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 49
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Mr. Ross married, June 8, 1872, Catherine Conlan, who was born in New York state, April 3, 1844, a daughter of Edward Conlan. Her father, a native of Ireland, married, in Canada, Mercy Ramhardt, who was born and reared in Canada. In 1852, when Mrs. Ross was eight years old, he came to Michigan, locating first in Port Huron, but later spending a year in Lakeport, and from there coming to Grant township, but finally settling in Birchville township, where the death of Mr. Conlan occurred in 1861. Mr. and Mrs. Ross have two children living, namely : Cora I., wife of John MeNaughton, of Clyde township; and Neil C., who married Eva Dag, of Grant Center.
An ardent Republican in politics, and an active worker in party ranks, Mr. Ross has held various township offices, having served as school assessor twenty-one years; as school treasurer many terms; as treasurer . of Grant township eight years; as highway commissioner three years; and as justice of the peace, a position which he now holds, for fourteen years. He is a stockholder in the Port Huron Telephone Company. Fraternally Mr. and Mrs. Ross are both members of the Ancient Order
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
of Gleaners. and Mr. Ross belongs to the Knights of the Maccabees. while Mrs. Ross is a member of the Ladies of the Maccabees.
MILO PARKS. Thirty-five years ago Milo Parks settled on the fine property of one hundred acres which he now owns and has materially improved and enlarged until it ranks in line with the leading farms of its kind in this section. It is located in section 11, Berlin township, and his experiences in St. Clair county have been many and varied. as he came here at an early day and has witnessed and participated in the gradual development of the township from its infancy to a condition of high civilization and importanee. Mr. Parks was born in the town- ship of Sheffield. on the north shore of White Lake, Canada, July 10. 1832. and is a son of David and Cynthia (Barta) Parks.
David Parks was born on the shores of Bay llay, in Canada, May 10, 1803, a son of David Parks, a native of Massachusetts, and spent his whole life in agricultural pursnits in Canada, where his death occurred October 30. 1890. His wife, who was born June 24. 1814, passed away in 1898. and they were the parents of fourteen children. their names and the date of their births being as follows: Samuel Mason. May 3, 1831 ; Milo. July 10, 1832; Huldah. March 29. 1834; Mary A .. February 3. 1836; Hester A., November 23. 1837; Euniee, September 8. 1839; Nicholas, June 7, 1841; Thomas, August 8, 1843; Elicia A .. October 3, 1845; Estaeia A., December 25, 1847; George R., July 9, 1850; Char- lotte. October 23, 1852; Archibald, October 27, 1854; and Okle B .. June 23. 1857. Of the foregoing, Samuel M., Hester A .. Nicholas and Estacia A. are deceased.
Milo Parks was reared in his native vicinity. and his education was somewhat neglected, as he was one of the oldest children and the time that he would have otherwise given to his studies was spent in assisting his father in contributing to the support of the family. However, in later years he has devoted himself to a great deal of reading and study and is well informed on a number of subjeets. Ile remained on the homestead until he was twenty-seven years of age, and when he was mar- ried his father presented him with a tract of land as a reward for his hard and faithful labor as a youth. On September 24. 1863, he was united in marriage with Miss Almira Humphrey, who was born in Can- ada. April 1, 1844, and was educated in the high school, from which she graduated the year of her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Parks have four children : Alexander, who was born March 1, 1865: Morden F., Novem- ber 6, 1867 ; Wilraid, June 6, 1869; and Oswell, August 24, 1872. The Parks family eame to Michigan in 1877, on December 11th of which year they located on the present farm in section 11, Berlin township. and here Mr. Parks has continued to carry on agricultural pursuits to the present time. Each year he added to the tillable area and made in- provements both to land and buildings, and the property is now as valuable as any of its size in the township. In the community in which they live Mr. and Mrs. Parks are regarded with the highest esteem and respeet, and they are well and favorably known among the members of the Wesleyan Methodist church, Mrs. Parks being a member of the Ladies' Aid Society as well as the Women's Christian Temperance Union. In politieal matters Mr. Parks is a Republican, but he has never eared
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for public preferment, contenting himself with discharging his duties as a good and reliable citizen.
THOMAS PALMER. Although Thomas Palmer was never a resident of the county, his connection with it was so long, close and important that he deserves a prominent place in its records. He was born in Ashford, Connecticut, February 4, 1789, one of a family of six sons and three daughters, his father's family being of old New England descent, the first of the name coming to Massachusetts in 1621. His mother's father, Thomas Barber, was engaged in the Indian trade and came to Detroit as early as 1763 in the prosecution of his business. Undoubtedly in- fluenced by the grandfather's reports of the west and its opportuni- ties. in 1808 Thomas and his older brother, Friend, bought a stock of goods and started for the west, and coming through New York and Canada located for business at Malden, now Amherstburg. When the War of 1812 was declared the firm was doing a good business but they were seized as American citizens and suffered a short imprisonment. Upon their release they went to Detroit and were present at the sur- render of that place by General Hull. They were permitted to retake possession of their goods and they exchanged them for furs and re- turned east. A few months later they again started west, stopping this time at Canandaigua, New York, where they went into business.
In the spring of 1815 Thomas took a part of the stock and after a short stay in Ontario came to Detroit June 16, 1815, and began business as F. and T. Palmer, the brother remaining in Canandaigua, condneting the business there in the same name.
August 20, 1821, he married Mary Witherell, daughter of Judge James Witherell, and upon their return from the east on their wedding trip they were passengers upon the steamer "Walk in the Water" when she was wrecked near Buffalo Harbor, in November, 1821.
Congress gave to the territory of Michigan for the erection of public buildings and other public purposes the ten thousand acre tract lying then some distance outside of the city of Detroit, and in 1823 Mr. Palmer in conjunction with David C. Mckinstry contracted to erect the court honse for 6,600 acres of the tract and 144 city lots in addition. He also took contracts for the building of portions of the government turn- pikes leading from Detroit to Chicago and to Fort Gratiot, and was evidently a very enterprising man, engaging in any line of business which promised to be remunerative.
It was probably because of these qualities that he was called upon by James Fulton for assistance and became interested in St. Clair county.
In 1824 the settlement at St. Clair had grown but little since James Fulton had laid it out in 1820, although it was the county seat. Samuel Ward at Marine City was a pushing, enterprising citizen who could see advantages of having the county seat located near his property, and he began an agitation to remove it from St. Clair to the month of the Belle river. Fulton was in financial trouble, unable to carry out his obliga- tions to erect county buildings and when, in July, 1824, petitions to re- move the county seat were presented to the territorial council, and in the following month a bill was passed naming commissioners to examine into the matter, he was in imperative need of enlisting strong, efficient
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assistance, and appealed to the two men who had not long before under- taken to erect the territorial building at Detroit, Thomas Palmer and David MeKinstry, and in October of that year a contract was made, bind- ing them to carry out his contract, and in return they were to take the title of his land at St. Clair, manage the property and divide the profits.
Undoubtedly largely owing to the influence of the new elements in the case, the commissioners reported in favor of retaining the county seat at St. Clair and as Mr. Palmer obtained the MeKinstry interests. he became much interested in the prosperity and advancement of St. Clair and the county. Ile sent to the village Mr. John M. Wilson to plat the town, build the court house and conduct a store, the goods for which were furnished by the Detroit store of F. & T. Palmer, the ac- count being earried under the name of "The St. Clair Adventure." The deed from Fulton covered private elaims 304 and 305 and not long afterward Mr. Palmer bought claim No. 307, and in the spring of 1825 the Detroit Gazette contained an advertisement offering for sale 1,920 aeres of land "upon which the county seat of justice is located and a court house and jail are now building."
In 1826 his brother. Friend, closed ont the New York business and came to Detroit, where he died the following year. Before coming west he extended obligations of the firm, combined with business dullness. had brought about financial embarassment, from which Thomas Palmer suffered for many years, but which he did not allow to discourage his enterprise, and as his open honesty and integrity were well known to all his creditors they gave him all the leniency he asked and he re- ciproeated by paying them in full.
In 1827 in company with Horace Jerome, he built two saw mills on Pine river, about seven miles above its mouth in section 27, St. Clair township, and operated them about three years, and after renting them for two years he sold out his interest to Jerome in 1832. In 1834. in company with Horatio N. Monson, who furnished a rotary steam engine as his part of the enterprise he built a steam saw mill on St. Clair river south of Pine river, and this was operated until it was sold to Wesley Truesdail in 1841. In the same year, 1834, he supported Thomas M. Perry in starting a newspaper, the St. Clair Whig, which, after about two years' existenee. gave up the ghost. In 1836 his town plat took on new life. Speculation was rife and he interested a number of ontside people; he also induced Elijah J. Roberts, a young lawyer from the east, to go to St. Clair and locate, and they organized the St. Clair & Romeo Railroad and began its construction, most of the cost-several thousand dollars-being contributed by Mr. Pahner. When the state anthorized the construction of the Northern Railroad. it became to St. Clair a matter of the greatest importance to seeure the eastern terminal, and a strong effort was made to utilize the St. ('lair & Romeo road as a part of the State road, but the plan failed and St. Clair's Railroad went into a forty year seclusion.
By 1843 Mr. Palmer's financial interest in St. Clair had practically ceased; he sent his son, Thomas W., however, to the Thompson Acad- emy for the three years, from 1843 to 1846, and his brother. George. and nephew, Andrew, remained in the county during their lives.
In 1845 he became interested in Lake Superior mining operations,
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but not successfully, and later he engaged in the real estate and insur- ance business at Detroit, where he died, August 3, 1868.
In politics Mr. Palmer was a Whig, but with the exception of hold- ing the aldermanic office at Detroit for several years he never sought or held office. In person he was large, six feet in height and weighing two hundred pounds. His bodily action was slow and rather sluggish, and he took everything easily, business and life. He was "Uncle Tom" to everybody and was a most honest and upright man, and in- spired confidence, but often caused annoyance by his easy and slow methods. No kind of trade, business or undertaking was forbidden to him-furs, lumber, lands, fish, fruit, all were subjects of his dicker and few men have had as varied experience in business as Mr. Palmer, and though not successful in all, he performed his part with credit and left a comfortable fortune.
Hon. Thomas W. Palmer, United States Senator from Michigan, is his son.
THOMAS W. PALMER. Known throughout the nation as the presi- dent of the World's Fair Commission of 1892-3; honored by all Michi- gan as United States senator; familiar and dear to the city of De- troit as donor of Palmer Park, the Detroit Museum of Art and the Palmer Methodist church ; above all, a man sincerely beloved and deeply respected by every one who has intimately known him-going serenely down a long vale of fruitful years, Thomas Witherell Palmer is now. in 1912, in his eighty-third year.
During all of those years Detroit has been his home. On January 25, 1830, at the Palmer homestead on the southeast corned of Jeffer- son avenue and Griswold street, was born that son of the house of Palmer to whom was given his father's Christian name, Thomas, and the family name of his mother, who was in her girlhood Mary Witherell. That name was soon shortened by his friends into the affectionate diminutive, "Tom," and as Tom Palmer he is most widely known today. Of the nine children in the family none of the others have survived. To a little hamlet called Palmer the boy was sent for in- struction, his teacher being the Reverend O. C. Thompson, a strict old Scot, who nevertheless failed to make the boy religiously narrow any more than to drive from him by severity his inherent instinct for truth and right.
One of the stories of Thomas Palmer's childhood is that one day the Indian chief, Black Hawk, passing along the street, was attracted by the little boy's bright smile; that he bent down and for a moment enclosed the tiny child hand in his great brown one; and that-tradi- tion adds-he left the youngster a talisman that has insured "the Palmer luck." It is at any rate significant that Mr. Palmer named his building on Fort street the Tecumseh, and the site of that old home, latterly rebought by him, the Pontiac. That quality of friendliness was characteristic of his boyhood, as it ever since has been of his man- hood. The quality of comradeship, of catholic social appreciation, was then evidenced, as old friends remember, by his affection for every man and woman and child, every dog and cat, in old Detroit. His con- sideration for his chum, Warren Newberry, was equalled by his thought- fulness for the puppy which was their constant companion. For vi-
THOMAS W. PALMER
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IHISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
tality, good-nature and ingenuity, it has been averred that he was the original Tom Sawyer.
To the University of Michigan Mr. Palmer went for his college course. That period was interrupted by a serious difficulty with his eyes. He chose the alternative of learning what he might by travel, sinee the avenue of books was for the time closed to him. A tramping tour through Spain and shorter visits to other parts of Europe sig- nally broadened his horizon and had a direct effect upon later eras of his life. Travel also to South America gave another harvest of new impressions and at the end of that experience Thomas Palmer's plans were made for beginning life for himself.
His buying and selling of lumber, which he began in 1853, was so successful and of such proportions that other dealers were interested in his operations. One of these was Charles Merrill, a large dealer in pine lands and later one of Michigan's wealthiest men. Presently the lumber firm of C. Merrill & Company was organized, of which Mr. Palmer and J. B. Whittier were the company. Their great lumber mills at Saginaw were doing an immense amount of business at a time when that meant rapid money-making indeed.
In 1865 Thomas Palmer won the hand of Lizzie Pitts Merrill, the daughter of Charles Merrill, and the "greatest belle in the city and state." Thus were two large and growing fortunes united and the rate of their growth has in no degree lessened. Gradually, too, Mr. Palmer's business interests multiplied. He was soon numbered among the directors of the American Exchange National Bank, the Wayne County Savings Bank, the Security Safe and Deposit Company and the Gale Sulky Harrow Company; he also held interests iu the Detroit Navigation Company, the Michigan Lake Navigation Company, the Frontier Iron Works, the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Company, and the Iron and Silver Mining Company of Leadville, Colorado.
As his wealth increased, Mr. Palmer's thought of his fellows led him to present to the city of Detroit the most gracious gift it has ever received from any man. From a farm of six hundred and fifty acres Thomas Palmer fitted up the most attractive part with an arti- ficial lake, a miniature light house, and, in addition to many other features of charm and interest, a quaint log cabin, pieturesquely and appropriately garnished. With this as its central attraction, the place is often called Log Cabin Park; and it is an inestimable boon, with its luxuriant shade, its conservatories and artistic flower-beds, its swan- haunted pools, to the Detroit seeker of pure pleasure and rest.
As one of the founders of the Detroit Museum of Art, he donated fifteen thousand dollars to its support. And although with the attain- ing of the independent couvictions of manhood, Mr. Palmer became a Unitarian in theory, he paid tribute to the Methodist belief of his mother by his gift of fifteen thousand dollars for the erection of the Mary E. Palmer church, in her memory. Other gifts to the Methodist church through many channels he has made from time to time. His generosity to the Humane Society, the office expenses of which he alone conducted, and cut of his own pocket ; his gifts to the Masonie Temple ; and his seeret gifts said by those who know to be numberless-all this giving out of material good kept pace with the influx of the fortune of the man.
Thomas Palmer's first publie office was that of estimator-at-large of
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Detroit, an office not of his own seeking. Five years later he was sent to the Michigan state senate. It was due to his efforts and those of Representative Cottrell that the bill was passed which provided for the boulevard encircling the city of Detroit. It was he, too, who pre- sented the bill resulting in the creating of the Adrian Home for Girls.
In 1883, against Thomas W. Ferry, he was brought forward by his friends, who saw in him a future senator of worth. Once in the con- test, Thomas Palmer made his way gradually, with zest and skill, to the point of vantage. And his townsmen say of him today, as then, that he was not only one of the most popular, but one of the most efficient among all United States senators of Michigan since the time that she became a state. It is well worthy of remembrance that while in the senate he had charge of the bill creating the department of agri- culture. He made one of the first speeches ever heard in that body in favor of woman's suffrage. And in the discussions relative to the regu- lations concerning railroads, he it was who originated the phrase, "Equal rights to all, special privileges to none." But the best thing that can be said of Senator Palmer's service, both in his incumbency of that office and in the prefatory years, is that there have been no pas- sages in his life, public or private, that any might wish to have con- cealed.
When he retired from the senate, President Harrison would have given him a prominent cabinet position. He accepted instead the min- istry to Spain. This of all other courts was his chosen field of embassy, because of his youthful experiences in and his love for that country. The sincerity of his welcome at the Spanish court is evidenced by the fact that the later developing disagreement between the two countries did not lessen the courtesy and esteem in which he was held ..
Long and appreciatively will ex-Senator Palmer be remembered as the administrator of the great multitude and magnitude of business connected with the World's Columbian Exposition of 1892-3. His lav- ish expenditure of energy and time, even of his own money, his wise planning of complex elements, his graciousness to the countless num- bers of people who consulted him daily, above all, his tact in both man- aging and pleasing the many with whom he came in contact, these are best known to those who worked with him at the time. True it is that the commonest and least assuming of persons who sought him at his offices in the administration building were cordially met. True it is that men and women alike-among the latter Mrs. Potter Palmer, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Phoebe Cousins-have paid him grateful tribute; while Princess Eulalie, scion of royalty as she was, found in him the same informal comradeship that, with his charming gallantry of personality, was ever characteristic of him.
A story of the ex-Senator's life would not be complete, nor would the best of it be told, if it were left to be assumed by any one un- familiar with the current of his years that he never knew successful opposition or defeat. That his friends failed to accomplish his nomin- ation for state representative, though a greater honor followed; that the governorship nomination went not to him, but to his old schoolmate, David H. Jerome, in 1880; that his place in the cabinet was opposed by men disapproving of his clean political ideals, are well known by
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many persons. It is in relation to these situations that qualities, perhaps the very finest the man possessed. came to the surface. In regard to the second struggle referred to above, one of his friends wrote him in complaint of the "Guerilla warfare." constantly kept up to prevent his getting the nomination. From Madrid, where he was at the time, came his answer:
"As for the mismanagement of my political affairs, don't let that worry you. It doesn't worry me at all. If God wills that I am des- tined for anything. I shall get it. #
* I never was knocked down, but that I ascertained afterward that if I had not been knocked clown I should have met with a far worse fate. Remember that I can- not be injured permanently by any one but myself. If I do a mean thing, the wound is internal and vital; if others do mean things to me. the wound is superficial and harmless. If you want to conserve your nervous force. do not expect all mankind to act on a high plane. The world is a pretty good one. aside from positive eruelty in some, and everything would be millennial if everything was in the right place. It is not so mueh deceit and treachery as discord; and if every one was in the right place, there would be no discord, and no lies and treachery. Be philosophie, and remember that no harm can come to me on an ocean or on shore that I don't deserve or that will not finally result in my good." This generous interpretation of the faults of others, this philosophie explanation of all conflict and this optimistie attitude toward any and every phase of his own fate, go far toward ex- plaining the beauty of "Tom" Palmer's character, for it is nothing less.
His beautiful home on Walnut Lane, the great farm of which Log Cabin Park was a part, the splendid Washington mansion; his high positions in political circles, his enviable standing among foreign courts, his prestige in any society ; his expensive holdings in valuable lands, his shares in numerous financial concerns-none of these can a jealous world envy a man who has so deserved his prosperity. Rather does an affectionately appreciative public covet his purity of conseience, never smirched by impulses toward political prostitution; his elear vision never shadowed by double dealings and deceit; his glowing spirit, ever yielding that warmth of kindness so often miscalled diplo- maey or tact ; his firmness of soul, ever proof against the well-nigh uni- versal elutch of greed for graft in high places. For these gifts- whether he will need them beyond or not-are the ones Thomas Palmer will take with him over the border.
EDWIN FULLER. Prominent among the wide-awake. enterprising and successful agriculturists of Saint Clair county is Edwin Fuller, who owns and occupies in section one. Birchville township, a valuable farm. which in regard to its improvements and appointments compares favor- ably with any in the locality. The neatness and orderly appearance of his property manifest to the most casual observer the thrift and care of the proprietor, and show conclusively that he has a thorough under- standing of his business and exereises exeellent judgment in its manage- ment. A son of Hugh Fuller. he was born in Birchville township. April 27, 1861, and has here spent the greater part of his life.
Hugh Fuller was born October 20, 1825, in Canada. In 1849 he
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