USA > Michigan > Ingham County > Lansing > Past and present of the city of Lansing and Ingham county, Michigan > Part 17
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A. B. ARMSTRONG. LANSING.
A. B. Armstrong, one of the organizers and present manager of the Central Imple- ment Co., Ltd., was born in Genesee county, Michigan, in 1853, being the son of Addison and Mary Armstrong. His father is a na- tive of Pennsylvania. In 1844 he located in Grand Blanc, Michigan, and as an agricul- turist commenced life in the Wolverine State. Later he was married, his father-in- law, Edmund Perry, having located in Gene- see county in 1821. During the last thirty years of his active life he was a merchant at Grand Blanc, and now lives a retired life at Coleman. He was the father of five chil- dren, four of whom are living.
Our subject's early days were passed in Grand Blanc, his schooling being continued
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at Flint, Michigan, and concluding at the University of Michigan (class of '75). For the succeeding eleven years he conducted a general store at Grand Blanc. Later he represented D. S. Morgan & Company at Columbus, Ohio, and at Lansing, Michigan. He then spent a time in Chicago, and on October 1, 1897, became associated with R. U. Tenny in the organization of the Cen- tral Implement Company. Each had started an independent business, but after an experi- ence of about thirty days sensibly joined their forces.
The company are wholesale dealers and manufacturers of farming implements, the factory at Standish employing eighty men. The business covers Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York and a portion of Indiana. R. U. Tenney is chairman and J. P. Thoman is secretary of the company, which was organized as a stock concern in 1899 and reorganized in 1901. The busi- ness has increased fully six-fold since its es- tablishment in 1897.
Mr. Armstrong is a leader in the Prohibi- tion movement, being at present county chairman of the party. Both he and Mrs. Armstrong are identified with the Plymouth Congregational church. His wife was form- erly Miss Emma C. Embury of Grand Blanc, and to her he was married twenty-six years ago. Their children are Clara B., teacher of mathematics at Olivet preparatory depart- ment, and Alice, who is living at home.
JUDGE MASON D. CHATTERTON (DECEASED).
One of the ablest and most beloved citi- zens of Michigan passed away at the death of Mason D. Chatterton, for many years a Circuit Court Commissioner and Judge of Probate Court of Ingham county. He died on the 28th of October, 1903, at his home
in Lansing, where he had been an honor- able, prominent and honored citizen for nearly twenty years. Had he been ambitious politically he might have been a leader of national influence, but chose to decline the larger honors which were offered him that he might live a more retired life in the midst of those with whom he had intimately cast his lot. Although a man of great natural ability, which was strengthened and mel- lowed by a thorough and broad education, he was intensely human, as well as humane, and loved to be in close association with his fellow creatures. He was warm, whole- souled and genuine, and could never have adapted himself to the ways of the average successful politician.
The strong elements of Judge Chatter- ton's character are well described by that well known Lansing pioneer, Samuel H. Row, in the following words: "I looked upon him somewhat as I did on the large, wide-spreading, sturdy tree that graces the lawn in front of his late home in Lansing. He had but the one shade tree-needed but the one to cast its grateful shade over the whole house and lot. I believe it was in some sense typical of himself ; firmly rooted, strong, independent, and self-confident in his own truth and modest merit. Like this strong tree, too, there seemed to me to be a restful place beneath the, shade of his pres- ence and personality, when the fierce sun of affliction scorched too hot on the heads of those he compassioned and loved."
The deceased had an exhaustless fund of sympathy for the struggling and the suffer- ing, for he himself had passed through that rigid training in economy, which early con- ditions in the New England states have left as a legacy to the people of that region. His parents, although they economised as all eastern people did, had an abundance of everything. Kept a dairy, made butter and
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cheese and two or three thousand pounds of maple sugar every spring.
The birthplace of our subject was Mount Holy, Rutland county, Vt., and the date, August 3, 1838. At the time of his death he was therefore but little more than sixty- five years of age; but as his taking-off was the result of an acute disorder (pneumonia) his general constitution was still sound and vigorous.
Judge Chatterton's parents were Daniel and Betsy (Jewett) Chatterton. After the death of his father, David, the former pur- chased the old homestead from the other heirs, and here he lived with his wife and increasing family until June, 1851. The family which then started for Michigan con- sisted of our subject, his parents, two broth- ers and a sister. While the father was pros- pecting for a home, the other members of the family remained with Mr. Wolcott at North Farmington, Oakland county. In three weeks from the day (June 2) he reached Michigan he purchased a farm of Horace Havens, two miles west of Okemos, Meridian township. On the 7th of July, 1851, the Chatterton family established themselves in their new home, and became permanent residents of the Wolverine State.
For a number of years the home of the newcomers was in a rough log house sur- rounded by heavy timber. It was a pic- turesque spot, indeed, in which Daniel Chat- terton, with his good wife and sturdy family, commenced life anew in what was then a frontier western state. They were devout Baptists, and as the years passed the worthy couple earned the esteem and love of the en- tire community for their true Christian spirit and deeds. Mr. Chatterton died at the old homestead. April 9, 1866; his wife survived him by eleven years; but they are buried together at Meridian cemetery.
Besides Mason D., the members of the
family were George A. Chatterton of Mount Pleasant ; Sarah E., who married Augustus L. Sturges of Okemos, and Jewett E., also a resident of Mount Pleasant.
When Mr. Chatterton founded
the Okemos homestead our subject was thirteen years of age. He assisted his father in all the wearing labors attendant on the life of a farmer in a virgin country, he devoted every moment which he could steal from necessary labor to the equally difficult task of cultivating a mind already weary with intense physical strain. In the winter he at- tended the district schools of the neighbor- hood, after which he entered the Agricul- tural Collge as its first regular student.
Judge Chatterton spent three years in the institution named, subsequently receiving the degree of Master of Science. After finisli- ing his course in the Agricultural College he was a student for one year in the State Normal School. He graduated from the law department of the Michigan University, May 21, 1861, with the degree L. B. Two days later he was admitted to the bar of the State of Michigan, and in September, 1874, to the United States courts. In his pre- paratory studies, as well as in the practice of his profession, the predominating traits of his character were untiring energy, deter- mination and faithfulness ; in his dictionary there was no such word as shirk.
In 1862-63, the rising young lawyer served as Town Clerk of Meridian, and as Circuit Court Commissioner of Ingham county, from 1864 to 1869. In the last year of the civil war he was drafted into the mili- tary service and ordered to report for duty at Jackson, Mich. Upon the day specified, he reported to the Provost Marshal, but, as the rebellion was then nearly at an end, he was given an indefinite furlough. Al- though not called upon, he was never regu- larly discharged, and technically was sub-
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ASA I. BARBER
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ject to service up to the day of his death.
At this period of his life the judge re- moved to Mason, residing there from 1865 to 1886. He was President of the village board in 1872, and on the Ist of January, of the following year, commenced his eight ' years' term of service as Probate Judge of Ingham county.
This portion of his professional career cannot better be described than by present- ing an extract from the memorial submitted by the committee representing the bar of Ingham : "His services as Judge of Probate demand more than passing mention; he found the records and files of that court in utter confusion, and it was his work and untiring diligence that brought order out of confusion and placed such records in good condition.
"Since retiring from active practice he has written an excellent work on probate law, and has thought and written profoundly on the problems of life and death ; and in pass- ing from our mortal vision he has gone as a shock of grain, fully ripe, to the garner- house of his God.
"Judge Chatterton was a man of the most exemplary character. His word was a bond of honor. He was kind and courteous in his intercourses with fellow-members of the bar. . His friendships were deep and abid- ing. In every walk of life he bore a manly part, and met the night of death as tran- quilly as the stars of heaven meet the morn- ing."
In 1884, while yet a resident of Mason, Judge Chatterton represented the Sixth Con- gressional district in the National Republi- can convention which nominated James G. Blaine to the presidency. During the same year he declined the honor of the U. S. Con- sulate to Auckland, New Zealand. He re- moved to Lansing in 1886, and continued to reside there up to the time of his death,
being for most of that period engaged in general practice.
While living in Mason, Judge Chatter- ton was elected President of the Farmers' Bank. This institution was organized June 7, 1886, and he did not remove to Lansing until the following December. When he died he was still at its head. He was also a stockholder in two Lansing banks and in one bank at Leslie. In Masonry he was a Knight Templar.
In 1888 he began the preparation of the work on "Law and Practice in Probate Courts," already referred to in the extract from the memorial of the Ingham county bar. Many of his most precious hours dur- ing the latter years of his life were devoted to the writing of a book on "Immortality from the Standpoint of Reason." Since his death it has been published by his widow, and has made a deep impression among the thoughtful who can now more fully appre- ciate the fine traits of the author's mind and soul.
The deceased left a widow and one child -Floyd M. Chatterton, the son having full charge of all the business affairs which here- tofore devolved upon his father. Mrs. Chat- terton was formerly Miss Mary A. Morrison of Okemos, and her marriage to Judge Chat- terton occurred June 2, 1864. She is the daughter of Norris and Jane Morrison, Pittsburgh, Pa., who came to the county at an early day and settled on a farm south of that place. She is a native of Ohio, born February 29. 1839.
A. I. BARBER.
The subject of this sketch is unquestion- ably one of the best known farmers and stock breeders in Ingham county, having been a resident here since 1864 and much of the time in public life. Mr. Barber was
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the son of Orson and Mary Ann Barber and was born in Washington county, New York, January 20, 1839. Two years later the elder Barber with his family emigrated to Michigan and settled in the County of Calhoun upon a farm and remained there until the year 1864, when he sold out and came with our subject who had bought a farm in the township of Leslie.
December 25, 1860, Mr. Barber married Miss Martha, daughter of Henry Weldon of Calhoun county. To them have been born four children. The first Ella, died at the age of two years; Ada Adella, born in Calhoun county, is the wife of W. L. Clark, editor and publisher of the Ingham County Democrat ; Maud, born in Ingham county, is a successful teacher, she having been em- ployed as principal for several years in the Townsend Street school in the City of Lan- sing ; Mabel, is the wife of F. H. Glass, who resides in Alma, Michigan.
Mr. Barber's school advantages were those common to young men of his time, supplemented by a few terms at Olivet Col- lege. At the age of nineteen years he went out from the paternal home to grapple with the affairs of life and win for himself a name and place. Entering a general store in the village of Springport, he remained three years, receiving a salary of eighteen dollars per month. This he saved and later invested it in land, which proved to be the nucleus to a comfortable competence in later years. Having an eye to the "main chance" and a tact for business, sharpened somewhat by his experience in trade, he bought and sold, traded and dealt until a few years later he found himself the happy possessor of the well-known Barber home, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres of choice tillable land, beautifully located within the corporate limits of the City of Mason.
Independent of his farming operations,
Mr. Barber has figured conspicuously as a dealer and feeder of live stock and particu- larly of sheep, a department in which he has met with profitable and gratifying success, as he has been one of the largest dealers in this locality for a number of years, making a specialty in the feeding of lambs for Eastern markets.
Being a natural lover of blooded stock, his successful farming operations, in which he has acquired a goodly competence has en- abled him to devote considerable time to the breeding and raising of thoroughbred horses an enterprise which has not only been profit- able, but which has given to Ingham county a reputation in this particular line which is almost national. In 1884 Mr. Barber pur- chased in Kentucky the trotting thorough- bred stallion, Greenbacks, then two years old. This horse later made a record of 2 :231/4 and has proven to be one of the most successful sires of racing, speed and high- grade driving horses ever owned in the State. His produce has gone at high prices to nearly every state in the Union, while others have gone to England, Germany and Austria. The quality of this horse has pro- duced a marked effect on the stock interests of this section, making for the City of Mason a name and fame for good horses enjoyed by few cities. The result has been that hun- dreds of thousands of dollars have been turned into the coffers of the local horse breeders. Mr. Barber developed Greenceps, 2 :1514. He also raised Colored Girl, 2 :2514 ; Mary Orr, 2:0914 and Sarah Green, 2:191/4, for all of which he realized good figures.
Mr. Barber has held many positions of trust and responsibility and always to the entire satisfaction of his friends. In politics he is a conservative Democrat, and has the distinguished record of having served his ward as Supervisor almost continuously for
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the past twenty-two years, and as chairman of the Board of Supervisors in 1902 and 1903, a compliment few men have to their credit in the county.
He is at present and has been for several years past, President and Treasurer of the Ingham County Mutual Fire Insurance Co., one of the most successful organizations of its kind in the State.
He is also Treasurer of the State Associa- tion of Supervisors, and as the Chairman of the Building Committee of the new court house, he has performed the arduous and perplexing duties of that position to the ut- most satisfaction of all parties concerned. Indeed more than to any other man the public is indebted to A. I. Barber for putting into operation the influences that have resulted (against seemingly overwhelming odds) in the erection of the beautiful new court house at Mason, the pride of the taxpayers and a monument to their thrift and enterprise.
Mr. Barber enjoys the distinction of be- ing one of a few men who have left upon the community the impress of their individuality and unto such men Ingham county owes its prosperity.
E. F. COOLEY. LANSING.
E. F. Cooley is proprietor of the Michigan Supply Co., and president of the Maud S Wind-mill and Pump Co. and holds import- ant interests in the Olds Motor Works, the Olds Gasoline Engine Works and the Lan- sing Wagon Works. He was also one of the organizers of the City National Bank and has been its vice president since it was founded.
Mr. Cooley was born in Adrian, Mich., in the year 1849, his parents being Judge Thomas M. and Mary E. Cooley. Our sub- ject passed his earlier years and obtained his
education at his birthplace and Ann Arbor, Mich. In time he attended the University of Michigan, graduating in the class of 1870 with the degree of B. A.
After leaving college he assisted in erect- ing the gas works at Port Huron, Mich., and was engaged in the gas business at that city for a year, when he came to Lansing, built the gas works there and managed them for a period of twenty years.
In 1890 Mr. Cooley organized the Mich- igan Supply Company, purchasing the mill supply department of the Lansing Iron Works and consolidating it with the busi- ness in that line which he had already estab- lished. At this time he erected the com- modious building on the corner of Grand and Ottawa streets, from which are handled all kinds of mill supplies, plumbers' and steam fitters' supplies, tubular well goods, etc. He is the sole proprietor of this business, which is of a wholesale character and ex- tends all over Michigan. He was one of the founders of the Lansing Wagon Works, and has held the office of secretary and treasurer from the beginning. He also organized the Maud S Windmill and Pump Company and is its president. He was instrumental in es- tablishing the Olds Motor Works and is a director of that company. His prominent connection with the Olds Gasoline Engine Works and the City National Bank has al- ready been mentioned. He also owns large shares of stock in other companies in Lan- sing, making him a power in the industries and finances of the community.
In 1871 Mr. Cooley was married to Miss Kate Taylor of Ann Arbor. The fruits of this union have been eight children: Edith A., now Mrs. A. D. Baker, of Lansing ; Fanny, Mrs. George M. Chandler, Chicago; Edgar L., in business with his father : Eliza- beth ; Frank E., with the Maud S Pump Company, of Lansing: Eva, Adaline, and
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David. Mrs. Cooley is a member of the Congregational church. Mr. Cooley, it may be added, is a Mason, an Oddfellow and a republican, although the manifold activities of his business life have left him no time to meddle with politics.
HON. JOB T. CAMPBELL (DECEASED).
Job T. Campbell was born in Onondaga township, Ingham county, July 9, 1855, and died at Mason, Michigan, April 13, 1899. His parents, Marshall and Maria Campbell, came to Michigan from Buffalo, N. Y., and located in the Township of Onondaga in the year 1850. His father was a native of Berks Co., Pa., where he was born Oct. 13, 1808. He was for many years a prominent citizen of the Township of Onondaga, holding the office of Justice of Peace for a number of terms, and he was generally spoken of as "Squire Campbell." The mother died when Job was but seven years of age, leaving a family of twelve children, which soon be- came scattered.
At the age of twelve years Job found em- ployment with a farmer, for whom he worked as a farm hand during the summer months, attending district school through the winter. His first six months' service netted him forty-two dollars. This practice was maintained until he had secured an edu- cation sufficient to enable him to teach, an occupation he followed for several winters. Later he attended the Leslie High School, from which he graduated with honor in 1879. He soon after received the appoint- ment of Deputy County Clerk of Ingham county, a position he held for the term of three years, being for two years in full charge of the affairs of the office. In the year 1883 he became editor and proprietor of the Leslie Local, which he conducted suc- cessfully for four years, when he sold out,
making a handsome margin on his invest- ment. Soon after he purchased the Pinck- ney Dispatch of Livingston county, which he greatly improved, conducting the same until Jan., 1888, when he sold the plant, having decided to enter the law department of the Michigan University. Here he spent an industrious five months, when he re- turned to Mason and was admitted to the bar by Judge Erastus Peck, June 19, the same year. He at once entered upon the practice of his profession, meeting with flat- tering success. However, the newspaper work seemed to have a fascination for him, and the year following he purchased the Ing- ham County News, which he edited and pub- lished during the remainder of his life.
Mr. Campbell was united in marriage, June 10, 1884, to Miss Eva M., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Collins D. Huntington of this city. Mrs. Campbell was born Oct. 21, 1859, at Mason, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell have one son, Prescott (adopted), born July 25, 1888. He is a nephew of his foster mother, and to whom Mr. Campbell was more than most fathers.
Mr. Campbell, at the time of his death, was easily the most popular orator in Ing- ham county. The versatility of his mental range was remarkable, whether Sunday school convention, political gathering, me- morial address, educational topics, reunions or otherwise, he was always equal to the occasion.
The following extract from Mr. Camp- bell's address before the Legislative Con- vention, at whose hands he had received for the second time the unanimous nomination, as the Republican candidate for the State Legislature, clearly indicate the candor and appreciation of the man. He said: "Mr. Chairman and members of the convention : I wish each of you might feel at this time just as I do, then you might pardon my
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shortcomings. I should be dull, indeed, if I did not heartily thank you for the honor. I am pleased at the decorations of the hall, they are after my own heart ; you know who did it, I do not, but they are such as I like. I yield to no one in admiration of flowers with their fragrance, but above them we honor the flags which decorate the room. They are the flowers of liberty. What a speech might be gathered and what an in- spiration from the fact that the flag of Washington is the flower of liberty! Oliver Wendell Holmes in alluding to the old flag that has been dipped in the blood of heroes says :
"Thy sacred leaves, fair freedom's flower, Shall ever float on dome and tower, To all their heavenly colors true, In blackening frost and crimson dew, And God love us as we love thee, Thrice holy Flower of Liberty! Then hail the banner of the free, The starry Flower of Liberty.'
I want to say that to be here takes me back to other days. Right here in this hall I received the diploma and honors from one of the best graded schools of the State. Here in Leslie I earned my first dollar in a busi- ness way and it all comes back to me now. Here is where I owned my first real estate; here is where I began life after marriage and now comes the additional honor and I accept it to do the best 1 can."
The following is an extract from the Michigan Presbyterian of April 20, 1899: "The little City of Mason is mourning for one of her most loved and honored citizens and Ingham county has lost one of her ablest sons in the death of Hon. Job T. Campbell. which occurred April 13th, after an illness of only four days. Mr. Campbell was stricken with appendicitis in the midst of a very active and useful career. He sub-
mitted to an operation from which he rallied, but shortly afterwards began to lose strength and death came soon to his release. A me- morial service was held at the opera house Sunday afternoon and was thronged with people who wished to pay the last sad honors to their dead friend. A special train from Lansing brought delegations from the Knights Templars, Ingham County Bar, the Legislature and other organizations of which he had been a member. -*- * Mason feels that her best friend is gone; one who stood not alone for political and material advancement, but for the highest Christian ideals of progress. * * Be- lieving that the Christian should enter heart- ily into politics, he proved that the efficient editor of a county paper and a strong polit- ical partisan, could also be an active Chris- tian gentleman. As member of the County Board of Supervisors, he did a work for the city, which deserves to long be remembered ; as Director of the Board of Education, he was indefatigable in his labors for the good of the public schools, and scarcely a week passed when he did not visit them.
"He was a very busy man, but he was never too busy to take a personal interest in the children and young people, who daily passed his office on the way to school. and they are among his sincerest mourners. If true greatness consists in a supreme but unostentatious devotion to duty. of a spirit of helpfulness, which goes out to all with whom one comes in contact, then this man was great."
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