USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests Volume II > Part 6
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George D. Cowdin's education was obtained in Oakland county, his home, with the exception of a few years which he spent in the West, where he had many interesting adventures. That was in the summers of 1859-60-61, when he was in the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico, traveling, hunting and prospecting.
Upon his return to his home in Oakland county he married, in 1863, Martha Frances, who was born July 1, 1846, in Macomb county, and is the daughter of William Frances.
Five children came to bless their union, namely : Mae; Roy, living in Oxford, engaged in the lumber and coal business, and who spent four exceedingly successful years in the vicinity of Dawson City, Alaska. He married Miss Emma Taylor. The other children are Addison and Frank, who are living at home ; and Ernest, who married Miss Carrie Jenkins, of Oxford township, and has one daughter, Edith. Ernest and his family
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Geo D lowdin
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are now residing at Portland, Oregon. Three of the Cowdin children passed away in early life, namely : Edith, who died at the age of sixteen years ; Merton, who died at the age of nine months ; and Claire died when aged three months.
Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Cowdin located on the farm still owned by them, on which they had erected a comfortable residence. Mr. Cowdin owns and cultivates two hundred acres of good farm land in sections 12, 13 and 14.
Mr. Cowdin is a stanch and active Republican and was elected to the legislature in 1906, where he served one term. He has served a number of terms as supervisor and a long period as justice of the peace, like his father before him. For more than fifteen years he has been the able president of the Monitor Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Oakland county. In addition to being its president, he has been its township agent since the organization of the company and a director until his election to its presidency. This company was organized in 1871, reorganized in 1901, and operates exclusively in Oakland county, where it is held in high regard.
Fraternally Mr. Cowdin is a member of many organizations. He is an active Mason, having joined that fraternity at Oakland when he was only twenty-three years of age. He was master of the lodge there for fourteen years. He also belongs to Groveland Tent, Knights of the Maccabees, at Ortonville, and has been a member of the Grange since its organization thirty years ago, and also of the Farmer's Club, which helped in the or- ganization of the Oxford Club. Mrs. Cowdin is an earnest and active member of the Congregational church, which has found in Mr. Cowdin a liberal supporter.
PHILIP R. ROBERT. Ancestry counts for much in human life, even in this country of prevailing democratic ideas, customs and beliefs. And, although it is an unstable base to stand on without other stays in the way of personal merit or achievement, when they are present, or either of them, it is an additional crop of value, appreciated both by those who have it and those who are without it. In the case of Philip R. Robert, of Pontiac, and his amiable and admirable wife, it is merely an incident, but an important and serviceable one, however little they depend upon it for their own standing among the people of their com- munity. They have been long known to the people of this part of Michigan and are highly esteemed because of their personal merit, and it is the duty of the biographer to show how the history of their re- spective families has run like threads of gold through American chron- icles from early colonial times, and thereby to suggest how true they are to the examples and traditions of their ancestors.
Philip R. Robert was born in Yonkers, New York, on July 24, 1842. He is a son of Philip R. and Frances O. ( Blackwell) Robert. The mother's grandparents at one time owned Blackwell's Island in the East river at New York City and sold it to the city many years ago. Her father. Robert Blackwell. married Elizabeth Jane Moore, a daugh- ter of Nathaniel Moore, and a cousin of Benjamin Moore, Episcopal bishop of New York, and at one time rector of Trinity church at the head of Wall street in our great Empire city. He was also president of Columbia College in that city for a number of years. The father's father, Daniel Robert, lived many years at Yonkers on the Hudson. He married Catherine Coe at Haverstraw. His father was Colonel
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John Robert, of the Patriot army in the Revolutionary war. John's parents were Christopher and Mary Robert. Christopher was long engaged in business in New York City as a banker, and when at length, after an extended and successful career, he retired from business he took up his residence at Flushing, Long Island. His parents, Daniel and Susan (La Roche) Robert, were French Huguenots, and with others of their faith fled from their native land in 1687, after the re- vocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. They came to this country and located in New York City.
Their son Christopher and his wife, whose maiden name was Mary Dyer, were the parents of five children: Daniel, who was educated as a lawyer in Aberdeen, Scotland; Christopher, also educated at Aber- deen, who accumulated a fortune in the practice of medicine in the West Indies, and when he retired from professional work located at Elizabeth, New Jersey; John, the Revolutionary patriot; Mary Eliza- beth, who became the wife of William Rhinelander, a sugar refiner of New York City; and Elizabeth, a maiden lady who died in 1821. Colonel John Robert married Mrs. Rachel (Chatford) Noyelles, the widow of Peter de Noyelles, of Haverstraw, New York. From Haver- straw they moved to Yonkers, and there they reared their two children, Daniel and Mary. He died at Yonkers in 181I.
Robert Blackwell, the maternal grandfather of Philip R. Robert, of this sketch, was the father of five children: James, of New York, who married Charlotte Augusta Mills, daughter of Charles H. Mills, of New York City. Caroline A., who married William Floyd Jones ; Martha, who was the wife of Thomas A. Walker; Frances O., the mother of Mr. Robert : and Robertine, who became the wife of George Irving, a nephew of Washington Irving.
Philip R. Robert, the elder, father of Philip R. of this sketch, was a retired gentleman during the latter part of his life, and he and his wife had large incomes severally. They lived genteelly and gener- ously, illustrating in the uprightness of their lives, their bountiful charity to the needy and their cordial and helpful interest in the wel- fare of their immediate locality and their whole country the best at- tributes of elevated and patriotic American citizenship. They were the parents of six children: Philip R., of Pontiac; Mary, who is the wife of L. P. Williams, of New York City; Edith, who married Sydney Tangier Smith, whose ancestor was a general in the British army, at one time governor of Tangier, Africa, and finally lived retired on Long Island, New York; John F., who was for thirty years a clerk and ac- countant for the Central Mining Company on Lake Superior, and who died in Butte, Montana, in 1910; James Blackwell, who is now a resi- dent of Detroit, Michigan; and William Floyd, who has been dead a number of years.
The particular branch of the Moore family to which Mr. Robert be- longs is descended from Rev. John Moore, who founded Newtown on Blackwell's Island in 1647. The Blackwells arrived in this country in 1656, and the old Blackwell residence is still standing on the island, firm and unshaken by the storms of centuries and undisturbed, as yet, by the march of business. The old Moore homestead, on the old Bow- ery road, near Astoria, was built by a grandson of Rev. John Moore in 1700. It also was still standing in 1902. Rev. John Moore died at Newtown in 1657.
Philip R. Robert, the immediate subject of this review. was edu-
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cated in the city of New York, and for five years was in business in that city. In 1863 he moved to Michigan and became connected with the Central Mining Company on Lake Superior, with which he re- mained nine years. From 1872 to 1878 he was manager of the Atlantic Mining Company on Lake Superior ; from 1880 to 1883, manager of the Elmore Gold Company of Idaho; in 1884 and 1885, manager of the Ray Copper Company of Arizona ; in 1886, connected with a explora- tion of the Black Hills, South Dakota; from 1886 to 1889 manager of the Standing Elk Mine and Smelter in Nevada; in 1889, 1890 and 1891, manager of the Black and Brown Mines in Shasta county, California ; in 1892 and 1893, manager of the Chiapas Mining Company at Chiapas, Mexico; in 1894, connected with an exploration of Arizona and Idaho; in 1895 and 1896, manager of the North Star Mining Company in Ne- vada county, California ; and from 1899 to 1902, manager of the Ad- venture Consolidated Copper Company on Lake Superior.
At the end of this long and highly creditable career in the mining industry, in which he won for himself an international reputation and demonstrated his ability as a mining expert, he determined to retire to private life in his beautiful home on Orchard Lake avenue in Pon- tiac, relieved of all business cares and free to enjoy the association of his family and countless friends, and take some part in matters con- cerning the welfare of the city which he has long looked upon as his final earthly haven and the refuge of his declining years.
Mr. Robert was married in May, 1867, to Miss Etta E. Petrie, a daughter of Charles B. and Nancy M. (Flower) Petrie. They were the parents of two children, their son George A., who died in 1864, and their daughter. Mrs. Robert. Mr. and Mrs. Robert have had five chil- dren : Mary, who died in 1904, was the wife of Morris. E. Elliott, of Pon- tiac; Edith, who died in 1901 ; Bertha V., who is living at home with her parents ; Constance Genevieve, who is the wife of Dr. F. W. Sauer, of Indiana Harbor, Indiana; and Frances O., who is the wife of Edwin S. Harger, of Pontiac.
In politics Mr. Robert is independent, disregarding party claims and casting his vote for the best interests of his community according to his views, but he has served as supervisor for the purpose of doing what he could to advance those interests. His religious connection is with the Episcopal church, of which he has long been a devout and faith- ful member. He is well fixed in a worldly way. Mrs. Robert owns a beautiful home on Orchard Lake avenue in Pontiac, located on one hundred and forty acres of land, all within the city limits. He and his wife stand well in the community socially and have the high re- gard of the people throughout the county for their exemplary and ele- vated citizenship and cordial and helpful interest in everything that pertains to the progress and improvement of their locality and the gen- eral good of its residents.
THOMAS W. MORRISON is one of the best known men in Oxford, where he has lived since 1880, engaged in general stock raising and farming. He is popular and prominent, and takes an active part in the civic life of the community. Mr. Morrison was born in Rochester, New York, a son of James and Mary (Kneel) Morrison, both natives of the Isle of Man. The father was born in 1810 and died in 1852. He was a shoemaker by trade and after coming to this country followed his trade until the time of his death. Four children were born to them-Han-
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nah, Mary, Thomas W. and John, all of whom are deceased with the single exception of Thomas W. of this review.
The public schools of Rochester gave to Thomas Morrison such education as he received. He was little more than a boy when the Civil war broke out, and he immediately enlisted in the Twenty-seventh New York Infantry, with General Slocum's division of the army. His regiment was mustered out in Virginia in 1862, and he promptly re- enlisted in the One Hundred and Eighth New York Infantry. He participated in the first battle of Bull Run, and at Antietam he lost his right arm, receiving such injuries as to keep him in hospitals in Wash- ington and New York for one year. In 1864 he was honorably dis- charged and he returned to Rochester, his old home, where he held va- rious town offices thereafter. He was health officer for a year, con- stable for one year and county coroner for a period of twelve years, and for three years he was engaged in the shoe business.
In 1880 Mr. Morrison came to Michigan, and locating in Oxford, he purchased a farm of eighty acres, which he has since been occupied in operating. He engages in general farming and does some stock- raising, and on the whole is most successful and prosperous.
He is a loyal member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as is also his wife. He is an Independent in his political views, and is one of the best citizens the township claims today.
On September 17, 1867, Mr. Morrison married Miss Violet Sharp.
ALVIN M. KNIGHT. The late Alvin M. Knight, of Pontiac, whose -
enterprising and useful life came to an end on June 1, 1895, at the early age of forty-one, when his plans were reaching their full maturity and there seemed to be in store for him many years of still further and greater usefulness, was a prominent merchant of the city of his last home, and also superintended the cultivation of a farm of one hun- dred acres of excellent land in another part of Oakland county, which he owned and left to his family when he died.
Mr. Knight was born on December 22, 1854, in this county, and was a son of Potter and Marian ( Adams) Knight, both born and reared in the state of New York. They came to Michigan at an early date, and here the father passed the rest of his life as a farmer, an excellent citi- zen cordially and practically interested in the progress and develop- ment of this part of the state of Michigan and the welfare of its resi- dents. He and his wife were the parents of two children, their daugh- ter Helen and their son Alvin, both now deceased.
Alvin M. Knight attended the district school in the neighborhood of his father's farm for his academic education, and prepared himself for business at a commercial college in Detroit, from which he was gradu- ated after a full course of business training. He made his first venture in mercantile life in the dry goods trade at Birmingham in this coun- try. But he did not remain there long, as he soon found out that he needed a larger field of operations to satisfy his ambition and properly employ his faculties to the extent and in the manner he desired.
Accordingly he moved to Pontiac and bought the building in which he afterward conducted a dry goods and general merchandising busi- ness until about six years before his death, when he quit that and turned his attention to the wood and coal trade, in which he was en- gaged when he died. His business block is located on North Saginaw
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street, and is one of the most solid, substantial and convenient in that part of the city, and as imposing in appearance as it is commodious and convenient.
Mr. Knight was successful in all his business undertakings, and ac- cumulated a comfortable competency by his industry, enterprise and business ability, leaving to his family when he departed this life a farm of one hundred acres, two other buildings and some vacant lots in Pon- tiac, in addition to this business block. The residence now occupied by his widow has been purchased by her since his death. It is located at No. 70 Fair Grove avenue, and makes her and her family a very com- fortable and attractive home.
On April 27, 1880, Mr. Knight was united in marriage with Miss Belle Dewey, a daughter of Augustus and Elizabeth (Hixson) Dewey, the former a native of New York state and the latter of New Jersey. Both are living and have their home in Pontiac, the father being nearly eighty-two years old and one of the revered patriarchs of the city. They were the parents of five children, but only two of the five are living, Mrs. Knight and her older brother, George, who is also a resident of Pontiac. The children who died were: Ellsworth, who passed away in childhood, and Della and Ralph.
Mr. and Mrs. Knight had four children, all of whom are living. Arthur B., the oldest, was born on May 12, 1881, and is now assistant cashier of the Oakland County Bank ; Gertrude B. was born on Septem- ber 30, 1883 ; Bruce G. was born on January 17, 1886; and Lela M. was born on November 11, 1890. Gertrude, Bruce and Lela are living with their mother. The father was a Presbyterian in church relations, a Freemason, fraternally, and a Republican in politics. He was highly esteemed throughout the county of his home as a business man and a citizen, and was altogether worthy of the high regard the people had for him wherever he was known.
WILLIAM NARRIN. An eminently useful and esteemed citizen of Oakland county, William Narrin, postmaster at Ortonville, is distin- guished not only for the honored pioneer ancestry from which he is descended, but for the active and intelligent part which he takes in pro- moting the welfare of town and county. A son of George W. Narrin, he was born December 8, 1874, in Groveland township, Oakland county. His paternal grandfather, also named William Narrin, came from the Empire state to Michigan in pioneer times, and having taken up a tract of government land in Oakland county engaged in farming, and for a number of years conducted a hotel in Clarkston.
Born in New York state, George W. Narrin came to Oakland county in boyhood, and in the time that has since elapsed has witnessed wonder- ful transformations in the face of the country, the dense forest having been changed to rich agricultural regions, while the small hamlets have grown to be populous and busy villages, towns and cities. During his active career he was successfully employed in tilling the soil, but is now living retired from active pursuits. He married Abbie R. Moore, who was born in New York, and came with her parents to Michigan in 1868. Of their union three children were born, as follows: John, living on the old homestead in Groveland township: William, the special subject of this brief sketch; and Joseph, who died December 29, 1903.
After his graduation from the Ortonville schools, William Narrin attended Albion College three years, in 1894, 1895 and 1896. In 1897 he
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was appointed postmaster at Ortonville, and in this capacity he has per- formed the duties devolving upon him so promptly, courteously and ef- ficiently that he has been retained in the office ever since, his tenure therein bespeaking his popularity with the general public. Mr. Narrin is a stanch Republican in politics, and has rendered excellent service in various positions, for two years having been supervisor ; for four years was town clerk; for three years, village president ; and for six years he was village trustee. On January 8, 1912, he was elected treasurer of the Monitor Insurance Company, a well-known organization. Fraternally Mr. Narrin belongs to the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons and to the Modern Woodmen of America. Religiously he is identified with the Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. Narrin has been twice married. He married first Estella Addis, who bore him two children, Mary E. and Addis, both of whom died in childhood. She, too, passed to the higher life in early womanhood. Mr. Narrin married for his second wife, Miss Martha Jones, a daughter of Francis and Mary (Bird) Jones, who were born in Michigan, and were the parents of five children, as follows: Nellie, wife of Frank W. Miller, of Mayville, Michigan; Mary, wife of Clyde King, of Pontiac ; Minnie, wife of Frank Johnson, of Fort Collins, Colorado; Martha, now Mrs. Narrin ; and Leo, deceased.
JOHN B. BROWN. Although all the years of his life since reaching manhood and some before he attained his majority, have been devoted to mercantile pursuits, John B. Brown has never allowed himself to be so completely absorbed in business as to neglect the plain duties of citizen- ship in reference to public affairs, but has always been earnest in his interest in the progress and further development of his home city and county, and zealous and effective in his efforts to promote their enduring welfare in every way he could. He has worked for their advancement along wholesome lines of progress as a private soldier in the ranks of development workers, and also as an official charged with the respon- sibility of helping to direct those forces.
Mr. Brown is not a native of Oakland county, or even of the state of Michigan, but his interest in them is as great as if he were. He was born in Rochester, Fulton county. Indiana, on October 3, 1873, and is a son of Angus and Lucy (Chinn ) Brown, the former a native of County Glengarry, province of Ontario, Canada, where his life began on Feb- ruary 14, 1832, and the latter born in Shelby county, Indiana, and reared in Fulton county in that state. The grandfather, Hugh Brown, was a native and life-long resident of Canada. His wife was Christina Brown.
In 1869 Angus Brown, the father of John B., crossed the line into Ohio, and in that state he worked at the carpenter trade and studied medicine. He began the practice of his profession in Rochester, In- diana, where he died on June 15, 1903. In political faith and allegiance he was a Republican, and strong in his devotion to the principles of his party. His religious connection was with the Christian church. He was always true and faithful in his performance of the duties of citizenship, whether they involved the official life of his community or only the ordinary affairs of every day life along the common beaten track, and the people among whom he lived and labored esteemed him as one of their most sturdy and sterling citizens and most representative men.
In 1871 he was united in marriage with Miss Lucy Chinn, a daughter of Chester and Lucy Chinn, who is still living and has her home in
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Rochester, Indiana. They were the parents of four children: William, who was born in November, 1871; John B., whose time of birth is re- corded above; Archibald, who was born on December 7, 1876; and Edna, the time of whose birth was August 7, 1879.
John B. Brown began his education in the public schools and com- pleted it at the high school in Ann Arbor. But he did not remain to complete the high school course. Seeing an opportunity that looked favorable to go into business for himself, he left school to take advant- age of it, and engaged in the book and stationary trade in Pontiac. Later he turned his attention to the cigar and tobacco trade, and in his present merchandising enterprise he combines both lines of commodities.
Mr. Brown is a Republican in his political relations, and as such was at one time a candidate for city clerk of Pontiac, but failed to win the election. But he was afterward twice elected alderman from the Fifth ward of the city. In fraternal life he is connected with the Masonic order, the Order of Elks and the American Insurance Union. His re- ligious affiliation is with the Christian church. Every interest of his community commands his cordial interest and every worthy undertaking designed to advance its welfare has his ardent and effective support.
EDWARD SEVENER. Distinguished not only as one of the prosperous farmers of Ortonville, but as a citizen of prominence and influence, Ed- ward Sevener is actively associated with the development and advance- ment of the agricultural prosperity of Oakland county, a prosperous farming country. He was born October 18, 1869, in Groveland township, of German ancestry.
William Sevener, his father, was born and reared in Germany, and while yet a resident of the Fatherland married Louisa Wheater, a fair German maiden. Soon after his marriage he came to the United States, and for awhile was employed in farming near Lockport, New York. In 1867, impressed with the fact that cheaper and better farming lands could be purchased in the newer states of the middle west, he migrated with his family to Oakland county, Michigan, and for seven years re- sided in Groveland township. The ensuing twenty years he was en- gaged in tilling the soil in Genesee county, from there moving to Orton- ville, where he spent his last days. His wife also died on the home farm. Seven children were born of their marriage, as follows : Amelia ; Charles, deceased; Emma, who died in infancy; William, deceased; Frank, of Genesee county ; Edward, the special subject of this brief biographical review ; and Lewis, of Ortonville.
Beginnig life for himself at the age of nineteen years, Edward Sev- ener rented one hundred and thirty acres of land, which he worked suc- cessfully a number of seasons. Removing then to Ortonville, he was there engaged in mercantile pursuits six years, and after selling his busi- ness was for awhile employed as a clerk. Lured back to the soil, Mr. Sevener then purchased one hundred and ten acres of land, where he carried on mixed husbandry for about seven years. Selling out then at an advantage, he bought his present valuable estate of one hundred and sixty acres in Groveland township, and has since devoted his time and energies to the improvement of his place, carrying on general farming and stock raising under favorable conditions and with highly satisfactory results.
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