USA > Michigan > Men of progress : embracing biographical sketches of representative Michigan men with an outline history of the state > Part 56
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Mr. Loranger has always been a Republi- can, making his early debut in polities during the Blaine campaign of 1884, when he stumped Bay county in behalf of the party. In 1893 he was appointed eity attorney of Bay City, serving in that position two terms ; and in 1897 he served temporarily as assistant proseenting attorney of Bay county. He has been active in partisan work-was three years chairman of the Republican City Committee, was a delegate to several Republican State Conventions and in 1896 chairman of the Bay County delegation. He was a Pingree hustler at that gathering, and represented the 10th district on the committee to whom the matter of the contesting delegations from St. Clair county was referred.
He has been twice married, first in 1SS9 to Miss Bettie A. Dayton, of Lansing, who died May 17, 1891, leaving an infant daughter, Bettie D. In October, 1895, Miss Marie Frank, daughter of Ernst Frank, of Bay City, became Mrs. Loranger. They have two chil- dreu, Hubert R. and Marie N.
415
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
OSBORN, JAMES WHITCHILL. James W. Osborn, now an attorney of Kalamazoo, was born in Sherman, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., Feb. 10, 1843. Ilis father was a tanner at that place, under whom the son learned the trade most thoroughly, at the same time attending the local schools. When eighteen years of age he went to Franklin, Pa., and took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar in April, 1864, and at once entered into partner- ship with Hon. S. P. MeCahont, of that place, with whom he remained for twenty years. In December, 1884, the health of Mrs. Osborn, to whom he was married in May, 1874, was such that they concluded to come west, which they did, locating at Kalamazoo. Mr. Osborn began practice there, and in 1887 became senior in the present firm of Osborn & Mills. Mr. Osborn is a Republican in politics, but has done very little active partisan work other than to give the party his hearty support. Ilis official service is limited to two terms as Mayor of Kalamazoo, 1894-5. Ile is a 33rd degree Mason, a Knights Templar and a member of the Consistory and of the Mystic Shrine. He is largely identified with the material interests of Kalamazoo, having extensive real estate, bank- ing and other manufacturing interests, being vice-president of the First National Bank and a director of the C. II. Dutton Company and the Upjohn Pill & Granule Company of Kala- mazoo, and is president of the Charlevoix Sum- mer House Association of Charlevoix. Mr. and Mrs. Osborn have one daughter and one son. Edith M. is at home and Donald C. a law student at Ann Arbor. The father of Mrs. Osborn, Caleb Cornell, formerly of Plattsburg, N. Y., died in Clinton, N. Y., in 1850.
The family of Mr. Osborn has contributed its portion toward the dramatic and martial history of the country. His great grandfather, with his family, together with two other fami- lies (Harris and Platt) lived on Long Island in the time of the Revolutionary War, when the British took possession. They were given twenty-four hours in which to take the oath of allegiance to King George, or to leave the island. They left, going together to Glen
JAMES WITCHILL OSBORN.
Falls, N. Y., where they built a block house which they occupied. The elder male mem- bers of the three families then joined the Con- tinental Army, leaving their new home in charge of two of the younger men. After peace was declared, Mr. Osborn's grandfather, David Osborn, married one of the Harris girls, and in course of time his father married a daughter of the Platts, so that the blood of the three exiled Long Island families is united in the subject of the present sketeh. Mr. Osborn's father, Platt Smith Osborn, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and at its close settled in Chautauqua county, N. Y. His mother, Mary Ann Platt, was a daughter of Nehemiah Platt, of Erie county, Pa., and died at Sher- man, N. Y., in 1845, where his father also died April 30, 1881. Mr. Osborn had three broth- ers in the Civil War. David C. (Rev.) was in the hospital corps, Platt S. was a private in the New York State troops, and Harris B. first enlisted as a private in the volunteer service, but having previously studied medicine, passed an examination, was promoted to as- sistant surgeon, and after the fall of Vicks- burg was made post surgeon of the hospital there.
416
MEN OF PROGRESS.
DR. JOSEPH MARSHALL.
MARSHALL, DR. JOSEPH, Dr. Mar- shall, now of Durand, is beyond doubt one of the most thoroughly equipped practitioners in Michigan. His first scientific training was re- ceived in the office of Dr. F. M. Garlick at Ar- mada, Macomb county, with whom he studied one year. He then took a four years' course in the Detroit Medical College, gradnating there- from in 1878. He then went to Gaines, Mich., and established a practice there which he pur- sued successfully until 1892, when he turned his practice over to a successor and went to Chi- cago, where he took two post-graduate courses in the hospital there. He then established a practice at Durand, which he followed stead- ily for five years, when he went to New York and took a full post-graduate course in the New York Post-graduate Medical School, when he resumed his practice at Durand, which he has continued successfully up to the present time.
Somewhat after the method of the play of Troilus and Cressida, this sketch of Dr. Mar- shall skips his earlier career, "beginning in the
middle," as the prologue has it, and that must be amended. He was born in the township of Warwick, Ontario, June 22, 1848, his parents removing to Port Huron, Mich., when he was quite young. Farm work and the district school occupied his time until 1864, when like many another Michigan boy, he went to the front to fight the battles of the Union, having enlisted as a private in the Thirtieth Michigan Infantry. At the elose of the war in 1865 he returned to Armada and took the advanced course in the High School there, after which he entered upon the study of medicine as stated foregoing.
Dr. Marshall is of mixed Irish and Scotch blood, but more Irish than Scotch. His father, Thomas G. Marshall, was a native of Ireland, and died in 1898 near Mattawa, Ontario. His mother, Isabella Carr, was a native of Seot- land, her father, however, having been Trish. She died in Port Huron in 1855. Mrs. Mar- shall, to whom Dr. M. was married June 14, 1879, was formerly Miss Hester Ogden, daughter of Pendleton Ogden, of Armada, who came with his parents from London, Eng- land, in 1819 and first settled in the State of New York. He died in Saginaw in August, 1864. The mother of Mrs. Marshall died in Armada in 1891. Dr. and Mrs. Marshall have one daughter, Nellie H., aged nineteen, and living at home. Mrs. Marshall is a cousin to Ann Eliza Young, formerly one of the "sealed" wives of Brigham Young, and who for some years was known as a lecturer throughout the United States against Mormon- ism, Mrs. Young was a daughter of the late Chauncey Webb, formerly of the State of Illinois. She was married a short time since to A. L. Dunning, of Manistee, Mich.
Dr. Marshall is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, including the Knights Templar and the Mystic Shrine, and also of the Elks. He was Surgeon-General of the Union Veter- ans' Union, Department of Michigan, 1893.
417
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
ROOS, ELBERT S. The name of Mr. Roos implies a Holland descent, which is traced to an ancestral family, settling near what is now New York City, about the year 1600. Mr. Roos' father was a farmer at New Hurley, N. Y., where the son was born October 26, 1850. Leaving the primary schools at the age of seventeen he took a preparatory course at Fort Edward, N. Y., paying his expenses with money earned by work as a farm hand. He then entered Union College at Schenectady, his only resources being such as he was enabled to earn by teaching and working nights and Saturdays at whatever presented itself, keep- ing his expenses down to the minimum by clubbing with other students. His circum- stances compelled him to leave college at the end of his junior year, but with a considerable degree of progress in the Latin and scientific courses. After leaving college he resumed teaching, but in the summer of 1873 he de- cided to go west, and landed in Kalamazoo with $40 in his pocket. Hle very soon sceured a position in the office of Arthur Brown, then a prominent lawyer of Kalamazoo, and later U. S. Senator from Utah, at $2 per week for ser- viees, with the privilege of reading law. The second year he was salaried at $1,500, and the third year at $2,000. He was admitted to the bar November 12, 1875, before Judge Josiah E. Hawes, at Kalamazoo, and on April 1st, 1878, became junior in the law firm of Brown, Howard & Roos. Mr. Brown withdrew from the firm on his removal to Utah, in 1879, when the firm became Howard & Roos, which con- tinued until January 1st, 1898, when by an admission of the son of the senior partner, it became Howard, Roos & Howard. Mr. Roos has made a specialty of corporation law and has an extensive practice throughout the United States in that department.
Mr. Roos has extended business connections aside from his law practice. Ile is a director in the Kalamazoo National Bank, a director, secretary and treasurer of the Dunklee Celery & Preserving Company of Kalamazoo and South Haven, secretary and treasurer of the Kalamazoo Ice Company, a director and vice-
ELBERT S. ROOS
president of the Kalamazoo Corset Company, secretary and treasurer of the Kalamazoo Rail- way Supply Company, director in the Hender- son-Ames Company, the Kalamazoo Box Com- pauy and a large stockholder in the Kalama- zoo Sugar Beet Company, attorney for and stockholder in the Bardeen Paper Company of Otsego, director in the South Side Improve- ment Company of Kalamazoo, and general counsel for the Round Oak Stove Works of Dowagiac. He organized the Kalamazoo Cor- set Company (mentioned foregoing) in 1894, first with a capital of $75,000, which has since been increased to $100,000. The plant was formerly located at Three Oaks and was re- moved to Kalamazoo in 1894, and today gives employment to 450 people. Mr. Roos is a member of the Elks, the Knights of Pythias, and the Psi Upsilon (Literary), and also of the Michigan Club, which defines his polities as Republican. Although he never smelt powder in actual warfare, he became a member of Company C, Second Regiment, Michigan Na- tional Guard, of Kalamazoo, and was commis- sioned a second lieutenant in 1882 and adju- tant of the regiment in 1883. He was never married.
418
MEN OF PROGRESS.
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WALTER I. LILLIE.
LILLIE, WALTER I. Mr. Lillie's father, Joel B. Lillie, was a farmer in Talmade Town- ship, Ottawa county, where Mr. Lillie was born October 9, 1856. His mother, Sarah C. Augur, was a sister of the late Gen. C. C. Augur, of Worthington, D. T. His early his- tory was that of most Michigan farm boys- attending the local school, and when old enough to work enjoying school advantages only during the winter months. Ilis father had contracts for getting out timber and logs for the Grand Haven and Muskegon sawmills, and when old enough to drive a team the son assisted him in this work. When he was twenty-one years of age his father offered lim forty acres of land if he would stay at home and work the farm, but he had made up his mind to aspire to something higher, some- thing at least in which there was less of man- ual drudgery. A more advanced education being a necessity he entered the Agricultural College at Lansing, from which he graduated in 1881. Upon leaving eollege, Mr. Lillie be- gan teaching a distriet sehool near Grand
Haven, and at the same time took up the study of law. He was admitted to the bar before Judge Daniel J. Arnold, at Grand Haven, in 1884, and entered upon the practice of the profession there, which he has sinee pursued with a degree of sueeess of which he has no cause to complain. A Republican in polities, Mr. Lillie springs from Democratie stoek, his father and other relatives having been prom- inent in local Democratie eireles. He was elected Circuit Court Commissioner of Ot- tawa county in 1884, and in 1886 was elected Proscouting Attorney, and again in 1888. He has served several terms as city attorney of Grand Haven, and was again appointed to that place in May, 1900. He is interested as a stockholder in and offieer of the Bliss Furni- ture Company of Grand Haven. His society connections are United Workinen and Macea- becs. Ile was married in 1886 to Miss Ella H. MeGrath, daughter of Michael MeGrath, of Dennison, Ottawa county. They have four children, Harold I., Leo C., W. Ivan and Hugh E., all at home.
419
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
PALMER, AMBROSE E. Whether the idea holds in all cases that educated men make the best farmers, it is well supported in the case of Mr. Palmer. Ile was born at Pleas- antville, Westchester county, N. Y., August 5, 1849, and had the local school advantages up to the age of 14. He then attended Will- brahamn Academy, at Willbraham, Mass., re- maining there nearly three years in prepara- tion for college. He graduated from Wes- levan College, at Middletown, Com., in 1869, and subsequently took a special chemical course there, but on account of poor health he could not follow that profession. Ile taught school during his college course, to pay his way, except the last term, when he borrowed money enough to carry him through. Find- ing no opening in the east for a young man of his qualifications, he aeted upon HTorace Greeley's advice and came west. He first went to Milwaukee, where he remained a few months and then came to Michigan. His first job was acting as foreman of a gang of hands engaged in building a saw mill at Torch Lake, Antrim county. From this he entered the general store and Inmber office of J. II. Silkman, of that place, and soon became man- ager of the mercantile department, continu- ing in this employ until the spring of 1876, when he removed to Kalkaska, which has since been his home, and started in the mer- cantile business on his own account. The place at that time had a population of only 90 persons, all told, and Mr. Palmer was one of the first to plant a business house there. He conducted a prosperous business for ten years, when he withdrew from its active manage- ment, the business, however, being still con- tinned under the firm name of Pahner & Hobbs. Since 1886 Mr. Palmer has devoted himself to farming and is one of the most successful farmers in northern Michigan, having a dairy farm of 640 aeres and a herd of 60 Jersey cows. He is identified with the associate work of the farmers, having been a delegate from Michigan to the Farmers' Na- tional Congress at Boston in 1899 and to the samne body at its meeting at Denver in 1900.
AMBROSE E. PALMER.
Ilas been a member of the State Agricultural Society for years and for years a member of the executive committee of the Michigan State Grange and is a member also of the State Dairymen's Association.
Mr. Palmer has been identified with the growth of Kalkaska from a hamlet of 90 per- sons to a village of 1,500, and has had per- sonal relations with nearly all the manufac- turing interests of the place. He has also contributed to its social and eivil life, having served as supervisor several times and being at present chairman of the Kalkaska county road commission and was for six years a mem- ber of the local school board. ITe is in poli- ties a Republican and has been chairman of the county committee of that party for ten years and was a delegate alternate to the Re- publiean National Convention at Chicago in 1892. Ile is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity and of Ivanhoe Commandery, Knights Templar, of Petoskey. His parents, Stephen and Sarah (Hobby) Palmer, were in direct descent from Harvey Palmer, first of Had- ham, Mass. Miss Hattie Knight, daughter of Richard Knight, of Atwood, Mich., beeame Mrs. Palmer in 1875. Their two older chil- dren, Wilbur and Jessie K., are students at the Agricultural College. The two younger, Everett and Eva, are attending local schools.
420
MEN OF PROGRESS.
EMORY TOWNSEND.
TOWNSEND, EMORY. The father of the subject of the present sketch, Ransom Townsend, has been a well known resident of Washtenaw connty for 65 years. Born in Genesee county, N. Y., in 1828, he came with his parents to Michigan in 1835, they locating in the township of Superior. In 1848 he married Juliaette Leland, daughter of Hon. Joshua G. Leland, of the town of Northfield, same county. Mr. Leland enjoyed the dis- tinetion of being the only Whig elected to the Legislature from Washtenaw county (then having six members elected on general ticket), in 1844. Mr. and Mrs. Townsend are still living in Superior, upon the same farm where he first settled 65 years ago.
Emory Townsend was born October 18th, 1858. He passed from the local schools at home to the high school at Ann Arbor and thence to the University, taking courses in both literary and law departments, teaching to defray his expenses in the University. Completing his education at the University in 1883, he spent nearly two years in the west and south, mining a portion of said period.
Ile located in Saginaw in 1885, began the practice of law and at once took front rank as a successful attorney and has won for him- self an enviable position, both as a lawyer, a citizen and a man of business. While he is engaged in a general practice, his more special lines are real estate, corporation and probate law.
In 1894 he was elected to the State Senate on the Republican ticket from the Saginaw district, by a majority of 865, being the only Republican returned from that district in 12 preceding years. Since the close of his terms all his snecessors have been Democrats, leav- ing Mr. Townsend the distinction of being the only Republican senator from Saginaw dis- triet in 18 years. He withdrew from politics at the close of his senatorial term, devoting himself to his law practice and such other lines of business as by natural selection came in the way of a successful attorney. Ile has frequently been solicited to stand as the can- didate of his party for official positions, in- cluding member of Congress, circuit judge and mayor of his city, but has uniformly de- clined all such nominations.
Mr. Townsend has extensive lodge connec- tions, being a member of the Masonic frater- nity, the Maccabees, Foresters, Modern Wood- men of America, and other societies. He is past high priest of Saginaw Valley Chapter, No. 31, Royal Arch Masons. He enjoys a marked popularity and distinction in the In- dependent Order of Foresters, having been high counselor and high vice-chief ranger of Michigan; in 1895 he was elected a delegate and attended the International Supreme Court meeting of said order held in London, England, and while in attendance there took a prominent part in the deliberations of said meeting. He has been both local and state counsel of the order of the Modern Woodmen of America; and for the last three years he has been chairman of the national board of anditors of that society. At the National Convention in Dubuque in 1897 there were three anditors to be chosen, and of the five candidates, Mr. Townsend received 203 votes out of a total of 231. At the National Con- vention in Kansas City in 1899 there were five auditors to be chosen, and of the ten can- didates, Mr. Townsend received 297 votes out of a total of 351. By reason of his fraternal affiliations and general affability, Mr. Towns- end enjoys a very extensive and desirable ac- quaintance throughout the United States, which has brought him much legal work ; an indefatigable worker, doing an almost incred- ible amount of work accurately and with dis- patch has contributed largely to place him in the very prominent legal and social position that he now occupies.
Miss Anna L. Fairman, of Plymouth, be- came Mrs. Townsend October 20, 1885. Their children are : Katherine H., Juliaette L. and Richard Emory, aged respectively nine, six and three years.
421
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
SHARPE, HON. NELSON. Hon. Nel- son Sharpe, of West Branch, Ogemaw county, judge of the Thirty-fourth judicial circuit, although born in Canada, is of American an- cestry, his paternal ancestors having been for several generations residents of St. Lawrence county, N. Y. They were of Scotch and Irish extraction. His parents were Nelson and Eunice (McColl) Sharpe. The son was born on a farm in Northumberland county, Ontario, October 25, 1858. His early educa- tion was received in the district school, from which he was enabled to secure a second grade teacher's certificate at the age of 16. Ile secured a district school the same year and was a successful teacher for five years. His carly inelination was toward the medieal pro- fession, but by reason of his association with a young lawyer he decided to take up the study of law. In 1879 he took a preparatory course and the same fall entered Albert Col- lege, at Belleville, taking a literary course for two years. To be admitted to practice it was necessary for him to spend five years in a law office, or if a graduate, three years, and on the advice of friends he concluded to spend the entire time of preparation in an office, and entered that of Clute & Williams, of Belle- ville. He remained there a year and then went into the office of John W. Kerr, of Co- burg, as student and assistant, receiving for his service $25 per month the first year and $35 per month the second year. In 1885 he went to West Branch, where a brother had preeceded him, and soon become impressed with the fact that Michigan offered better opportunities than those to be found every day in Canada. He went into the office of Markey & Hall, of West Branch, then the leading law firm in that part of the state, and three months later (May, 1885) was examined and admitted to practice before Judge J. B. Tuttle, at Tawas City. He opened an office but beeame interested with his brother in a newspaper enterprise, the West Branch Times, and divided his attention between law and literature, interspersed with some practi- cal lessons in running a country newspaper,
HON. NELSON SHARPE.
involving the work of editor, reporter, adver- tising solicitor, pressman, ete., and at the end of three years, his law practice, by the side of other well known attorneys, having become remunerative, he withdrew from active news- paper work, though retaining his interest until 1890.
Mr. Sharpe was president of the village of West Branch in 1889, was president of the school board two years and chairman of the Republican county committee six years. IIc was elected proseenting attorney in 1890 and re-elected in 1892, serving until he was ap- pointed judge of the newly formed Thirty- fourth judicial cirenit, in 1893. He was elected to the seat at the November election in 1894 and re-elected without opposition for the full term at the spring election in 1899. Judge Sharpe is a Republican in politics, is a member of the Michigan Club, of the Ma- sonic fraternity, including the Knights Tem- plar, of the Oddfellows and Knights of Pythias. His wife, to whom he was married in 1884, was formerly Miss Francis Lean, daughter of Win. Lean, of Grafton, Ont. They have two sons, Leo N. and Donald B.
422
MEN OF PROGRESS.
GEN. GEORGE A, HART.
HART, GEORGE A., GEN. Gen. Hart, of Manistee, was born in Lapeer, Mich. His great-grandfather, Deacon Stephen Hart, was a native of Essex county, England, and located at Newton, Mass. Oliver B. Hart, grand- father of George A., removed to Lapeer in 1837, and with him came his son Joseph B., the father of Gen. Hart. Gen. Hart received, his early education in the public schools of Lapeer, but at the age of fourteen he left to enter the army, taking a place in the commis- sary and quartermaster's department of the Fifth Michigan Cavalry, commanded by Col. Alger. In the spring of 1863 he enlisted in the ranks and participated in all the battles of the Army of the Potomac, fifty-four in all. At the close of the war he went west with the Custer Cavalry Brigade and during two years was engaged in fifteen Indian skirmishes. In March, 1866, Mr. Hart received his discharge from the army at Salt Lake City, and imme- diately went to work for Wells, Fargo & Co., with whom he remained until the fall of 1867, when he returned to Lapeer. Until 1870 he engaged in farming, then selling his farm to go to Fenton, where he engaged in the fur-
nishing goods business. He closed out at Fenton in 1872 with resources barely suffi- cient to meet liabilities, and accepted an offered position in the store of John Egan at Manistee at $50 per month, reaching there without a cent. In 1876 he started in the real estate business in a small way, mostly commission sales, and has built up an exten- sive business which at the present time com- prises land, timber, loans and abstracts of title. He is of the firm of Wallace & Hart, insurance, and Hart & Swigert, real estate; is president and general manager of the Manis- tee, Filer City & Eastlake Electric Railway, a director in the First National Bank and is an extensive owner of city and farm property. Upon the election of Gen. Alger to the office of governor, Mr. Hart was appointed to the position of quartermaster-general of the state troops, a position which he filled with credit to himself, and for the duties of which he manifested marked ability. He was a mem- ber of the board of trustees of the Traverse City Insane Asylum, 1892-96, but resigned on the election of Mr. Pingree as governor. Gen. Hart, while an ardent Republican in polities, has never sought public office, although his name has been mentioned in con- nection with nominations to offices of import- ance, including those of governor and secre- tary of state. Gen. Hart has been prominent in affairs connected with the G. A. R. and was a delegate to the national convention of 1888. He was aide on the staff of Gen. Alger when department commander of the Michigan G. A. R., and likewise on the staff of Col. A. T. Bliss. He has served two terms as president of the Soldiers and Sailors' Association of Northwestern Michigan, and during 1894-95 served the city as mayor, being the only Re- publican ever elected to that office up to that time. Gen. Hart has been twice marzied, first in 1868, to Miss Ella J. Hammond, daughter of John R. Hammond, of Lapeer, who died in 1878, leaving one daughter, Amy A., now the wife of Geo. W. Swigert, of Manistee. His second marriage was in 1880, to Miss Mattie Dexter, daughter of Samuel Dexter, of Manistee. To this marriage have been born Sabra, Pearl M., Grace F. and Golden A., all at home.
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