USA > Michigan > Men of progress : embracing biographical sketches of representative Michigan men with an outline history of the state > Part 39
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In 1875 he married Miss Belle Judd, of Ligonier, Ind. They have no children,
281
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
LEE, FRED ELMER. Mr. Lee is general manager of the P. D. Beckwith estate and of the Round Oak Stove Works (now become ex- tensive) established by P. D. Beckwith in 1869. He was born in Dowagiac in 1858 and after passing the public schools, he finished his education at Buchtel College, at Akron, Ohio. In 1876 he began his business career as bookkeeper for the banking firm of C. T. Lee & Son at Dowagiae. Two years later he went to Quincy, Mich., to take charge of his father's affairs there. Returning to Dowagiac at the end of a year (1879) he entered the employ of Mr. Beckwith. After three years employed in the works and office he went on the road as salesman for five years, when the magnitude of the business had become such that he was called in to take charge of the sales depart- ment, and for several years previous to Mr. Beckwith's death in 1889, he was in charge of all the office work. On Mr. Beckwith's death, Mr. Lee's familiarity with the business, to- gether with his known probity, pointed him out as the one eminently fitted for the respon- sible trust of general manager of the estate, of which he was appointed one of the executors.
A daughter of Mr. Beckwith, Miss Kate Beckwith, became Mrs. Lee in 1878 and Mr. and Mrs. Lee joined with the other heirs in erecting the handsome opera house to the memory of Mr. Beckwith, in Dowagiac, who had done so much for the growth and prosper- ity of the town, and had equally endeared hin- self to his family and friends. Mr. Lee is one of the solid men of Western Michigan. He has banking interests at Dowagiac and Benton Harbor and manufacturing interests at Buchanan, is president of the Buchanan & St. Joseph River railroad company and has ex- tensive real estate interests at home and in the west.
Ile was mayor of Dowagiac in 1890 and a delegate to the Republican National Conven- tion at Minneapolis in 1892. His father and mother, Chauncey T., and Sarah H. (Lock- wood) Lee, are both living in Dowagiac. Mrs. Fred E. Lee is a graduate of Mrs. Towle's Female Seminary at Detroit. She has always
FRED ELMER LEE.
given much of her time and means to benevo- lent purposes, and established and maintained at her own expense the first kindergarten in Dowagiac. She is a great reader and an ex- tensive traveler, both in this country and abroad. She is fond of elub work and is a member of the Board of Control of the Chil- dren's Home at St. Joseph. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lee's ancestry date back to the Puritans of the Mayflower. They have one child.
The Beckwith works, first established for the manufacture of Round Oak Stoves, em- ployed in the beginning eight hands. Today the estate employs 600 men and the plant re- quires for its buildings and operating space over fifteen acres of ground, and the furnaces have a daily melting capacity of sixty tons of pig iron. The stoves are adapted both to hard and soft coal and wood, and the demand for the output is co-extensive with the continent. The concern manufactures cooking ranges and furnaces (of the latter of which they manufac- ture ten different sizes) which have, equally with the heaters, points that commend them to the trade and to the public. The manage- ment are proud of the fact that they havo never had any misunderstanding with their employes, and that the business has increased five fold within the last seven years.
282
MEN OF PROGRESS.
MARTIN G. LOENNECKER.
LOENNECKER, MARTIN G. Mr. Loennecker is one of the public spirited citi- zens of Jackson. Born in Germany in 1845, his education, up to the age of fourteen years, Was received in the Normal School of Olden- burg, but improving his evenings by the study of languages. At the age of fourteen he went to work as assistant bookkeeper in a commis- sion honse, without salary, remaining there three years. He had so pursued his linguistic studies that at the age of seventeen, in addition to his native German, he could speak and write English, French, Spanish and Dutch (Hol- land). Seeing no opening in Germany he de- cided to come to America. With twenty dol- lars given him by his father, and a passage ticket, he came to New York. After a five days' quest, he secured a position as assistant bookkeeper in a wholesale liquor house, in which position he remained one year. He afterwards learned the trade of a cigarmaker. After some three years spent in New York City, he diversified his occupation by working as a salesman for a New York book concern in western New York for about three years, when he decided to remove to Chicago. He opened a book store in that city and did a good business
until 1871, when he was burned out. The great Chicago fire of 1871 so crippled the in- surance companies that out of insurance of $7,000 which Mr. Loennecker carried on his stock, he received less than $300. He came to Jackson in 1872 and first went to work at his trade of a cigar maker and soon became a manufacturer.
In 1886 and 1887 he was elected alderman and in 1888 was elected mayor on the Demo- cratie ticket and re-elected in 1869 by a large majority.
Mr. Loonnecker was led in his political action to affiliate with the People's party, as the best representative of that social and indus- trial equality that has been the dream of many of the best thinkers and philosophers the world over. In 1889 he started the Industrial News at Jackson, which he sold out in 1899, though still retaining his connection with it as an edi- torial writer. He helped to organize the Peo- ple's party in the state in 1889 and '90 and has taken an active part during the several campaigns. Ile was nominated on the com- bination ticket at the Bay City convention in 1896 for Commissioner of the State Land Office, and supported Wm. J. Bryan (of whom he is a great admirer as well as of the Chicago platform) for the presidency. In 1897 he was again nominated and elected mayor of the city of Jackson, and was re-elected in 1898 and again in 1899 for a fifth term. On his first election he at once began an investigation of the city finances and city officials, and secured the return to the city of considerable sums of money wrongfully withheld by two different officials. During his term the local taxes were reduced and a bonded indebtedness of $53,000 paid off. The Jackson City HIos- pital owes its existence largely, if not wholly, to his efforts. Ile started a popular subscrip- tion in 1888 by which the hospital was founded and donated to the city. He still continues his business as a cigar manufacturer and is presi- dent of the Michigan Mutual Plate Glass In- surance Company and is a member of the Ger- man Arbeiter Society of Michigan. Mrs. Loennecker, to whom he was married at Buf- falo, N. Y., in 1866, was formerly Miss Mary Borchard. Their children are Louisa, widow of Frederick Price of Jackson, Anna, wife of G. Mumford, an attorney, Chicago; Gustav A., business manager with his father; Blanche A., at home; Julius E., with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
283
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
WARNER, FRED M. Born in Hickling, Nottinghamshire, England, July 21st, 1865, at the age of three months he was brought to this country by his parents, and a few months later his mother died. After the death of his mother he was adopted by llon. P. Dean War- ner, the oldest resident of Farmington village and one of the earliest settlers in that vicinity. Fred graduated from the Farmington Iligh School at the age of fourteen, and afterwards attended the State Agricultural College for one term. lle then became a clerk in his father's largo general store, and when he reached the age of twenty-one, the mercantile business was turned over to him. Three years later he purchased the hardware business in an adjoining store, uniting the whole under one roof, and making it the most extensive mer- cantile business in Oakland county.
Realizing the fitness of the land in that part of Oakland county for grazing purposes, Mr. Warner in 1889 established a large cheese fac- tory at Farmington. The success of this fac- tory led to the establishment by him later on of like factories at Franklin and Novi. In 1899 the output of the three factories was ten thousand boxes, or 450,000 pounds, of cheese, nearly all of which was sold to the Michigan trade. He has recently purchased a fourth factory. In addition to his other lines of busi- ness Mr. Warner operates a cold storage plant, in connection with which immense quantities of eggs and butter are handled every year. He is also senior partner in the brick manu- facturing firm of Warner & Whipple. Largely through Mr. Warner's efforts a bank was established at Farmington in 1898, he be- ing a stockholder and one of the directors.
When twenty-three years of age Mr. War- ner was elected a member of the village con- cil, and has served on the council nine years. Ile has been five times elected president of the village, four times without opposition, and the one time when there was opposition, he was chosen by an overwhelming majority. In 1894 he was elected to the State Senate from the twelfth district, comprising the counties of Oakland and Macomb, and was returned in
FRED M. WARNER.
1896, both times leading the entire ticket in both counties in votes received. He was the youngest member of the Senate in the sessions of both '95 and '97. His career in the Senate was marked by the same energy, ability and fidelity that he has shown in every official position which he has hekl. Ile made a deter- mined fight against the plank road companies which had for years exacted tolls from the people withont keeping their roads in proper condition, and he secured the passage of a law which brought the companies to time.
The name of Warner is one that is much respected at Farmington and the adjacent. country. P. Dean Warner saw Farmington in 1824, and although now in his eightieth vear is still active in business affairs, being president of the Farmington bank. Ile was a representative in the Legislature in 1865 and 1867, and was Speaker during the latter ses- sion. He was a member of the Senate in 1869. Both father and son have done a great deal toward the advancement of the town and vicin- ity in which they live.
Mr. Warner is a member of the higher Masonic orders and of the auxiliary Eastern Star, of the Knights of Pythias, Knights of the Loval Guard, and of the Maccabees. In 1888 he married Martha M. Davis, daughter of Samuel Davis, of Farmington. They have four children, the oldest ten years and the youngest one year of age.
284
MEN OF PROGRESS.
CYRUS GRAY LUCE.
LUCE, CYRUS GRAY. There is a wide difference between an office seeker and an office holder. As a rule the office seeker does not get there, while the office holder gets there be- canse he is wanted. This distinction will at least hold good in the case of a man who for half a century has been continuously (with some possible interims) in the service of the publie in various positions. More than fifty years ago (1848) Gov. Luce was a Whig ean- didate for the Indiana Legislature. Whigs in office in those days were rather a searee eom- modity, and although Mr. Luee was defeated, it was by only a few votes in a strong Demo- cratic district. This may be termed the eom- mencement of a life covering more than fifty years.
Gov. Luee combined New England with Virginian blood, his father, Walter Luee, be- ing from Connecticut and his mother, Mary M. Gray, from Virginia. The parents were married in Ohio, Cyrus G. having been born at Windsor, that state, July 2nd, 1824. The family removed to Indiana in 1836 and Cyrus G. settled in Gilead, Branch county, in 1849. Three years later he was elected supervisor of his township and has served in that capacity
at different times for eleven years. In 1854 (the first year of the Republican ascendancy), he was elected to the Legislature. He was treasurer of Branch eonnty two terms, 1858- '62, and State Senator two terms, sessions of 1865 and '67. He was elected Governor in 1886 and again in 1888. In all his publie trusts, economy, honesty, force and courage to do right, have been the governing factors. As governor he did not hesitate to use the veto power where his judgment so inclined him. Whether wise or unwise in itself, his veto of an appropriation in behalf of the State Univer- sity during his first term illustrates the sturdy courage of the man. Few men hoping for re- election would have hazarded the enmity of an institution so strong in itself, and with thou- sand holding cherished relations to it, in every part of the state. But he did what he thought was right regardless of what might come after. As State Oil Inspector, 1879-83, he so system- atized and economized the work that a finan- cial balance of over $32,000 was saved to the state. Mr. Luee served for a number of years on the State Board of Agrienlture and as Mas- ter of the State Grange and as President of the State Pioneer and Historical Society, and is now President of the State Library Commis- sion. With an edneation running from the pri- mary to the academie, he has been equal to every place to which he has been ealled. With- out pretentious to oratory, he is, in debate or on the stump, as Mark Anthony was, a plain, blunt man who speaks right on, and to the pur- pose. With a capital of only $200 supplied him by his father, he has made a home and a farm of which he is justly proud and a name of which his fellow citizens are equally proud. While his hand and his heart are with the farming interests, not his own merely, but those of the state at large, he has other busi- ness and financial interests. Mr. Luee was first married in 1849 to Miss Julia A. Diek- inson of Gilead, by whom he had four chil- dren, two sons and two danghters. Left a widower, August 13th, 1882, he was again married November 12th, 1883, to Mrs. Mary E. Thompson of Bronson.
285
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
LONG, M. D., OSCAR RUSSELL. Dr. Oscar Russell Long, medical superintendent of the State Asylum, Ionia, Michigan, and a resident of that city, is a native of Williams- port, Pennsylvania, in which city he was born, August 16, 1850. His father was Francis F. Long, a lumber manufacturer of that place. When Oscar Long was nine months of age his mother died and her adopted father, Col. Joseph S. Titus, took charge of the three chil- dren that were left alone. He lived just out- side of the city of Williamsport and young Long was sent to the district school and later to Dickinson Seminary. When the boy was seventeen years old he quit school and entered his father's sash and blind factory, working at first as a mill hand earning $1.25 per diem, and being sent from one department to the other in order to learn the work thoroughly. The next year he entered the sash department and later was placed in charge of it. While there; he was tendered and accepted a position as general manager of a new plant of the same kind which had been erected at West Creek, near Emporium, Pa., by the Allen W. Swift Company. It was a step upward and for the next eighteen months Mr. Long was superin- tendent of a hustling small plant employing 40 to 50 men. IIe was not satisfied and de- cided to take up some other profession, so he gave his employer notice that he intended to quit at a certain date, and despite flattering offers of better pay, left the works and after a consultation with his older brother decided to adopt the medical profession, as one that presented the best opportunities to a hustling young man.
Entering the office of Drs. Doane and Rein- hold, March, 1870, he read medicine during the spring and summer and taught school in the winter of 1870 and 1871, entered the Uni- versity of Michigan in the fall of 1871, he at- tended the full course of lectures of the college year of 1871 and 1872. In October of the latter year he came to Detroit, Michigan, and entered the Detroit Homeopathic Medical Col- lege, from which he graduated in June, 1873. He then started to seek his fortune in the west-
OSCAR RUSSELL LONG, M. D.
ern country, locating at Burlington, Iowa, where he practiced successfully and saved up $300, which he deposited in a bank that was among the first to fail in 1873. He was ten- dered and accepted the position of professor and demonstrator of anatomy at the Detroit Homeopathic College and returned to Michi- gan, remaining in that capacity for two years.
In the spring of 1874 he located at Ionia, Michigan, and practiced his profession there for eleven years. When the state of Michigan had completed an asylum for the dangerous and criminal insane (now State Asylum), Dr. Long was appointed medical superintendent and opened the institution in September, 1885. The new buildings were erected in 1890 and 1896, and there are 260 inmates today.
Dr. Long married Miss Annie M. Freeman at Detroit, Michigan, in 1874. He has one child. Grace S., wife of Albert B. Bedford, capitalist and jeweler of Tonia, Mich. Dr. Long is vice-president of the State Savings bank of Tonia; a member of the American Psychological Association, the American In- stitute of Homeopathy; ex-president of the Michigan Homeopathic State Medical Society, and a member of the F. & A. M.
286
MEN OF PROGRESS.
CHARLES E. BELKNAP.
BELKNAP, CHARLES E. "From drum- mer boy to Congress" seems to be an appropri- ate introduction to a sketch of this well known citizen of the Valley ( 'ity. Closing his school life at twelve years of age and entering upon shop work, he acquired a knowledge of handi- eraft and business at the receptive period of life during the ensuing three or four years, that later on boaconed him forward to a suc- cessful career as a manufacturer. His father was engaged in wagon making and blacksmith- ing at Grand Rapids, and it was here tl at Mr. Belknap's apprenticeship was served. In 1862, then less than sixteen years of age, carried along by the patriotic impulse, he enlisted as a drummer boy in the Twenty-first Michigan Infantry and served until the close of the Civil War, although the drummer boy's sash was soon exchanged for the sword and musket. He entered the ranks and participated in the battles of Perrysville, Stone River, Chicka- manga, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, Savan- nah, Bentonville and in many minor battles and skirmishes. He was wounded five times, and was captain of his company at the c'ose of the war, and had been breveted Major and Lieutenant-Colonel. Returning to Grand
Rapids, he worked for a year at his old trade and then for five years conducted his father's farm near Grand Rapids. In 1872 he opened a small wagon shop and the first year turned out about fifteen wagons. The business grew steadily and in 1884, the Belknap Wagon Co. was organized and incorporated and is today the second largest manufactory of sleighs in the United States. Their output last year was 1,200 wagons and 1,800 sleighs, giving em- ployment to about sixty men the year round.
Mr. Kelknap has done service to the state in civil life as well as in the military and indus- trial lines. He served seven years as member of the Grand Rapids School Board and was its acting president for two years, 1882-3, and a like time as mayor, 1884-5. He was a mem- ber of the board of control of the School for the Deaf at Flint for five years. He was elected to and served two terms in Congress (the Fifty-first and Fifty-second), and was elected to the Fifty-third Congress by a plu- rality of nine votes, but the seat was given to his opponent by the adverse Democratic ma- jority in Congress. In 1895 he was appointed by Governor Rich as president of the Michigan Commission with duties pertaining to the Chickamauga, Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge National Military Park. As such, he compiled and published a report thereon, of which 10,000 copies were ordered printed by the State, for distribution.
The Belknaps were originally from Eng- land, coming to and locating at Woburn, Mass., in 1637. The father and mother of Charles E., James A., and Mary (Butler) Bel- knap, were from Vermont, but resided for a time in Massena, N. Y., where Charles E. was born Oct. 17, 1846. Hlis paternal and ma- ternal grandfathers were both soldiers in the war of 1812 and a great great grandfather served in the revolutionary war. Commander Charles Belknap, in charge of the navy yard at Annapolis, and Rear-Admiral George E. Belknap, represent a branch of the family. Mr. Belknap was married in 1866 to Miss Chloe Caswell, daughter of David Caswell, of Grand Rapids. Four daughters, three of whom are married, are the fruit of the union. Mr. Belknap is a member of the Loval Legion, G. A. R., and Pythians.
287
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
RANNEY, FREDERICK ELI. The Ranney Refrigerator Company, of Greenville, Michigan, of which Frederick Eli Ranney is the president, was organized in 1892, and since that time it has grown into one of the largest manufacturing plants of its kind in Michigan, giving employment to 300 men and manufacturing in 1899 40,000 refrigera- tors. It is still a growing institution, and the plant is being increased 50 per cent for 1900.
Frederick E. Ranney, the organizer of this industry in Greenville, is a native of Massa- chusetts and was born in Ashfield, Mass., July 2, 1853. Ilis schooling stopped when he was 15 years of age, and he commenced to look out for himself at that age, working first on a tobacco farm near Sunderland, Mass., as a farm hand, and thus earning the first dollar he could call his own. He came to Michigan in 1872 and located at Belding, whither his brother had preceded him. He was disap- pointed in his search for employment, and determined to return east, but was persuaded by his brother to remain, and the following week he went to work as a carpenter, follow- ing that vocation during the sunnner and in the following winter going into the humber camps. He saved his money and in 1877 had sufficient to enable him to start a livery and feed barn in Belding. That fall the, now Pere Marquette Railroad having a spur track into Belding, Mr. Ranney secured the contract to operate the street car system between Beld- ing and Kiddville. Ile occupied "the many positions" on the railway, and "all at the same time," being "street car conductor, driver, general manager and track laborer." The jocose travelling men gave the line the name of "The Ilay-Burner Line." For seven years Mr. Ranney did all the work on the little street car system, maintaining at the same time his livery business, and by good management and judicious investments he managed to save sev- eral thousand dollars.
Saturday night, August 30,. 1884, Mr. Raney gave up his positions as driver, conduc- tor, general manager, ete., of the street car line, and the next Monday morning entered
FREDRICK ELI RANNEY.
the manufacturing world. He had already helped organize the Belding Manufacturing Company, into which he had put all his carn- ings, and soon became president and general manager of that concern. He remained in this position, ably conducting the affairs of the company until 1892, when he sold out his interests and purchased the building of the Potato Starch Factory in Greenville, and organized the Ranney Refrigerator Company. The growth of the new enterprise fully justi- fied Mr. Ranney's keen business descermment, and the affairs of the company are in a most flourishing condition.
Mr. Ranney married, in 1875, Miss Mary I. Ellis, daughter of Louis Ellis, of Belding, one of the first settlers in that portion of the state, having located there in 1842. He has four children. Ellis W. is attending the Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing, and Carrie L., Hattie B., and LeRoy are attend- ing school in Belding.
Mr. Ranney is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, a Royal Arch Mason and a Knight of Pythias.
As a business man he is known for his directness in all his dealings, and for his ability to carry his plans to a successful completion. Hle has done much for Greenville, especially in giving employment to many heads of families in that city.
288
MEN OF PROGRESS.
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HON. JOSEPH MOSS GAIGE.
GAIGE, HON. JOSEPH MOSS. Hon. Joseph Moss Gaige, of Croswell, Michigan, was born in West Burlington, New York, June 13, 1848. His father, Henry W. Gaige, was born in West Burlington, Otsego county, New York, December 7th, 1820. The family is of English descent and came to this country in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Young Gaige attended the district schools until he was about 14 years of age, when he was sent to the Oneida Conference Seminary at Cazinovia, New York, where he took a preparatory course, and then went to the Cooperstown Seminary at Cooperstown, New York, where he prepared for college. In 1866 he was sent west to join Truman Moss, his nele, a lumberman, of Croswell, Michi- gan. Ile expected to take a position in the office, but the practical old unele put him in charge of the docks at Lexington, Michigan, paying him $25 a month and giving him his board for his services. The following winter his unele seenred him a position in the law offices of Walker & Kent, at Detroit, where the young man read law and looked after the clerical work in the office and the collection department, earning barely enough to pay
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