USA > Michigan > Men of progress : embracing biographical sketches of representative Michigan men with an outline history of the state > Part 43
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312
MEN OF PROGRESS.
ETHEL M. ALLEN.
ALLEN, ETHIEL M. Ethel M. Allen, of Portland, Michigan, was born in Williamson, New York State, November 18, 1840. His early life was spent on his father's farm and he became well acquainted with the drudgery it implies. He obtained the first rudiments of an education in the schools of the district, and when 15 years of age attended Marion Col- legiate Institute, paying for his education by doing odd jobs around the town and caring for the school buildings. IIe boarded himself and managed to remain at the institute until 1861, teaching during vacations and part of the time taking classes in the institute.
When the Civil War broke out, Mr. Allen enlisted October 15, 1861, in the Ninety- eighth Volunteer Infantry, with which regi- ment he served until disabled by wounds re- ceived on Chapin's Farm, September 29, 1864, at the capture of Fort Harrison. IIle was advanced rapidly from the ranks, being promoted successively to second lieutenant, first lieutenant and captain, succeeding to the command of the company in which he first en- listed. The Ninety-eighth served through the Peninsular campaign under Gen. McClellan, and with Gen. Grant in 1864. It participated
in all the fierce engagements about Richmond, and was one of the first regiments to enter the Confederate capital, April 4, 1865, five days before Gen. Lee surrendered at Appomatox Court House.
The exciting incidents of the war were ex- changed for the quiet life of a farmer. Upon leaving the army Mr. Allen returned to his home and followed that peaceful vocation for a period of six years. He was made commis- sioner of schools in his district in New York state, and held that office for two terms of three years each, from 1866 until 1872. In 1874 he came to Michigan determined to make a try for fortune in the west. He lo- cated in Portland, where he still resides, and after being there a short time entered the banking house of Maynard & Allen in the capacity of cashier, and he has held that posi- tion with the same firm ever since.
Mr. Allen is an ardent and enthusiastic Republican and fully committed to the prin- ciples of that party. He works hard for his party in the various campaigns, contributing with both voice and pen toward the success of his ticket. He is a man of quick wit, keen dis- eernment and endowed with all those charac- teristies that make a successful man.
In matters pertaining to the Grand Army of the Republic, Mr. Allen has always taken a deep and active interest, working in behalf of his comrades and doing all in his power to fur- ther the interests of the G. A. R. in this state. He is a charter member of the John McGarry Post.
As an ex-instructor in the public schools he is well fitted for the position he occupies as trustee of the Portland High School, and he has acted as such for the past twenty years.
He married in Williamson, New York, November 29th, 1863, Miss Anne C., daugh- ter of Robert and Electa Smith, of that place, and has three children: Mrs. A. V. Bell, of Seattle, Wash., Gertrude M. and Clifton M. The two latter are unmarried and live at home. Mr. Allen is now supervisor of the United States census for the Fifth District of Michi- gan. He is a member of the M. E. church. He has recently become affiliated with the Loyal Legion. On June 8th, 1900, Mr. Allen was elected Department Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic of Michigan.
313
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
WILLIAMS, RT. REV. GERSHOM MOTT. Episcopal Bishop of Marquette, Rt. Rev. Gershom Mott Williams is the grandson of John R. Williams, the first mayor of the city of Detroit, and five times re-elected to that office. Ile was president of the Constitutional Convention of Assent which admitted Michi- gan as a state to the union, and also organized the militia of Michigan, being the first Major- General of this state. His son, Brigadier- General Thomas Williams, U. S. V. (Major 4th U. S. Artillery) of the Second Brigade of the Army of the Gulf, who was killed at Baton Rouge, Lonisiana, Angust 5th, 1862, was Bishop Williams' father. On Bishop Wil- liams' mother's side, the family traces to the old New England family of Bailey, the mother's maiden name being Mary N. Bailey. Bishop Williams was born at Fort Hamilton, New York, February 11th, 1857. He attended a private school at Newburg, N. Y., until 1866, and then the public schools, graduating from the Free Academy at Newburg in 1871. Later he attended a classical school under Ifngh S. Banks. He earned his first money when he was sixteen years of age, as a time- keeper in the foundry of Whitehill, Smith & Hampson. In December, 1874, he went to Europe and returning in the spring of 1875 became bookkeeper in an agricultural manu- facturing business at Newburg. The company failing, the ensuing fall Mr. Williams won a competitive examination scholarship at Cor- nell University, of which he availed himself, taking a two-years course at that University. In 1877 he removed to Detroit, to look after his father's estate, entered the law office of Robert P. Toms, and was admitted to the bar December 29th, 1879. He then commenced to study for the ministry and was ordained at St. John's Church, Detroit, December 26th, 1880, and immediately became curate to Rev- erend George Worthington, now Bishop of Nebraska. While in Detroit he developed the
RT. REV. GERSHOM WILLIAMS.
St. Matthew's Colored Church and in conjunc- tion, with this held, for two years, the Church of the Messiah at Hamtramck, Mich., and afterwards St. George's Church, Detroit, until the spring of 1889. Ile had been ordained a priest in 1882. Mr. Williams resigned St. George's Church and took charge of the Cathe- dral at Buffalo, N. Y., and in the fall of 1889 became Dean of All Saints' Cathedral, at Mil- waukee, Wis. In October, 1891, Rev. Mr. Williams became Arch-Deacon of the North- ern Peninsula of Michigan, with residence at Marquette. He continued in charge of the work of the church in this section, as deputy of the Bishop of Michigan, until he was raised to the Episcopate on May 1st, 1896, at Grace Church, Detroit. In 1879, Eliza Bradish Biddle became Mrs. Williams. She is the daughter of W. S. Biddle of Grosse Ile, Michi- gan, and grand-daughter of the late Major John Biddle of Detroit. Bishop Williams has seven children, Susan D., Thomas Victor, Dayton Ogden, Cecil II., Rhoda, John B. and Mary Josepha Williams.
314
MEN OF PROGRESS.
JOHN ALEXANDER SIBBALD.
SIBBALD, JOHN ALEXANDER. Mr. Sibbald is of Scotch parentage, his father and mother, Thomas and Anne (Dickson) Sibbald, being from Roxburyshire in Scotland, coming to Michigan in 1838, John A. having been born March 29, 1836, in New York City, dur- ing a temporary stay of his parents there. His first school years were passed in a country dis- triet school near Jonesville. This was fol- lowed by a couple of years in school at Albany, N. Y., and a further attendance at the Jones- ville Union school during the years 1848-51. When sixteen years old he took a position as clerk and copyist in the office of the Register of Deeds at Hillsdale, a work of no little re- sponsibility for a youth of that age. Remain- ing there six months, he then entered the em- ploy of R. S. Varnum, a druggist and also a postmaster, at Jonesville, as clerk. Two years passed here was followed by a like term as bookkeeper in the general store of E. O. Gros- venor. His established character then ad- vanced him to the position of confidential clerk in Mr. Grosvenor's bank, which position he filled for seven years. In 1863 a co-partner- ship was formed by Mr. Grosvenor, E. B. An-
drews and himself, under the firm name of E. O. Grosvenor & Co., as dealers in general merchandise. This partnership continued for seven years, when Mr. Andrews withdrew on account of ill health, Mr. Grosvenor and him- self continuing the business four years longer, when C. L. Spaulding was admitted a member of the firm, which then took the style of Sib- bald, Spanlding & Co. Mr. Spaulding with- drew in 1879, the business being then con- tinned under the style of J. A. Sibbald & Co., Mr. Grosvenor being the silent partner. In 1897, Frank E. Guy took Mr. Grosvenor's place in the firm, under the same firm name. Mr. G. was special partner in the business from 1863 to 1870 and general partner from 1870 to 1897.
It will thus be seen that Mr. Sibbald has spent practically his entire life, at the ripe age of sixty-four, in Jonesville, and has been in active business either as employe or principal, since he was sixteen years of age, a period of nearly fifty years. His official career is meas- ured only by several years' service as a trus- tee of the village and one year as its presi- dent, he having been given more to business than to politics. He is largely identified with the material interests of Jonesville and is also interested in Trinidad, Colorado, real estate, Trinidad being a coal mining town in Color- ado. He was also very active in securing the extension of the old Fort Wayne, Jackson & Saginaw railroad to Jonesville in 1869, and has been a stockholder and director in and vice-president of the Grosvenor Savings Bank. lle was efficient in building the First Presby- terian church edifice in Jonesville, was for years a trustee and treasurer of the society, and is still one of the elders of the church. Mr. Sibbald has been twice married. Miss Cynthia M. Wales, daughter of Lewis Wales of Jones- ville, became Mrs. Sibbald in 1859 and died in 1872. His second marriage was in 1877 to Mrs. Martha Boynton, nee Hill, daughter of Ilezekiah Hill, of Wayne county, N. Y. He has two daughters and a son, Maggie L., wife of C. V. Turner, of Trinidad, Colorado, Lewis W., a clerk with his father, and Anne, at home.
315
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
PRINGLE, EUGENE. A professional career of fifty years in Michigan will cer- tainly entitle Mr. Pringle to rank as one of the older members of the legal profession in the State. His paternal ancestry was Scotch, the first American representative of the fam- ily having settled in New London, Conn., in 1689. His father and mother, llomer and Harriet (Hatch) Pringle, were residents of Richfield, Otsego County, N. Y., where Eugene Pringle was born December 1, 1826. The father's culture cast its light upon the son, whose primary school training was sup- plemented by a three years' course at the Mayville (Chautanqua County) academy, the parents having removed to that county in 1828. He was engaged a portion of the time during the winter months in teaching, and soon after reaching the age of eighteen, he began the study of law at Batavia and was admitted to the bar in 1849. He located in Jackson, this state, in December, 1850. Dur- ing the 1850 decade he held co-partnership relations successively with Samuel H. Kim- ball, Jolm C. Fitzgerald and Edward Pom- eroy. From April, 1861, he was alone in prac- tice until September, 1894, when he became associated with his present partner, A. E. Hewett.
Aside from a successful professional career Mr. Pringle has made a popular history equalled by but few men in the state. Ilis ageney in promoting the business prosperity of Jackson, is especially noteworthy. The Grand River Valley, the Jackson & Fort Wayne, and the Michigan Air Line railroads were Jaekson enterprises, of which Mr. Prin- gle was largely the propelling force, in the way of personal interviews, addresses at pub- lie meetings and newspaper articles prepared by him.
Mr. Pringle's public service has given him a state reputation. In 1852, he was elected circuit court commissioner for Jackson County. In 1853 and again in 1854 he was elected village recorder, and in 1856 and again in 1858 prosecuting attorney, and was eity attorney of Jackson, 1859-60. In 1860 he was elected a representative in the State Legislature. During the administration of Governor Blair, he filled the responsible and exacting position of military secretary to the governor. In 1866 he was elected to the
EUGENE PRINGLE.
State Senate, and not being politically friendly to Senator Chandler, he was pur- posely omitted from the more important com- mittees, leaving him a greater freedom of action, and he prides himself on having been able to accomplish more on that account. In 1867 he was elected a member of the consti- tntional convention of that year. Mr. Prin- gle's early political leaning's were Democratic, but he became a Republican in the political crisis of the 1850 decade. In 1872, however, he joined in the so-called independent move- ment and has since acted with the Democrats. lle was United States register of bankruptcy, 1867-78, was a member of the board of pub- lie works in Jackson, 1871-76, and state com- missioner of insurance, 1883-85. He was elected mayor of Jackson in 1885 and prose- enting attorney in 1886, being the only Demo- crat elected in the county. He was candidate for Congress in 1880 and again in 1888, can- didate for cirenit judge in 1881 and for lieu- tenant-governor in 1882, but fell under adverse majorities, though leading his ticket in each case. He sided with the so-called gold wing of the party in 1896.
Mr. Pringle's religious connection is Epis- copalian. Miss Frances A. Becker, daughter of Abraham Becker, of Ann Arbor, became Mrs. Pringle in 1855. They have two daugh- ters, Jessie, widow of Milton Harmon, of Jackson, and Fannie, at home.
316
MEN OF PROGRESS.
HON. JAMES MACNAUGHTON,
MAC NAUGHTON, HON. JAMES. Archibald MacNaughton, father of the sub- ject of this sketch, came to this country from the Highlands of Scotland in 1854. The Mac- Naughtons were farmers, and lived for genera- tions in Perchshire, Scotland. James Mae- Naughton was born March 9th, 1864, at the Bruce mines in the Province of Ontario. In the following June the family moved to Han- cock, Michigan, and from there in 1867 they moved to Lake Linden. Here the boy grew up and was sent to the public schools.
After he was eleven years of age he worked during his summer vacations as a water-boy at the Cahnnet & Hecla coal docks, receiving one dollar per day for his services. At the age of sixteen he left school, and became a switch- tender on the railroad operated by the Calumet & Heela Company. In about a year thereafter he began operating a stationary engine on the gravity road at the stamp mills of the same company, receiving for his services two dollars
per day. The railroad at that time was not built down to the stamp mills, and a gravity road was used to lower the trains of loaded cars down to the mills. When nineteen years of age it was decided to send him to Oberlin Col- lege, at Oberlin, Ohio, where he studied for one year. In the fall of 1884 he entered the University of Michigan, taking a course in engineering, until June, 1886. He then accepted a position in the mining engineer's office of the Calumet & Hecla Mining Co., where he did surveying and draughting until February, 1889, when he resigned to accept the position of mining engineer at the Chapin mine at Iron Mountain, Mich. In May, 1890, he was made Assistant Superintendent, and in March, 1892, was given the position he now occupies, that of General Manager.
Mr. MacNaughton has been a supervisor of Dickinson county ever since that eounty was organized, and was for one year chairman of the Board of Supervisors. He was appointed in 1895 by Governor Rich as a member of the Board of Control of the Upper Peninsula Prison, at Marquette, Mich., and held the office until 1899. He is also the president of the Board of Publie Works at Iron Mountain, and was a delegate to the Republican conven- tion held in St. Louis in 1896. At the State Republican convention held in Detroit in April, 1900, he was nominated as a presidential elector.
Besides being general manager of the Cha- pin mine, Mr. MacNaughton is also manager of the Winthrop mine at Ishpeming, Miehi- gan, both of which are owned by the National Steel Co.
Mr. MaeNaughton married in 1892 Mary E. Morrison, daughter of John S. Morrison, of Calunnet, Michigan. He has one child, Martha Lois MaeNaughton.
317
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
WINANS, GEORGE G. Among the early emigrants to California, after the gold discov- ery there, was a young man named Edwin B. Winans. IIe was a Michigan man and made the overland journey in 1850. His business there was at first placer mining, but in 1856 he engaged in banking in the town of Rough and Ready. He found time to take a wife during the interval, in the person of Elizabeth Galloway, whose parents, of Scotch deseent, were pioneers of Livingstone county, Mich. Of this parentage George G. was born at the California town July 20th, 1856. Further as to the father's history, he returned to Miehi- gan in 1858 and settled on a farm of 400 acres in the town of Hamburg, Livingstone county. The confidence of his fellow citizens was mani- fested in his election to the Legislature, to the Constitutional Convention of 1867, to the office of Judge of Probate and to two terms in Congress, 1882 and '84. In 1890 he was elected Governor of the state, his politics hav- ing been uniformly Democratic.
George G. Winans, with the average pri- mary and graded school training, at the age of seventeen entered Deveaux College at Niagara Falls, taking a preparatory course designed to fit him for admission as a cadet at the West Point Military Academy. The impairment of his teeth, however, resulting from a severe illness, unfitted him to pass the requisite physi- cal examination and his proposed military edu- cation was necessarily abandoned. He became collection clerk in a bank at Howell (1875) and retired as teller, after five years of service. He then engaged in the crockery business at Howell, for two years, when he sold out and removed to Denver, Col., where he was en- gaged snccessfully for a year as a partner in a commission house. Returning to Michigan in 1883, he was engaged for the next two years as traveling salesman for a wholesale grocery firm in Detroit. In 1885 he accepted a posi- tion in the mail service, as mail clerk between Detroit and Grand Rapids, but was relieved in 1889 by the then Republican (Harrison) administration. He then went to Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, when the public lands
GEORGE G. WINANS,
were thrown open for settlement, and took a hand is starting the first newspaper in the terri- tory, the Oklahoma State Journal, in which he had a one-third interest. He sold out his interest during the year, for three times its cost valne, and became the representative in the west and sonth of the extensive line of silver-plated ware manufactured by Rogers Brothers of Waterbury, Conn. When his father was elected governor he threw up his position with the last named company, to be- come his private secretary. This position in- volving also the duties of military secretary, carried with it the rank of Major. Maj. Winans took up his residence at Hamburg in 1895, where his occupation has since been that of a farmer. He has been tendered nomina- tions for official position a number of times by his party (the Democratic) but has nni- formly declined. He is a member of the Ma- sonie Fraternity, of the Odd Fellows and of the Knights of the Loyal Guard.
Miss Catherine Valentine, danghter of Al- fred Valentine, of Webster township, Wash- tenaw county, became Mrs. Winans in 1889. They have one son, Edwin, at school in Ham- burg.
318
MEN OF PROGRESS.
HUTSON [BENEDICT COLMAN.
COLMAN, ILUTSON BENEDICT. Fran- cis Cohnan. father of Il. B., was of English extraction. Ilis grandfather, Martin C., was a Baptist minister in western New York. His mother, Mary Benedict, was from an old Con- nectient family. The father eame from Broekport, N. Y., in 1837, settling near Roch- ester, in Oakland county, where HI. B. was born, June 8th, 1855. In 1866, the family removed to Kalamazoo. With a preliminary training in the public schools, young Colman, at the age of thirteen, began a preparatory course for Kalamazoo College, from which he graduated in 1877. Before graduation he passed a year as tutor in the college; followed by a year as superintendent of schools at Hastings, after finishing his college eourse. In the summer of 1878 he visited Paris, and re- corded his observations and impressions, in a series of newspaper articles. This was fol- lowed by two years as principal of the Kalama- 700 High School, to which he declined a re- appointment in 1884, desiring to engage in active business. He became associated with C. II. Bird in the manufacture of windmills, and has since been connected with different manufacturing enterprises that have served to make Kalamazoo a manufacturing center.
Mr. Cohan's early life was spent between farm chores and the district sehool. His father was one of a few Republicans in the midst of a strong Democratic community, and he often refers to early impressions which he received from the discussions which he heard in those days. In college he distinguished himself as a scholar and a public speaker. In an inter- collegiate oratorieal contest in which most of the denominational colleges of the State par- tieipated he represented Kalamazoo College, and carried off first honors. While always an active business man, he has never lost his love for the literary and intellectual. Reading and study have been his main pastimes. One of his cardinal principles is that it is the duty of every man to give attention to public affairs and to carefully guard the commonweal; therefore when asked to take the nomination for alder- man, he consented, and being elected, he spared no time or labor in his efforts to protect the interests of the city and to secure a high order of government. In 1896 Mr. Colman was elected Senator to represent the Ninth Dis- triet in the State Legislature. Ile was reeog- nized as a prominent and influential member of that body and his work was heartily ap- proved by his eonstitueney. The demands of his private business forced him to deeline a second nomination to that office. When the death of Hon. James Monroe made a vacancy in the Kalamazoo postoffice, the appointment of Mr. Colman as postmaster gave universal satisfaction. Mr. Colman's thorough business habits and his long experience with men, have eminently fitted him for such a position. In 1892 he organized the Home Savings Bank and was its president for four years, and is still a director. Ile is also a direetor in several in- dustrial enterprises at Kalamazoo, and a stock- holder in the Borden Paper Company at Otsego. Hle is a trustee in the Kalamazoo Col- lege and a director in the Y. M. C. A. His society connections are Masonie, including Peninsular Commandery, K. T., at Kalama- 700, and De Witt Clinton Consistory of Grand Rapids. It is perhaps needless to add that he is a Republican in polities.
Mr. Colman has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Fannie Z. Lowell, daughter of Dr. L. W. Lowell of Climax, to whom he was married in 1883, and who died in Decem- ber, 1884. In September, 1897, Miss Cath- erine Fletcher, daughter of Calvin Fletcher, of South Haven, became Mrs. Colman.
319
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
BURTLESS, WILLIAM EARLY, M. D. "Per Aspera ad Astra" is a motto that Wil- liam Early Burtless, M. D., may fittingly choose, for he has made his way to his pres- ent position in life through difficulties that would have discouraged a less persevering man very early in the struggle.
He was born in Liberty, Jackson County, Michigan, June 22, 1847. ITis family came originally from Central New York State, his grandfather, William Burtless, having been a farmer in Seneca County, New York, for many years,
Dr. Burtless' early life was not a partic- ularly happy one. His mother died when he was but eight years of age, and his father, James Burtless, married again a year later. After this the home was none too pleasant for the lad, so when only nine years old he left the uncongenial atmosphere and started ont as a farmer's boy.
He worked in the fields and did the gen- eral work that falls to a boy around a farm until 1863, shortly after the breaking out of the Civil War. Farm work had given him a rugged physique, and he was unusually tall for a boy of sixteen, so he casily passed mus- ter and enlisted in Company M. Eleventh Michigan Cavalry.
He saw service in Virginia during the tur- bid times that followed, and at the battle of Saltville. in that State, was wounded and taken prisoner by the Confederates who sent him, with a batch of other prisoners, to Rich- mond, October 2, 1864, found him in Libby prison, where he remained a guest of the C'on- federacy for six weeks, when he was paroled November 16, 1864.
Upon the expiration of his service he returned to Tecumseh, Michigan, where he sought and found employment as a collector in the employ of local physicians and merchants. From 1872 to 1875 he did a small trade in the lumber and mercantile business at Auburn. Michigan, the results of which eventually enabled him to finish his medical education.
After one year spent in the Baptist College at Kalamazoo, Mich., he entered the literary
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