USA > Michigan > Men of progress : embracing biographical sketches of representative Michigan men with an outline history of the state > Part 40
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his expenses. Satisfied with the way the lad had condneted himself during the trials im- posed upon his nephew the old uncle assisted him to enter the law department of the Uni- versity of Michigan, from which Mr. Gaige graduated in the spring of 1869. He was admitted to the bar by examination before the Supreme Court October 7 of the same year. HIe then removed to Detroit, where he opened up a vessel and ship brokerage business at the foot of Woodward avenue, meeting with great success, but selling out the next winter to join his uncle in the lumbering business at C'roswell. About the first of that year he was made junior partner in the firm, which then became Moss, Mills & Gaige. The firm did an extensive business in Sanilaç and Huron connties. The firm was dissolved on the death of the senior member, Truman Moss, March 28. 1883.
Mr. Gaige then started a private banking institution at Croswell, under the name of the Sanilac County Bank, and in 1885 sold out to become the manager of the Truman Moss estate. ITe continned at this until the cstate was settled in 1895. Mr. Gaige incor- porated and organized the State Bank of Croswell and was elected president. He is also president of the State Bank at Carson- ville, Mich., the State Bank of Deckerville, Mich., and one of the heaviest stockholders and vice-president of the Croswell Milling Company at Croswell, Mich. Mr. Gaige is a large stockholder in the Sanilac Jeffersonian, the official republican organ of Sanilac county. He married Miss Mary Ella Jones, daughter of M. V. K. Jones, in 1869, at Ann Arbor, Mich.
Mr. Gaige is a republican. He was state senator of Michigan from the twentieth sen- atorial district in 1895-96, being elected on the republican ticket with 2,200 plurality. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, being Past Eminent Commander of Lexington Com - mandery, K. T., No. 27, a Shriner of Moslem Temple, Detroit, and a member of the Michi- gan Sovereign Consistory, Detroit. He platted the town of Sandusky, Sanilac county, Mich., now known as Sanilac Center.
289
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
DURAND, JUDGE GEORGE HAR- MON. Judge George Harmon Durand is another Michigan man who has risen to a position of affluence and the top round of the ladder of his profession from a humble begin- ning as a farmer's boy. He was born Febru- ary 21, 1838, on a farm near Cobleskill, Schohanie county, New York, and, although his early opportunities were limited, he possessed the grit and determination neces- sary to make the most of them. He worked in summer that he might attend school during the winter months, and mastered his books sufficiently to enable him to become a district school teacher. He took a course in the seminary located at Lima, New York, and in 1856 came to Michigan, where he at once seenred a school at Oxford, in Oakland county. The following year he went to Flint, where he now resides, and eommeneed the study of law under the direction of Col. Wm. M. Fenton, but outside of the office. He was admitted to the bar before Judge Josiah Turner in 1858, and at once began an active practice. His ability was recognized by his appointment as city attorney, and he held that office one year (1858). He is a staunch Democrat, and has several times been called upon by his party to accept high posi- tions, and in all cases he has been a credit to the honorable positions he has filled. In 1862 he was elected to the common conneil, and served five years. While in this position he was instrumental in having several streets opened to valuable city property after a long contest, and as a testimonial for his services the people of Flint presented him with a set of silver. In 1873 Mr. Durand was elected mayor of Flint, and re-elected the following year. In the fall of 1874 he accepted the nomination to Congress on the Democratic ticket, and was elected against Josiah W. Begole. He was re-nominated in 1876, but was defeated for re-election by the Hon. Mark S. Brewer. During Mr. Durand's term in Congress he was aeting chairman of the important committee ou commerce, an un- usual honor to confer on a new member.
JUDGE GEORGE HARMON DURAND.
Resmning his practice of law, Mr. Durand formed a co-partnership in 1884 with John J. Carton, which still continues. In 1892 Gov. Winans appointed Mr. Durand justice of the Supreme Court to succeed Judge Morse, who had resigned to accept the nomination for gov- ernor. He filled out the term until a suc- cessor was chosen, and in the fall of 1893 was appointed special counsel for the United States in the famous Pacific coast conspiracy cases. The cases were conchided in 1896.
In 1893 Judge Durand was elected presi- dent of the Michigan State Bar association, and was the first president of the board of State Law Examiners. He is still a member of that board. He was Grand Master of the Michigan Grand Lodge of Masons in 1876, and in 1893 was elected Presidential Elector- at-large for the eastern district of Michigan, He owns a fine farm near the city of Flint.
Judge Durand married Miss Sarah A. Ben- son at Mindon, New York, August, 1858. and he has two children. Charles A. Durand, his son, is 38 years of age, and a member of the firm of Durand & Carton at Flint. Mieh, Elizabeth A. Durand lives at home with her parents.
Judge Durand is a member of Michigan Sovereign Consistory and of Moslem Temple. Detroit. Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
290
MEN OF PROGRESS.
HON. WILLIAM WEBSTER.
WEBSTER, HON. WILLIAM. The Hon. William Webster was elected mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, the city in which he lives, in 1897, and while in that office he was largely instrumental in having the streets of that beautiful little city macadamized. In the first year six miles of this modern paving was built, and this step, in the direction of the making of a city in the present time, has resulted most beneficially, for all the streets that are being built there now are of the same material.
Mr. Webster is still a young man and a be- liever in the spirit of the age, "progress." He was born in St. Helens, Huron County, Ou- tario, February 10, 1863. His aneestors came from Aberdeen, Scotland, and his father, James Webster, went to Canada from Scot- land. As a boy young Webster had very few advantages in the way of receiving an education that are given to most. youths of today, and it was not until his family moved to Sault Ste. Marie in 1874 that he was able to attend school. The first winter in his new home was a hard one. He was obliged to remain away from the district school a great portion of the time, and was employed driving a delivery and express wagon at 25 cents per
day, with the privilege of hanling water for a few families after work hours, to earn enough money and purchase clothes and shoes so that he could take his place with the other scholars in the High School.
The following summer he drove a mule on the canal, earning $1.50 a day until the close of navigation, and helped to support the fam- ily with his earnings. When he was 17 years of age he was earning $400 a year elerking in the general store of W. C. Given, where he remained for three years. His health then commenced to fail, so he went to Dakota, where he pre-empted a piece of land and farmed for six months, until, his health ro- turning, he went home and clerked in the store of Sevald & Pease. The firm made an assignment July 4, 1886, and Mr. Webster was appointed assignee. He closed ont the $28,000 stock that fall, and in the beginning of 1887 went into partnership in a general store under the firm name of Tubbs & Web- ster. After a few months he sold out and purchased an interest in the steamboat St. Marys, which was in the passenger and freight service between Sault Ste. Marie and Mar- quette. He acted as elerk on the steamer all summer until navigation closed in the fall.
January 1, 1888, he took his seat as County ('lerk of Chippewa County, in which office he remained until 1896. During this period he read law and was achnitted to the bar Septem- ber 26, 1893. In September, 1895, he became associated with Hon. IT. M. Oren, the present Attorney-General of Michigan, in the law business under the name of Oren & Webster.
Mr. Webster was elected mayor of Sault Ste. Marie in 1897. He was chairman of the Board of Supervisors for six years and has been postmaster sinee 1897. He is a Mason and a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Com- mandery, K. T. He is also Past Master of the Blue Lodge and Past High Priest of the Chap- ter, and has been chairman of the Repub- lican County Committee for the past six years. Mr. Webster married Miss Bertha F. Bateman at Port Arthur, Angust 27, 1889. They have four children, Bertha F., aged 9; Bessie, aged 7; William W., aged 5, and Joy, aged 2 years.
291
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
VAUGHAN, COLEMAN CHAUNCY. Coleman Chauncey Vaughan, of St. Johns, Michigan, comes from good, old New Eng- land stock, his parents being farmers in Ver- mont, and moving from there to Machias, New York state, where, August 1, 1857, the subject of this sketch was born.
From his sixth until his twelfth year the boy attended the district school near his home, and then, his father having died a few years before, he was sent to live with his unele, attending district school and three terms at Ten Brook academy at Franklinville, N. Y. When he left school he started for Michigan, arriving at Lapeer in 1873. S. J. Tomlin- son, publisher of the Lapeer Clarion, gave the young traveler an opportunity by taking him on the paper as an apprentice. For his first year's work, besides his board, young Vaughan was paid one dollar a week. This was raised to two dollars during the second year, three dollars for the third and four dollars for the fourth year. At the end of his apprenticeship the young man had just $1.84 coming to him; but as he had become a valuable man, Tomlinson made him fore- man of the office, and as such he remained until 1878, when he sought to better himself by going to Detroit. There he readily secured a position in the job office of James E. Scripps, later holding cases on the Detroit Free Press.
After two years in Detroit, he returned to New York state, where, at Sardinia, he entered the employ of his step-father as book- keeper in his woolen mill at that place.
Later he became a traveling man on the road, and in 1884 he returned to Lapeer and bought the Lapeer Clarion for $7,000. Under his management the paper met with good success, and in 1887 he sold the plant and paper back to the original owner, Mr. Tomlinson, for $10,000.
After this, Mr. Vanghan became engaged in various enterprises, drifting from one thing
COLEMAN CHAUNCY VAUGHAN.
to another until 1889, when he found that the Clinton Republican, of St. Johns, was for sale, and going there, he purchased the paper.
The Clinton Republican is one of the strongest Republican weeklies in the state of Michigan, and under Mr. Vanghan's man- agement it has proved one of the best paving propositions of its kind in the country. It exercises considerable influence throughout the county, and its politics are backed up with a sound philosophy.
Mr. Vaughan has always been a Republi- can, and is a leading spirit in that party in both local and state politics. He is at present a member of the Republican State Central Committee. He has been an alderman at Lapeer: president of St. Johns village two terms; member of the board of control of the State Asylum at Tonia, '93 to '97; is a mem- ber of the board of trustees State House of Correction, Ionia, and president of the St. Johns water and electric light board. He is a Mason and a Knight Templar and also a member of the Royal Arcanum.
292
MEN OF PROGRESS.
NEWTON, JUDGE WILLIAM. Will- iam Newton was born in Soldiers' Delight, Baltimore county, Maryland, September, 1829. Until he was 14 years of age his edu- cation was conducted by a private tutor, and then he was sent to Boise au Academy, Bal- timore.
lle came to Michigan in 1848 and engaged in the saddlery business at Byron, Shiawasse comty, when, earning enough money to pay his way through law school, he went to Rals- ton Spa. Saratoga county, New York, and attended a law school at Ralston for a year and a half. Tle then returned to Michigan and entered the law office of Lothrop & Duf- field, at Detroit. He was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Michigan, held in the old state house in Detroit in the fall of 1851, receiving his papers from Chief Justice Whipple of the Supreme Court. Immedi- ately going to Flint, Mr. Newton formed a partnership with Lieutenant-Governor Fen- ton. Impaired in health, with small practice and very little money, Mr. Newton remarked one day to his partner that if he could raise $500 he would go to California and seek health and fortune, the gold excitement being then at its height. Fenton loaned the money and soon afterwards Mr. Newton purchased transportation to the coast from Commodore Vanderbilt and made the trip by way of the Isthmus of Panama. He was delayed four weeks at Panama, waiting for the steamer "Old Tennessee," and as he had very little money, those were anxious days for the young man. The hotel was a tent, kept by an Amer- ican, who charged $1 for the privilege of sleeping on the ground under its walls. Young Newton slept under the blue sky and made the best of the worst.
C'alifornia realized all the young man hoped for. Hle found good health and a little wealth there. There, for the first time, he met with Edwin B. Winans, engaged in placer mining at Honeutt-in later years gov- ernor of Michigan. Later he met a man named Jesse Daly, a practical miner, with
whom Newton formed a partnership. With Mr. Daly, they discovered "Gold Hill," in Yuba county, and in 1853 he returned to Michigan, not a wealthy man, but with com- pensation for his venture. Once more start- ing in the law business with Fenton, in 1853, at Flint, the firm met with success, until three years later, Mr. Newton returned to Califor- mia. He came back, settled in Flint and re- sumed his partnership with Fenton, which lasted until the latter's death in 1871.
Judge Newton is a Democrat. He was (irenit Court Commissioner in Genesee comty in 1858-59; elected Circuit Judge in 1881, by a plurality of 1,300 over Judge Adams, now of Cheboygan; re-elected in 1887 by 6,000 plurality, when counties gave 4.000 plurality for Garfield.
Ile has been twice married. His present wife was Miss Grace T. Hughes, of Cheat- liam, N. Y. He has one child, William Fen- ton, now four years of age.
Judge Newton has been interested in many important enses and met with great success as a practitioner. His cases may be found all through the Michigan reports from vol- ume 10 up to 50, the present date.
As Circuit Judge of the Seventh Judicial ('ircuit, his decisions usually stood the test of the higher courts, in which respeet he has very few superiors among the Cirenit Judges in this state. He was defeated for the Su- preme bench by Frank A. Hooker by a very narrow margin-166 votes-in the fall of 1892. Ile gives much of his spare time to two farms, from which he says he makes enough to pay the expenses incident to that occupation, and is also the owner and raiser of standard-bred horses and Durham cattle. The dam of the famons young pacer Sphinx was bred and raised by him on his farm in the township of Benton, Genesee county, Michigan. Ile says he enjoys excellent health, and that he attributes his good health and strength to the mining adventure in Cali- fornia for over a year.
293
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
WOOD, EDWIN O. Edwin O. Wood, of Flint, Michigan, was born in Goodrich, Genesee county, Michigan, October 29, 1861. His people were all New Yorkers, who came to this state at a very early date and were the first family to settle in Genesee county. His father was Thomas P. Wood and his mother Paulina Hulbert Wood.
Mr. Wood was given an excellent educa- tion in the graded schools of Goodrich and in the High School at Saginaw, Michigan. Dnr- ing his schoolboy days he earned his first money by elerking in a country store, and when he left school in Saginaw he went to Flint, where he entered the employ of George W. Buckingham, a clothier of that city, with whom he remained until 1884. He was then appointed postal elerk under President Cleve- land's administration, but he declined the position to accept a more promising one with W. J. Gould & Co., of Detroit, Michigan, a- a traveling salesman. After traveling for this firm for a period of three years he went with the large elothing firm of New York --- Hackett, Carhart & Co. He traveled for this house until 1893, when he was again offered a political position under Cleveland's admin- istration, that of special agent of the United States treasury department, which he ac- cepted. For four years and three months Mr. Wood was with the treasury department and was assigned to many important eases, in- cluding the celebrated opium and Chinese smuggling cases at Portland, Oregon, and Puget Sound, resigning voluntarily in July. 1897, in order to push the work of building up the Knights of the Loyal Guard, which organization had been brought to perfection largely through his efforts. He was elected the first Supreme Recorder-General of the order and at the first biennial election was chosen Supreme Commander-in-Chief, which office he holds at the present writing.
Mr. Wood is a Democrat and a firm be- liever in the principles of that party. He was for several years chairman of the Demo- cratic county committee of Genesee county.
EDWIN O. WOOD.
He served four years in the Michigan State Militia, as a member of the Flint Union Blues. For a brief period he was engaged in the manufacturing business at Flint, being a stockholder and interested in the patent in the Flint Revolving Ilat Case factory.
He married Miss Emily Crocker, daughter of Stephen (rocker, one of the earliest settlers in Genesee county, at Flint, December 17, 1889. They have three boys and one girl.
Mr. Wood is a Mason, a Knights Templar, a member of Michigan Sovereign Consistory, 32 , and Moslem Temple, Mystie Shrine; Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Knights of the Loyal Guard; a member of the Mac- cabees, Foresters, A. O. U. W., Oddfellows, Royal Areanum and Knights and Ladies of Security. He is an attendant at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, of Flint, Michigan.
Mr. Wood's ancestors, on both sides, trace to Revolutionary stoek, and he is a member of Michigan Sons of the Revolution. He is greatly interested in pure bred live stock and was one of the original founders of the Mich- igan Oxford Down Sheep Breeders' Associa- tion.
294
MEN OF PROGRESS.
FRANKLIN WELLS.
WELES, FRANKLIN. A biographical sketch of Mr. Wells carries us back over a period of more than sixty years, to the time of a former governor, John S. Barry, in whose store Mr. Wells was a clerk. The Wells fam- ily were originally from Connecticut and later of New York. Franklin Wells' father, Joseph Wells, was a merchant at Cambridge, N. Y., in 1822, but became a hotel keeper at Salem, N. Y., where the son was born April 19th, 1823. His mother was Lney Hollister of Man- chester, Vermont. Mr. Wells' early education was in the primary schools, with a few terms in the Washington Academy, at Salem. In the spring of 1837 the family, in company with two other families, made the overland trip in emigrant wagons from their New York home to Michigan. The journey occupied thirty days, with its attendant hardships, when the Wells family located in the township of Mottville, St. Joseph county. Mr. Wells therefore ranks as one of the early pioneers, and has ever since made his home in St. Joseph county. In the fall of 1838 he became clerk in the store of Albert Andrews & Co., at Con- stantine, and two years later entered the store of John S. Barry (afterwards Governor of the
State), in the same capacity. In 1842 he bor- rowed $1,200, with which, in company with his first employer, Albert Andrews, he en- barked in a general mercantile trade. The partnership was terminated in 1846, when Mr. Wells began business alone, which he con- tinned up to 1873, since which time he has given his attention to farming, wool and grain buying, he being the owner of several large farms in the county. In a note he says: "If I have done anything to feel proud of, or that I would wish to have remembered by my friends after I am gone, it is in matters con- nected with agricultural and farming inter- ests." This sentiment is in admirable har- mony and consistency with Mr. Wells' work. During the 1880 decade, he was prominently connected with the State Agricultural Society, having been for several years a member of the executive committee and chairman of the busi- ness committee. In 1888 he was unanimously elected president of the society, which honor he felt impelled to decline, while still con- tinning his committee duties. He was for twenty-seven years a member of the State Board of Agriculture, having in charge the in- terests of the State Agricultural College, and was for twelve years president of the board. He was first appointed by Gov. Bagley, who as a young man had been a clerk in his store, and was successively reappointed by Govs. Crosswell, Alger and Rich. He was appointed and served during the Harrison administration as State Statistical Agent, charged with mak- ing, through local correspondents, special re- ports to the Department of Agriculture, cover- ing information not otherwise obtainable.
Mr. Wells served at an early date as town- ship clerk and was president of the village of Constantine, 1870-71, and has been a member of the local school board for twenty-five years, and was for ten years its president. He was postmaster at Constantine, 1861-2, and again 1882-86. Mr. Wells was one of ten corpora- tors composing the Constantine Hydraulic Co., which built the dam across the St. Joseph River at a cost of $40,000, by which ample water is supplied. In his religions con- nections Mr. Wells is a Congregationalist, and is a Republican in politics. He was married in 1844 to Miss Helen M. Briggs, a relative by marriage of his early employer, Gov. Barry. They had nine children, of whom two sons and three danghters survive, all of middle age and in active life. Mrs. Wells died Oct. 22, 1891.
295
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
COLGROVE, PHILIP T. Mr. Colgrove is a native of the state of Indiana, having been born at Winchester, in that state, April 17, 1857. His first American ancestry is traced in the person of Francis Colgrove, born in 1667 and who settled in Warwick, Rhode Island. His father was Charles H., from Steu- ben county, New York, and his mother was Catherine Van Zile, a sister of Judge Philip T. Van Zile of Detroit. Good educational advantages in his early youth, at Olivet Col- lege, coupled with a commendable energy and application, placed him some years in advance of the average student. He read law concur- rently with his literary studies and was admit- ted to the bar at the age of twenty-one, before the Supreme Court of Michigan. His first essay at practice was at Reed City, but in 1880 he removed to Hastings and formed a law part- nership with Clement Smith, now judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit. The partnership was terminated upon the appointment of Mr. Swith to the judgeship in 1893, and Mr. Col- grove is now senior in the firm of Colgrove & Potter. It is not often that a man is chosen to a responsible office during his first two years of residence in a place, but in 1882 Mr. Col- grove was elected prosecuting attorney of Barry county and was re-elected for the two terms following, in 1884 and 1886. In 1888 he was elected a member of the State Senate from his district, and was nominated for re- election in 1890, but declined the honor. He was an active and efficient member of the Sen- ate and was a member of the Judiciary Com- mittee and chairman of the Committee on In- surance. He was also for several years city at- torney of Hastings. He is a Republican in politics and is an earnest and active partisan, though not bitter or intollerant in his partisan- ship. He is a member of the Michigan Club and has filled the position of president of the State League of Republican Chibs. He was a presidential elector in 1892.
Mr. Colgrove's business interests are varied. He is president of the Hastings Iron Co., vice-
PHILIP T. COLGROVE.
president of the Hastings Table Co., and a di- rector in the Hastings Wool Boot Co. and the Hastings City Bank. In his fraternal relations he has acquired prominence and enjoyed hon- ors fully equal to those that have come to him in professional and political life. He is a Knights Templar Mason and a member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias and was Chancellor Commander of the lodge in 1883. Ile was a member of the Grand Lodge in 1886 and was elected Grand Master-at-Arms of that body. and in 1887 was elected Grand Chan- cellor. In 1889 he was elected by the Grand Lodge of the state as their representative to the Supreme Grand Lodge and was again elected as such in 1890. In 1894 he was elected Su- preme Vice-Chancellor and has come to be a recognized authority on the jurisprudence of the order. But the highest honors of the order awaited him in 1896, when, at the session of the Supreme Grand Lodge, held at Cleveland in Angust of that year, he was elected Supreme Chancellor of the Supreme Lodge of Knights of Pythias of the world.
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