USA > Michigan > Men of progress : embracing biographical sketches of representative Michigan men with an outline history of the state > Part 41
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Mr. Colgrove has two children, Mabel, a student at Vassar College, and Lawrence, at- tending the Hastings public schools.
296
MEN OF PROGRESS.
HON. FRANCIS HEARN RANKIN.
RANKIN, HION. FRANCIS HEARN. Hon. Francis Hearn Rankin was mayor of the city of Flint. Michigan, in 1891, and has for vears been a member of the board of education in that city, being elected treasurer of that body two years and is now president of the board. In 1881 he was elected city treasurer of Flint and held that office for one term. He was appointed a member of the board of con- trol for the Michigan School for the Blind in 1897 for a six years' term. At present he is in partnership with his father, publishing The Wolverine Citizen, one of the leading journals of this state.
Francis H. Rankin was born December 28, 1854, in Flint, Michigan, and he has lived in that city all his life, receiving his education in its public schools. His father was a prac- tical printer, and came to this country from the north of Ireland when he was a young man, locating in Genesee county at a very early date and in 1850 establishing the Genesee Whig, which for many years was the only Republican paper published in that county. The Whig was the original name of the Wolverine Citi-
zen, which has always been an organ for the republican party and principles.
After attending the Flint schools until his fourteenth year he entered his father's office as a printer's devil. His father was a practical man and intending that his son should learn the business in a thorough manner, he forced him to start as he himself had commeneed at the bottom of the ladder. He did not show him any favoritism, and treated him in the same manner that he did his other employees.
It was in 1870 that young Rankin first took his place at one of the cases, and he worked as a compositor in the job room until 1881, when he took a half interest in the business. The Wolverine Citizen was run as a daily paper for a period of six years, but the town being too small to support a daily paper it was dis- continued, and published as a weekly.
Mr. Rankin is best known throughout the state of Michigan as the Supreme Reeorder of the Knights of the Loyal Guard. He was one of the nine business men of the city of Flint who originated and founded that order, which is a fraternal beneficiary, co-operative insur- ance society.
It was founded upon entirely original and new plans and started with a membership of 500, February 21, 1895. Its growth has been steady and it is creating a strong Reserve or Emergency Fund. The order is still growing, as its business-like methods appeal to business men and its fraternal features to the younger generation seeking good, substantial insurance.
Mr. Rankin married Miss Caroline Pierce, daughter of Silas Pierce, in Flint, Michigan, in 1881. He has one child, a daughter, Caro- line Arabella Rankin, eleven years of age. Mr. Rankin is a Mason, being a member of Genesee Valley Commandery, No. 15, Knights Templar, belongs to the Michigan Sovereign Consistory, Moslem Temple, Mystic Shrine. Order of Elks, Royal Areanum, K. O. T. M., and is a Knight of the Loyal Guard.
297
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
CRAWFORD, HUGH ALEXANDER. Hon. IIngh Alexander Crawford, who enjoys the distinction of being the youngest municipal executive ever elected in his home city of Flint, Michigan, is a son of David Crawford, a native of Paisley, Scotland, who came to America in 1842 and to Michigan in 1851, where he followed the business of lumbering for a number of years in the Lower Peninsula. The subject of this sketch was born at Otis- ville, Genesee county, Michigan, March 29, 1873. When he was four years old his par- ents moved to Flint, where he attended the public schools and graduated from the High School in June, 1891. He began the active duties of life as a clerk in the book store of M. E. Carlton, where he remained for six months, when he embarked in a business that was more to his liking and in which he has in a few short years achieved marked distinction and prominence. This he found in the vehicle industry, which was just beginning to develop in Flint on a large scale, and he began his new career as a shipping clerk in the fac- tory of W. A. Paterson & Co. His business capacity and taet won for him a suecession of advancements until he finally became general superintendent of the big factory plant, as private secretary to Mr. Paterson, who had by years of arduous work richly earned the respite that came to him in his judicious selec- tion of an assistant. In 1896 the concern was reorganized into a stoek company, Mr. Craw- ford being appointed to his present post of secretary and treasurer.
Mr. Crawford's connection with polities was not of his own making. The Democratic eity convention, which nominated him for the mayoralty in the spring of 1899 did so without his sanction, and it was only under pressure that he consented to ratify the action of the convention and make the run. The younger element of the city and the rank and file of progressive citizens of both eontending politi- cal parties rallied to his support and he was eleeted by a majority as large as that usually given the Republican mayoralty eandidates in previous years. It is signifieant of his popular- ity and the general appreciation of his excep- tional business qualifications that he was the only candidate on the Democratic city tieket to win out in the battle of the ballots, the re- maining offices being captured by the Republi- can candidates by comfortable majorities. Mayor Crawford employed the same progres- sive methods in managing the affairs of the city that he does in his own private business, and with the united support of his eouncil and
HON. HUGH ALEXANDER CRAWFORD.
business men of the city, he contributed his full share to the accomplishment of eertain publie improvements that stand out conspicu- ously as substantial monuments to his suceess- ful administration. One of these was the arch- ing of the main street of the city with inean- descent electric lamps, which gives to the broad and well-paved business thoroughfare a strikingly attractive appearance at night. Flint was the first city in Michigan to adopt this unique and effective system of street lighting, and as a means of advertising the city far and wide it has fully justified every expectation en- tertained in respect to a publie improvement which to a large extent had this particular and practical aim in view. The "white wings" system of sweeping the paved streets of the city is another beneficial result of Mayor Craw- ford's progressive administration and has given to the city a cleanliness that has been a bless- ing to its inhabitants.
As secretary and treasurer of the W. A. Paterson Carriage Company, Mr. Crawford is connected with an institution that manufac- tures 30,000 vehicles a year and gives employ- ment to 450 men. Mr. Crawford is a member of Genesee Valley Commandery, No. 15, Knights Templar; a Shriner of Moslem Tem- ple, Detroit: a member of the Michigan Sov- ereign Consistory at Detroit, and of the Inde- pendent Order of Foresters, the Knights of the Loyal Guard and the Benevolent and Protee- tive Order of Elks.
298
MEN OF PROGRESS.
HARRY DIMICK JEWELL.
JEWELL, HARRY DIMICK. The pres ent Judge of Probate of Kent county is one of the young men of mark who have forced their. way to the front from humble begin- nings, and of which Michigan has furnished so many bright examples during the past few years. The father of Mr. Jewell was in early life a journalist. The Jewells were originally from New England. The father and mother of Mr. Jewell, Oliver P. and Hannah (Dimiek) Jewell, settled in the township of Solon, Kent county, from Ovid, N. Y., in 1856. In a little clearing chopped out of the pine forest, a log house was built and the work of making a farm begun. When young Jewell was old enough to attend school he entered the Cedar Springs Union school, to and from which for several years he walked, a distance of two and one-half miles. Graduating from the High School at the age of seventeen (1886), he began the study of law with D. C. Lyle, an attorney at Cedar Springs, alternating his time between farm work in the sunner and study during the winter months. He entered the law depart- ment of the University in the fall of 1889 and graduated in the spring of 1891. Then taking the post-graduate course he received the degree
of LL. M. (Master of Laws) in 1893. While at the University he did journalistie work, edi- torial and correspondence. Ile was one of the founders of the U. of M. Daily and for several years one of the editors of the Michigan Law Journal. He was for two years assistant law librarian at the University, and was appointed by the Board of Regents, Assistant Marshall Professor of Law, the small compensation re- ceived for this service helping him to pay his necessary expenses. He was admitted to prac- tice before the State Supreme Court at Lan- sing in 1891, and subsequently before the U. S. Supreme Court at Washington. Locating at Grand Rapids in June, 1892, he formed a co-partnership with Judge Reuben Hatch, but having been appointed Register of Probate Jan. 1st, 1893, the partnership was then terminated. This position he held for four years under the then Probate Judge Cyrus E. Perkins, when, on January 1st, 1897, he took his seat as Judge of Probate for Kent county. The election of a young man of twenty-seven years of age to so important an office, Mr. Jewell having been born in 1869, is certainly a marked tribute to his ability and fitness. Although an active Republican in polities, he has administered the affairs of his office in an entirely non-partisan manner, and his decisions have been uniformly sustained or affirmed by the higher courts.
Judge Jewell became a member of the Mieh- igan Probate Judges' Association in 1898, and was secretary of a committee that drafted the rules of practice for the Probate Courts, which has been approved and adopted by the Su- preme Court. He is also a member of a com- mittee which has in preparation a uniform series of blanks for use in the Probate Courts.
In a business way he is connected with a few industries in Grand Rapids. He is a member of the Grand Rapids Board of Trade, of the Peninsular Club, has taken the higher Masonic degrees and belongs to the Knights of Pythias, Maccabees and Modern Woodmen of America.
Miss Enphemia F. Smith, daughter of Rev. J. Malcolm Smith, of Churdan, Ia., became Mrs. Jewell in 1894. They have two children.
299
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
THOMPSON, WILLIAM BAKER. The line of Thompsons represented by Wm. B. settled in New Haven, Conn., in 1638, coming from England. An hundred years later they removed to Goshen, Conn., in 1750 to Stan- ford, Dutchess county, N. Y., and in 1793 to Fort Ann, N. Y., where Win. B. was born Angust 27th, 1838. IIe is seventh in descent from the original emigrant ancestor, Anthony Thompson. The family genealogy is there- fore traced thus : John (son of Anthony) and wife Ilellena; Sammel (son of John) and wife Rebecca Bishop; Samuel (son of Samuel) and wife Esther AAlling; Caleb (son of Samuel) and wife Lydia Haskins; Judah (son of Caleb of Stanford, N. Y.) and wife Mary Harris ; Israel (son of Judah of Fort Ann, N. Y.) and wife Martha An Baker, and Wm. B., son of Israel, born as above, and married June 20th, 1888, at Chattanooga, Tenn., to Emma, dangh- ter of Judge D. M. Key and wife Elizabeth Lenoir. It is worthy of note that the year of Mr. Thompson's nativity was the two hun- dredth from the first coming of his ancestor to America. Mrs. Thompson died in 1886 without issne.
Mr. Thompson's education was academic, he having passed two and one-half years at Fort Edward, N. Y., after leaving the com- mon school. Soon after leaving school he came to Hudson, Mich., which has since been his home. Some of his mother's family have been residents of Hudson since a very early period in the state's history. He was commis- sioned a second lientenant in the Eleventh Michigan Cavalry and was mustered in with the regiment, serving until the close of the war, when he was mustered out as first lieu- tenant. After the war he returned to Hnd- son. and in 1867 engaged with his brother, G. I. Thompson, in the banking business, which is continued as the Thompson Savings Bank, he retaining his interest therein.
For seventeen years he was connected with the Postoffice Department, starting as route agent in 1868 between Toledo and Chicago.
WILLIAM BAKER THOMPSON.
Ile was successively promoted to be chief clerk, assistant superintendent, and superin- tendent of the New York and Chicago fast mail, and subsequently superintendent of the Ninth Division. In 1878 he became general superintendent, Railway Mail Service, and during President Arthur's administration was Second AAssistant Postmaster-General, retiring at the beginning of President Cleveland's first term. He is now of the firm of Thompson & Slater, attorneys before the executive depart- ments in Washington, although his home re- mains in Hudson. He is a member of the Mili- tary Order of the Loyal Legion, Sous of the American Revolution, and Sons of Colonial Wars of the District of Columbia; also a mem- ber of Lebanon Lodge, No. 26, and Phoenix Royal Arch, Chapter No. 99, F. & A. M. of IIudson. He is also a member of the Michigan ( Republican) Club of Detroit. He has always been a Republican, but never held an eleetive office. He has been the treasurer of the Re- publican Congressional Campaign Committee since 1893.
300
MEN OF PROGRESS.
JAMES EDWARD DOYLE.
DOYLE, JAMES EDWARD. That Mr. Doyle is of Irish descent may be inferred by his name, and that he is thoroughly American is assured both by origin and by the fact that he was born on Michigan soil, he having first seen the light at Kalamazoo, May 5th, 1856. He attended the Kalamazoo public schools until fifteen years of age, and then became messenger boy in the telegraph office of the Michigan Central Railroad Co., without com- pensation other than the privilege of learning the operator's art. This privilege he improved, and in a very short time was able to receive and transmit messages. In 1872 he was given his first assignment as operator. He arose in esteem and confidence of the management for the next six years. Was operator at various
points on the line between Chieago and De- troit, the last two years being in the office of the superintendent at Chicago.
In 1878 he quit the railroad and opened a grocery and supply store in Kalamazoo. The enterprise met with success from the first, and by strict attention to business, in 1884 was the largest and most prosperous of its kind in Kala- mazoo. In 1887 he sold ont, and embarked in the confectionery business as a manufacturer and wholesale dealer, continuing the business until 1892, when he sold out, having several years previous to this taken interest in the American Carriage Co., at Kalamazoo, and being one of its principal stockholders he be- came its manager in 1893 and still so con- tinnes. Under Mr. Doyle's management the American Carriage Co. has forged to the front. Having two large and commodious factories, one located on the Michigan Central tracks and the other on the Chicago, Kalamazoo d' Saginaw and Michigan Central junctions, with repositories located in Chicago, New York and Washington.
The American Carriage Co. is making a specialty of fine pleasure vehicles, stanhopes, phaetons, surreys and up-to-date vehicles in all varieties. The American Carriage Co.'s pro- dnet is known and sold throughout the United States.
Mr. Doyle is also interested in several other lines of manufacture in Kalamazoo. He is a Democrat in politics, and is a member of the Michigan Carriage Builders' Association, also belongs to the Elks, Kalamazoo Lodge, No. 50.
301
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
SPAULDING, OLIVER LYMAN. was born in Jaffrey, N. H., August 2nd, 1833; son of Lyman and Susan (Marshall) Spaulding. He is descended from Edward Spaulding, who came to America from England in 1632, set- tling in Massachusetts. In his boyhood he worked on his father's farm, and received such education as was afforded by the country schools of the period. He fitted for college by reading Latin and Greek with the local clergy- men, and in 1851, his family removing to Michigan, he entered Oberlin College, and graduated in 1855. His college expenses were met, except such slight assistance as his father could afford him, by manual labor during the college terms and by teaching in vacations. For three years he was engaged in teaching in Ohio and Michigan, but at the same time he carried on the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1858 at St. Johns, Mich., where he has since resided. The same year he was elected a Regent of the University of Michi- gan. In 1862 he entered the military service as a captain in the Twenty-third Regiment of Michigan Infantry, and was successively pro- moted to major, lieutenant-colonel, colonel and brevet-brigadier general, and continued in service until mustered out at the close of the war. The service of his regiment extended over a wide range of territory, both east and west, and included some of the severest engagements of the war. On his mister out he resumed the practice of his profession at. St. Johns. Tu 1866 he was elected Secretary of State of Michigan and re-elected in 1868. In 1875 he was appointed a special agent of the Treasury Department, a position he held until he re- signed to take his seat in Congress, to which he was elected in 1880. In 1883 he was chair- man of a commission sent to Hawaii to investi- gate alleged violations of the Hawaiian Reci- procity Treaty. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under the administration of President Harrison, and was re-appointed to the same position by President MeKinley. For several years he was a member of the Republican State Committee of Michigan and was a delegate to the National Republican
OLIVER LYMAN SPAULDING.
Convention in 1896. He is prominent in Masonry and has filled the highest chairs in all the Masonic grand bodies of Michigan. Ile is also a member of the military order of the Loyal Legion and of the Grand Army of the Republic. He is a connumieant of St. John's Episcopal church, and for twenty-five years was senior warden of the parish.
In 1856 he was married to Jennie Mead of [Tillsdale, who died in 1857 ; in 1859 he mar- ried her sister, Martha M. Mead, who died in 1861; in 1863 he married M. Cecilea Swegles, daughter of John Swegles, founder of St. Tolms, and former Auditor-General of Michi- gan. He has five children, Frank M., a hard- ware merchant at St. Johns: Edna C., a gradu- ate of Wellesley College, Mass. : Oliver L., Jr., a graduate of the literary and law departments of the University of Michigan, and now a lieu- tenant in the 3d United States Artillery; John C., a graduate of the literary department of the University of Michigan and the law depart- ment of Columbian University, Washington, D. C., and Thomas Marshall, a student in the literary department of the University of Michigan.
302
MEN OF PROGRESS.
HON. MATHEW DAVISON.
DAVISON, HON. MATHEW. Abont twelve miles from the city of Belfast, in Ire- land, James Davison, the father of the subject of this biography, owned and operated a small farm, and in conjunction with this ocenpation, was also a weaver of that fine quality of linen for which Ireland has been famous for many years.
On this farm, January 4, 1839, Mathew Davison was born, but when he was only a year old his parents came to America, and set- tled near Adrian, Michigan. The following vear they moved into the township of Forest, Genesee county, being the third family to locate in that section, which was then thickly wooded. The farm had to be made out of the wilderness, and the pioneers lived an extremely primitive life, burning pine-knots instead of candles. No school was established until Mathew reached his tenth year, and when the district school was inaugurated, Mathew took advantage of a few winter terms until he was fifteen years of age, when his father died, and as Mathew was the oldest in a family of seven children the heavy responsibilities of the fam- ily support fell upon his youthful shoulders. He worked the little farm until his brothers
were able to handle it, and then at the age of twenty-two he left home to work as a farm hand and in the lumbering camps.
He seenred one more term at school in Royal Oak, Michigan, when he was twenty- two years old, and the following year became a clerk in a general store operated by Benja- min Cothrain, in Flint, Michigan, where he was paid $22 a month and his board. He next engaged himself to Heury Brown, clothier. Four years' experience in the clothing business gave him sufficient insight into its workings and decided him to start out in it for himself. Taking his savings, which amounted to about $664, Mr. Davison went to Rochester, N. Y., to see if he could get credit and a stock of goods from some of the firms in that city. The firm of Stetheimer, MeDonald & Co. was impressed favorably with the young man's straightfor- ward application and gave him a credit of $3,000, so returning to Flint, Mr. Davison took half of a small store. When his stock of goods arrived he did not have money enough to pay the freight, but the fortunate sale of a new trunk for $18 enabled him to pay the railroad company. The business was success- ful from the beginning, he enlarged his store and stock yearly and continued in the clothing business for thirteen years, investing his sav- ings in desirable Flint city business property. He retired from the clothing business in 1883 on account of failing health, and for ten years farmed and handled real estate. In 1893 he was one of the organizers of the Union Trust and Savings Bank of Flint, and he has been connected with the same as cashier and man- ager since 1894. He was also one of the or- ganizers of the Alpena County Savings Bank of Alpena, Mich .: the Citizens' Commercial and Savings Bank, Flint, Mich., and for twenty years a director in the Genesee County Bank, also of Flint. Mr. Davison was mayor of the city of Flint in 1886-1887. He mar- ried Miss Helen M., daughter of John Rich- mond, at White Lake, Oakland county, Mich., in 1869. He has four children, Arthur M., in clothing business at Flint ; Nellie, wife of H. L. Bridgeman : Mathew, in the employ of Durant & Dort Carriage Co., Flint, and William H., student at the Michigan Military Academy. Mr. Davison is a Mason and K. T .; also a mem- ber of Detroit Consistory.
303
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
BAWDEN, FREDERIC JOHNSON. The career of Frederic Johnson Bawden has been a varied one. He has worked in many callings and is now the junior member of the firm of Close & Bawden, which has large ware- houses and doeks at Hancock, Michigan, and deals in flour, feed, hay, grain, brick, lime, cement and tile. Mr. Bawden lives in the town of Houghton, Michigan. He was born in Eagle Harbor, Michigan, July 23rd, 1856. Here he attended the village sehool until he was eleven years of age and then put to work at a salary of $5 a week, driving a delivery wagon for a general store three miles from his home. ITe walked to and from his work and sometimes worked until 10 or 11 o'clock at night. He then worked for a time at the Petheriek mine and afterwards became the printer's "devil" in the office of the Keweenaw Times, where he turned the press and learned the art of typesetting. In 1873 the paper moved to Lake Linden and became the La Franc Pioneer, and young Bawden set type for the first issue, both in French and English, as the French compositor had not arrived. For nearly a year he worked on this sheet, and then returned to Eagle Harbor to again enter the general store, this time as clerk. From this position he went to the hotel his father was then running, as elerk, and while there took up and learned telegraphy. He received two days' instruction in sending from the superintendent, W. V. Stevens, and a tape register was put in for receiving messages. Young Bawden took charge of the instrument and in two and one-half months discarded the tape system, having mastered the art of receiv- ing from the sounder.
He remained as telegraph operator at Eagle Harbor until 1876, when he was transferred to a busier office at Hancock, Michigan, and in September, 1877, he was made the superin- tendent of the Mineral Range Telegraph Company. He remained in this position until 1883, and then became cashier and account-
FREDERIC JOHNSON BAWDEN.
ant in the general store of S. D. North & Son at the Quincy mine, Hancock, where he remained until 1888, when he was elected sheriff of Houghton county, proving a vah- able and efficient officer for four years. He then became interested in the firm of S. D. North & Son for three years. In 1896 Mr. Bawden became associated with Mr. ... A. Close, Jr., and has since carried on a prosper- ons business.
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