USA > Michigan > Men of progress : embracing biographical sketches of representative Michigan men with an outline history of the state > Part 28
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193
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
RYAN, EDWARD. Edward Ryan, of Hancock, is one of the most snecessful and enterprising business men in Houghton county, going there without a cent and a lim- ited education, yet studying, planning and working until he built up a large mercantile business. Ile was the founder of the First National Bank of Calumet, and one of the founders of the Peninsular Electric Light & Power Company, of Houghton.
His life's history is an interesting one. Born in Ireland, April 22, 1840, he came to this country in 1844 with his parents, who located at Wiota, Wisconsin. Here the boy was sent to school and secured a little educa- tion, but as soon as he was old enough to help support the family he went to work, but at- tended the distriet school in the winter.
In 1854 the family moved to Houghton, Michigan, where yonng Ryan found work in the general store of Sheldon & Company. His duties consisted of driving a team and hauling goods from the wharf to the store, and thence to the mining camps around the neighborhood. He was bright, active and cheerful, and a hard worker. He soon became a general favorite, and was taken into the store as clerk. While still in the employ of Sheldon & Company, in 1860, he was nominated and elected sheriff of Houghton connty. He was elected on the Democratic ticket and was one of the most popular young men in the copper district. After declining the re-nomination in 1862 he started ont in business for himself in a small store at Hancock. He had about $1,000 capi- tal with which to stock up his place, but he worked like a beaver, early and late, stuck to his business, and made it prosper, so mmneh so that in 1868 he branched out and started an- other store at Calumet.
In 1880 he organized the Lake Superior Native Copper Works, smelting and rolling sheet copper, and the same year he organized the Hancock Copper Mining Company, with a capital of $100,000, which he raised in the east. For many years he operated the Han-
EDWARD RYAN.
cock mine, until the low price of the metal made the mine a losing venture.
Edward Ryan was one of the first men to promote the iron mining interests on the Go- gebic, and together with Captain Nathan Moore he located and operated several valu- able iron properties. The Ryan Tron Belt and the Atlantic Iron Mines were developed under Mr. Ryan.
In 1860 Mr. Ryan married Alice, daughter of Thomas Cuddihy, at Hancock. They have nine children, four boys and five girls. Mary is the wife of John J. Rigney, of Chicago; Alice is attending Notre Dame de St. Mary's Academy, with her sisters Catherine and Agnes; William is at St. Mary's Academy at Notre Dame, Indiana, and John and Gertrude attend school in Hancock. Thomas J. and Edward, Jr., are associated with their father.
Mr. Ryan is a Catholic, a member of St. Patrick's Benevolent Society and the A. O. H. Ile is president of the First National Bank at Calumet, president of the Hancock Copper Mining Company, of Hancock, and vice-president of the Peninsular Electric Light & Power Company, of Houghton, Michigan.
194
MEN OF PROGRESS.
JOHN H. FEDEWA.
FEDEWA, JOIIN II. John H. Fedewa, of St. Johns, attorney-at-law, was born in the township of Dallas, Clinton county, Michi- gan, May 8, 1849. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Morris Fedewa, were natives of Ger- many, born near the River Rhine. After their marriage they emigrated to America in 1842, sailing from Havre to New York, a voyage of fifty-three days. They went direct from New York to the township of Dallas, near the present village of Westphalia, where the subject of this sketch was born. The par- ents of Mr. Fedewa were among the first set- tlers, and endured many of the hardships of pioneer life. When eleven years old, Mr. Fedewa moved with his parents to the town- ship of Westphalia. He acquired his educa- tion in district schools, in the German sehool at Westphalia, and a two years' course in the St. Johns high school. After leaving school at St. Johns he worked at the carpenter's trade for a time, and taught sehool one win- ter, after which he entered the Law Depart- ment of the University of Michigan, and re- ceived his diploma in March, 1872. Since graduating at the University he has practiecd
his chosen profession. In 1874, at the age of 25 years, he was elected prosecuting-attor- ney for Clinton county, which office he has held for eight years.
Mr. Fedewa is well known in county and state conventions, having attended nearly cvery state convention of his party since his admission to the bar in 1872, and in 1892 was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Chicago. He has been a mem- ber of the Democratie State Central Commit- tee for many years and chairman of the Dem- ocratie County Committee of his county for a number of terms. Previous to 1896, there had been fusion of the Democratic and Green- back ranks in the old Sixth Congressional District, but in the fall of that year the two parties could not agree upon a candidate, and cach put up a nominee. Mr. Fedewa, among other members of the Democratic convention, sought to make peace between the two fae- tions, believing that the Greenbackers were entitled to the nominee, as it was their turn, but the larger number of the convention did not agree to this and would not submit to it. The nominces of both conventions resigned, and a joint convention was afterwards held with a view of adjusting the difficulties and again join forces. Mr. Fedewa was the choice of the Demoerats as their candidate for Con- gress, and the Greenbackers, appreciating his honorable treatment of them, consented to his nomination, and promised to support him, but at the time of the election the past lack of harmony broke up the agreement and the two parties failed to elect their candidate. On November 27, 1876, Mr. Fedewa was united in marriage to Lizzie, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. Petsch.
Five children have gathered about their hearthstone, of whom Mayme M., John M. and Anne E. are still with their parents, the eldest two, Paula M. and Arthur P., died, the latter the 14th, and the former the 15th of February, 1883, leaving their bereaved par- ents in sore affliction.
195
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
HALL, HON. DE VERE. The family from which Hon. De Vere Hall, of Bay City, Michigan, has descended was one of those that settled in this state very early in its his- tory, coming here from Black River County, New York, in the '40s and loeating in Mon- roe County. De Vere Hall was born in Bedford, Monroe County, August 22, 1854. His father died when Mr. Hall was but two years of age, and deprived of paternal aid and advice, the boy virtually made his own way in the world. His education commenced in the little district school near his home and continued until the family moved to Ilolly, Oakland County, where in his tenth year he had the advantages offered by a graded school. With the little assistance given him by his mother and by his own efforts he man- aged to secure a fair education, working even when a small boy as a farm hand and con- tributing the eight dollars a month earned in this manner toward the support of the lit- tle family. When seventeen years old he was given a third grade teacher's certificate and from this time forward he followed the voca- tion of teacher during the winters and re- turned to farming in the summer months. He was successful as a teacher and taught schools in Genesee, Clinton, Oakland and Huron counties, and later was principal of the village schools at Goodrich, Gaines, Byron and Caseville, Michigan. While in the latter place he was appointed a member of the county board of school examiners, and was elected secretary of that body. Here also he commeneed the study of the profes- sion he now follows, taking up the study of law, and reading in the office of Hon. D. P. Markey, cx-speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives. Mr. Hall was admitted to the bar before Judge Nixon at Bad Axe, Michigan, in 1882. In the spring of the following year, he formed a partnership with Mr. Markey and the firm of Markey and Hall commenced practice at West Branch, Michi- gan. This partnership continued successfully until September 1, 1891, when Mr. Markey,
HON. DE VERE HALL.
having become associated with the Great Camp, K. O. T. M., withdrew from the firm.
Mr. Hall was prosecuting attorney for Ogemaw County from 1885 until 1890, and on being elceted to the State Legislature he resigned. He served as a member of the House during the sessions of 1891-92. In 1894 he was appointed alderman in the Ninth Ward at Bay City, serving the balance of the term and being elected to the same office in 1895. Ile resigned Feb. 2, 1896. At pres- ent Mr. Hall is great lieutenant commander of the Michigan Camp, K. O. T. M. He is also a Mason, Templar, a member of the I. O. O. F., Modern Woodmen of the World, Knights and Ladies of Honor. Mr. Hall became associated with Mr. James E. Brock- way in the law business in September, 1889, and the firm of Hall and Brockway is one of the most prosperous in Bay City.
Mr. Ilall was leading counsel for Bay County in the great state case of Michigan vs. County of Bay, and also for the Joseph P. Comstock estate in the famous case involv- ing over a million dollars, Joseph B. Com- stock estate against Comstock Bros., of Al- pena. Mr. Hall married Miss Augusta O. Brown, of Alpena. He has six children.
196
MEN OF PROGRESS.
CORVIS MINER BARRE.
BARRE, CORVIS MINER. Corvis Miner Barre, of Hillsdale, Mich., is of Ger- man descent, both on his mother's and his father's side of the house. His grandfather came from Germany to this country many years ago, and his father located in Western Reserve, Ohio, in 1837. It was in Ripley township, Huron county, of that state, that C. M. Barre was born November 29, 1848.
At the proper age he was sent to the dis- triet school, where he remained until he was 15 years old, when he received a teacher's certificate, and armed with this made his first start in the world, teaching a district school at Carson, O., at $40 per month. During his school days he had worked at house painting, earning enongh to support himself while at- tending school.
On May 2, 1864, Mr. Barre enlisted in Company C, 166th Ohio Infantry, and was mustered into the U. S. service as a private soldier. His parents were greatly alarmed and followed him to Washington in an effort to persuade him to leave the service, but the young man was firm, and although his parents had secured a permit from Washington, the captain of his regiment said that young Barre
could stay if he wanted to. He was a tall boy for his age, and easily passed for 18 or 20. The 166th was assigned to relieve the troops in the forts around Washington and did not sec any active service. Young Barre re- mained with his regiment until the close of the war, and then returned to Carson, O. He resumed his old occupation of teaching school during the winter months and in summer kept his funds in shape by house painting. He found time to attend the Normal School at Milan, O., for three terms, and in 1870 he came to Michigan aud engaged in a general produce business at Reading for eight years, meeting with great success. In 1878 he was elected county clerk of Hillsdale county and served as such for six years. While in this office in 1882 he was tendered and accepted the position as cashier in the Second National Bank of Ilillsdale, and remained with the bank until it closed and surrendered its char- ter.
During his term as county clerk he com- menced the reading of law, and in 1885, be- fore Judge Andrew Howell, he was admitted to the bar. When the bank closed Mr. Barre became financial agent and confidential secre- tary to Hon. Charles T. Mitchell, of Hills- dale, and remained in that capacity until 1892. In the summer of 1892 he was ap- pointed consul-general to Chili by President Harrison as successor to Col. McCreery, of Flint, and after serving as such for thirteen months was removed by President Cleveland in 1893. On his return to Hillsdale he be- came associated with Col. E. J. March in the law business and later was associated with F. A. Lyon until Mr. Lyon was elected state senator. The firm then became Sampson & Barre.
Mr. Barre owns several farms adjoining Hillsdale and is an extensive breeder of sheep. He married in 1882 Miss Kate E., daughter of Hon. Charles T. Mitchell. She died in 1885. In 1892 Mr. Barre married his pres- ent wife, who was Mrs. Carrie A. Woltman, daughter of W. B. Boutwell; of Hillsdale.
Mr. Barre still continues in a lucrative practice of law in Hillsdale.
197
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
ORR, DR. G. W. Nearly three thousand people are under the charge of Dr. G. W. Orr, Lake Linden, Michigan, and this state is indebted to his efforts for the beautiful Lake Superior General Hospital, which he built in 1895, at Lake Linden and where he now acts as resident physician and surgeon, with a large and experienced corps of physicians and nurses.
Dr. Orr's father's father came from the North of Ireland in 1770 and located in Wyo- ming Valley, Pennsylvania, where his father was born. His mother was a descendant of Win. Sweetland, who arrived from England to this country and resided in Salem, New London county, Connecticut, in 1703. Luke Sweetland, his mother's grandfather, was, during the Massacre of Wyoming, captured by the Indians and was prisoner with then for fourteen months.
G. W. Orr was born February 18, 1847, at Walled Lake, Michigan, where he attended the district school in company with Joseph B. Moore, now judge of the Supreme bench. Working on the farm summers and attending school winters until 15 years of age, when he was sent to Wyoming Seminary, at Kings- ton, Pennsylvania, where he remained until the spring of 1864. He then returned to this state and attended a select school at Com- merce, Oakland county, working during the summer months on the farm. In the fall of 1870 he entered the University of Michigan and graduated in Medicine in 1877. He then opened an office in Pontiac, where he prac- ticed for two years, holding the office of city physician for that city during that time. In the summer of 1879 he received the appoint- ment of physician and surgeon for the C'en-
GEORGE WILLIAM ORR. M. D.
tral Mining Co., Lake Superior. He remained with that company until June, 1885. He then moved to Lake Linden and established an independent practice. In 1889 he received the appointment of physician and surgeon for the Tamarack and Osceola Mills. In 1895 he built the Lake Superior General Hospital and established the Lake Superior Training School for Nurses.
Dr. Orr married, in 1876, Miss Sarah Park, daughter of John II. Park, Pontiac, Michi- gan. They have two children, Hazel, 17, and Ruth, 8.
Dr. Orr is supervisor of Schoolcraft town- ship and has been for the past eight years. Ile is a Mason, a K. T. and a member of the Mystic Shrine, Moslem Temple, Detroit.
His father, Charles M. Orr, was an early settler of Michigan, arriving at Walled Lake, Oakland county, about 1835.
198
MEN OF PROGRESS.
WALTER HULME SAWYER, M. D.
SAWYER, M. D., WALTER HULME. Walter Hulme Sawyer, M. D., a practicing physician and surgeon of Hillsdale, Michigan, is a native of Bellvue, Ohio, near which place he was born August 10, 1861. George Saw- yer, his father, was a prosperous farmer near Bellvue and in 1872 brought his family to Michigan and located on a farm at Eaton Rapids, this state. The elder Sawyer invested all his savings in Toledo, Ohio, real estate, and the panic of 1873 causing a depreciation in values, he was unable to discharge his loans and was closed out without a cent.
Young Sawyer attended the public schools of Eaton Rapids from 11 to 15 years of age, when the father bought a small farm at Grass Lake, Michigan. Here the boy worked as a farm hand, attended the public schools, and
graduated from the high school in 1881. He entered the University of Michigan's medical department in the fall of 1881, graduating from there as an M. D. in June, 1884. He worked during vacations at farming. His father, being as ambitious to see his boy attain a good position as the boy was to obtain one, gave him all the money he could spare toward assisting him through the University, and the young man succeeded in obtaining a loan of $1,000 from a relative in order to complete his course.
Ile met with success ahnost from the start of his practice. The year following his grad- vation he was house physician at the hospital at Ann Arbor, and after saving a little money he determined to start in for himself. In July, 1885, he went to Hillsdale, where he now resides, and started his practice in that city.
Dr. Sawyer married Miss Harriet B. Mitchell, daughter of Hon. Charles T. Mitchell, of Hillsdale, June 16, 1888. He has one child, Thomas Mitchell Sawyer. Dr. Sawyer is a member of the Republican State Central Committee, of the Hillsdale School Board, and a trustee of Hillsdale College.
Hle belongs to the American Medical As- sociation, the Michigan State Medical Asso- ciation, Tri-State Medical Society, and is cor- responding member of the Detroit Academy of Medicine. In the business world he is a director in the Omega Portland Cement Co., Jonesville, Michigan; in the Oak Grove Sani- tarium, Flint, Michigan, and in the Buchanan Screen Works, Hillsdale, of which latter com- pany he was formerly president.
199
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
PRINCE, HON. WILLIAM IRA. Wil- liam Ira Prince, of Bessemer, Michigan, cashier of the First National Bank of that city, is only 33 years of age, yet he is con- sidered one of the most prominent and lead- ing Republicans of Gogebie County. He has held many offices in the gift of that party, and has established for himself an excellent record for political and commercial integrity.
He was born in Camden, Ohio, October 11, 1867. His father, George C. Prince, was engaged in the real estate, loan and insur- ance business in that vicinity and his mother was formerly Miss Lucy A. Hill, of the Hill family from Connecticut.
Young Prince commenced his education when 7 years of age in the district schools ncar Camden, and when he reached his 16th year the family removed to Oberlin, Ohio, where the boy took a two years' preparatory course at Oberlin College. He paid for his schooling by working as a farm hand for $12 a month during vacations, and so made enough money to cnable him to enter the Oberlin Business College, where he took a . two years' course.
After leaving college he was given a posi- tion in the postoffice at Oberlin as clerk and as such he remained until July, 1889. He resigned in that year to accept a position in which he saw chances of future advance- ment, that of collector and clerk in the Citi- zens' National Bank of Oberlin. His salary to commence with was only $200 a year. Ilere he remained until 1890, and in Febru- ary of that year he resigned his position to accept that of bookkeeper with the First Na- tional Bank of Escanaba, Michigan. On the first of January, 1892, Mr. Prince was ten- dered the position of cashier of the First Na- tional Bank of Bessemer, and for several years enjoyed the distinction of being the
HON. WILLIAM IRA PRINCE.
youngest cashier and manager of any national bank in the United States.
He has taken interest in other enterprises, and is one of the directors of the Gogebic Powder Company, which mannfactures nearly all the high explosives and dynamite used by the mines in the Gogebie range. Ile is also a director of the Brotherton Iron Mining Co.
In his career in the politics of his county, Mr. Prince has enjoyed the confidence of his neighbors, and has held the best offices that could be given to a young man. He was elected mayor of the city of Bessemer on the Republican tieket in 1897, re-elected in 1898 and 1899. In 1893 he was made City Treasurer, and at present he is a member of the county board of school examiners, and chairman of the Republican representative committee of Gogebie District. He was also chairman of the Republican county commit- tee in 1894-95. Mr. Price married, October 7, 1897, Miss Mary A. Baldwin, daughter of Milton R. Baldwin, at Waupaca, Wisconsin, and George Baldwin Prince has been the re- sult of that union.
200
MEN OF PROGRESS.
FRANCIS DEVEREUX CLARKE.
CLARKE, FRANCIS DEVEREUX. Francis Devereux Clarke has devoted all his life to the instruction of those unfortunates whom nature has deprived of two of the most valued senses, speech and hearing. Francis Clarke was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, January 31, 1848. When a boy he attended the primary schools of that city and when nine years of age was sent to the Gravis School at Bellemont, North Carolina, where he prepared for Davidson College, which he entered shortly after. At the age of four- teen he enlisted as a midshipman in the Con- federate navy and was assigned to the Fred- ericksburg. He participated in the City Point engagement in 1864, where he was wounded, and the wound kept him in the hos- pital until the close of the war.
The following four years he was connected with his brother in the grocery business, and later in the lumbering interests. When nine- teen years of age young Clarke was tendered the position of supercargo on a vessel plying between New York and Hong Kong, and bidding his parents and friends farewell he left for New York, expecting to be in the
Indian trade for many years. When he reached New York he found a change had been made in the command of the steamship he was assigned to, and he was forced to seek another position. Ile was proud and sensi- tive and did not inform his parents or friends of his ill-luck and for two weeks he lived on one meal a day, and his capital was reduced to fifteen cents when he secured a position. Ile had been visiting an employee, a friend of his, at the New York School for the Deaf and while riding back to the station he was tendered a position as teacher. He accepted and went to work immediately, determined to make a success of that profession. By committing to memory at night the lessons he was to teach the next day and attending strictly to his work he made a success the first week. He continued with the New York school seventeen years, and during the in- terim entered the Literary Department of Columbia College, from which he graduated in 1873. He then took a course in civil en- gineering at the University of the State of New York and graduated as a C. E. in 1875. In 1885 he was tendered and accepted the position of superintendent of the Arkansas Deaf Mute Institute at Little Rock, and he resigned December 15, 1892, to accept the superintendency of the Michigan School for the Deaf at Flint, where he still remains.
Mr. Clarke married Miss Celia Laura Ran- son, a niece of ex-Governor Epaphroditus Ransom at Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1872.
Mr. Clarke's father was William John Clarke, a well-known attorney of Raleigh, and came from the old Clarke family of Vir- ginia. His mother was Mary Bayard Dever- eux, descended from the old Southern family of that name. Mr. Clarke is a member of the National Teachers' Association of the United States and also of the National Association Teachers of the Deaf. The institution over which Mr. Clarke is superintendent is a flour- ishing one, and publishes the Michigan Mirror, a weekly devoted to the interests of the deaf and dumb, having a circulation of 1,200.
201
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
THOMPSON, JAMES ROBERT. Si- perintendent James Robert Thompson, of the Newport Mining Company, Ironwood, Mich- igan, is the son of James Thompson, who was a farmer of Raeine county, Wisconsin, and Miranda R. Fairbanks, of the Massachusetts family of that name. The Thompson family came originally from Scotland.
James R. Thompson was born at Burling- ton, Wisconsin, June 19, 1865, just two months after the death of his father, who was a soldier during the Civil War and died in a hospital at New Orleans, Louisiana, April 15, 1865. When the boy was 12 years of age the mother moved to Raeine, Wisconsin. where he attended the public schools of that city, and later the Racine High School, from which he graduated in 1882. During his studies in the High School the boy worked on his holidays, and also in the summer time, turning the money in toward paying his ex- penses through school. In the fall of 1882 he entered the University of Wisconsin at Madison, taking up the studies of civil en- gineering and later of mining and metallurgy. For a year he was compelled to absent him- self from college on account of a lack of funds, but he returned to college and gradu- ated in the class of 1887. His college ex- penses were partly earned one year by taking the State census, and another year by turn- ing book agent and selling a publication in the farming district around Madison. He also earned money during the school year by doing draughting for the U. S. Geological Survey. At the end of the winter term, 1887, he left college and accepted a position as min- ing engineer and chemist at the Jackson Iron Mines, under Capt. Samuel Mitchell, at Ne- gaunee. Ile received a salary of $1,000 a year. The college faculty, however, granted him the degree of Bachelor of Metallurgical Engineering at the regular commencement ex- ereises in June, 1887, and gave him an addi- tional degree of B. S. in June, 1888, in recog- mition of extra work done during his college course.
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