USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. III > Part 33
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115
Mr. Emmons is well known in Detroit and is a member of the Detroit Boat Club, Detroit Athletic Club, Oakland Hills Country Club, Birch Hill Country Club, University of Michigan Union, Sons of the Amer- ican Revolution, American Legion and American Of- ficers of the Great War.
HON. EDWARD COMMAND, judge of the probate court for Wayne county since 1914, was born in Syra- cuse, New York, on the 20th day of October, 1881, his parents being Thomas and Mary (Fitzgerald) Command. Following the acquirement of a public school education in Detroit, to which city his mother removed during his infancy, Edward Command pur- sued the study of the classics at the University of Detroit. He graduated from that institution with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1901, while in 1903 his Alma Mater conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree. In the meantime he had determined upon his life work, the nature of which was indicated by his matriculation in the Detroit College of Law, from which he received the LL. B. degree in 1905.
284
CITY OF DETROIT
While attending law school he was acquiring practical experience in the law through association with various law firms by which he was employed until his grad- uation from law school.
In 1905 Edward Command was admitted to the Michigan bar and entered upon the active work of the profession with which he has since been connected. In 1907 he served for a brief period as assistant attorney general and for the following four years maintained a law office in Detroit. His legal ability, acute mind and pleasing personality soon made him conspicuous among the successful and popular prac- titioners. He won particular fame as a trial lawyer and at the urgent request of the then prosecuting attorney, who was at the time combating a partic- ularly vicious crime wave, Mr. Command left a lucra- tive practice to lend his services to the public interests. He was immediately assigned to the prosecution of criminal cases in the recorder's court and left that office after several months of strenuous trial work with an unbroken record of convictions to his credit. He was next elected to the office of justice of the peace. During four years incumbency of this position, by the fairness and legal correctness of his decisions and by his unfailing patience with those who poured their troubles into his ear, he gave evidence of pos- sessing a natural and unusually fine judicial tempera- ment. This quality was apparently recognized by the voters of Wayne county who, in the fall election of 1914, elevated him to the office of judge of probate. Reelected in 1918, Judge Command has brought to the administration of his duties an innate sense of justice, a cheering sympathy, a courtesy and a dignity which have won for him the love and respect of all who have come to know him.
On the 29th of January, 1913, Judge Command was married to Miss Marguerite Marie Brennan of Detroit, daughter of the late Charles T. Brennan, and they have become the parents of two children: Mary Grace and Marguerite B. Command. His political endorsement is given to the republican party. He is a member of the Detroit Athletic Club, Ingleside and Lawyers' Clubs and the Detroit Bar Association. When leisure permits he seeks recreation in his motor, upon the links, and not infrequently may be found lending moral and vocal support to the Tigers' cause at Navin field.
DEXTER MASON FERRY, JR., belongs to that class of splendid young American business men to whom inherited business connections and means did not annul energy, enterprise or ambition. From the outset of his career he has recognized the responsi- bility of the individual as a factor in the world's work and has met and discharged the obligations as well as utilized the opportunities of citizenship. While now connected with various extensive and important business interests, he remains also an active factor in the management and control of the seed house which
has made the name of Ferry a household word through- out the country and has assisted in the development and enlargement of the business, in keeping with the spirit of modern commercial progress. Detroit num- bers him among her native sous, his birth having here occurred November 22, 1873, his parents being Dexter Mason and Addie E. (Miller) Ferry, who are men- tioned at length on another page of this work. His father, with previous experience as a seedsman, or- ganized the seed house of D. M. Ferry & Company in 1867 and the business has since been maintained and developed until it has for a number of years occupied the position of leadership in that line in the entire country.
Following his graduation from the Detroit high school as a member of the class of 1892, D. M. Ferry, Jr., entered the class of 1896 at the University of Michigan. His work at the university was interrupted in the middle of his junior year as the result of an injury to his back, which compelled him to discontinue his studies. Two years later, however, he was able to enter Columbia University in New York and grad- uated in the class of 1898 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In both universities he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and at Michigan was on the Glee Club. His initial business experience came to him, following his college days, through two years' experience as treasurer with the National Pin Com- pany. He then took a position with his father's firm, D. M. Ferry & Company, and in 1901 was elected a member of its directorate. His increasing experience led to his election to the position of secretary of the croporation at a later period and eventually he was chosen treasurer and since first elected as a director he has given his attention to executive direction and administrative control of the affairs of this mammoth business. Soon proving his ability to handle important interests, he was chosen in 1895 a member of the board of directors of the Standard Accident Insurance Com- pany and a year later of the Michigan Fire & Marine Insurance Company. He also became active in bank- ing circles and was made a director of the Security Trust Company of Detroit and of the Michigan Sav- ings Bank. Upon the death of his father in 1907, he was appointed administrator of the estate and suc- ceeded his father as a director of the First National Bank of Detroit and of the Wayne County Savings Bank, both of which positions had been filled by his father for many years. When the Clayton anti-trust act went into effect, preventing interlocking direc- torates, Mr. Ferry chose to stay by the First and Old Detroit National Bank, retiring from the Security Trust Company and the Wayne County and Home Sav- ings Bank. He is a member of the executive board of the First and Old Detroit National Bank and its affiliated First National Company. Mr. Ferry was also elected vice president of the Standard Insurance Com- pany and in 1911 he succeeded the late M. W. O'Brien as president of the Michigan Fire & Marine Insurance
DEXTER M. FERRY. JR.
287
CITY OF DETROIT
Company. He is likewise an officer and director in various other corporations which are important ele- ments in the business and commercial development of Michigan. Mr. Ferry constructed and is the owner of the Crosstown Garage at John R and Warren streets. This property has the largest ground floor storage capacity of any structure of its kind in the country.
On the 1st of October, 1907, Mr. Ferry was united in marriage to Miss Jeannette Hawkins of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and they have become parents of four children: Dexter, Edith, Jean and William Hawkins. Mr. and Mrs. Ferry are members of the North Wood- ward Congregational church and he has membership in the Detroit, Country, University and Detroit Boat Clubs and of the last named has been president. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and, unlike many men of large business affairs, he has ever been keenly interested in the political situation and problems of the country and in 1901 was elected to the Michigan legislature, in which he served for two terms, or through 1904. He was president of the state board of education from 1908 until 1912. His work in the general assembly during his first term had to do largely with furthering direct voting legislation. He was also chairman of the University of Michigan committee and defended that institution from a con- certed attack by the country members. After his re- election he was made chairman of the private corpo- rations committee and was instrumental in develop- ing broader corporation laws for business in the state and his committee also became quite well known in the checking of graft legislation. He has likewise been very active in civic affairs and has been the earnest supporter of many plans and projects which have had to do with Detroit's upbuilding and with the advancement of those interests which contribute to civic virtue and to civic pride. He is connected with the D'Arcambel Home for Boys, is a trustee of Grace Hospital, is importantly connected with the Franklin Street Settlement and trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association Corporation. He was one of the organizers of the Provident Loan Society and is still its vice president. He was also one of the or- ganizers and is a director of the House Financing Cor- poration organized in 1919 to help solve the housing situation arising in Detroit after the World war. He was likewise a member of the board of the Detroit Museum of Art and was its president from 1914 until 1917. During his incumbency the museum emerged from its innocuous desuetude in art matters and ad- vanced rapidly towards the more dignified and active place it now holds among Detroit's institutions. In February, 1920, he was elected president of Detroit Museum of Art Founders Society, a continuation of the old Detroit Museum of Art Corporation, to co- operate with the new Municipal Institute of Arts through its memberships for purchasing new works of art and for administering the present and future
trust funds and endowments for the institute. Mr. Ferry is also a vice president of the National Arts Club of New York. His wife was for some years the treasurer of St. Agnes' Home of Detroit and was very prominent in Red Cross work during the war. A contemporary writer has said of him:
"Mr. Ferry is a man of broad modern views in civic affairs and has given much of his time to unre- munerative publie matters. He helped the University of Michigan in the acquiring of Ferry Field, which has meant so much to the health of the student body and athletics in general. In Detroit he and his sisters made it possible for the city to acquire from the Ferry estate part of the old Ferry farm at the corner of Grand River avenue and the Boulevard, now known as Northwestern Playground. It was through Mr. Ferry's efforts and personal expenditure that the original survey of Detroit playground and park con- ditions was made by the board of commerce recreation committee, which resulted in the formation of the Recreation Commission and starting of municipal play- ground activities. He has been interested in the welfare and growth of the Detroit Museum of Art, on whose board he served for six years. Half of the new museum property on Woodward avenue was se- cured from Mr. Ferry and his sisters through purchase at a very low figure. He was appointed by Mayor Couzens on the new Municipal Art Commission but was debarred from serving on account of being a resident of Grosse Pointe.
"Long before this country entered the war Mr. Ferry formed the conviction that we should be thor- oughly prepared and he wanted to be a part of that preparedness and entered the Reserve Corps. On Feb- ruary 1, 1917, after an examination, be was commis- sioned a captain in the Quartermaster's Reserve Corps and less than a month after the declaration of war was ordered to active duty at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and assigned to the Motor Truck Group. His broad experience in business organization and ad- ministration made his services in his first assignment valuable in perfecting the organization and plant of the Motor Truck Group. He was made adjutant and later became commanding officer.
"Fort Sam Houston was the center and repository of all motor trucks and equipment as well as the per- sonnel used in the Mexican border trouble, which was later sent out all over the country to assist in the building up of the various camps and cantonments.
"Captain Ferry's work at Fort Sam Houston came to the attention of the Washington authorities and he was ordered in January, 1918, to Chicago to organize and assume command of the Motor Convoy Service for that district. The Motor Convoy Service was a new branch of the military machine and its organization and quick development was an important factor in building up and maintaining the American end of supplying the American Expeditionary Forces with motor equipment.
288
CITY OF DETROIT
"The Chicago district had charge of nine factories in the middle west, manufacturing government trucks. Men were sent from the various camps and divisions to Captain Ferry's camp at Hawthorne, out of Chi- cago, and were given a course of training and then sent overland with the trucks from the factories to the seaboard. These trips were required as prelimi- nary training for the truck trains and companies going overseas.
"From the first the problems to be solved were many and difficult aud required a vast knowledge of all the details of the organization. There were odds and ends to assemble, routes and schedules to be worked out and watched constantly, factories and personnel reporting at all times and from various places and the welfare of men and equipment to be considered at every moment. It required a man of Captain Ferry's tact, patience and conscientious in- dustry to keep all this machinery running smoothly and on schedule.
"In August, 1918, Captain Ferry was promoted to major in the Quartermasters Corps and shortly there- after transferred to the Motor Transport Corps. In addition to his duties in the Convoy Service he was made district motor transport officer of District H, which office controlled all motor equipment of the army for Chicago and west. After the armistice this position was taken over by a colonel from the regular army and in March, 1919, Major Ferry was honorably discharged after nearly two years of continuous active service without leave. After the armistice Major Ferry was given another promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel."
WILLIAM JUDSON KENNEDY, a vice president of the Detroit Creamery Company, is one of the best known executives of the creamery business in this section of the country. His identification with the creamery industry in Detroit dates back twenty- five years and covers a period of construction and development hardly surpassed by any of his con- temporaries.
Mr. Kennedy is a native Detroiter, born June 3, 1876, a son of William John and Anna (McGraw) Kennedy, both of whom were natives of Ireland. On coming to America in early life the parents set- tled in Detroit. The father became connected with the old Detroit Stove Company and was thus employed until the time of his death, which occurred in 1874. His widow long survived him and passed away in Detroit in 1904. In their family were four children: Mrs. Mary Robinson of Detroit; Mrs. Ann Fries of Denver, Colorado; Mrs. Lillian Kent of Detroit; and William J.
The youthful days of William J. Kennedy were largely devoted to the acquirement of a public school education. He attended the Barstow school and afterward spent two years as a pupil in one of the night public schools. He made his initial step in the
business world as a cash boy in the employ of the J. R. Campbell Dry Goods Company on the 20th of May, 1890, and there remained for a year. In 1891 he secured the position of assistant cashier with the W. N. Winans Dry Goods Company, thus remaining until 1896, when he became assistant bookkeeper for the Detroit Umbrella Company and occupied this position until 1897, when he accepted the position of assistant bookkeeper in Towar's Wayne County Creamery. He continued to serve in that capacity until 1906 and on the 1st of April of the latter year was elected secretary and treasurer. Subse- quently he was made president and general manager of the business, which was developed into one of the most important creamery interests of Wayne county. After becoming the executive head of that company on the 17th of May, 1916, a large new building was erected, which is one of the most splendidly equipped and sanitary creameries of the country. In 1914 the Towar Creamery won the first prize at the dairy show in Chicago, also the first premium for pure milk at the Michigan State Fair, and a prize for purity of products at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915 at San Francisco. In addition, there have been many other evidences of the progressive methods employed in the conduct of the business. Mr. Kennedy re- mained at the head of that industry, which was then employing about three hundred and fifty people, until 1920, when he brought about the consolidation of the Towar Creamery interests with the Detroit Creamery Company. He then became a vice president of the latter organization, in charge of milk dis- tribution.
On the 22d of June, 1899, Mr. Kennedy was married to Miss Phyllis Foret. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and his religious faith is that of the Roman Catholic church. He has mem- bership with the Knights of Columbus and also with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He belongs to the Detroit Athletic Club; to the Rotary Club, of which he is a charter member; to the Fellowcraft Club, the Red Run Golf Club and the Ingleside Club. He has ever been keenly interested in children and their welfare and is serving as a director and chair- man of the house committee of the Michigan Hospital School for Crippled Children and also of St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum. His sympathetic nature reaches out in kindly spirit to all who need assistance but partic- ularly to those who are suffering from the hardships of an untoward fate. Mr. Kennedy had three years' military experience as a member of the Detroit Light Infantry and he is a member of the board of com- merce and the Detroit Credit Mens' Association. He was one of the organizers of the Detroit Motor Bus Company and has since been one of its directors. His is notably the career of a self-made man, who, without special advantages at the outset, has steadily and persistently worked his way upward and has not only achieved success but through honorable,
WILLIAM J. KENNEDY
Vol. III-19
291
CITY OF DETROIT
loyal and straightforward practices has won and re- tained the confidence and respect of all with whom his business or social relations have brought him into contact. Mr. Kennedy is numbered among Detroit's strong, capable business men and valnable citizens. He resides at 34 Rhode Island avenue.
SAMUEL TOWNSEND DOUGLAS, engaged in the practice of law in Detroit since his admission to the bar in 1879 and now senior partner in the firm of Douglas, Eaman, Barbour & Rogers, was born at Ann Arbor, Michigan, August 2, 1853, a son of Dr. Silas H. and Helen (Welles) Donglas, the former at that time a professor in the University of Michigan, and one of the founders of the medical department of that institution.
At the usual age Samuel T. Douglas became a public school pupil at Ann Arbor and eventually a student in the State University, from which he was graduated in 1873. He afterward pursued a postgrad- uate course in chemistry and medicine in the State University and won the degree of Bachelor of Philos- ophy. With the desire to become an active member of the bar, he began reading law in the office of Douglas & Bowen, of which his uncle, Judge S. T. Douglas, was the senior member. Following his admission to the har in 1879 he became junior partner in the firm of Donglas, Bowen & Douglas, and following the retirement of the senior partner, Judge Douglas, in 1884, the firm of Bowen, Douglas & Whiting was formed. Further changes in the personnel led to the organization of the firm of Bowen, Douglas, Eaman & Barbour, which in 1919 became Douglas, Eaman, Barbour & Rogers. Extending his efforts into the com- mercial field, Mr. Douglas has become the vice presi- dent of the Washtenaw Gas Company and a director of several corporations, including the Detroit Trust Company, the First National Company, the Central Savings Bank, and the Washtenaw Gas Company. He is also the president of the Detroit Weatherproof Company and his legal counsel, his keen discrimination and sound judgment and his enterprise are constitut- ing dominant factors in the continued success of these interests.
Mr. Douglas was married in Detroit in 1891 to Miss Marion Dwight and they have become the parents of a son and a daughter: David Dwight, who was mar- ried July 28, 1916, to Katherine Demme, a grand- daughter of David Whitney, and they have a daughter, Martha Dwight Douglas; and Marion Howe, who on the 28th of May, 1917, became the wife of Douglas Campbell of Detroit.
Mr. Douglas has ever found great pleasure in the perusal of books, especially of a scientific character, and for lighter pleasure turns to golf and fishing. He was one of the organizers of the Detroit Club, of which he is a member, and he belongs also to the Yondotega, Witenagemote, Country, Detroit Boat, Detroit Ath- letie and Huron Mountain Clubs. He is a valued
member of the Association Bar, City of Detroit, the Michigan State and American Bar Associations and is likewise connected with the Detroit Board of Com- merce. For twelve years he was a member of the De- troit board of health. The breadth of his interests is further indicated in his connection with the American Historical Society, the Society of Colonial Wars, the National Geographic Society and the Chi Psi, a college fraternity. The religious faith of Mr. Douglas and his family is that of the Episcopal church.
HENRY W. BUSCH, secretary and general super- intendent of the park and boulevard system of Detroit for fifteen years, since accepting this position has done most important work in the development of a system that is continually advancing the beauty in which every citizen of Detroit takes justifiable pride. He was here born January 30, 1876, and is a son of Frederick and Doretta (Reuter) Busch, the latter a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The father, who was of European birth, came to America at an early day in company with his father, Henry W. Busch, who settled in Detroit, taking up his abode upon the present site of the new municipal courts building-a district that was then considered "away out of town." Frederick Busch served his apprentice- ship and became an expert workman in fresco paint- ing. At the time the first free mail service was established he was one of the ten men selected and appointed to carry the mail, taking up this work in 1865. He continued in the mail service to the time of his death, which occurred thirty-one years later, or in 1896. His widow is still living and makes her home in Detroit. In their family were four children: Henry W., Frieda H., Mrs. Elsie M. Hoffmeyer and Mrs. Irene M. Pfeiffer, all residents of this city.
Henry W. Busch attended the public schools, passing through consecutive grades to the high school, while later he attended the old Detroit Business University and also the Pollmar Institute, and thus being well trained for life's practical and responsible duties he entered upon commercial lines. He later had charge of the office for J. Calvert & Sons, with whom he continued until 1905, and left that position to enter the service of the city park department, of which he was made superintendent. From that position he was advanced to general superintendent and secretary and lias so served since 1913. Today Detroit has one of the best regulated park departments of any city of the country. The plans there instituted and carried out are of a most progressive character, adding to the beauty of Detroit and affording splendid play- grounds for its rapidly increasing population. Its boulevard system connecting the parks is one of the finest in the country, gaining for Detroit a well merited reputation in this particular.
There is an interesting military chapter in the life record of Mr. Busch, who served with the Thirty- first Michigan Infantry as first duty sergeant of
292
CITY OF DETROIT
Company K under Colonel Cornelius Gardner during the Spanish-American war. He was also for a number of years a member of the Michigan National Guard and when he retired was holding the rank of captain. During his connection with the Spanish-American war he was at Chickamauga, at Knoxville, at Savannah, Georgia, and ultimately in Cuba. He belongs to the United Spanish War Veterans, a national organization, and served as its commander in chief, 1917 to 1918, and he is also a member of Ashlar Lodge, F. & A. M., the Loyal Order of Moose, the Knights of the Mac- cabees, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Inde- pendent Order of Foresters, and the Amaranth and the Exchange Clubs.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.