USA > Michigan > Grand Traverse County > Sprague's history of Grand Traverse and Leelanaw counties, Michigan embracing a concise review of their early settlement, industrial development and present conditions...to which will be appended...life sketches of well-known citizens of the county > Part 39
USA > Michigan > Leelanau County > Sprague's history of Grand Traverse and Leelanaw counties, Michigan embracing a concise review of their early settlement, industrial development and present conditions...to which will be appended...life sketches of well-known citizens of the county > Part 39
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pockets on either side, and placing the mail in one of them, started out on a trip about the village to deliver the same, visiting the store, mill and boarding-house for that purpose, and at the same time collecting letters to be sent away by the next mail out, which he placed in the other pocket of his coat. It was a very satisfactory arrangement and was ful- ly appreciated by the patrons of the office.
There are one or two incidents of the early days of interest to the younger readers of today, that may be related in connection with this sketch of the Doctor, that go to il- lustrate the character of the man and also the way the early settlers had of doing things. Notwithstanding the Doctor was a native of Vermont, in those days there were a good many Democrats and proslavery men in the Green Mountain state, and the Doctor was one of them. He considered that coax- ing a negro to run away from his master was as great a crime as to steal and run off with a man's horse. Rev. George Thompson, a native of New Jersey, in his younger days taught school in the then slave-holding state of Missouri. He was an active abolitionist and considered it his duty to assist in any way possible the negroes to escape from their masters, a duty that he did not hesi- tate to put into practice, with the result that he was arrested, tried and convicted for stealing negroes, and sentenced to a term of years in the state prison of Missouri. After serving out his sentence he went as a mission- ary to the negroes in Africa, where he re- mained some three years. On his return home he brought back many curiosities from Africa and wrote a very full account of his work, which was published in a book en- titled, "Palm Land." He also prepared a entertaining lecture upon Africa, which he
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delivered in many places throughout the northern states. Soon after the settlement of Benzonia by the Baileys in 1858, Rev. Thompson also became a resident of the new settlement. Among other places, he was quite anxious to deliver his lecture upon Af- rica before the people of Traverse City, and solicited the use of the school-house for that purpose from the Doctor, who was school director and as such had charge of the build- ing. The Doctor at once and most emphati- cally refused, saying that no man who had served a term in prison for stealing (even if the property stolen was negroes) could have the school-house to deliver a lecture upon any subject, even if, as in this case, it had no ref- erence to the institution of slavery. Person- ally the writer of this sketch was quite anx- ious to hear Mr. Thompson's lecture and urged the Doctor to let him have the use of the house, as that was the only place in town where a meeting could be held, but it was of no use and the lecture had to be given up. This action of the Doctor no doubt seems very strange to the people at the present day, but he was perfectly honest in his convictions and acted entirely conscientiously in the mat- ter. His was by no means an isolated case; there were thousands of intelligent and well informed people of the North that felt just as he did. And yet notwithstanding his want of sympathy for the enslaved negro, he was one of the most benevolent and warm-hearted men the writer ever knew. The secret of the Doctor's proslavery views was that his love of country and of the union was greater than his love for the negro as a race. He feared that the success of abolition would re- sult in the dissolution of the Union. That he had some grounds for his fears was abundantly proven by the terrible war that
came on within a few months. The writer cannot forbear to give the sequel of this lec- ture incident. In the fall of the same year that the Doctor had refused the use of the school house to Mr. Thompson, when the time came about for holding the annual school meeting, the Doctor's term of office expired. There were present at that meeting only three persons: Hon. Perry Hannah, moderator; Dr. Goodale, director, and the writer, who did not hold any office. The assessor, Albert W. Bacon, was out of town. We thought we had an opportunity to score a point and proposed to the Doctor that we would nominate him for re-election as director if he would agree to let Rev. George Thompson have the use of the schoolhouse in which to deliver his lecture upon Afri- ca. This the Doctor absolutely declined to do, but promptly made a counter proposi- tion that if we would agree that the house should not be used by Mr. Thompson that he would nominate the writer for the office. This we declined to agree to, and we three sat there until after nine o'clock, waiting for some one to come in and break the deadlock. Nobody came, and finally the Doctor nomi- nated himself for the office and the chairman supported the nomination. When the ques- tion was put the Doctor voted yes, and the writer voted no. The chairman, Mr. Han- nah, broke the tie by voting yes, thus electing the Doctor.
Only a few weeks after this the Doctor and his son-in-law, Thomas A. Hitchcock. removed with their families to Detroit and engaged in the hotel business, remaining sev- eral years, but afterward returning to Tra- verse City, where the Doctor died and where Mr. Hitchcock still lives. Within a week af- ter the Doctor's removal to Detroit the
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writer received a letter from Rev. George Thompson, asking him to secure the use of the school house for his lecture. Mr. Hannah and Mr. Bacon, the two remain- ing officers, were seen, their consent obtained and notices were immediately printed and circulated appointing a time for the lecture, which was delivered to a full house. The writer at once mailed one of the notices of the lecture to Doctor Goodale, at Detroit, who acknowledged its receipt and gracefully gave up beaten. The slavery question was effectually settled by the war, which was over before the Doctor's death, which oc- curred November 13, 1878.
Rev. Merritt Bates was a twin brother of the late Hon. Morgan Bates, and father of Thomas T. Bates, publisher of the Grand Traverse Herald, and of the late Morgan Bates, author of several works, among the number a very popular book entitled, "Mar- tin Brook." There were also two daughters. Merritt Bates was born in Queensbury, New York, July 12, 1806. He commenced his work as a minister in the Methodist Episco- pal church in 1827, and became a member of the Troy ( New York) conference, where he devoted thirty-six years of his life. In 1863, at the earnest solicitation of his broth- er. he assumed a superanuated relation to his conference and came to Grand Traverse with his family and settled down upon a piece of heavily timbered but excellent farming land in what is now Garfield township, which in six years he made into one of the best farms in Grand Traverse county. He died August 22, 1869. This sketch is brief, as the most of Mr. Bates'public life work was, done out- side of Michigan and before he became a resident of Grand Traverse county.
Hon. Morgan Bates, founder of the
Grand Traverse Herald, died at his resi- dence in Traverse City, March 2, 1874, at the age of sixty-eight years. Mr. Bates, who was a twin brother of Rev. Merritt Bates, was born near Glens Falls, New York, July 12, 1806. Soon after the death of his mother, which occurred when he was only seven years old, the subject went to Sandy Hill, New York, and became an apprentice to the printing business. How long a time he spent at Sandy Hill is not known to the writer, but after leaving that place he worked as a journeyman printer in Albany, New York, and other places. In 1820, being then only twenty years old, he engaged in liis first newspaper enterprise, starting a paper at Warren, Pennsylvania, called the Warren Gazette. While publishing the Ga- zette Horace Greeley worked for him as a journeyman printer. Just how long he pub- lished the Gazette is not a matter of record, but we find that in 1828 he took possession of the Chautauqua Republican, a paper pub- lished at Jamestown, New York. While re- siding in Jamestown he married Miss Janet Cook, of Argyle, New York. After pub- lishing the Republican some two years, he removed to the city of New York and was employed in one of the large printing offices of that city. Not long after reaching the city he worked for Greeley as foreman, as Greeley had worked for him at Warren. While thus employed by Greeley he planned the typographical form of the New Yorker, which Greeley, or Greeley & McElrath, soon after established, which was a wonderfully popular paper in its day. In 1836 Mr. Bates came to Detroit, then in the far west, and was employed as foreman in the office of the Detroit Advertiser. In 1836 he and George Dawson, later of the Albany Journal,
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bought the Advertiser, and Mr. Bates con- tinued to run it until 1844, in the meantime acquiring Mr. Dawson's interests. The Whig party, whose policy Mr. Bates had earnestly advocated, was defeated at the presidential election of that year, and the future of the party being anything but flat- tering, he sold the Advertiser, and retired from the publishing business. In 1849 Mr. Bates joined the army of gold seekers and went to California. Of course at that time he went by the way of Cape Horn. Two years afterwards he returned by the way of the Isthmus. But again in 1852, taking his wife with him, he sought the land of gold. Mrs. Bates' health failing, she returned in 1855 to her friends in Argyle and died on the 19th of July of that year. Mr. Bates remained a year longer in California. Dur- ing his second sojourn in California he was for a year or more the sole owner and pub- lisher of the Alta Californian, daily and weekly. Returning to Michigan in 1857, he accepted a position in the auditor-general's office at Lansing, which he held until his re- moval to Traverse City. While residing in Lansing Mr. Bates married Clymeno C. Cole, whose active work in the organization of the Ladies' Library Association is men- tioned elsewhere in this volume. She died in 1874. In 1858 Mr. Bates decided to try the newspaper business again, and this time selected about as new and wild a region as ever a printer ventured to try his fortune in. Traverse City was at that time scarcely a village. It was one hundred and fifty miles distant from any railroad, thirty miles from any regular steamboat route, and an hun- dred miles or more from even a backwoods stage route. His success in establishing his paper is given in the sketch of the Grand
Traverse Herald, and need not be repeated here. Mr. Bates was selected four times as county treasurer of Grand Traverse, and when Abraham Lincoln was elected Presi- dent he appointed Mr. Bates register of the United States land office at Traverse City. After Andrew Johnson became President, through the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Bates refused to "swing around the circle," and he was removed and Major Ly- man G. Willcox appointed in his stead. Up- on the election of President Grant, Mr. Bates was reappointed and continued to hold the position till his death. In 1868 Mr. Bates was elected to the office of lieutenant- governor of Michigan, and was re-elected in 1870. He was remarkable for his energy and industry. He was a man of very posi- tive convictions and a vigorous, although not a prolific, writer. He could say more with the fewest words than any man we ever knew, and was noted also for his shrewdness and business tact. With the Her- ald he did much to settle and develop the Grand Traverse region, and made a finan- cial success in the conduct of his business affairs, leaving a good property at the time of his death.
Among the pioneers of Grand Traverse few names are better known than that of Judge Jonathan G. Ramsdell. Judge Ramsdell's parents were natives of Massa- chusetts, who settled in Plymouth, Michi- gan, in 1827. The Judge, the third of four sons, was born January 10, 1830. His early life was divided between work on a farm and attendance at school. He attended the village academy at Northville and the acad- emy at Plymouth, from which he went to Albion College. On returning from Albion he learned the trade of moulder and finisher.
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He then took a course in a commercial col- lege, and after graduating became a book- keeper for a Cincinnati commission house, and later in banking houses in Detroit and Adrian. While at Adrian he commenced the study of law with the late Hon. Fernan- do C. Baeman. Close confinement and study, however, undermined his health, and he spent a winter in the lumber woods, cut- ting and skidding logs. In the spring he helped run the river and through the sum- mer was a tail sawyer. The next winter he acted as head sawyer, and in the follow- ing spring, having regained his health, re- sumed the study of law with Judge Long- year, of Lansing. In 1857 he was admitted to the bar and was the same year appointed circuit court commissioner for Ingham county, by Governor Bingham. He was school inspector and chairman of the board in the township of Lansing, and was elected the first city clerk, holding the office one month, when he resigned upon his appoint- ment as clerk of the supreme court at Lans- ing. This position he held until 1861, when he resigned to enter the Agricultural Col- lege as special lecturer on commercial cus- toms and commercial law and bookkeeping. On the completion of that course he removed to Northport and, a few months later, to Traverse City. Mr. Ramsdell was married February 3, 1861, to Mrs. Clara A. Phil- lips, of Lansing, and in the fall of 1861 they came on horseback down the shore of Lake Michigan to Frankfort, and across by trail (there were no roads in northern Michigan then) to Traverse City, arriving there in October, and going on down the bay to Northport. Soon after this the Judge bought from the government a tract of land just west of Traverse City, which under his
cultivation he developed into the celebrated Ramsdell fruit farm. On the organization of the thirteenth judicial circuit Jonathan G. Ramsdell was elected circuit judge, and was re-elected at the next succeeding election, being succeeded for one term by Judge Ru- ben Hatch, during which time he was en- gaged in practice and in looking after his fruit farm. He was again elected at the end of six years, and served two more full terms, when he retired permanently from the bench, and spent the greater part of his time thereafter until his death, February 16, 1903, in looking after the interests of his farm. Judge Ramsdell was president of the Grand Traverse Union Agricultural Society, of the State Pomological Society, and of the West Michigan Agricultural and Indus- trial Society, of which latter he was a di- rector ; he was commissioner for Michigan to the American Pomological Society at Chicago in 1875, and to Boston in 1879, and a member of the Columbian fair com- mittee for Michigan fruits. For many years he was chairman of the executive com- mittee of the State Grange. Politically he was originally an abolitionist and subse- quently a Republican, but became known as a Silver Republican in 1896, when he was the Democratic-Combination candidate for congress in the eleventh district, and was chairman of the Silver Republican conven- tion at Kansas City in 1900. Later he was classed as a Democrat, and was nominated for lieutenant governor by the Democratic convention held at Detroit, July 25, 1900. The Judge did much in the development of the fruit interests of the Grand Traverse region.
Henry D. Campbell .- David Campbell, from whom Henry D. is descended, came
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from Scotland in 1628 and settled in New Hampshire. The parents of Henry D., Robert A. and Harriet E. (Hitchcock) Campbell, were farmers near Hogansburg, Franklin county, New York, where Henry D. was born March II, 1831. He spent his youth and received his education in his na- tive state. In November, 1852, he came to Traverse City and entered into the employ of Hannah, Lay & Company, with whom he remained for eight years. In 1860 he engaged in agriculture, clearing up a fine farm near Silver Lake, Garfield township, which he owned and managed at the time of his death. Soon after leaving the employ of Hannah, Lay & Company Mr. Campbell became interested, in connection with his brother, Robert A. Campbell, in a stage line which they established, running from Big Rapids to Cheboygan and centering at Tra- verse City, it being managed by them until I874. In 1873 Mr. Campbell built the Campbell House, now that part of Park Place hotel on the southeast corner of Park and State streets, which was then the largest hotel in this part of the state. This hotel he managed until 1878, when, on account of the ill health of his wife, he sold out. In 1881, under a franchise from the then vil- lage of Traverse City, he built and operated a water works plant, then one of the most modern in Michigan, having twelve miles of mains, which he sold to the city in 1900. In 1889 he installed, in connection with his water plant, an electric light plant, the first one in the city. This he sold in May, 1900, and it was merged into and became a part of the Boardman River Electric Light and Power Company's plant. Mr. Campbell was treasurer of Grand Traverse county for eight years. He made the first settlement
ever made between the county and the state. This was at a time when it required three weeks to make the journey to Lansing and back. He held the office of supervisor for ten or twelve years. In 1880 he was elected judge of probate of Grand Traverse county and entered upon his duties as such the fol- lowing January, in which capacity he con- tinued to act for twelve successive years. On July 2, 1862, Mr. Campbell was married to Miss Catherine A. Carmichael, of Tra- verse City, who was born in Genesee county, New York, in July, 1839. The fruit of this marriage was four sons and a daughter: Donald F., Flora A., wife of J. W. Hobbs, Willard H., David R. and Wallie G. Judge Campbell died quite suddenly of heart fail- ure February 4, 1902, and his son, Donald F., died equally as suddenly April 19th fol- lowing. The other children and his widow survive him. Mr. Campbell was a Republi- can and always took an active part in poli- tics. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, including the Knight Templar degree. During his many years of active life in northern Michigan he left his mark upon the history of the Grand Traverse region that will never be effaced.
Among the first farmers who came to this country was Elisha P. Ladd, a native of the state of New York. He arrived at Old Mission May 19, 1853, and located between two and three miles southwest of the har- bor. At that time the little grain that was raised was ground at a mill owned by An- drew Porter, on Little Traverse Bay, near where Petoskey now stands. Going to a mill in an open boat a distance of fifty miles late in the season, exposed to sudden storms and tossed about by the fury of the waves, was no small undertaking. At one time
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Mr. Ladd embarked on the 3d of December with a grist, and with difficulty succeeded in reaching his destination, but he was de- tained by severe weather and storms at the mill until the Ist of January, when the bay froze over and he was compelled to return home on foot over the trail, leaving his grist behind. This is mentioned as only one of the many annoyances and difficulties under which the early pioneers labored in their efforts to plant settlements and cultivate farms in the wilderness. Mr: Ladd, how- ever, lived to see his efforts crowned with success. During his lifetime the wilderness become thickly settled with prosperous farmers and immense orchards took the place of the forests of beech, maple and elm timber, he himself contributing not a little to that result. Mr. Ladd was a man of liberal education and was prominent in pub- lic affairs. He was many times elected su- pervisor of his township, and held the office of county superintendent of public schools six years. Mrs. Ladd, who came to the country with her husband, died in 1890 at the age of sixty-four. Mr. Ladd died only a few years since. Among his children is Elmer O. Ladd, a prosperous farmer of Peninsula, who was born in that township, and has held the office of register of deeds for Grand Traverse county four years.
Joseph Sours was a native of the state of New York, born July 4, 1820. He first came to Michigan in 1843 and settled in the southern part of the state. He came to Grand Traverse in August, 1855, being one of the first settlers in Whitewater township. He located on section 4, where he made one of the finest fruit, grass and grain farms in the region. Mr. Sours was married in 1848 to Mary V. Lowell, a native of Chautauqua
county, New York. They had five children, four of whom are living. Lowell, the eld- est, whose farm adjoins that cleared up by his father, was born in Battle Creek in 1852 and was married in the fall of 1880, to Emma Sherman. Mr. Sours died in 1897, while his widow is still living with her son Frank on the old homestead.
Thomas Morgan Wynkoop was born in Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, April 22, 1820, of sturdy Dutch parentage. His father paid for two hundred acres of land, which has since proven to be the richest coal field in the United States, but was defrauded of it by being unacquainted with the state law, which allowed two places of record of deeds, and was left penniless. The family removed to the then wilderness of western New York, where Thomas suffered all the priva- tions of the early pioneer, being obliged to go barefoot until ten years of age. He had the privilege of only three months of school, yet he supplemented this with fireside study sufficient to get a certificate and teach school. After helping to build a comforta- ble home for his parents in Niagara county, New York, and clearing a farm of sixty acres for himself, he sold this farm and en- gaged in the mercantile business. Not suc- ceeding in this, he sold his store and re- moved with his wife, whom he had recently married, and whose maiden name was Kingsley, to Sycamore, Illinois, and located on the prairie. Being a born child of the woods and of the romantic and somewhat poetical nature, he soon tired of the monot- ony of the prairie, with its cheerless expanse of grass and sky, and its sweeping winter blizzards. He came to the north woods in July, 1864, and located a homestead in sec- tion 4, township 25 north, range 10 west,
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and brought his family in November of the same year to the Grand Traverse region, where he resided until his death, September 17, 1901. His was the first homestead en- tered in the township, which he afterward named Paradise. He always took an active part in public affairs, holding the office of supervisor in DeKalb township, Illinois, and serving seven years in Paradise in the same capacity, declining then to accept it longer. Mr. Wynkoop was a reader and a thinker, and always had implicit faith in the future of this country. He gladly endured the hardships incident to the life of the early settler, always helping to bear the burdens of his less fortunate neighbors. He loved justice and right for its own sake and weighed all questions on the broad plane of reason. Devoid of superstitions, his mind was ever serene, always looking on the bright side. He was familiar with the leading writers, especially the poets, at one time being able to repeat nearly the whole of Burns' poems from memory. He wrote several touching ballads, the sentiments of which are pure and ennobling. His biog- raphy of "Old Nick" and his "Heaven is Where We Make It," "Seek Knowledge" and "The Better Creed" express in plain but eloquent language the leading character- istics of his life.
William H. C. Mitchell was born at Mount Perry, Ohio, May 30, 1825. His ed- ucation was received in the district schools of Lima, Ohio. He was in direct descent from George Mitchell, who came from Scotland in 1759 and settled in York county, Pennsyl- vania. His mother, Maria D. Bentley, was from Winchester, Virginia. His parents moved to Lima, Ohio, in 1831, being the sec- ond family to settle there. In 1843 Mr.
Mitchell was sent to Urbana, Ohio, to learn the trade of tinsmith, and served three years, working the first year for his board, and re- ceiving four dollars and six dollars per month respectively for the second and third years. In the spring of 1846 he started out as a journeyman tinner and was in New Orleans when the Mexican war was in prog- ress, and tried to enlist in an Ohio regiment when in that city on its way to the front. In the spring of 1849 he joined the procession that marched across the plains to California, attracted by the gold discoveries, being the first of the memorable migration from the states to the Pacific coast. He arrived in Sacramento August 17, 1849, and worked at mining and at his trade until 1851 in Co- loma, when he begun buying cattle and hogs. He bought .his hogs in Oregon and shipped them to Sacramento and drove them from there to Placerville (then called Hangtown), where he had his headquarters. He was suc- cessful in the venture, and in June, 1853, he returned to Ohio by the Central American route. He built a grist-mill in Lima and soon after became engaged in the manufac- ture of sash, blinds and furniture. In 1866 he removed to Traverse City, where he re- sided until his death, February 1I, 1901. Here, at the head of East Bay, he engaged in the manufacture of lumber, with his part- ner, Morris Mahan, who died in 1883 and who had been associated with him since they crossed the plains in 1849. In 1893 the busi- ness was merged into a company incorpo- rated as the East Bay Lumber Company, of which Mr. Mitchell was secretary and treas- urer from its organization until his death. Since the death of Mr. Mahan his children have been interested in the business, and since the death of Mr. Mitchell his son Will-
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