Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Part 2

Author: Beakes, Samuel W. (Samuel Willard), 1861-; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 886

USA > Michigan > Washtenaw County > Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan > Part 2

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It would be almost tautological in this connec . tion to enter into any series of statements as showing Professor Watson to be a man of broad scholarly attainments and strong intellectuality, for these have been shadowed forth between the lines of this review. Making continued advance- ment in the special field of research that inter- ested him most, he won national fame, and as an astronomer was accorded honors throughout the length and breadth of the land. Among his friends he displayed a broad sympathy and hin- manitarian principles that endeared him to all with whom he came in contact, and his best traits of character were reserved for his home, and there his loss is most deeply felt.

REV. CHARLES T. ALLEN, D. D.

Rev. Charles T. Allen, deceased, was a promi- nent Methodist divine of Michigan, who devoted the entire period of his manhood to his holy call- ing. He laid down his work in September, 1904. and a few weeks later was called from this life. He had for thirty-six years been connected with the Detroit conference, preaching Sunday after Sunday with a power and influence that made his work of no restricted order. Following his death

the following record of his career was prepared by Rev. William Dawe, D. D .:

Charles Thompson Allen was born in Sharon township, Washtenaw county, Michigan, Septem- ber 8, 1841, and died in the city of Detroit, Mich- igan, October 12, 1904, aged sixty-three years, one month, four days.

His boyhood days were spent on the farm of his father in the above township, and his early ed- ucation was acquired in the district schools of Sharon, after which he entered the seminary at Ypsilanti, which at that time was under the super- intendency of Professor Estabrook. Among the teachers whose classes Mr. Allen entered was General Byron M. Cutcheon.

It was during his attendance there that the Civil war broke out, and on April 29, 1861, he en- listed in Company D, First Michigan Infantry, as a corporal, which was organized in the village of Manchester, Michigan, and went to the front for three months' service, during which time he was present at the battle of Bull Run. At the end of this service he returned to Ypsilanti and entered the seminary again, remaining until the following spring. In May, 1862, when President Lincoln issued a call for three hundred thousand men, Charles went to Manchester and began the organ- ization of a company, which became Company B. Twentieth Michigan Infantry, including some thirty men from the neighborhood of Manchester. together with the balance completing the com- pany, raised by Byron M. Cutcheon, who became its captain, with Charles as first lieutenant, which office he held for some time, when he was pro- moted to its captaincy. He fought under Burn- side, Sherman and Grant in many of the hardest battles of the entire war, among which were the battles of Fredericksburg, Jackson, Vicksburg, Knoxville and the Wilderness. He was severely wounded at Spottsylvania Courthouse, May 12. 1864, while leading his company charging a Con- federate battery, and was compelled to remain in hospital six months. On October 20th he re- signed and was honorably discharged.

He returned to his native town, and shortly aft- erward re-entered the seminary at Ypsilanti, com- pleting his course. On October 25. 1865. he mar- ried Miss Elnora Root, daughter of Dr. Bennett

REV. CHARLES T. ALLEN.

PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.

Root, of Manchester, Michigan. He entered Al- bion College, where he took a three years' course 1866-7-8, after which he entered the Detroit con- ference as a probationer, joining in full connec- tion in 1870.

During his ministry, he had been pastor at the following churches: Addison, three years; Clin- ton, three years ; Pontiac, two terms, three and four years respectively ; the following Detroit churches : Tabernacle, three years: Jefferson (now the Mary Palmer), two years; Simpson, three years ; and Cass Avenue, four years. He was then appointed presiding elder of the Detroit dis- trict. which position he held for four years, after which he was called to the Ypsilanti First Metho- dist Episcopal church, where he served seven years, which proved to be his last pastorate ; he was granted a superannuated relation at the Adrian conference. September. 1904; and de- parted this life in Detroit, October 12th, while visiting a friend, Mr. M. McMillan.

He was a member of the Detroit conference during the thirty-six years of his ministry, and it gave him pleasure to remember that he had spent his entire ministry within a few miles of his birthplace. He was always in honor among his brethren, and they sent him as their representative and delegate three times to the general confer- ence, and he could have gone other times had he not declined in the interests of other brethren.

Dr. Allen came of a sturdy family. Lewis Allen, with his wife, Eliza Marvin, were pioneers, coming to Michigan from the state of New York. in June, 1832, and settling in the township of Sharon, Washtenaw county, where Mr. Allen ac- quired a large tract of land. They were members of the Presbyterian church and well and favorably known for their exemplary lives. Both had a profound respect for Christian teachings, and though one of the most extensive farmers in that section, employing many men. Mr. Allen always observed family worship, and never allowed any one about him to desecrate the Sabbath. Lewis Allen was not only a wise counselor in his home, but his advice was sought in the affairs of the township, county and state. He was the first supervisor of his township. and in 1839 was elected a member of the legislature of the state.

Mrs. Eliza Marvin Allen was a woman of marked literary taste and ability and was a con- stant and careful reader of the best literature of her time. She was a woman of great force of character and proved herself a master mind in the training of her children and in the affairs of her home, always judicious and loving, inspiring her children to become true in all the walks of life.

Being reared in the atmosphere of profound spiritual sentiment. together with the industrial spirit of a parentage meeting and overcoming the hardships of pioneer life, were perhaps among the chief elements in the training of the family of boys for future usefulness in the service of their country. The following data is a magnificent tes- timonial to this fact : During the Civil war six of the boys enlisted and went to the front, as fol- lows: Rev. A. B. Allen. of Oberlin. Ohio, as a member of the Christian and Sanitary Commis- sion : Edward P. Allen, of Ypsilanti, Michigan. captain Company H. Twenty-ninth Michigan In- fantry ; Silas F. Allen, late of Indiana, captain, Twenty-ninth Indiana Infantry ; Albert F. Allen, of Vinland. Kansas, private of the Fremont Guards of Missouri and Kansas ; Dr. A. M. Allen, of Adrian, Michigan, assistant surgeon, Seventh Michigan Infantry : and Charles T. Allen, cap- tain, Company B. Twentieth Michigan Infantry.

Charles T. Allen was an obedient and loving son ; among brothers and sisters he was an amia- ble and generous brother ; he gave pleasure to his teachers as a student ; he was among the boys and fellow students a boon companion ; in the hour of his country's danger no truer patriot ; on the battle-field pure in life and a brave soldier ; he was always a considerate and tender husband ; his children testify that he was the most perfect father. Thousands speak of him as an eloquent preacher ; hundreds of families are bereaved of a devoted and trusted pastor. Here then is the orderly development of his life, he blessed all these most sacred relations, there is not, as far as I know, a stain on any one of them. I walked with him for twenty-four years in the most inti- mate life ; I have not known a more truly balanced noble life. What he was in public, he was in pri- vate, and so he was in his home.

PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.

His sons say he was firm, but never stern ; commanding obedience, but never without reason and love: wonderful in tact, watching with love and solicitude every period of their lives, never speaking ill of the living or the departed, always a genial, kind word for all, pure in all conversa- tion, he lived and walked and talked before them as a perfect example of Christian manhood, and without any high profession of Christian perfec- tion, sanctification, or holiness : he seemed to feel and think too humbly to venture claim to such life. And yet what Charles Kingsley once said from the pulpit of Westminster Abbey. Charles T. Allen has said by his life and by his teachings : "The first and last business of every human being whatever his station, party, creed, tastes or duties, is virtne, always virtue, good as God is good. righteous as God is righteous, holy as God is holy."

When we note his unique training, preparation. and education for the ministry, we have some clue to his great success. We have said he was well born, but he was born to many hardships: we find him as a lad toiling on a farm, and his early school life had its difficulties : then think of a young man with fine mental qualities and clean heart taking part in twenty desperate engage- ments on one of the greatest and sternest battle- fields of history before he was twenty-three years of age. The scenes, events, the visions and awful tumult of those years became a vital part of his very being and were ever with him. How could it be otherwise? His comrades in arms, his fellow officers, fell all around him wounded and dead. and then he also fell severely wounded, and had his share of hospital life. Coming up through such experiences and preparations, to which was added three years of hard study in college, he enters the Christian ministry at twenty-seven years of age. The Sabbath after he left us I went to his first circuit of thirty-six years ago ; he knew I was to be there, and we had spoken of it with mnich interest. In one of the little country churches I asked, "How many here remember and were blessed by Brother Allen's ministry thirty-six years ago?" Twenty-two arose, and six of them said they were converted under his ministry. They told me he came without any

money, with poor shoes, no horse, and started out on foot to walk from place to place ; but it was not long before he was beloved in their homes and all his wants were met, and from that first circuit to his last he grew in favor among the people.

They told me of a man known for much pro- fanity and the sport he made of the preachers. Brother Allen called on him, he was treated with the usual indifference. He went with him to milk. saying. "Give me a pail, I can milk," and so they milked and chatted together ; from that time on he was a changed man, no more profanity, and he was soon led to a Christian life. From first to last he could reach men, and he did it with the simple themes of the Gospel, supported by a sin- cere and simple life, and never by what is known to us as sensational efforts. He knew the Gospel needed no such aid, but that it was all sufficient in and of itself.

He had that peculiar charm as a public speaker. Call it magnetism, strong personality, or it may come from native simplicity, honesty and sin- cerity, but that indefinable something that you could not imitate or take from him any more than you can take away or imitate the light of his countenance, which made him, in spite of any lit- erary or homiletic defect or fault, an interesting. helpful and often a truly eloquent preacher, so that hundreds have said, "He never preached without doing his hearers good."

Some are peculiarly fitted for the city pulpit and others for the country ; it must be admitted that he was popular in both. Some have peculiar gifts for different classes of people, but children and young people, poor people and rich, cultured and uncultured, gathered around him and were profited and fed by his ministry. Said a prom- inent layman to me some years ago. "He is worth half his salary to walk our streets as the pastor of our church." These are truly great gifts and be- long to very few souls. What Dr. Jaklin said in his finely expressed article is true,"Only a man of remarkable qualities would be in demand for so many conspicuous positions for so long in the same locality, and only a strong man could meet the requirements."

He was not only large in body and of fine phys- ical proportions, but he was equally large and rich

PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.

in those qualities which make an attractive and noble personality. The genial light in his face. the gracious and kindly tones of his voice, the ease and grace of his bearing in company, touched with contagious good humor without effort, all combined to make it so easy for any one to meet him and arrested the attention of all classes, young people of school and college, the soldier and patriot, legislators and ministers and the toilers in all the common walks of life.

In the summing up of a life, that which finally counts in the judgment and approval of the world is character. Our brother has built before us a life and character which we all feel to be worthy of our sincerest admiration, and that it would be wise and good to imitate, as a Christian, and as a Christian minister, we give him. for honesty. purity, manly sincerity, faithful devotion to his work, the first rank. What Dr. Watson said of his friend, Henry Drummond. we can say of Charles T. Allen: "Without pride, without envy. without selfishness, without vanity, moved only by good will and spiritual ambitions, responsive ever to the touch of God, and every noble impulse, faithful, fearless, magnanimous, he was as perfect a Christian as I have ever known."

JUDGE EDWARD D. KINNE.

Edward D. Kinne, judge of the twenty-second judicial circuit since 1887 and president of the First National Bank of Ann Arbor, was born at Dewitt Center, near Syracuse. New York. Febru- ary 9. 1847. He was the youngest in a family of two sons and a daughter, whose parents were Ju- lius C. and Rachel ( Wetherby ) Kinne. They, too. were natives of the Empire state and were of En- glish lineage, and the father followed the occupa- tion of farming. He was a man of more than local prominence, his strong personality and capability winning him leadership, so that he was chosen to represent his district in the state legislature of New York for several terms and left the im- press of his individuality upon the laws enacted during his active connection with the house. He died in the year 1855.

Judge Edward D. Kinne, entering the district schools at the usual age, therein continued his studies until he reached the age of fifteen, when he prepared for college as a student in the acad- emy at Cazenovia, New York. In 1860 he ma- triculated in the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated with the class of 1864. Subsequently he went to Washington, D. C., and became a student of law in the Columbia Law School, and at the same time he performed clerical service under appointment in the diplomatic di- vision of the treasury department. He filled the clerkship for three years, devoting his leisure hours to his studies, so that he was enabled to complete the regular university course by gradu- ation and was then admitted to the bar in the capital city.

Not long afterward Judge Kinne located for practice in Ann Arbor, where he has since re- tained his residence, and in the public life of the city he had figured prominently by reason of his activity, both within and without the strict path of his profession. In 1860 he was elected city recorder and by re-election was continued in that position for two terms. In 1871 he was chosen by popular suffrage to the office of city attor- ney, remaining as the incumbent for three years, and in 1876 he was elected mayor of Ann Arbor. giving an administration so business-like, prac- tical and progressive that in 1878 he was again chosen for the chief executive. In 1870 upon the republican ticket he was elected to the state legis- lature and proved an able working member in the council chambers of the commonwealth, being connected with important constructive measures. In 1887 he received his party's nomination for judge of the circuit court, to which he was elec- ted by a majority of two thousand, and he stills holds the office to the entire satisfaction of the general public and the profession. The practice of law has been his real life work and at the bar and on the bench he has won marked dis- tinction. He has recently been elected for a fourth term without opposition as no candidate was put up against him, and he is to have a fif- teen-hundred dollar increase in salary. He will have served as circuit judge for twenty-four years when he fills out his present term. He is a man

PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.

of unimpeachable character, of strong intellectual endowments and with a thorough understanding of the principles of jurisprudence. He took to the bench high qualification for this responsible position and his record as a judge has been dis- tinguished by a masterful grasp of every problem which has presented itself for solution. He is furthermore financially interested in important business concerns of Ann Arbor, being the presi- cent of the Ann Arbor Gas Company and of the First National Bank of this city.

In 1867 Judge Kinne was married to Miss Mary C. Hawkins, a daughter of Olney Hawkins, who was for many years a leading member of the Ann Arbor bar. Mrs. Kinne died in 1882, leaving two children : Samuel D. and Mary W. In 1884 Judge Kinne wedded Mrs. Florence S. Jewett, of Ann Arbor. He is a member of the Episcopal church and is held in the highest re- spect wherever known. Honored in every class of society, he has for sometime been a leader in thought and action in public life of his adopted city and county and his name is inscribed high on the roll of its distinguished citizens.

CHRISTIAN MACK.

It is a matter of history that Ann Arbor and Washtenaw county were largely settled by sons of the fatherland, and that the reclamation of this district from the domain of the savage, the development of its commercial and industrial prosperity and its growth in less material lines, are largely attributable to the representatives of the Teutonic race. Christian Mack was a promi- nent representative of this class of citizens, and his name is inseparably connected with many movements that have been helpful in Washtenaw county's substantial improvement.

Born in Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1834. he there acquired a good education and learned the first principles of the mercantile business. When seventeen years of age he came to America, be- lieving that he would have better business oppor- tunities than in the old world. He traveled in company with his former employer's children, who

could speak English ; and he had become quite fa- miliar with the language before he reached this country. For a few years, both prior and subse- quent to 1850, there was a great German emi- gration to the United States. It had been a period of political and social unrest in the fatherland. The discord of the revolution of 1848, the severi- ties attending its suppression and the re-establish- ment of a monarchy, more absolute than before, drove thousands of Germans of the higher classes and of marked intellectual culture to seek the hospitality offered by the United States. Not all were revolutionists, nor even revolutionary sympathizers, but all had the ambition to enjoy a greater measure of freedom than their native land offered.

It was in 1850 that Christian Mack, leaving his boyhood home in Wurtemberg, sailed for the United States. He had acquired an education, which, for its practical worth, is hardly excelled by the advantages of the more elaborate school system of the present day. Throughout his life he was characterized by an eagerness to see and know and learn about all things that are of worth in the world, and his journey to his new home was delayed that he might visit Paris and other continental cities. He was ever afterward able to converse entertainly and intelligently con- cerning the marked characteristics of those places which he had visited ; and he always continued an omniverous reader, so that he kept accumulating information as to the changes which half a cen- tury worked in the different cities. Following his arrival in America he remained for a brief period in Sandusky, Ohio, and thence came to Ann Arbor, where he arrived in 1851. The embryo city was in marked contrast to the old capitals of

Europe, which he had recently seen with their advanced civilization and modern improvements. He found here a region in which there were still many evidences of frontier life. Much of the site of Ann Arbor was still covered with the natural forest growth, and the university which had re- cently been founded was such only in name. Then came the period of rapid development. The for- ests disappeared, being replaced by productive farms; and many of these in turn were subdi- vided into streets and city lots, becoming the site of modern homes and substantial business blocks,

PAST AND PRESENT OF WASHTENAW COUNTY.

while the university welcomed every year a freshman class larger than the entire population of the township when Mr. Mack first came, and numbered in all of its departments a student body greater than the population of the entire county at the time of his arrival. Many of his country- men established homes in this part of the state until the neighborhood about Ann Arbor grew distinctively German in tone. With them came prosperity, born of Teutonic thrift and industry, and the advantages of Ann Arbor extended to ex- tensive proportions. Its banks grew rich and its capital invested in distant states. In a half cen- tury of progress the city had developed from a farming hamlet into an educational and financial center, the influence of which is immeasurable.

Mr. Mack was closely identified with the in- terests here, and there was no one who rejoiced more in the progress of the county and munici- pality. His own career. too, was marked by steady development. He was first employed by John A. Maynard. a merchant, and the founder of one of Ann Arbor's old families. His previous ex- perience in mercantile lines, his ready perception and his close application soon made him the lead- ing employe of the Maynard establishment, and within four years he was sent to the eastern markets to purchase goods. After a clerkship of five years, he began business on his own ac- count, and his activities, having their root in this store, extended and ramified until his connections bound him with all that made for business de- velopment and prosperity in Washtenaw county and in the state. He conducted his store alone for a number of years, when on account of fail- ing eyesight, he admitted his brother-in-law. Frederick Schmid, to a partnership under the firm style of Mack & Schmid.

This firm long occupied a unique position in commercial and financial circles in this city. They conducted a constantly growing trade in their store because of their well known reliability and trustworthiness they were called upon to act as bankers for the large farming settlement around. Men, who had been guided in their choice of homes by either Mr. Mack or Mr. Schmid. formed the habit of depositing their earnings with the firm, or else acting upon their advice concern-

ing investments ; and indeed they demanded of the firm all of the service commonly performed by banks. In time this business, originally un- sought and never systematically encouraged. grew to such proportions as to dwarf the mercan- tile business, which was the main object of the firm on its formation. The depositors, finding themselves treated with liberality, and their funds handled with a most scrupulous prudence. in- creased in numbers till the size of the business became an actual embarrassment to the managers. How carefully it was conducted was made mani- fest by the fact that it went through the great financial panics of 1873 and 1893 unscathed. In the darkest days of the latter depression, deposit- ors still flocked to the store. At the time. the partners, feeling the pressure of advancing years, were beginning to discourage this kind of busi- ness, preparing indeed to abandon it: and the constancy of their customers was sometimes em- barrassing. Associates of Mr. Mack tell of see- ing him gently but firmly escorting a protesting farmer's wife down the street to the savings bank and forcing her to deposit there a roll of money which she had insisted on committing to him alone. Truly he was an honest man, and "an hon- est man is the noblest work of God." He became a factor in the foundation and active manage- ment of three important financial institutions-, the Ann Arbor Savings Bank in 1869, the Mich- igan Fire & Marine Insurance Company of De- troit in 1881, and the Citizens' Savings Bank of Detroit in 1885. Of each he was chosen a di- rector at the time of its organization, and con- tinned as such until his death.

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Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Part 2

Author: Beakes, Samuel W. (Samuel Willard), 1861-; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago : The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 886

Author: Beakes, Samuel W. (Samuel Willard), 1861-; S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago : The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 886