USA > Michigan > Genesee County > Portrait and biographical record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola counties, Michigan > Part 7
USA > Michigan > Lapeer County > Portrait and biographical record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola counties, Michigan > Part 7
USA > Michigan > Tuscola County > Portrait and biographical record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola counties, Michigan > Part 7
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HOMAS CALEY. The gentleman who lives on the farm on section 82, Lapeer Town- ship, Lapeer County, is one of the pioneers of this district whose varied experiences as viewed now through the pleasant light of success and com- fortable situation, form one of his most pleasing themes of thought and conversation. He is a son of Mathias Caley, a farmer on the Isle of Man, who was there horn May 9, 1780. Our subject's mother was Mary (Steven-) Caley, also a native of the Ile of Man, where decente took place in 1813 at the age of sixty-three years.
Our subject's parents were married in the old country and emme to America in 1828, remaining in Onvida County. N. Y., until 1836, when they came to Michigan and settled on section 5, Meta- mora Township. Layper County. They were among the very first to settle in that vicinity and the barn which he built, which was the second in the township, still slands. There were then only three families in the town-lop and the country was wild indeed. Frequently an entire werk would pas without the family seeing a humman free outside of their own home circle. There were plents of
Indians, however, and wild animals. He there built a log house and cleared his land, improving righty aeres before his death. Mathias Caley died December 26, 1858. Of the three children born to them two are now living and of these the sub jert of our sketch is the younger. His brother John, who was a retired farmer, residing in the city of Lapeer, died detober 20, 1891, at the age of eighty
Thomas Caley was born June 25, 1814, on the I-le of Man. He was fourteen years of age when he came to America and here learned the carpen- ters' and joiners' trade at which he worked for seven yeu's and then began for himself at eighteen Years of age. In 1835 he came to Michigan, pre- ceding his parents one year, and when they be- came too aged to have the responsibilities of life he took care of them. In July, 1811, he was mar- ried to Jane Carran, a native of the Isle of Man. . They made their home on the old homestead. Mrs. Jane Caley died at the age of fifty-eight years. November 11, 1862, our subject again married, his wife being Sarah Looney, also a native of the Isleof Man, who was brought to America by her parents when an infant and was an early settler in Oakland County, this State. Our subject and his present wife are the parents of two children- Thomas Mathias and William R. The elder, lives in Metamora Township and is married to Mary Dickey, and they are the parents of one child. Will- iam, who is twenty -three years of age, (1891) still lives at home.
Mr. Caley is a large landowner in this State, having seven hundred acres in a body in this lo- eality and over two thousand aeres all told in Michigan; although advanced in years he attends to all the husiness of his various farmms and runs them steves fully. He began in life a poor boy and has accumulated his present handsome fortune by industry, prudence and frugality. He gives his whole attention to general fanning, dealing largely in grain, and owning some fine graded stork. He is also quite an extensive money-lender and repre- sent- the largest financial interests of the county, having paid sson taxes last year.
tOut subjeet and his wife are attendants of the Episcofal Church and are generous supporters
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of Gospel work as is founded by that denomina- tion. He is a Democrat, but has never had ambi- tion to hold office, his individual interests being paramount to other considerations, He was, how- ever, been Road Overseer and Highway Commis- siones and takes an active interest in the advan- tages that the various incumbents of public offices secure to the district.
In connection with this sketch the reader will notice lithographie portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Caley.
ENRY C. VAN ATTA. This prominent attorney-at-law and ex-Circuit Court Com- missioner of Fenton, was born in Lyons, Wayne County, N. Y., April 25, 1811. and is a son of flames W. Van Atta, who was born in Philadelphia, Pa .. September 9, 1808. The latter at the age of fourteen was apprenticed to the trade of a cabinet-maker and followed his trade in Wayne County, N. Y. About the year 1816 he removed to Mt. Clemens, Macomb County, Mich., and four years later came to Fenton, where he died in 1880. He had carried on for some years a fur- niture store in this place.
James Van Atta, the grandfather, practiced law in Philadelphia for some years and was a strong Jacksonian Democrat, and held various public of- fices. The family is of Holland and French extrac- tion. Ann M. Shaw, who became the wife of James Van Atta and the mother of our subject, was born in New Jersey and died November 9, 1889, at the age of eighty-live years, leaving two children. Horatio and our subject.
The subject of this sketch was but seven years old when he came to Fenton and here took his ed- neation. He started in the furniture business when he was twenty years old but a year later sold out and enlisted February 24, 1865, in Company .1, Twenty-fourth Michigan Infantry, under Col. Henry A. Morrow. He joined his regiment in March at Camp Butler, near Springfield, Ill., and there remained nutil the war closed, Iming mu- tered out July 5, 1865. After the close of the
war Mr. Van Atta again entered the furniture business and was in partnership with his brother until 1872, when he sold out his interest and began to study law. He was admitted to the bar in this county in March, 1871, since which time he has de- voted himself to his profession. He has held the office of Circuit Court Commissioner for over six terms.
The marriage of Mr. Van Atta and Sarah .A. Fox took place May 1, 1871. This buly was born at Lindley Roads, Canada, May 3, 1851. Her eldest child is Edith M., horn April 18, 1872, and now # teacher in the Union schools of Fenton. The three younger ones are William 11. and Helen C., who are attending school and Roy, who died in 188:1. When a boy Mr. Van Atta was a Democrat as was also his father and all his friends, but in 1856 he attended a Republican mass meeting and heard a speech by old Gov. Blair and was converted to the doctrines of the Republican party, since which time he has been active in that field of politics. He has been a delegate to county, district, Senato- rial and State conventions and has done consider- able service as a stump speaker.
The Sons of Temperance and the Good Temp- lars both count Mr. Van AAtta as among their rep- resentative members and he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since he was twenty-one years old, and to this religions body his wife also belongs. He has a pleasant home in Fenton and practices in this and adjoining coun- ties. He raises some fine Morgan horses in which he takes great interest.
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E DWIN S. RANDOLPH. The private business interests of our subject are centered in his establishment, where may be found the finest of gentlemen's furnishing goods, including hats and fine shoes. In the city government Mr. Randolph takes a place among the Aldermen, representing the Third Ward. Our subject was born in Detroit, June 10, 1857. He is a son of Jesse and Jane (Smith) Randolph, the former a native of Lyons, N. Y., and the latter of Wayne
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County, Mich. Our subject's paternal grandsire, who was born in 1800, and in the Empire State, was a farmer by calling and located at Lyons. He was one of the first in Wayne County settling near Detroit.
Our subject's grandfather improved a farm from new land in this State, first locating among the Indians. He died upon his place at the age of sixty-eight years; he was of English descent. The father of Mr. Randolph, who was only three or four years of age when brought to this State, remained upon the farm until twenty-two years of age and then engaged in the merchandise business on Woodward Avenue, Detroit, handling dry-goods and general merchandise. In 1871 be removed to Ypsilanti, and launched into the manufacture of cigar. About 1882 he removed his factory to Flint, where he now resides. His business, however, was sold to Harry W. Watson, a wholesale cigar dealer.
The mother of him of whom we write was a daughter of Benjamin Smith, a native of New Jer. sey, but of Dutch descent. He was one of the earliest settlers near Detroit, where he died. Five children comprise the family to which our subject belonged and of these he is the oldest; following him are Wylie JJ., who was killed at the encamp- ment of the Michigan troops at Brighton, in 1881, by a railroad accident, and Cora ( Mrs. C. W. In- graham), who resides at Charlotte.
Our subject was reared and educated in Detroit. He entered his father's store in 1872, and then he- came clerk for the clothing house of C. S. Wortley of Ypsilanti. with whom he remained for four years. Then he returned to Detroit and was in the employ of C. R. Mabley, the largest clothing house in Michigan, until 1881. Dur subject came to Flint at the last named date and entered into partnership with William Gorton, which firm con- tinued for three years, being located on Sanga- mon Street. At the death of his brother our sub- jeet engaged with his father in the cigar business and ran it with him for one year.
Returning to Detroit, Mr. Randolph again took n position with Mabley & Co. until 1888, when he returned to Flint and started into the clothing and furnishing business, in which he continued until June 19, 1891, when he sold out his stock, but
September 11, of the same year started in his pres- ent business. He occupies an imposing block which has a frontage of twenty feet and a depth of one hundred and twenty feet and which has three fioors. Mr. Randolph resides at No. 925 Grand Travis Street.
Ile of whom we write was married in this city in 1883, to Miss Lizzie B. Quigley, a native of this place, who graduated at St. Mary's Convent, Mon- rov, Monroe County. They have one child, a son, Don Q. In 1889 Mr. Randolph was elected Alder- man, and in 1891 was re-elected on the Democratic ticket, although the ward which he represented is strongly Republican. He has acted as Chairman of several committees. Socially he belongs to the Knights of Pythias. He is also a Master Mason and is numbered among the Elks and the Knights of the Maccabees.
P ROF. SAMUEL BICKLEY is an ardent be- liever in the applications of sociology and also believes that one can tell the charac- teristics of the human animal by the means of phrenology. Although he has never accumu- lated great store of wealth Prof. Bickley has certainly been an intellectual stimulus to society in Flint, for so fresh and original are his ideas as to invariably call out thought in others. Ile is now engaged in market gardening and finds great plena. sure in watching the growth of the green things of carth.
Prof. Bickley was born in Anfield, Middlesex, England, about ten miles from London, November 30, 1816. He is a son of Samuel and Mary ( Alford) Bickley. His father was a carpenter and an archi- tect. On locating in London he became a mem- ber of the first cooper's society in that city. He was pressed into the English naval service and was on Nelson's ship "Trafalgar" for seven years. In 1836 he brought his family to America and located in Flint where he became engaged as a gardener. He lived to be one hundred and nine years old and during his last year's was a great sufferer, as he be- came almost petrified. The family is a long lived
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one, our subject's grandfather living to Ir alle hundred years old. The nestry on the maternal side of the house is of excellent stock. Mrs. Bick- ley's father was a man of wealth but running through several estates, he finally died a poor man. He belonged to the nobility of England. Mr. Bickley died in Flint at the age of eighty-five years.
Of three children that comproed the family to which our subject belonged he is the only one liv- ing. He was reared in London from the time he was fifteen years of age and was engaged in gar- dening. He left London on the sailing vessel "President" and arriving in America came to Flint in the fall of 18336. He purchased one hundred aeres three miles west of Flint. This he cleared and built a log house. He manufactured brick upon his place from which he built a fine residence, and improved his place to the fullest extent. He Look great pride in his farm, having the best of- chard in the county. In 1877 be sold his farm and came to the city, purchasing a residence on Beach Street and has since been engaged in garden- ing.
It was our subject who conceived the idea of im- proving the Hlacall swamp by drainage and fertil- ization. It is now the richest garden in the county. comprising three seres. The celery which is taken from it sells for $600 per annum and other slutt for $100. Mr. Bickley's interest in phonology dates from his meeting with a Mr. Deville of Lon- don, a gentleman who devoted himself to science. He later met other phrenologists and so greatly was his interest aroused that he began his study in I& 1 and has since devoted a great deal of time to it. He has had quite an extensive lecture tom where he wasalways - greeted cordially and received with pleasing interest. He frequently contribute- articles on his favorite topic for the press and he believes his masterpiece in this direction to have been the phonological study of Victoria Wood- luft's history. He is a really and fluent speaker and is conversant with French besides his native language.
Prof. Buckley was married February 10, 18H. to Miss Rachel Barry. a Canadian lady. Five chil- dren were born to this union. Their names are Samuel, George, Charles, Linda and Victoria. The
eldest son is a farmer and stockman in Flint Town- ship; George is a mechanic and millwright; Charles is a fine musician; Linda. Mr. Murray, resides in Flint; Victoria, Mrs. R. Welter, lives in Gladwin. While our subject was on the farm he took the first premium at Flint for the finest farm in the county. He is a Republican.
AMES L. HITCHCOCK. The business cir- des of Tuscola County acknowledge a worthy representative in the subject of this biographical notice, who is a hardware mer- chaut in Case city. Having come to this place about twenty years ago he has become a familiar ligure to his fellow-citizens, and by his honest dealings has gained a large trade, and, what is hot- ter still has won the esteem of all with whom he has come in contact. It is to such as he that the county is indebted for its present high standing among other countries of Michigan, for it has ever been his aim to promote by his influence and means all enterprises calculated to develop the re- sources of the community. Our readers will be placed to peruse the following account of his life and to notice on another page a view of his stores.
.lame. 1 .. Hitchcock was born Jannary 10, 1830, and oilucated in Oriskany Falls, Oneida County, N. Y. He is a son of Hiram and Lucinda (Green- laf) Hitchcock. of the sime county and State. Hiram, both November 21, 1797, was the son of Amos, where birth occurred August 29, 1771, in the town of Oxford. now a part of New Haven, Com. Samaich. bom in 1711 in the xone place. was a descendant of Malachi Hitchcock. whose name appears on the enrollment list of New Haven, date 1613. He probably was born about 1623 and was a son of Samuel Hitchcock, who with his faut- ily and two brothers. David and Austin, emigrated hom England in 1639. becoming among the first pioneer of Connecticut and serving as it- defend- are in the Revolutionary War.
When our subject became of age he learned the tinsmith's trade of his uncle A. M. Hitchcock a prie- tical workman and dealer in hardware. September
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10. 18.8. be purchased from the Government one hundred and twenty aeres in what is now known as Koylion and Dayton Townships, Tu-cola County. February 2. 1859, he purelated his first bill of merchandise in the State of Meses. Buhl & Du- charm of Detroit. Moving on his land. he built a log cabin which he covered temporarily with sheet iron (afterward made into camp kettles and sold to the Indians). He was the pioneer hard- ware man in Central and Northern Tuscola, his shop being located in a dence forest, which abounded in bears, deer, wolves and other wild animals. He built the first frame house for miles around and manufactured tinware and other goods in his line, such as Indians and the few white settlers required. His goods he sold largely through A. K. King and Norman Barrows, United States mail carriers be- tween Port Sauilac and Va-ar. The manufacture of those articles occupied his evening- and rainy days, while in pleasant weather he was busily en- gaged in improving his place.
Mr. Hitchcock was married in Edinburg. Portage County, Ohio, to Mis Carrie M. Turnbull, of North Jackson. Ohio, a daughter of Robert and Margaret Turnbull. Mrs. Hitchcock attended Hiram Cul- lege when James A. Garfield was it - President, and completed her education at the Female Seminary in Steubenville, Ohio. After she was married she taught school two years in Tuscola County, walking two miles to and from school both night and morning. On March 21. 1861. Mr. Hitchcock moved to Wahjamega, created a store and resi- dence, and while he worked at his trade his wife neted as clerk. After residing there nearly right years, he removed. September 6. 1872, to Ca- City. where he has since been engaged in building. farm- ing and merchandising. He purchased a wooden store building and residence, which he utilized until he created his three-story brick block, where he now conducts his large business. This when completed will have a frontage of ninety-four feel on Main Street and one hundred feet on back Street.
Mr. Hitchcock also purchased eighty arres which is now in the corporate limits of the village; through this land the Pontiac, Oxford & Northern Railroad runs and its buildings are located on land
given by Mr. Hitchcock as a bonus. Nearly forty Here- of his land has been platted for village pur- peres, and the town hall adjacent to the Hitchcock Block was treated on land which he gave for that purpose. He and bi- wife have four children: Livorge 1 ... born in Dayton November 6, 1861; Amos A .. in Wahjamega, October 21, 1867; Carrie E., in the same place July 6, 1870. and Tris, in Cas City, October 1. 1879. Since the advent of Mr. Hitchcock in Cass City. be ha- identified him- self closely with its advancement and contributed materially to its welfare.
In his political views Mr. Hitchcock is a stanch Republican and has held the office of Justice of the Prace. Road Commissioner, School Inspector of Dayton Township, as well as Treasurer of Cass City and Councilman, which oftier he held many years. Through many of the early days of his business here he was compelled to haut his goods from Saginaw to this point, which made his work heavy indeed. However, he has lived to enjoy the result of the arduous toil of former years and now in the possession of a comfortable competency and surrounded by a large circle of loving relatives and friends, he is passing his declining years, un- disturbed by dark poverty or irksome cares.
YOSHIHI KREINER. At the present time a resident of North Branch Township, Lapeer County, where he has a line farm, our sub- jest was born in Lewis County, N. Y., Jan- nary 21. 1836. He is a son of Hubert and Bar- bara (Zimmerman) Kreiner. His parents were from France and came to America in 1831. His father was a farmer by occupation and our subject was reared upon a farm in the Empire State. He received but moderate educationa! advantages, as his parents were in straitoned circumstances. The resist of his work was east into the family treasury until he was twenty-four years old.
Mr. Kreiner came to Michigan in his twenty- third year and located in Japer County. He he- gan work in the lumber woods, which he found to
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be Inerative if hard. After a stay of about one year in this portion of the country our subject took up his present place. He found it to be very wild and entirely unimproved. He cleared and im- proved the place himself, putting upon it many valuable additions in the way of buildings and ale- cessories of good farm implements.
le of whom we write was married in January, 1859, to Miss Caroline Himes of New York State. Seven children have blessed this union- Hubert, Gregor, Adam. Frank, Nicholas, William and John P. The family as yet has never been invaded by death. He has always followed farm- ing for a living and has been very successful in his efforts. Mr. Kreiner is a Democrat in politics. He has held the office of Commissioner of Highways for seven years and hasalso been Constable for two or Three years. Both he and his wife are members of the Catholic Church.
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D UDLEY S. REID, of Mundy Township, Genesee County, is a son of Benjamin D. Reid, who was born in New York, and grandson of John Reid, a Scotchman. Ellis Shaw, who became the wife of Benjamin D. Reid and the mother of our subject, was born in New York.
Our subject is the ninth in a family of eleven children and was born in Rush, Monroe County. N. Y., August 15, 1821. At the age of ten years he came with his parents to Geneser County. Mich., med soon after their arrival here the parents died, leaving the orphaned children in . Grand Blane Township, this county. Here Dudley grew to manhood and early found employment among neighbors in Grand Blanc and Mundy Townships. He has devoted himself mostly to farming al- though he was for two years when a young man engaged in shoemaking.
Mr. Reid was married in Grand Blanc Township in 1818, to Julia A. Hallock, a Vermonter by birth. For four years they lived in Grand Bune Town- ship and then settled on a farm which is now the family home in Mundy Township. They had six
children: Frank S., a farmer; Kittie, the wife of John Beckwith; John F., a merchant in South Da- kota; Fred A .; Grant V., a merchant at Sioux City, lowa; and Jennie, now Mr. Philip Alexan- der. Mrs. Julia A. Reid died in Mundy Town- ship, in November, 1861.
The second marriage of our subject took place in Lowell, Kent County, Mich., March 11, 1866, his bride being Mrs. Martha (Cofflin) Wilson, daughter of Michael and Martha (Freeman) Coff- lin and widow of Joseph Wilson, who died in Lowell, Mich., in July, 1861. Six children were horn of this marriage, namely: Merritt, Martha J., Carlos, Ardella, Horace and Ella.
Mr. Reid in his political views is attached to the doctrines and policy 'of the Republican party. Mrs. Reid is an earnest and consistent member of the Baptist Church. Upon this farm our subject has erected a first-class set of farm buildings and the estate comprises one hundred and twenty broad and fertile meres. He is a publie-spirited man and one who has the welfare of his township at heart. The influence exerted by this valued family is ever in the direction of forwarding the welfare of the community and the prosperity, both social and material, of the people of the township.
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E DWARD BURROUGH. This section of country has always proved very attractive to citizens of foreign birth, who have come to America with a desire to gain for themselves the benefits of a home in the land of liberty and an opportunity for independence. The fertility of Michigan was early made a subject of conversa- tion among the yeomanry of England and their attention was called to the advantages offered here. In consequence of this many of them emi- grated to this country and among them we find Edward Burrough. Upon coming to Amerien he made his first home in Canada but for many years he has been identified with the representative citi- zens of Genesee County.
The parents of our subject were Richard and
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Elizabeth (Farmer) Burrough, natives of Devon- shire, England, where both were reared to years of maturity. The father was by occupation a farmer, and he was enabled by untiring industry to gam from it a good living for his family. The subject of this biographical notice was born in Devonshire, England, on March 16, 1831. At that early day the Mother Country did not give to her children the excellent educational advantages now afforded, but our subject received a good common-school education. He has always been a close student of national issues and is well informed on all topics of current interest.
At the age of twenty-one Mr. Burrough crossed the broad Atlantic to Canada, where he began in business as a butcher in Collingwood. Thence one year later he came to Michigan in September, 1857, and locating in Pontiac, worked at his trade for five year -. Next we find him in Oil City, Pa., where he sojourned three years and had the climate there suited him, he would doubtless never returned West, as opportunities for fortune were given him which were enticing. I'pou his return to Michigan ho came to Flint, but after a short so- journ there, he came to Geneser County, and bought a farm, upon which he operated for two years. Selling this place he returned to Flint and resumed his trade there, finding an ample field for his exertions and was thu- engaged for three years. Later he purchased the Beasley Brewery and for ten years was nempied in brewing beer, and during this time was engaged also at the drover's business. Since giving up that business he has been engaged exclusively in general farming upon his present estate of two hundred and sixty avres in Forest Township to which place he came in 1882. Along with the cultivating of the soil he has dealt in live stock, meeting with satisfactory success in both departments of agriculture.
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