USA > Michigan > Men of progress : embracing biographical sketches of representative Michigan men with an outline history of the state > Part 23
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HON. MAIN J. CONNINE.
During this period and for five years, nights, Saturdays and vacations, he was dili- gently studying law. When vacation periods gave him the opportunity, he entered the law office of the now Judge Padgham, of AAllegan, where he studied until he was admitted to the bar at Traverse City by ('irenit JJudge Rams- dall.
Ilis first individual office was opened up at Grayling, Michigan. He was extremely for- timate in seenring several good clients and winning some hard-fought cases in the first year of his practice, and his success was alnost immediate. lle confined himself largely to civil practice, remaining in Grayling until 1888 and then removing to Oscoda.
He was commissioner of the Circuit Court of Crawford county, 1884-85; proseenting at- torney for Crawford county, 1885-87; prose- euting attorney, loseo county, 1890, 1892- 93-94, and elected circuit judge of the Twenty-third District on the Republican ticket, with no opposing candidates.
Judge Connine married Miss Ella Bur- roughs at Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1877. They have two children. Judge Connine is a Mason and Knight Templar and a member of the K. O. T. M.
154
MEN OF PROGRESS.
ARTHUR MARTIN GEROW, M. D.
GEROW, M. D., ARTHUR MARTIN. Dr. Arthur Martin Gerow, of Cheboygan, Michigan, owner of several large business blocks in that city, where he also practices his profession of physician and surgeon, was born in Belleville, Ontario, March 7, 1845. Ile attended the village school during the winter terms and worked in a sawmill during the summer until he was 17 years of age, when he obtained a Second certificate, and after teaching one year went to the Toronto Normal School, graduating therefrom in De- cember, 1863. Ile earned $250 the first year in this profession, and $300 the second, reading medicine during vacations in the of- fices of Drs. Parker and Bradley, of Sterling. Then, having earned money enough to pay his tuition, he entered the Royal College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons at Kingston, Ont., where he remained one year. Ile then entered the Buffalo Medical College in Buffalo, New York, from which he graduated February, 1868. He hung out his sign in Galena, Illi- nois, for three months and then sought more promising fields. That fall he went to Che- boygan with $40 in his pocket, his medicine
case and diploma as a basis to commence a new practice. There he found a population of about 200 healthy people who did not seem to require the services of a young graduate and his finances soon became exhausted, forcing him to seek employment or leave town. He was offered a position in a store, where he made up his mind to stay until he could earn enough money to take him to Kansas City. He earned about $60 a month in the store and scon began to add to his income with a little practice. In 1869 he had accumulated enough money to open a small drug store and from that time on he commenced to make money and build up a good practice, so that in 1883 he was able to sell out the store and devote his entire time to the practice of his profession.
Dr. Gerow purchased considerable property in the village during his successful years, put- ting a great deal of his spare capital into busi- ness lots, and in 1873 he became very much embarrassed financially and at one time con- templated selling out. He managed to hold on, however, until the dull times passed over, and the property has increased in value until today it is some of the most valuable in Che- boygan. He has built several business blocks, including the Gerow block, and owns nearly a whole block of stores and business houses, from which he receives a good income. Of late years he has taken up the fruit culture and now owns the largest orchard in the state, having 200 acres of apple trees, and still planting.
Dr. Gerow has always been identified with the Republican party and is one of the push- ing business men of Cheboygan. He is one of the directors of the Business Men's Asso- ciation of that city and president of the Great Northern Accident Insurance Co. He was elected president of the village of Cheboygan in 1885, and was president and member of the school board for 24 years. He married in 1874, at Cheboygan, Mary, daughter of John McDonald. Dr. Gerow is a Chapter Mason.
155
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
GARDENER, COLONEL CORNELIUS. May 2, 1898, at the breaking out of the Span- ish-American war, Governor Pingrce recom- mended to the then Secretary of War, Russell A. Alger, of Michigan, Captain Cornelius Gardener of the Nineteenth United States In- fantry, stationed at Fort Wayne, for appoint- ment as colonel of the Thirty-first Michigan Volunteers, which was the first regiment to leave Michigan for service in the war.
Colonel Gardener is the son of Rev. Wy- nand Gardener, a clergyman who left the Netherlands on account of religious persecu- tion and brought his small congregation to Michigan, settling in Kalamazoo in 1852. Col. Gardener was born September 4, 1849, and when the boy was six years of age his father died, and he was sent to live with his guardian at Ottawa county, Michigan. He was sent to the different schools in the neigli- borhood, and later to the Academy at Holland and Hope College. At the close of his sopho- more year in the latter he was given a position in the postoffice at Grand Rapids. In 1869, on recommendation of Senator Thomas W. Ferry, he was admitted as a cadet at the Mili- tary Academy of West Point, from which he graduated in 1873. Entering the United States army, he took part in suppressing the various Indian uprisings in the far west, serv- ing on the plains of the Indian Territory, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas, from 1874 until 1890. He was with Gen. Miles during his campaign against the Cheyenne and Ara- pahoe Indians, and in 1874-75 was adjutant of the column, under Col. Lewis, operating against the hostiles at Republican river, in Kansas, during which Col. Lewis met his death. He was adjutant and quartermaster in Col. Buell's column against the Utes and
COL. CORNELIUS GARDENER.
Navajoes in 1879, and received his commis- sion the same year as first lieutenant. Hc served on the Rio Grande river for nine years, engaging at times in scouting duty against Mexican raiders, cattle thieves and border ruffians. In 1891 he received his commission as captain of the Nineteenth United States In- fantry, and the same year was appointed by the War Department inspector of the Michi- gan National Guard encampments for 1891- 92. In 1897 he was appointed to the same position on permanent duty.
As colonel of the Thirty-first Michigan Volunteer Infantry he served with his regi- ment at Chickamauga Park, Knoxville, Sa- vannah and in Cuba, until the regiment was mustered out, May 17, 1899, at Savannah, Georgia. He was extremely popular with his men. During the war he commanded for sev- eral months the First Brigade, Second Divis- ion, First Corps, and the First Brigade, First Division, First Corps.
156
MEN OF PROGRESS.
WILLIAM MARTIN BEEKMAN.
BEEKMAN, WILLIAM MARTIN. One of the Republican leaders in Eaton county, Michigan, William Martin Beekman, now the postmaster at Charlotte, has done much for his party in that section of the state and is recognized as one of the progressive and influ- ential citizens.
llis ancestors, as the name implies, were of the old Dutch colonial stock that settled in New Amsterdam, when what is now the Greater New York was only a cluster of quaint Dutch houses on the extreme point of Manhattan Island, looking out over New York bay. Mr. Beekman traces his ancestry back to one Harman Lutgers, who was on the staff of General George Washington, and campaigned with him during the early part of the revolutionary war. He is also a direct de- scendant of William Bedlow, first president of New York in 1755, and formerly owner of Bedlow's Island. The name of Beekman has spread all over New York state, and in that section where Washington Irving has located most of his quaint sketches and stories, the Beekman family is very much in evidence. William Martin Beekman was born in Chester
township, Eaton county, Michigan, January 2, 1843.
When he reached the proper age he was sent to the district school, where he attended until he was 10 years old, and then was obliged to spend the summer and autumn months working on the farm, and allowed to attend school again in the winter. In the spring of 1861 he began to learn the car- pentering trade, and was progressing at it when Lincoln's call for 100,000 men swept over the country. Young Beekman dropped his plane, before he had even had a fair ac- qmaintance with it, and enlisted August 11. 1861, in Company B, Second Michigan Cav- alry. The regiment rendezvoused at Camp Anderson, Grand Rapids, and in November was ordered to St. Louis, Missouri. Later it was brigaded with the Second Towa Cavalry.
Mr. Beekman again re-enlisted in the same company and regiment, and later was made orderly sergeant. In June, 1865, he was commissioned second lieutenant, but not mus- iered. To the company in which Mr. Beek- man fought belongs the honor of firing the last shot in the civil war, east of the Missis- sippi river, in an engagement that occurred twelve days after General Lee had handed his sword to General Grant at Appomatox.
Mr. Beekman was mustered out August 17, 1865, and immediately returned to his home in Eaton county. He had saved about $600 during his term of service, which, together with some live stock he owned, was enough to purchase a small farm near his father's, and take up farming as a vocation.
In the fall of 1886 he was elected register of deeds, and moved to Charlotte, where he now resides.
In March, 1866, he married Christinia, daughter of Davis Pngh, of Eaton county. Mrs. Beekman died a few years ago, leaving two children. Martin Henry died in 1889, age 14 years. The daughter is Mrs. Mark- ham, of Charlotte.
Mr. Beekman is a Mason, a member of Charlotte Commandery, No. 37; K. P., No. 53, and also a member of C. S. Williams Post, No. 40, G. A. R.
157
HISTORICAL SKETCHIES.
HILL. GEORGE RICHARDS. George Richards Hill was born at Auburn, Maine. November 28, 1867. His father was General Jonathan Hill of Stetson, Maine, who was colonel of the Eleventh Maine Infantry and breveted major-general. His mother was Incy Richards, daughter of a prominent min- ister of the Methodist church. George Hill attended the village schools until he was 13 years of age, when he was sent to the River View Military Academy, in New York State. where he was prepared for West Point. Ilis training school experience, however, de- cided the young man against the West Point Academy, so after leaving River View he was put to work in a tannery of which his father was part owner. Young Ilill was gen- eral utility man about the plant, and took the place of any absentees. When winter arrived he was given one of the poorest and most balky teams owned by the concern and put to work drawing bark. Cold lunches and the obstinate team sickened him of the job, and he made up his mind to start out for himself. His father made him a liberal offer then, but young Hill had decided to go south, and he left New York city on Thanksgiving day in 1886 on a trading steamer bound for St. Augustine, Fla., paying his own way. Three friends went with him and upon arrival at their desti- nation found work readily on the Ponee de Leon hotel, then in course of construction, but young Hill was unfortunate in wearing good clothes, and although he told would-be em- ployers that he could do "anything," they sized up his clothes and told him they wanted mechanics. The young man hustled around, living on one meal a day, until he struck a job on a railroad as brakesman on the down trip, and the baggagemaster on the return, re- eeiving $26 a month, and had to board him- self. He labored 16 hours a day loading oranges, pushing freight and baggage. The oranges were paeked in barrels and loaded on flat cars, and one of the duties of the brakes- man was to put out the fires caused by the sparks from the wood-burning locomotives, which ignited the burlap over the fruit. The
1
GEORGE RICHARDS HILL.
following fall he was tendered the position of clerk in the St. George Hotel at St. Augus- tine. He remained there until spring, when he took the position of bookkeeper in the tan- nery at Forest Port, N. Y., then owned by his father and Thos. E. Proctor, of Boston, Mass., the founder and first president of the United States Leather Co. Hle closed out this business on account of the scarcity of bark (hemlock) and took the management of the tammery at Athens, also owned by Proctor & Hill. When the tanneries were absorbed by the U. S. Leather Co., he was retained as superintendent, until he resigned in 1896 to accept the management of the manufacturing end of the Mumising Leather Co
In 1893 Mr. Hill helped to organize the Farmers' National Bank of Athens, Pennsyl- vania, and was one of the direetors of that institution until he moved west; but is still one of the stockholders. Ile formed a part- nership in 1899 with R. J. Clark, and pur- chased the hemlock timber on 184,000 acres of land in Alger county, Michigan, where the company is now manufacturing the produet.
In 1891 Mr. Hill married Mabel Louise. danghter of Edward Livingstone Snow, of Boonville, N. Y., and to them were born four children - Donald, Dorothy, John and George, Jr., of whom the latter two only sur- vive.
158
MEN OF PROGRESS.
JOHN D. LANGELL.
LANGELL, JOHN D. John D. Langell, the present superintendent of the Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Departments of the Detroit Shipbuilding Company's plant, at the foot of Orleans street, Detroit, Michigan, was born in St. Clair, St. Clair county, Michigan, June 27, 1865. Ilis educational opportunities were limited to an incomplete course at the St. Clair city schools, supplemented later on by a course at the Spencerian Commercial Col- lege, at Cleveland, Ohio, at which latter place he received a business education that has served him excellently in making his way in the business world.
Ilis father, Hon. Simon Langell, is a ship- builder, and for many years, since 1863, has maintained a shipbuilding plant at St. Clair, doing a limited business in that line, but noted for the excellency of the work turned out by the plant. His mother, whose maiden name was Helen M. Decoe, was formerly a teacher in the schools of St. Clair county, where she mmet and married, in 1859, the father of the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Langell died in 1893.
In his father's shipbuilding yard young at St. Clair.
Langell first came in contact with that trade and received his only mechanical education and experience. Commencing when a very young man, he learned all the different branches of the trade, and became skilled in handling the various tools of the shipbuild- er's outfit. John was still in his teens when his father finding difficulty in securing a suit- able superintendent for an important depart- ment in his works, called the boy from school and installed him in the position. He was instructed in the department by his father, and taking hold with a will, soon acquired a familiarity with the business.
He remained with his father until January 7, 1899, when the Detroit company, search- ing for a man to take entire charge of their Orleans street docks and shipbuilding works, offered him three months' trial in the position. He accepted and at the end of the three trial months, he was informed that the company was satisfied with his work and wished him to retain the position.
At the present writing Mr. Langell is un- married. He is a member of Palmer Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and has been through the various chairs in that lodge.
Mr. Langell has many friends, and the fac- ulty of keeping them. As a practical ship- builder, Mr. Langell, through his early train- ing in that profession, is considered one of the most practical and skillful on the lakes. He has a thorough knowledge of every depart- ment, and if need be can take hold of any branch of the work of constructions. He is well liked by the men under him and possesses their confidence as well as their esteem, He is a young man to occupy so important a posi- tion, being only 35 years of age at the present writing, yet he has a keen business percep- tion, which, coupled with his brief term at the Commercial College, has given him exec- utive ability of considerable scope and power. Mr. Langell has never had time to devote to politics, for he has been a busy man all his life. He lives in Detroit, and occasionally finds time to visit his father in the old home
159
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
HAMBITZER, JOSEPII F. Joseph F. Hambitzer, of Houghton, Michigan, is a self- inade and self-educated man.
He was born in Fond du Lae, Wisconsin. December 13, 1857. He is of German par -. entage, his father, William Hambitzer, being a physician who came to this eonntry from Colon, Germany, in 1852. Young Ham- bitzer was sent to the village school at British Hollow, Grant County, Wisconsin, where he remained until he was 14 years of age, and left to go to work as an errand boy in a dry goods store at Platteville, Wisconsin. He worked in this capacity for two years, and then left. Wisconsin and went to Haneock il search of employment, but after looking around for some time he finally had to go to work as a trammer in the Concord mine, now a part of the Arcadian Copper Company's property. He practiced running a drill, and in six months had mastered the tool sufficiently well to become a miner, and as such he worked until 1878. He took up the study of arithmetic, grammar and history, and in the fall attended a teacher's examination. passed and was given a third grade certificate. For a year he taught school in Franklin Town- ship at $65 per month, and the following three years he was clerk in the Hancock postoffice under Thomas N. Lee. The next five years he acted as deputy postmaster under M. L. Cardell. During the following two years he read with Chandler, Grant & Gray, and in the fall of 1886 was elected county treasurer of Houghton Connty, and re-elected withont. opposition in 1888. In the fall of 1892 Mr. Hambitzer was nominated for State Treasurer of Michigan on the Republican ticket in op- position to the Republican State Central Com- mittee. In the spring of 1894 Mr. Hambitzer was asked to resign the office of state treasurer altogether, in company with the other mem- bers of the state board of canvassers, secretary of state and state land commissioner, because they had not discovered that the tabulation of votes made in the secretary of state's office had been padded and forged.
Mr. Hambitzer refused to resign and fought
JOSEPH F. HAMBITZER.
the case in the Supreme Court, which tribunal held that the governor was sole judge of what constituted negligence for which he could re- move state officials, and so in March, 1894, Mr. Hambitzer resigned the state treasurer- ship. Returning to Houghton, Michigan, he remained there for a short period and then left to enter the law firm of Ball & Ball at Marquette, and March 6, 1895, he was ad- mitted to the bar by Judge John W. Stone and commenced his practice at Houghton, Michigan, where today he is one of the lead- ing attorneys of the Upper Peninsula.
Mr. Hambitzer was appointed Deputy Oil Inspetor July 1, 1897, and reappointed to this office July 5, 1899. In 1882 he married Miss Emma Nichols, daughter of Stephen Nichols, a carpenter boss at Quincy, Michi- gan. The marriage took place at Hancock. Two children have been the result of that union, Blanche and Mabel, both of whom are in Chicago attending the Chicago Conserva- tory of Musie.
Mr. Ilambitzer is a Mason, and belongs to the Knights of Pythias, Benevolent Protec- tive Order of Elks and the Knights of the Maccabees.
160
MEN OF PROGRESS.
.
JOHN IRA BELLAIRE.
BELLAIRE, JOHN IRA. The history of John Tra Bellaire's early life is one of struggles and privations. The boy scrambled along through life unassisted, working hard for every little advance he made, and going withont many of those things which makes the existence of the average boy worth living. It has been all hard work and very little play with him, yet in the twenty-nine years of his struggles he has made a comfortable niche for himself, and is still ambitious to rise higher. He was born in Michigan, near White Pigeon, November 27, 1871. His father, John Vincent Bellaire, was a small farmer near that place with a large family of children to support, and only a little farm to furnish the means to do so. All the chil- dren helped in the work about the farm, and vonng John did his share until he was eighteen years of age, attending the district schools when he could get the time to do so, and never receiving any money from his father to help him along in his studies. What money he got he made himself, the first being from the sale of some potatoes he raised in a hollow on his father's farm. Ile wanted an education, and sought every loophole that
presented itself in order to obtain one. When in his eighteenth year he found employment doing chores and odd jobs for John G. Schurtz, a banker at White Pigeon, for his board and lodging. Saturdays when his work was done, he earned extra money by splitting wood for the villagers, to pay for his tuition, books and clothing. Supporting himself in this manner he managed to attend the village school. The following spring he worked in the machine shop of the Cyclone Fanning Mill Co., at White Pigeon, saving his earn- ings so that he was able to attend school the following winter, securing a position as clerk in II. M. Ellis's grocery store, before and after school and on Saturdays to pay for his board and clothing.
The father was unable to assist him, owing to the large family that demanded all his time and money, so young Jolm had to learn to go it alone, and he has never regretted that experience for it prepared him better for life than any other means would have done. Ile worked steadily in the grocery business during the following summer, gradu- ating from school in June, 1891. Continu- ing the store as clerk and bookkeeper at a substantial salary until the summer of '92, when he secured a third grade teacher's cer- tifieate and that fall taught school in Dis- triet No. 4, near South Boardman, Kalkaska County, Michigan.
Mr. Bellaire, in the spring of 1893, saw an advertisement in The News, and in an- swer to it went to Seney, Michigan, where he scoured a position at $35 a month as clerk with the firm of Morse & Schneider. He was gradually advanced by his employers, and in 1895, when the firm established a branch at Grand Marais, was made general manager of the Seney store, which position he ocenpied until September 26, 1899, when he succeeded to the entire business of the firm at Seney, Michigan.
In his political convictions he is a Repub- lican and was appointed postmaster at Seney in 1897. He has also been township treas- urer at Seney. Mr. Bellaire married Sarah I., daughter of Capt. L. R. Boynton, of St. Ignace, in 1896, and returned at once to Seney, where he settled down to happy do- mestie life, in a comfortable home.
161
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
HEBARD, CHARLES. Students at the University of Michigan who receive the healthful benefits of the beautifully equipped Women's Gymnasimn attached to that col- lege, must feel a certain amount of gratitude to Charles Hebard, of Pequaming, Michigan, who was instrumental in raising the funds to erect the building and who raised $10,000, one-half of which he gave from his own per- sonal purse.
Charles Hebard was born at Lebanon, Con- necticut, January 9, 1831. His father, Larned Hebard, was a direct descendant of Robert Hebard, the original founder of the fTebard family in the United States, and an early settler in the New England colonies. ITis mother was Miss Strong, of the old Con- necticut family, and a direet descendant of Gov. Bradford, of that state.
Charles Hebard had the benefit of an ex- cellent school education, and at 19 years of ago graduated from the Academy at West- field, Massachusetts. After leaving school he clerked for a year and kept books for the Lackawanna Coal Company at Seranton, Pennsylvania, and his next employment was with W. E. Dodge, of New York city. He went to them in the capacity of clerk in 1853 and after being two years in the employ of this firm he was made superintendent and given charge of its immense lumbering in- terests, comprising over 45,000 acres of tim- ber land. He started in at $500 a year, and his salary was gradually advanced until it reached $1,500 a year. He remained with the firm as superintendent and manager of their large lumbering plant for 11 years, and resigned to go into partnership with A. G. P. Dodge, a son of his employer. The new firm opened a lumber manufacturing plant at Williamsport, Pa., under the firm name of Dodge & Co. They were eminently suc- cessful in the new enterprise, and the part- nership continued until 1872, when Mr. ITebard withdrew from the company. After leaving the firm, Mr. Hebard came to Michigan and located at Detroit, residing
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