The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. III, Part 10

Author: Burton, Clarence Monroe, 1853-1932, ed; Stocking, William, 1840- joint ed; Miller, Gordon K., joint ed
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Detroit-Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1022

USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. III > Part 10

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party and for a number of years has been one of the party's able counselors and advisers in both state and national politics. He has been a delegate to the National conventions of his party. In 1912 he was chosen Michigan's member of the Republican National Committee. He was at once made a member of its executive committee, and was chairman of the sub- committee that revised the procedure of the party organization and revamped the representation from the southern states in future conventions. He served for eight years, and then voluntarily declined to stand for reelection.

Colonel Warren was president of the Detroit Board of Commerce in 1914 and 1915, during the first years of the World war, when the work of this organization was probably of greater importance than at any time before in its history. Colonel Warren was appointed ambassador to Japan in June, 1921, and arrived at his post in Tokio in September following.

MICHAEL HUBERT O'BRIEN, member of the law firm of Denby, Kennedy & O'Brien, was born in Detroit, April 25, 1878, his parents being Michael William and Martha Frances (Watson) O'Brien. Lib- eral educational advantages were accorded him, his more specifically literary course being completed in Detroit College, which conferred upon him the Bach- elor of Arts degree in 1895 and that of Master of Arts in 1902. In the meantime he took up the study of law and was graduated from the Detroit College of Law in 1897 and devoted the succeeding year to further study in the department of law of the Univer- sity of Michigan, which conferred upon him the LL. B. degree in 1898. He initiated his professional career in connection with the law firm of Keena & Lightner and in 1900 became one of the organizers of the firm of May & O'Brien, his associate being Samuel L. May, circuit court commissioner. Later they were joined by Hon. Edwin Denby, former member of con- gress, under the firm style of May, Denby & O'Brien, and this association was maintained until February, 1907, when he went to China. Upon his return to Detroit in 1910 Mr. O'Brien became associated in law practice with William G. Fitzpatrick, Frank E. Dore- mus and Charles E. Duffy, under the firm name of Fitzpatrick, O'Brien, Doremus & Duffy, that connec- tion existing from 1909 until July, 1918. In January, 1919, he became a member of the firm of Denby, Kennedy & O'Brien and is now practicing in that partnership relation.

In February, 1907, Mr. O'Brien became marshal of the United States court for China and filled that position until October, 1909. He has had broad mil- itary experience, having enlisted in the First Division of the Michigan State Naval Brigade, in 1899 and serving continuously until 1905, when he received a Commission as ensign of the First Division of the Michigan State Naval Brigade, which position he resigned in 1907 on going to China. His activity

CITY OF DETROIT

aside from his profession has been in connection with the Denby Motor Truck Company, of which be is the secretary; the Bankers Trust Company, of which he is a director; and the Inland Metal Products Company, of which he is a director.

On the 15th of June, 1912, Mr. O'Brien was married to Mrs. Zula Vail Shirts (neé Cheney) of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mr. O'Brien is of the Catholie faith and is identified with the Knights of Columbus and the St. Vincent De Paul Society. He was formerly identified with the Associated Charities of Detroit and has been keenly and helpfully interested in activities to promote the uplift of his fellowmen and to amel- iorate the hard conditions of society for the unfortu- nate. He is prominent in the club circles of the city, belonging to the Bankers Club, the University, Detroit Boat, Detroit Athletic, Detroit Racquet and Curling, the Indian Village, the Loehmoor, the Lawyers and the Green Bag Clubs. He is likewise a member of the Sigma Phi fraternity, the University of Detroit Alumni Association and the Detroit College of Law Alumni Association and he has membership in the American Association of China. He is a member of the Board of Commerce and was on its board of direc- tors for two years. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party and he is well versed on the vital questions and issues of the day. Along strictly professional lines he is identified with the Detroit, Michigan State and American Bar Associations.

CYRENIUS ADELBERT NEWCOMB. "All men speak well of him," was the well deserved encomium frequently passed upon Cyrenius Adelbert Newcomb, for many years a most prominent figure in the busi- ness circles of Detroit and influential in his support of all those projects which had to do with the upbuild- ing of the city and the uplift of the individual. No one eame into contact with Mr. Newcomb who did not speedily appreciate him at his true worth. His character was as clear as the sunlight. His ideals of life were extremely high and found expression in his everyday life. There were no spectacular phases in his career but the simplicity and beauty of his eharacter were manifest to all, while in his business life his close application, sound judgment and unfal- tering industry brought to him a measure of success that placed him in the front rank among the mer- chants of Detroit. Business, however, was to him merely a means to an end. It constituted but one phase of his career, as he always found time and op- portunity to cooperate in those activities which touch the general interests and welfare of society. He labored for civic betterment and for progress for the individual and his labors were directly resultant.

Mr. Newcomb was a representative of one of the old New England families but the ancestral line could be traced back to a period far remote, mention being made of his forbears, the Newcombs of Devonshire, England, in the Harlein manuscripts found in the

British museum, connecting them with events as early as 1189. The first representative of the family in the new world was Captain Andrew Newcomb. The earliest record was in the year 1618. Successive generations were represented in the war for independ- ence and the name has long been a synonym for American patriotism.

The birth of Cyrenius Adelbert Newcomb occurred in Cortland, New York, on the 10th of November, 1837, his parents being Colonel Hezekiah and Nancy (Rounds) Newcomb, who were natives of Franklin county, Massachusetts, but removed to the "far west" by becoming residents of Cortland county in the Empire state. Mr. Newcomb's father and grandfather represented their distriet for several terms in the Mass- achusetts legislature. Through the period of his boyhood and youth Cyrenius A. Newcomb largely devoted his attention to the acquirement of an educa- tion, supplementing his common school course by study in the Massachusetts State Normal School at Bridge- water. He was but two years of age, however, at the time of his father's death and it is related of him that when a lad of eight years he began earning money by digging potatoes. Writing the story of his life, Len G. Shaw said: "More than threescore years ago a stubby bit of a boy, barefooted, brown, his apparel consisting of eoarse homespun trousers patterned with a view to long service, and a home- made shirt, plodded wearily across a freshly plowed field, picking up potatoes as they were uncovered by a man with a hoe. The sun beat down fiercely upon this diminutive bit of bumanity until perspiration streamed from every pore. There wasn't a ehord in his body that didn't ache, and every move of the sore muscles caused pain. But the youngster strug- gled manfully, shut his lips tightly together and never murmured. Wasn't he to receive twenty-five cents a day or a bushel of potatoes for his services, a wage that to him seemed princely? Besides, he had started out with a determination to do a little more than was expected of one of his age-and the eight-year- old boy made good."

Through the period of his youth, while attending school in the winter Mr. Newcomb continued to work in the summer months and though contributing to the support of the family he also laid by a sufficient sum of money to enable him to meet his craving for educa- tion further than the district schools afforded. Aside from farm work, he earned his first money in the mercantile field, securing a elerkship in a store in Hannibal Center, Oswego county, New York, a store that carried every line of merchandise, while the vil- lage post office was located in one corner of the room. There he began his work at sunrise in the summer and by lamplight in the winter, his labors continuing until the evening hours. His first year's service as clerk brought him a remuneration of fifty dollars, together with board in the home of his employer, while he slept in a room above the store. That his services

CYRENIUS A. NEWCOMB

CITY OF DETROIT

were satisfactory is indicated in the fact that his salary in the second year was advanced to seventy-five dollars. Later he went to Oswego, New York, where he engaged in clerking for a year, and one of the secrets of his success as a clerk was his thorough re- liability. He never attempted to deceive a customer as to the value of any goods and the same policy actuated him when he began merchandising on his own account. While he was in Oswego his mother and her family returned to Massachusetts, and joining them there, he embraced the opportunity of pursuing a course in the normal school at Bridgewater. Not long afterward he taught school for a brief period, but nature seemed to have intended him for a merchant. llis taste and tendency was in that direction and he became a salesman in the dry goods store of N. H. Skinner & Company of Taunton. His capability brought him a partnership in the establishment in which he was employed but when another two years has passed he determined to try his fortune in the growing west, and disposing of his interests in Tann- ton, removed to Michigan. When once questioued as to the cause of success Mr. Newcomb replied: "One of the chief requirements for a success that is to endure is reliability-dependableness, we used to call it, before that term became obsolete. Look around you and see who the young men are that are making their way in the world. You will find that they are the ones whose word can be relied upon. If they tell you anything you know it is so. If they promise to do anything, they do it. They are always where they agree to be and they keep their pledges to the letter, however slight they may be. That is the ele- ment too infrequently encountered, and it is this very lack that opens up the road to success to the man who determines to shape his course along these lines- and carries out this determination. What success I have achieved in a commercial way has been due largely to my good fortune in being surrounded by men who were dependable-I like the word. And the opportunities for men of this class are greater today than ever. The trouble is, we are prone to view success solely in its relation to the accumulation of dollars. Success that is worth while doesn't always involve the accumulation of wealth. The most suc- cessful man in life, the one who can look back on the years that have passed without regret, is the one who has dealt honestly with his fellowmen, who has lived a clean life, who has done the best he knew how, whose waking hours or whose slumbers are not disturbed by the qualms of a guilty conscience. That is success in the truest sense of the term, popular belief to the contrary notwithstanding."

With his removal to Detroit in 1868, Mr. Newcomb became identified with the mercantile life of the city, taking hold of a business, the sales of which amounted to a few thousands per year. Through his capable management and the assistance of the men with whom he was associated the business developed until it

was reckoned in millions. On his arrival he formed a partnership with Charles Endicott and purchased the well established dry goods store of James W. Farrell & Brother. With the organization of the business the Newcomb-Endicott Company was formed and the association between the partners was con- tinued until the death of Mr. Endicott on the 18th of January, 1896. This social and business connection was founded upon thorough understanding and thorough worth on the part of each. For a year the firm remained at its original location in the Merrill block on Woodward avenue bnt removed to the De- troit Opera House block upon its completion. This was then considered outside of the business center of the city but trade followed the establishment in its removal. In 1879 Dexter M. Ferry commenced the erection for the firm of a new building on the east side of Woodward avenue, just north of State street, and since it was first occupied in 1881 the building has been enlarged and remodeled until it now has a frontage also on Farmer street and East Grand River avenne. The enlarged space has been demanded by the increase of the business, which has been built up on the foundation of enterprise and reliability laid by Mr. Newcomb and his associates. At the time of his death there were those in his service who had been employed by him for twenty and thirty years. He was always most solicitous as to the wel- fare of his employes and he was the first to establish the six o'clock closing of department stores in the city and to oppose the opening of the stores on Saturday evening. In February, 1903, the business of the firm was incorporated under the laws of Michigan with a capital stock of five hundred thousand dollars, Mr. Newcomb being elected the president, with George T. Moody as first vice president, H. Byron Scott, secoud vice president, and Cyrenius A. Newcomb, Jr., as sec- retary, with John Endicott, a nephew of the original partner, Mr. Charles Endicott, as treasurer. The capital stock of the business was afterward doubled, for the establishment developed with the growth of the city and has ever remained the leading mercantile house of Detroit. Into other fields Mr. Newcomb also extended his efforts and at the time of his death was the vice president of the Anderson Electric Car Company and was not only one of the prominent figures in the business circles of Detroit but also in its civic life.

On the 12th of November, 1867, just before his removal to Detroit, Mr. Newcomb was united in mar- riage to Miss Mary E. Haskell, a daughter of William R. Haskell of Hartford, Connecticut. They became the parents of three sons and a daughter: William Wilmon, a Detroit physician well known in the seien- tifie world as an entomologist; Cyrenins A., Jr., who during his father's lifetime was secretary of the New- comb-Endicott Company and succeeded to the presi- deney; Mary Queen, the wife of William E. Fuller, a lawyer of Fall River, Massachusetts: and Howard Rounds, a director and one of the department mana-

CITY OF DETROIT

gers of the Newcomb-Endicott Company. The wife and mother passed away November 17, 1887. On the 20th of September, 1899, Mr. Newcomb wedded Miss Mary Sharp, who was horn and reared in Scotland.

Mr. Newcomb was long a devoted member of the Universalist church and contributed in substantial measure to its growth through his active work in its behalf and his generous support thereof. He stood loyally as the champion of every valuable civic meas- ure in Detroit and he served for many years as one of the trustees .of the Detroit Museum of Art, of which he was one of the five founders, each contributing a thousand dollars in 1884 toward the movement for es- tablishing an art museum in the city. A resolution passed by the board of trustees of the museum spoke in a most appreciative and grateful manner of the services of Mr. Newcomb. While Mr. Newcomb was in failing health for about a year, he was confined to his bed for only one day when death called him on the 9th of March, 1915. The passing of no resident of Detroit has occasioned deeper regret nor received wider notice and comment from the press. The Detroit Journal said: "Mr. C. A. Newcomb, who passed away yesterday, was one of those men whose business life represents ancient and steadfast ideals and who leaves a great store as a personal monument to character.

"With fine simplicity, Mr. Newcomb began business life in smaller cities in the east, and with 'one in- ereasing purpose' he continued and completed his ca- reer in the Newcomb-Endicott store in Detroit, which he established forty-seven years ago.

"From the very earliest days, when his salesrooms in the Opera House block seemed almost outside the business district, to later years, when glittering trade of an opulent metropolis hummed at his doors, he was the same man, with the same principles of homely wisdom, but with the same receptiveness to new lights and new ideas, without which no merchant can live through the fickle fashionable years.

"Mr. Newcomb saw his business grow without strain and always with preparedness. He surrounded himself early with large-minded and faithful men whom he rewarded with large-minded faithfulness. So he was able when necessary to intrust great responsibilities to others and portion his labor among them-and yet he was always able, even in the quiet years of his comparative retirement, to make his influence felt and his seasoned wisdom appreciated by these young and masterful men.

"He had laid the cornerstone in his youth with the simple level and square, and true to that foundation he saw the edifice rise, story by story.

"This was a personal success, and it was also a new success of those everlasting Puritan principles on which C. A. Newcomb's personal life was built, and which his clear-visioned, unpretentious and mildly- indomitable personality so gently but strongly typi- fied."

It was characteristic of Mr. Newcomb that while a

stanch republican in politics, at local elections, where no political issue was involved, he always cast an in- dependent ballot, seeking ever the welfare of the city. The Detroit Free Press, following his demise, said of him: "The very large influence which C. A. New- comb exerted in this community during the years of his life here grew out of what he did and what he was, rather than out of what he said or advocated. He put his ideals into concrete form and let them speak for themselves. Consequently the good he ac- complished in Detroit was, humanly speaking, per- manent and will continue to operate long after the effect of much noisy propaganda has worn off and been forgotten.

"Naturally Mr. Newcomb's activities were largely bound up in the large business he helped to found, for whose success he was largely responsible and which for many years has been one of the city's just causes for pride. He was considered a model merchant and a model employer. As employer it was he who first instituted and insisted upon a maintenance of the poliey of early Saturday night closing, and for a great many years he was almost the only storekeeper who stood courageously and persistently for this reform. With his patrons he stood for reliability. He never paraded or made any fuss about his principles along this line. Honesty was not a mere policy with him; it was a principle.

"In his church relationships Mr. Newcomb was equally influential and equally free from all tendency to pretense or show. And as in his business and church relationships, so he was wherever else he touched life. Mr. Newcomb was in brief a genuine example of that all too rare factor in American life, the gentleman of the old school."

Poems which he had long known and loved took the place of music at the simple funeral services which were held when C. A. Newcomb passed on, and as his remains were consigned to the earth his pastor, Dr. Moore, read Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar," which so patly voiced his thought and belief.

"Twilight and evening bell And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell When I embark.

"For though from out this bourne of Time and Space The floods may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar."

HOMER WARREN, a native of Michigan and a resident of Detroit for nearly fifty years, is one of the comparatively few men of the city who have reached extraordinary heights in both vocation and reputation. Mr. Warren's particular business has been and is the buying and selling of real estate and in this connection he has accomplished things much above the common run. His dealings have always been char-

HOMER WARREN

CITY OF DETROIT

acterized by an exclusiveness rendered by their very proportions and importance; he has hewn strictly to the line in business probity, personal integrity and liberal cooperation with his clients. Of his success he is deserving, is the expression of many of his friends, for it has been acquired only by personal effort and tireless application, not by an eccentric turn of for- tune's wheel.

Homer Warren was born at Shelby, Oceana county, Michigan, December 1, 1855, and was the son of Rev. Square E. and Ellen (Davis) Warren, both of whom were born in Macomb county, Michigan. Rev. Square E. Warren was a prominent member of the Methodist clergy and labored long and zealously in Michigan. He died at Armada in 1900, at the age of seventy-five years. He was also the son of a minister, Rev. Abel Warren, who likewise was a clergyman of the Metho- dist church and who was a native of Vermont, the family having been founded early in the old Green Mountain state, where he was reared and educated and whence he came as the original representative of the family in Michigan. He was one of the pioneers of Macomb county, where he secured a tract of wild land and instituted the development of a farm, also devoting much time to the work of the ministry. Homer Warren's maternal grandfather was also among the pioneers of Michigan. Mrs. Ellen (Davis) War- ren was a resident of Macomb county at the time of her death.

Homer Warren in his youth attended the public schools wherever his father held a pastorate. In 1873, at the age of eighteen years, he left the parental home, which was then located at South Lyon, Mich- igan, and came to Detroit, where he became a clerk for the firm of J. M. Arnold & Company, dealers in books and stationery. He remained with this concern until 1878, when he resigned his position to accept that of deputy collector of customs for the port of Detroit, under Digby V. Bell. Upon the change in the national administration in 1885, Mr. Warren ten- dered his resignation to D. J. Campau, who refused to accept it, and he continued to fill the position of cash- ier until 1886, when ill health compelled him to resign.

Not long after this Mr. Warren first established himself in the business in which he was to win marked snecess, that of real estate. He began operations on a small scale, having desk room in the office of J. W. Beaumont, one of the prominent younger members of the Detroit bar at that time. His first transaction in realty was the sale of the property at the south- west corner of Woodward avenue and Sproat street, with a frontage of fifty-two feet on the avenue and one hundred and sixty-seven feet on Sproat street. The buyer of this property was Richard H. Fyfe, then as now one of the leading merchants of the city. Mr. Warren's reputation quickly began to grow and it was not long before his services and counsel were sought by some of the most prominent men of the day, among them being Levi L. Barbour, Joseph

H. Berry, Theodore H. Eafon, Hugo Scherer, Colonel Frank J. Hecker, James F. Joy, David Whitney, Jr., and others, some of whom have passed on, but their places in Mr. Warren's clientele have been taken by men equally important in the present-day ranks of business men. No one fact better illustrates the con- fidence in which he was held than this-the class of men who did business with him. His motives were not alone mercenary as is the case in so many in- stances. He has had the good of the city in his heart and mind and his efforts and influence have from the very beginning been directed toward the up- building of a greater Detroit, a metropolis worthy of its best traditions. Mr. Warren was largely instru- mental in the selection of the site for the Hotel Statler in Detroit, as well as being no small factor in the decision of the Statler Hotel Company to build in this city. This is but one of the many benefits his activities and public spirit have been to Detroit.

In 1892, his real estate operations having become so extensive and varied, Mr. Warren found it neces- sary to enlarge his facilities for conducting the work. He therefore organized the firm of Homer Warren & Company, in which he secured as associates Cullen Brown and Frank C. Andrews. The firm soon gained unquestioned priority as an important factor in the local real estate field. The business of this firm was extended into all parts of Michigan and it has at times handled large estates located outside of the state limits. An insurance department was added to the organization and the business in this line built up to large proportions as representative of such com- panies as the Providence-Washington Insurance Com- pany of Providence, Rhode Island; the German Alliance of New York city; the Springfield Insurance Company of Massachusetts; the Phoenix Fire Insurance Com- pany of Hartford, Connecticut; and the Aachen and Munich of Aix la Chapelle, France.

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The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. III, Part 10

Author: Burton, Clarence Monroe, 1853-1932, ed; Stocking, William, 1840- joint ed; Miller, Gordon K., joint ed Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Detroit-Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 1022

Author: Burton, Clarence Monroe, 1853-1932, ed; Stocking, William, 1840- joint ed; Miller, Gordon K., joint ed
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Detroit-Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1022