USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests Volume II > Part 31
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MORTON L. BRADLEY. Among the leading business men of Walled Lake is Morton L. Bradley, and he has been the owner and proprietor of his present fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres since 1898. In addition to his farming interests he finds a field for his energies in the elevator business, being superintendent of the Freeman Elevator at Walled Lake. This elevator has conducted a thriving business since it was established, and has been especially prosperous under the able man- agement of Mr. Bradley, the business being practically in his charge as the owners are non-residents.
Mr. Bradley was born at Millers Corners, Ontario county, New York, on October 18, 1864, and is the son of Joel L. and Arcelia (Tidd) Brad- ley. In June, 1867, the parents, with their two sons, Herbert and Morton, came to Michigan, locating at Waterford, but in September of the same year they went to Commerce township, where Joel Bradley purchased a farm and began to work it. Here he passed his remaining days, rearing his sons in habits of industry and thrift, and giving them such education as his means made possible. They attended the district school, and Herbert, the elder, went from the farm to Detroit, later en- gaging in mining in northern Michigan. Morton went from the district school in Milford school and later passed through a special business course given by Professor Harding at Milford. He thereafter remained on the farm until 1886, and in that year the state of his health made a change advisable. He accordingly went to Dakota, being accompanied by Charles Gordon. At Mitchell, South Dakota, the two young men after some little time entered a grocery store as owners and proprietors, in addition to which Mr. Bradley opened a school for business training, in both of which ventures they were fairly successful. After three years in Dakota he returned to the old home, and there was married to Miss Mertie Phillips, of Commerce. In 1891 Mrs. Bradley's health failed and Mr. Bradley took her to Denver, Colorado, in the hope of renewing her strength, but she died there on January 24, 1893. She was the daughter of James and Julia (Cook) Phillips, both natives of Michigan. One child was born to Mr. and Mrs. Bradley, Julia Myrle, now the wife of Ben E. Phillips, of Milford, Michigan, and they have one child, Elenor E., born in 1911.
While in Denver with his wife, Mr. Bradley employed himself in work on the Street Railway, and after his wife's death he returned to the farm, purchasing his present place in 1898. In 1896 he contracted a second marriage, Mary A. Wylie, of Livingston county, Michigan, be- coming his wife. She was born in Washtenaw county, the daughter of Hugh and Sara ( Williamston) Wylie. The parents were natives of - Scotland, who came to the United States after their marriage, settling in Washtenaw county, Michigan. Of this second marriage three children were born, Tryphena Ruth, Williamston Till and Genevera Lettie. The last named child died at the age of eighteen months, while the others are attending school in the home town.
Besides other matters to which Mr. Bradley has given his attention in Commerce, he taught school four winter terms, his first school being the Webster district at White Lake. He has not been a leader in the political activities of the township, but has served as town clerk, town treasurer and justice of the peace a number of terms. At one time he was treasurer of fractional school district No. 1. Although filling all these offices with credit to himself and the township. Mr. Bradley has
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never sought political popularity and has kept out of the public life of the town as much as possible, the demands of his business being such as to prevent his giving more than passing attention to such matters. As superintendent of the Freeman Elevator, Mr. Bradley finds himself busily engaged at all times, his farm, which is well stocked and thor- oughly equipped for modern agricultural operations, also making heavy demands upon him. The Freeman elevator was built in 1882 by Wixon & Sibley, but was later sold to Mr. Freeman, the present owner, and Mr. Bradley was engaged as superintendent of the elevator in 1911. Mr. Bradley is a Republican, politically speaking, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is fraternally identified by his mem- bership in the Maccabees.
JAMES A. O'RILEY. With the versatility and resourcefulness of the Irish race, to which he belongs, its great adaptability to circumstances and readiness for any emergency, and with an unconquerable spirit of enterprise and industry, James A. O'Riley, of Pontiac, has made his way in the world from youth, by steady advancement from poverty to consequence, and has never wavered in his progress, although his path has been beset by difficulties and every step he made for years required the utmost effort. He found opportunities for good work for himself in this country, and he made good use of them, which is all that is re- quired for advancement here.
Mr. O'Riley was born in County Corey, Ireland, on October 20, 1843, and is a son of Bartley and Nora (Boyle) O'Riley, who were also born on the Emerald Isle, and were reared, educated and married there. The father was a landholder in his native land and a man of influence in his locality. He was a great temperance advocate and worker for the cause, and was heard on the subject with great pleasure by thousands of per- sons in many different places. He died in Ireland in 1850, when his son James was but seven years old. After the death of the father the mother brought her children to Canada, with the view of securing better op- portunities for them than her own country gave promise of affording, and on this side of the Atlantic she devoted the remaining years of her life to rearing and providing for them. But her heroic efforts in this behalf were cut short by her death in 1857, when James was but four- teen. From that time on he was compelled to look out for himself, but he had begun to do this before his mother's death. There were seven chil- dren in the family : John, Helen, Daniel and Michael, who are all dead; Terry, who was killed in the battle of Springfield, Missouri, during the Civil war ; Ann, and James A., the last two being the only members of the family now living.
After attending the public schools for a short time and obtaining a limited education in them, James A. O'Riley was apprenticed to a black- smith to learn the trade. He served an apprenticeship of three years. acquiring a good knowledge of his craft, then found another that suited him better and turned his attention to that. He apprenticed himself to a carpenter, with whom he remained four years, getting a thorough mastery of the trade and acquiring, at the same time, a settled deter- mination to devote his life to it, rather than to the forge.
He removed to St. Louis and there did carpenter work for four months. At the end of that period he changed his residence to Omaha, Nebraska, where he wrought industriously at his trade for a year. He
JosephsStockwell
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then, in 1865, bought a furniture and undertaking business, which he conducted for some months. But his health began to fail, and he sold his business and moved to Glenwood, Iowa, where he carried on con- tracting and building nine months. By the end of that time he was about twenty-three years old and strongly desirous of establishing a home for himself. He therefore went back to Canada and married, then came to Pontiac, Michigan, arriving with his bride in June, 1866, and in this city he has ever since resided. Here he has been continuously engaged in contracting and building, and has erected more than one hundred and fifty houses in the city, some of them among the most mas- sive and imposing structures it can boast, especially in its business sec- tion. He has also built many houses for different purposes outside of the city, and these also stand to his credit, for they were all well built. At one time he owned thirty-two acres of land in the southeastern part of Pontiac, and at 139 Perkins avenue in this tract he still owns four and a half acres, on which he has a fine dwelling in which he and his family live. He also has a double house on Orchard Lake avenue, a single one at No. 6 Willard avenue, another on Perkins street and one on Park street.
Mr. O'Riley's marriage took place on January 22, 1866, and united him with Miss Susan White, a daughter of William and Sarah Ann (Card- well) White, who were also natives of Ireland. They immigrated to Canada soon after their marriage and passed the rest of their lives in that country, where the father died at the age of eighty-two years and the mother when seventy-one. They were the parents of eleven chil- dren, of whom Mrs. O'Riley was the seventh in the order of birth, and is one of the five who are still living. Mr. and Mrs. O'Riley have three children: Their daughter Anna M., who is still a member of the par- ental family circle : their other daughter Clara, who is the wife of Charles Inch, of Pontiac, and their son William, who is also a resident of Pon- tiac. Mrs. O'Riley and daughter are members of the Methodist church. Mr. O'Riley is a Democrat in his political faith and ardently supports the principles and candidates of his party at all times. He served as alderman from the Second ward of Pontiac two years. Fraternally he is a Freemason. He is at all times deeply interested in public improve- ments and the general progress and further development of his home city and county, and always ready for his part in aiding all worthy un- dertakings for their benefit or the enduring welfare of their residents. By all classes of the people he is regarded as a good man and an excel- lent citizen.
HON. JOSEPH S. STOCKWELL. There are some men in whose make-up Nature does her finest handiwork, giving them all the elements of the most superior manhood, and so harmoniously commingling them that she can safely trust to the bloom and fruition that is to follow. no matter what may be the circumstances through which the subject has to find his development. One of the men of this kind is Hon. Joseph S. Stockwell, of Pontiac, who has been a resident of Oakland county from his boyhood and who was at one time one of the most successful and prosperous merchants of the city of his present home. and served for a number of years as judge of the probate court. He is now near the limit of human life as fixed by the sacred writer, and is living re- tired from all active pursuits, but still earnestly and serviceably inter-
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ested in all civil affairs and other matters pertaining to the welfare of his home city and county.
Judge Stockwell was born at Redford, Wayne county, Michigan, on May 16, 1843, and is the youngest son of Alva and Mary (Hewitt) Stockwell, natives of the state of New York. They came to Michigan directly after their marriage in 1825, and located on government land near where the town of Redford in Wayne county now stands. The father was long a justice of the peace in that locality. In 1855 he moved to Birmingham, Oakland county, and from there to the village of Highland, where he died in his seventy-fourth year. The mother died when she was nearly forty-three years of age, at Redford in Wayne county. Of the ten children born to them nine reached maturity and four are still living. One of the sons resides in Kansas, and the Judge and his two sisters are residents of Michigan, while all of them dignify and adorn the citizenship of the respective states in which they live, ·exemplifying in their daily round of duties, and their fidelity in per- forming them, the lessons given them at the parental fireside and through the upright and useful lives of their parents.
Joseph S. Stockwell lived to the age of twelve at the place of his birth, and began his education in the public school there. He con- tinued his mental training at Farmington and afterward attended school at Birmingham in this county. At an early age he began his mercantile experience as a clerk in the store of O. W. Peck at Birming- ham, in whose employ he remained about four years and a half. In 1869 he started in business for himself at Highland, entering into a co- partnership with his father, the name and style of the firm being Stock- well & Son.
After three years of merchandising at Highland, Mr. Stockwell of this sketch returned to Birmingham and formed a mercantile partner- ship with Eugene Brown, under the firm name of Stockwell & Brown. This partnership lasted three years, and at the end of that period A. M. Knight bought Mr. Brown's interest in the business. Two years afterward Mr. Knight bought Judge Stockwell's interest also and re- moved the stock to Pontiac. Then Judge Stockwell started a new en- terprise of his own in the same line in Birmingham, which he carried on until 1881. In that year he changed his residence to Pontiac and became one of the members of the firm of Axford, Stockwell & Com- pany, his partners being Lovett W. Stanton and Homer J. Axford. This firm continued to do business for three years, then Mr. Stock- well bought the interests of both his partners, and after that conducted the business alone until 1895. In that year he sold a part of his in- terest to Waite Brothers, Robertson & Company, retaining enough, however, to keep him in the firm as a silent partner, which he continued to be until 1901, when he disposed of the rest of his interest in the business to accept the office of probate judge, to which he had been elected in the preceding fall. He held this office from 1901 to 1909 and discharged its duties in a manner that won him universal commen- dation and firmly established him in the everlasting regard and affec- tionate good will of the people of the whole county.
On October 8, 1866, Judge Stockwell was married to Miss Mary E. Wiley, a daughter of Adam and Susan (Phillipps) Wiley, the former a native of Scotland and the latter of Vermont. The Judge and Mrs. Stockwell have four children, their sons Fred B., Jay S., Alva Ross and
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Glenn Wiley, all living. Their father is a Republican in his political relations. While living at Highland he served as a justice of the peace and town treasurer, and was also county superintendent of the poor. Fraternally he is a Freemason of the Knights Templar degree, hold- ing membership in Pontiac Lodge, No. 21, Oakland Chapter, No. 5, Royal Arch Masons, and Pontiac Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templar. Of the last named organization he is treasurer, and has been ever since he became one of its members. Both he and his wife belong to the Baptist church. The Judge was for several years superintendent of the Sunday school of the congregation to which he belongs and also a member of the Sunday school association.
During the latter years of his service in the probate court Judge Stockwell gave special attention to the administration of the "Juvenile Law," which by its own terms must be interpreted and applied by the probate courts of the state. At the afternoon session of the annual meeting of the Probate Judges' Association held in Benton Harbor on July 1, 1908, he delivered an address on the workings of the law, in which he reviewed in a lucid and highly interesting manner the good the statute was doing for the youth of the state, and the greater good it might be expected to accomplish if certain amendments, which ex- perience had demonstrated the need of, were made to it, illuminating his remarks with incidents from his own experience in administering the law.
Both Judge Stockwell and his wife are of distinguished Revolution- ary ancestry. One of the Judge's forebears, Jacob Stockwell, lived near Lake Champlain, New York, and was killed at the battle of Still- water not long before the surrender of Burgoyne. From the records of the War Department in Washington, it appears that prior to this time, on July 7, 1777, this valiant soldier who laid his life on the altar of his country in one of its decisive battles was taken prisoner by the British. But he could not have been held in captivity long, as Bur- goyne's surrender took place on October 17 of the same year.
Another of the Judge's ancestors, Eleazer B. Stockwell, made a creditable record as a soldier in the War of 1812, serving as first lieu- tenant in a company of the First Regiment, New York Militia, in that conflict, and afterward as a lieutenant also in another company of the same regiment. Before he became a lieutenant, however, he was a private soldier in the Nineteenth Regiment, New York Militia, his service in the three companies carrying him through the war from be- gining to end.
Mrs. Stockwell is a lineal descendant of Thomas Drake, who came to this country from England about 1653 or 1654 and settled at Wey- mouth, Massachusetts, where he died on August 19, 1728. His son Ben- jamin was the father of Robert Drake, and died at Weymouth after having passed the age of eighty-two years. Robert Drake was a mem- ber of the First Militia Company of Easton, Massachusetts, and that company took part in the Revolutionary war. He joined in 1757, and must have, therefore, been connected with it a long time. The war records show that he also served as a corporal in Rhode Island in Cap- tain Randal's company under two different colonels. His son, Robert Drake, Jr., was out at the "Tiverton Alarm," August 2, 1780, in Cap- tain Seth Pratt's company, Colonel James Williams' regiment. He was the father of eight children, among them Larnard Drake, who married Vol. II-15
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with Susannah Phillips on September 28, 1802, and about 1810 or 1812 they moved to Vermont, where their daughter, Susannah Phillips Drake, was born on April 12, 1815. On April 16, 1833, she married Adam Wiley, a native of Scotland, and they became the parents of seven chil- dren, one of whom is the present wife of Judge Stockwell. Five of the children were born in Vermont, and two, Mrs. Stockwell and her sister Alice E., at Southfield, Oakland county, Michigan, whither the families of Larnard Drake and Adam Wiley moved from Vermont about 1844 or 1845.
The history of the two families is long in this country, and at every period it is creditable. But none of the members of either family has made a better record or rendered the public more signal service than the revered subject of this brief memoir. His amiable wife has also been a personage of great esteem among the people, and has done her full part, according to her opportunities, toward helping along the progress of her county and state.
EDWARD W. PARMALEE, member of the firm of Parmalee & Hoyt, dealers in general merchandise in Walled Lake, was born in Berlin, Michigan, on December 17, 1860. He is the son of James Duane and Sarah (Elliott) Parmalee, natives of Ohio and Michigan, respectively. The father first located in Berlin in 1855, there purchasing a farm and continuing in agricultural pursuits. The son Edward spent his boyhood days on the farm home and attended the district school, learning the carpenter trade as soon as he was of sufficient age to warrant it, and in 1882, while carrying on some contract work in Bloomfield, met and married Miss Almina Orr, a native of that place. Immediately follow- ing his marriage he entered into an arrangement with his father to work the home farm on shares, and this arrangement held good for four years, after which Mr. Parmalee moved to West Bloomfield and pur- chased a farm of forty acres. He continued to live upon and operate his little farm for nine years, then rented the place and went to Farming- ton, where for a year and a half he was occupied in carpenter work. It was in 1905 that he moved to Walled Lake, there continuing with the carpenter business until 1910, when he returned to his farm and re- mained there for a year. In October, 1911, Mr. Parmalee entered a partnership with Mr. Hoyt and they purchased the stock of goods of S. M. Gage at Walled Lake, Mr. Parmalee also purchasing a residence. The new firm has made good thus far in its experience, and it is safe to predict a bright future for them with reference to their success as mer- chandizers.
As previously mentioned, Mr. Parmalee was married in November, 1882, to Miss Almina Orr, the daughter of Francis and Emily (Rich- ardson) Orr. Six children have been born to them. Iva, the eldest, is located in New York City. Frances is the wife of William Hoyt, the junior member of the firm of Parmalee & Hoyt ; they have one child, Camilla. Clarence is manager of the store of his father. He was born in West Bloomfield and attended the Farmington district schools until he had finished the seventh grade, then continued in the Walled Lake schools until he was through with the tenth grade. He then went to Detroit and was employed by the Innis Fur Company for a time, after which he was in the employ of the Parke, Davis Drug Company. When the Jamestown Exposition was on, he went to Jamestown as an attend-
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ant, remaining there until the close of the exposition, and then returned to Walled Lake, where he was employed in the store. In the fall of 1908 he went to Ann Arbor and attended school there for one year, and, returning to Walled Lake again, once more entered the store of Mr. Gage. In the autumn of 1909 he returned to Ann Arbor for another year, after which he went to Canton, New York, and after a tour of the southern states returned home in the spring of 1911 and gave his at- tention to the work of the farm until his father purchased his present business. He thereupon entered the store as manager, in which ca- pacity he has since continued, and in which he has demonstrated his ability in that particular line. He is deputy post-master at Walled Lake, as well as manager of the store. Bertha lives at home, and also assists in the store as a clerk. Floyd is learning the carpenter and joiner's trade. Harold, the youngest of the family, is still in school.
While a resident of West Bloomfield township Mr. Parmalee was township treasurer for two years, which is the longest consecutive period for which a man may hold that office in this state. He is a Republican, as are also his sons. The family are members of the Methodist Epis- copal church with the exception of Clarence, who is a member of the Baptist church.
FERDINAND WILLIAMS. Among the earliest and best known settlers of Oakland county, Michigan, was Ferdinand Williams, who for many years lived on a farm in the county. He has been dead now for a num- ber of years, but his memory is still alive and many are the tales one hears of this sturdy old pioneer, especially of his prowess with the gun. A gentleman born and bred, well educated, with a powerful personality, he exerted a strong influence in the community, and his passing left a very empty space, although he was nearly ninety years of age at the time of his death.
Ferdinand Williams came of a very old family. in the history of our country, the first of the name, Thomas Williams, coming to America from Monmouth county, Wales, some time in the sixteenth century. He settled in New York, engaged in business, married and had a son Jan, or John Williams, who became a man of prominence, being mayor of Albany at one time. He married Cornelia, a daughter of Cornelius Bogardus, whose wife was a granddaughter of Aneke Jans, of Trinity Church fame.
To John Williams and his wife was born a son Thomas, who after receiving a good education, in 1765, came out to the frontier town of Detroit, and there engaged in the mercantile and fur trading business. He married into a prominent French family, his wife being a sister of Jacques, Joseph and Barney Campau, and had three children, a son and two daughters. The son John R. was only about six years of age, when his father was taken ill and died very suddenly at the age of forty-two. This left his widow with three young children. He had become quite prosperous, having been very successful in his business dealings, but his partners and clerks proceeded to secure most of his property, and his family were robbed of a large part that should have been theirs. He had during his intercourse with the Indians secured deeds from them conveying to him vast tracts of land up and down the Detroit river. which the government would have ratified. but his sudden death caused the collapse of this plan. He was prominent as justice of the peace,
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holding a commission from the English government which gave him jurisdiction over a large territory. He had in his possession an inter- esting old coat-of-arms of the family, which showed that they were descended from some stout old baron of the middle ages.
In the course of a few years his widow married again, her second husband being a Frenchman, and they went to live somewhere near the mouth of the Chiito river. Here John R. Williams, as he grew older helped his stepfather on the farm, but the life was distasteful to him and seeing no future but hard work, he left home and came to Detroit, where he secured a position with his uncle, Joseph Campau. Here he learned much of practical business methods, for his uncle was a fine business man, and he also secured a good education, spending all his spare time in study. His uncle was a very influential man in Detroit, being the grandson of one of the officers of Cadillac, who founded De- troit in 1701. Soldiery was the natural bent of John R. Williams, and he was overjoyed when he secured an appointment as cornet in the United States army under Major General Wilkinson. He served a time, learning military tactics and engineering, and then he resigned his com- mission to return to Detroit and go into partnership with his uncle, Joseph Campau, in the mercantile and fur business. He was not through with army life, for during the War of 1812 he was captain of a com- pany of artillery and was made a prisoner of war when General Hull captured Detroit.
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