The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. III, Part 22

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 22

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RICHARD G. LAMBRECHT, one of Detroit's prom- inent men in banking and real estate circles, is presi- dent of the American Loan & Trust Company and also of the Michigan Investment Company, institu- tions that are a most important contributing factor in the upbuilding and development of the city. Mr. Lambrecht is numbered among Michigan's native sons, his birth having occurred at Bay City, September 29, 1870, his parents being Rev. John A. and Flora (Dreimel) Lambrecht. His father's profession involved various removals, so that the boyhood of Richard G. Lambrecht was spent in a number of localities. From 1877 until 1880 he was a pupil in the public schools of Stryker, Ohio, and from 1880 until 1882 in Montague, Michigan. In the latter year he entered the public schools of Muskegon, Michigan, where he pursued his studies for five years, and in 1887 and 1888 he was a student in the Detroit Business University School, liberal training thus qualifying him for life's prac- tical and responsible duties. He started upon his business career in the employ of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad in 1888 and thus continued until 1889, when he became connected with the Peoples Savings Bank of Detroit in a clerical position. His association with that bank covered fourteen years, during which time he was advanced until he was given general charge of the mortgage and real estate department, gaining wide knowledge and developing his powers along that line, in which he became known as one of the very capable men in the city. Through- out the intervening period he has figured prominently in real estate circles and from 1903 until 1905 he was the secretary and treasurer of the City & Suburban Homes Company. In the latter year he became a member of the real estate firm of Lambrecht, Kelly & Company, engaged in the conduct of a real estate and insurance business. This was consolidated with the Michigan Investement Company in 1919 with a capitalization of five million dollars and Mr. Lam- brecht has since been its president. He was also the president of the German-American Loan & Trust Company, which in 1917 was reorganized under the name of the American Loan & Trust Company and its capital increased from one hundred thousand to three hundred thousand dollars under the state trust act. Of this corporation Mr. Lambrecht is likewise the president. He has for many years bent his energies to constructive effort and administrative direction of the affairs of these two institutions and their

success is attributable in no small measure to his labors.

At Detroit, on the 21st of September, 1898, Mr. Lambrecht was united in marriage to Miss Bertha Genther and they have three sons and a daughter: Richard W .; Edward J .; George; and Grace. Mrs. Lambrecht passed away February 8, 1920. Mr. Lam- brecht holds membership in St. Paul's church and he belongs also to the Detroit Athletic Club, the Detroit Club, and the Detroit Bankers Club. His Masonic connections are with Union Lodge, Penn Chapter, De- troit Commandery, No. 1, and Moslem Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He finds recreation in motoring and fishing. His interest in municipal affairs is indicated by his connection with the Detroit Board of Com- merce and the Real Estate Board and by his loyal support of the republican party because of his firm belief in its principles as factors in good government. He is interested in all those things which are to the citizen and man of affairs of grave import in relation to the welfare of community and commonwealth. At the same time he has most carefully directed his individual business interests and since entering the real estate field has steadily advanced to a point of leadership, being today recognized as one of the most prominent real estate men of Detroit, while in banking circles, where his first identification dates back more than thirty years, he has attained a most creditable position among the city's able financial executives.

JAMES E. WALSH. His activity and the extent of his business pursuits are bringing James E. Walsh constantly to the front until his many friends say of him: "He is one of Detroit's best known young men and one of the coming men of Michigan." He was born in this city October 7, 1891, a son of John and Mary (Stackpole) Walsh. The father, a native of Ireland, came to America when a boy of but thir- teen years, first making his home with an aunt in Chicago, in which city he resided for several years. Subsequently he removed to Detroit, where he learned the candy manufacturing business, being connected with that industry for some time. He was foreman for Thorpe & Hawley and also for Gray, Toynton & Fox, both well known manufacturing firms of Detroit. John Walsh later followed the business of a con- tractor and subsequently was engaged in the grocery trade at 302 Michigan avenue, where he carried on business for more than twenty years. At length he retired to private life and at the age of seventy-two is an exceptionally well preserved man, both phy- sically and mentally. His wife also survives and their excellent family would be a credit to any parent- age. In the order of birth they are: John J., a well known and successful attorney of Detroit, mentioned elsewhere in this work; Mary Philomana, the wife of Professor De Forest Stull, of the Marquette Normal School; Margaret Marie, now the wife of James E. Barrett, a well known attorney and real estate man

RICHARD G. LAMBRECHT #

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of Detroit, of whom extended mention is made on another page of this work; Mrs. Katherine Renfro, of Detroit; Mrs. William Cleary, of this city; and James E.

The last named attended the public schools of De- troit for four years and for an equal period was a student in the Central high school, while subsequently he entered the University of Detroit, from which he was graduated in 1911. He later became connected with the F. Walter Guilbert Steel & Iron Company, but after eight months with that concern entered business on his own account in 1912, operating a power plant supply agency. He also became connected with the real estate business in subdividing property with his brother-in-law, James E. Barrett. Mr. Walsh also has under his management two other manufacturing agencies, employing a number of salesmen, his average income in his agency business being seventy-five hun- dred dollars per annum. He is still the owner of the power plant supply agency, but at the present time is more active in his subdivision proposition at Har- per avenue and Five and a Half Mile Circle. This property is rapidly selling to homeseekers aud the firm of Barrett & Walsh are sole owners thereof.

During the World war Mr. Walsh was in the service for nineteen months, being connected with the air service under Major James G. Hazlett, U. S. A. He had charge of all propellers for Liberty motors and was commissioned first lieutenant. He was instru- mental in bringing out the various developments on the Liberty air screws during his service and it was through his investigation that there was brought about the condemnation of the French method used prior to this time. Mr. Walsh has various letters of ap- proval and commendation from his superior officers and from the war department at Washington, com- mending his service to the cause. He devoted much of his time to the various aviation fields and to the various plants where motors and propellers were being built.

On the 20th of August, 1917, in Detroit, Mr. Walsh was married to Miss Ruth Josephine Kelly, who was born at Port Huron, Michigan, in 1894, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Kelly of that place. They are members of the Holy Rosary Roman Catholic church and Mr. Walsh is a fourth degree member of the Knights of Columbus. He is wide-awake to every opportunity that presents itself in matters of progressive citizenship and of civic interest as well as in the line of business, and he is proving a dynamic force in the development and upbuilding of Detroit through his well directed industrial and real estate affairs.

BENJAMIN D. EDWARDS is an outstanding figure in the educational circles of Michigan, being chan- cellor of the Detroit Institute of Technology and the Detroit College of Law. Holding to the highest ideals and utilizing the most progressive methods, his work

has won him wide reputation throughout the middle west. He was born at Churchill, near Youngstown, Ohio, April 10, 1881. The family numbered three sons and two daughters, whose parents were David B. and Rachel (Davis) Edwards, both of whom were natives of Wales, in which country they were reared and married, the father being twenty-one years of age when with his young wife he sailed for the United States. He took up the occupation of farming, resid- ing for many years in Ohio.

Professor Edwards of this review first attended the country school near the old home farm and afterward entered Mount Union Academy, from which he was graduated with the elass of 1906. His further edu- cational training was received in Mount Union Col- lege at Alliance, Ohio, and upon his graduation from that institution as a member of the class of 1910 he received the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. He later attended the Detroit College of Law and in September, 1910, eame to this city as principal of the day school of the Young Men's Christian Association. In 1911 he was made director of education of the Detroit Association and in 1915 his title was changed to that of chancellor of the Detroit Institute of Technology, which is the educational department of the Young Men's Christian Association. His services as an educator are in wide demand. In 1919 he was (lean of the summer school of the Y. M. C. A. educa- tional directors for the middle west and was a mem- ber of the faculty of the summer school for educa- tional directors from New York, Boston and other eastern cities. He is now serving on the board of governors of the educational council of the Inter- national Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association and has been active in promoting the practical work and the high ideals of that organiza- tion in relation to the physical, mental and moral de- velopment of the young.

On the 17th of June, 1911, Professor Edwards was married to Miss Maude Manek Grove of Urbana, Ohio, a daughter of Cephas B. Grove, and they have one son, Benjamin D., Jr., born March 5, 1920. His polit- ical allegianee is given to the republican party. His interests are indeed wide, varied and vital. He has membership in the Central Methodist Episcopal church of Detroit, and is superintendent of its Sunday school. He keeps in close touch with those problems which are of moment to the city of his residence and be- longs to the Detroit Board of Commerce. He is also a member of the Adcraft Club and the Salesmanship Club, belongs to the Ohio Society, to the Kiwanis Club, to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a collegiate fra- ternity, and in Masonry is a member of Palestine Lodge, has attained the thirty-second degree of the Seottish Rite and is a Mystic Shriner. Returning to professional lines, he has connection with the Na- tional Education Association and is president of the Educational Secretaries Association of America of the Young Men's Christian Association. For recrea-

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tion he turns to motoring and fishing, but his hours of leisure are few, owing to the constant demands made upon him along professional lines. His co- operation is continuously being sought in connection with the advancement of those forces which make for social uplift, for community betterment and for the adoption of higher ideals in citizenship.

THEODORE H. EATON. A third of a century has gone by since Theodore H. Eaton passed away, but Detroit still feels the benefit of his labors, for he was one of the pioneer business men and merchants of the city and aided in laying broad and deep the founda- tion upon which has been built the present progress and prosperity of Detroit. In every relation of life his worth was widely acknowledged and to enjoy his acquaintance was to know one who in every way meas- ured up to the fullest and highest standards of man- hood and of citizenship. A native of New Jersey, he was born in New Brunswick, in October, 1815, his parents being Horatio Woodruff Eaton and Maria Stites (Montgomery) Eaton. He was descended through five generations from Thomas Eatton (who died November 26, 1688), of Eatontown, New Jersey, of which place he was virtually the founder, the town being named in his honor. Thomas Eatton migrated from England to America about 1660, and for a brief period was a resident of Rhode Island, after which he took up his abode in New Jersey and became a promi- nent and influential citizen of that state. Mr. Eaton's earliest immigrant ancestor, removed by seven gener- ations, was Governor Thomas Mayhew, who was born in Southampton, England, in 1591 and died in Edgar- town, Massachusetts, in 1681. He was governor and commander of Martha's Vineyard and the adjacent island in 1641, 1664 and 1673-74. The maternal grand- mother of Theodore H. Eaton was Mrs. Mary Berrien Montgomery, a daughter of Judge John Berrien of Rocky Hill, New Jersey, lineal ancestor of Colonel John McPherson Berrien of Detroit, who was civil engineer of the Michigan Central Railroad and the man in whose honor Berrien county was named. Gen- eral Washington wrote his farewell address to the continental army while a guest in the home of Mar- garet Eatton Berrien, the widow of Judge John Ber- rien, at Rocky Hill, near Princeton, New Jersey, on the 1st of December, 1783.

During the boyhood of Theodore H. Eaton his par- ents removed with their family from their home in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to Lowville, New York, where he was reared to adult age and acquired a good academic education. In his youth he was apprenticed to learn the drug business in the establishment of John and William Williams of Utica, New York, and following the completion of the Erie Canal this firm established a western branch in Buffalo, New York, and Theodore H. Eaton was transferred there after the great fire which visited that city in the early '30s. In 1834 he was admitted to a partnership in the

business, following the retirement of Robert Hollister. The panie of 1837 seriously crippled many western merchants and through an incidental financial embar- rassment of this nature, Mr. Eaton was able event- ually to acquire the established drug business of Riley & Ackerly of Detroit, thus becoming an active factor in the mercantile circles of the city in 1838 and his same company is still doing business under the name of Eaton-Clark Company. He retained his inter- est in the firm of Williams Brothers in Buffalo until 1842, when he retired, and in May of the same year became a resident of Detroit. Prior to his removal to the then western city he married, in 1839, Miss Anne Eliza Gibbs of Skaneateles, New York (born March 4, 1816, died November 6, 1879), and lived there instead of in Buttalo from that time until 1842.

Prior to this time Mr. Eaton had made several trips to Michigan, traveling through the west on horseback, making collections for the Buffalo house, in which he was financially interested. With his entrance into the commercial eireles of Detroit he soon won recognition as an able and representative business man and his sound judgment and enterprise were manifest in the constant growth of the trade of his house. Before his removal to Detroit, after he had purchased the busi- ness of Riley and Ackerly, the store was under the effective supervision of David A. MeNair, and after Mr. Eaton's removal to Detroit in 1842 Mr. McNair became a partner in the business and so continued for a brief period. Mr. Eaton continued the business in Detroit and year by year his trade developed and grew with the growth and progress of the city. When a great fire swept away much of the business section of Detroit in 1848, his establishment at the corner of Jefferson avenue and Randolph street in the American Hotel Block was burned to the ground. He then es- tablished his offices in the Cooper Block nearer Wood- ward avenue, and later in 1849 he built his new brick building at the corner of Woodward avenue (now 204) and Atwater street, where he remained to the time of his death in 1888, developing a trade of large and gratifying proportions and in which same location the Eaton-Clark Company still remains. For an extended period the business was carried on under the well known firm name of Theodore H. Eaton & Son, the son entering the business in 1859 and being admitted to a partnership in 1866 at the age of twenty-four. Following the death of Mr. Eaton's son the name was changed in 1911 to the present style of Eaton-Clark Company. At a later period Mr. Eaton became iden- tified with the first gas company of Detroit. In fact he was one of its organizers in 1852, the business being carried on under the name of the Detroit Gas Light Company. He held a large amount of stock in this enterprise until the plant and business were sold, but he would never accept office in the company. He was also a heavy stockholder in the Detroit Locomo- tive Works and the Peninsular Iron Works.

To Mr. and Mrs. Eaton were born three children:

THEODORE H. EATON

THEODORE H. EATON, JR.

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Theodore H., Jr., who succeeded to his father's va- rious business interests and of whom further mention is made elsewhere in this work; Mary Montgomery, born June 12, 1847, who became the wife of Captain Thomas W. Lord of the United States army, and who died in Texas, July 7, 1880; and a daughter, Eliza Me- Coskry, born August 9, 1843, who died in infancy, on October 12, 1844.

Mr. Eaton was ever actuated by a spirit of marked devotion to the general good and to the welfare of his fellowmen. He was very active in connection with the founding and promoting of St. Luke's Hospital and remained one of its stalwart advocates and sup- porters to the time of his death. He was a consistent and loyal member of the Protestant Episcopal church and did much to promote the growth of the denomina- tion in Michigan, He held the office of senior war- den in St. Paul's parish for many years until his death, when he was succeeded by his son, and was a most liberal supporter of the church, while to various benevolent projects he gave generously but always unostentatiously. In politics he was a whig and later a democrat, but his public service was done as a private citizen and not as an office-holder. In 1852 he completed the erection of his residence ou Jefferson avenue, which was one of the most beautiful and mod- ern homes in Detroit and the farthest out on Jefferson avenue, in fact the only house east of Brush street. Although it was three years later, 1855, before a gas plant was established in Detroit Mr. Eaton's house was then the first home installed with gas equipment. During the time of building he resided at the Beecher hotel, corner Jefferson and Brush, the fashionable hostelry of that time.

The death of Mrs. Eaton occurred in 1879, and nine years later Mr. Eaton died. Detroit mourned the loss of one of her honored and representative citizens- one who had been connected with her welfare and development from the first half of the nineteenth cen- tury. He belonged to that class of progressive men who were the real promoters and builders of the middle west. He recognized the possibilities of this section of the country and he labored to utilize to the fullest advantage every opportunity that meant benefit and upbuilding to Detroit. The name of Theodore H. Eaton will ever remain an honored one on the pages of Michigan's history.

THEODORE HORATIO EATON (Junior) of De- troit, the son of Theodore H. Eaton, whose biography appears elsewhere in the work, and Anne Eliza Gibbs, was born in Skaneateles, New York, January 16, 1842, in the home where his mother spent her childhood, and where his parents were married in 1839 and lived until May, 1842. He died in Detroit on November 6, 1910, following a short illness.

He was taken to Detroit when four months old, and his father's large residence on Jefferson avenue, near Russell street, was completed in 1852 when he was Vol. III-18

ten years old. This remained his home until his death fifty-eight years later, and was occupied by his widow and children for only a few years afterward. It is still owned by his family and occupied in the capacity of a hospital.

Mr. Eaton was educated at the school of the Rev. M. H. Hunter, on Grosse lle during the earliest days of his boyhood, with others who have since gained con- siderable prestige in the city and in later years were known as the "Hunter Boys." Mr. Eaton was president of this alumni society 1885-1890. He also was a student at Burlington College, New Jersey. Another one of the schools he attended 1858-59 was the French Institute of Monsieur (the Professor) Elie Charlier, located then at 48 East Twenty-fourth street, New York city. and thereafter he went abroad for study and business training before entering his fath- er's chemical business in the year 1859. Instead of electing to attend a university he visited the dye and chemical institutions of England, Switzerland and Ger- many, which was the basis of his knowledge of those trades in later years, making in all four trips abroad. In 1866 he was admitted to the partnership known as Theo. H. Eaton & Son, then located at the corner of Woodward avenue and Atwater street, which remained his office to the time of his death. He received an excellent business training under his father who was one of the most prominent business men of the city. Later it was necessary for him to give more and more time to his personal affairs and Mr. Benjamin F. Gei- ger acted as his manager in the chemical business. At Mr. Geiger's death in 1905, Mr. Eaton's nephew, Rufus W. Clark, Jr., took his place and developed the business until and after Mr. Eaton's death in 1910 when it became known as Eaton-Clark Company. In 1920 Mr. Clark was succeeded as president of the company by Mr. Eaton's son, about whom an article appears elsewhere in this work.

Mr. Eaton was married in 1880 at Augusta, Georgia, to Miss Louise Casey, to whom a son, Louis, was born. He died in infancy, September 21, 1882, and his mother died September 15, 1882. At this time Mr. Eaton was a vestryman of St. Paul's church, of which his father was senior warden, and in 1888, at his father's death, he succeeded him and remained senior warden for twenty-two years, until he died. In 1895 he built, in memory of his mother, the new St. Paul's Chapel at the corner of Woodward and Hancock, which was opened by Bishop Davies on February 6, 1896. The building was so located that space was left for the erection of a cathedral adjacent which was planned at that time, and completed just a few months after Mr. Eaton's death. During the construction of the cathe- dral Mr. Eaton drove up to supervise it regularly every morning before going to his office. He broke ground for it, he attended the laying of the corner- stone, but did not live to see its ultimate completion. A few months before his death Mr. Eaton ordered a beautiful carved reredos, dean's chair, and altar rail-

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ing to be erected in memory of his father, former senior warden of the church. These memorials now stand and above them a magnificent stained window in memory of Mr. Eaton of this review given by his widow and children. This same window was earlier selected by Mr. Eaton himself with a view to putting it in later on.

Bishop Charles D. Williams delivered a memorial address in the cathedral on Sunday, April 19, 1911, of which an extract shows better than the editor could review Mr. Eaton's life and interest: "He was in a large manner public-spirited; interested in all the best things that concerned the public welfare; generous and benevolent in his gifts everywhere and always, but the first and foremost of his public narrative was his de- votion and loyalty to his church-St. Paul's cathedral was the dream of his heart-but, by one of those strange dispensations of Providence, it was not to be, that he should see the completion of his cherished plans. It stands here largely as a memorial, not only of his benevolence, but of his thought and of his care." An appropriate sermon in memory of Mr. Eaton was also delivered on this occasion by the Rev. Samuel S. Marquis, D. D., then dean of the cathedral.

The vestry of St. Paul's adopted the following trib- ute to Mr. Eaton's memory: "His simple and unos- tentatious manner of living in an era of luxury and display, upright and patriotic as a citizen and deeply concerned in the welfare of his country, state, and community, cultivated, refined, and courteous in his social intercourse with his fellows, pure, affectionate, and exemplary in his life, loyal and devoted to his church-the type of the true Christian gentleman."

He was yearly elected as delegate to the church conventions, in which he took deep interest. Next to his family and his church, his greatest affection and interest was in the Society of the Colonial Wars, in the State of Michigan, of which he was a charter member in November, 1897, then elected its first deputy governor, which office he held until May 7, 1900, when he was elected governor of the Society. This office he held for a period of three years, and again in 1908-1909. He was a delegate to nearly all the sessions of the general assembly and whether in office or not, he was constantly solicitous for the wel- fare of the Society (Extract from Resolution of the Michigan Society, following his death). Coming from a long line of New England ancestors Mr. Eaton nat- urally affiliated with many of the patriotie and heredi- tary societies. He was a member of the Huguenot Society of America, the sons of the American Revolu- tion, Colonial Governors, The New England Society, Detroit Board of Commerce, The Detroit Club, Coun- try Club, and the Detroit Boat Club. He was a direc- tor of the Detroit Iron and Steel Company and advis- ing director of the Security Trust Company. He was a republican and an Episcopalian. He enjoyed his recreation gardening on his summer estate at Kings- ville, Ontario, Canada, where he spent about twenty

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The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. III, Part 22

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