USA > Michigan > Men of progress : embracing biographical sketches of representative Michigan men with an outline history of the state > Part 22
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Mr. Campbell has always been a staunch Republican, and has held many minor township offices. In 1876 he was put up by his party as a candidate for the Senate, but was defeated. Ten years later he was re-nominated for the same office, but was beaten in the race by James Gorman. In 1896 the Republicans again placed Andrew Campbell's name before the voters of that
IION. ANDREW CAMPBELL.
district. and he was elected to the Sen- ate of 1897-98 against his own consin, J. E. MeDougal, who was the opposing candi- date. Mr. Campbell was a delegate to the National Farmer's Congress at Chicago, Parkersburg, West Virginia, Nashville, At- lanta and Boston. He is one of the first advo- cates for the good roads system, and a delegate from this state to all national conventions. He is also one of the original founders of the Grange in this state, and has been a member since 1873.
Mr. Campbell married Miss Catherine Fisher, daughter of Daniel Fisher, and named after General Lawion's mother, at Superior, Michigan, October 26, 1859. Ile has five chil- dren. Robert Campbell, his eldest son, is a lawyer, practicing at Jackson, Michigan, innior member of the firm of Parkinson & Campbell: Anna married Rev. A. J. Covell, of Lynn, Massachusetts; Daniel F. is an attor- nev at Fort Worth, Kansas; Catherine, a teacher in the public schools at South Bend, Indiana, and James A., a student at the U. of M.
146
MEN OF PROGRESS.
HON. FRANK SHEPHERD.
SHEPHERD, HON. FRANK. Frank Shepherd is another in the long list of men who have paid their own way through school and fought through difficulties to a place in the front ranks of the leading professional men of this State. He was born in Dover township, Lenawee county, Michigan, Janu- ary 28, 1853. Ilis father, James II. Shep- herd, was a farmer living near Adrian, and his grandfather was the Rev. Paul Shepherd, a pioneer of this state and afterwards of Kansas. His mother was a member of the McMath family of New York and Michigan. The young man attended the district schools of Dover township and later the school of a neighboring village, working as a farm hand during the summer months to pay for his win- ter's tuition and board. There were four boys in the Shepherd family, and one day Frank informed his family that there were enough to work the 60-acre farm without him, and that he did not intend to spend his days there, so he secured a teacher's certificate and turned teacher. He taught school all during the fol- lowing fall and winter, and spent his vacation on the farm. He then became a student at the State Normal in Ypsilanti, taught again
during vacation and carrying out the same plan, attended Adrian and Oberlin Colleges. His parents were not in a position to assist him, so he taught school to pay his way through col- lege. After five years of this life he found cm- ployment as a clerk at Adrian, and then en- tered the law office of the firm of Stay & Un- derwood, of that city, as a student, and re- mained with them until he was admitted to the bar in 1878. The following year he removed to Cheboygan, Michigan, where he spent his first year and his savings in an effort to build up a law practice. For some years prior to Jan. 1, 1900, he was the senior member of the firmn of Shepherd & Rielly, of Cheboygan, and is now circuit judge of the twenty-ninth judicial circuit.
In politics, Mr. Shepherd is a Republican. He was prosecuting attorney of Cheboygan county 1880-1884, appointed judge of Probate Court in 1886 and elected to same office in 1888, and was a member of the Board of Con- trol of Upper Peninsula Prison in 1890-91, and elected to the Legislature as representative from the Cheboygan district in 1897-98 by a vote of 4,021 to 3,409 for James F. Maloney, Democratic-People's Union Silver candidate. During this term of office he acted as chairman on the committee on roads and bridges and served on the judiciary committee. Mr. Shep- herd was re-elected to the house in 1898 and was chairman of the judiciary committee. In the spring of 1899, while still in attendance at the session of the Legislature, he was nomi- nated by the Republican convention and clected circuit judge of the thirty-third judi- cial circuit by over 650 majority. He took his seat January 1, 1900.
In February, 1879, Judge Shepherd mar- ried Miss Susan, daughter of James A. McMil- lan, at Deerfield, Michigan. They have three children: James F., Mary Ethel, and George Ralph, and have lost one-Katharine-by death.
Judge Shepherd is a Chapter Mason, be- longs to the Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen and Knights of the Maccabees.
147
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
OREN, HON. HORACE MANN. At- torney-General Horace Mann Oren, of the state of Michigan, was born on a farm in Clinton county, near Oakland, Ohio, Febru- ary 3, 1859. His father, Charles Oren, was a school teacher at the opening of the civil war. In 1863 he enlisted a company of col- ored troops in southern Ohio, and he was mustered in as their eaptain in the Fifth U. S. Colored Troops. Capt. Oren was killed in the siege of Petersburg in July, 1864.
His death threw the entire support of the little family that was left upon his mother. She taught sehool in southern Ohio and in 1868 moved to Indianapolis, Ind., where she took a position in the Indianapolis High Sehool. In 1873 she was elected state libra- rian of Indiana, being the first woman to oc- eupy that position. Young Oren attended the publie schools, and assisted his mother in various ways. He carried papers, was assist- ant in the State Library and the Indianapolis publie library. He graduated from the In- dianapolis High School in 1877 and in the same year entered the Literary Department of the University of Michigan, where he graduated in 1881. Upon his graduation from the Literary he entered the Law Depart- ment, where he studied until he graduated in 1883.
Before he finished his law course, however, he had been offered a position on the "Soo News," at Sault Ste. Marie, which he ae- cepted, returning to the University to gradu- ate and going back again to the newspaper business.
For a term of years he divided his attention between his journalistic work and his profes- sion as an attorney, giving up the former in 1885 to attend to his growing law praetiee.
In November, 1898, he was elected to his present offiee, attorney-general of Miehigan, and he assumed his place January 1, 1899.
Mr. Oren has always been prominently identified with the Republican party, and has held several other offiees prior to taking the place he now holds. He has been village
HON. HORACE MANN OREN.
clerk, justice of the peace, cirenit conrt eom- missioner, city and prosecuting attorney.
Mr. Oren was married in Grindstone City, IInron county, Michigan, January 1, 1890, to Miss Margaret. J. Wallace. They have two children, Robert Oren, aged nine, and Chase Osborn, aged three years.
Mr. Oren's ancestry has an interesting his- tory. His great-great-grandfather, Joseph Oren, was a Quaker and lived in York county, Pennsylvania. During the Revolutionary war it is reported that his honse was burned by the Tories and his family of ten ehildren were turned out in the snow and had to live through the winter in the barn. His great- grandfather, John Oren, emigrated to castern Tennessee in the latter part of the last cen- tury and his grandfather, Elihn Oren, was born there in 1809. In 1810 the family moved to Clinton eounty, Ohio.
On his mother's side, his grandfather was Abraham Allen, a Seotch-Irish Quaker. He was a noted Abolitionist in his day and one of the most persistent men of his time in operat- ing the "Underground Railroad" system through that part of Ohio.
148
MEN OF PROGRESS.
MICHAEL JARDAN MAGEE.
MAGEE, MICHAEL JARDAN. The "Soo Democrat" is the only Democratic paper published in Chippewa county and is one of the leading weeklies of the Upper Peninsula. The proprietor and manager, Michael Jardan Magee, has been active in furthering the in- terests of the Democratic party in his section of the State ever since he came to Michigan.
M. J. Magee was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in October, 1862. Ilis father, James F. Magee, was a well-known manufac- turing chemist in that city, and his grand- father, Michael Magee, was a manufacturer and wholesale dealer in saddlery and leather goods, doing business in Philadelphia and New Orleans. The family are of Scotch- Irish ancestry and are of the Protestant faith.
Mr. Magee attended the "Friends" school in his native city until he was 16 years of age, and then entered the Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, graduating in 1881 as a mining and civil en- gineer. The summer following his gradua-
tion he went west in order to find a field in which to practice his profession, and located in a mining town named Ilancock, in Col- orado. Here for the next three years he fol- lowed the business of a prospector's assayist, surveyor and mining engineering. He devoted most of his time to surveying and developing the many mining properties that came into prominence during the silver excitement, buy- ing and selling mining properties and locating several important mines. He maintained his assay office at Hancock and prospered during the boom. Returning to Philadel- phia in 1884 he entered the manufacturing business under the firm name of the Cam- den Thread Company, of which he was the proprietor and manager. The company manufactured finished threads and spool cot- ton and was eminently prosperous; in 1888 a desirable offer was made for the plant and Mr. Magee sold out. A visit to Sault Ste. Marie in this year resulted in Mr. Magee engaging in the real estate and insurance business in that city, purchasing several large blocks of property both in that city and the Canadian Soo.
In 1891 he first became interested in the "Soo Democrat" and purchasing the interest of D. W. Brownell he undertook what has proved the successful management of the paper in partnership with Joli E. Burchard, whom he afterwards bought out and thus be- came the sole proprietor. The Democrat is the official organ of the Democratic party in that county and has a circulation of over 2,500. Mr. Magee has been a delegate to the state conventions on many occasions, and in 1896 was a delegate to the National conven- tion at Chicago, opposing the adoption of the free silver platform.
In 1891 he married Miss Mary Emma Miskey, at Media, Pennsylvania, and they have two children, both girls, Elizabeth and Cynthia, aged respectively seven and five years.
149
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
BIRD, ARTHUR C. In promoting the farming industry in this state, Arthur C. Bird has been actively engaged for many years. He has made a life study of his work, and through his agency much eastern capital has been invested in Michigan farming lands, and the wealth of the state has been increased in consequence.
His people before him were engaged in agricultural pursuits, his grandfather, Gard- ner C. Bird, coming to this state from Nor- wich, Connecticut, many years ago, and being one of the first settlers in Oakland county.
A. C. Bird was born in Highland, Michi- gan, May 22, 1864. Two miles from his home was the little district school, where his education was commenced, and thither, when old enough to attend school up to the time he was 15 years of age, he walked every day. Working at odd jobs now and then, he saved enough money to enter the Agricultural Col- lege of this state in his fifteenth year. He took a four years' course, graduating at the age of 19. During his vaeations he worked in his grandfather's bank at Fenton, Michi- gan, thus securing a practical business educa- tion. It was his intention to enter the bank- ing business upon leaving college, but his grandfather died shortly before the close of the term and the bank was closed by the estate. He then engaged in farming on his own ac- count, buying 110 acres, which he afterwards increased to 280 aeres. His knowledge of the work, together with his practical business train- ing brought him much success as a farmer.
In 1893 his Alma Mater granted him the special degree of Master of Agriculture on ac- count of his marked suecess in his chosen voca- tion. This was the first degree of its kind granted by the college to an alumnus.
For the past ten years he has been the Michigan agent for several eastern capital- ists, advising them and placing their money in farming properties throughout southern Michigan.
Mr. Bird is one of the founders of the Farmers' Club of Michigan, an association that has been beneficial to the industry in
ARTHUR CRANSON BIRD,
bringing its members in close contact with each other for the exchange of ideas that tend to advance the science of farm- ing. Ile conceived the plan, and was instru- mental in organizing the State Association of Farmers' Clubs. There are about three hun- dred and fifty such clubs in Michigan at the present time, and the membership amounts to 30,000. While a student at the Agricultural College, Mr. Bird was the editor of the col- lege paper, and for several years he has edited the Farmer's Club department of the Michi- gan Farmer.
Mr. Bird is one of the directors and is also the largest stockholder in the West Michigan Nurseries, a very large and flourishing enter- prise located at Benton Harbor, Michigan. Ile is also secretary of the Michigan Agricul- tural College. From 1897 to 1899 he was a member of the State Board of Agriculture. Mr. Bird is an honored frater in the Masonic fraternity. He was married at Highland, Michigan to Miss Josephine S. St. John, daughter of William St. John, of that place, on Angust 16th, 1889. They have two chil- dren.
150
MEN OF PROGRESS.
NON. JOHN HOLBROOK.
HOLBROOK, HION. JOHN. Hon John Holbrook, chief deputy, Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics, at Lansing, Michigan, first came into political prominence during the gubernatorial campaign of 1890, when in that year at the State Convention, held in Detroit, he nominated Hon. James M. Turner for the Republican nominee for governor. Mr. Holbrook was born in New York state, at North Chili, October 1, 1848. His father moved to Michigan the same year, loeating on a farm near Delhi township, Ingham eounty. Here the boy attended the distriet sehools at Delhi, until he was 17 years old, when he was sent to a school managed by M. V. Rork, at Lansing. Working on the farm during vaeations, and earning a few dollars in that way, he managed to keep up his school days until when 18 years of age he himself became a teacher of the young idea, teaching in the various schools throughout the distriet until he was 25. His uncle, D. C. Holbrook, an attorney in Detroit, offered him a position in his office at one time, but as young Holbrook was earning $16 a month as a farm-hand he thought it better to refuse. October 23,
1873, he married Mrs. Lydia M. Skinner, daughter of William Reeves, at Lansing, Michigan, and purchased a farm in Lansing township, where he intended to settle down in the quietude of a farmer's life. He oper- ated the farm with moderate sueeess until 1889, when the active political life in whieli he had become involved necessitated his re- moval to Lansing.
While living in Delhi township he was elected township treasurer, being the first Re- publican elected to that offiee in the township for 20 years. In 1875 he was elected town- ship clerk, and the same year made super- visor, in which position he aeted until 1879. Mr. Holbrook was the Republican eandidate for register of deeds of Ingham county in 1882, when the county had 1,200 Demoeratie majority, and was defeated. In 1886 he was elected state senator from what was then the Fourteenth Senatorial Distriet, and he served during the session of 1887-88. Re-elected to this office, he served the two sessions follow- ing, in 1889-90.
Governor Luee in 1890 appointed Mr. Hol- brook chief deputy oil inspector for the years of 1890-91, and in Mareh, 1897, he was ap- pointed deputy labor commissioner under Joseph L. Cox, and re-appointed in 1899. Mr. Holbrook is, at the present writing, a member of the Republican State Central Committee.
During the years of 1883-84-85 Mr. Hol- brook was leeturer of the State Grange, and in 1886-87 was the overseer of the Grange. Ilis tireless activity in the cause of his party, and his capacity for organization, has been the means of pushing him well toward the front ranks of the Republican party and making him one of the leading Republicans in this state. He is one of the organizers of the Zach Chandler Club of Ingham county, and a member of that well known body, the Michigan Club, of Detroit, Michigan.
Mr. Holbrook is a Mason and has taken the Scottish Rite degrees up to and ineluding the 32d, and is also a member of the Knights of the Maeeabees and of the Eastern Star.
151
HISTORICAL SKETCHIES.
PIERCE, HON. CHARLES SUMNER. Hon. Charles Sumner Pierce is a direct de- scendant of Captain William Pierce, who lived in the early part of the sixteenth cen- tury, 1590. He was a sea captain, com- manding the "Betsey and Ellen," which brought over from England Roger Williams and his wife Mary, Nov. 29, 1831, and later Governor Winthrop and his wife. He also brought the first cattle to America from Eng- land. Captain Michael Pierce, of Scituate, Massachusetts, the son of Captain William Pierce, took a prominent part in the history of the early New England colonies. He was born in 1615, and was killed Sunday, March 26, 1676. His death occurred during one of the many Indian wars, when, together with 50 settlers, the valiant captain was sur- rounded by the Indians. History states that they placed themselves back to back and fought until every man was killed.
Charles Sumner Pierce was born on a farm at Redford, Wayne county, Michigan, June 12, 1858. He worked at farming and at- teuded the district schools until he was 20 years of age. He earned his first money at 14, picking up potatoes at two cents a bushel, and when his earnings reached $30 he in- vested that amount in a pair of steers, which he sold the following spring for twice as much as he paid for them. He added $10 more to this and bought a colt, selling that a year later for $140. At 20 years of age he was thus able to attend the State Normal School, paying his own expenses, and taking a course in German and Latin. He was class orator when he graduated, in 1882. Shortly after leaving school he was tendered the posi- tion of principal in the Au Sable public school, which he accepted and held for two years. While in this position he purchased and pub- lished the newspaper "Saturday Night," of which he is still proprietor. In 1885 he en- tered the Law Department of the University of Michigan, graduating with the class of 1887.
After graduating he returned to Oscoda and opened a law office. In 1891 he was
HON. CHARLES SUMNER PIERCE.
made county commissioner of schools, re- maining so until 1893. In 1893 he was nominated for state senator on the Republi- can ticket. The district in 1891 had gone overwhelmingly Democratic, but Mr. Pierce was elected by 640 majority. During the session of 1895 he was senate clerk of the committee on apportionment. He was chosen secretary of the State Senate in 1897. He was made postmaster of Oscoda in 1898, but resigned about a year later, having been re- elected secretary of the Senate of 1899. He has been for several years, and still is, a mem- ber and sceretary of the board of education of Oscoda, and was attorney of Oscoda village for several years, and has held other local offices.
Mr. Pierce married in 1889, at Detroit, Michigan, Frances Barnard, daughter of Mrs. Mortimer L. Smith. He has three children.
He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, of the National Union, and the Loyal Guard. A Republican in politics, Mr. Pierce has won the respect and confidence of the members of his party and his constituents. His home is in Oscoda, Michigan, where, when not attend- ing to his duties in the Senate, he spends most of his time.
152
MEN OF PROGRESS.
GEORGE WASHINGTON STONE.
STONE, GEORGE WASHINGTON. Pathos and romance have taken a large part in the career of George W. Stone, now the receiver of the Central Michigan Savings Bank at Lansing, Michigan, and a capitalist of that city. His father was Captain Will- iam Timmons, of Newbern, N. C., engaged in the West India trade. His mother was of Irish descent and Catholic parentage. George was born in Newbern, N. C., August 27, 1849. Ilis mother and father differed over their religious beliefs, and eventually separ- ated, the mother taking the children and going to New York. Here she met with ro- verses, and the boy was found on the streets by the Children's Aid Society, and together with his brother Joe was sent west with 31 other waifs. The two brothers were adopted by Simon A. Stone, a farmer in Albion, Mich- igan, but when George reached his thirteenth year he ran away to enlist as a drummer boy in Company D, First Michigan Sharpshoot- ers. The little lad became a great favorite in the company, and the officers taking an in- terest in the youthful soldier, bought books and aided him in learning to read and write.
A romantic incident connected with his life in the army was the receiving of a needle- case, sent by the patriotic women of Penn- sylvania, in which he found a note from a girl who later turned out to be his lost sister.
Returning to Albion at the close of his ser- vice, he went to school there, and later at- tended Albion College for two years. After this he engaged in business in partnership with (. D. Comstock, and built up a success- ful trade in dry goods and groceries. In 1870 he decided to remove to Petersburg, Vir- ginia. Ilere he manufactured lumber, staves and heading, but met with business reverses and lost everything. He then started for the Dakotas, but only managed to get as far as Buffalo, New York, when he found himself without a dollar.
Here he started in business with no other capital than his nerve. He bought with this a canal boat, horses and paint, painted the boat himself, and soon secured a contract for carrying huber. In 60 days he had paid for his outfit. That fall he lost all his horses, and so he sold out and moved to Lapeer, Michigan, where he engaged in the grocery business and ran a store until 1883. A stroke of paralysis came along about this time, and he sold out again, and took a clerkship in the auditor-general's office at Lansing, Mich- igan. In 1885 he went to Dakota and founded the town of Hoskins, now the county seat of Mackintosh county. Here he engaged in business, prospered and returned with some capital to Harrison, Michigan, where he be- gan the manufacture of lumber in partner- ship with Wilson & Son, under the name of Wilson, Stone & Wilson. He sold out in 1894.
Mr. Stone was city clerk of Lapeer in 1880, clerk of the United States District Court, Da- kota Territory, 1884-5; county clerk of Clare county, Michigan, 1888-90, and auditor-gen- eral, state of Michigan, 1890-92. He mar- ried Miss Kittie A., daughter of Osman Rice, of Albion, in that city, in 1869. Their son, Fred G. Stone, is chief clerk in the United States pension office at Detroit.
153
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
CONNINE, HON. MAIN J. Starting in life as a poor boy, working on his father's farm, and attending school only when the sea- sons between planting, growing and harvest- ing would permit. his absence from agricul- tural labors, Main J. Connine worked himself up from his lowly position until now he is circuit judge of the Twenty-third Judicial Circuit.
He was born at Pokagon, Michigan, July 7. 1853. Ilis father was a farmer in Immble circumstances, and until he was 19 years of age the boy assisted in the work of the farm, going to school in the winter. Ilis nineteenth year, however, was the year of his emancipa- tion from farm life. He obtained a third- grade teacher's certificate and earned his first money, $35 per month, teaching school in Grand Traverse county. With his savings he was enabled the following summer to at- tend the Dowagiae High School, where he remained until the next winter, and then re- sumed school teaching for two seasons. In 1874 he became a student at the Valparaiso Normal School at Valparaiso, Indiana, and during his vacation he turned book agent or worked on the farm, in order to obtain the money necessary to live and complete his course of studies. Ilis lack of means and shabby clothes frequently made him feel like giving np the struggle, but through privation and self-denial he kept on. Ilis father and grandfather signed a note for him that assisted the boy to complete his last term, taking the degree of B. S. He was a clever pemnan, and his fancy pen work brought him in a little money, so that when he left, school he was only $24 in debt. That fall he was made principal of the schools in Mt. Vernon, Indi- ana, at a salary of $800 a year, which gave him enough to enter the Law Department of the University of Michigan the following year. He remained at the University for one year and the next was offered the principal- ship of the public schools at Douglass, Michi- gan, which he accepted, and held two years. He held a similar position the year after at Champion, in the Upper Peninsula.
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