The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. III, Part 20

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 20

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HENRY PHILLIPS WILLIAMS, secretary and treasurer of the Williams Land Company, was born in Detroit on the 10th of September, 1882, his parents being William H. and Sarah E. (Phillips) Williams. The father is a native of London, Ontario, and in his boyhood days came to Detroit. Later he engaged in business as a manufacturer of preserves and pickles, conducting his trade along wholesale lines.

Snecess attended his efforts and in his later life he retired from active business and is now enjoying a rest which he has truly earned and richly deserves. His wife was born in Detroit and was of the fourth generation of the Phillips family to reside in this city. She passed away in 1910. In their family were a daughter and three sons: Mrs. Vincent Stock, Charles, Robert and Henry P., all residents of Detroit.

The last named attended the public schools, passing through consecutive grades to the high school, and in his nineteenth year he started out in the business world in connection with the Williams Brothers Com- pany, preservers, holding the position of vice president nntil 1910, when he resigned to concentrate his efforts and attention upon real estate activity. He then organized the Williams Land Company of Detroit, of which his father is the president, while he is the see- retary and treasurer. He has thoroughly informed himself concerning property conditions and valuations in Detroit and is a well known figure in the real estate circles of the city.

On the 20th of January, 1909, Mr. Williams was married to Miss Elma C. Mennen of Newark, New Jersey, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gerhardt Mennen. They have become parents of two children: Gerhardt Mennen Williams, born February 23, 1911, and now attending the University School; and Henry Phillips, who was born August 23, 1913, in Detroit, and is also in school.

Mr. Williams is a member of St. Paul's cathedral and is also engaged in social service work. He is president of the Detroit Tuberculosis Society, vice chairman of the Detroit Chapter American Red Cross and chairman of the Junior Red Cross. He is well known in club circles, belonging to the Detroit, De- troit Golf, Detroit Athletic and Detroit Boat Clubs. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, but the honors and emoluments of office have had no attraction for him, as he has always concen- trated his efforts and attention upon his business affairs and his close application, assiduous and unre- laxing industry and sound judgment have been the potent elements in bringing to him the success which is now his.

MORREY N. MENDELSOHN. The memorial an- nals of the bar of Detroit added another name to its obituary when Morrey N. Mendelsohn, a young and brilliant lawyer, passed away on January 22, 1920, leaving behind him an honored name for in- tegrity and good citizenship.

Mr. Mendelsohn was born in Detroit, November 22, 1888, a son of Henry and Fannie (Goldman) Mendel- sohn. He was educated in the grammar and high schools of this city and at the Detroit College of Law, from which he graduated in 1910, being admitted to the bar in that year. He then entered the attorney general's office, under Judge Franz C. Kuhn, and remained in that position until the spring of 1912,

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when he became associated with the law firm of Navin, Sheahan and Kennary. Two years later he joined in legal practice with John E. Moloney, a well known lawyer of Detroit, under the firm name of Moloney & Mendelsohn, and carried on a general practice up to the time of his last illness. He was considered an able lawyer and safe counselor.

Mr. Mendelsohn was married on May 30, 1917, to Miss Sara Duscoff. He was a thirty-second degree Mason, member of Perfection Lodge of Michigan Sovereign Consistory and of Moslem Temple of the Mystic Shrine, also a member of the Elks, and was past chancellor commander of Detroit Lodge, No. 55, Knights of Pythias. He was well known in club life, having been actively associated with the Masonic Country Club, the Wolverine Automobile Club and the Order of B'nai B'rith.

ORLA BENEDICT TAYLOR, for many years oc- cupying a leading position in the legal profession in Detroit, but now retired from active practice although still officially and financially identified with many important corporations of Detroit, was born in Fow- lerville, Michigan, September 29, 1865, a son of James and Mariette (Benedict) Taylor. His father was a native of Yorkshire, England; on his mother's side he is a descendant of Thomas Benedict, who came to Massachusetts Bay in 1638, and later became prom- inent in the affairs of Norwalk, Connecticut. Mr. Taylor's great-grandfather was one of the last sur- vivors of the Revolutionary war veterans, passing away in 1845.

In the acquirement of his education Mr. Taylor completed a high school course at Ann Arbor, Michi- gan, in 1882, and later matriculated in the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1886, while the following year, completing his law course in the same institution, he received the LL. B. degree. He also studied law in the firm of Sawyer & Knowlton of Ann Arbor and on coming to Detroit in 1888 he entered the office of Edwin F. Conely, then one of the most prominent lawyers in the state. Three years later he was ad- mitted to partnership, his association with Mr. Conely continuing until 1902, when the death of the senior partner terminated the connection. Mr. Taylor then formed an association with Charles F. Delbridge, which continued until 1916; thereafter he practiced alone until his retirement in 1919. He took part in much important litigation in both the state and federal courts. He conducted the proceedings to compel the Detroit United Bank to incorporate under the gen- eral banking laws, Mr. Taylor being retained by the other savings banks of the city. He represented the railroads in the state in the litigation involving the power of the Michigan Railroad Commission to fix demurrage rules. He was also retained in connection with the receiverships of the Glazier Stove Company, the Chelsea Savings Bank and the receivership and

reorganization of the Consolidated Light & Power Company of Mount Pleasant, Michigan. He was one of the counsel in the Cameron Currie & Company case, the Randolph street case, and others of equal note and importance. He acted as counsel for the reor- ganization committees of both the Pere Marquette and the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroads.

Mr. Taylor has been identified with many of the leading corporate interests of Detroit which have con- tributed in large measure to the development and up- building of the city. For many years he was vice president of the Home Savings Bank and the Wayne County & Home Savings Bank, of which he is still a director. He is the president of the Detroit Legal News Company and the Grosse Ile Bridge Company and a director of F. A. Thompson & Company, man- ufacturing chemists, and the Liberty Motor Car Com- pany.

On the 21st of October, 1891, Mr. Taylor was mar- ried to Dorothea DeTromble of Detroit. He has been deeply and helpfully interested in many organized benevolent projects, having served for years on the advisory board of the Young Women's Home As- sociation. He belongs to the American, Michigan and Detroit Bar Associations and to the Sigma Chi, a college fraternity, of which at one time he was the national president. He has membership with the De- troit, Country, Detroit Athletic, and the Detroit Crib- bage Clubs. He is also a member of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and of the American Society of International Law. He finds recreation in golf and literature. In addition to ex- tensive travel in the United States he has made many trips to Europe during the last thirty years and re- cently returned form a trip around the world, having visited Japan; China, the Philippines, the Straits Set- tlements, Java, and India. A gentleman of broad and liberal culture, association with him means expansion and elevation. Mr. Taylor resides at No. 1725 Burns avenue.

H. CLELAND ALLISON, one of the big business men of Michigan, the ramifications of his operations extending to virtually all parts of the world, organizer of the firm known as the W. H. Allison Company, of which he is the president, is a native of the city of Detroit, born June 16, 1884, a son of William H. and Agnes (Green) Allison, and comes from one of the city's most highly respected families.

Mr. Allison was educated at the Detroit Central high school and later took part of the scientific course at the Detroit University. He went west "to look around" and hecame identified with the geological survey in connection with the Roosevelt dam near Phoenix, Arizona. He remained in that capacity for about a year and during that time he helped to straighten out the business end of the Roosevelt Dam enterprise, which had been in a state of confusion. He returned to Detroit with the intention of settling

ORLA B. TAYLOR

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down to business permanently iu this city. In 1901 Mr. Allison had started the customs house brokerage business in a modest way and in 1905 began to devote his full attention to this line of activity. Subsequently he organized the W. H. Allison Company, of which he has remained the executive head. The business of this company originally was confined to customs brokerage and has for years occupied a foremost place in that line in Detroit. As the directing force of the company H. Cleland Allison detected opportuni- ties for greatly enlarging the scope of its business along lines that were entirely new to Detroit business interests and which have contributed more largely to the city's export trade in the way of opening foreign fields to Detroit manufacturers, than any other one factor. In the latter part of 1917 Mr. Allison began organizing the company into one controlling foreign sales of American manufacturers, and the tremendous success with which his efforts have met and the immense volume of foreign business now carried on by his house would astonish the average business man. All this has required initiative and an organization both at home and abroad. Mr. Al- lison possesses not only technical knowledge but busi- ness ability and tact of the highest order. Branch offices are maintained in both London, England, and Paris, France. Connected with the London office of the company are: Edmund B. Boughton, who was for eleven years chief engineer of the Daimler Company of England and during the World war was purchaser in charge of all aeroplane production for the British government; Dennis Brock, for nine years general manager of the British Zenith Carburetor Company; and W. Emmett, formerly commercial organizer for the British Belting & Belato Company. The W. H. Allison Company is the exclusive foreign sales agents for nine or ten of the biggest manufacturers in Detroit, also exclusive foreign sales agents of a number of the largest foreign sales organizations in the world and handles consignments of goods of any kind to and from all parts of the world. Mr. Allison is not only the pioneer in this line of business in Detroit but the only one thus engaged to any extent. He does all engineering and buying for the Lincoln Motor Car Company of Sydney, Australia, also for the Ven- ezuela government. He represents big companies in various foreign countries, handling their consign- ments in both directions, his name being well and favorably known in practically all the large com- mercial centers of the world.

In 1908 Mr. Allison was married to Ethel Fox Woodbury and they are the parents of one daughter, Doris Barbara Allison. Mr. Allison is a member of the Detroit Athletic Club, the Fellowcraft Club, the Pere Marquette Rod and Gun Club and was formerly a member of the Detroit Yacht Club. He was a most successful yachtsman and held the championship of the Great Lakes in the Universal elass for three years. His skill at fishing is no less pronounced and he is

known as a regular disciple of Izaak Walton. Mr. Allison is a remarkable man, possessed of the highest order of executive ability, along with the capacity for carrying the details of vast business projects. He and his wife take an interested and distinctive part in the art and musical affairs of Detroit, both being members of the Fine Arts Society.

J. J. HAMBURG is the secretary and treasurer of the Smith-Hamburg-Scott Welding Company, control- ling one of the largest industries of this character in Detroit. He was born in New York city, February 28, 1885, and is a son of Mitchell and Sophie (Wil- liams) Hamburg. The father was born in Amsterdam, Holland, and in early life came to the new world, settling in New York, in which city his wife was born, and there she still resides. The father was engaged in the wholesale manufacture of cigars for many years, continuing in the business to the time of his death in 1906, when he was fifty-two years of age. Their family numbered four children, the others in addition to J. J. Hamburg being: Mrs. Rebecca Adler; Mrs. Mariam Winkle; and Abram, all of Detroit.

In his boyhood days J. J. Hamburg was a pupil in the public schools of Lynn, Massachusetts, passing through consecutive grades to the high school, after which he engaged in business as an employe of the Cox Brass Manufacturing Company of New York city, being first associated with the mechanical department and later holding the position of sales manager. This company was engaged in the manufacture of welding outfits and Mr. Hamburg served at various periods as manager of the New York, Boston, and Detroit branches, remaining with the concern altogether for fifteen years. He came to Detroit in February, 1912, as manager at this point, and resigned his position in 1914, when he became one of the organizers of the Smith Hamburg Welding Company, which has remained one of the successful industrial concerns of the city. They changed the firm name later to the Smith-Hamburg-Scott Welding Company, and Mr. Hamburg has continuously served as secretary and treasurer. The company employs twenty experienced mechanies. Their workmen are thoroughly trained in the task of doing the most intricate welding, and the efficiency of their work has resulted in the develop- ment of a large business.

On the 12th of June, 1908, Mr. Hamburg was mar- ried to Miss Jennie Wall of New York city, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wall of the eastern metropo- lis. Four children have been born of this marriage: Mildred, who was born in New York in 1910 and is now attending the Highland Park school; Hazel and Ernestine, twins, who were born in 1912, and are also at school; and Mitchell, born in July, 1918.

In his political views Mr. Hamburg is a republican, always supporting the party but not seeking nor de- siring office as a reward for party fealty. He belongs

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to the Detroit Board of Commerce, and to the Wol- verine Automobile Club, and is highly esteemed in these organizations as well as in business circles.

SEBASTIAN S. KRESGE. With notable rapidity the business of the S. S. Kresge Company has devel- oped. Its rapid growth has had its root in the enterprise, determination and well formulated plans of the founder, Sebastian S. Kresge, who has ever manifested keen insight into commercial problems and notable ability in coordinating what have seemingly been diverse elements, converting these into a complex and unified whole. Mr. Kresge is a native of Bald- mount, Pennsylvania. He was born July 31, 1867, of the marriage of Sebastian and Catherine (Kunkle) Kresge, the former a native of Brodheadsville, Penn- sylvania, while the latter was born in Kresgeville, Pennsylvania, and is still living at the advanced age of seventy-nine years. The Kresge family is descended from Conrad Kresge, who was born in Switzerland and emigrated to America about 1745, settling at Effort, Monroe county, Pennsylvania. The grandfather of Sebastian S. Kresge of this review was Peter Kresge. The grandmother in the maternal line is Mrs. John Kunkle, who died December 27, 1919, at Kresgeville, Pennsylvania. She reached the venerable age of one hundred years on the 18th of September, 1919. Her ancestors migrated from southern Germany about 1740. She is the mother of Catherine (Kunkle) Kresge, who resides at Kunkletown, Pennsylvania, and is now seventy-nine years of age.

Sebastian Spering Kresge was a pupil in the public schools of Pennsylvania and afterward attended the Fairview Academy at Brodheadsville, to which he walked three miles, morning and evening. He later became a student in the Polytechnic Institute at Gil- bert, Pennsylvania, and afterward attended East- man's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. From his boyhood until 1888 he worked for his parents on the home farm during the summer months and in young manhood he taught school through one winter term at twenty-two dollars per month. He also engaged in clerking in a grocery store for one winter at twenty-eight dollars per month and gave the money thus earned to his parents. He engaged in keeping bees in early manhood and with the money saved from the sale of honey paid his way through the Eastman Business College, at Poughkeepsie, New York, thus displaying the elemental strength of his character-a strength that in the course of years has made him one of the notable business men of the middle west. Dur- ing the year 1889 he was employed in connection with the wholesale produce business and sold industrial insurance. He also canvassed for house furnishings and at one time was half owner of a bakery. He likewise served as bookkeeper for a hardware com- pany in 1890 and 1891, and from 1892 until 1897 was a traveling tinware salesman in the north central and New England states. All through the intervening

period, from the time when he made his initial step in the business world, he had certain definite plans in mind. He has ever been actuated by a laudable ambition that has prompted him to put forth his best efforts in meeting the demands of the hour. He saved his earnings until his economy and industry had brought to him the sum of eight thousand dollars and with this capital he turned his attention to the conduct of a five and ten cent store in connection with J. G. MeCrorey in 1897. He had a half interest in the business at Memphis, Tennessee, and Detroit, Michigan, and acted as manager of the store at Mem- phis for sixteen months. For two years he continued with Mr. MeCrorey, and in November, 1898, he be- came sole proprietor of the Detroit store. Subse- quently he was joined in the ownership by his brother- in-law, Charles J. Wilson, under the firm style of Kresge & Wilson, and some years later he became sole owner. The S. S. Kresge Company was incorporated in 1912 as a Delaware corporation, in the amount of seven million dollars, of which five million dollars was common stock and two million dollars preferred stock, and was reincorporated as a Michigan corporation in 1916, with a capital of ten million dollars in common stock and two million dollars in preferred stock. Mr. Kresge became and is still the president of the company. The total sales of the S. S. Kresge Com- pany for 1919 amounted to forty-two million, six hundred and sixty-eight thousand, one hundred and fifty-one dollars, or an increase of seventeen and five- tenths per cent over the preceding year. Fifteen years ago there were but four stores in the Kresge system, while today the company operates a chain of one hundred and eighty-eight stores, extending two-thirds of the way across the continent. This is a wonderful organization that has been built up, showing Mr. Kresge to be one of the master minds back of the great mercantile interests of the country. In 1919 he organized and became president of the Kresge Realty Company and in 1914 built the Kresge office building in Detroit.

On the 19th of December, 1897, in Memphis, Ten- nessee, Mr. Kresge was married to Miss Anna E. Harvey and their children are five in number, namely: Stanley S., Ruth H., Howard C., Catherine H. and Anna E. The parents are members of the North Woodward Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Kresge has been very active in the International Methodist Centenary Movement. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, having membership in Palestine Lodge, F. & A. M .; Palestine Chapter, R. A. M .; Detroit Com- mandery, K. T .; Moslem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S .; and Michigan Consistory, A. A. S. R. He belongs to the Detroit Board of Commerce, to the National Chamber of Commerce, the Young Men's Christian Association, the Detroit Rotary Club, the Detroit Ath- letic Club, the Detroit Golf Club, Detroit Boat Club, Detroit Automobile Club, Detroit Real Estate Board, Ingleside Club and Lincoln Highway Association.

SEBASTIAN S. KRESGE

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These, however, indicate only partially the various phases of his life activities and interests. He is fond of hunting and fishing and is still very fond of bees, having a colony at his home in Detroit. He enjoys motoring and takes long tours, doing his own driv- ing. While his success has enabled him to have leisure for such things, he yet gives much of his time to his business and also largely to the promotion of interests which are seeking the betterment and uplift of man- kind. He was a director of the National War Work Council of the Y. M. C. A., has long been a most earnest supporter of the temperance cause, has been active in making Michigan and the nation dry and is a member of the national executive committee of the Anti-Saloon League of America, also of the executive committee of the Michigan State League. He is chair- inan of the manufacture and business committee of the Anti-Saloon League, and he has studied the ques- tion of temperance reform from every possible angle- from the economic standpoint as well as from the standpoint of sentiment and high ideals. Abraham Lincoln said: "There is something better than mak- ing a living-making a life." Mr. Kresge has ever recognized this truth and while his career has been one of notable success, the attainment of wealth has never been the sole end and object of his career. To make his native talents subserve the demands which conditions of society impose at the present time, is the purpose of his life and business has been but one phase thereof and has never excluded his active par- ticipation in and support of all the other vital inter- ests which go to make up human existence.

JOHN H. HAMMES, vice president of the Sewell Cushion Wheel Company of Detroit and a leading factor in the industrial activities of the city, was born in Cologne, Germany, February 16, 1867, a son of Peter and Mary (Assion) Hammes, who were also natives of Germany, where they spent their lives. The father was a farmer and a government official there. In the family were ten children, namely: Frank, deceased; Michael, residing at Newberry, Michigan; Henry, William and Peter, all living in England; Winand, deceased; Nicholas, also of England; Margaret and Mary, who are still in Ger- many; and John H.

The last named attended the public schools of Germany to his thirteenth year and then came alone to America, making his way direct to Detroit. Here he continued his education as a public school student and afterward attended the Valparaiso University at Valparaiso, Indiana, pursuing a general course there. He was subsequently employed in various lines until he took the civil service examination and from 1892 until 1896 was with the United States life saving service. In the latter year he became connected with the marine post office service on the Detroit river and spent a decade in that connection. From 1906 until 1913 he was a marine reporter and in 1908

he became identified with the automobile industry as a manufacturer of automobile wheels. In 1910 the business was incorporated under the name of the Sewell Cushion Wheel Company, manufacturers of wheels for auto trucks and fire apparatus, of which he is now vice president and production manager. Mr. Hammes has been connected with the company since its organization and the wheel which they manufacture is his work and that of Herbert Sewell, being patented by them. It is one of the most efficient wheels for motor trucks known and is used today throughout the entire country. It is especially valnable for fire apparatus as well as for all other kinds of motor trucks, being so constructed as to lessen the jar. Testimonials of the value of their prod- uct have come to them from all parts of the country and the business has grown from a small institution until it is one of Detroit's large industries. The company found it necessary to construct a new build- ing and plant in 1915 and today furnishes employ- ment to between one hundred and fifty and two hun- dred people. The equipment of the plant is thoroughly modern and its operatives are proficient in their line of work, so that the highest standard is maintained in the output. In a review of the life record of Mr. Hammes eredit must also be given him for the present system of obtaining reports in marine circles. He adopted a naphtha launch and his course was ridiculed by marine men, who considered it utterly impractical. After two years of incessant work, how- ever, he finally received recognition for the method which he had instituted and which is now universally used.

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The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. III, Part 20

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