USA > Michigan > Midland County > Portrait and biographical album of Midland County, Mich. containing portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
member and was regarded therein as among the ablest and most experienced leaders. His clear judgment and wise moderation were conspicuous, both in the committee room and on the floor, in debate. In 1850, he was President of the Democratic State convention which adopted resolutions in support of Henry Clay's famous compromise measures, of which Mr. McClel- land was a strong advocate. He was a member of the Democratic National convention in 1852, and in that year, in company with Gen Cass and Governor Felch, he made a thorough canvass of the State. He continued earnestly to advocate the Clay com- promise measures, and took an active part in the canvass which resulted in the election of Gen Pierce to the Presidency.
In 185 1, the new State constitution took effect and it was necessary that a Governor should be elected for one year in order to prevent an interregnum, and to bring the State Government into operation under the new constitution Mr. McClelland was elected Governor, and in the fall of 1852 was re-elected for a term of two years, from Jan. 1, 1853. His admin- istration was regarded as wise, prudent and concilia- tory, and was as popular as could be expected at a time when party spirit ran high. There was really no opposition, and when he resigned, in March, 1853, the State Treasury was well filled, and the State otherwise prosperous. So widely and favorably had Mr. McClelland become known as a statesman that on the organization of thecabinet by President Pierce, in March, 1853, he was made Secretary of the Interior, in which capacity he served most creditably during four years of the Pierce administration. He thoroughly re-organized his department and reduced the expend- itures. He adopted a course with the Indians which relieved them from the impositions and annoyances of the traders, and produced harmony and civilization among them. During his administration there was neither complaint from the tribes nor corruption among agents, and he left the department in perfect order and system In 1867, Michigan again called a con- vention to revise the State constitution Mr. McClel- land was a member and here again his long experi- ence made him conspicuous as a prudent adviser, a sagacious parliamentary leader. As a lawyer he was terse and pointed in argument, clear, candid and im- pressive in his addresses to the jury. His sincerity and earnestness, with which was occasionally mingled a pleasant humor, made him an able and effective advocate. In speaking before the people on political subjects he was especially forcible and happy. In IS70 he made the tour of Europe, which, through his extensive personal acquaintance with European dip- lomates, he was enabled to enjoy much more than most travelers
Mr. McClelland married, in 1837, Miss Sarah E. Sabin, of Williamstown, Mass. They have had six children, two of whom now survive.
A Parsons
-
GOVERNORS OF MICHIGAN.
I33
ANDREW PARSONS.
A
ras
NDREW PARSONS, Gover- nor of Michigan from March 8, 1853 to Jan. 3, 1855, was born in the town of Hoosick, County of Rensselaer, and State of New York, on the 22d day of July, 1817, and died June 6, 1855, at the early age of 38 years. He was the son of John Parsons, born at Newburyport, Mass., Oct. 2, 1782, and who was the son of Andrew Parsons, a Revolutionary soldier, who was the son of Phineas Parsons, the son of Samuel Parsons, a descendant of Walter Parsons, born in Ireland in 1290.
Of this name and family, some one hundred and thirty years ago, Bishop Gilson remarked in his edi- "tion of Camden's Britannia: "The honorable family of Parsons have been advanced to the dignity of Viscounts and more lately Earls of Ross."
The following are descendants of these families : Sir John Parsons, born 1481, was Mayor of Hereford; Robert Parsons, born in 1546, lived near Bridgewater, England. He was educated at Ballial College, Ox- ford, and was a noted writer and defender of the Romish faith. He established an English College at Rome and another at Valladolia. Frances Parsons, born in 1556, was Vicar of Rothwell, in Notingham; Bartholomew Parsons, born in 1618, was another noted member of the family. In 1634, Thomas Parsons was knighted by Charles 1. Joseph and Benjamin, brothers, were born in Great Torrington, England,
and accompanied their father and others to New England about 1630. Samuel Parsons, born at Salis- bury, Mass., in 1707, graduated at Harvard College in 1730, ordained at Rye, N. H., Nov. 3, 1736, married Mary Jones, daughter of Samuel Jones, of Boston, Oct. 9, 1739, died Jan. 4, 1789, at the age of 82, in the 53rd year of his ministry. The grandfather of Many Jones was Capt. John Adams, of Boston, grandson of Henry, of Braintree, who was among the first set- tlers of Massachusetts, and from whom a numerous race of the name are descended, including two Presi- dents of the United States. The Parsons have be- come very numerous and are found throughout New England, and many of the descedants are scattered in all parts of the United States, and especially in the Middle and Western States. Governor Andrew Parsons came to Michigan in 1835, at the age of 17 years, and spent the first summer at Lower Ann Arbor, where for a few months he taught school which he was compelled to abandon from ill health
He was one of the large number of men of sterling worth, who came from the East to Michigan when it was an infant State, or, even prior to its assuming the dignity of a State, and who, by their wisdom, enterprise and energy, have developed its wonderful natural resources, until to-day it ranks with the proud- est States of the Union. These brave men came to Michigan with nothing to aid them in the conquest of the wilderness save courageous hearts and strong and willing hands. They gloriously conquered, how- ever, and to them is due all honor for the labors so nobly performed, for the solid and sure foundation which they laid of a great Commonwealth.
134
ANDREW PARSONS
In the fall of 1835, he explored the Grand River Valley in a frail canoe, the whole length of the river, from Jackson to Lake Michigan, and spent the following winter as clerk in a store at Prairie Creek, in Ionia, County, and in the spring went to Marshall, where he resided with his brother, the Hon. Luke H. Parsons, also now deceased, until fall, when he went to Shia- wasse County, then with Clinton County, and an almost unbroken wilderness and constituting one organized township. In 1837 this territory was organized into a county and, at the age of only 19 years, he (An- drew) was elected County Clerk. In 1840, he was elected Register of Deeds, re-elected -in 1842, and also in 1844. In 1846, he was elected to the State Senate, was appointed Prosecuting Attorney in 1848, and elected Regent of the University in 1851, and Lieutenant Governor, and became acting Governor, in 1853, elected again to the Legislature in 1854, and, overcome by debilitated health, hard labor and the responsibilities of his office and cares of his business, retired to his farm, where he died soon after.
He was a fluent and persuasive speaker and well calculated to make friends of his acquantances. He was always true to his trust, and the whole world could not persuade nor drive him to do what he con- ceived to be wrong. When Governor, a most power- ful railroad influence was brought to bear upon him, to induce him to call an extra session of the Legisla- ture. Meetings were held in all parts of the State for that purpose. In some sections the resolutions were of a laudatory nature, intending to make him do their bidding by resort to friendly and flattering words. In other places the resolutions were of a demanding nature, while in others they were threatening beyond measure. Fearing that all these influences might fail to induce him to call the extra session, a large sum of money was sent him, and liberal offers ten- dered him if he would gratify the railroad interest of the State and call the extra session, but, immovable, he returned the money and refused to receive any favors, whether from any party who would at- tempt to corrupt him by laudations, liberal offers, or
by threats, and in a short letter to the people, after giving overwhelming reasons that no sensible man could dispute, showing the circumstances were not "extraordinary," he refused to call the extra session. This brought down the wrath of various parties upon his head, but they were soon forced to acknowledge the wisdom and the justice of his course. One of his greatest enemies said, after a long acquaintance : "though not always coinciding with his views I never doubted his honesty of purpose. He at all times sought to perform his duties in strict accordance, with the dictates of his conscience, and the behests of his oath." The following eulogium from a politcal op- ponent is just in its conception and creditable to its author: "Gov. Parsons was a politician of the Dem- ocratic school, a man of pure moral character, fixed and exemplary habits, and entirely blameless in every public and private relation of life. As a politician he was candid, frank and free from bitterness, as an ex- ecutive officer firm, constant and reliable." The highest commendations we can pay the deceased is to give his just record, -- that of being an honest man.
In the spring of 1854, during the administration of Governor Parsons, the Republican party, at least as a State organization, was first formed in the United States " under the oaks" at Jackson, by anti-slavery men of both the old parties. Great excitement pre- vailed at this time, occasioned by the settling of Kansas, and the issue thereby brought up, whether slavery should exist there. For the purpose of permit- ting slavery there, the " Missouri compromise " (which limited slavery to the south of 36° 30) was re- repealed, under the leadership of Stephen A, Douglas. This was repealed by a bill admitting Kansas and Nebraska into the Union, as Territories, and those who were opposed to this repeal measure were in short called " anti-Nebraska" men. The epithets, " Ne- braska " and " anti-Nebraska," were temporally em- ployed to designate the slavery and anti-slavery parties, pending the desolution of the old Democratic and Whig parties and the organization of the new Democratic and Republican parties of the present.
137
GOVERNORS OF MICHIGAN.
KINSLEY S. BINGHAM.
K
INSLEY S. BINGHAM, Governor of Michigan from 1855 to 1859, and United States Senator, was born in Camillus, Onondaga County, N. Y., Dec. 16, 1808. His father was a farmer, and his own early life was consequently de- voted to agricultural pursuits, but notwithstanding the disadvan- tages related to the acquisition of knowledge in the life of a farmer he managed to secure a good aca- demic education in his native State and studied law in the office of Gen. James R. Lawrence, now of Syracuse, N. Y. In the spring of 1833, he married an estimable lady who had recently arrived from Scot- land, and obeying the impulse of a naturally enterprising disposition, he emigrated to Michigan and purchased a new farm in company with his brother-in-law, Mr. Robert Worden, in Green Oak, Livingston County. Here, on the border of civilization, buried in the primeval for- est, our late student commenced the arduous task of preparing a future home, clearing and fencing, put- ting up buildings, etc., at such a rate that the land
chosen was soon reduced to a high state of cultivation.
Becoming deservedly prominent, Mr. Bingham was elected to the office of Justice of the Peace and Post- `master under the Territorial government, and was the first Probate Judge in the county. In the year 1836, when Michigan lecame a State, he was elected to the first Legislature. He was four times re-elected, and Speaker of the House of Representatives three years. In 1846 he was elected on the Democratic ticket, Rep- resentative to Congress, and was the only practical farmer in that body. He was never forgetful of the interest of agriculture, and was in particular opposed to the introduction of "Wood's Patent Cast Iron Plow " which he completely prevented. He was re- elected to Congress in 1848, during which time he strongly opposed the extension of slavery in the territory of the United States and was committed to and voted for the Wilmot Proviso.
In 1854, at the first organization of the Republican party, in consequence of his record in Congress as a Free Soil Democrat, Mr. Bingham was nominated and elected Governor of the State, and re-elected in 1856. Still faithful to the memory of his own former occupation, he did not forget the farmers during his administration, and among other profits of his zeal in their behalf, he became mainly instrumental in the establishment of the Agricultural College at Lansing.
In 1859, Governor Bingham was elected Senator in Congress and took an active part in the stormy cam- paign in the election of Abraham Lincoln. He wit-
A
138
KINSLEY S. BINGHAM.
nessed the commencement of the civil war while a member of the United States Senate. After a com- paratively short life of remarkable promise and pub- lic activity he was attacked with appoplexy and died suddenly at his residence, in Green Oak, Oct. 5, 1861.
The most noticable event in Governor Bingham's first term was the completion of the ship canal, at the Falls of St. Mary. In 1852, Angust 26, an act of Congress was approved, granting to the State of Mich- igan seven hundred and fifty thousand acres of land for the purpose of constructing a ship canal between Lakes Huron and Superior. In 1853, the Legislature accepted the grant, and provided tor the appointment of commissioners to select the donated lands, and to arrange for building the canal. A company of enter- prising men was formed, and a contract was entered into by which it was arranged that the canal should be finished in two years, and the work was pushed rapidly forward. Every article of consumption, ma- chinery, working implements and materials, timber for the gates, stones for the locks, as well as men and supplies, had to be transported to the site of the canal from Detroit, Cleveland, and other lake ports. The rapids which had to be surmounted have a fall of seventeen feet and are about one mile long. The length of the canal is less than one mile, its width one hundred feet, depth twelve feet and it has two locks of solid masonary. In May, 1855, the work was com- pleted, accepted by the commissioners, and formally delivered to the State authorities.
The disbursements on account of the construction of the canal and selecting the lands amounted to one million of dollars; while the lands which were as- signed to the company, and selected through the agency at the Sault, as well as certain lands in the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, filled to an acre the Government grant. The opening of the canal was an important event in the history of the improvement of the State. It was a valuable link in the chain of Jake commerce, and particularly important to the interests of the Upper Peninsula.
There were several educational, charitable and re- formatory institutions inaugurated and opened during Gov. Bingham's administrations. The Michigan Ag- ricultural College owes its establishment to a provision of the State Constitution of 1850. Article 13 says, " The Legislature shall, as soon as practicable, pro- vide for the establishment of an agricultural school." For the purpose of carying into practice this provision, legislation was commenced in 1855, and the act re- quired that the school should be within ten miles of Lansing, and that not more than $15 an acre should be paid for the farm and college grounds. The col- lege was opened to students in May, 1857, the first of existing argricultural colleges in the United States. Until the spring of 1861, at was under the control of the State Board of Education; since that time it has been under the management of the State Board
of Agriculture, which was created for that purpose.
In its essential features, of combining study and labor, and of uniting general and professional studies in its course, the college has remained virtually un- changed from the first. It has a steady growth in number of students, in means of illustration and efficiency of instruction.
The Agricultural College is three miles east of Lansing, comprising several fine buildings ; and there are also very beautiful, substantial residences for the professors. There are also an extensive, well-filled green-house, a very large and well-equipped chemical laboratory, one of the most scientific apiaries in the United States, a general museum, a meseum of me- chanical inventions, another of vegetable products, extensive barns, piggeries, etc., etc., in fine trim for the purposes designed. The farm consists of 676 acres, of which about 300 are under cultivation in a systematic rotation of crops.
Adrian College was established by the Wesleyan Methodists in 1859, now under the control of the Methodist Church. The grounds contain about 20 acres. There are four buildings, capable of accom- modating about 225 students. Attendance in 1875 was 179; total number of graduates for previous year, 121 ; ten professors and teachers are employed. Ex- clusive of the endowment fund ($80,000), the assets of the institution, including grounds, buildings, furni- ture, apparatus, musical instruments, outlying lands, etc., amount to more than $137,000.
Hillsdale College was established in 1855 by the Free Baptists. The Michigan Central College, at Spring Arbor, was incorporated in 1845 It was kept in operation until it was merged into the present Hillsdale College. The site comprises 25 acres, beautifully situated on an eminence in the western part of the city of Hillsdale. The large and impos- ing building first erected was nearly destroyed by fire in 1874, and in its place five buildings of a more modern style have been erected. They are of brick, three stories with basement, arranged on three sides of a quadrangle. The size is, respectively, So by 80, 48 by 72, 48 by 72, 80 by 60, 52 by 72, and they con- tain one-half more room than the original building.
The State Reform School. This was established at Lansing in 1855, in the northeastern portion of the city, as the House of Correction for Juvenile Of- fenders, having about it many of the features of a prison. In 1859 the name was changed to the State Reform School. The government and dicipline, have undergone many and radical changes, until all the prison features have been removed except those that remain in the walls of the original structure, and which remain only as monuments of instructive his- tory. No bolts, bars or guards are employed. The inmates are necessarily kept under the surveillance of officers, but the attenipts at escape are much fewer than under the more rigid regime of former days.
V
Moses Wissen
GOVERNORS OF MICHIGAN.
MOSES WISNER.
OSES WISNER. Governor of Michigan from 1859 to 1861, was born in Springport, Cayu- ga Co., N Y., June 3, 1815. His early education was only what could be obtained at a g common school. Agricultural labor and frugality of his parents gave him a physical constitution of unus- , ual strength and endurance, which was ever preserved by temperate hab- its. In 1837 he emigrated to Michi- gan and purchased a farm in Lapeer County It was new land and he at onee set to work to clear it and plant erops. He labored diligently at his task for two years, when he gave up the idea of being a farmer, and removed to Pontiac, Oakland Co. Here he commenced the study of law in the office of his brother, George W. Wisner, and Rufus Hosmer. In 1841 he was admitted to the bar and established himself in his new vocation at the village of Lapeer. While there he was apppointed by Gov. Woodbridge Prosecuting Attorney for that county, in which capacity he acquitted himself well and gave promise of that eminence he afterward at- tained in the profession. He remained at Lapeer but a short time, removing to Pontiac, where he became a member of a firni and entered fully upon the practice.
In politics he was like his talented brother, a Whig of the Henry Clay stamp, but with a decided anti- slavery bias. His practice becoming extensive, he
took little part in politics until after the election of Mr. Pierce to the Presidency in 1852, when he took an active part against slavery. As a lawyer he was a man of great ability, but relied less upon mere book learning than upon his native good sense. Liberal and courteous, was he yet devoted to the interest of his client, and no facts escaped his attention or his memory which bore upon the case. He was no friend of trickery or artifice in conducting a case As an ad- vocate he had few equals. When fully aroused by the merits of his subject his eloquence was at once grace- ful and powerful His fancies supplied the most original, the most pointed illustrations, and his logic became a battling giant under whose heavy blows the adversary shrank and withered. Nature had be- stowed upon him rare qualities, and his powers as a popular orator were of a high order.
On the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, repealing the Missouri compromise and opening the Territories to slavery, he was among the foremost in Michigan to denounce the shamful scheme. He actively participated in organizing and consolidating the elements opposed to it in that State, and was a member of the popular gathering at Jackson, in July, 1854, which was the first formal Republican Conven- tion held in the United States. At this meeting the name "Republican " was adopted as a designation of the new party consisting of Anti-slavery, Whigs, Liberty men, Free Soil Democrats and all others op- posed to the extension of slavery and favorable to its expulsion from the Territories and the District of Columbia. At this convention Mr. W. was urged to accept the nomination for Attorney General of the
142
MOSES WISNER.
State, but declined. An entire State ticket was nom- inated and at the annual election in November was elected by an average majority of nearly 10,000. Mr. W. was enthusiastic in the cause and brought to its support all his personal influence and talents. In his views he was bold and radical. He believed from the beginning that the political power of the slave- holders would have to be overthrown before quiet could be secured to the country. In the Presidential canvass of 1856 he supported the Fremont, or Re- publican, ticket. At the session of the Legislature of 1857 he was a candidate for United States Senator, and as such received a very handsome support.
In 1858, he was nominated for Governor of the State by the Republican convention that met at De- troit, and at the subsequent November election was chosen by a very large majority. Before the day of the election he had addressed the people of almost every county and his majority was greater even than that of his popular predecessor, Hon. K. S. Bingham. He served as Governor two years, from Jan. 1, 1859, to Jan. 1, 1861. His first message to the Legislature was an able and statesman-like production, and was read with usual favor. It showed that he was awake to all the interests of the State and set forth an en- lightened State policy, that had its view of the rapid settlement of our uncultivated lands and the devel- opment of our immense agricultural and mineral re- sources. It was a document that reflected the highest credit upon the author.
His term having expired Jan. 1, 1861, he returned to his home in Pontiac, and to the practice of his profession. There were those in the State who counselled the sending of delegates to the peace con- ference at Washington, but Mr. W. was opposed to all such temporizing expedients. His counsel was to send no delegate, but to prepare to fight.
After Congress had met and passed the necessary legislation he resolved to take part in the war. In the spring and summer of 1862 he set to work to raise a regiment of infantry, chiefly in Oakland County, where he resided. His regiment, the 22d Michigan, was armed and equipped and ready to march in September, a regiment whose solid quali- ties were afterwards proven on many a bloody field. Col. W's. commission bore the date of Sept. 8, 1862. Before parting with his family he made his will. His regiment was sent to Kentucky and quartered at
Camp Wallace. Ile had at the breaking out of the war turned his attention to military studies and be- came proficient in the ordinary rules and discipline. His entire attention was now devoted to his duties. His treatment of his men was kind, though his disci- pline was rigid. He possessed in an eminent degree the spirit of command, and had he lived he would no doubt have distinguished himself as a good officer. He was impatient of delay and chafed at being kept in Kentucky where there was so little prospect of getting at the enemy. But life in camp. so different from the one he had been leading, and his incessant labors, coupled with that impatience which was so natural and so general among the vol- unteers in the early part of the war, soon made their influence felt upon his health. He was seized with typhoid fever and removed to a private house near Lexington. Every care which medical skill or the hand of friendship could bestow was rendered him. In the delirious wanderings of his mind he was dis- ciplining his men and urging them to be prepared for an encounter with the enemy, enlarging upon the jus- tice of their cause and the necessity of their crush- ing the Rebellion. But the source of his most poig- nant griet was the prospect of not being able to come to a hand-to-hand encounter with the "chivalry." He was proud of his regiment, and felt that if it could find the enemy it would cover itself with glory,-a distinction it afterward obtained, but not until Col W. was no more. The malady baffled all medical treat- ment, and on the 5th day of Jan., 1863, he breathed his last. His remains were removed to Michigan and interred in the cemetery at Pontiac, where they rest by the side of the brave Gen. Richardson, who re- ceived his mortal wound at the battle of Antietam. Col. W. was no adventurer, although he was doubtless ambitious of military renown and would have striven for it with characteristic energy. He went to the war to defend and uphold the principles he had so much at heart. Few men were more familiar than he with the causes and the underlying principles that led to the contest. He left a wife, who was a daughter of Gen. C. C. Hascall, of Flint, and four children to mourn his loss. Toward them he ever showed the tenderest regard. Next to his duty their love and welfare engrossed his thoughts. He was kind, gen- erous and brave, and like thousands of others he sleeps the sleep of the martyr for his country.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.