USA > Michigan > St Clair County > St. Clair County, Michigan, its history and its people; a narrative account of its historical progress and its principal interests, Vol. II > Part 20
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After completing the course of study in the graded schools of To- ronto, Dr. Stringer entered Toronto University, from which he was graduated in 1890, with the degree of M. B. Subsequently he received
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the degrees of M. D. and C. M. at Victoria University, and after grad- uation from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, located for practice in Algonac on March 17, 1894. In his profession he stands very high and has justly a wide and excellent reputation. He has been and is a diligent student, keeping fully abreast of everything in the way of progress and advancement in his calling, and is much sought for in consultations on serious and extreme cases. Ile is acting as medical examiner for a number of the leading life insurance companies, and for some time has been health officer of Algonac. In political matters a stanch Republican, he has given the citizens of his community the benefit of his excellent judgment as a member of the village council, and has taken an active interest in all matters pertaining to the publie welfare. Dr. Stringer is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church. Socially he is a general favorite, and in every way has the un- questioning confidence and regard of his fellow citizens.
HENRY R. LA CROIX. The mercantile contingent of St. Clair, Michi- gan, is ably represented in the person of Henry R. La Croix, a gentle- man of sterling worth and superior talents whose career has led him into a varied list of important enterprises and both as a private citizen and a public official he has proven his unusual adaptability to success- fully perform whatever task presents itself to his hands.
Mr. La Croix is a native son of Michigan, his birth having occurred on November 9, 1856, at Algonac, at which place he also spent his boy- hood days with his parents, acquiring there such education as was pos- sible through the meagre facilities that were then afforded in the schools of the sparsely settled communities of early days. His parents also were of native Michigan birth, his father, Richard La Croix, having first seen the light of day in Detroit, while his mother, Mary (Frederick) La Croix, was born at Cottrellville, Michigan. Mr. La Croix, senior, was a candymaker by trade and was so engaged during a portion of his life, but he later removed to a farm and became an agriculturist.
Upon reaching the age of his majority Henry R. La Croix secured a position of Captain Flood, who operated a sailing vessel between Alpena and Detroit and carried the square timbers that were used in the construction of the first publie water works system of the latter named city. Subsequently Mr. La Croix secured an interest in a pas- senger boat plying between Port Huron and Detroit and did a profitable business in that line. In 1880 he decided to make a change of employ- ment and was successful in securing a position from the government to go to Lake Superior and assist in the construction of a lighthouse at Standard Rock. While engaged in that work he met with an unfortunate accident, which later was the cause of the loss of one of his limbs. Not daunted by this misfortune, he turned his attention to other lines of business and purchased a farm on Harsen's island, Michigan, and at the same time opened a general store and also secured the appointment as deputy postmaster at that point. In connection with his other busi- ness he found time to act as agent for the White Star Steamboat Com- pany and to identify himself in various other ways with the best in- terests of the community. Ile was at all times willing to perform such publie official duties as were demanded of him by his fellow citizens Vol. II-10
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and served both as a school director and as road superintendent while on the island.
For an interum of two years, between 1905 and 1907, Mr. La Croix became a resident of Marine City, where he conducted a grocery store. but later returned to Sansouci, Harsen's island, to resume his business there. He had his stock in a tent during the summer time and in a store building during the winter.
On May 1, 1908, Mr. La Croix entered commercial life in St. Clair and has ever since been catering to the retail trade in the lines of con- fectionery, ice cream and cigars, doing a most profitable business as one of the city's leading merchants.
Mr. La Croix was married in 1874, taking as his bride Miss Lizzie Hope, of St. Clair, who was born in St. Clair township, her parents being Anthony and Elizabeth (Drulaird) Hope. Mr. Hope was a native of Detroit, while his wife was of Canadian birth. Five children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. La Croix, namely, Nellia A., wife of John Rattry ; Cora M., wife of Durell J. Butterfield; Walter H., married to Miss Agnes Stockwell; Nina and Gertrude. Mrs. La Croix is a woman of superior attainments and fine business ability and in 1910 she entered commercial life in St. Clair by purchasing the millinery business then owned by Miss Grace Langill. Mrs. La Croix has made a splendid success of her venture and caters to the best trade in the city.
The La Croix family is prominent in leading social and religious circles and are devout members of the Catholic church, holding mem- bership in the Maccabees fraternal order. The community in which they live is the better for counting these people among its citizens and they are held in the highest esteem by all who have the pleasure of their acquaintance.
GEORGE WADSWORTH HOWE was born in Port Huron, February 5, 1844. His parents, Lucian and Alice Hooper Howe, were New Eng- landers who came to Detroit in the spring of 1836, and in the following year came to Port Huron. Lucian Howe was one of the first teachers in the county, and taught in several of the smaller places of St. Clair. He died on September 12, 1892, and is buried in Port Huron. His wife had passed away when George Howe was only six years old, and she, too, lies in the Port Huron cemetery.
Our subject received his education in the Port Huron schools, and after his mother's death spent four years in the Berkshire Hills, Massa- chusetts. Later he attended school in Lapeer county, being a pupil in the Lapeer Seminary. He supplemented this training by a course in Bryant & Stratton's Business College in Boston. Upon returning to Port Huron, Mr. Howe bought a half interest in the Port Huron Press of H. C. Buffington. This was not a venture into an unexplored field, for Mr. Howe had spent three and a half years in a printing office at Lapeer. A year spent in Saginaw enabled him to finish his preparation for his trade. It was while here that he and two companions in the same office enlisted in the Twenty-ninth Michigan Infantry, in August, 1864. He was in the Army of the Cumberland, being with Thomas Hood in Tennessee and Alabama until September, 1865, when he was discharged.
Mr. Howe disposed of his interest in the Press to Mr. Boynton, but
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continued to work at his trade. Ile bought the plant, which has now become the Times-Herald, and worked at the mechanical part of it. About this same time he built a home on the land now occupied by the Lakeside cemetery. During the winter of 1869-70 he taught school in Fort Gratiot for six months. His health began to fail about this time, and to restore it he spent a year and a half on the Pere Marquette Rail- way in St. Clair county. Later he returned to educational work and was for three terms superintendent of the Fort Gratiot schools. For two years Mr. Howe was at Puget Sound, in the employ of friends, and then in the summer of 1900, he went into the city treasurer's office, and he still holds the office of assistant treasurer. He has always been an unswerving supporter of the Republican party. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the William Sanborn Post. For over forty years he has been connected with the Masonic order, and he also belongs to the Maccabees. Although not a member of any church, Mr. Howe is far from being indifferent to the work which the different de- nominations strive to accomplish, and he has been brought into close contact with almost all branches of the church universal in Port Huron. For years he has been superintendent of the Sunday school of the Sturges Congregational church, of which his parents were charter mem- bers. Since 1900 he has been secretary of the Pioneer Society, which celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary that same year. It is through his untiring efforts that the annual pienie of this body has become a pleasure that none of the members willingly forego.
Another matter in which Mr. Howe is interested is the Port Huron Academy of Science. Ile is president of the organization and the ex- hibit which it has collected in the public library is something which Mr. ITowe cherishes with a pardonable pride. He is especially interested in fungi, and is a mushroom expert.
Mrs. Howe belongs to a family equally well known in Port Huron. Her maiden name was Eunice Amanda Sturges, and she is the daugh- ter of Barlow and Caroline Manuel Sturges, the mother born at Long Point, Ontario, and the father in Connecticut. They came to Port IFuron in 1847, when Mrs. Howe was eight years old, and bought the place where Mr. and Mrs. Howe now reside. On a part of this place they ran a shingle mill and had built a dock and a little store. Leading to this was a sort of horse railroad, known as the wooden track, and the station was called Ravenswood. This name is now applied to the ave- nue where the wooden track used to run.
Mr. Sturges founded the Pioneer Sunday school, which later became the Congregational denomination, called the Sturges church, in honor of its founder, who had established its beginnings before the war. Both he and his wife were devoted members of this church, and his daughter and grand-daughters continue to work zealously for the unbuilding of the church which was originally a part of the Sturges homestead. The two hundred and eight acres has since been divided among the heirs, but as has been said, Mr. and Mrs. Ilowe have the old home, which was built over half a century ago. Mr. Sturges died in the fall of 1869, the same year in which his daughter was married to Mr. Howe. Mrs. Sturges. the mother, died in 1886. Two sisters-in-law of Mrs. Sturges, aunts of Mrs. Howe, are still living. Mrs. Sarah Aslop Manuel, the widow of Eliphalet Gustin Manuel, has made her home for the past
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seven years with Mr. and Mrs. Howe. Her husband left Long Point, his native place, about 1844 and became a farmer in Indiana. He was about twenty-three at this time, as he was born on February 13, 1821. From Indiana he came to St. Clair county, and bought a home near that of the Howes in 1861, and ever since his widow has lived on the banks of the St. Clair. Her husband was a sailor, who owned his own boat and was a man of prominence in the political affairs of the county. He was justice of the peace for many years, and a member of the school board for eighteen years. Mrs. Manuel was born in Derbyshire, England, in 1822, and came to America at the age of seven. Before coming to Port Huron she lived in Pennsylvania and Indiana. While in England Mrs. Manuel attended a select school and there she became acquainted with the now famous Florence Nightingale, then a little girl, whom her father, a patron of the school, used to bring to play with the little girls of the school. The Aslop's family's voyage to America was an unusually difficult one, even for that time, when the sailing vessel was the ac- cepted means of crossing. After seven weeks on the water they en- countered a terrific hurricane, which tore off all their masts, and drove them five hundred miles from Newfoundland. In Indiana Mrs. Manuel was a seamstress of high repute, as she had learned to sew in the Eng- lish fashion. She became the mother of three children, one of whom is still living, Fred W. Manuel, born May 15, 1849. He resides in Port Huron and is a captain on the lakes. Mrs. Manuel is a devoted member of the Congregational church.
Another aunt of Mrs. Howe's is Mrs. Harriet Huling Manuel, who was born in Port Huron in 1827. She was educated in private schools of Port Huron, and at fifteen was able to pass a teacher's examination and secure a certificate to teach. Her first school was the North dis- trict, whose building stood not far from the city hall of Port Huron. She was married in 1844 to Frederick Manuel and three of the six chil- dren born of their union are still living. Her husband had come to Port Huron in 1841 and was a shoemaker by trade. He was born at Long Point, Ontario, in 1819, and died in 1878. At the time of his death he was holding the office of sheriff of the county and had been serving in that capacity for several years. His widow still lives on the same spot to which they moved in 1846. Mr. and Mrs. Howe have one son and two daughters.
GEORGE WHITECK PARKER. Among those who take prominent rank among the more progressive and successful business men of Marine City, Mr. Parker is a recognized leader. For many years he was superintend- ent of the shipping interests in this city, but in more recent years he has been principally devoted to the real estate business, confining the bulk of his extensive operations to the handling of timber and mining lands in Cobalt, famous in the past three or four years as one of the greatest silver mining districts in the world; and in Louisiana, where his hold- ings are especially large and representative.
George Whiteck Parker is a native product of Marine City. He was born here on June 22, 1869, and is the son of Dr. Leonard Brooks and Jane (Sparrow) Parker. For years Dr. Parker was prominent as a phy- sician and surgeon in Michigan, and he was also heavily interested in the shipping industry of the St. Clair river, being identified with that busi-
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ness for many years. The son, George W., was educated in the public schools of Marine City, and later entered the Michigan Military Acad- emy, finishing a course of study and training in that institution. When he returned to Marine City. at the close of his military training, he be- came superintendent of the shipping interests, continuing in that work for a number of years. Ile became interested, however, in the lumber and land business in Canada, and gradnally withdrew from his business connections in Marine City, turning his entire attention to the sale of timber lands in the rich Cobalt district in Ontario, and in Louisiana, in both of which places he is deeply interested in a financial way.
Mr. Parker has the distinctive honor of being the only Democrat mayor the Republican city of Marine ever had. In 1898 he was induced to run for the office of mayor as an Independent Democrat, and his elec- tion under the existing circumstances speaks eloquently of his standing in Marine City and of his intrinsic worth as a citizen. Mr. Parker spends a great deal of his time in Canada, as necessitated by his busi- ness interests in that locality, but he affirms that he will never give up his Michigan home and allegiance. He is a member of the Masonic order, and is especially liberal in his religious views.
WILLIAM FORBES. The life of Mr. William Forbes has been one of dauntless struggle, romantic interest and realized ambitions. He was born on a small dairy farm near the city of Aberdeen, Scotland, in the year 1838. This farm is now a part of the city. His father, James Forbes, supported his family on the products of the farm, and William early began to help in the activities of the place. He drove the milk cart about Aberdeen, and delivered the milk to their customers. There was little chance to go to school, and indeed, in his whole life William Forbes did not spend two years in school. But he had a natural bent for knowledge and he learned to read and to write when quite young.
When William was seventeen he and his parents came to Canada, landing at the city of London after a voyage of seven weeks on the "Aurora," a sailing vessel. An older brother, Alexander, had come over a year before and had settled on a farm in Middlesex county. William at once seured employment in the village of Nairn as a clerk in the vil- lage store .- In the fall his father bought a farm of one hundred acres, only four of which were cleared. This place was situated four miles east of Sarnia.
William Forbes set himself to work to improve his own and his family's fortunes. In the winter time he and his brother cleared seventy- five acres of the home place. In the summer time he worked out. At one place where he was employed he worked for three years and in that time lost only a period from one Saturday noon to the following Monday noon-and he made that up. For six months he received twelve dollars a month, while in the winter time his wages were from seven to ten dollars a month. By this means he earned the money to pay off the mortgage on his father's farm. When this was done he went on a sail- ing vessel and was three years before the mast on the lakes.
The life of "them that go down to the sea in ships" appealed strongly to Mr. Forbes, and the very first year he was on the lakes he announced, "I am going to have a vessel of my own." At the end of
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three years he was possessed of a one-third interest in a vessel, though he followed the lakes ten years before he built one.
In 1870 Mr. Forbes engaged in helping to build the "Fannie Niel," at the dock of Muir & Stewart. He later became the owner of this boat and sailed her for many years, selling her in 1883. Four years later he put another man in charge of the "Fannie Niel" and went to Bay City, where he bought a ferry line. He operated this for a year, and then disposed of it to take possession of a new steamer, for which he had closed a contract, and which was to be named the "Christie A. Forbes," in honor of his daughter. Mr. Forbes engaged quite extensively in the building of vessels. In 1883 he built the "Kittie M. Forbes," named in honor of both his wife and his daughter; this vessel was built in Bay City. The following year he built the schooner "Frank Wheeler." This vessel was lost on Lake Superior two years later. No lives were lost when she went down, though he left the boat without any boots on and had to swim, which fact made boots superfluous anyway. The next craft which Mr. Forbes launched was the "Mabel Wilson," built at Bay City, and named in honor of the daughter of Captain Wilson of Cleveland. This was the largest wooden vessel then on the lakes.
It was in 1887 that Mr. Forbes sold out three-fourths of his interest in his two vessels and built the "Tom Adams," which he sold before she was launched. It was then that he became a partner in the ship- building yards in Bay City, and in this venture lost about $30,000. In five years they built forty-five vessels. After some time Mr. Forbes dis- posed of his interest in the yards to Mr. Wheeler, who had been recently elected to Congress. He then built the "Yukon" and sailed her until 1899. Since that time he has not been actively engaged in business, but has lived at his home at 319 Ontario street, where he rests somewhat from the cares and activities which have filled his eventful life.
The marriage of Mr. Forbes took place at Sarnia on December 16, 1868. His bride was Miss Katherine Kerr, whose ancestry, like his own, is Scotch. She was the daughter of Thomas and Christina Menzie Kerr and was born near Ottawa, in the county of Perth, coming to Port Huron in 1868. She died on the 29th of December, 1911, at the age of sixty-four years. There were seven children born of their union, as follows: Alexander, born in Port Huron, February 21, 1870. He now lives in Detroit. Like his father, he has followed the lakes, and has been a captain for twenty years. Christina is now Mrs. Samuel H. Smith ; she was born September 19, 1871. William, born August 1, 1873, lived but one week. Catherine M. was born November 6, 1876, and is now Mrs. Ernest J. Beresford, of Chicago. Margaret, born in 1881, died in infancy, and her next younger brother, William, lived to be only seven, as he died in 1889. James, born April 6, 1885, lives at Manitowoc and is a mechanical engineer.
Mr. Forbes is a Republican, but politics is no part of his business. Like most good Scots he was reared a Presbyterian. He later became a Congregationalist and is still a member of that denomination. He is a great life insurance believer, and at one time carried $70,000 insur- ance.
WILLIAM O. LEE. The glory of our great American republic is in the perpetuation of individuality and in according the utmost scope for in-
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dividual accomplishment. Fostered under the most auspicious surround- ings that can compass one who has the will to dare and to do, our nation has, almost spontaneously, produced men of the finest mental caliber, of true virile strength and of vigorous purpose. The cradle has not always been one of pampered luxury, but this modest couch of infancy has often rocked future greatness. The self-made man is a product of America, and the record of achievement in this individual sense is the record which the true and loyal American holds in highest honor. These statements are distinctively germane to the life history of William O. Lee, who as a citizen and man of affairs has proved a force and factor for good in his native state, and whose name is not associated in a mere ephemeral way with the word progress,-with moving forward in industrial enterprise, with all agencies for civic betterment, and with lofty patriotism. He is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of Michigan, which has been his home during the major part of his life. He represented his native state as a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war and in the "piping times of peace" his loyalty has been of the same unequivocal order. He has been actively and prominently identified with important industrial enterprises in Michigan and is now one of the representative manufacturers in the city of Port Huron, where he conducts individually, under the title of The William O. Lee Company, a substantial business in the manufacturing of copper, brass and aluminum fittings, castings, etc., for wide and varied uses, with a modern and finely equipped plant at the corner of Golden and Thirty-second streets. His career has been marked by earnest application and progressive policies and he has achieved sue- cess worthy of the name, though he has encountered various reverses and obstacles. Strong, determined and self-reliant, he has not permitted fel- lowship with discouragement, and thus he has made of success not an accident but a logical result. Through all the changes and chances of life he has been guided and governed by the highest principles of in- tegrity and honor, and thus he has merited and received the confidence and esteem of his fellow men. As one of the influential and essentially representative citizens of St. Clair county Mr. Lee is eminently entitled to recognition in this publication.
William Oscar Lee was born in Arbela township, Tuscola county, Michigan, on the 17th of November, 1844, and he has the distinction of having been the first white child born in that township. He was the third white child born in the county and is at the present time the oldest native son of the same. Mr. Lee retains as an interesting souvenir and heirloom a photograph of himself and the late John V. Harrison, his uncle by marriage, who was ninety-one years of age at the time the picture was taken and who was the oldest citizen of Tuscola county at the time of his death, on the 4th of December, 1910. Mr. Harrison was the eldest of the second family of boys who came to Tuscola county in 1837, the year in which Michigan was admitted to statehood. Mr. Lee is a son of Silas Seekles Lee and Sarah (MeLean) Lee, the former of whom was horn on a farm near Auburn, Cayuga county, New York, on the 23d of October, 1820. and the latter of whom was born near Utica. Oneida county, that state, on the 25th of May, 1821. In the preparation of this sketch frequent recourse will be made to a most interesting autobiography prepared by Mr. Lee and presented to his daughter, Rita Mary, on
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Christmas day of the year 1910. In : . viume thus
presented Mr. Lee speaks as follows :
"I was born of ambitious, humble parents in the pioneer days of Michigan, when every man, woman and child had to struggle for a meager livelihood and existence. My parents were young-each twenty-four years old,-healthy, strong and ambitious, with an aim to hew out a home in the dense forests surrounding them, in the hope of rearing a family and giving to their children every educational advantage their humble conditions would permit, and I am proud of them and their memory,- thankful for all they did for me and for those that came after me."
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