USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph County, Michigan; Volume II > Part 27
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Mr. McKindley, the subject, is a sound and unfaltering Re- publican, who cast his first vote for the martyred president, James A. Garfield, and has supported each Republican candidate since that time. He is the great friend of good schooling and has served upon the board of directors of the public schools for twelve years. His fraternal relations extend to the A. F. & A. M., Mendon Lodge, No. 137, of which he has been an officer. Both he and his wife are members of the Mendon Eastern Star in which order the latter holds the office of Ruth. They are members of the Methodist church and aided financially in the erection of the beautiful place of worship at Mendon. Mr. McKindley is one of its board of trus- tees and Mrs. McKindley is a member of the Ladies' Aid Society and a teacher in the Sunday school. They stand high in the esteem of those who know them best and this record will be cherished in the years to come.
HERBERT W. HAGERMAN is one of the prominent business men of Sturgis, a real estate and insurance dealer. He is a son of Will- iam and Lucy (Bentley) Hagerman, and he was born on their farm in Florence township, St. Joseph county, February 9, 1860. His paternal grandfather, John Hagerman, located in section 18 of Florence township in 1836, and he was a successful farmer there. Vol. II-17
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William Hagerman became well known as a raiser and distiller of peppermint, and in his family were three sons and three daugh- ters, but only three are now living: Frank, living in Constantine; Annetta, the wife of Frank Keasey, of Jackson, Michigan; and Herbert.
Herbert W. Hagerman was reared on a farm in his native township of Florence, and became the owner of two hundred and forty acres of land there, but in 1887 he left the farm to engage in the drug and grocery business and in 1894 he came to Sturgis to take up the real estate and insurance business. He has been very successful in his operations here, and stands among the leaders of the industrial interests of his city. He owns his property here, and he has served Sturgis seven years as the supervisor of its Second ward, nine years as the secretary of its school board and he has also served as the secretary of the Sturgis Improvement Association. He has also served three terms as the county commissioner, and was a former nominee of his party, the Democratic, for the office of representative. He is a member of Meridian Sun Lodge, No. 495, F. & A. M., and also of the fraternal order of Maccabees.
HENRY LEE ANTHONY is the cashier of the First National Bank of Sturgis, one of the strong financial institutions of St. Joseph county. He was born at Bedford in Calhoun county, Michi- gan, November 9, 1843, and he traces his descent to the fatherland of Germany, to William Anthony, who was born in the city of Cologne of that country in the fifteenth century. He was the father of John Anthony, the founder of the Anthony family in America. He settled at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and among his children was Abraham Anthony, born in 1650. Abraham had a son William, born October 31, 1675, and among the sons of William Anthony was Jonathan, born in 1733. Jonathan Anthony mar- ried Elizabeth Good, born in 1757, and they were the parents of David Anthony, born May 25, 1809. This David Anthony became the father of H. L. Anthony of this review. He was a native son of the Empire state of New York, and with his wife, nee Cynthia Maynard, he came to the west and located on a farm in Calhoun county, Michigan, about the year of 1835. In later years he took up contracting and erected many farm buildings.
H. L. Anthony, a son of David and Cynthia Anthony, was born and reared on his father's farm, receiving in the meantime a district and high school training. While attending the Battle Creek high school the Civil war broke out, and young Anthony en-
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listed in September of 1862 and was made a member of Company A, Seventh Michigan Cavalry, which joined Custer's Brigade and the Army of the Potomac. He was honorably discharged at the close of the war, leaving the ranks in December of 1865. His war record is one of which he may well be proud, and which will ever redound to his credit as a loyal son of America. With his regiment he took part in thirty-five battles, and on the 19th of October, 1863, he was wounded and confined in a hospital during the follow- ing six months. He was discharged from the service as a second lieutenant. During the year following his return from the war Mr. Anthony continued his studies, and in June of 1866 he came to Sturgis as a teacher of penmanship. From 1873 until 1895 he was in business for himself as a druggist, and among other invest- ments became interested in the National Bank as one of its stock- holders, and in 1895 he was made the cashier of the institution, and has ever since served in that capacity.
In 1871 Mr. Anthony was married to Emma A. Morse, who died three months after her marriage, and in 1875 he wedded Lou- isa M. Pinney. A daughter, Mary E., was born to them in Febru- ary of 1886. She is a graduate of the Sturgis high school, was two years at Albion College and is now the wife of George B. Hunt, of Battle Creek. Mrs. Anthony died on the 26th of December, 1907. Mr. Anthony usually affiliates with the Republican party, but is known as an independent in politics, and has served as a member and as the president of the board of supervisors. He has attained a high place in the ranks of the Masonic fraternity, becoming a Mason in April of 1870, while in April of 1871 he became a Royal Arch Mason, in both of which bodies he has passed all the chairs, and in January of 1872 became a Knight Templar. On the 12th of March, 1880, he was made the eminent commander, and was elected warder of the Grand Commandery in 1893-4. He served through all the offices in the Grand Commandery up to its highest place as Right Eminent Grand Commander, and is now serving his eleventh year as grand recorder. He is also a member of Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Masons in the Valley of Grand Rapids. Mr. Anthony is not a member of any religious denomination, but attends the services of the Presbyterian church.
JOHN B. WOODMAN, of Burr Oak, St. Joseph county, was born in New Hampshire, December 21, 1835, and is a son of Ira and Phebe (Morrison) Woodman, both natives of New Hampshire. Ira Woodman was born in 1810 and died in 1892, in the house where he
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was born. His wife died in 1839, at the age of twenty-five years, and he married for his second wife Betsy Jane Wiggins, also of New Hampshire. He had but two children by his first marriage, John B. and an infant that died unnamed. By his second marriage his children were: Sarah Elizabeth, educated at New Hampton Institute, is unmarried and lives on the old home; Alice, wife of George Leavitt, a New Hampshire farmer, has five children; Charles C., married Miss Mason, lives in New Hampshire and has two daughters. Ira Woodman was a Democrat in political views and served as justice of the peace, and a member of the State Leg- islature. He and his wife were members of the Baptist church.
John B. Woodman became clerk in a store when eighteen years of age, and in the spring of 1859 went to California, where he became clerk in the Vernon House, of Sacramento and remained four years. He then removed to Nevada, where he worked some time as book-keeper and collector for a wholesale firm, later was em- ployed in the postoffice at Virginia City. He worked as book- keeper in a meat market in Virginia City and later conducted a market of his own at Gold Hill, Nevada. In 1873 he located at Burr Oak, Michigan, where he carried on a farm ten years and then retired and settled in town. He sold his farm and now owns the public scales of Burr Oak, and takes care of them. He makes his home with his daughter, Mrs. Bordner.
Mr. Woodman takes an active interest in public affairs, and is a Republican in his political views. He held the office of justice of the peace seven terms of four years each, served two terms as supervisor and one year as school inspector. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has held all offices in the lodge. He is a public spirited and useful citizen, and well known throughout the community, where he is highly esteemed.
Mr. Woodman married in Virginia City, Nevada, March 31, 1865, Sarah, daughter of Israel and Minerva Slocum, of Burr Oak, Michigan, born February 2, 1836, and died January 5, 1894. They had children as follows: Frank R., born November 10, 1869; Harry, born February 21, 1871, died in infancy; Ira G., born August 8, 1874; Vinnie M., born September 28, 1876. Frank R. Woodman is a painter and lives in Burr Oak; he married Lucinda Marvin and has two daughters. Ira G. Woodman is a laborer and lives in Three Rivers; he married Mabel Parkinson, and has one daughter. Vinnie M. is the wife of Guy D. Bordner, cashier of the First Na- tional Bank of Burr Oak and they have three children, Howard,
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born June 23, 1903, Dorothy, born August 25, 1907, and John B., born November 18, 1909.
FRANK L. BURDICK .- A spirit of distinctive enterprise and progressiveness has dominated the business career of this influen- tial and honored citizen of St. Joseph county, and his initiative power has been such as to enable him to achieve marked success in connection with the business and industrial interests with which he has allied himself and in the administration of whose affars his fine executive ability has been called into effective play. He is secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Sturgis Steel Go- Cart Company, which has a large and well equipped manufactur- ing plant in the city of Sturgis and which represents one of the most important industrial enterprises of St. Joseph county. He also has other capitalistic interests of importance and is one of the substantial business men of the county in which he has long main- tained his home and in which he holds an inviolable place in pop- ular confidence and esteem.
Frank L. Burdick was born on a farm in Jamestown township, Steuben county, Indiana, on the 30th of July, 1846, and is a son of Jared and Lurancy (Franklin) Burdick, natives respectively of Vermont and Connecticut. His father was one of the sterling pio- neers of Steuben county, where he reclaimed a farm from the syl- van wilds and where he was long a citizen of prominence and influ- ence, commanding the unequivocal esteem of all who knew him. He passed the closing years of his life in Hillsdale county and was about seventy-eight years of age when summoned to eternal rest. His wife was about seventy-two years of age at the time of her death, and of their twelve children, seven are now living. Frank L. Burdick, of this review, was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and imbibed deep draughts from the generous chalice ever upheld to those who thus live close to nature "in her visible forms." After completing the curriculum of the common schools of his na- tive county he found opportunity to realize his ambition for fur- ther educational discipline. Though appreciative of the dignity and value of the great basic industry of agriculture, he had a pre- dilection for other lines of endeavor than that to which he had been reared, and his higher educational work tended to fortify him properly for business life. At the age of nineteen years he entered the commercial department of the Commercial College at Ann Ar- bor, in which celebrated institution he was graduated in 1865, and from which he received the degree of B. A.
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After leaving the university Mr_ Burdick located at Cambria, Hillsdale county, Michigan, where he engaged in the general mer- chandise business, and in this line of enterprise he continued to be associated with his brother-in-law in that county for three years, under the firm name of Gilbert & Burdick, after which time he bought the business and the following ten years the firm was F. L. Burdick. He finally disposed of his interests at Cambria and for somewhat more than two years thereafter he was a traveling sales- man for the wholesale dry-goods house of C. L. Luce & Company, of Toledo, Ohio. He then located in Mendon, St. Joseph county, Michigan, where he engaged in the mercantile business and built up a large and flourishing enterprise. His establishment gained wide reputation and drew a large trade from the fine territory trib- utary to the little city of Mendon. There he continued operations for thirteen years, at the expiration of which, in 1883, he removed to Sturgis, where he opened a large department store. His long experience, enterprising policy and progressive ideas enabled him to make this establishment one of the most extensive and substan- tial mercantile houses of the county, and his name became known as that of one of the most successful retail merchants of this sec- tion of the state. It will be noted as somewhat of a coincidence that he was engaged in business at Cambria, Hillsdale county, for thir- teen years; was at Mendon for thirteen years, and the record of his identification with the retail merchandise business in Sturgis covered the same period of time. It is evident that Mr. Burdick has no superstitious fear of the unlucky number, and his pro- nounced success during the insistent "thirteen" intervals is a grat- ifying refutation of the dire prophecies so often made in connec- tion with the popularly disfavored numeral. Thus, at the expira- tion of thirteen years of most successful operation, in 1906, Mr. Burdick disposed of his mercantile interests in Sturgis, and on the 26th of December of that year he became a stockholder and execu- tive officer of the Foyer Manufacturing Company, of which he be- came general manager in the following January. This company had established a factory in Sturgis and had engaged in the manu- facturing of collapsible, metal go-carts for children. Under the ac- tive and discriminating management of Mr. Burdick the enterprise was rapidly pushed forward and the scope of its operations was greatly extended. In July, 1907, the business was reorganized and under the title of the Sturgis Steel Co-Cart Company, was duly in- corporated under the laws of the state. The collapsible go-carts or carriages manufactured by this company are of original design
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and have recognized superiority over other devices of similar order. In attractive appearance, minimum weight and facility of adjust- ment, they are so effective as to constitute their own best adver- tising, and the trade of the company now places demands that practically test the large capacity of the well equipped plant. Largely through the personal efforts of Mr. Burdick the commer- cial growth of the business has been insured, and the products of the factory now find sale not only throughout the United States but also in every foreign nation on the globe. The executive corps of the Sturgis Steel Go-Cart Company is as here noted: Martin E. Aulsbrook, president; Jerrald F. Walton, vice president; and Frank L. Burdick, secretary, treasurer and general manager. In addition to these officers the directorate includes Christopher S. Spofford and Augustine B. Tennent. Mr. Burdick has also other large capitalistic interests, and in this connection it should be noted that he is the largest stockholder and also vice president of the Branch County Savings Bank, at Coldwater, Michigan, a substan- tial institution that was organized through his personal efforts and that is fortified by his mature business judgment and his own capi- tal.
In politics Mr. Burdick is found arrayed as a stalwart sup- porter of the principles of the Republican party, and both as a business man and as a loyal citizen he has ever given his influence and material support to those agencies and measures that have been projected for the general welfare of the community. He has never been a seeker of political office but is essentially a broad-minded, liberal and public-spirited citizen. He has achieved a large and worthy success, but has not hedged himself in with the affairs of business, and his genial personality, sterling integrity and tolerant views have gained to him unqualified confidence and regard. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, is affiliated with the time- honored Masonic fraternity, and holds membership in various civic organizations of representative order.
Mr. Burdick has been twice married. In 1847 he wedded Miss Emma Merritt, who was born in Wisconsin, and reared in the state of Michigan, and who was a daughter of Isaac Merritt. She was summoned to the life eternal, and of the three children two are living : Carrie E. is the wife of Augustine B. Tennent, of Sturgis; Lura L. is the wife of Hall M. Slemons, of Monrovia, California; and Leo J., the only son, died on the 25th of April, 1904, at the age of twenty-nine years, one month and one day.
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At Three Rivers, Michigan, on the 11th of January, 1882, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Burdick to Miss Fannie E. Mussel- white, who was born in Kinderhood township, Branch county, Michigan, on the 3d of December, 1853, and who was a daughter of John and Mary A. (Wood) Musselwhite, both of whom were na- tives of London, England. Mrs. Burdick died in Grace hospital, in the city of Detroit, on the 1st of November, 1907, of uraemic poison and exhaustion following an operation. She was a woman of most gracious personality and the following extracts from an apprecia- tive article appearing in a Sturgis paper at the time of her death are worthy of perpetuation in this connection: "With the respon- sibility of the home came that of mother to Mr. Burdick's three children, and no mother ever gave to her own children more de- voted attention, while her untiring effort in their behalf was re- warded with their love and tenderest devotion. No personal sacri- fice was too much or care too great for her to undertake for those she loved. Her whole life was devoted to loving service for her family and friends." No children were born of the second mar- riage of Mr. Burdick.
THEO T. JACOBS has attained a representative place at the bar of St. Joseph county, and is practicing in his home city of Sturgis, where he was born on the 8th of December, 1874, to Thomas H. and Mary A. (Hall) Jacobs, both yet living in Sturgis. The son, Theo, passed through the graded and high schools of Sturgis and gradu- ated with its class of 1894, and in the fall of the same year he matriculated in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. com- pleted the regular four years' course and graduated from its law department in 1898 and with the degree of LL. B. While at the university he distinguished himself by winning the Governor Pin- gree prize in Obsolete Law contest.
On the 1st of August, 1898, he opened his law office in Sturgis, and has since practiced here, having been retained in the meantime as counsel in important litigated interests. From 1902 until 1904 he served as a circuit court commissioner, and he was five times elected the clerk of Sturgis, finally resigning the position to enter the office of prosecuting attorney of St. Joseph county to which position he had recently been elected, and was re-elected to suc- ceed himself in the fall of 1907, making four years that he served his county in that capacity. The following excerpt from a St. Joseph county paper shows the esteem which Mr. Jacobs commands :
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"We do not believe that the only time an official is deserving of comment is just previous to an election, when he generally pays liberally for it, but more so when he is in the midst of official af- fairs, laboring to carry out the desires of the people and when it comes unsolicited. If ever a young man was deserving of the ap- preciation of the people of the county he is Prosecuting Attorney Theo T. Jacobs for his vigorous efforts in trying to enforce the liquor laws. There are now eight cases pending in the circuit court for violation of this law in the county and it is apparently a fact that the prosecutor intends to put a stop to the loose manner in which saloons are run. And we believe that where he may make one enemy by doing this he will gain dozens of friends by perform- ing his duties in a fearless manner."
Mr. Jacobs has a complete law and literary library comprising about one thousand four hundred volumes.
MORRIS D. WOLF .- It cannot be other than gratifying in view of the nomadic spirit, which is growing to animate all classes of American citizens, to find a locality in which are to be found citi- zens of worth and prominence, who have passed their entire lives in the localities in which they were born and who com- mand the respect and esteem of those who have been familiar with their entire careers. In the older settled sections of the far east we find many instances in which property has been held from gen- eration to generation by one family, and where the old homestead signifies something more than mere names but in the middle and western states this condition has not been so pronounced. In St. Joseph county, Michigan, however, are to be found many repre- sentatives of families who here initiated the work of reclaiming the virgin wilderness and who here made for themselves homes which their children and grandchildren are glad to retain. One of the worthy scions of pioneer stock in St. Joseph county is Mr. Wolf and he has well upheld the standard for which the name has ever stood exponent, the while he has, like his father and grand- father, contributed his quota to the civic and industrial progress and upbuilding of this section of the state.
Morris Daniel Wolf was born on the old homestead farm in Lockport township, St. Joseph county, on the 7th of July, 1857, and is the second in order of birth of the three children of John F. and Nancy D. (Gibson) Wolf. The other surviving child is Ella M., who is now the wife of Dr. W. E. Clark, who is engaged in the practice of his profession in the city of Three Rivers and who is
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one of the representative physicians and surgeons of St. Joseph county. John F. Wolf was born in Columbia county, Pennsylva- nia, on the 1st of January, 1825, and his death occurred on the 17th of November, 1893. He was but nine years of age at the time of his parents' removal to Michigan and the family became numbered among the prominent pioneers of St. Joseph county, which sec- tion was then an untrammeled sylvan wild, in which the Indians still disputed dominion with the beasts of the forest. The Wolf family made the long and weary trip from Pennsylvania to Michigan with teams and wagons, passing through the moun- tains and forests and across swampy lands in Pennsylvania and Ohio and finally reaching their destination. The father of John F. Wolf secured a tract of land from the government in what is now Lockport township and there established his home in the year 1834, about three years prior to the admission of Michigan to the Union. The government deed to his land is now in the posses- sion of the subject of this review and is not only a valued heirloom but is also a document that is worthy of preservation in the ar- chives of the county. The deed bears date of December 1, 1835, and bears the signature of General Andrew Jackson, who was then president of the United States. Grandfather Wolf made a clearing on his farm and there erected a log house of a primitive order common to the pioneer days. Settlers were few and widely sepa- rated and the farmers of the early days had to make the trip to Detroit in order to find facilities for grinding their grain, while lumber was secured from Grand Rapids, a point still further dis- tant. John F. Wolf was reared to maturity in St. Joseph county and as a youth and man lived up to the full tension of the pioneer days, enduring his share of hardships and vicissitudes but finding satisfaction in the cumulative profit through his identification with the development of the agricultural resources of this now favored section of the Wolverine state. His educational advantages after coming to Michigan were those afforded in the pioneer schools, whose facilities were necessarily meager, and he assisted in the up- building of the county, in which he continued to reside until his death and in which he ever held a secure place in popular confi- dence and esteem. It may be noted that the Wolf family is of stanch German origin, the original progenitors in America com- ing from Würtemberg, Germany, in the year 1771, and establish ing the home in the state of Pennsylvania. It is widely recognized that the German farmer has stood as the highest type in the matter of industry and good judgment and excellent management, not
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