The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. III, Part 2

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 2

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Mr. Ferry's identification with the line of enter- prise with which his name has been so long and con- spicuously linked dates from 1856, when he was one of the organizers of the firm of M. T. Gardner & Company, seedsmen, in which he became one of the junior partners. Under these conditions the busi- ness was conducted until 1865, when Mr. Gardner's interest was purchased and Mr. Ferry was made head of the firm, the title of which was then changed to Ferry, Church & Company. Two years later the present title of D. M. Ferry & Company was adopted, and in 1879 the business was incorporated under this name. The province of this memoir is not such as to demand specific consideration of the development and upbuilding of the great industrial enterprise controlled by this corporation, but the following ex- tract from a former history of Detroit is well worthy of reproduction at this juncture:

"The building up of this great industry, which is far-reaching in its influence and which contributes not only to the prosperity of Detroit but also to that of an army of employes, is doubtless a more beneficent factor in commercial affairs throughout the country than almost any other establishment in the west. In its management from the beginning Mr. Ferry had a decisive influence, and that its great success is largely attributable to his persistent energy, sa- gacity, integrity and rare talent for organization is

freely and readily acknowledged by those most con- versant with its beginning, growth and development. Through this extensive commerical enterprise his name and work have been made more widely known than that of almost any other merchant in the United States."

The peculiarly intimate, almost domestic, relation- ship which this enterprise hears to the average home is what makes the reputation of the house and the name of Mr. Ferry so widely known, for few homes there are in which seeds, either flower or vegetable, are not demanded, and no other concern in the world can claim as ample and high-grade facilities.

Mr. Ferry was distinctively a man with ideas and ideals, and he did not narrow his mental horizon within the hounds of personal advancement and ag- grandizement. He was essentially loyal and public- spirited as a citizen, but his broad experience and mature judgment kept him from diverging from prac- tical lines in public affairs and private benevolences, even as in his business. He knew men and placed upon each legitimate valuation, so that he was not one who could he cajoled by flattery or be made to alter tenable opinions based upon honest conviction. Self-respect and self-control indicated the man, and his very hearing denoted sincerity and power; made him strong as a man among men. Such a positive nature may at times provoke enmities, but these enmities emanate from sources which tend to elevate the man himself in the estimation of those who best know him and who have appreciation of his actuating motives. These statements are made for the purpose of accentuating the fact that Mr. Ferry's public spirit and civic loyalty were not an expression of mere senti- ment or prompted hy a desire for self-advancement, and the same is true of his charities, which were numerous, practical, liberal and ever unostentatious. He made for himself a high place in the civic and commercial life of his home city, and from his vantage ground nothing could work to dislodge him. He held the ground because he had won and merited it.

Mr. Ferry had other important and varied interests and responsibilities aside from those involved in his connection with the gigantic industry whch bears his name. He was, at the time of his death, presi- dent of the First National Bank of Detroit and also of the Union Trust Company, the American Harrow Company, the National Pin Company, the Standard Accident Insurance Company and the Michigan Fire & Marine Insurance Company. He was one of the organizers of the Wayne County Savings Bank and was the last survivor of the original corporators of this institution, besides which he had stock interest in several other important institutions and corpora- tions in Detroit and elsewhere. He was the owner of a large amount of valuable real estate in Detroit, most all of which was utilized in connection with the seed business, and was ever zealous in the im- provement of the same according to the best standards.

CITY OF DETROIT

In this connection it should be especially noted that he was the owner and builder of the fine building occupied by the extensive dry goods house of the Newcomb-Endicott Company, on Woodward avenue, this having been the first large and modern structure to be erected on that beautiful business and residence thoroughfare.

In the midst of the countless cares and exactions of his many business interests, which would tax t. strength of the strongest man, Mr. Ferry yet found time to place himself on record as an active and prolific worker in behalf of his home city and in the support of the political party with which he was stanchly arrayed. He was unswerving in his alle- giance to the republican party and was a stalwart and effective advocate of its principles and policies, as he was admirably fortified in his opinions as to matters of economic and civic import, with a broad understanding of the agencies which rule political destinies as well as those of commercial order. In 1877-78 Mr. Ferry served as a member of the Detroit board of estimates, and at the expiration of his term he declined renomination. In 1884 he was appointed a member of the board of park commissioners, by Mayor Stephen B. Grummond, and in this office he led a valiant campaign against the sale of beer and other intoxicants on Belle Isle, the city's beautiful river park-an action which gained to him the hearty approval of the best element of citizenship. In 1900 he was one of the prominent candidates presented by his party for the nomination for governor of the state, but he was defeated after a most spirited three- cornered contest in the nominating convention. He was chairman of the republican state central com- mittee from 1896 to 1898, inclusive, and most effec- tively maneuvered the forces of his party in Mich- igan through the memorable campaign in which the free silver policies of William J. Bryan were advanced by the democratic party. In 1892, and again in 1904, Mr. Ferry was a delegate at large from Michigan to the national republican convention, the first of which was held in Minneapolis and the second in Chicago. In 1868 he became actively identified with the official control and management of Harper Hospital, one of the fine institutions of Detroit. He helped found Grace Hospital, whose facilities and general standing are unexcelled in the Michigan metropolis and at the time of his death he was president of the board of trustees of this institution. He was a trustee of Olivet College, at Olivet, Michigan, an institution maintained under the auspices of the Congregational church, and he was also a trustee of the Woodward Avenue church of this denomination in Detroit. Both he and his wife were most earnest and zealous mem- bers of this congregation and contributed with dis- tinctive liberality to the various departments of its work, as well as to that of the church in general.

On the 1st of October, 1867, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ferry to Miss Addie E. Miller of

Unadilla, Otsego county, New York, and she was summoned to the life eternal on the 2d of November, 1906, her memory being revered by all who came within the compass of her gentle and gracious influ- ence. Of the children of this union one son and two daughters are living: Dexter M., Jr., of Detroit, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work; Blanche, who is the wife of Elon H. Hooker of Greenwich, Connecticut; and Queene, who is the wife of Avery Coonley of Washington, D. C.

Dexter M. Ferry, Sr., died on the 10th of November, 1907, in his seventy-fourth year, and just a year after the demise of his devoted and beloved wife, whose absence undoubtedly hastened his end. He maintained remarkable vigor and health and his sudden death, due to the inroads of advanced age, was a great shock to his family and to the community at large. Hia mortal remains were borne to the grave by eight of his co- workers in the corporation of D. M. Ferry & Com- pany. Mr. Ferry was a man of patrician bearing and marked affability, with naught of intolerance, and his sterling attributes gained to him stanch friends in all classes, so that his death was held as a personal bereavement to those whom he had thus "grappled to his soul with hoops of steel." Mr. Ferry meant much to Detroit, even as the city meant much to him, and few there are or have been who have given to the city and state a more excellent heritage of work accomplished and deeds worthily done.

RICHARD HENRY FYFE, the head of what is per- haps the largest shoe store in the world, entered upon his business career in Detroit in 1857 in a bumble clerkship. Not by leaps and bounds but through a steady and orderly progression has Mr. Fyfe reached the position of leadership which he now occupies in connection with the shoe trade of the country. The story of his life is the story of earnest endeavor, in- telligently directed. There have been no esoteric phases in his career and no special advantages from the outside have secured his promotion, which has been won by earnest effort and close application, re- sulting in the thorough mastery of every phase of the business with which he has for so many years been connected.

Mr. Fyfe has practically spent his life in Michigan, although born at Oak Orchard, in Orleans county, New York, on the 5th of January, 1839. During his in- fancy he was brought to Michigan by his parents, Claudius L. and Abigail (Gilbert) Fyfe. The family is of Scotch lineage, the ancestral line being traced back to John Fitfe of Fifeshire, Scotland, whose son, John Fyfe, became the founder of the family in the new world and was the first of the family to adopt the present orthography of the name. He acquired an excellent education in his native land and in 1775 came to the new world, settling near Boston, Massa- chusetts. He afterward joined a Massachusetts regi- ment and was in active service during the early period

RICHARD H. FYFE

CITY OF DETROIT

of the Revolutionary war. On the 1st of February, 1786, he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Strong, a descendant of John Strong, one of the found- ers of Dorchester, Massachusetts, who there located in 1730 upon emigrating from England. The Strong fam- ily has since figured prominently in connection with America's history and of the family it has been said: "Few families have had more educated or professional men among them." It was not long after his mar- riage that John Fyfe removed with his bride to Salis- bury, Addison county, Vermont, becoming one of the earliest settlers of that district, where he continued to reside until his death on the 1st of January, 1813. His widow survived him for twenty-two years and passed away in November, 1835.

Of their family of four sons and three daughters, Claudius Lucius Fyfe was the youngest. His birth occurred in Addison county, Vermont, January 3, 1798, and there he was reared amid pioneer condi- tions and environment. While school privileges in that frontier district were limited, nature had endowed him with marked intellectual gifts that enabled him through reading, study and experience to become a well informed man. He was married at Brandon, Ver- mont, April 6, 1825, to Miss Abigail Gilbert, whose parents were among the pioneer residents of Genesee county, New York. Mr. Fyfe devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits in Vermont until 1830, when he removed with his family to Knowlesville, Orleans county, New York, and later he resided in Chautauqua county, that state. In 1837 he removed with his fam- ily to Michigan and though he soon afterward re- turned to New York, he later again became a resi- dent of this state, settling in Hillsdale, his death oc- curring in 1881, when he had passed the eightieth milestone on life's journey. He was an active factor in the development and progress of Michigan through its pioneer epoch. For a number of years he con- ducted a tannery at Hillsdale and became the owner of valuable farm land in that district. His wife died in 1848, in the faith of the Presbyterian church, of which she was for many years a most earnest and consistent member. They had a family of five daugh- ters and one son, of whom two are living, Jennie and Richard Henry.

The latter, brought to Michigan during his infancy, was a pupil in the public schools of Litchfield, Hills- dale county, to the age of eleven years, when he began to provide for his own support, owing to the fact that his father had suffered financial reverses. He was first employed as clerk in the drug store of E. B. Booth at Kalamazoo, Michigan, and afterward occu- pied a similar position with Mott Brothers, druggists at Hillsdale. The year 1857 was a momentous one in his life, as it witnessed his arrival in Detroit and his initial connection with the shoe trade. He entered the store of T. K. Adams, with whom he remained for six years, a fact indicative of his faithfulness and capability. He not only utilized every opportunity

of thoroughly acquainting himself with the trade but much of his leisure time was devoted to reading and study, and possessing throughout his life an observing eye and retentive memory, he has long since become recognized as one of the strongly intellectual and forceful business men of Detroit. On leaving his first employer in the city he obtained a position with Rucker & Morgan, also shoe merchants, and in 1865 he started out in business independently, being enabled to take this course through the industry and economy which he had practiced. He purchased the shoe house of C. C. Tyler & Company, the success- ors of his original employer, Mr. Adams, and in 1875 he erected at No. 101 Woodward avenue a sub- stantial five-story building in order to meet the demands of his contantly growing trade. Throughout the intervening period to the present time the business has steadily developed, Mr. Fyfe using every legiti- mate opportunity to further the interests of the house. In 1881 he purchased the boot and shoe estab- lishment of A. R. Morgan at No. 106 Woodward avenue and for some time conducted the business as a branch of his original store. In 1885 he removed his business to Nos. 183 and 185 Woodward avenue and in 1918 was begun the erection of the magnificent Fyfe build- ing on Grand Circus park in Detroit, which was com- pleted in 1919. Ten floors, four mezzanine floors and two basements of this fine terra cotta structure are devoted to the sale of shoes, making perhaps the largest shoe store in the world. While Mr. Fyfe started in business independently, in 1875 he formed the firm of R. H. Fyfe & Company and the business has since been carried on under that style. Its continuous, steady and marvelous development, however, is attributable in very large measure to the efforts of Mr. Fyfe, who even now at the age of eighty years, gives personal supervision to the conduct thereof. There is no fea- ture of the shoe trade of the country with which he is not thoroughly familiar and his mammoth patronage has been obtained by the most progressive and relia- able business methods. Throughout his connection with the trade circles of Detroit, covering sixty-two years, he has ever maintained an unassailable record for business integrity. Aside from the shoe trade he became an active factor in the reorganization of the Citizens Savings Bank in 1890 and filled the office of vice president until 1898, when he was elected to the presidency and so continued for twelve years, or until the bank was merged with the Dime Savings Bank, of which he is now a director. In keeping with the spirit of progress which has ever actuated him, he has put forth his efforts along various other lines, many of which have brought to him no remun- eration but have constituted important factors in the development of the city. For several years he served as a member of the board of trustees of the Michigan Medical College and assisted in bringing about its consolidation with the Detroit Medical Col- lege under the name of the Michigan College of Med-

CITY OF DETROIT

icine. Of the newly created institution he has long served as a trustee. He has been a large investor in Detroit real estate and through its steady advance- ment in value he has profited largely.

On the 27th of October, 1868, Mr. Fyfe was married to Miss Abby Lucretia Albee Rice, who was born in Marlboro, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, a daughter of Abraham W. Rice, a leading and prom- inent citizen of Marlboro. For almost half a century this worthy couple traveled life's journey most hap- pily together but were separated by the death of Mrs. Fyfe on the 1st of January, 1917. She had been most active in church, charitable, benevolent and social affairs of Detroit, had filled the office of state vice regent of the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and was at one time regent of the Detroit Chapter. She was also vice president of the Thompson Old Ladies Home and for more than a quarter of a century was an honorary member of the governing board of the Protestant Orphans Home, of which board she had served as secretary for several years. Her lofty patriotism came to her from a dis- tinguished ancestry long connected with events which have shaped American history. Among her ancestors were those who served with the Continental forces in the Revolutionary war and Mrs. Fyfe was president of the Michigan organization of the Mount Vernon Society, through the efforts of which the beautiful old home of George Washington has been preserved to the nation. She was president of the Michigan Society and also president of the Detroit Society of the Colonial Dames. Her influence was so beneficent and her example so inspiring that the memory of her beautiful and helpful life remains as a blessed ben- ediction to all who knew her.

Since the organization of the republican party Mr. Fyfe has been numbered among its stalwart support- ers but has never had political ambitions. However, he served as a member and for a number of years as president of the Detroit City Lighting Commission, being the head of the commission during the con- struction of the present lighting plant of the city. He was also at one time president of the Detroit Munici- pal League and under his guidance the organization accomplished great good in the way of reform and through the advancement of the commercial and in- dustrial interests of the city. Mr. Fyfe belongs to the local organizations of the New England Society and the Sons of the American Revolution and of the former was at one time president, while in 1908 he served as president of the latter. He is likewise actively identified with the Detroit Board of Com- merce and has cooperated heartily in the advancement of civic ideals and the promotion of civic progress through the agency of the board. He belongs to the Detroit Club, the Detroit Athletic Club and to the Old Club of Detroit and he has long found his re- creation in foreign travel and also in hunting and fishing. His career is a notable example of the op-

portunities that come to the American young man. Out of the struggle with small opportunities he has come into a field of broad and active influence and usefulness and his has been the privilege of maintain- ing the precious prize of keen mentality through the evening of his days. His business has ever balanced up with the principles of truth and honor, and while he has attained notable success this has been but one phase of his life's activities, as he has ever recog- nized his obligations and utilized his opportunities for the benefit and upbuilding of his city and state.

JOSEPH H. BERRY, pioneer manufacturer and financier of Detroit, was a man endowed with the elements of greatness. Few men of this great munici- pality have contributed more substantially to the in- dustrial development, the business welfare or the social status of the community than Mr. Berry. Char- acterized by rugged honesty of purpose, independence of thought and action, absolute integrity and vigorous energy, he was an inspiration to his fellows and the object of their utmost honor and respect. In the business and manufacturing world he was internation- ally known, but the attainment of this prestige and accompanying wealth was but one phase of his life, so replete with the pursuit of other ideals.

The birth of Joseph H. Berry occurred March 10, 1839, at Elizabeth, Union county, New Jersey. He came from English ancestry, his father, John Berry, having been a native of Lewes, England, who came to the United States in 1835, establishing his home at Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he conducted a tannery. John Berry was the founder of this branch of the family in America and his eldest son, John A. Berry, became the first of the family in Detroit, where in 1855 he was joined by his father and other mem- bers of the household.

Joseph H. Berry was a youth of sixteen years when the home was established in Detroit, previous to which time he had attended private schools in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Richmond, Virginia, where the family resided. Soon after his removal westward, however, he secured employment in the wholesale chemical house of Theodore H. Eaton, during which time his attention was first directed to the product which he later man- ufactured. Mr. Berry recognized the need for a better varnish on the market and began experimenta- tion, with the result that he soon determined that he could give to the world a varnish superior to any then being sold.

In 1858, when he was only nineteen years of age, he established an independent business. His capital was very limited, but while still with the house of Theodore H. Eaton he had made some sales to local trade and had proved the value of his product. In this year of 1858 Mr. Berry leased a small frame building at Springwells, now on the western outskirts of Detroit, and this constituted the original plant of the great industry which was to develop. So strenuous

JOSEPH H. BERRY

Vol. III-2

CITY OF DETROIT

were the efforts of Mr. Berry to make his business a success that by 1860 it had reached such proportions that his brother, Thomas, was admitted to partnership. In that year they erected the first building on the site of the present extensive plant at the foot of Leib street and from that time the business steadily grew and improved until the plant covered five acres. The buildings were of substantial character and were equipped with the most modern machinery for the production of high grade varnishes and kindred indus- trial commodities. To meet the increased volume of trade it became necessary to establish a branch house at Chicago in 1870 and in 1875 a similar branch was opened in New York city under the management of Alfred Hooper, who later established branches in Phila- delphia, Boston and Baltimore in 1876. The increased business in other sections of the country was taken care of by branch houses in Cincinnati and San Francisco and in 1893 the firm became a limited partnership, with Joseph H. and Thomas Berry and Alfred Hooper as the stockholders. Thomas Berry retired from active participation about 1878, but after his death his financial interests were still held by the estate. The ownership of the Berry manufactory is to this day held exclusively by the family.

The career of Joseph H. Berry in relation to his business has been described briefly but well by one of his numerous biographers: "The energy with which Mr. Berry pushed the sale and manufacture of his varnish and the indefatigable application, tenacity of purpose and complete comprehension of detail which characterized him in every subsequent business enter- prise which enlisted his interest, bore speedy results and his rise in the commercial field was very rapid. From the drug clerk of 1855 to leadership among De- troit's captains of industry, executive head of separate firms and corporations, covering a province remarkably varied and one with whose changing conditions he ever kept in touch-betokens a distinct man and in many senses a remarkable man. Though his business enterprise meant so much to Detroit, he was probably among the least known and understood of her citi- zens who have been to any extent identified with her growth and development. The genius of business possessed him; business was the keynote of his life. Up to the day of his death he was broadly active; years made no difference in his close personal atten- tion to business, and his later days were consumed with the same ceaseless toil and concentration, the same persistence and tension as if he were just ini- tiating a business career."'

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The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. III, Part 2

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