USA > Michigan > Men of progress : embracing biographical sketches of representative Michigan men with an outline history of the state > Part 15
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Not having sufficient money to establish himself in practice and being in debt for his education, he entered the employ of the R. L. Polk Co., of Detroit, publishers of direc- tories and gazetteers, visiting nearly all the large cities north of the Ohio, and remaining in their employ until 1886. He then en- tered into partnership with ex-Senator Jacob L. McPeek, at Grand Ledge, under the firm name of MePeek & Clarke, and commenced an extensive and successful practice. The partnership continued five years, when Mr. McPeek was elected Judge of Probate. C'on- tinuing alone until 1897, Mr. Clarke admit- ted a partner in that year, R. A. Latting, and Clarke & Latting still conduct a lucrative practice at Grand Ledge.
Mr. Clarke married Miss Iva J. Graves, of Springfield, Ontario, in 1886, and has two children, Ross D., aged nine, and Pauline, aged seven.
Mr. Clarke is one of the most popular Re-
WILLIAM RADCLIFFE CLARKE.
publicans in his county. He was city attor- ney at Grand Ledge for eight years and a member of the board of aldermen three years. Ilis name has been suggested for Judge of Probate on several occasions. In 1894 the Granger hardware stock was for sale, and Mr. Clarke, looking for a place to invest his money, formed a co-partnership with A. E. Kiser and purchased it, and the Clarke Hard- ware Co., of Grand Ledge, has the largest store of its kind in that city. The success of the company has been due mainly to Mr. ('larke's hard work and good business prin- ciples. Ile is honest and fair in his methods of doing business and this fact has been rec- ognized by all who have had dealings with him, both in his profession as a lawyer and as a merchant. He is also vice-president of the Grand Ledge Canning & Preserving Co., an industry employing many people and shipping goods all over the United States.
Mr. Clarke owns one of the largest law libraries in the country, most of the volumes being text books. He still continues to prac- tice law, his ability and integrity having been rewarded with a large clientage.
88
MEN OF PROGRESS.
ALFRED JAMES MILLS.
MILLS, ALFRED JAMES. Mr. Mills is of English origin, his father, Alfred Mills, having been a dry goods merchant in the towns of Bedford, in Bedfordshire, and Spalding, in Lincolnshire. Alfred J. was born in 1852, and attended school until his sixteenth year, when he came to America, ar- riving in Kalamazoo early in 1870, where he found a position in a drug store, which he filled for a few months. He then entered the law office of Arthur Brown, then a well- known attorney of Kalamazoo, where he read law for four years, and was admitted to the bar. Removing to Paw Paw, he formed a co-partnership with Chandler Richards, under the firm name of Richards & Mills, the con- nection continuing for several years. In 1876 Mr. Mills was elected Judge of Probate for Van Buren county, and was unanimously and by acclamation renominated for the same office in 1880, but declined the honor. In 1881 he was elected judge of the Ninth Judi- cial Circuit, comprising the counties of Kala- inazoo and Van Buren, and in the early part of his term removed to Kalamazoo. Before the expiration of his term, however, he an- nounced that he would not be a candidate for renomination, and at the close of his term re-
turned to the practice of law at the city of Kalamazoo, forming a eo-partnership with J. W. Osborn, the firm being Osborn & Mills.
In 1883 he was chosen a member of the Board of Education of Kalamazoo, serving in that capacity for six years, and was its presi- dent during two years of the time. He was appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the Michigan Asylum for the Insane, at Kalamazoo, by Gov. Rich, serving until the spring of 1899, and was president of the board during nearly two years of his term. He was reappointed a member of the board by Gov. Pingrce in January, 1900. At the spring election of 1900 he was elected mayor of the city of Kalamazoo. He was appointed by the Superintendent of Public Instructions in the fall of 1899 as chairman of the Board of Visitors to the Michigan State Medical Col- leges. He is a trustee of the Michigan Fe- male Seminary and clerk of that board. He is a director in the Puritan Corset Co. and the C. H. Dutton Boiler Co., of Kalamazoo.
Ilis religious connections are Episcopalian, he having been a member of the vestry of St. Luke's Episcopal Church for many years. Po- litically, he has always voted the Republican ticket. He is a member of the Masonic Fra- ternity, including the Knights Templar, and of the Knights of Pythias and Elks.
Miss Florence Balch, daughter of Luther Balch, of Porter, Mich., became Mrs. Mills in June, 1874, four children being the fruit of the marriage-Mrs. C. F. Cole, of Kalama- zoo, and Mabel C., James A. and Helen resid- ing with their parents.
Judge Mills is a hard-working, enterprising man, conscientious both in opinion and action, a close student, of quiek perception and a man in every way worthily representing the intel- ligent and eultured community in whiel his lot is cast. And this reference to the people and city of Kalamazoo recalls an incident which was once related in the hearing of the writer by the late Judge Wells, of Kalamazoo, and with which the sketch may be appropri- ately brought to a close. In the presidential campaign of 1856, Mr. Lincoln, who four years later was elected to the presidency, was one of the speakers at a Republican mass meeting at Kalamazoo. Remarking upon the character of his audience, which presum- ably (externally at least) outranked that of audiences to which Mr. Lincoln had been ac- customed to speak, "Why," said he to Judge W., "they all had clean shirts on."
89
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
WRIGHT, AMMI WILLARD. A na- tive of Vermont, Mr. Wright justly regards with pride and satisfaction his New England parentage, and exemplities in his life the love of freedom, the independence of character, the stern virtucs of patriotism and obedience to law and authority, that are the ruling traits of the people who have so largely given tone to the social and civil institutions of the coun- try. Born at Grafton, Vt., July 5, 1822, but removing with his family at an early age to Rockingham, in the same State, his carly edn- cation was confined to the district school. At the age of 17 he quitted school, spending the next three years in farm work. A year of business experience in the city of Boston fol- lowed. For two years following he engaged in the carrying trade between Rutland, Vt., and Boston, taking produce from the country to the city and bringing back supplies for the local merchants. He next managed a hotel in Bartonsville, Vt., for the proprietor, Jere- miah Barton, and in 1848 married the daugh- ter of his employer, Miss Harriet Barton, and leased his hotel. A year later he became pro- prietor of the Central Hotel in Boston, but came to Michigan in 1850, and in 1851 located in Saginaw, interesting himself in the lumber and timber trade. He first engaged in cutting and running logs, which he sold to the mills. In 1859 he became junior mem- ber of the firm of Miller, Payne & Wright, who bought what was known as the "Big Mill" in Saginaw, refitted it and engaged in manufacturing. It would be impracticable to trace the various co-partnership enterprises in which Mr. Wright was successively (and always successfully) engaged. In 1871 he extended his operations by cstablishing the Inmber firm of Wright, Wells & Co., at Wright's Lake, in Otsego county. A lum- bermen's wholesale supply store at Saginaw, established in 1867 by Messrs. Wright & Pearson, was one of his varied enterprises. The purchase of 30,000 acres of pine land in Roscommon, Gladwin and Clare counties grew out of the last named connection, with some changes in the personnel of the firm. They established a lumbering plant, built 32 miles of railroad, and cultivated a farm of 1,000 acres. In 1882 the A. W. Wright
AMMI WILLARD WRIGHT.
Lumber Co. was incorporated, with a capital of $1,500,000, with Mr. Wright as its presi- dent. This company absorbed most of the large concerns in which Mr. Wright was in- terested.
Led by his tastes, early in his Michigan ac- tivities, he cultivated a large farm in Genesee county. At present he has extensive grazing lands in Texas, Dakota and Montana, and a farm of 2,500 acres near the village of Alma, which village is substantially a creation of Mr. Wright's. And here, by his foresight and open hand have been located a large beet sugar refinery, the Alma Sanitarium-a fa- vorite resort for health and rest-and Alma College, which is rapidly rising to prominence among the educational institutions of the State.
His genius contributed to the building of the Saginaw and St. Louis plank road and the Saginaw Valley & St. Louis Railroad. He has many banking and manufacturing inter- ests in Michigan, Minnesota and New York Statc.
While Mr. Wright's business aptitude pre- sents his stronger points, he is at the same time kind, benevolent and philanthropic and is loved and honored by his business asso- ciates, and especially by his employes and those who may be regarded as in some meas- ure his dependents.
90
MEN OF PROGRESS.
COL. JAMES NYE COX.
COX, COL. JAMES NYE. Our recent war with Spain brought out the military capa- bilities of the men connected with the State Militia of Michigan, and made prominent many of those men who have been identified with State military organizations, better than any other medium could have done.
When the Michigan troops were mobilized at Island Lake in 1898, the work was accom- plished in an excellent manner by Michigan officers, and Col. James Nve Cox, under Gen. Trish, was one of the officers who assisted in forming the Michigan regiments and prepar- ing them for the part they took in the war with Spain.
The Cox family came from England with one Gresham Cox, and James V. Cox, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a sea captain, engaged in whale fishing.
James Nye Cox was born at Fairhaven, Mass., April 10, 1844. His mother was Mercy Nve Howland, a descendant of the old Massa- chusetts family of Nyes. Young Cox at- tended the schools of his native town and afterwards the Wesleyan Seminary at Kent's
Hill, Maine, where he remained until he was almost 18 years of age, and then when, in 1862, Lincoln called for "300,000 more," he enlisted in July in the Third Massachusetts Regiment, Co. I, and was made corporal shortly after joining the regiment. The Third Massachusetts was assigned to the Eighteenth Army Corps, and saw active service in the Carolinas. Nine months after his enlistment Mr. Cox was made second lieutenant in Co. G, Fifty-eighth Massachusetts, and assigned to the Army of the Potomac, First Brigade, Second Division, Ninth Army Corps. He served until the close of the war, participating in many of the brilliant but fierce engage- ments in which the Army of the Potomac fig- ured so prominently. Lieut. Cox was sc- vercly wounded at Cold Harbor and again at Petersburg, and when his regiment was mus- tered out he was first lieutenant and adjutant of his regiment. For five years after the war he was connected with the wholesale tobacco ' trade, working for a firm in New York city and traveling most of the time on the road as a salesman in New York and New England States. In 1870 he was tendercd and ac- cepted the position of junior clerk in the office of the Calumet & Hccla Mining Co., and in 1888 was made clerk of the mine, a position which he still occupies. In 1881 he helped organize the Calumet Light Guard and served as first lieutenant. Lieut. Cox was appointed colonel and aide-de-camp on the staff of Gov. Alger, and later Gov. Luce appointed him on his staff, where he served during the four years of his administration. He was made assistant inspector-general on Brig .- Gen. Lyon's staff in 1897, and is still in that posi- tion. Col. Cox is a member of the G. A. R. and of the Loyal Legion, Michigan Com- mandery. He has taken much of the honors of Masonry, including the Knights Templar, and belongs to Montrose Commandery of Cal- umet, and is a Shriner of Ahmed Temple in Marquette.
He married in 1879 Miss Edith I., daugh- ter of Frederick Mackenzie, of Calumet.
91
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
PARSONS, JAMES M. If our men of middle age and younger may be termed men of progress, those who have progressed to four seore and ten certainly should be. This remark is applicable to Mr. Parsons, who is in his ninety-first year, and has been a resident of Marshall for sixty-six years. Born at West Springfield, Mass., February 23d, 1810, of farmer parents, he alternated his attendanee upon the district school with farm work until fifteen years of age, when under an uncle's eare he went to Lowville, N. Y., where he attended the Lowville Academy, and was a elerk in his uncle's store for six years. Hle then went to Auburn, N. Y., where he was elerk in a general store for a year. Coming to Sandusky, O., in the spring of 1834, he took boat from there to Detroit. After a short stop there he went to Ann Arbor by stage, and from there on horseback to Mar- shall, having less than twenty dollars in his poeket. He soon seeured a situation in a store at Homer, where he remained about a year, having saved during the time some $300. Going then to Marshall, he opened a general store, whiel he eoudueted sueeess- fully for six years. He "whooped it up" for Harrison and Tyler during the memorable log cabin and hard eider campaign of 1840, but with the hard cider left out, as there were no apples in the locality to make eider from. He was appointed postmaster at Marshall in 1841, which place he held for four years. At the elose of his official serviee he accepted a elerkship in Charles P. Dibble's dry goods store, where he remained nineteen years. He then opened a boot and shoe store on his own account, which he condueted sueeessfully for twelve years. He then associated himself with D. S. Beach in the fire insurance business, which he has continued personally sinee the death of Mr. Beach, in 1890, and still eon- tinues.
It will thus be seen that Mr. Parsons has been an active business man at Marshall sinee 1834, a period of sixty-six years. In his busi- ness relations he is identified with the Royal Cyele Company, of Marshall, is a director in
JAMES M. PARSONS.
the Commercial Bank, also at Marshall, and a stockholder in the Parsons Paper Company at Holyoke, Mass. He was village clerk of Marshall for many years before that town became a city. His religious connection is Episcopalian, dating from 1863, when he united with Trinity Church of Marshall. He was made clerk of the vestry in 1864 and has held the position ever sinee, and is also senior warden of the church. He has been an Odd- fellow fifty-seven years ; was formerly a Whig in politics, but has since been a Republican. He has never used tobacco or liquor, his health has always been good, and he is today a re- markably well preserved, bright, aetive and courteous gentleman, which it does one good to meet. Mr. Parsons's domestic life, though less in point of years than his business life, yet greatly exceeded the average, Married in 1836 to Miss Eleanor Dorsey, daughter of Andrew Dorsey, of Lyons, N. Y., they cele- brated their golden wedding in 1886. Mrs. Parsons died in 1890. A daughter, Sarah, who was for twelve years a teacher and six years matron in the State Publie Sehool at Coldwater, and is now keeping house for the father, is, aside from the father, the only re- maining representative of the family.
92
MEN OF PROGRESS.
HON. JAMES SCULLY.
SCULLY, HON. JAMES. Hon. James Scully is classed as the leader in the House of Representatives of the Democrats this session of 1899, and is one of the best and most forcible orators of that body.
He was born in Osceola township, Living- ston county, Michigan, June 13, 1862. His father was a farmer and the boy, as soon as he was able to work, helped in the work- ing of the farm and assisted his mother at her churning. He attended the district schools during the winter months, working in the summers, and later supplemented his dis- trict school education by courses at the Fen- ton Normal School and the high school at Howell, Michigan. Obtaining a teacher's certificate at an examination, he became a school teacher, teaching for five winters in Livingston county, and farming in the sum- mer. He then accepted a school in Cheboy- gan, Michigan, and while in that city con- ceived the idea of becoming a lawyer. He commenced the study of law and while pre- paring for admission to the bar, taught school in order to pay his expenses. He read law in the office of Frank Gaffoney, at Ionia,
and later with Ellis and Miller, at Ionia. After his admission to the bar at Ionia, May 17, 1890, he worked by the month for a time and at last entered into partnership with J. B. Chaddock, under the firm name of Chad- dock & Scully, and since that time the firm has become one of the strongest law firms in the city of Ionia.
In his politics, Mr. Scully is, and has always been, a Democrat. He acted as clerk under Attorney-General Ellis at one time, and in 1884-1885 was township clerk for Osceola township, Livingston county. This was his first political office. During the years of 1892, 1893, 1894 he was city attor- ney for Ionia, and for several years a member of and chairman of the Democratic City Com- mittee. He was elected to the Michigan Legislature in 1896 and served through the term of 1897-1898 to the entire satisfaction of his supporters. He was re-elected to the house of 1898-1899 by a vote of 2,215 to 2,156 for John D. Dougherty, Republican. Mr. Scully was the only successful Democrat on the ticket in Ionia county.
Mr. Scully is justly proud of his work in building his own life, for he has never been ashamed to turn his hand to any kind of manual labor, and feels that he has attained his present position through his own efforts. He is not the only one in his family that has taken a part in the history of this state, for his mother's father, James Gleason, was a member of the Michigan Legislatures of 1853-1854. The elder Scully came to this country from Ireland and was one of the early settlers in Michigan, taking up the tract of ground where his son was born and clear- ing it himself for farming purposes.
James Scully is a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Modern Wood- men, both of Ionia, Michigan, and also a member of St. Peter and Paul's Catholic Church of Ionia.
He is looked upon with respect in the house as a man of sharp wit and a ready orator. Both sides of the house admire him, and he has many friends throughout the county.
93
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
HOSKING, WILLIAM HENRY. Wil- liam Henry Hosking is one of the leading Republicans of Houghton County, and also one of the leading merchants of Calumet, Michigan, where he owns and manages the mercantile business of Hosking & Co., whose general store is one of the largest in that city.
Mr. Hosking is of English birth, having been born November 10, 1859, in Tyward- reath, England. His father, Wm. Hos- king, came to this country from Cornwall, England, and located in Keewenaw County in 1863. Here he found work on the Phoe- nix mine, and in 1865 was in a position to send for his family. When young Hosking reached the proper age was sent to the so- called district school near the mines, but at the age of 13 he was put to work tending the rock crusher at the rock house of the Atlantic mine, where his father was employed. His first salary was $28 a month, quite a good salary for a boy of 13, but later a cut was made and he was paid only $20 a month. While engaged in this employment he met with an accident and one of his legs was broken. This laid him up for some time.
When he became 15 years of age he was sent to school at Honghton, Michigan. This school was four miles down the hill from the Atlantic mine, and the boy walked that distance night and morning. After finishing at the Houghton school he was employed as a porter in the Atlantic mine store. The fol- lowing ycar he earned $10 a week and during the eight years he remained with the company he was promoted every year until in 1883, when he severed his connection with the busi- ness. At this time Mr. Hosking held the position of head clerk and buyer. He then left the Atlantic minc store to take charge of the Central mine store in Keweenaw county, where he only remained one year, leaving to become manager for William Walls & Co., at Calumet, a position he held for three years.
He had saved considerable money during all these years, and now, in company with M. J. Culnan, he branched ont into business for himself, purchasing the stock of William
WILLIAM HENRY HOSKING.
Walls & Co., and eommeneing business under the firm name of llosking & Culnan. The firm condueted a successful business in dry goods and furnishings for three years. Hos- king had invested all his savings, some $2,000, in the venture and gone into debt some $2,500, but the business thrived and in 1890 Mr. Hosking sold out his interest in the firm and went into business alone, and today he is the owner of one of the most thriving mercantile houses in Calumet. At the present writing he is holding the office of postmaster at Calumet, to which he was appointed Octo- ber 1, 1897. He was treasurer of Calumet township for two years.
Mr. Hosking married in 1885, Miss Annie M. Walls. daughter of James Walls, a mer- chant and mining man of Hancock, Michi- gan, and two little girls, Ethel and Eloise, have been the result of that union. Both of them are attending school in Calumet. Mr. Hosking is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the Sons of St. George, an order that has many representatives in this country, and of the Knights of the Maccabees.
94
MEN OF PROGRESS.
RANSOM E. OLDS.
OLDS, RANSOM E. Ransom E. Olds, now of Detroit, Mich., president and general manager of the Olds Gasoline Engine Works at Lansing, and of the Olds Motor Works, of Detroit, Mich., was born June 3, 1864, in Geneva, Ohio. His father was a machinist, and from his early youth the boy was brought up around machinery of all kinds until he learned to become familiar with that trade and acquainted himself with all sorts of mechanical work, for which he seemed naturally adapted. He attended the schools of Cleveland, and in Lansing his education was completed. After leaving school he pur- chased a half interest in his father's shop and foundry, making a first payment of $300 with money he had earned working during his holi- days and vacations.
The year after he entered the shop with his father as a partner the little shop, 18x26, was found to be too small to accommodate the growing business, and a new site across the street was purchased, and a two-story building, 25x110, erected. In two years' time business increased so that the facilities had to be again enlarged, and from this time on the gasoline engine and boiler became one
of the main articles manufactured by the firm. In 1890 the company was made into a corporation with a capitalization of $50,000, and Ransom E. Olds was made general man- ager of the entire plant and its business. The business still increased, and the company's output was forwarded all over the United States and Great Britain. In 1894 the new gasoline engine was patented and put on the market, and their manufacture requiring new machinery and a larger area of factory space, 10,000 more feet was added to the floor space, and the required machinery was placed in operation in the plant. About this time the remaining interest of the elder Olds was purchased by the son, the father's health being slightly impaired and causing his retirement. In October, 1898, the company's capital was increased to $150,000, Ransom E. Olds continuing as president and general manager.
The present plant is one of the most com- plete and modern in the United States. It is supplied with all up-to-date appliances for the handling of heavy machinery, traveling eranes, etc., and the annual output brings in returns averaging $200,000 annually. The business ranks as one of the largest plants of this kind in the United States. In 1887 Mr. Olds invented and constructed a horseless carriage with a gasoline engine for motive power. This has been improved upon and re- constructed, and in 1892 a successful vehicle was made and shipped to Bombay, India. In 1896 the present style of automobile made its appearance, resulting in the organization of the Olds Motor Works of Detroit, with a capital of $500,000, for their manufacture.
A new plant was built on Jefferson avenue, Detroit, with a floor space of about two and one-half acres, with every facility found in an up to date works. Mr. Olds gives both Lansing and Detroit plants his personal atten- tion, and his success can be attributed to his patient and untiring will in one line.
Mr. Olds married Miss Metta Woodward, daughter of Joseph D. Woodward, of New York state, at Lansing, Mich., June 5, 1889. He has two children, Gladys and Bernice, aged, respectively, seven and five years.
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