USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests Volume II > Part 24
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Mr. Halsey attended the district school and later enjoyed the ad- vantages of the high school, and being naturally inclined toward a busi- ness career, he secured a training for the same in the business college at Saginaw. He then went to Pontiac and entered the office of Hon. Thomas L. Patterson, probate judge at that time, where he was employed for a year, and he was subsequently in the auditor's office of the Oxford & Northern Railroad, his connection therewith covering a space of three years. Ensuing upon this he became bookkeeper and salesman for the H. B. Seagrave Hardware Company, of Pontiac, with which he con- tinued for two years and his next connection was with the C. V. Taylor Buggy Company, in whose offices he was bookkeeper. He then be- came purchasing agent for the above and acted as such for four years, at the end of which time he accepted a position with the Pontiac Spring & Wagon Works as sales manager. He remained with this concern for eight years and when it sold to the Carter Car Company, Mr. Halsey remained with the firm for another year. His next connection was with the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company, for which he acted as sales- man for a year, then going with the Pontiac Commercial Association, of which he was subsequently elected secretary. He is enterprising in his views, of splendid executive capacity and business training and has ever proved a definite acquisition to any concern.
Mr. Halsey has been twice married. On March 2, 1898, he was united with Josephine D. North, whose death occurred May 29, 1900. On August 30, 1905, Miss Florence M. Owen, daughter of William R. and Anna M. Owen, became his wife. The present Mrs. Halsey is one of a family of three children, a brother, Roland, residing in Detroit, and A. Belle being the wife of A. B. Stanton, of Detroit. Mr. and Mrs. Halsey share their attractive home with a small daughter, Elizabeth A., born June 15, 1907. The parents of Mr. Halsey's first wife were Albert G. and Harriet (Draper) North, both natives of Michigan and resi- dents of Pontiac. Mr. North is a retired capitalist and owns a great deal of valuable property in this city. Josephine D. was their only child.
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Mr. Halsey is a member of the Knights of Pythias, of the Benevo- lent & Protective Order of Elks and of the Foresters of America. He and his wife are communicants of the Episcopal church. As a citizen he is interested in the success of good government, participates in the bouts of the Democratic party and aids in the promotion of business and social harmony by a straightforward course as a citizen.
LUTHER D. ALLEN. Closely identified with the agricultural interests of Oakland county, Luther D. Allen is successfully pursuing his pleasant and independent occupation in section 16, Bloomfield township, it being the homestead on which his birth occurred, December 16, 1867.
The late Joseph Allen, his father, was of English birth and breed- ing. Brought up in a state of comparative poverty, he began as a boy to work for neighboring farmers, earning, however, but little beside his board. At the age of sixteen years he made up his mind to come to the United States in search of employment, and having located in Oak- land county, Michigan, worked the next five years in a foundry at Birmingham. He subsequently resumed work as a farm laborer, and at the time of his marriage had saved a sufficient sum to warrant him in buying a farm. Selecting a tract of land in section 16, Bloomfield township, he made excellent improvements on it, and subsequently bought other land, at the time of his death, in 1900, owning one hundred and twenty acres of rich and fertile land, his farm comparing favorably with any in the vicinity. To him and his wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Patchett, six children were born, as follows: Arthur, who lived but two years; Mary, wife of William Carpenter, of Bloomfield town- ship; Martha, living in Minneapolis; Luther D., the subject of this sketch; Albert J., of Bloomfield; and Emma, wife of James G. Pierce, of Detroit.
An ambitious student in his boyhood days, Luther D. Allen received his preliminary education in the public schools of his native district, and afterwards completed a course in a business college at Flint, attending that school during the winter term, and working summers to earn enough to pay his college expenses. Continuing his residence on the parental estate, Mr. Allen has met with deserved success as a general farmer, and is now the owner of a highly cultivated and productive farm, the homestead containing one hundred acres, while in Grove- land township he has eighty acres of land.
Politically Mr. Allen is a firm adherent of the Republican party, and in addition to having served on the board of reviews has served as a member of the local school board for fifteen years, and is now filling the office of justice of the peace, a position which he has held eight years. Fraternally he belongs to Pontiac Lodge, Knights of Pythias, at Pontiac; and to Pontiac Lodge, No. 47, Knights of the Maccabees, at Pontiac. He and his family are members of the Pontiac Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. Allen married, November 26, 1890, Anna Buttolph, a daughter of John Buttolph, of Pontiac, and into their household two children have been born, namely: Howard, who was a graduate of the Pontiac high school, and was prominent in both his junior and senior classes, is now a student in Albion College; and Ruth, a school girl, is eight years younger than her brother Howard.
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WILLIAM A. CARPENTER. A well-known and prominent citizen of Bloomfield township, Oakland county, William A. Carpenter has con- tributed his full share towards the development and advancement of the agricultural prosperity of this part of the state, the estate, "Island Lake Farm," comparing favorably in improvements with any in the neighborhood.
The late Henry Carpenter, his father, was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, where his immigrant ancestor located in early colonial days. Enterprising and ambitious as a youth, he dauntlessly pushed his way westward, migrating to the very frontier, following the trail of the courageous pioneer to Michigan and locating in Oakland county at an early period of its settlement. He bought land near Pontiac on the south bank of Island lake, on which then was a log cabin, and he was afterwards there engaged in agricultural pursuits as long as he lived, his death occurring on the farm which he redeemed from the wilderness many years ago in 1881. After living in Michigan for six years he found his future prospects so alluring that he felt warranted in taking unto himself a helpmeet, and accordingly returned to his old home in Sussex county, New Jersey, where he married the maiden of his choice, Catherine Scott, whose birth occurred in that county in 1815. She is now living on the old homestead and has a vivid recollection of the many hardships endured by the pioneers in their efforts to leave foot- prints where coming generations shall follow with far less exertion, and with a far greater number of the comforts and luxuries of this world. To her and her husband four children were born, as follows: Sarah J., wife of Jeremiah S. Vernon, of Detroit; Elma, living with her aged mother; Lucy H., deceased; and William A.
Brought up in Bloomfield township, William A. Carpenter became familiar with the art and science of agriculture as a boy, and on the death of his father assumed the entire management of the parental acres. He has since been industriously and prosperously engaged in tilling the soil, the estate, Island Lake Farm, containing one hundred and twenty acres of rich and fertile land, advantageously located on section 17.
On February 12, 1897, Mr. Carpenter was united in marriage with Mary Elizabeth Allen, a daughter of Joseph and Sarah Allen. The father was born in Lincolnshire, England, and the mother in Bloomfield township, Oakland county. On coming to America he located in Bloom- field township, Oakland county, Michigan, and here their five children, Mary Elizabeth, Martha, Emma G., Luther and Bert were born and bred. Mr. Carpenter is independent in his political views, voting for the best men and measures regardless of party prejudice. The family are mem- bers of the First Methodist church in Pontiac.
THOMAS WYCKOFF, proprietor of the Rambouillet U. S. A. sheep farms, comprising two hundred acres and located near Orchard Lake, sections 22 and 23, Oakland county, Michigan, is not only one of the foremost sheep raisers in Michigan, but has also an international repu- tation as a breeder of fancy stock. He has experimented for years in various ways to improve different breeds, and has achieved some very flattering results. The stock breeders' world has showered honors upon him, and now look upon him as one of their biggest men. He has founded and held offices in and is now a member of innumerable asso- ciations having to do with stockraising. He was president of the Gallo-
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way Breeds Association of Michigan, and has long been identified with this branch of the business. He organized the first association of Rambouillet sheep owners in America, and gained the distinction of being the first man to import this breed of Von Homeyer Rambouillet sheep into Michigan, and the second to import them into the United States. In 1900 he was elected secretary of the National Rambouillet Sheepraisers Association in Pontiac, being the first man to hold that position. The first prize stock he ever entered were some shorthorned cattle that he had bred himself. Later he owned a whole herd, with as many as fifty head at one time, of the noted Galloway cattle. He soon began to import from Scotland and Canada, and with his growing im- portance became a central figure in the business. He was finally elected president of the Michigan Association, and later became a charter mem- ber of the Michigan Improved Live Stock Association. In 1891 he was sent, to Europe as the Columbian commissioner of the American Ram- bouillet Association, and traveled through Germany and France, taking notes on lectures given by Hon. Rudolph Bremer of Berlin, Schaferei director of Germany and South Russia. He brought back with him a carload of Von Homeyer sheep from their flocks there, with which he has since had such great success that his farm has supplied all parts of United States, Mexico and South Africa with this breed. Even Europe has imported from his farm. From 1885 to 1910 he was the director of the Michigan Live Stock Association, and has the honor of being both the originator of the International Von Homeyer Record, and the organizer of the Von Homeyer Club.
Mr. Wyckoff was born in Romulus, Seneca county, New York, Au- gust 29, 1844, the son of John P. and Mary Ann (Henion) Wyckoff. John P. Wyckoff was a native of Romulus, as were also his two broth- ers, Joseph and Dr. C. C. Wyckoff of Buffalo, and was born in 1816. In 1835 his marriage to Miss Henion, also a native of Romulus, took place, and eleven years later they moved to Waterford township, Oak- land county, Michigan, where they bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres. They remained here for the rest of their lives, his death occurring in 1888 and hers in 1892. They were the parents of ten children, six boys and four girls, three of whom died in infancy. At the present time there are two boys and two girls living: Thomas, of Orchard Lake; John B., of Los Angeles, California; Anna, the wife of M. A. Markham, of Detroit, Michigan; and Alice, the wife of Frank Henion, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Thomas Wyckoff was only two years old when his parents moved to Michigan and he spent all his boyhood on the farm. On August 4, 1864, he joined the United States service, enlisting in Company G, Third Michigan Volunteers. He was later commissioned a second lieuten- ant by the governor, a commission which he still holds, and for sev- eral days toward the close of the war was in command of the company. For two years after the close of the war he taught school, and then started as a farmer in Oakland county. He has always kept up his interest in his army days, and is an active member of Dick Richardson Post, 147, at Pontiac. In politics his sympathies have invariably been with the Republican party. On April 8, 1903, he and Effie Howe, a graduate of the Detroit high school, were married. She had previously been a teacher in the Wayne High School for eight years. Her father, A. B. Howe a native of Ohio, was a veteran of the Civil war. He en-
D.S. Oliver.
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listed in the Sixth Michigan Heavy Artillery when he was sixteen years old, and stayed with the army until in 1863, when he was wounded and mustered out. Mrs. Howe was Elizabeth Graham before her marriage, and was born in Elmira, New York.
DWIGHT I. OLIVER, the leading laundryman of Pontiac, and one of the city's most esteemed residents, in business and out of it, was born and reared in Michigan, and has never roamed the country over in search of a better place to live. He has been in the laundry business from the time when he was eighteen years of age, and this, too, has been satis- factory to him to such an extent that he has never turned aside from it and tried to establish any other. He has devoted his time and energies to what he has had in hand, and with such enterprise and good judg- ment that he has made it very profitable and derived a substantial com- petency for life from it, acquiring considerable property of value from his business in several different locations.
Mr. Oliver's life began in Jackson county, Michigan, on September 8, 1873. His parents, Robert and Harriet (Gallup) Oliver, were born and reared in the state of New York. They came to Michigan in 1868 and took up their residence in Jackson county, where the father carried on a prosperous farming business until his death in 1888, and where the mother is still living. They had two children, their sons Reuben A. and Dwight I. Reuben has been dead a number of years.
Dwight I. Oliver began his education in the country schools of Jack- son county and completed it at the high school in the city of Jackson. He left school at the age of eighteen and at once started a laundry in Jackson. This was a prosperous venture from the beginning, and he con- tinued to carry it on until February, 1912, when he sold it. His mind was too active and his energy too great, however, to find sufficient occu- pation in one enterprise, and in 1897, after he had been six years in the business, he bought an established laundry in Pontiac, and this he is still conducting. It is one of the most completely equipped plants of the kind in this part of the state, and one of the most carefully managed, turning out excellent work at fair prices, and making every effort to meet the requirements of the most exacting and fastidious of its pa- trons. Long experience and close study have given Mr. Oliver a thor- ough mastery of his business in every detail, and he employs all his knowledge of it for the benefit of his customers.
As has been stated above, he has made the business very profitable to him. He owns the building in which the laundry is operated and the plot of ground on which it is located, as well as its whole equipment and everything pertaining to it. He also owns an attractive and valuable home on Fair Grove avenue and a business block and two lots on Lull street, five lots on Thorp street, extensive holdings on the old fair grounds, eighty acres of land in Waterford township, this county, and one hundred and forty acres in Jackson county.
But while he has been enlarging and improving his own estate, he has not been neglectful of or indifferent to the progress and development of the city and county of his home, or any other locality in which he is specially interested. He is a man of considerable public spirit and en- terprise in reference to public affairs in general and local matters of general interest in particular. He has served two years as alderman from the Third ward in Pontiac, and is now the supervisor of that ward.
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In every way open to him he has helped to push the advancement of Pontiac and Oakland county, and his services in this behalf are highly appreciated by the whole people, no matter what their class or condition.
In his political relations Mr. Oliver is a Republican, and in fraternal affiliations he is connected with the Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias. In church membership he is a Congregationalist. On June 24, 1897, he was joined in wedlock with Miss Myrtie A. Gallup, a daughter of Benjamin E. and Flora Gallup, natives of Michigan. The father was a prosperous farmer for many years, but he and the mother are now living retired in Pontiac .. They have two children, Minnie, who is the wife of Jacob Rentchler of Tecumseh, Lenawee county, this state, and Mrs. Oliver. The latter by her marriage with Mr. Oliver has be- come the mother of four children, all of whom are yet young in years and carefully sheltered under the parental rooftree. They are: Helen, aged eight; Robert, aged six; Dorothy, aged four; and Russell, aged two. They are the light and life of the household, and strong additions to the attractiveness of their home, which the hosts of friends of the fam- ily always find a center of genuine, liberal and gracious hospitality and social culture.
CHARLES B. BOUGHNER, a farmer and stock raiser in section 27 of West Bloomfield township, Oakland county, Michigan, is a prominent and active man of affairs in his community. He has held many public offices, and judging from the regard which his neighbors show for him, could have had many more if he had had the time to fill them. From 1891 to 1892 he was a member of the senate from the fourteenth senatorial district; at another time for a period of twelve years he was supervisor of his township. He has also held many other township offices.
Mr. Boughner was born in Flemington, Huntington county, New Jersey, February 14, 1825, the grandson of Jacob Boughner, in all prob- ability a native of Pennsylvania, and the son of Martin and Catherine (Swallow) Boughner. The Boughner family are very likely of German descent. Martin Boughner left Pennsylvania for New Jersey when a young man, and earned his living there by doing general labor. He met Catherine Swallow, there, the daughter of John and Anne Swallow, both natives of New Jersey, and they were married. The next summer after the birth of their son, Charles B. they moved into New York and lived there until 1833. At this time he was a fancy weaver of table linens, coverlets, etc. In 1835 the family moved to Michigan, settling first in Monroe county, and then in the fall of 1837 moving to Oakland county, West Bloomfield township, on the farm where Charles B. now lives. They were the parents of four children, Charles B., the eldest, Jacob S., who died at the age of five years, Mary Ann, deceased, and John A., now living with Charles. When he grew up Charles B. bought the old homestead on which his parents lived and died.
On January 21, 1852, Charles B. was married to Sophronia Harger, who was born in New York, the daughter of Seeley Harger and came with her parents into Michigan in 1836. She belongs to the First Methodist Episcopal church at Pontiac. Mr. Boughner originally owned 255 acres of land, but he has sold part of it until now only two hundred acres in section 27 of West Bloomfield township remain in his posses- sion. He is a Democrat.
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MATTHEW WENDELL. A man of distinctive force and energy, pos- sessing much mechanical, executive and business ability, Matthew Wen- dell, of Holly, is numbered among the leading manufacturers of Oak- land county, and has acquired far more than state-wide fame as the maker of the Wendell incubators, brooders, non-freezing fountains and feed hoppers, all of which are in great demand throughout the country, one sale in a neighborhood invariably creating a call for more. A na- tive of Oakland county, he was born in 1869, in Rose township, in an old log house which is still standing on the homestead of his father, John Henry Wendell.
Joseph Wendell, his grandfather, was born, bred and married in. New York state. During his earlier life he taught school a part of each year the remainder of the time being engaged in farming near Johns- town, Fulton county. Coming with his family to Michigan in 1843, he bought from the Government a half section of land in Oakland county, about five miles south of Holly, a part of his purchase being now in- cluded within the village of Rose. He had the distinction of being the first white settler west of White Lake township, and likewise of being the very first supervisor of Rose township, an office which he was filling at the time of his death, in 1882. His wife, Marilla, survived him, pass- ing away in 1900. They reared four sons and one daughter, as fol- lows: John Henry, father of Matthew; Joseph Heck, who studied law in Pontiac with Boldin & Crepo, was engaged in the practice of his pro- fession at Buffalo, Minnesota, for forty years, and is now a resident of California; William Worth, who was educated at the Ypsilanti Normal School and at the University of Michigan, was principal of different high schools, including the one in Hudson, Michigan, while young, but afterwards entered the legal profession: Homer J. studied law in Pon- tiac, began his professional practice in Michigan, being located at Ypsi- lanti and Northfield, but for the past fifteen years has been an attorney in Chicago; and Bessie, wife of Edward Gordon, who has charge of the old Wendell farm in Rose township has three children.
Born and brought up on the parental homestead in Rose township, John Henry Wendell, succeeded to the ownership of two hundred and thirty acres of the old home farm, and was there profitably engaged in tilling the soil until 1902. In that year, having gained a competency, he retired from active business and has since lived in Holly. He is a steadfast Democrat in politics, and while living in Rose township served in various offices of trust, including that of township treasurer. As a young man he spent sometime in the oil fields of West Virginia, meet- ing with fair success. He married, in 1864, Sarah Jane Sharpneck, of West Virginia, and they became the parents of two children, namely : Arthur, now of Pontiac, married Minnie Angle, of Lakeville, Michigan ; and Matthew.
Brought up on the home farm and educated in the public schools, Matthew Wendell became familiar with the various branches of farm- ing while young. At the age of twenty years he took up his residence in Holly, and for two years thereafter was employed in the Grand Trunk Railway offices. Continuing in Holly, he was here for ten years asso- ciated with the Cyclone Fence Company, which, when it left Holly, es- tablished branch offices in two places, Waukegan, Wisconsin. and Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Wendell remained with the company, for a num- ber of years having the management of the Waukegan office. Return-
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ing from there to Holly, he started in the poultry supply manufacturing business, organizing the Wendell Manufacturing Company, of which he is president. In 1905 this enterprising firm introduced to the public its first incubator and brooder, and has since kept busily employed in the manufacture not only of the celebrated Wendell incubators and brooders, but in the making of non-freezing fountains, feed hoppers and suspension and colony hovers. The incubators have many features of im- portance not found in those of other makes, their construction being con- ducive to an even temperature with but little trouble, the degrees of heat and cold being easily regulated. The egg tray, chick tray and heater are made after the later methods, the circulation in the heater being started in the front of the machine. The boiler, regulator, thermometer and lamp are of the best type, the machines as a whole being an almost sure hatcher. Mr. Wendell has received words of praise for all of his manu- factures from all over the country, his patrons, which are to be found in nearly all states of the Union, speaking highly of his incubators, brood- ers, hovers and all other poultry supplies. One of his near neighbors in Holly boasts of two most satisfactory hatches from one of his in- cubators, having received one hundred and twenty-seven chicks from one hundred and thirty-four eggs, while from one hundred and fifty eggs she got one hundred and forty-eight chicks.
Mr. Wendell married Harriet A. Sibley, of Clarkston, Michigan, a daughter of George and Dosia Sibley, and they have one son, Jack, a school boy. Mr. Wendell belongs to Holly Lodge, No. 134, Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons; and to Holly Chapter, No. 34, Royal Arch Masons, both of Holly.
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