USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. III > Part 55
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There can be no better picture drawn of the charac- ter and accomplishments of Mr. Sherrard than to quote the tribute paid to him by Edwin L. Miller, principal of the Northwestern high school of Detroit: "To draw such a picture of Henry Gray Sherrard as to intro- duce him adequately to anyone who did not know him is a task beyond my powers. I am constrained to attempt it in spite of this fact, however, because I have an affection for him and his memory, because personally I owe him a debt of gratitude, and because it would he well for our high schools if they numbered among their instructors more men of his character and capacity.
"After all, it is not much of a story. There are countless careers which are more picturesque, even among schoolmasters. And yet it was a great life. There are a few additional circumstances which may help to indicate his force and versatility. He refused several college positions. By giving private lessons he earned, for a time at least, twice or thrice the salary paid him by the Detroit board of education. He was a member of the National Committee of Twelve on Classical Education. Among his students there are several who are now serving with distinguished suc- cess as college professors of Greek and Latin. After his health failed his Alma Mater conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. In 1891 he married Miss Charlotte Berry, the daughter of one of Detroit's greatest business men. To this day, if you mention his name to any of his old pupils, you will in all probability listen to a tribute of enthu- siastic admiration such as few teachers succeed in in-
HENRY G. SHERRARD
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spiring. Probably no man in college or high school whose labors were bounded by the walls of the class room to the extent that Sherrard's were ever exerted a wider or finer influence.
"During my first and second years in high school, that is, in 1882 and 1883, I knew him only as a gaunt apparition, over six feet tall, from whom it was well to flee. In 1884, with much fear, I enrolled in his class in beginning Greek. My apprehensions were more than realized. If there was any one thing of which at that time I stood in dread, it was work. And how he did work us! Twelve pages of grammar a day, unless my memory is greatly at fault, was our usual portion, not to mention translation, prose, para- digms, vocabularies, etc., etc. And no one went un- prepared to his class except with the full knowledge that he was in for a had forty-five minutes. A mis- placed iota subscript roused him to a degree of fury that would have appalled any heart less stout than that of a boy in his third year at high school. On such occasions he tore his hair, screwed his face up into weird and awful lines, and anathematized our an- cestors for the crime of bringing into the world a generation of blockheads. His favorite method of in- dicating that a form written on the blackboard was incorrect was to draw a piece of chalk sideways over it. This usually produced a blood-curdling squeak and often the chalk broke, falling to the floor and hurting his fingers, which nowise increased his amiability. Often his voice, as he denounced some lazy rascal, could be heard for rooms around. He was, in short, constantly saying and doing things for which anybody else would have been summarily dismissed from the service.
"And yet we all adored him. Five minutes after he had flayed you, you were again his firm friend. At the end of the recitation you were probably marching down the hall arm in arm with him.
"I am by no means sure that I can tell why he had such a bold on our respect and affection, hut this I know that we knew: He was strong. He was fair. He was open. He knew his subject and loved it. Like Antonio Stradivarius, be had a soul that winced at false work and loved the true. In his hands Greek became the most practical subject in the curriculum, because he made it the instrument not only for teach- ing us what work is and how to work but also for leading us to share his own contempt for slipshod achievement. He made not merely scholars but men of us. He was a magnificent exponent of that stren- uous kind of education for lack of which America is today so grievously suffering.
" His methods of impressing a point on the mind of a pupil were sometimes fascinating and invariably effective. One boy, who is now an honored professor in a great university not more than a thousand miles from Detroit, could not pronounce 'Upsilon'; there- after he was always 'Mr. Upsilon' in the Greek class. When your work on the blackboard was right,
Sherrard often erased it; if it was right in part, he would erase all except the forms that were incorrect and around these he would draw a neat frame and mark it 'Preserve.' Sometimes, after a long and silent examination of your work, he would cock his head on one side and say: 'Well, Miller, I guess we'll have to frame it all.' One of his pupils, who has since become a famous statesman, tells me that he one day was unable to decline the Greek word for 'goat.' Sher- rard thereupon said that the first duty of the class each day for the rest of the term would be to hear Thomas decline 'goat.' This sentence was afterward commuted into writing it on the hoard each day. The criminal got shortly into the habit of going in early and doing the job before the class assembled. When everybody had arrived, Sherrard would examine it critically; then a heatific smile would overspread his face and he would say: 'Ah, an old friend.'
"In later years it was now and then my good for- tune to meet him and talk to him or rather to be talked at by him. He was a charming conversation- alist. Wise, sane and cultured in the best sense of that term, he passed from grave to gay, from lively to severe, in a fashion that held his hearers spellbound. Balance and catholicity preeminently characterized his intellect, yet there was nothing bromidian about it; it was quick, fiery, prompt, original. Only one adjective adequately describes it-Sherrardesque. It is a pity that he had no Boswell or that he did not write.
"His greatness-for he was great-was due, it seems to me, to what in conventional phraseology may be called the breadth of his sympathies. Like Terence he might have said: 'Humani nihil a me alienum puto.' Nothing that concerns humanity was a matter of in- difference to him. Like Burns, he was the brother and playmate of all mankind. His interests ranged from Kant's philosophy to the scrubwoman in the high school with her daily problem of soap and hot water. To him study was not work but play; he read Plato with his feet on the fender. Yet few of his friends suspected how much he knew of subjects about which Greek professors are popularly supposed (perhaps un- justly) to be profoundly ignorant. For instance, he was a master of the literature of child labor, and he knew, not superficially, but practically, about all that was in his day to be known about the construction of electric motors. On one occasion he talked with a den- tist whom he met in a casual way on a train. On saying goodbye to him the man asked: 'You are a dentist, are you not?' He whiled away the tedium of his last prolonged illness by studying and mastering the art of basket weaving.
"Sherrard, as I have said, was brother and play- mate to all mankind. His charity was extensive but unsuspected except by his intimates. Though the chief source of his income was private tutoring and though he exacted liberal fees for this, he was always ready to give his services gratis to those who could
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not pay. A certain country schoolmaster, who is now a prominent citizen of another state, was among his beneficiaries; he not only prepared this impecunious person free of charge for college in Latin and Greek, but gave him lessons also in algebra and geometry, which he himself detested. How good or rather how bad his mathematical tutoring was one can only guess. But his charity did not stop here. He also lent his pupil money to go to college.
"To this breadth of sympathy he united two other qualities which go far to make an ideal teacher. He was patient and he could labor terribly. Those who knew him only in a superficial way perhaps seldom suspected that he possessed the former characteristic. One who bad had exceptional opportunities to see him as he was, described him as the most patient of impatient men, which means, among other things, that while a lazy fellow got small consideration at his hands, his time and skill were always at the disposal of the industrious; no matter how stupid or unprom- ising they might be, he never ceased to labor in their behalf with that energy and hope which are the high- est and rarest of the true teacher's qualities. His de- votion to his work was so excessive indeed that it ruined his health. He overdid it. And at the all- too-early age of forty, he paid the penalty, by no means an isolated instance of devotion in the great army of education.
"The last nine years of his life afford one of the most pathetic and yet one of the most inspiring of recollections. When it became clear that he was not to recover, he determined at least to endure his fate like a man. It was then that the heroic mould of his nature and the real fineness of his soul first stood revealed to his closest friends. To visitors he reso- lutely presented a cheerful face; his conversation almost to the end preserved its old fine flavor. To inti- mate friends his most pessimistic utterance was in- variably, 'I am not unhappy.' He busied himself with the education of his children, with reading, with bas- ketry, and with a telephone which was installed at his bed's head, giving in all this a noble illustration of the way in which a trained mind can supplement the deficiencies of a broken body and a trained will rise superior to every disaster.
"Peace to his ashes!
'He was a man! Take him for all in all, I shall not look up his like again.' "
FRANK PALMS BOOK. Throughout the period of Detroit's development and growth the past thirty years the name of Book has figured prominently and the work begun and instituted by the father has been carried on by the sons, who, taking charge of the estate, have developed and broadened its interests, contributing not only to the upbuilding of their own fortunes, but to the improvement and welfare of Detroit in a most substantial way.
Frank P. Book, born in Detroit March 14, 1893, is
a son of Dr. James B. and Clothilde (Palms) Book. Dr. Book was one of the most virile and versatile men known to Detroit in the days just previous to the big boom and is mentioned at length elsewhere in this work. Frank P. Book attended the public and high schools of Detroit and afterward became a student in the Detroit University School, later in the University of Michigan and eventually in the Sorbonne of Paris, where he pursued library and business courses. He next entered the University of Munich and with the completion of his educational training abroad he re- turned to Detroit and became associated with his father in the business of looking after the vast in- vestments which had been made by Dr. Book. Since the latter's demise the Development Corporation of Detroit has been incorporated under the laws of the State of Michigan, to facilitate and strengthen the enormous financial dealings of the family. This is the foremost corporation of its kind ever organized in Michigan, its officers being: James B. Book, Jr., president; Herbert V. Book, vice president; and Frank P. Book, secretary and treasurer. Among his other business connections, he is treasurer of C. H. Wills & Company of Marysville, Michigan, also a director of the Security Trust Company of Detroit.
On the 5th of March, 1917, Frank P. Book was married to Miss Gertrude Coyne of New York, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward J. Coyne. They have be- come the parents of two children: Mary Jane, born in Detroit, February 12, 1918; and Frank Palms, Jr., born October 7, 1920.
Mr. Book is a republican in his political views, stanchly advocating the principles of the party, and he belongs to the Detroit Club, the Detroit Athletic Club, the Country Club, the Lochmoor Club, the Oakland Hills Country Club, the Bloomfield Hunt Club and other prominent social organizations in which he is well known.
GEORGE L. COLLINS is the president of the George L. Collins Company, Inc., commission dealers in fruit, poultry and dressed calves and specializing in seasonable fruits. They have built up one of the largest business enterprises of the kind in Detroit and the most thorough business principles guide them in every trade transaction. Mr. Collins is a native of Portsmouth, England. He was born March 5, 1865, his parents being James and Mary (Merritt) Collins. He attended the public schools of his native country until he was fourteen years of age, when he crossed the Atlantic to Canada, settling first in Toronto. He was there employed as an office boy in the office of the Northern Railway for two years and later he secured a position as clerk on a lake boat, the City of Montreal, in which connection he served for three seasons. Upon leaving the lakes Mr. Collins went to Chicago, where for a time he served in a cler- ical capacity with the Chicago Board of Trade. In 1895 he became connected with the firm of Stanley &
FRANK P. BOOK
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Best, commission merchants on Water street in Chi- cago, with whom he remained for an extended period, save for about a year during the time of the World's Columbian Exposition, when he conducted a business of his own in that city.
Mr. Collins came to Detroit in 1906 and was con- nected with the firm of Bloomgarden & Ellenstein, commission merchants, on Woodbridge street. He established a business of his own in 1912 at No. 29 West Woodbridge street. There he carried on busi- ness until 1916, when he removed to his present ad- dress, 2454 and 2456 Market street, eastern market. The George L. Collins Company caters principally to the retail trade, selling to groceries and meat markets. He has developed a business of substantial propor- tions, the rapid growth of which has been largely due to his untiring efforts, his elose application and the high grade of products which he handles. The com- pany sold over one hundred and sixty earloads of fruit alone during the summer of 1919 and a most liberal patronage is now enjoyed by the house.
In 1899 Mr. Collins was united in marriage to Miss Hattie A. Meyer, a native of Detroit, and they have become the .parents of two children: Mildred Eileen, who was born in Juue, 1900; and Stanley Ellsworth, born April 6, 1903.
Mr. Collins is a Mason, belonging to Palestine Lodge, to Detroit Commandery, No. 1, to the Consistory and the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the De- troit Masonic Club and is the president of the local branch of the National League of Commission Mer- chants. He is also a member of the Detroit Board of Commerce. He has membership with several local societies of a social character and in politics he is a stanch republican. Patriotic and loyal in his eiti- zenship, he gives his support to every measure or project which he believes will work for the better- ment of local or national conditions.
ADOLPH G. STUDER, M. D. Since 1903 Dr. Adolph G. Studer has been the general secretary of the De- troit Young Men's Christian Association, giving his attention to the broadening activities of this organ- ization and promoting its effectiveness as a force for the physical, mental and moral uplift of young men. A native of Canada, Dr. Studer was born in Montreal, province of Quebec, on the 18th of August, 1868, his parents being William S. and Margaret (Von Weinnmann) Studer. After pursuing his education in public, high and Normal schools of his native city he continued his education in MeGill University. His identification with Detroit dates from young manhood, when he became a student in Detroit College, there pursuing his studies for two years. He won his pro- fessional degree upon graduation from the Detroit Homeopathic College with the class of 1893, after which he practiced medicine in New Mexico for a year.
On the 6th of July, 1893, in Detroit, Dr. Studer was
married to Miss Fannie M. Buick, and they have become the parents of two children: Eliot William, who died of influenza in 1918; and Ruth Buick.
Dr. Studer's active connection with Young Men's Christian Association work has covered many years. In fact he entered this field in Pittsburgh in 1890 and came to Detroit to enter upon the work in this city in 1891. Then followed his period of study and preparation for the medical profession here, but again he turned to the Association work and has been gen- eral secretary in Detroit since 1903. Throughout the intervening period he has given his attention to the general organization and systematization of the work, to the promotion of the various lines of activity carried forward by the organization and has constantly sought out new lines that would prove directly resultant in the effort to stimulate the physical, intellectual and moral development of young men. In the latter part of 1918 he was appointed by the National War Work Council to go upon a journey through the Near East in order to study at first hand the conditions following the war existing in those countries. He was absent from January until June, 1919, during which period he visited Roumania, Turkey, Serbia, Armenia, Greece and other eastern countries. His report was considered a masterpiece of its kind, baring the true conditions which were the direct outcome of the war. He holds a very high position in Y. M. C. A. circles and has given unreservedly of his force and energy for the betterment of this great organization.
In the line of his profession Dr. Studer is known as a member of the Detroit and Michigan State Home- opathie Societies and also of the Alumni Association of the Detroit Homeopathie College. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and his religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church. He also belongs to Damascus Commandery, K. T., and has long been a devoted and exemplary follower of Masonic teachings. He holds membership with the Detroit Boat Club, the Detroit Tennis Club, the Oak- land Hills Golf Club, the Ingleside Club and the Detroit Athletic Club and he is likewise a member of the Detroit Board of Commerce, cooperating heartily in all of its well formulated plans and projects for the upbuilding of the city, the extension of its trade relations and the advancement of its civic standards.
HENRY STEWART SLYFIELD, attorney at law in Detroit, was born in St. Clair, Michigan, September 2, 1882, a son of Henry J. and Agnes C. (Powrie) Slyfield. The family moved to Detroit in 1891, where Henry Stewart Slyfield enjoyed the advantages offered by the public schools of this city and he passed through consecutive grades and graduated from the Detroit Central high school. He then entered the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1906 with the LL. B. degree. Returning to Detroit, he at once entered upon the active practice of his profession, becoming associated with Allan H. Frazer and Stewart
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C. Griswold and later he became a member of the firm of Frazer, Griswold & Slyfield. In 1913 he severed his connection with the firm and has since that time been practicing alone. Mr. Slyfield is secretary and a member of the board of directors of the Michigan Malleable Iron Company, one of the leading productive industries of its kind in this section of the state.
On the 19th of December, 1907, was celebrated the marriage of Henry S. Slyfield and Miss Katherine Van Valkenburgh of Hastings, Michigan. He belongs to the Detroit Athletic Club, the Detroit Boat Club, the Oakland Hills Country Club, the Detroit Lawyers Club, Detroit Bar Association, of which he was see- retary from 1912 to 1915, the Michigan Bar Associa- tion, and also to the Phi Gamma Delta, a college fraternity, the Graduate Club of the Phi Gamma Delta, Detroit Board of Commerce and University of Michigan Club. He finds his chief recreation in outdoor sports. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons as a member of Palestine Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and King Cyrus Chapter, R. A. M. The religious faith of Mr. Slyfield is that of the Episcopal church and his political belief that of the republican party.
ALANSON AVERY MOORE, who since 1901 has engaged in the real estate business in Detroit and who is now president of the Bessenger-Moore Land Company, was born in Sarnia, Ontario, October 24, 1858. His father, Robert J. Moore, was born in New Brunswick in 1817 and was married in Oxford county, Ontario, in 1851, to Miss Catherine Avery. Through- out his business career he was a building contractor and erected various prominent structures in the dis- triets of Ontario in which he resided with his family. The father is now deceased, but the mother survives and makes her home in Spokane, Washington.
Alanson A. Moore was reared at Beachville, On- tario, and completed a grammar school course there but did not have the advantage of college training. It was necessary that he go to work when a youth of seventeen years and he became an active assistant of his father, who was a contractor. He divided his time between building operations, farming and the lumber business until 1900. In the following year he turned his attention to the real estate business in Detroit and in January, 1902, the firm of Bessenger & Moore was formed. The business was conducted under that style until 1915, when it was incorporated under the name of Bessenger-Moore Land Company, of which Mr. Moore became president. Nineteen years' con- nection with the real estate business in Detroit has made him thoroughly familiar with Detroit realty and he is an excellent judge of values. He has built up a clientage of large proportions and the business has long since reached a point of substantial profit. He was one of the organizers of and is likewise a director and the vice president of the Guarantee Trust Com- pany of Detroit and a director of the United States
Bond & Mortgage Company, and director of the Guar- antee Investment Company.
On the 14th of February, 1888, in Detroit, Mr. Moore was married to Miss Margaret Harrop, a daugh- ter of the late John Harrop. Their children are: Harold H. and Helen Margaret. The latter is at home, while the son is treasurer of the Bessenger-Moore Land Company. He was born May 24, 1890, at Glad- win, Michigan, was married in Detroit June 11, 1914, to Isabelle DeVine and resides at No. 1611 Colorado avenue, Highland Park.
Alanson Avery Moore is a republican and for five years was building commissioner of Detroit. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to Detroit Lodge, No. 2, F. & A. M., Michigan Sovereign Consis- tory, and Moslem Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and he belongs also to the Detroit Athletic Club, the De- troit Golf Club, the Ingleside Club and the Automobile Country Club of Pine Lake, of which he is one of the directors. While reared in the Baptist faith his church affiliation is not confined to any one denomi- nation. These associations indicate the nature of his interests and the rules which govern his conduct, making him one of the highly esteemed residents of his adopted city. In 1913 Mr. Moore built his home at the southwest corner of Chicago boulevard and Second boulevard and has since there resided.
REED ADAMS, president of the Electrograph Com- pany, is a native son of the state and has spent his life within its borders, being now numbered among the progressive and substantial business men of De- troit. He has devoted his active career to the va- rious phases of the printing and publishing business and in the conduct of his interests he has proved capable, farsighted and energetic, winning a sub- stantial measure of success. He was born at Auburn Heights, Oakland county, Michigan, September 26, 1874, a son of Henry J. and Betsy (Reed) Adams, who became the parents of four children, the other members of the family being: Jennie, Elmer and John. His mother died shortly after his birth and he was reared by his father's brother, William Adams of Lapeer. The father was a millwright by trade and for a number of years he operated one of the largest cider mills in that section of the state.
In the public schools of Lapeer Reed Adams pursued his education and after his graduation from high school he occupied clerical positions in several law offices, his chief duties being in connection with the compiling of law books. He became so interested in the work that in 1897 he engaged in that line of business independ- ently in Lapeer, at first conducting his interests as the Reed Adams Company, while later the style was changed to the Citator Publishing Company. He pub- lished a pamphlet in quarterly state editions which served the same purpose to the legal profession which abstracts fulfill to those engaged in real estate opera- tions. In this connection he built up a large volume
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