USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. III > Part 92
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On the 30th of June, 1898, in Toronto, Canada, Mr. Booth was united in marriage to Miss Clara Mary Coleman. He is identified with the Bloomfield Hills Country Club, the Old Club, the Detroit Club and the Detroit Athletic Club; is a trustee of the Woodward Avenue Baptist church and a director of the Y. M. C. A. and many other Detroit institutions. He has ever commanded the high regard, confidence and goodwill of his colleagues and his contemporaries in business, and during the twenty-three years of his connection with the manufacturing and commercial interests of Detroit he has maintained an unassailable reputation and at the same time displayed qualities which have brought him to the front in connection with the industrial life of the city.
HENRY BRIDGE LEWIS, president of the Lewis Hall Iron Works of Detroit was born in this city, November 18, 1866. His father came to Detroit in 1822, crossing the river in a canoe, and at that time he was the possessor of a cash capital of thirteen cents. Here he took up his abode, living at the corner of Jefferson avenue and Rivard street, where the old home is still standing. As the years passed he won success as the result of his close application and en- terprise. He was also a most public-spirited man and in many ways sought the progress, welfare and upbuild- ing of the city. He served as police commissioner and from 1878 until 1880 was mayor of Detroit, and left the impress of his individuality for good upon the public welfare.
Henry B. Lewis was educated in the public schools and in Trinity College at Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. He afterward went to Seattle as secretary and treas- urer of the Reitz-Stetson Saw Mills, occupying that position for five years. Later he returned to Detroit and continued the partnership with James T. White-
head, under the firm name of Whitehead & Lewis, in the conduct of a structural steel and sheet metal busi- ness. This partnership maintained for five years, at the end of which time Mr. Whitehead retired and the business was carried under the name of Henry B. Lewis until 1913, when he was joined by Harry S. Hall and the Lewis Hall Iron Works Corporation was organized, with Mr. Lewis as the president and treas- urer. He is prominently known in the manufacturing circles of the city and his business is today one of large and substantial proportions. He is also the vice president and one of the directors of the Lewis Hall Motor Corporation. In all business affairs he displays sound judgment and keen sagacity and never stops short of the successful accomplishment of his purpose. Obstacles and difficulties in his path seem but to serve as an impetus for renewed effort on his part and through the years his progress has been continuous.
On the 24th of April, 1900, Mr. Lewis was married to Miss Margie Elwood Croul, and they have one son: Alexander Jerome, born May 25, 1902, in De- troit. Mr. Lewis is well known in the club circles of the city, belonging to the Detroit, Yondotega, Grosse Pointe Country, Grosse Pointe Riding & Hunt, and the Detroit Boat Clubs, and of the last named he is a life member. He finds his chief recrea- tion in golf aud is often found upon the links but never when the duties of his business demand his at- tention, for in the field of manufacturing he has won a place of prominence. His political endorse- ment is given to the republican party, and his religious faith is indicated in his membership in Christ Epis- copal church. His entire life has been actuated by high and honorable purposes and his success has never been won at the sacrifice of others' fortunes; on the contrary he has followed constructive methods and as the architect of his own fortunes has builded wisely and well.
JAMES W. AILES, who through the years of an active business career bas been identified with manu- facturing and insurance interests in Detroit, was born in Alliance, Ohio, April 22, 1858, and is a son of Amos and Mary A. (Allman) Ailes. The father's birth occurred in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and he was a descendant of Stephen Ailes, a Frenchi Huguenot, who settled in Chester, Pennsylvania, dur- ing the pioneer development of that state, as did two of his brothers. Amos Ailes was reared in Penn- sylvania, pursued his education in the public schools and became an expert mechanic, occupying for forty years the position of foreman in the car shops of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad at Alliance, Ohio. There he made his home until his demise, which occurred in 1895.
James W. Ailes began his education in the publie schools of his native city and was graduated as a member of the first class to complete the high school course there, the date of graduation being 1874. In
HENRY B. LEWIS
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1875 he made his initial step in the business world by entering the employ of W. R. Reid & Company of Cleveland, dealers in photographic materials and sup- plies. In 1876 he went on the road as traveling sales- man for the firm of Teal & Sargent of Cleveland, who were engaged in the same line of business, and in 1877 Mr. Ailes became a resident of Detroit, where he has made his home for four decades.
With his removal to Detroit, Mr. Ailes became iden- tified with the house of C. D. Widman & Company, furniture manufacturers, whom he represented as a salesman until 1882, when he was admitted to a part- nership. Upon the incorporatiou of the company under the same firm style in 1884 he was chosen vice presi- dent and continued in that office until 1900, when upon the retirement of J. C. Widman from the presi- deney, he was elected to that position and so served until 1910, when they decided to retire from business, selling their plant to the Auto Parts Manufacturing Company, which still operates the same. Through the intervening period, covering about a decade, he has been prominently engaged in the insurance business, being recognized as one of the leading figures in this field of activity in Detroit.
On the 11th of June, 1879, at Brampton, Ontario, Canada, Mr. Ailes was married to Miss Frances H. Bradley and they have one son, Edgar R., president of the Detroit Credit Men's Association and treasurer of the Detroit Steel Products Company, also of the Denby Motor Truck Company. He married Florence S. Holt of Detroit and has two children: Edgar H. and Serena. Mrs. Ailes passed away July 10, 1915, and on the 25th of August, 1917, Mr. Ailes was united in marriage to Mrs. Eva Augusta Weston of Detroit.
Mr. Ailes is a Knights Templar Mason, belonging to Detroit Commandery, No. 1. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and during the war period he assisted in promoting the various bond drives. He belongs to the Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal church and his life has ever been guided by its teachings. He is also a member of the Detroit Board of Commerce and is keenly interested in all those forces which have to do with the upbuilding and development of the city. He looks to high stand- ards of municipal integrity and honor and to advance possibilities of municipal improvement and cooperates most earnestly with all those forces which are a mat- ter of civic virtne and of civic pride.
FREDERICK G. LAFFERTY, vice president of the A. T. Knowlson Company, dealers in electrical sup- plies, was born at Alexis, Warren county, Illinois, June 8, 1867, his parents being Jonathan E. and Maria (Lafferty) Lafferty. The father is yet living at the ripe old age of eighty-eight years, dividing his time between Illinois and Texas, but the mother has passed away.
Frederick G. Lafferty received a public school edu- cation, attending high school, and when twenty-two
years of age he accepted a clerkship in a hardware store in his native town, but the confining duties of this small position held him for only six months and he then went to Chicago, where he became a sales- man at The Fair. He won promotion there from time to time until he became assistant buyer, remaining with the honse for fifteen years.
On the expiration of that period Mr. Lafferty came to Detroit and for three years was connected with the Detroit Gas & Electric Fixture Company. Imme- diately afterward he became associated with the A. T. Knowlson Company and has been with this firm for thirteen years, winning constant advancement until elected three years ago to the vice presidency. They handle a large line of electrical supplies and their business has been one of substantial and gratifying proportions. Each change in his business connection has marked a forward step in the career of Mr. Lafferty, who has gained for himself a creditable place as a representative of commercial interests in Detroit.
Mr. Lafferty is a member of the Electric Club and also of the Fellowcraft Club and is a Mason of high rank, having attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in the Consistory, while with the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine he has crossed the sands of the desert. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church, his political allegiance is given to the repub- lican party and he is a man of recognized loyalty to every canse which he espouses.
WILLIAM S. RALSTON was a youth of nineteen years when he established his residence in Detroit in May, 1892, and he has been prominently identified with the printing business in this city since that time. As executive head of the Ralston Printing Company he has made the name Ralston stand for all that represents the highest standard of work in the job printing trade, and the well equipped establish- ment of the company, with the best of modern facili- ties, is occupying ample quarters on the fifth floor of the Marquette building.
Mr. Ralston was born at Cookstown, Simcoe county, province of Ontario, Canada, on the 28th of October, 1872, and is the eldest son of John and Sarah Cordelia (Willoughby) Ralston. He acquired his early educa- tion in the public schools of his native town and the city of Toronto, but he was abont fifteen years of age when he found employment in a sash and door factory, with which he continued his connection about eighteen months. While still sixteen years of age he entered upon an apprenticeship to the printer's trade, aud it has been consistently said that discipline of this order is equivalent to a liberal education. He served a three years' apprenticeship in the city of Toronto and subsequently spent two years in Detroit in the employ of J. A. Topping.
On the 1st of March, 1898, after three years' work in various places, Mr. Ralston engaged independently in the job printing business in Detroit, his quarters
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being in the Case building, ou Congress street, West. He met with the total loss of his equipment when this building was destroyed by fire, and similar dis- aster attended other printing concerns in the building. About two years after initiating his independent busi- ness Mr. Ralston formed an alliance with Frank J. Stroup and became president of the Ralston-Stroup Printing Company. A few years later he sold his in- terest in this business to Mr. Stroup and for two years thereafter he was associated in business with Donald Fuller and Joseph B. Schlotman. He then purchased the printing department of the O. J. Mnlford Ad- vertising Company, in 1908, and the enterprise was continued at 83 Fort street until 1916, when removal was made to the present well arranged quarters on the fifth floor of the Marquette building.
The Ralston Printing Company has won a high repu- tation for reliability and for the high-grade work turned out in its establishment, the while Mr. Ralston is one of the best known and most popular representa- tives of the printing trade and business in the Michi- gan metropolis. He is not only an expert and authority in connection with printing but is also a careful and enterprising business man-one who takes an artist's pride in the work produced in his modern printing plant. He holds closely to the admonition expressed in the following words: "Do small things well, and great things, half begun, will crowd your doorway, begging to be done." Mr. Ralston takes loyal and vital interest in all things pertaining to the printing craft and industry and is vice president and chairman of the executive council of the Franklin Association of the Typothetae, Detroit, besides which he is a member of the Adcraft Club, the Detroit Board of Commerce and the Detroit Young Men's Christian Association. He is also a member of the Preston Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has served five years as treasurer and of which he has been a trustee during the greater part of his residence in Detroit. He is a republican in politics and holds membership in the Republican Club of Detroit.
After the nation became involved in the great World war Mr. Ralston became loyally active in various lines of patriotic service. He was vice president of the Liberty Band, and he enlisted in Company G, Five Hundred and Fiftieth Regiment of Michigan State Troops, in which his interest was such that he won promotion through the various grades to the commissioned office of second lieutenant. Mr. Ralston had charge of equipping a building on Shelby street for the use of the Red Cross and served as associate director of shipping for the Michigan state board of the Red Cross. In this connection it may be noted that the state department of the Red Cross sent more than six hundred carloads of supplies to foreign points, and at the close of the activities of the shipping de- partment of the Michigan Red Cross the secretary of the organization received from F. G. Hamblen a letter in which appeared the following statement: "I con-
gratulate you upon having one of the most efficient forces in the shipping department of the Central Di- vision." Mr. Ralston was a member of the salvage department of the Detroit chapter of the Red Cross, which turned over to the Red Cross treasury more than fifty-four thousand dollars. He was also specially active in supporting and furthering the various gov- ernment loans and other national war agencies.
On the 7th of October, 1897, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ralston to Miss Anna C. Wohlgehagen and they have three children: John William, born November 13, 1899; Elsie Cordelia, born June 23, 1903; and Willoughby Roderick, born July 10, 1905. The elder son, John W., was a member of the Students Army Training Corps at the time of the World war.
EDWARD P. HAMMOND. On Detroit's long list of enterprising manufacturers appears the name of Edward P. Hammond and the position of that name is among the foremost. He stands in the front rank of those who have made the City of the Straits one of the leading manufacturing centers of the world, with its ramifying trade relations reaching out to every civilized country. It may readily be supposed without further introduction that he is connected with the automobile trade, having since 1910 been identified with the Federal Motor Truck Company, of which he has been the treasurer since 1912, and he is also the president of the Gemmer Manufacturing Company. Detroit claims him as a native son, his birth having here occurred on the 3d of August, 1884. His father, George H. Hammond, was a very successful business man and was one of the founders of the George H. Hammond Company of Chicago and the Hammond- Standish Company, packers. He wedded Ellen Barry and for many years they made their home in Detroit. Accordingly through his boyhood days Edward P. Hammond was a pupil in the public schools and after- ward attended the University of Detroit and later ma- triculated in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Immediately after leaving college he joined the Gem- mer Manufacturing Company, in which he became financially interested, also taking an active part in the management and control of its affairs. This busi- ness was incorporated in 1907 and in 1912 Mr. Hammond was called to the presidency and has re- mained the administrative and directive head of the corporation. He is also a member of the Hammond family whose estate owns the Hammond building in Detroit. Moreover, in 1910 he joined the Federal Motor Truck Company and has been its treasurer since 1912.
The Gemmer Manufacturing Company makes steer- ing gears which find a market wherever automobiles are built. When America entered the World war, they turned their plant over to the government and every one of their employes who entered the service found his place open for him when he returned. The com- pany is indeed one hundred per cent American, and
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EDWARD P. HAMMOND
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one of the first things that attracts the attention of a visitor to its offices is the long honor roll of its men who went to the front. The company also did some notable work for the government in other con- nections. It submitted a design of steering gear to those in authority, and it was not only adopted but was made the standard for Class B of Liberty trucks and it was also the standard for the heavier trucks for the aviation department. The company also manu- factured a great number of steering gears for war trucks.
On the 21st of April, 1906, Mr. Hammond was married to Miss Viola Moran, a daughter of Fred T. Moran, and their children are six in number: Viola E., Edward P., Frederick M., George H., John B. and Thomas S. The religious faith of the family is that of the Catholic church. Mr. Hammond is a republican iu his political views and he is well known in the elub circles of the city, having membership in the Detroit Athletic, the Detroit Country, the Automobile Country, the Bloomfield Open Hunt and the Grosse Pointe Hunt Clubs. Mr. Hammond is indeed a man of well balanced capacities and powers and has occu- pied a central place on the stage of action almost from the time when his initial effort was made in the field of business. His labors have found culmination in the development of the Gemmer Manufacturing Com- pany and the Federal Motor Truck Company, mam- moth enterprises which place him in a point of leader- ship among the mannfacturers of Detroit. He is a director of the Michigan Fire & Marine Insurance Company, and of the Peninsular State Bank. His is the record of a strenuous life-the record of a strong individuality, sure of itself, stable in purpose, quick in perception, swift in decision and energetic and per- sistent in action.
JOHN DAVID LYNCH, engaged in general law practice in Detroit since 1912, is numbered among the native sons of the city and his record stands in con- tradistinction to the old adage that a prophet is not without honor save in his own country, for during the period of his identification with the bar Mr. Lynch has made steady progress and is winning material success as an attorney. He was born March 20, 1890, and is a son of John and Emma (Howcroft) Lynch, the father a retired farmer.
The son began his education in the public schools and after mastering the preliminary branches of learning became a high school pupil. His more spe- cifically literary course was pursued in the University of Michigan, which conferred upon him the Bachelor of Arts degree at his graduation with the class of 1910. The two succeeding years were devoted to law study in the State University and he won his LL. B. degree in 1912. Through the intervening period of eight years he has continued in general law practice in Detroit, his course being marked by consistent and steady progress.
On the 23d of September, 1915, Mr. Lynch was married to Miss Edith Louise Benson, a native of Fort Worth, Texas. Fraternally he is connected with Zion Lodge, No. 1, F. & A. M., and the order finds in him an exemplary representative.
JAMES O. KENT is actively identified with the motion picture business in Detroit as the distributor of the Selznick Motion Pictures, which are put out under the name of the Select Picture Corporation. This company has featured some of the most promi- nent actors and actresses known to the screen and to the spoken stage and Mr. Kent has become well known as a leading theatrical manager and as a prominent factor in connection with screen produc- tions. Mr. Kent was born in Brooklyn, New York, February 1, 1889, his parents being John R. and Elizabeth (Lister) Kent, who were natives of Barne- gat, New Jersey, and in early life removed to Brook- lyn. The father afterward became a well known jeweler of Newark, New Jersey, where he resided to the time of his death, and his wife has also passed away. Their family numbered three children: James O., W. A., and Edgar E., all living in Detroit.
The early education of James Kent was obtained in the public school of Trenton, New Jersey, and afterward he was graduated from the Trenton high school. Following the completion of his studies he became connected with the Columbia Phonograph Company, and it was he who first introduced the talking pictures to the public. He exhibited these throughout northern and southern Canada and north- ern New York state, and his exhibits were considered most marvelous. His connection with the Columbia Phouograph Company was a pleasant and profitable one from the start. After five years identification with that phonograph company he entered the employ of Mr. Selznick in New York city and in 1913 came to Detroit as manager for the Selznick Motion Picture Corporation, also known as the Select Pictures Cor- poration. He has had charge of Detroit since that time and acts as distributor for Michigan. He is constantly studying the public tastes and is at the same time thoroughly familiar with the best in pho- tographs in the moving picture world, so that it is possible for him to give to the patrons of the corpo- ration just what will please the public and at the same time his selection is such as contributes to the improvement of public tastes in the way of free pro- duction.
On the 1st of April, 1915, Mr. Kent was married to Miss Grace Paulinski of Saginaw, Michigan, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Paulinski of that place. They have become parents of three children: Sylvia, Shirley and Edgar E. Mr. Kent is a member of the Detroit Board of Commerce and is interested in the plans and purposes of that organization for the city's benefit and improvement. He never sought to figure actively in club circles nor in other public
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connections, concentrating his efforts and attention upon business affairs, and the creditable position which he has reached has been gained by reason of his thoroughness, capability and loyalty to the in- terests which he represents.
FREDERICK STEARNS. The late Frederick Stearns, founder of one of the best known business institutions of Detroit-the Frederick Stearns & Com- pany, manufacturing pharmacists-was born at Lock- port, New York, April 8, 1831, and was a lineal de- scendant of Isaac Stearns, who, with Governor Win- throp and Sir Richard Saltenstall and other colonists, settled Watertown, Massachusetts. He there owned a farm which is now a part of Mount Auburn Cem- etery. In the maternal line Frederick Stearns was descended from Samuel Chapin, one of the early colo- nists of Springfield, Massachusetts.
In his boyhood days Frederick Stearns manifested a keen interest in the drug trade and when a lad of only fifteen years he was apprenticed to the firm of Ballard & Green, druggists, of Buffalo, New York. As he was the only assistant in the store, every kind of duty devolved upon him and for his first year's service he received no financial compensation; also, because of the failure of the firm, he was paid nothing for his second year's work. He afterward secured a position in another drug store and then attended a course of lectures at the University of Buffalo, sub- sequent to which time he became associated with A. I. Mathews, a leading druggist of Buffalo, first as an employe and then for three years as a partner in the concern.
Mr. Stearns was married in 1853 to Eliza H. Kim- ball of Mendon, New York, and in the following year, having decided to come to Detroit, he reached Windsor on the 1st of January, 1855, and walked across the river on the ice. In the following April he established a retail drug store at 162 Jefferson avenue in con- nection with L. E. Higby, and in 1859 they secured larger quarters in the Merrill block, northeast cor- ner of Jefferson and Woodward avenue. In 1863 a second removal was made, this time to the south- west corner of Woodward avenue and Larned street, and later Mr. Stearns purchased the interest of his partner.
It was always his great desire to become a phar- maceutical manufacturer and he first undertook this work in a limited way in 1856, with one room, a cooking stove, and one girl as a helper. He initiated his manufacturing enterprise by filling a small hand- bag with his products and canvassing the towns along the railroads west of Detroit, where occasionally he obtained an order, which constituted the intro- duction of his preparations. Every available moment he used in the study of the business and everything bearing upon the manufacture of drugs, and at length he introduced steam power and milling and ex- tracting machinery, much of which was of his own
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