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 45
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He was born at Palmerston, Ontario, April 6, 1864, a son of John
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and Catherine (Sides) Bell. Both parents came from County Cavan. Ireland, to this country when children. When John was three years old his father died, and after seven years of widowhood the mother married a substantial farmer with a large family, and one of the highly respected citizens of that vicinity in Canada. When John J. was about eleven years old he began doing for himself. and his career has the in- teresting distinction of having been wrought into success mainly through his individual ambition and diligence. For a time he lived with a farm- er, working for his board and attending school as opportunity afforded. At the age of sixteen he began learning the harness trade at Palmerston, but the confinement of the occupation proved injurious to his health, so that he left it and again worked on a farm for three years.
In 1883, at the age of nineteen, he located in Port Huron and en- tered the employ of the local office of the Singer Sewing Machine Com- pany, with whom he remained for twelve years and rose to the position of district manager. In March, 1896, Mr. Bell established a piano busi- ness at 106 Huron avenue, at which location he has continued this line of business ever since. He has one of the best music stores outside of Detroit, and his business became so successful that in 1905 he opened another store in Detroit, where he also has a good trade.
Mr. Bell took out his naturalization papers in 1888 and cast his first vote for Grover Cleveland as president. He has always been one of the progressive, public-spirited citizens of Port Huron and in 1905 was elected alderman from the sixth ward. At the close of his two years in the city council he received the vote of the city for the office of mayor, in which office he has served continuously to the present time. During the campaign and discussions for the change of charter he studied the subject thoroughly and advocated the commission form as one better fitted for efficiency and economy. In the fall of 1910 he was elected mayor or head of the city commission, and took office under the new charter the first of the following year.
Mr. Bell's parents were Methodists, and he was reared in that faith. His wife, however, is a member of the Congregational church, and he attends there. During his connection with the Singer Company he spent nearly two years in Canada, and while there was made a member of Blair Lodge, No. 314. A. F. & A. M., this being soon after he was twenty-one years old. He afterwards transferred his membership to Port Huron Lodge, No. 58. Mr. Bell is one of the leading Masons of the state and has taken thirty-two degrees in the craft. He served as worshipful master of Port Huron lodge two years and was the represen- tative in the Grand Lodge. He is also a past commander of Port IIuron Commandery, No. 7, Knights Templar, and is a member of the Consistory and Shrine in Detroit. His fraternal connections also include membership in both the Modern Maccabees and the Maccabees of the World, the Independent Order of Foresters, the Woodmen of the World, the Patriotie Patricians of Pompeii, the Port Huron Lodge, No. 343, of Elks, and Port Huron Lodge, No. 18, K. of P.
On May 1, 1895, at Port Huron, Mr. Bell married Miss Mabel Ger- trude Cooke. Mrs. Bell is a native of Canada and a danghter of Thomas and Frances (Griffin) Cooke, who settled at Port Huron when she was a child. Mr. and Mrs. Bell have one child, John Irving Bell, born at Port Huron, December 27, 1900.
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ALBERT J. ZEMMER. The ingenuity, adaptability and practical qual- ities as displayed in the work of Albert J. Zemmer has made him one of the foremost contractors and builders of Port Huron, where numerous massive structures stand as monuments to the excellence of his work. Trained in this occupation from his earliest boyhood under a teacher who was a past master of his craft, his father, he has added modern ideas and new innovations to his stock of experience, and now stands among the foremost of his business in Michigan. Mr. Zemmer, whose cement factory is located in South Park, was born on a farm in the village of Elma, Erie county, New York, June 15, 1876, and is a son of Jacob and Lena (Mann) Zemmer.
Mr. Zemmer was seven years of age when the family came to Michi- gan and located on a farm in Lapeer county, where he received a com- mon-school education. His father was a carpenter and joiner by trade, and at the age of thirteen years Albert J. started to learn the business, continuing with him until the father's retirement, when Albert J. was twenty-one years old. Subsequently Albert J. increased his staff of workmen and began doing contracting on a large scale. In 1903, seek- ing a wider field for his operations, he came to Port Huron, purchasing his present residence at 2919 North Boulevard, South Park, one of the beautiful residences of the city. Among the structures which have been erected by Mr. Zemmer may be mentioned the South Park Metho- dist Episcopal church, the Wire Fence Company's plant, and the City Fire Hall. His conscientiousness in living up to the letter of his con- tracts, the skilled workmen whom he employs and the excellence of the material used by him, have given him all of the business that he can handle. In 1907 he erected his cement factory in South Park, which he conducts as a side line. He has also dealt to some extent in real estate, believing firmly in the future of Port Huron, and he sells building lots and residences all over the city.
On June 13, 1900, Mr. Zemmer was married to Miss Etta Langley, who was born in Oregon township, Lapeer county, Michigan, daughter of Ira and Belle (Colvin) Langley, and two children have been born to this union, namely: Luella, born in Oregon township, Lapeer county, May 17, 1901, and Adrian, born in Port Huron, August 20, 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Zemmer are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he has been a member of the board of trustees for a long period and superintendent of the Sunday-school for three years. Fraternally he is a member of the Woodmen of the World and of the Odd Fellows, while his political affiliations are with the Republican party. Although not a politician himself, Mr. Zemmer has at all times stood for good government and honesty in politics, and in this way exercises a wide influence for good.
EDWARD F. PERCIVAL. Among the well and favorably known busi- ness men of Port Huron Mr. Edward F. Percival has long held promi- inent place. He is a native son of Michigan, born at Port Huron, March 7, 1861, as a younger of two sons, the only children of Edward and Mary (Williams) Percival. His parents were born, reared and mar- ried in England, and came from London to the United States, locating in Port Huron in 1857. For years the father was successfully engaged in the wholesale wooden-ware business. He became one of the leading
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business men of Port Iluron, and was held in high esteem by all who knew him. He died when fifty-five years of age. His wife, the mother of Edward F., died when about thirty years old. John T. Percival, of Port Huron, is the older brother of Edward F.
In the public schools of Port Huron Edward F. Percival obtained a fair English education. He became a commercial traveling salesman when only sixteen years old, then being the youngest traveling salesman ir Michigan. He remained thus identified, representing his father in the wholesale wooden-ware business, until 1888, in which year he be- came a member of the firm with his father, assuming charge of the busi- ness as manager. Ile successfully conducted the business until it was sold out in 1892. From that date on Mr. Pereival has been engaged in the real estate business with gratifying success, also condueting a con- stantly increasing insurance business in all its branches, fire, life, etc. In addition to the real estate and insurance business, he is city ticket agent for the Grand Trunk Railroad, and also tieket agent for lake and ocean steamship lines. In the business world he has long held prominent place among those who have achieved success.
Fraternally Mr. Percival is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. Ile is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of the Maccabees, the Woodmen of the World, the Foresters and the Knights of the Grip of Michigan.
In 1896 he married Suran M. Fitspatrick, a daughter of John and Catherine Fitspatrick, of Port Huron. Mr. and Mrs. Percival have no children. Mrs. Pereival is a native of Ohio, and is a lady of culture and refinement. Mr. Percival has been a life-long resident of Port Huron, and in the growth and progress of the city he has always mani- fested a commendable spirit of loyalty and enterprise. He has con- tributed a goodly share toward the development of the city, and is held in highest esteem as a progressive citizen. In the real estate business he has forged his way to the front rank. Being a native of Port Huron, a life long resident of the city, and having been, therefore, so long and prominently identified with the history not only of Port Huron, but also of St. Clair county, it is fitting that among the prominent citizens of the county whose life sketches appear in this work Mr. Percival should receive more than a passing mention.
OREN COOK THOMPSON was born in Old Stockbridge, Massachusetts, August 4, 1805. When seven years old his father moved to the Western Reserve, Ohio, and located a large farm near Ravenna, about forty miles from Cleveland. The journey, entirely by land, consumed seven weeks, as he took with him all his family utensils and implements, driving oxen. The father had but small means and the boy's early schooling was ob- tained while he worked on the farm days and studied nights. He was fortunate in having Rev. Charles B. Storrs, a brother of the more cele- brated Rev. Richard Storrs, as his instructor.
Preparing in this way he entered through the influence of Mr. Storrs at the age of eighteen, the first graduating class of Western Reserve Col- lege, then located at Hudson, Ohio. His father was desirous of having him study to become a lawyer and offered as an inducement to help him through college for that purpose, but the young man had already deter-
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mined to become a minister and decided to work his own way. As indi- cating the economic independence of the pioneers of that time, his first suit of store clothes was one obtained for him to make his entrance into the college world. Before that his mother had made all the clothes he wore, including his cap.
In order to get through college he worked at anything he could find to do, and as he was handy in the use of tools he did all sorts of things, cut wood, made blinds, taught school, etc. The expenses were not very high, as his board only cost eighty-seven and a half cents per week. One method of raising money which he adopted he would in later years not have encouraged, the raising of corn, which he sold to a Kentucky dis- tillery to be made into whiskey.
He was graduated in due course, and then went to Princeton, New Jersey to study theology and fit himself for the ministry. Completing his studies in 1831, he was commissioned by the American Tract So- ciety and American Sunday School Union to represent them in the lower peninsula of Michigan, and in August, 1831, he landed in Detroit, hav- ing come by boat. He traveled all over wherever there was any settle- ment, going to Jackson when there was but one house and to Fort Gra- tiot before there was any Port Huron and only two log houses occupied by shingle makers.
On February 1, 1832, he married Alice L. Thompson (no relation) and started housekeeping in Detroit on Griswold street, where Butler's Bank subsequently stood.
In the fall of the same year he was appointed principal of the Academy at Ann Arbor, and moved there with his wife, who had been well educated in Connecticut and the following year established a man- ual training department in connection with the school, for which he was himself naturally well adapted, and his wife taught infant school.
In 1834 Mr. Thompson determined to take up preaching and in the spring of that year came to St. Clair, or Palmer, as it was then called, and in the fall moved his family here and was duly installed pastor of the Presbyterian church. In 1838 his health was poor and he intended to resign but was strongly urged to stay and consented. The following year in the fall, he made his resignation positive, intended to go to Green Bay, Wisconsin, but was unable to obtain passage by boat and was obliged to remain.
He then began to preach at Port Huron, and in 1840 moved his family there, where they remained until the spring of 1843, when they moved back to St. Clair and from 1841 he served both churches.
Thomas Palmer, the proprietor of the village plat at St. Clair, had offered to give him five acres on condition of his building a house, and in 1835 he built a house about where the W. S. Hopkins house stands on the hill and in the summer of 1842 he built a school house or academy south of his house. The land on which the house and academy was built was bought in the summer of 1835 from E. Beardsley. Mr. Thompson himself was well fitted as a teacher, from his enthusiasm and power to interest young minds, and at the same time impress moral truths upon them. He maintained his school five years and had a number of capable teachers and conducted a noteworthy school. Among his teachers were a Miss Abigail Alexander from Princeton who married Selden A. Jones, for many years a resident of Port Huron; Miss Ann Jane Foster from
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New York; and Miss Alice. Jenks, a beautiful woman and fine musician who married Dr. Knox of New York, and it is related of her that she brought to the county one of the earliest pianos in this section and upon her departure in 1845 it was sold to Dr. Justin Rice; Mr. John M. San- born, a relative of Cummings Sanborn, of Port Huron; Mr. Josiah Nut- ting, nephew of Professor Nutting, of Romeo, a very successful teacher; Mr. L. Blodgett, a relative of Eugene Smith, of St. Clair; Miss Delia Grosvenor, Miss Martha Nutting, Mr. Ilenry Whiting, who was for many years one of the most prominent of St. Clair citizens. He also had among his pupils a number who subsequently became distinguished in the state, including Hon. Thomas W. Palmer, Hon. David H. Jerome, David Ward and others.
In 1848 his health broke down and he was compelled to relinquish the school and for a year was engaged in regaining his health, spending some time at Saratoga Springs, New York. The following year a friend, Captain John P. Phillips, owner of boats plying between Buffalo and Chicago, offered him the opportunity of spending the summer in his boats. In 1851 Captain E. B. Ward, an old friend, offered him a posi- tion in his employ, which he filled for some years, and then established himself as a banker and broker on Griswold street in Detroit to which place he had moved. He continued in this business until 1873, when he retired.
Mr. Thompson was a strong abolitionist and his house in St. Clair was often used as a station on the "Underground Railway" to Canada, and he would hide the escaping slave and at night row him over to the place of safety. On one occasion E. B. Ward had on one of his boats as chef an escaped slave whose master came North in search of him. Getting word in time, the negro escaped to Canada and Captain Ward and some others negotiated and finally bought his freedom. The freed negro then worked and saved his money until he had sufficient to pur- chase his family, who were still held in slavery, and entrusted Mr. Thompson with the money to go and purchase them and bring them to Detroit, which was successfully done.
He was aetively interested in the Kansas anti-slavery struggle and organized and helped arm a party from the east to Lawrence, Kansas. which was engaged in the fight there and an aunt of his wife married John Brown. He cast the only vote in St. Clair county for Birney in the election of 1844.
Directly after the Civil war he was put in charge by the Christian Commission of a large distriet with headquarters at Alexandria, Vir- ginia, and stayed there until all matters were elosed up. IIe was also agent of the Freedman's Bureau for a time. In 1871. after the devas- tating fire in Huron and Sanilae counties, he went there as representing Detroit and spent some months in helping the unfortunate and distrib- nting the benefactions of Detroit citizens.
He was abont six feet tall and proportionately large, was very method- ical keeping a diary and weather record during nearly his entire life in Michigan. He had good business ability and pleasing ways. and made and kept a large circle of strong friends.
His salary as a minister would seem to modern ideas painfully small. and even that was often paid in such articles as his parishioners raised or could obtain hy the gun. One year the amount he paid for postage-
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it cost twenty-five cents to pay for a letter from the east-exceeded the entire amount of cash he received from his salary.
After a long and successful life Mr. Thompson died at Detroit, June 4, 1890.
CHARLES K. DODGE. Among the later citizens of Port Huron who would not yet, perhaps, be regarded as pioneers, is Charles K. Dodge, a lawyer, who came in the fall of 1875 to start out in his life work. Mr. Dodge's paternal ancestor came from England to America about 1638 and settled on a piece of land near Beverly, Massachusetts. Re- mote ancestors were Anglo-Saxon. His great-grandfather went to New Hampshire and was a soldier of the Revolution. His grandfather re- moved to Boonville, Oneida county, New York, where his father was born, then to Jackson, Michigan, in 1835. His father came in 1836, and settled on a piece of new and uncleared land north of Jackson, Michigan. His mother, Caroline Emma Hoyt Dodge, was born in Onon- daga county, New York, her people about the same time coming to Michigan and settling on a farm near the same place. These two met, married and became genuine pioneers of our state. On this piece of wild land, with but a small clearing, in a modest frame house, back some distance from the public road, yet surrounded by towering oaks, where deer were seen almost daily and wolves yet prowled about and howled at night Mr. Dodge was born, April 26, 1844. Here he lived many years in times when our mothers prepared meals over a fireplace. While yet a boy his people removed to a farm near the city of Jackson. There he attended the high school of the city, where he prepared partially for a course in the University of Michigan. In 1865 he went to Ann Arbor, entered the high school there and prepared himself to enter college in full as a freshman in 1866, with the somewhat celebrated class of 1870. After graduating with this class he went as a teacher to Rockland, Ontonagon county, in the copper district of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, for two years, then to Hancock, Houghton county, for two years. In 1874, at Houghton, Michigan, he entered the law office of Hubbell & Chadbourne, then one of the leading law firms of the Upper Peninsula, and was admitted to the bar in September, 1875.
In looking for a place to start in business he happened to stop at Port Huron, which then had an appearance of prosperity. The City Opera House had been nearly completed, the present custom house was about ready for occupation, the late Henry Howard had just erected the building at the northwest corner of Huron avenue and River street, and the late Silas L. Ballentine, the fine building at the northeast corner of Huron avenue and River street, now occupied as a store by the Bal- lentine Company. Just north of the Ballentine block the late James Goulden had also erected a fine building. To a young lawyer the city, then of about eight thousand people, looked very inviting, and Mr. Dodge determined to drive down his stake and tether himself to this spot. At that time the bar of St. Clair county was well and ably rep- resented by such men as O'Brien J. Atkinson, Anson E. Chadwick, William T. Mitchell, William F. Atkinson, A. R. Avery, H. W. Stevens, B. C. Farrand and N. E. Thomas. The late George P. Voorheis had just started here in his profession, and afterward became associated with Chadwick. Elliot G. Stevenson was then just beginning his suc-
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cessful carcer as a lawyer. It will be remembered by many that in 1876 and 1877 there was a great business depression throughout the United States. In those days, with such active and energetic men al- ready established and doing the substantial and lucrative law business of the community, a young lawyer with average ability, starting out by himself was, as Mr. Dodge expresses it, lucky to get a five dollar case with a thief for a client. Under these circumstances Mr. Dodge's prog- ress as a lawyer was at first slow and difficult, but his natural perse- verance and diligence finally brought fair success and reward. In 1880 he was made city attorney when the popular issue was repudiation of railway aid bonds. The city was sued in the United States district court at Detroit by a bondholder and the court held that the city was liable. A case was also begun in the St. Clair circuit court for the express purpose of testing in the state courts the validity of the railway aid bonds. The case went to the Michigan supreme court and the bonds were held valid. Mr. Dodge was afterward elected circuit court com- missioner of St. Clair county for two terms, served again one year as city attorney and one year as city controller. In 1888 he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for judge of probate but was not elected.
In May, 1889, he went west and remained two years, returning in May, 1891, and again started at Port Huron in his profession. In Sep- tember, 1893, under Grover Cleveland's second administration, he was appointed one of the deputy collectors of customs at Port Huron, which position he still holds, having mostly retired from the practice of law.
On Angust 4, 1897, Mr. Dodge was married to Millie W. Burns, of Detroit, who was born in Ontario and is the daughter of James J. and Charlotte Spearman Burns. Her father is of Scotch descent. Mrs. Dodge traces her ancestry through her father to the Purcells and through her mother to the eminent Spearman family who settled in Eng- land about the close of the sixteenth century. Mr. and Mrs. Dodge have no children, and live at 2805 Gratiot avenue, in a pretty. quiet home with ample grounds of about four and one-half acres, garden, fruit trees and opportunities for botanical experiments.
In politics Mr. Dodge has always been a Democrat, and his first presidential vote was cast for Horatio Seymour in 1868. He is par- ticularly interested in tariff for revenue only and the strict control by the government of all business corporations and all great business con- cerns. He is very liberal in his religious views and his mind naturally tends to science and philosophy. For recreation he has for many years been an amateur botanist and studied the flora of St. Clair county, Michigan, and Lambton county, Ontario. More recently his investiga- tions have been extended to the eastern half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and to western Ontario. Observations have been care- fully noted. Several papers on botanical distribution in the way of plant lists have been published and other articles are being prepared. His private herbarium contains over 5000 species of plants and he hopes to place in the Carnegie Public Library at Port Huron one or more specimens of every flowering plant and fern growing wild in Michigan and western Ontario, perhaps from 2800 to 3000 species with indices and other methods of ready reference for all those who care to know anything about the plants of their vicinity.
Mr. Dodge belongs to the Masonic fraternity, has long been a men- Vol. II-22
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ber of the Sons of the American Revolution and is a charter member of the Michigan Academy of Science. He is quite proud of the achieve- ments of many of his classmates of the class of 1870, University of Michigan. William R. Day has reached next to the highest place within the gift of the American people, being. one of the judges of the United States Supreme Court. Alfred Noble, of New York City, has become one of the greatest of modern civil engineers, having been consulted and employed in all the great canal projects. Wooster W. Beman is an eminent mathematician and scholar, now professor of mathematics in the University of Michigan. Henry C. Ripley is also a very eminent civil engineer. William N. Penfield, now deceased, was appointed solici- tor of the United States department of state and appeared at The Hague, where he ably represented our government in many important cases which had been referred to that international tribunal for decision. Rufus H. Thayer has been sent by our general government to China as a United States judge. Bernard Moses, an eminent scholar, has full charge of the department of public instruction in the Philippines. Marus Baker, now deceased, was a ripe scholar, and became a man of inestimable worth to our government during the late Spanish war on account of his intimate knowledge of maps and surveys of former years.
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