USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests Volume II > Part 54
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Mr. Taylor was born at Mt. Bethel, Northampton county, Pennsyl- vania, on December 4, 1847, and is a son of Conrad S. and Susan Tay- lor, the father a native of New Jersey and the mother of Pennsylvania. They had three children : Mary E., who has been dead for many years ; John R., the immediate subject of this memoir; and Irving W., who is now a resident of Denver, Colorado. The father was a farmer from his youth to his death, although at times he engaged in other business
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also. He moved his family to Michigan in 1852 and bought one hun- dred and twenty acres of land in Addison township, Oakland county, and in 1865 opened a live stock market in Pontiac. For many years he was a drover as well as farmer, shipping his cattle from Detroit to the eastern markets.
The mother died in 1852, when her son John R. was but four years old, and some time after that the father married a second wife, his choice for this union being Miss Rebecca Jones, of Oakland township in this county. They had one child, their daughter Alice M., who is now the wife of G. H. Higgins and resides in Denver, Colorado. The father died on January 5, 1907, at the age of eighty-four years.
John R. Taylor was educated in the schools of Pontiac, which he attended until he reached the age of seventeen. Then, in 1864, he en- listed in Company B, Thirtieth Michigan Infantry, Union Army, in which he served until June 24, 1865, when he was mustered out with an honorable discharge. He at once returned home and began farming on his own account in Troy township, this county, where he continued his operations in that line for five years. At the end of that period he gave up farming and turned his attention to the dairy business, buy- ing sixty-five acres of land within the present city limits of Pontiac for the purpose. He kept his dairy industry going for more than twenty years with considerable profit to himself and gratification to the peo- ple of Pontiac. He now owns but three acres of his former holdings, but has six houses in Pontiac, besides other property of value. He sold his other land in order to be free of the care of it in his life of retire- ment and leisure.
Mr. Taylor was married on August 19, 1868, to Miss Mary P. Stowell, a daughter of Simon and Harriet (Webster) Stowell. The father of Mrs. Taylor was born in the state of New York and brought to Mich- igan by his parents when he was six years old. From the dawn of his manhood to the end of his life, which came on April 2, 1902, he was engaged in farming for himself, and before he began doing that he worked on his father's farm from boyhood. The mother was born in Pontiac and passed all her years in Oakland county, where she died on December 9, 1894. Four children were born in the family, two of whom died in childhood. The two who are living are Mrs. Taylor and her sister Eunice, who is the wife of Elbert J. Kelly, of Pontiac. Both of these ladies are highly respected throughout the city and county in which they have so long lived and labored to such good purposes. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have one child, their son Irving S., who, also, is a resident of Pontiac. Mr. Taylor is a firm and loyal member of the Democratic party and one of its most efficient and influential workers in Oakland county. He served as alderman from his ward in Pontiac for nine years. In fraternal relations he is connected with the Order of Elks, the Kights of Pythias, the Order of Foresters and the Grand Army of the Republic. His religious affiliation is with the Congrega- tional church, of which he is a devout and serviceable member. He has lived in Oakland county from his childhood, and the people of the county know him well. The high esteem they have for him is due to his genuine merit as a man and his usefulness as a citizen.
WILLIAM H. KEMP. Many of the choicest traditions of Pontiac are literally in the keeping of William H. Kemp, one of Pontiac's best-
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known citizens. It was on his home place that the great Pontiac used to camp in the early days, and the spring which still gushes abundantly on the premises is the same one which made it the favorite camping ground for the Indians. The beautiful surroundings and the perfect and never failing spring water caused this tract to be known far and wide and the Red Men made it a constant rendezvous. Chief Pontiac made it his camping place many a time. Now the spring is surrounded by peaceful fields, whose smiling furrows yield their hidden stores as a reward to humble toil, but there are those who still remember when the plenteous natural fountain was surrounded by savage countenances and blanketed forms, and the spot was marked by the slowly ascending spirals of the camp fire. Mr. Kemp has had the water of this spring piped directed into his home, and it flows as faithfully today through the metal pipes as it did a century or a dozen centuries past through the clefts in the rock. In the house are also treasured a couple of Indian skulls which were taken from a gravel bed on the farm.
Like many of the residents of Oakland county, William H. Kemp is descended from an ancestry transplanted from old England. While he was born in Pontiac township on September 3, 1853, his parents were natives of England and came to America when the senior Kemp was twenty-two years old. The parents were Obediah and Sabina (Selenes) Kemp. When they located in Oakland county Mr. Kemp engaged in farming. He at one time owned one hundred and eighty acres, and at the time of his death had forty acres. He followed general farming and stock raising until his death on July 12, 1907. His wife died Oc- tober 21, 1902. Their family consisted of two children: William H. and Fannie, the latter the wife of Fred Anderson, of Oakland county.
The son attended the district school in boyhood and worked on the home place until his marriage, then bought the home place of one hundred acres in section 27 of Pontiac township. He later added eighty acres and also bought a tract of twenty acres, with a fine home thereon, in the east end of Pontiac. He also followed farming and stock raising and was in the dairy business for fifteen years, handling Jersey cattle exclusively.
On January 16, 1879, he was married to Sarah Jane Fetherstone, a daughter of John and Sarah (Trollopp) Fetherstone, both of whom were natives of Lancashire, England and came to America in 1842. They settled in Birmingham for four years, then bought ninety-seven acres in Avon township, where he resided until his death, which occurred on November 19, 1891. His wife died November 30, 1911. To their union there were born four children: William and John, deceased ; Albert, of Avon township; and Sarah, wife of William H. Kemp. At the time of his death Mr. Fetherstone was possessed of one hundred and fifteen acres, and had given his children two hundred acres. Mr. and Mrs. Kemp have two children, Ida, born August 2, 1880, the wife of John E. Wasson, of Gratiot county, and William Ray, born June 26, 1882, a resident of Bloomfield township and a machinist by trade. Mr. Kemp holds membership in the Methodist church. He is fraternally affiliated with the Maccabees and his political preferences are for the principles of the Democratic party.
ROY EDWIN BAILEY, D. D. S. The science and art of dentistry, for dentistry is both a science and an art, is one of the most progressive of
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all we have in the whole range of practical professional work. Every month brings new discoveries or suggestions to its practitioners, either for raising the standard and increasing the value of their work, or to assist in robbing the operating chair of its horrors. And the men who are most successful in the profession are those who keep pace with its progress and are always up to the last thought and deliverance on the subject.
Among the dentists of this class Dr. Roy E. Bailey, of Pontiac, Michigan, is justly entitled to a very high rank. He has expert mechan- ical skill to begin with, and he has been a close student of his work in all its departments from the beginning of his interest in it. He has been engaged in the practice of his profession in Pontiac for eighteen years, and his success is fully attested by his popularity as a dentist and the extensive and lucrative patronage he enjoys in the city and through- out the surrounding country, as well as by the esteem in which he is held by his professional brothers wherever he is known.
Dr. Bailey was born on May 10, 1871, in Troy township, Oakland county, Michigan. He is a son of David and Prethena (Hutchins) Bailey, likewise natives of this county, and a grandson of Asher and Maria (Gibbs) Bailey, who were born, reared and married in Pennsyl- vania. They moved what family they then had to Michigan in 1833, and took up their residence in Oakland county. One of their sons, Myron Bailey, now a gentleman far advanced in years, has his home in Royal Oak, this county, where he lives retired, but passes most of his time traveling.
David Bailey, the Doctor's father, was born in 1834, the year fol- lowing the removal of the family to this county, and died in 1879, at the comparatively early age of forty-five years. He was educated in the public schools of this county, such as they were at the time of his advent, and after leaving school engaged in farming to the end of his life. The mother was born on December 10, 1838. Her parents were Charles and Nancy ( Bitely) Hutchins, natives of the state of New York.
Charles Hutchins came to Michigan when a young man, and some time afterward went back to New York, where he was married. He at once brought his bride to this county, locating in Troy township, where he passed the remainder of his days, actively, progressively and profit- ably engaged in farming. One of their daughters, Miss Effie Hutchins, is now a resident of Mount Clemens, Michigan, where she has been liv- ing for a number of years. The remainder of the family are all de- ceased. Following the death of his father, Dr. Bailey's mother con- tinued to live in Troy township, but in her last illness she was brought to the home of her son, Roy E., where she passed away on February IO, 19II. Her remains were laid to rest in Crook's cemetery, Troy township. By her marriage with Mr. Bailey she became the mother of three children, the Doctor and his brothers Ralph and Asher. The last named died in 1894, at the age of twenty-one years, ending at its very beginning a very promising career and what would doubtless have been a very useful citizenship.
Dr. Roy E. Bailey was reared in the country and attended the district schools until he reached the age of sixteen. He then entered a dental office, where he was assistant for two or three years. Becoming inter- ested in the profession, he determined to make it his life work. With
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this end in view he pursued a course in dentistry at the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1894. Immediately after his graduation he began practicing in Pontiac, and here he has been located ever since and pursuing his chosen vocation with a steady increasing volume of business and expanding reputation as a dentist of the first quality.
On June 12, 1895, Dr. Bailey was united in marriage with Miss Clara Voorheis, who was born in West Bloomfield township, this county, in 1872, and is a daughter of John and Sarah (Osmun) Voorheis, also natives of Oakland county, where the father was born on July 4, 1838. Both parents are living, their home being in the village of Farmington, where they are enjoying the rest well earned by long and trying years of usefulness, and are now retired from active pursuits in the busy world of industry. Dr. and Mrs. Bailey have three children : L. Reame, whose life began on June 17, 1896, and who is now a student in the Pontiac high school; Pauline, who was born on June 25, 1900; and Ruth, the time of whose birth was December 22, 1903. The two last named are also in school. Politically Dr. Bailey is a Republican and earnestly de- voted to the principles of his party. He has been president of the Lincoln Club, an active Republican organization. Fraternally he be- longs to the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias. His wife is a member of the Presbyterian church, which he also attends. He is active in all good works for the improvement of his city and county, and the substantial and enduring welfare of their residents. Besides being in the front rank as a professional man, he is accounted one of the best citizens of the community in all the relations of life and in reference to every duty of citizenship.
JOHN E. CRAWFORD. Distinguished not only as a native-born resi- dent of Milford, and the son of one of its very earliest merchants, but as a man of sterling worth and integrity, John E. Crawford is widely known throughout this section of Oakland county as postmaster at Mil- ford, a position which he has held since 1898. He was born in Milford January 6, 1852, and in the public schools acquired his early education.
John Crawford, his father, was born and reared in Ireland. A year or two after attaining his majority he immigrated to the United States, landing in New York. He began his career in this country as a pack peddler, making considerable money in selling goods along the road, peddlers of all kinds in those early days being liberally patronized. Com- ing to Michigan about 1840, he became one of the original householders of Milford and a pioneer merchant of the place. Immediately after com- ing here he opened a general store, and was here actively engaged in mer- cantile pursuits until his death, in 1882, at the age of seventy-nine years, having been then one of the oldest business men of Milford. He served as postmaster at different times, filling the position twenty-six years in all. A man of strong personality and decided opinions, he was a stanch supporter of the principles of the Republican party, and as an effective speaker was active and influential in campaign work.
John Crawford married, in New York, Lydia Sherman, a native of New Jersey. She died in Milford, Michigan, several years before his death, her demise occurring in middle life. Three daughters and two sons were born of their union, as follows: Susan, widow of S. A. Dan- son, lives in Detroit; Emily, widow of James Marshall, also resides in
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Detroit; Augusta married S. Park Cutting, and neither she nor her hus- band are now living; Noble, who went to New York as a salesman, died in that city at the age of fifty-two years; and John E.
Acquiring a substantial education in the public schools, John E. Craw- ford embarked in mercantile pursuits as a young man, for ten years being a traveling salesman. Since 1898 he has served as postmaster at Milford, and is now filling the position for the fourth term and the four- teenth year. The post office is housed in a new, one-story building, made of cement blocks, well lighted, with boxes and furnishings new, the building having been leased by the postal department for a period of ten years. The Postal Savings Bank that has been established at this post office is well patronized, and large quantities of mail are each day car- ried over each of the six rural delivery routes that extend from this office. Politically Mr. Crawford is a Republican, and although not ac- tive in party work has served as village president.
At the age of twenty-seven years Mr. Crawford married Adeline Crickmore, of West Bloomfield township, Michigan. She died in 1895, leaving one daughter, Inez, wife of Frank Harlow, a merchant at Pon- tiac. Mr. Crawford subsequently married for his second wife Mary Hagerdorn, of Lyon township, Oakland county. Fraternally Mr. Craw- ford is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons ; of the Knights of the Modern Maccabees ; and of the Order of the East- ern Star.
WILLIAM MAIRS, justice of the peace of Commerce township in the Walled Lake district and one of the most prominent business men of this town, is a native son of Canada, born at Claremont, Ontario, on Feb- ruary 13, 1876. He is the son of Francis and Sarah (Littlejohn) Mairs, and the father was a carpenter and contractor by trade. William at- tended school as a small boy either at Claremont or Altoon, either point being equally accessible from their residence. In later years the family moved to Zephyr, Canada, and there he attended school until he was fifteen years old, when he began to earn his own living. His father died when he was an infant, and his mother married Alexander Keith in later years. The family then moved to Novi, Michigan, where they pur- chased a farm and engaged in agricultural pursuits. There were four children in the family, William and James being the children of Mr. and Mrs. Mairs, while Alexander and Barbara Ellen were the children of Mrs. Mairs' second marriage. James left home in his youth and event- ually located in Brockton, Massachusetts, where he is engaged in busi- ness. Alexander lives in Walled Lake and Barbara died when she was ten years old. William remained at home for a while between the ages of fifteen and twenty, and when he was in his twentieth year purchased a threshing machine and began threshing in the vicinity of his home town. In the spring of 1902 he purchased a steam thresher, and in the autumn of that year he was engaged by the Port Huron Engine & Threshing Company to demonstrate their traction engines at the Mich- igan State Fair. So well did he perform his duties in this connection and so apt did he appear in matters of that nature that the company took him to their factory to learn the practical details of their new corn husker with a view to sending him out as a demonstrator, and in Octo- ber, 1902, he went on the road for the Port Huron people as an expert in adjusting, starting and operating their husker. For the remainder
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of that year and through 1903 he continued on the road exhibiting the husker, and in 1904 he took up their general line, going wherever his services were required in the interests of the company. In the fall of 1905 he went to Argentina, South America, on a demonstration tour, and the trip covered seven months' time. In the following year he was married, and soon after his marriage took place the company sent him to South America again, his wife accompanying him on this second trip. He was absent about six months. During the year 1907 Mr. Mairs was engaged in demonstration work in the southern states. He remained with this concern until June, 1908, and in the early part of that year he built a grain thresher and separator, embracing various new points of simplicity and improved action, but, failing to protect himself by patents early enough, soon found himself beaten at the inventor's game. In June, 1908, after resigning from the service of the Port Huron Engine & Threshing Company, he purchased his present home, where he fitted up a work shop adjoining and here he carries on a general machine re- pairing business and has a grain thresher, corn husker, silo filler and wood sawing outfit. While in Novi Mr. Mairs was constable for two years, and after becoming a resident of Walled Lake he was overseer of highways for the years 1909 and 1910. In April, 1912, he was elected justice of the peace for a four year term. He was treasurer of the school board for District No. I for the years 1908, 1909 and 1910, and in all these offices he has given valuable service to the township. Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he is an adherent of the Republican party in politics. He attends the Methodist church.
On September 26, 1906, Mr. Mairs married Miss Susie H. Dandison, of Novi, Michigan, the daughter of George and Frances (Holmes) Dandison. She is a graduate of Northville high school, class of 1902, and after her graduation taught school for four years, for the most part in the Bassett district. Mr. and Mrs. Mairs have one child,-George William, born May 5, 1912.
DONALD F. NOBLE. Through a wise and systematic application of his abilities to the profession of his choice, Donald F. Noble has achieved distinguished success as a lawyer, being now one of the leading attorneys of Oakland and one of the leading citizens of Milford. A native of On- tario, he was born in 1870, at Uxbridge, where he received his rudiment- ary education.
In 1893 Mr. Noble was graduated from the literary department of the Toronto University, and three years later was graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan. After practising law at North Baltimore, Ohio, for awhile, he came to Michigan, locating, in January, 1898, in Milford, where he has won success, now practising in all of the courts. Overcoming all obstacles, Mr. Noble has built up a large clientage through his own efforts, his competitors when he came here having been among the leading attorneys of Oakland county, men of knowledge and wide experience. He makes a specialty of criminal law, and has figured in many noted cases, being not only an eloquent advocate, pleading successfully before juries, but a worthy antagonist in any cause, be it civil or otherwise. He has practised in the courts at Pontiac, Howell, Ann Arbor and Detroit, and during his fourteen years' experience in the circuit courts has lost but two cases, a record of which he may well be proud.
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Mr. Noble is a Republican in politics, and was once a candidate for county attorney, but was defeated in the primaries. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is not identified by membership with any religious organization, but attends the Pres- byterian church and contributes generously towards its support. He is a man of broad intellectuality, and still enjoys Latin, which he began to study when a boy. He reads the best literature of the day, and likes both American and English poetry, his favorite poems being Paradise Lost and those written by Byron.
Mr. Noble married Mrs. Della M. Thornhill, a daughter of Stephen Armstrong, of Highland township, Oakland county, and widow of Ed- ward Thornhill, who at his death left her with one child, Edward J. Thornhill, a student in the Milford high school.
JOHN VAN GORDON is a contracting mason of Walled Lake, Oakland county and a native born son of the county, his birth occurring in Com- merce township, upon the farm which his father secured from the gov- ernment when he settled in Michigan in 1829. He was born on August 17, 1852, and is the son of Jonathan and Jane (Shirts) Van Gordon. His parents were New Yorkers by birth, who came to Michigan in early life, spending their remaining days in Oakland county.
The schooling of John Van Gordon was but little, and such as it was came to him in the district school in White Lake township, the farm be- ing located in both townships. He remained on the home place until he was twenty-nine years old, helping his father with the work of the farm, and in that year he went to Muskegon, Michigan, where he began to work at the mason's trade, which has since occupied a good part of his time. While in that city he was married on February 14, 1884, to Miss Eva Colvin, of Holton township, Muskegon county. She was born at Royal Oak, Michigan, and her mother died in her infancy. The father managed to keep his motherless family together, and when Eva Colvin was old enough to assume a share of the responsibilities of the household they went north, where the father took up a tract of govern- ment land. After his marriage Mr. Van Gordon purchased the farm of his father-in-law and worked it for a while, after which he exchanged it for property in Commerce village, making his home there for ten years and working at his trade meanwhile. He next purchased an in- terest in his old family home and lived there for a time, eight years in all, after which he sold out and went to Oklahoma. There he puchased three hundred and twenty acres and conducted a ranch for five years, after which he sold the place and went to Mount Vernon, Illinois, where he remained for three months, and then returning to Walled Lake has here since made his home.
Three children were born to John Eva (Colvin) Van Gordon: Jennie married Charles Sherwood, an Oklahoma rancher; Bertha is the wife of Arthur Pickering, of Detroit, Michigan, and Florence married Hilary Johnson, of Springfield, Colorado. The wife and mother died in March, 1899, and in 1905 Mr. Van Gordon married Mrs. Kate Sherwood, nee Barnett. She was born in England and came to the United States with her parents, who settled near Rochester, Michigan. Mrs. Van Gordon had two children by her first marriage,-Edith and Cecil, both of whom make their home with her. A daughter, Katherine, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Van Gordon on May 2, 1906. Mrs. Van Gordon is a member
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