USA > Michigan > Ionia County > Memorials of the Grand River Valley > Part 54
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Mr. Page is an unpretentious man, whose air bespeaks native kindliness, and whose geniality invites confidence. Long life and happiness attend him.
SHERMAN M. PEARSALL.
In this article, Mr. Pearsall will partially be allowed to be autobio- graphical.
He was born in Cayuga county, N. Y., Dec. 11, 1817; received a good academic education, and made use of his education as a teacher. He moved to Michigan in 1827; was married Dec. 19, 1841. In Feb., 1843, the memorable cold winter . he located himself at the place where he has since lived. Looking at his fine residence and broad acres, he is happy to feel that things are not as they used to be. when on those same acres he got lost, hunting for his cattle; and when he stubbornly joined issue with the forest trees, and changed the heavily timbered land into fields of yellow grain.
With a strong constitution, not enervated by indulgences, he has o CROSSCUP & WESTIPHLA. never known sickness. With en- ergy to fight the battle of life, he Sherman M. Pearsall. has secured independence. Be- cause he meant to be a man, his townsmen have put him forward, making him one of their leaders.
As a temperance man, he is a pioneer, if not the pioneer in setting the example of not furnishing liquor at a raising. He was told that his large barn could not be raised without liquor. He said, "It shall be, or I will go without a barn." And, as it proved, the prophets of evil slandered Alpine. The barn was raised, and the good people of the town named it " Temper- ance," and departed, giving three cheers-one for Pearsall, one for his barn and a third for his baked pigs.
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Mr. P. has served or rested long in the (in Alpine) sinecure office of justice of the peace. He says: " A more peaceable, quiet town it is hard to find. One of my predecessors, who had served four years, told me he had not had a case of litigation in that time. I have done about the same amount of business. But I have chopped, cleared and fenced one hundred acres of tim- bered land; have never used an ounce of tobacco, or a gill of liquor; have not seen ten days in the last thirty years or more, when I have not been able to do a good day's work; for which I ought to feel a good degree of thankful- ness. I have seen this region changed from a wilderness to beautiful farms. with fine houses, where families have been growing up, and have been educated along side of my own. We have had six boys and two girls. One died in infancy; one son died in the army; one son, seventeen years old, was drowned; one daughter is married and living in Grand Rapids. The rest are at home."
As Mr. Pearsall is still in the vigor of life, we will leave him to work his way a little longer; but will confidently trust, that, as he walks the streets of Grand Rapids, his face will not (like some that could be mentioned), be a red beacon light, warning all who approach-" Go not near the whisky hole! "
Sailing o'er life's fitful ocean, With eye upon the steady pole-star; Giving rocks and shoals a lee-way; Steering by the chart and compass; Safe is gained the wished-for haven.
JOHN W. PIERCE.
October 26th, 1874, was a sad day for Grand Rapids. The announcement of the sudden death of their gen- eral favorite, J.W. Pierce, seemed to . spread a funeral pall over the city. From 1836, he had been identified with the place; every- body knew him, and to know him was to esteem with a feeling alike to love. Socially a favorite-every- body's friend and genial compan- ion, a man above the suspicion of guile; keen, witty and open- hearted, there was a pleasant magnetism about him, that won and retained friends. No one could dislike him. He was a man of shrewd good sense, and of sound business capacity; honest and honorable in all his dealings, eminently social, and hearty in EST.PHILA. his intercourse with others; sim- John W. Picrce. ple in his habits and tastes-in fine, a most lovable, genial gentleman.
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Mr. Pierce was born at Geneseo, N. Y., Dec. 4th, 1814. He had a good academical education; spent his early years in preparation for mercantile business, which business he followed during his life.
He came to Grand Rapids in 1836, as a clerk in the employment of the Hon. Charles H. Carroll, then owner of the Kent plat. He pretty soon opened a book store, the first in the Valley. This book store was at the northeast corner of Kent and Bronson streets, where he remained in busi- ness until 1844, when he embarked in general trade on the corner of Canal and Erie streets, where he erected the first brick store on Canal street. In 1871, his buildings on Canal street were destroyed by fire, entailing a loss of $30,000. Thenext day he said: "It is nothing but property. It has not put a weed on my hat." With characteristic energy and good nature. he set about the work that fire had made a necessity. But it is not our purpose to specify the buildings he erected, or the business he did. John W. Pierce was more known as a man than in his relation to business and money.
In 1842, he married Sarah L., daughter of Col. Roberts. In his family, he was the honored and beloved husband and father. He was always ready to help the publie; was one of those who were always on hand when it was proposed to do some good thing. He held several public offices, but never was in the habit of asking for them. The public knew full well that if they trusted their interests with John W. Pierce, all would be right.
Mr. Pierce was below ordinary size, very athletic, with a finely strung nervous temperament; was simple and temperate in his habits; always ex- emplary in his morals. No one ever suspected that he intentionally could do wrong. His word we all believed, for we knew him.
Such is but an imperfect pen portrait of John W. Pierce. His genial face is shown in the accompanying picture. The present generation will cherish the remembrance of his genial personality.
" Were I so tall as to reach the stars, Or grasp the heavens with a span, Still I'd be measured by my soul, For that's the standard of the man."
So wrote Watts, and so felt John W. Pierce.
ABRAM W. PIKE.
Mr. Pike, whose definition of the rights of the publie over the officers of their creation, has identified his name with an important political axiom, was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 5th, 1814. His early life was spent in humble circumstances on a farm, with but the common school advantages for education. He came into Michigan in 1827. At the age of nineteen he went into a store at St. Joseph, as clerk. He was for a time an assistant in the Indian Mission School at Niles. In 1838 he entered into the employ of the Port Sheldon Company, and was by them placed in charge of their store at Grand Rapids. He was afterwards placed in charge of the property of the company, to wind up their affairs; in which business he spent three years. It is from the recollections of Mr. Pike that the article on Port Sheldon was
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written. In 1844 he took up his residence at Grand Rapids, where he has since resided. Mr. Pike has been twice married; first in 1841 to Miss Elnora Prior, who died in 1853; second to Miss Eliza J. Roberts, in 1855. His business has always been in connection with merchandizing; most of the time as one employed.
He is a man below the common size, active and energetic, social, genial and trusty. It has never been his habit to put himself for- ward, and is no office-seeker. He was city marshal in 1847-8; other- wise he has not been an official character. Still youthful in ap- pearance, heart and action, it is to he hoped that many years may Fass before we miss his genial presence, where the hearty greet- ing of those who have known him long, is sure to meet the response of soul-revealing courtesy
Abram W. Pike.
DR. ALONZO PLATT.
The doctor has been so long at Grand Rapids that he is regarded as one of the city fathers - one of those whose identity with the city began early and has continued until the present time. Now, in a green old age, he and Dr. Shepard are the patriarchs of the medical profes- sion, and long may it be before their shadows shall be less, or be- fore the younger members of that noble profession shall be so lacking in self-respect, as not to doff their beavers in respect to their superiors.
Dr. Platt is a native of Stephen- ton, Rensselaer Co., N. Y., where he first saw the light, January 10, 1806. He was educated at Lenox Academy. Mass., and graduated at the Berkshire Medical School, Dec., 1827. He practiced in his profession two years in Western New York; came to Michigan in 1832; stopped at Ypsilanti one year: removed to Dr. Alonzo Pratt. Ann Arbor, and from thence to Grand Rapids, in 1842. Settled at last, he
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has always remained. And now, with locks unsprinkled with gray, he is still in the practice of his profession; doing all the business he wants to, and enjoying his otium cum dignitate, and well-earned fortune when patients do not need him.
He is willing to give place to younger and more needy mnen; and without envy, bids them God-speed; hoping that having laboriously won for them- selves fortune and respect, they may eventually enjoy old age as he is doing.
It does not seem hardly fair to characterize a man when there is a fair prospect that he will read the article. But there are some things that must be done; and we cannot afford to delay printing this book until all spoken of are dead.
Nature was not very liberal with Doctor Platt. She left him with a poor constitution-with an unconquerable diffidence. What nature denied him, he felt; but an indomitable will enabled him to triumph over natural defi- ciencies, and achieve position as a man among men; and place himself favorably before the public as a citizen and as a physician.
In religion, he is an Episcopalian; and has been for thirty years a warden in St. Mark's Church.
As a man, he is a very modest one, and a good deal less disposed to take on airs than some who don't know half as much. He thinks less of himself than others think of him, and he is now too old to think of reforming.
There, Doctor, I know you will 'not like that; but I could not help it. It is with the writer as it was with the little boy who was repri- manded by his teacher for whistling in school. He said: " I didn't whis- tle; it whistled itself."
WILLIAM T. POWERS.
Mr. Powers is one of the mon who, starting from humble begin- nings, has achieved fortune and po- sition by innate force and deathle s energy. He originated in New HILA. Hampshire; born at Bristol, July Sth, 1820. He had a very limited education; was apprenticed to the William T. Powers. cabinet business; and, as appren- tice, journeyman and proprietor, he worked at that trade until after he came to Michigan. At Lansingburg and Troy he made and lost a little fortune.
He came to Grand Rapids in 1847, with about $500, and commenced busi- ness on a small scale, employing one man. His shop was near the foot of Canal street, on the east side. One year after, he entered into partnership
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with Maurice Ball, and the business was enlarged. In 1851, they built a saw-mill on the canal, and also a cabinet factory, in which were employed about twenty-five men, which number was afterwards increased to forty, or more. This partnership business was successful, and was the basis of the fortunes of both the partners. It was dissolved in 1855.
In 1856, Mr. P. built, at the head of the rapids, the first circular saw-mill in the State. In it he put a machine, of his own invention, for splitting plank into seantling. That was the beginning of the now perfected ma- chinery for splitting and edging lumber.
In 1866, he commenced his great work of improving the water-power on the west side; built the dam, and the canal-expending $100,000. On this he has erected several buildings for manufacturing purposes, saw-mill, brush factory, faucet factory and machine shop.
Near the junction of Canal and Pearl streets he put up several buildings, . which have since been burned and rebuilt. In 1873, he put up the Arcade on which he expended $80,000, exclusive of the lots. So much for Mr. Powers as one developing the material interests of the place. With wealtlı at his command, he does not feel like stopping.
In 1857, he was Mayor of Grand Rapids; otherwise he has never been in public life.
Mr. Powers is a man with strongly marked peculiarities, of great physical strength; as a business man enterprising and daring. He has much of inventive genius. Proper culture would have made him great in that line. He has invented many things of value. These he has reached, not through science, but by his intuitive mental grasp, and by experiment.
Precociously, in 1839, before he was 21, he married Miss Louisa Hall, of Troy, N. Y. She is still with him.
As Mr. Powers is not sufficienty venerable with years to warrant speaking out "right before his face," we dismiss him with this account of his doings. His head is getting somewhat white, but he has not got the old man's privilege. We hope and believe, however, that when in good old age, he shall shuffle off mortality, a very good obituary notice will follow.
LEONARD H. RANDALL.
He was born in Darien, Genesee county, N. Y., Nov., 1829, and his early life was somewhat favorable to mental development. His father was a well- to-do farmer, who gave him a fair chance for a good common education. When 14 years of age, his father changed his residence to Genesee county, Michi- gan, where, having lost his property, he died in 1844, leaving young Leon- ard, a boy of 15, the main stay of the family. This position he held for four years, when a second marriage of his mother left him free to act for himself. His first movement was to improve his education, which the cir- cumstances of the past years had left very imperfect. He started out with a slender purse, walked to Detroit, and returned to the scenes of his earlier years, where he made an arrangement to work for his board and go to school.
At 20 he went into a store in Canada, where he spent three years. Then
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he commenced business for himself in a small way, and was successful - so that, on coming to Grand Rapids in 1857, he had about $5,000 capital. He there went into the grocery trade, mostly as a wholesale dealer. His little capital with which he began, under his sagacious management, has expanded until he is understood to be one of the heavy men of the city, engaged in a diversity of business-lumbering, banking, etc.
The ability of Mr. Randall was soon recognized. In 1871, he was Mayor of the city, in which office he proved himself efficient. Since 1875 he has been city treasurer.
Mr. Randall is still in active business, pushing his own fortune and that of those he has taken under his wing, for it must be confessed, that it is a weakness of his to bring forward and establish as business men, those who are in his service.
If he is not spoiled by being sent to Congress (a thing seriously talked of), the community have much to expect from his business capacity and his public spirit.
HIRAM RHODES.
Mr. Rhodes was one of the pioneers of Ada-coming in 1837; and he always filled a large space in the town, in the double sense of the broad acres he occupied, and per- sonal esteem. An unpretending, simple hearted man, of solid worth and good intellect, he was looked up to as one of the solid men; the leading farmer and a leading citi- zen. Quietly pursuing his own business, he never mingled in the strife for place and position; but felt that home and its associations were more congenial.
He was born in Dutchess coun- ty, N. Y., in 1804. His father moved to Monroe county, N. Y., when he was quite young; and there he shared the rough life and the privations of the pioneers of those days. In 1831, he removed with his wife and one child to Iliram Rhodes. Salem, Washtenaw county, Mich., where, as a pioneer, he resided until he came to Ada. In Ada he located. and occupied some six hundred acres of the best land on the right bank of the Grand River, where he spent the rest of his days. He died October 22, 1856, leaving a wife, two sons and three daughters. One son and two daughters have followed him in death.
Of Mr. Rhodes, there is no brilliant career to record, and no striking deeds characterized his life. In three places he led the life of a pioneer; and he
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had just placed himself where he could say his hard life was over, and where he hoped to enjoy the well-earned independence he had achieved; where he might develop his family-when death took him away.
He was a man above medium size; reticent, and might be mistaken for cold-hearted. He was eminently a family man. With his own, he was reverenced as wise, and beloved as warm-hearted and kind. Few fathers have been more honored, or more deserved esteem and reverence.
WILLIAM A. RICHMOND.
The parents of the subject of this sketch-Jonathan and Rebecca Rich- mond-emigrated from Westport, Mass., to Aurora, N. Y., in the year 1807, performing the long journey through the wilderness on horseback.
They were among the first set- tlers of Cayuga county; and, from the home there established, sent forth, during fifty years, a large family to assist in developing dif- ferent portions of the great West. The eldest son, William, gave his energies through a busy life of thirty-five years, to Michigan; and two of his children have heen identified, for ten years past, with the young and promising State of *4551 Kansas. The next generation may reach the Pacific coast, but the peculiar joys and hardships William A. Richmond. of their forefathers can never be theirs, for pioneering, in its true sense, is numbered among the things of the past.
William Almy Richmond was born in the beautiful village of Aurora, on Cayuga Lake, on the 28th of Jan., 1808. He was educated at the Cayuga Academy, among the faculty of which institution was the honored Salem 'T'own, author of the well-known " Speller and Definer."
The intervals of study were occupied in active exercise with the plow, the hoe, the scythe and the flail; but, while his hands were busy on the farm, his thoughts were longingly wandering to the great busy world which lay out- side his quiet native village. In despair of ever making the lad a practical agriculturalist, his father, in the year 1826, obtained a clerkship for him with Mr. Henry Howard, of Geneseo, Livingston county, N. Y. This Mr. How- ard was subsequently the first State Treasurer of Michigan.
In 1828, lured by attractive reports from the peninsular territory, Mr. Rich- mond, then a young man of twenty, joined an exploring party, and penetra- ted the wilderness as far as the village of Pontiac. Returning to the East, he entered the employ of a silk house in Pearl street, New York city, where
.
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he remained two years; and then, for the same length of time, engaged in the mercantile business on his own responsibility. In the summer of 1834 he came to Michigan, with the intention of locating; but being attacked by the prevailing cholera, and afterwards by bilious fever-the faithful guardian of western wilds-he retreated from the apparently unfriendly soil. In 1836, a strong tide of emigration commenced to flow westward, and Mr. Richmond started once more from Aurora, on horseback, accompanied by Mr. Philan- der Tracy, making the already far-famed Grand River Valley the objective point. They found at Grand Rapids a stirring little trading-post, of perhaps two hundred inhabitants, and there decided to locate. In company with Chas. H. Carroll, John Almy and Lucius Lyon, Mr. Richmond contracted for the so-called Kent Plat, and became an eighth owner therein. In the same year, 1836, he was elected to the convention assembled at Ann Arbor, by proclamation of Gov. Mason, for the purpose of converting the Territory into a State. From that time, Mr. Richmond was identified with the leading in- terests of Grand Rapids, and the State at large, in both business and official capacities.
In 1838, he was appointed by President Van Buren Receiver of the Ionia Land District; and by President Polk; in 1845, Superintendent of Indian Affairs. He served in the State Senate from 1842 to 1845, and one of the im- portant bills passed through his influence was that appropriating 6,000 acres of land for the building of the first bridge across Grand River, at Grand Rapids. In 1850, he was a candidate for the Lieutenant-governorship with Gov. Barry; and he held two commissions as brigadier-general of State mi- litia. Mr. Richmond took an active interest in the extension of railroads within the State, and was for some time one of the directors of the Michigan Southern. Politically he was a democrat, and his religious creed made him a loyal and active churchman. Besides attending to his private business- which was mercantile and banking-he filled the several publie offices to which he was called with acknowledged credit and ability. He was a man of enlightened views, of clear intellect, of sound judgment, of first-class busi- ness talents, and of progressive enterprise. Such a man must necessarily be intimately associated with the growth and prosperity of the section with which he identifies lumself; and the name of William A. Richmond is en- rolled among Michigan's honored pioneers. He died at Grand Rapids, in the summer of 1870, at the age of sixty-two. R. R.
JUSTUS C. ROGERS.
This man is mentioned as one of the earliest settlers of Wyoming, where he has always resided. He is a Vermonter, born Feb. 22d, 1813, at Middle- town, Rutland county. His father was a farmer and tanner; and he, until his majority, followed the same occupations, varying them by attending school or teaching during the winters. At the age of 22 he married Miss Eliza M. French (who still is with him), and set out to find him a home in the West. After a stormy passage on the lake, in which the vessel was stranded, he arrived at Detroit, and from there on foot, with his pack swung on his back,
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he went through Illinois and Michigan, bringing up at the Grand River Val- ley, finally locating at Wyoming, where he has always lived, a re- spected, useful and honorable citizen.
Mr. R. is a man after no model but his own; enthusiastic and ardent in his ideas as a reformer. He has been long known for his zealous antagonism to tobacco - writing, printing, and preaching against its use. He has shown himself an able writer. For & time he was assistant editor of a paper - "The Great Western Journal."
Whatever may be the opinion of others concerning the wisdom of his ideas, all concede that con- viction of right is the only guide of his life and conduct - that as a devoted philanthropist, he Justus C. Rogers. labors alone for the good of mankind. Serious, almost to melancholy, he is always ruled by an overpowering idea. Latterly he has devoted himself to mathematical pur- suits, and especially to the con- struction of more perfect tables of Logarithms. Into this work he throws himself with his pecu- liar enthusiasm, and he is un- doubtedly master of it. Whether it is called for or not by the exi- gencies of science is very prob- lematical. But his full tables, carrying the decimals to fifteen figures, is proof of indefatiga- ble labor and inextinguishable zeal.
He is, and has been, a scientific farmer; clearing up and improv- ing a large farm, and making himself prominent in the Agri- cultural Society, as its Presi- dent, etc.
Leonard Slater.
LEONARD SLATER.
[For a sketch of the life and work of this pioneer inissionary, sce page 301.]
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LEONIDAS SCRANTON.
Mr. Scranton was born June 21, 1822, at Covington, Wyoming county, N. Y. In early life he had the ad- vantage of a good common school education; and in addition, pur- sued his studies in the Academy at Romeo, under Prof. Nutting, having a strong penchant toward mathematics and surveying.
At the age of nineteen, we find him with Wmn. A. Burt, assisting in the survey of township lines in the Upper Peninsula, with whom he learned the practical part of Government surveying. He fol- lowed that business until 1847: either attending school or teaching in the winter. In 1847, he camc to Grattan, and purchased land on Sections 12 and 13.
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In 1845, he was in charge of one of Dr. Houghton's surveying par- Leonidas Scranton. ties in the mineral region of the Upper Peninsula. The Doctor was drowned while conducting this sur- vey.
He was married this year to Miss -. danghter of Ephraim Calkin, of McComb county.
In 1856, Mr. S. was elected Register of Deeds for Kent county, which office he held for four years. While in this office, he, for his own conve- nience, made abstracts of all the titles in the county, on a plan originated by himself; which abstracts, now the property of the county, have been estab- dished by law as " prima facie " evidence of titles. This was rendered neces- sary by the fire which destroyed the county records.
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