USA > Michigan > Men of progress : embracing biographical sketches of representative Michigan men with an outline history of the state > Part 29
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After one year at the Jackson mine he left
JAMES ROBERT THOMPSON.
to accept a similar position with the Iron Cliff Company at Negaunce, Michigan, and he re- mained with this latter company until 1890, when it was absorbed by the Cleveland ('liffs Company, and in October of that year he ae- cepted the position of mining engineer with the Lake Superior Mining Company, at Ish- peming. Hle stayed with this company for five years, successfully filling the position he had taken, and in 1895 he resigned to accept the superintendency of the Newport Mining Company's plant at Ironwood, Michigan.
In 1888 the University of Wisconsin granted to Mr. Thompson the degree of M. S. for his investigations and report on the struc- tural relations of the ore deposits of Marquette county, Michigan.
Mr. Thompson is the general manager of the Dun Iron Mining Company, which operates the Palms Iron Mine at Bessemer, Michigan, and the Dumm Iron Mines at Crystall Falls, Michigan.
Ile married, in 1893, Miss Helen II. Pearl, daughter of Eleazor Pearl, a contractor at Farmington, New Hampshire. He is a mem- ber of the F. & A. M.
202
MEN OF PROGRESS.
STEPHEN BETTS WHITING.
WIRITING, STEPHEN BETTS. The present general manager of the immense plant and operations of the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company at Calumet is Stephen Betts Whiting, a descendant of Hon. Wm. Whit- ing, one of the founders of the colony of Hart- ford, Connecticut, in 1636. Mr. Whiting was born at Reading Ridge, Connecticut, Jan- uary 22, 1834. There he attended the dis- triet school from the time he was old enough to do so until he reached the age of eight, and then he was sent to the publie school at New Haven, Connecticut, and prepared to enter Yale College. Financial troubles in the fam- ily forced him to resign all ideas of the higher education to be obtained at college, and put him in a position where he had to earn his own living. He always fancied the meehani- cal trade, and when only 14 years old built a little working model of a steam engine, which is still one of his most valued posses- sions and runs as smoothly today as it did 52 years ago. He was apprenticed to serve six years learning the trade of a machinist, eom- meneing at $25 a year and his board, but after
two and a half years the firm dissolved and young Whiting started out as a journeyman machinist. He worked in different shops in New Haven for about two years, and then returning to the place where he had learned his trade, in company with a fellow workman, opened the old shop and started in business for himself.
Three years later Mr. Whiting went to Urbana, Ohio, and took charge of Gwynnes, Ellis & Co.'s shops, building engines and saw- mill machinery, and the next five years he was superintendent of the new plant of Steigelman & Miller, at Alton, Illinois. IIe then accepted the position as superintendent of Kaighus Point Iron Works, near Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, and was superintendent afterwards when the plant passed into the hands of a receiver.
In 1863 Mr. Whiting joined with C. Wil- cox and bought the Kaighus Point Iron Works, operating the plant suecessfully until 1866, when Mr. Wileox died and Mr. Whiting sold out. This firm built the monitor Koka for the United States government, and the big Chestnut street bridge in Philadelphia. After a short trip to the mountains for the benefit of his health, he returned to harness again as superintendent of the Colliery Iron Works at Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and later resigned to accept the position of mechanical engineer for the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company, with headquarters at Pottsville. He was promoted to chief engineer and later be- came general manager. In 1888 he resigned to accept liis present position.
In 1858 he married Miss Kate Burr Draper, daughter of Albert Draper, a manu- faeturing jeweler of Attleboro, Massachusetts. He has five children, namely, Charles W., Walter S., Albert D., Howard E. and S. Edgar. Charles is a meelianieal engineer, Walter is a mining engineer, Albert a physi- cian and surgeon, Howard the superintendent of parks at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and S. Edgar an instructor in the eleetrieal depart- ment of Harvard College.
203
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
HUMPHREY, CHAS. MARK. Much eastern capital has been brought into Michi- gan, and many enterprises furthered by its means through the efforts of some of the younger men of this state, and Charles Mark Humphrey, of Ironwood, Michigan, was the main factor in building the electric railroad that now is known as the Holland & Lake Michigan Railroad Company.
Charles M. Humphrey was born at Elyria, Ohio, July 17, 1865. Two years after this event his family moved to Allegan, Allegan County, Michigan, where from the time he was old enough to go to school up to 1881 he attended the public school of that city. His father, James B. Ilumphrey, was an attor- ney-at-law, and in 1881 he moved his family to Lansing, Michigan, where the son at- tended the public schools until the fall of 1883, when he entered the Michigan Agri- cultural College at Lansing, which he left the following year to commence his law studies at the University of Michigan.
He graduated from the law department in 1886, and then entered the law firm of Padg- ham & Padgham at Allegan, where he re- mained until 1887 when he accepted the position as deputy clerk of the Supreme Court under Charles Hopkins. In 1889 the young attorney returned to Allegan and en- tered into partnership with Judge Phillip Padgham under the firm name of Padgham & Humphrey, and he continued the practice of law until January 1, 1891, when he was made attorney and counselor for the Norrie Mine, a position he still holds, and which re- sulted in his removal to Ironwood, Michigan, where he now resides. In 1897 Mr. Hum- phrey became interested in consolidating the two street railway systems at Hurley, Wiscon- sin, and Ironwood, Michigan, and consulted with some of his friends in Lower Michigan regarding the building of an electric road from Holland, Michigan, to Lake Michigan, where the summer hotels are located at Macatawa Park. Young Humphrey brought his scheme before the city council of Holland and induced it to grant a franchise for the proposed road.
CHARLES MARK HUMPHREY.
It was not until he secured this franchise that he realized the magnitude of the under- taking on the part of a young man without capital. Nevertheless he secured the right of way for his road and then went to Philadel- phia, where he consulted with the capitalists of that city and soon induced them to back the enterprise. Work on the road was com- menced at once, and on July 4, 1898, seven miles of electric road from Holland to Lake Michigan were opened, and also a branch of ten miles to Saugatuck, which opened the best fruit country of western Allegan county. The company intends to extend the line fur- ther sonth into the fruit country. Mr. Hum- phrey was made president of the company when it organized. Mr. Humphrey en- joys a good law practice as a member of the firm of Humphrey & Cooper, Ironwood and Bessemer, Michigan. He is secretary and treasurer of the Northwestern Mining Com- pany of Clear Creek District, Colorado, and a director in the Bessemer Ore Company, operating the Mikado mine at Wakefield, Michigan. He was city attorney of Iron- wood, 1893-96-97, and is a member of the Peninsular Club of Grand Rapids, and the Chicago Athletic Association.
204
MEN OF PROGRESS.
HON. ERWIN EVELETH.
EVELETH, HON. ERWIN. Erwin Eve- leth, a capitalist of Corunna, Michigan, where he is also engaged in the business of estimat . ing lumber and land-looking, is a native of New York state, having been born November 6, 1842, in Darien, Genesee county. His father, Charles Eveleth, is of Welsh descent, coming from a family which located in Ver- mont in the early history of that state. The elder Eveleth moved to Alexander, New York, and shortly afterwards, in 1849, to Grand Blanc, Michigan. When the family came to this state, the subject of this sketch was seven years of age. Hle was sent to the district schools near his new home until he reached his fifteenth year, after which he at- tended the public schools at Flushing, Michi- gan, and received the benefit of two winter terms at the public school in Saginaw. While studying at Flushing, young Eveleth worked on the farm during the smnmer months, but at Saginaw he clerked in a store in order to see himself through school. Upon leaving school he seenred employment in the ware- house of Gooding & Hawkins, at a salary of $50 a month, out of which he managed to
save enough money to pay his way through the Business College at Detroit during the winter of 1861 and 1862. He returned to his old position with the Saginaw firm, but the following fall he became associated with John D. Jones, a land-looker, and learned this vocation. For the next three years he worked in the woods adjacent to the Saginaw river.
In the year 1865 Mr. Eveleth became asso- ciated with the firm of Robinson & Flynn, of Detroit, Michigan, and looked after their large interests in the state, estimating timber and timber lands, a vocation he has followed since that time, and at which he has gained a reputation for his great skill and reliability. Mr. Eveleth has looked lands in almost every pine-bearing county in the state of Michigan. His reputation as a land-looker has extended outside of this state, and he has covered the territory from Rainy Lake to the Gulf of Mexico and all through Ontario and the Northwest. Much of his time in the past few years has been given as an expert estimator of timber lands, and his services as such are greatly in demand in all parts of the United States and Canada.
Mr. Eveleth moved to Corunna in 1871. In politics he is a Republican. He was elected on the Republican ticket to the office of mayor of Corunna in 1895-1896 and has been a member of the school board for the past ten years, during eight of which he was presi- dent of that body. IIe has been on the coun- cil of Corunna for the past four years.
Mr. Eveleth married, in 1866, Miss Jennie, daughter of John Black, of Sanilac, Michi- gan. He has nine children. He is a mem- ber of Corunna Lodge, F. & A. M .; Corunna Chapter, R. A. M .; Corunna Chapter, R. S. M .; Corunna Commandery, K. T., No. 21, and the K. O. T. M.
In 1882 Mr. Eveleth located a tract of land on Masaba range, the iron district of Minnesota, and discovered the famous Adams Iron Mine, now operated by the Rockefeller interests, and a good producer. The village of Eveleth, St. Louis county, Minnesota, is named in honor of Mr. Eveleth.
205
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
SOPER, HON. JULIUS MASON. Hon. Julius Mason Soper, representative from the First District of Eaton county, was born ou a farm in Ouandaga county, New York state, February 24, 1858. Both of his parents were natives of New York state, his father having been born in Shenango county and his mother in Onandaga. His parents came to Michigan in 1865 and located on a farm near Delta, and as a boy Julius M. Soper helped his father in the work of clearing up the farm from the forest land, removing the stumps, ploughing among those that could not be removed in time for planting, digging ditches and all sorts of labor that the clearing up of new farm land requires. He attended school when he could find time to spare from these duties until he was 20 years of age, acquiring his education in the common schools of this state, and devot- ing his evenings to study in order to prepare himself for a good position in life. He was a quiet boy and of a naturally studions disposi- tion. He had planned to advance his educa- tion by a course at a business college, but as he had two sisters of whom his father was very fond he worked in order that they might ob- tain education enough to enable them to teach school. Both sisters afterwards became teachers and eventually married, one being now Mrs. C. S. Branch and living in Minne- apolis, Minnesota, and the other being Mrs. Charles Slocum, of Delta.
Ile postponed his business college course from day to day, and finally gave up the hope of ever obtaining it.
He has been a steady, hard working man all his life, and is still engaged in farming in Delta township, Eaton county, on the very farın that he helped his father to clear up when he was a boy.
His farm is noted for its fine herd of blooded stock, and he supplies milk to the Lansing Condensed Milk factory from his own dairy. (This dairy is a model of sanitary equipment, being provided with all modern appliances for the proper care of the lacteal fluid.)
Mr. Soper is a member of the Grange of
HON. JULIUS MASON SOPER.
Delta and belongs to the Lodge of Grand Ledge, F. and A. M. He is an attendant of the Methodist Episcopal church at Delta.
Farming has always been his sole occupa- tion and although an active Republican he had never been a candidate for any office until nominated by his party to the legislature of 1899-1900. IIe was elected by a vote of 2,179 to 1,738 for Herbert Babcock, Demo- cratic-Union Silver candidate, a majority of 441. He made a clean record during the ses- sion of 1899, winning the respect of both sides of the house. He has been successful in his efforts to establish the first rural free mail route out of the city of Lansing.
Mr. Soper married Miss Mary Hamilton, a daughter of A. J. Hamilton, at Delta, Michi- gan, November 21, 1883.
IIe has been a member of the school board of Delta township for seventeen years and a census officer for the township in 1894. Dur- ing his term on the school board he has been instrumental in advancing the methods of education to au up-to-date system. Ile is a man of quiet ways and possesses many friends. throughout his county.
206
MEN OF PROGRESS.
WARREN J. WILLITS.
WILLITS, WARREN J. Warren J. Willits, of Three Rivers, Michigan, was born in Hillsdale County, this State, August 19, 1853. The Willits family was one of the very early settlers in Hillsdale County, com- ing there in 1835 from New York, and Baron R. Willits, unele of the subject of this sketeh. was a member of the Michigan Legislature in the early days of the State, and also of the ter- ritorial convention. The family is of good old Quaker stock, the grandfather, Jonathan Wil- lits, being a New Jersey Quaker. Warren J. Willits attended, when a boy, the district school near his home, and the first work that brought him any remuneration was employ- ment at four dollars per month in a flour and feed store. Later he went to work in the post- office at an increased salary of eight dollars a month and boarded with his parents. Hc studied bookkeeping and gradually became skilled as sneh, securing a position with the Michigan Pump Company in that capacity and remaining with the company for four years, during which time he was advanced until he received a moderately good salary.
In 1876 he formed a partnership with his father, under the firm name of J. Willits &
Son, for the manufacture and sale of wooden pumps, and later on his father sold out and Mr. R. II. Webb, his father-in-law, came into the company, and the concern was known as Webb & Willits.
They had in their employ a gentleman by the name of George S. Sheffield, who invented what is now known as the railroad velocipede, and in 1879 the firm of Geo. S. Sheffield Co. was organized with Geo. S. Sheffield and Mr. Willits as co-partners for the purpose of manu- facturing this light car. This three-wheel car was the only article manufactured by the firm for a few years, but ultimately the com- pany branched out into the manufacture of the ordinary four-wheeled hand cars and other railroad lines, and later on, in the year 1884, the Sheffield Car Company was organized, with Mr. Willits as president, and cars for mining and plantation purposes were added to the lines till now they have a large factory employing upwards of two hundred men, and ship their products to all parts of the world, representing an investment of over two hun- dred thousand dollars.
Mr. Willits has held several political offices. He was township elerk of the Township of Loekport in 1877-78; member several terms of the school board; the city council and city water board and state senator during the ses- sion of 1887-88.
He married Miss Addie E. Webb, daughter of Richard H. Webb, of Three Rivers, Michi- gan, in that city, in 1876, and has two chil- dren, Webb J. Willits, his son, aged 17, who is now at school, and Eleanor, Mr. Willits' only daughter is the wife of Percy E. Wagar, M. D., of Three Rivers.
Mr. Willits is the president of the Three Rivers Light & Power Company, of Three Rivers; president of the First State Savings Bank; the Cemetery Association; vice-presi- dent of the Michigan Wood Pulp Company, of Niles, Michigan, and is largely interested in the Three Rivers Improvement Company.
Mr. Willits is looked upon in Three Rivers as a busy, progressive man who has devoted much time to the improvement of the city.
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207
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
FIFIELD, HENRY OTIS. Henry Otis Fifield, owner and publisher of the Herald at Menominee, Michigan, a tri-weekly and weekly publication with a large cireulation throughout the county, is the son of Samuel S. Fifield, a former merchant of Corinna, Maine. His mother was formerly Miss Na- omi Pease. Henry Otis Fifield was born at Corinna, Maine, August 7, 1841, and when he was two years of age the family moved to Bangor, in the same state, and remained there until 1853, giving the boy an opportu- nity of spending a few years in the publie schools of that city. In 1853 the elder Fifield concluded that he would move to Kansas, and started to do so, when the insurreetion of John Brown and his sturdy sons ereated such an unsettled feeling in that state, that the Kansas idea was given np and the family went instead to the town of Preseott, Wiseon- sin. Here young Fifield attended school until 1858, when he eommeneed to work as printer's "devil" in the office of the Preseott Transcript at a salary of $50 a year and board.
In the spring of 1861, young Fifield en- listed as a private in Co. C, First Minnesota Infantry, which was assigned to the First Brigade, Second Division, Second Corps, and latterly was under command of Gen. Han- cock. The regiment participated in the first battle of Bull Run and served through Balls Bluff, Winchester, Yorktown, Fair Oaks, the "Seven Days' Retreat," Antietam, Gettys- burg, Bristow Station and the battle of Mine Run. The regiment was almost annihilated at Gettysburg, there being only one hundred and twenty-five men left after the battle was over. The regiment was mustered out in 1864, on the 5th of May.
Young Fifield then returned home and after being employed at typesetting for a while on the St. Paul Press, joined his brother in the newspaper business at Oseeola Mills, Wiseonsin. The paper was ealled the Polk County Press.
The following year he turned his efforts to
HENRY OTIS FIFIELD.
sign writing and honse painting, but in 1869 together with his brother started the Weekly Press at Bayfield, Wisconsin, and in the spring of 1872 moved the plant to Ashland, Wisconsin. This was the first paper ever printed in that place, and H. O. Fifield sold out his interest in 1874. Mr. Fifield then worked on several papers in Stillwater, Min- neapolis, Osceola Mills and elsewhere, and during the session of 1877-78 of the Wiseon- sin Legislature, was proofreader and elerk in the Legislature. In Mareh, 1879, Mr. Fi- field came to Michigan and commenced work on the Menominee Herald, and during the year 1880 he purchased that publication.
Mr. Fifield married Miss Emma Loraine Walker at Oseeola Mills, Wiseonsin, Septem- ber 21, 1866. He is a Republican and his paper is the official organ of Menominee county. He has been a delegate to many Republican conventions in this state since 1889. He is a Mason, Knights Templar, and a Shriner. Besides this, he belongs to the Na- tional Union, the Grand Army of the Repub- lie, the Ancient Order of United Workmen. and the Knights of Tented Maeeabees.
208
MEN OF PROGRESS.
IION. RUSSEL R. PEALER.
PEALER, HON. RUSSEL R. Russel R. Pealer was born Jamary 1, 1842, in Green- wood, Columbia county, Pennsylvania, and was brought up in that county on his father's farm. Ile was edneated in the district and Normal schools of his native state and taught school to defray the expenses of his education. He early determined upon the law as his pro- fession, but first studied surveying and prac- ticed that, to pay in part the expenses of his law course. Mr. Pealer was a volunteer in the Civil War, enlisted September 9, 1862, in the Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, when he was scarcely 20 years of age, as a boy pri- vate. Ile was soon advanced from the ranks and made a non-commissioned officer and later promoted sergeant-major of his regiment, "for meritorions conduct." He was commissioned second lieutenant and then first lieutenant of his company and was recommended for cap- tain just as the war closed. Ile was severely wounded in the battle of llatcher's Rum, Vir- ginia. He was engaged in some of the fiercest battles of the war, participating in the famous battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor and at Petersburg, and was in thirty-five engagements in all.
Mr. Pealer is prominently identified with the Grand Army of the Republic, and has been commander of the Ed. M. Prntzman Post, No. 72; judge-advocate of the depart- ment, and served on different committees, among others he was on the Legislative Com- mittee, which secured the appropriation for the Woman's Annex to the Soldiers' Home. He assisted in the passage of the Soldiers' Re- lief Bill. He is now the Department Com- mander, G. A. R., of this state. His services were promptly tendered to the governor on the breaking out of the war with Spain, when he offered to assist in raising a cavalry regi- ment.
Ile was admitted to the bar in 1867 and located in Three Rivers, Michigan, the same year, where he has since resided.
Mr. Pealer was twice Circuit Court com- missioner of St. Joseph county; proseenting attorney three and one-half years; Circuit judge from 1882 until 1888, and a member of the Michigan State Legislature, 1888-1889. Hle has been thrice supported by more than 200 delegates for the Republican nomination for the Supreme bench, and was one of the commissioners appointed by Governor Rich on the compilation of the Statutes of 1897. He is president of the First National Bank of Three Rivers, and has served on the school and other local boards and is an energetic business man and has a lucrative law practice.
He is a member of the F. & A. M., a Knights Templar, and belongs to the M. E. church and has served as a lay delegate in its annual and general conferences.
His wife was Sue F. Santee, daughter of Rev. William Santee, Bradford county, Penn- sylvania. They were married April 15, 1874.
The Pealers were farmers of German descent, on his mother's side; his great-grand- father (Caleb Hopkins) was an Episcopal clergyman and a lieutenant in the Revolu- tionary War.
Ile has two daughters, both of whom are happily married. Anna G. is the wife of George F. Knappen; Mary A. is the wife of Jay Beryfogle.
209
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
HECK, HON. GEORGE R. Hon. Geo. R. Heck, as his name will indicate, is of Ger- man descent. He was born in St. Johns, Clinton County, Michigan, March 18, 1864, and his early life was spent on a farm at that place. His father, William Heck, came to Michigan from New York and became a prominent farmer in Clinton County. His mother's father, Hon. R. S. Van Scoy was one of Michigan's pioneers and was at one time the largest wheat raiser in this state. Ile was elected to the legislature three times.
George Heck, as a boy, worked about the farm owned by his father, walking three and a half miles daily to attend the Union school at Maple Rapids, after he had been through the district school near his home, and help- ing his mother about the house in churning and other chores. He was fond of reading, his mind turning toward biographical works and history, and he obtained his books from the library in Maple Rapids, often walking there barefoot in order to obtain reading mat- ter. He attended the high school at St. Johns two years and then supplemented this educa- tion by a course at the Northern Indiana Normal school at Valpariaso, Indiana. In the spring of 1891 he graduated from this institution's law department with the degree of bachelor of laws, and on May 5 of the same year he was admitted to practice in the Circuit Court of the United State at Indiana- polis, Ind.
The money used to pay for his law educa- tion was earned by himself, as his father did not favor his study of that profession. The hoy dug ditches and worked as a farm laborer, with the harvesting machine outfits during vacations, earning as much as $50, in the summer. His mother encouraged him in his ambitious attempts to become a lawyer and man of probity, and her death in the spring of 189S was the saddest blow that Mr. Heck ever received. To her he gives the credit for all he has achieved in life.
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