented the third senatorial district in the State Legislature, during the years 1869 and 1870, and has taken much interest in politics, especially in that of the several elections for United States senators for Michigan. Mr. Slocum is also an active business man, and has taken charge of the business in Muskegon County at Whitehall and' other places. He was one of the first directors of the Chicago & Canada Southern Railroad, having its terminus at Slocum's Junction, near where the Canada Southern Railroad crosses the Detroit River. Mr. Slocum married July 30, 1872, Charlotte Gross, 'daughter of the late Ran- some E. Wood, Esq., an old resident and wealthy capitalist of Grand Rapids. Mr. and Mrs. Slocum have made two pleasant trips to Europe, one of six months in 1872, and one of a year in 1879-80, taking in Constantinople, Athens, Rome, and other places of inter- est. Mr. Slocum now resides on West Fort Street, Detroit.
THEODORE S. WATSON, of the Mears Hotel, was born in Water- town, N. Y., in 1844, removed with his father, S. J. B. Watson to White River in 1850, where he remained until the breaking out of the civil war, when he enlisted in the 2nd Michigan Cavalry organ- ized under Col. Copeland at Grand Rapids. But this organization did not leave the State, and he went back to White River, when in the spring of 1862 he joined the 5th Michigan Cavalry, organized at Detroit. After drilling three months at Washington they were sent to Fairfax, Va,, raiding for six months against Moseby, on Aldine Upperville Turnpike. Thence to Fredericksburg, taking part in that engagement in Curtis's brigade. After passing through Gettysburg, Brandy Station (two battles), Mr. Watson was taken prisoner Oct. 10, 1863, with 500 others, when Lee advanced on the Rapidan ford. He then passed through one and a half years of prison life of great severity, so that he was a perfect skeleton when he emerged from the prison pen. He was three weeks in Libby, six weeks in a Richmond tobacco factory, then at Belle Island on James River, where he remained till April, 1864. Thence for eleven months to Camp Andersonville, where the notorious Wirz was jailer. When Stoneman raided into Georgia, he was moved to Charleston, S. C., thence to Somerston, S. C., thence to Salisbury, N. C., where he was released at Sherman's advance, when he was taken on pack horses to the sea, and thence to Camp Chase, Ohio, whence, after two months' treatment, he was removed to a Washington hospital for another month, after which, as the war was over, he was honorably discharged with the regiment, and returned to White River for one year. He then went away for two years to Watertown, N. Y.,
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thence to Brockville, Ont., where he was eleven years foreman for Bell & Booth, contractors, Grand Trunk Railroad conductor three years, and city contractor three years. In 1879 he returned to Whitehall, engaging in the hotel business, was burnt out in Mears House with heavy loss in July, 1881, but has now the new Mears Hotel, where the Forum was formerly published. Col. Watson is married and has three children.
CHARLES JOHNSON, shingle mill owner, Whitehall, was born in Sweden in 1826, and arrived in New York Aug. 11, 1853, where he worked until the following May at $5.00 a month, when he left for Chicago; but in August he arrived in White River, working for Mr. Dalton, and then for Mr. Carleton at lumbering. In 1869 he bought into a shingle mill in Whitehall, from Miller & Hageman, the firm being now Johnson & Miller, and the mill cuts 50,000 to 60,000 a day. The mill is next to Hughes, Linderman & Ames', and his residence, which is a beautiful place, is on corner of Lake and Spring Sts. He is also a farmer. He was last married in 1875, having three children by his first wife and one by the last. Mr. Johnson is emphatically a self made man. A view of his fine resi- dence and grounds with portraits of himself and wife will be found in this work.
JESSE D. PULLMAN, foreman of Staples & Covell's saw mill, was born in Onondaga Co., N. Y., March 17, 1833. He married in 1854, Hannah L. Owen, of Jefferson County, and has two children. In the following year he came west to Chicago, and there formed the acquaintance of Rev. W. M. Ferry, and engaged to take charge of the mill and store of Ferry & Co., at White River, the firm consist- ing then of the present Senator and his brother the late Noah H. Ferry. After three years service with this firm Mr. Pullman tried farming for five years in North Oceana, but in that time sunk the $8,000 he had made in milling. After various changes, the last of which was keeping grocery in Chicago, he returned in 1867 to Montague and took charge of Ferry, Dowling & Co.'s saw mill for five years; was in charge of Heald & Co.'s one year; partner of A. B. Bowen & Co. three years; and since 1875 foreman for Staples & Covell. He has been a very active and efficient public officer, having held many positions of trust; was Magistrate at White River for many years in the days when they were clothed with the powers of a Circuit Judge, when S. J. B. Watson was bailiff, with his cellar for jail. Mr. Pullman took an active part in the organization of the county, and was at first almost its only advocate in White River. At the first election of officers he was elected Judge of Probate. He has been Justice of the Peace of Whitehall Township, three years on village Board of Education, Whitehall, and two years Director of Schools; took an active part in organizing the Presbyterian church and Union Sunday-school in Montague; and in re-organizing the Congregational Church in Whitehall. Mr. Pullman is highly respected by his extensive circle of friends, and possessing a very clear head and active memory, is full of reminiscences of early days.
JOHN A. WHEELER, M. D., of Grand Rapids, was born in On- tario Co., N. Y., in 1832, and when eight years old came to Wayne Co., Mich., and in a few weeks to Washtenaw, thence to Howell, where he remained with his parents until he graduated in medicine, at Michigan University. He had the advantage of studying with his father, also a physician, and practiced with him for one year, removed to the mouth of White Lake in 1856, and in 1863 remov- ing to Whitehall, entering into dry goods business. In 1868 went into drugs in Hood's building. But his most fortunate venture was in securing extensive tracts of pine lands, chiefly on the Manistee, Pere Marquette, and Muskegon Rivers, in all about 30,000 acres, of which he still retains about 2,000 acres, valued at $50,000. He was Supervisor of Oceana for two years, and has been on School
Board. He married in 1861, Miss Elizabeth Goodwin, of Grand Rapids, and has two daughters, both born at White River; Fannie, born in 1863; Mary, in 1865. In the summer of 1881 he removed to Grand Rapids.
COL. WILLIAM WESTON, of Milwaukee, Wis., was born at Madi- son, Somerset Co., Me., March 18th, 1810, son of Deacon Benjamin Weston, one of the first settlers and the heaviest tax payer in the town. His Grandfather,-Samuel Weston, who came of English Puritan stock, moved from Massachusetts to Somerset county prior to the revolutionary war, Mrs. Weston being the first white woman to reside in the county. For several years they lived part of the time in a fortified block house on an island in the Kennebec river for protection from hostile Indians. Samuel Weston served as a vol- unteer aid to Gen. Benedict Arnold during his famous invasion of Canada, and died from exposure during the terrible march through the wilds of northern Maine. William Weston received an academic education at the Farmington (Me) Academy. Upon at- taining his majority he engaged in mercantile business at North Anson, Me. He also commenced lumbering soon after, and later built an extensive woolen factory, saw mill and flouring mill at the same place. He was for some time head selectman of the town, captain of a local artillery company, and later major and then colonel of his regiment. On Sept. 11th, 1839, he was commissioned Colonel of the Artillery Regiment, 1st brigade, 8th division, Maine militia. He was married in 1838 to Susan Church of Farmington, Maine, who died in 1842, and in 1844 he married Marianne Hopkins. The financial panic of 1857 created so much business depression in Maine that he commenced buying pine lands on White river, Michigan, in 1859, and the same year removed to Milwaukee, Wis., which has since been his home. He purchased large tracts of pine land on White, Muskegon and Manistee rivers, and commenced lumbering on White river, 1862. The same Fall he purchased the Thompson and Covell mill, then the only steam saw mill in what is now Whitehall. He continued lumbering at Whitehall until 1879. He was also President and principal owner of the Lumberman's State Bank at Whitehall. In 1879 he sold his banking interests to his oldest son I. M. Weston, who succeeded him as President of the bank, and has since devoted himself mainly to the management of his real estate interests. He has three children, I. M. Weston and B. F. Weston, lumbermen and bankers at Whitehall, and Charles E. Weston of Milwaukee, Wis., who has extensive lumber interests on the Chippewa river in Wisconsin.
ISAAC M. WESTON, of Whitehall, Michigan, was born at North Anson, Me., April 20th, 1845, and is son of Col. Wm. Weston, a prominent lumber and woolen manufacturer. In 1859 he moved with his father to Milwaukee, Wis. In 1862 was in Minnesota during the Sioux Indian war and served in the same as Lieutenant of a regiment which the state put in the field. In 1863 he entered the literary de- partment University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as member of the class of 1867. He left the University in 1865 and accepted the position of Military Store keeper at Fort Laramie, Dakota, where he remained during the Sioux Indian war of 1865. January 1866 he was trans- ferred to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he held the same position at Camp Douglas. In 1867 he came to Whitehall, Mich., where his father had extensive lumber interests and became the resident, managing partner of the firm of Wm. Weston & Son. He has since been an extensive mill man and lumber man on White Lake. An examining of the books of White River Log and Booming Co., at Montague, shows that in 1881 I. M. Weston & Co., handled more logs than any other Whitehall firm. In 1877, he added banking to lumbering business by taking the cashiership of the Lumberman's State Bank at Whitehall which he soon after reorganized as the First National Bank of which he is still President and principal owner.
Wm Weston
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HISTORY OF MUSKEGON COUNTY.
January 1st, 1881, he became an owner and cashier of the Farmers and Mechanics'Bank at Grand Rapids, Mich., and now divides his time between Whitehall and Grand Rapids. He was for many years a leading vestryman and treasurer of the Episcopal church at Whitehall. In politics he is a Democrat and has managed several county cam- paigns for his party. During the presidential contest of 1880, he was a member of the State Central Committee for the Fifth Congress- ional District which position he still holds. During the same year he was nominated at Detroit as the Democratic candidate for state treasurer, but in common with the whole ticket was defeated.
B. F. WESTON, son of the Hon. William Weston, of Milwau- kee, whose portrait adorns this work, was born in Somerset County, Maine, Dec. 1847. His education was obtained at the Lawrence University, and the Northwestern University, at Evanston, Ill. Mr. Weston is of a quiet unassuming disposition, and "pursues the noiseless tenor of his way" by scrupulously attending to his exten- sive lumber business, being largely interested in the purchase and sale of pine lands and logs, of which he owns great amounts. He has been eminently successful. Office in the National Bank build- ing, Whitehall.
HON. CHARLES C. THOMPSON was born June 4, 1831, in Beek. mantown, Clinton County, N. Y., and is the son of Shubal T. and Margaret J. Thompson. His father, a soldier of the war of 1812, afterwards 'became a Methodist minister. Mr. Thompson passed his boyhood in alternate work on the farm and at school, and final- ly devoted himself entirely to farming for a number of years. In his twentieth year he married Harriet M. Dewey, of Clinton County, N. Y. He attributes to her much of the success which has attend- ed him. Soon after his marriage he removed to Grafton, Ill, where he farmed for seven years. During this time he took charge not only of himself but of his younger brothers and sisters, who were thrown upon his care by the death of his father. In 1857 he set- tled at White Lake, Mich., and in the following year he bought a saw mill in connection with A. J. Covell at the head of the lake, where Whitehall now stands. In 1859 he purchased Mr. Covell's interest, and for two years worked the mill alone. At the end of that time he opened a general store with Mr. Covell and another gentleman as partners, which business in connection with lumber- ing was carried on for four years, when the company sold the mill and built a schooner, the Maggie Thompson, of 160 tons for ship- ping lumber. In 1867 Mr. Thompson again bought out Mr. Covell's interest, and for two years carried on business with his Chicago partner. Mr. Thompson contributes largely of his time and means for the development of Whitehall. He was a member of the first Common Council, and has been President of the village, Trustee and Supervisor. He has been for years a member of the Board of Education, and has labored zealously for the improvement of education. As a Representative in the State Legislature of 1873- 4, he earned the reputation of a faithful, earnest and conscientious legislator. In 1854 he was actively engaged in organizing the first lodge of Good Templars in Grafton, Ill. He has been a member of the Masonic Fraternity since 1866. He is liberal in his religious views; in politics, a Republican. He is frank and open hearted, and is noted for his power of sarcasm and quickness of repartee, and for industry and uncommon tenacity of purpose. He is now Postmaster of the village, an office he has held since Hayes' admin- istration. His wife died in September, 1867, leaving one child, Margaret, the first white child born in Whitehall, who was married to Major Geo. Green, now of Duluth, June, 1881. Mr. Thompson has had six children, but one of whom, the daughter above men- tioned, has survived. In all that concerns the development of White Lake and the county Mr. Thompson has ever been promi- nent and ready to devote his time and means, and he has been of
no small service to the community in all that concerns the publio welfare.
DAVID J. FOSTER, late retired merchant, of Whitehall, was born in Union Village. Conn., in 1805, being the son of a hotel keeper. When young he left home and established at Petersham, Mass., a button factory, store and hotel, besides running the largest freight an i stage business from Worcester to Brattleboro west with the Hon. G. Twitchell, late President of the Boston & Albany R. R., as his chief whip. In 1842 all his property was burnt, and he was left with but $25,000, with which he established at Boston a busi- ness in importing tailors' trimmings. In the crisis of 1857 he failed and paid 50 cents on the dollar, but in two years had paid in full interest and principal. In 1863 he retired from business, having previously visited White River and bought of the Rogers' estate 3,000 acres of pine land in 1859. In 1864 his second son, Alfred J., came to Whitehall and in connection with his father in 1867 es- tablished a large mercantile business, with branch stores at Hespe- ria, and at Denver up the river. In 1866 he erected at a cost of $8,000 that wooden block known as the Foster block and consumed in 1881. Mr. Foster spent portions of his time in the east as half his estates were there. He was a man of enterprise, ready to sec- ond anything for the good of Whitehall. . He built thirteen dwel- lings, besides improving numerous lots. Naturally of a vigorous, energetic temperament, he was at last carried off July 23, 1881, by ossification of the heart in presence of all his family. Married Miss Charlotte Fowle, of Boston. Children: Lottie F., George E., (manager of a large insurance company); Lucinia (Mrs. Tripp, of Boston); Albert J., Julia A., (Mrs. C. R. Howard). Mrs. Foster is still vigorous at 76 years of age.
ARTHUR CARLETON, of Nufer & Carleton's shingle mill, was born in St. Clair County, Mich., in 1843, and when eight years of age his father, the Hon. I. E. Carleton, moved to White River, and took up a mill two miles north of the trading post. At sixteen young Arthur entered his father's mill, and has been five years in connection with Mr. Nufer in tallying and six years in the shingle mill. He married Miss Caroline Moore, of Wisconsin, and has a family of three children. Was a member of the village board of Whitehall in 1881.
W. F. NUFER, shingle mill owner, Whitehall, was born in Franklin County, O., in 1848. His mother having died when he was three years old, he was bound out to a farmer, but in the fall of 1865 we find him piling lumber in -Muskegon, and arriving in Whitehall June 17, 1866, where he was lumber inspector for eleven years. He then went into the shingle business with Covell, Nufer & Co., and three years after built a mill on the old Parks site further west with Arthur Carleton with a capacity of 150,000 a day. Mar- ried Miss Ellen M. McGread, of Lockport, Ill., and has a family of five children. Has been a member of the village board and of the school board, and assistant chief the fire department. Mr. Nufer came to Whitehall with nothing but an invincible determination to succeed and has acquired quite a competency.
HON. GEORGE MORTIMER SMITH, late of Whitehall, was born March 16, 1841, at Springfield, Otsego County, N. Y., and received his education at the common schools and at Alfred University, Al- leghany County, N. Y. He learned telegraphy and was first em- ployed on the Atlantic & Great Western Railway, at Salamanca, N. Y., and was promoted to be first superintendent of telegraphs and train despatches on the same road. He subsequently occupied a similar position on the Blossburg, Corning & Tioga Railway. In 1867 he entered as bookkeeper the Hornellsville Lumber Co., at Whitehall. A few years later he purchased an interest in the com- pany, and directly afterward became a member of the new firm, which bought out the old partnership of J. Alley & Co. He took
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an interest in the advancement of Whitehall and served one term as its President. In the fall of 1876 he was Representative in the Michigan Legislature, and acted as chairman of the Committee on State Prisons, and as a member of the Committee on Railroads. He was a member of the societies of Odd Fellows and Masons, being a member of the Painted Post Lodge, at Corning; of the DeMolai Commandery, at Hornellsville; and of the Corning Consistory of Scottish Rites, and was a conservative Republican in politics. In 1856 he married Miss Rhoda F. Alley, who survives him with four children: Anna, born at Hornell sville July 27, 1868; William A., April 17, 1870; George M. Jr., May 6, 1875; and James A., in Feb. 6, 1879. Mrs. Smith is daughter of James Alley, Esq., of Hornellsville, N. Y., who has been for many years prominently identified with the Republican party of western New York. Mr. Smith died on Sunday, Feb. 6, 1880 in Michigan City, where he had been taken for treatment, and was buried in Whitehall amid a numerous concourse of mourning friends by the Knight Templars and other Free Masons, and the Knights of Honor.
A. C. ELSWORTH, lawyer, was born in Geauga Co., O., in 1842; educated at Hiram College, when the late President Garfield was president of that institution; commenced the study of law at Lowell, Mich .; admitted to the bar at Ravenna, Ohio, in April, 1868, and came the same year to Whitehall to assume the duties of High School Principal, which he satisfactorily discharged for three years. In 1871 he opened an office for the practice of law in which he has been engaged ever since, having established an extensive and lucra- tive business. He held the position on the school board for six years; of village attorney for over five years, and has been Superin- tendent of Schools for Whitehall Township from 1877 to 1880. Married Miss Lucia Bisbee, of Ohio, and has three children. Mr. Elsworth is a prominent and useful citizen, and his influence is al- ways exerted for the good of the community. His portrait will be found in this work.
JAMES ALLEY, of Hornellsville, N. Y., of the firm of J. Alley & Co., Whitehall, was born in Cayuga Co., N. Y., in 1810. Although brought up on a farm he turned his attention to mercantile life, and also to lumbering; came to this county in 1867, and erected the mill known as the New York Mill, in connection with an associa. tion called the Hornellsville Lumber Co., but after various transfers it was bought by Mr. Alley, Charles Alley, his only son, and the Hon. G. M. Smith, who married his only daughter, Rhoda F. Mr. A. is still hale and vigorous, and has always taken a deep interest in the cause of the Union, being still a prominent Republican pol- itician of New York State.
CHARLES ALLEY, son of the Hon. James Alley, a prominent Republican of Hornellsville, N. Y., was born in Howard, Steuben Co., N. Y., in 1839. At ten years of age he removed to Hornells- ville, where he was educated at the High School, and at Alfred Uni- versity, N. Y. When of age he became associated with his father in business and came to Whitehall in May, 1871, and has since built up an enviable business. He married Miss Betsy S. Daven- port, of Hornellsville, and has three children. Mr. Alley is a hard worker, and his success may be attributed to this trait of character.
H. D. JOHNSTON, insurance agent, Whitehall and Montague, was born at Milford, Maine, July 13, 1852. At three. years of age re- moved with his parents to Ingersoll, Ontario, where he received his education in the Public and High Schools. When but fourteen years of age he started out on a pleasure trip and was gone seven years, securing a position with the Ætna Insurance Co., at Cincin- nati, O., and after leaving there became special agent and adjuster for a leading company in Canada. In 1877 he came to Whitehall, where he has by his ability, industry and integrity built up a very lu- crative business, representing the largest single agency in Michigan
in fire, life, marine and accident. His well equipped office and ele- gant furnished rooms in connection were consumed in the great fire of 1881, but the promptness and skill with which he adjusted the numerous losses on that occasion, brought him such an accession of business that his private loss was more than made up. Mr. John- ston does the lion's share of the insurance business, and deserves in every way his success. He is an active Free Mason, and makes a useful Secretary to No. 310. His genial and kindly disposition enables him to make the whole community his friends, while all must respect him as a prompt and capable business man.
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