USA > Michigan > Men of progress : embracing biographical sketches of representative Michigan men with an outline history of the state > Part 63
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469
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
SEARL, KELLY S. Mr. Searl was born Feb. 1st, 1862, at Fairfield, Shiawassee Co., Mich., his parents having emigrated from Ohio to that place in the early fifties. His father, Chauncey D. Searl, is a native of Ver- mont, and is still living on his farm in Shia- wassee county. His mother was Harriet E. Kelly, a native of Ohio, but now deceased. Mr. Searl attended the district school until about sixteen years of age, and then attended the village school at Elsie and Ovid, finishing his literary education at the Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso, after which he taught school for several years in order to earn enough money to defray his expenses in taking a course of law at Ann Arbor, and in 1884 en- tered the law department of the University, from which he was graduated in 1886. In March, 1887, he opened a law office at Ashley, where he engaged in practice during the fol- lowing three years, and in April, 1890, he set- tled in Ithaca, where he has since been en- gaged in active practice, having justly earned the reputation of being the leading lawyer of Gratiot county. He is at present the senior partner in the law firm of Searl & Kress. Mr. Searl is an ardent Republican, and foremost in the councils of his party, and has several times declined to allow his name to be pre- sented for office for the reason that he desires to devote his entire time to his chosen profes- sion. However, when the people of his county insisted that he should allow his name to be presented for Circuit Judge in the spring of 1898 he gave his consent and was the candi- date of his county in the Republican judicial convention held at St. Johns. Judge S. B. Daboll, who had occupied the bench in that circuit for a period of about ten years, was the choice of the Republicans of Clinton county, and each county having twelve dele- gates, a deadlock ensued, which lasted about two weeks, and the convention being unable to make a choice, it was adjourned sine die, and no nomination being made, the candidate upon the silver ticket, George P. Stone, of Ithaca, was elected without opposition. In the summer of 1900 Mr. Searl was urgently re-
KELLY S. SEARL.
quested to allow his name to be presented as a candidate for Congress in the Eleventh Dis- triet, but declined on the ground that the Hon. A. B. Darragh was entitled to the place, and immediately interested himself in the nomina- tion of Mr. Darragh, and had the gratification of assisting to make the nomination of that gentleman unanimous at Traverse City for the canvass of 1900.
Among the important cases Mr. Searl has managed may be mentioned the Portsmouth Savings Bank vs. The Village of Ashley (91 Mich., 670). The question involved was whether or not the president and clerk of a village had the legal right to deliver water- works bonds without authority of the council, and whether or not the innocent purchaser of such bonds could hold the village for payment. The Supreme Court decided the village was not liable and declared the bonds void. Mr. Searl was attorney for the defendant and pro- vailing party. Mr. Searl is a member of the M. E. Church and of the Masonie order, the Oddfellows, Knights of Pythias and Macca- bees. Miss Maggie A. Smith, daughter of Wm. W. Smith, of Mason, Mich., became Mrs. Searl Sept. 30, 1885. Their children are Ethel Maud, Hazel Belle and Willie Chaun- cey, aged respectively nine, seven and five years.
470
MEN OF PROGRESS.
WILLIAM H. C, MITCHELL.
MITCHELL, WILLIAM H. C. A sketch of Mr. Mitchell's active life overcaps the half century mark. Born at Mount Perry, Ohio, May 30th, 1825, his education was received in the district schools in Lima, O. He is in direct descent from George Mitchell, who came from Scotland in 1759 and settled in York county, Pa. His mother, Maria D. Bentley, was from Winchester, Va. His parents moved to Lima, O., in 1831, being the second family to settle there. In 1843 he was sent to Ur- bana, O., to learn the trade of a, tinsmith, and served three years, working the first year for his board, and receiving $4 and $6 per month respectively for the second and third years. In the spring of 1846 he started out as a jour- neyman tinner and was in New Orleans when the Mexican war was in progress, and tried to enlist in an Ohio regiment when in that city, on its way to the front. In the spring of 1849 he joined the procession that marched across the plains to California, led there by the gold discoveries, being the first of the memorable migration from the States to the Pacific coast. He arrived in Sacramento Angust 17th, 1849, and worked at mining and at his trade until 1851 in Coloma, when he began buying cattle
and hogs. He bought his hogs in Ore- gon and shipped them to Sacramento and drove them from there to Placerville (then called Hangtown), where he had his head- quarters. He was successful in the venture, and in June, 1853, he returned to Ohio by the C'entral American route. He built a grist mill at Lima, and soon after became engaged in the manufacture of sash, blinds and furniture. In 1866 he removed to Traverse City, which has since been his residence, and engaged in the manufacture of lumber, with his partner, Morris Mahan, who died in 1883, and who had been associated with him since they went across the plains in 1849. In 1893 the busi- ness was merged into a company incorporated as the East Bay Lumber Company, of which Mr. Mitchell has been secretary and treasurer from its organization. Since the death of Morris Mahan his children are interested in the business.
Mr. Mitchell's political career will be a rem- iniscence to a few persons now living who were in active life during the 1850 decade. His first public office was that of village trustee at Lima, 1847. Ile was candidate for township clerk in 1857 on the American or Know Noth- ing ticket, which party has mention on page 73 of this work. He was a delegate to the national convention of that party at Philadel- phia, February 22, 1856, which nominated ex-President Filhore for President, and An- drew J. Donelson, of Tennessee, for Vice- President. He has since been a Republican. Ile was a delegate to the national convention in 1876 which nominated Rutherford B. Hayes for President, and again in 1900, which nominated Mckinley and Roosevelt, and has attended every convention sinee 1876. Ile was receiver of the U. S. Land Office at Reed City, 1878-87, when it was consolidated with the office at Grayling. He served two terms as representative in the Legislature, 1869-70 and in 1871-2, and two terms as sen- ator, 1873-4 and 1875-6. He has held various local offices, including justice of the peace (14 years), school inspector, member of the board of review and township treasurer.
Mr. Mitchell was married in 1852 at Lima, O., to Miss Isabella Milligan, daughter of Thomas Milligan. Two daughters and two sons are the fruit of the union, Arahmenta, wife of John HI. Bean, Traverse City; Alviso L., wife of Gordon Land, Denver, Col. ; Thorn- fon a railway engineer, and William, vice- president of the East Bay Lumber Company.
ยท
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
DANAHER, MICHAEL B. Mr. Dana- her's father came from near Limerick, Ireland, where his family had resided for over a cen- tury and settled on a farm near Kenosha, Wis., where the son, Michael B., was born Sept. 28, 1855. Hle first attended school at Brighton, Wis., up to the age of ten years, when his parents moved to Kenosha. There he attended the public schools up to the eighth grade. His parents subsequently removed to Ludington, Mich., where he had the advan- tages of the local schools up to the age of sev- enteen. He then passed a couple of years as clerk in a law office, and in 1874 entered the l'niversity, graduating from the literary de- partment four years later. He then entered the law office of C. G. Wing at Ludington, and read law until 1882, when he was admitted to practice before Judge S. D. Haight, at Lud- ington. Ile opened an office and practiced his profession with the thorough preparation of a four-year literary course and a subsequent four-years' reading. They are usually am- bitious and impatient to begin work, and too many of them get there like the Duke of Glou- cester (Richard III.), "Scarce half made up." Mr. Danaher's thorough preparation has en- sured him a standard practice from the first. He is local attorney for the Pere Marquette railway system at Ludington, and also attor- ney for the First National Bank. While do- ing an all round law business his practice runs largely to corporation cases. Outside of his professional business, he is one of the mana- gers of the Danaher & Melendy Company, who are extensive owners of real estate, incluid- ing platted additions to the city of Ludington. Ile is vice-president of the Danaher & Melendy
471
MICHAEL B. DANAHER
Company, one of the largest lumbering con- cerns in Ludington, and now operating a plant at Dollarville, in the Upper Peninsula. Mr. Danalier's father was originally the senior in the firm of Danaher & Melendy, but by reason of the panic of 1873 he became financially ent- barrassed, and the sons, James E., Cornelius D. and Michael B., pooled their savings and took the father's place in the firm, which was continued under the same name.
Mr. Danaher is a Democrat politically, and of the gold standard kind under the later clas- sification. He was elected prosecuting attor- ney of Mason county in 1886 and re-elected in 1888, serving four years. He has been city attorney for several years and a member of the board of education of Ludington five years. He is unmarried and has no secret society connections.
472
MEN OF PROGRESS.
MARK WELLINGTON STEVENS.
STEVENS, MARK WELLINGTON. Mark W. Stevens is of Scotch-Irish descent, his parents having been among the early set- tlers of Genesee county, Michigan. Mr. Stevens' father, after a period spent laboring on the farm of ex-Governor Kingsley S. Bing- ham, in Livingston county, purchased a piece of land for himself in Genesee county, and it was on this little farm, in Argentine township, that the subject of this sketch was born, April 1st, 1849. The lad's early life was spent as a farmer's boy, he securing what little education he could from the neighboring district school, working on the farm in the summer time in order to obtain sufficient means to enable him to attend the union schools at Byron and later at Fenton. He prepared for a course at the University, but finances were too low to en- able him to gratify this ambition. At the age of nineteen he commenced teaching a district school, continuing for three years, when he was made principal of the schools at Linden, Mich. Two years later he engaged as a sales- man of carriages at that and other places. Meanwhile he had been reading law, and con- cluding to make that his profession he went to Flint, entering the law offices of Lee & Aitken in January, 1882. He was admitted to the bar in March of the same year, before Judge William Newton, of Flint, and in May formed a co-partnership with one John H.
Hickok, under the firm name of Hickok & Stevens, commencing practice in the offices now occupied by Mr. Stevens.
In polities Mr. Stevens has always been a Democrat and for a great many years has been actively identified with that party and its can- didates. Ile has stumped the state in the in- terest of his party's candidates in every can- paign since 1884 and has also been engaged in political work for the national committee in other states. He was elected president of the first Cleveland and Hendricks Club at Flint in 1884, also secretary of the county commit- tee, and made an active campaign for the ticket in the sixth congressional district.
In September, 1885, Mr. Stevens' ability was recognized by the Cleveland administra- tion and he was appointed Indian agent for Michigan, holding the office for four years. He had full charge of the twelve Indian schools in the state, and in such official capa- city obtained considerable prominence be- cause of the vigorous prosecutions he insti- tuted and pushed in the United States courts against lumbermen who had cut timber il- legally from Indian lands, resulting in thou- sands of dollars being recovered for the gov- ernment. In August, 1891, he was appointed secretary of the Board of World's Fair Com- missioners by Gov. Winans and held that posi- tion for two and one-half years. As such hc practically had charge of Michigan's interests during the World's Fair. He was nominated for Congress in the Sixth District in 1894, but declined the honor. He has served as chair- man of the Democratic county committee of Genesce county, and in 1SSS was clerk of the city of Flint. Fraternally, Mr. Stevens has Masonic relations and is also a member of the Maccabees. Ile was one of the incorporators of the Knights of the Loyal Guard, and is the legal advisor of that order. He was one of the delegates from Michigan to the Democratic national convention at Kansas City on July 4th, 1900.
Mr. Stevens married Miss Mary L. Beach at Linden, Mich., in August, 1874. One son, Fred J. Stevens, a first tenor in the Castle Square Opera Company, has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Stevens.
473
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
CROUTER, GEORGE W. The parents of Mr. Crouter, Stephen S. and Martha (Fen- nell) Crouter, were farmers near Whitby, Ont., where a son, the subject of this sketch, was born Jan. S, 1853. The son attended the neighborhood school and subsequently a graded school, at Strathroy. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to the drug busi- ness with Chamberlain and Gibbard, of Strath- roy, with whom he remained four years, serv- ing the first year without compensation, and the fourth year receiving but $5 per week. He took an examination at the Ontario College of Pharmacy at Toronto, and received the re- quisite certificate as a registered pharmacist. He came to Michigan in 1871 and passed a year in the employ of E. B. Escott, a druggist of Grand Rapids. He then decided to locate at Charlevoix, where he started in the drug busi- ness with a capital of $195, and such credit as a good character and a thorough mastery of his profession assured him. Hle conducted a suc- cessful business for twenty years, having in 1875-6 taken a course in dentistry thus ply- ing the two professions of druggist and dentist during the building up of the town.
Mr. Cronter was a director and one of the promoters of the Detroit, Charlevoix & Es- canaba railroad in 1889, which is now a part of the Flint & Pere Marquette system. He is manager of the Michigan Bell Telephone Company at Charlevoix and is senior men- ber of the Shepard Hardware Company and senior partner in the firm of M. V. Cook & Co., pharmacists, of Charlevoix. Ilis ma- terial interests are closely identified with the town, he being the owner of several business blocks and an extensive owner of real estate, having thirty-five acres platted inside the vil- lage. Politically he is a Democrat and has been chairman of the Democratic county com- mittee for sixteen years. He was deputy col- lector of United States enstoms at Charlevoix under the Cleveland administrations, serving in all eight years, and was a member of the village council six years, and is at present a member of the board of education. He was an
GEORGE W. CROUTER.
alternate delegate to the Democratic national convention at Chicago in 1896.
When the State Pharmaceutical Association was organized, Mr. Cronter was elected chair- man of the executive committee and the sec- ond year (1886-7) was elected president of the association. It was during his presidency that the bill for the organization of a State Board of Pharmacy was passed by the Legislature. Ile represented the Association officially at Lansing and was influential in procuring the passage of the bill, but declined an appoint- ment on the board created by it. He became a member of the order of Oddfellows at Grand Rapids in 1871 and in 1879 became a member of the grand lodge of the state. He has filled all the chairs in the grand lodge and was Grand Master in 1889 and 1890. He rep- resented the Michigan Grand Lodge as Grand Representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge at its meeting in St. Louis, Mo., in 1891. He was captain and aid under Col. O. A. Janes, of the First Regiment Michigan Patriarchs Mili- tant (I. O. O. F.) in 1888, and in 1890 was colonel and aid on the staff of Gen. F. C. Un- derwood.
Mr. Cronter was married to his present wife March 10, 1891, and has one child, George Auld Crouter, eight years of age.
474
MEN OF PROGRESS.
JAMES K. FLOOD.
FLOOD, JAMES K. Mr. Flood was born at Sweaburg, Ont., July 24, 1846, his par- ents, however, Noah and Joana (Lewis) Flood, having been American born, the father a native of Vermont and the mother of New York. Ilis father died when he was three years old, but the mother kept the family to- gether, the son attending the local schools un- til twelve years of age. 'Ile then began work for a farmer near Woodstock and worked as a farm hand until the age of seventeen, con- tributing his income toward the support of the family. In 1864 he came to Michigan, where an unele and an older brother had preceded him. Ile went first to Grand Haven by train, and thence by lake to Pentwater, reaching there with $1.50 as his financial resources. lle found work in the saw mill of Hart & Maxwell, where he worked that summer, working in the woods the ensuing fall and winter. In the spring he secured a position as clerk in the Corlett House and later in the Bryant House at Pentwater. Hotel life is not usually conducive to study and mental culture, but Mr. Flood grappled with the task of improving his education, and one of the proprietors heard his recitations and acted as
an all round pedagogue. While in the hotel he made the acquaintance of J. G. Gray, of Pentwater, who conceived a liking for him and tendered him a position in his drug store. Ile accepted the offer and in the fall of 1869 Mr. Gray proposed a partnership, which re- sulted in the opening of a drug store at the village of Hart, to which Mr. Flood contrib- uted some $500, which he had saved, he hav- ing charge of the business. The venture was successful and the next year Mr. Flood pur- chased the interest of Mr. Gray and continued the business until 1878, when he sold out and engaged in the manufacturing and handling of lumber, which he has since successfully followed. He has continued to reside at Hart, with whose commercial and financial inter- ests he is largely identified. In 1874, with others, he organized the Citizens' Exchange Bank of Hart, a private bank of which the co- partners are F. J. Russell, A. S. White, and himself. Ile is secretary and manager of the Hart Cedar & Lumber Company and owns a fruit farm of sixty acres adjoining the vil- lage. He was one of the original stockholders of the Oceana County Agricultural Society.
Mr. Flood has served the people of his lo- cality in useful and responsible official posi- tions. He has been a member of the local school board ten years, was postmaster at Hart four years, 1881-6, and has served three terms in the Legislature. Ile was elected to the ITouse in 1894 and to the Senate from the Twenty-sixth district, comprising the coun- ties of Lake, Manistee, Mason and Oceana, in 1896, and re-elected in 1898, having in cach case received the nomination unanimously and by acclamation. He is now (1900) filling the position of supervisor of the twelfth United States census. He is a Republican in politics and a member of the Michigan (Re- publican) club. He is a Mason, including the Knights Templar and Consistory degrees. Miss Julia .C. Lewis, daughter of Leonard Lewis, of Westminister, Ont., became Mrs. Flood in 1875. The one son, Carl L., is as- sistant cashier of the Citizens' Exchange Bank of Hart.
475
HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
FILER, E. GOLDEN. The name of Filer became a familiar one in the carly history of northern Michigan, and is localized by the name of a township in Manistee county and by a hamlet known as Filer City, now a suburb of the city of Manistec. The family is of Scotch descent, Delos L. Filer, father of E. Golden, having been born of Scotch parents in Her- kimer county, N. Y., in 1817. He was a man of marked capabilities, filling betimes the various offices of farmer, teacher, merchant and lumberman, and after his removal to Manistee, ministering to the siek as a physi- cian, in the absence of men of that profession. The elder Filer was three times married, the second time, in 1840, to Miss Juliet Golden, the mother of E. G., whose family name is borne by him. Mr. Filer, with his family, removed to Racine, Wis., in 1850, and while there entered the employ of Roswell Canfield, which led to his removal to Manistee in 1853, where the Canfields were already established. A man of middle life at the time and with but limited means he grasped the opportunity that presented itself, and acquired milling and lum- ber interests which in a few years grew to be an ample fortune. He was at one time owner of much of the land on which the city of Manistee is built, was an active agent in build- ing up the city and made liberal donations both in land and money, toward the erection of churches and public buildings. Ilis Man- istee interests were chiefly represented by the firm of D. L. Filer & Sons (E. G. and D. W.), and leaving their management to the sons, he in 1868 acquired interests at Ludington, to which place he removed and died there July 26th, 1879, mourned by a community which felt the loss of a good and useful man.
E. Golden Filer was born in Jefferson county, N. Y., Dee. 4, 1840, and came west with his parents when nine years of age. His education was mainly received at the public schools of Racine and at Racine College. While living at Manistee in 1857 he aceom- panied Hon. T. J. Ramsdell to Lansing and was there tendered and accepted a clerkship in the Auditor General's office, which he held
E. GOLDEN FILER.
until 1862, when the Civil War was at full tide. He then enlisted in Company A, Twen- tieth Michigan Infantry, and served two years with the Army of the Potomac. Honorably discharged, in 1864 he returned to Manistee and was associated with his father's work un- til the formation of the firm of D. L. Filer & Sons (see preceding) in 1866. ITis life work has since been with that connection. He is resident member of the firm (still continued under the same name) at Filer City. He is vice-president of the Manistee County Sav- ings Bank, a director in and treasurer of the Manistee & Grand Rapids Railroad Company, and a direetor in the Michigan Trust Company of Grand Rapids, the Pere Marquette Lumber Company of Ludington, the Michigan Salt Association, the New York Land Company and the Manistee Boom Company, of the lat- ter of which he was president for twelve years. In his publie spirit, in his business en- terprises and probity, Mr. Filer worthily sustains the reputation which his father es- tablished. Mr. Filer is a Republican in poli- tics but has never held any political office. Miss Julia Filer, daughter of Alanson Filer, of Racine, became Mrs. Filer in 1865, but there are no children in the family.
476
MEN OF PROGRESS.
GEORGE P. HUMMER.
HUMMER, GEORGE P. Mr. Hummer is one of the leading spirits of Holland and western Michigan, and his name corresponds with the person, as he is an all round hummer in the affairs of life. He is a native of New Jersey, born in 1856, and is an adopted son of an uncle, George Hummer, of Grandville, Mich., who came to the State in 1852 from Easton, Pa. Mr. Hummer's education was rounded ont at the Northern Indiana Normal School and Business Institute, from which he graduated in 1882, going direct to Holland to assume the superintendaney of the schools there, which position he held until 1889. That he should have been chosen for such a posi- tion in a community in which Dutch educa- tional methods may be supposed to prevail, may be regarded as evidence of a marked fit- ness for the place. And usually a young man who has passed the first years of his active life in pedagogney does not readier make up into the hustling business man. But Mr. ITummer broke through the bars on closing
his school connection in 1889 and established the West Michigan Furniture Company of Holland, of which he is secretary and mana- ger, a concern now employing 500 men, with an output the past year of $750,000. The company was first organized with a capital of $20,000 and the works started up with abont 100 employes. They have never seen an idle day, nor the shadow of a strike, from the be- ginning to the present time. Mr. Hummer's business connections are varied and exten- sive. Aside from his connection with the West Michigan Furniture Company, he is a director in the Holland & Chicago Transpor- tation Company, operating a line of passen- ger steamers between Holland and Chicago, is president of the Buss Machine Company of Holland, a member of the executive commit- tee of the Holland Beet Sugar Company, a director in the Grand Rapids Publishing Company, publishers of the Daily and Weekly Democrat, a director in the Holland Improve- ment Company, and a stockholder in the First State Bank of Holland. He was president of the State Association of Furniture Manufac- turers, 1897-99, and was made president of the national association at its organization in Chi- cago in June, 1899.
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